Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on TwitterBe a Facebook FanTumble us!

17 Oct 2009 11:54

tags

Offbeat: There’s a cat named “Mr. Toes,” and he has a lot of toes, mister

  • 24 toes on “Mr. Toes” – that’s six more than your average cat source

15 Oct 2009 21:03

tags

U.S.: We bestow a blue ribbon on the Balloon Boy story. A modern classic.

Faux news
Simply put, you had it all. Between the incredibly random nature of your occurrence, the wall-to-wall media coverage, the likelihood of danger, the kid angle (must be emphasized), the reality TV angle, the waste of public resources, the rapt attention you gathered from the public, and the painless resolution that followed hours of panic, Balloon Boy story, you may be the best non-story in the history of news. Way to go, 24-hour news cycle, for giving us hilarity at the cost of actual news. You should be proud. SOURCE

06 Oct 2009 10:40

tags

Biz, Tech: Blog or news source? The inconsistent ways of Google News

  • Dividing content along these lines is like classifying brownies based on whether they were baked in aluminum or glass pans. There’s no difference, and it obscures what you really want know: if they contain chocolate chips.
  • Neiman Journalism Lab blogger Zachary M. Seward • Making a strong, interesting point about Google News’ new, and very inconsistent, labeling policies of blogs. Here’s one example: Talking Points Memo recently switched back to being a news source from being a blog. Here’s another (weirder) one: Gizmodo is a news source, and Deadspin is a blog, despite the fact that both are owned by Gawker Media. And the process of getting added to Google News, anyway, seems completely arbitrary. By the way, we love how Seward worded this. • source

29 Sep 2009 22:58

tags

Tech: When you turn on this urn, it runs a really old version of Unix

A nerd on Slashdot honored his nerdy brother by putting his remains in a Sun SPARCstation computer, which is obscure, nerdy, and awesome. source

29 Sep 2009 11:22

tags

Offbeat: Show-off: Some guy managed to grow pears shaped like babies

  • If this guy didn’t do it, someone was going to. So, is eating one of these pears kinda like cannibalism?

18 Sep 2009 19:26

tags

Tech: The Retweet function: The biggest Twitter shake-up EVAH.

The functionality of the site will soon be hugely different based on the image Mashable posted today. They need to work on this a little more, we think. source

17 Sep 2009 00:26

tags

Offbeat: Laugh, then cry: Honoring a fallen soldier buddy … by crossdressing

It’s a silly pact between buddies you never think will actually happen. Until it does. That’s why Barry Delaney wore a dress to Afghan soldier Kevin Elliott’s funeral. source
 

03 Sep 2009 21:30

tags

U.S.: Kidnapper wife Nancy Garrido thought they were like a “family”

  • There came a time when she felt like they were a family. And she loves the girls very much, and she loves Jaycee very much. And that seems a little strange given the circumstance, but that’s she has said to me.
  • Gilbert Maines, Nancy Garrido’s attorney • Describing the bizarre family dynamic between her, her husband Phillip Garrido and Jaycee Dugard and her children. That’s right, a husband, a wife, a girl you kidnapped nearly 20 years ago, and the two daughters she had with the husband: The traditional nuclear family. • source

14 Aug 2009 10:55

tags

Biz: The New York Times is gonna survive the recession using wine (and cheese)

nytwineclub0814
  • If you can’t sell papers, sell wine. That seems to be the philosophy of the New York Times, which has thrown its hat into the wine club ring, playing into its rep as the snootiest print publication around. We hope the New York Post responds by starting up a hard-liquor-on-the-rocks club. source

23 Jun 2009 10:45

tags

U.S.: S.C. Governor Mark Sanford’s whereabouts take a weird turn

  • first After the end of the most recent session (which was especially brutal), the South Carolina governor disappeared and didn’t tell anyone where he was going. According to his wife, he does this all the time, but people in the media noticed this time.
  • second Turns out he went to take a hike. Mark Sanford went to the Appalachian Mountains and went hiking alone. Interestingly, as the Christian Science Monitor reports, he went right around Naked Hiking Day. We’re not saying. We’re just saying. source