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16 Aug 2009 20:20

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U.S.: Snort, snort: Most of the country’s money is all coked up

  • 90% of dollars randomly tested had traces of cocaine on them source

21 Jul 2009 11:12

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Tech: Are Apple’s random App Store rules hurting the iPhone?

  • It’s one thing to delay a homebrew project like mine, but it’s another thing to shut down a team of developers burning real cash. Apple should be worried when real programmers shrug off the rejections by saying, ‘It’s just a hobby.’
  • Infoworld columnist Peter Wayner • Describing the hoops he’s had to go through – along with the months of waiting – just to get an iPhone app version of his book onto the App Store. He’s still trying to get a pay version on – with proceeds that go to charity – after four months. • source

15 Jul 2009 13:11

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Music: D’arcy Wretsky of the Smashing Pumpkins comes out from hiding

Wooooowww. Blast from the past. The bassist chick in the Smashing Pumpkins randomly showed up on a Chicago radio station recently. She sounds BAD. source

24 Jun 2009 10:50

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U.S.: Where in the world was Carmen Sandi … Mark Sanford? Argentina

  • Dude wasn’t in the Appalachians on Naked Hiking Day. This story had already taken a turn for the bizarre when we covered it yesterday, but now it’s switched from bizarre to awesome. South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, earlier reported to be chilling in the same spot as a buncha naked hikers, was instead chillin’ in Buenos Aires, Argentina – which just so happened to be the first place we looked for him. In other news, his Lt. Governor, Andre Bauer (sadly, not Andre Braugher) is fuming mad and wants to talk to Mr. Exotic RIGHT NOW AAARGH RAGE! source

06 Jun 2009 12:43

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Music: We pulled five songs out of a hat for this week’s Saturday Mixtape

  • 1. YACHT is the digital-leaning indie act most likely to make a breakthrough this year, and “Psychic City,” with its instinctive catchiness, will probably be the reason why.

    2. After years of hearing the album was an unheralded classic, we finally grabbed a copy of American Music Club’s 1991 platter “Everclear,” and the simmering fury of emotive, personal AIDS hymnal “Sick of Food” confirmed this was a good purchase.

    3. Rootsy acoustic stompers Hoots and Hellmouth are perhaps one of the hardest-touring bands on the East Coast, and new album “The Holy Open Secret,” along with pretty track “Three Penny Charm,” shows their continued improvement as both musicians and dust-kickers.

    4. One of the best things that came out of Wes Anderson’s 2004 movie “The Life Aquatic” – the film itself was just OK – was the novel way it exposed American audiences to Brazilian singer Seu Jorge via David Bowie covers. “Suffragette City” is one of the best.

    5. You would not believe this song is from a 22-year-old Scottish dude who’s on the way to becoming one of the U.K.’s biggest pop stars. Paolo Nutini sounds like Louis Prima doing ska on “10/10,” and it sounds very timeless. source

04 May 2009 10:11

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Offbeat, Tech: Oh, and related to URL-shortening, fun fact of the day

  • Did you know that TinyURL‘s founder is a unicyclist? His name’s Kevin Gilbertson and he started the service in 2002. He wanted to link the unicycling newsgroups easily. He had a problem, solved it via code and created a new business model. Genius. source

23 Apr 2009 22:33

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U.S., World: The gifts just keep on coming from Venezuela and Hugo Chavez

  • book As we noted the other day, Eduardo Galeano is a happy old man, as his 38-year-old critique of Western imperialism, “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent,” is still a top-15 book on Amazon a week after Hugo Chavez handed the book to Obama.
  • island Well now, Hugo Chavez has upped the ante, giving New Jersey … wait for it … an island! Petty’s Island, located between Philly and Camden, N.J., is owned by Citgo, the fuel company run by Venezuela, and features a couple of bald eagles. He wants to show us his love, guys! <3 source
 

11 Mar 2009 20:34

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Culture, Politics: Ryan Adams + Mandy Moore = Married. Call them “Random.”

  • On celebrity couple names They’re a necessary evil. They create mass hysteria. They adopt more kids and gather more press than they really should, so why not take the thing that makes them truly notable – their name recognition – and bastardize and commoditize it? Magazines are happy. Talk show hosts are happy. And you make them collectively weak.
  • Why they deserve “Random” First of all, who seriously expected Ryan Freakin’ Adams, the guy who releases six albums a year of varying quality, to marry the third-tier Britney Spears who somehow came out of teen stardom unscathed? And “Random” is a great way to describe it. And a clever way to work their name together. Happy honeymoon, Random! source