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23 Aug 2010 20:13

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U.S.: Why did a federal judge rule against Obama’s stem cell policy?

  • what A federal judge granted an injunction against Obama’s carefully worded embryonic stem-cell policy, which largely reversed Bush’s controversial policy.
  • why The judge found that the policy allowed for the destruction of the stem cells, which is a no-no thanks to the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, a yearly budgetary rider. source
  • » An interesting wrinkle: The two researchers who filed the suit, while both being against embryonic stem cell research, didn’t do it for moral reasons. Instead, Dr. James Sherley and Theresa Deisher work with adult stem cells and were afraid that Obama’s new rules would cut into the funding for their work because of increased competition. In other words, they’re selfish.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Aug 2010 09:51

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U.S.: In Philly, running a blog that makes no money will cost you $300

  • The real kick in the pants is that I don’t even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous.
  • Marilyn Bess • Regarding the letter she got from the city of Philadelphia, informing her that she had to pay for a business privilege license for her blog, which has only made $50 over a three-year period, largely off of eHow articles. Also, she’s on a WordPress.com blog, which does not allow advertising unless you hit a certain traffic threshold. There are free-speech ramifications here, and it sounds like a shakedown to us. A bureaucrat needs to be taken out back and shot. Possibly two or three. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Aug 2010 21:55

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U.S., World: This dot on this map represents a guy in the middle of nowhere

Poor guy’s been isolated in the Brazilian Amazon for at least 15 years, possibly an uncontacted member of a decaying tribe. Which is kinda awesome. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Aug 2010 15:33

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Culture, U.S.: Fun fact about “The Social Network” compared to other biopics

  • Most movie studios, when making a biopic, try to lock down story rights from a main player in the movie. This is mainly so that they can more freely take artistic license with the plot. The Facebook-based movie, however, is based on the words of Eduardo Saverin, the jilted friend who was an early founder of the service. He gets sidelined during the movie, which instead focuses more on Mark Zuckerberg and Napster co-founder Sean Parker. They stiill took artistic license, though: There’s a mostly-made-up scene that involves dialogue by Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) in the midst of cocaine use off of naked breasts at a party. In other words, Aaron Sorkin still has it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Aug 2010 18:11

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U.S.: A second Iowa egg supplier nailed in salmonella outbreak

  • 170 million more eggs, this time from Hillandale Farms source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Aug 2010 11:54

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U.S.: Is the Gulf Oil Spill gone, for real for real? Here’s what a study says

  • NO there’s a giant invisible plume underwater source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Aug 2010 11:01

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U.S.: Egg-beaters: Salmonella cases way up since egg outbreak started

  • 1,953 cases of egged-on salmonella from May to July
  • 700 the normal number of cases during a period like that source
  • » Also good to note: It sounds like a lot of eggs, but based on the 6.5 billion eggs delivered in April, if similar amounts were shipped between May and right now, that 380 million would account for around 1.6 percent of the total shipments in the last three and a half months. It’s bad, but much less bad than one would think.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

19 Aug 2010 21:35

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U.S.: That Iowa egg company behind the salmonella outbreak is bad news

  • 380 million tainted eggs is a huge problem for Wright County Egg. But by no means is it the first huge problem the firm has faced. In fact, the DeCoster family, which owns Wright County Egg as part of their larger farming conglomerate, has had a number of legal problems in recent years, including these gems on their permanent record:
  • $2.1Mthe amount founder Austin Jackson DeCoster paid in penalties for immigration violations in 2003
  • $1.5M the amount the company was nicked for sexual harassment allegations (including rape!) by the EEOC back in 2002
  • yes the company has also had to pay fines for animal cruelty at another egg operation in Maine – just this year source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Aug 2010 11:09

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U.S.: The 2010 federal budget’s deficit projection: It’s down … slightly

  • $1.342
    trillion     the budget deficit projection of the Congressional Budget Office today
  • $1.368
    trillion     the projection of the CBO in back in March (like we said, slight) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Aug 2010 09:09

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U.S.: Blago trial: Blame the absurdly complex charges for the decision

  • It was kind of a bittersweet thing … relief that the trial is over, but frustration that we didn’t accomplish what we set out to do.
  • Jury foreman James Matsumoto • Regarding the end of the Blago trial, which only found him guilty on one of 24 counts. Some of the issue was the overarching complexity of the charges – the instructions were over 100 pages and the charges were highly technical and interconnected. “It was like, ‘Here’s a manual, go fly the space shuttle,” said fellow juror Steve Wlodek. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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