O’Reilly gets an apology from Scott McClellan over Talking Points insinuation

Bill O’Reilly Grills Scott McClellan about his claim that “Talking Points” were delivered from the White House to “some” personalities (not reporters) at Fox News (O’Reilly included). McClellon says he “messed up” by allowing the insinuation – O’Reilly insists that’s not good enough because it’s an outright “lie” – fireworks ensue until McClellon finally folds like a cheap suit and apologizes to O’Reilly with an “I’m Sorry Bill” – WOW…

Dying 8 year old “marries” his sweetheart before death

Reece Fleming was given only weeks to live. He proposed to his ‘special friend’ Elleanor Purgslove at the most romantic of places: laser tag.

Reece was 8 years old. He had been “seeing” his special friend Ellie for a few years but then they broke up. But one day at a laser tag party, he asked her to marry him and she accepted.

Their parents arranged a make-believe wedding at Reece’s home in Mackworth, Derby. He died the next day with his family.

Reece’s mother Lorraine Fleming said he told her, “I can go now” after his wish had been granted.

The 28-year-old said: “”He was so proud of her, and we were proud of them both.”

Reece was diagnosed with leukaemia in July 2004, when he was aged just four.

He fought the disease for four years until May when doctors told him he had just weeks to live.

Ms Fleming, said she and his stepfather Mick Thompson had tried to help him achieve as much as possible before his death, including marrying his sweetheart.

Full Story here >

Microsoft has Vista-haters test fake new operating system

This is… odd…. Microsoft tests out a new operating system, code named Mojave, with some average-joes who hated Vista. They loved it. Now, two guesses as to what Mojave ACTUALLY was.

After months of searching for ways to defend its oft-maligned Windows operating system, Microsoft may just have found its best weapon: Vista’s skeptics.

Spurred by an e-mail from someone deep in the marketing ranks, Microsoft last week traveled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a “new” operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that “Mojave” was actually Windows Vista.

“Oh wow,” said one user, eliciting exactly the exclamation that Microsoft had hoped to garner when it first released the operating system more than 18 months ago. Instead, the operating system got mixed reviews and criticisms for its lack of compatibility and other headaches.

To be sure, the focus groups didn’t have to install Vista or hook it up to their existing home network. Still, the emotional appeal of the “everyman” trying Vista and liking it clearly packs an emotional punch, something the company has desperately needed. Microsoft is still trying to figure out just how it will use the Mojave footage in its marketing, though it will clearly have a place.

Read the full article here

Why the Dark Knight Sucked

Just a quick summary to hold you over until a detailed essay and companion video or two are released:

instead of messaging me and yapping on my comments about how dumbfounded you are that anyone couldn’t be in love with this garbage of a movie – my criticism is not of it as a “film”. only as a batman film. as a crime drama/psychological thriller, it was pretty decent and fun with some clever and cool parts that i enjoyed. as a batman movie it was shit.
WHY? because this “interpretation” is more of a “reinvention”. it doesn’t add and subtract things from the characters to fit a specific narrative – it trashes the source material and completely rewrites the villains personality, history, mannerisms, thought processes, approach to crime, criminal philosophy, and relationship to each other.

To fully understand why this matters ladies – imagine if the upcoming Twilight movie did that… exactly. you’d be squirting yourselves with rage.

so chill out if you liked the movie and don’t care about batman. but a thousand shames be upon you if you call yourself a batman fan and think this movie was a respectable addition to the legacy.

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this guys shitty makeup and costume is actually better than Ledgers

here is the breakdown:

Gotham City: mediocre
Mobsters: mediocre
Bruce wayne: mediocre
Batman: 50/50 crappy/good representation
Gordon: great
Alfred: great
Harvey Dent: terrible
Two-Face: terrible, with the exception of him looking great
Joker: unforgivably terrible in every way possible. Awful times a thousand plus one. shares 100% of nothing with the character in any part of its history (besides killing people and robbing banks, but they don’t count).

Those are the 9 main “characters” of the movie and 3 are yawn worthy, only 3 managed to get it right and 3 were truly terrible.

THATS why it sucked.

Morbidly obese Ohioans starving on food stamps

“For Some Ohioans, Even Meat Is Out Of Reach” is the title of a recent NPR topical personalized report. Not because people in Ohio are getting shorter, but because they don’t have a job and are suffering the squeezes of a tight budget.

“The Nunez’s van broke down last fall” begins the sob story. Now, Gloria Nunez’s 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job.

Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps, says NPR. “Some have part-time jobs, but working is made more difficult with no car or public transportation” they report, which doesn’t sound quite right in the context of the full story which is an attack on the state of the economy.

Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job. Instead, she and her daughter, Angelica Hernandez, survive on a $637 Social Security check and $102 in food stamps.

NPR does’nt say if the reason 19 year old Hernandez has a different last name than her mother because she is married to some bum who can’t support her already or what, so who knows, but this part of the report is… interesting:

People tell Nunez her daughter could get more money in public assistance if she had a child.

“A lot of people have told me, ‘Why don’t your daughter have a kid?'”

Continue reading Morbidly obese Ohioans starving on food stamps

Hard News: Reporting Jesse Jacksons “Nuts” remark

When Jesse Jackson’s comments about Barack Obama broke yesterday evening, the true attraction for us wasn’t the story itself, but the beautiful awkwardness of watching every cable news anchor struggle to explain the story without being able to say one specific word.