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29 Apr 2010 20:45

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World: Hugo Chavez to Latin American leaders: Join Twitter, the water’s fine

  • 110,275 followers for Hugo already
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Apr 2010 23:05

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Biz: Craigslist’s “Adult Services” controversial, makes lots of money

  • $122
    million     expected revenues for the no-frills classified site in 2010 alone; at least 70 percent of that is pure profit (and mostly from employment ads)
  • $39
    million     in revenue will come from
    the controversial for-pay “Adult Services” section, made in the wake of the Craigslist Killer source
  • » Printing their own money: The site has a small staff for what it is, but despite that, it’s a total gold mine. For every employee Craigslist has (around 30), the company makes $4 million in revenue and at least $2.9 million in profit, a level so high you simply won’t find it anywhere else in the industry. We wish we made $3 million in profits per employee.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Apr 2010 17:12

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U.S.: Arizona governor signs super-harsh immigration bill into law

  • What the law does The law gives law enforcement the right to question those they think are illegal immigrants. It forces them to keep their papers on them at all times. And it punishes those that help harbor them – by hiring them or knowingly transporting them.
  • Why it’s controversial Simply put, critics of the law feel that it gives into racial profiling. Obama, specifically, calls the law “misguided” and says the law threatens “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.”
  • A key compromise Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill into law, but also pushed through an executive order designed to train law enforcement officials not to engage in racial profiling. Will it work? Who knows, but it might be a fun ride. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Apr 2010 20:16

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World: Iranian cleric finds (earthquake) fault in promiscuous women

  • When promiscuity spreads, earthquakes increase. … There is no way other than taking refuge in religion and adapting ourselves to Islamic behavior.
  • Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazim Sadeghi • Making a statement that’s a weeee bit controversial in a YouTube video that got distributed over the weekend. But then again, it’s nothing new for a country that seems to have a controversy of some kind every single week. Iran, by the way, has a lot of earthquakes, including a huge one in 2003 that killed a lot of people. Way to play on people’s fears, jerk. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Apr 2010 09:58

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Tech: Update: Opera’s iPhone app (unsurprisingly) not approved yet

  • 20 days and counting for the
    Web browser, kids source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Apr 2010 20:41

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Politics: Bob McDonnell is sorry if you’re offended he forgot about slavery

  • bad Breaking nearly a
    decade of tradition,
    Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell restarted the controversial practice of making April Confederate History Month.
  • worse In his proclamation, he forgot to mention that the Civil War had a lot to do with slavery and stuff (not just states’ rights), which is why it’s controversial in the first place.
  • oops Today, McDonnell
    apologized (kinda): “I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed.” What about non-Virginians? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Apr 2010 10:39

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World: Wikileaks’ role: Intermediary for journalists and sources

  • We take care of the source and act as a neutral intermediary and then we also take care of the publication of the material whilst the journalist that has been communicated with takes care of the verification.
  • Wikileaks director Julian Assange • Explaining the site’s role in providing information to the world. Essentially, they’re not pretending to be journalists. But they also realize that sensitive information often can’t pass directly between a source’s hands and a journalist’s, due to its sensitive nature. So, they find it, host it anonymously, and break it to the world (and take the crap that comes along with it, including contacts from the U.S. government). It’s great for the free flow of information, as has been proven by the just-released video of two Reuters staffers getting killed. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

12 Mar 2010 13:36

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U.S.: Bored atheist overplays his hand on the Pledge of Allegiance

  • 2002 Michael Newdow, an atheist who’s really angry his daughter had to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, got the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to say that “one nation under God” was unconstitutional.
  • 2010 Newdow, in a separate case, tried to push this button again. This time, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said nothing required anyone to say the Pledge, thus reversing their decision. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Mar 2010 10:01

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U.S.: Kansas City, Missouri will have lots of empty schools soon

  • 28 of Kansas City’s 61 schools will close this year, in the wake of budget shortfalls
  • 17k students are enrolled
    in the schools, which is half of what it was a decade ago
  • $50M will be saved with the moves, which are understandably controversial source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Mar 2010 23:36

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World: Define “genocide”: The U.S. reignites WWI-era tensions with Turkey

  • The U.S. calls the World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks “genocide.” Turkey pulled its ambassador from the U.S. today after the a house panel changed its stance on one of Armenia’s darkest hours. The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee made the decision in committee, voting 23-22 to tell Obama to refer to it as such. It’s unclear if it’ll reach the floor. Many historians refer to the killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians as genocide, but Turkey views this as an affront to their honor. Not that this isn’t an awful issue, but it seems like bad diplomacy to change stance seemingly at random. (In fact, the Obama administration was wary on lighting this particular fire.) But on the other hand, we bet Armenians don’t feel that way. So we can see both sides of this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 
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