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Emerging Frog Virus Responsible for 80 Percent Decline in UK Populations

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons Frogs around the world have been plagued by Chytridiomycosis , but in the UK, the common frog, Rana temporaria , is facing another threat: The emerging Ranavirus …. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Multi-functional & Space-Efficient Furniture By Tanya Aguiniga

Photos: Tanya Aguiniga We’re digging Los Angeles-based furniture designer Tanya Aguiniga’s mindful use of scale, sustainable materials and space-saving aesthetic. With the idea of “softening industrial impermanence”, Aguiniga’s highly-creative works feature the textural delights of felt, repurposed materials and even using shadow on a wall to visually prop up her furniture — taking ” less is more ” to a whole new level…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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China angry 2010 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo

China overnight slammed the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo as a violation of the award's ideals, while the laureate's joyful wife led calls for his immediate release. Beijing

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California’s personal and unpleasant governor’s race just took another step toward the bottom as a tape emerged in which an aide to Democrat Jerry Brown calls Republican Meg Whitman a “whore ” for her attempts to get endorsements from law … The Brown call is a pitch for an endorsement from a law enforcement group. After he thinks he’s hung up, Brown complains that Whitman has bought the support of police by carving out an exception for them in her pension reform plan. …

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Newsweek’s Clift Plays Democratic Strategist with ‘What Obama Must Do After the Midterms’

Apparently the political death panel at Newsweek is resigned to the fact that the Democratic Congress is DOA come November 2. Thus braced for the impact of a possible Republican congressional takeover, uber-liberal Newsweek writer Eleanor Clift donned her political strategist cap to openly advise Obama that how, “Just as Clinton did in ’94,” he’ll need to “reaffirm his relevance and return to his core principles.” But haven’t Obama’s core liberal principles been the problem that’s brought about this impending midterm doom? And while Clinton was no right-winger, it’s indisputable that a Republican Congress helped push him to the center, which explains his final capitulation to welfare reform as well as his support of capital gains tax cuts. Does Clift really think Obama needs to double-down on liberal policies after a midterm thumping? But why let those pesky details get in the way of an inspiring narrative hearkening Democrats back to the glory days of their last two-term president? The important thing for Clift is that Clinton  masterfully played public opinion to cruise to reelection and close out his tenure in office with high approval ratings, despite his personal and legal dirty laundry. Of course, curiously absent from her October 8 piece was any examination of the role the media played in Clinton’s successful political makeover post-1994. Clinton and the Democrats found a handy whipping boy  in Newt Gingrich and the mainstream media were more than happy to be willing partners in vilifying the Republican House Speaker as a threat to America’s senior citizens and children. The media most certainly would attempt to play a similar role in the next two years, although Americans have wised up about the media’s liberal bias, as recent polling data show : WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the fourth straight year, the majority of Americans say they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. The 57% who now say this is a record high by one percentage point. The 43% of Americans who, in Gallup’s annual Governance poll, conducted Sept. 13-16, 2010, express a great deal or fair amount of trust ties the record low, and is far worse than three prior Gallup readings on this measure from the 1970s . Nearly half of Americans (48%) say the media are too liberal, tying the high end of the narrow 44% to 48% range recorded over the past decade. One-third say the media are just about right while 15% say they are too conservative. Overall, perceptions of bias have remained quite steady over this tumultuous period of change for the media, marked by the growth of cable and Internet news sources . Americans’ views now are in fact identical to those in 2004, despite the many changes in the industry since then.

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Fabulous Knitted Stools By Claire-Anne O-Brien

From eco-yarns to knitting graffiti to even knitting your own dog , knitting nowadays is not only a satisfying DIY hobby but also an extreme sport (check out the size of these needles !). But if you’re somewhere in between about knitting — and if you’re bored to tears by the cold sterility of most modernist furniture — then check ou… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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All over the state, media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, the Sacramento Bee, and Sacramento television news station KOVR Channel 13, reported, “Brown Aide Overheard Calling Whitman ‘A Whore ‘.” … The Los Angeles Times wrote in a story titled, An associate of Jerry Brown calls Meg Whitman a whore …, “In a private conversation that was inadvertently taped by a voicemail machine (audio here), an associate of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown can be …

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CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s increasing crusade against any negative usage of the word “gay” is now reverberating in Hollywood. In an appearance Thursday on the talk show of Ellen DeGeneres, Cooper expressed astonishment that anyone would use “gay” with a negative connotation, and he’d even seen a movie trailer (which he didn’t name) that committed this offense. E! Online reports :  Universal Studios executives have decided to replace a trailer for Vince Vaughn’s new comedy, The Dilemma, after CNN newsman Anderson Cooper blasted it for its negative use of the word “gay.” “The teaser trailer for The Dilemma was not intended to cause anyone discomfort,” the studio statement said. “In light of growing claims that the introduction to the trailer is insensitive, it is being replaced. A full trailer, which has been in the works for some time, will post online later today.” The offending line is Vaughn selling an electric muscle car: “Ladies and gentlemen, electric cars are gay. I mean, not homosexual gay, but you know, ‘My parents are chaperoning the dance,’ gay.” It’s a lame line. But it’s hardly grist for the suicide hotline.    Apparently Cooper has more clout in Hollywood than the usual suspects: “Gay media watchdog group, GLAAD, said in a statement that it asked the studio to cut the Vaughn joke from the trailer about a month ago. They called it a “slur” that “is unnecessary and does nothing more than send a message of intolerance about our community to viewers.”  When Ellen welcomed Cooper to show, she thanked  him profusely for being out front on the bullying issue, and Cooper replied, “There’s a lot of intolerance in the world and that trickles down into schools.” That sounds just like Kathy Griffin’s “trickle-down homophobia” attack line from Larry King Live.  Ellen deGeneres added that schools need more sensitivity training: “I honestly think we need course – just like math, just like history, just like English – there should be class of Compassion, for kids at a young age to start learning about compassion, and kindness, and understanding, um, that we’re all different, and accepting our difference. And I think that would be a great curriculum that kids learn in school if they don’t get it anywhere else.” Cooper and de Generes agreed that phrases like “that’s so gay” and the gay F-bomb are commonplace on TV and at the movies. (In fact, the Ad Council runs an ad with Hollywood celebrities denouncing the phrase “That’s so gay.”) Cooper claimed he’s talked to so many kids where teachers allow the gay F-bomb to be used, “and that’s gotta stop, because these words have power, and they’re used like weapons.” Then came the part about the Vince Vaughn trailer: I was sitting in a movie theater over the weekend and there was a preview of a movie, and in it, the actor said, ‘that’s so gay,’ and I was shocked that not only that they put it in a movie, but that they thought that it was okay to put that in a preview for the movie to get people to go and see it. I just find those words, those terms – we’ve got to do something to change, to make those words unacceptable because those words are hurting kids. And someone else I talked to recently said that the words people use and the things people say about other kids online, it enters into their internal dialogue. And when you’re a kid, it can change the way you see yourself and the way you think about yourself – the worth that you give to yourself. And I think we really need to focus on what language we’re using and how we’re treating these kids.

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There’s been a shooting at an elementary school in Carlsbad , CA: A man who reportedly fired shots at children at random at Kelly Elementary School in Carlsbad has been detained, and two students suffered minor injuries, according to authorities. The report came in at 12:12 p.m. at the school on Kelly and Riviera drivers, said a police dispatcher. An air ambulance has transported at least one victim to Rady Children’s Hospital with injuries that were not considered to be serious. KGTV, Channel 10, was reporting two children were grazed in the arms by the shots. Witness Jordan Sears was coming back from a nearby lagoon when he heard the shots, coming about 50 feet away from a baseball backstop on the campus. “I heard the first gunshot and turned and saw a guy with a jack ‘o lantern in his hand running and shooting at something,” Sears recalled. “First there was screaming, then there was silence.” He said the man appeared to be shooting at children at random. “I thought it was fake, because I didn’t see kids falling down.” Other witnesses said he the gunman appeared to be holding a gas can. Witnesses reportedly tackled the shooter. I’ll have more info as it becomes available. UPDATE: Another report : A man is in custody after firing at least five shots on the campus of Kelly Elementary School in Carlsbad Friday, wounding at least two people. The shooting was reported at 12:12 p.m. at El Camino Real and Kelly Drive. A man in his 30′s dressed in dark clothing walked on campus carrying a .357 Magnum, an official said. After the shots were fired, Scott Chandler, a Carlsbad resident, said the suspected gunman began to run away from the school and some construction workers in the area tackled him to the ground. Chandler described the suspect as a man in his 40′s with short grayish hair wearing black pants and sweatshirt.

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The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM EST!

Have you ever loved a podcast so much that hurt? Have you ever had to set a podcast free to let it come back to you of its own accord? Have you ever anthropomorphized a podcast past a certain unhealthy point, maybe so you don’t even really know how to close off a paragraph? The podcast is after the break, and it’s “happening at 5,” which may or may not mean something like 5:15PM EST. Close your eyes and sing along… P.S. And don’t forget that Ustream has Android and iPhone clients as well, if you’re out and about and you can’t join in on the Flash-based fun below. Continue reading The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM EST! The Engadget Podcast, live at 5:00PM EST! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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