Twittering from the tractor: smartphones sprout on the farm

As he rolls across the wheat fields of his Nebraska farm, Steve Tucker often has his hands not on the wheel of his tractor, but on a smartphone. He sometimes posts a dozen messages per day on Twitter, commenting on everything from the weather to the state of his crops to his son’s first tractor ride and even last night’s cheeseburger.

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Al-Sadr demands full U.S. withdrawal from Iraq

The ongoing presence of U.S. troops in Iraq "shows that the (Iraqi) government and the occupation are not serious about the withdrawal," a key Shiite cleric in the country said Wednesday. Muqtada al-Sadr made the statement on his Web site a day after U.S.

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Metro driver called a hero who saved lives in crash

The head of Washington’s mass transit system praised as a "hero" the driver who was killed in Monday’s crash when her train struck another that was parked on the tracks. “She saved lives,” said Metro General Manager John Catoe at a memorial service Friday for Jeanice McMillan. McMillan was one of nine people killed when her train, under automatic computer control, apparently failed to register a signal and avoid a collision with a train that had stopped near a curve between two stations

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Who’s Fighting Who in Iran’s Struggle?

We’re told that a young and restless Facebook generation has arisen in Iran, text-messaging and Twittering away at the fabric of a conservative clerical rule that it is no longer willing to accept. Ranged against it are the dogged defenders of a decrepit regime that has outlived its purpose, surviving only through brute force and its ability to convince the unsophisticated, mostly rural poor folk in their ragged suits and black chadors that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is their champion against corrupt politicians and the treacherous intellectuals and amoral rich kids who support them. Obviously these are stereotypes — and highly misleading ones at that

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Survey: Gas prices up 17 cents in two weeks

The average price per gallon of self-serve regular gasoline is $2.66, up 16.68 cents from two weeks ago, the Lundberg Survey found. The price, an average of thousands of gas stations nationwide, is $1.34 lower than a year ago.

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