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

12 Apr 2011 11:05

tags

Politics: Donald Trump combines best qualities of Ross Perot, Charle Sheen

  • I think the Republicans are very concerned that I [may] run as an independent. I could also possibly win as an independent, otherwise I wouldn’t do it. I’m not doing it for any other reason. I like winning.
  • Donald Trump • Suggesting he would pull a Ross Perot and run for president independently if he doesn’t win the GOP nomination. With a little Charlie Sheen at the end. Oh God. Will ol’ Sideshow Don quit it? source

18 Feb 2011 21:20

tags

Tech: Twitter goes after UberTwitter, looks pretty lame in the process

  • We’ve had conversations with UberMedia, the developer of these applications, about policy violations since April 2010, when they first launched under the name TweetUp – a term commonly used by Twitter users and a trademark violation. We continue to be in contact with UberMedia and hope that they will bring the suspended applications into compliance with our policies soon.
  • A message from Twitter • Revealing that they had temporarily banned some of the most popular third-party apps on their system – Twidroid, UberTwitter and UberCurrent – for their unauthorized usage of Twitter copyright in their apps. UberMedia, which owns all three of these apps, has quickly become the most-powerful third-party developer in the Twitter ecosystem, and recently bought the also-offending Tweetdeck (which hasn’t been shut down). While UberMedia is working hard to fix the problems, the real question is why Twitter had to do this in the first place. These apps helped make Twitter popular. Now that Twitter is huge, all of a sudden they’re going to be the heavies? Not sure how we feel about this, honestly. source

23 Apr 2010 10:50

tags

Biz, U.S.: Washington hawking over WellPoint’s crappy insurance practices

  • As you know, the practice described in this article will soon be illegal. The Affordable Care Act specifically prohibits insurance companies from rescinding policies, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact.
  • Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius • In a letter to health insurer WellPoint regarding a Reuters article that ran yesterday. The article suggested that breast cancer patients were specifically targeted in investigations in an effort to find a way to cancel their insurance. This crappy practice, by the way, is banned in the new health care law, but experts say the bill lacks the teeth to actually stop it. source

03 Apr 2010 10:19

tags

Biz: The intern subculture is growing – for purposes of free labor

  • 83% of graduating seniors held internships in 2008, up from 9 percent in 1992
  • 25% of those internships (or more) were reportedly unpaid; some states are cracking down source

02 Apr 2010 17:25

tags

World: Bad comparison: Vatican compares sex scandal to anti-Semitism

  • Seriously, dude? Seriously? Sometimes, it’s probably best to cut your losses and just admit you screwed up, and in the case of the Vatican, they’re well past that point. During a Good Friday service, Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, who has served as preacher for the Papal household since 1980, made the questionable comparison of the Vatican’s troubles to the 2,000-plus-years-strong pains of Jews. We’re mere inches away from a Nazi comparison, at which point Godwin’s Law kicks in – for the Vatican?! source

08 Feb 2010 10:18

tags

Biz: CIT Group’s new CEO, John Thain, knows a thing or two about bailouts

  • $6
    million
    amount of money John Thain will make in his first year as CEO for the emerging-from-bankruptcy small business creditor CIT Group
  • $15
    billion
    amount of money Merrill Lynch lost on his watch in the fourth quarter of ’08; is this really the right guy for this particular job? source

19 Jul 2009 16:29

tags

Politics, Tech: Digg’s DiggBar gets kinda shady in its linking style

  • The more disturbing part is that they’re expecting us to use their diggbar urls to deceptively push their site to our followers. If I broadcast a link to the New York Times, people expect to see the New York Times when they click that link. They do not expect to land on Digg.
  • End of Web blogger Matthew Rogers • On a recent change of functionality in the DiggBar, a service we admittedly initially liked. However, the functionality has changed in such a way that the links no longer lead to the source of the content for logged-out users but to the Digg page for that article. Granted, we’ve read some of Rogers’ other posts and feel that he generally comes off a bit hard-line on things, but in this case, we feel that he’s right. • source