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30 Oct 2009 10:13

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U.S., World: The risks of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan are pretty high

Reuters uses a pretty stark example of how a nothing mission quickly turned deadly. Obama, pay heed as you decide to add more troops. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Oct 2009 21:24

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U.S.: Obama signs a hate-crimes bill eleven years in the making

  • Through this law, we will strengthen the protections against crimes based on the color of your skin, the faith in your heart, or the place of your birth. We will finally add federal protections against crimes based on gender, disability, gender identity or sexual orientation.
  • President Barack Obama • On signing a hate-crimes bill that, for the first time, protects people based on their sexual orientation. The bill is something that’s been fought for since the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. (who was black) and beating death of Matthew Shepard (who was gay) shined light on the issue in 1998. Critics of the bill say it just adds further regulations to a highly-regulated process. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Oct 2009 20:05

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World: The UN’s Secretary General condemns “shameless” Taliban killings

  • We stand by the people of Afghanistan today, and we will do so tomorrow.
  • United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon • Reassuring the people of Afghanistan that the UN will be there even after an attack on UN personnel by the Taliban today. The attack, which killed five and injured nine, was the deadliest attack on UN workers since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Oct 2009 06:50

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Biz: Found: Dead guy in a pool. A Bernie Madoff associate. Rich.

  • Jeffry Picower was described as Bernie’s greatest beneficiary. Remember when Ken Lay of Enron died at a convenient time? Looks like he has a new golfing buddy. Picower, one of the 400 wealthiest Americans, was found dead in his multimillion-dollar mansion in Florida. While authorities aren’t suspecting foul play or suicide (he was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and had heart problems), it’s worth noting that he was in the midst of being sued for $7.2 billion regarding funds he supposedly controlled in the Madoff case. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Oct 2009 02:31

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Tech: Goodbye, Geocities: XKCD commemorates the death of a net icon

XKCD redesign
  • This is how Geocities should be remembered: An ugly piece of crap, but our ugly piece of crap. Not specifically ours, but the Internet’s. Yahoo’s biggest financial folly and the reason why we still fear for the futures of our good, not-awful friends Flickr and Delicous. But an essential reminder of the anyone-can-screw-with-it nature of what makes the Web awesome. Good show, XKCD.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2009 02:15

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World: For shame, murderous Russian bear on ice skates. For shame.

  • Maybe “Bears on Ice” wasn’t such a great idea. A Russian circus troupe is in mourning today after a bear who was supposed to be on ice skates killed circus administrator Dmitry Potapov and mauled an animal trainer. OK, we know. Russia has a long history of putting bears in the circus, but we think even we’d draw the line at ice skates. Screw the Ice Capades. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Oct 2009 09:40

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Culture: Whatever happened to Soupy Sales? Well, he’s dead.

  • Guess that solves that problem. Soupy Sales, born Milton Supman, died at 83. An iconic television figure from the ’50s through the ’70s, he took more than 20,000 pies to the face during his career. Which is approximately two or three more than we’ve taken since we started running ShortFormBlog. RIP Soupy Sales.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

21 Oct 2009 09:34

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World: Pakistan has suffered big tolls from the Taliban attacks already

  • 185 people have died in the month of carnage in the country source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Oct 2009 21:25

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Tech: We’re calling it: The Amazon Kindle had a good run, but it’s done.

The Kindle's death knell
Posted by Ernie Smith • 11 Comments • Permalink

19 Oct 2009 09:05

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Culture: Jan Moir and The Daily Mail have a lot of complaints on their hands

  • one controversial article about the death of Boyzone’s Stephen Gately that blamed his homosexuality source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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