Liberty Newspost Apr-23-10

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Blagojevich asks for President Obama to testify Andrew Stern (Front Row Washington)

to the conduct alleged as well as an impeachment witness to at least two of the government’s Submitted at 4/22/2010 2:39:23 PM critical witnesses,” defense Rod Blagojevich’s attorneys lawyers said in a court filing in have asked for President Barack U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Obama to testify at the former “The defense does not take Illinois governor’s corruption l i g h t l y t h e o v e r w h e l m i n g trial, saying he would be “a schedule the President has and critical witness.” the security constraints In an apparent mechanical surrounding his testimony. A error, blacked-out portions of v i d e o t a p e d e p o s i t i o n w i l l the defense’s request were remedy both of those legitimate visible for some time online, concerns.” a n d w e r e s u b s e q u e n t l y Obama could shed light on published on the websites of potential witnesses Tony Rezko, Chicago’s daily newspapers. the convicted fund-raiser for Among the disclosures in the Obama and Blagojevich, and an redacted portions of the defense unnamed union official who met motion were that Obama spoke with Blagojevich about the to Blagojevich on December 1, Senate seat.

2008, eight days before In the viewable redacted Blagojevich was arrested by FBI portions of the defense motion, agents. the union official informed an Blagojevich has been charged unnamed labor union president with trying to sell Obama’s that Obama had left him a former Senate seat and trying to voicemail message saying he leverage official acts for money wanted to convey his preference or jobs, including a position as a for a candidate to replace him in Cabinet Secretary in Obama’s the Senate. administration.

That candidate — referred to as “President Obama is a witness Senate candidate B — is widely

FBI interviews with Blagojevich’s chief of staff and Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, four candidates were considered “acceptable” to the Obama presidential transition team.

Emanuel has said he did talk to Blagojevich about the seat, but that no one ever offered anything to Blagojevich.

Defense attorneys also said they have yet to receive notes from FBI interviews with Obama, believed to be presidential aide who at the time was presidentValerie Jarrett, who later elect. withdrew from consideration. “The defense understands that The union official told the the President of the United union president he had been States of America is not a chosen as an emissary to routine witness and would not Blagojevich, according to notes request his appearance if it did f r o m F B I i n t e r v i e w s not think he was critical to the summarized in the defense’s liberty of Rod Blagojevich.”

UPDATE: A White House filing.

Blagojevich, in a recorded spokesman said: “The White conversation with his own chief House is not going to comment of staff, said the union official o n a n o n g o i n g c r i m i n a l was “very explicit” with him i n v e s t i g a t i o n . ” a b o u t w a n t i n g t o c o n v e y Photo credit: Reuters/Frank Obama’s recommendation. Polich (Blagojevich in 2009) The filing said that based on

White House staff brings kids to work (AP) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed) Submitted at 4/22/2010 1:51:59 PM

corinne buzzed up: Report says health care will cover more, cost more (AP) 1 minute ago 2010-0423T07:21:42-07:00 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Human Mutants Videos (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) Submitted at 4/22/2010 1:00:00 PM

(more info) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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G20 to say recovery on track, pace uneven: source (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:39:49 AM

New poll shows boost for Afghan war strategy Sue Pleming (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 4/22/2010 1:08:33 PM

A new national poll by Quinnipiac University shows that the Obama administration’s new strategy in Afghanistan is gaining some favor among voters.

Conducted April 14-19, the poll of American voters found that 49 percent of the respondents

approved of the way President Barack Obama is handling the situation in Afghanistan versus 39 percent who disagreed.

In another bit of good news for the White House, 56 percent of voters polled agreed that the United States was doing the “right thing” fighting in Afghanistan against 36 percent who did not.

Asked whether eliminating the threat of militants operating

from Afghanistan was a worthwhile goal for American troops to fight and possibly die for, 61 percent of voters said it was while 31 percent said it was not.

The latest survey must be welcome since poll after poll last year showed the eight-year war was becoming increasingly unpopular among voters.

The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 1,930 registered voters

nationwide. It has a margin of error of plus/minus 2.2 percentage points.

Photo credit: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih ( A man rides a motorcycle past a U.S. Marine from Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines near Marjah District)

Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes.

Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

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Biden’s F-bomb lesson: microphones Top 10 YouTube are mighty sensitive Videos About Women In Tech Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington)

Deane Rimerman (ReadWriteWeb)

Submitted at 4/22/2010 3:07:58 PM

What were the lessons learned for Vice President Joe Biden on dropping the F-bomb on national television?

Number one: microphones are waaaayyyy more sensitive than you realize.

Number two: the boss has a keen sense of humor.

Number three: it’s still embarrassing.

Biden amid the giddiness of the passage of healthcare reform in March whispered into President Barack Obama’s ear “this is a big f—ing deal.” It was picked up by the microphone and became an online video sensation.

So when Biden was teased about it on ABC’s “The View,” he looked quite sheepish.

Submitted at 4/22/2010 11:00:00 PM

“I was just thankful my mother couldn’t hear it,” Biden said of his late mother. “And it was a little embarrassing.”

Biden had not been oblivious of the microphone, just of its sensitivity: “I realized there was a microphone, but I had no idea it was that sensitive.”

What was Obama’s response when they were away from the

cameras? “After it was over we walked out and we got in the limo to go over to another event and he was laughing like the devil,” Biden said.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Biden whispers to Obama)

Red Hat's RHEL 6 beta drops Xen (CNET News.com) Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:03:10 AM

Red Hat has released the first beta edition of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, with updates to virtualization, scalability, and power efficiency, among others.

The operating system was made available for download on Wednesday. It is the first to drop

the Xen hypervisor in favor of the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) developed by Qumranet, which was purchased

by Red Hat in 2008.

Red Hat added the KVM hypervisor to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) alongside Xen with version 5.4, which was introduced in September. It has been testing

From guest panels about the challenges women face in the technology sector, to interviews about the challenges they face in a male dominated work environment, this collection of videos shines a light on women in tech.

The list includes Caterina Fake explaining how she became cofounder of Hunch and Flickr, as well as Dianne Marsh speaking about the under representation of women in computer sciences.

Also included is a video about a data center a women built, and an interview with a college student majoring in computer science. Best of all is the top video She's Geeky, which is about an all-female unconference facilitated by K a l i y a H a m l i n .

(ReadWriteWeb's Mobile Summit on May 7 is going to be facilitated by Hamlin.)

Sponsor

virtualization products based on KVM since last June.

Read more of " RHEL 6 beta drops Xen" at ZDNet UK. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: • She's Geeky PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

• Sisters Are Doing 'IT' For Themselves • Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner Panel • Geek girls and their birthday • Geek Girl at Her Data Center • Women in Electrical and Computer Engineering (WECE) • 2008 Google Workshop for Women Engineers • Kelly Carnes on What Needs to be Done to Increase the Role of Women and Minorities in Technology • Caterina Fake, co-founder of Hunch & Flickr: In conversation with Women2.0 • Dianne Marsh: Underrepresentation of Women in Computer Science: Why I care and why you should too Discuss

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Greece calls on €45 billion EU-IMF rescue (World News from Times Online)

The letter from George Papaconstantinou stated simply: “Greece is asking for the Submitted at 4/23/2010 5:43:00 AM activation of the support The Greek Prime Minister m e c h a n i s m . ” today bowed to the inevitable A person close to the and called for the activation of Government said: “Negotiations a joint eurozone-International a r e o n g o i n g w i t h t h e Monetary Fund bailout to rescue representatives of the IMF and his country from its debt crisis.

ECB to determine the content George Papandreou's Finance and logistics of the plan. There Minister formally triggered the can no longer be any credible process in a short letter, which talk of default.” could lead to Greece receiving Mr Papandreou said that the largest ever international financial markets had not financial handout of its kind as r e s p o n d e d p o s i t i v e l y t o it struggles to finance up to austerity measures designed to €300 billion (£260 billion) of pull the country's disastrous national debt. finances into line by the end of “The moment has come,” Mr 2012. The Government has Papandreou said this morning. b l a m e d t h e p r e v i o u s He prepared voters for the Conservative administration for bailout last week when he said mismanaging the economy and that the deal represented a fiddling statistics to mask the success for Greece because it real extent of the crisis in the showed that it would not be left r u n - u p t o l a s t s u m m e r ’ s to sink by fellow nations in the e l e c t i o n .

16-nation eurozone.

“We inherited a ship that was Countries in the eurozone are ready to sink, a country bereft of offering up to €30 billion in prestige and credibility, which loans to Greece this year and had even lost the respect of its the IMF is offering up to €15 friends and partners,” Mr billion. Greece must refinance Papandreou said. a r o u n d € 1 1 b i l l i o n o f i t s Athens and the eurozone had borrowing during May. hoped that markets would be “It is a national and pressing calmed by the announcement necessity for us to formally ask last month of a rescue plan to our partners for the activation provide bilateral loans from of the support mechanism, eurozone members at “around 5 which we jointly created in the per cent” interest, far below the E u r o p e a n U n i o n , ” M r market rate at the time of Papandreou said. almost 7 per cent and which

nudged 9 per cent this week.

Mr Papandreou added: “Markets did not respond, either because they did not believe in the will of the EU or because some decided to continue speculating. And today, the situation in the markets threatens to deconstruct not only the sacrifices of the Greek people but also the smooth course of the economy itself.”

A spokesman for German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble emphasised that once the Greek request had been made a group of experts, including the ECB and the IMF, would need to confirm whether Greece really needed the aid.

Michael Offer said that Mr Schauble had held a telephone conference yesterday with the Greek Finance Minister, among others, and that during the call had insisted that Athens' financial review, being conducted with the IMF, be completed quickly.

Mr Offer said: “In Germany, we are required to act out of solidarity and we will do that in order to stabilise the euro.”

Unlike France, Germany is not able to set up a supplementary budget, so it would finance its part of the bailout package through its KfW development bank. Although the money will not come from the budget, under German law such a loan, regardless of how it is funded,

requires parliamentary approval.

The interest-rate gap, or spread, between Greek ten-year bonds and German ones — considered a benchmark of stability — began to narrow rapidly after the announcement that Athens was asking for the aid, falling to 5.11 percentage points from Thursday's alarming highs of 5.86 percentage points.

The euro rose against the dollar to $1.3306 after tumbling close to a year low of $1.3201 overnight.

Experts from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF arrived in Athens on Wednesday for talks expected to last at least ten days on the details of the package.

The pressure on Athens increased yesterday when revised EU figures showed that its deficit was higher than expected and set to rise still further as more reliable data is gathered.

Greece had an annual deficit of 13.6 per cent of gross domestic product in 2009, rather than 12.7 per cent as reported earlier, Eurostat said. This could be extended by an extra 0.3 to 0.5 percentage points.

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Found Footage: Flight of the Bumblebee in concert on an iPad David Winograd (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/22/2010 9:00:00 PM

Filed under: Found Footage Chinese pianist Lang Lang headlined a concert at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall on April 19th. For the first of three encores, he played The Flight of the Bumblebee on an iPad. To accomplish this, he used the Magic Piano iPad app.

This is just one example of how amazing apps can allow people to do amazing things, and the party has just started.

[To clarify, the Magic Piano app does do a lot of the work in playing a piece like that; it drops down indicators for the correct notes, so the pianist has to get 'pretty close' and have the rhythm correct. Still impressive.

-Ed.] [via 9to5Mac] TUAW Found Footage: Flight of the Bumblebee in concert on an iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Roger Vangheluwe, Bishop of Bruges, resigns over child sex abuse (World News from Times Online)

Bishop Bangheluw, 73, Bishop of Bruges, is also the first priest from Belgium to resign over Submitted at 4/23/2010 9:25:35 AM child abuse after a succession of A senior Catholic bishop has scandals in Europe and the resigned after admitting to United States. sexually abusing a child. He is “I am enormously sorry,” he the latest and most senior cleric said in a statement read by to stand down in the crisis Archbishop Andre-Joseph engulfing the church.

Leonard. The disgraced bishop Roger Vangheluwe, Belgium’s did not appear at the news longest-serving bishop, said that c o n f e r e n c e w h e r e h i s he was “enormously sorry” for resignation was announced the “wound” he had inflicted on today. a young boy about 25 years Yesterday, Walter Mixa, a ago. senior German bishop, offered “When I was not a bishop, and t o s t e p d o w n a f t e r a n some time later, I abused a investigation began into claims boy,” he said in a statement. that he beat children at an “This has marked the victim orphanage during the 1970s, forever. The wound does not 1 9 8 0 s a n d 1 9 9 0 s . T h e heal. Neither in me nor the allegations did not include victim,” he said. suspected sexual abuse Pope Benedict XVI has however. a c c e p t e d t h e b i s h o p ’ s Bishop Vangheluwe had been resignation, which is the first due to retire next year, and said among senior clerics since the t h a t h e h a d a p o l o g i s e d crisis over paedophile priests repeatedly to the victim and his began. family. Archbishop Leonard

called him a “great brother and dynamic bishop”, but said that his transgression would shock many.

“We are aware of the crisis of confidence his resignation will set in motion,” Archbishop Leonard said. But he emphasised that the Catholic Church in Belgium was determined to “turn over a leaf from a not very distant past”.

In his Easter homily, he addressed the paedophilia scandals that have surfaced in the Catholic Church, saying that in the past “the reputation of church leaders was given a higher priority than that of abused children”.

The Catholic Church in Belgium has a weak record of cracking down on sexual abusers in its ranks.

In 2000 it created a panel to look into abuse complaints that quickly clashed with the church leadership. The panel has accused the church of tardiness

in compensating victims.

Hundreds of people have come forward in recent months, including in Pope Benedict’s native Germany, accusing priests of raping and abusing them while bishops and other senior church figures turned a blind eye.

This week, the Vatican has said that it would do everything in its power to bring justice to abusive priests and implement “effective measures" to protect children.

It recently published guidelines instructing bishops to report abuse to police when civil laws require it. The Vatican says that that has long been church policy, though it was never before explicitly written.

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Snack Smart: It's a Mini-Meal!

WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog) Submitted at 4/22/2010 2:00:00 PM

Whenever I'm editing a weight loss story or reading a diet book, I always notice that many of the snack options are more like mini -meals, and I'm surprised to learn that they're 250 calories or under. Because they're smaller portions of what you'd eat at a meal (breakfast or lunch usually) you FEEL like you're eating a lot. A favorite that I'm having today: 1/2 whole wheat bagel with 1/2 tablespoon of peanut butter. Now I just need to make sure not to dip my spoon back into that PB jar!

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Nook Update Adds “Read in Store” Functionality John Biggs (TechCrunch) Submitted at 4/23/2010 7:38:26 AM

Huh. This is interesting. So Barnes & Noble just added "Read in Store" functionality to the Nook, a feature that allows you to browse any ebook on

your Nook while you're in the store. When you leave, the ebook disappears. It's the Brigadoon of ebook reading.

The update also adds chess, soduku, and some improvements to speed and UI. the real star. But is it valuable? I However, the Read in Store is mean when is the last time you

stood in a store, in front of a book, and then said to yourself "Hey, I'd like to see this on a screen." While I'm totally down with the concept, this doesn't do much for the long-tail books that aren't situated front and center by the doors. If you want to

update right now, pop over here.

Click through for the press release.

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Hubble celebrates 20 years with dramatic image of Carina Nebula

Lotus Notes Adds Tungle, Tripit and Gist

(World News from Times Online)

Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb)

history,” said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at Submitted at 4/23/2010 6:57:13 AM Nasa Headquarters in Twenty years after the launch W a s h i n g t o n . o f t h e t h e H u b b l e S p a c e “Last year’s servicing mission Telescope, the team behind the left the observatory operating at p r o j e c t i s c e l e b r a t i n g t h e peak capacity, giving it a new anniversary with a dramatic new b e g i n n i n g f o r s c i e n t i f i c image of the Carina Nebula. achievements.”

The picture shows a cosmic To create the latest image, pillar of gas and dust piled high Hubble’s new Wide Field with stars and swirls of Camera 3 took portraits of the radiation created by stellar Carina Nebula through six winds. filters — three in visible light Hubble has looked at more than and three in infrared.

30,000 celestial targets and All were radioed to Earth as amassed more than half a black-and-white images, then million pictures in its archive. coloured and combined into a The most recent astronaut- composite image. servicing mission to Hubble, in “We wanted to have an image May 2009, made the telescope t h a t w i l l b e a t l e a s t a s 100 times more powerful than spectacular as the iconic ‘pillars when it was launched. of creation’,” said Mario Livio In addition to a wealth of of the Space Telescope Science scientific information, including Institute in Baltimore, referring demonstrations of the existence to a widely reproduced 1995 of dark matter and insights into Hubble image of the Eagle t h e l i f e a n d d e a t h o f Nebula. s u p e r n o v a e , H u b b l e h a s Hubble’s road to success has c a p t u r e d t h e p u b l i c ’ s not always been smooth. imagination.

Soon after the telescope was “Hubble is undoubtedly one of launched on April 24, 1990, t h e m o s t r e c o g n i s e d a n d astronomers realised that the successful scientific projects in mirror was the wrong shape,

which produced a blurred “halo” around the first images.

Hubble also suffered from unexpected shaking due to solar winds as it went from sunlight to darkness on each orbit, and the press was quick to label the telescope a “techno turkey”.

However, its successes soon began to outweigh technical hitches. Hubble has allowed us to peer into the distant past, to when the Universe was only 10 per cent of its current age, to an era before galaxies were formed and the Universe consisted of clumps of glowing, diffuse gases that had not yet condensed into stars.

More recently, it has begun to address the possibility that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Universe through the hunt for Earth-like planets.

During the past ten years astronomers have learnt that large numbers of potentially habitable worlds exist in orbit around other stars.

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Céline "Natural Calfskin Medium Box Bag" ($3400 available at Barneys

The cloud fundamentally changes the way enterprise applications function.

Increasingly we are seeing traditional enterprise applications emerge in the cloud and partner with other Webbased services that have consumer appeal.

In turn, we are seeing cloudbased consumer type services transform into enterprise grade offerings that provide customers with the same experience they get in their work as they do at home.

Sponsor IBM's Lotus Note s is a clear example of how this symbiotic relationships is evolving.

Yesterday, Tungle, the calendar application, released a Tungle.me app for Notes users.

Tungle allows users to view other people's calendards and availability.

With Tungle.me for Lotus Notes, you can set custom availability and synchronize it with your Lotus Notes calendar.

Once meetings are scheduled, they are automatically updated in the background.

The news follows a number of applications that have been introduced for Notes users.

Those include services like TripIt and Gist. Tripit is a travel planning service. Gist allows Lotus Notes users to add dynamic profiles for people in an inbox, calendar and contacts list. Gist for Notes allows a users to have news, blogs, and tweets all in one place, find related people, emails, links, and attachments. It connects to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Discuss

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J'Adore: Celine Classic Box Bag ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs)

Submitted at 4/23/2010 4:00:58 AM

Submitted at 4/23/2010 10:00:00 AM

New York)

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Barack Obama: ‘oil spill is No 1 priority’ (World News from Times Online)

federal government was offering all assistance needed in the rescue effort “as well as in Submitted at 4/23/2010 5:51:10 AM mitigating and responding to the President Obama said today environmental impact”. that containing spilt oil from a Eleven of the 126 people on collapsed rig was t h e board the rig at the time of the Government’s “number one blast were still missing as the priority” as the US braced itself US Coast Guard mounted a for a major environmental desperate search by sea and air. disaster.

Four others remain in acritical Crude oil was pouring into the condition.

Gulf of Mexico this morning Officials said that before the from the site where Deepwater explosion there were 700,000 Horizon, a floating platform gallons of diesel fuel on board leased by BP, had burnt for two the rig, which had been drilling days after an explosion before 8,000 barrels of oil a day. finally collapsing yesterday.

“This is considered a major oil Officials said the current spill, spill,” Mike O’Berry, a senior which threatened to wash ashore chief petty officer with the US on the Gulf states of Louisiana, Coast Guard, said.

Alabama and Mississippi, had The Coast Guard said a one the potential to be the worst mile by five mile slick had seen in the US since the 1989 settled on the surface about 45 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill, miles offshore as a massive which poured nearly 11 million clean-up operation, including gallons (42 million litres) of specialist ships sent by BP, crude into Prince William worked to prevent the oil from Sound in Alaska. reaching the American coast.

In a statement the White House Transocean, the Swiss company said that President Obama that owned the rig, tried to cut would make sure that the off the uncontrolled flow of oil

Fact or Fiction: Pimples (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) Submitted at 4/22/2010 1:00:00 PM

Pimples. We've all had 'em, and we've all tried our darndest to get rid of 'em. To pop or not to

pop? Should you stop eating pizza to avoid becoming a pizza face? Take this quiz to find out how much you know about the inner workings of pimples.

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using an underwater robot but a spokesperson said last night that it had not been possible “to stem the flow of hydrocarbons prior to the rig sinking”.

The robot, equipped with cameras and remote-controlled arms, was being used to try to activate a device on the seafloor, 5,000ft (1,500m) below the surface, that is designed automatically to close pipes on the seabed.

BP, Transocean and the US Coast Guard were planning to use booms, skimmers and chemicals to control the spreading oil slick.

Adrian Rose, the vice-president of Transocean, said that the rig likely suffered a blowout while drilling through rock at BP’s Macondo prospect, although investigations into the exact cause of the accident are ongoing.

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Japan plans mind-reading robots and brain interface devices 'by 2020' Vladislav Savov (Engadget)

giants Toyota, Honda and Hitachi get name-dropped as potential participants in this 10Our grandparents did warn us year plan, though we wonder if that laziness would get us in any of them will have the sense t r o u b l e . T h e J a p a n e s e to ask what happens when an government and private sector ultra-precise and emotionless are, according to the Nikkei, all bot is given both intelligence s e t t o b e g i n w o r k o n a and mind-reading powers. collaborative new project to Would it really stick to dunking develop thought-controlled biscuits in our tea, or would it gadgets, devices ... and robots. prefer something a little more The aim is to produce brain-to- exciting? computer interfaces that would Japan plans mind-reading allow the ability to change robots and brain interface channels or pump out texts just devices 'by 2020' originally with your almighty brain power, appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: while also facilitating artificial Apr 2010 10:04:00 EST. Please PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, intelligence that would be see our terms for use of feeds.

Term Extraction. capable of detecting when Permalink| Yahoo! News| Email you're hungry, cold, or in need this| Comments of assistance. Manufacturing Submitted at 4/23/2010 10:04:00 AM

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Coast Guard: No oil leak from sunken rig off La. (AP) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed)

caused the blast, and the oil they are dealing with now is left over from the explosion and sinking.

NEW ORLEANS – No oil "If it gets landward, it could be a appeared to be leaking after a disaster in the making," said drilling rig exploded and sank in Cynthia Sarthou, executive the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast director for the environmental Guard said Friday, though g r o u p G u l f R e s t o r a t i o n officials were trying to contain N e t w o r k . what spilled from the blast and BP PLC, which leased the rig prevent any threat to the coast's and took the lead in the cleanup, fragile ecosystem. said Friday it has activated an The search continued for 11 extensive oil spill response, workers missing after the i n c l u d i n g u s i n g r e m o t e l y explosion late Tuesday on the operated vehicles to assess the Deepwater Horizon, though well and 32 vessels to mop up family members said they had the spill. been told they probably did not BP Chief Executive Tony survive.

Hayward said the company will The rig burned for nearly two do "everything in our power to days until it sank Thursday contain this oil spill and resolve morning. The fire was out, but the situation as rapidly, safely officials initially feared as much and effectively as possible." as 336,000 gallons of crude oil a Ed Overton, a Louisiana State day could be rising from the sea U n i v e r s i t y e n v i r o n m e n t a l floor nearly 5,000 feet below. sciences professor, said he Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary expects some of the light crude Landry said Friday morning that oil to evaporate while much of it no oil appeared to be leaking turns into a pasty mess that from a well head at the ocean ultimately breaks apart into floor, nor was any leaking at the small chunks of oily residue that water's surface. But she said can wash ashore. crews were closely monitoring "It's going to be a god-awful the rig for any more crude that mess for a while," he said. "I'm might spill out. not crying doomsday or saying The crew was finishing the well the sky is falling, but that is the about 50 miles off the Louisiana potential." coast when the rig exploded. Weather forecasts indicate the Officials have not said what spill was likely to stay well Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:53:15 AM

away from shore at least through the weekend, but if winds change it could come ashore faster, said Doug Helton of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's office of response and restoration.

The Coast Guard, which was leading the investigation, had not given up the search early Friday for those missing from the rig.

Carolyn Kemp of Monterey, La., said her grandson, Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, would have been on the drilling platform when it exploded.

"They're assuming all those men who were on the platform are dead," Kemp said. "That's the last we've heard."

Most of the crew — 111 members — were ashore, including 17 taken to hospitals.

Four were in critical condition.

Four others made it off safely were still on a boat operating one of several underwater robots being used to assess whether the flow of oil could be shut off at a control valve on the sea floor, said Guy Cantwell, spokesman for rig owner Transocean Ltd. Landry said crews saw a 1-mile -by-5-mile rainbow sheen of what appeared to be a crude oil mix on the surface.

At the worst-case figure of

336,000 gallons a day, it would take more than a month for the amount of crude oil spilled to equal the 11 million gallons spilled from the Exxon Valdez in Alaska's Prince William Sound.

A turn in winds and currents might send oil toward fragile coastal wetlands — nurseries for fish and shrimp and habitat for birds.

"As you get closer to shore, you get richer and richer marine habitats, and also get the potential for long-term exposure," Helton said.

To prevent that, the Marine Spill Response Corp., an energy industry cleanup consortium, brought seven skimmer boats to suck oily water from the surface, four planes that can scatter chemicals to disperse oil, and 500,000 feet — 94.6 miles — of containment boom, a floating barrier with a skirt that drapes down under the water and corrals the oil.

In addition to other environmental concerns, the well is in an area where a pod of sperm whales is known to feed, said Kim Amendola of NOAA. Those who escaped the rig did so mainly by getting on lifeboats that were lowered into the Gulf, said Adrian Rose, vice president of Transocean.

"There are a number of uncorroborated stories, a lot of them really quite heroic stories, of how people looked after each other. There was very little panic," Rose said.

Family members of two missing workers filed separate lawsuits Thursday accusing Transocean and BP of negligence. Both companies declined to comment about legal action against them after the first suit was filed.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service, which regulates oil rigs, conducted three routine inspections of the Deepwater Horizon this year — in February, March and on April 1 — and found no violations, MMS spokeswoman Eileen Angelico said. ___ Associated Press Writer Noaki Schwartz reported from Los Angeles, Holbrook Mohr from Jackson, Miss., Mike Kunzelman, Cain Burdeau and Alan Sayre in Louisiana, Chris Kahn in New York and Sofia Mannos of AP Television News contributed to this report.

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Report says health care will cover more, cost more (AP) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed) Submitted at 4/23/2010 4:58:49 AM

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law is getting a mixed verdict in the first comprehensive look by neutral experts: More Americans will be covered, but costs are also going up.

Economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department concluded in a report issued Thursday that the health care remake will achieve Obama's aim of expanding health insurance— adding 34 million to the coverage rolls.

But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president's twin goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about 1 percent over 10 years.

That increase could get bigger, since Medicare cuts in the law may be unrealistic and unsustainable, the report warned.

It's a worrisome assessment for Democrats.

In particular, concerns about Medicare could become a major political liability in the midterm elections. The report projected

that Medicare cuts could drive about 15 percent of hospitals and other institutional providers into the red, "possibly jeopardizing access" to care for seniors.

The report from Medicare's Office of the Actuary carried a disclaimer saying it does not represent the official position of the Obama administration.

White House officials have repeatedly complained that such analyses have been too pessimistic and lowball the law's potential to achieve savings.

The report acknowledged that some of the cost-control measures in the bill — Medicare cuts, a tax on high-cost insurance and a commission to seek ongoing Medicare savings — could help reduce the rate of cost increases beyond 2020. But it held out little hope for progress in the first decade.

"During 2010-2019, however, these effects would be outweighed by the increased costs associated with the expansions of health insurance coverage," wrote Richard S. Foster, Medicare's chief actuary.

"Also, the longer-term viability of the Medicare ... reductions is doubtful." Foster's office is

responsible for long-range costs estimates.

Republicans said the findings validate their concerns about Obama's 10-year, nearly $1 trillion plan to remake the nation's health care system.

"A trillion dollars gets spent, and it's no surprise — health care costs are going to go up," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., a leading Republican on health care issues. Camp added that he's concerned the Medicare cuts will undermine care for seniors.

In a statement, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to highlight some positive findings for seniors. For example, the report concluded that Medicare monthly premiums would be lower than otherwise expected, due to the spending reductions.

"The Affordable Care Act will improve the health care system for all Americans, and we will continue our work to quickly and carefully implement the new law," the statement said.

Passed by a divided Congress after a year of bitter partisan debate, the law would create new health insurance markets for individuals and small businesses. Starting in 2014,

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most Americans would be required to carry health insurance except in cases of financial hardship. Tax credits would help many middle-class households pay their premiums, while Medicaid would pick up more low-income people.

Insurers would be required to accept all applicants, regardless of their health.

The U.S. spends $2.5 trillion a year on health care, far more per person than any other developed nation, and for results that aren't clearly better when compared to more frugal countries. At the outset of the health care debate last year, Obama held out the hope that by bending the cost curve down, the U.S. could cover all its citizens for about what the nation would spend absent any changes.

The report found that the president's law missed the mark, although not by much. The overhaul will increase national health care spending by $311 billion from 2010-2019, or ninetenths of 1 percent. To put that in perspective, total health care spending during the decade is estimated to surpass $35 trillion.

Administration officials argue the increase is a bargain price

for guaranteeing coverage to 95 percent of Americans. They also point out that the law will decrease the federal deficit by $143 billion over the 10-year period.

The report's most sober assessments concerned Medicare.

In addition to flagging provider cuts as potentially unsustainable, the report projected that reductions in payments to private Medicare Advantage plans would trigger an exodus from the popular alternative. Enrollment would plummet by about 50 percent.

Seniors leaving the private plans would still have health insurance under traditional Medicare, but many might face higher out-of-pocket costs.

In another flashing yellow light, the report warned that a new voluntary long-term care insurance program created under the law faces "a very serious risk" of insolvency.

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Mo. clerk says he'll use $258M jackpot on bills (AP) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed)

Associated Press. "It's like a weight lifted. I had bills at home I didn't know how they were JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A going to be paid."

Missouri man who won a $258 Shaw said he bought the $5 million Powerball jackpot and ticket Wednesday at the Break plans to use some of the money Time convenience store where to pay bills, replace his two he works in Marshall, a central missing front teeth and take his Missouri town about 80 miles children to Disney World said e a s t o f K a n s a s C i t y . H e he hasn't decided yet if he'll quit accepted his ceremonial check his job at the convenience store a t t h e M i s s o u r i L o t t e r y where he bought the winning headquarters in Jefferson City ticket. wearing a tan and red plaid shirt, Chris Shaw — a 29-year-old a red hat and a huge grin — tattooed father of three who was minus two front teeth he says he raised by his grandparents in lost because he didn't take care rural southern Missouri — came of them but can now afford to forward Thursday as the winner have replaced. of the 10th-largest Powerball "I'm just a regular guy working jackpot ever. Shaw said he had paycheck to paycheck ... well just $28.96 in his bank account not any more," he said. and recently bought a 1998 Ford Shaw said he needed a few days Ranger from a friend who to decide whether he will keep agreed to let him pay off the his minimum-wage job at the $1,000 price $100 at a time. store where he has worked for Now, he said, he no longer has just three weeks. He also plans to worry about how he'll pay his to seek advice "from people friend — or his utility bills. who know about money" about "We didn't come from money. whether to take the jackpot in 30 For us it's just going to be a payments over 29 years or the huge relief to know I'm going to l u m p - s u m a m o u n t o f be able to pay my electric bill, $ 1 2 4 , 8 7 5 , 1 2 2 . my gas bill," Shaw told the His boss, Jackie Maxwell, Submitted at 4/23/2010 9:07:30 AM

general manager of the Missouri -based Break Time convenience store chain, was thrilled to hear Shaw had won.

"He's just a great guy, a good employee. When you think of a large winner like this, everyone likes to see that the person who won is somebody like Chris," she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

Shaw — who has a 10-year-old son, a 7-year-old girl and a 5year-old girl by two different women — said he had played Missouri Scratchers lottery tickets before, winning at most $80. He checked his Powerball ticket against the state lottery's website only after his girlfriend, Tosha Ewry, told him the winning ticket was bought at the store where he works.

When Shaw called Ewry back to tell her the news, she thought he was joking, he said. Finally, he said he told her: "I swear on a stack of Bibles, you need to leave work and come home."

The winning numbers were 1134-41-49-55, Powerball 20. The Power Play number was 2.

Shaw said he looks forward to spending more time with his

kids, who live with their mothers about 240 miles southeast of him in his hometown of Alton, as well as with his girlfriend's two sons — 13-year-old and 15-year-old boys Shaw says he considers his own. He plans to take them all to Disney World in Florida.

"I can be with them as much as I want now," Shaw said.

He said his children already have been asking for new skateboards, bicycles and "just stuff that's really hard to do when you make $7.25 an hour."

Break Time will receive $50,000 for selling the winning ticket. If Shaw takes a lumpsum payment, the state income taxes due on the winnings would be about $6 million, state budget director Linda Luebbering said. ___ Associated Press Writer Bill Draper in Kansas City contributed to this report.

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'Bones' - 'The Predator in the Pool' Recap Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/22/2010 9:30:00 PM

(S05E18) "I'm glad to know you are out there." - Dr. Catherine Bryar to Booth We too are glad that Booth is out there to save the day and especially that he is played by cutie David Boreanaz, no?

However, I'm not sure'Bones' fans were as glad to see Catherine Bryan, played by Rena Sofer, out there with Booth as it puts yet another obstacle between Booth and Brennan's potential coupling.

Surprisingly, I found myself enjoying Catherine's brief scenes on the show and hope that she'll return.

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Greece seeks aid; markets rally but hard road ahead (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:19:36 AM

ATHENS(Reuters) - Debtstricken Greece appealed to its European partners and the IMF for emergency loans on Friday, yielding to overwhelming market pressure to set in motion the first financial rescue of a member of the euro zone.

Prime Minister George Papandreou requested the 45 billion euro ($60.5 billion) package after a months-long selloff by investors pushed borrowing costs to record levels and undermined Athens' efforts to cut its 300 billion euro debt pile.

"This is the moment. The time that was not granted to us by the markets will be given to us by the support of the euro zone," Papandreou said in a statement broadcast live from the remote, tiny Aegean island of Kastellorizo.

"It is a national and imperative need to officially ask our partners in the EU for the activation of the support mechanism we jointly created."

European markets rallied briefly on the announcement but investors said the long-awaited bailout, which could be the largest multilateral rescue of a country ever attempted, would only provide a short-term solution to Greece's debt crisis.

After an initial bounce, the euro was a just touch higher at

$1.3308 at 1140 GMT, up 0.1 percent on the day.

The premium investors demand to buy Greek 10-year government bonds rather than euro zone benchmark Bunds tightened to 525 basis points, versus 611 on Thursday, before rebounding back to 570.

The request followed growing doubt from investors that Greece could avoid default and market exasperation at Papandreou's socialist government which, torn between punishing market forces abroad and Greek workers protesting at painful austerity measures, was hesitant to ask for help.

The last straw came on Thursday, when European Commission data showed Greece's 2009 public deficit was even higher than feared at 13.6 percent of gross domestic product, complicating Athens efforts to slash that figure by almost a third this year. That drove Greek bond yields to 12year highs, making the cost of borrowing prohibitive.

"This certainly does not mark the end of the crisis, there's still much further to go," said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics. "They've still got the medium-term problems of getting their public finances in order, and obviously the issue of competitiveness."

TIMING IN FOCUS Athens continued talks with the

European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Friday on a three-year program that includes the aid package.

But time is pressing, with an 8.5 billion euro bond due to mature on May 19.

Economists say a rescue is likely to require further European and IMF aid in 2011 and 2012 and some forecast that Greece will have to restructure its foreign debt. French and German banks are among the biggest holders of Greek debt.

Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou is due to travel to Washington for the IMF's annual meeting on Saturday. Greek media said he could ask for IMF board to vote on a deal then, but the Fund has said consultation could take two or three weeks.

It could take a week for the Commission and ECB to decide if Greece's request is valid and for euro zone finance ministers to then take a formal decision, the Commission said.

"Everything is going to be done in such a way that the mechanism can be triggered as soon as (necessary) and as is necessary for Greece," spokesman said Amadeu Altafaj said.

He said interest on the loans -expected to be around 5 percent from euro zone states -- would be in line with a formula worked out by euro zone finance

ministers earlier this month.

Because the date of the disbursement was not known yet, it was impossible to say now what the exact level would be.

Greece has said the Commission could potentially offer a bridge loan to fill a gap if the aid were not approved in time to cover its funding needs.

Some countries must win parliament approval to release funds, and Athens faces public opposition in Germany, where a majority are against helping the long-time budget sinner against the backdrop of a key state election on May 9.

The timing could hardly be worse for conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has had to drop her initial resistance to any aid for Greece and back down on demanding market rates on loans.

In the runup to the vote, German parties have expressed resistance to giving a green light, but senior officials said it should not jeopardize the rescue package.

"Because Greece would not need all the aid immediately, the International Monetary Fund could supply the first tranche if necessary," a member of the ruling coalition said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Then European governments could step in depending on how quickly they can approve aid nationally."

STICKING-PLASTER Another question is whether the 30 billion euros pledged by euro zone states and 10-15 billion from the IMF would cover the 39 billion euros in debt Greece has coming due in the next 12 months, plus other costs forecast in the 2010 budget deficit.

"In the longer-term, it's just a sticking plaster over the situation," said Daragh Maher, deputy head of forex strategy at Credit Agricole CIB. "The question remains how can Greece extract itself from its problems, and the situation remains highly uncertain."

Papandreou won an election last year pledging to tax the rich and help the poor but has come under increasing pressure since his government announced Greece's 2009 budget gap was would be twice previous estimates and four times the EU ceiling.

On Thursday, Greek nurses, teachers and other public workers staged a one-day strike against the government's austerity measures, while a poll showed on Friday his support was falling and a majority feared the bailout would hit living standards.

In Athens, many people said they thought the deal had been inevitable, but public sector worker Sofia Hatzaki was angry.

"I hit the roof when I heard," GREECE page 12

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Years later, looking for traces of Sept. 11 victims (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 4/23/2010 1:43:24 AM

NEW YORK(Reuters) - While much of New York has tried to return to normal since September 11, 2001, the search for victims of the World Trade Center attacks goes on every day.

U.S.| Lifestyle In what some see as necessary and others see as excessive, anthropologists and forensics experts are sifting yet again through rubble for remnants of the nearly 3,000 people killed when two hijacked jetliners crashed into the twin towers.

With buildings slowly being erected where the towers stood, the latest effort to comb through 844 cubic yards of debris collected since 2007 from excavation of new sections of Ground Zero was launched this month.

Scientists have sifted through two batches of debris already and are testing those samples for human DNA. The new batch of debris has been dug up as construction progresses.

For some victims' families, finding a physical trace of the dead is vitally significant.

"We have an obligation to those who are lost and those who they left to do everything in our

power to recover them, said Deputy Mayor for Operations Edward Skyler. "And the sadness of the fact that we're still looking over eight years after the tragedy is lost on no one."

This sifting operation will cost some $2 million, he said.

'CRUEL AND INHUMANE' Some see the process as having dragged on too long.

"Another sifting of the remains is cruel and inhumane," said Talat Hamdani. Her son, a police cadet, died on September 11.

"Sifting the remains will not provide the victims' families closure. On the contrary, it will only cause more pain by reopening their wound and it will inject a feeling of revenge once again in the veins of our nation," she said.

In the latest sifting, 25 workers sort recovered rubble stored at the city's Fresh Kills landfill. In a mobile lab, scientists pass the dust, gravel and debris through fine meshed sieves looking for potential remains. Those are tested and cross-referenced with a database of DNA and identification samples of victims to find a possible match.

So far, 50 remains that scientists think may be human but have yet to be tested have

been found. The city's medical examiner said the effort is expected to wrap up by early July.

Overall, of the 21,744 remains uncovered in the two other sifting operations, 59 percent have been identified, corresponding to 1,626 of the 2,749 victims.

"People will go to great extremes to find remains so that they can finalize and complete that portion of the grief work," said Diana Nash, a local bereavement counselor.

The loss of a loved one in a sudden catastrophe involves a great deal of uncertainty because physical remains may not be uncovered, said J. Shep Jeffreys, a grief psychologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

"Looking for some definitive indication of the location of a body or body fragment is supportive in terms of the grieving process. If we don't have it, we have an ambiguous process," he said. "The ambiguity is eating away at the ability to reclaim some post-loss life."

'A LITTLE TOO LATE' An active proponent of the sifting is Diane Horning, whose son Matthew, a database administrator for an insurance

firm, was killed. But she is angry at how long the search is taking.

"It's a little too late, but it's important because we need to respect those who are killed," she said. Instead of proactively searching, the city waited as excavation progressed to uncover remains, she said.

"To have neglected it for so long, despite everybody begging them, shows their great callousness and disrespect for the dead," she said.

Some family members are opting out of the process and have refused to provide DNA samples for potential matches.

Still others feel they do not need to find remains of those lost, said Ginny Bauer, whose husband David, a sales director at Canter Fitzgerald, died on September 11.

"My husband and so many other people who perished that day, their remains could be anywhere," she said. "It's not who they are, it doesn't represent them. Their spirit is with us."

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GREECE continued from page 11

she said. "I want to scream. This means more austerity measures are coming and recovery is very far away."

(Writing by Mike Winfrey; editing by Paul Taylor) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Set up iTunes Smart Playlists to Give Every Song in Your Collection its Due [Smart Playlists] mschlock (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/23/2010 5:30:00 AM

If you have a large music collection you might often find yourself wondering if things are getting buried in the stacks and good songs aren't seeing the light of day. This array of smart playlists will tweak and showcase your collection. More Âť

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Bombs kill 56 in Baghdad after al Qaeda deaths (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:31:54 AM

BAGHDAD(Reuters) - Bombs targeting Shi'ite areas killed at least 56 people in Baghdad on Friday in a possible backlash after Iraq touted a series of blows against al Qaeda.

World Eight people were also killed by bombs in the Sunni west of the country.

Seven blasts hit different areas of the Iraqi capital around the time of Muslim prayers, mostly near Shi'ite mosques and at a marketplace, an interior ministry source said. Around 112 people were wounded.

"Targeting prayers in areas with a certain majority," Baghdad security spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said, referring to Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim majority, "is a revenge for the losses suffered by al Qaeda.

"We expect such terrorist acts to continue."

Last Sunday, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of its affiliate,

the Islamic State of Iraq, were killed in a raid in a rural area northwest of Baghdad by Iraqi and U.S. forces.

In Friday's attacks, at least 21 people were killed and more than that number were wounded when three bombs exploded in populated Sadr City slum.

Another bomb killed at least 11 and wounded 17 near a Shi'ite mosque in al-Ameen district in southeastern Baghdad. An earlier car bomb killed three people near a Shi'ite mosque in the northwestern neighborhood of al-Hurriya, police said.

Hours earlier, seven members of one family were killed in a series of blasts in Khalidiya, a town in Iraq's turbulent western province of Anbar 83 km (50 miles) west of Baghdad. One police officer died trying to defuse a bomb.

The mainly Sunni province of Anbar has been relatively quiet since tribal leaders in 2006 started turning on Sunni Islamist groups such as al Qaeda who had once dominated it. But insurgents continue to operate in the vast desert province.

"At four in the morning, I heard a movement behind my house and found some barrels nearby, so I took my family out of the house," said Fadhil Salih, a judge at the Khalidiya courthouse.

"An hour later the bomb went off and destroyed my house but, thank God, there were no casualties in my family," Salih said.

At least 10 people were wounded in the blasts, including two policemen. Authorities imposed a ban on vehicles and motorbikes in Khalidiya after the blasts.

AL QAEDA IN IRAQ UNDER PRESSURE Iraqi officials say they have been expecting revenge attacks from Sunni Islamist insurgents after security forces scored a number of victories against al Qaeda in the past month.

The strike against al Qaeda's Iraq leadership has been accompanied by a string of smaller battlefield victories in which more than 300 suspected al Qaeda operatives have been arrested and 19 killed, according

Wise Words: What's In Your Hand?

WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog) Submitted at 4/23/2010 6:30:00 AM

Here's a little bit of inspiration to make your day fun, fabulous

and full of joy.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. —Robert Louis Stevenson How do you play the cards life

has dealt you?

Have a favorite quote? Send it t o u s a t wdwisewords@gmail.com with your name, city and state. You might be featured in an

to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

Overall violence in Iraq has fallen in the last two years as the sectarian bloodshed that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion faded, but tensions were stoked last month after a national election that produced no clear winner.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri alMaliki's bloc came a close second to a cross-sectarian alliance heavily backed by the once-dominant minority Sunni community.

But Maliki's allies are attempting to capture the lead through a recount of votes in Baghdad and through court challenges to winning candidates because of their alleged ties to Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party.

(Additional reporting by Fadhel al-Badrani in Falluja; Writing

by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Michael Christie and Robert Woodward) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

13

10 Weird Workouts (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) Submitted at 4/22/2010 1:00:00 PM

In 1818, engineer William Cubitt visited a British jail, where he was horrified to find that prisoners just lounged around in the yard all day.

Cubitt set to work devising a machine that would keep the prisoners occupied, and he came up with a device that required the prisoners to step onto rotating blades, which in turn would grind corn or release water. The guards at the jail were pleased that the prisoners labored in such a monotonous, degrading way [source: Roth].

Soon, this device was in every prison. Now, that machine is in every fitness club and gym.

Cubitt is credited with introducing the first modern treadmill, though its design has been tweaked over the years.

Still, there are likely some gym rats that dread their turn on the contraption much as those early prisoners did. Tired of running and getting nowhere? These days, there are many workouts that you're likely to find more interesting and innovative than upcoming Wise Words post!. the treadmill.

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Technology/

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The Flash fracas between Adobe and Apple (FAQ) (CNET News.com)

applications and adds Web browser technology abilities.

Flash is good at handling things The face-off between Apple like this view of a U.S. Treasury and Adobe Systems concerning Department swoopy animated Flash on the iPhone and iPad is tour of the new $100 bill design. a perfect fit for today's world of (iPad and iPhone users won't be fanboys and flame wars. But able to view or interact with it.) beneath the surface, it's not all But it requires a plug-in that can as simple as it seems. sap a CPU's power and is There are plenty convenient blamed for many browser rhetorical points for those who crashes.(Credit: Screenshot by want to find a place in the Stephen Shankland/CNET) debate: Apple exerts draconian Adobe, which wishes to extend control over its walled garden. the ubiquity Flash enjoys on Flash is a buggy, insecure, desktops and laptops to the resource hog. Apple is taking a mobile market, isn't happy about stand for the betterment of the Apple's Flash decision. As Web. Apple is inflicting a something of an end run around crippled Web on its customers Apple, it built into its new Flash for its selfish ends.

Pro CS5 developer tools the All these positions have some a b i l i t y t o c r e a t e F l a s h merit but are exaggerated. It's applications that compile into not nearly so black and white, so native programs for the iPhone, let's dig into the issue a bit iPod Touch, and iPad. more.

But just after the iPad launched Q : W a i t , w h a t ? F l a s h ? without Flash and just before O b j e c t i v e - C ? W h a t ' s t h e Adobe launched its Creative background here?

Suite 5 products that included The iPhone is the smartphone t h e n e w p r o g r a m m i n g to beat these days when it comes technology, Apple changed the to polish, power, and wealth of iPhone 4.0 software developer applications. Apple, though, has kit license so that people could thwarted Adobe's ambition to only write programs in the C, have the Flash Player browser C++, or Objective-C languagesplug-in or the related AIR -the latter from Apple. That (Adobe Integrated Runtime) blocked Flash and some other technology on the device. cross-platform developer tools.

P r o g r a m m e r s c a n w r i t e The first result is that Adobe programs that run on Flash ditched future development of Player on any number of t h e F l a s h - t o - i P h o n e computing devices; AIR is p r o g r a m m i n g t e c h n o l o g y , geared for for standalone accompanied by some fightin' Submitted at 4/23/2010 6:00:00 AM

and Apple and Adobe have a symbiotic relationship overall.

Adobe's cash cow, its Creative Suite of products including Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash Pro, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and Dreamweaver, is popular on the Mac, especially the design applications. Those applications, in turn give Apple a reliable group of customers who often are willing to pay premium prices.

On Mac OS X, for now at least, people are free to download Flash Player, and most of them do. Apple isn't happy with how Flash performs on Macs--but neither is Adobe, and it's words from Mike Chambers, for Android is in private beta working to speed up Flash, Adobe's principal product testing now and is scheduled to presumably with added urgency manager for the Flash platform: arrive by the end of June for given the current state of affairs.

"As developers for the iPhone computers and a wide range of Why did Apple change the license terms? have learned, if you want to phones. develop for the iPhone you have So Apple and Adobe hate each The company hasn't said much publicly about its rationale, but to be prepared for Apple to other's guts? there are hints. Here are two. r e j e c t o r r e s t r i c t y o u r That's oversimplified. development at any time, and No doubt there's plenty of First, a response from Apple for seemingly any reason." fuming among Adobe personnel spokeswoman Trudy Muller to The second result was new who saw Apple kill a project-- Adobe's criticisms that Apple is e m p h a s i s o n A d o b e ' s especially so late into its c l o s e d a n d c o n t r o l l i n g : partnership with Google to bring development. And after what "Someone has it backwards--it Flash and AIR to the Android each side has said about the is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and o p e r a t i n g s y s t e m . T h o s e other, some kind of Flash H.264 (all supported by the technologies are also headed for partnership would have to iPhone and iPad) that are open other smartphone operating overcome some ill will on top of and standard, while Adobe's systems, but particularly with a the usual technical, strategic, Flash is closed and proprietary."

Muller is referring to a revision new generation of powerful and legal obstacles. to Hypertext Markup Language Android phones, Google's openBut the days when big source operating system that computing companies don't used to describe Web pages; right now is the chief rival for have some cooperation as well CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) FLASH page 15 iPhone OS. Flash Player 10.1 as competition are long gone,

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FLASH continued from page 14

used to format Web pages; the JavaScript programming language used for Web applications; and the H.264 is video compression technology used in streaming video among other areas. Collectively, these technologies compete with Flash, which has provided something of a roadmap for their development. Apple, along with Firefox developer Mozilla, Opera Software, and now Google, is aggressively advancing this set of technologies.

Second, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs' e-mailed response to Greg Slepak's objections to Apple's Flash-blocking maneuver: "We've been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform."

That dovetails with what Jobs said in a 2007 interview with The New York Times about Apple's objections to blocking Sun Microsystems' Java on the iPhone: "Java's not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It's this big heavyweight ball and chain."

Flash--as with Java--are technologies that provide a foundation on which applications run. Adobe provides versions of Flash Player for different hardware and operating systems, and programmers can write a single

program that will run on a wide variety of computers rather than having to laboriously recraft their program for a hodgepodge of different user interfaces and processor families.

Using this intermediate layer causes complications, though.

One of the big ones, as John Gruber points out in a post that Jobs lauded, is that applications built with cross-platform tools often have a generic look rather than fitting in with the native style.

Oh, OK, so Apple is just looking out for its users, then?

Certainly Apple cares a great deal about the user experience, not just by offering refined and carefully thought-out user interfaces, but also by screening out any number of iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch applications it doesn't like from its App Store.

Apple is willing to inflict some short-term pain to achieve what it thinks is a better future--take for example its willingness to scrap the floppy drive when the original iMac arrived, or its relatively swift software transition from PowerPC-based Macs to Intel-based Macs.

The bigger issue with Flash is that Apple, leveraging the power it has through the immense range of applications available in the App Store, can afford to be picky. And one of the things it's picky about is not offering an easy way for competitors to get in on the action.

Programmers may well balk at the treatment at Apple's hands, but ditching iPhone development while it's in its present dominant position is not a decision to be made lightly.

Jean-Louis Gassee, a former head of Macintosh development, phrased the Apple-vs.-Flash situation this way: "Steve Jobs has seen enough in his 34 years in the computer business to know, deeply, that he doesn't want to be at the mercy of crossplatform tools that could erase Apple's competitive advantage."

Says Gruber: "Adobe's goal isn't to help developers write iPhone apps. Adobe's goal is to encourage developers to write Flash apps that run on the iPhone (and elsewhere) instead of writing iPhone-specific apps.

Apple isn't just ambivalent about Adobe's goals in this regard--it is in Apple's direct interest to thwart them."

So is Apple closed or open?

Both.

Apple is maintaining control over developers when it comes to iPhone applications. Through Apple's technological and legal restrictions, iPhone developers don't enjoy the same freedoms that they do on Windows, Mac OS X, or Android.

On the other hand, Apple really is advancing open-standard Web -based alternatives to Flash, one of the leaders in the HTML side of the HTML-Flash turf war. If you want your Web site to

stream video to iPad customers, you'll have to find a way besides Flash to do it, and once that work is done, it makes it easier to support non-Flash video players beyond just the iPad. This is something of a contradiction: the very "Open Web" technologies it's promoting and developing are the back door into Apple's walled garden. When Apple rejected the Google Voice and Google Latitude iPhone applications, Google rebuilt them as Web applications accessed through the iPhone browser.

CS5, the fifth version of Adobe Systems' Creative Suite products, includes Flash Pro for writing Flash applications. But it also includes Dreamweaver for creating Web sites out of HTML.(Credit: Adobe Systems) Don't expect this debate to end soon. "Will HTML5 make rich Internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash/Flex and Microsoft Silverlight obsolete? For at least the next five years, the answer is a definite 'no,'" said Forrester analyst Jeffrey Hammond in a report this week. "Inconsistent implementations of the draft HTML5 specification and immature tooling make building HTML5 apps that work consistently across browsers and operating systems a real challenge."

OK, so what about Adobe?

Closed or open?

Again, both. Flash is an openly documented format. The free availability and widespread availability of Flash Player provides an open foundation that can liberate programmers from the difficulties of browser incompatibility. At the same time, Adobe controls Flash technology and the proprietary Flash Player almost invariably used to handle it. Flash Player is proprietary in part because of support for H.264 that isn't Adobe's technology to give away.

H.264 is an interesting element of this openness debate. HTML5 supports streaming video, and Apple's Safari browser supports it when encoded with H.264.

Apple calls H.264 "open," and in a sense, it is: any organization is free to license its patent portfolio from MPEG LA, in contrast to any number of proprietary technologies that have been used in the computing industry. But Mozilla's Chris Blizzard, who is steeped in the world of open-source software, doesn't see H.264 as open--"not even a little. [It's]is locked up behind a glass wall." Even if Mozilla paid the requisite $5 million H.264 license fee, it wouldn't be permitted to include support in the open-source Firefox software because it can't extend its license rights to those FLASH page 21

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Technology/

E-reader News Edition

B&N delivers meaty Nook update, teases iPad app (CNET News.com) Submitted at 4/23/2010 7:33:02 AM

Barnes & Noble's new Read in Store feature is part of the Nook's firmware 1.3 update.(Credit: David Carnoy/CNET) When Barnes & Noble launched the Nook e-book reader late last year, the company said that it would offer unique features such as e-book lending, free in-store streaming of many titles, and Android apps that would run on the color touch screen at the bottom of the device. Well, after releasing two smaller firmware updates that mainly focused on fixing bugs, improving performance, and tweaking the user interface, Barnes & Noble has finally rolled out a more substantial update that includes the extra features it originally promised would set the Nook apart from Amazon's Kindle.

While the lending feature has been available for several months, one of the key additions is the Read in Store wireless streaming feature. Once the new firmware is installed ( version 1.3 will should be automatically pushed to your device once you connect to a Wi-Fi network and check for new content in your library), you'll be able to read certain books from the company's e-book catalog free of charge on your Nook when you're in a Barnes & Noble store

(free Wi-Fi is offered in stores).

However, as previously reported, you can only access a title for up to an hour per day, but you could return on

subsequent days to continue reading. Alternatively, you could also just sit in a store and read a hard copy of the book at your leisure, but that's so old-

school.

Barnes & Noble didn't specify just how many books would be available for free streaming, but company reps said that at launch

content would be available from all the major publishers and that some bestsellers would be on B&N page 17

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E-reader News Edition

17

B&N continued from page 16

the list. (We'll be checking just how much content is actually available in the next few days).

Sudoku on the Nook.(Credit: Barnes & Noble) Additionally, Barnes & Noble has added two Android games to the Nook--chess and sudoku-along with a Web browser that's labeled with the "beta" tag. It's also important to note that because the device can now access the Web, you can log into Wi-Fi networks that require authentication via a Web page.

Nook owners have been asking for the ability to access more public Wi-Fi hot spots since the e-reader's launch. The firmware is also supposed to fix some outstanding bugs, including a freezing problem that impacted certain units, and to speed up page turns (yes, they do seem slightly faster).

Here's the quick rundown of what's new in v1.3: • Read in Store wireless streaming of certain e-book titles • Web browser • Two Android games (chess, sudoku) • Bug fixes (allegedly addresses freezing problem with certain units) • User interface and performance tweaks (faster page turns) In advance of the update, we got a demo of the Read in Store feature at a Barnes & Noble in

Manhattan, and the streaming appeared to work just fine.

While only e-books will be available for launch, company reps said the ability to stream periodicals would be added in the near future.

The demo was conducted in an in-store Barnes & Noble Cafe, and a couple of tables away from us, a patron was flipping through a few magazines he'd borrowed from the nearby magazine rack as he sipped coffee. At another table, a customer was using B&N's free Wi-Fi to surf the Web on his iPad, which begged the question, when would we see a new B&N eReader iPad app?

The answer is May, though no specific date was given. Barnes & Noble reps said the new iPad app is completely redesigned from the ground up.

Interestingly, the company is also working on a totally new iPhone app, but it will come out after the iPad app and be offered as separate download for iPhone and iPod Touch users. Unlike Amazon's Kindle iPhone/iPad app, the B&N eReader will not be a universal app (you'll have to download the specific version for the specific device).

All in all, this is good news for Nook owners, as the device they bought starts to fulfill more of its potential and works out the kinks that were highlighted in many early reviews. We're still waiting for a weather app, but at

least the games, as basic as they are, show some of the possibilities. If you're wondering exactly how the whole gaming thing works, you use the touch screen to move your pieces in chess, and those moves are reflected on the larger playing board on the e-ink display. It's a little awkward at first playing in this manner-especially if you're used to using a large touch screen device like the iPad--but you get used to it after a bit.

As for surfing the Internet on the Nook, like the Kindle's basic browser, the Nook's new browser also has serious limitations but it manages to deliver a better overall experience and is more usable, largely because you're on a faster Wi-Fi network instead of 3G. You navigate a page using the small touch screen and tap links to branch off to other pages. The larger E Ink screen takes a moment to refresh and often doesn't display content quite correctly, but like the Kindle's browser, this one isn't meant to compete with the browsers on notebook computers or the iPad. In conjunction with the update, Barnes & Noble announced a "major" ad campaign for the Nook that reps said would include the company's first television spot in a decade (you can watch the spot here).

Like Amazon, Barnes & Noble

doesn't report how many ereaders it's sold, but reps said the number continues to exceeded projections. At $259, the Nook carries the same price tag as the Kindle. However, the big, looming question is whether Amazon will lower the price of the Kindle to counter the arrival of the iPad, which certainly has had an impact on the e-reader market. For now anyway, Barnes & Noble is sticking to $259 and hoping that the new features and the ability for customers to have hands-on contact with the device in stores will translate into a competitive advantage.

Note to Nook owners: Barnes & Noble says that going to My Library and checking for new content when connected to WiFi should trigger the update. If it doesn't, you can try again later or download the update manually(there's a tutorial on B&N's support page). We'll be updating our review after we evaluate the update more fully.

Please let us know if you're having any issues with the new firmware, as well as what you do and don't like about it.

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Cutest Kid of the Day: Flynn WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog) Submitted at 4/22/2010 1:00:00 PM

Each day we will post an adorable picture or video of one of our readers' cute kids.

Flynn is learning to roll on the sheepskin his grandparents brought back from New Zealand. Thanks to Melissa for submitting.

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18

Technology/ Culture/

E-reader News Edition

McAfee apologizes for antivirus update disaster (CNET News.com) Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:42:58 AM

It's been a rough week for McAfee, but an even rougher one for many of its customers.

Acknowledging the chaos it caused by pushing out a buggy antivirus update on Wednesday, McAfee apologized to its customers in the form of a latenight blog on Thursday.

Barry McPherson, executive vice president of support and customer service, issued the apology on behalf of McAfee, saying the company was sorry for the headaches it caused for so many customers.

At 6 a.m. PDT Wednesday, the company released a faulty update to its antivirus software that hosed computers running Windows XP with Service Pack 3. The update, a DAT file, misidentified a key Windows file called svchost.exe as a virus, causing PCs to crash or keep rebooting. The problem affected customers worldwide, including chipmaker Intel, Rhode Island hospitals, Kentucky police,

University of Michigan's medical school, and an Australian supermarket chain In response, McAfee staffers have been working around the clock to help customers get their systems back online, McPherson said. The company believes most impacted PCs are back up.

He also detailed the fix that McAfee quickly patched together for early Thursday morning. The SuperDAT Remediation Tool stifles the updated driver that creates the false positive and then restores the svchost.exe file. McAfee said support reps are available for anyone who needs further help.

How did this problem occur in the first place? The short answer: poor testing. McAfee recently changed its quality assurance process, leading to the buggy DAT file to get past the test environment and onto the PCs of customers, MacPherson said.

To help ensure this doesn't happen again, McAfee will add new QA steps to address any

update that directly affects crucial Windows system files.

McPherson also said the company will beef up its Artemis system, which provides users with cloud-based virus identification, to include a more comprehensive list of Windows system files to leave alone.

McPherson closed his blog with another apology. "Again, on behalf of McAfee, I'm very sorry for how you may have been impacted by the faulty DAT file update and thank you for your continued support and cooperation as we work to remediate the situation," he said.

Will the apology and fix be enough to soothe angry customers? Based on some of the comments to the Thursdaynight blog and to another McPherson blog on Wednesday, that may not be so easy.

Among the more than 100 comments to the Wednesday blog, a large number vented about lost hours of business and productivity and a lack of confidence in McAfee. Many also disparaged a company

claim that the problem affected only a small number of customers.

There were only a few comments to the Thursday blog at press time, but a couple made their frustration clear.

"First of all let me say I am glad we have switched nearly 75 percent of our clients away from your product prior to this happening," wrote one commenter. "I can't imagine the chaos if we hadn't. It was chaos enough for us running all over town and billing our clients for a software glitch on a program that we recommended to them."

Wrote another: "If you expect customers to buy your product you...better make sure what you release is as solid as a rock. You shouldn't be on the list of risky software downloads!"

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Air Seal Your Home for Inexpensive Long-Term Savings [Energy Conservation] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/23/2010 7:00:00 AM

Home owners often focus on the big-tickets items when they start brainstorming ways to save on utility bills—an energyefficient washer and dryer, new furnace, etc.—but sometimes the cheapest fix has the biggest benefit, like caulking air leaks.

More »

Exodus! Movement of G People… From Facebook After F8 Mike Butcher (TechCrunch) Submitted at 4/23/2010 7:57:28 AM

Well I bet they didn't quite expect that. In the wake of Facebook's F8 conference this week, where it apparently bid to

become the new Sheriff of the Internet, Facebook's plans to effectively put 'social' into the very structure of the Web has a few people a little concerned.

The main issue is that there are default, now opts you in to concerns that Facebook, by

allowing third party sites like Yelp to 'personalise' your experience, and there are questions about how much information is given away. The result is that lots of geeks are considering leaving Facebook,

and perhaps even more interestingly, veritable droves of Google software engineers are among them.

Technology/ Culture/

E-reader News Edition

19

Google's Eric Schmidt Gushes About HTML 5 Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb)

report:"These trends underline a key hurdle that HTML 5 technology must overcome to be Submitted at 4/23/2010 2:43:45 AM a ready substitute for today's F o r r e s t e r R e s e a r c h i s RIA platform options; users r e c o m m e n d i n g d e v e l o p e r s expect it to be as low cost as the c o n t i n u e d e v e l o p i n g r i c h other options, but to be of use it Internet applications and take must also integrate with Java long pause before embracing and .NET server technology.

HTML 5. For Forrester, HTML Even if HTML 5 turns out to be 5 is still many years away from a great spec when it reaches becoming a standard in the Candidate Recommendation market and fully functional state in 2012, it's not clear that across multiple platforms. this alone will be enough to The analyst recommendation reverse current RIA adoption reflects on Google's mobile trends." strategy, which CEO Eric In the meantime, Google is Schmidt says is rooted in the debating if it should develop company's support for HTML 5. native applications for different This topic is of real interest platforms. A Google Docs now as Apple has dropped product manager said to us s u p p o r t f o r A d o b e F l a s h . recently that the company has Google is forging ahead with not decided if they should invest support for HTML 5 but is also in native applications for playing all sides as Flash different mobile platforms. remains the incumbent Last week at Google technology for online video. Atmosphere, Schmidt was Sponsor emphatic about Google's interest So though its commitment is to in HTML 5.

HTML 5, the company still Also at Google Atmosphere, faces the reality that adoption Google Apps President David for platforms such as .NET G i r o u a r d m o d e r a t e d a remain high. Analyst Jeffrey discussion that touched on the H a m m o n d w r i t e s i n h i s HTML 5 issue. In Vint Cerf's

technologies such as Adobe Flash/Flex and Microsoft Silverlight obsolete? For at least the next five years, the answer is a definite "no"; inconsistent implementations of the draft HTML 5 specification and immature tooling make building view, the "Internet of Things," H T M L 5 a p p s t h a t w o r k will evolve to the point where consistently across browsers and more "things," will go on the o p e r a t i n g s y s t e m s a r e a l smart grid. Speeds will increase challenge. Furthermore, this at the edges of the network, "either/ or" scenario is driven making downloads to a web only by vendor politics, not by page almost simultaneous. What developer realities. Ultimately, this seems to mean is that we HTML 5 and RIA platforms will will see the borders between be complementary technologies, apps and the Web dissolve. and enterprise development There may even be the evolution shops will need to invest in both of new networks that are approaches to deliver expressive different than the Web itself. In applications that combine reach view of what they say, there is and richness." no clear dismissal of different It is a little tiring when we hear platforms. It's more how mobile the war of words over apps a p p s a n d t h e W e b b l e n d versus the Web. What will win? together.

Probably neither. It will just Forrester is critical of the draft depend on the demands of the HTML 5 spec. Hammond states m a r k e t , t h e v i e w s o f t h e cites the deep developer use of developer and the powers they existing rich Internet application decide to follow. Discuss platforms.

From his report: "Will HTML 5 make rich Internet application (RIA)

Street Chic: New York ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 4/23/2010 6:00:00 AM

An embellished leather jacket and rugged boots toughen up a bandage dress.

Photo: Anne Ziegler Think you are Street Chic? Email us your photo and you could appear in ELLE.com's Street Chic Daily.

Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

Learn to Sharpen Good Knives with Water Stones [Knives] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/23/2010 6:00:00 AM

Good water stones are the best

way to keep your excellent knives sharp for the longest time, but only if you know how to actually use them. This guide

gets into the nitty-gritty of the

angles, strokes, and science behind proper sharpening. More Âť

20

Technology/ TV/ Culture/

E-reader News Edition

Are Like Buttons Evil? The Open Web Reacts To Facebook’s Not-So-Open Graph Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch)

Already, advocates of the open Web are stirring and rallying against this proposed social The tech community is still hegemony. Hunch founder/seed digesting the implications of investor Chris Dixon and a Facebook’s plans to spread ragtag crew of other New York its“Like” buttons everywhere City technologists are arguing and take over the Web with its for a counterweight in the form so-called Open Graph. The of the OpenLike protocol, which O p e n G r a p h i s a h u g e l y adds like buttons from other ambitious project to build social sites beyond Facebook such as hooks into every Website. It D i g g , S t u m b l e U p o n , a n d aims to add a layer of social H u n c h . D i x o n T w e e t s : c o n n e c t i o n s a n d i n s t a n t it’s actually open! not open in p e r s o n a l i z a t i o n b a s e d o n the opengraphprotocol zuck will people’s interests and “likes” on decide sense but you-can-doevery single page on the Web. whatever-you-want open!!

It is also the basis for a WebChris Messina(aka, Mr. wide identity system based on OpenID) explains his objection Facebook IDs. in a blog post: The Open Graph is open only in Here’s the rub though: those n a m e . I t i s a F a c e b o o k - Like buttons only work against controlled protocol and set of Facebook. I can’t just be signed APIs. Facebook takes the data in to any social web provider… but doesn’t give back in the it’s got to be Facebook. And on same degree. It is open, says top of that, whenever I “like” Kevin Marks, as in “open your something, I’m sending a signal underwear drawer.” All Of back to Facebook that gets Your Likes Are Belong To Us. recorded on both my profile, Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:05:04 AM

likely to win. After all he has nearly 500 million users on his side, who everyone else wants access to.

These open alternatives are starting at zero.

However, Facebook cannot be surprised at this reaction. In fact, there is some evidence it anticipated it (one of the colorand in my activity stream.

Ok, not a big deal, but think scheme options for the like laterally: how about this? What button, now since gone, was to if Larry and Sergey wanted to set it to “evil”). It needs to tread carefully, though, and make recreate PageRank today?

You know what I bet they wish some goodwill gestures to make they could have done? Forced the Open Graph actually more anyone who wanted to add a open in the sense that it doesn’t page to the web to authenticate just exist on its databases. w i t h t h e m f i r s t . . . . We should all be able to take Authenticated PageRank where our likes with us to Twitter, or everyone that wants to be listed Google, or any of a million has to get a Google account Websites. Yeah, we all know first. Sounds kind of smart, the chances of that happening.

In the meantime, be sure to hit right?

Except — shucks — there’s the like button at the top of this one problem with this model: post. CrunchBase Information Facebook Chris Messina Chris it’s evil.

A lot of this boils down to a Dixon Information provided by nerd fight that Zuckerberg is CrunchBase

ClickFiller Finds the Best Possible Amazon Filler to Net You Free Shipping [Amazon] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/23/2010 6:30:00 AM

The problem with most Amazon filler-finders is their total lack of features. Almost universally they simply list items that meet your price requirements. ClickFiller fleshes out your queries with ratings, rankings, and more. More »

ABC to Re-Air 'Lost' Pilot TV Squad Staff (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:45:00 AM

ABC is ready to give 'Lost' one final flashback.

As reported by The Wrap, the pilot repeat adds to an already 'Lost'-packed week at ABC

between May 17-23. The penultimate episode of the show premieres on May 18, the pilot re-airs on May 22, and on May 23, the finale night kicks off with a two-hour recap of the entire series, followed by the two-hour finale and then a

Aloha to Lost' show that will feature 'Lost' cast members and showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

The pilot episode, directed by series creator J.J. Abrams, special 'Jimmy Kimmel Live: debuted on ABC on September 22 and 29, 2004, and hasn't been

aired on the network since 2006.

Get more 'Lost' details on Inside TV. Filed under: Programming, Lost, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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FLASH continued from page 15

who build projects from the source code.

Mozilla prefers the unconstrained Ogg Theora video technology, and perhaps later the VP8 Google obtained through its acquisition of On2 Technology, too. Google hasn't said what it'll do with VP8 or other On2's other codecs, but releasing them as open-source software is a likely possibility.

These complications all spotlight the fact that although HTML5 video is open by any measure, the video encoding technologies used within it aren't necessarily.

In general, be very cautious when you hear any computing company wrapping itself in the flag of openness as it promotes its products. There are different kinds--open interfaces, open source, and open standards, for example.

So will any of this brouhaha matter to the average person?

Not too much, at least not in the near term. There are scads of iPhone applications, scads more on the way, and scads of iPhone -related dollars falling to

Apple's bottom line, so clearly Apple isn't suffering from the lack of Flash and AIR support.

Some high-profile AIR applications such as TweetDeck are available AIRlessly on the iPhone.

The biggest immediate issue is probably that any number of Web sites with Flash-based games, applications, video streaming, interactive tours of $100 bill anticounterfeiting measures don't work on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, but the recent war of words doesn't change that situation much.

But there are longer-term possibilities that could, perhaps, change things.

First, Apple's moves have led Google to bless Flash as a legitimate aspect of the full Web experience, building Flash into its Chrome browser and vocally cooperating with Adobe to ensure Flash Player 10.1 integrates smoothly with Android. Clearly the two are trying to avoid some of the jarring disconnects possible from cross-platform developer

tools. This is all notable given Google's fervid promotion of the same Open Web technologies Apple likes.

The availability of Flash isn't likely to erase the iPhone's application head start over Android. But Google is indicating that it's a safe haven for developers, and in the long run, that could help Android catch up.

Second, you can bet Adobe is working furiously to improve Flash--not just to speed it up to counteract the drubbing it's received by its detractors, but also to add new features to keep it ahead of the Open Web technologies. Flash made Web video simple to use, and doubtless Adobe hopes to offer future compelling features as well.

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21

TUAW's Daily App: DizzyPad Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

with some new frog skins, and of course shinier graphics. There are even some new game Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:00:00 AM modes, each available for Filed under: iPad US$1.99, including a sameI wrote about NimbleBit's screen multiplayer game mode Dizzypad when it first came out, which has two frogs hopping and since then it's become one after each other in a winner-eatof my favorite pick-up-and-play loser battle. Very awesome. iPhone games -- super polished, Dizzypad is a great game, and simple but addictive gameplay, since it's free, you have no and enough collectibles and reason not to pick it up from the s c o r e t r a c k i n g t o k e e p i t App Store right now. interesting every time you hop TUAW TUAW's Daily App: in. And even better, it's going DizzyPad originally appeared on free today, so if you haven't The Unofficial Apple Weblog taken the leap yet, jump on over (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 and pick it up as today's Daily 08:00:00 EST. Please see our App. terms for use of feeds.

NimbleBit also sent word that Read| Permalink| Email this| they're almost done with an iPad Comments version, which will also be free,

Crist Expected to File as Independent Next Week (Newsmax - Inside Cover) Submitted at 4/23/2010 3:17:18 AM

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's is reportedly set to declare that he is an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate, according to a

report by News-Press.com.

Crist is expected to file as an independent next week -bypassing the Aug. 24 Republican primary for the Senate.

As an independent, Crist can

remain a member of the Republican Party but he goes on the November general election ballot, without a primary.

Top GOP leaders have been advising Crist to drop out of the race, since he trails Rubio by

double digits in many recent polls. Meanwhile, an impressive cadre of Republican leaders has endorsed the former House speaker.

To read the full Press.Com report Go Here Now.

Š All Rights Reserved.

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Chaos Rings hits top grossing, going David Letterman's "Top Ten Excuses of the Guy Who to the iPad Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

wouldn't it?). Clearly, though, there is still a market for welldone, top level games (even at Submitted at 4/23/2010 9:00:00 AM high price points). We don't Filed under: iPad know if Square Enix actually Square Enix's new original made money on this one (the iPhone title, Chaos Rings, is a craft on display certainly didn't qualified hit; it's currently sitting come cheap), but App Store right on top of the United States' customers are certainly buying. top grossing apps list and at At the same time, other bignumber 18 on the top paid apps name developers aren't so sure. list. The reviews are terrific as Crytek(makers of Crysis for the well, which means that Square PC) CEO Cevat Yerli claims Enix has pulled off a hit iPhone that App Store pricing has been game at the surprising price of nothing but a burden for game US$12.99. The company hasn't developers, and he says that, missed the message, either. It's e v e n o u t s i d e o f A p p l e ' s bringing Chaos Rings to the ecosystem, game prices in iPad soon, and is also hard at general are being driven down work on more original titles for by the App Store. "It's pushing Apple's handheld systems. We out games at such a low price d o n ' t k n o w h o w t h e i P a d that it distorts the perception of version, Chaos Rings HD, will what a game should be priced be priced, or if it will be at," he said in a recent interview. included for those who have "IPad and iPhone are both doing already purchased the game on a real disservice to game prices the iPhone (that'd be great, by allowing games at such low

price points - it is an issue the industry has to address."

That's an interesting take. There are certainly a number of factors involved in lower game prices lately (not the least of which is digital distribution, which has grown immensely in the past few years). However, a game like Chaos Rings seems to prove that it's still all about the gameplay. If game developers can make a great game that players want to play, they can more or less name their price.

TUAW Chaos Rings hits top grossing, going to the iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Lost the iPhone Prototype" Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/23/2010 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPhone On Wednesday night, David Letterman's Top Ten list was dedicated to the guy who lost the 4G iPhone prototype. The phone was later found and sold to Gizmodo. Some of the excuses Letterman thought the Apple engineer who lost the iPhone should use: "Couldn't call Apple for help because I lost my iPhone."

"Thought there was an app that would wisk [sic] it back to my house."

"At least I didn't lose my finger like that iPad guy."

"It didn't work anyway -- it uses

AT&T." What's more entertaining than his Top Ten list is watching Letterman's little rant about his utter disdain for the iPhone prototype story. "This comes under the category for me of 'who cares'," Letterman said.

"Honestly, I just couldn't care less about this."

TUAW David Letterman's "Top Ten Excuses of the Guy Who Lost the iPhone Prototype" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T Palm Pre Plus unboxed in glorious, orange detail Tim Stevens (Engadget) Submitted at 4/23/2010 9:42:00 AM

We still don't have a firm date for when Palm's current wunderphone will be hitting AT&T's soothingly-colored retail establishments (the site still says "coming soon"), but

we do now have confirmation that at least one handset has reached its destination. A tipster was kind enough to send us these photos of an AT&T Pre Plus escaping its creamsicle confines and powering on for the first time. This doesn't look like a retail unit, likely one of

AT&T's"practice" Pre Plus

models that were supposed to ship earlier this month or some other promo phone, but regardless we're guessing that we're not far from yet another group of subscribers being able to massage the keys on this slider.

Gallery: AT&T Palm Pre Plus

unboxing [Thanks, gueriLLaPunK] AT&T Palm Pre Plus unboxed in glorious, orange detail originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

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How to "Like" Anything on the Web (Safely) Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/23/2010 9:58:52 AM

Worried about Facebook "like" fraud? You should be. Thanks to Facebook's overly simple implementation of the new Facebook Like Button, anyone can post a "Like This" button on their website pointing to any URL of their choosing. In other words, users can be tricked into liking websites they're not even on. You can bet that enterprising spammers have already figured out how to use this technology for their own nefarious purposes.

If you want a safer solution, there's a new Facebook "like" bookmarklet you can use instead.

Sponsor The bookmarklet was created

by Kyle Bragger, formerly the CTO of Cork'd, a social networking site for wine lovers, and now working on his own project, Forrst, an invite-only

community for developers and designers.

Not only does using the bookmarklet he created protect you from "like fraud" as described here, it's also a handy way to like anything on the Internet - even if there's no "like" button available on that page. How to Use the Facebook Like Bookmarklet To use the bookmarklet, just drag this link to your bookmarks bar in your web browser: Like-o -matic.

Once there, you can click it anytime you're on a page or

website you like.

Like ReadWriteWeb, for example? Click the button.

Although there's no "Facebook Like Button" for the website as a whole (you can, however, find us on Facebook), you'll be given the opportunity to "like" ReadWriteWeb. After clicking the bookmarklet once, you'll see a message appear at the top of the screen: "Be the first of your friends to like this." Click the button with the thumbs up on it and it will register your like on Facebook and post it to your News Feed.

That's all there is to it.

By using the bookmarklet instead of the like buttons on the websites themselves, you can be sure that your Facebook "like" will be pointing to the real thing.

Plus, it allows you to "like" anything you want - even a site that isn't using Facebook buttons. Nice! Discuss

and tomato.”—Tiffany Vickers Davis, Associate Test Kitchen "My go to meal is taco salad Director made with ground chicken or Check out this salad for a turkey. Top with onion, sautéed similar version to Tiffany's that bell pepper, reduced-fat sour uses ground round and raw c r e a m , peppers.

Jason Hughes (TV Squad)

in school, and it's even been a few years since my time in the corporate world. It's amazing (S01E21) Tonight, on a "very how the most inane things can special episode" of'Community,' take on a grand importance Abed learns that there is a right when you're entrenched in those way to being accepted and types of institutions. Food is e m b r a c e d b y y o u r f e l l o w always one of the great common students, and then there's the d e n o m i n a t o r s , a n d f o r quick way.

Greendale Community College, With Abed on narration, this that food was the Chicken week's episode felt like a whole Finger. slew of familiar movies, without Continue reading'Community' View Recipe: Quick Taco Salad triggering specific memories of ' C o n t e m p o r a r y A m e r i c a n any particular ones (save the P o u l t r y ' R e c a p Next Spicy Lemon Trout Five Filters featured article: obvious and directly mentioned Filed under: OpEd, Episode Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: one). I say that as a non-movie R e v i e w s , R e a l i t y - F r e e , PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, buff, so if you caught hundreds C o m m u n i t y of more specific references, Permalink| Email this| | Term Extraction. please share with the class. C o m m e n t s It's been a while since I've been

Staff Favorites: Quick Dinners (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

'Community' 'Contemporary American Poultry' Recap Submitted at 4/22/2010 10:45:00 PM

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Technology/ Culture/

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Nook gets web browser, free in-store Top 10 Golf Swing Tips reading, and games in new firmware (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)

a wicked slice or a ball that plummets to its final resting place at the bottom of a water Vladislav Savov (Engadget) t h e g l a c i a l l y r e f r e s h i n g Welcome to the gentleman's trap. "They call it golf because monochome screen. Speaking of game of golf, where the breeze all the other four-letter words Submitted at 4/23/2010 9:15:00 AM which, B&N claims it's also often carries a distant murmur of were taken," said championship It's not in our nature to get all improved page turning and swear words, and expensive golfer and course designer Ray excited about firmware updates, loading speeds. The update is clubs suffer routine abuse. Since Floyd. but B&N sure seems to be available via manual download its inception sometime in the Before you throw down your bringing the good stuff in now or you can wait for the Middle Ages, golf has inspired clubs in frustration or unleash a release 1.3 of the Nook's OTA stuff to hit your Nook obsession. Some players are string of profanity that would software. The major new within the next week. lured by the refined aura of the make your mother blush, we features include a Beta release [Thanks, Davorin] sport, the sweeping links and offer 10 tips, from the most of a "basic" web browser and a Nook gets web browser, free in- velvety greens. Others are basic fundamentals to the Read In Store feature that's store reading, and games in new obsessed with golfing gear -- the golden rule of golf, that will reassuringly true to its name. firmware originally appeared on latest drivers, spiked shoes and help you save your sanity and You'll basically be allowed to Engadget on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 fancy putters. Still others simply improve your swing. browse and read the full 09:15:00 EST. Please see our enjoy driving around in the golf Five Filters featured article: versions of books while inside a consumers the opportunity to t e r m s f o r u s e o f f e e d s . cart.

Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Barnes and Noble outlet. That get a good idea about a book. Permalink| Barnes and Noble| There's no denying that golf PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, looks like a win-win to us, as it The first Android apps on the Email this| Comments sings a siren's song. Too often, Term Extraction. directly addresses the goal of device are also offered, in the however, that song is soured by using the Nook to get people in form of games like chess and s t o r e s w h i l e a f f o r d i n g sudoku, both perfectly suited to Submitted at 4/22/2010 1:00:00 PM

Panasonic's 3.1Ah batteries to be used in the Tesla Model S, have highest energy density yet Vladislav Savov (Engadget) Submitted at 4/23/2010 9:03:00 AM

Encouraging news for all you EV enthusiasts out there: Tesla's Model S appears to still be on track for its planned 2012 launch and will be using battery technology offering the highest energy density "in the world."

Built in Panasonic's new fab in Suminoe, Japan, these 3.1Ah cells (you can just about see one

of them being held by the two corporate types above) will be manufactured at a rate of more than 300 million per year.

Considering each car would require a few more than 6,000 of them for its full energy storage, that means Tesla would be able to churn out about 48,000 Model S sedans per year. Then again, the company has only sold about 1,000 units of its Roadster so far, so we doubt it'll

be pushing Panasonic's max production capacity any time soon. Still, good to know things are progressing in the right

direction.

Continue reading Panasonic's 3.1Ah batteries to be used in the Tesla Model S, have highest

energy density yet Panasonic's 3.1Ah batteries to be used in the Tesla Model S, have highest energy density yet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Autoblog Green| Email this| Comments

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'The Office' 'Secretary's Day' Recap Joel Keller (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/23/2010 12:01:00 AM

New Market Study Shows iPhone Continues To Be Big In Japan Serkan Toto (TechCrunch)

SoftBank Mobile refuse to break down Japan-specific sales Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:00:33 AM numbers). It's rumored that the A lot has been written on how number of iPhones sold in the iPhone performs in Japan, Japan has passed 3 million. the world's most advanced There are reasons for this mobile nation, but the general success ( super-low pricing, consensus in this country now is aggressive marketing, Apple's that it sells very well (even pre-iPhone brand popularity in though both Apple and provider J a p a n , c l e v e r p r o d u c t

positioning by SoftBank, etc. etc.), but we're talking about a country in which basically every cell phone is a smartphone, a country where you'd be hardpressed to find a handset without a digital TV tuner or ewallet function, for example.

(S06E22) We haven't heard from the folks at Dunder Mifflin Scranton for almost a month, and it's refreshing that the first episode back, the antics are generally related to officespecific issues. Well, at least the better part of the episode was office-related.

It's fun to see stories that just involve the interplay between the members of this cubiclebound family, interplay that has nothing to do with relationships, baby pacts, or corporate upheavals. So, for the biggest laughs this week, we have Oscar, Kevin and Cookie Monster to thank. Oh, and Gabe, too. He's so lame it hurts to

watch him sometimes.

Continue reading'The Office' 'Secretary's Day' Recap Filed under: The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

5-Ingredient Chicken (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

• Green onions • Shredded barbecue chicken • Cheddar cheese

Cooked quickly in the microwave, this is a hearty onedish meal that will satisfy a Prep: 5 minutes craving for comfort food. Cook: 12 minutes F o l l o w w i t h View Recipe: Barbecue-Stuffed a classic comfort-food dessert Potatoes (with a twist): Strawberry- Next Chicken-Tortilla Pie Banana Pudding.

Five Filters featured article: Pantry Checklist: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, • Baking potatoes (6) Term Extraction.

• Sour cream

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Miami Medical's Omar Gooding: Friday Night Slot Is a "Good Thing" (TVGuide.com: Breaking News) Submitted at 4/22/2010 9:24:00 PM

• Apr 22, 2010 10:24 PM ET • by Joyce Eng • Miami Medical A Friday prime-time slot isn't so prime anymore, but Omar Gooding isn't worried about Miami Medical.

"I actually think being on Friday is a good thing," Gooding tells TVGuide.com. "I know I'm probably in the minority who think that, but CBS has done pretty well with Friday shows.

They've got Medium, Ghost Whisperer. ... Numb3rs, which was before us, owned the spot, so we're in good company."

In three airings, Jerry Bruckheimer's splashy drama has averaged some 7 million viewers and twice has won its 10 p.m. hour (against competition including 20/20 and Dateline NBC). The numbers are reassuring for Gooding and the Miami gang, who saw their show sit on the shelf awhile.

ER vet McCrane on directing Miami Medical: I avoided the helicopters

"It's kind of impatient waiting to come on, so to have a good reception feels great," he says.

"I think a lot of people have a preconceived notion that Friday automatically means cancellation, but it's just a different beast and networks may have to nurture [shows] a little bit more. But as long as you're good, people will find you and stay with you."

Part of the appeal of Miami, Gooding says, is in its signature Bruckheimer high-octane action that would "pull anyone in." But the show also has characterdriven storylines with patients and the Alpha Team.

Check out photos from Miami

Medical On Friday's episode, the group treats a couple who falls after a balcony collapses. Or at least it tries to; the wife refuses treatment.

"People always ask if I think there's too much craziness and blood and too little drama, but I don't think there needs to be a 50/50 balance between them," he says. "There are actually wild cases like ours, and with us having to treat these people within the first hour [of the accidents], that makes it so much more fast-paced and unpredictable. But we never forget about the people. You always get to know the

patients."

By the end of the season, viewers will get to know Gooding's Tuck Brody very well. The laidback nurse is as fun-loving and relaxed as he has appeared — but there's more to him.

Miami Medical:"The rockstars of medicine" "Each person kind of gets an episode or so to themselves.

You'll get into Tuck's story more and find out about the scar on his head and all that," Gooding says. "There is something dark to him. The last two episodes will focus on him more along with some other insane stuff. It's going to be great! If you thought what we've shown has been crazy, just wait. ... There is a cliff-hanger with certain people."

The cliff-hanger is wrapped up, and there are five episodes in the can for Season 2. Now, all the series needs is a pickup.

"Hopefully, we'll be back," Gooding says. "I think we have a chance. We definitely have way more to tell."

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Brown Thinks Palin Qualified, Backs Romney Now (Newsmax - Inside Cover) Submitted at 4/23/2010 5:03:11 AM

Sen. Scott Brown says he thinks former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is qualified to be president but right now he's supporting former Gov. Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican nomination.

As for his own ambitions, he say "absolutely in 2012" he's ruling out any run for the presidency. And in an NBC interview Friday, Brown said "I'm not even going to jump" at a question about whether he would seek the presidency later on.

Brown said, "I've been here three months ... and I'm very focused on doing my job."

Asked if he regretted bolting the Republican caucus recently to support Democrats on a jobs bill, he said, "I don't really care. .. I'm going to be the independent person I have always been." © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Project Runway Crowns Season 7 Winner (TVGuide.com: Breaking News) Submitted at 4/22/2010 10:46:00 PM

• Apr 22, 2010 11:46 PM ET • by Gina DiNunno • Project Runway - Emilio Sosa, SethAaron Henderson, Mila Hermanovski SPOILER ALERT: The following story reveals the winner of Project Runway Season 7.

After a season of challenges, curveballs and critiques, the final three Project Runway contestants — Mila, Seth Aaron and Emilio— faced off at Bryant Park Fashion Week during the Season 7 finale.

Project Runway's Mila: I got a "bitchy edit" The competition began with the designers sizing up each other's collections before selecting their models and having their hair and makeup consultations (complete with shameless product placement).

The morning of the show, the designers scrambled to perfect their looks, and both Mila and Emilio freaked about their noshow models and rushed to find replacements.

First to show was Seth Aaron, whose collection was inspired by 1940s German and Russian military. Mila's shadow-inspired designs were next, followed by what Emilio described as his "Color Me Bad" collection.

Project Runway's Emilio: I focused on challenges, not what

I was saying The designers faced the judges — with country singer Faith Hill serving as guest judge.

Here's how things panned out during deliberation: The judges were happy that Mila finally loosened up, and they loved her modern mix of textiles. But overall, they found her collection wasn't very surprising.

With Seth Aaron, they were impressed as to how much more polished and luxurious-looking

his designs were, while still maintaining his edgy flavor. His final purple dress, however, was a bit too costumey for their taste.

Project Runway's Seth Aaron: Tim helped me raise the bar Emilio's flowing green dress floored the judges, but they found the rest of the collection was more quiet and commercial than they had hoped for.

The first designer dismissed was Mila, leaving Seth Aaron and Emilio. And in the final moments of the episode, Seth Aaron was crowned the champion. (Going into the competition, 69 percent of TVGuide.com users said they wanted to see Seth Aaron win.)

What do you think of judges' decision? Weigh in on which look of the evening was your favorite and what you think of the winner below!

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Questions of Money - from Consumer Reports Press Room (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 4/22/2010 9:00:59 PM

Questions of Money - from Consumer Reports Consumer

Reports' financial experts answer subscriber questions on charges to ship a product for a warranty repair, and why cellphone companies make you sign a two-year contract when

upgrading equipment. From the March issue of Consumer Reports Money Adviser.

Questions of Money - Podcast 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

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition screens tour Booty Island David Hinkle (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/23/2010 6:13:00 AM

Click image to make a Booty call to our gallery We're going to play a little game today. Here's the only rule: try not to be impressed by the graphical fidelity of these Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge screens. Don't marvel at the vibrant pirate spitting contest you see above. Don't cower at the menacing and highlydetailed visage of LeChuck himself. Scoff at the wares in the antique shop. Go ahead -- be unimpressed.

Yeah, we couldn't win, either.

On to round two!

Gallery: Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge (4.22.2010) Monkey Island 2 Special Edition screens tour Booty Island originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 06:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DJ AM Heads to the Big Screen in Posthumous Iron Man 2 Cameo (TVGuide.com: Breaking News) Submitted at 4/22/2010 11:12:00 PM

• Apr 23, 2010 12:12 AM ET • by Kate Stanhope • DJ AM Almost nine months after his death, DJ AM will appear on the big screen.

The musician, who died in August at age 36 from an accidental drug overdose, will make a cameo appearance in Iron Man 2, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Watch videos of DJ AM In the superhero sequel, DJ AM plays himself spinning at a lavish Malibu birthday party for billionaire-superhero Tony Stark ( Robert Downey Jr.). Director Jon Favreau said he hesitated whether to include DJ AM (real name: Adam Goldstein) in the film following his death. But he was strongly encouraged to include the scene by the late musician's family and friends.

"We tried to make it respectful, and for people who know him, they'll get a kick out of it and for

people who don't, it will sort of slide by without much notice," Favreau told the newspaper.

MTV to air DJ AM's reality series, Gone Too Far Before his death, DJ AM was known for his work with artists such as Will Smith, Madonna and Jay-Z, as well as his highprofile relationships with Nicole Richie and Mandy Moore. Iron Man 2 is DJ AM's second posthumous appearance, after the MTV reality series Gone Too Far, which showed him trying to help other addicts rise above their substance abuse

problems. All eight episodes were shot before his death, and the series premiered two months after his death.

"Robert took a real shine to him, as we all did. His energy was amazing, he was such an inspiring guy and there was a lot of depth to him and this positive energy," Favreau told the Times. "He ended up staying on with us for about a week and it was just great; we set up this turntable and between takes he would give me pointers."

Iron Man, released in May of 2008, grossed more than $318 million at the box office.

Besides his cameo in the film, which was shot two months before his death, Iron Man 2 will be dedicated to DJ AM. Watch the trailer for Iron Man 2 "Our heart goes out to his family and friends," Favreau told the newspaper, "and we hope what we've done is pleasing to them and to the many, many people who held Adam in high regard."

Iron Man 2 hits theaters May 7.

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Class Act: J.Crew Celebrates Teach for America ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 4/22/2010 5:15:39 PM

Last night, Caroline Kennedy and J.Crew CEO Millard “Mickey” Drexler hosted an event at the retailer’s Fifth Avenue store to celebrate Teach for America Week. As part of the initiative, 20-plus industry heavyweights, including Kate and Andy Spade, Drew Nieporent, and Frederic Fekkai, will guest-teach in public schools throughout NYC, imparting their professional expertise to students. “Teach for America is really making a huge difference in public education,” said Kennedy. “The alumni are working throughout our education system and I think they’re bringing a new kind of spirit and intelligence to the challenge.” Drexler’s participation included a teaching stint Monday morning at Kappa International High School—in his home borough. “I grew up in the Bronx and attended public schools, and I wanted to make a difference for something that was close to my heart,” he said.

So, what did Drexler tell his

class? “I talked about hard work, doing your best, getting a college diploma, dealing with difficult issues without giving up, and having self confidence; the fundamentals of life that aren’t taught in classrooms. I wasn’t a great student myself, but I always liked listening to people’s stories.”

Click here for more on Teach for America Week.

—Erin Clements Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

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March Madness to Expand to 68 Teams in 2011; Will Stay on CBS Through 2024

Dinner Diary: Frittata with Peas, Mint and Yogurt

(TVGuide.com: Breaking News)

WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog)

Submitted at 4/22/2010 11:48:00 PM

Submitted at 4/22/2010 3:00:00 PM

• Apr 23, 2010 12:48 AM ET • by Kate Stanhope • March Madness The NCAA announced Thursday that it has signed a 14year, $10.8 billion deal with CBS and Turner Broadcasting.

The deal signals several changes to coverage of the annual college basketball tournament. Next year will mark the tournament's basic-cable debut, as well as the first year every game will be broadcast live. March Madness will also be expanded from 65 teams to 68 teams — not the reported expansion to 96 games, which drew widespread criticism for being too inclusive.

"It was a goal from the very, very beginning. I believe it's what our membership wanted, and it's what our fans wanted across the country," NCAA interim President Jim Isch said.

"I think without question, it was

It's Earth Day, the 40th anniversary this year! As I was thinking about the post I wanted to write today, I realized a couple of things about our food and our earth: Where we get our food and how it is grown/raised/made is very important to the planet, and figuring out what that means to any particular meal is confusing and fraught.

I made a frittata with peas, mint one of the driving factors in our B r o a d c a s t i n g t o t h e and yogurt last night, a very position and why CBS and c h a m p i o n s h i p a n d N C A A simple preparation: I used a small (8-inch) skillet to make a Turner make such great basketball," Isch said. partners."

CBS has broadcast the men's s m a l l f r i t t a t a . I m e l t e d 2 The new deal will keep CBS college basketball championship tablespoons butter in the skillet, the home of March Madness every year since 1982. Earlier then added a cup of frozen petite through at least 2024. The this month, the championship peas. While they warmed, I games will be broadcast on CBS game between Duke and Butler mixed 4 eggs, 1/4 cup Greek and Turner's TBS, TNT and attracted more than 23 million yogurt, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons chopped mint. truTV. viewers.

"We're excited this agreement Five Filters featured article: Poured that into the skillet and continues our long-standing Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: stirred. Allowed the eggs to set relationship with CBS, a partner PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, company that has captured the Term Extraction. unique spirit of the collegiate model of athletics, and brings a new partner in Turner

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around the edges, about 4 minutes, then I put the skillet under the broiler to set the top, about 3 minutes. Served with more yogurt on top.

I couldn't let the day go by without trying to assess the impact my simple little frittata had on the environment (in honor of Earth Day), but I ended up with a headache. See what I mean below: Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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An extreme necessity (The Economist: Daily news and views)

That works out at around 5% for a fixed-rate loan, which is less than markets were asking of Submitted at 4/23/2010 2:23:34 AM Greece before the deal was Bailing out Greece Greece's struck but still steep. Portugal request for aid from the euro and Ireland, the next-riskiest zone and the IMF will provide borrowers in the euro area, pay only temporary relief less than half as much for threeApr 23rd 2010 | From The year money. Germany pays a Economist online mere 1.3%.

GREECE’S prime minister, The IMF is expected to make George Papandreou, faced the €15 billion available, at interest television cameras on Friday rates that are likely to be a little 23rd April to anounce that his kinder to the Greeks. The government would draw on resulting package of €45 billion emergency aid to tide it over for should be enough to finance t h e r e s t o f t h e y e a r . M r Greece’s budget deficit for the Papandreou decribed the rather rest of this year as well as repay embarassing request to to other its maturing debts. Yet Greece is euro zone members and the IMF likely to need far more support as “an extreme necessity.” This than this as it struggles to put followed a week in which yields right its public finances. on Greek bonds reached an An earlier analysis by The alarming 8.9%. That in part E c o n o m i s t s u g g e s t e d t h a t reflected an announcement by Greece would need at least €75 Eurostat, the European statistics billion of official aid. We based agency, that Greece’s budget t h i s f i g u r e o n s e v e r a l deficit reached 13.6% of GDP in assumptions: that Greece would 2009, even worse than it had need five years to stabilise its previously thought. The agency ratio of debt to GDP; that it added that the number might be could take the pain of a brutal revised up again, owing to the fiscal retrenchment; that private poor quality of the available investors would still be willing data. Moody’s, a credit-rating to refinance existing debts, at an agency, responded by giving the interest rate of 6%, if a rescue latest of many downgrades by fund covered the country’s new agencies to Greece’s sovereign b o r r o w i n g ; a n d t h a t t h e bonds. economy would start to grow The interest rate for emergency again in 2013. aid from other members of the An updated set of projections is euro zone will be 3.5 percentage set out on the right. We have points above the benchmark made two changes so the “risk-free” rates for euro loans. analysis is a bit rosier. We now

assume that Greece cuts its budget deficit, as a share of GDP, by four percentage points this year, as planned, so it has less to do later. We also assume that the interest charged on all maturing and new borrowing is 5%, in line with the cost of the aid offered by Greece’s eurozone partners. With those changes, we reckon Greece would need to cut its primary budget deficit (ie, excluding interest costs) by 12 percentage points to cap its debt burden—a slightly less fierce adjustment than in our first simulation. On that basis Greece will run up an extra €67 billion of debt by 2014, by which time its debt will stabilise at a scary 149% of GDP. That sum is less than our previous estimate, but still half as much again as the amount on offer.

Some will see this scenario as too pessimistic. It is far gloomier, for instance, than that envisaged in the EU retrenchment programme, which assumes that Greece will get its deficit below 3% of GDP in three years and that the economy can continue to grow as it does so. However, even with a more benign assumption about growth, Greece’s debts would still be very large. For instance, suppose that any losses in nominal GDP during recession are quickly recovered.

Debt would still then stabilise at 142% of GDP.

It will be hard for Greece to make such savage cuts in its budget and emerge from recession at the same time.

Furthermore, prices and wages will have to fall if Greece is to regain the cost competitiveness needed for sustained economic growth. That will drag down nominal GDP in the short term, and make budget cuts more difficult to carry out.

Our analysis may even be too optimistic. If economic growth does not return, deficit reduction proves too painful or interest rates are much higher than we assume, the debt ratio is likely to spiral upwards until default becomes all but inevitable. Even if that is avoided, Greece’s rescuers may have to shoulder more of the financing burden than we have estimated, should private investors reduce their exposure to Greece.

They have plenty of reasons to do so. As Greece’s debt mountain grows, investors are increasingly likely to shun its bonds in favour of those of other, more creditworthy, eurozone countries. Though IMF cash is welcome, private investors know that the fund is first in the queue when money has to be paid back. A euro-zone rescue party may also demand priority.

The bolder sort of investor may reckon that the high yields on offer are ample reward for the risk that Greece may be unable

to repay all it has borrowed. But some will be more cautious.

And others may judge that an interest rate big enough to compensate for the risk of default would only add to the pressure on Greece, making default more likely. Asian central banks that want to balance their dollar holdings with euros may choose to park their cash in France or Germany and save themselves any worries about Greece and its politics.

Greece’s euro-zone partners could find themselves with a large and open-ended commitment to roll over the country’s existing debts and to provide cash to cover its budget deficits. The rescue package may over time evolve into a rolling series of soft loans, at ever-lower interest rates and increasing maturity, designed to prop up Greece and keep default at bay. Such loans—in effect, grants—would amount to a kind of fiscal drip-feed. That could spur a political backlash, and perhaps legal challenges, in the countries supplying the funds.

The default option Is a sovereign default by Greece imaginable?

Conventional wisdom has it that sovereign defaults are always messy and painful. In fact the lesson of such defaults over the past decade or more is that this is not necessarily so. More than EXTREME page 32

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Hydrogen tries again (The Economist: Daily news and views)

enough to drive an electric vehicle is far from easy. Over the past 20 years, Submitted at 4/23/2010 2:52:02 AM Honda—arguably the furthest Tech.view Has the lightest and d o w n t h e r o a d — h a s b e e n most abundant stuff in the through at least three iterations universe found a new role in of its fuel-cell design, and is still energy? one or possibly two generations Apr 23rd 2010 | From The away from having something Economist online practical to offer the motoring H A V I N G s o a r e d o n t h e public. By comparison, getting a promise of carbon-free conventional internalmotoring, the idea of the combustion engine to burn “hydrogen economy” crashed hydrogen instead of petrol is and burned when it collided relatively easy. Even so, such with reality. Hundreds of efforts have also come to experimental hydrogen-powered naught. cars—once hailed as the best From the beginning, the cloud solution for reducing America’s h a n g i n g o v e r t h e w h o l e dependence on foreign oil for hydrogen enterprise has not over half its consumption—are been the power source as such, n o w g a t h e r i n g d u s t i n but the intractable difficulty of manufacturers’ parking lots. distributing and storing the stuff.

Hydrogen’s main attraction is It is not hard to see why. that when it is “burned” in a fuel Hydrogen atoms are the smallest -cell or an internal-combustion and lightest in the universe. The engine, the only emissions are next heaviest element in the heat and a wisp of water vapour. periodic table, the inert gas U s i n g h y d r o g e n a s a helium, is used for detecting fuel—actually, it is more cracks in pressure vessels and accurate to refer to it as an the like. Even though helium energy carrier, since producing atoms are four times chunkier hydrogen requires energy from than hydrogen atoms, they are another source—therefore has still small enough to find all the the potential to reduce emissions weak spots as they worm their of greenhouse gases and other way through the crystalline pollutants. As America has structure of solid steel several abundant supplies of coal and centimetres thick. If hydrogen n a t u r a l g a s f r o m w h i c h were used as a crack detector (it hydrogen can be made, what’s is not because of the fire not to like about it? hazard), it would escape four Several things. First, making times faster. fuel-cells compact and cheap Devising a fuel tank to

constrain hydrogen has always been a challenge. To have a useful range of 480km (300 miles) or so, an electric car using a fuel cell instead of a battery pack would require around 9kg (20 pounds) of hydrogen. Storing hydrogen as a gas or liquid in a vessel containing “reversible” crystalline metal hydrides is one way to carry it around. Another is to use high-tech pressure vessels made of carbon-fibre.

Some researchers are working on sponges made of carbon nanotubes that soak up hydrogen. Whichever technology is chosen, a vessel for storing hydrogen on-board a car costs hundreds of times more than a conventional petrol tank.

Meanwhile, transporting hydrogen from its production facility has presented other difficulties. Natural-gas pipelines cannot be used because hydrogen makes the steel tubing brittle and attacks the welds. Special production processes are needed to make pipes for carrying hydrogen. For that reason, few exist. The alternative is to liquefy the hydrogen at great expense and transport it in road tankers refrigerated with liquid nitrogen.

Either way, the hydrogen fuel finishes up costing way too much. And all this assumes that hydrogen can be made cheaply and without producing large

amounts of carbon emissions.

So far, it can’t.

Such annoying realities have an annoying way of making themselves felt. When they finally did, General Motors ditched its fleet of 100 Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell cars after a two-year trial. Likewise, BMW withdrew its own test fleet of 100 cars with internalcombustion engines modified to run on hydrogen. The final blow was last year’s announcement

by Steven Chu, America’s Noble physics laureate turned energy secretary, that he was cancelling funding for research into hydrogen-powered vehicles generally. Ever since, carmakers have been placing their lowemission bets more on plug-in hybrids, clean diesels or pure electric vehicles.

Does that mean the hydrogen economy has been finally laid to rest? Yes, as far as motoring is concerned. But the industrial use of hydrogen—as an energy carrier that is both clean and free of foreign influence—seems to be gaining favour in business circles. Dr Chu’s policy shift that axed research on hydrogen cars simultaneously poured $1 billion of stimulus money into a clean-coal project called FutureGen that the Bush administration abandoned in 2008. Though it appears to all intents and purposes like a stateof-the-art power station,

FutureGen is actually a huge hydrogen production facility in disguise.

The FutureGen project—to be built in Mattoon, Illinois, by a consortium of coal-mining companies and electric utilities in partnership with the American government—will be the world’s first coal-fuelled power station to produce nearzero emissions. The 275megawatt demonstration plant is designed to prove the feasibility of producing electricity and hydrogen from coal, while simultaneously capturing the carbon dioxide and sequestering it in deep underground reservoirs.

If the demonstration plant works as well as hoped, the plan will be to build combined electricity and hydrogen generating stations in locations where there are geological formations containing saline water overlain by a thick caprock serving as a seal.

Geological surveys show America has enough saline rock formations to store three trillion tons of carbon dioxide—enough for the next 500 years at the country’s current output from human activities.

The hydrogen produced in a fully integrated, combined-cycle plant like FutureGen promises to be 25% cheaper than today’s hydrogen. More intriguing still HYDROGEN page 33

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EXTREME continued from page 30

a dozen emerging economies have restructured their sovereign debt in the past decade without huge losses of output and without paying enormous penalties in exclusion from capital markets or higher spreads. With a few exceptions (notably Argentina) the process has been much quicker than in earlier sovereign restructurings, and governments and creditors have managed to work together.

Governments sometimes negotiated a restructuring with creditors before formally missing a payment of interest or principal—a process known, in the jargon, as “pre-emptive” restructuring. Legal innovations to encourage creditors to take part in restructurings and make it harder for holdouts to litigate have helped.

In 2003 Uruguay restructured all its domestic and external debt, exchanging old bonds at par and at the same coupon rate for new ones but stretching maturity dates by five years.

The country returned to capital markets a month later. The “haircut”, or loss to bondholders, was small (13.3%, in net present value), as were the amounts restructured ($5.4 billion), but it showed that orderly sovereign workouts are possible. Countries such as Jamaica and Belize have had orderly restructurings recently.

Greece is different because it has much more debt outstanding and because bondholders may face a more severe haircut—although with sufficient fiscal consolidation a more modest restructuring could be feasible. Sovereign-debt lawyers say that in some ways a restructuring of Greek debt would be easier than many people think. But other things would be new and harder, especially the complexity caused by credit-default swaps, which have not yet played a big role in any sovereign-debt restructurings. It is uncertain, for instance, whether a pre-

emptive restructuring would trigger the default clause in credit-default swaps. But Lee Buchheit, a leading sovereigndebt lawyer, says that the biggest risk in most debtrestructuring cases is governments that try to put off the inevitable. “By far the greater risk is pathological procrastination by the debtor in the face of an obviously untenable financial situation,” he argues, in which a country pursues frantic and ruinously expensive emergency financing in the lead-up to an eventual restructuring.

Would a defaulting country have to leave the euro? No. It is perhaps natural to conflate default with devaluation because they often occur together. But a euro member has no currency to devalue. Nor is there a means to force a defaulter out, since membership is meant to be for keeps. A new currency would have to be invented from scratch, a logistical nightmare.

All contracts—for bonds, bank deposits, wages and so forth—would have to be switched to the new currency.

The changeover to the euro was planned in detail and in cooperation. The reverse operation would be nothing like as orderly. A country that had lost the faith of investors in its public finances would find it hard to reconstruct a sound monetary system. Default by a member would be a body blow to the euro’s standing. But it need not spell the end of the currency.

Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views.

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Eco-Friendly Sex Products (Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 4/23/2010 4:00:00 AM

When you score with these items, Mother Nature does, too

by Rachael Robbins | Print Page| Email to Friend Going green continues to grow in popularity. Now, it's even in the bedroom. Yes, sex has gone eco-rotic with adult products and toys (including the four below). Save the planet without sacrificing your performance or pleasure. Related articles: Five tips for turning your pad into a pleasure zone Enjoy having sex in public without paying the price The truth behind her inability to orgasm [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more] Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Senators: Hold Immigration for Climate Change (Newsmax - Inside Cover) Submitted at 4/23/2010 3:50:10 AM

Key senators are pressing Democratic leaders not to let immigration reform bump a global warming bill, according to a report in The Hill.

Moving the immigration bill

first threatens the opportunbity of winning passage of climate change legislation, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C..

“It destroys the ability to do something like energy and climate,” he concluded.

Graham joined Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe

Lieberman, I-Conn., in a meeting with Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., this week to discuss the bill and the Senate agenda.

Kerry and Lieberman revealed that Reid was committed to bringing their climate legislation to the floor, but a firm

commitment on timing appeared to be missing.

Kerry said: “I asked the majority leader to do what he thinks is best, but he told us that he would [bring up climate change first].”

To read the full Hill report Go Here Now.

© All Rights Reserved.

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HYDROGEN continued from page 31

is the chance to produce not just pure hydrogen, but also hydrogen-rich liquids and synthetic natural gas (SNG), which can be transported cheaply using the existing network of pipelines and road tankers. Delivered to a local filling station, such liquids can be readily reformed on site into pure hydrogen for powering fuel cells. In SNG’s case, the gas can also be compressed and used to fuel cars with internalcombustion engines.

Although hydrogen’s distribution problem might then have been licked, the storage problem remains. However, it is less of a problem for fixed installations than vehicles. A number of niche markets have been identified—for instance, apartment blocks, office buildings, stores and neighbourhood wireless towers—that would pay a premium for stand-alone blocks

of clean and silent power.

In late February a Silicon Valley start-up called Bloom Energy—in stealth mode over the past eight years while burning through $400m of venture capital—unveiled details of the fuel-cell powered generating “boxes” it has installed at Bank of America, Coca-Cola, eBay, Federal Express, Google and Wal-Mart and over a dozen other firms that want chunks of electrical power that are both environmentally friendly and isolated from the vagaries of the grid. Bloom’s self-contained generating units, costing around $750,000 per 100-kilowatt block, produce silent, lowemission power for less than ten cents a kilowatt-hour. Thanks to a 30% federal tax credit, that works out as much the same as a combined-cycle gas-turbine plant—but without the noise and fumes.

The current generation of Bloom boxes use natural gas, ethanol or biogas to run their fuel cells. They could have an even smaller carbon footprint if fuelled with hydrogen. The choice of fuel depends on how environmentally correct the customer wishes to be. It may be premature to report that the death of the hydrogen economy has been greatly exaggerated.

But hydrogen still has too much potential as an energy medium to shuffle quietly off the scene.

Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views.

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Analyst Calls: WDC, Q, HSY, BWLD, NOK, COP, KFT, VZ ...

Laurie Pasternack (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 4/23/2010 9:30:00 AM

Filed under: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Nokia Corp.

(NOK), Baxter Intl (BAX), Hershey Co (HSY), ConocoPhillips (COP), Verizon Communications (VZ), Analyst Initiations, Kraft Foods'A' (KFT), Qwest Communications Intl (Q) Analyst upgrades • Deutsche Bank upgraded Sonoco Products ( SON) to buy from hold after the company reported Q1 results and raised guidance. The firm upped its target for shares to $38 from $32.

• Baird upgraded Western Digital ( WDC) to outperform from neutral following the solid Q3 report and guidance. The firm raised its target to $50 from $48.

• Goldman upgraded Qwest ( Q) to neutral from sell. Qwest is being acquired by CenturyLink ( CTL).

• Hershey ( HSY) was upgraded to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.

• Principal Financial ( PFG) was upgraded to neutral from sell at UBS. • Monster Worldwide ( MWW) was upgraded to market perform from underperform at Wells Fargo.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: WDC, Q, HSY, BWLD, NOK, COP, KFT, VZ ...

Analyst Calls: WDC, Q, HSY, BWLD, NOK, COP, KFT, VZ ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New StarCraft 2 gameplay footage: This is not a drill ...

Kevin Kelly (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/23/2010 9:29:00 AM

It's a Laser Drill! Check out the awesome power of this antiZerg Rush weapon, featured in this new footage from the most

eagerly awaited"Adults Only" game in South Korea. Don't worry -- it's just StarCraft 2 and the video's totally Safe For Work.

We'll have our hands-on impressions of three new single-

player missions posted later today. In the meantime, enjoy the gameplay video above and

the new screenshots in the gallery below.

Gallery: Starcraft 2 (04/19/2010) New StarCraft 2 gameplay footage: This is not a drill ... originally appeared on Joystiq

on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Culture/

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Air Force Launches Secretive Spy Plane: 'We Don't Know When It's Coming Back' Jason Paur (Wired Top Stories)

experiments and testing progress during the flight. Though he declined to elaborate on the Submitted at 4/23/2010 8:02:00 AM details. The vague answer did The Air Force launched a little to quell questions about the secretive space plane into orbit ultimate purpose of the X-37B last night from Cape Canaveral, test program.

Florida. And they’re not sure Artist rendition of X-37 in orbit when it’s returning to Earth.

At only 29 feet long, the X-37B Perched atop an Atlas V rocket, is roughly one fourth the size of the Air Force’s unmanned and the space shuttle. It’s onboard reusable X-37B made its first batteries and solar arrays f l i g h t a f t e r a d e c a d e i n (pictured at left from it’s NASA d e v e l o p m e n t s h r o u d e d i n days) can keep it operating for mystery; most of the mission up to nine months according to goals remain unknown to the the Air Force. It is similar to the public. shuttle with payload doors The Air Force has fended off exposing a cargo area, and uses statements calling the X-37B a a similar reentry procedure space weapon, or a space-based before gliding to a runway. In drone to be used for spying or the case of the X-37B, the delivering weapons from orbit. vehicle will autonomously In a conference call with return to earth and land itself reporters, d e p u t y using an onboard autopilot. The undersecretary for the Air Force p r i m a r y l a n d i n g s p o t i s f o r s p a c e p r o g r a m s G a r y Vandenberg Air Force Base in Payton, space programs did California. acknowledge much of the In his conference call, Gary current mission is classified. But P a y t o n t o l d r e p o r t e r s t h e perhaps the most intriguing primary goal is to see if the answer came when he was asked system is a viable option for the by a reporter wanting to cover Air Force. the landing as to when the X- “Top priority is an inexpensive 37B would be making its way turn around,” Payton said. “Do back to the planet. we have to do a lot of “In all honesty, we don’t know servicing? If that’s the case, it when it’s coming back for sure,” makes this kind of vehicle less Payton said. attractive to us in the future.”

Payton went on to say that the Payton described an ideal turn timing depends on how the around to be similar to a large

airplane.

“I would like to see this X-37 handled much more like an airplane, maybe an SR-71 he said referring to the legendary

spy plane. “Handled more like that than what we see with other space launch mechanisms, space launch vehicles.”

The military has been looking

into the idea of an orbital space platform for decades. And the X -37 program itself has been around for quite a while. Built

by Boeing’s Phantom Works division in the mid 1990s, it was first developed for NASA as a reusable space vehicle that could be carried to orbit either inside the space shuttle or using a booster rocket. The unmanned X-37 would then orbit for a period of time before launching or retrieving a payload and return to earth.

X-37B being prepared for launch The program was transferred to the Department of Defense in 2004. Since that time the X-37 has become a classified program, raising questions as to whether or not it would become the first operational military space plane. During the 1960s, the Air Force and Boeing conducted research on the X-20 Dyna-Soar space plane. After initial development, much of it with then test pilot Neil Armstrong, the Dyna-Soar was canceled in 1963.

A vehicle such as the X-37 could be a valuable platform for intelligence gathering with the advantage of a satellite’s point of view, but the flexibility of an aircraft that can be launched AIR page 37

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April 23, 1516: Bavaria Cracks Down on Beer Brewers Betsy Mason (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/22/2010 11:00:00 PM

1516: Two Bavarian dukes issue a decree that limits the ingredients used in brewing beer to barley, water and hops.

Referred to today as the Reinheitsgebot(purity ordinance), the decree has come to be known as a beer-purity law that was intended to keep undesirable or unhealthy ingredients out of beer. But the original text doesn’t explicitly state the reasoning behind the regulation.

An English translation of the decree simply states,”We wish to emphasize that in future in all cities, markets and in the country, the only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be barley, hops and water.”

In fact, the main intent of the decree had more to do with bread than beer.

“The government simply didn’t want people using valuable grains for beer,” said historian Maureen Ogle, author of Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer. “I think it was really just an attempt to keep beermakers from infringing on the territory of people who made bread.”

Ensuring cheap bread was critical in times of food scarcity, a real problem for 16th-century Bavaria. While barley is not very digestible and consequently

does not make for good eating, grains like wheat and rye are great for bread. The Bavarian leadership wanted to head off competition for those grains, in order to keep the price of food down.

An unintended side effect of the regulation may have been a purer brew, but Ogle suspects the idea that purity motivated

the rule may have germinated after World War II, when Germany’s economy was struggling.

“After the war, they were looking for ways to bolster their economy, and one thing they could do is export beer,” Ogle said. “My educated guess is it’s directly connected to this drive.”

The beer-purity angle probably

really took hold in the United States in the 1960s as craft brewing was becoming more popular, Ogle said. The Reinheitsgebot is still discussed on beer blogs today.

“If here had been no craft-beer movement, there wouldn’t be anybody sitting around talking about this law today,” she said.

The name Reinheitsgebot did

not appear in print until 1918, and wasn’t applied beyond Bavaria until 1871 when the German Empire was formed.

According to the German Beer Institute, the law became an official part of the tax code in 1919 — despite the APRIL page 38

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Review: Zoe Saldana Nearly Redeems 'The Losers' Hugh Hart (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/22/2010 7:00:00 PM

Zoe Saldana’s got it going on, as anyone who’s seen Star Trek or Avatar can attest. In those movies, she probed outer space aboard the starship Enterprise and saved Pandora from colonization.

In The Losers, opening Friday, Saldana may not rescue an alien world, but she does salvage the movie with her portrayal of Aisha — a tough, sexy mystery warrior who kicks, punches and fires grenade launchers while still managing to shed the occasional tear over an unjust tragedy.

Aisha is not the most original character, but Saldana makes the most of it. In so doing, the lithe, 31-year-old actress nudges an otherwise routine actionadventure beyond “don’t bother” status.

Based on Vertigo’s mid-2000s comic book series by Andy Diggle, The Losers goes heavy on the bang-bang, blow-it-up school of Michael Bay–style pyrotechnics. Rated PG-13, the movie tells the story of rogue CIA operatives who are presumed dead after a mission in a Bolivian jungle blows up in their faces, thanks to a sadistic mastermind named Max who wants to destroy the world. ( Spoiler alert: Minor plot points follow.)

The Losers (left to right): Idris

Elba as Roque, Chris Evans as Jensen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Clay, Columbus Short as Pooch and Oscar Jaenada as Cougar.

Photos courtesy Warner Bros.

The Losers‘ plot is cut from such familiar cloth that nearly every twist and turn telegraphs itself minutes in advance. And while a wonderfully wicked bad guy can ratchet up the energy level of an ordinary action movie, Max is portrayed by the usually excellent Jason Patric with such an under-the-top sense of calm that his psychopath seems remote rather than icy-cool.

The Losers are headed by Clay (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, coming off his convincing portrayal of The

Comedian in Watchmen). Gruff and borderline charming, Morgan’s scruffy-bearded character deviates from the usual square-jawed action star and strikes some interesting sparks during his love-hate affair with interloper Aisha, who, no surprise, has her own agenda in helping the Losers get back on their feet.

Also in the Loser crew: Idris Elba( RocknRolla), who plays somber knife specialist Roque; Chris Evans( The Fantastic Four) as goofy hacker Jensen; Columbus Short as driver Pooch, so-called because he loves his bobbin’-head dog mascot; and Spanish actor Oscar Jaenada in the nearly mute role of sharpshooter Cougar.

The actors deliver their lines, exchange meaningful glances, swap quips, discharge weapons and practice their specialties like professionals, but to what end?

A comrades-in-peril saga lives or dies on the interplay between its team members. The Losers deserves an A for effort but a D for execution. The script by James Vanderbilt(who’s working on the upcoming Spider-Man reboot) and Peter Berg(director of Hancock) strains to produce elbow-in-theribs banter, but the punch lines don’t land with the zip evident in deft comedy-action pieces like Iron Man, Kick-Ass or Inglourious Basterds.

To its credit, The Losers works well as travelogue. Colorful

locales abound, especially in Bolivia, where French director Sylvain White( Stomp the Yard) captures both lush jungle and gritty urban slums. Action scenes include a few fresh moments — keep an eye out for the helicopter tethered to a gigantic magnetic disc — but more often, fight footage is sliced and diced beyond the point of coherence.

The movie’s finale suggests room for a sequel. The prospect of more Zoe Saldana sightings is welcome, but The Losers probably should throw in the towel.

Follow us on Twitter:@hughhart REVIEW: page 38

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Nerdy Number Cruncher Makes Biking a Blast John Bradley (Wired Top Stories)

other bike computer offers, and we found ourselves completely addicted to them. We're pretty sure you will be, too.

WIRED Easy to read and use.

Compelling ETA and CO2 functions are one more reason to leave the car at home.

TIRED ETA function uses whole miles, which undermines timing accuracy.

Buttons for initial setup are difficult to use. Uses CO2 output averages from two years ago.

• Sports: Cycling • Manufacturer: CatEye • Price: 70

Submitted at 4/22/2010 7:00:00 PM

Nerdy Number Cruncher Makes Biking a Blast There are two pressing questions every bike commuter faces: How long until I get there? And how self-righteous should I feel? CatEye's new Commuter bike computer answers both.

Program in your trip distance, and the Commuter uses current speed to calculate your ETA. Slow down and watch the number and progress bar grow.

Speed up and you'll know how much time you can waste in GameStop on the way to work.

As for quantifying selfrighteousness, the Commuter tells you how much CO2 you're keeping out of the atmosphere by not driving. Using 2008 averages for gas-powered cars as a baseline, the unit calculates

how much CO2 you would have produced for the distance you've pedaled. It gives you totals for the day, week, month, year and life of the computer.

Initial setup is straightforward, though it involves some ridiculously small, recessed buttons on the back of the unit.

Mounting the computer head

and speed sensor took us about five minutes. Once the computer is in its bracket, the entire face acts as the computer's control button, kind of like Apple's Magic Mouse.

While speed and distance readings are quite specific, route programming for the ETA function is only in whole miles.

This is a silly oversight, since a

mile can take a commuter anywhere from four to eight minutes. (You can choose to use kilometers, which are smaller, Five Filters featured article: for better accuracy. But this is Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: the United States, thank you PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, very much, and we would like Term Extraction. our quarter-miles back.) And the CO2 calculations are a rough estimate at best.

Still, these are two functions no

subsystems, components and associated technology to be efficiently transported to and from the space environment.

This service directly supports the Defense Department’s technology risk-reduction efforts for new satellite systems.

By providing an ‘on-orbit laboratory’ test environment, it will prove new technology and

components before those technologies are committed to operational satellite programs.”

Once the current mission is over, the miniature unmanned space shuttle will be inspected to determine if it is a truly reusable vehicle. A new generation of protective tiles, similar to those that plagued early shuttle flights will be

examined as well as the autonomous flight control systems that pilot the space craft. The other key component to the program, the overall time needed to prepare the X-37 for another flight, will also be closely watched. The goal is to have it flight ready again in 15 days.

A second X-37B is in the works

AIR continued from page 34

relatively quickly and maneuvered in orbit much easier than a traditional satellite.

With the lack of specificity expected from a classified program, and without a translator, the Air Force described the X-37B program as “a flexible space test platform to conduct various experiments and allow satellite sensors,

and the Air Force said it could be ready for a 2011 launch.

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APRIL

REVIEW:

continued from page 35

protestations of brewers — when Bavaria refused to join the Weimar Republic unless the law was enforced throughout the republic.

Until Germany joined the European Union in 1987, a version of the Reinheitsgebot was still part of the German tax code, with the addition of yeast (until Louis Pasteur came along, yeast’s role in fermentation wasn’t known), and the inclusion of ingredients that can also be used in other food, such as wheat.

Many German brewers still proudly claim to follow the Reinheitsgebot, and beers that do comply get special protections as a traditional food.

It’s used as a marketing tool, and the beers have “ Gebraut nach dem deutschen Reinheitsgebot” (brewed according to the German Purity Ordinance) on the label.

Today the penalty for not

continued from page 36

abiding by the Reinheitsgebot may only be the upturned noses of some American craft brewers.

But in the 16th century, the consequences of brewing an offending beer were far more dire: They lost the beer.

“Whosoever knowingly disregards or transgresses upon this ordinance, shall be punished by the court authorities’ confiscating such barrels of beer, without fail.”

Source: Various Image: No, these soldiers are not confiscating transgressive beer. The caption says, “Preparations for the Kaiser’s birthday celebration at the front.

Beer delivered from home is unloaded.” On the left-hand inset, “Zensiert” means “censored.” Circa 1914-1918.

Courtesy New York Public Library See Also: • April 7, 1933: Gimme a Tall, Cold One

• It’s Beer O’Clock! Watch Has Built-In Bottle Opener • Why Geologists Love Beer • How Wired.com Built Beer Robot, Our DIY Kegerator • Beer Gear, From Can to Refrigerator Robot • April 23, 1827: Shedding a Ray of Light on Rays of Light • April 23, 1940: Batteries Included, and They Don’t Leak • April 23, 1984: AIDS Virus Disclosed, and a Premature Promise Made • Aug. 10, 1519: Magellan Sets Sail Into History

and@theunderwire.

WIRED Zoe Saldana maintains cred as a fiercely sexy mystery warrior.

TIRED Story, dialogue and supervillain lack panache.

Rating: Read Underwire’s movie ratings guide.

See Also:

• 10 Comic Book Movies We're Looking Forward To (and 5 That We Might Catch on DVD) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

• Review: Peewee Star Sparks Rollicking Kick-Ass

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Charlotte Dellal’s Edgy Take on Wedding Footwear ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs)

day. To get some inside advice on how to pick the best wedding -day shoes, I turned to footwear Submitted at 4/22/2010 4:23:10 PM designer (and bride-to-be) Wedding shoes have come a Charlotte Dellal (of cult favorite long way in the past five years. line Charlotte Olympia).

White satin sling-backs have “I don’t believe that wedding been replaced by sexed-up shoes should be traditionally stilettos and platform booties white. I think it’s definitely Especially when the dress is which, shocker, brides wear something to have fun with and long, you get to flash some again and again after the big s h o w y o u r p e r s o n a l i t y .

beautiful colored shoes. This Top row: Charlotte Olympia, May, mine will be leopard Altuzarra print!”

Bottom row: Alexander Here, a few of the non- McQueen, Christian Louboutin, t r a d i t i o n a l s h o e s I ’ m Donna Karan considering for my walk down Follow ELLE on Twitter. the aisle. Tell me, which ones Become our Facebook fan! are your favorite (keep in mind, I'm going for major height– my soon-to-be-husband is 6'3'')?

—Violet Moon Gayn or

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39

“You Used to Be in Pictures!”

David Thomson (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 4/22/2010 11:00:00 PM

Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America

By Peter Biskind (Simon & Schuster, 627 pp., $30) Warren Beatty has not done a lot for us lately. Town and Country, his last movie, was nine years ago. The absence is such that some of his old associates have concluded that he may be happy at last. But I doubt that such a hope lingered more than a few seconds: Beatty’s entire act has been the epitome of dissatisfaction.

Another possibility is that one of the world’s habitual manipulators now faces his greatest challenge: his own children, three girls and a boy, ranging in age from seventeen to nine and not lacking for genes, limo-lore, and the chance to pick up dad’s telephone technique. With his kids, Beatty might be in the meeting of his life. In which case he should do whatever he can to keep Peter Biskind’s book out of the house.

Still, Biskind and his publisher have elected to call the book Star—without an exclamation mark, but with a cover photograph that must be forty years old. Now, America in 2010, given a book called Star, is not going to make an obvious connection with Warren Beatty.

So it is overreaching of Biskind—it may even be daft—to add the subtitle, “How Warren Beatty Seduced America.” Seduced? Yes. America? No. I know we have our troubles as a nation and a culture, but there is an uneasy part of this book where the biographer’s calculations lead him to propose, in a spirit of quantitative research, that Beatty may have had more than 12,775 women in his time. We must grant that this precision is awkward and delicate, and understand that you had to be there to establish whether there was a there there. (Biskind is a measured judge: his five-figure number “does not include daytime quickies, drive-by blowjobs, casual gropings, stolen kisses, and so on.”

Clear?) I am not dismissing Biskind’s insinuation—I think he knows his subject pretty well—that Beatty may have dreamed of seducing or enthralling America, but, honestly, this fear of current pandemic is silliness. At best, in 2010, we have in Beatty a wry, lonely recluse, perhaps depressed, who watches his children, or watches them watching him. It is out of order to speak of him seducing America. The person he meant to seduce—his only worthy target until les enfants—was himself; whereas the nation, the

dark fields of the republic made darker by drive-by blowjobs, turned its back on Warren Beatty maybe as long ago as Ishtar in 1987. Ever since then, major-league seduction has been entrusted to people with more stamina and less neurotic impediment—men such as Barack Obama and George Clooney.

Not that Beatty was ever uninteresting. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1937, which is to say, in the South when it was rigidly segregated.

He was the child of liberals of Scots-Canadian descent. The father had a variety of jobs—realtor, teacher, school principal—but never really settled down. The mother raised him to play music: the young Beatty was a hip piano player, a deft imitator of Errol Garner and Art Tatum. No one ever noticed his own style. It was just that he hunched over the keys until people began to ask about that good-looking kid at the piano.

In his very long book, Biskind does not explore the family and the upbringing, and that’s a pity.

Beatty himself has admitted to being raised by women, a group that included his older sister Shirley MacLaine, as flamboyant a performer as he has always been a guarded one.

So he came of age in the ’50s, very good-looking but a virgin apparently. He did a year at Northwestern, then dropped out

and went to New York to act.

This was the moment when Montgomery Clift did A Place in the Sun and From Here to Eternity, Brando made A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, James Dean died, and Paul Newman took over some of the roles intended for Dean. Beatty was not slow.

He took some classes with Stella Adler, and he did a play in New York, A Loss of Roses by William Inge, a melancholy homosexual who clearly longed to have Beatty as a lover. That never happened, but Beatty used the ties to Inge to get the lead in a movie from an Inge story, Splendor in the Grass, to be directed by Elia Kazan, a guide and teacher to Brando, Clift, and Dean, the pathfinder director in America at that moment.

Beatty had little training and less experience. If the camera loved him from the start, he gave every sign of being ready to reciprocate. I’m not sure that a more resolute self-love has ever faced the world or its cameras. And while Beatty could do guy-sheepishness, he knew inwardly that he merited attention. In so many ways he gave the lead in that self-study. I share Biskind’s suspicion that this confidence was assembled at the cost of psychic damage, and an inability to engage with life or other people without contrived advantage.

He made an impact: he was

very good as the all-American kid facing sex in Splendor in the Grass, and he and Kazan helped draw a better and more reckless performance from Natalie Wood in the female lead. Beatty’s virginity had been lost (though I suspect he feels he clings to a part of it forever). The Southern boy was now to be seen with famous women: he nearly married Joan Collins—just saying that out loud suggests how long ago this was. He had an affair with Natalie Wood, and now his sexuality was open in a way that made openness notorious if a little clerical.

12,775? 20,000? 30,000? It’s a game, or a racing circuit with corners and tearaway straights that were named for Leslie Caron, Julie Christie, Michelle Phillips, Diane Keaton, Isabelle Adjani, and so on. You can feel Biskind’s squeamishness about the list, and I share it, but no publisher would condone discretion—and Beatty might sue if a book suggested a lack of generosity on his part. So let me add that while the young actor showed an eye and more for actresses who had Oscar as a beau, he was always an equalopportunity liberal: the girls did not have to be famous. They did not have to be ravishing beauties or golden minds. They had merely to be there.

Biskind develops a nice riff “YOU page 40

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about the actress-lovers who reached a point where they could not bear to look Beatty in the eye during the filming of a scene. They had seen something amiss—something like the way he used them as mirrors. Carly Simon nailed him, in 1972, with her taunting lyric, “I bet you think this song is about you.”

Biskind takes that idea further, to the point where everything in the world reminded Beatty of himself. Was this narcissism, or solipsism? Grant that he was the victim of both, and you may foresee the lurching progress of his career.

He never worked steadily, though when he worked it was furiously, in a way that imprisoned everyone around in his neurosis. He was inclined to be in charge of the whole film, as if not quite trusting or crediting the work of others.

Time and again with writers, he emerged believing he had done the work. That frenzy came after Bonnie and Clyde. But first, in the 1960s, he did The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone(with Vivien Leigh), giving an enjoyable bad performance such as exposed his lack of craft.

Then three times in a row— All Fall Down, Lilith, and Mickey One—he played unlikeable guys out of love with themselves. The struggle was palpable, and all three films are more interesting than Biskind cares to see.

Mickey One is deeply

pretentious (so was Beatty). All Fall Down was a portrait of a cold user. And in Lilith, with Jean Seberg (she is the film), he played a mental nurse who ends up knowing he needs treatment himself.

Splendor in the Grass did well at the box office. It had rentals of over $4 million. But no other Beatty film had turned a profit.

There was every sign that audiences were suspicious of him—just as journalists had determined that he was a pain in the ass. So by 1967, Beatty was not too far from a terminal pretty-boy condition, and he knew it. But he was also smart, well connected, and ready to take a big risk; and those urges flowered in Bonnie and Clyde, the one film of greatness that Beatty has ever been involved with. It was a script by Robert Benton and David Newman, done in the manner of Truffaut, whom they adored. The script fell into Beatty’s hands and he resolved to produce it and to star in it. He had the wisdom to ask Arthur Penn (who had made Mickey One) to direct it.

Biskind stresses that Bonnie and Clyde was Beatty’s production, but I think he misses how far the film’s sensuousness and mixed feelings about violence came from Penn.

Bonnie and Clyde was a ’30s genre picture turned into a chic text for the angry ’60s—the sex, the violence, and the outrage at

banks were part of a new subversive energy; the clothes, the music, and the idea of motel holdup artists were all from Texas in the early ’30s. This story has been told many times—but it is true. Working on location, sparing no one, Beatty brought in a New Wave film that he had to defend against its stupid studio (Warner Brothers). He carried the film all over the field. He overcame disapproving reviews and poor box office. He willed it to be a hit—the domestic rentals were about ten times the budget. As actor, producer, and everyman on the film, he walked away rich, at the age of thirty.

There was much to love in the film if you were part of the young audience—the comedy used as mocking bandage for death; the chase music; the spilling energy of the performances (that was Penn); the ripe pout on Faye Dunaway’s face; and Beatty’s dazed, chump-like way of telling Clyde’s hard-luck story—how he chopped off a couple of toes days before being released from prison. “Ain’t life grand?” he sighed, and it was real acting. People loved Clyde being a fool; it erased Beatty’s supercilious edge. It was a travesty that Bonnie and Clyde won Oscars only for photography (by the veteran Burnett Guffey, who thought Beatty was a jerk) and for

Estelle Parsons (as Clyde’s sister-in-law). It should have had best picture, best director, and best actor—they went instead to In the Heat of the Night, Mike Nichols (for The Graduate), and Rod Steiger (for In the Heat of the Night). There is no reason to be startled at the Academy’s foolishness: that is its exemplary function. But in 1967, Hollywood didn’t like Beatty either. He was a dangerous smart-ass in a world where stars strove to be lovable and ordinary. After all, Ronald Reagan was the emerging archetype.

In the 1970s Beatty had love affairs, he lived in hotels, he got heavily involved in Democratic politics, he began a friendship with Gary Hart that would help to ruin Hart, and he made a few films. Some were wrecks— The Only Game in Town, Dollars, The Parallax View(the one to grieve over), The Fortune. There were also three others— McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Shampoo, and Heaven Can Wait. As the years pass, McCabe may challenge Bonnie and Clyde as Beatty’s best picture. It is a Robert Altman downer on which Altman outmaneuvered Beatty the control freak, exposed his naughty-boy act and turned him into a fumbling, accident-prone antihero. Clyde Barrow gets famous. He has his story told, and the girl sharp enough to do

it also gives him a sexual climax. Thank you, ma’am! But John McCabe is a strange outsider whose rare courage goes unnoticed by the town. It is buried in the snow and the mournful drifts of the Leonard Cohen songs. This is a rich, mature film that keeps growing.

Biskind gives a good account of how Altman won the power battle on it and took every unfair advantage of Beatty.

In a way, McCabe & Mrs. Miller was training for Shampoo, a strange warning in which Beatty consented to a film about himself. Originally, this was a project for Robert Towne, a talented if neurotic writer whom Beatty had used as a personal script doctor on Bonnie and Clyde. Towne wrote Shampoo and then felt that Beatty had taken over the script.

(Biskind is very good on this tortuous game.) This was tragic, but it was comic, too, and it had to do with Beatty’s helpless assurance that this film was about him (in the guise of a Beverly Hills hairdresser who screws his heads). Shampoo is brave and very funny, as lazily sexy as L.A. in the ’70s, sad and very untidy. Today you can still see how with a tougher edge it might have been a masterpiece.

Towne and Beatty (talents that needed each other) came away thinking they had both been “YOU page 42

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The Florida Circus Ed Kilgore (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 4/22/2010 11:00:00 PM

The first thing you need to understand about Florida's political climate is that its seemingly endless summer of Boom Times seems to be coming to a close. The vast migration to the state that caused its population to increase over 16 percent since the 2000 census seems to be winding down, and last year, shockingly enough, it actually lost population. The state's economy is suffering from problems that are deeper than any business cycle: Its 2.7 percent drop in per capita personal income has pushed the state near the bottom of rankings by percent change of personal income data. State government and politics have followed suit, inaugurating a period of unhappy partisan and ideological wrangling with no clear outcome in sight.

Many of the troubles resemble the problems of Florida's distant political cousins, Arizona and Nevada, both Sunbelt areas with significant retiree populations that have also been hit by an economic triple-whammy of rapidly declining housing values, reduced tourism, and eroded retirement savings. Not surprisingly, all three have developed volatile, toxic political climates this election cycle. (In Nevada, the only

politician who is perhaps less popular than the Harry Reid is the Republican governor, Jim Gibbons. In Arizona, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, whom you’d expect to be riding high along with the GOP’s national renaissance, is scrambling to the right to survive a primary challenge by a defeated former congressman and radio talk show host, J.D. Hayworth.)

In addition, Florida has certainly suffered from the global economic slump because it is a major magnet for foreign investment. It also shares some of the structural problems of its otherwise very different Southern neighbors, particularly chronic underinvestment in public education. And when it comes to the fiscal and political consequences of a bad economy, Florida is one of just a handful of states with no personal income tax, which has made property-tax rates on steadily decreasing real estate values a red-hot issue (a billion-dollar deal that allowed the Seminole Indian tribe to expand its gambling operations was one of the only things that allowed legislators to balance the latest state budget).

So the question is, what does this mean for Charlie Crist, the erratic and heavily-tanned governor who is throwing the calculations of both major political parties into chaos? And

what does it mean for Democrats, whose electoral future continues to depend, in part, on the whims of Florida's diverse and fickle voters?

One thing is obvious: The situation certainly isn't helping Charlie Crist win the Republican nomination. Not long ago, the all-around GOP overachiever was on John McCain’s short list for the 2008 vice presidential nomination.

(Crist handed the Maverick a crucial endorsement that won him the Florida primary, which clinched the GOP nomination.)

At the time, it seemed like relative moderates, such as McCain and Crist, might be the Republican Party's entree back into the public's good graces, post-W. Then came Palin, and the Crash, and the Tea Party movement angry about stimulus, bailouts, and (indirectly) unemployment. Crist, whose original sin was to appear with President Barack Obama in February 2009 and say very nice things about the administration’s economic stimulus proposal, looked ever more like the epitome of the Republican In Name Only. (He later claimed that he never “endorsed” the stimulus bill, which convinced just about nobody.)

Still, Crist was enough of a big deal in Republican circles that when he decided to run for Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee endorsed

him, and few were willing to bet that conservative rival Marco Rubio had much of a chance to beat him. It’s pretty safe to say that Crist has lost ground consistently since he announced his run, as conservatives across Florida and the country have flocked to support Rubio, a Tea Party favorite who’s also something of a protégé of former Governor Jeb Bush.

Crist plotted a deep-pocketed comeback, hoping to drive up Rubio’s negatives by drawing attention to the former Florida House speaker’s involvement in a burgeoning scandal, which revolved around the state Republican Party giving its legislative poohbahs credit cards that they used for lavish nonparty-related expenses. But despite hurting Rubio, nothing seemed to boost Crist himself, and rumors began to circulate that he might pull out of the primary and refile as an independent candidate in the general election (which he could still do as late as April 30).

In a deep and growing hole according to every poll of the Senate primary, Crist pretty much blew up his Republican political career by vetoing, on April 15, a bill to institute a controversial “merit pay” system for teachers. (The bill would have phased out teacher tenure and made half the value of annual teacher evaluations strictly dependent on the

students' standardized test scores, an approach that goes far beyond most “pay-forperformance” proposals in other states.) Recently, support for the bill had become something of a Republican litmus test—as well as the source of a holy war between conservatives and teachers’ unions—and the proposal was particularly close to the heart of one Jeb Bush.

Crist's campaign chairman, former Senator Connie Mack, promptly resigned.

Crist probably took the popular position on “merit pay,” which had provoked protests and marches by teachers, students, and parents all over the state.

And, as it happened, a new Quinnipiac poll came out the very day of the veto showing Crist running first in a hypothetical three-way race against Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek. So, even as Crist left Floridians hanging right up until the very end on his intentions toward the “merit pay” bill, he may now keep them guessing until April 30 about his current party affiliation.

With so much media attention focused on the ascendancy of Rubio and the Tea Partiers within the Florida Republican Party, it's easy to forget that the state has a general electorate which isn't necessarily so FLORIDA page 43

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exploited.

As for Heaven Can Wait, a remake of the 1940s hit Here Comes Mr. Jordan, try seeing it now. For the first time, Beatty took co-director credit, with Buck Henry, who is one of the liveliest and most ironic voices in this book. The film did very well, and Beatty was nominated for best picture, best director, and best actor. (Biskind recalls that this triple matches one person only—Orson Welles—on a thing called Citizen Kane. Factually, this is true. Spiritually, it is grotesque.)

Heaven Can Wait is fluffy and vapid. It made a lot of money and shamed the raider who had done Bonnie and Clyde. Not that he noticed.

Whereupon Beatty did everything again on Reds. The first part of that film (it was so long that it required an intermission) is well done, well written, and well played—a pretty Masterpiece Theatre sketch of America in the age of Bolshevism and free love, in which the radiant, ancient witnesses become the most moving thing in sight. But the second part of the film, the one that shows the Russian Revolution, is a prolonged mess in which the attempt at a failed love story cannot smooth out the intractable arguments of leftist infighting.

Beatty believed that it was courageous of him to revisit

America’s infant redness in the age of Reagan. He spent years and millions—no one knows quite how many—in a capitalist celebration of a socialist, and never seemed to notice the abyss at his feet. It is impossible in hindsight to believe that he really cared for John Reed as anything other than a flag to wave. Reds has not a political nerve in its complacent body. It is a Hollywood picture about issues that are impossible to follow. Again, Beatty got the triple nomination. He won for best director—another hollow Academy joke, if you believe that Beatty has never had much feeling for the movement and rhythm of movies such as made the nervous system of Arthur Penn or Jean Renoir. A producer? Yes. But as a director he makes Clint “You Work Until You Die” Eastwood look like Hemingway.

And after Reds, he rested.

There was a six-year gap before his next film, Ishtar, a famous disaster. And since Ishtar, Beatty has done Dick Tracy, Bugsy, Love Affair, Bulworth, and Town and Country. He married Annette Bening and had children with her. He added the Irving Thalberg award to his directing Oscar. Now he has seemed eager to be regarded as an elder statesman in that k i n g d o m c a l l e d Hollywood—which, in truth, is a state of broken abandon.

What is to be said about those last five films? Biskind makes it clear that the production of all of them was an ordeal in which Beatty behaved increasingly badly, usurped the power of others, and indulged a chronic habit of shooting take after take to no good end. Dick Tracy was a hit, but so expensive that Jeffrey Katzenberg asked out loud whether a hit like that was worth having. It was pretty but empty. Bugsy was a real film, but its flaw may lie in its central performance, in which Beatty is unsure whether to be monstrous or charming. Biskind is a bigger fan than I can be: the political “idealism” in which unbridled ego invents Las Vegas is surely suspect from the start. Love Affair and Town and Country were disasters akin to Ishtar.

And Bulworth? That is still going, like McCabe & Mrs Miller. It ends feebly, as if given up on by its makers, but the first half is political satire of a high order, as well as a subterfuge as good at piercing America’s prim defenses as Bonnie and Clyde. It was once believed by others that Beatty should run for some kind of office. He could have been a contender. (Look who the governor of California is, for God’s sake.) He may have been chilled off by the feeling that he only wanted to be a winner.

And so Biskind’s book ends, in most ways, with Beatty’s marriage to Bening. This is as

regrettable as it is mysterious.

Biskind reports one guideline he never wavered from (he did have conversations with Beatty, though he admits how closed down they might be): “I decided that anything of a personal nature that occurred after he and Annette Bening married was off limits, because I didn’t want to be in a position of writing anything that might embarrass them or their four children.”

That is pious and disingenuous.

There are things in this book about Beatty’s romantic life that will make some readers squirm and may alarm the children.

Alas, Bening never really figures in the book. I say alas, because she is unusually intelligent and may be a better actress than her record shows. If we are still interested in Beatty after five hundred pages—and I must say that after that many pages the reader must make a big effort to stomach his relentless controlling urges—then his transforming marriage and his fatherhood deserved attention.

Biskind believes in Beatty’s “extraordinary body of work.”

My feelings are more mixed.

And Biskind leaves Beatty wondering whether to make the Howard Hughes film that he has considered for decades. Are we living in the same world, author and reader? Beatty is seventythree this year. Howard Hughes was seventy when he died.

There was a time when the odd spell of Howard Hughes may have carried a necromantic allure—if we are to believe in a mouldering neurotic who knows enough about life for his fears to be tragic. Anyway, a far more energetic and decisive director—Martin Scorsese—has already done a version of Hughes in The Aviator, which never gathered rentals to match its cost, and left every impression that Hughes’s last years were a life not worth living, let alone watching.

I don’t believe that Beatty can any longer muster the will or the money for a geriatric vanity.

One of the failings in Star is that it does not follow the money tightly enough. Beatty came into pictures starting at zero: his family had no unusual means.

He made himself wealthy, but he became a big loser of studio money over the years. Biskind says that sometimes Beatty had to act and to direct so as to make a project financially sustainable.

But I would need to know the details to have the case proved: money is always in the details.

Beatty had a halcyon moment, from the late ’60s until the late ’70s, when studios craved his presence. Today those studios barely exist. The sums of money are beyond reach. I doubt that there is a studio left (or an audience) that would pay a “YOU page 45

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conservative. Indeed, the same Quinnipiac poll that showed Crist ahead in a three-way race showed Rubio’s lead over Democrat Kendrick Meek in a two-way race dropping to a mere 4 percent. Could it be that the foreordained GOP victory in the Senate race—not to mention the much-speculated Marco Rubio ascent to the vice presidency or higher—is in a bit of trouble? Florida's predicted stampede into the red state column may very well be stalled, which could have important ramifications for 2012.

That's not to say that there aren't indicators which point in the other direction as well.

Florida was the definitive "purple state" in 2000, and Barack Obama carried it narrowly in 2008. But, historically, Florida went Republican in eight of the ten presidential elections prior to 2008. The last successful Democratic gubernatorial candidate was the late Lawton Chiles in 1994, a victory over Jeb Bush that fatefully elevated George W. as the scion of the Bush dynasty. And Chiles is also just one of three Democrats—the others are the very rich and successful Governor Bob Graham, and the former astronaut and longtime elected official Bill Nelson—who have won Senate elections in Florida during the

last 30 years.

Moreover, Florida is a state where Republicans have a large built-in advantage in midterm elections, particularly now.

Barack Obama carried Florida in 2008 with a historic surge in minority voting levels, particularly by winning the Hispanic vote by a 57 percent to 42 percent margin (John Kerry won only 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004). Yet even as he carried under-30 voters with 61 percent, Obama lost Florida seniors to McCain by a margin of 53 percent to 45 percent. (Voters 65 and older make up nearly one-quarter of the Florida electorate, about 5 points higher than their national share.) Since white seniors are the demographic category most likely to participate in midterm elections, and the youngest voters are the least likely, it’s not surprising that Republicans have the high ground this year.

And, given the importance to Florida Democrats of posting a strong performance among Latinos, it’s significant that Marco Rubio, who hails from South Florida’s conservative Cuban-American community, is not terribly popular among Latinos statewide. His vocal opposition to comprehensive immigration reform, which delights conservatives who can claim solidarity with him in the fight against “amnesty,” probably doesn’t go over well

with the growing Latino bloc in Central Florida, which is mostly Puerto Rican. This is one reason that Rubio isn’t doing so impressively in general-election trial heats against Kendrick Meek, an African American with his own close ties to South Florida's Cuban-Americans. If Rubio goes down in either a two -way or three-way contest, the highly problematic relationship between the GOP and Latino voters will have room to reemerge in a way that helps Democrats nationwide. With George W. Bush at his new house in Dallas for good; John McCain running away from his own longtime championship of comprehensive immigration reform; and no one like Rubio to provide “cover,” conservative demands for a tough line on immigration will may again bubble up in a way that tarnishes the Republican brand.

Meanwhile, the Senate fireworks in Florida have overshadowed the race to succeed Crist as governor, which is arguably a much bigger deal in terms of the future of Florida politics. It’s important to remember that the decennial redistricting of congressional and state legislative districts is coming up next year. Florida’s maps currently reflect a heavyhanded Republican gerrymandering effort during the last redistricting. With the legislature sure to remain in

GOP hands this year, the election of a Democratic governor could have an impact on the way the new districts are drawn.

In the early days of this election cycle, Democrats were very excited about their likely gubernatorial candidate, Alex Sink, who is Florida’s elected chief financial officer and their only statewide officeholder other than U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. As a female Democrat with extensive business experience, she seemed tailor-fit for Florida; and it didn’t hurt that her husband is wealthy trial lawyer Bill McBride, best known for beating Janet Reno in the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial nomination before losing to Jeb Bush. (I attended a Florida Democrats' event that she appeared in 2007, and when Sink entered the room, people practically bowed and scraped.)

Moreover, her likely Republican opponent, former congressman and current attorney general Bill McCollum, was considered less than a political fireball, having lost Senate elections in 2000 and 2004 after compiling a controversially conservative record over 20 years in Congress. (For example, he voted against the MLK holiday and the Family and Medical Leave Act.) McCollum was also coming off a less-thansuccessful stint as Rudy Guiliani’s Florida campaign

chairman.

Then, Sink and the Democrats ran into some rough patches as the campaign neared. For one thing, as the financial crisis continued to take its toll on Florida, Sink’s tenure as Bank of America's Florida operations director turned her financial acumen from an advantage into a big handicap, particularly when her former boss, BoA Chairman Ken Lewis, was indicted in New York. (None of Sink's own work for the bank was in question in this indictment, and she is protected somewhat by the fact that McCollum was once a lobbyist for the financial industry.)

McCollum also got a small boost out of the multi-state lawsuit that he and other Republican attorneys-general have launched against federal health reform legislation (although voters seem to have since flipped on the issue), and the failure of his main primary rival, state Senator Paula Dockery, to get any traction.

But even as Florida political junkies were riveted by Crist’s Hamlet act on “merit pay,” McCollum got some bad news: Wealthy former hospital executive Rick Scott, whose Conservatives for Patients Rights group played a prominent national role in the fight against health reform, has FLORIDA page 44

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Specter Accused of 'Swift Boat' Hit (Newsmax - Inside Cover)

poor command climate" - a term for morale - then criticizes Mr. Submitted at 4/23/2010 3:02:03 AM Sestak for missing votes in A congressman and retired Congress last year.

Navy vice admiral who is The ad cites an August 2005 challenging Sen. Arlen Specter report in the Navy Times. in Pennsylvania's May 18 The Navy has never issued an Democratic primary election is official statement on the reasons accusing the fifth-term senator for Mr. Sestak's reassignment of using "Swift Boat"-style from his job as deputy chief of attack tactics in an ad that naval operations in 2005, and a suggests the Navy fired him. Navy spokesman would not Rep. Joe Sestak this week comment on it Wednesday. The released a list of former Navy Navy has not disputed the officers who support him while newspaper's characterization, a group of veterans held a news however. c o n f e r e n c e i n s u b u r b a n "We absolutely are saying that Philadelphia calling on Mr. that account is inaccurate and no Specter to remove the ad. one has gone on the record and In an e-mail to veterans, the there's been no document that Sestak campaign called the ad says anything like that," said "baseless" and compared it to Sestak campaign spokesman the attacks mounted in 2004 by Jonathon Dworkin. the group Swift Boat Veterans Mr. Specter's campaign for Truth, which sought to manager, Chris Nicholas, said tarnish Sen. John Kerry's the ad is accurate and there is no Vietnam service record in his discussion about discontinuing challenge to President George it.

W. Bush.

Mr. Sestak spent 31 years in the The ad, which first aired Navy and was promoted to a Tuesday, begins with a narrator deputy chief of naval operations saying, "Joe Sestak, relieved of by Adm. Vernon Clark in 2004 duty in the Navy for creating a and awarded three stars. In

2005, Michael Mullen replaced Adm. Clark and promptly reassigned then-Adm. Sestak under the vice chief of naval operations for six months. Mr. Sestak retired Jan. 1, 2006, as a two-star rear admiral.

Mr. Sestak then returned to his boyhood home in suburban Philadelphia to run successfully for Congress and become the highest-ranking former military officer ever elected to the body.

Polls suggest that both Mr. Specter, who left the Republican Party a year ago, and Mr. Sestak would face a tough challenge from the likely Republican nominee, former Rep. Pat Toomey, in the November general election. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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leapt into the governors race, with a big wallet. Scott seems to be horning in Rubio voters and attempting to identify McCollum with Crist as another status quo politician, which is a pretty rich vein to mine.

Sink may have a couple of other aces up her sleeve, beyond McCollum's primary troubles.

For one thing, she’s been vocally against the “teacher merit pay” bill from the get-go, which is the popular position to take according to polls.

Moreover, when her poll numbers lagged early on, they may have disguised a hidden strength: Because many Florida women likely don't realize that "Alex" is female, she should benefit from an increased "gender gap" as they realize who she is during the course of the campaign. A Quinnipiac poll also showed Sink significantly cutting McCollum’s lead all the way down to four points, with a big undecided vote.

In short, the conventional wisdom about Sunshine State politics could well be wrong. In

addition to those I've outlined above, there are at least three highly competitive U.S. House races and plenty of vicious state legislative races. Perhaps 2010 will ultimately be remembered as the year that Marco Rubio and his Tea Party allies slew the hated RINOs and led a conservative resurgence, extending the True Faith further among Latino voters. But, as with Florida’s economy and its demographics, events could take a very different turn than expected, very fast, and nothing would enthuse Democrats nationwide much more than keeping Florida purple and in play for 2012.

Ed Kilgore is a special correspondent for The New Republic. He is also managing editor of The Democratic Strategist and a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute.

But lots of things don't. 1.

Scanner. 2. Router. 3. Modem.

4. iMac. I seem to remember that my first Apple II had a simple onoff switch. Did the IBM PC? Not sure. The Apple III? Not

sure. Pretty sure the first Mac did not have an on-off switch.

Let's compare notes. Does your computer give you a clear and simple way to turn it off? If not, should it?

Does your computer have an on/off switch?

(Scripting News)

whatever it's connected to turns on.

If you press the bottom part, it First let me explain what I turns off. mean.

On, off, on, off, etc etc.

This is an on-off switch: If you forget which part does If you press the top part, what, they are conveniently Submitted at 4/23/2010 6:33:59 AM

labeled to remind you of their function.

Anyway, looking around my desk I see lots of things that have switches that work exactly this way. 1. Printer. 2. Lamp. 3.

Power strips.

Business/

E-reader News Edition

“YOU continued from page 42

dollar for Beatty to pretend to be anyone.

This sort of creative challenge existed once. It may remind some readers of Orson Welles, who spent time on Citizen Kane playing with the idea of what he might look like in old age.

Repeatedly, Star describes the pains taken by Beatty to protect his perishing looks as shooting went on. He was fanatically protective of the image he nursed of himself, whereas Welles, even at twenty-five, was possessed by a cheerful selfdestructiveness. Welles had ego, but he was willing to look like death if it furthered a film.

Beatty has smothered himself and his creativity by trying to stay young. One of the great things about Citizen Kane is that its vision (the exultant gaze of a brilliant kid) is shaded by glimpses of an eventual failure and solitude. Welles had a rueful foreboding that made his youthfulness seem all the more

vibrant. Beatty, by contrast, was a sultry kid, baleful, dangerously without humor, and asleep in dreams of himself.

Warren Beatty is an emblem for our last cluster of male movie stars: he is the same age as Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, and Dustin Hoffman, and near enough to Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. All of them have lived beyond the natural span of their own stardom. There is a sadness about them now. De Niro and Pacino work on—and on—and their new films are, now more than ever, ordeals. Nicholson has said that he is washed up on the shore beyond the tide-line of good scripts. Redford seems as lost and as vacant as ever. Stars are not necessarily self-aware or intelligent, but once they shone.

Now these vets huddle together in soft-focus, in scenes that use doubles.

Star is expert reporting but grinding to read, and it bespeaks an oppressive interest in

movieland maneuvers. But it shows why, once upon a time—before AIDS, before Polanski, before special effects and monster budgets—a greatlooking guy with his wits about him might think it would be fun to make a movie. And so it was, even if fun is a boy’s sport. Now the fun has gone out of American film. The rush of celluloid no longer lives and moves or believes in its own ninety-minute sensation. It isn’t even celluloid, and it’s never ninety minutes. Warren Beatty begins to seem like Norma Desmond.

David Thomson is the author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. The enlarged and updated fifth edition will be published by Knopf in the fall.

45

Schlumberger's FirstQuarter Earnings Drop Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 4/23/2010 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Schlumberger Limited (SLB) Schlumberger Ltd. ( SLB), early on Firday morning, revealed that its first-quarter profit fell 28%.

The oil company attributed the decline in earnings to a revenue drop of nearly 7% and to charges related to healthcare reform. SLB earned 56 cents per share in the latest first quarter, down from 78 cents per share a year ago, and five cents short of the consensus estimate.

Revenue fell to $5.6 billion, a drop of 6.7%, and nearly equal to expectations of $5.69 billion.

Nevertheless, the company maintained that evidence shows that higher oil prices will lead to

increased drilling activity by international customers -- a turnaround from the past two years, which were impacted by the declining demand for oil.

Continue reading Schlumberger's First-Quarter Earnings Drop Schlumberger's First-Quarter Earnings Drop originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Microsoft: Is the Stock a Sell After Earnings?

Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks)

after the bell, but the stock did not rally. In fact, shares of the software behemoth fell 2.77% or Submitted at 4/23/2010 9:00:00 AM 87 cents in after-hours trading, Filed under: Earnings Reports, after dropping even lower Microsoft (MSFT), Stocks to several times. Does this mean Buy, Technology the business isn't a viable idea M icrosoft ( MSFT) reported right now? bullish on the company. I'm third-quarter earnings Thursday Actually, I'm feeling kind of

writing this ahead of Friday's opening, so I don't know if the pessimism is going to carry over into the new session, but I'll say this: If the stock is still down nearly a buck, I might be tempted to start a position. And before the weekend, too!

Continue reading Microsoft: Is

the Stock a Sell After Earnings?

Microsoft: Is the Stock a Sell After Earnings? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

46

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Ask Nancy: How can I start grad school when I’m Daily losing health insurance? electronics deals rss@consumerreports.org (Consumer Reports)

fall, but if I don’t have health insurance I will have to try to find a full-time job with benefits Submitted at 4/23/2010 6:09:22 AM instead. What can I do?

Ask Nancy: How can I start Answer: You may be in luck, grad school when I’m losing b u t I ’ m g o i n g t o n e e d health insurance? medication myself for the Question: I was kicked off my headache I’m about to get parents insurance plan last year. explaining why.

I have been getting coverage Judging from the information through COBRA, but it expires you gave, it sounds like you on June 1st. Am I eligible to be aged off your parents’ Kaiser on my parents’ plan at least plan at the end of 2009, the year through October, when I will you turned 25. The first piece of turn 26? If I can get it, even good news for you is that your temporarily, can I go back to COBRA coverage may not end COBRA when I'm no longer in June as you thought. It’s true eligible? I have been turned that when you personally get down several times by Kaiser laid off from a job, your (who I have been covered by for COBRA only lasts for 18 nearly my whole life!), because months. But when you get of my pre-existing conditions. kicked off someone else’s plan My medication costs too much because of a change of status f o r m e t o g e t i t w i t h o u t (such as turning 25, or getting insurance, let alone basic health divorced), you can stay on coverage that I should have. I COBRA for 36 months. So the am supposed to be starting my first thing you should do is master's degree this summer or c h e c k w i t h y o u r C O B R A

administrator about that. The new health law says that you can stay on your parent’s plan (or go back on it) until your 26th birthday. But this new benefit doesn’t start until the first new plan year following the sixmonth anniversary of the law’s signing, which happens to be Sept. 23rd. If your parents’ plan year starts on January 1, which it sounds like it does, then you technically wouldn’t be eligible to rejoin until then – by which time you would have already turned 26.

But Kaiser Permanente is one of several large insurers that recently announced they will voluntarily start re-enrolling under-26’s immediately rather than waiting for the next plan year to start. Your parents should check with their plan administrator to see if their local Kaiser plan is really going to do this. If it is, you should sign up immediately. It’s true you’ll

only be able to stay on the plan until your 26th birthday in October. But at that point, you can go back on COBRA – for another three years! By that time, hopefully you will have finished grad school and be happily at work in a job with benefits.

-- Nancy Metcalf, Senior Program Editor Have a question about how reform will affect you? Ask Nancy! Plus read our postreform guide to a changing health-care system, for a timeline, Medicare guide and more. 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

Paul Eng (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 4/23/2010 5:57:19 AM

Daily electronics deals Today's electronics deals, courtesy of The Consumerist: • Buydig: Nikon CoolPix 12.1MP Digital Camera w/ 15X Wide-Angle Zoom + 4GB SD Card for $233.95 w/ Free Shipping • Dell: Western Digital 640GB Portable Hard Drive for $69.99 [ w / C o u p o n 6F1LP3Q2X4$29V] w/ Free Shipping • Buy.com: Kodak Zi6 Pocket HD Video Camera - Pink for $79.95 w/ Free Shipping • Lenovo: Ideapad 16" Toploader Laptop Case for $17.99 [w/ Coupon USPCA42100] w/ Free DAILY page 47

Kevin Durant the Kobe Stopper in Game 3 Chris Tomasson (FanHouse Main)

Defensive Player of the Year in 1987-88.

We're not putting Kevin Durant Submitted at 4/22/2010 11:10:00 PM in Jordan's category yet. He's Filed under: Lakers, Playoffs, nine scoring titles behind him.

Thunder OKLAHOMA CITY -- But if Durant ever ends up even Michael Jordan once didn't feel in the same zip code with Jordan appreciated for his defense. So when it comes to being a Thursday night was a good start. he decided to go out and win fantastic all-around player, The Oklahoma City Thunder

forward had a miserable offensive first half against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series at the Ford Center. Durant shot just 2-of-10 for eight points. But he kept his focus elsewhere, grabbing 11 rebounds and playing solid defense.

The third quarter wasn't much better. By the end of it, Durant was 4 of 17 for 17 points. But he added five more rebounds and was still playing good defense.

Products/

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Auto X Prize: Competitors to shakedown at Michigan International Speedway Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 4/23/2010 4:59:59 AM

Auto X Prize: Competitors to shakedown at Michigan International Speedway Opening ceremonies for the Automotive X Prize competition are set for Monday, and our own crew of reporters and testers will be on hand at Michigan International Speedway to keep you abreast of the latest developments.

The competition challenges teams to build a 100 mpg car that can be sold in volume at a price consumers will pay. The grand prize is $10 million, put up by title sponsor Progressive Insurance. In addition to getting 100 mpg, the cars all also have to meet all U.S. federal safety and emissions standards.

During the track shakedown stage, the the teams will be tested for safety and performance. If they don’t pass, the teams have another month to make tweaks before the

qualifying stage, which starts June 20. Teams that either don’t pass at that point or can’t achieve a preliminary 80 mpg will be eliminated. The finalists will then return July 16 for a final chance at achieving 100 mpg and competing for the grand prize.

So far, 29 teams with 37 vehicles remain in the competition after having their business and production plans reviewed by X Prize officials.

The teams come from 10 different countries, including all over the United States. They range from startups to more established companies, universities, and even one high school.

The cars run on a wide variety of fuels, including gasoline, diesel, biodiesel, E85, hydrogen, electricity, or sometimes a combination multiple fuels.

There are two competition

classes: The Mainstream class is for cars with at least four seats and four wheels. Alternativeclass cars are allowed to have only three wheels and two seats.

Consumer Reports engineers and editors will also be on hand to help with the judging and testing, making sure the cars have adequate stopping distances and sound handling.

It is an exciting event, and the action kicks off next week.

We’ll have coverage online, with photos and stories from the testing, along with video. We will follow this event through the summer to its conclusion.

Keep up with the latest news from inside the X Prize here on our blog.— Eric Evarts 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

47

DAILY continued from page 46

Shipping • Buy.com: Philips Wireless PC Game Controller for $14.99 w/ Free Shipping • Dell: Zune HD 32GB Media Player w/ HD AV Dock Bundle for $239.99 w/ Free Shipping • Dell: WD Elements 320GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive $50 Shipped • Kodak Gallery: 40% off Medium Paperback Photo Books • Dell: Samsung 2333SW 23inch LCD Monitor $150 Shipped • SonyStyle: 30% Extra Off Clearance & Refurbished VAIO notebooks + free shipping • NewEgg: 15.4" Lenovo G530 $389.98 shipped • NewEgg: 10" ASUS Eee PC Seashell White $299.99 + free shipping

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 Entertainment Buying Guides. Subscribe now!

• eToys: Save Up to 75% off S u b s c r i b e t o Toys & Games ConsumerReports.org for expert • Dell Home: DS Lite hand held Ratings, buying advice and gaming system (blue or red) $99 reliability on hundreds of + free shipping products. Update your feed • iTunes & Amazon VoD: preferences Planet Earth Episode 1: "Pole to Pole" HD - Free download Neither Consumer Reports nor The Consumerist receive

48

Sports/

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Little Joe Pavelski Huge Again for Sharks

Coyotes' Weak Power Play Must Adapt

Susan Slusser (FanHouse Main)

Bruce Ciskie (FanHouse Main)

up in Denver on Saturday night.

The game time has been set for 10 p.m. Eastern.

Submitted at 4/22/2010 9:41:00 PM Right now, Pavelski is the Filed under: Avalanche, Sharks, Sharks' No. 1 star through the Western, NHL Playoffs SAN first five games, with three goals JOSE, Calif. -- Joe Pavelski is and two assists. called "Little Joe" in the Sharks' "Joe is playing good hockey for dressing room to differentiate us," said Ryan Clowe, who is him from Big Joe - Jumbo Joe one of Pavelski's wingers along Thornton. with Devin Setoguchi. "He's Pavelski is differentiating determined. He's not the biggest himself in other ways, too, in guy, he gets his nose dirty, he's top-seeded San Jose's tight firstreliable, he has a nose for the round series against No. 8 net. I just try to get to the net Colorado. The second-line because he loves to shoot it and center has been the Sharks' go- the entire series, for either team. Seto does, too. I like our line. to guy, scoring his third goal of "You're never going to hear me W e ' r e h u n g r y , h u n g r y t o the playoffs on Thursday night complain about cushions," produce. We knew we needed in San Jose's 5-0 victory over S h a r k s g o a l t e n d e r E v g e n i secondary scoring and we've Nabokov said with a grin. done that. the Avalanche.

Pavelski's power-play goal was Nabokov nabbed his seventh Sharks lead series, 3-2 the Sharks' second score of the career playoff shutout, and the Sharks 5, Avalanche 0: Recap| night, and it provided the first Sharks took a 3-2 lead in the Box Score| Series Page lead of more than one goal in series, which they could wrap

Submitted at 4/23/2010 5:08:00 AM

Filed under: Coyotes, Red Wings, Western, NHL Coaching, NHL Playoffs Entering their first-round playoff series, the power play was one area the Phoenix Coyotes looked to be at a huge disadvantage. During the regular season, the Coyotes hit on just 14.6 percent of their power play chances, good (bad?) enough for 28th in the NHL and dead last among the 16 playoff teams.

With that in mind, eyebrows were definitely raised when Phoenix struck three times in four power play chances during a 3-2 win over Detroit that opened their best-of-seven playoff series. Given that

Detroit's penalty kill was very good (10th in the league) during the regular season, this had to be looked upon as a temporary development.

Little did we know exactly how temporary it was.

Coyotes vs. Red Wings: Series Page| Full NHL Playoffs Coverage

Loud and Proud: Fans Bring the Thunder in Oklahoma City Chris Tomasson (FanHouse Main)

impress Scott Brooks. And they succeeded.

Or so Brooks thought.

Submitted at 4/22/2010 11:00:00 PM The way the fans sounded at the Filed under: Lakers, Playoffs, Ford Center Thursday night Thunder made previous home games OKLAHOMA CITY -- For 41 seem as rowdy as a Sunday h o m e g a m e s t h i s s e a s o n , afternoon bridge club.

Oklahoma City fans tried to "I was actually disappointed in

the Year on Wednesday, said after his Thunder's 101-96 win over the Los Angeles Lakers to cut the deficit in the best-ofseven West first-round series to 2-1. "I thought they were the best crowd. They gave us so the crowd all year long,'' much energy. But now I realize Brooks, named NBA Coach of they were sandbagging (during

the regular season). This crowd was so intense. It was so loud.''

Welcome, Oklahoma City, to NBA playoff basketball.

Gaming/ Featured/

E-reader News Edition

49

Keiji Inafune now Blur trailer takes a lap Capcom 'global head of around the world, pulls production' into the virtual garage Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)

David Hinkle (Joystiq)

Submitted at 4/23/2010 10:09:00 AM

Submitted at 4/23/2010 4:14:00 AM

Apparently overseeing several of Capcom's major releases and having created some of the company's biggest properties -ever heard of one Mr. Mega Man? -- wasn't enough in the accomplishment department for Keiji Inafune. So, he's stepping into the shoes of "global head of production," with the intention of unifying the publisher's worldwide development studios, reports Kotaku.

"Whether games are created in America or Japan or anywhere in the world, I will be the one overlooking it, and so it will have that Capcom flavor that fans know and love," Inafune told attendees of the company's Hawaiian soirĂŠe last week. "So one of the things I want people to know is that now that I am overseeing every part of Capcom R&D. You can be sure that that unified vision is going to come through in all of our

Xbox 360 owners can actually sample Blur's particular brand of chaos right now -- a decision we'd say is " most wise." For the rest of you, the only solace we can offer is via a new trailer, admittedly awesome in its own right due to a high volume of hot whips.

From licensed cars to completely fictional autos, it's all covered in the video above.

There's even a rundown of the 14 different locations you'll be

titles no matter where they are created." Us? Well, we just want to see a mega blaster in Dead Rising 2. Is that so much to ask for, Mr. Inafune? Is it?

(Scripting News) Keiji Inafune now Capcom 'global head of production' Submitted at 4/23/2010 6:03:48 AM originally appeared on Joystiq Well, this one has a happy on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:09:00 ending.

EST. Please see our terms for The solution was very simple. use of feeds.

I have a Bluetooth mouse and a Read| Permalink| Email this| Bluetooth keyboard.

Comments If I turn off the Bluetooth mouse before going to sleep, I can leave the computer on all night and the screen saver will kick in, and then the Energy Saver setting for the monitor takes effect, and in the morning

able to deposit some burnt rubber, if that's what you're after. Check it all out in the video above.

Blur trailer takes a lap around the world, pulls into the virtual garage originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Comments

How to turn off a Mac screen, day 2

the screen is off. Pretty sure it stayed off all night (evidence -not being woken up by it).

There is a setting that tells the Mac to not be activated by

Bluetooth devices, but I'd rather not have to attach a nonBluetooth mouse to the computer to activate the screen in the morning.

So if you're finding that you can't turn off the screen of the Mac, and have it stay off, try turning off your Bluetooth mouse if you have one.

And maybe Bluetooth mice should go to sleep and stay asleep if no one is moving them.

50

Featured/ Science/

E-reader News Edition

Exploring iGoogle and pictures (Scripting News) Submitted at 4/23/2010 4:53:36 AM

Got an email from Don Loeb this morning with news that iGoogle now supports pictures in RSS feeds. So I thought I should check it out.

I wanted to add a photo feed.

Went looking for a way to just enter the address of the feed, but instead found a page where I could create a gadget from a feed.

I tried clicking on it.

It worked but it didn't do anything special with the pictures.

Changed the presentation style to Slideshow, with a very nice result.

BTW, here's an iGoogle button for Scripting News.

Nice!

PS: It would be great if Google supported Realtime RSS. I updated my feed 45 minutes ago but the change still hasn't been reflected in iGoogle. (I know, they want me to support their

Video: Hobbyist's New Animation Tech Promises Unlimited Graphics Power Without Extra Processing Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

proprietary way of doing notification, I want them to do it the open way. You'll know that Google has become a serious competitor when they take advantage of every open format and protocol in the interest of making their product work better.)

of color, much as the real world is constructed of tiny building blocks.

Related Articles Forget the Submitted at 4/22/2010 4:50:53 PM Bruce Dell doesn't have a CPU. Buy a Better Graphics college degree or work for a Card Graphics Cards Go to major video game producer, but Work Is PC Gaming Dead? he might just change video Tags Technology, Clay Dillow, game animation forever. The computer graphics, digital Australian hobbyist claims his graphics, gaming, graphics new technology, Unlimited program, unlimited detail, Detail, can turn out computer- VIDEO GAMES This kind of generated graphics sans graphics construction isn't completely chips or massive processing new, but it is limited by the fact power. Rather, he claims his that each point requires a little system offers unlimited graphics b i t o f p r o c e s s i n g p o w e r . power that is software- rather Rendering huge 3-D worlds like than hardware-based, meaning the ones in modern video games there is no end to the amount of would require trillions of points, detail one can render. and rendering that many points Dell explains how all this per frame is impossible by works in fairly rich detail in the modern computing standards; video below, but to summarize, the real time demands of games Unlimited Detail sheds the usual make the idea completely polygon construction of virtual unfeasible. worlds in favor of a kind of Dell's software, he claims, gets p o i n t - c l o u d c o n s t r u c t i o n . away with this by acting as a Imagine the 3-D equivalent of search engine rather than a pixels (like "little 3-D atoms" as graphics engine. Build a world Dell says), making up the entire out of points, and Unlimited virtual world from little points Detail's software searches, in

real time, for only the points in the cloud needed to render a view from a certain perspective.

Detailed algorithms search through point-cloud data to find the right "atoms" to build only the scene you need at that moment, which equates roughly to one point for every pixel on the screen. Suddenly, you don't need to process billions or trillions of points anymore; the underlying points go unprocessed and only the visible ones are rendered.

At least, so says Bruce Dell.

Very few people have seen the software in action (he's still collecting his IP protections), and according to Wired companies like Nvidia are skeptical that his concept will work. You can hear it from Dell below and decide for yourself, but if he can deliver on what he promises in this video, gaming will never be the same. [ Wired Gadget Lab]

Science/

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51

Google Catches Flak for Mapping European Homes' Wireless Networks With Street View Car Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/22/2010 3:34:00 PM

There is a specter haunting Europe. Nope, not that one, but several European nations have expressed concern about Google's slow but steady encroachment on citizens' privacy protections. Now the search behemoth is in hot water with Germans for using its wandering Street View cars to log the location of private WLAN networks and media access control (MAC) addresses in that country.

Germany's data protection chief said he was "horrified" by the discovery - which has been rumored for a while now - and called on Google to delete what he claims was unlawfully collected personal data from wireless networks, as well as to cease cruising German streets for Street View.

What's a bit baffling about all this is that several other companies have done the exact same thing without catching the backlash Google is currently enduring. Germany's own Fraunhofer Institute has mapped

the WiFi networks in parts of Germany going back as far as 2000 and firms like Skyhook Wireless use their own massive databases of wireless networks (gathered in a similar way) to provide location awareness in many mobile gadgets, including the iPhone and iPad. Then again, Google is another story altogether. For one, some European nations have already expressed a disdain for the way

data Google has at its disposal is enough to make anyone a bit paranoid. While Fraunhofer might be able to tell you how many WiFi networks are in a certain village in Bavaria, Google could - and we're just speculating of course - associate your network name or MAC, your address, and a picture of your front door. That's a bit creepy even for the most digitally open among us.

But perhaps the greatest objection is this: What is Google going to do with all that data?

The intelligence community would love a means to cross reference MACs with locations and the people who reside there, so the fact that a foreign nation is wandering the streets of Google's tentacles are spreading handful of nations including Europe gathering this data is throughout their cities. Street France, the UK, Germany, understandably disconcerting View has been a particular Ireland, Italy, Spain and the from a security standpoint. It's sticking point for several EU Netherlands sent a strongly- more likely Google wants to use countries, as the idea of a bunch worded letter to CEO Eric that kind of data for targeted of Yankees cruising about S c h m i d t c r i t i c i z i n g t h e advertising or some such . . . did snapping photos of the populace irresponsible rollout of Buzz we say "targeted?" We meant doesn't necessarily sit well with ( C a n a d a , I s r a e l a n d N e w highly-specific advertising. certain governments.

Z e a l a n d a l s o s i g n e d ) . S o Now, give us the information There have been other privacy perhaps it's not so surprising we want. concerns surrounding Google as that Germany is taking issue [ The Register] w e l l . A f e w d a y s a g o , with this. i n f o r m a t i o n c z a r s f r o m a Further, the massive amount of

52

Science/

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Fix Farsightedness by Sleeping in Your Contacts Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/22/2010 12:59:18 PM

What if you could go to sleep with a vision problem and wake up with a crystal-clear view of the world? A Spanish optometrist not only says this is possible, but he actually wants you to sleep in your contacts.

His patented contact lenses, designed to achieve the same effect of corneal reshaping surgery, can correct vision defects like myopia (nearsightedness) and stigmatism - and now hyperopia (farsightedness) - without taking sharp instruments or lasers to your eyes.

Reshaping the cornea is a tricky business, of course, and generally requires a surgical procedure to permanently fix the problem. But Jaume Paune's corrective lenses don't aim to permanently reshape the corneas at all, but rather to temporarily reshape them each night while you sleep.

Every cornea deformation is a bit different, so there's no one-

size-fits-all approach to fixing the problem - hence the usual need for surgery if a patient doesn't want to be stuck with glasses or contacts. But Paune's system involves custom designing a pair of rigid, gaspermeable contact lenses for each patient based on his or her particular deformities, a process known as orthokeratology or ortho-k.

During the night the lenses gently reshape the cornea by

pressuring the film that coats the outside of the cornea, changing its shape by about half the width of a human hair. The next morning, the lenses come out and the patient has perfect vision - at least for the duration of the day. The changes are not permanent so the patient must repeat the process each night, which could prove a tedious chore. But the farsightedness is gone, allowing the patient to get through the day without

constantly squinting or groping about for his or her glasses.

The cost of the system might sway patients back toward surgery though - $1,350 up front to custom-design the lenses, plus another $550 or so each year thereafter to replace them.

Then again, no one needs to put a laser to your iris either, so there's certainly a give-and-take. [ Science Daily]

Science/ Food/

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Quick Seafood (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

Video: A DIY iPhoneControlled Car With VirtualReality Driver's-Seat Views Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

WiFi connection (hence the name) and transmits both audio and visual back to the driver's goggles. Commands are issued Submitted at 4/22/2010 1:58:45 PM Our collegiate scholars hold our via an on-board Arduino chip future in their hands, so it's p r o g r a m m e d t o p r o c e s s always good to see them apply commands from the iPhone. themselves to projects like As you'll see below, the WiDrive, a remote-controlled, connection between the camera camera-mounted car that can be and the VR glasses was a bit driven in the first person using spotty, causing the test driver a an iPhone and a pair of VR b i t o f t r o u b l e , b u t t h e glasses. accelerometer-based steering Built by a Bournemouth appears to be pretty responsive.

University (that's in the UK) F o r m o r e d e t a i l s o n t h e student trying to "do something programming and perils of such completely different in an a D I Y u n d e r t a k i n g , s e e attempt not to bore the f*ck out W i D r i v e . c o . u k . of my lecturers and inject some excitement into their lives," the car can be controlled over any

Time: 30 minutes Prep Pointer: You’ll get more juice from a room-temperature lemon.

Serve with Charred Vegetable Rice: Cook 1 cup long-grain white rice according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.

Heat 1½ tablespoons olive oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add ½ cup thawed frozen whole-kernel corn and ½ cup chopped zucchini to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until vegetables are charred. Stir in ½

cup halved grape tomatoes and 13 cup chopped green onions; s a u t é 1 minute or -until tomatoes almost wilt. Combine vegetable mixture, rice, and ¾ teaspoon salt.

View Recipe: Pan-Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri • Watch Video Demo Next Seafood Arrabbiata Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Beer and Food Pairings (Mensfitness.com)

cover up some of the flavors in cheese while the carbonation in beer creates a lighter acidity and T h e p e r f e c t b r e w s t o lifts the fats in the cheese off the compliment your favorite meals p a l a t e , " s a y s T h e B e e r

by Tina Benitez Sommelier, Matt Simpson. | Print Page| Email to Friend "Whether it's a straight-up If someone ordered an Indian cheese platter, pizza, sandwich, Pale Ale with their cheese, goat cheese salad, almost any would that be so wrong? No. It's beer is a go when it comes to all about personal preference cheese. after all. Wine always has its Recommended: All beer (Note: place beside any aged, dairy for stronger cheeses like goat delicacy—or other less moldy and blue, grab a darker lager or edibles—but a perfect lager or ale.) Try Hennepin Saison ale can stand up to any red or (Belgium) white vino when pairing food Chicken, Seafood, Pasta and drink.

The one rule with dishes like "Beer is a great match for food chicken, fish, salads or pastas because of the complexity of its are that you don't want to flavors, its ability to provide overpower them with a beer. refreshment and to interact with Therefore, lighter is better. A many food flavors," says Marc light German lager or Belgian S t r o o b a n d t , m a s t e r b e e r Saison with chicken or fish is sommelier for the Food and perfect. (If creams or sauces are Beer Consultancy, UK. "Even added you need a heavy, richer before the meal, beer already is beer.) Pasta is slightly more doing its work for food pairing versatile but still pairs well with as the hops stimulate the similar brews like blonde ales appetite." and German or American wheat When pairing beer and food, it ales. all comes down to matching the Recommended: Belgian Blonde food's flavors to the flavors of a l e ; G e r m a n H e f e w e i z e n ; the beers. We went directly to American Hefeweizen or wheat the experts to get their advice on beer (as long as it is not too mating the best brews with your hoppy). Try Duvel (Belgium), favorite bites.

Widmer Hefeweizen (US), Blue Cheese, Sandwiches, Pizza Moon (US) W i n e a n d c h e e s e i s a Frites and Fried Foods universally-known pair, but Even if the Belgians make the what most people may not know best frites in the world and are is that beer is one of the best the largest consumers per matches for cheese. "Wine may person, those salty potato sticks Submitted at 4/23/2010 5:00:00 AM

are still an American staple cuisine. In general, fries (or frites) are light in flavor profile, so opt for a brew that will help cleanse the palate. "In general ask for a beer to cleanse your

palate without washing away all the salty flavors, cutting through and bringing out the taste of the food," says Stroobandt, who prefers a nice Stella Artois with his frites. The same

recommendation goes for most fried, salty dishes.

Recommended: Light German Lager, Marzen-style (more malt); Octoberfest brews; Belgian Blonde ale or lager. Try Samuel Adams Octoberfest (US), Stella Artois (Belgium), Leffe Blond (Belgium) Burgers/Steak/Roasted Meats Steak and Cabernet are classic, but darker, heartier beers like brown ales or stouts can balance the bigger meats. It's all about finding a beer that is equal to the meat. "The idea is to balance the sweet malt and bitter aromatic hops," says Simpson. "Any big robust beef or meaty food should include a beer that is big and bold enough to stand up to roasted meat like a darker, fuller porter or stout."

Recommended: Belgian-style lagers; pale or amber ales with deeper, roasted flavors; more toffee-like brown ales and stouts; darker, spicier lagers like German Dunkels and Belgium Dubbels. Try Newcastle Brown Ale (UK), Guinness (Ireland), Maredsous 8 (Belgium) Spicy Buffalo wings, spicy Thai, Szechuan Chicken and Mexican dishes all go well with light lagers—basically anything with more hops, which help cut down the spices in the food. "Little goes better with spicier dishes than a light Mexican-style BEER page 56

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Chuck Liddell (Mensfitness.com)

me a lot about teaching. We're working with guys that are already pretty good at what they The Iceman on his diet, reality do, so if they don't understand TV, and upcoming fight what to do then I'm not teaching

by Dean Stattmann them right. It also taught me a | Print Page| Email to Friend lot about what I do. It reminds From appearing in TV shows you of the way you fight. You and movies to taking on some of have to learn your own details the toughest badasses in the before you can teach them. And UFC, there's not much that especially at this level, with legendary fighter Chuck Liddell these types of guys, that's what can't handle. It's no wonder you need to teach them. They tickets for his upcoming UFC know most of the basic moves, 115 event with Rich Franklin but you need to teach them the sold out in a record-setting 30 details. The details are what minutes after going on sale. make a difference. To teach the Fortunately, Men's Fitness was details you have to pay attention able to catch up with The to what you're doing. I used to Iceman recently at the Reebok have that problem with a couple Sports Club in New York City of moves I used to do, so it's a to get his thoughts on The good learning process, for them Ultimate Fighter, UFC 115 and and for me. his best moment in the Octagon. You're getting ready to fight You've been spending a lot of Rich Franklin in UFC 115. time in New York promoting for What are you doing to prepare?

UFC and now helping Reebok It's everything. My training is demo their latest shoe. Do you ramping up, getting harder and like spending time in the city? harder, but I've been in shape I love it. I always have a good for a while so now we're picking time out here. My grandpa is it up. I had to switch to from Brooklyn and my grandma southpaw though, because he's a is from Syracuse so I used to southpaw. come down here quite a bit.

You were supposed to fight You're coaching a team on this Tito Ortiz, but now obviously season of Spike's hit show The that's not happening. Have you Ultimate Fighter. Are you guys had to adapt your training for still filming? the new card?

No, it's all done except for the There's not much of a finale. It was cool. I'm not a big difference other than the fact fan of reality shows but I liked that he's a southpaw. I've got to working with the guys. It taught get ready because he's good Submitted at 4/23/2010 1:00:00 AM

There are enough calories in there for me for the day, and each week as my weight goes up and down we'll add or lose calories.

Lastly, what is your best memory from inside the Octagon?

You know, it's hard to say. I've had a lot of good ones and I've had a lot of bad ones. Any time I've lost has been devastating to me, but the best would probably have to be when I beat Randy for the first time. I had already everywhere. He's decent at past me first. Just call me and let lost to him and I came back with a first round knockout for the everything. But he's not really a me take care of it. big threat to take me down, so if A lot of people are interested title. It was the biggest Pay Per it goes to the ground it's because now in getting into MMA, but View that the UFC had had at I decided it should. But he is a it's such a mixed medium that it the time by far and it was just a much better striker than Tito. can be hard to find a starting big day for me. That was my A lot of people are upset that point. What's your advice for best moment inside the Octagon.

Chuck Liddell takes on Rich you won't be fighting Tito. How starting up? do you feel?

You can actually find a lot of Franklin in UFC 115 on June I called it. After the shit he said gyms that do teach mixed 12, 2010, at General Motors on the show I really wanted to martial arts. But it's just like Place in Vancouver, British [fight]. I still really want to with any martial art — you've Columbia, Canada. Related knock him out. It is what it is. got to look at the coaches, go articles: He ran his mouth and now I get watch some classes, see how The MMA Workout Lyoto Machida: MMA's to say 'I told you so' to Dana. I people treat each other and how told him that he wouldn't fight the coaches treat the students. D r a g o n Photo Gallery of MMA Fighter me and that he was just going to Pay attention to the details. use this to get on TV. What's your diet like right now? Gina Carano in Action Do you still hope to fight him I eat a balanced diet. I actually [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and one day? have a guy who cooks for me at more] I don't care. Honestly. I mean home. It's 40/30/30 — so 40% Five Filters featured article: I've already knocked him out carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: twice. All I want though is, if he It's healthy. It's clean. It's real PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, decides to come back to the simple. When I'm training at Term Extraction.

UFC, he should have to fight me home I have five meals for the to get back in. If he wants to day that I just heat up. It's all fight in the UFC he has to get planned and that's what I eat.

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How Accurate Are Calorie Counters?

(Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 4/23/2010 2:00:00 AM

These electronic gadgets may be working against you

by Brandon Guarneri | Print Page| Email to Friend Burning calories is crucial for losing weight. But most guys sleepwalk through their cardio and don't get results. If you've been bragging about torching 500 calories every session, brace yourself. The calorie counters can be inaccurate—and misleading.

REALITY CHECK When it comes to the quality of your workout, think of the numbers ticking by in front of you as more of a guideline than gospel. The amount of calories you actually burn per session depends on your overall fitness level. A raw beginner may shed calories quickly because his body isn't used to training, but that will gradually change as you get in better shape. "When your body gets used to a workout, it doesn't burn as many calories," says Melissa Rodriguez, C.S.C.S., a Bostonbased personal trainer. For maximum burn, switch workouts often.

FAT-LOSS FORMULA To get the best gauge of how

many calories you're burning in every workout session, you need a heart rate monitor. Never rely solely on your machine's counter. "Most aren't accurate for about 20% of the population," says Joe Stankowski, a C.P.T. from Grand Rapids, Mich. Even on high-tech equipment, little things can screw up the counter.

"Sometimes, it's as simple as how you grip the handles," says Rodriguez. "If you hold on too tightly, the measurement will run too low. If you hold on loosely, it may be much higher."

REAL DEAL Here's what you should expect to burn, per minute, in your next cardio session. Low-Intensity

Training Activity: softball, golf The Burn: • 4-6 calories if you're fit • 6-8 calories if you're not Moderate-Intensity Training Activity: jogging, rowing The Burn: • 8-10 calories if you're fit • 10-12 calories if you're not High-Intensity Training Activity: running, boxing The Burn: • 12-15 calories if you're fit • 15-20 calories if you're not HOW TO MAKE CARDIO MORE EFFECTIVE 1.) Pick the Right Machine

continued from page 54

Ellipticals with levers that you push back and forth with your arms offer a better workout, since integrating your upper body will activate more muscles. 2.) Don't Hold On If you grip the frame of your machine, you're making it easier. Use the arm levers or move your arms in a natural running motion. 3.) Forget the Numbers stay focused on how you're burning the calories. "Don't expect the activity to do the work," says Stankowski. Throw a towel over the display and just concentrate on pushing yourself hard. 4.) Pay Attention "Listen to your own body and monitor your own effort," says Rodriguez. "Soon you'll be able to rate the quality of the workout by how your body feels when you finish." Related articles: Walk Off the Pounds Home Gym Dos and Don'ts The 9 Best Fitness Apps [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more] Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

lager," says Matt Simpson. "It's almost like milk when it comes to spicy food. It doesn't coat the tongue, but the spice in the hops cut through the spiciness in the chilies and peppers and allows the beer to shine through."

Recommended: Lighter lagers; Indian Pale Ales. Try Negro Modelo (Mexico), Corona (Mexico), Spaten-Fransikaner (Germany) Dessert The Chocolate notes in stouts always pair well with brownies or any rich dessert. Lighter, fruit -based lagers or ales can also provide a nice balance or contrast. Think raspberries and chocolate. "Beer and dessert is not the first choice for most, but a whole new world of flavors await you when you try fruitier beers with a wide variety of puddings, ice creams or sorbets," says Stroobandt.

Recommended: Light, fruitier dessert beers; stouts; Indian Pale Ales. Try Lindeman's Framboise Raspberry Lambic Beer (Belgium), Brooklyn Chocolate Stout (US), Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Rasputin (US) When in Doubt . . . Go Regional If chicken chimichanga or fajitas are on the menu, then opt for a Mexican brew. Leave it to the country of origin when pairing if the options are too overwhelming. "German foods BEER page 57

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like pretzels, brats, knockwurst, I like to pair with German beer," says Simpson, who believes Americans and beer drinkers still need to educate themselves on the possibilities of pairing beer and food.

"It's all about trial and error and finding that unique combination of food and beer," says Stroobandt. "The wine industry is years ahead with informing and educating the consumer, so brewers have to step it up a gear and provide some info on how their beers can work with food."

Related articles: Hangover Helpers Best Light Beers America's Best Bars for Beer Lovers [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more] Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

South Park goes too far or just full circle? mark (GetReligion) Submitted at 4/22/2010 11:00:20 AM

SOUTH page 58

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Al Qaeda, airstrikes and … churches?

Mollie (GetReligion)

number of attacks against Baghdad churches, the Prime Minister of Iraq has said.

Earlier this week, news broke I n d i r e c t l y c o n f i r m i n g t h e that two top Al Qaeda leaders reports, a Chaldean bishop were killed in an airstrike reported that security forces had carried out by U.S. troops: warned of a “strong risk” of The deaths of Abu Ayyub al- attacks …

Masri, as the leader of al Qaeda The prime minister said the in Iraq is known, and Abu Omar terrorists were planning a al-Baghdadi, the alias of the number of attacks against the head of an umbrella group that churches of Baghdad and the includes al Qaeda in Iraq, a c t i o n t h w a r t e d t h e p l a n , should disrupt insurgent attacks according to news reports. inside the country, officials said. The EWTN story goes on to Their slayings could also quote the Chaldean bishop provide Prime Minister Nouri al talking about the extra security -Maliki with a decisive political the churches had in recent boost at a critical time. months.

I read some interesting stories It’s not that surprising that a b o u t t h e m e n b u t w a s these guys were planning to somewhat surprised today to attack churches. Christian read that they were killed while churches have been targets of plotting attacks on Christian violence in Iraq for years. Just churches. But I didn’t read that this past Easter a bomb was set in any mainstream report. It was off near a Chaldean Church and i n t h i s E W T N s t o r y t h a t St. George’s Anglican Church in r e p o r t e d o n l o c a l n e w s Baghdad suffered “severe” coverage: damage on Easter morning Military operations against Al when a bomb exploded near its Qaeda terrorists thwarted a compound.

Submitted at 4/23/2010 7:52:51 AM

This is not a new story but it’s an important one and I worry about the failure to note what’s going on with Christian churches in Iraq. Note that this report published today in the Washington Post (by the same reporter who filed the first story I excerpted above) manages to explain the targets of another mastermind who was recently captured: Iraqi officials said Thursday that they have detained the mastermind behind a string of bombings last year that targeted key government facilities in the capital.

It’s interesting and important to know that government facilities have been targeted. But it’s also important to note that worship spaces and religious adherents are being targeted as well.

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Hey, guess what! South Park offended someone! I know, I know — is it Thursday already?

In all seriousness, this time Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s pathological need to be irreverent earned them what looks like an honest-to-goodness death threat, despite protestations saying otherwise from the person issuing the threat. The 20th episode of the venerable cartoon featured not one but two depictions of the prophet Muhammad. Or rather, they were jokes about how they can’t depict Muhammad — so one time the Islamic prophet was shown behind a black “censored” bar. Another time, he was said to be inside a bear suit.* In any event, as a result of their alleged blasphemy, this happened: T h e w e b s i t e RevolutionMuslim.com has since been taken down, but a cached version shows the message to “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The article’s author, Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, said the men “outright insulted” the religious leader.

The posting showed a gruesome picture of Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was shot and stabbed to death in an Amsterdam street in 2004 by a fanatic angered by his film about Muslim women. The film was written by a Muslim woman

who rejected the Prophet Muhammad as a guide for today’s morality.

“We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show,” AlAmrikee wrote. “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”

The posting listed the addresses of Comedy Central’s New York office and Parker and Stone’s California production office. It also linked to a Huffington Post article that described a Colorado retreat owned by the two men.

Yikes. But I have to give the Associated Press credit. They actually tracked down AlAmrikee and spoke with him.

Suffice to say, he was quite weaselly in his defense of his posting, claiming it was only done to “raise awareness.”

However, he later said “they should feel threatened by what they did.” He also added that couldn’t legally say whether he supported jihad, but did have some words of praise for Bin Laden. So yeah, good guy.

Of course, this is hardly the first time South Park has taken on the subject of religion. AP noted this is not the first time there’s been controversy over the cartoon’s attempts at depicting Muhammad: In 2006, Comedy Central

banned the men from showing an image of Muhammad on their show. They had intended to comment on the controversy created by a Danish newspaper’s publishing of caricatures of the Islamic leader. Muslims consider any physical representation of their prophet to be blasphemous.

Instead, “South Park” showed an image of Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag.

That last little tableaux occurred to me when I saw the headline on this CNN story: Has ‘South Park’ gone too far this time?

So Jesus Christ defecating on an American flag, yawn.

Muhammad in a bear suit — they’ve gone too far! (NB: I don’t normally hold writers accountable for their headlines, but in this case the fourth graf is “But have they gone too far this time with a depiction of the Prophet Mohammed in a bear suit?”) In any event, the CNN article tries to put the program’s religious irreverence in context: In the beginning, it wasn’t so much the religion that bothered observers but the language used by the series’ pint-sized cast, [Dallas Morning News TV critic Ed Bark] said.

“The most shocking thing back then was, you had little kids exercising a vocabulary that you hadn’t heard before [from children],” he said. “I go back

to the days when [the sitcom] ‘Uncle Buck’s’ ‘You suck’ was a major point of contention on a CBS sitcom and everybody went crazy about ‘how can they have an 8-year-old kid saying this?’ And then ‘South Park’ ratcheted that way up.”

Of course, maybe a TV critic isn’t the best judge of how offensive the show is with regard to religion. The CNN article does quote one Muslim who writes for Beliefnet, but doesn’t otherwise talk to one Christian, Jewish, Scientologist or any other authority affiliated with one of the show’s many religious targets over the years.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are about to do a satirical Broadway musical based on the Book of Mormon. The CNN story mentions this, but doesn’t talk to any Mormons as a point of comparison for what it’s like to be on the receiving end of this kind of irreverent satire.

It’s also worth bringing in religious perspectives from nonMuslims because the show’s religious themes have in fact been very controversial — for instance, the show was banned in Russia on the grounds of “ religious extremism.” Some context would be in order here.

The contrast to how different Muslims and different religions react to the show’s satirical intentions would be instructive.

I understand the death threats from Muslim extremists are the

newshook here, but it doesn’t need to drown out other relevant religious perspectives to inform the story.

But the CNN piece did get one thing very right. GR’s own Brad Greenberg, who’s something of a South Parkologist, informs me that there’s one ginormous elephant in the room here that’s gone unmentioned in the vast majority of reporting of the latest South Park controversy.

In season 5 of South Park, in an episode that aired two months before 911, the show actually did depict Muhammad. And not in an oblique or fleeting sort of way. Check it out. The CNN story is the one story I’ve seen that mentioned this: It wasn’t the first time Mohammed was featured on the show. In the July 2001 episode “Super Best Friends,” he appears as “the Muslim prophet with the powers of flame,” along with other religious figures — Buddha, Moses and Mormon founder Joseph Smith among them — who help the other “South Park” kids rescue Kyle from a cult devoted to magician David Blaine But that, said Stone and Parker, was before September 11, the van Gogh murder and the 2005 Muslim protests over the Danish cartoons that appeared in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

“Now, that’s the new normal.

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State of the online Godbeat 2010 tmatt (GetReligion)

cover religion news. At the same time, there was little Submitted at 4/22/2010 9:34:45 AM evidence that the public was Last week, I posted a chunk of losing its interest in the subject. what I wrote marking the 22nd T h e a c t u a l p e r c e n t a g e o f birthday of the weekly “On religion in the major news R e l i g i o n ” c o l u m n f o r t h e outlets declined in 2009 — but Scripps Howard News Service. not by much.

You may recall that I focused At the same time, it was clear on the bad news, which is the that religion-beat watchers were undeniable fact that there are seeing a major uptick in religion fewer mainstream newsrooms writing online — even if much with the resources to fund full- of it seemed to be based on the time, experienced, trained W a s h i n g t o n Post/ specialty reporters who want to Newsweek“On Faith” model,

which essentially means that religion equals private beliefs and opinions and, thus, is not really news, at least not in the same way as real news — like politics. There are very few religion facts out there (even in history and in the texts of catechisms), only feelings.

As I wrote that column I realized that there was no way I was going to get all of my material into a single column.

Thus, I did something that I rarely do: I wrote a two-part

column. That places a real burden on copy desks as they plan their pages and I know that.

However, some newspapers like to weave the two pieces into one feature, which works, too.

Anyway, part II is out and here is how it open s: For journalists who care about life on the God beat, the list of the dead and the missing in action has turned into a grim litany.

Some religion-beat jobs have been killed, while others have

been downsized, outsourced, frozen or chopped up and given to reluctant general-assignment reporters.

Gentle readers, please rise for a moment of silence.

Like I said last time, religion is not being singled out for punishment. Rather, the current business-model crisis — free content, maximum competition from online alternatives — is having an especially crushing STATE page 60

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Hooking up with CNN Bobby (GetReligion) Submitted at 4/22/2010 2:00:55 PM

Religion is overrated. Here in the bubble of GetReligionland, we sometimes forget that. Thank you, CNN, for reminding us.

For those of you trapped in the Stone Age — a bygone era back before students at Caveman University started drinking and having sex — we live in an era when “at least 75 percent of women have engaged in hooking up on campus.” I know that because CNN told me so: Nashville, Tennessee (CNN)— Almost every weekend, there is a tradition called raging at Vanderbilt University.

It’s a recurring, drunken activity that isn’t the proudest moment for student Frannie Boyle. After consuming large quantities of alcohol before a party, her night would sometimes end in making out with a stranger or acquaintance.

But there is wonderful news: Some young ladies are bucking this trend and demanding that, um, guys “at least invite us to dinner before expecting us to get down and dirty!” And the best part of this backlash: It has nothing to do with religion!: “Right now, people conceive the idea of what they think from the media and friends — that the only options are to extremes: to

deny everything fun, including sex, or just to hook up,” says Emily O’Connell, a freshman at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

After observing the hook-up scene as a freshman, O’Connell is starting a nonreligious group to talk about alternatives to hooking up.

“There’s definitely a middle ground, and it’s not that outrageous,” she said.

Because, of course, if someone were to deny casual sex because of religious beliefs, that would be, like, totally uncool. And so not fun. But secular abstinence — that’s where it’s at!

I could go on, but since GetReligion focuses on journalism, I probably should heap some specific praise on this piece. What makes the CNN report work? At least three main things: 1. The one-source-knows-all approach. On a subject this nuanced, a reporter could waste valuable time interviewing a number of students and experts.

Much better to focus on one Vanderbilt University student and let her speak for an entire campus and an entire generation: At Vanderbilt University, a pristine campus defined by elegant, Southern-style architecture and manicured

continued from page 59

lawns, the hook-up culture can be hard to avoid, Boyle said.

The Greek scene also can create more pressure to hook up, added Boyle, who is a member of a sorority.

Boyle explained the warm weather compels some students to engage in “day fratting,” imbibing for hours in the front yard of a fraternity. Day fratting can result in “afternoon delight,” noncommittal physical activity between two people that can include casual sex.

2. The you-better-believe-thisis-a-trend method. Cite “various academic studies” to back up the stat that 75 percent of college women have hooked up, but avoid specific attribution. Credit the assertion that alcohol precipitates these activities to “studies show,” but again, remain vague. And then follow up with this: Evidence of the backlash on hooking up on campuses can be seen in the growing popularity of the Love and Fidelity Network, a secular, nonprofit group dedicated to helping college students open the discussion for a lifestyle that doesn’t involve casual sexual activity with anonymous or uncommitted partners.

The organization, which promotes sexual integrity and defends marriage though

discussion and speakers, has gained a presence on at least 20 schools from Harvard University to the University of Notre Dame since its inception in 2007. There is no official count on the number of students who participate in the Love and Fidelity Network. But at Princeton University, about 40 students have joined.

Wow, 40 students! If the group keeps growing like that, will there be a room on campus large enough to contain all the members?

3. The don’t-muddy-the-waters technique. This is perhaps the most important aspect of this piece. To make a story like this work — one that portrays all men as pigs, most Vanderbilt students as horny drunks and all young people who abstain from premarital sex for religious reasons as boring — the reporter has to avoid a lot of potential voices. This report succeeds on all counts.

Religion is overrated. So, apparently, is quality journalism. Thank you, CNN, for reminding us.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

effect in the top-40 news markets, the big cities in which larger news organizations used to have the resources to fund specialty beats of all kinds (including religion).

The cuts in big newsrooms had another effect, according to the watchdogs at the Religion Newswriters Association: “In the 1990s and early 2000s, the largest papers often had multiple religion reporters. That has disappeared, for sure. That is where the biggest cut for religion has occurred,” said RNA Director Debra Mason, who teaches at the University of Missouri.

“We suffer in the meantime, and one possible casualty is all our experienced, better writers. I do worry that the next generation of religion writers don’t have any mentors or internships, etc., to gain experience.”

But the column stresses that the real growth has come on sites that mix some news with lots of opinion and media criticism (like this one). At the same time, readers now have much wider access to relig ious news, in the form of denominational wire services and public-relations offices (think Episcopal News Service) and those that tilt against those institutional windmills (think Stand Firm).

But this leads me to an interesting, and sobering, STATE page 61

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comment by the young man behind that Catholic weblog that is in almost everyone’s browser bookmarks — Whispers in the Loggia.

The harsh reality today, according to Rocco Palmo … is that all too often readers who care about religion face tough choices. Will they place their trust in traditional news reports that are, these days, often written by journalists who have little training to prepare them for the rigors of the religion beat, or the opinion-based work of experienced insiders and scholars who may have ideological axes to grind?

“There are fabulous religion reporters who are still out there grinding away in the mainstream media, but they are

an endangered species for sure,” said Palmo. “I still think that basic, hard-news reporting is the gold standard and we need more of it. … But most of what you see when you go online is commentary and criticism. You don’t see that much original reporting being done. …

“If anything, people like me are just trying to step in and fill the void.”

Now, I realize that there are plenty of you out there — on the left and the right — who are perfectly happy in a world in which you can read dozens of openly European, slanted online publications and then compare the results and figure out what you think is the accurate information. Please don’t hear me knocking that (said the pro-

American model of the press Eastern Orthodox doctrinal traditionalist pro-life Democrat prodigal Texan who leads this here weblog). I’m all for alternative media sources. I’m all for constructive, projournalism media criticism.

But who does the basic reporting? Who gets to write the basic stories to which the weblogs react? Read that Palmo quote again. And again. Please.

Photo: Apparently, this is a loggia.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

ask Matt and Trey about how they got away with their previous depiction of Muhammad and what has changed since — in detail. You just know they give good quote and are awfully thoughtful for guys who write poop jokes for a living. Any takers?

UPDATE: Looks like Comedy Central caved in the face of the threat, and is now censoring a good bit of the episode. Read Brad Greenberg’s take here. He makes a good point: Which leaves me wondering: If

“South Park†doesn’t have the license to satirize the hypersensitive, who does? *It’s something of a nonsequitur, but here’s one of the many reasons why Christopher Walken is the best Saturday Night Live host ever.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

SOUTH continued from page 58

Like we lost. Something that was OK is now not OK,” Stone said.

I give CNN big props for catching this, but they give it pretty short shrift considering what a sea change this represents. (And again, the headline — how can South Park go to far when they crossed this boundary nearly a decade ago without incident?)

So here’s decree from my imaginary assignment desk: I’d really like to see some enterprising Godbeat reporter