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Magic meerkat moments – Planet Earth Live

Posted on May 24th, 2012 at 21:46 by John Sinteur in category: News


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  1. +11 AWESOME

Adam Savage’s Maker Faire 2012 Talk: Why We Make

Posted on May 24th, 2012 at 20:58 by John Sinteur in category: News


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Facebook exec ducks questions about IPO debacle

Posted on May 24th, 2012 at 20:40 by John Sinteur in category: If you're in marketing, kill yourself

[Quote]:

(Reuters) – Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg spoke to Harvard University students in her first public appearance since the company’s disappointing initial public offering, but refrained from addressing the controversy around its messy, glitch-plagued debut.

Instead, Sandberg urged students graduating this week from Harvard’s business school to work for fast-growing companies, communicate honestly and address inequality in the workplace.

“We need to acknowledge openly that gender remains at issue at the highest levels,” she told a crowd of students and their families assembled Wednesday afternoon on a lawn outside the business school library alongside Boston’s Charles River. Only about 16 percent of the highest corporate jobs are held by women, the same level as a decade ago, she noted.

Sandberg, who visited her alma mater with her parents and two children, only once made reference to the IPO in her speech. After urging the graduates to use Facebook to stay in touch, she said: “We’re public now, so could you please click on an ad or two while you’re there.”

So they’re down to the level where they are begging you to click an ad?


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  1. The question about effective financial fraud will inevitably dog this person. The rules are quite clear. Perhaps she’s going to use the “I’m a minority” defence?

Church member defends pastor Worley

Posted on May 24th, 2012 at 18:50 by John Sinteur in category: Pastafarian News

[Quote]:

Anderson Cooper speaks with a member of Pastor Charles Worley’s church who defends his anti-gay sermon.


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  1. If the church has more than 1000 members in it, as this video said at the beginning, is she really the best defender of the statement they could find? Seriously? I mean, sure, the pastor’s statements are indefensible, but she was flustered by the fact that Anderson Cooper knew the bible better than she did.

    Also — and forgive me for engaging in some stereotyping and all here, but — this woman is awfully butch looking, isn’t she?

  2. I’m sorry Mudak, she looks totally straight to me.

Greece to Exit Euro, New Currency to Fall 60%

Posted on May 24th, 2012 at 18:41 by John Sinteur in category: News

[Quote]:

Greece will leave the euro zone next year and the country’s new currency will “immediately fall by 60 percent,” according to Citi chief economist Willem Buiter.


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  1. Then again, those guys can’t keep track of what mortgage goes with what house, so…?

  2. (“those guys” being Citi, of course)

Saying No to Costly Drug Laws

Posted on May 24th, 2012 at 12:34 by John Sinteur in category: News

[Quote]:

In the year 2000, as the president of Poland, I signed one of Europe’s most conservative laws on drug possession. Any amount of illicit substances a person possessed meant they were eligible for up to three years in prison. Our hope was that this would help to liberate Poland, and especially its youths, from drugs that not only have a potential to ruin the lives of the people who abuse them but also have been propelling the spread of H.I.V. among people who inject them.

We assumed that giving the criminal justice system the power to arrest, prosecute and jail people caught with even minuscule amounts of drugs, including marijuana, would improve police effectiveness in bringing to justice persons responsible for supplying illicit drugs. We also expected that the prospect of being put behind bars would deter people from abusing illegal drugs, and thus dampen demand.

We were mistaken on both of our assumptions.


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  1. Just say No.. this is your brain on drugs.

  2. Sigh..after persistently doing all the stupid things, in the face of little evidence, there is now a growing debate about whether we dare start doing the bleeding-obvious-sensible thing.

  3. Maybe the worst effect of drugs is on the police.

  4. Ask the relatives of all those Mexicans whose bodies are found wrapped in plastic bags. And all those whose bodies have never found…

St. Louis Cops Worry That In-Car Cameras ‘Are Being Used Against Them’

Posted on May 24th, 2012 at 12:29 by John Sinteur in category: News

[Quote]:

Last year the St. Louis Police Department began using cameras mounted in patrol cars to record officers’encounters with suspects and other aspects of their on-the-job behavior. Such dash cameras, which have been used in this country for 15 years or so, can help cops as well as the people they arrest by backing up details of police reports, providing evidence of crimes such as driving while intoxicated, and disproving false complaints of misconduct. But some cops see only the downside.

[..]

What’s the world coming to when cops can no longer punch handcuffed prisoners or violate firearm rules with impunity?


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  1. If this can bring an end to the thug culture that sometimes prevails in lawn enforcement, that would be good. I’m not saying that all cops are bad but there is a natural tendency for the such professions to attract bullies, and the nasty work that they do often has a brutalising effect.

Jury: Google did not infringe Oracle patents with Android

Posted on May 24th, 2012 at 10:12 by John Sinteur in category: Google

[Quote]:

Over a week after it began deliberations, the jury has returned a verdict in the patent infringement case between Oracle and Google, finding that the search giant did not infringe upon Oracle’s patents with Android. In play were infringement counts on eight different claims across two separate patents: RE38,104 and 6,061,520. Given the decision, there will be no need for a damages phase in connection with the patent claims, and with the recent agreement by Google and Oracle to postpone any damages hearings related to copyright infringement, the jury has now been dismissed from the proceedings altogether. Judge William Alsup thanked the jurors for their hard work before they left the courtroom, noting that “this is the longest trial, civil trial, I’ve ever been in.”

It’s the final victory in several trial coups for Google. While the jury did find that Android infringed Oracle copyrights by its use of the the structure, sequence, and organization of 37 Java APIs, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether it was covered under fair use, rendering the verdict moot for the moment. The jury found that Google had infringed on only one other copyright count — the use of nine lines of rangeCheck code — though Judge Alsup later ruled that Google had also infringed by its use of eight Java test files in Android, adding a second minor infringement count to Google’s plate.

“It’s the final victory in several coups for Google”

While the jury’s involvement has come to an end, there are still several outstanding questions. Judge Alsup has yet to rule on whether the SSO of the Java APIs can be copyrighted in the first place; the jury was asked to come to their findings under the assumption that it was.


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  1. Encouraging.

Epic – Slinky on a Treadmill

Posted on May 24th, 2012 at 8:13 by John Sinteur in category: News


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  1. Spellbinding!

    However I think balancing your treadmill on a lawn chair probably belongs on one of those Redneck Repairs sites.

Russian footballer Vadim Evseev’s last game before retirement

Posted on May 24th, 2012 at 8:01 by John Sinteur in category: News

Would have been great if it had been his own kid, but it’s actually this guy‘s kid. He’s a United Russia party official, currently managing director at Орлёнок (“Eaglet”), a children’s sports resort near the Black Sea. Orlenok (f. 1957) is and always has been for children of VIPs and party officials.

So yeah, Russian kleptocracy in action.


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