interesting things
The investment bank founded by Thomas Weisel, the powerful Silicon Valley financier who owned Lance Armstrong’s former cycling team, also managed assets for the then-head of cycling’s governing body.
via WSJ.com: Weekend Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323783704578246001221628488.html?mod=rss_Weekend_Journal
The Newhouse-owned Newark Star-Ledger newspaper is giving pink slips to 34 employees — including nearly 10 percent of its editorial staff — as it continues to wrestle with a soft advertising market.The daily, the largest in New Jersey, is losing more than $10 million a year, sources said.Publisher Richard Vezza…
via NY Post: Business http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/newhouse_ax_falls_in_newark_ngANEi61dbHZlVqiN2vqIL?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Business
The paper apologized for an article four days ago that took sentences from a scientific journal.
via POLITICO – TOP Stories http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/01/wapo-admits-plagiarism-in-story-154420.html
Bright light! Bright light! Our sources tell us that, in keeping with Hollywood’s mandated pop culture recycling program, Warner Bros. Pictures is negotiating with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment to reboot their 1984 horror comedy, Gremlins.
We’re also told negotiations of this sort have happened several times over the years, but making Spielberg’s deal always proved too daunting a financial prospect and his involvement might simply be a requirement for making the film at all, so don’t hold your breath. Having said all of that, our sources tell us that it might just actually come off this time. This wouldn’t be something Spielberg would direct, of course – he only executive produced the original, with Joe Dante behind the camera – but it never hurts to have the Great Man’s name on your project. A Spielberg spokesman said that the appropriate executives were not available for comment. We’ll keep you updated…
Read more posts by Claude Brodesser-Akner
via Vulture http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/warner-bros-looking-to-breed-gremlins-again-reboot.html
Abraham Lincoln’s second Inaugural Ball in 1865 was a lavish affair for 4,000 people with a midnight buffet. Which didn’t turn out quite as planned.
Oysters, roast beef, veal, turkey, venison, smoked ham, lobster salad and a seemingly endless display of cakes and tarts spread across a table 250 feet long. The hungry crowd charged the food, and the lavish event devolved into a food fight of sorts. “In less than an hour the table was a wreck…positively frightful to behold,†wrote the New York Times. Men hoisted full trays above the masses and took them back to their friends, slopping stews and jellies along the way. “The floor of the supper room was soon sticky, pasty and oily with wasted confections, mashed cake, and debris of fowl and meat,†reported the Washington Evening Star.
The menu itself seems odd to modern diners, as half the offerings were meat and the other half sweets, which is explained by the caterer being a confectioner. But where are the vegetables and bread? Some dishes aren’t seen much anymore, like smoked tongue, stewed terrapin, calf’s foot and wine jelly, and burnt almond ice cream. Read more about these dishes at Smithsonian. Link
Late yesterday, the White House announced that it was raising the threshold of signatures needed to elicit a response through its “We the People” petition site to 100,000.
In its statement, the White House reminds Americans of the spin it put on the first threshold increase from 5,000 to 25,000 after just one month online: That the system’s popularity was “a good problem to have.”
Turns out that ‘good problem’ is only getting better, so we’re making another adjustment to ensure we’re able to continue to give the most popular ideas the time they deserve.
Which would be fine, if there weren’t just one petition with over 100,000 signatures currently on the site: A call to have the Westboro Baptist Church legally recognized as a hate group.
The second petition in line — a request to investigate the Westboro Baptist Church’s tax-exempt status — has just over 79,000 signatures at the time of writing, and that feat took over 30 days to accomplish.
In other words, it would not receive a White House response under the new rules.
In fact, of all the petitions that White House has responded to since the site launched in 2011, only two have garnered over 100,000 signatures: Letting Texas secede from the Union, and addressing gun control.
And both of those petitions had the benefit of a major galvanizing event that united people under the banner of a common cause.
Perhaps the raising of the signature threshold will spur the same people to demand a more responsive government.
[photo via Twitter]
On Dec 14th, Gene Rosen found six kids “sitting in a neat semicircle at the end of his driveway. He ran upstairs and grabbed an armful of stuffed animals. He gave those to the children, along with some fruit juice, and sat with them as the two boys described seeing their teacher being shot.”
Now he’s getting phone calls and emails from Sandy Hook Truthers who think that the shooting in Newtown was a government sponsored hoax.
According to Slate “His wife is worried for their safety. He’s logged every email and every call, and consulted with a retired state police officer, who took the complaint seriously but said police probably can’t do anything at the moment; he plans to do the same with the FBI”
Rosen says “I guess I kind of opened myself up to this” because of the interviews he gave and his appearances in the media after the shooting. He believes in free speech, but “I talk to you about this because I feel that there has to be some moral push-back on [the Sandy Hook Truther movement].”
Sandyhookhoax.com lists what they think is proof of a conspiracy. They offer a Sandy Hook Hoax bumper sticker that says, “The official story is riddled with holes”
They claim the witnesses and parents were actors, and that this video shows that Emile Parker is still alive, claiming that the girl is not Emile’s sister, but Emile.
They cite a planned FEMA course for Dec 14th as proof of a coverup.
Who are some of the people promoting the idea that the shooting at Sandy Hook was a hoax?
It’s not just David Icke.(previously)
Ben Swann is an anchor for the Fox News affiliate in Cincinnati. The Atlantic (previously) has applauded his coverage of civil liberties issues. Erik Wemple at the Washington Post claims that “Swann allows his affection for constitutionalist politics to corrupt his judgment” when it comes to Ron Paul’s “racist, homophobic and creepy-cum-conspiratorial newsletters” .
Swann also hosts “Full Disclosure”, an online series where Swann discusses national issues. The Jan 3 episode of Full Disclosure covered three of this year’s mass shootings – the movie theater in Aurora, CO; the Sikh temple in Oak Ridge, WI; the Newtown, CT school shooting. In each case, Swann questions the official narrative of events. In another episode of Full Disclosure, Swann reviews possible links between the shooters in Newtown and Aurora, addressing the rumor that they are connected via the LIBOR banking scandal, and allegations that Lanza and Holmes’ fathers were both due to testify.
Alex Jones (recently; previously) invited Swann onto his radio program. Jones’ opinion of Swann: “Basically, he’s like a professional, focused, kind of news-style Alex Jones, which I love”.
Mike Harris, 2006 gubernatorial candidate from AZ and contributor to Veterans Today, claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting was a revenge killing by Israelis because of the UN’s recognition of Palestine. He states that Israeli death squads are responsible for the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, as well as the theater shooting in Aurora, CO. This interview was broadcast by PressTV, the English-language channel of the state-owned IRIB in Iran.
James Tracy, a communications professor at Florida Atlantic University, said that “that trained ‘crisis actors’ may have been employed by the Obama administration in an effort to shape public opinion in favor of the event’s true purpose: gun control.”
Debunking the conspiracy: Reddit user preggit offers a critique of hoax theories
Identity of the “second shooter”
“The video even makes the ridiculous claim that since the guy was sitting in the FRONT of the police car, that he must have some “crazy” credentials. Yeah, what is more likely…that this guy was a concerned father or that he was a man with some “crazy” credentials on a black ops mission to shoot up a school but he just didn’t have the skills to properly vacate, and so he ended up getting himself captured by lowly local law enforcement, AND broadcast on national tv, potentially exposing his super secret black op? C’mon.”
The school nurse does not exist
There was only one ambulance
More misinformation about Sandy hook debunked at Snopes.
via MetaFilter http://www.metafilter.com/123893/Welcome-to-the-world-where-Sandy-Hook-didnt-really-happen
The president’s gun agenda faces steep political hurdles, including a well-funded opposition that has repeatedly threatened retribution against any politician that backs new gun laws.
via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/no-easy-path-for-obamas-gun-safety-agenda/
The world has heard of the 16th president but not about his role in ending slavery, as a Steven Spielberg preamble and custom footage hope to lure in foreign audiences.
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via Hollywood Reporter http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steven-spielbergs-lincoln-gets-tweaked-412843
CBS News’ Bill Owens says the show was “pitched hard,” but selling the Bin Laden manhunt as breaking news didn’t fly: “It’s not a documentary; it’s a movie.”
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via Hollywood Reporter http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steven-spielbergs-lincoln-scores-second-412844