Yesterday, the CFO of Verizon Wireless kicked the hornet’s nest that is the Internet by unofficially announcing that VZW would be killing off currently grandfathered unlimited data plans as customers made the shift from 3G to 4G LTE. Judging by the company’s response since then, he probably wasn’t supposed to let that particular cat out of the bag just yet. In a statement that the L.A. Times labels "backpedaling," but which we would call "slapping a band-aid on a gut wound," Verizon Wireless posted this last night: As we have stated publicly, Verizon Wireless has been evaluating its data pricing…

Two more lesbian couples were denied marriage licenses in North Carolina on Tuesday. The requests came as part of the week-long “We Do” campaign, organized by the Campaign for Southern Equality. The first couple to request a marriage license, Alice Phelan and Sally Young, have been together for 29 years. The other women, Laurel and [...]

According to a poll by the Marijuana Policy Project, nearly three quarters of respondents believe that the federal government should defer to a state’s decision to legalize marijuana for certain uses, even when federal law calls for stricter enforcement: QUESTION: Currently, 16 states plus the District of Columbia have made the medical use of marijuana [...]

Following the recent news that Comcast would not count any of its own Xfinity streaming video services against Internet customers’ 250GB data cap, the folks at Kabletown have announced they is doing away with that cap — and replacing it with tiered data plans. The good news is that the tiers will actually begin above the 250GB level, with everyone bumped up to a 300GB cap. The bad news is that those who go over that limit won’t be throttled — as Comcast currently does to cap-busters — but will instead be hit with fees for additional blocks of GB….

Still Film of an Oak, by Noel Myles Photographer Noel Myles does collages like nobody else – I’m particularly fond of this one of an oak tree, composed of shots taken at different seasons. Check out the rest of Noel’s portfolio here: Link  

Twitter is joining the ranks of other websites that allow users to control who is checking out their online doings, announcing today that it is all set to support Do Not Track. For those not in the know, Do Not Track is a feature in Firefox that allows Internet surfers to tell participating websites that they don’t want their activity tracked. "As the Federal Trade Commission’s CTO, Ed Felten, mentioned this morning, Twitter now supports Do Not Track," Twitter’s Carolyn Penner wrote in an email to the Los Angeles Times. "We applaud the FTC’s leadership on Do Not Track, and…

This Is A Job For Superman Reusable Folding Drinkware Bottle – $7.95 (Sold Individually. Front and Back Shown) It’s a pouch! It’s a bag! No! It’s the This Is A Job For Superman Reusable Folding Drinkware Bottle from the NeatoShop. Save yourself from thirst with this environmentally-friendly drink holder. The bottle stands upright when filled [...]

The idea of the bad consumer — the person whose antics make products and services more expensive or cause stores to enact anti-consumer policies — is nothing new to Consumerist readers. But a college student in Washington recently undertook an effort to identify seven categories of what he calls "Customer Service Saboteurs." Washington State University student Joel Anaya presented his findings on Customer Service Sabotage — "The act or behavior must have a negative effect on others customers while at service establishments" — at the Hospitality Business Management school’s Academic Showcase. "Customers don’t just go to a restaurant to enjoy…

A senior envoy for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been dispatched to Israel in an attempt to normalize ties between the two countries. Israel’s Channel 10 News, as reported by The Times of Israel, broke news that the envoy has been meeting with high-ranking officials including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Relations between [...]

The Senate Banking Committee plans to call JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to testify following the bank’s $3 billion trading loss. “Over the past week, my staff and Ranking Member [Richard] Shelby’s staff have jointly held briefings with regulators regarding the JPMorgan Chase trading loss, as well a briefing with the company itself. Our [...]

Or maybe it’s actually a “beby skhwer” cake. Anyway, Cake Wrecks has several baby cakes to cry over, including the one you expect that says “babby.” Link

Mitt Romney’s campaign is apparently worried about being associated with a Republican proposal, first reported by the New York Times today, to run $10 million worth of racially-tinged ads attacking President Obama for his connection to Reverend Jerimiah Wright. Depsite criticizing Obama for “listening to reverend Wright” in an interview on Sean Hannity’s radio show [...]

A Fox News poll released yesterday finds that voters would rather have President Obama pick the next Supreme Court justice than Republican candidate Mitt Romney by a 46 to 38 percent margin. Last November, Romney promised that, if elected, he would model his Supreme Court nominees after Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas and [...]

Today marks the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), a worldwide day of activism against anti-LGBT prejudice. Last year, activists in over 80 nations got involved, according to the Arcus Foundation. This year, prayer vigils and parties are planned all over the world, with Burma marking a milestone by holding its first ever gay [...]

Currently leading the popular right-wing website with close ties to the Romney campaign:

Last night’s Revenge brought us yet more twists and turns in ABC’s monumentally and fantastically soapy drama—don’t worry, I won’t tell you what happened—leading me to wonder when they’re going to be ready to throw in the towel on this one. Jack may not be ready to move on, but some of us are starting [...]

Meet Shanti, a 36-year-old Asian elephant at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. She turned out to be quite the musical pachyderm: she loves to play the harmonica! Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via The Kid Should See This 

We’ve written some incredibly sad stories about homeowners trapped in the mortgage meltdown maze, and this one certainly ranks up there among the most depressing. Not just because a man is dead, but because it could have all been prevented more than three years ago. Back in 2000, the man and his wife purchased a home together in Southern California. They made a 30% down payment and spent the next several years making their payments to the bank on-time and in-person. They also spent several years dodging suggestions from Wachovia to refinance their mortgage. But five years ago, a Wachovia…

Our guest blogger is Ben Harris, intern for LGBT Progress. Yesterday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed legislation that extends health insurance and other benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees.  Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the bill, called the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligation Act, which [...]

Tip to fast food workers: If you lose part of your finger while on the job, let your coworkers know so they don’t just pick up making that sandwich where you left off. A 14-year-old boy in Michigan ended up with the "fingerprint portion" of an employee’s finger in his sandwich recently after a trip to the drive-through. MLive.com in Grand Rapids says the boy was eating the sandwich with his mother, when he pulled out a pad of finger from his mouth, say police. Let’s pause for a huge, "eww!" Arby’s has already responded to soothe customers who might…

Image: John Darrell Van Horn/UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging In 1848, railroad foreman Phineas Gage entered the annals of neuroscience with one unfortunate accident – an explosion shot an iron rod straight up his head. Amazingly, he didn’t die – but the damage to his brain changed his personality so much that his friends said [...]

Many people use the antibiotic Zithromax, or azithromycin, to treat bronchitis and other common infections. Some surprising results of a 14-year study might turn some off the antibiotic, as it found the risk of sudden deadly heart problems increased with use of Zithromax. It’s a more expensive antibiotic than others, notes the Associated Press (via KATU.com), but many people like it because it works in fewer days. Researchers at Vanderbilt University are now suggesting that due to the results of the study, doctors should prescribe other options for anyone already prone to heart problems. The researchers analyzed health records and…

Tomorrow, a very small group of people — many of them already incredibly wealthy — will be super incredibly wealthy when shares of Facebook start trading on Nasdaq. But while only a few folks will reap a direct, immediate benefit from the IPO, the decision to take Facebook public with such huge dollar amounts attached to the deal will definitely have a long-term impact on consumers. From its infancy, venture capitalists have been pumping their cash into Facebook, and they will be paid back tomorrow when the company makes shares open to the public. Unfortunately, this now means that Facebook…

These eight students at an unnamed high school in San Jose, California, arranged their yearbook quotes in a manner that answers the question for posterity. Enlarge the picture at Imgur if you can’t read it. Link -via Buzzfeed

Through the evolution of e-mail, the Internet and social media, most of the rules for identifying spam remained the same. The text of a scam e-mail sent on old school AOL isn’t that different from the spam links posted today on Twitter or Facebook. But photo-based social sites like Pinterest are giving nogoodniks a less-familiar way to trick people into clicking. It’s incredibly easy to create a Pinterest page, then load it up with images people on which people will want to click. And it’s just as easy to have those legitimate-looking photos link back to less-than-legitimate content. But what…

I don’t have an Xbox nor do I play those shoot ‘em up games, but if I
did, I’d imagine that headshots would be a bit more gratifying with this:
an Xbox controller whose buttons have been modded with real 9mm bullet
…

The U.S. Postal Service has announced its next step in the belt-tightening process of trying to cut down on its costs. It will close or consolidate operations at 140 mail processing sites through February 2013, said a postal official. Reuters cites USPS Chief Operating Officer Megan Brennan who said that the closing or consolidation of those 140 sites is one part of a two-phase process. The second involves another wave of shutting down or combining operations at 89 additional facilities beginning in February 2014. Facing a loss of $14 billion this year, the USPS had previously announced some drastic measures,…

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Disco diva and five-time Grammy winner Donna Summer died this morning after a long battle with cancer, which she tried to keep out of the press. Summer was 63 years old. Link -via Boing Boing