Liberty Newspost Apr-27-10 by Liberty Newspost

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What if there were no “too big to fail”? Fed’s Hoenig has a vision Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 4/26/2010 5:21:30 PM

Democrats and Republicans alike on Capitol Hill say they want to toss out the concept of "too big to fail" in the financial regulation reform they are tussling over. That way if a financial firm is going to go under, it will go under, with no thought for a taxpayer handout. Since the concept of "too big to fail" has yet to be erased by law, and its demise yet to be tested by a failing financial institution, it was interesting to hear how Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig envisioned the financial industry without that concept to lean on. Looking back in time -- "If you had a clear resolution process, and you had clear rules on leverage," a domino-like string of large bank failures may have been less likely. "And if the other institutions

will be held accountable, and here are the steps we're going to take, would you have had the same outcome?" "If you cannot say that we can address this, then you need to break them up," he said. Hoenig sees financial regulation reform as a measure of prevention that will mitigate another banking crisis. "But no one can guarantee anything. But I do know that if we don't address it, then I know exactly what the outcome is." What are the risks if financial w e r e s o u n d b u t o n l y h a d reform is not done the right liquidity problems, the discount way? window could have been and Hoenig saw continued would have been used in those consolidation, a less competitive instances," he said at a Reuters environment, and "the outcome Global Financial Regulation will be long-run negative for Summit. this country." "So, I don't know the counterPhoto credit: Reuters/Jim factuals, but I know there's a Young (Kansas City Federal reasonable case to say if the Reserve Bank President Thomas market knows the rules are firm, Hoenig at Reuters Summit) that the resolution process is under the rule of law, that you

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AZ governor dismisses threat of economic boycott (AP) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed) Submitted at 4/26/2010 11:32:46 PM

Top Cat buzzed up: Goldman CEO, 'Fabulous Fab' facing Congress (AP) 19 seconds ago 2010-04-

27T06:19:46-07:00 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

In Photos: Newborn stallion weighs in at just six pounds (The Newsroom) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed) Submitted at 4/26/2010 8:29:20 PM

Seth S buzzed up: Homeless good Samaritan left to die on NYC street (AP) 24 seconds ago 2010-04-

27T06:14:44-07:00 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Unsolved History Videos (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) Submitted at 4/26/2010 1:00:00 PM

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Note to chief White Sox fan:”A lot of Yankee fans vote” Patricia Zengerle (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 4/26/2010 4:50:58 PM

President Barack Obama was very much the suffering Chicago White Sox fan on Monday when the New York Yankees visited the White House to be honored for winning the World Series championship in 2009. That crown was the team’s 27th, by far the most in Major League Baseball. The team that comes second, the St. Louis Cardinals, has only 10 titles. And Obama’s favorite White Sox have won only three times, most recently in 2005, and that was their first championship since 1917. Obama was a gracious host to the New Yorkers. He praised their history and the character of the team’s players. “Being successful in New York doesn’t come easy, and it’s not for everybody. It takes a certain kind of player to thrive in the pressure cooker of Yankee Stadium -– somebody who is poised and professional, and knows what it takes to wear the pinstripes. It takes somebody who appreciates how lucky he is, and who feels a responsibility for those who are less

fortunate,” Obama said. He praised two of the players in particular, Mark Teixeira and Jorge Posada, for their charity work, and a third, Derek Jeter, who was named the U.S. sportsman of the year for 2009 by Sports Illustrated magazine. The team visited wounded U.S. troops at hospitals near Washington before coming to the White House. “This is a team that goes down to spring training every year

around a president before,” he said. ”It was a real honor.” Joe Girardi, the team’s manager, said he would cut the president some slack on the baseball front. “We all understand he’s a huge White Sox fan, and that’s OK,” he said. Another group might not be so understanding — fans of the Chicago Cubs, who have not won the World Series since 1908, the longest championship drought in the sport. Obama could not resist a dig at the White Sox’s crosstown rivals, as he noted that the Yankees’ 2009 championship was their first since 2001. “Now, it’s been nine years since your last title — which must have felt like an eternity for Yankees fans,” he said. “I think expecting to win it all — and “He better be careful with that,” other teams would be just fine more often than not, you guys shortstop Derek Jeter told with a spell like that. The Cubs, get pretty close,” Obama said. reporters outside the White for example.” However, he added shortly House. “A lot of Yankee fans Photo credit: U.S. President afterward: ”That attitude, that vote.” Barack Obama stands next to success, has always made the Even some of them seemed a N.Y. Yankees manager Joe Yankees easy to love — and, bit starstruck. Girardi as they hold an let’s face it, easy to hate as Third baseman Alex Rodriguez, autographed Yankees jersey as well,” Obama said at a packed whose $275 million deal in Obama hosts the 2009 World ceremony in the White House 2007 was the richest contract in Series Champions New York East Room. baseball history, said he was Yankees in the East Room of Some of the team’s superstar honored to meet Obama and to the White House in Washington, players joked about Obama’s be at the White House for the A p r i l 26, 2010. comments after the ceremony. first time. “I’ve never been REUTERS/Larry Downing

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CFTC’s Gensler explains the present ABA’s Yingling sees with the past danger in rhetoric: it’s Wall Street, not banks Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 4/26/2010 1:49:20 PM

Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, likes to go to the past -- sometimes as far back as 1,000 years -- to explain the financial situations of today. For example, derivatives existed for 145 years, since the Civil War, and they became regulated in the 1930s, he said at a Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit in explaining that derivatives need regulation. If you only want to go back a couple hundred years, Gensler had this to say: "Somebody in the 19th century invented street lights, somebody invented stop signs, somebody invented traffic lights." And that probably raised costs just like regulation of derivatives may do. "Just like a street light protects you from dark and dangerous highways, we need something to protect us from the dark and dangerous market that right now is over-the -counter derivatives," he said. Asked about the Goldman

Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 4/26/2010 11:54:40 AM

Ed Yingling, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, is a little worried about the rhetoric that's been flying around as Congress tries to produce financial reform legislation. And he wants people to be clear that the problems are with Wall Street, not banks. Though, the differentiation gets Sachs trader who's been in the article. h e a d l i n e s i n r e c e n t d a y s , And on another family member, a little tricky here because some Gensler said he would not Gensler says people often of the largest banks in the comment on any specific firm, confuse him and his identical country and biggest players on but he reached back even further twin brother Rob who is an asset Wall Street are members of his for explanation. "For thousands manager at T. Rowe Price. "I organization and received of years there's been good can walk in an airport and t a x p a y e r b a i l o u t s . T h e people, there's been bad people." somebody thinks I'm him. And thousands of other banks that his Gensler, a former partner at Rob can be traveling in Asia and trade association represents did Goldman, was asked how he felt somebody thinks that he is me." not. about the firm that he left 13 Have no worry, we are certain "The general tone has I think years ago showing up in the it was Gary Gensler whom we been harmful, particularly to the banks we represent," Yingling headlines these days. interviewed... "My daughter called me up one Photo credit: Reuters/Jim said at the Reuters Global day and said daddy you're in Young (Gensler at Reuters Financial Regulation Summit R o l l i n g S t o n e m a g a z i n e , " Financial Regulation Summit) 2010. But at least one key person got Gensler said, adding that she it right -- President Barack said it was not a favorable Obama in his speech on"Wall Street Reform" last week,

Yingling said. "He never used the term bank in any pejorative sense," he said. "He used it in a factual sense." "It was clear that they realized that they need to differentiate between banks and Wall Street activities," he said. "So I think there is a danger, and there's always a danger in these situations that the rhetoric can get out of hand and can drive things that go too far, drive mistakes," Yingling said. Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Yingling at Reuters Financial Regulation Summit)

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Smoke bombs thrown in Ukraine Parliament in protest over Russian treaty (World News from Times Online)

visit by his Kremlin counterpart Dmitri Medvedev to Kharkiv last week. Submitted at 4/27/2010 6:32:37 AM Opposition parties led by the U k r a i n e ’ s P a r l i a m e n t defeated presidential candidate descended into chaos today as Yuliya Tymoshenko denounced smoke bombs were set off and the agreement as a sell-out of eggs thrown at the Speaker in Ukraine’s sovereignty. They opposition protests against a unfurled a huge Ukrainian flag new treaty with Russia. in the chamber and some Clouds of smoke filled the deputies screamed “shame, chamber and deputies fought shame!” as the treaty was each other in the aisles ahead of passed. a critical vote to ratify an “Today will go down as a black agreement allowing Russia’s page in the history of Ukraine Black Sea Fleet to remain in and the Ukrainian Parliament,” Ukraine until the middle of the Mrs Tymoshenko, the former century. Prime Minister said. T h e S p e a k e r , V o l o d y m r Up to 10,000 protestors massed Lytvyn, was forced to hide outside the parliament in Kiev, under two black umbrellas held with pro-western opponents of up by aides as opposition the treaty shouting “death to deputies hurled eggs at him in a traitors” as the controversy bid to disrupt the proceedings. threatened to trigger fresh Alarms went off when two p o l i t i c a l c o n f r o n t a t i o n i n smoke bombs were thrown, but Ukraine’s divided society. deputies continued to debate the Thousands of supporters of Mr treaty even as the chamber filled Yanukovych’s Party of Regions with fumes. also turned out at a rally Despite the protests, 236 carrying banners describing deputies in the 450-seat Rada U k r a i n e a n d R u s s i a a s voted to ratify the treaty, “ s t r a t e g i c p a r t n e r s ” . allowing Russia to retain its Russia has promised to sell gas naval base at Sevastopol in to Ukraine at a 30 per cent Crimea for up to 30 years after discount in return for being its current lease expires in 2017. allowed to retain the base. Mr T h e d e a l w a s s i g n e d b y Yanukovych estimated last Ukraine’s pro-Russian President week that this would be worth Viktor Yanukovych during a $ 4 0 b i l l i o n ( £ 2 6 . 7 b n ) t o

Ukraine’s struggling economy over the next decade. Mrs Tymoshenko and Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yushchenko have denounced the treaty as a betrayal of national interests. Mr Yushchenko, who came to power in the 2004 Orange revolution, had insisted that the fleet must leave Ukraine when the present lease expired. “If society today turns a blind eye to the Kharkiv agreement, it is possible that it will be the biggest loss to our sovereignty and independence,” he warned ahead of today’s vote. Mr Medvedev broke off relations with Mr Yushchenko last year, accusing him of being “anti-Russian”. But he has moved swiflty to cement relations with Mr Yanukovych, meeting him five times since Ukraine’s new president took office in February. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s Prime Minister, was also in Kiev today for talks with Mr Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. He offered an unprecedented deal to create a joint holding company to work on projects for nuclear power generation. He told reporters that the gas deal would be a financial “burden” for Russia, adding:

“The amount that this has cost us is really something else. For this kind of money I could have eaten Yanukovych and your Prime Minister together.” Russia’s parliament, the Duma, also ratified the treaty today in a parallel session to the one in Kiev, by a vote of 410 to zero in favour. Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said: "The Black Sea fleet acts as a guarantor of security both in the Black Sea and in the Mediterranean Sea. The agreement offers us serious opportunities to promote further military and military-technical cooperation between the armed forces of Ukraine and Russia.” The Black Sea fleet has been based in Sevastopol since the 18th Century but its future was cast into doubt after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukraine and Russia agreed a 20-year lease in 1997. Tensions have escalated over Crimea, with some senior politicians in Moscow arguing that they should reclaim the territory. It was transferred to Ukraine from Russia by the Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev in 1954. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Live from RIM's keynote session at WES 2010! Chris Ziegler (Engadget) Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:25:00 AM

Though WES technically kicked off yesterday, the show gets really real this morning with RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis' keynote speech to attendees -- the vaunted (and somewhat ominously-named) "General Session." We think we're going to see the first glimpses of the company's upcoming BlackBerry 6 platform here, so stay tuned -things could get interesting! Continue reading Live from RIM's keynote session at WES 2010! Live from RIM's keynote session at WES 2010! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

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Woman claims she is first to climb world’s 14 peaks over 8,000m (World News from Times Online)

Ms Oh joined the women’s race by scaling Gasherbrum II on the Pakistan-China border in 1997 Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:38:46 AM and was not considered a serious A South Korean reached the contender until last year, when summit of Mount Annapurna she climbed four of the eighttoday to claim the title of the thousanders. first woman to climb all 14 of But her claim to the title has the world’s peaks over 8,000 already been challenged by her metres (26,247 feet), just a few closest rival, Edurne Pasaban of days after her closest rival Spain, who is due to climb her accused her of cheating. 14th peak – Mount Shisha A live broadcast on South Pangma in Tibet – in the next Korean television showed Oh fortnight. Eun-sun, 44, planting her Ms Pasaban told The Times last national flag in the snow on the week that Ms Oh’s sherpas had 8,091 metre peak in Nepal told her the South Korean did following a grueling 13-hour not reach the highest point on climb through high winds and Mount Kangchenjunga – the without oxygen. world’s third highest peak – last "Mansae! [Hurrah!]" Ms Oh year. shouted, waving and bowing “Her sherpas told me that she towards an accompanying didn’t reach the summit because cameraman from the Korean of bad weather,” said Ms Broadcasting Service. Pasaban, who climbed "I am happy and thank you," she Kangchenjunga shortly after Ms said, weeping tears of joy. In a Oh’s alleged ascent and scaled televised message to her Annapurna 10 days ago. “All I parents, she said: "Mama, Papa, want is one thing: that people I miss you. Now I want to go should tell the truth. This kind back home." of thing – I don’t like it.” The 14-summit feat was first The Spaniard also informed achieved by Reinhold Messner Elizabeth Hawley, an 86-yearof Italy in 1986 and has only old American mountaineering been equalled by 17 other men journalist who has been based in since. Several men and women Kathmandu since 1960 and is have also died trying to join considered the final arbiter on m o u n t a i n e e r i n g ’ s m o s t such disputes. exclusive club. Ms Hawley agreed last week to

record Ms Oh’s Kangchenjunga ascent as “disputed” pending a full investigation, which will include interviews with her sherpas and other climbers on the mountain at the time. Ms Hawley is considered the final arbiter because there is no international body governing mountaineering and the governments of Nepal, China and Pakistan have different standards for issuing “summit certificates”. Ms Oh has not responded directly to Ms Pasaban, but has repeatedly denied similar allegations last year from fellow mountaineers, including the veteran male South Korean climber Huh Young-ho. They questioned whether a photograph of her on Kangchenjunga was taken at the highest point, and how she had managed to cover the last 500 metres so quickly. She says the original account of her ascent was misinterpreted, and her sherpa took the photo below the summit because bad weather forced them off the very top. “I really conquered the mountain," a tearful Ms Oh told a news conference back then, using Ms Pasaban’s video footage of Kangchenjunga’s summit to try to prove that her

own photograph was not faked. Despite the controversy, Ms Oh has become a major celebrity in South Korea, where mountaineering is extremely popular, and international sporting records are relatively rare. Born in Namwon, 126 miles south of Seoul, she is the eldest daughter of a career soldier and discovered her passion for climbing on the smaller peaks of South Korea. Unmarried and without children, she now lives in Seoul and makes her living as a professional climber. "I don't have a special ability, but I just have a little more zeal than the others," Ms Oh, who is five feet one inch tall, said on her website. "If I manage to do this I will be incredibly proud, not just for myself but for my country and for Asia," she said after arriving in Kathmandu last month. "I don't know why no female climber has managed it. I suppose it is down to women's position in the world, which is still not the same as men's." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The Nokia N8, Nokia’s New Flagship Phone, Is Official John Biggs (TechCrunch) Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:14:40 AM

Every year, like the swallows returning from Capistrano or the tourists returning to Disneyworld Paris, Nokia releases a flagship phone. Sadly, the boatwrights at Nokia haven't dropped a winner in nigh on three years now and, if early reports are to believed, their new N8 is not looking seaworthy. The N8 looks like the Motorola Devour and has a 3.5-inch OLED, capacative touch screen, and all of the fun things you expect like compass and accelerometer. On paper, it seems great. It also uses Symbian^3 which, again, according to early reports, its just like Symbian^1 and Symbian^2. In other words, the more things change at Nokia, the more they stay the same.

Salesforce And VMware Partner To Launch Enterprise Java Cloud Platform VMforce Leena Rao (TechCrunch) Submitted at 4/27/2010 6:56:26 AM

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British embassy security chief Bill Shaw jailed for two years over Afghan 'bribe' (World News from Times Online)

impounded last October. G4S said in a statement that the company continues to support Submitted at 4/27/2010 5:42:16 AM Mr Shaw’s assertions of The manager of a British innocence. A spokesman told security company that provides reporters the charges against protection for the British h i m were “totally Embassy in Kabul has been m i s c o n c e i v e d . ” sentenced to two years in a His lawyer, Kimberly Motley, notorious Afghan prison for said that the case had been corruption. poorly conducted and that Mr Bill Shaw, a former British Shaw would launch an appeal. Army officer, is employed by G4S is the world’s largest G4S which provides security security company and the single for British diplomatic personnel largest private sector employer in Kabul including those from of ex-British servicemen. The the Foreign Office, Department British Embassy in Kabul is for International Development defended by a mixed force of ex and Revenue and Customs. He -Gurkhas and British soldiers was detained in Kabul on March employed by G4S. 4 and accused of paying a Mr Shaw will serve his $20,000 (£13,000) bribe to sentence at Pul-e-Charki jail, a Afghan officials for the return of crumbling jail outside Kabul t w o a r m o u r e d v e h i c l e s where many of the other inmates belonging to the company. are convicted Taleban prisoners. Mr Shaw, who holds an MBE The case brought against Mr for 20-years service with the Shaw was first reported by The Royal Military Police, told the Times in March. It is the most court that he believed he was high profile case brought before paying a fine rather than a bribe a new anti-corruption tribunal for the release of the two set up under intense Western v e h i c l e s , w h i c h w e r e pressure by the Karzai

Government to address chronic corruption after last year’s presidential elections. A G4S spokesman told The Times:“Bill was arrested . . . following his support for an ongoing investigation into alleged corrupt activities. We believe the arrest to be the result of a misunderstanding ... and continue to work closely with the Afghan authorities and the British Embassy ... to better understand the circumstances surrounding the detention and charges." Afghanistan is the second most corrupt country on earth, according to the Index on Corruption, second only to Somalia. Relations between the many security companies working in the Afghan capital and local authorities are frequently tense with security companies complaining that the rules governing their activities are continuously being changed. Insiders at the British Embassy told The Times that Mr Shaw paid the $20,000 to the Afghan

National Directorate of Security (NDS), the intelligence service, after the vehicles were impounded because they lacked Ministry of Interior Licences. Once paid, the two NDS agents who received the money were reported to have disappeared. The NDS began its own inquiry into events and Mr Shaw was called for questioning. “It was suggested to him at this point that it was a good idea to leave the country on a British military flight,” one insider said, adding that Mr Shaw had cleared the $20,000 fine with his head office in London before paying it. “But he didn’t take that advice. Next the NDS turned up and arrested him.” An Afghan employee of G4S was also convicted and sentenced to two years. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Case-Shiller: Home Prices Actually Gained In February Joe Weisenthal (The Money Game) Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:01:00 AM

February looks like perhaps it may represent the first good month for housing in some time. The market was looking for a gain of 1.1%, and indeed housing turned up for the first time in several years. On a sequential basis, housing declined sequentially modestly in February. More to come... Join the conversation about this story »

As China Slides, Copper Is Nose-Diving Joe Weisenthal (The Money Game)

Copper is something to watch out for that's not too surprising given the rough market in

China. From FinViz: Join the conversation about this

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Cleaners accidentally paint over Banksy stencil (World News from Times Online)

the cleaners were unaware of its significance and removed it because it was surrounded by Submitted at 4/27/2010 4:12:06 AM graffiti tags. C o u n c i l c l e a n e r s i n t h e “The removal of the rat stencil Australian city of Melbourne was not an error on the cleaner’s have accidentally painted over a behalf as they were under piece of Banksy street art which i n s t r u c t i o n t o c l e a n a l l was potentially worth tens of unapproved areas and were not thousands of pounds. made aware of the significance The stencil of a rat descending of the artwork,” Ms Alexander in a parachute was believed to said. be the only remaining work left In 2008 one of Banksy’s better by the elusive British graffiti known Melbourne works – a a r t i s t d u r i n g h i s t i m e i n stencil of an old-fashioned diver Melbourne in 2003. wearing a trench coat at the rear Cleaning workers contracted by wall of a building on Cocker Melbourne council had been Alley – was vandalised despite asked to “remove all graffiti and it being protected by a street art tagging from unapproved street permit and a covered by a art sites” and clean the CBD’s screen. graffiti-filled Hosier Lane, That same year a Banksy work which has five approved street sold at Sotheby’s in London for art sites which were left alone £636,500. by the cleaners. Banksy has long been a Melbourne Council CEO Kathy supporter of the street art in the Alexander said despite the Victorian capital, where he council’s knowledge that the rat spent a few months before stencil was a Banksy original, becoming famous around the

world as a guerrilla artist for his stencilled graffiti works which generally appear anonymously overnight. He once described the street art in Melbourne, which is known as the arts capital of Australia, as “arguably Australia’s most significant contribution to the arts since they stole all the Aborigines’ pencils.” Ms Alexander said it was “very unfortunate” that the Banksy work had been removed and the council would implement retrospective legal street art permits to ensure other famous works are protected. “As the street art capital of Australia, we are aware of the popularity of Banksy’s works and have made exceptions to preserve them in the past,” she said. “In hindsight, we should have acted sooner to formally approve and protect all known Banksy works.” The popularity of Banksy, who has become a collector’s

favourite with his controversial images such as snogging policemen or the House of Commons full of chimpanzees, has soared in recent years. Last year a one-off show at Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery by the graffiti artist (whose identity remains unknown) was the 30th most visited exhibition in the world, and his works have been snapped up by celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Kate Moss. The artist also recently delved into movies, releasing his first film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, dubbed ‘the world’s first street art disaster movie’, last month. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Blackberry OS 6.0 Pinned For Summer Release, Upgrades Possible Guest Author (TechCrunch)

BlackBerry OS 6.0) will be released this Summer. During an analyst talk today, RIM coStraight from the horses mouth, chief Mike Lazaridis showed off comes the news that the latest the first official teasers of the incarnation of every suit-totin', new OS. New features will email-checkin', business-type's i n c l u d e t h e p r e v i o u s l y favourite phone OS (that is, mentioned WebKit browser -Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:18:26 AM

which will now play a central

role in the OS, and the OS will support both trackpad and touchscreen devices, but the juiciest bombshell was the news that older BlackBerries will be able to upgrade, though it wasn't stated how many models will be given the option.

Tie One On ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 4/26/2010 9:00:00 AM

SD: the summer scarf was so gigantically huge last year, but I have a feeling it's going to be even more major this coming season. Discuss. JZ: I agree. The summer scarf is the new statement necklace. And with all the heat outside and a/c inside, it’s the perfect accessory. SD: I am tempted to wear one but am worried it's too girly. What do you think? JZ: Oh Simon, I think you can pull anything off. There's no such thing as too girly. Well, maybe except pink frilly lingerie. I would skip that for you. :) But definitely work the scarf, perfect with shorts and a tee. SD: Perfect for flagging down cabs! Ciao! SHOP THIS SUMMER SCARF

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Silicon Valley cops raid Gizmodo editor's home, take four computers (The Newsroom)

Report: Core i7 MacBook Pros running hot

(Yahoo! News: Most Viewed)

Dave Caolo (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Media, might be liable for criminal prosecution for being in receipt of stolen goods under Police broke into the home of California law. Gizmodo editor Jason Chen and Gawker has blasted back at the confiscated four computers and police with seized-property two servers, the tech blog charges of its own, claiming that reports. Gizmodo broke the the police had no legal grounds news last week about Apple's f o r s e i z i n g a j o u r n a l i s t ' s next-generation iPhone, after property. Gaby Darbyshire, paying a source who found it in G a w k e r ' s c h i e f o p e r a t i n g a California bar $5,000 for the officer, wrote to the police that device. Chen "tells me that he showed The officers were from the you an email I had sent him Rapid Enforcement Allied earlier that day that told him that Computer Team (REACT), a he should tell you that under California law enforcement both state and federal law, a group based in Silicon Valley. search warrant may not be In the search warrant, which validly issued to confiscate the G i z m o d o p o s t e d , R E A C T property of a journalist." o f f i c e r s c h e c k e d a b o x In a ruling handed down last i n d i c a t i n g t h a t t h e y w e r e week, a New Jersey court looking for property "used as a determined that a blogger being means of committing a felony." sued for defamation did not Since the Gizmodo iPhone have full standing as a journalist scoop broke last week, some and therefore was not protected have speculated that Gizmodo under the state's "shield law," and its parent company, Gawker which protects journalists from Submitted at 4/26/2010 7:58:45 PM

being compelled to take part in court proceedings pertaining to their work. California has a shield law, but there is no shield law that covers federal criminal cases. In her letter, Darbyshire further explained that Chen "tells me that you ignored him and, having been inside for a few hours already, you proceeded to remove the materials despite his protestations." Chen said that REACT did not damage his other property — apart, that is, from bashing in his door to get inside while he wasn't home. — Michael Calderone is the media writer for Yahoo! News. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter and join us on Facebook (click "Like"). Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 4/26/2010 6:00:00 PM

Filed under: Macbook Pro Tests performed by PC Authority found a Core i7 MacBook Pro to be running very hot, climbing to over 100 degrees Celsius. The magazine had a Core i7620M based 17" MacBook Pro on their hands for testing. While putting it through their benchmark suite, they noticed that it scored lower in Photoshop tasks then expected. Suspicious that heat might be affecting their results, they propped the machine on its side and repeated the test. Performance improved. Having booted into Windows via Boot Camp, the group ran a Dwarf Fortress test that, according to PC Authority, got the temperature up to 84ºC. They said that the bottom casing was "almost too hot to touch." When running Cinebench 11.5, the temperature climbed to 90ºC and eventually broke 100 (101ºC specifically) during a second test of Cinebench 11.5 the following day. The magazine argues that a flaw in the machine's cooling design caused the problem. The Fujitsu LifeBook SH760, which

uses the same CPU, reportedly gets no hotter than 81ºC during the Cinebench test. Note that the SH760 uses a copper heat sink that vents out of chassis, unlike the MacBook Pro. We've not done any testing of our own, nor have we heard of this issue before. I can tell you that my 2 GHz Intel Core Duo 15" MacBook Pro gets pretty hot during World of Warcraft marathons, but that was a known issue with that older machine. If you've got one of the 17" i7 MacBook Pros, share your anecdotal experience with heating issues below. [Via MacNN] TUAW Report: Core i7 MacBook Pros running hot originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Financial reform bill stumbles in Senate (Reuters: Top News)

McConnell said ahead of the vote. More than two years since the WASHINGTON(Reuters) - The near-collapse of Bear Stearns most sweeping overhaul of U.S. ushered in the worst U.S. banking rules since the Great banking and capital market Depression stumbled in the crisis in generations, both sides S e n a t e o n M o n d a y a s in the Senate were locked in Republicans united to prevent negotiations toward a possible action on the bill. bipartisan compromise. Barack Obama TIGHTER RULES The vote gives Republicans President Barack Obama and l e v e r a g e t o e x t r a c t m o r e his fellow Democrats want concessions from Democrats on tighter rules to prevent a repeat a measure that could ban banks of the 2008-2009 crisis, which from several lucrative types of tipped the economy into a deep trading and subject them to recession. Republicans see a greater oversight. need for reform, but say the Needing 60 votes in the 100- Democrats' bill is a government seat Senate to begin debate on overreach. the bill, Democrats fell three The future shape and votes short. profitability of the banking The setback is not likely to be industry hangs in the balance. permanent. Lawmakers in both T h e l e g i s l a t i o n i s o n e o f parties said they are close to O b a m a ' s t o p l e g i s l a t i v e agreement and the Senate could p r i o r i t i e s . take up the bill later this week. The bill would form a As Wall Street reels from a consumer watchdog, bar banks fraud case against Goldman from trading unrelated to clients Sachs Group Inc, lawmakers and devise a new process for from both parties are eager to dismantling troubled financial crack down on the financial firms. It also would crack down industry before the November on the unpoliced $450 trillion congressional elections. The derivatives market that helped v o t e c a m e a d a y b e f o r e ignite the financial crisis. Goldman executives were due to Democrats, who control 59 appear before a Senate panel. votes in the Senate, needed to "All of us want to deliver a hold their ranks and garner at reform that will tighten the least one Republican vote to screws on Wall Street. But we're begin debate on the bill. But not going to be rushed on they came up short when another massive bill," Senate conservative Democrat Ben R e p u b l i c a n L e a d e r M i t c h Nelson joined Republicans to Submitted at 4/27/2010 5:27:58 AM

block the bill by a vote of 57 to 41. According to the Wall Street Journal, Nelson had sought to modify the bill at the request of home-state investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc, which would face greater regulation of its derivative holdings. In a statement, Nelson said he was concerned that the bill could hurt businesses in his home state of Nebraska. An aide said Berkshire Hathaway was not was a factor, citing the bill's potential impact on dentists and other small businesses. Senator Christopher Dodd, who is leading the Democratic reform effort, said Nelson did not mention those concerns during the vote. "Dentists and auto dealers did not come up," Dodd told reporters. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also voted no, a tactical move that allows him to bring up the measure again. Additional votes are likely in coming days to exert pressure on Republicans, Democratic aides said. "The only thing Republicans stand for is standing together," Reid said. Republicans have struck a conciliatory tone and said they expect a final bill to pass by a wide margin. The stakes are high for Obama. Since the passage of his landmark restructuring of the U.S. healthcare system, he has

sharply criticized Wall Street in speeches backing the Democratic bill. 'KILL IT' Obama said he was "deeply disappointed" by the vote. "Some of these senators may believe that this obstruction is a good political strategy, and others may see delay as an opportunity to take this debate behind closed doors, where financial industry lobbyists can water down reform or kill it altogether," Obama said in a statement. The U.S. House of Representatives approved a reform bill in December. Whatever the Senate produces would have to be merged with the House bill before a final measure could go to Obama to be signed into law. Analysts expect that by mid-year. Roughly two-thirds of Americans want stricter financial regulations, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released on Monday. Hundreds of lobbyists for banks and Wall Street, sometimes working closely with Republicans, have been working for months to block or weaken the reform plans, which threaten bank profits, particularly in the lucrative derivatives market. The bill Democrats aim to take to the floor would effectively force banks to spin off their swaps-trading units, according to a copy obtained by Reuters.

Swaps are a type of financial contract implicated in the downfall of bailed-out insurer AIG and other firms that bet heavily in the derivatives market. Obama administration officials have declined to say whether they support that approach Bank stocks fell on Monday, with the KBW Banks index down 3.1 percent. The financial crisis hit bank stocks hard, but they are up 30 percent so far this year. Republicans have focused their criticism on an element of the bill that would aim to end bailouts of "too big to fail" firms like Goldman. Democrats want an "orderly liquidation" process. As proposed, the bill aims to protect taxpayers from costly bailouts, like that of AIG, while shielding the economy from shock bankruptcies like Lehman Brothers' 2008 collapse. 'AS SOON AS WE CAN' Senator Richard Shelby, the lead Republican negotiator on the issue, has said it does not sufficiently ensure that taxpayers won't be on the hook for future bailouts. "I am hoping that we can get a bill. I would like to get a bill this week, or next week, as soon as we can," he said after meeting with Dodd a few hours before the vote. The reform debate has FINANCIAL page 12

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Protests as Ukraine backs Russian base extension (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:36:09 AM

KIEV(Reuters) - Opposition lawmakers hurled eggs and smoke bombs inside Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday as the chamber approved an agreement allowing the Russian Navy to extend its stay in a Ukrainian port until 2042. World| Russia Crowds of supporters and opponents scuffled outside the parliament building as deputies from newly elected President Viktor Yanukovich's coalition approved a 25-year extension to the Russian Black Sea Fleet's base in Crimea. "Today will go down as a black page in the history of Ukraine and the Ukrainian parliament," former premier Yulia Tymoshenko, now in opposition, told journalists inside parliament. The chamber filled with smoke as the smoke bombs were released and Speaker Volodymyr Litvyn took shelter under umbrellas provided by bodyguards as eggs rained down on him. Protesting deputies unfurled Ukrainian flags across the benches. The protests galvanized various opposition parties against Yanukovich for the first time

since he was elected in February and they may yet prove a defining moment in the forming of an united opposition front. They also highlighted the deep division in the ex-Soviet republic of 46 million. Yanukovich enjoys support mainly from Russian-speakers in the east and south, including Crimea, who lean more toward Moscow. Ukrainian nationalists from the west and center, led by Tymoshenko and former President Viktor Yushchenko, regard the base as a betrayal of national interests. They wanted to remove it when the existing lease runs out in 2017. Deputies brawled and the chamber resounded to cries of "impeachment!," "coup!" "betrayal!" as passions ran high. But, with the air still hazy from the smoke bombs, parliament ratified the lease extension by 236 votes -- 10 more than the minimum required for it to pass -- and then promptly adopted the 2010 state budget which is key for securing $12 billion in credit from the International Monetary Fund. Parliament bypassed normal procedure and rushed through adoption of the budget without discussion because of the mayhem.

UKRAINE "NOT FOR SALE" Yanukovich agreed the navy base deal with Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev on April 21 in exchange for a 30 percent cut in the price of Russian gas -- a boon to Kiev's struggling economy. "There is no alternative to this decision -- because ratification means a lower price for gas and a lower price for gas means the budget," Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said. "The budget means agreement with the IMF, the possibility of getting investments. It is a program of development for Ukraine in the future." Tymoshenko, speaking to a rally, said: "We have one slogan: Ukraine is not for sale. We must build a powerful system for the defense of Ukraine." Former parliament Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who also ran for president, called for early parliamentary elections. Yanukovich, speaking to journalists in Strasbourg where he attended a session of the Council of Europe, dismissed the disturbances, according to Interfax Ukraine news agency, saying: "Nothing unexpected took place in the Ukrainian parliament." The Kremlin has presented the

base deal as a diplomatic coup and Russia's lower house of parliament approved it with 410 of the 450 lawmakers voting for the deal under an hour after the Ukrainian parliament voted. "The Black Sea fleet acts as a guarantor of security both in the Black Sea and in the Mediterranean Sea," Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said after the two votes. The Russian fleet has been based in Sevastopol since the reign of Catherine the Great in the 18th century. But, under an accord after Ukraine gained independence following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the fleet would have had to leave in 2017. A M B I G U O U S C O N S T I T U T I O N Yushchenko, Yanukovich's proWestern predecessor who favored Ukrainian membership of NATO, pushed hard when he was in office for the fleet to be withdrawn. But Yanukovich wants to improve ties with Ukraine's former Soviet master. He says the Black Sea fleet does not endanger Ukraine's national interests and enhances European security. Yanukovich's opponents say he is acting against the constitution.

But the constitution is ambiguous, containing two contradictory articles on foreign military bases in the country. Nina Matviychuk, a 60-year-old pensioner, welcomed the move. "The Russian ships in Sevastopol are in a bad state and need repairing, building. It probably means more money for our factories. It will be work for us," she said in Kiev. Miroslav, a 48-year-old who did not want to give his surname, thought differently. "We Ukrainian patriots are against gas being reduced for 10 years and Crimea being given away for 25 years. I'd like the price of beer to come down, but so what?" The Russian fleet in Sevastopol comprises 16,200 servicemen, a rocket cruiser, a large destroyer and about 40 other vessels. Proponents point out that the Crimea was part of Russia until then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine in the 1950s. The region retains a Russian-leaning population. (Additional reporting by Yuri Kulikov and Pavel Polityuk, editing by Michael Stott and Peter Millership) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Panel to seek solutions to budget woes (Reuters: Top News)

Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:12:37 AM "The downside risk is you get WASHINGTON(Reuters) - some unholy compromises to Seeking to show he is serious get some agreement where the about reining in soaring budget solution is worse than the deficits, President Barack problem," such as cutting social Obama on Tuesday will kick off programs recklessly, Ettlinger the work of a panel he created to said. try to solve the nation's fiscal Tuesday's commission meeting woes. and the others that follow it will Barack Obama be recorded on livestream video. O b a m a h a s g i v e n t h e Federal Reserve Chairman Ben i n d e p e n d e n t , 1 8 - m e m b e r Bernanke and White House National Commission on Fiscal Budget Director Peter Orszag Responsibility broad leeway to are due to speak at the inaugural suggest remedies for the debt meeting. and deficits. BABY BOOM GENERATION A debate already has erupted The U.S. deficit was $1.4 over options the panel might trillion in 2009, nearly 10 consider, with conservatives percent of the overall economy. urging that tax increases be It is expected to be that much ruled out and liberals seeking to again this year. Longer term, the shield the Social Security retiring baby boom generation retirement program and other will strain the Social Security entitlement program from cuts. retirement program and the The commission is due to Medicare health insurance convene at a White House event program for the elderly and with Obama at 9:30 a.m. and disabled, putting even more hold the first of several monthly p r e s s u r e o n g o v e r n m e n t meetings afterward. spending. Obama has given the panel Former Republican Senator until December 1 to report back Alan Simpson, co-chairman of o n i t s r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s , the panel, said on "Fox News enabling it to deliver its report Sunday" that the country could a f t e r t h e N o v e m b e r not grow its way out of its debt c o n g r e s s i o n a l e l e c t i o n s . and deficit problems. "I think the upside there is an "We could have double (-digit) opportunity to break through growth for 30 years and never some political logjams," said grow our way out of this," he Michael Ettlinger, vice president said. for economic policy at the Co-Chairman Erskine Bowles,

a Democrat who was White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, said he believes the commission has "everything on the table," including possible cuts to entitlement programs. But Barbara Kennelly, head of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said such programs were the wrong place to look to solve the budget mess. Social Security "should not be used as a piggy bank to pay our way out of the fiscal hole we find ourselves in," Kennelly said. She noted that since the mid-1980s, the program has been bringing in more money than it pays out in benefits and has thus helped mask problems elsewhere in the budget. Other analysts said Social Security's finances will worsen in coming years as the baby boom generation begins to draw benefits. Also sparking a debate are possible tax ideas the commission could consider. Some conservatives are trying to head off any consideration of a European-style value-added tax, an idea that Paul Volcker, the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman and an outside adviser to Obama, has said is worth looking at. The White House has said Obama is not considering a VAT but also that he was not

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going to prejudge the commission's work. Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, which advocates fiscal discipline, expressed concern about a dual mission given to the commission. The panel has been charged with finding a way to balance the budget excluding interest payments by 2015 and then also to suggest ways to deal with long-term budget problems such as the growth of entitlement spending. "The short-term budget goal could easily distract the commission from its long-term mission," Bixby said in a blog posting. Bixby said it would be hard to imagine the Republicans on the commission giving Obama political cover for tough remedies to fix the near-term budget problems. He said it would be better for the commission to "spend its limited time and political will on shoring up the unsustainable long-term outlook." (Additional reporting by Kim Dixon and Donna Smith; Editing by Will Dunham) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

intensified amid the high-profile fraud case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Goldman, a titan of Wall Street. Goldman released three-yearold e-mails over the weekend that showed bond trader Fabrice Tourre wrote of the impending collapse of the subprime mortgage market and how he was masterminding ways at Goldman to make money from it. Tourre is the only individual charged by the SEC in its case. Goldman released the e-mails as it readies for its appearance before a Senate panel on Tuesday. Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and Tourre are slated to testify, with other former and current executives. Goldman Sachs and Blankfein were hit with a shareholder lawsuit on Monday claiming they hid key details about a risky transaction that resulted in the SEC charges. (Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai, Thomas Ferraro and Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Will Dunham) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Obama touts plans to boost rural economies (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:11:14 AM

WASHINGTON(Reuters) President Barack Obama will make a speech on financial regulatory reform on Wednesday in Illinois, the White House said, the last stop on a two-day trip to discuss efforts to boost the economy in rural America. Barack Obama Obama will visit Iowa, Missouri and Illinois on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss his plans to boost job growth and support small businesses in rural communities, the latest steps in his effort to convince Americans he can ease their economic woes. Obama's last stop on the trip will be in Quincy, Illinois, where he will deliver remarks on Wall Street reform on Wednesday evening, White House deputy communications director Jen Psaki told reporters in a conference call on Monday. The three-state trip -- to areas far from the cities and coastal regions where he is most popular -- is the latest segment of Obama's "White House to

Main Street" tour to discuss ideas for rebuilding the economy. With U.S. unemployment just below 10 percent, Americans are anxious about the country's finances, nudging Obama's approval ratings to 50 percent or below and dimming his fellow Democrats' prospects in November's congressional elections. The White House issued a 40page report on the rural economy on Monday, discussing how administration efforts have increased lending to small businesses in rural areas, promoted the use of biofuels based on agricultural products and created new opportunities for rural tourism and recreation. "We really see some dramatic improvement in the credit flowing to small businesses in rural communities," White House economist Christina Romer said on the conference call. The White House is also seeking to boost agricultural exports and strengthen rural infrastructure. The sweeping overhaul of U.S. banking rules, Obama's top

legislative priority, stumbled in the U.S. Senate on Monday as Republicans united to prevent action on the bill. TIGHTER RULES Obama and his fellow Democrats want tighter rules to prevent a repeat of the 20082009 financial crisis, which tipped the economy into a recession. Republicans see a need for reform, but say the Democrats' bill is a government overreach. The bill would form a consumer watchdog, bar banks from trading unrelated to clients and devise a new process for dismantling troubled financial firms. It also would crack down on the unpoliced $450 trillion derivatives market that helped ignite the financial crisis. "The entire package of regulatory reform is very much designed for Main Street," Romer said, noting that the states Obama is visiting have been hit hard by the recession triggered by the banking crisis, with unemployment in Illinois at 11-1/2 percent. Monday's setback for the reform bill is unlikely to be permanent. Lawmakers in both

parties said they are close to agreement and the Senate could take up the bill this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Obama will visit a small business, hold a town meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa, tour a farm and visit a Siemens Energy plant that received $3.5 million in tax credits under Obama's economic recovery plan. "This Fort Madison plant is a perfect example of stimulus dollars at work: In just a few years, it has invigorated this Iowa community, provided some 600 new jobs and is innovating the next-generation wind turbine blade," Peter Loescher, president and chief executive of Siemens AG, told Reuters. Earlier "White House to Main Street" stops were in Pennsylvania and Georgia. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, editing by Will Dunham) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

iTunes Library Importing Makes Us Want Spotify Even More [Streaming Music] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/27/2010 5:00:00 AM

Spotify, the (Europe-only, at the moment) web/desktop hybrid music manager that ranks as the best desktop music player we've ever used, just received a whole host of upgrades, including public playlist sharing and Facebook profile management, but, more importantly, iTunes library importing. That means uploading your entire iTunes library to Spotify from one computer, then having access to it from anywhere. We continue to await the coming of a much better music manager, and Spotify, likely, be its name. [ Spotify via Gizmodo] More Âť

Street Chic: New York ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 4/27/2010 6:00:00 AM

Chuck Taylors and a graphic tee give a pantsuit a playful vibe. Photo: Anne Ziegler

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Bringing Google, Facebook, Twitter Together: Third Party Login Grows Rapidly in 2010 Mike Kirkwood (ReadWriteWeb)

for sites using third party login services. The number of websites using Submitted at 4/27/2010 2:10:00 AM JanRain's RPX worldwide have This March has been a busy passed the 200,000 mark. Here time for the leading architects of is an example of what it looks t h e s o c i a l w e b . T w i t t e r like that you may have seen on announced its @Anywhere at the web. A Quick Summary of Chirp. M e a n w h i l e , the Provider Landscape Facebookbrought the Open Google and Facebook are Graph protocol to light the path leading providers of identity of social sharing and separately services that enable third party announced support for OAuth login. 2.0 at F8. Google: Early innovator in Personal information sharing i d e n t i t y , m a n a g e s e m a i l , across the web is transforming domains, and consumer facing in front of our eyes. To get our services such as news, google bearings on the innovation health, and Google Docs as a taking place, we took the time to core service for identity. Uses talk to JanRain a leading third- email as a central token for party login services to find out hanging authentication services what the changes in the recent within Google. l a n d s c a p e m e a n f o r o p e n JanRain mentioned that Google standards and user facing is still the largest authentication services. provider in their pool of user Sponsor population, shown here are 2010 is the Year of Third Party recent stats. Growth: Websites and Users Twitter: Early innovator in the Lisa Hannah, head of marketing O A u t h i m p l e m e n t a t i o n of JanRain mentioned that in the ecosystem, the company offers first quarter of 2010, the total one of the cleanest and fastest number of web site customers growing examples of sharing using their RPX third party identity across the web. "Tweet login service grew by 50%. This" and similar features bring At the same time frame, the more and more users to Twitter. total number of logins through Twitter uses its unique id for RPX accounts grew by 100%. each account @Twitter. It also Both the base of applications h a s m a d e a n i n c r e a s i n g supporting third party login is prominence its goal to know the growing, increase in use overall users email, mobile number, and

feeling lucky". This amazing product (at the time) offered a knowing of the "best hit" for a term being searched. In a subtle, but important way, a taxonomy for the web has been introduced for the web. This default view is now monetized - and controlled - by Google in how it links to top level documents on the web. We're starting to think of Facebook's platform to be like Google. In a way, it is indexing the world of information, not by most linked, but by most liked. location. Like Google, when this filter is Facebook. Facebook Connect a p p l i e d t o t h e g o o d o l d has been the companies special fashioned web, it shows that the sauce for embedding Facebook world's content is valuable, and services into websites and it can be monetized. connecting users on the web. Here is a summary of how This strategy has been evolving, F a c e b o o k ' s O p e n G r a p h and at F8 the company protocol works, from the announced its open standard c o m p a n i e s s i t e . support and an increase in In this way, both Google and presence of social sharing Facebook could be seen as services for users to target the sponges that continually absorb sharing of content they consume more and more around them. from the web. As third party login grows and it Shown here, we see Facebook becomes easy to drop content as a clear leader among media from the web into their sites a providers in the population. long-time bond may be forming This may be partly due to media around social connections like it provider tense relationships with did search. Google on search. The web is evolving in a way Who Sets the Terms that puts more and more A decade or so ago, Google responsiblity in a few key transformed the perceptive of players that provision our the web by offering the "I'm identities.

Will the join of Twitter, Facebook, and Google be good enough competitors to do the right things with personalized services to win our trust? Open Questions for Us and Them There are questions are still being formed as the rules of engagement evolve in social networking. Many of these questions look at the balance of what the social hub desire and what we are willing to give them. Below, are a few things we think will be important as third party login grows and central services continue to grow into the fabric of the Internet. â&#x20AC;˘ Will Facebook, Google, and Twitter continue to let companies and web site owners use mutliple services? Today, this can be done by hooking up a service like JanRain. Will this open/closed ecosystem continue? â&#x20AC;˘ Will OAuth 2.0 be implemented by each of the leading providers in a way that makes their services interoperable? Will Twitter's XAuth, and Google's GAuth variants merge nicely with Facebook in the end. â&#x20AC;˘ Who will be the holder of the super-set of contacts a person engages with. Today, for many, BRINGING page 17

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5 Ways That Cars Are Getting Smarter Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/27/2010 9:00:00 AM

In the emerging Internet of Things, everyday objects are becoming networked. Recently we looked at smart clothing, today we explore the world of smart cars. From Formula One to cheap family cars, all kinds of vehicles are utilizing sensors and advanced technology nowadays. While some of the features we discuss below aren't connected to the Internet, yet, all of them are using sensors. And so we can easily imagine the day when most cars are connected to the network. We begin our post looking at the state of the art in car sensor technology: Formula One manufacturer McLaren's 300 live, simultaneous data streams. We end with a look at family car Alhambra's more humble sensor technology. In between we have the latest from Chrysler, General Motors and Ford. Sponsor 300 Sensors on a Formula One Car The latest McLaren Formula One car, as driven by current world champion Jenson Button, relies on feedback during the race from 300 data streams - via miniaturized sensors on the car

and the driver. This data tells Button's team how well he and his car are performing. This system is called "live telemetry" and it sends data such as the heart rate of the driver and the fuel level in the car. This same technology is now being implemented in healthcare. Explained the Times Online: "If we can track the heart rate of an elite athlete, why not also track the heart rate of a patient recovering from a heart attack? If, for instance, a patient is released from hospital having suffered a heart problem, the McLaren technology can employ wireless sensors the size of sticking plasters that will send, via the internet to the doctor or clinician responsible, a continuous record of the patient's heart rate and electrocardiogram, the graph that monitors the heartbeat." NASA Technology in Chrysler Cars Perhaps in a bid to out-do Formula One, Chrysler is tapping into space travel technology! According to a recent press release from NASA, it is partnering with Chrysler to "use technologies originally developed for human spaceflight to enhance future vehicles and

systems, which "monitor lane lines and alert a driver when he or she inadvertently crosses those lines." Another use for external cameras and sensors, writes AOL Auto's Frank Filipponio, is forward vision enhancement. Last month ReadWriteWeb wrote about a new General Motors technology that will bring AR to car windshields and adapt advanced automotive provide a heads-up-display technology for use in space." (HUD) experience. Here's a The two organizations will share v i d e o s h o w c a s i n g t h i s information about mobility "enhanced vision system" of systems, wireless technologies, General Motors: robotics, energy storage, radar, Ford's Voice Controlled Car materials engineering, and Last week we reported on the battery systems. latest update to Ford's Sync Chrysler said that it plans to use system, a voice-controlled NASA's research in surface connectivity system. Sync navigation sensors for backup allows drivers to use voice warning systems, lane departure commands to do things like warning systems and adaptive place a call or control their cruise control. GM's Augmented music playlists. Reality Car With Sync AppLink, Ford In an article entitled What introduced a new platform that You'll See In The Future, AOL allows developers to offer voice Auto looks at the latest advances controls for their mobile apps on in car cameras and sensors. Side Sync-enabled cars. The first - v i e w c a m e r a s , c u r r e n t l y Sync-enabled applications, available on some up-market which will be available later this vehicles, can be used to assist year, are Pandora, Stitcher, and parking and as "advanced O r a n g a t a m e ' s O p e n B r e a k systems that help spot vehicles Twitter app. The first car to in your blindspots." Sensors on feature this new service will be the side of the car are also used the 2011 Ford Fiesta. Opposite for lane departure warning End of Car Spectrum: The

Alhambra To show that even cheaper models of cars are getting sensor technology, let's look at the latest model of the Alhambra- a Spanish MPV car (MultiPurpose Vehicle). The Alhambra was described by British car guide Whatcar? as "cheap to buy, comfy for seven and good to drive." The latest model comes with "bi-xenon headlamps with adaptive control and full beam assistant." This works via a sensor, which "detects oncoming vehicles and automatically dips the beam." Another new feature is "the park/steer assistant, which autonomously manoeuvres the Alhambra into tight parking spaces - even perpendicular to the direction of travel." While the Alhambra may sound humble compared to Formula One's sensor technology, or Chrysler's deal with NASA, it shows that even the most basic of cars is using sensors - which will inexorably lead to an Internet of Things. Let us know in the comments what you're driving and if it uses sensor technology. Research for this article was contributed by Deane Rimerman. Discuss

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2 More Weeks Until the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit Register Today! Admin (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/26/2010 11:30:00 PM

There are just two more weeks until the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit 2010, so we invite you to register now. Be a part of high-value, intimate conversations with people working throughout the world of mobile, from garage developers to industry luminaries. The summit will take place May 7, 2010, in Mountain View, California and will be an exploration of the latest mobile development trends, both the technology and the emerging business applications. We are looking forward to some amazing discussion and debate about mobile with participants like: Sponsor • Deb Schultz of Altimeter group • Patrick Chanezon, Don Dodge & Bob Meese of Google • Ted Morgan of Skyhook Wireless • Scott Raney and Tom Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures • Adam Blum of Rhomobile • Brady Forrest of O'Reilly

• Brent Simmons of Newsgator Technologies • Patrick Burns of DASH7 Alliance As with our first event, the Real -Time Web Summit last October, the Mobile Summit will be in the "unconference" format. Laura Fittion, founder of oneforty.com, had these thoughts about ReadWriteWeb's last summit:"There were a lot of investors there and it was a great dialogue between startups and investors. The unconference format was great because it got away from the bogus who-is in the real-time Web, and made it who-wants-to-be. You didn't have to be big and influential to get your ideas across - if it was a good idea then it got heard. It wasn't just Twitter, it was many things real time, defined pretty expansively." How Unconferences Work What's an unconference all about? Here's the idea: Convene an incredible group of people, frame the discussion, ask important questions, then guide participants in building an agenda for the day to maximize the value of the event and

minimize hot air. Martin Källström, CEO of the real-time blog and feed tracking service Twingly brought his team over from Sweden for our last event. " Last year we happened across one of Kaliya Hamlin's unconference events," he told us. "We spent a couple of hours there and it was an amazing experience. The unconference format is an amazing way for things to happen; it gets everyone to lower their defenses. By opening peoples' minds to 'this is about whatever we want it to be about", they look at how they can create value." Or, as Google's Brett Slatkin said when using the elite FooCamp events as a way to explain the unconference format: "Foo-style [unconferencing is] always way better than talks." As with our previous event, the

Mobile Summit will be facilitated by Kaliya Hamlin, who in our opinion is the best in the business at this style of event. We're using the same venue too, the beautiful Computer History Museum. Mobile was one of our top five trends last year and continues to undergo explosive growth, so our aim with this event is to help you navigate the opportunities. Get ready to explore, think and create the future of mobile! Because it will be you - the attendees - who ultimately set the agenda. You can begin adding your suggestions now. We will have two main tracks at this Summit, Development and Business. Here's a sample of some of the topics we'll explore in both of these tracks: • Geo-location services- what can you do using location as a platform? • Commerce & Marketing- as more and more consumers use smartphones, how can businesses utilize this channel? • Content, Publishing & Recommendations- the technologies and best practices. • Mobile Social Networkinghow to tap into communities on

mobile devices. • Internet of Things- the emerging opportunities from sensor and RFID data. • Augmented Reality- the technology and business applications of AR. • Native App vs. Browser Based- Including iPhone, Android, RIM, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian. If you're a company in the mobile Internet market, you may be interested in becoming a sponsor for this event. Please contact our COO Sean Ammirati for more information about sponsor packages. And a big thank-you to our current event sponsors: CallFire, WorldMate, Alcatel-Lucent and Ipevo. The ReadWriteWeb team is excited about our second event and we can't wait to discuss the opportunities in Mobile with you on May 7. You can find banners and logos to link to our event here, if you're so inclined. We hope to see you on May 7! Discuss

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AdMob Report: One Third Of Android Phones Account For 96 Percent Of Traffic, Motorola Droid Takes The Lead

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BRINGING continued from page 14

the social graphs of Gmail, Twitter, and Facebook are still distinct islands. Will they merge? • Will consumers rise up as a power to dictate the terms of Leena Rao (TechCrunch) traffic, considering Google’s of talk about how the Nexus social networking, data sharing, claims of profitability and One’s initial roll-out has been a and mining of personal traits. Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:02:18 AM success from the device. flop. But only weeks ago, How will balance be reached, or Mobile Ad Network AdMob At least 54 percent of Android Google claimed profitability for will it? has released its monthly mobile traffic came from devices with a the device and painted a rosy • Does it matter to people as metrics report for March, which QWERTY keyboard, says the picture for the Nexus One’s consumers whether it is Google, takes a close look at Android report. Of course, only three growth and future. Twitter, or Facebook as the OS traffic. In March 2010, there devices – the iPhone 3GS (39 AdMob and Google may be in a identity service? Will another were 34 Android devices from percent), second generation iPod bit of a pickle. The FTC is o p t i o n s p r i n g u p i n t h e 12 manufacturers available to touch (25 percent) and iPhone reportedly gearing up to marketplace to meet the c o n s u m e r s . I n A d M o b ’ s 3G (20 percent) – generated 84 challenge the Google-AdMob consumer in more friendly network in March 2010, 11 percent of total iPhone OS d e a l , d u e t o a n t i - t r u s t terms? d e v i c e s a c c o u n t e d f o r 9 6 traffic. iPhone 3GS traffic share regulations The search giant percent of Android traffic, up has increased from 30 percent in acquired the popular mobile There is a lot of change in this from two devices in September September 2009 to 39 percent in advertising network for$750 landscape of social sharing on 2009. The three primary March 2010. The 1st Generation million last Fall. Reports the web. Although it is growing versions of the Android OS all iPhone only generated 2 percent emerged a few weeks ago that quickly, we still feel that we're drove significant traffic in of iPhone OS requests in March t h e F T C ’ s l a w y e r s w i l l in a chapter in the middle of March 2010 – Android 1.5 (38 2010. Total worldwide traffic in r e c o m m e n d t h a t t h e book, rather than the closing percent), Android 2.0/2.1 (35 AdMob’s network increased 18 Commission block the deal. pages. percent) and Android 1.6 (26 percent month-over-month. We’re not surprised, considering Right now, it feels like anything percent). Motorola and HTC The report of course highlights versions. that we heard that Google was can happen in the landscape, were the leading Android device that diversity of devices in the The Android ecosystem is taking the unprecedented step of and we're getting to know each manufacturers with 44 percent A n d r o i d e c o s y s t e m , w i t h steadily growing, with the App r e a c h i n g o u t t o A d M o b of the main characters - and and 43 percent of respective manufactures each creating and market now counting 38,000 competitors to rally their their intentions - well enough to traffic. l a u n c h i n g d e v i c e s w i t h plus apps, up 8000 apps from a support around their acquisition get a feeling on how it may end. According to AdMob, Motorola d i f f f e r e n t f o r m f a c t o r s , month ago. Of course this pales of the company, in response to What do you think, will thirdDroid was the leading Android capabilities, and OS versions in comparison to Apple’s rumors that the FTC could block party login services be a happy h a n d s e t i n M a r c h 2 0 1 0 over the past seven months. In booming App Store. the deal. Consumer groups have ending for the world wide web? g e n e r a t i n g 3 2 p e r c e n t o f contrast, the iPhone OS runs on The small share of traffic from also lobbied to block the deal. Photo credit: sidelong Discuss Android traffic, while the d e v i c e s f r o m a s i n g l e Google Nexus One phones isn’t CrunchBase Information Google Nexus One drove only manufacturer, a single form surprising, when you take into AdMob Information provided two percent of Android traffic. factor (until the launch of the account this report from Flurry, by CrunchBase It’s surprising that Google’s iPad in April), and all devices which reported low Nexus One Nexus one generates so little have the ability to upgrade OS sales. In fact, there’s been a lot

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Sonic freebie: New, free SoundHound music-ID app for iPhone, iPad (CNET News.com) Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:00:00 AM

A glimpse of the free SoundHound offering, which includes lyrics and four ways to search.(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET) GIVEAWAY: The first 50 CNET readers to retweet this story and follow @Sound_Hound on Twitter.com will be eligible to win a $10 gift card from SoundHound. SoundHound will contact winners directly via a direct Twitter message. When most software companies offer free versions of premium apps, it's not unusual to see a substantial portion of the feature set fly out the door. Not so with SoundHound. The company, formerly known as Melodis, is now giving away a new version of its songtagging app for the iPhone and iPad. SoundHound app, which used to be called Midomi until last December, competes with the better-known Shazam to name that unknown track you hear playing nearby. Instead of tagging only recorded music (a Shazam requirement,) SoundHound can also match

songs that you type, speak, hum, or sing into the microphone. Despite SoundHound being the superior tune-IDing app for some time, it managed to capture only 5 percent of the iPhone market. As we mentioned, the free version SoundHound keeps advanced features like the four search methods, lyrics finder, and integration with iTunes

intact but limits the number of song-matching queries to five per month. Banner ads recoup some of the loss of the free app, as do two paths to in-app upgrading. One option buys up five more IDs for another dollar; the other sells you the whole enchilada with no ads and a lifetime of unlimited song-tagging for $4.99. Course, you can also gain another credit

by tweeting or Facebooking your SoundHound activities from the app as a reward for your participation in viral marketing. In the meantime, the premium version of SoundHound has turned into SoundHound "Infinity," where SoundHound channels Prince back in his "Artist" days to spell the word with the looped infinity symbol. The SoundHound music-player and -finder adds a freebie to its iPad and iPhone repertoire.(Credit: Photo by Josh Miller/CNET) Although the iPhone and iPad version of SoundHound shares the same software installer, the app manifests differently on the two devices. Thanks to the iPad's roomy 9.7-inch display versus the iPhone's 3.5-inch one, SoundHound can keep the search menu pinned to the left sidebar while showing everything from search results and music videos to user ratings in the right pane. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Google Earth Arrives Inside Google Maps on the Web [Google Earth] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/27/2010 4:00:00 AM

Windows/Mac: Now you can navigate the world's terrain, great cities' buildings, and your neighborhood's restaurants in 3D, without having to install a hefty separate application. Google Earth has arrived in Maps in a new "Earth" view, and its pretty great. More Âť

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Gizmodo editor's house searched by police last Friday Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/26/2010 5:00:00 PM

Filed under: iPhone Gizmodo editor Jason Chen came home last Friday to find police going through his house in California, according to a just-posted report on the blog that purchased Apple's prototype iPhone, originally lost in a bar a few weeks ago. We posted an analysis over the weekend about Gizmodo's possible liability after a report that police were starting up an investigation into the matter, but it looks like the case struck home quite literally for Chen. The editor had his house broken into (as per a search warrant) by police and multiple computers, hard drives, and an iPhone seized as evidence. Chen was told by officers that he was not under arrest or detainment, and that they were looking for material that may have been "used as a means of committing a felony." Gizmodo's legal representative, COO Gaby Darbyshire, filed paperwork with the officers that

claims the search warrant was executed erroneously according to California penal code, which gives journalists fairly wide latitude for protection from seizure, especially regarding the identity of sources. Darbyshire also took issue with the search's time -- it wasn't approved as a "night search" according to the warrant, but took place at 9:45pm local time. As we said last week, it's unclear what liability Gizmodo might have for purchasing the lost iPhone, and uncertain what

actions Apple might take in terms of civil or criminal prosecution. But it looks like the police investigation is underway, and if they find anything on the materials procured from Chen's house (as well as defend the complaint against the search's legality) that makes them think a felony took place, then it means this case isn't over. Update: Legal code (quoted in the comments below) says the search can take place between 7am and 10pm, which means

the "night search" argument is already invalid. Darbyshire's other argument is questionable as well -- there's some legal dissension over whether the journalist protection extends to warrants like this or not. We likely won't find out whether this evidence stands until the sheriff's office decides to proceed with the case or not -our legal analyst says that complaints like Darbyshire's should be filed with the judge, not the sheriff. TUAW Gizmodo editor's house

searched by police last Friday originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

From the Tips Box: Folding Socks, Magic Erasers, and Bad Tasting Water [From The Tips Box] Whitson Gordon (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/26/2010 5:00:00 PM

Readers offer their best tips for folding socks without stretching the elastic, getting the most out

Erasers, and drinking water in cities you're not used to. More Âť of your Mr. Clean Magic

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MyPunchbowl Signs Multi-Million VMware, Dollar Licensing Deal With Oriental Salesforce.com to offer Trading Company in-cloud Java Leena Rao (TechCrunch) Submitted at 4/27/2010 5:54:40 AM

The event planning business is a competitive space, with a number of companies and startups competing for a piece of a very lucrative pie. All-in-one party planning platform MyPunchbowl is opening up a new revenue stream today by licensing its technology to outside companies. And the startup has already hit gold. MyPunchbowl has signed a licensing deal to distribute its planning platform on the Oriental Trading Company, one of the U.S.’s largest direct merchants of party supplies, arts and crafts, toys and novelties. While financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, we heard from a source that the transaction was worth “millions of dollars.” MyPunchbowl allows users to create beautiful online invitations and track RSVPs. The platform also provides tools that let you find supplies,

organize an after party and even set a date, via an algorithm that recommends the best date for your party. The site also allows you to set up gift registries, save -the-dates, message boards, integrate Google Maps’ to display the location, and share comments, photos, and videos. Basically, MyPunchbowl helps you plan and organize an event from start to finish. According to the terms of the deal, MyPunchbowl has built a party planning site for Oriental Trading to enable their customers to plan a party on the Oriental Trading website. Oriental Trading products will also be available to users planning a party of MyPunchbowl’s standalone site. MyPunchbowl’s CEO and cofounder, Matt Douglas says that the startup is developing a number of other licensing agreements with media and

retail companies to use the planning application. Along with the licensing news, MyPunchbowl is also expanding its leadership team. Harry Lin, the former General Manager of Evite.com has joined th startup’s Board of Advisors, and Robert Perkins, former SVP of Marketing for Pizza Hut and head of Global Marketing and Licensing for Calvin Klein, has joined the Board of Directors. Launched in 2007, MyPunchbowl has turned into a all-in-one party planning site in a matter of two years. The site added birthday reminders, ecards, wedding planning tools, and also just acquired a local business directory to boost vendor listings. Competitors to MyPunchbowl include Socializr, Pingg, Someecards, Cocodot, and MySpace, Facebook and Evite. CrunchBase Information MyPunchbowl Information provided by CrunchBase

(CNET News.com)

which point pricing will be announced, the companies said. The service is an example of Two relatively new arrivals in one variety of cloud computing, t h e c o m p u t i n g i n d u s t r y a general-purpose foundation announced a partnership to customers can use to run their profit from the trend toward own programs. Previously, g e n e r a l - p u r p o s e c l o u d Salesforce.com had offered a computing services on the Net. Java-like language called Apex The first partner is VMware, an for such services. EMC subsidiary that specializes Among competitors for the in virtualization technology that s e r v i c e a r e G o o g l e ' s A p p lets multiple operating systems Engine, which now can run Java run simultaneously on the same programs, and Microsoft's computer for greater operational Azure, which are cloud-based flexibility. The second is Windows servers on which Salesforce.com, a company that customers can run their own offers its clients customer- programs. r e l a t i o n s h i p m a n a g e m e n t Another major variety of cloud services online. Under the computing operates at a higher partnership, the two will offer a a p p l i c a t i o n s l e v e l , w i t h cloud-based service called e x a m p l e s b e i n g VMforce for running Java Salesforce.com's pre-built CRM applications. service or Google Docs. And a Specifically, VMforce will third variety makes low-level permit programs written with computing resources available VMware's SpringSource tools over the Net, the prime example and technology to run on tc being Amazon Web Services. Server, a version of the Apache Five Filters featured article: Tomcat project for running Java Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: programs on servers. VMforce PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, will be available in a developer Term Extraction. preview form later in 2010, at Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:00:00 AM

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Netbook market may have already peaked (CNET News.com) Submitted at 4/27/2010 6:00:00 AM

IDC will release figures later this week that indicate that the Netbook phenomenon may have peaked, and recent comments from Intel itself back this up. HP Mini 210: Netbooks may have peaked last year.(Credit: Hewlett-Packard) The figures from market researcher IDC show a decline in Atom processor shipments as a percentage of Intel mobile processors--a sharp reversal of previous trends that had the Atom chip, quarter by quarter, taking a larger percentage of mobile chip shipments. Intel ships most of its Atom processors to makers of Netbooks--small, highly portable laptops that are typically priced around $350. Major Netbook brands include Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Asus, Acer, and Toshiba. "Atom in Netbooks is plateauing," Shane Rau, an analyst at IDC, said in a phone interview. "With the market

to be published later this week. "Pretty much all of last year, it was in the 23, 24, 25 percent range. So, 20 percent coming into Q1--that's a noticeable change," he said. And Intel doesn't seem to disagree. In an Intel earnings conference call earlier this month, CEO Paul Otellini said this: "I think we suggested that Netbooks seem to be settling out at about 20 percent of the mobile form factors and on an annual basis that looks to be about right," he said. Other comments from Otellini support the IDC figures. "In Q1...Atom was down a bit more than what we would normally recovery, I think end users are "smartbooks"--and tablets, such see as seasonal," he said, adding going to be looking for more as the iPad, will also be a factor that there is "no corporate value than just low-cost devices. in the Atom-based Netbook N e t b o o k m a r k e t w e h a v e This is an opportunity for higher slowdown, Rau said. found." -end mobile PCs, for example, In the first quarter of this year, Five Filters featured article: that have better performance, Atom processors as a percentage Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: bigger screens, bigger hard of Intel mobile processors fell to PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, drives," he said. 20.3 percent, compared with Term Extraction. Competition from Netbooks 24.3 percent in the fourth that use processors from United quarter of last year and 23.5 K i n g d o m - b a s e d A R M - - percent in the third quarter, c o m m o n l y r e f e r r e d t o a s according to Rau, citing figures

Windows Home Server "Vail" Available for 64Bit Testing [Beta Beat] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/27/2010 6:00:00 AM

Got a 64-bit PC sitting around, just waiting for a purpose? Dig the idea of automated backups and media streaming in your home? Microsoft is offering up free downloads of its next Windows Home Server, dubbed "Vail," for public testing. More Âť

'Chuck' - 'Chuck Versus the Honeymooners' Recap Brad Trechak (TV Squad)

up pretty well and left the story on a happy note. Then, NBC ordered additional episodes (see (S03E14) Let's review the steps details in our Chris Fedak that brought us to this moment: interview), so in effect we're 'Chuck' originally only had a 13 seeing "Season 3.2". Also, episode order for this season so there's a good chance that the last episode wrapped things 'Chuck' will be renewed next year. Submitted at 4/26/2010 9:30:00 PM

That's everything. Shall we begin with this episode? Okeedokee then. Chuck and Sarah are now officially together. The question is, what happens next? That's what they have to ask themselves while they're on a

train in France. Continue reading'Chuck' 'Chuck Versus the Honeymooners' Recap Filed under: Episode Reviews, Chuck, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Visa targets 'scam' online marketers (CNET News.com)

called loyalty programs with the help of companies such as as Classmates.com, Continental Visa, one of the world's largest Airlines, Priceline, Orbitz, credit card companies, is taking Buy.com, and many others. a i m a t " s c a m " m a r k e t i n g Lawmakers said during hearings practices that were quietly used that these merchants had made by some of the Internet's largest an unholy alliance with one or retailers in recent years. more of three so-called postRetailers will no longer be able transaction marketing firms: to allow third-parties to charge a Webloyalty, Affinion, and customer's credit card without Vertrue. the card owner re-entering credit Under most of the agreements card information. This is Visa's between the marketing firms response to one of the biggest and retailers, an advertising scandals to rock online retailing page is presented to a shopper in years. while they complete a Last year, the U.S. Senate transaction at the retailer's C o m m i t t e e o n C o m m e r c e , online store. Many shoppers say Science, and Transportation they entered their e-mail address launched an investigation after and pushed a large "Yes" button learning that thousands of on the ad because it appeared to consumers had complained be a $10 cash-back offer or about receiving mysterious coupon. Many of those that credit card charges. complained say they thought The committee concluded that they were being rewarded by the millions of consumers were retailer for making a purchase. misled into signing up for so- Buried in the fine print are the Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:48:18 AM

full terms of the deal. Customers are notified that by providing their e-mail address they are joining a membership program and agreeing to pay one of the marketing firms a monthly fee, typically between $10 and $20. Many people said they didn't see this notice. Visa's new requirement is designed to send a "clear signal to cardholders that a second purchase is being initiated and protects them from questionable marketing practices." With the government leaning on them, many of the merchants involved have severed ties with the post-transaction marketers, which have also taken steps to alter their business practices. They haven't gone far enough, however, said critics. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

MoviePeg: An awesome chunk of rubber Dave Caolo (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:00:00 AM

Filed under: Accessories OK, so it's actually a chunk of thermoplastic elastomer. That made for a poor title, though. The MoviePeg is an inexpensive, ridiculously useful iPhone stand from magneticNorth. It's been my companion for a week, and frankly, I couldn't love it more. Design The MoviePeg is a small rectangle with a notch cut into it that perfectly accommodates the shell of an iPhone 3G or 3Gs.* One side of the notch is flat, while the other side curves to fit the iPhone's curved back. It weighs next to nothing and fits in my bag's smallest pocket. They're available in six colors with clever names like Yellow Submarine and Soylent Green. I played it safe with Black Rain. Gallery: Movie Peg stand for

iPhone 3G and 3GS *It can hold a 1st generation iPhone, but "...doesn't look great," according to magneticNorth. Additionally, it'll hold an iPod touch in the horizontal position but not vertical. An iPad version is in the works, as are model-specific iPod versions. TUAW MoviePeg: An awesome chunk of rubber originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

'24' - '10:00AM - 11:00AM' Recap Jane Boursaw (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:31:00 AM

(S08E19) "I just want the people who are responsible for this to be held accountable. All I need to do is expose them." - Jack to Chloe

Jane here, filling in for Mike. I was actually reviewing'24' at the beginning of the season, but found the storyline so preposterous that Mike graciously agreed to take it off my hands. Somewhere between then and

now, the show has gotten much

better -- more interesting and less ridiculous. In fact, last week, my nephew emailed me and said the show's gotten better lately, especially with the return of Charles Logan. I wholeheartedly agree. Not that Logan's any less of a weasel, but

that's what I love about him. Continue reading'24' '10:00AM - 11:00AM' Recap Filed under: 24, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Android Keeps on Growing - But Most Users Still Stuck on Old Versions Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:00:00 AM

Just over six months ago, two Android handsets, the HTC Dream and HTC Magic, accounted for almost all of the Android traffic on mobile advertising service AdMob' s network. As the Android market has grown, so has the diversity of devices. Today, 11 different device make up 96% of AdMob's Android traffic. According to AdMob's latest metrics, old versions the Android operating system versions 1.5 and 1.6 - still account for over 60% of all the Android traffic on AdMob's network. Devices running Android 2.0 and 2.1only make up about 35% of all the traffic. Sponsor On the iPhone, on the other hand, the two latest versions of

the iPhone OS (3.1.2 and 3.1.3) generated over 86% of AdMob's iPhone traffic last month. Given the fragmentation in the Android market, it doesn't come as a surprise that many users never got a chance to update to the new OS. Chances are that we will see slightly more fragmentation in

responsible for about 32% of all the Android traffic on AdMob's network, the Google Nexus One only drove about 2% of visitors in March 2010. Looking at the overall market, AdMob also notes that the Android platform has seen rapid growth over the last year, with a compounded growth rate of about 32% since March 2009. Traffic on AdMob's own network is also up 18% month over month. It's important to point out that these statistics are based on traffic to sites that feature the iPhone market later this statistics too much. year, once Apple releases In the U.S. the Motorola Droid, AdMob's mobile advertising. version 4 of the iPhone OS, HTC Dream and Motorola AdMob's network is big enough which won't support the first CLIQ are the most popular to function as a good proxy for generations of the iPhone and Android phones, while the HTC general trends in the mobile iPod touch. In total, however, Hero is the most popular space, but it's always worth these first-generation devices Android handset in the UK, taking the exact numbers with a only account for a small slice of followed by the HTC Dream grain of salt. Discuss all iPhone traffic (about 5%) and and the HTC Magic. won't impact the overall While the HTC Droid was

'House' - 'Open and Shut' Recap Danny Gallagher (TV Squad)

open marriage to Tom Last night's episode had a theme that didn't involve lessons (S06E18) "When you think like eating nothing but rabbit about it, tons of couples do what meat is lethal or that hemlock we do. It's just that with most of can cause tachycardia and them, one spouse doesn't know. uncontrollable salivation. We decided things work better It was all about relationships when people tell each other the and trust. Some were obvious truth." - Julia, the patient, on her like the never-ending drama Submitted at 4/27/2010 9:00:00 AM

between Taub and his exasperated wife and some not

so much like the unspoken one between Wilson and House and the woman who has come between them. And just so you know, this episode doesn't end with unnecessary double-male spooning, so feel free to read on ahead while you enjoy that tasty Jimmy Dean pancake sausage

on a stick. Continue reading'House' 'Open and Shut' Recap Filed under: House, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Steam for Mac: Uses OpenGL, Intelonly, 10.5 or higher Chris Rawson (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/26/2010 7:00:00 PM

Filed under: Gaming Details have emerged regarding Valve's release of its Steam games platform for the Mac. Forum sleuths at Steam's site have put together a list entitled " What we think/know about Steam for Mac" that gives us some information about the forthcoming release of Steam for OS X. Among the more interesting details: -- Requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher -- Intel-only -- Source games require 10.5.8 or 10.6.3 or higher, and are not supported on the X3100 or 900series Intel chipsets (the integrated graphics chipsets in older MacBooks) -- You will not be required to purchase separate versions of Windows and Mac games. One purchase will work on multiple platforms -- Steam and Source will run natively in OS X -- no emulation whatsoever -- Source will run on OpenGL -- Mac and Windows users will play on the same servers and join the same lobbies

Toshiba NB305 and HP Mini 210 to be upgraded with Atom N455 CPUs and DDR3 memory Vladislav Savov (Engadget) Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:52:00 AM

-- Release expected in May Some of these details are not at all surprising, particularly the minimum requirements of having a 10.5 install and an Intel CPU. Those still using PowerPC Macs may cry foul, but I imagine the work it would have taken to get Steam running properly on PowerPC would have been both difficult and expensive, with little payoff for Valve. It's also not surprising that the integrated Intel GPUs won't see official support -- a beta tester noted that he was able to get Portal running on his MacBook with integrated Intel graphics, but the frame rate was only 10-15 FPS on the lowest

A little bit of Euroland investigation this morning has revealed signs that Intel's settings. Counter-Strike, "The Half-Life upcoming 1.66GHz N455 and Series," Left 4 Dead, Left 4 1.83GHz N475 Atom processors Dead 2, Portal, Portal 2, and are close to making their official Team Fortress 2 have all been debut. Netbook Italia spotted the confirmed for release on OS X, official Toshiba website posting with presumably more games on up an NB305-10F model a little prematurely -- a page that was the way later on. promptly yanked, but not before [Via MacRumors] TUAW Steam for Mac: Uses our amici were able to note the OpenGL, Intel-only, 10.5 or i n c l u s i o n o f t h e D D R 3 higher originally appeared on c o m p a t i b l e N 4 5 5 C P U , a The Unofficial Apple Weblog gigabyte of RAM, 250GB hard (TUAW) on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 disk and otherwise unchanged 19:00:00 EST. Please see our specs. The expected price for that netbook is noted at â&#x201A;Ź350 terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

($467), which is also the price at which the upgraded HP Mini 210-- spotted by German outfit nDevil-- is listed on Amazon.de. Shipping dates are predictably not yet ascertained, though it's looking like things are about to get moving nice and swiftly from here on out. Toshiba NB305 and HP Mini 210 to be upgraded with Atom N455 CPUs and DDR3 memory originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink SlashGear, nDevil| Netbook Italia, Amazon.de| Email this| Comments

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TomTom Go Live 1000 taken for first test drive Thomas Ricker (Engadget) Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:20:00 AM

We've just returned from a ride with the TomTom Go Live 1000. In general, the device met our relatively high expectations set by a purported flagship navigator from the likes of TomTom. Unfortunately, the prototype unit guiding our vehicle was limited to a scripted demonstration on pre-selected routes. And when we did veer off course thanks to an unhelpful, but rather posh, voice guiding us to turn left a bit early, it took about 8 seconds for the ARM 11 device to reroute -not bad but not exactly the 0 seconds we were promised

during the pitch. Again, we were told that this was the result of using a prototype device... though it must be a near production-ready model given the summer launch timeframe. The unit also wasn't equipped with the automatic volume adjustment that raises and lowers volume based on the ambient noise around it. We did witness the Webkit UI in action and it does seem significantly improved based on our brief 15 minute test ride with it. However, it was still cumbersome enough to give our tour guide (a TomTom quality manager) fits as he tried to jump between 2D and 3D navigation modes. And the capacitive

touchscreen was a mixed bag: at times it seemed to require the kind of finger mashing usually reserved for resistive screens; at others it was a bit too sensitive to effectively target street names

from a pick list while being jostled about on a Dutch road (accidentally brushing the display selected the entry either above or below the street desired). As bad as all this

sounds, we had the good fortune to have a Garmin nuvi 1690 in the vehicle with us to go head-to -head, flagship-to-flagship... and the Go Live 1000 was the clear winner in getting us back to our starting location. We'll have video processed shortly. Gallery: TomTom Go Live 1000 given a first test drive TomTom Go Live 1000 taken for first test drive originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

Hugo Chรกvez to Make Terrorist Threats, er, Join Twitter Curt Hopkins (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/26/2010 11:10:00 PM

After getting the short end of the Twitter stick, Venezuela president, Hugo Chรกvez, called it " terrorism," " a battle trench" and a "current of conspiracy."The Internet cannot be free!" he proclaimed. Since he has taken six television channels he didn't like off the air and imprisoned reporters, who knew what he would do? Well, it turns out he intends "to open his Twitter account soon to wage the battle online,"

according to Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela's chief telecommunications regulator. Sponsor With Venezuela's once invincible-seeming oil-economy now in the toilet and his approval rating diving below 50% perhaps El Jefe feels he has no choice. Since mass media in Venezuela is under constant threat from its strongman head of state, his opponents and critics have monopolized the microblogging platform and that platform is becoming popular. Reuters outlined its recent

growth. "The microblogging site has seen an explosive rise in usage in Venezuela to more than 200,000 active accounts. With

growth of over 1,000 percent in 2009, Venezuela now has one of the highest rates per capita of Twitter users in Latin America." The moment you shut people

up, you no longer speak for them. This has started to dawn on some of Chรกvez's once-vocal partisans. It may take longer for those whose solidarity is limited to their Che t-shirts. May I s u g g e s t y o u Sharpie#FreeVenezuela across yours? Top photo from Open Democracy Bottom photo by Corey Harmon Discuss

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Mini Altair 8800 looks authentic, runs Windows 7 (video) Tim Stevens (Engadget) Submitted at 4/27/2010 9:18:00 AM

It was just a few weeks ago that we lost Dr. Henry Roberts, the pioneer whose company created the Altair 8800, and while this project isn't exactly a tribute to the man it is at least a sign that his legacy lives on. Bob Alexander had always wanted an 8800 of his own, but now that he could afford one didn't want a gigantic blue case filling up his life. So, be bought a repurposed Altair 680, little brother of the 8800, and set

about stuffing it with an Intel Core i5-650 processor on a Mini -ITX motherboard with 4GB of RAM, 80GB of SSD and 500GB on platters. That's all standard fare, but the front of

the case pulls it all together, a custom-made, USB-powered circuit board with LEDs that turn on and off similarly to how the 8800's would. Those blinkenlights and the rest of the

iPad finger ripper suspect behind bars Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/27/2010 9:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPad It was a gruesome and sad story. After Bill Jordan picked up an iPad for a friend from the Cherry Creek Shopping Center Apple Store in Colorado, he was assaulted by two men who stole the iPad -- and in the process damaged his pinky finger so badly that part of it had to be removed. Now, the Denver Post is

reporting that police have one of the suspects behind bars. Brandon Darnell Smith was arrested without incident and is being held in connection with

the investigation into the assault and robbery of Jordan. The arrest came one day after Smith was identified in the theft, and the police asked the public for

project are demonstrated after the break, but sadly there's no word of whether Kill the Bit is playable. Continue reading Mini Altair 8800 looks authentic, runs Windows 7 (video) Mini Altair 8800 looks authentic, runs Windows 7 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Galactic Studios| Email this| Comments

McCain: Arizona Had to Crack Down On Immigration (Newsmax - Inside Cover) Submitted at 4/27/2010 2:39:50 AM

Sen. John McCain says Arizona had to pass a tough immigration law because the Obama administration has failed to "secure our borders." The Arizona Republican called the situation in his state "the worst I've ever seen," saying ineffective border enforcement has resulted in drugs pouring into the southwestern United States from Mexico. McCain told CBS's "The Early Show" that over a million pounds of marijuana were intercepted on the border at Tucson just in the last year. He said he's talked to law help in finding him. enforcement officials and This particularly violent iPad believes the new law can be theft has made national news implemented "without racial and even ended up on one of profiling." David Letterman's Top Ten Under the law set to take effect lists. in late July or August, it would TUAW iPad finger ripper be a crime to be in the United suspect behind bars originally States illegally. appeared on The Unofficial ÂŠ C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 T h e Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, Associated Press. All rights 27 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. reserved. This material may not Please see our terms for use of b e p u b l i s h e d , b r o a d c a s t , feeds. rewritten or redistributed. Read| Permalink| Email this| Five Filters featured article: Comments Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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iRetrofone Base: perfect for homes with cuttingedge GPRS reception

Options Update: Las Vegas Sands Volatility at 62 into Singapore Sands Opening

Darren Murph (Engadget)

Paul Foster (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:46:00 AM

Still looking for that perfect iPhone dock? Struggling to convince ma and pa that ditching the landline really is the best thing to do? Freeland Studios is up for helping with both quandaries, as the handmade iRetrofone Base provides both a perfect resting place for your iPhone (or any phone, really) and a pinch of vintage to boot. Cast from resin

with the utmost care, this here adornment can be ordered in both black and clear, though you'll have to wait around a fortnight for one of the $195

Thanks for repeating yourself, history. iRetrofone Base: perfect for homes with cutting-edge GPRS reception originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 07:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Retro To Go, Engadget German| Etsy (Freeland Studios)| Email this| Comments

Filed under: Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Options, Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Las Vegas Sands( LVS) will open portions of its Singapore Marina Bay property today. LVS is expected to report Q1 devices to actually ship. Up EPS on May 5. Overall option next? A resin-based bag phone implied volatility of 62 is near holster for those who constantly its 26-week average of 63, lose their smartphone between according to Track Data, the seat and center console. suggesting non-directional price movement. Three stocks with IV rise on April 26: Delcath Systems ( bodybuilders for generations to DCTH) +20%, Netflix ( NFLX) +10%, USG Corp ( USG) +11% come." Check out videos of Hugh according to IVolatility. CBOE Volatility Index( VIX) Hefner closed at 17.47, above 10-day Hefner, whose donation brought the fundraising total to moving average of 16.59 into $ 1 2 . 5 m i l l i o n , s a i d , " M y FOMC rate decision on April childhood dreams and fantasies 28. came from the movies, and the Update is by Stock Specialist F o s t e r o f images created in Hollywood P a u l t h e f l y o n t h e w a l l . c o m. had a major influence on my life Options Update: Las Vegas and Playboy." the outcome "the Hollywood Five Filters featured article: Sands Volatility at 62 into ending we hoped for." Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: S i n g a p o r e S a n d s O p e n i n g "It's a symbol of dreams and PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, o r i g i n a l l y a p p e a r e d o n opportunity," he said. "The BloggingStocks on Tue, 27 Apr Term Extraction. Hollywood sign will welcome 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see dreamers, artists and Austrian our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Hugh Hefner Helps to Save Hollywood Sign (TVGuide.com: Breaking News) Submitted at 4/26/2010 10:20:00 PM

• Apr 26, 2010 11:20 PM ET • by Natalie Abrams • Hollywood Thanks in part to a $900,000 donation from Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, The Trust for Public Land conservation group has raised enough money to protect the land surrounding the famed Hollywood sign from development, The Associated

Press reports. Schwarzenegger rep: Profane term in veto message is "strange coincidence" Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger held a news conference, calling

Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:00:00 AM

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Nike CEO Calls Tiger Woods Ad "Polarizing" But Authentic

'Panic Attack' Pilot Ordered by Fox Rich Keller (TV Squad)

Noah Robischon (Fast Company)

Submitted at 4/27/2010 9:15:00 AM

Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:47:19 AM

For some time now, reality shows have been a bit, shall we say, bland. Plenty of talking, gossiping and backstabbing, but very little action. It makes one miss the days of stepping into a tank full of leaches or having a meal comprised of caterpillar with a side order of maggots. Well, FOX may be doing something about that. The network has ordered a new pilot called 'Panic Attack.' Produced by 'Hell's Kitchen' and 'Kitchen Nightmares' production company A. Smith & Co., the show will feature five contestants with the same phobia. With the help of a pair of therapists (the U.K.'s Nick and Eva Speakman), the quintet of participants will try to overcome their fears. Look for

Nike's unwavering support of Tiger Woods in the wake of his scandalous affairs was not entirely surprising, the company potential episodes focusing on has a track record for sticking fear of heights, snakes, tight with athletes through troubled spaces and aglets. times. But even some of Woods' There's a rumor that a group of most ardent fans were taken FOX representatives will appear aback by the first post-scandal on the show in order to break TV commercial that aired their fear of producing a decent during the Masters. Created by scripted comedy. (Fingers longtime Nike collaborators crossed they bring in those who Wieden + Kennedy, the spot greenlit ''Til Death.') Another shows Woods with a solemn group will try to get rid of the face as the voice of his deceased discomfort they feel when trying father Earl speaks in voice over. to find a new late-night talk Michael Pascua (TV Squad) Samba/Argentine Tango. Jake Here, Nike's CEO Mark Parker show. has the biggest fashion crime, Submitted at 4/26/2010 10:00:00 PM explains the reasoning behind Filed under: Industry, mixing the odd leopard print Programming, Reality-Free ( S10E10) With Kate Gosselin with a floral print. He's followed the ad, and says it is "one of the P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | gone from'Dancing with the by Pam, who created a nightie most polarizing ads I think that Comments Stars,' the show can finally get with the strap down; she could we've had out in awhile." to actual competition. Her have pulled that out of her own [youtube 5NTRvlrP2NU] disappearance from the bottom closet. Without Kate's silly "I Parker was one of the guests at of the score board has now love you," I now am focused on Fast Company's Innovation vanquished scores below 20. Maks now tugging his ear to the Uncensored conference held on April 21, 2010, in New York The contestants have two camera. dances: either the Samba or Continue reading'Dancing with City. For those who didn't score Argentine Tango and the Swing the Stars' - 'Performance #5' a ticket to the sold-out affair, we're offering highlights. More Dance Marathon. Recap As the contestants walk down Filed under: OpEd, Dancing to come tomorrow. t h e s t a i r s , I c r i n g e d , With The Stars, Episode remembering that the celebrities R e v i e w s were in charge of creating the Permalink| Email this| | outfits this week for the Comments

'Dancing with the Stars' - 'Performance #5' Recap

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Credit Cars -- Post Reform - from Consumer Reports Press Room (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 4/26/2010 9:00:59 PM

Lost Adds to Finale Celebration with Early Penultimate Episode Screening, Musical Performance (TVGuide.com: Breaking News) Submitted at 4/26/2010 10:09:00 PM

• Apr 26, 2010 11:09 PM ET • by Natalie Abrams • Lost As if a five-hour finale night wasn't enough, ABC is adding another event to the Lost farewell lineup. The penultimate episode will be screened a week before it airs at " Lost Live: The Final Celebration." Several cast members — including Nestor Carbonell, Michael Emerson

and Jorge Garcia— will attend the event, which will take place at Royce Hall in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 13. Will you watch all five hours of Lost's series finale night? Prior to the screening, Oscarwinning composer Michael Giacchino will conduct a live orchestral performance of his original music from the hit ABC series. All proceeds from the concert will go to the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The Quaids Arrested in Santa Barbara (TVGuide.com: Breaking News) Submitted at 4/26/2010 10:15:00 PM

• Apr 26, 2010 11:15 PM ET • by Natalie Abrams • Randy Quaid and wife Actor Randy Quaid and wife Evi were arrested on outstanding warrants after showing up to court two weeks late, according to The Associated Press. Randy and Evi Quaid plead not

guilty to fraud charges The Quaids were held on $100,000 bail and ordered to return to court on Wednesday. The Quaids face extradition for court no-show The couple was arrested in September for allegedly ducking out on a $10,000-odd hotel tab in Santa Barbara County. After not showing up for previous court hearings, they pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Credit Cars -- Post Reform from Consumer Reports In light of recent rule changes imposed on credit cards, some cardissuers have come up with some creative new wasy to clip you. From Consumer Reports May issue. Credit-Cards - 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

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Report: Legend of the Seeker Canceled

Plummeting U.S. Inventories Will Extend The Recovery

(TVGuide.com: Breaking News)

Vincent Fernando, CFA (The Money Game)

Submitted at 4/26/2010 10:00:00 PM

Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:15:17 AM

U.S. capital goods spending is accelerating. Shipments of core capital goods in March rose 2.2%, higher than February's 1.5%. Legend of the Seeker Moody's Economy.com: Cult-favorite series Legend of Growth in core capital goods the Seeker has been canceled, shipments, a direct input into according to Entertainment equipment investment in the Weekly. GDP accounts, measured 7.4% The syndicated series was annualized in the first quarter, dropped by several markets last Are you sad the series is only a small step down from the March, and ABC Studios was ending? fourth quarter's 8.7%. unable to find a home for it, EW Five Filters featured article: Yet at the same time, U.S. reports. Based on The Sword of Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: i n v e n t o r y l e v e l s a r e T r u t h f a n t a s y n o v e l s a n d PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, encouragingly coming down. produced by Sam Raimi and Term Extraction. Very little of the acceleration in Robert Tapert, Seeker has been demand for capital goods averaging 2.2 million viewers in appears was due to restocking. its second season. The monthly data show a shift toward increases in core capital goods inventories in the first two months of the first quarter. However, inventories fell sharply in March, and so far the turn has lagged the increase in shipments. Consequently, the inventory/sales ratio for core • Apr 26, 2010 11:00 PM ET • by Natalie Abrams •

capital goods has continued to decline and is now close to prerecession norms. More broadly, with demand from both consumers and businesses surprising to the upside in the first quarter, inventories remain lean, and the restocking cycle is in its early stages. The need to bring inventory growth in line with sales means that the inventory cycle in coming months will continue to boost demand and

production above the pace of final sales. Capital goods spending represents business confidence in the sustainability of the U.S. recovery. Should it continue, it will have knock-on effects throughout the economy, from manufacturing to transportation and jobs. Join the conversation about this story »

style. View Recipe: Jane's Vegetarian Chili Next Seared Tofu with Gingered Vegetables

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

Superfast Vegetarian (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

also boasts four different kinds of beans. The unusual This chili is heavy on the sweet addition of Worcestershire sauce and tangy flavor of tomatoes, (if you're a strict vegetarian or with both diced and paste, but it vegan, make sure to use a

v e g e t a r i a n version) brings great meaty flavor to the chili. Serve with jalapeño cornbread or over cooked spaghetti, Cincinnati-

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Fine shades of green (The Economist: Daily news and views)

UKIP-land will be calculated on the basis of the accuracy of the organisation’s weather Submitted at 4/27/2010 3:29:02 AM forecasts.) G r e e n . v i e w B r i t a i n ’ s Even so, the party is firmly, environmental politics are a bit indeed fervently, pro-nuclear, dull wants more high-speed trains Apr 27th 2010 | From The and enthuses over electric Economist online vehicles. It would build more There are many thrilling aspects coastal and flood defences and to the British election due to be invest in clean coal. Leaving held on May 6th. A hard-fought aside rhetoric and renewables — battle over environmental both things which British priorities is not one of them. climate discussions might be Climate is the top environmental said to overemphasise — even issue across the board, and the UKIP isn’t that far out of the t h r e e m a j o r p a r t i e s , consensus. Conservatives, Labour and So when the energy, Liberal Democrats, broadly e n v i r o n m e n t a n d c l i m a t e agree on the need for measures spokesmen of the major parties to cut carbon dioxide emissions meet to debate in public, as they steeply. So, for that matter, do d i d o n A p r i l 2 1 s t a t t h e the regional parties and most of Guardian newspaper, and again the minor parties. on April 26th under the aegis of The most notable exception, out Ask the Climate Question, an towards the fringe, is the UK assortment of green charities Independence Party. UKIP and pressure groups making speaks for those opposed to common cause, there was more membership of the European dull worthiness than high drama. Union, a group that has a lot of The major parties all agree on overlap with climate sceptics, r e d u c t i o n s t o B r i t a i n ’ s and is the political home of emissions, increases in the Christopher Monckton, the deployment of renewables, highest-profile climate sceptic investments in carbon capture of the “it’s all an outright fraud” and storage systems for coalpersuasion that Britain can fired power stations, a big boast. UKIP is proud of its own nationwide push to increase the climate scepticism, and says it energy efficiency of people’s would repeal the 2008 Climate homes, new high-speed-train Change Act, remove Al Gore lines and the creation of a Green DVDs from schools, allow wind Investment Bank. turbines only offshore, and so The shared level of on. (Met Office funding in commitment and wonkiness is,

in its way, inspiring (though it must be a bit dispiriting for the Green party, which to stay distinctively unelectable has had to move towards a thoroughgoing social-justice agenda funded with tax increases no-one else would touch). As George Monbiot, an activist who writes a column for the Guardian, wrote after that paper’s event, “They all had the kind of detailed knowledge of green issues that just a few years ago would have been perceived as superfluous to a political career... any one of them could have been fronting a Friends of the Earth campaign from a few years ago. The issues that were once marginal or excluded have gone mainstream.” Which may be nice, but hardly produces fireworks, unless you consider the correct way of applying business rates to onshore wind farms an incendiary issue. Where there are differences, they are sometimes smaller than they seem. Labour is in favour of a third runway at Heathrow, which the other main parties point to as evidence of its poor green credentials. But Labour rules out all other new runways, which the other major parties have not. Which party’s position would actually result in the lowest emissions from aircraft is not clear. Nor is it that obvious that runways are the key factor. Arguing for a tighter cap on emissions for the industry is

probably more important, not least because it has effects Europe-wide. The issue where there is the largest substantive issue is on nuclear power. The Liberal Democrats oppose it, and would try to meet the already ambitious carbon reduction targets that the country has subscribed to (a 34% reduction in carbon emissions, measured from a 1990 baseline, by 2020) without it. The Conservatives and Labour are in favour; one of the reasons that the Conservatives are planning to institute a “floor” on carbon prices is presumably that it will make nuclear power look plausible to investors without being seen directly to subsidise it. But both Conservatives and Labour are pro-nuclear with some reluctance, aware both of the technology’s costs and its unpopularity. This awareness may be why they do not attack the Liberals on the subject as strongly as they might. Though the Liberals have a point that nuclear is in no way a quick fix, nor is climate change a shortterm crisis. To ignore an established, widely used lowcarbon technology a priori when committed to massive long-term decarbonisation makes no sense. There are also areas where the consensus between the parties falls short of what green lobbies and others want. All three main parties have included some sort

of Green Investment Bank in their plans. But they are not interested in capitalising it to anything like the extent that the people pushing the idea — notably Climate Change Capital, an investor and advice company — would like. Backers of the bank want to see the £40 billion ($62 billion) that is likely to be raised from the sale of carbon allowances between 2012 and 2020 to go into its coffers to do good infrastructural work. None of the parties likely to have a say in government will commit to that, leaving the prospect, at present, of a small and rather ineffectual organisation. Amid all this consensus, for good or ill, the biggest difference between the parties lies not in the area of policy, but in the extent of their internal unity on green matters. A significant number of voters are sceptical enough about climate change to doubt the wisdom of any costly action, and they probably vote disproportionately Conservative. The blogs that Conservative activists follow have a strong tendency to scepticism — so do some of the party’s incoming MPs, and more of them simply seem to see the environment as a low priority. The Conservative manifesto looks green in exactly the way that you would expect of a party where the leadership has set out FINE page 34

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The rewards of virtue (The Economist: Daily news and views) Submitted at 4/26/2010 11:44:27 AM

Business.view Does good corporate governance pay? Studies give contradictory answers Apr 26th 2010 | From The Economist online ONCE again, corporategovernance reform is back on the legislative agenda, not least in the United States. In 2002, after the scandalous collapses of Enron and WorldCom, Congress voted in the Sarbanes-Oxley act, which was intended among other things to beef up corporate risk-management. Now, the financial reforms being considered in Washington include several proposals intended to correct flaws in the oversight of firms that were revealed in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The reforms likeliest to become law include an advisory “say on pay” vote for shareholders on the remuneration of top executives, and measures to make it easier for shareholders to nominate candidates for election to company boards. As always, these efforts to improve corporate governance have plenty of opponents. They argue that, contrary to the claims of the reformers, the changes would harm corporate

performance by wrapping managers up in red tape. In the case of Sarbanes-Oxley, which was rushed into law with too little discussion of the details, the critics of reform had a point. The case for the latest proposals seems more straightforward, however, and has been debated for many years. The controversy over corporate governance has been fuelled by a surprising lack of conclusive evidence that improving it actually pays, in the form of higher returns to shareholders. The study most cited by the reformers is “ Corporate Governance and Equity Prices”, published in 2003 by three economists, Paul Gompers, Joy Ishii and Andrew Metrick. This found that in 1991-99, investors going long on well-governed firms, as defined by an index combining 24 different aspects of corporate governance, while shorting poorly-governed ones, would have enjoyed an unusually high annual return of 8.5%. Similarly strong returns were found for a trading strategy based on a narrower list of what reformers consider the six core elements of good corporate governance, such as making the company’s whole board face reelection each year, and not having any “poison pill” defences against takeovers.

Critics of reform were never convinced. A new study cowritten by Lucian Bebchuk, a Harvard professor who is also an activist for corporategovernance reform, gives rise to further doubts—at least at first glance. “ Learning and the Disappearing Association Between Governance and Returns,” by Mr Bebchuk, Alma Cohen and Charles Wang, repeats the study by Mr Gompers and his colleagues for 2000-08. It finds that, in contrast with the 1990s, neither the 24factor index nor the six-factor one would have helped investors beat the market. Mr Bebchuk and his colleagues argue that the disappearance of the good-governance premium during the past decade is actually a sign that investors have woken up to the importance of governance. This, they think, was due to a huge increase in discussion of the issue in the media in 2001-02, following the Enron and WorldCom scandals and the publication of the Gompers study. As a result, they argue, early in the decade differences in the quality of governance between different firms were fully incorporated in their share prices. Since this adjustment was a one-off, well-governed firms’ shares have not subsequently outperformed the

market. Not all reformers are convinced that the market has wised up, however. On April 22nd the Corporate Library, a governance -research organisation, published a study that found significantly higher returns in 2003-10 when it excluded from its portfolio firms that according to its governance ratings system were of “high” or “very high” risk. The crucial difference between this ratings system and the 24- and six-factor indices used by the other studies is that the Corporate Library says it researches firms for specific evidence of governance problems, whereas the indices rely on a box-ticking exercise. Reformers hope that the latest study will put an end to the debate over whether good corporate governance is a virtue that pays. Doubters will surely try to dig up something in Corporate Library’s methodology to undermine its conclusions. It is a debate that will run and run—which is, at least, better than brushing the issue under the carpet. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

When it should be easy to speak to a human (Scripting News) Submitted at 4/27/2010 6:27:44 AM

Twice in the last few days I've had this experience. 1. Bought something on a website. 2. The goods weren't delivered. 3. There was no way to get help from the organization. They had my money, I didn't have what I had bought, and there was no way to get help from a human being. The FAQs on both sites were of no help, they didn't anticipate the situation where someone had paid their money and had not received the product. Now, I can understand why a company who is providing a free service tries to hide the contact information. After all, you didn't pay anything, and a human being to answer your questions costs serious out-ofpocket cash. But if you paid, that excuse no longer works. In fact, it feels like fraud to take money online without a way to correct mistakes, which are sure to happen. I'm not saying which organizations, because I don't want to make this about them. Eventually both made good, but in neither case was the experience satisfactory.

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Trouble on oiled waters (The Economist: Daily news and views) Submitted at 4/27/2010 2:43:08 AM

A slick off America's coast A rig explosion leaves a vast oil slick, threatening America’s gulf coast Apr 27th 2010 | HOUSTON | From The Economist online THERE was a fire, an explosion and now a dark slick of oil disfigures the Gulf of Mexico like a bruise. The problems on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, 41 miles (66km) off the Louisiana coast, began on Tuesday April 20th. The next morning officials reported that 11 of the 126 workers on the rig were missing. Two days later the rig sank and the Coast Guard called off the search for survivors. Expert opinion, based on underwater scans, was that the sunken rig had not sprung a leak. But in the murky depths it is hard to get a clear picture. By Sunday it had become apparent that the experts were wrong. Oil is still gushing into the sea at a rate of 42,000 gallons (or 1,000 barrels) a day. And by Monday the slick measured 80 miles across and 42 miles from north to south in some places, with the western part 36 miles from Louisiana's coast. “This is one example where the

US has learned its lesson," says Nancy Kinner, the co-director of the Coastal Response Research Centre. America suffered a devastating oil spill in 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, a large oil tanker, ran into a reef off the coast of Alaska. Around 11m gallons of oil gushed out, much finding its way onto the shores of the unspoilt wilderness surrounding Prince William Sound. Hundreds of birds, otters and seals washed ashore, suffocating and dying. As a result the latest disaster elicited a swift response. By Monday more than 1,000 people were on the scene, from BP, which was leasing the rig, from the Coast Guard, and from other state and federal agencies. They set to work skimming oily water and treating the slick with chemical dispersants. The well is still gushing, however. BP’s technicians have been unable to activate the blow -out preventer, essentially a massive valve that must be operated remotely by robot submarines. To add to the difficulties bad weather has turned the water rough and further attempts must wait for calmer seas. If that fails, BP will have to try more elaborate measures. It is making preparations to drill another well nearby and thereby relieve

pressure on the one that is leaking. But this could take a couple of months, so BP has plans to lower a massive dome over the leak site to suck oil from the seabed into vessels that can take it for safe disposal. BP’s shares have fallen by over 2% since the severity of incident became apparent. If the oil starts to come ashore on the beaches of the four states under threat it could get worse for the company. An explosion at a BP oil refinery in Texas in 2005 that killed 15 workers, a series of other safety concerns and allegations that the company fixed propane prices have battered its reputation in America. Tony Hayward, BP’s boss, has been at pains to restore BP’s standing in America since taking over three years ago. But the rig explosion has already overshadowed BP’s announcement on Tuesday that it made unexpectedly strong profits of $5.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010. The spill is awkward for the president too. In March, Barack Obama surprisingly proposed opening new stretches of America’s Atlantic, Gulf, and Alaskan coasts to offshore drilling. Some reckoned this was a compromise to win Republican support for Mr Obama's climate-change bill.

Opponents of the expansion are pointing to the spill as timely evidence of safety concerns over offshore oil extraction. The White House has said that its stance is unchanged. Controlling the damage from the current spill is partly beyond human control. The wind is currently coming from the north -west, pushing the slick towards the mouth of the gulf and away from danger. Weather forecasts suggest that this should continue. If the wind changes and pushes the slick west towards Texas's beaches, that might be manageable. It could be removed later by scraping up the top layer of sand. The greatest fear is that the winds turn and drive the oil towards Louisiana’s ecologically rich marshlands. These are home to many species of birds and fish, some endangered. Drilling proponents accept that the occasional spill is the cost of extracting oil. If the slick reaches the coast there will be a heavy price to pay. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Quick Beef & Lamb Dinners (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

Time: 30 minutes Kid Pleaser: Sub chicken broth for sherry, and either omit the olives or change to milder black ones. Serve with Pear, Date, and Manchego Salad: Arrange 1 cup gourmet salad greens on each of 4 plates. Finely chop 2 ripe Bosc pears; toss with 2 teaspoons l e m o n j u i c e . Divide pears, 6 finely chopped dates, and 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts evenlyh among salads. Combine 1 ½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar, ¼ teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper; stirk with a whisk. Drizzle evenly over salads. Top each salad with ½ ounce shaved Manchego cheese. View Recipe: Spanish Spaghetti with Olives • Watch Video Demo Next Seared Lamb with Balsamic Sauce Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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FINE continued from page 31

to use environmental issues as a way of “detoxifying” its brand, and the consensus shown at the various events which the environmental spokesmen have graced during the campaign clearly works to the Tories’ advantage. It shows that they are quite acceptable to “progressive” voters on a set of issues that the Liberals long owned and that Labour has invested a great deal in. But how much of a green agenda the Conservative leadership would be able to get through if it had only a small majority, and there was genuine dissent within its

ranks, is hard to say. Climate scepticism is hardly likely to be the problem to David Cameron, the Conservative leader, that euroscepticism was to his predecessor John Major — not least because, as UKIP shows, you can be climate sceptic and still find quite a lot to like in carbon-cutting policies. But there could be resistance to policies which actually cost a lot of money, such as the support of offshore wind on a massive scale. That in turn opens the question of whether, denied support on its own benches, the

Conservatives might receive support from other parties on such issues. A consensus before the election is one thing. Afterwards, when there is political damage to be done, it could become harder. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your Mike Milken's Excellent Presentation On Our views. Five Filters featured article: Pathetic History Of Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Foreign Oil Dependence PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Gus Lubin (The Money Game) Term Extraction. Submitted at 4/27/2010 6:58:00 AM

(Simply Recipes) Submitted at 4/26/2010 11:31:42 PM

MIKE page 35

Beijing Entrepreneurs Divide Tiny Apartments Into Ridiculously Tiny Pods Gus Lubin (The Money Game)

Smoked Bacon BLT with Arugula

live in my home town," Zhang said. Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:46:00 AM Pod apartments are a sign of the Blogger Zhang Qi shocked ridiculous Chinese property many in China when she posted bubble, but they could also a picture of her Beijing provide relief. Real estate apartment (right). speculators can hedge by renting But she likes her 7 sq foot a single apartment as dozens of room. Like other middle class pods. And for young Chinese, a Chinese, she can't afford a real tiny urban pod is better than the apartment in boomtown Beijing. alternative. Don't miss: The Asia Times: Heartbreaking Beijing Slums The Shanxi native, who earns the first of its kind in China. Zhang, apparently the first That Are Filled With Young about 4,000 yuan (US$586) a Before moving, she shared a flat tenant of such a compartment in College Graduates month at an advertisement with a roommate at 800 yuan Beijing, disagrees, appreciating Join the conversation about this company in Beijing, pays 250 per month. the privacy that comes with story » yuan rent monthly for the "Now I can save more money three walls and a front door compartment in the capital city, for my mom and siblings who and at a price she can afford.

Do you like BLTs? (BLT=Bacon Lettuce Tomato sandwich for those of you readers not familiar with this American classic.) I've been mad for them as long as I can remember. But I never thought to sub out the lettuce for arugula (which grows like a weed around here) until my mother brought home an arugula BLT from a local bistro ( Matteo's). So good! The spiciness of the arugula is wonderfully countered by the fatty smokiness of the bacon. If you don't have arugula available (also known as rocket) you can use watercress. I wilted the greens in a little bacon fat just to make it easier to pack more into the sandwich. Continue reading "Smoked Bacon BLT with Arugula" »

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MIKE continued from page 34

Financier Mike Milken opened Source: Milken Institute a panel featuring Ted Turner Source: Milken Institute and T. Boone Pickens with a Source: Milken Institute rousing presentation on foreign Source: Milken Institute oil dependence. (via Paul Source: Milken Institute Kedrosky) Source: Milken Institute U.S. presidents have promised Don't miss... The 12 Oil and failed to increase energy Leaders Who Have The U.S. On independence since the 1960s. Its Knees If we've hit peak demand-- and Join the conversation about this American industry slows down - story » - then energy independence may finally be possible. But at what cost victory? Source: Milken Institute Source: Milken Institute

Will modern digital communications permanently affect human behavior? (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)

of the planet -- or even out in space! Communication is practically instantaneous as if Thousands of years ago, you were speaking to someone humans communicated only in person. But has digital through spoken languages. communication changed how Communities were small and we behave? mobile. Gradually, people In some superficial ways, the developed writing, creating a answer is clearly yes. Just a few m o r e p e r m a n e n t f o r m o f decades ago people didn't carry communication. As a result, phones with them wherever they folklore and oral tradition traveled. Today, owning a cell transitioned into literature. At phone is common in many the same time, humans stopped countries. And cell phones have roving as hunter-gatherers and evolved since their invention. began settling in towns and While early cell phones were cities. The invention of written only good at making calls, language helped people keep a today's phones can text, surf the record of their culture and Web and run applications on top history even as their society of basic phone service. became more complex. Even though cell phones have Today, we have more ways to only become popular over the communicate than in any other last couple of decades, we've period in history. We can dash already seen consumer behavior off an electronic message to change as a result. The rise in people living on the other side popularity of SMS messages -Submitted at 4/26/2010 1:00:00 PM

better known as text messaging - has overtaken voice calls [source: Reardon]. The United States Census Bureau estimated the total number of text messages sent by U.S. citizens at around 110 billion [source: U.S. Census Bureau]. Social networks have made a big impact on behavior as well. A survey by Prompt Communications in 2009 found that more respondents used Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family than e-mail or SMS messages. But will digital communication change behavior beyond how we choose to send and receive messages? Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Charleston Fashion Week Crowns Its Next Emerging Designer ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 4/26/2010 11:38:34 AM

In March, the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina hosted its fourth annual Fashion Week with more than 30 runway shows which included collections by eight semifinalists selected from CFW’s

2010 Emerging Designer Competition. The designers faced off in an “Ode to McQueen” challenge that asked them to create an original Alexander McQueen-inspired piece using 12 oxford shirts. The panel judging this year’s competition were fashion industry veterans Cynthia a n d E L L E F a s h i o n N e w s Rowley, Carmen Marc Valvo, Director, Anne Slowey. The

competition and overall winner was Larika Page with her Lady Gaga-reminiscent white and cobalt final piece and her collection’s feminine dresses and onesies. Along with the coveted title and warm accolades, Page also received prizes that included a free runway show at next year’s CFW, a $15,000 professionally-

designed website, and $1,000 to help her continue her line. —Erin Boyle Larika Page, winner of CFW's 2010 Emerging Designer Competition Looks from the winning collection Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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Climate Change Starts to Shake Up Wine Industry Mark Hertsgaard (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/26/2010 7:00:00 PM

John Williams has been making wine in California’s Napa Valley for nearly 30 years, and he farms so ecologically that his peers call him Mr. Green. But if you ask him how climate change will affect Napa’s world famous wines, he gets irritated, almost insulted. “You know, I’ve been getting that question a lot recently, and I feel we need to keep this issue in perspective,” he told me. “When I hear about global warming in the news, I hear that it’s going to melt the Arctic, inundate coastal cities, displace millions and millions of people, spread tropical diseases and bring lots of other horrible effects. Then I get calls from wine writers and all they want to know is, ‘How is the character of cabernet sauvignon going to change under global warming?’ I worry about global warming, but I worry about it at the humanity scale, not the vineyard scale.” Williams is the founder of Frog’s Leap, one of the most ecologically minded wineries in Napa and, for that matter, the world. Electricity for the operation comes from 1,000 solar panels erected along the Merlot vines. The heating and cooling are supplied by a geothermal system that taps into

the earth’s heat. The vineyards are 100 percent organic and — most radical of all, considering Napa’s dry summers — there is no irrigation.

Yet despite his environmental fervor, Williams dismisses questions about preparing Frog’s Leap for the impacts of climate change. “We have no

idea what effects global warming will have on the conditions that affect Napa Valley wines, so to prepare for those changes seems to me to be

whistling past the cemetery,” he says, a note of irritation in his voice. “All I know is, there are CLIMATE page 37

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things I can do to stop, or at least slow down, global warming, and those are things I should do.” Williams has a point about keeping things in perspective. At a time when climate change is already making it harder for people in Bangladesh to find enough drinking water, it seems callous to fret about what might happen to premium wines. But there is much more to the question of wine and climate change than the character of pinot noir. Because wine grapes are extraordinarily sensitive to temperature, the industry amounts to an early-warning system for problems that all food crops — and all industries — will confront as global warming intensifies. In vino veritas, the Romans said: In wine there is truth. The truth now is that Earth’s climate is changing much faster than the wine business, and virtually every other business on earth, is preparing for. All crops need favorable climates, but few are as vulnerable to temperature and other extremes as wine grapes. “There is a 15-fold difference in the price of cabernet sauvignon grapes that are grown in Napa Valley and cabernet sauvignon grapes grown in Fresno” in California’s hot Central Valley, says Kim Cahill, a consultant to the Napa Valley Vintners’ Association. “Cab grapes grown

in Napa sold [in 2006] for $4,100 a ton. In Fresno the price was $260 a ton. The difference in average temperature between Napa and Fresno was 5 degrees Fahrenheit.” Numbers like that help explain why climate change is poised to clobber the global wine industry, a multibillion-dollar business whose decline would also damage the much larger industries of food, restaurants, and tourism. Every business on earth will feel the effects of global warming, but only the ski industry — which appears doomed in its current form — is more visibly targeted by the hot, erratic weather that lies in store over the next 50 years. In France, the rise in temperatures may render the Champagne region too hot to produce fine champagne. The same is true for the legendary reds of Châteauneuf du Pape, where the stony white soil’s ability to retain heat, once considered a virtue, may now become a curse. The world’s other major wine-producing regions — California, Italy, Spain, Australia — are also at risk. If current trends continue, the “premium-wine-grape production area [in the United States] … could decline by up to 81 percent by the late 21st century,” a team of scientists wrote in a study published in the

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. The culprit was not so much the rise in average temperatures but an increased frequency of extremely hot days, defined as above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). If no adaptation measures were taken, these increased heat spikes would “eliminate wine-grape production in many areas of the United States,” the scientists wrote. In theory, winemakers can defuse the threat by simply shifting production to more congenial locations. Indeed, champagne grapes have already been planted in England and some respectable vintages harvested. But there are limits to this strategy. After all, temperature is not the sole determinant of a wine’s taste. What the French call terroir— a term that refers to the soil of a given region but also includes the cultural knowledge of the people who grow and process grapes — is crucial. “Wine is tied to place more than any other form of agriculture, in the sense that the names of the place are on the bottle,” says David Graves, co-founder of the Saintsbury wine company in the Napa Valley. “If traditional sugar-beet growing regions in eastern Colorado had to move north, nobody would care. But if wine grapes can’t grow in the

Napa Valley anymore — which is an extreme statement, but let’s say so for the sake of argument — suddenly you have a global-warming poster child right up there with the polar bears.” A handful of climate-savvy winemakers such as Graves are trying to rouse their colleagues to action before it is too late, but to little avail. Indeed, some winemakers are actually rejoicing in the higher temperatures of recent years. “Some of the most expensive wines in Spain come from the Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa regions,” Pancho Campo, founder and president of the Wine Academy of Spain, says. “They are gettin almost perfect ripeness every year now for Tempranillo. This makes the winemakers say, ‘Who cares about climate change? We are getting perfect vintages.’ The same thing has happened in Bordeaux. It is very difficult to tell someone, ‘This is only going to be the case for another few years.’” The irony is, the wine business is better situated than most to adapt to global warming. Many of the people in the industry followed in their parents’ footsteps and hope to pass the business on to their kids and grandkids someday. This should lead them to think further ahead than the average corporation, with its obsessive focus on this

quarter’s financial results. But I found little evidence this is happening. The exception: Alois Lageder, a man whose family has made wine in Alto Adige, the northernmost province in Italy, since 1855. The setting, at the foot of the Alps, is majestic. Looming over the vines are massive outcroppings of black and gray granite interspersed with flower-strewn meadows and wooded hills that inevitably call to mind The Sound of Music. Locals admire Lageder for having led Alto Adige’s evolution from producing jug wine to boasting some of the best whites in Italy. Lageder, in October 2005, hosted the world’s first conference on the future of wine under climate change. “We must recognize that climate change is not a problem of the future,” Lageder told his colleagues. “It is here today and we must adapt now.” As it happens, Alto Adige is the location of one of the most dramatic expressions of modern global warming: The discovery of the so-called Iceman— the frozen remains of a herder who lived in the region 5,300 years ago. The corpse was found in 1991 in a mountain gully, almost perfectly preserved — even the skin was intact — because it had lain beneath CLIMATE page 38

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mounds of snow and ice since shortly after his death (a murder, forensic investigators later concluded from studying the trajectory of an arrowhead lodged in his left shoulder). He would not have been found were it not for global warming, says Hans Glauber, the director of the Alto Adige Ecological Institute: “Temperatures have been rising in the Alps about twice as fast as in the rest of the world,” he notes. Lageder heard about global warming in the early 1990s and felt compelled to take action. It wasn’t easy — “I had incredible fights with my architect about wanting good insulation,” he says — but by 1996 he had installed the first completely privately financed solar energy system in Italy. He added a geothermal energy system as well. Care was taken to integrate these cutting-edge technologies into the existing site. During a tour, I emerged from a dark fermentation cellar with its own wind turbine into the bright sunlight of a gorgeous courtyard dating from the 15th century. Going green did make the renovation cost 30 percent more, Lageder says, “but that just means there is a slightly longer amortization period. In fact, we made up the cost difference through increased revenue, because when people heard about what we were doing, they

came to see it and they ended up buying our wines.” The record summer heat that struck Italy and the rest of Europe in 2003, killing tens of thousands, made Lageder even more alarmed. “When I was a kid, the harvest was always after November 1, which was a cardinal date,” he told me. “Nowadays, we start between the 5th and 10th of September and finish in October.” Excess heat raises the sugar level of grapes to potentially ruinous levels. Too much sugar can result in wine that is unbalanced and too alcoholic — wine known as “cooked” or “jammy.” Higher temperatures may also increase the risk of pests and parasites, because fewer will die off during the winter. White wines, whose skins are less tolerant of heat, face particular difficulties as global warming intensifies. “In 2003, we ended up with wines that had between 14 and 16 percent alcohol,” Lageder recalled, “whereas normally they are between 12 and 14 percent. The character of our wine was changing.” A 2 percent increase in alcohol may sound like a tiny difference, but the effect on a wine’s character and potency is considerable. “In California, your style of wine is bigger, with alcohol levels of 14 and 15, even 16 percent,” Lageder continued.

“I like some of those wines a lot. But the alcohol level is so high that you have one glass and then” — he slashed his hand across his throat — “you’re done. Any more and you will be drunk. In Europe, we prefer to drink wine throughout the evening, so we favor wines with less alcohol. Very hot weather makes that harder to achieve.” There are tricks grape growers and winemakers can use to lower alcohol levels. The leaves surrounding the grapes can be allowed to grow bushier, providing more shade. Vines can be replaced with different clones or rootstocks. Growing grapes at higher altitudes, where the air is cooler, is another option. So is changing the type of grapes being grown. But laws and cultural traditions currently stand in the way of such adaptations. So-called AOC laws ( Appellation d’Origine Côntrollée) govern wine-grape production throughout France, and in parts of Italy and Spain as well. As temperatures rise further, these AOC laws and kindred regulations are certain to face increased challenge. “I was just in Burgundy,” Pancho Campo told me in March 2008, “and producers there are very concerned, because they know that chardonnay and pinot noir are cool-weather wines, and climate change is bringing totally the

contrary. Some of the producers were even considering starting to study Syrah and other varieties. At the moment, they are not allowed to plant other grapes, but these are questions people are asking.” The greatest resistance, however, may come from the industry itself. “Some of my colleagues may admire my views on this subject, but few have done much,” says Lageder. “People are trying to push the problem away, saying, ‘Let’s do our job today and wait and see in the future if climate change becomes a real problem.’ But by then it will be too late to save ourselves.” If the wine industry does not adapt to climate change, life will go on — with less conviviality and pleasure, perhaps, but it will go on. Fine wine will still be produced, most likely by early adapters such as Lageder, but there will be less of it. By the law of supply and demand, that suggests the best wines of tomorrow will cost even more than the ridiculous amounts they fetch today. White wine may well disappear from some regions. Climatesensitive reds such as pinot noir are also in trouble. It’s not too late for winemakers to save themselves through adaptation. But it’s disconcerting to see so much dawdling in an industry with so much incentive to act. If

winemakers aren’t motivated to adapt to climate change, what businesses will be? The answer seems to be very few. Even in the Britain, where the government is vigorously championing adaptation, the private sector lags in understanding the adaptation imperative, much less implementing it. “I bet if I rang up a hundred small businesses in the U.K. and mentioned adaptation, 90 of them wouldn’t know what I was talking about,” says Gareth Williams, who works with the organization Business in the Community, helping firms in northeast England prepare for the storms and other extreme weather events that scientists project for the region. “When I started this job, I gave a presentation to heads of businesses,” said Williams, who spent most of his career in the private sector. “I presented the case for adaptation, and in the question-and-answer period, one executive said, ‘We’re doing quite a lot on adaptation already.’ I said, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ He said, ‘We’re recycling, and we’re looking at improving our energy efficiency.’ I thought to myself, ‘Oh, my, he really didn’t get it at all. This is going to be a struggle.’” “Most of us are not very good at recognizing our risks until we CLIMATE page 43

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Clive Thompson: Why We Should Learn the Language of Data Clive Thompson (Wired Top Stories)

counterintuitive,” Romm admits. Statistics is hard. But that’s not Submitted at 4/26/2010 7:00:00 PM just an issue of individual Illustration: Ellen Lupton understanding; it’s also How can global warming be becoming one of the nation’s real when there’s so much biggest political problems. We snow?” live in a world where the Hearing that question — t h o r n i e s t p o l i c y i s s u e s repeatedly — this past February increasingly boil down to drove Joseph Romm nuts. A arguments over what the data massive snowstorm had buried mean. If you don’t understand Washington, DC, and all across statistics, you don’t know the capital, politicians and what’s going on — and you p u n d i t s w h o d i s p u t e t h e can’t tell when you’re being lied existence of climate change to. Statistics should now be a were cackling. The family of core part of general education. Oklahoma senator Jim Inhofe You shouldn’t finish high built an igloo near the Capitol school without understanding it and put up a sign reading “ Al reasonably well — as well, say, Gore’s New Home“. The planet as you can compose an essay. can’t be warming, they said; Consider the economy: Is it look at all this white stuff! improving or not? That’s a Romm — a physicist and statistical question. You can’t climate expert with the Center actually measure the entire for American Progress — spent economy, so analysts sample a week explaining to reporters chunks of it — they take a slice why this line of reasoning is so here and a slice there and try to wrong. Climate change, he said, piece together a representative is all about trend lines. You s t o r y . O n e m e t r i c t h a t ’ s don’t observe it by looking out frequently touted is same-store the window but by analyzing sales growth, a comparison of decades’ worth of data. Of how much each store in a big course, snowstorm spin is retail chain is selling compared possible only if the public (and with a year ago. It’s been journalists) are statistically trending upward, which has illiterate. “A lot of this is financial pundits excited.

Problem is, to calculate that stat, economists remove stores that have closed from their sample. As New York University statistician Kaiser Fung points out, that makes the chains look healthier than they might really be. Does this methodological issue matter? Absolutely: When politicians see economic numbers pointing upward, they’re less inclined to fund stimulus programs. Or take the raging debate over childhood vaccination, where well-intentioned parents have drawn disastrous conclusions from anecdotal information. Activists propagate horror stories of children who seemed fine one day, got vaccinated, and then developed autism. Of course, as anyone with any exposure to statistics knows, correlation is not causation. And individual stories don’t prove anything; when you examine data on the millions of vaccinated kids, even the correlation vanishes. There are oodles of other examples of how our inability to grasp statistics — and the mother of it all, probability — makes us believe stupid things. Gamblers think their number is more likely to come up this time

because it didn’t come up last time. Political polls are touted by the media even when their samples are laughably skewed. (This issue breaks left and right, by the way. Intellectually serious skeptics of anthropogenic climate change argue that the statistical case is weak — that Al Gore and his fellow travelers employ dubious techniques to sample and crunch global temperatures.) Granted, thinking statistically is tricky. We like to construct simple cause-and-effect stories to explain the world as we experience it. “You need to train in this way of thinking. It’s not easy,” says John Allen Paulos, a Temple University mathematician. That’s precisely the point. We often say, rightly, that literacy is crucial to public life: If you can’t write, you can’t think. The same is now true in math. Statistics is the new grammar. E m a i l clive@clivethompson.net. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Fitness Snacks (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

Regular snacking is vital to a healthy and active lifestyle. Fitness-friendly snacks should be quick, delicious, and b a l a n c e d to satisfy your exercise and nutrition needs (as well as your hectic schedule). Active women should aim for snacks in the 100- to 200-calorie range (active men may need a bit more) and keep in mind, you may need to eat up to two snacks a day between meals to keep your energy levels steady all day long. Next Fruit and Yogurt Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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April 27, 1791: S.F.B. Morse, 'American Leonardo,' Born Randy Alfred (Wired Top Stories)

the four remaining panels. Former President John Quincy Adams, who was then a Submitted at 4/26/2010 11:00:00 PM representative from 1791: Samuel Finley Breese Massachusetts, submitted a Morse, inventor of the practical resolution to allow foreign electromagnetic telegraph, is artists to do some of the work, born in Charlestown, suggesting that American Massachusetts. He’ll also make painters had not yet achieved the waves in the art world and in caliber of greatness required for politics. such monumental work. Morse’s father, Jedidiah, was Novelist James Fenimore the co-inventor of cerographic Cooper, a friend of Morse, sterotypy (a wax-based printing wrote an anonymous letter to the process), and he improved the New York Post defending the bathometer (for measuring water native talent. In the midst of a depth). He also wrote and edited running feud between Morse geography textbooks and with and Trumbull, the letter’s effect his brother founded the New was the reverse of what Cooper York Observer. intended. S.F.B. Morse went to Yale The committee in charge of College, were he studied under selecting the artists thought that mathematician Jeremiah Day Morse had written the letter, and and chemist Benjamin Silliman. they rejected him as a possible Neither noticed any particular candidate. (The panels were spark in their young student. eventually painted by John He did, however, show some Vanderlyn, William Henry artistic ability and made money Royal Academy and very much Morse also took an early fling returned, he was regarded as one Powell, John Gadsby Chapman painting miniature portraits on the man of the hour in art. West at the family business of of America’s foremost painters. and Robert Walter Weir, with ivory for $5 a head ($90 in was taken with Morse’s work, i n v e n t i n g . H e p a t e n t e d a Congress was deciding who all of whom you are no doubt today’s money), or one buck for but Allston thought less of it. machine for cutting marble in should paint four of the great familiar.) a simple profile. When he His criticism, however, helped 1823. To console him, Morse’s panels on the walls of the graduated in 1810, he set off for improve the young artist’s He helped found the National rotunda of the Capitol Building. f r i e n d s g o t t o g e t h e r a n d a career in painting. After an technique. Morse remained in Academy of Design in 1826 and Four of the eight panels had commissioned a work from him. unsuccessful stint as a clerk in a England throughout the War of served as its first president all already been completed by John He made a few sketches but bookstore, Morse was at last 1812 and returned to the United the way through 1845. He also Trumbull, president of the decided his career as an artist sent to study under American States in 1815. enjoyed considerable popularity American Academy of Fine was over. He returned the Romantic landscape painter He began making a name for as a lecturer on art. Arts, from which Morse’s group advances on the commission Washington Allston, who took himself at home. The Marquis Morse returned to Europe in had seceded. and never picked up a brush him to England. de Lafayette and President 1829 to study the old masters, M a n y p e o p l e — M o r s e again. I n E n g l a n d , M o r s e m e t James Monroe both sat for and he stayed in France and included — expected Morse to The downturn in his artistic American expatriate Benjamin portraits. Italy until 1832. By the time he be among those chosen to paint APRIL page 41 West, who was president of the

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TSA-Compliant Laptop Bag Takes (Some) Shame Out of Airport Security Terrence Russell (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/26/2010 7:00:00 PM

TSA-Compliant Laptop Bag Takes (Some) Shame Out of Airport Security Modern air travel is tough for geeks: The more gadgets you carry, the harder it is to get through security without a cavity search. Victorinox is helping eliminate such embarrassments with the Empire, a TSA-pleasing, laptopschlepping messenger bag. As you might suspect, the bag's killer feature is the laptop pouch. To appease the TSA's new, somewhat less draconian carry-on guidelines (e.g., notebooks can stay in bags if the garment lies flat), the Empire's static-free laptop compartment zips in half. This won't always guarantee a fast pass, since some airports are stricter than others. But little bonuses like mesh vents increase the visibility of the notebook inside,

making for faster visual inspections. Overall, converting the bag from its normal state to "X-ray ready" is easy enough, though the large pouch and single velcro strap were too big for anything smaller than a 12inch screen, like a netbook. The rest of the Empire's pockets are a mixed bag. The main catch -all pocket is just that — a surprisingly featureless bucket

APRIL continued from page 40

fortunes would be a boon to Term Extraction. communications. Pages: 1 2 View All Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS,

where our magazines, headphones, granola bars and documents intermingled like coeds on spring break. We would have liked a little more order in the biggest pouch, but we can't really blame the bag for our pack-rat tendencies. The fact that bag offers so much real estate is its silver lining. Even with a few snags, the surprisingly sturdy design

ultimately elevates the Empire far above its mushy messenger competitors. Though this build quality and convenience doesn't come cheap, it's still the smartest, most elegant way to let the TSA check your tech. WIRED Well-designed and convenient for gadgety frequent fliers. Quick-access front pocket is magnetically friendly — good for stashing tickets and other

documents with magnetic stripes. Accommodates laptops up to 17 inches in screen size. Misplaced bags can be identified and returned (for free!) through serial number registration. TIRED Pricier than some roundtrip commuter flights. Capacious laptop pouch lets little netbooks slip through the cracks. Though the strap is adjustable, the shoulder pad isn't. Heavy-duty zippers clang together, announcing your every step. • Style: Accessories • Manufacturer: Victorinox • Price:$250 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Lit Fix: The Happiness Project WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog)

improve her day to day life and happiness. She integrated insights and findings from Submitted at 4/26/2010 4:00:00 PM positive psychology, Today's book review is from philosophy, literature and Woman's Day reader Michelle popular culture. Gannon. She read The She credits her Resolutions Happiness Project by Gretchen Chart as pivotal to the success Rubin. (Interested in The of her project, and every month Happiness Project? check out she added new goals. Perhaps Woman's Day's year-long the Hawthorne effect came into program): play where one’s behavior When I take care of my changes because they are paying personal happiness and close attention to them. She wellness, I am definitely a better showed considerable discipline wife, mother, psychologist and in following through with her friend. I have long believed that resolutions. Rather than look to when we attend to our emotional happy“. She also noticed that others for validation, I was and physical health, we can be “she wasn’t as happy as she impressed how she made herself more productive, take care of could be”, and she dedicated a accountable and gave herself the others, achieve success and year to make behavioral changes gold stars. happiness, and have more to increase her happiness. (Want to submit a book review fulfilling relationships. Her story appealed to me t o L i t F i x ? E m a i l i t t o I recently heard about a new because she did not try to escape L i t F i x @ w o m a n s d a y . c o m ) b o o k o n T w i t t e r , “ T h e from her real life as Elizabeth Five Filters featured article: Happiness Project” by Gretchen Gilbert, the author of “Eat, Pray, Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Rubin. Apparently, the author Love” did. Gretchen Rubin is a PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, was on a New York City bus wife, mother and lawyer turned Term Extraction. one day, and asked herself, a u t h o r w h o c o m m i t t e d t o “What do I want from life, making specific changes to anyway…Well, I want to be

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Dinner Diary: Sausage Bake WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog) Submitted at 4/26/2010 3:00:00 PM

What do you do when you start cooking only to find you don't have everything you need? I, you may already realize, improvise. It's a combination of laziness, cheapness and ingenuity, born of cooking for some incredibly picky people for more than a decade. If I tossed out every recipe that contained something someone doesn't like I'd never have a recipe to follow. Anyway, I had selected this recipe for kabobs to make for dinner last night, but what we ended up with didn't resemble the recipe at all. I substituted some ingredients for others and planned to use regular polenta instead of a prepared tube. (In the end I threw in potatoes, instead.) I discovered at the last moment that I had no skewers, so I just tossed everything in a baking dish with salt, pepper and olive oil. It was an easy preparation and allowed us all to choose what we liked, so it worked. I cut 5 chicken sausages into 4 short, fat pieces each, then tossed that in a baking pan with cut-up potatoes, mushrooms, onions and bell peppers.

Drizzled on olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper and oregano. I baked the whole mess in a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes, until the potatoes were cooked through. (The potatoes were the last to be done so if you want to cut the cooking time down to 30 minutes, cut the potatoes into smaller pieces than the big, 2-inch chunks I cut.) It's not really a casserole because all the elements stay distinct, but that allows everyone to pick and choose what they want to eat. Here's the recipe I meant to make, along with a few more sausage recipes: Sausage Kabobs with Polenta Penne with Asparagus and Chicken Sausage Cajun Chicken and Rice — Kim Walker Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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are hit by them,” explains Chris West, the director of the British government’s Climate Impact Program. “People who run companies are no different.” Before joining UKCIP in 1999, West had spent most of his career working to protect endangered species. Now, the species he is trying to save is his own, and the insights of a zoologist turn out to be quite useful. Adapting to changing circumstances is, after all, the essence of evolution — and of success in the modern economic marketplace. West is fond of quoting Darwin: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives … nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the

one that is the most adaptable to change.” This piece was adapted from Mark Hertsgaard’s forthcoming book Hot: Living Through the Next 50 Years on Earth for the Climate Desk collaboration. Mark Hertsgaard has written about climate change for 20 years for publications including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Time and The Nation. His book on adaptation, titled Hot: Living Through the Next 50 Years on Earth, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt later this year. See Also: • Attractive Nuisance: Should Judges Help Tackle Climate Change • Treating Climate Change as a

Curable Disease • Betting on Climate Change: Corporations Stand to Make or Lose • The Coming Tide of Global Climate Lawsuits • Attractive Nuisance: Should Judges Help Tackle Climate Change • Complete Climate Desk Coverage

Are U.S. Stocks Cheap? Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 4/26/2010 5:40:00 PM

Filed under: S and P 500 Are stocks in late April cheap? According to a Bloomberg News analysis they are. Through the end of last week, S&P 500 company earnings estimates have risen 9.1% on average -Five Filters featured article: the largest monthly increase Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: since at least 2006, according to PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, data compiled by Bloomberg. That pushed the P/E for the Term Extraction. S&P 500 to 14.2 times forecast companies earnings -- the lowest since 1990, except for the months after Lehman Brothers collapsed.

Top 5 Invasive Species You Should Know (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)

humans after being introduced to a new environment -- cause Submitted at 4/26/2010 1:00:00 PM an estimated $1.4 trillion in When you think of invaders, damages per year [source: y o u m i g h t t h i n k o f Global Invasive Species extraterrestrial life or the Programme]. Often, an animal u n w a n t e d c r e a t u r e s t h a t that evolved in one place can be occasionally scramble across invasive in another if it has your countertop. But what about enough food and few or no the invaders that wreak more natural predators. havoc than an average If you've seen kudzu's household nuisance? Invasive b l a n k e t i n g g r a s p o n t h e species-- or organisms that southeastern U.S., the annoying overtake and negatively affect presence of fire ants in your existing plants, animals or backyard or maybe chytrid

fungus's devastating impact on amphibian populations, you're familiar with invasive species. These species are not only hardhitting in the economic and biodiversity departments, they can also spread diseases and harm human health. So who's responsible for these invasions? In most cases humans are to blame, especially with increased travel, trade and exotic pet ownership in recent decades. Of the thousands of invasive taxa to choose from, the five

species on this list will surely penetrate your thoughts and -who knows -- maybe your backyards, too. See which animal spurred Australia to build a 1,139-mile (1,834-kilometer) long pestexclusion fence on the next page. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Continue reading Are U.S. Stocks Cheap? Are U.S. Stocks Cheap? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Accessories News: Hermès' New High Jewelry Collection ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 4/26/2010 2:38:38 PM

Pierre Hardy offers a nod to classic equestrian motifs in his latest high jewelry collection for Hermès. Chunky yellow gold hoof-shaped cocktail rings, and diamond-encrusted lariat necklaces in the sinuous shape of a whip, make for an unexpectedly masculine twist on refined beauty. Each piece in 14 ACCESSORIES page 44

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10 Things You Wouldn't Think Would Be Good with Chocolate -- But Are

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style collection comes packaged in its own black croco box. Hermès "Haute Bijouterie" Collection Black jade and diamond “Centaure” ring in rose gold (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) to try, it can be daunting to (Available upon special order at m a k e e a c h c a l o r i e c o u n t . Submitted at 4/26/2010 1:00:00 PM Couture candy boutiques are Hermès stores nationwide, for W i l l y W o n k a m a y h a v e popular spots to indulge in these store information, please call 1or developed a number of unusual fun treats, but we've also 8 0 0 - 4 4 1 - 4 4 8 8 chocolate-covered inventions at explored the availability of less w w w . h e r m e s . c o m ) his famous factory, but even his elitist, more accessible must-try Hermès "Haute Bijouterie" strangest confections can't beat chocolate combinations. Even Collection some real-life combinations celebrity chefs are getting in on Platinum and diamond “Fouet” necklace people are trying. What's even the act. s t r a n g e r i s t h a t s o m e a r e As Willy Wonka said from the (Available upon special order at catching on. depths of his chocolate factory: Hermès stores nationwide, for That's right -- chocolate, our "Little surprises are around f a v o r i t e m o o d - b o o s t i n g , every corner... but nothing endorphin-releasing concoction dangerous. Don't be alarmed." is now being blended with Five Filters featured article: everything from mushrooms to Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: meat. It seems that anything can PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, become dessert, even the most Term Extraction. obscure of flora and fauna. With so many new chocolates

Snack Smart: Greek Yogurt Love WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog)

non-fat plain (although Fage and Oikos come in a close second). I sweeten up the tart flavor by Submitted at 4/26/2010 2:00:00 PM adding mix-ins like a touch of I recently made the switch to a g a v e n e c t a r , w a l n u t s o r Greek yogurt from regular, and blueberries. Sometimes I'll let me tell you, I don't think I'll sprinkle in some granola for ever go back. I love how thick added crunch as well. At just a n d c r e a m y i t i s . P l u s , 100 calories and 18 g of protein completely protein-packed! (!) per cup, its a healthy and My favorite kind is the Chobani decadent way to power through

the afternoon. -- Abby Cuffey, Associate

store information, please call 1800-441-4488 or www.hermes.com) (pictured with black croco box) Hermès "Haute Bijouterie" Collection Black jade “Centaure” necklace in rose gold (Available upon special order at Hermès stores nationwide, for store information, please call 1800-441-4488 or www.hermes.com)

Google Acquires Widget Creator LabPixies Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 4/27/2010 5:45:07 AM

Another week, another Google acquisition. This time, it’s LabPixies, a company Google has worked with on creating many of the gadgets (or widgets, as everyone else besides Google calls them) for Google’s personalized portal iGoogle. LabPixies has been acquired for an undisclosed sum, and it will join the iGoogle team to help expand iGoogle across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. As far as LabPixies’ current products go, there are no Health Editor Related: 10 Refreshing Yogurt planned changes to them, but Sauce Recipes, Banana Yogurt the folks at LabPixies say they Pops, and Honey Greek Yogurt “will continue to evaluate this over time.” Fillo Cups Five Filters featured article: For more business coverage, Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: follow Mashable Business on PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Term Extraction. Tags: acquisition, gadgets, Google, iGoogle, LabPixies, widgets

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Minority Report Benjamin Birnbaum (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 4/26/2010 11:00:00 PM

On October 19 of last year, the op-ed page of The New York Times contained a bombshell: a piece by Robert Bernstein, the founder and former chairman of Human Rights Watch (HRW), attacking his own organization. HRW, Bernstein wrote, was “helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.” The allegation was certainly not new: HRW had been under assault for years by American Jews and other supporters of Israel, who argued that it was biased against the Jewish state. And these attacks had intensified in recent months, with a number of unflattering revelations about the organization. In July, HRW found itself under fire when a Wall Street Journal op-ed noted that the organization had solicited donations in Saudi Arabia by trumpeting the criticism it faces from “proIsrael pressure groups.” In August, the blogosphere leapt on one of the organization’s top Middle East officials for having once been part of a team that edited a radical anti-Israel journal. And, in September, HRW suspended one of the primary contributors to its reports on the wars in Gaza and Lebanon after his private hobby—collecting Nazi

memorabilia—became public. Still, to most readers of the Times last October, even those who closely followed debates over Israel, Bernstein’s piece would have seemed odd: It isn’t every day that the founder of a group turns so publicly on his own creation. What few people outside HRW knew, however, was that Bernstein’s op-ed was the culmination of a long struggle inside the organization that had turned increasingly acrimonious over the years. The debate revolved around a single question: Was the world’s most respected human rights group being fair to Israel? Bob Bernstein wasn’t the only person at Human Rights Watch who thought the answer was no. In September 2000, HRW’s board of directors took a vote that still, a decade later, infuriates Sid Sheinberg, a legendary Hollywood mogul (he discovered Steven Spielberg) and current vice-chairman of the board. At the time, Bill Clinton was trying desperately to broker a peace agreement between Yasir Arafat and Ehud Barak, but one of the major sticking points was the right of return. It was an issue that even the most left-wing Israelis did not feel they could compromise on: If Palestinians were permitted to return to Israel en masse, it would imperil the country’s future as both a Jewish state and a democracy.

Sheinberg believed strongly that HRW had no business endorsing the right of return. “My view is that the most essential human right is the right to life,” he says. “And anybody who sees a deal about to be made where there’s been war for fifty or sixty years should think hard about shutting up.” The board, however, did not agree. “The vote was something like twenty-seven to one,” Sheinberg recalls. “ Bob voted against me, for which he’s apologized on a number of occasions.” That December, Ken Roth, HRW’s executive director, would send letters to Clinton, Arafat, and Barak urging them to accept the organization’s position. The right of return, he wrote, “is a right that persists even when sovereignty over the territory is contested or has changed hands.” But something telling had happened to Sheinberg immediately following the meeting in September. “I go to my apartment—I have an apartment in New York—and, when I get to my apartment, the phone starts to ring,” he recalls. “And I get a number of phone calls from a variety of board members who tell me, ‘Sid, we really agree with you ... but we didn’t want to go against management.’” Another board member, David Brown, confirms that he and others shared Sheinberg’s reservations,

if quietly. “Sid is very vocal, but he wasn’t the only one,” he says. “There were a number of people upset.” These tensions would fester within HRW in the years to come. “There are more people that have a concern about this on the board than the people who don’t have a concern about this think there are,” Sheinberg says. “I’m not the only one who’s concerned about this. And, by the way, it also includes certain staff members. I’ve had staff members come to me and tell me off the record that they’re not happy with the way this particular thing is being done, but they’re not going to say anything.” Human Rights Watch was a product of the cold war. During the 1970s, Bernstein—who was president and chairman of Random House—had become interested in the plight of Soviet dissidents like Andrei Sakharov and Natan Sharansky. In 1978, three years after the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Helsinki Accords (which included language on human rights), Bernstein established Helsinki Watch, a group dedicated to monitoring human rights violations behind the Iron Curtain. In 1981, Helsinki Watch was joined by Americas Watch, which sought to expose the abuses of Latin American dictators, many of them quietly supported by the

Reagan administration. “We were raising money from the right for Helsinki Watch and from the left for Americas Watch,” Bernstein remembers. Helsinki Watch and Americas Watch would become just two stars in a constellation of regional “watch committees,” all of which were brought under the Human Rights Watch umbrella in 1988. By the time Bernstein stepped down as chairman a decade later—he is now founding chairman emeritus—HRW had become a major force in international politics. Today, the group has a budget of $44 million, conducts research on about 90 countries, and churns out dozens of reports per year. It dispatches staffers to monitor human rights abuses around the globe, putting pressure on dictatorships like China, Sudan, and Cuba, as well as on democracies like the United States. To take just one example, it was frequently cited for its work exposing the horrors of Saddam Hussein’s regime. It is widely considered the gold standard in human rights reporting—an organization whose conclusions nobody can afford to ignore. Bernstein—now a gregarious octogenarian—had always considered himself a friend of Israel; but, for a long time, he didn’t follow events there MINORITY page 47

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Who Is Merrick Garland? Tom Goldstein (The New Republic - All Feed)

Law Journal. In 1993, Garland was appointed as Deputy Assistant Attorney Submitted at 4/26/2010 11:00:00 PM General in the Criminal Tom Goldstein is a partner at Division of the Department of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Justice. In 1994, Garland Feld, and lecturer at Stanford became the Principal Associate and Harvard Law Schools. He is Deputy Attorney General, with the founder of SCOTUSblog. A responsibilities that included the version of this piece was supervision of the Oklahoma originally posted there on April City bombing case and the case 26th, 2010. against the Unabomber. After graduating with honors Nomination To D.C. Circuit from Harvard University and In 1995, President Clinton Harvard Law School, D.C. nominated Garland for an Circuit Judge Merrick Garland opening on the D.C. Circuit, and clerked for Judge Henry he received a hearing in Friendly on the Second Circuit December of that year. During and then for Justice William that confirmation hearing, Brennan. Garland was asked about Garland has spent most of his “ j u d i c i a l a c t i v i s m . ” H e career in public service, much answered that “[f]ederal judges like Justice Samuel Alito. Both do not have roving commissions served as Assistant United to solve societal problems. The States Attorneys and as high- role of the court is to apply law level aides to Attorneys General. to the facts of the case before it If nominated and confirmed to – not to legislate, not to arrogate the Court, Garland would be the to itself the executive power, not t h i r d s i t t i n g j u s t i c e w i t h to hand down advisory opinion p r o s e c u t o r i a l e x p e r i e n c e on the issues of the day.” (joining Justices Alito and Garland’s nomination was Sotomayor). stalled by Senate Republicans, But while Alito remained in not because of opposition to him government, Garland’s career but because of a dispute over also included several years in whether to fill the twelfth seat private practice at Arnold & on that court at all. Clinton rePorter, where he was named a nominated Garland in January partner in 1985. During this 1997, and he was confirmed period, Garland also taught approximately three months antitrust at Harvard Law School later by a vote of 76-23. But in 1986 and published articles – once again, opposition did not both on antitrust law – in the r e l a t e t o G a r l a n d ’ s o w n Harvard Law Review and Yale qualifications. To the contrary,

Senator Orrin Hatch called him “not only a fine nominee, but … as good as Republicans can expect from [the Clinton] administration” (a sentiment Hatch repeated in 2003). Garland also had the support of senior administration officials from the Reagan Justice Department, as well as that of Judge Laurence Silberman, who was appointed to the D.C. Circuit by Ronald Reagan. Overview Regarding Confirmation And Impact Of Garland’s Appointment Judge Garland’s record demonstrates that he is essentially the model, neutral judge. He is acknowledged by all to be brilliant. His opinions avoid unnecessary, sweeping pronouncements. Judge Garland is also the “short list” candidate to replace Justice Stevens who is least likely to prompt a polarizing confirmation fight. He has broad support on both sides of the aisle, and he has few ideologically controversial rulings. Conservative commentators (see here, here, and here) have expressed support for a potential Garland nomination. Of the three principal candidates – the other two being Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Judge Diane Wood – Judge Garland would also likely have the most immediate influence on the Court. He is well known to

the Justices and is likely the most respected by them collectively, particularly the more conservative Justices. The fact that Judge Garland is not only extremely intelligent and respectful but exceptionally careful and quite centrist would mean that his views would have particular salience with, among others, Justices Kennedy and Alito. To the extent that ideology plays a role in the nomination – and it obviously plays a material role – the other side of the coin of the factors that would in part drive Judge Garland’s likely influence is the fact that, on questions on which the three principal candidates would disagree, he would generally be the least liberal. Strictly in terms of the change in the votes of the liberal Justices Stevens and his successor, Judge Garland would be the most different. Certainly, to the extent that the President’s goal is to select a nominee who will articulate a broad progressive vision for the law, Judge Garland would be a very unlikely candidate to take up that role. The point is not that Judge Garland is conservative. None of the candidates under serious consideration is. Rather, there are gradations between the views of the three, and there are questions on which they would disagree. On a number of

issues, particularly those related to criminal law, Judge Garland is the least likely to adopt a liberal position. There are, however, some potential counter -examples involving the First Amendment and environmental law. Review By The Supreme Court For a long-tenured judge on a prominent court of appeals, Judge Garland has participated in few cases that resulted in Supreme Court review. The Supreme Court has not granted cert. in any case in which he wrote the court of appeals’ opinion. Of the seven cases reviewed by the Supreme Court in which he has stated (or strongly implied) a position, the Justices agreed with him in four. The most significant of these rulings was the al Odah case, in which a panel that included Judge Garland held early in the line of detainee cases that federal district courts lack habeas corpus jurisdiction over the Guantanamo detainees’ claims. The Supreme Court subsequently reversed in a six-to -three ruling, with the majority opinion for five Justices written by Justice Stevens. That said, contrary to the views of some, it is difficult to criticize Judge Garland or infer too much from his vote in the case: there is a significant argument that the panel’s opinion was compelled WHO page 48

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particularly closely. Any Zionism on his part manifested itself mostly in regular contributions to the New Israel Fund—a left-wing NGO that finances Israeli human rights groups. But, as the Second Intifada erupted, following the failure of the Oslo process, Bernstein began paying closer attention to HRW’s work on Israel. And he didn’t like what he was seeing. With Palestinian suicide bombings reaching a crescendo in early 2002, precipitating a full-scale Israeli counterterrorist campaign across the West Bank, HRW’s Middle East and North Africa division (MENA) issued two reports (and myriad press releases) on Israeli misconduct—including one on the Israel Defense Forces’ assault on terrorist safe havens in the Jenin refugee camp. That report—which, to HRW’s credit, debunked the widespread myth that Israel had carried out a massacre—nevertheless said there was “strong prima facie evidence” that Israel had “committed grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions,” irking the country’s supporters, who argued that the IDF had in fact gone to great lengths to spare Palestinian civilians. (The decision not to launch an aerial bombardment of the densely populated area, and to dispatch ground troops into labyrinthine warrens instead, cost 23 Israeli

soldiers their lives—crucial context that HRW ignored.) It would take another five months for HRW to release a report on Palestinian suicide bombings—and another five years for it to publish a report addressing the firing of rockets and mortars from Gaza, despite the fact that, by 2003, hundreds had been launched from the territory into Israel. (HRW did issue earlier press releases on both subjects.) In the years to come, critics would accuse HRW of giving disproportionate attention to Israeli misdeeds. According to HRW’s own count, since 2000, MENA has devoted more reports to abuses by Israel than to abuses by all but two other countries, Iraq and Egypt. That’s more reports than those on Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, Algeria, and other regional dictatorships. (When HRW includes press releases in its count, Israel ranks fourth on the list.) And, if you count only full reports—as opposed to “briefing papers,” “backgrounders,” and other documents that tend to be shorter, less authoritative, and therefore less influential—the focus on the Jewish state only increases, with Israel either leading or close to leading the tally. There are roughly as many reports on Israel as on Iran, Syria, and Libya combined. HRW officials acknowledge

that a number of factors beyond the enormity of human rights abuses go into deciding how to divide up the organization’s attentions: access to a given country, possibility for redress, and general interest in the topic. “I think we tend to go where there’s action and where we’re going to get reaction,” rues one board member. “We seek the limelight—that’s part of what we do. And so, Israel’s sort of like low-hanging fruit.” Bernstein, however, had started HRW primarily to reach for the high-hanging fruit—closed societies where human rights reporting was lacking. He was not opposed to HRW criticizing Israel. But, with the country already host to dozens of wellstaffed human rights organizations—not to mention a vibrant free press and an activist Supreme Court that frequently restrained government and military policies—he questioned the wisdom of devoting more attention to the Jewish state than to countries with far worse human rights records and many fewer self-correcting mechanisms. And so, he reached out to someone who could help him look at HRW’s work with fresh eyes. In 2005, he introduced Roth to Steve Apkon, the founder of a nonprofit film center that had hosted the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in recent years. Apkon—a mild-mannered 48-

year-old who formerly worked on Wall Street and was an active supporter of Seeds of Peace, a program that seeks to foster friendships between Israeli and Palestinian youth—was invited to serve on MENA’s advisory committee, which met every few months. As Apkon understood it, the committee had a variety of functions, one of which was to provide input on MENA’s work. While Apkon had no problem with—indeed, supported—the idea of ferreting out Israeli human rights abuses, he quickly sensed a palpable hostility toward Israel among the HRW brass. He also began to feel that advisory committee meetings were not taken seriously by HRW staff. They were “dog-and-pony shows” with “no room for dialogue,” he recalls. “It was quite exasperating to a number of people there.” Indeed, despite the tremendous amount of goodwill inside the organization toward Bernstein personally, he and his allies—who also included Edith Everett, a member of both the MENA advisory committee and the HRW board, a former stockbroker, and a philanthropist who has donated millions to aid Druze Arabs in Israel—eventually came to believe that their concerns were falling on deaf ears. For Everett, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war was a turning point.

“Participating on the board became most difficult since [that war],” she recalls. While Everett agreed with some of HRW’s critiques—on Israel’s use of cluster munitions, for example—she took issue with many of the organization’s conclusions, including its reporting on human shield use in Lebanon. (In a 2007 report, HRW insisted that Hezbollah fighters did not shield themselves and their weapons among the local civilian population on a widespread basis.) For a long time, Everett had felt there was a healthy exchange about these issues inside HRW, but that had begun to change. “I felt in recent times there was less of a dialogue,” she says. “It seemed to me that there was a commitment to a point of view—that Israel’s the bad guy here.” During the third week of the five-week war, the organization published a report on “Israel’s indiscriminate attacks against civilians. (A report on Hezbollah rocket fire would not come out for another year, although, again, HRW did issue press releases on the subject in the interim.) The report said there was evidence suggesting that, in some cases, “Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.” Critics, such as Alan Dershowitz and Bar-Ilan MINORITY page 49

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by then-extant Supreme Court precedent, as illustrated by the fact that no member of the D.C. Circuit called for en banc review of the panel’s ruling. al Odah v. United States, 321 F.3d 1134 (2003) (joining panel opinion by Randolph, J., along with Williams, J., holding that federal district court lacked habeas corpus jurisdiction over Guantanamo detainees under existing Supreme Court precedent), rehearing en banc denied without dissent(June 2, 2003), rev’d sub nom. Rasul v. Bush, 540 U.S. 1175 (2004). Judge Garland was also part of a unanimous panel that upheld a Park Service regulation; the Supreme Court subsequently vacated the ruling on the ground that the suit was not ripe. Amfac Resorts v. Department of Interior, 282 F.3d 818 (2002), vacated sub nom. National Park Hosp. Ass’n v. Department of Interior, 538 U.S. 803 (2003). In another case, Judge Garland was a member of a panel which held that the FCC’s revocation of a license was subject to the restrictions of the Bankruptcy Code. The Supreme Court affirmed. NextWave Personal Comms. v. FCC, 253 F.3d 130 (2001), aff’d, 537 U.S. 293 (2003). Most recently, he was a member of a panel that had declined to apply deferential review to FERC’s approval of a rate-setting settlement; the

Supreme Court reversed eight-to -one (with Justice Stevens dissenting). Maine PUC v. FERC, 520 F.3d 464 (2008), rev’d sub nom. NRG Power Mkt’g v. Maine PUC, 130 S. Ct. 693 (2010). Garland also notably voted in favor of en banc review of the D.C. Circuit’s decision invalidating the D.C. handgun ban, which the Supreme Court subsequently affirmed. Garland did not take a formal position on the merits of the case. But even if he had concluded that the statute was constitutional, that view of the case would have conformed to the widespread view that, under existing Supreme Court precedent, the Second Amendment did not confer a right to bear arms unconnected to service in a militia. Parker v. District of Columbia, 478 F.3d 370 (2007) (see denial of rehearing en banc). Judge Garland was one of four judges who dissented from the denial of rehearing en banc in a case in which the panel had limited the availability of punitive damages under the Americans With Disabilities Act. The Supreme Court subsequently reversed. Kolstad v. Am. Dental Ass’n, 139 F.3d 598 (1998) (en banc) (Tatel, J., dissenting) (along with Edwards, C.J., and Wald and Rogers, JJ., joining opinion arguing that intentional sex

discrimination is sufficient to justify punitive damage award), rev’d, 527 U.S. 526 (1999). Finally, Judge Garland joined a dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc of a significant panel opinion invalidating EPA regulations under the non-delegation doctrine. Once again, the Supreme Court reversed. American Trucking Ass’n v. U.S. E.P.A., 195 F.3d 4 (1999) (Tatel, J., dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc), rev’d sub nom. Whitman v. American Trucking Ass’ns, 531 U.S. 457 (2001). Specific Areas Of Law Because the D.C. Circuit’s caseload is dominated by regulatory challenges, few of the cases in which Judge Garland participated involve hot-button social issues like abortion or the death penalty. I have attempted to review the principal areas of law in which he has decided a significant number of cases that would likely be most relevant to his potential appointment. Criminal Law The most significant area of the law in which Judge Garland’s views obviously differ materially from those of Justice Stevens is criminal law. Judge Garland rarely votes in favor of criminal defendants’ appeals of their convictions. I identified only eight such published rulings, which should capture all the significant cases. Judge

Garland did not author any of the opinions. United States v. Johnson, 592 F.3d 164 (2010) ( Brady violation); United States v. Walker, 545 F.3d 1081 (2008) (firearms charge); United States v. Askew, 529 F.3d 1119 (2008) (en banc) (search); United States v. Ayeni, 374 F.3d 1313 (2004) (fraud and theft conviction); United States v. Whitmore, 359 F.3d 609 (2004) (denial of right to cross-examine witness); United States v. Gilliam, 167 F.3d 628 (1999) (firearms, but ruling had no effect on defendant’s sentence); United States v. Lampkin, 159 F.3d 607 (1998) (unlawfully employing a minor and drug offense); United States v. Maddox, 156 F.3d 1280 (1998) (firearms). The only possible exception – that is, a case in which Judge Garland wrote for the panel in reversing a criminal conviction – is United States v. Clark, 184 F.3d 858, 871 (1999) (per Garland, J.), which reversed a firearms case, but I do not find it significant; as Judge Garland explained: “Although the government did not respond to this argument, we note that it has conceded the point in at least three other cases.” In seven other cases, he voted to reverse the defendant’s sentence in whole or in part, or to permit the defendant to raise a argument relating to sentencing on remand. In re Sealed Case, 573 F.3d 844

(2009) (per Tatel, J.; Henderson, J., dissenting); United States v. Branham, 515 F.3d 1268 (2008) (per Garland, J.) (sentence); United States v. Henry, 472 F.3d 910 (2007) (sentence); United States v. Dorcely, 454 F.3d 366 (2006) (restitution); United States v. McCoy, 313 F.3d 561 (2002) (en banc) (joining majority opinion permitting defendant to raise new sentencing issue on remand in certain circumstances; Henderson, J., dissenting, joined by Ginsburg, C.J., and Sentelle, J.); United States v. Thomas, 361 F.3d 653 (2004) (the evidence did not support the conclusion that the fun that the defendant possessed was stolen); United States v. Williams, 216 F.3d 1099 (2000) (the trial court drew unreasonable influences about when the defendant joined a conspiracy). Most striking, in ten criminal cases, Judge Garland has disagreed with his more-liberal colleagues; in each, he adopted the position that was more favorable to the government or declined to reach a question on which the majority of the court had adopted a position favorable to a defendant. Because disagreement among panel members on the D.C. Circuit is relatively rare, this substantial body of cases is noteworthy. WHO page 50

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University Professor Avi Bell, jumped on the report and related documents, arguing that some of their assertions were highly questionable. HRW ceded no ground, accusing Dershowitz and Bell of “armchair obfuscations.” But, when it issued its more comprehensive report on Lebanese fatalities a year later, the organization admitted that the first report had indeed gotten key facts wrong. For example, an Israeli strike in the village of Srifa—the seconddeadliest attack described in the first report—turned out to have killed not “an estimated 26 civilians” (as HRW had originally claimed) or “as many as 42 civilians” (as Roth later wrote), but 17 combatants and five civilians. “[E]yewitnesses were not always forthcoming about the identity of those that died, and in the case of Srifa, misled our researchers,” HRW wrote. Elsewhere in the new report, HRW acknowledged that the original had missed mitigating factors that cast some Israeli strikes in a different light. (There were also dozens of discrepancies between the two reports regarding names, ages, the timing of attacks, and other factual details.) Robert James—a businessman, World War II veteran, and member of the MENA advisory committee who has been involved with HRW almost since its inception—calls the

group “the greatest NGO since the Red Cross,” but argues that it is chronically incapable of introspection. “Bob is bringing this issue up on Israel,” he says. “But Human Rights Watch has a more basic problem. ... They cannot take criticism.” Recent disputes over Israel inside HRW have frequently involved Sarah Leah Whitson, the 43-year-old director of MENA (and one of the officials who made the controversial fundraising appearance in Saudi Arabia). Raised by a mother who had been born in the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, Whitson spent summers as a child with family in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, later studying abroad in Egypt. Following law school, she became a corporate attorney but pursued activism on the side, volunteering for, among other groups, the American-Arab Anti -Discrimination Committee (where she was co-organizer of a delegation in 2002 that lobbied Kofi Annan to press ahead with a U.N. investigation of Israel’s Jenin operation) and MADRE (a women’s rights group, with which she traveled to Lebanon on a solidarity mission in 1996 after an Israeli bombing campaign). As I stepped into her office for an interview in February, I noticed that a poster for Paradise Now, a movie that attempts to humanize Palestinian suicide bombers,

hangs on her door and that two photos of bereaved Gazans hang on her wall. To Whitson’s credit, under her leadership, MENA has avoided laying the Palestinian plight entirely at the feet of Israel (the past few years have seen reports on abuses of Palestinians in Iraq and Jordan, not to mention Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence in the West Bank and Gaza). Moreover, during her tenure, MENA has expanded the number of nations that it tracks. “In every country—even if it’s a small, tiny country like the United Arab Emirates—there are a lot of problems,” she says. “And, if you’re the one guy who’s being sodomized with a cattle prod by the ruler’s brother, then that’s a big problem. And you want attention for it.” “She was the first person who actually ran that division competently,” says someone who has worked with Whitson. “Things in that division came together under her. Very energetic and committed. And she does get excited about a lot of other issues.” But, on the region’s most politicized conflict, Whitson’s allegiances seem clear. “She definitely has no sympathy for the Israeli side,” this person told me. “And she does, I think, have a lot of personal identification with the Palestinian cause.” A hint of these inclinations

surfaced in a January interview with a Moroccan newspaper. On the one hand, Whitson parroted the HRW mantra of neutrality in war. “We are not with this side or that side,” she said. “We are on the side of civilians on both sides of the conflict. We say that Israel is wrong when it targets Palestinian civilians and that Hamas is wrong when it targets Israeli civilians.” But she added, “Of course, no one can deny that the pain and destruction that Israel causes cannot be compared to what Hamas is doing.” Critics have pointed out that a number of Whitson’s colleagues in MENA—such as Joe Stork, who came to HRW after decades as a leader of the leftwing Middle East Research and Information Project, where he was part of an editorial collective that ran an extremely anti-Israel journal—arrived at the organization with backgrounds in the proPalestinian movement. Sid Sheinberg argues that the mere appearance of a biased jury at MENA ill-serves HRW. “Is it smart to have a number of people about which questions can be asked—in either direction?” he says. But, when I asked Whitson about this critique—and, specifically, about a former researcher on Israel who, before starting at HRW, wrote pro-Palestinian dispatches from the West Bank

and Gaza describing Israeli soldiers as “protected by arrogance and hatred and a state and an army and the world’s superpower”— she said she didn’t see a problem with this situation. “For people who apply for jobs to be the researcher in Israel-Palestine, it’s probably going to be someone who’s done work on Israel-Palestine with a human rights background,” she explained. “And guess what? People who do work with a human rights background on Israel-Palestine tend to find that there are a lot of Israeli abuses. And they tend to become human rights activists on the issue.” For his part, HRW program director Iain Levine, who oversees the organization’s 16 divisions, acknowledges that people from many divisions—and not just MENA—arrive from “solidarity backgrounds,” but insists that, “when they come to the door of this organization, they park those things behind.” Whether or not Whitson has done so, she clearly favors a tough approach toward the Jewish state. She has argued that, far from being too harsh toward Israel, HRW is actually too lenient. “[B]elieve me,” she wrote in an e-mail to a MENA advisory committee member, “on israel in particular, we are overly cautious and extremely MINORITY page 51

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United States v. Andrews, 532 F.3d 900 (2008) (per Garland, J.) (upholding criminal conviction; Rogers, J., concurs arguing that the case should be resolved on narrower ground); United States v. Askew, 529 F.3d 1119 (2008) (en banc) (not joining part of en banc opinion of Edwards, J., joined by Rogers, Tatel, and Brown, JJ., finding Fourth Amendment violation); United States v. Powell, 483 F.3d 836 (2007) (en banc) (joining majority opinion denying Fourth Amendment motion to suppress; Rogers, J., dissents); Valdes v. United States, 475 F.3d 1319 (2007) (en banc) (Garland, J., dissenting) (joined by four other judges, dissenting from majority opinion joined by Edwards, Tatel, and Rogers, JJ., invalidating conviction for making payment for “official act”); United States v. Riley, 376 F.3d 160 (2004) (per Garland, J.) (joined by Tatel, J., reversing downward departure; Rogers, J., dissents); United States v. Linares, 367 F.3d 941 (2004) (Garland, J., concurring) (declining to join part of opinion by Tatel, J. (joined by Sentelle, J.), concluding that evidence should have been excluded; judge Garland concludes it is unnecessary to reach the issue given the court’s conclusion that any error was harmless); United States v. Brown, 334 F.3d 1161 (2003) (per Garland, J.)

(rejecting claim that evidence should be suppressed; Rogers, J., dissents); United States v. Watson, 171 F.3d 695 (1999) (Garland, J., dissenting) (dissenting from opinion of Rogers, J., joined by Edwards, J., holding that conviction must be reversed based on prosecutor’s misstatement of witness testimony in closing argument); United States v. Spinner, 152 F.3d 950 (1998) (Garland, J., dissenting) (dissenting from opinion of Sentelle, J., joined by Edwards, J., reversing conviction on one count for insufficient evidence and another count on the ground that prosecutors engaged in inappropriate crossexamination); United States v. Crowder, 14 F.3d 1202 (1998) (en banc) (joining opinion holding that defendant’s offer to stipulate to element of offense does not preclude admission of bad acts evidence, over dissent of Tatel, J., joined by Edwards, C.J., and Wald and Silberman, JJ.). In another case, Judge Garland dissented from a panel ruling by two of the court’s more conservative judges in favor of a criminal defendant. United States v. Wilson, 240 F.3d 39 (2001) (Garland, J., dissenting) (dissenting from opinion of Williams, J., joined by Silberman, S.J., reversing sentencing enhancement). He also joined a majority opinion

over a dissent by a conservative panel member in favor of a defendant. United States v. Williams, 212 F.3d 1305 (2000) (per Henderson, J., finding that error in admitting officer’s testimony was harmless; over dissent of Silberman, J.). These isolated two examples are similar to what one would expect to see on the Supreme Court, where Justices on the left and right do not line up reflexively for and against criminal defendants. There is one other illuminating comparison. I noted above that Judge Garland had joined approximately a dozen published rulings reversing or vacating a defendant’s conviction or sentence. In that same period, Judge Tatel joined such decisions (or dissented from the refusal to grant the defendant relief) approximately twenty-five times. Unlike many other judges, Judge Garland’s position on criminal law issues is not reflective of a broader ideology. One might expect that a judge with such a record on criminal law questions would be generally quite conservative across the board. That does not appear to be true, however. Detainees and Constitutional Claims Another noteworthy area of law in which Judge Garland has participated is cases involving the detainees at Guantanamo

Bay. He was a member of the al Odah panel discussed above. al Odah v. United States, 321 F.3d 1134 (2003) (joining panel opinion by Randolph, J., along with Williams, J., holding that federal district court lacked habeas corpus jurisdiction over Guantanamo detainees under existing Supreme Court precedent), rehearing en banc denied without dissent(June 2, 2003), rev’d sub nom. Rasul v. Bush, 540 U.S. 1175 (2004) (63 vote, per Stevens, J.). Of note, Judge Garland did author an important opinion invalidating a combatant status review tribunal’s designation of a detainee as an “enemy combatant.” Parhat v. Gates, 532 F.3d 834 (2008) (per Garland, J.) (joined by Sentelle, C.J., and Griffith, J.). Also illuminating is Saleh v. Titan Corp., 580 F.3d 1 (2009) (Garland J., dissenting), in which he dissented from a panel opinion (per Silberman, J., joined by Kavanaugh, J.) dismissing Iraqis’ claims against contractors at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. On the other hand, Judge Garland did quite consciously stake out a position separate from the more liberal members of the D.C. Circuit in one of the detainee cases, in a vote that arguably most directly reflects his oft-stated preference for deciding cases on narrow grounds. Bismullah v. Gates,

514 F.3d 1291 (2008) (Garland, J., concurring) (concluding that en banc review of detaineefavoring ruling should be denied because the Supreme Court had indicated that the case should be resolved quickly; not joining concurrence by Ginsburg, Rogers, Tatel, and Griffith, JJ., that panel opinion was correct on the merits). Judge Garland has tended to take a broader view of First Amendment rights. E.g., Boehner v. McDermott, 484 F.3d 573 (2007) (en banc) (joining dissenting opinion of Sentelle, J., also joined by Rogers and Tatel, JJ., which would have rejected on First Amendment grounds suit arising from disclosure of intercepted communications by member of Congress); Lee v. DOJ, 428 F.3d 299 (2005) (Garland, J., dissenting) (in Wen Ho Lee case, dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc, joined by Tatel, J. (and also separately joining opinion of Tatel, J.,), arguing for broader application of reporter’s privilege); Thompson v. District of Columbia, 428 F.3d 283 (2005) (reinstating plaintiff’s claim that he was fired for expression in violation of First Amendment); Initiative & Referendum Inst. v. U.S.P.S., 417 F.3d 1299 (2005) (per Garland, J.) (reversing district court and upholding WHO page 52

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kid-gloved because of the harassment we endure.” Less definitive—but still arguably revealing—evidence about Whitson’s politics can be found in her opinion of Norman Finkelstein, the activist and avowed Hezbollah supporter who has likened Israel to Nazi Germany. The two became acquainted years ago, and she brought him to HRW to discuss his 2005 book Beyond Chutzpah. (“He had a very mixed reception,” she remembers. “I think people did not find his style particularly persuasive.”) In late 2006, when Finkelstein launched a letterwriting campaign demanding that HRW officials apologize for a press release critical of Palestinian officials (which they eventually did), one HRW observer e-mailed Whitson to share thoughts on Finkelstein’s over-the-top rhetoric. Whitson replied: “I agree w/ u that norm undermines himself and his cause w/ the language he uses, and his anger sometimes gets the better of him and his brilliant mind and generous spirit. I continue to have tremendous respect and admiration for him, because as you probably know, making Israeli abuses the focus of one’s life work is a thankless but courageous task that may well end up leaving all of us quite bitter.” As Bernstein and his allies saw

it, Whitson and others in MENA consistently ignored the context of Israeli actions—context that might have created a more accurate picture. That was the overriding complaint in a letter Edith Everett wrote to HRW in June 2008, outlining her dissatisfaction with the way the organization was treating Israel. HRW had repeatedly called for Israel to lift its blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza. Everett pointed out that “the original contravention of human rights lies with Hamas and these terrorist organizations and if they were to stop their unprovoked attacks on Israeli civilians there would be no restrictions on the flow of goods into Gaza.” That month, Bernstein made a presentation at a meeting of the executive committee of HRW’s board. After asking HRW staffers to leave the room, he told the assembled something they already knew—that he had concerns about MENA’s Israel work—and something they did not: “I told them, from then on, they couldn’t assume that I would remain silent to the public.” Ken Roth was absent from the meeting—his daughter was graduating from high school that day—but he was furious when he found out. He immediately emailed Bernstein’s son Bill, a classmate from Brown, lamenting how unfortunate he

found it that a man who had spent his life championing human rights had become an apologist for Israel. He appealed to the younger Bernstein to intervene, warning that his father would do great harm to the organization and to his own reputation. Not everyone at HRW, however, was eager to keep Bernstein in the fold. His persistent questions had become a never-ending source of annoyance to Whitson. “It just came to this point where we would have countless meetings with him explaining things over and over,” Whitson says. “And then, he would just ask the same question as if you’d never had the conversation before. And you’re like, ‘But did you actually read the report? Did you actually see what it said? Because it answers your question, and we’ve discussed this, like, eighteen times.’” Her attitude toward Bernstein’s threat was one of indifference. “You’re like, ‘OK, just go public and get it over with.’” At the time, however, Bernstein was still unsure of himself. He had begun consulting prominent outsiders, among them just war philosopher Michael Walzer and Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria, a friend of his son Tom. Zakaria spoke to Bernstein at length—first in a face-to-face meeting, then in a series of phone calls. Bernstein had

already started putting his thoughts to paper—thousands of words’ worth—but felt he was getting nowhere and urged Zakaria to take up the cause instead. Zakaria demurred. “My advice to him,” Zakaria says, “was that, if he felt as strongly as he did, then he needed to speak out because the impact of the founder of Human Rights Watch talking about his disillusionment with the organization was going to be far greater than an outsider who had no historical association with the organization.” Bernstein also raised some of his concerns with then-HRW board member Richard Goldstone, who would go on to write the U.N.’s much-maligned report on the Gaza war. There are few more reviled figures in Israel right now than Goldstone, but even he sympathized with Bernstein on certain points, such as the politicized nature of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which, after being created in 2006, had directed its first nine condemnations at Israel. In March 2008, barely a year before he accepted UNHRC’s mandate to investigate the Gaza war, he told Bernstein that he thought the body’s performance had been hopeless and expressed ambivalence as to whether HRW should continue appearing before it. He also agreed with Bernstein that Iranian President Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad’s increasingly aggressive anti-Israel rhetoric, in combination with his threatening policies, was an issue worthy of HRW’s attention. Goldstone pushed Roth to address it, but to no avail. (When I asked Roth in a February interview at his office about HRW’s refusal to take a position on Ahmadinejad’s threats against Israel, including his famous call for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” Roth quibbled about the way the statement had been translated in the West—“there was a real question as to whether he actually said that”—then told me that it was not HRW’s place to render judgments on such rhetoric: “Let’s assume it is a military threat. We don’t take on governments’ military threats just as we don’t take on aggression, per se. We look at how they behave. So, we wouldn’t condemn a military threat just as we wouldn’t condemn an invasion—we would look at how the government wages the war.” Whitson, who sat in on the interview, offered her two cents: “You know, that statement was also matched by Hillary Clinton saying that the Iranian regime should be destroyed or wiped off the map. Again, so, very similar statements, side by side, close in time.” For his part, MINORITY page 53

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First Amendment challenge to regulation prohibiting solicitation of signatures outside post offices). Judge Garland has participated in few substantive campaign finance cases. SpeechNow.org v. FEC, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 6254 (Mar. 26, 2010) (en banc) (unanimous ruling holding that association was not subject to restrictions as political committee); NAM v. Taylor, 582 F.3d 1 (2009) (per Garland, J.) (upholding lobbying disclosure statute against First Amendment challenge); Shays v. FEC, 528 F.3d 914 (2008) (unanimous panel opinion invalidating FEC regulations as insufficiently stringent to implement McCain-Feingold Act). In various other contexts, Judge Garland has in a few cases rejected assertions of constitutional rights, disagreeing with his more-liberal colleagues. I am not aware of counterexamples in which he has staked out a more liberal position. Again, the point is not that Judge Garland is conservative, but instead that he is more to the center than to the left. Abigail Alliance v. von Eschenbach, 495 F.3d 695 (2007) (en banc) (joining majority opinion rejecting claim of constitutional right to access to unapproved drugs; Rogers, J., and Ginsburg, C.J., dissent); Ruggiero v. FCC, 417 F.3d 239

(2003) (en banc) (joining en banc opinion upholding restrictions on licenses for lowpower radio stations against First Amendment challenge; Tatel, J., dissents); Hutchins v. District of Columbia, 188 F.3d 531 (1999) (en banc) (joint concurring opinion of Garland and Wald, JJ.) (agreeing with Tatel and Rogers, JJ., that juvenile curfew is subject to intermediate constitutional scrutiny, but rejecting their conclusion that curfew is unconstitutional). Civil Rights Judge Garland has not been called upon to decide many civil -rights-related claims of great significance. It is difficult to label him as inclined either towards or against such claims, given that the panels on which he sat in such cases were generally unanimous. When, however, Judge Garland participated in a divided ruling, it was generally in favor of the plaintiff. The Kolstad case, in which Judge Garland dissented from the denial of rehearing en banc from a panel decision limiting the availability of punitive damages under the ADA and the Supreme Court subsequently reversed, is discussed above. Other illustrative cases are Akinseye v. District of Columbia, 339 F.3d 970 (2003) (Garland, J., dissenting) (dissenting from decision to reach and reject

claim for interest on attorney’s fees under IDEA); Duncan v. WMATA, 240 F.3d 1110 (2001) (en banc) (joining en banc opinion rejecting ADA claim; Tatel, J., concurs to articulate more plaintiff-friendly ADA standard; Edwards, J., dissents); Calloway v. District of Columbia, 216 F.3d 1 (2000) (joining opinion of Tatel, J., upholding application of attorney’s fees provision of IDEA; over dissent of Ginsburg, J.); Aka v. Washington Hosp. Center, 156 F.3d 1284 (1998) (en banc) (joining en banc opinion holding that plaintiff was entitled to pursue ADEA and ADA claims; over dissent by Silberman, Henderson, Williams, and Ginsburg, JJ.); U.S. ex rel. Yesudian v. Howard Univ., 153 F.3d 731 (1998) (per Garland, J.) (joined by Wald, J., holding that plaintiff could pursue False Claims Act retaliation action). The unanimous rulings in which Judge Garland participated similarly reflect a concern that civil rights plaintiffs receive an appropriate day in Court. E.g., Steele v. Schafer, 535 F.3d 689 (2008) (per Garland, J.) (joined by Griffith, J., and Williams, S.J., reversing summary judgment for employer and reinstating hostile work environment and retaliation claims); Harris v. Gonzales, 488 F.3d 442 (2007) (joining opinion by Tatel, J.,

also joined by Brown, J., reversing summary judgment that employee could not establish lack of notice of filing deadline for civil rights suit); Czekalski v. Peters, 475 F.3d 360 (2007) (per Garland, J.) (joined by Rogers, J., and Silberman, S.J.) (reversing summary judgment to permit plaintiff to attempt to establish that reassignment constituted actionable demotion). Judge Garland also authored an opinion narrowly reading states’ sovereign immunity from suit under the civil rights laws. Barbour v. WMATA, 374 F.3d 1161 (2004) (Garland, J.) (joined by then-Judge John Roberts, holding that WMATA waived sovereign immunity from suit by accepting funds under Rehabilitation Act, over dissent of Sentelle, J.). Agency Deference Judge Garland has strong views favoring deference to agency decisionmakers. In a dozen close cases in which the court divided, he sided with the agency every time. FedEx Home Delivery v. NLRB, 563 F.3d 492 (2009) (Garland, J., dissenting) (dissenting from panel opinion overturning NLRB’s designation of workers as employees rather than contractors); Northeast Bev. Corp. v. NLRB, 554 F.3d 133 (2009) (Garland, J., dissenting) (dissenting from panel opinion overturning NLRB’s

determination that certain conduct was protected under Section 7 of the NLRA); Financial Planning Ass’n v. SEC, 482 F.3d 481 (2007) (Garland, J., dissenting) (dissenting from panel opinion of Rogers, J., joined by Kavanaugh, J., invalidating SEC rule exempting broker-dealers from Investment Advisor Act in certain circumstances); Alpharma v. Leavitt, 460 F.3d 1 (2006) (per Garland, J.) (upholding FDA determination to approve drug, over partial dissent by Williams, S.J.); Secretary of Labor v. Excel Mining, 334 F.3d 1 (2003) (per Garland, J.) (joined by Rogers, J., upholding citations against mine operator issued by Secretary of Labor; over dissenting opinion of Sentelle, J.); Train v. Veneman, 310 F.3d 747 (2002) (joining opinion of Rogers, J., upholding Secretary of Agriculture’s implementation of subsidy program, over dissent of Sentelle, J.); American Corn Growers Ass’n v. EPA, 291 F.3d 1 (2002) (Garland, J., dissenting in part) (dissenting from majority opinion upholding industry challenge to part of EPA’s anti-haze regulations), after remand Util. Air Reg. Group v. EPA, 471 F.3d 1333 (2006) (Garland, J., on panel upholding regulations); Ross Stores v. NLRB, 234 F.3d WHO page 55

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Goldstone told TNR that he eventually came around to the view this was not an issue HRW should take up.) Bernstein was becoming steadily more frustrated—and two of his closest allies at the organization were soon on their way out. In early 2009, Whitson informed Steve Apkon that, if he wished to serve another term on the MENA advisory committee, he would be expected to make a contribution in the $10,000 range. Apkon was livid. He dashed off a sharply worded letter to advisory committee chair Shibley Telhami. “An organization that was founded to protect the most basic of human rights—freedom of speech—seeing it as the canary in the coal mine in regards to everything else, seems to have created within its own organization a disregard and intolerance for open dialogue,” he wrote. His membership was not renewed. (HRW denies that Apkon’s removal had anything to do with his criticisms, attributing it primarily to his failure to make an acceptable contribution.) Shortly thereafter, Edith Everett was gone. At a MENA advisory committee meeting in March 2009, two months after the war in Gaza, she raised the subject of human shields with HRW senior military analyst Marc Garlasco, who was on hand to

discuss the issues he and his fellow researchers were planning to write about: “I said, ‘I hope when you talk about the Palestinians in Gaza that you speak about their use of the population as human shields,’ and he was beginning to respond to that when Sarah Leah Whitson wouldn’t let him speak. She just put an end to that conversation. She said, ‘Well, in summation, I think we have to move on,’ or something, and I said, ‘This is ridiculous,’ you know?” Everett immediately tendered her resignation from both the HRW board and the MENA advisory committee. At the end of that month, Bernstein sent a long e-mail to the board of HRW. “While I realize that HRW is doing a lot of valuable work, to me the mishandling of the IsraelPalestine situation is like a cancer,” he wrote. “After my twenty-one years as chair, I still care deeply about the direction of HRW, and my inability to bring change bothers me.” Just as the internal dispute over Israel was coming to a head, HRW found itself enmeshed in a bizarre controversy. On September 8, 2009, a pro-Israel blogger named Omri Ceren discovered that Marc Garlasco—one of the HRW staffers who had conducted field research on the Gaza and Lebanon wars—was an avid collector of Nazi paraphernalia.

The revelation bounced around the blogosphere before quickly reaching the mainstream media. Already under attack from proIsrael groups, HRW now found itself in a predicament. Initially, the organization came out swinging in Garlasco’s defense. But, within days, it changed course and suspended Garlasco. His suspension continued for months. (At one point during this period, according to a source close to him, he was contacted by HRW and told not to talk to me. When asked whether this was true, HRW declined to comment.) Eventually, HRW’s lawyers and his own hammered out a severance agreement, which included a nondisclosure clause. On February 15, he officially resigned. Steve Apkon was watching the entire episode with regret. Apkon liked Garlasco personally and respected his expertise. He thought that Garlasco—far from being a Nazi fetishist out to demonize Israel—actually had thoughtful views on the Middle East conflict. Both men lived in Pleasantville, New York, a quaint Westchester town, and they had gotten to know each other through Apkon’s film center, where one of Garlasco’s daughters had taken a class. Back in February 2009, shortly after Garlasco had returned from Gaza, the two met for coffee at

the Pleasantville Starbucks (there is only one). Apkon found what Garlasco had to say striking: Garlasco told him that he had reservations about HRW’s approach to covering warfare, and specifically some of its work on Israel—including research for which he had been the point person. As it turned out, Apkon wasn’t alone. Garlasco is a complicated character—a gun-toting, beerdrinking Battlestar Galactica fan with a cloak-and-dagger persona like something out of a spy novel—and his views on HRW were hard to pin down. On the one hand, he publicly endorsed HRW’s reporting on Israel, telling TNR, “I stand by every report I ever worked on as a factual representation of the events.” And yet, he also criticized elements of this work to Apkon—and others. In many ways, Garlasco was an odd fit at HRW. Prior to being hired in 2003, he had served as the head of “high-value targeting” at the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Iraq war. He opposed the invasion, however, and joined HRW shortly after the fall of Baghdad. His first assignment at his new job was to investigate collateral damage from the airstrikes he had helped plan. Whitson told me that Garlasco (who was one of only a handful of people at HRW with military experience) brought unique

skills to the organization and enhanced its credibility. “He could look at the plumes in the sky and know exactly what weapon that was,” she says. “He could look at a canister and know what kind of a munition it was. He could look and see where the guidance system is.” Garlasco was hardly a reflexive apologist for Israel. His time on the ground in Gaza convinced him that the IDF had a lot to answer for—using Palestinians as human shields, heavy artillery fire in densely populated areas, and rules of engagement so lax that large numbers of civilian deaths were inevitable. And he thought that both sides, Hamas and Israel, had committed war crimes during the conflict. Still, he believed that there was a fog of war that most of his colleagues failed to appreciate. “He said ... ‘If I were an Israeli, I’d be so frustrated,’” recalls one friend. “You are trying to get people who are shooting from civilian areas, and how do you deal with that? I mean, I remember him talking about that—that it’s an impossible quandary for a soldier. Sometimes, they actually turn out to be kids playing on the roof, and sometimes they’re guys with missiles.” During the war, Garlasco had gotten a lot of attention for discussing Israel’s use of a MINORITY page 57

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More Vets Enlisting in the Electoral Wars (Newsmax - Inside Cover)

The Washington Times. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats officially track the The wars they fought in are still number of veterans running for raging, but a surge of veterans Congress, but political action from the battlefields of Iraq and groups estimate as many as 40 Afghanistan are already running Iraq and Afghanistan warriorshard for public office and turned-politicians are competing shaking up congressional races in party primaries across the across the country. country this year. It is estimated that the number The surge of new veteran of candidates with military candidates comes as the number records on the 2010 ballot will of lawmakers with military double compared with just two service has plummeted. Steadily years ago. With polls showing declining since the end of World some voters unhappy with War II, there are just 95 Army, incumbents and nervous about Navy, Marine, Air Force and defense and security issues National Guard veterans in the under President Obama, many c u r r e n t House of of the challengers fresh from the Representatives, a postwar ranks are mounting strong record low of just over 21 challenges in local and state percent of the total. races. Many such candidates are "With each year, the quantity r u n n i n g a s D e m o c r a t s — and the quality of the veterans including formidable candidates seeking office is increasing," like Rep. Joe Sestak, a retired said Pete Hegseth, the executive admiral and the highest-ranking director of Vets for Freedom, a military man ever to serve in nonpartisan political action Congress, who is locked in a committee that supports tough Senate battle in candidates who are hawks on Pennsylvania's Democratic national security. primary with incumbent Sen. Mr. Hegseth said veterans are Arlen Specter. getting into the 2010 races for But most of the veterans many of the same reasons as seeking office this year are other reform-minded candidates. campaigning as conservatives "Veterans are driven by the and looking to emerge from same frustrations that the public crowded Republican primaries has with what is happening in — a prospect that hasn't exactly W a s h i n g t o n … t h e f i s c a l been embraced in some GOP irresponsibility and the financial circles. crisis that our country is facing," In Pennsylvania's 12th the 29-year-old Iraq veteran told Congressional District, long Submitted at 4/27/2010 3:23:58 AM

held by the now-deceased Democrat John Murtha (himself a vet), retired Army officer and Desert Storm veteran Bill Russell was rebuffed by the Republican Party's state leadership. The leadership chose instead to back millionaire businessman Tim Burns as the handpicked GOP candidate in the May 18 special election to serve the remaining months of Mr. Murtha's term. Mr. Russell, who made a surprisingly effective run at Mr. Murtha in 2008, pulling 42 percent of the vote in the heavily Democratic district, didn't appreciate the slight and is running against Mr. Burns in the same-day primary for the GOP nomination to seek a full term in November. The race echoes some of the themes from 2009's controversial special House contest in upstate New York, with charges that GOP insiders and decision-makers are out of step with the grass-roots candidacies of outsiders like Mr. Russell. Mr. Russell said in an interview that he sees the parallels. "Party leaders absolutely tried to engineer the selection of a candidate who was 30 points down in the polls, and it's all a business-as-usual, back-room deal based on them wanting a candidate who could be selffunded — despite the fact that I've outraised Mr. Burns three-to

-one," Mr Russell said Monday. But he said there's a big difference with the New York race, where divisions between the official Republican nominee and a conservative challenger helped the Democrats score an upset win. "I'm absolutely not going to run a write-in campaign or try to run as a third-party candidate," Mr. Russell vowed. "I'm a Republican, and if we're going to change things in Washington, we need to recapture the soul of the Republican Party." Mr. Russell's battle with the party establishment is one that many veterans face when looking to make the jump into politics, said D. Patrick Mahoney, an Iraq veteran and president of the Veterans for Congress political action committee. Mr. Mahoney has been sharply critical of the Pennsylvania Republican leadership's decision to pass over Mr. Russell, saying the move had less to do with qualifications than with the Republican establishment's obsession with Mr. Burns' wealth. "That's why you don't see more veterans running for Congress. It's so expensive," he said. "It's tough for veterans who have been fighting a war, stationed around the world. Veterans who come back and want to seek office — especially the recent vets — generally are not going

to be the rich guys." Mr. Hegseth agreed, saying both parties too often overlook veterans' "untapped pool of leadership" in favor of selffunded candidates who can finance their own campaigns or party loyalists who network their way onto ballots. Mr. Hegseth said the Republicans and the Democrats should be working harder to recruit veterans, even if they are new to politics. "That's not a negative," he said. "It's good that they're not tainted by the process that some of these other candidates go through." Mr. Hegseth picked five races to watch this year: • Brian Rooney, a Marine who served in Iraq and a grandson of the founder of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, is running for Michigan's 7th District seat, held by freshman Rep. Mark Schauer, a Democrat from Battle Creek. • Navy vet Mark Steven Kirk could end up with President Obama's old job, senator from Illinois. The five-term congressman, who has twice deployed to Afghanistan since 2008 as a reservist, leads Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in the polls and in the money chase. • Active Marine Corps reservist Vaughn Ward has drawn a lot of MORE page 59

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669 (2001) (Garland, J., dissenting in part) (dissenting from panel’s determination to overturn NLRB’s finding that employer unlawfully admonished employee for engaging in union solicitation); NRA v. Reno, 216 F.3d 122 (2000) (joining opinion of Tatel, J., upholding regulations implementing Brady Act; over dissent of Sentelle, J.); Iceland Steamship Co., Ltd. v. U.S. Dep’t of Army, 201 F.3d 451 (2000) (joining opinion of Sentelle, J., to uphold Army Contracting Officer’s decision; over dissent of Henderson, J.); American Trucking Ass’n v. U.S. E.P.A., 195 F.3d 4 (1999) (Tatel, J., dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc) (Garland, J., joins dissent from denial of rehearing en banc of invalidation of EPA regulations under non-delegation doctrine), rev’d Whitman v. American Trucking Ass’ns, 531 U.S. 457 (2001); Appalachian Regional Healthcare, Inc. v. Shalala, 131 F.3d 1050 (1997) (joining opinion of Silberman, J., upholding interpretation of Social Security Act; over dissent by Sentelle, J.). Environmental Law On environmental law, Judge Garland has in a number of cases favored contested EPA regulations and actions when challenged by industry, and in other cases he has accepted challenges brought by

environmental groups. This is in fact the area in which Judge Garland has been most willing to disagree with agency action. Several of the decisions gave rise to disagreements among the court’s members. Perhaps the most notable ruling in this category is the “hapless toad” case famous from the confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts. In Rancho Viejo v. Norton, 323 F.3d 1062 (2003) (per Garland, J.), a panel upheld the government’s application of the Endangered Species Act to the arroyo toad against a Commerce Clause challenge. John Roberts dissented from the denial of rehearing en banc in the case, although he did not argue that the case had been wrongly decided. 334 F.3d 1158 (“The panel’s approach in this case leads to the result that regulating the taking of a hapless toad that, for reasons of its own, lives its entire life in California constitutes regulating ‘Commerce … among several States.’”). For other divided rulings, see American Bird Conservancy v. FCC, 516 F.3d 1027 (2008) (upholding environmental challenge to FCC action, over dissent by Kavanaugh, J., that claim was not ripe); American Corn Growers Ass’n v. EPA, 291 F.3d 1 (2002) (Garland, J., dissenting in part) (dissenting from majority opinion upholding industry challenge to

part of EPA’s anti-haze regulations); American Trucking Ass’n v. U.S. E.P.A., 195 F.3d 4 (1999) (Tatel, J., dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc) (Garland, J., joins dissent from denial of rehearing en banc of invalidation of EPA regulations under non-delegation doctrine), rev’d, Whitman v. American Trucking Ass’ns, 531 U.S. 457 (2001); La. Envt’l Action Network v. U.S. E.P.A., 172 F.3d 65 (1999) (joining opinion of Williams, J., rejecting challenge to EPA action under RCRA; over dissent of Sentelle, J., that claim was not ripe). Other rulings in this area involve unanimous opinions. E.g., Am. Farm Bureau Fed’n v. EPA, 559 F.3d 512 (2009) (per curiam) (accepting environmental challenge to EPA’s ruling on fine particulate matter); Cement Kiln Recycling Coal. V. EPA, 493 F.3d 207 (2007) (per Garland, J.) (rejecting industry challenge to regulation relating to burning of hazardous waste as fuel); Nat’l Parks Conserv. Ass’n v. Manson, 414 F.3d 1 (2005) (joining panel opinion holding that environmental organizations have standing to challenge authorization for power plant); Sierra Club v. EPA, 356 F.3d 296 (2004) (sustaining challenge to EPA regulation of ozone). Standing

Standing is an important doctrine in litigation, as it determines who – if anyone – can bring a federal court lawsuit. Generally speaking, the more conservative Justices take a narrower view of standing; the more liberal Justices more readily find standing. Judge Garland’s rulings in this area are not easily categorized. The cases depend very much on their facts. He has found standing for parties to bring civil rights claims. E.g., Act Now v. District of Columbia, 589 F.3d 433 (2009) (joining panel opinion holding that group had standing challenge to regulation of posters); Animal Legal Def. Fund v. Glickman, 154 F.3d 426 (1998) (en banc) (joining opinion of Wald, J., that plaintiff had standing to sue under Animal Welfare Act; over dissent of Silberman, Sentelle, Ginsburg, and Henderson, JJ.). In other context, the panels have found standing to be lacking. E.g., Judicial Watch v. U.S. Senate, 432 F.3d 359 (2005) (holding that challenge to application of Senate filibuster rule to judicial nomination failed for lack of standing); Wisconsin Public Power v. FERC, 493 F.3d 239 (2007) (energy cooperatives lack standing to challenge FERC methodology). In environmental cases, Judge Garland’s rulings have been similarly balanced; he has

joined panel opinions both finding and rejecting claims of standing. E.g., North Carolina v. EPA, 587 F.3d 422 (2009) (North Carolina lacked standing to challenge EPA’s removal of part of Georgia from coverage by ozone regulations); American Bird Conservancy v. FCC, 516 F.3d 1027 (2008) (upholding environmental challenge to FCC action, over dissent by Kavanaugh, J., that claim was not ripe); Wilderness Soc’y v. Norton, 434 F.3d 584 (2006) (holding that environmental group lacked standing to raise most of its challenges to Interior Department’s wilderness management); Nat’l Parks Conserv. Ass’n v. Manson, 414 F.3d 1 (2005) (joining panel opinion holding that environmental organizations have standing to challenge authorization for power plant). Open Government and FOIA One final area of the law that comes regularly before the D.C. Circuit is the Freedom of Information Act and similar provisions related to transparency in government. Judge Garland’s rulings reflect a preference for open government. E.g., NAM v. Taylor, 582 F.3d 1 (2009) (per Garland, J.) (upholding lobbying disclosure statute against First Amendment challenge); Baker & Hostetler v. U.S. Dep’t of Comm., 473 F.3d WHO page 58

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A Special Delivery for UPS That Could Change FedEx Overnight James Sherk (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.)

covers FedEx because the company began as an airline and ships most of its packages by Submitted at 4/26/2010 2:00:41 PM air. UPS – a trucking company – Special interest handouts are falls under the National Labor not a pretty sight. Perhaps that is Relations Act, which covers why lawmakers buried their unions in the rest of the private l a t e s t o n e i n s i d e t h e b i l l sector. r e a u t h o r i z i n g t h e F e d e r a l Under the Railway Labor Act Aviation Administration. (unlike the NLRA) every Unfortunately putting handouts worker in the company votes on out of sight does not make them organizing in one national any better for the economy. ballot. At a company where A t i s s u e i s t h e f i e r c e most workers like their jobs competition between FedEx and such a vote presents Teamsters the United Parcel Service (UPS) organizers with a daunting task. i n t h e p a c k a g e d e l i v e r y They would have an easier time business. While UPS must selectively organizing key collectively bargain with the transportation hubs. Then they Teamsters, FedEx remains could use the leverage of union free. shutting down the national FedEx has avoided the costs of company to promise workers at collective bargaining primarily t h o s e h u b s e x c e s s i v e by keeping its employees concessions. Under the RLA s a t i s f i e d w i t h o u t u n i o n they cannot do that. So as long r e p r e s e n t a t i o n . F o r t u n e as FedEx workers like their jobs magazine routinely recognizes and FedEx remains under the the company as one of the best RLA the company will likely 100 companies to work for. remain nonunion. When the recession forced That gives FedEx a competitive FedEx to cut costs it started with advantage. The 1997 Teamsters executive salaries before cutting strike paralyzed UPS, and UPS hourly pay – including a 20 recently had to pay $6.1 billion percent reduction in CEO Fred to withdraw its employees from Smith’s pay. the Teamster’s poorly managed Federal law has also helped pension plan. UPS wants the FedEx stay nonunion. The Teamsters to start similarly Railway Labor Act (RLA) – the burdening FedEx. law regulating unions in the The Teamsters and UPS are airline and railway industries – jointly lobbying Congress to

bargaining agreements; Unionization opportunities already exist at FedEx, but not the ones that the Teamsters like. So it is small wonder that Congress is happy to re-write the labor code at the Teamster’s behest. The House of Representatives has passed a version of the FAA reauthorization that transfers FedEx to the NLRA and the Senate will soon decide whether to follow suit. Let it not be said that Obama ignores his friends. Tags: FAA, Federal Aviation transfer jurisdiction over FedEx of dollars. Making businesses A d m i n s i t r a t i o n , F e d e r a l t o t h e N L R A t o m a k e less competitive is bad policy in Express, FedEx, Railway Labor unionizing FedEx employees normal economic times, much Act, Teamsters, unions, United Postal Service, UPS 5 easier. The Teamsters want less in a severe recession. more dues-paying members to However, Organized Labor is R e s p o n s e s t o “ A S p e c i a l shore up their shaky finances. no ordinary interest group. Delivery for UPS That Could UPS wants the Teamsters to Labor unions spent hundreds of Change FedEx Overnight” raise their competitor’s costs. millions of dollars electing • Joel Palmer, Seattle WA on Lost in the middle of the President Obama and the current April 26th, 2010 at 3:00pm said: lobbying blitz is the health of Congressional majority and they I Tweeted a link to this article to the economy. want payback. They have been my followers. It is eye-opening! Saddling FedEx with union g e t t i n g i t . C o n s i d e r t h a t Very informative. Joel Palmer work rules and collective Congress and the administration http://blog.joelpalmer.com Twitter: @politicallogic bargaining would raise their have already: costs, forcing them to raise · Bailed out unionized GM and • Liz, United States on April 26th, 2010 at 3:00pm said: prices. Americans will have to Chrysler; pay more to ship parcels, · Bailed out the pensions of Further evidence that labor leaving less money to spend u n i o n w o r k e r s a t G M unions themselves should be elsewhere. And if the Teamsters subsidiaries, but not nonunion banned. Sad. • Billie on April 26th, 2010 at did strike against FedEx hubs it workers; could paralyze package delivery · Repealed union financial 3:00pm said: I appreciate all business who’s employees stand for millions of small businesses transparency regulations; – the two week UPS strike in · Required federal construction SPECIAL page 58 1997 cost the economy billions contractors to sign collective

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chemical agent called white phosphorous. CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera ran segments featuring Garlasco explaining the dangers white phosphorous posed to civilians: On contact with skin, it could cause secondand third-degree burns; it could even burn down houses. Soon, news reports all around the world were repeating the story. But Garlasco would later tell Apkon and others that he thought the white phosphorous controversy had been blown out of proportion. From his experience at the Pentagon, Garlasco knew that U.S. and British forces had used white phosphorous in Iraq and Afghanistan, and usually for the same purpose that the IDF used it in Gaza: as a smokescreen to obscure troop movements on the ground—a permissible use under international law. To be sure, Garlasco did not believe that the IDF had used white phosphorous properly in every instance. But he told multiple people that he thought HRW had placed too much emphasis on this issue—specifically telling one person that he had been pushed by HRW headquarters to focus on white phosphorous at the expense of

topics he thought more deserving of attention because, he suspected, it was regarded as a headline-generating story. (HRW denies that it pushed Garlasco on the subject.) What’s more, while making legal judgments was not within Garlasco’s jurisdiction, he told Apkon that he did not think Israel’s use of white phosphorous amounted to a war crime. (In a subsequent report on white phosphorous, the first of six thus far on the Gaza war, HRW would say that evidence “indicates the commission of war crimes.”) Beyond these disagreements, Garlasco had larger critiques of HRW. He thought that the organization had a habit of ignoring necessary context when covering war, he told Apkon; and he told multiple sources that he thought Whitson and others at MENA had far-left political views. As someone who didn’t have strong ideological commitments of his own on the Middle East, this bothered him. “When he reported on Georgia, his firm feeling was he could report whatever he wanted,” says one source close to Garlasco. “And, when he was talking to headquarters, the

feeling was, let the chips fall where they may. He did not feel that way dealing with the Middle East division.” In addition, Garlasco alleged in conversations with multiple people that HRW officials in New York did not understand how fighting actually looked from the ground and that they had unrealistic expectations for how wars could be fought. To Garlasco, the reality of war was far more complicated. “He looks at that organization as one big attempt to outlaw warfare,” says the person close to Garlasco. Around the time he had coffee with Apkon last February, he was beginning to look for another job. But, before he could find one, the Nazi memorabilia story had landed in The New York Times. The controversy was overblown—Garlasco’s interest in the subject stemmed from the fact that his grandfather had been conscripted into the Nazi army, and he collected all sorts of World War II artifacts, not just Third Reich items—but it was enough to ruin whatever future he had left at HRW. Watching the scandal spin out of control, Apkon took note of the irony that the pro-Israel

community had lynched one of the people at HRW who was most sympathetic to its concerns. “You’re sitting there watching this, and you realize: They’re going after the wrong guy!” Apkon says. “He’s not coming with a political agenda. He’s the one guy that’s there that’s trying to make balanced decisions and judgments about this stuff.” In April, Bernstein made his case one last time at a board meeting, but, by this point, it was clear that he was not going to prevail. Six months later, he finally published his op-ed. The reaction from HRW was defensive; in a letter to the editor that appeared in the Times, the current and past chairs of the HRW board accused Bernstein of arguing “that Israel should be judged by a different human rights standard than the rest of the world”—something he had never said and clearly does not believe. Not long after he published the op-ed, I visited Bernstein in his Park Avenue office, to which he still takes a taxi every morning. Going public with his criticisms, he said during our interview, “was a very hard thing for me to

do.” It has ruptured friendships, not to mention his ties to an organization whose history is very much wrapped up in his own. (In the waiting room at HRW headquarters in the Empire State Building, next to the famous picture of tanks in Tiananmen Square, lies a plaque dedicated to Bernstein with an inscription: “Between tyranny and freedom stands the courage of the individual.”) Yet, as difficult as it was to go public, Bernstein does not believe that Human Rights Watch left him with much choice. “They think they’ve heard me out,” he says. “You see, they think they’ve listened to me until they can’t listen anymore. Actually, they haven’t listened at all.” Benjamin Birnbaum is a reporter-researcher at The New Republic. For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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Hayworth Sees Momentum in Ariz. Law (Newsmax - Inside Cover)

toughest immigration statute in the country, it has deeply Submitted at 4/27/2010 3:14:29 AM divided Arizona, where A r i z o n a ' s n e w t o u g h opponents of the law have immigration law is roiling the r a l l i e d , a n d w h e r e t h e state's Republican primary for Associated Press reported that Senate, with incumbent Sen. vandals smeared refried beans in John McCain defending the the shape of swastikas on the legislature for passing it and his state Capitol's windows. c h a l l e n g e r , a f o r m e r Criticism has also come from congressman, accusing Mr. M e x i c a n P r e s i d e n t F e l i p e McCain of an election-year Calderon, who said relations conversion. between Arizona and Mexico Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, could suffer, and from President who planned to submit a petition Obama, who said the law is an with 11,000 signatures on example of "irresponsibility" by Monday to get his name on the the state. Mr. Obama told ballot for the state's Aug. 24 administration lawyers to see primary, told The Washington whether it violated civil rights Times' "America's Morning statutes. News" radio show on Monday But Mr. McCain and Jon Kyl, that "the momentum is on my Arizona's junior Republican side" in the race. senator, took to the floor of the "Arizonans are telling John Senate Monday to defend the McCain, 'Thank you for your state for acting. service, but it is time to come "If you don't like the legislation back home,'" Mr. Hayworth that the legislature passed and said. the governor signed in Arizona, T h e n e w l a w , w h i c h then carry out the federal Republican Gov. Jan Brewer responsibilities, which are to signed Friday, makes it a state s e c u r e t h e b o r d e r — y o u offense to be in the U.S. without probably wouldn't have had this authorization. Considered the problem," Mr. McCain said,

though he stopped short of embracing the specifics of the law. Mr. Hayworth said he strongly backs the new law, and accused Mr. McCain of changing positions. He said the senator, who has called for deploying 3,000 National Guard troops to the border, failed to support the Enforcement First Act Mr. Hayworth proposed in 2005 that included that provision. "There is a lot of flip-flopping going on in the McCain campaign," said Mr. Hayworth, who served in Congress from 1995 to 2007. Recent polls show Mr. Hayworth narrowing the gap with Mr. McCain in the GOP primary. A Rasmussen poll released April 16 showed Mr. McCain's support in the primary race at 47 percent, compared with Mr. Hayworth's 42 percent. In January, Mr. McCain had 22point lead. Protesters have called on Mr. Obama to step in and try to block the law, which takes effect in July. They argue police will start racially profiling

residents to enforce the law, because law enforcement officials are now authorized to demand proof someone is in the country legally. In signing the law, Gov. Brewer said she would seek new training and clear guidelines for the police to prevent profiling. Mr. McCain and Mr. Kyl said the state government is reacting to a situation that's spiraled out of control. They pointed to a rancher killed in the United States last month and to tens of thousands of deaths just south of the border that have been blamed on Mexican drug cartels as evidence that extra steps are needed. The two men have called for 3,000 troops from the National Guard to be deployed to the border and for the Justice Department to start jailing illegal immigrants they catch. © Copyright 2010 The Washington Times, LLC Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Air Force, 375 F.3d 1182 (2004) (Garland, J., dissenting in part) (arguing that FOIA should generally require disclosure of prices paid by government to contractors). But cf. In re England, 375 F.3d 1169 (2004)

(reversing district court ruling holding that discovery could be taken of Navy selection board members regarding promotion of Navy chaplains). For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on

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on their own without expensing themselves for a union to stand above them. • Ken Chandler AZ on April 26th, 2010 at 3:00pm said: I love both companies but I prefer FedX because thay are not involved with a union. Unions are very destructive and Socialistic in nature. Go FedX !!! • John G, Fl on April 26th, 2010 at 3:00pm said: Go Fedex! Obamas payback to the union thuggery is no surprise unfortunately. The news of UPS having to bailout its employees pension plan from the Teamsters is news though. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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312 (2006) (joining panel opinion, over dissent of Henderson, J., that law firm is eligible for attorney’s fees under FOIA); Broudy v. Mather, 460 F.3d 106 (2006) (rejecting access-to-courts claims pending

pursuit of information under FOIA); Davis v. Department of Justice, 460 F.3d 92 (2007) (reversing summary judgment in government’s favor under FOIA privacy exemption); McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. U.S. Dep’t of

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Dodd Bill Could Mean Trouble for USAA Paul Gallagher (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.)

‘proprietary trading,’ whereby a company trades for its own account.” Submitted at 4/26/2010 5:00:47 PM According to Robles: Sen. Christopher Dodd insists If unchanged, the bill would: that his financial reform bill is • Prevent USAA from aimed at Wall Street companies. managing the association’s But USAA, the well-known portfolio as we have for the past financial-services company for 87 years. members of the U.S. military • Jeopardize our ability to and their families, is worried continue offering many of our that it will wind up caught in the competitive products. Dodd bill dragnet. • Limit our ability to return In a rare move, USAA CEO Joe money to our members. Last Robles recently sent an email to year, USAA returned $1.2 each of its members, asking billion to our members in the t h e m t o c o n t a c t t h e i r form of distributions, dividends, representatives in Washington and bank rebates and rewards. and urge them to make a certain c h a n g e t o t h e D o d d b i l l . In short, under the Dodd bill, Specifically, Robles hopes to USAA could forget about amend the portion of the bill making investments that offer known as the “Volcker Rule” so the prospect of a healthy return. that it won’t affect USAA. Robles would apparently be As the USAA website notes in content if an exception for a follow-up blog, the Volcker USAA can be carved out. But as Rule “gives regulators the Heritage’s David John has discretion to limit and prohibit pointed out, there are much certain investment activities of b i g g e r p r o b l e m s w i t h t h e financial services companies, Volcker Rule. It would do like USAA. In particular, this nothing to improve the stability bill directs regulators to prohibit of the banking system today — government insured depository and it would have done nothing institutions from engaging in to prevent the 2008 financial

crisis, or even lessen its impact. As John notes, none of the major financial firms that had to be rescued were in trouble because they had engaged in proprietary trading. The real problem with Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG was the way they and their investment products were interconnected to every other significant world financial institution. The Volcker Rule would do nothing to reduce that interconnectedness. The Rule would, however, restrict the size of U.S. banks. But as John points out, far from improving their financial health, imposing size restrictions through fiat “would simply mean that they would be unable to finance large investments by major corporations without teaming up with other financial institutions. This additional complexity and cost would make it harder for U.S. financial institutions to compete with major European and Asian banks.” USAA is surely on to something with its concern about the Volcker Rule. But this

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attention in his bid for the 1st Congressional District in Idaho, especially after he won the backing recently of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Mr. Palin also endorsed two other veterans, Adam Kinzinger in the 11th Congressional District race in Illinois and Allen West in the 22nd in Florida. • In Arkansas, Tim Griffin, a veteran and a former U.S. attorney, is battling Scott Wallace for the GOP nomination in the 2nd District. • Steve Stivers, a Bronze Star medal winner for his service in Iraq, is a rising GOP star in Ohio making a bid to unseat Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy in the state's 15th District. "All are races where veterans have raised a good deal of money, in toss-up districts or You can follow any responses states — races where we think to this entry through the RSS 2.0 we can have an impact," Mr. feed. Hegseth said. Five Filters featured article: © C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 T h e Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: W a s h i n g t o n T i m e s , L L C PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. debate is bigger than any one institution. It’s about a huge bill (1,408 pages) with scores of provisions that would hurt consumers and the economy — and make future bailouts all but certain. And as the USAA case underscores, it’s about the law of unintended consequences. Tags: Dodd Bill, financial regulation, USAA, Volcker Rule One Response to “Dodd Bill Could Mean Trouble for USAA” • LibertyAtStake, Alexandria, VA on April 26th, 2010 at 6:00pm said: Oh, oh … USAA insures my house and my cars. It’s personal now! http://libertyatstake.blogspot.co m/[For a light hearted take on our present peril]

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Groundbreaking School Choice Movement in Illinois Lindsey Burke (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.)

schools will compete for students and improve. This can all be accomplished at no Submitted at 4/26/2010 4:19:45 PM additional cost to taxpayers or School choice is on the march public education’.” in Illinois. And if the Rev. The Chicago Sun-Times also Senator James Meeks (D-15) came out in favor of the bihas his way, 22,000 children partisan measure. stand to gain a lifeline out of “ S t u d i e s i n M i l w a u k e e , failing public schools in the C h a r l o t t e , N e w Y o r k a n d Prairie State. Senator Meeks Washington, D.C., documented introduced the school choice gains for voucher students. bill, which passed out of the R e a d i n g a n d m a t h s c o r e s Senate in March. Last Thursday, improved for African-American the Illinois House Executive pupils on vouchers in New C o m m i t t e e a p p r o v e d t h e York, Washington and Dayton, measure, and the legislation now research showed. awaits action any day in the full ”What’s more, competition House. A press release from the produced by voucher programs Illinois Policy Institute lauded prompts improvement in public the school choice bill: schools, according to research “‘The highest-quality research is o n p r o g r a m s i n F l o r i d a , clear on two points’, said Collin Milwaukee and San Antonio… Hitt, Director of Education Meeks’ bill is a modest one. It Policy for the Illinois Policy would offer a lifeboat to 22,000 Institute. ‘School vouchers kids drowning in Chicago’s improve education for students lowest-performing elementary who use them, and the resulting schools, 37 of them under state c o m p e t i t i o n i m p r o v e s t h e or federal sanctions for at least performance of surrounding nine years. If government can’t public schools. This is bold provide good schools for these policy, but it can change the kids, politicians, unions and course of education in Chicago. educrats shouldn’t block the If the Illinois House passes this private school door offering legislation, families will have a them hope of a better life.” better choice of schools, public (Emphasis added.)

landmark school choice language is making its way through the state represented in the U.S. Senate by Richard Durbin (D-IL), author of language now in law that could spell the end the successful D.C. OSP. While Senator Durbin may have been able to thwart the chance for a promising educational future for lowincome District children for the time being, the horizon has the potential to get much brighter for children in his home state. We know what works in education: empowering parents with the ability to choose the best school for their child. School choice puts families in the driver’s seat and holds schools accountable to parents. For 22,000 low-income families in Illinois, they could soon hold the key to their children’s I n c i t i e s w h e r e v o u c h e r learning. Extrapolate that out educational future. p r o g r a m s h a v e b e e n i n over the lifetime of a child’s Tags: illinois, Rev. Senator o p e r a t i o n , c h i l d r e n h a v e educational career, and that’s James Meeks, school choice benefited significantly. Students n e a r l y t w o f u l l y e a r s i n You can follow any responses in the now embattled D.C. additional reading achievement. to this entry through the RSS 2.0 O p p o r t u n i t y S c h o l a r s h i p And while children are making feed. Program (D.C. OSP) have made tremendous academic gains, Five Filters featured article: statistically significant gains in they are also safer and their Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, reading achievement equivalent parents are happier. to 3.7 months in additional Ironically perhaps, Illinois’ Term Extraction.

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Outside the Beltway: Sacridelicious in San Francisco Conn Carroll (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.) Submitted at 4/26/2010 1:00:50 PM

Addressing The Question of Global Warming, physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson recently wrote in The New York Review of Books: There is a worldwide secular religion which we may call environmentalism, holding that we are stewards of the earth, that despoiling the planet with waste products of our luxurious living is a sin, and that the path of righteousness is to live as frugally as possible. … Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion. As if trying to prove Dyson’s point, the Associated Press reported last week: First, it was a ban on plastic grocery bags, and then on mixing recycling with compost. Now the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is asking residents to go without meat on Mondays. … The measure passed Tuesday urges “all restaurants, grocery stores and schools to offer a greater variety of plant-based options to improve the health of San Francisco residents and visitors and to increase the awareness of the impact a green

proclamation for Friday Fasts, but as a secular religion we are not protected from the environmentalist’s crusade. In fact, if they get their top policy priority through, cap-and-tax energy legislation, it would cost the average family-of-four almost $3,000 per year, cause 2.5 million net job losses by 2035, and a produce a cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) loss of $9.4 trillion between 2012 and 2035. Now that is quite a tithe! Tags: environmentalists, San Francisco One Response to “Outside the Beltway: Sacridelicious in San Francisco” • Billie on April 26th, 2010 at 2:00pm said:“sacrildelicious!” VERY CLEVER, CONN! The people have a right to freedom of choice. Get this religion of freedom violators out of authority. No business brainwashing us into their religion! Protein is nutritious for the body and the # one source is animals.

CORRESPONDENCE: We’re Actually Good for Israel Kathleen Peratis (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 4/26/2010 3:53:06 PM

There is broad consensus on the board of Human Rights Watch in support of its Middle East work in general and its IsraelPalestine work in particular, contrary to the suggestion of "a civil war" over Israel (" Minority Report," May 13, 2010). As the co-chair of HRW's advisory committee on the Middle East and North Africa and long-time (now emerita) member of the board, I have been a part of virtually all diet would be on our planet.” I am continually confronted conversations about our work in Why meatless Mondays? Was with recycling bins, and instead the region in the last twenty another day of the week already of one trash can I am faced with years. I spoke to your reporter t a k e n ? B e s i d e s d i e t a r y several for different sorts of for over an hour in late March restrictions, Emory University trash. Universities are centers of and made clear to him that I was economics professor Paul Rubin the environmental religion, and present for the conversations he identifies some other ways such structures are increasingly described and that his thesis of e n v i r o n m e n t a l i s m n o w common. While people have acrimonious division was r e s e m b l e s a r e l i g i o n : worshiped many things, we may wrong. Other board members • There is a holy day—Earth be the first to build shrines to told him the same, but our views Day. garbage. are not reflected in his piece. • There is no prayer, but there • Environmentalism is a I am a Jew, a Zionist and a fullare self-sacrificing rituals that proselytizing religion. Skeptics throated supporter of the work are not particularly useful, such a r e n o t m e r e l y p e o p l e of Human Rights Watch. The as recycling. Recycling paper to unconvinced by the evidence: state of Israel that I love (in fact, You can follow any responses save trees, for example, makes They are treated as evil sinners. I write these words from Tel to this entry through the RSS 2.0 no sense since the effect will be I probably would not write this Aviv) will thrive and be well if to reduce the number of trees article if I did not have tenure. feed. Five Filters featured article: it conducts itself according to its planted in the long run. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: o w n h i g h p r i n c i p l e s a n d • There are no temples, but Of course the First Amendment there are sacred structures. As I protects us from any City PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, according to the human rights and humanitarian rules that walk around the Emory campus, Council making a similar Term Extraction. CORRESPONDENCE: page 62

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AZ Governor Dismisses Threat of Economic Boycott (Newsmax - Inside Cover)

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CORRESPONDEN continued from page 61

Human Rights Watch seeks to promote. There is no bias against Israel at Human Rights Watch except in the minds of those who erroneously believe Israel is harmed by honest criticism. Far from harming it, I believe this work strengthens Israel. Thanks for referring to Human Rights Watch as the gold standard in human rights reporting. You may view our extensive research on most of

controversial immigration law. The Arizona Daily Star reports that Brewer says outrage over Gov. Jan Brewer is dismissing the ability of police to ask the threat of an economic p e o p l e f o r c i t i z e n s h i p boycott over the new state documentation will fade. She immigration law she signed last recalled how another uproar week. faded when she was secretary of Appearing Monday at an state and rode herd over a Arizona Town Hall in Tucson, requirement that voters show ID Brewer said she doesn't believe at the polls. the law is "going to have the ÂŠ C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 T h e kind of economic impact that Associated Press. All rights some people think it might." reserved. This material may not U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, a b e p u b l i s h e d , b r o a d c a s t , Melly Alazraki Tucson Democrat, has called for rewritten or redistributed. (BloggingStocks) a boycott of convention business Five Filters featured article: Submitted at 4/27/2010 8:30:00 AM for the state and other calls have Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: come for a boycott of Arizona PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Filed under: Before the Bell, goods, services and tourism Term Extraction. International Markets, Ford because of the nationally Motor (F), Market Matters, 3M Corporation (MMM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), United Parcel'B' (UPS), Economic Data U.S. stock futures declined Tuesday morning, following world markets as concerns over Greece debt problems heightened again. On Wall Street, investors prepared for the Federal Reserve two-day policy meeting that's beginning today Submitted at 4/27/2010 2:36:05 AM

the other countries and entities in the region such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia by checking the website ( www.hrw.org). Kathleen Peratis is a lawyer for Outten & Golden LLP and a columnist for The Jewish Daily Forward.

Before the Bell: Futures Lower as Earnings, Fed, Goldman in focus demanded new austerity measures first. There were also fears that Chinese authorities were preparing measures to cool down the economy and stocks in Shanghai dropped sharply. Continue reading Before the Bell: Futures Lower as Earnings, Fed, Goldman in and a Goldman Sachs hearing in focus f r o n t o f a U . S . S e n a t e Before the Bell: Futures Lower c o m m i t t e e . A n d a s m o r e as Earnings, Fed, Goldman in e a r n i n g s w e r e d i g e s t e d , focus originally appeared on i n v e s t o r s a w a i t e d s o m e BloggingStocks on Tue, 27 Apr economic data due out this 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see morning. our terms for use of feeds. Overseas, world markets mostly P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | fell amid mounting concerns C o m m e n t s about the Greece's ability to tap a bailout facility as Germany

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Nissan, GE Join Forces to Tackle EV Smart Charging Ariel Schwartz (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/26/2010 6:16:03 PM

How can the next-generation electric grid support millions of EVs charging at the same time? What kind of wirting will homes need for fast EV charging? These are just a few of the pressing questions that the auto industry needs to figure out before launching a full-scale fleet of EVs on the market. To that end, GE and Nissan announced a collaboration this week to research the integration of EVs with homes and buildings as well as EV charging dynamics with the grid. The partnership makes sense-GE is already working on smart grid dynamics with its ecomagination initiative, and Nissan is set to release the allelectric LEAF later this year. GE researcher Matt Nielson lists some of the problems that Nissan and GE have to tackle on his blog:- Home wiring. Will the vehicle ownerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house have the proper wiring already installed to support vehicle charging? Will it only be adequate for slower Level 1 (120V)

Stanford d.school Proves You Really Can Design a Space for Innovation Linda Tischler (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/26/2010 8:56:13 PM

charging? Will they need to upgrade? If an electrical upgrade is required, how long will it take to get a permit? How much will it cost? What about people that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a garage? Where will they locate the charger and the wiring? Charging programs available. There is discussion about the possibility of offering discounted electrical charging rates for vehicle owners. How do they find out about these rates? How do they sign up for the programs? Do they have the right metering infrastructure in their house to permit the separate measurement of electrical energy delivered to the vehicle? - Vehicle cost. The

vehicle OEMs are working hard to offer an attractive product and an affordable cost. The battery systems for these vehicles are still expensive. How will this impact the overall vehicle cost? What is the true pathway to lower cost battery systems and at what rate will this happen? Cable management. The cord that connects the vehicle to the charging station could pose tripping hazards. I know that my own garage is not always clean and tidy (the case most of the time). I could easily see a cord left on the floor. Clearly there is plenty of work to be done--much more than can happen within the time span of GE and Nissan's three year

Memorandum of Understanding. The partnership does, however, highlight the need for further collaboration on EV technology between different industries. We can already see the beginnings of it with Ford and Microsoft, which recently joined up to put Microsoft Hohm energy management technology in Ford EVs. Now imagine if Ford, Nissan, Microsoft and GE all collaborated on bettering the smart charging infrastructure. It sounds unlikely, but such a collaboration would benefit all parties involved--including us. [ GE]

"Space matters." That's the mantra at the Stanford d.school, where students and staffers have spent six years figuring out how to tweak an environment to make it a more fertile breeding ground for ideas. Now they're going to find out if those ideas work. The boxes were unpacked in late March, in time for the start of the university's third quarter. But the official ribbon-cutting on the 40K square foot new building (which houses both the d.school and all other design programs at Stanford) isn't until May 7. Fast Company got a sneak preview, and we'll be giving you a guided tour (along with photos, videos and critiques of the space from the students themselves) in the days ahead. We'll go behind the scenes to show how every nook, cranny, and fungible wall system has been smartly STANFORD page 65

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Stanford d.school Proves You Really Can Design a Space for Innovation Linda Tischler (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/26/2010 8:56:13 PM

ahead. We'll go behind the scenes to show how every nook, cranny, and fungible wall system has been smartly designed to maximize collaboration. The school, which is officially known as the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, began in a seedy double-wide trailer in

2004, and has moved three times since then. D.schoolers, who pride themselves on an innovation strategy that relies on rapid prototyping and iterating, used their rootless wanderings to constantly reinvent their surroundings. "It was nice to have crummy buildings," David Kelley, the d.school's founder,

said on a tour of the digs. "We learned a lot." The new space shows off the results of those insights in everything from custom furniture to studio design to walls that can be reconfigured at will. (We'll show you the results in upcoming posts.). D.school planners have even built in a

special area on the first floor where they can begin prototyping the next iteration of space. To launch our coverage, we have a fresh snapshot of two dschool fellows, Thomas Both and Jeremy Utley (top image), riding the iconic "dbike" through the halls of the new building. The bike was a necessity at the school's original home which was on the very fringes of the campus. The photo below shows one of the professors, Jim Patell, riding first year fellow Adam French between buildings. Now, there's so much space, you can motor on through the building, from the video soundstage to the digital prototyping lab, stopping by impromptu classrooms along the route to offer an idea on somebody else's project. Innovation Road Trip!

AIG Downgraded by Keefe Bruyette Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 4/27/2010 9:00:00 AM

Filed under: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Amer Intl Group (AIG) Keefe Bruyette on Tuesday downgraded American International Group ( AIG) to underperform from market

perform and set a price target of $6 per share. The target price is far lower than the stock's current perch in the upper $42 region. The brokerage cut AIG because it "sees little long-term value under AIG's current ownership and capital structure," as t h e f l y o n t h e w a l l r e p o r t s . shares traded more than 4% Following the downgrade, lower in pre-market action.

Technically, the assigned target price of $6 is a gutsy move. The stock is perched atop support from its 10- and 20-week moving averages. In addition, the 10-week trendline recently completed a bullish cross of its 20-week counterpart. This technical formation often precedes a continued run higher.

Continue reading AIG Downgraded by Keefe Bruyette AIG Downgraded by Keefe Bruyette originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Spotify Goes All Social Media With Spanky Relaunch Addy Dugdale (Fast Company)

social network-ification of the site, which now allows you to connect to Facebook within Spotify, and share tracks with any of your Facebook contacts who are using the Spotify app via the Inbox folder. New users can be added at the click of a button, and there's a popularity count for playlists.

[youtube Gng29RIhIl8] Any music on your computer can now be connected to the Spotify stream via an import link, and any missing track details will be filled in via a connection with Gracenote software's database (the same one used by iTunes to fill-in-the -blanks). There's also a wireless

competitors, such as MOG and Rhapsody, which yesterday offered offline music via an iPhone app. The firm is by far the best-known streaming service in Europe, and around 7 million people have signed up, most of them through a free, adsupported version, although there is a $15-a-month subscription model. Many music industry insiders are critical of Spotify, claiming that its royalty payments to artists are, frankly, underpants. Ek, however, sees the relaunch sync feature, a filter bar, as being at the vanguard of 21stautomatic track replacement, century music. "I think this is a and--very iTunes, this--a system massive step towards the nextthat enables you to rate your generation music industry where music using stars. it's about access to music and Although Spotify's launch this not about ownership any more," side of the Atlantic seems to be he said. d r a g g i n g o n a n d o n , t h i s Tell that to the pop stars. relaunch has set it slightly apart from its already-established

to constantly reinvent their surroundings. "It was nice to have crummy buildings," David Kelley, the d.school's founder, said on a tour of the digs. "We learned a lot." The new space shows off the results of those insights in everything from custom furniture to studio design to walls that can be reconfigured at will. (We'll show you the results

in upcoming posts.). D.school planners have even built in a special area on the first floor where they can begin prototyping the next iteration of space. To launch our coverage, we have a fresh snapshot of two dschool fellows, Thomas Both and Jeremy Utley (top image), riding the iconic "dbike" through the halls of the new

building. The bike was a necessity at the school's original home which was on the very fringes of the campus. The photo below shows one of the professors, Jim Patell, riding first year fellow Adam French between buildings. Now, there's so much space, you can motor on through the building, from the video soundstage to the digital prototyping lab, stopping

Submitted at 4/27/2010 9:00:02 AM

Describing it as a "nextgeneration" relaunch, Spotify has unveiled its new look, ahead of its U.S. launch. Fans of Facebook and iTunes might notice some similarities with the music streaming service's facelift, but founder and CEO Daniel Ek told the BBC that, despite being a next-gen service, some of Spotify's new features are definitely retro. "It's almost like going back to the record shop or being at your friend's house," Ek said of the new ability to browse a friends' music collection. "At the same time, you can create playlists which are like mix tapes used to be 20 years ago, so you can do this super-fast." The main changes are in the

STANFORD continued from page 63

designed to maximize collaboration. The school, which is officially known as the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, began in a seedy double-wide trailer in 2004, and has moved three times since then. D.schoolers, who pride themselves on an innovation strategy that relies on rapid prototyping and iterating, used their rootless wanderings

by impromptu classrooms along the route to offer an idea on somebody else's project. Innovation Road Trip!

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Caterpillar Climbs Higher on Earnings Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 4/26/2010 2:38:32 PM

When it comes to cash for appliances rebates, things are it seems that the uptrend could j u s t a l i t t l e d i f f e r e n t i n California Learn the details of certainly continue. Continue reading Caterpillar California's rebate program. With $35,267,000, California Climbs Higher on Earnings Caterpillar Climbs Higher on received the largest chunk of Earnings originally appeared on m o n e y f r o m t h e f e d e r a l BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Apr government for its cash for 2010 17:20:00 EST. Please see appliances program, which our terms for use of feeds. Read| started on April 22 and will run P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | through May 23 or until the funding runs out. As of this Comments morning, the California Energy Commission's Web site indicated that cash for appliances rebates are still available for room air conditioners (up to $50), refrigerators ($200), and washing machines ($100). True to the Golden State's typically tougher standards Gizmodo blogger Jason Chen, when it comes to many things who posted photos of an alleged environmentalâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;see low-VOC n e x t - g e n e r a t i o n i P h o n e paints, for instanceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;rebateprototype inadvertently left on a eligible clothes washers and b a r s t o o l b y a n A p p l e refrigerators must meet the engineer. Gizmodo, which paid C o n s o r t i u m o f E n e r g y an unidentified person $5,000 Efficiency's Tier 2 and above f o r " f i n d i n g " t h e p h o n e , criteria, which are stricter than published a series of articles that Energy Star standards for those appliances. California's rebates POLICE page 67

Police confiscate PC and other gear from Gizmodo iPhone blogger Michael Gikas (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 4/26/2010 2:53:24 PM

Police confiscate PC and other gear from Gizmodo iPhone blogger The Associated Press reports that authorities have taken the computers, cameras, cell phones, and other gear from a

When it comes to cash for appliances rebates, things are just a little different in California Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)

Submitted at 4/26/2010 5:20:00 PM

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Caterpillar (CAT) Caterpillar, Inc. ( CAT) is trading higher this afternoon. As I write this, shares are up over $3, or 4.6%. Not bad at all for a company like this one. Volume is quite convincing, too. The heavy-equipment maker is very close to its 52-week high of $72.83, a level that was hit today. The one-year chart is encouraging to both investors and traders alike. The stock has pulled far away from the 52week low, and judging by the current price action I'm seeing,

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for air conditioners are based on Energy Star criteria, as is the case for eligible products in the vast majority of the programs. (Read more about enhanced energy-use standards for appliances, part of what the U.S. Department of Energy calls the "Super Star program.") If you're a California resident, find out which appliances are eligible for a rebate and remember that you must recycle your old appliance to get a rebate. Here's a cash for appliances update as of 5 p.m. ET today: The $300 million cash for appliances rebate program has rolled out in 41 of 50 states and three U.S. territories and will start in the coming weeks in Guam(late May), Hawaii(late May), Maine(May), Montana(May 24), Nebraska(May 17), Northern Mariana Islands(May),

Oklahoma(May 8), Tennessee(late May), Utah(May 12), Virginia(April 28), Washington, D.C.(late May), and West Virginia(June). Use our interactive map or visit this EnergySavers.gov page to check on the program in your state. The following states have closed their cash for appliances program: Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Texas. The federal government indicates the Puerto Rico program is closed but the Web site for the commonwealth indicates an extension until May 16. Essential information: Check out our cash for appliances buyer's guides to air conditioners, dishwashers, refrigerators, washing machines, and water heaters. And find the best places to buy appliances. To stay on top of the latest cash for clunkers for appliances news, follow us at Twitter.com/CRHomegarden. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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XP users: How to deal with McAfee's security issues

Average gas prices-April 26, 2010 Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)

A t l a n t i c $ 2 . 8 0 0 Midwest$2.81.04 Gulf Coast$2.73.02 Rocky Donna Tapellini (Consumer reimburse customers for any Submitted at 4/26/2010 1:06:25 PM Mountain$2.89 0 West Reports) repair costs incurred as a result Average gas prices--April 26, Coast$3.06 0—California$3.09 of the update, and added that 2010 Submitted at 4/26/2010 1:59:19 PM 0 some customers will be eligible Gasoline prices seem to be Source: Energy Information XP users: How to deal with for a free two-year extension of holding relatively steady in most Administration, 4/26/10. Figures McAfee's security issues the software. areas compared to the week rounded to the nearest cent. A number of Windows XP You can read more about what before. The national gasoline For more information on saving users running McAfee security happened on McAfee’s blog. average is $.80 above the price fuel see our reports on how to software encountered problems According to CNET, tens of this time last year. Diesel fuel is get the best gas mileage and after the software company thousands of computers either $.88 above this time last year. where to find the cheapest gas. issued a faulty update last week. crashed or repeatedly rebooted National regular gasoline prices Subscribe now! Among the problems you may as a result of the upgrade. Price Change from last week S u b s c r i b e t o have, says McAfee: repeated —Donna Tapellini Subscribe Regular gasoline/gallon$2.85.01 ConsumerReports.org for expert restarts, missing taskbars, or now! D i e s e l f u e l / g a l l o n $ 3 . 0 8 0 Ratings, buying advice and trouble connecting to the S u b s c r i b e t o Regional regular gasoline prices reliability on hundreds of Internet. ConsumerReports.org for expert E a s t C o a s t $ 2 . 8 3 . 0 1 — N e w products. Update your feed McAfee provides instructions Ratings, buying advice and E n g l a n d $ 2 . 8 9 . 0 4 — C e n t r a l Paul Bourdett (FanHouse preferences for dealing with the problems reliability on hundreds of A t l a n t i c $ 2 . 8 6 . 0 2 — L o w e r Main) here. You can also call the products. Update your feed Submitted at 4/26/2010 6:30:00 PM SLUMP company’s toll-free service at preferences continued from page 67 866-622-3911. Filed under: MLB Slump or McAfee also says it will ERA with Atlanta last season), Suck, MLB Value Machine On even the naysayers couldn't have the surface, Javier Vazquez has POLICE predicted a 9.00 ERA and 1.80 been horrible. OK, forget the continued from page 66 WHIP through his first four surface, he's been downright sent its page views soaring. Meanwhile, Gawker Media ConsumerReports.org for expert starts. Is it mental? Or is it stinky. But that's in the past. Apple claimed the device maintains that California's Ratings, buying advice and physical? Let's take a look under What fantasy owners want/need belonged to the company, and shield law, which shields reliability on hundreds of the hood to see if Javy's early- to know is what to expect going Gizmodo returned it. journalists from having to turn products. Update your feed season issues can be remedied. forward. Is there a buy-low But laws may have been over anonymous sources or preferences It may sound cliche, but a lot of opportunity here, or is it b r o k e n . A c c o r d i n g t o t h e unpublished material to law Vazquez's brutal start can be impossible for Javy to get it warrant issued by a Superior enforcement during a search, attributed to some serious done while wearing pinstripes? Court judge in San Mateo should apply to Chen's property. misfortune. For the owner While it's clear no one expected County, the reporter's devices Stay tuned. whose ERA has been beaten to him to post a sub-3.00 ERA in may have been used to commit a —Mike Gikas Subscribe now! death by Vazquez's 20 innings the American League (2.87 felony. S u b s c r i b e t o of FAIL, that might not provide SLUMP page 68 SLUMP page 67

Slump or Suck: Javier Vazquez

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Capitals Chalk Game 6 All Up to Halak A.J. Perez (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/26/2010 6:39:00 PM

Filed under: Canadiens, Capitals, NHL Playoffs MONTREAL -- The Washington Capitals took about as much responsibility as a hitand-run driver. "You can see how we played," said Alex Ovechkin, the league's two-time defending MVP and Washington's captain. "I think we played great, we just didn't score. It's only one guy [that kept] them alive." There was no mistaking that Jaroslav Halak's 53-save performance to anchor the Montreal Canadiens' 4-1 victory in Game 6 of the first-round series at Bell Centre Monday night. With every glove save Halak smothered, the Capitals took a stride closer to squandering a 3-1 series lead. A loss in Game 7 in

Washington on Wednesday would make the Capitals the sixth team with the top regularseason record to lose in the first round since 1968. "It was the goaltender's night," veteran Capitals forward Mike Knuble said. "When you take 54 shots on goal, you can't say you didn't have chances. We had a lot of really good chances." Series tied, 3-3 Canadiens 4, Capitals 1: Recap| Box Score| Series Page

David Krejci Has His Breakout Playoff Performance

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much solace. But it's true. His expected fielder independent ERA (xFIP) is a more palatable 4.87. Even his FIP -- which assumes he'll continue to give up more than two homers per Christopher Botta (FanHouse nine innings -- is almost three Main) runs lower than his current Submitted at 4/26/2010 6:36:00 PM ERA. That's still not very good, but it does go to show that in Filed under: Bruins, NHL addition to being off the mark, Playoffs BOSTON -- "This Vazquez has been exceptionally wasn't a special game for me," unlucky. His strand rate sits said David Krejci amidst the around 57 percent (about 15 joyous celebration in the Boston percent lower than the league Bruins' locker room. "This was average) and his BABIP is an a special game for the team. inflated .342 (career .309). Look at the goals. Everyone Javy's always given up his fair played a part." share of homers, but his HR/FB Congratulations, young man ... assist, but did a whole lot more. percentage (18.5 percent) is you have officially assimilated "Fantastic game by my man more than seven points higher from hotshot Czech Republic Krech," said wing Milan Lucic, than his career mark (11.2 prospect to humble NHL player who had two assists. "He was all percent). In short, he couldn't be over the scoresheet and all over on the verge of stardom. this bad over his next four turns Make no mistake, he was the ice. Those are the kind of if he tried. special. Krejci had his breakout games we expect from him, the performance on Monday as the kind we need from him." Bruins beat Buffalo, 4-3, and Bruins win series, 4-2 won their first round playoff Bruins 4, Sabres 3: Recap| Box series four games to two. He Score| Series Page scored two goals and added an

Adrian Dantley Tested as Nuggets Threaten to Implode Chris Tomasson (FanHouse Main)

there's no need for team officials to put him on a 24-hour watch. "I talk to a lot of people and Submitted at 4/26/2010 6:20:00 PM they act like I'm going to Filed under: Jazz, Nuggets, commit suicide or something,'' P l a y o f f s , N B A C o a c h e s said the Denver Nuggets acting DENVER -- Adrian Dantley coach. as if he's "going to have a claims he's OK. He insists Dantley said others call him up

mental breakdown.'' With his heavily favored Nuggets down 3-1 in a West first-round series against Utah, that Dantley is able to maintain his sense of humor is one of the few good things the team has going for it these days.

Dantley has had to replace George Karl, who hasn't been on the bench since March 16 as he battles a form of throat cancer. Now, he's got a team that could be on the verge of imploding -if that hasn't already happened.

Sports/ Gaming/

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Suns' Bench Sends Blazers to Brink of Elimination in Game 5 Direct2Drive's Spring Sale: Star Trek Online, Civ 4, Torchlight and more discounted

Brett Pollakoff (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/27/2010 12:50:00 AM

Filed under: Suns, Trail Blazers, Playoffs PHOENIX -Coming off Saturday's Game 4 loss in Portland that tied the series at 2-2, Suns head coach Alvin Gentry talked about the need to get his bench players more involved in the proceedings. His words turned into action on Monday as Phoenix's bench, led by outstanding performances from Channing Frye and Jared Dudley, outscored the starters 55-52 and ultimately led the Suns to a decisive 107-88 victory in Game 5 of the best-of -seven series. "That's the way we played the whole year," Gentry said after the game of the boost his team

Second Just Cause 2 DLC pack coming May 29th Mike Schramm (Joystiq)

we'll pretend that you do. Both packs will be $1.99 on PSN, or 160($2) from the Xbox The Just Cause 2 website has Live Marketplace. Also on the official news on the game's first official Just Cause 2 blog: you'll two DLC packs. We'd already find YouTube videos of the heard about the April 29th game being played back at both " B l a c k M a r k e t A e r i a l slow- and fast-speed, showing Pack"(which will give you a off slow motion and time-lapse new Jet Fighter to play with, views of the impressive in-game along with a parachute addon to world. We've put both of them create a little more breeze), but after the break in case you want less than a month later, May to give them a look. 29th will bring the "Black Continue reading Second Just Market Boom Pack," with a Cause 2 DLC pack coming May Quad Rocket Launcher, Cluster 29th Bomb Launcher, and an Air Second Just Cause 2 DLC pack Propulsion Gun, which fires jet coming May 29th originally blasts powerful enough to send appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 both soldiers and vehicles Apr 2010 05:28:00 EST. Please flying. You don't really get see our terms for use of feeds. bonus points for saying, "This... Read| Permalink| Email this| is my boom pack," after sending Comments said enemies into the air, but Submitted at 4/27/2010 5:28:00 AM

received from the bench. "The entire season we've been a team where our bench has been pretty good -- I think we're in the top five in the league in scoring -just the energy that they give us."

Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/27/2010 12:00:00 AM

Once again, downloadable gaming retailer Direct2Drive has chosen to reduce the price of a whole gaggle of its offerings. Encheapened titles as part of the "Spring Sale" include interstellar MMO Star Trek Online($29.95), Nazivanquishing sim The Saboteur($14.95), mine-raiding RPG Torchlight($9.95), worlddominating strategy title Civilization 4: Complete Edition($9.95) and every XCom game ever made, except for, you know, the new one($4.95). To see the complete list of discounted games, click past the jump. Now look, Direct2Drive. You really, really need to chill out with all of these sales. If you keep discounting the prices of your games with such regularity, then people are going to start thinking that these are your normal going rates for these titles. During the off-times when DIRECT2DRIVE'S page 70

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DIRECT2DRIVE'S continued from page 69

'Mega Man Universe' trademark filed by Capcom Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/27/2010 9:19:00 AM

Capcom just wrapped up its Captivate 2010 showcase, but it appears the publisher skipped mention of one planned project: "Mega Man Universe." The title was recently filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, but details of the "goods" are currently as mysterious as Dr. Wily's sociopathic origins (though we posit his mom forced him to eat Marmite as a kid.) The Mega Man Universe trademark is broadly classified as "computer game software," in addition to a range of more specific calssifications, including downloadable game,

Rockstar collection 50% off through Steam this week Andrew Yoon (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/27/2010 1:30:00 AM

Haven't picked up Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty mobile game and screen saver -- City? For about the same price all potential uses for a new as the retail console version of Mega Man series. the GTA IV expansion packs, Mega Man Universe is not you can get every nearly single definitely a new spin-off series Rockstar game in one massive, for the franchise, however, it d i s c o u n t e d b u n d l e . T h e could also be another best-of "Rockstar Collection" includes Blue Bomber compilation, like 13 titles, including Bully: the comprehensive Mega Man Scholarship Edition, Manhunt, Anniversary Collletion; or it Max Payne, Midnight Club 2, could be just about anything. and every Grand Theft Auto for The "universe" encompasses a PC -- including The Lost and lot of possibilities, after all. the Damned and The Ballad of [Via Siliconera; Supererogatory] Gay Tony. 'Mega Man Universe' trademark filed by Capcom originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

This week, the bundle will be discounted to a mere $42.49, a considerable savings over the suggested $169.90 value for all the games combined. Considering the bundle includes rather new content, one can even consider this package ... a steal. [Via BigDownload] Rockstar collection 50% off through Steam this week originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

you're not holding a sale, they're going to start thinking that you're just having a temporary ... expensiveization. That can't possibly be good for business. Continue reading Direct2Drive's Spring Sale: Star Trek Online, Civ 4, Torchlight and more discounted Direct2Drive's Spring Sale: Star Trek Online, Civ 4, Torchlight and more discounted originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Netbooks are still a great deal (Scripting News)

keyboard. I'm writing this blog post on it. It's taken a couple of minutes so far. I'd still be on I have both an iPad and a paragraph 2 if I had used the netbook, and the netbook is iPad. And I'd be entering it on strictly more useful than the one of my WordPress blogs iPad. If I go out with the iPad because my customized content invariably I hit a wall. No SD tools don't and will never run on c a r d s l o t . N o U S B . T h e Apple's new platform. (Unless keyboard is hunt-and-peck. they change their mind.) The iPad doesn't remember my There's an awful glitch in the Facebook password, so when I way the clipboard works on the want to check Facebook I must iPad. Try to put the cursor on a reach for the netbook. A small mis-spelling. It always selects thing you say -- but operating the whole word. I've gotten in systems are collections of the habit of retyping the word hundreds of small things, and when there's a one character new operating systems like the spelling error. These little things one in the iPad don't have them are of course little, but they and old ones like XP do. mount up. I had pictures in my camera the I hate the font they chose for other day. No way to get them Safari. How do I change it? up to Flickr through the iPad. If There does not appear to be a I had had the netbook with me, way to do that. That was a new no problem. (I used my Droid feature in Windows in 1995. Or instead.) was it 1994? T h e n e t b o o k h a s a r e a l I think the tech industry should Submitted at 4/27/2010 6:41:03 AM

PSA: Steam's new look & feel is out of beta Randy Nelson (Joystiq)

to install the update, thus severing all ties to the past. If Submitted at 4/27/2010 3:30:00 AM this thought is just a little too We're not sure why, but, when much to bear, you can always presented with the option to try take a screenshot of the old UI out Steam's new user interface (it's the Print Screen key) before weeks ahead of time, some clicking "Update." If, for some people actually said, "No thanks reason, you don't have Steam on -- the future scares me." Well, your PC, the client -- all new-UI just to prove you can't escape -ified -- can be downloaded from your future (or because it here. considered the face-lift ready to PSA: Steam's new look & feel go live) Valve has flipped the i s o u t o f b e t a o r i g i n a l l y switch labeled "New UI" and appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 your Steam client is in for a Apr 2010 03:30:00 EST. Please world of change -- like it or not. see our terms for use of feeds. The next time you fire up your Read| Permalink| Email this| Steam client, you'll be prompted Comments

give up the belief that netbooks are a temporary thing and fully embrace them and make the work better and better. Ultimately the user is always right, and ultimately always gets what they want. Apple has a long way to go before the iPad is a useful tool. Lots of little things to fix and tweak, and a philosophy that's going to keep the really innovative stuff flowing elsewhere (where -- not determined yet). I hear Asus is coming out with an Android netbook-style tablet in June. Sign me up. I bet it's a nice computer. Android of course is just as immature as the iPad. I'd really like to see a Windows XP tablet made by Asus. That would sell pretty well, imho.

Science/

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"Rogue" NASA Administrator Angling to Save Ares I Rocket Program from Budget Axe Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/26/2010 3:31:24 PM

In a speech to NASA employees and the nation on April 15, President Obama unveiled a vision for U.S. space exploration that didn't include Constellation or development of its Ares I rocket. The next day, Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley issued his response to Obama: Not so fast. In an email dated April 16, Hanley told his managers to prioritize all remaining resources left to them under this year's budget to prepare for future test flights of the Ares I prototypes. Hanley also instructed staffers to look into repackaging Constellation into a smaller program that could work under a far smaller rocket development budget that Obama and company have supported under the White House's new vision. To quote Hanley: "This direction remains consistent with . . . policy to continue program execution and planning in the event that the program or

parts thereof will continue beyond (this financial) year." In short, backers of Constellation are moving forward as though Obama didn't just publicly state that he plans to financially emasculate the program. In doing so, they're demonstrating a belief that Congress may stand behind Constellation and refuse to pass the budget as Obama has shaped it. Indeed, a few members of

the email calls for managers to put their remaining budgets toward preserving the part of the rocket program that would allow for test launches of Orion. That part of the program just happens to be the Ares I prototypes. So is Hanley's action prudent planning, wishful thinking or guerilla insurgency within the Obama administration? Usually when a President goes on the record in a nationally televised speech and claims he's going to cut a program that's not meeting its benchmarks, the program's fate is sealed. Hanley's memo didn't go through NASA HQ in Washington D.C., so who knows what kind of pressure Congress have openly pledged Hanley seems to be semantically might come down from top to fight for Constellation, most scheming to save Ares by b r a s s t o c h a n g e t h e notably Sen. Bill Nelson of a t t a c h i n g t h e r o c k e t Constellation program's official Florida, in whose district the development plan to the Orion stance on Ares I. But for now it Constellation tests would fund a crew capsule, the only part of seems hope for Constellation is few hundred jobs. But the Constellation that was spared alive within NASA, though its grossly over-budget and behind- the axe in Obama's speech. future doesn't look very bright. schedule Ares I rocket program O b a m a ' s v i s i o n c a l l s f o r [ PhysOrg] seems to have little hope of reorienting the Orion to serve as surviving the budgeting process. a lifeboat for the ISS, with But here's the clever part of launch of a working crew Hanley's email: He never capsule by March 2015. So mentions Ares I by name. without ever mentioning Ares I,

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Bayer's Didget Blood-Sugar Monitor Nobody Can Stop Facebook Because Nobody Attaches to Nintendo DS, Enticing Understands Facebook Kids to Manage Health Rebecca Boyle (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

consultant. Didget operates like any other blood-glucose meter, but it comes with an online "world" accessible only to Didget users. Submitted at 4/26/2010 4:32:18 PM The battle to control type-1 Kids can interact with other diabetes in children could get a diabetes patients and play little easier -- as long as the kids games. keep playing with their The device sells for $74.99 and Nintendos. Bayer Diabetes Care is available at various unveiled a new gadget Monday pharmacies. Though Didget that aims to help kids manage hooks up to a Nintendo DS, you their disease by tapping into don't need one to use it. their love for video games. In other Type 1 diabetes news, The DIDGET blood glucose earlier this month, meter connects to Nintendo DS endocrinologists at and DS Lite gaming systems, Massachusetts General Hospital awarding points for consistently announced a new clinical trial testing blood sugar levels and on an artificial pancreas. Unlike meeting blood-glucose targets. Blood-glucose testing is the other artificial pancreas devices, Kids can use the points to m o s t i m p o r t a n t m e a n s o f it adds a monitor for the unlock different levels in video managing diabetes, but as h o r m o n e g l u c a g o n , w h i c h games online and through their endocrinologist Larry Deeb counteracts insulin -- useful if a gaming systems. n o t e s , k i d s d o n ' t e x a c t l y patient's blood-sugar level drops Type 1 diabetes, also called welcome the tests. They might too much. In the trial, the juvenile onset diabetes, is be OK with them if they're part system was able to control blood d i f f e r e n t f r o m t h e t y p e of a game, however. sugar in a small group of commonly associated with " D i a b e t e s i s c e r t a i n l y a n diabetic patients even when they obesity -- that's Type 2. Type 1 incredible intrusion into a child's ate high-carbohydrate meals. is an autoimmune disorder for life, and it's an intrusion they That's an improvement over which there is no cure yet, and it really don't want, whereas previous artificial pancreas usually arises in children. About children play games all the devices. That study is reported one in every 400 Americans age time," says Deeb, a pediatric in the April 14 issue of Science 20 or younger have the disease, endocrinologist at Tallahassee Translational Medicine. according to the Centers for Memorial Hospital and a Bayer Disease Control and Prevention.

Pete Cashmore (Mashable!) Submitted at 4/27/2010 2:55:58 AM

Can companies turn confusion into a competitive advantage? It occurred to me when attempting to explain Facebook’s Open Graph this week that the social web has become increasingly complex — relating the full implications to a broad audience is a Herculean feat. How do you explain the Open Graph to the average user so he or she can make an informed decision? Should we take pains to differentiate between the “Open Graph API” and the “Open Graph Protocol”, or should we just gloss over the specifics to make the story halfway digestible to a reader who isn’t either a web developer or a social media professional? Every time Facebook changes its privacy settings, we write a 500+ word post explaining what all the dials mean. Every time, it’s massively popular — Sunday’s article “ HOW TO: Disable Facebook’s Instant Personalization” has more than 4500 Facebook shares. Why the

high demand for an explanation of what all this stuff means? Have the nuances of online privacy become so complex that they’re beyond the comprehension of mere mortals? I’m not saying that Facebook has any intent to cause confusion, but the complexities of the open vs closed debate and the prescriptive vs descriptive nature of the “everybody” setting effectively act to shut down public discourse. Perhaps this paves the route to success: After all, how can anyone stop Facebook if no one understands Facebook? Reviews: Facebook Tags: facebook, Open Graph, privacy

Science/ Social Media/

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BP Turns to Robotic Subs for Help Sync iTunes to Sealing Oil Well After Rig Explosion iPhone/iPod Via WiFi… Maybe [VIDEO] Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/26/2010 4:04:14 PM

The Macondo oil well is leaking almost 1,000 barrels per day into the Gulf of Mexico, and represents an environmental disaster in the making Robotic submersibles could help energy giant BP contain a leaking oil well following an oil rig explosion last week. The mission: use robotic arms to activate a large valve designed to seal off a well from the surface, according to The Chemical Engineer. About 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) per day has been leaking from the Macondo well almost a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded last Tuesday and likely killed 11 workers. The destroyed rig was operated by Transocean under a BP license. That has set the scene for

potentially huge environmental disaster in the making, with the U.S. Coast Guard describing the spill as "very serious." The urgency has compelled BP to deploy the underwater robots in the complex, first-of-its-kind operation which could take between 24 and 36 hours -- and there's no guarantee that it will work, according to the company. Related Articles South Korea Developing Underwater Searchand-Rescue Robot Crawlers"Ring-Wing" Submarine Swarm To Search For Undersea Oil Navy Reveals Details of Submarine-Based Drones Tags Technology, Jeremy Hsu, bp, crude, oil, oil rigs, oil wells, petroleum, robotic submarines, robots, submarines, submersibles, subs, underwater robots Underwater robots certainly exist, and many future designs call for them to scout for new oil wells or operate as search-and-rescue

helpers. But this latest incident may prove the biggest challenge yet for robotic submersibles. BP has also prepared to drill relief wells to permanently secure the leaking well. A drilling rig is set to drill a second well that would intercept the Macondo well and inject a heavy fluid to prevent the flow of oil or gas, and allow for more permanent sealing. The company has also prepped almost 106,000 gallons of dispersant -- one third of the world's supply -- to help break up any crude slick before it reaches the coast. Still, the drilling project could take months, which means the best hope for averting catastrophe in the meantime could lie in some cold but steady robotic arms. [via The Chemical Engineer]

Jolie O'Dell (Mashable!) Submitted at 4/27/2010 1:06:34 AM

A new app might be coming to the App Store quite soon, if one developer has his way. This application would accomplish the technologically simple but economically/politically complicated task of syncing a user’s iTunes library with his iDevice of choice over a WiFi connection only — no tethering required. The video below is a sneak peek of an app called WiFiSync that might be coming soon to the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. “For the first time ever,” its creator writes, users can “sync your device with iTunes over a wireless network.” It appears that users could also use this app to share music collections between various other folks’ iTunes libraries, as well. Naysayers are doubting that this app will ever make it through the App Store application process. However, Android users have this functionality

already. So,if WiFiSync never hits the App Store, you can always go get a Droid. The developer, Greg Hughes, is a 2nd-year computer science student at the University of Birmingham in Great Britain. We wish him the best of luck. What do you think — is this an application you’d buy and use? Do you think it’ll make it into the App Store? [via Engadget] For more Apple coverage, follow Mashable Apple on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Reviews: Android, App Store, Facebook, Twitter Tags: apple, itunes, wifisync

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Video: Perching Drones Learn How to Land Vertically on Walls Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

Electric Taxis With Switchable Batteries Debut in Japan

Submitted at 4/26/2010 2:59:45 PM

Moth-like drones could quietly conduct surveillance or creep closer to targets, while recharging or ducking inclement weather High-rise dwellers and office workers might someday see aerial drones join the usual pigeons and other birds perched outside their windows. Stanford University's Biomimetics Laboratory has video footage of tests with fixed-wing drones landing on walls and grappling on with their leg spines, as Botjunkie discovered. Future micro aerial vehicles capable of perching on buildings could take the opportunity to recharge or simply ride out bad weather. They could also use the landing as a chance to crawl or creep closer to a window for better observation, or simply hang out and conduct surveillance on the area for days or weeks. Stanford researchers decided to go the simple route by figuring out how a fixed-wing, nontransforming drone could still land on walls. Their drone approaches the wall at full

Denise Ngo (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/26/2010 2:14:05 PM

speed, or about 18-22 mph. It then pitches sharply upward to angle its belly toward the wall and slows its approach speed to just under 7 mph. Landing legs consisted of a carbon-fiber tibia and a carbon and balsa-wood femur, along with urethane foam. Each leg has "toes" tipped with steel spines for gripping the landing surface. The landing leg suspension ensures that the drone does not rebound, and gravity's downward pull helps the steel spines hook into the

landing surface. Takeoff is a more simple matter of throttling up and then retracting the spines for inverted liftoff. But the researchers still face engineering challenges such as tuning the suspension system so that the drone doesn't simply rebound upon landing approach. The spines might also fail to grip the landing surface if the plane misjudges the approach and pitches upwards too soon or too late. Such control issues are next on

the agenda for the Stanford group, which plans to present an update on their work at next month's 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Anchorage, Alaska. That means future energy-sipping micro drones are well on their way to adding "perching" to their cando list. [via Botjunkie]

There are currently more than 60,000 taxis cruising around Japan, a number that accounts for 20 percent of the country's CO 2 emissions. To promote environmental health, the Japanese government has joined with Better Place, a US firm specializing in electric vehicle development, to come up with a solution: electric taxis powered by replaceable batteries. Today, three of the taxis will begin their circuit during a 90-day experiment funded by Japan's energy agency. In a blog entry written for Better Place's website, Kiyota Fujii, president of the firm's Japan unit, explains how the vehicles run continuously. Unlike many other EVs, which need long recharging periods after half a day's work, Better Place's taxis can make periodic stops at battery-exchanging ELECTRIC page 76

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ELECTRIC continued from page 75

stations. It takes less time to switch the batteries than it does to fill a conventional vehicle with gasoline. Nihon Kotsu, Japan's largest taxi operator, has also partnered up with Better Place to provide drivers for the vehicles. Fujii said that he is certain that the city's experiment will encourage automakers around the world to

follow suit by producing ecofriendly, economicallysustainable vehicles en masse. [ PhysOrg]

A little religion goes a long way mark (GetReligion)

whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of I knew the kerfuffle over documentation,” the cardinal A r i z o n a ’ s t o u g h n e w said. “Are children supposed to immigration law had to be choc- call 911 because one parent does o-bloc full of religious ghosts, not have proper papers? Are and I kept waiting for this angle family members and neighbors t o w o r k i t s w a y i n t o t h e now supposed to spy on one coverage of the topic. Well, another, create total distrust Cardinal Mahony of the Los across neighborhoods and Angeles diocese decided to kick communities, and report people start things a bit, as you can because of suspicions based p r o b a b l y t e l l f r o m t h i s upon appearance?” Associated Press headline: This is some pretty strong stuff. LA cardinal: Nazism in Arizona T h e A P d u t i f u l l y r e p o r t s immigration bill Mahony’s comments along with Well, alrighty then. Mahony is the broad outlines of the new not a fan of the legislation and immigration bill and the ensuing had some choice words for it on controversy. But aside from his blog: pointing out that Mahony’s “I can’t imagine Arizonans now diocese is overwhelmingly reverting to German Nazi and Hispanic, it doesn’t really Russian Communist techniques provide any religious context. Submitted at 4/26/2010 10:39:48 AM

I’m sure not all Catholics or Catholic leaders are necessarily opposed to the new law. How exactly does Mahony derive the moral authority to criticize this law in such harsh terms? The Associated Press doesn’t delve into the issue. Fortunately, the Los Angeles Times does a much better job with this. Here’s how Times reporter Teresa Watanabe handled it: In Arizona, leaders from the Roman Catholic Church and other faith communities also criticized the legislation and planned to ask Brewer to veto the bill. In a letter, the faith leaders called on Brewer to show “great political courage” and veto the measure, which they said could hurt the economy by driving down business and reduce public

safety by diverting police resources and dissuading illegal immigrants from reporting crime. Tucson Diocese Bishop Gerald Kicanas, who helped spearhead the letter, said parishes in his diocese have participated in “immigration academies” to learn about the issue and how Scripture and church teachings apply to it. In Leviticus, for instance, God instructs Moses not to mistreat aliens and to welcome them as if they were native-born. “It’s pretty clear that all of our religious traditions speak of welcoming the stranger and assisting people in need,” Kicanas said. “I believe this is a drastic, punitive measure that will not benefit the states.” It would be nice if the Times

could have gotten some insight on this from Mahony himself, but the fact they weren’t able to get Mahony to comment further might not be for lack of trying. In any event, the two stories are a useful comparison. Both stories do a good job of reporting the basic details of the story, but AP story was 11 paragraphs long and the Times story was 14 paragraphs long. Those three extra paragraphs on religion at the end of the Times story really do introduce a whole new dimension of understanding to the story. It’s much appreciated. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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In Season: Pineapple (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

Chile-Lime Pineapple with Cardamom-Lime Ice Cream Click to Enlarge A little history: Not surprisingly, the pineapple gets its English name from the look-a -like pinecone. Non-British Europeans prefer to focus on the tantalizing flavor, instead calling it ananas, from the Paraguayan nana, which means "excellent fruit." While this centuries-old symbol of hospitality is native to South America, Hawaii is now the leading producer. What they look like: The U.S. boasts two popular varieties, both of which are juicy and tangy-sweet, with bumpy, diamond-patterned skins. The Hawaiian version is the tall, cylindrical Cayennea goldenyellow pineapple with long, sword-like leaves that sprout from a single tuft. The shorter and plumper Red Spanish pineapple, usually from Florida or Puerto Rico, has reddish gold skin and leaves that sprout from several tufts. The average weight for each is between two and five pounds. Selection tips: Choose the largest, plumpest one you can find. It should have a strong color and be slightly soft to the touch, with crisp,

dark green leaves. Avoid pineapples that have soft or dark areas on the skin (which is a sign of overripeness), or yellow or brown-tipped leaves. One medium pineapple will yield about three cups of chunks. Storage tips: These succulent tropical gems don't ripen off the plant, so those you buy will be immediately ready to eat. They c a n b e s t o r e d in the refrigerator, tightly wrapped, for up to three days before cutting plus three more days after cutting.

desserts, as garnish for meats and vegetables, or cooked into a variety of desserts. You can also grill, saute, or broil it. Fresh pineapple contains an enzyme that prevents gelatin from setting, so if you want to use it in a dish that contains gelatin, you'll need to cook the fruit first. Peak growing season: While it's available year-round, pineapple's peak season runs from March through July. Health benefits: Aside from the irresistible taste, there are some healthy reasons to indulge in this flavorful fruit. It's a wonderful source of vitamin C, which protects you from heart disease, cancer, and cataracts; and also contains manganese, which helps keep your bones strong. Plus, pineapple contains an enzyme How to eat one: Using a sharp t h a t helps relieve knife, cut off the base and indigestionmaking it a dessert leaves, then stand the pineapple your tummy will appreciate. on one end and shave off strips Nutritional info: One delicious of skin from t o p cup of raw pieces weighs in at to bottom. To remove the eyes, 76 calories, 1.9 grams of fiber, cut a wedge-shaped groove on 0.6 gram of protein, 0.7 gram of either side, taking away as little f a t ( n o n e flesh as possible. To core of it saturated), 2.0 milligrams a pineapple, cut it into quarters of sodium, and no cholesterol. after peeling, then stand each Five Filters featured article: one on end and cut downward to Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: remove the core. Now, it's PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, ready to be cut up and eaten raw Term Extraction. (perhaps the best way of all), or used in fresh fruit salads and

Old West — er, Old Testament — justice? Bobby (GetReligion) Submitted at 4/26/2010 2:42:49 PM

While with The Oklahoman, I covered the state prison system for a while and served as a media witness for three or four executions (yes, it’s sad to say I can’t remember which, but as a reporter, I tried not to dwell on such experiences). Later, with The Associated Press in Tennessee, I was scheduled to witness the execution of a seven-time killer who told me that the government was using scientific technology to control his mind and body. After claiming for weeks that he’d simply lie down on the gurney and die, that inmate resumed his appeals three hours before his date with death. Given my personal experiences, stories about capital punishment tend to catch my eye. There’s a doozy developing in Utah, where an inmate was given the choice of death by lethal injection or a firing squad: Shackled at his ankles and wrists and wearing an orange jump suit, Ronnie Lee Gardner leaned forward in his chair Friday and uttered seven words that will place Utah in the OLD page 78

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international spotlight. “I would like the firing squad, please,” Gardner said, his voice choking up. As you might expect, religion already has come into play in the developing story in the home state of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The version of an AP story that I read Friday included this reference: Lydia Kalish, Amnesty International’s death penalty abolition coordinator for Utah, said her organization opposes the state’s effort to see Gardner executed. But despite Utah’s strong religious roots — it’s the home of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — most here support the use of the death penalty. “I think in Utah, when it suits their purposes, they go back to the Old Testament and the ‘eye for an eye’ kind of thing,” Kalish said. “These people may be the worst of the worst, but if the best we can do is repeat the

same thing, it’s so obviously wrong.” Wow, that’s an amazing couple of paragraphs. In a brief amount of space, the story manages to convict any Mormons and other religious people who believe in the death penalty. Despite the apparent bias, I read on to see the response of death penalty supporters. I didn’t find it. It wasn’t there. Perhaps an AP editor recognized the bias because a later version of the story changed those two paragraphs to these, again with religious overtones: About 20 anti-death penalty protesters demonstrated in the courthouse rotunda before the hearing. “The firing squad is archaic, it’s violent, and it simply expands on the violence that we already experience from guns as a society,” said Bishop John C. Wester, of Utah’s Catholic Diocese. Ahhhh, the Mormons are off

the hook. Into this Old West showdown ride the Catholics. Seriously, the Salt Lake Tribune had an interesting Page 1 story earlier this month about Catholics leading the fight against the planned execution: Utah’s Roman Catholic leaders are expressing dismay that, for the first time in more than a decade, the state is poised to execute an inmate. The Salt Lake City diocese is urging parish priests to remind Catholics what the church teaches about the death penalty: that it cannot be justified when there are other ways to keep society safe. The story highlighted the declining support of capital punishment by American Catholics — 48.5 percent in 2005, down from 70 percent in the late 1990s. However, it failed to make clear that the church hierarchy views the death penalty differently than, say, abortion or euthanasia. As I understand it, one’s position on

capital punishment is more of a matter of individual conscience, while a Catholic politician at odds with the church on abortion could be denied Holy Communion. Mollie did an exceptional job of explaining this late last year. As the Old West — and perhaps Old Testament — references gain steam leading up to the scheduled June 18 execution, it will be interesting to see how the media handle the religious angle. What questions would you like to see answered? And, of course, on a subject as controversial as capital punishment, please remember to keep comments focused on the journalistic issues. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Let’s See What Symbian^3 Can Do: Nokia N8 Goes Official Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 4/27/2010 7:53:55 AM

Every time I type “Symbian^3,” my faith in Nokia’s ability to create a great smartphone diminishes slightly. The caret sign, “^” is often used in programming and mathematics, but it’s an unwelcome guest in the name in the name of a mobile platform. Still, that’s how the Nokia and the Symbian Foundation is calling it, and since their first smartphone based on the new LET’S page 79

Playing Games on the iPad…With 11 Fingers Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Zombies, for example, has 5 points of contacts on the iPhone version, meaning you can If you’re an avid iPhone gamer simultaneously play with five and you’re considering an iPad, fingers – more than enough for here’s one reason why it’s better iPhone’s small screen. iPad’s for gaming: more points of s c r e e n , h o w e v e r , c a n contact. accommodate more hands, and therefore the iPad version of P o p u l a r g a m e P l a n t s v s . meaning you can play in a pair, the game, Plants vs. Zombies, Submitted at 4/27/2010 3:27:59 AM

offers 11 points of contact. For more Apple coverage, It’s a neat little improvement follow Mashable Apple on that can make a huge difference, Twitter or become a fan on especially if you have a kid who Facebook can’t wait to take his turn on the Reviews: Facebook, Twitter device. To see how this works in Tags: gaming, ipad, Mobile 2.0 practice, check out the video below. [via Touch Arcade]

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platform, Nokia N8, is now official, we’ll be seeing the name a lot in the coming months. On paper, Nokia N8 is a powerful device: a 3.5-inch capacitive OLED touchscreen with a 640 x 360 pixel resolution; a 12-megapixel camera capable of recording HD video, 16GB of internal storage plus a microSD expansion slot, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, FM Radio and transmitter, and Nokia’s free Ovi Maps GPS navigation. Most importantly, it sports the new Symbian^3 platform. The jury is still out on that one, but

early reviews indicate Nokia has done very little to catch up with Android and iPhone OS. With a price of €370 ($494) and availability in Q3 2010, it might be a welcome sight for longtime Nokia lovers, but if Symbian^3 turns out to be a fluke, the N8 will have a hard time attracting new fans. For more mobile coverage, follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Tags: Nokia, Nokia N8, Symbian, Symbian^3