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21 Jul 2010 11:31

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U.S.: The BP’s next plan for the oil spill? Finishing a relief well, quick

  • They say they can have one ready in a matter of days. Days after BP successfully put a cap on the oil well that has largely prevented more leaking (the seepage was traced to another well), they hope to have a relief well ready to take some pressure off the oil well and prevent more damage. “The relief well is exactly where we want it, pointed in the right direction,”said BP vice president Kent Wells, who literally has the best last name ever for a vice president of his nature. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jul 2010 10:59

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U.S.: Massive pot farms: Oakland gets an early grip on a budding business

The city council approved the creation of industrial-sized operations last night. In other words, Oakland is the new Detroit, except with marijuana instead of vehicles. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Jul 2010 09:15

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U.S.: Check out our massive breakdown of Congress’ spending habits

  • We spent a friggin’ month working on this. We sliced, diced and brought amazing context to Congressional expenditures (specifically the House – not the Senate, unfortunately), and now we’re happy to show you our multitude of hard work (and then some) for AOL News. How much did Congress spend on bottled water? And how much did they spend on Macs vs. PCs? Oh, and who buys more copies of The New York Times? We know the answers to all three. Thanks to the Sunlight Foundation for making this doable. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 20:50

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U.S.: Oil spill sketchiness: BP is buying silence from Gulf scientists

  • We told them there was no way we would agree to any kind of restrictions on the data we collect. It was pretty clear we wouldn’t be hearing from them again after that. We didn’t like the perception of the university representing BP in any fashion.
  • University of South Alabama head of marine sciences Bob Shipp • On BP’s desire to work with the university. Work with the university? For what, you ask? Well, they wanted to offer lucrative pay – and a big contract – to the school’s marine scientists. But at a major cost. Basically, the scientists could not publish or even speak about any of their data for the next three years. Long story short: They said no. But not every scientist was willing to bend – scientists at Louisiana State University, the University of Southern Mississippi and Texas A&M reportedly said yes. Unbelievable. And right after this mess. (Thanks Charles Apple – again!) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 13:18

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U.S.: Elena Kagan’s nomination out of committee, on way to confirmation

  • 13-6 the vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee to back Kagan
  • one Republican, Lindsey Graham, broke ranks to support her source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 10:36

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U.S.: BP: Whoops! We’re sorry about that crappy Photoshop, guys

  • We will replace the Photoshopped version currently on bp.com with the original image tonight. We’ve instructed our post-production team to refrain from doing this in the future.
  • BP spokesman Scott Dean • Describing the issue with the Photoshopped image that we posted about last night (and based on tweets and traffic, drew a lot of attention this morning). Dean says that there wasn’t anything outwardly sinister in the photo deception, just an ethically weak photo editor who inserted three images in spots where the screens were blank. Which doesn’t explain, you know, the fact that the photo’s meta data has a 2001 creation date. But we’ll let that one slide, because the PR guy says it wasn’t sinister. Oh yeah, our boy Charles Apple posted an update. Check it out. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 02:00

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U.S.: Protip to BP: Don’t upload high-res images of terrible Photoshops

  • Houston, we have a problem. And that problem is exacerbated by the fact that, um, it’s the worst Photoshop job we’ve ever seen. And the photo they uploaded is 4,800 pixels wide, and is probably going to be viewed in a Web browser, where you can see every painstaking detail of this image. Especially the detail over to the right that we pulled out for you guys – the most obvious one. AMERICAblog has many, many more, and they’re all about as blatant as this. The worst one? The meta info says the photo was taken in 2001 (!?!). source
  • » Update: BP couldn’t let a PR disaster last this long, could it? (Oh wait.) So, of course, BP apologized for its actions. Here’s our update, and our buddy Charles Apple has more.
  • » Second update: AMERICAblog has found another jacked photo. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, it seems. Kudos for the great work, guys.
  • » Third update: Charles Apple sent this story along, and we just have to say … BP is really making themselves out to be an evil corporation, aren’t they?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

19 Jul 2010 21:21

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U.S.: Worst woman in the world leaves dog in hot car, tops herself

  • bad A woman left her dog inside a hot car for over an hour when it was 104 degrees outside.
  • worse The woman was at Costco buying dog food, and the poor dog died when she returned.
  • evilest She was so overcome with guilt that she RETURNED THE DOG FOOD. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Jul 2010 11:05

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U.S.: BP convinces the U.S. that the oil seep is nothing, at least for now

  • So the cap remains another day. Real problem or naturally-occurring? That’s the crux of the situation with any seeps from the recently-sealed oil well, which BP is putting though an integrity test. But after Thad Allen’s people talked to BP about the potential risks, their concerns were alleviated. At least for another day. “I authorized BP to continue the integrity test for another 24 hours and I restated our firm position that this test will only continue if they continue to meet their obligations to rigorously monitor for any signs that this test could worsen the overall situation,” Allen said. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Jul 2010 10:46

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U.S.: The Washington Post’s been busy the last two years or so

  • The amount of work that went into this is impressive. Beyond the stories themselves – an early Pulitzer contender about how the government’s intelligence apparatus has grown so huge that nobody knows how big it is – is an immaculately-designed mini-site, full of huge amounts of data about where all that intelligence money goes. It includes a pretty smart use of the jQuery carousel feature, immersive graphics (above), and data to last you for weeks. The Post has long been the ugliest of major old-guard newspapers, cluttered in all the ways that the Post itself is clean and classy. This – to us – proves that they have the capacity to turn that ship around. (Edit: Scott Clevenger notes that this series will also become a Frontline special on PBS.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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