Liberty Newspost Feb-16-2011 by Liberty Newspost

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Washington grow up? Don’t hold your breath Patricia Zengerle (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 2/15/2011 5:38:42 PM

President Barack Obama said he wants a mature discussion between politicians of all stripes as the White House and members of Congress try to make tough decisions on spending and taxes necessary to run the government and deal with a ballooning budget deficit. “My hope is that what’s different this time is, is we have an adult conversation where everybody says here’s what’s important and here’s how we’re going to pay for it,” Obama told a news conference Tuesday. Don’t hold your breath. Obama campaigned for the presidency in 2008 with a pledge to seek common ground between Democrats and Republicans, but his time in office has been marked by bitter fighting and few issues garnering bipartisan support. Obama’s healthcare overhaul— dismissed as ”Obamacare” by Republicans — passed with no

Republican votes. His economic stimulus plan had only minimal backing from the rival party. The Democratic president released his latest budget proposal Monday, but Congress never passed last year’s spending bills and some Republicans have vowed to shut down the government if Obama does not support their plans to cut spending. Political discourse during Obama’s presidency has also been marked by name-calling such as Obama’s references to “Wall Street fat cats” during his fight to pass financial regulatory reform, and precedent-breaking incidents such as a Republican congressman shouting, “You lie!” at Obama as he addressed a joint session of Congress. Democrats and Republicans worked together to pass several pieces of legislation in December during the “lame-duck” session of Congress that followed the Republicans’ sweeping victory in legislative elections in November. There also was a brief effort at

“civility” in Washington after Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman, was shot in the head and six others, including a federal judge, were killed in January. But the most notable outcome of that effort was Democrats and Republicans sitting together during Obama’s annual State of the Union address on Jan. 25. Obama acknowledged that the knives will be out, but insisted

that, given the seriousness of the country’s fiscal problems, the two parties will be willing to work together. “I expect that all sides will have to do a little bit of posturing on television and speak to their constituencies, and rally the troops and so forth,” he said. “But ultimately, what we need is a reasonable, responsible, and initially, probably, somewhat quiet and toned-down

conversation about … where can we compromise and get something done.” But name-calling and sloganeering from both sides are as common as ever. Before Obama met the press, a first-term Republican congressman, Steve Womack, had prepared an amendment to a spending bill that would have denied federal funds for Obama’s use of a teleprompter. Republicans mock Obama, considered a gifted orator, as being over-reliant on the teleprompter when he speaks. Photo credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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Washington Extra – Back pat Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington)

ran rampant about his health, and sources told Reuters he was “breathing,” unwell, and “fine.” Submitted at 2/15/2011 5:16:54 PM Here are our top stories from President Barack Obama wasn’t Washington today… shy about praising his handling of Obama warns spending cuts the revolution in Egypt. could hurt U.S. recovery “I think history will end up President Obama warned recording that at every juncture in Republicans against making the situation in Egypt that we “symbolic cuts” in spending that were on the right side of history,” could damage the fragile U.S. Obama said at a news conference. economic recovery. Republicans “What we didn’t do was pretend in Congress have lambasted the that we could dictate the outcome 2012 budget Obama announced in Egypt, because we can’t,” he on Monday and have presented said. So if the United States didn’t him with an immediate challenge. dictate the outcome, what did it They plan to pass legislation in do? the House of Representatives by According to Obama it was about week’s end to cut this year’s b e i n g “ v e r y m i n d f u l ” t h a t spending by at least 14 percent to Egyptians should drive any show how serious they are about changes, but also sending a reducing the deficit. “I think it is message that the United States important to make sure that we b e l i e v e d i n a n “ o r d e r l y don’t try to make a series of transition.” symbolic cuts this year that could “I started talking about reform endanger the recovery,” Obama two weeks or two-and-a-half said. weeks before Mr. Mubarak For more of this story by Jeff ultimately stepped down. And at Mason and Richard Cowan, read e a c h j u n c t u r e I t h i n k w e here. calibrated it just about right,” Obama slams Iran government, Obama said. praises Egypt army And again: the peaceful transition President Obama condemned the and relative absence of anti- Iranian government’s crackdown American sentiment showed “that on opposition protesters, drawing in a complicated situation, we got a sharp contrast with the Egypt it about right,” he said. ian military’s more restrained The Egyptian military promises response to Egypt’s popular to hand power to an elected uprising. “I find it ironic that government in six months — an you’ve got the Iran ian regime eternity when you consider it took pretending to celebrate what 18 days of protests to oust a happened in Egypt, when in fact president of 30 years. they have acted in direct contrast And how is Mubarak? Rumors to what happened in Egypt by

For more of this story by Andrew Quinn, read here. New US envoy wades into Afghanistan, Pakistan tangle The Obama administration’s new Afghanistan and Pakistan envoy will face a daunting task in a region where the United States is battling a bloody insurgency in one country and struggling to hold together a battered alliance in another. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to announce later this week her choice of retired diplomat Marc Grossman as replacement for Richard Holbrooke, who died. For more of this analysis by Missy Ryan, read here. gunning down and beating people China faces Internet ‘dictator’s Carmakers push back on U.S. efficiency aims who were trying to express dilemma’-Clinton themselves peacefully,” Obama China, Syria and others face a Car companies are resurgent said at a White House news “dictator’s dilemma” over Internet financially and attracting support conference. control and risk being left behind from powerful Republicans in For more of this story by Matt as the rest of the world embraces Congress, placing them on firmer Spetalnick and Patricia Zengerle, new technologies, Secretary of ground to challenge moves toward read here. State Hillary Clinton said. In her even stricter fuel-efficiency Geithner- reform Social Security second major speech on Internet s t a n d a r d s . T w o y e a r s a g o , but keep benefits policy, she said the recent Internet struggling automakers, some Treasury Secretary Timothy -fueled toppling of rulers in Egypt receiving billions of dollars in Geithner said the United States and Tunisia and protests in Iran, taxpayer aid, agreed with the needs to shore up its massive showed governments could not Obama administration to raise pension program without slashing long pick and choose which average fuel efficiency 40 percent Social Security benefits or freedoms to grant their citizens. to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, subjecting them to the “whims” of “We believe that governments the largest jump ever. But they are the stock market. He warned who have erected barriers to d r a w i n g t h e l i n e a t m o r e Republicans against cutting Internet freedom — whether aggressive mandates, making it spending too quickly, calling for t h e y ’ r e t e c h n i c a l f i l t e r s o r their top lobbying priority in gradual deficit reduction to avoid censorship regimes or attacks on Washington as they emerge from e n d a n g e r i n g t h e e c o n o m i c those who exercise their rights to a four-year slump that devastated recovery. expression and assembly online U.S. production. For more of this story by — will eventually find themselves For more of this analysis by John Rachelle Younglai and David boxed in,” Clinton said in a WASHINGTON page 3 Lawder, read here. speech.

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WASHINGTON continued from page 2

Crawley, read here. CFTC says swaps rules binge won’t cause hangover A top financial regulator rejected fears that new derivatives rules will hurt businesses trying to hedge their costs, saying the price of a six-pack of beer won’t skyrocket because of the reforms. “We’re aware and focused on the cost of a six pack because we also oversee agricultural markets,” CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, a marathon runner who does not drink alcohol, told the House Financial Services Committee. “I would say our intention is not to have margin requirements applied to an end user such as MillerCoors”. For more of this story by Christopher Doering and Sarah N. Lynch, read here. FTC staff opposes Grifols buy of Talecris U.S. antitrust regulators may challenge Spanish healthcare firm Grifols’ planned buy of Talecris Biotheraputics on fears that the merger would reduce supplies and raise prices for plasma-derived medicines to treat a range of autoimmune disorders. The staff of the U.S. FTC is recommending that the agency challenge the $4 billion deal, said a source knowledgeable about the review. “The staff view is that it’s a compelling merger that needs to be challenged. Obviously the commissioners need to weigh in,” said the source.

For more of this exclusive story by Diane Bartz, read here. Lawmakers target big bank dividend increases Seven Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern that big banks, some of which are still benefiting from government financial support, plan to boost their dividends and reduce capital. “It seems hard to justify reducing the capital of banks without considering the continued government support that banks with outstanding guarantees enjoy,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. For more of this story by Kevin Drawbaugh and Joe Rauch, read here. Retail sales slow, still point to growth pickup Growth in sales at retailers slowed in January, partly due to harsh winter weather, but the trend remained supportive of an acceleration in growth. Total retail sales rose 0.3 percent for a seventh straight month of advances, the Commerce Department said, but were below the 0.5 percent increase posted in December. “Consumers seem to have got 2011 off to a slow start but we can chalk up a lot of that to the weather. The bulk of those lost sales will now be made up in February,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics. For more of this story by Lucia

Mutikani, read here. Food prices at dangerous levels, Zoellick warns World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said global food prices have reached “dangerous levels,” and warned that their impact could complicate fragile political and social conditions in the Middle East and Central Asia. World Bank data released on Tuesday showed higher food prices — mainly for wheat, maize, sugars and edible oils – have pushed 44 million more people in developing countries into extreme poverty since June 2010. For more of this story by Lesley Wroughton, read here. What we are blogging… Why are these politicians smiling? Social Security reform is coming. You can tell by the smiling nice guy personas being adopted around Washington in uncommon bipartisan fashion. There’s Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, the senior Republican on the Budget Committee. “If we’re smart, we can adjust those programs in ways that minimize the impact,” he reassures the viewers of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” After all, Sessions says there’s no reason seniors should have to worry about losing their Social Security (who says they would?) or see it “savaged in any significant way.” For David Morgan’s full post,

click here. From elsewhere… German zoo prepares cross-eyed cat for celebrity Hot on the heels of cross-eyed opossum Heidi’s smash success at the Leipzig Zoo, a nearby animal park in eastern Germany has been preparing its own cross-eyed creature for possible celebrity. Fourteen-year-old wild cat Frank’s handlers believe he was born cross-eyed, unlike Heidi, whose crossed eyes stem from a poor diet. The opossum became a star in Germany when her photo appeared in the mass-circulation newspaper Bild in December, generating a Facebook following topping 300,000 fans. She has also been recruited by Hollywood to predict winners of the Academy Awards on U.S. television. For more of this story, read here. Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Obama at news conference) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Gunmen kill US agent, wound another, in Mexico (AP) (Yahoo! News: Most Popular) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:27:38 AM

AP - The killing of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and wounding of another in Mexico highlights the risk for American officials helping with Mexico's crackdown on organized crime under increasing cooperation between the two countries.

Pujols deadline passes with no deal (AP) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:39:48 AM

AP - The deadline for Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals to reach a new contract agreement passed Wednesday with no new deal, making it likely the threetime MVP will test the free-agent market after the season.

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Why are these politicians smiling? David Morgan (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 2/15/2011 12:32:06 PM

Social Security reform is coming. You can tell by the smiling nice guy personas being adopted around Washington in uncommon bipartisan fashion. There’s Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. “If we’re smart, we can adjust those programs in ways that minimize the impact,” he reassures the viewers of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” After all, Sessions says there’s no reason seniors should have to worry about losing their Social Security (who says they would?) or see it “savaged in any significant way.” Never mind the bizarre implication that it might somehow be savaged in an insignificant way. These are not fighting words like the ones that adorned political speech before the Giffords shooting in Arizona. That’s because politicians who talk tough about Social Security can wind up sleeping with the fishes, electorally speaking,

when he talks about Social Security. He wants to reform it now in a gradual “reasonable fashion”. But Paul is also not afraid to let the cat out of the bag: “The age of eligibility will have to rise. If you raise the age of eligibility gradually, and we’re talking about those 55 and under, you fix the problem with Social Security, the majority of it,” he says in a separate MSNBC appearance. and because political sharpies are So there you have it. Republicans getting the idea that the public is and the White House agree. Social just about scared enough by the Security reform is coming. But deficit to accept some change to there there, Gran. Not to worry. the financially ailing government Meanwhile, on federal workers… pension program. Reuters Photo Credits: Jonathan People inside the big white Ernst (Jeff Sessions); White mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue House Pool (Barack Obama); a l s o w a n t t o a v o i d v i o l e n t Jonathan Ernst (Rand Paul) metaphors like any permutation of Click here for more political the verb to slash. coverage from Reuters President Barack Obama himself This entry passed through the used the preferred buzz words at Full-Text RSS service — if this is his press conference, saying he your content and you're reading it wants to “strengthen” Social on someone else's site, please read Security for “future generations”. our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ “I think we can do that without content-only/faq.php slashing benefits or putting Five Filters featured article: current retirees at risk,” he said. Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In Even Rand Paul, Kentucky’s Tea The Crosshairs. Party firebrand in the U.S. Senate, seems to coo into the camera

Computer crushes the competition on `Jeopardy!' (AP) (Yahoo! News: Most Popular) Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:07:09 PM

AP - The computer brained its

human competition in Game 1 of the Man vs. Machine competition on "Jeopardy!"

Borders files for Norwegian bankruptcy, to close shipper: kill pirates 200 stores (Reuters) 'on the spot' (AP) (Yahoo! News: Most Popular)

(Yahoo! News: Most Viewed)

Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:47:16 AM

Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:37:31 AM

Reuters - Borders Group Inc filed for bankruptcy protection and said it would close about onethird of its bookstores, after years of shriveling sales that made it impossible to manage its crushing debt load.

AP - A Norwegian shipping magnate was strongly criticized Wednesday for suggesting that pirates captured off the Horn of Africa should be sunk with their skiffs or executed on the spot.

Hezbollah leader warns of border conflict (AP) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:49:26 AM

AP - Hezbollah's leader told his Shiite guerrilla group Wednesday to be prepared to invade northern Israel, a day after Israel's defense minister warned that the quiet along the tense border could erupt into violence.

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Your gift to provide seeds, tools, and training will be multiplied 4 mean the difference between life times by grant funds, and can and death for hungry children.

Android Gingerbread and Honeycomb to merge in next OS Submitted at 2/16/2011 8:50:05 AM

At Mobile World Congress 2011, Google CEO Eric Schmidt explained how the fragmented Android operating systems will soon collide, to form one universal OS. Lately, Android has been splintered, forking off into the phone-centric Gingerbread and the tablet-focused Honeycomb. But by the next major update, they'll be combined into a single binary that operates on both types of device. Continue reading...

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Iranian Govt. Calls for Friday Rally to Show 'Hatred' for Opposition - Voice of America (Top Stories - Google News)

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters. VOA News February 16, 2011 NEW: Follow our Middle East Photo: AP reports on Twitter A pro-government Iranian holds and discuss them on our a poster of supreme leader Facebook page. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during Iranians have the right to form the funeral ceremony of Sane peaceful demonstrations but it Jaleh, a student who was killed should be without any foreign during Monday's clashes, in interference or sedition . If Tehran, Iran, February 16, 2011 Iranians have enough Iran's clerical establishment has determinations , they can pursue called for a major rally in Tehran their demands without advices of on Friday, to express what it calls foreign countries . The problem is its "hatred" of reformists who that the US and its alliance give organized a day of major antius impression that they are ready government protests earlier this to instigate unrest in Iran not for week. Iranian freedom but to fulfill their In a statement Wednesday, Iran's aims and gain their whims . Islamic Propagation Coordination Earlier announcement of the US Council urged Tehran residents to officials imply that they are ready join the rally after Friday prayers to support Iranian protesters in to show anger at what it calls the order to topple the Iranian regime "crimes" of "seditionist" leaders regardless of freedom , and their rebel allies. democracy or even humanity . Do Iranian conservative lawmakers with Karroubi saying he is willing Mr. Ahmadinejad ridiculed the memorial ceremony for Zhaleh at not tell me that Iranian regime is have accused reformist leaders to "pay any price" for his country, protest organizers Tuesday, Tehran University erupted into tougher than Egyptian regime Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi w h i l e M o u s a v i c a l l e d t h e saying they will not achieve their fighting between opposition which has been sustained strongly K a r r o u b i o f s e d i t i o n f o r d e m o n s t r a t i o n s a " g r e a t goals. activists and government loyalists. by the US and Israel because it is organizing anti-governments achievement." They had called the Iranian authorities say two people It says the government loyalists unacceptable plea . protests that drew thousands of protests to show solidarity with were killed in Tehran Monday as forced the opposition activists to Who is trying to play on attitude people to the streets of Tehran and recent uprisings in Egypt and police dispersed the protesters. leave Wednesday's ceremony by of military and exploit media to other cities Monday. Sedition is a Tunisia against authoritarian One of the dead was a Tehran chanting slogans calling for the impose his ambitions , that won t crime punishable by death in Iran. rulers. wash unless Iranians believe U n i v e r s i t y s t u d e n t w h o m death of seditionists. Iran's chief prosecutor Gholam Monday's demonstrations were a u t h o r i t i e s i d e n t i f i e d a s a Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah about their aims and rights . Let H o s s e i n M o h s e n i E j e i s a i d the biggest in Iran since 2009, g o v e r n m e n t - a l l i e d B a s i j Ali Khamenei has praised the people determine their destiny by Wednesday he supports calls for when Mousavi and Karroubi led m i l i t i a m a n . B u t o p p o s i t i o n revolts in Egypt and Tunisia as an themselves . Moreover , Iranian the two reformists to be punished. much bigger rallies against the activists say the student, Sanee Islamic awakening, akin to the government has bad relation with The opposition leaders issued disputed re-election of President Zhaleh, came from their ranks. 1979 revolution that ousted Iran's IRANIAN page 6 defiant statements Wednesday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that year. Iranian state television says a U.S.-backed shah. Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:44:34 AM

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the US and Israel which give it kind of support from Iranians . In contrary . Mubarak regime has good relation with Israel at expenses of Egyptians rights . For instance , Egyptians gas has been sold cheaply to Israel under the benefits between governments which rage wide layer of Egyptians who have been suffering from tough lives and severe regime . Indonesia revolution case is different form Egypt case because it has not neighbor as Israel otherwise the formula would be changed radically . If peoples cannot even unite in the death of a fellow soul, what hope is there for you in life? Allah has taught you better than this. The violence and anger is a shame. Your future lies in standing together. Your enemy is the government that seeks not to unite but divide the people. They want you weak; truly wicked deeds -- .for the sake of their own power. They have lost faith in Allah and Allahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s will. Stand strong iran. Obama-if you want to help Iranian people **act**. Talking is not sufficient. Take care that the multimedia is open for Iranians. Demand the global companies that provide Iran communication infrastructure to stop helping the Islamist Theocrats to block the Internet- the Cellular-and the phone services to block the services. Without their technical know haw support the services cannot be blocked. Impose sanctions on companies helping

the Islamist Theocrats The Iranian gov't will blame any and all internal conflicts on the US. They support free protest and use lethal force on their own peaceful protesters. The world won't let this slide by so easily this time. Iran has been caught with it's pants down. One morning I will wake up and find that Iran no longer exists. That will be one happy day. If they believe that the West wants any part of that sweaty hole they are sadly mistaken. We will give them all the Allah they want. In person. Always blaming the US for all your problems..so typical As a human being who cares about others, I pray to the same god and care for the oppressed. If ever a government has lost faith it is that of Iran. Twisting words to justify the killing of it's own people is evil. It is the deceit of words that has Iranians not trusting other countries. I do not think Persians living in Israel or the US are treated badly by those governments. That cannot be said of their own. i agree with the report that the USA is taking advantage of the protest turmoil in the Middle East. So, what is the Iranian Parliament doing to advance social life and common personal liberties in Iran? The problem with society in the entire Islamic world is an inability to stand up not for themselves, but for others. The West, even during times of great injustice such as slavery, produces truly altruistic

individuals who stand up for the rights of others. There were the many white abolitionists and civil rights activists who risked their lives, as well as the many black, white, Christian, and Jewish people who continue to stand up for eachother and even for the Muslims in the US and Europe. To the Iranian regime, any talk of democracy coming from outside their borders is interference. The Iranian people don't need anyone's help. They'll do what the Egyptians did. The common theme in all of these protests is the desire for democracy, and it's a beautiful thing. Where are the Muslims standing up to defend the rights of Christians or Jews in Islamic countries? Until they produce such people in their societies, they will never produce a stable democracy. the revolutionary guards will shoot and kill freedom loving iranians,then the government will blame western intervention for what happened. khamenei praised the egyrtians for bringing down mubarak,but back in his mind it says don't do that in my backyard. what a hypocrite. My prayers are with the Iranian protesters. It is up to them. Sadly, the Iranian government will resort to violence to suppress the people. They will use any ruse to justify their deplorable/violent actions. Stand together as guardians of freewill; the origin of our freedoms; may our freedoms find safe harbor in democracy; let democracy shelter in the house of

the republic. All others can bow down or start running. May Allah guide and protect the peaceful peoples of Iran. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your future awaken and take it. In my view this is a trap set by America for Iran to say that they approved of the uprising in Egypt, only to contradict themselves when the disorderly fire caught at their own door. Sedition is deeper than he thinks. It's a blow from within to the hesitated Iranian govt. officials! The conspiracy or any sort of anti govt. activities from abroad,can be handled skillfully but it's very hard tackling own people's protests. Ousting of the present govt. is likely and future prosecution of officials might not be ignored in case of failing showing satisfactory cause. Does it mean forthcoming fate to the guilties? Mr. Obama needs to do more than just talk. He needs to show actions. Molahs are bunch of murdurers who have no mercy not even to their own people. US needs to help from inside Iran to help the young Iranian Freedom Lovers. Talk to the dictators will do no good. They will kill as many as it takes to survive. In my view this is a trap set by America for Iran to say that they approved of the uprising in Egypt, only to contradict themselves when the disorderly fire caught at their own door. Sedition is deeper than he thinks. The difference between religions has its own huge problems.Should we pour more gas into flame by

keep talking about religions side by side with people revolts? How convenient for the Iranian Government to literally "Kill" the opposition until there isn't any left . What hatred and contempt the Iranian government has for the people of it's nation ! The cry for reform reverberates throughout the Middle-East . The high cost of freedom is always paid with blood and the people don't mind paying it for the sake of it's future generation . NO to tyranny!! Do not believe that the hypocrits in Washington D.C. speak for all of the American people. Most Americans would be happy if this country stayed out of the afairs of other nations and paid more attention to the problems closer to home. "shine and achieve its peak." I wonder how Ahmadinejad expects Iran to shine when it is led by darkness. Powerful central governments seem to always corrupt and treat their citizens very badly. Democracy by itself is not the answer. Look at the US. We are losing our freedoms left and right. We are not much better off then Egypt or Iran. Sometimes I think our government is directly controlled by Israel. Maybe it's time for americans to get out their signs and start protesting corrupt governemnts and supporting the freedom lovers in Iran. Only the government of Iran could sponsor a "Hatred" rally. What a ludicrous regime. IRANIAN page 7

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IRANIAN continued from page 6

Every generation has hypocrites. Allah says that circumstances will arise and the hypocrties will show themselves. It is a test of your faith to oppose them. Egypt has exposed the leaders of Iran as the hypocrites of our time. Freedom of expression is one of man's inalienable rights. No religion(Islam,Christianity or others) can tell a man what he believes. Freedom of religion is one of man's inalienable rights. The theocracy ruling Iran is different from the Shah's rule only by its rhetoric, not by its methods, which are cruel, insensitive and ignorant. . Ali and Ahmindinejad are nothing more than Nazi's in Islamic clothing who have usurped religion for their own ends. Freedom of expression is one of man's inalienable rights. No religion(Islam,Christianity or others) can tell a man what he believes. Freedom of religion is one of man's inalienable rights. The theocracy ruling Iran is different from the Shah's rule only by its rhetoric, not by its methods, which are cruel, insensitive and ignorant. . Ali and Ahmindinejad are nothing more than Nazi's in Islamic clothing who have usurped religion for their own ends. Iran's gov't sounds like FoxNews. Those in power will always call protests against their rule "sedition"... it's a tired, old tactic. It doesn't convince the people in the country or outside it that this is true. What happened in Egypt was unique in that Christians and

Moslems of all classes were united in their goal to get rid of Mubarak. However, in Iran, the government can still use religion to divide the people and blind them to its totalitarian ways. Sheiks, Ayatollas, Kings, Presidents, etc. will ALWAYS lose the battle of suppressing human freedoms in the long run. Thank God for the power of the Internet and mass communication. Sorry, world dictators, your time is at hand. North Korea can try to keep their population in the dark as long as they can. Eventually that country will revolt as well. Here's to a free Iran! How about, for once, staying out of other countries business. This is a desparate move by a scared regime. They know very well that if free elections were to take place in Iran every one of them would be out the door. Send these Iranian dictators a nice "uranium enriched" going away present. Hope the people are better than their current leaders. This is my message to all those who compare the Mubara regime to the iranian Govt: Mubarak could not even mobilise a few thousand people to demonstrate for him, in spite of all the help he gets from his masters amerika and Israel.That's because he has no popular base. The iranian Govt is able at any time to mobilise hundreds of thousands in Teheran only. How can you instigate a "revolution" against such a Govt. The same applies to Chavez's Venezuela. Stop your lies! >>Tizab (UK /Iran)>> You are so

typical of the Iranian regime. Always blame the US for Iranian tyranny! I can't believe the insensitivity of some USA citizens to be callous enough not to care about other human beings ! This is neither about Obama, religion or nationality . It is about human rights! (or the lack thereof ) .To NOT support other human beings in the search for what we already have in this country is appalling . We are all children of the same creator . Whether anyone believes it or not is neither here nor there. LOVE ...not Hate ! Iran's government is fanatically anti-US, so nosense blaming us except for the inaction and submissiveness of our president. Unlike his reaction to the Egyptian situation, he's been out of the room when called upon to support the Iranian protestors. The media is just as complicit. Their message seems to be, "We'll tolerate Islamic fascists as long as they hate the same things we do, including Israel and anything Christian." If you are not prepared for violence then you shouldn't bother starting a revolution. Go open a history book and tell me about all the successful revolutions that did not involve the KILLING of those responsible for the conditions. The people of Iran will have to overrun their government building and literally KILL their oppressors. Otherwise they might as well stay in their apartments smoking their hookas or whatever.

The reason Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has praised the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia as an Islamic awakening is because he is terrified that the youth in his own country will rise up. By spinning the Egyption and Tunisian revolts as Islamic revolts he feels he can hide from Iranian citizens the truth of the matter. We have our religious nuts Iran seems to have a boat load of religious nut. That's their problem. Let them duke it out in the streets. All dictatorships in the Arab world have been propped-up by Western powers at some point in time. Toppling them is a matter of will by the people. Iran did this in 1979. This time around is a whole new ball-game. The hierarchy of the Iranian system has no safe haven to run to. It must therefore by definition be a bloody revolution. Didn't we hate Saddam enough to prevent medicine from getting to children that caused the death of 500,000 children who would have lived if they were given simple antibiotics? Didn't we hate Iranians when we gave Saddam WMDs in the form of chemical weapons to kill 600,000 Iranians in an aggressive and illegal war supported by the U.S.? The people of Iran will not win by demonstrations alone. That only works if the Govt actually cares what the people think. No, look closely at the Muslim Sect the monkey faced Ahmadinejad belongs to, and then you will see that only armed revolt can topple

the Iranian Regime. Obama's Position - I support opposition 100% unless they lose - then I never supported them. The theme in all of the protests going on in the Middle East now is that the youth are angry at the lack of opportunity to advance, to live their lives well, access to good jobs, their lack of freedom. They are united despite differences in their religious outlooks or political beliefs. Although Iran may repress the young now, eventually the young will prevail and change the system. In Egypt, so far the change has been relatively bloodless. Sadly, it seems in Iran, this will not be the case. Sooner or later, many millions of oppressed Iranians will finally risk it all to take back their country from the Islamic fundamentalists. It will ultimately be bloody and many Iranians will die to achieve their freedom from religious tyranny. This is the only way to remove the mortal cancer spread by Khomeini. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is evil. This regime is evil and they are afraid. They are afraid of change. This bloodthirsty regime will vanish and they will pay for their crime, they will pay for killing our people. I agree we should stay out of it. The US is always giving money to other countries and we get nothing in return. I say we don't give any foreign aid for a year. IRANIAN page 13

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Will Green Nukes Save the World? Curt Stager (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:50:07 AM

Amidst the darkening clamor over global warming, declining fossil fuel reserves, conflicts over oil supplies, and rumors of heavyhanded governmental attempts to curb our carbon-hungry lifestyles, a welcome glow of hope is emerging on the energy technology horizon. To most viewers, it looks green, or at least "greenish." And--perhaps surprisingly to those of us who remember Three Mile Island and Chernobyl--it's radioactive. As a climate scientist, I'm wellaware of the perils of global warming and I've long favored a timely switch to alternative energy sources. However, I've also drawn the line at nuclear power, having been an anti-nuke protester in college. I was therefore horrified when prominent environmentalists first began to suggest that nuclear power is preferable to fossil fuels, as though their apocalyptic climate rhetoric had trapped them into minimizing the risks of meltdowns, radioactive waste, bomb proliferation, and nuclear terrorism. But my attitude changed recently when I raised this subject with an environmental scientist friend whose son is training to become nuclear engineer. "He's working on a new kind of reactor," my friend explained, "It can't melt down, it makes only minimal waste, and it can't be used for

making bombs. It doesn't even use uranium, which is rare and dangerous to handle; it uses thorium instead, which is

common and safer to workwith." A self-education tour of the Google-verse soon convinced me that his summary was accurate.

Much of the most reliable-looking here to sift out some of the key s t u f f o n l i n e i s w r i t t e n b y concepts for you, show where you engineers who aren't particularly WILL page 9 lucid communicators, but I'll try

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WILL continued from page 8

can listen in on what experts are saying (try here), and get you thinking and talking about this upand-coming technology. In other words, I want you to help save the world. If green nukes are even half as promising as their proponents claim, then supporting their development may be our best hope for a sane, sustainable, and abundant energy future. So how does it work? Thorium is a heavy, silvery-looking metal similar to uranium but, although it's named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder, it's not as fiercely reactive. A thorium plant works much like a uranium-driven system, with nuclear chain reactions heating a liquid that drives turbines and generates electricity. But unlike uranium, it can't start or easily sustain the process on its own. To set a reluctant thorium reaction in motion, some designs use small amounts of uranium or plutonium as a sort of nuclear spark plug, while others use a quick shot from a particle accelerator. One of the safest-sounding designs would dissolve thorium in molten fluorine salts and let the hot reactions bubble away in open -ended tubes. Should things get too intense in that sort of "liquid fluorine thorium reactor" (LFTR, pronounced "lifter"), the fluid would simply boil out of the tubes and kill the reaction automatically. What about the waste? Thorium reactors produce relatively wimpy wastes that fade away much more

quickly than uranium-derived stuff does, over several centuries rather than millennia. The waste is lousy for making bombs, unlike the plutonium formed in uranium reactors. And best of all, thorium reactions can burn and destroy other, more powerful radioactive materials. In other words, thorium nukes might not only provide gobs of cheap, non-polluting electricity--they might solve our already-vexing nuclear waste storage problems, too. Thorium is abundant; India and Australia own the largest deposits, but the USA and Canada also have enough of it to last virtually forever. Once fully deployed on a large scale, the technology could be incredibly inexpensive. Thorium doesn't need as much costly refinement as uranium fuel does and, according to some estimates, the lack of meltdown risks alone could drop the price of thorium plant construction and operation by as much as 80%. Some proponents envision "a nuke in every home," because self -contained thorium reactors can be built small enough to fit on a trailer truck bed. Such green nukes would dam no rivers and produce no acid rain or greenhouse gases, and their electrical output could create clean hydrogen fuels from water as well as seemingly limitless direct heating and lighting. So why are we using uranium today instead of thorium? Apparently, it's because, well, thorium is too safe. Back in the Cold War setting of the 1970s,

thorium technology was sidelined because it can't do what uranium reactors do so well: creating the plutonium needed for nuclear weapons arsenals. Now, what's the catch? My gut tells me that anything that sounds too good to be true probably is. And I've spent enough time around religious and political extremists to sense blind evangelical fervor in some of the more vocal supporters of thorium. There's also an unhelpful dose of ego and machismo in some of the technical discussions online, as in "I'm right because my resume is longer than yours," that can drive potentially informative dissenters into silence (see it in the comment string following an article in Wired). This topic is too important to be left in the hands of a few techwizards who excel at building these machines but who may overlook other aspects of introducing it into the real world. Even without a degree in nuclear engineering, I think I've already found one rarely mentioned problem that will need attention before we push too hard for a green nuke in every home: lowtech terrorism. Concerns about weapons proliferation from thorium reactors tend to be shouted down quickly in the engineering blogosphere, but one of the mostfrequently cited worries is that some of the substances involved in thorium reactions, especially uranium-233, can be used to make bombs. A typical counter

argument is that this kind of uranium is easily disabled by adding uranium-232 to it, a process that tends to happen naturally in reactors and that can also be applied manually as a safeguard. Another counter argument is that the U-232 contaminants in thorium reactors are so intensely radioactive that attempts at theft would be both suicidal and easily revealed by radiation detectors. But danger is no deterrent to someone who is willing to die for a cause. In some future society that runs on thousands of small, decentralized thorium nukes, terrorists need only to break into a poorly guarded mini-reactor and dump its contents into water supplies, sprinkle it over a city from a plane, or dribble it along some busy roads from the back end of a car. Imagine the sheer panic that would result, not to mention the contamination of the target area. Remember, the primary aim of terrorism is not necessarily total annihilation, but terror itself. And what about that relatively "short-lived" radioactivity in thorium-reactor waste that will still need to be stored safely for centuries; how many nations have remained reliably stable and conflict-free for hundreds of years? Now don't get me wrong. These new nukes give me great hope, and I'm even starting to drink some of that evangelical green Kool-Aid myself, hence this post. But that's why I want to see us

fully address the problems as well as the positive aspects of a thorium future, so we have a good shot at making it work as well and as soon as possible. If overly rosy sales pitches for this new technology mislead us or even just make people suspicious, they may slow its implementation. And time is of the essence; cheap fossil fuels are running out, further greenhouse gas buildups could trigger a runaway super-hothouse, and designing, testing, and mobilizing enough green nukes to service our energy demands will take decades. There's no such thing as a perfect solution to our energy crisis and it's important to acknowledge that even LFTR-nukes have a bit of a dark side. Choosing the best path forward will require a thoughtful and open discussion of all aspects of that choice, not just the nuts and bolts but the practical human costs as well. By choosing to run the world on fossil fuels, our recent forebears also unwittingly caused much death and destruction due to mining accidents, pollution, and wars. We can surely do better than that as we face this new energy revolution within our own century, by planning our route more carefully in advance. Now's the time to learn as much as you can about green nukes, and to join the global conversation. It's your world, too, so let your voice be heard--we're going to need it. Curt Stager is an ecologist, WILL page 12

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The Secret Coke Recipe on "This American Life?" My Dad Found That Chuck Salter (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:33:07 AM

Ira Glass and crew have caused quite a stir with a radio show in which they rediscover what may have been an early formula for Coca-Cola. The one my father, Charles Salter, found in 1979. Maybe you heard the story that went viral today about how the original recipe for Coke may have been revealed after being closely guarded by the company for 125 years. ABC, CBS, NPR, Time, USAToday, Al Jazeera English-everybody’s on the case. Maybe you’ve seen the photo of the hand -written recipe in question (above). My dad, Charles Salter, took that photograph 32 years ago as a columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The column was called the " Georgia Rambler." He’d travel the state looking for colorful people and places, often stories with a historical bent. One of his best sources was the late Everett Beal, a fishing buddy of his who worked as a pharmacist in Griffin, Ga. One day, Everett showed my dad his prized possession, a leather-bound book of recipes that had once belonged to a pharmacist named John Pemberton. The John Pemberton who created the original syrup to make Coke. above a list of ingredients. My “I believe it is,” Everett told him. 3 ozCaffeine: 1 ozSugar: 30 “Coco Cola Improved” was dad asked Everett if he thought it This is that formula: Fluid extract #Water: 2.5 galLime juice: 2 pints scrawled by hand on page 188, was the original formula for Coke. of Coca: 3 drams USPCitric acid: (1 qrt)Vanilla: 1 ozCaramel: 1.5

oz or more to color

The secret

SECRET page 14

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White House Ignores Interest Payments in Claiming to Control Debt - Fox News (Top Stories - Google News)

Anyone who gives the budget chart a cursory glance can see the debt will continue to skyrocket The Obama administration's under the White House proposal. statement that the government In fact, the long-term outlook will not be adding to the debt by shows the public debt -- which the middle of the decade clashes isn't even the entire debt -- soaring h a r d a g a i n s t t h e f a c t s , from about $11 trillion this year to Republicans say, leaving officials nearly $19 trillion in 2021. straining to justify the budget Driving that increase is the fact claim they've pushed repeatedly that annual deficits will never fall over the past few days. below $600 billion. As it turns out, the administration To justify the administration is not counting interest payments. c l a i m , L e w s a i d t h e That means the budget team plans a d m i n i s t r a t i o n w a s m e r e l y to have enough money to pay for referring to "primary balance" -ordinary spending programs by or federal spending minus interest the middle of the decade. But it payments. Lew sought to forgive won't have the money to pay off the public for their confusion. those pesky -- rather, gargantuan - "The terminology that we use in - interest payments. So it will Washington of primary balance is have to borrow some more, in a little confusing," Lew said. turn increasing the debt and " I t ' s b e c a u s e I b e l i e v e i t ' s increasing the size of future dishonest," Ensign shot back. interest payments year after year. Republicans were understandably So how then, visibly agitated befuddled. To put the scenario in Republicans asked, can the everyday terms, it's like a family administration claim that its 2012 claiming that they've balanced the spending plan sets the country on family finances, but neglecting to a course to "pay for what we mention that they're taking out a spend" in just a few years? new loan every month to pay off "We're still going further into credit-card interest. As a result, debt, massively," Sen. John the family keeps going deeper Ensign, R-Nev., told White House into debt. Budget Director Jack Lew at a For an $80 interest payment, that budget hearing Tuesday, accusing might be manageable. But this is the administration of "double- the United States budget. If the talk." government does what the Obama Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:54:46 AM

administration is recommending, net interest payments will go from about $200 billion this year to $844 billion in a decade. That's more than the country spends now on Social Security. Yet President Obama and Lew neglected to explain this point in their initial statements. Lew, in an interview Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," said: "Our budget will get us, over the next several years, to the point where we can look the American people in the eye and say we're not adding to the debt anymore. We're spending money that we have each year, and then we can work on bringing down our national debt." Obama, discussing his budget in Baltimore Monday, said the proposal "puts us on a path to pay for what we spend by the middle of the decade." In his press conference the next day, Obama went further. "What my budget does is to put forward some tough choices, some significant spending cuts, so that by the middle of this decade our annual spending will match our annual revenues. We will not be adding more to the national debt," he said. Pressed to explain this claim, the president hinted at the rationale. "We've racked up a whole bunch

of debt. And there's a lot of interest on that debt," he said. "So in the same way that if you've got a credit card and you've got a big balance, you may not be adding to principal. You've still got all that interest that you've got to pay. Well, we've got a big problem in terms of accumulated interest that we're paying and that's why we're going to have to whittle down further the debt that's already been accumulated." Under questioning from Senate Republicans Tuesday, Lew acknowledged the government would be adding to the debt by borrowing to pay interest, but still stood by his statements. "We're getting further in debt ... because of our interest rate," Ensign said. "Yeah," Lew responded. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, grilled Lew over this disconnect. "We are adding to the balance, and we're not cutting up the credit card. That's just the fact," Sessions said, calling the administration's claims "misleading." Lew stood by his claim. "What I said was we're going to stop adding to the debt. Our spending will not add to the debt," he said. "It's an accurate statement."

Sessions disagreed, calling the assessment "not a legitimate way to analyze it." The website PolitiFact, which tries to sort out politicians' policy claims, analyzed the administration's argument in an article Tuesday and gave it a rating of "false." The White House later claimed that the debt would not increase as a share of the economy -- that's technically true, given that the public debt would level out at about 76 percent of GDP by middecade. But that assumes a certain level of growth in the economy and also assumes the debt, as a figure, will continue to rise year after year. PolitiFact ruled that its "false" rating would remain unchanged, given that Obama did not make that distinction in his press conference. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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Protests spread to Libya - CNN (Top Stories - Google News) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:12:08 AM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS • Source: Several people arrested after police confronted protesters in Benghazi, Libya • In Yemen, calls for better curriculum turns into an antigovernment protest • In Bahrain, protesters camp out at a landmark • In Iran, thousands turn out for a funeral of man claimed by both sides For all the latest developments in the Middle East, tune in to " AC360º," weeknights at 10 ET. (CNN)-- Unprecedented demonstrations sweeping the Middle East and North Africa spread Wednesday to Libya, where police clashed with antigovernment protesters in the coastal city of Benghazi, an independent source told CNN. About 200 protesters came out to show support for human rights activist and lawyer Fathi Terbil, who had been detained earlier, the source said. Several people were arrested after police confronted the protesters, the source added. But Libya -- ruled by Moammar Gadhafi since 1969 -- is not Egypt, said a highly placed Libyan source close to the

government who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to the media. "There is nothing serious here," he said. "These are just young people fighting each other." Driven by discontent and fueled by social media, protests in the region spread this week not just to Libya but to Iran and Bahrain. Anti-government sentiment has also manifested itself on the streets of Algeria, Jordan, Syria and Yemen. In Yemen, Sanaa University students protested Wednesday, calling for an improved curriculum, but the demonstration rapidly morphed into an antigovernment stand. Participants said government supporters outside the university gates hurled rocks, but the situation stayed under control. It was at least the sixth day that scuffles had broken out between the government's supporters and foes. Activist Abdul Rahman Barman said three anti-government protesters were injured when government supporters attacked them after the demonstration. One had to be hospitalized for head injuries, he said. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been in power for 32 years but has pledged not to run

for re-election when his current term ends in 2013. In nearby Bahrain, thousands of people marched in a peaceful funeral procession for Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima, who was killed when clashes erupted during the funeral for another protester. They camped out at the Pearl Roundabout, a landmark in the capital, Manama, that has been adopted by protesters as their Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt's revolution. A massive pearl sits at the apex of a circle of inward-sweeping arches, and Wednesday, Bahrainis camped out at its base and painted anti-government slogans. Later in the day, flag-waving progovernment demonstrators were out in Manama and the second largest city of Muharraq. New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof said security forces have backed off after "a concerted deliberate effort to use a truly stunning amount of force." "Now that the regime has backed off, it's a little hard to say where things will go," Kristof told CNN. "It is possible that ... there will be some kind of truce and agreement to have more democracy, some more concessions." Large crowds showed up for a funeral as well in the Iranian

University. His new book is DEEP FUTURE: The Next 100,000 Years of Life on

Earth(St. Martin's Press, March 2011).

WILL continued from page 9

paleoclimatologist, and science journalist with a Ph.D. in biology and geology from Duke

capital, where 26-year-old Saneh Jaleh was laid to rest. Iranian authorities said Jaleh belonged to the pro-government Basij militia and was shot to death by the outlawed People's Mujahedeen of Iran. But some of Jaleh's acquaintances disputed that account, and Jaleh's funeral strangely drew both supporters and foes of the Islamic regime, which has cracked down on dissent even though it publicly praised Egyptians for toppling President Hosni Mubarak. International journalists are barred from covering Iran's unrest, but a protester told CNN that police fired tear gas and beat people with batons. Sara, whose full name has been withheld for security reasons, said she was risking her safety to march on the streets because Jaleh was part of Iran's reformist Green Movement. "We are not allowing his blood to go to waste," she said. "I am doing this for him." In the place that gave rise to the spirit of the region's freedom movement, changes were still slowly unfolding. Tunisia lifted its midnight-until-4 a.m. curfew, though a state of emergency remains intact, the state-run Tunis Afrique Presse

said. Weeks of demonstrations forced the ouster of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January. "Tunisia now after the revolution of its population is now searching for its independence," said Lazhar Samali, an engineer who protested against the government. "It's a sovereign state, and Tunisia has in its own hands its destiny." The end of Ben Ali's 23-year rule inspired Egyptians, and then others, to rise up for their rights. Last Friday, after 18 days of mass demonstrations in Egypt, Mubarak stepped down, leaving the nation in the hands of its powerful military. CNN's Tim Lister, Mohammed Jamjoom, Jenifer Fenton and Mitra Mobasherat contributed to this report. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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IRANIAN continued from page 7

That money can pay down our National debt and create jobs. Let those crazies in the middle east kill each other. The only problem with that is the Muslim breed like fleas, after a few years the will be knocking on our door. I say take them down! I'm tired of helping all these 3rd world countries and then the spit in our face. The Iranian strategy of shooting protesters and hanging their leaders has been working for them so far, don't expect it to change. Mubarak and the Egyptian Army stopped short of full war with their people, to their credit. The Iranian dictatorship saw what happened and will continue to go all-in for repression. God help the Iranian people. Iranian's are the only ones who can stand and fight for their individual freedom. We as American's can support them with pressure from Washington, the U.N., and other Middle Eastern countries. It's important to take the opportunity and change the direction of Iran's nuclear ambition. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a matter of not only our national security rather that of the entire world. America is not a Policeman. America is not a Judge. America is hopeful that any citizens living under tyranny can free themselves. The Middle East does not trust us, and any involvement by us just taints the revolution that

has to be owned by the people revolting. It's time for the Iranian government to stop blaming the US every time its people rise up and want democracy. People are rising up in Iran because they can't express their opinions without the government beating them up! If they keep this up, they'll have an insurgency. Memo to the Iranian Government -- If you stage a gathering, it is not a "Rally", it is government workers reporting for work. And counts the same as if they had stayed on the job and phoned in their pseudo protest. What I don't understand is how the real opposition members don't just kill themselves because you think they should be dead. Oh wait, this is not Egypt -- there they were protesting a dictatorship who would make them disappear if they disagreed with the government. Anyone blaming US or Israel will reveal their ignorance and brutality. All humans want to be heard, all people want representation and no one wants to be arrested for laws made up by religious fundamentalists. There are many people in the USA who fervently hope that the governments in the Middle East become more humanitarian. Many of us don't care if a government is religious backed or not -- that is

the sovereign country's business. What we want is peace and happiness for all mankind, and a chance for any man, woman or child to dream of a future and have the freedom to make that future happen for themselves. That is all we can hope for in the name of freedom. The Iranian regime is utterly criminal in its contenpt for and violence against its own people. It is time for the US to come to the aid of the people of Iran. The US should supply all aid and comfort it can to the brave Iranians fighting for their freedom. Down with the Mullahs. So the clerics preach "hatred" toward any opposing view! Islam the religion of PEACE? Iranians want freedoms most of the world now enjoys. The Guardian Council and "Supreme Leader" do not offer such freedoms. After Almadinejad's election, even the office of President became tarnished. Down with the Mullahs and Down with the tyrants. May God Bless the Green movement and all people in Iran. After the Arabs raped you, the West Exploited you, Islamic Clerics silenced you, you are left still standing and stronger than ever. Iran belongs to the Iranians not to Islam. The Iranian government is the Muslim version of Klu Klux Klan. Iran had a great past, but

In pictures: 70s style, chinstraps and sunshine yellows (The Guardian World News)

Our fashion team pick their highlights from the catwalks and

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today it lost everything unless some Iranians sacrifice themselves like the Egyptians or Tunisians. The Iranians are very smart people but their government is brutalizing them like in the Hitler time. God bless Iran. All of you people who are against the U.S. getting involved in the business of other countries are ignorant. America was born under some of the same principles that the Iranians want for their own nation. It is Americas duty as the leader of the free world to help other countries achieve the same freedoms that so many Americans take for granted.* Required By using this form you agree to the following: All comments will be reviewed before posting. Be aware - not all submissions will be posted. VOA has the right to use your comments worldwide in any VOA produced media. Terms & Conditions This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Royal Gold (RGLD): A Net Asset Value Buy Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:30:00 PM

Filed under: International Markets, Newsletters, Mexico, Commodities, Stocks to Buy "Royal Gold ( RGLD), a gold royalty operation, is progressing well, and is a good buy at current levels," says global resources expert Adrian Day. The editor of The Global Analyst explains, "Over $6 a share income by 2013 makes Royal Gold fundamentally inexpensive; it is also selling below a reasonable net asset value, unusually for gold stocks. "The company hold a gold royalty on part of the huge Penasquito mine in Mexico, which had a good first quarter. Royal Gold has other new projects gearing up to boost revenues. Andacollo started production in October, so this year will see a full year of revenues from two new mines. Continue reading Royal Gold (RGLD): A Net Asset Value Buy Royal Gold (RGLD): A Net Asset Value Buy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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SECRET continued from page 10

7X flavor (use 2 oz of flavor to 5 gals syrup)Alcohol: 8 oz Orange oil: 20 drops Lemon oil: 30 drops Nutmeg oil: 10 drops Coriander: 5 drops Neroli: 10 drops Cinnamon: 10 drops Meanwhile, back in Atlanta, my dad showed a photo of the recipe to Coke and asked them the same question. “We don’t as a company comment on or confirm or deny any information you present to us about the formula for Coca-Cola,” my Dad quoted a spokesman saying. You would think a column blowing the lid off Coke’s big secret would be front-page news in its home-town paper. A column with a photo of the recipe. But on February 18, 1979, “Is It Real Thing in Old Book?” ran inside the local news section, on 2B. And that was that. Remember, this was pre-Internet. This was even pre-cable news. CNN wouldn’t launch for another year. So the Coke column remained a favorite story my dad would recount, and he’d bring out that old photo of the recipe book cradled in Everett Beal’s weathered hands. Fast forward three decades. Last year " This American Life" did a Georgia Rambler show inspired

by the column. When my wife, a producer on the show, shared the Coke column, host Ira Glass was intrigued: What if it was the real recipe? What if he could make it and taste it for himself? The episode, called " Original Recipe," aired last weekend. Glass and producer Ben Calhoun delve into all things Coke. How only two employees know the flavor formula (aka Merchandise 7X) at any given time. How coca leaves used in the production of CocaCola have been de-cocainized since 1903. And how virtually the identical soda recipe appears in one of Pemberton’s notebooks in the company’s own archives. Author Mark Pendergrast found it and included it in his 1993 book, For God, Country & Coca-Cola: The Unauthorized History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company that Makes It. But the best part of "This American Life"’s cola journey is when Glass and Calhoun find a way to make the recipe. My dad didn’t do that. Neither did Pendergrast, the historian. Jones Soda, working with its flavor partner, Sovereign Flavors, whips up a batch. After tinkering with the mix to account for modern flavoring technology, they

produce something that’s as close to replicating Coke as you’re likely to get. The case for this being one of the original Coke recipes is circumstantial and anecdotal, but pretty compelling, all things considered. And that was enough for the Coke story to explode online like a soda can that had been rolling around in the back of a car forever. A story on the Today Show's site sent 80,000 readers to This American Life's site yesterday. Overnight, the story hit in Australia. Then Russia. India. The U.K. “Is This the Real Thing?” asked London’s Daily Mail, in an echo of my dad’s original headline. Salon went even further: “‘This American Life’ Reveals Original Coca-Cola Recipe.” And the AJC? "Has Coca-Cola's Secret Recipe Been Cracked?" is the lead story on its site. When I saw the story taking off this morning, I called my dad. The Georgia Rambler is retired and still living in Atlanta. He often spends mornings at the mall with his buddies. He used to call it his walking group. For the most part, they sit at Starbucks for an hour and visit. They drink coffee. Me: Dad, have you been online

COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, TEA noreply@blogger.com (Ad ServeRSS) (AdServRSS Feed)

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zChocolate.com Mighty Leaf Visit Starbucks

this morning?Dad: No, no, what’s going on?Me: Well, it has nothing to do with Egypt. The Coke story that ran this weekend? It’s all over the place. The Daily Beast has it. The London Telegraph. It’s a top ten business story on Google News.Dad: You’re kidding! After 30 years? You know, when I saw it in Everett’s book, the bells went off. This time, everybody else’s bells went off, too. Good luck getting on the "This American Life" website. It crashed today under the weight of traffic. "Our website has never gone down," Glass told the AJC, "We're the biggest podcast in the country and we're used to a lot of traffic." After 30 years, Coke’s response to its secret-formula getting out hasn’t changed. When my editor contacted the company just now, Kerry Tressler, a spokeswoman, said, "Basically 'This American Life' and many other parties over time have tried hard to crack the secret formula of Coca-Cola, but try as they might there truly is only one real thing." Classic Coke.

Online Features March 2011 (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] What's new in March at CookingLight.com

Chinese Citizens Are Hungry for More Gold Connie Madon (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:00:00 PM

Filed under: China, Commodities China is allowing its citizens to buy physical gold bars. This new program is unleashing an unbridled demand for the metal. The program works this way: The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China's largest, sells the bars to customers at realtime prices. Persons who own the bars can resell them to the bank. To give you an insight into the magnitude of these sales, here are a few statistics. The ICBC sold 7 tons of bullion in January alone. In all of 2010, sales were only 15 tons. Continue reading Chinese Citizens Are Hungry for More Gold Chinese Citizens Are Hungry for More Gold originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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WeedMaps Launches Groupon for Pot, Stoners Cheer Ariel Schwartz (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/16/2011 1:07:25 PM

Not into the daily spa and restaurant deals offered by Groupon, LivingSocial, and their ilk? WeedMaps, a massive clearinghouse for medical marijuana information, is now offering daily pot deals in your inbox. "It's like Groupon, but with a twist," explains WeedMaps

founder Justin Hartfield. "We're not accepting money from end users." Instead, WeedMaps is offering steep marijuana discounts that are redeemable at participating dispensaries. A typical deal: one Oakland, Calif., outfit called Northstone Organics is offering Casey Jones (a socalled premium strain) at just $199 for an ounce. Most other strains at the dispensary cost $250 an ounce.

Dispensaries don't get money in advance from users, but there is still incentive for them to participate. If a dispensary offers, say, 50% off a certain product, WeedMaps will give the dispensary that amount of money off its monthly listing on the site. So if a dispensary offers a $300 ounce for $150, it will shave $150 off its monthly listing. WeedMaps's listings are a popular feature, with rates starting at $295

per month and reaching over $1,000 (the more you pay, the more information you can list about your dispensary). So far, dispensaries in every region covered by WeedMaps-that would be California, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Washington, and Colorado, in case you were hankering for discount bud--have signed up to participate in Daily Deals. The feature only launched this week, but already Hartfield

plans to make things even easier for printerless stoners (or those who spaced on their ink refill): Instead of bringing in a coupon, they will be able to instead utter a secret code word provided to them along with the daily deal. It doesn't get much simpler than that. Follow Fast Company on Twitter. Ariel Schwartz can be reached by email.

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Borders Officially Died Today Gary Cassady (Business Insider)

reorganize in order to reposition itself to be a successful business for the long term," said Mike Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:02:12 PM Edwards, Borders Group It's over. Borders files for P r e s i d e n t . Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief, "In this regard, operating under after losing a long battle in the Chapter 11, Borders has received book and music space dominated commitments for $505 million in by Amazon and Barnes & Noble. D e b t o r - i n - P o s s e s s i o n ( D I P ) Borders secured a commitment financing led by GE Capital, f o r $ 5 0 5 M i n d e b t o r - i n - Restructuring Finance. This possession financing. Borders financing should enable Borders says that it will continue to to meet its obligations going conduct business in "ordinary f o r w a r d s o t h a t o u r s t o r e s course." continue to be competitive for "It has become increasingly clear customers in terms of goods, that in light of the environment of services and the shopping curtailed customer spending, our experience. It also affords Borders o n g o i n g d i s c u s s i o n s w i t h the opportunity to move forward publishers and other vendor in implementing the appropriate related parties, and the company's business strategy designed to lack of liquidity, Borders Group r e p o s i t i o n B o r d e r s t o b e a d o e s n o t h a v e t h e c a p i t a l potentially vibrant, national resources it needs to be a viable retailer of books and other competitor and which are p r o d u c t s , " M r . E d w a r d s essential for it to move forward e m p h a s i z e d . with its business strategy to The company said that it is reposition itself successfully for serving customers in the normal the long term. To position course, including honoring its Borders to remedy this condition, Borders Rewards program, gift B o r d e r s G r o u p , w i t h t h e cards and other customer authorization of its board of programs. Additionally, the directors, has filed a petition for c o m p a n y e x p e c t s t o m a k e reorganization relief under employee payroll and continue its Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy b e n e f i t s p r o g r a m s f o r i t s Code. This decisive action will e m p l o y e e s . give Borders the opportunity to Borders said that it has many achieve a proper infusion of strengths upon which to build a capital in order to have the solid plan of reorganization and opportunity to have the time to implement a new business model

that the closings were a reflection of economic conditions, cost structures and viability of locations, among other factors, and not on the dedication and productivity of the workforce in these stores. "We are confident that, with the protection afforded under Chapter 11 and with the support of employees, publishers, suppliers and creditors, and the reading public, a successful reorganization can be achieved enabling Borders to emerge from the process as a stronger and more vibrant book seller," concluded Mr. Edwards. "We are very pleased to be able to make this commitment to Borders f o r B o r d e r s t o a d d r e s s t h e The company noted that, among as support for their plan to rechanging needs of the American other initiatives and subject to organize the company," said Tim reader. "For decades, Borders has court approval, Borders plans to Tobin, Managing Director, Retail been a beacon of engagement – a undertake a strategic Store R e s t r u c t u r i n g , G E C a p i t a l , highly frequented destination for Reduction Program to facilitate R e s t r u c t u r i n g F i n a n c e . consumers and a significant venue r e o r g a n i z a t i o n a n d i t s The Chapter 11 petition for relief for authors and vendors to r e p o s i t i o n i n g . B o r d e r s h a s was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy s h o w c a s e n e w b o o k s a n d identified certain underperforming Court, Southern District of New merchandise. We have the ability, s t o r e s — e q u i v a l e n t t o Y o r k . C o m p l e t i o n o f t h e based on our brick and mortar approximately 30 percent of the c o m p a n y ' s D I P f i n a n c i n g presence nationally; the on-line company's national store network a r r a n g e m e n t s i s s u b j e c t t o capabilities we have in place; the — that are expected to close in approval of the Bankruptcy Court loyalty of, and access to, our the next several weeks. At the and the satisfaction of certain customers; and the products and same time, the company noted c o n d i t i o n s p r o v i d e d i n t h e services we offer to be an that a major strength of Borders is financing commitments received important and easy access its national presence, and its by the company from the lenders destination of exploration and extensive network of remaining providing such financing. purchase for readers across the stores as well as Borders.com, -- Gary Cassady c o u n t r y , " c o m m e n t e d M r . will continue to run in normal Join the conversation about this Edwards. course. The company emphasized story »

Former president who aided Fiji coup dies at 91 (AP) (Yahoo! News: Obituaries)

AP - Ratu Josefa Iloilo, a Fijian tribal chief who as president made

crucial decisions backing the military takeover of the South

Pacific country, has died at age 91.

Business/ Technology/ Obituaries

Newstablet Edition

Deutsche Bank Has Another Excuse For Weak January Retail Sales Joe Weisenthal (Business Insider) Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:00:52 PM

It wasn't just the weather that negatively impacted retail sales in January. It was also the IRS: In addition to weather related issues, retail sales for the month of January could have been slightly impacted by delays in federal tax refunds. The IRS released a statement on January 20 stating that the agency would not be able to begin processing most returns until February 14 due to the need to update their infrastructure for the latest tax cut extensions passed by Congress in December. Ironically, while the IRS delayed the processing of returns by over a month, tax payers only have a three day reprieve-until April 18th, to file their returns. While it is difficult to gauge what the exact impact was from the delay in tax refunds, we do have enough historical IRS data to put a framework around the numbers. The IRS has published in the past a week by week tally of tax returns received and total refunds sent out. The last full data set that we have is from 2007 and 2008 (for tax years 2006 and 2007) and

in those years approximately 14M to 15M tax payers filed before February 2 with 12 to 13M refunds distributed by the IRS during that period. Hence, around 85% of "early filers" for the month of January received refunds and the average refund was approximately $3,000. The cumulative dollar amount of refunds paid out by the IRS in the first month of the year was approximately $39B. Assuming that the entire refund was spent in the same month, the delayed refunds would account for almost 10% of total retail sales in January

management teams, especially in large ticket durable goods industries, points to at least a minor impact. This makes sense because according to the 2009 TurboTax survey previously cited; 82% of early filers receive refunds-if they know they are going to receive a refund, it is possible they are filing early to make a specific debt payment or to make a significantly large purchase. If we assume that half of the $39B in early refunds distributed in 2006 went towards debt and the other half was spent in the same month, the impact on retail sales is even less, approximately 4%. Either way, the delayed returns ($382B). It is not likely however that the should only have a temporary delayed returns had that large of impact and forecasters may have an impact for two reasons: One, to adjust their estimates for according to a TurboTax study February accordingly given the done in 2009, 46% of "early two week delay. As far as we filers" use some portion of their know, there has not been a refund to pay down debt. Two, comparable period where the IRS there is no way of knowing has had to delay processing tax whether the remainder of the returns. In any event, the IRS refund was spent within the same delays are temporary, so we month. Moreover, any delay should see a sizeable snapback in should eventually be recouped in retail sales within the next couple later months. What we can say is of months. that this delay probably had a Join the conversation about this minor impact, and anecdotal story Âť evidence from corporate

Spanish chef Santi Santamaria dies in Singapore (AP) (Yahoo! News: Obituaries)

AP - Santi Santamaria, a Spanish chef with a three-Michelin-star

restaurant in Barcelona and other fine eateries, had died at the age

of 53.

Christian World Adoption noreply@blogger.com (Ad ServeRSS) (AdServRSS Feed)

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Libyan Strongman FacesHis Own Wave of Unrest (FOXNews.com)

Independent confirmation was not possible as the government keeps tight control over the CAIRO â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Hundreds of Libyans media, but video clips posted on calling for the government's the Internet showed protesters ouster clashed with security forces carrying signs and chanting: "No firing rubber bullets and water God but Allah, Moammar is the cannons early Wednesday in the enemy of Allah" and "Down, country's second-largest city as down to corruption and to the Egypt-inspired unrest spread to corrupt." t h e c o u n t r y l o n g r u l e d b y Police and armed government Moammar Qaddafi. backers quickly clamped down, The protest in Benghazi was firing rubber bullets and dousing triggered by the arrest Tuesday of protesters with water cannons. a Libyan activist but quickly took Another video with the same date on an anti-government tone, people running away from gunfire witnesses and activists said. The while shots are heard. A young protest was relatively small in man in a white, bloodstained robe s i z e , b u t i t s i g n a l e d a n t i - was then shown being carried by government activists have been protesters. emboldened by the recent wave of A Libyan security official, uprisings. speaking on condition of Activists using Facebook and anonymity because he wasn't Twitter have called for nationwide a u t h o r i z e d t o r e l e a s e t h e demonstrations on Thursday to information, said 14 people, call for Qaddafi's ouster, a including 10 policemen, were constitution and comprehensive injured. He said protesters were political and economic reforms. armed with knives and stones. Tuesday's demonstration began in The outbreak of protests in f r o n t o f t h e l o c a l s e c u r i t y Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain headquarters after Libyan troops and Iran has roiled the Middle r a i d e d t h e h o u s e o f r i g h t s East and brought unprecedented advocate Fathi Tarbel in Benghazi pressure on leaders like Qaddafi and took him away, according to a w h o h a v e h e l d v i r t u a l l y Switzerland-based activist Fathi al unchecked power for decades. -Warfali. It also has posed new challenges Tarbel was released after meeting for the United States, which has with a powerful Libyan security strategic interests in each of the official, Abdullah al-Sanousi, but countries. President Barack the protesters proceeded to march Obama conceded Tuesday he is through the coastal city to the concerned about the region's main downtown plaza, he said. s t a b i l i t y a n d p r o d d e d Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:42:20 AM

governments to get out ahead of the change. Libya's official news agency did not carry any word of the antigovernment protests. It reported only that supporters of Qaddafi were demonstrating Wednesday in the capital, Tripoli, as well as Benghazi and other cities. JANA, the official news agency, quoted a statement from the proQaddafi demonstrators as pledging to "defend the leader and the revolution." The statement described the anti-government protesters as "cowards and traitors." The government also planned to free Wednesday 110 Islamic militants who were members of a group plotting to overthrow Qaddafi, although it was not clear if the previously scheduled release would occur. Seif al-Islam Qaddafi, the leader's son, has orchestrated the release of members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which is suspected of having links to Al Qaeda, in the past as part of a reconciliation plan. Qaddafi, long reviled in the West, has been trying to bring his country out of isolation, announcing in 2003 that he was abandoning his program for weapons of mass destruction, renouncing terrorism and compensating victims of the 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin and the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie,

Scotland. Those decisions opened the door for warmer relations with the West and the lifting of U.N. and U.S. sanctions, but Qaddafi continues to face allegations of human rights violations in the North African nation. The activist's arrest followed the collapse of talks between the government and a committee representing families of hundreds of inmates killed when security forces opened fire during 1996 riots at Abu Salim, Libya's most notorious prison. The government has begun to pay families compensation, but the committee is demanding prosecution of those responsible. Al-Warfali said the demonstration continued until 4 a.m. Wednesday, calling it "an unprecedented state of agitation." He also said police arrested another well-known figure, writer Idris al-Mesmari, prompting activists to call for another demonstration in front of the security headquarters. The protests occurred after several opposition groups in exile called on Monday for Qaddafi's overthrow and for a peaceful transition of power. "Col. Qaddafi and all his family members should relinquish powers," the groups said in a statement. Protesters also called for the ouster of Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, according to witnesses and videos posted on the Internet.

The protests scheduled for Thursday were to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the day in which nine people were killed while holding a demonstration in front of the Italian Consulate against cartoon depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Qaddafi came to power 1969 through a military coup and since then he has been ruling the country with no parliament or constitution. Although Qaddafi claims he is only a revolutionary leader with no official status, he holds absolute power. The opposition groups say that in practice he has direct control of the country's politics and its military and security forces. Qaddafi's security forces have reportedly arrested several of these Internet activists. Al-Warfali said the ultimate goal was to oust the Qaddafi regime. "These are old calls by the Libyan opposition in exile, but Egypt and Tunisia has given us new momentum. It brought down the barrier of fear," he said. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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BAFTA Video Game Award Nominees Announced (Epoch Times | All headlines) Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:06:18 AM

Nominated for the Best Game BAFTA: Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts) The nominations for the 2011 GAME British Academy Video Games Awards have just been announced and offer some surprises. Assassins Creed: Brotherhood looks like it will sweep the board, with a whopping seven nominations, including Best Game. This is followed by the tremendously successful Call of Duty: Black Ops and groundbreaking story-driven drama, Heavy Rain, both receiving six nominations each. Indie game Limbo has also received a flurry of nominations, including one for Best Game, an honour for the relatively small studio Playdead Games. Surprisingly, one of last year’s best games, and a hugely strong BAFTA contender, Red Dead Redemption wasn’t submitted for consideration by its publisher Rockstar Games, for unknown reasons. While the video game BAFTAs are not as historically prestigious as their film counterparts, they are still a great honour for any game studio. The awards ceremony is being held on March 16th in London. Action Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal) Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts/DICE)

BioShock 2 (2K Games/2K Marin) Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard/Treyarch) God of War III (SCE Santa Monica Studio) Halo: Reach (Microsoft Games Studios/Bungie) Artistic Achievement Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Call of Duty: Black Ops God of War III Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream) LIMBO (Playdead Games) Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts/ BioWare) Best Game Assassin's Creed Brotherhood FIFA 11 (Electronic Arts/ Electronic Arts Canada) Heavy Rain LIMBO Mass Effect 2 Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo) Family Dance Central (Harmonix) Kinect Adventures (Microsoft Games Studios/Good Science Studio) Kinect Sports (Rare) Kinectimals (Frontier Developments Ltd) LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (TT Games) Toy Story 3 (Disney Interactive Studios/Avalanche Software) Gameplay Assassin's Creed Brotherhood God of War III Heavy Rain LIMBO Mass Effect 2 Super Mario Galaxy 2 Handheld

Cut the Rope (Chillingo/ Zeptolab) God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Ready at Dawn, SCE Santa Monica) LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Professor Layton and the Lost Future (Nintendo/Level 5 Games) Sonic Colours (SEGA/Sonic Team) Super Scribblenauts (Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/ 5th Cell) Multiplayer Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops Halo: Reach Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Original Music Alan Wake (Remedy) Fable III (Lionhead Studios) Heavy Rain James Bond 007: Bloodstone (Bizarre Creations) Mass Effect 2 Super Mario Galaxy 2 Social Network Game Bejeweled Blitz (Popcap Games)

Farmerama (Bigpoint) FIFA Superstars (EA Sports/ Playfish) My Empire (Playfish) Zoo Mumba (Bigpoint) Zuma Blitz (PopCap Games) Sports F1 2010 (Codemasters Birmingham) FIFA 11 Football Manager 2011 (SEGA/ Sports Interactive) Gran Turismo 5 (Polyphony Digital Inc) International Cricket 2010 (Codemasters/Trickstar Games) Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (Konami/Winning Eleven Productions) Story Alan Wake BioShock 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda Softworks/Obsidian Entertainment) Heavy Rain Mass Effect 2 Strategy Civilization V (2K Games/

Firaxis) Fallout: New Vegas FIFA Manager 11 (EA Sports/ Bright Future) Napoleon Total War (SEGA/ Creative Assembly) Plants vs. Zombies XBLA (PopCap Games) Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard Entertainment) Technical Innovation Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Call of Duty: Black Ops Halo: Reach Heavy Rain Kinectimals Super Mario Galaxy 2 Use of Audio Alan Wake Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Battlefield: Bad Company: 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops DJ Hero 2 (FreeStyleGames) LIMBO BAFTA Ones to Watch Award(in association with Dare to Be Digital) Mush (Angry Mango) Sculpty (Team Tickle) Twang (That Game Studio) GAME Award of 2010 Call of Duty: Black Ops Dance Central FIFA 11 Halo: Reach Heavy Rain LIMBO Mass Effect 2 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Red Dead Redemption Super Mario Galaxy 2 This entry passed through the BAFTA page 23

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ICE Agent Shot Dead, Another Injured in Mexico (FOXNews.com)

said. U.S. and Mexican officials said they were working closely A U.S. Immigration and Customs t o g e t h e r t o i n v e s t i g a t e t h e Enforcement agent was killed and s h o o t i n g a n d f i n d t h o s e another wounded while driving responsible. They did not give a t h r o u g h n o r t h e r n M e x i c o motive for the attack. Tuesday, in a rare attack on "Let me be clear: any act of American officials in this country v i o l e n c e a g a i n s t o u r I C E which is fighting powerful drug p e r s o n n e l - - o r a n y D H S cartels. personnel -- is an attack against Homeland Security Secretary all those who serve our nation and Janet Napolitano said one agent put their lives at risk for our was critically wounded in the safety," Napolitano said. "We attack and died from his injuries. remain committed in our broader The second agent was shot in the support for Mexico's efforts to arm and leg and remains in stable c o m b a t v i o l e n c e w i t h i n i t s condition. borders." ICE Director John Morton late The two agents were driving in Tuesday identified the slain agent the northern state of San Luis as Jaime Zapata, who was on Potosi when they were stopped at assignment from the office in what may have appeared to be a Laredo, Texas, where he served military checkpoint, said one on the Human Smuggling and Mexican official, who could not Trafficking Unit as well as the be named because he was not Border Enforcement Security authorized to speak publicly about Task Force. The injured agent, the case. Mexican military who was not identified, remains in officials said they have no stable condition, Morton said. checkpoints in the area. "I'm deeply saddened by the news After they stopped, someone that earlier today, two U.S. opened fire on them, the official I m m i g r a t i o n a n d C u s t o m s said. Enforcement (ICE) special agents San Luis Potosi police said assigned to the ICE Attache office gunmen attacked two people a in Mexico City were shot in the blue Suburban on Highway 57 line of duty while driving between b e t w e e n M e x i c o C i t y a n d Mexico City and Monterrey by Monterrey, near the town of Santa unknown assailants," Napolitano Maria Del Rio, at about 2:30 p.m. Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:42:20 AM

Police said one person was killed and another was flown to a Mexico City hospital, though they couldn't confirm the victims were the ICE agents. A U.S. law enforcement source who was not authorized to speak on the case said the agent who died was on loan from Laredo, Texas. Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan spoke with Morton to express Mexico's condolences, according to a spokesman. "Please keep Special Agent Zapata's family, friends, and colleagues close to your heart during this difficult time. May the work we continue to do as an agency be worthy of a sacrifice as great as the one made by Special Agent Zapata," Morton said in a statement Wednesday. Zapata, who joined ICE in 2006, had also served as a member of the U.S. Border Patrol in Yuma, Arizona. He was a native of Brownsville, Texas and graduated from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2005. No age was given for Zapata. Though Mexico is seeing record rates of violence from warring drug cartels and a crackdown on organized crime, it is rare for U.S. officials to be attacked. The U.S. government, however, has

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become increasingly concerned about the safety of its employees in Mexico amid the escalating violence. In March, a U.S. employee of a consulate, her husband and a Mexican tied to the American consulate were killed when drug gang members fired on their cars as they left a children's party in Ciudad Juarez, the city across from El Paso, Texas. The U.S. State Department has taken several measures over the past year to protect consulate employees and their families. It has at times authorized the departure of relatives of U.S. government employees in northern Mexican cities. In July, it temporarily closed the consulate in Ciudad Juarez after receiving unspecified threats. In 1985, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar was tortured and killed in Mexico. Mexican trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero is serving a 40-year prison term for Camarena's slaying. ICE, the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the second largest investigative agency in the federal government, enforced immigration laws and is primarily responsible for arresting,

detaining and deporting people who are in the U.S. illegally. It also investigates drug cases in the U.S. and Mexico and other types of trafficking. It was created in 2003 through a merger of the investigative and interior enforcement elements of the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service and has more than 20,000 employees in offices in all 50 states and 47 foreign countries. Mexico is fighting heavily armed and powerful drug cartels that supply the U.S. market. Since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown against drug trafficking shortly after taking office in December 2006, almost 35,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence. Fox News' Mike Levine and the Associated Press contributed to this report This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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Producer prices up, inflation still seen muted (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:45:56 AM

A construction worker cuts tiles as he installs a roof on a home in a new subdivision being built in San Marcos, California April 23, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON| Wed Feb 16, 2011 12:45pm EST WASHINGTON(Reuters) - U.S. core wholesale prices rose in January at their fastest rate in more than two years, raising some concerns about inflation, but economists said the recovery was too weak for a big spike in consumer prices. The core producer price index, which excludes food and energy costs, increased 0.5 percent, the biggest advance since October 2008, the Labor Department said on Wednesday. Economists had expected a 0.2 percent gain. Investors viewed the figures somewhat warily and bond prices slipped. Economists, however, said it was too soon to panic about inflation with stubbornly high unemployment keeping labor costs subdued. "The question is whether we are seeing a limited pass-through of commodity price hikes or the beginnings of an inflationary spiral," said Nigel Gault, chief

U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. "Wages will be the thing to watch -- there won't be an inflationary spiral unless wage inflation picks up." The rise in core PPI reflected a jump in drug prices, which accounted for 40 percent of the increase. Other reports on Wednesday indicated that while growth may be quickening, the recovery remains uneven. Industrial production edged down in January and housing construction continued to bounce along the bottom. But bad weather might have distorted the industrial output data. The U.S. dollar rose broadly, while stocks gained on above forecast results from technology bellwether Dell and a deal for Sanofi-Aventis SA to buy Genzyme Corp for $20.1 billion in cash. NO PASS THROUGH TO CONSUMERS The rise in core PPI comes at a time when a surge in commodity prices has caused most advanced economies to raise red flags on inflation. The U.S. Federal Reserve has so far shown little concern about price pressures and officials have repeatedly said core consumer

inflation remains too low. The central bank is widely expected to complete its planned purchases of $600 billion in government bonds to assist the recovery. Most economists agree with the Fed's stance on prices. The government is expected to report on Thursday that core consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in January from December. "Yes, we are seeing input prices go up, companies are seeing those, but they are having a hard time passing them on. There is still a lot of slack in the economy, whether it's high unemployment or high office vacancies," said John Canally, an economist at LPL Financial in Boston. "The economy is 80 percent services. Economy-wide, raw materials or commodity prices only account for something like 5 percent of input costs and labor is 70 percent." INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT DIPS • Share this • Link this • Digg this • Email • Reprints txgadfly wrote: The only way to claim that the “recession” is over is to first claim that this economic event is not fundamentally different from other post-WW2 economic

events. In other words, we are not experiencing a society changing event or a “depression”. That claim is very convenient but false. We are on our way to the social and economic structure most commonly found in the “Third World”. In fact, if that is where the USA will end up, with a rather small, rather wealthy elite ruling a mass of poor, unempowered peasants, then indeed we are done with our first steps toward the change and we are approaching the “new normal”. jrj90620 wrote: Lucky for us Americans that no matter how high prices go, govt will issue phony low inflation statistics and we will feel everything is OK.I dare Bernanke to do what Volker did in the early 1980’s to stop inflation.If Bernanke tried raising interest rates to double digits,like Volker did,we would be looking at a depression.Bernanke,being so dishonest,deserves to go down in history as the failure he is. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

7 Popular Diet Plans And What They Cost nospam@example.com (Investopedia) (Financiallyfit on Shine)

By Stephanie Powers Americans like big things, especially food. According to the U.S. Food and

Drug Administration (USDA), the average annual food bill for 2009…

Google announces 'One Pass' subscription system, stares down Apple Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:23:00 AM

It's war. In the immediate aftermath of widespread dissatisfaction at Apple's subscription offering among publishers, Google has launched a competing product called One Pass. As predicted, the service undercuts Apple's 30/70 revenue split, offering a 10/90 split along with the ability for the publisher to use the same sign-in system across tablets, smartphones and websites. As a user, you enter a username and password, and then are granted access to content across whatever platforms the publisher decides. Continue reading...

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Sanofi to buy Genzyme for over $20 billion (Reuters: Top News)

sclerosis drug Lemtrada and production of two other medicines. A sign points the way to the The deal's announcement, which headquarters of Genzyme in confirmed what sources with C a m b r i d g e , M a s s a c h u s e t t s knowledge of the talks had told August 3, 2010. Reuters on Tuesday, marks the Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder second-biggest acquisition in By Nina Sovich and Noelle biotech history and will help Mennella Sanofi offset declining revenue PARIS| Wed Feb 16, 2011 from drugs that have lost, or are 12:19pm EST set to lose, patent protection. P A R I S ( R e u t e r s ) - F r e n c h Sanofi predicted the deal, which drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis SA is expected to close early in the agreed to buy Genzyme Corp with second quarter, would lift its a sweetened $20.1 billion cash underlying earnings by between offer, plus payments tied to the 0.75 and 1.0 euro per share by success of the U.S. biotech 2013. group's drugs, the companies said The CVR runs until the end of on Wednesday. 2020 and entitles holders to a The acquisition -- which comes series of payments worth up to nine months after Sanofi CEO $14 per share in total, depending Chris Viehbacher first put the idea m a i n l y o n t h e s u c c e s s o f to Genzyme's Henri Termeer -- is L e m t r a d a . e x p e c t e d t o b o o s t S a n o f i ' s In theory, that could add $3.8 earnings from the first year after billion to the price tag, but the completion by giving it a new market value of the CVR is platform in rare diseases. expected to be deeply discounted Sanofi will pay $74 a share in given uncertainties about future c a s h a n d o f f e r a t r a d a b l e Lemtrada sales, the long time contingent value right, or CVR, h o r i z o n a n d t h e f a c t m a n y whose value will depend on investors will not want to hold Genzyme's experimental multiple such an instrument. Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:19:33 AM

Tim Anderson, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein, said Sanofi would probably end up making payouts of no more than $4 per CVR, or around $1.1 billion, while Viehbacher told reporters that market estimates the CVR would trade at between $2 and $3 "may not be unrealistic." The CVR will be listed on Nasdaq. "What we anticipate is that there will be a lot of sellers of that CVR, which is going to trade like an option," said Jean-Francois Comte, portfolio manager at Paris -based hedge fund Lutetia Capital. "So there might be another arbitrage opportunity on the CVR in the next few days." VALUE BRIDGE Shares in Sanofi rose 3.6 percent by 1525 GMT as investors welcomed the boost to earnings. Vincent Meunier, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, said the forecast of a 12 to 16 percent uplift to 2013 earnings was above his expectation of 10 percent, although the drugmaker gave no breakdown on synergies. Genzyme was 1.5 percent higher at $75.46 in early trade. The first $1 related to the CVR

will be paid out if specified production levels are met in 2011 for Cerezyme and Fabrazyme -two drugs for Gaucher and Fabry disease. The bulk of the potential payments, however, are linked to Lemtrada and will kick in if that drug wins approval in multiple sclerosis and exceeds various sales milestones, which run up to $2.8 billion. Sanofi thinks that number is unlikely to be hit but, if it were, it would be good news for shareholders in both companies. • Share this • Link this • Digg this • Email • Reprints

White Zippered Sneaks The Givenchy Zipper High Top Sneakers are White Hot (GALLERY) (TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:51:02 AM

( TrendHunter.com) Nothing brings in summer styling like the Givenchy Zipper High Top Sneaker. These all-white kicks are perfect for those clear summer nights out on the town. Part of the Givenchy Spring/Summer 2011 collection,...

Blanchflower: UK rates on hold

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is (Finance News - Business news your content and you're reading it from the UK and world) on someone else's site, please read Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:11:35 AM our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ Former MPC watches a doveish content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Mervyn King. Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Silver screen scenes immortalised in Lego Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:16:00 AM

A film student has found the perfect way to pay homage to the great cinematic moments of our

time -- Lego dioramas. Self-confessed "Lego geek" Alex Eylar has recreated the most iconic (and sometimes just his favourite) scenes from Inception, Tron: Legacy, A Clockwork

Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey and many more. "Making film scenes was an inevitability," Eylar told Wired.co.uk. "I've always been a

Lego geek and I've always been a film buff; it was only a matter of time before I combined the two." Continue reading...

News Wire/ Culture/

Newstablet Edition

Labor unrest as Egypt moves towards democracy (Reuters: Top News)

hit by industrial action. "The ripple effect of the Egyptian revolution is shaking Middle People ride camels near the Giza E a s t e r n d i c t a t o r s t o t h e i r pyramids February 15, 2011. foundation," said Fawaz Gerges, a Credit: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih London School of Economics By Marwa Awad and Shaimaa Middle East expert. Fayed There was a frenzy of rumor CAIRO| Wed Feb 16, 2011 about the health of Mubarak, 82, 12:44pm EST who is holed up at his residence in CAIRO(Reuters) - Some workers the Red Sea resort of Sharm elignored a call by military rulers to Sheikh after flying from his Cairo return to work on Wednesday, and palace. In one of his final a committee hammered out addresses, Mubarak said he changes in Egypt's constitution to wanted to die in Egypt. pave the way for democracy to One Saudi official in Riyadh r e p l a c e 3 0 y e a r s o f H o s n i said: "He is not dead but is not Mubarak's iron rule. doing well at all and refuses to The Higher Military Council had leave. Basically, he has given up urged Egyptians to put aside the and wants to die in Sharm." The revolutionary ardor, that has official added that Saudi Arabia found expression in protests and had offered to be his host. strikes about poor pay and Life was far from normal five w o r k i n g c o n d i t i o n s , i n t h e days after Mubarak was forced interests of national unity and from power by a whirlwind 18restarting the damaged economy. day uprising, with troops and Banks were closed across Egypt tanks on the streets of Cairo, because of labor rows that were schools and banks closed and having a spillover effect across Egyptians still finding their new many sectors, while 12,000 found freedom hard to believe. workers went on strike at a textile A committee, set up to amend the plant in the city of Mahalla el- constitution within 10 days as a Kubra and Cairo's airport was also prelude to parliamentary and Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:57:43 AM

presidential elections in six months, also met as the military dismantles the mechanisms used to maintain Mubarak's rule. The Higher Military Council has already dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution. Tareq al-Bishry, the head of the constitutional amendment committee told Reuters the committee was meeting daily at the Ministry of Justice and will deliver on time. WASHINGTON SUSPICIONS The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, which did not play a leading role in the revolution but has been Egypt's best-organized opposition group for many years, has a member on the committee drawing up the constitutional amendments. Some secular leaders fret that racing into presidential and parliamentary elections in a nation where Mubarak suppressed most opposition activity for 30 years may hand an edge to the wellorganized Muslim Brotherhood. Washington, a major aid donor to Egypt which became the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel in a 1979 treaty, regards the

Brotherhood with suspicion. "I would asses that they are not in favor of the treaty," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. But the Brotherhood was "only one voice in the emerging political milieu," Clapper said. Opposition leaders welcomed the military's commitment to a swift handover to civilian rule, but called for the release of political prisoners and the lifting of emergency laws. • Share this • Link this • Digg this • Email • Reprints

Tallest Floorless Roller Coaster in the World (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) Submitted at 2/16/2011 8:00:56 AM

Watch this video about the world's tallest, floorless dive coaster on HowStuffWorks. Busch Gardens Europe's latest steel marvel drops its riders 205 feet, 90 degrees straight down, at speeds as fast...(more info) Watch this video about the world's tallest, floorless dive coaster on HowStuffWorks. Busch Gardens Europe's latest steel marvel drops its riders 205 feet, 90 degrees straight down, at speeds as fast as 75 mph. See how this record-breaking new coaster This entry passed through the works in this video from MultiVu. Full-Text RSS service — if this is This entry passed through the your content and you're reading it Full-Text RSS service — if this is on someone else's site, please read your content and you're reading it our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ on someone else's site, please read content-only/faq.php our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ Five Filters featured article: content-only/faq.php Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In Five Filters featured article: The Crosshairs. Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

How animal detectives work (Holy Kaw!)

certified in the state in which they work, assist hurt or neglected animals, enforce animal cruelty Animal detectives are known by laws (many of these people have many names, including humane the power to make arrests) and law enforcement officers, animal educate others about proper cops and cruelty investigators. animal care. These professionals, trained and As law enforcement officers Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:38:00 AM

work to keep people safe, animal detectives do the equivalent for

animals. Get ready to learn how Total aggregation of animal detectives do their jobs, H o w S t u f f W o r k s . c o m . how a forensics laboratory was Photo credit: Fotolia created to solve crimes committed Permalink| Leave a comment » against animals and how you can become a detective. Full article at HowStuffWorks.com.

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Newstablet Edition

Mexico, France Diplomatic Clash Over Prisoner Escalates (Epoch Times | All headlines) Submitted at 2/16/2011 7:25:13 AM

By Aurelien Girard Epoch Times Staff Created: Feb 16, 2011 Last Updated: Feb 16, 2011 HOPING FOR HELP: French national Florence Cassez pictured, while listening to her lawyer in prison in Mexico City. The 350 events planned throughout 2011 for France’s "Year of Mexico" are being overshadowed by an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries. Both governments assumed combative stances following a ruling in a Mexican court last week that a French woman, Florence Cassez, will spend the next 60 years in a Mexican jail. Cassez was arrested in December 2005 along with her boyfriend Israel Vallarta, the leader of a notorious kidnapping gang. The day after their actual arrest, Mexican anti-gang police reenacted the arrest with live media coverage. The Mexican government later admitted to the restaging and blamed the media for requesting it. Cassez and Vallarta say she is

innocent, but testimony from hostages freed after their arrest implicates Cassez as part of the gang. In 2008, Cassez was sentenced to 98 years in prison; she appealed and the sentence was reduced to 60 years in early 2009. The final verdict in the appeal case last week that reaffirmed the 60-year sentence, triggered strong reactions from French officials. French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie used an exceptionally harsh tone to condemn the verdict calling it a “denial of justice” and saying that Mexico’s decision would negatively impact bilateral relations. Alliot-Marie also announced she would boycott all Year of Mexico celebrations in protest. French President Nicolas Sarkozy went one step farther on Feb. 14 when he announced that he would dedicate the Year of Mexico to Cassez. Mexico immediately reacted by canceling its participation in the events. In a statement, the Mexican Embassy in France said it was “really surprising that a head of

state could make a foreign policy decision that would hurt the relationship between the two governments and people, for someone who has been condemned for particularly bad deeds.” The embassy said that the Year of Mexico celebrations, which were designed to mark the friendship between the two countries, are being misused. “Using all the Year of Mexico activities in France to mention

Florence Cassez, as President Sarkozy has done, is in opposition with the joint statement made by France and Mexico in September 2010. The government of Mexico therefore considers that the conditions are not there for the Year of Mexico in France to happen in an appropriate way.” Sarkozy is also being criticized by members of his own political camp for what is perceived as a tough and not thought-out stance. Christian Vanneste, a member of

Parliament who supports Cassez, asked Sarkozy to show more respect for Mexico and to stop “completely useless humiliations.” In an interview with French based BFM television, Vanneste said the president’s attitude was counterproductive and “could only produce opposite effects.” France's strong condemnation of Mexico has given rise to speculation that the government is using the case to show itself to be a defender of human rights. Alliot -Marie's reputation suffered after receiving heavy criticism for being lenient with or even friendly with the former Tunisian regime, and Sarkozy is gearing up for a 2012 presidential campaign. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Printed photos the blind can 'see' (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:48:00 AM

A new system prints portrait photos that blind people can feel and recognize. Software reads online content aloud and printers

generate Braille text, but there hasn't been a fast and easy way to create recognizable images for the blind. Now, computer scientists in Arizona are generating social networking profile pictures the blind can "see."

"We convert the photo in such a

way so the major facial landmarks are nicely kept -- that's very important because we can't render all the features into tactile form," Baoxin Li, an associate professor of computer science at Arizona State University, said. "That

would be too disorienting." Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Newstablet Edition

UK Inflation Rises to 4 Per Cent After VAT and Fuel Go Up

Natalie Portman Hits the Street With Benjamin and a Rumored Boy Baby Bump

(Epoch Times | All headlines)

Allie Merriam (PopSugar)

Commerce (BCC) believe that interest rates will probably have Submitted at 2/16/2011 7:51:04 AM to rise later this year, but say that By Peter Simmons the MPC must not increase Epoch Times Staff Created: Feb interest rates until the initial 16, 2011 Last Updated: Feb 16, impact of government cuts has 2011 been absorbed. Shoppers must save for a rainy David Kern, chief economist at day, again. These bargains hunters the BCC, said in a statement: were at Bolton Market on August “The increase in inflation to 4 per 17, 2010 when figures for the UK cent was exactly as most analysts inflation rate had slowed. The expected, and there was even Office for National Statistics some relief in the markets that the stated on Tuesday that VAT outcome was not worse. The (which has gone up to 20%) and present situation is uncomfortable fuel (which hit a record high of for the MPC. But, in the face of Â£1.27 per litre on average in higher taxes, increased utility January) were the main factors for Committee (MPC) to lift interest prices were one of the causes of bills, and surges in food and the present increase. (Photo by rates to fend off the accelerating inflation, but didn’t mention the energy prices, it is still likely that C h r i s t o p h e r F u r l o n g / G e t t y inflation. VAT hike, which his government consumer price inflation will Images) Inflation is on the rise, In a letter to the government, was responsible for. increase towards 4.5 per cent t h e l a t e s t f i g u r e s s h o w , Mervyn King said that inflation According to the ONS, one of the before it stabilises. threatening to squeeze family was likely to rise to 5 per cent in main factors driving up inflation “We believe that a premature hike budgets already hit by rising coming months. is the rising cost of fuel, which hit in interest rates would make no livings costs and government cuts. He said that inflation had been a record high of £1.27 per litre on difference to inflation in the shortThe Governor of the Bank of pushed up by the VAT rise, a average in January. term, but would put the recovery England Mervyn King warned recent rise in commodity prices, "Two of the main factors that had at risk. It would also make it more that inflation was likely to last and the past weakness of the an impact on the January data are difficult for the government to into the next two or three years, pound. the increase in the standard rate of implement measures aimed at following the publication of the "The MPC's central judgement, Value Added Tax (VAT) to 20 cutting the deficit.” latest data by the Office of under the assumption that Bank per cent and the continued This entry passed through the National Statistics (ONS) on rate increases in line with market increase in the price of crude oil," Full-Text RSS service — if this is Tuesday. your content and you're reading it e x p e c t a t i o n s , r e m a i n s t h a t the ONS said in a statement. The UK Consumer Prices Index inflation will fall back so that it is The rising costs of transport, on someone else's site, please read (CPI) had risen from 3.7 to 4 per about as likely to be above the restaurants and hotels, furniture our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ cent in January – its highest for target as below it two to three and alcohol also contributed to the content-only/faq.php three years – as the VAT hike years ahead," he wrote. rising inflation, said the ONS Five Filters featured article: kicked in. Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In In a letter the Chancellor George report. The rise will put pressure on the Osborne accepted that commodity T h e B r i t i s h C h a m b e r s o f The Crosshairs. Bank of England Monetary Policy

Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:30:24 AM

Natalie Portman and her fiancé, Benjamin Millepied, were out for one of their usual walks in NYC yesterday afternoon. The couple held hands and headed off to their destination, looking happy to be back together after Natalie returned from her latest trip to LA for the Academy Awards nominee luncheon. She opted out of one award season event, however, missing Sunday's BAFTAs and leaving her Black Swan director, Darren Aronofsky, to accept the best actress honor on her behalf. Natalie instead chose to spend her weekend close to home and Benjamin prepping for their new addition, which Life & Style reports is a boy. View Slideshow ›

Blanchflower: Jobs market turmoil (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world) Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:20:41 AM

Former MPC member: UK economy could go "belly up".

News Wire/ Technology/ Finance/

Newstablet Edition

Homeowner's Vow: PermitOr Not, the Cross Stays (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:42:20 AM

BALDWIN, Pa. – A 24-foot illuminated cross on a western Pennsylvania man's front lawn is in violation of a local ordinance, but the structure isn't going anywhere, he told FoxNews.com. Carl Behr, 45, of Baldwin, Pa., said he was told during a borough council meeting late Tuesday that he needed a permit to build the structure. He plans to apply for such a permit Wednesday or Thursday, he said, but won't be disassembling his cross anytime soon. "I'm not removing the cross regardless," Behr said as to whether the permit would likely be approved. "No man is going to tell me about God." Baldwin Borough Manager John Barrett told FoxNews.com that the cross on Behr's lawn and possibly another on his roof violate the borough's ordinance for the installation of structures due to size and placement requirements. "If he wants the structure on his property, like anyone else, he has to apply for a permit," Barrett

said. "We haven't seen anything." If the cross is not removed by Friday, Barrett said Behr will be issued a citation and could face fines of up to $300 for each day it remains displayed. "Our ordinances spell out a process for applying for a permit for structures," he said. Neighbor Lisa Fera, who lives across the street from Behr, has said the cross shines directly into her home and was built after she complained about Behr parking vehicles from his construction business in front of her residence. "I'm not looking to be a bad neighbor. I believe in God, I believe in being Christian, but if you are truly Christian, then you would be supporting and respecting your neighborhood," Fera told WTAE.com. "I feel that this is a direct intimidation of me, that each time you call the police or do something, a cross goes up." Despite the complaint, Behr, who said he has also received several "positive comments" regarding the cross, vows to continue displaying his devotion. "They basically said that I needed to apply for a permit, so that's what I'm going to do and see what

happens," he said. "I'm going to carry it as far as I can." Rev. Robert Walkup of the Baldwin United Presbyterian Church does not "see [the issue] as necessarily cut and dry," he told FoxNews.com on Wednesday. "The question I would ask is: Is his individual expression purely for individual motives," Walkup said. "To live a moral life, we live with others." Walkup continued, "The primary rule here would be: Are either of them showing love and concern for their neighbors? How is that Christ-like?" Walkup said the size of the crosses at Baldwin United Presbyterian have "never been an issue," but acknowledged that the permit procedure predated his time at the church. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

HTC Flyer priced by Amazon Germany Chris Davies (SlashGear)

likely to see some subsidization from carriers when it launches in early Q2, so that could bring the HTC’s Peter Chou wasn’t talking pricing down a little more into pricing for the HTC Flyer when some users’ budgets. For more on the company launched the 7-inch the HTC Flyer, check out our live slate yesterday, but that hasn’t report on the slate from Mobile stopped Amazon Germany from World Congress 2011 this week. listing the tablet already. While [ via TabletGuys] there’s still no release date for the Relevant Entries on SlashGear Android 2.3 Gingerbread tablet, • ASUS Eee PC T101MT shows we do know it will be €699 up for preorder in Germany ($944). • WePad preorders kick off at To put that in context, it’s exactly Amazon Germany the same price Apple charges in • Memorex M-Flyer has springGermany for the 32GB iPad 3G. loaded USB action Both have 3G and the same • Amazon Germany Has a Leaky memory capacity, and HTC did iLife ’11 Valve confirm to us last week that the • Nokia N8 preorders cancelled Flyer would be priced around the by Amazon Germany “high end” of the market. Of course, the HTC Flyer is Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:11:37 AM

What foods to buy and what to skip at Trader Joe’s nospam@example.com (The Editors of EatingWell Magazine) (Financiallyfit on Shine) Submitted at 2/15/2011 9:02:38 PM

What are the best and worst deals

at Trader Joe’s? Americans (and I include myself) are crazy about Trader Joe’s, but are the prices there always better? Armed with a list and a calculator, I went to see

up. Find out what you should buy and what you should skip at Trader Joe’s. how prices and perceptions match

World News/

Newstablet Edition

Over the Horizon: The Russian Navy's Strategic Limitations (World Politics Review: Articles)

times of crisis, and the influence that a fleet provides over its surrounding region cannot be Naval power is characterized by transferred to other areas. In short, f u n g i b i l i t y a n d f l e x i b i l i t y . Russian naval power is neither Because of the relatively open fungible nor flexible. Other states nature of the seas, ships and fleets face similar issues, but not usually can be transferred between ports to the same extent. Russian naval and crisis zones in order to deployments must therefore conduct operations or exert reflect a level of political and influence. Indeed, one of the key strategic commitment to a region appeals of naval power is the not required in the strategic ability of warships to respond to planning of other nations. crises in a variety of locations Any analysis of the promise or without requiring a longstanding threat of Russian naval power political and infrastructural must keep these facts in mind. commitment. Both the opportunities offered by However, of all the major naval partnership with a friendly powers, Russia remains most Russian navy and the threats t i g h t l y c o n s t r a i n e d b y i t s posed by a hostile Russian fleet unfortunate maritime geography. are constrained by the same Russian warships based in the geographic factors. Arctic, Baltic, Black Sea and Analysts disagree on what Pacific cannot easily support one p l a n n e d R u s s i a n n a v a l another. This problem was most d e p l o y m e n t s r e f l e c t a b o u t dramatically demonstrated in the Russia's grand strategy in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, in future. Lt. Col. John Mowchan of which the Imperial Japanese Navy the U.S. Army argued in a recent effectively destroyed the Russian a r t i c l e i n P r o c e e d i n g s , t h e Pacific Fleet and the Russian magazine of the United States Baltic Fleet. Only Ottoman Naval Institute, that plans to intransigence prevented the increase the capabilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet from Russian Black Sea Fleet represent meeting the same fate. Russian a threat to U.S. and NATO naval policy suffered from similar interests in the Caucasus. Dmitry constraints in World Wars I and II Gorenburg, on the other hand, has as well as during the Cold War. argued that Russian naval Consequently, Russia faces a capabilities in the Black Sea do strategic dilemma whenever it not pose a threat to NATO. To the makes decisions about the basing contrary, Gorenburg contends that of its warships. Because of the Russian forces in the Black Sea relative isolation of its fleets, can support NATO operations in warships deployed to one region the Mediterranean, as part of cannot be readily redeployed in Operation Active Endeavour, and Submitted at 2/15/2011 11:43:00 PM

off Somalia. Moreover, he argues that Russia's real naval future lies in the Pacific, and reports that Russia plans to station the first two of its French-built Mistralclass amphibious warships with the Pacific Fleet would seem to support this contention. More broadly, this debate takes place against the backdrop of the ongoing decay of Russian naval capabilities. While the Russian navy does possess some modern vessels, many of its ships are approaching the end of their useful lives. Despite some recent signs of life, the Russian shipbuilding industry occupies a space somewhere between "troubled" and "moribund." New construction has not kept pace with aging and retired warships. Plans to build additional aircraft carriers to supplement the Admiral Kuznetsov have been indefinitely delayed. The most important recent Russian acquisition project has been the four Mistral-class amphibious warships it purchased from France, two of which will be built in France and two in Russia. One of the key justifications for the Mistral deal has been the potential it holds for reinvigorating the Russian shipbuilding industry, and Moscow held out for months in tough negotiations to make sure that two of the ships -- and not one, as the French initially insisted -- were built in Russian shipyards. While there's some danger in evaluating Russian decisions from

an external perspective, a shift of focus from the Atlantic to the Pacific makes considerable sense for Russian strategic planners. Broadly speaking, the navies of Western Europe are in decline. The Royal Navy in particular is set to shrink dramatically as a result of fiscal austerity measures. France has delayed the construction of a second aircraft carrier indefinitely. The other major European navies, including Italy and Spain, continue to maintain respectable capabilities but are not expanding. Consequently, even in the context of declining Russian naval capability, Russian maritime vulnerability in the West is not increasing. The Black Sea remains a Russian concern, but Russia enjoys presumptive land dominance over Georgia, as well as good relations with most of the other Black Sea nations. While the maritime threat in Europe recedes, Asian fleets are growing, making Russia's position as a Pacific naval power increasingly precarious. While traditional powers such as the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force and the United States Navy remain key players, new powers have also emerged. The most important of these has been the People's Liberation Army Navy, which now boasts a large surface and subsurface fleet, and which will reportedly soon embark on its first experiment in carrier aviation. The South Korean navy has also stepped up, and now

includes some of the world's largest and most-modern naval units, while India is engaged in an ambitious naval buildup of its own. The locus of naval power, therefore, has shifted east, at the same time that much of the world's maritime trade has moved to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. So it makes sense for the Russian navy's priorities to follow suit. But while an increased Russian naval deployment to the Pacific might soothe Georgian nerves, it doesn't alleviate any long-term strategic issues for the United States. Rather, the return of the Russian Pacific Fleet makes the naval situation in Asia considerably more complicated. In the long run, U.S. naval planners may find the Russian Pacific Fleet a bigger headache than the relatively confined Black Sea Fleet. A strong Pacific Fleet would allow Russia to "threaten" Japan, or to influence a crisis on the Korean Peninsula, for example. On the upside, the Russian Pacific Fleet could help maintain the Proliferation Security Initiative or help check growing Chinese influence. (Ironically, any eventual naval competition between Russia and China would involve Russian ships facing Chinese vessels either purchased from Russia or built to Russian designs.) Moreover, the problems of piracy, smuggling, and human trafficking are not confined to the OVER page 32

World News/

Newstablet Edition

For Ecuador's Correa, an Uneven Record: Part II (World Politics Review: Articles)

support the efforts of popular movements in those countries to achieve political representation Editor's note: This is the second contrasts poorly with Correa's of a two-part series examining claims to be a champion of Ecuador under President Rafael expanding representation for Correa. Part I examined Correa's Ecuadoreans. When confronted domestic policy. Part II examines with such arguments, however, his foreign policy. Correa has reacted angrily. And Ecuadorean President Rafael after the international Financial C o r r e a ' s r a d i c a l " C i t i z e n ' s Action Task Force blacklisted Revolution" has surprisingly Ecuador over its lackluster translated into a foreign policy contribution to the global fight marked by pragmatism. Some of against money laundering, Correa his moves -- such as embracing called the move revenge for China, Russia and Iran -- have having forged closer ties with raised eyebrows, while others, Iran. such as the forced restructuring of Ecuador's growing trade with Ecuador's foreign debt, have China has also been a cause of prompted some foreign investors c o n c e r n f o r a n a l y s t s , w h o to question the wisdom of making increasingly worry about the long-term investments in the potential for Ecuador to become country. But his administration dependent on China. Chinese has also restored full diplomatic companies have invested heavily a n d c o m m e r c i a l t i e s w i t h in power generation in Ecuador, Colombia and successfully held but critics argue that China has the rotating presidency of the used its position of strength to Union of South American Nations force Ecuador into accepting ( U N A S U R ) . O n t h e w h o l e , unfavorable terms in recent deals. C o r r e a h a s b e e n l e s s The announcement of the $1.7 inflammatory on the international billion Coca Codo Sinclair stage than domestically. hydroelectric dam project is a In 2008, Correa became the first case in point. With 85 percent of Ecuadorean president to visit the project to be funded and Tehran, where he signed an constructed by Chinese entities, energy agreement. But if Correa's the dam will provide an estimated Iranian overtures predictably one-third of Ecuador's domestic irritated Washington, they have energy supply by its completion not gone down well at home in 2016. But the terms of the deal e i t h e r . B y s u p p o r t i n g a n d have prompted some in Ecuador's occasionally praising the leaders business circles to claim that of repressive regimes, Correa has China has purchased its first alienated some of his domestic c o u n t r y . E c u a d o r w a s a l s o constituency. His failure to conspicuously absent from the Submitted at 2/15/2011 11:32:00 PM

WikiLeaks cables that revealed serious misgivings among other Latin American nations over the increasing power and influence China is enjoying in the region. Closer to home, Correa has been no less active. Amid much fanfare, he restored diplomatic relations with Colombia, which had been disrupted since a 2008 Colombian raid on a FARC camp within Ecuador. Tensions are likely to remain, however, as the FARC and paramilitary groups continue to operate in the border region and thousands of Colombian refugees populate the area. The rising crime rate in the country's northern regions is also a major headache for the Correa administration. Correa has also forged close ties with Chile, having visited the country no fewer than eight times since assuming the presidency in 2006. Similarly, "old enemies" Ecuador and Peru, who fought a border war as recently as 1995, have also experienced a remarkable rejuvenation of bilateral relations. Correa is a big supporter of the UNASUR project and has invested a great deal of energy into the body, to the point of making it his foreign policy priority. He successfully secured Quito as the site of the new UNASUR headquarters and used Ecuador's 2009-2010 presidency of the body to mend ties with Brazil, after the expulsion of the Brazilian company Odebrecht from Ecuador for alleged financial irregularities in 2008 caused a

spat with then-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Correa has also played a key role in preventing the Organization of American States (OAS) from recognizing and readmitting Honduras following the 2009 coup. Ecuador remains one of several high-profile nations in the region to have not recognized the post-coup government in Tegucigalpa. Minor tensions between Washington and Quito followed Correa's decision not to extend the lease for the U.S. military base at Manta and his forced renegotiation of oil and gas contracts, some of which affected American companies. But Correa has generally maintained cordial relations with the United States. As a result, Ecuador would likely have secured an extension to the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, had partisan wrangling in Congress not sidetracked the extension. The agreement, which removes tariffs on certain products exported to the U.S. in exchange for combating the narcotics trade, could yet be revived. If not, however, it would be a setback for Ecuadorean exporters, as Correa has been vocal in his opposition to signing any full free-trade agreements with the U.S., which would be the only alternative. Despite initial rhetoric upon taking office, which suggested he would align himself with the antiAmerican posture adopted by Venezuela and Bolivia, Correa

has been anxious not to alienate the U.S. unnecessarily. He quickly quashed comments by his deputy foreign minister, for instance, that Ecuador would grant asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Correa is likely to continue his preference for regional integration over free-trade agreements with developed countries and will play a prominent role within both UNASUR and the OAS in the short to medium term. His biggest challenge will be restoring the confidence of foreign investors in Ecuador. He is keen to kick-start Ecuador's mining industry, which will likely require continued pragmatism and toned-down rhetoric. However, foreign investors have long memories and will not soon forget the expropriations Correa chose to enact in the oil and gas industries soon after taking office. In spite of the fact that foreign affairs has played second fiddle to domestic politics during his administration, Correa has managed to align his foreign policy priorities with surprising skill and has achieved some notable successes, while maintaining popular support at home. Daniel Wagner is managing director of Country Risk Solutions, a political risk consulting firm based in Connecticut, and Senior Advisor to Political Risk Services. FOR page 32

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waters off Somalia, and any added naval presence where they do occur can help address them. To be sure, naval hawks in the United States will find ample cause for alarm, whether the bulk of the Russian navy is deployed in the North, the Black Sea, or the Pacific. However, U.S. strategic planners should remember that the Russian navy will continue to suffer from severe geographic handicaps that limit its ability to exploit the flexibility which lies at the core of naval power. Whether the U.S. Navy comes to view the Russian Navy as a competitor or a partner, it must keep this key limitation in mind. Dr. Robert Farley is an assistant professor at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. His interests include

Newstablet Edition continued from page 31

national security, military doctrine, and maritime affairs. He blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money and Information Dissemination. His weekly WPR column, Over the Horizon, appears every Wednesday. Photo: A Russian Akula-class submarine (U.S. Department of Defense photo). This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Daniel Jackman is a research analyst with CRS. Photo: Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, December 2006 (Agência Brasil photo by Roosewelt Pinheiro, licensed under the Creative Commons License Attribution 2.5 Brazil). This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it

on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Do you know Eben Moglen? (Scripting News) Submitted at 2/15/2011 9:02:03 PM

You should. You will. Read on... Read this piece that just appeared in the NY Times firehose feed. He likes the plug server form factor. "A small device the size of a cellphone charger, running on a

low-power chip. You plug it into the wall and forget about it." The missing ingredient is sofware. "This month, Mr. Moglen, who now runs the Software Freedom Law Center, spoke to a convention of 2,000 free-software programmers in Brussels, urging them to get to

work on the Freedom Box." "It is not hard, when everybody is just in one big database controlled by Mr. Zuckerberg, to decapitate a revolution by sending an order to Mr. Zuckerberg that he cannot afford to refuse," Mr. Moglen said. Yup.

TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET -- Go ahead, Mac my day Steven Sande (TUAW) Submitted at 2/16/2011 1:00:00 PM

I don't know what the weather is like in your part of the world, but here in the Front Range of Colorado, it's beautiful and expected to get into the 60s (degrees Fahrenheit) today. But rather than go outside and enjoy the great outdoors, I'll be slaving over a hot computer today at 5 PM ET to bring you the best in weekly streaming video. Not that I'm complaining -- TUAW TV

Live is the highlight of my week! Today on TUAW TV Live, it's going to be all Mac, all the time. Well, maybe I'll talk a wee bit about iPads, iPhones, accessories, and the like, but the main focus is everybody's favorite computer -the Mac. There are some great new Mac apps I'll be demo'ing, I'll be expressing my deep love for my 11.6" MacBook Air(the perfect blogger's computer), and as always I'll be responding to your chat topics and tweets. The action starts at 5 PM ET (2

Macs. But it just seemed like a fun thing to do...) Be there. TUAWloha. TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET -Go ahead, Mac my day originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments PM PT / 10 PM GMT) today. Just drop by about five minutes before the show starts, and there will be easy-to-follow instructions on how to watch the livestream and

participate in the chat. (And yes, I do know that I'm mixing my metaphors with the photo illustration above since I'm supposed to be talking about

Technology/

Newstablet Edition

LG CINEMA 3D LW5700 HDTV certified flicker-free Chris Davies (SlashGear) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:33:20 AM

LG‘s CINEMA 3D LW5700 TV has gone on sale, though you’ll need to live in Korea in order to pick one up. The first third-party endorsed “flicker free” 3D set – with Intertek and TÜV wading in to say it’s easier on the eyes – the LW5700 promises to “practically eliminate” dizziness or eyefatigue while watching 3D content. The passive 3D glasses are battery-free and so only weigh in at 16g, while there’s a 3D Light Boost film covering the top LCD layer which can apparently counteract picture dimness during 3D playback. 2D to 3D conversion and TruMotion 120Hz along with DivX Plus/HD support round out the main specs. There’s also Smart TV functionality, with access to LG’s premium content, as well as a motion remote. It’ll go on sale globally from March 2011, pricing tbc. Press Release: LG’s new CINEMA 3D TV rewrites the rules for 3D With World’s First “Flicker Free” Certification, LG CINEMA 3D TV Offers the Ultimate in Smooth, Comfortable and Bright 3D Viewing SEOUL, Feb. 16, 2011 — LG Electronics (LG) today announced the Korean release of its new CINEMA 3D TV, which boasts the first third-party endorsed “flicker free” 3D images, along

with more comfortable glasses, a brighter picture and a wider viewing angle. Together, these features make it more comfortable than ever for viewers to enjoy 3D content in the company of family and friends. “Having used our expertise in 3D to address consumer concerns about 3D, such as the sometime flickery picture and unwieldy

glasses, today we’re ready to unveil a real breakthrough in 3D with LG CINEMA 3D TV,” said Havis Kwon, President and CEO of LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. “LG CINEMA 3D TV will be a real game changer in 3D TV, pushing 3D viewing to new heights of excitement and taking 3D technology firmly into the

image, creating an outstandingly smooth 3D picture. The resulting picture has earned CINEMA 3D TV “flicker free” certification from Intertek and TÜV, two world-renowned certification agencies based in Europe, making it the world’s first 3D TV to receive the designation. With such a smooth picture, the Cinema 3D TV practically eliminates the feelings of dizziness or eye fatigue that could occur with previous 3D TVs, meaning viewers can enjoy 3D content for longer and in greater comfort. The Cinema 3D TV also comes with comfortable and lightweight 3D glasses. Tipping the scales at just 16 grams, the glasses have no electrical parts, so they are free of electromagnetic waves and never need to be recharged. And because the CINEMA 3D TV’s glasses don’t need to be synced or shuttered, they ensure CINEMA 3D stays entirely free of onscreen flicker. Further ramping up the picture quality is LG’s 3D Light Boost, a thin film covering the CINEMA 3D TV’s screen that ensures 3D m a i n s t r e a m o f h o m e images are shown at full e n t e r t a i n m e n t w o r l d w i d e . ” brightness. By counteracting any CINEMA 3D TV’s outstanding dimness that can sometimes occur 3D viewing experience begins with 3D content, 3D Light Boost with its Film Patterned Retarder creates brighter, clearer images ( F P R ) t e c h n o l o g y , w h i c h for a superior 3D viewing optimizes the separation of e x p e r i e n c e . images for the left and right eye. Thanks to its wider viewing angle Those images are then matched and flexible viewing positions, up with CINEMA 3D glasses CINEMA page 36 specially designed to receive each

Technology/ Culture/ Obituaries

Newstablet Edition

Mobile Phones Will Serve as Central Hub to "Internet of Things" Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb)

things. It will help you orchestrate the interactions of the things around you and provide real-time At a keynote event during this access to all sorts of info, week's Mobile World Congress in including the people you meet, the Barcelona, Qualcomm Chairman places you go and the content and CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs talked that's available there. about how mobile technology The phone is the key to could be used to connect non- a u t h e n t i c a t i n g w i t h t h e s e phone, non-tablet devices and connected devices and taking their objects to the Internet. This content with you, wherever you concept is generally referred to as go. Developments Needed the "Internet of Things," or, as Dr. But in order to support this Jacobs says, "the Internet of emerging machine-to-machine Everything." environment (M2M), there are In this future where everything is several things that will be needed. Web-connected, mobile phones First, there needs to be peer-towill serve as the hub, or the peer support between devices. remote control, for all the things You should be able to discover around you. It will operate as your the objects in a room with devices 6th sense for the machine-to- that are operating at a very low machine network of devices. power level. This technology Sponsor should even be down to the Mobile Phone is Hub of Internet physical layer of device, he said, of Things and the interactions it enables Dr. Jacobs began his talk by shouldn't need to hop on the looking back on the history of cellular data network to occur mobile. "Ten years ago, voice was they should bypass it. killer app," he said. Now voice is That means that modern devices less and less important, while data will need to support multiple is increasingly so. People expect radios in addition to the cellular data everyone - more than phones, radio. They should also have a tablets, and e-readers - "going l o c a l r a d i o , W i - F i , G P S , forward, everything is going to be Bluetooth, satellite, NFC (near connected." field communication), etc. End And in this new network, where users won't care how it works inanimate objects are Internet- they just expect the phone to enabled, your mobile phone will connect to the fastest connection sit in the center of this Web of available to them at the present Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:39:14 AM

time. In this multi-radio environment, radios will become embedded into all sorts of devices, consumer electronics and otherwise. This will lead to an explosion of data on the network. For operators, that means they'll need to figure out how to make their networks run more efficiently to accommodate the data traffic. By 2014, said Dr. Jacobs, 70% of all consumer electronics devices will be connected to the Internet. Another facet of the development of this Web of things will be the creation of devices with increased capabilities. Devices will have multi-core processors, multi-mode radios, 3D capture and play abilities and other sensors. Augmented reality will come into play, too - that is, looking through your phone's camera, you can "see" a data layer over top the "real" world. Mobile Sensors &

Health One of the major areas of development in this Internet of Things is in wireless health . By 2014, there will be greater than 400 million wearable wireless sensors shipped. Just like the Internet helps you feel more connected with other people, these wearable devices will help you feel more connected to your healthcare professional. You will have a sense that you're being looked after. There's an economic incentive here too - the management of chromic disease accounts for three quarters of health care costs, Dr. Jacobs said. Your phone will act as the hub for the wireless sensors around you, connecting you to this information about your health. Initially, emerging markets may see developments in wireless health first, simply because of need, but these developments will come to more developed markets as well. At the end of the speech, Dr. Jacobs said that it's an exciting time in the mobile industry - it's as exciting as the beginning of the mobile Internet itself. We can't help but agree. Disclosure: The author's travel, hotel and conferences expenses were paid for by Qualcomm. They did not request this coverage, it's just interesting. Discuss

WTF Desktop Environments: GNOME, KDE, and More Explained's [Explainer] Whitson Gordon (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:00:00 AM

You can customize nearly every last inch of your Linux installation to fit your liking, and it starts with choosing the right desktop environment. Whether you're a Linux beginner or you're just looking for a new interface, here's an overview of how desktop environments work and how to pick the right one for you. More Âť

Matriarch of Calif. wine family dies of leukemia (AP) (Yahoo! News: Obituaries) Submitted at 2/15/2011 8:56:28 PM

AP - Patty Bogle, the matriarch of a wine dynasty in the Sacramento delta region, has died after a battle with leukemia.

Technology/ Culture/

Newstablet Edition

Clinton speech pushes for Internet freedom (CNET News.com)

blocked technology to repress its people, and Syria, which just sentenced a teenager to five years With freedom--both in the real in prison for political opinions she world and online--much in the expressed on her blog. news lately, Secretary of State "We believe that governments Hillary Clinton delivered a speech who have erected barriers to in Washington, D.C., yesterday Internet freedom, whether they're that cautioned nations that try to technical filters or censorship block the Internet and other vital regimes or attacks on those who services as a way of stifling their exercise their rights to expression citizens. and assembly online, will I n h e r a d d r e s s a t G e o r g e eventually find themselves boxed W a s h i n g t o n U n i v e r s i t y o n in," Clinton said, according to a Internet freedom, Clinton pointed transcript of the speech. "They out that Egypt's efforts to control will face a dictator's dilemma and the protests of its citizens by will have to choose between c u t t i n g t h e i r l i n e s o f letting the walls fall or paying the communication ultimately failed. price to keep them standing." Instead, people continued to But Internet freedom isn't black protest, the government turned the and white. Clinton reminded the Internet back on, and in the end, audience that the very openness of former President Hosni Mubarak the Internet, which paves the way was forced to resign. for progress, also allows terrorists, Clinton also mentioned Tunisia, child pornographers, hackers, and where a government that censored others to abuse that freedom. She the Internet was also eventually a l s o t o u c h e d o n t h e U . S . brought down by the will of the government's own conflict with people. But she cited other nations WikiLeaks. as well, such as Iran, where the In her speech, Clinton addressed government has both used and t h e p o l i t i c a l r e a c t i o n t o Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:33:08 AM

WikiLeaks' exposure of classified documents. Drawing a line in the sand, she condemned the publication of these documents saying that it started with an "act of theft." And responding to those who feel any government document should be in the open for all to see, she naturally disagreed, reiterating the familiar claim that the publication of such documents puts diplomats, activists, and ordinary citizens at risk. "The United States could neither provide for our citizens' security nor promote the cause of human rights and democracy around the world if we had to make public every step of our efforts," Clinton said. "Confidential communication gives our government the opportunity to do work that could not be done otherwise...By publishing diplomatic cables, WikiLeaks exposed people to even greater risk." Clinton also commented on the calls among some politicians to dub WikiLeaks a terrorist group,

pointing out that there's a fine line between expressing views and actually enforcing public policy. And for those who believed the government put pressure on private companies to block certain services from WikiLeaks, Clinton denied such charges despite calls by some politicians for companies to sever their ties with the whistle=blowing site. Yesterday's speech on Internet freedom followed a similar one made by Clinton just over a year ago in which she discussed free speech online and the reported attempts by China to hack into Google and other companies to spy on human rights activists. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

CyanogenMod 7 RC Brings Gingerbready Goodness, Canned SMS Responses to Androidokay [Downloads] Whitson Gordon (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/16/2011 8:30:00 AM

Android: If you've rooted your Android phone and flashed a custom ROM, you're probably running the ever-popular CyanogenMod. Today, they released the Gingerbread-based CyanogenMod 7, complete with everything we love about Gingerbread, plus a few great extra features like canned SMS responses. More »

TCTV: Mobile World Congress 2011, Capsule Edition Devin Coldewey (TechCrunch) Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:03:19 PM

There’s still a full day left at the conference here in Barcelona, but we’ve seen most of what there is to see, and summarized it all up in this video for ease of consumption. Of course, all our

coverage can be found at the MWC11 tag, or just by going to MobileCrunch. Watch the short video above, and head to the links below for all our MWC love, plus a gallery of shots from around the conference. Mobiles: Wildfire S, and Incredible S • HTC Announces The Desire S,

• Samsung Galaxy S II Is The World’s Thinnest Smartphone • Longphone Is Long: The Acer Iconia Smart • Hands-On With The LG Optimus 3D Tablets: • Quick Hands-On With The

Optimus Pad • HTC Flyer Hands-Off Video HTC Flyer Gallery• Hands-On Pictures With The Galaxy Tab 10.1 • Hands-On With The HTC Touchpad

Technology/ Culture/

Forget 90/10 Split, Key To Google One Pass Is That Customer Information Is Shared With Publishers

Newstablet Edition

CINEMA continued from page 33

CINEMA 3D TV is ideal for watching 3D with big groups of friends or family, while sitting or lying down in practically any spot in front of the TV. Besides superb picture quality in MG Siegler (TechCrunch) up appears asking if you’d like to 2D and 3D, CINEMA 3D TV allow the publisher to get your boasts all the advantages of LG’s Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:55:58 AM contact information. There are Smart TV technology. With its In perhaps the most coincidental two options: “Allow” and “Don’t simple Home Dashboard and bit of timing ever, Google has Allow”. It’s a simple option that Magic Motion Remote Control, today announced their content will make sense to customers. But LG CINEMA 3D TV makes it subscription and management it also means that basically no one easy to access a full array of service for publishers: One Pass. i s g o i n g t o s h a r e s u c h premium content via top global Okay, let’s be honest, it’s not information. Who in their right providers, the best in locally coincidental. Google announced it mind would? sourced shows, and the growing today because just yesterday, Well, unless it’s shared for you, range of LG Apps designed Apple announced their own addresses. Billing information that is. specifically for use on its Smart subscription service within the will not be shared, we’re told. There is no question that TVs. App Store. And their offering is Users can choose to opt-out of Google’s system will be more Following its Korean release, LG highly controversial, to say the sharing this information, but flexible for publishers. And yes, CINEMA 3D TV will be rolled they’ll have to explicitly do so. Google will be keeping only 10 out globally from March. least. Google, it appears, is once again By default, the information is percent of the revenue from sales, LW5700 Specifications: taking the anti-Apple approach. In shared. as opposed to the 30 percent that • Light and Comfortable Glasses And as we’ve talked about Apple is keeping. But from a user • 3D Light Boost their blog post on the matter, the company makes it very clear that before, that’s a huge win for perspective, given the data • Wide Viewing Angle they mean for One Pass to be very publishers who mainly fear these sharing situation, there’s no publisher-friendly. But is it too online subscription services question that Apple’s system is because it could mean giving up more favorable. publisher-friendly? Here’s the key nugget that their all-important rolodex of The next question is if users will e v e r y o n e s e e m s t o b e customer information. You know, have a choice between the two the information they use to market systems, or if publishers will rush overlooking: W i t h G o o g l e O n e P a s s , stuff to you. With Google’s to Google given the infinitely publishers can maintain direct system, they’ll be able to maintain better terms for them. Of course, Adam Dachis (Lifehacker) relationships with their customers at least part of that direct given Google’s record so far Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:00:00 AM and give readers access to digital relationship. selling Android apps compared to content across websites and And that’s important because Apple selling iOS apps, that may Our operating systems of choice with Apple’s system, publishers not be so cut and dry either. The may (or may not) have beautiful mobile apps. user interfaces, but it's rare to find I’ve confirmed that this means are getting the shaft. The way race is on. a Lifehacker reader without at Apple set it up, user data can be that customer information [photo: flickr/ be.futureproof] least a little customization. shared with publishers — but only collected by Google will be CrunchBase Information Google shared with publishers. What kind if the users themselves explicitly Apple Information provided by W h a t e v e r i t m a y b e , w h a t of information? Name, zip code, choose to share it. When you CrunchBase and most importantly, email subscribe to a publication, a pop-

• Smart TV • DLNA/WiFi/DVR ready • 2D to 3D conversion • LED Plus • Local Dimming • TruMotion 120(100)Hz • DivX Plus/HD • Smart Energy Saving Plus Relevant Entries on SlashGear • LG LW6500 promises flickerfree CINEMA 3D TV video • Philips Cinema 21:9 HDTV reviewed: “superb” • LG Scarlet LG7000 HDTV: 50,000:1 contrast & optional Bluetooth • SIM2s Grand Cinema C3X 1080 – Sexy and powerful, a dangerous combination • Philips teases World’s first ultra wide 21:9 Cinema LCD

What Are Your Favorite GUI Hacks and Interface Customizations? [Ask The Readers]

customizations and GUI hacks can't you live without? More »

Technology/

Newstablet Edition

The 4-inch iPhone display: Doing the math Chris Rawson (TUAW) Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:00:00 PM

Love iPhones? Like math? More in our Doing the Math series, examining the numbers behind the hardware. Recent rumors suggest the iPhone 5 might have a four-inch screen, slightly larger than the 3.5 -inch screen in the iPhone 4. I was skeptical of this rumor at first, because I thought boosting the screen size would require Apple to increase the overall size of the handset, too. I fiddled with some numbers and determined that while it's theoretically possible for Apple to put a 4-inch screen in the iPhone 5 while retaining its current 3:2 aspect ratio, it's unlikely to happen for a few reasons. If Apple increases the iPhone 5's screen size to four inches but keeps it at the 3:2 aspect ratio all iPhones have had thus far, the overall dimensions work out to 3.32 x 2.22 inches. But the iPhone 4 handset's overall width is only 2.31 inches; if Apple wants to keep the iPhone 5 around the same overall size as the iPhone 4, that only leaves 0.045 inches (1 millimeter) on either side of the display. That's not a whole lot of clearance between the screen's

edge and the edge of the handset itself; in fact, it essentially means the screen would cover the entire width of the front faceplate. Apple could work around that issue by slightly increasing the iPhone 5's width, but there's another problem. If Apple increases the screen size to 4" but retains the same 960 x 640 pixel dimensions, the PPI (pixels per inch) value drops to about 289 ppi -- well below the iPhone 4 Retina Display's 326 ppi, and just barely

at the threshold of a "Retina Display" level of quality. To maintain 326 ppi, the pixel dimensions on a hypothetical 4inch, 3:2 screen must increase to the neighborhood of 1080 x 720, plus or minus a few pixels. App developers would then have three sets of resolutions to support for the iPhone instead of two, and scaling from 960 x 640 to 1080 x 720 wouldn't be anywhere near as simple as the pixel-doubling that got developers by in the early days before they were able to scale apps up from 480 x 320 resolution. Worse, any apps kept at a 960 x 640 resolution and "zoomed" to fill the new pixel dimensions would probably look pretty terrible; instead of doubling the pixels as happened in the early Retina Display era, the scale works out to 1 1/8 "zoom." What if Apple didn't stick with a 3:2 aspect ratio for the iPhone 5's screen and switched to something different? Read on to find out. Continue reading The 4-inch iPhone display: Doing the math The 4-inch iPhone display: Doing the math originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments

The Motorola Xoom: $800 Unsubsidized, $600 for WiFi-only Matt Burns (TechCrunch)

of VZW’s pricey data. This pricing puts the 32GB Xoom nearly on par with the There she is. The Motorola 32GB iPad. Both tablets ask $600 Xoom is hitting the market at a for the WiFi-only version while whooping $800 sans any carrier the 32GB 3G iPad is just slightly subsidize for the 3G version with less at $730. Of course that’s for the WiFi model fetching $600. the first gen iPad, with things The Moto’s CEO failed to state in likely being slightly different for the Reuters report when the the iPad 2. Apple’s price points Honeycomb tablets will go on could stay very similar to the sale — or pre-order for that matter current model, but the storage — although it could be as early level could increase, which would tomorrow. He also failed to make the Xoom appear in a a d d r e s s t h e n a g g i n g l i t t l e different tier altogether. It would disclaimer found in the Best Buy still sell, though. circular indicating that the WiFi Read More will be locked without one month Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:33:30 AM

Technology/ Finance/

Newstablet Edition

Zipcast from SlideShare Makes Web Presentations Oh So Easy Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb)

password protect the presentations. I just tested it for 30 minutes with between 30 and Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:18:55 AM 40 people, viewing from all S l i d e S h a r e , t h e p o p u l a r around the world. The verdict? presentation hosting, sharing and Video quality could be a little perusal website, launched a new h i g h e r ( t h a t m i g h t b e m y feature today that allows users to c o n n e c t i o n ) b u t o v e r a l l a n host a live one-way video excellent experience. presentation right next to the deck Sponsor they are discussing. The feature, Participants can watch and listen called Zipcast, allows users to do in their browsers and use a text video beside any presentation - chat box. They can also call in to their own or someone else's. listen, through a partnership with The feature is free and ad F r e e C o n f e r e n c e C a l l s . c o m . supported for basic users- Presenters can control the SlideShare says it now sees an advancing of slides, but viewers amazing 45 million unique can go back and forth themselves visitors each month. Premium as well. users who pay $19 per month As part of the launch of the new have ads removed and can feature, the company has lined up

20 well-known tech industry presenters who will be giving deck 'n' vid chats throughout the rest of the week. SlideShare says it has developed the ability to record videos for

speaking to many. More advanced ZipCast-specific analytics may be forthcoming, but hair and make-up as a service isn't anything to hold your breath for. The video transmission is performed in part with HTML5 web sockets, with the resulting display in Adobe Flash. SlideShare's Ross Mayfield says more HTML5 is on the way, too. Will I use ZipCast in the future? I'd sure like to. I'd like to use it regularly, it's really fast, easy, effective, compelling and fun to replay alongside presentations, use. The fact that it was able to but will release that feature at a handle 40 viewers at once made later date. Two way video m e h a p p y , t o o . G o o d j o b , communication is also in the S l i d e S h a r e . D i s c u s s works, but latency is far less an issue when it's one person

Motorola Xoom Pricing Confirmed $799 Rue Liu (SlashGear) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:25:10 AM

After all the speculation and then the mysterious disappearance of a Best Buy ad, we finally have an official number for the Motorola Xoom price tag. Motorola chief executive, Sanjay Jha, confirmed that the Xoom will sell for $799 unsubsidized and $600 for the

WiFi-only version. “Competing with Apple you have to deliver premium products,” said Jha, adding that the Xoom software is also upgradable. “I am as focused on Android as I ever have been. As a result of Nokia adopting Microsoft it’s possible that some of the other players concentrate on Android,” said Jha. Motorola products this year will He also stated that almost all use Google’s Android platform

but that they would still like to see alternative options remain on the market. “I hope there will be at least three or four. I love Android, but I hope as hell there won’t be just one” [ Via Reuters] Relevant Entries on SlashGear • Motorola XOOM UK launch confirmed • $1,200 Motorola XOOM listing:

User Post: The Good Life On A Low Budget nospam@example.com (CJo) (Financiallyfit on Shine) Submitted at 2/16/2011 3:38:23 PM

Many of us are getting by with less these days, but there are ways to stretch your dollars and still have a little fun! Some folks have

been doing this for years, but for

others it's a new experience. Examine your budget and lifestyle to see if there are places that you can trim…

madness or mistake? • Motorola XOOM hits Best Buy Feb 17 for $700 • Motorola to launch Xoom in Europe in Q2 • $800 Motorola XOOM could price Honeycomb out of contention

Technology/ Culture/

Newstablet Edition

Intel ad: Is this the new MacBook Pro? We don't think so

Top 10 Things That Women Invented

Steven Sande (TUAW)

(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)

Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:30:00 PM

Submitted at 2/16/2011 8:00:56 AM

The Maciverse is all a-twitter this morning with speculation that an Intel promo photo is showing off the next-generation MacBook Pro. As you can see in the photo at right, there's a very thin laptop powered by the new Intel Sandy Bridge processor. We reported about a month ago that Spanish Mac site FAQMac.com had found an Intel promo showing an alleged Core i5 MacBook Pro that was to be given away. Somehow, people seem to be comparing that photo with the laptop seen in today's advertisement. Most likely, this is just a lot of breathless anticipation by a lot of MacBook Pro owners who wish their computer was as thin and sexy as a MacBook Air -- but with a lot more power. Let's think about this, folks. First, although there are abundant rumors about a MacBook Pro refresh appearing next month, we still don't know what it would look like and it's rare for Apple to let anyone, even Intel, see what their designs look like in advance. Next, this device doesn't appear to have the traditional iSight / FaceTime camera, and considering that cameras are built

At the end of the 20th century, only 10 percent of all patents were awarded to female inventors [source: Bedi]. When you compile a list of the most famous inventions of the past few centuries, few women will show up as the creators of those items. It's not that women lack ingenuity or a creative spirit, though; it's just that women have faced many hurdles in receiving credit for their ideas. Take the case of Sybilla Masters, a woman who lived in the American colonies. After observing Native American women, she came up with a new way to turn corn into cornmeal. She went to England to obtain a patent for her work, but laws at the time stipulated that women couldn't own property, which included intellectual property like a patent. Such property was considered to be owned by the woman's father or husband. In 1715, a patent for Sybilla Masters' product was issued, but the name on the document is that of her husband, Thomas. Such property laws prevented many women from acquiring patents for inventions several

into most Apple products these days, it seems like that would be a great loss. It also appears to be missing the optical drive, which isn't unprecedented -- after all, the MacBook Air doesn't have one -but would be a bit of a shock to MacBook Pro owners who are used to having that SuperDrive. On the other hand, the black case could be an indication that Jony Ive and crew are starting to move away from the aluminum and glass design metaphor towards lighter carbon fiber construction.

The opinion in the TUAW newsroom is that this is not a MacBook Pro; it's most likely a generic placeholder image. If we're wrong, I'll eat chocolatecovered bacon. [via CrunchGear] Intel ad: Is this the new MacBook Pro? We don't think so originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments

centuries ago. Women were also less likely to receive a technical education that would help them turn an ingenious idea into an actual product. Many women faced prejudice and ridicule when they sought help from men in actualizing their idea. And some women came up with ideas that would improve life in their households, only to see their inventions treated with scorn for being too domestic and thus unworthy of praise. Mary Kies was the first American woman to earn a patent in her own name. In 1809, she developed a way of weaving straw into hats that was an economic boon for New England. By receiving that piece of paper with her name on it, Kies led the way for other female inventors to take credit for their ideas. In this article, we'll salute 10 things invented by women. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Technology/ Culture/

Newstablet Edition

Fashion Week Rolls On Google Introduces One Pass, a Micropayment Service for Publishers With Kirsten, Vanessa, Audrey Watters (ReadWriteWeb)

though Google is simply asking for the normal service charges associated with billing via Google Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:35:30 AM Checkout (a 2% fee). Although there have been rumors One Pass can be used for both of Google's new micropayment Web and mobile content. So for system for publishers for some, readers, purchases via a One Pass the timing of this morning's news publisher will give them the "buy couldn't be better. Following once, read anywhere" - access to Apple's announcement yesterday the material on all their devices that it was rolling out its new via a single sign-on. (The devil is subscription service, a move that in the details, of course, as Google seems to have sparked debate, if does say users can "access content not panic among publishers and range of options with which they on connected, browser-enabled developers, Google has responded can offer their content - via devices and from mobile apps today with a new option for subscriptions, metered access, where the mobile OS terms permit publishers, one that seems to offer f r e e m i u m m o d e l s , c o u p o n publishers to access the web via far better terms, control, and discounts, or even single article the app for Google One Pass sales. Existing print subscribers transaction or authentication pricing. Google has just introduced can be given access to online services. Will that include iOS?) Google One Pass, a service that material. "We take care of the Currently Google One Pass will will let publishers set their own rest," says Google, including be available for publishers in prices and terms for their online running the payments through Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Google Checkout. content. Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. Rather than the 30% cut that Discuss Sponsor According to the announcement, Apple will take with its new One Pass will allow publishers a subscription plan, it appears as

Chace, and Happy Couples Allie Merriam (PopSugar) Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:51:46 AM

The Fashion Week fun kept coming yesterday in NYC, with Vanessa Hudgens continuing her front-row occupation by attending the Diesel Black Gold presentation alongside Chace Crawford. Vanessa, who's enjoying her very first immersion at the Lincoln Center tents, kept the photographs coming when she checked out hot pink-embellished Tibi with Olivia Palermo. Kirsten Dunst and Sofia Coppola joined forces with Kanye West himself to see the latest Rodarte creations, as Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld supported her pal Narciso Rodriguez. Rachel Roy, meanwhile, had Olivia and Dexter's Jennifer Carpenter turn out to see her knit-heavy collection. Michael Kors welcomed pals Catherine Zeta-

Jones and Michael Douglas to his show today, along with Emma Roberts, Bette Midler, Debra Messing, and Anjelica Huston. Vanessa treated herself to another day of dressing up as well for this morning's Yigal Azrouel extravaganza with Boardwalk Empire's Paz de la Huerta. Make sure to stay tuned to FabSugar, BellaSugar, and Fashionologie for the latest style and beauty news! View Slideshow ›

5 amazing ancient Egyptian inventions (Holy Kaw!)

Statue of Liberty and Big Ben. And the pyramids aren't all. Over the thousands of years that There may be no greater tribute ancient Egyptians thrived, they to a society's ingenuity and vision ushered in perhaps the most than the Great Pyramid of Egypt. advanced civilization the world Originally standing 481 feet (147 had ever known, and many of the meters) tall, the Great Pyramid fixtures of their society are still this list of amazing Egyptian towers over monuments like the commonplace. As you'll see in Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:40:00 AM

inventions, their creations changed everything from fashion to agriculture so drastically that we still see their influence today. • Eye Makeup: Since Egyptians first invented eye makeup as far back as 4000 B.C., it's never gone out of style. • Written Language: The

Egyptian writing system began with pictograms, the first of which date back to 6000 B.C. Full list at HowStuffWorks.com. Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

Newstablet Edition

Technology/ TV/

Susan Lucci & Wendie Malick Preview 'All My Children'/'Hot in Cleveland' Crossovers (VIDEO) Maggie Furlong (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/16/2011 6:00:00 AM

Filed under: Reality-Free, Celebrity Interviews, The Show Girl'All My Children' and'Hot in Cleveland' are crossing over ... sort of. AMC's reigning diva, Susan Lucci, is back in Cleveland for another catfight (Wednesday, Feb. 16, 10PM ET on TV Land), but once again, she's not playing Erica Kane. She's playing a fictionalized version of herself, the rival of HIC's leading lady, Victoria Chase (played by Wendie (CNET News.com) also the way Mac users will be through its own storefront. Thus Before that, Josh wrote about Malick). able to update the system software far, the company has kept mum everything from new Web start- And that's not the only crossover Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:17:52 AM on their phones when Microsoft about plans to bring Office to the ups, to remote-controlled robots the gals have up their sleeves. Microsoft's first app to hit the pushes out its first big update next new platform, short of saying the that watch your house. Next week, Malick will hit Pine Mac App Store(Credit: CNET) month. i d e a h a d b e e n u n d e r This entry passed through the Valley (Thursday, Feb. 24, 1PM Microsoft has brought its first Microsoft first offered up the c o n s i d e r a t i o n . Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is ET on ABC) to play Gertie, a piece of software to Apple's Mac software in beta in October, and (via Cult of Mac) your content and you're reading it housekeeper hired by Lucci's App Store. continues to offer it up as a If you have a question or on someone else's site, please read AMC alter ego, Erica Kane. The digital software storefront, standalone download on its own comment for Josh Lowensohn, our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ Get it? Sort of? Oh, just watch -which launched just last month, is site. and check out our interview with you can submit it here. However, content-only/faq.php n o w h o m e t o M i c r o s o f t ' s This is Microsoft's first piece of because our editors and writers Five Filters featured article: Lucci and Malick to hear more Windows Phone 7 Connector software on the Mac App Store, receive hundreds of requests, we Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In about the cast-swapping, networksoftware. This is the application and is unlikely to be the last. cannot tell you when you may The Crosshairs. crossing, genre-defying guest that lets Mac users sync up their Microsoft currently sells digital receive a response. spots right here. iTunes and iPhoto libraries with copies of Office for Mac through Josh Lowensohn joined CNET in Permalink| Email this| Linking Windows Phone 7 devices. It's direct download, but does it 2006 and now covers Microsoft. Blogs| Comments

Microsoft brings first app to the Mac App Store

Policy/

Newstablet Edition

Serious Debt Reduction Will Require Courage (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 2/15/2011 5:00:00 PM

Sen. Orrin Hatch has long been one of my favorite people in Congress. In years past, I testified in front of him several times when he chaired the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, and I always enjoyed the intellectual give-andtake. He is a gentleman, a mensch and a real legislator. The Utah Republican is a fierce partisan and a bedrock conservative, but he has frequently tried to marry his principles with a desire to find solutions to problems, of course with the model being his storied friendship and working relationship with the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). So I winced when I saw that he had apologized for his vote in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program when heckled about it at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "Not a lot of people are willing to say they're sorry," Hatch said. "But I will." Here is the reality. Barely 12 cents on every federal dollar spent is in the nonsecurity discretionary budget... the overfocus on the 12 cents could leave the U.S. hollowed out, damaging education, infrastructure, science, health and basic research Let's rewind back to the fall of 2008, and imagine what would have happened if Congress had

rejected the bailout (as the House did in its first iteration). The odds are overwhelming that we would have seen a global credit freeze, plunging the fragile global economy into depression, or at least a deep, deep recession. We would still be feeling the effects in a big way now. The consequences not just for jobs and economic growth, but for the very stability of democratic regimes in many countries in Eastern and Western Europe, not to mention Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere, would have been profound, negative and frightening. Instead, we had a program that was and is deeply unpopular--and wildly successful. It did not cost taxpayers its initial commitment of $700 billion, though it would have been worth the price. It didn't cost half that amount--or a quarter, or a 10th of it. It may not cost taxpayers a dime in the end. It will go down, I am convinced, as a heroic act on the part of Congress, even though it unfortunately ended up rewarding many scoundrels and miscreants. Lawmakers who voted for it should not apologize for their votes--much less, as some craven ones have, demagogue against it. Orrin, you did the right thing, for the right reasons. Please don't start down a path of apologizing for being a good and conscientious public servant. You won't gain anything with angry populists, but you risk losing some of the luster

on your solid reputation. With that off my chest, a few observations on the budget battles ahead. The House Republican appropriations plan--that is, the one adopted under threat of party mutiny by Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and carried out by Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.)--might actually provide a teachable moment. Most Americans, we know from surveys, have not a clue what is in the federal budget. Their anger at Washington, D.C., and cynicism about Congress have people believing it is all waste, fraud, abuse, earmarks and foreign aid. Americans like the bulk of the programs that actually make up government. They have been told repeatedly that we can eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse, and that deficits will melt away without anybody except deadbeats feeling any pain. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), expressing support for an initiative by his colleague Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to cut $500 billion from the budget, said recently, "I could give you $350 billion worth of cuts tomorrow that nobody would miss," adding that those who doubted it were "uninformed." Here is the reality. Barely 12 cents on every federal dollar spent is in the nonsecurity discretionary budget. Just less than 24 cents on each dollar goes to defense. Six and a half cents goes to interest on the debt. Almost 41 cents on every budget dollar goes to the

big three social insurance programs: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. And the remaining 16 cents are for "other" mandatory programs, including things such as veterans' benefits and farm subsidies. It is the first 12 cents that would be subject, under the House Republican plan, to cuts of up to 30 percent across the board starting next month, with many popular agencies and programs eliminated or decimated virtually on the spot, with little regard for investments in the future or basic safety nets for people in need at a time of economic turmoil. Defense gets barely a scratch. The rest of the budget is largely unscathed. When voters see what is being cut, I suspect many will say, "That's not what we meant!" Most "informed" observers, including Coburn, who cast a courageous vote in favor of the president's debt commission plan, understand that we will not make serious progress on the debt without focusing on the big-ticket items and on revenues; most, other than Coburn and his colleagues, understand that the overfocus on the 12 cents could leave the U.S. hollowed out, damaging education, infrastructure, science, health and basic research, among other things, and leaving us with a malnourished and unprepared workforce in the future. My greatest disappointment in the president's State of the Union

message was his failure to embrace at least the larger structure of his own debt commission plan and demand that Congress put it into legislative language and begin debate on its components. It would have been wise substantively and brilliant politically, putting his adversaries on the defensive. His budget at least makes some smart priority choices, calling for an infrastructure bank and redirecting some spending toward investment in the future. But it still avoids the real, tough choices. Perhaps he can redeem the lost opportunity by seizing the initiative--starting with a Ross Perot-type television address, with hand-made charts, to educate the "uninformed" among us about what the federal government actually does with each tax dollar, and what it would take to get us out of the ditch. Norm Ornstein is a Resident Scholar in Political Studies at AEI. Photo Credit: iStockphoto/ DNY59 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Policy/

Newstablet Edition

Obama Budget Offers Inertia, Not Hope and Change (AEI.Org: Articles)

There was a little countervailing opinion, but not much. The New Republic's Jonathan ("I hate One way to judge the merits of G e o r g e W . B u s h " ) C h a i t t h e b u d g e t B a r a c k O b a m a headlined his comment, "Why unveiled this week is by the Obama's budget is OK." He thinks comments of his political allies. it might be a successful political "It's not enough to focus primarily ploy. on the non-security discretionary In his Tuesday news conference, part of the budget," said Senate Obama was reduced to calling for Budget Committee Chairman "patience" and saying he wanted Kent Conrad. to have an "adult conversation" Erskine Bowles, the Democrat with Republicans on entitlement whom Obama appointed as co- spending. c h a i r m a n o f h i s f i s c a l To understand what may be commission, said the budget goes ahead, it's useful to distinguish "nowhere near where they will between budgets for three periods have to go to resolve our fiscal -- fiscal 2011, fiscal 2012 and the n i g h t m a r e . " " T h e p r e s i d e n t out years thereafter. punted," began the editorial of the For fiscal 2011, which began Oct. Washington Post, which endorsed 1, the government is now being Obama in 2008. The paper noted funded by a continuing resolution tartly that he "chose to duck" the that expires on March 4. House fiscal c o m m i s s i o n ' s Republican leaders initially recommendations. promised to cut that by $57 Conventional wisdom is that billion, arguing that that fulfilled voters like spending cuts in the their campaign promise to chop abstract but oppose any specific $100 billion because the fiscal cuts except in foreign aid. year is already five months old. "I don't need to tell you what I But the freshmen objected, and t h i n k o f t h e b u d g e t : i t ' s the leadership agreed to cut the d i s a s t r o u s , " w r o t e A t l a n t i c full $100 billion. economics blogger (and Obama The conventional wisdom is that voter) Megan McArdle. "I'm the parties won't be able to agree starting to think it's time to panic." o n f u n d i n g l e v e l s f o r t h e Submitted at 2/15/2011 5:00:00 PM

remainder of fiscal 2011. This could result in a government shutdown, like the one that occurred in 1995-96 when Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich failed to agree on terms for continuing to fund government operations. That was supposedly disastrous for the Republicans. Actually it worked out well both for Clinton and for House Republicans, who lost only nine seats in 1996 -- a lot fewer than the 63 that the Democrats lost last November. Moreover, in 1995-96 we had healthy economic growth and the case for cuts was much weaker. Now there's a much stronger argument that we can't afford the increased spending Obama and Nancy Pelosi produced in 200910. For fiscal 2012, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan said he'll present a budget that "will include real entitlement reforms." There's obviously some political risk here. Social Security is considered the third rail of American politics, and many Republicans cited Medicare cuts as one of the defects of Obamacare. But there's also some risk in not addressing entitlements. Obama's fiscal 2012 budget does nothing to

address the looming problems of Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. That looks less like "hope and change" and more like "inertia and despair." So do his budget plans for the out years beyond fiscal 2012, which don't address entitlements and are larded with gimmicks. The charitable deduction for high earners would be cut permanently (in effect transferring money from charities to the government) to pay for a few years of Alternative Minimum Tax fixes. The patent period for biologic drugs, set by the last Congress, would be reduced to pay for a few years of the annual Medicare "doc fix." In November 2010, the voters rejected the vast increase in the size and scope of government of the Obama Democrats. They had increased domestic discretionary spending by 24 percent, and by more than 80 percent if you count the stimulus package. Now the president is trying to salvage most of what was intended to be a permanent increase of government's share of the economy by calling for dribs and drabs of cuts and freezing total discretionary spending at a much higher level than ever

before. This may be, as Chait suggests, a successful short-term political ploy, while being obviously longterm bad public policy. Conventional wisdom is that voters like spending cuts in the abstract but oppose any specific cuts except in foreign aid. But conventional wisdom also said that the stimulus package and Obamacare would be popular. The Republicans, following where the voters led, are betting conventional wisdom is wrong again. Michael Barone is a Resident Fellow in American Politics at AEI. Photo Credit: stock.xchang/ shuttermom This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Policy/

Newstablet Edition

Hearing Obama in Tehran: Apply Lessons from Egypt to Iran-While Understanding One Big ... (AEI.Org: Articles)

met by the Egyptian government." Give Obama's team credit for applying the lessons of Cairo to Hearing Obama in Tehran: Apply Tehran. Lessons from Egypt to Iran-- The Obama administration's new While Understanding One Big approach also stands in sharp Difference contrast to its previous posture The day Egyptian President toward Iranian demonstrators. In Hosni Mubarak resigned, Vice 2009, fearing that too much President Joe Biden declared, "I support for the demonstrators say to our Iranian friends: Let might undercut his diplomatic your people march. Let your o u t r e a c h t o t h e I r a n i a n people speak. Release your government, Obama hesitated to people." Robert Gibbs, in his last encourage the Green Movement. news conference as White House Even as demonstrators in Tehran spokesman, echoed Biden: "The chanted, "Obama, you're either Iranian government should allow with us or against us," he stood the Iranian people to exercise the aside. very same right of peaceful Still, words will not be enough to assembly and the ability to bring the Iranian people their communicate their desires." freedom. President Obama, meanwhile, Across the Middle East, Iran and warned regional regimes that they the United States have been "can't maintain power through engaged in a proxy war for coercion." influence. Shortly after Obama Their call stands in contrast to the called on the Iranian regime to administration's posture at the unclench its fist, the deputy head start of the Egyptian unrest. Then, of the Revolutionary Guard Biden used a PBS NewsHour declared American influence to be appearance to deny that Mubarak in retreat not only in Afghanistan w a s a d i c t a t o r , a n d G i b b s and Iraq, but also in Lebanon and explained, "It is not up to us to Gaza. A week before Mubarak's determine when the grievances of ultimate fall, Supreme Leader Ali the Egyptian people have been Khamenei gave his official Submitted at 2/15/2011 5:00:00 PM

sermon-Iran's equivalent of a State of the Union address-in which he declared, "Events in Egypt, Tunisia and some other countries have a special meaning for the Iranian nation. We have always predicted that our revolution would lead to an Islamic awakening." The following week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used a Tehran rally to address the Egyptian people. "It is your right to be free. Popular sovereignty is your right as well," he declared. "It is your right to choose what type of rulers and who exactly you want. It is your right to govern." For the Obama administration to call Ahmadinejad's bluff was as brilliant as it was overdue. After all, American fears of Iran's nuclear program have far less to do with nuclear weapons than they do with the regime that would yield them. The Iranian people are far more moderate than their government, and if they can unravel the Islamic Republic, then the Middle East might be a far different place. After all, when unpaid Iranian workers marched in 2002, they

adopted the slogan, "Forget about Palestine and think about us." Four years later, Iranians protested government grants of money to Hezbollah following that group's war with Israel. Moral clarity-a major ingredient of so-called "neoconservative" foreign policy-should be America's new realism. No matter how sincere Obama has been in his outreach to Iran's leadership, he must recognize that rapprochement is impossible: Khamenei believes his regime to be in an existential struggle with the United States. Against this backdrop, silence is never a virtue. Direct outreach to the Iranian people-encouraging their aspiration for freedom-is not just morally the right thing to do; it strengthens American national security. Still, words will not be enough to bring the Iranian people their freedom. Egypt mans its army by conscription. The protesters in Tahrir Square cheered the Egyptian Army because the soldiers were the people. The Iranian people, on the other hand, have a formidable opponent in the Revolutionary Guard, an elite

force charged with defending Iran not only from foreign enemies, but also from internal challenges. Iranians know the guardsmen will not hesitate to use brute force. They are, in effect, Khamenei's storm troopers. Breaking the Revolutionary Guard will not be easy. Iran is a tinderbox. The question is whether the regime can extinguish flames quicker than the Iranian public can ignite them. Through words and sanctions, if America helps to drive a wedge between the Revolutionary Guard and the Iranian people, we might succeed. At the very least, we will be on the right side of history. Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at AEI. Photo Credit: Flickr user .faramarz/Creative Commons This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Economy/

Newstablet Edition

How To Create Healthy Organic Inflation, And Why Bernanke Refuses To Do It Charles Hugh Smith (Money Game) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:14:56 AM

Rising prices driven by speculation is not the same as organic inflation, and diverting national income to the banks will not create organic inflation. The Federal Reserve's stated goal is to create modest inflation. Unfortunately they don't grasp the difference between speculative inflation and organic inflation. The Fed's official goals are to stabilize prices and maintain employment, and its de facto policy to achieve these lofty, high -minded goals is to divert huge sums of the national income to the insolvent banking sector. The Fed also seeks to bail out the insolvent debt machine by generating some nice solid inflation, to boost the impaired assets held by banks. In other words, the Fed is specifically seeking to create asset inflation, which will eventually enable the banks to appear marginally solvent as their real estate and other assets rise in value. Let's turn to the origins of the Fed inflation policy, as stated by Chairman Ben Bernanke in his various papers and speeches: deflation VS inflation: an Austrian Analysis: In a paper from which he earned the sobriquet "Helicopter Ben," Chairman Bernanke provided a

thought experiment to demonstrate that any deflation could be defeated: most economists would agree that a large enough helicopter drop [of newly created money] must raise the price level...at some point the public would attempt to convert its increased real wealth into goods and services, spending that would increase aggregate demand and prices. In a speech a few years later,

Bernanke detailed the policy mechanism by which the circulation of dollars might be increased at will: If the Treasury issued debt to purchase private assets and the Fed then purchased an equal amount of Treasury debt with newly created money, the whole operation would be the economic equivalent of direct open-market operations in private assets. "We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a

As a result, there's no followthrough of higher spending. Bernanke's policies have failed to generate higher spending for a number of fundamental reasons. The distinction between housing assets and equity assets is absolutely critical, but it's completely lost on the Fed. We can see Bernanke's game plan in action in the most recent Fed Flow of Funds. Housing equity has plummeted roughly $6 trillion from the bubble peak to Q3 2010 (and it has slipped further since): $22.6 trillion to $16.5 trillion. Stocks and bonds, meanwhile, have gained $6 trillion--a nice symmetry. In Q1 2009, corporate equities ($5 T), mutual funds ($3.1 T) and pension fund reserves ($10.4 T) added up to $18.5 trillion. By Q3 2010, these had risen smartly to $24.4 trillion (corporate equities $7.8 T, mutual funds $4.4 T and pension fund reserves $12.2 T) Housing is the primary household determined government can asset for roughly 2/3 of U.S. always generate higher spending households, while stocks and and hence positive inflation." bonds are the primary asset for Here's the problem with only the top 5%. So what Bernanke's "solution:" the assets Bernanke has effectively overseen he's goosed ever higher (stocks is a massive transfer of private a n d b o n d s ) a r e o n l y h e l d wealth. indirectly via pension funds for He's also accomplished a the bottom 80% of the populace. stupendous transfer of national Only the top 10% of the citizenry income to the financial Elites in own enough stocks and bonds directly to experience the HOW page 47 "increased real wealth."

Economy/

Newstablet Edition

The Next Borrow-Short Lend-Long Guaranteed to Blow Up Bank Lending Scheme; Citigroup, Chase, Bank of America CD Ripoff noreply@blogger.com (Michael Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis) Submitted at 2/16/2011 2:33:00 AM

Borrow-short lend-long strategies have caused more pain and grief than nearly any play in the book. They are virtually guaranteed to blow up given enough time if the duration mismatch and leverage is too great. For those who do not know what I am describing, a couple examples below will help explain. The first example is a look at "cost of funds" and guaranteed profits that banks can make. It is not a borrow-short lend-long strategy but will morph into such a scheme as I vary the parameters. Citigroup CDs Inquiring minds investigating Citigroup's cost of funds note that Citigroup 5 year CDs yield a mere 1.5%. For this example, Citigroup's cost of funds is 1.5%, the rate it pays depositors. Here are a few snips from Citi's website. Who said there are no guarantees in life? Some things in life are a sure thing. Like a Citibank CD, which offers a guaranteed—and highly competitive—interest rate. You also get a wide range of terms, from 3 months to 5 years. Guaranteed Ripoff

Citigroup has the gall to brag about "guarantees in life" when the "guarantee" in question is a complete ripoff. It's a ripoff because 5-year US treasuries currently yield 2.35%. Anyone buying CDs at less than the treasury yield rate is a fool. Rates at Bank of America, Northern Trust, JPMorgan Chase I will tie this together shortly, but first make note that the Northern Trust, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase offer even lower 5-Year CD rates. Here are some rates courtesy of Bankrate.Com as of 2011-02-15. According to Bankrate, national average for 5 year CDs is 1.61% and the rock bottom low is .95%. The site average is 1.98% and the top yielding 5-year CD yields 2.75%. Thus Citigroup's claim of competitive rates is absurd. Although Bank of America makes no such claims, its CD rate is priced so preposterously low, that Bank of America must not even want to deal with them. Alternatively, B of A has an incredibly large pool of moronic depositors begging to be ripped off. Guaranteed Free Money Anyone buying 5-year CDs from Citigroup, Bank of America, Northern Trust, or JPMorgan Chase is giving those banks a shot at guaranteed free money.

All those banks have to do is take that money and invest in 5-year US treasuries to have a guaranteed profit. Here are the reasons for that statement.

Borrowing-Short and LendingLong Please note that those 5-year CDs are borrowed money. Banks have to pay that money back plus interest (pathetic interest in this • There is no duration mismatch. case) to the depositor. Banks keep The banks secure funding for 5 those deposits on the book as a years and invest that money for 5 liability. years. However, what if the banks • The US government is not borrowed money for 5 years and going to default no matter what lent it out for 21 years? Perhaps n o n s e n s e y o u m a y h e a r banks could get 4% interest on elsewhere. those loans (much higher if they assume more risk), but what if Purists may point out the play is interest rates 5 years from now are not entirely risk-free because 6%? people can pay a penalty, cash All that has to happen to turn this out the CD, then take the money scheme into a guaranteed loss for elsewhere. However, from a the bank is for the cost of funds practical standpoint, fools dumb (CDs, savings accounts, or enough to accept 1.5% or lower borrowing from the Fed), to rise are probably not bright enough to above the rate the bank lent that pay a penalty and take the money money out. elsewhere even if r a t e s Borrowing-short and lendingdramatically shoot up. long thus poses a significant risk

if interest rates raise. Moreover, duration mismatch and rising cost of funds are not the only risks. Banks also need to lend at a rate sufficiently high to cover default risk. To be fair, banks can hedge the risk of rising rates, but then one must ask "who is the counterparty to that hedging risk, and what happens if they blow up?" The Next Borrow-Short LendLong Guaranteed to Blow Scheme With the discussion about duration mismatch out in the open, please consider Banks Go Straight to Public Borrowers Banks are setting aside billions of dollars to do something that until now was rarely heard of: making big loans to cities, states, schools and other public borrowers that otherwise might have turned to the bond market. When Riverside, Calif., was ironing out a bond offering recently to expand its performingarts center, several banks pitched a radical idea: Why not take out a loan instead? The city scrapped the bond plan and borrowed $25 million from City National Bank in Los Angeles. "This was a method we'd never even heard of before," says Scott Catlett, the city's assistant finance director. He says Riverside now NEXT page 49

Newstablet Edition

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the banking sector by lowering interest rates to zero (ZIRP). Back in the low inflation 1960s, banks and savings and loans were required to pay 5.25% on all savings. Cash, in other words, generated substantial income for ordinary savers. The idea with ZIRP is to loan the banks essentially free money, which they can lend out at between 5% and 12% (or higher), generating "free" profits. The Fed's plan is to sluice these gigantic profits to banks so they can recapitalize their insolvent balance sheets without any direct handouts. But ZIRP is nothing but an indirect transfer of wealth from the private sector (now completely deprived of any interest income) to the banks. The Fed's policies allow for only two ways to access this newly created "increase in real wealth" for the top 10%: sell the assets or borrow money from the banks. If people cash out their stock gains, then that would automatically push stocks lower, bollixing the game plan. The Fed's intention is to "nudge" the populace into borrowing more money from the banks at nominally high rates of interest (anything above 0% is pure profit for the banks). Unfortunately for the Fed, those with rising assets are no longer hankering for higher debt levels, and the bottom 80% are no longer qualified to borrow. So what we have is a speculative asset inflation which is spilling over into commodities as hot money borrowed for next to nothing

seeks higher returns anywhere on the planet. Contrast this with organic inflation, in which people with lots of free cash are chasing limited goods and services. Inflation itself is a transfer of wealth. As noted in the paper linked above: In short, the true crux of deflation is that it does not hide the redistribution going hand in hand with changes in the quantity of money. It entails visible misery for many people, to the benefit of equally visible winners. This starkly contrasts with inflation, which creates anonymous winners at the expense of anonymous losers. Inflation is a secret rip-off and thus the perfect vehicle for the exploitation of a population through its (false) elites, whereas deflation means open redistribution through bankruptcy according to the law. The reason that public sentiment has always been biased against monetary deflation can be found in the manner in which wealth transfer occurs under inflationary and deflationary environments. During an inflationary credit expansion, wealth is transferred from the public in general to the earliest recipients of the newly created credit money. In practice the earliest recipients are interest groups with the strongest political connections to the State and, in particular, the State institutions that control monetary policy (i.e., the Federal Reserve in the United States).

Importantly, the wealth transfer that takes place during an inflation is hidden and largely unrecognized by the majority of the population. The population is unaware that the supply of money is increasing and the attendant rise in prices, ostensibly beneficial to business, initially produces [a] general state of euphoria, a false sense of well-being, in which everybody seems to prosper. Those who without inflation would have made high profits make still higher ones. Those who would have made normal profits make unusually high ones. And not only businesses which were near failure but even some which ought to fail are kept above water by the unexpected boom. There is a general excess of demand over supply--all is saleable and everybody can continue what he had been doing. And here precisely lies the answer to why the State prefers a policy of controlled inflation. Only in an inflationary environment can State largesse be conferred to the politically wellconnected without raising public ire. The widespread and visible transfers of property through bankruptcy that must take place during a deflation are often politically destabilizing and thus highly unappealing to any regime. A sense of injustice grows within the population as banks are saved from the folly of their misguided investments with taxpayer-funded bailouts, while debtors with no political clout have property seized in bankruptcy.

Here is where we are in a nutshell. The general populace has seen its income decline as the Fed's ZIRP policy has channeled their interest income directly into the banks, and as their wages stagnate. Yet thanks to the speculative inflation engineered by the Fed, prices are rising. In an organic inflation, wages and interest income would both be rising along with prices. So the direct result of the Fed's policies is higher costs and the transfer of national income to the banks. The average household has seen its income and its asset base (housing) stagnate or decline. Meanwhile, the equities market, which directly "increases real wealth" in only the top 10%, has risen over 80% from the Q1 2009 low. If the bottom 80% are seeing income and assets stagnate or decline, how can you possibly get organic inflation? Answer: you can't. And speculative inflation only benefits the top financial players, not the general populace. If we combine this chart and the Fed Flow of Funds data, we find that mortgages total $10.1 trillion and other consumer debt is about $3 trillion. You want to create organic inflation, driven by consumers with plenty of cash chasing goods and services? Here's how: 1. Reinstate the policy of paying 5.25% on all savings, effectively transferring wealth back from banks to citizens. If the banks can't manage to do so and remain

solvent, then close them down and liquidiate their assets and liabilities. Others will rise to take their places. 2. Print $5 trillion in cash, not credit, and liquidate all consumer debt and a couple trillion in mortgage debt for those who are not hopelessly underwater. 3. Aggressively cram down underwater mortgages onto the banks, forcing them to liquidate all their bad debt. Yes, this will reveal them as insolvent, but the goal here is not to save the financial Elites' impaired assets, it's to reset the housing market by clearing off all the impaired debt in the system. By resetting the consumer balance sheet and paying interest, then you would be putting cash into households which could be spent in the real economy. Is this a wise or prudent policy? I don't know. The goal here was not to assess that question, it was simply to follow up on the goal of creating inflation. If you want organic inflation, you have to divert the national income from the banks to the citizenry, and you have to reset the housing market. The Fed's policies cannot create organic inflation, because all the Fed is doing is transferring wealth to the nation's Elites. Their spending on luxuries and fine dining are not broadbased enough to generate organic inflation in the entire economy. Borrowing money does not drive organic inflation: higher incomes HOW page 49

Economy/

Newstablet Edition

Population Adjusted Retail Sales and the "Real" Retail Sales Depression; 3 Factors to Consider Going Forward noreply@blogger.com (Michael Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)

The Bad News

• State expenses are way higher than 2008 In Retail Sales Rise 7th Straight • Job growth is anemic and will M o n t h , N o w A b o v e P r e - likely stay that way Recession Peak; Making Sense of • Stimulus money has been spent the Numbers; Housing and Auto • Congress is unlikely to bail out Perspective I questioned whether states retail sales are really rising and • Interest rates are higher posted some charts of autos, • Mortgage rates are higher housing, and sales tax data (the • Gas prices are higher true measure of retail sales). • Congress is seeking spending Housing is not a part of retail cuts sales but housing does affect retail • States are hiking sales and sales because of appliance sales, income taxes c a r p e t , p a i n t , f i x t u r e s , • Property taxes are rising in landscaping, etc. spite of falling home prices This was my conclusion. Car • Home prices are falling sales are not up in number, but they are up in price. The same Ironically, points 4, 8, and 11 applies to food, and many other are good things for the long-term items. Population is also growing. health of the economy but All of those things need to be economists will not see it that way factored into the equation. because it will impact short-term Even if one accepts the retail growth. Population Adjusted survey is accurate (I don't because Retail Sales it misses too many small stores I did not factor in population that went out of business and are growth but noted that it should be still closed), real sales have done. "Dshort" did factor it in and certainly not recovered. That puts has a nice set of charts that pressure on states because suggest The "Real" Consumer expenses, especially medical Economy Remains in Depression expenses and pension benefits Monthly Retail Sales With have soared. Regression Lines The Good News The green trendline is a regression through the entire data • The good news (if you believe series. The latest sales figure is it), is that retail sales are finally 8.1% below the green line end back to January 2008 levels. point. The blue line is a regression

to downsize their lifestyles. • Those wanting to downsize their houses and simplify their lifestyle have no one to sell to. This will keep enormous downward pressure on home prices. • Those fresh out of college cannot afford and will not buy the cars and homes their parents had. • Many college graduates are despondent over being hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt with no way to pay it back. • Student loans programs benefit no one but schools and teachers. Eventually students will revolt.

Submitted at 2/15/2011 5:24:00 PM

Taxes, Stimulus, Pensions through the end of 2007 and extrapolated to the present. Thus, the blue line excludes the impact of the Financial Crisis. The latest sales figure is 16.1% below the blue line end point. [Mish note: the above chart is not adjusted for population growth and income. The following chart is] Population Adjusted Retail Sales Consider: During the past 21 years, the U.S. population has grown by over 22% while the dollar has lost about 37% of its purchasing power to inflation. When we adjust accordingly, the rebound in retail sales from the bottom in April 2009 merely gets us back to the per capita spending during the late summer of 1999. Retail sales have been recovering

since the trough in 2009. But the "real" consumer economy, adjusted for population growth still in a state of depression — 8.3% below its all-time high in January 2006. Dshort has some great charts. Inquiring minds will want to give his site a closer look. Long Term Retail Spending Factors Three factors that need to be discussed in light of retail spending trends are demographics, taxes, and changing consumer attitudes towards debt. Demographics • Boomers are past their peak earning years and headed for retirement. • Boomers in aggregate will need

• Many states are raising sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes and fees. This takes money out of consumer pockets to feed untenable wages and benefits for public union workers. • Cities and states are bankrupt over untenable public union wages and benefits. Either wages and benefits must fall or taxes have to go up. • The federal government will either raise taxes, cut spending or both. Either way will put a damper on growth and retail spending. Raising taxes will put a long-term damper on growth. Cutting spending is good for the long haul but will put a short-term POPULATION page 52

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intends to seek a bank loan for a conference center that it had planned to build with bonds. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is devoting billions of dollars to direct loans this year to both refinance deals and for new projects, according to a bank official. Last year, the bank made a few hundred million dollars of direct loans to municipalities. Now, the bank would consider making a single loan for hundreds of millions of dollars, the official said. It also is dispatching teams to explain the concept to wary public borrowers. Citibank also is courting municipal borrowers with direct loans, according to several bond issuers. A spokesman for the Citigroup Inc. unit declined to comment. "This used to be unheard of," says Eric Friedland, managing director of public finance at Fitch Ratings, noting that in the past, banks would occasionally loan a municipality less than $1 million to finance projects too small for a bond offering. For bigger loans, they would form a syndicate with other lenders. It remains to be seen what land mines may be lurking for lenders and borrowers. Some municipalities are going through

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significant struggles, raising questions about whether they will prove good credits. And direct loans are less liquid, meaning banks can't sell them as easily as bonds. For banks, this is a potentially lucrative business at a time when they are sitting on cash that isn't earning huge interest and are reluctant to make loans for mortgages and other areas they see as risky. In the event of a bankruptcy, analysts say, it is unlikely that a bank extending a direct loan would be given priority over bondholders. The city saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in issuance costs, says Mr. Catlett, the assistant finance director. Plus, he says, the interest rate is 3.85% versus at least 5% if it had floated a public offering. The term is slightly lower—21 years versus perhaps 30 years in the bond market. "This was all new to us," he says. "I don't know now when we'll go back to the bond market. This is easier." Fed or FDIC Should Stop this Fraudulent Scheme Now The Fed or FDIC should step in right now. There is no way banks can secure cost of funds for 21 years for 3.85%. Moreover, the

risk of default is hardly zero, and banks will not be first in line should default happen. I think borrowing-short and lending-long is fraudulent. How can you lend something for 21 years when you only have the right to use it for 3, 5, or 7? Want to know what those banks thinking? This is what .... • They are too big too fail • The Fed will bail them out • Cities won't default but who cares anyway because the Fed will bail them out • They have a hot pile of cash the Fed crammed down their throats at 0% and they want to put it to use • They got burnt badly on mortgages and home equity loans so they need to find something new • One idiot bank made an absurdly risky deal so like sheep they all want to do it Right now they are all thinking there is nothing to lose from this. The Fed or Congress will bail them out at taxpayer expense if they get in trouble. Then, when this does get out of control and blows sky high, they will all scream, "no one could possibly have seen it coming".

Addendum: For a follow-up post with further discussion including an email from a reader about someone being taken advantage of by B of A, please see Bank of America Preys on Elderly Depositors; Culture of Greed, Arrogance, Incompetence. Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http:// www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

and free cash drive organic inflation. If you want inflation, then you have to increase the incomes and assets of 60% of the households, not just the top sliver who own most of the financial assets. This post was published at the author's blog > Join the conversation about this story »

Economy/ TV/

Newstablet Edition

Bank of America Preys on Elderly Depositors; Culture of Greed, Arrogance, Incompetence noreply@blogger.com (Michael Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:56:00 AM

In Citigroup, Chase, Bank of America CD Ripoff I talked about guaranteed to blow up BorrowShort Lend-Long strategies that banks are using. I also talked about absurdly low CD rates offered by Bank of America, Northern Trust, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup. Here is the pertinent snip regarding CDs with a couple additions in brackets. According to Bankrate, national average for 5 year CDs is 1.61% and the rock bottom low is .95%. The site average is 1.98% and the top yielding 5-year CD yields 2.75%. Thus Citigroup's claim of competitive rates is absurd. [Citigroup 5 year CDs yield 1.5%] Although Bank of America makes no such claims, its CD rate is priced so preposterously low, that Bank of America must not even want to deal with them. Alternatively, B of A has an incredibly large pool of moronic depositors begging to be ripped off. [Bank of America 5 year CDs

yield 0.95% (annualized monthly not daily to extract every possible cent from its clients it is blatantly ripping off] In response to the possibility that " Bank of America has an incredibly large pool of moronic depositors begging to be ripped off", I received this email from a reader. Hi Mish I'll tell you what fools buy Bank of America CDs at less than treasury rates. Little old ladies do. B of A has found that little old ladies will do just about whatever a good looking middle aged "financial advisor" tells them to do. My mother-in-law complained about the value of her investments falling, and I found that they had split her $125,000 investment into three parts. $50k was in an account that paid 0.05% interest. Yes, the decimal point is in the right spot. 50K was in 20 year Freddy Mac bonds and 25k was in 30 year Fanny Mae bonds. I hit the roof! I told her that all three investments were a bad idea, and that she ought to move her money to 3, 5 and 7 year treasuries. Fortunately she is taking my advice. She called the bank, and the nice

man explained to her that the up and down in valuation didn't matter since she'd get all her money back at maturity. The bonds will mature around her 110th and 120th birthdays. I believe that B of A's "financial advisors" serve only the interest of the bank. They seem to me to be more than willing to complete the screw job to those on fixed income that Bernanke has started by pushing interest rates so low. Best Regards, Bill Culture of Greed, Arrogance, Incompetence Telling someone not to worry about losses on assets held to maturity, when maturity would put an investor at age 110 or 120 is either gross incompetence or gross greed. I am quite sure that Bank of America will offer some nonsense that this is an isolated case not reflective of their desire to blatantly rip off its client base. Yeah right. Offering CDs at .95% annualized monthly instead of daily (to extract every possible last cent) is proof enough of what they are doing. By the way, this is exactly why banks do not tighter regulation

regarding fiduciary responsibility. If you have an elderly parent or grandparent with money tied up in CDs or in investments at Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase or for that matter any place, please do what you can to make sure they are not being ripped off and their investments are suited to their age and risk tolerance. Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http:// www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

What's On Tonight: 'American Idol,' 'The Middle,' 'Criminal Minds,' 'Top Chef' Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/16/2011 6:30:00 AM

Filed under: Reality-Free, TV Previews Here's what's on TV tonight (all times Eastern). Check your local TV listings for the full schedule. Check Local Listings for Time Syndicated:'Jeopardy': Jennings and Rutter vs. IBM's Watson (conclusion) 7PM Cartoon Network:'Sim-Bionic Titan' 8:00 ABC:'The Middle' CBS:'Survivor: Redemption Island'(season premiere) NBC:'Minute to Win It'(two episodes) FOX:'American Idol' PBS:'Nova scienceNOW' Nicktoons:'Dragon Ball Z Kai' After the jump, the rest of the schedule and the late-night talk shows. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

Economy/ Sports/

Newstablet Edition

Deutsche Bank Has Another Excuse For Weak January Retail Sales Joe Weisenthal (Money Game) Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:00:52 PM

to 15M tax payers filed before February 2 with 12 to 13M refunds distributed by the IRS during that period. Hence, around 85% of "early filers" for the month of January received refunds and the average refund was approximately $3,000. The cumulative dollar amount of refunds paid out by the IRS in the first month of the year was approximately $39B. Assuming that the entire refund was spent in the same month, the delayed refunds would account for almost 10% of total retail sales in January ($382B).

large ticket durable goods industries, points to at least a minor impact. This makes sense because according to the 2009 TurboTax survey previously cited; 82% of early filers receive refunds-if they know they are going to receive a refund, it is possible they are filing early to make a specific debt payment or to make a significantly large purchase. If we assume that half of the $39B in early refunds distributed in 2006 went towards debt and the other half was spent in the same month, the impact on retail sales is even less, approximately 4%. Either way, the delayed returns It is not likely however that the should only have a temporary delayed returns had that large of impact and forecasters may have an impact for two reasons: One, to adjust their estimates for according to a TurboTax study February accordingly given the done in 2009, 46% of "early two week delay. As far as we filers" use some portion of their know, there has not been a refund to pay down debt. Two, comparable period where the IRS there is no way of knowing has had to delay processing tax whether the remainder of the returns. In any event, the IRS refund was spent within the same delays are temporary, so we month. Moreover, any delay should see a sizeable snapback in should eventually be recouped in retail sales within the next couple later months. What we can say is of months. that this delay probably had a Join the conversation about this minor impact, and anecdotal story Âť evidence from corporate management teams, especially in

L.A. Confidential: Tour Takes Turn Down 'Hogan's Alley' Mick Elliott (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:45:00 AM

Filed under: PGA It's easy for golf to feel a little romantic about this week's Northern Trust Open. By any name, it's the old Los Angeles Open at Riviera Country Club. This is the course that Ben Hogan all but made his own, turning it into "Hogan's Alley." In the 1940s, Hogan won the Los Angeles Open three times and finished second once. Other winner's over the years include Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Ben Crenshaw, Fred Couples, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson. Not bad. And then there's the real history. Riviera is the club that was so Hollywood. Famous members over the years include Humphrey Bogart, Glen Campbell, Peter Falk, Dean Martin, Gregory Peck, Walt Disney and Douglas Fairbanks. Oh, yeah, O.J. Simpson once had a locker there, too.

Economy/

Newstablet Edition

A Quick Look At The Moves Major Hedge Funds Made In Q4 Katya Wachtel (Money Game) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:27:00 AM

Unlike Q3 last year, in which gold and Apple were the "it" stocks, so to speak, the latest hedge fund filings tell a different story. While there were small increases in gold holdings here and there, most kept their gold and mining bets neutral. Tech didn't appear to be a big story either. The trends that jumped out to us were huge new bets in health care, energy and financials. And, some new love for General Motors. Loving Citi • David Tepper's Appaloosa increased stake (~$573 million, added 67 million shares to take stake to ~117 million shares) • Eric Mindich's Eton Park increased stake (~$395 million, added 20,000,000 shares to take stake to 80,500,000 shares) • Lone Pine opened a new stake( ~$686,500,000, ~145,000,000 shares) • Paul Tudor Jones opened a new stake( ~$18.7 million, ~4,000,000 million shares) • Louis Bacon's Moore Capital opened a stake(~$194 million, ~40,000,000 shares) Source: BI

Bullish on financials in general • Eric Mindich's Eton Park opened stake in Longtop Financial. Increased stakes in Citi, JP Morgan. • David Tepper's Appaloosa opened stakes in JPMorgan and Flagstar Bancorp. Increased stakes in Citi; BoFA; Wells Fargo • John Paulson's Paulson & Co. increased stakes in Wells Fargo, Suntrust and Capital One. • Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway increased its stake in Wells Fargo. • Steve Cohen's SAC increased its stakes in Goldman Sachs,

Berkshire Hathaway. • Pierre Henri-Flamand increased his stake in Sallie Mae. Source: BI Getting rid of Bank of America • Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway completely liquidated its BofA stake. • John Paulson's Paulson & Co. made a significant decrease in its stake to ~$2 billion (~123,000,000 shares) • Nelson Peltz's Trian partners liquidated its BofA stake. View more at Business Insider

POPULATION continued from page 48

damper on growth.

sales. It is quite possible the latest set of retail numbers is about as Changing Consumer Attitudes good as they get. That certainly is not priced into equities or nearly • There has been a massive anyone's economic model. secular change in consumer Mike "Mish" Shedlock attitudes towards debts. h t t p : / / • The trend is housing is towards globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. cash-in refis from cash-out refis. com • Banks are reluctant to lend Click Here To Scroll Thru My except to the most credit-worthy Recent Post List Mike "Mish" borrowers. Shedlock is a registered • Credit-worthy borrowers do not investment advisor representative want to borrow. for SitkaPacific Capital • Kids see their parents or Management. Sitka Pacific is an grandparents arguing over debt, asset management firm whose even losing their homes over debt, goal is strong performance and how vowed to not get in the same low volatility, regardless of situation. market direction. Visit http:// www.sitkapacific.com/ Retail sales are up but $150 account_management.html to billion in stimulus spending to l e a r n m o r e a b o u t w e a l t h states is going away. Spending m a n a g e m e n t a n d c a p i t a l cuts in Congress are coming. Pent preservation strategies of Sitka -up demand for car sales will end, Pacific. but pent-up need to dump housing inventory is building. Taxpayers are fed up, but many states are hiking taxes anyway. All of those items place enormous headwinds on retail

Culture/

Newstablet Edition

Surveillance Footage and Code Clues Indicate Stuxnet Hit Iran Kim Zetter (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 2/16/2011 6:06:00 AM

New clues about Stuxnet provide the strongest evidence yet that the superworm targeted a nuclear enrichment plant in Iran, according to a new report. The clues come from surveillance cameras installed by international investigators at the Natanz enrichment plant in Iran – which show Iranian workers feverishly replacing damaged equipment during the time Stuxnet is believed to have attacked the plant. Other clues appear in the attack code itself, showing that the worm targeted a configuration that researchers now say match precisely the centrifuge setup at Natanz. And still more clues are found in connection to five organizations that researchers say were first targeted by the worm before it hit Natanz. The findings come in a report released Tuesday(.pdf) by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), which says that while Stuxnet may have hit Natanz, its impact on Iran’s nuclear program was not detrimental. Stuxnet was discovered last June by researchers at a security firm in Belarus who found it on infected machines belonging to customers in Iran. Recent reports have indicated that the malware was developed by a U.S. government lab and tested in Israel before being unleashed. Although researchers have

believed for months that Natanz was the attack target, the belief has largely been based on circumstantial evidence and unreliable reports from Iranian officials that Natanz was hit by unspecified malware. But the new clues are “the best evidence” that Stuxnet was aimed at Natanz, according to ISIS founder and former United

Nations weapons inspector David Albright. According to researchers, Stuxnet has two attack sequences, one that targets a Siemens S7-417 programmable logic controller (PLC) and one that attacks a Siemens S7-315 PLC. PLCs control functions in industrial facilities, such as the speed at which a rotor operates.

Previous research indicated that the so-called 315 attack-code changed the frequency of frequency converters. Because the frequencies specified in the code matched frequencies at which Natanz centrifuges are known to break, it was believed that Natanz’s centrifuges were the target. But new analysis of the 417 code

seems to solidify this. Back in December, ISIS revealed in a previous report that Natanz’s centrifuges are grouped into “cascades” consisting of 164 centrifuges each, and that six cascades appeared to have been affected by Stuxnet. German security researcher Ralph Langner SURVEILLANCE page 54

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saw the numbers and recognized them from the 417 attack code. The code is designed to control six groupings of 164 devices. “This evidence is perhaps the strongest evidence that Stuxnet is aimed at Natanz,” Albright told Threat Level. “We were kind of stunned by it actually.” The 417 attack-code is nonoperational, however, and is missing key components that would tell researchers what exactly it’s supposed to do to the devices it’s targeting. Researchers believe the attackers were still developing the attack code. As the code currently stands, the attack, which involves turning something on or shutting it off, is designed to run for about seven minutes and repeat about every 35 days. ISIS speculates in its report that the attack may involve fast-acting valves on the centrifuges that, if closed suddenly, could damage the centrifuges and cause gas pressure to build. Although the 417 code wasn’t working in the malware that struck Iran, the 315 attack-code on its own was enough to cause damage at Natanz, Albright says. This appears to be reinforced by surveillance videos that investigators with the International Atomic Energy Agency viewed. Nuclear experts with the IAEA previously determined that Iran

experienced difficulties with about 1,000 centrifuges in November 2009, but the experts didn’t know the cause. Iran had tried to downplay the replacement of the centrifuges, suggesting they were removed before they were up and running, as if Iranian workers had simply discovered flaws in them before they were turned on. But it turns out that surveillance cameras that caught Iranian workers swapping out the equipment, suggests a different story. In August 2009, Iran agreed to let the IAEA install surveillance cameras outside the enrichment facility to monitor any equipment that moved in or out. Suddenly, over a six-month period beginning late 2009, U.N. officials monitoring the surveillance images “watched in amazement” as Iranian workers “dismantled more than 10 percent of the plant’s 9,000 centrifuge machines used to enrich uranium,” according to the Washington Post. “Then, just as remarkably, hundreds of new machines arrived at the plant to replace the ones that were lost.” Investigators described the effort as a feverish attempt to contain damage and replace broken parts, suggesting the centrifuges had indeed been operational when they broke. “That it was 1,000 centrifuges and

that it happened over a short period of time and the Iranians were upset about it” indicates the centrifuges were spinning or under vacuum – a preparation stage – when they broke, says Albright. “Because of the surprise and rapidity of all this happening, it indicates this.” One other piece of information suggests Iran’s nuclear program was the target of Natanz. Last week security firm Symantec released a report revealing that the Stuxnet attack targeted five organizations in Iran that were infected first in an effort to spread the malware to Natanz. Because Natanz’s PLCs are not connected to the internet, the best hope of attacking them – short of planting a mole inside Natanz – was infecting other computers that could serve as a gateway to the Natanz PLC. For example, infecting computers belonging to a contractor in charge of installing software at Natanz could help get the malware onto the Natanz system. Symantec said the companies were hit in attacks in June and July 2009 and in March, April and May 2010. Symantec didn’t name the five organizations but said that they all “have a presence in Iran” and are involved in industrial processes. Albright managed to glean from discussions with Symantec that

some of the companies are involved in the acquisition and assembling of PLCs. What’s more, Symantec researchers told Albright that they found the names of some of the companies on suspect entity lists– lists of firms and organizations suspected of violating non-proliferation agreements by procuring parts for Iran’s nuclear program. “They are companies that are involved probably in illegal smuggling operations to get this equipment for Natanz,” Albright told Threat Level. “We think they’re involved in acquiring the PLCs and then putting them together in a system with software that can work at Natanz.” Symantec wasn’t available for comment. Though the work that went into creating Stuxnet was monumental, the ISIS report ultimately concludes that its effect on Iran’s nuclear program was moderate. “While it has delayed the Iranian centrifuge program at the Natanz plant in 2010 and contributed to slowing its expansion, it did not stop it or even delay the continued buildup of [low-enriched uranium],” the report says. Albright does say, though, that the attack has taxed Iran’s supply of raw materials to make centrifuges and therefore could have a longer-range effect. Due to sanctions, Iran has had

trouble obtaining materials to build centrifuges and can only build between 12,000-15,000. As of November 2009, it had deployed 10,000 centrifuges at Natanz, although 1,000 were damaged and replaced during routine operations. Another 1,000 were replaced in the November scramble believed to be caused by Stuxnet. Iran’s centrifuges are prone to breakage even under the best of circumstances, Albright says, but with the aid of Stuxnet, the end of the country’s supply grew a little closer. Photo: A security man stands next to an anti-aircraft gun as he scans Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Tehran, Iran, in April 2007. Hasan Sarbakhshian/AP See also This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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What IBM's 'Watson' Finds Elementary, And Not So Much Adrian Covert (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:16:00 AM

When we last left our heroes, Watson and the undefeated Jeopardy champion Brad Rutter were tied for the lead with $5,000 apiece. Ken Jennings, meanwhile, trailed with $2,000. Watson had some shaky moments in the early stages of Round 1, but kept it together enough to stay on top and frustrate the Mormon Machine. Let’s rejoin the action… Early on in the match, Watson went on a spree, correctly answering questions about diseases and classical music left and right. After running its score up to $14,600 (and denying the other two even a chance to chime in), Watson hit the “Daily Double.” Unlike Monday night, when it could only wager a max of $1,000, Watson had some freedom to play around with his money total. How much did it risk? $6,435. That drew a solid laugh from the crowd and prompted Trebek to proclaim, “I won’t ask. I won’t ask.” Predictably, Watson produced the correct response (a question about architecture). And then, Watson hit a hiccup. It picked the category dealing fine art, and was asked the following: “In May 2010 5 paintings worth $125 million by Braque, Matisse & three others left Paris’ Museum of this art period.” Latching on to the the keywords

“3 others,” Watson answered “Picasso.” The correct response, which required the contestants to complete the museum name, was “modern art.” But the other two were as puzzled by the clue as Watson was, thinking they had to name a more specific era. So no harm no foul. A couple of questions later, Watson hit the “Daily Double” again, this time in the fine art category. This time around he wagered $1,246. While it understood what the clue was asking for this time (the city from which some art was stolen), his confidence percentages were

shockingly low across the board, which his most confident response (in this case Baghdad) coming in at 32%. He even went as far as to mention it was guessing before answering. But Watson got it right. From there, it was mostly a trivia bloodbath. Jennings and Rutter could hardly get a word in, as Watson wiped out the board full of clues regarding hedgehogs, Cambridge university, and terms including the words “church” or “state.” By the end of double Jeopardy, Jennings and Rutter could only give the camera looks which sat somewhere between

vexed and nonplussed. That’s because Jennings had $2400, Rutter had $5400 and Watson had $36,681. For Final Jeopardy, the three challengers were given the category “U.S. Cities” asked to name the city which has one airport named after a WWII hero and another named for a WWII battle. Jennings and Rutter both answered correctly with Chicago. What was Watson’s answer? Take a look at the top image. It was totally confused to the point where it didn’t consider the restrictions set by the category itself.

But how much did it wager? In typical Watson form, he only bet $947, likely realizing it could wager $0 and still win. So while there’s still a whole other round to be played tomorrow night the truth is that with $4800 and $10,400, respectively, Jennings and Rutter will be hard-pressed to catch up to Watson’s $35,734. Barring a catastrophic meltdown, tomorrow night’s show will be a victory lap, celebrating the triumph of machine over man. But now that we’ve been able to watch Watson in action for an WHAT page 57

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Adult Brain Activity Stirs Before Birth Rachel Ehrenberg (Wired Top Stories)

property of human brains. The cerebral cortex deals with sensory information, thinking, Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:00:00 AM emotion and consciousness. But The kicks and somersaults of a even when not receiving input developing baby aren’t the only in from the outside world, the nerve -utero calisthenics. Babies also cells, or neurons, in this region flex their mental muscles months oscillate between firing and before birth. resting. Nerve cells from developing “In adults, we go to sleep and the brains as young as 20 weeks old cortex is disconnected from the fire in a pattern that persists into outside environment — it sleeps adulthood, researchers report alone. But you see this quiet February 15 in the Journal of synchronized activity,” says Igor Neuroscience. The research Timofeev of Laval University in provides a glimpse into the Québec. That young nerve cells behavior of extremely young behave in a similar way long b r a i n c e l l s a n d c o u l d h e l p before they grapple with outside s c i e n t i s t s u n d e r s t a n d w h a t input suggests that the firing happens when brain development pattern “is a very basic feature of goes awry. the brain that occurs in very early Cells from the cerebral cortices stages of development,” says of 20- to 21-week-old fetuses Timofeev. exhibit bursts of electrical activity Scientists still don’t understand interspersed with periods of quiet, what purpose the nerve cell researchers from the University of a c t i v i t y s e r v e s s o e a r l y i n Connecticut Health Center in development. Perhaps it is a Farmington found. When the flexing of mental muscles to help adult brain is sleeping, or under k e e p t h e c e l l s a l i v e , s a y s anesthesia, it also displays this neuroscientist Srdjan Antic, who busy-then-quiet firing pattern, led the new study. Having a burst suggesting it may be an intrinsic of activity now and again may

signal other brain cells that “‘Hey I’m here, look at me, maintain a connection with me,’” Antic says. “During sleep neurons do exactly that.” Antic and colleagues probed the activity of neurons in lab dishes one at a time. While almost all of the cells exhibited the firing

pattern, the team can’t say whether the firing was synchronized. If the cells do fire in waves, that could be their way of signaling their location to other brain cells, says neuroscientist William Moody of the University of Washington in Seattle. Such wave signaling in mice

used before. While it's difficult, if not impossible, to build to code using only recycled materials, many recycled items are finding their way into every stage of construction. Take this quiz to see h o w c e r t a i n i t e m s b e c o m e renewed, reused or recycled? building materials: by being Earn a point for every right

answer! Save your score at the end of the quiz. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php

brains plays a role in wiring the nervous system during development so that adjacent brain regions correspond to adjacent body parts. If these young cells are firing in waves, that activity could be part of this mapping process, Moody says. “This is a huge deal,” he says of the new work. “They’ve taken the first step of looking at humans.” There are several disorders that may result when neurons don’t end up in the right place. And autism spectrum disorders may also be related to improper firing, says Moody. Image: Adult brain activity, as seen in a Positron Emission Topography (PET) scan. (Flickr/ Reigh LeBlanc) See Also: This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Renew, reuse or recycle? (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) Submitted at 2/16/2011 8:00:56 AM

The drive is on to build homes using fewer so-called virgin materials, and builders earn points for green building when they select materials that have been

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entire round, we have a better idea of his strengths and weaknesses when it comes to answering openended questions. Continue reading … Pages: 1 2 View All This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read

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Councils to vet salaries above £100k Polly Curtis, Patrick Butler (The Guardian World News)

and on the BBC – that chief executives' pay had risen by 78% between 2002 and 2007, after it Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:56:43 AM emerged he had misquoted an C o m m u n i t i e s s e c r e t a r y ' s Audit Commission report. The announcement comes as he is report in fact said chief executive forced to correct claim about local pay in the private sector had risen authority chief executive pay by 78% – a far greater rise than Councillors will have to vet all the 34% increase in councils over salaries over £100,000 and to a similar period. block those that seem excessive Pickles has been a persistent and under plans set out by the vocal critic of what he sees as communities secretary, Eric excessive pay at the top of Pickles, which he claims will councils. The commission's report m a k e l o c a l a u t h o r i t y p a y found that the median salary of "democracy-proof" . executives in the biggest councils The localism bill, going through was £150,000 in 2007-08, less parliament, instructs councils to than university vice-chancellors, hold a full meeting to scrutinise a n d t r a i l i n g b e h i n d c h i e f their executives' pay deals. executives in the private sector Pickles said he would issue where basic salaries were about guidance recommending that all £400,000, topped up with bonuses pay above £100,000 is given such of a further £586,000. treatment. Research this week A spokesman for Pickles said the r e v e a l e d t h a t 2 2 0 c o u n c i l error did not detract from thrust of employees earn more than the the minister's argument. There prime minister's basic salary of was, he said, a "long history of £142,500. issues" with chief executive pay. Pickles has been forced to correct He added: "A couple of words got his claim – made in press releases cut out. There was a mistake and

we have now corrected it." Union leaders have attacked the decision of Hartlepool council on Teesside to increase the salary of its chief executive, Paul Walker, by nearly £10,000 to £168,000 – backdated by two years. The council, which is cutting 86 staff, said it had not revised his pay since 2003. All senior salaries are now published and usually approved in council committees and by the full council when the annual budget is passed. Under the changes, appointments on more than £100,000 a year will require a public vote by councillors. The Local Government Association (LGA) called the decision "unnecessary and topdown" and called for the same mechanism to apply to Whitehall civil servants, with a vote in parliament – something Pickles did not rule out. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This is just part of the checks and balances so that it allows every councillor to

consciously make a decision with regard to senior pay. It just seems to me to be a reasonable thing to do." Asked about the LGA's call for senior civil servants' salaries to be debated by MPs, Pickles said: "I don't see any reason why we shouldn't have this kind of debate in the House of Commons." However, he ruled out applying the new rules to head teachers, saying their salaries were for schools to decide. Along with basic salaries, councillors will have to approve bonuses, pension payments and other perks. Sir Steve Bullock, the chairman of the LGA's local government group workforce board, said: "It is right that pay for senior staff in the public sector is subject to scrutiny, but this kind of topdown interference is simply unnecessary. "Councils are leading the way in being transparent about all their spending, and many authorities already have remuneration

committees with independent members from outside the authority that examine senior salaries. "We look forward to hearing from ministers whether other parts of the public sector are going to be as transparent as local government, and if MPs will be asked to approve the salaries of civil servants earning more than £100,000." Caroline Flint, the shadow communities secretary, said councils should publish details of low pay as well as high pay to expose exploitation. • Eric Pickles • Local government • Pay • Work & careers • Local politics • Conservatives Polly Curtis Patrick Butler guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Middle East protests gather strength Matthew Weaver, Haroon Siddique, Paul Owen, Richard Adams (The Guardian World News) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:55:47 AM

• Bahrain: demonstrations continue at Pearl roundabout • Yemen: protests broken up by pro-government supporters • Iran: students and academics arrested at protest • Egypt: protesters plan return to Tahrir Square • Libya: clashes in the eastern city of Benghazi • Read the latest summary 5.32pm ET - Egypt: Writing in the Washington Post, Condoleezza Rice writes on the future of a democratic Egypt– and offers more support to the outcome than many Republicans on the party's foreign policy wing. Here she attempts to persuade the Republican hawks: For all his failings, Mubarak maintained a cold peace with Israel, which became a pillar of Egyptian foreign policy. He supported moderate Palestinian leadership and helped keep Hamas at bay. But he could never do so fully because he was afraid of "the street." Authoritarians don't know or respect their people, and they fear them. The United States has taken a good deal of public blame from friends who secretly supported our policies fueling hatred against us while shielding themselves. 5.13pm GMT: The BBC has a very handy guide to the countries in the Middle East and North

Africa facing unrest, complete with the Economist Intelligence Unit's "shoe thrower's index" ranking and other data. The STI (as we can call it) has Yemen top with 86%, and Libya second at 71% – suggesting both those countries are the likeliest sites of further protests and tension. 5.06pm: My colleague Richard Adams is taking over the live blogging reins now. 5.00pm – Egypt: Egypt's health ministry says 365 people have been killed since the anti-government protests began. Minister Ahmed Sameh Farid said it was only a preliminary count of civilians killed and did not include police or prisoners. A previous estimate by the United Nations put the total at around 300. 4.52pm – Libya: This video on Facebook is purportedly protests in Banghazi, Libya. Apparently they are saying: "Gaddafi, we don't want your flats, we want the truth." 4.37pm: The Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has been on the phone to Bahrain's king to express support for the king, as both countries face protests. Saleh blamed people with "foreign agendas" for trying to spread chaos across the region, Reuters reports, citing Yemen's state news agency. Saleh reportedly said to King Hamad: There are plans to try and sink the region into a fervour of chaos and violence, and they have

targeted the security of the region and stability of our countries. The people creating these works of chaos and sabotage are only implementing suspicious foreign agendas. 4.34pm – Iran: My colleague Saeed Kamali Dehghan has written a story about the death of Saane Zhaleh( see 3.34pm), whose family says is being is being falsely described as a pro-government militia member. A family member of Saane Zhaleh, a 26-year-old theatre student at Tehran University of Arts, told the Guardian that the Iranian authorities had launched a campaign to depict the proopposition protester as a member of the government-sponsored basiji militia who had been killed by what they described as terrorists. "They [security forces] have killed him and now they want to hijack his dead body and exploit his funeral for their own purposes. His family is totally devastated and inundated in sorrow," said the family member, who asked not to be identified. 4.27pm – Yemen: The BBC World Service is reporting two dead in Aden, Yemen. 4.23pm: Here is an evening summary: • Bahrain: Thousands of protesters have continued to demonstrate at Pearl roundabout in the capital Manama. Our reporter there says there are signs of growing anger at King Hadad, who is seen as

responsible for propping up the Sunni-based establishment. Thousands of people took part in a funeral for Fadhel Al-Matrook, a protester shot dead at funeral of another protester yesterday. The US, Britain and the UN have expressed concern about the violence. A government minister reportedly acknowledged that the two killings were "catastrophic" ( see 3.11pm). • Yemen: A sixth day of protests against Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president, was broken up by progovernment supporters bussed in to the capital Sana'a. Up to four protesters were injured, and 2,000 police deployed to break up the clashes. There have also been protests in other cities such as Aden and Taiz ( see 3.01pm). Saleh responded by saying "chaos, wrong mobilisation and irresponsible utterance via media" was not the way to "reach the power" ( see 3.38pm). • Iran: Students and academics have been arrested in a raid at a university in Tehran. A state news agency reported clashes between government supporters and protesters after the funeral of Saane (or Sanee) Zhaleh, who was killed in protests on Monday ( see 3.34pm). Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president, said the protests were doomed to fail. • Egypt: Protesters are planning to gather in Tahrir Square on Friday to mark a week since Hosni Mubarak, the president, stood down ( see 3.03pm). A coalition of activists have released a list of

candidates they would like to see in the transitional government ( see 3.14pm). Both moves are intended to put pressure on the army, which took control after Mubarak's fall. • Libya: Up to 38 people have been injured in the city of Benghazi after protests about the arrest of a civil rights campaigner and critic of Muammar Gaddafi. There are reports that critics of Gaddafi have been arrested. • Morocco: Protests are planned for Sunday ( see 3.23pm). 4.04pm: France will not allow in Tunisian immigrants without a valid visa, the government has said, according to Reuters, days after thousands of illegal migrants from the country began arriving in Italy. "Visa rules will apply to Tunisia, all visa rules and nothing but visa rules," government spokesman Francois Baroin told reporters following a cabinet meeting. "There is no question of welcoming other immigrants who do not respect the rules on visas." 3.59pm: Commenter Numa, who has been posting several updates reportedly from within Bahrain, posts this report about the internet in Bahrain, which we can't confirm: Internet extremely slow in Bahrain. When I called to my provider to complain I was told it was a "global problem" all over the island with every service provider. I asked if it had to do MIDDLE page 59

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with the demonstrations. I was told it had. I asked further. Is the govt controlling the internet access – "Yes sir, sorry sir." 3.47pm: Nabeel Rajab from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, has uploaded disturbing footage of a protester badly injured on Monday. He said the man was victim of the police. Warning: graphic content. 3.38pm – Yemen: In a barely veiled threat to protesters in Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country's president, has said that the time of coups, chaos and creative anarchy has gone, according to the Yemeni state news agency Saba news. Saleh was quoted as saying: Anybody wants to reach the power, he should pass through the ballot boxes, which are the only way, but not chaos, wrong mobilisation and irresponsible utterance via media. 3.34pm – Iran: This (below) is a death announcement for Saane (or Sanee) Zhaleh, a student who was shot dead during an opposition rally on 14 February, created by his classmates at Tehran University of Arts. The announcement has been circulated among Iran's blogging community and social networking websites. It reads: From the students of Tehran University of Arts. With sorrow and regret we announce the martyrdom of our courageous, passionate friend Saane Zhaleh and we express our condolences on his death. Peace be upon his

soul / and we will remember him. _ 3.30pm – Egypt: My colleague Mark Tran writes about a fact sheet the US embassy in London has just sent out "to show it's on the side of the angels", giving a breakdown of US funding to promote "a vibrant civil society in Egypt" and in the Middle East. The US says since 2006, it has provided approximately $210m (£131m) to support democracy activities in Egypt: "In FY [financial year] 2010, we more than doubled our support to civil society activities (from $9.5m to $25m). Our FY 2011 request maintains this strong support ($21m). We also significantly increased support for the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) in FY 2011 to support civil society and democratic reform across the Middle East. The US government has increased its direct support for indigenous Egyptian organisations. In FY 2010, Egyptian NGOs received $14m in US assistance, significantly above the $9m provided in FY 2009 and $8.5m in FY 2008. These funds went to support core civil society activities such as rights education, as well as democracy and building civil society capacity to expand the impact of Egypt's active citizens' groups." To put this into context, however, US military aid for Egypt runs at $1.3bn a year. On the subject of US aid to Egypt, here is an article from the Carnegie of Endowment

in Washington arguing why Egyptians are unlikely to appreciate US economic aid. It says: "The current focus on helping businessmen, particularly powerful ones, and on US-chosen infrastructure projects that create few permanent job opportunities will keep USAID unpopular in Egypt, especially in light of the aid's small size." 3.29pm – Libya: Social networking sites and alJazeera are now reportedly back online again in Libya( see 2.51pm). 3.27pm – Bahrain: Pro-government Twitter users in Bahrain are posting updates/ propaganda under using the term #silentmajority, Global Voices has spotted. It picks out a selection of updates from Hussakhalid, described as "a tech-savvy MBA graduate who knows a thing or two (maybe three)". Do you know that Bahrain provides free K-12 Education for all citizens? #Bahrain #silentmajority Do you know that there are no income taxes in Bahrain? #Bahrain #silentmajority Do you know that #Bahrain provides free healthcare for all citizens? #Feb14 #silentmajority 3.23pm – Morocco: There is a lot of discussion in the comments of this YouTube video about protests planned for Morocco on Sunday, my colleague Giles Tremlett notes. #Feb20 and #20Fev are the hashtags being used on Twitter,

and this is a popular Facebook protest site. 3.14pm – Egypt: Jack Shenker sends some more from Cairo. A coalition of independent activists, bloggers and professional groups have released a shortlist of candidates that they would like to see make up a new transitional government in Egypt. There's a lot of anger that despite the supreme military council's takeover, most of Mubarak's old cabinet (which had only been in place for a few weeks before he was forced out) remain in place. The army says this is essential to ensure that the country can function normally until fresh elections are called (likely to be in about six months time). But many of those who participated in the revolution feel differently; hence they've drawn up a list of acceptable caretaker ministers for each government department and are demanding that the military take notice. The list is currently only in Arabic, but it lays down in some detail the criteria by which each nominee has been selected: there are no members of Mubarak's NDP party, no leaders of other political parties, and nobody tainted by corruption scandals. None of those appointed should be allowed to run for office in future elections, claim the organisers of the list – thus ensuring that they act only in the interest of Egypt throughout the transitional period, instead of seeking to maximise their own

position. 3.11pm – Bahrain: A government minister in Bahrain has admitted that killing two protesters was "catastrophic", according to New York Times columnist Nick Kristof. Just interviewed the foreign minister here in #Bahrain. He acknowledges that killing protesters was catastrophic. The UN has expressed alarm at the killing of protesters in Bahrain. Navi Pillay, the high commissioner for human rights, said: Too many peaceful protesters have recently been killed across the Middle East and North Africa. Authorities everywhere must scrupulously avoid excessive use of force, which is strictly forbidden in international law. They must conduct prompt, impartial and transparent investigations where there have been breaches of this obligation. I have been urging the authorities to curb the excesses of the security apparatus and to undertake serious investigations into allegations of torture and abuse of detention rights of hundreds of political and human rights activists. These activists, including numerous children as young as 10, were reportedly arrested and detained without meaningful access to lawyers and their families, and subjected to illtreatment in detention. I urge the authorities to MIDDLE page 60

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immediately cease the use of disproportionate force against peaceful protesters and to release all peaceful demonstrators who have been arrested. 3.03pm – Egypt: Jack Shenker reports from Cairo on calls for a mass rally on Friday, the one-week anniversary of Hosni Mubarak's departure. Some claim it will be a festival of celebration over the dictator's fall, while others are planning a more sombre event to honour the memory of those who lost their lives in the recent struggles (that number currently stands at approximately 300, though many others remain missing). But whatever form Friday's demonstration takes, the sight of Tahrir Square – the iconic heart of Egypt's revolution – once again being transformed from a trafficchoked interchange into a sea of people, drums and flags is likely to send a strong message to the military council currently overseeing Egypt's "transition" to democracy. Opinions are split on the genuine intentions of the army, and many will be keen to take this opportunity to remind officers that they have been mandated by the people to help establish a sustainable civilian government, not to hang on to the reins of power themselves. After issuing a series of recent communiques calling for all protests and strikes to end, it will be interesting to see how the military – who still have forces stationed in and around the square – respond to Friday's

gathering. 3.01pm – Yemen: The Associated Press has filed some more on the conflict between police and protesters in Yemen today. The news agency says Facebook and Twitter spread the word that Yemenis should join a series of "one million people" rallies on a so-called "Friday of rage" in all Yemeni cities. A statement posted on Facebook said: "We will remain in the streets until the regime departure." The news agency reported: "Copies signed by a group named the February 24 Movement were distributed among youth via email. The group is taking that name because organisers hope to have their biggest protest on that day next week." AP had this to say about Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president against whom the protesters are demonstrating: Saleh has tried to defuse protesters' anger amid the unprecedented street demonstrations by saying he will not run for another term in 2013 and that he will not seek to set up his son, Ahmed, to succeed him in the conflict-ridden and impoverished nation. Protesters still chanted slogans against the president's son Wednesday. Saleh has become a key US partner in battling al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist network's offshoot in Yemen. The group's several hundred fighters have battled Saleh's US-backed forces and have been linked to attacks beyond Yemen's borders, including the failed attempt to

blow up a Detroit-bound airliner in December 2009. The US military plans a $75m training program with Yemen's counterterrorism unit to expand its size and capabilities in the nation's mountainous terrain. It's a difficult balancing act for Saleh, who has been criticised as being too close to the United States. Yemeni state TV reported that Saleh has been holding meetings since Sunday with heads of tribes to prevent them from joining the anti-government protests. Saleh's government is weak its control barely extends beyond the capital and is dependent on fragile alliances with powerful tribes and it faces other serious challenges. For more than six years, government forces have been battling a sporadic armed rebellion in the north. A secessionist movement by onceindependent southern Yemen also is heating up. Yemen's main source of income oil could run dry in a decade, and the country is also rapidly running out of water. Much of the population suffers from malnutrition. Yemen has been the site of antiU.S. attacks dating back to the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden harbour, which killed 17 American sailors. Radical USborn cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, thought to be hiding in Yemen, is suspected of having inspired some attacks, including the deadly 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

Of the Sana'a University protests, AP says police chained the university's iron gates to prevent students from streaming into adjacent streets. About 120 judges protested in front of the Ministry of Justice, calling for independence of the judiciary and better salaries, the first such protest by judges. Demonstrations also took in Yemen's port city of Aden – where protesters set fire to tyres, "fierce clashes" took place between riot police and thousands of protesters, injuring three, and there was "heavy gunfire" – and in Taiz, where thousands shouted: "Down with Ali Abdullah Saleh." Protesters have been camping in Safir Square in central Taiz, about 270 miles south of Sana'a, saying they will not leave until Saleh steps down. Just like in Cairo's Tahrir Square, protesters [in Taiz] have organised a makeshift camp in the city centre, with medical teams, cleaning crews and security to protect them from outside attacks, said Ghazi al-Samie, a lawyer and activist. Al-Samie said thousands have joined the protests in the last few days in Yemen's secondbiggest city. 2.51pm – Libya: The Libyan security apparatus is doing its best to stop any further protests, according to Libyans on the ground. ShababLibya according to Libya Today,there have been a large number of arrests in the eastern city of Al Beida, families have lost contact

#Feb17 #Libya taimurian [Confirmed] .. Facebook, Twitter, Aljazeera.Net, Alarabiya.Net and Youtube are blocked now in Libya #libya #feb17 #benghazi #egypt 2.38pm – Bahrain: Othman Janahi, an investment officer in Bahrain, is sending out pro-government updates on Twitter. They include pictures of a rally in support of the king. He also complains of bias in the international media: @LuluKQ unfortunately some of the international media are focusing on one side of the coin for their own agenda http:// myloc.me/hPKSo 2.31pm – Egypt: Fidel Castro has weighed into Egypt's febrile post-Mubarak politics, backing protesters' demands that the former president return the fortune he is suspected of having removed from the country. 2.27pm – Libya: A Libyan blogger and activist is claiming that families of victims of the 1996 killings at Abu Salim prison in Tripoli will stage a protest in a few hours in Benghazi. The Abu Salim killings are a notorious incident in Libya's history when Libyan groups outside the country said up to 1,200 prisoners had died. A massacre was reported to have taken place after prisoners MIDDLE page 61

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unhappy about conditions seized a guard. Human Rights Watch investigated the atrocity. One of those it spoke to was a former prisoner, Hussein al-Shafa: Around 5am on June 29, security forces moved some of the prisoners between the civilian and military sections of the prison. By 9am they had forced hundreds of prisoners from blocks 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 into different courtyards. They moved the low security prisoners in block 2 to the military section and kept the prisoners in blocks 7 and 8, with individual cells, inside. Al-Shafa, who was behind the administration building with other kitchen workers at the time, told Human Rights Watch what happened. "At 11:00 a grenade was thrown into one of the courtyards. I did not see who threw it but I am sure it was a grenade. I heard an explosion and right after a constant shooting started from heavy weapons and kalashnikovs from the top of the roofs. The shooting continued from 11:00 until 1:35." He continued: "I could not see the dead prisoners who were shot, but I could see those who were shooting. They were a special unit and wearing khaki military hats. Six were using kalashnikovs. "I saw them, at least six men, on the roofs of the cellblocks. They were wearing beige khaki uniforms with green bandanas, a turban-like thing." Around 2pm the forces used pistols to finish off those who were not dead, he said.

Abu Salim prison held between 1,600 and 1,700 prisoners at the time, and the security forces killed around 1,200 people, al-Shafa said. He calculated this figure by counting the number of meals he prepared prior to and after the incident. 2.01pm – Yemen: The British government has pledged its support for political reform in Yemen, according to the Press Association news agency. Alan Duncan (left), the international development minister, said: Recent events demonstrate more than ever the importance of the Friends of Yemen process to prevent state failure in their country. We will work to support political reform and the right of all Yemenis to participate legitimately and democratically in their political future. MPs were today told the Friends of Yemen group will meet in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in six weeks to discuss how best to help the nation. Duncan, who visited Yemen last week, said there had been "substantial progress on many fronts" in recent months. He added: "Preventing state failure is much less costly than dealing with a failed state afterwards." 1.55pm – Bahrain: The protests in Bahrain are so organised that they even have a media centre, according to this picture (below) by Maryam Alkhawaja, head of foreign relations at the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. From a distance the protest camp

looks like a car boot sale. 1.41pm – Bahrain: More from Bahrain from another of our commenters, SandyBh, who says people are calling Lulu/ Pearl roundabout "the martyr square". He/she says people there have confirmed "there are some Sunnis out there, but not a lot, which is natural considering that the Shiites are the majority and the ruling family is Sunni": Many Sunnis are either too afraid to go out and protest or they are prevented by their Sunni ideologies that declare people should have complete loyalty to the "wali" or a governing ruler, even though one who is an oppressor (this is to the best of my knowledge and how I see things when I talk with Sunnis). Moreover, you should account for the fact that many of the Sunnis here are actually not Bahrainis for they have been imported from places like Pakistan, Baluchistan, Jordan, or Yemen to work in the Ministry of Defence. SandyBH went on, in another comment: You should hear what the people in the roundabout are saying ... They are hailing now and again that their movement is not only for Shiites but Sunnis as well. This is a movement by the people for the people no matter their sect. A lot of people are refusing to call it a Shiite uprising. As for being afraid of change since they are a minority, no one should have such fears in a democratic government that is well-representative of the

population. As for the foreigners being employed in the Ministry of Defence and police forces, there is a reason behind it. The government has long mistrusted Shiites in Bahrain, and despite being the majority, they are not employed in these two sectors simply because of this mistrust. The percentage of Shiites in the Ministry of Defence is almost non -existent. Even some Sunnis are being aware now of the situation of foreigners in the defence forces and are expressing resentment. 1.20pm - Libya: Reuters has a fuller report on the clashes in Benghazi. Here's an edited version: Reports from Benghazi, about 1,000 km (600 miles) east of the Libyan capital, indicated the city was now calm but that overnight, protesters armed with stones and petrol bombs had set fire to vehicles and fought with police. The protesters were angry about the arrest of a human rights campaigner and demanded his release. Quryna newspaper, which is based in Benghazi, quoted Abdelkrim Gubaili, the director of a local hospital, as saying 38 people were injured in the clashes, most of them members of the security forces. He said they had all been discharged. "Last night was a bad night," a Benghazi resident, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters by telephone. "There were about 500 or 600 people involved. They went to the revolutionary committee (local

government headquarters) in Sabri district, and they tried to go to the central revolutionary committee ... They threw stones," he said. "Now Benghazi is quiet. The banks are open and the students are going to school," the same witness said later. 1.01pm: Summary time: • Libya: Up to 38 people have been injured in the city of Benghazi after protests about the arrest of a civil rights campaigner and critic of Muammar Gaddafi. There are reports that critics of Gaddafi have been arrested. • Bahrain: Thousands of protesters have continued to demonstrate at Pearl roundabout in the capital Manama. Our reporter there says there are signs of growing anger at King Hadad, who is seen as responsible for propping up the Sunni-based establishment. Thousands of people took part in a funeral for Fadhel Al-Matrook, a protester shot dead at funeral of another protester yesterday. The US and Britain has expressed concern about the violence. • Yemen: A sixth day of protests against president Saleh was broken up by pro-government supporters bused in to the capital Sana'a. Up to four protesters were injured, and 2,000 police deployed to break up the clashes. • Iran: Students and academics have been arrested in a raid at a university in Tehran. A state news agency reported clashes between government supporters MIDDLE page 62

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and protesters after the funeral of Sanee Zhaleh, who was killed in protests on Monday. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the protests were doomed to fail. 12.55pm - Libya: Our Middle East editor Ian Black has this instant analysis on the significance of today's clashes in Benghazi. Libya's "day of rage," inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, was due to have take place on Thursday but began prematurely with clashes overnight in the eastern city of Benghazi, where 38 demonstrators were injured in clashes with security forces. Libyan opposition sources say they believe the trouble was deliberately provoked by the authorities to undermine tomorrow's main event — and intimidate people into keeping off the streets. Sporadic trouble has been reported from Benghazi, the country's second city, in recent weeks, and the latest outbreak was linked to protests over the infamous massacre of over 1000 prisoners at Abu Salim in 1996 — a bloody landmark in Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule. But like previous unrest, it remains local and has not coalesced into opposition at the national level. So far. "This could snowball into something big," says Ashour Shamis, a veteran Libyan opposition activist. "There are grievances all over the country. But this looks like a spoiler by the

government." Libya's experience of the "Arab spring" may be different from that of its North African neighbours for several reasons. Its enormous oil and gas reserves and small population (6.5m) mean it is relatively wealthy — four times as rich as Egypt — and can afford to buy off dissent. It is also far less free than either of its neighbours, with a pervasive secret police and little in the way of a free media or independent institutions. Behind the facade of the popular committees the security state still looks unassailably powerful. Gaddafi's Jamahiriya or "state of the masses" has seen a revolution in its foreign relations over the last decade since it surrendered the Lockerbie bombing suspects, stopped supporting terrorism and gave up its wepaons of mass destruction. Economic liberalisation has benefited a small middle class but otherwise there has been little domestic change. Libya is extremely corrupt by international standards, though there is less of the flaunting of wealth by the elite than in Tunisia. Its army and security services, based on strong tribal loyalties, would almost certainly step in with force in the event of serious political upheaval and possibly take over the country completely. Gaddafi — now the longestserving of all Arab leaders — remains as vigorous and eccentric as ever. Talk of the succession of his reformist-minded son, Saif al-

Islam, has faded recently in the face of resistance by the old guard. Another son, Mutasim, is a rising star as his father's national security adviser. Like other Arab regimes it is capable of easing tensions by concessions such as raising subsidies to keep food prices down. But plans to release the remaining prisoners of the longbanned Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who have renounced violence pre-date the current unrest. 12.53pm - Bahrain: One of our commenters below the line, goonerinoman, has provided another update from Bahrain: Just got back from the Pearl roundabout. I was there for about 30 minutes. I would say there are about 3-4 thousand there. A lot of people were on their way after attending the funeral. I was surprised how different things were from yesterday. I was at the roundabout for the start of the protests yesterday and the roads around were all closed and there were hundreds of police and vehicles. Today there were no police anywhere to be seen and now the roundabout was covered in tents and a mock stage has been erected, all the roads are open as normal and cars are driving round the roundabout. Whereas yesterday people were milling around and it was more of a carnival atmosphere, today it seemed more politicised. There were people addressing the crowds and it was more like a

western protest. The crowd were a lot more fired up. I could not understand what was being said as my Arabic is not very good but there was a lot of mentions of Mubarak. Around the edge of the roundabout people had written slogans using stones such as Khalifa r we loud enough for you, a CND symbol, peaceful protest and others in Arabic. It is weird because about 150 metres [away] is the main highway and it has a flyover, it is the perfect vantage point to stop and watch - it is like a drive thru protest. It seems like the protesters are not giving up easily. I imagine they may be joined by some Saudi Shias as the Saudi weekend starts now. I think with the US Naval base here it can't go on for too long and the F1 race looming on the horizon. I can't imagine the Shias giving up without a fight. I am by no means an expert but I think the Shias are not afraid of martyrdom because of events like Ashoora. I really hope I am wrong but I think it will get messy. I guess Friday like in Egypt will be the crunch day. I am also amazed by the normality of it all. 12.46pm - Libya: Some reports on Twitter are saying two people were killed in Benghazi but we have no way of verifying them at present. 12.40pm - Egypt: The Guardian is compiling a database of the missing and detained in Egypt since the recent protests. If you have any information please use the form

provided to help us to update it. 12.34pm - Libya: There's limited information coming out from Benghazi, with reporters not on the ground there and not much in the way of firsthand accounts online. But the Libyan youth movement tweets that violence against protesters is continuing: right now in #benghazi, tear gas being thrown in the city center and have blockaded the city center #Libya #Feb17 12.26pm - Yemen: Pro-Saleh supporters are being bused in to the Yemeni capital Sana'a to beat anti-government protests, Tom Finn reports. People have seen them arriving in buses, and they have also seen people handing out signs and sticks and weapons to plain clothes men from the back of SUVs and trucks at the protests. The danger in Yemen is that it is a heavily armed country. There are three times as many guns as people here. What people are very worried about is that if things become violent it may escalate. There were three or four students injured today. The pro-Saleh guys have been pre-empting the demonstrations. They have been arriving in the morning at the places that the anti-government protests are due to take place. It sounds like the numbers are similar [on both sides]. The protests are much much smaller than anything that happened in Egypt. The MIDDLE page 63

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difference now is that they are becoming more violent. And also, importantly, they are no longer under the control of the opposition. President Saleh is worried and he's making efforts to calm these protests. He has cancelled a trip to Washington. But he does have more support than Mubarak had in Egypt. As things stand it is still a small group that is protesting [in Sana'a]. The real concern is taking place in Taiz, a city in the south. There you have seen demonstrators staying out over night, and people being arrested, and larger protests. People are saying that if something is going to happen it may well happen in the south, as opposed to in the capital. 12.23pm - Egypt: Labour unrest is continuing in Egypt despite the ruling military council's call for "noble Egyptians" to end all strikes immediately, the Associated Press reports: Hundreds of Cairo airport employees were protesting inside the arrivals terminal Wednesday to press demands for better wages and health coverage. In the industrial Nile Delta city of Mahallah al-Koubra, workers from Egypt's largest textile factory went on strike over pay and calls for an investigation into alleged corruption at the factory. In Port Said, a coastal city at the northern tip of the Suez canal, about 1,000 people demonstrated

to demand that a chemical factory be closed because it was dumping waste in a lake near the city. 12.10pm- Libya: The Guardian's Twitter network of Arab and Middle East protests has been updated to include Libya. 12.04pm - Libya: Al-Arabiya TV and AFP ( via Zawya.com) are both now reporting 38 injured in the violence in Benghazi, citing medical sources in the city. 11.56am - Libya: The artist, Muhammed Al-Amin, and the author and poet Habib AlAmin have been arrested in Benghazi, according to @EnoughGaddafi on Twitter. Another writer, Idris al Mesmari, was reportedly arrested in Libya's second largest city, hours after a telephone interview with alJazeera in which he told the television station: I am scared, really scared. The regime's cars and thugs are attacking us. They're attacking Libya's youth. They're using hot water cannons. 11.36am - Iran: Ten students and academics were arrested at a raid on a university in Tehran, according to Omid Habibina, a former journalist with BBC Arabic and a state news agency. He tweets: Reports: 10 Art Uni. Students & Professors Arrested, inc Ali Akbar Alizadeh Head of Cinema Faculty. #25Bahman #Iran #Tehran #Neda He also posts a link to a

Facebook video of the raid. 11.30am – Libya: There seems to be a sense of frustration that the protests in Benghazi, Libya's second biggest city, have not caught on in the capital Tripoli, even though tomorrow is supposed to be the big day for demonstrations to commemorate the failed uprising against Gaddafi in 2006: ShababLibya guys in Tripoli get out onto the streets, start with 100, or we will see a massacre in #Benghazi, its now or never, #Libya #Feb17 EEE_Libya @freetelw yes in Tripoli #libya. Nothing but staged [pro-Gaddafi] protest now going on here. Tripoli wake up!!!!!! 11.24am – Bahrain: Protesters arranged themselves on the Pearl roundabout to spell out the slogan "down with the regime", according to Maryam Alkhawaja, head of foreign relations at the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. She posted this picture to Twitter with the caption: They wrote with humans "yasqe6 alnedham" down with the regime in #martyrssquare #bahrain #feb14 _ 11.16am – Bahrain: By most accounts the protests in Bahrain were peaceful before shots were fired by the security forces, and yet the British Foreign Office has called on both sides to exercise restraint (it trotted out the same line on Egypt at the start of the protests).

Alistair Burt, the minister for the Middle East and north Africa, said: I am concerned by the reports of excessive use of force by police during demonstrations in Bahrain that led to the death of two protesters. I call on all sides to exercise restraint and refrain from violence. The UK will always support, and speak out in defence of, the right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression. It is now critical that the Bahraini government moves quickly to carry out its commitment to a transparent investigation into yesterday's deaths and any alleged human rights abuses. When he was in Bahrain last week the foreign secretary raised the importance of open, plural societies, and of promoting universal values. I welcome the progress that the government of Bahrain has made on political reform in the recent past, but it is essential that this process continues to meet legitimate aspirations for greater political and social freedoms. 11.11am – Bahrain: The Bahrain government and monarchy are "clearly rattled" by the demonstrations, Martin Chulov reports from Pearl roundabout in Manama. At the roundabout this morning there at least 5,000-10,000. This is a group that has got itself organised – there are marquees and first aid tents everywhere. It has a sense of a protest movement that is gaining momentum. The

police are staying away ... All access points to this area are being coordinated by citizens. It is predominantly Shia. They are saying they have been pushed into a sectarian corner. They are looking for a greater role in society in Bahrain. They feel emboldened by what's happened in Egypt and Tunisia. A secondary concern, fast becoming a dominant one, is that the king should leave. They are not placated. The monarch has been largely responsible for buttressing the Sunni-based establishment. The lightening rod for the discontent is the monarch. It does have a feel of a movement that is going somewhere. The government and the monarchy are clearly rattled by it. Instinctively it feels like one to watch. _ 11.10am – Libya: The Libyan youth movement says there are reports of a first death in Benghazi, that of a teenager. Alot of reports coming out of the first to be killed in benghazi, 17 year old from well known family #Feb17 #Libya Meanwhile, freetelw tweets that it is quiet in the Libyan capital at the moment with just some organised pro-Gaddafi protests: #Tripoli just got back from Green Sq (12.30 pm)..bunch of 'proGaddafi protesters' are chanting..they brought high school students in groups MIDDLE page 64

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10.38am – Libya: Like the other countries in the Middle East and North Africa in revolt, Libya has its own Facebook protest page. A recent post (in Arabic) is urging "all the youth of Tripoli" to go immediately to Omar Mukhtar Street. It seems to be saying that there are no military battalions in the Libyan capital at the moment, only security forces, which would tie in with comments on Twitter that the regime has been taken by surprise by the protests. 10.26am – Yemen: The Associated Press news agency has a bit more on the protests in Yemen today ( see 9.57am). According to AP, Yemen has sent 2,000 policemen into the streets to try to stem the demonstrations, which are in support of political reforms and against the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The policemen, including plainclothes officers, fired in the air and blocked thousands of students at Sanaa University from joining thousands of other protesters elsewhere in the capital. They are holding a sixth straight day of demonstrations ... Witnesses say at least four protesters were wounded in scuffles with police on Wednesday. Yemen is a conflict-ridden and impoverished nation. Its president has cooperated with the US in battling al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. 10.24am – Bahrain: Blogger Redha Haji has posted a

series of photographs of today's funeral of Fadhel Al Matrook. One shows that the Bahrain flag was placed over his coffin before he was buried. 10.22am – Libya: The Guardian wrote yesterday about how young people in the Arab world use rap as a way to express themselves and as a rallying call. This rap track is promoting tomorrow's protests in Libya. One image featuring Gaddafi says: "Send the devil back to hell," while there are also numerous images of the protests in Egypt and Tunisia, showing the influence of the revolutions in those two countries. _ 10.11am – Bahrain: The respected Middle East analyst Juan Cole predicts what might happen if the Shia majority were granted more representation and power, as protesters are demanding. A Shiite-dominated government in Bahrain might well demand a closure of the US naval base. It would not be an Iranian puppet, insofar as Arab Shiites are jealous of their independence and most Bahraini Shiites don't follow ayatollahs; but it would certainly have warm relations with Tehran. A Shiite victory there would politically embolden other Gulf Arab Shiites, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (Shiites are a minority in all three). Insofar as Iran enjoys soft power with the region's Shiites, the net result would certainly favour Iran and at least

somewhat disadvantage the United States, which already shot itself in the foot by helping install a Shiite government in Baghdad that has excellent relations with Iran. For the Bahrain government to become more democratic and more Shiite-influenced would annoy the Wahhabi Saudi state, which now sees the Sunni Bahraini king as a strategic asset. If, like me, you are on a steep Bahrain learning curve, the piece also provides a useful backgrounder. Did you know that more than half the people in Bahrain are guest workers? 9.57am – Yemen: There are reports of clashes between pro-government supporters in Libya, Iran and now Yemen. Reuters has this: Government loyalists wielding batons and daggers clashed with anti-government protesters in the Yemeni capital on Wednesday. Police were unable to keep the two sides apart as protesters gathered for a demonstration at Sana'a University to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Hundreds of Saleh backers charged at protesters, who quickly fled. One student was wounded, a Reuters reporter said. A few hundred more student demonstrators emerged from inside the university to try to restart the rally. When police locked them inside the campus, they began throwing rocks at the government loyalists from the campus gate.

"We'll keep protesting until this regime leaves," said Murad Mohammed, a Yemeni university student at the disrupted protest. "We have no future under current conditions." The opposition coalition has agreed to negotiate with Saleh, but many young protesters are getting frustrated. "We want change and we want to make that change the way the Egyptians and Tunisians did," said Meshaal Sultan, a Sanaa University student, referring to the revolts that ousted the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia over the last month. 9.50am – Egypt: Jack Shenker has written about how political activists in the country fear the revolution is being hijacked by the army but the April 6 Youth Movement has put out a statement to followers of its Facebook page declaring its "full faith in our honourable military forces". However, the group of online activists also called on the army to expedite the release of political prisoners: April 6 Youth Movement calls on the Egyptian armed forces to speed up the release of political detainees who were arrested in the era of the former regime, as well as the immediate release of all detainees who participated in the uprising of January 25th. The sources inside the armed forces had told April 6 Youth Movement through the meetings that has [sic] been going on Thursday, February 10, that those who were arrested since January

25th will be released within days, but we are calling for fast release of all detainees to maintain the security in Egypt ... April 6 Youth Movement has full faith in our honourable military forces and we are sure that they will release all the innocent victims of our former oppressive regime. 9.46am – Libya: The Associated Press is coming under fire on Twitter for a line in its story about the Libyan protests (picked up by various news outlets) that says: "The crowds, however, did not appear to direct their anger at Muammar Gaddafi." Libyan4life: SMH @HuffingtonPost @AP Protests in #Benghazi were solely towards #Gaddafi despite direct evidence, continue to report misinformation #Feb17 Cyrenaican: They say the revolution will not be televised. Fine. Can we at least get it reported correctly? @AssociatedPress #Benghazi #Feb17 #Libya Incidentally, it appears that a big demonstration is planned for tomorrow in Libya – the hashtag #Feb17 is being used on Twitter – but protests started early in Benghazi. There is a lot of video emerging of last night's protests in the city. 9.33am - Bahrain: This photograph has emerged of Fadhel Al-Matrook the protester who was killed in yesterday's clashes. It shows Matrook with MIDDLE page 65

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his son and daughter, according to the Facebook group True Royal Democracy. Thousands of people have gathered for his funeral today where he is being hailed as a martyr. 9.11am - Bahrain: Below the line in the comments section, goonerinoman claims to be witnessing events in Bahrain. Going to have a wander down to the Pearl roundabout in an hour. Will keep you all informed as to what's going on there. People back at work today but from what I have heard there are still lots of people at the roundabout. Bahrain is a small place and the Pearl roundabout is right in the middle of the shopping malls and the main highway and very near the financial centre. Global Voices has a typicallythorough round-up of the latest social media updates on the protests in Bahrain. It reports: Similar to Tuesday, hundreds of protesters headed towards Salmaniya hospital to collect the fallen man's body and begin the procession to Sheikh Maytham cemetery in Mahooz in Manama. Unlike yesterday, the procession was allowed to move smoothly without police interference. 9.02am - Egypt: Harriet Sherwood has more on the speculation about the whereabouts and health of the former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The Al Arab news site claims that Hosni Mubarak is now holed up in a luxury hotel in the Israeli

resort of Eilat. Apparently there is a big Israeli security presence around the unnamed hotel, and aircraft are hovering above monitoring activity. Indeed, an anonymous hotel employee "revealed" that Mubarak was a guest. The ousted president has also been reported to be in Sharm el Sheikh, in Germany, in Dubai, in a coma, in a state of severe depression and at death's door. 8.47am - Iran: It is getting hard to keep track of the various protests across the Middle East. Now Iran's state broadcaster IRIB is reporting clashes between government supporters and protesters in Tehran. "Students and the people attending the funeral ceremony of the martyred student Sanee Zhaleh have clashed with a limited number of people apparently linked to the sedition movement and forced them out by chanting slogans of death to hypocrites," it said, according to Reuters. Zhaleh was shot dead during an opposition rally on Monday, a killing the government blamed on anti-government protesters but which opposition websites say was done by security forces. Activist Saeed Valadbaygi is running a Facebook commentary on the latest unrest. One of his updates says: University doors have been closed and chants of "down with Khatami and Down with England" is seen around Valiasr.

Another says: A largely organised group of Basij is being transferred to the funeral place through the BRT line. 8.31am - Bahrain: Protesters are holding their ground at the Pearl roundabout, AP reports. Security forces have pulled back sharply apparently on orders to ease tensions after clashes that left at least two people dead and dozens injured. Police helicopters, however, flew low over a major funeral procession for one of the victims in which mourners called him a "martyr" and pledged more protests in the island nation home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet. Thousands of people spent the night in a makeshift tent camp in Manama's Pearl Square, which was swarmed by demonstrators a day earlier. One demonstrator used a bullhorn to call on protesters to remain until their demands are met, as the Arab wave for change takes hold in the Gulf. The protests began Monday as a cry for the country's Sunni monarchy to loosen its grip, including hand-picking most top government posts, and open more opportunities for the country's Shia majority, who have long complained of being blocked from decision-making roles. US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley has expressed concern about events in Bahrain. In a statement last night, he said: The United States is very

concerned by recent violence surrounding protests in Bahrain. We have received confirmation that two protesters in Bahrain were recently killed, and offer our condolences to the families and friends of the two individuals who lost their lives. The United States welcomes the government of Bahrain's statements that it will investigate these deaths, and that it will take legal action against any unjustified use of force by Bahraini security forces. We urge that it follow through on these statements as quickly as possible. We also call on all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from violence. Mobile phone footage of the protests at the Pearl roundabout is being streamed to the video sharing site Bambuser. 8.10am - Libya: Video has emerged of protesters in Benghazi demanding the release of a human rights lawyer and critic of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. The state news agency Jana reports a series of pro-Gaddafi rallies, including in Benghazi, the Middle East expert Scott Lucas reports on his Enduring America blog. A video from Benghazi, dated yesterday, appears to show a protest being broken up by gunfire.(Note: there is some dispute over when this video was filmed.) _ Meanwhile, a human rights group claimed that a 110 prisoners jailed

for membership of banned militant organisation the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group will be released today. Reuters has this: The prisoners are the last members of the group still being held and will be set free from Tripoli's Abu Salim jail, chairman of the Libya Human Rights Association Mohamed Ternish told Reuters. Hundreds of alleged members of the group have been freed from jail after it renounced violence last year. 8.04am: Protests continue in the Middle East and North Africa. The latest flashpoints are Bahrain, where demonstrations continue for a third day despite the intervention of King Hadad, and Libya where the arrest of a human rights campaigner sparked clashes with police in the eastern city of Benghazi. Up to 2,000 people were involved in the clashes in Libya, according to the BBC. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that the unrest had been triggered by the arrest of a lawyer who is an outspoken critic of the government. The lawyer was later said to have been released, but the demonstrations reportedly continued.. They [the witnesses] say stones were thrown at police who are said to have responded with water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets. MIDDLE page 66

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MIDDLE continued from page 65

In Bahrain protesters have occupied Pearl roundabout, a landmark in the capital Manama. Thousands of people are expected to take part in a funeral procession for Fadhel Matrook who was killed at a funeral yesterday. Here's a round-up by country of yesterday's events in the region: Bahrain King Hamad tried to quell unrest by promising to investigate the killings of opposition protesters. Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima was killed in Monday's protests. Fadhel Matrook was shot when security forces fired at crowds of people who had gathered yesterday for Mushaima's funeral. The opposition Shia party alWifaq, announced that it was withdrawing from parliament in protest against the crackdown. This was a key event, writes our Middle East editor Ian Black, because political participation alWifaq party is seen as crucial to political stability, as a leaked US embassy cable revealed. Yemen Protests calling for removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh have

been taking place for last five days in the capital Sana'a. Yesterday pro-government supporters clashed with protesters yesterday amid alarm about increasing violence. Egypt • Elements of Egypt's fractured political opposition are concerned that the army will hijack the revolution. They are alarmed by the army's unilateral declarations of reform and the apparent unwillingness of senior officers to open up genuine negotiations with activists. • The Muslim Brotherhood announced that it plans to set up a political party. • The Guardian is compiling a database of those missing and detained during the unrest in Egypt. • Barack Obama said his administration was "on the right side of history" for its response to the downfall of the Mubarak regime. • CBS News journalist Lara Logan is recovering in hospital after being violently attacked and

sexually assaulted by a mob in Egypt's Tahrir Square on Friday. Iran The authorities confirmed that a second person had died in Monday's unrest, in which security forces used teargas, pepper spray and batons against the protesters. Around 1,500 were arrested in the protests. M Ps have branded opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi "corrupt on earth" a charge that carries the death penalty. Jordan The government sought to head off trouble by easing restrictions on public gatherings. Jordan's interior minister Saed Hayel Srour said that protesters would still have to inform authorities of any gathering two days in advance to ensure public safety. Tunisia The new government extended a state of emergency in place since Zine al Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia, but ended a curfew imposed during the protests. Morocco The government appears to be trying to calm fears over price

hikes on basic goods ahead of a Facebook-arranged protests planned for next Sunday. It has doubled the money it sets aside for state subsidies to counter rising global commodity prices. • Middle East • Bahrain • Iran • Libya • Egypt • Tunisia • Yemen • Jordan • Morocco Matthew Weaver Haroon Siddique Paul Owen Richard Adams guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Criminal Minds' Prime Suspect David Kronke (TVGuide.com: Breaking News) Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:37:00 AM

CRIMINAL page 67

Restrictor-plate opening to be reduced for Daytona 500 Terry Blount (ESPN.com)

The opening of the plate will be 1 /64th of an inch smaller (to 57/ 64ths) to greater restrict the air Updated: February 16, 2011, flow, which will give the engines 12:20 PM ET about 10 to 12 less horsepower. NASCAR announced Wednesday The change is effective morning that it will change the immediately, starting with the carburetor restrictor plates on the first practice session Wednesday engines to reduce speeds for morning. Sunday's Daytona 500. Speeds reached more than 206 Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:20:33 AM

mph in the Budweiser Shootout Saturday night at Daytona. NASCAR already made two rules changes Sunday to cause the engines to heat up faster and limit some of the pairs racing that took place in the Shootout, which enabled the cars to reach higher speeds. The front grill opening was

reduced and NASCAR mandated lower radiator pressure so the engines would get hot faster. The rear car pushing the car in front could overheat in a few laps with the rule changes. Terry Blount is a senior writer for ESPN.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is

your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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Forest Whitaker Forest Whitaker fervently circles a grand dining-room table in a stately Pasadena home, swooping around to view the room's layout from different angles. While he's absorbing every detail, everybody else is focused on the fact that at the head of the table is an actress playing a corpse in a state of extreme decomposition. Whitaker, who won an Oscar for The Last King of Scotland, stars as FBI special agent Sam Cooper in Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, the new spin-off of the wildly popular CBS series. While other actors simply want to hit their marks, he's seeking out thematic nuances and offering sharp, emotional performance variations during rehearsals — for a scene featuring a decomposing female corpse. Later, Whitaker explains his prowling: "I'm trying to get deeper and deeper into the character, and to get on the same energized plane with the actors," he says, then stops himself, realizing how lofty he just sounded. "Sometimes I worry about the terms I use," he says, laughing. His fellow Feds are sold on his methods. "I would play seventh lead to Forest, just to watch him,"

says Michael Kelly( Fair Game). Janeane Garofalo adds simply, "Jesus, what a treasure." The show, which follows a different Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) that uses unorthodox methods to capture the country's most dangerous criminals, experienced a difficult birth. Exec producer Chris Mundy departed in October when CBS wasn't happy with the direction of the show. Costar Beau Garrett admits, "There was heartbreak that day." Original Minds show runner Edward Allen Bernero stepped in to steady the ship. Whitaker was given free rein to create his character. Cooper served a traumatic stint in Afghanistan; his experiences allow him to operate under circumstances that would test most people's spirits. "Cooper doesn't think of [the killers] as separate from himself," Whitaker explains. "It's a very spiritual approach. He's trying to understand the pain they've experienced, so he can figure out how to stop them." "Spiritual" isn't often used to describe the Criminal Minds franchise, which has been criticized for gruesome, borderline-misogynistic story lines. "That's an issue I grapple

with," says Garofalo. "I have a problem with my nieces and nephews watching it, and here I am doing it." A future episode concerns a canister filled with dismembered women, a plot Kelly and Garrett admit they found disturbing. "After a while, you're like, 'I think I want to do a Disney movie now,'" jokes costar Matt Ryan. But he notes that his grandmother is a huge fan of the original series. "It's quite creepy," he concludes, "but in a good way." The Suspect Behavior crew hopes Granny — and the rest of America — feel the same way about the spin-off. Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior airs Wednesday at 10/9c on CBS. Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now! This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Review: 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior' Delivers More of the Same Maureen Ryan (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/16/2011 6:15:00 AM

Filed under: Reality-Free, Stay Tuned If you like what 'Criminal Minds' does, then 'Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior' should be right up your alley. In this spin-off of the popular CBS procedural, Forest Whitaker plays Sam Cooper, the leader of an "elite team" of agents who use "unconventional methods" to track down America's worst criminals, according to CBS's press site. The "elite team" part sounds right; it almost goes without saying that this team is the best and the toughest and could be described with many other words that end in "-est." But really, "unconventional" methods? I beg to differ. Doesn't every CBS procedural revolve around an uncompromising team leader who schools lesser cops

and cuts through stupid bureaucracy until he gets what he needs and Delivers Justice? As a cop show, 'Suspect Behavior' is about as conventional as they come. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

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Watercooler: Glee Pays the Rent

Daily electronics deals

Damian Holbrook (TVGuide.com: Breaking News)

Paul Eng (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 2/16/2011 6:03:40 AM

• Amazon: Call of Duty Black Ops (Wii/360/PS3) $40 (33% off)

Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:35:00 AM

Glee Now THAT is what Glee should be every week. After last week's encouragingly strong Valentine's episode, of course last night was a letdown. Like Sam's mouth-to-face ratio, Glee's excellent-to-uneven equation is all out of whack, as well. But halfway through what ultimately turned out to be a plotless hour that did nothing but piss off a bunch of Justin Bieber fans, things took a sudden left turn into Awesome Town for what should be remembered as one of the show's greatest performances ever... as well as the one moment that almost made us forget the episode's two tacky suicide jokes and the sight of Puck in mop-top toupee. Pitted against one another by Sue after she joined New Directions (don't ask), Rachel and Mercedes — who's been practically mute this season 'til now — agreed to a diva-off in the choir room to settle the "who's fiercer?" conundrum many fans have debated since Amber Riley showed us what she could so with "Bust Your Windows" in Season 1. This, however, took things to a whole

Daily electronics deals Today's electronics deals, courtesy of The Consumerist: • B&H: Manfrotto Backpack Tripod & Gearbag Bundle $67.78R Free Shipping • Canon: 20% off Refurbished Powershot Cameras (SD4000is $167.99; PowerShot S90 $223.99 • CowBoom: 15.6" Lenovo ThinkPad L412 Core i5 $599, free ship (next best $798) • Buy.com: 15.6" Acer AS57426475 Core i3 Laptop $499.99, free ship (next best $570) new level. The song? "Take Me or fabulosity was the amount of • Amazon: Cisco-Valet Wireless Leave Me," from Broadway's attention Santana got during the N Router with free Cisco USB Rent, a duet born for big voices hour. Connector $65 (normally $173) and rippling with runs, high notes So, we ask you: Who won the • Other World Computing: and girl-power intensity. In diva-off? Was it Rachel's carousel OWC's Garage Sale: Adapters, weaker hands, the number would h o r s e - s w e a t e r e d s e l f , o r RAM, accessories, computers, have felt like a tragic attempt to McKinley's first lady of soul, more outdo the original (blazingly Mercedes? Duke it out in the • Dell Small Business: Dell killed by Rent original cast comments below! Vostro V13 Core 2 Duo 1.3GHz members Fredi Walker and future Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine 13" LED Laptop for $399 + $8 Glee vet Idina Menzel). But Riley now! s&h and Lea Michele shut. It. Down. This entry passed through the The sheer amount of concentrated Full-Text RSS service — if this is Entertainment vocal power on display was as your content and you're reading it • Amazon: Eminem Recovery mind-boggling as the realization on someone else's site, please read MP3 Album $5 (iTunes $11.99) that it took the producers this long our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ • GameStop: 15% off PS3, Xbox to pair their leading ladies on the content-only/faq.php 360 New Games [w/ coupon code late Jonathan Larson's anthemic Five Filters featured article: 15NEW] showstopper. The only thing that Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In came close to this level of The Crosshairs.

Neither Consumer Reports nor The Consumerist receive anything in exchange for featuring these deals; the posts are intended to be purely informational. These deals are often fleeting, with prices changing or products becoming unavailable as the day progresses. These posts are not an endorsement of the featured products or the Web sites that sell them—though some of the sites may be included, and recommended, in our Ratings of retailers for computers and other major electronics(both available to subscribers). Price shouldn't be your only criterion. Be wary of lower-priced deals that seem too good to be true, and check return policies for restocking fees and other gotchas. For general buying advice for many of the products on sale above, check out our free Buying Guides. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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Exclusive Smallville Scoop: CW to Re-Air the Pilot

Save on tax prep, pay less to the government

Natalie Abrams (TVGuide.com: Breaking News)

Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)

Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:00:00 AM

Submitted at 2/16/2011 8:55:25 AM

Smallville Hot on the heels of the news that Smallville will have a two-hour series finale, the CW has decided to re-air the pilot episode, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively. Smallville flies off with a twohour series finale On Friday, April 8 (8/7c), you can relive the very first hour of Smallville, which originally aired on October 16, 2001, on The WB. The episode features the crashlanding of Kal-El in Smallville, before jumping ahead 12 years to a teenaged Clark Kent ( Tom Welling) saving a reckless Lex Luthor ( Michael Rosenbaum) in a car accident, kicking off their iconic friendship-turned-rivalry-to -be.

Save on tax prep, pay less to the government April 18th is this year's deadline to file your federal and state income taxes. This season, Consumer Reports is presenting a trove of useful tax how-to's, including saving time and money on tax-preparation, identifying tax breaks, making sense of new tax laws and IRS news, filing Coming full circle, Rosenbaum is Full-Text RSS service — if this is electronically, and other timely set to reprise the role of Lex in the your content and you're reading it topics. Here's what's hot now; series finale, airing Friday, May on someone else's site, please read check back regularly for updated 13. our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ reports and news: Tax break central: Delaying Michael Rosenbaum returning to content-only/faq.php Smallville for series finale Five Filters featured article: income tax payment on IRA After the pilot, Supernatural will Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In conversion Tax break central: Making the air a repeat, but both shows will The Crosshairs. most of the homebuyer tax credit return with new episodes the Shopping for a tax preparer? following week. Here's what to ask. This entry passed through the Track down the best tax preparer for you The do's and don'ts of tax (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks) recommend making it on the Mango-Orange Slush, Triple d e d u c t i o n s : C h a r i t a b l e contributions Preparing your taxes weekend to have on hand during Berry Freeze On busy mornings, the first thing busy weekday mornings. It is This entry passed through the online? Take note of these tips to neglect shouldn't be breakfast. packed with ingredients that will Full-Text RSS service — if this is and traps With these quick and healthy keep you from counting down the your content and you're reading it Save with free tax-prep tools, choices you won't think twice hours until lunch. Bonus: The on someone else's site, please read whether you do it yourself or hire about skipping the most important recipe makes two loafs—enjoy our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ a pro Hot tips: Save time, money meal of the day. one and freeze the other to bring content-only/faq.php To start our list of on-the-go out for the next busy week. Five Filters featured article: o p t i o n s w e c h o s e a h e a r t y View Recipe: Fig, Applesauce, Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In breakfast bread. This recipe takes and Almond Breakfast Loaf Next The Crosshairs. a bit of time to prepare so we Frozen Banana Latte, Spicy

Quick Breakfast Recipes

preparing & filing your taxes online Forests saved: No more federal tax forms in the mail IRS Form 1099s may be late this year. Here's what to do. IRS and tax-prep software companies roll out tax apps The IRS's valentine: You can file your itemized return on Feb. 14 Free tax-prep and filing options abound this year Suggestion box is now open: How would you change the tax system? Taxpayer advocate: IRS tax liens may do more harm than good That 2-percent tax cut in your paycheck? Not so fast. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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Toy Fair 2011: Day Two: It's All In The Cards (Woot! - One Day, One Deal) Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:00:00 AM

Yesterday, we ended with board games. Today, we're starting with cards. At Toy Fair, the card makers wear desperation like a ragged sweater. Crammed into the lower level like it was some 19th Century immigrant town, the card people huddle at the very back, shouting out things like "We're the next Uno!" and "It's just like Pokerâ&#x20AC;Ś with a twist!" But in those cold, frightened eyes, you can see the truth. The card people have to try the hardest, because they're already the most ignored. So join Scott after the jump as he presents a look at the card games he enjoyed the most. Also, you'll get to see him make this face at the end: Consider it our gift to the photoshop community. See you inside! Now before I explain why I look so incredibly stupid in that photo, let's talk about cards. In the age before video games existed, cards were the go-to killer app, stopping boredom, offering fun in the car, sometimes even becoming a way to bond with your grandparents. Of course, as long as Las Vegas is open for business, cards are going to be with us, but not all games are money-makers. It might be hard to believe, but there are card games designed to be nothing but fun. One of those games is S'Quarrels. As you can tell from the photo,

the goal of S'Quarrels is to be the winning squirrel when Winter shows up. There are nut cards that go into your Storage Pile, and Action Cards that can change things all around. Play continues until Winter arrives, and when that happens, whoever has the the most nuts wins! Please keep in mind that it's good form to share your surplus with the losers so they don't freeze and die of starvation. After all, this is a family game.

large. The exact opposite can be said about MimiQ, an upcoming release which practically begs you to have a camera ready. See my face in this next picture? That's how the game is played. MimiQ is just an updated version of Go Fish, except you have to make the face on the card when asking what the other person has. No more "Got any twos?" Now it's "Got any/angry face?" It goes without saying that this is a game you can scale with the players, so it could be used with a bunch of laughing six year olds or become a college dorm bonding experience. Making faces is the great equalizer. A little more serious, in a completely not-serious sort of way, is Wiggity Bang's Quao, a game of absolute dictatorship. One player is the Quao, and is the only one who knows all the rules. The other players have to either guess or fail to guess what the secrets are as they turn on each other to take their place as the But should you be the sort of year or more. In this game, you new Quao and issue the rules person who'd kick those poor get rules for basic, intermediate, themselves. So basically, it's a hungry squirrels out in the and advanced play, and the rules card game that simulates politics. snowâ&#x20AC;Ś can we assume you've range from a simple "Discard any But there's no avoiding it any enjoyed old-school Dungeons and one or two cards that add up to the longer. You were promised that at Dragons? Yeah, call it a hunch. face value of the card currently on the end, you'd see that terrible And if you're into strange rules display" to the slightly more photo of me again, along with an and royalty, why not take a look ridiculous "Gross Rule: If a explanation. So let's just get it at Dabong!? player's hand totally precisely 144 over with. It all began with the With a sheet of rules that covers points, that player can play all his Education Outdoors booth and a the front AND the back, Dabong! cards and win." Dabong! is one of card game called S'mores. is the sort of game that happens those games that seems terrifically Kinda like how the classic Mille when a team of college professors nerd friendly, but unlikely to ever work amongst themselves for a be embraced by the world at TOY page 72

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Toy Fair 2011: Day Two: Most Snuggliest, Part One (Woot! - One Day, One Deal)

up Mommy and Daddy. This simple feature means TONS of extra weekend sleep for you, Perhaps it's the soft toy industry while your child just enjoys their that has changed the most in the special glowing friend. It's win/ past fifty years. What once would win for everybody. have been an old sock with Unless you're buying for David buttons for eyes now has to be Cross, Haywire's "Where's That plush and squeezy with some Chipmunk" would make a really deep backstory that somehow cute gift. As far as I could tell, it's relates to friendship and maybe a a version of hide and seek, except wizard. But surely, surely there the chipmunk does the hiding. must be more to cute than a brand This does mean you can't track name! In a special two-part him down by pretending to be expose, Scott's getting to the stupid and listening for the bottom of the soft underbelly of giggles, and as far as I'm Toy Fair, and looking for the most concerned, that's taking the game adorable toys. to the next level. What he findsâ&#x20AC;Ś may shock you. Wouldn't you like a pair of fuzzy But only if you're incredibly highducks on your wrist? These strung. watches from Lotus1 aren't quite Maybe it's a sign of the times, but ready yet, but they're so cute! I the market for cuddly toys is The new line of Perfect Petzzz got their start in a love letter How can you not love that? hope they find their way from huge. The field is evenly split as included this sleepy purple pig. between two students of design. American Innovative's "O.K. To Hong Kong soon because those well, between the people who are It's impossible to tell from a still He drew one for her, she made a Wake Owl" combines cute with ducks deserve their moment in the just in it for the cash and the photo, but there's a motor inside doll for him, he knew people who useful in a way that only parents sun. people who really care about the that pig, and it moves up and wanted one of their own, they can fully appreciate. When a kid It's not over yet! Part two of our s n u g g l e s . I ' m n o t p a s s i n g down to create the illusion of made some prototypes, and now, presses the owl's tummy, he can coverage of cute is due later on judgement here, I'm just pointing breathing. The company admits well, you can see for yourself how sing a lullaby, or maybe just say t o d a y . R e m e m b e r t h a t o u r out that stupid Ty wouldn't let me it's not a product for everyone, but many different characters there HOO-HOO, just like the rappers ToyFair 2011 coverage continues in the late 90s. But unlike rappers, today and tomorrow, with a take any photos in their booth, they seem to have found a niche are. with young people and the These so-ugly-they're-cute cookie the O.K. To Wake Owl has a face special video recap next Monday even though you can basically see everything I wanted to photograph elderly. All of the love with none jars show off what's best about the that will glow green at a preset via the podcast. You think we're Ugly style of humor. That one time, letting your child know cute, don't you? right here. But whatever, Ty. The of the mess! The little monsters at UglyDolls eyed fellow? His name is Ox. when it's okay to come and wake cool companies actually liked me. Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:00:00 PM

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Kinda Tired From Toy Fair: Woot Weads The Wire (Woot! - One Day, One Deal)

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ( UPI) -Officials in Fort Wayne, Ind., said their new government center will Every week in this space, we’ll "probably not" be named after take a look at the news and offer former Mayor Harry Baals, o u r o w n i n c i s i v e b l e n d o f despite support in an online poll. commentary, analysis, and poop But producers agree that the jokes. The news you need, from a name is under consideration for voice you can trust, in the 90 the love interest in the upcoming seconds you have to spare: that’s "Jane Bond" movie. Woot Weads the Wire. DETROIT ( UPI) -- Proponents NEW YORK ( UPI) -- Monday is of erecting a statue of RoboCop in Valentine's Day, but Sunday is Detroit, a suggestion first tweeted "Valenswine's Day," say people to the mayor, said they had raised who pay attention to such things $18,182 so far. in New York. Some donators also suggested the Sources say that the number of statue could be made with the Babylon 5 fans who are also pig leftover steel from bulldozing all farmers is surprisingly high. the underfunded local schools. Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:00:00 AM

NEW YORK ( UPI) -- A New York cabbie said he refused a dinner in his honor after he returned a bag containing $75,000 in jewelry to its owner because alcohol would be served. In a related story, an expert team of sentence diagrammers are still debating why exactly the bag was returned. DENVER ( UPI) -- Animal rescuers in Denver say they're waiting for an airplane with 25 lions rescued from Bolivian traveling circuses to roar into Denver International Airport. Those in the know privately fear a territory dispute with the Flying Tigers.

TOY continued from page 70

Bornes lets the player win a race, S'mores lets the player make a a perfect S'more. There's good and bad chocolate, delicious and unacceptable crackers, and even some obstacles you can throw in the way of your enemies as needed. It's really a nice idea for a card game. But I couldn't just take a photo and move on. Oh, no. I had to try and be funny. I decided to make a s'more hand and pose with it like I'd just won the game. The Art Director loved the idea, and he offered to hold the camera for me. I found the cards, picked them up, leaned in close… and

blinked. Well, at least now I've got something for when I need to renew my passport. He might be suddenly hiding his face in shame, but he's still got a free hand to write with. Keep up with Scott's ToyFair 2011 coverage today and tomorrow, with a special video recap next Monday. And please, when you start manipulating his image, try not to let his poor sainted mother see what you've done.

2011 Spring Training: St. Louis Cardinals, Albert Pujols don't reach by deadline

Green shoots for the remodeling industry

ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)

Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:38:26 AM

The Atlanta-based home improvement chain will run four weekend-long "Spring Black Submitted at 2/16/2011 7:13:33 AM Friday" promotions, doubling its Green shoots for the remodeling 2010 total. Lowe's, meanwhile, industry says it will hire 50,000 seasonal Or maybe we should say orange employees. aprons. The big-box announcements Home Depot announced this coincide with the release of the week that it will hire 60,000 BuildFax Remodeling Index, seasonal workers ahead of the which is based on building and anticipated March-through-June permitting information from more blitz. "Spring is our Christmas than 4,000 cities and counties and traffic is at its highest during nationwide. The findings show an this season," said Craig Menear, 1 8 p e r c e n t y e a r - o v e r - y e a r executive vice president for increase in remodeling activity for merchandising in a news release. December 2010. “Throughout the

country—even in the lagging Northeast—the last quarter of 2010 shows promise for increased remodeling activity in 2011,” said Joe Emison, vice president of research and development at BuildFax.

If you're considering a spring project, check the Consumer Reports Home Remodeling & Improvement Guide for advice on building products, materials, appliances, and more. —Daniel DiClerico Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

Updated: February 16, 2011, 12:50 PM ET JUPITER, Fla. -- The deadline for Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals to reach a new contract agreement passed Wednesday with no new deal. The Cardinals say no more talks will be held until the end of the season. Pujols, a nine-time All-Star, is eligible for free agency after the World Series, raising the possibility the three-time NL MVP may be on the cusp of his final season in St. Louis. 2011 page 73

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2011 continued from page 72

The two sides have not exchanged contract proposals in about four days, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney, who first reported that talks had broken off. "While we are disappointed that we did not reach an agreement, we remain hopeful that Albert will finish his career in St. Louis," Cardinals chairman William DeWitt Jr. said in a statement The Herd with Colin Cowherd ESPN's Buster Olney updates us on Albert Pujols, saying the Cardinals slugger and the team have broken off talks without a deal. The sticking point is money, not years. Pujols will test free agency. The Cardinals said they made a "substantial, long-term offer," to no avail. "We respect Albert's decision," DeWitt said. A source close to the negotiations told ESPN's Karl Ravech the biggest issue is not the number of years, but the amount of money the Cardinals are offering. The Cardinals' offer would place Pujols in baseball's top 10 in salary, but not in the top five in average annual salary, the source said. Sources have previously told Olney that Pujols, who has the right to veto any trade, will not accept any trade going forward. "While both parties were hopeful

that an agreement could be reached, a difference of opinion in determining Albert's value simply could not be resolved," Dan Lozano, Pujols' agent, said in a prepared statement. "The expiration of today's deadline does not eliminate the possibility of Albert returning to the Cardinals in 2012, but simply delays negotiations until the conclusion of the Cardinals' season," Lozano said. Lozano said Pujols set the negotiating deadline so that he would not distract the organization or his teammates during the season. He said Pujols will not discuss his contract situation with the media in spring training or during the season. "[Pujols] feels as strongly as ever that this team has the potential to win the World Series. That alone is why he will not permit his contractual situation to become a distraction or take away from his ability to reach that goal," Lozano said. Pujols is expected to join his teammates at spring training on Thursday. "It really doesn't matter to us," said Cardinals pitcher and union rep Kyle McClellan. "It's none of our business. It's none of anybody's business. ... The truth is, I've never been on the mound and thinking of Albert Pujols' contract."

St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said Tuesday that he believes Pujols is feeling pressure from the union to "set the bar" with this deal, which some expect could exceed Alex Rodriguez's $275 million, 10-year pact with the New York Yankees. If A-Rod, Why Not Pujols? Is Albert Pujols worth $30 million per season? He is a year and a half younger than Alex Rodriguez was when he signed a 10-year, $275M contract in 2007, and based on the numbers here, one could say that Pujols has been underpaid. Most HRs and RBIs in MLB Since 2001 Rodriguez Pujols HR 424 408 RBI 1,236 1,230 Salary$252M$96.7M Salary per HR$594K$237K Salary per RBI$204K$79K powered by On Wednesday, La Russa insisted that he'd said too much already. "It was kind of omitted. I said if I was running the union or part of the union, I'm not sure I'd handle it any different," La Russa said, about two hours before the noon deadline. "I checked with some of our veteran coaches. It strains credibility a little bit to think there hasn't been any contact or mention. He's too significant." Union officials have denied pressuring Pujols or his agent, Danny Lozano. And McClellan

said La Russa's comments did not create an awkward situation for him, even though as the union rep in the Cardinals' clubhouse, he had to take a decidedly different stance than his manager. "It doesn't really have anything to do with me. I just represent the players," McClellan said. "All I can do is get the facts that I know, that the union's job is to make sure that the players and agents are informed. They're not going to overstep any boundaries and tell anybody what to do. Everybody's a grown man. They can make a decision for themselves." La Russa said often Wednesday morning that his focus is on spring training and the NL Central, not what will or won't happen with his slugger. "We don't want to get our minds cluttered as a team," La Russa said. "There's enough to do. ... The competition in the Central and the National League has got our complete attention. And that's just what we're going to think about. You can choose what you think about. That's what we're going to think about." General manager John Mozeliak has said it's not necessary that a deal be signed by noon Wednesday, but the sides would need to have agreed to terms. Pujols, a nine-time All-Star, is the only player in major league history to hit 30 or more home

runs each of his first 10 seasons -all coming with the Cardinals, the franchise he has said in the past he wants to remain with for the rest of his career. He has a .331 career batting average and averaged 41 homers and 123 RBIs. He's also won six Silver Slugger Awards and two Gold Gloves. Last year he batted .312 with 42 homers and 118 RBIs and finished second in MVP balloting. "I don't think there's a better guy for us to have on the team," Cardinals second baseman Skip Schumaker said. "He's the face of the franchise. You respect both sides of it. You respect what the Cardinals are doing, you respect the management and what Albert's agent is doing. It's a tough situation, as everybody knows. He's an iconic player." Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Sports/

Newstablet Edition

Jeff Wilpon: Family won't give up control of New York Mets Associated Press (ESPN.com)

Wilpon said they will be "victorious in the end." Mets: Spring Training 2011 Updated: February 16, 2011, As all eyes turn to Port St. Lucie 12:51 PM ET to watch the Mets prepare for the PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- With 2011 season, ESPNNY.com has t h e N e w Y o r k M e t s u n d e r you covered! pressure because of a lawsuit and Spring Training Center| Mets searching for investors, chief blog operating officer Jeff Wilpon Jeff Wilpon said there is "good insisted on the eve of spring interest from a lot of people you training that his family won't give haven't read about in the papers" up control of the team. about an ownership stake. Owner Fred Wilpon and his son "This is all obviously a little bit of said Jan. 28 they were exploring a distraction, and I feel really bad selling up to 25 percent of the for our family, bad for my dad franchise because of "uncertainty" and my uncle because this is just caused by the lawsuit filed by unfounded criticism on us," Irving H. Picard, the trustee trying Wilpon said. "They've had years to recover money for victims of and years that they've been good t h e B e r n a r d M a d o f f P o n z i citizens, good businessmen, and scheme. Picard is seeking at least to attack them the way they've $300 million from the Wilpons, been attacked is really very unfair, team president and brother-in-law unfounded and that's all I really Saul Katz and related Sterling want to say on that." Equities entities. With Mets pitchers and catchers "We're not selling controlling starting workouts Thursday, interest in the team," Jeff Wilpon Wilpon said he told new manager said Wednesday at the Mets Terry Collins not to worry about spring training complex. "It's not ownership issues. on the table." Wilpon said players have been While Picard claims the Wilpons supportive, some of them offering and Katz were net winners from words of encouragement during their Madoff investments and phone calls. He said the focus for ignored warnings that Madoff's the team remains on preparing for high returns might be false, the the season. Mets owners have said they are "This is an ownership issue," victims in the scheme and Jeff Wilpon said. "This is a Sterling Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:20:36 AM

Equities issue. It has nothing to do with what goes on here. As you know, our payroll is going to be -what? -- $145 [million]-$150 million. That's tops in baseball, or right up there. We're going to be committed to make sure all the resources are here to continue to run this team the way it's been run. We're going to continue to make it work and move forward." Wilpon also supported general manager Sandy Alderson's assertion Tuesday that the lawsuit will not prevent the team from pursuing a new contract for Jose Reyes during the season, if Alderson decides he wants to. "Sandy has the ability to run the team," Wilpon said. "He did that this offseason. He will do it. We're looking at budgets. We're looking at numbers for out years. There's some with Jose in it. There's some with Jose not in it. And that's just prudent planning." Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Lance Armstrong Retires for Good FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/16/2011 7:53:00 AM

Filed under: Cycling Lance Armstrong is calling this one "Retirement 2.0." Almost a month after finishing 65th in his last competitive race in Australia, and nearly six years removed from the last of an unprecedented seven straight Tour de France titles, the 39-year-old cyclist made clear there is no reset button this time. This time, he's leaving professional racing behind for good. "Never say never," Armstrong

laughed at the start of an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, then quickly added, "Just kidding." His retirement ends a comeback effort that failed to produce an eighth title or diminish talk that performance-enhancing drugs helped his career. The timing has as much to do with his growing responsibilities and family as it does with the physical limitations time has imposed. He's tired, and tired of being hounded. Armstrong will miss competing -let alone dominating a sport like none before him -- but not the 24/ 7/365 training regimen that made it possible.

Sports/ Gaming/

Newstablet Edition

Another Day, Another Charlie Sheen Talk Show Appearance Milton Kent (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:59:00 AM

Filed under: Sports Business and Media For the second time in three days, actor Charlie Sheen made an appearance on Dan Patrick's radio and television show Wednesday to clarify his professional and personal situation. Sheen, whose personal life has been the subject of widespread tabloid coverage, phoned into Patrick's show around 10:30 a.m. ET from his California home, presumably to clear up comments he made on Monday's program. Sheen, a three-time Emmy nominee for "Two and a Half Men," said Wednesday he intends to complete the two years left on his contract with Warner Bros. for

European PSN releases for February 16

The Gunstringer branded an Xbox Live Arcade title on Xbox.com

the show, which is frequently the most-watched comedy each week. Production on the show has been shut down in the last few weeks Ben Gilbert (Joystiq) while Sheen, who has been a Submitted at 2/16/2011 1:00:00 PM patient in drug and alcohol rehab clinics, recovers from recent Twisted Pixel has yet to confirm relapses. the distribution method for its forthcoming puppeteer Western for Kinect, The Gunstringer, but the title's Xbox.com listing(pictured) indicates that the game is bound for Xbox Live Arcade. If accurate, this would make The Gunstringer the first American-developed Kinect title confirmed for XBLA (don't forget about those planned XBLA Kinect games from Japan); though

Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:30:00 PM

This week's "new" content on the European PlayStation Store is anything but -- headlining the new releases are Dragon's Lair and Final Fantasy, joined by the it wouldn't be a huge surprise, PSOne Classic Atari Anniversary given that all of TP's games have Edition. Most of the "freshness" either been released on or are in of this particular update comes development for XBLA. from the twin Killzone 3 demos, Twisted Pixel has declined to which come in distinct 2D and comment on the listing, leaving a eye-pulverizing 3D flavors. Check little suspense in the air. out the rest of the update below! The Gunstringer branded an Choose your platform to view the Xbox Live Arcade title on corresponding release list:(Note: Xbox.com originally appeared on Continue past the break to view Joystiq on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 both release lists.) 13:00:00 EST. Please see our Continue reading European PSN terms for use of feeds. releases for February 16 Permalink| Email this| Comments European PSN releases for February 16 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Gaming/ Featured/

Newstablet Edition

Mr Cooper in Tahrir Square during the revolution (Scripting News) Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:47:46 AM

How many times have you seen American "news people" standing in the middle of a hurricane to "report from the scene." And when you've seen it, have you, like I, said (not on your blog of course) -- "That idiot is going to get himself killed." I suppose that's why people watch it. For all I know when Anderson Cooper does it (and he pioneered the form as far as I know) he's in a Ben Gilbert (Joystiq) Continue reading New Batman: studio and the whole thing is Arkham City screens, featuring simulated. But it often looks like a Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:10:00 PM tree or sign is going to come 'Joker's Extreme Closeup' Remember back on Wayne's New Batman: Arkham City swooping by and knock off his World when Wayne and Garth s c r e e n s , f e a t u r i n g ' J o k e r ' s head. In real-time, while kids all would put their faces all up in the Extreme Closeup' originally over the world watch. c a m e r a f o r " E X T R E M E appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 I'm still talking about Anderson CLOSEUPS?" Apparently, the Feb 2011 12:10:00 EST. Please Cooper. I did see the parallels in an idiot Joker was a big fan, as seen in the see our terms for use of feeds. latest slew of screens from Permalink| Email this| Comments standing outside, unprotected, in a hurricane and a rich, white, Batman: Arkham City. Party on, American standing in the middle Joker! of Tahrir Square during a revolution. As spectacularly great as the Egyptian people were during this event, there were assholes floating around out there.

New Batman: Arkham City screens, featuring 'Joker's Extreme Closeup'

Major assholes. People who hate America and Americans. Did Cooper and CNN not know that? I wonder if they made him sign a disclaimer before he went out there saying that if he was killed his family wouldn't sue CNN for causing his death. Just some thoughts.

My rivers and their OPMLs (Scripting News) Submitted at 2/16/2011 9:09:02 AM

I've done something unusual in the last few months, I've made a few public rivers. I've been publicizing them. Beating the drum. Trying to get people interested. With some good results. Here are three of them: RIVERS page 77

Politics/

Newstablet Edition

RIVERS continued from page 76

1. wikiriver.org. 2. daveriver.scripting.com. 3. east-village.org. Today I did something to extend the interestingness. If you look in the address bar when viewing each of them, if you use Firefox as I do, you'll see a blue "radiator" icon. If you click on it, you'll get to the OPML subscription list for the river. Now you can subscribe to the same sources I do. My OPML is automatically updated whenever I

add or remove feeds, and if your aggregator supports dynamic subscriptions (also known as reading lists), you'll get exactly the same feeds I have. By making OPML as readily available for rivers as RSS is for blogs, we're taking the next step in a bootstrap. Hope you like it!

Writer Sorry for Remarks on Lara Logan Attack (Newsmax - Inside Cover)

"Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson . . . Yes yes it’s wrong what happened to her. Of course. I A journalist who has written for don't support that. But, it would The New York Times Magazine have been funny if it happened to and other major publications has Anderson, too." apologized for commenting that it He also wrote that “at a moment would have been “funny” if CNN when [Logan] is going to become reporter Anderson Cooper had a martyr and glorified we should been targeted by the Egyptians at least remember her role as a who attacked CBS News’ Lara major war monger." Logan. In an e-mail to the Hollywood Logan, CBS News’ chief foreign Reporter on Wednesday, Rosen correspondent, was brutally apologized for the remarks: beaten and sexually assaulted " I d e e p l y r e g r e t m a k i n g while covering the uprising in i n s e n s i t i v e b u t c o m p l e t e l y Cairo last week. insincere jokes to a couple of Nir Rosen, who has extensively friends on Twitter. I am deeply covered the war in Iraq and ashamed because they do not contributed regularly to the represent who I am, and I would W a s h i n g t o n P o s t , A t l a n t i c like to convey my most heartfelt Monthly, the Boston Review, apologies to Ms. Logan, her Harpers, and the New Yorker as family, her friends, all women and well as the New York Times, to everyone I have hurt, angered suggested on Twitter that Logan and disappointed. was trying to outdo Cooper, who "In addition to my insensitivity I was attacked just days earlier. showed tremendous lack of Submitted at 2/16/2011 6:31:19 AM

judgment. I hope that my eight years of work dedicated to finding justice for the weak will show my true nature and that in time I will be forgiven for my hurtful statements, which I did not mean at all." Following his Twitter remarks, Rosen resigned his fellowship at

the New York University Center on Law and Security. Karen J. Greenberg, executive director of the center, said in a statement on Wednesday that Rosen “crossed the line yesterday with his comments about Lara Logan. I am deeply distressed by what he wrote about Ms. Logan and strongly denounce his comments. They were cruel and insensitive and completely unacceptable.” © Newsmax. All rights reserved. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Politics/

Newstablet Edition

Israel Quietly Shuts Down Embassies as Sabers Rattle Sarah Wildman (Politics Daily)

Israel. Israel denied culpability. Observers pointed out that there were others around the globe who Foreign Policy Correspondent were happy to see Mughniyeh As Days of Rage continue across dead ( the United States is at the the Middle East, and thoughts are top of that list). Mughniyeh was far from the Israeli-Palestinian widely believed to be involved in Peace Process, the Israeli Foreign the hijacking of TWA flight 845 Ministry took the unusual step in the early 1980s (and was earlier this week of quietly indicted for that crime in the U.S.) shutting down four embassies and and other attacks on Americans, putting others on high alert. That's as well as bombings against because as attention has turned to J e w i s h a n d I s r a e l i s i t e s i n protests in Bahrain, Yemen, Argentina-- including the deadly Algeria, and Iran, sabers are AMIA bombing in 1994 against a rattling between Lebanon and Jewish community center that Israel. Israeli Defense Minister killed 85 people and wounded 151 Ehud Barak warned that his more. He then dropped off the nation could once again enter r a d a r f o r y e a r s , t h o u g h Lebanon and Hezbollah once intelligence believed him to be again promised to avenge its still active -- and even blamed martyrs. him for the Khobar Towers That would be one martyr, in bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996. particular. At least this week. Upon his death, then StateWhile Israel's embassy in Cairo Department spokesman Sean was already in flux due to the 18- McCormack said, "The world is a d a y E g y p t i a n u p r i s i n g , t h e better place without this man in it. decision to shut down four, thus One way or the other, he was far unnamed, diplomatic missions brought to justice." And the FBI's c o i n c i d e s w i t h t h e t h i r d Richard Kolko told the Associated anniversary of the death of Imad Press, "If this information proves Mughniyeh, a Hezbollah leader, true, it would be considered good in Lebanon. Mughniyeh was news in the ongoing fight against killed in a car bombing in terrorism." February 2008; Hezbollah blamed But good news for fighters of Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:42:00 AM

terrorism didn't mean that there wasn't revenge in the works. Hezbollah promised as much. Wednesday morning, at a rally marking the party's Martyr's Day, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah reiterated that promise."I say to the Zionist leaders and generals: Wherever you go in the world . . . at any time, to watch your heads because the blood of Imad Mughniyeh will not be wasted." He promised war and he promised bombs. "I say to the fighters of the Islamic Resistance: Be ready. If a new war is imposed on Lebanon we may ask you to take Galilee, to free Galilee,"

against the locations and it is being dealt with. The relevant Israeli authorities are in contact with the relevant authorities in the countries in question." The countries weren't named, but observers noted that on Friday Israel's Counter Terrorism Bureau declared eight countries were high risks for Israeli and Jewish travelers -- Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania and Venezuela. The foreign ministry did not confirm embassy closings in those nations, possibly to throw Hassan Nasrallah said. "I hope the off any planned attacks. people of Israel have good bomb Closing an embassy is a shelters." relatively unusual step. The Agence France-Press reported United States and the United that on the dais with Nasrallah Kingdom, however, temporarily was Mohammed Yusuf Mansour, closed embassies in Yemen in a Hezbollah leader who escaped early January 2010 due to threats from a Cairo prison last week. of an al-Qaeda attack there. Indeed, this week the Israeli This entry passed through the Foreign Ministry acknowledged it Full-Text RSS service â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if this is had received enough credible your content and you're reading it threats to believe the lives of on someone else's site, please read embassy staffers were at risk. "A our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ number of irregular incidents content-only/faq.php targeting Israeli destinations were Five Filters featured article: recorded in the last few days," the Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In ministry said in a statement The Crosshairs. Tuesday. "At this point we estimate that a threat exists

Politics/

Newstablet Edition

How Vulnerable Democrats Might Attack Obama's Health Care Bill

Boehner Boosts Freedom in the House

Matt Lewis (Politics Daily)

(Newsmax - Inside Cover)

domestic accomplishments" -- not something they can risk with an Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:01:00 AM election approaching. C o l u m n i s t W i t h 2 0 1 2 Yet it is also clear that if they toe approaching, vulnerable Senate the liberal line on health care, Democrats representing red states they could lose re-election in are desperately searching for 2012. creative ways to distance One solution may be for t h e m s e l v e s f r o m P r e s i d e n t vulnerable Democrats to attack a Obama's health care law. provision in the law that Of course, if they attack it too ostensibly exists to control harshly, they risk angering their Medicare costs. liberal base -- and donors. (This, Much of the "savings" included of course, is the kind of "wedge in the bill comes in the form of issue" Republicans relish seeing cuts to Medicare benefits. The Democrats struggle with). chief mechanism for these cuts is Recent court decisions have t h e I n d e p e n d e n t P a y m e n t focused on the constitutionality of Advisory Board (IPAB), a group the individual mandate, but of 15 unelected bureaucrats moderate Democrats hoping to c h a r g e d w i t h m a k i n g move to the right in order to stave "recommendations" to Congress off defeat must tread carefully. every year that automatically As liberal blogger Greg Sargent become law. has pointed out, these lawmakers As I've previously noted, IPAB is c o u l d b e p e r c e i v e d a s especially unpopular among a key " u n d e r m i n i n g o n e o f t h e constituency that unfailingly Democratic Party's signature votes: senior citizens.

I haven't seen any evidence that vulnerable Democrats are seizing on this issue yet, but don't be surprised to see them inject IPAB into the debate as a way to muddy the waters regarding their position on health care reform. It would allow them to rhetorically attack the bill without undermining the individual-mandate sacred cow. And it would allow them remain true to their vision of health care reform -- while simultaneously scoring brownie points with a key voting bloc. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Submitted at 2/16/2011 6:13:02 AM

Wednesday, 16 Feb 2011 12:13 PM By Dan Weil House Speaker John Boehner has opened up the body, giving members the freedom to address all kinds of issues that previous speakers wouldn’t. For example, as part of its debate on the budget this week, the House is looking at whether the military should sponsor NASCAR vehicles, if the Federal Communications Commission should reconsider its net neutrality rules and if Congress should prevent President Barack Obama from spending money on White House renovations, Politico report s. Republicans and Democrats are introducing amendment after amendment to the budget bill – 403 by Tuesday morning. Many congressmen are embracing their freedom. But some Republicans are concerned that they’re priorities won’t be addressed. For example Iowa Rep. Steve King is upset he won’t be able to attack Obamacare. “The speaker

said ‘Let the House work its will.’ Well, the rules don’t allow the House to work its will,” he says. © Newsmax. All rights reserved. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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Newstablet Edition

Boehner: If Spending Cuts Cost Federal Workers Their Jobs, 'So Be It'

Aide: Giffords Doesn't Know Details of Shootings

Tom Diemer (Politics Daily)

(Newsmax - Inside Cover)

Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:51:00 AM

Submitted at 2/16/2011 5:53:54 AM

Correspondent It wasn't exactly a let-'em-eatcake moment, but House Speaker John Boehner seemed to have an air of detachment when asked about the potential for federal workers' losing their jobs under proposed Republican budget cuts. President Obama has added 200,000 employees to the federal payroll since taking office in January 2009, Boehner said. "And if some of those jobs are lost in this, so be it -- we're broke," he added at a weekly briefing with Capitol Hill reporters. "It's time for us to get serious about how we're spending the nation's money." The House, under Boehner's command, is considering legislation this week that would cut $61 billion from current spending in an effort to rein in huge budget deficits. It is not clear where Boehner got the number 200,000 for the added government jobs, nor is it known

at this point how many spots would be wiped out by the paredback budget proposal, which would also have to clear the Senate. The Washington Post, crunching Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, said the number of new jobs under Obama was more like 58,000. On the political front, the Democratic National Committee took quick notice of Boehner's "so be it" remark. "If this is the attitude of Speaker John Boehner when it comes to saving existing

jobs, it's no surprise he's moving forward with draconian spending cuts that will cost even more," a DNC spokesman said. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

She is undergoing rehabilitation in Houston and can have simple conversations. Wednesday, 16 Feb 2011 11:53 Jared Loughner is charged in AM federal court with killing a federal WASHINGTON (AP) — The judge and Giffords aide Gabriel chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Zimmerman and attempting to kill Gabrielle Giffords says the Giffords and two other staffers. Arizona congresswoman has not © Copyright 2010 The Associated yet been told the details of a Jan. Press. All rights reserved. This 8 shooting spree in Tucson that material may not be published, wounded her and 12 others and b r o a d c a s t , r e w r i t t e n o r killed six, including a staff r e d i s t r i b u t e d . member. This entry passed through the Pia Carusone said Wednesday on Full-Text RSS service — if this is CBS's "The Early Show" that your content and you're reading it Giffords knows there was a on someone else's site, please read traumatic event, but her doctors our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ have said it would not be fair to content-only/faq.php tell her everything that happened Five Filters featured article: until she can ask more detailed Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In questions. The Crosshairs. Giffords was shot in the head.

Health/

Newstablet Edition

Get Stronger Now (Mensfitness.com)

3.) Keep it simple. Some trainers make their clients lift with a certain rep speed, like by Jim Wendler| Print Article| three seconds up, one second Email to Friend down. But know this: There's no Strength is the foundation of need to count anything but reps n e a r l y a l l p h y s i q u e a n d during a set. Simply focus on performance goals. When you're raising and lowering your weights strong, you more easily gain in a controlled manner, pausing muscle size, lose fat, run faster, for a one-second count at the top hit harder, play longer, and move of the lift. Using an arbitrary more living room furniture for tempo can lessen tension on your your wife. We've rounded up 10 muscles or force you to use no-questions-asked tips to help varying amounts of weight, you make everything in your life slowing your progress. The only feel just a little bit lighter. way to be sure you're getting 1.) Own the "big four." stronger is if your loads The squat, deadlift, bench press, c o n s i s t e n t l y i n c r e a s e . and shoulder press are the best 4.) Maintain a log. strength-building exercises, Write down your exercises, sets, period. The chinup and row are reps, and the fate of each workout. great moves too, but don't make Keep track of your best lifts and them the focus of your workout the most reps you've done with a — they can be assistance lifts to certain weight on an exercise. c o m p l e m e n t t h e b e n c h a n d Constantly strive to improve those shoulder press, keeping your numbers. pulling muscles in balance with 5.) Don't overdo it. the pressing ones. Try to stick to three or four lifts 2.) Use barbells first. per workout. Keeping your Forget all the fad equipment. The workouts short helps you take barbell is king, the dumbbell is advantage of hormonal surges. queen, and everything else is a When you do too many exercises court jester — it may have its in a session, at least some of them place, but it's not essential. Start get done half-assed. All you need your workouts with barbell is one main lift per workout (one exercises, such as the "big four," of the big four), one or two as described above. Barbells let assistance lifts (for keeping the you load a lot of weight, and body in balance and further lifting heavy is the first step strengthening the muscles that toward getting stronger. Once perform the main lift), and then your heaviest strength exercises core or specialty work at the end are out of the way, you can move (ab exercises or some forearm or on to dumbbell and body-weight calf moves, depending on your training. goals). Doing any more lessens Submitted at 2/16/2011 3:00:00 AM

your results. 6.) Think five. You should rotate many different rep ranges in your workouts, but sets of five seem to offer the best blend of muscle size and strength gains. If you're pushing through one of the big four moves, you'll find that your form often breaks down after five anyway. 7.) Add weights slowly. The main reason people plateau and stop gaining strength is that they go too heavy for too long. Abandon your ego and do your main lifts using 10% less than the most weight you can lift for the given rep range. Increase the weight each session — but by no

more than 10 pounds — and stick with the same lifts. You'll rarely plateau again. 8.) Take to the hills. Cardio is a must if you want to be lean and healthy, but longdistance running or cycling increases levels of hormones that break down muscle tissue. To get stronger while getting leaner, do cardio in short, intense bursts. Go to a moderately steep hill and sprint to the top, then walk back down. When you're ready, sprint again. In your first workout, do only half as many sprints as you think you could. In your next workout, do two more sprints than you did the first time. Continue

adding two sprints to your workouts until you can't improve anymore. Then do sets of sprints. 9.) Balance your training. Whatever you do for one side of the body, you must do for the other side. Follow that rule in your workouts and you should be able to avoid injury and muscle imbalances. If you're doing squats (mainly a quad exercise), also do Romanian deadlifts (which hit the hamstrings hard). Your chest exercises should be balanced with back-training lifts. You don't necessarily have to do your balance work in the same session, but it should be done in the same week. In general, follow a ratio of two-to-one between your pullingand-pushing movements. So if you bench-press on Monday (and most of the world seems to), you can do chinups on Tuesday and bent-over lateral raises on Thursday, for example. Every other pressing exercise you do should follow this formula. 10.) Do it right. Form is key. You may think you know how to perform the big four, but you could probably get more out of them. Here are some quick pointers for each one. • Squat: Begin the squat by pushing your hips back as far as you can. Keep your lower back arched and you should feel a stretch in your hamstrings. When your hips are bent, begin bending your knees and squatting low. This is what you need to squat GET page 83

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How to Power Clean Your Life (Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 2/16/2011 4:00:00 AM

by Christine Richmond| Print Article| Email to Friend There's more to cleaning than tossing out stained tees and moldy leftovers. Your mind could also use freshening up. Maybe your relationships, too. Try to approach them as you would approach going to the gym. "When it comes to working out, you have goals and a clear plan to reach them," explains Peter Walsh of TLC's Clean Sweep. "Bring that discipline to other areas of your life, you'll feel healthier, more focused, and more grounded." To get started de-cluttering . . .. . . your Pad • Initiate a "one in, one out" policy. If your video games or DVDs no longer fit in your entertainment center, or your bookshelf looks like a giant Jenga tower, cull your collection until it fits. Then make a pact with yourself that before you add a new title, you'll get rid of an existing one. • Free your closet. Flip all your hangers so clothes face the wrong direction. As you wear and return garments to the closet, flip the hanger to the correct direction. "After six months, remove any garments that still have hangers facing the wrong way—it's safe to say you don't wear them," says Walsh. (Obvious exceptions are items you pull out only for certain

occasions, like a winter coat or tuxedo.) • Don't let mail pile up. Recycle or shred junk mail immediately. (Even better: Use a Web site like catalogchoice.org to keep those Eddie Bauer catalogs from showing up in the first place.) Then start filing important mail like bills in a designated area so it doesn't clutter your countertop or get lost.

encouraged to juggle multiple tasks at once, but ultimately that just dilutes your attention," says Walsh. Instead? Be where you are. "If you're working out, be there. If you're on the phone, be there. If you're at dinner with a girlfriend, be there. It's the single biggest tip for creating a balanced and focused life."

. . . your work space

• Chug some fresh lemon. In the morning, squeeze the juice of half a lemon into a glass of water and throw it back, says Ronald Stram, M.D., founder of the Center for Integrative Health and Healing. This stimulates your gallbladder (an organ that produces bile, which breaks down fat). Try it for 10 to 14 days. • • Cook with garlic and parsley. Mince one large clove of garlic. This brings out the most allicin, a compound that can help remove heavy metals from the body. Combine it with three sprigs of diced fresh parsley, a detoxifying herb that also helps neutralize the smell of garlic. Sprinkle the mixture over a salad or pasta dish. It's safe to do this every day. • Pop a milk thistle capsule"This is a very safe herb that promotes liver detoxification," explains Stram—meaning it's especially helpful if you've had a boozy weekend. Buy it in supplement form and follow the dosage instructions on the bottle.

. . . your body

• Clear your desk of anything that isn't "active." Pens, staplers, and other essentials, along with pressing paperwork, should be at arm's reach. Everything else can be filed away. And go easy on the bobbleheads and desk toys. • • Keep a to-do list. It may sound like a chore, but it can turn out to be a surprising de-stressor. Spend the last ten minutes of the day listing the next day's assignments, and you won't worry that you've forgotten something. "It puts a period at the end of your day and makes the next morning more productive," explains Walsh. Lists also help you see how you're using your time, and if you're wasting too much of it on tasks that don't matter. . . . your mind • Unplug for 10 to 15 minutes daily."Schedule a bit of time for peace of mind. You'll be more grounded, and you'll have a

stronger sense of purpose," Walsh says. Practice tai chi or meditation. Or simply turn off the radio and phone when you're in the car and use that time to decompress and reflect. • Stop multitasking."In life, we're

. . . your relationships • Delete exes from your phone. De-friend them on Facebook, too. "if you're with someone new, she'll sense that you're keeping something in your back pocket," explains Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D., psychotherapist and author of the Emotional Fitness book series. Even if you're not seeing anyone, keeping a connection with an ex will prevent you from completely moving forward. • Get rid of toxic friends. There's one in every social circle—the guy who always has negative or derogatory things to say about almost anything. If he's a casual buddy, try not to engage him—just walk away instead. But if he's a good friend you wan tin your life, you'll have to take the difficult step of calling him out. Give him the chance to work on it, but after you've asked three times, you're done. "At that point, the most mature thing to do would be to let him know and then cut him out of your life," says Goldsmith. Related articles: Meditate Stress Away Five Tricks to a Stronger Brain Four Easy Ways to Keep Your Stress in Check [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more] This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it HOW page 83

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GET

Healthy Chinese Food

continued from page 81

(Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 2/16/2011 2:00:00 AM

by Brandon Guarneri| Print Article| Email to Friend Chinese food may be tasty, but more often than not it's an abkiller. We asked Jim White, R.D., a Virginia-based dietician, to help us make some smarter choices. LEARN THE LINGO Anything steamed is obviously good, as is Jum (poached), Chu (broiled), Kow (roasted), Shu (barbecued), lightly stir-fried, dry stir-fried, or braised. Anything breaded, fried, or coated in flour is not. USE THE RIGHT TOOLS Chopsticks are your friend. "You're going to get less oil than you would with a fork," adds White. GET SAUCED Steer clear of thick gravy or sauces made from sugar, flour, or cornstarch (such as those found on General Tso's or Sweet and Sour Pork). They're loaded with corn syrup. Instead, White suggests hot mustard sauce, hoisin sauce, or oyster sauce. And no matter what, always make your

order "half sauce." That way, you get half the sauce—and half the calories—of what they'd normally use in the dish. GO VEGGIE Here's an inside tip: Order your meal cooked in vegetable stock (a traditional Chinese style of cooking called "stock velveted") to reduce the calories in your dish by 150-300 and the fat by 15-30

HOW continued from page 82

on someone else's site, please read The Crosshairs. our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In

grams. "Expect your protein to be a bit more moist and tender, with less crunch than usual," says White. SKIP UNNECESSARY SIDES A serving of crispy noodles can set you back as much as 200 calories and 14 grams of fat, and Lo Mein is even worse. That dark brown color in the noodles? It comes from soaking up all that

oil. A large portion generally runs in the thousands of calories. BROWN RICE vs. WHITE RICE Fried rice is undeniably bad for you, setting you back 450 calories and 14 grams of fat. Brown rise is better, with only 215 calories and a generous 3.5 grams of fiber per cup. But even though it's trendy to avoid white rice because it's a high-glycemic carb, it's not so bad. "Calorie for calorie, they're about the same," says White. You do lose the fiber, though (only a gram in a serving), and you get hardly any vitamins at all. Still, it's definitely not as bad as it's been made out to be. [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more] This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

maximal weight. • Deadlift: Use the same stance you would to perform a jump — your legs should be narrowly placed. When you bend down to grab the bar, keep your hips down and your back straight, with your shoulders directly over your knees. • Bench Press: Start with your head off the bench. Keeping your feet steady, grab the bar and pull your body up off the bench and forward, so that when your butt comes down on the bench your lower back is very arched. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Your range of motion should be significantly shorter for stronger pressing. • Shoulder press: Flare your lats when the bar is at shoulder level. It will allow you to use more weight. Related articles: Yearlong Workout 2010 The Kettlebell Workout 101 Ways to Lose Your Gut [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more] This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

Politics-Right/

Newstablet Edition

Obamacare vs. Drug Innovation already agreed, when it signed onto the health-care bill, to cut P h R M A ’ s q u i e s c e n c e o n deeply their prices for Medicaid O b a m a c a r e b a d l y h u r t t h e drugs, Sebelius’s inclusion of this industry — and all those who a d v i c e i n h e r l e t t e r t o t h e depend on medical innovation. governors was a gratuitous slap. W i t h t h e r e l e a s e o f t h e In fact, the best thing that could president’s budget, it is now happen to the industry -- and beyond dispute— Beltway spin therefore to all those individuals, notwithstanding -- that the here and around the world, who decision by the Pharmaceutical benefit from the strides it has Research and Manufacturers of taken in research -- would be an America (PhRMA) to support the unraveling of PhRMA’s deal. health-care bill was one of the Since the president has walked worst self-inflicted wounds in the away from the deal, now is the history of lobbying. For biotech moment for the industry to walk and pharmaceutical companies, away from a law that will the president’s budget repudiates significantly weaken the allone of the most important benefits i m p o r t a n t U . S . m a r k e t f o r of their “deal” with the White p h a r m a c e u t i c a l s . House: the ability to market What will Obamacare do to biotech drugs without generic America’s premier health-care competition for twelve years. The research industry? president would reduce that First, Obamacare inflicts a series period to seven years, precisely o f b a l a n c e - s h e e t h i t s o n the position of the generics pharmaceutical companies. Last industry and a position that the year, companies scrambled to pharmaceutical industry had write large rebate checks to fought aggressively before it satisfy the new price controls that decided to make a deal with the the law imposed in the Medicaid president. program. In total, the price# a d # T h i s e m b a r r a s s i n g control provisions of Obamacare repudiation of the deal follows will cost the industry $38 billion another hostile act from the over the next ten years. During O b a m a a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . O n 2011, pharmaceutical companies February 3, health and human will again be required to take out services secretary Kathleen their checkbooks to pay a new Sebelius released a letter to all the $2.5 billion excise tax for this governors encouraging them to year, a tax that will grow to over modify their states’ Medicaid $4 billion by 2018; this will cost rules so as to use more generic the industry another $23 billion. drugs and to make deeper price Also, every January 1 the drug cuts for drugs purchased in companies will be required to Medicaid. Since the industry had provide a 50 percent price Submitted at 2/16/2011 3:00:45 AM

discount for seniors who have reached the “doughnut hole” (i.e., the coverage gap in Medicare Part D); this represents about $30 billion in industry revenue that will need to be recovered elsewhere. While these hits to the balance sheet will undoubtedly weaken the industry, cost U.S. jobs, and hinder further research, Beltway lobbyists persuaded Wall Street analysts that the industry “got off easy” because these extortion payments allowed it to fend off more serious congressional threats such as imposing price controls in Medicare and permitting unrestricted drug importation. But the lobbyists missed the forest for the trees. These taxes and fees are less important than the implications of the law’s gargantuan reordering of the pharmaceutical marketplace. Over the long term, Obamacare will cause a significant degradation of the private-sector market for pharmaceuticals, a market that has been the best in the world. In the United States, 150 million citizens get their prescription drugs through their health insurance rather than directly from the government. Employers (and unions) contract with private health insurers to deliver the drug benefit, and the insurers negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies to decide which drugs they will cover and at what price. Employees and retirees generally want access to the newest and best medicines, and their companies

want to keep them happy and healthy. Therefore, the health plans serving employers do their best to balance cost with the need to provide high-quality medications. #page#Thus, the U.S. employerprovided insurance market offers the primary feature that drug companies need: a market that has incentives to reimburse for new medicines. When Medicare Part D was created, Congress attempted, with some success, to re-create these market forces for seniors through a government-financed, but privately managed, health benefit. Under Part D, if a plan doesn’t cover the particular drugs that a senior may want, he can sign up for another plan. Seniors will seek out new medicines that work, and so plans have reason to provide them. #ad#Combined, employer-based and Part D health plans account for over 70 percent of the U.S. market for pharmaceuticals, meaning that the overwhelming majority of the U.S. market is a healthy one, where prices are established by buyers and sellers negotiating innovation versus cost. Obamacare would undermine this market by creating considerable incentives for employers to drop coverage for both employees and retirees. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, has estimated that the employer segment of the market may lose

35 million customers. The law also rescinds a tax deduction for employers who provide drug coverage to their retirees. Even those private-sector employees who keep their coverage will see their pharmaceutical benefits degraded as so-called “Cadillac plans” -- the plans with the best pharmaceutical coverage -- will take a huge 40 percent tax hit, giving employers significant cause to scale back drug benefits. The law also contains two provisions that will weaken the market features of the Part D program: a Medicare payment commission that has the authority to set prices, and an “evidencebased” research institute that will tell Medicare patients (and everyone else) that they do not need all these new drugs. While the healthy part of the pharmaceutical market will be pounded, the government-run segment of the market, Medicaid, will be expanded by 16 million patients. Medicaid has the worst pricing structure and the worst track record in paying for innovations of any sector in the United States market. Like government health-care systems around the world, Medicaid must be dragged to pay for medical advances. Unlike employers and seniors in Part D, Medicaid patients cannot vote with their feet if their health plan does not provide the new medicines they want. The incentives in Medicaid OBAMACARE page 92

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Bangladesh Today, Egypt Tomorrow difficult to contain one’s anger at the details. Hena had been raped The long-term strategy for by a 40-year-old Muslim man, enforcing sharia law. described in news accounts as her J a m e s C l a p p e r i s s u e d a “relative.” The allegation of rape clarification last week. Within got the authorities involved, but hours of testifying to Congress that turned out to be even worse that the Muslim Brotherhood is a than the sexual assault itself. “largely secular” organization, he Under sharia, rape cannot be clarified that he had meant to say proved absent the testimony of the Muslim Brotherhood is not a four witnesses. Rapists tend not to secular organization. Clapper, the bring witnesses along for their Obama administration’s national attacks. In any event, moreover, intelligence director, did not clue s h a r i a v a l u e s a w o m a n ’ s us in on whether he’d been tipped testimony as only half that of a off by the organization’s name or man, so the deck is stacked and by its motto proclaiming devotion rape cannot be proved in most to Islam, Mohammed, the Koran, cases. Yet that hardly means the sharia, and jihad -- the final term r e p o r t o f r a p e i s o f n o being one he may have missed consequence. Unable to establish thanks to ongoing government that she’d been forcibly violated, efforts to purge it from our the teenager became in the eyes of lexicon. the sharia court a woman who’d #ad#If Mr. Clapper’s information had sexual intercourse outside of was a tad off, his timing was even marriage. Thus the draconian worse. And not just because even lashing sentence that became a giddy Western pundits were death sentence. occasionally pausing from their What has that to do with the dance on Egyptian president Muslim Brotherhood? It turns out Hosni Mubarak’s political grave t h a t t h e s e n o t - s o - s e c u l a r to admit that the pharaoh’s demise “moderates” spend a great deal of c o u l d p a v e t h e w a y f o r a time ruminating on the subject of B r o t h e r h o o d - l e d I s l a m i s t sharia’s brutal huddud laws -ascendancy. those prescribing sadistic W h a t m i g h t a n I s l a m i s t penalties, such as whippings and ascendency look like? Consider s t o n i n g , f o r e x t r a m a r i t a l this: Shortly before Clapper’s f o r n i c a t i o n , a d u l t e r y , a n d faux pas, a ghastly report out of h o m o s e x u a l i t y . Bangladesh began making the The Brotherhood’s emir for such rounds: A 14-year-old girl named ruminations is the famed Egyptian Hena had been killed by fewer sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a than 80 lashes of the 100-lash sharia scholar who graduated whipping local sharia authorities f r o m t h e s t o r i e d a l - A z h a r had ordered her to suffer. It’s University. He is probably the Submitted at 2/16/2011 3:00:43 AM

ummah’s most influential Islamic cleric -- just ask such admirers as Ground Zero mosque imam Feisal Rauf. Qaradawi is sold as a Muslim modernizer by his many Western fans, particularly the Islamic-studies programs that the Saudis, longtime patrons of the Muslim Brotherhood, pay institutions like Georgetown University to operate. What the academy avoids telling you is that the sheikh, who has endorsed suicide bombings in Israel and the killing of American troops and support personnel in Iraq, also supports female genital mutilation (euphemistically called “circumcision”) as well as sharia standards that discount a woman’s testimony, limit a woman’s inheritance rights to half of a man’s share, and permit men to marry up to four wives (who may, of course, be beaten if they are disobedient). #page#Qaradawi is also quite opinionated when it comes to the matter of rape. He agrees that a woman must be punished not only if she cannot show that she was the victim of sexual assault, but also if, as they say, she was asking for it. “For her to be absolved from guilt,” he has explained, “a raped woman must have shown good conduct.” If, for example, she has dressed immodestly -- particularly if she has dressed in the Western style -she is deemed to have brought the attack upon herself. #ad#To the extent that influential Islamist views about huddud laws

are known in the West -- which is not much -- it is a big problem for the Brotherhood. Their motto declares that “the Koran is our law,” and it’s not an empty slogan. The Brothers believe in these behavioral strictures and in the savage penalties meted out for transgressions. That complicates life for an organization struggling to put on a happy, secular face for the West (at least when it’s not writing memos about its “ grand jihad” to destroy our civilization from within). Not everyone in America is as desperate to be convinced as our intelligence agencies. So the more wily Islamists struggle to thread the needle. None is wilier than Tariq Ramadan, grandson of both Brotherhood founder Hassan alBanna and Said Ramadan, the Brotherhood legend who established its extensive European network. Tariq Ramadan is now free to visit the U.S., the Obama State Department having reversed the Bush administration’s decision to bar him for alleged terror support. In 2005, while this bar was still in effect, Ramadan endeavored to demonstrate his “moderate” credentials by proposing a moratorium on the huddud laws. Naturally, there was wild applause from the Clappers in the Western commentariat -- a cheap date if ever there was one. Note, however, that Ramadan was not condemning huddud or calling for its repeal -- just a moratorium. As

he framed it, the problem was not sharia but society: The benighted world that is still mired in jahalia, the dark ages before Mohammed. It had not yet seen the wisdom of adopting Islam’s legal system. For Ramadan, the huddud laws themselves were fine; it was just that until countries fully adopted sharia, the conditions would not be in place to assure that huddud would be justly imposed. In the end, the answer for Islamists is always the same: more Islamic law, not less. Still, it seemed to be a masterstroke of Brotherhood dissembling that would have made his grandfathers proud. It would enable Islamists to appear positively evolved even as they urged adoption of their seventhcentury blueprint for society. Except you’ll never guess who wasn’t buying: all those wonderful secular moderates who guide the Brotherhood. To put it mildly, Qaradawi and his conglomerate of academic and media acolytes went berserk. There were blistering diatribes condemning Ramadan. His proposal was belittled as an “unfounded innovation” that was “juristically baseless” and threatened to sow discord throughout the ummah. That last, by the way, is an extremely serious charge. Sowing discord is often construed as treason, the functional equivalent of public apostasy. The penalty for that BANGLADESH page 91

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A New America in a New World Order Submitted at 2/16/2011 3:00:35 AM

Obama’s vision of sameness — at home, equality of result; abroad, all nations equal — carries an appalling price tag. T he year is quite young, and yet it has already seen a multitude of disturbing events and trends -unrest in Cairo and North Africa; nuclearization in Iran; a growing anti-American alliance among Turkey, Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria; the expansionary designs of a newly unabashed China with attendant repercussions on Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan; calls for the end of the dollar as the global currency; the muscle flexing from an “I can’t believe my good luck” Russia; and the tottering of the European Union. I have no idea how most Americans react to any of the above, and I don’t think the administration has either. We do know that President Obama wants to borrow another $1.6 trillion this year to ensure expansion of EU-like entitlements. One mystery is why the Chinese -- 400 million of whom have never encountered Western-style medicine -apparently won’t mind lending us more of their hundreds of billions of dollars in surpluses to fund Obamacare. Another is why people should risk their environments in Africa, the Russian Arctic, and Asian coastal waters to provide petroleum for a thirsty planet, while we will not take much smaller risks to satisfy

our own voracious oil appetite. The only common denominator is our desire to consume more than we produce. #ad#Yet the impending crises on the horizon -- so reminiscent of the annus horribilis of 1979, when the wages of another American president’s sermonizing and economic weakness came due -are not foreordained to come at America’s expense. Were we to put our financial house in order, slash our deficits, show the world how we intend to pay down our $14 trillion debt, and make the needed long-term reforms to Social Security and Medicare, the United States would be in a unique position in comparison to an ailing and sclerotic Europe, a demographically challenged Japan, and a China with a rendezvous with social tension, environmental catastrophe, and a warped demography. We are still a more open and transparent society than our rivals -- with a more meritocratic ethos, far greater social and political stability, and blessed with vast natural and human resources. Why, then, cannot we regain our exceptionalism? In a word, I think we do not wish to. The problem -- aside from the fact that we are a country obsessed with wrangling over distribution of old wealth (much of it provided by previous generations) rather than creation of new national riches -- is that the United States does not quite know what its role should be in

yet another new world order. Hence, President Obama was a day late and a dollar short in figuring out both the Tehran 2009 and the Cairo 2011 protests. Like a modern-day Hamlet, he paused to examine every imaginable consequence before doing nothing -- as in “Should I criticize Ahmadinejad when I promised in landmark fashion to meet face to face with the Iranians? Where is the U.N. in all of this? If I encourage the protesters, am I interfering in the internal affairs of Iran -- the way America did a half century ago, for which I just apologized? If I support democratic reform, will I appear no different from a Bush neocon? Will Mubarak survive or will he not? Should he, or should he not? Are the protesters authentic Egyptians or Westernized upper middle classes without Third World bona fides? Are they Kerensky types about to be swallowed up by hard-core Islamists? Could my own unique heritage not appeal to the Muslim Brotherhood as I was hoping it would when I reached out to Iran and Syria? If I pressure Mubarak, will the Right ask why I did not pressure Ahmadinejad? If I do not, will the Left accuse me of realpolitik? Isn’t Bush at fault somewhere here?” So many questions, so many occasions to vote present. #page#The reset “I’m not Bush” Pavlovian foreign policy is in shambles. There comes a moment in which a trivial event finally

distills chaos into clarity. In the Obama administration’s case, it was the description of the Muslim Brotherhood by the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, who just assured Capitol Hill that the Brotherhood was “largely secular” and has “eschewed violence.” Keep that inanity in mind, and almost everything else becomes clear. Add “Muslim” to “Brotherhood” and these days you get “largely secular.” The euphemisms for terrorism have become a late-night-show running joke; more, not fewer, terrorist plots directed at the U.S. have answered Obama’s Muslim outreach efforts. It is by now about as likely that Eric Holder will try KSM in a New York federal court as that Obama himself will close down Guantanamo, which he earlier described as “a tremendous recruiting tool for al-Qaeda.” The one Obama success (in Joe Biden’s words, the administration’s “greatest achievement”) was a stillconstitutional Iraq -- only because Obama dropped his own campaign promises on unilateral withdrawals and stuck to the Bush -Petraeus departure plans. #ad#A strengthened U.S. role in the U.N. has come to nothing. Did we gain anything by humiliating Israel in 2009? Are Venezuela and its axis moderating their efforts to turn Latin America into a Marxist utopia? Has America ever before joined Mexico -- or

any other foreign government -in efforts to sue one of its own states that simply wanted federal law enforced? Was Russia really all that eager to help an appeasing U.S. diplomatically? When the U.S. provided serial numbers of British nuclear weapons to Putin’s Russia, and when Europeans like Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have to lecture the West about the failures of multiculturalism, we are reminded that the Europeans should have been careful of what they so loudly wished for during the 2008 presidential campaign. Are we inept or calculating in piling up over $4 trillion in debt in just 36 months and lowering America’s global profile? If the goal of the present American administration is to turn the United States into something envisioned on university campuses, the editorial page of the New York Times, and breezy synopses on NPR, then it is right on schedule. But what would that new America look like? An enormous public sector, guided by an elite European-like technocracy overseeing henchmen in public unions, would ensure spread-the-wealth redistribution, more regulation, and an ideology of equality of result that reminds us that at some point (the new financial Mason-Dixon line of $250,000 in annual income?), we have made enough money at someone else’s expense. Abroad, NEW page 92

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Horowitz vs. Khan Robert Spencer (FrontPage Magazine » FrontPage) Submitted at 2/15/2011 10:28:34 PM

[Editor’s note: Below is Robert Spencer's analysis of the recent debate between David Horowitz and Suhail Khan on Hannity -which Spencer shows successfully smoked out Khan as an Islamic supremacist. See also Frank Gaffney's memorandum for members of the board of directors of the American Conservative Union about Khan. Gaffney has also written previous pieces on Frontpagemag.com exposing Grover Norquist's and Suhail Khan's troubling connections. Paul Sperry has produced a recent Frontpage piece as well: Who is Suhail Khan?] A sidelight, but a momentous one, of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was the ongoing controversy over the connections of CPAC Board members Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan to the Muslim Brotherhood. David Horowitz detailed many of the troubling connections between Khan and the Brotherhood during his CPAC address; when challenged directly about this, Khan declared flatly: “There is no Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.” Sean Hannity had both Horowitz and Khan on his radio show Monday for a contentious half-hour of charge and counter-charge that often generated more heat than light; however, when the dust settled it

was clear that Khan had not answered many of Horowitz’s most serious charges – and that CPAC, and the conservative movement in general, have a formidable problem in the Islamic supremacists and Islamic supremacist enablers in their midst. Horowitz began by pointing out that Khan’s stentorian assertion that there is no Muslim Brotherhood in the United States was mere “hair-splitting.” He pointed out that a captured internal Brotherhood document detailing its strategy for the United States and its goal of “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house” also listed its allied

and CAIR events, and when Horowitz and Hannity asked him Monday to explain why he would do so if he really opposed the Brotherhood and its agenda in the U.S., he temporized and bloviated, saying ultimately that if CAIR really did have any connection to terror, then he would denounce it. Asked then why he hadn’t asked his mother to resign from the CAIR-California Board, he replied that he had done so – but he did not volunteer this information when the fact that his mother was on the CAIR Board first came up, and only did so when cornered. On the Hannity Show, Suhail Khan hotly denied that a California mosque that his father had founded had hosted a organizations in the U.S. – American-Islamic Relations fundraiser for the Blind Sheikh, including the leading Islamic (CAIR), another Brotherhood- Omar Abdel Rahman (who is now groups in this country, such as the linked group that was named an in prison for his role in plotting Islamic Society of North America unindicted co-conspirator in the the first World Trade Center (ISNA), the Muslim American Holy Land Foundation trial in bombing in 1993), as well as for Society (MAS), the International 2007. The Holy Land Foundation Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is now Institute of Islamic Thought was once the largest Islamic the number-two man in Al-Qaeda. (IIIT), the North American charity in the United States; it was While invoking Horowitz’s Islamic Trust (NAIT), and the shut down, however, after federal Communist past, Khan charged Muslim Students Association agents discovered that it was Horowitz with making baseless ad (MSA). funneling charitable contributions hominem attacks that had been One of the founders of the to the jihad terror group Hamas. repeatedly debunked both by Muslim Students Association was Several CAIR officials have been several law enforcement agencies, Mahboob Khan, Suhail Khan’s c o n v i c t e d o f t e r r o r - r e l a t e d i n c l u d i n g t h e F B I a n d t h e father. ISNA in turn emerged activities and are now serving National Security Agency, and by from the MSA, and Mahboob time in prison. a considerable number of media Khan worked with ISNA as well O f c o u r s e , a s o n d o e s n ’ t outlets. He also challenged the before his sudden death in 1999. necessarily hold the same belief- veracity of several other charges Suhail Khan’s mother, Malika system as that of his parents, but Horowitz was able to make when Khan, meanwhile, is to this day a in this case there is abundant Khan wasn’t talking over him. Board member of the California evidence that Suhail Khan does. HOROWITZ page 90 c h a p t e r o f t h e C o u n c i l o n He has spoken at MSA, ISNA,

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Newstablet Edition

Bringing Down Iran Matt Gurney (FrontPage Magazine » FrontPage)

reports of violence by security forces. The Canadian foreign minister attacked Tehran’s Submitted at 2/15/2011 10:27:43 PM “hypocrisy.” Surprisingly, February 11th was the 32nd President Barack Obama joined a n n i v e r s a r y o f t h e I r a n i a n his allies in speaking out in favor revolution, marking the fall of the of the Iranian protesters. Speaking Shah and the rise of the Islamist to reporters on Tuesday, the theocratic regime that survives to president also called out the this day. While the world was Iranian regime for its hypocrisy in understandably focused on the celebrating the fall of the (antiunraveling of the Egyptian regime Iranian) Mubarak regime in Egypt o f f o r m e r p r e s i d e n t H o s n i while simultaneously using force Mubarak, in Iran and around the a g a i n s t i t s o w n r e s t l e s s world, demonstrations were held population. “I find it ironic that to both support and oppose you’ve got the Iranian regime Tehran’s mullahs. On Monday, pretending to celebrate what after a relatively quiet weekend in happened in Egypt, when in fact Iran, protesters and security forces they have acted in direct contrast clashed violently, with security to what happened in Egypt by forces reportedly using tear gas gunning down and beating people and paintball guns to disperse anti who were trying to express -government crowds. There have themselves peacefully in Iran,” been some reports that protesters said Obama. were killed; the veracity of those Obama also expressed his hopes claims, and the body count (if that the Iranian people will be any), is not yet known. So far, this allowed to continue to peacefully seems a far more muted response protest for more rights and a by the regime than the lethal r e p r e s e n t a t i v e f o r m o f tactics and brutal torture it government, and condemned the employed against protesters in reports of violence in the streets 2009. But one has to keep in mind of Tehran. His words have been that there is so much we do not chosen carefully, to avoid giving know about the extent to which the mullahs any excuse to portray the vicious Mullahs barbarize the protesters and reformers as their own people. puppets of Washington, but it is Iran’s crackdown this time clear that the United States around drew swift condemnation supports the people of Iran in their f r o m W e s t e r n p o w e r s . T h e struggle against their oppressive European Union condemned the government. The Iranian regime

was not long in responding, attacking the West for offering support to the anti-theocracy. Anything that raises the ire of the mullahs in Tehran is to be applauded, and it is especially noteworthy given recent history. Two years ago, the president drew criticism from all sides for his refusal to utter a word of support for the reformers battling the regime’s thugs in the streets of Tehran. The silence was baffling. Though the president did eventually comment on the violent suppression of the protests, he did so far behind other major countries, and in his own words, America “joined” the chorus of international criticism,

the administration is speaking. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spent the last several days reading from the same play book as the president, stating her support of the Iranian protesters and their goals, and also condemned Tehran for its lack of political freedom, demanding that it enact reforms. As before, Iran swiftly responded, dismissing Clinton’s comments as confused. “Confused” would indeed have been a fair way to describe America’s diplomatic response to the recent collapse of the Egyptian regime, which saw the administration seemingly advocating every position rather than leading it. Given the simultaneously, with the latest long-standing animosity towards view depending on who was America expressed by the Iranian speaking into a microphone. regime, and America’s traditional Secretary Clinton declared the commitment to democracy and regime in Cairo stable mere days human rights, for a U.S. president before the military was forced to to stay silent while brave civilians seize control of the country, and took on the might of a brutal Vice President Joe Biden suffered another of his legendary gaffes autocracy was inexcusable. H o p e f u l l y , t h e O b a m a when he declared that Hosni administration has learned a Mubarak was not a dictator two lesson in this case, and has weeks before calling on Egypt to correctly applied it here. Indeed, give its people democracy. On not only has the president shown Iran, at least, the administration that he has learned from his has found its footing and taken mistake from two years ago, but not only a consistent stand, but his administration is also acting as the right one. a coordinated diplomatic team, offering a coherent message on Iran no matter which member of

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Newstablet Edition

The Next 9/11 Matthew Vadum (FrontPage Magazine » FrontPage) Submitted at 2/15/2011 10:30:49 PM

The next 9/11-style terrorist attack may originate from the unlikeliest of places: socialist Venezuela. This is because that country’s Marxist president, Hugo Chavez, who has been busy creating his own version of the Warsaw Pact, is dropping hints that his nation’s territory might be used as the launch pad for an Islamist assault on the continental United States.

Some have difficulty taking the famously flamboyant Chavez seriously. He is, after all, the erratic fellow who blamed the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti on the U.S. He poses for photos with a parrot on his shoulder. He rants — and sometimes sings – on Sundays on his TV show about whatever pops into his head, whether it’s about his bouts with diarrhea or his unhappiness with his cabinet ministers. But despite his eccentricities, it’s important to remember that

Chavez openly works with the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and FARC— a Marxist-Leninist narco-terrorist group in neighboring Colombia. Hamas and Hezbollah have offices in Caracas, and Chavez funds FARC. A congressional report indicates Iran’s fanatical Revolutionary Guard is active in Venezuela. A State Department report notes Venezuela’s close working relationship with terrorism-sponsoring Cuba. Let’s follow the bread crumbs: Chavez has made no secret of his

abiding hatred of America and its freedoms. He calls capitalism “savagery” and President Barack Obama “a poor ignoramus.” Obama got off easy. Chavez referred to President George W. Bush as “the Devil.” It’s no coincidence that Islamofascist fanatic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, leader of Iran (the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism), and Chavez are good friends. Last year, Chavez and Ahmadinejad announced that their two countries had formed a “strategic alliance” to end U.S.

“imperialism.” The two nations will seek to “establish a new world order based on humanity and justice,” the Iranian president said. Until recently, Venezuela had been helping Iran get through temporary problems with its oil refining capacity by shipping 20,000 barrels of gasoline a day to the Islamic Republic. The program, in operation since 2009, ended in February 2011 when Iran reportedly achieved selfsufficiency in gasoline NEXT page 93

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As in Britain, Discontent Portends Danger for Defense Theodore Bromund (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:00:52 AM

According to George Will, some Republicans in both the Senate and the House are unhappy with financial controls at the Defense Department. No question: The Defense Department should produce auditable financial statements. In fact, it deserves credit for how far it has come toward that goal since 2001. But a look at Britain’s experience reveals the problem with making decisions about freezing or cutting defense spending on the basis of allegations about inadequate financial controls. In 2009, British politics were rocked by a series of leaks and then an exhaustive report that made many of the same allegations of mismanagement, waste, and lack of control in Britain’s procurement budget. The result was that many leading commentators decided that cutting the defense budget was not only inevitable but even a wise thing to do, because it would force the Ministry of Defense to become more efficient. The Economist claimed that “military spending cuts are likely under the next government” because, “thanks to the ministry’s reputation for

waste, cuts in procurement could be comparatively uncontroversial.” The Times said that “cuts are inevitable.” The Conservatives—then out of power—ring-fenced funding for the National Health Service and international development but did no such favors for defense spending. In short, the consensus that Britain rapidly arrived at was that, because Labour had misspent some of the little it had given the armed forces, the forces should learn to get by with even less. In 2010, carrying through on this consensus, the coalition Conservative-Liberal Democrat government in Britain completed a series of defense and spending reviews that will by 2015 reduce British defense spending to the NATO minimum of 2 percent of GDP. What this enthusiasm for cuts ignored was the fact that much of the waste was the fault of the government as a whole, not the Ministry of Defense. That exhaustive report on wasteful British defense spending in fact revealed that approximately twothirds of the waste was the result of delays in procurement programs. These delays, in turn, were caused partly by the fact that inventing new technologies is not

buy items that everyone agreed were needed, and Parliament, which was more interested in jobs for the boys than guns for the troops. Even more than in Britain, with its parliamentary system, much of the burden of improving the efficiency of defense spending in the U.S. rests with the legislative branch. Conservatives in the U.S. must therefore walk a delicate line: pressuring the Department of Defense to improve its financial management system and shifting inefficiently used resources to more productive programs while easy but also by the fact that the order projects to protect British not using inefficiencies or other government was spending so little jobs instead of to provide the failings in defense spending as a on defense that programs had to forces with necessary equipment. reason to freeze or cut the entire be continuously “reprofiled”—or, F i n a l l y , a s o n e f o r m e r defense budget. The U.K.’s recent in other words, put on hold. procurement official confessed in experience suggests that, if U.S. Unfortunately, hitting the pause 2004, procurement in Britain is conservatives fail to walk this button on a major project like “as much intent on ensuring the line, the American military will be building an aircraft carrier is UK’s defence industrial base, as the loser. e x t r e m e l y e x p e n s i v e : E v e n securing very best value for This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is though construction has been money.” halted, lots of people still get paid In other words, while the your content and you're reading it simply in order to keep them in Ministry of Defense was top- on someone else's site, please read place and available to work when h e a v y , b u r e a u c r a t i c , a n d our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ construction resumes. The British inefficient, most of the serious content-only/faq.php government’s desire to make nice problems with British defense Five Filters featured article: in the European Union by buying spending were not the fault of the Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In the inefficient products of the Ministry of Defense. They were The Crosshairs. European defense industry also the fault of the government as a gave Britain poor value for its whole, which refused to allow the money. So did its tendency to ministry an adequate budget to

he did his best to hold the floor for as long as he could and allow Horowitz (and Hannity) as little

time as possible to challenge his assertions.

HOROWITZ continued from page 87

There were notable aspects of Horowitz’s case, however, that Khan never addressed — although

Newstablet Edition

Guest Blogger: The CRs Simple and Complex Spending Cuts

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under sharia is -- you’ll never guess -- death. Here’s what you want to remember: Tariq Ramadan is Rep. Tom Graves (The Interpreted in English, this is a one-year reduction in history. widely revered in Brotherhood Foundry: Conservative Policy Presidential slush fund—a prime Even so, we clearly have an circles, for both his heritage and News.) candidate for waste and enormous hill to climb before our his service to the cause. When he abuse—and a no-brainer spending government is financially stable Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:00:48 AM stepped off the sharia reservation, Posted February 16th, 2011 at cut for a nation with a $14 trillion and fiscally responsible. To get though, that did not stop 11:00am in Ongoing Priorities debt. there, Congress must take an Qaradawi and the Brothers from Print This Post Then there’s the more complex indiscriminate approach to slapping him back into his place. Of the $100 billion in spending spending cut that would prevent spending cuts, where we pick the You, on the other hand, don’t cuts in H.R. 1, the Continuing the enforcement of a particular low-hanging fruit like millionenjoy a similar reservoir of good Resolution (CR), some are big, program or regulation. Section dollar slush funds, but also tackle will with these alleged secular others are small, but all are vital 1746 enters those waters, as it the regulatory agencies that moderates. You are not an Islamic reductions that help our nation prohibits the Environmental threaten to act as drain on profits jurist of legendary standing. regain its financial footing. In Protection Agency (EPA) from and a drag on economic growth. You’re more like Hena. some cases, the bill simply seeks using any taxpayer dollars to based on climate change. In other Representative Tom Graves — Andrew C. McCarthy, a senior to eliminate entire programs or enforce regulations based on words, if the section becomes law, r e p r e s e n t s G e o r g i a ’ s N i n t h fellow at the National Review blocks of funding. In others, the concerns about climate change. not one finger can be lawfully C o n g r e s s i o n a l D i s t r i c t . b i l l t a k e s a m o r e c o m p l e x For starters, this section seeks to lifted in the EPA to support cap- The views expressed by guest Institute, is the author, most approach and prohibits agencies prevent the EPA from imposing and-trade or any other regulation bloggers on the Foundry do not recently, of The Grand Jihad: from spending taxpayer dollars to the infamous cap-and-trade rooted in the questionable science necessarily reflect the views of How Islam and the Left Sabotage America. Andrew C. McCarthy carry out certain policies. regulation scheme on America. of climate change. In preventing the Heritage Foundation. We find a great example of the Such a national energy tax was a extensive climate regulation, we This entry passed through the simple cut in section 1529, which key policy initiative of President achieve savings by limiting Full-Text RSS service — if this is e l i m i n a t e s f u n d i n g f o r t h e Obama, but, since it was defeated government activity, but also your content and you're reading it P r e s i d e n t ’ s “ U n a n t i c i p a t e d in Congress, the EPA has taken stand to increase government on someone else's site, please read Needs” fund. Unknown to most steps to skip the legislative r e v e n u e b y e m p o w e r i n g our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ people, the President has been process and simply decree that the businesses to grow and make content-only/faq.php given $1 million annually to President’s policy is law. Five Filters featured article: more money. “meet unanticipated needs for the Fans of democracy will be So as Congress begins the task of Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In furtherance of the national pleased to know that H.R. 1 puts conquering our $14 trillion debt, The Crosshairs. interest.” Only after the money is the EPA back in its place of H.R. 1 marks Congress’s first trip spent does the President have to public servitude. The language of to the budget chopping block in report where the money went. Section 1746 blocks the EPA years. It’s been reported that the S p e n d n o w , a n d a s k f o r from using tax dollars to even $100 billion in cuts is the largest forgiveness later? Not in this bill. promote the idea of regulations

Politics-Right/

Newstablet Edition

National Conference of State Legislatures Sloppy Research Cully Stimson (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.) Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:30:03 AM

Posted February 16th, 2011 at 11:30am in Rule of Law Print This Post You could be forgiven for thinking that an organization called the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) would provide the public with accurate statistics from the states. But the group has put its credibility at risk by relying on bogus statistics on juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences from a group, Human Rights Watch, whose work in the area has been thoroughly discredited. First, some background: As the co-author of “ Adult Time for Adult Crimes: Life Without Parole for Juvenile Killers,” I have been studying the issue of JLWOP for years. JLWOP for juvenile killers is reasonable, constitutional, and (appropriately) rare. Forty-four states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government (including military courts) allow for JLWOP sentences for juvenile murderers tried in adult court. Used sparingly, this represents an overwhelming national consensus that JLWOP is, for the worst offenders, an effective, appropriate, and lawful

punishment. Nevertheless, radical antiincarceration activists have sought to undermine the right of the people, acting through their state representatives, to impose this punishment in appropriate cases. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (AI/HRW) partnered in 2005 to co-author a bogus “study” that, among other misstatements, asserted that there were 2,225 juvenile felons serving LWOP sentences in the United States. Media outlets sympathetic to the anti-incarceration movement repeated that number for years without ever attempting to delve into the actual research. “Adult Time for Adult Crimes” revealed serious flaws in their

research methodology and proved that this number is simply wrong. The Department of Justice does not collect or have these statistics. State departments of correction often “lose” juveniles once they are tried in adult court and do not keep JLWOP statistics in a uniform or reliable manner. Worst of all, the AI/HRW report included 18- and 19-year-olds as “juveniles,” and its statistical assumptions were fatally flawed. Deep in their “study,” and stripped of manufactured statistics and bogus assumptions, the AI/ HRW admits that they could only verify 1,291 actual juvenile offenders serving JWLOP in the United States. The bottom line: Since the states don’t know

NEW continued from page 86

it might mean a new America analogous to France or Germany, which from time to time would chest-pound about current crises, exactly how many juveniles are but would risk nothing while serving LWOP, no organization calibrating the post-facto can state how many juveniles are humanitarian rhetoric to match serving JLWOP. realities on the ground. So I was rather surprised when, In sum, just as we are to be all reading an otherwise thoughtful equal at home, so abroad all new law review article on nations are to be equal as well -- if JLWOP, I saw authors boldly not by fiat, at least by wish. assert, “As of 2010, there were Sameness, here and abroad -- that 2445 juveniles serving life is the new national aspiration. without parole sentences for — NRO contributor Victor Davis homicides.” And what was the Hanson is a senior fellow at the authority for that number? None Hoover Institution, the editor of other than a February 2010 report Makers of Ancient Strategy: From by the NCSL. the Persian Wars to the Fall of And what was NCSL’s source for Rome, and the author of The the 2,445 number? Human Rights Father of Us All: War and Watch, which happens to be the History, Ancient and Modern. very same organization that Victor Davis Hanson manufactured 19-year-old “juveniles” for its “study.” If NCSL is serious about its credibility, it ought to find a better OBAMACARE source for data on criminal justice continued from page 84 and avoid quoting reports that a l l r u n a g a i n s t p a y i n g f o r have already been thoroughly pharmaceutical innovations. discredited. So, Obamacare significantly This entry passed through the expands the worst sectors of the Full-Text RSS service — if this is pharmaceutical market while your content and you're reading it degrading the best. on someone else's site, please read Despite these body blows to the our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/ pharmaceutical marketplace, content-only/faq.php Beltway business “experts” Five Filters featured article: provide soothing reassurance that Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In there will be “so many new The Crosshairs. customers” that no one should worry about the health of the industry. These new customers will appear in the so-called state OBAMACARE page 93

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OBAMACARE

continued from page 89

production. Chavez defends Iran’s allegedly peaceful nuclear energy program, and has plans to develop a nuclear program of his own. He denies that he intends to develop a nuclear weapons program. “Who in Venezuela could take on a project of that type? Who? We aren’t going to take it on.” Not many were surprised when Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the government-owned oil company that also operates CITGO in the U.S., unveiled a plan in October to invest $780 million in Iran’s South Pars field, the largest natural gas field in the world. PDVSA’s involvement with Iran is important because the company is regarded as a “black box” that funds Chavez’s overseas political ambitions. Oil export revenues fuel Chavez’s petrodiplomacy. Meanwhile, Chavez’s friends in Iran have been reaching out to

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other left-of-center nations in the Americas. Iran recently donated a $2.5 million hospital in El Alto, Bolivia near La Paz. Iran has pledged $1.1 billion in development aid to Bolivia, which responded by seeking closer military ties to the emerging Middle Eastern power. Chavez and Bolivia’s Marxist president, Evo Morales, see eye to eye. In fact, Chavez has called the partnership between Venezuela, Bolivia, and Iran, the “Axis of Annoyance” for its ability to vex the United States. And Morales does not take a back seat to Chavez in denouncing their common foe. “Capitalism is the worst enemy of humanity,” Morales said, as he called for its destruction. “I would like to say that the origin of this crisis is the unbridled consumption and accumulation of capital in a few hands, the looting of natural resources, the

commercialization of Mother Earth, and above all, I believe its origin lies in an economic model—capitalism,” he told the United Nations. Other Chavez-friendly Latin American countries may join the socialist-Islamist entente. Iran has been courting Ecuador, whose government is headed by leftist president Rafael Correa. Last year, Ecuadorian Vice President Lenin Moreno signed an agreement with Iran to build three hydroelectric projects in Ecuador. Iran also has significant, though less extensive, ties to the leftleaning regimes in Brazil and Chile, but their association is likely to grow stronger.

exchanges that are slated to cover tens of millions of the currently uninsured. In fact, the exchanges are a market that does not yet exist and, one can surmise, will be a bad market for pharmaceuticals. Because of adverse selection and costly subsidies for lower-income participants, these exchanges will be plagued with cost overruns, as the Massachusetts exchange program currently is. Such a fiscal train wreck can only portend a market where pharmaceutical benefits are lousy, prices are controlled, and innovation is not rewarded. Many of the Medicaid bureaucrats who currently impose price controls are the very people designing the state exchanges. So, in exchange for a Beltway “win,” PhRMA agreed to restructure the entire U.S. pharmaceutical marketplace, to its considerable disadvantage. U.S. pharmaceutical companies already face huge legal, scientific, and regulatory challenges and have shed more than 100,000 jobs in the last two years. PhRMA committed lobbying malpractice by agreeing to the Obamacare deal. How did this happen? At the time the deal was struck, PhRMA was headed by a wheeler-dealer former congressman from

Louisiana, Billy Tauzin, who was unfamiliar with the pharmaceutical business. Most of the CEOs of individual companies who might have stood up to Tauzin were either Democrats eager to please the administration, or Europeans without a sound footing in American politics. It is not too late. The 2010 election, new leadership of PhRMA, and the movement to repeal Obamacare had already offered hope that the worst might be avoided. Now that the president has repudiated a central pillar of the deal, the industry is free to support a wholesale repeal of the law, not through clever back-room deals or partisan maneuvering, but through an open declaration that drug innovation is at stake. The pharmaceutical industry will never be popular, but if Beltway dealmaking replaces innovation, it will simultaneously court public opprobrium and commercial disaster. --- William S. Smith was formerly vice president for U.S. public affairs and policy at Pfizer, Inc. He is currently managing director at NSI, a D.C.-based consulting firm. His views are his own. William S. Smith

Social Media/

Newstablet Edition

HOW TO: Jump-Start Your Career by Becoming an Online Influencer David Spark (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/16/2011 10:17:24 AM

David Spark is a veteran tech journalist and the founder of the media production and consulting firm Spark Media Solutions. Spark blogs regularly at Spark Minute. Follow him on Twitter@dspark. For all the advice about how to approach and attract influencers, I haven’t seen much written about how to actually become an influencer. It’s important, because once you’re seen as an influencer, you’re seen as an industry equal and a resource. You’re no longer perceived as a nuisance constantly broadcasting your own agenda, hoping others will relay. Being an influencer yourself is an often overlooked way to engage with other influencers. It takes time, but it is worth it. There is also financial benefit to becoming an influencer. People of influence have increased value, and can charge more for their services. Always wanted to be an influencer but didn’t know where to start? Here are some effective techniques. 1. You Must Create Content Whether it’s a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, or an endless Twitter stream, you absolutely must be a content producer. People who don’t produce content online often feel overwhelmed. They claim they don’t do it

because they don’t have the time. If you can’t create content, you simply can’t be an influencer. Content is the currency of social media and search. You must expose your voice with some type of published editorial. 2. Go After a Niche Failing to be an influencer is often the result of conceding the title of “industry influencer” to someone else. For example, why try to be a “social media” blogger if Mashable or other sites already own that space? It may be difficult to go head-to-head with established companies, but you could own a small slice of that very large pie. In an interview I did with tech influencer Robert Scoble, I asked him if he were starting fresh today how would he go about building his influence. He said he’d go after a very specific subset of a popular market like Nick O’Neill did with AllFacebook.com. A few years ago O’Neill saw Facebook trending and jumped on it as a source to write about. O’Neill is now considered a Facebook authority and is invited to a number of Facebook-related events. 3. Create a Regular Series Whatever you choose to do, make sure to produce it regularly and let your audience know when to expect it. Andrew Warner, host of the Mixergy, a blog and video podcast for and about entrepreneurs, saw a dramatic

change in his traffic and credibility when he shifted his video production from a casual once or twice a week, to every single day. While the increased traffic was a nice result, it wasn’t Warner’s goal. He shifted to a daily interview schedule with the intent of becoming a better interviewer. 4. Request to Interview Influencers Many successful podcasters who were at one time complete nobodies have built their street cred and successful businesses by associating themselves with people more well know than themselves. The reason the “Can I interview you?” technique works is because everyone loves to give their opinion. The audience that will hear it is often a tertiary consideration. John Jantsch, founder of Duct

Tape Marketing, built his reputation off of the reputation of others. In my interview with Jantsch (part of my “ 9 Successful Techniques for Making Money from Podcasting” series), he admitted that when he started he was a complete unknown. Even with few listeners, the fact that he had a podcast gave him tremendous access to well known people and authors. Asking influencers to be interviewed on his podcast was a great way to make an introduction. All he did was send an e-mail with the subject line, “Interview request.” Not knowing who Jantsch was at the time, many well known social media luminaries, such as Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki, agreed to be on his podcast. Those interviews initiated relationships that resulted in both Godin and Kawasaki contributing to

Jantsch’s book. Warner has had similar experiences. His interviews have become the launching point for great influencer relationships. In addition, Warner admits that he’s perceived as an expert through association. Each person Warner interviews puts him in a different world in his audience’s eyes, thus increasing his influence to an even broader market. People love to give their opinion and it often doesn’t matter if your audience is small. They simply appreciate it when you give them a forum to express their viewpoint. 5. Offer Yourself for an Interview Producing media takes a ton of work. Many people have this mistaken notion that there are tons of checks and balances before an interview or story is put on the air or in print. Quite the opposite, especially with media outlets that have to produce tons of content, like 24 hour news networks. They’re so overloaded that they’re more than happy when you do their job for them. The trick to offering yourself up for an interview is to know the editorial of the outlet and who specifically to ask. If it’s a magazine or blog, you’ll want to know who is the editor of the section you want to be on. If it’s a TV show, you’ll want to know HOW page 95

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who is the booker or associate producer. When you contact the media outlet, make sure you reference a previous piece, complement it, or offer up an alternative contrary viewpoint, then suggest that you could be that viewpoint. Susan Bratton, founder of Personal Life Media, did this with me on my now defunct “Be the Voice” podcasting series. She heard my podcast and offered herself up as an interview, saying that the editorial of my podcast fit in with the model of how she started her business. She was right, and a great interview. I’ve interviewed her a couple of times since. An excellent service for offering yourself up for interviews is Help a Reporter Out. It’s a resource that effectively matches journalists with sources in times of need. 6. Contribute (for Free) to Well-Trafficked Media Outlets Many blogs and media outlets take free contributions from their readers and viewers. It can be as simple as a guest post to a well known industry blog or an eyewitness video contributed to CNN’s iReport. Some publications have built their brand and reputation on accepting contributions and filtering only the best stories. Contributors often do it solely for the sheer honor of being seen in such a respected publication. In return for these free contributions, you can ask for a mention of your name, business, and a link to your

business and social media accounts (e.g., Twitter and/or Facebook Page). Your appearance in the well-trafficked publication can increase your visibility, your Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and search ranking. 7. Go After Your Industry’s “Whale” Publications Similar to the above advice, set your sights on the biggest/most respected media outlet in your industry. It’s far more valuable for you to get a tiny little 20-word blurb in your industry’s top tier media outlet than it is a cover story in your industry’s third-tier publication. The goal is to get your name and content in it … anywhere. Once you’re in, you can work your way up and out. Going after an industry whale is how I got started in tech journalism. About 15 years ago I met an editor from PC Computing Magazine and inquired about writing for the magazine. Now defunct, PC Computing was one of the top three tech publications alongside PC Magazine and PC World. My first assignment was to write a tiny little 200-word review in the back of the magazine. I spent 10 hours on that review to make sure it was perfect. Then I got another review, and another. I was offered the chance to write features and cover stories. Having the PC Computing seal of approval gave me the street cred to request and land other tech publishing jobs. 8. Connect Your

Story With a Current Trend Last year a major argument began brewing online between WordPress founder Matt Mullenwag and Thesis theme creator Chris Pearson. At the heart of the argument was the fact that Pearson was distributing a WordPress theme without using the open source GPL license for distribution. Mixergy’s Andrew Warner got wind of this argument and simply extended an invitation to both Mullenwag and Pearson to come on his show and air their grievances. He saw the story brewing and capitalized on it. The interview with the two blogging founders resulted in huge traffic for Warner and became a real turning point in the success of his show. You can find more examples of this technique in another piece I wrote for Mashable entitled, “ Trending Topics: 5 Ways Companies Used News Trends for Business Success.” 9. Connect Your Brand With a Much Bigger Brand I used to produce and host two different podcasts for Sprint. While Sprint was a big brand at the time, it was completely unknown in the podcasting space. In an effort to raise the profile of Sprint’s podcasts, I specifically sought out interviews from Sprint’s two biggest sponsor partners, NASCAR and the NFL. I interviewed the IT director from the NFL and the IT director from Joe Gibbs Racing, who at the time

had Tony Stewart. Since the brands were so huge, it gave us an excuse to issue press releases, and as a result, both interviews netted huge traffic for our then completely unknown podcast. If you’re going to interview people at big brands, you’ll probably have to go through the company’s media relations department. Don’t be bullied into giving your traffic numbers, but be ready to explain the editorial of your podcast, your audience, and what you want to interview the subject about. 10. Engage With Your Audience To be an influencer you have to influence someone. Your audience, the ones who consume your content, are the first ones to perceive you as an influencer. They’re also going to be the first ones to describe you as an influencer to others. That’s why it’s critical to engage with your audience. It’s the technique Revision3 has used to build its audience base. According to CEO Jim Louderback, Revision3s hosts and producers spend 40% of their time engaging with their audience. Advertising alone can’t convince someone that you’re an influencer, but your audience can. Not only should you respond to their queries, but you should think of fun and engaging ways to interact with them, such as contests, that they’ll want to participate in and tell their friends about. Conclusion — It Takes

Time While FOX’s American Idol is designed to make you think people can be made into celebrities overnight, the truth is it doesn’t happen that easily. It takes hard work. The difference between the people who make it and those who don’t, is dedication and wisely targeted efforts. More Business Resources from Mashable: - How Brands Can Make the Most of Facebook’s New Pages - 5 Tips to Strengthen Your Company’s Social Media Voice - Why Permission Marketing Is the Future of Online Advertising - Why Influencer Marketing Needs to Go Beyond Follower Counts - 10 Online Strategies for Your Next Product Launch Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Juanmonino More About: business, how to, influence, influencer, MARKETING, social media, social media marketing For more Business & Marketing coverage: • Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter • Become a Fan on Facebook • Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel • Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

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NYU Fellow Resigns Over Offensive Tweets About Lara Logan’s Assault Lauren Indvik (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:52:29 AM

Following a series of offensive tweets about the sexual assault of CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan in Cairo Tuesday, New York University has accepted the resignation of Nir Rosen, a fellow at the university’s Center on Law and Security. Logan was covering the celebrations in Tahrir Square for a 60 Minutes feature on February 11 when she and her crew were “surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration,” CBS reported. Logan was then cut off from her team, surrounded and then suffered a “brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating” before a group of women and Egyptian soldiers rescued her. She returned to her hotel with the CBS team and then caught the first flight Saturday back to the U.S., where she was hospitalized. She was released from the hospital Tuesday evening. Shortly after news about the assault was released, Rosen, a veteran war correspondent, tweeted, “Lara Logan had to

outdo Anderson. Where was her buddy McCrystal,” referring to Anderson Cooper’s beating in Cairo at the beginning of the month. He added later, “I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get,” citing his view that she is “a major war monger.” Following a few backlash comments on Twitter, he responded, “Yes yes its [sic] wrong what happened to her. Of course. I don’t support that. But, it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too,” suggesting that it somehow would

university has accepted. “Nir Rosen is always provocative, but he crossed the line yesterday with his comments about Lara Logan… They were cruel and insensitive and completely unacceptable,” Karen Greenberg, the executive director at the Center on Law and Security at NYU, said in a statement. “He has apologized, withdrawn his comments, and submitted is resignation as a fellow, which I have accepted.” “However, this in no way compensates for the harm his have been amusing if Anderson comments have inflicted. We are Cooper had also suffered a “brutal all horrified by what happened to and sustained sexual assault and Ms. Logan, and our thoughts are beating.” (Rosen says that, at the with her during this difficult time, he was not aware of the time,” she added. Image courtesy of Mediabistro severity of the attack.) Rosen has since deleted both More About: lara logan, media, tweets and apologized repeatedly nir rosen, nyu, twitter on Twitter. “[I] forgot Twitter is For more Media coverage: not exactly private,” he tweeted, • Follow Mashable Media on later saying that he “never meant Twitter to heart anyone” and has “brought • Become a Fan on Facebook shame” upon himself and his • Subscribe to the Media channel • Download our free apps for family. R o s e n a l s o h a n d e d i n h i s Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad resignation to NYU, which the

Red Cross Does PR Disaster Recovery on Rogue Tweet Todd Wasserman (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/16/2011 11:43:57 AM

The American Red Cross came to its own aid Wednesday, disarming a potentially embarrassing tweet with humor and demonstrating how social media crises need not be debilitating. The trouble started late Tuesday, when Red Cross social media specialist Gloria Huang sent the following rogue tweet out on the organization’s Twitter feed: Wendy Harman, social media director for the Red Cross, says the tweet stayed up for about an hour. Harman, meanwhile, got calls in the middle of the night about the incident and took the tweet down. Huang, who could not be reached for comment today “feels horrible about it,” Harman says. In a later tweet on her personal Twitter feed, Huang blamed the gaffe on her inability to use Hootsuite: While some blogs picked up the initial tweet, the Red Cross averted a PR crisis with the following good-humored tweet RED page 97

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which acknowledged the mistake: Meanwhile, the subject of the original rogue tweet, Dogfish Head, has also acknowledged the incident by asking fans to donate to the Red Cross. While the Red Cross recovered nicely from the incident, Harman says that if the original tweet had been more damaging, like along the lines of Kenneth Cole’s #Cairo tweet earlier this month, then it might have been a different story. But Huang’s original post was no big deal, she says. “We are an organization that deals with life-changing disasters and this wasn’t one of them,” says

Harman. “It was just a little mistake.” [via@PRsarahevans] Image courtesy of redcrossnj.org More About: american red cross, kenneth-cole, twitter For more Social Media coverage: • Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter • Become a Fan on Facebook • Subscribe to the Social Media channel • Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Galatians 6:6 (02-1611) (Verse of the Day) Submitted at 2/16/2011 2:00:00 AM

Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor. — Galatians 6:6(NIV) Thoughts on Today's Verse... Yes, there are those who take advantage of God's flock and misuse God's money. This is tragic because many of God's servants of the Word all over the world minister with few economic resources or financial support. While God never promised ministers of the Word economic wealth, he does remind us of the importance of caring for them. Let's use this week as a time that we make sure those who share God's word with us are supported in ways that enable God's ministry through them. Let's also remember that sharing "all good things" means much more than money! Let's

keep our missionaries, our ministers, and our teachers in our prayers. Let's commit to send them regular notes of specific encouragement so their ministry will be a blessing not only to us and the Lord, but also to them! My Prayer... Holy God, you sent the Living Word so that I could know you. Thank you for those who have shared your Word with me. I ask you to bless the Bible teachers, the ministers of the Word, and the pastor-teachers who have shared your truth and grace with me. Protect them from discouragement and sin. Strengthen their will. Bless their families. Fill them with your Spirit and power. And dear Father, please use me to help them know how precious they are to me and to you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Technology/

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Motorola Xoom vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs. LG G-Slate -- battle of the Tegra 2 Honeycomb tablets Vlad Savov (Engadget)

Pad / G-Slate offers only marginally smaller measurements with an 8.9-inch display spanning H e l l o , M o t o - - n o w a i t , 1280 x 768. More than that, all Samsung... or is it LG? Three of three tablets run the bone-stock the world's biggest smartphone Honeycomb UI and are built m a k e r s h a v e l e a p t a t t h e around NVIDIA's 1GHz Tegra 2 opportunity to serve up Google's system-on-chip, leaving little brand new Honeycomb build of room for differentiation on the Android, however their selection basis of user experience or of menu items looks to be internal performance (LG would somewhat lacking in diversity. h a v e y o u b e l i e v e i t s 3 D M o t o r o l a ' s X o o m m a t c h e s camcorder is a big advantage for Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its slate, but we're not so sure). both screen size and resolution Most choices between the three, (1280 x 800), while LG's Optimus then, will come to things like Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:22:00 PM

brand loyalty, ergonomics and pure, basic aesthetic appeal. To help you judge the latter of those three points, we've prepared an exhaustive barrage of side-by-side

photos below -- we expect you to view every last one of 'em... at least twice. Gallery: Xoom vs. Optimus Pad... fight!

Gallery: Xoom vs. Galaxy Tab 10.1... fight! Gallery: Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs. Optimus Pad... fight! Motorola Xoom vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs. LG G-Slate - battle of the Tegra 2 Honeycomb tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

Plex Media Center App comes to Android, Windows server on the way Richard Lawler (Engadget)

but users will have to wait a few weeks for an upgrade adding remote functions (or use any of Everyone's other favorite spinoff the 3rd party apps already on the from the XBMC family tree has Market.) With plugins for apps some major news this week, as like Netflix, Hulu and BBC Plex has released a Media Center i P l a y e r i t ' s a f o r m i d a b l e app for Android that mirrors most competitor in the mediastreamer of the functions already available market out of the gate; throw in for iOS devices. Available now on support for PCs plus integration the Android Market for $4.99, it into LG's 2011 HDTVs and Blubrings local and streaming media ray players and we're ready to to the phone over WiFi, or 3G pick Plex as the platform to keep from a Mac (and now, Windows an eye on this year. Check out the PC) running the server software, details in the press release after Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:59:00 PM

Gallery: Plex Media Center for Android Continue reading Plex Media Center App comes to Android, Windows server on the way Plex Media Center App comes to Android, Windows server on the way originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 Chris Ziegler (Engadget) 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Submitted at 2/16/2011 12:44:00 PM Android Market, Plex| Email this| You know those sushi places that Comments have the pre-packaged rolls hypnotically scrolling by your face endlessly on a little conveyor belt? Well, picture exactly that... but with virtually every major VISUALIZED: page 99

Visualized: Google's perpetual conveyor belt of Android

the break, we'll toss in a link to the Windows server once we find it / it's posted.

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Android device ever made instead of sushi. That was just one of the many visual treats we experienced at Google's Android booth at Mobile World Congress this year -- along with a dozen or so brightly-painted giant Android statues and a fully-functional slide from the second floor down to the first. We'd estimate there were perhaps 200 phones and tablets on the belt, ranging all the way from the original T-Mobile G1 up to prototype versions of the HTC Desire S and Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo. We'll admit, it was nigh impossible to resist grabbing at the clear acrylic capsules as they slid silently by, but fortunately, you won't have that

problem when you check it out on video -- a safe distance from Barcelona -- after the break. Gallery: Visualized: Googles perpetual conveyor belt of Android Continue reading Visualized: Google's perpetual conveyor belt of Android Visualized: Google's perpetual conveyor belt of Android originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments