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Obama Braves “Snowmaggedon” to Rally Democrats by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa (Front Row Washington)
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Snow storm strikes Washington DC ADVERTISEMENT: (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
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Submitted at 2/7/2010 5:20:49 AM
30 Striking Natural Disasters
Submitted at 2/6/2010 9:45:42 AM
The Obama family hails from Chicago, where heavy snowfalls are not uncommon. But that’s not the case in Washington, D.C., which was largely shut down on Saturday morning by a blizzard when the president headed to the Capital Hilton Hotel to rev up a gathering of the Democratic National Committee. The short ride from the White House was not without glitches. First, a couple of the 15 or so vehicles in the presidential motorcade had a hard time getting up the icy White House driveway. Then an ambulance that was accompanying the group had a slight fender-bender accident with one of the SUVs. As the cars approached White House grounds on the return trip, a tree branch fell on the same vehicle that had been scraped earlier, momentarily blocking the way.
A blizzard producing heavy snow and powerful winds pummels the US capital
Submitted at 2/7/2010 9:00:00 AM
(Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/7/2010 1:05:49 AM
24 hours in pictures (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 2/7/2010 8:21:32 AM
A selection of the best images from around the world Obama had serious things on his mind, such as healthcare and financial reform, as he spoke to a Democratic Party that has becoming increasingly concerned about the shifting tides of public opinion ahead of November’s Congressional elections. But the weather was an unavoidable topic. “Good to be among friends so committed to the future of this party and his country that they’re
willing to brave a blizzard — Snowmaggedon right here in D.C.,” he said. For more Reuters political news, click here. Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (A fresh layer of snow (Little Green Footballs) covers the grounds at the White Submitted at 2/6/2010 5:46:59 PM House in Washington, February 3, 2010, following an overnight Here’s the feed from the winter storm.) National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, with ex-governor
Upi.com features an aweinspiring slide show of 30 striking natural disasters. The sobering set of photographs are a humbling testament the power of nature. See the slide show at Upi.com. More on weather. Permalink| Leave a comment »
Live Blog: Sarah Palin at TeaBagCon Sarah Palin scheduled to take center stage in about 15 minutes. Right now there’s a blindingly dull panel discussion on “The Future of Tea Parties.”
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RAF 'relying' on drones in Afghanistan by Rob Evans, Richard Norton -Taylor (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 2/7/2010 8:19:41 AM
Freedom of information request reveals unmanned weapons more prominent in RAF strategy Rob Evans Richard NortonTaylor British forces are relying increasingly on unmanned drones to attack targets in Afghanistan, mirroring controversial tactics used by the US. New Ministry of Defence figures show the RAF has fired 84 missiles from Reaper drones since they were first deployed there in June 2008, with more than 20 being fired over the past two months. The RAF has not disclosed the number of US-made Reapers deployed in Afghanistan, but say they will double the total over the next two years. Defence chiefs say they have been slow to recognise their potential, both in a surveillance role and as a weapons carrier. They are launched from a base in Kandahar, but are controlled remotely thousands of miles away by a squadron of some 90 RAF personnel based at Creech US air force base in Nevada. The drones can carry out surveillance – what the RAF describe as a "staring eye" – of
the battlefield around the clock, far longer than conventional manned aircraft. They are highly suitable in Afghanistan where they are not generally vulnerable to enemy fire, defence officials say. Once a target has been identified, the RAF remote controllers can instruct the drones to fire their two 500lb laser-guided bombs and four Hellfire missiles. The MoD does not specify how the missiles have been used, arguing the details would hinder operational effectiveness. However, defence sources say the drones are used against a wide variety of targets, especially "high-value targets" – a reference to Taliban commanders. They are often called in by British special forces and army commanders on the ground. Missiles from a US drone flying over South Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal region are believed to have killed Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief last year. Highly publicised CIA attacks on Taliban and al-Qaida suspects on both sides of the PakistanAghanistan border have been criticised for killing civilian bystanders and violating Pakistan's sovereignty. The MoD says there have been no reports of RAF drones killing Freedocivilians.
The rules governing the firing of the Reapers' missiles "are no different to those used for manned combat aircraft, the weapons are all precision guided and every effort is made to ensure the risk of collateral damage and civilian casualties is minimised", a defence official said. There has been a long debate within defence circles about the legality of firing weapons from such a distance and about the authority given to drone controllers. Chris Cole, director of the interfaith peace campaign Fellowship of Reconciliation, who used freedom of information legislation to shed light on the Reapers, said: "Drones are the latest in a long line of new weapons used in the mistaken belief that they will provide a clean and tidy solution to a conflict – time and again history has proved that this is a myth." He added: "We have a number of serious concerns not least because there is a picture beginning to emerge of high civilian casualties. In addition, the use of armed drones to target specific individuals could amount to summary or arbitrary execution". Philip Alston, a UN human rights special rapporteur, warned in October that the US use of drones to kill militants in
Afghanistan and Pakistan may violate international law. He called on the US to explain the legal basis for killing individuals with its drones. Many US intelligence officials view the Predator drones as their most important weapon against alQaida.CIA director Leon Panetta called them the "only game in town" last year. The RAF is also flying small manned twin turboprop Beechcraft King Air planes to complement surveillance missions undertaken by the unmanned Reapers. They are equipped with sophisticated infrared radar and antennae for electronic and communications eavesdropping. The MoD bought an initial batch of six Reaper drones from the US firm General Atomics, at a reported cost of £6m. One of the drones crashed in Afghanistan in 2008 in what defence secretary Bob Ainsworth called "a forced landing". • Military • Afghanistan • Defence policy • US military Rob Evans Richard NortonTaylor guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds
Teaching kids where their food comes from (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/7/2010 1:26:47 AM
In a modern world where the majority of Americans don’t know how food gets to their tables and fast food dominates, one New York City school teacher Jenny Kessler is educating her high school students about the social, political, and economical aspects of food. She uses scholarly resources like books, articles, and documentaries, as well as hands-on field trips (such as sampling raw meat at a local butcher shop). The popular course carries a simple goal: to teach kids that there are better options than industrialized food. To learn more about the class, read the full article at the NY Times. More about food. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »
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Chaplains are latest British military shortage by Riazat Butt (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
campaign because of the shortages. The Royal Army Chaplains' Department has experienced one Submitted at 2/7/2010 7:42:22 AM of its busiest decades since the General Synod to hear reports of second world war, with more falling numbers despite rising t h a n 3 0 s t a f f d e p l o y e d demand for services simultaneously around the world Military chaplains are busier on several occasions because of than they have been since the Britain's military operations. It second world war but the armed has 27 people in Afghanistan and forces are struggling to recruit nine in Iraq. clergy because of a diminishing One churchman said an absence pool of priests, the Church of of chaplains would be hamper England's governing body will operations. The Rev Stephen be told this week. Sharkey was in Afghanistan with In a report to the General Synod, 4 Rifles, a mechanised infantry w h i c h o p e n s t o m o r r o w , regiment that returned to the UK chaplaincies from across the last October. It was his first armed forces will highlight the deployment and he spent his four discrepancy between staffing and months travelling between Camp demand. Bastion, Silab and Shawqat. The navy chaplaincy has He said: "Around 20% of the d r o p p e d i t s m i n i m u m a g e battalion would never have been requirement from 52 to 49 to deployed before. There were new attract more people. The RAF, people coming in all the time. It which deployed 12 chaplains in is a young army. It has to be to 2009 to Afghanistan alone, says survive. it has launched a recruitment "I let the soldiers know I was
there, sometimes they would seek me out. We talked about everything pastoral, financial, personal, relationship, grief and bereavement issues. I would talk to anyone, whether they were Christian or not." He said the majority of those he met were open to faith and spirituality. "Often they ask us to pray for them. They say it can't do any harm. When they go out they don't know if they will come back. When their friends go out, they don't know if they'll come back." Addressing the hundreds of bishops, clergy and laity attending the synod will be the chaplain general of land forces, the Ven Stephen Robbins, the chaplain of the fleet, the Ven John Green, and the RAF chaplain-in-chief, the Ven Ray Pentland. Other issues to be discussed during the five-day meeting are better pension rights for partners of gay clergy and religious
content on television channels. The synod opens tomorrow with the bishop of Manchester explaining why there has been a setback to draft legislation on the ordination of women as bishops. On Tuesday, the archbishop of Canterbury will deliver his presidential address. It is expected he will discuss ongoing debates in the Anglican communion about human sexuality and reflections on the apostolic constitution, a Vatican initiative to allow groups of Anglicans to convert to Catholicism. • Anglicanism • Military • Religion • Defence policy Riazat Butt guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds
5 super useful notebooks (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/7/2010 12:49:29 AM
Notebook aficionados will love Lifehack’s post about five unusually useful notebooks. My favorite is Aquanotes (shown above), a pad of waterproof paper that suctions to your shower wall. The best ideas always come in the shower, and now you can prove it. Read the full article at Lifehack to see all five notebooks. More for writers. Permalink| Leave a comment »
Super Bowl Stock #5: Viacom (VIA) by Louis Navellier (BloggingStocks)
during the Super Bowl to promote May's Iron Man 2 and July's The Last Airbender. There Submitted at 2/7/2010 11:00:00 AM also will be a plug for a February Filed under: Viacom (VIA), flick with Leonardo DiCaprio Stocks to Buy called Shutter Island. The summer movie season is The runaway success of recent only a few months away, and release Avatar proves that Viacom( VIA) has some big Americans are still spending blockbusters in the works. The strongly on movies. Viacom saw studio will use a number of ads tremendous success with the
original Iron Man release with Robert Downey Jr., and I expect
another big payday at the box ADVERTISEMENT: Comcast office. Business Class Continue reading Super Bowl Look at your bill and Stock #5: Viacom (VIA) find out how much your Super Bowl Stock #5: Viacom business can save (VIA) originally appeared on with Comcast Business Class. BloggingStocks on Sun, 07 Feb Internet, Phone & TV for $99. 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see Learn More our terms for use of feeds. Ads by Pheedo Permalink| Email this| Comments
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Snow storms cause chaos on US east Facebook Grows as a coast Source for News by Adam Gabbatt (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
onto a vehicle carrying members of the press. No one was injured. The region was under at least 2ft of snow, while parts of northern Submitted at 2/7/2010 4:53:21 AM Maryland had 3ft. Trees were R e c o r d s n o w f a l l f r o m toppled and hundreds of car Pennsylvania to Virginia leads crashes reported in Washington P r e s i d e n t O b a m a t o l a b e l DC, Virginia, West Virginia, conditions as 'snowmageddon' M a r y l a n d , D e l a w a r e , In pictures: Washington's snow Pennsylvania and New Jersey. storms Only two fatalities have so far Tens of thousands of people been reported, a father and son remain without power after killed helping another motorist in record snowfall paralysed some Virginia. parts of the eastern US. Most flights were cancelled at Almost 27 inches (69cm) of the three main airports in the snow fell in Philadelphia on Washington-Baltimore area, as Saturday, while Washington DC were trains between New York was hit with one of the worst and Washington, and a number blizzards in its history. of services from Washington to At least two people were killed the south. as much of the east coast was Crowds gathered in Dupont b u r i e d , w i t h s t a t e s f r o m Circle, Washington, for a mass Pennsylvania to New Jersey, and snowball fight organised online, south to Virginia, receiving up to and cross-country skiers lapped 2ft (60cm) of snow. the Reflecting Pool along the Barack Obama referred to the National Mall in the city. conditions as "snowmageddon", Shops' shelves were emptied on and even his fleet of vehicles F r i d a y a s p e o p l e b e g a n suffered in the blizzards, with a stockpiling food, with some snow-laden tree branch falling unable to leave their homes due
to the thigh-high snow. The snowfall came less than two months after a 19 December storm dumped more than 16in (40cm) of snow on Washington. Snowfalls of this magnitude are rare in the area. The US national weather service said Washington only experienced more than a foot of snow 13 times since 1870. The heaviest on record is 28in (71cm) in January 1922, while the biggest snowfall in the Washington-Baltimore area is believed to have been in 1772, before official records were kept. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson reported of as much as 3ft of snow in their diaries. • United States Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.ukŠ Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds
by Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/7/2010 10:20:00 AM
Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), New York Times'A' (NYT), News Corp'B' (NWS), Media World, Technology How are readers finding the news? Well, increasingly, the answer is Facebook. The social networking site, which boasts well over 350 million registered users, is now the fourth largest referral source of traffic to online news destinations. Almost a year ago, only 0.5% of traffic to news and media sites came from Facebook. Today, that level is 3.5%, according to data from Web analytics firm Experian Hitwise. Only Google ( GOOG), Yahoo! ( YHOO) and MSN ( MSFT) send more traffic to news sites.
Google News, a subset of the search engine giant, failed to keep pace with Facebook, despite the fact that it exists specifically to send Internet users to media outlets. Only 1.39% of referrals came from this source. Continue reading Facebook Grows as a Source for News Facebook Grows as a Source for News originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
Where to watch Sunday's shuttle launch (CNET News.com) Submitted at 2/6/2010 2:55:00 PM
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Watch the Super Bowl Ads on YouTube [VIDEO] by Pete Cashmore (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/6/2010 9:23:13 PM
French Town Heats Swimming Pool With Sewage by Ariel Schwartz (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/6/2010 4:01:07 PM
Sometimes swimming in public pools can seem a little unsanitary, but one French town in the suburbs of Paris really puts the poo in pool. Sophie Deschiens, the Environment Councilwoman for the town of Levallois-Perret, was bugged by the wasted energy of hot water
getting dumped down the drain. The water in city pipes averages a temperature of 68 F, she thought, so why not put it to good use? Deschiens researched a system that uses a series stainless steel plates attached to the bottom of sewer pipes. The plates are outfitted with a heat-trapping liquid that can transfer the heat elsewhere--like to a pool. The councilwoman was so impressed
that she decided put a $650,000 plan in motion to use heat trapped from sewer pipes to warm up water in the town's new aquatic center, which contains pools, spas, and jacuzzis. The expensive project is expected itself off in a decade by cutting the city's energy costs by 24%. And Deschiens' program will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 66%. There are actually a number of
other similar sewage heat projects in existence--including one in the 2010 Olympic Village that is bound to increase visibility of the technology. So who knows? Your town pool might also soon be warmed up by your neighbors' waste. [Via Treehugger]
As expected, YouTube announced the launch tonight of its Super Bowl ad channel at youtube.com/adblitz, which will allow viewers to vote on the commercials immediately after they air on TV. The channel, sponsored by car maker Kia, has already been populated by content from the YouTube community, and YouTube is working directly with advertisers to get the videos posted as soon as they appear on TV. The top rated commercial will be featured on the YouTube homepage on Thursday February 18th. Reviews: YouTube
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Consumer Credit Falls for the 11th Straight Month
Super Bowl Stock #4: Unilever (UL)
by Connie Madon (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/7/2010 9:00:00 AM
(Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 2/6/2010 3:59:12 PM
by Louis Navellier (BloggingStocks)
Filed under: Unilever ADR (UL), Stocks to Buy Consumer products giant Filed under: Consumer Unilever( UL) saw big business Experience, Market Matters, even during the worst of the Economic Data, Personal recession thanks to its Finance, Recession recognizable brands like Ben & Investors and traders are in a Jerry's, Vaseline and Cutex. This quandary, trying to figure out if These persons certainly are loyal customer base has provided the economy is, indeed, spending only for basic a great backbone for the improving. necessities. company's sales and profits, and One measure of growth is Continue reading Consumer kept this stock attractive among consumer spending. Consumer Credit Falls for the 11th Straight investors. spending accounts for 70% of Month Now that consumer spending GDP, and it is the engine that has Consumer Credit Falls for the appears to be on the mend, kept the economy growing over 11th Straight Month originally Unilever is looking to take its the past decade. appeared on BloggingStocks on business to the next level with a Well, consumer credit has fallen Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:40:00 EST. new line of men's products -for eleven straight months. The Please see our terms for use of including Dove moisturizers and recession has taken a harsh toll feeds. Read| Permalink| Email bath items. on the consumer. We have about this| Comments Continue reading Super Bowl 17 million people out of work.
Video: Codehunters A great animated short film directed by Ben Hibon, for a Saturday afternoon sanity break.[Video]
Submitted at 2/7/2010 9:40:00 AM
Congratulations to the winner of the Tokyoflash watch by Dave Freeman (CrunchGear) Stock #4: Unilever (UL) Super Bowl Stock #4: Unilever (UL) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
Submitted at 2/6/2010 10:00:39 AM
Just a wanted to post a quick note here, congrats to @DStoneburner, the winner of the Tokyoflash wristwatch contest. So good for you, @DStoneburner. Don’t say we never gave you anything.
Men’s waistbands correlate with age (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/7/2010 4:36:56 AM
According to a recent study out of the UK, the only times men wear their pants at their actual waistline on average are when they are under 12 years old, or when they are in their late twenties. The study found that
as young men become teenagers, their waistbands, on average, drop a full twelve centimeters (that’s 4.7 inches!) before beginning to creep back up as they enter the workforce. By a man’s late thirties/early forties, his waistband will begin to rise even further past his natural about a third of the way from his waistline, eventually reaching actual waistline to his armpits.
Menswear researchers hope that the ground. these findings will aid more Full story at the Herald Sun. a c c u r a t e t a i l o r i n g o f There may not be a red carpet trousers—and maybe will help under you, but you can still look convince older gentlemen that good. really, their legs have not just Photo credit: Fotolia suddenly grown; their pants have Permalink| Leave a comment » just risen. All seriousness aside, please, just please, keep your pants off
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Missionary who was held in N. Korea arrives in US (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
reporters his brother is in good condition. Robert Park, of Tucson, Ariz., Message from fivefilters.org: If crossed the frozen Tumen River you can, please donate to the full from China into North Korea on -text RSS service so we can Dec. 25, carrying letters calling continue developing it. on leader Kim Jong Il to close LOS ANGELES – A Korean- the country's notoriously brutal A m e r i c a n m i s s i o n a r y w h o prison camps and step down defiantly crossed a frozen river from power. Those acts could into North Korea intent on have risked execution in the urging a change in its leadership hardline communist country. has reunited with his overjoyed The family didn't know Robert family, silent and downcast after Park had planned to cross into 43 days in the communist North Korea until about 14 hours nation's custody. before he did it, Paul Park said. Robert Park, 28, wept as he left He said they were informed of the flight from Beijing Saturday the plan during an international evening and met with his family, phone call. He didn't specify any his brother said. further. "Hugging him, there didn't seem "I have to admit, I didn't believe to be anything broken," said Paul i t u n t i l I s a w i t o n t h e Park, who said he was speechless international news," Paul Park when he spotted his brother said of his brother's crossing into walking off the plane. North Korea. "To say that the The greeting took place in a family wasn't prepared would be private location but the family putting it mildly." spoke to reporters briefly as they The family didn't have time left the airport. A thin and pale during their brief airport reunion P a r k — w h o f l e w f r o m to ask whether he had been Pyongyang to Beijing after North mistreated by North Korean Korea announced Friday he officials, Paul Park said. They would be freed — wouldn't also didn't get a chance to ask s p e a k a n d k e p t h i s e y e s him about a statement that North downcast while Paul Park told Korea attributed to him on
Friday, he said. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency quoted Park as saying he was ashamed of the "biased" view he once held of the country. Robert Park said he was now convinced "there's complete religious freedom for all people everywhere" in North Korea, citing the return of the Bible he carried as he entered the country and a service he attended at Pongsu Church in Pyongyang, KCNA said. "I would not have committed such crime if I had known that the (North) respects the rights of all the people and guarantees their freedom and they enjoy a happy and stable life," it quoted him as saying. Robert Park didn't respond to questions from reporters when he arrived in Beijing about whether he had been speaking freely or under duress. North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion but the government severely restricts religious observance, only allowing worship — primarily by foreigners — at sanctioned churches. Defectors say underground worship and the
distribution of Bibles can mean banishment to a labor camp or execution. KCNA said Park told the news agency he had felt compelled to go to North Korea to draw attention to reported rights abuses and mass killings, even if it meant risking his life. North Korea is regarded as having one of the world's worst human rights records, with some 154,000 political prisoners held in six camps across the country, according to the South Korean government. This was the second time in less than a year that an American has been held by North Korea, which doesn't have diplomatic ties with the U.S. Two journalists were released in August with former President Bill Clinton's help after they were arrested at the border and sentenced to prison. Last month, North Korea notified the U.S. that it has yet another American in custody for allegedly entering the country illegally. That person has not been identified by either Pyongyang or the U.S. State Department. "We finally can relax," said the Rev. John Benson, a pastor in
Here’s the page where you can watch over the web: C-SPAN Live Stream. T h e f i r s t N a t i o n a l T e a UPDATE at 2/6/10 11:34:06 Party/Birther Convention in am: The next broadcast will be at 6 Nashville is on C-SPAN today. Oh well, they’ve cut away now. pm Pacific, for the $100,000
speech of ex-governor Sarah Palin.
Submitted at 2/7/2010 7:19:25 AM
TeaBagCon Live on C-SPAN (Little Green Footballs)
Submitted at 2/6/2010 11:03:35 AM
Tucson, who ordained Park as a missionary. "We still had a little bit of reservation while he was still in North Korea. There was always a chance that they could change their mind." The family planned to feed him spaghetti for dinner — his favorite meal growing up. "Right now, the biggest thing is, we love him and we're excited to have him back," Paul Park said. "And I'm really excited because I got to make probably the biggest of my New Year's resolutions, which was to get him back home and give him a hug." ___ Associated Press writers Cara Anna and Charles Hutzler in Beijing, Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles, Walter Berry in Phoenix, Elliot Spagat in San Diego, and Jean H. Lee and Kwang-tae Kim in Seoul contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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US snow causes major power cuts (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)
of the capital were deserted, and the city's famous sites and monuments were covered with Submitted at 2/7/2010 1:33:47 AM snow. Message from fivefilters.org: If Debi Adkins, who lives just you can, please donate to the full outside the city of Baltimore, -text RSS service so we can told the BBC: "I'm not going continue developing it. anywhere - I couldn't if I wanted Please turn on JavaScript. Media to. You just can't get your cars requires JavaScript to play. out. The front door of the "This is may be the biggest storm building I live in is closed shut, that we have had" so I just can't get out." Hundreds of thousands of Some sight-seers ventured out in people remain without power in thigh-deep snow along the Washington DC and nearby famous national mall, or went states after a blizzard blanketed cross-country skiing down empty the area with record snows. boulevards. Electricity was cut to at least Others took part in a huge 300,000 homes as the snow snowball fight at DuPont Circle, felled trees, and cut power lines. a major Washington Emergency workers are thoroughfare, organised via struggling to restore power. Facebook and Twitter. city. While at Dulles, outside injured. Washington got up to 2ft (61cm) the New York Times reported. US government offices in the of snow, one of the heaviest Pepco electric company said its Washington, the record was All across the region, hundreds Washington area closed four workers were scrambling to shattered with 32in (81cm). of car accidents were reported, snowfalls in decades. hours early on Friday, and The storm disrupted transport restore power, but warned it A weather forecaster at the but only two fatalities - a father forecasters warned of a difficult from West Virginia to southern could be a few days before N a t i o n a l W e a t h e r S e r v i c e and son who died while helping commute on Monday morning. everyone was back up. (NWS) at Dulles airport told the another motorist in Virginia. New Jersey. Please turn on JavaScript. Media "We have a lot of scattered BBC the snowstorms would be US national rail service Amtrak A record 3ft (91cm) of snow fell requires JavaScript to play. outages and the road conditions reducing in the next few hours. cancelled a number of trains on Maryland. Washington's mass snowball Washington DC, Virginia and are not really working with us," The NWS has cancelled all b e t w e e n N e w Y o r k a n d fight M a r y l a n d h a v e d e c l a r e d spokesman Andre Francis told storm warnings, but said gusty Washington, and also between Are you in the eastern US? How w i n d s c o u l d l e a d t o i c y Washington and some southern emergencies, allowing them to AFP news agency. are you coping with the snow Good forecast conditions, blowing snow, and destinations. activate the National Guard to storms? Send us your comments help cope with the wintry The massive storm brought the reduced visibility along the mid- Snowball fight using the form below. nation's capital to a virtual A t l a n t i c c o a s t t h r o u g h o u t The latest storm comes less than onslaught. Send your pictures and videos to Sunday. two months after a December Some 300,000 homes are standstill. yourpics@bbc.co.uk, text them without electricity in Maryland All flights were cancelled out of Even President Barack Obama storm dumped more than 16in to+44 7725 100 100 or you have and neighbouring Virginia - the Washington's national airport, fell victim to "snowmageddon", (41cm) of snow in Washington. a large file you can upload here. two states which bore the brunt along with most flights out of as locals - including the president The Washington Metro was Read the terms and conditions Dulles International in Virginia. - have dubbed it. operating only on underground of the storm. At no time should you endanger Another 250,000 customers The 18in (46cm) recorded at A tree limb snapped and fell lines, and bus services were w e r e h i t b y b l a c k o u t s i n Reagan National Airport was the onto a vehicle in Mr Obama's cancelled. SNOW page 9 Pennsylvania and New Jersey, fourth-highest snow total for the motorcade, but no-one was The usually traffic-heavy roads
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Authorities: 2 planes collide in Colorado; 3 die (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
and businesses. No one on the ground was injured. "We heard a loud bang and Message from fivefilters.org: If looked up in the air and we saw you can, please donate to the full what looked like a glider and big, -text RSS service so we can black smoke right next to it," continue developing it. Paul Aiken told Boulder's Daily BOULDER, Colo. – Two small C a m e r a . " I t l o o k e d l i k e planes collided in flames over f i r e w o r k s , t h e e x p l o s i o n . " Boulder's outskirts and killed all The Denver Post quoted Sue three people aboard, while a Patton, 53, as saying she saw two glider under tow by one aircraft people plunge out of a plane. cut loose and flew through the "The plane was burning really fireball to safety, officials and strong," she said. "They really witnesses said. didn't have a choice." Three people were aboard the Rob Zimmerman, who was g l i d e r t h a t m a n a g e d t o outside nearby American Legion disconnect from a Piper Pawnee Post 10, told the paper he saw as a Cirrus SR20 clipped the tow one person come from the line an instant before the two aircraft. planes collided, Boulder County The pilot of the glider was sheriff's office spokesman Rick Ruben Bakker, according to his Brough said. mother-in-law Deborah Tjarks, Both aircraft plummeted toward who spoke to The Associated the ground but the glider landed Press. She said he saw the safely with no injuries to anyone collision about to happen and on board. released the glider and banked "We understand the glider went but still flew through the flames. through a fireball after the Bakker did not immediately i m p a c t , " s a i d N T S B f i e l d return a call for comment. investigator Jennifer Rodi. Brough said the Piper Pawnee The crash occurred about 1:30 w i t h o n l y a p i l o t a b o a r d p.m. Saturday near the Boulder belonged to Mile High Gliding M u n i c i p a l A i r p o r t o v e r a Inc. and had just taken off from suburban area dotted with homes the Boulder airport with the Submitted at 2/7/2010 6:22:16 AM
glider in tow. A woman who answered the phone at the glider company declined to comment. The other plane, a single-engine, four-seat Cirrus SR20, was carrying two people. It was unclear where the Cirrus took off. Tail numbers were not immediately available. Brough said the identifications of the victims were being determined by the coroner's office. Brough said there was initial concern that others were aboard the Cirrus because of its number of seats but investigators were now "pretty certain" there were just the two aboard. Gliders, or sailplanes, are lightweight aircraft that are often towed into the sky, then released to glide to the ground. Patton said she watched as one of the planes spiraled downward with a plume of black smoke billowing from it and a parachute deployed. "It was kind of a slow-motion thing," Patton said. "It was surreal." An amateur video shot at the scene also showed a plane on fire, floating to the ground
trailing thick, black smoke and a parachute. Brough said the parachute was designed to deploy if a plane was disabled and was attached to the plane's wreckage, not a pilot or passenger. The crash spread debris over a 1 1/2 mile region, scorching several sections of prairie in the Rocky Mountain foothills. It wasn't immediately known how the Cirrus got close enough to the Piper Pawnee to clip its towline. The News Tribune in Duluth, Minn., the region where the Cirrus is manufactured, quoted Joan Pallone, of Broomfield, Colo., as saying her brother-inlaw, Bob Matthews, and his brother, Mark Matthews, were on the Cirrus. She said they're from the Boulder area. ___ Associated Press writer P. Solomon Banda contributed to this report from Denver Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. A selection of your comments may be published, displaying your name and location unless you state otherwise in the box below. The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Clouds force space shuttle delay, next try Monday (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
the call," replied commander George Zamka. "So we Submitted at 2/7/2010 8:12:24 AM understand and we'll give it Message from fivefilters.org: If another try tomorrow night." you can, please donate to the full An hour later, the astronauts -text RSS service so we can crawled out of the shuttle, one at continue developing it. a time. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Endeavour is loaded with a new Clouds prevented space shuttle room for the space station, as Endeavour from blasting off well as an observation deck. Sunday on the last planned Once both of those are installed, n i g h t t i m e s h u t t l e l a u n c h , the orbiting complex will be 98 delaying its trip with a final few percent complete. building blocks for the Launch time on Monday is International Space Station. scheduled at 4:14 a.m. That The band of low clouds started means the launch team will have moving in from the north late to report to work right around Saturday. NASA counted down Super Bowl time. Leinbach said to the nine-minute mark, but the late last week that his launch sky remained overcast, offering controllers knew going in that it little hope of a lucky break. might come to this, and that they NASA managers said they might have to miss the game. would try again Monday, when It's expected to be the last slightly better conditions were shuttle launch in darkness. The expected. pre-dawn departure will mean "We tried really, really hard to the graveyard shift for Zamka work the weather. It was just too and his crew during the entire 13 dynamic," launch director Mike -day flight. Leinbach told the six astronauts NASA Administrator Charles aboard Endeavour. "We just Bolden reminded journalists were not comfortable with Saturday that there are only five l a u n c h i n g a s p a c e s h u t t l e shuttle missions left. tonight." "You're going to have to figure "Sometimes you just got to make out what else you're going to do,
along with us," he said. In an hourlong news conference, Bolden accepted the blame for the way the NASA work force was informed of President Barack Obama's plans to dismantle the Constellation moon exploration program. In the proposed budget that was released Monday, Obama set NASA on a new post-shuttle path. Specifics were lacking, but the moon was no longer at the forefront. Neither were the Ares rockets that NASA had been working on for so long. Shuttle managers on Friday used the words "shock" and "angst" to describe their colleagues' mood. "Why wasn't the NASA work force better prepared for this?" Bolden said. "You're looking at the guy who's responsible. I will take the heat." Bolden, a former shuttle commander, said he did not listen to his advisers on how to present the information, and has spent the past few days apologizing to everyone. "I was stupid, I admit that. I didn't do it right," he said. As for the future, Bolden said the country needs a big
rocketship to carry heavy loads if astronauts are to venture beyond Earth's orbit. He said he wants to use the lessons of Constellation to capture new technologies and build that rocket. "While we will phase out the Constellation program per se, I don't want to throw away the baby with the bath water," he said. Bolden said he envisions such a rocket — capable of carrying astronauts to the moon, Mars or asteroids — ready to fly sometime between 2020 and 2030. He personally favors Mars. Whatever the destination or rocket, the new way forward will be "significantly better than what we got rid of," Bolden said. ___ On the Net: N A S A : http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pa ges/shuttle/main/index.html Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Brewtarget Helps You Create and Manage Your Homebrew Recipes [DIY] by Adam Pash (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/6/2010 3:00:00 PM
Windows/Mac/Linux: Brewtarget is a free, open-source application designed to help homebrew enthusiasts create and organize their beer recipes. From the project homepage: I was fed up with the lack of good open source beer software, so I thought I would make a small application that would do all the calculations for me. The ultimate goal of the project is to be able to take a set of usergiven constraints and immediately formulate a recipe. If Brewtarget turns out not to be your pint of beer (har har), brewsta is another free, crossplatform, open-source alternative worth a look. This editor's definitely going to forward these apps on to his homebrewing dad, but if we've got any other experienced homebrewers out there who've got their own homebrew hacks and helpers, let's hear about it in the comments. Brewtarget is a free, opensource application for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Brewtarget[SourceForge]
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Sarah Palin assails Obama at 'tea party' gathering (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 2/7/2010 4:17:27 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Sarah Palin, in a speech that was short on ideas but big on enthusiasm, took aim at President Barack Obama and the Democrats, telling a gathering of "tea party" activists that America is ripe for another revolution. Noting his party's dismal showing in elections since Obama moved into the White House a year ago with talk of hope and promises of change, Palin asked the gathering: "How's that hope-y, change-y stuff workin' out for you?" Her audience waved flags and erupted in cheers during multiple standing ovations as the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee gave the keynote address Saturday at the first national convention of the "tea party" coalition. It's an antiestablishment, grass-roots network motivated by anger over
the growth of government, budget-busting spending and Obama's policies. Palin's 45-minute talk was filled with her trademark folksy jokes and amounted to a pep talk for the coalition and promotion of its principles. The speech also was rife with criticism for Obama and the Democrats who control Congress, but delivered with a light touch. Aside from broad conservative principles like lower taxes and a strong national defense, the speech was short on Palin's own policy ideas that typically indicate someone is seriously laying the groundwork to run for the White House. Indeed, Republican observers say she's seemingly done more lately to establish herself as a political celebrity focused on publicity rather than a political candidate focused on policy. Catering to her crowd, Palin talked of limited government, strict adherence to the Constitution, and the "God-given right" of freedom. She said the "fresh, young and fragile" movement is the future of
American politics because it's "a ground-up call to action" to both major political parties to change how they do business. "America is ready for another revolution!" she told the gathering. Palin suggested the movement should remain leaderless and cautioned against allowing it to be defined by any one person. "Let us not get bogged down in the small squabbles. Let us get caught up in the big ideas," she said, though she offered few of her own. The former Alaska governor, who resigned from office last summer before completing her first term, didn't indicate whether her political future would extend beyond cable news punditry and paid speeches to an actual presidential candidacy. All she offered was a smile when a moderator asking her questions used the phrase "President Palin." That prompted most in the audience to stand up and chant "Run, Sarah, Run!" But, given the plethora of attacks that Palin leveled at Obama, she seemed like she was
already running against him. And, perhaps, as an independent. She talked little about the Republican Party and encouraged " tea party"-aligned candidates to compete in GOP primaries. Palin ribbed Obama for Democratic losses in New Jersey and Virginia governor's races last fall and in a Massachusetts Senate race last month, saying: "When you're 0-3 you'd better stop lecturing and start listening." On foreign policy and national security, Palin said he had "misguided thinking" and a preSept. 11 mindset. Her fee was $100,000 for the appearance at the for-profit event. ___ On the Net: National Tea Party Convention: http://www.nationalteapartyconv ention.com Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
NFL Network Pulls Warren Sapp (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/6/2010 10:20:00 PM
The NFL cable network has spoken out regarding Warren
Sapp's arrest. The network tells ET, "We were made aware this afternoon of the arrest of Warren Sapp by the Miami Police Department (sic).
In light of these circumstances, Warren Sapp will not appear on NFL Network while we review the matter." The retired NFL great and
season seven "DWTS" runner-up was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery in Miami Beach on Saturday.
Nexus One video series, part two: Google schools us on OLED displays by Laura June (Engadget) Submitted at 2/7/2010 5:16:00 AM
The first installment of Google's fancy Nexus One design series focused on the sound quality of the device, and on the overall design. Well, part two is here now, and this time, we get to watch while HTC project manager Tomasz Hasinki and Android software engineer Romain Guy give us the goods on the Nexus One's OLED display and the interactive, 3D framework. We're expecting a couple more videos in the series, so grab a very tiny bowl of popcorn (it's pretty short) and check out the video, which is after the break. Continue reading Nexus One video series, part two: Google schools us on OLED displays Nexus One video series, part two: Google schools us on OLED displays originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Google Nexus One YouTube Channel| Email this| Comments
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G7 pledges to cancel Haiti debt (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)
ministers. "The debt to multilateral institutions should be forgiven, Submitted at 2/6/2010 4:15:15 PM and we will work with these Message from fivefilters.org: If institutions and other partners to you can, please donate to the full make this happen as soon as -text RSS service so we can possible," he added. continue developing it. At least one million people are T h e w o r l d ' s l e a d i n g in need of aid in Haiti after the industrialised nations have magnitude 7.0 earthquake which pledged to write off the debts struck in mid-January, killing that Haiti owes them, following a more than 200,000 people. devastating earthquake last The G7 group - which includes month. Canada, the US, UK, France, Canada's finance minister Germany, Italy and Japan - has announced at a summit in Iqaluit, been under pressure to help Haiti northern Canada, that Group of recover since the 12 January Seven countries planned to quake by cancelling the money cancel Haiti's bilateral debts. owed by Haiti. Jim Flaherty said he would Haiti was rated as the poorest encourage international lenders nation in the western hemisphere to do the same. even before the earthquake Some $1.2bn (£800m) of Haiti's struck. debts to countries and Though exact figures are international lending bodies has difficult to obtain, the exact already been cancelled. amount owed bilaterally to G7 "We are committed in the G7 to countries is believed to be quite the forgiveness of debt, in fact all small. Venezuela and Taiwan are bilateral debt has been forgiven Haiti's other biggest bilateral by G7 countries vis-a-vis Haiti," creditors. Mr Flaherty said at the end of the Brown's pledge two day gathering of finance British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown hailed the pledge, saying: "It must be right that a nation buried in rubble must not also be buried in debt". "The UK has already cancelled all debts owed to it by Haiti and I strongly welcome today's G7 commitment to forgive Haiti's remaining multilateral debt," he added. "We will work with others to make sure this is delivered." On Friday, the US voiced support for the plan to extend international debt relief for Haiti. "The earthquake in Haiti was a catastrophic setback to the Haitian people who are now facing tremendous emergency humanitarian and reconstruction needs, and meeting Haiti's financing needs will require a massive multilateral effort," said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. He said the US would seek to reach an agreement for the funds owed to the multilateral donors, which include the InterAmerican Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and
the International Development Association. Mr Geithner also echoed the call by the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to provide full relief of the country's outstanding debt to the body, including a $102m emergency loan approved in January. Last June, the international community agreed to cancel some $1.2bn (£800m) of the country's total debt of $1.9bn owed to bi- and multilateral lenders including the IMF, World Bank and the US government, as part of a programme for heavily indebted poor countries. UK-based charity Oxfam has urged the writing off of about an additional $900m (£557m) that Haiti still owes to donor countries and institutions. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Update: Final Space Shuttle Night Launch Scrapped Due to Clouds [Space] by Jack Loftus (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/7/2010 10:15:00 AM
Yeah, that brilliant flash of light you saw streaking through the dark sky last early this morning? Not the space shuttle making its last ever night time launch from Cape Canaveral. Unfortunately for you, the launch was postponed, possibly to Monday, and you were either drunk, stoned, both, or you were "visited" and you're about to mold a mountain out of mashed potatoes. Which is too bad, considering the night launch could have been seen all along the Eastern Seaboard.[ MSNBC]
Kindle dev kit now rolling out in limited beta by Laura June (Engadget)
we heard it would begin rolling out in limited beta this month, Submitted at 2/6/2010 11:24:00 PM with a wait list of people getting Back on the 21st of January access to the kit as space was when Amazon announced that it available. Well, that moment has w o u l d r e l e a s e i t s K i n d l e arrived, and you can now sign up Development Kit, A/K/A KDK, to receive said KDK. Our tipster wasn't able to get the software in
hand yet, but we'll keep on the lookout for it. Hit the read link to sign up, and to check out Amazon's FAQ, as well. [Thanks, Mark] Kindle dev kit now rolling out in limited beta originally
appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Amazon Kindle Development| Email this| Comments
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Palin attacks Obama at Tea Party (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)
Our correspondent says that movement's organisers have announced the formation of a Submitted at 2/6/2010 8:56:53 PM political action committee, with Message from fivefilters.org: If funds of $10m, whose goal will you can, please donate to the full be to get up to 20 conservative -text RSS service so we can candidates into Congress in continue developing it. November's mid-term Please turn on JavaScript. Media congressional elections. requires JavaScript to play. There has been controversy over Palin said the Tea Party should the use of paid lobbyists and PR not be based around one companies at the conference and figurehead Mrs Palin's appearance fee: Former US vice-presidential reported to be as much as candidate Sarah Palin has spoken $100,000. at the first US Tea Party Some activists have also convention, urging a return to complained about the $500 conservative principles. (ÂŁ317) registration fee for the Speaking in Nashville, Mrs Nashville conference. Palin called President Obama's But in an opinion piece 2011 budget "immoral" and said published on USA Today it would raise the US debt. website ahead of the conference T h e y e a r - o l d T e a P a r t y was "drowning in national debt, Party movement, saying its Members, gathered from state- Mrs Palin said she would not movement includes many people and many of us have had s u c c e s s h a d W a s h i n g t o n level Tea Parties, complain that benefit financially from speaking who oppose Barack Obama's enough," the former governor of politicians running scared. big spending to stimulate the at the event. plans for healthcare reform and Alaska was rewarded with a "I am a big supporter of this economy is being wasted in Instead she said she was movement," she said, and added Washington and on Wall Street the president's stimulus package. standing ovation. motivated only by her "goal [...] M r s P a l i n s a i d f u t u r e She also berated the Obama - in a nod to the Tea Party's while small-town America has to to support the grassroots activists generations would pay the cost if administration for focusing on name, a reference to a famous tighten its belt. who are fighting for responsible, adversaries of the US rather than protest against British colonial And the coalition of disaffected spending was not cut. limited government - and our rule: "America is ready for conservatives is undoubtedly "It's easy to understand why its allies. constitution". Americans are shaking their "We need a foreign policy that another revolution and you are growing in influence - its Print Sponsor endorsement of Republican Scott heads when Washington has distinguishes America's friends part of this". Five Filters featured article: from her enemies, and recognises Congress goal Brown helped his election last broken trust with the people that Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: these politicians are to be the true nature of the threats that Barely a year old, the Tea Party month as Massachusetts senator, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, gained influence during the says the BBC's Madeleine serving," she told the convention. we face," Mrs Palin said. Term Extraction. She praised the leaderless, acrimonious US healthcare Morris, attending the Nashville 'Drowning in debt' event. When she warned that the US bottom-up approach of the Tea reform debate.
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3 Dead After Two Planes Collide in Colorado (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 2/7/2010 6:20:05 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. BOULDER, Colo. Two small planes collided in a flames over northern Colorado and killed all three people aboard, but a glider under tow by one aircraft cut loose and flew through the fireball to safety, officials and witnesses said. Three people were aboard the glider that managed to disconnect from a Piper Pawnee as a Cirrus SR20 clipped the tow line an instant before the two planes collided, Boulder County sheriff's office spokesman Rick Brough said. Both aircraft plummeted toward the ground but the glider landed safely with no injuries to any on board. "We understand the glider went
through a fireball after the impact," NTSB field investigator Jennifer Rodi. The crash occurred about 1:30 p.m. Saturday near the Boulder Municipal Airport over a suburban area dotted with homes and businesses, but no one on the ground was injured. Several people witnessed the accident, including two who described people falling from a plane. "We heard a loud bang and looked up in the air and we saw what looked like a glider and big, black smoke right next to it," Paul Aiken told Boulder's Daily Camera. "It looked like fireworks, the explosion." The Denver Post quoted Sue Patton, 53, as saying she saw two people plunge out of a plane. "The plane was burning really strong," she said. "They really didn't have a choice." The pilot of the glider was Ruben Bakker, according to his
mother-in-law Deborah Tjarks, who spoke to The Associated Press. She said he saw the collision about to happen and released the glider and banked but still flew through the flames. Bakker did not immediately return a call for comment. Brough said the Piper Pawnee with just a pilot aboard belonged to Mile High Gliding Inc. and had just taken off from the Boulder airport with the glider in tow. A woman who answered the phone at the glider company declined to comment. The other plane, a single-engine, four-seat Cirrus SR20, was carrying two people. Brough said the three people aboard the two planes were killed. He said there was initial concern that there could have been others aboard the Cirrus because of its number of seats but investigators were now "pretty certain" there were just
the two aboard. Gliders, or sailplanes, are lightweight aircraft that are often towed into the sky, then released to glide to the ground. An amateur video shot at the scene also showed a plane on fire, floating to the ground trailing thick, black smoke and a parachute. Brough said the parachute was designed to deploy if a plane was disabled and was attached to the plane's wreckage, not a pilot or passenger. It wasn't immediately known how the Cirrus got close enough to the Piper Pawnee to clip its towline. Brough said the identifications of the victims were being determined by the coroner's office. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Google Street View camera car tagged with GPS sensor, stalked around Berlin by Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/6/2010 1:27:56 PM
The story here is that someone secretly affixed a GPS tracker on a Google Street View camera car and you can follow the car’s progress using Google Maps while it’s photographing the streets of Berlin. Sort of ironic, isn’t? But either the car seems to be stopped or Google caught wind of the stalkers because I haven’t seen any progress the last few minutes. Or maybe they’re eating. Either way, click through for the live Google Map. [ ffff.at via reddit]
Want to buy a kidney? That’ll be $40,000, please (Holy Kaw!)
much less complicated procedure to donate a kidney than a lung. Submitted at 2/7/2010 3:58:51 AM Kidneys are big on the black Theoretically, living without market. Based on the World certain organs (or pieces of some Health Organization’s estimates organs) is possible without of off-the-books deals, a kidney interfering with a long, happy in India goes for about $20,000; life. Some surgeries, however, in China, $40,000; in Israel, donor doesn’t collect all the are easier than others; it’s a $160,000. Of course, the organ
money—there are plenty of fees that go along with an illegal donation. Then again, when an eBay user puts his kidney up for auction and the bids reached nearly six million dollars… The price might just be right. DISCLAIMER: Selling your organs is currently illegal in the
United States, and is tremendously risky anywhere. But you can always become a donor. Full story at Popular Science Keep your body strong so you never have to worry. Permalink| Leave a comment »
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Brazil nun accused 'back in jail' (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 2/6/2010 4:03:03 PM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. A landowner accused of ordering the murder of American nun Dorothy Stang in the Amazon in 2005 is reported to be back in jail after turning himself in. Vitalmiro Bastos Moura was originally convicted for the killing in 2007. The verdict was overturned a year later but he is now due to face a retrial. The killing in Para state caused an outcry in Brazil and internationally. Dorothy Stang, 73, campaigned to preserve the rainforest and
protect the rights of rural workers. She had lived in Brazil for 30 years when she was shot dead as she walked along a muddy rainforest track. Threats remain Hundreds of people have been killed in land disputes in the same part of Brazil in recent decades with few prosecutions, reports the BBC's Gary Duffy, in Sao Paulo. But there was widespread anger over the murder of the 73-yearold American missionary, he adds. When Vitalmiro Bastos Moura was found guilty in 2007 of ordering the killing a judge said he had a violent personality which made him unsuited to living in society. However, his conviction was
overturned a year later and he had been living in freedom during protracted legal wrangling over the case. A judge has now accepted that the landowner should return to jail to await a new trial expected later this year - and he is reported to have surrendered to the police. Even today there are missionaries who campaign on behalf of the poor in the Amazon region who face death threats and need police protection to do their work, our correspondent says. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Your Comments Are Safe With Us by Robin Wauters (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/6/2010 1:01:29 PM
About half an hour ago, a post that was published on the Digital Inspiration blog hit Techmeme. The title of that post left little to the imagination: it read “TechCrunch Removes Reader Comments From All Older Blog Posts”. That allegation in itself is inaccurate, as is most of the rest of the article, so I felt compelled to respond quickly and offer our side of the story.
Which, on a sidenote, we weren’t asked for by the person or people behind the blog (at least not to my knowledge).
Obscene tweet gets Vodafone rep suspended (CNET News.com) Submitted at 2/6/2010 2:18:51 PM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Working in customer service is never easy. People can be difficult, nay, impossible at times. But if there is one small rule, especially in this day of rampant networks with nothing better to do than be social, it's the one that says "don't insult the customer."
This rule seems not to have been followed by one customer service representative who works, at least for now, for U.K. wireless carrier Vodafone. According to the Guardian, this individual posted a Friday tweet on Vodafone's official Twitter page that read: "VodafoneUK is fed up of dirty homo's and is going after beaver." It appears that at first, many of Vodafone's Twitter followers presumed that this was the work of a hacker. Now it appears more likely to have been posted by a
homophobic slacker. Perhaps he thought it was funny. Well, according to the report, the tweet seems to have been posted from the customer service center in Stoke, a town in the United Kingdom's Midlands and, truly, almost everything is funny in Stoke. You can imagine, however, that it didn't take more than a few hundred seconds for this homophobic tweet to have been seized upon by those who thought it humorphobic. In an attempt to limit the publicrelations damage, Vodafone
replied individually to everyone who inquired about the tweet with this message: "We weren't hacked. A severe breach of rules by staff in our building, dealing with that internally. We're very sorry." The company also announced that the employee had been suspended "until further notice." Vodafone's eminently sensible response seems to be working. A poster called Denny, for example, sent this tweet Friday: "Just spotted all the excitement about your account today...hope
it doesn't cause any serious changes, you do a great job." The question remains as to why the employee has been suspended rather than fired. You'd think that there couldn't be a clearer case of customer disservice. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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How Social Gaming is Improving Education by Greg Ferenstein (Mashable!)
orchestrate the expertise of communication, business, and economics, in addition to Submitted at 2/7/2010 8:16:22 AM computer science. At the ultra For decades, educators have high tech Quest2Learn school in been scrambling to find better New York City, small groups of ways to prepare students for the 6th graders will marshall a range real world. It began with the of social technologies, from mildly apocalyptic government v i d e o g a m e s t o s o c i a l report, A Nation at Risk, which networking, to solve hypothetical warned that an outdated school problems. s y s t e m w a s u n w i t t i n g l y For instance, 6th graders learn sabotaging America’s economic geography from Google Earth, superiority. Year after year, collaborate through an internal major educational organizations social networking platform, and would echo the report’s call with present ideas through a podcast. threats of dire consequences and A d m i n i s t r a t o r s h o p e t h a t pleas for sweeping reform, from wrestling with the question of the U.S. Department of Labor to “How can a system function the Accreditation Board for within a larger system?” will Engineering and Technology. bolster critical thinking skills. Audits of the U.S. educational Many experts contend that sosystem have revealed that the called “Scaffolded Problemhighest hurdle to adopting skills- based learning” is known to based teaching practices is the improve academic skills and lack of an easily implementable enhance motivation. With all curriculum. these new toys, it’s no surprise Enter social video games as a that one student admits his least s o l u t i o n — i m m e r s i v e favorite part of the day is environments that simulate real- “dismissal.” What About More w o r l d p r o b l e m s . T o d a y , Popular Gaming Models? technologically eager schools are It should not come as a shock replacing textbook learning with that Quest2Learn exists because s o c i a l v i d e o g a m e s , a n d of endowments from the Bill and improving learning outcomes in Melinda Gates Foundation and the process. Here’s how they’re Intel, among other big-name doing it. Contextual Learning donors. For the less well-to-do While university departments educator, the Federation of have cleanly separated academic A m e r i c a n S c i e n t i s t s h a s subjects, solving the real-life developed a first-person shooterproblem of, say, building a i n s p i r e d c e l l u l a r b i o l o g y website, requires individuals to curriculum. Gamers explore the
are fascinating, unlike their 2D textbook drawings. “Explaining how proteins interact takes lots of new words and new vocabulary that can put you to sleep when you’re a 5th year graduate student,” Stegman told Mashable. “But, watching two proteins interact and bump into fully-interactive 3D world of an each other and using them in a ill patient and assist the immune video game is fun and exciting.” system in fighting back a Check out the video of some bacterial infection. Dr. Melanie gameplay below. You can A n n S t e g m a n h a s b e e n download the game here. evaluating the educational Simulated Life impacts of the game and is For some school subjects, poor optimistic about her preliminary test results aren’t simply a matter findings. “The amount of detail of personal failure, but can mean about proteins, chemical signals life and death; especially for and gene regulation that these 15 security officer training. Loyalist -year-olds were devouring was College in Canada recently amazing. Their questions were boasted“massive” test score insightful. I felt like I was having improvements for its border a discussion with scientist officer training via simulation in colleagues,” said Stegman. the virtual world of Second Life. Perhaps more importantly, the “ N o s i n g l e t e c h n o l o g i c a l video game excites students addition has ever impacted about science. Motivating more grades at the college in such a youngsters to adopt a science- positive way,” says Ken Hudson, related career track has became a their Managing Director of major education initiative of the Virtual World Design. Indeed, O b a m a a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . S o the results speak for themselves. desperate to find a solution that According to the report: motivates students to become “The amazing results of the scientists, the government has training and simulation program even enlisted Darpa, the have led to significantly Department of Defense’s “mad improved grades on students’ scientist” research organization, critical skills tests, taking scores to figure out a solution. from a 56% success in 2007, to For Stegman, however, the 95% at the end of 2008 after the video game solution is intuitive: simulation was instituted.” The actual phenomona of science While security screenings are
taking an onslaught of criticism for what are sometimes seen as abject failures, these kinds of successes may give hope to both security experts and the future of online learning. Conclusion Social gaming has a come a long way from the days when a dozen students would squint at a 10inch screen of Oregon Trail. The 2000s seemed to be the decade of case studies: Bold educators willing to experiment with developing technologies. But now, the involvement of major funders, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, points to an industry that is on the cusp of freeing education from its 2D textbook prison. More gaming resources from Mashable: - What’s Up With Virtual Worlds? [ANALYSIS] - The Future of Gaming: 5 Social Predictions - Free Multiplayer Android Games [3 of the Best] - Top 10 Games You Can Play on Facebook - 15 iPhone Apps to Tame the Kids - 60+ Free Classic Tabletop Games for the iPhone Image courtesy of iStockphoto, morganl Tags: education, games, gaming, Science, Second Life, social games, social gaming, social media, video games, web
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8 Social Media Questions With NFL Stars Matthew Stafford and Darrelle Revis by Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)
presence(where he somewhat famously got into a trash talking match with the omnipresent When the clock runs out on Ochocinco) and a Facebook Super Bowl XLIV tomorrow, the Page. Revis even told me he Gatorade that gets dumped on plans to launch “Revis Island” tthe winning coach’s head will be shirts, alluding to his moniker one of three new sports drinks which got significant buzz as the that the beverage company has Jets made their surprise playoff debuted in Miami over the past run. week, the culmination of a Here are the of highlights of the marketing blitz that has made c o n v e r s a t i o n ( a n s w e r s heavy use of social media and p a r a p h r a s e d ) : some of football’s biggest stars. 1. What were some of the On Friday, I had a chance to talk questions you got from fans with two of the athletes involved during your Ustream session? – Matthew Stafford, last year’s Stafford: What’s my favorite #1 pick and quarterback of the movie, what’s my favorite color. Detroit Lions, and Darrelle It was fun — using Ustream to Revis, the Pro Bowl cornerback bring the fans closer to the action of the New York Jets. The two and keep us in the loop and had just completed 30-minute connected with fans. sessions on Ustream(and via Revis: They were asking crazy Facebook), where they answered stuff — if I like eggs and cheese, questions live from fans while eggs with ketchup on them. Do I doing performance testing on run faster than a cheetah. How specially-equipped exercise tall am I. bikes. 2. What’s it like for you I asked the athletes about the interacting with fans online? Do campaign, how they personally you think it’s now part of your use tools like Ustream and job as an athlete? Twitter, the impact of social Stafford: It was my first time media is having on sports, and a using Ustream. I definitely want few bonus questions about to do more of it, and I think it’s football that my followers important for players to relate to wanted to know. their fans and the people they’re Stafford admits to being a bit trying to reach, especially with slow to social media, though social media being such a big Revis has been a big proponent, part of the mainstream media. maintaining both a Twitter But I haven’t got around to it Submitted at 2/6/2010 1:27:34 PM
much yet. Revis: I think Twitter’s a good tool for fans to get to talk to us on a daily basis and see what we’re up to and our day-to-day activities. I read my replies to see where people’s minds are at and how they feel. 3. How do you feel about blogs like Deadspin now TMZ covering the personal lives site of pro athletes? Does it make you more cautious about what you do off the field? Stafford: Obviously people are gonna say what they’re gonna say and you need to be smart about what you’re doing, but you can’t let it run your life. You can’t let it make you live like a hermit. Revis: I think they’re just trying to get inside information. It’s not just TMZ, it’s people with phones, Flip video to record stuff. You’ve always gotta be careful and do what you do. 4. Do you post your own content on social media sites or do you have others do it for you? Revis: I do it all my own. I
have a lot of friends on there I like interacting with. Some of the stuff I try and stay away from [replying to fans who say negative things], I want to avoid being negative. Stafford: I had a page on one of those sites [a Facebook profile for friends and family] when I was in college but gave it up when I got to the NFL. 5. Did you get any training on social media from your team or the NFL? Stafford: I haven’t had a lot of training, but I had a page on one of those sites when I was in college. [Stuff you say in social media] is just like you’re doing an interview, and you have to treat it the same way … It’s going out to a lot of people when it’s on the Internet. The guys on our team are being cautious. Revis: There are certain things both the NFL and the Jets try and prep you on with how to use Twitter. Some people still say whatever they want and that gets you in trouble sometimes … There’s also some people just don’t want to interact with fans and at first I wasn’t even on Twitter. But I started seeing how it was progressing and people were showing it to me so I got into it. I was missing out. 6. Which athlete do you think does the best job with social media?
Revis: Probably Ochocinco. I was with him last night at the EA Sports party, he interviewed me. That’s his thing. He’ll probably be doing TV when he’s done in the NFL. Stafford: Chad Ochocinco, he’s probably the best at it and now trying to start his own network (OCNN). He’s been everywhere this week and doing a great job. 7. What should fans expect from your teams next year? Stafford: I think we’re gonna build really well through this draft, get some pieces through free agency. Our goal is to make the playoffs and be competitive. It’s gonna take some time in Detroit to build it but every Sunday we’re trying to win football games. Revis: Right now I just need to relax — we played 20+ games this year. We’re making great strides, we’re a young team, we’re improving. We want to win the Super Bowl. 8. Super Bowl picks! Stafford: I think it’s going to be tough to beat Peyton, he’s been doing it for so long. Drew’s been doing great too though. It could be the last team with the ball. Revis: Colts. Tags: gatorade, MARKETING, social media, sports
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16 month-old bug continues to crash Flash by TJ Luoma (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 2/6/2010 4:30:00 PM
Filed under: Multimedia Matthew Dempsky has discovered a bug which will crash the Flash player on every supported platform. That might not seem like a huge deal, except that he discovered this bug in September of 2008 and has reported it to Adobe, which hasn't fixed it yet. 16 months later. If you'd like to test it for yourself, make sure there's nothing important open in your browser window and head to http://flashcrash.dempsky.org/. In Safari and Google Chrome, this crashes the plugin but not the browser. It took Firefox 3.6 down entirely. Why would Matthew post such a page? Isn't that reckless? Well, he explains on that page: "Regarding crashing, I can tell you that we don't ship Flash with any known crash bugs, and if there was such a widespread problem historically Flash could not have achieved its wide use today," Lynch wrote. "Addressing crash issues is a top priority in the engineering team, and currently there are open reports we are researching in Flash Player 10." ( Source: PC Mag, "Adobe Defends Flash, Calls Apple Uncooperative") He goes on to say: This page exploits a bug that I
reported to Adobe in September 2008, and has affected every release of Flash on every platform since then. Despite numerous email exchanges with the Flash product manager about the bug, the bug report being hidden from the public for "security" reasons, and [although] Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch's claims otherwise, it continues to be an issue. ...I'm not an Apple fan boy out to prove Steve Jobs right in Apple's decision not to support Flash on the iPhone / iPad. Instead, I'm just a software engineer who at one time had to deal with Adobe's sorry excuse for a development platform and made an earnest effort on several occasions at helping them improve it for everyone. (This issue is merely the tip of the
Leopard compatible versions out. Ditto for when Apple switched to Intel. I'm amazed by people who continue to defend Flash, including those who believe that alternatives will have a chance if web developers weren't pushed to start using newer alternatives like H.264 and HTML 5. (No, I'm not saying H.264/HTML 5 is a drop-in replacement for Flash, and I'm not even going to mention SVG.) If we all went with the "de facto standard" we'd be using Internet Explorer 6 on Windows. Actually, we'd probably be using Internet Explorer 4. iceberg of ridiculous bugs and No doubt that Flash has done random backwards and forwards some great things. At one time, it incompatibilities known as was cutting edge stuff. Now it's a Adobe's Flash Player plug-in.) dull butter knife. After trying to work with them to And I'd be remiss if I didn't fix this issue and experiencing remind you about ClickToFlash nothing but frustration, I just which I've reviewed previously. (Hat tip to Craig Hockenberry don't give a damn anymore. Adobe has been able to rest on and Mike Damm for bringing its laurels with Flash, because it this story to our attention.) TUAW 16 month-old bug was a de facto standard. Now that the platform is being left c o n t i n u e s t o c r a s h F l a s h behind by new mobile devices originally appeared on The and computing metaphors, Unofficial Apple Weblog Adobe is making an appeal to the (TUAW) on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our public that Flash isn't that bad. Adobe's been able to do much terms for use of feeds. the same with Photoshop and Read| Permalink| Email this| CS4. Even people who love the Comments apps and use them every day have learned to live with the crashes and other problems. Adobe seemed not to be in too much of a rush to get Snow
Stalk the Google Street View Car On Google Maps [Pranks] by Kyle VanHemert (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/6/2010 8:09:21 PM
Oh-ho-ho this is rich. Some German pranksters saw a Google Street View car parked outside their place in Berlin and managed to sneak a GPS device onboard. Watch the Googlemobile roam around on Google Maps here. [ fffff.at(NSFW) via Reddit]
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Patent suggests location-based social networking for iPhone by Chris Rawson (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))
with you. By putting "Request location info" and "Release location info" buttons on the call screen in the Phone app, it would Submitted at 2/7/2010 2:00:00 AM be possible to share your Filed under: Rumors, iPhone location or request someone Imagine you and a friend are on else's with a single button press. a phone call, and both of you The same process applies -- the own iPhones. You're trying to iPhone polls its GPS to find out meet up somewhere downtown where you are, then transmits in a city neither of you know that info to your friend's iPhone very well, so the best answer you - but instead of having to jump can give your friend when he through all the hoops yourself, asks, "Where are you now?" is the OS handles it for you in the "Uhhh..." followed by several background. Once your phone seconds of silence. It's already receives a request for location possible to share your location info it comes up in a notification, using the Maps app on the probably very similar to the iPhone -- find your current notifications location-based apps location, tap on the blue marker already use when they request o n t h e m a p , t a p " S h a r e permission to use location data. Location," and then send it to If you agree to release your your friend either as an e-mail or location data to the caller, it's MMS. Then your friend receives transmitted in a fully encrypted the e-mail or MMS with your signal to the caller's iPhone. location, opens it in Maps, and Your location data would then h a s t h e o p t i o n o f f i n d i n g show up on your friend's iPhone, directions to your location from complete with the option to find his current location. directions. If that sounds like a lot of Some other interesting unnecessarily complex steps to information has come out of this answer the simple question of patent application. In describing "Where are you," you're in luck, the type of call this feature could because according to a new be applied to, Apple says, "Note patent application, Apple agrees that the reference to 'voice call'
Clock, and Dictionary all fall under an application module subset referred to as "Widget Modules." There's two possibilities here: either these apps are still being referred to as widgets because their basic interfaces grew out of OS X's Dashboard Widgets (an explanation I've heard a few times before), or Apple is looking toward bringing Dashboard-style functionality to a future version of the iPhone OS, with smaller apps like Calculator and Alarm Clock being implemented as "widgets" rather than standalone apps. This has been offered as one possible explanation for the mysterious absence of several of Apple's apps from the iPad. TUAW Patent suggests location -based social networking for h e r e i s n o t l i m i t e d t o a possibility of including video iPhone originally appeared on c o n v e n t i o n a l , s o u n d - o n l y conferencing capabilities in a The Unofficial Apple Weblog conversation. It may also include future iteration of the iPhone. (TUAW) on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 v i d e o o f t h e t w o u s e r s , Additionally, Apple seems to be 02:00:00 EST. Please see our synchronized with their audio. exploring greater location- terms for use of feeds. The call may be a cellular awareness options for its own Read| Permalink| Email this| network telephone call that has apps, including weather and a Comments been initiated by either user." Yellow Pages app. The patent This shows further evidence that also refers to several apps as " A p p l e i s r e s e a r c h i n g t h e Widgets" -- Calculator, Alarm
Former 'Dancing with the Stars' Finalist Warren Sapp Arrested (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/6/2010 3:22:00 PM
Retired NFL great and season seven "DWTS" runner-up
Warren Sapp was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery in Miami Beach on Saturday. The Miami Beach Police tell ET
an alleged incident involving Sapp and his girlfriend occurred at the Shore Club Hotel at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning. Sapp, a former Super Bowl
champion with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, teamed with pro dancer Kym Johnson on "DWTS." Miami is the site of Super Bowl XLIV this Sunday.
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FCC: iPad use could further strain AT&T 3G
Google to air ad during Super Bowl?
(CNET News.com)
(CNET News.com)
keep us competitive in the global broadband economy. The iPad is expected to come in Message from fivefilters.org: If two model types, one of which you can, please donate to the full enables both Wi-Fi and 3G -text RSS service so we can connectivity. Amid widespread continue developing it. concern that iPhone data service Although Apple's iPad has yet to use has been overwhelming hit the market, the Federal AT&T's 3G network, the FCC Communications Commission may have good reason to be has expressed concern over its worried that the 3G iPad, also set potential impact on AT&T's 3G to use AT&T's network in the network. United States, may exacerbate Without naming AT&T, which AT&T's perceived wirelesshas secured a carrier deal for the connectivity issues. tablet device, Phil Bellaria, Cities in which the smartphone director of scenario planning, enjoys noticeable popularity, and John Leibovitz, deputy chief including New York and San of the W i r e l e s s Francisco, seem to be especially Telecommunications Bureau, hard-hit by outages, dropped outlined their concerns in an calls, delayed messages, slow FCC blog post Monday: Web access, and service With the iPad pointing to even interruptions. Heavy use of the greater demand for mobile phone's data services at large broadband on the horizon, we trade shows ranging from South m u s t e n s u r e t h a t n e t w o r k by Southwest in Austin, Texas, congestion doesn't choke off a and the NAMM music show in service that consumers clearly Anaheim, Calif., has reportedly find so appealing, or frustrate brought AT&T's network to its mobile broadband's ability to knees. Submitted at 2/6/2010 4:56:00 PM
In announcing its quarterly earnings in January, Apple said it sold 8.7 million iPhones, a 100 percent gain over the last year. Analysts are predicting that Apple could sell between 2 million and 5 million iPads in the first year. Obviously, between that and the continued sales of the iPhone, AT&T's network could quickly feel the strain. However, Apple seems to be standing by AT&T. "As you know, AT&T has acknowledged they're having issues in a few cities" and are working on a plan to correct them, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said during the company's earnings conference call. "We have personally viewed these plans, and we have high confidence that they'll make significant progress in addressing them." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Submitted at 2/6/2010 6:46:00 PM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Perhaps Google CEO Eric Scmidt's tweet said it all. "Can't wait to watch the Super Bowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said 'Hell has indeed frozen over')," he wrote Saturday. This tweet appears to be a response to speculation by John Battelle, founder of Federated Media Publishing, that one of the world's most ad-diffident companies would be running a brand ad during the Big Game's third quarter. (Kickoff is just after 3:20 p.m. PST Sunday on CBS, publisher of CNET.) Battelle believes that the ad Google will run is called "Parisian Love." It's a sweet tale of searching for love and finding it--without ever leaving the
comfort of your laptop. He also kindly pointed to a 2006 Schmidt quote that described brand advertising as "the last bastion of unaccountable spending in Corporate America." Brave words, indeed. However, now that Google is seen to be an extremely large organization with more tentacles around your life than any of your ex-lovers (or even all of them put together), it seems that the company may be appreciating the value of certain things you can't quantify in a very neat ledger. You know, human things. Like impressions, feelings, and opinions. Perhaps the time Schmidt spent on Apple's board might have persuaded him of at least some of these nebulous concepts. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Sheryl Crow Sings Her Way to 'Cougar Town' by Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/6/2010 6:02:00 PM
Grammy-winner singersongwriter Sheryl Crow has been tapped to appear in three episodes of the hit comedy series
' Courgar Town.' Crow's past TV and movie appearances were mostly as herself and involved singing. However, she does have some acting experience from having played roles other than herself in Minus Man' as well as in TV movies such as '54' and 'The
series such as 'Cop Rock.' Sheryl Crow will have to tap in her acting skills for her 'Cougar' gig as the singer will not be playing herself. Small spoilers about her role coming up! Continue reading Sheryl Crow
Sings Her Way to 'Cougar Town' Filed under: Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free, Cougar Town Permalink| Email this| | Comments
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Google Buys Super Bowl Ad? [RUMOR]
The Internet Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
by Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
by Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
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Report: Gerard Butler Joins Jennifer Aniston in Mexico (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/6/2010 1:21:00 PM
Jennifer Aniston reportedly flew several famous friends, including Google may run a commercial The Internet has made the list of Gerard Butler, her hunky co-star during tomorrow’s Super Bowl, nominees for the Nobel Peace in 'The Bounty Hunter,' to Los according to a mysterious Tweet Prize this year, going up against Cabos, Mexico to celebrate her from CEO Eric Schmidt and a Chinese dissident and a upcoming birthday. further details in a blog post Russian human rights activist Aniston, who turns 41 on Feb. from search blogger, author and that an unlikely choice for the among others. 11, retreated to a Los Cabos most all-American of sporting The nomination was made after entrepreneur John Battelle. resort on Thursday night with Schmidt’s Tweet reads: Can’t events, would it not? a petition by the Italian version pals including Butler, Courteney wait to watch the Superbowl There’s reason for skepticism, of Wired Magazine, which cited year’s pick of Barack Obama C o x , h e r h u s b a n d D a v i d tomorrow. Be sure to watch the too: USAToday’s list of Super the Internet’s contributions to proved controversial given his Arquette, and Sheryl Crow(who ads in the 3rd quarter (someone Bowl advertisers does not “dialogue, debate and consensus short time in office. This year’s also celebrates a Feb. 11 b-day), said “Hell has indeed frozen include Google. Meanwhile, t h r o u g h c o m m u n i c a t i o n ” . c h o i c e i s l i k e l y t o b e a says People.com. The site says Forbes says most of the Super Signatories include Iranian c o n s e r v a t i v e o n e . over.”) the A-list group is staying in a While the most logical product Bowl advertisers are working a c t i v i s t S h i r i n E b a d i , a n d What do you think? Has the waterfront villa. to push on Super Bowl fans closely with Google to promote organizers say the nomination Internet improved the world Check out playful pics of would be Google’s Nexus One the ads on YouTube for voting will make for a legitimate entry. through better communication? Aniston and Butler together at phone – perhaps improving its upon after they air. Legitimate or not, it’s unlikely Tags: internet, nobel prize, the Golden Globes. Then, catch poor sales numbers– Battelle Is this a Google Super Bowl ad, that the Nobel Committee would trending them in their new romantic says the ad will be a brand ad for or something else? We’ll find choose such an unlikely winner comedy 'The Bounty Hunter,' in Google itself. In fact, his source out tomorrow. this year: as the AP reports, last theaters March 19. claims the ad will be “Parisian Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Love” (below), a French-themed W i l l a r d R e v i e w s : G o o g l e , commercial about getting the Y o u T u b e , i S t o c k p h o t o most out of Google. We’d think Submitted at 2/6/2010 4:57:41 PM
Submitted at 2/6/2010 1:42:10 PM
TeaBagCon: Where Have All the Young People Gone? (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 2/6/2010 8:39:45 PM
Here’s an interesting note on TeaBagCon, from a roundup of the first day’s craziness by Mary C. Curtis at Politics Daily: A funny thing about the breakout session “How to Involve the Youth in the Conservative
Movement” – not too many young people showed up. Mishelle Perkins, a 44-year-old mother of five children, worries about the paucity of young people at local meetings. The Rutherford County, Tennessee activist came Friday to get some tips. Jordan Marks, executive director of the conservative
Young Americans for Freedom, suggested that activists use Facebook, volunteer to speak at high schools (“bastions of liberalism”) and simply do fun stuff that hooks high school and college-age kids. Marks described a bowling party he organized – “ Knock Down the Pinheads of Communism.” A
strike equaled Mao, a spare, Pol Pot. Fun for the whole modern tea party family! At the convention tables, attendees also had the opportunity to purchase mementos. T-shirts are popular, with slogans like “Keep the Change,
I’ll Keep My Freedom My Guns and My Money.” For $89.99, you can buy a sterling silver tea bag necklace/pendant, decorated with your choice of gemstone. (Buy one, and the second is $49.99, with a free cup thrown in.)
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Oversexed by Isaac Chotiner (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 2/6/2010 3:04:27 PM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. The Weekly Standard certainly knows how to attract readers. The magazine's new cover story, written by Charlotte Allen, is accompanied by a cover photo of a big-breasted woman in a red dress being approached from behind by a sleazy looking man. The cover text reads: "Thousands of years of human mating rituals are vanishing. Cro -Magnons are once again dragging their mates into their caves by their hair--and the women love every minute of it." Before metaphorically turning the page, I asked myself a question: How will Allen blame this state of affairs on the women's movement? The answer did not take long to reveal itself. But first, witness America in 2010: Louts who might as well be clad in bearskins and wielding spears trample over every nicety developed over millennia to mark out a ritual of courtship as a prelude to sex: Not just marriage (that went years ago with the sexual revolution and the mass-marketing of the birthcontrol pill) or formal dating (the hookup culture finished that)—but amorous preliminaries and other civilities once regarded
as elementary, at least among the college-educated classes. Here is Max’s seduction technique: “‘So,’ he asked scooting in next to me. ‘Are you coming back with me tonight?’” Here is how Courtney reacted: “Around 1:30, I told Tucker that I would, in fact, go home with him. ‘Oh, I know,’ he replied. ‘We have a cab waiting, let’s go.’” [Italics Mine] But why, why, why? It helps, of course, that there’s currently a buyer’s market in women who are up for just about anything with the right kind of cad, what with delayed marriage (the average age for a woman’s first wedding is now 26, compared with 20 in 1960, according to the University of Virginia-based National Marriage Project’s latest report); reliable contraception; and advances in antibiotics (no more worries about what used to be called venereal disease)...On top of it all is the feminist-driven academic and journalistic culture celebrating that yesterday’s “loose” women are today’s “liberated” women, able to proudly “explore their sexuality” without “getting punished for their lust,” as the feminist writer Naomi Wolf put it in the Guardian in December. The same feminist academics pooh-pooh concerns about the long-term effects of the hookup culture, arguing that it’s essentially just a harmless college folly, akin to swallowing
goldfish, which young women will outgrow after graduation with no lasting scars. As long as they take precautions against disease and pregnancy, the current wisdom goes, it might even be good for you...All this takes place to a basso profundo of feminist cheerleading. Allen never bothers to connect the two strains in her narrative. The first strain is that many women, since the time of the sexual revolution, are more willing to engage in premarital or casual sex. The second strain is that many men act like neanderthals, and still get laid (while, inevitably, nice guys finish last and go home alone). Allen does label Alpha Men as part of a "seduction community," and goes on to claim that this community was created around the time of the women's liberation movement. But that's it. One of the problems with cultural critics is that they often seem completely removed from the culture they are critiquing. For example, read the passage below, and decide for yourself whether it sounds like it was written by someone who has ever been to a nightclub. As might be expected, many males would like to help themselves at this overladen buffet. But there’s a problem: While it’s a truism that the main beneficiaries of the sexual revolution are men, it is only some men: the Tucker Maxes,
with the good looks, selfconfidence, and swagger that enable them to sidle up successfully to a gaggle of well turned-out females in a crowded and anonymous club where the short-statured, the homely, the paunchy, the balding, and the sweater-clad are, if not turned away outside by the bouncer, ignominiously ignored by the busy, beautiful people within. The howlingly over-the-top final sentence is followed up by a more serious lament, however: The whole point of the sexual and feminist revolutions was to obliterate the sexual double standard that supposedly stood in the way of ultimate female freedom. The twin revolutions obliterated much more, but the double standard has reemerged in a harsher, crueler form: wreaking havoc on beta men and on beta women, too, who, as the declining marriage rate indicates, have trouble finding and securing long-term mates in a supply-saturated short-term sexual marketplace. Gorgeous alpha women fare fine—for a few years until the younger competition comes of age. But no woman, alpha or beta, seems able to escape the atavistic preference of men both alpha and beta for ladylike and virginal wives (the Darwinist explanation is that those traits are predictors of marital fidelity, assuring men that the offspring that their spouses bear are theirs, too). And every aspect of New Paleolithic
mating culture discourages the sexual restraint once imposed on both sexes that constituted a firm foundation for both family life and civilization. One must admire her use of the word "supposedly" in the first sentence. But notice, again, how Allen switches arguments in the middle of the paragraph. What is the obvious connection between the "saturation" of the "shortterm sexual marketplace" and the sexual revolution? If more women are having sex, and having it more often, why are they necessarily having it with obnoxious cads? Allen never bothers to ask this obvious question. And it is a smear against "college-educated" men to say that they are all looking for virginal wives (it's also silly and untrue). Finally, the piece has a particularly good example of what in Allen's world is considered irony: In other words, if people call you a whore because you, say, fall into bed with someone whose name you can’t quite remember, that’s their problem. Of course, if a man mistakes a woman being “sexual in any way she chooses” for consent to have sex, it’s still rape. So, women can be sexual but if they don't consent to sex then you are not allowed to have sex with them. Life is so cruel and OVERSEXED page 23
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La. Lt. Gov. Replaces Nagin As New Orleans Mayor (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 2/7/2010 12:49:08 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Frustrated by term-limited Mayor Ray Nagin's leadership of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, voters elected Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu to succeed him Saturday, turning to a political scion to speed up the city's recovery. Landrieu, 49, became the majority-black city's first white mayor since 1979, the year his father Moon left the office. The mayor-elect, a moderate Democrat, won in a landslide over a field of 10 opponents in a campaign that concluded as Carnival celebrations and preparations for the New Orleans Saints' appearance in the Super Bowl took place. Landrieu's victory party was a nod to both: the ballroom of a the Roosevelt hotel — recently reopened after a post-Katrina restoration — was festooned with Saints-themed black and gold balloons. A roving brass
band played Mardi Gras tunes and he prefaced his victory speech by leading the crowd in the Saints' "Who Dat" cheer. "We're all going together and we're not leaving anybody behind," he shouted to a jubilant crowd as family members, including his father and his sister, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, stood beside him. With all of the precincts reporting, Landrieu had 66 percent of the vote. The campaign also focused on the city's violent crime and slumping finances. Landrieu, who lost to Nagin in a runoff four years ago, was a welcome change for some voters who grew frustrated with the city's current mayor. Little known outside New Orleans before Katrina, Nagin became a central, and sometimes controversial figure, in the city's struggle to recover. Though he won reelection as he courted black voters in the 2006 campaign, Nagin notoriously pledged after the hurricane that New Orleans would be a "chocolate city" again, offending many whites. Polls showed his popularity fell
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unfair. The sociological interest of this article, however, lies in its window into the socially conservative mind. Men are becoming too feminized? Blame the women's movement. Men are becoming too aggressive? Blame the women's movement. People are having too much sex? Blame the women's movement. Nice guys are not having enough sex? Blame the women's movement. If we are now in an age where America has fallen to such depths that family life and
sharply in the years after the storm. "I certainly don't want another Ray Nagin — a businessman," said Charlotte Ford, a 76-yearold semi-retiree and registered Republican who voted for Landrieu. "They balk instead of finding out what works, how the system works." Ursula Murphy and her husband, Bill, voted early so they could avoid traffic caused by the parades. Both cast votes for Landrieu. "After eight years of negative, we're going to see some positive," Bill Murphy said. —— Associated Press writer Cain Burdeau contributed to this Blog-to-Book-Deal report. © C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 T h e Potential: Hipster Associated Press. All rights Puppies and Snookireserved. This material may not b e p u b l i s h e d , b r o a d c a s t , Shopping [Things We r e w r i t t e n o r r e d i s t r i b u t e d . Actually Like] Five Filters featured article: by Foster Kamer (Gawker) Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Submitted at 2/6/2010 3:45:36 PM Term Extraction. Now that we've resigned the future of printed literature to picture books for adults, we might as well get some good ones: Hipster Puppies are exactly what they sound like. SnookiShop needs to be experienced to be fully appreciated, however.
civilization are at risk, we are still in an age where every social problem can be blamed on longhaired weirdos from the 1960s. In this sense, we have not progressed one inch. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
James gets hot early, scores 47 to propel Cavs by Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 2/7/2010 8:01:58 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Top Performers New York: N. Robinson 26 Pts, 4 Reb, 6 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 Blk Cleveland: L. James 47 Pts, 8 Reb, 8 Ast, 5 Stl Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Breitbart Shocked, Shocked to Find That Birtherism is Going on at TeaBagCon
The Importance of Quick Decisions
(Little Green Footballs)
Submitted at 2/6/2010 10:00:00 AM
Submitted at 2/6/2010 12:07:55 PM
There are reports that the Tea Party Convention organizers are planning a press conference today to denounce Birtherism, after Joseph Farah’s speech last night. It seems a little late to start worrying about it, the day after the keynote speaker unleashed a full-on paranoid Birther rant to a cheering audience and a standing ovation. And it’s not as if anyone can claim they didn’t know what Farah was going to talk about — World Net Daily is wingnut kook central, with a permanent section of the front page devoted to the latest crackpot Birther fantasies. But some people want us to think they didn’t see it coming; for example, Andrew Breitbart. I [Dave Weigel] spotted Farah and asked him if his speech had been approved by Tea Party Nation. “They asked me to speak,” said Farah. “They didn’t ask me,
‘What do you want to speak about?’ No, this operates like a free and open society, not like the kind of Marxist society you would apparently like to be a journalist for.” I told Farah that his speech was getting negative attention already, and that Breitbart, who’d taken the stage after him, had criticized the “birther” parts of the speech. Farah shook his head and walked over to Breitbart in what seemed like an attempt to debunk my question. “Andrew is my friend,” said Farah. “He has the right to disagree, and he has the right to say anything to a socialist newspaper that he wants. And if he wants to criticize his friend to you, and he’s dumb enough to do that…” Breitbart raised his eyebrows. “I’m dumb to do what?” “Criticize your friend to this socialist newspaper.” “I was talking to her,” said Breitbart, pointing to Schilling. “I was talking to you. And I was saying that I disagreed on the birther stuff.”
[…] “I should prove, what, a birth certificate that may or may not exist?” Farah had gotten irritated. “That’s ridiculous. You don’t even understand the fundamental tenets of what journalism is about, Andrew. It’s not about proving things. It’s about asking questions and seeking truth.” Breitbart tensed up after that insult. “Right.” “I know you’re not a journalist, so that’s fine. But don’t diminish people who’ve been doing this for 35 years. “So you’re going to go on record saying that I’m not a journalist?” “Are you? I’ve never heard you claim to be. Are you?” “I’ll let it be answered by you.” “Well, I knew Drudge didn’t consider himself a journalist, so I assumed that you were. … I don’t know, I’m not trying to insult you.” “You did.” Also see: World Net Daily Publisher Calls for Theocracy
by Dana Oshiro (ReadWriteWeb)
In the words of legendary investor Mark Suster, "Entrepreneurs don't noodle, they do." While it's important to be analytical in your decision making, it's also important to act when opportunities arise. Yesterday over drinks with some investors and entrepreneurs, I marveled at the difference between the life of a startup founder and the life of an investor. Founders manage multiple staff and stakeholders with heavy emphasis on operational issues. Meanwhile, investors manage multiple portfolio companies across a number of industries. The common trait amongst both is decisiveness. Sponsor Suster's recent blog post speaks to the value of being able to make a quick decision. For investors, not only are most investment pitches met with the answer "no", but investors recognize that some of their portfolio companies will not offer the anticipated returns. The ability to be decisive while also factoring in a margin of error is exactly what keeps both worlds
running smoothly. Says Suster, " The best entrepreneurs have a bias for making quick decisions and accept that at best 70% of them will be right. They acknowledge that some decisions will be bad and they'll have to recover from them. Building a startup might be a game of inches but you don't get timeouts to pause and analyze all of your decisions." While it's important to lay out a product plan, create a good business strategy and study your competition, don't expect to be perfect. Leave room for a margin of error and don't be afraid to pivot quickly if your company needs it. You can't be a startup founder without taking any risks - if you were really that safe you'd be working for someone else. Discuss
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Behind the wheel: 2011 Hyundai Sonata by Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 2/7/2010 5:59:59 AM
Behind the wheel: 2011 Hyundai Sonata The currentgeneration Hyundai Sonata is a lot of car for the money, with a well-trimmed interior and impressive fuel economy from the four-cylinder. However, it has never been rewarding to drive and its styling is quite humdrum. Hyundai aimed higher with the redesigned Sonata. Its styling picks up cues from previous Lexus ES’s and the Volkswagen CC. Size-wise, the new Sonata grew to rival the big-for-its-class Honda Accord; it makes the Hyundai Azera redundant. We briefly drove a top-line Limited on the roads around our Connecticut test track. Handling is improved from the current Sonata, with more responsiveness and a more tieddown suspension. Still, it doesn’t quite match sporty-handling family sedans like the Ford Fusion, Honda Accord, and Mazda6. (An SE version
promises different steering and suspension calibrations, but we haven’t driven that car.) The ride is compliant and more composed than before, without the current’s car float on highway undulations. Noise levels are fairly low and although it’s evident this is a four-cylinder, it is relatively civilized. The drivetrain is pleasant, with a smooth-shifting and responsive six-speed automatic and ample power. Even though the new Sonata won’t offer a V6, losing the bigger engine isn’t much of a sacrifice. After all, most buyers opt for four-cylinder family
is a semi soft-touch dash top and lots of chrome and wood trim. Controls are fairly simple. The car we drove has a touch-screen navigation system; with it, there is no tune knob for the radio. More and more family sedans sacrifice driver visibility for swoopy styling. But despite the Sonata’s coupe-like styling, visibility remains decent, with moderate-sized pillars and reasonable glass area all around. Our first impression is that the new Sonata is a very pleasant sedan and has the potential to sedans, this engine is at the top give the class’s best a run for of its class for horsepower, and a their money. Most of the current t u r b o c h a r g e d - f o u r w i l l b e car’s shortcomings have been available after the initial launch. addressed. It remains to be seen Inside, the Sonata puts its larger if Hyundai is as aggressive in dimensions to good use. The pricing the Sonata as they were cabin is airy with generous space with the Genesis sedan. for the driver, and there is plenty — Tom Mutchler and Gabe of leg and head room under the Shenhar Subscribe now! domed roof. The telescoping S u b s c r i b e t o steering wheel offers generous ConsumerReports.org for expert adjustment range. The console’s Ratings, buying advice and shape slightly impairs knee room r e l i a b i l i t y o n h u n d r e d s o f though. The rear seat is one of products. Update your feed the roomiest in the class. preferences Interior fit and finish improves on the gains made in the Sonata’s 2009 freshening. There
Bill Cosby Has "Ghost Dad" Moment, Claims He Isn't Dead [Hoaxes] by Foster Kamer (Gawker) Submitted at 2/6/2010 5:25:00 PM
How do we know Bill Cosby
isn't dead? Just because he said so on his website? Either way, someone obviously didn't read using Twitter. Stupid amateurs. our guide to "dead-ing" people
Randy Couture Chokes Out Mark Coleman in UFC 109 Main Event by Mike Chiappetta (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/6/2010 4:38:00 PM
Filed under: UFC, News Randy Couture is not done just yet. He may be 46 years old, but the UFC legend refuses to give in to every fighter's toughest opponent: time. The five-time UFC champ won his second straight fight since moving down to the light-heavyweight division, defeating fellow Hall of Famer Mark Coleman by putting him to sleep with a rear-naked choke at 1:09 of round two at UFC 109. As a 4-to-1 favorite, Couture was expected to dominate the bout, and he did just that, routing Coleman in the first round with punches and strikes from the clinch before finishing him in the second.
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ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, 6 February 2010 by Admin (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 2/6/2010 10:00:00 AM
Looking for conferences this month in warm locations? We've got a bunch of 'em in Florida and California. Tired of your hometown's balmy winter weather? We've got you covered, too, with events in New York City. Look at that - who says you can't make everyone happy? How do you like your ReadWriteWeb events guide? As a world map? As a downloadable iCal (and Google Calendarimportable) file? You can even import individual events using the link beside each entry. Know of something cool taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us. Sponsor 8 February 2010: Tampa, Florida Social Fresh Tampa This is the social media conference that comes to you. Social Fresh is a one-day, casestudy-rich conference targeted for marketers. Social Fresh Tampa will have 30+ speakers, including Chris Barger of GM, Maggie Fox of Social Media Group and John Andrews of Collective Bias (formerly of Walmart). ReadWriteWeb readers get a 15% discount with the code "RWW15". 10 February 2010: New York City Online Community
Unconference East The Online Community Unconference East is a gathering of online community professionals - managers, developers, business people, tool providers, investors - to discuss experience and strategies in the development and growth of online communities. As we have found with our past events, the best source of information on all of these challenges is other knowledgeable practitioners. The event runs from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Digital Sandbox. 11 February 2010: New York City NYC Venture Capital and Angel Showcase FundingPost is hosting a VC showcase where 20-plus VC funds and angel groups will be exhibiting their firms during a great cocktail party setting. Each fund will have their own table setup for the sole purpose of meeting great new companies. Additionally, there will be an optional pitching workshop from 2:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. The cost to participate in the workshop will be $400. This workshop includes the $125 ticket to the event, and a 1/4 page listing in the Venture Guide Magazine. This event is sponsored by Credit Suisse, and takes place at One Madison Avenue, from 69:15 p.m. 18 February 2010: Silicon Valley, California Future of Funding Active limited partners, top
rated venture capitalists, and successful entrepreneurs are invited to Silicon Valley on February 18, 2010 to discuss the Future of Funding. The venture capital bubble has burst, and change is coming. Now is the time to have a constructive dialog about the future with all of the stakeholders at the table. Don't miss the opportunity to partake in this exclusive event hosted by TheFunded. Please visit www.futureoffunding.com to see speaker and event details. ReadWriteWeb readers use the code "RWW" and get 10% off. 22 – 24 February 2010: Miami, Florida The Future of Web Apps Miami The Future of Web Apps Miami is a three day event for Web application developers and entrepreneurs, and includes tutorials, inspiration and workshops taught by leading figures at the cutting edge of today's Web. Companies at the event include Twitter, Facebook, Mint.com, Palm, FreshBooks, Reddit and Mozilla. Topics
include HTML5, jQuery, online marketing, funding strategies, measuring the success of your Web app, and Facebook Connect. Find more information at http://carsonified.com ReadWriteWeb readers use the code "RWW" and get $50 off. 25 February 2010: Miami, Florida Miami VC and Angel Event At FundingPost's next event, a panel of investors who will focus on early-stage venture investing. We will be discussing trends in early-stage investing, sectors that these Angels and VCs look at, things that are most important to them when they are considering an investment and the best and worst things an entrepreneur can do to get their attention. Entrepreneur summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees - all of the investors will get your company description and contact info! Additionally, there will be an optional pitching workshop lunch where we will completely deconstruct your elevator pitch, and work with you on formulating a clean and concise elevator pitch giving the important information that investors need to hear to make an educated decision on your company! Then you get to give your new elevator pitch in person to the panel of investors during the event! Click here for more information. 4 March 2010: Silicon Valley Silicon Valley VC and Angel
Conference At FundingPost's next event, a panel of investors who will focus on early-stage venture investing. We will be discussing trends in early-stage investing, sectors that these Angels and VCs look at, things that are most important to them when they are considering an investment and the best and worst things an entrepreneur can do to get their attention. Entrepreneur summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees - all of the investors will get your company description and contact info! Additionally, there will be an optional pitching workshop lunch where we will completely deconstruct your elevator pitch, and work with you on formulating a clean and concise elevator pitch giving the important information that investors need to hear to make an educated decision on your company! Then you get to give your new elevator pitch in person to the panel of investors during the event! Click here for more information. 11 March 2010: Los Angeles, California Los Angeles VC and Angel Event At FundingPost's next event, a panel of investors who will focus on early-stage venture investing. We will be discussing trends in early-stage investing, sectors that READWRITEWEB page 27
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these Angels and VCs look at, things that are most important to them when they are considering an investment and the best and worst things an entrepreneur can do to get their attention. Entrepreneur summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees - all of the investors will get your company description and contact info! Additionally, there will be an optional pitching workshop lunch where we will completely deconstruct your elevator pitch, and work with you on formulating a clean and concise elevator pitch giving the important information that investors need to hear to make an educated decision on your company! Then you get to give your new elevator pitch in person to the panel of investors during the event! Click here for more information. 15 – 16 March 2010: London, England 2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum — London The 2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum takes place at the Olympia Conference Centre in London. The two-day event features four dedicated conference streams:
• Social Networking World Forum • Enterprise social media • Social TV World Forum • Mobile Social Networking Forum The event features key speakers from global brands, organizations, social networking publishers and developers, pioneering social media leaders, top agencies, content producers, and more. • Full workshop program within exhibition area • Evening networking reception • Pre-show online meeting planner for delegates • Free pass for exhibition only 7 – 9 April 2010: Sydney, Australia ConnectNow ConnectNow brings together international specialists and thought leaders in social media, emerging technologies and their intersection with business. Learn how the realtime web, location based services, augmented reality, ubiquitous computing and personalised services are changing marketing and communications. Understand the importance of trust in
relationship marketing and what is "social currency". For more i n f o e m a i l info@connectnow.net.au. 16 April 2010: Mountain View, California Under the Radar: Cloud Under the Radar: Cloud is mustattend event for dealmakers and heads of IT from large enterprises, SMBs, service providers, carriers and media companies who are responsible for helping their companies leverage new technology and innovation in the fast-evolving IT ecosystem. Join us for the 15th Under the Radar conference, featuring a handpicked selection of the world's most innovative cloud startups among 350 top tech, media, telcom and finance executives. For ticket and more information, v i s i t http://undertheradarblog.com. 16 – 17 April 2010: Royal Oak, Michigan FutureMidwest FutureMidwest is the region's largest technology and knowledge conference. Founded by Adrian Pittman, Jordan Wolfe and Zach Lipson, FutureMidwest is the fusion of two successful conferences held in Michigan in
2009 - the Module Midwest Digital Conference and TechNow. Both conferences highlighted how technology and digital tools have dramatically changed the way we do business and the effect this transition has had on companies. FutureMidwest kicks things up a notch with presentations, group breakout sessions, relationship-building opportunities and influencers who are taking action to redefine business in the digital age. Register here. 11 May 2010: San Francisco, California FinovateSpring FinovateSpring 2010 will again showcase the most cutting-edge financial and banking technology innovations to Silicon Valley and the world. With Finovate's signature mix of short, fast-paced onstage demos (no slides are allowed) from handpicked companies and intimate networking time with their executives, this conference packs a ton of unique value into a single day. Come see the cutting edge of banking and financial technology and network with hundreds of the leading financial executives,
venture capitalists, press, industry analysts, bloggers and fintech entrepreneurs. Early bird registration rates are available. 5 October 2010: New York City FinovateFall FinovateFall will return to Manhattan on Tuesday, October 5 to showcase dozens of the biggest and most innovative new ideas in financial and banking technology from established leaders and hot young companies. The Fall event is the original and largest Finovate and features a single day packed with our special blend of short, fastpaced onstage demos (no slides are allowed) and intimate networking time with top executives from the innovative demoing companies. FinovateFall is a unique chance to see the future of finance and banking before your competition and find the edge you need in today's market. Early bird registration rates are available. Download this entire events calendar in iCal format. Discuss
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Weekly Wrapup: The Week in Web Technology by Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 2/6/2010 10:05:00 AM
The big news of the week was Facebook getting faster - read on for our extensive coverage and analysis of this news. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web, Internet of Things and Augmented Reality. New! We've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your thoughts on the new format. Sponsor Story of the Week: Facebook Gets Faster • Facebook Gets Faster, Debuts Homegrown PHP Compiler • Open Thread: What Do Developers Think of Facebook's HipHop? • PHP Creator Asks, Is Facebook's HipHop Just a "Nifty Trick"? More Facebook coverage and analysis Mobile Web • Location is Hot: Foursquare
Traffic up 3X in 2 Months • Mobile Ticketing Taking Off: 15 Billion Sold by 2014 • Mobile App or Browser-Based Site? Report Says The Browser Will Win on Mobile
• 6 Great Approaches to Public Speaking • 3 Social Networks For Connecting With Entrepreneurs • Freemium is Weak, Subscription is Chic
More Mobile Web coverage Announcing The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App We're really excited to announce the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app! As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we've made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes. Internet of Things • Sensors to Help You Get Fit From Nike, Adidas & Others • Social Networks for Things
ReadWriteEnterprise O u r c h a n n e l ReadWriteEnterprise is devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' and using social software inside organizations. • Ironic? New Google Apps Security Features For All Devices Except the Nexus One • Facebook's HipHop: Impact on the Enterprise May Go Deep into the Code
More Internet of Things coverage Augmented Reality • Open or Closed: What's the Best Path for Mobile Augmented Reality? • Yahoo! Files for Patent on Geo -Located, Social, Augmented Reality • Augmented Reality Coming to Video Conferencing
More Augmented Reality coverage. Also ReadWriteWeb is currently working on our next premium research report on the topic of AR marketing. Watch this space for that. Real-Time Web • Designers: Show Your Work Fast, Cross-Browser & Without Flash Using Black Tonic • Open Thread: Dealing With Real-Time Negativity
Tito Ortiz Explains Mark Coleman, Chuck Liddell Incidents by Ariel Helwani (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/6/2010 8:39:00 PM
Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, Videos LAS VEGAS -- Tito Ortiz somehow found a way to steal the spotlight ReadWriteCloud following UFC 109 on Saturday Our channel ReadWriteCloud, night. "The Huntington Beach sponsored by VMware and Intel, B a d B o y " r i l e d u p M a r k IS dedicated to Virtualization Coleman moments after his loss and Cloud Computing. to Randy Couture, as he shouted • Some Pros and Cons of a at "The Hammer" during his post More Real-Time Web coverage. Google Tablet with a Chrome -fight interview with Joe Rogan. Don't miss the next wave of OS MMA Fighting spoke to Ortiz o p p o r t u n i t y o n t h e W e b • Send Help: Disaster Response right after the incident about s u p p o r t e d b y r e a l - t i m e From The Cloud what he said to Coleman and t e c h n o l o g y ! G e t • Walking Among Giants: Who why he said it. Ortiz also talked ReadWriteWeb's report, The Wins With Virtualization? about his recent controversial Real-Time Web and its Future. comments about Chuck Liddell That's a wrap for another week! and the upcoming season of The ReadWriteStart Our channel ReadWriteStart, Enjoy your weekend everyone. Ultimate Fighter. s p o n s o r e d b y M i c r o s o f t Discuss BizSpark, is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.
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This Week's Top Downloads [Download Roundup] (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/6/2010 5:00:00 PM
• uTorrent 2.0 Brings Performance Updates, Bandwidth Control, UDP Support, and More(Windows) uTorrent is far and away the most popular BitTorrent client among Windows users, and they've recently pushed out a shiny new 2.0 release, bringing with it bug fixes, performance improvements, UDP support, automatic bandwidth regulation, and more. • Google Map Buddy Generates High Resolution, Full Size Area Maps(Windows) Want a wallsized satellite view of your neighborhood? A full-page street map of the town you're visiting? Google Map Buddy, a free, portable map maker, grabs data from Google Maps and arranges it exactly how you want it. • After the Deadline Brings Better Grammar and Spellchecking to Firefox, and It's Awesome(Firefox) Firefox: As you make the rounds commenting at your favorite blog or composing a lengthy email, avoid misspellings or a bad turn of phrase with After the Deadline's excellent grammar and spellcheck Firefox extension.
Diablo 3's female Monk designs revealed on The Jace Hall Show by Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 2/6/2010 10:30:00 PM
In a recent segment on The Jace Hall Show, the typically secretive Blizzard dev team gave the towering host/television producer/Monolith founder a • iPhone OS 3.1.3 Update who couldn't use a little help helps you turn it off and keep it sneak peek at some of the Available for All iPhone and w i t h e v e r y d a y p l a n n i n g , out of the way. concept art for the female iPod touch Models(iPhone/iPod r e s e a r c h , a n d c h o r e s , b u t • CreaWriter Is a Distraction- iteration of Diablo 3's Monk touch) Apple just pushed out the unfortunately we can't all afford Free Writing Space Complete class. While she doesn't embody i P h o n e O S 3 . 1 . 3 s o f t w a r e a personal assistant. Siri is a w i t h R e l a x i n g A m b i e n t what we normally imagine when update, featuring various minor smart voice-recognition virtual Noise(Windows) If you checked we think of devout martial arts bug fixes and improvements, assistant for your iPhone. out the Mac-only Ommwriter experts, she looks supremely including improved accuracy of • How to Clip, Sort, and Cite the and were disappointed that there badass. You can check out a few reported battery level on iPhone Entire Web with Zotero(Firefox) wasn't an equivalent tool for screengrabs from the clip on fan 3GS and resolved issues with If you're looking for a way to W i n d o w s , y o u ' r e i n l u c k . site BlizzPlanet, or simply watch third-party apps not launching. organize all the information you CreaWriter is a distraction free the video posted after the jump • TouchMouse Controls Your find and research you do online, w r i t i n g t o o l t h a t l e t s y o u (the segment starts at the 6:44 C o m p u t e r ' s M o u s e a n d and you've had enough with c u s t o m i z e y o u r w r i t i n g mark). Keyboard via iPhone or iPod bookmarking, copying and e x p e r i e n c e . [Via VG247] t o u c h ( i P h o n e / i P o d t o u c h ) pasting, and cobbled-together • Trillian Alpha Brings Its Multi Continue reading Diablo 3's TouchMouse is a free application techniques not cutting it, Zotero -Protocol IM to Macs(Mac) female Monk designs revealed for the iPhone/iPod touch that, is a comprehensive information Trillian, the slick-looking multi- on The Jace Hall Show w h e n p a i r e d w i t h i t s manager for Firefox. protocol IM client that kinda- Diablo 3's female Monk designs accompanying control software • Taskbar Eliminator Ditches sorta won our Hive Five for best revealed on The Jace Hall Show o n y o u r M a c o r W i n d o w s Your Windows Taskbar If you IM app, has launched an early originally appeared on Joystiq on computer, turns your touchscreen use a 3rd-party application dock alpha for Mac OS X. It's not Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:30:00 EST. into a mouse and keyboard. in place of the Windows taskbar, close to feature-complete, but it Please see our terms for use of • Siri Is a Personal Assistant that you may have noticed that you does look like Trillian. feeds. Fits in Your Pocket(iPhone/iPod can't completely get rid of the Read| Permalink| Email this| touch) We can't think of a person taskbar. Taskbar Eliminator Comments
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Build a High-Speed Laser-Triggered Photography Support for Zapatero Rig to Capture Split Second Exposures [DIY] by Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)
crumbles
Submitted at 2/6/2010 4:00:00 PM
(Financial Times - US homepage)
Photographing things that happen in a split second—like a drop of water hitting a puddle—is difficult enough, but when the subject of the photo is in motion, like a flitting honey bee, it requires laser-triggered precision. The photo above was captured by a Belgian photographer that has fused his enthusiasm for photography and electronic wizardry into one hobby. His photography rig is a technological sight to behold, the camera is flanked by flashes and two arms that have infrared lasers which act as a trigger for the shutter. Check out the picture below to see him at work in the field with the rig: For those of you who are unfamiliar with macro photography, especially that of insects, a bit of explanation on just how awesome his frankencamera is. In my personal collection (I am a professional photographer) I have at most a dozen photos that come even remotely close to the awesomeness of his insect macros.
Submitted at 2/7/2010 7:26:39 AM
When you're trying to photograph a bee in flight using a powerful macro lens, you're entirely at the mercy of the bee. You have to set up your camera, get it incredibly steady, and hope that a bee will come into the tiny field of focus you have. If you get a perfectly crisp shot of a bee in flight about to alight on a flower, that means you managed to luck out and have a bee fly into the tiny business-card thin depth of field window your macro lens provides and you snapped the picture at the exact
1/100th of a second that was occurring. The beauty of his rig is that the lasers which trigger the shutter of the camera are aligned perfectly in the exact sweet spot of the lens. Using the rig you can't miss a shot because the shot only occurs when the action is occurring in the frame and in focus. (I am so envious of this amazing setup!) You can visit the link below to see his technical schematics and diagrams, along with photos of him constructing the rig. If you
have no intention of building such an elaborate rig, we'd still suggest taking a peek at his galleries. His work is amazing and the type of ten-thousandth-of -a-second exposures he captures like a mosquito—a mosquito!—in flight are incredible. You can view his insect gallery here and his water droplets gallery here. LaserTriggered Macro Photography Setup[Flickr via Make]
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Public support in Spain for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Socialist prime minister, is crumbling in the face of prolonged economic recession and a loss of confidence abroad in his fiscal policies, according to new opinion polls published. The past two weeks are regarded in Spain as having been the most difficult for Mr Zapatero since he first took office six years ago. The fiscal crisis in Greece has raised questions about whether the weaker members of the eurozone, particularly in southern Europe, will be able to rein in their fiscal deficits and improve their competitiveness. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Use a Zune Remote Control with Windows Media Center [Windows Tip] by hjuliao (Lifehacker)
Toyota to recall Prius hybrid in Japan (Financial Times - US homepage)
Submitted at 2/7/2010 8:00:00 AM
Ed. note: If you don't use a fullfledged media box but wished you could have a remote to control Windows' built-in media center (Ă la the Apple Remote with Front Row), here's a tweak that'll let other remotes control Windows Media Center. Reader hjuliao discovered an easy tweak to make Windows accept other IR codes (like the Zune remote) without third party software: Are you jealous of the Apple remote? Wish you can have such a small remote for Windows? Well there is one. The remote control for the Zune works just fine in Windows 7 media center. As long as you have the media center IR receiver all you have to do is change the IR Id on the registry. By default Windows is listening on channel 1; the Zune remote is channel 8. This is also the same
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Submitted at 2/7/2010 2:34:06 AM
channel for the Xbox 360 multimedia remote. You can set the value to 8 but this mean that the regular MCE remote would not work. So what you want to do is set the ID to 0, this would make Windows listen to all the IR ID's. Open the registry. Scroll down t o Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MA CHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentContro lSet\services\HidIr\Remotes\745
a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe00a0c90f57da Find the REG_DWORD named CodeSetNum0 and change the value to Zero. Reboot the PC and enjoy. I have only tried this under Windows 7; however I don't see it not working in any other version of Windows. I love it especially for when I use Hulu or Boxee. Please note that the Xbox 360 media remote will work as
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Toyota has decided to issue a formal recall of its latest-model Prius petrol-electric hybrid in Japan, and may do the same in the US and other markets, after complaints about problems with its brakes, people close to the well, since it shares the same situation said on Sunday. The decision, which could be channel as the Zune remote. No one at Lifehacker HQ has announced as early as Monday, the necessary equipment in one follows the recall of more than place to test this one out, but it 8m other Toyota vehicles since does seem to be a valid tweak. November to fix accelerator Try it out and let us know how it pedals and floor mats with works for you in the comments. potentially dangerous defects. Five Filters featured article: Thanks hjuliao! Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Showrunner David Goyer Leaves 'FlashForward' by Jonathan Toomey (TV Squad)
out some creative issues (that's code for ABC execs not liking where the story was going). Then Submitted at 2/6/2010 5:04:00 PM the drama's initial showrunner, Since this past fall, have we Mark Guggenheim, got outta heard any good news about ' D o d g e . A n d t h e n , A B C FlashForward?' announced an early DVD release First, the show shut down for the first half of the season freshman run in March. But wait production for a week to work before it resumes its 23-episode -- there's more! Don't forget that
ABC cut the episode order too. The first season was supposed to be 25 installments long. Well, the bad news keeps on coming as Variety is reporting that Guggenheim's replacement, David Goyer, is also stepping aside. Continue reading Showrunner
David Goyer Leaves 'FlashForward' Filed under: Industry, RealityFree, FlashForward Permalink| Email this| | Comments
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Recycle Wine Bottles into Swanky Cups [DIY] by Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/6/2010 2:00:00 PM
Dropping off your bottles to be recycled is great and all, but with this DIY solution you'll be able to recycle them in-house into decorative cups and organizers. Over at the design and DIY blog Curbly, user Plastolux admired the interesting colors of the various wine bottles that passed through his house. It seemed a waste to let such pretty bottles get shipped off to the recycling plant so he came up with a unique way of recycling them. He cut off the top of the bottle using a simple glass cutter designed for wine bottles and
then got creative: After I cut my first bottle I thought, how can I make these more unique? I have access to a sand blaster, so I had some lettering and shapes cut at my local vinyl shop and applied
them. I had them blasted then remove the vinyl and I was left these beautiful raised translucent shapes. I really don't see these as drinking glasses but more for your bathroom toothbrush or a fancy pen holder. Someone
suggested you could put a candle in them as well, I think that could look pretty cool with the more detailed designs. For those of you without access to a sandblaster—check the phonebook, you'd be surprised how many small sand blasting shops are around—you can follow his tutorial but instead use glass etching cream from your local arts and crafts store. Check out the link below for a full tutorial including information about the cutter and more pictures of his neat designs. How -To: Cutting Glass and Taking Names[via TipNut]
Kids Say the Darndest Things: Teens In Tech 2.0 Video by Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)
slowest, dumbest, IE-using, faxsending nerds imaginable. Check out this video of these great kids Submitted at 2/7/2010 1:17:38 AM and the adults who admire and Our young friends at the Teens are inspired by them - including In Tech Conference this year A p p l e c o - f o u n d e r S t e v e have all the blessings and foibles Wozniak, who stopped by the of their tender years. conference to mingle with the They haven't learned that the youth and sign a few MacBooks. sky is not, in fact, the limit - and Sponsor for god's sake, don't tell them. Be sure to check out our yesterday at the Google offices And, like we likely felt at their Facebook album of pics from the in San Francisco. You'll get to age, they feel the adults are the Teens In Tech Conference, held see Robert Scoble in action and
Steve "The Woz" Wozinak in a giant space helmet. And if you haven't done so yet, please connect with us on Facebook while you're there! While making this video, we were privileged to chat with Teens In Tech founder Daniel Brusilovsky, Tobias of Nimbuzz, John Ramey of isocket, Adam Helweh, the talented youngsters of SimFlecks and Alex Nichols. Discuss
Iran to start work on 20 per cent nuclear fuel (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 2/7/2010 7:29:12 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Iran’s president on Sunday ordered the country’s Atomic Energy Organisation to start enriching uranium at higher grade, in a provocative move which could bring more penalties for the Islamic regime. Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad did not clarify when exactly the enrichment at 20 per cent from the current 3.5 per cent level would begin or how quickly Iran was capable of doing so. Such a move would bring the country a step closer to producing uranium at 90 per cent purity - the level at which it could be used to make a nuclear weapon. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Maybe Hulu is right to block Boxee? by Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/6/2010 11:00:54 AM
If I may, I’d like to play devil’s advocate to something I wrote a few days ago. To quickly summarize, Boxee took issue with NBCU’s Jeff Zucker’s characterization that Boxee was some sort of rogue piece of software, and that Hulu is in the right whenever it blocks access to the XBMC-derived media player. How about this: maybe Hulu is right to block Boxee? Let’s see where this takes us. Boxee’s main contention is that, in watching Hulu, it’s no different than typing www.hulu.com into your Firefox or Internet Explorer address bar. To be slightly more accurate, it’d be like clicking on a bookmark: you don’t type in www.hulu.com when you load up Boxee, but click a UI element. So right there things are a little different. Then there’s the interface. Compare Hulu in a “normal” Web browser with Hulu as seen through Boxee: Normal Boxee That’s patently not the same interface (with a hat tip to Digital Society for doing the legwork and taking the screenshots). In
Boxee, you’re whisked right away to a video without having to see the rest of the Hulu site. That doesn’t make the branding guys too happy (and throws dirt in the face of the guys who developed Hulu’s UI.) Then there’s what I’m going to call the experience, for lack of a better term. TV studios may be happy to provide content to Hulu, but they know that the idea of sitting in front of a smallish laptop isn’t an ideal way to watch TV. It’s almost like they’re fine with providing content to a service that can never really replicate the “experience” of watching TV: sitting on a big, comfy couch in front of a 50-inch HDTV. With Boxee, you’re circumventing the inconvenience, so to speak, of watching on a clunky laptop by outputting the image, thanks to your Boxee box(in the future, of course; I know the box isn’t available now), onto your big TV, complete with Bluetooth remote control. You’ve essentially replicated the “normal” TV watching “experience,” which may not be what the studios signed up for in the first place. The ol’ switcheroo. That said, yes, I know you can connect your laptop to your TV,
Hulu that would make its users paying customers. (Boxee isn’t “above” making deals with content providers, nor should it be if it wants to be taken seriously as a “real” company, which is clearly its goal.) Let’s pick a number out of thin air: $5 per month to watch Hulu content via Boxee. Is that fair? I don’t know, it seems eminently and your audio output to a proper reasonable, putting aside the fact sound system—I did the very that you’d partially be paying for same thing for about a year, and over-the-air television, which is it was great—but Hulu’s puppetfree, cable-based content masters must know that the notwithstanding. But then I’m number of people who even sure Boxee users would know how to do that, and then complain that since they’re who have the patience to string paying customers, why should wires from here to there, are so they have to sit through small that it’s not worth advertisements anymore? But complaining about. that’s an argument for another But I can still see Boxee’s pointday. of-view. After all, when you All I’m trying to say is, I’m watch Hulu videos in Boxee pretty sure I understand where you’re still subjected to the very Hulu and its backers are coming same ads as the Firefox people from vis-à-vis Boxee (and Plex, are; you’re not watching to be sure), but Boxee seems anything “for free,” as it were. more than willing to find some The presentation may be sort of solution to this mess, if different, but you’re still sitting you can even call it that. through 30-second Ford Thoughts? (I’ve already spent commercials. entirely too long thinking about And to be even more fair to this issue!) Boxee, they’ve essentially offered to diffuse the entire situation by coming to some sort of monetary agreement with
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G7 warms to idea of bank levy (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 2/6/2010 2:00:44 PM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Finance ministers from the world's most advanced nations have begun to coalesce around the idea of imposing levies on banks to help insure the global economy against future financial crises, officials said on Saturday at the end of a Group of Seven meeting in northern Canada. The G7 ministers will seek support for such a levy, which could take the form of a transaction tax or a fee on deposits held, among the members of the broader G20 before they meet later this year. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Are you real crafty? Make this Arduino-controlled beedetecting macro photo rig by Devin Coldewey (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/6/2010 5:02:31 PM
There are a billion ways to get the right shot. Most of them, pros will tell you, involve taking a huge amount of pictures. Macro shots of in-flight insects are no exception — I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to take a picture of a bug flying around but it’s hard. However, what if your shot was pretty much guaranteed to be perfect exposure technically? You could
take shot after shot of bees zooming around and they’d all come out perfectly-focused and framed just right. All you’d have to do is pick out the best ones. Well, Belgian photographer Fotoopa (not his real name) has put together a seriously cool rig that does this. It’s not easy to make, but if you’re dedicated, it looks like this might be the best way on earth to capture bugs in flight. As far as I can tell, it has a second lens that is constantly checking the in-focus spot of the
actual lens, using infrared LEDs and an IR rangefinder. Just get a bug in the general area of the sweet spot and as soon as it flies
into the zone, the camera will snap a picture. Because it uses IR LEDs, it even works in total darkness. He’s put together the
instructions here, including the board layout and other components. Some of the results, including the above shot, are linked from his Flickr stream. I’m not going to lie: using this rig, you can get a better shot in 10 seconds than I did after an hour and a couple hundred exposures. Still a nice shot, but if I were a robot camera whose only purpose in life was to get bees exactly in focus mere inches from my lens, I probably would have had a higher success rate. [via Lifehacker and Make]
Parisian Metro Tickets Enlisted to Fight the Empire as Origami X-Wings [Star Wars] by Jack Loftus (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/7/2010 11:00:00 AM
I, not being an artist, am content to ride Boston's subway system quietly, eyes down, in a general malaise. It's a New England thing. French artist Hubert de Lartigue, on the other hand, uses his subway time to imagine XWings. X-Wings from paper metro tickets, to be precise. de Lartique assembles them using nothing but a scalpel and a folding tool—no glue—and they're pretty sharp. "I'm very proud of how it turned
out and I feel like I am the author of a little masterpiece. I got to the point where I asked myself whether the Parisian metro tickets hadn't actually been designed to enable me to one day
mystery here…" So what say you, Parisian metro officials? Who amongst you is the closet Star Wars freak that designed an entire city's subways passes after a marathon Star Wars viewing session? Step-by-step instructions for creating your own fleet of Empire-defying papercraft XWings can be found here. use it as a canvas for this ‘work.' Naturally, also living in Paris Their proportions and even the will help your construction patterns and drawings on them efforts immensely. [ Hubert de take part in the whole of the Lartigue via Neatorama] work. I'm not kidding, I find that there is a great underlying
Linus Torvalds Loves His New Google Nexus One [Linus Torvalds]
Self-described cellphone LINUS page 35 cynic by Loftus andJack "father of(Gizmodo) Linux" Linus
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LINUS continued from page 34
Torvalds decided to get a Google Nexus One the other day. And while the customer service lines may be clogged over the phone's performance, Daddy Linux is positively pleased as punch. Unsurprisingly, the man who invented the most popular open source operating system in the world is a "happy camper" over the fact that this cellphone runs Linux. But Linux alone wasn't enough to get Linus on board with the rest of the smartphone crazy 21rst century, no sir. His previous phones, in fact—the ones he mostly used to "play Galaga" on long flights—also had various versions of Linux, but lacked that certain spark. Pinch to zoom touch capability and GPS were what finally got
Torvalds to commit, and commit he has. The Nexus One "is a winner" he wrote yesterday, adding that it no longer feels as though he's forced to drag along a cellphone for "just in case" emergencies. So, Google, as you frantically work the phones in that customer support center and stare longingly at other company's smartphone sales, take some solace in the fact that the Father of Linux is out there, somewhere, playing games on your Linux phone. [ Linus Torvalds via Laughing Squid]
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Twitter-powered robotic popcorn machine: media snacker deluxe by Laura June (Engadget) Submitted at 2/7/2010 10:30:00 AM
Reading people's annoying "I'm eating such-and-such" tweets gets pretty tiring (though we're just as guilty as the next guy when we have a particularly impressive petit four). Someone with even more time on their hands than us had taken it upon themselves to make a little contraption that, it could be argued, increases Twitter's usefulness just a little. Popcorn Tweets (as it's called) was built using Lego's Mindstorm NXT and is powered by Labview software. Triggered by a #popcorn tweet, the machine's motor is driven by a belt which turns an Archimedes' screw, which in turn moves a kernal of unpopped corn from the hopper to the popper. Of course, you could always just get a bag of Orville Redenbacher's microwave corn, but then... where's the fun in that? The semi -annoying video is after the
IBM demonstrates 100GHz graphene transistor by Donald Melanson (Engadget) Submitted at 2/7/2010 8:16:00 AM
break. Continue reading Twitterpowered robotic popcorn machine: media snacker deluxe Twitter-powered robotic popcorn machine: media snacker deluxe originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| YouTube| Email this| Comments
It's just been a little over a week since IBM researchers announced that they managed to open up a bandgap for graphenebased field-effect transistors, but they're now already back to show off what that's made possible: a 100GHz graphene transistor. What's more, this latest recordsetting transistor(which IBM hopes will one day replace silicon transistors) was made using processing technology that's compatible with that currently used in advanced silicon device fabrication, which should no doubt help speed up its eventual commercialization. Of course, any widespread adoption IBM page 37
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Heineken Bot does what it says on the keg, soon to be man's new best friend by Richard Lai (Engadget)
along its pre-programmed path, probably waiting for the assassination signal from Skynet. If you ask us, our theory is that See for yourself after the break the Daleks are rather huggable while you're still alive. by nature, but they probably Gallery: Heineken Bot at partied a tad too hard with these Kinetica Art Fair 2010 beer-toting fellas before trashing Continue reading Heineken Bot the world. One such "Heineken does what it says on the keg, Bot" -- crafted by the geniuses at soon to be man's new best friend Middlesex University -- turned Heineken Bot does what it says up at Kinetica Art Fair in on the keg, soon to be man's new London. Daring humans can stop best friend originally appeared this drifting bot by hovering their on Engadget on Sun, 07 Feb hands above its sonar-sensing 2010 02:14:00 EST. Please see head, and then place a cup in its our terms for use of feeds. holder for some bevvy spat out Permalink| | Email this| of its keg. When you're served, Comments the lonewolf continues to wander Submitted at 2/7/2010 2:14:00 AM
Motorola MOTOSPLIT Splits This Way, Splits That Way [Motosplit] by Kyle VanHemert (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/6/2010 9:55:53 PM
Motorola claims they're coming out with a couple dozen Android phones in 2010, and with a crop so big a few of them are bound to be pretty weird. This render suggests that the MOTOSPLIT might be one of those. Like the Samsung Alias 2 before it, the MOTOSPLIT shown here
sports a keyboard that has tiny touch screens for keys, though this one has the unique ability to slide out in landscape or portrait orientation. Depending on the way its being held, or maybe the application its running, the mini screens update on the fly. Neat! Not so neat is the part of the report that claims its specs will be more or less the same as the Backflip's, which means its essentially relegated to
Motorola's junior varsity smartphone squad. Still, Android Community's rumors are just that, and it's possible that come the season—Motorola expects the phone to be ready for Q3—MOTOSPLIT will have the power to match its versatility. [ Android Community via SlashGear]
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continued from page 35
is still quite a ways away, but IBM says that this new transistor "demonstrates clearly that graphene can be utilized to produce high performance devices and integrated circuits." For those keeping score, this first -of-its-kind transistor already beats the frequency performance of current state-of-the-art silicon transistors of the same gate length, which now top out at a
mere 40GHz. IBM demonstrates 100GHz graphene transistor originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink The Register| IBM| Email this| Comments
by Danny Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/7/2010 10:31:00 AM
Will Rogers once said, "Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need." And how do you that? That's easy. Just sprinkle in some sex! It's nature's negotiator. fans claiming that Joe did not Of course, it's not as simple as it look like Getty at all to them sounds. These days, people are wondering if Joe Jonas had the easier to offend than Catholic needed acting skills to play such nuns and the FCC has made it nearly impossible to advertise a role. No matter what's your opinion, products the way God intended Jonas did not get the part after (i.e. naked girls with abnormally all. A young actor from'Make It l a r g e b o o b s w r i t h i n g a n d or Break It' was offered the role moaning over the awesomeness of Flonase). So an even subtler instead. Continue reading Jonas Brother art of using sex to get your Will Not Be on 'Brothers and Sisters' After All Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Jonas Brother Will Not Be on 'Brothers and Sisters' After All by Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/6/2010 7:03:00 PM
Earlier this week, we informed you that'Brothers & Sisters' was considering casting Joe Jonas to play a younger version of Tommy in a special two-hour episode filled with flashback sequences and set to air in April. Fan reaction from the news differed a lot. Some fans were glad at the idea of one of the Jonas brothers to be part of the series as Joe not only shared physical features with actor Balthazar Getty, which would have helped making this younger version of Tommy be believable, but also because the Jonas
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Brothers' following could have tuned in the show and help boost the ratings. Other fans were outraged at the idea that Joe Jonas could land the role. Comments ranged from
money lies within this deeply layered process. Here are the best of the best and the worst of the worst. Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Most/Least Sexy Super Bowl Ads of All Time Filed under: Sports, Video, Commercials, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten Permalink| Email this| | Comments
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Review: 'Ghost Whisperer' - 'Dead to Me' by Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/6/2010 4:00:00 PM
(S05E14) "Who died and made you the expert?" - Avery to Melinda This last new episode of ' Ghost Whisperer' before the Olympics hiatus (even though CBS is not airing the Olympics) not only offered us funny girl Margaret Cho as Ned's Occult Anthropology professor, who didn't believe in what she was teaching, but also pushed the
dark side of the show's mythology thanks to an object Melinda and company don't like at all: a Ouija board. Even with the introduction of
the mysterious Ouija board, the episode didn't offer much new info about how the good and dark sides work, but it was interesting to see Cho's
character, Professor Avery Grant, cope with the fact that was she was teaching actually had some truth to it. However, the most intriguing scene was the final one when the Ouija board confirmed something Melinda didn't want to be true... Continue reading Review: 'Ghost Whisperer' - 'Dead to Me' Filed under: Other SciFi/Supernatural Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen says he wants receiver Brandon Marshall back for 2010 season by ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 2/7/2010 7:34:07 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. After a tumultuous end to a promising-turned-disappointing season for the Broncos, owner Pat Bowlen and receiver Brandon Marshall fell onto the same page last week, both saying they'd like the two-time Pro Bowler back with the team next season. "I think Brandon is going through a maturing process," Bowlen said, according to The Denver Post. "Personally, I saw
change in his personality and approach to things [this season]. He didn't have the same sort of attitude and anxiety that he's had. I personally would like to see him stay. And there's still a good possibility that could happen." Marshall, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, would become a restricted free agent if the owners and players' union don't strike a labor agreement by March 5, giving the Broncos an upper hand should they want to sign him. "Now, if the head coach sits down and says no, I want to trade him, or I've got a deal that's going to be beneficial to the club, I don't think I'm going to
override him," Bowlen said Saturday of Broncos coach Josh McDaniels, according to the newspaper. McDaniels benched Marshall for the regular-season finale after he was late to a scheduled therapy session for treatment of a hamstring injury the team already believed he was exaggerating. But Marshall and the Broncos were at odds even before the season began. Marshall didn't participate in a mandatory June minicamp and was suspended by the team for a week shortly before the season started after "detrimental" conduct during a practice in which he batted away a pass
thrown to him, punted a ball instead of handing it to a ball boy and at one point walked as the rest of the team ran in a prepractice warmup. "Learning from last year and last offseason, I approached things unprofessional," Marshall said Thursday at the Super Bowl XLIV media center, according to The Post. "This offseason I'm just going to go with the flow and just go in whatever direction the Broncos want to go." The Broncos started the season with six straight wins before going 2-8 and failing to gain a playoff berth. Marshall finished with 1,120 yards on 101 receptions. In four NFL seasons, Marshall has 4,019
yards receiving with 327 catches. In a Week 14 loss, Marshall set a single-game NFL record with 21 catches against the Colts. "Last year I handled things totally wrong," Marshall said. I just looked at the business side of things and took things too personally. This year I'm going to remove myself from the situation and let the Broncos decide the direction we're going to go in as an organization." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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The Bullet Points: Socialite and Pharmecutical Suit Gigi Jordan Charged with Murdering her Autistic Son [Crime] by Foster Kamer (Gawker)
birth to her son, Jude Michael, on July 13, 2001. It'd appear that the father of the son was Tzekov, Gigi Jordan, a multi-million who told the Daily News"That's pharmaceutical executive, was my son...I don't know if I can found in her $2,300/night suite talk about this." "babbling incoherently" after • Tzekov's neighbors describe trying to commit suicide, while Jude Michael as "autistic" to the her eight year-old son lay dead Daily News. next to her. She's being charged • Tzekov and Jordan got with feeding him an overdose of divorced in 2006. pills. • Tzekov told the Daily News he This story is, quite simply, one hadn't seen Jordan or his son in a of the more insane, convoluted year. ones to come around in a while, • O n W e d n e s d a y , J o r d a n especially with the conflicting checked into Room 1603 at The nature of reports on Jordan. In Peninsula Hotel. just trying to suss out all the • According to hotel staffers, she reports, it goes something like hangs a "Do Not Disturb" sign this: on the door, paid the bill in cash, • Gigi Jordan, a native Belgian, ordered lots of room service, and was the president of several New "didn't leave the room for two York-based pharmaceutical days." companies that manufactured • According to the New York drugs to treat cancer. None of the Post, Jordan's aunt received an reports can seem to name the email from her threatening c o m p a n i e s , t h o u g h . A f t e r suicide and the murder of Jude. m a k i n g h e r m o n e y i n The aunt then contacted the 20th pharmaceuticals, Jordan got into Precinct, faxing them the emails. the real estate game, making her The 20th moved into action, and fortune there. A New York Post figured Jordan was at The source estimates Jordan's value Peninsula. to be "about $100M." • On showing up, police found • In 2001, Jordan married Emil the Do Not Disturb sign, and that Valention Tzekov six days after Jordan had barricaded the door divorcing the man she used to be with either a couch or several married to, the pharmaceutical chairs. On bursting down the exec she made her fortune with, door, they found Jordan lying on Raymond Mirra. Jordan gave floor, foaming at the mouth and Submitted at 2/6/2010 8:00:00 PM
place." She also " mentioned speaking with a Wyoming child porn investigator about the sexual abuse of kids," and cited the assistance of an ex-FBI agent. In an already bizarre and tragic case, this part sticks out: Ex-FBI agent Flint Waters "told me many rich people are involved," Jordan wrote. "Many wealthy guys trade child porn like a hobby." Waters did not return a call Friday night. • The Daily News also reports that Jordan wrote that she donated $20M to Haiti relief efforts before attempting suicide, putting $12M to Doctors "babbling incoherently." Her Without Borders and $8M to the son, who'd been dead for what's Red Cross, noting that the other being estimated to be a day by $7M in her estate would "be used p o l i c e , w a s o n t h e b e d . for some better purpose in Authorities believe Gigi Jordan s o c i e t y . " B e s i d e s e i t h e r fed Jude a lethal combination of organization now showing any Xanax and Ambien. Ambien's record (though the News notes been known to have a harsh side- that this could be because she effect of suicidal thoughts in m a i l e d t h e c h e c k s o n Wednesday), this also conflicts some patients. • Sources noted to the Post that with the New York Post's the room was littered with pill sourced $100M valuation of her bottles and "thousands" of pills, estate. along with "scattered documents • On the website of a "Fertility — including a suicide note guru": Jordan had said having her child has "helped awaken a penned by Jordan." • In the suicide note, she wrote spiritual connection to God." "In t h a t h e r s o n J u d e w a s i n learning how to release my fear "constant pain" and that she'd of losing something I really hoped "Jude [was in] a better wanted and to allow myself to believe I would have it," she
wrote, "I gave birth to a beautiful boy, and experienced a greater depth of love and connectedness with my child." • Jordan's currently in the hospital right now, and she's going to be charged with the murder of her son. She's been cooperating with authorities, and gave them the password to her computer. Now, just questions: How did Gigi Jordan amass her fortune, and were these problems present before? Why'd she check into The Peninsula? How did nobody in Jordan's life see this coming? And most importantly, what part of Jordan's past as a pharmaceutical executive will be tied to her current state as an incoherent, filicidal new-ager? Because something will be. If you know anything, we're listening. Mom Gigi Jordan charged with murdering son after botched murder-suicide try at Peninsula hotel[NYDN] Gigi Jordan feeds son, 8, fatal dose of pills, leaves strange 2page note in botched murdersuicide[NYDN] Rich ma 'kills' kid in slaysuicide bid[NYP]
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Founding Wall Street Journal Online Editor Gone from Reuters after Royal Story Screw-Up [Mysteries] by Foster Kamer (Gawker)
below that are not being rolled back, which is the whole Submitted at 2/6/2010 5:00:00 PM underpinning of this story. What T e r r i C u l l e n , o n e o f t h e an embarrassing mistake. Also, founders of The Wall Street calling the Estate Tax the Death Journal Online, was announced T a x i s s t r a i g h t f r o m t h e as the wealth management editor c o n s e r v a t i v e p l a y b o o k . at Reuters less than a month ago. And then, the retraction: Now, she's gone due to a story The Feb 1 story headlined that required a White House- "Backdoor taxes to hit middle requested retraction. Huh? class" is wrong and has been To recap, Cullen writes a story withdrawn. The story said lowerheadlined "Backdoor taxes to hit income families will pay more middle class" that runs on under tax provisions scheduled February 1st. Reuters has tried to to expire Dec 31. The Obama make it disappear, but it's still administration's budget calls for available via the magic of the extension of those tax Google Cache here. The lede: p r o v i s i o n s f o r h o u s e h o l d s The Obama administration's earning less than $250,000. plan to cut more than $1 trillion There will be no substitute story. from the deficit over the next Unfortunately, that didn't stop decade relies heavily on so- the story from becoming a called backdoor tax increases Republican propaganda talking that will result in a bigger tax bill point party. Drudge tried to spin for middle-class families. it, but kept covering as the story Except, as it turned out, that got pulled further and further wasn't the case. First came the from the public eye. Crafty. And Reuters feedback page on the yesterday, the blog E&P in Exile story, which was mostly made up announces Cullen's departure of notes like this: from Reuters: This story is filled with errors The reporter who wrote that that truly offend any sense of article earlier this week alleging even-handness, accuracy and an Obama "back door" tax hike diligence. The budget only rolls for nearly everyone, which back the Bush tax cuts for those became a rightwing cause — and making over $200k in some then was withdrawn by Reuters instances and $250k in others. — has now left the company. The rates for the tax brackets Jumped or pushed?
White House calls up the wire service and tells them how wrong their report is. The operative term there being "seasoned." Again, via MediaBistro: In 1995, Cullen was instrumental in the launch of The Wall Street Journal Online, and for the 13 years following, served as an editor and columnist overseeing personal finance and financial markets coverage for WSJ.com. She also produced its award-winning "Fiscally Fit" column and was the author of "The Wall Street Journal. Complete Identity Theft Good question, but the better Guidebook," published in 2007. one—and what makes this story Put it like this: given a lineup, so fascinating—is: How the hell Cullen wouldn't be your first bet did this happen? Reuters is a to flub a story like this. Which massive wire service. Their leads to a few questions, mainly: stories go through check, after Why did Cullen make a mistake check, after check before they this large? How did it get run. As Ryan already mentioned, through to print? Did Cullen this is the second high profile leave, or was she fired? And fracas this year regarding a what the hell is going on at Reuters story; the first was when Reuters when a high profile hire their editor-in-chief spiked a screws up a pretty easy story to story about billionaire hedge such an extent that it merits a call fund manager Steven Cohen from the White House and a without providing his pissed off departure less than a month after reporters with kind of reasonable she was picked up? explanation for doing so. Barely a month later, Cullen—a seasoned financial reporter—gets a story pulled after a pissed off
The Roots' ?uestlove Gets the Final Word on NBC's SoulFoodGate: It. Was. A. Joke. [Race Relations] by Foster Kamer (Gawker) Submitted at 2/6/2010 6:00:00 PM
So, Questlove, drummer of The Roots, decided to post a picture of a curious sign at the NBC cafeteria. It was advertising fried chicken and collard greens as part of a Black History Month menu. It went viral. And now... Questlove just wants everyone to chill out. As they should. This thing went too far at any number of points. Like 1. When Leslie Calhoun, the chef at NBC who feeds him every day, was terrified into being quoted as terrified by the New York Post or 2. When Wanda Sykes used it on Leno to push her shockdependent shtick while on NBC, or 3. When NBC had to dignify everyone going insane over it via their corporate communications Twitter feed: Finally, via his Twitter, Questlove told everyone to chill out: ROOTS' page 41
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ROOTS' continued from page 40
whatever the case, I found this funny and when I find something funny I like to let the world in on the joke (twitpic anyone??). in NO way did i ever think that this was some cruel insensitive joke on behalf of jeff zucker and his comrades at nbc (the cafeteria isn't even owned or operated by nbc). I kinda get where leslie calhoun (our culinary rosa parks) was coming from; fried chicken as a fragrant, tasty, honorable metaphor for the struggles and accomplishments of america's black masses. The problem is..in the blogosphere, things can take on a life of their own. "online journalists", site commenters, even comedians (see wanda sykes on leno) [ Ed. Right here.] have now taken my snapshot of leslie's missionary zeal and retooled it for their own racialized - "let's bash nbc for their conan sins" - flogging mission. my twitpic was just me poking fun, a Questlove still life
that was clearly intended as a joke. what's even funnier: race issues in post racial america. potluck anyone????? The thing is, Questlove's right. Absolutely, completely, unequivocally correct. He shouldn't have had to clear this up. Yet, he does, since we're a totally insecure and immature culture who's touch-sensitive to racial issues even as we're busy touting how "post-racial" we actually are. Because we are! Until people try to spin a menu out of control. And then we've retrogressed to red-to-the-touch political correctness and oversensitivity. Can you make pronouncements that the sign could, potentially, appear to be racially insensitive? Sure. Could you then go on to construe that NBC has racial sensitivity issues because of this sign? Of course. But in both cases, you'd be an asshole. Or at the very least, wrong. NBC isn't a racist company, and if it is, this sign isn't going to be
indicative of the problems they have. This is funny. It's funny because someone thought to do it, or didn't think about the implications it could have. That's it. That's all. And if you take offense to this, or try to spin it out of proportion, you're essentially bringing your own insecurities over racial issues to the table. Or your inability to read context: Questlove's a funny guy. It was a funny sign. That's it. And if Questlove's over it..... just so yall dont think that im all talk. i presented leslie in our kitchen with flowers and an extremely sizable gift certificate spa treatment with the works (enough to make my assistant go "WTF?!?!" who is more stressed out over your mess than me?!")— You should be, too. Previously: The Re-Education of ?uestlove & The Roots
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Kevin Harvick Wins Second Straight Budweiser Shootout by Holly Cain (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/6/2010 3:55:00 PM
Filed under: Kevin Harvick, Daytona Int'l Speedway, Richard Childress Racing DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- With cars spinning out behind him, Kevin Harvick survived a green-whitecheckered overtime to win Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout non-points race for the second consecutive year and become NASCAR's first winner of the season. Harvick's No. 29 Shellsponsored Chevrolet led Kasey Kahne and Jamie McMurray across the finish line under the yellow flag at Daytona International Speedway in a race that featured plenty of lead changes and bump-drafting at its best and worst. Four drivers swapped the lead in the final 12 laps of the 76-lap event. Greg Biffle and Kahne opted to keep their Fords on track during
the second-to-last caution period while the rest of the field pitted for fresh tires. Harvick immediately drove low inside Biffle on the restart and took the point moments before Biffle was hit from behind by Jeff Gordon, collecting a half-dozen cars in the melee. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five.
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Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice highlight 7-man Pro Football Hall of Fame class by Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 2/6/2010 10:06:02 PM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Rice, Smith Headline 2010 HOF Class Rice, Smith Headline 2010 HOF Class 2010 Electees At A Glance RUSS GRIMM Guard; 6-3, 273 Career: 1981-1991 Redskins. 11 seasons, 140 games Of note: Originally pegged to play center, he moved to left guard, where he earned a starting role as a rookie. ... Became a steadying force on Redskins' offensive line that earned nickname "Hogs" ... Appeared in five NFC championship games and four Super Bowls. ... Selected to four straight Pro Bowls (1983-86) ... Elected to NFL's 1980s all-decade team. RICKEY JACKSON Linebacker; 6-2, 243 Career: 1981-1993 Saints, 199495 49ers. 15 seasons, 227 games Of note: One of key players that fueled New Orleans transition from perennial losers into contenders in late 1980s. ... Made immediate impact as rookie when he led team with franchise rookie record eight sacks and was leading tackler. ... Earned Jackson first of six trips
to Pro Bowl. ... First-team AllPro 1986, '87, '92, '93. DICK LeBEAU Cornerback; 6-1, 185 Career: 1959-1972 Detroit Lions. 14 seasons, 185 games Of note: Senior nominee. Started 171 consecutive games, an NFL record for his position. ... In 1960, began to make mark by intercepting four passes, starting string of 12 straight seasons with three or more interceptions. ... In 1965, intercepted five passes and was voted to first of three consecutive Pro Bowls. ... Finest season came in 1970 when he recorded NFC-leading nine interceptions for 96 yards. ... In all, recorded 62 pickoffs for 762 yards. FLOYD LITTLE Running back; 5-10, 196 Career: 1967-1975 Broncos. 9 seasons, 117 games Of note: Senior nominee. Selected by Denver in first round (sixth player overall) of 1967 AFL-NFL Draft. ... Won 1971 NFL rushing title that year with 1,133 yards on 284 carries and 6 TDs. ... Amassed more than 12,000 all-purpose yards and 54 TDs. ... Gained 6,323 yards on 1,641 career carries, scored 43 TDs. ... Added 215 receptions for 2,418 yards, 9 TDs. JOHN RANDLE Defensive tackle; 6-1, 278 Career: 1990-2000 Vikings, 2001-03 Seahawks. 14 seasons,
219 games Of note: Recorded 137½ sacks during career. ... Had eight consecutive seasons (1992-99) with 10-plus sacks and a ninth in 2001. ... In 1997 had career best and league leading 15½ sacks, and career high 71 tackles (39 solo). ... Named first-team AllPro/All-NFC six consecutive years (1993-98) and once AllAFC with Seahawks (2001). ... Selected to play in seven Pro Bowls (1994-99, 2002). JERRY RICE Wide receiver; 6-2, 200 Career: 1985-2000 49ers, 200104 Raiders, 2004 Seahawks. 20 seasons, 303 games. Of note: Averaged 18.9 yards per catch on 49 receptions for 927 yards and 3 TDs as rookie. ... In 1986 caught 86 passes for a league-leading 1,570 yards and led the NFL in touchdown catches with 15. ... In 1987 set the NFL record for TD receptions in season with 22. ... Earned three Super Bowl rings with 49ers and was named MVP in Super Bowl XXIII. ... Named first-team All-Pro 11 consecutive seasons and voted to 13 Pro Bowls. ... A member of NFL's All-Decade Teams of 1980s and 1990s and NFL's 75th Anniversary Team. EMMITT SMITH Running back; 5-9, 207 Career: 1990-2002 Cowboys, 2003-04 Cardinals. ... 15
seasons, 226 games. Of note: Rushed for 937 yards, 11 TDs to earn Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. ... Second season rushed for league-leading 1,563 yards. ... Won rushing crowns in 1991, '92, '93, '95. ... In 1995, recorded career highs for rushing yards (1,773), rushing TDs (25), and receptions (62). ... Major contributor to Cowboys Super Bowl XXVII, XXVIII, XXX victories. ... Named first-team All-Pro 199295. ... Named to NFL's AllDecade Team of the 1990s. -- Source: Pro Football Hall of Fame FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -Here's how you stop Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith: Put them in the Hall of Fame and watch them break down and cry. The men who tore apart NFL defenses couldn't handle the emotions Saturday when they were elected to the shrine along with five others. "They told me, 'Don't cry,' " Rice said, his eyes wet with tears. "It meant the world to me, just like winning a Super Bowl. On draft day, I didn't take that for granted. I didn't take this for granted." He could have. A nominee needs 80 percent approval from the 44 media members who vote and Rice and Smith were slam-dunks in their first year of eligibility. Vote totals aren't announced.
"I am just honored ... to stand up there with greatness," Rice added. Smith teared up when speaking about his father and how "I was living his dream." "We are blessed to achieve this level of greatness together," Smith said, referring to Rice. They will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 7. Rice and Smith each won three Super Bowls and was the MVP in one of those victories. Smith was the 1993 league MVP, as well. Rice, the NFL's career receiving and touchdowns leader, and Smith, the top rusher, were joined in the Hall by John Randle, Russ Grimm, Rickey Jackson, Floyd Little and Dick LeBeau. Little and LeBeau were elected as senior committee nominees. Rice, the perfect receiver for the West Coast offense, played 20 seasons for San Francisco, Oakland and Seattle. He made 1,549 catches for 22,895 yards, had 14 1,000-yard seasons and scored 208 touchdowns. Smith, among the most durable running backs, rushed for 18,355 yards and 164 touchdowns for Dallas and Arizona. "This is almost perfect," Smith said. "I don't think even Steven EMMITT page 45
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Why Everybody’s Picking the Colts to Win (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)
Indianapolis Colts winning. Even an avowed Peyton Manning agnostic like ESPN’s Bill When it comes to the Super Simmons has seen the light on Bowl, everybody’s an expert. the supremely locked-in passer. No, seriously, everybody. It’s “If you’re trying to talk yourself not so much that one doesn’t into the Saints on Sunday, you need to look hard to find Super k e e p c o m i n g b a c k t o o n e Bowl predictions from people question,” Simmons writes. only tangentially related to the “‘Has Manning reached that game of football as it is that it’s h a l l o w e d almost impossible to avoid MJ/Montana/Bird/Federer Don’t stumbling across seemingly Bet Against Me, It’s Just a Bad everyone in the world’s Super Idea level?’” As usual with Bowl picks online. Getty Images Simmons, it takes some time to Peyton Manning has become get to the answer, but (spoiler hard to pick against in big alert) it’s, “yes, he has.” In the games. Boston Herald, Karen Guregian Thus we have predictions from argues that the comeback win George W. Bush’s famous Manning engineered against the former FEMA head and an New England Patriots in the impeached former governor of AFC Conference Championship Illinois, as well as, in no three years ago keyed his ascent particular order, poet Maya to can’t-bet-against primacy. Angelou, former CIA head The sports commentariat does Michael Hayden, Ed Asner, John not seem terribly conflicted Stossel and the Grateful Dead’s about betting on Manning and Bob Weir. Oh, and an orangutan the Colts. “It comes with the in the Oregon Zoo. Should any plaid sport coat and the Olivetti of these predictions matter to typewriter: If youre a sports you? Absolutely not. Are they writer, youre duty-bound to pick interesting? Kind of, at least the Super Bowl,” the Atlanta relative to the reliably dull Journal-Constitution’s Mark certitude of sportswriters in Bradley writes. “Some years its prediction mode. But while hard — take it from a guy who seemingly every sport-pundit has picked the Rams to beat the a take on how the Super Bowl is Patriots 42-3 in 2002 — and going to shake out, some takes other years its easy. This time its were notably more interesting easy.” than others. In the New York Times, Of course, most all of these William C. Rhoden writes that prognosticators — though not Tony Dungy — who coached B o b W e i r , i f y o u w e r e Manning to a Super Bowl win w o n d e r i n g — h a v e t h e three years ago — expects a Submitted at 2/7/2010 8:17:15 AM
lopsided Indianapolis win. In the Boston Globe, Albert R. Breer agrees with the coach. In the Washington Post, Michael Wilbon also agrees with Dungy on the victors, but sees the game as a bit more closely matched. And that is about as diverse as the opinion gets. So, do the underdog Saints have a chance at all? At Yahoo, Mark Pesavento writes that New Orleans definitely has a chance provided they lose the coin toss. In Sports Illustrated, Don Banks takes a less-quirky tack on that question, offering five reasons why the Saints could win. ( Jim Trotter holds down Indy’s half of the point/counterpoint) In the Salt Lake Tribune, Gordon Monson finds himself having to make the most of being in the same position as Banks — that is, arguing on behalf of an extreme underdog in a debate with a colleague. “There is no good conclusive reason [why the Saints will win],” Monson writes. “There are, however, plenty of sort of spotty, goofy, cosmic ones. Without much doubt, the Colts on paper are the better team, with the better quarterback and the better
defense. So, where is it written that the better team always wins?” At the usually Mets-centric blog Faith and Fear in Flushing, Fixer emeritus Jason Fry makes his unabashedly emotional case for the Saints. At ESPN, Pat Yasinskas writes that the Saints’ future is bright, whatever happens on Sunday. “These Saints arent some kind of oneyear wonder,” Yasinskas writes. “Theyre for real and what has been the season of a lifetime for fans all around the Gulf region might only be the start of something bigger. This team has the chance to be very good for a very long time.” Given the near-unanimity on the Colts’ behalf, it’s hard to see the Super Bowl itself as promising much drama. In the Miami Herald, Jeff Darlington offers another reason: both teams are just so darned admirable. “As much as the Saints have gripped the nation with their story, as much as it would be impossible to despise anything this organization has stood for, it has been equally difficult to treat the Colts as a team of bullies,” Darlington writes. “It might simply come down to this: Two of the classiest teams in football also happen to be two of the best.” In the Chicago Sun-Times, Mark Potash concurs. The Washington Post’s Norman Chad, as per usual, is more interested in comedic riffage than actual nuts-and-bolts
prognostication, but “The Couch Slouch” gets in some good jokes in his pre-Super Bowl column. And then he, like everyone else — or at least like Rod Blagojevich and Maya Angelou — picks the Colts, too.* * * At MarketWatch, Mark Hulbert brings news of a prediction that will doubtless be good news to the Journal’s readership. The Super Bowl Indicator — a bit of stock-market superstition dictating that a Super Bowl champion with roots in the original National Football League will lead to a bull market in the year ahead — suggests that investors are in for a good year, whichever team wins. Both the Saints and Colts have their origins in the NFL, as opposed to the old AFL. In the New Orleans TimesPicayune, original New Orleans quarterback Billy Kilmer remembers his days with the expansion Saints. In the Baltimore Sun, Kevin Van Valkenburg looks back on the Colts’ early days in Baltimore and compares Colts juggernauts past and present.* * * For the players involved in the Super Bowl, Sunday will doubtless seem like one of the most important days of their lives. From a football perspective, it’s hard to argue with that point. But life, of course, is not most sensibly WHY page 46
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Danica Patrick finishes 6th in stock car debut by Associated Press (ESPN.com)
car racing was widely anticipated, and she didn't disappoint. Submitted at 2/6/2010 11:22:36 PM After spending much of the race Message from fivefilters.org: If among the top 10, she bumped you can, please donate to the full fenders with Nelson Piquet Jr. -text RSS service so we can and spun out through the infield continue developing it. Danica grass on lap 54, costing her any Finishes Sixth In ARCA Debut realistic hopes of a victory. But Danica Finishes Sixth In ARCA she charged through the field in Debut the closing laps, getting as high DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- as fifth with three laps left. Bobby Gerhart held yet another It impressed Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s trophy. sister Kelley, who was Danica Patrick held her own. instrumental in putting together Gerhart's record sixth ARCA the deal that brought Patrick to victory at Daytona International the family's JR Motorsports Speedway was overshadowed by team. the successful stock car debut of "I think she showed us she was the IndyCar star, who rallied able to drive," Kelley Earnhardt from a midrace spinout to finish said. "One time I saw her up on sixth Saturday in the crash-filled the high side, she pulled down race. low. I kept thinking, 'Come on, “ let's up pull off an Earnhardt. I bumped from the side. I Pass 18 cars in three laps and bumped from the front. I got win this thing.'" bumped from the back. I learned But she didn't have enough to a lot, and I had so much fun in a catch Gerhart, who has won the race car today. So I can't wait to ARCA season opener six of the do it again.�-- Danica Patrick last 12 years. "It was a lot of fun," Patrick said. "As a little kid, I dreamed of "I bumped from the side. I having an opportunity to come bumped from the front. I got here and race," Gerhart said. bumped from the back. I learned "When that happens, naturally a lot, and I had so much fun in a comes the passion to come out race car today. So I can't wait to and win, but I couldn't imagine do it again." doing it this many times." Patrick's first foray into stock Mark Thompson was second,
followed by John Wes Townley, James Buescher and Patrick Sheltra. Gerhart, who said he hadn't yet met Patrick, understood his name probably wouldn't end up in the headlines. "Overshadowed by what? Did I miss something?" Gerhart deadpanned. "I'm glad she was here, really. It brought some very, very well-needed attention to this series." Patrick will race a partial schedule in NASCAR's secondtier Nationwide series this season. She has not yet decided if she will compete in the Nationwide opener at Daytona next Saturday. "I'm really just thinking about today, what I learned and what I can do better," Patrick said. Her car owners seemed pleased. Earnhardt Jr. sprinted from the NASCAR drivers meeting to congratulate her, while Rick Hendrick-- who owns a stake in JR Motorsports -- was quick to praise her over the in-car radio. "You drove the wheels off that thing, girl," Hendrick told her. "We are proud of you." Patrick replied, "Thank you very much." The Daytona ARCA race is notorious for its frequent and spectacular crashes -- "You need
to wear a helmet if you watch it from the stands," driver Scott Speed said earlier in the week -and this year's race was no exception. The car carnage started early, when Bill Baird's car got wildly loose on lap 7 and collided with Steve Blackburn, resulting in an eight-car pileup. The race restarted 10 laps later -- and the field couldn't even get through a full lap without another wreck. Dakoda Armstrong's car spun out and was hit hard by Craig Goess, bringing the race to a halt again. Patrick artfully swerved high to avoid the wreck. Another female driver in the field, Jill George, walked away safely after her car overturned in a frightening accident on lap 27. The race was red flagged in the aftermath of the accident as track safety workers repaired a fence. Patrick learned about drafting at Daytona the hard way on lap 49, when she moved out of the low groove and lost touch with the leaders, slipping from sixth to 11th. She noted over her in-car radio that the car was beginning to get loose and slide around on the track -- and things were about to get much worse. On lap 54, Piquet Jr. tapped fenders with Patrick on the
frontstretch, spinning Patrick into the infield grass. "Grass is not good for grip," Patrick recalled thinking as her car was sliding. She made an impressive save, managing to keep her car from sliding into the wall. Patrick was able to get back in the race but slipped to 24th. The most frightening wreck of the day came a few laps later, when Barry Fitzgerald's car went tumbling wildly in the infield grass next to the backstretch. The car flipped seven times before coming to a stop, but Fitzgerald was able to climb out of the car. Patrick's performance is likely to overshadow the wrecks and Gerhart's win, but Gerhart said he didn't mind. "I actually welcome the opportunity to have a national platform to compete at," Gerhart said. "Hopefully when somebody talks about this series now, they're not going to say, 'You do what?" Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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EMMITT continued from page 42
Spielberg could have written a script this nice. So many people said I could not do it. I believed in that little giant inside of me that said I can." Added Rice, standing shoulder to shoulder with Smith: "It's just like playing in that big game, this is something you think about, and it is happening. I never thought I would go in .... with this guy here. Steve Young, one of two Hall of Fame quarterbacks who threw to Rice, got the first hug from the new inductee, then said: "They made yards after the catch a stat because of Jerry Rice." Two other all-time top receivers, Cris Carter and Tim Brown, weren't elected. Carter, in his third year of eligibility, stands third in career receptions with 1,101, while Brown, in his first year on the ballot, made 1,094. Jackson, a do-everything linebacker with a great burst off the line, finished his 15-season
career for New Orleans and San Francisco with 128 sacks. A sixtime Pro Bowler, Jackson sparked the first turnaround by the Saints from Aints to contender, in the late 1980s. He helped the Saints to their first division title and playoff berth. Now, a day before the Saints appear in their first Super Bowl against the Indianapolis Colts, Jackson is Canton-bound. One little glitch: He was introduced as Randy instead of Rickey. Randle was that rare defensive tackle who was a premier pass rusher. An undrafted free agent out of Texas A&I, Randle had 137½ sacks for Minnesota and Seattle, tied for sixth overall and most for his position, and led the league with 15½ in 1997. He played in seven Pro Bowls. Grimm, a member of the Washington Redskins' famed Hogs offensive line, won three Super Bowls. A guard, he made four Pro Bowls and was selected
to the all-decade team of the 1980s. "I'm elated about it, to be honest," Grimm said. "Not so much where it's a weight off my back where I've been worried about it, I'm just thrilled to be associated with the type of football players that were not only on that list today but are in the Hall of Fame already." The two senior committee inductees did not get enough support from the regular panel of media members when they were eligible. LeBeau, the current defensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is considered one of pro football's great defensive innovators as a coach. But he was voted in for his outstanding work for the Lions from 195972. LeBeau finished with 62 interceptions, second among cornerbacks when he retired. "They say anything worth having is worth waiting on," LeBeau
said. "It has been a long wait. I can't imagine anything else that could be any more rewarding." Little starred for the Denver Broncos in the AFL and NFL, leading the NFL in rushing in 1971 with 1,133 yards and in touchdowns rushing in 1973 with 12. He waited 30 years to get elected. "My dad used to take me to games to watch Jerry play," Little joked, cracking up Rice. "It's been a long journey. This is truly my dream. You can't explain the emotions of the way you feel at this moment." Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Super Bowl Party Machine Moves Into High Gear (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 2/6/2010 11:46:47 AM
The Super Bowl party machine in Miami is revved up and humming like a Daytona stock car right now. (Just in time to overshadow that quaint little car race they have annually a little north of here). Getty Images Which member of this power couple is more famous for being famous? SUPER page 46
Heat Starring in Episode of 'Lost' With 5th Straight Defeat by Chris Tomasson (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/6/2010 5:25:00 PM
Filed under: Heat CHICAGO -Give Miami a road map. Give the Heat a compass. If you really want to splurge, how about a GPS?
"We've lost our way right now,'' said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. Indeed Miami has. The team is somewhere in the middle of Siberia without a Coleman stone. Wait a minute. The team is the Heat. Make that in the middle of the Gobi Desert with an empty Miami lost its fifth straight game on Saturday night at the canteen.
United Center, falling 95-91 to a Chicago team that was without center Joakim Noah, who has plantar fasciitis, and forward Tyrus Thomas, serving a onegame suspension. The dry spell also is seven of eight. Spoelstra added he believes the Heat is lost "temporarily, and we
will find our way again.'' But, while Spoelstra did vow notexactly-spelled-out changes, there's not yet evidence he has been nicknamed "Nostradumus'' by his friends.
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This is really what the Super Bowl is all about — quasiexclusive events meant to get corporate types lubed up and feeling good about spending their companys cash on everything from advertising to airline tickets. What happens early in the week down here is the night-life equivalent of the NFLs voluntary off-season workouts. The veteran Super Bowl party crowd skips them completely, and nobody pays much attention to what happens at them. The real Super Bowl extravaganzas dont start until Friday night (which is like preseason) and Saturday is the night for big-time partying. We waited until Friday night to hit the town. First, we chugged down from Fort Lauderdale in our SUV (how else do you get around in Florida?) and stopped by super agent Leigh Steinbergs shindig, which was tucked away in some sort of shopping center/casino complex half-way between Fort Lauderdale and
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Miami. Nearly everyone at the party was wearing a giant VIP badge around their neck covered in corporate advertisements. Each badge came with a free drink coupon. (Does VIP still mean Very Important Person?) This party catered to the retired, male snowbird set (or were they all football agents?), so we headed to Miami beach for the Leather and Laces soirée sponsored by pseudo celeb Kim Kardashian, who is dating pseudo running back Reggie Bush, of the Who Dats (copyright: NFL). Last year, this party was held on Saturday night and had to go against big-time party rivals like Maxim Magazine. Moving it to Friday night was a wise decision and made it the go-to party of the evening in Miami Beach. Celebrities like Ms. Kardashian, Playboy Playmate Holly Madison and the guy from the ShamWow infomercials gazed down from a VIP balcony on the more than 1,000 unwashed
masses, who could only afford the $600 general admission tickets. Were told corporate sponsorships for the party (Monster Energy drink, Bacardi, Coca Cola, etc.) were going for anywhere from $7,500 to $30,000. That includes signage, a bunch of tickets and the right to be among Playboy playmates, models in lingerie and some big, well-toned men we were told are professional athletes. Tonight, the real fun begins. Playboy is restarting their tradition of throwing a big Super Bowl bash. Last year, they canceled their party because of economic concerns. But Maxim swooped in and stole the show. The two will compete tonight in what could only be described as the Super Bowl of skin mag party rivalries.
viewed from a football perspective. In several ways, Dexter Manley is something of a poster boy for this fact. Manley was an ace pass -rusher on a pair of Washington Redskins Super Bowl champions and a hero of the ‘Skins’ Super Bowl XVII win. He was also one of the most baroquely starcrossed NFL players of his or any era: Manley didn’t learn how to read until he was 30 years old, earned a lifetime ban from the NFL for cocaine problems in 1991, and ultimately lost nearly everything in his struggle with addiction. In the Washington Post, Mike Wise tells the story of how Manley reclaimed the Super Bowl ring he’d pawned for drug money, and eventually reclaimed his dignity, thanks to his friendship with the late Houston attorney John O’Quinn.* * * Finally, a couple of longer reads to fill the time between now and when you need to start putting that seven-layer dip together. The first comes via the late Hunter S. Thompson. While it’s hard not to admire his wild-eyed commitment and prose, Thompson has never really been a favorite of your Fixer’s. Still, I really enjoyed reading “Fear and Loathing at the Super Bowl,” Thompson’s 1973 missive from
Super Bowl VII for Rolling Stone. It’s predictably druggy and self-indulgent and occasionally kind of hard to follow, but it paints a vivid (almost too-vivid) portrait of the weird vibes surrounding the first post-Watergate Super Bowl. By the same token, Dan Le Batard’s sharp, funny account in the Miami Herald of a late night out with Minnesota Vikings tackle Bryant McKinnie in Super Bowl-week Miami is a colorful portrait of the state of the Super Bowl circa now. In place of Thompson’s Nixon-era demianarchy is an eruption of VIProom conspicuous consumption; standing in for Thompson’s drug -addled Samoan attorney is plastic surgerized rap starlet Lil’ Kim. The fear and loathing, of course, remain. — Tip of the Fix cap to readers Don Hartline and Terri Lipton and fellow Fixer Garey Ris. Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email David at droth11@gmail.com.
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Sources: Warren Sapp Done With NFL Network Following Arrest by FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/6/2010 3:48:00 PM
Filed under: NFL Police Blotter, Super Bowl, Sports Business and Media Sources have told FanHouse that Warren Sapp will no longer be an analyst for NFL Network following his arrest Saturday. Sapp was scheduled to be part of the Super Bowl XLIV coverage for Sunday's game between the Colts and Saints. The former NFL star was arrested after an alleged domestic violence incident at a Miami Beach hotel, police said. Sapp was charged with one count of misdemeanor domestic battery and is expected to appear
before a Miami-Dade County judge Sunday. Miami Beach police spokesman Juan Sanchez said the domestic violence allegation was reported around noon Saturday and detectives interviewed Sapp later in the day.
Sakamoto: Other M shows 'human side' of Samus by Xav de Matos (Joystiq)
continuously peek over the shoulder of Team Ninja (presumably to ensure very few Other than knowing it's a thing, bouncy-bikini shots appear in the details of Nintendo and Team final game) while D-Rockets will Ninja's collabrotive effort to h a n d l e t h e t i t l e ' s m o v i e bring Samus back into 2D space s e q u e n c e s . T h e c o m p u t e r in Metroid: Other M are slim. In generated movie sequences in the current issue of Famitsu, a Metroid: Other M are one of the one-page interview with Metroid methods Sakamoto says players co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto will learn more about Samus didn't reveal much in the way of Aran's emotional side. "She's a n e w i n f o r m a t i o n b u t t h e strong woman, but she also has a legendary creator did say the fragile side. We want to make a upcoming game will focus on game whose charms can be felt Samus Aran's "human side." from the story areas and these The complete Metroid: Other M human touches as well," he said. experience is being produced by Before you begin to cringe, three teams: Nintendo will Sakamoto clarified that he's well Submitted at 2/6/2010 8:30:00 PM
aware of the core of the Metroid franchise."It's an action game, but it's capable of having a clear emotional side." Emotionality that you can view, after the break. Metroid: Other M is expected to hit the Wii later this year. Continue reading Sakamoto: Other M shows 'human side' of Samus Sakamoto: Other M shows 'human side' of Samus originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
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Swag Sunday: Bayonetta (360) by Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)
• For a list of complete rules, click here.
Submitted at 2/7/2010 11:30:00 AM
Look, alright, we'll level with you -- we've got a short supply of schweet schwag hanging around Joystiq Prizeland as of late. That should at least partially help to explain last week's absence of a contest. We also kind of felt like you might've been overloaded with games during our holiday giveaways at the end of 2009. What's that? No, you say? Well we suppose that the first few months of 2010 are unusually flush with quality content, so giving away a bit couldn't hurt, right? We certainly hope a nine foot tall bullet witch will do it for you, because that's what we've got. One lucky winner (chosen at random) takes home Bayonetta
on Xbox 360, chosen from the comments below (please leave one and only one) that are left in the next 24 hours. You tell us what you think is the most annoying song you've ever heard used in marketing a game and you may very well win yourself a vidjagame. How about that?!
• Leave a comment telling us what you think is the most annoying song you've ever heard used in marketing a game. • You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec, due in part to our aversion to snowy owls).
Gallery: Bayonetta What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes"Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here. Swag Sunday: Bayonetta (360) • Limit 1 entry per person per originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:30:00 EST. day. • This entry period ends at Please see our terms for use of 1 1 : 3 1 A M E T o n M o n d a y , feeds. Permalink| Email this| February 8. • At that time, we'll randomly C o m m e n t s select one winner to receive one copy of Bayonetta for Xbox 360 ($59.99 ARV).
Sega cites 'tweaks' and release position for Alpha Protocol delay [update] by Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)
reasons for the delay, saying, "We really wanted to polish the game up, make it everything It would have been nice to hear Obsidian planned it to be, and more of an explanation way back g i v e t h e c o n s u m e r a v e r y in October when Sega's Alpha p o l i s h e d g a m e . " P r o t o c o l w a s " o f f i c i a l l y He added that there's been some delayed" to the amorphous "tweaks in lighting here and " S p r i n g 2 0 1 0 , " b u t , there," and the inventory screen unfortunately, that didn't happen. has been revamped a bit, but in Speaking with MTV Multiplayer general the team has been this week, though, assistant focused on "bringing the whole producer at Sega Matthew quality level up." The post's Hickman explicitly detailed the author also notes that the game is Submitted at 2/6/2010 9:30:00 PM
set for a "Summer 2010" release window now, and we've reached out to him (and Sega) for clarification.
Update: The post's author has responded that, yes, the game's current release window is set for "Summer 2010." Guess that's
another delay then, eh? We'll update again if Sega responds. Gallery: Alpha Protocol Sega cites 'tweaks' and release position for Alpha Protocol delay [update] originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
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The coming days: The week ahead (The Economist: News analysis)
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is snowed in by Griffin McElroy (Joystiq)
ones, leave a link in the comments! BioScrap(2P Start) Much like the rest of the nation, Not Sold in Stores(Virtual Weekly Webcomic Wrapup HQ Shackles) is currently buried beneath Lost Concept Art(Of Noobs and roughly a half-mile of fresh Men) snow. Despite our encasing, The Future is No Escape(Penny we've somehow managed to hold Arcade) onto our internet connection. We Block Party(Digital Unrest) know, that doesn't make a lick of Yolk(Brawl in the Family) sense -- we're guessing that Gun to a Knife Fight(Extra Life) somewhere out in the arctic Continue reading Weekly wilderness, a router is still Webcomic Wrapup is snowed in powered on, fueled by an Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is unseen, tenacious modem. snowed in originally appeared on We've used this inexplicable Joystiq on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 internet access to bring you our 23:30:00 EST. Please see our seven favorite webcomics, listed terms for use of feeds. below. Check them out, and vote Permalink| Email this| for your favorite after the jump! C o m m e n t s If we missed out on any good Submitted at 2/6/2010 11:30:00 PM
are likely to prove a drag on the performance of the euro area as a whole. Figures released on Submitted at 2/6/2010 8:26:59 PM Friday February 12th may show Message from fivefilters.org: If that the two big economies you can, please donate to the full hardly grew at all in the fourth -text RSS service so we can quarter, despite the euro area's continue developing it. pulling out of recession in the The coming days More anxieties previous three-month period. a b o u t E u r o p e ' s b a t t e r e d Spain, another large economy in economies the region, is probably still stuck Feb 7th 2010 | From The in recession. Job losses and weak Economist online consumer spending may put a • TAX-COLLECTORS and dampener on the euro area’s customs officers in Greece have recovery, which Jean-Claude already walked out in protest Trichet, head of the European a g a i n s t p l a n n e d a u s t e r i t y Central Bank, has said is set to measures by the government. On be modest and bumpy this year. Wednesday February 10th it will • THE 31st anniversary of the be the turn of civil servants, Iranian revolution on Thursday doctors and other state workers. February 11th is likely to A much bigger strike is expected provide an excuse for more later in the month and past opposition protests against the experience suggests that protests government. Nine people have could turn nasty. Yet unless been sentenced to death for their Greece gets a grip on its public part in previous demonstrations finances, the government will and human-rights campaigners struggle to finance its loans. fear that they will be executed Similar anxieties are emerging before Thursday. The opposition elsewhere in Europe. continues to be outspoken in its • LACKLUSTRE economic criticism of the regime and performances in Germany and significant unrest could spark a Italy in the last quarter of 2009 fierce crackdown.
• THE European Parliament will hold a delayed vote on Tuesday February 9th to confirm the appointment of 26 new EU commissioners. MEPs generally attract little attention but once every five years they get the chance to grill nominees for the commission. Although parliament can only approve or reject the entire commission the threat of a no vote forced the withdrawal of a Bulgarian, Rumiana Jeleva, who had been put forward for the job of directing Europe’s humanitarian aid. Her shaky grip on her brief and press accounts of the business activities of Mrs Jeleva and her husband forced Bulgaria to choose a replacement, smoothing the way for the new Commission to win approval and for MEPs to slip safely back into obscurity. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.