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24 Mar 2011 15:15

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World: Want to hear the most depressing thing ever? Us neither!

  • before Thousands upon thousands of Egyptians rallied at Tahrir Square, engineering an overthrow of Hosni Mubarak by peaceful protest. It was a grandly inspirational moment, one that we all watched with exhilaration.
  • now The military-led Egyptian government just approved a law imposing an enormous fine or prison time for inciting protests that interfere with “public or private work.” Well, it was certainly nice while it lasted. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Feb 2011 16:51

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Biz: She’s dead, Jim: Local news site TBD.com lays off most of its staff

  • before While Allbritton announced that they would be de-emphasizing the TBD brand, which was considered a future journalism model, they made it seem like there wouldn’t be any layoffs – just refocusing.
  • now TBD, a DC-based local news site, will now lose its sports and news coverage and become an entertainment site. Oh yeah, 12 people are getting laid off. So, yes, the TV guys did win. source
  • » A message to TBD’s staff: We hear you’ll be able to work on your publication for the next few weeks as its model changes – a temporary respite from unemployment. As someone who’s been in that position before, I can tell you it’s a bit of a dead-man-walking situation. Sigh. These things are never fun. Make the best of them.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jan 2011 01:58

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U.S.: Protip: If your water bottle falls into Lake Michigan, let it go

  • My whole family was like that, we all have lead feet. Who would care about a water bottle? … I’m just like in damn disbelief.
  • Debra Hilling • On the death of her son, Michael. See, Michael, who couldn’t swim, jumped into Lake Michigan in an attempt to recover his girlfriend’s water bottle, which had fallen in. You know, on January 1st, in Chicago. The emergency call was received at 12:08 a.m., by the way, just minutes into 2011. Fark calls it “The first Darwin Award of 2011.” We just call it extremely unfortunate. See, Michael’s first anniversary with his girlfriend was Friday night. Now we’re really sad. Poor guy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Nov 2010 00:01

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Biz: Fannie Mae’s losses like a depressing slow-motion car crash

  • $3.5billion lost in the most recent quarter; that’s great!
  • 13 number of quarterly losses the government-owned mortgage finance firm has had in a row
  • $19.8B the amount of money it lost in the same ultra-depressing quarter about a year ago
  • $89B the amount of money the government has poured into Fannie Mae during the recession source
  • » Oh yeah, they need more help. We can’t imagine how much fun it is to work at Fannie Mae right now. The company, after all the loans they’ve already gotten from the government, needs another $2.5 billion from the U.S. Treasury. And their buddy Freddie Mac had an even bigger loss last quarter, with $4.1 billion falling in their depressing money pit.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Aug 2010 11:30

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U.S.: Wanna see a pretty depressing number? Click this thang here

  • 71,000 freaking jobs added in July source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Aug 2010 12:14

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Culture: A man’s life, recalled in thousands of Polaroid photos

  • A wild idea with a sad ending. A couple years ago, Chris Higgins of Mental Floss came across a man’s photos – apparently, he took one Polaroid every day for 18 years, in a period ranging from 1979 to 1997. What forced him to stop? Well, he got cancer. What started out as an goofy collection of photos grows much sadder and more emotionally gripping – and then, one day, it stops. Jamie Livingston‘s life. What a gut punch of a find. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

31 Jul 2010 16:58

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Culture: “The Thief and the Cobbler,” the saddest story in film history

  • In the era of startup culture, there’s much to learn from Richard Williams. Williams, a brilliant, highly respected animator, had a crazy dream to build his own masterpiece, based loosely on Persian culture. Williams started the project in 1968 as a side-project on top of a bunch of other things, and later turned his skill into a gig as animation director for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” which won him a bunch of Oscars. That’s where the trouble began.
  • losing a projectThe film, built around two largely mute characters, was picked up by Warner Bros. in the late 1980s. They eventually grew angry with Williams after he went over deadline and over budget, and dropped out of the project altogether. The insurance company then kicked Williams out of his own project. The heartless bastards! What nerve!
  • blame “ALaddin”At the time that “Thief” had been pulled out from under Williams, a movie greatly inspired by his work was being produced by Disney. “Aladdin” was a monster success. When “Thief” was finally released as “Arabian Knight” in 1995, it was loaded with unnecessary dialogue, terrible songs, and cheap, awful animation. And it bombed.
  • legacy and lessons“Thief,” a massive failure that Williams doesn’t talk about anymore, has been re-cut by a fan (see above), but it’s not the same. If you ever needed proof that sometimes money ruins great things, here you go. Protect your ideas. Protect their integrity. Fight for their creative purity. It can be taken away like that. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

06 Jul 2010 20:42

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Culture: We admit, this Lindsay Lohan sentencing video broke us

  • We’re not completely made of stone. Heck, some might argue we’re made of softer substances, like flesh and bone. Those jerks would be wrong, but still, it’s worth emphasizing that seeing Lohan as a bucket of emotions is pretty powerful. Even constant tabloid subjects have souls.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 May 2010 16:35

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Tech: It’s official: Apple ditches its classic “Get A Mac” ads

The Apple exec who decided to get rid of these always-funny commercials should be fired. Unless it was Steve Jobs. Then he shouldn’t be. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 May 2010 21:13

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World: Be glad you’re not Mongolian, don’t have to clean up this mess

Unless you are. In which case we feel really awful that a rough winter killed all of your livestock. The country’s entire economy could feel the ripple effects of this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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