My newspaper job is my identity.
Roger Ebert dies at 70 after battle with cancer — Chicago Sun-Times
EDIT: This is Seton Hill, which is based in Pennsylvania, not Seton Hall, which is based in New Jersey. Sorry about that.
An Icon Passes: A spokesperson has confirmed that actress and comedienne Phyllis Diller has passed away in her Los Angeles home. According to Milton Suchin, her manager for many years, Phyllis “died peacefully in her sleep with a smile on her face.” She is credited as one of the first successful female nightclub comedians, and also found success on a number of television shows during the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Additionally, Diller was the 1992 recipient of the American Comedy Award for Lifetime Achievement. She is survived by her son and two daughters. (Photo via Ottawa Citizen) source
» By no means should the above figures be taken as the final word on the devastating earthquakes that rocked the Iranian northwest, sadly. When following natural disasters like this, it’s important to remember that the full cost in human lives and suffering is rarely if ever able to be quantified so quickly.
This earless rabbit was supposed to be a German zoo’s main attraction. The problem is, Tiny Til drew press, specifically a photographer who … um, stepped on him and killed him. Let this be a lesson to photojournalists: Don’t kill your subjects, especially if they’re cute. (Photo by Uwe Meinhold/Associated Press)
» “Indiscriminant bombardment by tank and rocket fire”: Those were the words of the UN’s undersecretary general for political affairs, Lynn Pascoe. The killing in Syria has reached something of a fever pitch in past months, with the bombardment of Homs in particular leading to grim headlines, and truly ghastly footage. The UN currently estimates that over 100 people per day are being killed by Bashar al-Assad’s security forces. Said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Assad as a war criminal: “I think that based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be made that he would fit into that category.”
It’s not an unheard-of thing, either. Heavy D, born Dwight Arrington Myers, already had a heart condition and suffered from longstanding weight issues, making him more susceptible to such an ailment, and the deep leg vein thrombosis became much worse as a piece of the clot traveled to his lung, killing him. Doctors say that the best way to avoid such an ailment on a long flight or train ride is to get up and move around a little bit — which is at times easier said than done, even on a flight like the one Heavy D took.
Sad reality TV plot twist of the night: Fans of the TLC reality show “Next Great Baker” got a major shock tonight when they found out that one of the contestants, Wesley Durden, an Army paratrooper noted for his baking skills, died. But it didn’t happen this week. In fact, he died way back in October, a victim of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The network apparently chose to wait until he had been eliminated from the show to break the news to viewers, creating a double-whammy effect. Twitter is in disbelief right now.
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
We’re linking instead of posting due to graphic nature of image. Headline is baseball-related.
It’s always been a fear of mine knowing (the preserve’s owner) had all those animals. I have kids.Neighbor Danielle White • Discussing the bizarre incident involving an Ohio wildlife preserve, where numerous animals — lions, tigers and bears, plus more — had to be taken down in shoot-to-kill fashion after the owner opened up the cages housing numerous animals … then reportedly committed suicide, allowing the animals to run free throughout the area and creating a number of challenges for authorities. The preserve had been the subject of many complaints over the past decade. White, for example, once saw a lion escape. Most of the animals have been put down, but nearby schools had to close as a result of the bizarre incident. source (via • follow)
Free advertising for The Sun: Apparently it goes to the grave for some people. This is like the UK version of the PBR coffin, right?
In a few weeks we’ll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+. While people obviously won’t be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout.
Let’s face it, it was time. Google Buzz had long been a wasteland of RSS feeds and awkwardly-shared Google Reader content, and Google+, despite the engineering department’s criticism of the product, has been gaining some needed … uh, buzz, with 40 million users and counting. And the fact of the matter is, we still use it every day. With Buzz, we were gone within a few weeks. So were a lot of people. Noted techie Leo Laporte, for example, noted that Buzz was basically a wasteland back in August … of 2010 (it launched in February of that year). So if anything, this was overdue.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
