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31 May 2010 11:26

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Biz, U.S.: Companies trying to “Slapp” out online criticism with lawsuits

  • SLAPP means “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” The whole theory behind it is that people complain in public about a company’s service, and the company sues to get them to shut up. In prior eras, this may have meant speaking out at a city council meeting. Now, it means tweeting about bad service or putting up a Facebook group. Here’s the fate one guy met.

 

  • $118 the amount Justin Kurtz had to pay after a towing company wrongly towed his car from his own apartment complex
  • 12k the number of people who joined “Kalamazoo Residents against T&J Towing”; 800 joined in the first two days alone
  • $750k the amount the towing company sued the Western Michigan University student for defamation source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 May 2010 13:10

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Politics: Average day: Glenn Beck says something stupid, apologizes

  • In discussing how President Obama uses children to shield himself from criticism, I broke my own rule about leaving kids out of political debates. The children of public figures should be left on the sidelines. It was a stupid mistake and I apologize–and as a dad I should have known better.
  • Glenn Beck • In an apology posted to his Web site this morning. What was it about? Well … he basically used Obama’s daughter Malia to criticize Obama, playing off a question she asked the president. Using “Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?” as a starting point, Beck asked a bunch of questions in that style, reaching a head with “Daddy…why do you hate black people so much?” Yeah. Malia’s going to be scarred for life because of this torrent of in-bad-taste commentary from Glenn Beck. Or not. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 May 2010 11:12

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Politics: Rand Paul not exactly getting ripped by Kentucky’s local news

  • Nice find by The Atlantic. Rand Paul may be getting trashed on by the Washington establishment, but local coverage in Louisville seems to not be critical of him at all. This is WAVE, the NBC affiliate in the area. They actually seem to have gotten an interview with David Gregory, too. Too bad they wasted it on boilerplate reporting. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 May 2010 13:41

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Politics: Mitch McConnell’s Senate leadership hasn’t been tea-stained, yet

  • Dude has been keeping a tally of who supports his leadership in the GOP. With dozens of names already ticked off, nobody has said no, not even candidates who appear fundamentally against his style of leadership, such as Sen. Jim DeMint. That Rand Paul win in Kentucky hasn’t hurt him yet. “The people of our caucus want him leading,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, DeMint’s more moderate counterpart in South Carolina. “He has my confidence. I think he has the confidence of the conference. He has done a good job with 41 people.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 May 2010 21:14

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Culture: That was quick: The Internet vets the new Miss USA, finds stuff

  • stripping Rima Fakih took part in a “Stripper
    101” contest for a local radio
    station. She didn’t strip, just danced
    sexy (and stuffed bills in her bra).
  • movies Fakih was an actress in the
    raunchy 2008 short film “Throbbing
    Justice,” by Mantastic Films. No
    nudity, just schlock. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Apr 2010 09:45

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Culture: Roger Ebert’s official stance on 3-D movies: He hates them

  • 3-D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension. Hollywood’s current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal. It adds nothing essential to the moviegoing experience.
  • Film critic and all-around awesome person Roger Ebert • Talking about the craze towards three-dimensional films started by “Avatar” and continued with pretty much every major hit movie so far this year. His argument? It makes you sick, and you don’t really need it to tell a great story. “A great film completely engages our imaginations,” he writes. “What would ‘Fargo’ gain in 3-D? ‘Precious’? ‘Casablanca’?” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Apr 2010 09:38

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Tech: Them’s fighting words: Yahoo’s CEO rips Google really hard

  • Google is going to have a problem because Google is only known for search. It is only half our business; it’s 99.9% of their business. They’ve got to find other things to do.
  • Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz • Talking smack to the king of the hill today. Google does tons of other stuff, though! They have e-mail (just like Yahoo), a news site (just like Yahoo), a maps app (just like Yahoo), a photo site (just like Yahoo), a social networking site (just like Yahoo) and, unlike Yahoo, a hand in the mobile sphere. And, unlike Yahoo, they don’t have the rep of getting bogged down by all of the extracurricular activities, or (more importantly) of being a place where “startups go to die,” as TechCrunch recently put it. So, while Google is in need of other revenue streams, Yahoo may not be the right company to give them crap. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink
 

22 Apr 2010 10:00

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Culture: Comedy Central wusses out on “South Park” big time

  • We’d be so hypocritical against our own message, our own thoughts, if we said, ‘okay, well let’s not make fun of them because they won’t hurt us.’ It matters to me when we talk about Muhammad that I can say we did this… and I can stand behind that.
  • “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker • Regarding the whole “Muhammad” controversy that’s trailed the show this week. He made these comments before last night’s show hit a fever pitch, and on the show there was prominent, over-the-top censorship of the word “Muhammad.” But on the other hand, there were blasphemous images for other religions on the show – Jesus watching porn and Buddha snorting coke. Because we wouldn’t want some of our society’s greatest social satirists to wuss out on us here. (Update: Comedy Central put in the large amount of censorship, and won’t let the “South Park” dudes stream the episode.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Apr 2010 11:28

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World: The international community not impressed by Sudan’s election

Either the world community has really high standards, or Sudan has really low ones. Here, a bunch of Sudanese look at some confusing sheets of paper. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Apr 2010 12:17

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Culture: Jim Carrey: Major Tiger Woods fan, apparently

  • No wife is blind enough to miss that much infidelity. Elin had 2 b a willing participant on the ride 4 whatever reason
  • Jim Carrey • In a series of tweets about Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin. In another, he gave a big-up to the dude: “Tiger Woods owes nothing 2 anyone but himself. 2 please his father he gave up his childhood and his freedom in the world. That’s enough!” The funnyman, who just broke up with Jenny McCarthy on Twitter, is certainly making himself sound like a major class act in these posts, isn’t he. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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