Twitter tried to launch a new home page today, one that would better appeal to mainstream users. Instead, the microblogging service has reverted to the original "Old Twitter" interface it replaced last year—when it's not failing entirely.
For reasons not related to sports or logic, I was sent across the country to cover the 2011 High Times Medical Cannabis Cup in Denver this past weekend. The event, held in a place called the Exdo Event Center that allegedly transformed into a gay nightclub once the sun set, featured an awards show for 45 indicas, 36 sativas, 50 hybrids, 26 concentrates, and 25 edibles from Colorado dispensaries. If you don't really know what those terms mean, it's okay: this event was primarily for professionals. And no matter how much pot you smoked in college, bro, I can now say with certainty that it does not make you a professional in the field of medical cannabis. There were seminars for legal issues and consumer rights, cultivation lessons, and a panel discussion on the ins and outs of the "Cannabusiness." And there was a giant tent — which required either a Denver medical marijuana card or a vendor's pass to enter — filled with marijuana for medicating purposes. The only rule, once you were in? No selling and no giving away of the marijuana. The tent was only for sharing. Welcome to the Medical Cannabis Cup.
PhD student Alex Davies has set out to discover the happiest places in the world by analyzing Tweets. A noble project! But one that may need some tweaking, given that according to his data, the happiest U.S. state is Tennessee (tied with Arizona as the eighth most-unemployed state in the union) , and the happiest country is Germany (which, c'mon, it's Germany; if it were a happy country we wouldn't have had two different world wars).
Now that the Huffington Post has taken over editorial operations at AOL, freelance AOL movie writers will be transitioned to a new compensation model that replaces contractual pay with deep, deep appreciation and possibly compliments.
No one can be sure until the last minute, but the odds of a government shutdown in three days have never been higher after a day of collapsed talks. Congressional parties and the White House are hunkering down for cover to ensure they don't get blamed. But it's important to remember, as we watch this parlor game, that a government shutdown affects "real lives" quite directly.
The Atlantic has compiled a list of Sarah Palin's feuds that have broken out in the media, which it can't stop updating as more and more come to memory. Here's the long list thus far, which includes this lil' old website here.
American corporations have made untold millions by shipping all their call centers and tech support jobs out to India, where you can get nice, educated workers at a fraction of the cost. Or can you?
Martha's Vineyard resident Frank Hebert, who has been confined to a wheelchair for the past 10 years following a car accident, will be tried for beating the man who allegedly molested the girl he considers his granddaughter. Aren't there worse criminals out there we should be worried about prosecuting?
Funding for the federal government will only last three more days, and leaders of both parties say they have no interest in working out a stop-gap measure for another week or two. "Secret negotiations led by Joe Biden" — which in the late '70s, at least, was Capitol Police code for late night swingers' parties in the Congressional Gym — haven't proven to be very successful. Will these dumpheads ever agree on a compromise to their $30-$60 billion in harsh social services cuts that won't have any significant effect on budgets during a time with massive unemployment and suffering and death everywhere?
The Center for Public Integrity is reporting that an unnamed former ABC News journalist was an FBI informant during and after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, passing along tips and revealing a source. We know who it is.
Bravo debuts its latest reality program tonight, Pregnant in Heels, which follows the life and work of a "baby concierge" named Rosie Pope. I was completely prepared to hate this show, but I had no idea it would be this awful.
Employees at Google and AOL are among those going barefoot today to raise awareness of shoeless poor kids. If only there were some other way rich techies could help third world children, aside from disgustingly and dangerously removing their shoes!
Do you, the average Republican presidential primary voter, have any interest in knowing how Mike Huckabee spent his long career as Governor of Arkansas? He would be the frontrunner if he even bothers running, after all, and the public must know every terrible, terrible thing about him. For example: Was he picking weird fights with Natalie Portman back then, too? Perhaps you can think of some other questions. But they won't get answered, because Mike Huckabee cleaned and "physically destroyed" the hard drives of all his staff computers when he left office.
The trend of fashionable young Brooklynites either A) leaving Brooklyn to go work/ live on/ start a farm or B) participating in unlikely farming-related activities right here in the city (including, but not limited to: keeping of livestock, harvesting of chicken products, planting of gardens, or sociopathic devotion to neighborhood farmer's markets and their accoutrements) is so old, in trend years, that it's already been dissected from every possible angle by the New York Times, which is, itself, always several light years behind, in trend years. The trend has now moved to a post-trend media outlet unconcerned with being judged by those who define themselves by their participation in trends: the New York Post.
The ongoing Great American Economic Recovery is... well, let's say it's a "mixed bag," to keep everyone's spirits up. On the downside, prices are rising faster than wages, meaning that your meager stores of money are becoming more worthless by the day. And the cost of driving is rising rapidly, taking a bite out of your paltry paycheck before you even get to work.
