September 2011
50 posts
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Get ready for more robocalls to your cell phone
Telemarketing calls from both live-person and autodialers to my cell phone have gone way up in the last six months or so, but at least they’re supposed to be illegal. Now, House Bill HR3035, introduced by Reps. Lee Terry (R-NE) and Edolphus Towns (D-NY), aims to change that and allow “informational” (i.e., crap we don’t need) robocalls to our cell phones. The bills is...
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sonicbloom: BofA to Charge $5 Monthly Fee for... →
shortformblog:
sonicbloom11:
WSJ:
NEW YORK—Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets, plans to charge customers a $5 monthly fee for making debit-card purchases starting early next year, according to an internal memo sent to bank executives Thursday. [more]
I’m speechless.
Seem to remember rumblings of a similar fee elsewhere. No matter. This is a bad idea for...
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“Open Graph is a development tool that lets third-party apps and sites report...”
– Facebook wants to share everything you do online with the world, whether you want to or not. This is on top of a cookie that tracks your activity even when you’re logged out of Facebook. People are upset over Spotify requiring new users to sign up through Facebook, but this isn’t going...
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Lawrence Brewer was an asshole to the end
Before white supremacist Lawrence Brewer was executed last night in Texas for his part in the 1998 killing of James Byrd by being dragged behind a pickup truck, he asked for his last meal to be
two chicken fried steaks, a triple meat bacon cheeseburger, a cheese omelet, a large bowl of fried okra, three fajitas, a pint of Blue Bell ice cream and a pound of barbecue with half a loaf of white bread
...
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Faster-than-light neutrinos? →
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Some good advice for Netflix →
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How We See Africa →
csmonitor:
The radio show Here & Now, produced for NPR by WBUR in Boston interviewed our very own Scott Baldauf for yesterday’s show. It is based on his piece Five Myths About Africa printed earlier this year.
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Photographers: Know Your Rights →
futurejournalismproject:
The ACLU’s published a photographer’s cheat sheet on their rights when shooting in the field (US only):
When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view.
When you are on private property, the property owner may set rules about the taking of photographs.
Police officers may not generally confiscate or...
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“It did not call itself the flagship Ray’s Pizza because it never really...”
– The New York Times solves the mystery of where the real original Ray’s Pizza is, in time for its (possible) imminent demise.
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thedailywhat:
Under new TSA policy, children under 12 won’t be frisked or asked to remove shoes.
About fucking time.
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This is what's wrong with Wikipedia →
Jesus.
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Patagonia Launches eBay Storefront to Buy, Sell... →
unconsumption:
Patagonia always had a reputation for making durable, low-impact outdoor apparel, but the California label is taking its sustainable ethos one step further with the launch of Common Threads, an initiative that seeks to help consumers, well, consume less. Together with online-auction website eBay, Patagonia created a virtual swap meet on Wednesday for buying and selling used...
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The Encyclopedia of 9/11 →
From New York magazine.
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Soon you won't have to take your shoes off at... →
So says Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. However, restrictions on carrying liquids will still be around for a while, and there’s no word on ending the grope-a-thons.
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“Registering them to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals.”
– Matthew Vadum is going to get emails about his thinkpiece entitled, “Registering the Poor to Vote is Un-American.” (via spiegelman)
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“A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly...”
– Mike Lofgren, on why he left the Republican party.
The Republicans’ drive to destroy the government isn’t new. Humorist P.J. O’Rourke remarked way back in his 1991 book Parliament of Whores that “Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work, and then...
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“I was honored to be compared to Darth Vader.”
– Dick Cheney (via maxistentialist)
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$301,113
That’s the bill for using a Gulfstream jet to transport a CIA prisoner to one of its secret jails. How do we know this?
The manner in which American firms flew terrorism suspects to locations around the world, where they were often tortured, has emerged after one of the companies sued another in a dispute over fees.
I see. Thanks to the profit imperative, details about the extraordinary...
