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Bipartisanship: can words be put into action in election year? by Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 2/9/2010 1:09:14 PM
The president wants it. The public wants it. But when it comes to bipartisanship, words are easier than action — especially in an election year. President Barack Obama, who met with congressional leaders from both parties on Tuesday, called for bipartisan solutions to some of the weighty issues of the day: job creation and deficit reduction. “As I said in my State of the Union, part of what we’d like to see is the ability of Congress to move forward in a more bipartisan fashion on some of the key challenges that the country is facing right now,” Obama said before the meeting. “And although the parties are not going to agree on every single item, there should be some areas where we can agree and we can get some things done even as we
have vigorous debates on some of those issues that we don’t agree on,” he said. He did not mention healthcare reform in that first statement. Obama’s signature domestic priority last year has become bogged down in election -year politics after Democrats lost their filibuster proof
only solution is to start over. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that Americans spread the blame on lack of cooperation in Washington and most want both sides to work to pass healthcare reform. Nearly six in 10 say Republicans aren’t doing enough to compromise with Obama on important issues, while more than four in 10 see Obama doing too little to get Republican support. Is bipartisanship possible in a congressional election year or will it be mostly gridlock through November? Who do you think is more unbending when it comes to compromise — the m a j o r i t y i n t h e S e n a t e Democrats or the Republicans? when Republican Scott Brown For more Reuters political news, won the Massachusetts Senate click here seat of the late Edward Kennedy. Photo credit: Reuters/Larry O b a m a h a s c a l l e d f o r a Downing (House Republican healthcare summit on Feb. 25 for Leader John Boehner listens to Democrats and Republicans to O b a m a a t m e e t i n g o f put their best ideas forward in congressional leaders at White hopes of moving the stalled House) legislation. Republicans say the
Cirrus Logic (CRUS): In the Chips with 1,000 Patents by Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:10:00 AM
Filed under: Hilary On Stocks, Stocks to Buy"We expect that 2010 will be better for technology stocks; even after a strong year in 2009, they still have a long way to go to compensate for the carnage of 2008," says Jim Oberweis, Jr. The editor of The Oberweis Report explains, "In particular, bet on companies building the latest generation semiconductors or facilitating greater network bandwidth. In particular, we like new pick Cirrus Logic ( CRUS). Continue reading Cirrus Logic (CRUS): In the Chips with 1,000 Patents Cirrus Logic (CRUS): In the Chips with 1,000 Patents originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
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What does Michelle Obama think of Sarah Palin? We may never find out… by David Alexander (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 2/9/2010 10:18:25 PM
It’s pretty clear what defeated Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin thinks of President Barack Obama, but did you ever wonder what first lady Michelle Obama thinks of Palin? Don’t count on finding out anytime soon. Asked for her “read” on Palin
during a round of television interviews Tuesday, Obama was frustratingly diplomatic. “You know, I don’t have a read,” she told CNN’s “Larry King Live” program. “I mean I try not to make or set opinions about people that I haven’t had any … substantive interaction with.” And she wasn’t inclined to say whether she was irked by Palin’s criticisms of her husband. “Democracy is about critique,
and the president is not immune to criticism,” Obama said, adding that she thought her husband was “doing a phenomenal job” given where the country was when he took office. The first lady also declined to bite when asked if Palin was becoming a phenomenon. “I think it’s wonderful to have strong female voices out there, but I don’t know her,” she said.
Obama’s remarks came as she made a round of interviews following the launch of her campaign to reduce childhood obesity. While reluctant to talk about Palin, she had no qualms talking about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her husband’s rival for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The relationship between Clinton and her husband, which
had been tense during the campaign, is great, the first lady said. “Hillary Clinton is an amazing secretary of state. I mean she would have been an amazing president,” Obama said. “She’s proven to be a tremendous asset in so many ways.” “They share the same views in terms of international policy and WHAT page 3
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Wasn’t Groundhog Day last week? Another blizzard slams East Coast by Jeremy Pelofsky (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:16:14 AM
It is starting to feel a lot like that (in)famous movie“Groundhog Day” with a powerful blizzard again pelting the East Coast from Washington, D.C. up to New York with a foot or more of snow and pummeling winds. The federal government in Washington is closed for the third straight day, the United Nation’s headquarters in Manhattan is also shuttered — in fact it may be easier to say what’s open, which is probably next to nothing except the random coffee shop and well of course Wall Street. Already about 15,000 customers in the Baltimore/Washington area are without power and that number will likely jump with wind gusts reportedly hitting
more than 40 miles per hour at Dulles International Airport and near whiteout conditions. And yes, that winter-hardened Chicagoan President Barack Obama is trying to maintain his schedule with a meeting with
African American leaders at the White House to discuss the economy and jobs amid the 9.7 percent unemployment rate. But the White House did push up a performance celebrating music from the Civil Rights Movement to Tuesday night from Wednesday because of the storm. A few days after being sworn in as president, Obama drew a few gasps when he criticized Washington schools for closing because of a small storm of snow and ice. He said he would try to instill “some flinty Chicago toughness” in Washington. Hmmm. Here’s our latest weather report and one of our favorites, the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang. - Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
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approach,” Obama said, “and we’re seeing the outcome of that on the international stage. I think … we can say pretty clearly that … the view of this nation around the world has changed.” “Things aren’t perfect. We’re still a nation fighting two wars,” she added. “But when we travel around the country, the excitement and the possibility are palpable. And I think that’s because of the president, but I
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think it’s also because of our secretary of state.” For more Reuters political news, click here. Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (First lady Michelle Obama at event launching campaign against childhood obesity)
Rafe and Josh debate Google's Buzz by Rafe Needleman, Josh Lowensohn (Webware.com) Submitted at 2/9/2010 6:10:00 PM
Is Google Buzz effective competition to Twitter? Or is it just FriendFeed light? Webware writers Rafe Needleman and Josh Lowensohn debate.
Allstate Earnings Preview: Looking for a Turnaround by Trey Thoelcke (BloggingStocks)
after the market closes Wednesday, and then to discuss those results in a conference call Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:30:00 AM tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 11, at Filed under: Earnings Reports, 9 : 0 0 A M ( E T ) . A n a u d i o Forecasts, Allstate Corp (ALL) webcast of the call will be Allstate Corp. ( ALL), which available at the company's has been the subject of rumors website. concerning the termination of During the three months that welcomed a new board member agents, is scheduled to release ended in December, Allstate a n d d e c l a r e d a q u a r t e r l y fourth-quarter financial results named a new marketing chief, dividend. Analysts surveyed by
Thomson Reuters are looking for earnings for that period to come to $1.01 per share. That compares with 99 cents per share in the previous quarter and 97 cents per share a year ago. Revenue for the fourth quarter is expected to be 23.0% higher than a year ago to $8.1 billion. Continue reading Allstate Earnings Preview: Looking for a
Turnaround Allstate Earnings Preview: Looking for a Turnaround originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
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Obama aide backhands Palin over crib notes
Obama aide mocks Palin's crib notes
by Matt Spetalnick (Front Row Washington)
by Daniel Nasaw (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
question on health care reform, he said he planned to make pancakes for his son if the snow Submitted at 2/9/2010 2:39:18 PM in Washington continued. "I Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:13:33 AM White House Press Secretary wrote 'eggs', 'milk', 'bread', but I Robert Gibbs mocked former Press secretary scrawls grocery crossed out 'bread.' Then I wrote Republican vice presidential list on hand after ex-Alaska down 'hope' and 'change', in case candidate Sarah Palin for writing governor uses 'palm-o-prompter' I forgot." notes on her hand at last at Tea Party convention Without missing a beat, Gibbs weekend’s Tea Party convention. The Washington political continued with his comments on At his daily briefing, Gibbs playbook typically advises the tax treatment of health jokingly showed the White presidents not to debate sniping insurance benefits under a House press corps his left palm from critics at every turn. But Republican proposal. where scrawled in black ink was Barack Obama's political staff Palin, who derided Obama as "a a grocery list of items to buy in could not resist the opportunity c h a r i s m a t i c g u y w i t h a case he and his family were to hit back at Sarah Palin after t e l e p r o m p t e r " d u r i n g h e r snowed in. she was seen to have written crib appearance at the first national “Eggs, milk and bread,” Gibbs notes on the palm of her hand at Tea Party conference, has in turn read to laughter. “But I crossed before the conservative Tea Palin, who has gained a right- a gathering of conservative been widely mocked for her own out bread … And then I wrote Party movement in Nashville on wing following, later poked fun activists. low-tech aid, dubbed a "Hillbilly at herself during the convention down ‘hope and change,’ just in Saturday. Speaking at a question and Palm Pilot". "You really need to case I forgot,” he quipped, The former Alaska governor by writing “Hi, Mom!” on the answer session on Saturday, the remind yourself to lift American referring to President Barack was shown to have written same hand . former US vice-presidential spirits?" joked Jon Stewart on Obama’s slogan during the 2008 “Energy,” “Budget cuts” (which For more Reuters political news, c a n d i d a t e a n d e x - A l a s k a the Daily Show. was crossed out), “Tax,” and click here campaign. governor, inadvertently revealed • Sarah Palin Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Gibbs, who took the podium “Lift Americans Spirits” on her that she had written the words • Obama administration a f t e r a n i m p r o m p t u n e w s palm, for which she was widely R e e d ( G i b b s h a n d s h o w s "energy", "budget cuts", and "lift • United States conference by Obama, was ridiculed by liberal bloggers. shopping list), Reuters/Josh American spirit" on her palm. taking a jab at Palin, who was This came after Palin had taken a Anderson (Palin speaks during The word "budget" had been Daniel Nasaw caught using her hand for crib swipe at Obama as overly reliant National Tea Party Convention) crossed out and replaced with guardian.co.uk© Guardian notes during an appearance on teleprompters. "tax". News & Media Limited 2010 | At yesterday's daily briefing, the Use of this content is subject to White House press secretary, our Terms & Conditions| More Robert Gibbs said he also had Feeds written some things down on his hand. Breaking off from a by Tom Krazit (Webware.com) darlings of the social-media life. world, not Google--which hopes Originally posted at Relevant Submitted at 2/9/2010 11:00:00 AM to change that with Buzz, betting Results Facebook and Twitter are the it can organize your online social
Google's social side hopes to catch some Buzz
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Live blog: Greek public sector workers go on strike by Mark Tran (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:12:12 AM
Public sector workers are up in arms at austerity measure in a crisis that has shaken the eurozone. Follow the day's events. 3.11pm: The Guardian has a picture gallery of today's protests. 3.05pm: The Independent's Hamish McRae sees in Greece a portent of things to come. We are starting to catch a glimpse of the post-recession world. It will obviously be one where there will be great pressure on governments to get their deficits down. That will be a drag on growth, so the recovery will be a dull and listless one here and elsewhere. 2.31pm: The BBC has a useful q&a on Greece's economic problems. It includes a bar chart showing debt as a percentage of GDP of several European countries. Italy's debt as a percentage of of GDP is even bigger than Greece's. 2.09pm: The Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, who is in Paris for talks with Nicolas Sarkozy, says his government would do everything necessary to hit its 2010 deficit target and would fully implement its austerity budget programme.
Papandreou will go on to Brussels tomorrow for an informal EU summit. 1.18pm: Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England was asked about Greece at a press conference on the BoE's latest inflation report. His second statement could be translated as their problem, not mine. "I don't think you can compare UK with Greece. We have different policies. We have very good track record and most importantly, the maturity of UK debt is much longer." "This is an issue they'll deal with within the euro area. It should be for my colleagues in the euro area to decide." 1.14pm: A Times editorial says Greece's mess highlights a fundamental problem with monetary union- a common budgetary policy as well as a single interest rate. Britain has its own economic problems, but British voters at least have the power to punish the policymakers who created them. Joining the euro means giving up that democratic right. That choice would be irreversible and wrong. 1.05pm: Claus Vistesen on Comment is Free touches on the same theme as the BBC's Stephanie Flanders by pointing out that the current set-up in the eurozone l acks a formal way to handle a near default in one or several of its member states.
12.53pm: The protests may be low key by Greek standards but there is plenty of disruption, with airports, ferry terminals and overland border crossing at a standstill. Roger Boyes of the Times describes the scene in central Athens with revolutionary songs blaring through loudspeakers. 12.33pm: Many protesting Greek workers say they don't believe the govt. has run out of money. Others say should be the bankers, not them who pay, tweets Nicole Itano. 12.28pm: This interesting snippet from Reuters. Greece needs to borrow 53bn euros this year. It has covered its needs until April, but then has a heavy schedule of payments of up to 20bn euros by the end of June. Analysts warn that if it runs out of money to pay state wages and pensions, the backlash will be ferocious. 12.19pm: The FT's economic guru, Martin Wolf, proposes the following remedy: If the aim is to avoid disaster, the answer is temporary fiscal support for the struggling countries, robust aggregate demand in the eurozone as a whole and a substantial rebalancing of that demand, led by Germany. In other words, Germans need to eat more Greek olives and take more holidays in the Aegean to
boost the Greek economy. 12.12pm: More on why the markets have bounced back. The FT reports that Germany is looking into constructing a "firewall" to prevent the debt crisis spiralling out of control. 12.07pm: This from the Associated Press: Turnout in Athens' two peaceful protest marches was low, at about 7,000 amid drizzly weather, in a country where union demonstrations typically draw tens of thousands. Another 3,000 people showed up for two rallies in Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city. 12.00pm: The Guardian has video of the strike, featuring voices from the protests 11.45am: Thousands of protesters out in central Athens despite the rain, but the mood is subdued, tweets Nicole Itano. 11.40am: For a"I told you so" piece, here is Andrew Alexander of the Daily Mail, no friend of anything to do with the EU. His argument will be familiar to eurosceptics. A particular flaw in having a 'one-size-fits-all' currency covering the rich and the poor, the cautious and the feckless, is that no member nation has its own currency which it can devalue or revalue in an attempt to extricate themselves from this crisis. 11.18am:
Reuters is reporting that Greek bank shares are up more than 5% on news that eurozone countries are working on a financial support package for the debtstricken country. Market pressure on Portuguese, Spanish and Irish bonds has also eased amid strong signals that Germany may be willing to help. A senior source in Berlin's ruling coalition told Reuters that eurozone governments had agreed in principle to aid Athens, although the method had still to be worked out. Read Helena's account of Greece's economic travails from earlier in the week. 11.04am: I have just been on the phone to our correspondent in Athens, Helena Smith. She was outside the parliament building in the midst of demonstrators who I could hear chanting in the background. She described a march organised by militants earlier. It was a very big march, with tens of thousands of people of all ages. There were students and grandparents afraid of losing their pensions. It really was a cross-section of Greek society. There were banners with slogans such as 'We are not Ireland, we will resist', 'Capitalists will pay for the crisis' and 'no to the abolition of the 35-hr week'. Some of the protesters had LIVE page 9
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How 400 years of legal history were cast aside in the Binyam Mohamed case by Afua Hirsch (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
say he must have thought he was acting with the agreement of all parties. Neuberger removed the Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:24:11 AM paragraph from the final Legal principle established in judgment, watering down the 1 6 3 7 b a n n e d s e c r e t t a l k s court's condemnation of the between lawyers and courts. It security services, described by was broken by the government S u m p t i o n a s c o n t a i n i n g When the master of the rolls, " e x c e p t i o n a l l y d a m a g i n g Lord Neuberger, decided to c r i t i c i s m " . retract paragraph 168 from his " T h e m a s t e r o f t h e r o l l s ' draft judgment in the case of observations … will be read as Binyam Mohamed, he relied on statements by the court that the a l m o s t 4 0 0 y e a r s o f security service does not in fact jurisprudence to assume that the operate a culture that respects parties in the case had agreed to h u m a n r i g h t s o r a b j u r e s its removal. participation in coercive The case of Ship Money, interrogation techniques," says brought by Oliver Cromwell's Sumption's letter, now published cousin John Hampden in 1637, in full on the Guardian's website. established the principle that But other parties in the case t h e r e s h o u l d b e n o s e c r e t were not consulted and are communication between lawyers furious. a n d t h e c o u r t s i n l e g a l "In all the years – I was first a proceedings. government lawyer and then a Representations from one side – liberty lawyer – I have never in this case, the foreign known the draft judgment secretary's barrister, Jonathan process abused in this way," said Sumption QC – should be copied Shami Chakrabarti, director of to all other parties in the case, so L i b e r t y , t h e h u m a n r i g h t s that they have the opportunity to organisation which was a party respond. to the case. "The purpose of On that basis, when Neuberger using drafts is for typographical received a letter from Sumption and factual corrections – minor r e q u e s t i n g r e m o v a l o f t h e matters such as names and dates. paragraph from the court of "It is not to allow one party to reappeal draft judgment, lawyers run substantive arguments and
tempt a court to tone down or change its judgments." She added: "I can't believe that the Foreign Office thought they could get away with this. It shows the kind of contempt for the law that this case has always been about." "This is anti-constitutional behaviour of the most disquieting kind," said Mark Stephens, who represented a group of American newspapers in the case and was not informed of Sumption's letter to the court until yesterday, when the judgment had already been changed. "In my experience of 31 years practising as a lawyer, it is unprecedented. "This conduct has embarrassed Lord Neuberger who clearly assumed that he had received all submissions when he reached his decision to remove the judgment." In a remarkable series of events, Neuberger has admitted he may have been "over-hasty" to remove the findings, after the Guardian and Liberty challenged the exclusion. "I think it was over-hasty to amend that written request of one party, without giving other parties the opportunity to reply," said Neuberger. Answering questions in the
Commons today, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, defended the attempt to have the paragraph removed from the judgment. "What our counsel did, once he had been provided with copy of the judgment in draft, was to express real concern that one paragraph set out conclusions that went beyond the evidence concluded and risked causing prejudice to a criminal investigation," said Miliband. "Our counsel took the view that this should be brought to the attention of judges in case." Miliband came under fire from MPs for the conduct of the Foreign Office, for attempting to have the paragraph retracted, and for the court's findings that seven paragraphs kept secret from an earlier Binyam Mohamed judgment should also be kept secret. The paragraphs, which have now been released, were redacted after Milliband said their publication would damage the government's intelligencesharing relationship with the US administration. "Publication of the redacted paragraphs would not reveal information which would be of interest to a terrorist or criminal or provide any potential material
of value to a terrorist or a criminal," said Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge in today's judgment. "It increasingly appears that the issue is the control principle rather than the confidentiality of any information within the redacted paragraphs themselves." "This whole case was one about openness, and attempts by the government to cover-up torture instead of exposing it," said Chakrabarti. "The fact that even at the court door, before the ink has even dried on the court of appeal's judgment, the government has had yet another go at a cover-up is truly remarkable." • Binyam Mohamed • Torture • Law • Guantánamo Bay • Human rights • MI5 • Foreign policy Afua Hirsch guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds
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Rowan's speech and the equality bill | Simon Sarmiento by Simon Sarmiento (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
themselves – not at the government's command – how they define the jobs people do publicly on their behalf as Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:15:00 AM specific communities of belief or Williams has given a clear interest." account of where the church And there you have it. Nothing stands on the equality bill: less than self-determination will n o t h i n g l e s s t h a n s e l f - do. What the church is against is determination will do not any particular definition of Speaking to the General Synod the scope of that exemption, but on Tuesday, Rowan Williams the very concept of putting any gave the clearest recent account limiting definition into the law. yet of where the Church of They want to be able to decide England stands on the religious for themselves exactly which exemptions in the equality bill. jobs it can be applied to. The This is the same position that it Government Equalities Office took back in 2003. and its predecessor organisations Referring to the recent House of have spent many hours since Lords debate, he said: 2003 listening to the pleas of the "What they were contesting was churches. No wonder that they a relatively small but extremely have not been able to agree. significant point of detail, which Last June, William Fittall, was whether government had the secretary-general of the Synod, right to tell religious bodies told the public bill committee in which of the tasks for which they the House of Commons: "We are might employ people required not seeking carte blanche, but if and which did not require some a religious organisation is level of compliance with the employing someone in a role for public teaching of the church which you have to be a member about behaviour." of that faith, it is reasonable that He went on: "[the churches] will restrictions – whether they be on argue stubbornly for the freedom marital history or whatever – can on their side to settle for be part of the requirements."
Carte blanche means having free rein to choose whatever course of action you want. But back in January 2003, the Church of England was openly asking for just that, when it responded to the DTI consultation by proposing the following wording: "Nothing in … these regulations shall render unlawful anything done for the purposes or in connection with an organised religion so as to comply with the doctrines of the religion or avoid offending the religious susceptibilities of a significant number of its followers." And again in August 2003, William Fittall sent a letter to the joint committee on statutory instruments which said: "Faith groups must not only be allowed to reach their own views on matters of sexual ethics but also have a broad measure of freedom to determine the extent to which those who represent and serve them are required to abide by their teaching." It was Lord Lester who said that by their action of voting for Baroness O'Cathain's amendments the Lords Spiritual
had "managed to vote as turkeys for Christmas … by removing the new and magnanimous protection that they were given". To which the Archbishop of York replied: "We have voted not for Christmas but for the tranquillity and magnanimity that we found in the regulations that were passed a long time ago." That would be the same regulations about which the bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, had said in May 2003: "Nevertheless we retain significant concerns over the amount of litigation which the regulations are likely to generate and regret that the government has not introduced as much clarity in them as we had sought. The proper legal protection of individual rights, which we support, needs to be consistent with the rights of the churches and other faith groups to religious freedom. That must include the ability to set our own requirements about belief and conduct in respect of those who serve and represent us. We shall be closely monitoring the implementation of the regulations."
In the mood for sweets? You may be depressed! (Holy Kaw!)
possess an extra sweet tooth. Why? One possibility is that the feelings caused by sugar are At least if you’re a child. similar to those caused by According to a recent BBC alcohol, and those who eat a lot article, children who are prone to of sugar may be using it to make unclear, however, whether depression or alcoholism may themselves feel better. It’s still Submitted at 2/10/2010 12:14:24 AM
affinity to sweets is due to nurture or nature. Read the full story at the BBC. More on science. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »
It's quite clear that neither a Labour nor a Conservative government is going to give the churches such freedom. And more significantly, neither will the courts, not least because the European employment directive will not allow them to do so. As the Church Times editorialised two weeks ago, by rejecting Baroness Royall's offer of a revised definition, the bishops have created "every prospect of a long and expensive test case, probably involving the C of E, to check the legality of continued discrimination against lay people in positions of responsibility". • Religion • Anglicanism • Christianity • Gay rights • Equality • Law Simon Sarmiento guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds
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Matt Goss finds fame again – in Las Vegas by Alexandra Topping (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
"I feel a lot of responsibility," he said from Las Vegas yesterday. "I've played everywhere in the world but playing in the same Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:15:48 AM room as Sinatra, it's an amazing Bros lead singer hailed as new feeling." Sinatra and booked to headline Gone are the flashy jackets, Caesars Palace ripped jeans and jazzy socks, When he posed the immortal replaced by a tux and trilby that q u e s t i o n W h e n W i l l I B e are more than a nod to the Famous? in 1988, Matt Goss, Chairman of the Board. Indeed, one third of boyband Bros, had according to the Las Vegas Sun little idea that the answer might Goss is "known to his fans across be: in 2010, in Las Vegas. the world as The Voice", More than two decades after he although the original bearer of helped spark a questionable that title – it was the first of craze for threading shoelaces Sinatra's various nicknames – with Grolsch bottletops, Goss, may have drawn a line at calling now 41, has just been announced his scantily clad backing dancers as the headline act at Caesars – trained by Robin Antin, Goss's Palace in Las Vegas, former manager and founder of Pussycat home to Rat Pack idols Frank Dolls – the Dirty Virgins. Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Nevertheless, Goss is bringing Davis Jr. back some old-fashioned style to Performing a mixture of big the Strip, said Antin. "Matt is band numbers and original like the new Frank Sinatra, the material, Goss has already new Elvis Presley. He's exactly attracted comparisons to Ol' Blue what Vegas used to have and Eyes. He has been hailed as the lost," she said. "He has a style best new act in Vegas by the LA that men want to be and that Times, while VegasDeluxe.com women find sexy, as well as the called him "the leader of a new best voice I've ever heard." ratpack". Having self-funded his album
Gossy, he got his break in Vegas in a small auditorium at the Palms casino six months ago, and has since found an enthusiastic audience. "I've had knickers thrown on stage, lots of knickers. A girl the other night flashed her boobs and started to take off her dress," said Goss. "The thing with a residency is, you just don't know what is going to happen." All three members of Bros, who scored 13 top five singles and sold 16m records worldwide at their peak, have experienced a purple patch in recent years. Goss's twin brother Luke, the older of the pair by 10 minutes, turned to acting, getting his break playing Danny in the West End production of Grease, while Craig Logan, the bass player, has carved a career for himself behind the scenes. After suing the twins for unpaid royalties, he made the leap from band to boardroom, becoming Pink's manager and managing director of RCA records, one of Sony's flagship labels. However glowing the Vegas reception, Lewisham-born Goss
has ambitions to bring his Vegas show back home – ideally to the Royal Albert Hall in London. "There is life after Bros and fame after a No 1 record," he said. "It was a brilliant Saturday job, but I've moved one, I'm enjoying being a man who can entertain an eclectic audience." Still, for the legions of Bros fans looking to relive the mania of the 80s, there may yet be some hope. "I miss my fans in the UK more than you can know," he said. "We had 12 hits and I want to get on stage and sing them. I want the reunion to happen, but everyone has to be in the same headspace. But if it doesn't I still want to bring my show to the UK and sing some of those hits." • Pop and rock • Las Vegas • United States Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds
New aerial NYPD photos of 9/11 attack released (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:32:53 AM
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Best Buy Makes the Ultimate ECycling Billboard by Ariel Schwartz (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:31:01 AM
Have you been to Times Square lately? You may have seen this Best Buy billboard. At first glance, it looks like just another billboard made out of funky brica-brac, but look a bit closer and you'll notice that it's made out of old electronics, including VHS players, bulky computer monitors, and all sorts of other outdated products. The ultra-clever billboard advertises Best Buy's recycling program, which accepts broken, obsolete, and old electronics from from any store or manufacturer. It's not always easy to figure out where to recycle e-waste, so we have to commend Best Buy for advertising its program in such a public venue. Hopefully it will help prevent a sizeable portion of old cell phones, TVs, and DVD players from ending up in landfills. [Via Gizmodo]
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gathered as early as 4 in the morning. The protesters marched to the labour ministry, but to the surprise of many dispersed peacefully, there was none of the violence of past demonstrations. She finished by telling me that the backlash has begun against the austerity measures announced by the government. 10.50am: An editorial in the Kathimerini newspaper points out most Greeks, according to opinion polls, favour the reforms. But there is one big caveat. The administration of George Papandreou will only succeed in seeing the measures through if it does so in a socially just manner, making sure that the burden is equally distributed. The best way to convince people of its good intentions is to open an investigation into well-connected businesses that have been implicated in tax dodging or other financial wrongdoing. 10.44am: The Associated Press says it's unclear whether today's protests will represent the start of a serious union backlash against the urgent reforms or a demonstration of dissatisfaction in a country where strikes are
common. 10.36am: The BBC's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders, highlights the confusion over who should sort out the mess. Henry Kissinger famously asked: "when I want to call Europe, who do I call?" Investors' version of this question is: "who's going to pay?" And when it comes to Greece, the answer has been far from clear. 10.21am: Greek riot police have fired teargas at dozens of protesters in central Athens. "Officers fired teargas when garbage collectors tried to drive their trucks through a police cordon to join the main march," a police official told Reuters. He said some protesters responded by throwing stones, but the incident was quickly over. 10.13am: Recent analysis of Greece's predicament on the Guardian's Comment is Free. • Matina Stevis argues that Greeks might swallow the pain provided tax evaders are forced to pay up. • Kenneth Rogoff advises Greece to stay clear of any IMF
restructuring programes- he should know as he was the IMF's chief economist. 9.31am: As public workers hold a oneday strike, the rest of the EU is watching anxiously to see how the new Greek government handles the crisis. In the Guardian • Ian Traynor writes about speculation of a bailout plan for Greece in a story headlined the euro's darkest hour. • Larry Elliott says Greece has echoes of the IMF's bailout of Britain in 1976. • Elena Moya focuss on the role of hedge funds betting on Greece's failure. • Greece Mark Tran guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds
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you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Is exporting democracy the way to stop totalitarian dictators?
Prudential Earnings Preview: Strong 2009 Results Expected by Trey Thoelcke (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:30:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts Prudential Financial, Inc. ( PRU), the Newark N.J.-based life insurance giant, is scheduled to release fourth-quarter financial results after the market closes Wednesday, and then to discuss those results in a conference call tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 11, at 11:00 AM (ET). An audio webcast of the call will be available at the company's website. During the three months that ended in December, Prudential saw management changes, sold its stake in a joint venture and declared an annual dividend. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for earnings for that period to come to $1.11 per share. That compares with
$1.59 per share in the previous quarter and a loss of $2.04 per share a year ago. Revenue for the fourth quarter is expected to be 6.9% higher than a year ago to $16.2 billion. Continue reading Prudential Earnings Preview: Strong 2009 Results Expected Prudential Earnings Preview: Strong 2009 Results Expected originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
Contentious EV Conversion Ends In Kumbaya
SUBSCRIBER ALERT by The Editors (The New Republic - All Feed)
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by Keith Barry (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:25:00 AM
It’s hard to believe, but a Milquetoast Ford Ranger EV
conversion in Santa Monica, Calif. inspired a tale of intrigue and redemption worthy of John Grisham. It’s kind of like David and Goliath -- if Goliath had ended up as a customer of David.
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Google Buzz: "Are You at Work? How About a $.99 Big Mac From McDonald's, Three Blocks Away?" by Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:00:53 AM
You're waking up to an Internet a-Buzz with talk about Google's new social sharing experiment. Opinions are mixed, but mainly concern the current version of Buzz. So here's our thought experiment about its future. It's scary. Google's Buzz presentation started by showing its desktop implementation, and demonstrated how Buzz will be threaded through the Gmail accounts of Google users, acting as a life-casting/status-updating tool, a content-sharing system, and a chat tool. Right off the bat it even looks at your email and chat history and works out who it thinks your best friends are for Buzzing. But then Google went on to demonstrate the mobile version of Buzz, which is actually a whole lot more powerful. Mobile Buzz uses tons of location-based data from your smartphone's A-GPS circuitry to work out where you are, and then feeds that information to your Buzz friends, should you chose to transmit it. It even combines your information to work out your location in a colloquial language--not merely asking, "Are you at 7 World Trade Center?" but rather, "Are you at work?" Google's
algorithm then scours through the mass of all ongoing Buzz and shapes some of the content to what it thinks you'd prefer to see, before delivering to you the "nearby Buzz." Which will include stuff from friends, people Google thinks you may be interested in hearing from and, of course, companies that may try to sell you their wares. This mode of operation is like pieces of Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp, and a bagful of augmented reality apps all blended into one Google system. A system that's threaded throughout all of the ways you interact with Google--even its
primary search engine. But remember: Google isn't really a search engine, or a chat tool, or an email provider. It's an online advertisement-pushing juggernaut. And, assuming Buzz takes off, in just a few iterations of its development this is the sort of Buzz-powered day you could be having. 7 a.m. Smartphone alarm wakes you, and you quickly scan it for emails, SMSs, and Buzz. Since Google knows you were at the bar last night, it offers you an ad for a hangover cure. 7:30 a.m. Commuting to work. Browsing your tablet PC on the train, among the string of emails,
light web-browsing, and casual Buzz-chatting you do, Google serves you with an ad for a new coffee shop that's opened on your usual walking route from the station to the office. It also knows you're late, and a Buzzlinked local taxi company Buzzes you to check if you'd like a ride from the station so you can make that 8:15 meeting that's scheduled in your Gmail calendar. 10:30 a.m. Collaborative workbase Buzz chat on your current project. Buzz knows you're working, so tones down the frequency and pixel-size of its embedded ads, and stops actively
Buzzing you, but pops up adverts that match the theme of your work. Along with placements for MBAs from local colleges, since it knows your education history. And also sneaky adverts for jobs elsewhere that might interest you, based on your demonstrated areas of expertise. 12:15 p.m.. Lunch. The local Buzz-linked McDonald's Buzzes you and asks "Are you hungry for a Big Mac? You liked it last week. Or maybe you're in the mood for our lunchtime hangover cure special: A baconburger?" A local GOOGLE page 12
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Back to the Future: The Interaction10 Conference Goes OldSchool by Rob Tannen (Fast Company)
interface design techniques, the zeitgeist was decidedly low-tech, with diverse speakers discussing Submitted at 2/9/2010 11:48:56 PM topics including storytelling, Matt Cottam's "Heirloom drawing by hand and meaning in Electronics" the context of design. This past weekend's sold-out For a conference (thankfully) Interaction10 conference was without a specified theme, there attended by an international was an emergent thread of community of experts in Web, l o o k i n g a h e a d b y l o o k i n g software, mobile device and backwards. In the case of service design. But rather than an materials, Matt Cottam of Tellart emphasis on technology and presented his exploratory designs
in "heirloom electronics"-handcrafting devices out of wood, which, unlike our mass produced plastic boxes, gracefully wear and change through their long-term use, gaining keepsake qualities. A new-old way to engage with our digital photos? In a similar vein, Richard Banks of Microsoft Research discussed the "future of looking back"-how we might store, organize
and retrieve the vast number of digital photos we capture and place online. Conceptual solutions included a nostalgic viewfinder and set of slides that could be boxed on a shelf and viewed offline. At the greatest extreme, Ben Fullerton of IDEO examined the possibilities of designs that purposefully inhibit interaction between people as an alternative to the information overload of
emails, messages and tweets. His comparison of solitude in historical and current contexts recalls a time when one could more pragmatically get away from it all. The concurrence of these ideas among leading designers might suggest a backlash against the ever-growing technical complexity and scale. But it is BACK page 14
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Iran: Looking Towards a Bright Future? by Ken Carbone (Fast Company)
Holds Press Conference Stating 'We're Number One!'" "Top Iranian Officials Patiently Await Next Solar Eclipse" "New Karim Rashid Eyewear is All the Rage in Tehran!" The photo caption actually read "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, touring a lasertechnology exhibit in Tehran
photography continues to be a weapon of mass deception. [Photo, Wall Street Journal] Read more of Ken Carbone's Yes to Less blog Browse blogs by other Expert Designers Ken Carbone is among America's most respected graphic designers, whose work is renowned for its clarity and intelligence. He has built an international reputation creating outstanding programs for worldclass clients, including Tiffany & Co., W.L Gore, Herman Miller, PBS, Christie's, Nonesuch ordered Iran's nuclear agency to the temple of the man to his left. Records, the W Hotel Group, start enriching uranium for a If his thumb was cocked, pistol and The Taubman Company. His research reactor ratcheting up his like, it might have enhanced his clients also include celebrated cultural institutions such as the defiance of the West." intended message of resolve. The image was designed to send Photographically, these four MuseĂŠ du Louvre, The Museum a threat. Iran means business. Men of the Apocalypse, set of Modern Art, The Pierpont Ahmadinejad, shot from below a g a i n s t r a d i o a c t i v e g r e e n Morgan Library, The Chicago to increase his stature sports a backdrop are meant to look Symphony Orchestra, and the double-breasted Mafioso jacket. deadly serious. In turn, they look High Museum of Art. His right index finger is aimed at seriously hilarious, proving that
knows that three of you are heading roughly the same way inside the next half hour. A local bar Buzzes all of you to suggest a post-work beer. And so on... This is a pure thought experiment. But we know exactly how much Google loves to serve up ads to us as users, and that it would love to make them ultra-precisely targeted-using location data, habit data
and so on. Google already collects reams of data about your web-use patterns. And by leaping on the social network/social sharing bandwagon, Google is weaving itself ever deeper into your daily life, using Buzz as a vehicle. Of course, other companies are doing stuff like this too. But Buzz, if it's successful, will brush competition from small fry like Mozilla's (promising
Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:37:01 AM
True, every picture tells a story. But which one? The front-page photo in Monday's Wall Street Journal gave me a chill. Did Iran detonate a nuclear device? The Cold War era image of stern men donning protective glasses shielding them from an atomic blaze came to mind. The headline read "Iran Points Up Its Nuclear Challenge to the West." However, given this bizarre picture any of the following headlines could have, at first glance, been a viable alternative: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Studies Avatar for Secret Weapons Program" "A-jad's Debut Hip Hop Album, Plutonium Goes Platinum" "Defiant Iranian Swim Team
GOOGLE continued from page 10
gymnasium ad pops up next, with a special sign-up deal for new members valid for an hour, and a note that two of your work colleagues go there already--one of whom you're friends with and the other of whom is more senior, as Buzz is careful to remind you. 6:00 p.m. Hometime. Idly checking your smartphone to see what your pals are up to, as you shut down your work PC, Buzz
sounding) Raindrop, and even Google's own bizarre Wave project aside. And with Buzz's deep-embedded real-time tap on your life and both passive and pushed advertising, alongside its arch-rival Apple's extensive plans for location-aware ads, the upshot is that there may not be a moment in your day when you're not sharing deeply-personal data with Google, and having personalized ads thrust upon
you. Sound like the kind of future you'd like to live in? [ Google Buzz] To learn more follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter. Not Buzz. Yet.
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Ex-Wife: Kerrigan's Brother a 'Very Angry Man' (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:21:12 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. BOSTON A woman who was once married to Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan's brother Mark says he is "a very angry man" who gets violent when he drinks. Janet Kerrigan told NBC's "Today" show on Wednesday that her husband was once sweet and tentative, but that he drank more as the years went on and became more violent. The skater's father died last month of a heart rhythm problem after a fight with his son. Mark Kerrigan has pleaded not guilty to assault, but the medical examiner has ruled the death a homicide and Kerrigan could face more serious charges. by Ariel Schwartz (Fast being used where it can make a produced thousands of gallons of D e p a r t m e n t o f H o m e l a n d Janet Kerrigan said she once Company) real difference--in earthquake- clean water for drinking, wound Security, the US Department of tried to talk to Daniel Kerrigan ravaged Haiti. Aqua Sciences cleansing and surgical scrubbing D e f e n s e , t h e U . S S t a t e about Mark's violent streak, but Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:52:01 AM s h i p p e d o v e r o n e o f i t s at the University Hospital Department, and USAID to get the father said, "It's the booze," Atmospheric water generators, atmospheric water extraction Compound in Port-Au-Prince. the atmospheric water generator and walked away. or machines that extract water machines at the end of January, According to Aqua Sciences into Port-Au-Prince. But now The family says they don't from humid air, have been marking the first time the device CEO Abe Sher, the machine has that it has been proven to work blame anyone for the death. around for awhile--we wrote has been used for relief efforts. actually succeeded in fulfilling well in emergency situations, Five Filters featured article: a b o u t A t m o s p h e r i c W a t e r And so far it has been wildly f r e s h w a t e r n e e d s a t t h e expect that the device will pop Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Systems' 11-stage filtration water successful. compound. u p i n o t h e r w a t e r - s t a r v e d PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, generator last year, and Willie People on the ground have It wasn't easy to bring the 40- e m e r g e n c y l o c a l e s . Term Extraction. Nelson even sells his own supposedly dubbed the generator foot-long machine to Haiti. Aqua [Via Greenbang] atmospheric water generator. "the miracle machine." It's an Sciences worked with the Poarch Now the pricey technology is accurate moniker--the device has Band of Creek Indians, the U.S
"Miracle Machine" Brings Clean Water to Haiti
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also driven by a fundamental human need to be in touch with natural materials and to enjoy time for contemplation and a little peace and quiet. Downtown Savannah, oldfashioned meeting place for newfashioned design ideas. Perhaps, this yearning for the past was reinforced by the Interaction10 conference locations--a group of walkable venues in the heart of Savannah, Georgia, including a restored pharmacy, blacksmith shop and theatre that served as a hub for the event.
Whether this retrospection endures, remains to be seen. Ironically, its success will depend on the thoughtful design and development of technology, so that we can naturally interact with our devices, rather than hide from them. Rob Tannen's Designing for Humans blog Browse blogs by more Expert Designers Rob Tannen is an expert in designing products, interfaces and systems that accommodate the complexities of human behavior and capabilities. He has researched cockpit interfaces for
U.S. Air Force, designed trading floor order systems for the New York Stock Exchange, and created touch screen applications for consumer appliances. Rob is Director of User Research and Interaction Design at the product development firm Bresslergroup. He also has a PhD in human factors and is a Certified Professional Ergonomist.
PhoCusWright Sees Hotel Industry Strength in Latin America by Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:50:00 AM
Filed under: Brazil, Starwood Hotels Worldwide (HOT) The hotel market may be straining in the United States and Europe under the weight of new capacity financed during the real estate boom, but the situation is much different in Latin America. According to travel industry research firm PhoCusWright, international, regional and independent hotels are popping
up all over the continent, with both large and small projects in the works to tap into growing demand in the region. In the cities, where it's tough to find real estate, old neighborhoods are "reinventing themselves,"
Orange Sky, with Birds (Little Green Footballs)
PhoCusWright reports, in order to take advantage of the market's potential. Continue reading PhoCusWright Sees Hotel Industry Strength in Latin America PhoCusWright Sees Hotel Industry Strength in Latin America originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Haiti quake toll rises to 230,000 (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 2/10/2010 12:53:02 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Haiti's government says around 230,000 people died in last month's earthquake, 18,000 more than its previous estimate. The toll from the 12 January quake is approaching that of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed 250,000 people. Communications Minister Marie -Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said the toll was not definitive. About 300,000 were injured. The latest figure does not include bodies buried by private funeral homes in private cemeteries, or the dead buried by their own families. The one-month anniversary of the catastrophic quake is to be marked with prayer vigils and fasting. A BBC correspondent in the capital Port-au-Prince says there is increasing concern that with the rainy season approaching, the lack of tents and temporary shelter could lead to the outbreak
of disease. Supermarket collapse In the biggest of the camps that sprung up in the city after the earthquake, people are still living under sheeting strung across wooden poles. Aid agency officials said there was a plan to get thousands of the most vulnerable homeless people into tents ahead of the rains. But the challenges of putting large numbers of tents in the crowded camps are considerable. Meanwhile, there are reports that a damaged supermarket collapsed while people were inside. Rescue teams, which had been retrieving bodies of quake victims from the site, tried to remove debris to reach an estimated five to eight people trapped underneath. It was unclear if they were alive. They were allegedly looters, AFP news agency reported. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Blizzards pound snowbound Mid-Atlantic to New York (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
covered in snow. "My brain is a little frozen," he said. Message from fivefilters.org: If Jeff Salgado, 24, a doorman at you can, please donate to the full the Hampton Inn & Suites in -text RSS service so we can downtown Baltimore, said guests continue developing it. had resorted to walking. WASHINGTON – Snow, wind "All of them. I haven't seen a cab and slush hounded eastern all day," Salgado said as he commuters early Wednesday as shoveled the latest layer of snow b l i z z a r d w a r n i n g s f r o m from in front of the hotel. Baltimore to New York City Philadelphia Mayor Michael heralded the second major storm Nutter urged residents to stay in a region already largely home if possible. blanketed by weekend snowfall. " I t ' s g o i n g t o b e p r e t t y More than 10 inches of new horrendous out there," he said. snow fell before dawn in parts of "The roads are pretty rough right Maryland that had received up to now, although our city forces are 30 inches just a few days earlier. out." Plows and salt spreaders fought Plows have been rolling around heavy snow in Pennsylvania and the clock for days in the nation's New Jersey, where the flakes c a p i t a l , P h i l a d e l p h i a a n d briefly turned to rain to make a Baltimore after nearly 3 feet of slushy mix. snow fell in some areas last The manager of a Staten Island weekend — and they won't be 7-Eleven, Yagnesh Patel, had a stopping anytime soon. slippery drive to work ahead of In Chicago, a pickup truck the plows. "It's going to be a plowing snow backed into and tough day ahead," Patel said. killed a 71-year-old woman. The wind started blowing in Police say Yuliya Polzikova was gusts from 25 to 45 mph in and crossing a street Tuesday when around snowbound Washington, she was struck by the truck as it whipping fresh powder and backed out of the parking lot it making driving treacherous as w a s c l e a r i n g w i t h a p l o w visibility was only about a block a t t a c h m e n t . in many places. Snow was falling from northern Chris Matherne, a Washington Virginia to Connecticut by early property manager, was walking Wednesday after crawling out of to work to ensure shoveling got the Midwest, where the storm done. Matherne had only walked canceled hundreds of flights and a few blocks, but his clothes and was blamed for three traffic even his eyebrows were already deaths in Michigan. Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:27:39 AM
The storm has buried Baltimore under record snow for the season and put Washington within inches of a high from 1898-99, according to the National Weather Service. More than 5 inches fell in both cities since Tuesday, making the total for Baltimore 65.6 inches since December, breaking the previous record of 62.5 inches from 1995-96. Washington is only about 4 inches away from its record of 54.4 inches from 1898-99. "It's hard to find anything in the history books of these types of storms back-to-back," said National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Konarik. The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings Wednesday that extended into New York City, where 10 to 16 inches could fall. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights at airports on the Eastern seaboard and schools in New York City were closed, only the third snow day in six years for the district's 1.1 million students. Along the East Coast, thousands of workers were scrambling to plow and salt roads. Maryland officials said salt supplies used by road crews were dwindling in some parts of the state. A spokesman for Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation said drivers' shifts were running as long as 16 hours. "It can be exhausting, mentally
and physically," said Jerry Graham, a state plow truck driver in Pennsylvania's Lehigh County. Michael Giambattista, 56, a truck driver from Elizabeth, Pa., had been without power since Friday and was staying at a Red Cross shelter near his home with his girlfriend and 13-year-old son. "I've never been without power like this," said Giambattista, who was trying to help keep spirits up among the more than 50 people at the shelter. "Mother Nature, you can't battle her. She's going to win." The storms have kept some workers and students home for the better part of a week. About 230,000 federal workers in Washington have been off since Friday afternoon, when the first storm began. The U.S. House announced it was scrapping the rest of its workweek. Several hearings and meetings in Congress and federal agencies were postponed, including one planned to address Toyota's massive recalls. "It's embarrassing that the world's largest superpower closes from a few feet of snow," said Alex Krause, 23, of Los Angeles, who was stranded in Washington and visiting the National Mall. "The Kremlin must be laughing." But the effects of the federal government's closure were
negligible since about 85 percent of federal employees work outside the Washington region. An IRS spokeswoman said tax returns should not be affected. Thousands remained without power from the last storm in parts of western Pennsylvania, Maryland and other areas. Utilities said deep snow was hindering some crews trying to fix damaged power lines even before Tuesday's storm arrived. Their task could grow even more difficult with new snowfall and winds gusting up to 50 mph that create blizzard conditions in the Mid-Atlantic. In West Virginia, where 40 counties were under winter storm warnings, Gov. Joe Manchin urged people to make sure snow was cleared from roofs of public buildings to avoid a repeat of 1998, when roof collapses were blamed for at least three deaths. ___ Associated Press writers Kiley Armstrong in New York, Laurie Kellman, Philip Elliott, Jennifer C. Kerr, Ken Thomas and Stephen Ohlemacher in Washington; Ben Nuckols in Baltimore; Dan Nephin in Elizabeth, Pa.; and Nancy Benac in Arlington, Va., contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Serious Flaws Exposed During Drew Peterson Hearing (FOXNews.com)
the real thing. "If they don't get the hearsay stuff in, then they don't have a Message from fivefilters.org: If shot at this case," said Terry you can, please donate to the full Sullivan, a Chicago attorney and -text RSS service so we can former prosecutor. continue developing it. Peterson, a brazen former police JOLIET, Ill. Family members, sergeant, has pleaded not guilty investigators, clergy and even a to first-degree murder in Savio's p s y c h i c h a v e s p e n t w e e k s death. He is the only named testifying in a northern Illinois suspect in the October 2007 c o u r t r o o m — a n d D r e w disappearance of his fourth wife, Peterson's murder trial hasn't Stacy Peterson, but has not been even started. charged in that case. It was after Initially billed as a preliminary s h e w e n t m i s s i n g t h a t step in the case, an extraordinary investigators exhumed Savio's hearing to determine what body and determined her death h e a r s a y , o r s e c o n d - h a n d , was a homicide. evidence jurors will be allowed More than 60 prosecution to hear during Peterson's trial in witnesses have testified during his third wife's death has turned the past 3 1/2 weeks. Defense i n t o a s o r t o f l e g a l d r e s s attorneys plan to call about 20 rehearsal. witnesses to contradict The testimony has exposed statements made by people who serious flaws in the police said the two women feared investigation of Kathleen Savio's Peterson. death, Peterson's deteriorating "As long as they're there, it relationship with his missing would be tough not to put in fourth wife and perhaps most evidence that would contradict" important: a possible motive. the prosecution, said Mark But none of it may matter if the Geragos, a defense attorney who judge doesn't allow at least some is not involved in the Peterson of the witnesses to testify during case but has represented many Submitted at 2/10/2010 5:17:26 AM
high-profile clients — including Scott Peterson, the California man convicted of killing his pregnant wife, Laci. The hearing is the result of a new Illinois law that allows a judge to admit hearsay evidence — statements not based on a witness' direct knowledge — if prosecutors can prove a defendant may have killed a witness in order to prevent him or her from testifying. The law was so closely linked to the Peterson case that some have dubbed it "Drew's law." Prosecutors, with little physical evidence on which to base their case against Peterson, may have to rely heavily on statements that Savio and Stacy Peterson allegedly made to others. The testimony has included claims that Drew Peterson was furious Savio might get a large portion of his pension, and that Stacy Peterson suggested she could threaten to tell police that Drew Peterson killed Savio to extort money from him to keep quiet. The hearing has at times moved into areas that have little to do with hearsay. A state police
investigator said he quickly decided Savio's death was an accident after her body was found in a bath tub in 2004, so collected no forensic evidence and didn't even secure the scene. The pathologist who conducted the post-exhumation autopsy on Savio's body three years later testified that bruises and the position of her body indicated she was killed after struggling with an attacker. The mix of those witnesses is part of a broader strategy to make the second-hand evidence more plausible, and persuade the judge to allow as much as possible at trial, Sullivan said. That's likely why much of the hearsay evidence has focused on Stacy Peterson. A minister who said she was afraid of her husband testified that she told him Drew Peterson was wearing black and carrying a bag of women's clothes the night before Savio's body was found. Drew Peterson's stepbrother said he helped Peterson move a blue barrel out of his house and suspected it contained Stacy Peterson's remains.
Dozens of other witnesses provided small pieces of what prosecutors contend is a puzzle that will help jurors believe Peterson could have killed Savio. Drew Peterson's attorneys, meanwhile, have asked about medication Savio was taking and pointed to a doctor's report that said Savio complained of dizziness. And while under no obligation to call witnesses in the hearing, they have now decided to do so. Neither side wants to leave anything to chance, Geragos said. Prosecutors "want to make sure that when they put evidence in ... that there's nothing that comes back to bite them," he said. Attorneys also anticipate challenges to the state's hearsay law, perhaps to the U.S. Supreme Court. "It's a perfect storm for both sides to have to deal with it," Geragos said. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Google Now Has a Street View Snowmobile by Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/10/2010 1:58:51 AM
First, there was the Google Street View Car, a special vehicle with a 360-degree
camera mounted on top that brings us all that detailed Street View imagery. Then, Google engineers invented the Trike, a tricycle with a camera that can reach all those places where Street View Car cannot go.
however, can venture out in the snow, and this is why Google created the Google Street View Snowmobile. Just like the Trike, it was invented by Daniel Ratner, Neither of those two vehicles, and it was created especially for the Winter Olympics in
Vancouver, so expect some beautiful imagery on Street View during the event. See a video introduction to the Snowmobile below.
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Honda issues global airbag recall (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 2/10/2010 3:09:16 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Honda has added 437,700 cars, mainly in North America, to its existing global safety recall over airbag inflation problems. It broadens a recall announced in late 2008 for less than 4,000 Accord and Civic sedans, then expanded in mid-2009 to cover another 510,000 vehicles. The latest announcement also covers Japan, Mexico, Taiwan and Australia. The fresh blow to Japanese carmakers came as Toyota recalled nearly half a million hybrid cars over faulty brakes. Toyota has already had to bring millions of other vehicles back to dealerships amid accelerator and floormat problems. The scale of Toyota's recalls will be of particular interest to other car manufacturers, according to David Leggett, editor of the website Justauto.com. "Toyota have been keen to cut costs by increasingly using common parts in different models. If a part goes wrong in one model then other models will need to be recalled," he said. "I'm sure lots of other car
manufacturers will be keeping a very close eye on what's happening with Toyota." Recalls within the car industry, however, are not uncommon. "They happen pretty regularly," said Jay Nagley, an industry analyst with Redspy Automotive. "At the moment they are in the news because of what's happening with Toyota, but if Honda had done its recall months ago no would have heard about it. "Everyone's looking for the next recall, but it's business as usual for carmakers despite what's in the news." Airbag inflator Honda - Japan's second-biggest carmaker - said the defective airbags can overinflate and burst, spraying potentially deadly metal shards. The carmaker said the inflators were at risk of rupturing, "resulting in metal fragments passing through the airbag cushion material and possibly causing injury or fatality to vehicle occupants". The fault has already been linked to 11 injuries and one fatality. Honda said in a statement: "We cannot be completely certain that the driver's airbag inflator in the vehicles being added to this recall at this time will perform as designed." Its shares fell in Japan after the
announcement. The recall will apply to 2001 and 2002 model-year Accord, Civic, Odyssey, Pilot, CL, CR-V and 2002 Acura TL vehicles, the firm said. The company says owners should take their vehicle to an authorised dealer as soon as they receive notification from Honda. The carmaker's latest recall affects 378,000 cars in the US and 41,000 in Canada. It extends to 4,000 vehicles in Japan and 13,000 from other countries, including Mexico (9,000), Taiwan (1,300) and Australia (700). The Japanese-only models are Inspire, Saber and Lagreat. Just last month, Honda had to recall 650,000 Fit hatchbacks worldwide to fix a switch defect that could cause a fire. It said the fault could allow water to enter the power window mechanism, making components overheat. The Fit is sold as the Jazz and City in other countries. That recall affects Asia, Latin America, Europe, South Africa and North America. For Toyota, the problems continued as a US Congressional committee cast doubts on its plans to fix accelerator problems. A memo to lawmakers cited "substantial evidence" of redesigned floormats failing to stop the pedals sticking.
On Tuesday, Toyota recalled 436,000 hybrid vehicles worldwide, including its latest Prius, to fix brake faults. That comes on top of more than 8 million Toyotas recalled since last October for problems with slipping floormats and sticking accelerator pedals, linked to crashes that have killed at least 19 people. Toyota's UK centres begin repairing the accelerator pedals on 180,000 vehicles on Wednesday. They have the capacity to fix 6,000 cars a day, meaning it will be a month before the process is complete. Do you own a Honda? Are you concerned about the safety issues raised in this story? Is your car likely to be recalled? Send us your comments. 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.
Avatar's Big Dragon Thing = Digital Marketing (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/10/2010 12:00:00 AM
Think Avatar broke the box offices using sheer awesomeness? False, says MediaShift. Turns out, the movie had quite the digital marketing effort behind it as well. A recent article ties some of the movie’s success to effective—and usefully allegorical!—marketing tactics: Tree of Souls = Social media The Hometree = Avatar’s Web site The Banshee = The air interactive trailer Hallelujah Mountains = Augmented reality Perhaps the comparisons sound a bit weird but, like the movie, the article’s explanations somehow make a bizzare concept work in the end. Read the full article at MediaShift. More on movies. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »
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Space shuttle Endeavour pulls in at space station (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
embraced when the hatches finally opened, greeting each other with "good to see you" and Message from fivefilters.org: If "how goes it" while floating you can, please donate to the full inside the space station. -text RSS service so we can Space station commander continue developing it. Jeffrey Williams said he was CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – happy to see his friends — Shuttle Endeavour arrived to a "really happy because we haven't w a r m w e l c o m e a t t h e seen many people other than the International Space Station early crew for a long time." Wednesday, delivering a new The shuttle's six astronauts were room and observation deck that impressed with what they saw. will come close to completing " W e c o u l d n ' t b e l i e v e h o w construction 200 miles above spectacular and shiny the space Earth. station was," said Endeavour's The midnight rendezvous commander, George Zamka. occurred as the two spacecraft Back at Mission Control, NASA sailed over the Atlantic, just west said that standard checks hadn't of Portugal. It took longer than revealed any launch damage so normal to lock the shuttle and f a r . A l l t h e p i c t u r e s a n d station together because of the information collected during the relative motion between the two. first two days of the flight The space station's five residents indicate Endeavour suffered no filled the time, before their serious damage during Monday's guests came aboard, by trying liftoff. But the analysis is o u t c a m e r a a n g l e s a n d continuing, and a few hundred i n t e r v i e w i n g o n e a n o t h e r . photos taken from the space "What are you expecting from station during Endeavour's final the shuttle?" Japanese astronaut approach will yield additional Soichi Noguchi asked Russian data, said LeRoy Cain, chairman cosmonaut Maxim Suraev. "My of the mission management cucumbers," Suraev replied, team. getting a big laugh. Endeavour's crew will spend The two crews shook hands and more than a week at the space Submitted at 2/10/2010 3:40:14 AM
station, installing the compartments — worth about $400 million — and helping with space station maintenance. This represents the last major construction work at the orbiting outpost. Once the room, named Tranquility, and the observation deck are in place, the station will be 98 percent complete. Before docking, Zamka guided Endeavour through a 360-degree back flip so two of the space station crew could photograph the shuttle's belly with zoom lenses. The photos were transmitted immediately to Mission Control so experts can scour the images for any scrapes or holes. A few pieces of foam insulation came off the external fuel tank during the launch, but none appeared to strike Endeavour. The only oddity in the pictures from orbit was a protruding seal on the top of the left wing. The seal is part of a door for an access panel; about 4 inches of the 2- to 3-foot seal is sticking out. Cain said the flapping seal poses no concern, but engineers will look into the matter to find out how it happened. Mission
Control asked the station crew to take pictures of the seal, as the shuttle performed its somersault. As for the rest of the wings and nose — the most vulnerable parts of the shuttle during reentry — the laser inspection conducted earlier in the day by the astronauts was coming up empty. "Nothing that threw any unusual flags for us," Cain told reporters late Tuesday afternoon. The rigorous checks were put in place following the 2003 Columbia disaster. Three spacewalks are planned to hook up the 23-foot Tranquility — named after the Apollo 11 moon landing site — and the seven-windowed dome. The first will get under way Thursday night. Both compartments were built in Italy for the European Space Agency. Tranquility cost $380 million and the lookout $27 million. ___ On the Net: NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/ Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Hands On With Google Buzz - It's a Stream in Your Inbox by Michael Calore (Wired Top Stories)
No matter how it ends up impacting Facebook, Buzz will go down in history as a
transformative step in Google’s timeline. It brings a whole new utility to what is already our
most critical social tool — the email inbox.
New tiny sensor will one day keep you alive (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/10/2010 1:41:23 AM
The smallest solar-powered sensor that can operate nearly perpetually has been developed at the University of Michigan. Measuring nine cubic millimeters, the system includes a processor, solar cells, and a battery, and it could one day be used for tracking air and water quality, architectural-monitoring, and biomedical implants. Its only life-limiting factor is its battery (it can run nearly perpetually when exposed to minimal light). The sensor is 1,000 times smaller than its commercial competitors. Average power consumption? One billionth of a watt. How's that for efficiency? Full story at Futurity. Watch the next generation of technology unfold before your eyes. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »
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Calif. storm sputters but LA evacuations continue (AP)
Judge Rejects DigiProtect's Demands For Made Up Legal Fees In Germany
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
by Mike Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 2/10/2010 5:55:33 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. – Evacuations are still in effect for more than 500 foothill homes in Southern California even though the storm that spawned them is petering out. Authorities say the threat of a mudslide remains in La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Acton and two canyons in the Angeles National Forest. No major mud flows were reported from Tuesday's storm, which dumped at least an inch of rain in the area. The communities are below slopes burned bare in wildfires. A mudslide last weekend damaged 43 homes in La Canada Flintridge. The National Weather Service says the area will be mostly sunny for about the next seven days. However, a couple of inches of
snow could fall at higher mountain elevations and in the Antelope Valley. Winter storm warnings are effect until 10 a.m. Wednesday. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. (AP) — The latest Pacific storm that brought heavy rain, hail and snow to Southern California is heading east, but the mudslide threat is not over for communities below wildfirescarred mountains. More than 500 homes in La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Acton and two canyons in the Angeles National Forest were under evacuation orders for the second time in a week Tuesday, only three days after a sudden downpour took them by surprise and sent mud and boulders slamming into homes and cars. The evacuations are expected to remain in place through at least Wednesday morning, Los Angeles County fire Inspector Matt Lavesque said. The weather
also kept several roads in the San Gabriel Mountains area closed or restricted early Wednesday. The National Weather Service said at least an inch of rain fell on the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains during the day. Snow levels were expected to drop to as low as 2,500 feet overnight, bringing another round of winter to mountain passes and Southern California ski resorts. Showers were expected through Wednesday morning, with clearing expected in most areas by afternoon, forecasters said. Backhoes and dump trucks hurried to clear out the basins designed to steer debris and mud into channels and away from homes. About 60 to 70 percent of the residents ordered to evacuate complied, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. "They know what's at stake," said Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Bob Furman, as he took a lap along the mud-crusted streets to clear out stragglers. "They've been through this
New Blog: Welcome to Wired Playbook by Mark McClusky (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 2/10/2010 5:00:00 AM
Wired's new blog will cover all wins and who loses, and how the tech aspects of athletics, you and your friends experience those developments that — modern sports. increasingly — determine who
before." Officials asked residents to move their vehicles and put away trash cans. During Saturday's storm, the mud tossed parked cars into each other like bumper cars. Sheriff's deputies went door to door, urging people to leave; those who refused signed waivers acknowledging they were aware of the risk. Maureen Kindred said she was remaining in her home with her son to fight back the mud, as she did over the weekend. "We literally fought it," she said, taking a break from shoveling mud from in front of her house before it could block the drain on her porch. "We fought it with buckets and mops and spades and we dug a canal. We did everything we could to keep water from entering the house, and we succeeded." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Submitted at 2/9/2010 9:01:26 PM
Back at the end of last year, we wrote about how some had noticed that DigiProtect, one of a group of companies that purposely puts files online to see who downloads them, and then threatens them with "pay up or we'll sue" letters, was potentially in trouble in Germany for not following the law. German law says that you can't base "legal costs" on a contingency like winning. Yet, DigiProtect's agreement is that it only gets paid if it can collect on the presettlement letters. That goes against the law. And, now, a court has agreed, and found that DigiProtect can't ask for legal fees in Germany unless it can actually prove what those real fees are. The court did offer DigiProtect an out: open your books and show what the real costs are, and how they are paid. DigiProtect refused to do so. This basically cuts out pretty much all of the massive profits DigiProtect and others brag about. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
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Sweet tooth 'hints at depression' (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 2/9/2010 4:02:55 PM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. While most children like sweets, those with an extra-sweet tooth may be depressed or at higher risk of future alcohol problems, researchers say. The US team report in the journal Addiction that certain children are especially drawn to very sweet tastes. These were children who had a close relative with an alcohol problem or who themselves had symptoms of depression. But it is unclear if the preference for the very sweet is down to genuine chemical differences or upbringing. The researchers say sweet taste and alcohol trigger many of the same reward circuits in the brain. Lead author Julie Mennella said: "We know that sweet taste is
rewarding to all kids and makes them feel good. "In addition, certain groups of children may be especially attracted to the intense sweetness due to their underlying biology." Experts say alcoholics tend to have a sweet tooth. But the link is less clear in children. Other US researchers have shown that a preference for the sweetest drinks was found in the ones undergoing growth spurts. In the latest study, the scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center asked 300 children aged five to 12, of whom half had a family member with alcohol dependency, to taste five sweet water drinks containing different amounts of sugar. The children were asked to say which tasted the best and were also asked questions to check for depressive symptoms. A quarter had symptoms that the researchers believed suggested they might be depressed. Sweet tooth
Liking for intense sweetness was greatest in the 37 children who had both a family history of alcoholism and reported depressive symptoms. These children preferred the drink containing the most sugar 24% sucrose, which is equivalent to about 14 teaspoons of sugar in a cup of water and more than twice the level of sweetness in a typical cola. This was a third more intense than the sweetness level preferred by the other children. The researchers then decided to test whether the children's taste difference had any impact on their reaction to pain or discomfort - past studies have suggested sweets may help act as analgesics as well as mood lifters. They found non-depressed children were able to tolerate keeping their hands in very cold water for longer if they had a sugar hit. However, the extra sugar did nothing to the depressed
children's pain threshold. Cardiff University's Professor Tim Jacob, an expert in smell and taste, said the findings were interesting, but that it was hard to make firm conclusions or generalisations from one study alone. He said the findings could be down to brain chemistry, but might also be explained by behaviour and upbringing. "While it is true that sweet things activate reward circuits in the brain, the problem is that sweets and sugar are addictive, because the activation of these reward circuits causes opioid release, and with time more is needed to achieve the same effect. "But the taste difference may be explained by differences like parental control over sweet consumption." Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Home Exercise Machines - from Consumer Reports by Press Room (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 2/9/2010 9:00:59 PM
Home Exercise Machines - from Consumer Reports To distinguish flashy home exercise machines that fall flat, from the truly fantastic, Consumer Reports tested forty-eight treadmills and elliptical exercisers for the February issue. CR Podcast Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences
Magnitude 3.8 Quake Wakes Up Chicago Area (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:15:10 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. CHICAGO A small pre-dawn earthquake has hit northern Illinois, startling residents as far
away as Michigan and Iowa, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported. The U.S. Geological Survey says the 3.8-magnitude earthquake hit about 45 miles northwest of Chicago at 4 a.m. Wednesday. Scientists say the epicenter was southwest of the village of Gilberts in Kane
County. The USGS initially reported the magnitude as 4.3 but later downgraded it. USGS geophysicist Amy Vaughan says such quakes are rare in northern Illinois. She says residents in Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan also reported feeling
the quake. In Kane County, sheriff's dispatchers were overwhelmed with calls, and several residential and business alarms were triggered. But spokesman Lt. Pat Gengler says no injuries or damage have been reported. Additional coverage from MyFoxChicago.com
Maps, details and more from the USGS Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Girl Allegedly Locked Up for Months, Barely Fed
Welcome to the new age of advertising
(FOXNews.com)
(Holy Kaw!)
metal rods, and pulled up by her hair if she stopped exercising. The horror came to an end on Message from fivefilters.org: If January 24, when she escaped by you can, please donate to the full crawling up a linen closet, -text RSS service so we can climbing into an attic crawl continue developing it. space, kicking out a loose board PHOENIX The parents of a 14 and fleeing out the back door. -year-old Arizona girl who was Someone called police for her victim to shocking abuse have and police were dispatched to the b e e n a r r e s t e d , K S A Z - T V victim's residence to speak with reported late Tuesday. her father, Scott Bass, and A young girl who escaped from stepmother Andrea Bass. her appalling living conditions The father, unaware that she was says her father and stepmother gone, allowed officers and Child kept her locked in a room with Protective Services into the no running water for about two home. There, officers found a months. bathroom locked from the It was apparently part of a outside. punishment for stealing food. When officers opened the door, While she was in "lock-up," the police say Bass was visibly girl says her father gave her a surprised to see it empty. Inside few cans of food, crackers and the room was a 5-gallon bucket bread every one or two days -- with about 4 inches of urine, a but it wasn't ever enough to blanket on the tile floor, and satisfy her hunger. empty cans of food, documents The girl told police that while allege. she was in lock up, she was During questioning at the scene, f o r c e d t o e x e r c i s e u n t i l Bass admitted to locking his exhaustion, beaten with belts and daughter in the bathroom as Submitted at 2/10/2010 4:18:16 AM
discipline for stealing food and cheating in home school. Further investigation found that the 14-year-old girl had been forced to live and sleep outside on the patio during the summer, locked in a closet for a week with no light, and locked in a bathroom for a week. Police say that Andrea Bass acknowledged these facts, also saying, she no longer wanted to have anything to do with [the victim]. Medical evaluation found that the girl was in the 25th percentile for weight and in the 50th percentile for height, compared to other girls her age. Scott and Andrea Bass were arrested on Feb. 4 on the following charges: unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping, failure to report neglect of a minor, and child abuse. More from MyFoxPhoenix.com Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
above), which were created by consumers, and the Google's “Search on” campaign, which Advertising during the Super w a s c r e a t e d i n t e r n a l l y , Bowl may not have changed dominated the polls. But beware much in terms of audience size t h e p o t e n t i a l p i t f a l l s o f and absurd charges, but the advertising, such as a portly material has—or at least, where T a c o B e l l p r o m o t e r o r the material comes from has potentially female-demeaning changed. According to dozens commercials like those of of surveys, polls, and analyses, GoDaddy.com or Bridgestone n e a r l y a l l t h e t o p - r a n k i n g tires. commercials were either created What was your favorite (or least by consumers or produced favorite) commercial during internally. Super Bowl XLIV? Advertising agencies may have Full story at The New York m a d e t h e i r m a r k w i t h t h e Times. Snickers commercial during the Who's the funniest, the most Super Bowl, but many others clever of them all? All the top missed theirs. It may be time to advertising news. rethink traditional advertising Permalink| Leave a comment » schemes when 30-second spots like the two Doritos ads (see Submitted at 2/10/2010 2:23:11 AM
Building talent is better than buying it (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 2/10/2010 1:20:01 AM
Often we hear tales of the talented sports star receiving a huge raise to be retained from poaching by another team. But when it comes to building an
effective team within your company, “buying in” talent may not actually be as great of an idea as it initially seems. A big part of building an effective team is putting in the work to develop the team as a whole, not just a single unit.
So is it really worth it to train inhouse to eventually lead your
company's team? One article seems to think so, at least when it comes to IT. Weigh in on the comments with your own experiences with bringing in talent versus developing your own. Full story at Computing.co.uk.
Train your own leaders. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »
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Eastern US hit by new snowstorm (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)
to 19in (48cm) of snow and Baltimore as much as 20in (51cm), according to the Submitted at 2/10/2010 1:28:28 AM National Weather Service. Message from fivefilters.org: If In Washington, federal agencies you can, please donate to the full are shut and the House of -text RSS service so we can Representatives has called off all continue developing it. votes for this week. The second big snowstorm in The Senate is due to resume less than a week has paralysed work on Thursday. cities in the north-eastern US, The government closure is with government offices due to estimated to be costing $100m stay shut for a third day. (£64m) a day in lost productivity The US National Weather and other costs. Service forecast up to 14in Many of the region's schools are (36cm) of snow in the region, closed, with some cancelling along with strong winds. classes for the rest of the week. Washington streets were Transport has been widely deserted, while in New York the disrupted, with airports in UN said its headquarters would Washington shutting early on be closed. Tuesday. The storm arrived from the west, Many airlines have also where as much as 17in (43cm) of cancelled flights for Wednesday. snow fell in the state of Iowa. Washington's bus system has As the storm closed in on the ground to a halt and its subway n o r t h - e a s t e r n U S l a t e o n was partly suspended. Tuesday, people raced to clear Thousands of houses have existing snow and stockpile remained without power in the food. Washington area. Philadelphia was expecting up
Are you in the eastern US? How are you coping with the snow storms? Send us your comments using the form below. Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk, text them to+44 7725 100 100 or you have a large file you can upload here. Read the terms and conditions At no time should you endanger 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.
AIM Integrates Facebook Chat, Status Updates [Facebook] by Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:00:00 AM
Not to be left out of the Let's Connect Everything Social party, Facebook and AOL's Instant Mac, and in a web client, that Messager announced a beta can operate on Facebook's chat release of AIM, for Windows,
system, pull and post to and from Facebook status updates, and otherwise integrate your instant messaging with your profile. [via TechCrunch]
Opera Wants to Bring Its Mobile Browser to iPhone by Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:42:22 AM
Opera Mini is a great mobile browser on most smartphones, but we didn’t really expect to see it on the iPhone. The reason for this is twofold: iPhone already sports Safari, which works really great, and second, Apple is unlikely to approve another browser, because it duplicates the functionality its app (Safari) already provides. Despite this, Opera has announced Opera Mini for the iPhone. At the official page, Opera sounds serious about it, treating it just like they would any other product launch. “This is a unique opportunity to introduce the fast, feature-rich Opera Mini experience for the iPhone, and to showcase our latest beta releases of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini on other platforms and devices. Opera’s mission is to bring the Web to the world, and by making Opera Mini available on yet another platform, we are one step closer,” says Jon von Tetzchner, Opera’s co-founder. The problem, however, is that this isn’t yet another product launch. As the folks at Opera
themselves admit, “Opera Mini for iPhone is not publicly available,” and it’s quite possible that it never will be. Publicity stunt, a jab at Apple or a serious intention to compete with Safari on the iPhone sometime in the future? Time will tell. Still, Opera plans to unveil several interesting products at the upcoming Mobile World Congress, which takes place in Barcelona from February 15 to 18. Visitors will be able to try out Opera Mobile 10 beta 3 on Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile handsets, Opera Mobile 10 beta running on Android handsets, Opera Mini 5 beta running on a variety of handsets and platforms, and finally, Opera’s cross-platform Widgets Manager beta running on Windows Mobile and S60 handsets. Tags: apple, iphone, opera, opera mini
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23
Detroit Red Wings Make Game Duh: Raise Music Prices Programs Interactive With QR Codes To $1.29/Song; Music Sales Growth Slows by Jennifer Van Grove (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:05:02 AM
The Detroit Red Wings are a socially savvy bunch. The NHL team recently started including QR codes in their in-arena distributed Red Wings Today program, and the effort is proving to be a big hit with fans in attendance. After seeing Esquire’s use of augmented reality, the team decided to get creative and make their print program interactive (embedded below) to include digital media accessible via QR codes. The codes in question appear in the program and include a prominent call to action that reads, “Smartphone interactive, scan here.” A mobile device scan of the QR code brings up the following video for fans to watch instantly: Instead of letting fans figure out QR codes on their own (a rather complicated concept to people unfamiliar with the technology), the team got smart and put together an instructional video
that now airs on the big screen during games. That video can be seen below: What’s more important is that the experimental approach to a traditionally old-fashioned print publication is paying off bigtime. Fans are actually using QR code bar scanners on their mobile devices to access the video, and sticking around to enjoy it. The Red Wings’ Social Networking Coordinator Nicole Yelland tells us (bolded for emphasis): “In tracking this effort, the Wings have found mobile devices to be the #1 viewing medium fans are using to see videos accounting for an overwhelming 22% of fans viewing linked videos nearly 2,000 times all the way through. We’re very excited at the
possibilities this technology provides our team in giving more access and we’ve only just begun to tap into the capabilities it provides us in both marketing to our fans and giving them exactly what they are asking for in terms of access to their team. Moving forward, we’re looking to create exclusive video content that is complimentary to stories included in the magazine, create opportunities for our advertisers to include offers in their ads via QR codes and put our fans in the driver’s seat when it comes to giving them information on the Detroit Red Wings.” We’ve seen plenty of impressive social media sports initiatives (especially around the Super Bowl), but this has got to be one of the most innovative approaches to driving home the connection between the team, its fans, online content and the ingame experience. Lilja Feature_Iss 4 Tags: detroit red wings, MARKETING, NHL, QR Codes, sports
New Telescope Captures Dazzling Image of Orion Nebula by Alexis Madrigal (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:15:00 AM
The new VISTA telescope has captured a stunning image of the Orion nebula. By imaging in the infrared, the telescope can see
through the dust that normally hinders our view.
by Mike Masnick (Techdirt)
the market has "matured," but gives no evidence of that whatsoever -- and given the size Last year, we warned that of the market, that seems highly treating digital music sales as the unlikely. Now, to be clear, the savior of the market was a market is still growing, but only dangerous thing, since there were at 8% as compared to 20% the indications that the market was year before. And market growth fragile. In fact, we had already should be expected to decline seen that after years of major over time once the market record labels pleading with matures, but it's difficult to Apple to let them raise prices on believe that the digital music s o n g s , t h e i n i t i a l r e s u l t s market has reached the point of suggested a decrease in sales. maturity yet. In fact, just a few Well, shockingly enough, it weeks ago, we wrote about an looks like the basic econ 101 economic study that suggested concept of price elasticity works that if the labels wanted to in music as well, as Warner maximize revenue on digital Music has finally realized that sales, they should be lowering raising prices of songs to $1.29 prices. But, again, execs at has slowed growth in the market. major labels haven't been known The digital music market, which to be particularly good with their had been growing pretty rapidly, understanding of economics. slowed drastically following this Permalink| Comments| Email pricing change. Warner Music is This Story claiming that this this is because Submitted at 2/10/2010 2:22:53 AM
Feb. 10, 1961: Moses Parts the Waters at Niagara by Brian X. Chen (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 2/9/2010 9:00:00 PM
A famous and powerful planner
butts heads with an Indian tribe over land rights near Niagara Falls. Guess who wins.
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Disney CEO calls iPad "a game changer" by Dave Caolo (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))
being able to watch the program, but all the other things that viewers like to do with that Submitted at 2/10/2010 8:00:00 AM program." As a leisure content Filed under: Multimedia, device, the iPad could be a killer Software, iPad While discussing with the right apps in place. the iPad with the Associated Iger went on to say, "We think Press on Tuesday, Disney CEO [the iPad] could be a game Bob Iger hinted at his company's changer in terms of enabling us plans for the iPad, and called it to create essentially new forms "a game changer." of content." No, it's not the same He gave brief examples of ideas as watching your favorite show they're throwing around for the on that big, shiny HD TV, but iPad, including ESPN the iPad might further synthesize ScoreCenter and an interactive the TV and computer into a app for the ABC drama "Lost." single device. ESPN ScoreCenter is currently video and stats plus chat and [Via MacDailyNews] an iPhone and iPod touch app trash talk with other fans during TUAW Disney CEO calls iPad that provides real-time scores t h e g a m e o f y o u r c h o i c e . "a game changer" originally and updates from the world of Multiple camera angles, locker appeared on The Unofficial sports. Iger says that the iPad room interviews, fantasy leagues, Apple Weblog (TUAW) on gives them an opportunity to and so on, could all enhance the Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:00:00 "...really make the scores come fun of watching the big game. EST. Please see our terms for to life." I think of the demo of Likewise, a Lost app could use of feeds. Major League Baseball's At Bat provide a similar experience. Read| Permalink| Email this| for the iPad and see how the "When you think about ABC," Comments ESPN app could do the same -- Iger said, "you think about a provide gorgeous, full-screen program like Lost and not just
Good morning snowstorm! (Scripting News) Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:02:06 AM
The other day I snapped a picture out the window of a sunny sunrise. This morning, it's a different
picture. Snow! Not a lot, at least not yet. But it's here. So Manhattan is not immune, but so far a snowstorm is a lot like a rainstorm. I'll keep you posted as it develops.
Targus announces screen protector for iPad with Clear View technology by Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:00:00 AM
Filed under: Macworld, iPad It's not surprising that many of the big names in Apple device protection accessories are getting into the iPad market, even with the release of the device still about six weeks away. Targus, a longtime provider of cases and mice for Apple's laptops, announced this morning that they'll soon be selling the Targus Screen Protector for iPad. Targus has been selling fingerprint-resistant screen protectors for the iPhone and iPod touch devices for about a month, and will use the same trademarked Clear View technology for the iPad Screen Protector. The material used for the Screen Protector is covered with microscopic textures that dissipate fingerprint oils and reduce smudging on the screen, as well as reduce glare and provide a scratch-proof surface. The adhesive makes the film easy to apply without leaving bubbles, and reduces peeling that
plagues other screen treatments. The Targus Screen Protector for the Apple iPad will be available in April. No price has been announced for the product at this time. TUAW Targus announces screen protector for iPad with Clear View technology originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
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Act surprised: Higher iTunes prices mean slower sales
Australian ISP Stops Kicking People Off The Internet Following iiNet Ruling
by Kent Pribbernow (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))
by Mike Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:00:00 AM
Filed under: iTunes, Music Warner Music revealed on Tuesday something we've all long suspected: music sales have witnessed a growth slump on iTunes since the record labels pushed Apple to implement a variable or tiered pricing model. As a result, consumers have slowed their spending habits of media on iTunes, making fewer purchases and fewer Miley Cyrus downloads -- I'm ok with that part in fact. The cause of decelerating sales can be attributed the associated price hike in new or premium
content, which received an unpopular 30% cost of living increase from $.99 to a more salty $1.29 price point. It turns out that people are reluctant to pay thirty cents more today for something that cost a buck yesterday. What is it with you
crazy people and your fickle spending habits? This decline in spending is beginning to eat into Warner's bottom line, where iTunes makes up the majority of its digital revenues. The company saw a 50% decline in revenue in their
December quarter, at just 5% growth -- down from 10% in the previous quarter. Ouch! Note to businesses everywhere: This is what happens when you issue a price increase in the middle of a recession. We'll have to see if the record companies take a hint and reconsider their pricing at all. TUAW Act surprised: Higher iTunes prices mean slower sales originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Twitter Is Still Growing Rapidly [STATS] by Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)
numbers, Royal Pingdom reports that tweet volume grew by 16x Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:23:11 AM from January ’09 to January ’10. Maybe Twitter doesn’t have a Over the past three months, g r o w t h p r o b l e m a f t e r a l l . tweet volume has grown steadily According to new stats out today at around 17 percent. In other from Royal Pingdom, Twitter words, if tweet volume is the saw an all-time high of more metric that matters, Twitter is than 1.2 billion tweets in still growing at a very healthy January. Perhaps this is what clip. CEO Evan Williams meant last Questions about Twitter’s month when he said that the site growth have stemmed from other was hitting records “across all publicly available analytics data the metrics that matter.” that shows the site is seeing a flat Diving a bit deeper into the -to-down number of unique
visitors hit its website each month. That data though, as has often been pointed out, doesn’t take into account those that use Twitter through third-party apps, both on the desktop and via
mobile devices. Still, that’s not to say that Twitter is adding users as fast as it once was. It could just be that the average Twitter user is tweeting more (Royal Pingdom doesn’t offer data on this), not to mention the ever growing number of automated bots that tweet. In any event, here’s what the tweet growth looks like: Tags: twitter
Submitted at 2/10/2010 4:53:30 AM
It looks like the iiNet ruling is already having some positive impact in Australia. The crux of the ruling is that copyright infringement is not an "I know it when I see it" violation, but rather a complex issue that requires a court to weigh in. Asking an ISP to simply assume that someone is infringing, and thus to kick them off, is problematic and potentially goes against basic due process. It appears that other ISPs are now realizing that they were being too hasty in blocking internet access. Competing ISP Exetel, who used to block access to accused file sharers, has now announced a change of policy. Of course, it could have stood up for its customers' rights in the first place, like iiNet did... Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
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Analysts see iPhone remaining exclusive to AT&T, spurring sales of anti-depressants by Kent Pribbernow (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 2/9/2010 10:00:00 PM
Filed under: iPhone Those among you hoping for an impending dissolution of AT&T's exclusive hold (or testicular constriction, if you will) on the iPhone may want to sit down before reading the following words. According to AppleInsider, two separate analysts are making similar predictions that the iPhone will remain shackled to AT&T's network, offering the iPadAT&T partnership as evidence. It's ok, I wept too. Vijay Jayant, of Barclays
Capital, was quoted as saying"(The) launch of Apple's iPad on AT&T's network is a vote of confidence in AT&T's network by the equipment maker." I don't know which part of that statement I find more
through the remainder of 2010, as do the folks at Credit Suisse who echoed similar projections last week. I suppose we can hold out hope for another 10 months. Personally, I'm going to deny this rumor exists in hopes of preventing its materialization. I cast thee out, demon, and unhear your blasphemy! TUAW Analysts see iPhone remaining exclusive to AT&T, spurring sales of anti-depressants originally appeared on The shocking and disturbing. The U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e W e b l o g possibility of his prediction (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 being accurate, or the notion that 22:00:00 EST. Please see our someone has confidence in terms for use of feeds. A T & T ' s n e t w o r k ? T h a t ' s Read| Permalink| Email this| infreakingsane! Jayant, however, Comments sees this pact lasting only
Interview Magazine Looks Pretty on iPad [Media] by Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:52:38 AM
Sports Illustrated was the first magazine to make a splash with a demo on a tablet computer; now, Interview has rolled out its own iPad demo. Looks good! Check back in six months to see if anyone uses it. [ HuffPo]
Macworld 2010: TUAW goes to the mothership by Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Apple Campus. In the gallery below, you can see what we saw, from the boxed versions of Mac software -- Popcap games boxed! Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:00:00 AM Pixelmator boxed! -- to the Filed under: Macworld, TUAW endless souvenirs and trinkets for B u s i n e s s N o M a c w o r l d i s sale in the company store complete without at least one ("There are quite a few of us pilgrimage to the mothership in who know your site," winked the Cupertino, and so yesterday, unnamed cashier to us as we b e f o r e t h e m e e t i n g s a n d checked out), to the original iPod glorious, all of it. interviews we're planning today, box sitting in the office window, Yes, even the woman who David Winograd, Dave Caolo, and the office desks full of shooed us away with a "No and myself made the trip to the multiple 30" Cinemas. It was pictures!" warning when we tried
to take shots of the multiple basketball courts and volleyball court on campus. Check out all of the sights of our walk all the
way around the Infinite Loop in the gallery below. Gallery: TUAW goes to the Mothership at Macworld 2010 TUAW Macworld 2010: TUAW goes to the mothership originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments
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Appeals Court Notes The Feds Can't Hide Behind 'Lobbyist Privacy' In Not Releasing Documents On Immunity Lobbying by Mike Masnick (Techdirt)
info:"There is a clear public interest in public knowledge of Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:55:23 AM the methods through which wellFor a while now, the EFF has connected corporate lobbyists been trying to get the White wield their influence." I'm still House to reveal information on not sure what anyone expects to who lobbied to get retroactive get out of these documents. We telco immunity for warrantless know who lobbied: the telcos wiretapping. The "we're all did, like crazy. And the reason a b o u t t r a n s p a r e n c y a n d they did so is because they know openness" Obama administration they broke the law in assisting has been stalling as much as the administration in getting info possible, and while it released outside the official process. In some info after a long fight, it fact, the recent revelations still insisted that it was keeping suggest the telcos didn't just some information private, accede to administration claiming a heretofore unknown demands, but they eagerly standard of "lobbyist privacy." assisted in explaining how to get Yeah, that's a good one. Turns around the rules. So of course out the courts don't know what it they lobbied to get immunity. means either, and an Appeals Permalink| Comments| Email Court has said that it's a bogus This Story excuse, and the government needs to hand over the
Bollywood Movie Released On YouTube Same Day As Theatrical Release
So. Carolina GOP Converging with Tea Partiers
by Mike Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 2/9/2010 1:28:30 PM
points us to the news of a new movie out of Bollywood that is Submitted at 2/9/2010 11:02:14 PM being released on YouTube at T h e w h o l e c o n c e p t o f the same time as its theatrical "windowing" movie releases release. There is a big caveat makes little sense. It's as if the though: the YouTube videos are movie industry purposely wants only available for international, to make sure customers don't get rather than domestic (Indian) to consume the content in the viewers. Also, it looks like US format that fits them best at the viewers will have to pay to rent it time when they're putting the via Google's new YouTube most money behind a marketing rental program, but those in any campaign. It's hard to fathom other country (outside of the US why they do this, other than the or India) can view it for free. It's pressure they get from the movie not necessarily ideal (and there theater companies (which is silly, doesn't seem to be much of a because the theaters would business model behind the free benefit from this too). Every so viewings), but at least it's a step often, though, we hear about a in the right direction. moviemaker who seems to Permalink| Comments| Email understand how to better reach This Story out to an audience. Pranav
breakthrough new Gmail feature, Google Buzz, Google is making sure that everything else it does Submitted at 2/10/2010 1:13:15 AM is buzzed (or at least buzzable). GMAIL USERS: You can now Google Buzz for Mobile is follow Mashable’s official already available if you visit Google Buzz profile here: http://buzz.google.com on your http://www.google.com/profiles/ iPhone or Android device, but mashable now other mobile apps are for Android, which now also Wow, things really are rolling getting Buzz support. supports Buzz and is available in out fast. After announcing it First in line is Google Maps 4.0
(Little Green Footballs)
The South Carolina Republican Party apparently feels that they aren’t conservative enough yet, so they’ll be uniting with tea party groups. That ought to do it. The South Carolina Republican Party announced Monday that it’s uniting with tea party groups in the state to share resources, coordinate messaging and push the GOP in a more conservative direction. The points of contact between the state party establishment and the grass-roots will be the Greenville County Republican Party — one of the most conservative wings of the state party — and the Upstate Coalition of Conservative Organizations, an umbrella structure of state tea party groups. The agreement, as announced by South Carolina Republicans, is designed to serve four goals: increase precinct involvement, the Android market. We already improve communication between wrote quite a bit about the the state party and grass-roots location implications of Buzz, groups, create liaisons between but if you’re an Android owner, the state party and the various tea please let us know how this new party organizations and to work feature is working for you. “closely to make the Republican [img credit: Engadget] Party more conservative.” Tags: android, google buzz, Now there’s a winning formula. Google Maps
Google Maps for Android Get Buzz Support by Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)
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Bombs Away by Matthew Kroenig (The New Republic - All Feed)
and Russia are not particularly threatened by, and may even see a significant upside to, a nuclearSubmitted at 2/9/2010 8:55:00 PM armed Iran. Message from fivefilters.org: If To understand this point, we you can, please donate to the full must first consider why the -text RSS service so we can United States, China, and Russia continue developing it. --or any other country for that As President Obama begins a matter--should fear nuclear push to impose harsher economic proliferation. Of course, there are sanctions on Iran over its nuclear the concerns of accidental program, his success will be nuclear detonation, nuclear determined largely by the answer terrorism, or even nuclear war. to a single question: Will China But these are all extremely low and Russia get on board? In probability events. The primary order to bite, sanctions must be threat of nuclear proliferation is enforced by the rest of the that it constrains the freedom of international community, but, so powerful states to use or threaten far, Beijing and Moscow have to use force abroad. been reluctant to endorse the The United States’ global power toughest penalties advocated by -projection capability provides Washington. Washington with a significant Many analysts and policymakers strategic advantage: It can w r o n g l y a s s u m e t h a t t h i s protect, or threaten, Iran and any reluctance is a function of these other country on the planet. An countries’ economic ties with I r a n i a n n u c l e a r w e a p o n , Iran, or their failure to appreciate however, would greatly reduce the proliferation threat. Last the latitude of its armed forces in week, for example, Hillary the Middle East. If the United Clinton bluntly challenged S t a t e s p l a n n e d a m i l i t a r y China’s approach to Tehran, operation in the region, for saying, “[W]e understand that example, and a nuclear-armed r i g h t n o w i t s e e m s Iran objected that the operation counterproductive to you to threatened its vital interests, any sanction a country from which U.S. president would be forced you get so much of the natural to rethink his decision. As thenresources your growing economy Secretary of Defense Donald needs. But think about the longer Rumsfeld explained in 2001, term implications.” The real nuclear weapons “could give reason for Beijing and Moscow’s rogue states the power to hold obstinacy, however, is much our people hostage to nuclear more fundamental, and from blackmail--in an effort to prevent Washington’s point of view, us from projecting force to stop much more distressing: China aggression."
This line of thinking is not unique to the situation with Iran. In nearly every historical instance of proliferation, beginning with China in the 1960s, the United States opposed nuclear proliferation in large part because it wanted to preserve its military freedom of action. Indeed, the 2008 National Defense Strategy issued by the Pentagon explicitly states that the American military will achieve its objectives by “shaping the choices of key states, preventing adversaries from acquiring or using WMD, strengthening and expanding alliances and partnerships, securing U.S. strategic access and retaining freedom of action." Some analysts argue that we shouldn’t worry about proliferation in Iran because nuclear deterrence will work, much like it worked during the Cold War. But from Washington’s point of view, this is precisely the problem; it is more often than not the United States that will be deterred. Although Washington might not have immediate plans to use force in the Middle East, it would like to keep the option open. China and Russia, on the other hand, lack the ability to project power in the region. China has recently been recognized as an economic superpower, but its military is still relatively weak. Indeed, military analysts doubt that China could successfully
invade Taiwan, a small island roughly 100 miles off China’s coast. Major military operations in the Middle East, therefore, will be out of the question for decades to come. Similarly, Russia lacks a meaningful ability to project power in the region. The Soviet Union was a global superpower, but its military might collapsed along with the Iron Curtain. Russia’s clumsy invasion of Georgia in the summer of 2008 only served to reveal the limits of its military power. In fact, the state of Moscow’s conventional military has sunk so low that Russia’s most recent national security strategy relies heavily on nuclearforces simply to achieve basic defense goals. An Iranian bomb, then, won’t disadvantage China or Russia. In fact, it might even help them. Neither country has hidden its desire to hem in America’s unilateral ability to project power, and a nuclear-armed Iran would certainly mean a more constrained U.S. military in the Middle East. Indeed, at times during the 1980s and 1990s, Beijing and Moscow aided Tehran with important aspects of its nuclear program. While we don’t have detailed information on the motives behind the assistance, we do know that governments don’t export sensitive nuclear technologies for economic reasons alone. Rather, as I show in my forthcoming book, they generally do so in an
attempt to hinder their enemies. For example, France helped Israel acquire the bomb in the late 1950s and early 1960s in order to balance against Nasser’s Egypt, and China provided nuclear aid to Pakistan in the 1980s to impose strategic costs on its longtime rival India.It is likely that China and Russia’s nuclear assistance to Iran waspartly intended as a counterweight to American power in the Middle East. Although these countries no longer actively aid Iran’s nuclear program, they may still secretly welcome its development. If any country fails to understand the strategic consequences of a nuclear Iran, then, it is not Russia or China, but the United States. Disproportionately threatened by proliferation, American officials will struggle to convince others to join their fight against the spread of nuclear weapons. They must prepare to live with a nuclear-armed Iran, or, if they cannot do that, they must stop Tehran’s nuclear program themselves. Matthew Kroenig is an assistant professor of government at Georgetown University and the author of Exporting the Bomb: Technology Transfer and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons. For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on BOMBS page 30
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THE READ: We Are the World by Ruth Franklin (The New Republic - All Feed)
So I was surprised to find Smith (a British writer of Caribbean descent who lives partly in the Submitted at 2/9/2010 8:55:00 PM United States) pronouncing a Message from fivefilters.org: If strangely antiquated definition of you can, please donate to the full A m e r i c a n w r i t i n g i n h e r -text RSS service so we can introduction to Best European continue developing it. Fiction 2010, a new anthology A few years ago, the Mexican edited by Aleksandar Hemon and literary magazine Letras Libres published by Dalkey Archive asked me to write an essay about Press. “It seems old-fashioned to major trends in the last decade of speak of a ‘Continental’ or American literature. The more I specifically ‘European’ style,” thought about what such trends Smith (correctly) begins, but she might be, the less convinced I continues: “If the title of this became that there even was such book were to be removed and a thing as “American literature” s w i t c h e d w i t h t h a t o f a n anymore. The books that had anthology of the American short interested me most in the late story, isn’t it true that only a fool 1990s and early 2000s were by would be confused as to which writers who were emigrants or w a s t r u l y w h i c h ? ” T h e members of minority ethnic differences, she argues, go groups: Ha Jin, Jhumpa Lahiri, beyond the “obvious matter of E d w i d g e D a n t i c a t , N a t h a n foreign names and places.” Englander. Other than the European fiction shows “a strong language in which they write, is t e n d e n c y t o w a r d s t h e there anything that unites this metafictional”; an interest in group of global souls—all of magic realism (one writer enjoys whom have spent long periods of a f a n t a s y b r e a k f a s t w i t h their lives living in places other Murakami; another imagines that than the United States—as Gustav Klimt has 14 illegitimate definably American? And they sons all named Gustav); and an m i g h t w e l l h a v e m o r e i n “epigraphic, disjointed structure” common with other international featuring abrupt endings. These writers of t h e i r stories, she concludes, “seem to generation—Zadie Smith, David come from a different family Mitchell, H a r u k i than those long anecdotes ending Murakami—than with earlier- in epiphany, popularized by O. generation “American” writers Henry.” And these writers’ such as Roth or Updike. models are not O. Henry or
Hemingway, but Barth, Barthelme, Beckett, Kafka, Sebald. O. Henry! When was the last time you saw a reference to him in a contemporary American short story—or anywhere else? What struck me about Smith’s description of this supposedly European style was how well it applies to new American writing. Today, the greatest remaining practitioners of the traditional, linear short story Smith seems to be invoking are Alice Munro and William Trevor—neither of whom is American. (She’s Canadian, he’s Irish.) Meanwhile, in American fiction, the kind of fragmentary, fantastic writing that was once experimental has now become common, thanks to the influence of literary journals such as McSweeney’s (as I once argued in Slate). Barth and Barthelme—both of whom are American—are most definitely among the progenitors of this work, but Murakami and Houellebecq are its current patron saints. Kafka’s influence, of course, is a given everywhere, but Sebald was far more popular in England and the United States than among his compatriots on the Continent. Reading my way through Hemon’s book—a handsome collection of 35 stories, one from
nearly every major European country or language group (Ireland, for instance, is represented twice, with one story originally in English and another in Irish), mostly by writers born in the 1960s and 1970s—I was surprised by how familiar the work felt. In his own introduction, Hemon complains that the “American reader seems to be largely disengaged from literatures in other languages, which many see as yet another symptom of culturally catastrophic American isolationism.” There’s no doubt that there is very little market in America for works in translation. Yet this has hardly isolated the American reader, or the American writer: the currents of influence flow freely in both directions—as this anthology demonstrates. Julian Gough’s “The Orphan and the Mob” takes place in a distinctly Irish setting, but the broad, bawdy lines of its satire come from a tradition that goes back to Tristram Shandy(Irish/English) and continues in the work of Philip Roth. The romantic drama of Steinar Bragi’s “The Sky Over Thingvellir” (Iceland) reads like Updike crossed with Umberto Eco. Naja Marie Aidt’s “Bulbjerg” (Denmark) has an uncanny masculine anger and violence that we also see in
Raymond Carver or Wells Tower. There’s something a little bit ridiculous about continuing to use nationality as a primary label for writers now that literary culture has gone truly global. The writers in Hemon’s book work in dozens of different languages, but they share a similar sensibility—a sensibility that might once have been called “Continental” or “European” but is now simply literary, melding international influences in a kind of cultural fusion. And this sensibility, which does indeed include elements of magic realism (not a European invention) and metafiction (ditto), will be easily recognizable to anyone who has recently picked up The New Yorker. As Smith also writes, again correctly: “Good writing cannot permit itself to be contained within checkpoints and borders.” Ruth Franklin is a senior editor of The New Republic. For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Jobs Bill Cuts Payroll Tax on New Hires (Newsmax - Politics)
showing that the number of available openings fell by nearly Submitted at 2/10/2010 12:35:29 AM one-quarter, that the unemployed Message from fivefilters.org: If population soared by more than you can, please donate to the full one-third in 2009, and that more -text RSS service so we can people are competing for the few continue developing it. available jobs. Senate Democrats circulated a " N o b u s i n e s s h i r e s i n t o jobs bill Tuesday that's light on uncertainty, and right now there's new initiatives on boosting too much uncertainty in the hiring and heavy with provisions markets," said Harry Griendling, sought by lobbyists for business CEO of DoubleStar Inc., a groups, doctors and others. consulting firm specializing in The 362-page measure is still in recruitment. draft form and has not been All told, there were 6.1 jobless officially released. workers in December, on It has bipartisan backing, but average, for every available few new ideas for creating jobs, position, compared with 3.4 other than a $10 billion plan to unemployed in December 2008 exempt companies from paying and just 1.7 that same month in the employer's share of Social 2007. Security payroll taxes for new The jobs bill is politically hires if they are unemployed and important for Democrats seeking hired this year. to respond to public anxiety The idea, by Sens. Charles E. about the economy. But the Schumer, New York Democrat, measure also has a lot of pull and Orrin G. Hatch, Utah with an assortment of lobbying Republican, is regarded as more groups seeking to extend a raft of workable than President Obama's tax breaks and other benefits that plan for tax credits of up to expire at the end of the month. $5,000 for new hires. The measure ignores some of The rest of the measure is Mr. Obama's ideas, including the mostly made up of last year's per-job tax credit, a $250 unfinished business, including payment to Social Security renewal of business tax breaks recipients and $25 billion in help that have expired, an extension for cash-strapped states. of unemployment benefits and Instead, the cornerstone of the health insurance subsidies and plan would exempt companies forestalling a cut in Medicare from paying the employer's share payments for doctors. of Social Security payroll taxes Meanwhile Tuesday, the Labor for new hires as long as those Department released figures people had been unemployed at
least 60 days. A recent Congressional Budget Office report estimates that the idea could create up to 18 jobs per $1 million in tax relief, a more efficient way to boost hiring than provisions in last year's $862 billion economic stimulus bill. The $10 billion plan could create perhaps 50,000 to 90,000 jobs through September and another 80,000 to 180,000 jobs next year. The overall measure would cost roughly $80 billion, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican. Many elements would be financed by a variety of provisions closing tax loopholes, such as one enjoyed by paper companies that get a credit from burning a dirty pulpmaking byproduct known as "black liquor" as if it were an alternative fuel. The bill would also raise about $7 billion from a crackdown on international tax cheats, an issue the Internal Revenue Service and the Obama administration have embraced. "We really need to finish the bill this week, [and] I hope that we can," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said on the chamber's floor after he and others met with Mr. Obama at the White House. Mr. Reid said he expected the bill to get bipartisan support, but Mr. McConnell said he could not
sign off on the package because many of his members had not yet seen the details. The powerful physicians' lobby is behind a plan to prevent them from absorbing a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments but only wins relief through Sept. 30. Small businesses would continue to be able to write off equipment purchases as a business expense. The small-business "expensing" plan, however, has only a modest effect in boosting jobs creation, the CBO says. About $33 billion in popular tax breaks, including an income-tax deduction for sales and property taxes and a business tax credit for research and development, would be extended through 2010. The tax breaks, more than 40 in all, expired at the end of 2009. They are routinely extended each year: The House voted to extend them in December, but the Senate never addressed them because senators were consumed by the health care reform debate. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Twitter. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Keyboard purse makes a perfect gift for the geeky lady in your life by Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:00:39 AM
Does your girlfriend or wife dress like Janeane Garofalo? Does she wear striped tights under cutoff jean shorts and a long-sleeve shirt beneath a hilarious ironic/retro T-shirt? She needs – NEEDS! – this purse, fashioned from an old keyboard. It’s made from 365 black keys and features a zippered closure, cotton-lined interior, and top flap. Available for $40 from the Neatorama shop. I know girls like to own a hundred different purses but this is really the only one that’s really necessary. Let’s not kid ourselves here. Recycled Keyboard Purse[Neatorama]
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I Pledge Allegiance to the What? by Amanda Silverman (The New Republic - All Feed)
attack the minimum wage, research papers that do the same, and other articles that assault Submitted at 2/9/2010 8:55:00 PM health care reform. (In Message from fivefilters.org: If November, the group launched a you can, please donate to the full $10 million campaign against -text RSS service so we can health care reform.) All of which continue developing it. might make it a fairly run-of-theIf you watched the Super Bowl mill, if very well funded, righton Sunday, you may have wing hack shop. What sets EPI noticed a welcome interruption apart, though, is its president: to the endless string of Bud Light Rick Berman. a n d D o r i t o s a d s . W e d g e d Berman, a lawyer-lobbyist who between these paeans to beer and has been dubbed“Dr. Evil,” is the chips was a seemingly harmless real-life version of Aaron c o m m e r c i a l f e a t u r i n g c u t e Eckhart’s character in Thank elementary schoolers with their You For Smoking. Over the hands on the chests, pledging years, he has set up a series of allegiance. But the ad soon non-profits that have crusaded turned a little darker: Instead of against organizations such as reciting the words that were Mothers Against Drunk Driving drilled into all young children’s and PETA, and legislation like m i n d s , t h e y p l e d g e d t h e i r the Employee Free Choice Act. allegiance to the national debt H i s g r o u p s h a v e t r i e d t o and to China. In an odd twist, the convince citizens that mercury girl pictured at the end looked and trans-fats are in no way c o n s p i c u o u s l y l i k e S a s h a detrimental to their health. At the Obama. behest of the various unnamed The 30-second spot that ran in persons and industries that fund the DC area, and supposedly cost him, Berman is apparently trying over $100,000 to air during the to dismantle even the most big game, is part of a larger commonsensical aspects ofthe c a m p a i g n r u n b y t h e nanny state. “He’d have no Employment Policies Institute. r e s t r i c t i o n s o n t o b a c c o EPI, founded in 1991, is a “non- advertising, junk foods galore in profit research organization schools. No minimum wage. He dedicated to studying public w a n t s t o l e a v e c o r p o r a t e p o l i c y i s s u e s s u r r o u n d i n g America unfettered of any employment growth.” EPI’s regulations that protect the website doesn’t offer much else public's health," explained Dr. besides links to editorials that Michael Jacobson, who heads
the Center for Science in the Public Interest, on “60 Minutes” in 2007. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has actually set up a whole site to expose the numerous projects of the selfproclaimed“consumer advocate.” Defeat the Debt is just another project of Berman’s that essentially employs scare tactics(and some nifty cartoons) in order to educate “Americans about the size, scope, and consequences of our rapidly escalating debt.” Its website features a constantly updating ticker that measures what we owe as a country. In addition to what you saw on Super Bowl Sunday, the campaign has aired this ad across the country and launched a string of print ads, including a Times Square billboard, and has sent about a dozen “destitute Uncle Sams” to various cities “to beg for 12 trillion from taxpayers.” Whatever its mission statement, EPI’s stock in trade is demagoguery disguised as serious policy advocacy. Who is providing Berman with millions of dollars to fund antideficit Super Bowl ads and a campaign against health care reform? The names of EPI’s funders are not disclosed because as a non-profit, the organization doesn’t have to reveal its sources of funding (a fact for which
Rachel Maddow attacked Berman in November; Berman, however, remained tight-lipped). But according to “60 Minutes,” a partial list of businesses with which Berman worked when he was involved in fighting healthy food initiativesincludes CocaCola, Tyson Chicken, Outback Steakhouse, and Wendy’s. National Journal has also reported that Berman’s antiEFCA group, the Employee Freedom Action Committee, received backing from Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson. Berman, for his part, swears he doesn’t do his work for the money. "I didn't need to be doing this,” Berman told “60 Minutes.” “I'm doing this because it's a passion of mind. I believe in what I'm doing.” Given Berman’s track record, it’s almost enough to make you think the national debt is a good thing. Amanda Silverman is a reporterresearcher for The New Republic. For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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The newly announced Motom M7 MID tablet with Windows XP by Tablet (BestTabletReview.com) Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:10:36 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. The Motom M7 MID Chinese company Motom has just announced their M7 MID tablet. The Motom M7 has a 7-inch 1024 x 600 resolution resistive touchscreen, runs Windows XP, features a 1.1GHz Intel Atom Z510 processor, Intel GMA 500 Graphics, 32GB SSD, 1GB DDR2 RAM and WiFi and 3G connections. There’s also a 1.3MP webcam, thumb touchpad, HDMI and 2 USB ports. It has built-in GPS, mobile TV and handwriting recognition as well. It features a 400mAH PolyMar battery and measures 7.87 x 4.96 x 0.87 inches. There’s currently no word on release date or price. Source: Cloned in China Leave a Reply Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Labor Nominee Blocked in Senate (Newsmax - Politics)
Mr. Brown gave Senate Republicans the 41st vote needed to sustain filibusters, but two Message from fivefilters.org: If moderate Democrats - Sen. you can, please donate to the full Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and -text RSS service so we can Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska continue developing it. also deserted Mr. Obama on the In a vivid display of President politically sensitive vote. The Obama's diminished clout, the final tally was 52-33 in favor of Senate's newest Republican and a vote on the nomination, eight two veteran Democrats Tuesday short of the 60 votes need to helped block Mr. Obama's bid to proceed. fill a key labor post with a Mr. Becker, who was first nominee they considered too nominated in July, is an attorney cozy with unions. for the AFL-CIO and the Service With newly seated Sen. Scott Employees International Union. B r o w n , M a s s a c h u s e t t s "A review of decades of writings Republican, voting to sustain the by Mr. Becker have revealed that filibuster, Senate Democratic he has advocated for the most leaders failed to muster the 60 radical theories of labor law," votes needed to force a vote on said Sen. Michael B. Enzi, the nomination of Craig Becker W y o m i n g R e p u b l i c a n a n d to the National Labor Relations ranking member of the Health, Board, which resolves disputes Education, Labor and Pensions b e t w e e n u n i o n s a n d Committee. "In addition to his management. writings, Mr. Becker has spent Dubbed a friend of organized the majority of his career serving labor, Mr. Becker had been as counsel to the two largest fiercely opposed by business and labor organizations in America, employer groups, who feared his which has raised questions about s u p p o r t f o r t h e p r o p o s e d his ability to fairly adjudicate Employee Free Choice Act, cases involving those unions." called "card check," which Republicans said Mr. Becker's would give unions a stronger previous statements suggest he hand in organizing employees. supports limiting employers' Republicans strongly oppose the r i g h t t o a r g u e a g a i n s t legislation, which could come up u n i o n i z a t i o n a n d s u p p o r t s for a vote in the Senate later this "mandatory unionization." Mr. year. Becker said neither is true. Submitted at 2/10/2010 12:28:55 AM
The AFL-CIO accused Republicans of putting political interests ahead of working Americans by blocking the NLRB's work. "For more than two years, the NLRB has had only two of its five members," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement. "Without a fully staffed NLRB, working families face a major disadvantage in winning justice in the workplace." Backed by pro-business groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Republicans had held up Mr. Becker's nomination for months over concern that he would push an aggressive pro-union agenda on the board. Democrats said Republicans were unfairly siding with management and questioned why Mr. Becker received more than 400 questions from Congress more than Sonia Sotomayor during her confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court. "These loud assertions have no basis in reality," said Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat and chairman of the labor committee, said of the Republicans' concerns. "Mr. Becker has gone to great pains to rebut the characterizations."
All Democrats who voted on Tuesday, except for Mr. Nelson and Mrs. Lincoln, voted to move forward with Mr. Becker's nomination. All Republicans opposed the nomination. Fifteen senators did not cast a vote as a second-round snowstorm began in Washington on Tuesday. The vote was one of the first since Mr. Brown was sworn into office last week, breaking Democrats' supermajority and prompting lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to declare a new era of bipartisanship. And it came just a few hours after Mr. Obama held a meeting of Republican and Democratic congressional leaders at the White House. But it was clear that mood was lost on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Enzi accused Democrats of trying to "jam through partisan, controversial nominees." Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio Democrat, called the debate over Mr. Becker's nomination "warfare." © Copyright 2010 The Washington Times, LLC Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
JVC’s HD media player box supports SD cards only by Serkan Toto (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:00:26 AM
No DVD, no Blu-ray and no HDD: JVC Japan is keeping it extra-simple with the CUVS100, a media player box that supports nothing but SD cards. Announced[JP] yesterday for the Japanese market, the device is targeted at people who just want to conveniently view HD content stored on SD/SDHC on their TV. Just connect the box to your TV (via HDMI 1.3a), insert the memory card into one of the two slots built into the device and you are ready to view content in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (mts/m2ts/mov), MPEG-2 TS(tod), MPEG-2 PS (mod/mpg) formats. The box supports AVCHD, can display JPEGs and play music files, too (MP3 and WMA). The CU-VS100 comes with a remote control and will go on sale in Japan next week (price: $220). JVC hasn’t said yet whether the player will be sold outside Japan as well.
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Tech Note: Retweet Code Revamp (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 2/9/2010 4:25:34 PM
Here’s an email I recently received from the URLshortening service bit.ly, a popular Twitter-related service that I use to automatically shorten URLs for LGF-related tweets. The nice thing about bit.ly (and j.mp, it’s the same service) is that it doesn’t just shorten URLs; if you register an account, it also tracks some interesting statistics for any URLs you shorten. And they make these statistics available to outside developers through the bit.ly API; this is how our Retweet buttons are able to show the number of clicks on each shortened link. But apparently, LGF has been hammering their API servers too hard. Hi, I’m writing in regards to your bit.ly API usage. You are making an unusually large number of shorten requests to
our API (often over 50,000/hour), and it looks like you are doing this on page load (for the Twitter button on pages s u c h a s http://littlegreenfootballs.com/art icle/35599). Normally it is best not to make /shorten requests on a page load, but instead to make a /shorten request to bit.ly when a user clicks a share button. You can find an example of that at code.google.com. We are increasing our application of rate limits to manage abusive API users, and we encourage you to make the above fix as soon as possible to ensure that your site continues to function normally. I’d be glad to discuss this further and/or answer any questions you have, and thanks for using bit.ly! The problem was related to the John Resig Retweet button, which I wrote about in this Tech Note. When the LGF home page loaded, the Retweet button Javascript code called the bit.ly API’s “shorten” function to find
out the shortened URL, followed by the “stats” function to get the number of clicks, for each post, every time the page was loaded. As you can imagine, with 80,000 to 120,000 pageviews a day, that’s a lot of API calls. No wonder they noticed it. I’ve vastly reduced the number of API calls now with the latest code refactoring of the Retweet button. I stopped using John Resig’s Javascript code (no hard feelings, it’s great for most sites but not LGF), and wrote my own jQuery routines that use Ajax to call a server-side script when the page loads, passing it the necessary data on every Retweet button in the page in JSON format. The Ajax server calls the API’s “stats” function, then sends back (again in JSON) the number of clicks and some other data. The jQuery code then displays those numbers in the Retweet buttons. The key to reducing our API calls is that the shorten function is only called once, not when the
page loads but when a new entry is posted to the LGF blog. The shortened URL is used to automatically tweet about the new post on Twitter, then it’s saved along with the new entry data, to be reused endlessly as needed without ever calling the API again. Previously, the Resig code would call the API’s “shorten” routine and the “stats” routine for every post. Now the PHP Ajax server uses the saved bit.ly (or j.mp) URL to call the API’s “stats” routine only, which should cut our API usage in half. And retrieving statistics should be a much less costly operation for the server than shortening a URL. Hopefully, this will bring us back within the bit.ly API usage limits. And since this is probably Venusian to most LGF readers, consider it an open thread from here on out…
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Meet the Cast of 'Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains' (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/10/2010 3:00:00 AM
For the 20th installment of "Survivor," 20 former players will return and divide into two tribes: Heroes vs. Villains. The Heroes include Rupert Boneham, James Clement, Colby Donaldson, Cirie Fields, Amanda Kimmel, Jessica "Sugar" Kiper, Stephenie Lagrossa, James "JT" Thomas Jr., Tom Westman and Candice Woodcock. The Villains are comprised of Tyson Apostol, Randy Bailey, Danielle DiLorenzo, Russell Hantz, Jerri Manthey, Robert "Boston Rob" Mariano, Parvati Shallow, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Benjamin "Coach" Wade, and Courtney Yates. "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains" premieres Thursday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. on CBS.
Pamela Geller Shrieks on Joy Behar (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 2/9/2010 10:10:19 AM
Pamela Geller’s appearance last night on the Joy Behar show with Ron Reagan and Stephanie Miller perfectly demonstrates why Geller has become known on the Internet as the “ shrieking harpy.”
Geller actually seems to think she came off well on this show, in which she tells Ron Reagan what his own father would have thought about Sarah Palin, and rants continuously like a howler monkey on crack throughout the whole segment. Notice that it ends as Joy Behar tells Geller, “You have not shut up.”[Video]
This obnoxious performance was a big hit on the wingnut blogs, of course. Pamela Geller is a full-on, raving Birther. She tried to claim Barack Obama is the love child of Malcolm X, and she wasn’t kidding. She regularly uses terms like “libtard,” calls President Obama “Hussein,” and often
compares him to Adolf Hitler. She promotes the neo-Nazi British National Party, and praises other fascist groups like the English Defense League and the Vlaams Belang. She doesn’t just criticize radical Islam; she’s a flat out, bigoted Muslim-hater who believes that every single Muslim is a terrorist by nature.
And she has the personality of a treacherous rattlesnake. If Joy Behar was trying to make the right wing blogosphere (and fans of Sarah Palin) look terrible, she couldn’t have picked a better person.
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New York Senate Expels Senator over Assault (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 2/10/2010 12:05:01 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. NEW YORK - The New York State Senate has voted to expel a senator for the first time in almost a century, the New York Times reported Wednesday. It said the Senate voted 53 to 8 late Tuesday night to immediately remove Senator Hiram Monserrate, a Democrat from Queens, found guilty of misdemeanor assault in October for dragging his girlfriend down the hallway of his apartment building. The Democrats held the Senate by just two votes and Monserrate's removal leaves the
fragile balance of power in the Senate divided between 31 Democrats and 30 Republicans, the Times said. Analysts had warned that Monserrate's expulsion could cause a deadlock that would make it much harder for New York to meet its March 31 budget deadline. The paper said Monserrate's lawyers were drafting a temporary restraining order seeking to have him reinstated. It quoted one of his lawyers, Norman Siegel, as saying the order would be filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan. "The New York State Senate does not have the constitutional and legal authority to expel Senator Monserrate," Mr. Siegel said. The paper reported that in a
fiery speech to the Senate just before the vote, Monserrate said he had been made a scapegoat and accused his critics of exploiting an "ethical bully pulpit." "The actions that I've committed," it quoted him as saying, "do not rise to the level of expulsion." © 2010 Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Mich. Republican Ehlers Will Not Seek Re -Election (Newsmax - Politics)
conservative state lawmaker. Ehlers said a primary challenge was not a factor in his decision to Message from fivefilters.org: If retire after nine terms and he you can, please donate to the full decided "this was a good time to -text RSS service so we can g o . " E h l e r s h a s s o u g h t continue developing it. protections for the Great Lakes Rep. Vernon Ehlers (A'-lers) of and funding for math and science Michigan says in an interview education. He was first elected to with The Associated Press that Congress in a special election in he will not seek re-election to December 1993. Congress in 2010. © Copyright 2010 The The moderate Republican plans Associated Press. All rights to announce his retirement at a reserved. This material may not Wednesday morning news be published, broadcast, conference in Grand Rapids, r e w r i t t e n o r r e d i s t r i b u t e d . Mich. Most of Ehlers' solidly Five Filters featured article: Republican congressional district Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: w a s o n c e r e p r e s e n t e d b y PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, P r e s i d e n t G e r a l d R . F o r d . Term Extraction. The congressman faced a primary challenge from a Submitted at 2/10/2010 2:20:17 AM
Q&A: Should I do something about my low blood pressure? by rss@consumerreports.org (Consumer Reports)
naturally have readings below what’s conventionally considered "normal," with Submitted at 2/10/2010 2:59:59 AM systolic pressure, the higher Q&A: Should I do something number, as low as 85 to 100 about my low blood pressure? millimeters of mercury. Such My blood pressure is always low blood pressure, if not abnormally low. I know that’s caused by disease or medication, usually healthy, but sometimes is actually normal for those it makes me feel dizzy. What individuals; in fact, they tend to should I do about that? — C.L., live longer than other people do. Malibu, Calif. They may experience occasional Probably nothing. Some people dizziness, especially after they
change position quickly. But that’s generally the only symptom, so there’s typically no need for treatment. If the
dizziness becomes frequent or severe or leads to fainting, try boosting your blood pressure somewhat by wearing pressure stockings on your legs or possibly by consuming more salt in your diet. If those steps fail, you may need medication to raise the pressure by forcing your body to retain more salt. If you have high blood pressure, read more on lowering it, and if you take medication for it, find
out which blood pressure drugs are recommended by our free Best Buy Drugs report. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences
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Is ThreeJars a good way to teach kids about money? by Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)
parents via email or cell phone text message, and mom or dad disburses the green stuff out of their own pocket. This seems Submitted at 2/10/2010 5:55:09 AM more involved than necessary, Is ThreeJars a good way to teach but busy parents aren’t always kids about money? Are you often physically present to hit up for caught in arrears on your kids’ c a s h . “ F r o m t h e c h i l d ’ s allowance? Pursued by pint-size perspective, we operate like an creditors? Have those unnerving online bank,” says Simunuvic, a collection phone calls been f o r m e r v e n t u r e c a p i t a l i s t traced to a line...inside your specializing in technology and house?! software companies. Then maybe Anton Simunuvic Kids can also opt for payment can help. He says he’s built a by gift card for Toys R Us, better m o u s e t r a p , iTunes, Amazon.com, and 27 www.ThreeJars.com, which aims other retailers. If parents OK the to teach kids age 6 to 13 how to charge to their credit card, the manage their money. gift card arrives in the mail a few After parents set up an account days later. But when we scanned and direct the percentage of their through the various gift cards child’s earnings that should be offered, we found several whose distributed between virtual jars policy is not to replace lost cards, for save, spend, and share a risk if your kid is the type who (charitable contributions), kids frequently can’t find his shoes, use ThreeJars to track the debits s c h o o l b o o k s , h o m e w o r k and credits on the parent-child assignments, and other important ledger book online. stuff. Among the tough-luck gift Kids may love this idea. “We cards offered: Darden( Red are an IOU manager, not a Lobster, et al); Blockbuster; bank,” Simunuvic says. Footlocker; and Chilis. We To withdraw money, kids couldn’t find any terms and s u b m i t a r e q u e s t o n l i n e . conditions for AMC Theater gift ThreeJars sends an alert to the cards.
not a key revenue source. The saving tools are also a concern. ThreeJars’ regular savings rates of 4 to 15 percent are already high enough above market. But other vehicles—certificates of deposit, parent bonds, and “double ups”—pay housingbubble-size annualized interest rates as high as 100, 300, and Gift cards can keep kids from an 400 percent. i m p o r t a n t t e a c h a b l e “Four percent interest across a moment—comparison shopping year doesn’t move the dial for a for a bargain price—since they kid. But when $5 grows to $10 in handcuff their owners to buying two months, I know that’s an only from the retailer who issued unusually high interest rate, but the card. Too, a quarter of the it gets the kid’s attention,” says p e o p l e w e s u r v e y e d l a s t Simunuvic. November still hadn't used a gift OK, I can see the educational card they’d received during the value in supercharging rates to p r e v i o u s h o l i d a y s e a s o n . excite kids about saving. But Simunuvic said he also didn’t when they’re eventually weaned like gift cards’ 15 percent rate of from ThreeJars, even bull market “breakage,” the part of the card stock returns could look pretty balance that ends up never shabby. Kids can also make getting spent for a variety of contributions to featured causes reasons. So after we spoke, he o n T h r e e J a r s o r g e t called back and said ThreeJars cash—through parents—from would change its policies to their “share” jar to donate to enable parents to activate the gift other charities. Simunuvic says card option or leave it turned off. the charity option better engages ThreeJars collects a one- to three kids in his Web site and gives -percent commission on gift card them a healthier relationship sales, but Simunuvic says that’s with money. “Kids want to have
Benicio Del Toro Howls for 'Wolfman' (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/10/2010 4:03:00 AM
'The Wolfman' gets a facelift in the remake of the decades-old film. The stars shed their fur for
the Los Angeles premiere of the film on Tuesday night. Benicio Del Toro said that the relationship between the father, played by Anthony Hopkins, and his role of the son is different
than in the original movie. He also hinted, "This one might have a couple of more spooks." Actress Emily Blunt said that while the new version pays "homage" to the first, "I think
that we've kind of amped up the volume a bit because that's what you have to do for a modern audience."
voice and impact. They want to do it with their own money. That’s at least half of what we’re trying to achieve on ThreeJars.” Cause marketing is also good for business. Products from toothpaste and shampoo to chips and light bulbs can get a big sales boost when they’re associated with a specific cause, according to a study by Duke University and Cone, Inc., a cause-marketing company headed by Carol Cone, a ThreeJars board member. I’m not sure whether parents will find www.ThreeJars.com useful or not, and Simunuvic won’t say how many takers he has for his $30-per-year service, which only launched last September. What do you think? Is it better than the old-fashioned piggy bank? Visit the Web site and let us know what you decide.—Jeff Blyskal Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences
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New Cell-Phone Ratings: Models that are proudly un-smart by Michael Gikas (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:49:14 AM
New Cell-Phone Ratings: Models that are proudly un-smart Casio G'zOne Rock Photo: Verizon Smart phones, with their advanced capabilities and cool apps, have been garnering most of the attention on electronics blogs, including this one. But we haven't lost our enthusiasm for testing conventional cell phones—as it happens, the phones most still people buy. In fact, Consumer Reports Ratings tables are brimming with innovative handsets designed for people who'd rather talk and occasionally text rather than check e-mail or play with apps. Here's a sneak peek at three such models just added to our cellphone Ratings(available to subscribers): Casio G'zOne Rock($150), Verizon With its thick, hardened case, this third-generation G'zOne is as rugged and water-resistant as ever. In addition to its trademark
bright LED flashlight, the new G'zOne adds a compass, thermometer, and pedometer to its arsenal of handy outdoor. Other features that are less practical but nonetheless fun: You can mute incoming calls and alerts by simply turning the handset face-down. In multimedia mode, you can go on to another song or picture by shaking the phone. Sanyo Incognito Black($50), Sprint When activated, the Incognito's mirror-like exterior transforms into a display and touch-sensitive keypad with vibration feedback. The phone opens up like an eyeglass case to reveal a 2.6-inch screen and a keyboard (among the best we've seen), with
dedicated keys for emoticons (tiny icon "faces" embedded into to text that convey the writer's state of mind or intent), camera, and other functions. Its customizable internal interface is relatively easy to navigate and geared toward heavy texters and social networkers. Sony Ericsson Equinox($50), TMobile The Equinox is designed for people who prefer talking with their hands. Well, not really. But this innovative phone does interpret hand gestures, allowing you to mute alarms and incoming calls by sweeping your hand over the phone. A circular indentation on this folding phone's cover can be programmed to glow a specific color matched to people on your contact list (blue for Mary, red for John, etc.). There's even an FM radio. —Mike Gikas Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences
Will Apple Crack? Opera Unveils Plans for iPhone Browser by Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 2/10/2010 12:40:07 AM
Opera just announced that it plans to bring its mobile browser, Opera Mini, to the iPhone. The Norwegian company will give the press and its partners a sneak peek of the application during next week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Opera Mini on the iPhone will include all of Opera's default features like Speed Dial, tabs and a password manager. Opera Mini for the iPhone will also feature Opera's compression technology, which compresses text and images on Opera's servers before they get sent to the phone. The question, however, is whether Apple will allow the application into the App Store. Sponsor For now, this announcement is a great PR move by Opera. It certainly looks like Opera wants to put some pressure on Apple to allow the app - and maybe other browsers too - into the store.
Opera Mini is already available on a large number of platforms, including Symbian and Android. The iPhone, however, has remained off-limits for any browser besides Apple's own Safari. There are a few apps that use Safari's rendering engine to create new browser experiences, but we haven't seen any browsers that use alternative rendering engines on the iPhone yet. While Mozilla is moving forward with its mobile projects for Windows Mobile, Android and Maemo, there are no current plans to port Firefox to the iPhone yet. This will be an interesting test case. Opera, of course, can show any demo it wants to - but until the company submits the app to Apple, we won't know how Apple will react. Or perhaps this is just a publicity stunt by Opera. Discuss
Street Chic: New York by ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)
A woven belt lends structure to loose layers. Photo: Anne Ziegler
Think you are Street Chic? Email us your photo and you could appear in ELLE.com's
Street Chic Daily. Follow ELLE on Twitter.
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By the Numbers: Planners of 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games seek gold medal for green and sustainability efforts by Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)
American report. The village is also home to a zero-energy building and all of its facilities meet the U.S. Green Building Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:40:09 AM Council's LEED gold standards. By the Numbers: Planners of Mother Nature might stymie 2010 Vancouver Olympic VANOC's bid to become the Winter Games seek gold medal most sustainable Olympics ever. for green and sustainability The mild weather and lack of efforts snowfall have forced the 100 The reduction makes financial o r g a n i z i n g c o m m i t t e e t o Vancouver has planned the as well as environmental sense. transport snow in from higher greenest games. " B y r e d u c i n g r e l i a n c e o n elevations hundreds of miles Number of portable generators generators and servicing the away by truck and helicopter. All that will be used during the 2010 v e n u e p o w e r n e e d s w i t h the energy that equipment uses to Olympic Winter Games in hydroelectric power, we have not get snow to the snowboarding Vancouver, British Columbia. only kept a lid on [greenhouse- and freestyle skiing venue at (The opening ceremonies take gas] emissions, we have also Cypress Mountain is one offset place this Friday, February 12. saved several million dollars," the Vancouver Games organizers Check out NBC's TV schedule.) said Paul Toom, director of won't boast about. That's 500 fewer generators than energy for VANOC, in the — Daniel DiClerico what's typically been used at committee's latest sustainability Subscribe now! recent past Olympics and could report. S u b s c r i b e t o result in a 90 percent reduction Using fewer generators is just ConsumerReports.org for expert in greenhouse-gas emissions. o n e e x a m p l e o f V A N O C ' s Ratings, buying advice and The Vancouver Organizing s u s t a i n a b i l i t y e f f o r t s . F o r r e l i a b i l i t y o n h u n d r e d s o f Committee, or VANOC, says instance, the Olympic Village is products. Update your feed running underground power lines being warmed by waste heat preferences a l l o w e d t h e u s e o f f e w e r recovered from the municipalgenerators, part of its goal to wastewater-treatment system, create . according to this Scientific
myTouch 3Gs with 3.5mm headphone jacks hit T-Mobile's store, now with less Fender by Paul Miller (Engadget) Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:03:00 AM
No offense meant to Eric Clapton, but not everybody wants a faux wood phone. And yet, it seems like there are many folks in this subset scattered across this fruited plain who'd like a real 3.5mm headphone jack on their phone, and for those crazy people there's at last the T-Mobile myTouch 3G to suit them. The phone has just been listed in white and black versions on T-Mobile's store, and lack all the fancy app and content frills of the Fender Limited Edition, and have even been consigned to mere 8GB microSD cards (while Fender jams away on a 16GB slice). So far T-Mobile makes no mention
of price, but with the original myTouch 3G (which we're guessing isn't long for this earth) still at $150 and the Fender edition at $180, we're not expecting these phones to land at a price that matches the age of this handset -- namely, between $99 and free. Sure, that incoming 2.1 update will be nice, but there's a lot of good phone to be had out there for $150. myTouch 3Gs with 3.5mm headphone jacks hit T-Mobile's store, now with less Fender originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Android and Me| T-Mobile| Email this| Comments
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Google Buzz in Enterprise - Will Need to Overcome Google Apps Limitations by Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 2/9/2010 10:30:25 PM
Google Buzz is headed for the enterprise. According to the Google Enterprise blog, Google Buzz will become a part of Google Apps within the next few months. Google Buzz applies as much to the enterprise as it does to the consumer market. The real-time application creates an extension for communication that adds a threaded context to a conversation, a critical component for an enterprise application. Sponsor But Google Buzz in the enterprise will have some inherent weaknesses. Tony Bradley of PC World makes the point that most consumer products do not work with Google Apps Premier Edition. To access Picasa, a Google Apps Premier account holder must log out and log back in to a consumer account.
Security concerns drive the reasons why the service has this partition. But an application like Google Buzz relies on information rolling in from different sources. It is that richness that makes Google Buzz a potentially useful consumer tool. But you won't have that richness with Google Buzz under the current limitations that come with Google Apps Premier Edition. Google Buzz does have an open architecture, which should make it possible to integrate external data. We'll see how this affects Google Buzz. It looks like a step in the right direction. It was revealed that Google Voice and Google Wave will also be part of the Google Enterprise productivity suite. We do not know yet how these applications will integrate - but by adding different layers, it creates the foundation for a social CRM environment. "The best thing about all of this for me is that Google has recognized and capitalized on the
Outlook Social Connector that the company unveiled at the Professional Developers fact that email is the ultimate Conference in 2009. Microsoft is social network and they are integrating the Social Connector agregating- which is what they into the Office 2010 product do best," said Sameer Patel, a which is due out in the first half founding partner with the Sovos of this year. Microsoft's Social Grou p that consults about Connector does a lot of what i n t e g r a t i n g s o c i a l W e b Buzz does, except with more of a applications and collaborative b u s i n e s s - c e n t r i c f o c u s . technologies into the enterprise. Microsoft's Social Connector Patel said that Google Buzz also provides regularly updated could become a service that sits "activity feeds" for those in a on top of GMail, much in the user's social connector via a same way that Xobni or Gist connection with SharePoint i n t e g r a t e w i t h M i c r o s o f t 2010." Google Apps has it own faults Outlook. to work out, before Google Buzz The integrated service shows how aggressive Google is getting can even be considered a viable versus Microsoft and other on- service for the enterprise. The p r e m i s e g i a n t s l i k e I B M . Google Buzz open architecture Microsoft responded to the Buzz may be the difference though, news this way:"Mary-Jo Foley creating real opportunities for posted her views that Microsoft customers to pull external data a l s o h a s b e e n w o r k i n g t o into its real-time environment. integrate social networks from Discuss third parties not just into its Web -mail product, but also into its Outlook mail client, via the
Stars Attend Hermès Store Debut (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/10/2010 3:20:00 AM
Hermès opened the doors to its first men's store on Tuesday night. Stars such as husband and wife Kevin Bacon and Kyra
Sedgwick and fellow actress Katie Holmes bundled up to cut the ribbon in the frigid New York weather. Kyra was happy to come out to support the line and store. As a fan, she said, "They have a long
history of beautiful clothes and beautiful bags." Watch the video, where John Slattery reveals details about his hit show "Mad Men."
The surprisingly affordable Asus G73 gaming laptop now available in the States by Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:30:07 AM
Asus’s monsterious 17.3-inch G73 gaming notebook made a splash at CES but American availablity and pricing wasn’t mentioned. Good news though. Newegg’s selling ‘em right now and you want one. The G73 is really just your standard high-end gaming notebook. It won’t cure cancer or turn the Detroit Lions into a playoff team, but it shouldn’t flinch at Bioshock 2 or Mass Effect 2. Plus, at $1,449 it’s actually quite a good deal. • Intel Core i7 720QM • 17.3-inch LCD • 8GB of memory • 7200RPM 500GB hard drive • 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 • 8lbs Newegg via Laptoping]
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Kids on The Web: Are They Satisfied With Virtual Worlds and Games? by Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb)
We've previously looked at the most popular websites for kids and it was clear that Submitted at 2/10/2010 4:00:00 AM entertainment sites had the For kids under 12 years of age, greatest affinity with under 12s. entertainment websites and T h e r e a r e s t r o n g s o c i a l virtual worlds are all the rage. networking aspects to those sites My 8-year old daughter plays and many of the popular ones ToonTown a lot. Club Penguin come from television companies and Moshi Monsters are also like Nick, Cartoon Network and popular in this demographic. But Disney. are these types of sites fulfilling Virtual worlds like ToonTown the potential and talent our kids a n d C l u b P e n g u i n a r e have with technology? particularly popular with kids In order to help us answer that right now. In a recent New York question, we're asking those of Times article, University of you who are parents of a child California cultural anthropologist aged 12 or under to do a short M i z u k o I t o c l a i m e d t h a t survey accompanied by your "children who play these games child. With this survey, co- would see less of a distinction hosted by Boston research firm between their online friends and L a t i t u d e , w e ' r e h o p i n g t o real friends." He also said that discover what kind of web apps these types of online virtual kids want but don't necessarily worlds make kids "more likely to have right now. participate actively in their own Sponsor entertainment" - in comparison Are you the parent of a child 12 to us oldies who grew up years or under? Click here to watching TV from the couch. take a survey about how kids We know that kids under 12 perceive the Web. have been born into a world with
fixed the setting, in one click. Kids are also born multi-taskers and have a "desire for immediacy," as a recent USA Today article put it. Given all of these skills and an intuitive grasp of technology, I often wonder if kids are really getting the types of web sites and apps that they want. Is there something beyond entertainment from big corporations like m y r i a d I n t e r n e t - c o n n e c t e d Disney, for kids under 12? devices - PCs, mobile phones, That question is a big part of video game systems and many why we're running the survey, more. Because they're native to which includes asking kids to this device-laden world, kids draw a picture of "what would be understand technology more really interesting or fun to do on your computer/the Internet that easily. I got a lesson in this over your computer can't do right Christmas, when attempting to now?" So we encourage you to set up the Wii I'd just given to sit down with your child and do my daughter. I was grappling the survey. In return we'll share with a stubborn Wii console the results with you here on setting, getting a bit frustrated ReadWriteWeb. Click here to that it wasn't doing what I begin the survey. wanted. Suddenly the remote Photo credits: lindsayshaver; was grabbed from my hands by makelessnoise Discuss my 8-year old. She promptly
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George Clooney Inspires Barbara Davis to Help Diabetics in Haiti (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/10/2010 2:05:00 AM
Philanthropist Barbara Davis is reaching out to a key niche in Haiti, the earthquake victims suffering with diabetes. Inspired by the relief efforts spearheaded by major celebrities like George Clooney, Davis will ship aid to diabetics in Haiti at the end of this week. Her Children's Diabetes Foundation will send 200,000 units of diabetes medications, insulin, and supplies to help Haitians keep their symptoms under control. Davis' foundation has attracted the support of some famous faces afflicted with the disease, such as Nick Jonas, Halle Berry, and B. B. King.
Logitech MK710 Wireless Desktop: Really nice and lasts a long time by John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 2/10/2010 5:14:27 AM
I’m a big fan of Logitech. I’ve used the MX mouse for nigh on
most of a year and now I’m typing on a DiNovo Edge. That said, I think I’ll just pitch my old input devices and get me one of these. This is a large, full
keyboard and mouse set with a
mini-LCD display along the top and a cushioned palm rest. The batteries, if you can believe it, last 3 years per change. You can pop over here to see it
but it looks on par with Logitech’s other high end gear and at $99 you really can’t go wrong.
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Facebook Debuts XHP: More PHP Enhancement by Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)
News, Wikispaces creator James Byers writes, "For me, XHP is far more interesting than Submitted at 2/9/2010 11:13:43 PM HipHop. And I say that as Last week, we were chasing our someone who administers a pile tails in giddiness over HipHop, a of single-application CPU-bound newly open-sourced PHP PHP servers. This completely runtime developed in house at and forever changes the Facebook. templates-vs-just-PHP debate, Today, amid the rabid and I'm glad - it's the kind of excitement over Google Buzz, evolution PHP needs to continue Facebook quietly pumped some to be taken seriously." more code into the world. XHP me, is that because PHP now Tipjoy co-founder and current is a new way to write PHP that u n d e r s t a n d s X M L i t i s Facebook engineer Ivan Kirigin "augments the syntax of the outputting, filtering can be done also chimes in with strong praise, language to both make your front in a context-sensitive manner." saying, "XHP rocks so [expletive -end code easier to understand He also comments on XHP's deleted] hard, it isn't even funny. and help you avoid cross-site significant performance issues It is just so much better than scripting attacks," according to and speculates how XHP would alternatives. Facebook engineer Marcel work specifically at Facebook. "IMHO, It is the only PHP tool I Laverdet."XHP has enabled us to "Running XHP on plain PHP is use at Facebook that is better build better websites faster; our definitely out of the question. t h a n a l t e r n a t i v e s i n o t h e r Lite site was written entirely But, knowing that Facebook uses languages. I'm looking at you, with XHP." APC [alternative PHP cache] Django templates! The notation Here's what a few developers, heavily and looking through the perfectly represents the objects, including PHP creator Rasmus code (see the MINIT function in with no cruft associated with Lerdorf, had to say about it. ext.cpp) we can see that it should object oriented programming. Sponsor play nicely with APC... So, when That is really rare." Lerdorf describes XHP as "a you combine XHP with HipHop Here's XHP on GitHub, and new PHP extension today that PHP you can start to imagine here's the documentation wiki. supports inlining XML... It adds that the performance penalty Take a look, and let us know an extra parsing step which maps would be a lot less than 75% and what you think in the comments! inlined XML element to PHP it becomes a viable approach." Discuss classes. Meanwhile, over at Hacker "The main interest, at least to
Sony's $200 BDP-S470 is company's first 3Dready Blu-ray player by Darren Murph (Engadget)
Audio decoding. If you were planning to snag a BDP-S570 BD player or one of the BDVAnd the flood gates are now E770W / BDV-E570 Blu-ray officially open. Just hours after Disc home theater systems, Panasonic introduced its newest you'll be elated to know that 3 D B l u - r a y r e c o r d e r s a n d those systems will also get a players, along comes Sony to gratis 3D update in just a few brag about its first 3D-ready months, with exact pricing and standalone deck. The BDP-S470, release details tucked down there which is slated to ship later this in the source. Time to pick up a month for $200, arrives with the pair of 3D Gunnar Optiks, ability to handle BD, DVD, CD don'tcha think? and even SACD, with a 3D BluSony's $200 BDP-S470 is ray upgrade (via firmware company's first 3D-ready Bluupdate) planned for this summer. ray player originally appeared on Y o u ' l l a l s o f i n d B D - L i v e Engadget on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 support, BRAVIA Internet 09:41:00 EST. Please see our Video, a USB socket for playing t e r m s f o r u s e o f f e e d s . back media stored elsewhere, Permalink| Sony| Email this| 1080p DVD upscaling and Comments TrueHD / DTS-HD Master Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:41:00 AM
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Oracle Goes On Tour - But Is It Really About Cloud Computing? by Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 2/9/2010 11:33:07 PM
Oracle is launching a worldwide, cloud computing tour. It's a 50-stop show for developers and system administrators. But is the tour really about cloud computing? It seems more like virtualization with a touch of focus on how to leverage public cloud environments from providers like Amazon Web Services. Sponsor The tour will focus on three topics: • How IT can become a private cloud service provider for your users. • How to evolve existing enterprise architectures to a cloud model. • How to leverage public clouds from providers like Amazon Web Services. The premise of private cloud computing is to get more out of
If they're simply building programatic extensions of their a n e n t e r p r i s e d a t a c e n t e r . regular business operations, Virtualization technology makes you're just looking at another this possible to some extent. But move to gain IT efficiency in the is it really cloud computing? Is in-house datacenter. The only private cloud computing just a real difference there is the glorified data center? management approach." The question is the focus of our But this tour may be more about weekly poll. So far, the question t h e S u n M i c r o s y s t e m s is eliciting responses that acquisition than anything else. question what private computing Sun invested heavily in cloud really means. computing. The tour is a chance Jonathan Lambert has this to to talk about Oracle's new ability say:"Utility computing is an old to provide infrastructure for model, and on demand resources companies that seek to build and APIs are the core of what p r i v a t e a n d p u b l i c c l o u d makes a cloud more than just i n f r a s t r u c t u r e s . (usually) virtualization. Perhaps after we will not see the The key differentiator here is shuttering of the Sun open cloud. how organizations approach In any case, it's always fun to clouds: how do they do their write about Oracle. So, why not accounting of resources. If s h o w o u r f a v o r i t e c l o u d organizations are moving their computing video: Larry Ellison o p e x s p e n d i n g t o u t i l i t y doing his most awesome tirade resources and on-demand about the folly of cloud compute resources, that's a c o m p u t i n g . significant move that really Discuss indicates a willingness to move to this kind of external resource as they mature.
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Opera Mini for iPhone Coming Soon, In Theory [IPhone Apps] by John Herrman (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/10/2010 8:50:45 AM
Opera claimed to have an iPhone app ready back in 2008, held up only by Apple's pain-inthe-ass approval process. Curious, then, that they're just now showing it off at Mobile World Congress, alongside early builds of Opera Mobile for Android. Alternative browsers on the iPhone aren't really alternative browsers, since historically they've all used the same version of the WebKit rendering engine as Mobile Safari. For Opera to release a version of Mini for the iPhone would be a big deal: assuming its using Opera's rendering engine and server-side compression tools, it could legitimately change the iPhone browsing experience for the first time since, well, launch. Two things spark concern here: Opera's press materials don't mention Opera's Presto rendering engine by name (though that's not too shocking); and the software evidently will "not [be]
publicly available" when its demoed in Barcelona next week. Honestly though, that could mean anything from a later release date to anxiety about the approval process, so there's no use reading too much into it right now. Today, Opera and iPhone are finally one. Nobody take that away from me.[ Opera]
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Easy Poster Printer Slices and Dices Your Posters for Standard Printers [Downloads]
Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC)... [Shut Up Community College]
by Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)
by Doree Shafrir (Gawker)
Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:30:00 AM
Windows: If you want to print a large image off your home printer and be able to reassemble it, it takes some enormous photo editing cut 'n crop patience—or a copy of Easy Poster Printer. Photo by Paulo Barcellos Jr.. Easy Poster Printer works on a simple principle: your image is divided into sections and fed to your printer chunk by chunk so the end result is a stack of segments that can be reassemebled into the large image. The process is commonly known as tiled-printing or
rasterbation. You can use online services to create tiled images such as previously reviewed The Rasterbator and Block Posters. Both are great services but they don't allow you the level of customization affored by Easy
Poster Printer and they require you to upload your image and thus have less control over it and less privacy. Easy Poster Printer lets you tweak the size of the final image, the orientation of the image, the
paper used, the print quality, and how much overlap there will be between images for clean borderfree alignment. The default set of page sizes is all metric but you can easily add in your own imperial paper sizes—and since you'll likely not be using anything other than 8.5x11 and 11x17, it's not much of a chore to manually enter the sizes. Easy Poster Printer is freeware, Windows only. Have a favorite tool for getting more out of your printer? Let's hear about it in the comments. Easy Poster Printer[via gHacks]
Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:09:31 AM
Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) didn't get a snow day, and students are pissed.
Set Up and Keep Using a Home Recycling Station [Recycling] by Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/10/2010 5:00:00 AM
We've all got the best of intentions when it comes to recycling, but your home's recycling spot can quickly become cluttered and underutilized. The Re-Nest blog offers advice and inspiration on crafting a recycling station that really works, and actually fits. Like so many things related to organization, a recycling station
only makes sense if it fits into how your use, toss, and recycle your goods. If it's too far from where you generate the majority of your reusable containers (the kitchen, most likely), it will see as much use as the StairMaster in your parents' garage. If you pick the right containers, and tuck them in the right places—or create a stylish open-air home for them—you're on your way. Decide on a place for your recycling station. Do you want it
hidden away, or easily accessible? The kitchen tends to make the most sense for a recycling station, as many of the
reorganizing so that you can fit bins on the floor. Or, if you have the space, you can keep your recycling station out in the the open. How does the trash and recyclables get separated in your home? Share your setup in the comments. How To Set Up a Home Recycling Station That things you'll be tossing in (cans, Works Home Hacks[Apartment food packaging, and glass Therapy Re-Nest] bottles) will originate there. If you have a kitchen pantry, try
Tech News/ Gadgets/ Picture/
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Make Thunderbird Deliver TopRight Notifications in Ubuntu [Thunderbird Tip] by Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:00:00 AM
Ubuntu has a unified notification system that posts to your desktop's upper-right corner (unless you move them), but the Thunderbird email client doesn't seem to know about them. Make Thunderbird use the same notifications as other apps with this quick terminal fix. Mozilla has an experimental bit of code that makes Thunderbird use Ubuntu's libnotify system, but it's not available as an easily installed extension. The Ubublogger has two commands that turn that code into an XPI file, which you can then install in Thunderbird: bzr branch lp:~rubenverweij/libnotifymozilla/experimental This will download the files from the experimental branch to your computer. Next, create the
ASUS planning a 'killer product' for June, Eee Pad noise grows louder addon by browsing to the folder and executing the build.sh script with the following command: ./build.sh If you're working with a relatively new or untouched system, you might have to head into the Synaptic package manager (in System>Administration) to install the libnotify-bin and bzr packages
Carnevale di Venezia by Fiona Miller (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 2/9/2010 9:29:29 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it.• About
Flickr Flickr is a revolution in photo storage, sharing and organization, making photo management an easy, natural and collaborative process. Get comments, notes, and tags on
by Vladislav Savov (Engadget)
demands it. Taken as a whole, his words mesh perfectly with what we've heard of the Eee Pad Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:22:00 AM so far, namely that it'll be ASUS CEO Jonney Shih has powered by NVIDIA's Tegra been speaking on the subject of 2(which utilizes ARM CPUs), the now finalized Pegatron spin- probably run Android, and arrive off and delivered a couple of in early June. We still don't teasing tidbits of info about the know whether that sub-$500 company's future direction. price will hold, but it's good to Naturally, most interest will be put a bit of CEO-level meat on piqued by the "killer product" he those rumor bones anyway. has said is coming in June, but ASUS planning a 'killer product' J o n n e y a l s o m e n t i o n s h i s for June, Eee Pad noise grows your photos, post to any blog, company's intent to be "another louder originally appeared on Apple" -- only with a focus on Engadget on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 share and more! Five Filters featured article: o p e n s o u r c e - - a n d h e 09:22:00 EST. Please see our Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: specifically points out ARM and terms for use of feeds. Permalink PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Google as a preferred hardware / SlashGear| DigiTimes| Email software combination, while this| Comments Term Extraction. obviously not ruling out Wintel offerings where the market before you can act on this. And when you're done, be sure to turn off Thunderbird's own notification window in your preferences to prevent double-up notifications. How to install the experimental version of libnotify -mozilla[Ubublogger's Blog via The Open Sourcerer]
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Opera Will Submit Mini Browser to iPhone App Store Next Week [Opera] by Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 2/10/2010 5:30:00 AM
Browser maker Opera plans to introduce an iPhone version of its Mini browser to the App Store next week, promising "six times faster download speeds" and "10 times smaller data traffic" than with mobile Safari. Now all that remains is, well, approval. Those speed and bandwidth boosts most likely come from the server-side compression that Mini incorporates, though that could be a blessing for international travelers faced with monstrous roaming data fees. No word yet on which way Apple will go on Opera Mini—they've
previously let a few in before, but mostly from smaller-name firms that piggback off Safari's own rendering engine. Mini, on the other hand, has its own full-page rendering engine, and features like tabbed browsing, Speed Dial, desktop
syncing, and much more. It would be great to see Apple allow some browser innovation into the iPhone, but we can't say we'd bet on it. Norway's Opera to introduce browser for iPhone [Yahoo! News]
Submitted at 2/9/2010 9:32:04 PM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Fast Facts • E'Twaun Moore scored a season-high 25 points as Purdue
by Brian Barrett (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:00:00 AM
A Winnipeg man has been dumped by his girlfriend of two and a half years, after she found his phone riddled with sext messages. Only problem? He didn't write any of them. Virgin won in East Lansing for the first • Michigan State has lost three Mobile did. time since 1998. straight for the first time since Apparently the cheeky monkeys • The Big Ten now has four losing four straight in the 2006- over at Virgin Mobile had pret e a m s w i t h t h r e e l o s s e s 07 season. loaded a number of suggestive (Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, -- ESPN Stats & Information text messages into at least one Ohio State). Five Filters featured article: Samsung model, ranging from • The Spartans' Kalin Lucas Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: the relatively innocuous "Be scored 12 points on 2 of 5 PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, there soon" to the crystal clear shooting and played 29 minutes, Term Extraction. "Booty call." When the wrongly after missing the last game and a accused man's girlfriend found half with an ankle injury. them, she naturally assumed she
Big Ten up for grabs as Purdue whips Spartans by Associated Press (ESPN.com)
Man Dumped Over Sexts Pre-Loaded in His Phone [Bad Valentine] was a cuckholded Canuck. The dumpee, identified only as "Darren P," called Virgin Mobile to complain, and was told to put it in writing. So it sounds like if any action is going to be taken, it'll be a while. It's not clear yet if he's reconciled with his ex after these revelations came to light. But even if she comes crawling back, make sure to think it over, Darren P. She was looking through your phone! She thought you actually used the phrase "booty call" to make a booty call! Surely there are other fish in the frozen tundra of Winnipeg. [ Metro UK]
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Why the Notion Ink Adam, and not the Apple iPad, is the tablet to watch by Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)
laptops to fulfill a portable need. Soon further divergence ushered in personal digital assistants Submitted at 2/9/2010 8:10:53 AM (PDAs) to facilitate a handheld Message from fivefilters.org: If need for tech. This eventually led you can, please donate to the full to more portable gadgets and -text RSS service so we can n i c h e p r o d u c t s ; i n c l u d i n g continue developing it. netbooks, MIDs, PMPs and The Notion Ink Adam is the e R e a d e r s . N o w w e f i n d tablet to watch There are a lot of ourselves in the midst of a tablet skeptics out there. Many convergent cycle. Starting with don’t see room for a tablet form the smartphone (the joining of factor in a computing world full cell phones and PDAs), these o f c l a m s h e l l s , s l i d e r s a n d devices are converging into desktops. We don’t agree. In products that do multiple tasks. fact, we see a huge potential for That happens to be why we’re so tablets in the future— it just keen on the tablet. We see it as takes the right company to make the ultimate convergent device them. — something capable of being Many thought that company your desktop, your mobile would be Apple, but when the internet device, your eReader, iPad was finally announced, after your personal media player, your years of speculation and rumor, communication tool, your GPS, it had been built up so much in your one computing device. So our heads that it couldn’t far, that idea is a fantasy. As possibly live up to its imaginary much as a “mythical unicorn” as image. We firmly believe that the Apple tablet was this time the iPad will be a success, but last year. But it is coming and think Apple did a very lazy job the first company that realizes making what could have been the this device wins. signature tablet product. Enter the Notion Ink Adam. If you look at the computing This is the first tablet device that world you’ll see a cycle of we’ve seen that could possibly divergence and convergence. For begin to unlock the tablet’s true decades the computing world potential. It’s a well-planned revolved around desktop PCs. device — something that has Then came the divergence of been thought out to be an
ultimate (but not the ultimate) convergent device. Its NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor guarantees that it is fast enough to satisfy the user and can render 1080p HD video. It also helps redefine power consumption to make the device last much longer on a charge (a must for a portable tablet). The Adam will also be the first device to feature the Pixel Qi 3qi display — one of the few second generation color screen technologies that we see as the future for tablet displays. The beauty of the Pixel Qi screen is that it’s two screens in one. The first is an emmitive (and common) LCD screen. The second is a reflective color ePaper-like screen that uses much less power. What this does is finally converges the eReader with the tablet PC. Aside from price, there will now be no added benefit to buying a traditional EInk screened eReader over a tablet PC. It will have all of the advantages (color, reflective, large screen, low energy consumption) without any of the detriments (the E-Ink flash, low frame rate, monochrome, dedicated device). Sure, there will still be people who see minute differences in traditional
eReaders (like size and weight) that will make them preferable to a tablet, but for someone looking to buy one product (barring price) the tablet will offer more ability and use. A lot has been made about tablet operating systems lately and for good reason. The ideal tablet OS hasn’t been made yet. Many people have problems with Android, but it is an OS on the right track. As an applicationbased system, it allows for developers to quickly identify needs and develop applications to fill those needs. It’s an evolving OS thanks to its open source nature. The Notion Ink Adam has the promise to deliver on a lot of the iPad’s missed potential. Barring any huge screwups by Notion Ink (which would include performance and pricing), the Adam will be an excellent eBook reader, a speedy internet and media playing device and a versatile and capable computer. In short, it’s the new tablet to watch — until it dies or we find something better. Leave a Reply Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Sponsor post: Atimi Software Joins AT&T Business Alliance Channel Program as an Apple Ecosystem Elite Member by Edit Staff (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 2/9/2010 9:00:49 AM
Atimi Software Inc. has joined the AT&T Business Alliance Channel program as an Elite Member in the Apple ecosystem providing mobility solutions. Atimi joins a small number of firms supporting AT&T’s business customers in the United States as they develop and evolve their brand image, ecommerce, and publishing strategies on Apple’s iPhone and other smartphone platforms. Atimi is one of the leading iPhone development firms in North America and by December of 2009 had produced more than 25 iPhone applications for leading U.S. brands in Media & Entertainment; Fashion; Health; Education; Finance; Games; Municipal Mapping and Utility. Atimi is also is one of the leading Macintosh development houses in the world; it supports global firms in development and porting of applications to the Mac platform. Atimi’s immediate partnership goal will be to help AT&T support its ever -growing base of iPhone and Mac desktop clients.
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Tablet Brief: Patriots AigoPad Android tablet, Asus Eee Pad in June, Cube eReader by Tablet (BestTabletReview.com) Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:57:22 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. It’s time for our first ever “tablet brief.” We’ve previously had PMP briefs due to the limited release nature of PMP manufacturers that limit us from making a full-bodied post on each product. We’ve had a few tablet news items that were released in the last two days that didn’t have enough information attached to flesh out a full post so we decided to post their snippets all in one. And here’s your tablet brief: The Patriots AigoPad Android tablet Patriots AigoPad Android tablet Another tablet PC is set to enter the mix from Chinese company Patriots. The AigoPad tablet PC will feature Android as its OS but other specs aren’t currently present. From the pictures we
can tell that it has a USB and audio in/out and looks more like an Apple product than the iPad. The good news is that it should be fairly cheap. The bad news is that battery life and processors are usually pretty weak on clones like this. We’ll have to wait and see. Source: iPad-Site.net Asus Eee Pad coming in June? Asus is another company that will be bringing a Tegra 2 powered tablet to the market. Now it appears that their longawaited Eee Pad may be hitting the market in June for under $500. This speculation stems from Asus chairman Jonney Shih mentioning that Asus will be bringing a “killer product” to the market then. With Asus officially splitting from their manufacturing firm Pegatron soon, we’re still not sure what that means for Pegatron’s own Windows 7 running tablet. According to Pegatron, the tablet is “a Slate concept OEM project in Pegatron for CES & still in design process.” It’s possible
that the project may be scrapped in favor of the Eee Pad. Source: Slashgear The Cube eReader Word broke yesterday on the upcoming Cube eReader that would feature a 6-inch capacitive touch screen, use a Windows Mobile 6.5 OS and have built-in WiFi. The eReader will sell for 999 yuan (just under $150 U.S.). That’s all the spec information released for now. Cube wasn’t up to actually showing a picture/rendering/crayon sketch of their product yet, instead opting to place an Asian model slowly crawling to you on a bed in its place. Still, capacitive touch for $150 is very enticing. We’re especially interested in seeing what they does to screen quality. Source: Engadget Leave a Reply Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
HTC Scorpion Foretells Bloody Spec Wars for Smartphones [Rumor] by John Herrman (Gizmodo)
indicator of performance, but still—that's a 150% of the Snapdragon that's in today's topToday—and to us—the HTC end phones. Scorpion exists but a couple of Combined with the rumored lines of code in a purported specs of the first wave of leaked Android build. But one Windows Mobile 7 phones, this day, this 1.5GHz, Android 2.2 leak points to a serious cellphone handset could be the phone that spec war brewing on the horizon, makes your Nexus One look old. the likes of which we haven't AndroidSpin's got an alleged seen since consumers stopped build script for an Android 2.2 lusting over Windows Mobile build—that's FRE65C, or Froyo, 6.x handsets. And this time in case you w e r e around, with software capable of wondering—with an ARM a c t u a l l y u s i n g w h a t e v e r Cortex processor clocked at ridiculous hardware companies 1.5GHz, to the Nexus One's like HTC come up with, the fight 1Ghz. As with desktop and c o u l d b e s p e c t a c u l a r . [ laptop processors, frequency is A n d r o i d S p i n v i a B G R ] far from the be-all, end-all Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:37:41 AM
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E-reader News Edition
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Netflix: lack of HD streaming 'no loss' for Wii owners by Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget) Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:26:00 AM
Let's see if we can't come up with a small list of things that would be, quite frankly, overkill in a modern game console / video streaming device. Color? You know, some of the best films ever made were in black and white. Audio? Just a distraction, really. HD? Available on damn near every new TV, sure, but don't you think it's a bit... much? Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime does, obviously, as does Netflix - at least according to an interview recently posted on The Wiire. Indeed, the company's VP
of Corporate Communications Steve Swasey goes so far as to say that "the HD experience at Netflix Instant Watching isn't that overwhelming. It's a little bit underwhelming. So the Wii folks aren't going to miss that much."
Y'know, it's not every day that we hear a company downplay its own product, but we suppose that the man should throw a bone to the twenty-six million homes in America who already own the console. He goes on to say that
"the vast majority of content that is available for streaming through Netflix is not HD content. So, there is really no loss for the Wii consumer." Besides, "PS3 and Xbox users have 1 in 17 titles available in HD, and it's streamed in 720... it's not in 1080, and it's not in 5.1 surround sound or anything." Sure, Swasey -- anything can make sense if you explain it. Well, almost anything. Netflix: lack of HD streaming 'no loss' for Wii owners originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Joystiq| The Wiire| Email this| Comments
Panasonic's Toughbook H1 Field makes pansies of those other tablets by Darren Murph (Engadget) Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:00:00 AM
Yeah, 2010 may be the ( second) year of the tablet, but we're guessing that Sir Destiny didn't exactly see this coming down the pike. Panasonic just introduced its newest Toughbook in the H1 Field, and we're in no PANASONIC'S page 48
This Summer, the PS3 Goes 3D Through Two Firmware Updates [PS3] by Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/10/2010 8:50:37 AM
Sony hasn't exactly been coy about positioning the PS3 as a platform for 3D gaming and movies, but now SCEA's John Koller has revealed that multiple 3D firmware updates will arrive on the PS3 by this summer: 3D is a major part of our initiatives in 2010 and we're currently developing 3D stereoscopic games to come in conjunction
with the launch of Sony's 3D compatible BRAVIA LCD TV in summer 2010. The amazing thing about the PS3's technology is that all PS3 units that exist in homes and markets will be able to play 3D stereoscopic games as well as 3D BD movies through separate firmware upgrades something that other platforms are unable to do. We'll be announcing actual game titles separately later, but we think that 3D stereoscopic gaming has a
ton of potential, particularly in placing consumers within the actual experience. It's interesting to note that 3D
gaming and 3D Blu-ray will represent separate firmware updates for the PS3, most likely as the 3D Blu-ray update will be
focused solely on bringing the PS3 up to the HDMI 1.4 standard(note: as some have pointed out, the full HDMI 1.4 spec is not firmware updatable, but Sony is addressing 3D Bluray movies—a key component of the update—somehow) while the gaming update will be for, well, whatever Sony is doing with that. [ Pocket-lint via Ubergizmo]
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Gadgets/ Entertainment/ Sports/
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PANASONIC'S
'The Bachelor''s Gia Allemand: I Have No Strategy
continued from page 47
position to argue the "world's most rugged handheld tablet computer" claim. Classified as an "ultramobile rugged" device, this one's designed with outdoor use in mind, weighing just 3.4 pounds but able to meet IP65 and MIL-STD-810 standards. In layman's terms, it can shrug off a six foot drop, and the twin hotswappable batteries ensure that it'll keep going and going (and going). Internally, you're looking at a 1.86GHz Atom Z540 CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 64GB reinforced SSD, 10.4-inch sunlight-viewable XGA touch panel, an optional Gobi 2000 (EV-DO / HSPA) WWAN module, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, GPS, a 2 megapixel camera and an RFID reader. Head on past the break
for the full release, but don't get too excited just yet -- it'll set you back at least $3,379 when it crashes down (and survives) next month. Gallery: Panasonic Toughbook H1 Field Continue reading Panasonic's Toughbook H1 Field makes pansies of those other tablets Panasonic's Toughbook H1 Field makes pansies of those other tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments
(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 2/10/2010 4:30:00 AM
It was a "Bachelor" shocker when Ali Fedotowsky took herself out of the running for Jake Pavelka's heart on Monday night's "The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love." Now there are only three ladies left -- Gia Allemand, Tenley Molzahn and Vienna Girardi-- who are flown to the lush Caribbean Island of St. Lucia for fantasy overnight dates with Jake on the next episode of the matchmaking series. Before that happens, by Matt Burns (CrunchGear) wanted to let you know it was a though, ET caught up with Gia h o a x : - ) . F r e e A r t a n d to gauge her feelings for Jake. Is Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:30:53 AM Technology (F.A.T.) Lab is an she in love? This makes me sad inside. art organization which recently "I hope to fall in love with Jake Pranksters really didn’t tag a used a fake Street View car as an soon. I hope," she tells ET, Google Street View car with a art project in Berlin and claimed adding that she has no strategy GPS sensor and track it around to have put a GPS tracking for staying in the game:"I'm just Berlin. Nope, it was all just an device on in to track its route. me, and I'm just hoping that that Internet prank by a bunch of This car was not an official by Associated Press games vs. ranked opponents and hipster art students. I guess this Google car, as we are currently works." On Jake's New York hometown (ESPN.com) 5 of 7 at Vanderbilt. explains the n o n - not driving through Germany as date with Gia, he learned from • Jeffery Taylor led Vanderbilt systemic driving pattern though. there are not optimal weather and Submitted at 2/9/2010 9:17:00 PM with a career-high 26 points and Anyway, Google’s statement is light conditions at this time of her family that she had been hurt Message from fivefilters.org: If Jermaine Beal finished with 20. after the jump along with one of year. As soon as we’ll restart badly by a previous boyfriend you can, please donate to the full • The Commodores have won 12 the videos showing the fake car driving you can find the driving who cheated on her, which is why she is slow to give her heart. -text RSS service so we can of 14 overall and 4 of 6 vs. in action. s c h e d u l e a t But it doesn't help matters any continue developing it. Fast ranked opponents. Guardian.co.uk, http://www.google.de/streetview. that she has to hear about the Facts -- ESPN Stats & Information Just saw your piece on the GPS dates that the other bachelorettes • The 90 points scored by Five Filters featured article: Street View car in Germany and have with the man who could Vanderbilt are the most vs. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: potentially be her future T e n n e s s e e s i n c e 1 9 9 3 . PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, husband. Vanderbilt also has won 17 Term Extraction. straight home games. • The Vols have lost 4 of 5 road
Season sweep: Vandy runs over Tennessee
Turns out the Google Street View car tagged with a GPS sensor thing was a hoax
Gadgets/ Tech Blog/ Fashion/
E-reader News Edition
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Soular Powers Packs Transforms Man Into Giant Beetle [Solar] by Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:28:55 AM
Most solar backpacks have disappointingly miniature solar panels, sewn in shamefully, adorning nothing. But new bags from Neon Green take the precise opposite approach, ripping open eyelids of every person in sight through the sheer, humbling power of green energy. The Soular Powers packs from
Neon Green aren't quite fully cooked—we don't know prices or availability, making their casually announced line a bit tough to follow. But they're bold, practical and, above all else, unabashedly solar. We believe the lead shot is the Capsoul, a 3-in-1 backpack. Its solar panel is removable, and the entire bag can be reconfigured to There's also the Piggy Back, both a smaller shoulder bag and which is much smaller, and can attach to your existing bag. Neon carrying case.
Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:58:14 AM
A very brief piece with some initial thoughts. I wanted to live in NY because I always wanted to live here. This is where I grew up, where my roots are, where I fit in. I've already made friends with the owner of a local hardware store and coffee shop. Their ethicities are different, but fundamentally they share the same approach to life -- that of a New Yorker. If you came from Chicago, that's where you'd fit it, probably. Same with any other place, Florida, Paris, Costa Rica, Buenos Aires, Shanghai, Sydney,
Submitted at 2/9/2010 11:24:41 AM
Regardless of your relationship status, Valentine's Day is all about being treated right. Forget teddy bears and chocolate; treat yourself, or the ladies in your life Mumbai, Egypt or Israel. I call what I do "media hacking" all of them. to what you really want: But that's not all. and like the new Japanese doctor Intuitively, I feel NY is where pampering with a side of booze. All my career there's been a on Lost, I am using a phrase that this is going to happen. Am I right, or am I right? If you tension between technology and only approximates what's going I also think a university will live in NYC, stop by Haven Spa media. Very early in my career I on. play a role, like Stanford and Cal f o r t h e i r R o m a n t i c R o s e saw they'd meet, and I made a Here's what's going to happen, did in the various tech booms, in Manicure and Pedicure (don¹t good choice to put myself firmly imho. bringing people together. That's w o r r y , i t ' s s u p e r l i g h t o n in the technology world, because There are a bunch of smart, where I belong right now, and romance; kill it completely by that's where the growth was. I mostly young, people who work that's why that's where I am. choosing an extra dark polish). don't think that's where it is either in tech startups or inside Vague? Yes. But it's a Ouija They use an organic rose sugar anymore. big publishing companies who board. Lots of people get to scrub and body butter to soften I also don't think the growth is will, in a few years, form the shape the future, and only ideas hands and feet, while you sit in media, believe it or not. I don't companies that are hybrids of that work will be part of that b a c k , r e l a x a n d s i p o n think the big organizations are technology and publishing that future. The way to get there is to complementary vino. Now that's going to turn the corner. I think will lead us into the future. They try lots of things out. a m o r e . V i s i t they're finally coming around to won't be like Google, Facebook, As I used to say in the early www.havensoho.com for more that belief too. Twitter or Apple. And they won't d a y s o f t h e W e b b o o m : information.But if it isn't tech and it isn't be the NY Times, Time-Warner Z o o o o o o o o o o o o o o m ! — Janna Johnson, Beauty media, what is it? Ahhh. or even the Huffington Post or And Coooooooooooooool. Assistant We don't have a name for it yet. Gawker. But they will learn from Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!
What's going on in NY? (Scripting News)
Green promises 11.1 volts from the Piggy Back in full sunlight, which we assume means the Capsoul produces even more Haven Spa's Romantic power. We'll keep an eye out for an Rose Manicure and actual release. Until then, check Pedicure for V-Day out Neon Green's existing line here: [ Scratch Tracks via by ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) ChipChick]
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Apple/ Economy/
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The Tangled Web: PA Semi, Processors, and Magic by Liam Cassidy (TheAppleBlog)
such a long period of time? Certainly Apple’s developments in battery design help a lot, but Submitted at 2/9/2010 4:15:04 PM it’s thought that the real magic New details have emerged happens in the custom-designed which suggest chip maker Palo p r o c e s s o r itself. Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) Venturebeat.com’s Paul Boutin might not be the hive mind has been investigating the A4, behind the iPad’s “A4” processor and pushing chip engineers for as was widely expected. answers. In an article published In case you missed it, the A4 is on the weekend, he offers the the diminutive custom silicon following (possible) explanation; that lies at the heart of Apple’s Apple has invested heavily in new iPad. It’s the wee beasty that OpenCL and LLVM, which are has the raw power to make technologies to distribute work Magic Move work so smoothly a c r o s s m u l t i p l e C P U s a n d in the upcoming Keynote app, multiple GPUs. In this Apple is while providing the intelligence different than other mobile to manage energy efficiently devices: other vendors want enough to squeeze 10 hours of video decoding and 3D games at actual use out of the iPad a good rate, but often leave the between charges. Oh, and it runs GPU mostly idle. at 1Ghz and is fuelled by unicorn Apple is looking to drive a lot of tears, or something. work through the GPU all the Anyone with an iPhone (and time, as part of any application. everyone who has ever relied on For Apple, it makes sense to put laptops to do a days work) a lot of GPU cores in the chip. It knows that there’s usually a big even makes sense to put in so difference between a mobile much GPU that the chip would device’s advertised and actual overheat, but throttle back the battery life. So, unless Steve ARM clock speed to leave more Jobs is lying through his teeth, thermal envelope for the GPUs how exactly does the iPad’s A4 to run. processor manage to deliver its Ah, right then. Magic. Got it. number-crunching goods over Terribly Clever
might and majesty of PA Semi’s magic in Apple’s mobile offerings, that might all change soon. After all, we’re just months away from the anticipated 4th generation iPhone… Back to Front This all sounds plausible, and Maybe I’ve got this all back to makes Apple’s 2008 purchase of front? Was the acquisition of PA PA Semi (a snap at only $278 Semi — like the more recent million) seem like a terribly acquisition of music streaming clever move. And since we have service Lala — not so much yet to see a new custom brain in about Apple getting its hands on any iPhone, the iPad offered the new technology, but more about most likely candidate as the first securing the mad skillz of new recipient of the chip maker’s engineers? If that’s the case, the special silicon. iPad may be the fruits of that Only, it’s not. Boutin adds the acquisition after all. following; Either way, if the next A very trusted source tells me: generation iPhone inherits any of PA Semi didn’t do the A4. It was the genetic characteristics of its the existing VLSI team. Apple iPad big brother, what might we has made custom chips for years e x p e c t f r o m A p p l e ’ s n e x t like the Northbridges for G4 and smartphone? A blistering-fast G5. processor, perhaps, light-years So, if the iPad didn’t get the PA ahead of the best competing Semi treatment as we originally handset? Insanely long battery thought, what’s going on? $278 life, perhaps two or three days million is an awful lot of money between charges? (even for a company with One thing is for sure; last month billions in the bank), and I’d Steve Jobs very deliberately have thought we’d start seeing redefined Apple as a mobile the results of that purchase by devices company. In the last few now. years, the company has If we haven’t yet seen the full a g g r e s s i v e l y e n h a n c e d t h e
processing performance and battery life of all its products, from MacBooks to iPods to iPhones and now, of course, the iPad. A breakthrough advancement in one device ultimately migrates across product lines into another, until we’re left with an ecosystem of devices that offer unrivalled power and interoperability. It’s those refinements that have helped sell MacBooks at record levels in spite of a global recession, and allowed the iPhone to steal valuable market share from well-entrenched competitors. So with all these remarkable advancements in battery life, power management, custom silicon and hardware/software interoperability in mind, ask yourself – what can we expect to see in the next iPhone? Looking at the iPad’s A4 processor as a guide, I’m beginning to think it’ll be the most significant iPhone revision Apple has ever made. And we don’t have very long to wait before we’ll know for sure.
Chinese exports rise 21% in January (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 2/10/2010 12:11:30 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full
-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. China, which overtook Germany as the world’s biggest goods exporter last year, posted bumper export figures in January when
shipments rose 21 per cent from the previous year. Imports also increased strongly, up 85 per cent from the same month in 2009, but economists warned that both figures were
distorted by the Chinese New Term Extraction. Year, which fell in January last year and February this year. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS,
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Apple/ Economy/
SD Card Reader Coming to the iPhone
Berlin opens door to Greek bail-out
by Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog)
future where content providers will sell specialized SD cards for use with the system: Submitted at 2/9/2010 3:49:29 PM In the future the zoomIt I often wish the iPhone and iPod application will also support, touch supported memory among other things, protected extension via external modules. content types enabling streaming It would make my old iPod touch of licensed music, videos, and much more useful, which I other forms of protected content. suppose is why Apple doesn’t I wouldn’t count on this allow it (it’s a good reason to becoming a groundswell buy a new one). Soon, you’ll be movement or anything, but it is able to use external SD cards an interesting possibility. Still, I with your devices, though see the value of being able to probably not in the memory access documents anywhere expansion capacity I’ve been without having to connect dreaming of. wirelessly to any kind of Still, you should be able to do at capacities. Using a free app that all of said media has to be in network. You take a look at soft least as much as you can with the available from the App Store, a format supported by iPhone OS proofs at an impromptu client SD camera connector accessory you’ll then be able to access the 3.0 or higher, so those DivX files meeting, or check out someone’s that Apple’s officially releasing data found on any card you will definitely still require demo as long as they have it conversion. for use with the upcoming iPad. insert. stored on SD media, which is A careful examination of At the very least, it should be fast becoming the only really There’s no indication of whether or no that device will also work zoomMediaPlus’ overly wordy incredibly useful for photogs on strong player remaining on the with the iPhone and iPod touch, press release reveals that you the go. You’ll be able to view flash card scene. but a third-party device by won’t be able to transfer files and share you photos with others zoomit will retail for $59.95 c a p i t a l i z a t i o n - c h a l l e n g e d from your device to the SD card via the iPhone’s screen, which is when it is released in April 2010. c o m p a n y z o o m M e d i a P l u s or vice versa, but you can view undoubtedly better than the back You can save $10 now by premovies and photos, listen to of your camera in almost all ordering, and get a free Kingston definitely will. The accessory in question, music and preview documents cases. You should also be able to 4GB SDHC card in the bargain, called zoomit, will plug into your stored on your external media. then create Facebook albums and but personally I prefer to wait iPhone’s dock connector, and You can also share said media post those photos to social u n t i l u n i t s a c t u a l l y b e g i n features an SD card slot that’s with others via email and various network sites without first shipping before putting down compatible with all currently social networks, including having to connect to a computer. any kind of commitment. a v a i l a b l e S D c l a s s e s a n d Facebook. The only condition is zoomMediaPlus envisions a
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(Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 2/10/2010 5:52:51 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Germany and other eurozone partners are prepared to lend Greece money or to buy its sovereign bonds should the debtladen Athens government run into trouble funding itself on the financial markets, according to officials in Berlin. A senior government official told the Financial Times on Wednesday: “Both are conceivable options, which will have to be decided on a case-bycase basis”, although he said it was “open” whether EU leaders would formally agree the plan at a summit on Thursday. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Hopes for Greece provide positive backdrop (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:09:58 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If
you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. 14:10 GMT: Encouraging economic data out of Asia and
hopes for a German-backed rescue package for Greece left traders in a more positive, if jittery, mood on Wednesday. The FTSE World equity index
rose 0.5 per cent and currency markets were calmer. Greek bonds soared, with yields plummeting. The Athens stock market jumped.
Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Apple Grabs a Quarter of U.S. Smartphone Market by Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 2/9/2010 8:03:57 AM
Perhaps it has to do with Apple positioning itself as a mobile devices company, but the iPhone is on a serious upswing in the U.S. smartphone market, even while all of its competitors seem to be losing ground. Except for one, that is, and the rate at which that company is building up steam should give the Mac maker cause for some concern. For the moment, though, Apple is doing much better than anyone in the space, really. The latest comScore report, which covers a three month period from September to December of 2009, shows Apple as having 25.3 percent of the total smartphone market share, up 1.2 points from 24.1 percent at the beginning of the period measured. Research In Motion (RIM) came in first place overall once again, with 41.6 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers opting for a BlackBerry device. But that number represented a slide, ultimately, as RIM began the measurement period with 42.6
percent. Microsoft and Palm likewise slipped, with MS dropping from 19 to 18 percent, and Palm losing 2.2 points, down to 6.1 percent. Google had the lowest market share of the bunch, with 5.2 percent of subscribers. But that number was up from only 2.5 percent in September, suggesting that it was probably helped along considerably with the introduction of the Motorola
Droid. 2.7 points also represents the largest market share grab made by any smartphone manufacturer over the period of the report, so Google is indeed the company Apple needs to be most worried about. Palm is probably the company everyone needs to be least worried about. The Pre and Pixi maker lost almost as much market share as Google gained, and was the only company on the
list to post such a significant loss of ground. The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus could alter its fortunes, but I honestly can’t see customers who were disappointed with the originals going back for more at this point. Going forward, Apple’s main concern is going to be with Google and how it fares now that it’s begun taking more control over its own smartphone future. The Nexus One drastically
undersold the iPhone both in the first week and in the first month, so that’s got to be good news for Apple. That said, Google is doing something pretty much unprecented with regards to smartphone sales in the U.S., and it’s only selling the device in the U.S. as of yet. Apple had the advantage of selling its device through AT&T when it launched, which was an established sales and marketing channel for such devices already. Apple’s growth over the period measured in the comScore report remains impressive, though, given that it had not introduced a new smartphone model since much, much earlier in the year. Google’s rise can be almost entirely attributed to the initially strong sales of the Motorola Droid, which was arguably the “it” device of the pre-Christmas season. Related GigaOm Pro Research: As Windows Mobile Stumbles, Which Smartphone OS Will Seize the Lead?
Honda airbag risk triggers global recall (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 2/10/2010 2:28:30 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full
-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Honda, Japan’s second largest carmaker, on Wednesday spooked investors when it announced a recall of 438,000
vehicles, mostly in the US, to fix defective airbags. The announcement by Honda, whose shares closed down nearly 2 per cent on Wednseday, comes amid the furore over quality
problems at Toyota, which is Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: f a c i n g U S C o n g r e s s i o n a l PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, hearings over its recall of more Term Extraction. than 8.5m vehicles since November. Five Filters featured article:
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Keep your enemies closer (Scripting News)
enemy-tude (yeah I've been watching The Big Lebowski). Which brings me to a parable There are a lot of mottos that that I tried to relate this morning when you actually think about on Twitter and raised more them, teach you not only how to questions than I answered. Here, behave, but how to change. For in the longer form, I'll try to example -- "Only steal from the leave nothing to the imagination. best" might sound like an It's a story of drawing your admonition to steal, and it is, but enemy closer, and getting a there's more to it. It says you benefit. should acknowledge those who Early in 2001 I got an email inspire you. They're the best. It's from someone whose name I important to reward people for don't remember (I immediately letting you stand on their forgot it) who worked at the NY s h o u l d e r s b e c a u s e i t w i l l Times. The email included a link encourage more people to give to a public folder on a website. g e n e r o u s l y , b e l i e v i n g t h e The folder contained sub-folders generosity will be reciprocated. with the names of various Another famous motto: "Keep publications and syndication your friends close, but keep your services. Inside each folder were enemies closer" has a surface files with names like sports.xml, meaning, it appears to be international.xml, metro.xml, etc. practical, and it is -- but at a sub- My heart rate went through the surface level you learn that roof, my breath drew short, my enemies brought closer can eyes opened wide, my tongue become friends. Someone you're drooped out of my mouth. I felt close with is someone you share as an ancient explorer must have intimacies with, that's what felt when he opened a door and closeness is. And over time that found King Tut's tomb. Oh the develops into trust. Most people wealth. Oh the humanity! you think of as an enemy are When I looked inside the files I probably more like you than you was not disappointed. Here were can see. Bring them closer and synopses of all the stories of the you see they mean well. Keeping day. Everything that was in the them at a distance preserves their print NYT, or on their website, Submitted at 2/10/2010 6:08:36 AM
including links to the RSS feeds. Shortly thereafter, nine years ago to the day, I got a call from a licensing person at the Times, who very politely and nicely requested that I stop. Of course I complied. I knew the call would come. But I hoped it would start the conversation that it did. The Times could have seen me as an enemy and distanced itself from me. But they took a different approach. They made me legal! A few months later I had a contract that allowed me to include the content in our Radio UserLand product. Of course I didn't hide the sources, a lot of people thought they had made a "discovery" when they found the feeds sort-of hidden in the product, but I knew they'd find them, I wanted them to. Punchline: Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer. Another motto: Snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. in parsable XML. So I dropped Another: Make hay while the everything and wrote an app in (Scripting News) sun shines. Radio UserLand called Another: Turn a lemon into Submitted at 2/9/2010 11:21:03 PM nyTimes.root, that read the files in one of the folders every hour lemonade. I only know about first and turned out RSS on one of The wisdom of the ages! PS: It's even worse than it impressions of Google Buzz UserLand's servers. Of course I because once I saw what it did to wrote that up on scripting.com, appears. my Gmail inbox, which is a mission-critical app for me, my mission became How do I turn this off? This came after I learned that it made no attempt whatsoever to
What's wrong with Google Buzz
WHAT'S page 54
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be Twitter API-compatible. It violates the prime directive of new software. It starts turned on, and the way to turn it off is allbut invisible. And it invades a space that heretofore Google helped to protect. One of the big values of Gmail is its spam filter. Now all of a sudden it's as if the exhaust was reversed, and it was spraying dirt into my message stream, instead of filtering it out. New software should be easy to try out, and there should be no penalty for doing so. Here, they didn't even give us an option, I was automatically signed up, and
the way out was hidden. The first bit, which is fun -- create a new post -- is followed by a flood of new messages in a semi-sacred private place, my email inbox. Bottom-line: There's no good reason why Buzz (terrible name, btw) should be integrated with Gmail. The company showed the worst judgment. It took what was the industry leading web mail product and turned it into a lab experiment. Once I turned it off (it's not hard, there's a switch at the bottom of the Gmail home page), Gmail went back to being Gmail, and not a nightmarish ad
for Google's software design ineptness. After all that, Kevin Rose's analysis is right on. He calls them feature requests -- clever -but his concerns are so basic, it's another way of saying this should have been labeled pre-pre -beta and should have been optopt-opt-in with disclaimers and confirmation on confirmantion, instead of turned on by default for all Gmail users.
Google Buzz? Pfffft (Scripting News)
that's another thing. It'll probably have to pay homage to Google Wave (remember that?) and I liked Google Buzz at first, for therefore will have some about 15 minutes. elements that are completely But when I got to the API, I saw incomprehensible. Twitter likely a big red X over its future. won't get killed, because They had to embrace the Twitter Google's product will likely fall API to capitalize on the knowfar-short of what's needed to get how in the developer us all to think they can be community. Google is going it trusted." alone. Good luck with that. I gotta say this -- they aren't Maybe it will get uptake, but even as smart as Microsoft was there's nothing here for me as a in its heyday. developer. I'm even more bored don't trust the web or developers, PS: I am a Gmail user but I don't with Buzz after 15 minutes than I or each other, and their internal want Buzz. How do I get it out am with Twitter after three years. politics drive most of the of the user interface of Gmail? This comment in yesterday's decisions they make. To compete PPS: There's a command to turn post sums it up: "Google is a big with Twitter is an easy sell inside off Buzz at the bottom of the clunky Microsoft-like company Google, but to actually have the Gmail UI. with strategy taxes, and they will to be cut-throat about it, Submitted at 2/9/2010 1:01:22 PM
You Must Watch This: Mike Tyson on Italian 'Dancing With The Stars' by Kona Gallagher (TV Squad)
those cool translating earpieces like they use at the U.N. Having watched Tyson's performance Submitted at 2/10/2010 8:40:00 AM and then the judging, you can There is a clip making the learn a lot about the Italian rounds right now of Mike Tyson iteration of this show vs. the competing on the Italian version American one. Namely that it's a of ' Dancing With the Stars', and, lot easier to get a high score in wow. It's the most fascinating Italy. One of the judges actually thing I've seen on the internet all held up his "10" paddle along week. Obviously the show is in with his "0" paddle, giving Italian, but there's a fair amount Tyson a "100." Something tells of English spread throughout the me that he wouldn't have fared c l i p : t h e h o s t s a y s , so well over in the states. "congratulations, that was great!" Continue reading You Must and the song that Tyson dances Watch This: Mike Tyson on to is 'Save the Last Dance For Italian 'Dancing With The Stars' Me' sung in English by an Italian Filed under: Video, Celebrities, speaker, which bears interesting Dancing With The Stars results. Permalink| Email this| | They show the judging process, C o m m e n t s for which Tyson gets one of
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Second Season of A 'Laverne and Shirley' 'Jersey Shore' Might Be Remake for the Big Shot in South Beach Screen? by Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
by Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:05:00 AM
Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:37:00 AM
Isn't it funny how fast'Jersey Shore' became a hit show and part of pop culture? When it first started it didn't seem like it would be much, just another reality show with young people with abs of various definitions living in a house together, dating, going out, arguing, and all that. But now you can talk to an 18 year-old or a 40 year-old and they'll probably both know who Snooki and The Situation are. Now Movieline is reporting that the second season is probably going to be filmed in South Beach. There have been a lot of rumors swirling that the next season will be set somewhere else, perhaps The Hamptons or some place warm. Now it looks like a done deal that the show
Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Are you ready to see America's most beloved Milwaukee girls on the make on the big screen? According to director Garry Marshall, creator of'Happy will film in Miami (though sorry, Days,' he has hopes to put the I don't see a crossover with'Burn spinoff from that show, the Notice' coming anytime soon - at successful'Laverne & Shirley' to the movies. As with all the other least I hope not). Is this a good idea, or is the h o p e s f o r s i l v e r s c r e e n Jersey Shore an important part of adaptations, this one comes with the show? MTV is probably some fanciful casting attached, going for "Jersey people try to fit too. in with South Beach people" Garry was on 'Extra' promoting his new romantic controversy. Filed under: Other Reality comedy'Valentine's Day' and revealed the'Laverne & Shirley' Shows P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | dream casting: Jennifer Garner and Jessica Biel. That's right. Comments This pair of Shotz Brewery factory employees -- who live in
a basement apartment in 1960 Milwaukee and struggle to find the men of their dreams -- would be played by two of the most beautiful women in Hollywood. Is that a cynical way of looking at it? Yes, it is. Continue reading A 'Laverne and Shirley' Remake for the Big Screen? Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, OpEd, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments
'The Biggest Loser' - 'Week Six' Recap by Jason Hughes (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:30:00 AM
(S09E06) In honor of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, so conveniently on NBC as well, the contestants of 'The Biggest Loser' got to spend their week working out with the world-class athletes at the Olympic training 'THE page 56
Saints Go Parading Into New Orleans by FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/9/2010 12:15:00 PM
Filed under: Saints, Super Bowl NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Only a Super Bowl victory parade could upstage Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
Carnival floats carrying Saints players, coaches and team owner Tom Benson rolled past tens of thousands of jubilant fans in downtown New Orleans on Tuesday, two days after the 43year-old franchise won its first NFL championship. Players, wearing team jerseys
instead of traditional Carnival
masks and costumes, tossed beads into the crowd and signed autographs for throngs of screaming fans. Benson shouted "Who Dat!" into a microphone from his perch atop a float. Head coach Sean Payton blew kisses and held the Lombardi Trophy over his head.
"This is wilder than Mardi Gras," said Frank V. Smith, 55, a lifelong New Orleans resident who shot photographs of players from the rear of a pickup truck. "I've never seen so many people out here like this. This is beautiful, man."
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'Big Bang' Bazinga! Could Sheldon Be Gay? by Allison Waldman (TV Squad) Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:00:00 AM
As his'Star Trek' hero Mr. Spock might say, this is 'fascinating.' When Chuck Lorre was asked to define Sheldon Cooper's sexual orientation on 'The Big Bang Theory,' his answer wasn't gay. It wasn't straight. Not even asexual or nonsexual or unsexual. Lorre settled on the term 'other,' for Sheldon. Lorre told Michael Ausiello in Entertainment Weekly that Sheldon's focus is not on the physical; it's on physics. And when Ausiello asked'Big Bang Theory' star Jim Parsons what he thought, Parsons said that the object of Sheldon's affection would be the Nobel Prize, not another human being. Hearing the word that Dr. Sheldon
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center in Colorado. The vacation, along with the higher altitude, impacted how their bodies reacted to their workouts, leading to smaller numbers on the scale, and one startling result. To make matters worse, Alison informed them they would not only be competing this week as individuals, instead of teams, but that two of them would be sent home. It was the return of the dreaded red line. The contestant falling below that would be eliminated immediately. The next two lowest percentages of
Cooper has been awarded the Nobel Prize in theoretical physics would be Sheldon's turn on. "That's the warm embrace that he longs for," said Jim. Continue reading'Big Bang' Bazinga! Could Sheldon Be Gay? by Chris Burke (FanHouse Filed under: OpEd, Reality- Main) Free, The Big Bang Theory P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | Submitted at 2/10/2010 1:00:00 AM Comments Filed under: Arizona Cardinals, Bengals, Bills, Browns, Chargers, Eagles, Atlanta HAS Falcons, Jaguars, Lions, continued from page 56 Panthers, Seahawks, Texans, Senate bid in November 2006. lives these days with all these Titans, Vikings, Super Bowl, B u t h e t h e n i m m e d i a t e l y new legalisms like "moved"? If NFL Analysis The Saints' Super backtracked: Ford wasn't a legal resident of Bowl win on Sunday ended a [M]oved is such a legal term. I New York until just last year — grueling 43-year title drought for was not a resident here yet until which means he wouldn't have to the franchise -- since entering the just last year, because I did not file a state tax return until April league in 1967, New Orleans had spend the requisite number of 15 of this year — then what's he never played in a championship days here — being that the talking about when he says he game, let alone won the big one. majority of time I still spent pays taxes "there"? But in taking down the Colts, commuting between here and There are two possible answers: the Saints became the 18th NFL Nashville, and spending time in 1. You only have to pay full franchise to capture a Super Tennessee. Bowl crown. That leaves 14 HAS page 57 Who knows where anybody desperate title-less teams, of
weight loss would fall below the yellow line and one of them would be going home. But even that process wasn't quite as expected. Continue reading'The Biggest Loser' - 'Week Six' Recap Filed under: OpEd, The Biggest Loser, Episode Reviews Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Has Harold Ford Ever Filed a New York Tax Return? [Ford Tourist] by John Cook (Gawker) Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:12:49 AM
Harold Ford has defended himself against carpetbagging by saying "I pay taxes there, and once you pay taxes there, you feel like a New Yorker." So why won't he say whether he's ever filed a New York tax return? Could it be because, despite his protestations to be a real New Yorker, he filed in Tennessee — which has no income tax — right up until he decided to run for Senate in New York? Ford, who is loudly and hamfistedly considering a Senate run despite the fact that he hasn't even lived here for a full year, claimed as recently as one month ago on his web site that he resided in Tennessee. In early which four (Cleveland, Detroit, 2007, he took a job at Merrill Jacksonville and Houston) have Lynch, and announced that he never even made it to the NFL's would keep offices in New York grandest stage. and Nashville. And just last So with an eye toward next month, in an interview with the season and beyond, we take a New York Times, he claimed look at who could be next to that he "moved" to New York break through. shortly after losing his Tennessee HAS page 56
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income tax in New York if you lived there for 184 or more days out of the year. If you split your time between two states, and spent 183 or fewer days in New York, you only have to pay New York income tax on"income you received from New York sources" for "services performed in New York state"[pdf]. This is almost certainly what Ford was talking about when he told the Times that he didn't spend "the requisite number of days" in New York to qualify as a resident until 2009 (which would mean, by the way, that the earliest Ford could have acquired legal residency would have been June 29, the 184th day of 2009—just eight months ago) . So if we assume that Ford didn't hit the magic number in 2007 and 2008, that means he was only required to pay New York taxes on his Merrill Lynch income for the days he worked in New York. The days he worked out of his Nashville office would have been tax-free, but he would have still had to file a New York tax return for part of his income. Unless! He could have arranged to have been paid by Merrill Lynch's Nashville office, and
simply accounted for his New York days as business trips, thereby avoiding New York taxes altogether. Moreover, if he earned the majority of his compensation as a bonus, as is customary among banksters, it's unclear whether any portion of the bonus would have to be accounted for as New York income, especially if it were being paid by Merrill Lynch out of Tennessee. 2. Ford could have begun paying taxes on a quarterly basis as soon as he established residency last year. While he's been on salary at Merrill Lynch, Ford also earned a substantial freelance income as an MSNBC talking head. If MSNBC didn't withhold, taxes on that nonsalary income would have to be paid on a quarterly basis, so—if Ford was able to shield his earnings from New York tax collectors until he actually moved here—he would have started making quarterly payments as soon as he established residency. Which would mean he actually has paid taxes as a New Yorker. It wouldn't, however, mean that he has filed a New York tax
return—quarterly payments are like advances, and are paid before the actual annual return is filed in April. So he could have begun making quarterly estimated payments last year and still not have filed a return. Ford could have spared us all this speculation if he had simply answered our very simple question: Has he ever filed a New York state tax return? We posed it to his publicist on Tuesday morning, and — though our question was acknowledged, and we reiterated it on Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday evening — we still don't have an answer. Given Tennessee's generous tax laws, Ford would have been under substantial pressure to find a way to allocate as much of his income as possible to time spent there—in fact, his home state's lack of an income tax could explain the whole long-distance arrangement with Merrill. That's certainly how we'd try to do it. Then again, we're not running for Senate in New York.
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Rundown of March Madness, Volume 3 by Brett McMurphy (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/9/2010 9:46:00 AM
Filed under: NCAA Tournament There's no questioning the strength at the top of the Big East Conference. For the second consecutive week, the Big East has a record four teams among the top seven teams in the Associated Press poll. Syracuse and Villanova are virtual locks to land No. 1 seeds for next month's NCAA Tournament. And if the Orange and Wildcats land top seeds, it would give the Big East five different No. 1 seeds in the past two seasons. Besides Syracuse and Villanova, West Virginia and Georgetown are strong candidates to receive No. 2 NCAA Tournament seeds. As dominating as the league's Fab Four have been, it's the handful of teams bunched in the middle of the league standings that will make this one of the maddest March's in league history. After the top four teams and fifth-place Pittsburgh, there are six teams within two games in the league standings. All six teams -- Louisville, Notre Dame,
Marquette, South Florida, Cincinnati and UConn -- have RPIs between 42 and 60, according to CollegeRPI.com. Overall, the Big East features 12 teams with a 64 RPI or better. It's doubtful this year's Big East Tournament will feature another six-overtime classic, but every single game in the five-day tournament could determine who advances to the NCAA Tournament or drops down to the NIT. Here is a look at FanHouse's NCAA Tournament projected field of 65 if the season ended Monday. This does not attempt to predict future results. All records are through Monday's games.
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Which Actress Uses a Weave to Cover Her Anorexia-Related Hair Loss? [Blind Items]
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Billups Key Addition for Team USA's World Championships Player Pool
by Brian Moylan (Gawker)
by Chris Tomasson (FanHouse Main)
Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:00:08 AM
Submitted at 2/9/2010 12:02:00 PM
This Rapunzel lets her fake hair down, because the real stuff fell out. The actor and a musician who want to score with pretty girls seem silly compared to her real trouble. She's on the mend supposedly. Anyway, dig in! 1."It's not uncommon for women these days to get hair extensions to rapidly change the length and style of their hair. One multi-talented star, however, relies on them as more than just a beauty enhancement. For her, they are a necessity. A bout with an eating disorder caused her hair to fall out in great clumps. While her locks look thick and luxurious in print, her real head reveals thin, sad, irregular tufts of hair. The good news is that she is eating again and the extra nutrients are believed to be leading to a much healthier body and scalp." [ Blind Gossip] 2."When you are working on a television show the hours are very long and people get to know each other very well. Some get to know each other even more than
Filed under: Nuggets When Chris Paul went down with a knee injury last month, there became even more of a sense of urgency for USA Basketball to have another veteran point guard in the mix for the World Championships this summer in Turkey. It's Chauncey Billups to the rescue. FanHouse has learned the Denver Nuggets point guard has agreed to have his name in a list of about 25 players that will be announced Wednesday by USA Basketball. The pool of players, normal. This new hit network legal. Barely." [ CDaN] which USA Basketball chairman show is one of my favorites and 3."This musician who recently Jerry Colangelo said could if you have seen it then it is had a breakup is eyeing a new, n u m b e r a s m a n y a s 2 8 , probably one of yours also. Well, younger and more beautiful eventually will be cut to 12 for on the show there is a C list actor celeb than his last girlfriend. He's the Aug. 28-Sept. 12 World who really has a B list body of already talked to his manager Championships. work. He is married and has and they have set up a meeting. Billups has a very good chance been for awhile. Also on the He's hoping to have at least a of making the final roster. Team show is an actress who is much, hook-up, but in the next couple USA does have Utah's Deron much younger than our actor but of months, if all goes well, look Williams at the point remaining it hasn't stopped them from for him to have a new beauty on f r o m t h e 2 0 0 8 S u m m e r spending every free moment his arm to help his image. Again, Olympics, but lost Dallas veteran together in his trailer. She is not John Mayer." [ BuzzFoto] Jason Kidd after he decided to retire from international
competition. The ranks at point guard might have gotten thinner due to Paul having knee surgery last week, which will keep him out of action until at least early March. It remains to be seen what the New Orleans star's level of interest in playing this summer will be due to the injury. After Paul got hurt, USA stepped up its interest in Billups, who played for Team USA in the 2007 Olympic qualifying tournament before bowing out before the 2008 Olympics due to family reasons.
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Magniloquent French Sage Bernard-Henri Levy Stumped by Dastardly Totalitarian 'Wikipedia' [Phil-lol-sophers] by Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:27:00 AM
France is so weird. It's a magical land where philosophers are famous, and a journalist's philosophical spoof can be popular enough to spawn "a fan club that meets monthly in salons throughout Paris," and many members of the public know what "philosophy" means. By contrast, here in America many members of the public know what "Cheez" means. Anyhow, incredibly famous French public intellectual and Roman Polanski defender Bernard-Henri Levy made an ass of himself when he "cited the Paraguayan lectures of JeanBaptiste Botul" as support for his own attack on Immanuel Kant. The error is embarrassingly
Riccitiello talks 'Project Ten Dollar' and digital distribution by Justin McElroy (Joystiq) obvious, is it not? Allez! For Jean-Baptiste Botul is merely a satirical creation of French journalist Frederic Pages, as anyone with a passing knowledge of Wikipedia could have discovered. But as BHL philosophized, " My source of information is books, not Wikipedia." Indeed,
are we not all simply small bits of humanitarian marmalade spread on the totalitarian croissants of petit bourgeois tables? Indeed. OLD PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET, LOL. [ NYT]
percent decline in revenue for Q3, the company needs to find some way to fill the gaps sooner Crack open a fresh copy of r a t h e r t h a n l a t e r . T h o u g h Mass Effect 2, The Saboteur or Riccitiello seems convinced the Dragon Age: Origins and you'll digital strategy will patch the see it: A code to download some hole, some remain unconvinced. piece of game content that those Former EA consultant Eric suckers buying used will have to Goldberg told BusinessWeek, pay for. It's not just coincidence "While it's possible EA can make that EA is shipping so many the extremely difficult transition games with t h e s e from providing a shiny disc in b o n u s e s / p u n i t i v e m e a s u r e s boxes to [leading] in digital, (depending on your perspective). history suggests it's rather It's what CEO John Riccitiello unlikely." calls "Project Ten Dollar," a bid Riccitiello talks 'Project Ten to take back a portion of revenue Dollar' and digital distribution from the estimated $2 billion in originally appeared on Joystiq on annual used game sales. That and Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:45:00 the rest of Riccitiello's strategy EST. Please see our terms for to to make EA more reliant on use of feeds. digital content is detailed in a Read| Permalink| Email this| new BusinessWeek report. Comments All we know is, with a 25 Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:45:00 AM
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Kansas Doesn’t Provide Soft Landing for Texas’s Free-Fall (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 2/9/2010 8:09:36 AM
Three weeks ago, Texas was the No. 1 basketball team in the nation. But it’s been a quick tumble down the rankings for the 14th-ranked Longhorns after five losses in seven games, including Monday’s 80-68 defeat to Big 12 powerhouse Kansas. Things are looking bleaker by the day for the Longhorns, who aren’t playing at a level that will get them to the NCAA Tournament. Associated Press Texas’s Damion James rethinks his decision to go up for the shot. “Rick Barnes needs help. And fast,” Kirk Bohls frets in the Austin American-Statesman. “What he has now is barely a Top 25 team despite Top 10 — and some might say Top 5 — talent. Some 24 games into the season, Barnes’ team is searching for any semblance of consistency and well-defined roles beyond the free-lancing, if explosive, J’Covan Brown, who went off for 26 of his 28 points in the second half.” CBS Sports’s Gary Parrish sees no end to the Texas slump. The picture is much brighter in Lawrence, Kansas. The topranked Jayhawks used a 22-0 run to improve to 9-0 in Big 12 play. “Kansas could throw in a clunker or two along the way, but this is starting to look and feel like 2008,” Blair Kerkhoff crows in
the Kansas City Star. Marcus Morris is one reason why the Jayhawks could win their second title in three years. “Whether it’s a turnaround jumper from 10 feet, a slash to the basket for an easy layup or a putback off an offensive rebound, Morris’ skill set is as versatile as it gets,” Yahoo’s Jason King writes.* * * The party celebrating the New Orleans Saints’ first Super Bowl may have ended by now, but revelers are taking only a quick respite before gearing up again for Tuesday evening’s parade. Then it’s time to look ahead to the 2010 season, when the Saints will try to repeat. CBS Sports’s Clark Judge says one obstacle is a roster that might be depleted by free-agent defections. Another is that the Saints play in the NFC South. “The Falcons are the chief concern, primarily because they have a young franchise quarterback in Matt Ryan and a head coach who hasn’t had a losing season in two years,” Judge writes. “But never discount Carolina, especially with the Panthers winning their final three games under quarterback Matt Moore, the frontrunner for the position next season.” Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks takes an early look at the Saints’ and Colts’ chances next season. In the New York Daily News,
Gary Myers predicts the Jets will face Dallas in Super Bowl XLV. While the Super Bowl attracted the biggest audience in TV history — 106.5 million — Chicago Now’s Kyra Kyles hardly watched. Mostly, she was too busy doing other things.* * * Saturday’s bonus Fix focused on the chances the NFL might lose the 2011 season to a work stoppage. Other leagues also are seeking cost certainty (read: more money for owners). Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski writes that NBA “owners have delivered commissioner David Stern an unmistakable mandate: Get our money back and get us profitable.”* * * The Soviet Union was an Olympics juggernaut until its collapse almost 20 years ago. Without the infrastructure and government support, however, Russia and other former Soviet republics have seen their medal hauls tumble in recent Games. After the collapse of Communism, new national governments had higher spending priorities than sports. But now Russia is investing billions of dollars to prepare for
the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort city Sochi, and athletes are getting rich incentives to win medals at the Olympics, Canwest’s Randy Shore writes. China’s famed sports system is still churning out athletes, and this year the Asian country is aiming to win gold in women’s curling. The Chinese women curlers’ status as paid professionals might give them an edge in Vancouver, Geoff Dyer writes in the Financial Times. Elana Meyers is headed to Vancouver as a member of the U.S. bobsled team. Meyers always wanted to go to the Olympics, but as a softball player. Her dream seemed dead when softball was dropped from the slate for the 2012 Games in London. But two years ago Meyers got an invitation from the USOC to attend a bobsled camp in Lake Placid. In the Washington Post, Barry Svrluga chronicles the change of course for the athlete from Douglasville, Ga. Meyers isn’t the only athlete from a place not always associated with winter sports. Ellie Koyander, Britain’s youngest Olympian at age 18, has her sights set on winning a medal in moguls skiing, the Times of London’s Alyson Rudd reports. CBC Sports’s Paul Gains writes about Ethiopia’s only Winter
Olympian: cross-country skier Robel Teklemariam, whose journey to Vancouver has been anything but smooth. Canada launched its Own the Podium program to improve its medal haul at the Olympics. If all goes well, Canada could be among the leading medal winners at Vancouver. No matter its overall medal count, Canada is under enormous pressure to bring home the gold in men’s hockey, Michelle Kauffman writes in the Miami Herald.* * * It’s been a couple of tough years for reporters at major metro dailies that have trimmed sports coverage. Some journalists, such as baseball beat writer Mark Zuckerman, lost their jobs when the Washington Times recently axed its sports section. But Zuckerman is determined to report on the Nationals from spring training in Viera, Fla., hoping to raise the $5,000 necessary through his blog. – Tip of the Fix cap to reader Don Hartline and fellow Fixer David Roth. Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email Garey at ris84rap@gmail.com.
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New Orleans Saints celebrate Super Bowl championship with parade by Associated Press (ESPN.com)
celebration, started outside their home turf at the Louisiana Superdome. Black, gold and Submitted at 2/9/2010 7:38:17 PM white confetti floated over the Message from fivefilters.org: If crowd and a man wearing a you can, please donate to the full Saints jacket held aloft a sign -text RSS service so we can that read, "Happy Lombardi continue developing it. New Gras!" Orleans Celebrates Saints' Title The floats stopped at a New Orleans Celebrates Saints' reviewing stand so elected Title officials -- including Mayor Ray NEW ORLEANS -- Only a Nagin, Gov. Bobby Jindal and Super Bowl victory parade could Sens. Mary Landrieu and David upstage Mardi Gras in New Vitter -- could toast the team's 31 Orleans. -17 win over the Indianapolis Carnival floats carrying Saints Colts. players, coaches and team owner "How's the 'who dat' nation feel Tom Benson rolled past tens of tonight?" Super Bowl MVP thousands of jubilant fans in Drew Brees yelled when his float downtown New Orleans on stopped at the reviewing stand. Tuesday, two days after the 43- "This toast goes out to you. We year-old franchise won its first love you and we won that NFL championship. championship for you." Players, wearing team jerseys Ten Carnival krewes lent floats instead of traditional Carnival for the team to ride. More than a masks and costumes, tossed dozen marching bands joined the beads into the crowd and signed team on its route, which passed a u t o g r a p h s f o r t h r o n g s o f by the edge of the French screaming fans. Benson shouted Quarter and ended at the city's "Who dat!" into a microphone convention center. An official from his perch atop a float. Head c r o w d e s t i m a t e w a s n ' t coach Sean Payton blew kisses immediately available, but many and held the Lombardi Trophy fans said the gathering seemed over his head. larger than any during Mardi "Here's to the best Mardi Gras Gras. week in the history of this city," "This is wilder than Mardi Gras," Payton said, raising a glass of said Frank V. Smith, 55, a champagne during a toast outside lifelong New Orleans resident the city's historic Gallier Hall. who shot photographs of players The parade, a week before the from the rear of a pickup truck. city's signature Fat Tuesday "I've never seen so many people
out here like this. This is beautiful, man." Shannon Cobb, 28, of Metairie, said the parade was a party with a purpose. "Everybody is here for one reason: their love for the city and their love for the Saints and to show our appreciation for what they've done for us," she said. The Super Bowl win, which capped just the ninth winning season in franchise history, was a stunning reversal of fortunes for a team once derided as the "Aints." Few players could appreciate that better than fan favorite Deuce McAllister, the team's retired all-time leading rusher who joined the team on the sidelines for the Super Bowl. "It's been pretty crazy," he said Tuesday. "Everywhere you go, you can see the pride in the fans." Fans are grateful for more than just the team's on-field performance. Many members of "who dat" nation credit the team with uniting a city that has struggled with racial divisions and labored to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which left about 85 percent of the city underwater in August 2005. "After the hurricane, people were more willing to come back when they realized the Saints were coming back," said Scott Catalanotto, 35, whose 7-year-
old son sat on a ladder and yelled for beads. In the French Quarter, thousands streamed toward the parade route, turning Bourbon Street into a river of black and gold. Will Kaplan, 28, stood out in a billowing white toga with a goldcolored halo and the word "Breesus" on his back. His Jesus-inspired costume, he said, was made from sheets he had in a FEMA trailer he stayed in after Hurricane Katrina on the University of New Orleans campus. "I'm the spirit of the party," he said. Enduring chilly, windy weather under overcast skies, fans started staking out spots along the parade route more than seven hours before the floats rolled. Tim Thorn, a 35-year-old landscaper, drove in from Baton Rouge to be among the early birds. He said he gave his daughters, Cameron and Carson, the day off school because the event was too big to miss. "It's probably the biggest party in the world," he said. Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Payton's Place Ripe for More Parades by Jay Mariotti (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 2/9/2010 1:15:00 PM
Filed under: NFL, Super Bowl It isn't a bandwagon we're jumping on. It's a Mardi Gras float, a wave of confidence that dares to suggest that the New Orleans Saints, a team that wasn't supposed to win the Super Bowl unless the apocalypse arrived, might win another one next year. I realize the NFL means Not For Long, particularly in a millennium when only the New England Patriots have repeated as champions. But the Saints, who borrowed their rides from Mardi Gras krewes Tuesday at the first nighttime title party ever thrown, might not be finished with their jambalaya joy. I say that not only because Drew Brees is at the apex of his career, his weapons are young and potent and the NFC is eminently more winnable PAYTON'S page 62
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than the stacked AFC, but because Sean Payton has become football's state-of-the-art coach. That's right, Sean Payton, the same man who looks younger than some of his players, the same man who once had his play -calling responsibilities removed with the New York Giants, the same man so desperate for a chance to play in the NFL that he served the Chicago Spare Bears as a scab quarterback during the 1987 labor impasse. No one can say he hasn't paid his dues, yet no one can say he hasn't persevered and capitalized in ways very impressive and admirable. On Saturday, the day before the city's greatest sports triumph, New Orleans elected a new mayor, Mitch Landrieu. I'm guessing Payton, had he chosen to run, would have won the election in a landslide. "I think I could kiss him right now,'' gushed Saints owner Tom Benson, whose standing in New Orleans was saved by Payton
and Brees after he was vilified four years ago for threatening to move the team after Hurricane Katrina. We've watches several accomplished coaches -- Mike Ditka, Jim Mora, Bum Phillips, Wade Phillips and Hank Stram among them -- take over the Saints and not come close to what Payton has achieved in four astonishingly quick seasons. It's stunning enough that he has transformed a hopeless losing culture into a rousing success. But what blows us away is his savvy as a leader, his ability to command respect from his players while serving them with guidance that was on full display in Miami. In what very clearly is a superstar-oriented league, Payton was the star of the Super Bowl. Brees won the MVP award, the Disney World commercial and priceless media attention with his headphone-wearing son, but Payton put the Saints in position to win with the greatest play call
in the game's 44-year history. He would have been forgiven for shifting into conservative mode after his failed call in the second quarter, when he went for the touchdown on 4th-and-goal at the Indianapolis 1 and watched Colts linebacker Gary Brackett stuff running back Pierre Thomas. But Payton is the coach of the Saints, and since arriving months after the mass devastation of Katrina, he has been among the driving forces to help a city feel good and have pride through the power of the local football team. And if New Orleans could be so courageous in the face of tragedy, wasn't it his responsibility to have some guts in his own way and try to win a championship for the good people?
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to have dayone DLC by Justin McElroy (Joystiq)
usual in-the-box DLC strategy, it would be free to new buyers and sold separately for used copies of In what's becoming the rule the game. You'll remember that rather than the exception for EA during the release of the first Bad g a m e s , B a t t l e f i e l d : B a d Company, EA was actually Company 2 will receive day one threatened with a boycott for its DLC. Speaking to Worthplaying, (soon abandoned) strategy that senior producer Patrick Bach would have created an in-game said, "We have an in-game store gap between players that spent where you get free content or extra money and those who you can buy new content to the didn't. Hopefully EA and DICE game, so it's a very integral part will be a bit smarter about things of the game that we will have a this time around. long post-launch campaign. I Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to think people will be thrilled to have day-one DLC originally see what's in that already. On appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 day one, you will get some really Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please cool stuff." see our terms for use of feeds. It's still not clear if that "really Read| Permalink| Email this| cool" stuff will be free, for-pay Comments or both -- in the case of EA's Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:00:00 AM
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Lakers' injury updates: Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom by Dave McMenamin (ESPN.com) Submitted at 2/10/2010 4:58:19 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. No Kobe, No Problem? No Kobe, No Problem? EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- There's still a chance that Kobe Bryant's sprained left ankle will be healed enough for him to play against the Jazz on Wednesday in Utah, but it appears likely that Andrew Bynum will be out for the second straight game with a bruised right hip and swelling in his left knee. "I don't think Andrew will play," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "Right now I think he's kind of resigned himself to the fact that he might not be able to play. We'd like him to, but he may not be able to." Both Bryant and Bynum missed
practice Tuesday but will travel with the team to Utah and Bryant remains a game-time decision. "It's really up to [Bryant]," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "If he feels like he can play, he can play. He doesn't want to miss any games that he doesn't have to miss, and that's a pretty natural thing. He feels like it's his responsibility [to play] being the leader of this team, and I agree with him there. There's a certain responsibility to play, but if he can't play, he'll know." Jackson said that the diagnostic tests that Bryant underwent Monday came back better than team doctors expected. "They were really pleased," Jackson said. "It was less problematic than it could have been." Jackson said he wants Bryant to play Wednesday but wasn't as adamant about seeing Bryant in the starting lineup for the AllStar Game on Sunday in Dallas.
"That's something the league has put such a priority on," Jackson said. "They're trying to draw 150,000 people to a game and it's a big deal. It's [like] a revival meeting." Yet another Lakers player, Lamar Odom, is dealing with an injury of his own. When Odom arrived at the Lakers practice facility Tuesday he informed the team he had a sore right foot. Odom was excused from practice and sent to receive an MRI and CAT Scan on the foot, which both came back negative. He will also travel to Utah with the team and is listed as probable for the contest. Dave McMenamin covers the L a k e r s f o r ESPNLosAngeles.com Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Marvelous licenses Western WiiWare games for Japan by JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 2/10/2010 10:15:00 AM
Marvelous Entertainment, faced with low sales and financial trouble, is turning to a relatively low-cost source of new material to publish: Western WiiWare games. The publisher just started a new label, World Game Parade, to release localized Japanese versions of some WiiWare games originally developed and published outside of Japan. In March, World Game Parade will release Zombie in Wonderland(called Zombie Panic in Wonderland outside of Japan) and Bit Man!!(Bplus's Bit
Boy!!). Katamuki Spirits( Equilibrio) and Rakugaki Hero( Max & the Magic Marker) will follow in April. WiiWare sales figures aren't normally released, so we may have to wait until Marvelous's next earnings report to determine the effectiveness of the plan. We can confirm right now that the logo is adorable. [Via Andriasang] Marvelous licenses Western WiiWare games for Japan originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
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The Count: Big-Game Experience Proved Overrated (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 2/9/2010 3:44:38 PM
Every indication before the Super Bowl was that it was too close to call — as noted here, in the print Journal, and elsewhere before the game. Every indication, that is, except betting lines, where the New Orleans Saints were five-point underdogs to the Indianapolis Colts. Why were sports gamblers so high on the Colts? History suggests it’s because Indy had a lot more playoff experience. Associated Press Peyton Manning’s recent Super Bowl experience — when he won it all in 2007 — didn’t give him an edge over Drew Brees on Sunday. Peyton Manning is getting a lot of grief for his 9-9 career playoff record after the 31-17 loss to the Saints. But keep in mind that his nine playoff wins are four more than the Saints have had in their entire history— even including this season. Four of his wins came in the 2007 playoffs, when
Saints quickly got comfortable and outscored Indy 31-7 the rest of the way. And that’s more or less how it’s gone in prior Super Bowl matchups between a team with recent experience in a title game and one without any. On Pro the Colts won the Super Bowl. Football Reference, Jason Lisk The Saints, by contrast, had found 12 prior Super Bowls never reached the big game. That pitting a team that had won a title added up to a big mismatch in in the four previous seasons Super Bowl experience: 25 against one that hadn’t reached a players on Indy’s roster were on Super Bowl in that span. The 13 the title-winning team, while just “experienced” teams, including six Saints had Super Bowl the Colts, appeared to get a three experience, according to the -point bonus in the point spread for the experience, but on Detroit News. “There is a confidence in average they didn’t show they experience, and it speaks for a deserved it with their play, doing lot,” Colts defensive end Dwight four points worse than the line Freeney said, according to the p r e d i c t e d . P l a y e r s w i t h News. “When you’ve done experience may arrive at the something before, you can be Super Bowl with a slight edge in confident that you can do it confidence, but once the newbies realize that after the whistle, it’s again.” Perhaps that familiarity with the just a football game like any Super Bowl explains the Colts’ other, they seem to do just fine. quick start, as they seized a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. But the
Level-5 considers opening US office by JC Fletcher (Joystiq)
This new enterprise would be the second new office opened by Submitted at 2/10/2010 9:30:00 AM the company for this purpose -- it During the same event in which recently established an overseasLevel-5 CEO Akihiro Hino focused office in Tokyo. Perhaps teased new Wii and PS3 games, we'll see self-published Level-5 he also suggested that the games soon. Perhaps that way company may be setting up we can get timely Professor operations in the US. According Layton releases! to our own imperfect translation [Via Siliconera] o f 4 G a m e r ' s s u m m a r y o f Level-5 considers opening US statements, "Mr. Hino, in order office originally appeared on to release software overseas, Joystiq on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 spoke about a plan to establish a 09:30:00 EST. Please see our new company in America," terms for use of feeds. describing his intention to Read| Permalink| Email this| expand the company's activities Comments from its current home of Fukuoka to the world.
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Australian Christian Lobby argues against R18+ rating by David Hinkle (Joystiq) Submitted at 2/10/2010 5:00:00 AM
[ Image credit] We've been following this story for quite some time now. Australia is currently debating a new R18+ rating, which would allow more mature games to be released in the country uncensored. The established maximum rating of MA 15+ has been a pain for both the gamers and those producing the games. Now there's a paper that citizens can weigh in on and retailer EB Games is the latest to support the new, more mature
classification. Caught up? Good. In addition to the roadblock of the Australian Attorney General, it would seem the R18+ rating now has another hurdle to overcome: The Australian Christian Lobby and its head, Jim Wallace. In an interview with GameSpot, Wallace equates violent video games to his time spent in the SAS, comparing soldiers' use of simulation exercises and routines as a way to break their "natural reluctance" to kill an enemy. By making these games more lifelike, he thinks the average
citizen will be less hesitant to perform these violent acts outside the confines of their television screens and computer monitors, something he says isn't
"in the individual's interest, and it's not in the community's interest." Wallace also had some choice words for the ongoing public
Make V-Day, TV-Day (Get it?) by ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 2/9/2010 12:00:20 PM
I refuse to anti-celebrate Valentine’s Day this year. As Gawker so eloquently reminded us yesterday, to do so, or to even talk about doing so is just as lame as all those construction paper heart-within-heart cut-outs taped to the window of the restaurant next to my apartment building reminding me that for an $80 pricks fix(sorry, that’s how I like to say it) I can eat and drink all I want this Sunday and leave with a personalized slice of ‘lovebird’ cheesecake. No, this year, instead of working out at the gym for four hours
only to feel superior to all those who aren’t working out at the gym for four hours, I’m going to focus on the upside of being unattached—namely, that I can watch all the cable television premieres I want with nary an eyeroll nor reach for the remote from a man friend who’d rather be watching classic golf, the second half of The Searchers on TCM, or worse, not watching TV at all. Banking on a strong, valentinefree audience this year, programming executives at The Sundance Channel, HBO, (hand to heart) ID: Investigation Discovery, the Style Network, and The Discovery Channel have all saved their best and most
bizarre for Valentine’s Day. To all of them*, I seal and send a virtual, I choo-choo-choose you right back. —Johanna Cox The Red Carpet Issue(The Sundance Channel, 1PM, EST; if you missed the premiere last night, you can watch it again on V-Day) How to Make It in America(HBO, 10PM, EST) Prison Wives(ID: Investigation Discovery, 10PM, EST) Kimora’s Home Movies: Baby Kenzo’s Birth(Style Network, 10PM, EST) Tyrannosaurus Sex(The Discovery Channel, 10PM EST) No trailer available, but it is rated TV-MA, and the Discovery
Channel does provide this intriguing synopsis: Tyrannosaurus Sex is a groundbreaking new special that investigates dinosaur reproduction. Interviews with a new breed of scientists called paleobiologists along with ground-breaking CGI bring new life to one of the last mysteries of these great beasts. *honorable mention goes to TLC for re-airing its in-depth Tiger Woods special (extended Jamie Jungers interview!) not once but twice on the most romantic day of the year
feedback phase of the proposed R18+ rating. He says "the only people who are going to be into this are the games people" -y'know, the people affected by all of this. [Via Game Politics] Australian Christian Lobby argues against R18+ rating originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Fall 2010 Fashion Week Preview: One Hour With Jen Kao by ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 2/9/2010 4:53:08 PM
In the dizzying whirl of casting directors, models, and seamstresses buzzing around her West 39th Street studio, designer Jen Kao exudes a calm, cool vibe (much like her highly coveted label). For the in-demand designer, it’s all about the mix of “easy and dramatic.” Kao’s fall 2010 collection centers around “self-preservation. The idea of being self-indulgent, without the negative connotation that often FALL page 66
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goes along with it”. Each season, she starts off by writing a story that gives shape to the collection. “The protagonist becomes my muse for that season,” she explains. A trip to the American Museum of Natural History, with close friend and stylist Keegan Singh, resulted in meteorites and stones finding their way into prints on tops and pants, even beading. The two met three years ago through a mutual friend and “instantly clicked” according to Singh. As he explains, “We have a mutual love for the same music, artists, and architecture.” During the Paris ready-to-wear shows last season, the duo (along with Singh’s boyfriend Eddie Borgo, who also designed the
jewelry for the collection), shared a room together at the Ritz, taking daily dips in the pool. Evidently, the ritual paid off: As Kao puts it, “this is the strongest season yet.” —Violet Moon Gayn or "I got this stone (right) after a visit to the American Museum of Natural History with Keegan. We spent hours in the Hall of Meteorites." "I like to breakdown parts of the body and accentuate a woman's best features." "My jewelry is a mix of Hermès, Eddie Borgo, Solange AzaguryPartridge, and pieces from India (this is light for me). I always get stopped at airport security." Keegan: "There’s a lot to love
about this collection, which means there’s a lot to edit. We only want to put out what we’re really feeling.” "This stone (left) inspired allover beading and embroidery (right) for the fall collection." “I’m more confident than ever.” "Eddie Borgo has done jewelry for my shows for the past few seasons." Keegan: "We're like a family." "Alejandro Ingelmo is doing shoes for me for the first time this season."
The Koreas: North Korea's regime stumbles (The Economist: News analysis) Submitted at 2/9/2010 11:32:06 PM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. The Koreas An embarrassing climb-down puts North Korea's Kim Jong Il in a difficult position Feb 10th 2010 | SEOUL AND TOKYO | From The Economist print edition HOWEVER loathsome his neighbours find Kim Jong Il, the nuclear-armed North Korean
Lulu Frost Kicks Off Fashion Week With Champagne, Cupcakes, and Jewelry by ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)
jewelry. On display were pieces from the fall 2010 collection, as well as additional pieces Submitted at 2/9/2010 4:20:18 PM available to borrow for New Lulu Frost designer Lisa Salzer York fashion week. J.Crew m a d e m o r e t h a n a f e w creative director Jenna Lyons fashionistas’ dreams come true (wearing a mix of J.Crew, Isabel last night. In an apartment Marant, Madewell, and Marni) overlooking the Hudson River, swung by to meet Salzer for the Salzer gathered friends, editors, first time, and walked away with a n d s t y l i s t s f o r a l i t t l e a few chunky gold necklaces to champagne, cupcakes, and wear throughout the week. “I
bought a Lulu Frost piece and recently wore it to the Boom Boom Room. A friend spotted it on me and said I must meet the designer,” Lyons explained. She went on to say that she and Salzer “talked about working together” in the future. A fashion match made in heaven, in our opinion.
—Violet Moon Gayn or Lulu Frost earrings served up on a pretty platter J.Crew's Jenna Lyons On the menu: Cupcakes, champagne, and jewelry All Photos: Kelly Stuart ELLE.com's Violet Moon Gaynor tries on a customizable gold necklace with brooch attached
dictator, there are few who do not also admit that beneath the big hair lurks a tactical genius with a flair for survival. At home, North Koreans are smothered by his ruthless personality cult. With the outside world, he is an adept blackmailer: act mad enough to be dangerous; then be conciliatory in exchange for cash. Recently, however, on both counts he has made tactical mistakes. None of these are KOREAS: page 67
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serious enough to endanger his regime, diplomats say. But they are encouraging to those who believe they can eventually push North Korea back to talks about dismantling its nuclear arsenal. And they reaffirm the benefits of what the Americans call “strategic patience”: waiting until North Korea is desperate enough to offer concessions. Even the regime appears, in its oddball way, to have acknowledged the most recent blunder. News reports this month suggest that North Korea has reversed some elements of a crackdown on private enterprise that it unleashed with a cackhanded redenomination of the won on November 30th. In the interim, the currency collapsed, the price of rice surged by as much as 50 times, and much of traders’ working capital for buying and selling goods was wiped out. Amid a seizing up of food distribution, there were some rare grumbles of protest. But since early February, regulations on trading in the jangmadang, or markets, across North Korea appear to have been lifted, according to news reports. Official prices (which are not necessarily what are paid) have been posted. A kilo of rice costs 240 won ($1.80) (a bit less than a pair of socks), a toothbrush is 25 won. Meanwhile, the Dear Leader has made what some observers
believe to be an unprecedented apology to his people for feeding them “broken rice” and not providing enough white rice, bread and noodles. He was, he said, “heartbroken”, and implicitly acknowledged he had violated an oath to his godlike father, Kim Il Sung, to feed the people rice and meat soup. Adding to the poignancy, experts say the bungled reforms were done in the name of Kim Jong Un, the dictator’s third son and potential heir. The young man’s involvement may have been part of a strategy to reassert Stalinist-style state control of the enfeebled economy ahead of 2012, the 100th anniversary of grandfather Kim’s birth. People knowledgeable on North Korea are loth to believe that such a plan has been abandoned, not least because the small markets that have flourished since the famine of the 1990s represent such a challenge to the state’s authority. But they say the ineptitude must have been glaringly obvious, even in the hermetic state. “The government has never said sorry to the people, especially on a topic as sensitive as rice,” says Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul, who has written a lot on North Korea and has described its leaders as brilliant Machiavellians. “Because of Kim Jong Il’s age and the age of those around him, it looks like he may be losing
touch with reality.” Mr Lankov believes there may have been a similar miscalculation in North Korea’s recent behaviour towards America, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, the countries with whom in 2003 it started onagain, off-again denuclearisation negotiations, known as the sixparty talks. Its firing of a longrange missile and explosion of a nuclear bomb in quick succession last year hardened the resolve of the five to strengthen United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang and maintain them until it gives ground on its nukes. However much Mr Kim has cajoled and coaxed in the months since, he has not yet managed to divide them. What’s more, diplomats say he appears to be increasingly open to discussing a return to the sixparty talks, something which last year he vowed “never” to do. China, which is closest to North Korea and chairs the six-party forum, sent Wang Jiarui, a senior Communist Party official, to meet Mr Kim this week and invite him to Beijing. Mr Kim made no public commitment regarding the six-party talks. But his nuclear negotiator returned with Mr Wang to the Chinese capital. Lee Myung-bak, South Korea’s president, surprised his countrymen by saying that he, too, hoped to meet Mr Kim “within this year”. The timing
was odd. His statement came at about the time North Korea was lobbing artillery shells threateningly into the Yellow Sea. But it revealed what officials say is a twin-track process in Seoul to engage North Korea: bilaterally and via the sixparty framework. “My impression is that the North Koreans are moving in the direction of talks,” says Wi Sung -lac, South Korea’s special representative for peace on the peninsula. Both North Korea and its sixparty counterparts have set such tough conditions on coming together that it would be foolhardy to be optimistic. North Korea wants a lifting of the UN sanctions and a peace treaty with America to out a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War before restarting talks. Washington has resisted both. An East Asian diplomat said the other five countries are demanding that North Korea take “concrete measures” towards denuclearisation as a precondition for talks and the lifting of sanctions. “We’re not giving any carrots.” Underscoring the resolve, humanitarian assistance to North Korea has slowed to a trickle. South Korea sent only $37m of public aid north last year, compared with $209m in 2007. Officials say Mr Lee is adamant no money will go to North Korea to coax it into agreeing to a
summit. Talks on cross-border tourism and factories, another means for Pyongyang to extort hard currency from the south, have made no progress. Mr Kim still has some good cards up his sleeve. Tensions between China and America over Taiwan and Tibet provide a thread of disharmony that he can tug upon. And China has a strategic eye on North Korea’s ports and minerals, which may encourage it to be overly generous to the regime. But the mere hint of economic and diplomatic fallibility in a regime that demands almost religious devotion from its subjects may be significant. It comes at a time when North Koreans, via smuggled DVDs and telephones, have a greater idea than ever before of how far their living conditions fall short of their neighbours’. That is a rare point of vulnerability for Mr Kim’s interlocutors to exploit. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Tweeting a book by its cover (CNET) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 2/9/2010 8:39:07 AM
The Big Pictr by Cris Stoddard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:12:37 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Ever wish there was an easy way to view Flickr photos in large? Take a look at The Big Pictr, an application by Magical Trevor that we found growing in the App Garden. The Big Pictr lets you quickly view large Flickr photos in all their glory. You can even curate your own collections to share on
the Big Pictr site, so that others can also admire the images, too. A handy bookmarklet makes navigating Flickr photostreams easy! Take a look at what The Big Pictr can do: Application by Trevor H. Various photos in the screencast and screenshot from aragost, cortto, Koo Hayakawa, Rhino and Bird, Laurence and Kevin. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Thanks to the success of Amazon's Kindle and the frenetic anticipation surrounding Apple's forthcoming iPad tablet, electronic book readers are front and center in the gadget world. Fans laud the convenience and portability factors--and as a result, one of the demographics that they say has benefited the most from devices like the Kindle is the urban commuter. But a new project from nonprofit biannual magazine Slice, based in Brooklyn, tries to show us that something is lost on a Kindle commute. Meet CoverSpy, a Twitter feed run by Slice, which peeks at the books that people are reading on the New York City subway (as well as on park benches and some other gathering places) and tweets them along with some basic, anonymous detail about the reader and a link to the cover. "We decided to keep that spirit of voyeurism and book appreciation alive by creating this side project to our
magazine," Slice art director Amy Sly told CNET, "and we post each instance of someone spied reading in public to hopefully keep the conversation about reading and about the value of print going." Ironically, it's the new-media innovations brought by Twitter-plus a visual version on blog platform Tumblr--that facilitate this celebration of print media. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, (M, 30s, plaid jacket, plaid scarf, furrowed brow, 3 train), a tweet posted overnight on Monday read. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke (F, 20s, bright red coat w hood & glasses, tote bag, B train), an earlier post on Monday. It's unlikely that they're in real-time, considering there's no cell phone or data reception on most of New York's underground train lines and stations. "We were lamenting the prevalence of e-readers spotted on our train rides and what a bleak commute it would be if all of the book covers were replaced with blank e-reader covers," Sly said of the project's beginnings last October. "For one thing, it's always been fun to see what everyone's reading around you-and it's especially interesting
how they're not always the books that are making headlines at the moment. And also because we each had a story about a time a conversation started with someone we didn't know because of the books we were holding in our hands." Right now about a dozen people are contributing anonymously to the CoverSpy project, and Sly says there are plans to expand to other cities. "Since the mission of Slice is to help foster literary communities, it makes the prospect of a global team of CoverSpies very exciting," she said. "We are currently planning ways to orchestrate just such an endeavor and hope to launch new CoverSpy projects soon." For now, they encourage readers to submit their own with the hashtag #coverspy. Unfortunately for CoverSpy's print advocates, e-readers aren't going away: Most owners of the devices, an NPD Group survey found recently, absolutely love them. Spotting books on the New York subway may indeed become a novelty worth tweeting about. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Job Creation: Energy States Among Brightest Spots for Nation (All Gallup Headlines)
as they were in 2008. They were joined by Alaska and New Mexico, two other energy states; Message from fivefilters.org: If Nebraska, a farm state benefiting you can, please donate to the full from ethanol and a strong -text RSS service so we can c o m m o d i t i e s m a r k e t ; a n d continue developing it. Maryland and Virginia, two PRINCETON, NJ -- Energy states benefiting from the states were among the best job presence of federal government markets in the U.S. in 2009, employees. along with states benefiting from Despite the recent improvement federal jobs. States particularly in manufacturing and banking, hurt by the financial and housing economically long-depressed crises were among the worst job Michigan and financial-crisis markets. Every state and the states in the Northeast, including District of Columbia saw job Rhode Island, Delaware, New market conditions deteriorate J e r s e y , a n d C o n n e c t i c u t between 2008 and 2009. continued to be some of the The results for Gallup's Job worst state job markets in 2009. Creation Index reflect aggregated The housing-crash states of data from approximately 100,000 Nevada and California also Gallup Daily tracking interviews remained near the bottom of the conducted throughout 2009 with list, joined by Arizona, another employed adults in all 50 states state with housing problems, and plus the District of Columbia. two other Western states -Gallup asks those who are O r e g o n a n d I d a h o . N e w e m p l o y e d w h e t h e r t h e i r Hampshire, another financial companies are hiring workers state, was on the list of worst job and expanding the size of their market states, as was Minnesota. labor forces, not changing the In 2009 nationwide, the figures size of their workforces, or were 24% hiring and 25% letting laying off workers and reducing go. the number of employees they Least and Most Job Market have. The Job Creation Index Deterioration r e p o r t s t h e n e t d i f f e r e n c e Every state and the District of between the percentage reporting C o l u m b i a s a w j o b m a r k e t an expansion and the percentage conditions deteriorate between reporting a reduction in their 2008 and 2009. Areas benefiting workforces. from the presence of federal Energy-producing states such as g o v e r n m e n t e m p l o y e e s North Dakota, Louisiana, West experienced comparatively stable Virginia, Oklahoma, and Texas job market conditions: the were home to some of the top District of Columbia, Maryland, job markets in the U.S. in 2009, and Virginia. Also seeing the Submitted at 2/9/2010 8:00:00 PM
Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, and New Hampshire. Others seeing big declines included Kansas, Alabama, Washington, and Hawaii. Bottom Line Many of the circumstances that dominated job market conditions during 2008 continued to do so during 2009: energy and commodity states continued to see their job markets do comparatively well, while job market conditions in housingand financial-debacle states continued to fare relatively poorly. States with a significant number of federal employees also seem to be among the least affected as job market conditions deteriorated between 2008 and 2009. Of course, the annual data in these comparisons do not show the sharp deterioration of job market conditions in early 2009 or the comparative recovery later in the year. However, they do suggest that the deepening recession of 2009 had a significantly negative impact on job market conditions across the least deterioration were some of the least deterioration between nation. the best job markets in 2009 -- 2008 and 2009. In 2010, the factors that New Mexico, Nebraska, and Among those experiencing the i n f l u e n c e c o m p a r a t i v e j o b Alaska. On the other hand, most deterioration were three market conditions may change. several states with the worst job states among the top 10 job F o r e x a m p l e , i m p r o v i n g markets in 2008 also saw the markets in 2008: Wyoming, conditions in the manufacturing l e a s t c h a n g e i n 2 0 0 9 - - U t a h , a n d S o u t h D a k o t a , sector could mean comparative presumably because they had probably reflecting the reduction improvements in job market declined so much already: in gas and oil exploration last c o n d i t i o n s i n m a n y l o n g Vermont, Rhode Island, and year. Also included were several Florida. Montana was also states that ended up with the JOB page 71 among the job markets having worst job markets of 2009:
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Parties Tied in 2010 Midterm Election Preferences (All Gallup Headlines) Submitted at 2/9/2010 8:00:00 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. PRINCETON, NJ -Republicans and Democrats are now tied at 45% in registered voters' preferences for which party's congressional candidate they would support "if the elections for Congress were being held today." Since last fall, the two major parties have been closely matched on this important gauge of the 2010 midterm elections, with neither achieving more than a four percentage-point lead. In mid2009, the Democrats led by six points. The closeness of the two parties over the past several months on this "generic ballot" measure is similar to that found in most Gallup readings from 1994 through 2005 (spanning the period when Republicans won control of the U.S. House and subsequently maintained it for more than a decade)."While voter enthusiasm today is fairly high, overall, more than half of Republicans (including independents who lean Republican) say they are 'more enthusiastic' about voting, compared with 41% of Democrats/Democratic leaners." Closer to elections, Gallup bases its generic-ballot results on voters deemed most likely to
vote. Because Republicans are generally more likely than Democrats to turn out to vote, particularly in midterm elections, their positioning improves by several points when the generic ballot is based on likely voters rather than registered voters. Thus, a tie between Democrats and Republicans among registered voters probably corresponds to a Republican lead among likely voters.
Independents Currently in GOP Corner While Democrats outnumber Republicans nationwide among registered voters, it is independents' preference for Republicans, 47% to 31%, that is responsible for the tie between the parties. However, a sizable 22% of independents are unsure or plan to vote for neither party - highlighting the potential for volatility in voter preferences in
the months ahead. At the same time, the vast majority of Republicans and Democrats plan to vote for their own party's candidate. Republicans have tied or led Democrats among independents in every Gallup generic ballot measure for the 2010 midterms, starting with the initial measurement in July 2009. Although independents' support for Democratic candidates
slipped six percentage points in the past month (from 37% to 31%), the percentage favoring the Republican candidate also fell slightly, while the percentage undecided about their 2010 vote rose to 22%, the highest to date. The congressional voting preferences of independents leading up to the 2010 midterms have thus far been markedly PARTIES page 71
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different from independents' preferences prior to the 2006 elections -- highlighting the changed political climate this year. In 2006 polling from January through early November, Gallup found independents consistently favoring the Democrats, in some cases by substantial margins. That year the Democrats recaptured control of the U.S. House, gaining 30 seats. (Independents also tended to prefer Democratic congressional candidates in 2008, a year when the Democrats expanded their majority status.) Voter Enthusiasm Apparent Early This Election Year Nearly half of all national adults today (46%) say that, compared to previous elections, they are "more enthusiastic" about voting. Another 39% are less enthusiastic, while 14% volunteer that they feel the same. The percentage more enthusiastic is similar to the levels seen through most of the 2006 midterm election year. However, it is higher than what Gallup found in 1994 and 1998, even right before those years' elections.
continued from page 69
While voter enthusiasm today is fairly high, overall, more than half of Republicans (including independents who lean Republican) say they are "more enthusiastic" about voting, compared with 41% of Democrats/Democratic leaners. The resulting levels of "net enthusiasm" are +25 for Republicans (55% more enthusiastic minus 30% less enthusiastic) and -4 for Democrats. This is a reversal from 2006, when Democrats were more enthusiastic than Republicans, and represents the widest enthusiasm gap seen for any midterm election since 1994. Differences in net enthusiasm between the parties usually indicate a stronger performance at the polls for the party with the advantage. Bottom Line As of now, Republicans are positioned to do well in the November congressional elections. Not only are registered voters evenly split in their preferences for Republican and Democratic candidates -- an indication that Republicans would lead Democrats among likely voters if the elections were
held today -- but Republican voters are far more enthusiastic about voting this year than are Democrats. Survey Methods Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,025 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Feb. 1-3, 2010. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points. Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only). In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
depressed areas. Similarly, continuing improvements in the financial and housing sectors could help the job market in many currently depressed states. Still, improvements in some states are not enough to get the U.S. economy on a sustainable growth path for 2010-2011. Instead, widespread improvements in job market conditions will need to happen in every state. Gallup's "State of the States" series reveals state-by-state differences on political, economic, and well-being measures Gallup tracks each day. New stories will be released throughout the month of February. Survey Methods Results are based on telephone interviews with 94,018 employed adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan. 2-Dec. 30, 2009, as part of Gallup Daily tracking. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence
that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point. The margins of sampling error range from ±1 percentage point for large states such as California to as high as ±9 percentage points for the District of Columbia. Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only). In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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Gallup Event: U.S.Global Leadership Project
Miniature Sensor Perpetually Charges Self Using Environmental Energy
(All Gallup Headlines)
by Stuart Fox (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
Submitted at 2/10/2010 12:00:00 AM
Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full -text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Copyright © 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. Gallup®, A 8™, Business Impact Analysis™, CE 11®, Clifton StrengthsFinder®, the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names, Customer Engagement Index™, Drop Club®, Emotional Economy™, Employee Engagement Index™, Employee Outlook Index™, Follow This Path™, Gallup Brain®, Gallup Consulting®, Gallup Management Journal®, GMJ®, Gallup Press®, Gallup Publishing™, Gallup Tuesday
Briefing®, Gallup University®, HumanSigma®, I 10™, L 3™, PrincipalInsight™, Q 12®, SE 25™, SF 34®, SRI®, Strengths Spotlight™, Strengths-Based Selling™, StrengthsCoach™, StrengthsFinder®, S t r e n g t h s Q u e s t ™ , TeacherInsight™, The Gallup Path®, and The Gallup Poll® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. These materials are provided for noncommercial, personal use only. Reproduction prohibited without the express permission of Gallup, Inc. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Submitted at 2/9/2010 1:21:10 PM
Scientistsu, engineers, and doctors yearn for tiny sensors to record a vast array of events in the world's many hard-to-reach places. And so far, the tradeoff between battery life and size has prevented sensors from becoming small enough to fit unobtrusively in the human body, or inside very small machines. Now, University of Michigan researchers seem to have solved that puzzle by creating a chip that draws energy through solar power, heat, or movement. By forgoing a large battery for perpetual environmental power, the U of M scientists managed to produce a sensor 1,000 times smaller than any other similar device. The chip uses a standard ARM Cortex-M3 processor, with a startlingly novel power plant. The sensor switches into and out
of sleep mode regularly, and (in the prototype) draws in new energy through tiny solar panels. By combining energy frugality with opportunistic harvesting, the sensor only needs one nanowatt of power to operate. And by keeping energy usage low, the U of M scientists could afford to shrink the sensor down to a tiny 0.10" by 0.14" by 0.03". Thus far, the researchers haven't developed any specific
applications for the sensor platform, but already imagine it being deployed within the body to measure pressure in the head and eyes, in huge arrays in the wild to measure environmental disturbances at a very high resolution, or in the water supply to measure levels of contaminants.
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Google Buzz Tackles Twitter, Facebook by Corinne Iozzio (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 2/9/2010 1:35:38 PM
Google loves nothing more than redefining vast tech industry sectors with a single stomp of its Godzilla paw. And in unveiling their latest creation today, a social networking and sharing platform for Gmail and mobile phones called Buzz, the Goog Monster has set its sights squarely on Facebook. As Buzz rolls out over the next few weeks, Gmail users will see a "Buzz" link below their inbox, which jumps right to the Buzz feed. Unlike joining Twitter or Facebook for the first time, Buzz will automatically find your friends to fill out the feed based on who you chat and email with most frequently. Like Twitter, though, your Buzz feed is public unless you specify otherwise. In addition to adding people you already talk to, Buzz tries to help you find new feeds to follow. For instance, if two of your Buzz friends are following or commenting on another person's post or overall feed, it will suggest you hop on the bandwagon, too. Then, based on which of the recommendations you choose to accept, Buzz will
learn what types of things you are most interested in to further fine-tune its recs. When you glance at it, it looks like Facebook. A lot. But, unlike your Facebook news feed, it's a one-page shop. If your friend posts a Picasa album, for example, thumbnails appear, but if you click on them, it won't pull you into another page or browser window; instead, a photo-gallery overlay appears over the entire browser window, images are blown up to full-screen size, and a small navigation pane lets you scroll and preview other snaps in
friends post links, photos, video, random musings, etc. that then get funneled into small mini conversations within a larger feed. When a thread happens to something you post, comment on, or share the Buzz thread jumps into your regular Gmail inbox; from there you can interact with the thread the same way as you would within the feed itself. You can also force a message to appear in a friend's inbox by "@"ing them, the same way you would with a Facebook update or Twitter post. Buzz rolled out to the first wave of Gmail users today, and will continue a slow rollout over the next month or so. In the meantime, execs say they're the album. The same goes for are; from there, you can identify looking towards the next steps of YouTube embeds, but that's old a specific location from Google Buzz integration, including an hat by now. Places like a shop or restaurant. enterprise product, a way to You can also link your Twitter, Your Buzz update will then be marry it with Google Wave, and Flickr and other feeds into Buzz. associated with that Place and possibly allowing you to phone No Facebook, though; in fact, vice versa; the Places listing in Buzz updates with speech-tonot a single of the four Google pages now include a sub-section text recognition. developers or exec would even for Buzz updates in addition to Like Wave before it, Google's aiming to create one-stop mutter the word through the user reviews. entire presentation, even when Also within the mobile app, you shopping, but this time it's not prompted by questions. can opt to see a stream of about sharing spreadsheets and The mobile app works to updates that are nearby instead of planning presentations. As a integrate locational information limiting your stream to your social-networking hybrid that in addition to rich media uploads friends' feeds. Very Twitter-y. takes cues from both Twitter and like photos and video. When you I n t h e e n d , t h o u g h , i t s Facebook, Buzz could end up the first open up Buzz, it will use the resemblance to Facebook is one and only place you post, bar phone's GPS to find where you fundamental. You and your none.
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Virginia Professor: We Have a 'Moral Obligation' to Spread Life Throughout the Universe by Clay Dillow (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 2/9/2010 2:16:26 PM
The world is ending. Not right now, mind you, but we can rest assured that it will end. Whether from massive star explosions in nearby solar systems, a collision with another body in space or the death of our own sun, life on this planet -- all life -- at one point will cease to be. And according to Michael Mautner of Virginia Commonwealth University, we have a moral obligation to seed life throughout the universe before that happens. Mautner, a research professor of chemistry, argues in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Cosmology that as the product of 4 billion years of evolution from early life forms that very well may have been deposited here from elsewhere in the universe, we have an obligation to keep the evolutionary ball rolling. Self -perpetuation is ingrained in our DNA, and there's no reason that should be limited to our tiny rock.
It seems like an impossible task; the universe is a hostile place, and even with missions like Kepler designed to identify earth -like planets circling faraway stars we may never find one suited to life as we know it. But it's important to remember that Earth was once a hostile neighborhood as well; hardy little organisms spent millions upon millions of years sucking down toxic gasses and
withstanding harsh environmental conditions before creating a habitat for higher evolution. Kick-starting that process on other planets is our moral duty, Mautner says. What we need to do, he argues, is send an array of these resilient little life forms with a range of environmental tolerances to a variety of potential target habitats where some species might thrive and eventually
create the conditions necessary for higher life forms. These places include extrasolar earthlike rocks, accretion disks around young stars that will eventually form planets and even interstellar clouds that will eventually become the stuff of stars. These microbial payloads would be small -- 100,000 organisms would weigh only 0.1 micrograms -- and solar sails powered by the radiation
pressure of light would be physically capable of carrying the organisms across great distances in space. The real challenge would be hitting target habitats many light years away. But if we launch a few hundred tons of biomass into space over many years and on multiple missions the numbers should shake out in favor of landing some organic matter somewhere where it can take hold. But while it's certain that life on Earth will one day cease, it's less certain who among us will pick up the tab for multiple space launches sending a bunch of bacteria to sow the seeds of life on planets we very well may never see. Still, we like Mautner's macro-universal thinking: a cosmic legacy for all life on Earth, perpetuating the evolutionary idea that life can overcome anything (even collapsing stars). Is seeding the universe a moral obligation, a matter of right versus wrong? That's debatable. But it's certainly a matter of life or death.
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Video: What Would You See As You Plummet Into a Black Hole? by Stuart Fox (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 2/9/2010 2:29:01 PM
A new simulator has the answer By definition, one can't see a black hole itself, only its effect on the light of intervening stars. And without some serious equipment, even that's a tall order. Luckily for all us amateur astronomers, Thomas M端ller and Daniel Weiskopf of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, have created a simulation that uses actual star
data to calculate exactly what seeing the Schwarzschild black hole would look like. The simulation takes into account the position of 118,000 stars, the distortion caused by the
black hole, and one where they slowly fall into it. Even crazier, the simulation models how the stars would appear to change color as the Doppler effect took action on a viewer falling towards the singularity at nearly the speed of light. Here's a sample video showing what the Schwarzschild black hole would look like to a viewer black hole's gravitational lens, circling it at a distance from the and even Fraunhofer diffraction, singularity five times the the to present the most realistic shot radius of the black hole's event possible. The simulation also has horizon. two different modes, one where [ New Scientist] the viewer rotates around the
The Dizzying Future Of Augmented Reality is: Advertising? by Clay Dillow (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)
advertising is absolutely amazing, but viewer beware: it's a bit frightening as well. As explained by the creator: The latter half of the 20th Submitted at 2/10/2010 7:35:56 AM century saw the built I f y o u ' r e e v e n s l i g h t l y environment merged with media nauseated/hungover/susceptible space, and architecture taking on to vertigo, this clip from a new roles related to branding, project at the Bartlett School of i m a g e a n d c o n s u m e r i s m . Architecture in London is not for A u g m e n t e d r e a l i t y m a y you. Master's student Keiichi recontextualise the functions of Matsuda's vision of a future consumerism and architecture, m a s h - u p o f a r c h i t e c t u r e , and change in the way in which a u g m e n t e d r e a l i t y a n d we operate within it.
All right, mate, all right. But if this really is the future of AR, let's hope the marketing aspect is kept within reason. While a heads-up Internet display and a pleasant voice encouraging me through my morning cup o' tea could be a decent addition to my a.m. routine, a bombardment of branding like the one envisioned here would leave me perpetually cranky. [via Gizmodo]
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