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02 Mar 2012 17:34

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Politics: The Republican establishment isn’t pleased with Rush Limbaugh

  • Rush’s attempt to increase his ratings and get noticed again do hurt Republicans…beating up on a college student is not good optics.
  • A senior Republican strategist • In response to Rush Limbaugh’s calling a pro-contraception college student a “slut” and a “prostitute” earlier this week. What we find interesting is that the speaker in question is identified by the Washington Post as “a senior party strategist granted anonymity to speak candidly out of wariness of crossing Limbaugh publicly.” This speaks not only to the enormous power Limbaugh wields amongst the Republican base, but also the sense of legitimacy that the GOP establishment continues to bestow upon him by refusing to denounce his statements publicly. To his credit, Rick Santorum, who’s as anti-contraception as anybody, called Limbaugh’s comments “absurd.”  source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Mar 2012 15:15

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Tech: Out come the haters: The Pinterest backlash intensifies

  • one MacLean’s writer Lisan Jutras criticizes it for being strongly feminine, but only on the surface: “This domain is sort of like a girls-only clubhouse, but it’s not about expressing innermost desires, just surface desires—for hair, shoes, nail art, a boyfriend that exists in soft-focus black-and-white.”
  • two Thought Catalog narrows down the appeal of the service in a single damning line: “It’s the first Nora Ephron movie that you have to log into, and yep, you guessed it, there’s a wait list to join.” Their problem is stated plainly in the headline: “Pinterest: The depths we will go to not read.”
  • » A couple quick thoughts of our own: It’s possible that the success of Pinterest may reach a little bit of a plateau at some point because of the shape it’s already taken. It’s growing quickly, but the best social networks are formless in terms of the content. Anything goes on Tumblr for the most part, for example; same with Twitter and Facebook. With Pinterest, the culture has kind of limited what can work there, at least for now. It feels like, even if it hasn’t been spelled out, the parameters have been partially defined. And for businesses, minus a few obvious verticals (say, you sell clothes or artwork) Pinterest is not necessary or even desirable for building a strong brand. It could be, though, if it was repositioned slightly. These are some of the things the site will struggle with as it tries to grow. if we were them, we’d figure out ways to encourage shapelessness, so as not to scare new users off.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Mar 2012 11:22

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World: Pakistan’s building a controversial wall around its internet access

  • $10 million to build a “great firewall” around Pakistan’s interweb source
  • » And they’re being open about it: Unlike China and other countries that have national internet censorship policies, Pakistan is discussing the issue openly, going so far as to take proposals to build a wall and putting ads in the country’s newspapers. It’s drawn a lot of controversy, however, partly as a result of the ads. “The authorities here are big fans of China and how it filters the Internet,” said Sana Saleem of the activist group Bolo Bhi. “They overlook the fact that China is an autocratic regime and we are a democracy.”
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Mar 2012 00:07

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Politics: Jeb Bush: Not running for president, but not for lack of fanbois

  • Maybe more supporters than Santorum? Andrew Card, the former chief of staff for George W. Bush, said this earlier this week: “I have the perfect candidate — Jeb Bush. But he’s not running.” Even Democrats believe that Bush could be a threat if he uses his sway with middle-class and Latino voters. Could the former Florida governor with an impressively presidential bloodline be the Republican Party’s ace in the hole? Or will he wait until 2016? source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Mar 2012 23:57

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Culture: Celebrate March 1 celebrity birthdays with these spirited quotes

  • one Heavy partier Ke$ha Sebert: “I’ll be the one in the corner with my laser gloves having a dance party.”
  • two Justin Bieber (he’s 18, everyone, and still dreamy): “dear cougars. i see the jokes. im legal. hahaha”
  • three“Supernatural” star Jensen Ackles: “You can’t eat too many because then you get Gummi tummy.”
  • four’90s star Mark-Paul Gosselaar: “I don’t want to be known as somebody that everybody knows about.” (Deep.)
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Mar 2012 22:40

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Tech: Three things you need to know about Google’s privacy policy changes

  • one Google consolidated its privacy policies from over 70+ to one; the change took effect today, covering services like Gmail, Google+, Google Docs and Picasa. It will also combine information from across all accounts.
  • two “We can provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what the traffic is like that day,” said Google’s blog. Creepy or not?
  • threeYou can remove your Google search history, but the company could still be “gathering and storing this information and using it for internal purposes.” It often gives users’ personal info to the government. source
  • » An advertising play: “We can provide more relevant ads too,” Google points out. “For example, it’s January, but maybe you’re not a gym person, so fitness ads aren’t that useful to you.” More relevant for users, possibly, but more relevant for advertisers, too? It’ll be interesting to see what happens a few months down the line with this policy.
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Mar 2012 15:38

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Biz: Zynga launches new website, insists they’re still down with Facebook

  • new move Online gaming company Zynga unveiled a new website today, independent of the Facebook template their games usually run off of. The site still requires you to log in with your Facebook info to play, however, and Zynga says they view the new site as “complimentary” to the social media platform.
  • the concern Any indication, however initially mild, that Zynga is moving towards their own platform could be a source of worry for Facebook. As we said at the time, one of the weaknesses they admitted to the SEC when filing for their IPO was that Zynga accounted for a whopping 12% of their total revenue last year. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Mar 2012 15:08

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World: Americans freed from Egyptian detainment after U.S. pays large bail

  • I’m pleased the court has lifted the travel ban and am looking forward to my son’s arrival in the US. I’d like to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers during this time.
  • Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood • From a statement today, on the flight home for seven American pro-democracy workers who had been held in Egypt, barred from traveling over accusations of illegal fundraising. One of the seven is his son, Sam LaHood, a high-profile family connection that helped highlight the diplomatic turmoil that unfolded over the Americans’ detainment. The price of getting these folks back home? A cool $5 million in bail, paid by the U.S. to Egypt. This brings an end to a perilous diplomatic situation, though the U.S. doesn’t seem ready to bury the hatchet and forget about this just yet – Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for the State Department, said no decision has yet been made on the state of U.S. aid to Egypt. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Mar 2012 14:23

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Politics: Sen. Roy Blunt’s health care “conscience” amendment voted down

  • 51-48 Senate defeat for the Blunt amendment source
  • » Roy Blunt, blunted: The amendment authored by the Missouri senator was a response, initially, to a very public dispute between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration over contraception insurance. If passed into law, it would have stated that any employers could deny a certain type of health care service if that service violated their religious beliefs, or moral conscience. The latter provision is the key one – there isn’t a stipulation as to what constitutes a moral objection, which means employers would have a great deal of power over workers’ health care. One person who might benefit from this failure? Mitt Romney, who publicly flip-flopped on it yesterday. He’d likely be happy just to have it out of the news cycle.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Feb 2012 21:48

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Offbeat: The L.A. Clippers want “Clipper Darrell” to be just “Darrell”

  • I have been told by Clipper management they no longer want me to be Clipper Darrell, a name that was given to me by the media because of my unwavering support and team spirit. I am devastated!
  • Darrell Bailey, a.k.a. Clipper Darrell • Stating on his website that the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, a team to which he’s been undyingly loyal (buying Clippers season tickets for a solid decade would be enough to test anybody’s faith, we’re guessing), now wants him to cease being known as “Clipper Darrell.” The team fired back a palpably angry response: “The Clippers have done absolutely nothing wrong or inappropriate as it concerns Darrell Bailey. His claims are absurd and unfounded. …The Clippers have never engaged Mr. Bailey’s services. When he has been in need, the organization has regularly provided him a seat for games. No good deed goes unpunished.” It breaks our heart to see it all unravel like this. They’re finally an exciting team, and now there’s turmoil with Clipper Darrell? A sad sign of our times. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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