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12 Jun 2011 11:53

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U.S.: Woman optimistic for better life after face transplant

  • Charla hated to have her picture taken. Any family gathering, she’d disappear. She doesn’t want to be the center of attention ever, you know. That’s why she wants this. She’s so happy about getting a face, so people won’t say, ‘Look at that lady with the veil.’
  • Charla Nash’s sister-in-law, Kate • Describing the hope that Charla has for her new face. The woman, 57, was mauled by a neighbor’s pet chimpanzee two years ago. She lost most of her face, including her eyes, along with her hands. She received a full face and hand transplant last month, and while the hands didn’t take, her face did, and she’s optimistic about being able to eat normal food again, as well as go out in public without concern over her appearance. “It will certainly help her tremendously to feel human again,” said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, who led the surgical team behind the third face transplant in U.S. history. source

20 Jan 2011 10:40

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Biz: Some positive home sales news, because we need some

  • 12.3% jump in existing home sales in December source
  • » Oh yeah, some more good news: The annual rate of 5.28 million homes, while far below the mid-naughts peak of 7 million in September 2005, is a bit higher than analysts expected. The number hit a low of less than 4 million home sales back in the middle of last year. Granted, people’s homes are still getting foreclosed en masse, but this isn’t bad news.

14 Sep 2010 21:58

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Tech: Redesign! Twitter’s finally sprucing things up a little more

  • Looks like someone’s finally dealing with a sore spot! Twitter’s basic design had long been a sore spot for many using the service, and now they’re going to work on it, adding a bunch of multimedia elements and making the design overall more visual. We could see developers complaining about this like they did the Atebits acquisition; Brizzly, for example, just lost its main competitive advantage. The redesign rolls out over the next several weeks, and we’re guessing it’s going to go over a lot better than Digg’s. source

12 Aug 2010 10:27

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Biz: GM’s profits: Here’s your beacon of hope, depressed investors

  • $1.3 billion in profits this quarter, the best since 2004 source

11 Jan 2010 09:56

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Biz: Higher salaries, fewer bonuses: Banks change up the mix a little

  • 65% of banks increased basic salaries for workers in the wake of the financial crisis
  • 88% cut back on bonuses – which had been vilified more than anything else source

16 Nov 2009 09:51

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Biz: GM is looking a bit stronger after making it through bankruptcy

  • $1.15 billion amount in losses the auto manufacturer had as a result of their bankruptcy in July; they have $42.6 billion in cash on hand source

14 Nov 2009 09:17

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Biz, Tech: Google Books has a new, less-infringing, publisher agreement

  • Cost of the deal $125
    million
    source
  • Cost of the deal $125
    million
  • Big changes made Author rights
    Orphan books
    Pricing structure
     
    source
  • Cost of the deal $125
    million
  • Big changes made Author rights
    Orphan books
    Pricing structure
     
  • Countries in the deal U.S.
    Canada
    U.K.
    Australia
    source
 

30 Oct 2009 09:47

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Tech, World: The odds of tripping on a Russian porn site just got much lower

  • That’s because sites can now go beyond the English character set in URLs. Since top-level domains became a thing, they’ve been limited for users outside of the U.S. due to the fact that only the Latin character set is supported. Until now. ICANN is fast-tracking a new solution which allows extended character sets to be used. However, due to the fact that it needs to be compatible with the current URL structure, it’s a bit complicated and likely to break due to the technical hoops needed. Но погодите, доменные имена на русском языке! source

21 Sep 2009 12:38

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Tech: The Netflix $1 million recommendation engine contest has a winner

  • 7 people around the world split the nerdy winnings source

17 Sep 2009 10:58

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Biz, U.S.: The economy’s slowly improving on the housing, jobs fronts

  • 1.5% increase in new housing starts in August, the highest level in nine months source