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One emotion running high at this year’s annual meeting of liberal bloggers: disappointment in the president. One popular panel at the Netroots Nation Convention was even titled, “What to Do When the President’s Just Not That Into You,” and featured an editor at Daily Kos noting, “It’s like the president’s…

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Web-controlled tweeting Roomba is a perfect storm of DIY magic

There are three things that will guarantee your DIY project some attention: slap it on a Roomba , base it on Arduino , or make it tweet. Do all three and, well, you’ve got a nerdgasm-inducing bit of Make fodder. The creation you see above is a web-controlled tweeting Roomba whipped up by Instructables member matchlighter using a 500 series vacuum bot and the Sparkfun WiFly shield for Arduino. The autonomous cleaner can be triggered from anywhere there’s an internet connection and updates Twitter to keep you abreast of its status (Ahh! Dock sweet dock). While Mr. matchlighter was kind enough provide directions for building your own, a lot of the actual coding is left up to you. (We’re lazy, let us just copy and paste dammit!) If you think you’ve got the programming chops, hit up the source link for instructions and check out the original’s Twitter feed at the more coverage link. Update : The complete code is in step eight of the Instructable. Web-controlled tweeting Roomba is a perfect storm of DIY magic originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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A Shout For Vitter Out Only Helps the GOP Get Away with Plunder

enlarge So yeah, David Vitter is a scumbag. Not because he slapped on a diaper to play Baby Huey with a bunch of hookers, but because he voted yes on the GOP plan to kill Medicare. In the wake of the Weiner fiasco, wounded outraged liberals have stormed the Internet to demand their own eight inches of flesh: What about Vitter!? #VitterMustGo! But there is a reason some wise person named Mahatma once said: An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Blind serves the GOP as they goose step about demolishing Planned Parenthood and unions, plundering jobs and any hopes for the survivability of an American middle class. The more they can saturate the airwaves with noise about penises and diapers, the easier it is for them to murder everything liberals hold dear. Why do you think Fox News deliberately slings nonsense after nonsense—Ground Zero Mosque, Don’t Touch My Junk, terror babies, socialists, Mau Mau, birth certificates, NPR, some guy named Common, Death Panels, Weiner, Weiner, neener-neener Weiner? Because every time the media takes a breath to spotlight what the GOP is actually doing—i.e. killing Medicare—the public wises up and smacks them with a huge defeat like last month in NY-26. enlarge Yelling Vitter Vitter Vitter instead of Boehner Where Are The Jobs, instead of End Big Oil Tax Giveaways, instead of Quit Your War On Uteri, instead of The GOP Killed Medicare, actually abets Fox and the corporate Koch machine. Sure demanding a scalp in return for Weiner’s feels good. Maybe it is even just. But so what? Weiner was pushed out by his own reckless lies, an irresponsible tabloid media and the political calculations of his own party. You’re angry about that. Fine. But don’t retaliate by aiding the side Weiner vehemently railed against. Don’t help the GOP generate more obfuscations for their devious schemes. Weiner is gone. And maybe a better response would be for us to take up his work ourselves: the brash and relentless calling out of each and every policy cruelty of Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, John Boehner, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the GOP. Vitter’s constituents voted him back into office last year. And no matter how much you spit his hypocritical name on Twitter, a jobless America is not going to vote on hookers & diapers in 2012 unless it is their own hookers but more likely diapers that they can no longer afford. They will vote, however, against a party that killed Medicare. IMHO.

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Greece steps back from prospect of debt default

ATHENS, Greece – Greece appeared to step back from the prospect of a devastating debt default Friday after its prime minister quelled chaotic political infighting and Germany softened a contentious demand that the private sector participate in a European bailout. After two days of dissent inside his Socialist party that threatened to bring down his government, Prime Minister George Papandreou named his main internal rival as finance minister. The move is expected to solidify the support from lawmakers Papandreou needs to pass a 28 billion euro ($39.5 billion) package of steep tax hikes and budget cuts so despised inside Greece that riots exploded outside parliament this week. European donors…

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Asking Your Doctor About Low Testosterone

Talking to your doctor about symptoms of low testosterone doesn’t have to be embarrassing. Use these tips to start the conversation about symptoms and treatment options.

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An explosive argument ? A mutual decision ? What really spelled the end of Hugh Hefner’s relationship with Crystal Harris? A teary Harris spilled the story to Entertainment Tonight , claiming that she just couldn’t live with Hef’s playboy lifestyle, the Daily Mail reports. “I wasn’t the only woman in Hef’s…

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Playboy Cover Girl Crystal Harris Goes From ‘Mrs. Crystal Hefner’ To ‘Runaway Bride’

Crystal Harris may have called off the wedding after it was too late to pull her cover from Hugh Hefner’s legendary magazine (which seems just a tad too convenient), but Hef still managed to get a jab in. The July issue of Playboy featured the Playboy-girlfriend turned Playboy-fiance posed in nothing but a bra and

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Floods Have America’s Heartland on Edge

Water has seeped through a second levee built to protect the southwest Iowa town of Hamburg from flooding from the Missouri River. The levee is on the southern edge of town and public works crews were working in the area Friday afternoon. (June 17)

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Bug Expert Testifies in Casey Anthony Trial

A defense expert testified Friday at the Casey Anthony murder trial that the stench from the woman’s car trunk came from a bag of trash, not the decaying body of her 2-year-old daughter. (June 16)

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Children’s Families Fined $500 For Operating Illegal Lemonade Stand

This post has been updated. Even for kids selling lemonade near the US Open golf tournament in Maryland, it’s hard to make a buck these days. Many residents living nearby the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland have found a number of ways to earn a little extra income from the annually descending throng of fans. But this year, two families, the Marriotts and Augustines, have been fined $500 by the local county because their children were “operating a lemonade stand without a permit,” according to a Thursday report by local news network 9News Now. When asked to justify the fine, a county official noted the size of the operation. “Kids selling lemonade making five, ten dollars is a little different than making hundreds,” he said. Meanwhile, those who paid the county nearly $300 were selling individual parking spots on their lawns for up to $60. To the parents of the children, it doesn’t seem fair. “The message to kids is: there’s no American dream,” Carrie Marriott, mother of some of the children, told 9News Now. Update: Montgomery county has subsequently waived the $500 fine and allowed the lemonade stand to reopen in a location outside the “main strip.”

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