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10 Apr 2010 12:16

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Offbeat: RyanAir charges for bathrooms, American Restroom Association exists

  • It is a human right to freely eliminate yourself. It’s conceivable that people could be stuck on an airline for 15 to 20 hours. The idea of having only one bathroom in a situation like that is … strange.
  • University of Maryland professor Dr. Steven Soifer • Regarding RyanAir’s decision to cut the number of bathrooms from three to one, and make that one coin-operated. While he may miss the boat on some aspects of this (he argues that it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, even though RyanAir is a European company, on other aspects he’s dead-on. Fun fact: Soifer is the co-founder of the American Restroom Association and Shy Bladder Center, two organizations we can’t believe exist. source

24 Mar 2010 11:18

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Tech: Facebook gets crap for allowing people to upload stranger photos

  • It’s apparently a huge privacy thing. Facebook – and Google, for that matter – allow you to upload photos and videos of people not on the site, without their consent. Now the Swiss and German governments are all up in arms about this, apparently missing the fact that you can do this on any other site on the Internet. Just to prove this point, we grabbed this photo from Flickr of some dudes at a party. We don’t know them, but they seem like they’re having fun. source

07 Apr 2009 10:27

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U.S., World: Uh, hey Iraq, it’s Obama; betcha didn’t expect to see me.

  • Out of nowhere Obama wasn’t scheduled to come to Iraq, but he went anyway, for a few reasons – to talk shop with Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki and Gen. Ray Odierno, as well as to hand out a few medals of valor to U.S. troops. It’s his first trip to the country since he was elected; he went while campaigning. source
  • Out of nowhere Obama wasn’t scheduled to come to Iraq, but he went anyway, for a few reasons – to talk shop with Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki and Gen. Ray Odierno, as well as to hand out a few medals of valor to U.S. troops. It’s his first trip to the country since he was elected; he went while campaigning.
  • A busy trip Obama’s managed to do a lot in his international trip – between the G20 summit, the European tour, and avoiding an assassination attempt by some dude in Turkey, he’s done a good job of playing diplomat. Good job man, and make sure you have a beer after you’re done. source