Around the Web 2.23.09: Gawker folds Defamer, poor sports attack Xbox Live, sob stories fill Craigslist

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-- The unintentional poetry of a recession: Craigslist ads tell sad stories of jobs lost and belts tightened. Grandma’s wedding china for sale, cheap. LAT

Housekeeper Marina Ortiz sprays the liquid known as miracle water on a desk at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica. Credit: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times.

-- Microsoft to laid-off workers: Oops, we overpaid your severance and need that money back. TechCrunch

-- Lose at Street Fighter IV? Cripple your opponent’s Xbox Live connection! Ars Technica

-- Across the world, a handy concoction of salt and tap water whose ions have been scrambled by an electrical current has become known as the miracle liquid. LAT

-- A national campaign is in the works to teach kids the three Cs of Internet safety: cyberethics, cybersafety and cybersecurity. USA Today

-- The Yahoo media group in Santa Monica may get its management reorg even sooner than the rest of the company. BoomTown

-- Seven ways to improve your laptop’s battery life. TechRadar

-- What is all this texting doing to teenagers’ attention spans, social lives, writing abilities and family connections? Textually

-- Nick Denton picked Oscars day to announce he was folding Defamer, the L.A.-based gossip site, into Gawker. Deadline Hollywood Daily

-- For Web surfers, the Google habit is tough to break. Antitrust regulators are paying attention. NYT

-- Netscape founder Marc Andreessen and longtime business partner Ben Horowitz launched a venture fund. PaidContent.org

-- Chris Gaither