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24 Oct 2010 23:13

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U.S.: Jesus Christ, that’s a lot of data: Catholic abuse scandal data dump

  • 48 priests accused of sexual abuse in the San Diego area
  • 144 alleged abuse victims are currently suing the diocese over the allegations
  • 10k the number of pages of documents the diocese released under court pressure
  • 2k the number of pages lawyers for the accusers say the church is hiding source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2010 11:48

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U.S.: Remnants of Gulf Oil Spill (remember that?) still hanging around

  • Fun fact about the Gulf Oil Spill: A few days ago, the federal government said there were only a few “trouble spots” where oil was still hanging around. Strangely enough, this photo of a miles-long oil spot was taken after they said that. Wonder what happened. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Oct 2010 18:27

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U.S.: Boeing manager uses “basic physics” to save guy’s life in car crash

  • scary Bill Pace, an 80-year-old man who recently had a minor heart attack, passed out behind the wheel on a Seattle expressway, mainly due to poor blood circulation.
  • heroic Duane Innes, a manager at Boeing,  used his engineering background to intentionally crash into the car, saving Pace’s life by causing his vehicle to stop. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Oct 2010 23:13

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Politics, U.S.: Old Karl Rove, meet New Karl Rove

  • Things that weaken the parties and place the outcome of elections in the hands of billionaires who can write checks and political consultants who can get themselves hired by billionaires who write the checks, give me some concern.
  • Karl Rove in 2004 • Denouncing the rise of independent 527 groups and their influence on that year’s election. In March of this year, Rove founded his own 527 group, American Crossroads, to fund conservative candidates. In June, he co-founded an offshoot group that allows its donors to remain anonymous. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Oct 2010 15:44

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U.S.: Sylvester Cann IV wants you to know Obama signed his iPad

  • You want attention, dude? You want to make a site clearly pimping out the fact that you got Barack Obama to sign your iPad? You want to put your phone number on your site so that people will pay attention to you and possibly offer you some sort of something? You got it man. Here’s a link to your site, you publicity hound. Hopefully our link will get you on the Today Show or something, so that you can parlay your fifteen microseconds of fame into a reality show. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

22 Oct 2010 12:57

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U.S.: Massive game of Zombie tag = Good community-building exercise

  • Meet Whitney Metzger: This Norfolk, Va. resident is basically an unintentional mass-marketing genius. She put up a bunch of flyers and a Facebook event page for an event called “Survive Norfolk,” a massive game of zombie-themed tag. She only put up the event a couple of weeks ago, expecting just a couple hundred people to come. Instead, nearly 10,000 people will probably be there tonight. This event, actually based in our old neighborhood of Ghent, has drawn so much attention that USA Today did a story about her. We’re proud of this event: If any community would be able to support an event like this, it’s Ghent, one of the most engaged single neighborhoods we’ve ever seen. Sigh. We miss Ghent. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Oct 2010 21:30

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U.S.: Shock: Abstinence-only education doesn’t reduce teen pregnancy

  • 2.5% teen pregnancy rate in states with comprehensive sex education
  • 6.0% teen pregnancy rate in states with abstinence-only education. source
  • » So, who’s surprised by this? According to a new CDC study, if you want to prevent teens from getting pregnant, it’s better to educate them about birth control than to yell “DON’T HAVE SEX!” in their faces while pretending there’s no such thing as condoms. The study found that, of the five states with the highest teen pregnancy rates, all require teachers to stress abstinence during sex education. Conversely, states with the lowest teen pregnancy rates have none such requirement. It’s almost as if teenagers are going to have sex regardless of what their teachers tell them!
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

21 Oct 2010 10:27

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U.S.: U.S., Saudi Arabia: Let’s make a (massive ongoing weapons) deal!

  • $60
    million     the size of the weapons contract the U.S. plans to sign with the Saudi government
  • 20
    years     the length of said contract; the U.S. is signing it to help protect its security and economic interests source
  • Will Congress object to the deal? If Congress has any issues with the deal (which includes upgrading older equipment, along with new F-15s and helicopters) they have 30 days to raise them. A senate panel has already been given the tip-off.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Oct 2010 22:20

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U.S.: Pilot to TSA: I’m not getting in a full body scanner – and you suck

  • I just kind of had to ask myself ‘Where do I stand?’ I’m just not comfortable being physically manhandled by a federal security agent every time I go to work.
  • Expressjet Airlines pilot Michael Roberts • Explaining why he chose not to get in the full-body-scan machine on his way into work one day last week. This is kind of a bold stand to take, and it plays into the whole spiel that Gizmodo pushed around the time of the Underwear Bomber, which is that the Transportation Safety Administration offers the wrong kind of resources in the wrong place, and that stronger intelligence is better than forcing everyone to take off their shoes. Glad to see a pilot agrees. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Oct 2010 21:10

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U.S.: Chicagoland sheriff: We won’t process these mass foreclosures

  • This is not the lotto. This isn’t something where we roll the dice and say, ‘You know what? Possibly this has been done legally. Maybe it hasn’t, but in the meantime you and your children go find some place to live. There’s plenty of homeless shelters out there.’ We can’t do that.
  • Cook County, Illinois Sheriff Tom Dart • Informing mortgage companies that he WOULD NOT be evicting people due to foreclosure orders. Why? Well, his staff discovered that many of the foreclosure orders coming his way were from so-called “robo signers,” who have been ordering foreclosures en masse without even reading the documents. “This is so outrageous. These poor people are being put through this day in and day out, by people who don’t do their jobs,” he said. “It’s so hard for me to stomach these people. This isn’t just we are taking their bike away, or their car away. This is their house.” Dart, by the way, is noted for his attacks on Craigslist. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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