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Quoted: We commit to you that all reporting on GlobalPost will be held to the highest journalistic standards and that we will always make every effort to offer reporting that is fair, intelligent, comprehensive and free of partisanship. We pledge to be courageous in the pursuit of the truth and to stand firm against forces that may want that truth hidden.
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We believe in an old school tradition that correspondents should live in the countries about which they write. We believe this is the only way to deliver you the kind of on-the-ground reporting that matters, reporting that can make a complex place clearer and that can untangle complex issues in a way you can understand how the events happening in a distant corner of the world affect your life every day at home.

Elfster sounds really useful if you need to set up a secret santa exchange.

Quoted: Secret Santa Gift Exchange Organizer and Planner. Organize your Secret Santa in less than 5 minutes.

Hmm ... not going to switch to Skype now.

Quoted: HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - Savvy Internet users in China began avoiding the version of Skype offered by its Chinese partner two years ago, but news it filtered and recorded text messages has sparked new worries about the global firm's commitment to privacy.
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"We may never know whether some of those people whose conversations were logged have gone to jail or have had their lives ruined in various ways as a result of this," said Rebecca MacKinnon, an Internet expert at Hong Kong University.

I still have a soft spot in my heart for smartphones and these are awesome!

Quoted: Expect more keeping-up-with-the-Joneses from HTC as it introduces new entrants Touch 3G and Touch Viva touchscreen smartphones.
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While the UI of both the phones continue to render finger-touch navigation using TouchFlo technology, the Touch 3G scores with broadband Internet access of up to 7.2Mbps. It also has a sharper 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS and microSD memory. Being readied for release in early October 2008, the 3G will be available in "sophisticated black, noble gold, sparkle blue and modern brown" and is expected to cater primarily to the European market.

for t - who likes to spend time looking crap like this up.

Quoted: Find out what countries your family name is most common in with Public Profiler's World Names search and map.

Good news for science. I wasn't aware that Bush stopped even listening to scientists but now a lot of things are making more sense.

Quoted: Want to know what presidential candidate Barack Obama will do to make the U.S. a great nation for science again? Among other changes, he promises to create a position of "chief technology officer" for the country, and to recreate a space advisory council that reports directly to the president.
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One of the best pieces of news I've heard about Obama is that he plans to recreate the post of science advisor to the president, a position that disappeared during the Bush Administration.

I love it. I use IMDB quite often to prove T wrong. ;)

Quoted: There are things that make modern life truly special: Tivo, Charles Barkley, SpongeBob SquarePants, etc.
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High on that list also has to be IMDb.com, the Internet Movie Database.

Very fascinating policy ... it makes sense to me.

Quoted: So when Zappos hires new employees, it provides a four-week training period that immerses them in the company’s strategy, culture, and obsession with customers. People get paid their full salary during this period.
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After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!
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Why? Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for. It’s hard to describe the level of energy in the Zappos culture—which means, by definition, it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later. (About ten percent of new call-center employees take the money and run.)