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13 Jan 2010 10:55

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World: Haiti’s biggest city, Port-au-Prince, ballooned in size quickly

  • 250,000 Port-au-Prince’s population in the 1950s, according to U.S. ambassador Timothy M. Carney
  • 2 million the city’s population today; it grew in size very quickly with little oversight or planning source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Jan 2010 10:32

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Biz: China topples Germany, becomes world’s biggest exporter

  • 17.7% increase in Chinese exports in December – giving China a leg-up on the Germans
  • 13.9% decrease in overall imports and exports in 2009; so it’s not all massive growth for China source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Dec 2009 08:57

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Biz: The not-so-incredibly-growing economy: It’s not as big as hoped

  • +2.8% the rate that the economy grew last quarter, according to numbers released last month
  • +2.6% the revised rate that the economy grew last quarter; we want our other .6% back source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Dec 2009 18:26

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Tech: Facebook has a virtual population larger than most countries

  • 350 million people are on Facebook – they hit the amazing mark this week
  • 69
    million     people are on Farmville – which is incredibly lame and pathetic source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

21 Oct 2009 22:00

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World: The world’s running out of food, experts say

  • 50% more food is needed in 20 years to feed more people source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2009 20:37

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Tech: Why should Google Books stay alive? It’s for the common good.

  • A delivery system for books that few people want is not a business one builds for financial reasons. Over history, such projects are usually built not by the market but by mad emperors. No bean counter would have approved the Library of Alexandria or the Taj Mahal.
  • Slate columnist Tim Wu • In a passionate plea to keep the Google Books project alive. Wu explains that the project is in jeopardy due to the fear of monopolistic concerns by Web competitors and the Justice Department. Wu emphasizes that Google is doing it for the public interest alone, and they’re doing a great service by keeping all these out-of-print books alive. Even considering copyright and all that other stuff, that’s a great reason to keep something like this alive. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Sep 2009 23:00

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Biz, Tech: The New York Times has Twitter to thank for a traffic spike

  • 10% of the New York Times’ traffic came from Twitter this year
  • 0% of the Times’ traffic came from Twitter last year; nice leap source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 

01 Sep 2009 21:06

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Biz, Tech: Facebook and MySpace pretty much own the online ad market

  • 21% of online ads run on social media sites source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Sep 2009 09:38

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U.S.: The Station Fire in California is turning into an impossible beast

  • 100,000+ acres the area the wildfire has eaten up so far – 150 freaking square miles
  • 3,670 firemen are trying to stop the blaze, which has grown overnight source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Aug 2009 10:45

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World: The world’s population is bursting at the seams

  • 7 billion the world’s expected population in 2011, according to the 2009 World Population Data Sheet; that’s really fast
  • 97% of the population growth over the next 40 years will happen in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 12 Comments • Permalink
 
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