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A film classic ripe for a Washington-style update? By Deborah Zabarenko (Front Row Washington)

from a mythical “John Doe” who says he’s going to leap off the city hall roof on Christmas Eve Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:19:29 AM to protest widespread corruption It’s Oscar nomination day, and the state of the world in which means some in snow- general. covered Washington DC — But that’s all background. What Hollywood for ugly people, if makes it made-to-order for a you believe the old saying — are 2010 remake is what happens daydreaming about what it when Gary Cooper a.k.a. “John w o u l d b e l i k e t o m a k e a Doe” speaks to a big gathering, blockbuster film. “Avatar” seems reading remarks written by the to have the inside track in this columnist, who’s now in cahoots year’s Academy Award race, but with the oil magnate: the crowd isn’t there an old classic movie loves him so much they go out ripe for a Washington-style and form grassroots John Doe remake? Clubs, just to be neighborly. No How about“Meet John Doe”? politicians allowed. They’re not It’s a Frank Capra morality piece partisan, they just want to make made in 1941, where a soda jerk things a little better. can speak basic truth and a rail- The oil magnate has another riding hobo is played by Gary idea, to use the John Doe Clubs Cooper, the George Clooney of as a platform for his political his day. Everybody’s scrounging a m b i t i o n s . M e a n t i m e t h e for a job and a buck, they’re columnist and the hobo fall in laying off the old pros at the love, and decide they really are local newspaper and a cigar- altruistic and want “the people” chomping oil magnate wants to to succeed. It all winds up on the g e t i n t o p o l i t i c s . B a r b a r a city hall roof in the snow on Stanwyck plays a hard-driving Christmas Eve, with (really) the columnist who fakes a letter “Ode to Joy” playing in the

maverick message competing with entrenched Washington interests. Nobody goes up to the city hall roof, but the two newcomers emerge from the fray older and wiser and open their own PR shop. Now the fun part — casting! Clooney would be perfect in the Scott Brown/John Doe role. Sandra Bullock would be ideal as the media star but why not get an acting amateur with real background. OK, here’s the 2010 version: potential: Sarah Palin. For the picture Scott Brown, the new person embodying the power Massachusetts senator, as this elite, maybe Jack Nicholson. century’s John Doe, arriving in Again, there’s a non-actor who Washington to find a Senate tied could fill the bill — Rush up in knots, a House in disarray Limbaugh. He bears an uncanny and a White House mired in debt resemblance to Edward Arnold, and war. He’s buoyed by support who plays the part in the from the John Doe Clubs of the original. And Limbaugh already 21st century, the Tea Party has the cigars! This is a screenplay that movement. Another Washington outsider, a telegenic former practically writes itself — so hit governor with ambitions of her those keys! own, is drawn to the nouveau For more Reuters political news, John Doe and to the Tea Partiers. click here. They go to the Tea Party Photo credits: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson convention but find their (Actor George Clooney at

National Board of Review Award ceremony in New York, January 12, 2010) REUTERS/Larry Downing (Republican Senator-elect Scott Brown, Capitol Hill in Washington January 21, 2010) REUTERS/Mike Theiler (Former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Fairfax, Virginia, December 5, 2009) REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (Sandra Bullock at the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, January 17, 2010) REUTERS/Steve Marcus (Jack Nicholson at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 2, 2009) REUTERS/Micah Walter (Radio show host Rush Limbaugh speaks at the Heritage Foundation, Washington June 23, 2006)

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Tea Party ‘warriors’ take aim at Florida Senate race By David Morgan (Front Row Washington)

national leadership to become a true force in American politics. A Senate victory for Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:23:51 AM Rubio could help give them that Conservative Tea Party activists in time for the 2012 presidential had loads of fun in Boston last election campaign. month helping Scott Brown But is the Tea Party movement chuck Teddy Kennedy’s foreverreally without leaders? An article Democratic Senate seat into in The New Yorker magazine Republican waters. points out the involvement of Now the painted warriors former House Majority Leader hope to stage a reenactment Dick Armey. It also notes that of Florida’s Dade Massacre, with some well-heeled lobby groups Republican Gov. Charlie and think tanks, including Crist playing the ill-fated Maj. Americans for Tax Reform, the Dade. Club for Growth, Campaign for A new Rasmussen Reports poll s e n t i m e n t s i n c e A u g u s t , Liberty and the Ayn Rand Center shows Crist 12 percentage points when Crist’s support stood at 53 f o r I n d i v i d u a l R i g h t s , behind former state House percent. Rubio and Crist both sponsored the Tea Party march in Speaker and Tea Party favorite hold a double-digit lead over Washington last September. M a r c o R u b i o i n F l o r i d a ’ s likely Democratic nominee, U.S. Photo Credits: Reuters/Brian Republican primary contest for Rep. Kendrick Meek, in the S n y d e r ( B o s t o n T e a P a r t y the U.S. Senate. Rubio leads general election campaign to Reenactment); Reuters/Mark Crist 49 percent to 37 percent. replace retiring Republican Sen. Wallheiser (Charlie Crist); Rubio’s lead is only just outside Mel Martinez. Reuters/Larry Downing (Dick the poll’s 5 percentage point Rubio’s fortunes present an Armey) margin of error, and 11 percent important test of the Tea Party Click here for more political of the 449 people surveyed say movement’s ability to draw coverage from Reuters t h e y ’ r e u n d e c i d e d . B u t votes. But there may be more t h e n u m b e r s s u g g e s t than that at stake. Pundits say the a fundamental change in voter Tea Party movement needs

David Smith visits Indian UN force in Democratic Republic of Congo By David Smith (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:51:14 AM

David Smith joins India's UN peacekeeping force in Democratic Republic of Congo David Smith

Hong Kong fraudster arrested for forging billionaire's will (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

residential complex where Chan lives, with many of the vehicles blacked out with curtains. Lam said officers took computers and Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:53:58 AM documents from Chan's house. Feng shui expert accused of Hong Kong has been gripped by faking will of former lover, the story, with its juicy detail Hong Kong's richest woman about Chan's affair with Wang, Nina Wang who was nicknamed Little H o n g K o n g p o l i c e t o d a y Sweetie for her girlish outfits and arrested a 50-year-old fortune pigtail hairdo. Chan, who started teller accused of forging a will seeing Wang when his wife was that left him the multibillion- pregnant with their eldest son, dollar estate of his late lover, the said they were genuinely in love, tycoon Nina Wang, who was sharing a passion for cooking, once Asia's richest woman. model helicopters and feng shui. Two wills emerged after Wang But high court Judge Lam Mandied of cancer aged 69 in April h o n r u l e d a g a i n s t C h a n , 2007. One left her fortune to a describing him as a scheming charity she set up with her late sycophant who used a forged husband, and another named will to cheat Wang of her feng shui adviser Tony Chan fortune. Wang's company, the Chun-chuen as the beneficiary. A Chinachem Group, is worth tens Hong Kong court yesterday of billions of Hong Kong dollars, sided with the charity, ruling that according to her family. the will that benefited Chan is a Chan on Tuesday said he was forgery. innocent and that he will appeal H o n g K o n g p o l i c e against the ruling. spokeswoman Anne Lam said • China police arrested Chan Wednesday afternoon in connection to a guardian.co.uk© Guardian document forgery case. Lam said News & Media Limited 2010 | Chan was not immediately Use of this content is subject to charged. our Terms & Conditions| More Television footage showed a Feeds police motorcade leaving the

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Indian UN peacekeepers in Congo: an unsung tour of duty By David Smith (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

Bolivia, Cameroon, Ghana, Guatemala, Jordan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Paraguay, South Africa and Uruguay. Their Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:51:14 AM motto: "Whatever, whenever, In Congo, Indian troops make wherever. Always present." up the biggest contingent of the Apparently the US and Britain b i g g e s t U N p e a c e k e e p i n g were unavailable. operation in the world There have been nearly 100 In the shadow of Guantánamo M o n u c f a t a l i t i e s , b u t i t ' s Bay and Abu Ghraib, the default generally said that the greatest liberal view of US troops in Iraq risks are accidents or malaria was often of stoned, cowardly rather than enemy fire. The rednecks shooting innocents for entire operation cost $1.3bn sport. But when I spent time as (£815bn) a year and, given the an embedded reporter with the infamous failures of past UN U S a r m y i n B a g h d a d , t h e peacekeeping missions, the soldiers I met were generally troops are allowed to open fire b r a v e , q u i c k - w i t t e d a n d when necessary. compassionate. It was, at the But Monuc is garrisoned behind v e r y l e a s t , a r e b u k e t o barbed wire and high walls near oversimplification. Goma airport and, a year ago, the I wasn't quite sure what to city looked set to fall to the expect last week on an excursion warlord Laurent Nkunda, leader with the Indian army. The faces, of a rebel force that repeatedly l a n g u a g e s a n d g e n e r o u s routed Congo's army. Monuc hospitality of India were the last fired some token shots in thing I'd anticipated in rural response, but nobody here Democratic Republic of Congo. believes it would have dared But with more than 4,000 troops stand in Nkunda's way if he had on the ground, they're the biggest chosen to take the city. contingent of the biggest UN At the Monuc compound, I met peacekeeping operation in the Major Rohit Sharma, 35, from world. Delhi, who in a military briefing People mocked George Bush for explained that in North Kivu boasting that his Iraq war province there is on average one " c o a l i t i o n o f t h e w i l l i n g " soldier for every 1,100 civilians embraced Albania, Kazakhstan or on for every 12 square a n d T o n g a . T h i s U N kilometres (2,965 acres). peacekeeping force – known by "I'll not say it's hunky dory," he the French acronym Monuc – is said. "But it's all relative. I've no less inclusive. The blue been here six months and the helmets are worn by 18,500 c h a n g e I ' v e s e e n i s troops from countries such as c o n s i d e r a b l e . "

I hitched a ride with Sharma in a UN jeep with such a low roof that I was unable to sit upright. I tried curling into a foetal position, but on the rutted roads, bumped my head enough times to conclude that I should have done combat training inside a tumble dryer. As we rolled through the hills and villagers turned to look, Sharma said: "Every time a child waves to me, it gives me a lift and makes me want to pursue the mandate." We travelled 150km (93 miles) north of Goma and stopped at military bases along the way. They all had an Indian flavour. There were Indian flags and shrines, Indian food and furniture, and a military etiquette and deference to tradition that somehow evoked popular notions of the British Raj. At every opportunity I was offered a cup of tea, perhaps with biscuits, and we spoke a common language, English, in this otherwise officially francophone country. One night in Kanyabayonga, a buffet was prepared in the mess tent and I sat with a group of officers. Someone put on a DVD of the film Memento, explaining they were curious because there is now a popular Bollywood remake. There was talk of home, of the bitterly cold winter in Delhi this year, of the excitement of economic miracles in a country that has more people than the whole of Africa.

I recalled my brief travels there: dawn light on the Ganges, the beauty of the Taj Mahal at Agra. I imagined the air wobbling before a big red sun. I wondered if these sons of India ever imagined they'd end up in the jungles of eastern Congo. One said: "It's not so different from where we usually operate. The hills look a bit like this. We've had a lot of experience with low-level insurgencies." Sharma added: "It's such a big army, you always take pride in an overseas posting. The unit has to prove itself as one of the best to get sent here." At the base at Kiwanja, home to a unit called the Bodyguard, I found a mess tent elegantly decorated with Asian carpets, ornaments, an antique desk and black and white photographs of campaigns during the first and second world wars. I was shown through to my home for the night, a hut with coffee table books such as Portraits of Valour and Officers' Mess: Life and Customs in the Regiments by Lt Col RJ Dickinson. That evening a white envelope was delivered to my door. It contained a neatly embossed invitation that said: "Col Lakhbinder Singh Lidder requests the pleasure of the company of David Smith to dinner at Bodyguard House at 8.30pm." I joined guests on a clipped lawn under a tent where Lidder was holding court. Plates of Indian canapes were offered

by waiters with courtly manners. To my astonishment, Lidder presented me with a commemorative mug bearing the emblems of Monuc and the Jammu & Kashmir Rifles. It said: "Reliving the history. 'Bodyguard' once again in the shadows of 'Kilimanjaro' in east Africa 1918 to 1919 & 2009 to 2010." The presentation, and our handshake, were captured for posterity by a military photographer. The soldiers expressed tentative optimism that their mission is working and violence is slowly ebbing here. But that same night, two people were killed, and more were hospitalised, in a rebel attack on a nearby village. I went back to Goma and said my goodbyes to Sharma. The Indian army in Congo will never seize the international limelight like the Americans and British in Afghanistan. Many people are unaware they are even there. But perhaps a cup of tea should be raised in honour of these unsung tours of duty in the halfforgotten corners of the world. • Democratic Republic of the Congo • India • United Nations David Smith guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to INDIAN page 4

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Malawi man arrested for putting up gay rights posters By David Smith (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

for putting up posters would be charged with conduct likely to cause a breach of peace, punishable with a fine of up to Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:45:00 AM 5,000 kwacha (about £20) or up Police search for 'chain of to three months in prison. people' believed to be involved "We are still investigating in campaign because we believe there is a A man has been arrested in chain of people who were Malawi for putting up posters w o r k i n g w i t h S a w a l i , " championing gay rights in the Chingwalu said. "We cannot rule latest sign of official intolerance o u t i n t e r n a t i o n a l s p o n s o r s towards homosexuality. because of the quality and the Police said Peter Sawali, 21, quantity of the posters. They w a s f o u n d w i t h s t a c k s o f might even have been produced expertly and expensively printed outside." posters displaying such messages A group of Malawian human as "Gay rights are human rights". rights activists recently formed Police added that officers were the Centre for the Development searching for other Malawians of People to fight for the rights whom they believed were of homosexuals and other working on a campaign with minorities. The group says outside help. studies show that homophobic The debate over gay rights has legislation is driving gay people intensified in Malawi after the underground and making it first same-sex couple to attempt harder to reach them with marriage were arrested last information that could protect December and charged with them from Aids. u n n a t u r a l a c t s a n d g r o s s Another group, Broad Coalition, indecency, which could result in has distributed leaflets, posters a 14-year jail sentence. and pictures promoting gay A police spokesman, Dave rights but keeps the names of its Chingwalu, said the man arrested members secret.

Malawi has been criticised by human rights groups for prosecuting Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, who have been in custody since their wedding celebration. Their next hearing is on Friday. Mauya Msuku, the couple's lawyer, said the laws under which they were charged were archaic and unconstitutional. "The penal code criminalises homosexuality or same-sex marriages but under the bill of rights in the new constitution it is clearly stated that no one should be discriminated against on the basis of – among other things – sexual orientation," he said. Msuku has asked the country's chief justice for a constitutional review. • Malawi • Gay rights • Human rights David Smith guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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News Corp. Reports Fantastic Second Quarter By Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks) Reuters, the estimate was 20 cents per share. Besides the beat, Filed under: Earnings Reports, cash from operations was a lot General Electric (GE), Time better in the current six-month Warner (TWX), Walt Disney period. In the comparable frame, (DIS), News Corp'B' (NWS), cash was used to fund operating activities. Media World News Corp. ( NWS), the media Continue reading News Corp. conglomerate that competes with R e p o r t s F a n t a s t i c S e c o n d Disney ( DIS), Time Warner ( Q u a r t e r TWX), and General Electric's ( News Corp. Reports Fantastic GE) NBC Universal, posted Q2 S e c o n d Q u a r t e r o r i g i n a l l y data after the bell on Tuesday. appeared on BloggingStocks on Shareholders should have few Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for complaints on this one. Revenues went up 10%, and use of feeds. Read| Permalink| earnings on an adjusted basis Email this| Comments jumped well over 60% to 25 cents per share. According to Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:30:00 AM

Trillian for Mac arrives as an alpha By Seth Rosenblatt (Webware.com) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:02:49 PM

Trillian for Mac is a wobbly alpha, lacking many of the features that make Trillian Astra appealing on Windows, but even

so it offers users a good idea of what's to come from Cerulean Studios. Originally posted at The

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'Baby Doc' family can reclaim £2.9m Heavy Pessimism on YRC Worldwide Ahead of 4Q Earnings (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

the money blocked while it works on a new law for dealing with assets of "criminal origin". It said the money actually Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:38:40 AM totalled $5.7m. The reason for • Court reverses ruling money the discrepancy was unclear. should go to Haiti charities The government "wants to avoid • Ministry works on law to block the Swiss financial centre payout to ex-dictator's family serving as a haven for illegally The family of former Haitian acquired assets," it said in a dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" statement, adding that a law to Duvalier can reclaim at least work retrospectively could be $4.6m (£2.9m) in Swiss bank ready this month. accounts that had previously Many Haitians accuse Duvalier been awarded to aid groups, and his entourage of robbing Switzerland's highest court said millions from public funds today. before he was ousted in 1986. The federal supreme court Duvalier is believed to be living reversed a lower court's ruling in exile in France and has always that the money should have gone denied wrongdoing. to charities working in the The court said the alleged i m p o v e r i s h e d n a t i o n . T h e crimes in the case fell outside the decision was reached hours statute of limitations, reversing a b e f o r e H a i t i ' s d e v a s t a t i n g decision in August by a lower earthquake on 12 January, but court that found the Duvalier was only published today. family had essentially acted as a Such delays are common in "criminal organisation" by Switzerland's legal system. diverting public funds through a The decision cannot be appealed Liechtenstein foundation to against, but the Swiss foreign accounts in Swiss bank UBS. ministry said it would try to keep The supreme court said it was

unhappy about the ruling but its hands were tied because the statute of limitations expired in 2001. It urged lawmakers to make it easier for assets belonging to deposed dictators to be repatriated to national governments. Haiti made its first request for the money in 1986, shortly after Duvalier was overthrown. It has been frozen ever since, but Switzerland has refused to give it back to Haiti because the Haitian government was not charging Duvalier with any crimes in its own justice system. As a way out, the Swiss government had proposed to give the money to aid groups working in Haiti. • Haiti • Switzerland guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

By Elizabeth Harrow (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:00:00 PM

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Options, Technical Analysis, YRC Worldwide (YRCW) YRC Worldwide ( YRCW) is preparing to release its fourthquarter results, with the company's earnings report scheduled to hit Wall Street before the market opens on Friday, Feb. 5. Analysts are expecting YRCW to swallow a loss of $1.74 per share, wider than the company's year-ago loss of $1.63 per share. The transportation issue has fallen short of consensus earnings expectations in each of the previous four quarters, which may explain why bearish

speculation is on the rise in the days leading up to YRCW's report. Continue reading Heavy Pessimism on YRC Worldwide Ahead of 4Q Earnings Heavy Pessimism on YRC Worldwide Ahead of 4Q Earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Options Update: Cigna Volatility Flat into EPS and Outlook By Paul Foster (BloggingStocks)

is expected to report Q4 EPS on February 4. February option implied volatility is at 45, March Submitted at 2/3/2010 9:00:00 AM is at 43, April is at 42, versus its Filed under: CIGNA Corp (CI), 2 6 - w e e k a v e r a g e o f 4 3 , Monster Worldwide (MNST), a c c o r d i n g t o T r a c k D a t a , Options suggesting non-directional price Cigna ( CI) closed at $35.24. CI movement,

Monster Worldwide ( MWW) closed at $16.04. MWW is expected to report Q4 EPS on February 3. February put option implied volatility is at 54, March and June puts are at 49, versus its 26-week average of 53 according to Track Data suggesting non-

directional price movement. Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com Options Update: Cigna Volatility Flat into EPS and Outlook originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Feb

2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Diagnosis: FAIL. Poorly Designed Tech Infects Health-Care Industry By Suzanne LaBarre (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:17:27 PM

A medical devices manufacturer might spend millions of dollars over several years improving an old hospital standby--a bedside monitor, say, which measures blood pressure, heart rate, or blood-oxygen levels, and which sounds an alarm when a patient's vitals go awry. The manufacturer might program the gadget to distinguish between real alarms, triggered when a patient's blood pressure plummets, and false alarms, prompted by something as innocuous as a patient rolling over onto his arm. One company created just such a device, according to Eric Freitag, director of engineering services at Smart Design, who didn't want to name the manufacturer because the product is still under wraps. The new monitor was geeked out in dampening algorithms and complex alert software that would've make Rube Goldberg's head spin. And, sure enough, it did a wonderful job distinguishing between alarms. There was just one problem: No one could figure out how to use the damn thing. When an alarm buzzes, real or not, nurses' first priority is to shut it off, so they can then determine what's wrong with their patient. They don't want to

waste time tinkering with elaborately programmed menus. Those technical gewgaws were beside the point. What the gadget needed, above all, was a snooze button. It was bad design, innovation for innovation's sake.

The price tag on this sort of thing, as Freitag tells it: $50 to $100 million. It's a meager sampling of what has become the single largest contributor to rising health-care costs in the United States:

Technology. Having entered the mid-20th century a triumphant antidote to the guesswork of medicine, technology has emerged, 50 years hence, a malignant cancer on affordable health care. We can credit half to

two-thirds of growth in medical spending to technology, which includes drugs, devices, and tests. The public has trained most its wrath on the $200 billion a DIAGNOSIS: page 7

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DIAGNOSIS: continued from page 6

year pharmaceutical industry, but medical equipment rates a close second, with annual expenditures clocking in at about $70 billion. Technological advancement in any sector relies on heavy investment. Gutenberg didn't invent the printing press for free. The difference in medicine is that while new technology can help, it doesn't always produce healthier people, and, in some instances, it can actually make us sicker. Bad design, like the snoozeless bedside monitor, isn't just an unfortunate feature of the system; it's practically built into it. Some context: The 1980s saw the proliferation of a managed care system that gave insurance companies a dictatorial hold over what procedures doctors could perform and on whom, all in the name of lowering premiums. Hospitals didn't buy new medical technology unless they absolutely needed it. Costs fell, but doctors and patients rose up, furious at ceding control over health care and eventually forced insurers to retreat. Free from the cost constraints of the insurance cartel, doctors could order--and get reimbursed for--as much treatment as they pleased. Drug and medical equipment companies saw a business opportunity in innovation for innovation's sake. Why not? As Dean Baker, codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, tells it, the American government incentivizes bad

behavior. "People do their research, they spend a lot on their research, they get a patent for it, they want to recover those costs, and the only way to do that is charge a lot of money," Baker says. "The expectation is that [the equipment] is better than what it's replacing. Whether or not that's true varies." This has occasioned a mad dash for new, but not necessarily better, toys. "Today," writes the journalist Shannon Brownlee in Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, "hospitals in cities and towns across the country are engaged in a medical-technology arms race." Nowhere is this arms race more evident than in computed tomography (CT) imaging. Commercialized in the 1970s, CT scans capture intensely sharp images of human organs, ostensibly refining doctors' ability to detect disease. New scanners tout "unprecedented coverage speed" and "ultimate performance," to quote GE's literature on its popular LightSpeed VCT range, which sounds more like a new model of sports car. At $2 million apiece, with a monthly maintenance bill running around $20,000, scanners are bought in bunches by hospitals eager to lure patients and blue-chip doctors. In contravention of basic macroeconomics, the supply is actually driving demand. The more scanners hospitals snatch

up, the more scans doctors order-76 million in 2005 versus 40 million in 2000--in part because they're paid per test (that's another story), but also to recoup hospitals' losses on the equipment. It'd be one thing if that translated to healthier patients, but as Brownlee notes, it doesn't, at least not always. CT imaging carries significant risks, among them radiation and false positives that lead to additional testing and, in some cases, unnecessary, invasive surgery. Thank lax Food and Drug Administration regulations. Whereas the FDA requires drug makers to conduct studies that prove their products benefit patients, medical equipment manufacturers only need show their scanners are accurate and safe. The arms race shows no sign of letting up. Designers are often enablers, sheathing a CT scanner in shiny white plastic or sexing up a $1,200 brand-name arthritis drug, whose generic (and generic -looking) equivalent could be bought for a fraction of the price. Superficial packaging reigns in our health-care system; a product that's practical, long-lasting and reusable is the last thing a manufacturer would want to produce. Great design is the exception. Consider Smart Design's proposed fix for that confusing bedside monitor. Among other improvements, the 130-person product development firm

suggested adding an alarmsilencing button to the gadget's top center, a spot nurses would intuitively click. The design would've turned a technological labyrinth into something Steve Jobs might admire, and for a pittance--about one-tenth a percent of the R&D outlay that likely went into developing its alarm-management software. Nevertheless, the company balked, convinced its intricate technology could transcend trifling matters of how people actually make a product work. "We see a lot of low-hanging fruit in the medical industry," Freitag says. "Clearly a lot of work goes into R&D of new stuff, and most of that is being driven by scientists and engineers. God love 'em, but they're so focused on the technology piece. If you focus on the optimization of an idea at hand and put the money there, as opposed to developing a new technology from scratch to replace the old one, there's probably a lot of savings and a better ability to serve your customer base." Good design occasionally triumphs, but even then, it ends in some act of surrender. Washington's Carbon Design Group took one company's proof of concept for a system to remove plaque from peripheral arteries--a confusing welter of tubes, pumps, and burrs--and turned it into an error-proof console that could prevent

hundreds of thousands of people from losing their limbs each year. Pathway Medical Technologies's PV Atherectomy System works by running a catheter into the body, then a drill bores plaque out of arteries no wider than a Bic. One pump mainlines saline to the catheter tip in the blood vessel, another dispatches the discarded plaque (and other goop) into a collection bag. Affix the goop tube to the saline pump, and your patient's in serious trouble. So Carbon engineered the tubes to click into cartridges that work like oneway streets; even the most inept doctor can't mis-attach them. The designers, though, failed to sell Pathway on another aspect of good design--the sort Mother Nature can get behind. They wanted to engineer a nondisposable motor for the burr; Pathway, citing mechanical challenges, wanted otherwise. Balancing technical, financial, and environmental imperatives in a life-or-death field like medicine is tricky, and if you ask five health-care workers their opinion on reusing medical equipment, they'll give you five different answers. But when you add to the equation a medical culture that sees only dollar signs in waste, the balance skews inevitably toward bottom lines. "The medical companies are for profit," Peter Bristol, a lead designer at Carbon, says, DIAGNOSIS: page 10

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Attacks on Social Networks Increase By 70 Percent By Courtney Rubin (Inc.com) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:06:00 AM

Warning: Social networking is a huge risk to your company. That's the conclusion of a report released Monday from IT security company Sophos, which found that the number of firms suffering attacks through social media jumped 70 percent between 2008 and 2009. Bostonbased Sophos polled 502 companies worldwide for what it's dubbed its "Social Security" survey, part of its Security Threat Report: 2010. About 57 percent of respondents said they have received spam messages via virtual communities, a 71 percent rise from 2008. About 36 per cent of users claimed they have received software worms, viruses or other malware through the sites, a 70 per cent leap. (Sophos counted 50,000 variants of existing viruses in 2009, almost twice as many as in 2008.) Not surprisingly, 3 out of 4 surveyed fear that employees' everyday activity on social networking sites exposes their business to danger and makes sensitive corporate data vulnerable.

Pelican (Little Green Footballs)

Companies often can't block social networking sites because they've become a vital part of marketing and sales strategies. Nearly half of firms allow employees unfettered access to Facebook – a 13 percent rise from 2008 – although 1 in 3 firms has blocked Facebook entirely. Those surveyed fingered Facebook as the biggest security risk, with 60 percent naming it the top threat. MySpace took 18 percent of the vote, Twitter 17 percent, and LinkedIn, 4 percent. Everyone knows "you'll find more bad apples in the biggest orchard," Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley blogged of Facebook, whose 350 million users make it the largest online social networking site. (Facebook last month partnered with Internet security company McAfee, offering users free six-month subscriptions to its security software and ordering those who are the victims of cyberattacks to cleanse their computer with a new free tool before logging in

again.) But Cluley cautioned companies to keep an eye on LinkedIn, which provides hackers with what is effectively a corporate directory. “Targeted attacks against companies are in the news at the moment, and the more information a criminal can get about your organization's structure, the easier for them to send a poisoned attachment to precisely the person whose computer they want to break into," Cluley wrote. Thanks to LinkedIn's listings of staff names and positions, it's "child's play to reverse-engineer the email addresses of potential victims." Sophos's figures echo those released last week from a McAfee study, which warned of the growing threat of cyberattack on critical systems. Both reports come as companies are feeling particularly vulnerable: In December's high-profile Operation Aurora, hackers targeted employees (and their social networks) from Google, Adobe Systems, and two dozen others, hunting for ways to

infiltrate the companies' computer systems. The report also put companies on notice that Koobface – the notorious worm whose name is a Facebook anagram – is evolving and becoming ever-more sophisticated. In 2009, the worm automatically could create bogus accounts complete with pictures and personal information, then befriend strangers, earning access to their details. Antivirus software maker Kaspersky Lab last year concluded that attacks on social networks were 10 times as effective at spreading malware than email, thanks to the false sense of security users feel when they see messages that appear to be from people they know. Sophos senior security adviser Chet Wisniewski told the San Francisco Chronicle: "Social media provides criminals with an opportunity. When I get a message on Facebook from my wife and I see a link, I'm going to click it."

Aflac Posts Better Than Expected Q4 earnings By Michael Fowlkes (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:00:00 PM

Filed under: After the Bell, Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Good news, AFLAC Inc (AFL), Recession Following today's market close, insurance giant Aflac Incorporated ( AFL) posted better than expected numbers for its fourth quarter. Headed into this afternoon's earnings release, Wall Street was looking to see Aflac post earnings of $1.15 per share. The actual earnings came in better than expected at $1.18 per share. Continue reading Aflac Posts Better Than Expected Q4 earnings Aflac Posts Better Than Expected Q4 earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, Please Redesign Valentine's Day So We Don't Puke on You By Alissa Walker (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/3/2010 2:23:46 AM

It's Groundhog Day, and you know what that means: No more holidays left between now and Black Sunday (also known as Valentine's Day). Instead of cavity-causing confections, why not give that special someone your best idea for redesigning the holiday from hell? You'll remember a few weeks back I helped Kurt Andersen launch the Redesign Valentine's Day Challenge at Studio 360. The deadline to submit your idea is midnight on Saturday, February 7, so upload your redesign to the Flickr group and you might be mentioned on a special Valentine's weekend Studio 360 show! Last week, we got a peek at some of the first entries. This week, husband-and-wife design team Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio chime in about the assignment, and a very special celebrity judge has joined the team: Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love and Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage. And now, a few more of our favorites: An inspired idea from jgluzifer: "Imagine xmas without the consumerist burden of

resuscitating a flagging economy, Thanksgiving without the surfeit, New Years where our resolutions aren't solely for selfimprovement but are pledged to one another. A holiday to celebrate all the modes of love, familial and romantic, a day for charity and forgiveness, selfless love, maybe even commiseration between curmudgeons and misanthropes. IOU ten hours of service to a non-profit of your choice. IOU more QT. IOU an explanation.

IOU what you want the way you want it. IOU my life my devotion. IOU lunch/a bitching session. IOU a better world." alyxlovesjellyfish says: "And you thought Romeo and Juliet had it rough." My heart burns just thinking about it. Appropriate for these times. palmersandralee repurposed Chris Rubino's recent New York Times op-ed artwork. More concepts of everyday love, here, "love amongst the flotsam & jetsam of life..."

by+Hybridesign+. Thoughts on what else we might try loving this holiday, by iwipup. A few ideas were submitted without visuals, and these concepts are just begging to be illustrated. chris paige says: "Let's return Valentine's Day to the spirit of agape and grace. Instead of sending pink valentines, practice a few acts of random kindness, for family, friends, or strangers. Whether it's refilling the office

coffee pot, giving someone in your family a foot rub, handing a stranger a quarter for the parking meter, smiling at a passer-by, or sending a care package to a soldier in Afghanistan, we could practice kindness regardless of our age, race, creed, or sociability." LHLANI agrees: "Why not change the day so it has meaning for everyone by making it a day about caring for others. You'd still express your love for your significant other, but you'd also show you care for people who are not necessarily your lovers. The phrase I CARE or an I with a slash O through it to indicate not I might be the symbol since the holiday is not about you. The gestures would be simple. In addition to giving candy and flowers, one could call an old friend, give to charity, share cookies with coworkers, or simply be nice to people. Perhaps people could work at a food bank serving food appropriate to the season." Designers, you have until midnight on Saturday, February 7 to submit, so upload your idea soon! [ Studio 360]

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Did Iran Just Rocket Creatures Into Space? Sure Seems So By Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/3/2010 7:57:59 AM

We've reported on the questionable truthiness of previous Iranian space race news before, but this latest one is undoubtedly the hottest item: Iran is saying it just launched a small capsule carrying live creatures into the void--for science. According to the official Iranian News Agency, the rocket was called Kavoshgar-3 (translating as "Explorer-3") and it carried a small capsule bearing a rat, two turtles and some worms--pictures of the animals apparently being loaded into the rocket were shown on state TV. The capsule was also bearing telemetry gear so that it could transmit back data on the live payload, including video, back to Earth. The rocket is apparently an improved version of the earlier Kavoshgar rockets, first launched back in February 2008, and this latest launch has been expected for a while since the previous Kavoshgar-2 rocket

made a successful pop-gun ballistic ride into space back in November 2008. That rocket was a two-stage solid-fueled missile with the third stage carrying a science package that returned to Earth under a parachute. It's not confirmed by outside observers (who'd be able to monitor the craft's radio signal) whether the flight was a complete success yet, nor whether the animals were returned safely to the ground.

Neither do we understand how powerful or successful the rocket itself was--or if it included a third powered stage, which would've significantly increased its range compared to the earlier models (though the fact it's "improved" suggests this could be the case). Why should you care about the space efforts of Iran though? As we've pointed out before, a solidfueled space rocket like this is essentially an ICBM that's been

repurposed into a space vehicle-much like the very first space rockets fired off by the U.S. itself. The main difference is the trajectory and the payload: For a pop-gun ballistic space ride (which is what the nascent space tourism companies in the U.S. are going to do) most of the energy of the rocket is expended in achieving altitude, whereas an ICBM tries, of course, to achieve a greater range over the ground. Considering Iran said it

economy. Short of overhauling patent law, Dean Baker agitates for the United States to follow the lead of other countries, such as Canada and Germany, who negotiate down the cost of medical technology on the

public's behalf. Good product design will flow from a welldesigned system. "You take away some of the money," he says, "you give people less incentive to act in ways that are to some extent antisocial."

There's a thought: innovation for the public's sake.

DIAGNOSIS: continued from page 7

speaking generally. "Disposables provide continuing revenue. Convincing companies to reduce is a bit of an effort because of that." Understandably. The health-care system doesn't exactly encourage

successfully tested a Sejil-2 missile in December, which is an ICBM with enough range to reach parts of Europe, many scientific and political eyes are watching Iran's space race efforts very closely. The country's leaders insist it's for peaceful purposes. Check out the news clip below to see the launch, alongside the unveiling of future satellite vehicles: [via New York Times]

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Nike Launches GreenXchange for Corporate IdeaSharing By Ariel Schwartz (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:38:27 AM

Sustainability is one area where trade secrets don't make much sense--if you hide your energysaving initiatives from competitors, you're hurting the planet and preventing your entire industry from reaching green goals. That's why Nike has partnered with nine organizations, including Yahoo, Best Buy, Creative Commons, IDEO, Mountain Equipment CoOp, nGenera ,Outdoor Industry Association, salesforce.com, and 2degrees to form the GreenXchange, a web-based marketplace that Nike claims will allow "companies [to] collaborate and share intellectual property (IP) which can lead to new sustainability business models and innovation." In other words, it's a giant think tank for corporate sustainability.

The idea for GX came from "Wikinomics" author Don Tapscott and Nike's Sustainable Business and Innovation Lab. The lab imagines that one possible subject for the GX is Nike's Environmentally Preferred Rubber, which has 96% fewer toxins than Nike's traditional rubber. If licensed on

the GX, other footwear companies like Mountain Equipment Co-Op might be able to get greener footwear to market more quickly than if they had to come up with similar technology by themselves. Participation in the GX doesn't mean companies have to reveal all information about a certain

product--instead, they are offered a number of licensing structures, including research and attribution recognition, noncompetitive use and simple fee structures. In a sense, the GX reminds us of Walmart's recently launched sustainability consortium--a conglomeration of non-profits, companies, and educational institutions working to develop methodologies, tools and strategies to make supply networks more transparent. It's not a coincidence that these organizations are starting to pop up at the same time. Corporations are finally realizing that sustainability is the key to thriving in the coming decades. And they will fail or succeed together. [ GreenXchange]

LG gets bragging rights for Japanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first certified 4G device By Serkan Toto (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:25:21 AM

The rest of the world is catching on rapidly but overall, Japan is still the world's most advanced society mobile society. That being said, you'd assume that the first 4G (LTE) device to get an official certification from Japanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications must be coming from one of the many mobile companies over here, but it was South Korea's LG who got the bragging rights[KR] for that today.

Before the Bell: Futures Mixed Ahead of Jobs Data By Melly Alazraki (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:06:00 AM

Filed under: Before the Bell, International Markets, Time Warner (TWX), Pfizer (PFE), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Market Matters, News Corp'B'

(NWS), Economic Data U.S. stock futures were nearly flat Wednesday morning, indicating Wall Street may have trouble extending the rally following the prior session's gains. This morning, the parade of earnings reports continues as jobs data is On Tuesday, stocks finished the day higher after strong housing set to take center stage.

data and solid earnings reports helped pushed the Dow industrials to its second straight day of triple digit gains. Continue reading Before the Bell: Futures Mixed Ahead of Jobs Data Before the Bell: Futures Mixed Ahead of Jobs Data originally

appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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The Infibeam Pi eReader heads to India By Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

which looks hauntingly familiar to the Kindle order page. Billed as “India’s first eReader,” Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:02:30 PM the Infibeam Pi features support Message from fivefilters.org: If for ePub, PDF, HTML, TXT, you can, please donate to the full MOBI, DOC files, JPG, PNG -text RSS service so we can and BMP image files and can continue developing it. also play music. It has 512MB of The Infibeam Pi eReader If internal memory and can expand imitation is the sincerest form of up to 4GB through its SD card flattery then the online shopping slot. The Pi is 0.39 inches thin website Infibeam must be madly and weighs 6.35 oz. It features in love with Amazon. To start, language support in Hindi, its logo is a basic copy of S a n s k r i t a n d o t h e r I n d i a n Amazon’s, even complete to the languages as well. Infibeam will downward arc on the bottom of start shipping units February the logo. Of course instead of an 22nd. a r r o w , i t ’ s a s m i l e y f a c e . Source: Mtaram’s Daze Leave a Infibeam is also selling its own Reply By Alissa Walker (Fast w a n t e d t o e m p h a s i z e D r . brand of eReader called the Pi — Five Filters featured article: Company) Pepper's "little kiss" of cherry. which uses a 6-inch Vizplex EChilcot Inquiry. Available tools: According to Dr. Pepper, the Ink display that costs 9,999 Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:09:30 PM PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, bands have met before, but this rupees (about $217). You can Term Extraction. This exclusive peek of Dr. w a s t h e i r f i r s t o f f i c a l order one from their Pi page Pepper's first-ever Super Bowl p e r f o r m a n c e . spot features the painted faces of Look for the full spot at the tworock band Kiss as well as their minute warning, just before d i m i n u t i v e d o p p e l g a n g e r s , halftime. MiniKiss. Agency Deutsch

Exclusive Video: Dr. Pepper's Super Bowl Ad Features Kiss and...MiniKiss!

Daily Crunch: Tub Planet Edition By Bryce Durbin (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/3/2010 12:00:01 AM

A bathtub with portholes, so you can look out – or in Someone, please, find out where I can buy these Star Wars posters From 1978: Unbelievable Japanese “Star Wars” TV spot for “sea chicken” Super-thin, bendable LCDs are coming Vinyl Android figurines are the coolest things since sliced ice

Vote to choose the next Pleo color By Dave Freeman (CrunchGear)

what color the new Pleo should be when they change it later this year. Oh, and if you like the Submitted at 2/2/2010 11:45:48 PM original color scheme, you can Here’s your chance to change get free shipping until the end of history, and influence the future. February. The makers of the Pleo are It’s free shipping on everything, spend that tax refund on a holding a vote to decide exactly so if you have a hankering to

robotic dinosaur, here’s your chance to save some coin on the shipping. In addition to the color change vote ( click here to vote by the way) you can also enter a contest to win a custom painted Pleo. The custom paint will be done by the original sculptor

who designed the Pleo in the first place. The raffle ends on the 22nd, so don’t wait. You’ll just need to give the folks at PleoWorld your email address in order to win.

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Gateway's New FX6831: A Solid Gaming Desktop For a Teensy Price [Gateway] By Brian Barrett (Gizmodo)

our price/performance leadership position, the new FX models boast a race car-like design with Gateway's introducing two new red accents and lighting, and gaming desktops to its FX line include several new features that today, and you'd be forgiven for enhance the convenience and use not being able to tell the of the PC." difference right away. In fact, the The new FX design makes it lower-end model is essentially easy to access and use key the same rig—but $400 cheaper. features, providing simple and Let's go to the tape: both run on quick access to ports and Core i7-860 processors. Both peripherals. The top front of the house ATI Radeon HD5850 PC includes high-def headphone graphics. Both come with a and microphone jacks, while an 1.5TB SATA hard drive, a DVD angled media card reader makes drive, and WIndows Home 7 it easy to insert, remove and Premium. Both have the same transfer data from cameras and impressive array of ports and 7.1 other devices. This can be channel audio support. All of especially helpful when the PC is that, plus 8GB DDR3 RAM, is placed under a desk. pretty terrific for the FX6831A handy recessed storage tray 01's $1300 price tag. on the top of the chassis makes it The higher-end FX6831-03, easy to place cameras, though, costs $1700 for the exact smartphones and MP3 players same set-up plus a Blu-ray drive when downloading files. At the and 16GB DDR3. And hey, back of this tray, users will find that's still not too shabby! But two additional USB ports, which not quite the steal that the $1300 provide convenient connectivity version looks like, especially for miscellaneous peripherals. features across its line of In addition, the FX and DX now t h a t b l o w s t h e d o o r s o f f Just behind this recessed area is given the similarities. gaming, multimedia and small include models with Blu-ray competitively priced systems. an enclosed rear compartment Full PRrrrrrriffic details ahoy! drives. The new design maximizes which provides a place to store G A T E W A Y B R I N G S form factor PCs. The FX Series of affordable F X S e r i e s D e s k t o p s – usability and includes numerous and hide the excess cables from ENHANCED DESIGN, BLUR A Y D R I V E S , U S E R gaming PCs gets a redesign that Continuing to Redefine the additions that enhance the any peripherals placed on the computing experience. FRIENDLY FEATURES AND includes a modernized chassis Mainstream Gaming PC tray. and new lighting accents. The With a newly designed chassis, "When it comes to online The control dial for the system's FASTER PERFORMANCE TO I T S F X , D X A N D S X DX line of multimedia PCs and Gateway's value line of gaming entertainment, PC gaming and adjustable lighting effects can SX small form factor PCs both PCs continues to break all the value, Gateway's FX Series can't also be found on the top front of DESKTOP PCs IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 3, 2010 – now include eco-friendly 1TB rules, managing to pack more be beat," said Steve Smith, the unit, as well as the Photo Gateway today announced the drives and powerful Intel Core i5 performance and features than G a t e w a y d e s k t o p p r o d u c t GATEWAY'S page 17 addition of new models and and i3 Processors, respectively. ever before into a powerful PC marketing. "While maintaining Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:00:00 AM

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Gateway announces new product line up for 2010 By Dave Freeman (CrunchGear)

Mainstream Gaming PC With a newly designed chassis, Gateway’s value line of gaming Submitted at 2/2/2010 11:00:18 PM PCs continues to break all the Gateway announced their new rules, managing to pack more desktop models today. They performance and features than a d d e d f i v e n e w s y s t e m s , ever before into a powerful PC including a touchscreen, and two t h a t b l o w s t h e d o o r s o f f high end gaming machines. We competitively priced systems. managed to get our hands on The new design maximizes their new basic system, the usability and includes numerous SX2840, and you can read our additions that enhance the review here. computing experience. The new models all feature “When it comes to online Intel’s new Core processors, and entertainment, PC gaming and use eco-friendly hard drives. The value, Gateway’s FX Series can’t higher end models (multimedia be beat,” said Steve Smith, and gaming) come standard with G a t e w a y d e s k t o p p r o d u c t Blu-ray drives. All of the marketing. “While maintaining systems run Windows 7 Home, our price/performance leadership 64-bit edition. position, the new FX models From the press release: boast a race car-like design with IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 3, 2010 – red accents and lighting, and Gateway today announced the include several new features that addition of new models and enhance the convenience and use features across its line of of the PC.” gaming, multimedia and small The new FX design makes it form factor PCs. easy to access and use key The FX Series of affordable features, providing simple and gaming PCs gets a redesign that q u i c k a c c e s s t o p o r t s a n d includes a modernized chassis peripherals. The top front of the and new lighting accents. The PC includes high-def headphone DX line of multimedia PCs and and microphone jacks, while an SX small form factor PCs both angled media card reader makes now include eco-friendly 1TB it easy to insert, remove and drives and powerful Intel Core i5 transfer data from cameras and and i3 Processors, respectively. other devices. This can be In addition, the FX and DX now especially helpful when the PC is include models with Blu-ray placed under a desk. drives. Gateway® FX6831-03 FX Series Desktops – · MSRP: $1,699.99 Continuing to Redefine the · Intel® Core i7™ 860,

2.8GHz w/Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.46GHz · ATI Radeon HD5850 w/1GB discrete video memory · 16GB memory (DDR3 dual channel 1333MHz) · 1.5TB SATA hard drive (1) (7200RPM) · 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti · Blu-ray disc 4X BD-ROM / DVD-SuperMulti Drive · Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit Gateway® FX6831-01 · MSRP: $1,299.99 · Intel® Core i7™ 860, 2.8GHz w/Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.46GHz · ATI Radeon HD5850 w/1GB discrete video memory · 8GB memory (DDR3 dual channel 1333MHz) · 1.5TB SATA hard drive (1) (7200RPM)

· 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti Drive · Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit SX Series Desktops – Tiny Desktops Big on Performance Gateway has also enhanced its award winning SX Series small form factor desktop. The SX2840-01 features the powerful Intel Core i3 530 processor, 6GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. This tiny little PC offers capabilities that rival those of many full-size tower desktops providing enough muscle to be used as a primary PC, while fitting nicely in a dorm room, kitchen or home office. Gateway® SX2840-01 · MSRP: $559.99 · Intel Core i3 530 (2.93GHz) processor · Integrated Intel GMA X4500HD graphics

· 6GB memory (DDR3 dual channel 1333MHz) · 1TB SATA (green product – variable RPM) · 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti Drive · Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit DX Series Desktops – Multimedia Workhorses now Offer Blu-Ray Drives Gateway’s multimedia powerhouse line, the DX Series, now includes a model configured with the powerful Intel Core i5 650 processor and a Blu-ray drive. Combined with NVIDIA GeForce graphics and 6GB of memory, the DX4831-03 is ideal for running demanding applications, casual game playing and graphic-intensive content creation. Gateway DX4831-03 · MSRP: $849.99 · Intel Core i5 650, 3.2GHz w/Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.46GHz · NVIDIA GeForce GT220 w/1GB discrete video memory · 8GB DDR3 dual channel 1333MHz · 1TB SATA (green product – variable RPM) · 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti Drive · Blu-ray disc 4X BD-ROM / DVD-SuperMulti Drive · Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit

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A frame doesn’t make a tablet: When journalism turns irresponsible By Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

Google’s Tablet Will Look Like.” These titles aren’t merely misleading. They’re outright lies. Submitted at 2/2/2010 11:04:43 AM Any journalist who even bothers Message from fivefilters.org: If to glance at the source material you can, please donate to the full can easily tell so. It even states -text RSS service so we can on the page that the renderings continue developing it. are in no way associated with Google's Chrome OS. Not possible tablet designs. The Google's tablet. Yesterday we problem is that journalism and s t u m b l e d u p o n s o m e n e w blogs are quickly speeding in renderings of Google’s Chrome opposite directions. O S c o u r t e s y o f N e o w i n . TechCrunch posted the article “ A v a i l a b l e o n t h e o f f i c i a l A First Taste Of What The Chromium OS website were Google Tablet Will Look Like” many renderings of what the last night. Thankfully, after Chrome OS would look like in a listening to a commenter with the tablet format. We posted a link same concern as ours they on Twitter to a very interesting changed the title to “A First video demo and moved on to Taste Of What The Google other tablet related news. Tablet Interface Will Look Like” You see, as interesting as the OS (although their post URL still concept is (and what possible use says the deliciously SEO yet it has for tablets in the future) the d e c e i t f u l “ G o o g l e T a b l e t news released yesterday had Photos”). The article had nothing nothing to do with a tablet design to do with Google’s potential or a possible mockup of a tablet tablet — it talked strictly about by Google. It was simply a basic the interface. So why title your black border that literally framed story something that it isn’t? To the OS. But now, those same lure in clicks by posting a false pictures are exploding all around title? One would think with the blogosphere with the titles TechCrunch’s web traffic that “A First Look at Google’s iPad wouldn’t be necessary. Killer” and “A Taste of What The Huffington Post takes

irresponsibility to a whole new level. Not only do they title their post “ Google Tablet (PICTURES): A First Look At Google’s ‘iPad Killer’” but they actually suggest that those pictures are “renderings of what a Google tablet might look like.” Most blogs come up with a moniker for devices, but to call renderings that have nothing to do with an actual tablet design the “iPad Killer” is just sensationalism. Worse, it’s entirely cheap and lame. Gizmodo had the gumption to pose a question with their title “ Is This How a Google Tablet Will Look in Action?” The emphasis is still on the action (or UI element) and they further go on to explain that the Chrome OS isn’t intended for any one “Google tablet” and the renderings are only “visual explorations of how a Chrome OS tablet UI might look in hardware.” Another tip of the hat goes to Engadget who properly titled their story “ Google mum on Chrome OS touch support, Chromium devs show us how it might look anyway.” The story talks only about the Chrome OS

and its potential for tablets. In other words, these articles don’t lie to their readers. Now many of you may be saying that most of the internet and blogs aren’t journalism. That it is full of rumors and unsourced stories. You’d be right. It’s fine to post rumors as rumors — readers enjoy them — or even to post unconfirmed stories as long as you didn’t must make it up off the top of your head. But there should be a fine line when blogs who title themselves as news outlets outright lie to their readership. Even worse are the multiple readers who now believe that they’ve seen a Google tablet prototype. It’s a shame that sites this large can’t rely on providing fact-rich content in their articles to pull in traffic. Instead they have resorted to smoke and mirrors that leaves the reader with nothing tangible to take away — or even worse, taking away false information. Leave a Reply Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Space Heaters That Get Toasty Fast and Look Good Doing It By Catherine DiBenedetto (Wired Top Stories)

When it's so cold in your home Wired editors snuggled up to office that you can't think, it's De'Longhi's Mica Panel, which time to turn on a space heater. they say "radiates an almost

instant beam of life-giving warmth."

Samsung does the 2TB shuffle with EcoGreen F3EG hard drive By Darren Murph (Engadget) Submitted at 2/3/2010 6:57:00 AM

Look out, Western Digital-you've got a little competition up there in the rarefied storage air. Samsung just got official with its newest EcoGreen HDD, the 1.5TB and 2TB F3EG. This here drive is the followup unit to last year's F2EG, and aside from sucking down as little power as possible for a capacious internal drive, it also incorporates a 3.0Gbps SATA interface, native command queuing features and 16MB / 32MB of buffer memory. It should be making its way out onto European and US shelves this month starting at $179.99, thus bringing your ultimate archival dreams that much closer to reality. Samsung does the 2TB shuffle with EcoGreen F3EG hard drive originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Hot Hardware| Email this| Comments

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New NASA Solar Spacecraft to Record Sun at IMAX Resolution [Space] By Jesus Diaz (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:20:00 AM

This is the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly. Together with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, and the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment, it will capture the Sun at IMAX resolution every ten seconds. They will travel together inside NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. After its February 2010 launch on top of an Atlas V rocket, the SDO will capture images at almost four times the resolution of an HD TV, transmitting the results back to Earth at 130 megabits per second. Basically, this thing will be transmitting the equivalent of 500,000 MP3 per day, seven days a week. According to Dean Pesnell at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the potential for new discoveries is giganormous: We'll be getting IMAX-quality images every 10 seconds. We'll see every nuance of solar activity.

The Ricoh CX3 Will Make Anyone Who Bought a CX2 Six Months Earlier Very Angry [Cameras] By Kat Hannaford (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/3/2010 7:24:08 AM

Pesnell said that this speed opens an incredible potential for discovery, using 18th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge as an example: But when Muybridge photographed horses using a new high-speed camera system, he discovered something surprising. Galloping horses spend part of the race completely airborne-all four feet are off the ground. To achieve all this, the three instruments in the SDO have been designed to cover three

vital aspects of our home star. First, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly—which will be producing most of the data—that you see at the opening of this post uses four telescopes together. They will be the ones photographing Sol's surface and atmosphere using ten different wavelength filters. Meanwhile, the HMI will analyze the innards of the star, looking into the physics that govern it inside. Then, EVE will measure extreme ultraviolet light activity while

Google shows off Chrome OS tablet ideas By Stephen Shankland (Webware.com) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:47:00 AM

Mock-ups of a Chrome OS tablet emerge much more quietly than Apple's iPad did. In some ways, Google's Chrome OS

could be a better fit for tablets than for Netbooks. Originally posted at Deep Tech

getting a nice and toasty tan. How would this data be received? Using two 18-meter antennas near Las Cruces, New Mexico, which will be linked constantly to the SDO thanks to its geosynchronous orbit. Until it gets destroyed by the mysterious flying spaceship.

The CX2 dipped its toe into the pool last August, but already there's a successor—the CX3. The main difference is the 10megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor (upgraded from the 9.29-megapixel used in both the CX2 and CX1). The US pricing hasn't been confirmed yet, but over in Australia they'll be able to pick one up for AU$499 (US$443) later this month. HD video recording is listed as 1280 x 720 res, a welcome upgrade from the CX2's 640 x 480, as is the 10.7x 28-300mm optical wide-angle zoom lens. Really, anyone who bought a CX2 six months earlier must be feeling preeeeetty annoyed right about now. [ DP Review]

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GATEWAY'S continued from page 13

Frame, stand by and backup buttons. Boasting a 1.5TB drive, FX users will have plenty of room for photos, movies, music libraries and more. Tool-less expansion bays provide additional storage room for growth and backup. A convenient access door on the front of the PC conceals two external hard drive bays, and glides down effortlessly with a slight push on the front latch. Eject buttons for the optical disk drives are also conveniently and seamlessly integrated into the front sides of the PC. Not to be outdone by its user friendly features, both new models in the FX line feature ATI Radeon HD5850 graphics

and the Intel® Core™ i7-860 processor with Turbo Boost Technology for killer performance. The FX6831-03 also boasts a Blu-ray drive and 16GB of DDR3 memory, making it a true gaming solution. Gateway® FX6831-03 * MSRP: $1,699.99 * Intel® Core i7™ 860, 2.8GHz w/Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.46GHz * ATI Radeon HD5850 w/1GB discrete video memory * 16GB memory (DDR3 dual channel 1333MHz) * 1.5TB SATA hard drive (1) (7200RPM) * 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti * Blu-ray disc 4X BD-ROM / DVD-SuperMulti Drive

* Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit Gateway® FX6831-01 * MSRP: $1,299.99 * Intel® Core i7™ 860, 2.8GHz w/Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.46GHz * ATI Radeon HD5850 w/1GB discrete video memory * 8GB memory (DDR3 dual channel 1333MHz) * 1.5TB SATA hard drive (1) (7200RPM) * 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti Drive * Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Meet the Super Anti-Vax Study Bowl's official Retracted by Twitter hashtag The Lancet By Caroline McCarthy (Webware.com) Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:24:00 AM

The NFL is encouraging fans tweeting about Sunday's big game to use the hashtag #SB44, and has launched an aggregator page for tweets. Originally posted at The Social

(Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:09:27 PM

British medical journal The Lancet has officially retracted the study they published in 1998 that began the still-spreading anti -vaccination craziness.[Video] Britain’s General Medical Council has issued a ruling as well, calling the research done by Dr. Andrew Wakefield for his discredited study linking MMR vaccine to autism “ callous, unethical, and dishonest.”

FlexiKnob paddle controllers are perfect for playing your old Atari Breakout ROMs By Tim Stevens (Engadget)

too. A project by researchers at the University of Applied Sciences, they're little wooden Spend any time in a audio or m i c e o f a d e c i d e d l y n o n v i d e o e d i t i n g s u i t e o f ergonomic shape, but they allow applications and you'll find you to move cursor (shown after yourself overwhelmed by a t h e b r e a k ) o v e r o n - s c r e e n selection of on-screen controls control, then click in the wheel t h a t h a v e a b s o l u t e l y z e r o and spin it to adjust the value. relevance to your on-desk The cursor changes depending controls -- keyboard and mouse on whether it's locked on or don't really equate to slider and floating free, and each bears the dial. FlexiKnobs bridge that gap, color of the FlexiKnob it is and allow collaborative work associated with. Up to 250 of the Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:01:00 AM

things can be paired with a computer at once, which sounds like heavenly pandemonium to us.

[Thanks, Sam] Continue reading FlexiKnob paddle controllers are perfect for playing your old Atari Breakout

ROMs FlexiKnob paddle controllers are perfect for playing your old Atari Breakout ROMs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink TUI Blog| TEI Conference| Email this| Comments

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Large Hadron Collider schedules holiday for 2012, full 7 TeV power for 2013 By Vladislav Savov (Engadget) Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:20:00 AM

It's good to know that even huge inanimate objects appreciate the need for a work-life balance. After a nice winter hiatus, Switzerland's Large Hadron Collider is coming back online soon, set to resume smashing protonic beams at one another with the force of 3.5 trillion electron-volts (TeV) per beam, or 7 TeV in total. We have to swallow hard when we hear such force described as "low-energy," but that's what the LHC designers consider it, and moreover we're learning they'll skip past the middle and go for the full 14 TeV potential smashes after a retooling break improvement. Let's hope for during 2012. Although this may q u i c k g l o b a l d i s t r i b u t i o n delay the discovery of the Higgs following the Taiwanese launch, boson particle, other physics which is slated for the middle of research shouldn't be stalled in the meantime -- scientists claim this month.

ASUS N82 and N61 join the USB 3.0 laptop party By Vladislav Savov (Engadget)

brand spanking new N82 14incher. See the galleries below for the eye candy, but keep it Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:43:00 AM here for specs. Core i5 and i7 We're kind of starting to figure CPUs will populate the role of out ASUS' naming scheme -- E orchestrator inside, while ATI is for Easy, and N is for and NVIDIA discrete graphics eNtertainment, jolly good. In options will also be made o t h e r s e l f - e v i d e n t n e w s , available when these make their Engadget Chinese is the place to imminent Taiwan debut. In live go if you want the lowdown on demonstrations, the one USB 3.0 happenings in China and its port (yes, you only get one) was nearby states. Joining HP's Envy shown to be three times as fast as 15 soon in the USB 3.0-sporting USB 2.0, so not quite reaching ranks will be the familiar 16-inch its theoretical superiority, but ASUS N61 and the seemingly h a r d l y a n u n w e l c o m e

Gallery: ASUS N82 Gallery: ASUS N61 ASUS N82 and N61 join the USB 3.0 laptop party originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, By Michael Calore (Wired Top 03 Feb 2010 08:43:00 EST. Stories) Please see our terms for use of Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:00:00 PM feeds. Permalink| Engadget Adobe exec Kevin Lynch Chinese| Email this| Comments comments on the recent debate

they'll be able to extract data from the low-energy collisions that could lend us more information on aspects of string theory, extra dimensions, and supersymmetry. Doesn't all this sound like nerds trying to avoid getting real jobs? Large Hadron Collider schedules holiday for 2012, full 7 TeV power for 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| New Scientist| Email this| Comments

Adobe CTO Defends Flash Against Apple, HTML5 over whether the iPad's nonsupport of Flash or the rise of HTML5 will spell the death of Flash as the dominant video delivery platform on the web.

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Sony's Latest PS3 Mistake: No More Downloadable AAA Titles [PS3] By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/3/2010 9:04:14 AM

I just want to take anyone from Sony who's related to the development of the PS3 platform in any way, and shake them until the saboteur witch doctors hired from Nintendo and Microsoft lose their hold. The latest idea from the Sony braintrust? No more big downloadable titles. So you'll still be able to download little arcade games, but future titles the size of Warhawk will no longer be offered on PSN. Meanwhile, Microsoft has

assembled an impressive library of $20 titles on the 360, and they're intelligently slapping games like, say, Mass Effect on there before Mass Effect 2 comes out. This kind of strategery is good for the game studios, sure,

but more importantly, it's convenient for the consumer. Anyway, Sony is having none of that. Why? Because their platform is heavily invested in 50GB-wielding Blu-ray (which requires hefty installs for some

Submitted at 2/3/2010 7:23:00 AM

There's not much to go on here, but according to alleged sources of Gamervision, Sony's planning a relaunch of sorts for the PSP Go. The oft-maligned portable hasn't exactly taken the world by storm -- and with its lack of an UMD drive, despite the company's continued support of the format, that arguably wasn't the point of its existence, anyway. An apparent marketing blitz is in the cards

(unsurprising), and additionally there's speculation that a price drop might be coming, too. That seems a bit early given it only launched back in October, but if the company's really wanting to

HP TouchSmart 600 Goes All Core i7 on Us [PCs] By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:40:00 AM

You think you're better than me, TouschSmart 600? You think because you're now configurable with Core i7 720QM (1.6 GHz) or i7 820QM (1.73GHz) Family Research processors—starting at $1700—that you've defeated the Council Spokesman: long-standing caste system get aggressive and pushing units Gay Behavior Should separating man and machine? of its admittedly pretty hardware, Be Outlawed Well, at least this new option that's a pretty good way to do so. (Little Green Footballs) makes you a viable (though a bit Then again, its hands might be Pontiac-looking) replacement for full adding some vigor to its Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:43:41 PM an i7 iMac. Check out what I other gaming machine. Tonight on the Chris Matthews thought about the Core2Duo PSP Go 'relaunch' in the works? show, in a discussion about the version of the TouchSmart 600 originally appeared on Engadget proposal to repeal the military’s here. Then know that the i7 will on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:23:00 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, be the exact same thing but EST. Please see our terms for “senior fellow” Peter Sprigg of faster. [ HP] use of feeds. Permalink Joystiq| the far right religious group Gamervision| Email this| Family Research Council openly Comments said he wants to see “gay behavior” outlawed. Wow.[Video] (Hat tip: Balloon Juice.)

PSP Go 'relaunch' in the works? By Ross Miller (Engadget)

games all the same). You want to know the chief problem with Blu-ray, Sony? It's that you can't download it. You aren't out of the console fight yet. Pick yourself up, dust off your gloves and attack the world with every tentacle that is Sony's larger development monstrosity. I grew up listening to a Walkman. This shit kills me. [ IGN via Kotaku]

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Add Private Notes to Tweets and Group Emails With Bccthis By Christina Warren (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:31:47 PM

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Bccthis Quick Pitch: Bccthis is an innovative technology that provides new levels of communication for email, microBy Matt Burns (CrunchGear) So yeah, we don’t really know blogging and social networking anything. services. Submitted at 2/3/2010 6:01:41 AM Apple is usually very good Genius Idea: If you’ve ever USB 3.0 is the future and, well, about being the first company to worked in an environment that Apple likes to be on the edge of implement up and coming shares a group mailing list, you technology so it only makes standards. Think back to USB, know that at some point, side sense that the company would be Firewire, Firewire 800, and more conversations about a certain a t l e a s t l o o k i n g i n t o recently, DisplayPort. Apple, topic start to take place off-list implementing the new interface however, hasn’t announced any w i t h a n u m b e r o f t h e sometime real soon. After all HP new models within the past participants. Sometimes you is already shipping USB 3.0 in couple months when USB 3.0 m i g h t w a n t t o a d d m o r e its Envy 15 series and that can’t tech was actually available. background details or make sit right with Apple fanboys. But Chances are that whenever clarifications, other times you’re all we know right now comes Apple outs the next MBPs or — we’ll admit it — making fun from a Digitimes report that Mac Pros within the coming of something the author of one of basically states that Genesys months, both will come with the threads said. Logic is denying reports that its equipped with the goods. Bccthis is a tool that embraces providing Apple with controllers.

Apple may or may not be testing USB 3.0 controllers

Photographer Loves Math, Graphs Her Images By Justin McLachlan (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:00:00 PM

Math and photography student Nikki Graziano combines her two favorite things by overlaying graphs and their equations on

carefully composed images she's captured.

the fact that private conversations often form around public streams. They’ve created an Outlook plugin, a Twitter web -app, and soon, a BlackBerry application, to streamline these types of conversations. The Outlook plugin adds in a separate body and recipient field to a message. The Twitter app — via a bookmarklet — lets you bcc people on a tweet in the form of direct messages. You can see the Twitter features in action in this video: Once you’ve started a Bccthis conversation, you can view it in its entirety online and you can also invite others into the discussion. We like the idea of having an easy way to annotate or create separate conversations around a public system. While using Bccthis on your corporate e-mail

account might not be the best idea, we can see it being useful for creating separate discussions without clogging up a larger feed. Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the“new CloudApp()” contest– use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* ( please see website for official rules and guidelines).” Reviews: PHP, Twitter Tags: bccthis, Outlook, software, twitter

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Police want backdoor to Web users' private data (CNET News.com)

calls for laws requiring Internet companies to store data about their users for up to five years Message from fivefilters.org: If and increased pressure on you can, please donate to the full companies to respond to police -text RSS service so we can inquiries in hours instead of continue developing it. days. Anyone with an e-mail account But the most controversial likely knows that police can peek element is probably the private inside it if they have a paper Web interface, which raises search warrant. novel security and privacy But cybercrime investigators are concerns, especially in the wake frustrated by the speed of of a recent inspector general's traditional methods of faxing, report (PDF) from the Justice mailing, or e-mailing companies Department. The 289-page report t h e s e d o c u m e n t s . T h e y ' r e detailed how the FBI obtained pushing for the creation of a Americans' telephone records by national Web interface linking citing nonexistent emergencies police computers with those of and simply asking for the data or Internet and e-mail providers so writing phone numbers on a requests can be sent and received sticky note rather than following electronically. procedures required by law. CNET has reviewed a survey Some companies already have scheduled to be released at a police-only Web interfaces. federal task force meeting on Sprint Nextel operates what it Thursday, which says that law calls the L-Site, also known as e n f o r c e m e n t a g e n c i e s a r e the "legal compliance secure virtually unanimous in calling Web portal." The company even for such an interface to be has offered a course that "will created. Eighty-nine percent of teach you how to create and police surveyed, it says, want to track legal demands through Lbe able to "exchange legal site. Learn to navigate and process requests and responses to securely download requested l e g a l p r o c e s s " t h r o u g h a n records." Cox Communications e n c r y p t e d , p o l i c e - o n l y makes its price list for complying "nationwide computer network." with police requests public; a 30(See one excerpt and another.) day wiretap is $3,500. The survey, according to two The police survey is not exactly people with knowledge of the unbiased: its author is Frank situation, is part of a broader Kardasz, who is scheduled to push from law enforcement present it at a meeting (PDF) of agencies to alter the ground rules t h e O n l i n e S a f e t y a n d of online investigations. Other Technology Working Group, components include renewed o r g a n i z e d b y t h e U . S . Submitted at 2/3/2010 4:00:00 AM

Department of Commerce. Kardasz, a sergeant in the Phoenix police department and a project director of Arizona's Internet Crimes Against Children task force, said in an e-mail exchange on Tuesday that he is still revising the document and was unable to discuss it. In an incendiary October 2009 essay, however, Kardasz wrote that Internet service providers that do not keep records long enough "are the unwitting facilitators of Internet crimes against children" and called for new laws to "mandate data preservation and reporting." He predicts that those companies will begin to face civil lawsuits because of their "lethargic investigative process." "It sounds very dangerous," says Lee Tien, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, referring to the police-only Web interface. "Let's assume you set this sort of thing up. What does that mean in terms of what the law enforcement officer be able to do? Would they be able to fish through transactional information for anyone? I don't understand how you create a system like this without it." Kardasz's survey, based on questionnaires completed by 100 police investigators, says that 61 percent of them had their investigations harmed "because data was not retained" and only 40 percent were satisfied with the timeliness of responses from Internet providers.

It also says: "89 percent of investigators agreed that a nationwide computer network should be established for the purpose of linking ISPs with law enforcement agencies so that they may exchange legal process requests and responses to legal process. Authorized users would communicate through encrypted virtual private networks in order to maintain the security of the data." Some of the responses to other questions: "AT&T is very prompt." "Cox Communications seems to be the worst." "Places like Yahoo can take a month for basic subscriber info which is also a problem." "AT&T Mobility does not keep a log at all." "MySpace give (sic) me the quickest response and they have been very pro-police." Hemanshu (Hemu) Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in an interview with CNET on Tuesday that: "You can be very supportive of law enforcement investigations and at the same time be very cognizant and supportive of the privacy rights of our users. Every time a legal process comes in, whether it's a subpoena or a search order, we do a legal review to make sure it's appropriate." Nigam said that MySpace accepts law enforcement requests through e-mail, fax, and postal mail, and that it has a 24-hour operations center that tries to respond to requests soon after

they've been reviewed to make sure state and federal laws are being followed. MySpace does not have a police-only Web interface, he said. Creating a national police-only network would be problematic, Nigam said. "I wish I knew the number of local police agencies in the country, or even police officers in the country," he said. "Right there that would tell you how difficult it would be to implement, even though ideally it would be a good thing." Another obstacle to creating a nation-wide Web interface for cops--one wag has dubbed it "DragNet," and another "Porknet"--is that some of its thousands of users could be infected by viruses and other malware. Once an infected computer is hooked up to the national network, it could leak confidential information about ongoing investigations. Jim Harper, a policy analyst at the free-market Cato Institute, says that he welcomes the idea of a police-only Web interface as long as it's designed carefully. "A system like this should have strong logins, should require that the request be documented fully, and should produce statistical information so there can be strong oversight," he says. "I think that's a good thing to have." Five Filters featured article: POLICE page 24

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Google For President? If Corporations Are People...

Engadget Latest To Try Comment Cooling Off Period; I Can't Figure Out Why

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

in-cheek manner) that if a corporation has the same rights Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:26:20 PM as a person, why can't Google A bunch of folks have sent in run for President. the Citizens United Supreme That said, while I would remove Court decision and asking for my the idea that a corporation is ever opinion on it. The ruling came "a person," that doesn't change out last week when I was the fact that I would be careful traveling, and I didn't have that about limiting any type of speech much time to look at the details - - i n c l u d i n g a p o l i t i c a l l y or think about what it all meant motivated movie, which was at until now. It's one of those cases the heart of this case. Instead, I where I see both sides of the tend to think that the problem is argument, but am troubled by one of information (not money) what comes out of a ruling in asymmetry. And while it may either direction. There is a real appear idealistic, this is the sort worry of a First Amendment of thing that the internet is problem if you restrict any kind helping to combat, even if it of speech -- but I do worry about takes time, and there are some giving corporations even greater losses early on. In copyright power in influencing elections. p o l i c y , i t ' s t r u e t h a t t h e But my real issue with the ruling entertainment industry has still goes back deeper, with the been able to push through laws generally accepted concept that a in its favor over the past few corporation is a person. That years, but a lot more people are seems like an even bigger paying attention to the issue, and problem, because the fact is that the changes that are getting w e d o n ' t a c t u a l l y t r e a t a through are of much lower corporation like a person at all. impact than what they used to A corporation does not get a regularly get through. I don't vote. A corporation cannot be think that the entertainment put in jail (yes, its executives or industry would be able to push employees might be able to, but through the kind of massive not the same thing). And a sweeping changes that it has corporation may not run for successfully pushed through in office. This point was brought to the past. Instead, I tend to agree my attention by my friend Jeff, w i t h J u l i a n S a n c h e z , i n who sent over a link to a story discussing a recent conversation arguing (in a very much tongue- with Larry Lessig, that points to

a more organic way to respond to corporate influence on politics: Look at it this way: We don't get draconian copyright policies because the RIAA and MPAA actually have more money, all told, than those of us who'd benefit from a more balanced intellectual property regime. They're richer, of course, but there's a lot more of us. The problem is that their resources are already pooled, and they're far more acutely aware of which side their bread is buttered on. That's the asymmetry we need to address. And as Clay Shirky has so cogently argued, we may finally have the means to do so, because for the first time in human history, we have in the Internet (and Web 2.0 especially) a mass medium that is simultaneously good at enabling interactive conversations (as the telephone does) and groups (as magazines or television did). The costs of processing and disseminating information have fallen dramatically over the past decade, and now the same is happening to the costs of organizing people and coordinating action. That's why I think Lessig's focus on public finance as a silver bullet is less likely to bear fruit than an array of solutions that exploit transformative

technology--something he's so keenly analyzed in his writing on Free Culture. My colleague Jim Harper's Washington Watch project, or the efforts of the folks at the Sunlight Foundation, are one part of the solution: Backroom deals are typically held in the back room for a reason. Sites like ActBlue and Slatecard are another, because they make it easier for a national audience to punish bad actors in their local races. This doesn't mean that corporate influence has been -- or ever will be -neutralized. But it does suggest that it's becoming easier for the voices of those actually impacted to speak up and make themselves heard. It will take a lot of effort -- and certainly, corporations are often a lot more tied into the levers of power, but there is more of an opportunity for groups of people to use information tools to their advantage, and to counter efforts by anyone, whether its corporations or individuals, to push through harmful legislation. It may seem idealistic (and, it is), but the unintended consequences of barring speech seems like it could be much worse. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:29:00 PM

Last month, we wrote about a local news website in Illinois that was getting frustrated with the dialog in its comments, and it instituted a "cooling off period" where it shut down its comments for a while, hoping that it would drive away the less desirable comments. The whole thing made no sense to us. Those types of commenters would eventually come back, and the solution should be offering better incentives and better overall discussion for commenters, not blocking out everyone. And yet... (without giving credit to the site that led the way last month), it looks like super popular gadget blog Engadget has done the same thing, apparently after comments over the whole iPad thing got too heated. Engadget, of course, is owned by AOL -- and you would think that if there were any company out there that understood group dynamics online by now, it would be AOL. Honestly, I'm still really confused as to what this will actually do, other than make Engadget a lot less interesting for those readers who took part in the community. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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Five customized Automator services to help save you time By Sang Tang (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

workflow pane. • From the Keynote actions, drag the Start Keynote Slideshow action to the workflow pane. • Save.

Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:00:00 PM

Filed under: Software, How-tos, Productivity One gem in Mac OS X that sometimes gets glanced over is the Services menu. Lots of readers may not know yet that Snow Leopard brought with it the ability to create your own customized service in Automator -- in other words, you can get additional selections on a contextual menu when rightclicking within a certain context, say a file within a Finder window. To create a customized service, all you have to do is launch Automator and select "Services" from the "Choose a template for your workflow" window, and then insert your own service from there. Here are five customized services for you to install on your own Mac. Attach to Mail In the Windows world, rightclicking on a file(s) brings up the option to "send to," and "mail recipient" is one of its options. The result is your attachment(s) showing up automatically attached in a new email message window. This service does the same thing in Mac OS X with Mail.app. • On the right hand pane, select service receives selected files or

Bit.ly shorten a URL Courtesy of Alexandre Hamez, this service allows you to rightclick and shorten a URL using the bit.ly service. • You can download the service here. • After downloading, move the file (named "bit.ly.workflow") to the "Services" folder, which is also where you'll find all of your services. The path to this folder is~Username/Library/Services. folders in Finder. • Now, drag "New Mail Message" (from the Mail.app actions in the library) over to workflow pane (on the right side). • Save your workflow with a name that make sense -- like "attach to message" -- because this is what will appear on the contextual menu when you rightclick a file.

• Service receives selected files or folders in Finder. • Now, drag the "Get Selected Finder Items" from the Finder actions in the library over to the workflow pane. • Likewise, drag the "Print Finder Items" from the "Utilities" actions to the workflow pane. • Save.

Create Thumbnail Print Selected Files This service will thumbnail reSimilar to the mail service, this size your selected images. service provides a print option in • Service receives selected a contextual menu so that you image files in Finder. can right-click on selected files • Now, drag the "Get Selected and print to your heart's content. Finder Items" from the Finder

actions in the library over to the workflow pane. • From the "Images" actions, drag the "Create Thumbnail Images" action to your workflow pane. Within this action, you can specify the suffix that will be appended to the file name, as well as thumbnail size. • Save. Start Keynote Slideshow This service will open the selected Keynote presentation in slideshow mode. • Service receives selected files or folders in Finder • From the Finder actions, drag the "Open Finder Items" to the

These are just a few examples of customized services that you could create in Automator, but by no means are they the only ones. If you've got a favorite service of your own, be sure to share it in our comments below! TUAW Five customized Automator services to help save you time originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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LED maker Bridgelux targets general lighting (CNET News.com)

CEO Bill Watkins as chief executive officer earlier this Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:00:00 AM month, makes the lighting Message from fivefilters.org: If components needed to make an you can, please donate to the full LED bulb or lamp. It uses -text RSS service so we can indium gallium nitride treated continue developing it. with phosphorus as its At the current rate of technology semiconductor material, which development, it's possible that Swoboda said offers a goodLED replacements for 60-watt quality light at relatively low incandescent bulbs could drop costs. below $10 by the end of this In terms of energy efficiency, he year, said Mark Swoboda, the said that lights using its LED president of LED maker chips exceed the efficiency of Bridgelux. compact florescent lighting and Although technically feasible, have the advantage of lasting that six- or eight-fold price drop longer. is not likely to happen. Swoboda Its latest line of arrays range in figures that price could only be output from 240 lumens to over reached in the case of a lighting 4,500 lumens, making them company selling directly to a applications, such as household improved to the point where it s u i t a b l e f o r b o t h g e n e r a l customer. lightbulbs, down lights, and can deliver a light source that c o n s u m e r l i g h t i n g a n d One of Bridgelux's coin-size street and commercial lighting. makes it very easy for a lamp or commercial applications, such as arrays, which are designed for a With the new line of LEDs, the luminaire company to meet or retail stores. A 60-watt bulb is range of l i g h t i n g amount of light per watt has exceed requirements to meet about 800 lumens and a 150-watt applications.(Credit: Bridgelux) improved by over 30 percent in EnergyStar or (California's bulb is about 2,000. Still, prices are falling and the past year and the costs have lighting efficiency standard) Five Filters featured article: e f f i c i e n c y i s i m p r o v i n g . fallen between 10 percent and 30 Title 24," Swoboda said. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Bridgelux on Wednesday is set percent, Swoboda said. Silicon Valley-based Bridgelux, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, to introduce a line of LED arrays " O u r c o r e t e c h n o l o g y h a s which recruited former Seagate Term Extraction. which can be used in different

POLICE continued from page 21

Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Breakfast Breads - from Consumer Reports By Press Room (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:00:59 PM

Breakfast Breads - from Consumer Reports For the February issue, Consumer Reports experts rated the nutrition of nine Breakfast breads, so you can eat sensibly though craving carbs. CR Podcast Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

Windows 7 Reaches 10 Percent Market Share By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

better than its predecessor: less annoying, faster, smoother, more compatible with various pieces Submitted at 2/3/2010 1:58:04 AM of hardware and software. It’s official: Microsoft got it Initial sales numbers and market right this time. After the mistake share reports have shown that that was Vista, Windows 7 was Windows 7 is on the right track, greeted like the second coming, but today it’s obvious that it will and it many ways it really was be one of the most successful

products in Windows history, as it already caught 10 percent market share, approximately 3 months after it arrived on the market.

Windows Vista currently holds around 20% market share, while the nine years old Windows XP is (still) between 60-70%. In other news, Internet Explorer 8 recently became the world’s most popular web browser with 25.6%. Love it or hate it, it’s a good thing, as it means that less

and less people are using the dreaded IE6. Tags: microsoft, operating systems, Windows 7

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Twitter Explains Recent Phishing Attack USTR: A Lot Of Misperception Over ACTA, But We Won't Clear It Up Or Anything

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/3/2010 12:55:03 AM

Yesterday, we wrote that Twitter asked some users to reset their password as a security measure. We suspected that the By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) USTR keeps insisting that it's part, because it's being shoved reason was a phishing attack on going to be more transparent, but into ACTA as if copyright Twitter, and now Twitter has Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:49:43 AM hasn't actually done anything. If infringement and counterfeiting officially confirmed it, with a bit Via Michael Geist, we're anything, over the last couple are the same thing (or at least of background. Recently, Twitter admins pointed to a short interview with months, the USTR has become very similar) when they're not. a representative from the US even more secretive about S o h i s n e x t s t a t e m e n t i s discovered a surge of followers Trade Reps office, where the ACTA. Saying that people aren't meaningless:"The threat of to some suspicious accounts, issue over ACTA concerns is accurately describing what's in p h y s i c a l g o o d s b e a r i n g decided to investigate, and raised, and the response is almost the document, and then not counterfeit trademarks is a real discovered that a number of comically ridiculous. Stan saying what's actually in the one and it is a priority for accounts were compromised McCoy, the assistant US Trade document, doesn't help matters. ACTA. Americans do not want through an intricate attack Representative for intellectual It just makes us wonder who the t o b r u s h t h e i r t e e t h w i t h involving torrent-related sites p r o p e r t y a n d i n n o v a t i o n , USTR is representing, because it counterfeit toothpaste or drive a and forums. Here’s Twitter’s responds to complaints by saying certainly does not appear to be car with knockoff brakes." That explanation of what went down: that there has been a lot of the American people. implies people are arguing “It appears that for a number of misrepresentation about ACTA Furthermore, McCoy is being otherwise, but no one is. Of years, a person has been creating and that it really has a lot about willfully disingenuous, in saying course, we don't want dangerous torrent sites that require a login counterfeiting and isn't just about that the "misperception" is that counterfeits, but that's not the and password as well as creating copyright. And....? Well, that's "this agreement will focus issue. The issue is using ACTA forums set up for torrent site it. m o s t l y o r e x c l u s i v e l y o n as a back door to changing IP usage and then selling these You see, this is the point where copyright infringement in the laws in a way that does not purportedly well-crafted sites Stan McCoy or Ron Kirk or digital environment." No one reflect what's best for the and forums to other people innocently looking to start a anyone in the USTR's office has been suggesting that at all. country. should explain what those Everyone knows that it covers Permalink| Comments| Email download site of their very own. However, these sites came with a misperceptions are, by telling us real counterfeiting as well -- but This Story little extra — security exploits what's actually being negotiated. the part people are concerned and backdoors throughout the But, of course, they don't. The about is the intellectual property system. This person then waited for the forums and sites to get popular and then used those By Tony Long (Wired Top Johannes Gutenberg's printing achievements. exploits to get access to the Stories) press easily makes anybody's top 10 list of all-time technological

Feb. 3, 1468: Closing the Book on Gutenberg

username, email address, and password of every person who had signed up. Additional exploits to gain admin root on forums that weren’t created by this person also appear to have been utilized; in some instances, the exploit involved redirecting attempts to access the forums to another site that would request log-in information. This information was then used to attempt to gain access to third party sites like Twitter. We haven’t identified all of the forums involved (nor is it likely that we’ll be able to, since we don’t have any connection with them), but as a general rule, if you’ve signed up for a torrent forum or torrent site built by a third party, you should probably change your password there.” Well, folks, I guess it all boils down to the same old advice: never use the same email/password combination on multiple sites. Tags: hack, security, torrent, trending, twitter

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That $499 iPad only costs Apple $270; Wall Street analyst is elated By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Tim Armstrong's AOL beats Wall Street's low expectations (CNET News.com)

Submitted at 2/3/2010 9:00:00 AM Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:20:03 AM

Filed under: Hardware, Apple Financial Apple is well-known in the consumer electronics world for relatively large margins on products. According to a bill of materials (BOM) breakdown on the iPad recently performed by BroadPoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall, the iPad should be able to add a sizable chunk of money to Apple's bottom line. For the 16GB Wi-Fi iPad (US$499), Marshall found that the total BOM cost was $270.50. Manufacturing adds $10 to the cost, and warranty service costs add up to $20. In case you're wondering, the flash memory and the aluminum case both cost about $25, and the Apple A4 processor adds just $15 to the total cost of the iPad. While the entry-level iPad may appear to be a cash cow for Apple, the 32GB and 64GB WiFi models add even more margin to the mix. The 32GB model costs only $25.50 more than the 16GB, but the suggested retail price is $100 more. Apple will really make money on the 64GB

model, which costs $76.50 more than the 16GB device but sells for $200 more. Marshall had a chance to use an iPad, which led him to believe that "...this will be another grand slam product for Apple. The ergonomics and the 'media' experience of the device stood out the most to us." His original estimate was for Apple to sell about 2.2 million units in 2010. He's now expecting sales to be much higher. As an example, he feels that if Apple sells seven million units, calendar year earnings per share for Apple would rise from $12 to over $13. Marshall is definitely bullish on Apple, having rated AAPL a

"buy" with a target price of $264 per share. Considering the trashing that Apple and most other tech stocks have taken recently, the company has long way to go -- and a lot of iPads to sell - before reaching that target price. [via Hardware Central] TUAW That $499 iPad only costs Apple $270; Wall Street analyst is elated originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong(Credit: Google) AOL CEO Tim Armstrong turned in his first earnings report as CEO of the newly independent company this morning. And his numbers don't look anything like the ones he was used to reporting at Google-revenue plummeted across the board. Then again, Wall Street has minimal expectations for AOL for at least a couple quarters, so Armstrong didn't need to do much to meet them. After factoring out one-time charges, AOL posted earnings of 71 cents per share on revenues of $801 million. Wall Street expected earnings of either 62 cents or 66 cents per share, depending on who you ask, on revenue of around $766 million. And while advertising revenue was lousy, it wasn't as bad as Wall Street had expected--it

Mountain-Bike Upgrade Package Pimps Your (2-Wheeled) Ride By John Bradley (Wired Top Stories)

Why would I want a bike component group that costs more

than my car? Let me tell you.

dropped 8 percent, and analysts had assumed it would show a double-digit decline. Subscription revenue, which still drives the company, though, dropped more quickly than analysts assumed, down 28 percent. Again, recall that these numbers are against miserable comps from a year ago, when advertisers and publishers just sat in the dark with towels over their heads, crying. So the fact that AOL is still declining shows you how much of a challenge Armstrong faces, as he retools both his sales force and his sales strategy. Here's the revenue breakdown: Here's Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney's ever-helpful "cheat sheet" for interpreting the results, if you're playing along at home. Story Copyright (c) 2010 AllThingsD. All rights reserved. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Comcast earnings ride broadband, voice subscriber gains (CNET News.com) Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:38:37 AM

Patent hints at next generation Apple TV By Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

remote that can pick out a certain type of light source from other bulbs in the house. The patent paints some pretty wild pictures Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:00:00 PM of what they must be working on Filed under: Gaming, Hardware, at Apple HQ: it describes IR Video The USPTO has published e m i t t e r s m o u n t e d n e a r a seven different patents from television, and then describes Apple today, including one that how to keep the remote control might be found in the next both "measuring its own motion" generation of the Apple TV. The from those sensors, and able to patent allows for a "Remote recognize differences between C o n t r o l S y s t e m t h a t c a n those sensors and other light Distinguish Stray Light Sources" sources, including reflections -- in other words, a Wii style a n d o t h e r f e a t u r e s o f t h e

surroundings. Of course, Apple's not a company that tends to follow, so you have to wonder what else they're putting together if they really are planning on taking a song from Nintendo's Wii and adding it to the Apple TV's repertoire. Not that we'll ever see it for sure -- they file patents all the time, some of them already used (other patents filed today include Smart Playlists in iTunes and the "slide to unlock" feature found in the iPhone and the

iPad), and some which will never see release. But it certainly sounds like something is cooking in the Apple R&D labs. TUAW Patent hints at next generation Apple TV originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Report offensive content: If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the CNET's Site Terms of Use, you can report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once reported, our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed. Select type of offense: Offensive: Sexually explicit or offensive language Spam: Advertisements or commercial links Disruptive posting: Flaming or offending other users Illegal activities: Promote cracked software, or other illegal content Comments(optional): Report Cancel Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Google Discovers -- Again, Though No One Remembers -- That People Don't Like Paying For Video Online By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:08:44 AM

Apple cybersquatter is ousted from Twitter, but still no sign of @apple By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:00:00 AM

Filed under: Internet, Apple Despite the huge number of companies and individuals that have Twitter accounts, our favorite Cupertino-based company has been strangely silent on the "social media" scene. While some conspiracy theorists out there might take that as proof that Apple is going to create their own Twitter-like notification service or, even worse, buy Twitter outright, we'd like to believe that it's just because they don't need to blast

out 140-character screeds every few minutes to get attention. If Apple ever decides to join the crowd and tweet news blasts to several hundred million followers, they'll be able to pick up @apple as their Twitter handle. According to 9to5Mac, a cybersquatter had taken over the twitter.com/apple username, but just recently the message you see above started appearing. Not only does this indicate that the squatter has been forcibly removed from his/her former inhabitance in Twitter-ville, but attempts to sign up as Apple on Twitter are rebuffed. Whether this indicates that Apple will soon join the ranks of

Twitterites or if it's just Twitter being nice to the coolest computer maker on the 'net, it is nice to see that we won't be seeing tweets from "Fake Apple" in the near future. [via Cult of Mac] TUAW Apple cybersquatter is ousted from Twitter, but still no sign of @apple originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

I have to say that I'm a bit perplexed at what appears like worldwide amnesia over the fact that when Google launched its Google Video platform, its main focus was on charging people to "rent" videos on its platform. There was a ton of press and excitement over it, with lots of people claiming that Google was going to remake the video market online, and lots of money would be made. And then... nope. People didn't pay. Instead, they all jumped over to an upand-coming site called YouTube that didn't charge and Google eventually bought them out while quietly shutting down its pay-for-video efforts, which no one missed. And I guess because no one missed it, everyone seems to forget it exists, even though we try to remind people that Google tried

this and failed. But, instead, we get those professional journalists at the NY Times pointing out that this latest very poorly received payfor-video trials are the company's "first forays" into charging for video content. Apparently the new test brought in a whopping $10,709.16 over the course of 10 days (and five movies). Google is trying to spin this as "exceeding expectations," but it's hard to see how that's the case. There may be models that get people to pay (Netflix's subscription model seems to get people to pay simply for the convenience factor), but I think direct charging like this is unlikely to get very far, and Google, of all companies, should know that, even if everyone else has forgotten. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Roundtable, Day 2: Need to Know By FanHouse TV (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:07:00 PM

Filed under: Colts, Saints, Super Bowl MIAMI -- Why are the New Orleans Saints so relaxed? Are they really serious about

injuring Peyton Manning? Is Dwight Freeney really hurt? It's Day 2 of Super Bowl week and FanHouse columnists Thomas George, Terence Moore and Jay Mariotti are back to dissect every angle of the big game.

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Music Consumption Faceoff: Subscription Vs. Ownership By Barb Dybwad (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:13:14 PM

Mashable was in attendance at today’s New Music Seminar in Los Angeles, where Spotify CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek gave an excellent keynote about the state of the music industry and the re-emerging subscription model. Since we have new music on the brain, we wanted to pose a relevant question for this week’s Faceoff Series head-to-head matchup. Which music consumption model do you prefer: subscription or ownership? It’s no surprise to anyone that

the third answer — or how the majority of music consumption happens today — is, “Neither; I get my music for free.” But the statistics are starting to show that fans are still eager to support artists, and that even the people who increase their free music consumption tend to also increase their paid music

consumption at the same time. So if and when you do spend money on music, how do you like to do it? Do you need to own every album in your collection or does the all-you-can-eat, ondemand subscription model seeing a renaissance with services like MOG and Spotify pique your interest? Which model do you think is better? Let us know in the poll below. Who would win in a fight: Music subscription, or music ownership?( survey software) Reviews: Spotify Tags: business models, music, p2p, social media, subscription, web faceoff

GOP Narrows Convention Site to Three Cities (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:07:31 AM

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. The Republican National Committee has narrowed its list of potential cities to host the 2012 Republican National Convention down to three final contenders, Fox News reported Monday. National Republican insiders with knowledge of the process says the cities are Tampa, Fla.,

Pop culture loves the iPad: Paper presentation, Parry Grip anthem By Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:00:00 PM

Filed under: Hardware, Humor All of Apple's devices have been embraced by pop culture sooner or later, but I think the iPad has probably nabbed the record for quickest to the bear hug. Here's two silly things we've seen

today, just a week after the iPad's official announcement. First up, songsmith Parry Gripp's latest mini-tune is all about the iPad, and as you can see above, it's actually a pretty interesting commentary on just how successful the device will likely be: we may argue about which kinds of nachos are ruling, but we can all agree that nachos in general are awesome.

Second, the iPad announcement itself has even been immortalized in papercraft. And if you want your own paperbased recreation of last week's event, you can download the plans and put it together yourself. Weird? Yes. Strange? Very. But for a company that wants to sit at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts, Apple's mission is pretty much

accomplished. TUAW Pop culture loves the iPad: Paper presentation, Parry Grip anthem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Phoenix, Ariz., and Salt Lake City, Utah. The RNC's Site Selection Committee made the decision at a meeting last Friday in Hawaii as part of the RNC's Winter meetings. The final decision on the host city will be made sometime this spring. © Newsmax. All rights reserved. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Fierce Fashions: The Lovely Nominees of the 2010 Oscars! (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:00:00 AM

Take a look at the 10 super sexy and super talented actresses nominated for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards! Get an eyeful of all their fierce fashions from this past awards and premiere season. See all the ladies take to the red carpet in their glamorous gear at 82nd Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 7.

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Online Video Ad Network BrightRoll Raises $10 Million By Jennifer Van Grove (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:00:24 PM

Online video advertising network BrightRoll has just announced that they’ve secured $10 million in Series C funding, grown to nearly 55 million unique viewers per month in the U.S, and are now profitable. The funding news means that BrightRoll — which distributes video ad campaigns via an extensive online publisher network — has raised $16 million to date, and they will use the additional funds to improve the technology behind their service. If you’re unfamiliar with BrightRoll, it’s because the company’s name is secondary to the brands they serve. They power online video for the likes of Toyota, Sony, Shell, Audi, ABC, Microsoft, HP, and

Walmart, among other big brand clients. Now that Quantcast puts BrightRoll’s monthly reach at 55 million unique visitors — which the company points out is more than Hulu — chances are you’ve been exposed to several BrightRoll-powered advertisements without even knowing it. As online video views across the web continue to climb, we can safely presume that the premium video ad network’s online reach will continue to grow. Reviews: Hulu Tags: brightroll, money

Second Life Gang Using Copyright To Stop Discussion Of Its Tactics?

Today on Alex Jones (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:45:14 PM

One of the world’s foremost right wing climate change deniers, Marc Morano, appears By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) the SLJLU has used a copyright on the radio show of one of the claim to Typepad in an attempt w o r l d ’ s f o r e m o s t r a v i n g Submitted at 2/2/2010 11:46:00 PM to get the stories taken down. conspiracy kooks, 9/11 Truther I'll admit that the details on this Seeing as the publication of the Alex Jones — and it’s exactly one are a bit confusing and not c o n t e n t s w a s p a r t o f a where he belongs. explained well for those of us journalistic effort, it seems like a Marc Morano on Alex Jones Tv who don't use Second Life. But, pretty clear case of fair use, and 1/4: NASA Scientist Demands reading through the (admittedly it's a bit upsetting that Typepad End to Industrial Society! one-sided) documents pass along automatically sided with those Also appearing on the Alex by Pixeleen Mistral, it sounds making the copyright claim. Of Jones site infowars.com today — like a vigilante group within course, it seems equally ironic Rand Paul, son of Ron Paul, Second Life going by the name t h a t t h e y w o u l d b e u s i n g r e c e n t l y e n d o r s e d b y e x Second Life Justice League copyright claims to take down g o v e r n o r S a r a h P a l i n , Unlimited, and which has avatars such content, seeing as they i n t e r v i e w e d b y F o x N e w s d e s i g n e d t o l o o k l i k e appear to be infringing on the commentator Judge Andrew trademarked super heroes, had a trademarks of various comic Napolitano. Alex Jones: the new go-to guy private wiki, which was leaked. book publishers. The publication, the Second Life Permalink| Comments| Email for the crazy wing of the GOP. Herald, wrote about it, using This Story information from the wiki... and

Giannoulias Vs. GOP's Kirk for Obama's Senate Seat (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 2/2/2010 3:42:40 PM

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. CHICAGO – Illinois Democrat

Alexi Giannoulias has won the chance to defend President Barack Obama's old Senate seat against Republican Mark Kirk. Democratic voters nominated the Illinois treasurer in Tuesday's primary. With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Giannoulias

had 315,829 votes or 39 percent. GOP voters picked the five-term congressman Kirk. With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Kirk had 378,676 votes or 57 percent. Republicans have targeted the seat since then-Illinois Gov. Rod

Blagojevich was arrested for trying to sell it. Blagojevich later appointed Roland Burris, who didn't run for a full term. Illinois is being even more closely watched after an upset win by the GOP in Massachusetts that cost

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THE PICTURE: Recession Proof By Jed Perl (The New Republic - All Feed)

crunchers are put on earth to deal with. But the arts—the play of the imagination, the need for this Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:50:00 PM parallel universe with its dream Message from fivefilters.org: If l o g i c a n d i t s m o r a l you can, please donate to the full reverberations—are not affected -text RSS service so we can by shifts in the housing market continue developing it. or the Dow. The value of a This is the opening shot of The p a i n t i n g h a s n e v e r b e e n Picture--my new, biweekly established at auction. The power column. I’m not planning to of a novel has never been restrict myself to the visual arts determined by the advance the here, although they will certainly author happened to receive or by be a central concern. I want to the number of copies that range more widely than I have in eventually sold. The greatness of the past, writing about the a theatrical production has interlocking worlds of books and nothing to do with how many pictures and culture that are my people attend. Dancers who can lifeblood, my passion. I may barely make their rent go on describe a forgotten novel that I s t a g e a n d g i v e o p u l e n t picked up in a secondhand p e r f o r m a n c e s . P o e t s , w i t h bookstore. Or salute the life and nothing but a pencil and a piece work of a friend who’s not of paper, erect imperishable around anymore. From time to k i n g d o m s . A n d t h e r e a r e time, I'll dedicate a column to a millionaires who chose to live painting that's excited me in a with the barebones beauty of a museum in Milwaukee or San Mondrian or a Morandi. Francisco. But I may also want Is this wild-eyed idealism? Is it to say something about a movie beside the point to speak about or praise an actor's performance. the fundamentally independent I’m certainly going to discuss the nature of the arts at a time when perilous state of our print media nearly everybody in the arts is world. And comment on any feeling the financial pinch? I other aspect of the cultural think it’s essential. We are universe that annoys the hell out d r o w n i n g i n p r a g m a t i s m , of me. I hope that The Picture utilitarianism, situationism—in a will become a chronicle of one mechanistic belief that art and critic’s works and days. society are joined at the hip. Has everybody forgotten that Drifting through a lot of the talk the arts are recession proof? Yes, over the past year or so has been of course, revenues shrink, some sense that the recession c o n t r i b u t i o n s d r y u p , a n d might be good for the arts—that expenses continue to rise. Those it will teach extravagant artists are the problems that numbers and arts organizations a lesson or

two. A few weeks ago, a reporter in The Art Newspaper, an English publication closely followed in gallery and museum circles, observed that “In America, certainly, the economic downturn is hastening a realization that business-as-usual won’t work anymore—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.” And last September, an art critic in the Times announced that “we’re spoiled. …We’re in a transition phase, always a good time to think about change.” There is similar talk on Broadway, where shrinking box office is said to be precipitating a welcome retreat from over-the-top production values. Everybody knows that hard times necessitate tough fiscal choices. That’s a no-brainer. What’s objectionable is the idea that fiscal necessity is a good thing. The professionals who engage in this supposedly tough talk are selling art short. Is there no longer any value or idea so compelling that it must be defended at all costs? A lot of cultural arbiters are coming right out and admitting that they’re nothing but slaves to the market. When the markets are up, excess looks artistically exciting. When the markets are down, asceticism is beautiful. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Whatever anybody may think about Franco Zeffirelli’s fantastically elaborate opera productions, those warhorses from the old, high-onthe-hog days at the Metropolitan

Opera, they must be judged in terms of the relationship between music and drama and the gifts of particular singers, not on the basis of what the productions cost. A friend of mine who thought long and hard about these questions used to say that if Zeffirelli had Callas for Traviata, he would simply put a bed on the stage and leave it at that, but given the singers he was working with, he thought the audience needed all those sets. You can agree or disagree, but you cannot reduce this to economics. In the arts, over-the-top is a choice. What we are talking about here is a problem that pits those who understand the freestanding value of art against everybody else. The enemies of art come in all sorts of ideological guises. There are the neo-conservative supplysiders, the academic Leninists, and the Duchampian aesthetes. Who could be surprised, given the highfalutin philistinism that is the order of the day, when a few weeks ago the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles announced that its new director was going to be an art dealer, Jeffrey Deitch. Some New York critics were elated; the pick was said to be “ creative” and “ inspired.” You might imagine that after what Wall Street had done to the U.S. economy there would be questions about Deitch, who once upon a time was a Citibank VP and created the bank’s art advisory and art

finance programs, but I guess Deitch gives Wall Street a Warholesque appeal. Deitch goes to Los Angeles as the servant of Eli Broad, the billionaire art collector who pulled a cashstrapped MOCA from the brink and must see in Deitch a man who knows how to do glamorous on the cheap. At Deitch Projects, his downtown Manhattan venue, the solid gold confetti of the Chelsea galleries and the uptown auction houses has been reimagined as dimestore glitz, and I suppose that’s what Deitch will now proceed to do with MOCA. He could sell off a Pollock and let a thousand graffiti artists bloom. And why does Deitch want the job? Another finalist was Tobias Meyer, the auctioneer who runs Sotheby’s contemporary art department worldwide and was a hero of the go-go art market that tanked not too long ago. I wonder if either Deitch or Meyer would have considered such a job five years ago, when they were the darlings of the boom. After helping wreck the art world, are they now glad to jump ship and wreck a museum or two? But there is very little that anybody can do about Eli Broad and Jeffrey Deitch and their ilk. Our only chance right now is if the people who still recognize the freestanding value of art take PICTURE: page 37

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Money Well Spent By Seyward Darby (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:00:00 PM

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Forget the spending freeze. Obama's Department of Education announced on Monday that it is asking Congress for more money in the 2011 budget. The department wants $49.7 billion in discretionary funds, roughly $3.5 billion more than it got in 2010. (That's on top of the $173 billion that would go to student loans, grants, tax credits, and workstudy programs.) And, if Congress finally reauthorizes No Child Left Behind (NCLB)--it's already three years overdue--to include the president's reforms, the administration says it would allot another billion to the discretionary pot. But the really big news about the proposed budget isn't how much is--or could be--in it; it's how the new money would be spent. Instead of channeling new funds to states and school districts based on pre-existing formulas, the department wants to reward progress. "Almost all the new money coming to the budget is competitive," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told reporters on Monday afternoon, referring to a full $3 billion in the department's proposal. "We're absolutely

philosophically and strategically moving more money, a lot of money, into a competitive basis." This represents an unprecedented shift in the way the federal government decides how to dole out education dollars. And, if Congress approves the budget as-is, it would build on ground-breaking work this education department has already undertaken--namely with regard to Race to the Top (RTTT), the competitive grant program that will soon distribute stimulus funds to states that have demonstrated plans for major reform. The budget proposal includes a $1.35 billion expansion of RTTT, as well $500 million for the Invest in Innovation program, also created through the stimulus, which "makes competitive awards to develop and expand innovative strategies and practices." The roughly $1.1 billion left over for competitive funds would be used, among other things, to improve teacher quality and effectiveness, develop charter and other autonomous schools, and turn around the country's lowest-performing schools. Why the move away from formulas to competitions? In short, the education department is fed up with the status quo. Formula funds have been around for years, yet a fourth of high school students don't graduate, up to 60 percent of college freshman need remedial education, and millions of

children aren't proficient in reading and math. "The philosophy that money still is somehow the answer is only going to hurt our kids more," says Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform. Sure, under the education department's plan, formula funds would still exist. For instance, Title I, which distributes money to high-poverty schools, would be frozen at its current funding level, so that poor schools wouldn't lose the support from Washington that they've come to count on. But the proposed budget increases are truly pioneering. A slew of new competitive grants would compel states, districts, and local educational groups to change their policies and develop new programs, because additional funds would be contingent on reforms. These reforms might include liberalized charter school policies; alternative teacher certification pathways; new approaches to enhancing teacher quality; and plans to expand the social services offered in schools. "They're going to say, 'You have to put forth a plan that's progressive and impressive, and that's what we'll pay for,'" says Mike Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank. "With a competition, you can be more aggressive, more prescriptive, more pointed." Of course, this being education policy, there are critics of the

department's plan. Some are concerned that the race for competitive funds could create disparities. What happens, for instance, if wealthier states and districts are able to outspend more cash-strapped ones and prepare flashy grant applications? There is a "new level of uncertainty" about who will get money, how much, and when, says Joel Packer of the Committee for Education Funding. Ideally, as the education department has promised, grant applications will be assessed based on substance and need. What's more, there will be multiple opportunities to obtain funds. For instance, RTTT, the department's most high-profile grant program to date, isn't a one -shot deal--there are two rounds of applications this year, which will allow states to apply again if they don't get funding the first time around. And, if Congress approves the RTTT expansion, districts will also be able to apply directly for the money. Critics also say that proposing to expand RTTT and Invest in Innovation is a premature move, because these programs have yet to hand out money and produce results. But, even before applications were due in January, the first round of RTTT spurred several states to lift charterschool caps and make other legislative changes that would improve their chances of getting money. If that's any indicator,

the programs seem likely to spur further change--so long as the education department rewards true progress. "Their instinct is right that they've seen a lot of positive movement from RTTT, a lot more than any of us would've expected a year ago and more than we're used to," says Petrilli. "What's going to be critical is if they're going to stay competitive and not fall into giving everyone their piece of the pie." But a lot has to happen before the education world can start debating whether competitive funds are effective. Namely, Congress has to get on board with Duncan. It has to approve the budget, which may or may not end up at the level the education department wants. And then, because so many of the proposed budget's competitive aspects require newly authorized programs, Congress also has to overhaul NCLB. Conceivably, traditional education interest groups could try to put any budget increase back into formula programs. They could also try to halt the creation of competitive incentives that buck how things have always been done. Even more chillingly, although education reform enjoys some bipartisan support, Republicans' all-out opposition to Obama could mean a long slog before an MONEY page 33

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MONEY

The Pathetic Party By Jonathan Chait (The New Republic - All Feed)

have to govern as a moderate, which would mean, at the very least, scaling back his enormous Submitted at 2/2/2010 2:09:04 PM tax cut. The voting public, after Message from fivefilters.org: If all, had evinced no enthusiasm you can, please donate to the full for it whatsoever. Al Gore had -text RSS service so we can won the popular vote in part by continue developing it. hammering the tax cut as an Barely a week into George W. irresponsible sop to the wealthy. Bush's presidency, his tax cut E v e n b e f o r e t h a t , i n t h e seems almost inevitable. The R e p u b l i c a n p r i m a r y , J o h n Democrats appear set to repeat McCain had condemned the their sordid performance of 20 Bush cut on similar grounds. years ago--when, instead of GOP congressional candidates resisting Ronald Reagan's tax ran away from Bush's plan. Poll cut, they larded it with special- after poll showed tax cuts far interest subsidies of their own. down the list of public priorities. T h e s i z e o f t h e t a x c u t There are several explanations acceptable to Democrats edges for why the ground has shifted up almost daily, from $500 so quickly-- and none of them billion to (as we go to press) makes fiscal or moral sense. $850 billion. Republicans, First, Bush seized upon the m e a n w h i l e , h a v e b e g u n slowing economy to justify his predicting that the eventual tax tax cut. But most economists cut might end up even larger (including those who work for than Bush's bloated proposal. " Bush) say that it can't be The chances of a tax-cut feeding implemented fast enough to f r e n z y , " c r o w s L a w r e n c e have an impact and that business Kudlow, a Bush adviser, "are -cycle management should be growing daily." It's disturbing left to the Federal Reserve. Then enough that fiscal policy is in the Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan hands of people who use the gave his blessing, disheartening phrase "feeding frenzy" to Democrats who shared his nowdescribe a process they see as abandoned emphasis on debt b e n e f i c i a l . W h a t ' s m o r e reduction. disturbing is that Kudlow's Greenspan's endorsement prediction could be right. carried such political weight in We've come a long way in the part because he had spent the last month--in exactly the wrong previous eight years urging fiscal direction. When the Supreme restraint. And so his dramatic Court made Bush president, it turnabout is taken as evidence was widely assumed he would that the budgetary outlook must

continued from page 32

have changed dramatically. In fact, surplus projections have not changed much since the last time Greenspan spoke. What has changed is the administration. During the Clinton era, the rightleaning Greenspan was afraid of spending hikes--a prospect he helped ward off with his advocacy of debt reduction. Now, with a Republican in the White House, he no longer needs to use fiscal conservatism as an argument against spending increases and can feel free to push for tax cuts. Meanwhile, a stream of ever more optimistic budget-surplus projections has anesthetized deficit hawks, creating an expectation that federal revenues will expand forever, permanently obviating the need for painful trade-offs. And it is true that the budget has produced pleasant surprises for several years running. But the proper lesson to take from this is not that budget projections are always too conservative-indeed, historically they've usually erred on the side of optimism--but that they're not very accurate. The further into the future the number-crunchers gaze, the hazier their vision gets. Moreover, even if today's rosy forecasts do come to pass, the picture will almost certainly darken in ten years or so, when the baby-boomers' retirement begins to soak up a larger share

of the budget. At that point, if Bush has blown the surplus on tax cuts, the government will plunge back into the deficitridden fiscal paralysis from which it has only recently escaped. Given this prospect, the Democrats' acquiescence to the Bush tax cut is baffling. Their surrender to Reagan at least occurred at the apogee of a decade-long revolt against government. Today, no such hostility exists. The mania for large, upper-bracket tax cuts is largely a product of the Beltway echo chamber. In a recent national opinion poll on how best to direct the surplus, tax cuts came in dead last--behind social spending, shoring up Social Security, and debt reduction. Acceding to bad policy in the face of strong public sentiment--as the Democrats did in 1981--may be cowardly. But doing so in the absence of public pressure is just plain pathetic. Jonathan Chait is a senior editor at The New Republic. For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

NCLB overhaul, tough or watered-down, would get to the president's desk. (Calls to the ranking members of the House subcommittee on K-12 education weren't returned.) Still, all of that is to be expected when an administration offers a budget proposal this cuttingedge. For its many other missteps, Obama's team has been consistently progressive on education policy. So let's give the education department its money, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s overhaul NCLB, and letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s force those who've opposed reform at every turn to construct fresh arguments once the new policies are put to the test. Seyward Darby is the assistant managing editor of The New Republic. For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Green Energy By Abbas Milani (The New Republic - All Feed)

construing it as a sure sign of the Green Movement’s defeat. Finally, there was the alleged Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:50:00 PM coup de grace: a statement Message from fivefilters.org: If reported by Fars News Agency, you can, please donate to the full the government-run Iranian news -text RSS service so we can s e r v i c e , f r o m M e h d i continue developing it. Karroubi—known as an I s t h e G r e e n M o v e m e n t uncompromising and defiant finished? That is what the Iranian leader of the reform movement. government wants the world to In the statement, Karroubi believe. And it has recently been seemed to accept Ahmadinejad’s trumpeting a few pieces of p r e s i d e n c y . “ K a r r o u b i : I evidence to make its case. recognize the president-elect of First came a statement by Mir the Iranian people,” the Fars Hossein Mousavi on New Year’s article was headlined. Eve, which offered five These reports come at a conditions for ending the current sensitive moment for the regime. impasse. But because it did not That’s because February 11, the directly repeat Mousavi’s oft- official anniversary of the 1979 quoted notion that the June revolution and the date of the elections were rigged, Kayhan next big government-sponsored and Rajanews—the two news d e m o n s t r a t i o n , i s q u i c k l y outlets closest to Khamenei and approaching. As it has with other Ahmadinejad—tried to claim the official celebrations in the past, statement as a major victory for the Green Movement plans to the regime. transform this event into a Then in late January came peaceful show of force by the reports of a “confidential” letter opposition. The government, of of repentance written by former course, is desperate to stop this Iranian president (and leading from happening—which is why reformer) Mohammad Khatami, it wants to convince Iranians that addressed to Khamenei. The the Green Movement is on its letter supposedly recognizes the last legs. legitimacy of Ahmadinejad’s But, unfortunately for the presidency. Again, Kayhan and government, this simply isn’t Rajanews reported on the letter, true. For one thing, as Mousavi,

Khatami, and Karroubi have repeatedly said, they are only the nominal leaders of the movement. If all three leaders were to compromise and “make peace” with the regime, it would certainly be a blow to the movement—but it would hardly be its death knell. As long as there are millions of Iranians who remain frustrated with the regime, the Green Movement is not going away. And we know that the Green Movement retains mass appeal—even if, these days, it sometimes has to resort to oblique ways of showing it. Consider an unusual event that happened four weeks ago on, of all places, an Iranian soccer show (and which I learned about from reports on the normally reliable Roozonline and other Persian websites, as well as conversations with people who had seen the program). The show, called “Navad”—which means “90” in Persian, for the 90 minutes of a soccer game—features questions that the audience can vote on through text messages. About an hour before the program began, Green Movement advocates urged supporters via the web to vote for option three regardless of the

question. As it turned out, the third option was probably the least reasonable response to the soccer question being posed—yet, by the end of the program, at least two million people had voted, and approximately 80 percent had voted for option three. M oreover, the allegedly conciliatory statements by Green Movement leaders may not have been what they at first appeared to be. The hype surrounding Mousavi’s supposedly conciliatory gesture, for example, was recently punctured when his wife—considered by many to be Mousavi’s top adviser—made the following unambiguous statement: “I want to emphasize that we neither recognize the Ahmadinejad government nor will make any backroom compromises.” And yesterday, Mousavi himself launched a broadside against the regime, saying on his website, “Dictatorship in the name of religion is the worst kind. … I don’t believe the revolution achieved its goals.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Chrome for Linux Dev Channel Gets Notifications, Better Desktop Looks [Updates] By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:00:00 AM

If you're running Google Chrome on Linux, switching to the "dev" channel seems like a smarter bet than ever. The newest release includes support for desktop notifications ( as previously suggested), and better integrates with your GTK/GNOME theme by using its text and button selection colors. Plug-ins, too, can now be stashed in a location in your home folder for backup and maintenance. [ Google Chrome Releases]

Video: Dion Phaneuf Fights In Toronto Debut, Giguere Gets a Shutout By Adam Gretz (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/2/2010 2:15:00 PM

Filed under: Devils, Maple Leafs, NHL Fights, NHL Videos It took Dion Phaneuf less than six minutes to start causing chaos

and raising hell as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs in their 3-0 win against the New Jersey Devils.

Early in the first period of his Toronto debut, Phaneuf found himself in a fight with New Jersey's Colin White after

finishing a hard check on Zach Parise along the boards.

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We Got Mail! (Little Green Footballs)

reading them. Here are a few samples from January alone (a month in which Since I began to break ranks I received 151 hate mails), with with the right wing noisemakers, all profanities, misspellings, and I’ve been receiving an average of bad grammar left intact to five hate mails every single day, convey the full flavor. often more. Received on January 1st from Sometimes it’s the same person someone who clicked a link in a over and over. Once someone Google search page: sent me more than three dozen charles, it’s 2010 and you’re emails in about 10 minutes still a little green faggot. before I blocked his IP address Short but not sweet at all. from the site. Here’s one titled “creationism:” Sometimes it’s from a random Obsessed with this, arent ya. Internet rage-a-holic, who Well next dinner party you have followed a link from one of the with Maxine Walters and Nancy, wingnut blogs where I get bring it up with them. If you trashed on a regular basis for not lump people across the board believing in creationism, or for into something, it cuts both not adoring ex-governor Sarah ways….ergo, youre a fucking Palin, or for saying unkind things idiot. about Rush Limbaugh. Simply titled “Question:” The amount of hate mail I’ve You are a headline loving r e c e i v e d f r o m a n g r y r i g h t douche bag. Suck on a big fat wingers is far, far beyond one, fat boy. anything I ever received from Homophobia and gay-themed angry Islamists, or even from insults are very common. angry CODEPINK leftists. And If someone had told me a few the level of venom and vitriol is years ago that the chubby pretty amazing. Many of them dissembler would like smoking exhibit cowardly stalker-like cock more than writing about behavior, using proxy IPs and j i h a d i n 2 0 1 0 , I p r o b a b l y fake email addresses to hide their wouldn’t have believed them. identities, and putting titles on And I mean extremely common. their hate mails that sound Who told you that tea party innocuous to “trick” me into supporters weren’t supporting Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:41:22 PM

Brown? Strawman much? And speaking of teabagging, what do you like? You like a bear with hairy testicles, a new fish with barely a hair on them? Dipped in anything before you suck? Do you like to lick or suck first? Straight to the shaft after that or are you a rim job type of guy? Another very common theme among these hundreds of emails is that I’m now “irrelevant” and nobody reads or cares about LGF any more. This tactic is intended to rob me of the will to live, I think. A reader in Georgia sets his caps lock key on “STUN” and spews: CHARLES, LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE HAD YOUR TIME IN THE SUN. ONCE THIS ARTICLE RUNS ITS COURSE YOU WILL BE FORGOTTEN AND WILL FADE AWAY. NO ONE WILL CARE ABOUT YOUR OPINIONS ANYMORE BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED. YOU WERE NEVER EMBRACED BY THE LEFT ONCE YOU TURNED ON THE RIGHT AND THEY HAVE THEIR FAVORITES TO TURN TO ANYWAYS. YOU ARE DONE ENJOY YOUR LONELY WALK TO IRRELEVANCE. PUBLISH

THIS PLEASE. I probably made Mr. Capslock’s day by publishing his illiterate rant. (No need to thank me, CL!) Lots of these people are provoked into an angry screed because I accept the scientific evidence for evolution, or for global warming, or both. Duplicitous dopefetcher Charles Johnson falls for Peter Sinclair’s latest bit of green propaganda. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. One stalker specializes in vile comments like this one: Every time you use the word dishonest a gay Jew is killed. Just so you know. L’Chaim. Another common theme is rage at the readers who comment at LGF, for not hating me sufficiently: Jesus h christ you are such a creep it is unbelievable. And stupid too. The sycophants love you and will do so against all facts not to mention good taste. The majority of them get right to the point though. We’ll close tonight’s episode of “We Got Mail!” with a missive from yet another caps lock abuser: SUCK SHIT YOU FUCKING COCKHEAD!!! LOL!!!

Mobile Augmented Reality Apps: Changing the Way We See the World By Edit Staff (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:15:08 AM

GigaOM has a great set of infographics summarizing the mobile augmented reality apps that will have a major impact on how we look at our homes, cities, and the world at large. See the full set of graphics at GigaOM

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E-Mail Leak Roils Race in California (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 2/2/2010 11:12:22 PM

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. SACRAMENTO, Calif. - An email in which an adviser to candidate Meg Whitman threatened to spend $40 million or more to ruin her fellow Republican Steve Poizner's reputation provided a rare glimpse this week at the tough tactics in the high-stakes race for California governor. Claiming he was being threatened in the contest to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mr. Poizner on Monday released a Jan. 27 email from a Whitman strategist that said the former eBay chief executive was willing to spend the money "tearing up Steve if we must." The e-mail begins: "Is there anything we can do to get SP to reconsider the race?" It goes on to suggest that Mr. Poizner should instead run for the Senate seat now held by Democrat Dianne Feinstein in 2012.

"Could be a strong GOP year and DiFi" - Mrs. Feinstein - "will be 78 or 79 years old," said the email from Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who was a senior adviser in Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign. "Thought I'd try one more time before it's 1914," the message added. Mr. Poizner said 1914 was a "not subtle" reference to the start of World War I. He said the offer to bow out of the governor's race in order to get party support for a later Senate campaign amounted to offering him a consolation prize. Mr. Poizner asked the FBI, the California Attorney General's Office and U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate whether the exchanges were illegal. He said the intimidation crosses the line from the normal rough-andtumble of politics to intimidation. "She wants to be ordained. She wants to be the only one running so she doesn't have to answer your questions," Mr. Poizner told reporters. Mr. Murphy later confirmed that

he sent the e-mail and mocked Mr. Poizner's tone in a posting on Twitter, where he wrote, "Steve Poizner becoming unhinged, gave nutty press conf today. Wants FBI to lock me up." Mrs. Whitman, a billionaire, is the front-runner in the Republican primary against Mr. Poizner, a wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneur who is now the state's insurance commissioner. A Public Policy Institute of California poll last week found 41 percent of Republican voters backing Mrs. Whitman and just 11 percent supporting Mr. Poizner, with 44 percent of likely primary voters still undecided. Mr. Murphy said he sent the email to Poizner pollster Jan van Lohuizen after hearing the pollster may have "grave doubts about the viability of the faltering Poizner campaign." "It is true that I have been trying to find a way to avoid a costly and unnecessary Republican primary," Mr. Murphy said in a statement released by Mrs. Whitman's campaign. Jerry Brown, the state attorney general and a former two-term

governor, is the presumed Democratic nominee for governor, although he has not yet officially announced he is running. Mrs. Whitman was holding events Monday to promote her new book and did not respond to Mr. Poizner's claims. Christine Gasparac, a spokeswoman for Mr. Brown, said the Attorney General's Office was reviewing Mr. Poizner's complaint. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento declined to comment on the letter, which it received Monday. Such charges typically would be forwarded to the FBI, said spokeswoman Lauren Horwood. FBI spokesman Steve Dupre also declined comment. ÂŠ Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

'Slumdog Millionaire' Craze May Have Peaked and Here's the Proof By Danny Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:00:00 AM

'Slumdog Milionaire' may have been a gripping and uplifting tale of adversity and triumph that is starting to inspire a slew of new TV pilots, but it looks like it's about to run its course. Obstacle course, that is. Check out this trailer for what appears to not only be a revival of the 'Slumdog Millionaire' franchise, but also a classic children's TV favorite for the big screen. I double dare you to watch it or take the physical challenge. Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Video, Children, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

'Outsourced' the Movie, Not the TV Show Coming Soon By Danny Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/3/2010 9:00:00 AM

'Outsourced,' one of what seems to be many Indian-infused

situation comedies inspired by the wild success of 'Slumdog Millionaire,' actually came to a theater near you long before NBC picked up the pilot. The movie as well as the TV

show is based on an American who finds himself running a customer service department for a novelty company. The trailer included below actually gave me a couple of good chuckles and

some hope that NBC isn't picking up its one-millionth'The Office' clone. Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Video, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free

Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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PICTURE: continued from page 31

a decisive stand. What has been most troubling in recent months is a sense that our greatest institutions—the Metropolitan Museum of Art for one—are allowing the recession to shape their thinking. Enough of smallis-beautiful. Now is the time for Thomas Campbell, the new director at the Met, to announce some wildly ambitious projects, something important and difficult and costly, something that will put the business side of the museum in a sweat. We might all begin by taking a deep breath and remembering what the Museum of Modern Art did during the Great Depression.

They decided to build their first freestanding home, a daring modernist structure on West 53rd Street. Talk about crazy schemes. Discussions began in 1934. By the spring of 1936, the necessary parcels of land had been acquired and a building committee was at work. The new museum, which cost about $2 million, opened in 1939. When culture is at stake, financial considerations cannot be allowed to rule. Cultural institutions must be fiscally responsible. They must also be artistically responsible. And when it comes to the arts there is such a thing as too much realism. Tell that to the

donors. Who knows? Maybe somebody will get the message and pull out a checkbook. Jed Perl is the art critic of The New Republic. For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Derek Ousts the Chief on 'Grey's Anatomy' (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:02:00 AM

Seattle Grace Hospital is all shook up when Derek ( Patrick Dempsey) takes over as interim chief of surgery and has a confrontation with Richard ( James Pickens Jr.), the exiting chief, who lost his job because he is an alcoholic who started drinking again. "Who the hell do you think you

are?" asks Richard when Derek tells him to sign a paper that will admit him to rehab. "You are not my boss and you are not my chief." "You are in trouble and I am trying to help you," Derek responds. "You got fired the moment you took your first drink. You are not ending your career to get back at me. I did what I had to do."

For a Super Sunday, keep an eye on the kids AND the game By Artemis Dibenedetto (Consumer Reports)

year about 14,700 children and adolescents go to emergency rooms suffering from furniture Submitted at 2/3/2010 1:59:59 AM tip-over related injuries, For a Super Sunday, keep an eye according to the Center for on the kids AND the game Injury Research and Policy at T h e b i g g a m e c a n k e e p Nationwide Children's Hospital everyone—especially football in Ohio. Half of the incidents are fans—glued to the TV. But if caused by televisions. The rate of you have a young child and any injuries has risen from 18.8 per young guests, it’s important to 100,000 young people in 1990 to make sure your home is child- 22.9 in 2007. And accidents friendly and the little ones have where TVs have fallen on adult supervision. Here are some children have been fatal. (See the simple tips to consider so video at right, and safety blog everyone has a good—and post Got a new TV? Be careful safe— time: where you put the old one.) If the Get a sitter. Hire a babysitter to kids watch TV in another room, mind the kids, or have adult they should be supervised by an guests take 15- or 20-minute adult. Wherever the TV, make turns in the children’s play room. sure wall-mounted models are Be careful around the TV. Each securely installed, and that any

wires and other devices are out of reach. If the TV is in an enclosed unit more than 30inches tall, you should secure it to the wall with an anti-tip device. If it’s on a stand, make sure it’s no taller than 30 inches and designed specifically to hold a TV. Push the TV back as far as possible on the stand. Never place the TV on top of a unit with drawers. Even if the unit is secured to the wall, a child could still reach the top and slide the TV onto the floor or onto himself. Consider securing furniture that might tip with a furniture strap or bracket. It should be secured into a wall stud, otherwise secure the furniture to the floor with an Lbracket or angle-bracket, found

in hardware stores or home centers. (See our video about a family who lost a child to a TV tipover.) Install safety gates and keep them closed. So that young visitors don’t wander where they shouldn’t be, install (and keep closed) safety gates to other parts of the house, including up and down stairways, and in bathrooms. (See tips for choosing and installing safety gates.) Do a quick tour of your house through the eyes of a small child. Are there any sharp or dangerous items in the kitchen? Health and beauty items lying around the bedroom? Valuable and potentially sharp or heavy knickknacks in the livingroom?

A home office with lots of electronics? Exposed outlets? Doors for pets? Eliminate the chances of a child harming himself by keeping such things inaccessible. See organize your child’s play area for related information. Also, share your tips for keeping kids safe during get-togethers, in Comments. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

Consumer Reports/ Entertainment/

Don't be a tax-time phishing victim By Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:59:59 AM

Don't be a tax-time phishing victim With the income tax season in swing, be on guard against what is likely to be increased activity by scammers looking to steal your confidential financial information, warns the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).“A lot of scammers will be ‘phishing’ taxpayers by sending e-mails that claim to be from the IRS,” the group said in a statement. Such fraudulent e-mails often have an official-looking IRS or Treasury Department logo, and they often have a sense of urgency, the group said. The IRS has posted actual examples of phony “phishing” IRS e-mails. One advises the

identity. Both the NWC3 and the IRS point out that the IRS agency never uses e-mail to initiate taxpayer communications or to solicit detailed taxpayer personal information. The IRS warns taxpayers not to respond if they receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be the IRS or directing them to an IRS recipient that he or she has a Web site. In fact, such e-mails pending tax refund. The other is s h o u l d b e f o r w a r d e d t o a bogus letter warning about p h i s h i n g @ i r s . g o v f o r f r a u d u l e n t a c t i v i t y i n t h e investigation. If you’ve been r e c i p i e n t ’ s b a n k s a c c o u n t . victimized, you also should file a The agency also provides an complaint with the federal example of how to tell if a Web government's Internet Crime site is really the IRS or a phony Complaint Center.—Anthony look-alike. Giorgianni Subscribe now! By responding to these e-mails S u b s c r i b e t o or clicking on Web links inside ConsumerReports.org for expert them, you could be providing Ratings, buying advice and personal information that could r e l i a b i l i t y o n h u n d r e d s o f be used to steal your identity. products. Update your feed C o n s u m e r R e p o r t s M o n e y preferences Adviser offers additional information on protecting your

Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:04:00 AM

It's the most wonderful time of the year! The highly-anticipated Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue hits newsstands in one week, and we've got an exclusive sneak peek behind the scenes at some

Toys 'R' Us wants your broken baby products By Consumer Reports on Safety (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 2/3/2010 4:59:59 AM

Toys 'R' Us wants your broken baby products The last time Toys 'R' Us sponsored a trade-in of unsafe baby products, it ended up with a warehouse full of broken buggies, crippled cribs and busted bassinets. Now the retailer is ready to fill up another one. The chain's " Great Trade-in" is in full swing at stores across the nation. From now until February 20 they are accepting trade-ins of used cribs, car seats, bassinets, strollers, travel systems, play yards, high chairs and toddler beds. And what do consumers get in exchange? A 25 percent discount on the purchase of new baby items from participating manufacturers. Granted it's a good way to get customers in the door but it's also a good way to get damaged and unsafe products out of homes and off the secondhand market. of the amazing fashions – and In celebration of the big issue, During the store's first event in bodies! Club SI Swimsuit at Vanity September, it got many items SI swimsuit models Bar Refaeli, Nightclub in the Hard Rock that were decades old and Brooklyn Decker, Christine Hotel & Casino Las Vegas will definitely not compliant with Teigen and Dominique Piek make a splash on February 11, today's stricter product safety h e a t e d u p t h e p i c t u r e s q u e with Maroon 5 performing! Maldives for the shoot, just one of the exotic locations for this year's issue.

Countdown to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue! (ETonline - Breaking News)

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standards. The Consumer Product Safety Commission advises against buying used children's products that have a history of safety issues such as some cribs, play yards and bassinets. Hand-medown car seats are also problematic and may not offer the protection that parents expect. Even if you don't plan to trade in your baby products, it's a good time to check them for wear and tear and to double check the CPSC's recall database. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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Q&A: I've had shingles—should I still get the vaccine?

Remains of the Day: Conquer Your Email Inbox with the Trusted Trio, Video Edition [For What It's Worth]

By rss@consumerreports.org (Consumer Reports)

By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)

Trapani offers a video introduction to her trusted trio guide to emptying your inbox, Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:29:59 AM Chrome's browser share gets complete with fancy animations. Q&A: I've had shingles—should goosed in January, our own Gina [Fast Company] I still get the vaccine? Trapani offers some video advice • SublimeVideo HTML5 Video I’m 77 and recently had for conquering your email inbox, Player This very cool, free shingles. Should I still get the and I find a workaround for my HTML5 video player offers a vaccine? — J.V., New York City b i g g e s t S n o w L e o p a r d view of how easy it could be for It’s not a bad idea. The vaccine to prevent or lessen a repeat case. a n n o y a n c e . anyone to use HTML5 video reduces not only the risk of Make sure the rash is completely • Browser Version Market Share before too long—provided their getting shingles—a painful, gone before getting the shot, and S h o w s C h r o m e G r o w t h b r o w s e r ' s s u p p o r t e d . blistering rash caused by the tell the doctor providing it that A c c o r d i n g t o o n e i n t e r n e t [ S u b l i m e V i d e o ] reactivation of the virus that you recently had shingles. tracking company, Chrome use • Twitter forcing some users to causes chicken pox—but the See our safety information on grew significantly in January, up change password. Reported severity of the illness if you do the shingles vaccine, and take a to 5.2% of the web browser threat of phishing attacks. If you get it. That’s an important look at the tests and vaccinations market share. Meanwhile, both get an email from Twitter that benefit, since shingles can cause you need and the ones you can Firefox and Internet Explorer *looks* like a phishing email, nerve pain that lasts for months skip. Subscribe now! u s a g e s h r u n k a b i t . asking you to change your S u b s c r i b e t o [NetMarketShare via Mashable] password, you might want to or even years, and in rare cases can lead to vision or hearing ConsumerReports.org for expert • HipHop for PHP: Move Fast head to your Twitter account and loss, infections, and pneumonia. Ratings, buying advice and Facebook releases its own PHP do it. [The Next Web] While getting shingles twice r e l i a b i l i t y o n h u n d r e d s o f transformer tool that makes the • Workaround for Spaces isn’t common, it does occur, so it products. Update your feed popular web scripting language Problem in Snow Leopard This makes sense to do what you can preferences e x t r e m e l y f a s t — h e l p i n g editor has encountered an Facebook serve over 400 billion e x t r e m e l y a n n o y i n g a n d pages a month. [Facebook frustrating problem in Snow Developers Blog] Leopard in which Spaces • Work Smart: Conquering Your occasionally locks my keyboard Email Inbox Our own Gina and the Spaces screen-changer Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:00:00 PM

won't dismiss. The best previous workaround I'd come up with was putting my computer to sleep and waking it back up. Turns out there's a less annoying workaround, and here it is. (Note: It's still a very frustrating problem, but this workaround takes a lot of the annoyance out of it.) [Apple Support] • Send SMS to multiple recipients We'd already noticed, but the Google Voice Blog confirms that you can now send SMS to multiple recipients—adding that the max is currently set at five. [Google Voice Blog] • Important Reminder Regarding Expiration of the Windows 7 RC If you couldn't be bothered to upgrade and you're still using the Windows 7 RC, don't forget! Windows 7 RC expires on February 15th. [Windows 7 Team Blog]

'Dawson's Creek''s James Van Der Beek Scrubs Into 'Mercy' (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:03:00 AM

James Van Der Beek returns to series TV tonight for a story arc

on NBC's hospital drama, "Mercy" -- and his character -Dr. Joe Briggs -- is no Dawson! "With this, they were offering me the opportunity to play a

brilliant, arrogant, cocky doctor on a show that is already on the air and already working," James tells ET. "It was an opportunity to say some great dialogue and a

character that I have never played before. I go to work with a great smile on my face everyday." In addition to being arrogant and

cocky, Dr. Briggs also has a way with the ladies.

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Yahoo! Files for Patent on Geo-Located, Social, Augmented Reality (Update) By Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:50:20 PM

You're walking down the street. Your phone buzzes, a map or a screen overlay pops up and you're shown a note left in that location by one of your friends along with an ad for your favorite pizza. Walk into the pizza place and your phone buzzes again - your friends have something to say about the guy behind the counter. That might have sounded far-fetched a few years ago, but it doesn't so much anymore, does it? 18 months ago Yahoo! filed a sophisticated patent on VIRTUAL NOTES IN A REALITY OVERLAY and that patent was published last week. Check out the patent sketches below. Sponsor The technology envisioned by the team of senior researchers who filed the application is reminiscent of now-available apps like Loopt, BlockChalk, Junaio and others. The whole vision of location, social and advertising features put together, however, may be quite unique. The patent also goes beyond location to include notes tied to

mobile objects like cars and people. Update: This report at first mistakenly claimed that the patent in question had been granted. In fact it has merely been filed and published. The US Patent Office customarily publishes patents 18 months after they have been filed, then evaluates them as soon as it is able to afterwords. (Usually not very soon.) Given the pace of web technology these days, that process sounds absurd, but I apologize for reporting on it incorrectly anyway. Yahoo's patent was filed in July of 2008, published after the customary 18 months last Thursday and first blogged about by upstart tech news site GoRumors this morning. The same team of inventors had another related patent application published at the end of last year on an augmented reality device that would discover audio, video and other information that's pertinent to a user's physical surroundings and display that information on a screen overlay. The technology described in this latest patent isn't just locationbased social networking, or Augmented Reality "air tagging" - it includes social graph

might do with its inevitably forthcoming location services. Will anything come of this patent? It's hard to say, since it's a n a l y s i s , p e r m i s s i o n i n g , Yahoo, where genius flowers but expiration dates, contextual then too often gets left out in the advertising and more. It's not cold to die. Just two months just text notes, it includes before this innovative patent was methods of augmented reality filed, were were heralding with photos, videos and more. Yahoo's brand new Location While the most popular mobile Database API as a would-be augmented reality apps on the fountain of location-aware apps. market today focus on text on Almost two years later, though top of locations - there's no geo is hotter than ever, it seems reason why reality can't be that nothing much has come of augmented in other ways as well. that effort. (Please, correct me if There's no indication that the I'm wrong about that.) Six technology exists yet outside of months ago we ran an article the patent application and titled Yahoo! Launches Major sketches below, but if Yahoo! Challenge to Facebook Connect. could put together such an That doesn't seem like such a hot integrated vision of location- topic anymore, either. We asked based features then it would have Y a h o o ! f o r c o m m e n t t h i s a very interesting service on its morning about this latest patent hands. and haven't been put in touch This vision puts emphasis on with anyone yet. limited visibility of public notes None the less, these are some based on the social connections very interesting ideas. Someone of people doing the reading and is sure to build something like writing, on the use of the tool for this very soon. Maybe it will be communication between people Yahoo. more than for public graffiti, on Watch this space for notes tied to entities and not just ReadWriteWeb's next public to places and on advertising event and future research reports b a s e d o n a r e a d e r ' s p a s t on Augmented Reality and expressed interests. That sounds geolocation. Discuss like the kind of thing Facebook

Review: 'White Collar' - 'Vital Signs' By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/3/2010 2:15:00 AM

(S01E10) "Please tell me there's surveillance video of this!" Elizabeth, to Peter, about his flirting After watching the headscratching two-hour season premiere of'Lost,' it's a relief to watch a show like'White Collar.' Not that this show is twodimensional, it's just that it's like a palate cleanser to watch a show that doesn't involve time travel, smoke monsters, alternate realities, and healing water pools. Sure, this episode had organ harvesting and fake kidney removal scams, but it was easy to follow. Continue reading Review: 'White Collar' - 'Vital Signs' Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Some Pros and Cons of a Google Tablet with a Chrome OS By Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb)

year, it does face some challenges. First off, Windows Mobile 7 will most likely be Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:45:09 PM unveiled before Google launches The Chrome OS is a bit different t h e C h r o m e O S , g i v i n g than most operating systems. Microsoft a head start in the Scheduled to be unveiled late market. The iPad OS is more this year, the Chrome OS is m a t u r e . A p p l e h a s m o r e entirely cloud-based. experience with UX It's still speculative to say if development in this regard. Google is really working on a Speed tablet computer. But let's assume In the tech press, we get caught for a minute that Google is up with issues such as openness. developing such a device with a Do customers really care that Chrome OS. much? We think they prefer open Sponsor systems because of the options I guess that's not too hard to do that come with. considering this concept video What they really want, though, Google created. is speed. A goal for Google with The Chrome OS opens some the Chrome OS is to make it interesting opportunities for very fast. But the iPad is Google. A cloud-based operating lightning quick. By developing system would make a tablet its own processor for the iPad, unique compared to the iPad. No Apple is realizing a customer data would be stored on the desire. Would a Google Tablet device at all. A lost tablet would with a Chrome OS be as fast as n o t m e a n l o s t d a t a . T h e the iPad? Security information would be retrieved The Chrome OS is a browsersimply by going online. based operating system which But the absence of actual data inherently raises issues about its on a device is also an inherent security. Browsers are widely weakness. There are some things acknowledged as prime targets you always want to have on your for malware. Remember, Google device. For instance, client-based suffered a cyber attack through software. You can't do that with an employee's compromised an operating system that's all in browser (Internet Explorer). the cloud. But are the criticisms founded? Further, since the Chrome OS is The Chrome OS is an open not coming out until late next environment. It's not an air-tight

an attack. Compare it with an alternative approach: 'Look, in our bank there is a vault with so much gold in it. The system is secure.' After the robbery: 'The system is secure.' After another one: 'Ok, we fixed it, the system is secure', and so on." vault. Google knows it has bugs. It is smart. But that is what we So, they have gone out to the expect from Google. A smart community, like good developers approach. Here's Google's take do, and challenged people to find on how it approaches the security the flaws. We like what Threat issue with Chrome OS: Expert has to say about the Conclusion matter:"By openly discussing the A Chrome OS makes sense on a s e c u r i t y c h a l l e n g e s a n d device like a tablet computer. s u g g e s t e d a p p r o a c h e s t o Google's focus is on cloud circumvent them the Chrome computing. Perhaps the most valid criticism is Google's broad guys talk to us this way: 'Look, in our bank there is a approach and lack of experience vault with so much gold in it. in the hardware market. The system is secure, but we're Google is learning and they not sure about that air con duct - have some clear advantages. The we think it's a weak point and the iPad does not support multiintruders may potentially crawl tasking. The Chrome OS makes it easy to manage multiple through it.' Given the source code is open, applications. Lacking features the potential intruders will get means Apple won't dominate access to the internal scheme with the iPad. But the Chrome immediately. But the moment OS is a first-time operating they start studying it, the highly system that is unprecedented in qualified white-hat professionals its approach. will start doing that as well. The That's not always a recipe for idea is that any bugs, flaws or market domination. Discuss weaknesses will be revealed and fixed instantly, without leaving the intruders any chance to plan

Review: 'NCIS' 'Masquerade' By Allison Waldman (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/3/2010 2:00:00 AM

(S07E14) As the title suggests, what we witnessed going on for much of this episode was not reality, but a 'Masquerade.' If you pay attention to titles, you can have an edge figuring out what's what. Meanwhile, beyond the action, there was more character interaction as'NCIS' continues to weave a few mystery threads, including M. Allison Hart's fascination with Mr. Gibbs. Continue reading Review: 'NCIS' - 'Masquerade' Filed under: OpEd, NCIS, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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list.it: Post-It Notes for the Twitter Generation By Mike Melanson (ReadWriteWeb)

as a sort of frame on your browser that you can hide or show with a hotkey. Even it's Submitted at 2/2/2010 6:05:00 PM design is perfectly simple, with a While furiously trying to text entry box at the top, a search organize my digital life this past bar in the middle and the weekend, I found myself as I individual list items below. Big often do - with an obscene Features for a Little App List.it number of tabs open at the same does all everything I want it to time while hopping from thought do and nothing more. to thought. It was in the middle There are just four hotkeys to of this confusing mess that I remember: One opens and closes came across list.it, the self- the frame, one searches through described "simple, free, open- your notes, one pops up a quick source note-keeping tool to help entry bar at the bottom of your you manage the tons of little browser and one adds the current information bits you need to URL. keep track of each day." The list items are kept in little Put out by the Computer boxes, which can be rearranged S c i e n c e a n d A r t i f i c i a l simply by clicking and dragging. Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, A click on the main area of a the browser extention is a "tool note opens it for editing and t o h e l p p e o p l e c o p e w i t h directly clicking on a URL will information overload and to stay open that website in a new tab. A organized" that has since helped click on the "x" deletes the item. me keep track of the common I n f o r m a t i o n f o r a T w i t t e r threads of an often multi- Generation Now, this isn't the threaded day. type of app where you're going Sponsor to keep large chunks of text, so What It Is The best part of list.it the search can serve a slightly is its simplicity. It doesn't do different purpose. For techies much more than keep a list but it like us, members of the Twitter does that very well. List.it exists generation, the idea of hashtags

has become common sense. They work as a great way to keep your information organized, as whenever you do a search, you can click the "+" next to the search box to save that search. Instead of working in a directory structure, you create the structure on the fly. This might be one of our favorite parts of this little app. While we can use the browser's bookmarks or services like del.icio.us, we don't have to spend time keeping our list organized in the same way. There's no complicated and powerful bookmark organizer. List.it is for parceling off your information into little bites, manipulating them and working with them along the way. As long as you tag your notes along the way, these saved searches act as filters. If that hashtag appears anywhere in the note's text, it

will be displayed when you click on that search button, which is kept just below the search bar. List.it also allows for synchronization between different browsers by saving your list on a central server, that way you can take your list with you on your netbook or your iPhone. One caveat - we ran into some difficulty while trying to create a user name and password. After installing list.it, there will be an orange triangle next to the text entry box at the top. Clicking on that will bring you to the proper location. Aside from that, we've had no other problems, which is always nice to see with an open-source, always in development type of app. We'd recommend going and taking a look at the extension for yourself. It's available for Firefox version 3.0 or greater and for iPhone and Android. The video included below gives a quick preview off the extension, but we think using it will really prove it's usefulness. Discuss

Report: Doc to be Charged for Michael Jackson's Manslaughter Today [Breaking] By Maureen O'Connor (Gawker) Submitted at 2/3/2010 4:45:44 AM

"It's now just a matter of timing" before Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's infamous doctor and alleged pill-pusher, is charged with involuntary manslaughter, reports TMZ. The crime is a felony and carries a maximum prison sentence of four years. Dr. Murray is reportedly planning to surrender himself to Los Angeles authorities today. [ TMZ]

'The Doctor''s Surprise for 'Biggest Loser' Winner Danny Cahill (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:01:00 AM

This week, "The Doctors" have a big surprise for "The Biggest

Loser" Season 8 winner Danny Cahill. After Danny lost the most weight ever (going from 430 pounds to 191 pounds) on "The

Biggest Loser" and won top honors on the show, he was left with a lot of excess skin. "The Doctors" say this happens to a lot of people who lose a great deal

of weight, and they surprise Danny with a solution! Watch our video for a sneak peek, and then tune in to "The Doctors" on Friday, February 5

for the full episode.

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Mobile App or Browser-Based Site? Report Says The Browser Will Win on Mobile By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb)

report, 19% of the mobile sites measured were Shopping & Services sites; compared to 3.6% Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:00:21 PM in the same category in the Mobile search company Taptu App Store. Content in the 'Social' has released a detailed report category also has a higher chance showing that the future of the of being a browser-based mobile Mobile Web is likely to be site, rather than an app (12.9% to dominated by cross-platform 1.7%). browser-based mobile web sites - Conversely, just 0.8% of mobile rather than apps built specifically sites were gaming, compared to for iPhone, Android, or any other 18% of apps in the App Store. platform. Taptu calls the former There is a similar discrepency in "the Mobile Touch Web," which the 'Entertainment' category. it defines as "Web sites created It seems then that commerce for mobile touchscreen devices, s e r v i c e s a r e t a k i n g m o r e with finger-friendly layouts and a d v a n t a g e o f m o b i l e w e b lightweight pages that are fast to browsers than gaming and load over cellular networks." entertainment providers. But Taptu estimates that there are why? Taptu says it's because 326,000 Mobile Touch Web sites "many [Commerce] products and worldwide, which they say services do not really fit into compares to 148,000 iPhone Apple's iTunes content-oriented apps in the App Store and 24,000 billing system." Meanwhile, apps in the Android market. g a m i n g a n d e n t e r t a i n m e n t Taptu expects the browser-based content is better delivered as an mobile web market to grow app, says Taptu, "since apps much faster than the app market. deliver a much richer, more Sponsor interactive gaming experience What kinds of sites are more than the casual games available likely to be browser-based for on the Mobile Web." mobile phones? According to the Taptu says that the increasing

similar devices. However it claims that for "many other types of app, the economics of software development and publishing favours the Web development route." Taptu predicts that "the Mobile Touch Web will grow vigorously over the next five years, and will s o p h i s t i c a t i o n o f m o b i l e approach the quality of user browsers is one reason why experience of Mobile Touch browser-based mobile sites will A p p s a c r o s s a l l t h e a p p flourish. In particular, it points to categories except for games." increasing support for HTML 5. We should note that Taptu is See our analysis of Web vs. mostly a browser-based service, Native Mobile Apps if you'd like although it does offer apps for iPhone and other platforms too. to know more about this. According to Taptu, "it's getting But it obviously has a big stake easier and easier to create rich i n t h e s u c c e s s o f t h e touch screen user experiences "touchscreen mobile web." with the browser without having What do you think, do you agree to create platform-specific apps." that the future of Mobile Web Taptu also points to increasing development will lie in browserusage of open standard APIs, based mobile sites? Or do you enabling Mobile Web developers think the pull of advanced t o a c c e s s " d e e p e r d e v i c e functionality as an app (on functions such as geolocation." platforms such as iPhone and Taptu does concede that gaming Android) will draw most types of content will probably continue to content and services over time? be delivered predominantly as Discuss download apps on iPhone and

Man Dresses as US Marshal, Deports Woman [Why] By Ravi Somaiya (Gawker) Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:20:19 AM

People are odd. Greg Raymond Denny Jr had only met his distant cousin Cherriebelle Hibbard a few times. Then one day he decided to dress as a US Marshal, burst into her Southern California home and force her to move back to the Philippines at gunpoint. "No motive was released." [ AP]

SlideShare Launches Custom Channels for Businesses By Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 2/3/2010 6:00:00 AM

SLIDESHARE page 44

Geox Seeks Inspiration from the Empire State Building By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:06:47 PM

Italian shoe brand Geox set out to make a grand statement in

honor of their presence in silver-and-black animal print, sole technology, ideal for a night American fashion by creating a and purple-and-blue sequins—all out in the city that never sleeps. heel as iconic as its influence, fixed with a five-inch Empire —Laura Stoloff New York City’s Empire State State Building shaped heel Follow ELLE on Twitter. Building. The limited-edition appliquéd with rhinestones. The Become our Facebook fan! c o l l e c t i o n i n c l u d e s t h r e e versions—black patent leather, shoe features Geox’s breathable

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SLIDESHARE continued from page 43

SlideShare just announced that it now offers businesses the ability to create their own custom channels on the popular document sharing service. These channels allow businesses and enterprises to share their presentations, e-books and whitepapers with a wider audience. Microsoft, Ogilvy, Adobe and Razorfish Marketing are among today's launch partners. The White House also now uses a SlideShare channel to share over 1,000 documents with the public. In addition, you can also find a our own custom ReadWriteWeb channel here. Sponsor According to SlideShare's CEO and co-founder Rashmi Sinha, SlideShare current gets over 25 million unique visitors per month.

For now, SlideShare is only offering these new channels to larger businesses. This is clearly part of SlideShare's monetization strategy and fits in well with SlideShare's other businessoriented products like AdShare and LeadShare, both of which are part of SlideShare's strategy to position itself as a site where professionals can share their content and connect with potential customers. According to Sinha, these custom channels - which include all of the standard social networking features of SlideShare - will allow businesses to create communities around their content and help these companies to engage their customers. Besides sharing slides, these companies will also be able to aggregate content from

their blogs or their Twitter feeds on their SlideShare pages. In addition to offering branded channels with company logos and a custom look and feel, SlideShare now also offers enterprises the ability to sponsor topical channels. Sadly, though, it doesn't look like the company plans to give regular users the ability to create and curate their own channels anytime soon. Being able to curate topical channels would be a nice feature, but for now, if you want to do this, you will have to resort to embedding SlideShare files on your own site. Discuss

Vince Carter Ends Worst Slump of Career By Tim Povtak (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:00:00 PM

Filed under: Bucks, Cavaliers, Magic ORLANDO, Fla. -- This wasn't exactly the Vince Carter of old, but it sure was better than the Vince Carter of late. The Orlando Magic feel a little better now about the chances of defending their Eastern Conference title and staying within sight of the Cleveland Cavaliers during the second half of this season. The worst slump of Carter's career has been pronounced over -- at least for now. "I can still do everything I used to do,'' Carter said confidently

after getting 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in a 99-82 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday. "It might be that January just wasn't my month.''

Another Great Reminder Not to Use the Same Password Everywhere [Passwords] By Adam Pash (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:50:00 PM

Earlier today, several Twitter users received emails from Twitter prompting them to change their passwords because of suspicious activity that appeared to have resulted from phishing. Turns out it was something different from a traditional phishing scam

altogether, and it involved BitTorrent. From the Twitter Status blog: It appears that for a number of years, a person has been creating torrent sites that require a login and password as well as creating forums set up for torrent site usage and then selling these purportedly well-crafted sites and forums to other people innocently looking to start a

download site of their very own. However, these sites came with a little extra - security exploits and backdoors throughout the system. This person then waited for the forums and sites to get popular and then used those exploits to get access to the username, email address, and password of every person who had signed up. Additional exploits to gain admin root on

forums that weren't created by this person also appear to have been utilized; in some instances, the exploit involved redirecting attempts to access the forums to another site that would request log-in information. This information was then used to attempt to gain access to third party sites like Twitter. Yet again a good reminder to choose strong (and different)

passwords for each siteâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and if you have a hard time remembering all of them, stick to a secure password management solution. Reason #4132 for C h a n g i n g Y o u r Password[Twitter Status Blog via TechCrunch]

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Low-Carb Meals After Exercise Store Energy, Maintain Health [Fitness]

iPad Prognostications: What Apple Fans Want in a Web Tablet

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

By Michael Wolf (TheAppleBlog)

Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:30:00 AM

other factors are important. If you are interested in seeing some of the slides from the A few weeks back, we asked s u r v e y , h e a d o n o v e r t o A p p l e f a n s h e r e a t GigaOM. If you’d like access to TheAppleBlog what you wanted the full report, head over to in a web tablet. To round things GigaOM Pro and subscribe today out a bit, we also queried the to our all-you-can eat research mobile gadget enthusiasts what service for one year at just $79. m a t t e r e d t o t h e m o v e r a t Note: Those of you who took jkOnTheRun. the survey should have been Today we published the results emailed the survey with the of our technology enthusiast executive summary, as promised, survey, and no doubt about it, in the original survey post. most had strong opinions about TheAppleBlog would also like to what made a good web tablet. congratulate William Thomas While there is no doubt for many and Sean Roycroft, winners of of you that you’ll own an iPad the $50 Amazon gift cards. someday, many see the price of a web tablet, the recurring cost of mobile broadband as well as Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:04:21 PM

You don't need overpriced "recovery" products after exercise, but eating a low-carb meal can have real benefits for your next workout, and for your general health and metabolism. It all has to do with tissue storage and insulin reception. Photo by SuziJane. After a round of aerobic (active movement) exercise, eating a lower-carb meal helps the body store sugar from your bloodstream in muscles and other tissues, making more energy available for your life, and your next exercise, if you're fairly regular about it. The side benefit is a generally improved metabolism, and a means of helping avoid insulin insensitivity, a pre-condition that often lead to diabetes. As part of a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers fed one of three meals to test subjects after 90 minutes of exercise on a treadmill or stationary bike. One was relatively balanced between carbohydrates, protein, and fat, and had a moderate amount of

calories. One was otherwise balanced, but scaled back on the carbs. A final meal was lowercalorie, but had a higher amount of carbs. The results: In all three exercise sessions, researchers say there was a trend for an increase in insulin sensitivity. But when the participants ate the lowcarbohydrate meal following exercise, it increased their insulin sensitivity even more. Researchers say the results show

that people can reap important health benefits from exercise without starving themselves after exercise or losing weight. While you're plotting your perfect low-carb, post-workout meal, be sure to replenish your fluids as well. Tell us what makes for a great meal after a hard workout in the comments. What You Eat After Working Out Matters[WebMD via The Food Times]

Obama v. YouTube (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/3/2010 12:43:00 AM

For the first time in recent history, everyday Americans were able to ask questions of the President following his State of the Union Address. More than 55,000 people submitted inquiries for the President using video or text on YouTube’s Moderator platform. From the 11,696 unique questions that

emerged, News and Politics head Steve Grove sat down and grilled the President on a handful of them as part of Obama’s first exclusive interview after his annual address. The result was the fascinating conversation above. (via CitizenTube) More on Obama and YouTube. Permalink| Leave a comment »

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TouchMouse Controls Your Computer's Mouse and Keyboard via iPhone or iPod touch [Downloads] By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/2/2010 5:00:00 PM

iPhone/iPod touch: TouchMouse is a free application for the iPhone/iPod touch that, when paired with its accompanying control software on your Mac or Windows computer, turns your touchscreen into a mouse and keyboard. Once you download the software to your iPhone or iPod touch and pair it with the server softwareâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Logitech has versions of the TouchMouse Server software available for Windows XP, Vista, and 7 as well as Mac

OS Xâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;you'll be able to use your device as a mouse for controlling your computer. The interface allows you to click the mouse buttons, move the cursor via the

touch screen, and pull up a small keyboard to enter text on the computer. While such an arrangement isn't a practical replacement for a fullout wireless keyboard, it is a great tool for presentations or for pairing with one of the awesome media centers we've highlighted. If you have another app for turning your iPod touch or iPhone into a remote or clever things to do with them once you have them set up as remotes, let's hear about it in the comments. TouchMouse[iTunes App Store via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Sarah Palin Facebook Rant on Global Warming Imminent [Not Again] By Ravi Somaiya (Gawker) Submitted at 2/3/2010 7:41:00 AM

Oh good. There are more controversial climate change emails for global warming deniers to salivate over. An investigation by the Guardian revealed that the scientist who tried to cover up contrary data before has other holes in his work. [ Guardian]

Review: 'The Biggest Loser' - 'Week Five' By Jason Hughes (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:00:00 AM

(S09E05) This was the week the Blue and Yellow teams have been waiting for. After four weeks at home, working out without their trainers, both teams were back on campus to see which would be allowed the chance to return to the show. It came down to which pair had the highest percentage of weight loss.

But before they got on the scales, Bob and Jillian treated them to their first -- and for one of them, their last -- "Last Chance Workout." I couldn't help but feel for the team that was going to be heading home again. Twice they'd come to the Ranch to participate in'The Biggest Loser,' and twice they'd come up short. At least they still had the chance at that "At Home" prize. This week also saw Alison

handing out immunities like they were going out of style, as well as a two-pound penalty to the

team to finish the week's challenge last. I'm a huge proponent of this element being added, as it keeps the incentive on the contestants to give it their all until the finish. Continue reading Review: 'The Biggest Loser' - 'Week Five' Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser, Episode Reviews Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Tecmo Koei lowers profit forecast after Q3 losses By JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 2/3/2010 6:00:00 AM

Tecmo Koei has announced that it's lowering its annual operating profit forecast (essentially its guess for how much profit it will bring in before taxes) by a painful 95%. In addition, stock fell 9.5% to 630 yen ($7). This comes after the announcement of disappointing third-quarter losses(PDF link) totaling 1.842 billion yen ($20.4 million), and after the announcement that two highprofile games, Quantum Theory and Trinity: Zill O'll Zero, have been delayed, thus eliminating whatever they would have contributed to the current fiscal year. Now it's all up to Dead or Alive: Paradise and the Western releases of Monster Rancher DS and Again. Source[PDF] Tecmo Koei lowers profit forecast after Q3 losses originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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The Smart Mac: iTunes, iPhoto & Aperture By Chris Ryan (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:30:05 AM

The last stop in our series of better file management through ideas based on smart folders brings us to iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture. All of these apps provide support for organizing your files similar to Address Book and Mail. The beauty of “smart” file management, of course, is once you have defined the frameworks for the album, folder or playlist, new content will automatically fall in place if it meets your rules. iTunes The first time you noticed a smart “anything with a purple icon” was probably in iTunes. Besides OS X, iTunes is the only piece of software to ship with several built-in smart items. You’ve seen them before, specifically the 90’s Music, Classical Music and Recently Played playlists, to name a few. If you’ve read our previous articles, you know how those work now (and can just right click them to edit their criteria). But when it comes to iTunes, one thing that invariably also comes to mind is an iPod. If you have at least one iPod, chances are you probably have several iPods. As such, you can set each iPod to sync specific music, playlists or even smart playlists. But since oftentimes our music libraries are larger than the capacity of our iPods, Apple has built in a few unique twists in

smart playlist support for iTunes to “shuffle things up.” Here’s a few ideas to get some unique use out of them. (Keep in mind, you can sync multiple playlists, allowing you to mix and match some of these unique smart playlists with your own favorite content.) Random Tunes If you have a small iPod, such as an iPod shuffle, you might try a smart playlist that just pulls a random sampling of your music. Music I Never Listen To As Apple (perhaps secretly?) wants iTunes to become the Google of your media collection, it has built in tracking of how often you listen to your content. You could create a playlist that showed you all items with a play count of less than 1 for a jam list of music you’ve never heard. My Top 10 If you are one to tag your songs with star ratings, you could create a playlist of your all time 10 best tunes, based on rating and frequency of play. iPhoto The iPhoto equivalent is, as you might have guessed, called Smart Albums. Similar to iTunes, iPhoto provides support for specialized criteria for searching, including criteria based on camera settings and support for Faces and Places. Here’s some ideas for unique iPhoto smart albums. Group Shot Keeping track of family photos is easy with faces. If you want to easily see all the photos from your own family, create a smart

album that shows pictures based on the faces of any of your family members. (Make sure to set this one to “match any” instead of “match all.”) European Vacation In addition to tagging your photos by location (or GPS, if your camera is equipped), you could create a smart album that automatically grouped any photos taken in the countries you visited. Those Pesky Movies Newer cameras support the ability to record film, and for lack of a better place to store them, iPhoto imports them right along with your photos. But they’re all mixed up in albums and there’s no simple way to pick them apart. Just create a smart album that looks for the usual video extensions in any text. This should find them by their filename and let you view them all in one place. Holiday Photos If you have lots of family and friends who all love to take and

share photos, you could create a smart album based on the date photos were taken. For instance, all photos that are in the range of December 20 through December 28 are likely my holiday photos. As more people send you their photos from the event, provided their camera tagged them with the correct date, they will automatically populate the album. Aperture Apple’s high-end photo management application also takes advantage of smart file management. Similar to iPhoto, you can use criteria based on EXIF metadata (aperture, ISO, shutter speed, etc.). Despite the fact that Aperture doesn’t support Faces and Places like iPhoto, there are a number of additional options that can make photo management even easier. A word of caution with Aperture, however. When creating a smart album, Aperture will only search the root level of the location where you store the album. For instance, if I’m

viewing my entire library and create one there, it’ll search all photos. If I am in a particular project, however, the smart album will only search photos within that project. As usual, remember that deleting a photo in your library will also delete it from the smart album. You’re just “reorganizing” the same content with smart albums and not actually making a duplicate. (This applies to all smart items: folders, albums, playlists, etc.) Missing Captions & Credit Aperture provides extensive support for IPTC data (the metadata you add to your photos after the camera is done with them). You can use this to create albums that show which of your photos are missing captions or copyright information, should you wish to make sure all of your photos are properly tagged. Need the Ratings If you’re a photographer who loves to use Apple’s star system to rate your photos, consider a smart album that is based on showing you photos without a rating. It’s a quick and easy way to find any of those photos that slip through the cracks. Apple’s own apps are certainly not the only to take advantage of “smart” organization. 1Password and NewsFire are just two examples of a growing breed of third-party applications that really harness the power of OS SMART page 48

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Are Most Looking at the iPad With the Wrong Perspective?

SMART continued from page 47

X’s database infrastructure to deliver content organized on the fly by your rules. If you’ve By Alfredo Padilla when dismissing the iPad as a also clear that, like Apple, they found interesting uses of smart (TheAppleBlog) computing platform. After all, see this transition not as a step playlists in iTunes or Smart the iPod touch is certainly an down to a more limited platform, Albums in Aperture or iPhoto, Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:56:15 AM impressive device, but no one but as a lateral step to a platform share them with us below. In a blog post on Friday, The expects it to replace even a that offers opportunities you Omni Group, a major developer netbook, no matter how big the can’t get on a desktop or phone of productivity applications for screen is. Even Leo Laporte, device. the Mac, announced that it will usually known as an Apple It may be that our perspective of be bringing five of its most evangelist, declared himself the iPhone OS is simply off. popular applications to the iPad somewhat confused by Apple’s Many consider it to be nothing platform, namely: OmniGraffle, d e m o n s t r a t i o n o f i W o r k , more than a cell phone operating OmniOutliner, OmniPlan, indicating that perhaps it system, so they look at the iPad O m n i F o c u s a n d oversold the device’s and wonder how capable a larger OmniGraphSketcher. According c a p a b i l i t i e s . d e v i c e r u n n i n g a p h o n e ’ s By Kevin Collins (Flickr Blog) to its announcement, The Omni The Omni Group’s excitement operating system can be. The Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:41:38 AM Group is making a major shift in about bringing its applications to reality, however, may be that own right. Message from fivefilters.org: If its development cycles because it the platform, however, is just the One problem may be in how Apple sees the iPhone or the you can, please donate to the full sees the iPad as “the best latest indication that some iPod touch as a small iPad, and many pundits view iPad computing device for most of the d i s a g r e e with t h i s applications right now. Despite that what we know of as the -text RSS service so we can continue developing it.• About things people use computers c h a r a c t e r i z a t i o n . F o r Apple showing us just what was “iPhone OS” was actually meant for.” example Joe Hewitt, the former c a p a b l e w i t h i W o r k , m o s t to provide the foundation for a Flickr Flickr is a revolution in photo This news certainly makes one developer of Facebook for the pundits are still focused on the much more capable computing s t o r a g e , s h a r i n g a n d think about the placement of the iPhone, wrote a long blog piece fact that the iPad can run iPhone device from the very beginning. organization, making photo iPad in the computing world. In discussing how much more applications. They are thus Related GigaOM Pro Research: management an easy, natural and t h e f e w d a y s s i n c e t h e capable the iPhone OS is than distracted by the idea of scaling • Web Tablet Survey: Apple’s c o l l a b o r a t i v e p r o c e s s . G e t a n n o u n c e m e n t , m a n y h a v e people think, and that it only phone applications up to a larger iPad Hits Right Notes comments, notes, and tags on panned the device, focusing on lacked a larger display to really device. Developers like The • 5 T i p s f o r D e v e l o p e r s your photos, post to any blog, things like the lack of multi- come into its own. Apple has T a r g e t i n g t h e i P a d Omni Group and Joe Hewitt, share and more! tasking and a built-in keyboard also made itself clear about the however, make it clear that they • How AT&T Will Deal with Five Filters featured article: when arguing that it could not capabilities of the iPad with its are thinking about things from iPad Data Traffic Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: replace a computer for most d e m o n s t r a t i o n s o f i W o r k the opposite direction, scaling PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, people. The refrain “It’s just a applications that are not stripped desktop-class applications and Term Extraction. big iPhone or iPod touch,” has down versions but fully capable websites down to the iPad. It’s been heard over and over again desktop-class programs in their

Video Upload Issue on Flickr

Street Chic: New York By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 2/3/2010 4:00:00 AM

Basics get a boost from studded leather booties. . Photo: Kelly Stuart

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mail us your photo and you could appear in ELLE.com's Street Chic Daily. Follow ELLE on Twitter.

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Rumor Has It: The iPad Camera By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 2/2/2010 7:59:12 AM

If you are already struggling with the decision of whether or not to go ahead and buy a first generation iPad model, then a new rumor that has sprung up regarding the device might help you make up your mind. The rumor has me leaning strongly towards a “Do Not Buy” state of mind, for the very same reason that I didn’t pick up the last revision of the iPod touch. That reason being, it seems Apple may be holding back some important features to make the next iteration of the device seem more attractive. And now there’s some evidence to back up that assumption, so I’m not just acting out of early adopter paranoia. iPad Camera The lack of a camera was one of the biggest complaints many iPad naysayers had following the reveal of Apple’s exciting new creation. That’s what makes it so painful that Mission Repair, a licensed Apple repair partner, noted when it received a shipment of parts for the upcoming device that the iPad’s frames contain a space seemingly intended to house a camera. Putting a MacBook

camera in that space, in fact, resulted in a perfect fit. Photos of the frame with and without the MacBook’s iSight camera inserted are available over at the Mission Repair blog right now, so you can see for yourself how perfectly they work together. Add to that the fact that 9 to 5 Mac reported earlier in the week that the demo tablet Steve Jobs was using on stage during the announcement last week

appeared to have camera holes according to pictures taken by some of those with higher quality cameras sitting closest to the stage. The photos definitely reveal something resembling a camera lens at the top of the iPad bezel. Innovation vs. Staged Release Either I’m becoming more savvy, Apple is becoming more transparent, or this business of withholding specific bits and

pieces from products in order to increase the consumer appeal of subsequent iterations is the new standard for Cupertino. I suspect the last is true, and it’s spoiling my ordinarily ravenous appetite for conspicuous consumption of Apple products. I remember how right it seemed to buy the iPod touch when it first came out, and I felt at the time I didn’t need a smartphone (I didn’t, and I still probably don’t). It seemed like the natural evolution of the iPod, with nothing left out. The iPad is more like a movie prequel. With prequels, the destination or endpoint of the film is generally accepted and known by the audience, but we go and see them to see how that thing came to be. The firstgeneration iPad is a good story about the device it will eventually become, but it doesn’t feel like something terribly worthwhile in and of itself. Related GigaOM Pro Research: • Web Tablet Survey: Apple’s iPad Hits Right Notes • 5 Tips for Developers Targeting the iPad • How AT&T Will Deal with iPad Data Traffic

Report: Take-Two cutting 20% of global workforce By Justin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 2/3/2010 8:30:00 AM

Maybe it's our fault. We had been talking to friends at the end of January, saying that the layoffs were finally over and that the ship had righted itself -- and as soon as we issued that obvious jinx, the firings start. The latest: MCV reports that according to "senior industry sources" TakeTwo will be letting go of 20 percent of its global workforce, or around 400 people. Cuts will reportedly come from both studio and publishing operations. The latest cost-cutting move comes after the company sold its distribution arm, Jack of All Games, to mega-corp Synnex. Take-Two's got some really good -looking games slated for 2010, so here's hoping it can turn this around and that all affected land on their feet. Report: Take-Two cutting 20% of global workforce originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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If you think you have it bad... (Scripting News) Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:51:07 AM

I can list all the conferences I'm not going to this year because I didn't get an invite. A friend who's going to TED this year for the first time (I've never been) says he's pissed at himself, ironically. I've never personally faced a life -and-death struggle as intense as Dana Jennings describes in a piece in at the NY Times. When I read it I think how small my problems are, I more or less have my health. I have to work at being unhappy or scared. This man has to work to find something to be happy about. And he does. Dana Jennings: "I was hospitalized for six weeks in 1984 with an acute case of ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disease that attacks the large intestine. Before my entire ravaged colon was removed, my doctors let me peer through the scope and take a look at it as it died." I also like the piece because it's beautifully written and uncomplicated. It represents a point of view that no one can say is objective. Its subjectiveness, written from the point of view of someone whose body is conflicted about living or dying, is what makes it so powerful.

It's been pointed out elsewhere that President Obama's meeting with Republicans was one of the best press events ever, but the press just covered it, it played no role. And that's as it should be. We do learn from conflict, but real conflict, not the made-up kind that is what we read in the news and hear on the radio, and see on TV. I want the collective press to be like a microphone, a very accurate one, that simply tells us what was said or done, without spin or savvy. If a cat got caught up a tree and the fire department came out to get it down, I'd like to know that, and what the rescue people thought, and the spectators, and the cat. I've enjoyed my first experiences with the NYU students. It's a great thing for me

to get back to those particular roots. To enjoy, vicariously, the point of view of someone who doesn't know all that decades of life teach you, and is smart enough to know that. But also people who will live to know things I never will know, and are smart enough to know that too, and brave enough to embrace it. Hey, we're all here now, people who are at TED and people who are not. People who were alive in 1955, and people who will be alive in 2055. People whose bodies don't need radiation and chemotherapy to have a chance at survival, and those who will be dead next week. We're all here now, so let's dig the moment and do it together, with respect. Your first dividend from my NYU experience. Please check out nyulocal.com. It's a studentrun news site, completely unaffiliated with the university. The kids don't get credit for it, they do it for love. One student, reviewing the study-abroad program in Paris (she had just completed it) said she couldn't wait to get back to NY to keep writing for the site. That's the kind of writing I love to read, and if you like scripting.com, I bet you'll like nyulocal.com too.

Ochocinco Has His Own News Network?! (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:28:27 PM

Six unrelated but possibly coherent observations from the Saints media availability: Jason Gay for The Wall Street Journal Garrett Hartley unveils his new Rihanna-inspired hairstyle. 1. Drew Brees gets it. The Saints quarterback is about as elegant a spokesperson for New Orleans and his football team as you could hope for. He doesn’t try to downplay the social drama of the Saints’ Super Bowl trip, the context of the Hurricane Katrina recovery, or shy away from a comparison to his own playing career, when he was pushed aside in San Diego. In a particularly apt choice of words, he referred to his team as “castaways.” “A lot of people identify with our team and our struggle,” he said. 2. We’d completely forgotten in that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Saints played their 2005 “home” opener in New York. New Jersey Meadowlands — whatever. 3. Fun to watch Reggie Bush squirm but respectfully field awkward questions about girlfriend Kim Kardashian. “Some people don’t even know I play football,” he said. “They know me as her boyfriend.” If you’re not paying attention, the

bombshell Kardashian’s kind of the Raquel Welch of this Super Bowl, and some folks want to know when Reggie is going to pop the question. “We love each other and enjoy each other’s company,” Bush said, sidestepping the issue as nimbly as he skipped through the Arizona Cardinals defense a couple weeks ago. 4. Chad Ochocinco was working the floor for some outfit called the Ochocinco News Network. Watch out for that holdout, ONN management. Chad wants an orange spaceship, or Conan O’Brien. 5. Randall Gay — no relation — got in a good dig at his veteran teammate Darren Sharper. Pointing out that Sharper played in the Super Bowl in 1997 with the Green Bay Packers, Gay said: “It’s actually on TV now.” 6. NFC championship hero Garrett Hartley has X-Games hair. He spoke to me about his overtime kick to beat the Vikings.

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Thirteen Years, Yardstick of Height Difference Doesn't Bother Hayden or Boyfriend [Gossip Roundup] By Maureen O'Connor (Gawker)

Greatest Sociological Experiment of Our Time is officially complete, and Team: Submitted at 2/3/2010 6:21:47 AM MTV Schadenfreude won. Anna H a y d e n P a n e t t i e r e ' s Wintour is going to strangle a heavyweight boxer boyfriend bitch. Nina Garcia questions forces us to confront our ageist, America's taste level. [P6] sizeist assumptions. Sandra http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesi Bullock would trade her Oscar x/shore_stars_jolt_fashionistas_b nod for a dog. Jersey Shore uXG1FCXUKDprYbyBGY8pI contemplates Fashion Week. • Holy crap, is Britney pregnant • Brittany Murphy's public again? Wednesday gossip is not memorial is "mysteriously on to scale. hold." Husband-turned-interview • Is it sizeist to say this picture salesman Simon Monjack was of the cheerleader from Heroes going to use it to raise funds for and her enormous heavyweight h i s n e w B r i t t a n y M u r p h y boxer boyfriend freaks me out? Foundation this Thursday at the Is it ageist to say I find a 20-year Beverly Hills Temple of the - o l d f o r m e r c h i l d s t a r ' s Arts, but "postponed." Reason relationship with a 33-year-old unknown. [ TMZ] professional pugilist somewhat • icky? If she wants an older man • Britney Spears is back in the publicity relationship, why not recording studio and inviting check Gerard Butler out of the pregnancy rumors with a tight boyfriend library? That any white dress. Does the Starbcks agent would orchestrate a fake cup in her hand debunk it? Only relationship with Ukranian if you believe she has some professional boxer is perhaps the sense of prenatal responsibility. [ strangest conceit of all. Unless, Superficial] of course, this is real. In which • case Hayden Panettiere has • Sandra Bullock's husband's inexplicable taste in men. Milo dog CinnaBun ran away, and Ventimiglia, then this? [ JJ] Sandy "would give • anything—including her Oscar • Jersey Shore has accomplished n o m i n a t i o n — t o g e t l i t t l e the unthinkable: At least three C i n n a B u n back." designers have cast members Understandable. That's one cute i n v i t e d t h e m t o s i t — o r dog. [ NBN] model—at the upcoming New • Y o r k F a s h i o n W e e k . T h e • Gerard Butler is so done fake-

dating Jennifer Aniston. He's on to rebounding Reese Witherspoon now, says Star. "Is Gerard Butler just on standby for when you need to appear not frigid?" asks Lainey Gossip. [ LG] • • But wait! Reese was spotted running errands with "a very tall friend." What is with all these monstrously tall boyfriends?

things I have ever imagined.) For good measure, the townspeople filed suit to evict Jacko's suriving giraffes, Annie Sue and Princess, from the Arizona wildlife preserve they border. [ TMZ] • • Ne-Yo condemned Chris Brown for beating Rihanna. Better one year late than never? [ P6] h • • Randy Jackson is getting sued because Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew might not have been his idea. A guy named Dwight McGhee says MTV stole his 2004 pitch for an International Breakerz League. (1.) Puh-leeze. (2.) Even if the formula's obvious? ABDC is really good. I hereby declare it would be less good if its name had a 'z' in it. [ TMZ] • • Claire Danes has purple hair. It's probably for a role. It's as ugly as you fear. [TMZ] http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/03/ Unless everyone is dating their color-me-bad/ • bodyguards? [ JJ] • The horror, the horror: A • • Michael Jackson's dead celebrity was accidentally seated giraffes are not resting in peace: in business class instead of first. JJ and Rambo were exhumed Since it was Kanye West, it's and reburied after townspeople funny. He threw a tantrum and near their original resting place got bumped up. [ P6] complained that they could smell • their long necks rotting. (The belated excavation of two rotting THIRTEEN page 52 giraffes is among the grosser

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Obama Asked to Stop Using Vegas as a Metaphor for Idiocy [Oops]

THIRTEEN continued from page 51

By Ravi Somaiya (Gawker)

Vegas and he needs to let Americans decide for themselves how and where to spend their The President keeps using Sin hard-earned vacation dollars." City as an example of dumb The governor and a bunch of spending. Which is upsetting the other politicians with elections people of Vegas, who need your coming up also weighed in. As dumb spending, irresponsibility did Harry Reid, who said: "The and drunken plans that start with President needs to lay off Las the word "dude," in order to Vegas and stop making it the survive. poster child for where people At a school in New Hampshire shouldn't be spending their yesterday, Obama was preaching money." responsibility. "You don't go Obama responded by pointing buying a boat when you can out that all the above barely pay your mortgage," he complainers are stupid. "I was said, according to the Associated making the simple point that Press. "You don't blow a bunch families use vacation dollars, not of cash on Vegas when you're college tuition money, to have trying to save for college. You said he'd "give him the boot" if fun," he said in a letter to Reid. prioritize. You make tough he came to town (which is not "There is no place better to have choices." He'd made similar sending a welcoming message, fun than Vegas, one of our really). "Enough is enough!" country's great destinations." comments twice last year. But this time it was too much. added congresswoman Shelley Everyone in Vegas freaked out. Berkley. "President Obama The mayor, Oscar Goodman, needs to stop picking on Las Submitted at 2/3/2010 6:20:09 AM

How to advertise on Facebook (Holy Kaw!)

• Do your own tracking. • Make your ads pop.

Submitted at 2/3/2010 1:19:00 AM

Gurus often tout Facebook as the latest trend in advertising, but few people tell you how to do it. As part of its social media guide for small business, Inc.com offers four tips on how to market

using Facebook: • Choose your topic. • Test, test — and test some more.

Read the full article to learn the details. More on Facebook and advertising. Permalink| Leave a comment »

Paul Pierce's Injury Not Deemed Serious By Matt Watson (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/2/2010 3:40:00 PM

Filed under: Celtics, NBA Injuries Crisis was averted in Boston on Tuesday evening when the Celtics' medical staff determined that Paul Pierce's left foot injury was not as serious as initially feared. Pierce injured his foot in the first quarter of Monday's win over the Wizards, eventually returning to action before sitting out the entire fourth quarter. He's officially been diagnosed with a mid-foot strain and is listed as day-to-day. When X-rays following Monday's game were inconclusive, the team originally feared Pierce might be lost for several weeks with a broken bone. However, additional testing on Tuesday apparently ruled out a fracture. Pierce underwent an MRI on Tuesday and was examined once again by the team's medical staff, according to Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. "We were concerned after

watching the injury and seeing the soreness on Paul's foot this morning and what it looked like on TV," Celtics GM Danny Ainge told the Globe on Tuesday. "I was worried, so I was very relieved to hear it was a sprained mid foot and that he'll be back soon." How soon? That much is not yet known -- "When he's ready to play, he will play," Ainge said -but if the official diagnosis holds true, it certainly seems more likely than it did Tuesday afternoon that Pierce will be able to play in the All-Star Game on Feb. 14.

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Kobe Climbs North of West on Scoring List (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:30:20 AM

Kobe Bryant slam-dunked his way past Jerry West in the third quarter on Monday night to become the Los Angeles Lakers’ all-time scoring leader. It was also fitting that Bryant’s point total in L.A.’s 95-93 loss to Memphis, 44, matched West’s number. He also passed West against the Grizzlies, the team West took over after he stopped running the Lakers. Bryant’s career total of 25,208 points places him 14th on the all-time list. Associated Press Kobe Bryant blows by Zach Randolph, completely unafraid of the prospect of the Grizzlies big man someday passing his scoring totals. Stars have lit up Tinseltown ever since the Lakers moved to L.A. from Minneapolis. But even with that stiff competition, Sports Illustrated’s Ian Thomsen believes Bryant could be the best Laker ever. “West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Shaquille O’Neal all find themselves looking up to Bryant, who won’t turn 32 until summer,” Thomsen writes. “This achievement underlines Bryant’s place alongside West and Magic as the three most important Lakers, in terms of their success over an extended period of time.” ESPN’s Dave McMenamin says Bryant’s dunk sums up the

guard’s career as an offensive juggernaut. “It was wide open, effortless, and he’s always scored with ease no matter how many defenders were between him and the basket,” McMenamin writes. “It was a dunk that was unspectacular, but it was still a dunk nonetheless and dunks are how he built his initial buzz in the league more than 1,000 games and 36,000 minutes of playing time ago.” Oh, and in case you forgot, the Grizzlies won the game. In Memphis, the Commercial Appeal’s Geoff Calkins says this Grizzlies victory felt more important than any other this season.* * * Gilbert Arenas made a gesture toward making amends, but it’s too soon to say whether he will be able to salvage his career. Arenas, suspended for the rest of the NBA season for bringing guns into the Washington Wizards’ locker room and joking about it during pregame warmups, has penned an editorial for the Washington Post in which he pledges to become a better role model. “I am trying hard to right my wrongs,” Arenas writes. “The one that will be hardest to make right is the effect my actions have had on kids who see NBA players as role models. Professional athletes have a duty to act responsibly and to understand the influence we have on all those kids who look up to us. I failed to live up to that

out on Saturday after Calipari said the freshman “really hurt us” in a loss last week to South Carolina. Now, after talking to Calipari, Wall says he “loves” his coach. HoopsWorld’s Yannis Koutroupis says Calipari gets the most out of his players because responsibility when I broke the he’s so demanding.* * * law and set such a bad example.” The buildup for Super Bowl The Boston Globe’s Gary XLIV continues Tuesday with W a s h b u r n c h r o n i c l e s t h e media day. David will devote Wizards’ strange, lost season.* * Wednesday’s Fix to profiling the New Orleans Saints, and I’ll * Among those college-hoops cover the Indianapolis Colts on teams that are stumbling their Thursday. Outside the teams, way through their seasons and there are a few other topics might not make the NCAA worth a look. tournament are two surprising In the Los Angeles Times, Sam names: Connecticut and Farmer looks behind the Louisville. Only last year, both creativity Steve Sabol brings to teams earned No. 1 seeds and the NFL Films, and his impact on Cardinals won the Big East’s Hollywood. regular-season and tournament In the Oakland Tribune, Monte championships, Yahoo’s Jason Poole laments that it’s been 25 years since the Bay Area has King writes. The Cardinals defeated the been a Super Bowl host. Huskies, 82-69, on Monday, but Meanwhile, people are still the Louisville Courier Journal’s talking about Rex Ryan’s middle Eric Crawford is still seething fingers, which he raised toward a about some brutal Big East crowd Saturday at a mixedofficiating in Louisville’s close martial arts event in Sunrise, Fla. l o s s t o W e s t V i r g i n i a o n In the New York Daily News, Bob Raissman thanks the New Saturday. I n t h e O k l a h o m a n , J e n n i York Jets coach for livening up Carlson says Oklahoma State things. “Ryan’s timing was wasted James Anderson’s 28- impeccable,” Raissman writes. point effort in the Cowboys’ 72- “On the weekend leading up to Super Bowl week, a week where 60 loss to Texas. Elsewhere in college hoops, the media flow of information John Wall’s feud with John c o m i n g o u t o f M i a m i i s Calipari, his coach at Kentucky, repetitive and controlled, Ryan appears to be over. Wall spoke took the notebooks and cameras on a path less traveled, giving all

columnists and Valley of the Stupid yakkers something to sink their fangs into.” The Austin American Statesman’s Kirk Bohls disagrees, saying Ryan deserves a fine. Check back here all week for dispatches from Miami from the Journal’s Jason Gay and Reed Albergotti.* * * The 1994 baseball players’ strike continues to have ramifications for a quintet of strikebreakers still in the majors. The five — Brendan Donnelly, Matt Herges, Ron Mahay, Jamie Walker and Kevin Millar — have never had their likenesses or real numbers included in any video games because they can’t be members of the players’ union, Kotaku’s Owen Good writes. Sticking with videogames, the Virginian-Pilot’s Tom Robinson admits he’s not much of a gamer.* * * Thanks to Alex Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals have tied the franchise record of 10 straight victories set in 1984. Washington, the NHL’s hottest team, plays at Boston on Tuesday night in hopes of setting a new standard. In the Washington Post, Tracee Hamilton identifies the reasons behind the Capitals’ winning ways: penalty killing and defensive play. KOBE page 54

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Record deal for Indianapolis Colts' Peyton Manning? 'It's going to get done' By Len Pasquarelli (ESPN.com)

• Blog network: NFL Nation Irsay has said in the past that Manning will be "a Colt for life," Submitted at 2/2/2010 3:32:27 PM and he reiterated that stance on Message from fivefilters.org: If Tuesday morning. you can, please donate to the full Manning, 33, signed a contract -text RSS service so we can extension for $99.2 million in continue developing it. 2004, and the deal included a MIAMI -- Negotiations to record $34.5 million singing e x t e n d t h e c o n t r a c t o f bonus, all of it paid up front. The Indianapolis Colts quarterback final two seasons of that contract Peyton Manning will begin in were voided because Manning earnest after the season, Colts met predetermined playing-time owner Jim Irsay confirmed on incentives, making 2010 the final Tuesday, and the new deal is year of the deal. expected to make the Colts' star The Manning contract, Irsay the highest-paid player in NFL said, "is the easy one to do, history and to keep him with the because you know it's going to franchise for his entire career. have to be the highest ever." The Manning's current deal, the final Colts' owner noted the "harder two years of which have been deals" are the ones involving technically voided, will expire good, but less important players, after the 2010 season. and cited former Indianapolis "You know it's going to get s t a r t e r s l i k e g u a r d S t e v e done," Irsay said during media McKinney and linebackers day interviews. "I think it's clear, Marcus Washington and David and we'll start on it this summer. Thornton, veterans whom the That's been the way we do things Colts could not afford to pay [to hammer out an extension because of the franchise's salary when a player is entering the structure, and were forced to final year of his contract]. And sacrifice to free agency. it'll be the biggest [contract] in "It simply comes to one question, history; there's not much doubt and that's replaceability," Irsay about that." explained. "Everything is based AFC South blog on the replaceability factor. You ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky make decisions based on who writes about all things AFC you can afford to target and South in his division blog. keep. ... Other guys you really

want to [re-sign] you might have trouble doing it, because of what it costs you, and how much attention they're getting [from other teams in free agency]. We don't have that luxury and we've had to work hard." Team president Bill Polian said during the season that the club, because it had such high-profile players, often had to determine "how fungible" some players and positions were. But Irsay, who invested about $100 million into the club after his father, Robert Irsay, died in 1997, is prepared to make Manning a very rich man. The younger Irsay, in fact, has dipped into his own wallet in the past to fund the contracts of some key players. Ironically, the contracts of Manning and New England quarterback Tom Brady are both up after the 2010 campaign. Irsay allowed he will "watch closely" the bargaining on the Brady deal. "We didn't have the luxury [of not having a salary cap]," Irsay said. "Without one, not having those [constraints], we would have done an incredible job." There have been some preliminary discussions between Irsay and agent Tom Condon on the Manning deal. Condon, who represents about a dozen starting

quarterbacks in the NFL, has a solid relationship with Colts management, and it is difficult to project that a new deal won't be completed. Last year, Condon negotiated a six-year, $97.5 million contract extension for Eli Manning, with about $35 million in guarantees, that made the New York Giants' star one of the league's highestpaid performers. Depending on the methods of valuation, the highest-paid player in the league with a multiyear contract and based on average compensation per season is Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer, at $16.17 million per year. Given the salary spiral, his stature in the league, and the likelihood that 2010 will be an "uncapped" season, it is not unthinkable to project that Manning could receive an extension pushing $20 million per year, and with a signing bonus of about $50 million. Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

KOBE continued from page 53

– Tip of the Fix cap to reader Don Hartline and fellow Fixer David Roth. 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 Garey at ris84rap@gmail.com.

Puzzles By Zack Sheppard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:25:32 AM

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it.• About Flickr Flickr is a revolution in photo storage, sharing and organization, making photo management an easy, natural and collaborative process. Get comments, notes, and tags on your photos, post to any blog, share and more! Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Plaxico Burress vows comeback in interview with Bill Cowher By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:58:31 AM

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. In an interview set to air Sunday on CBS, imprisoned Plaxico Burress vows to play in the NFL again and said he apologized to the Giants for tarnishing the organization. "I will play again," Burress said in the interview with his former Steelers coach Bill Cowher scheduled to air on CBS' "NFL Today", which was conducted from the upstate New York prison where the receiver is currently incarcerated. “ He looked me in the eye. I believe he was sincere. I think I know him well enough to know that.”-- Bill Cowher, on his interview with Plaxico Burress Burress said he works out about

four times a week in the prison to keep in shape for a possible comeback. "It's not LA Fitness or Bally's, but I do push-ups, sit-ups," Burress said in the interview. "I make do." Burress is serving a two-year prison sentence for violating New York's stringent gun laws Burress said he wrote a letter to the Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, apologizing for his actions. "I told them how sorry I was about bringing all this bad publicity to such a stand-up organization," Burress said in the interview. Burress, then a Giants receiver, was at the Latin Quarter nightclub in November 2008 with a .40-caliber gun tucked into the waistband of his track pants. He later said he was concerned for his safety because a teammate had been held up at gunpoint days before. The weapon slipped down Burress'

leg and fired, injuring his right thigh. The gun wasn't licensed in New York or New Jersey, where Burress lived, and his Florida concealed-weapons permit had expired. He also failed to report the incident to authorities. Prosecutors argued the bullet narrowly missed a security guard. Cowher, who was Burress' coach for five years in Pittsburgh, told the New York Post that he believed the receiver was being sincere in the interview. "He looked me in the eye. I believe he was sincere," Cowher told the newspaper. "I think I know him well enough to know that ... "He admittedly blames no one except himself. He's had a lot of time to reflect. He's had great, unwavering support from his wife. ... It's been an eyeawakening situation for him. He had a daughter born when he was

in prison. It's very sobering to be in there. When you walk through the door, and you listen to him talk, you can see it's very genuine." A work-release application for the ex-Giants star was denied by the New York Department of Correctional Services last month because of the nature of his crime. He is expected to be released from prison in July 2011. Burress became a Super Bowl hero when he caught the winning touchdown pass in the last minute of the Giants' 17-14 upset win over the previously unbeaten Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. The Giants released him last April. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Time Warner swings to quarterly profit (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:33:01 AM

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Time Warner swung back to a quarterly net profit thanks to its cable networks and film studios, leaving behind a year weighed down by a string of big writedowns in its AOL and publishing divisions. The company also raised its dividend, the second media company this week to do so, and increased its stock repurchase programme, underscoring a plan to boost shareholder returns after the December spin-off of the troubled AOL internet division. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Follow Marc Jacobs President Robert Duffy on Twitter By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

Already today he’s posted pictures of Marc Jacobs blowing kisses to the camera while Submitted at 2/2/2010 3:33:41 PM sketching his new collection. I Robert Duffy, president of Marc can’t wait to see what other Jacobs, has started tweeting. insider info we'll get leading up

to the show. He’ll even be

tweeting backstage and during the show, which will be streamed live on his website on February 15th at 8pm. —Kristen Shirley, Fashion Assistant

Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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New York Jets fine Rex Ryan $50K for obscene gesture By Associated Press (ESPN.com)

ESPN.com's Tim Graham writes about all things AFC East in his division blog. Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:27:29 AM â&#x20AC;˘ Blog network: NFL Nation Message from fivefilters.org: If "I wouldn't accept that type of you can, please donate to the full behavior from one of the coaches -text RSS service so we can or players and it's unacceptable continue developing it. Mike from me," he said in a statement. And Mike: Obscene Gesture General manager Mike Mike And Mike: Obscene Tannenbaum had said the Gesture organization was disappointed NEW YORK -- New York Jets and would address the matter coach Rex Ryan was fined internally. $50,000 by the team Tuesday for The coach also could be fined making an obscene gesture at a by the NFL under its personal mixed martial arts event last conduct policy. Commissioner weekend. Roger Goodell fined Tennessee The team's decision came after a T i t a n s o w n e r B u d A d a m s smiling Ryan was caught on a $250,000 for making an obscene cell phone camera flipping his gesture to fans in November, but middle finger at a fan during the that was during an NFL game. competition in Sunrise, Fla., on Ryan led the Jets to the AFC Saturday night. The image of C h a m p i o n s h i p G a m e i n Ryan quickly spread across the Indianapolis in his first year as Internet and made its way onto an NFL head coach. He made the back pages of New York headlines throughout the season tabloids. with his confident statements, Ryan apologized the next day, including saying the Jets should calling his actions "stupid and be the favorite to win the Super inappropriate." Bowl when the playoffs began. AFC East blog When he was hired by the Jets

last year, he boldly declared they would meet the president someday as Super Bowl champions. Ryan also said he didn't come to New York to kiss New England coach Bill Belichick's championship rings. He also had a playful feud with Miami linebacker Channing Crowder, saying he had walked over tougher guys while going to fights. That made Ryan a likely target of booing fans during a TV interview at the MMA event in the Bank Atlantic Center, the Florida Panthers' home arena. "I want to just tell everybody in Miami, 'Hey, we're coming to beat you twice next year,'" Ryan said during the ringside interview. The Dolphins beat the Jets in both meetings this season. Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Michigan State Spartans' Kalin Lucas leaves game with ankle injury By Associated Press (ESPN.com)

the ankle, I'll know tomorrow." Lucas immediately crumpled to the court, clutching the ankle. Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:43:53 PM After several minutes with the Message from fivefilters.org: If trainer and coach Tom Izzo, you can, please donate to the full Lucas was helped to his feet, but -text RSS service so we can didn't put any weight on the leg continue developing it. as he was carried to the locker MADISON, Wis. -- Michigan room. State's Kalin Lucas injured his Izzo said Lucas' status wouldn't right ankle in the second half of be known until after the Spartans the fifth-ranked Spartans' 67-49 returned home. loss to No. 16 Wisconsin on "He's limping bad," Izzo said. Tuesday night and had to be "It's not a good sprain, but it's helped off the court. not broke or anything like that -SPARTAN EFFORT at least it doesn't seem to be. I When Kalin Lucas went down think the issue is whether he's a against Wisconsin on Tuesday fast healer or not. I can't say I night, Michigan State lost their know that because he hasn't statistical leader in several really been hurt. It's not good, categories. that's for sure." Lucas, last season's Big Ten Lucas, averaging 16 points a player of the year, went up for a game, was 3 of 9 from the field jump shot with just under 11 for seven points with two minutes to play and landed on r e b o u n d s a n d t w o a s s i s t s , the left foot of Wisconsin snapping a streak of 33 straight forward Keaton Nankivil. games scoring in double figures. "I went to move to shoot the ball, Copyright 2010 by The came down on his foot and my A s s o c i a t e d P r e s s ankle just rolled over," Lucas Five Filters featured article: said. "When it first happened, it Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: was hurting a lot, but I still don't PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, know what's wrong with it right Term Extraction. now. I think it's just a sprain to

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The Count: What if the NBA Held a Football Players as Super Bowl? Captive Audience (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 2/2/2010 3:18:14 PM

Kobe Bryant passed Jerry West on the Los Angeles Lakers’ alltime scoring list on Monday in L.A.’s 49th game of the season — two and a half months before the regular season ends. Last year the Lakers won the NBA title in their 105th game, counting the regular season and playoffs. Meanwhile, this Sunday the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints will each be playing their 19th game of the NFL season — which is also the Super Bowl, and therefore the last game of the season. Reuters If the NBA used the NFL’s structure, Shaquille O’Neal might not face Andrew Bynum until the Super Bowl. There are good reasons for football players to play far fewer games than other players, including the heavy toll that their sport takes on their bodies. But such a short season does make for a small sample size of games, thereby increasing the probability of fluky results. To quantify this, consider an

19.6% of the time, followed by the Lakers at 19.4% and the Celtics at 12.1%. The Hawks, Nuggets, Spurs, Jazz and Magic all also have at least a 6% chance of winning it all. However, some losing teams win in more than one of these simulated seasons, alternate universe in which the including the 76ers, the Clippers NBA adopted the NFL’s format and the Kings. for the regular season and Before this NBA season, Paine p l a y o f f s . N e i l P a i n e o f ran similar simulations, using the Basketball Reference constructed actual NBA season structure, and an approximation of such an found that the best team has NBA season, aligning teams to about a 48% chance of winning match as closely as possible the the title. So his latest results NBA’s 30-team league with the suggest that the NBA’s structure NFL’s 32-team league. With 16 more than doubles the chances of games to go around, there aren’t the best team winning compared enough games for every team to to an NFL-like season. An earlier play every other one, like in the s t u d y b y P r o F o o t b a l l NFL — so, for instance, the R e f e r e n c e ’ s D o u g D r i n e n Lakers don’t play the Cleveland suggested the best NFL team Cavaliers in this alternate reality. wins about 24% of the time. So Then Paine simulated 10,000 enjoy the Super Bowl, but don’t such NBA seasons, using teams’ assume the winner is the NFL’s stats through last Tuesday’s best team. Nor is the NBA games to estimate their strength champ, necessarily, but the and therefore their likelihood of chances are far higher. winning each game. In these seasons, the usual suspects tend to finish on top. The Cavs win the “Super Bowl”

(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 2/2/2010 10:21:49 AM

It’s easy to be cynical about Super Bowl media day, but there is an art to the inane ritual. The players and coaches, at least the marquee ones, are individually corralled behind desks today. (The non-household names must wade on their own two feet among the mortals.) Getty Images Can you see forever in Jeff Saturday’s eyes? That means they’re sitting ducks for an hour. Attendance is mandatory; truants and scofflaws get a steep fine and an angry late -night phone call from Ron Jaworski. The set-up, while forced and uncomfortable, is an opportunity to cobble together that dreaded pre-game feature you’re required to produce. But must have to have a gameplan. You can’t wander up to Colts head coach Jim Caldwell’s station, stand for an hour with your notebook, and hope excitement will break out. In fact, you can stand at his station until next June and not get any (perfectly good coach, just not exactly Lenny Bruce at the Cafe au Go Go). You need a storyline in your head, and if you’re just standing there lazily taking it all in

(cough), it’s not hard to detect the feature themes underway. At least a couple people cultivating ‘Peyton Manning and Jeff Saturday: They Really Like Each Other!” piece about the veteran quarterback and his trusted center. You needed to get a rapturous quote from Peyton about Jeff, hurry over, elbow past the crew from “Entertainment Tonight” and get the same from Jeff about Peyton, and voila — if you assemble it right, it’ll sound like you’re sitting right between two old friends, fishing for marlin in the Florida Keys. That’s a skill they don’t teach for the Punt, Pass and Kick competition. One other thing about Jeff Saturday: he has dreamy, Paul Newman eyes. Oh, hey, look there’s Deion Sanders and Dave Barry. Currently searching for Rip Taylor. It’s like a Fellini movie in here.

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Super Bowl Media Day: Zen Magic Stick? Check (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

video cameras turned on the reporters as they walked by the room, and we wonder who will We won’t delude you that eventually get pressed into scintillating moments happen at editing such up-close and surely the Super Bowl media day — grisly footage. Guys: save your though it’s early, and we’ve yet batteries film for the good stuff. to ask Indianapolis’s Austin Or at least the good-looking TV Collie about his dad’s career media maw — they must have people. playing for the CFL’s Hamilton lost at Jenga at the Delano last We stepped outside onto the Tiger-Cats. night — and first into the room, upper deck of Sun Life to write But it doesn’t make it any less naturally, was class president this, and right now, the NFL of a sublimely goofy event. Peyton Manning, who, if not for grounds crew is laying down the We’re just underway, and there’s his sparkling Colts uniform and black and gold lettering in the a mild bummer that the day has his being probably the best end zone for the Saints. Calm been moved inside to a drab quarterback in the NFL, could be down, New Orleans: they made club-level banquet area at Sun confused for (good grief) a worn sure to start with an S. By Mike Schramm (Joystiq) Life Stadium, the Miami football -out member of the media. The Oh, look, there goes a reporter hub so nice they renamed it full Indy team arrived close with a funny fur hat and a zen Submitted at 2/3/2010 2:00:00 AM seven times. Getty Images behind, dressed in full unis with magic stick. Super Bowl 2010 German developer Johannes Nobody pretends to enjoy no pads, which makes them look media day is so on. Huber sent us word that his himself at Super Bowl Media less like football players and game, Your Doodles are Day better than Peyton Manning. more like guys going out as Bugged!, is out now on Xbox Dude is such a professional. football players for Halloween. Live's Indie Games Marketplace The Colts are first up in the A number of Colts had their own for the low, low price of 80(or about a buck). You can see a gameplay trailer over on (Holy Kaw!) of these 10 apps to schedule YouTube right now (which tweets. Alltop’s addendum to the we've placed along with a silly Submitted at 2/3/2010 1:03:40 AM list is Objective Marketer, an app teaser trailer after the break). The Anyone who tweets for work we use to time our tweets and game looks a little bit like Lemmings but with custom paths knows that the ability to schedule track their success. rather than tools -- various tweets is a lifesaver. After all, if (via RotoBlog) doodles drawn by a master you have five great tweets in More on Twitter. doodler are infected with little mind, why would you jam them much better to space them out Photo credit: Fotolia jumping cartoon bugs, and your into the future, perhaps using one all into a single minute? It’s Permalink| Leave a comment » job is to draw lines that lead the bugs to various points in the illustrated environment. The game offers "lots of levels," Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:24:08 AM

Your Doodles Are Bugged! arrives on XBLA's Indie marketplace

10 apps to schedule tweets (plus one!)

and they seem like complicated affairs, though you can zoom in and out to chart your own path to exodus for the little bugs. There's also unlockable content and both friends and global leaderboards. Both the game and its trial are available on your Xbox right now. Download the trial version of Your Doodles are Bugged! to your Xbox 360 Continue reading Your Doodles Are Bugged! arrives on XBLA's Indie marketplace Your Doodles Are Bugged! arrives on XBLA's Indie marketplace originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Dickey's Prayer to Play QB in Pros Went Unanswered By David Steele (FanHouse Main)

of the great nicknames ever created: The Lord's Prayer. One has to be of a certain time Submitted at 2/2/2010 1:40:00 PM and place to remember Dickey or Filed under: Raiders Black his ethereal moniker. Natives of History Month has been his hometown of Houston and celebrated in some form since former coaches and teammates 1924. For sports fans, it is a have created a website and DVD chance to reacquaint themselves to keep his memory alive, but with those who broke down they'd also swear that he had to barriers in all areas of be seen to really be believed. competition and all segments of As a dazzlingly talented and society. Many are now accomplished (not to mention household names and American recognizable as pioneers. During ambidextrous) quarterback at icons: Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Black History Month 2010, Tennessee State, Dickey led the J a c k i e R o b i n s o n , W i l m a FanHouse aims to give them 1965 and '66 teams to undefeated Rudolph, Muhammad Ali, up to their due. seasons and national Tiger Woods, Tony Dungy and Eldridge Dickey championships, the first two of Venus and Serena Williams F i r s t A f r i c a n - A m e r i c a n his three years he was named the today. quarterback picked in the first best quarterback in black college Every day throughout February, round of a pro football draft football. Sports Illustrated once FanHouse will shed light on the The American sports landscape described him as having "a other figures in the history of should mourn the loss of the Johnny Unitas arm and Gale sports whose breakthroughs were opportunity for Eldridge Dickey Sayers speed.'' as significant as those mentioned to realize his full potential, if above, but who aren't as instantly only because it was denied one

AIG staff agree to bonus cuts (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:24:43 PM

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. AIG, the US governmentcontrolled insurer, will pay around $100m in bonuses to

some 200 employees of its troubled financial products unit this week after they agreed to cuts of at least 10 per cent in their pay-outs in an effort to defuse the political furore over the issue. The move will enable AIG to return millions of dollars in unpaid bonuses to the US authorities and almost fulfill a

pledge made by Ed Liddy, its former chief executive, to repay $45m, due to employees of the financial products division, to taxpayers. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

NBA 2K10 nets two million sales By Randy Nelson (Joystiq)

Wii.) Of course, there's always the question of whether the sales We're not sure what sort of were spurred on by marketing numbers 2K Sports had hooped money or, y'know, the actual hoped for, but no one can argue quality of the game. The PS3 and that two million copies of its Xbox 360 versions are averaging latest basketball sim, NBA in the low 80s on Metacritic-2K10, is anything but a ... slam what did you think of it, sports dunk. The label announced today fans? that the game has reached that NBA 2K10 nets two million lofty figure worldwide, which it sales originally appeared on says marks a 60% increase in Joystiq on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 units of NBA 2K9 sold during 03:30:00 EST. Please see our the same period last year. terms for use of feeds. (Though it confesses that this Read| Permalink| Email this| year's sales figures include Comments versions of the game for PSP and Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:30:00 AM

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The 'Medal of Honor' Beard Cover Interview By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)

Craig Owens: What you see today as the key art (or box front image) is the result of a long Submitted at 2/3/2010 7:00:00 AM process that's been going on for In early December, EA revealed nearly a year now. When we set the cover for its Medal of Honor out to reboot the Medal of Honor reboot and all anyone could say franchise, we knew that the key was: " BEARD!" Well, after art of the new game had to months of trying to get an accomplish two very important explanation of how that grizzly things. First, it needed to stay (Adams) decision went down, true to the authenticity that the C r a i g O w e n s , d i r e c t o r o f brand is known for. Secondly, it marketing at EA Los Angeles, had to be unexpected not only has finally delivered the answers. for the brand but also for the Here are the declassified details shooter genre. After several of our exchange: months of reviewing many, Joystiq: How did you select the many concepts, it wasn't until cover image for the Medal of this past summer that the new Honor reboot? face of Medal of Honor was

born. During an agency pitch meeting with several creative agencies, our current partner Ignition Creative based in Santa Monica, California - revealed a concept, using a photographed

knew that was our guy. He was authentic to a Tier 1 Operator and unexpected for both MOH and the current characters out there in the gaming space. Gallery: Medal of Honor (2010) Continue reading The 'Medal of Honor' Beard Cover Interview The 'Medal of Honor' Beard Cover Interview originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. model with this real, epic beard. Permalink| Email this| That concept was nearly Comments identical to the final image you see today. When the development and marketing team first saw it, we immediately

Fall 2010 Fashion Week Preview: One Hour With Cushnie Et Ochs By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 2/2/2010 9:35:47 AM

In their sun-filled garment district studio, Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs of coveted label Cushnie et Ochs let us in on the secrets behind their fall 2010 collection (which hits the runway on February 11). With Biggie playing in the background, the design duo opened up about their first time doing accessories, the transformative quality of their body-con pieces, and the meaning of the stripper pole

taking up residence in the middle of their workspace. —Violet Moon Gaynor Michelle: “The pole was a gift to me from Carly. It was supposed to be temporary, but after it took six men hours to install, the thing is now permanent. We’ve put it to practical use—models lean on it as we do fittings.” Carly: “In contrast to designing our first collection, for the fourth time around we’ve learned to work at a much quicker pace.” Michelle: “The fabrics we use for our body-con pieces mold to

your body and hold everything in place (so you can comfortably go bra-less).” Michelle: “The new collection is grittier, but with a clean aesthetic—our version of ‘dirty’.” ELLE.com’s Violet Moon Gaynor (second from left) takes a Barbie break with the Cushnie et Ochs team A glimpse at the fall 2010 mood board Carly: “This season is our first time doing accessories. We’re

collaborating with Albertus Swanepoel on hats, and with Jennifer Marie (of Hugo & Marie) on gloves. And our shoes will be by Alejandro Ingelmo, who we've been working with since our second season.” Michelle: “We created a mini version of our Half Moon dress for Carly’s Barbie (at right). Mine (in the oversize sweater) is in desperate need of a haircut. Everyone on the team has a Barbie counterpart.” All photos: Kelly Stuart

Balloons By Zack Sheppard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 2/2/2010 12:15:10 PM

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Court: Sentence for millennium plotter too lenient (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

the ruling is seen as a strong rebuke of his handling of the case, which the semiretired jurist Message from fivefilters.org: If said was one of his toughest you can, please donate to the full during a 2008 court session. -text RSS service so we can Fixing a sentence for Ressam "is continue developing it. a decision I struggled with more SAN FRANCISCO â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The long t h a n a n y o t h e r s e n t e n c i n g legal battle of an al-Qaida- decision I have made in my 27 trained terrorist convicted in an years on the bench," Coughenour attempted bombing on the said in December 2008. The millennium has taken another judge said he had to weigh the turn after an appeals court threw cooperation Ressam provided out his sentence and removed the against the nature of his crime. trial judge from the case. On Tuesday, the appeals court The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of said Ressam has an extensive Appeals on Tuesday said Ahmed c r i m i n a l h i s t o r y a n d R e s s a m ' s 2 2 - y e a r p r i s o n Coughenour's conclusions were sentence is too lenient. Border "clearly erroneous." Writing for agents in Washington state the majority, Circuit Judge arrested the Algerian national in Arthur L. Alarcon said the 1999 after he entered the United Coughenour failed to take into States from Canada on a ferry account public safety with the 22 w i t h a c a r p a c k e d w i t h -year prison sentence. explosives. He was convicted of "This factor is particularly plotting to bomb Los Angeles relevant in a terrorist case such International Airport. as this, where Ressam, who has The appeals court also said demonstrated strongly held Tuesday that it's taking the rare beliefs about the need to attack step of assigning the case to American interests in the United another trial judge because it States and abroad, will be only doubts U.S. District Judge John 53 years old upon his release," Coughenour's impartiality in the Alarcon wrote. matter. Ressam's case will be randomly Coughenour presided over the assigned to another federal judge case for a decade. Twice, over in Seattle in the coming weeks the objections of prosecutors, he a n d i t ' s e x p e c t e d t h a t t h e sentenced the "millennium Algerian national will receive a bomber" to 22 years in prison. harsher sentence. Coughenour, appointed to the A divided three-judge panel of bench by President Ronald the appeals court ruled Ressam, Reagan in 1981, declined to 41, deserves a much longer comment when reached in his prison term because he had Seattle chambers Tuesday. But reneged on a deal to cooperate Submitted at 2/3/2010 4:57:53 AM

with terrorism investigators around the world. U.S. prosecutors said Ressam's change-of-heart after two years of cooperation compromised at least two terrorist cases in the U.S., resulting in charges being dropped. "We are gratified that the Court of Appeals recognized the importance of public safety at sentencing and that Mr. Ressam remains a threat to the public," said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of Seattle. Ressam's public defender Thomas W. Hillier II declined comment. Federal guidelines suggest Ressam should receive a prison sentence of 65 years to life after a jury convicted him of attempting to smuggle explosives meant for LAX across the Canada border in a rental car in December 1999. Prosecutors argued for life in prison during a 2008 hearing held after Ressam recanted his cooperation and insisted that lawyers and prosecutors had badgered him into making false allegations against other alleged terrorists. "Sentence me to life in prison or anything you wish," Ressam told the judge. "I will have no objection to your sentence. Thank you." The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the trial judge to impose a new sentence based on the federal guidelines. Investigators say Ressam

attended three training camps for Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan between March 1998 and February 1999. He learned to handle weapons, construct bombs and the black art of sabotage before he was assigned with five other terrorist to a cell to be based in Montreal. Ressam traveled to Canada in February 1999 with $12,000 in cash, bomb-making instructions and a key chemical used in explosives. The other members of his cell didn't make it to Canada, but Ressam continued plans to bomb LAX. Ressam hid 100 pounds of explosive materials in the wheel well in the trunk of a rental car, and on Dec. 14, 1999 drove it on to the American ferry M/V COHO at Victoria, B.C. He also was carrying a bogus Canadian passport. A U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agent didn't discover the explosives during a search of the car and allowed Ressam to board the ferry and travel to Port Angeles, Wash. When Ressam arrived at the U.S. port, suspicious U.S. Customs inspector Diane Dean ordered the rental car searched. This time the explosives, complete with four timing devices, were found and Ressam was arrested. "An explosives expert later determined that the materials found in the car were capable of producing a blast forty times

greater than that of a devastating car bomb," Alarcon wrote for the appeals court. Ressam rejected the government's offer of 25 years in prison if he pleaded guilty to nine felony charges, including conspiracy to commit an international act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. Because of intense local publicity, the case was moved to Los Angeles, where a jury convicted Ressam on all counts on April 16, 2001. Two months later, in exchange for a more lenient sentence, Ressam agreed to cooperate with the prosecution of his accomplice and provide any other information he had on terrorists plots to kill Americans. After Sept. 11, 2001, Ressam also identified Zacarias Moussaoui from a photograph as someone he met in an Afghan terrorist camp. He also provided information showing that the shoe confiscated from Richard Reidâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; the so-called "shoe bomber" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; was a complete bomb that should be handled cautiously. ____ Associated Press Writer Gene Johnson contributed to this report from Seattle. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Canada's wolverine population plummets (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

It has evolved for life on the snowpack, having thick fur and outsized feet that help it move Submitted at 2/3/2010 2:46:57 AM across and hunt on snow. Message from fivefilters.org: If Striking trend you can, please donate to the full Wildlife biologist Dr Jedediah -text RSS service so we can Brodie of the University of continue developing it. Montana, in Missoula, US, The wolverine, a predator wondered how climate change renowned for its strength and might be having an impact on tenacious character, may be snowpack levels, and on the slowly melting away along with animals that depend on it. the snowpack upon which it He had previously researched lives. how declining levels of snow in Research shows wolverine the US Yellowstone National numbers are falling across North Park, caused by climate change, America. Their decline has been was changing the abundance of linked to less snow settling as a alpen trees and how elk feed on result of climate change. them. The study is the first to show a Dr Brodie and his colleague, decline in the abundance of any P r o f e s s o r E r i c P o s t o f land species due to vanishing Pennsylvania State University, at snowpack. University Park, US, gathered Details of the wolverine's data on snowpack levels across d e c l i n e a r e p u b l i s h e d i n six provinces of Canada: Alberta, Population Ecology. British Columbia, Manitoba, the The wolverine lives in arboreal N o r t h w e s t T e r r i t o r i e s , f o r e s t a c r o s s S c a n d i n a v i a , Saskatchewan and the Yukon northern Russia, northern China, Territory. Mongolia and North America, In all bar the Yukon, he found where it ranges mostly across six that snowpack depth declined provinces of western Canada. significantly between 1968 and This largest member of the 2004. weasel family eats carrion and Other studies have shown food it hunts itself, including c o r r e s p o n d i n g r i s i n g hares, marmots, smaller rodents temperatures and declining a n d y o u n g o r w e a k e n e d precipitation across much of the ungulates. western US.

"It occurred to me that a good first place to look for ecological impacts of that snowpack decline would be with a snow-adapted species like the wolverine," Dr Brodie told the BBC. "Fortuitously, Canada has good records of both snowpack trends over time as well as trends in the harvest of all sorts of fur-bearing animals." So Dr Brodie and Professor Post examined the records of wolverine numbers caught by fur trappers over the same period. They found a striking correlation between declining snowpack and falling numbers of the predator. "In provinces where winter snowpack levels are declining fastest, wolverine populations tend to be declining most rapidly," the researchers wrote in the journal article. "Spring snowpack also appears to influence wolverine population dynamics." The researchers found only one province, the Northwest Territories, where wolverine numbers are increasing. There, snowpack levels are declining but they remain much higher and less variable than in most other provinces. Food scarcity Dr Brodie cannot be sure why

wolverine numbers are falling, but he has his suspicions. "Recent work shows that wolverines appear to use areas with deep snowpack for dispersal. So reduced snowpack could make dispersal more difficult or dangerous, potentially reducing the success rate with which individuals can establish new home ranges," he says. "Reduced snowpack may also make it harder for wolverines to get food, for several reasons. "First, harsh winters and deep snow are major causes of mortality for ungulates like elk, moose, deer and caribou. "If milder winters mean that fewer of these animals die over the course of the winter, then there will be fewer carcasses for wolverines to feed on," he explains. "Wolverines also hunt rodents, and this food source may be important for wolverine reproductive success in some areas. "But shallower snowpack is bad for a lot of rodents because it provides less insulation from the cold. "So if declining snowpack reduces rodent abundance, that could be bad for wolverines." Dr Brodie believes that his is the

first study to show a decline in species abundance due to a reducing snowpack - for any land animal, not just those in North America. But he says there are interesting parallels in marine systems. "For example, sea ice is critical for polar bear foraging." Polar bear body condition, reproductive rates, and survival have declined significantly in Hudson Bay as sea ice breaks up earlier in the spring, he says. "At the other end of the globe, Antarctic sea ice has increased over recent decades. "This may have negative impacts on adelie penguin populations that depend on ice-free areas for breeding and foraging. "But we don't have to just sit back and watch climate change drive animals extinct," he says. "As climate change worsens, we should reduce trapping levels and also disturbance to boreal forest habitats. "Reducing the impact of these anthropogenic stressors could help 'offset' the impacts of climate change on wolverines." Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Ill. gov. declares victory, challenger vows fight (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

Alexi Giannoulias, the state treasurer and a basketball buddy of the president, will face fiveMessage from fivefilters.org: If term U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk. you can, please donate to the full Republicans hope to win the -text RSS service so we can Senate seat and the governor's continue developing it. mansion in November by C H I C A G O â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A n I l l i n o i s exploiting Democratic turmoil p r i m a r y e l e c t i o n t h a t w a s and scandal, including former supposed to set the stage for a Gov. Rod Blagojevich's ouster high-stakes political showdown over corruption charges that in President Barack Obama's include the allegation he tried to home state instead produced sell Obama's seat. The victories intense confusion: virtual ties in in an increasingly Democraticthe Democratic and Republican leaning state would be another races for governor. blow to Obama, already stinging Gov. Pat Quinn held a tiny lead from the Republican victory in a Wednesday over Comptroller Massachusetts special election Dan Hynes in the Democratic for Edward Kennedy's former primary. The margin of less than Senate seat. 1 percent was enough for Quinn The inconclusive results in the to claim victory, but Hynes governor's races postpones the insisted the fight was not over. G O P p u s h t o r e t a k e t h e Three Republicans were in a governor's office. Republicans near deadlock. State Sens. Bill don't know who will ultimately Brady and Kirk Dillard, along b e t h e i r n o m i n e e o r t h e i r w i t h b u s i n e s s m a n A n d y opponent. McKenna, were within about a Brady, a legislator from percentage point of one another. Bloomington, was not among the Tuesday's first-in-the-nation leaders in most pre-election polls primary did decide the field in but benefited from being the the race for the U.S. Senate seat only downstate candidate in a h e l d b y O b a m a u n t i l h i s crowded field. "You had five or presidential victory. Democrat six other guys from the Chicago Submitted at 2/3/2010 4:49:04 AM

area. It left the door open for us," he said. Quinn insisted he was the Democratic winner in the governor's race. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, he led Hynes by 7,202 votes out of more than 896,000 cast. "It was a close election, but one more than the other guy is a landslide in my book," Quinn said. He said the remaining votes were from Chicago precincts friendly to him, leaving Hynes with no way to make up the gap. The Hynes camp said that with absentee ballots, tens of thousands of votes remained to be counted. "If democracy means anything, it means we need to count all the votes," Hynes said. "All the votes." One or both of the governor races could wind up going to a re -count. Illinois law doesn't require re-counts in close races, so the candidates would have to decide whether to request one and cover the costs. Two months ago, it appeared Quinn would easily win the Democratic nomination. But he

was weighed down by the baggage of his two campaigns with Blagojevich, his support for a major tax increase and a botched program that granted early release to some violent prison inmates. The Blagojevich scandal could play a role in the Senate race as well. The incumbent, Roland Burris, chose not to run because Blagojevich appointed him to the seat, sullying his reputation so badly he could find little political support. Obama, who cast an absentee ballot, tried to recruit some big-name Democrats but came up empty. The Democrats who did get in the race had their own troubles. Giannoulias' only previous job was working for a family bank that is now in financial trouble, and a treasurer's office investment program lost millions of dollars for families saving for college. Kirk is likely to question Giannoulias' judgment while linking him to larger Democratic troubles. "We know that one political party cannot hold all the answers

and that one political party should never hold all the power," Kirk said. Republican leaders rallied around Kirk as their choice for the party nomination, despite complaints from some GOP activists that his support of gun control and abortion rights makes him too liberal. Giannoulias signaled he will go on the offensive. "As we saw in Massachusetts, voters are angry," Giannoulias said. "For the past decade, Congressman Kirk has been a huge part of the problem." ___ Associated Press writers Carla K. Johnson, David Mercer and Sophia Tareen in Chicago, Jim Suhr in Troy, and AP Photographer M. Spencer Green in Chicago contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

4 Injured in Stage Collapse at Super Bowl Site (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 2/2/2010 8:52:55 AM

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MIAMI Four people were injured when a small stage collapsed outside Sun Life Stadium, where the Super Bowl is being played this weekend. A Miami-Dade Fire Rescue news release says all four victims

were taken to area hospitals Tuesday night. Two were transported by helicopter and the others by ambulance. The injuries were not considered lifethreatening. The Indianapolis Colts and the

New Orleans Saints are set to play Super Bowl XLIV at the stadium on Sunday. A message seeking further comment from a fire department spokesman wasn't immediately returned.

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Jackson's doctor meets with legal team (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

rented mansion, administered the powerful anesthetic propofol and two other sedatives to get the Message from fivefilters.org: If chronic insomniac to sleep, you can, please donate to the full according to the Los Angeles -text RSS service so we can County coroner's office, which continue developing it. ruled the death a homicide. LOS ANGELES â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Michael Propofol is only supposed to be Jackson's physician has been administered by an anesthesia strategizing with his team of professional in a medical setting. defense attorneys and is ready to The patient requires constant surrender to authorities if monitoring because the drug prosecutors file charges, the depresses breathing and heart doctor's attorney said. rate while also lowering blood Dr. Conrad Murray, who has a pressure, a potentially deadly practice in Houston, came to Los combination. Angeles last weekend and spent Murray, a cardiologist, has Tuesday afternoon meeting with maintained from the outset that his newly assembled team of nothing he gave the singer three lawyers. The district s h o u l d h a v e k i l l e d h i m . attorney's office has not said if it A d m i n i s t e r i n g p r o p o f o l t o will file charges but lead defense J a c k s o n w a s n ' t i l l e g a l , s o attorney Ed Chernoff said prosecutors must show Murray Murray is ready for such a move. deviated from accepted medical "I haven't received any phone norms when he administered it in call from anybody asking for the a non-medical setting while doctor to surrender," Chernoff Jackson already had other said. "If we get the call, we'll be sedatives in his system. happy to." A law enforcement official last David Walgren, the deputy Los m o n t h t o l d t h e A P t h a t Angeles County district attorney prosecutors had decided to seek a handling the case, declined to grand jury indictment on an comment. involuntary manslaughter charge. Jackson, 50, hired Murray to be On Tuesday, a second law his personal physician as he e n f o r c e m e n t o f f i c i a l s a i d prepared for a strenuous series of prosecutors were sticking with comeback performances in the charge but planned to file a London. His death on June 25 in criminal complaint to avoid the Los Angeles came after Murray, appearance of secrecy in the tending to Jackson in the star's closely watched case. Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:20:05 AM

Both officials requested anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss the case. While there is no public timetable for charges to be filed against Murray, there are strong indications the move is imminent. Jackson attorney Brian Oxman said Wednesday that the pop star's family believes an involuntary manslaughter charge would be insufficient. Brian Oxman told CBS' "The Early Show" on Wednesday that Murray displayed recklessness in dispensing the drugs, warranting a second-degree murder charge. Involuntary manslaughter, with its maximum jail sentence of four years, would be "just a slap on the wrist," he said. A criminal complaint would pave the way for a preliminary hearing in the case, where a judge would publicly hear evidence and decide if it should go to trial. Such a hearing would provide a valuable glimpse into the strength of the government's case and could help Murray determine if he should negotiate with prosecutors for a plea deal, said criminal defense attorney Roger Rosen, who is not a part of the case. "You get a flavor for what you are dealing with," he said.

Chernoff recently hired attorneys Joseph Low, who has worked in the media spotlight representing Marines accused of wrongful killings in Iraq, and J. Michael Flanagan, who represented Britney Spears in a hit-and-run case. Los Angeles Police Department investigators spent months gathering evidence, with detectives talking to numerous medical experts to determine whether Murray's behavior, which included talking on his cell phone and leaving Jackson's bedside, fell outside the bounds of reasonable medical practice. To bring a manslaughter charge, prosecutors must show there was a reckless action that created a risk of death or great bodily injury. If a doctor is aware of the risk, there might also be an issue of whether the patient knew that risk and decided to take it. Murray was in dire financial shape when he signed on as Jackson's doctor, owing a total of at least $780,000 in judgments against him and other payments. Low declined to comment on what financial arrangements the lawyers had made to represent Murray. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

NYC Karaoke Bar Worker Admits Killing Clubgoer (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 2/3/2010 4:17:10 AM

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. NEW YORK A Times Square karaoke club worker has pleaded guilty to beating a patron to death with a steel pipe and slashing her throat on the roof while the club threw a party honoring Lil' Kim's birthday. Syed Rahman, 25, expects a sentence of 20 years to life after pleading guilty Tuesday in a Manhattan courthouse to murdering 24-year-old Ingrid Rivera. It wasn't clear whether Lil' Kim was at the August 2008 party at Spotlight Live. A spokesperson for the rapper did not immediately respond to an email message. Rahman's lawyer, Peter Frankel, said his client and Rivera were strangers before they met at the club. Frankel declined to describe what happened but said it was "a series of horrible events" fueled in part by Rahman's drinking and drug use. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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US soldiers die in Pakistan blast (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

the BBC's Ilyas Khan in Islamabad. Critics accuse Pakistani Submitted at 2/3/2010 5:50:10 AM President Asif Ali Zardari of Message from fivefilters.org: If turning a blind eye to repeated you can, please donate to the full American drone attacks in the -text RSS service so we can north-west, which have killed continue developing it. more than 600 people during the Please turn on JavaScript. Media past year, our correspondent requires JavaScript to play. says. Local television pictures from The US has argued in the past the scene of the explosion that its soldiers are in Pakistan to Three US soldiers were among provide security for US citizens, 10 people killed when a bomb he adds. blast hit a convoy near a school Last year, the Pakistani army in north-west Pakistan. carried out a major offensive to Three school girls were among drive Taliban insurgents out of the dead while 70 people, Lower Dir and the neighbouring including another 63 school girls districts of Swat and Buner. and two US soldiers, were But the Taliban are still present injured in the explosion in Lower in remote areas and the latest Dir. attack shows that the militants district in the North West The US embassy said the is deeply concerned about US humanitarian assistance. remain a powerful force in the military personnel had been increasing numbers of US Azam Tariq, a spokesman for Frontier Province. region, says the BBC's Mark The blast occurred near a training Pakistan's Frontier diplomatic and aid staff who the Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-eDummett in Islamabad. Corps in counter-insurgency. have appeared in the country Taliban, claimed responsibility different school in Koto, a Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Both governments deny large since US President Barack for the attack in a statement to heavily populated village along Gilani also condemned the attack the route. numbers of US troops are in Obama declared the country to AFP news agency. and ordered an investigation, the be a top foreign policy priority. Military spokesman Maj Gen The impact flattened much of Pakistan, where public opinion AFP news agency reports. The Pakistani authorities have Athar Abbas told the BBC that the Koto Girls' High School, opposes their presence. The Taliban has frequently The US embassy in Islamabad on several occasions during the the US personnel were attached leaving pupils crying for help targeted girls' schools in recent confirmed in a statement three p a s t f i v e m o n t h s a r r e s t e d to the Frontier Corps as military from under the rubble. years, burning several to the 'Highly embarrassing' American military personnel American officials - in Lahore trainers. ground. Many are now being were killed and two wounded in and Peshawar - who were Pakistan's Frontier Corps is a At least three of the dead were rebuilt. what it branded a "vicious suspected of having incorrect paramilitary force responsible for school girls, police said, adding Are you in the Lower Dir paperwork. operations against militants in that security guards and three terrorist bombing". district? Did you witness the The Pakistani military and the But unofficially the government the volatile north-west, near the local journalists were also among attack? Send us your comments the wounded. government are both extremely is believed to be relying on US Afghan border. The BBC may edit your sensitive about the strong US effort and expertise to fight the The US soldiers were said to News that three US soldiers comments and not all emails will have been travelling in a convoy, were killed will be highly presence in their country and Taliban. be published. Your comments The statement also said the along with Pakistani troops, that embarrassing for the Pakistani both appear to be saying may be published on any BBC different things to different Americans had been due to was heading to the inauguration government, which is acutely attend the inauguration of a girls' of a newly built girls' school in aware of the unpopularity of its audiences. SOLDIERS page 69 Officially the government says it school recently renovated with Maidan, an area of Lower Dir close ties to Washington, says

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US wary over Iran uranium offer (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

changed. Up to this point, Iran has said that it wants major changes to Submitted at 2/3/2010 3:23:39 AM the proposed deal, which would Message from fivefilters.org: If make it unacceptable to the US you can, please donate to the full and its allies. -text RSS service so we can If, on the other hand, he is continue developing it. saying this now as a way of The US has reacted warily after u n d e r m i n i n g t h e c u r r e n t Iran appeared to accept a deal to d i s c u s s i o n s o n i n c r e a s i n g swap enriched uranium for sanctions on Iran, there would be nuclear fuel. no progress. President Mahmoud As always with Iran, it is Ahmadinejad said Iran would difficult to assess its policy from have "no problem" if most of its one statement. But at least there stock was held for several is some hope. months before being returned as A deal struck in October fuel rods. between Iran, the International The US said that if this was a Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) new offer, it was "prepared to and the so-called P5+1 - the US, listen". Russia, China, UK, France plus Soon after the statement, Iranian Germany - envisaged Iran s t a t e T V a n n o u n c e d t h e sending about 70% of its lowsuccessful launch of a satellite enriched uranium to Russia and rocket carrying an "experimental France where it would be capsule". processed into fuel for a research The West is concerned about reactor. I r a n ' s g r o w i n g m i s s i l e But last month, diplomats said technology and possible links to Iran had told the IAEA that it did its nuclear programme. not accept the terms of the deal I r a n i n s i s t s i t s n u c l e a r and had instead demanded a d e v e l o p m e n t a n d r o c k e t simultaneous exchange on its programme are entirely peaceful. territory. If President Ahmadinejad's Then, in a state TV interview on comments are followed up by an Tuesday, President Ahmadinejad Iranian approach to the IAEA dismissed the concerns of his stating that it is ready to "colleagues" that the West would negotiate on a uranium deal, then retain the uranium. the whole picture would be "We have no problem sending

our enriched uranium abroad," he said. "We say, 'We will give you our 3.5% enriched uranium,' and will get the fuel. It may take four to five months until we get the fuel." BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne, reporting from London, says there will still be scepticism about whether President Ahmadinejad's offer is anything more than a delaying tactic designed to fend off fresh sanctions. In an initial reaction to the comments, US State Department spokesman P J Crowley said the US was "not prepared to change the deal. We are not interested in renegotiating it". In a later response, a White House official told the BBC: "If Mr Ahmadinejad's comments reflect an updated Iranian position, we look forward to Iran informing the IAEA." The official added: "If Iran has something new to say, we are prepared to listen." Russian also gave a guarded response to the Iranian offer. "If Iran was to return to the scheme that was proposed in October, then we would welcome that," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The British Foreign Office said that if Iran was ready to take up

the offer, it "looked forward" to Tehran telling the IAEA. "If Iran is willing to take up the IAEA's proposed offer, it would be a positive sign of their willingness to engage with the international community on nuclear issues," a spokesman said. Mr Ahmadinejad also said there were negotiations about a possible prisoner swap for several Iranians jailed in the US for the three American hikers currently being held in Iran. "There are some talks under way to have an exchange, if it is possible," he said. "We are hopeful that all prisoners will be released." Mr Ahmadinejad did not go into detail, but in December Tehran released a list of 11 Iranians it says are being held in US prisons, including a nuclear scientist who disappeared in Saudi Arabia and a former defence ministry official who vanished in Turkey. The US has denied any knowledge of their whereabouts. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

How a journalist scored an interview with the Calvin & Hobbes creator: He emailed. (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/3/2010 1:40:50 AM

Cleveland reporter John Campanelli recently landed a rare interview with Bill Waterson, the famously reclusive Calvin and Hobbes creator. When the Washington Post asked about Campanelli’s suave tactics, it seems the main idea was simply to try. “I wasn’t very hopeful I’d get a response, that’s for sure,” Campanelli told the Post. “But you still gotta try.” (via Washington Post and Cleveland.com) More on comics. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Haiti judge quizzes missionaries (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 2/2/2010 4:57:35 PM

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. US Baptist missionary Laura Silsby: "God is going to bring this to a positive closure" A group of 10 US missionaries who were arrested as they tried to take 33 children out of earthquake-stricken Haiti are being questioned by a judge. The investigative magistrate quizzed the five women for several hours and will interview the men on Wednesday. Communications Minister Marie Laurence Jocelyn-Lassegue said prosecutors would later decide whether to press charges. The missionaries deny they were engaged in child trafficking, and insist they were trying to help vulnerable orphans. On Monday, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive described them as "kidnappers" who had known "what they were doing was wrong". He said some of the children had parents who were alive, and that the Haitian authorities were trying to reunite them. Preliminary stages On Tuesday, the five women missionaries were questioned behind closed doors by an

investigative magistrate at the judicial police headquarters in Port-au-Prince. There were no lawyers present. "I heard five of them. Then I will hear the other five tomorrow," Judge Ezaie Pierre-Louis said. "After the hearing tomorrow, I will make a report to the prosecutor, then he will decide what he does next." Before the hearing, prosecutor Mazarre Fortil said the authorities were still in the preliminary stages of the investigation. "We are looking deeper into what happened to determine the next steps," he told the Reuters news agency. The missionaries have been

detained since Friday, when they tried to enter the neighbouring Dominican Republic with the children, whose ages ranged from 2 months to 12 years, without the right documents. The children were later taken to an orphanage, where those who were old enough and willing to talk said they had surviving parents. "Up until now we have not encountered any who say they are an orphan," said Patricia Vargas of SOS Children's Village. The missionaries' "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" was described on their website as an effort to save abandoned and traumatised children. They

intended to take 100 by bus to a hotel in the Dominican beach resort of Cabarete. "Our intent was to help only those children that needed us most, that had lost either both their mother and father, or had lost one of their parents and the other had abandoned them," said Laura Silsby, a spokeswoman for the group, from their cell. "We believe we have been charged very falsely with trafficking. We all gave up everything we had... to come here to help these children and by no means are any part of that horrendous practice." Ms Silsby said her group had met a Haitian pastor by chance when they arrived last week, and

that he had helped them gather the children. She also admitted that they did not have the proper paperwork. The director of Haiti's social welfare agency, Jeanne Bernard Pierre, told the Associated Press that the pastor had knocked on doors asking people if they wanted to give away their children. "One child said to me: 'When they came knocking on our door asking for children, my mom decided to give me away because we are six children and by giving me away she would have only five kids to care for,'" he said. The US government has said the case remains one for the Haitian authorities. Embassy officials have had regular access. Experts have expressed concerns that child traffickers could take advantage of the earthquake on 12 January, which killed up to 200,000 people and left more than a million people homeless. According to UN guidelines, two years should pass after a disaster before adoption can even be considered, giving time to exhaust all efforts to locate family members first. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.