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Lolcats: Building a Media Empire Around ICanHasCheezburger.com

Ben Huh is the first to admit his company could easily have wound up on FAIL Blog. For the uninitiated, that’s his wildly popular website to which users submit photos and videos documenting such colossally stupid moves as writing a billboard partly in Braille and using a trash can as a bike helmet. Like the rest of the 20-odd websites Huh owns, FAIL Blog was added to his empire for no more specific reason, he says, than “Dude, I think it’s funny.” These spellbindingly inane blogs were built with the kind of user-generated content that has made Facebook and YouTube tremendously popular

‘Pioneer’ in online sports betting pleads guilty

The man who founded and ran the online sports gambling operation BetOnSports pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit more than $43 million in proceeds, prosecutors announced Friday. Now, I know that’s a strong opening statement, but consider this: The government decides where your kids go to school; what curriculum they’ll study; and even develops long-term educational plans just like the Communists devised five-year plans.

U.S. ‘Soviet-style’ education system not cutting it

Our educational system is essentially a Soviet-style government-run monopoly that could only be loved by the likes of Lenin and Stalin. Now, I know that’s a strong opening statement, but consider this: The government decides where your kids go to school; what curriculum they’ll study; and even develops long-term educational plans just like the Communists devised five-year plans. This kind of “one-size-fits-all” approach really punishes kids.

Figuring out the magic of Woodstock

What is it about Woodstock? The 1967 Monterey Pop Festival was arguably more influential and, like Woodstock, spawned a terrific film, D.A. Pennebaker’s “Monterey Pop.” The 1969 Isle of Wight Festival in England, two weeks after Woodstock, included the elusive Bob Dylan.

Exxon Mobil to pay $600,000 for deaths of 85 protected birds

Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp.

China: Filtering software will not be required

Individual computer users in China may choose whether to install a controversial content filtering system, but the system will be installed on computers in any public place, China’s minister of Industry and Information Technology said Thursday.

Troops move to secure southern Afghanistan before vote

Hundreds of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers have moved into southern Afghanistan to protect citizens during upcoming elections, military officials said. Afghans will go to the polls on August 20 to vote in second presidential election since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001

A Cool Way to Make Architecture Pay: Ice Cream!

Making a living as an architect has never been an easy proposition. Very expensive schooling is generally followed by years of laboring under another architect for slave wages — all in the hopes that, one day, a devastatingly rich patron will fund the building of their dreams.

Twitter blackout left users feeling ‘jittery,’ ‘naked’

Christina Cimino was logging onto Twitter on Thursday morning when something happened that she found deeply unsettling. “I got some weird error message, and I’m like, ‘What’s going on!” the 24-year-old said.

Two-Minute Bio: Erik Prince

Though the reclusive Erik Prince stepped down as CEO of the private security company Blackwater in March, some explosive new headlines have put him back in the spotlight. According to a report in The Nation, an ex-Blackwater employee has alleged in federal testimony that Prince may have been involved in the murder of unnamed individuals assisting a federal investigation into Blackwater’s actions in Iraq and Afghanistan