February 12, 2009

Another Obama cabinet member steps aside

Per the Washington Post, "New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg has withdrawn his name from consideration as President Obama's commerce secretary, a major blow to an administration seeking to put a series of Cabinet problems behind it."

@GLBcnn broke the news to the Twitter world, citing the AP.

@GLBcnn (Atlanta): (AP) -- Judd Gregg withdraws nomination for Commerce Secretary.



Over the next hour, 913 tweets streamed in containing the words "Judd Gregg," both twitterers sounding off and news organizations reporting the news.

There was a healthy mix of praise and backlash of Gregg's decision.

@Fahrington (New York City): Annoyed with with Judd Gregg and his party



@tjbrown (Chicago area): #tcot Judd Gregg resigns. We're working from different viewpoints... Amen, Judd. http://drudgereport.com/flashgg.htm


@moxiegirl23 (Manchester, N.H.): Judd Gregg is a bleep.




@bigkevmayfield (Bowie, Texas): calling on all Republicans to support Judd Gregg's re-election campaign in 2010. Took guts to do what he's done today.



@NewEnglandGuy: @nprpolitics Obviously Judd Gregg doesn't have the gonads or the courage to reach across the aisle and try being civil.


A George Washington alum and D.C. resident, per his bio, speculated that Gregg's decision may have come with the longterm in mind.

@dtearl (Washington, D.C.): Did Judd Gregg just become a 2012 contender for undermining the Obama White House?

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Dubai economy plummeting

Per the New York Times, the once booming city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is suffering a great deal in the global economic crisis. Foreign workers make up 90 percent of the city's population, but more and more of them are being laid off, according to the article.

@haydengohomes has been looking for a job since at least Feb. 3, when he posted these two tweets in his Twitter account:

@haydengohomes (Dubai): help me need a job




@haydengohomes (Dubai): How is the world economies going to support the rising numbers of unemployment globally? where will these people go?



On Feb. 10, he added this:

@haydengohomes (Dubai): Im broke unemployeed sitting a starbucks looking for a job.. how did it ever come to this?



Another man tweeted about rumored layoffs on his Twitter page on Feb. 9.

@brutusdxb (Dubai): Rumor: DP World removed 60 IT Jobs yesterday from its Information Technology Center (ITC)



Apparently, not all places are cutting back, with this being tweeted less than 24 hours ago:

@handankur (Dubai): Amitis Design planning to hire Senior Interior Designer - Job posted on the site



@sakshi006 posted an addicting fly-swatting game to get people's minds off the tough times.

@sakshi006 (Dubai): Lost your job? try this http://majman.net/fly_loader.html hehe

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Adebayor wins prestigious football award

Per NEXT in Nigeria, Nigerian native Emmanuel Adebayor won the top prize in the Confederation of Africa Football Awards as Player of the Year. "As we know, 2010 (World Cup) is coming to Africa and we have to help each other as a family, and as a unit we can do something," he said in his acceptance speech in Lagos, according to NEXT.

@ekobaba was the only Nigerian twitterer to note the news:

@ekobaba (Nigeria): adebayor's king of african football of the year



An Irishman living in Mexico, per his bio, was surprised to hear Adebayor had won the award.

@mexicanpaddy (Mexico): Adebayor African player of the year?????? Eboue must have come in second. I don't care what he does in Africa cos he's not doing in london



A man in London was equally surprised.

@Paddy76 (London): still struggling to get my head around the Adebayor news



Media outlets across Europe tweeted about the announcement.

@sport1_news (München, Germany): Premier League - Adebayor ist Fußballer des Jahres http://tinyurl.com/caflo2 (Premier League - Adebayor is Footballer of the Year http://tinyurl.com/caflo2)


@Lequipe_fr_Actu (Paris, France): Foot - Afrique Adebayor, joueur de l'année http://tinyurl.com/cj4f2x (Foot - African Adebayor, player of the year http://tinyurl.com/cj4f2x)


@RTEsoccer (Dublin, Ireland): Adebayor scoops African honour: Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor was crowned 2008 Africa Player of the Year at a g.. http://tinyurl.com/c79v2n


@telegraaf (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Adebayor beste van Afrika http://tinyurl.com/b7br9j (Adebayor best of Africa http://tinyurl.com/b7br9j)

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American, Russian satellites collide

Per the Houston Chronicle, NASA announced Wednesday that a 1,200-pound U.S. satellite and 2,000-pound Russian satellite collided on Tuesday about 500 miles above Siberia.

American twitterers began reacting to the incident Wednesday night.

@howdyjack (Pacific Northwest, U.S.): 1st in-orbit commercial satellite collision? The start of things to come?



@BobStemen (Texas): commercial satellite destroyed in collision with another satellite? we need space cops



Some were skeptical about the collision.

@BLKROCKET (San Francisco, Calif.): A collision or a planned accident? LOL



One man found some irony in the release of the news.

@ccheney (Austin, Texas): Weird that the #Satellite #Collision and #Sirius Satellite Radio's possible bankruptcy are trending at same time. http://is.gd/je5m


@elpinturrichio offered one of the first tweets on the incident outside of the United States.

@elpinturrichio (Vilnius, Lithuania): Whoa. A Russian and a US satellite collide in orbit. http://tinyurl.com/b46oy6 This was bound to happen some day really


As of this post, there's yet to be any Russian tweets referring to the collision.

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