agent_x - 11:08 pm on Sep 12, 2011 (gmt 0)

You're coming at it from the wrong angle there. I think what dataguy is saying, and what I've been thinking for a while, is that Google measures the effect certain metrics have on user behaviour, not the metrics themselves. So you won't get penalised for a slow page speed in itself, but you will if it increases your bounce rate. Because it doesn't affect Huffington Post's bounce rate, because they are Huffington Post and surfers are prepared to wait for the pages to load, it doesn't affect their ranking. But if it were some unknown blog with a slow page speed, surfers are much less likely to wait around, and that is what Google measures.