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Obama slams opposition to civilian trials for terrorism suspects

By Jeremy Pelofsky (Front Row Washington)

YouTube.

“It’s been one of those things that’s been subject to a lot of, in Submitted at 2/1/2010 3:08:29 PM some cases, pretty rank politics,” President Barack Obama didn’t he said, referring to Republican mince words when he criticized opposition to the criminal trials.

R e p u b l i c a n o p p o s i t i o n t o While much of the opposition prosecuting foreign terrorism has been by Republicans, a few suspects in U.S. criminal courts Democrats have joined in the rather than in military tribunals, disapproval. calling it “rank politics.”

A group of senators, including His administration was caught Democratic Senator Blanche o f f g u a r d l a s t w e e k w h e n Lincoln, plan to offer legislation opposition mounted to trying the on Tuesday that would prevent accused plotters of the Sept. 11 any funding of the criminal attacks in a lower Manhattan t r i a l s , t h o u g h i t w a s n o t courthouse amid concerns about immediately clear whether there security and costs as well as was sufficient support or how potentially affording the suspects they would seek to pass the certain legal rights. measure.

“One of the things that we’ve Obama’s budget for fiscal 2011, had to try to communicate to the which starts Oct. 1, includes $73 c o u n t r y a t l a r g e i s t h a t , million to transfer, incarcerate historically, we’ve tried a lot of and prosecute the Sept. 11 terrorists in our courts; we have suspects, including the selfthem in our federal prisons; professed mastermind Khalid they’ve never escaped,” Obama S h e i k h M o h a m m e d . T h e s a i d i n a n i n t e r v i e w w i t h proposed budget also included

24 hours in pictures (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

A selection of the best images from around the world

$237 million to buy, fortify and upgrade a state prison in Thomson, Illinois, to house foreign terrorism suspects now at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Many Republicans have also opposed closing that facility, arguing it is the safest place to keep terrorism suspects.

“Gitmo is a bought and paid for

facility that can be run at a low cost and with guaranteed security for the American people. It also ensures that terrorists will not be brought to the U.S. where they will be able to use the rights afforded to criminal defendants to obtain lighter sentences and broadcast their terrorist agenda from center stage.,” said Representative Lamar Smith, the

senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.

Obama refused to back down on closing the Guantanamo prison, but he did acknowledge that Congress can withhold the money to do so. He has argued that anti-American militants have used the prison as a recruiting tool.

“This is something that we’ve got to work through both in Congress but also with public opinion so that people understand that ultimately this is the right thing to do,” Obama said. “By closing Guantanamo, we can regain the moral high ground in the battle against these terrorist organizations.”

For more Reuters political news, click here.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Chip East (the Metropolitan Correctional Center next to the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan)

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Obama reminds Americans he inherited the high deficit from Republicans

Options Update: Euro Currency Trust Volatility Flat as Index Trends Lower

By Jeff Mason (Front Row Washington)

By Paul Foster (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 2/1/2010 1:35:45 PM

Lest there be any doubt, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, blames Republicans for leaving him a huge deficit when he took office.

Heard that before? Many times, probably. The president, who is under pressure for spending associated with the $787 billion stimulus package, bank bailouts and car company rescues, introduced his budget on Monday with another reminder of what he faced when he came into office.

“The fact is, 10 years ago, we had a budget surplus of more

than $200 billion, with projected surpluses stretching out toward the horizon,” Obama said.

“Yet over the course of the past 10 years, the previous administration and previous Congresses created an expensive

new drug program, passed massive tax cuts for the wealthy and funded two wars without paying for any of it — all of which was compounded by recession and by rising health care costs,” he said.

The result: a $1.3 trillion deficit when he first took over the Oval Office.

On Monday his administration forecast a $1.56 trillion deficit in 2010.

Administration officials acknowledge that even though Obama didn’t create the full problem, it’s now his to fix.

What do you think? Is it right for Obama to put most of the blame for the high deficit on the opposition party and his predecessor, George W. Bush?

Expect to hear the reminder again.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama)

Filed under: Pfizer (PFE), Options Euro Currency Trust ( FXE) closed at 139.05. The FXE reflects the price of the euro plus accrued interest, less the expense of the Trust's operations. Overall option implied volatility of 11 is near its 26-week average of 11, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Pfizer( PFE) closed at $18.79.

PFE is expected to report Q4 EPS on Feb. 3. February option implied volatility is at 31, March is at 29, versus its 26-week average of 30, according to Track Data, suggesting nondirectional price movement.

Option Update is provided by Bell: Futures Higher Ahead of Stock Specialist Paul Foster of Data theflyonthewall.com.

Before the Bell: Futures Higher Options Update: Euro Currency Ahead of Data originally Trust Volatility Flat as Index appeared on BloggingStocks on Trends Lower originally Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:18:00 EST. appeared on BloggingStocks on Please see our terms for use of Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:30:00 EST. feeds. Permalink| Email this| Please see our terms for use of Comments feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Before the Bell: Futures Higher Ahead of Data

By Melly Alazraki (BloggingStocks)

recover from January's down market, digesting more earnings this morning, they also await Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:18:00 AM some economic data, including Filed under: Before the Bell, housing and auto sales and a International Markets, Market Senate hearing on proposed new Matters, Hershey Co (HSY), BP rules on financial reform. p.l.c. ADS (BP), Dow Chemical Already on Monday, the tide (DOW), Economic Data U.S. started turning from January's stock futures edged higher depressed sentiment following the Nasdaq composite and the Tuesday morning, pointing to a strong manufacturing data and S&P 500 all finished more than potential second day of gains on better-than-forecast Exxon Mobil 1% higher.

Wall Street. As investors look to earnings. The Dow industrials, Continue reading Before the

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Clare Short: Tony Blair lied and misled parliament in build-up to Iraq war

By James Sturcke (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

by the then-attorney general Lord Goldsmith during a cabinet meeting on 17 March 2003, three days before the war began. She Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:40:50 AM was forbidden by Blair from • B l a i r ' l i e d ' o v e r w a r discussing it during the meeting. preparations "I said, 'That is extraordinary.' I • Attorney general 'misled' was jeered at to be quiet. If the government prime minister says be quiet • Brown 'marginalised and there is only so much you can unhappy' do.

Clare Short at the Iraq war "I think for the attorney general inquiry - as it happened to come and say there's C l a r e S h o r t , t h e f o r m e r unequivocal legal authority to go i n t e r n a t i o n a l d e v e l o p m e n t war was misleading." secretary, today accused Tony Short, who was applauded by B l a i r o f l y i n g t o h e r a n d some audience members in misleading parliament in the public seats at the end of her build-up to the Iraq invasion. evidence, said the ministerial Short, giving evidence to the code was broken as cabinet Chilcot inquiry into the war, also colleagues were not aware of said that the 2003 conflict had Goldsmith's modifications to his put the world in greater danger legal advice over the previous of international terrorism. weeks. The inquiry has already Declassified letters between heard how Goldsmith changed Short and Blair released today his mind over the need for a show she believed that invading second resolution after visiting Iraq without a second UN the US the month before the war. resolution would be illegal and Short said cabinet colleagues there was a significant risk of a were unaware of the legal advice humanitarian catastrophe. given by the most senior Foreign She told the inquiry that she had Office lawyers, Sir Michael a conversation with Blair in Wood and Elizabeth Wilmshurst, 2002. He told her that he was not which called for a second UN planning for war against Iraq and resolution. that the evidence has since "The ministerial code said legal revealed that he was not telling advice should be circulated and it the truth at that point, she said. wasn't. We only had the answer She also said she was "stunned" to the parliamentary question when she read the 337-word [Goldsmith's short ruling]. There legal advice on the war written was a lot of misleading of

parliament too by the prime minister of the day.

"The ministerial code is unsafe because it is enforced by the prime minister and if he's in on the tricks then that's it. When I found out what went into it I think we were misled."

She added that she had "various cups of coffee" with Gordon Brown, at that time the chancellor, who "was very unhappy and marginalised [in the run up to war]".

He was disillusioned about a number of issues, not specifically Iraq, and felt Blair was "obsessed with his legacy".

Later, Short added that after the war "Gordon was back in with Tony and not having cups of coffee with me any more".

Asked about the cabinet meetings in the run-up to the war, Short told the inquiry that the cabinet did not operate in the manner it was required to constitutionally.

"It was not a decision-making body. I don't think there was ever a substantive discussion about anything in cabinet. If you ever raised an issue with Tony Blair he would cut it off. He did that in July 2002 when I said I wanted to talk about Iraq. He said he did not want it leaking into the press."

Short described cabinet meetings as "little chats" rather than decision-making

opportunities.

"There was never a meeting … that said: 'What is the problem?

What are we trying to achieve?

What are our options?'"

The declassified documents showed that Short believed the situation in Iraq to be "fragile" before hostilities began.

In one, written on 14 February 2003, she wrote: "Any disruption could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. With some more time, sensible measures can be taken to reduce these risks and improve people's prospect of stability after the conflict."

Short told the panel that both the British and US armies failed to honour their Geneva convention responsibilities to keep order, describing the situation in the post-invasion aftermath as "mad", with food for refugees only being ordered at the last minute.

Short said Blair persuaded her against resigning on the same day as Cook by assuring her that the UN would have the lead role in reconstructing Iraq and that George Bush would support the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Asked why she didn't resign earlier, she said: "If I knew then what I know now, I would have."

As for the pronouncements that the French would not back a second resolution, it was one of the "big deceits" of the British,

Short said.

The French president, Jacques Chirac, could have supported military action but not while UN weapons inspectors wanted more time and it should have been given.

"There was no emergency. No one had attacked anyone. There wasn't any new WMD. We could have taken the time and got it right. The forces weren't ready to go in. They have said that themselves."

Short ended her evidence by calling for a serious debate about the "special relationship" with the US, calling the current one "poodle-like".

Short stood down from the cabinet on 12 May 2003, nearly eight weeks after the invasion.

• Letter from Clare Short to Tony Blair on humanitarian planning and the role of the UN, 14 February 2003 (pdf).

• Letter from Short to Blair on the UN and US roles in postconflict Iraq, 5 March 2003 (pdf).

• Iraq war inquiry • Politics and Iraq • Clare Short • Iraq • Tony Blair • Defence policy • Politics past • Foreign policy CLARE page 5

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Israel debates over its self-defence| Uri Dromi

By Uri Dromi (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:38:26 AM

I supported an independent inquiry into the Gaza conflict, but the one conducted by Goldstone and the UN was biased When the Goldstone report condemning Israel was issued last September, I wrote in the Jewish Chronicle that Israel should have considered "whether the policy of not co-operating with outside investigation is wise. Alternately, a vigorous independent Israeli investigation could have made Judge Goldstone redundant, or at least marginal".

Israelis are still arguing vigorously over the report, although the issue of cooperating with it is spilt milk.

However, I can understand the reluctance of the government of Israel and the IDF to engage in any investigation generated by the United Nations, an organisation which was created to defend peace in the world and at the same time allows one of its members, Iran, to threaten to destroy another member state, Israel, and even make all the preparations necessary to accomplish that.

Furthermore, whenever rhetoric of human rights is voiced against

Israel at the UN security council, one wonders who's talking: One of the non-permanent member states, until recently, was none other than Libya, known for involvement with the Pan Am 103 affair, which had brought the death of 270 innocent people, including, just for the bitter irony of it, UN commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, a passenger on that fatal flight.

However, the reluctance to cooperate with the Goldstone-UN Human Rights Council commission, has some more specific reasons. In May 7 2002, the general assembly condemned Israel for its "illegal actions" in the West Bank. What were those alleged "illegal actions"? The operation Israel had launched to stop the wave of Palestinian terrorism directed at her cities, and coming mainly out of the city of Jenin. The idea that it wasn't only the right but also the duty of any responsible government to protect its citizens against terrorism didn't seem to occur to the respected discussants at the UN. In the same session, Israel was also condemned for refusing to co-operate with a fact-finding team appointed by the secretary general. Israel, however, sent four lawyers to the UN headquarters to discuss it. They gave one look at the mandate of the team and called Jerusalem

right away, advising not only not to co-operate, but also not to allow the team to come to Israel and the West Bank in the first place. Why? Because the team was directed to investigate "war crimes" and rumours of "massacre". In other words, they had already in mind what they were looking for.

Israel, obviously, refused to fall into this trap. A few months later, the UN managed to compile a report anyway, based on testimonies of UN officials, private relief organisations, and others, with no Israeli input.

Now guess what: No war crimes, no massacre, just a lot of Palestinian propaganda torn to shreds.

No wonder, then, that with Goldstone, Israel showed a wellearned suspicion. Here it goes all over again, was the thinking, the terrorist who shells civilians intentionally and then hides among civilians himself, is put on the same footing with the soldier who tries to make him stop and at the same time not to harm other people.

Not co-operating with Goldstone is one thing; running an independent inquiry by Israel is another. Last Friday, Israel released a report to the UN, listing 35 criminal investigations carried out in the following of the military operation. On Monday, it was also revealed

that the senior Israeli field officer in the Gaza war, BrigadierGeneral Eyal Eisenberg, as well as Colonel Ilan Malka, an infantry brigade commander, have been reprimanded over artillery shelling in a heavily populated area that hit a United Nations compound during the fighting.

The debate whether these investigations are rigorous enough goes on in Israel. The outgoing Israeli attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, said in an interview to Ha'aretz over the weekend that Israel should establish a commission of inquiry independently of the army. I tend to agree. If we have something to hide, let us face it.

And if we don't, the better.

There is, however, something much deeper than this, which touches the core of the fight of democracies against terrorism.

Everybody cites the fourth Geneva convention, relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war. This convention, however, was drafted in 1949, in the wake of the second world war, when armies had fought armies, and soldiers in uniform fought soldiers in uniform: a far cry from today's battle against terrorism.

It was Judge Aharon Barak, former president of the Israeli supreme court, who had made the following statement: "In

fighting terrorism, Israel, as a democracy, must fight with one hand tied behind its back". I agree, but one hand only, not two.

Recently, a group of distinguished international judges visited Israel and met with Israeli judges, international law experts and military lawyers.

The guests strongly defended the validity of existing international law; the Israelis claimed that in order to fight terrorism effectively, it should go certain changes. Frank opinions were exchanged, and although the meeting ended with disagreement, this was a beginning of a dialogue, one which the free world desperately needs.

• Comments on this article will remain open for 24 hours from the time of publication but may be closed overnight • Israel • United Nations • Human rights • Palestinian territories • Middle East Uri Dromi guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Sumo wresting champion could be banned after nightclub attack

By Justin McCurry (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:30:11 AM

Police ponder whether to question grand champion Asashoryu For Asashoryu, one of the finest sumo wrestlers of all time, it was always going to be a one-sided affair.

The problem for the 150kg grand champion is that his latest high-profile bout took place not in the ring but outside a Tokyo club after a night of heavy drinking.

As police decide whether to question Asashoryu over the incident, which left his victim with a broken nose, a split lip and facial bruising, sumo's elders appear to be running out of patience with the enfant terrible of Japan's troubled national sport.

If the police decide to press charges against Asashoryu, the Japan Sumo Association will come under intense pressure to ban him or risk further damage to the sport's already tarnished reputation.

According to the weekly magazine Friday, the scuffle took

place in the early hours of 16 January, when the wrestler should have been preparing for his bout later the same day. He went on to win the tournament, the 25th title of his career.

While reports said the victim, a friend who managed the club, was given a large sum in return for not filing a police complaint, the severity of the attack could yet lead to a prosecution.

Asashoryu, 29, whose real name is Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj, has been at the centre of controversy since he reached the sport's pinnacle in 2003. He is regularly accused of lacking the dignity befitting a grand champion and of belittling the traditions of a sport thought to have originated 2,000 years ago.

In 2003 he pulled the topknot of a fellow Mongolian wrestler during a bout and continued to scuffle with his opponent in the communal bath. Four years later he became the first grand champion to be suspended after he was filmed playing in a charity football match, dressed in a Wayne Rooney replica England shirt, despite pulling out of a goodwill sumo tournament claiming he was injured.

His suspension triggered a

nervous breakdown, from which he recovered by taking refuge at a luxury spa resort in his native Mongolia.

Asashoryu may have met his nemesis in the form of Takanohana, a hugely popular former wrestler who has vowed to clean up the sport he dominated in the 1990s.

The 37-year-old stable master, who was yesterday voted on to the board of the ultraconservative sumo association, wants to introduce fairer pay for sumo hairdressers, judges and announcers, cut the inflated bonuses paid to board members and open up the sport's finances.

He has also set his sights on Asashoryu. "It's important that we get to the truth," he said of the nightclub fight. "We need to launch a proper investigation. A sumo wrestler should not feel the wind at his back, but walk tall with his head held high."

The association is expected to announce its decision on Thursday.

The sports minister called for an investigation into Asashoryu's most recent outburst. "The association must be responsible for Japan's national sport," the sports minister, Tatsuo

Kawabata, said. "This must be dealt with appropriately. If the reports are true, it is deplorable."

The controversy surrounding one of sumo's finest exponents will do little for attempts to widen the sport's appeal amid declining audiences and lack of interest among Japanese boys.

Sumo has been at the centre of persistent – but unproven – match-fixing claims, and in 2008 three Russian wrestlers tested positive for marijuana use. A year earlier, a 17-year-old trainee died after being beaten by fellow wrestlers on the orders of their stable master.

The dearth of talented Japanese wrestlers has paved the way for an influx of foreigners. Sumo has not had a homegrown grand champion for more than three years; of the four top wrestlers, three are Mongolian and one is Bulgarian.

• Japan Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Tide turns against IE 6 as usage drops

By Stephen Shankland (Webware.com)

Microsoft's IE 8 has for the first time surpassed its 2001-era

progenitor. Google's Chrome continues to make gains, too.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

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Steve Nash: The NBA's Top Entrepreneur (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/1/2010 6:32:07 PM

An inside look at the portfolio of the NBA's most active entrepreneur, from a film production company to a marketing start-up to one of the most respected foundations in sports.

6

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We Are the World single re-recorded to help Haiti quake victims

By Maev Kennedy (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

who co-wrote the song with Michael Jackson.

Other big names providing vocals on the new version Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:29:00 AM included Lil' Wayne, Tony Big names including Brian Bennett, Celine Dion, Miley Wilson, Tony Bennett and Snoop Cyrus, two of the surviving Dogg gather to sing charity hit in Beach Boys and Snoop Dogg. aid of disaster survivors The crossover classical tenor It was widely seen as one of the Josh Groban insisted "everybody worst charity records of all time left their ego at the door" – – but that has not stopped an which may not have been improbable lineup of stars universally apparent as Beach including Barbra Streisand and Boys Brian Wilson and Al Kanye West from gathering in Jardine ignored one another and Los Angeles to re-record We Are perfectionist Streisand recorded the World in aid of the Haitian take after take of her few bars. earthquake appeal.

Some of the younger stars The record – predicted to raise seemed distinctly overawed by millions – will be played for the t h e c o m p a n y t h e y f o u n d first time during coverage of the themselves in. The 15-year-old Vancouver winter Olympics next Canadian singer Justin Bieber week before being released said he would ask his new friend, worldwide as a download, video the R&B singer Akon, to get him and CD. the phone number of Nicole The recording took place Scherzinger, of the Pussycat yesterday in the same Hollywood Dolls. studio as the 1985 original, Rapper Lil' Wayne said he which was recorded in aid of thought the organisers were African famine relief. joking when they asked him to It was again masterminded by s i n g t h e l i n e o r i g i n a l l y Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie, performed by Bob Dylan – asked

whether he had done it better, he replied: "Hell, no!"

He also revealed that his mother had asked him to get a photograph of Gladys Knight.

None of the original artists, including Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon, were invited this time. The original recording became the fastest-selling single in history, and more than $63m (£39m) raised from sales of more than 7m singles and cassettes and 2m digital downloads has been distributed in emergency relief and grants to more than 500 projects across sub-Saharan Africa.

A British Haiti charity record, masterminded by the X-Factor impresario Simon Cowell – a cover of the REM classic Everybody Hurts, featuring 21 artists including Take That and Robbie Williams – was first heard on the airwaves today and will go on sale as a download later this week.

The artists performing included Susan Boyle, Kylie Minogue, Leona Lewis, Rod Stewart, Mariah Carey, Mika, Jon Bon

Jovi, Michael Buble and Cheryl Cole.

The first of the starry fundraisers, the Hope for Haiti Now concert, with U2, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Springsteen and Coldplay, linked to a telethon with stars manning phonelines and organised by the actor George Clooney and the Haitiborn musician Wyclef Jean, has already raised more than $66m.

That recording is also about to go on sale as a download.

• Haiti • Natural disasters and extreme weather • Michael Jackson • Kanye West • Brian Wilson • Bob Dylan Maev Kennedy guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

You Can Make this Coffee Can Lamp [DIY]

By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:27:41 AM

For about $24 in parts and 20

minutes' worth of drilling/bolting, this coffee can lamp can be yours. Just be ready for all the "nice cans" jokes to

ReadyMade via Unplggd] pour in at your decor's expense. [

Rio Tinto Scores an Upgrade from Citigroup

By Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:00:00 AM

Filed under: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Rio Tinto plc ADS (RTP) Early Tuesday morning, Rio Tinto ( RTP) was upgraded to "buy" from "hold" at Citigroup. The brokerage attributed the upgrade of the Spanish miner to attractive valuations and upgrades to RTP's iron ore prices.

Citigroup believes that the recent share price correction has shifted the mining preference back to RTP. The ratings house also likes RTP's strong cash generation in iron ore and copper, its balance sheet deleveraging potential, and its growth options.

Continue reading Rio Tinto Scores an Upgrade from Citigroup Rio Tinto Scores an Upgrade from Citigroup originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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How to Price Your Products

By Elizabeth Wasserman (Inc.com)

about Making MoneyThe first step is to get real clear about what you want to achieve with Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:19:00 AM your pricing strategy: You want One of the secrets to business to make money. That's why you success is pricing your products own a business. Making money properly. Price your products m e a n s g e n e r a t i n g e n o u g h correctly and that can enhance revenue from selling your how much you sell, creating the products so that you can not only foundation for a business that cover your costs, but take a will prosper. Get your pricing profit and perhaps expand your strategy wrong and you may business.The biggest mistake c r e a t e p r o b l e m s t h a t y o u r many businesses make is to business may never be able to believe that price alone drives overcome."It's probably the sales. Your ability to sell is what toughest thing there is to do," drives sales and that means says Charles Toftoy, associate hiring the right sales people and professor of management science adopting the right sales strategy. a t G e o r g e W a s h i n g t o n "The first thing you have to University. "It's part art and part understand is the selling price is science."There are a variety of a function of your ability to sell d i f f e r e n t t y p e s o f p r i c i n g and nothing else," says Lawrence strategies in business. However, L. Steinmetz, co-author of How there's no one surefire, formula- to Sell at Margins Higher Than based approach that suits all Your Competitors : Winning types of products, businesses, or Every Sale at Full Price, Rate, or markets. Pricing your product Fee (Wiley 2005) and a business usually involves considering consultant in Boulder, Colo. for certain key factors, including 40 years. "What's the difference pinpointing your target customer, between an $8,000 Rolex and a tracking how much competitors $40 Seiko watch? The Seiko is a are charging, and understanding better time piece. It's far more the relationship between quality accurate‌. The difference is and price. The good news is you your ability to sell."At the same have a great deal of flexibility in time, be aware of the risks that how you set your prices. That's accompany making poor pricing also the bad news.The following decisions. There are two main pages will detail how to meet pitfalls you can encounter – your business goals in pricing under pricing and over pricing. p r o d u c t s , w h a t f a c t o r s t o Under pricing. Pricing your consider when pricing, and how products for too low a cost can to determine whether or raise or have a disastrous impact on your lower your prices.Price Products b o t t o m l i n e , e v e n t h o u g h to Meet Business GoalsGet Clear business owners often believe

this is what they ought to do in a down economy. "Accurately pricing your product is critical at any point in the economic cycle but no more so than in a recession," says Laura Willett, a small business consultant and faculty member in the finance department at Bentley College in Waltham, Mass. "Many businesses mistakenly under price their products attempting to convince the consumer that their product is the least expensive alternative hoping to drive up volume; but more often than not it is simply perceived as 'cheap.'"

Remember that consumers want

beyond the customer's desire to pay can also decrease sales.

Toftoy says one pitfall is that business people will be tempted to price too high right out of the gate. "They think that they have to cover all the expenses of people who work for them, the lease, etc. and this is what price it takes to do all that," he says.

"Put yourself in the customer's shoes. What would be a fair price to you?" He advises taking little surveys of customers with two or three questions on an index-cardsized form, asking them whether the pricing was fair.

Understand Your Other Business PrioritiesThere are other reasons to go into business.

Understand what you want out of your business when pricing your products. Aside from maximizing profits, it may be important for you to maximize to feel that they are getting their market share with your product "moneys worth" and most are - that may help you decrease unwilling to purchase from a your costs or it may result in seller they believe to have less what economists call "network value, Willett says. Businesses effects," i.e. the value of your also need to be very careful that product increases as more people they are fully covering their costs use it. (A great example of a w h e n p r i c i n g p r o d u c t s . product having network effect is "Reducing prices to the point Microsoft's Windows operating where you are giving away the system. When more people product will not be in the firm's began to use Windows over rival best interest long term," Willett p r o d u c t s , m o r e s o f t w a r e says. Over pricing. On the flip developers made applications to side, overpricing a product can run on that platform.)You may be just as detrimental since the also want your product to be buyer is always going to be known for its quality, rather than looking at your competitors HOW page 9 pricing, Willett says. Pricing

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How to Build a Brand Internationally

By Elizabeth Wasserman (Inc.com) Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:05:00 AM

Forty years ago, there were only a handful of truly "global brands" and they were made up of only the biggest corporations - Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, ColgatePalmolive, IBM, Shell. Then a rash of upstarts came along, such as Nike, Microsoft, Apple, and Honda, and pushed their brand reputation further than their actual sales footprint. But now that barriers to international trade have come down and the Internet has helped small and mid-sized companies compete on the global stage, building an international brand is a realistic goal for more and more businesses."Only in the last 10 years has global business become the benchmark for how you do business these days," says Hayes Roth, chief marketing officer for Landor Associates, a strategic brand and design consultancy that has worked on international branding with such companies as BP, Panasonic, and KFC. "Thanks to the Internet it's hard to keep your brand just localized. Once you're on the Web, you're accessible pretty much anywhere in the world. It doesn't necessarily make you a global brand but you have to be mindful of the implications."The following pages will detail what an international brand is, how to build a brand internationally, and how to build brand awareness in new international markets.What

a Global Brand IsIn starting a new business or seeking to increase growth at your current business by expanding into international markets, establishing and building a brand identity becomes essential.

Branding involves what people think about your business and your products. "Think of a brand as a reputation," says Paul Williams, founder of the international marketing firm Idea Sandbox, which helps companies build their brands. "Building a reputation in any new market, including overseas, involves a first impression, which comes from the initial interactions someone has with your company, products, and services."Businesses can attempt to shape or form the branding of their company or products in many ways, including advertising, media, word-ofmouth, and contact with your products or services. A lot of thought and effort goes into branding, including naming products, designing logos, and ensuring that service is uniform throughout the business.

Through continued exposure over time, your brand -- or your reputation -- is formed with potential and existing customers.

"A brand is essentially a short cut, it is a way for a customer to get an instant recognition on what the promise is of a product or service and how that will benefit them," Roth says.The reason businesses spent time and

money developing brand recognition is so that they can charge a premium for a product or service. People will pay more for a brand name product or service if it is recognized as a leader and a trusted brand and they know what they will get.

Apple, for example, can charge more for its computers than some other companies because of its brand reputation for offering innovative design and quality electronics. The same can be said about Mercedes or BMW automobiles.How to Build an International Brand When businesses try to expand their brand globally, those goals don’t change. But there are several steps you should take to make sure that your products or services will have a market overseas, that you can maintain quality in delivering and/or distributing your goods or services, and that your business or product branding meets cultural expectations -- and doesn't insult anyone -- in different parts of the world.

"The secret is doing your homework," Williams says.

"Like any long distance relationship, it's got to be managed and needs more work than something you can see and physically touch, but it's not impossible."The following steps may help you in building an international brand: Make sure you have a market. "Proven success with your current target audience doesn’t automatically

mean that your new target will connect in the same way with your products or services," Williams says. "Ask your new market the questions you used to build your initial business plan."

First and most important, he says, you’ll want to determine if a market exists for your product.

If so, make sure the want or need isn’t already being well met by someone else. If there are existing competitors, what (in the perspective of your potential customers) makes you remarkably different? If there is a market and there are no competitors, make sure you find out why -- are there laws against distributing your products or can consumers buy them through other means? Make sure you can deliver. Make sure you can get your product to, or manufactured within, the new market. "Import and manufacturing laws vary from country to country," Williams says. "Ensure you can make your products reliably and consistently available to your new target markets." Investigate the local laws. You need to make sure your products meet the local standards for construction of components, use of chemicals, disposal of goods, proper labeling of products, etc. Reexamine your business and/or product names. In choosing a name for your business or product, you need to be culturally sensitive if you intend to sell in foreign markets. Make sure product names make sense

to customers in your new markets, both in English and in the local translation. Williams, who has done international branding work with Starbucks, recalls how a holiday favorite in the U.S., the Gingerbread Latte, didn't sell well in Germany even though gingerbread was a favorite holiday cookie in that country. Sales of the drink increased dramatically when Starbucks began using the German word for gingerbread and rebranded the drink, the Lebkuchen Latte. If you are considering translating names, don't rely on computer translation. "You don’t want what you think is an effective name to mean something opposite or offend potential customers," Williams says.

"Work with someone locally who can help make sure you communicate what you intend."

Give your logo another look.

Similarly, review your logo to make sure that you don't use any wording or symbols that would offend in a foreign market.

"Ensure that any logos or symbols you use make sense and don’t offend," Williams says.

"Do an international search to make sure your logo isn't similar to that of another international company." For example, if you are selling products in some Middle Eastern markets, a logo featuring the face of a woman HOW page 11

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just being the cheapest on the market. If so, you may want to price your product higher to reflect the quality. During a downturn, you may have other business priorities, such as sheer survival, so you may want to price your products to recoup enough to keep your company in business. Factors to Consider When Pricing Products"There are many methods available to determine the 'right' price," Willett says. "But successful firms use a combination of tools and know that the key factor to consider is always your customer first. The more you know about your customer, the better you'll be able to provide what they value and the more you'll be able to charge."Know Your CustomerUndertaking some sort of market research is essential to getting to know your customer, Willett says. This type of research can range from informal surveys of your existing customer base that you send out in e-mail along with promotions to the more extensive and potentially expensive research projects undertaken by third party consulting firms. Market research firms can explore your market and segment your potential customers very granularly -- by demographics, by what they buy, by whether they are price sensitive, etc.. If you don't have a few thousand dollars to spend on market research, you might just look at consumers in terms of a few

distinct groups -- the budget sensitive, the convenience centered, and those for whom status makes a difference. Then figure out which segment you're targeting and price accordingly.Know Your CostsA fundamental tenet of pricing is that you need to cover your costs and then factor in a profit. That means you have to know how much your product costs. You also have to understand how much you need to mark up the product and how many you need to sell to turn a profit. Remember that the cost of a product is more than the literal cost of the item; it also includes overhead costs.

Overhead costs may include fixed costs like rent and variable costs like shipping or stocking fees. You must include these costs in your estimate of the real cost of your product. "Come up with X first. X is your cost of raw materials, labor, rent, and everything it took to make the product so that if you sold it you would break even," advises Toftoy. "Y becomes what you think you need to make on it.

That may depend on your business. Restaurants overall make about 4 percent, which is pretty low. If you want 10 percent then you factor that into your costs and that is what you charge."Many businesses either don't factor in all their costs and under price or literally factor in all their costs and expect to make a profit with one product and therefore overcharge. A good

rule of thumb is to make a spread sheet of all the costs you need to cover every month, which might include the following: Your actual product costs, including labor and the costs of marketing and selling those products. All of the operating expenses necessary to own and operate the business. The costs associated with borrowing money (debt service costs). Your salary as the owner and/or manager of the business. A return on the capital you and any other owners or shareholders have invested.

Capital for future expansion and replacement of fixed assets as they age.

List the dollar amount for each on your spreadsheet. The total should give you a good idea of the gross revenues you will need to generate to ensure you cover all those costs.Know Your Revenue Target You should also have a revenue target for how much of a profit you want your business to make. Take that revenue target, factor in your costs for producing, marketing, and selling your product and you can come up with a price per product that you want to charge.

If you only have one product, this is a simple process. Estimate the number of units of that product you expect to sell over the next year. Then divide your revenue target by the number of units you expect to sell and you have the price at which you need to sell your product in order to achieve your revenue and profit

goals.If you have a number of different products, you need to allocate your overall revenue target by each product. Then do the same calculation to arrive at the price at which you need to sell each product in order to achieve your financial goals.Know Your Competition It's also helpful to look at the competition -- after all, your customer most likely will, too.

"Are the products offered comparable to yours? If so, you can use their pricing as an initial gauge," Willett suggests. "Then, look to see whether there is additional value in your product; do you, for example offer additional service with your product or is your good of perceived higher quality? If so, you may be able to support a higher price. Be cautious about regional differences and always consider your costs."It may even be worthwhile to prepare a headto-head comparison of the price of your product(s) to your competitor's product(s). The key here is to compare net prices, not just the list (or published) price.

This information could come from phone calls, secret shopping, published data, etc.

Make notes during this process about how your company and products -- and the competition - are perceived by the market. Be brutally honest in your evaluation.Know Where the Market Is HeadedClearly you can't be a soothsayer, but you can keep track of outside factors

that will impact the demand for your product in the future. These factors can range from something as simple as longterm weather patterns to laws that may impact future sales of your products. Also take into account your competitors and their actions. Will a competitor respond to your introduction of a new product on the market by engaging your business in a price war?

Deciding to Raise or Lower Prices One size does not fit all. You can only go so far pricing all your products based on a fixed markup from cost. Your product price should vary depending on a number of factors including: What the market is willing to pay. How your company and product are perceived in the market. What your competitors charge. Whether the product is "highly visible" and frequently shopped and compared. The estimated volume of product you can sell.

That opens the door to raising and/or lowering prices for your products. In order to make this call one way or the other, you should first understand what's already working. Analyze the profitability of your existing products, so you can do more of what works and stop doing what doesn't work. You want to find out which of your existing products are making money and HOW page 12

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Why You Should Start a Company in‌ Boston

By Laura Rich (Fast Company)

science is a massive investment and innovation area in the startup world. I think Boston is very Submitted at 2/1/2010 5:48:09 PM unique in that we've got this It used to be, you were serious extraordinarily rich and diverse about starting a tech company, hospital system and I think we you went to Silicon Valley. But have seven or eight teaching emerging entrepreneurial hubs hospitals within a two-mile around the country are giving radius. That results in fantastic startup aspirants options. In this science and basic research being series, we talk to leading figures done in the areas of cancer and in those communities about what oncology and orthopedics and makes them tick. Here, part four every imaginable area, which of our series. results in really innovative In the pre-Internet era of tech medical devices and biotech startups, Boston's Route 128 companies. rivaled Silicon Valley with This little state attracts so much mammoth hardware hotshots like NIH funding because it all pours Digital Equipment Corp., into these teaching hospitals and Honeywell, EMC and Data that's the reason you get the General. But when the Internet Genzymes and the Boston and its new business models Scientifics of the world--we've arrived, Boston faded, as the got these huge companies that excitement, new ideas and, most have emerged and do importantly, the investment acquisitions and are fueled by a capital coalesced around the lot of the research and that will Boston is bustling--and it's technology--and innovation to be labs to market and so if you're a Valley. lead to another important Now Boston is back. It has giving Silicon Valley a run for occurring. What I think is promising post-doc or PhD element I'll mention which is incredibly unique about Boston student with a really good idea, never lacked for a community of all that venture money. having the big companies around Jeff Bussgang, a VC with is that the university system you don't have to invent the smart people drawn to its worldyou. But just to stay on the IP-class universities in Harvard and Flybridge Capital Partners, generates so much IP. Between mechanism or the process to take that's really what's so fantastic MIT. And it has long boasted the r e c e n t l y s p o k e w i t h Harvard and MIT, between the that idea and find the necessary about Boston: there's always new second largest center of venture FastCompany.com about what hospital systems, there's an pieces to actually creating a IP being generated so when clean capital. Boston can now also makes Boston's startup scene extraordinary amount of IP and company. It's really easy because tech emerges--which didn't exist innovation being generated and there are so many people around claim big Internet hits like unique. ten years ago, but now suddenly F a c e b o o k , A k a m a i a n d Why are you bullish on Boston? in a large part by people--and you who have done it before and is this big wave of innovation-TripAdvisor--providing the I think there are a handful of i n s t i t u t i o n s - - w h o a r e n o w so many resources around for w e ' v e g o t t h i s i n c r e d i b l e a t that. market with a boost of energy, ingredients that are required [to e x p e r i e n c e d laboratory system to generate and experienced entrepreneurs ignite the startup community] c o m m e r c i a l i z a t i o n . How does the hospital system innovation in clean tech and r a l l y i n g a n g e l a c t i v i t y . and I think Boston is really So what's nice about MIT and c o n t r i b u t e t o B o s t o n ' s environmental sciences.

Additionally, it is benefiting unique on a couple of them. So Harvard and the hospital systems entrepreneurial ecosystem? How else is Boston in a position from a robust moment for life the one generic ingredient is, you is that there are decades now of Health care comprises 18% of sciences businesses by tapping need intellectual property. You experience and hundreds of gross domestic products in WHY page 15 its research hospitals. Once more need invention--science and companies that have gone from America and is going up, and

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might not be appropriate. The best way to understand these cultural sensitivities is to consult a branding or design firm -either a local one or an international firm that can research cultural sensitivities.

Understand packaging requirements. If you're selling a product, you need to consider the laws and customs and packaging requirements in your new markets before deciding on packaging for your products.

Your packaging may use a clear plastic shell that hangs from a rod, but your competition may package their product in a box that can go on a shelf, Williams says. This may put you at a disadvantage. "If you're selling a packaged product around the world there are incredible hurdles," Roth adds. Shipping food across borders may require you to provide more nutritional information on packaging, in more languages, and there may be laws prohibiting the use of certain products in some markets -- even New York City has a ban on trans fatty acids, for example.

Learn the local standards and ensure your packaging includes any necessary regulatory information and meets transportation standards.

Register trademarks and domain names. Follow the process in your new market to ensure you preserve patent and trademarks.

Thanks to the NAFTA Treaty your marks should already be protected in Mexico and Canada,

Williams says. If you’re doing business in the European Union filing for a Community Trade Mark (CTM) will protect you.

Another consideration is making sure the Internet domain name for your company and product are available. You still want to register a dot-com, which is the most popular domain worldwide for businesses. But you may also consider registering domains using specific country codes -.nl for the Netherlands or .br for Brazil -- if you are targeting only one or two local markets and plan on providing up-to-date translations of your websites into the local languages.

In taking these steps to building a brand internationally, it almost always helps to find local resources to help you understand and enter new foreign markets.

You might consider entering into business with a local distributor or retailer in this new market. "It is nearly impossible to understand local culture simply by visiting a country," Williams says. "Find local customers, local translators. Just because you took two years of French in high school doesn’t make you qualified to understand the French market nor do French translations. Just as consumers’ needs are different in Rhode Island from those in Florida and California, so are the needs of consumers in Paris different from those in Marseille."

Building International Brand AwarenessThe way to build

awareness of your brand in these new markets -- and increase sales because, let's face it, this is your goal -- follows the same formula you use to increase brand awareness at home. "Craft and communicate a message that is relevant to the needs and wants of your customers," Williams says. "Deliver this message in the places they are receptive to it, in terms they can relate to and understand, and through the channels that will truly reach your potential customer." Craft your message. Having done your homework and researched the new foreign markets, and perhaps engaged the help of a local firm or representative, you have hopeful honed your domestic branding for this new audience. Be sure to note what the competition and other businesses are doing. "What may have seemed witty or charming in the U.S. may be misunderstood in your new market," Williams says. "Be careful playing the 'old and established' angle. An 'old' company in the U.S. can sound impressive, but you may be doing business in a country that has bottles of wine and rounds cheese older than your company." Deliver this message through the right channels. Don't rely on radio advertisements if your new market is a city in which people commute by subway or bicycle. Make sure you are communicating your message where it will be seen.

Think about advertising inside the subway. "What are the habits your customer base in that other country? Where are they found?

What is their lifestyle? What are they doing?" Williams says.

There is no secret answer. It's up to you to connect the dots and find the right approach.

Communicate in the right manner. The manner and tone in which you engage your potential and new customers is as important as the words you choose, Williams says. "Manner and tone will come across through your packaging, advertising, online, through your sales people, and even the way you answer the phone," he says.

What types of interaction you will have with customers? What will be the tone you choose?

What types of sales process and policies will you use? Even though you are based thousands of miles away, this is still a reflection on you and your brand.

Remember that.

While you focus on raising brand awareness, there is another component to building a brand internationally that needs your attention. You need to be vigilant in maintaining your brand reputation in every market in which you sell. That gets harder as your business gets bigger and expands into more locales.

"Once you start having a couple of different offices or are in multiple states or countries or you've gone from 10 employees to 300 -- all of a sudden you're

not a mom-and-pop operation anymore," Roth says.

"Remember, your brand is a promise. You're starting to make a promise that people are buying into and you need to deliver whatever that product or service is."You need to ensure that your customers' experiences with your product, your business, and your staff are positive. That extends to how you deliver your product, product quality control, how service is delivered or structured, and how your people act. "The larger you get, it's not just you being the representative for your widget," Roth says. "You now head up an organization."In branding, one bad customer experience often resonates longer than one good experience. "One bad experience magnifies 100fold," Roth says. "You need to have constant vigilance." You might consider developing an employee manual, investing in online training for your staff, and/or keeping in check how fast you grow so that you can ensure that you deliver on your brand promise no matter what market you serve.Related Links: Inc.com Global Business Environment Section Localizing the Brand (Import/Export Financing) Six Ways to Open an Office Overseas Managing a Multi-Cultural Workforce Gone Global Going Global: 6 Questions You Should Be Asking Recommended HOW page 15

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which are losing money. You may be surprised at how many of your products are losing money - fix those ASAP.You should also constantly re-evaluate your costs. To sell it right, you have to buy it right. If you are having a hard time selling a product at an acceptable profit, the problem may be that you are not buying the product right. It may be that your cost is too high rather than your price is too low.When to Raise Prices -- and HowYou should always be testing new prices, new offers, and new combinations of benefits and premiums to help you sell more of your product at a better price.

Test new offers each month.

Raise the price and offer a new and unique bonus or special service for the customer.

Measure the increase or decrease in the volume of the product you sell and the total gross profit dollars you generate.It is a fact of life in business that you will have to raise prices from time to time as part of managing your business prudently. If you never raise your prices, you won't be in business for long. You have to constantly monitor your price and your cost so that you are both competitive in the market and you make the kind of money you deserve to make."The best way to determine if the product is being priced correctly is to watch sales volumes immediately after making any change," Willett says. "This can be done by watching cash

collections (if the business is cash or credit card based) or credit sales (if accounts receivables are used) for the weeks following. If a price increase is too high, customers will react pretty quickly. Also watching the competition can help - if you've made a positive change in prices; competitors are likely to follow suit."But there is a right way and a wrong way to raise prices. You don't want to alienate your existing customer base by raising prices too steeply, especially during a recession. "Rather than have a sudden increase, have a strategic plan over two to five years during which you gradually increase your price 5 to 10 percent," Toftoy advices. "If the business is in trouble and you say, 'Hey, I'm going to mark everything up… that kind of scares people away. This way you haven't gone from $5 to $15.

You've gone to $7.50 first.""In terms of raising the price -- this is more easily accepted in 'good' economic times," Willett says.

"As the underlying cost of producing the product rises, the customer is prepared to accept the rise in the price to them. If the customer perceives that the firm's costs are going down while their price is going up.

This will not be received well and is likely to backfire."When to Lower Prices -- and HowYou may realize that you have missed your target audience by pricing your products too high. You can

always choose to discount your products or give customers something for free in order to get them to try your product or generate traffic to your storefront or website. "You have to get people in," Toftoy says. "People like getting something for free or some kind of discount. You can make Wednesday senior citizen day when seniors get a 20 percent discount. Then maybe you can offer a student discount day. Then all you're doing is keeping the price the same, but to those people you're giving them a cut but it's not like you've lowered all prices."Generally, lowering prices is not a good practice unless you are using this strategically to garner market share and have a price sensitive product or if all of your competitors are lowering their prices, Willett says. "An alternative to lowering price is to offer less for the same price which will effectively reduce your costs without appearing to reduce the value to the customer," she says.

"Restaurants have found this particularly helpful in terms of portion sizes but this same strategy can be applied to service industries as well."Monitor Your PricingAnother key component to pricing your product right is to continuously monitor your prices and your underlying profitability on a monthly basis. It's not enough to look at overall profitability of your company every month. You have to focus

on the profitability (or lack of profitability) of every product you sell. You have to make absolutely sure you know the degree to which every product you sell is contributing to your goal of making money each month. Remember: "People respect what you inspect."Here are some other practices to help you price right: Listen to your customers. Try to do this on a regular basis by getting feedback from customers about your pricing. Let them know you care about what they think. Keep an eye on your competitors. If you don't have deep pockets and can't afford to hire a market research team, hire some college students to go out on a regular basis and monitor what your competitors are doing. Have a budget action plan in place. Try to have a plan for your pricing that extends out three to six months in the future.

You owe it to yourself and to your business to be relentless in managing your product pricing.

Remember, how you set the price of the products could be the difference between the success -or failure -- of your business.Related Links: How to Price Business Services If your business sells services instead of or in addition to products, here is a guide to help you set prices.

Case Study: Finding the Right Price for a Hot Product Luke Skurman's quirky college guides were a big hit. The problem was getting readers to pay. What if he gave the content away?

Recession Pricing Strategies: How Low Can You Really Go? Tempted to cut prices? You're not alone. The Price Is Right Setting prices has always been more art than science. New software aims to change that.

The Right Price Too many new entrepreneurs harm their own prospects by under pricing their goods and services. But if those company owners just take the time to think, they can set their prices closer to fair market value.

Is It Time to Raise Prices? Boost your bottom line by taking the guesswork out of pricing.

Flexing Your Pricing Muscles Despite years of almost no inflation, you may have more pricing power than you think.

Here's how to exercise it without bruising yourself in the process.Recommended Resources:The Art of Pricing: How to Find Hidden Profits to Grow Your BusinessBy Rafi Mohammed www.rafimo.com The author has a very interesting point about how to get out of the pricing “Catch 22” by adopting a multi-price mindset.How to Sell at Margins Higher than Your Competitors: Winning Every Sale at Full Priceby Lawrence L. Steinmetz, and William T. Brooks National Federation of Independent Business This trade association for small and midsized businesses maintains a section on how to set prices, when to give discounts, and HOW page 13

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Is Apple Keeping Secret iPad Webcams and Verizon Version From Us?

By Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:40:19 AM

You know how it's fun to keep a secret until the last minute and then tell everyone, getting them way more excited about things?

No, I'm not talking about a teenager, but Apple's iPad buzz.

The moses tablet may have been built to hold a camera after all, if you believe today's reports. And there are whispers about Verizon connectivity too.

The compelling evidence for an on-board camera comes from Mission Repair, which claims to have just received some preshipped spare parts from Apple for reasons unknown (to get their repair business up and running well ahead of the launch?).

Among the fragments of electronics and cases was a metal rectangle with incredibly detailed machining that sits inside the iPad and presumably gives the chassis some of its rigidity and strength. All very interesting, if you're a CNC nerd.

But check out that odd little rectangular pit with a 3mm-ish hole right at the top, center.

Mission's guys did, and they thought it looked familiar.

Pulling one of the standard iSight webcam units from a unibody aluminum MacBook they tried matching the two up.

And like Cinderella's glass slipper, and almost as exciting--it fits! Perfectly. Right down to a spot for the LED to tell you the camera is on, and a space for the ambient light sensor.

Right. What the hell is going on here? We know from other developers that there are fragments of code in the iPad SDK that suggest that a camera may be supported: Why else would the "add photo" to a contact option allow you to " take photo"? Apple's also just enabled 3G VoIP calling, turning Skype and its similar apps into a much more powerful system-surely video conferencing is the logical next step, along a road Apple now seems prepared to tread? And Steve Jobs himself said iPad had an ambient light sensor during its launch presentation, and it's also detailed on the company's iPad specs page. Would Apple go to the trouble of including code in the device's firmware, and designing the chassis so it could take a standard Apple webcam

chassis to fit around the new tech.

So we're down to three options.

First, much like what's rumored to have happened to the iPod Touch's camera, Apple may have elected to pull the option for technical reasons at a very late stage in the iPad's development.

It may be to do with battery life problems, hardware integration issues...you name it. Or the second option, which is much more favorable, is that Apple's keeping a little secret or two from us before they actually launch the device. Is this true?

We can't tell--of course. But part with built-in ambient light Apple is being a little shy about sensor, only to ditch everything iPad specifics, right down to the apart from a new ambient light fact that international prices and delivery dates haven't been device?

That doesn't make much sense-- n a i l e d d o w n y e t , a n d t h e and if you're about to suggest regionalized web pages reference "But Apple may be holding it the price in U.S. dollars. back for a version 2.0 revision, Lastly, for the biggest skeptics, w h i c h e x p l a i n s t h e m e t a l is the fact that Mission Repair's chassis" then think about it: part isn't the real deal, or that Apple's iPad 2.0 will be an they've been shipped a prototype evolution, with a bunch of new frame by accident. How on earth tech inside, and it's probably still did they get hold of this stuff in early prototype phase. By the anyway? Presumably through time it's ready for release Apple direct partnerships with the same will have had to design a new Chinese suppliers Apple uses.

And if that's not enough

agency for small business matters operates a website devoted to market and price

decisions that businesses must make.

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when to raise your rates, among other topics. U.S. Small Business Administration Government

excitement for you, there's also a persistent Verizon version rumor. It hit the news before launch, and it's been bumbling along ever since, with new claims from a Verizon insider that a CDMA iPad will be announced in a few months. It's got everybody in the U.S. excited because of AT&T's poor network track-record with the iPhone. But the naysayers are having a field day, saying the dual-hardware route is very much anti-Apple.

To these folks I'll say one thing: the iPad has two versions. The Wi-fi only and the 3G/GPS one.The cheaper model may be manufactured with the common "missing component" method on the production line, where both versions have the same PCB but one lacks key pieces. But since the 3G iPad has a different body, with a plastic antenna patch, and it requires a 3G antenna, the GSM and GPS silicon and all the ancilliary bits and bobs, who's to say they didn't build in support on the PCB for CDMA chips too?

[Via MissionRepair, BusinessInsider]

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Restaurants of the Recession: The Wright, New York City

By Linda Tischler (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/1/2010 5:35:48 PM

Recession? What recession?

Some brave restaurateurs are defying the economic gloom and doom and opening new places.

We take a look at the design behind a select few. First up, The Wright, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

Andre Kikoski, the architect behind The Wright, the newlyredesigned restaurant at the Guggenheim in New York, confessed that he was totally intimidated when he landed the commission for the project. Who wouldn't be? The very thought of designing a space that would fit into Frank Lloyd Wright's Fifth Avenue masterpiece would strike fear in the heart of any but the most arrogant or self-deluded.

But, after spending weeks of digging through research on Wright, and poring over the museum's archives, Kikoski and his team felt comfortable enough to begin. "Once I admitted my own terror, we all had a cathartic sigh and got the creative juices flowing. Once we embraced it, it became clear what we needed to do."

The result is a small but inviting space tucked in the museum's southeast corner that captures the spirit of Wright's iconic structure but isn't cowed by it. "We packed 100,000 square feet of ambition into 1,600 square feet of space," Kikoski says, over

coffee in a cafe not far from his Tribeca office.

Kikoski, who has been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Awards for Outstanding Restaurant Design, and was named one of New York Magazine's " New Garde of Ten Designers," has a resume long on restaurant and residential design.

The project, which was begun after the recession was well underway, never had the luxury of a blockbuster budget. Still, Kikoski was determined to create

a space that was both contemporary and complementary to Wright's design.

Critics have called the space "a gem within the Guggenheim," proving you can create a jewel even without a Trump-sized wallet.

Here's the skinny on the project: Name of Restaurant: The Wright Location: Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St., New York Date it opened: December, 2009

Chef and Cuisine: Rudolfo Contreras Modern American cuisine, inspired by the bold personality of Frank Lloyd Wright Designer: Andre Kikoski Design Brief: Create a first-ever addition to the iconic museum, and a restaurant that would be an appropriate space for fine dining and the viewing of art, including a site-specific piece for the permanent collection.

What went before: The space was a cafeteria, with carpeting

over the terrazzo tiles, and a stainless steel cafe counter made by the company that manufacturers Sikorsky helicopters. "It curved in two directions and was so carefully wired that if you cut it wrong it would spring in both directions," Kikoski says.

Design Highlights: The sculpted, calibrated interior grew out of studies of the geometry that Wright used throughout the RESTAURANTS page 18

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HOW

continued from page 10

to attract entrepreneurs?

I think you need a really vibrant venture capital community and you need a set of resources around the venture capital community that knows how to take things from idea to product.

One of those is angels and mentors, experienced entrepreneurs in the culture of success. You need lawyers, you need accountants, you need real estate systems, flexibility in the real estate system. You need all of these things that just make it really easy to reduce friction.

The key thing in startups is you want to reduce friction. And, you know, Boston has the second largest venture capital community in the world, the number one per capita. I made the point in my presentation that if there was more venture capital in China than in Massachusetts and you were an entrepreneur, where would you want to be? If there was two times the venture capital in China than in Massachusetts but a thousand times the population, you'd want to be in Massachusetts.

The third thing you need are big

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companies because the big companies train the entrepreneurs on how to be good managers, because to really learn the skill of building a valuable company, it's great to go through the process and get people who have the experience of running a hundred million dollar business unit or building and selling a billion dollar company or taking companies public and recycling that talent. [In Boston], you have people who have seen success from end to end, like the early entrepreneurs at EMC or the early entrepreneurs at Akamai--if they are there from one dollar to a billion dollars, they know how to do it again.

Are there any examples of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in action, with all of these elements?

You may have heard of Tom Stenberg, the founder and CEO of Staples? So Tom was in Boston, started Staples in Boston, built it into a multibillion dollar company, took it public, very successful. And then he started being an angel investor to other entrepreneurs.

A couple of his Staples employees started companies and then he started being a venture capitalist and then he started a venture capital fund called the Highland Consumer Fund which is funding consumer retail entrepreneurs.

So why now? What is driving a renewed energy behind Boston's startup community?

One thing I would say what's going on now is that what's happening in media and advertising is helping Boston because of the proximity to New York City. There are a lot of companies in Boston that are like DataXu that have research and development in Boston, but the business development and sales team is in New York. And it's such an easy shuttle ride. People can commute back and forth and integrate those teams very easily.

The R&D team is cheaper and typically easier to recruit, cheaper and stronger and more experienced. It's harder to build a technology team in New York, I think. But in terms of business development, I mean, New York is where you've got to be because

that's where the customers are.

I guess the other [reason] now is that opportunity cost has plummeted for entrepreneurs. If you are a big company executive, you're likely to get laid off, the benefits aren't as good as they used to be. You sort of look at the formula and you say, "Geez, why not do something entrepreneurial?"

There are a lot more free electrons floating around.

And Boston has got such a strong student community. Every Labor Day, tens of thousands of new young people show up. And if those young people, culturally, have a passion for entrepreneurship, which I think more young people today do than they used to, if entrepreneurship is cool and the Web is cool and new technology is cool, then you're going to get more Facebooks.

I m a g e : http://www.flickr.com/photos/pe arbiter// CC BY-SA 2.0

Resources: Community Trade Mark (CTM) The Office for Harmonization in the International Market (OAMI).

File for your CTM online.

International Branding Organization Non-profit organization dedicated to establishing branding as a specialized area of expertise.

MyBusiness.co.uk Import and export article. Buy USA.gov, US Commercial Services, US Department of Commerce Helps U.S. companies find international business partners, plus resources. Interbrand Surveys & Research “Best Global Brands� A guide to research great global brands.

Landor's 2010 Trends Forecast Market trends in the coming year and their impact on branding.

doing well with cash flow. In fact, you'll notice from the release that management is increasing its stock buyback by $200 million.

Continue reading Tupperware Reports Strong Q4 Tupperware Reports Strong Q4

originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Tupperware Reports Strong Q4

By Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks)

numbers after the bell on Monday. Sales were higher by 10% once benefits from currency Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:30:00 AM exchange were eliminated.

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Adjusted earnings per share Avon Products (AVP), Newell i n c r e a s e d 1 6 % t o $ 1 . 2 2 .

Rubbermaid (NWL) According to Earnings.com, net Tupperware ( TUP) issued Q4 income came in 18 cents better

than the average estimate.

Bravo! Tupperware, which counts Newell Rubbermaid ( NWL) and Avon Products ( AVP) as colleagues, is also

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How to Make Money From Distracted Driving

By Cristina Rouvalis (Inc.com) Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:00:00 AM

Driving while texting is a growing menace. As the incidents of texting-related fender benders and worse mount, 19 states have outlawed the practice. But road texting is a tough habit to break. Seeing a big opportunity, a bevy of startups is rolling out services that disable and divert text and e-mail while recipients are on the go.

Some are downright Big Brother–like, making it impossible for a driver to send or receive a message. With others, the user establishes the restrictions. You might, say, receive a buzz alert only from your boss or spouse, then have to pull over to read your message.

Many products also reroute calls, given that driving while talking on a phone, even hands free, is also unsafe. Several of these entrants are seeking alliances with big wireless and insurance companies. Here's a look at the early players: Software entrepreneur Matthew Howard started ZoomSafer after

a texting-related mishap caused him to knock a 9-year-old boy off his bike. The child was unhurt, but a mortified Howard developed GPS software that turns off a phone's keypad at speeds above 10 mph. (A passenger mode overrides the system.) Incoming texts are stored, and the sender is notified that the driver is unavailable. A new service will also convert incoming text to voice via speakerphone. The software is downloaded as an app, costs $25 a year or $2.99 a month, and runs on BlackBerrys.NUMBER OF USERS: 1,000 Safe Driving Systems's Key2SafeDriving is a device that plugs into the diagnostic port beneath the steering wheel and connects wirelessly to your phone. It activates as soon as the engine starts. Incoming texts and calls are held, and outgoing messages are blocked, except to 911 and emergency contacts. An attempt to override the system prompts a text alert, sent to a teen driver's parent, for instance, or a worker's manager. The device costs $100 and is

compatible with Windows phones and, soon, with BlackBerry and Symbian phones.NUMBER OF USERS: 500 reQall sells a general-use voiceactivated system that has become popular among drivers who want to cut down on texting. Drivers dictate commands like "Tell Bill I am running late." Then the message is sent as text to Bill's email account or a cell phone. The system does not, however, convert incoming texts to voice.

The reQall application is a free download; a version that sends alerts and reminders to drivers as they approach specific locations costs $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year and works with BlackBerrys and iPhones.NUMBER OF USERS: 232,000 In early 2010, Aegis Mobility, a four-year-old Canadian company, plans to test-market DriveAssist, a GPS-based system targeted to companies that want to monitor employee texting and calling on the road. The motionactivated system will cost about $10 a month per user. Managers will be able to track a driver's

calling activities to better enforce policies and reduce the potential for liability and wrongful-death suits. The system will run on BlackBerrys and some other smartphones but not on iPhones.

Aegis is negotiating to join a major U.S. cell-phone network.NUMBER OF USERS: 0 THE LINE: Though reQall has the early lead, this application has been around for a few years and was not designed with drivers in mind.

Key2SafeDriving could have an edge among parents of teen drivers, because it is highly restrictive and tamper resistant.

But don't count out late entrant Aegis as a winner among business users, who will be able to track calls and set specific restrictions for individual employees. One as-yet untapped market: iPhones, for which there is no text-blocking app. If and when Apple allows such services, the race to rid people of their bad texting habits will really heat up.

iDrift Gaming Peripheral Concept For The iPad Will Be A Reality Soon, I'm Sure [Apple]

By Kat Hannaford (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:00:24 AM

The iPad's not even on sale yet, but that hasn't stopped designer Michael Greenberg from imagining a gaming peripheral for it. Like the wheels built for the Wiimote, the iDrift could help aid in turning sharp corners when gaming. [ Yanko]

Fujifilm unleashes a torrent of digital cameras

By John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:14:35 AM

Whoa. You go to bed in a world without many Fujifilm cameras and wake up in a world blessed

with a dozen new ones! We begin with the interesting ones – basically the FinePix XP10 rugged model, shown above, and the hubristic HS10, a 30X optical zoom wannabe D-SLR camera

that shoots in HD. Otherwise

you’re looking at a long, dark spring ahead.

As for the rest of these meh-too cameras you’ve got a collection of Finepix shooters so generic that the only thing we can do is

make a chart.

Fujifilm’s Pre-PMA Extravaganza of Cameras–

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With IPO, Tesla Hopes to Raise $100 Million

By Courtney Rubin (Inc.com) Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:01:00 AM

Luxury electric car company Tesla is hoping to re-charge its bank account with a $100 million initial public offering.

The company filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 29, putting itself in prime position to become the country's first mainstream electric car company.

The six-year-old startup is run

by Elon Musk, the South African -born PayPal co-founder who was Inc.'s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007. The stock sale marks the first IPO from a U.S. automobile maker since Henry Ford's eponymous company made went public in 1956.

Tesla's long-anticipated announcement is also the latest in a string of clean-tech start-ups going public. Codexis ( No. 924 on Inc.'s 2009 5000), a Redwood City company that crafts designer enzymes for biofuel production, filed its IPO documents in late December.

January saw filings from Chinabased JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd (which plans to list on the NYSE), and Fremont-based Solyndra, a maker of skinny tube -shaped solar panels for commercial rooftops.

Tesla's IPO stands out, however, as a potential bellwether that could juice the sluggish appetite for public offerings.

"People are going to be watching this one move through the pipeline," Matt Therian, an analyst with Renaissance Capital, a Connecticut-based IPO research firm, told Reuters."It's probably a good sign for the IPO market."

Tesla's two-door $109,000 Roadster is the only model the company has on the market, and buyers include George Clooney, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and David Letterman. Warren Brown, the Washington Post's automotive critic, called the Roadster "a head-turner, jawdropper. It is sexy as all get-out."

He declared: "If this is the future

of the automobile, I want it."

Tesla plans to answer criticism that its product is a trophy toy for the wealthy by selling a fourdoor family sedan, the Model S, in 2012. The Model S will sell for $49,900--the price made possible through a federal-tax credit.

The company's 173-page S-1 form filed revealed a few surprises, including that the company will pull the plug on the current generation Tesla Roadster "after 2011 due to planned tooling changes at a supplier." A new model will be available in 2013. The form also disclosed that Musk takes a

yearly salary of just $1. (Musk is unlikely to be struggling: He took $175,000 in reimbursements for using his private jet, and received $23.89 million in option awards. And then there's his previous successes: eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion, and Compaq paid $307 million for Musk's media company Zip2 in March 1999, when he was just 27.)

Tesla – the name pays homage to inventor Nikola Tesla, who made key discoveries in the development of commercial electricity – said in the filings that it had sold 937 Roadsters as

of December in 18 countries.

Through September 2009, it generated $108.2 million in revenue and accumulated debt of $236.4 million. Its net loss for 2009 was $31.5 million, a reduction from 2008.

The company has cash of $106 million, 514 employees – and a $465 million loan with loan guarantees it received from the Department of Energy on Jan. 21. The money from the IPO will fund a production center for the Model S sedan – which so far has 2,000 orders – and other capital expenditures.

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Sony and PlayStation Take on Television With "The Tester"

By Kevin Ohannessian (Fast Company)

18.

The Tester features 11 contestants engaging in Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:33:10 AM elimination tests, and being One of the most coveted jobs in voted off the show each week by the video game industry--at least a panel of judges reminiscent of for people on the outside of the T o p C h e f . J u d g e s i n c l u d e industry--is that of the tester. comedian/gamer Hal Sparks, Testers get to play video games God of War creator David Jaffe, before they are released to the and a slew of Sony executives. public, and look for bugs. Sound The winner will receive $5,000 like a dream job? Then you and "the coveted job of the next might want to tune in to The PlayStation game tester."

Tester, a new reality show While most in the industry about contestants competing to would not consider game tester become a video game tester at as a glorious position, "Game S o n y , w i l l d e b u t o n t h e tester is an entry level position to PlayStation Network February get your foot in the door," said

RESTAURANTS continued from page 14

building. "We used Wright's geometry to create sculpted, torqued forms that sweep through the resturant and give it a place within the language of the museum and its iconic architecture, but are uniquely its own. It's both Wrightian and never something Wright could have done," Kikoski says.

Among the room's features are a curvilinear walnut wall layered with illuminated fiber-optics; a bar clad in a custom metalwork and topped in seamless white Corian; a blue leather banquette, and a layered white ceiling canopy. Kikoski designed the tables, chairs and barstools, and the football-shaped communal table, derived from a shape used throughout the building. That shape led to elements in the

ceiling and banquette.

"Everything radiated from it," Kikoski says.

Special features: Artist Liam Gillick's vividly colored extruded aluminum wall sculpture, "The Horizon," rims the room. Gillick and Kokoski worked closely to make sure that the art and architecture were in perfect harmony. "Our use of color was muted and restrained, while his is vibrant and audacious," says Kikoski. "We were both committed to the idea that this had to work like the museum, where the symbiosis of art and architecture exhibits perfect complementarity."

Susan Panico, Senior Director of PlayStation Network. "A lot of people got their jobs in this industry through testing."

Sony already has a news series,

Pulse, and a behind-the-scenes program called Qore, but The Tester is Sony's first foray into a show that feels like television and that airs exclusively on PSN.

The production company behind the show, 51 minds, are the same folks behind The Surreal Life and Rock of Love. "Our strategy has always been around creating a premier entertainment destination for gamers and the gamer lifestyle. It made a lot of sense to have original programming as part of that strategy," said Panico.

Is The Tester the first step toward a 24-hour TV channel on PSN? "We definitely foresee this growing into other seasons and possibly spin-offs," said Panico.

Baidu.com Could Benefit from Google's Misfortunes

By Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Google (GOOG) Yesterday was a good day for Baidu ( BIDU), the Chinese Internet search portal, after some Wall Street analysts noted that the departure of Google ( GOOG) from China could " benefit Baidu tremendously."

BIDU has traded well in the

United States, hovering in the upper reaches of the $380 region -- but GOOG's decision to operate in China without censoring local search results after recent cyber attacks pushed BIDU as high as $470 before the

stock settled into the lower $400s.

Continue reading Baidu.com Could Benefit from Google's Misfortunes Baidu.com Could Benefit from Google's Misfortunes originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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The Olympus Stylus Tough 8010 & 6020 are begging for pain and suffering

By Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:59:51 AM

Do you live an extreme lifestyle? Do you climb mountains by day and fight baddies by night? Do you enjoy such activities as Bigfoot hunting, Yeti racing, or Sasquatch breeding? Do you have children? If the answer is yes to any of the previous questions, Olympus has two new cameras for your consideration: the Style Tough 8010 or 6020.

These kits are billed as “shockproof, waterproof, crushproof and freezeproof” although it’s probably best not to test them to their breaking points. The main difference between the two models is that the $399 8010 (above) is supposed to be able to walk away from a 6.6-foot drop and/or 220 pounds of pressure. The $299 6020 (below) can only handle a 5-foot drop and an unannounced amount of pressure.

But even with this type of protection, the cams still manage to house a 14MP sensor, 720p video recording, 5x optical zoom, HDMI-out, and a 2.7-inch LCD. Both should hit stores sometime this month.

NEW OLYMPUS STYLUS TOUGH CAMERAS DARE TO GO WHERE OTHER POINT-AND-SHOOTS

FEAR TO TREAD World’s Fiercest Shockproof, Waterproof, Crushproof, Freezeproof Cameras Capture Your Life Even Better with 14 Megapixels, HD Video, AF Tracking and In-Camera Creative Features CENTER VALLEY, Pa., February 2, 2010 – Olympus Stylus Tough cameras already are world-renowned for being shockproof, waterproof, crushproof and freezeproof powerhouses. Now, the images they capture are virtually “delete -proof” because the new STYLUS TOUGH-8010 and STYLUS TOUGH-6020 deliver amazing images thanks to new technologies, including 14 megapixels, High-Definition (HD) video and powerful 5x

wide-angle optical zoom lenses.

These cameras not only endure more than any other cameras, they also capture images as vivid as the adventures you live.

“Because life’s an adventure you need a camera that’s tough enough to make the trip with you,” said Nadine Clark, product manager, Olympus Imaging America Inc. “When you’re on the move, AF Tracking keeps the subject in focus, in-camera creative features give artistic freedom and sharp HD video ensures that your adventures will be more memorable than ever before.”

HD Videos and HDMI Control for a Home Theater Experience Both new Stylus Tough cameras shoot gorgeous 720p HD videos using a one-touch button, so

you’ll always capture the scene.

Playback also is a breeze. Gone are the days of friends and family huddling around a camera’s LCD to see the pictures you just snapped. Now, you’ll be the hit of the party or any family function when you proudly display your brilliant images and videos on any high-definition television (HDTV). Simply connect the camera to an HDTV with an HDMI™ cable, which can be purchased separately at any consumer electronics store.

With HDMI Control, you can use your HDTV’s remote to control playback functions and navigate the camera’s menus from the comfort of your favorite couch.

AF Tracking for Domestic and Wild Life

Whether you’ve got a surfer or skier in your sites, AF Tracking technology locks your subject in focus. It continuously adjusts focus and brightness whether you or your subject is moving, and is perfect for unpredictable situations such as photographing young children. Additionally, the new “Pet Mode” was specifically designed for animal lovers.

Express Your Inner Artist with Magic Filter In-camera creative features debuted on Olympus E-System cameras last year. Similar technology, called Magic Filter, has been developed for the new Stylus Tough cameras. The Magic Filter enables the user to enhance and customize images OLYMPUS page 21

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Here’s the Olympus SP-800UZ & SP-600UZ megazoom cams

By Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:41:06 AM

Olympus isn’t new a new player in the megazoom game. The camera company’s megazoom line is older than some Jonas Brothers’ fans. And it shows.

The new kits are officially drool worthy.

The just-annouced SP-800UZ rocks a mega 30x optical zoom paired with dual image stabilization. A 14 MP sensor rests behind that monster and can also capture 720p movies. A 3inch LCD occupies the backside.

The 800UZ should ship next month with an MSRP of $349.99.

The SP-600UZ will hit for only $249 and of course is a step down from the 800UZ. But don’t let that distract from what’s actually still a nice kit with a 15x optical zoom, 12 MP sensor, and a slightly-smaller 2.7-inch rear LCD. The 600UZ also ships next month.

EXTREME POWER IN A PORTABLE PACKAGE: OLYMPUS SP SERIES ULTRA-ZOOM CAMERAS DELIVER UP TO 30X WIDE ANGLE OPTICAL ZOOM Slim SP-800UZ and SP-600UZ Combine Power, Design, Creativity, Performance and Now HighDefinition Video CENTER VALLEY, Pa., February 2, 2010 – Olympus today unveils two full-featured

SP ultra-zooms cameras – the SP -800UZ, the world’s smallest 30x wide-angle optical-zoom, and the 15x SP-600UZ – that are easy-to-use and sure to get you closer to the action, whether you’re capturing still images or High-Definition (HD) video.

Travelers want powerful zooms without the bulk. The sleek, titanium-colored SP-800UZ and SP-600UZ are as small as they come, packed with a variety of new features that deliver a superior imaging experience far and wide: HD Movie and HDMI control, in-camera panorama and Magic Filter to expand creativity, as well as AF tracking to keep subjects in focus automatically.

“The new SP-800UZ and SP600UZ cameras offer the power that has made Olympus Ultra Zooms famous, along with fully

automatic controls ideal for firsttime users and in-camera creative filters for artistic control,” said Nadine Clark, product manager, Olympus Imaging America Inc. “The new, slimmer bodies are another example of how Olympus leads the industry at packing power, performance and creativity into small, stylish, easy-to-use packages.”

More Zoom in a Smaller Stylish Package The SP-800UZ is the world’s smallest camera featuring a 30x wide-angle optical-zoom lens and the SP-600UZ packs a 15x wide-angle optical-zoom lens into an even slimmer premium body. With f2.8 (W) / f5.6 (T) wide-angle lenses providing the equivalent of 28-840mm focal length on the SP-800UZ and 28-

420mm on the SP-600UZ, users can get closer to the action with a more compact super telephotozoom 28mm wide-angle lens that captures even more in each frame. The wide-angle lens makes it easy to take a picture of the entire stadium, while the powerful zoom lets you focus on your favorite player. Whether capturing fast-action, life’s everyday snapshots or HD videos, the SP cameras provide the versatility to get the job done like never before.

HD Videos and HDMI Control for a Home Theater Experience Both the SP-800UZ and SP600UZ shoot gorgeous 720p HD videos, so you’ll always capture the moments you cherish in clear, crisp high definition. The SP-800UZ even captures your memories in the 16:9 wide

recording format ideal for playback on your high-definition television (HDTV) or laptop.

And with new HDMI Control, playback is also a breeze. Gone are the days of friends and family huddling around your camera’s LCD to see the pictures and movies you just captured.

Now, you’ll be the hit of the party or any family function when you proudly display your brilliant images and videos on high-definition televisions.

Simply connect the camera to an HDTV with an HDMI™ cable, which can be purchased separately at any consumer electronics store. With HDMI Control, you can use your HDTV’s remote to control playback functions and navigate HERE’S page 22

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as they’re being captured. This translates into more fun and flexibility as customization is no longer limited to using expensive and time-consuming computer software.

The new Magic Filter includes: •Pop Art – Enhance and saturate colors to create vivid, highimpact pictures that express the joyful, lighthearted feeling of the Pop Art style of the 1960s; • Pin Hole – Reduce the peripheral brightness of an image as though it were shot through a pin hole, connecting the viewer intimately with the subject at the center; •Fish-Eye – Emulate the wide angle of a fish-eye lens by taking extremely wide, hemispherical images and magnifying the center of the frame; and •Drawing – Turn your image into a sketch outline for children to color.

Nothing Can Shock These Tough Cameras The STYLUS TOUGH-8010 can withstand a 6.6-foot drop and the STYLUS TOUGH-6020 can survive a 5-foot drop thanks to the Stylus Tough series’ shock -absorbing technology, which minimizes the impact on the lens and circuitry. The STYLUS TOUGH-8010 can also withstand 220 pounds of crushing pressure. Throw it into your bag and go; don’t worry about it being handled badly during the trip.

Point-Dunk-and-Shoot Cameras Stylus Tough cameras perform

as well under water as they do on land because their lightweight, stainless steel and aluminum exteriors are matched with interior rubber gaskets and Orings to seal out the elements.

The STYLUS TOUGH-8010 can dive to 33 feet under water, while the STYLUS TOUGH6020 can be submerged to 16 feet under water. The inclusion of four preset underwater scene modes make these cameras perfect for taking photos while scuba diving, snorkeling or simply having worry-free fun in the pool. They can also capture HD movies with audio even under water – perfect for schools of fish or kids jumping into the water. The cameras feature a water-repellent lens coating to prevent water droplets from forming on the lens, enabling you to get crystal-clear shots no matter how wet the shooting environment.

14 Megapixels at 14 Degrees Fahrenheit Whether you’re cruising the Alaskan ice highway in a snowmobile or building a snowman in your backyard, both new Stylus Tough cameras can still perform when the temperature dips well below freezing (14 degrees Fahrenheit; -10 degrees Celsius) and offer a 14-megapixel image sensor to enable consumers to achieve consistently sharp and vivid images when producing largeformat prints or cropping/enlarging a portion of

an image. Stylus Tough cameras continue to enable you to capture great high-resolution images in freezing situations where most traditional cameras would fail.

Wide-Angle Optical Zoom Captures It All Both new Stylus Tough cameras feature a 5x wide-angle optical zoom (28-140mm equivalent in 35mm photography) so that even more of the subject makes it into each shot – perfect for underwater photography or capturing the group around the ski lodge’s fireplace. The lens does not protrude from either of the camera’s bodies, protecting them from harsh conditions.

Fight the Blur with Dual Image Stabilization Dual Image Stabilization combines two technologies – mechanical Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization and Digital Image Stabilization – to provide one powerful anti-blur solution for capturing great images whether the photographer or the subject is moving. Olympus’ mechanical Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization keeps images sharp by adjusting the internal image sensor to compensate for camera movement, even in low-light conditions when shutter speeds are slower. Additionally, Digital Image Stabilization captures the action with high ISO sensitivity and fast shutter speeds that prevent blurry images often caused by a moving subject.

Hit Them with Your Best Shot: Tap Control

The Stylus Tough series cameras can be controlled with a simple tap on their top, back or sides, which is made possible thanks to their internal 3D accelerometer that detects the direction of the force on the camera’s body. In adverse climates Tap Control ensures fast adjustment of settings even if you are wearing gloves that make pressing traditional buttons nearly impossible.

Can’t Hide with Face Detection!

Portrait and group shots make family reunions live beyond the short event, and with Face Detection you’ll capture even the shyest relatives. The STYLUS TOUGH-8010 and STYLUS TOUGH-6020 both detect up to 12 faces within the frame and automatically focus and optimize exposure to capture sharp, brilliant portraits and group shots. Thanks to the unrivaled durability of the Stylus Tough series cameras, you’ll capture amazing photos even if your next family reunion is at a national park, a water park or a ski slope!

Tough Cameras, Not Tough to Use Skating at night? You won’t be the last one on the ice thanks to Intelligent Auto Mode. It automatically identifies what you are shooting (i.e., Portrait, Night + Portrait, Landscape, Macro and Sports) and adjusts the camera’s settings to capture the best quality results. First-time users can jump into this quick and hassle-free feature that does the

thinking for them and produces incredible images.

Broaden Your Horizons with InCamera Panorama You take your Stylus Tough camera to places where you want to capture as much of the scene as you can. In-Camera Panorama mode makes it easy by capturing three images and stitching them together to create one amazing panoramic picture. Simply press the shutter button and slowly pan across a panoramic scene. The second and third images will be captured automatically and stitched together with the first image – resulting in one seamless panorama-size picture.

To create the ultimate panoramic picture, consumers can use the OLYMPUS [ib] software to stitch up to 10 images together.

Great panaroma proof that you conquered the mountain summit.

Advanced HyperCrystalTM III LCD HyperCrystal III displays twice as bright as previous LCDs so that you can see the details more clearly, even in direct sunlight.

The technology is offered in a 2.7-inch LCD on both the STYLUS TOUGH-8010 and STYLUS TOUGH-6020.

LED Illuminator An LED Illuminator on the Stylus Tough cameras works like a mini-flashlight on the front of the camera to enhance focus and exposure for macro shooting – great for underwater close-ups OLYMPUS page 23

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the camera’s menus from the comfort of your couch.

Lock Onto the Action with AF Tracking AF Tracking technology locks in-focus your fast-moving subject – everything from house cats to Siberian tigers – and continuously adjusts focus and brightness. This enables you to keep fast-moving and unpredictable subjects like small children in focus for the perfect shot. There’s even a specially designed “Pet Mode” for animal lovers.

Express Your Inner Artist with Magic Filter In-camera Art Filters debuted on Olympus E-System cameras last year. A similar feature, entitled Magic Filter, has been developed for the new SP cameras. Magic Filter enables the user to enhance and customize images as they’re being captured. This translates into more fun and flexibility as customization is no longer limited to using expensive and time-consuming computer software.

The new Magic Filter includes: •Pop Art – Enhance and saturate colors to create vivid, highimpact pictures that express the joyful, lighthearted feeling of the Pop Art style of the 1960s; • Pin Hole – Reduce the peripheral brightness of an image as though it were shot through a pin hole, connecting the viewer intimately with the subject at the center; •Fish-Eye – Emulate the wide-

angle of a fish-eye lens by taking extremely wide, hemispherical images and magnifying the center of the frame; and •Drawing – Turn your image into a sketch outline for children to color.

Beauty Mode Makes Everyone Look Great Taking beautiful portraits is easy with the Beauty Mode. It enables you to soften shadows and smooth wrinkles or blemishes on your subject’s face – all in the camera and before capture!

Additionally, subtle edits can be made post-capture using the Beauty Fix mode. Choose “Clear Skin” to smooth a person’s complexion, “Dramatic Eye” to slightly emphasize the eyes and “Sparkle Eye” to brighten and enhance the contrast of the iris and pupils. You also can apply all three edits at once. Have fun customizing your brilliant images without a PC and costly image-editing software.

Shadow Adjustment Technology Captures Bright Right Shooting outdoors in bright daylight can be tricky because of the extreme contrast between dark shadowed areas and bright sunlight areas. While the human eye is capable of detecting the nuances between dark and light and all the details in between, image sensors traditionally have not been quite as sensitive. The SP-800UZ and SP-600UZ address this challenge head-on with a new Shadow Adjustment

Technology, which compensates for extreme contrast where the shadow areas are underexposed and lack visible detail. With the new technology, users can preview and capture images that have the same contrast as seen with the naked eye.

TruePic™ III Image Processor Delivers Superior Quality and Performance Whether you are globetrotting or attending a family birthday party, the SP-800UZ offers a 14megapixel image sensor, and the SP-600UZ offers a 12-megapixel image sensor enabling consumers to achieve consistently sharp and vivid images when producing largeformat prints or cropping/enlarging a portion of an image. Olympus developed its exclusive TruePic III image processor for the demanding performance of digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras and has migrated the technology to the SP cameras for amazing image quality. Olympus’ enhanced TruePic III Image Processor produces crystal clear photos using all the pixel information for each image to deliver superior picture quality with more accurate colors, trueto-life flesh tones and faster processing speeds. TruePic III also captures crisp, clear images at high ISO settings, which are traditionally associated with increasing image noise or producing grainy photos.

Cut Out the Blur with Dual

Image Stabilization Dual Image Stabilization combines two technologies – mechanical Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization and Digital Image Stabilization – to provide one powerful anti-blur solution for capturing great images whether the photographer or the subject is moving. Olympus’ mechanical Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization keeps images sharp by adjusting the internal image sensor to compensate for camera movement, even in low-light conditions when shutter speeds are slower. Additionally, Digital Image Stabilization freezes the action with high ISO sensitivity and fast shutter speeds that prevent blurry images often caused by a moving subject.

Easier Group Shots with Face Detection!

Wedding, birthday and family reunion group shots have never been easier with Face Detection.

SP cameras detect up to 16 faces within the frame and automatically focus and optimize exposure to capture sharp, brilliant portraits and group shots.

Intelligent Auto Thinks for You Taking a moonlit stroll on the beach? With the Intelligent Auto Mode in the SP cameras your camera knows and it automatically identifies what you are shooting (i.e., Portrait, Night + Portrait, Landscape, Macro and Sports) and adjusts the camera’s settings to capture the best quality results. First-time users

can jump into this quick and hassle-free feature that does the thinking for them and produces incredible images.

Broaden Your Horizons with InCamera Panorama The places you can take SP cameras – national parks, weddings, sporting events or city streets – are locations where you want to capture as much of the scene as you can. In-Camera Panorama mode makes it possible by capturing three images and stitching them together to create one amazing panoramic picture. Simply press the shutter button and slowly pan across a panoramic scene. The second and third images will be captured automatically and stitched together with the first image – resulting in one seamless panorama-size picture.

To create the ultimate panoramic picture, consumers can use the Olympus [ib] Software to stitch up to 10 images together.

Large High-Resolution LCD The SP-800UZ boasts a bright 3 -inch advanced high-resolution LCD monitor ideal for viewing and composing all your favorite images and HD videos in vivid color even in bright sunlight. The SP-600UZ features a 2.7-inch LCD. OLYMPUS [ib] Software, Photo Surfing and Eco Friendly In-Camera Manual All Spring 2010 digital compact cameras, including the SP series, HERE’S page 25

Gadgets/ Tech/ Politics/

E-reader News Edition

OLYMPUS continued from page 21

where light is scarce. The LED illuminator also works in conjunction with Bright Capture to help illuminate your subject when taking low-light portraits.

TruePic™ III Image Processor Olympus developed its exclusive TruePic III image processor for the demanding performance of digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras.

Olympus’ enhanced TruePic III Image Processor produces crystal -clear photos using all the pixel information for each image to deliver superior picture quality with more accurate colors, trueto-life flesh tones and faster processing speeds. TruePic III also captures crisp, clear images at high ISO settings, which are traditionally associated with increasing image noise or producing grainy photos.

Smart Charging for Active Lifestyles The two new cameras offer internal USB charging for extreme portability and durability. Using the camera’s USB cord, the camera plugs directly into a computer’s USB

port to charge the battery. It minimizes the need to open the battery compartment door, and helps ensure the watertight gaskets maintain your camera’s durability. An optional AV adapter is also available.

OLYMPUS [ib] Software and In -Camera Manual All Spring 2010 digital compact cameras, including the Stylus Tough series, will offer the new OLYMPUS [ib] integrated photo browsing and organizing software. The new software includes photography workflow, browsing, editing and unique photo organizing functions.

You can organize your photos by person with automatic face recognition technology, by place with a GPS base mapping function or by event; all information will be tagged in each photo’s data. You can easily view photos on an HDTV or on the camera’s LCD with the Photo Surfing or Slideshow functions. The name [ib] stands for image bridging, image browsing and image brightening.

The new software will be

available for Windows operating systems only.

The STYLUS TOUGH-8010 and STYLUS TOUGH-6020 will come equipped with the instruction manual saved on the camera’s new internal memory.

This translates into easily referencing instructions while shooting on the go. The internal memory also enables in-camera image playback in an organized fashion. Eliminating a paper or CD-Rom instruction manual is part of Olympus’ ongoing environmental commitment to conserve natural resources and reduce its carbon footprint.

SD Compatibility Olympus’ new Spring 2010 digital compact cameras offer SD capability for up to 32 gigabytes of capacity.

Underwater Housing for Extreme Dive Adventures When the action moves from snorkeling to diving, take your Olympus digital camera with you. The PT-048 underwater case has been specially customized for the STYLUS TOUGH-8010 and STYLUS

TOUGH-6020 cameras and is waterproof down to a depth of 40 meters (approximately 130 feet).

This case is perfect for capturing fascinating underwater photography. Our housings provide complete control of photo functions, such as zoom and flash modes.

Availability The STYLUS TOUGH-8010 and STYLUS TOUGH-6020 will be available in February 2010.

They include: wrist strap, camera WIN/Mac USB cable, audio/video cable, Li-Ion rechargeable battery, manual, warranty card and OLYMPUS [ib] software on the camera.

U.S. Pricing STYLUS TOUGH-8010 Estimated Street Price: $399.99 (U.S.) STYLUS TOUGH-6020 Estimated Street Price: $299.99 (U.S.)

23

Report: Google planning app store for businesses

By Tom Krazit (Webware.com) Submitted at 2/1/2010 4:06:00 PM

Third-party developers might soon be able to sell add-ons to the Google Apps suite of software for businesses through a Google-hosted online store, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Originally posted at Relevant Results

President Obama: The YouTube Interview (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:01:04 PM

I expected a lot of silliness and inconsequential questions, but President Obama’s YouTube interview actually covers some substantive issues in interesting ways.[Video]

TDK's TH-WR700 cans do wireless over Kleer

By Tim Stevens (Engadget)

little more heft, welcome to TDK's TH-WR700 wireless headphones, a $190 set that still The majority of the wireless looks to be too small if you're music options we've seen going for the completely rocking Kleer have, to this point, immersive over-the-ear style, but been of the ear bud variety -- are said to provide less noise nice, but not if you're more of a than comparable Bluetooth units can man. For those who like a and pledge to perform with 32 Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:17:00 AM

impedance, 20Hz-20kHz frequency response, and 108

dB/mW sensitivity. That price also nabs you the Kleer transmitter adapter, which has a 3.5mm input and just so happens to be fit perfectly on an iPhone.

Coincidence? Don't bet on it.

TDK's TH-WR700 cans do wireless over Kleer originally appeared on Engadget on Tue,

02 Feb 2010 09:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink CrunchGear| TDK| Email this| Comments

24

Gadgets/ Tech/

E-reader News Edition

Steve Wozniak Update on His Prius Problems [Woz]

By Jesus Diaz (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:58:31 AM

Steve Wozniak has commented in Gizmodo about his problems with his beloved Toyota Prius, its faulty acceleration software, and his problems reporting this to both Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He's frustrated, and completely right. Here's the latest news I just got.

Once again, thanks for your time. We called Toyota with your issue, and so far the spokesperson's comment is that they haven't heard anything to do with cruise control in Priuses.

The story is still in edits, and if and when it runs, I will email you a copy at this address.

This response is what I've been coming up against for 2 months, and it doesn't indicate that I'll even be contacted about my problem. I sure am thankful now for the good attention I get at the normal Genius bars!

Then he added this about how frustrating the whole process is: I have expensive cars but prefer to drive my Segway and Prius's for many reasons. I have had

many models of Prius and enough family members and staff to keep them all in use.

I have a very busy schedule and I'm usually free at midnight to deal with things like this. The NHTSA online reporting form doesn't fit my case. It asks things like the date of an accident. On the phone they refer me to a second number. At that number they need my VIN and mileage before they'll listen. The person on the phone sounds like a typical very low paid clerk who can ask specific questions to type things into a database, and have no interest in the urgency and connection of my problem to the crashes/deaths/recalls/halted sales. In fact, they make it clear that they are just taking data and not doing anything themselves to remedy a safety issue. That's the government.

Toyota is difficult too, but after some phone calls I managed to

express some of my situation.

Unfortunately my iPhone dropped the calls twice and I never got a reference number but they may have some sort of ticket open.

It's been 2 months trying to have all the data and freedom, trying to get to someone high enough up to give this some attention.

You can't easily find phone numbers to companies online. I'd give anything to have had the phone number of Toyota's legal department. They'll see that I stated my discovery in writing 2 months ago but a local dealer couldn't understand the significance of it and sort of thought my wife was nuts. I was out of town, as usual, at that time. It's not easy to be heard on something like this. But today I addressed an education group (Sausalito Discovery Museum) and somehow a brief form of this story came out and I believe that

someone there contacted CNET. Tonight I heard from Bloomberg news in Asia that they are following up on it with a story and that they will contact Toyota directly about it. I wouldn't be surprised to get a call from Toyota tomorrow, but I'll be on the road in that car all day.

No, my problem is not deadly.

It's not a sticky accelerator pedal, for sure. It's sticky acceleration that is scary the first time but has a good work-around.

What I find amazing is that someone—being Steve Wozniak or John Doe—is having these problems, and nobody in the company is doing anything about it, pronto. It may not be deadly, as the Woz puts it, but two months to get a response from a car company on an issue that affects the safety of their cars is inexcusable.

New Facebook craze can violate terms of service

By Caroline McCarthy (Webware.com)

Technically, posting a copyrighted photo of a celeb--as loads of Facebook users are

doing per a "Doppelganger Week" fad--violates terms of service. But for once copyright

holders don't seem to care.

Originally posted at The Social

Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson gives a rare interview

By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:00:11 AM

Most of you are probably at least familiar with Calvin and Hobbes, while many of us in our thirties (and up) remember reading the popular comic strip religiously.

Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson has generally lived a pretty private life but he recently did an interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, his hometown newspaper.

It’s not a terribly long interview but Watterson talks about what it’s like to look back on the comic strip now that it’s been done for 15 years and how he’d like the legacy to be remembered.

It’s an interesting read if you were/are into Calvin and Hobbes.

Bill Watterson, creator of beloved ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ comic strip looks back with no regrets[Cleveland.com via Slashdot]

Gadgets/ Tech/

E-reader News Edition

HERE’S continued from page 22

will offer the new OLYMPUS [ib] integrated photo browsing and organizing software. The new software includes photography workflow, browsing, editing and unique photo organizing functions. You can organize your photos by person with automatic face recognition technology, by place with a GPS base mapping function or by event; all information will be tagged in each photo’s data. You can easily view photos on an HDTV or on the camera’s LCD with the Photo Surfing or Slideshow functions. The name [ib] stands for imaging bridging, imaging browsing and image brightening.

The new software will be available for Windows operating systems only.

The new SP cameras will come equipped with the instruction manual saved on the cameras’ new internal memory. This translates into easily referencing instructions while shooting on the go. The internal memory also enables in-camera image playback in an organized fashion.

SD Compatibility Olympus’ new Spring 2010 digital compact cameras offer SD compatibility for up to 32 gigabytes of capacity.

Availability The SP-800UZ and SP-600UZ

will be available in March 2010.

The SP-800UZ includes a Li-Ion rechargeable battery and charger, and the SP-600UZ includes two AA alkaline batteries. Both cameras also include neck strap, camera WIN/Mac USB cable, audio/video cable, warranty card and OLYMPUS [ib] software saved on the camera’s internal memory.

U.S. Pricing SP-800UZ Estimated Street Price: $349.99 (U.S.) SP-600UZ Estimated Street Price: $249.99 (U.S.)

Greasemonkey comes to Chrome

By Seth Rosenblatt (Webware.com) Submitted at 2/1/2010 5:16:00 PM

Greasemonkey scripts are an easy way to create single-serving enhancements for Firefox, and now they work natively on Google Chrome, too.

Originally posted at The Download Blog

official announcement of the iPad, there are new rumors of another Apple tablet device that Submitted at 2/1/2010 4:43:05 PM may be on its way.

And here we go (again) Some of According to TechCrunch, who you may recall a small event that is basing their entire post on an happened last week where Steve admitted second-hand source, Jobs quietly showcased a tablet Apple may be working on a device to a select few. In effect, larger, beefier tablet that would it was the accumulation of years run Max OS X and be able to worth of rumors that were finally handle traditional Mac software. realized. But leave it to the They expect that Apple could be blogosphere to not let those playing its cards close to their rumor mills stop a’turning. chest (the only way Apple plays Nope, merely days after the their cards, by the way) until the

WWDC event in June. The tablet, maybe the iSlate we’ve been waiting for, would most likely feature a larger screen and a much larger price tag. In essence, if the iPad was a tablet replacement of the netbook, this new tablet would be a replacement for laptops.

We can’t help but hold our head in our hands after hearing this so soon after the iPad announcement. While it represents something that could grasp much more of the missed

CrunchDeals: Madden NFL 10 and NCAA Football 10 for $60 (Xbox 360)

By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:40:14 AM

An official announcement can’t stop the wheels of the Apple Tablet rumor mill from turning

By Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

25

potential of tablets that the iPad missed out on, can’t we just have a breather at this point? Let’s just call a cease fire on Apple talk until we can all gather our wits and sanity (or at least until we have time to check with our sources). Leave a Reply Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Sure, the NFL season is basically over and the NCAA football season is definitely over but if you’ve put off buying Madden NFL 10 and NCAA Football 10 for the Xbox 360 until now for some reason, you can get both for just $60.

Available at the Microsoft Store, both games normally cost $60 each. They’ll both be replaced come late summer but, hey, you’ve got some time to kill between now and then.

Madden NFL 10 + NCAA Football 10 for Xbox 360[Microsoft Store via dealnews]

26

Gadgets/ Tech/ Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

Google mum on Chrome OS touch support, Chromium devs show us how it might look anyway (video)

By Tim Stevens (Engadget)

manager before failing to provide a concrete answer. Read that how you will, but the open While those initial leaked specs s o u r c e w i n g o f t h e O S , for a Chrome OS-based netbook Chromium, has gone ahead and u n a b a s h e d l y s p e c i f i e d a created its own vision of what multitouch panel, Google is touching chrome might look like, remaining shy on confirming just including a very compelling what it's up to in the fingerprint video we've included for you department. When Google's after the break. This includes Senior Product Manager of popup context menus, a selection Search was asked pointedly of finger- and thumb-friendly about touch support in the OS, keyboards, and of course some according to TechRadar he delicious multitouch support. l o o k e d n e r v o u s l y a t a P R Interestingly, if the scale of the Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:19:00 AM

hands in the video below is anything to go by, the Chromium group expects an eventual Chrome OS tablet to be between

three and five feet wide, which might be a little cumbersome for those with diminutive laps.

Continue reading Google mum

on Chrome OS touch support, Chromium devs show us how it might look anyway (video) Google mum on Chrome OS touch support, Chromium devs show us how it might look anyway (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| TechRadar, The Chromium Projects| Email this| Comments

Scala Rider G4 Bluetooth headset enables fourway biker communication

Apple iPad May Ship with Webcam

By Darren Murph (Engadget)

By Charlie Sorrel (Wired Top Stories)

Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:04:00 AM

Longing to get reacquainted with your hog? Looking to not get all lonely on the open road?

Cardo Systems -- which has been doing the whole intercom-laced motorcycle helmet for years now -- has just pushed out its latest concoction, and the Scala Rider G4 looks to be the most advanced version yet of the talking cranium protector. Aside

from boasting an integrated Bluetooth chip for handsfree calling and voice activation, there's also a built-in FM radio and an intercom system that enables up to four riders to communicate within a full mile of one another. The company claims that the G4 is the "first Bluetooth headset to offer group intercom between up to three riders as well as communication among two riders and their two passengers on two bikes at

distances up to 5,280 feet," and if A2DP audio streaming is your thing, you'll find support for that as well. Each lid will run you $279.95 and should last up to ten solid hours if yapping

Google shows off Chrome OS tablet ideas

By Stephen Shankland (Webware.com)

Mock-ups of a Chrome OS Chrome OS could be a better fit tablet emerge much more quietly for tablets than for Netbooks. than Apple's iPad. In some ways, Originally posted at Deep Tech

continuously, though we're guessing your jacksy will be needing an overnight stay before you hit that milestone.

Scala Rider G4 Bluetooth headset enables four-way biker communication originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Business Wire| Email this| Comments

Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:44:00 AM

Close scrutiny of the iPad which Steve Jobs presented at Apple’s special event last week shows what may be webcam, tucked away in the black screen bezel just like it is on the MacBook Pro.

Gadgets/ Tech/ Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

NTT DoCoMo to show off 4G handset

And the winner of the Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch is…

(CNET News.com) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:17:39 AM

By Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

another random number who pointed us to the winner…

Congratulations to@abitnerdy!

Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:57:14 AM You’ll be contacted shortly so This last month we held a we can mail you your new Twitter giveaway for a brand graphics tablet. For those that spankin’ new Wacom Bamboo didn’t win, thanks for entering Pen & Touch graphics tablet. We and stick around. We’ll be had an amazing turnout but only offering up another contest soon! one could win. We hope that One Response to “And the those new followers we gained winner of the Wacom Bamboo during the contest stick around Pen & Touch is…” and that Best Tablet Review • Sweet contest. Congrats to proved to be a great resource on abitnerdy! After reading about tablet news, reviews and rumors. this tablet I was so hoping.. But Using Random.org we narrowed hey, congrats hon!! Thx again the contest entries first by for the contest. randomly selecting the date (January 29th) and then using Leave a Reply advanced Twitter search to find Five Filters featured article: posts with the #BTRBamboo tag. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: We then counted up the entries PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, for that day and generated Term Extraction.

Found Photoshop Contest: Future of Children's Books

By Wired Magazine (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:00:00 PM

Imagine the future of children's books -- what will kids want in a

book 10 or 20 years from now?

Will the 2-D paper versions still be around? Submit your ideas for this month's Found contest.

27

Pyxis OS demo video sports high production values despite DIY Arduino hardware

By Tim Stevens (Engadget)

Studio, but we're thinking you can scrounge up the $10 to make Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:41:00 AM that happen. There's a quality We're absolutely loving what all video demonstration after the the cool kids are doing with break, but we'd recommend Arduino hardware -- the robots, turning down those speakers the instruments, the fashion-- but before clicking through -- unless when it comes to getting stuff you're really ready to rock out. done, well, let's just say we're not Continue reading Pyxis OS giving up our smartphones yet. A d e m o v i d e o s p o r t s h i g h new project from Skewworks production values despite DIY could change that, an Ardiuno- Arduino hardware based operating system called Pyxis OS demo video sports Pyxis. It provides a UI for high production values despite launching applications, easy D I Y A r d u i n o h a r d w a r e access to microSD storage, and originally appeared on Engadget graphics routines that make on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:41:00 creation of apps and games much EST. Please see our terms for more simple. If you want to code use of feeds. Permalink Make| in anything other than assembly S k e w w o r k s | E m a i l t h i s | you'll need to pay up for the C o m m e n t s professional edition of Pyxis

Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo is set to demonstrate a prototype handset based on high-speed wireless data technology LTE later this month, according to its handset partner, NEC. NEC said on Monday that NTT will demonstrate the handset receiving streaming highresolution video across an LTE network at Mobile World Congress, which kicks off February 15 in Barcelona.

According to NEC, the handset uses an LTE chipset that was developed by Fujitsu, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, and Panasonic, and first sampled in October.

LTE, the "long-term evolution" of 3G, is the successor to HSDPA and is roughly 10 times faster, providing theoretical downlink speeds of at least 100Mbps and a theoretical uplink of at least 50Mbps.

Read more of " 4G handset to be demonstrated this month" at ZDNet UK. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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E-reader News Edition

Reporter, TV Execs (Maybe?) Confused Over Lost Fans Choosing Not To Watch Leaked Episode

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 2/2/2010 2:20:52 AM

There's an unintentionally hilarious article over at Reuters claiming that TV execs are positively perplexed over the fact that many fans of the TV show Lost are purposely ignoring a leaked new episode of the show, preferring to wait until its aired on TV. Of course, the article doesn't actually quote any confused TV execs. Instead, it quotes one TV exec at ABC who does seem to understand why fans don't want to watch it until it airs on TV. But, of course, that doesn't play $800. into the media narrative that fans There are other options coming are greedy downloaders who will soon, including Core i5 and Blu- just get anything as fast as r a y u p g r a d e s t h a t w i l l b e possible when put online. So, available starting Feb 7th. instead, the report has to make it The 3.5 hours of battery life is a out like it's a "surprise." Perhaps l i t t l e d i s a p p o i n t i n g , b u t only to those who haven't otherwise, the Vaio E looks to be bothered paying attention to a reasonably priced notebook what fans actually want. This, with some pep. And if you don't by the way, was why there are necessarily need your laptop to better ways to respond to be visible from 500 yards, black movie/TV show leaks than and white models are also breaking out the lawyers. available. Oh, I'm sorry—"Lava Permalink| Comments| Email Black" and "Coconut White" This Story models. [ Sony via Electronista]

Jill Stuart's Sweet Limited Package PSP makes its own Sony Launches Vaio E Series innuendos, coming in March Today: Core i5 Notebooks, in

By Vladislav Savov women will buy anything so (Engadget) long as it bears a hue from the Technicolor [Sony] pink portion of the spectrum.

Either way, this bundle of ÂĽ21,000 ($232), Japan, March 4. corporate greed and malevolence All of the foregoing should be is coming in about a month's irrelevant information because time, if you're weird enough to we're absolutely, positively, care. definitely sure you're not going Gallery: Jill Stuart Limited to actually buy one. Right? Edition PSP-3000 Look, even if you genuinely Jill Stuart's Sweet Limited don't object to Blossom Pink as Package PSP makes its own your color scheme, and if you innuendos, coming in March quite rightly find yourself originally appeared on Engadget attracted by the handy soft pouch on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:51:00 for ensconcing your new PSP- EST. Please see our terms for 3000 in, don't you care about use of feeds. Permalink Game what other people might think? Watch| PlayStation Japan| Email And that's entirely aside from the this| Comments generic and lazy expectation that Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:51:00 AM

By Brian Barrett (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:50:27 AM

There may be only one build of the Sony Vaio E notebook you can buy today, but your coloring options are equal parts expansive and aggressive. Even beyond the plumage, though, you're looking at a nice little set-up.

It's easy to be distracted by the glare of the "Caribbean Green" and "Hibiscus Pink" color schemes, but under the hood of the 15.5" Vaio E available today are a Core i3 processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, and a CD/DVD burner standard for

Gadgets/ Tech/ Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

Toshiba's Portégé M780 Convertible Laptop Has A Multitouch Screen For Windows 7 Gestures [Laptops]

By Kat Hannaford (Gizmodo)

with a 1200 x 800 TruBright LED backlit screen. Multitouch support with Windows 7 gestures Toshiba's Portégé series has means you can fold that laptop been gifted a new model, if leaks screen right back and use it like a from Italy are anything to go by. tablet. Powered by either Core i3 It's not a super light R600-type or Core i5 processors, there's model, with the Portégé name 8GB of DDR3 memory and a a l s o b e i n g a p p l i e d t o t h e choice of either a 2.5-inch HDD m i c r o p h o n e , w e b c a m a n d c o n v e r t i b l e M r a n g e t o o . o r S S D . T w o U S B p o r t s , fingerprint scanner round the The M780 is a 12.1-inch laptop B l u e t o o t h 2 . 1 , W i - F i , Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:48:29 AM

M780 off well. As Toshiba hasn't confirmed it officially, this is still just hearsay, but knowing Toshiba's history with the Portégé range, I wouldn't expect the M780 to be on the friendly side of $3k. [ NotebookItalia via Slashgear]

Makara turns the cloud into a virtual layer (CNET News.com) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:01:00 AM

Several months back, I spoke with Issac Roth, CEO of platform-as-a-service start-up WebappVM, about taking advantage of the cloud by moving to a virtual layer approach.

The idea behind this virtual layer is to enable developers to easily take Web applications to cloud environments--be they private, public, hybrid, or elsewhere in the ether.

On Tuesday, Roth and company are announcing the developer edition for their Cloud

Application Platform with a newer, catchier name: Makara.

According to Roth, developers want to be able to get their apps up and running quickly but haven't had the ability to do so previously. They've just been copying data center deployment architecture wholesale to the cloud. But this kind of quick and dirty transfer ends up adding unnecessary manual labor.

Instead of retrofitting system management software designed for traditional application environments, developers can leverage the virtual layer to allow developers to deploy, scale, and monitor applications

in cloud environments--with an emphasis on speed and ease.

Using the Makara Cloud Application Platform, developers don't need to rewrite applications specifically for deployment in the cloud. You simply place your existing program into the Cloud Application Platform capsule and launch it into the cloud. No code changes and no new development are necessary, according to the company.

Once deployed, the Cloud Application Platform sits on top of the hypervisor and under the application stack. This means maximum flexibility when it comes to porting it across cloud

Found: The Chew Toy That Fights Back!

By Katie Baker (Wired Top Stories)

In case you're wondering what the hot pet toy of the future will be, check out Ratborg 3000, a

reanimated cat toy with robotic enhancements (and it's fully compliant with Asimov's laws!).

and virtual environments.

Developers can provision across clusters without problem and even move between cloud providers with one click.

While there is no doubt that Makara and others targeting the space still have a lot of work to do, this new application delivery model provides a glimpse of a future where the underlying infrastructure becomes as much of a commodity as the hardware it runs on.

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Once Again, Be Careful What You Wish For With Net Neutrality Once The Lobbyists Get Done With It

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:28:00 AM

We've pointed this out in the past, but those who support regulations in favor of net neutrality should be careful.

Once the lobbyists get done with them, any rules won't resemble what you think they should. The EFF is already up in arms over the fact that the proposed net neutrality rules would allow blocking BitTorrent, even though it was Comcast's blocking of BitTorrent that helped kick off the latest round of attention in net neutrality. That does seem a bit ironic... but, again, it shows that, just because you call something "net neutrality," it doesn't mean it is about a neutral network. With the entertainment industry redefining net neutrality to their own liking (i.e., so that file sharing can still be blocked), you can bet that other lobbyists (including the telcos) will work hard to redefine it to their liking as well.

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E-reader News Edition

Google shows off Chrome OS tablet ideas (CNET News.com) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:47:40 AM

A mock-up of a Chrome OS tablet from Google's Chromium developer site.(Credit: Google) Who could resist the months of hype that paved the way for Apple's iPad debut last week?

Apparently not Google, which has shown its interest in tablet computing with its browserbased Chrome OS. On Monday, Glen Murphy, a user interface designer for Google's Chrome browser and the Chrome OS operating system based on it, pointed to image and video concepts of a Chrome OSbased tablet that went live two days before the iPad launch.

Apparently nobody noticed initially, because only now did Murphy tweet, " Apparently our tablet mocks have been unearthed."

The site also shows the array of devices Google envisions for Chrome OS. "While its primary focus is Netbooks, Chrome OS could eventually scale to a wide variety of devices. Each would have vastly different input methods, available screen space, and processing power," according to the Chromium form factors site. Chromium is the name of the open-source developer project that underlies the branded Chrome product.

It's possible that Chrome OS could be an easier sell on tablets than on Netbooks, the class of device on which Google said it

plans to launch Chrome OS. Netbooks often are used as general-purpose PCs, so the browser-based philosophy of Chrome OS is a more jarring transition.

Today's tablets, in contrast, tend to focus more on a collection of specialized uses such as reading books, surfing the Net, and

chores that only require light typing. With that approach, Chrome OS's break from the PC world could be less jarring. The tablet market isn't as big as the Netbook market, though.

The ideas are only mock-ups, but Google has established itself as a real if not dominant force in the computing industry. Its

Android mobile phone operating system is increasingly influential, and its Chrome browser continues to steadily grow in usage.

Google envisions Chrome OS spanning various devices.(Credit: Google) The tablet mock-ups show a variety of Chrome OS tablet

ideas, including a virtual keyboard taking up the bottom half of the screen or detached and floating as a separate window. Also included are a slideshow mode, an application launcher, sidebar-mounted browser tabs, and a pop-up GOOGLE page 31

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GOOGLE continued from page 30

contextual menu.

The video mock-up shows a much larger tablet, with hands resizing and moving windows through the multitouch interface, scrolling through text, and typing a search query.

It's all very rough at this stage, but none of it is too remote from a multitouch-enabled version of the Chrome OS. Google plans to debut Chrome OS in Netbooks later this year, and development of the open-source operating system is well under way.

Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about its plans for Chrome OS tablets.

A still image from a video demonstrating multitouch use of a Chrome OS tablet.(Credit: Google) Computing companies have been trying to make tablets for years, with little success. Apple hopes its design will change that with its iPad selling from $499 to $829. It's more of an iPhone with a large screen than a MacBook with no keyboard.

Google is taking a different approach with Chrome OS. Instead of programs running straight on the computer's hardware and its underlying Linux operating system, Chrome OS applications run directly in the browser. What's similar to the iPad, though, is that both have something of an applications head start compared to a computing platform that's starting from scratch: the iPad can run existing iPhone apps, and Chrome OS can run existing Web applications such as Google Docs.

One thing that's changed since early tablet years is the arrival of e-book readers as a real phenomenon. Amazon's Kindle is the most notable example, but there are others, and Apple touted book reading with the iPad. Google, it should be noted, has a conduit to millions of books via its Google Books service.

Given that Apple chose to use a variation of its iPhone OS for the iPad, it's interesting but not

terribly surprising that Google chose to use Chrome OS rather than its phone operating system, Android. In the big picture, Google clearly hopes the browser will be the foundation for applications, letting them run more easily on a multitude of devices.

Android uses a variation of Oracle's Java technology as a program foundation. Perhaps ironically, Java was launched with the motto for programmers of "write once, run anywhere," and it is that vision Google is trying to realize with Web applications.

The ghostly hands of Glen Murphy demonstrate Chrome OS tablet gesture ideas.(Credit: Google) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

RedState.com is in Charge of Bloggers at CPAC (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 2/1/2010 5:29:49 PM

Redstate.com, home to some of the most extreme far right bloggers on the web, the site whose CEO infamously called Justice Souter a “goat-f*cking

child molester,” has announced that they will be in charge of vetting and approving the bloggers for this year’s CPAC, which seems completely appropriate: We&##x2019;ve got a big announcement Erick&##x2019;s blog -

RedState.

So bloggers! Get your applications in soon, so you too can share the convention with creationists, militias, and the good ol’ John Birch Society!

Sounds like a party, doesn’t it?

Of Course Most Content Shared On BitTorrent Infringes; But That's Meaningless

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

by industry lobbyists and lawyers that this somehow Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:27:18 AM proves that BitTorrent needs to I was going to ignore this, b e s t o p p e d / f i x e d / h e l d because based on what's known back/filtered/whatever. I read there's not much interesting or into it exactly the opposite. It surprising, but people keep shows what a piss poor job so submitting the research done by much of the industry has done a student of professor Ed Felten figuring out how to embrace the of a sample of some content obvious demand that's out there, a v a i l a b l e v i a B i t T o r r e n t and how to leverage that smartly. (erroneously described as a T h e f a c t t h a t s o m u c h i s "census" rather than a "sample") infringing should be a siren that suggested that 99% of what waking the industry up that it's was available on this particular time to stop fighting what people slice of the BitTorrentsphere was want, and start figuring out how infringing. While there may be to serve them. And for those some legitimate concerns with who think this is evidence that the methodology, I have to say BitTorrent needs to be blocked that my response to the original (wow) because so much is was: of course. So what? infringing, I'm wondering how Of course the majority of files they defend the legitimate parts s h a r e d o n B i t T o r r e n t a r e that do get tossed out along with infringing. And I don't see how that. So just because NBC it much matters if the percentage Universal is too clueless to figure is 60% or 90% or 99%. I don't out how to take advantage of a think anyone has ever denied that great distribution and promotion a ton of infringing content is mechanism, people who want to shared on BitTorrent -- and, as use those tools and want to some have rightly suggested part e m b r a c e b e t t e r f o r m s o f of the problem is that those who distribution and marketing provide the content haven't done shouldn't be able to? That makes a good job making alternatives no sense to me. available, and that drives people Permalink| Comments| Email to these potentially illegal This Story options.

But what I don't get is the claim

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Rumor: Apple developing second tablet device, made from unicorn tears

By Kent Pribbernow (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:30:00 AM

Filed under: Rumors, Apple Just when you thought Apple tablet rumors were dead -because, you know, they kind of announced one already -- another has emerged like a zombie rising from its grave to feast upon the brains of gullible fanboys. You may want to grab your salt shakers and wash its grains down with a stiff shot of whiskey for this one though. TechCrunch(a company familiar with tablet devices *wink*) is reporting that Apple may be hard at work developing a second tablet device - this one more computer than consumer device, said to be bigger and badder than its recently announced sibling. TC's MG Seigler claims to have "heard" from second-hand sources (I didn't realize Goodwill sold rumors) that iPad Maxi will feature a more robust software stack with more in common to the desktop flavor of OSX rather than iPhone OS, and powered by

Intel's Atom processor.

Before the iPad was revealed last week, rumors circulated for a long time that Apple might be working on two different sizes for the screen of the device.

Some had the device as small as 7, others were saying it would go up to 10.6. (The actual size of the iPad is 9.7.) But the information we're hearing is that Apple is

Feb. 2, 1935: You Lie

By Tony Long (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:00:00 PM

Don't be nervous. The polygraph will tell us whether you're lying or telling the truth.

thinking much larger for another version of the product, maybe all the way up to the 15.4 size that it currently uses for one version of the MacBook Pro. Aside from the fact that Apple is now rolling its own chips, and hence no longer requires Intel's powersipping Atom processor, why on earth fragment and possibly cannibalize your product line

with TWO competing products that essentially attack the same markets from two different points? It isn't in Apple's nature to throw pasta at walls in hopes something adheres. Did we learn nothing from Steve's mobile device chart last week? He clearly outlined where the company has positioned iPad: as a tweener, straddling the iPod and Mac segments -- serving a role that Netbooks have failed to fill. So where does this fella fit in? And pray tell, how would strapping OSX to Netbook hardware (ala Atom) make it comparable in terms of features and performance to a MacBook?

This rumor does not compute.

Believe it? Neither do I. I call shenanigans.

TUAW Rumor: Apple developing second tablet device, made from unicorn tears originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thin Film Turns Any Surface Into a Touchscreen

By Priya Ganapati (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:53:00 AM

Turning your monitor into a touchscreen could some day be as simple as peel ‌ and stick.

Google's Street View Used To Catch Illegal Tree Choppers?

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 2/1/2010 11:36:00 PM

There's been lots of talk about whether or not Google's Street View effort violates anyone's privacy -- and also whether or not it's proper for police to use photos that were uploaded online in charging people with crimes.

How about a combination of the two? A property owner in Canada was caught illegally chopping down some trees on a lot, and Google's Street View images appear to catch the tree choppers red handed. It's not yet clear if the Street View images will be used in the prosecution, but it does seem like valid evidence, though again it will raise privacy questions.

However, I'm not sure what the argument really would be there, since it would really be no different than a neighbor taking a photograph (it was the neighbors who complained about the tree chopping in the first place).

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Google Announces Recipients of Focused Research Grants

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:51:29 AM

Google has announced the winners of the first round of Google Focused Research Awards. Google has launched this program to help areas of study that are of key interest to Google, but also the research community. The recipients of the awards, which are totaling $5.7 million, will have access to Google’s tools, technologies and expertise.

In this round, Google has awarded 12 projects led by 31 professors at 10 universities. The fact that one of the areas in which Google awards grants is privacy is interesting; in its history, Google has often been a target of critics who claim the company hasn’t done enough to protect user privacy. The list of awarded researchers is below: Machine Learning

Horowitz, Benjamin Lee, Nick McKeown and Mendel Rosenblum, Stanford * David G. Andersen and Mor. Harchol-Balter, Carnegie Mellon University * Tajana Simunic Rosing, Steven Swanson and Amin Vahdat, UCSD * William Cohen, Christos * Thomas F. Wenisch, Trevor Faloutsos, Garth Gibson, and Mudge, David Blaauw and Tom Mitchell, Carnegie Mellon Dennis Sylvester, University of University Michigan Use of mobile phones as data * Margaret Martonosi, Jennifer collection devices for public Rexford, Michael Freedman and h e a l t h a n d e n v i r o n m e n t Mung Chiang, Princeton monitoring Privacy * Gaetano Borriello, University * Ed Felten, Princeton of Washington and Deborah * Lorrie Cranor, Carnegie Estrin, UCLA Mellon University Energy efficiency in computing * Ryan Calo, Stanford CIS * Ricardo Bianchini, Rutgers, * Andy Hopper, Cambridge Fred Chong, UC Santa Barbara, U n i v e r s i t y C o m p u t i n g Thomas F. Wenisch, University L a b o r a t o r y of Michigan, Sudhanva Tags: Focused Research Gurumurthi, University of A w a r d s , G o o g l e Virginia * Christos Kozyrakis, Mark

Celebrity Sing-A-Long at 'We Are the World' Recording (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:30:00 AM

A consortium of stars gathered around the mic on Monday in a Los Angeles studio to re-record the iconic song 'We Are the

World.'

In celebration of the tune's 25th Anniversary, the artists belted it out to raise money for relief efforts in Haiti. Usher, Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Harry Connick Jr., and Kanye West are

just a small number of awardwinning artists that can be heard on the track. Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones produced, with musical director Ricky Minor lending an ear.

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New Facebook craze can violate terms of service (CNET News.com) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:20:00 AM

If you're one of Facebook's 350million-plus members, you've probably noticed a handful of people on your friends list changing their profile photos to pictures of celebrities, cartoon characters, Muppets, and other notable figures recently.

That's because an unofficial viral craze called " Doppelganger Week" has arisen on the social network. To participate, you change your profile picture to a celebrity or otherwise notable figure whom you resemble (or like to think you resemble).

Nobody's really sure where Doppelganger Week came from or who started it. It's particularly funny considering the recent emergence of more photos from the set of "The Social Network," a movie based on the origins of Facebook in which the company's early executives are portrayed by, yes, celebrity doppelgangers.

The catch is, putting up a celebrity photo on your Facebook profile may not actually be kosher. In the

company's terms of service, it says: "You will not post content or take any action on Facebook that infringes or violates someone else's rights or otherwise violates the law...We can remove any content or information you post on Facebook if we believe that it violates this Statement." So unless you took that celebrity photo yourself or bought the rights to it, it may be in violation.

Thankfully, for those Facebook users who want to let the world know that they think they look like George Clooney, it sounds like there hasn't been any impetus to pull Doppelganger Week photos.

"Users are responsible for the content they post, but as always, Facebook will respond to requests for removal that it receives from copyright holders," spokeswoman Brandee Barker said in an e-mail to CNET. "In this case, we have received no such requests."

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Skype: Dude, where's my 3G VoIP? TUAW giveaway: Typewar for 10 lucky winners

By Chris Rawson (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:30:00 AM

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, SDK It's been nearly a week now since Apple lifted the restrictions against using VoIP over 3G to place calls on the iPhone. Within hours of the withdrawal of restrictions, iCall [ iTunes Link] and fring [ iTunes Link] both updated their backend to allow users to place calls over a 3G connection. In neither case was it even necessary to download an updated version of the app from the App Store; both iCall and fring basically just "flipped a switch" behind the scenes that allowed VoIP over 3G. After almost a week, neither app has been pulled from the App Store, so it seems VoIP over 3G is here to stay.

What about Skype? Skype is apparently " awaiting clarification" from Apple. They want to make sure the updated terms of the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK also apply to the 3.12 SDK before they submit an update.

By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:30:00 AM

This caution from Skype is somewhat puzzling considering at least two other apps have been merrily humming along with VoIP over 3G enabled for almost a week without any punitive measures taken against them; fring even allows users to place VoIP calls over 3G through a Skype account. We contacted Skype three days ago to get some clarification of our own, but they haven't got back to us.

Here's the thing, Skype guys: if the state raises the speed limit on your local highway to 70 mph, changes all the signs, and stops pulling people over when they

drive faster than 60, it's a pretty safe bet that you can drive 70 mph now. How much more clarification do you need? In the immortal words of Alan Shepard, "Why don't you fix your little problem and light this candle?"

TUAW Skype: Dude, where's my 3G VoIP? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.

• To enter, leave a comment telling us what your favorite typeface is.

• The comment must be left before Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 11:59PM Eastern Standard Boston: R. Rondo 17 Pts, 4 Reb, Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Time.

12 Ast, 2 Stl PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, • You may enter only once.

• Ten winners will be selected in Washington: C. Butler 20 Pts, Term Extraction. a random drawing.

11 Reb, 2 Ast, 3 Stl • Prize: One promo code for a Five Filters featured article: copy of Typewar (Value: US$1.99) • Click Here for complete

Celtics end 3-game skid with win over Wizards

By Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:38:57 PM

Top Performers

Filed under: Software, iPhone, iPod touch If you read our little review of Typewar yesterday, you already know that it's an elegant and fun game for iPhone and iPod touch.

Now you have a chance to win one of ten copies of Typewar in a TUAW giveaway. All you need to do is leave us a comment telling us what your favorite typeface is.

The details of the giveaway are as follows: Official Rules.

Remember, if you're not a winner, you can still purchase the game from the App Store or play the online version. Good luck, and start studying the Font Book app to get higher scores.

TUAW TUAW giveaway: Typewar for 10 lucky winners originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Logitech gives away free wireless mouse and keyboard (it's an app)

By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Bad Web Experience: This Article Removed Because Of Copyright?

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:30:00 AM

website, where the headline and the little blurb, along with an image are left in place, but in I've really never understood place of the actual article is just a news sites that "remove" old message saying, This article has articles. Talk about breaking the been removed as our copyright way the web works. At Techdirt, has expired. How annoying is we receive a good bit of traffic to that? Why do publications even our archives, and that's valuable agree to post stories that they traffic. Not only do such visitors will then be forced to pull down actually tend to be more likely to in the future? It completely kills click on advertisements (regular the web experience. It breaks readers have ad blindness), but any links to the article. It kills they're like fresh "leads" to get off any discussion about the regular new readers. And yet, so article. It's exactly how not to do many publications ruin all that things on the web, and it shows, traffic by sending them nowhere. yet again, what the traditional T h e A s s o c i a t e d P r e s s i s newspapers -- even one that particularly bad about this, seems to "get it" as much as The forcing partners who pay the AP Guardian does -- still has a long for content to remove it after a way to go in adapting to the month. In those cases, visitors online world. are just given an error page. But Permalink| Comments| Email here's a bizarre one. Jake points This Story us to a story at The Guardian's Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:13:00 PM

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch Peripheral manufacturer Logitech has released a free app that lets you turn your iPhone or iPod touch (or probably even your iPad, if you're Stephen Colbert) into a wireless mouse and keyboard.

The free TouchMouse app [ iTunes Link] is perfect for those situations where you've connected your Mac to a TV and want a way to control it from the comfy confines of your favorite couch.

There are actually two components to TouchMouse; the iPhone app and the Logitech TouchMouse Server software.

The latter comes in Mac OS X and Windows (XP, Vista, and 7) versions, and must be installed on the Mac or PC in order to "host" the virtual mouse and keyboard created by TouchMouse.

The "mouse" has three buttons for your "clicking" pleasure, and uses the majority of your iPhone screen as a touchpad. With the

touch of a button, you can bring up a keyboard to type on your Mac or PC. There are other apps that can do the same thing if you're not a fan of Logitech. Air Mouse Pro[US$1.99, iTunes Link] is probably the most powerful and popular Wi-Fi mouse in the App Store, while Rowmote Pr o [US$4.99, iTunes Link] has a large and vocal fan following. If you're looking for free (and who isn't?), Logitech's TouchMouse

app can give you a taste of remote control at absolutely no cost.

TUAW Logitech gives away free wireless mouse and keyboard (it's an app) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Old New York Times Junk Still Available [Image File]

By Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:10:51 AM

Here, the original turnstile from the old New York Times cafeteria can be yours for only

$1,350. For the same price you

35

could hire Tom Friedman to speak for just over one minute.[ Olde Good Things]

36

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Ustream Raises $75 Million in Funding

By Ben Parr (Mashable!)

Submitted at 2/1/2010 10:07:39 PM

Live video streaming platform Ustream has just announced that it has raised $75 million in a Series B round led by Softbank, a telecom firm based out of Japan. Additional funding from strategic investors (aka previous investors) is still pending.

According to Ustream, the funding will help them expand their live video platform beyond the states and into Asia.

Softbank is an investor in Alibaba.com, social app maker RockYou, is the lead owner in Yahoo Japan, and has telecom and Internet businesses in multiple Asian countries. Its international reach and properties are likely to be an asset as Ustream expands internationally.

Ustream told me in a phone call that in January the service had over 50 million live video viewers and 3.5 million registered viewers.

Ustream has been on a roll recently. The company has had success with live video streams such as the Puppy Cam and Twilight: New Moon Red Carpet, which had over 3 million viewers. Recently Ustream released an iPhone app for video streaming.

Back in April 2008, Ustream’s raised $11.1 million in a Series A funding round with DCM, as well as original angel investors Labrador Ventures and Band of Angels.

Reviews: ustream Tags: funding, live video, softbank, trending, ustream, video

Google News Adds Stars for Topic Tracking [News Aggregation]

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

New Android From Motorola is Called Devour

Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:30:00 AM

If a story pops up in Google News that you'd like to keep track of, you can now add a familiar "star" to it. That allows you to track multiple stories from a "Starred" menu, and get

By Stan Schroeder Central have gotten hold of a updates on new developments.

(Mashable!) retail box(or a promo box) for When a story is starred, updates the phone, and Engadget later t o i t w i l l c a u s e b o l d - f a c e Submitted at 2/2/2010 2:00:49 AM spotted support documents for h e a d l i n e s t o a p p e a r a n d , Although the company has been the Devour on Motorola’s presumably, draw your eyes to struggling financially for over a official site (currently offline). them. You can also check in year now, at times being on the Many details about the phone are manually on your stories by verge of shutdown, Motorola’s unknown, but we know it’s a visiting "Starred," but Google mobile division created quite a part of Verizon’s roster, it’s got a has, for some reason, limited stir with its Android smartphone, Qualcomm MSM7627 processor your starring to 20 recent items. the Droid (partly thanks to an (the same one that powers the Perhaps it's a matter of how aggressive, expensive marketing Palm Pixi) QWERTY keyboard, much they can put on a page, or WiFi and a car kit. Oh yes, it a person can realistically follow,

By Associated Press Memphis: Z. Randolph 22 Pts, campaign).

Now, Motorola is riding the (ESPN.com) also has MotoBlur for all you but it seems an odd, artificial 17 Reb, 1 Ast limit for such a vast service.

Five Filters featured article: wave with several new Android widget lovers.

Submitted at 2/1/2010 11:22:35 PM handsets; recently it was the [Image credit: Android Central] Starring stories in Google Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: News[Google News Blog] Backflip, and now another phone Reviews: Android Top Performers PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, is joining the club: the Devour.

Tags: android, Devour, Los Angeles: K. Bryant 44 Pts, Term Extraction.

We know it’s called that M o t o r o l a 3 Reb, 3 Ast because the folks at Android

Kobe becomes Lakers scoring leader in loss

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Does Facebook’s Doppelganger Week Violate TOS?

Twitter Under Phishing Attack?

By Brenna Ehrlich (Mashable!)

Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:07:16 AM

Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:11:13 AM

By now everyone’s familiar with the infamous Facebook Doppelganger Week(s) — it’s been going on for, like, two weeks now — but has anyone stopped to think that the trend is actually going against the social networking site’s Terms of Service?

CNET brought up the point this morning, and a look at the site’s TOS reveals that the (sometimes) flattering pics may not be legally cool: So unless people have been trolling Creative Commons for snaps, it’s likely that they’re violating Facebook’s rules.

As far as we know, the site

37

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Numerous Twitter users are pointing out that Twitter forced them to change their passwords out of the blue. According to blogger Andrew Girdwood, these users have received an e-mail containing the following hasn’t taken any action to quash message: “Due to concern that this trend ( Full Disclosure: As your account may have been you can see above, I gleefully compromised in a phishing took part in it as well), but attack that took place offthankfully this whole deal is Twitter, your password was supposed to last a week, anyway. reset,” together with a link for Which is good news for all you resetting the password.

Facebook stalkers out there Although the e-mail itself looks whose efforts have been foiled like a phishing attack, it’s by pictures of Lou Diamond genuine; it seems that admins at Phillips and Johnny Depp (dream T w i t t e r h a v e d i s c o v e r e d on, bros). something fishy is going on, and Tags: doppelganger week, facebook, social media

they’re trying to prevent further damage before it happens.

The Next Web also mentions reports that this incident has something to do with the user account @THCx, which may have gained access to a large number of Twitter accounts, possibly by abusing NutshellMail, but all of this is unconfirmed at this point. [img credit: blog.arhg.net] Tags: phishing, social media, trending, twitter

Totemic Rodent's Handlers Decree Frigid Misery Upon a Weary Nation [Holidays]

By Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:04:10 AM

Merry Groundhog Day! This morning Punxsutawney Phil "saw his shadow," meaning six more weeks of winter. Jesus.

Every year we politely pay attention to these Pagans and their animal rituals and in return they fuck us. Enough already. [ CNN]

Apple releases another 27-inch iMac firmware update

By Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

firmware update. The update, which is for iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) only: Updates the display firmware on Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:30:00 AM 27-inch iMac systems to address Filed under: iMac, Software i s s u e s t h a t m a y c a u s e Update Amid rumors that Apple intermittent display flickering. has halted production of the 27- The update weighs in at 294KB The first 27-inch iMac update inch iMac do to display issues, and can be downloaded here or was released on December 21, Apple has released a second through Software Update.

2009 that updated "the graphics firmware on ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 graphics cards to address issues that may cause image corruption or display flickering."

TUAW Apple releases another 27-inch iMac firmware update originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog

(TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Limits of Bioethics (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 2/1/2010 3:00:00 PM

On Valentine's day two years ago, Paul Wagner, a 40-year-old Philadelphia purchasing manager, gave Gail Tomas, a total stranger, his left kidney.

Wagner met Tomas, a 65-yearold former opera singer, on the i n t e r n e t , a t MatchingDonors.com. Her daughter had posted an ad asking some magnificent stranger to save her mother. "It was there that I read about a lady in my city, Philadelphia, who was desperate for help," Wagner said.

"It has been one of the best decisions I have ever made."

This story had a happy ending.

Yet it unfolded amid controversy over whether ethical norms were violated.

Exasperated by the efforts of sick and needy patients to find donors for themselves, Dr. Douglas Hanto, a transplant surgeon at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, complained "it will undermine trust in the whole system." By "system," Hanto was referring to the national transplant list.

Today, there are over 83,000 people in line for a kidney in the United States. In places such as New York and California, the wait can be up to eight years.

Unless a friend or a relative offers a kidney, people such as Tomas languish on dialysis, awaiting an organ from a deceased donor. They die at the

rate of 13 per day because an organ did not arrive in time-hence the frantic plea of Tomas's daughter to anyone who would consider donating to her mother.

A few years ago, Hanto, a former head of the ethics committee of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, had his hospital turn away a fragile patient named Lisa Cunningham, a 40-year-old former social worker with a young son, whose prospective donor read about her plight in a local newspaper. Arthur Caplan, a prominent bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, condemned donor solicitation online as "an outbreak of impatience combined with a mefirst attitude," he told a reporter.

Unless a friend or a relative offers a kidney, people such as Tomas languish on dialysis, awaiting an organ from a deceased donor.

Me first? Cunningham was not snatching a kidney away from someone else. Except for the story about her, there would have been no offer in the first place.

Moreover, every so-called Good Samaritan donor who gives to someone like Cunningham or Tomas removes them from the queue, and so others move up a slot. No one is harmed while someone is saved.

Caplan is a bioethicist; his titles imply an expertise in ethics.

Hanto served as the chair of the Ethics Committee at the American Society of Transplant

Surgeons. Yet what are we to make of their willingness to issue life-and-death pronouncements involving other people? Well, we know a few things about them.

First, that they share an absolutist approach to egalitarianism: If all cannot benefit, then none should benefit.

Second, as ethicists they presume to know how despairing patients should conduct their private affairs. And third, they appear to have few qualms about conveying to desperately ill people a message of hopelessness: Be passive, dying patients--wait your turn and take no initiative to save your own life.

Does being a bioethicist entitle one to any such moral authority, edifying the rest of us about right and wrong? Is this what society should expect of its "ethics experts"?

The proper relationship between experts and citizens is a question of longstanding interest to sociologists and social critics. In the case of bioethicists, the nature of the subject about which they claim authority is up for debate. Traditionally, they have focused on the controversies surrounding biomedical technology, such as cloning, sex selection, in vitro fertilization, nanotechnology, research ethics, organ allocation, and so on. Now experts are calling for involvement in policy. Renee Fox and Judith P. Swazey, senior scholars who have studied the

sociology and history of bioethics, urge a focus on "inequalities in health and in access to health care in America." The field is too "narrowly American-ocentric," they write in their 2008 book Observing Bioethics; it should become "more centrally and deeply involved with [global] suffering and issues of social justice." In his new book The Future of Bioethics, Howard Brody, a physician and philosopher at the University of Texas Medical Branch, instructs bioethicists to gauge success by asking themselves if they are "speaking truth to power." These prescriptions presume a moral authority that bioethicists cannot properly claim.

Origins Where did bioethicists come from? Ethical conundrums in medicine long predated the creation of the field now known as bioethics. In his respected book The Birth of Bioethics, Albert R. Jonsen, a moral theologian and bioethicist, dates the origin of bioethics as a distinct discipline to 1947, the year that 23 physicians were convicted of war crimes during the Nuremberg tribunal. Others believe the field grew out of postwar technological capabilities that intensified the already vexing dilemmas about human control over life and death. Medical controversies over care for the terminally ill, reproductive technology, genetic

manipulation, and organ transplantation drew the attention of Catholic theologians and other religious scholars in the 1950s and 1960s. In concert with philosophically inclined physicians and scientists, they began to apply moral theory to modern medical controversies.

The exploration of these issues soon became more secularized as historians, philosophers, anthropologists, legal scholars, and others joined in.

At the same time it became clear that as technology enhanced physicians' therapeutic powers, it increased the range of interventions that patients could undergo and the vulnerability that came from not understanding the risks of those interventions. This recognition brought questions about doctors' duty to inform patients about the treatments prescribed, the alternatives available, the patient's prognosis, and the right to refuse care. A backlash against medical paternalism that was already underway in the 1960s began to attract academics who were engaged in the civil rights and antiwar movements and harbored a keen distrust of institutions; they trained their sights on resetting the balance of power between physicians and patients.

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perhaps inevitable that a specialized group of professionals--the bioethicists-would emerge to meet the task.

In an impressive burst of institution-building that was funded by both the federal government and private philanthropies, three bioethics think tanks sprang up between 1969 and 1971: the Hastings Center, in upstate New York; the now defunct Society for Health and Human Values, in Philadelphia; and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, a Jesuit institute, in Washington. Populated by physicians, legal scholars, philosophers, historians, and humanists, their agendas coalesced around cutting-edge issues such as genetic testing, organ transplants, in vitro fertilization, neonatal intensive care units, euthanasia, and other conundrums surrounding death and dying. And when, in the 1970s, research scandals at Willowbrook and Tuskegee erupted, research ethics and regulatory oversight were added to the bioethics portfolio.

Inhabitants of the ivory tower were eager to make themselves relevant by applying theory to real-world problems. According to Daniel Callahan, one of the founders of the Hastings Center, he and his colleagues wanted to give philosophy "some social bite, some ‘relevance.'" In 1982, in an article called "How Medicine Saved the Life of

Ethics," the philosopher and historian Stephen Toulmin argued that the imperatives of medicine enabled moral philosophy to avoid the academic sidelines. And there is no question that, in some cases, physicians themselves turned to theologians and moral philosophers for help.

Today, bioethics has an impressive institutional footprint.

Major universities house bioethics centers that offer a plethora of programs: intensive immersion courses, certificate programs, master's and doctoral degree programs. The field has several peer-reviewed journals and a major professional organization. Bioethicists teach medical students and undergraduates; they serve on hospital ethics committees and on research review boards. In many hospitals bioethicists are "on call" to offer guidance on issues such as the mental competence of patients and whether certain life-prolonging treatments should be initiated or withdrawn. Some are regularly sought out by the media, others consult for pharmaceutical companies, and a few even serve as expert witnesses in courts of law. In the public policy arena, bioethicists are appointed to presidential commissions and state and federal task forces that formulate guidelines and advise politicians.

Since 1970, the year in which the term "bioethics" was coined

by Sargent Shriver, the institutional base of bioethics has flourished. The swift rate of growth alone makes the field itself perhaps as interesting as the problems it addresses. As the bioethicist Carl Elliot has pointed out, every sector of society has its moral dimensions, "yet in no other sphere of our lives [but medicine] has ethics been so thoroughly professionalized . . . it is worth stepping back and noting just how unusual this really is." No wonder bioethics has become a subject of study in its own right.

A Wide-Open field Bioethics today is a field with widely divergent understandings of itself. In meetings of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), which is the major professional organization for bioethicists, and in journal symposia, participants try to come to terms with the question of what kind of enterprise bioethics is. Is it a field of scholarly inquiry, a learned profession, a consultancy, a form of policymaking or activism, an oversight apparatus that monitors researchers and physicians, a discourse, a project, or a collection of questions or issues?

What training should a bioethicist receive? Should the field take stands on mainstream political issues, such as the war in Iraq, the crisis in Darfur, Abu Ghraib? Are bioethicists excessively beholden to the

institutions that they serve?

When I spoke in 2006 at the annual meeting of the ASBH on the assigned topic of whether the organization should take political positions--I said no--the reception I received was chilly indeed. This was a question that the society itself had been debating for years. During the q and a, almost all the bioethicists who asked questions contested my view that professional groups damage their credibility when they pronounce on issues outside of their expertise. Au contraire, they said; as experts in ethical matters, who better than us to opine? I remember feeling sympathy for the leadership of the ASBH, which has to accommodate these competing views, and I admired the officers for inviting me in the first place and for airing the society's internal disagreements openly.

Finding the "right" moral answer--assuming for a moment one exists--is not the business of applied ethics.

Is it politically desirable for society to credit a designated group called "bioethicists" with expertise in resolving the most difficult moral questions? If so, what is it that gives ethicists a more legitimate claim to wisdom about right and wrong than the rest of us? The matter of ethical expertise--what it looks like, who can claim it--is a profound one.

The place of bioethics in the academy, in the clinical realm, and in society turns on it. For

most of us, the very idea of the "right" answer to a complex moral dilemma seems absurd on its face. After all, its derivation depends upon which moral theory one favors: deontological, consequentialist, natural law, situational, and so on.

By no means does this negate the possibility, let alone the importance, of serious moral reflection, but such analyses may be too lost in the foundational questions to be of much everyday use. And, of course, many bioethicists rely on their own philosophical biases. So, for example, when bioethicists condemn organ donor solicitation with the argument that it gives unfair advantage to some or violates human dignity, we must ask what makes them sufficiently sure of their view to impose it on others? Finding the "right" moral answer--assuming for a moment one exists--is not the business of applied ethics. So what can bioethics offer? What is its technical expertise?

The answer comes into focus when we think of applied ethics as a deliberative process, one that concerns itself with how to determine what ought to be done rather than to make a concrete determination per se. For example, when an expert in bioethics approaches a problem, such as an end-of-life decision, he brings a deep knowledge of the cultural history of that LIMITS page 40

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controversy, including the conceptual schemes that have been used to resolve it and relevant legal decisions. This allows him to draw analogies to current situations. While hovering above the fray the bioethicist objectively delineates value conflicts, lays out the assumptions behind different positions, evaluates the soundness of arguments according to standard rules of logic, and reflects upon the potential consequences of various courses of action.

Mostly, he imparts this analysis to the doctors or administrators who enlisted his advice.

However, when working directly with patients, the task is typically one of helping them or their loved ones reach consensus about end-of-life decisions or course of treatment.

Ultimately, the bioethicist presents his analysis to the designated decision-maker-typically a physician or an administrator--who is accountable to his patients and his employer. Bioethicists should not advocate for patients or physicians or hospitals; they should advocate for disinterested moral deliberation. Nor should they mistake consensus, which is required in order to take action, for the discovery of moral truth.

The role of the bioethicist, then, should be to illuminate debates, not to settle them. In the parlance of medicine, they do not have prescribing privileges.

Though many bioethicists disavow the mantle of moral authority that the professionalization of ethics implies, many others, alas, do not. Ask almost any hospital physician about this and you will get, in reliable sequence, an eye roll, a sigh, and then an earful of anecdotes about swaggering bioethicists posing as arbiters of right and wrong ("Wizards of Oughts," as the critic Giles Scofield put it). In the media, the coverage of almost any biomedical controversy is sure to contain a quotation from a bioethicist with oracular pretensions. The message is clear: Anyone who disagrees with me is thoughtless or unethical.

Such arrogance discomfits ethical bioethicists as well. Erik Parens of the Hastings Center, located just outside of New York City, regrets the popular view of ethicist as "priggish or foolish enough to lay claim to how other people should lead their lives."

Fed up with Homo bioethicus, Carl Elliott of the University of Minnesota has remarked that "Many people working in and around bioethics wince if someone called them a 'bioethicist' . . . Some resist the aura of professionalism and moral expertise that the term bioethics seems to imply. Others are just embarrassed by the incivility and glibness of our public spokespeople. Others just don't want to be viewed as the

ethics police."

Bioethics and Social Justice Bioethicists like Ruth Macklin of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine would have bioethics adopt an aggressive pursuit of social justice. "As a liberal, humanitarian bioethicist," she told interviewers, "I acknowledge that my chief concern is in striving for greater social justice within and among societies, and reducing disparities in health, wealth, and other resources among populations in the world."

Howard Brody opines that the future agenda of bioethics "ought to be concerned with power disparities." These may be noble aspirations, but one must ask what particular authority or skill bioethicists possess that qualifies them to solve global health problems, let alone economic ones. Achieving social justice in health is a complex task that requires the forging of a meaningful universal agreement on what health care should be like and what kind of scheme should dictate the national and transnational allocation of medical resources. Lest Americans be accused of bioethical imperialism, they will need to be part of a consensus involving countries whose fundamental views of justice, fairness, and basic human rights may differ dramatically from our own and from one another.

The origin of the current crisis of purpose, identity, and

expertise in bioethics stems in large part from its being a derivative enterprise.

It is unclear what the field of bioethics can add in the way of unique scholarship, practical wisdom, or ethical reflection that is not already being applied today, for better or worse, by experts in international development, global health economics, and political theory.

Granted, there might be a role for the dispassionate articulation of moral options, but as Fox and Swazey portray them, bioethicists who seek a global stage sound more like activists intent on changing the world.

Moreover, so many of the world's tragic circumstances do not need subtle moral clarification. They result from unjust institutions and corrupt leaders, and they require state and international action in the political and in some cases even the military realms. Displacing oppressive regimes and establishing the rule of law are no jobs for a bioethicist. The question for bioethics, then, is whether such a moral crusade is an appropriate mission for the field. Or, as the philosopher and bioethicist Jonathan Moreno has rightly asked, "Can a scholarly field retain its intellectual legitimacy, both internally and in the eyes of the public, when some of its core topics seem to be matters of ideology, rather than, or at least as much as, expertise?"

The origin of the current crisis of purpose, identity, and expertise in bioethics stems in large part from its being a derivative enterprise. During the 1960s and early 1970s, bioethics was less a distinct field than a collegial network of scholars and learned professionals who shared a mutual interest in applying moral theory to medical quandaries. These physicians, legal theorists, philosophers, historians, anthropologists, and sociologists were members of established academic disciplines with distinct bodies of knowledge, with time-honored theories and methods of inquiry.

They brought those intellectual traditions to bear on questions of value-conflict within medicine.

But when the zone of intersecting interests promoted itself into a primary, semiautonomous field of its own, in much the same way that women's studies or black studies did, it became more and more estranged from the rigorous scholarly disciplines that spawned it. Now many students aspire to become "bioethicists" without any other disciplinary background.

"Conservative" Bioethics Though professional bioethicists may not agree, they tend to close ranks when outsiders presume to make ethical claims. Fox and Swazey describe how mainstream bioethics--which LIMITS page 41

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they consider to be "essentially synonymous [with] liberal bioethics"--reacted with tribal animus to the ascendancy of conservative bioethics during the Bush administration.

A defining moment of the bioethics culture wars was August 9, 2001. On that day President Bush announced federal funding, with restrictions, for human embryonic stem cell research and named Leon Kass, a vocal critic of embryonic stem cell cloning, as director of a new President's Council on Bioethics.

During its tenure, which ended in June 2009, the Council elicited full-throated denunciations by many in the academy. Among the most vocal was Alta Charo, a legal scholar and bioethicist from the University of Wisconsin (recently named by the Obama Administration to serve as a senior advisor at the Food and Drug Administration) who has referred to Kass's reign as "the Endarkenment." More dramatically, when Kass presented the keynote at the asbh in 2004, the atmosphere in the lecture room crackled with hostility and some in the audience stood with their backs to him as he spoke.

The implication is clear: The conservative agenda is essentially inhospitable to scientific progress and, by extension, to the patients who could benefit from its fruits.

Recall when Dolly, the cloned

Scottish ewe, stepped daintily into the public square in 1997.

For the most part, mainstream bioethicists were exhilarated by the therapeutic promise she represented, whereas their rightleaning colleagues saw Dolly's creation as a threat to the sanctity of life and the beginning of a program that could well end in cloning designer children. The right and the left have a profoundly different understanding of what is at stake; and the rift between them, it is safe to say, is unbridgeable.

So deft are some conservative bioethicists at conjuring apocalyptic visions of a posthuman future that the journalist Will Saletan has characterized them as "standing athwart history, sighing 'Oy.'" He has a point. To be sure, they sigh with erudition and with eloquence.

Should conservative bioethicists-or any bioethicist, for that matter--counsel us on reasons for vigilance? Yes, but too often they warn us not to make any progress at all. There is an irony here. For all the deference that conservative bioethics pays to the implicit wisdom of the ages, it rarely mines the recent past for lessons. Instead of concentrating on the ancients, why not also study the history of in vitro fertilization, paid egg donation, and surrogate motherhood to learn about cultural resistance and adaptation to such practices?

Even better, why not consider earlier practices that were

deemed repugnant in their day but are now unexceptionable?

The list of these moral apocalypses that never were is a distinguished one: vaccination, anesthesia, blood transfusions, life insurance, artificial insemination. Perhaps the systematic analysis of these practices holds little interest for conservative bioethicists because most of society now regards them as nonissues. Or more likely, they regard an objective assessment as irrelevant given their convictions that certain practices pose such an affront to human dignity that they should not be pursued at all, no matter how much good can come of them.

And what about politics? To be fair, mainstream bioethicists are correct when they say that conservative bioethicists often have a political agenda. But so do they, making their assertion that President Bush's Council on Bioethics was too partisan and homogeneous--"a council of clones," as Arthur Caplan remarked--amusing indeed.

Having attended several council meetings myself, I can attest to its diversity of views and its careful deliberation. In the end, yes, the "Oys" had it but, no surprise, other bioethics commissions have displayed their own slant. They were "chaired by liberals, staffed by liberals, [with] overwhelmingly liberal members," according to Daniel Callahan of the Hastings

Center. Yet, as Callahan says, "they received hardly any criticism at all." When bioethicists swim in the same ideological waters as the administrations they serve, their likeminded colleagues find little to complain about--but a bias may still lurk.

The Human Subject No discussion of bioethics is complete without a discussion of human subject research. It is through the regulatory reach of ethics oversight that we see how deeply institutionalized bioethics has penetrated medicine. In 1974, in response to the revelations surrounding the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Congress passed the National Research Act. It mandated the creation of institutional review boards, or irbs, to ensure that the benefits of research outweighed the risks and that individuals know those risks before consenting to become a subject.

All human subject research conducted in medical schools, universities, and federal agencies must be approved by irbs.

Today many irbs are hidebound bureaucracies. The informed consent documents that subjects must read and sign can run to dozens of pages. To spare themselves suffocation by red tape, researchers sometimes abandon studies altogether.

Changing a single word in a consent form at the request of an irb can entail a months-long wait for approval after resubmission.

Out of zealous concern for subjects' privacy, some irbs require that raw data, including tapes and transcripts, be destroyed a few years after collection. For investigators who wish to replicate or to extend the original work, this is an irretrievable loss of information.

Amid burdensome paperwork requirements and nitpicky objections to even the most innocuous interventions, projects are often held up for months.

This costs medical schools considerable amounts of money and, as in the case of cancer drug trials, it surely costs actual lives.

Efforts to assure informed consent and subject autonomy often veer into smothering paternalism. Consider the complaints of mental health researchers in the wake of September 11. Their timely access to victims was thwarted by irbs concerned that subjects would be "re-traumatized" by filling out a questionnaire or undergoing an interview. Along these lines, many irbs spend hours deliberating over whether subjects will be "coerced" into participating in a study if offered a token gratuity of, say, $25.

More serious cases have involved the refusal to allow parents to enroll their terminally ill children in studies. In the pioneering days of liver transplants, for example, some bioethicists said that parents of LIMITS page 45

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A Riot in Calabria

By Alexander Stille (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:58:00 PM

Images of African immigrants rioting in the streets of a small southern Italian city, throwing rocks, blocking roads, and breaking store and car windows, briefly exposed a shocking reality: the existence of Italy’s growing migrant-labor population, mostly Africans, an estimated 20,000 of them working under inhuman conditions, living in abandoned buildings or improvised structures without heat or working toilets, sleeping four (even five) to a mattress while laboring off the books for about $30 a day.

Early January’s revolt was sparked by an incident in which a couple of local residents from around the town of Rosarno, Calabria, drove by a migrant encampment and shot an African worker with a pellet gun, as if for sport, laughed, and drove away.

“We are not animals,” many of the immigrants told reporters, explaining the explosion of longfestering anger that this episode triggered. Vigilante groups retaliated against the migrant rioters, firing further rounds of pellets. Some in the press compared the community defense groups to the Ku Klux Klan, while Italy’s interior minister attributed the violence to “too much tolerance” of illegal immigration.

Rosarno, a town of about 15,000, is the crossroads where two national crises meet: Italy’s failure to deal intelligently with the first mass immigration in its recent history and the increasing domination of southern Italy by the Mafia. Located in the citrus groves of the plain of Gioia Tauro, the area around Rosarno is one of the nastiest strongholds of the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian version of the Mafia. Five of the principal towns in the area have had their city councils dissolved because of organized crime infiltration. The presence of thousands of migrant workers in the area would not have gone unnoticed by the area’s crime families--or by its nominal legal authorities. Hundreds of the workers in Rosarno were living in a single abandoned factory on the edge of town--not scattered about or hidden in the countryside. It is inconceivable that these men were working without the blessing and profit of the ‘Ndrangheta or the passive consent of local police and carabinieri. “Rosarno is not New York,” Gianfranco Fini, the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, said recently.

“Everyone knows that there were places where workers lived who worked off the books and were exploited. For what reason didn’t the authorities do their duty?”

Not much is known about the relations between organized crime and migrant labor. The Mafia in this part of Italy has

traditionally played the role of enforcers for local landowners, while taking a slice of the profits earned by their thuggish maintenance off of rock-bottom labor prices. Some authorities suspect the ‘Ndrangheta was involved in the punitive raids against the workers--a way of keeping them in line. Known ‘Ndrangheta members were arrested when police finally restored order after two days of chaotic violence.

There’s a precedent for this type of clash. In 2008, in another town near Naples, the Neapolitan organized-crime outfit known as the Camorra killed six African immigrants, provoking a riot that was only squelched when the Italian government dispatched 400 members of the police and carabinieri. According to Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah, a book about the Camorra, African immigrants are often braver in standing up to the Mafia than Italians.

Millions of immigrants have settled in Italy in the past several decades, but immigration policy remains as haphazard as ever.

There are now approximately four million foreign-born immigrants living there legally, about 6 percent of the total population, with hundreds of thousands of others living illegally. Immigrants now contribute an estimated 9.3 percent to Italy’s GDP and much more in some industries-construction, manufacturing, and

tourism. Given that immigrants contribute more to GDP than their share of the population, they are, in fact, quite productive. In many ways, immigrant workers are exactly what an aging country like Italy needs. They are mostly people of working age who pay into the country’s lavish pension system and keep it from collapsing. And yet, millions of Italians still nurse the fantasy that immigrants produce little more than crime and that the country would be better off if it got rid of them.

The majority of immigrants have settled in the north and center of the country. They live and work under better conditions than the migrant fruit pickers in Calabria. And, contrary to the images offered by Rosarno, the majority of foreign immigrants are neither black nor Muslim.

Romanians, armed with legal EU passports, make up the largest single group. Filipino (and now Romanian and Ukrainian) women dominate the domestic labor force--babysitters, housekeepers, and caretakers for the elderly. Chinese work in the shoe and leather businesses, and have become a force in textiles.

North Africans own many of the fruit and vegetable stores, frequently staying open longer hours than their Italian counterparts.

To say that Italy is not yet a multicultural society is an understatement. The Northern League, a member of the current

center-right coalition, has made xenophobia its stock-in-trade. In Bologna, one Northern League branch declared “Pork Day” to prevent the building of a mosque. The idea was to smear the area designated for the mosque with pork products to make it religiously unfit for Muslims. Rather than being banished from politics, the promoter of the idea, Roberto Calderoli, is a minister in Silvio Berlusconi’s government.

Italians have grown accustomed to having foreigners do many of the hard jobs they no longer want for themselves, scurrying around on the margins of their society.

Despite the presence of a second generation, some of whom have gone to university and published books, Italians still cannot conceive of immigrants as compatriots capable of contributing to their culture or society. When questioned by a TV reporter of Middle Eastern heritage (who speaks excellent Italian), Calderoli called her a “suntanned lady.” He paid no political price for the obtuse remark, just as Prime Minister Berlusconi paid no price for referring to Barack Obama as “suntanned”--and, just to show that he was not going to be cowed by foreign opinion, describing Michelle Obama that way, too.

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The Accountable Presidency

By Jack Goldsmith (The New Republic - All Feed)

Garry Wills and John Yoo have written books that, in very different ways, analyze the Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:58:00 PM conception of presidential power Crisis and Command: A History inherent in Cheney’s statement. of Executive Power from George Wills does not like what Cheney Washington to George W. Bush and his boss did with the

By John Yoo presidency after September 11.

(Kaplan, 544 pp., $29.95) But perhaps in reaction to Bomb Power: The Modern Cheney’s statement, which he Presidency and the National reproduces in his introduction, Security State Wills has looked back and

By Garry Wills determined that the problem lies (Penguin, 288 pp., $27.95) less with the Bush I. administration, which he blames In December 2008, Chris plenty, than with the institution Wallace asked Vice President of the presidency, which became Cheney, “If the president, during too powerful when it was given war, decides to do something to control of the bomb in the 1940s. protect the country, is it legal?” Yoo, a legal architect of many of Cheney’s answer included a t h e B u s h a d m i n i s t r a t i o n reference to a military authority counterterrorism policies that that President Bush did not Wills detests (and some of which exercise. “The President of the I had a hand in revising), also United States,” he said, “now for looks to history to explain the fifty years is followed at all Bush presidency, but he takes a times, twenty-four hours a day, longer arc. He analyzes the by a military aide carrying a origins and subsequent growth of football that contains the nuclear p r e s i d e n t i a l p o w e r , w i t h codes that he would use and be emphasis on how presidents have authorized to use in the event of used their powers aggressively in a nuclear attack on the United crisis, and concludes that the States.” The vice president added Bush administration actions “fell that the president “could launch within the precedents set by the kind of devastating attack the earlier Presidents.” world has never seen” without These books nicely frame the checking with Congress or the d e b a t e a b o u t t h e B u s h courts, and noted also that “he a d m i n i s t r a t i o n ’ s p l a c e i n has that authority because of the constitutional history. On the nature of the world we live in.” surface, Wills’s and Yoo’s And then he shifted to the war on arguments are unsurprising. terrorism: “It’s unfortunate, but I Since the 1970s, and especially think we’re perfectly appropriate since September 11, we have to take the steps we have.” grown accustomed to liberals

arguing against, and conservatives arguing for, broad presidential power. But their arguments become more interesting, and revealing, when placed in their broader context.

During the century from the end of the Civil War to the middle of the Vietnam war, liberals in the United States mostly supported, and conservatives mostly opposed, a powerful presidency.

Among the many remarkable aspects of these two books is that Yoo appropriates the midtwentieth-century liberal case for a strong national-security presidency, while Wills articulates mid-twentieth-century conservative concerns about an out-of-control one.

Liberals at the dawn of the Progressive era believed that the traditional American system of checks and balances--with its mechanisms of indirect democracy, and its dispersion of power among state and federal governments and between Congress and the president--led to corrupt, inefficient, and unaccountable government that was unsuited to the social and economic challenges of post–Civil War industrial society. “There has been a vast alteration in the conditions of government,” Professor Woodrow Wilson argued in 1885, and “the checks and balances which once obtained are no longer effective.”

These alterations changed the “living” Constitution, Wilson

later argued, for “the underlying understandings of a constitutional system are modified from age to age by changes of life and circumstance and corresponding alterations of opinion.” The contemporary Constitution, properly understood, should centralize power in national administrative institutions under the control of an agenda-setting president who alone, in virtue of his national election, embodied the national interest. “The President is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can,” Wilson declared. “His capacity will set the limit; and if Congress be overborne by him, it will be no fault of the makers of the Constitution.”

Formal centralization of presidential power and agendasetting unilateral presidential action: these were the tenets of the executive power that guided progressive thinking from Theodore Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson, not only in domestic affairs but also in military and foreign affairs. “The initiative in foreign affairs, which the President possesses without any restriction whatever, is virtually the power to control them absolutely,” wrote Wilson in 1908, capturing the presidential philosophy of the incumbent Roosevelt and anticipating his own attitude in office.

Much more significant were the aggrandizing military acts of our two greatest war presidents.

Lincoln met the secession crisis by exercising Congress’s power to raise armies, spend federal money, and suspend habeas corpus, and by detaining thousands without charge or due process, in defiance of the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, too, exercised broad prerogative powers before and during World War II. Liberals approved or tolerated the theories of presidential power on which these acts rested, because that power had been used to preserve and extend liberty and equality.

They continued to approve when the Soviet threat and the broader Cold War led to permanent and still underappreciated expansions in the constitutional powers of the president. Rather than fully demobilize, as in past wars, the government maintained a multimillion-person peacetime standing army for the remainder of the Cold War, and in 1947 it established new institutions-including the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council--to manage the peacetime military bureaucracy.

These and similar institutions concentrated unprecedented authority in the president, which Harry Truman was quick to exercise. Most momentously, in 1950, without congressional ACCOUNTABLE page 45

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Advertorial Malfunction

By Michelle Cottle (The New Republic - All Feed)

culture warrior James Dobson’s evangelical empire, has put together a 30-second spot based Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:58:00 PM on the story of Tim and Pam, God, I miss the good old days of with the theme “Celebrate the Super Bowl, when the hottest Family, Celebrate Life.” Procontroversy was the post-game c h o i c e g r o u p s h a v e , hand-wringing over how to unsurprisingly, gone batshit. s p a n k C B S f o r s u b j e c t i n g NARAL, in an email ominously America to Janet Jackson’s right titled, “Focus on the Family in boob.

Your Living Room,” is rallying This year, the game-related women to pressure CBS to kill hullabaloo centers not on the the ad and stick to its longhalftime spectacle but on the standing policy of not airing ads—specifically, a pro-life spot “advocacy ads”—a category featuring the curious case of distinct from regular commerce2007 Heisman Trophy winner focused ads hawking things like Tim Tebow. As the story goes, b e e r , t r u c k s , o r d a t i n g Pam and Bob Tebow were services—during the Super serving as Baptist missionaries in Bowl. Likewise, the Women’s the Philippines when Pam was Media Center, with backing from pregnant with Tim, their fifth NOW and the Feminist Majority child. Early in the pregnancy, Foundation, has launched a P a m c o n t r a c t e d a m o e b i c crusade, complete with online dysentery, requiring treatment petition, to stop the “anti-choice w i t h h a r d - c o r e m e d s t h a t Super Bowl ad.” Outraged critics threatened not only to damage contend that, since PETA, t h e f e t u s b u t a l s o c a u s e MoveOn.org, and the United c o m p l i c a t i o n s t h a t c o u l d Church of Christ have had ads endanger her life. Citing such deemed unfit in past years, risks, her doctor recommended anything with Focus on the abortion. Pam refused, and the Family’s fingerprints on it resulting progeny is the stuff of cannot now be permitted. which football legends and high- Despite being pro-choice—and octane anti-abortion ads are anti-Dobson—I worry that the made. women’s groups are being shortLooking to twang several s i g h t e d . F r o m a p o l i t i c a l million heart strings during the perspective, this Tebow ad is gaudiest advertising spectacle of basically what the abortion the year, Focus on the Family, debate should be about: a battle

of ideas. It’s non-violent. It’s non-coercive. It’s not asking anyone to outlaw anything. It’s not even a sneaky arm-twisting maneuver aimed at bribing or blackmailing Republican politicians into toeing the prolife line. It’s the schmaltzy tale of a woman who chose to carry her child to term despite the risk to her own life. And let’s face it: We’re not talking here about a scared teenager on the fence about the morality of abortion.

Pam Tebow was a Baptist missionary; her faith pretty much called on her to carry that baby come hell or high water. Surely women aren’t so weak-minded they can’t be exposed to one happily-ever-after, praise-Jesus story without undergoing a Manchurian-candidate-esque brainwashing.

Will the spot be grotesquely emotionally manipulative? Well, d’uh. It’s a TV ad. But the proper response to the airing of objectionable political ideas is to counter with better ideas. Liberal groups should stop agitating for what sure as hell smells like political censorship and start scraping together $3 million for their own serious spots. (As opposed to the over-the-top sexual humor PETA fancies in its ads.) It has been six years since CBS caused a stink by piously turning away MoveOn

and UCC—six long, financially scarring years in which the ad environment has grown so brutal I expect the networks any day now to start accepting advocacy ads from the likes of NAMBLA, the Aryan Brotherhood, and the Gambino family. Under fire for the Tebow spot, CBS has talked big about having relaxed its policy on such issue ads in recent years. (As for the network’s current stand on purely commercial spots, who knows?

Though it apparently isn’t yet hungry enough to go for a gaydating-site ad featuring two guys making out.) It’s time for NARAL, NOW, the Women’s Media Center, MoveOn, the UCC, the NOH8 campaign, and other advocacy groups to make CBS puts its money where its mouth is, or, more accurately, its air time where their money is.

(Though maybe PETA should stay out of it. Those guys are nuts.)

That said, I do wish CBS weren’t running the spot—not because I’m a pro-choice liberal but because I’m a protective parent. During Nipplegate, we heard endless yammering about how the Super Bowl is a family affair, an annual bonding ritual for millions of American parents and kids. I myself found the argument more than a little specious. After all, plenty of the

buy-our-beer/jeans/breakfast cereal-and-oiled-naked-hottieswill-give-you-a-lap-dance ads that run during the Big Game are enough to sexually scar your average adult. But if many Americans indeed hold to this notion of the Super Bowl as more-or-less family-friendly, then it really isn’t an appropriate venue for any ad that talks about abortion—or any other seriously sexual topic. Not date rape. Not child porn. Not international sex trafficking. Grading on a curve, a split-second peek at Miss Nasty’s boob, while utterly tasteless, isn’t that hard to wave off with kids in the room; an ad that specifically aims to provoke discussion by focusing, no matter how cheerily, on a woman’s high-stakes decision about whether or not to terminate her pregnancy opens up a darker, more complicated can of worms.

Regardless of how ecstatic the pro-life community is over Pam Tebow’s personal choice, the broader topic of abortion should remain firmly in the category of unsuitable for children.

Michelle Cottle is a senior editor at The New Republic.

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continued from page 41

dying infants should not be allowed to give them a lifesaving segment of their own liver. The reason? No parent would refuse the opportunity to save his own child's life--thus, he would effectively be "coerced" into doing so--and so the option should not exist at all.

Based on this dubious logic, the power of decision would have been taken from the parents.

Someone else knew better.

What's more, as doctors have long observed, some parents do indeed refuse, especially if they have other children for whom they must remain healthy and not risk major surgery. The scenario echoes the time in the mid-1990s when ethicists urged physicians to withhold genetic test results from women with a high risk of breast cancer. The knowledge, they believed, was just too dangerous for the women to handle.

And yet, the field of bioethics considers the institutionalization of research ethics to be among its greatest accomplishments.

Having attended anniversary conferences commemorating the Belmont Report, a document that in 1979 set forth the basic principles of human research, Fox and Swazey portray

continued from page 43

themselves as bemused to hear bioethicists praising Belmont as "near-canonical," having "changed the world," and having been "consecrated" by its impact.

To be sure, nobody denies the need for research oversight. But at many institutions the pendulum surely has swung too far in the direction of vigilance.

Relentless scrutiny and seemingly capricious restriction have fostered mutual distrust between reviewers and researchers, making legitimate regulation more difficult and encouraging gaming by investigators.

Priorities for Bioethicists When bioethicists speak, who listens? When geologists weigh in on global warming, attention must be paid. After all, they are experts in climate science. When bioethicists put a full-page ad in the New York Times urging the passage of universal health care, as they did in 1994, what kind of expertise do they bring to bear?

Citizens interested in the debate are sufficiently versed in its moral dimensions; "experts" are not required to tell them what is and is not ethical. Nor does the r e p u d i a t i o n o f Matchingdonors.com hold sway with vulnerable patients, the

people who love them, or most of the doctors who want to save them. They embrace their own moral imperative: to minimize suffering through the unparalleled kindness of strangers.

At their best, bioethicists are scholars who study the intellectual and social history of value controversies in medicine and biotechnology. They can teach us about the technical and cultural antecedents of modern debates and show us how to engage in disciplined moral inquiry. They are skilled at drawing conceptual maps of the dilemma at hand while enumerating various ways to resolve it. In these ways, bioethicists have much to offer.

But beyond this, their value is mainly cosmetic or bureaucratic.

When called upon by politicians, their main task is to neutralize explosive issues or to provide ethical cover for decisions that have already been made. When physicians summon them, it is mostly to mediate disputes between patients, staff, and family members regarding endof-life decisions. The media tap bioethicists for high-minded sound bites. In hospitals and in governmental agencies, they man

the regulatory ramparts.

It is hard to gauge how much impact organized bioethics has had on society. If the activist wing closed up shop and the pundits went home, it is doubtful they would be missed. But one hopes that at least its scholarly and didactic entities will live on.

With our growing technical capacity to manipulate our biology and thus our destiny, biomedical dilemmas will certainly increase in number and in difficulty, and they will require as much thoughtful attention as they can get. But social justice should be left to others--to the rest of us. The more bioethics promotes an agenda of social or economic reform, the more it betrays itself to be politics by other means.

Sally Satel, M.D., is a resident scholar at AEI. P h o t o c r e d i t : iStockphoto/robynmac Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

You can't unsee Bomberman in BioShock 2

By Justin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:45:00 AM

You can blame us ... and we can

45

blame Game Rave's Jason Dvorak.

You can't unsee Bomberman in BioShock 2 originally appeared

on Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010

09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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authorization or consultation, he dispatched American troops to defend South Korea from North Korean attack and announced his intention to send four divisions (about 100,000 men) to a NATO force in Europe.

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Punxsutawney Phil predicts 6 more weeks of winter (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:25:53 AM

Sam buzzed up: Taliban: Terrorist or not? Not always easy to say (AP) 45 seconds ago 2010-0202T07:13:54-08:00 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Nation's 1st Primary Sets Stage for Ill. Showdown (Newsmax - Politics)

by corruption charges.

It initially appeared Quinn would easily win the Democratic Illinois Democrats are choosing nomination. But that was before Tuesday between candidates who the disclosure that a secret early bloodied each other in an ugly release program for prison battle for the gubernatorial inmates had included some nomination, while optimistic violent offenders. It also was Republicans are deciding who before his opponent, Comptroller will try to seize the executive Dan Hynes, introduced an ad mansion from a Democratic featuring old footage of the late Party weakened by infighting C h i c a g o M a y o r H a r o l d and scandal.

Washington — a revered figure The nominees who emerge from to many black voters — harshly the nation's first primary will criticizing Quinn. fight for the chance to run a state Quinn responded by linking so deep in debt that it can't pay Hynes, whose office regulates bills on time and must consider cemetery finances, to the scandal painful service cuts, higher taxes at a historic black cemetery or both. outside Chicago where bodies The governor's office isn't the were double-stacked in graves or only Republican target. They simply dumped in the weeds. He also hope Democratic disarray alleged Hynes ignored the will let them capture the Senate atrocities at Burr Oak Cemetery, seat formerly held by President the resting place of civil rightsBarack Obama. era lynching victim Emmett Till I n t h e g o v e r n o r ' s r a c e , and other prominent Africanincumbent Pat Quinn is seeking Americans, because he lacks a full term after being thrust into "human decency." office a year ago when his The Republican candidates for predecessor was brought down governor also attacked each Submitted at 2/1/2010 10:50:12 PM

other at times, but most of their exchanges focused on who was most adamantly opposed to raising taxes. Polls suggested the top contenders were state Sen. Kirk Dillard, businessman Andy McKenna and former Attorney General Jim Ryan.

Republicans think they have a strong shot at the governor's mansion because both Democratic candidates are proposing income tax increases and because Democrats have been so tainted by the arrest and impeachment of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The Blagojevich scandal could play into the Senate race, too.

The incumbent senator, Roland Burris, chose not to run because Blagojevich appointed him to the seat, sullying his reputation so badly that he could find little political support.

But the Democrats vying to replace Burris have their own troubles.

Alexi Giannoulias, the leader in the polls, has limited experience — a single term as state treasurer

and a job at a family bank that's now in financial trouble. Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson is a former Blagojevich aide. David Hoffman, former Chicago inspector general, is an unknown to most voters.

Republican leaders rallied around Mark Kirk, a five-term member of Congress and an officer in the Naval Reserve, as their choice for the party nomination. Although some Republicans hotly argued that Kirk wasn't sufficiently conservative, there was little evidence any of his opponents were catching on with voters. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Exclusive: Mary Hart Listens In on 'We Are the World' Recording Session (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:35:00 AM

ET's Mary Hart was ushered inside the studio to get an exclusive first listen to the "We Are the World" re-recording. On her way home, Mary blogged about all the action that took place to share her experience with fans.

As the only broadcast journalist invited inside, Mary had "the most incredible night." She even got to join Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie in the control room as they produced the master track.

She explained that the studio was flooded "with 95 of the biggest superstars from movies and music” who wanted to partake in this milestone musical event. Mary got to rub elbows with a plethora of singers such as Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, P!nk, and Jamie Foxx.

Poll: Bad Craziness in the GOP Base (Little Green Footballs)

Republicans Think Obama Is A Socialist, And Palin More Submitted at 2/1/2010 5:01:40 PM Qualified To Be President.

A new poll conducted among 9% of Republicans want 2,000 self-identified Republicans P r e s i d e n t O b a m a t o b e

by Daily Kos and Research 2000 i m p e a c h e d . shows that the Republican base 63% think Obama is a socialist. is possibly even crazier than I Only 42% believe Obama was p r e v i o u s l y t h o u g h t : P o l l : born in the United States.

21% think ACORN stole the 2008 election — that is, that Obama didn’t actually win it, and isn’t legitimately the president, with 55% saying they are “not sure.” …

53% think Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama to be president.

23% want to secede from the United States.

73% think gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools. This position puts the GOP base well to the right of none other than Ronald Reagan, who helped defeat the Briggs Initiative, a 1978 referendum in

California that would have forbidden gays or people who advocated gay rights from teaching in public schools.

31% want contraception to be outlawed.

Oh brother.

Politics/

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US Baptists Accused of Child Trafficking in Haiti

47

RIOT continued from page 42

Italy’s immigrant problem to racism. It is not uncommon to overhear a bar owner launch into an anti-immigrant rant only to (Little Green Footballs) team to Haiti, described the pink tape on their shirts. children as “deeply in need most The children, ages 2 months to watch him turn around and be Submitted at 2/1/2010 3:19:51 PM of all of God’s love and his 12 years old, were taken to an perfectly friendly with an Ten American Baptists are in compassion.” In a description of orphanage run by Austrian-based immigrant peddler who stops in jail in Haiti for attempting to the mission posted online, the SOS Children’s Villages, where to have a coffee. Most Italians smuggle 33 “orphans” out of the group wrote, “God has laid upon spokesman George Willeit said reside in an insular culture country — and many of the our hearts the need to go now.” they arrived “very hungry, very organized around family and local loyalties. Reactions to the children aren’t even orphans at Meanwhile in Idaho, where thirsty.” all: Road From Haiti Was Paved several of the Baptists are from, A 2- to 3-month old baby was internal migration of southern With Good Intentions, American Rev. Clint Henry, a pastor d e h y d r a t e d a n d h a d t o b e Italians to the north of Italy after Baptists Say. involved in the effort, denounced h o s p i t a l i z e d , h e s a i d . A n World War II were easily as And one of the pastors involved what he called “ the accusations orphanage worker held and intense as those against today’s has denounced “the accusations of Satan,” made against “our caressed another, older baby, foreign immigrants. Italians have of Satan.” team,” The Associated Press who was feverish and looked very limited experience in dealing with those who are Ten American Baptists sit in a reported. disoriented.

Haitian jail on Monday, accused A representative of an Austrian “One (8-year-old) girl was different from themselves. of child trafficking for what they charity that is now looking after crying, and saying, ‘I am not an The treatment of immigrants in say was a hastily conceived the 33 children the Baptist team orphan. I still have my parents.’ the Italian press has contributed attempt to rescue orphans by tried to remove from the country And she thought she was going to this climate. Coverage of quickly removing them from t o l d C N N t h a t a n i n i t i a l on a summer camp or a boarding i m m i g r a n t c r i m i n a l i t y Haiti — before getting official investigation showed that at least school or something like that,” approximately doubled on the six national TV networks from 2006 permission or even checking to 10 of them are not orphans.

Willet said. … determine that the children really More details from CBS News: In Idaho, the Rev. Clint Henry to 2008, even though crime in were orphans. In Haiti and on the “In this chaos the government is denied that his Central Valley Italy was, in most categories, Web, the arrests have led to fresh in right now, we were just trying Baptist Church had anything to stable or slightly down. Every accusations that some religious to do the right thing,” Silsby, do with child trafficking and said time a Romanian was accused of groups may be guilty of a kind of told the AP at Haiti’s judicial he didn’t believe such reports. raping an Italian woman, the spiritual trafficking, by mixing police headquarters, where she H e u r g e d h i s t e a r f u l s t o r y w o u l d d o m i n a t e t h e the help they offer to victims of and others were taken after their congregation to pray to God to airwaves, while the much larger last month’s earthquake with arrest Friday night trying to cross “help them as they seek to resist number of rapes by native-born proselytizing. the border into the Dominican the accusations of Satan and the I t a l i a n s w e n t g e n e r a l l y The Baptists were open about Republic in a bus. lies that he would want them to unreported. The massive media the fact that they felt driven by Silsby, 40, admitted she had not believe and the fears that he coverage created a perception of their Christian faith. Speaking to obtained the proper Haitian would want to plant into their a “security emergency” that became one of the major reporters after the group’s arrest, documents for the children, heart.” campaign issues that brought Laura Silsby, who led the Baptist whose names were written on Berlusconi and the center-right back to power in 2008. It so happens that Berlusconi owns three of the six major networks

and exerts considerable indirect control over the other three.

Interestingly, coverage of the issue has diminished considerably since his election, although Italy’s actual crime rates have hardly budged.

There is no political upside in defending immigrants. That’s why the center-left had almost no response to the right’s harping on the “security emergency” in the last campaign. Ironically, the one major politician touting something innovative--allowing immigrants who are legal residents but not citizens to vote in local elections as a means of assimilating them--is Gianfranco Fini, a former neo-fascist, currently president of Italy’s lower house. It is true that, over the last 15 years, he has moved toward the center. Still, when Fini is one of the Italian immigrant’s only champions, the situation is dire indeed.

Alexander Stille is the San Paolo professor of international journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism and author of, among other titles, Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic.

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Ark. GOP Senate Candidates Lag in Whitman Leads Fundraising Spending Race in Calif.

Gov Campaign (Newsmax - Politics)

Submitted at 2/1/2010 10:49:30 AM

Republicans hoping to challenge Sen. Blanche Lincoln are struggling in fundraising compared with the incumbent Democrat's $5 million war chest.

Most of the Republican Senate candidates reported over the weekend raising less than $100,000 in the final months of 2009, lagging behind the $1.3 million Lincoln announced raising during the same period.

Sunday was the deadline for candidates to file quarterly fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission.

One candidate, state Sen. Gilbert Baker, reported last week that he raised nearly $300,000 during that period. A report wasn't immediately available for state Sen. Kim Hendren, who has loaned his campaign $200,000.

Nine Republicans are running for the GOP Senate nomination.

And Republican Congressman John Boozman will announce Saturday that he's joining the race, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press last week.

Former state Sen. Jim Holt said he raised $60,261 during the

three-month reporting period and has $53,342 cash on hand. Holt, who won the 2004 Senate nomination but lost the general election to Lincoln, began raising money for his Senate bid in late December.

Conrad Reynolds, a retired Army colonel from Conway, said he raised $41,830 and had $52,789 in the bank for his bid.

Reynolds said his campaign owes him $46,789 that he loaned it, and he reported spending $32,102 during that period.

Curtis Coleman, the chief executive officer of Safe Foods, reported raising $30,441 and said he loaned his campaign $24,770.

Coleman said he spent $84,127 and began the year with $2,521 in the bank for his bid.

North Little Rock businessman Tom Cox said he raised $31,850 and ended the period with $3,496 cash on hand. Cox reported a $2,720 debt that he said he has since paid off.

Buddy Rogers, a financial adviser from Rogers, said he raised $2,850 during the threemonth period and had also loaned his campaign $7,500.

Rogers' report says his campaign has $10,159 cash on hand for his bid.

Holt, who announced his candidacy in early January after holding the fundraisers, pointed to his fundraising as a sign of momentum.

"We wanted to make sure that the people were behind us before we announced Jim's candidacy in December, and this clearly shows that they are," Holt campaign manager Jason Sheppard said.

Cox said he had temporarily suspended fundraising in December as he considered a run for governor, but resumed taking contributions after ruling out that race. Coleman said he believed his fundraising had improved with the start of the new year.

Boozman reported raising $46,795 for his congressional reelection bid, and has $292,247 in the bank — money that he could use for his Senate race. Š Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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(Newsmax - Politics)

primary, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, has given his campaign nearly B i l l i o n a i r e R e p u b l i c a n $19 million so far and spent $3.7 gubernatorial candidate Meg million. Monday's filing shows Whitman spent money at a rapid t h e f o r m e r S i l i c o n V a l l e y pace last year, burning through entreprenuer has raised about $2 $19.5 million a full year ahead of million from donors and ended the general election, according to the year with $17.7 million in the campaign finance reports filed bank.

Monday.

The Republican nominee is Documents filed with the expected to face the famously secretary of state's office showed frugal Jerry Brown, the state the former eBay chief executive attorney general and presumed i s s p e n d i n g g e n e r o u s l y t o Democratic nominee. He has yet bankroll a large campaign team, to declare his candidacy but is run a series of statewide radio raising money for a gubernatorial ads introducing herself to voters campaign. and hold fundraisers that netted Brown raised nearly $12 million $10 million in contributions. in 2009 but spent just $137,000 Whitman also gave $19 million in his unofficial quest to return to o f h e r o w n m o n e y t o h e r the office he held for two years campaign in 2009. She ended the in the 1970s and early 1980s. year with $10.5 million cash on B r o w n h a s s i n c e h i r e d a hand but has since given herself modestly sized campaign staff. another $20 million from her Š C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 T h e personal fortune.

Associated Press. All rights The GOP contest this June is reserved. This material may not expected to become the most b e p u b l i s h e d , b r o a d c a s t , expensive primary in California r e w r i t t e n o r r e d i s t r i b u t e d . history. Whitman has said she Five Filters featured article: could spend more than $100 Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: million in her quest to become PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, governor.

Term Extraction.

Her rival in the Republican Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:53:49 PM

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49

Georgia's Religious Right Jerry Brown Has $12M 5 ways to Opposes Bill Aimed at On Hand for Calif. Gov recruit using LinkedIn Child Prostitution Race (Little Green Footballs)

Submitted at 2/1/2010 2:08:59 PM

The religious right’s paragons of virtue are terribly concerned about children as long as they’re still in the womb. But as soon as they’re born, they’re on their own: Georgia’s Christian right comes out against bill aimed at child prostitution.

The weight of the state’s Christian right movement just came down in opposition to a pair of bills that would steer young girls under the age of 16 into diversionary programs instead of arresting them on charges of prostitution.

Representatives from the Georgia Christian Alliance, the Georgia Christian Coalition,

Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition, and the Georgia Baptist Convention all put in appearances. Republican candidate for governor John Oxendine appeared around the edges of the afternoon press conference, but did not speak.

At issue are two separate bills, one in the House and one in the Senate. Both are sponsored by Republicans.

“Who will benefit from the passage of H.B. 582 or S.B. 304?

I’ll tell you who – the very profitable and growing pedophile industry,” said former state Sen. Nancy Shafer. “It is imperative that these bills be defeated.”

(Hat tip: simoom.)

(Holy Kaw!)

(Newsmax - Politics)

Republican opponent in the general election.

Submitted at 2/1/2010 10:45:28 AM Former eBay chief executive Jerry Brown, who is expected to Meg Whitman has said she is be the Democratic nominee for willing to spend $100 million in California governor, is reporting her quest to become governor. that he has nearly $12 million in S h e f a c e s s t a t e I n s u r a n c e the bank.

Commissioner Steve Poizner, In campaign finance reports himself a wealthy Silicon Valley filed Monday, the state attorney e n t r e p r e n e u r , i n t h e G O P general and former two-term p r i m a r y . governor also reported raising © C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 T h e nearly $5 million during the last Associated Press. All rights six months of 2009. reserved. This material may not The reports show Brown b e p u b l i s h e d , b r o a d c a s t , maintaining his reputation for r e w r i t t e n o r r e d i s t r i b u t e d . frugality. He says he spent just Five Filters featured article: $138,000 for travel, office Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: furniture and other expenses. PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, If he enters the race as expected, Term Extraction.

Brown will face a wealthy

Submitted at 2/2/2010 12:37:28 AM

If your company is hiring, Bianca Male on the American Express Open Forum blog illuminates fives ways to maximize your hiring efforts on LinkedIn. Three of them are: 1. Change your status to hiring.

2. Post your job listing to a LinkedIn group—for free!

3. Use LinkedIn Answers to raise your status to “expert.”

Check out all five and the explanations in the full article.

More on jobs, careers, and HR. Permalink| Leave a comment »

GDocs Edits and Syncs Google Docs on Android [Downloads]

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:30:00 AM

Android: Despite being otherwise entirely hooked into the Googleverse, your Android phone can't edit Google Docs files on its own. The handy GDocs app steps in to download and edit (some) docs, upload files from your phone, and view PDFs.

It's not an elegant cloud solution to your Android system's lack of Docs connectivity, but GDocs gets the job done. Set it up with your Google credentials, and the app grabs your Google Docs folder and file list. Press and hold on any file to edit its title, delete it, or download it to your SD card. If it's a word processing document, you can download the another word processing app you file, edit it through GDocs (or might have), then re-upload it to

Docs. Not exactly an automatic, save-as-you-type setup, but then again, you probably wouldn't use your phone for more than just quick, minor edits.

If you need to view a PDF file from your account, GDocs can do that natively, and with Docs now allowing any type of file upload, you can use GDocs to push files off your phone to your Docs account.

GDocs is a free download for Android systems. If you're having trouble connecting to your account and listing files after GDocs updates, be sure to visit the "Accounts" section, under the "More" options, and hit "OK" to re-verify your credentials (and hopefully that wonky bit gets fixed). GDocs for Android[Google Sites]

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Tech Tips/

E-reader News Edition

Blast Through Daily Chores Using a Playlist Timer [Cleaning]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:30:00 AM

Nobody prefers chores to play after a long day of work, but getting them done in blocks throughout the week means more free time on the weekend. Use a music playlist to help.

Over at the organization blog Unclutterer a reader wrote in asking if there was a good way to avoid having every weekend turn into a two day frenzy of catching up on the previous week's chores. They outline several techniques to help her including planning to attack a

specific section of the home every day and committing to a 30 minute black every day after work. To help with the 30 minute block, use a cleaning mix: Next up, commit to doing exactly 30 minutes of cleanup a night. You may do best if you do this 30 minutes right when you get home, or it may work for you right after dinner. Yes, you're exhausted, but if you remind yourself that 30 minutes now will save you two whole weekend days, it's pretty easy to keep moving. I have a "cleaning" mix on my iPod that is 30 minutes of fast tempo songs. I

DIY Pipe Shelving Fits Any Wall or Taste [Weekend Project]

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

In order to keep costs down, Roger designed a unit using standard measurements, so that There are a lot of nice bookcases no pipe or pine boards would out there, but many of them don't need custom cuts. They found play it while I clean to motivate fit your exact walls, and most everything they needed at Home me. can't be installed in an apartment. Depot for $250 (including all When the mix is done, so are That can be worked around in basic supplies, like tarps, tools, you and you've done your 30 crafty style with plumbing pipes and brushes). The black matte minutes of cleaning for the day and some weekend time. finish of the pipes wasn't exactly to keep the mountain of clutter Using actual plumbing pipes what they had envisioned, but and mess that was previously and wood boards of their choice, they loved the result. burying your weekends at bay. a couple with really high walls Hit the link for a full photo For more tips on managing your but not a lot of leeway for in-unit walkthrough. What have you w e e k d a y s b e t t e r s o y o u r construction built a perfect set of used to make your own shelves weekends are more fun, check shelves for their stuff. Using a in your own apartment or home out the full article at the link previous Apartment Therapy before? Tell us—or, better yet, below. Have your own tip to how-to, Elizabeth and Mike, show us—in the comments. keep your weekends relaxed and with the help of handy friend Elizabeth and Mike's DIY Pipe restorative? Let's hear about it in Roger, bought and designed Shelving[Apartment Therapy] the comments. Ask Unclutterer: custom shelves for a price that's E x h a u s t e d A f t e r not all that shocking: Work[Unclutterer] Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:00:00 AM

Tech Tips/ Tech News/ Sports/

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Take a Second Shot at Understanding Math [Learning]

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

The Nirvana Phone: Citrix and OK Labs Extend The Convenience of the Smart Phone

By Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb)

Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:00:00 AM

Mathematics tends to bisect people into either fascination or annoyance. If you're in the latter camp, or actually like math but can't quite get a hold of it, a Cornell professor is blogging a kind of re-introduction to math for adults.

Photo by Mykl Roventine.

Steven Strogatz won the 2007 Communications Award from the American Mathematical Society for his lifelong efforts to explain mathematics to a wider audience. He's undertaking the same kind of thing in a New York Times blog series, starting out with an explanation of what numbers are and why we need them.

Strogatz explains his mission in his typically direct, precise language: I'll be writing about the elements of mathematics, from pre-school

51

Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:01:31 AM

to grad school, for anyone out there who'd like to have a second chance at the subject — but this time from an adult perspective.

It's not intended to be remedial.

The goal is to give you a better feeling for what math is all about and why it's so enthralling to those who get it.

Be sure to follow the blog series on RSS or other means if you're

intrigued at the idea of taking a second shot at math. For a deeper dive, check out our previous (and popular) feature on getting a free college education online, which includes a good bit of mathematics to explore. From Fish to Infinity[Steven Strogatz/NYTimes.com via Kottke.org]

Today's smartphones are useful for messaging and some collaboration applications.

But connecting to applications on a desktop with a smartphone is impractical. It's far easier to see your desktop using a laptop with virtualization software.

Citrix Systems and Open Kernal Labs(OK Labs) are teaming up so the smartphone has its own virtualization software, allowing it to access any application on a virtual desktop.

Sponsor The partnership marries Citrix software with the virtual machine technology provided by OK Labs. Citrix Receiver on the mobile device calls the virtual machine through a wireless connection. The software on the device then translates what is being called from the virtual desktop so it may be viewed, for instance, on a desktop monitor.

The two companies call it the Nirvana Phone:

What this really about is extending the convenience of the smartphone. These devices are proving that the mobile web is here to stay. Laptops are increasingly viewed as great for the home or office but can be cumbersome on the road. They're still necessary to do any extended amount of work.

Smartphone technology like what we see with Nirvana makes it easier for people to access documents and applications that are being stored remotely.

The service is expected to be integrated into mobile devices that come out within the next 1218 months.

Mobile devices will become virtual machines with the ability to access any application or document. The Nirvana Phone is a glimpse of what that future looks like. Discuss

Hocus Pocus Saints Could Disappear

By Terence Moore (FanHouse Main)

win Super Bowls. They do prosper in other sports. You've had the Miracle Mets in baseball.

Submitted at 2/1/2010 1:28:00 PM You've had more than a few of Filed under: Saints DAVIE, Fla. them in college basketball, where G e o r g e t o w n a n d a N o r t h -- First of all, magic teams don't you've had a Villanova over a

Carolina State shocking a Phi Slama Jama.

The Super Bowl? Turns out the 1969 Jets of Hall of Famers Joe Namath, Don Maynard and Weeb Ewbank were underrated

instead of underdogs.

We needn't go further than that.

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CONFIRMED: Facebook Gets Faster, Debuts Homegrown PHP Compiler

By Mike Melanson (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:09:00 AM

The rumors have been flying over what's going on over at Facebook headquarters. The word has been that a PHP team was brought in and made to sign non-disclosure agreements before discussing a PHP project that has been in development for the past two years. Alex Handy, senior editor of the Software Development Times Blog, predicted last Saturday that Facebook "has rewritten the PHP runtime from scratch," and several sources have confirmed for us tonight that Facebook has indeed been making some changes to the basic PHP runtime environment.

According to our sources, Facebook has been working on a PHP compiler that will increase speed by around 80% and offer a just-in-time (JIT) compilation engine that will offer a number of advantages.

The project is very similar to Google's Unladen Swallow project, which rebuilt the Python compiler, boosting the speed fivefold and opening the door for multi-language integration.

Sponsor

Richard Crowley, an engineer at OpenDNS who is familiar with the project, told us that David Recordon, an engineer at Facebook, invited him to come to Facebook's headquarters Tuesday morning but wouldn't give a reason. Crowley mused to us that it was likely his PHP skills and personal connections that got him through the doors and clued us in on what he thinks will be going on behind them.

PHP is normally an interpreted language, which means that every time a user accesses a PHP page, the server needs to take the code and interpret it to produce the final product. A compiler, however, makes this process much quicker, as the code is interpreted before the user ever asks for the page. The problem here is that any time that page needs to be changed, the code needs to be recompiled.

Crowley explained to us that the JIT compiler Facebook is introducing occupies a middle ground that not only retains the flexibility of PHP as an interpreted language, but offers the speed of compiled languages like C."Compiling PHP to code a CPU can directly execute certainly has performance implications. It would be silly to

When we asked what he thought of this style of release - years of secretive development by two lonely coders, likely locked in a deep, dark vault - Crowley said it alter the workflow to be more was typical. like C or C++ by doing all "[Facebook] tends to do giant parsing and compilation ahead of code dumps," he said. "Facebook time. At the other end of the tends to build something big, use spectrum, it's slow and out-of- it, and open source it." f a s h i o n t o i n t e r p r e t e v e r y We wish Facebook had made statement within the runtime. A this project open, as we're sure JIT (Just In Time) compiler many PHP developers would compiles frequently-executed concur that the efforts would portions of the program to have been much swifter and machine code for speed while more beneficial to the public had maintaining the flexibility of more folks and a larger team been involved from the outset. interpreted code."

Essentially, the closer a coding A n d w e d o w o n d e r a b o u t language comes to bare metal, possible duplication of effort the faster the program will run. from others who may have been F a c e b o o k ' s p r o g r a m s a r e working on the same issue. reported to run around 80% There are a number of us out faster than before now that the here running PHP (ahem!) that runtime - the code-compiler- could certainly have benefited program sequence - has been from the speed boost.

Nonetheless, we're looking restructured and rewritten. forward to seeing what this does Crowley continued, saying that for our PHP browsing experience he expected Facebook to announce a JIT compiler based a n d h o w t h e o p e n - s o u r c e on the Low Level Virtual community reacts to the news.

Machine, which lays at the heart Will the community rally around of Google's Unladen Swallow the new compiler and push PHP project. Crowley's suppositions into a new realm? Let us know were confirmed by anonymous your thoughts in the comments.

Discuss sources tonight.

Review: 'Life Unexpected' 'Rent Uncollected'

By Hemal Jhaveri (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:35:00 AM

( S01E03) Heartstrings were pulled again repeatedly on this episode of'Life Unexpected,' were they not?

After minor meltdowns from Lux, Baze and Cate last week, the three of them seem to be moving into something of a routine now, having gotten past the sketchy friends and threatening to move out portion of their relationship. Last week, we dug a bit deeper into Lux's life, and this week, we meet Cate and Baze's respective families, who are loud, obnoxious, annoying and intrusive ... which seems pretty much par for the course as far as families go.

Continue reading Review: 'Life Unexpected' - 'Rent Uncollected' Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Open Thread: Dealing With Real-Time Negativity

By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)

always the best way to deal with negativity.

Toeman's comment about the Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:25:17 PM real-time web is interesting and I'm fresh off a Social Media insightful. "Where there's smoke, Week panel with Collecta co- there's sometimes fire," he said. founder Brian Zisk and Stage " A n d s o m e t i m e s , i t ' s j u s t Two marketing firm founder smoke." Responding to every Jeremy Toeman; we've been n e g a t i v e c o m m e n t c a n chatting for the past couple hours sometimes create a legitimate on how to deal with the realities "fire" in a situation where not of the real-time web. responding would allow the One of the greatest concerns (non)event to blow over. folks in the audience had is how Two fellows in the audience to deal with negativity - bad- today asked how to deal with review-type blog posts, angry negative blog comments, either tweets, disparaging comments, o n o n e ' s o w n ( o r o n e ' s etc. - in an environment that's company's) blog or on a thirdinstant, viral, noisy and difficult party site. Since I've been to control. While each of the spending more time reading our panelists had their own answers, own comment threads - and I'd like to ask our readers: How interacting with readers that way do you handle being smacked - my immediate response is that down, called out or criticized in a one of the best ways to deal with real-time web environment? negative comments is to leave Sponsor them there and let them go Especially for brands and w i t h o u t c o m m e n t . A l m o s t organizations that rely on without fail, friends or fans will community management, online come to the defense of the CRM systems and social media product or idea being discussed marketing, being able to adeptly without the brand or author and quickly filter signals and having to do anything about it. take appropriate action is key to T h a t ' s j u s t t h e n a t u r e o f surviving in the real-time community.

Internet.

We all on the panel seemed to But knee-jerk reactions aren't agree that often, learning to

angry people simply want to be heard and acknowledged; any attempt at self-defense or debate on the part of the brand or post author will simply escalate the negativity.

Another point where the three of us saw eye-to-eye is that age, experience and patience are great virtues, even in a fast-paced, real -time environment. Being able to ignore unwarranted negativity predict which negative signals can be a blessing, but it's a will dissolve into the ether and learned skill that takes time and knowing which real issues need patience. The virtue of not to be address, understanding reacting is one that most of us different real-time community's have had to learn the hard way audiences and attitudes and after being tormented by the big, k n o w i n g h o w t o u s e e a c h mean Internet, spinning our channel or platform - these are wheels and expending our social things that almost no 22-year-old capital to fight battles we cannot "social media expert" will be win. Communicating this learned able to do. patience to clients and less What's your take on it? How do experienced users is an important you personally deal with snipes, part of what true social media snarks or blatant attacks in realexperts ought to be doing; in time media channels? If you addition to encouraging dialog, represent or advise brands, how we have to let others know that do corporate communications it's sometimes ok to ignore change when real-time negative negativity and remain c o m m e n t s e n t e r t h e respectfully silent. conversation? Let us know in the The old adage "don't feed the comments. Discuss trolls" was admirably updated by Zisk, who said, "Don't feed the trolls, unless you're feeding them tranquilizers." He said that often,

Street Chic: Amsterdam

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:00:00 AM

A leopard print pops against allblack.

Photo: Stylesight Think you are Street Chic? E-

mail us your photo and you

could appear in ELLE.com's Street Chic Daily.

Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

53

Stars Show Their Gratitude for Oscar Nominations (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:20:00 AM

The Oscar nominations have been issued and the nominees are overwhelmed with excitement.

ET has the celebrity reactions!

British actor Colin Firth is up for an Oscar for his starring role in director Tom Ford's 'A Single Man.' He reacts to the honor, saying, "I thought I was managing my expectations, but on hearing the news I discovered new and unfamiliar vocal tones.

Perhaps I should do another musical."

Morgan Freeman is also nominated for Best Actor for playing Nelson Mandela in 'Invictus.' "I’d like to thank the Academy for this honor.

Congratulations to Matt Damon on his nomination. I’m especially grateful to Clint Eastwood, 'Invictus' producer, Lori McCreary, and the entire cast and crew of ‘Invictus.’ Most importantly, thank you to Nelson Mandela for his encouragement, his blessing and his friendship -without which, this film would not have been possible.”

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Social Networks for Things

By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb)

"social graph of things" and that "every thing has their own social network."

Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:00:00 AM Engestrรถm said that Thinglink At the recent DLD Conference began in 2005 by giving things (Digital - Life - Design) in identities via their product codes, Munich, Germany, Esther Dyson a.k.a. Unique Identifiers. "People moderated a panel on the Internet and things, they're not too of Things. The subject of the different," said Engestrรถm, "they discussion was giving identity to all connect." Thinglink is in things, just as people have an private beta, it currently has identity. In essence, creating 4000 beta users and launches social networks for things. later this Spring.

On the panel were Ulla-Maaria ThingD is creating a registry of Engestrรถm (Thinglink), Doug things, according to Esther Krugman (Personal Commerce), Dyson. Michael Silverman from Michael Silverman (ThingD). ThingD explained that his Dyson began by noting that company is building "a database p e o p l e h a v e a l w a y s h a d around all of the things in the identities and there are countless world." Things like consumer services for that, but things don't products, horticulture, even pets. have that yet. So, she asked, will ThingD also has a platform built there be networks for things? on top of the database, which Sponsor connects people to the things in U l l a - M a a r i a E n g e s t r รถ m their lives. What interests you, explained that her company what you like, own, or want to Thinglink is about defining the sell. It's about how people relationships people have with identify themselves with things. things - who made them, who Silverman said that the database d e s i g n e d t h e m , w h o currently has about 50 million manufactured them, who sells things, maybe "north of 60 them, who owns them, who million." There are a few likes them. She said it is the thousand early adopter users

people with the tools to manage those vacation rental assets, plus add a "transactional engine" to them. Other 'things' coming soon to REZZ.IT include apartment rentals, boats, planes.

ThingD's business model is linking people to things. They have signed up product retailers to beta test this.

Thinglink's business models are twofold. Firstly affiliates, for example people purchasing right now.

Dyson then introduced the objects in photos. Their second company REZZ.IT as "what business model is lifestyle brand eBay did for selling, [REZZ.IT communities - connecting people does] for renting." Doug who like a company's products, Krugman from REZZ.IT already own them, etc. explained that "things have a C o n c l u s i o n Overall, a very interesting network and their own audience." His company is about discussion about the evolving managing stuff: scheduling, networks for things. If web 2.0 classifying, content management, w a s l a r g e l y a b o u t s o c i a l pricing, and more. Seeing what networks for people (which you other people have, sharing can certainly argue it was), then things. Business Models for the new generation of the web will add things to those networks Networks of Things Dyson asked how REZZ.IT a n d c r e a t e n e w n e t w o r k s . makes money off this. He D i s c u s s responded that vacation rentals is their biggest market right now.

REZZ.IT wants to provide

Harold Ford Answers for His Crimes Against Consistency [Ford Tourist]

By Pareene (Gawker) Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:10:18 AM

Zagat reviewer and supposed Senate candidate Harold Ford did Colbert last night. He deftly met every joke with an inane talking point, just like a real Senate candidate!

Honestly, it is not that funny to corner professional politicians on "flip-flops," even if, like Harold Ford, they are not very good professional politicians. And Harold has heard the "you were pro-life" and "you hated gays" lines so many times that his craven shamelessless barely shines through during his canned responses. But asking if there were other places in New York Harold designates as "Helicopter -only" was funny. (And Harold responded by talking about how much he loves the NYPD, of course.)

'Avatar' Tops Oscar Noms (ETonline - Breaking News)

the nominations for this year's Oscars. Read on to see if your favorite movies and stars picked Anne Hathaway delivered some up a nomination! good news for James Cameron, Cameron is once again up for Sandra Bullock and George best director, his first since he Clooney as she helped announce was "on top of the world" at the Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:15:00 AM

1998 awards. He is joined by his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow for 'Hurt Locker,' Quentin Tarantino for 'Inglourious Basterds,' Lee Daniels for 'Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire' and Jason Reitman for 'Up In The

Air.' 'Avatar' took top nods with a whopping 9 noms, tied by 'The Hurt Locker' and followed closely with 8 noms by 'Inglourious Basterds.' All three films are up for best picture,

which has been increased to 10 this year. The other nominees are 'The Blind Side,' 'District 9,' 'An Education,' 'Precious' 'A Serious Man,' 'Up,' and 'Up In The Air.'

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55

Fighting File Sharing on Campus: UCLA Partners with Clicker

Case study in extending RSS

By Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb)

(Scripting News)

applauds "Clicker.com and UCLA for fostering a campus culture that respects creativity Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:00:00 AM and supports the livelihoods of Students at UCLA don't have to the millions of people across the rely on torrent sites to get their United States and around the fix of online TV anymore - or at world who create the movies and least that's the message the TV shows that we love, and for school wants to send. UCLA just helping to ensure that these great announced a partnership with jobs will be there for future Clicker, a programming guide Web originals. UCLA students college graduates." for online TV content. Thanks to will also be able to access UCLA - like most colleges in this partnership, students at proprietary UCLA content, the U.S. - has been trying to UCLA will soon be able to use a including videos of lectures and discourage students from use co-branded version of Clicker university events. illegal file sharing services on that will give them convenient Clicker currently indexes well campus. UCLA's associate vice access to student-generated over 400,000 episodes from c h a n c e l l o r o f i n f o r m a t i o n content, university-generated more than 7,000 different TV technology actually testified content and regular online TV shows. You can find our in-depth about the university's attempts to content and music videos from review of Clicker here. stop file sharing on campus in services like Hulu.

Making the MPAA Happy front of the House Subcommittee Sponsor O n e o r g a n i z a t i o n t h a t i s on Courts, the Internet and Clicker launched in November particularly happy about this new Intellectual Property in 2004.

2009 and tries to offer its users a collaboration is the Motion It will be interesting to see if comprehensive TV Guide-like Picture Association of America UCLA's students will use this database of online video content. (MPAA). According to the program and if file-sharing The service indexes TV shows MPAA's general counsel and traffic on the UCLA campus will from most American broadcast chief content protection officer decline because of it. Discuss and cable networks, as well as Daniel Mandil, the organization

Happy Marmot Day, Alaska!

(Holy Kaw!)

Palin signed a bill into law making Feb. 2 Marmot Day. The Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:24:13 AM groundhog’s monopoly on critter For so long, Alaska had to suffer themed holidays is broken! silently as the lower 48 (via AP) celebrated Groundhog’s day, More on Alaska. completely oblivious to Alaska’s score has finally been settled. Photo credit: Fotolia dearth of that particular rodent. Before “going rogue,” Sarah Permalink| Leave a comment » Fortunately for Alaskans, the

Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:02:26 AM

My mother, who has a WordPress blog, keeps telling me about posts that I haven't seen. This was starting to irk me, so I looked into River2 to see what's going on. Yes, it is finding her posts, but it thinks they're pictures. Why? Because the feed says they're pictures.

Oy. Digging in a little deeper.

WordPress has a neat feature that I don't fully understand, called "gravatars." If you have one, as my mother does, it attaches it to every post, as an image. I'm sure she has absolutely no idea what a gravatar is, and I'm equally sure that WordPress created one for her automatically.

So, I want to fix this, so her posts (and those of other WordPress authors) show up where they belong in River2.

Other than looking at the URL of the image, I have no idea how to do it. I'm hoping one of the readers of this blog does.

Here's an example from the feed.

They use the media:content element to represent the gravatar.

I have a strong feeling this is very wrong. It seems to me that a gravatar is a bit of metadata.

Why should it be represented as an image, why not as a in a new

namespace defined for the purpose of representing gravatars?

The media:content element came into being to help Flickr attach pictures to items in feeds.

It probably was a mistake, in hindsight, to try to make a general namespace for this, because it gets us into jams like this. Probably would have worked better if they had come up with a element. That way we might not have had this conflict in semantics.

I'm pretty stuck here. I really need to separate pictures from non-picture items (I subscribe to some awesome picture feeds, and they would completely swamp my news-oriented feeds). It looks like I'm going to have to check if the image comes from gravatar.com. That's a terrible way to parse metadata.

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Apple/

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Business Uses for the iPad

By Mark Crump (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 2/1/2010 11:30:32 AM

I put myself squarely in the “Working Mac User” category.

My MacBook sees daily use in an Enterprise. I freelance write about the Mac and use mine in school. Outside of web surfing and the occasional game, very little of my time at the keyboard is leisure time. So, when I viewed the live blogs of the iPad event, my thoughts drifted to “How can us this for work?”

Rather than deal with hypotheticals, I’ll go into some ways I could use an iPad. Covering Conventions I used to cover E3, the gaming industry’s excuse for middleaged men to ogle booth babes.

I’d have to drag my laptop, a camera, notebooks, and whatever crap got handed to me by PR folks. For each appointment my editor sent me to, I was expected to write an article about what I saw. In that situation, when contemplating how much something weighs against its power, weight wins. An iPad that let me write and file a story in from the show floor and weighed under 2 pounds would have be very useful. Add in the optional cellular plan and I’m not fretting too much over an Internet connection — I know, I know, it’s AT&T. Flying Steerage Class When I fly, I give up on getting any work done. I’m a large dude

— 64, well north of 200 lbs.

Even my 13 MacBook is unwieldy in coach. God help me if I get settled in and the Amazon next to me needs to get up. Then I’m balancing a laptop in the aisle while being jostled. If I’m using an iPad I can just hit the home button and slide it into the seat pocket. Watching movies and reading books on this would be awesome and let me save my iPhone batteries for making calls when I land.

This is also true for the train. I spend three bleeping hour a day on the commuter rail. A laptop is tough to manage on a crowded train at times. I also have trouble getting it at a comfortable height to feel comfortable typing.

Presentations and Meetings I’m lucky. I don’t need to give dog and pony shows a lot. As a sales tool, though, this would be very slick. I’d walk into a client’s office, pull out a very sexy looking device and give a great presentation on it. I have a few concerns: Apple has said it’ll connect to most projectors, but I’ve run into enough flaky issues where getting my laptop hooked to the projector involved ritual chants and waving dead chickens at it. Also, during Phil’s Keynote talk, I didn’t see him mention any sort of a presenter’s view.

The iPad would also be very handy for taking notes on during a meeting, especially if you’ve downloaded the agenda previously. Every now and then I get stuck in an all-day snoozefest

calls me up and wants me to go to Maui for the weekend. Now, it’s never going to happen, but many of us in these situations delude ourselves into thinking we’re actually going to work on a beach in Maui. Or, a family member is in the hospital — or you’re in the hospital. For whatever reason, you need a smaller version of your stuff — just enough to get by for the weekend. For most of us that need to get stuff done, that’s email, Twitter, web surfing, and a lighter version of some productivity tools. The iPad could fill this niche very well for me.

I can think of three times in the last year I’d have been happy to use an iPad instead of my MacBook. My dad was in the hospital for a week and I found my iPhone was a better use for me than the laptop. In October, he and I took a road trip for a week. I hauled the MacBook with me, but in reality I was just going to be playing games, checking e-mail, and doing some light word processing, and the MacBook was overkill. We were at a convention, and I’d have meeting, and I think the iPad I’ve got a rocking laptop with a been just as happy sliding the would be more meeting friendly 500 gig drive full of documents, iPad into my carry around bag. than a laptop. Often, I feel like I music, photos, and movies The third time was a weekend might be making the organizer starring actresses who may, or away with my wife. I brought the think I’m not paying attention, may not, have been linked to lappy but never turned it on. I and a thin iPad on the table Tiger Woods. Paraphrasing did everything I wanted on my might be less intrusive. Working George Carlin, my Macbook Pro iPhone, but would have been Lightly/On The Go is my house; a big pile of stuff BUSINESS page 60 I don’t think I’m unique here: with a cover on it. My friend

Apple/ Economy/

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57

Apple Makes at Least $200 Per iPad Sold: Report

By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog)

of that cost accounts for the 9.7inch touchscreen display, which Marshall guesses costs around Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:00:07 AM $100. Apple sees considerable Maybe it’s a hangover from my savings on its own in-house A4 days working in electronic retail chips, which run around $15 per sales at Best Buy, but I love unit. With a cost of $290.50 and hearing about the profit margins a selling price of $499, Apple companies have for their devices. stands to see a profit margin of I t ’ s a m a z i n g t o m e t h a t 42.9 percent with each sale. companies like Sony are willing On other models that margin to take a hit and sell devices at a ranges from 48 to 55.1 percent, loss in order to sell more giving the iPad line as a whole software down the road. Apple is an overall profit-generating clearly no fan of this kind of power of about 50 percent, a sales strategy, and the brand new number which assumes that the iPad is no exception.

Wi-Fi models will sell A new report by BroadPoint considerably more than the 3GAmTech analyst Brian Marshall capable devices, a reasonable about the cost of production of assumption. Computerworld the iPad based on the going rate points out that while the number f o r c o m p o n e n t p a r t s , seems fairly high, it is in fact on manufacturing cost and built-in par with Apple’s other hardware warranty repair costs reveals offerings: quite a wide profit margin on a High profit margins are standard per device basis. The entry-level for Apple, which earlier in the $499 model apparently generates week boasted that its corporate $208 in profit, while the top of margin for 2009’s final quarter the line $829 model more than was 40.1%. Some products, in doubles that, raking in $446 per fact, have estimated margins unit. even higher than Marshall’s iPad Marshall estimates that the cost numbers: The consensus for the of making the 16GB Wi-Fi iPhone 3GS is above 60%, for model of the iPad runs around example. $270.50, plus $20 for warranty iSuppli, a research firm which is costs for a total of $290.50. Most well-known for its Apple product

margin is a very promising sign of things to come for future Apple customers. Just like it eventually became profitable for Apple to sell the iPhone 3G at a subsidized $99 price point as parts became cheaper and manufacturing costs went down, so too is it conceivable that we will eventually see a significant dip in the price of the iPad. If the 1G iPad sticks around when Apple eventually introduces a 2G camera-equipped model, for instance, 1G pricing could drop to a point where it would decimate netbook sales.

There’s also the possibility that the iPad will eventually get the same subsidy treatment the iPhone currently enjoys, though Apple doesn’t appear to want to go that route with consumers just yet, preferring instead to keep the device unlocked and tear-downs and component inside. We’d rather not just therefore theoretically available analyses, has refrained from throw numbers at it yet. It does t o a b r o a d e r b u y e r - b a s e . making any estimates about the seem like a gigantic iPod Touch, Subsidies attached to contracts iPad’s cost to build as of yet, which means that although some could reduce the initial purchase though it does acknowledge that costs would just scale up from p r i c e c o n s i d e r a b l y , a n d I there’s reason to believe many the iPod, like the display and the wouldn’t be surprised to see costs will be similar to those touch screen, a lot won’t. $199 as the cost of entry for the found in the manufacture of the Considering that the iPad is a 16GB Wi-Fi/3G model. iPhone and iPod touch: brand new product just getting We really want to wait until we out of the gate, news that it know a little more about what’s already enjoys such a wide profit

UPS posts declining quarterly profit (Financial Times - US homepage)

reported another drop in quarterly profits on Tuesday, but the results were in line with Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:26:44 AM expectations and the company UPS, the logistics company, predicted that the economy

would gather momentum as the year progressed.

“Economic forecasts indicate gradual improvement as 2010 unfolds,” Kurt Kuehn, chief

financial officer of UPS, said. Five Filters featured article: “The first quarter will be the Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: most challenging of the year for PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, UPS with profitability only Term Extraction. slightly better than last year.”

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The e-Book Wars Rage On

By Charles Jade (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:25:11 AM

Amazon went on the offensive over the weekend in a brief battle with publisher Macmillan, pulling the publisher’s physical and digital titles on Friday from Amazon.com and the Kindle Store. By late Sunday, Macmillan was back and Amazon was beaten. While this is a victory for Apple and the iPad, it’s a loss for consumers, at least in the short term, and probably forever.

As of today, Amazon’s policy of standard pricing for e-books at $9.99 effectively ended, at least for Macmillan books, but it’s hard to imagine other publishers won’t follow with new pricing from $12.99 to $14.99. While many will blame Apple for this outcome, it’s a little more complicated than that.

Author Charles Stross gives his opinion on the matter, as well as offering a description of the competing business models, which look something like this: Supply Chain Model: Author -> Publisher -> Wholesaler -> Bookstore -> Consumer Agency Model: Author -> Publisher -> Fixed-price distributor -> Consumer

In the supply chain model, Amazon is both the wholesaler and bookstore. Amazon profits by buying in bulk from publishers at a discount and selling for what they can, and in the case of digital books that’s $9.99. It’s a great business model, unless you are a publisher or author. The agency model gives the publishers control over pricing and relegates Amazon to being a book store.

This is a zero-sum game, one which the publishers were losing until Steve Jobs introduced the iPad. Since Apple is interested in selling iPads and wanted to attract publishers, the agency model was adopted for iBooks, even if it meant higher, variable priced e-books.

Macmillan tried to negotiate a new deal with Amazon, or to

continue the current deal with changes like delays for publishing cheaper e-books to protect hardcover sales. Amazon refused and Macmillan’s books got pulled. That resulted in a paid advertisement in Publishers Lunch on Saturday from Macmillan CEO John Sargent defending the agency model and saying nice things about Amazon.

On Sunday, Amazon posted a not-so-nice letter in the Kindle Community, saying that “regardless of our viewpoint,” Macmillan wants the agency model. Of course, Amazon expressed that “viewpoint” by “temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles,” not nice at all, but in the end was forced to “capitulate.” However, Amazon doesn’t believe all publishers

will switch to the agency model.

Sure, they won’t.

So, the bad news is we can all expect to pay $12.99 to $14.99 for what used to cost $9.99. The good news is, if there is any, that competition between Amazon and Apple could ultimately force prices lower in the long term.

After all, there is no rule that says either company must take a 30 percent cut of each book sold, except the one where it would destroy Amazon’s business not to.

Finally, if this entire saga doesn’t sound familiar, it should.

It’s not unlike Apple’s fight with the music industry, with Apple in the position of Amazon and arguing for flat pricing of 99 cents per song. The music industry demurred and went to Amazon with DRM-free songs.

They got their variable pricing with Amazon, and Apple ultimately capitulated. We now pretty much pay $1.29 per song at the iTunes Store.

Not to say Steve Jobs is a vengeful iGod or anything, but you can almost see him smirking down from The Campus in Cupertino right now.

Risk appetite on as tightening fears ease (Financial Times - US homepage)

By Jamie Chisholm, Global Markets Commentator.

Published: February 2 2010

08:49 | Last updated: February 2 Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: 2010 14:45 PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

Michael Jackson is Remembered in 'We are the World' Remake (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:20:00 AM

ET was under the big top of the media tent at the re-recording of "We Are the World." Several members of the ensemble cast spoke about the historical impact of the song and advocated the importance of contributing to the recovery in Haiti.

The "coincidence" of the song's 25th Anniversary and the tragedy in Haiti coinciding made for an appropriate time to re-record the famous tune, relayed Quincy Jones. Not only is the sound getting revamped, "We Are the World" is entering a world of technological advancements. It is being recorded in 3D and, using green screen technology, Lionel Richie reveals that "you can put yourself in the 'We Are the World' family."

Quincy is saving perhaps the most touching moment for last.

At the request of Katherine Jackson, Maya Angelou penned a poem to be read at the end of the song. Quincy is going to speak to Michael's children about reading that narration.

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How-To: Create a Chiptune in GarageBand

By Andrew Flocchini (TheAppleBlog)

• Now if you want to tweak that tracks sound, click the Plugin logo and play around with the settings.

• This needs to be setup for every track except the drums.

Use your creativity and change the track sounds to match the instrument they’re representing.

The drum track needs some special attention and since the plugin won’t work for this, I did the following.

• Change the drum track sound to the Hip Hop drum Kit. • Add a new effect to this track.

Use the Bitcrusher effect and select whatever settings sound good to you. I used Wave Deconstruction.

Submitted at 2/1/2010 10:30:04 AM

Chiptunes are everywhere, and if you’ve been intrigued by them, this article will help you create your very own out of just about any song.

Chiptunes are traditionally created using sound chips from old computer systems and game consoles. Some of the best examples of chip music can be made using Commodore 64s, GameBoys and the original NES. Since these pieces of hardware could only generate sounds and tones over a few channels, there is difficulty in creating complex songs. Along with the fact that this kind of circuit bending is not for a novice like myself and the learning curve tends to be very high. I wanted to find a way to accomplish this without spending days learning and researching software or hardware.

I am not trying to devalue chiptunes in any way, it definitely is an art form. I just want to present an alternative for those that are curious in creating their own masterpiece. So if we’re not going to need hardware and complicated software, what are we going to use? Using GarageBand ‘09, a plugin and a MIDI file, you can convert a song you already know

and love into a chiptune.

First thing is to find a MIDI version of a song you want to create. I just went to Google and searched for “Muse midi” and quickly found a Muse song that would work. Save the MIDI file on your computer for later. Now we need to download the Magical 8-bit Plugin from the YMCK website and put the magical8bitPlug.component file in the/Libraries/Audio/Plugins/Component folder.

• Startup GarageBand and start

new project by selecting the Piano. This will create a single track project that we can import our MIDI file into.

• Now drag your MIDI file into GarageBand and you will see it create new tracks for each voice in the MIDI file.

• Double-click a track to change the instrument from the Piano to our chiptune instrument.

• Click the Edit tab and then click the drop-down where it says “Piano” and select “Magical8bitPlug”

Gynecology Saves Journalism [Sexy Time]

By Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:43:03 AM

Former New York Post dating columnist Mandy Stadtmiller flew out to Nevada to spend a couple hours with"Markus," America's first legal male prostitute, for journalism. What a job! Free travel, free massage, Now you may have to tweak the and a free gynecological exam. volume levels on each track to Minutes later, as we're standing your liking but for the most part, naked in the shower, he's you are done. Export an MP3 examining me like a second-rate and amaze your friends! Well gynecologist and nodding. maybe not if they read this "Yeah," he murmurs, cooing that article too, but with this I'm "practically" an 8 or a 9. knowledge you could create your "Everything looks great down own music and use the chiptune there." sounds as your instruments. I [ NYP. Mandy Stadtmiller and know this is not as hardcore as Justin Rocket Silverman, true circuit bending, so don’t unstoppable journosex team!] send me angry emails. It’s more of a fun little project to please your creative side. Share your own creations with us through the comments and check out my final results in the audio clip below.

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BUSINESS continued from page 56

much happier turning on the iPad to read a book on. The iWork Suite May Not Be the Killer App Phil was quite proud of the iWork suite for the iPad, and he should be — it did look amazing.

However, I have a lot of concerns about the suite. The biggest one for me is how it handles transfers. For starters, the iWork apps are very closed source. I can’t hand off a Pages document to someone who doesn’t have Pages. On OS X, I can at least make a PDF; I’ve seen no evidence I can do this on the iPad. Also, there’s no Windows version of iWork. If my companion computer isn’t a Mac, how does it handle transfers? Can I even get the documents off it? Will they be in a format I can use on a PC? It’d be handy if seamlessly converted them to .rtf files during the transfer. Steve Jobs reportedly told Walt Mossberg, “Write it in Pages, you could make a Word version and send it to your editors.” We’ll have to wait and see how smooth that is.

For me, rather than iWork, the killer productivity app might be

Quickoffice. It already handles .doc and .xls files natively, can access MobileMe and supports Wi-Fi transfers to desktops. The Printing Dilemma One of the productivity-related questions I’ve seen going around is the printing issue. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, though.

How often do I, personally, need to print? Not that often. Maybe a page a week on heavy weeks.

But being able to save a page to the iPad, or Evernote and have it sync down is what works best.

For me, the lack of printing support isn’t a deal breaker: I can always e-mail it. Will I Be Getting One? Separating the fact that as a card carrying member of the International Brotherhood of Apple Pundits it’s in our Union Charter to get one, the three times I could clearly go, “yes, I could have used/preferred the iPad” (and those aren’t the only times, just the immediate, big ones that came to mind) convince me I should get one.

I’m not stupid, though.

This is a rev one device. Now, I still have an Edge iPhone, so I’m

clearly not in the immediate upgrade class. I’m convinced the iPad 2.0 will have a front-facing camera at the least. Therefore, I’m actually planning on cheaping out and buying the 16GB version with 3G. I think for me, the 3G availability is more important than the extra storage. I can manage my storage very well. I have a 16GB iPhone.

There’s 8GB of audio, 3GB of Movies, and 1.3GB of Apps and data. The audio won’t go to the iPad since I’m quite happy with my iPhone as an iPod, so it’s a given the 8GB will get used up by more video. Keeping with the George Carlin theme, will I need my entire 80GB of movies off my MacBook? Heck no. Just the ones I need to get through my weekend in Maui. The Big Lebowski and Star Wars.

How about you business folks?

What are you planning on using the iPad for?

Join Our 'Lost' Season Premiere Live Chat Tonight!

By Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:01:00 AM

The day has finally arrived!

February 2, 2010, marks the beginning of the end for one of the most compelling and popular drama of the past decade: ABC's'Lost.'

The final chapter in the story of the Losties, Tailies, Others, and others, begins tonight. To celebrate this special event, we are hosting a live chat during the one-hour recap (8 pm ET) and two-hour season premiere (9 pm ET).

The chat will start 15 minutes before the recap begins and will be accessible via our"TV Squad Live Blogs the 'Lost' Premiere" post. If you would like to receive a reminder via email before the chat begins, go to the link I just provided and follow the instructions in the chat screen.

This live chat will give you a great opportunity to discuss the

episode's surprises, twists and turns with fans as well as allow you to instantly share your opinions with other TV Squad readers.

See you tonight when we will finally start getting answers to questions we've been asking since the pilot episode!

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Super Bowl Roundtable: Need to Know

By FanHouse TV (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/1/2010 6:30:00 PM

Filed under: Colts, Saints, NFL Playoffs, NFL Video FORT

LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Magic is in the air for the New Orleans Saints, but not everyone believes they'll have enough tricks to defeat the Indianapolis Colts.

Will the Saints defense find a way to fluster Peyton Manning?

Can the Colts secondary handle so many of New Orleans' offensive weapons? And how would Indianapolis cope with the potential loss of Dwight Freeney?

As Super Bowl week begins to heat up, FanHouse columnists Thomas George, Terence Moore and Jay Mariotti debate these topics in the video below.

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Rumor: Jobs Bashes Google and Adobe, Hints at New Products

By Charles Jade (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 2/1/2010 7:28:55 AM

Secondhand reports of Steve Jobs at a town hall meeting for Apple employees have the iconic CEO telling it like is about Flash, Google’s “Don’t be Evil” philosophy, and maybe telling us what to expect in 2010.

First, the stuff for your inner rumormonger from MacRumors.

Steve Jobs believes the iPad is as important to Apple as the iPhone and the Mac, and that’s both unsurprising and scary.

Let’s hope it doesn’t become a “hobby” like the Apple TV. As for the iPhone, the next model is an “A+ update” that Google/Android won’t be able to match.

Macs are going to “take Apple to the next level” in 2010, unless that level requires Blu-ray.

Repeating the tired refrain about software and licensing being a “mess,” Apple is apparently waiting until Blu-ray sales “take off.” Those, like myself, pining for a Mac mini with Blu-ray take a moment to collect yourselves.

Apple and Google would not compete in the same space.

More colorfully, Jobs supposedly called Google’s motto “bulls**t,” maybe. John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports a source told him that Wired was paraphrasing, that Jobs said, “Don’t be evil is a load of crap.”

Scatological nuance noted.

As for Adobe, there’s less to dispute. Steve Jobs hates Flash.

Finally, about the whole Lala According to Wired, Jobs once acquisition, Apple wanted to get again criticized Flash, asserting them on the “iTunes team,” that it is buggy and it crashes Macs, and that “the world is whatever that means.

Regarding Google and Adobe, moving to HTML5.” It’s all there’s some dispute over exactly g o o d , s o l i d b o i l e r p l a t e what was said, giving credence execuspeak, but it still won’t get to the theory of eyewitness me Hulu on my iPad, or will it? fallibility or the theory of As for the company itself, Jobs inflammatory reporting. Take suggested that while Adobe has great potential, “they are lazy.” your pick.

According to Wired, Jobs had So, cutting through the rumor h a r s h w o r d s f o r G o o g l e , chaff for the wheat, no Flash for asserting that Apple “did not iPad, no Blu-ray for Mac, and enter the search business,” but just four more months until that Google “entered the phone WWDC and, presumably, the business.” If true, that’s a iPhone A+. fascinating comment, in that it could be argued their was, at least from Jobs’ point of view, a kind of informal agreement that

Review: 'House' 'Moving the Chains'

By Jonathan Toomey (TV Squad)

entire plot featuring Marcus (Orlando Jones) was just about as generically evergreen as plots Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:26:00 AM on 'House' get -- this could've fit ( S06E13)"Hey, I don't care into any previous season had the where an idea comes from as writers felt like telling this story long as it makes sense and s o o n e r . I w i s h t h e y h a d , embarrasses someone." - House especially if you consider the I've long wondered if Foreman's fact that after all the cast shakebrother Marcus was someone ups this show has been through, we'd eventually meet on ' House.' Foreman has been one of the few That being said, it's been six and constants. It's about time we a half seasons and even though found out more about the guy. we'd heard bits and pieces about Continue reading Review: him, I had reconciled that he just 'House' - 'Moving the Chains' wasn't going to show up. If Filed under: OpEd, House, anything, the timing felt a little Episode Reviews, Reality-Free odd.

Permalink| Email this| | But if you think about it, the C o m m e n t s

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Review: 'Two and a Half Men' - 'Crude and Uncalled For'

Nestor Carbonell Previews the Final Season of 'Lost'

By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)

By Mike Moody (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:01:00 AM

Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:01:00 AM

(S07E14) Uh oh -- has Charlie made a critical error in his relationship with Chelsea? It depends on how to look at it, but the Humpster misplayed the situation in this episode and that "to be continued" at the end suggests that something wicked may be coming.

On the plus side, it looks like Alan won't be losing his mancherry in the slammer, and Jake has a future in horror movie sound effects.

Alan has shown more talent on his man-dates with Herb than the Internet dates he's had. He was in rare form with the latest eHarmony hook-up, talking socks and sex. If he still had his

We're only hours away from the premiere of the final season of'Lost'. I'm excited, you're excited, and Richard Alpert himself, Nestor Carbonell, is right there with us.

I spoke to Carbonell recently ventriloquist's dummy, he would about his role in the show's much have pulled it out. But Alan did -anticipated endgame. Needless show us something we'd never to say, there are some big things seen from him before. The in store for our favorite ageless monster. Okay, it was just one Other, and Carbonell is looking lucky punch, but still... forward to showing fans a whole Continue reading Review: 'Two new side of Richard (or should and a Half Men' - 'Crude and we call him Ricardus?).

Uncalled For' He obviously couldn't spill all of Filed under: Other Comedy the show's big secrets, but he Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, was surprisingly candid about Reality-Free what fans could expect from his Permalink| Email this| | character this year.

Comments

CBS rejects Super Bowl ad from gay dating site (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/1/2010 10:13:48 PM

Super Bowl commercials usually garner more buzz than the actual game, so it should come as no surprise that the talk before this year’s showdown in Miami is all about a pair of controversial ads. Over the weekend, CBS rejected an ad from ManCrunch, a new gay dating website, but still plans on Will we learn why Richard airing a pro-life commercial doesn't appear to age? Will his featuring college football star bond to Jacob be explored? Head Tim Tebow. Basically, NBC is after the jump to find out ... releasing a huge sigh of relief Minor spoilers follow. because the heat has been taken Continue reading Nestor off them…for now.

Carbonell Previews the Final Check out the rejected ad and Season of 'Lost' judge for yourself: Filed under: Lost, Interviews, (Via BuzzFeed) Celebrities Keep up on the latest Super Permalink| Email this| | Bowl-related news.

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Colts Are a Franchise 'Built Like a Family'

By Thomas George (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/1/2010 4:01:00 PM

Filed under: Colts, Super Bowl FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -The Colts have been schooled on how to be authentic and straightforward. And they are -unless there is something they

want hidden.

This is a dance all NFL teams seek to master. To impart truth but also be able to cloak any doubts or secrets. The Colts are better at it than most. If they are fretting over their ability to corral the Saints' hybrid, piercing offense, they are not showing it. multiple turnovers against the If unsure that they can prevent Saints' pressure defense, they are

not revealing it. If injured defensive end Dwight Freeney cannot go in Super Bowl XLIV, they say, "Next man up," and tell you they can win it all without him.

This calm, reassuring mindset, this trait of being authentic and straightforward laced with keeping some things close, some

things covered, has its roots in former coach Tony Dungy.

General manager Bill Polian also helped to cultivate it. Coach Jim Caldwell has continued the teaching, the craft.

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63

Which Star's Sex Habit Is Corrupting Irony of Freeney Injury: a Younger Sibling? [Blind Items] Colts' Perfect Plan Flopped

By Brian Moylan (Gawker) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:43:55 AM

We all need someone to look up to, and this kid is looking up at her famous sister copulating in public, in private, and everywhere. This different bad example lied about her illness to sick children. Such positive role models!

1."This young star's bad habit is starting to get pretty serious.

We're not talking about her substance abuse problems, because those have been serious for a long time. We're talking about her sexual addiction problem which she is passing off to a younger sibling. She's involved this underage family member into her seedy world of risky behavior. There is chatter that the dangerous outings the two go on involve random hookups at dangerous locations like parks, clubs, parties or mall bathrooms. The star is not content anymore to go alone, but likes the idea of corrupting someone innocent that she is close to and has at her disposal.

Not Miley." [ BuzzFoto] 2."A few years back, this multihyphenate was a media darling.

By Jay Mariotti (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/1/2010 2:15:00 PM

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -It is karma? Irony? Or simply a chilling reminder never to shortshrift any chance for a perfect season -- i.e. sporting immortality -- when it smacks you in the grill? Last month, the Indianapolis Colts plotted, maneuvered and chose to surrender a realistic shot for the NFL's first 19-0 record, deciding instead to rest Peyton Manning and other starters late in the regular season. They were She was on TV all the time, she she managed to muster the prioritizing health over history, dated singers and actors and energy to perform and to go to and since losing two games in athletes, and she swept the hospitals and visit sick children their white-flag mode, they've awards shows. At the peak of her during her own tragedy, it turns repeatedly argued that the logic fame, however, tragedy struck. out she was simply recovering was justified because they won Well‌ not really‌ but it did get from a case of "exhaustion". But, their first two playoff games. her a lot of press. Turns out that hey, she did manage to squeeze But really now, was it? the clever girl was faking it. So in photo ops of her visiting sick With about two minutes left in w h i l e t h e f a n s h e l d t h e i r children in hospitals, helping to an AFC championship game that collective breath, hoping against visualize what it would be like to the Colts already had cemented, hope that their darling, innocent be well. What a good person she guess what happened to the girl would pull through from this must be!" [ Blind Gossip] grand plan of team president Bill horrible event, piling accolades Polian? A very important player upon her, and marveling at how got hurt. Dwight Freeney, a

future Hall of Famer and one of pro football's premier pass rushers of the last decade, sprained his right ankle and, most likely, also tore ligaments in it. He has not practiced since the injury and has been hanging out at night with a stimulation machine and spending his days inside an oxygen-stimulating hyperbaric chamber. There is a good chance Freeney won't play in Super Bowl XLIV -- in his case, perhaps an emphasis on the IV -- and if he does play, his athleticism and famous spin moves will be limited without his usual mobility from the right end position.

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Federer Still Owns Weak Men’s Field (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

shame in that.”

On the women’s side, Serena Williams had won three of the A tennis fan who slept through prior five majors, so it was no the Australian Open and awoke r e a l s u r p r i s e t h a t s h e to hear that Roger Federer won o v e r p o w e r e d t h e f r e s h l y the men’s draw and Serena unretired and very game Justine Williams the women’s might Henin in the women’s final. In well roll over and go back to the Boston Globe, Bud Collins sleep, secure in the knowledge writes that the two look likely to that tennis is the same as it ever revive their entertaining rivalry. was. But while there’s not much In the Guardian, Simon surprising about the identity of Cambers foresees continued the big winners in the Australian improvement from Henin at the Open, which concluded over the French Open.* * * weekend, the winners offered It’s hardly controversial to some new glimpses into what describe the Pro Bowl as a joke. makes them great. Getty Images The fact that it is a football game Roger Federer, the human free of physical play in which metronome. nothing is at stake does much to Federer faced a surging Andy explain why the Pro Bowl is the Murray in the men’s final, but most unloved All-Star game in calmly dissected the fired-up professional sports. All of which Scot in a classically Federerian 6 means that you most likely don’t -4, 6-3, 7-6 win. Federer’s particularly care about the AFC’s methodical brilliance in the final 41-34 win over the NFC in and the relatively depleted state Sunday evening’s relocated, of men’s tennis at the moment rescheduled Pro Bowl. have the Daily Telegraph’s Ian At Yahoo, Jason Cole Chadband wondering if Federer illuminates the contradictory could become the first player to experience of watching the Pro sweep the Grand Slam in a Bowl. “The Pro Bowl is never calendar year since Rod Laver going to be a serious game. did it in 1969.

Football doesn’t work this way,” Elsewhere in the Telegraph, Cole writes. “The problem is that former champion Boris Becker when you watch offensive and writes that Murray showed the defensive linemen go at it as if stuff to win, but does not yet they were at a ballroom dance have the aggressiveness. “He class, it drives the football lover played the best major tournament inside you batty.” of his career at the Australian The NFL’s decision to move the Open,” Becker writes. “It was game to the week before the just that there was one player Super Bowl, and to the rainbetter, Federer. There is no slicked Super Bowl host-city Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:53:24 AM

Daily Fixes.

With all the hype and pomp and corporate synergy surrounding the Super Bowl, it’s easy to forget how brutal big-time football is to the bodies and brains of those who play it. In Time Magazine, Sean Gregory Miami, didn’t do much to s u r v e y s f o o t b a l l ’ s s t i l l improve the game. At his blog, scandalous (and only recently Joe Posnanski posits that there acknowledged) epidemic of really isn’t much that can be traumatic brain injury. done on that front. “Every so Of course, for all the other often, you would hear ideas things that it is, football remains, about how to make the Pro Bowl finally a game — one Americans better — and I guess by ‘better’ enjoy watching quite a bit, and they meant ‘more profitable’ — one that’s fun to play. In a but it seemed to me that the Pro terrific piece for the New York B o w l d i d n o t h a v e m u c h Times, Michael Winerip tells the p o t e n t i a l t o G E T b e t t e r , ” story of “12 Again,” a New Posnanski writes. “It was what it Jersey-based touch-football was, a fun reward for the players game that’s still going strong who would party all week and after 20 years.* * * television viewers buried in two There are certainly flashier point feet of snow. And the big idea guards in college hoops than Sherron Collins, but after was for nobody to get hurt.”

The good news on the Pro Bowl, Collins’s work in Kansas’s 81-79 then? No one got hurt. In fact, as overtime win at rival Kansas Todd Archer tells it in the Dallas State on Saturday, it’s hard to Morning News, the players argue that there’s a gutsier playmaker currently wearing a actually had a lot of fun.

It probably won’t come as much college uniform. At Yahoo, of a surprise that you’ll be seeing Jason King uses Saturday’s a lot of football at The Fix this heroics to trace the guard’s week, as we go into Defcon 4 in development as a competitor. anticipation of the Super Bowl. One of the few point guards W e d n e s d a y ’ s F i x w i l l b e who can lay claim to a season as dedicated to the New Orleans impressive as Collins’s plays his S a i n t s , T h u r s d a y ’ s t o t h e ball at Harvard. Jeremy Lin, the Indianapolis Colts and, after the do-it-all playmaker for the traditional football-free Friday rejuvenated Crimson, could Fix, there will be more coverage become the first Asian-American in special Saturday and Sunday ever selected in the NBA Draft.

First, though, he’s concentrating

on finishing his economics degree and winning an Ivy League title. (That got tougher after Cornell’s 86-50 drubbing of them Saturday.) In Sports Illustrated, Pablo S. Torre describes how Lin and new coach Tommy Amaker have revived the long-moribund Harvard hoops program.* * * John Daly periodically shambles onto and off of the PGA’s leaderboards for a day or two here and there, but the most surprising thing about his recent retirement announcement was the realization that Daly’s still out there. At ESPN, Jason Sobel writes that even if Daly isn’t actually retiring, he has effectively been gone for some time. “What we’re left with is a combination that reveals Daly as one of the more wasted talents in golf history,” Sobel writes. “It’s also something that has always made him appealing even to those who don’t follow the game. He remains the ever-tragic figure, plowing through marriages and divorces, addictions and recoveries, all while attempting to regain the on -course form that seemingly left him long ago.”* * * It’s both difficult and easy to ignore the music played at major -league ballparks. Difficult because the music is generally ear-splitting, but easy because it’s resolutely forgettable. There FEDERER page 68

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Chicago Bears hire Mike Martz as offensive coordinator

By ESPNChicago.com (ESPN.com)

ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert writes about all things NFC North in his division blog.

Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:50:35 AM • Blog network: Martz New Bears OC Martz NFL Nation New Bears OC Martz's job is to turn around a CHICAGO -- Mike Martz, the struggling offense and get the h e a d s t r o n g c o a c h w h o most out of Cutler after the orchestrated "The Greatest Show quarterback and team failed to on Turf" while molding Kurt meet high expectations this W a r n e r i n t o a P r o B o w l season. quarterback with the St. Louis Cutler threw a league-leading 26 Rams, is the Chicago Bears' new interceptions after a blockbuster offensive coordinator. trade with Denver. The Bears Martz's hiring Monday ended a went 7-9 and missed the playoffs nearly monthlong search to for the third straight year since replace the fired Ron Turner. the 2006 team's Super Bowl run, T h a t s e a r c h i n c l u d e d a n leading to a coaching shake-up in i n t e r v i e w w i t h M i n n e s o t a which Turner and five other Vikings quarterbacks coach assistants were let go and coach Kevin Rogers. The Bears also L o v i e S m i t h r e l i n q u i s h e d were interested in former Denver defensive play-calling duties.

Broncos quarterbacks coach The Bears still are looking for a Jeremy Bates, who worked with defensive coordinator as well as Jay Cutler in Denver, but Bates a quarterbacks and tight ends went to the Seattle Seahawks coach, but they finally settled a with Pete Carroll after serving a big issue. season on USC's staff.

"Lovie was very clear at the The Bears also interviewed the beginning of the process that this C i n c i n n a t i B e n g a l s ' K e n was going to take time and he Zampese and the San Diego was going to go through it step Chargers' Rob Chudzinski. by step," said Martz, who "Even though I've never worked expressed interest early on. with Mike Martz, I'm in favor of "That's always difficult, but he the Bears hiring anybody that did it the right way -- especially can get us back on the right since I got the job." track, and hopefully back to a Martz seemed like a logical Super Bowl," Bears tight end choice, considering he hired Desmond Clark said. "Mike Smith as the Rams' defensive Martz has a great track record, coordinator in 2001 and is and I'm excited to see how this k n o w n f o r d e v e l o p i n g offense could grow in 2010." quarterbacks. His history with NFC North blog Warner, who went from stocking

grocery store shelves to thriving in one of the most prolific offenses in NFL history, is welldocumented.

With Martz in his first year as offensive coordinator under Dick Vermeil, the 1999 Rams won the Super Bowl and produced the first of a record three straight 500-point seasons. Warner, meanwhile, threw for 4,353 yards and 41 touchdowns while starring alongside Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt in "The Greatest Show on Turf."

Martz replaced Vermeil as head coach in 2000 and went on to produce a 56-36 record in five and a half seasons, leading the 2001 team back to the Super Bowl. But while making a name for himself with the Rams, Martz became known for a confidence that bordered on arrogance. He allegedly clashed with the front office there, and while on leave for a heart ailment in 2005, he announced he would miss the rest of the season before getting fired that January.

He spent the next two years as the Detroit Lions' offensive coordinator, coaxing the first 4,000-yard season out of Jon Kitna, and held the same job with the San Francisco 49ers in 2008. In both cases, he got sent packing for his pass-happy ways.

Now, after spending last season as an NFL Network analyst, Martz is reuniting with Smith, who often has said he likes "to

get off the bus running."

He'll also be on the same staff as former Lions coach Rod Marinelli, who's now working with the Bears' defensive line.

And he'll be tutoring a quarterback in Cutler whose postgame demeanor he criticized following a season-opening loss at Green Bay in which he threw four interceptions.

Martz said he "immediately" addressed that issue when he visited Cutler in Nashville over the weekend, after interviewing at Halas Hall.

"I felt like I had a pretty good understanding of who he was, the integrity and the dignity that he has and how classy a guy he is," said Martz, who first met Cutler when he was coming into the league. "And how he kind of misrepresented himself with that, really totally out of frustration from that game. He's going to be one of the elite players in this league for a long time and those are things he's going to have to deal with. It was a very difficult situation for him, very difficult."

Martz said their visit went "even better than anticipated."

"There was an instant connection," he said.

Smith, meanwhile, dismissed the idea that Cutler was calling the shots. He pointed out that center Olin Kreutz met with former Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Tice, who has been hired as Chicago's offensive line coach. And tight end Greg Olsen

talked with Rob Chudzinski, who also was in the running for offensive coordinator.

Martz reportedly won out over Rogers, although Smith insisted Martz was the only candidate offered the job.

"The more we talked about it, the more we worked through it and used the same process for every candidate, I was 100 percent on board with Lovie's decision," general manager Jerry Angelo said when asked about reports he wasn't as eager as Smith to hire Martz. "And for the right reasons. We said again we wanted to make change."

Now, the Bears can turn their attention to their remaining openings on offense and that defensive coordinator vacancy.

The only candidate to interview for that job was former Bears assistant Perry Fewell, who ended the season as Buffalo's interim coach, last month. He is now the New York Giants' defensive coordinator. Smith is "keeping all options open" after previously saying he would look outside to fill that job, and he still hopes to have his staff in place by the Super Bowl.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The Count: A Fresh Run of Federer Dominance (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 2/1/2010 12:22:12 PM

When Roger Federer cried after losing the Australian Open singles final in straight five sets to Rafael Nadal last year, some observers took the tears as a sign that Federer’s time as a Grand Slam champion was coming to a close. Instead, Federer went on to win three of the next four majors, including the Australian Open on Sunday, in a final in which he left his own opponent in tears. (Murray said, “I can cry like Roger. It’s just a shame I can’t play like him.”) European Pressphoto Agency Federer has given Andy Murray and other rivals reasons to cry during his dominant run.

While it was hard to realize at the time, Federer was three majors into a remarkable sevenmajor streak that is unparalleled in the Open era, and that he will carry into the French Open in May. It’s well-known that he’s reached eight straight major finals, nearly equaling his prior streak of 10. But few have noted how close he came to winning his last seven. He won four of them and came within a set of winning the other three: 2008 Wimbledon and the 2009 Australian Open to Nadal, and the 2009 U.S. Open to Juan Martín del Potro.

That may seem like a less impressive run than Rod Laver’s

Grand Slam in 1969, but besides Laver’s streak of four Slams won or nearly won, no one had a steak of more than three Slams until Federer’s recent run of success. He had done it twice, winning Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open consecutively from 2005 to 2006 and again the next year, but each time not forcing a fifth set in the French Open final. Other than Federer, four men have done the same: Ken Rosewall over 1970 and 1971, Bjorn Borg in 1980, John McEnroe in 1984 and Pete Sampras over 1993 and 1994.

And besides the handful of streaks of three majors or more, players in the Open era even come close to a streak of two majors just 23 times — including Federer in 2004 and 2007, and Nadal in 2007 and 2008. No other player has done so in the past decade, since Agassi won the 1999 U.S. Open and 2000 Australian Open.

Federer has achieved this latest streak by raising his game in time for the majors. Over the last seven, his record is 46-3, with four titles. Plus, all three losses came in five-set finals. In all other tournaments since the streak began in 2008 — counting the Davis Cup and the Olympics — he’s gone a more pedestrian 54-18, winning just three titles, reaching just four finals and 11 semis. Outside the majors, he’s been a lot less dominant than

during, say, his 92-5 season in 2006. In them, he’s been more dominant than ever before, competing for every title until the last set.

Now that Federer has reached 16 Grand Slam singles titles, two more than runner-up Sampras, some ESPN commentators suggested that his closest competition for dominance comes from the women’s ranks: Five women have won more titles than Federer. The women’s tennis archive also provides more examples of competition for Federer’s run of seven straight wins or near wins in major finals. Steffi Graf reached 13 straight finals from 1989 to 1990, winning eight of them.

Within that streak, she also won eight of nine majors from 1988 to 1990, in between losing the 1989 French Open in three sets.

The closest analogue to Federer’s current run was Martina Navratilova’s from 1985 to 1987, when over seven majors she won four and forced a third set in the other three, never winning more than two in a row.

Otherwise no woman has matched the length of Federer’s

run, though Navratilova’s streak of six straight major wins in 1983-84, and Margaret Court’s similar one from 1969 to 1971, may be more impressive. Graf also nearly won five straight from 1993 to 1994; Serena Williams won four straight, though not over a calendar year, in 2002 and 2003; and Chris Evert and Navratilova each nearly won four straight over different spans in the ’80s. There were also 10 streaks of three straight wins or near-wins in majors and another 20 back-toback, most recently when Serena Williams won the 2008 U.S. Open and 2009 Australian Open.

Williams hasn’t been quite as dominant as Federer of late, but she, too, has demonstrated a remarkable knack for elevating her game for Grand Slam tournaments. She’s won four of the last six and reached a quarterfinal and semifinal in the other two, for an overall record of 37-2. In all other tournaments since that stretch began, she’s gone 31-14 and reached just seven semifinals and two finals, winning just a single other singles title. Perhaps Williams and Federer have discovered that the secret to winning majors and top rankings at age 28 is to be eliminated early from other tournaments.

Shop Alexander Wang’s Coveted Spring Accessories Now

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 2/1/2010 12:37:59 PM

Just in time to save us from the Monday blues, Alexander Wang’s spring accessories are now a click away. Before your second cup of coffee, shop the hot-off-the-runway bags and shoes you’ve been drooling over since they first appeared on the catwalk back in September. On my Monday to-do list: get hands on leopard Natasha pumps(the perfect day-to-night shoe for fashion week).

Click here to shop Alexander Wang's spring accessories —Violet Moon Gayn or Follow ELLE on Twitter.

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Report: New York Jets QB Mark Sanchez opts for knee surgery

By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

He had both knees examined by team doctors this week and also was evaluated last week by Dr. Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:45:04 AM James Andrews in Birmingham, New York Jets quarterback Ala. Mark Sanchez has decided to General manager Mike undergo surgery on his left knee, Tannenbaum said last week according to a report from the Sanchez would be ready "well New York Daily News. before training camp" if he The Daily News posted on its elected to have the procedure, Web site early Tuesday morning which isn't considered major, but that it has learned Sanchez will might miss the first month of have surgery in the next two or offseason workouts. three weeks. The paper said it Sanchez dislocated the kneecap would be performed by the Jets' during the first week of fall d o c t o r s , l e d b y K e n practice before his junior season Montgomery. at USC. He has worn a brace on The surgery would stabilize the the knee since, even in the pros. patella ligament in his left knee, Sanchez also banged up his left which was injured when he was k n e e N o v . 2 9 a g a i n s t t h e at USC. Carolina Panthers.

AFC East blog "You don't want to have anybody ESPN.com's Tim Graham writes miss any time, especially a about all things AFC East in his y o u n g q u a r t e r b a c k , " division blog.

Tannenbaum said last week, "but • Blog network: NFL Nation we'll balance it out with a Sanchez, who just completed his medical procedure that may give rookie season, won't need any him more stability in there and procedures on the posterior give him a chance to play cruciate ligament in his right without any worry about that." knee, which he sprained earlier Sanchez's right knee, injured this season. against the Buffalo Bills on Dec.

3 in Toronto, will heal through rehabilitation.

"I think everyone's on the same page," Tannenbaum said. "It's not going to be anything major."

Sanchez injured the right knee when he dived headfirst on an 8yard run early in the third quarter against the Bills. The play came a few days after coach Rex Ryan brought in Yankees manager Joe Girardi to help teach Sanchez how to improve his sliding technique.

He missed one game when Ryan kept him home for the trip to Tampa Bay on Dec. 13 and was replaced by Kellen Clemens.

Sanchez returned the following week against the Atlanta Falcons wearing a brace and had no apparent signs of injury during the last several weeks of the season.

He helped lead the Jets to the AFC Championship Game at Indianapolis and played some of his best football during the playoff run. After throwing 20 interceptions during the regular season, Sanchez had just two in three postseason games and fell a

win short of becoming the first rookie quarterback to play in the Super Bowl.

The fifth overall pick last year out of USC, Sanchez finished the regular season throwing for 2,444 yards and 12 touchdowns but had a dismal 63.0 quarterback rating.

Armed with a color-coded system and numbered plays on his wrist to help him, Sanchez's ball security improved dramatically down the stretch.

He finished the playoffs going 41-of-68 for 539 yards with four touchdowns and a 92.7 rating.

Sanchez also joined the Baltimore Ravens' Joe Flacco as the only rookie quarterbacks to win two playoff games.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Rules for ideas worth spreading (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/2/2010 12:00:00 AM

Think you have a million-dollar idea? Seth Godin has a great list of 21 random rules for ideas worth spreading. Here are just a few: • Powerful organizations adore the status quo, so expect no help from them if your idea challenges the very thing they adore.

• Seek out apostles, not partners.

People who benefit from spreading your idea, not people who need to own it.

• Surround yourself with encouraging voices and incisive critics. It’s okay if they’re not the same people. Ignore both camps on occasion.

• Rise up to the opportunity, and do the idea justice.

More on startups.

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FEDERER continued from page 64

was a time when most ballparks featured a virtuoso providing organ music. Jane Jarvis, the original Shea Stadium organist and one of the best-loved ballpark musicians ever, was one such figure, and she remained beloved of Mets fans even after leaving the team in 1979. She passed away last Monday, at the age of 94.

“She outlived Shea,” Greg Prince writes at Faith and Fear in Flushing. “She outlived the organ as the prime source of pregame and between-innings entertainment. She lived a very long time and accomplished a great deal as a musician and music executive. For those of us enchanted by the Melody Queen

of Shea Stadium, she’s always going to be synonymous with some of the best days of our lives.”

In the New York Times, Peter Keepnews sums up Jarvis’s extraordinarily eventful life.* * * In some ways, it may not actually be that strange that Herschel Walker was in a televised mixed martial arts matchup over the weekend.

Walker, 47, is a sixth-degree black belt in taekwondo, and was a world-class physical specimen during his NFL days. And this appears not to be just a midlifecrisis fantasy: Walker won his match Saturday night. It wasn’t a great fight by any stretch, but Yahoo’s Kevin Iole argues that

Walker accomplished everything he set out to do and “treated the sport, his opponent, the media and the fans with the utmost respect.”

— Tip of the Fix cap to readers Bob Berliner, Brent Boyd and Mark Bundick.

Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email David at droth11@gmail.com.

Submitted at 2/1/2010 3:20:00 PM

Filed under: NFL It's difficult to criticize our favorite new NFL coach, the Jets' hoot-from-the-lip Rex Ryan, for his juvenile reaction to Dolphins' fans heckling him last weekend at an MMA card in Sunrise, Fla. The man couldn't help it; he's Buddy Ryan's son.

And he probably didn't know his

behavior would disqualify him from a league honor, a new annual award revealed Sunday for the coach who best displays

By Mike Schramm (Joystiq)

that Livingstone will be speaking at its annual Festival of Games in Holland this coming June. He'll Now that we've lost both Gygax be talking about his career and and Arneson, we have to learn as how he's integrated Eidos with much as we can from the still- Square Enix over the last year or living legends of gaming. One of so. integrity, as well as achievement, these is Ian Livingstone-- he co- Just do us a favor if you do end and makes a positive impact on f o u n d e d t h e g r e a t G a m e s up going to see the show: Start those around him.

Workshop back in the day with your Q&A question off with, The NFL named the new trophy John Peake and Steve Jackson. "Mr. Livingstone, I presume?" after Don Shula (right), the Currently, he's serving as the Eidos 'life president' Ian former coach of the Dolphins "life president" of Eidos, and Livingstone to keynote NLGD's and Baltimore Colts who won lambasting the mass media for Festival of Games in June more games than any other NFL their portrayal of games(because originally appeared on Joystiq on boss and managed the game's if there's one thing a living Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:30:00 EST. only 17-0 season that culminated legend should do, it's tell the kids Please see our terms for use of in one of his two Super Bowl these days that they're doing it feeds. championships. w r o n g ) . A n d n o w D e Read| Permalink| Email this| N e d e r l a n d s e G a m e d a g e n ( Comments NLGD, for short) has announced

Paul Brown, Not Don Shula, Merits Honor

By Kevin Blackistone (FanHouse Main)

Eidos 'life president' Ian Livingstone to keynote NLGD's Festival of Games in June Submitted at 2/2/2010 3:30:00 AM

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Behemoth's BattleBlock Fret Nice soloing on Theater coming to PSN this week XBLA

By JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

By Justin McElroy (Joystiq)

because what we do know is that what follows after the jump is Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:05:00 AM probably our favorite trailer so It's hard to say just how good far this year. It's actually -- and T h e B e h e m o t h ' s n e w l y don't tell any advertisers or conannounced BattleBlock Theater men this -- a little sad and scary will be when it launches (no just how easily we can be release date yet!). Even with all manipulated. the clips and screens we've seen Continue reading Behemoth's and all the time we've spent with BattleBlock Theater coming to the title (previously codenamed XBLA Game 3), we still don't have a Behemoth's BattleBlock Theater deep understanding of what, coming to XBLA originally exactly, is going on. But the appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 team's got a pretty good track Feb 2010 09:05:00 EST. Please record with Castle Crashers and see our terms for use of feeds.

Alien Hominid, so we're willing Read| Permalink| Email this| to give them the benefit of the Comments doubt.

None of that matters, however,

players take control of the Vibrant Chordblasters as they Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:35:00 AM travel through the world Tecmo announced via Twitter defeating Hair Bängers with their that Fret Nice, the musical riffs. platformer played with guitar Oddly missing from both of controllers, will be available on these announcements is any PSN in North America this m e n t i o n o f t h e X b o x 3 6 0 w e e k . I n i t s o w n t w e e t , version. We're checking with developer Pieces Interactive said Tecmo about that. that a European release date Gallery: Fret Nice (XBLA/PSN) would be "coming soon."

Fret Nice soloing on PSN this Now PS3 owners will be able to week originally appeared on use those guitar controllers of Joystiq on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 theirs to do something other than 09:35:00 EST. Please see our play along to "Uncontrollable terms for use of feeds.

Urge" over and over again (what, Read| Permalink| Email this| you mean you don't do that?) Comments Specifically, in Fret Nice,

69

Forgetful?

Try taking a break (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/2/2010 12:52:00 AM

After reading this article you’re going to need a breather. That’s because a new study shows that taking a break—while awake, not asleep—can boost your memory. “Taking a coffee break after class can actually help you retain that information you just learned,” explains researcher Lila Davachi in a Futurity article.

“Your brain wants you to tune out other tasks so you can tune in to what you just learned.”

Read the Futurity article for details of the study—and if you like it enough, it’s time for that rest. (via Futurity) More on science.

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Writer John Bowe Asks Us to Talk About Love

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

all the right things. He was very loving, very appreciative, very into me, very nurturing.”); Some Submitted at 2/1/2010 12:46:28 PM are so the opposite I had to stop I started reading freelance reading them after only a few journalist John Bowe’s new sentences. book, Us: Americans Talk About Born out of his own trying Love(a discovery to which I give experiences with love, Bowe ELLE and The New York Times edited Us in what reads like an credit), the day after taking in effort to uncover the real 20/20’s special report on John stuff—to seek out the good, the Edwards. This was no bad, the boring, and the coincidence. Each of the 43 firstRevolutionary Road so that we person accounts in Bowe’s short have something more useful than story-like compilation is a news magazine exposés and Julia revelation: Some are profound Roberts movies to lend insight to

By David Hinkle (Joystiq) ways off. Variety reports that the (“If you go to [that place], and our own relationships. beta for the new Facebook game Submitted at 2/2/2010 2:00:00 AM An appropriate book for this won't actually start up until you pay attention, you know what you want and who you new month, I encourage all of this shirt.

It’s the no-sex-tonight The problem with those hollow around June. This will likely boxes littering the cubicles at come as a big let-down to fans, love. And if you have something shirt. It comes all the way down you silly happy lovebirds to your workplace is there isn't as the initial announcement back in your life that isn’t true, that’s past my elbows and it probably check it out. enough juice, enough substance, in October mentioned a hunt for obvious too. So sometimes you has seven thousand holes in it. If —Johanna Cox within to actually run any kind of beta testers would be underway might end up looking at the I put this shirt on, he doesn’t try. Us: Americans Talk About program outside of Excel, "soon." We guess "soon" means person you’re with and realizing, I get to wear it once a week.”); Love(Faber and Faber, Inc., Outlook or--when you're really "maybe in a few months or ‘I cannot do this. This is not who Some are uplifting (“He was 2010) I am anymore.’ ”); Some are very present, from the first Now available in paperback bored--MS Paint. So if you're at something." work and don't really feel like Report: Civilization Network funny (“Daniel likes to have sex moment. He was like, ‘you and Photo: Courtesy of Faber and working, you're forced to either beta coming in June originally every single day. He’s different me.’ He fed me emotionally. He Faber, Inc. scour the web for stuff or watch appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 02 than me. But that’s okay. I have said all the right things. He did a neat screensaver. Then, there Feb 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please was hope: Civilization Network see our terms for use of feeds. for Facebook.

Read| Permalink| Email this| H o w e v e r , i t l o o k s l i k e Comments Civilization Network is still a

Report: Civilization Network beta coming in June

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Grammy Beauty: Rihanna's CoutureInspired Eye Makeup

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

eyes, Morales glued on spidery false lashes and lavished them with CoverGirl Lash Blast At last night’s Grammy Awards, Length Mascara(“I used about Rihanna walked the red carpet three coats because I wanted the looking runway-ready: “Her lashes to look spiky”). For a dress was a couture gown by Elie glowing finish, the makeup Saab, and I was inspired by the master brushed Dior Bronze makeup look at that show,” says Original Tan in Amber Tan on makeup artist Mylah Morales. the jaw line and cheeks over “On the runway there was a facial moisturizer and block of matte white eye shadow foundation, followed by Nars’ on the eyes but in order to make new Orgasm Illuminator on the it less theatrical and more cheekbones, chin, and upper lip. suitable for the red carpet I went —Emily Hebert with a shimmer texture.” Using Photo: Left: Elie Saab Fall 2009 Dior 1-Colour Ultra-Smoothing Couture Show, Imaxtree; right: High Impact Eyeshadow in Rihanna at 2010 Grammy Crystal White, Morales says she Awards, Getty Images applied the product with a wet Follow ELLE on Twitter brush to ensure more intense and Become our Facebook fan long-lasting coverage.

By ELLE.com (ELLE News To further enhance Rihanna’s Blog) Submitted at 2/1/2010 11:45:00 AM

Style Stars of the 2010 Grammys Submitted at 2/1/2010 10:10:27 AM

The metallic memo made it to Grammy night’s biggest style stars. Lady Gaga shined (and shocked) in multiple custom looks by Armani Privé, Taylor Swift sparkled in Kaufman

Franco, and Jennifer Lopez and Katy Perry stood out in silver Versace and nude and gold Zac Posen respectively. On the sleeker side was Ciara in hot-offthe-runway Givenchy couture, Jennifer Hudson in a figureflattering Victoria Beckham cocktail dress, and Beyoncé in a cutout Versace mini. Whose look

did you love most?

—Violet Moon Gayn or Photos: Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift: Retna; remaining photos: Getty Images Follow ELLE on Twitter.

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Arrest of Americans deepens Haiti adoption debate (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

would be a tragedy."

The Americans, arrested Friday near Haiti's border with the NEW YORK – The debate over Dominican Republic, were being international adoption, already a held in a police headquarters in bitter one, has intensified in the Port au Prince while Haitian and aftermath of Haiti's earthquake U.S officials discussed their fate. and the arrest of 10 Americans Even before the arrests, the for trying to take children out of Haitian government called a halt the devastated country without to new international adoptions. permission.

Numerous organizations have Some groups are urging a long endorsed the moratorium, some moratorium on new adoptions of them citing U.N. guidelines from Haiti, saying there is too recommending that at least two much chaos and too high a risk years be spent tracing lost of mistakes or child trafficking. families before adoptions should Other groups fear any long-term be considered. c l a m p d o w n w i l l c o n s i g n "No matter how horrific the countless children to lives in situation looks ... the full process institutions or on the street, of reuniting children with parents rather than in the loving homes a n d r e l a t i v e s m u s t b e of adoptive parents. completed," said Deb Barry, a Chuck Johnson, chief operating S a v e t h e C h i l d r e n c h i l d officer of the National Council p r o t e c t i o n e x p e r t . for Adoption, said the arrests of The next steps, says UNICEF, the 10 U.S. Baptists would should be compiling a registry of p r o b a b l y u n d e r c u t h i s children separated from their organization's push to expand families, an extensive campaign adoptions from Haiti as soon as t o t r a c e r e l a t i v e s , a n d feasible. development of safe, well"It was a critical mistake — the supplied places where these Haitian government has been children can stay during the very clear they did not want any search process. children leaving without its The consequences of rushing to express permission," Johnson help children leave Haiti can be said Monday. "Maybe the severe, according to the Americans thought they were B a l t i m o r e - b a s e d L u t h e r a n helping 33 kids, but now there's I m m i g r a t i o n a n d R e f u g e e going to be a much slower S e r v i c e . process and maybe even a ban on In one case, LIRS said, a 12future adoptions — and that year-old boy who was allowed Submitted at 2/1/2010 5:22:05 PM

onto a U.S. military plane without documentation or relatives in the U.S. and is now in limbo while officials try to find out if he left family behind in Haiti. In another case, a 3-year -old boy arrived on a private plane with other orphans even though the family who had been planning to adopt him had changed their mind and abandoned the process.

"It's an example of why it's important to be patient and thorough," said Olivia Faires, director of children's services for LIRS. "It does add trauma, even in the midst of the chaos, to remove them from their customary surroundings."

The differing views on adoptions from Haiti mirror a long-running global debate — fueled recently by adoptions of African children by Madonna and other celebrities. Some advocates say international adoptions should be expanded so that more abandoned, destitute Third World children can be lovingly raised in comfort, while others say this is a patronizing attitude that ignores the benefits of being raised in one's own culture.

Down the road, whenever Haiti manages to stabilize itself and reestablish documentation for vulnerable children, there is likely to be vigorous debate on whether international adoptions

should be resumed on an expanded scale.

There were 330 adoptions of Haitian children by Americans last year, about 900 more were in the works at the time of the quake, and Johnson said the Haitian government had identified an additional 7,300 orphans as eligible for international adoption.

"We'd hoped to focus on those 7,300 — but now it gets harder and harder to do that," he said.

"The arrests give those antiadoption groups more ammunition to call for a permanent moratorium, and the kids suffer."

Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard law professor who supports expanded international adoption, expressed concern about a possible overreaction to the arrests.

"If not all their paperwork was together, that doesn't seem to me the worst crime in the world," she said. "The Haitian authorities should be trying to help a lot of kids get out — both the kids in the process of adoption and others who appear not to have parents or relatives able to take care of them."

"It is astoundingly hypocritical," she said, "that people, in the name of helping children, would close down adoption."

Other groups, however, say international adoptions should

not be promoted until other options are exhausted.

SOS Children's Villages, which is caring for the 33 Haitian children targeted by the arrested Americans, said international adoptions "should be avoided until every effort has been undertaken to reunite each child with her/his family or to provide suitable care within the country."

The organization's CEO, Heather Paul, said American families might prove useful at some point in providing adoptive homes for children suffering medical or psychological problems from the quake.

Meanwhile, she urged restraint.

"Sometimes Americans believe that children are better off in an American middle-class environment almost as a priority over being with their own family who are impoverished," Paul said. "I don't believe that.

Children — they just love their families." ___ On the Net: National Council for Adoption: http://www.adoptioncouncil.org Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Avatar and Locker lead Oscar nods (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

Death.

Highest grossing For the first time since 1944, the Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:13:27 AM Oscars feature 10 best picture Science fiction film Avatar and contenders instead of the usual war movie The Hurt Locker lead five. the way at this year's Academy The list also includes animated Award with nine nominations movie Up, A Serious Man, each.

Inglourious Basterds and An The battle will see Avatar's Education.

James Cameron go head-to-head Firth is up for his first Oscar for w i t h h i s e x - w i f e K a t h r y n his role as a gay academic Bigelow, who made The Hurt mourning the death of his partner Locker, in the best director in fashion designer Tom Ford's category. debut feature film A Single Man. Other films featured in the best "I thought I was managing my film category include Up in the expectations, but on hearing the Air, The Blind Side, Precious news I discovered new and and District 9. unfamiliar vocal tones. Perhaps I British nominees include Colin should do another musical," he Firth, Dame Helen Mirren and said.

Carey Mulligan.

The star will go up against British writer Nick Hornby, who George Clooney (Up in the Air), bought An Education to the big Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), screen, has also been nominated J e r e m y R e n n e r ( T h e H u r t for an award in the best adapted Locker) and Morgan Freeman screenplay category.

(Invictus).

Hornby is well known for a Freeman said: "This is my fifth string of books which have been nomination and I'm more proud adapted and made into movies, of that than all the rest of it, I including Fever Pitch, High think. Getting nominated, to me, Fidelity and About A Boy. that's the plateau.

Writers Jesse Armstrong, Simon "After you're nominated, it's like Blackwell, Armando Iannucci a crap shoot, it's like throwing a n d T o n y R o c h e a r e a l l dice." n o m i n a t e d i n t h e a d a p t e d In the best actress category, screenplay category for In The Sandra Bullock also picked up Loop, based on comedy show her first nomination for The The Thick of It. Blind Side, along with Mulligan Another British hopeful is Nick for An Education and Gabourey Park, for Wallace and Gromit Sidibe for Precious. caper A Matter Of Loaf And Sidibe, who has been nominated

for her first leading role, said: "As soon as I heard, I jumped up and down and for some reason I kept screaming, 'I'm gonna get a car, I'm gonna get a car.' I don't know why."

They will battle it out with Academy Award winners Dame Helen Mirren, for The Last Station and Meryl Streep, for her role in Julie & Julia.

There are also nods for Penelope Cruz (Nine), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart), Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) and Mo'Nique (Precious) in the best supporting actress category.

Critical acclaim And Matt Damon (Invictus), Woody Harrelson (The Messenger), Christopher Plummer (The Last Station), Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones) and Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) will battle it out to win the prize for best supporting actor.

Avatar, which was recently named the highest grossing film of all time, won two Golden Globes recently.

Cameron is no stranger to winning as he walked away with three Oscars in 1998 for Titanic, which included best picture, director and film editing.

The Hurt Locker, a tense movie about an elite bomb disposal team, has won widespread critical acclaim and triumphed at the Directors Guild of America

awards.

Bigelow, whose films include Point Break and K19: The Widowmaker, is only the fourth woman ever to be nominated for directing, and the first since Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation in 2003.

No woman director has ever won the Oscars top prize.

However, The Hurt Locker has already emerged as the favourite to win the top best picture prize during the ceremony on 7 March.

Lee Daniels, who made Precious, became only the second black film-maker nominated for best director, after John Singleton for 1991's Boyz N the Hood.

Quentin Tarantino, whose Inglourious Basterds is up for eight awards, walked away with a best screenplay award in 1995 , but missed out on best director.

Up's inclusion for best film makes it only the second animated movie to feature in the main category, following Disney's Beauty and the Beast in 1992.

It also features in the animated film shortlist, alongside Coraline, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Princess and the Frog and The Secret of Kells.

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Obama looks to target overseas tax breaks (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 2/1/2010 4:33:48 PM

The Obama administration on Monday unveiled plans for a fresh assault on international tax avoidance that officials say will help reduce the deficit from a record $1,556bn this year.

As part of the plan, US-based multinational companies that transfer brands and patents to foreign affiliates that pay little tax overseas would pay a surcharge on the excess returns on those assets. The administration also proposes denying companies that borrow money to invest overseas the ability to take immediate tax deductions on the interest payments.

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Sioux reservation struggling after winter storms (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:36:35 AM

EAGLE BUTTE, S.D. – Sonny Brave Eagle and his family spent six days in the dark without a phone or working radio before law officers found them in their home after a fierce winter storm cut power across South Dakota's impoverished Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

"We didn't know what was going on," said Brave Eagle, among hundreds of people on the sprawling reservation amid a second week without electricity as utility workers struggle to make repairs. The storm brought down power lines, iced roads and led to water outages.

Tribal Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty estimated that 1,500 to 1,700 homes were still without power Monday, and said it would take "better than three weeks" to get the reservation up and running again.

The tribe has spent "enormous amounts" of money on such needs as fuel and water, and an emergency fund that had $175,000 a few months ago has been drained, said tribal

spokeswoman Natalie Stites.

For now, Brave Eagle, his wife and their two young daughters stay at an emergency shelter or a relative's house with four other families. They didn't have a vehicle or even batteries to power a radio when the lights went out at their house, about 12 miles north of Eagle Butte in north-central South Dakota, after a powerful ice storm hit Jan. 20.

Ice coated roads and electrical lines, and forced shops and schools to close. Then before residents could recover, a blizzard tore through the Dakotas with wind gusts between 25 and 50 mph.

The frozen ground complicated efforts to replace power poles, and snow had to be cleared away to allow utility crews to get close enough to rebuild transmission lines, said Brings Plenty.

The power outage led to equipment malfunctions at a pumping plant in a pipeline system that provides drinking water to the reservation. Water service and pressure must be restored gradually in an old system with weak pipes, the tribal chairman added.

About 8,000 people live on the reservation, which is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and the outages affected everyone, Stites said.

But the reservation faced difficulties well before the storms. The unemployment rate is 80 percent, tribal leaders say.

More than half of Ziebach County and 38 percent of Dewey County lived in poverty in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The reservation spans both counties.

Several shelters and distribution centers were set up around the reservation. At the height of the outages, about 14,000 people in the region were without water — most of them at Cheyenne River.

The number of water outages had declined Monday, with about 100 people still affected, said Tri County Mni Waste Water System general manager Leo Fischer.

The South Dakota National Guard helped bring in generators from the state. The tribe distributed fuels such as propane, delivered donated bottled water and sent bulk water tanks around the reservation.

Brings Plenty said no deaths had been reported, but a few people became sick from carbon monoxide fumes given off by makeshift heating sources.

"We could have had quite a few people perish in this," he said.

Seventeen dialysis patients were moved to a hotel at the Prairie Winds Casino in southwest South Dakota, said Rick Shangreaux, the casino's acting general manager. The patients are being treated at a facility on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where the casino is located. ___ On the Net: Facebook site for tribal disaster r e l i e f : http://www.causes.com/crst2010 disasterrelief ___ Associated Press Writers Blake Nicholson and James MacPherson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this story.

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Around the Net In Media: Microsoft Explores Ad Business (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:44:47 PM

Is Microsoft finally ready to a launch its long-delayed advertising exchange? Just barely. The company is set to roll out AdECN, the "real-time" ad exchange it bought in 2007, within the next two weeks.

Microsoft is moving slowly; it will open up AdECN to a handful of ad buyers, but only allow them to purchase a "select, limited amount of Microsoft inventory."

Which means that even as Google's AdX exchange, relaunched last fall, continues to gather momentum, Microsoft will still be dabbling. The promise of the exchanges is that they allow ad sellers and buyers to negotiate specific pieces of inventory at the moment a Web surfer is engaged with them.

Entrepreneurs and investors in ad technology think this will allow dollars to flow into online display ads much more efficiently. Traditional publishers fear exchanges will commoditize ad inventory and push prices even lower.

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Nation's 1st primary sets stage for Ill. showdown (AP)

Around the Net In Media: Poll: Sirius XM Should Drop Stern, Ups Bowl Broadcasts

(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

(MediaPost | Media News)

office a year ago when his predecessor was brought down Submitted at 2/2/2010 3:29:46 AM by corruption charges.

CHICAGO – Illinois Democrats It initially appeared Quinn are choosing Tuesday between would easily win the Democratic candidates who bloodied each nomination. But that was before other in an ugly battle for the the disclosure that a secret early gubernatorial nomination, while release program for prison optimistic Republicans are inmates had included some deciding who will try to seize the violent offenders. It also was e x e c u t i v e m a n s i o n f r o m a before his opponent, Comptroller Democratic Party weakened by Dan Hynes, introduced an ad infighting and scandal. featuring old footage of the late The nominees who emerge from C h i c a g o M a y o r H a r o l d the nation's first primary will Washington— a revered figure fight for the chance to run a state to many black voters — harshly so deep in debt that it can't pay criticizing Quinn. bills on time and must consider Quinn responded by linking painful service cuts, higher taxes Hynes, whose office regulates or both. cemetery finances, to the scandal The governor's office isn't the at a historic black cemetery only Republican target. They outside Chicago where bodies also hope Democratic disarray were double-stacked in graves or will let them capture the Senate simply dumped in the weeds. He seat formerly held by President alleged Hynes ignored the Barack Obama. atrocities at Burr Oak Cemetery, I n t h e g o v e r n o r ' s r a c e , the resting place of civil rightsincumbent Pat Quinn is seeking era lynching victim Emmett Till a full term after being thrust into and other prominent African-

Americans, because he lacks "human decency."

The Republican candidates for governor also attacked each other at times, but most of their exchanges focused on who was most adamantly opposed to raising taxes. Polls suggested the top contenders were state Sen. Kirk Dillard, businessman Andy McKenna and former Attorney General Jim Ryan.

Republicans think they have a strong shot at the governor's mansion because both Democratic candidates are proposing income tax increases and because Democrats have been so tainted by the arrest and impeachment of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The Blagojevich scandal could play into the Senate race, too.

The incumbent senator, Roland Burris, chose not to run because Blagojevich appointed him to the seat, sullying his reputation so badly that he could find little political support.

But the Democrats vying to replace Burris have their own troubles.

Alexi Giannoulias, the leader in the polls, has limited experience — a single term as state treasurer and a job at a family bank that's now in financial trouble. Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson is a former Blagojevich aide. David Hoffman, former Chicago inspector general, is an unknown to most voters.

Republican leaders rallied around Mark Kirk, a five-term member of Congress and an officer in the Naval Reserve, as their choice for the party nomination. Although some Republicans hotly argued that Kirk wasn't sufficiently conservative, there was little evidence any of his opponents were catching on with voters.

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Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:44:39 PM

Some 55.2% of TheStreet readers who took the company's survey say Sirius XM can continue successfully without shock jock Howard Stern, though it might take a small hit at the beginning. However, 44.8% of the poll takers say that Stern is the face of Sirius XM, and helped make Sirius XM what it is today -- and that the company should keep him around.

Separately, Sirius XM said that it is set to broadcast Super Bowl XLIV in 10 different languages and 14 different live broadcasts.

During Super Bowl Sunday on Feb. 7, Sirius XM will air an expanded lineup of live play-byplay broadcasts of the Super Bowl from Sun Life Stadium in South Florida. Sirius XM added more than 257,000 net subscribers in the fourth quarter, bringing the total number of Sirius XM subscribers to more than 18.7 million at year's end.

Five Filters featured article: (MediaPost | Media News) -America newscast, "America opinion program, often putting anchor, is up at the end of the Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Live." Kelly, who will be the her legal background to use. year.

PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Submitted at 2/1/2010 9:45:04 PM solo anchor for an afternoon Inside the News Corp., the Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

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Rising star Megyn Kelly will Kelly, a 39-year-old lawyer, Fox's contract with Greta Van begin anchoring a third all-about appears weekly on Bill O'Reilly's Susteren, the longtime 10 p.m.

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Huge Brazil dam moves step closer (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

The government says the scheme has been modified to take account of fears that it Submitted at 2/1/2010 4:42:04 PM would threaten the way of life of Brazil's government has granted the indigenous peoples who live an environmental licence for the in the area. construction of a controversial Brazilian Environment Minister h y d r o - e l e c t r i c d a m i n t h e Carlos Minc revealed that those Amazon rainforest. who win the bidding process to Environmental groups say the build and operate Belo Monte Belo Monte dam will cause will have to pay millions of devastation in a large area of the d o l l a r s t o p r o t e c t t h e rainforest and threaten the environment and meet 40 other survival of indigenous groups. conditions.

However, the government says However, critics say diverting whoever is awarded the project the flow of the Xingu river will will have to pay $800m to still lead to devastation in a large protect the environment. area of the rainforest and damage The initial approval was a key fish stocks. step before investors could They say the lives of up to submit bids.

40,000 people could be affected Resignations as 500 sq km of land would be The proposal to build a hydro- flooded. electric dam on the Xingu river, When it is completed, Belo a tributary of the Amazon in the Monte would be third largest northern state of Para, has long hydro-electric dam in the world, been a source of controversy. after the Three Gorges in China T h e i n i t i a l p r o j e c t w a s and Itaipu, which is jointly run abandoned in the 1990s amid by Brazil and Paraguay. It is widespread protests both in expected to provide electricity to Brazil and around the world. 23 million Brazilian homes.

With Brazil's economy continuing to show signs of growth, ministers say hydroelectric plants are a vital way to ensure power supplies over the next decade - and at least 70 dams are said to be planned for the Amazon region.

Critics say the Belo Monte plant will be hugely inefficient, generating less than 10% of its capacity during the three to four months of the low-water season.

The project has even caused division and resignations within the government's own environment agency Ibama, which, after much delay, has now given its initial approval.

Having passed this critical test the dam is now much closer to becoming a reality, but the controversy surrounding it is also unlikely to go away.

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US men in Pakistan claim 'set up' (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

The note written on toilet paper read: "Since our arrest the USA, the FBI and Pakistani police Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:38:09 AM have tortured us. They are trying Five US citizens held in to set us up. We are innocent.

Pakistan on suspicion of plotting They are trying to keep us from attacks have again protested their the public, media, our families innocence, saying they have been and our lawyers. Help us." "set up" and tortured.

The message was signed by One of the suspects threw a "Waqar, Ahmed, Ramy, Umar, scrap of toilet paper - with Aman" - the names of the five writing on it which detailed their US citizens. Correspondents say claims - from the window of a that shouts of "we have been van as they arrived at court. tortured" were also heard from The men were appearing at a pre the van.

-trial hearing in the city of The men, aged between 18 and Sargodha.

25, were arrested in Sargodha in They deny claims they were December on suspicion of trying plotting attacks in Pakistan and to contact al-Qaeda-linked Afghanistan and had sought links groups and to plot attacks against with extremists.

Pakistan and its allies.

Their lawyer, Khalid Khawaja, Pakistani officials say the men told the BBC's Syed Shoaib were planning to travel to Hasan that the men would apply Afghanistan to fight with the for bail on 8 February.

Taliban. The men have denied "The state has no real case links to al-Qaeda and insist that a g a i n s t t h e m a n d i s n o w they wanted to go to Afghanistan clutching at straws," he said, for charity work. pointing out that formal charges They face life imprisonment if have still to be made. put on trial and found guilty. A "They have failed to produce any Pakistani court has barred their strong evidence so far." deportation to the US. Mr Khawaja said that he hoped Print Sponsor to file a petition on Wednesday Five Filters featured article: for the court to dismiss charges Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: against the five because of a lack PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, of evidence.

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US jury considers Siddiqui charge (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

Christopher La Vigne told jurors in New York on Monday.

"Not only did she have the Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:13:29 AM motive and intent to harm the P r o s e c u t o r s h a v e s a i d a United States, she had the knowPakistani woman accused of how to do it," he said. shooting at US agents was The prosecutor called her a liar, determined to kill them, in the adding that Ms Siddiqui was "no closing arguments of her trial in shrinking violet".

New York.

But Ms Siddiqui's defence The jury has now retired to lawyer, Linda Moreno, said the consider a charge of attempted forensic evidence was weak: no murder against 37-year-old bullets, shell casings or bullet neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui. debris were recovered from the She is alleged to have used a scene. rifle to shoot at US agents while She also said that the waiting to be questioned in government's eye-witnesses Afghanistan. contradicted each other in their Her defence team claims that testimony, the Reuters news there is no forensic evidence the agency reported. rifle alleged to have been used "Let's leave behind the fear and was ever fired. talk about what the evidence tells None of the US soldiers or us," Ms Moreno said. agents in the room was injured in 'Secret prison' the incident, but Ms Siddiqui Ms Siddiqui was taken into herself was shot. custody by Afghan police in July She maintains she is innocent.

2008 on suspicion of carrying "She saw her chance to kill c o n t a i n e r s o f u n i d e n t i f i e d Americans and she took it," chemicals and notes referring to A s s i s t a n t U S A t t o r n e y "mass-casualty attacks" in New

York.

She was not charged in connection with possessing hazardous materials or plotting terrorist attacks, but only over the alleged shooting incident.

The trial heard evidence from US Army Capt Robert Snyder, who said that an unnamed soldier created a deadly risk by not securing his weapon at an Afghan police outpost on 18 July 2008.

Prosecutors allege that while being detained at that outpost, Ms Siddiqui grabbed the weapon and fired it.

As her trial opened on 20 January, Ms Siddiqui interrupted proceedings to shout at the jury that while in Afghanistan she had been held in a "secret prison... where children were tortured".

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Neo-Pagans Get Worship Circle at Air Force Academy (FOXNews.com)

spokesman for the academy.

"They've had a worship circle on base for some time and we're Witches, Druids and pagans looking to get them an official rejoice! The Air Force Academy one." in Colorado is about to recognize The Air Force recognizes its first Wiccan prayer circle, a several distinct forms of neoStonehenge on the Rockies that paganism, including Dianic will serve as an outdoor place of Wicca, Seax Wicca, Gardnerian worship for the academy's neo- W i c c a , s h a m a n i s m a n d pagans.

Druidism, according to Pagan Wiccan cadets and officers on groups that track the information. the Colorado Springs base have Since a 2004 survey of cadets been convening for over a on the base revealed dozens of decade, but the school will instances of harassment and officially dedicate a newly built intolerance, superintendent circle of stones on about March M i c h a e l G o u l d h a s m a d e 10, putting the outdoor sanctuary religious tolerance a priority. on an equal footing with the Yet Van Winkle, the academy Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and spokesman, said he could not Buddhist chapels on the base. confirm whether the school's "When I first arrived here, Earth- superintendent or senior staff centered cadets didn't have would attend the dedication anywhere to call home," said ceremony.

Sgt. Robert Longcrier, the lay "(We) haven't gotten that far yet: leader of the neo-pagan groups First we have to get a date, and on base. then once we get a date for the "Now, they meet every Monday dedication ceremony we'll see night, they get to go on retreats, who's going to be available for and they have a stone circle." it," he told FoxNews.com.

Academy officials had no tally "Once we get a date that's going of the number of Wiccan cadets to be the real driving force for at the school of 4,500, but said who's going to attend." they had been angling to set up a Click here for more on this story proper space since the academic from the Air Force Academy. year began.

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China and America: Blowing hot and cold (The Economist: News analysis)

proliferation in North Korea and Iran, co-operation between the established superpower and the Submitted at 2/1/2010 10:38:17 PM rising one is vital to world China and America What to stability. Why should either want make of the latest row between to jeopardise this relationship?

C h i n a a n d A m e r i c a o v e r That question has produced Taiwan? several theories. One is that Feb 2nd 2010 | China’s spritely economy is WASHINGTON, DC | From The making it less afraid of conflict Economist online with a tiring America, especially IS IT a crisis or just (show) when it thinks that “core” business as usual? With China interests such as its claim to and America, it can be hard to sovereignty over Taiwan or Tibet tell. Almost immediately after are at stake. The other is that the United States said that it America timed the Taiwan arms intended to sell more than $6 sale in part to punish China—for billion-worth of arms to Taiwan, its shabby treatment of Barack the Chinese went into a spin. Obama during last November’s They summoned the American presidential visit to Beijing, for ambassador to denounce this its foot-dragging at December’s interference in China’s “internal Copenhagen climate summit and affairs” (Taiwan is part of the for its reluctance to support new mainland, says the government United Nations sanctions on in Beijing), threatened to cut off Iran. Of course, neither theory military ties with the United excludes the other and bits of States and said they would both may be true. But a third impose sanctions on American possibility is that there is in fact firms involved in the Taiwan less to this “crisis” than meets deal. the eye.

None of this looks good for the America is obliged under the world’s most consequential Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 to r e l a t i o n s h i p . F r o m g l o b a l provide the island with the arms warming to the sickly world it needs to defend itself. America economy to stopping nuclear and China both knew that the

United States would announce the package at some time and that China would vehemently oppose it, as it always does. The package includes some sophisticated weapons, such as Black Hawk and Apache helicopters and Harpoon missiles, but it does not include F-16 fighters that the Taiwanese would dearly like. As to the timing, says a senior administration official, “this is one of those issues where the timing is never right.” It certainly would not have been clever to announce the sale immediately before or after last year’s presidential goodwill visit to China.

If America’s announcement was expected, so was the indignant Chinese response. Denunciation and the cancellation of some military-co-operation meetings is in keeping with previous Chinese reactions. A new element this time was the public threat of Chinese sanctions against American firms involved in the Taiwan deal, but most of these have little or no business in China. One big exception is Boeing, which is huge in China.

But for that reason it is unlikely

that the Chinese will follow up on this particular threat.

If the Taiwan weapons spat blows over, American officials will hail what they nowadays call the more “mature” relationship they have nurtured with China during Mr Obama’s first year.

But many tests lie ahead. Some are mainly symbolic, such as a forthcoming meeting between Mr Obama and Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, which the Americans postponed last year to prevent it souring the president’s China trip. Others are more concrete, such as China’s reluctance to go along with new sanctions on Iran or to respond to America’s pleas to revalue the yuan. A world-shaking fallingout between China and America is always possible. But the falling-out over the Taiwan arms package is probably not it.

Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views.

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China warns US over Dalai Lama (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 2/2/2010 3:06:17 AM

BEIJING, February 2 – China said a possible meeting between US President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama would further harm Sino-US relations, and vowed to go ahead with unspecified sanctions against US groups selling arms to Taiwan.

China has become increasingly vocal in opposing meetings between the Dalai Lama and foreign leaders, and one between the exiled Tibetan leader and President Obama would increase tensions between the world’s biggest and third-biggest economies.

Ties between the US and China have also soured over trade and currency quarrels, control of the internet, and Beijing’s jailing of dissidents.

There has been widespread speculation that Mr Obama will meet the Dalai Lama as early as this month, when the Tibetan figurehead visits the US. The White House has not publicly confirmed any such meeting.

Zhu Weiqun, a vice minister of the United Front Work Department of China’s ruling Communist party, said his CHINA page 79

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government would vehemently oppose any meeting between Mr Obama and the Tibetan Buddhist monk, who Beijing deems a dangerous separatist.

“If that comes to pass, then China will be strongly opposed as always,” Mr Zhu, who’s department steers party policy over ethnic issues, said of the possible meeting.

“If the US leader chooses this time to meet the Dalai Lama, that would damage trust and cooperation between our two countries, and how would that help the United States surmount the current economic crisis?” said Mr Zhu. China routinely opposes meetings between the Dalai Lama and foreign leaders, especially after violent unrest spread across Tibetan areas in March 2008. Beijing blamed his “clique” for the turmoil, a charge he repeatedly rejected.

Previous US presidents, including Mr Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, have met the Dalai Lama, drawing angry words from Beijing but no substantive reprisals.

But when French President Nicolas Sarkozy would not pull out of meeting the Dalai Lama while his country held the rotating presidency of the European Union in late 2008, China hit back by cancelling a summit with the European

Union.

The Dalai Lama has said he wants a high level of genuine autonomy for his homeland, which he fled in 1959. China says his demands amount to calling for outright independence. China recently hosted talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama, but those talks achieved little.

The US says it accepts Tibet is a part of China, but wants Beijing to sit down with the Dalai Lama to address their differences over the region’s future.

Beijing is already irate over US proposals last week to sell $6.4bn of weapons to Taiwan, the disputed island that China treats as an illegitimate breakaway province.

The US switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. But it remains Taiwan’s biggest backer and is obliged by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help in the island’s defence.

Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, on Tuesday repeated Beijing’s threat to impose sanctions against US companies that sell arms to Taiwan. ”The concerned US companies have ignored China’s opposition and insisted on selling weapons to Taiwan. China will impose corresponding sanctions on companies that sell weapons to Taiwan,” Mr Ma said told a news

conference.

“The United States’ actions will seriously hurt China’s core interests and seriously hurt China -US interests,” he said. “This will unavoidably affect ChinaUS co-operation on important international and regional issues.” Obama’s presidency FT In depth: News and analysis on the policies and actions of President Barack Obama and his administration But Mr Ma fended off repeated questions from reporters asking for details of how China would impose sanctions.

Ma instead repeated almost word-for-word the condemnation of the arms sale Beijing issued on Saturday.

“Wait and see,” Mr Ma said as he was leaving the briefing.

Companies that could be affected include Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, a unit of United Technologies; Lockheed Martin; Raytheon; and McDonnell Douglas, a unit of Boeing.

Speaking in Singapore, Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, repeatedly declined to elaborate on any impact on Boeing sales to China arising from the arms sale row.

China says the arms dispute will also damage co-operation with the US over international issues.

Washington has sought stronger Chinese support over several

hotspots, chiefly the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

Again, Mr Ma would not be drawn into specifics.

A former senior US diplomat earlier told Reuters that China might not follow up strong words with strong measures.

“Let’s watch what they do, not what they say, because sometimes tough words in China are a substitute for tough action,” said Susan Shirk, a professor specialising in Chinese foreign policy at the University of California, San Diego.

Ms Shirk was formerly a US deputy assistant secretary of state during the Clinton administration. She said the Iran nuclear dispute was one issue that Beijing might use to signal its anger.

China has resisted western demands for tougher sanctions on Iran. On Tuesday, Mr Ma repeated his government’s stance that there was room to solve the dispute through negotiations.

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The U.S. National Archives joins the Commons!

By Cris Stoddard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 2/1/2010 12:42:45 PM

Please welcome the U.S. National Archives to The Commons, the world’s public photography archives on Flickr to which you can contribute information and knowledge.

With over 3,000 images in 49 sets uploaded already, perusing these important archival images should keep you entertained for a long time. Their four collections encompass important Americana, ranging from the famous Mathew Brady Civil War images to historical and iconic images of American history.

Step back to the 1860s to see Civil War battle scenes in the Mathew Brady Civil War Photography collection. Visit the DOCUMERICA Project by the Environmental Protection Agency collection, which documents everyday life in the 1970s. The Development and Public Works collection contains images of the Flatriver irrigation U.S. page 80

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project in Montana. Their Historical Photographs and Documents collection contains milestones in U.S. history, including the Declaration of Independence, the Earth as seen from space, and just a series of favorites, including Ansel Adams.

“The Tetons – Snake River,” Grand Teton National Park,

Wyoming, by Ansel Adams Photos from the U.S. National Archives.

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Bayonet Skills to be Omitted from Basic Training for Modern Soldiers

By Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 2/1/2010 11:16:15 AM

General wants to reshape U.S. Army's basic training to reflect the demands of modern warfare A general in command of U.S. Army training says that a new generation of video-gaming, computer-savvy but less physically fit soldiers will no longer learn how to disembowel an enemy with a bayonet. The passing of the old infantry standby may simply reflect a modern battlefield that has become both more tech-heavy and more tactically complex, according to AP and other news sources.

Modern recruits now come to basic training with excellent computer skills and knowledge, but often lack the "warrior ethos" and even the most basic hand-tohand fighting skills. Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, the three-star general charged with overhauling Army training, aims to transform those recruits into hardened warfighters while leveraging their tech skills. As we noted before, video game-style simulators may help recruits feel right at home as they adapt to complex counter-insurgency operations in places such as Afghanistan.

Hertling even predicted the day when soldiers armed with smart phones could use thousands of applications to help repair a truck or perform emergency battlefield

medicine, according to AP. Today's soldiers have already begun testing augmented reality goggles for repairing vehicles, and tracking aerial drone buddies via Google's Android system for smart phones.

Perhaps it's no surprise that the general said U.S. soldiers simply had too much to learn already in basic training, as Military.com reports. And besides, many modern rifles cannot even equip the sharp bayonets that have served soldiers for centuries.

But not everyone seems eager to embrace the bayonet-free future, if comments on Military.com gave any indication. One commenter saw "no reason not to train for the worst … because when it comes that time you better be the baddest in the fight

or you're on your way home in a bag."

Related Articles Navy Says Video Games Can Boost "Fluid Intelligence" of Warfighters Augmented Reality Goggles Make Marine Mechanics More Efficient Google's Android Allows Soldiers to Put Drones on Buddy List Tags Technology, Jeremy Hsu, battlefields, bayonets, drones, military tech, military training, modern warfare, soldiers, warfighters DefenseTech also points out the last known bayonet charge carried out in 2004. A group of 20 British soldiers near Basra fought off an ambush by over 100 Mahdi fighters in Iraq, but eventually ran low on ammo.

They then resorted to a fierce bayonet charge that killed 20

militiamen and compelled the rest to flee or surrender, with only three British soldiers injured.

The after-action report compiled by the U.S. Urban Warfare Analysis Center concluded that the bayonet charge emphasized the difference between passionate but irregularly trained insurgents and the more disciplined, tactically-savvy professional soldiers. It also added that the incident represented the first time in 22 years that the British army had resorted to bayonets -- perhaps as compelling evidence as anything of how warfare has changed. [via AP and DefenseTech]

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Research Brief: Loyalty Programs Need to Engage (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:15:37 AM

A new report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council report indicates that marketers are under-valuing perks, discounts, deals and additional service opportunities, as customers give them high marks. Both customers and marketers agree that deeper engagement and personalized contact drives loyalty.

61% of marketers believe that loyalty program participants are the best and most profitable customers. And, an almost equal number of respondents (65%) view customer loyalty program investments as a very essential, or a quite valuable part of the marketing mix.

• 13% of respondents believe they have been highly effective in leveraging loyalty and brand preference among club members • 20% don't even have a strategy for this • 25% admit they have not mobilized brand loyalists to become active advocacy agents The study also reveals that marketers are mostly inducing loyalty with discounts or free products and premiums rather than quicker, better service or improved customer handling: • 39% of respondents view discounts and savings as the key member benefits

• 34% view free products and premiums as essential incentives • 33% are committed to offering points for merchandise redemption as a further motivator Customer complaints about loyalty programs include: • 30% of marketers report that some customers see little or no added value to becoming a loyalty member • 24% indicate rewards lack substance • 24% feel they don't get enough personalized attention • 21% have problems with receiving too much spam email and junk mail • 23% complain about a lack of individualized communication • 18% have issues with redeeming points and miles

community and networking tools to grow and develop loyalty programs. Other key actions for generating a greater ROI from club members include: • Personalizing interactions and target messages (51%) • Increasing frequency and relevance of communications (39%) • Gathering more insights and intelligence for better customer handling (38%) • Adding new benefits, incentives and inducements (36%) • Studying industry best practices and making adjustments accordingly (19%)

When it comes to in-depth profiling of customers, the vast majority of marketers still only aggregate and analyze limited customer data sets.

Despite these challenges, • 73% collect basic investments in loyalty programs demographics and will continue as nearly 80% of • 68% track the location of marketers are committed to members maintaining or further funding loyalty programs as customer But critical insights are not r e t e n t i o n a n d r e l a t i o n s h i p being leveraged: building vehicles. Over 34% • Advocacy rates (14%) report they are significantly • Brand loyalty and increasing their commitments, attachment (27%) and 45.9 are maintaining their • Personal preferences (31%) current commitments. Just 4% • Satisfaction levels (33%) expect to discontinue their • Product preferences (38%) programs.

Online channels dominate Donovan Neale-May, executive expected investments as nearly director of the CMO Council, 60% of the marketer respondents says, "... without a deeper said they planned to make better customer insight, marketers will u s e o f t h e W e b a n d n e w be limited in their ability to do

meaningful predictive modeling, market segmentation and revenue forecasting. Better understanding of customer behaviors, predispositions, intentions and preferences enables more effective and relevant messaging... " Acquiring and retaining motivated and engaged participants is the number one problem facing 46% of marketers. Other obstacles and issues include: • Measuring marketing value and effectiveness (42%) • Collecting, integrating and maintaining customer data (41%) • Deriving valuable insight and intelligence (38%) • Delivering more personalized offers and inducements (34%) • Creating more customized communications (33%) Digital marketing channels are taking precedence in ways marketers promote their loyalty and rewards programs. Nearly 60% rely on web sites, nearly 60% on email, 47% on word-ofmouth, 46% on point-of-sale information, 42% on direct mail, and 39% on a sales or service representative. Most member communication is monthly (30%), while 20% interact with members on a daily, weekly or bi -weekly basis.

Cost-efficient email is the preferred mechanism for member communication among 84% of

marketers, followed by: printed mailings and statements (51%) • Corporate web sites (45%) • Dedicated club sites (32%) • SMS text messaging (24%) • Social networks (16%) Consumers report they see value in loyalty program membership: • 79% of consumers surveyed say they are very, or pretty, satisfied with their loyalty and rewards program experiences • 70% want to see more discounts and savings • 52% want more compelling personal deals and offers as reward for steering their business to loyalty program operators • 58% say they want more compelling personal benefits and services, as well as more relevant offers or individualized deals While social media also tops the list of investments for marketers, consumers report that point-ofsale information, service representative interactions, company web sites and word-ofmouth are the primary sources for learning about loyalty clubs: • 65% acquired information about the programs in retail environments compared to only • 4% in social media networks, RESEARCH page 82

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• 3% in blogs and • 11% in online advertising.

Too much spam and junk email topped the list of negatives associated with loyalty and rewards program membership (44%), followed by: • Too many conditions and restrictions (38%) • Rewards that lacked real value (37%) • Members having a hard time redeeming points or rewards, program membership lacking value, as well as communications and service not being personalized or targeted specifically for members

products and services, advocate your brand... actively respond to offers and incentives, is critical to marketing effectiveness."

Additional facts and figures from the report • It is estimated that there are 1.8 billion members of loyalty programs in the U.S. • Marketers spend about $2 billion annually on operating these programs • The average U.S. household is enrolled in 14.1 loyalty and rewards programs, but is only active in 6.2 of them

• Grocery 153.3 million • Mass Merchants 124.8 million • Casino/Gaming 106 million • Department Stores 92.8 million • Drug Stores 73.9 million • Fuel/Convenience 51.2 million • Restaurant 13.7 million • Car Rental and Cruise Lines 10.7 million • All other types 127.9 million

Gallup Economic Weekly: Confidence Falls in Late January (All Gallup Headlines) Submitted at 2/1/2010 8:00:00 PM

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's Economic Confidence Index was unchanged last week at -28 -essentially the same as the prior two weeks' readings, and down from the optimism of a month For more information, please ago (-20). Job-market conditions remained anemic and selfvisit the CMO Council here.

Top U.S. loyalty program Five Filters featured article: reported consumer spending memberships ranked by industry, Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: improved slightly to match last reports Colloquy, include: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, year's new normal.

What Happened (Week Ending Neale-May concludes that "... • Financial Services 422 Term Extraction.

Jan. 31) the economy is not a big driver million of program participation... • Airline 277.4 million • figuring out ways to deliver • Specialty Retail 191.3 • added value to those willing to million • r e p e a t e d l y p u r c h a s e y o u r • Hotel 161.8 million

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economies before they buy into the idea that things are actually getting better.

Of course, the center of attention this week is Friday's jobs report for January. The government's jobless claims report last week indicated that claims are running higher than generally expected -but in line with Gallup's Job Creation Index. Gallup's Jan. 2531 results suggest that once again this coming Thursday, jobless claims may continue to run higher than the consensus

What to Watch For Improvements in confidence as expectation. And, as noted the not. Gallup's economic data r e p o r t e d l a s t w e e k i n t h e past couple of weeks, Gallup's suggest that is clearly the case. Conference Board's Consumer data also imply that the January Not only does the job market C o n f i d e n c e I n d e x a n d t h e unemployment rate will exceed c o n t i n u e t o s h o w n o Reuters/University of Michigan the consensus of 10.0% when improvement in hiring, but Consumer Sentiment Index reported Friday. consumer spending continues to reflect in large part the improved Lawrence Summers, director of l a n g u i s h a t l e a s t y e a r ' s economic confidence Gallup the White House's National depressed, if new normal, level. recorded at the beginning of Economic Council, noted in Only when private-sector job January. What these monthly Davos, Switzerland, last week growth returns in earnest and measures fail to show is that t h a t w h i l e t h e r e c e s s i o n , consumers who can afford to do e c o n o m i c c o n f i d e n c e h a s statistically speaking, may be so decide to spend once more deteriorated over the past three over given two consecutive will the "human recession" be weeks. quarters of positive economic Given the Obama GALLUP page 83 growth, the "human recession" is administration's effort to refocus

on jobs, there was some hope that the president's State of the Union message would have a positive impact on Americans' confidence -- perhaps returning it to early January levels. However, last week's economic confidence results and the three-day polls taken before and after the president's address to Congress, like the performance of the equity markets, did not show such a positive bump, at least to this point in time. After a year of hoping and then experiencing repeated disappointments, many Americans may need to see a real upturn in their local GALLUP page 82

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over.

Review and export the complete daily trends on these measures: Economic Indexes; Consumer Spending; Economic Outlook; Economic Conditions; Job Market Learn more about Gallup's economic measures.

Survey Methods For Gallup Daily tracking, Gallup interviews approximately 1,000 national adults, aged 18 and older, each day. The Gallup consumer perceptions of the economy and consumer spending results are based on random halfsamples of approximately 500 national adults, aged 18 and

older, each day. The Gallup job creation and job loss results are based on a random half sample of approximately 500 current full - and part-time employees each day. Results from the week of Jan. 25-31, 2010, are based on telephone interviews with 3,513 adults for the consumer perceptions and spending questions. For these results, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is Âą3 percentage points. Results for the job creation and job loss questions are based on interviews with 3,938 employees, with a maximum margin of error of Âą3

percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones and cellular phones.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

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Teen Inventor's Cave Radio Could Save Lives Deep Underground

By Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 2/1/2010 12:57:32 PM

Cave-texting device involves combination of computer and ham radio Science fair projects don't get much cooler than a texting device that broke the record for deepest underground digital communication in the United States. Such a device may help save people trapped deep underground and even allow scientists to conduct remote cave

research, all thanks to a teen inventor from Los Alamos, New Mexico. NPR took a firsthand look at the deep, dark foray.

Alexander Kendrick, 16, headed to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico to test his device almost 1,000 feet underground. His invention involves a computer attached to a ham radio that transmits data using low-frequency radio waves. By contrast, highfrequency transmissions used in FM broadcasts have a harder time penetrating solid rock.

Kendrick's team climbed down to 946 feet, before they

assembled a 6-foot-wide radio antenna out of PVC tubing and wire. Kendrick's dad had hiked to a spot directly above the team on the surface and awaited a

message.

The younger Kendrick then typed the word "happy" on a rubber keyboard, and "appy" appeared on the small screen

aboveground being held by his father.

The effort won Kendrick the 2009 International Science Fair, along with a new computer, a Switzerland trip and $12,000. He hopes to make the radio more portable and durable for rescue crews, as well as for scientists who would want to monitor cave environments remotely.

If that doesn't inspire young people to try their hand at becoming high school inventors, we don't know what will. [via NPR]

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China's Power Boom Means West May Swap Oil Dependency for Green Tech Dependency

By Clay Dillow (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

to negotiate the best deal for green infrastructure, U.S. manufacturers and representatives in Congress cry foul. But U.S. turbine and solar Submitted at 2/1/2010 1:41:26 PM panel makers simply can't scale President Obama made it clear their operations to match the in his State of the Union Address Chinese manufacturers' sizes and last week that he fears the prices, not to mention their cheap American economy is on the cost of labor. brink of missing out on a green The West's inability to close the tech boom that could propel us gap between China's green tech out of our current financial mess industry and its own could lead and into the coming century, and to a permanent Chinese grip on it appears his concern is wellgreen electricity infrastructure, placed. China leapfrogged forcing Western nations to trade Denmark, Germany, Spain and an oil dependency for a wind and the U.S. to become the world's solar tech dependency. Last largest maker of wind turbines week, Obama said he wouldn't last year, and 2010 is shaping up accept "a future where the jobs to be another banner year. For and industries of tomorrow take China that is, not for the West. year according to the Chinese own energy grid ($45 billion in t e c h , c r e a t i n g a f i n a n c i a l root beyond our borders." But if In the past two years, the Renewable Energy Industries 2009) and is working toward d i s i n c e n t i v e t o g o g r e e n . U.S. green power manufacturers Chinese have also powered past Association -- and even Western semi-ambitious green energy The result is a huge disparity can't find a way to scale their Western competitors to become c o m p a n i e s l i k e D e n m a r k ' s goals (8 percent green by 2020, between what Americans say operations and costs to reach a t h e l a r g e s t s o l a r p a n e l Vestas are building the next double its current green output). they want and what they want to c o m p e t i t i v e s t a n d i n g w i t h manufacturer in the world, g e n e r a t i o n o f g r e e n t e c h Chinese companies are also pay for. Utilities in the U.S. China's economy -- be it through leaving some analysts and manufacturing facilities in China buying new equipment to create would have to pass the cost of subsidies or novel technologies economists to wonder if the West where the labor force is cheap brand new streams of energy; a new turbines and solar plants or simply an acceptance by the might shake off its dependency and properly trained. more mature U.S. grid forces along to consumers, who want American public that clean on Middle Eastern oil only to Part of China's engine for companies to choose between their homes powered as cheaply power just costs more -- he may find itself at the mercy of China's growth is home-grown; China is, using existing -- and already paid as possible (especially in these just have to. g r e e n t e c h d o m i n a n c e . a f t e r a l l , i t s o w n b i g g e s t -in-full -- fossil-fueled generators dire economic times). Each time [ New York Times] Renewable energy industries are customer, investing heavily in its and investing in brand new green a U.S. utility tries to go overseas piling on the jobs -- 100,000 a

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Live Birds-Eye-View Video Feeds Streamed From Choppers to Smartphones on the Ground

By Clay Dillow (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:43:37 AM

It's the saving grace of every slow news day: you flip on the cable news networks during the mid-day reporting lull to find live video from news choppers tailing a perp as he tries to outmaneuver local law enforcement.

But the privileged vantage point that allows you to see said perp ditch his ride and leap the fence behind an apartment complex is not shared by the cops on the ground. A new mobile technology called HT 4Sight aims to change that, bringing live encrypted video feeds from aerial platforms straight to handheld devices on the ground.

Created by aerial charter company Helinet-- you may have seen some of the aerial footage the company shot for Planet Earth-- the technology doesn't require much in the way of addons; a software client installed on the phone allows it to receive real-time video feeds directly from an airborne crew packing a gyro-stabilized HD video camera system. The camera can be controlled manually or programmed to lock onto a

New Infographic Visualizes the Space Debris Cloud Surrounding Earth

By Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) specific set of coordinates.

The live feed is compressed from 1.5 gigabytes per second to 18.3 megabits per second for microwave relay to a ground station up to 120 miles away, where it is de-compressed back into 1.5-gbps HD video. The ground station then relays the encrypted video to smartphones or other video enabled devices anywhere in the world, where the device down-converts from HD to standard-def and cropped for easier viewing on the phone's screen.

The downlink causes a mere 100 -millisecond delay, close enough to real time that relevant authorities can use the feeds to augment high-security situations, monitor pursuits or simply get the lay of the land in unfamiliar territory. Devices can view the video feeds over cellular or WiFi networks, and a single device can receive up to four feeds at once, compounding the degree of situational awareness the program can introduce to a situation.

Right now it's available for

Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices, but it's easy to picture this technology working on any platform and for myriad purposes. The military/drone applications for such real time aerial footage beamed directly to the field are obvious. But we're more thrilled with the idea of streaming other kinds of video live through simultaneous streams. Like March Madness. In quad split-screen. On the iPad. Please? [ Wired Gadget Lab]

Submitted at 2/1/2010 11:59:41 AM

My debris field is bigger than yours Space debris remains one of the biggest challenges for a spacefaring humanity in the 21st century, as even the smallest pieces can pose a serious threat to satellites, manned spacecraft and the International Space Station. Now our friends at Fast Company have stumbled on a nifty infographic by Austrian designer Michael Paukner that lays out the space clutter situation more clearly.

Each nation's contribution NEW page 86

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shows up as a series of circles. A white circle designates active satellites, a gray circle indicates dysfunctional satellites and a black circle represents pieces of orbital debris greater than 10 centimeters in diameter.

The biggest contributor to space junk is none other than the U.S., followed closely by a two-way tie between Russia and China.

Interestingly, China managed to contribute all that debris despite just having half the number of active satellites compared to Russia, or one tenth the number of satellites in the U.S. fleet.

Both China and the U.S. have tested missiles to shoot down satellites in the past, although the Chinese destroyed their weather satellite in a higher altitude that

left a large cloud of space debris.

Fortunately, the U.S. government seems eager to avoid a WALL-E style future Earth if possible. The Pentagon's science lab DARPA issued a call late last year for possible solutions to clean up space debris, and the U.S. military is also looking to upgrade its space surveillance capabilities to keep track of more satellites and prevent future collisions. [ We Love Data Vis via Fast Company]