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18 Oct 2011 10:36

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U.S.: Massive dust cloud rolls through Texas, looks pretty crazy

  • An inopportune time to play “Dust in the Wind”: A 8,000-foot-high dust cloud engulfed Lubbock, Texas yesterday afternoon, making for dramatic scenes like this one and lowering visibility to near-zero. Would not want to drive in this. Yikes. source

18 Oct 2011 10:15

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World: Israel: Gilad Shalit freed, along with hundreds of Palestinians

  • I thought that I would find myself in this situation many more years. If they wanted to secure my freedom, they had to pay a price for this.
  • Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit • Discussing his situation on Egyptian television this morning after getting freed from captivity in the Gaza Strip. Freedom for Shalit, who was there for five years, did cost Israel immensely — they had to release over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners to allow for his freedom. Nearly 500 were freed today. In Palestine, those prisoners were welcomed with cheers by Hamas — while Shalit’s own return was much more subdued, with Israeli officials concerned that freeing so many prisoners at once could cause security issues. source

18 Oct 2011 00:39

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Tech: iPhone 4S is doing crazy well in sales. Why’s that, exactly?

  • The iPhone 4s has sold 4 million units since friday. PCMag has a few ideas why Apple’s latest product has done so well so soon. There was hype surrounding the 4S, as there usually is with a new Apple product; rumors floated all summer about the phone, giving it an air of mystique. Add that to the passing of Steve Jobs, and you have a good amount of buzz. The phone is now available on more networks and in more countries, two demographics that the iPhone 4 didn’t have for its release. Plus, owning an iPhone comes with some sort of blood contract, right? source

18 Oct 2011 00:33

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U.S.: CDC: America goes big or goes home when it comes to vices

  • $150B the yearly burden to society caused by lazy people who don’t exercise
  • $193B the yearly burden to society caused by smokers; *cough* *cough*
  • $224B the yearly burden to society caused by  “binge drinking,” our nation’s pasttime source

18 Oct 2011 00:18

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World: As the ice caps get smaller, so do Earth’s plants and animals. Wait, what?

  • 45% of species are shrinking over time, a new study says source
  • » Blame climate change, the study says: It’s like scary, natural shrink ray. But, yep, animals such as fish, reptiles, birds and mammals are all smaller than generations previous — apparently a difference of one degree celsius is enough to make things smaller. The researchers, who published their study in the journal Nature Climate Change, warn to not jump to conclusions, though: “We do not yet know the exact mechanisms involved, or why some organisms are getting smaller while others are unaffected,” the authors of the study, based at the National University of Singapore, said in an interview. “Until we understand more, we could be risking negative consequences that we can’t yet quantify.”

17 Oct 2011 23:28

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Politics: Herman Cain takes a stroll towards becoming president

  • He’s not running for president; he’s sort of strolling for president.
  • George F. Will • On Herman Cain. If Cain is strolling for president, Newt Gingrich is crawling for president. source

17 Oct 2011 23:06

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Culture: Casual Monday: ABC anchor comes out on-air like it’s no big deal

  • Big kudos to ABC World News Now host Dan Kloeffler.  Not only did he come out while broadcasting on-air — itself an incredibly courageous thing to do — but he did it in a casual, nonchalant way. No big, dramatic announcement; Kloeffer just off-handedly dropped it during a story about actor Zachary Quinto. “He’s thirty-four, I’m thirty-five,” Kloeffler said about Quinto, who also just came out. “I’m thinking, I can lose my distraction about dating actors for that one.” Kloeffler didn’t present it as a game-changing fact of outsized importance, but just a part of who he is. This is the kind of thing that helps encourage — however slightly — mainstream acceptance of different sexualities, even. source

17 Oct 2011 22:01

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Politics: $1 trillion or bust: Ron Paul would take a giant slash out of the deficit

  • $1 trillion in budget cuts offered up by Ron freaking Paul
  • five number of agencies Paul would get rid of with these budget cuts
  • 30% size of the cuts Paul would push on the EPA with his budget cuts
  • zero number of wars Paul would fund after he got his cuts through source
  • » The biggest cut? Presidential salary: If Paul were president, he would cut his salary to $39,000 — the median salary for U.S. citizens. That’s a big downgrade from the standard $400,000-per-year salary and actually less than we make from our job. That would be a huge symbolic gesture, if you ask us.

17 Oct 2011 11:45

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World: Israel’s prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit draws heavy controversy

  • 1,000 number of Palestinian prisoners expected to be freed in an exchange with Israel; as you might guess, this is controversial for some
  • one number of Israeli prisoners expected to be freed in exchange; this one, however, is Gilad Shalit, whose plight is fairly well-known source
  • » The fight goes to court: While Shalit’s parents fight for his freedom, families of the victims of militants in Israel aren’t exactly quite happy with this situation, and are trying to fight it in court. It’s unlikely the court is willing to fix this, but Israeli leaders are trying to soft-pedal this nonetheless. “I understand the difficulty in accepting that the vile people who committed the heinous crimes against your loved ones will not pay the full price they deserve,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a letter to families affected by the exchange.

17 Oct 2011 11:22

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Biz: Has-bean? Starbucks worried climate change will damage coffee supply

  • They say they’re already seeing the effects: Could you imagine a world without Starbucks … or coffee? That’s what officials for the world’s largest caffeine hawker are seriously worried about, especially after a fairly busy hurricane season and more resistant bugs. The company has even considered partly converting many outlets to juice bars. “What we are really seeing as a company as we look 10, 20, 30 years down the road – if conditions continue as they are – is a potentially significant risk to our supply chain, which is the Arabica coffee bean,” says the company’s sustainability director, Jim Hanna. Three words, Jim: Yerba Mate Frappuccino. (photo via TPEGroup Photography & Design’s Flickr page) source