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Google’s new social networking site, Google+, has gotten an impressive 20 million unique visitors in its first 3 weeks online; of those, 5 million are from the US. And that’s with access still limited only to those who have been invited by other members—and without any advertising yet through…

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Captain America: The First Avenger , starring Chris Evans, isn’t exactly deserving of 50 stars, but as far as superhero flicks go, it’s an enjoyable, if somewhat enhanced, period piece. Just don’t expect Dark Knight -quality stuff. “Captain America , like its unapologetically corny hero, is propelled by unpretentious and plucky ingenuity,…

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Bon Iver [+Digital Booklet]

Type: Digital Music Album Title: Bon Iver [+Digital Booklet] See all customer reviews See the details

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Samsung studies 3D viewing discomfort, finds out bloggers don’t read

Judging by the headlines today, Samsung’s 3D R&D department made a huge mistake, just check them out: “Who Could Have Guessed: 3D Hurts Your Eyes”, “Samsung-funded study finds 3D video causes extra eye strain, fatigue”, “Samsung study finds that 3D video causes eye strain, fatigue”. It seems obvious that Samsung’s research grant financing a UC Berkeley study published in the Journal of Vision was wasted, except for one minor issue — all of those headlines are wrong. “The zone of comfort: Predicting visual discomfort with stereo displays” is actually trying to find out why 3D-related eyestrain happens. That it can and does happen with poorly formatted video, whether 2D, 3D or otherwise, is already known. Scrolling down beyond the abstract reveals the prof’s data actually indicated a wider comfort zone than 3D video producers commonly assumed with their percentage rule of thumb. It’s a Friday night and you don’t have to pick thumbing through dry descriptions of experiments over whatever your plans are, but that’s why you have us. Shockingly, companies desperately hawking 3D tech are busy making it better instead of undermining their own products, but you’d have to actually read the study to find out for sure. Samsung studies 3D viewing discomfort, finds out bloggers don’t read originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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FDA Warning on Atrial Fibrillation Drug Multaq

The FDA warns patients taking the atrial fibrillation drug Multaq (dronedarone) to call their doctors. Multaq doubled deaths and strokes in a study of patients with permanent atrial fibrillation.

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Little Ayn Ryan tells Andrea Mitchell that of course he wants a debt ceiling deal, but he’s still not willing to do it even with hostage taking numbers. Listen to him worm around and push a point of view that a majority of Americans don’t share. Ryan says the Biden talks were the most productive and Andrea yells, then why did Cantor walk out? Ryan said, because of tax increases being included. Paul Ryan makes the usual GOP claim that American corporations pay too high tax rates because we can’t ever tax job creators. He wants to grab the spending cuts, but has no stomach for raising revenues. We need to Stop Ryan at all costs .

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N.H. GOP Rep. Lynne Blankenbeker On Her Military Training: Unions ‘Better Not F#%k With Me’

WASHINGTON — A Republican New Hampshire state representative who touted her handiness with a gun and said labor unions “better not F#%k” with her is insisting that she never meant to advocate violence toward anyone. State Rep. Lynne Blankenbeker (R-Concord) is a nurse in the Navy Reserves and is currently at Fort Dix, N.J., training with the U.S. Army. On Thursday, she wrote an email to her colleagues in the New Hampshire House and updated them on her training, explaining that the Army was “short staffed,” which is why she was at Fort Dix. In her message, she joked about moderate Republicans (RINO — Republican In Name Only) and even talked about using a .50 caliber gun to scare off labor unions. From her email, obtained by The Huffington Post and also posted by Politico’s Ben Smith: I am a truck commander on a hum vee for convoys. I had to learn how to drive both day and at night with night vision goggles. My vehicle has a rhino (no, not a RINO) on it to trip IEDs before my vehicle reaches it. Today I got to be the gunner which was fun. The .50cal is quite a gun! I was never ascared of the unions but they better not F#%k with me again!!! Just saying. I have mastered hand to hand combat as well. I’m headed out of here August 5th. Reports from Kandahar are extremely grim. Tons of casualties ( soldiers, locals, kids). We work 24/7. No one gets a day off but with no alcohol or place to go I guess that’s ok. In an email to The Huffington Post, Blankenbeker insisted that she didn’t mean to advocate violence toward anyone. “I am not a violent or retaliatory person at all,” she wrote Thursday evening. “That e mail was for my state representative Peers only. I was just using a metaphor to show that the Army training is preparing us for the rigors of battle in the war zone.” She noted that she had been the target of political campaigns by unions such as the State Employees Association of New Hampshire. “I was merely metaphorically explaining how tough the Army training has been. Making me tough enough to withstand even the toughest attacks,” she added in a follow-up message. In May, Blankenbeker attracted attention for voicing skepticism that U.S. forces had killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Full email below: From: Blankenbeker, Lynne Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 3:56 PM To: Vaillancourt, Steve Cc: ~All Representatives Subject: News from the war (almost) Hi everyone! Thought I’d give you an update from the field. I’m at Fort Dix, NJ training with the Army. Seems they are short staffed which is why I am here. I am a truck commander on a hum vee for convoys. I had to learn how to drive both day and at night with night vision goggles. My vehicle has a rhino (no, not a RINO) on it to trip IEDs before my vehicle reaches it. Today I got to be the gunner which was fun. The .50cal is quite a gun! I was never ascared of the unions but they better not F#%k with me again!!! Just saying. I have mastered hand to hand combat as well. I’m headed out of here August 5th. Reports from Kandahar are extremely grim. Tons of casualties ( soldiers, locals, kids). We work 24/7. No one gets a day off but with no alcohol or place to go I guess that’s ok. It’s really hot here(103 today) and humid which makes the full battle rattle quite uncomfortable. I am not sure how our fighting forces does it everyday… I will only be in it a few days a week, when I’m on co oyster in theater or flying med-evacuation. Hope u are all enjoying your summer. I am…. Keeping focused on the mission and our flag. Love, Lynne

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Marilyn Monroe Porn Film? Alleged Sex Film Up For Auction

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A Spanish collector plans to auction what he claims is a newly discovered 8-mm version of a film purportedly showing Marilyn Monroe having sex when she was still an underage actress known as Norma Jean Baker. A Marilyn Monroe expert, however, says the actress in the film is someone else, considerably heavier and less feminine than the legendary film star. “That’s not Marilyn. The chin is not the same, the lips are not the same, the teeth are not the same,” said Scott Fortner, who has a sizeable collection of Monroe memorabilia, including a belt he said proves how much more petite she was. “Marilyn was a tiny little thing. And I know that for a fact. I own her clothing.” Collector Mikel Barsa said in an interview Wednesday that he wants at least $500,000 for the sexually explicit 6 1/2-minute, grainy black-and-white film, which he says was made before 1947, when Monroe was not yet 21. He said it’s an exact copy of a 16-mm film discovered more than a decade ago. Barsa brokered a sale of that film to a European magazine in 1997, which he said in turn sold some 600,000 copies before a collector bought the original 16-mm reel for $1.2 million. Copies of that version are still circulating on the Internet. “People with romantic notions have denied that it’s Marilyn Monroe, and have invented stories” to raise doubts about the film, Barsa said in his Buenos Aires office, which is lined with pictures from his days as a concert promoter. “This film shows the real Marilyn Monroe – it was only later that the studios discovered her and transformed her.” The face of the woman in the film looks considerably different from the Monroe who emerged later as a star, but more similar to the Monroe seen in one of her first movies, 1949′s “Love Happy,” which shows the actress before she lost weight, added a beauty spot on her left cheek and became one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars. Barsa said he has no idea how the two original copies ended up in the hands of the people who sought his help selling them, and he refused to identify any of the principals involved. He said that in the 1940s, sex films were often made using side-by-side 16-mm and 8-mm cameras, since audiences used both formats. The collector said that Mark Roesler of Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide, which has managed the image and estate of Monroe, threatened to sue after the earlier version surfaced in 1997. Barsa said nothing ever came of it after the owners offered to sell the film to CMG. Roesler didn’t respond Wednesday to two emails and a phone call requesting comment. Barsa says he plans to auction the film himself Aug. 7 at a memorabilia collectors fair that he has organized in Buenos Aires, and is hoping for publicity similar to the scandal he generated when he screened the 16-mm version at a similar fair in Madrid in 1997. News coverage of his auction is already creating another buzz on the Internet. His part of the deal is a 10 percent sales commission, he said. A variety of sexually explicit films and pictures have been attributed to Monroe over the years, fostering a long and unresolved debate. “In the Marilyn community, people have debated this for years and years and for the most part it’s widely believed that this is not her,” Fortner said. Still, even Fortner said Monroe’s image changed considerably as she became a star – that she had some plastic surgery, learned how to hold her face differently in modeling school and adopted a mole on her left cheek. “I actually think it moved from time to time,” Fortner said. Monroe died of an overdose of sleeping pills in 1962 at 36.

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The Obama administration deported a record 393,000 people last fiscal year, with half of those deported considered criminals. That jibes with the Obama administration’s pledge to go after the “worst of the worst,” but the AP reports that some critics are scoffing: The figure includes big increases in the…

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%2boslo Bombing

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%2boslo Bombing

OMG”Oslo Bombing: Massive Blast Hits Norway Government Headquarters, Prime Minister’s Office Hot News-Oslo Bombing: Massive Blast Hits Norway Government Headquarters, Prime Minister’s Office Oslo Bombing Aftermath – July 22, 2011 gavilan__ says: RT @BenDoernberg : . @mashable @Storify has been the only way to follow the #Oslo bombing coherently. There's not even a close second http://t.co/oHHXjpD

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