In Australia, red-collared lorikeets are staggering around the streets drunk, some are even collapsing. The culprit is their taste for finer things, namely trees bearing fruit. But scientists are worried because too many of the birds are dying. (Oct. 14)
Continue reading …This isn’t the iPhone 5. No matter how badly you wanted something slim, sleek and wedge-shaped, this isn’t it. If you went ahead and got your hopes up ahead of Apple’s ” Let’s Talk iPhone ” event, hopefully you’ve gotten over the pangs of discontent by now, because this device pictured front and center is the iPhone 4S. It’s a new spin on an old phone that will shock none, but give it half a chance, and it will still impress. The iPhone 4S comes with a faster processor, a better camera, a smarter virtual assistant and twice the storage of its predecessor — if you don’t mind paying for it. Like the iPhone 3GS did before to the 3G, the 4S bumps the iPhone 4 down to second-class status, leaving those Apple fans who must have the best aspiring to own its decidedly familiar exterior. Apple says this is the most amazing iPhone ever. Is it? Yes, of course it is, but read on to see whether it’s really worth an upgrade. Gallery: Apple iPhone 4S review Continue reading iPhone 4S review iPhone 4S review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …If it's Friday, it must be Call Herman Cain an Oreo Day. While neither the terms Uncle Tom nor Oreo were deployed, for the second Friday in a row MSNBC's Martin Bashir brought theGrio.com columnist Goldie Taylor on his eponymous program to slam GOP presidential candidate for essentially being a self-hating black man. “He said in an interview just over the last week that he could appeal to 30 percent of African-American voters. How is he going to tell that 30 percent of African-American voters that when the civil rights movement came right to his doorstep, he wouldn't open the door?” Taylor complained on the October 7 Martin Bashir , adding later in that segment, “I think it's insulting that Herman Cain had his bedroom slippers on in 1963 and wasn't involved in the civil rights movement even though he was living and working right here in the city of Atlanta.” Today Bashir brought Taylor on air again to attack Cain, this time for his stating that he believes that racism is no longer “rampant” in America. Taylor insisted Cain was attempting to coax racist Republican primary voters to support him, that there's little chance Republicans really would if it came down to it, and that Cain is a sell-out who would shed his skin if he could: MARTIN BASHIR: Goldie, it's a great relief, isn't it? Racism no longer exists in America. Do you agree with Mr. Cain? GOLDIE TAYLOR: You've got to wonder which country Herman Cain is living in or which planet, for that matter. BASHIR: Planet Cain! TAYLOR: I think at the end of the day Herman Cain's um, you know, the way that he raises his candidacy is that he placates a base. And the base that he believes he's after is a right-wing ultra-conservative base that does not want to either see racism as a dilemma or see it as an attack on them. BASHIR: Goldie, you're almost saying that he's trying to denude and diminish his own ethnicity in order to win that base, is that what you're saying? TAYLOR: That's exactly what I'm saying . What I'm saying is that if he can shed his ethnicity today, if he could become what I would call the color of water, he would do it. He would do it in an effort to prove that he and people just like him could fit in anywhere and have the same level of success no matter what their race, ethnicity or gender happen to be. That just doesn't happen to be the case. And so, would he shed it? I think he would. In addition to Taylor, Bashir included Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart in on the discussion, who is a liberal African-American and agreed with Taylor that Herman Cain is “indeed trying to placate his base” that “does not want to hear any accusations of racism against it.” But, Capehart insisted, Cain's base is “perfectly fine” with “hurl[ing] charges of racism against Democrats” and liberals. Later in the segment, Bashir cited Cain's anemic fundraising numbers as evidence that the Republican base was at best just “entertained” by Cain, a notion with which Taylor agreed. Bashir, of course, failed to include a black conservative in the discussion to offer a differing point of view.
Continue reading …Type: Book Title: 23 Hours: A Vengeful Vampire Tale See all customer reviews Product Description: In the next 23 hours, there will be no reprieve, no mercy, and no time off for good behavior. When vampire hunter Laura Caxton is locked up in a maximum-security prison, the cop-turned-con finds herself surrounded by countless murderers and death-row inmates with nothing to lose . . . and plenty of time to kill. Caxton’s always been able to watch her own back–even when it’s against a cell-block wall–but soon she learns that an even greater threat has slithered behind the bars to join her. Justinia Malvern, the world’s oldest living vampire, has taken up residence, and her strength grows by the moment as she raids the inmate population like an open bar with an all-you-can-drink supply of fresh blood. The crafty old vampire knows just how to pull Caxton’s strings, too, and she’s issued an ultimatum that Laura can’t refuse. Now Laura has just 23 hours to fight her way through a gauntlet of vampires, cons, and killers . . . 23 hours to make one last, desperate attempt at protecting the world from Justinia’s evil. See the details
Continue reading …Gap, once the king of clothing chains, rapidly expanded before the recession; afterward, it found itself with more stores than shoppers. Now it plans to close 189 of its North American locations—more than a fifth of the total—by 2013, leaving some 700 remaining, the Wall Street Journal reports….
Continue reading …Michelle Marie Fournier was scared of her ex-husband, telling friends that he had abused her, threatened to kill her, and once held a gun to her head. “She told me, ‘I can’t believe I got involved in this. He is not right … He’s going to kill me,” one friend…
Continue reading …enlarge Credit: Business Insider Top percent own 42 percent of Wealth in America. Business Insider uses a multitude of charts to explain where the anger from the Occupy Wall Street protesters come from. CHARTS: Here’s What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About… So, what are the protesters so upset about, really? Do they have legitimate gripes? To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes. And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly “de-stabilized,” as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning. The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation’s history, and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And, at the same time, corporate profits are at a record high… read on Make sure to click through and check out all the graphs and charts. (h/t Atrios )
Continue reading …By Ed White — The Associated Press DETROIT – A Nigerian man pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to blow up an international flight for al-Qaida with a bomb in his underwear, taking a federal court in Detroit by surprise on the second day of his trial. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab answered questions from U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds before pleading guilty to all eight charges he faced, including conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted murder. “Are you therefore pleading guilty freely and voluntarily?” Edmunds asked. “That’s right, yes,” Abdulmutallab replied. Edmunds reviewed the charges and possible penalties with Abdulmutallab before he entered his pleas, including that he faces a sentence of up to life in prison. He’s accused of trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with a bomb in his underwear on Christmas 2009. The bomb didn’t work, and passengers jumped on Abdulmutallab when they saw smoke and fire. Prosecutors’ evidence was stacked high. Abdulmutallab was badly burned in a plane full of witnesses. The government said he told FBI agents he was working for al-Qaida and directed by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical, American-born Muslim cleric recently killed by the U.S. in Yemen. There are also photos of his scorched shorts as well as video of Abdulmutallab explaining his suicide mission before departing for the U.S.
Continue reading …New York Times columnist Paul Krugman appeared on Charlie Rose’s talk show on PBS Wednesday night to discuss the leftist-anarchist Occupy Wall Street movement against inequality. Krugman’s encomium to the movement (he recently turned down urgings by his lefty fans to speak at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan) begins around the 6 minute 45 second mark of the segment: Paul Krugman: “What the protests are doing is they’ve changed the conversation already, and they’ve changed it onto, we’re actually talking about the right things. I mean, the story of where we are now as a nation is we had a monstrous failure of the existing system, followed by an monstrous injustice, we had an enormous, you know, a financial industry that ran wild, crippled the economy, which remains rippled to this day, was bailed out, and the players who bear some responsibility faced virtually no consequences, and more important, there’s been very little real reform, some from the Obama administration side, but not as much as we’d like, and the other party’s busy trying to tear it down. And somehow the conversation that we’ve been having about all these issues, is basically not about these issues. We’ve spent almost two years now with the parties arguing who’s got the more convincing fiscal austerity and who can do the most to remove restrictions on business. And now, again, big difference between the parties, don’t ever claim there is an equivalence. But the Democrats have to a large extent followed the Republicans off into this blind alley.” Charlie Rose: “From the White House, across the spectrum of Pennsylvania Avenue.” Krugman: “That’s right. And so, all of a sudden, we’re now talking about, hey, what about Wall Street, what about these people who made such a mess? How are we going to make sure that the general public shares in whatever economic gains we have, that we have rules in effect that prevent the kind of catastrophe that overtook our economy in 2008. That in itself, even if it ends right there, that’s a huge success. But I think the explosion of this movement really suggests that there were an awful lot of people who were just waiting for somebody to say it, and here we are, and it’s a wonderful thing.”
Continue reading …Grab some popcorn! NewsFeed’s Glen Levy brings you the movies you should check out (or avoid) this weekend. Footloose Tagline: There Comes A Time To Cut Loose No matter how honorable its intentions, when is a remake considered too soon? Colin Farrell, for instance, is staring in a new version of Total Recall, which was
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