Liberty Newspost July-13-10

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E-reader News Edition

- 13/07/10

Snowe says “yes” to Wall St. bill JoAnne Allen (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 7/12/2010 9:54:29 PM

The decision is in…. Senator Olympia Snowe has ended the suspense, announcing that she will support the financial regulatory reform bill. Snowe, a moderate Republican from Maine, joined fellow Republicans Scott Brown and Susan Collins – the other senator from Maine — in saying “yes” to the measure that most in their party strongly oppose. Their backing leaves Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democrats just one vote shy of the 60 needed for the measure to advance. While still on the fence over the weekend, Snowe said that the most important thing for her was “to get it right.”

In a statement on Monday, she said the legislation isn’t perfect but “takes necessary steps to implement meaningful regulatory reforms, create strong consumer protections, and restore confidence in the

Dogs 101 Videos (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:00:00 AM

(more info) Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State

Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

American financial system.” The three Republican renegades each got some change they wanted before getting behind the bill. Snowe got protections for small business; Collins added a provision requiring banks to set aside more capital to ride out tough times and Brown softened the impact on mutual funds and other significant players in his home state of Massachusetts. Reid says he intends to bring the bill up for a vote later in the week. The House has already approved the financial rules overhaul which is intended to prevent a repeat of the 20072009 economic meltdown. Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Snowe after committee healthcare vote Oct. 13, 2009)

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Moody's Cuts Portugal's Sovereign Debt Rating Connie Madon (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:00:00 AM

Filed under: International Markets, Economic Data, Financial Crisis, Currency Moody's Investors Service cut Portugal's sovereign debt rating. In a statement from the agency, Anthony Thomas said: "The Portuguese government's debt to gross domestic product and debt to revenues ratios have risen rapidly over the past two years." Moody's also questioned whether Portugal's economic reforms will be sufficient to reverse the deterioration in the country's debt metrics, especially in light of recent labor reforms. Portugal initiated a program to cut its budget deficit from 9.4% of GDP to 8.3% of GDP this year and to 2.8% of GDP in

2013. Moody's expects the Portuguese economy to be flat to plus 0.5% and to rise to 1.5% in 2011. Continue reading Moody's Cuts Portugal's Sovereign Debt Rating Moody's Cuts Portugal's Sovereign Debt Rating originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments Moody- Portugal- Gross domestic productBloggingStocks- Deficit


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Will she or won’t she? Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 7/12/2010 11:42:13 AM

The suspense continues… All eyes are on Senator Olympia Snowe, a moderate Republican from Maine, who has not yet decided on how she will vote on financial regulatory reform. Snowe’s could be the crucial 60th vote after Republican Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown said on Monday that he will support the bill. On Saturday Snowe said she hadn’t decided and that the most important thing was “to get it right.” Her view had not changed so far today, a staffer tells me. Republican Senator Judd Gregg told CNBC TV that he expected

Democrats to win enough support to pass a broad financial regulation bill. Democrats are closing in on that magic 60 votes needed in the Senate to clear a procedural

hurdle after Brown said: ”While it isn’t perfect, I expect to support the bill when it comes up for a vote.” If they fail to gain Snowe’s support, the vote will likely have to wait for the governor of West Virginia, a Democrat, to name a Democrat to fill the late Senator Robert Byrd’s seat. Snowe has a history of bucking her party line — she was the first Republican vote for healthcare reform last year. So far on financial regulatory reform Snowe is still a big question mark and the suspense continues… Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Snowe after committee healthcare vote Oct. 13, 2009)

Wait--has anyone ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED reception issues with the iPhone 4? We get that this bar-display thing is emba... (Business Insider) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:58:00 AM

Wait--has anyone ACTUALLY HAD reception issues with the iPhone 4? We get that the display thing is embarrassing for

Apple. But now they're talking about an iPhone 4 recall! Are people seriously having problems with the phone? Join the conversation about this story »

The MTA is considering capping unlimited subway cards to 90 swipes per month. AND they might charge more for this "u... (Business Insider) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:06:00 AM

The MTA is considering capping unlimited subway cards to 90 swipes per month. AND

they might charge more for this"unlimited" limited monthly card: $99. >> Join the conversation about this story »

Is Palin fundraising a path to 2012? JoAnne Allen (Front Row Washington)

Sarah PAC, tells the Federal Election Commission it raised more than $865,000 in the last Submitted at 7/12/2010 8:37:31 PM quarter. About half the money Is 2008 Republican vice came from small donors, people presidential nominee Sarah who gave $200 or less. Palin laying the groundwork for Sarah PAC raised about $1.3 a 2012 presidential run? million in the first half of this Some experts reading the tea year. By this time last year, leaves, or pages from her Palin’s PAC had picked up only (Palin) running for president in fundraising reports, think the $730,000 in contributions. answer may lie in the numbers. Republican strategist Ron 2012.” The former Alaska governor’s Bonjean says with that kind of Palin’s people aren’t saying political action committee, money “all signs point to her anything, but she has not ruled

out a White House bid. Before the campaign finance numbers, the release of Palin’s new“mama grizzlies” video

once again fueled speculation that she may indeed be thinking about pursuing a presidential run. Click here for more Reuters political news Photo Credit: REUTERS/ Rebecca Cook (”Sarah Palin 2012 buttons sold during the “Americans For Prosperity Foundation Summit” in Clarkston, Michigan May 1, 2010.)


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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? 'Charlie Bit My Finger' Family Earned 'Tens Of Thousands' From Video William Wei (Business Insider)

their godfather in the United States. Howard Davies-Carr had no idea that the 56-second video Howard Davies-Carr, the father of his sons would ever be behind viral video hit"Charlie watched by anyone outside his bit my finger - again" is very circle of family and friends. protective of his family. Davies-Carr uploaded the clip "I will not discuss how much onto YouTube and initially set it revenue we have taken, the town to "Private." It became difficult we live in, or other specific to maintain a list of who could locational details," Davies-Carr watch the video however, and so told us in one of several emails. Davies-Carr eventually made T h e f a m i l y t h a t c r e a t e d the video "Public" for the world Y o u T u b e ' s m o s t v i e w e d to see. amateur video prefers to stay Today, the video has been away from the media and would watched over 209 million times, rather avoid the spotlight and if it weren't for Vevo music altogether. They don't go out video monsters Lady Gaga and hoping to be recognized for their Justin Bieber, Harry and Charlie viral fame, but, instead, they're Davies-Carr would be the stars happy to remain anonymous. of the all-time most viewed "I was just about to remove (the video on YouTube. video) before it exploded," says "We are honoured and feel Davies-Carr, "but once it had lucky" Davies-Carr tells us. "It (exploded) I had lost control of is more about the fact that so the clip anyway so I left it." many people love the video. The positive outcome from People leave comments with leaving the video up? Davies- r e c o l l e c t i o n s a b o u t t h e i r Carr reveals to us that the video childhoods and brothers and has earned the family "10's of sisters and also sometimes their thousands" of British pounds children, which are always since its YouTube upload. special to us." The short clip of Charlie biting Nothing much has changed for down on Harry's finger was the family, but Howard Daviesinitially mean to be shared with Carr tells us that Harry and Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:23:23 AM

Charlie are recognized on occasion. "They were recognized on the Tube in London by an American girl a few months ago," says DaviesCarr, "because she recognized the way Harry said Charlie." The revenue generated from the video comes from various licensing deals and their YouTube partnership where ads are placed within their YouTube channel. They also get a small commission from sales of tshirts that Howard Davies-Carr put up for sale only after he had

received requests to do so. He also realized that other people were making money off his family's viral video by selling unlicensed "Charlie bit my finger" apparel. Right now, Davies-Carr says they're working on a couple more "mainstream" licensing deals, and they're surprised that no major children's clothes manufacturer has approached them with a deal. When it comes to making a successful viral video, DaviesCarr tells us that he never set out

July 13, 1977: Massive Blackout Plunges New York Into Rioting Tony Long (Wired Top Stories)

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] Consolidated Edison learns the

hard way that Mother Nature always gets her way, and the Big Apple pays the price with a

crippling power failure.

to make one. He was just lucky or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. His best piece of advice? "Set yourself some moral guidelines and keep to them no matter the offers." Read More About Your Favorite Viral Video Stars: – 'David After Dentist' Family Has Made $150,000 From Their Video – 'Star Wars Kid' Is President Of A Conservation Society – 'Numa Numa Guy' Is Creating The Next CollegeHumor – 'Boom Goes The Dynamite' Kid Is Now A Real Reporter – 'The Winnebago Man' Now Lives On Top Of A Mountain Join the conversation about this story » See Also: • WHERE ARE THEY NOW? YouTube "David After Dentist" Family Rolling In $150,000 • WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The 'Star Wars Kid' Sued The People Who Made Him Famous • WHERE ARE THEY NOW? "Numa Numa Guy" Is Creating The Next CollegeHumor


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Business/ Politics/

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iFive: BP Caps Leak, Global Recession, Iran's Nuclear Scientist Defects, Sarkozy Scandal, Hef's Private Playboy Addy Dugdale (Fast Company) Submitted at 7/13/2010 7:22:31 AM

While you were sleeping, innovation was pulling on its flares and platform shoes and practising its disco moves in front of the mirror. The reason? What with oil, dissident scientists, spies, Castro and recession, we're so back to the 70s--and here's our first track, from BP and the Sunshine Band. 1. According to BP, the latest containment cap over the Gulf spill is working. (According to The New York Times, BP's has a "history of boldness and costly blunders.") It was lifted into place by a pair of robotic arms, but will need to undergo tests to gauge its efficacity, says the oil firm. Meanwhile, the Government has gone back to court to un-ban the ban on deepwater drilling. Washington Post's Allan Sloan takes us back to the oil crisis of 1973--Mark Zuckerberg, if you're reading this, bone up on the subject here

--all grist to my First Days of Disco theory. 2.Let's talk money--or lack of it. This week's intertubes have been burning up with the question "what shape do you think this recession is?" Well, a little run-down for you all. In China, it's the shape of a halffinished skyscraper, as the country's property market starts to drop. (Good news, however, for Chinese workers, who are able to cherry-pick the factories they work in, says the NYT.) On Capitol Hill, it's politicianshaped, and outlined in chalk. According to a Washington Post -ABC News survey, Obama's approval ratings are suffering-it's the economy, stupid. But he's in good company, as the malaise is politician-wide. 3. What with last week's spy shenanigans, one had almost forgotten the story of Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist. He's been kidnapped, said the Iranian authorities. By the C.I.A. No he hasn't, said the U.S., he sought asylum. He's

now pitched up at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, where he's hiding out in the Iran section. 4. Although there is just one day before France packs up for the summer (Bastille Day tomorrow, best parties are always at the Fire Departments, hedonism fans) there's a bit of a tempete de merde going on in gay old Paris. President Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni is getting it from the media. For a country whose newspapers and TV channels are very much in awe of its politicians, you've gotta say bravo to a small internet-only publication, with a paywall (we won't boo or hiss too much in this case) which broke the story. Mediapart has been regaling its readers with the unexpurgated tapes at the heart of the tale of the L'Oreal heiress, her Butler, the labour minister and an undeclared political donation (it's all very Peter Greenaway). Bit players also include the heiress's daughter, the society

mystery, Sarah Palin is at once everywhere and nowhere. On any given evening, you might see the former Alaska governorturned-conservative-icon on Fox

News, chatting up like-minded travelers about the political buzz du jour.

Media Maven Michelle Cottle (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 7/12/2010 11:00:00 PM

Like most great women of

photographer, the chief financial advisor, and the accountant. The scandal has forced Sarko to postpone his Summer frolickings with fawn-like Carla in order to address the nation. Anne Applebaum has a great catch-up here, and all iFive can say on the matter is: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, Holidé. 5. Enough with the 'privates' jokes already: Hugh Hefner has offered to bring Playboy back under his sole control. The firm's share price spiked by around 40%--Viagra jokes ahoy, is that a tentpole in your shareprice graph, or are you just pleased to see me? Hef, who owns just under 70% of the firm's Class A Common Stock, could be squaring up against Penthouse owner FriendFinder Networks Inc, whose CEO has also expressed an interest. C'mon guys, fight this one out where it should be fought--in a paddling pool filled with Jell-O and naked young ladies.

U.S. Government Issues Revised Ban on Deep-Water Drilling Connie Madon (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:30:00 AM

Filed under: BP p.l.c. ADS (BP), Politics, Oil Kenneth Salazar, U.S. Interior Secretary has issued a revised ban on deep-water drilling. A federal judge had rejected the initial moratorium. Several changes were included under the new ban, which will last until November 30. Here are some specifics of the revised ban: Continue reading U.S. Government Issues Revised Ban on Deep-Water Drilling U.S. Government Issues Revised Ban on Deep-Water Drilling originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments United States Secretary of the Interior- BP- BusinessBloggingStocks- Mining and Drilling


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Another U.S. Leading Indicator Collapses... Vincent Fernando, CFA (Business Insider) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:22:59 AM

We've been hit with quite a few charts 'rolling over' these days, whereby growth rates or indices which represent growth have turned downwards after spiking since the crisis. One of the more prominent examples has been the falling ECRI leading indicator, where even the authors of the indicator had to come out and explain why this wasn't a double dip signal, since many observers were proclaiming it so. Well today another leading indicator is rolling over. It's the Pulse of Commerce Index (PCI), which basically tracks fuel consumption across the U.S. faster than many of the other leading indicator data sets can come out. Thus it gives a bit of a jump ahead of the U.S. industrial production number, at least according to its authors. Yet due to the sharp drop, the authors of this PCI index have pre-emptively come out to explain why the decline of this index doesn't mean a 'double dip' (ie., a decline in absolute

economic activity) is ahead: Ceridian: The Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index™ (PCI) by UCLA Anderson School of Management tumbled 1.9 percent in June after its impressive 3.1 percent gain in May. Coming in the midst of other disappointing economic reports, the PCI’s drop seemingly reinforces the fear that the economy is on the brink

of a double-dip recession, but further analysis tells a different story, according to PCI Chief Economist Edward Leamer. “While June’s number is substantially down, erasing twothirds of May’s great gain, the daily and weekly activity on which the monthly PCI is based does not suggest that the economy is heading over a cliff,” said Leamer. “Part of the apparent strength of May and

weakness in June is the result of the Memorial Day holiday occurring on the last day of May, allowing the negative Memorial Day effect which is usually confined to May to leak into June. More importantly, the June weakness was confined to the first two weeks, and by the second half of June, we were seeing strong growth again.” The PCI data also indicates strong year-over-year and

quarter-over-quarter growth, even though the month-tomonth comparison is worrisome. The annualized number for June climbed 8.6 percent, the seventh consecutive month of positive year-overyear results. “The PCI has not been showing the sustained negative numbers characteristic of a double-dip recession,” Leamer said. Basically, many economic indices, such as the PCI here, or the ECRI mentioned previously, measure growth. Thus when they turn downwards, it can be simply because growth is slowing (which was well expected given how sharply economic growth had rebounded post-crisis), rather than coming to a halt. Keep an eye on the declines if they keep happening, but also keep in mind that tons of growth indicators were supposed to decline as we enter the second half of 2010, unless we were expecting U.S. GDP growth to keep accelerating all year to an unbelievable 6-10% GDP annual growth rate. Join the conversation about this story »

Stocks Surge, S&P Now Over 8% Off Its Lows Joe Weisenthal (Business Insider) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:22:25 AM

With today gain of over 1%, the S&P 500 at 1093, is now over 8% above its recent lows which, if you'll recall, was pretty much the very moment that everyone

was talking about blood on the streets and the Great Depression 2.0. Works every time.

Join the conversation about this story »


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Consumer Reports Wades Into iPhone 4 Antenna Debate, Agrees With Our Fix Kit Eaton (Fast Company)

previous list-header the iPhone 3GS. This is due to a number of excellent features, including the phone's extremely high performing screen, web browsing and multimedia powers. That presents the thinking consumer with something of a dilemma as to which parts of CR's work to believe. It's a complicated issue, you see, and there are so many design and

more. There's one more CR gem: As part of the iPhone 4 testing experiment, the CR team actually recommends a workaround that's pretty similar to our famous$0.001 DIY iPhone 4 fix. Where we suggested plastering the questioned corner of the iPhone 4's frame with more aesthetically pleasing scotch tape, CR recommends thicker duct tape. They also suggest that popping the iPhone 4 in a case will help avoid any antenna issues, lending weight to Gizmodo's petition for Apple to give everyone free cases. And this story is getting a very odd spin today with news that Apple seems to be quashing discussion about the Consumer scientific variables involved that Reports report on its self-hosted nearly nobody in the media has support forums. We agree that tackled it properly--a situation the scientific basis for CR's made worse by Apple's tight- findings is questionable, but if lipped PR statements, and Apple really is censoring any differing opinions about the way mention of the report on its site the iPhone displays its signal then that's a step too far. What strength. Joe Public is probably about the cut and thrust of going to be most swayed by reasonable debate, hey Apple? Consumer Reports though, To keep up with this news given the brand's hefty name, follow me, Kit Eaton, on and yet what CR has done is Twitter. actually complicate matters

(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 404 pp., $32.50) Concerning E.M. Forster

By Frank Kermode (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 180 pp., $24)

Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:47:25 AM

Consumer Reports just revealed its full iPhone 4 review, and denied the phone "Recommended" status due to problems with the antenna. They attempted to prove the design flaw using a radio anechoic chamber, and also agreed with our DIY work-around. CR's experimentation involved putting several test iPhone 4 units in an RF frequencycontrolled room, with a dummy cell phone transmitter unit to try and replicate the "death grip" effect. This is the controversial issue seen where gripping the iPhone in a particular way attenuates the device's radio transmissions. Thanks to the phone's unique design, which means you can touch the antenna--unlike nearly every other cell phone--CR proved the effect is real, and "may" affect your call quality in "weak" signal areas. This was enough for CR to withhold giving the phone "recommended" status, despite some incomplete scientific thinking in the experiments--and despite

numerous reports that the phone actually delivers better reception than its predecessors. But Consumer Reports also gave the phone exceptionally high ratings across its entire performance as a mobile device. In fact, it's now the best smartphone in CR's device list-you can see it topping the charts on their website via this link-beating out the Androidpowered HTC Evo and the

The Prose and the Passion Adam Kirsch (The New Republic - All Feed)

A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E.M. Forster By Wendy Moffat


Business/ Top News/ Technology/

E-reader News Edition

Nemoptic's E-Paper Plays Video, Teases the Future of E-Readers Kit Eaton (Fast Company)

Majority of Americans lack faith in Obama: poll (Reuters) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed) Submitted at 7/12/2010 11:58:05 PM

Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:28:30 AM

E-paper isn't just for e-readers like the Kindle, or at least it won't be if a new tech from a firm called Nemoptic comes to fruition. The kind of e-paper display used in the Kindle, from marketleader E-Ink (electrophoretic epaper), has several reported benefits over competing LCD tech, including better daylight readability, and lower power consumption. And some users find it easier on the eye than LCD when reading lots of text. But the system isn't ideal, and it suffers from some big drawbacks that limit what uses you can put an e-ink display to. Chief among the drawbacks is its terribly slow update speed, which is a built-in characteristic of the way the display tech actually works. This isn't an issue when you're talking about an e-reader screen, since the momentary pause between pages (and even the odd blackto-white-to-black screen reset effect) isn't going to affect your reading experience. But try to view a web page on an e-ink screen, or, heaven help you, see

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Aspen buzzed up: Jon Bon Jovi pulls muscle on stage, show goes on (Reuters) 7 hours ago 2010-0713T00:20:02-07:00 Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

some video or play a computer, and you run right up against the screen's limitations. [youtube rx2OZ505N8E] Which is where Nemoptic enters the scene with an e-paper system that's based on active matrix bistable nematics (similar to that used in LCDs, actually), as revealed over at Technology Review. This brings a number of benefits relating to how the pixels are refreshed at speed, and in lighting the display. The upshot: You can just about use a

Nemoptic e-paper screen to view video, it'll work behind a touchscreen for fast and reliable handwriting-style note-taking, and you can refresh only the portions of a display that need updating if you like--meaning it's more useful when used in a cell phone-screen situation than plain old e-ink would be. And you can backlight it, for easy viewing at night (one of the Amazon Kindle's failings). [youtube ehZ3-5BkQ2s] Assuming Nemoptic can get the

price of this technology low enough, and that it has the same type of contrast and "easy on the eye" quality as e-ink, the company may just have revealed e-paper's future: It'll be used in niche e-readers, as a digital store shelf price ticket system, and for mobile devices that need a power-sipping display that's still powerful enough to show highquality graphics. To keep up with this news follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.

GFI Software Acquires Sunbelt Software, Mainly For Its VIPRE Technology Robin Wauters (TechCrunch) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:16:06 AM

Security software company GFI Software this morning announced that it has acquired Sunbelt Software, and specifically its VIPRE product suite. GFI says the deal will give them access to Sunbelt's VIPRE technology, which it intends to merge into its own email security and web security solutions group. Terms of the acquisition remained undisclosed.


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Business/ Culture/

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Microsoft Crams Facebook Into Outlook With Outlook Social Connector

The Weekend Box Office: 'Despicable Me' Rises to the Top

Dan Nosowitz (Fast Company)

Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 7/13/2010 5:18:06 AM

sounds like that ability will Microsoft launched the Outlook come soon, though. Social Connector earlier this There are also some nice new year, beginning with the security features embedded. integration of LinkedIn into all Microsoft has apparently the elements of Outlook. Now, learned a lesson from Google's Mashable is reporting that privacy fiasco with Buzz: Microsoft is about to integrate Microsoft’s also learned a few both Facebook and Windows lessons from the privacy fiascos Live Messenger into Outlook in Facebook and Google have much the same way. undergone in recent months. Outlook will pull both pictures Outlook will only pull data from and status updates from emails connected to Facebook Facebook friends directly into accounts. If your business email your email, as well as various isn’t linked to your Facebook, other information like wall posts your data stream won’t appear and activities. What you can't do in Outlook Social Connector. It is update directly from Outlook, gives users a choice, although including changing your status most people do choose to add and "liking" other posts. It

their work emails to Facebook in order to join their company’s Facebook network. Provided the new integration isn't too overbearing or annoying, this could be a pretty nice feature for Outlook users to have an easier way to know what their contacts are up to. It'd be even better if it included, say, Twitter and Foursquare support as well, but that could well come later. Dan Nosowitz, the author of this post, can be followed on Twitter, corresponded with via email, and stalked in San Francisco (no link for that one-you'll have to do the legwork yourself).

Filed under: General Electric (GE), Walt Disney (DIS), News Corp'B' (NWS) General Electric Company's ( GE) Universal Pictures scored this past weekend at domestic theaters. According to early estimates available at the time of this writing from Box Office Mojo, the new computer-designed cartoon, Despicable Me, grossed $60 million, placing it in the top spot. Not a bad opening. It rose above vampire phenomenon The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which came in second. That film, distributed by Summit Entertainment, made over $30 million, and has now taken in better than $230 million in total. An awesome number. One gets the feeling at this point that m i g h t b e f e a t u r e d i n a n surpassing The Twilight Saga: upcoming Wise Words post! New Moon's ultimate tally of Five Filters featured article: $296 million is possible. Headshot - Propaganda, State Continue reading The Weekend Religion and the Attack On the Box Office: 'Despicable Me' Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available Rises to the Top tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Wise Words: Happiness May Creep In WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog) Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:30:00 AM

Here's a little bit of inspiration to make your day fun, fabulous and full of joy. Happiness is something that comes into our lives through

doors we don't even remember leaving open. —Rose Wilder Lane When has happiness shown up when you least expected it? Have a favorite quote? Send it t o u s a t wdwisewords@gmail.com with your name, city and state. You

Submitted at 7/12/2010 6:00:00 PM

The Weekend Box Office: 'Despicable Me' Rises to the Top originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments Twilight Saga: Eclipse- Summit Entertainment- Box Office Mojo - Twilight Saga: New MoonWalt Disney


Business/ Technology/

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NYC To Begin Tracking Water Use Wirelessly and in Real Time Ariel Schwartz (Fast Company)

including Seattle and Tampa, and Mayor Bloomberg says such plans aren't outside the Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:48:33 AM realm of possibility for NYC, Smart energy meters can help it's not going to be part of this us conserve energy, sure, but program. what about water? As anyone The smart water industry isn't suffering through a heat wave nearly as developed as the smart knows, water conservation can energy sector, where a slew of be just a crucial as power to companies are scrambling to keeping a city running. grab a piece of the market. Still, Beginning this week, residents as anyone who has been stuck in of the Bronx will have detailed an area without fresh water can access to the minutiae of their tell you, water use is just as water use courtesy of a real- provide more precise readings. NYC's tool will help customers i m p o r t a n t a s e n e r g y time, online water use and bill So far 834,000 customers have track water consumption more consumption. And eventually, tracking system. the wireless meters, and the city effectively, but it won't reward s t a r t u p s a n d e s t a b l i s h e d The tool is available thanks to a expects to have its online water customers for using water at companies alike will start $252 million citywide upgrade use tool available to all of them certain times. Although tiered paying attention. of the water-meter system. The by September, according to The water pricing plans are already Ariel Schwartz can be reached upgrade also includes a switch New York Times. being used in some cities, on Twitter or by email. to wireless water meters that

Monday's regular session at $10.87, not far from the 52week low of $9.04. This was Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:00:00 AM right before a new quarterly Filed under: Earnings Reports, report was posted. Alcoa Inc (AA) When Alcoa ( So should an investor consider AA) issued its first-quarter A l c o a a p o t e n t i a l b u y ? I earnings report back in April, I definitely find the shares more wasn't impressed. I felt the attractive now than I did a few shares weren't a buy, and I months ago. Further, the stock wanted a pullback. Well, we got rose 3.5% in Monday's afterone. In fact, the stock closed hours session.

Continue reading Alcoa Kicks Off Earnings Season with Stronger-Than-Expected Growth

BMW working on better iOS integration Dave Caolo (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 7/13/2010 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPod touch People have been plugging their iPods into their cars almost since their introduction. I had a headphone-to-cassette adapter back in the day. How glorious! Now, BMW has announced that their cars will take advantage of " iPod Out," a new feature of iOS 4. Essentially, it allows a very iPod-like UI to appear on the car's in-dash display, making navigation, playback, etc. instantly familiar to the iPod owner. No more learning the car manufacturer's UI vs. the iPod's. BMW's solution will also add support for genius playlists. Now don't go rushing out to the dealer just yet. BMW expects to have this feature in all of their cars (Minis, too) by next year. Until then, we'll just have to Alcoa Kicks Off Earnings make do. Season with Stronger-Than- At least I still have my cassette Expected Growth originally adapter. appeared on BloggingStocks on TUAW BMW working on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST. better iOS integration originally Please see our terms for use of appeared on The Unofficial feeds. Permalink| Email this| Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, Comments 13 Jul 2010 10:00:00 EST. Alcoa- BloggingStocks- Stock- Please see our terms for use of Business- Investing feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Alcoa Kicks Off Earnings Season with StrongerThan-Expected Growth Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks)

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Business/ Top News/ Technology/

Insiders Snatching Up Sunesis, Unify Corp. and Others

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MoD unveils unmanned fighter jet 'of the future' (AFP) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed)

aircraft from anywhere in the world. The unmanned fighter jet can Wade Hansen L O N D O N ( A F P ) – A n also carry bombs and missiles (BloggingStocks) unmanned jet capable of striking a n d , i f t h e t r i a l s p r o v e Submitted at 7/13/2010 10:00:00 AM long-range targets has been successful, the MoD said it dubbed the "combat aircraft of should "ultimately be capable of Filed under: Insiders, Stocks to the future" by the Ministry of striking targets at long range, Buy If you are looking for clues Defence. even in another continent." as to which stocks have a good The Taranis-- named after the The current generation of chance of increasing in value, Celtic god of thunder -- was propeller-driven drones -- such Continue reading Insiders you might want consider unveiled at a ceremony at BAE as the Predator and Reaper -- are watching what insiders are Snatching Up Sunesis, Unify Systems in Warton, Lancashire, capable of carrying missiles, but doing. After all, talk is cheap, Corp. and Others on Monday. these unmanned planes can only but when insiders put their own Insiders Snatching Up Sunesis, The £142.5 million prototype is be used in areas where the money on the line, you should U n i f y C o r p . a n d O t h e r s the size of a light aircraft and military has air dominance, such originally appeared on sit up and take note. has been equipped with stealth as Iraq and Afghanistan. Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc ( BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Jul technology to make it virtually The first flight trials are due to SNSS) topped the insider- 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see undetectable. start next year. buying charts for the week our terms for use of feeds. In a press release, the MoD "Taranis is a truly trailblazing ending July 9 as insiders P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | described the Taranis as "a project," said Minister for snapped up 120,075,389 shares C o m m e n t s prototype unmanned combat International Security Strategy Sunesis Pharmaceuticalsof company stock at a market aircraft of the future." Gerald Howarth. value of $56,435,433. Insiders Business- Stock- InvestingI t i s b u i l t t o c a r r y o u t "The first of its kind in the UK, now own 2.04% of Sunesis Stocks and Bonds intelligence, surveillance and it reflects the best of our nation's stock. reconnaissance missions while advanced design and technology its crew stays safely on the s k i l l s a n d i s a l e a d i n g ground and can control the programme on the global stage." Submitted at 7/13/2010 4:39:02 AM

A personal tour of the universe (photos) (CNET News.com) Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:00:00 AM

NEW YORK--As part of Road Trip 2010, CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman got a chance to visit with Carter Emmert, the director of astrovisualiztion at the American Museum of

Natural History's Hayden Planetarium. Emmart talked about the science of, and the scientific community behind, the planetarium's 10-year-old, state-of-the-art dome, and the show "Journey to the Stars" that is being presented there based on data sets collected by

researchers the world over. This is a rare view of the planetarium dome, seen from above. Click here to read the related backstage story on the science behind New York's Hayden Planetarium. And click here to check out the entire Road Trip

2010 package. Photo by Daniel Terdiman/ CNET Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The Taranis was created by the MOD in partnership with BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, QinetiQ and GE Aviation. "Taranis has been three-and-ahalf years in the making and is the product of more than a million man-hours," said Nigel Whitehead, group managing director of BAE Systems' Programmes and Support business. "It represents a significant step forward in this country's fast-jet capability. "This technology is key to sustaining a strong industrial base and to maintain the UK's leading position as a centre for engineering excellence and innovation." Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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ESPN host criticizes LeBron-a-thon (The Upshot) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed) Submitted at 7/12/2010 1:07:42 PM

ESPN’s Thursday-night LeBron -a-thon — aka “ The Decision”— scored big ratings and sparked plenty of criticism of the cable network for blurring the line between news and advertising. For days, commentators have chewed on the ethical implications of a sports-news network giving a star athlete an hour for self-promotional purposes. But as the special aired, the real-time Twitter critique focused on ESPN dragging out the inevitable decision for nearly 25 minutes. Viewers were forced to sit through Jim Gray — James' hand-picked interviewer— tossing six minutes of softballs before asking what everyone wanted to hear. Washington Post columnist Mike Wilbon, who interviewed James after Gray, suggests he would have done things differently. “I didn't like it,” Wilbon said Sunday on CNN. “I mean, just as a reporter, I didn't like it. And I was saying to somebody

at the time, there's one question here." Wilbon, who co-host’s ESPN’s " Pardon the Interruption," spoke candidly about the hourlong special and said that viewers likely wanted the network to "get to it." (You can watch Wilbon's take here): Wilbon acknowledged that the criticism is something "the network has to live with." "And that was talked about

ESPN executives have defended airing the special, which James' representatives brought to the network. [ Video: LeBron dismissed by Michael Jordan] Today, Advertising Age provides a bit more of the back story as to how “ The Decision” got off the ground. One oddly fitting detail: Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel— brother of White House chief of staff Rahm, basis for Entourage’s Ari Gold— was involved in the project since the onset of the NBA Finals, prior to James formally entering the free-agent market. Other popular Yahoo! stories: • LeBron James booed at NBA before," he continued. "And if Gray disputes a CNBC report star's wedding anybody didn't anticipate that that he received payment and • The five key moves for career r e a c t i o n , t h e n t h a t w a s contends that he was only success incredibly naive." reimbursed some expenses. • Erin Andrews lands a new One of the lingering questions [ Photos: LeBron joins big sports job in the whole affair is what Gray celebs at NBA star's wedding] Five Filters featured article: got out of the deal. ESPN says "I am not receiving a single Headshot - Propaganda, State the network didn't pay Gray. But penny from LeBron or any Religion and the Attack On the it appears that James' camp and entity involved with LeBron," Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available William Morris did. Gray said. "I will receive a tools: PDF Newspaper, Full An interviewee paying his small stipend to take care of Text RSS, Term Extraction. interviewer presents a blatant expenses. But I'm not making conflict of interest. However, money off this."

After A Month Of Chaos, CDS Tightening On Eastern European Sovereigns Gregory White (The Money Game) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:05:14 AM

Eastern European sovereigns are seeing their CDS tighten after a month of pressure based on concerns over Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian debt.

From CMA Datavision: Here's what you need to know about why the eurozone has fallen apart >

Join the conversation about this story »


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Limbaugh sells NYC digs for $11.5 million (The Upshot) (Yahoo! News: Most Viewed)

The conservative talker paid less than $5 million for the place in Submitted at 7/12/2010 10:44:31 AM 1994. Rush Limbaugh railed against Limbaugh hosts his top-rated proposed New York tax hikes radio show primarily out of last year, and vowed to leave the Palm Beach, Fla., where he lives city for good. It took a little full time on a palatial beachfront while, but Limbaugh has now e s t a t e . B u t L i m b a u g h unloaded his ritzy Manhattan occasionally treks to New York, condo for about $11.5 million, where several of his staffers the Wall Street Journal reports. work. These days, Limbaugh's Although Limbaugh wanted fill-in hosts are more likely to $12.95 million for the Upper use the New York studio. East Side apartment, he still [ Photo: See Rush Limbaugh comes out ahead on the deal. and his newlywed wife]

“Basically I go to New York now for hurricane relief, whenever a hurricane hits,” Limbaugh said on his show in March 2009. "No other reason to go there. Well, sometimes I visit the overrated staff, but it would be cheaper to fly the staff down here to visit me than to pay these stupid tax increases!" Even if Limbaugh traveled north only for hurricane relief and staff visits, he had a nice place to crash in the city. The Fifth Avenue spread includes

four terraces, double living room, large media room and Central Park views, according to Corcoran’s real estate listing. No word on whether or not Limbaugh will also make good on his threat to flee the country to Costa Rica for medical treatment if the health care bill passes. Limbaugh did not respond to Yahoo! News for comment. UPDATE: A reader points out that Limbaugh said he'd "go to Costa Rica" if health care

reform passed, but later clarified that he would just go for health care, not to move. We've changed the post to reflect that. Other popular Yahoo! stories: • The 10 best places to live in America • Photo: Rare total solar eclipse dazzles stargazers • France, Adidas among biggest World Cup losers Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State LIMBAUGH page 13


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Majority of Americans lack faith in Obama: poll

Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. (Reuters: Top News)

they have in Obama to make the right decisions for the country's future, 58 percent of WASHINGTON| Tue Jul 13, respondents said "just some" or 2010 6:21am EDT "none." WASHINGTON(Reuters) - Sixty-eight percent expressed Nearly 60 percent of American the same sentiments about voters say they lack faith in Democrats in Congress and 72 (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks) P r e s i d e n t B a r a c k O b a m a , p e r c e n t s a i d t h e s a m e o f according to a public opinion R e p u b l i c a n s . poll published on Tuesday. The Post said problems in the Our Favorite Energy Bars These energy bars are low in The results of the Washington housing industry, sluggish job sugar, but high in protein and Post/ABC News poll are a growth and other economic fiber. See our favorite healthy reversal of what voters said at issues may have taken a toll on the start of Obama's presidency Obama's approval rating. choices. Just 43 percent of all Five Filters featured article: 18 months ago when about 60 Headshot - Propaganda, State percent expressed confidence in Americans, including a third of Democrats, now say they Religion and the Attack On the his decision making. Confidence in Obama is at a approve of the job Obama is Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full new low but the poll found that doing on the economy, while 54 Text RSS, Term Extraction. his numbers are still higher than percent disapprove. lawmakers of either major party The survey also found wide anti four months ahead of the -incumbent sentiment with 62 N o v e m b e r c o n g r e s s i o n a l percent of voters saying they elections. were not inclined to support Asked how much confidence their current representative. Submitted at 7/13/2010 5:21:03 AM

Our Favorite Energy Bars

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs in the November 2 election as well as 36 of the 100 Senate seats. Democrats now control both houses of Congress, but a slight majority of those polled said they would prefer to have Republicans in control to serve as a check on Obama's policies. The poll of 1,288 people was conducted July 7-11 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. (Reporting by JoAnne Allen; editing by Eric Beech) Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Well That "Death Cross" Could Not Have Been A Worse Sell Signal Joe Weisenthal (The Money Game) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:20:00 AM

Just a note. If you sold stocks because of the so-called"Death Cross" in the S&P, you totally blew it. The moment when the 50-day moving average on the S&P crossed below the 200-day one was a great time to buy, not sell. Join the conversation about this story »

Gaming Social Network hi5 Raises $14 Million Leena Rao (TechCrunch) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:12:00 AM

hi5, a gaming-focused social network that most people forgot about long ago, has just closed a new round of funding of over $14 million led by Crosslink Capital. This brings the social network’s funding to over$34 million. This round appears to

also include the$3 million in debt funding raised from Mohr Davidow in April. The new funding will be used for hi5s continued expansion into social gaming and virtual goods. Hi5, which has been actively remodeling its site to cater to the gaming industry, just bought gaming startup Big Six. Last fall, the social network

launched a totally revamped site that places a much stronger emphasis on games and virtual currency, along with a new avatar system.

In December, hi5 brought on a new president, gaming industry veteran, Alex St. John, to help lead the social network’s efforts. Earlier in the year, the company suffered from layoffs and also hired a new CEO, Bill Gossman. The push into gaming isn’t a bad idea for hi5, which clearly cannot compete with Facebook. The network has only 60 million

members compared to Facebook’s 500 million users. But hi5 faces a number of fastgrowing and heavily funded competitors in the social gaming space, including Zynga and Playdom. CrunchBase Information hi5 Information provided by CrunchBase


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BP prepares to test new cap on well (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:55:25 AM

By Eric Onstad and Alexandria Sage LONDON/NEW ORLEANS| Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:55am EDT L O N D O N / N E W ORLEANS(Reuters) - BP Plc prepared on Tuesday to test a new cap on its runaway well, arresting the flow of oil which has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the last 12 weeks. As the oil giant prepared for a potential turning point in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, it also said its plans to sell non-core assets, which will help pay for a $20 billion cleanup fund, were moving forward. "We are in discussions with a number of companies about a number of assets. Talks are going well," spokeswoman Sheila Williams said in London, declining to give details. In Dubai, Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan said the emirate was considering an investment in BP. "We are still thinking about it," he was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, when asked about buying a stake in the firm. BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward visited Abu Dhabi last week and had met with the sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).

Investors snapped up BP shares again in London on optimism that the new technology would cap the 85-day-old gusher that has caused the spill and hit the U.S. Gulf economy. A fresh focus on divestments highlighted just how much a pounding BP shares have taken, since the firm's net asset value is around $80 billion more than its market value, analyst Jason Kenney at ING in Edinburgh said, who is bullish on the shares. About seven non-core assets -including ones in Alaska, Colombia, Venezuela and Vietnam -- could be worth $4550 billion, he added. "It just makes absolute nonsense of what the share price has been doing over the past few months," said Kenney, who has a "buy" rating on the stock and a price target 712 pence, one of the highest among analysts. The shares climbed as much as 5.5 percent to 420 pence, the highest in five weeks, bringing their gains to 41 percent since touching a low at the end of June. The potential breakthrough in efforts to fully contain BP's ruptured wellhead also came as the Obama administration issued a revised moratorium on deepwater oil drilling that critics called a mere repackaging of an earlier ban struck down by the courts.

The prospect of legal battles over the administration's bid to suspend deep-sea energy exploration in the Gulf already has had a chilling effect on drilling, putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk, industry officials and analysts said. The drilling moratorium and its toll on the oil and gas industry were expected to highlight the agenda on Tuesday for a second day of hearings by President Barack Obama's independent oil spill commission, meeting in New Orleans. Even as the seven-member panel began its investigation into the cause and effects of the spill, BP reported a potential turning point in the crisis. TURNING POINT Hours after starting up a new oil-siphoning system, BP said Monday night it had installed a 40-ton containment cap atop its leaking wellhead a mile underwater -- a device larger and tighter-fitting than the one it removed on Friday. Crude oil continued to pour into the sea for the time being, but BP said it planned to begin testing the new cap, and the internal pressure of the well, on Tuesday by closing off valves on the device to constrict the flow of oil. If the test goes as intended, it would mark the first time that the flow of oil from the crippled

well has been halted, at least temporarily, since the April 20 explosion and blowout of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 crewmen. The test was expected to last six to 48 hours, during which time two smaller siphoning systems, including the one brought online on Monday, will be turned off. But BP warned the outcome was uncertain. "The sealing cap system never before has been deployed at these depths or under these conditions, and its efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured," it said in a statement. Depending on test results, BP will either keep the cap closed entirely or use it to resume siphoning oil to ships on the surface. If it works effectively, the cap should either hold all the oil in or allow it to be safely captured and funneled away. BP said it plans to permanently block the oil flow in August with a relief well being drilled deep beneath the seabed that will intercept the original well and plug it. In Washington, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled the administration's new deepwater oil exploration moratorium in a plan worded differently from an earlier drilling ban struck down by a U.S. appeals court last week. The new ban would run until

November 30 and applies to the same oil and gas rigs as before, though it is defined by the types of drilling technologies used rather than the depth of the offshore operations, as the original plan was. Obama is under pressure to make offshore drilling safer and hold BP accountable as the spill devastates the multibilliondollar tourism and fishing industries across all five states along the Gulf of Mexico. The oil industry reacted to the new drilling ban by saying it would make matters worse. Analysts said the oil industry was likely to contest the new ban in court, but White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration was confident the new moratorium would withstand legal challenges. (Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage and Ayesha Rascoe in New Orleans, Tom Doggett, Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, Matthew Lynley and Matt Daily in New York; Writing by Steve Gorman and Eric Onstad; Editing by Eric Beech and Louise Heavens) Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Iran scientist turns up at Washington mission (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:43:51 AM

By Hossein Jaseb TEHRAN| Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:43am EDT TEHRAN(Reuters) - A missing Iranian nuclear scientist dramatically turned up at the Iranian interests section of Pakistan's embassy in Washington, and was quoted as saying he was kidnapped by U.S. agents in a "disgraceful act." But a U.S. official, who declined to be named, said Shahram Amiri, who vanished during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia more than a year ago, had been visiting the United States and had decided "to return to Iran of his own free will." Tehran has repeatedly accused the CIA of abducting Amiri, who worked for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, but ABC news had reported he defected and was helping the agency. Washington denied he was spirited away for nuclear secrets. "My kidnapping was a disgraceful act for America ... I

was under enormous psychological pressure and supervision of armed agents in the past 14 months," Amiri, who is in his thirties, was quoted as saying in a phone interview with Iran's state TV. Iran is locked in a dispute with the United States and its allies over Tehran's nuclear development program that the West says is designed to produce nuclear weapons and which Iranian officials say aims to generate power. The Amiri case provoked speculation about whether he had valuable intelligence about the Iranian nuclear program that the Americans wanted. "Mr. Amiri has been in the United States of his own free will and has decided to return to Iran of his own free will," the U.S. official said, adding Amiri is awaiting documents from a third country through which he plans to travel to Iran. Amiri's surfacing comes after a Cold War-style spy swap which took place in Vienna Friday when 10 people charged in the United States with being Russian agents were exchanged for four held in Russia on

charges of spying for the West. "Amiri has been escorted by American forces to Iran's interests section in Washington," Iran's PressTV said. Iran and the United States severed diplomatic ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Under the umbrella of the Pakistani embassy, the interests section, which is staffed by Iranians, provides consular services including information on travel visas. "INTELLIGENCE VICTORY" Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said the handover by U.S. agents was a victory over "American intelligence services." "Because of Iran's media and intelligence activities, the American government had to back down and hand over Amiri to the embassy Monday night," Fars said. Iran summoned the Swiss ambassador to Tehran earlier this month and handed over documents which it said showed Amiri was kidnapped by the United States. U.S. interests in Tehran are handled by the Swiss embassy.

Confusing video footage of Amiri was aired in the past weeks. In one video, a man identified as Amiri, said he was taken to the United States and tortured. In another video on the Internet, a man also said to be the scientist, said he was studying in the United States. In a third video, a man describing himself as Amiri, said he had fled from U.S. "agents" and was in hiding, urging human rights groups to help him to return to Iran. "Since my comments were released on the Internet, the Americans wanted to deny my abduction story altogether by sending me home secretly," Amiri said. "Americans saw themselves as the loser of this game." Before Amiri disappeared, he also worked at Iran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely connected to the country's elite Revolutionary Guards. Tehran initially refused to acknowledge Amiri's involvement in Iran's nuclear program. Three months after Amiri's disappearance, Iran disclosed

the existence of its second uranium enrichment site, near the central holy Shi'ite city of Qom, further heightening tension over the Islamic state's atomic activities. Iranian authorities have repeatedly accused the United States of kidnapping and illegally detaining Iranians, including a former deputy defense minister who disappeared in 2007. Some Iranian media linked the fate of three U.S. citizens, arrested near the Iraqi border a year ago where they said they were hiking and held on suspicion of spying, to the cases of alleged Iranian detainees in the United States. Iranian authorities have ruled out any prisoner exchange. "They should be released immediately and allowed to return to the United States," the U.S. official said of the three. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

beer? Test your knowledge about some of America's favorite foods in this quiz. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State

Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

America's Favorite Foods Quiz (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)

choices than ever. With international grocery stores offering foods from around the W h e n i t c o m e s t o f o o d , world and restaurants cooking Americans seem to have more up new and exciting dishes, the Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:00:00 AM

options keep growing. But some of America's favorite foods won't change any time soon. Think you know everything about burgers, barbecue and


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Yankees owner George Steinbrenner Amazon opens dies at 80 supercomputing service (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:17:16 AM

By Daniel Trotta and Chelsea Emery NEW YORK| Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:17am EDT NEW YORK(Reuters) - George Steinbrenner, the New York Yankees owner known as "The Boss" for his colorful and tempestuous style, died in Florida at age 80, his family and baseball club said on Tuesday. Media reports said he suffered a massive heart attack at his home in Tampa and was rushed to hospital. Steinbrenner demanded results and got them as he ran America's most successful sports franchise. The Yankees won seven World Series titles

and 11 American League pennants since he bought the fabled club in 1973. "Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing," he once said. Steinbrenner handed over daily operations of the club to his sons in recent years. His Yankees empire, which he bought for $10 million, is now worth $1.6 billion, nearly twice as much as any other team in baseball, Forbes magazine estimated. "He was an incredible and charitable man," his family said in a statement. "He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again." The family said funeral

arrangements will be private but there would be an additional public service. Steinbrenner, who turned 80 on the U.S. Independence Day holiday on July 4, was a wellknown figure in popular culture, routinely pictured on the back pages of New York's tabloids wearing his familiar white turtleneck under a blue blazer and was regularly skewered on the TV sitcom "Seinfeld." (Editing by John O'Callaghan and Frances Kerry) Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:00:00 AM

John Krasinski and Emily Blunt had a newlywed glow last night as they arrived hand-in-hand at LAX. As they headed out to their car, Emily flashed her brand new wedding band! The couple is home again after spending the weekend at George

Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:01:42 AM

A new option for Amazon Web Services has arrived: the raw computing power of supercomputing clusters now widely used in research circles. The service, called Cluster Compute, is a variation of one of the earliest services Amazon offered, EC2, or Elastic Compute Cloud. Compared with the standard EC2, Cluster Compute offers more processing power and faster network connections among the cluster's computing nodes for better communications, Amazon said Tuesday. The service retains the same general philosophy, though: customers pay as they go, with more usage incurring more fees. The cluster service, which is available with Linux and a customer's own software added into the mix, is best suited to parallel tasks that can be divided John and Emily have been into independent pieces that run together for two years, and over simultaneously. time have had many special The special-purpose version of nights out. Their time in Italy, EC2 is better than the generic, though, marked the next chapter according to Keith Jackson, a in their relationship, and they Lawrence Berkeley National ended up picking a popular Laboratory computer scientist. Summer date to tie the knot. "In our series of comprehensive Clooney's estate on Lake Como, View 5 Photos › benchmark tests, we found our where they got married in an HPC (high-performance outdoor ceremony on Saturday.

Newlywed Emily Blunt Debuts Her Ring at LAX With John Krasinski! PopSugar (PopSugar)

(CNET News.com)

computing) applications ran 8.5 times faster on Cluster Compute Instances for Amazon EC2 than the previous EC2 instance types," he said in Amazon's announcement. How fast is it? An 880-node cluster reached 41.82 teraflops, or floating-point operations per second, using the Linpack mathematical speed test. By contrast, the 145th-fastest machine on the most recent "Top500" list of the fastest supercomputers reached a sustained speed of 41.88 teraflops. (Amazon didn't say whether its test was for sustained performance or for the higher but more fleeting peak performance.) The service is sold on the basis of much smaller nodes than what was used in Amazon's test: a server with two quad-core Intel X5570 Nehalem Xeon processors. Each such instance costs $1.60 per hour to use. Alternatively, with a payment of $4,290 for one year or $6,590 for three years, the per-hour fee drops to 56 cents. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Sponsor Post: Understanding Your Visual and Voice Brands RWW Sponsor (ReadWriteWeb)

the... brand, these linkages and associations are likely to break down." Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:00:00 AM When that happens, you lose Editor's note: We offer our long brand awareness, brand loyalty, -term sponsors the opportunity and, ultimately, brand equity. to write posts and tell their What new problems does the story. These posts are clearly addition of managing multiple marked as written by sponsors, social channels present? but we also want them to be • Presence in "unclaimed useful and interesting to our channels." Part of starting a readers. We hope you like the social media program means posts and we encourage you to you put your brand in channels support our sponsors by trying that you have limited or no out their products. ownership over - Facebook, Digital technology in marketing Twitter, Yelp. Out there, people is no longer a new concept, and - lovers or haters - have a lot social media platforms are being more input on how your brand is used more and more often. We perceived, and you have only so a l l g e t t h a t . W h a t ' s s t i l l much control. developing is how these new • Brand responsiveness and social media channels affect shift from traditional push your brand. marketing. You can't just talk at Sponsor people anymore and consider it One area that's being flushed done. People expect an ongoing out is how to keep your brand response from you, one you may consistent when your social not have normally elicited under media strategy calls for the traditional marketing rules. addition of a blog, a Twitter • Unclear internal channel presence, a Facebook page, and ownership. Social media makes a YouTube Channel and so on. use of tools that are sometimes Brad VanAuken at Branding used by different internal S t r a t e g y I n s i d e r c a n ' t departments with different overemphasize the importance agendas, and things can get a o f b r a n d c o n s i s t e n c y little chaotic. Organizing and enough:"....when it comes to managing your content and brand identity, I learned a long where that content goes is a lot time ago that consistency is the more difficult to streamline. secret to success. With enough • Larger number of "channel repetition, people encode the m a n a g e r s . " B e c a u s e s o m e brands identity... in their brains, channels require multiple people preferably linked to things that to implement, there's a lot of matter to them. If you mess with coordination that has to happen

impossible to mess up. Never underestimate not only the power of your logo and the need to execute your social media for an easily identifiable image strategy. Communication to that connects directly and everyone involved becomes uniquely back to your more difficult when you start organization, but also the way adding managers, departments that logo is used across and initiatives. Is everybody mediums. working together or running For instance, your website, over each other? Twitter account and Facebook • Conversation. The big item profile should all have the same that signifies a major departure overall visual features so your from traditional marketing is audience hardly feels like that you're now required to have they're shifting platforms. All a whole lot more conversation. content that goes out the door in You've got to respond. "What, digital format should look the my brand has to talk now?" same, and it should look like all Sure does. And it better be the other collateral that goes out good talking because it matters a as well. Invest the time and lot more to customers. This money in digitally sound design may be old news to many, but work, and it should become plug actually implementing a good -and-play across platforms. "conversation plan" is Your Voice Brand something a lot of marketers Until now, voice has had only haven't had to think about. indirect effects on most brands. If it has come into play more Sound like a lot to handle? It directly for some of you, it's is, but if you think about the been as part of the recognition following two elements, you component of your brand. should be able to develop a Maybe James Earl Jones is your strategy that guarantees brand spokesman... should you be so consistency in the social media lucky. space. Your Visual Brand Voice means something new For any seasoned marketer, this and more important in today's part should come easily. The social marketing landscape, visual aspects of brand where you're required to engage management are little-changed - have conversation, respond from traditional marketing and develop two-way logo, colors, shape, etc. - and relationships. luckily they're pretty easy to Your voice is now directly manage online. related to the connection your However, they aren't audience makes to your brand,

and it has a direct effect on your brand image. It should be considered as strong an influencer as your logo, your tagline or your product quality. For your audience, it's more than recognizing James Earl Jones, but identifying when a brand has a good or bad conversation with you or, or whether it responded in a positive or negative way. One of the oldest trends in social marketing - and one that isn't going away - is the creation of valuable content. As content is being made available online by organizations and being published on multiple platforms, voice is becoming that much more important. When you're publishing content, you want people to interact with that content, and you're inviting them into a conversation. How your brand is going to sound and respond and converse across multiple channels needs to consistently reflect your brand. If you're a larger organization, with more people handling social media, it's important to not only build consistency and centralization into your social media management tools, but also communicate your voice brand strategy across the organization. When those two happen together, your platform management system will be SPONSOR page 20


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Virtual power plants fill supply gaps in heat wave (CNET News.com) Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:00:00 AM

During a few hours of last week's East Coast heat wave, thousands of megawatts worth of electricity--enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes --were temporarily removed from the grid, a practice grid operators expect to do more often to weather energy supply crunches on the grid. PJM, which operates the wholesale electricity market in 13 states, on Monday reported that it put into effect an "emergency" demand response program last week, tapping over 2,500 megawatts worth of energy reductions, dispersed over thousands of sites, to ensure that electricity flowed during times of peak demand. The last time PJM called in these " demand side resources" was an August day three years ago. But automated efficiency technology, particularly dialing back electricity usage during peak times, is becoming one of the most effective smart-grid tools for maintaining the balance between electricity supply and demand. "In past days, a utility would talk about voluntary appeals to lower usage or using peaking power plants. Now demandresponse programs are actually part of the mix," said Dan Delurey, the president of the Demand Response and Smart

Grid Coalition. "It's not just one -offs any more--it's part of the new system." EnerNoc's network operations center in Boston where demand response events are managed. As demand for electricity crept up Wednesday afternoon, PJM

called on contracts it has with demand response technology companies, such as EnerNoc, CPower, and Comverge, to "supply" hundreds of megawatts worth of electricity through efficiency measures. Those providers have

arrangements with their own customers--mostly commercial and industrial businesses which have agreed to reduce electricity use during peak times in exchange for a monthly payment. The actual changes can be relatively minor, say

demand response companies. A supermarket could have the lights dimmed, for example, for 15 minutes or so. In aggregate, though, those changes are significant. PJM VIRTUAL page 19


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said that efficiency through demand response accounted for over 2,500 megawatts for three straight hours on Wednesday. For comparison, a full-size nuclear power plant generates about 1,000 megawatts. Remote control Although the heat wave extended into New England, grid operator ISO New England was able to meet supply without having to call in demand response capacity contracts, according to a representative. But demand response is very much part of ISO New England's portfolio of energy "sources." The region now has about 2,000 megawatts worth of demand side resources in place, up from 500 megawatts in 2006. Efficiency still represents a fraction of the total capacity of 32,700 megawatts, but changes to regulations which went to effect last month are designed to encourage exponential growth in demand side resources to help stabilize the grid. Demand curve on a hot day: faced with the possibility of not meeting projected demand (orange line), grid operator PJM called in emergency demand response contracts to reduce energy load (blue line).(Credit:

PJM) During a hot day in June, there were a number of failures at power plants and ISO New England had to call in contracts for efficiency services. One of those providers, EnerNoc, said that it lowered electricity demand by 380 megawatts within a few hours. That reduction meant that ISO New England did not have to pay top dollar to purchase the energy needed to supply the region during a time of high demand, EnerNoc said. For demand response to work technically, customers need to have a control system put in place which creates a communications link between the customer and the demand response provider. In the June incident, EnerNoc said that it did over 1,000 "dispatches" over two and a half hours and managed more than half of a million transactions from its network operations center. The business models for demand response have become more mature, too. In the case of PJM or ISO New England, demand response companies bid with energy providers in a yearly capacity auction. If a company doesn't meet the megawatts it has committed to,

there are financial penalties, just as there are for power generators. Building for 1 percent of the year The bulk of automated efficiency steps are done at commercial and industrial sites because they are the biggest users of electricity. But utilities are eager to get consumers involved as well. Meeting demand on the most challenging days is expensive: 10 percent to 20 percent of annual electricity costs are concentrated in 100 hours per year, according to Delurey. More utilities are starting to institute peak-time pricing plans to create an incentive for people to lower use during peak times. The consumer can, for example, program a thermostat to react to a signal from the utility which could adjust the air-conditioning thermostat in exchange for a discount. New demand response systems allow people to override the setting, too, said Delurey. Given the hot temperatures last week, utilities and grid operators were still calling on customers to reduce energy usage with common-sense techniques, such as lowering shades to reduce the cooling load. To meet record

demand, New York utility Con Ed called on all available resources, including an air conditioner program with 20,000 consumers, and still had trouble meeting demand, leading to brownouts in Brooklyn and some power outages. But having an automated system, rather than voluntary reductions, allows the system to scale up more reliably. PJM has already held an auction for its 2013 capacity needs and demand response is 6 percent of the total available supply. "Our goal is to keep everybody using power and not have to cut back but if we need to, we have that tool in our kit to call on," said Ray Dotter, a spokesman from PJM. "This is a heck of a lot better than what we used to do which is have the sales staff call the biggest customers and jawbone them to cut back." Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Twenty meatless dishes, ready Headshot - Propaganda, State in 20 minutes or less Religion and the Attack On the Five Filters featured article: Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available

tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Getting Your Day’s Worth of Water (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

Superfast Vegetarian

Mobile Backstage Aims To Beat Facebook And MySpace For Fan Engagement Steve O'Hear (TechCrunch) Submitted at 7/13/2010 7:17:03 AM

Mobile Backstage, a new social music service and mobile app that lets artists and bands "engage" with their fans, is set to officially launch next week, although it's already been trialed by the likes of hip hop star Dizzee Rascal, and the 'emo' outfit You Me At Six (yes, I've never heard of them either). It's been developed by Steam Republic, a Finnish mobile solutions company, which says it recently raised a second round of funding in the region of â‚Ź2 million of its target of â‚Ź3 -5 million. That's not necessarily all that newsworthy in itself there are already plenty of ways for artists to interact with fans online - but what's perhaps more interesting is that the company claims that its bespoke mobile app, which can be fully branded for each artist/band and runs on iPhone and Java-enabled handsets, beats uber social networks such as Facebook and MySpace in terms of the level of fan interaction and usergenerated content.


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BBC World Cup Website Showcases Semantic Technologies Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:27:08 AM

The soccer World Cup has now ended, with Spain the victor. England was unceremoniously dumped out before the quarter finals - but if there was a World Cup for the Semantic Web, then the BBC may have lifted the trophy for its country. A post on the BBC Internet site explains how the BBC World Cup 2010 website used "dynamic semantic publishing" technology. It's an impressive demonstration of how a large, mainstream website can have added meaning and structure. Sponsor ReadWriteWeb's Guide to The Semantic Web: • Semantic Web Adoption by Facebook, Best Buy & Others • It's All Semantics: Open Data, Linked Data & The Semantic Web • The State of Linked Data in 2010 • Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009 • ReadWriteWeb Interview With Tim Berners-Lee

The BBC World Cup site featured over 700 webpages and was powered by a semantic publishing framework. The site boasted a comprehensive ontology (a map of concepts), that output "automated metadata -driven web pages" created onthe-fly. Jem Rayfield, Senior Technical Architect, BBC News and Knowledge, explained further: "The underlying publishing framework does not author content directly; rather it publishes data about the content - metadata. The published metadata describes the world cup content at a fairly low-level of granularity, providing rich content relationships and semantic navigation. By querying this published metadata we are able to create dynamic page aggregations for teams, groups and players." The basis of this system was an ontology that described how World Cup facts related to each other. For example, "Frank Lampard" was part of the "England Squad" and the "England Squad" competed in

SPONSOR continued from page 17

much more likely to support overall brand consistency. Your visual brand is already important, and your voice brand is going to be a lot more important moving forward, so make sure both are built into social media strategy with equal strength. If you do, you'll be well on your way to keeping things streamlined and lasting. Discuss

what it describes as a "natural language and ontological determiner process." This was most likely software such as Thomson Reuters' Calais or the new Extractiv product that we reviewed yesterday. In the BBC's case, the resulting tags were moderated before being published. The BBC used Semantic Web technologies such as RDF and "Group C" of the "FIFA World SPARQL to build their World Cup 2010". The ontology also Cup site. The stated goal was to included "journalist-authored achieve "intelligent mapping of assets" such as stories, blogs, journalist assets to concepts and profiles, images, video and queries." statistics. The site reportedly served The publishing platform had millions of page requests a day both manual and automated throughout the World Cup. The t a g g i n g f e a t u r e s . B B C BBC may use this semantic journalists could, for example, publishing platform for other tag Frank Lampard in a story parts of the BBC sports site; and about the disallowed goal from it will certainly deploy it again England's last-16 loss against f o r t h e t h e L o n d o n 2 0 1 2 Apple's iPhone 4 Germany. This is a normal part O l y m p i c s . Woes Go Mainstream, of most modern-day publishing The official explanatory post systems (we tag content in this has the technical details, should Recall "Inevitable" manner here at ReadWriteWeb). you wish to follow up. Let us Mike Melanson But the BBC World Cup site know in the comments about (ReadWriteWeb) also automatically analyzed other large scale Semantic Web Submitted at 7/13/2010 10:00:00 AM journalist content and matched it deployments that you know of. " a g a i n s t t h e W o r l d C u p Discuss APPLE'S page 21 ontology." It did this by using

Kicking Butt on 'Rizzoli and Isles' Series Premiere (VIDEO) Chris Harnick (TV Squad) Submitted at 7/13/2010 5:20:00 AM

Filed under: TV Replay Not even duct tape can keep Detective Rizzoli down on the

series premiere of'Rizzoli &

Isles'(Mon., 10PM on TNT). [Spoiler alert] Permalink| Email this| Linking

Blogs| Comments


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Consumer Reports confirmed yesterday what many new iPhone 4 owners already new that the phone indeed has a reception issue when held in the now famous "iPhone 4 Death Grip" - and made news by recommending against purchasing what it says is otherwise the best smartphone on the market. Today, Maccentric tech blog Cult of Mac is reporting that a hardware recall is inevitable and looks to be on the horizon. With word of the iPhone's reception woes travelling well beyond the blogosphere, it surely looks like a software fix will do little to stop the bleeding. Sponsor When Apple released its iPhone 4 late last month, users quickly began reporting reception issues when the phone was held a certain way. At first, the company played off the glitch as user error, telling owners not to hold it that way. When it realized the issue wasn't going away, Apple admitted there was a problem, but pointed at a software rather than hardware

issue. The company said that its software had been mis-reporting signal reception all along and that a retroactive patch to all iPhones would correct the issue. As we reported then, however, an independent analysis by the popular hardware news site Anandtech.com seemed to directly contradict this explanation. Now, Consumer Reports agrees, stating that "It's official. Consumer Reports' engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception." According to the review, testers tried several phones, bought at different locations, and compared results with other phone models. The results contradicted Apple's claims that the reception issue was one that was "true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones." While many early adopters and tech watchers were well aware of the issue, Consumer Reports' non-recommendation brings the problem to the mainstream. It's no longer just a topic for the

tech blogs and the back pages of newspapers, but rather an oftrepeated mantra of the five o' clock news, mainstream media and talk radio. Cult of Mac's Leander Kahney spoke with several public relations experts who agreed that an iPhone recall was "inevitable" in order to preserve "its brand image, its crown jewels, at all cost." Aside from the reception issue, however, Consumer Reports says that the iPhone 4 "sports the sharpest display and best video camera we've seen on any phone, and even outshines its high-scoring predecessors with improved battery life and such new features as a front-facing camera for video chats and a built-in gyroscope that turns the phone into a super-responsive game controller." But before the magazine will issue a recommendation, it says, "Apple needs to come up with a permanent--and free--fix for the antenna problem". Discuss

(Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

5-Ingredient Salads Using ingredients you likely have on hand already, these and delicious. more entrĂŠe salads are easy, quick,

TUAW's Daily App: Pokerbot Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPhone, App Store We posted about another poker app back at WWDC, and the developer of Pokerbot got in touch with us to show off his app as well. Pokerbot is a little bit different than your standard hold'em poker game. It's a straight up one-on-one battle, so the game is really built for learning how to play poker well; it doesn't drag out games or rely on graphical flair. The game started out as a poker training program, and the developer of the game's AI is a real poker player who has played more than a few good hands. That said, this probably isn't the app you want to get if you just want to enjoy playing at a full table; Pokerbot is meant for poker buffs or people who want to try to get to that level. There are little game touches that might turn hardcore players off (you can cheat with a feature called "Onetime" if you want, and there's a full achievements system thanks to OpenFeint). Five Filters featured article: Most of the non-traditional Headshot - Propaganda, State touches are included in order to Religion and the Attack On the enhance the feel of the game, Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available though; they aren't meant to tools: PDF Newspaper, Full make the poker action more Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Online Features - August 2010

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casual. Pokerbot is US $1.99. If you've never played poker before, it's probably a little bit much for you, and you're better off going with something like Apple's official game. However, if you know your antes, straights, and flushes, and you want a game that will present a nice challenge while teaching you to play better, Pokerbot will help. TUAW TUAW's Daily App: Pokerbot originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments


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VMware: Drops Prices by Half for Small Business Market Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 7/13/2010 3:51:26 AM

VMware is changing the pricing model to a more pay as you go basis and is cutting by half the cost of its low-end offerings for the small business market. The pricing changes are a reminder of how competitive it is getting as virtualization technologies become a means for deploying private clouds. Microsoft this week announced it own initiative to launch private cloud environments at its Worldwide Parters conference. Microsoft is in alliance with Citrix, a competitor to VMware. For hardware, Microsoft has formed alliances with Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu. Sponsor VMware has another approach. Its strategy is to help data centers run, secure and manage applications in the private cloud or have them bridged ondemand to partner-hosted public clouds. It is apparent that VMware is trying to increase the pressure

on Microsoft while also responding to criticism about its higher prices. Under the new pricing, customers will now be charged for which virtual machines that get powered. So, for example, if a client has purchased 10,000 virtual machines in the previous 12 months then it will only pays for the virtual machines it powers up. The model borrows from cloud computing services. It's clear the intention is to provide more attractive ways to get customers to scale its use of virtualization services but on a pay as you go basis. Customers have been asking for this change as they commit more deeply to virtualization. This in turn provides insight into VMWare's plan to reduce by half the cost of its software for the small business market. VMware is seeing some of its most significant growth with small businesses. VSphere Essentials is VMware's most affordable virtualization platform. It will now cost $495 for six CPUs, or $83 per

processor. That is down from nearly $1,000 for six CPUs. VMware is also announcing it is tripling the power of its virtual management environment, providing the capability to for its VMware vCenter Server to maintain up to 15,000 virtual machines. The new upgrade is designed to increase the scalability of the platform to support cloud computing service providers. VMware's news goes into far deeper detail on issues such as its memory compression technology enhancements and faster migration capabilities. But the most interesting news is the contrast to Microsoft. VMware is using its position in the market to create disruptions in pricing models. In turn, its incremental improvements provide the company with the capability to offer easier scaling capabilities with more flexible pricing, helping small businesses most of all. VMware is a sponsor of the ReadWriteCloud channel Discuss

Producteev Launches API for Task Managing Apps Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:00:00 AM

Producteev, the up-and-coming task management service which launched the newest version of its service earlier this month, just launched its first API. With this release, developers can now make use of Producteev's scheduling back-end to create their own online, desktop and mobile front-ends for Producteev or integrate the service into their existing apps. The company is also launching a developer contest, with a cash prize of $2500 for the winning app and $1000 for the runnerup. Sponsor According to Producteev's CEO Ilan Abehassera, the company wants to enable the developer community to "build their dream task management app for whatever it is they are using today." Producteev itself is already using the API in all of its tools, including the company's iPhone app, IM clients and upcoming desktop applications.

As we noted in our review of the latest version of Producteev last month, the service takes on a number of established task management services like Basecamp, Remember the Milk and popular mobile apps like Todo and Things. To use Producteev, users can use the company's online interface, iPhone app or simply send a tagged email message to Producteev. The service is available in a free version for individuals and in various paid versions for teams. You can find our in-depth review of Producteev here. Screencast Producteev Two from Producteev.com on Vimeo. Discuss


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Daily Buzz: Congratulations, Spain; BP Caps Spill; Google Apps Goes DIY WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog) Submitted at 7/12/2010 2:15:00 PM

Every Monday, tune into Daily Buzz to get the who-, what- and where-abouts of the weekend's breaking news. Congratulations, Spain! Looks like Paul the Octopus was right again. Thirteen yellow cards and one red card later, Spain won the World Cup—and for the first time in its history, apps were created in this t h a n k s t o B a r c e l o n a category since the launch of the bred midfielder Andres Iniesta, who gave his country an awemarketplace. End users are also hungry for inspiring 1-0 victory in overtime news online and app publishers to defeat the Netherlands. After responded; 19.5 percent of apps a long and scoreless game, the hit in the marketplace deliver news 1 1 6 t h - m i n u t e from sources such as Fox News, took penalties off the table (thank goodness) deciding the iVillage, and TechCrunch. The number of social media new world champs fair and a p p s f o l l o w e d c l o s e l y , square. Watch the champs arrive constituting 18.2 percent of all home. available apps. A l s o Five Filters featured article: noteworthy, the social media Headshot - Propaganda, State apps category grew fastest Religion and the Attack On the among end users during the last Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available year, with adoption increasing tools: PDF Newspaper, Full on average by 87% each month. Text RSS, Term Extraction. Are you a Conduit user? Why (not)? CrunchBase Information Conduit Information provided by CrunchBase

Conduit Reports Big Numbers: 250,000 App Publishers, 170 Million Users Robin Wauters (TechCrunch) Submitted at 7/13/2010 7:24:08 AM

Conduit, the venture-backed company that enables publishers to create and distribute apps on the Web via browser toolbars, is posting some big numbers today. The startup says its network now boasts more than 250,000 web publishers, and that they’re able to reach some 170 million users. Roughly 23 new users install Conduit Engine every single second, the company adds. Those stats led Conduit president Adam Boyden to make some bold claims about its size, relative to that of the mobile apps market: “While most of the buzz in the media is about mobile apps, the

reality of the situation is that 118 million more people use Conduit-powered apps than iPhone and Droid apps combined.” Not exactly an apples to apples comparison, but it does indicate that Conduit Network has quietly become a whopper of a distribution channel for a number of big brands, including Amazon, Coke Zero, eBay, Facebook, Fox News, Hulu, Skype, YouTube, and Zynga. According to Conduit, its App Marketplace(think of it as an app store for Web applications delivered via cross-browser toolbars) is seeing notable growth, particularly. The company says 60 million end users consume apps from the marketplace on a daily basis, not only benefiting major brands but

also lesser known software developers. Since August 2009, Conduit claims the number of Web publishers that have more than one million users has grown from 1 to more than 40 in May 2010. At this scale, Conduit is able to deliver some interesting trends on Web app usage, and that’s exactly what they’ve provided us with. Full disclosure: note that there’s a TechCrunch App in Conduit’s marketplace somewhere, which the company refers to. Quoting ad verbatim from the press release: Entertainment apps are the largest segment among the hundreds of verticals represented in Conduit App Marketplace; 24.4 percent of the


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Gates, Khosla invest in EcoMotors' efficient engine

How to play SNES on your iPad

(CNET News.com)

Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

conventional design by using two cylinders and four pistons, which increases the overall If you believe that high-profile efficiency. Former Volkswagen investors add to your credibility, executive Peter Hofbauer, who then the folks at tiny EcoMotors conceived of the design, said are having a good day. that Opoc can improve fuel Vinod Khosla and Bill Gates on economy by 30 percent in city Monday said they are the sole driving and reduce emissions. investors in a series B round for The company claims a 20 EcoMotors. The money will p e r c e n t t o 5 0 p e r c e n t allow Troy, Michigan-based improvement in efficiency E c o M o t o r s t o c o m p l e t e overall. engineering and testing of its To improve space and efficient car engine, called efficiency, the engine uses an Opoc. electronically controlled clutch CEO Don Runkle told the and turbo booster, explained Detroit Free Press that the Runkle in March during the amount of investment was $23.5 ARPA-E Summit. Overall, the m i l l i o n . K h o s l a V e n t u r e s engine is half the weight and provided a smaller series A size of conventional engines, round for the two-year-old which reduces the cost by 20 company which has about three percent. It can be used in dozen employees. conjunction with an electric Although there's a lot of buzz motor in a hybrid design as well, a r o u n d e l e c t r i c v e h i c l e s , he said. EcoMotors' technology is rooted The company's business plan is firmly in the mechanics of to license its technology to internal combustion engines. a u t o m a k e r s o r t o e n g i n e Its Opoc engine breaks with manufacturers and to finish Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:48:11 AM

product development in 2012, Runkle said. The engine can be used for different applications, including cars, trucks, generators, or in aerospace. In May, auto supplier Zhongding Holding invested $18 million to accelerate development of the Opoc technology. EcoMotors is seeking a Department of Energy loan guarantee to manufacture the engines in an old General Motors plant. Energy and climate change has become one of Gates' primary areas of interest. He is an investor in Khosla Ventures' green technology fund and has invested in other companies seeking breakthroughs in energy technology. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Bluetooth controller (like a Wii remote, but an iPhone with a compatible app will work as Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:00:00 AM well) to play games with. None Filed under: iPad of this is new at all, but the Unfortunately, as we posted the guide is quite clear and makes other day, Nintendo isn't likely things pretty easy. to actually allow any Super Of course, that's only if you Nintendo games on your iPad w a n t t o t a k e t h e s t e p o f anytime soon. That doesn't jailbreaking your iPad. If you're technically mean you can't do it, not willing to do that, you've got though; if you're willing to to stick with official retro action jailbreak your iPad and install -- have you seen Streets of Rage s n e s 4 i P h o n e , y o u c a n yet? experience all of the magical [via MacStories] and revolutionary retro console TUAW How to play SNES on gaming that you want. your iPad originally appeared on T h e v i d e o a b o v e f r o m The Unofficial Apple Weblog Lifehacker makes it easy; in just (TUAW) on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 four steps, it'll walk you through 09:00:00 EST. Please see our jailbreaking the iPad with Spirit, terms for use of feeds. installing snes4iPhone with Read| Permalink| Email this| Cydia, getting some ROMs Comments installed, and even syncing up a

Cutest Pet of the Day: Bowser WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:00:00 AM

Bowser is just taking a break from playing. Thanks to CIinny for submitting!

Each day we will post an adorable picture or video of some of the world's cutest pets. Send your furry friends to WDcutepets@gmail.com and you might just see them on the

site! VOTE for your

favorites here using our new Cute Pet Face-Off tool. Ten winners will receive an EasyTravel Solutions remedy from PetAlive.com! For official rules click here.

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LivingSocial Now Offers Daily Deals In 52 Cities – 25 More Than Yesterday

USB controlled 'Power USB' strip turns on when your PC says it can

Robin Wauters (TechCrunch)

Darren Murph (Engadget)

company says it has dedicated ‘city experts’ on the ground in Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:49:04 AM every market, constantly LivingSocial, the daily deal site researching the best in local that is often referred to as the attractions to bring a savings of main competitor to Groupon(see Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and up to 90% for consumers. our extensive guide on group- cofounder of LivingSocial, Deals are live for 24 hours, as is buying sites in the United States refers to the addition of the 25 typical with group-buying sites, a n d b e y o n d h e r e ) , i s cities the “tip of the iceberg”, but LivingSocial interestingly e x p e r i e n c i n g f a s t g r o w t h . and says the service has seen has a referral model in place that Rather than launching in one explosive organic growth since gives users their deal for free if new city on a regular basis, like its launch in July 2009 (the they refer three friends who also Groupon tends to do, the company has been around for participate. Seemingly, this c o m p a n y t h i s m o r n i n g much longer than that, but it helps spur growth tremendously. announced that it has added 25 started out as a developer of To date, LivingSocial claims to live markets to its roster, nearly a p p l i c a t i o n s f o r s o c i a l have attracted 85 million people, doubling the amount of cities it n e t w o r k s ) . making it a force to be reckoned offers daily deals in. D u b b e d a l o c a l a c t i v i t y with in the red hot group-buying The social commerce startup is discovery engine, LivingSocial space. Investors agree – so far now effectively live in 52 enables people to find out what the startup has raised close markets and 3 countries (the shops, restaurants, activities and to$50 million in venture capital. U.S., UK and Canada), now that services are popular in their C r u n c h B a s e I n f o r m a t i o n i t h a s a d d e d c i t i e s l i k e area, and offers new promotions L i v i n g S o c i a l G r o u p o n Sacramento, Miami, Las Vegas, every morning via its website, I n f o r m a t i o n p r o v i d e d b y Toronto, Memphis, Buffalo, Twitter, Facebook and an C r u n c h B a s e Detroit and Vancouver to the i P h o n e a p p l i c a t i o n . T h e fray.

Submitted at 7/13/2010 10:23:00 AM

Needlessly annoyed by how much energy is being wasted in your home thanks to vampire draw? Regrettably, it looks as if you'll have to just tough it out for the remainder of summer (or winter, depending on hemisphere), as the device you're peering at above won't be on sale until August. The USB controlled "Power USB" power strip is a rather unique device, housing a grand total of four universal power sockets (hello, travelers!) and a single USB port; as you may expect, the USB port links the strip to your computer, giving it the power to turn a given socket on or off. Two of the plugs are actually on at all times (a good thing -- trust us), while the other two can be

turned on automatically when triggered by a software program or a print job, for example. There's no mention of a price just yet, but even more alarming is the omission of a 12 socket version for the hardcore users among us. USB controlled 'Power USB' strip turns on when your PC says it can originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Wired| Power USB| Email this| Comments

Cameron Diaz Gears Up to Be Swingle With Zach Braff PopSugar (PopSugar) Submitted at 7/13/2010 4:00:00 AM

Cameron Diaz's hair was still damp as she hopped out of her car to take care of business in

LA on Sunday. She's home in California after a busy few weeks - she spent time in NYC with Alex Rodriguez, then she headed South with her Knight and Day costar Tom Cruise for a

screening in Rio and a premiere in Mexico City. The Harper's

Bazaar cover girl has a break before her next project, Swingles, though its director, Zach Braff, says filming starts soon. View 5 Photos ›


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Windows Phone Live to offer remote Terminal Tips: Unfreeze wipe, location, and sync for your your Mac Windows Phone 7 device TJ Luoma (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Chris Ziegler (Engadget)

Submitted at 7/12/2010 8:00:00 PM

Filed under: UNIX / BSD, Terminal Tips Look, it's nothing See, Android owners don't ever to be ashamed of, it happens to lose their phones, so that's why everyone: your Mac has frozen they don't need this capability... up and won't respond. I know, I right? Right? Hot on the heels of know, for years we Mac folks yesterday's news that RIM used to love poking fun at would be delivering a Windows because it freezes up. comprehensive remote wipe Apple even made a commercial solution to BlackBerrys this about it. As someone who has year, Andy Lees is mentioning used both, I will say that I have at Microsoft's Worldwide seen this far, far less frequently Partner Conference today that with Macs... but it happens. an all-new Windows Phone Live When apps freeze, it's generally website will figure prominently pretty easy to deal with. Control into the Windows Phone 7 it, or just make it ring until you That's not what we'd call global -click (or "right" click for you equation when devices launch drive the thief out of his gourd. domination, of course, but crazy kids with your multitoward the end of 2010. It looks On a related note, Lees is also you've got to start somewhere. button mice) the app icon in the like the site is divided into two, announcing that we'll be seeing Windows Phone Live to offer arguably equally important the first volley of Windows remote wipe, location, and sync parts: a sync function, which P h o n e 7 d e v i c e s i n f i v e for your Windows Phone 7 lets you transfer photos directly languages -- English, French, device originally appeared on from your phone ( a la Kin German, Italian, and Spanish -- Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 Studio, perhaps?), move a n d t h a t W i n d o w s P h o n e 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our OneNote content, synchronize Marketplace(the Windows t e r m s f o r u s e o f f e e d s . contacts, and so on, and a suite P h o n e 7 v e r s i o n o f i t , Permalink| Windows Phone of tools for dealing with a lost or presumably) will be available in Blog| Email this| Comments stolen device -- you'll be able to 17 countries out of the gate. remotely wipe it, locate it, lock Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:00:00 AM

dock, and if it says "Application Not Responding" it will offer a "Force Quit" option. Hopefully that will do it. But what if it doesn't? Read on for your options... TUAW Terminal Tips: Unfreeze your Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

A Bettery Way to Ask People to Be Creative [Management] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 7/13/2010 7:30:00 AM

Tucked inside a big Newsweek

piece on the "The Creativity Crisis" is a sidebar filled with ideas on boosting your creativity, but also that of those

don't ask people to "be creative," and toss the you're working with. In short, s u g g e s t i o n b o x . M o r e Âť


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Slow-Cooker Monday: Teriyaki Chicken WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog) Submitted at 7/12/2010 3:00:00 PM

Please don't really turn your TV into an iPad Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 7/12/2010 9:00:00 PM

Filed under: iPad We've posted a lot of wacky Apple-related products here on the site, but I think this is the wackiest I've ever seen. A Russian firm is reportedly selling a series of plastic decals that will make any flatscreen television of a certain size into something that looks like an iPad.

Oh, you say, that's cute. What does it do -- maybe adds a little bit of chrome around the edges? No, this goes further -- it literally makes your television look like an iPad, complete with a Home button & black bar around the outside, and iTunes controls in the middle of the screen. That's right, the same controls that actually fade out of sight on the iPad because they're in the way can be on your TV screen for a small price.

We don't know what that price is, but honestly just the fact that these exist is strange enough. I like the iPad and all, but the screen size and onscreen controls are limits of the device, not features that you want to artificially impose on other screens. Update: According to text on the website, this was an April Fool's joke done by Russian design group DarkDesignGroup. Consider us fooled. At least our

faith in Russian designers is restored! [via Gearfuse] TUAW Please don't really turn your TV into an iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Last week I resolved to give my slow cooker a fair trial. I vowed to stop overcooking things in it, to stop being lazy and to pay attention to the techniques that would improve the flavor and texture of my slow-cooker meals. I was still skeptical, though, and this recipe, from Art of the Slow Cooker, goes against everything I believe a slow-cooker recipe should be. It involves many steps, the dirtying of many pans and a measly 2-hour unattended time. What's the point? When you try these teriyakiglazed chicken thighs, though, you'll realize it's all worth it. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Windows 7 SP1 Beta Available for Download—If You're an IT Worker [Windows 7] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:00:00 AM

Microsoft has opened up a beta test of Windows 7 SP1, but only if you're willing to sign on as an IT manager or professional. It's not all that different from Microsoft's normal course of action—corporate and IT go first, then consumers—but it's actually a bit more open than normal, not requiring a TechNet subscription or the like. Microsoft goes out of its way to warn consumers off downloading the beta, as it "does not provide new end-user look perfect for your low-power features." At best, there might Game Boy (video) be some Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Nemoptic's Active Matrix improvements, and maybe Binem displays look perfect for Bluetooth 3.0 inside, but if your low-power Game Boy you're really, truly eager to try (video) originally appeared on out the service pack, before the Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 anticipated public release later 09:06:00 EDT. Please see our this month, you know where to t e r m s f o r u s e o f f e e d s . look. More » Permalink| Technology Review| Email this| Comments

Nemoptic's Active Matrix Binem displays look perfect for your low-power Game Boy (video) Tim Stevens (Engadget)

rather more high-tech but still tiny displays called Binem Active Matrix E-paper, which While the grocery stores in our show a variety of interesting hood are apparently a little too tricks in a series of videos from low-tech for the stuff, Nemoptic June that Technology Review is has made quite a name for itself just now bringing to light. The in produce circles with its tiny, two-inch, 170dpi screens can cheap e-paper price tags, able to manage a 30ms refresh rate -reflect the continually rising just fast enough to handle video costs of Cap'n Crunch. Now the -- and can do partial refreshing, company is branching out with changing only portions of the Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:06:00 AM

display. Perhaps most interestingly the screens can be backlit, meaning they use a rather different construction than traditional E-Ink, but exactly how they work has yet to be disclosed. Check out the thrilling demonstration after the break and see if you can solve the mystery. Continue reading Nemoptic's Active Matrix Binem displays


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Street Chic: New York ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:00:00 AM

iPhone 4 plus Brailliant-32 display enables even blind men to experience the magic (video) Tim Stevens (Engadget)

kindly demonstrated by acoustic guitar virtuoso and software Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:28:00 AM guru Victor Tasaran. Using the The evolution of phones away six buttons on his Brailliant-32 from physical buttons toward he's able to navigate across touchscreens is great if you're icons, then feel the text beneath into clean, aesthetic design. But, each one -- or wait for the if you're suffering from limited hurried text-to-speech to read vision, there are some obvious back to him. It's an encouraging issues. Thankfully the iPhone 4 s o l u t i o n f o r s m a r t p h o n e at least has support for Braille accessibility, but does have a displays like those Brailliant, as rather negative impact on

portability -- and, we're sad to say, on cost as well. His 32character unit will set you back just under $4k, which is many times the cost of the phone itself. But, at least when it's used like in the video below, sitting on the table, he won't have to worry about signal issues. Continue reading iPhone 4 plus Brailliant-32 display enables even blind men to experience

the magic (video) iPhone 4 plus Brailliant-32 display enables even blind men to experience the magic (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink textually.org| VictorTsaran.net| Email this| Comments

Who: Kinga, cruising the streets in SoHo What: Stick with a simple short -sleeve dress to beat the summer heat. Wear: Pinkyotto dress, Pour la Victoire shoes, Juicy Couture bag Photo: Courtney D'Alesio Think you are Street Chic? Email us your photo and you could appear in ELLE.com's Street Chic Daily. Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!


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mSpot brings movie rentals to the iPad, works just fine over 3G Tim Stevens (Engadget) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:51:00 AM

right where you left off. Handy when it's time to run to the train and you just can't wait to see whether George Clooney's Up in the Air character manages to find room for true companionship in his backpack. mSpot brings movie rentals to the iPad, works just fine over 3G originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:51:00 EDT. Please see our higher quality. You can also rent t e r m s f o r u s e o f f e e d s . movies on your home computer, Permalink Zatz Not Funny!| pause them there, and then m o b i p u t i n g | E m a i l t h i s | resume playback on your iPad C o m m e n t s

E-reader News Edition

Nature's Prophet: Scientist Runs Numbers to Predict Future of Life Erin Biba (Wired Top Stories)

Hamilton has 10 terabytes of storage, two 12-CPU servers, and a 136-node computer Photo: Chloe Aftel cluster, which she uses to There are lots of scientists process data like temperature trying to determine the fate of and precipitation extrapolated plant and animal species in the from 17 different climate context of global warming. Few models. So far her team has command as much processing mapped out how climate change power as Healy Hamilton, might alter the habitats of a director of the Center for d o z e n s p e c i e s , f r o m t h e A p p l i e d B i o d i v e r s i t y Canadian lynx to the California Informatics at the California redwood. The academy has Academy of Sciences in San more than 25 million plant and Francisco. She got her start a n i m a l s p e c i m e n s i n i t s number-crunching nature with collection. Better upgrade that her PhD thesis, a DNA analysis CPU. of river dolphins. It required The Fate of the Canadian Lynx (AEI.Org: Articles) passed more sanctions against their nuclear and ballistic spending more than a month on Healy Hamilton used Iran. But neither these, nor the missile programs in the face of the Amazon in 2001, subsisting environmental data to forecast Submitted at 7/12/2010 6:00:00 PM r e c e n t S e c u r i t y C o u n c i l our feeble policy. . . . on fried piranha and collecting t h e d e s t i n y o f t h e N o r t h After considerable behind-the- sanctions, nor further EU This article is available by tissue samples by nicking the A m e r i c a n scenes squabbling, late last measures will prevent Iran's subscription from the Wall a q u a t i c m a m m a l s w i t h a wildcat. week the U.N. Security Council progress toward becoming a Street Journal. The full text will crossbow. (No Flippers were The Fate of the Jaguar f i n a l l y c o n d e m n e d t h e nuclear state. CIA Director Leon b e p o s t e d t o A E I . o r g o n killed.) Tricky enough, but the Five Filters featured article: unprovoked March 26 attack on Panetta admitted as much during M o n d a y , J u n e 1 9 . real challenge began when she Headshot - Propaganda, State a South Korean ship that killed ABC's "This Week" on June 27 John R. Bolton is a senior tried sequencing the samples on Religion and the Attack On the 4 6 s a i l o r s . U n f o r t u n a t e l y , w h e n a s k e d a b o u t U . N . fellow at AEI. t u r n - o f - t h e - m i l l e n n i u m Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available Chinese and Russian pressure s a n c t i o n s . Photo credit: UN Photo/John hardware. “I had a tiny data set tools: PDF Newspaper, Full produced a statement so weak As Tehran and Pyongyang can Isaac running on small computers,” Text RSS, Term Extraction. that it didn't actually finger plainly see, President Obama's Five Filters featured article: she says. “It would take weeks North Korea as the perpetrator, nonproliferation strategy is Headshot - Propaganda, State to analyze the DNA!” Today, nor did it mandate any concrete intellectually and politically Religion and the Attack On the response. Pyongyang declared exhausted. But U.S. exhaustion Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available victory. will not lead to stasis. North tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Just days before, Congress Korea and Iran will continue Text RSS, Term Extraction. If you find yourself a little unimpressed with Netflix's Instant selection and you're needing to rent something a bit newer right now, the new iPadoptimized version of the mSpot movie streaming app should fit all up in your niche. For between $2.99 and $3.99 you can rent and watch a movie streaming right to your little slab of delight over either 3G or WiFi, though we're told those who do it via 802.11 can expect

Beyond the Obama Nuke Policy

Submitted at 7/12/2010 11:00:00 PM


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American Fairness Means Equality of Opportunity, not Income (AEI.Org: Articles)

believes government should protect the returns for hard work and merit. The 30 percent In America we stand for coalition effectively wants the equality. But for the large government to penalize success. majority of us, this means This is America's culture war in equality of opportunity, not a nutshell. equality of outcome. The definition of fairness for If you are like most Americans, those in the 30 percent coalition, you believe we all should start fundamentally at odds with the at more or less the same place worldview of the 70 percent with more or less the same majority, is a huge liability for opportunities to succeed in life. them. They have concealed the But you also believe that, within central pillar of their ideology-reason, it's perfectly all right if income inequality--under a we end up in different places. misleading definition of If you are in the 70 percent f a i r n e s s . majority, you believe that They say one thing but mean everyone should get a chance to another. The 70 percent majority succeed. Or everyone should fail needs to expose this fact and on his or her own merits. If this reclaim the language of fairness leads to income inequality-- for the free enterprise system. above some acceptable floor--so The 30 percent coalition is be it. clever when it comes to The intellectual and political redistribution. It would have you leaders of the 30 percent believe that income inequality is coalition disagree. They prefer a equivalent to equality in other world in which we all end up in areas, such as law or politics or roughly the same economic religion. And because America, place regardless of our abilities t h e w o r l d ' s f i r s t m o d e r n and efforts. democracy, was founded on the This fundamental difference in principle of equality, its rhetoric worldview leads to a major can seem highly compelling if disagreement about the role of you don't think too deeply about government. The majority it. Submitted at 7/12/2010 6:00:00 PM

Legal equality, political equality, religious equality-almost all Americans would agree that these values are vital to our nation. But equality of income? That's a fundamentally different kind of equality. We can all agree that everyone has an equal right to a fair trial, but we certainly don't all agree that everyone has a right to receive a verdict of "innocent." Only the innocent people deserve that. Likewise, without our political system, we believe everyone has the right to vote, but we don't believe everyone has the right to see his or her chosen candidate elected to office. This is what makes the 30 percent coalition's reliance on the rhetoric of "fairness" so duplicitous. It implies that equality of outcome is a core American principle, when in fact what Americans believe in is equality of opportunity and the potential to earn success. It is easy to be intimidated by the rhetoric of "fairness." Nobody wants to sound antipoor. It is no surprise, therefore, that many in the 70 percent majority have chosen just to

cede to the 30 percent coalition the fairness issue and content themselves with making the case for economic efficiency. Proponents of free enterprise must not make this mistake. Fairness should not be a 30 percent trump card but rather its Achilles' heel. Equality of income is not fair. It is distinctly unfair. If you work harder than a coworker but are paid the same, that is unfair. If you save your money but still retire with the same pension as your spendthrift neighbor, that is unfair. And if you stay in your house and make the mortgage payments even when its value drops but your neighbor walks away without recourse, that is unfair. Arthur C. Brooks is president of AEI. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Gmail on Safari 5 Supports Drag-and-Drop Attachments, Stay-Open Windows [Gmail] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 7/13/2010 5:30:00 AM

Gmail was on an HTML5 roll this spring, adding drag-anddrop attachments, image insertion, and windows staying open after Gmail closes. Those features were Chrome-only, but have now made their way into Safari 5 on Windows and Mac. More Âť


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Are we "Trending Towards Deflation" or in It? noreply@blogger.com (Michael Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis) Submitted at 7/13/2010 2:18:00 AM

Paul Krugman is worried we are Trending Toward Deflation. Inflation has been falling, but how close are we to deflation? I found myself wondering that after observing John Makin’s combusting coiffure, his prediction that we might see deflation this year. Here’s the thing: the usual way inflation is measured is by looking at the change from a year earlier. But if inflation is trending lower, that’s a lagging indicator — if prices have been falling for the past few months, but were rising before that, inflation over the past year will still be positive. On the other hand, monthly data are noisy. So what to do? Well, a crude approach would be simply to fit a trend line through those noisy monthly numbers. Here’s what happens when you do this for the Cleveland Fed’s median consumer price inflation number. On the vertical axis is the monthly inflation at an annual rate, on the horizontal axis months with Jan. 2008=0: ... What I take from this is that deflation isn’t some distant possibility — it’s already here by some measures, not far off by others. And of course there isn’t

some magic boundary effect when you cross zero; falling inflation is raising real interest rates and making debt problems worse as we speak. There is a second chart and further discussion in Krugman's article. The Rising Threat of Deflation The article Krugman referred to is The Rising Threat of Deflation. Here are a few snips highlighting Makin's and Krugman's concern over prices. U.S. year-over-year core inflation has dropped to 0.9 percent—its lowest level in forty-four years. The six-month annualized core consumer price index inflation level has dropped even closer to zero, at 0.4 percent. Europe’s year-over -year core inflation rate has fallen to 0.8 percent—the lowest level ever reported in the series that began in 1991. Heavily indebted Spain’s year-over-year core inflation rate is down to 0.1 percent. Ireland’s deflation rate is 2.7 percent. As commodity prices slip, inflation will become deflation globally in short order. Meanwhile in Japan, while analysts were touting Japan’s first-quarter real growth rate of 5 percent, few bothered to notice that over the past year Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) deflator had fallen 2.8 percent, reflecting an accelerating pace of deflation in a country where the price level has been falling every year

alone are under the preposterous notion that we are trending towards hyperinflation. The problem with using money supply alone as a measure of inflation is it looks (and is) damn silly. Home prices have never fallen in hyperinflation and never will. Short-term yields have never been at 0% in hyperinflation and never will. The list does on and on. Given that we have a fiat-based credit system, it is equally silly to discuss inflation/deflation without paying attention to credit. After all, the Fed can print but it cannot force banks to lend or consumers to spend. Credit expansion is the key to inflation in a fiat-credit system. Those focused on prices or since 2004. As of May, Japan’s concerned over the falling yield money supply alone, and those year-over-year core deflation curve which signals risk worried that Fed printing and rate stood at 1.6 percent. avoidance. Of course Bernanke excess reserves will soon spark Consumer Prices Least of is very concerned about jobs. inflation have missed the boat. Bernanke's Worries I do not know how to rank Please see Fictional Reserve Note the concern over the CPI those concerns other than to say Lending And The Myth Of by Krugman and Makin. Is that everyone of them is far more Excess Reserves and also Fiat what Bernake is most worried important to the Fed than World Mathematical Model for about? whether the CPI drops an a rebuttal to the notion that I doubt it. essentially meaningless point monetary printing will soon Bernanke is far more likely to from here. have the inflation genie flying be worried about home prices The CPI is meaningless because out of the bottle. and commercial real estate we are already back in deflation. Practical Definition of Inflation prices, neither of which are is in I say "back" because we were in and Deflation the CPI. Next up, Bernanke is deflation in 2007 and 2008. My definition of inflation is seriously concerned over falling Devil is in the Definition much more practical given that bank credit and marked-toWhether or not we are in it incorporates credit and market valuations of debt on the deflation or trending towards it marked-to-market concerns that balance sheets of banks. Those depends on how it is defined. affect banks' willingness to are not in the CPI either. For example, monetary purists ARE page 34 No doubt Bernanke is also very worried about money supply


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Hussman on Misallocating Resources, Market Valuations, Earnings Estimates, and Public Policy noreply@blogger.com (Michael Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)

market plunged by more than half. There's a great deal of analysis regarding forward operating earnings that I published in 2007, but probably Submitted at 7/12/2010 7:28:00 PM Once again John Hussman has the most comprehensive piece written an excellent weekly was Long Term Evidence on the column. This week, in Fed Model and Forward M i s a l l o c a t i n g R e s o u r c e s , Operating P/E Ratios from Hussman talks about stock August 20, 2007. Optimism is market valuations, PE ratios, Insane bailouts, and other things. I happened to mention similar Let's start with a look at stock thoughts last week in a Tech market valuations. Ticker with Joe Weisenthal: Market Valuations and Mish: Say No to Stocks, Earnings Estimates Because Optimism Is "Insane" F r o m H u s s m a n . . . O n a The optimism I mentioned was valuation basis, the S&P 500 in relation to earnings estimates, remains about 40% above not trader sentiment measures historical norms on the basis of such as bull vs. bear measures. n o r m a l i z e d e a r n i n g s . T h e Continuing with Hussman ... disparity between our valuation When you hear analysts say assessment and the putative that the historical average P/E undervaluation being touted by ratio is about 15, you have to Wall Street analysts is so great recognize that this is the normal that a few remarks are in order. P/E based on trailing 12-month First, virtually every assessment earnings after subtracting all that "stocks are cheap" here is writeoffs and other charges. based on the ratio of the S&P Forward operating earnings are 500 to year-ahead operating invariably much higher, and it earnings estimates, and often turns out that the comparable comes with a comparison of the historical norm, as I discuss in resulting "earnings yield" with that 2007 piece, is only about the depressed 10-year Treasury 12. If you exclude the late yield. What's fascinating about 1990's bubble valuations, you this is that this is the same basis get a historical norm closer to on which analysts deemed 11.5. The 1982 and 1974 market s t o c k s t o b e a b o u t 4 0 % lows occurred at about 6 times undervalued just prior to the estimated forward operating 2007 top, following which the earnings.

A final observation is crucial. Current forward operating earnings estimates assume profit margins for the S&P 500 companies that are nearly 50% above their long-term historical norms. While we did observe such profit margins for a brief shining moment in 2007, profit margins are extraordinarily cyclical. Investors will walk themselves over a cliff if they price stocks as if profit margins, going forward, will be dramatically and sustainably higher than U.S. companies achieved in all of market history. Bill Hester provides more insight on Wall Street earnings projections in his latest research piece Wall Street Earnings

Expectations Ignore Economic Divergences Now switching to Bill Hester ... From the link immediately above This week brings the official start to second-quarter earnings announcements. As the mechanism for data delivery gets switched from the faucet to the fire hose, investors may want to keep a few things in mind as the reporting season progresses. Lofty earnings expectations result in poor stock market performance, on average. The chart below gives one perspective into how bullish stock analysts currently are. The data is compiled by Ned Davis and it shows the median

estimated one-year earnings growth rate for the companies in the S&P 500. Analysts are now forecasting more than 21 percent earnings growth for the median stock over the next year, a record level in the 30 years of data. As John Hussman noted in Recession Warning, three of the four metrics that provided a warning of an approaching recession in 2007 are in place. A drop in the PMI index to 54 or below is the remaining indicator in that original set of metrics that hasn't signaled. The chart shows the growing divergence between expectations for earnings and the global PMI indexes. The spread between the changes in global PMI Indexes and global earnings expectations is an increasing concern, especially considering the evidence that increases the probability of renewed economic weakness. Earnings growth forecasts have never been higher measured by the median expectation. This alone, typically leads to poor stock performance. The growing gap between PMI Indexes and earnings expectations increases these potential risks. Hester has 5 charts in total so HUSSMAN page 36


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extend credit. I define inflation as a net expansion of money supply and credit, with credit marked-tomarket. Deflation is a net contraction of money supply and credit, with credit marked-to -market. Given that consumer credit is plunging at unprecedented rates, given that credit dwarfs money supply creation, and given that marked-to-market valuations of credit on the balance sheets of banks is again falling, I propose we are back again in deflation. My model suggests part of 2007 and all of 2008 were deflationary years. Inflation returned in 2009, and the economy is back in deflation now. Proof is in conditions one would expect to see in deflation. Humpty Dumpty on Inflation In Humpty Dumpty on Inflation I proposed a series of conditions one might expect to see in deflation. Let's take a look at the current state of those conditions.

(or at least close) as measured by the CPI. My preferred measure would directly include home prices and that would/will tip the CPI negative soon enough. I consider housing (but not the land it sits on) a consumer good. • Rising Unemployment - It is high and essentially steady. My model suggests no improvement at best, and far more likely new highs above 11% • Falling Stock Market - Yes as measured since the start of the year • Falling Credit Marked to Market - Yes, most assuredly • Spiking Base Money supply as Fed fights Deflation - This depends on your timeframe, but charts sure show a spike Another spike is likely • Banks Hoarding Cash Falling consumer loans Declining bank credit - Yes, Yes, Yes • Rising Savings Rate - Yes. The US savings rate rose to an 8 -month high in May • Purchasing power of gold rising - Yes • Rising numbers of bank failures - Yes

who say this is not deflation have the wrong definition. Note that I expect gold should wise in deflation. I say that on the basis that Gold is Money and gold in the senior currency has historically increased in value in deflationary times. Other deflationists, some very notable ones, definitely got this wrong. Bernanke's Deflation Prevention Scorecard In case no one is keeping track, Bernanke has now fired every bullet from his 2002 “ helicopter drop” speech Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here. Bernanke's Scorecard Here is Bernanke’s roadmap, and a “point-by-point” list from that speech. 1. Reduce nominal interest rate to zero. Check. That didn’t work... 2. Increase the number of dollars in circulation, or credibly threaten to do so. Check. That didn’t work... 3. Expand the scale of asset • Falling Treasury Yields - Yes purchases or, possibly, expand • Falling Home Prices - Yes, as the menu of assets it buys. measured by Case-Shiller Check & check. That didn’t • Rising Corporate Bond Yields work... - Not substantially - Yet. Nearly every condition one 4. Make low-interest-rate loans H o w e v e r s o v e r e i g n c r e d i t would expect to see in deflation to banks. Check. That didn’t spreads are widening is happening, The few that aren't work... • Rising Dollar - Yes are close at hand and likely. If 5. Cooperate with fiscal • Falling Commodity Prices - those are the things one would authorities to inject more Yes as measured by the $CRB expect to see in deflation, and money. Check. That didn’t from the beginning of 2010 t h e s c o r e c a r d i s c l o s e t o work... • Falling Consumer Prices - Yes unanimous, I suggest that those 6. Lower rates further out

along the Treasury term structure. Check. That didn’t work... 7. Commit to holding the overnight rate at zero for some specified period. Check. That didn’t work... 8. Begin announcing explicit ceilings for yields on longermaturity Treasury debt (bonds maturing within the next two years); enforce interest-rate ceilings by committing to make unlimited purchases of securities at prices consistent with the targeted yields. Check, and check. That didn’t work... 9. If that proves insufficient, cap yields of Treasury securities at still longer maturities, say three to six years. Check (they’re buying out to 7 years right now.) That didn’t work... 10. Use its existing authority to operate in the markets for agency debt. Check (in fact, they “own” the agency debt market!) That didn’t work... 11. Influence yields on privately issued securities. (Note: the Fed used to be restricted in doing that, but not anymore.) Check. That didn’t work... 12. Offer fixed-term loans to banks at low or zero interest, with a wide range of private assets deemed eligible as collateral (…Well, I’m still waiting for them to accept bellybutton lint & Beanie Babies, but I’m sure my

patience will be rewarded. Besides their “mark-tomaturity” offers will be more than enticing!) Anyway… Check. That didn’t work... 13. Buy foreign government debt (and although Ben didn’t specifically mention it, let’s not forget those dollar swaps with foreign nations.) Check. That didn’t work... Bernanke has failed. "It" has happened. Now What? I wrote about Bernanke's Deflation Prevention Scorecard in April 2009. Regarding points 8 and 9 above: the Fed did purchase treasuries and agencies, but admittedly without an explicit ceiling. The Fed has stopped those purchases but is likely to start again. Would Flattening the Curve Help? Many propose that the Fed is likely to flatten the yield curve by setting explicit yield targets on the high end. Will that help? How? I see no credible reason it would cause banks to go on a lending spree or consumers to go on a buying spree. Indeed, I do not see how forcing down the yield curve with massive treasury purchases will do much of anything but making a bigger exit problem for the Fed at some ARE page 39


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Kentucky Retirees May Soon Outnumber Pension Contributors noreply@blogger.com (Michael Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)

windows" the legislature created in recent years to encourage retirement and reduce the payroll. One such incentive let workers base their pensions on Submitted at 7/12/2010 4:27:00 PM In attempting to reduce current their best three years of salaries payouts, Kentucky granted rather than their best five years. excess benefits to workers who These incentives cause would go on early retirement. headaches at the Kentucky The result was less than stellar. Retirement Systems because Please consider Retirees may they send droves of workers for s o o n o u t n u m b e r w o r k e r s the exit years earlier than contributing to state pension expected, Burnside said. That system produces more people taking Just four years ago, there were money from the funds, fewer 5 1 , 0 2 7 s t a t e w o r k e r s people giving money and less contributing toward the pension money to invest for gains, he f u n d a n d 3 4 , 1 2 0 r e t i r e e s said. drawing benefits from it. By Most state employees hired 2009, the number of workers before 2008 can retire after 27 slipped to 50,394 while the years and collect a pension number of retirees leapt 19 based on an average of their percent to 40,531. best-paid years of service. For (In a separate fund for Kentucky instance, a worker who earned State Police workers, there $50,000 a year would draw an already are 239 more retirees annual pension of $27,000 for getting pensions than active the rest of her life, plus cost of t r o o p e r s o n d u t y . C o u n t y living increases. Workers who governments, served by a third perform "hazardous duty," such fund, had 93,481 workers and as police officers, can retire 45,564 retirees.) after 20 years. At the same time, benefits got In the private sector, only a little richer for workers who about one in five workers still l e f t u n d e r t h e " i n c e n t i v e have a "defined-benefits"

pension that guarantees payments for life, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce has used its Frankfort lobbying clout in recent years to call for a less generous public retirement package, in part because the costs help to starve other priorities, such as education. "Clearly the state has tremendous financial problems now and we need to find ways to address this situation," said Dave Adkisson, chamber president. Adkisson challenges the notion that government employees deserve better retirement benefits as compensation for salaries that are smaller than the private sector's. Based on the most recent data, Adkisson said, the average Kentucky state employee gets $40,900 a year, compared to $34,950 a year for the average private employee in Kentucky. Once again, the first thing to do is stop digging deeper holes. Defined benefit pension plans need to be stopped immediately

for new hires. Second, as many public union jobs a possible (in theory all of them) should be privatized. Finally, existing benefit promises need to be look at from every angle to see what can be done. Cities and counties can go bankrupt, but states can't. The ultimate solution for states is simple: default. Public Pension Plans are like Rotting Whales Every day, union supporters send me emails whining about these kind of posts. One person proposed I was "ignoring whales" while focusing on minnows. Here is the deal, public unions along with corrupt politicians have bankrupted nearly every state in the union. This is one of the biggest issues facing the US, if not the biggest issue. Yes, we bailed out the banks, but no one railed against that more than I did. The battle was lost. The new battle is for fiscal sanity. It makes no sense to fight battles that are over. We cannot undo the bank bailouts. We can do something about public unions and public union

greed. Public unions and untenable pension problems are the whales in the living room. It is high time we do something about it because the whales are rotting and the stench is unbearable. Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspo t.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. V i s i t h t t p : / / www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Use Water-Based Lubricant for Easy Unsticking and Even Easier Cleanup [Clever Uses] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:30:00 AM

While grabbing an oil can with some household oil or WD-40 might be your first instinct when

water-based lubricant works just as well for temporary use with a you need to unstick something, fraction of the cleanup. More Âť


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Culture/

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please give the article a closer look. Commenting on Public Policy I like to comment on public policy although some wish me to stick with the economy. The problem is, someone has to stand up to Krugman, Geithner, Summers, Bernanke, and others who want to do nothing more than throw money at every problem. Hussman seems to feel the same way. From the first link ... Misallocating resources There is little question that we have, for more than a decade, squandered our productive resources in the pursuit of bubbles. Almost unbelievably, real private gross domestic investment is lower today than it was 12 years ago, and much of the gross domestic investment that we have made in the interim has been destroyed in mispriced speculative activity such as residential construction and commercial real estate development. If our only response to excess consumption is to pull out all the stops trying to "stimulate" consumption every time it falters; if our only response to reckless lending is to defend the bondholders every time their poor allocation of capital threatens to produce a loss for them, then quite simply, we will

destroy our economy, our future, and our standard of living. The last thing I want to be is a cheerleader for the bears here. But quite honestly, it's difficult to envision a return to long-term saving, productive investment, and thoughtful allocation of capital until - as happens every two or three decades - the speculative elements of Wall Street are crushed to powder. With regard to education, my impression is that the educational sector in the U.S. is about as inflexible the European labor market - the entire structure is hugely inefficient because it is detached from measures of quality and student t i m e - o n - t a s k , undercompensating many excellent teachers and at the same time institutionalizing the employment of poor ones. Meanwhile, the failure of parents to maintain a heavy involvement in their kids' education, in the belief that the responsibility for education, personal responsibility and moral development can simply be thrust onto teachers, is a problem that money alone can't address. If we as a nation fail to allow market discipline, to create incentives for research and development, to discourage

speculative bubbles, to accumulate productive capital, and to maintain adequate educational achievement and human capital, the real wages of U.S. workers will slide toward those of developing economies. The real income of a nation is identical its real output - one cannot grow independent of the other. Those who understand economics and have a strong opinion on public policy need to state it. I appreciate the fact that Hussman is willing to do so. The Fed of course sees things differently. In"Economics is Hard. Don’t Let Bloggers Tell You Otherwise" the Fed says bloggers have nothing to add to the economic debate. This self-serving statement means that the only people qualified to talk on the economy are the very same dunces who were wrong about everything, every step of the way. Key Points • Sharply rising earnings estimates do not match the fundamentals • It is easy to get sucked into believing "stocks are cheap" by focusing on wildly optimistic forward earnings estimates. • Stimulating consumption when the problem is debt cannot possibly work, something I said last week in a Tech Ticker

segment"Stimulus Will Fail Like it Always Does" • We have squandered our real wealth in pursuit of bubbles, while bailing out those most responsible I just touched on those points above, inquiring minds will want to give Hussman's and Hester's articles a closer look. Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspo t.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. V i s i t h t t p : / / www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Use the Swiss Cheese Method to Schedule Freelance Work [Scheduling] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 7/13/2010 7:00:00 AM

When you're working for yourself, it's easy to think you need to work non-stop on the first project that fits into your schedule. The Freelance Switch blog suggests using leaving some holes between project days so you can seize great opportunities. More »


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PRIME Mortgage Delinquencies Rise For 37th Straight Month Joe Weisenthal (The Money Game)

were current on their mortgage the previous month and became delinquent the next (monthly Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:42:53 AM current-to-delinquent roll rates) From Fitch: remained elevated. ---------------------------‘The persistently high roll rates Fitch Ratings-New York-13 indicate that the delinquency July 2010: U.S. Prime RMBS declines are more a reflection of serious delinquencies rose for increased property liquidation the 37th consecutive month, and ongoing loan modification a c c o r d i n g t o t h e l a t e s t activity than of widespread Performance Metrics results i m p r o v e m e n t i n m o r t g a g e from Fitch Ratings. Conversely, payment performance,’ said Alt-A RMBS delinquencies Managing Director Vincent declined for the third successive Barberio. Additionally ‘Prime month while Subprime late-pays RMBS has yet to show any fell for the fourth straight signs of a favorable turnaround.’ month. Subprime RMBS delinquencies Prime jumbo RMBS 60+ day fell again in June, down to delinquencies rose to 10.4% for 43.7% from 44.8% the prior June, up from 10.3% for May month. They remain above the and 6.4% a year ago. Since the 41.2% rate of a year ago. The b e g i n n i n g o f t h e y e a r roll rate for June fell slightly to delinquencies are up 1.2%. June 4.2% from 4.3% the prior month roll rates for Prime RMBS but remained well below the r e m a i n e d a b o v e 1 % a f t e r trailing 12-month average of dipping below that level in April 5.3%. b u t r e m a i n e d b e l o w t h e i r Alt-A RMBS delinquencies h i g h e s t - e v e r l e v e l ( 1 . 4 % ) decreased to 33.7% in June from recorded in March. 33.9% in May (up from 29.1% While the improvements in in June 2009), representing the Subprime and Alt-A RMBS third month-over-month decline delinquencies are noteworthy, since April 2006. California and the portion of borrowers who Florida hold more than 50% of

the volume of Alt-A RMBS loans outstanding. While Florida delinquencies rose slightly to 51.8%, California delinquencies fell to 35.1% from 35.5% the prior month. Despite the fall in delinquencies, roll rates remained high rising to 3.4% in June from 3.1% in May. Prior to a sharp decline in April, roll rates had not been below 3% since June 2008. California prime jumbo loan performance weakened slightly in June, with 60+ days delinquencies rising to 12.1% from 12% in May (and 7.4% in June 2009). During the first six months of 2010, Florida had the biggest jump (2.1%) of the five states with the highest volume of jumbo loans outstanding. New Jersey was second of the five states with a 1.6% increase over the same period. The five states with the highest volume of prime RMBS loans outstanding (California, New York, Florida, Virginia, and New Jersey) combined represent approximately two-thirds of the total sector. Prime jumbo RMBS 60+ day delinquencies for these states at June 2010 compared to

the prior month, and their approximate share of the estimated $354 billion market, are as follows: --California: 12.1%; up from 12% (44% share of the market); --New York: 7.1%; up from 7% (7% share); --Florida: 18.1%; up from 18% (6% share); --Virginia: 5.5%; down from 5.6% (5% share); --New Jersey: 8.7%; up from 8.5% (3% share). Fitch's RMBS Performance Metrics combines loan level data from Fitch Ratings and LoanPerformance to include delinquency trends, roll rate movement and loss rates across vintage, sector, and mortgage type. The report also includes data on mortgage servicing trends, such as modification activity and advancing percentages, as well as a summary of bond rating changes. Join the conversation about this story »

NHL 11 dev diary sticks to wall sticks and broken sticks Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:15:00 AM

The first in a series of dev diaries demoing NHL 11's new features focuses on the title's realism-emulating additions. Things like: Physics-based player collisions, broken sticks, more intricate faceoffs, and the integration of the Canadian Hockey League, who all have a very realistic Maple-y smell. Continue reading NHL 11 dev diary sticks to wall sticks and broken sticks NHL 11 dev diary sticks to wall sticks and broken sticks originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments


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Kelly Nguyen for Georgia District 5 - Atlanta noreply@blogger.com (Michael Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis) Submitted at 7/12/2010 12:39:00 PM

I have a few more candidates that I would like you to consider supporting in the upcoming mid -term elections. The first of these candidates is Kelly Nguyen running in Georgia's 5th Congressional District. Please check out Kelly Nguyen Stands on Issues. • Jobs and the Economy: Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and employ over half of all Americans. The recession was inevitable because of federal policies working against small businesses. We must reverse federal policies to save small businesses, even though special interests are against it. • Bailouts: It is futile to hope bailouts can save us from an economic crisis. The federal government should not burden taxpayers by bailing out irresponsible banks and failed corporations. When small

businesses fail, the federal government does not swoop in to save them, and it should not be any different with banking and big business. There is no such thing as “too big to fail.” • Size and Scope of Government: When government takes half the wealth from the people, dictates what individuals can and cannot do in their personal lives, and spends trillions of dollars it does not have, government is too big. To lower taxes, we must downsize the federal government. Downsizing the federal government should be first on the agenda, then reducing and eliminating income taxes. Kelly Nguyen Writes ... Hello Mish, I am running for Congress in GA's 5th Congressional District. I've lived in Atlanta for 17 years, where I work as a selfemployed contractor in graphic design and web development. Before becoming self-employed, I managed various small businesses for several years. My main motivation behind

Best of 2010 (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

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r i c h f l a v o r and our highest rating. "Easy and beautiful, this tart will satisfy every chocoholic's need for a chocolate fix," c o m m e n t s T e s t

running for Congress is the disenfranchisement I have experienced dealing with federal /state regulations and overtaxation. I believe government policing of small businesses has been a major contributing factor in the U.S. economic crisis, along with market manipulations caused by the federal reserve, and a nonhumble, empirical foreign policy. I am a Ron Paul Republican. In Liberty, Kelly Nguyen It is not often voters get a chance to elect a candidate of the quality of a Ron Paul or Kelly Nguyen. Please do what you can to Support Kelly Nguyen. Please click on the link and donate to the Money Bomb for Kelly. If you wish to volunteer time, please Contact Kelly Nguyen. Every vote matters! It's long overdue we elect Congressional representatives who will uphold the constitution, are fiscally conservative, and genuinely want to do something about bureaucratic waste and massive

government spending. I am very optimistic about Kelly Nguyen's chances, but you have to help. Please make a contribution of time or money. Primary Tuesday, July 20th! If you want to lower your taxes, please vote Kelly Nguyen! Contact your neighbors and have them do the same. Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / / globaleconomicanalysis.blogspo t.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. V i s i t h t t p : / / www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Tips For Emailing Your Boss (Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 7/13/2010 2:00:00 AM

Home| Fitness| Nutrition| Advice| Sports & Outdoors| Style| Interviews| Video & Photo Galleries| Polls| Win Stuff| Store Site Map| Contact| Training Team| Subscribe| Newsletter Sign Up| Advertising Information| Customer Care| Privacy Policy MensFitness.com is part of The American Media Inc Fitness & Health Network © 2010 Weider Publications, LLC, a subsidiary of American Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mensfitness.com is a member of the Guy's TRiBE anchored by Spike.com Visit our other publications online: Health & Fitness: Fit Pregnancy| Flex| iShape| Men's Fitness| Muscle & Fitness| Muscle & Fitness Hers| Natural Health| Shape Entertainment: Country Kitchen Professional Deb Wise. Religion and the Attack On the Weekly| National Enquirer| Star View Recipe: Upside-Down Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available Five Filters featured article: Fudge-Almond Tart tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Headshot - Propaganda, State Next January: Poutine Text RSS, Term Extraction. Religion and the Attack On the Five Filters featured article: Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available Headshot - Propaganda, State tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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point down the road. Moreover, it looks like the yield curve is falling nicely on its own accord! Consumer Credit Inflection Point The key problem for Bernanke is we have reached the Consumption Inflection Point No One Wants Credit; Consumer Spending Plans Plunge Keynesian Policies Fail Keynesian stimulus measures have failed and will continue to fail. Please see Three Mish Segments on Tech Ticker, on Stimulus, Retail Sales, the Markets, Alternatives for details and an online interview. We have wasted $2 trillion fighting deflation. It has not produced any jobs. The correct way to spur growth is by fostering an economy that supports economic growth. For details, please see Bleak

Outlook for Small Businesses and Job Creation; Where Obama Went Wrong, and What to do About It. Keynesian Cures Worse than the Disease Krugman has the wrong definition and the wrong worry. However, he is correct in his call for deflation. Unfortunately, this will lead to a bunch of "I told you so" kinds of posts from Krugman, in spite of the fact his cures are worse than the disease. Indeed, Keynesian "cures" are one of the reasons this economy is in the mess it is in. The final analysis shows that the real threat is not of deflation, but of absurd Keynesian and Monetarist attempts to prevent it. The Greenspan-Bernanke housing bubble (and subsequent crash), and decades of futility in Japan should be proof enough. Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / /

globaleconomicanalysis.blogspo t.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. V i s i t h t t p : / / www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

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Top 5 Myths about Facebook (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)

the initiative in creating the Internet" in an interview with CNN. While that's still a big If you've been on the Internet claim, many argue it's a far cry for any length of time, you've from claiming he engineered probably come across one of the routers and laid fiber optic hundreds of hoaxes that are cables with his bare hands. floating around cyberspace. In Clearly, the explosive growth fact, many of these half-truths of the Internet has created a fair and outright myths have been share of misunderstandings, making the rounds nearly as fabrications and myths, and now long as the word "Internet" has it's one of the Internet's most been a part of our vocabulary. In popular sites, Facebook, that's 1997, for instance, an e-mail stirring up rumors. With more promising quick riches and a than 250 million users, it's only copy of Windows 98, courtesy natural that some Facebook of Bill Gates, flooded Inboxes fables have taken shape. Here across the world. Predictably, are the top five Facebook myths, Bill Gates wasn't actually starting with one that could parting with his billions to have make a lot of people very upset people forward e-mails to their if it were to come true. friends. Five Filters featured article: A few years later, Al Gore Headshot - Propaganda, State made a crucial mistake during Religion and the Attack On the his presidential campaign when Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available he claimed that he invented the tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Internet. Only he didn't. In Text RSS, Term Extraction. reality, Gore claimed he "took Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:00:00 AM

5 Ways to Take Care of Your Feet Every Day (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)

of muscles, tendons and ligaments, your feet absorb the impact of your full body weight Your feet are probably the last with every step, keeping you part of your body you think balanced and upright in the about -- until they start hurting. process. T h e y ' r e t o o i m p o r t a n t t o The problems that can afflict overlook, though: With some 26 your feet are numerous. Foot bones and a complex framework odor, cracked skin, fallen Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:00:00 AM

arches, corns, ingrown toenails, fungal infections and even damaged bones can cause discomfort and reduced mobility. While some of these problems are congenital, you can avoid many of them with a little TLC. If that wasn't enough of an incentive, all of these

problems tend to worsen as we age, so if foot care doesn't seem important now, it will be. The best way to keep your feet healthy is a simple regimen of daily care that will help keep the skin, bones and muscles of your feet functioning properly. Here are five foot care steps you can

use every day. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Economy/ Culture/ TV/

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Why Spain's World Cup Win Helped Coconut Water vs. The World Economy Sports Drinks: Which Should You Choose? Gus Lubin (The Money Game) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:27:56 AM

Although the evidence is a bit shaky, economists at Chosun Ilbo have found a positive economic trend for countries that win the World Cup. Since Spain was a market bête noire, a boost would help the global economy. Here it is: A study of the economic growth rate of the winners of the World Cup in the last two decades shows that five -except for 1998, when the whole of Asia was hit badly by the economic crisis -- saw growth soar compared to the year before their victory. Argentina, the 1986 winner, recorded an impressive 7.1 percent of economic growth.

ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 7/12/2010 2:37:25 PM

Germany (1990) posted 5.7 percent, up 1.8 percent from 3.9 percent the year before. Brazil (1994 and 2002) saw 5.9 percent and 2.7 percent, up 1 and 1.4 percent. And 2006 champion Italy recorded 2 percent growth that year, up 0.66 percent from 2005. As for reasons, Chosun Ilbo

It may seem like an obvious answer, but it's still easier to reach for the Vitamin Water and if you're on an all-natural beauty kick, you probably don't want to do that. Instead, you might want to check out what's been dubbed offers better consumer sentiment "nature’s sports drink”: With and higher spending on alcohol, natural sugar, no artificial flavor, and loads of vitamin C, clothes, and sports. On the other hand, check out 9 it’s no wonder everyone's gone Reasons Why Spain Is A Dead nutty for coconut water. Though both it and other sports Economy Walking --> drinks contain sodium and Join the conversation about this potassium, which are lost story » through sweat during heavy exercise, their ratios of these important electrolytes differ: An 8.5 fl.oz serving of Vita Coco has 30 mg of sodium and 515 mg of potassium, whereas an 8 s t o r e s t o d a y a r e D V D fl.oz serving of Gatorade has collections of some comedy 220 mg of sodium and 90 mg of greats, including The Lucy potassium. Loss of both sodium Show and The Best of Saturday and potassium can contribute to Night Live Will Ferrell and painful exercise-induced muscle Tracy Morgan. cramping, but lack of sodium is Find out the rest of the titles out the main culprit, making sodium today after the jump! Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

New Shows on DVD for July 13 Elizabeth Chan (TV Squad) Submitted at 7/13/2010 5:00:00 AM

Filed under: TV Shows on DVD Don't you hate when you feel the thrill of discovering a new show and realize you're deep into its second season?! If that was you after last night's season 2 premiere of 'White Collar' -- you're definitely in luck today. The complete first season comes out on DVD. Just

in time for you to catch up and look like the uber-fan around the water cooler. Other honorable mentions in

-packed Gatorade the winner. For general re-hydration, however, the ideal drink just depends on what you like and in Hollywood at least, coconut water's what everyone likes. While Madonna, Demi Moore, and Matthew McConaughey have invested in Vita Coco, Rihanna, Anne Hathaway, and Minnie Driver gulp O.N.E. Coconut Water(Driver, in fact, just hosted a O.N.E.-sponsored birthday party for her 2-year-old son, Henry, in Malibu over the weekend). So are you team Madonna or team Rihanna? —EMILY HEBERT Photo: Courtesy of GNC


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Merkel's Government Set For September Union Strikes Isabelle Schafer (The Money Game) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:55:00 AM

The German government has entered its two-month-long summer break, a time in which German politics rests a little. But to make sure the government coalition doesn't snooze too peacefully, the unions let politicians go with a warning, as Der Spiegel reports. "We will mobilize in the fall," said Michael Sommer, the chef of the German Unions Organization (DGB), to the regional newspaper 'Passauer Neue Presse'. "The government political parties shall feel the pressure of the people." He announced organized actions in companies throughout the country starting in September. A couple of days before the

break, the coalition had agreed on a controversial reform of the health care system. "If the government thinks the people will just nod off their coalition compromises, they're wrong." said Sommer. Union protesters will target both the austerity budget and health care reforms come September. And, seeing how

weak Merkel's coalition already is, this could bring her chancellorship into further doubt. Join the conversation about this story Âť

Alexa Chung, Agyness Deyn & M.I.A. Spent Their Sunday Singing ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs)

concert-goers attention as much as the free-flowing DosEquis was the shipping container Submitted at 7/12/2010 4:06:49 PM turned flip book maker. After Yesterday was like Official snapping a few photos, everyone Summer Concert Kick-off day got their own customized flip in the outer boroughs. book. In Williamsburg, All Saints Meanwhile, Opening kicked off their Jelly Pool pub. Ceremony's record release party What's that? A massive (and for M.I.A took place at PS1 in thankfully quite cool) brick Long Island City, Queens. The building behind the stage. The singer, and two of her dancers, stage, which will host a parade had to move inside after noise of indie bands this summer, c o m p l a i n t s w h i c h c u t t h e f e a t u r e d p e r f o r m a n c e s b y potential crowd in half. And Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu yesterday despite the 90° temperatures, and the audience included both they wore abayas screen printed Agyness Deyn and Alexa Chung with the new album art. No (the former in AllSaints and the word yet on whether or not latter in strawberry-covered Opening Ceremony plans to sell YSL). those. But the only thing that held


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Self-Service: The Delicate Dance of Online Bragging Evan Ratliff (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 7/12/2010 11:00:00 PM

Illustration: Stephen Doyle A few years ago, I belonged to an informal group of freelance writers and editors who would assemble regularly to drink and talk shop. One evening, someone in our rotating cast brought along a new member, who began regaling us with tales of her editorial triumphs and financial success. Apparently she never got the memo that our gatherings were outlets for complaint and commiseration. As the evening wore on, the rest of us adopted a logical, if immature, course of action: We all pretended to go home and then reconvened at another bar without her. In the parlance of our times, you might say that we collectively unfollowed her. If this episode had actually taken place in today’s world of online social networking, however, we probably wouldn’t have batted an eye. The selfaggrandizement that offended the group is standard fare in my Twitter feed — my own posts too often included. (BTW, I’ll be appearing on TV this week.)

But far from clearing out the virtual bar, expressions of vanity online are usually rewarded with a cascade of back-patting: a virtual thumbs-up, a hearty “congrats!,” a “proud-to-knowyou” retweet. Social networking sites have inverted the rules of privacy and etiquette, and no cultural norm is tossed aside more often on the Web than plain old modesty. This raises an existential question: When you celebrate yourself online, are you a willing participant in a brave new social future, or are you just being an ass? Don’t panic; it’s the former — as long as you strike a balance. For sure, posting anything online is an act of either inherent immodesty or existence affirmation, depending on your outlook: “I’m alive! I’m doing (or discovering) things! People out there should give a damn!” Bragging is practically coded into social media’s DNA, and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. We show off by noting the interestingness of our companions, the solidity of our relationships, the fabulousness of our meals. What are an excess of Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections for if not low-

intensity name-dropping? “Look how many fascinating people are willing to connect with me.” An entire taxonomy of status types has evolved for sharing some bit of good fortune. There’s one for every online persona. The straightforward celebration: “W00t!! I’ve been named to Bigtime magazine’s 100 most influential!” The ironic frame: “Shameless selfpromotion: I was just named one of Bigtime’s 100 most influential people.” Or the softer sell, the just-lucky-to-be-here approach: “I am grateful to be included in this year’s 100 most influential people.” Or the mock -surprise approach: “I’m chuckling — according to Bigtime magazine, I’m a top 100 most influential person.” Perhaps oddest of all, considering its real-life parallel, is the retweet-without-comment: “RT: @longhornfan43: Evan Ratliff named in Bigtime magazine 100 most influential people.” Avoid this one. Imagine using a lull in dinner party conversation to announce that “a man in Texas, whom none of you know, recently told his friends I was named to the Bigtime 100. Salad, anyone?” Immodesty thrives on Facebook

and Twitter because they enable what social scientists call selfenhancement— the human tendency to oversell ourselves. But they also nurture a sense of mutual admiration that the offline world often does not. Social networking tends to create self-reinforcing spirals of reciprocal kindness. You like my cat pictures, so I celebrate your job promotion. The incentives tend to be stacked against negativity, and in some cases implicitly discourage it. In the Facebook world, we can Like or Hide things, but there’s no Dislike button — even when you need one. In fact, James Fowler, a political scientist at UC San Diego who studies social networks both online and off, has shown that positive networks built on cooperation and altruism tend to thrive, while negative ones tend to dissolve. “Apparently, evolution favors behaviors that cause us to disconnect from mean people,” he says. And why not? In a modern world that bombards us with reasons to feel bad about ourselves, maybe there’s room for a little extra public celebration when things go well.

Online, we’re safe to note our achievements, our loves, our tiny daily triumphs in a bid for a little positive feedback. So go ahead and, as the marketing gurus say, tend the Brand of You. Just don’t be me-first. Roll as many logs to others as you do back to yourself. Promote those deserving friends too humble to promote themselves and you’ll be tending the entire socialnetwork ecosystem. But if you’re inclined to turn your feed into a virtual trophy case, remember that followers aren’t the same as listeners. You could be one self-enhancement away from the Ignore list. That drinking group could silently be opting out of Brand You and decamping for a walled garden on Ning. You’d never even know. Contributing editor Evan Ratliff( evan@atavist.net) wrote about disappearing in the digital age in issue 17.12. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Porsche 918 Spyder: The $630K Hybrid Chuck Squatriglia (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 7/13/2010 7:49:00 AM

Porsche’s 918 hybrid is an impressive machine that promises superlative performance and a price to match — $630,000. If it’s built, that is. Should the car see production, it will cost a cool €500,000 and just edge out the €460,000 Carrera GT as the most expensive Porsche ever, Automotive News Europe reports, citing “two people with direct knowledge of the plan.” Officially, the über-cool supercar car we first saw at the Geneva Motor Show is nothing more than a tantalizing concept. But Wolfgang Duerheimer, Porsche’s development chief, said in April that the company would make a decision on producing the car if 1,000 potential customers show an interest in buying one. So how many hand-raisers have stepped forward? More than enough. Those same two unnamed sources, who spoke to ANE on the down low because the info is confidential, say more than 2,000 people have made “nonbinding expressions of interest” in the 918. And why wouldn’t they? The car promises exceptional performance — along with stellar fuel economy and emissions. (And too our

eye, stunning good looks.) We say “promises” because these figures are from Porsche and, so far as we know, haven’t been independently verified. But the mid-engined roadster features a 500-horsepower V8 based upon the 3.4-liter mill found in the Porsche RS Spyder race cars. There’s also an electric motor at the front axle and another at the rear; together they put down 218 horsepower. The drivetrain can be run in one of four modes. “Eco” relies entirely on electricity, and the

lithium-ion battery (no size given) is good for 16 miles. “Hybrid” uses both gasoline and electric power in varying combinations as conditions warrant. “Sport” tips the hybrid equation toward serious driving, with most of the power going to the rear wheels. “Race” throws all efficiency to the wind for allout performance, with the electric motors providing a “push to pass” feature similar to the kinetic energy recovery systems we saw in Formula 1. Porsche says the 918 will do

zero to 100 km/hr in less than 3.2 seconds and hit a top speed of 198 mph. It also claims the car will circle the Nurburgring — the benchmark of performance — in less than 7:30. And it’s supposedly good for claimed fuel consumption of 3 liters per 100 kilometers, which works out to 78.4 mpg, and CO2 emissions of just 70 grams per kilometer. Officially, there’s still no word on when, or if Porsche will build the 918 and what it might cost should it see production. And

why, exactly, would Porsche build a hybrid that no more than several hundred people might build? (Porsche built fewer than 1,500 Carrera GT supercars.) Image comes to mind. Frank Biller, an analyst at Landesbank BadenWuerttemberg in Stuttgart, where Porsche is based, told ANE the 918 Spyder cold bolster Porsche’s eco-cred and lure customers to a brand that builds “Europe’s worst gas PORSCHE page 44


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Jon Hamm and Rebecca Hall Tell W Taylor Lautner Plays About Working With Ben "Mr. Another Motorcycle Boston" Affleck Lover in Abduction PopSugar (PopSugar)

PopSugar (PopSugar)

Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:00:00 AM

Submitted at 7/13/2010 7:00:00 AM

could always go back to teaching. I gave myself to my 30th birthday, and my 30th Jon Hamm and Rebecca Hall birthday actually happened on make a hot twosome for the the set of We Were Soldiers, August issue of W, which is the which was my first big magazine's new editor Stefano Hollywood movie - a Mel Tonchi's first cover and will be that I broke them up." Here's Gibson vehicle. I was making on newsstands July 20. The pair more: enough money to quit my stars together in Ben Affleck's waiting job." The Town, and also posed for a • Rebecca on what it's like • Jon on being a man's man:"I hot accompanying spread in the w o r k i n g w i t h B e n i n was raised by a single mother. I magazine - check out behind-the Boston:"He’s kind of what you think the definition of a man’s -scenes shots! Jon, whose series expect: He’s incredibly smart; man has shifted in recent times Mad Men returns to AMC later he’s good fun. It’s got to be odd to this sort of fratty bro, this month on the 25th, spoke being that famous, especially in different from the older version, about his long road to success Boston, where he can’t walk a which was aloof and distanta n d b e i n g a m a n l y m a n . block without having to put his Gary Cooper or Cary Grant or Rebecca, meanwhile, opened up hood up. He is Mr. Boston." James Bond. Now it’s a little about what it's like working • Jon on his long road to v u l g a r , k i n d o f l o w b r o w , w i t h B e n i n B o s t o n . success in Hollywood:"I had adolescent. I’m not that guy. Conversation also veered toward given myself five years to be Part of being an adult is treating Rebecca's alleged involvement self-sufficient as an actor. I was women like women." in the breakup of Sam Mendes already self-sufficient as a and Kate Winslet. Rebecca waiter. But I knew a lot of 40- View 4 Photos › flatly denied the rumors, as Jon year-old waiters and I didn’t joked about a sex tape with want to be one of those. I had Images courtesy Nathaniel Mendes saying, "The reality is taught school and I knew that I Goldberg for W magazine

Taylor Lautner greeted fans and signed autographs as he arrived for the first day of shooting on the set of Abduction in Pittsburgh yesterday. The Twilight star spent last month traveling the globe promoting Eclipse, but now he's back and ready to roll in front of the camera. He's no stranger to hopping on a bike for a part, though this time he's looking for his identity not competing with a vampire for a girl's affection. After wrapping his current project he'll reunite with Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart for both installments of Breaking Dawn- read the latest on those movies straight from screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg

in our exclusive interview! The whole Twilight crew has other films in the works with Kristen Stewart gearing up for On the Road, while Robert Pattinson has been busy with Water for Elephants in California. To see more photos of Taylor on the set, just read more. View 15 Photos ›

PORSCHE continued from page 43

guzzlers.” Porsche is owned by Volkswagen, which also owns Lamborghini and Bentley, two other brands not exactly known for fuel economy and low emissions. You also could see some of that

technology trickle down to cars mere mortals could afford. Photo of the 918 at the Geneva Motor Show: Porsche See Also: • Video: Porsche’s Hybrid Racer Runs the ‘Ring

• Hybrid Porsche Racer Makes the Podium • Porsche 918 Hybrid Supercar Inches Closer to Production • Peek Inside Porsche’s Super Hybrids • Porsche 918 Spyder Plug-in

Hybrid – Video – Wired Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full

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A Few Things You Don't Know About...Mulberry's Emma Hill ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 7/12/2010 5:06:05 PM

We asked Emma Hill, Mulberry's designer extraordinaire, to send in three little known facts about herself — and she sent in about twenty, all too good to pass up. We also asked for an image of the most gorgeous thing she's seen all week and she passed along this insanely cute photo of her son Hudson, enjoy! 1. I have seven tattoos: five little ink stamp stars and two scripts, 'Hudson', and 'New York City'. 2. My father was a mathematician. 3. My favorite book is 1981's

'Miss Piggy's Guide To Life', by miss Piggy, as told to Henry Beard. 4. I love baking cakes. 5. I was obsessed by Wonder Woman as a kid - the outfit, the hair, the superhero glamour...!

6. My family are Welsh. 7. I fell in love with New York City in 1984. 8. Bravo TV is my guilty pleasure. 9. My brother is a builder. 1 0. I have vertigo.

11. I have three godchildren. 12. I am a Leo. 13. I have over one hundred pairs of shoes. 14. I believe in fairytales. 15. I long to get a French Bulldog. 16. I love all things Hello Kitty. 17. I hate bad manners. 18. I adore using Polaroid cameras. 19. I love the Smiths. 20. I was a Saturday supermarket check out girl in high school. 21. I've worn the same perfume for over ten years.

afterwards. Katie wasn't spotted leaving the venue, though she apparently was there to round Tom Cruise and Will Smith out the double date. Tom and shared a man hug outside an Katie are having an interesting alleged Scientology meeting at w e e k b e t w e e n t h i s s o c i a l the Saddle Ranch in Hollywood, Monday and his videotaping her CA yesterday. Will's wife Jada during a late-night shopping trip Pinkett Smith was also along for on Sunday. Will and Jada, exciting Summer for a new the event and chatted with Tom meanwhile, are enjoying an reason, since their all-star son Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:00:00 AM

ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 7/12/2010 4:45:49 PM

Everyone's aflutter over Madonna's new Dolce ads, and rightly so. Steven Klein made the popstar look like she'd fit right in with Sophia Loren in a Fellini masterpiece, but while we worship both the star and the photographer, others are "livid" with the designers. Specifically, the Catholic Church is pissed off that Dolce & Gabbanna's allegedly selling J a d e n h e a d l i n e d h i s f i r s t $20 rosaries and indirectly blockbuster with The Karate deeming them a "fashionable must-have". They think it's both Kid. rude and sacrilegious to use the beads for anything other than To see more photos of Tom, prayer and blame stars like Will, and Jada, just read more. Victoria Beckham and Britney Spears for making them popular. View 15 Photos › Regardless of whether or not they should be so upset, the newspaper willing to tell their story should probably use a DOLCE page 46

Tom Cruise and Will Smith Say Affectionate Goodbyes in LA Molly (PopSugar)

Dolce Wins Some, Loses Some


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more recent picture than this — of Posh & Becks circa 1999 — to prove their point.

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Los Angeles D.A. Calls Swiss Decision on Polanski a "Disservice to Justice" Douglas J. Rowe (TVGuide.com: Breaking News)

Gstaad in November. The filmmaker, whose credits include Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, was accused of Submitted at 7/12/2010 9:18:00 PM Roman Polanski giving champagne and part of a Sounding undeterred by Quaalude to a 13-year-old girl Switzerland's refusal to extradite before raping her during a 1977 Roman Polanski, Los Angeles modeling shoot. He fled the District Attorney Steve Cooley United States in 1978 for France said he'll seek to get the after pleading guilty to one filmmaker back if he's caught by count of unlawful sexual Obama Institutes a country willing to return him. intercourse with the girl. Offshore Drilling "We will discuss with the The Obama administration was Moratorium … Again Department of Justice the disappointed by the Swiss extradition of Roman Polanski if decision, The Associated Press Nicolas Loris (The Foundry: he's arrested in a cooperative quoted State Department Conservative Policy News.) jurisdiction," said Cooley, who's spokesman P.J. Crowley as Submitted at 7/12/2010 4:30:26 PM running for California attorney examination of a potentially saying. "The United States general. u n a v a i l a b l e w i t n e s s i s a believes that the rape of a 13After the BP oil spill, the Swiss government rejects U.S. rejection of the competency of year-old child by an adult is a Obama Administration offered request to extradite Polanski the California courts," he said. crime, and we continue to little excuse for instituting a The Swiss government said "The Swiss could not have pursue justice in this case," moratorium on deepwater U.S. authorities failed to provide found a smaller hook on which Crowley said. drilling regardless of the fact confidential testimony about to hang their hat." Five Filters featured article: that it brought one of the Gulf Polanski's sentencing procedure Polanski breaks silence: I'm Headshot - Propaganda, State Coast’s main industries to a in 1977-78. being served "on a platter to the Religion and the Attack On the sudden halt. Despite federal C o o l e y c a l l e d t h e S w i s s media" Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available judge Martin Feldman’s ruling decision a "disservice to justice Polanski, the 76-year-old Oscar tools: PDF Newspaper, Full on the moratorium and despite a and other victims as a whole." -winning director of The Pianist, Text RSS, Term Extraction. federal appeals court upholding "To justify their finding to deny was arrested Sept. 26 by Swiss that decision, the U.S. extradition on an issue that is authorities and placed under Department of Interior issued a u n i q u e t o C a l i f o r n i a l a w house arrest at his chalet in new moratorium on deepwater regarding conditional drilling this afternoon. The new ban will not apply to a specific depth but instead“apply OBAMA page 47

Morning Bell: The Obama Tax and Spend Threat to Economic Recovery Conn Carroll (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:07:49 AM

Remember President Barack Obama’s promise to the American people not to raise taxes? Forget about it. While the President has already raised taxes on cigarettes and tanning beds, none of that compares to what could happen in January. If you earn income, your taxes are about to go up. If Congress does not act to preserve current law, even the lowest 10 percent bracket will rise to 15 percent. Throw in tax hikes on capital gains, dividends and other tax code fixes, and the American economy is staring straight down the barrel of $3.2 trillion tax hike over the next ten years. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that raising taxes by $3.2 trillion dollars would be an economic recovery killer. Even Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) admitted to CNBC yesterday: “We don’t need to raise taxes now.” The tax raising culprit here is the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts set to take effect on January 1, 2011. The leftist majority in Congress is refusing to extend current law because they believe that these tax cuts MORNING page 47


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to any deep-water floating facility with drilling activities.” But changing the rules of the ban does not change the fact that the moratorium would do nothing to address the oil spill. Instead, it would unnecessarily destroy jobs in a region struggling to manage an environmental and economic crisis—largely in part because of the federal government. In the face of a disaster that has already torn through the economic fabric of many coastal industries, denying jobs to the area is unjust. If the newly issued moratorium circumvents judicial ruling, more than 120,000 jobs could be lost in the Gulf Coast, and the ripples from these lost jobs would be seen throughout all sectors of the economy. Furthermore, hopes of keeping energy production in the domestic sphere are dwindling in the face of the moratorium. Companies such as Baker Hughes are giving up on domestic offshore drilling and temporarily (at least, for now) moving their rigs to other countries more receptive to oil exploration. Others may become part of Venezuela’s nationalized fleet. Diamond Offshore Drilling is taking its rig to Egypt as a result of the government’s

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persistence to ban deepwater drilling. But it’s not just the deepwater floating facilities that will be affected. The Obama Administration’s opposition to deepwater drilling has led to a de facto ban on shallow water drilling. CNN Money reports that“drillers in shallow water say they haven’t been issued permits since the April 20 explosion. The delay has already forced hundreds of layoffs, and many more could be on the way. ‘I’m almost out of business over here,’ said Paul Butler, president of Spartan Offshore, a small drilling company in Metairie, La.” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said recently of the Gulf spill, “The president has and continues to believe that we have to be careful with what we’re doing, given the uncertainty about what happened 84 days ago.” One accident, no matter how tragic, is not indicative of an evolving pattern. The explosion of one rig could have been caused by any number of isolated factors unique to the BP rig and cannot be assumed to carry over to all deepwater drilling. In fact, when DOI Secretary Ken Salazar had his list of recommendations for the

President reviewed by the seven experts from the National Academy of Engineering, those experts rejected the offshore drilling moratorium, saying, “A blanket moratorium is not the answer. It will not measurably reduce risk further and it will have a lasting impact on the nation’s economy which may be greater than that of the oil spill. We do not believe punishing the innocent is the right thing to do.” The uncertainty alone caused by the White House has brought offshore drilling to a halt and thus is having very real effects on the Gulf’s economy. This is not the time for political games. The Administration needs to listen to the two court rulings rejecting a ban on drilling and let the Gulf’s economy recover. Kelsey Huber co-authored this post. Tags: deepwater drilling, Department of Interior, Ken Salazar, Live from the Gulf, Obama administration, offshore drilling, offshore drilling ban 3 Responses to “Obama Institutes Offshore Drilling Moratorium … Again” • Walter Brown, NY-Expat (Southern Brazil) on July 12th, 2010 at 5:30pm said: Thanks for another informative article Heritage Foundation. Keep up

the good work • shyatt on July 12th, 2010 at 5:30pm said: When Obama and Van Jones spoke of redistribution of wealth. They were not referring to within the US. They will redistribute our wealth to other countries. The US will no longer have an oil industry. All will be moved to other countries. This has been well planned. Directly and indirectly, the US will lose 9 million jobs. To whom can I send information. • MJF, CT on July 12th, 2010 at 5:30pm said: There goes Mr. Obama again, putting people out of work! When is this “child” going to learn that he does not need to stick his nose in everybody’s business!

are the cause of our trillion dollar deficits. They are wrong. Heritage Foundation research fellow Brian Riedl explains why in today’s Wall Street Journal: With Washington set to tax $33 trillion and spend $46 trillion over the next decade, how does one determine which policies “caused” the $13 trillion deficit? [President] Obama could have just as easily singled out Social Security ($9.2 trillion over 10 years), antipoverty programs ($7 trillion), other Medicare spending ($5.4 trillion), net interest on the debt ($6.1 trillion), or nondefense discretionary spending ($7.5 trillion).” The real cause of our nation’s debt problem is spending. According to the Congressional You can follow any responses Budget Office (CBO), extending to this entry through the RSS 2.0 all the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts feed. will place revenues at 18.2% of Five Filters featured article: gross domestic product (GDP), Headshot - Propaganda, State which is actually above the 18% Religion and the Attack On the average over the past 50 years. Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available Meanwhile, spending, which has tools: PDF Newspaper, Full averaged 20.3% of GDP over Text RSS, Term Extraction. the past 50 years, is set to explode to 26.5% of GDP by 2020. These spending increases are being driven by our entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid), which along with net interest payments are projected to rise by 5.4% of GDP between 2008 and 2020. MORNING page 50


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Commission Should Focus on Bipartisan Solutions to Social Security Reform Kathryn Nix (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.)

zilch. Social Security reform is desperately needed if the Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:00:24 AM program is to exist intact for S e r i o u s d o u b t s s u r r o u n d future generations. This year President Obama’s National Social Security is running its C o m m i s s i o n o n F i s c a l first deficits since 1983, and Responsibility and Reform, though economic recovery is which has been tasked to make expected to raise revenues recommendations to Congress to higher and put it back into the reduce the federal deficit. Many black for a just few years, the fear that the commission will p r o g r a m w i l l b e r u n n i n g recommend the creation of a permanent deficits from 2016 value-added tax (VAT) or on. similar tax increases to pay for According to Barnes, the odds Washington’s reckless spending. of cementing bipartisan support Then there is the possibility that for Social Security reform are the commission will produce promising. He writes that, “One nothing, succeeding only at reform that could win bipartisan prolonging any real action to put support would, over time, raise the nation’s fiscal house back in the Social Security retirement order. age to 70. … A second reform, But as The Weekly Standard’s bolder and more controversial, executive editor Fred Barnes w o u l d m e a n s - t e s t S o c i a l points out in the Wall Street Security, gradually slowing the J o u r n a l , “ t h e r e ’ s a n o t h e r growth of benefits for the more possibility, one that would affluent but sparing those with redound to the commission’s lower incomes.” credit.” The commission could The second of these ideas is propose cost-containing reforms exemplified by the Pozen plan, to unaffordable government which would apply “progressive programs. Barnes suggests that indexing” to Social Security t h e l i k e l i h o o d o f t h e such that benefits would commission exploring bipartisan gradually shift to provide more solutions to Social Security aid to those who need them. spending in particular is not Heritage expert David John

on inflation, while those with low incomes would continue to have theirs based on the more generous index of wages. The great attraction of the Pozen plan is that it would erase more than two-thirds of Social Security’s long-term shortfall of $4 trillion.” Proposals such as these would put federal programs on sustainable footing without tax hikes that would hurt the economy and do nothing to permanently address out-ofcontrol federal spending. The commission would do well to follow Barnes’s logic. Tags: budget deficit, federal spending, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and writes: “Progressive indexation would not grow as fast as under Reform, social security preserves the principle of social current law. These savings on You can follow any responses insurance for workers of every checks to affluent retirees would to this entry through the RSS 2.0 income level. All workers who enable Social Security to pay feed. are currently in Social Security better benefits to lower-income Five Filters featured article: would continue to pay in and retirees whose need is greater.” Headshot - Propaganda, State continue to receive traditional Barnes reiterates, “No one, not Religion and the Attack On the retirement benefits. … But even those with high wages in Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available w h i l e t h e w e a l t h y w o u l d the years on which their Social tools: PDF Newspaper, Full continue to receive traditional Security benefits are calculated, Text RSS, Term Extraction. benefits—a minor supplement, would face an actual reduction. no doubt, to their investment Under the Pozen plan, higher income—in return for their income workers would have taxes, their monthly benefits increases in their benefits based


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Spies or Not, Obama Pushes “Reset” with Russia and NEW START Ariel Cohen (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.)

Intelligence, John Negroponte, in the 2007 Annual Threat Assessment to the United States, Submitted at 7/12/2010 5:00:30 PM China and Russia are “among Only days before the Senate the most aggressive in collecting Foreign Relations Committee [intelligence] against sensitive will conduct hearing s on the and protected U.S. targets.” The Strategic Arms Reduction 2010 assessment highlights T r e a t y ( N E W S T A R T ) Russia’s ongoing efforts. v e r i f i c a t i o n , t h e O b a m a Nor was the Administration on Administration has decided to t o p o f t h i s i n v e s t i g a t i o n . abruptly terminate the scandal Significantly, according to an caused by the Russian illegal eyewitness, on the day of the spy ring arrested in the United arrests a senior Administration States. official was annoyed and Instead of viewing espionage surprised with the FBI spy on its merits—an activity sweep. Reportedly, so was the undermining Obama’s Russian President. This is despite the “reset” policy and an obstacle to White House spin that they were the proclaimed new relationship ready for this all along. with R u s s i a — t h e Questions abound about the Administration went into an White House’s handling of the overdrive to get rid of the spy affair. After the FBI had embarrassing headlines. The tracked 11 “sleeper” agents for reason: ratification of the NEW the Russian Foreign Intelligence S T A R T t r e a t y , w h i c h i s Service (SVR), the Obama Administration’s top priority. Administration agreed to an That Russia is continuing to spy unprecedented swap. Unlike the on the United States should not Cold War, when spies did real come as a surprise. As early as hard time and where exchanged 2007, it was widely reported years after the arrest, these spies that Russian (and Chinese) spy were allowed to confess and got operations were “back at Cold swapped for two aging British War levels” in the United States. agents, a Russian political Moreover, according to then- prisoner who for 10 years D i r e c t o r o f N a t i o n a l denied being an American spy,

summit”, both the Russian government and the plurality of the Russian public were reiterating their view that the United States and NATO are geopolitical enemies that must be kept under constant surveillance. Moreover, they believe the U.S. should be the target of the Russian nuclear warheads, just like during the Cold War. Indeed, President Obama did his utmost to sweep this episode under the rug so that the “reset” of relations, the ratification of NEW START, and additional nuclear arms control agreement can continue apace. As grave concerns about the treaty abound, it is now time for the Senate to examine the treaty, to demand the nuclear negotiations records and State Department verification reports, and to and a Russian intelligence the Russian spy ring was evaluate the damage the treaty veteran who defected to the U.S. handled with kid gloves—and does to the U.S. national in the 1990s. This was not a d e s p i t e t h e p r i o r i t y t h e security. good bargain for the U.S. No Administration is putting on ? significant questioning of the ratification of NEW START Five Filters featured article: spies took place, nor were their treaty—the Kremlin continues Headshot - Propaganda, State handlers expelled—presumably, to perceive the U.S. as its Religion and the Attack On the they were allowed to quietly principal foreign adversary. Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available depart for Moscow. While the United States was tools: PDF Newspaper, Full However, despite the fact that hosting the “cheeseburger Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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The leftist majority in Congress has had years to address this impending economic disaster but have refused to act. Last month, the House leadership announced that for the first time in the history of the budgeting process, they would not set a budget this year. And not only are they refusing to set any limits on their own spending, but now they are even talking about punting the tax issue into December so that they can raise our taxes without having to answer to the American voter. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) told The Hill earlier this month: “It’s not going to get done before the election. The lame-duck session is when all of this is going to get resolved.” And the end of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are just the beginning of President Obama’s tax hike spree. The Obama administration’s budget also calls for higher taxes on small businesses, higher taxes on energy and higher taxes on American companies that compete overseas. Speaking about the impending tax hikes

on CNBC last night, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said: “We should over the next three weeks focus squarely on small businesses and say right now, make sure we’re not going to raise taxes this year, the way the administration continues to talk.” Sen. Bayh not only agreed with Cantor, he even went a step further: “To Eric’s list, I would add some of the increased taxes on companies that do business overseas. We don’t need added uncertainty, added burdens on business right now.” Quick Hits: • After losing in federal court twice, the Obama administration issued a new oil drilling ban which continues to unnecessarily threaten thousands of jobs, and is crippling the local Gulf economy. • According to the latest Washington Post poll, public confidence in President Obama has hit a new low with nearly six in 10 voters saying they lack faith in the president to make the right decisions for the country.

• The latest Democracy Corps poll, performed by Democrats James Carville and Stan Greenberg, shows 55% of likely voters think “socialist” is a reasonably accurate way of describing President Obama. • According to Rasmussen Reports, 53% of voters nationwide favor repeal of Obamacare. • A full week later, after first being supportive, the White House is now repudiating statements made by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden that his assignment at NASA was to reach out to the Muslim world, and make them feel better about their scientific achievements.

Exclusive: Marvel's Super Hero Squad Enlists A-List Guest Stars Rich Sands (TVGuide.com: Breaking News) Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:55:00 AM

The Super Hero Squad Show The Super Hero Squad Show, Cartoon Network's adorable kidfriendly series starring Marvel Comics icons, boldly goes on a casting spree for its upcoming second season, which will be previewed next week ComicCon. "We explore what happens in the Marvel Universe outside of Earth — different dimensions, outer space and all these crazy Five Filters featured article: p l a c e s , " s a y s C o r t L a n e , Headshot - Propaganda, State Marvel's VP for animation. "So Religion and the Attack On the we took the opportunity to Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available feature guest stars to explore tools: PDF Newspaper, Full those more sci-fi characters." Text RSS, Term Extraction. Cameos will come from a hall of fame of the genre, as well as some prime-time comedy stars, to emphasize the show's humorous tone. On the roster are (pictured, clockwise from top): Star Trek's George Takei, returning as Galactus, Ty Burrell( Modern Family) as Captain Marvel, Jim Parsons( The Big Bang Theory) as Nightmare, Jane Lynch( Glee) as Nebula, Katee Sackhoff(Battlestar Galactica) as She-Hulk and Adam West( Batman) as Nighthawk.

Also coming this season are Mark Hamill( Star Wars), Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn( Star Trek: The Next Generation), John Barrowman( Torchwood), James Marsters( Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Kevin Sorbo( Hercules) and Nina Dobrev( The Vampire Diaries). "Honestly, it's shocking," Lane jokes, "because we're only paying scale." Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now! Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Exclusive: Glee's Brittany Sings Britney Spears in Season Two Denise Martin (TVGuide.com: Breaking News)

Keck's Exclusives: More Paws for True Blood William Keck (TVGuide.com: Breaking News)

Submitted at 7/13/2010 12:11:00 AM

Glee Here's one Glee fans should have seen coming: That upcoming Britney Spearsthemed episode? It will revolve around New Directions' own Brittany (Heather Morris). Of course! Series creator Ryan Murphy tells TVGuide.com exclusively that McKinley High's deliciously ditzy Cheerio Brittany will be at the center of Season 2's tribute to Spears. Is Glee reaching too far with a Britney-themed episode? And it gets better. Brittany will be belting out not one, but two of the pop star's tunes. "Heather's actually got a terrific voice," Murphy says. No word yet on which numbers they'll be, but just imagine the possibilities: Brittany could sing "Boys" (because she's hooked up with everyone, even Kurt) or "Toxic" (which could be her ode to Kurt!)

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Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:56:00 AM

Would "Oops!...I Did It Again" be too obvious? Hmm... Morris already seems sold on the idea. "I heard there's a Britney Spears episode coming up and fingers crossed that I get to sing, because I play Brittany and I'm like, 'Oh my god, it's insane,'" Morris told E! Online last month. Freshmen series Glee, Modern Family dominate Emmy nominations Glee fans won't have to wait long to find out how Morris

True Blood Werewolves, step aside. As this exclusive photo reveals, a panther has been spotted on the set of HBO's True Blood, and will make her on-screen debut in mid-August. Could this be a sign that the series is tearing a page from Charlaine Harris' books and transforming fan fave Jason sounds. Murphy said the SpearsStackhouse into a werepanther? powered hour will be the second While Ryan Kwanten(Jason) episode to air next season. confirms to me, "I've been Gleeks, what do you think working with the panthers and Brittany should sing? And in they're a lot cooler than the what scenario? wolves," creator Alan Ball only Five Filters featured article: says, "We have shot some Headshot - Propaganda, State scenes with actual panthers in Religion and the Attack On the the same way we have shot with Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available actual wolves. But I won't say tools: PDF Newspaper, Full there are or aren't werepanthers Text RSS, Term Extraction. on the show." And if I were to tell you anymore, I'm afraid I

might get my eyes clawed out. Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now! Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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'The Bachelorette' Recap - Love is the Only Reality Laura Prudom (TV Squad) Submitted at 7/13/2010 4:30:00 AM

Filed under: Recaps, Summer TV A word to the wise, potential father-in-laws; when your child is bringing home a prospective partner for the first time, it's probably not the best idea to kick off the occasion with a tour of your BASEMENT OF DEATH, especially when there's a camera crew present. We learned this invaluable lesson and so many more on this week's episode of'The Bachelorette,' which saw Ali what's your name?'" explained traveling to Tampa, Cape Cod, Harmon, in a decent Jagger Green Bay and Chicago for the rendition. "And I was like, dreaded home town dates. But 'Angie.' And he went, 'Beg your aside from an unfortunate pardon?'" taxidermy collection and a Apparently Jagger continued to freezer full of unidentified meat struggle with her answer. "I was (long pig, anyone?) the visits [thinking], Really?" Harmon said. "'You know, Angie-- like ZAC continued from page 52 the song.'" Then Fallon did his spot-on Calrissian) and Ahmed Best (Jar Mick impression. "Benji -- Are Jar Binks) will return to reprise you sayin' Benji?" he joked in their roles from the movies and previous 'RC' specials. Jagger's thick accent. Permalink| Email this| Linking Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments Blogs| Comments

Despite His Famous Song, Mick Jagger Stumped by Angie Harmon's Name (VIDEO) Aimee Deeken (TV Squad) Submitted at 7/13/2010 2:20:00 AM

Filed under: TV Replay When Angie Harmon joined Jimmy Fallon on the stage of'Late Night'(weeknights, 12:37AM ET on NBC), The Roots played a fitting song for her entrance: 'Angie' by The Rolling Stones. But Fallon and Harmon immediately started laughing, and soon the audience discovered that the song was even more apropos. Harmon once met the Stones' Mick Jagger. "He went, 'Hello,

ZAC page 52

Zac Efron Will Join the Dark Side in Third 'Robot Chicken: Star Wars' Special Laura Prudom (TV Squad)

were pretty drama free -- no unfortunate tarot card readings over dinner, no questionable relationships between mothers and sons or fathers and daughters (yes, Vienna, we're still looking at you). Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

ZAC continued from page 52

ZAC page 53

Submitted at 7/13/2010 4:40:00 AM

Filed under: TV News The Force is strong with Zac Efron: According to The Hollywood Reporter, the'High School Musical' dreamboat has surrendered to the Dark Side and signed on to lend his golden vocal cords to the third'Robot Chicken''Star Wars' special, imaginatively titled 'Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III'. A previous 'Chicken' alum, Efron will join 'Star Wars' staple Anthony Daniels (C3PO), 'Community' star Donald Glover and 'The Cleveland Show' regular Mike Henry in their 'Robot Chicken' debuts, while Billy Dee Williams (Lando ZAC page 52


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CR Index Finds the Economy Making Slow Advancements in a Stalwart Recession

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WD-40 No-Mess Lubricant Pen – 12 Pack Woot (Woot! - One Day, One Deal) Submitted at 7/13/2010 12:00:19 AM

Mr. Palmere, we’re going to need you to sign the lease again. Because your signature is illegible. And greasy. And now the paper’s ruined. Sir, listen, I want nothing more than to put you in a brand new Kia today, but I’m pretty sure a signature made using one of those WD40 Lubricant Pens isn’t going to be legally binding. Yes, it DID occur to me that that’s precisely why you used it. Mr. Palmere I’m just a simple man with a simple plan: to give the citizens of Beaver County the greatest deal on new and pre -owned Kias and Hyundais. And just like I say in my advertisements: if I can’t put you in the car of your dreams, I’ll eat my hat. That’s what puts the “crazy” in Crazy Clay’s House of Hyundai and now also Kia. And let me tell you somethin’, mister: I didn’t get to the point where I have a $150 suit and a $25 haircut by eatin’ hats. Now listen: this pen is fine; it’s

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just not meant for contracts. This is the sort of thing you’d use for spot application of lubricant to things like hinges, drawers, and the like. It would fit right in your pocket or purse or toolbox; heck with a 12-pack like that you could put one in just about every place you’d ever need one, including the glove compartment of your brand new Kia. Why, I’m willing to bet you could come up with 300 uses for that pen pretty easily. But signing a lease putting you in one of the “Best Family Cars of 2010” according to Parents Magazine is not one of those uses. Now c’mon, Mr. Palmere: take my pen and let’s do the dang deal. HEY! HEY COME BACK HERE! YOU JUST SMUDGED MY$150 SUIT! Features: • Delivers WD40 lubricant with the precision of a pen-shaped applicator • Lubricates hinges, doors, drawers and more • Removes sticky labels, gum and crayon • Pocket-sized, fitting everywhere from glove boxes and desk drawers to backpacks

and purses • Does everything a regular can of WD40 can do without messy overspray and minimal odor • For use on the go, carry one with you and keep the others in convenient places • Over 300 uses • View Demo Directions: • Before first use, point pen downward and press tip against surface until saturated • Apply, pressing the tip to release more WD-40 as needed • Pen will not dry out, reactivate by saturating tip Home Uses: • Remove black heel marks, scuff marks, and crayon from washable surfaces • Quiet squeaks • Lubricate drawers, windows, toys, locks, snaps, zippers and more Sports Uses: • On the boat or in the tackle box to keep things smooth running and corrosion free • Ski bindings • Bike chains • Lube zippers, snaps on tents, sleeping bags and outdoor

covers Tool Box Uses: • Clean electrical contacts • Lube triggers on power tools • Clean spray paint nozzles Auto/RV/Motorcycles: • Lubricate locks and hinges • Safely remove road tar and grime • Remove gum and grease from vinyl In the box: • (12) WD40.26 oz. Lubricant Pens DANGER! HARMFUL OR FATAL IF SWALLOWED Keep out of the reach of children. Contains petroleum distillates. Inhalation abuse may be harmful or fatal. Avoid eye contact. Use with adequate ventilation. First Aid: Eye contact: Flush thoroughly with water. Skin Contact: Wash with soap & water. If Swallowed: Do not induce vomiting. Call a physician or poison control center immediately. Discuss this product Price: $7.99 I want one!

Press Room (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:14:59 AM

CR Index Finds the Economy Making Slow Advancements in a Stalwart Recession Employment Index Shows Highest Growth Since April 2009 YONKERS, NY — After a brief retreat in June, the economy is showing broad improvements in the condition, behavior and expectations of consumers, according to Consumer Reports Index for July. The Consumer Reports Employment Index numbers show job creation increased to 51.1, its highest level since April 2009. The Employment Index has pointed to employment growth in three of the last four months. In July, 7.8% of Americans started a new job versus 5.7% that lost their job. Consumer spending across index categories rose in July, particularly in the area of personal electronics and major home appliances. Per capita retail spending was up slightly for July ($274), reflecting June activity, from the prior month ($234). INDEX page 54


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The Consumer Reports Trouble Tracker Index, which measures the financial difficulties faced by consumers in the past 30 days, declined to 57.6 from 63.5 the prior month, and is slightly below July of last year (58.8). The most notable improvement was in the proportion of Americans that missed a mortgage payment, down to 2.4% from 3.9% the prior month. Though showing improvement, dogged problems remain, including the proportion of Americans that were unable to afford medical bills or medications (16.0%), or lost or have reduced health-care coverage (8.9%). Problems in affording healthcare are well above levels seen in 2009. A worrisome development in the Consumer Reports Trouble Tracker Index is a rise in Americans’ homes going into foreclosure in the past 30 days. Foreclosures were reported by 1.3% of consumers in June, capping three straight months of increases. Over the past four months, the Consumer Sentiment Index has crept upwards at a glacial pace, rising from 43.7 in April to 45.2 in July. Despite advances in employment and declining consumer difficulties, Consumer Sentiment stands at 45.2, virtually unchanged from June (45.0). “The climb out of this recession

remains slow with frequent setbacks and unlike most recoveries, where the climb out is roughly linear, we are seeing many ups and downs as consumers once again try to regain their footing,” said Ed Farrell, a director of the Consumer Reports National Research Center. “A true bright spot for July is that Americans are heading back to work, with the employment index climbing into positive territory and gains posted in three of the last four months.” The Consumer Reports Index report, available at www.ConsumerReports.org, comprises five key indices: the Sentiment Index, the Trouble Tracker Index, the Stress Index, the Retail Index, and the Employment Index. Here are the key findings: Consumer Reports Sentiment Index: 45.2 • Over the past four months, the Consumer Reports Sentiment Index has crept upwards, rising from 43.7 in April to 45.2 in July. Sentiment is virtually unchanged from the prior month (45.0) and up slightly from a year ago (43.2). The most optimistic consumers are between the ages of 18-34 years old (56.6), and with a household income $100,000+ (50.6). The most pessimistic are households with an income less than $50,000 (42.6), and Americans 65 or older (38.2).

The Consumer Reports Sentiment Index captures respondents’ attitudes regarding their financial situation, asking them if they are feeling better or worse off than a year ago. When the index is greater than 50, more consumers are feeling positive about their situation. When it is below 50, more consumers are feeling worse. The Sentiment Index can vary from a high of 100 to a low of 0. Consumer Reports Trouble Tracker Index: 57.6 • The Consumer Reports Trouble Tracker Index has shown a decline this month, pointing to fewer troubles for consumers, dropping to 57.6 in July from 63.5 in June. The most notable improvement was in the proportion of Americans that missed a mortgage payment, down to 2.4% from 3.9% the prior month.• Problems still ensue including the proportion of Americans that were unable to afford medical bills or medications (16.0%) or lost or have reduced health-care coverage (8.9%) remain. Problems in affording healthcare are well above levels seen in 2009. There is also a rise in Americans’ homes going into foreclosure in the past 30 days. Foreclosures were reported by 1.3% of consumers in June, capping three straight months of increases.• The most common difficulties faced by Americans

are: • Unable to afford medical bills or medications (16.0%), down from 16.4% in June • Missed payment on a major bill – not mortgage (10.0%), up from 9.4% in June• Lost or reduced healthcare coverage (8.9%), down from 9.3% in June • Lower-income households, earning less than $50,000 a year, have been disproportionately affected. In the past 30 days: • 22.9% Have been unable to afford medical bills or medications • 12.5% Lost or have reduced healthcare coverage • 15.3% Missed payment on a major bill – not mortgage • One consumer difficulty has steadily diminished over the past several months. Reported negative changes to credit card terms has fallen to 8.1% in July from 9.5% in June, and is well below its high point of September 2009 (16.1%).

The Consumer Reports Trouble Tracker focuses on both the proportion of consumers that have faced difficulties as well as the number of negative events they have encountered. The

negative events include: the inability to pay medical bills or afford medication, missed mortgage payments, home foreclosure, interest-rate increase, penalty fees, reduced lines of credit or other changes in credit-card terms, job loss or layoffs, reduced healthcare coverage, or the denial of personal loans. The Consumer Reports Trouble Tracker Index is then calculated as the proportion of consumers that have experienced at least one of the negative events comprising the index multiplied by the average number of events encountered. Consumer Reports Retail Index: Past 30-Day – 10.4, Next 30-Day – 8.5 • Consumer Reports Past 30Day Retail Index for July, reflective of June activity, is at 10.4, unchanged from 10.8 in May. Per capita spending for the index categories in the past 30 days was up slightly for July, reflecting June activity, to $274, from June’s $234. Though volume of purchasing is down, the value of purchases rose in July, particularly in the area of personal electronics and major home appliances.• Consumer Reports Next 30-Day Retail Index, reflective of planned purchases for June, is at 8.5, even with the prior month (8.5).• Looking in detail at the INDEX page 56


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15 foods new parents should eat Artemis Dibenedetto (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 7/13/2010 1:59:59 AM

15 foods new parents should eat When you're taking care of a new baby and juggling other challenges in your life, it's easy to let your own diet slide. Big mistake. If you don't take care of your nutrition needs, you may not be able to do as good a job of taking care of your baby. You can liken eating right to the principle of the oxygen mask demo on airplanes: Although it feels counterintuitive, parents of small children are instructed to strap on their own oxygen masks before attending to their child's. So feed yourself—as well as your baby—wisely. (Learn about baby formula.) Here are 15 foods to boost your energy and keep you healthy. Milk. Just one 8-ounce glass of skim or low-fat milk supplies up to one-third of the calcium you need for strong bones and teeth. A diet rich in calcium may cut your risk of hypertension, colon cancer, and breast cancer, and possibly ease PMS. Milk is a valuable source of vitamin D, vitamin A, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin B12. Bananas. At about 100 calories each, bananas are a good source of fiber and vitamin B6. They're also loaded with potassium—a mineral that helps regulate blood pressure and is essential to muscle function. Eat one after

a workout (when potassium levels may be low due to perspiration loss), mix into smoothies, or add to your cereal for an all-day energy boost. (Learn about organic baby food.) Orange juice. A stellar source of vitamin C (just one 8-ounce glass supplies more than what you need every day), orange juice is also full of folate, a B vitamin—which may help prevent certain birth defects and colon cancer—as well as potassium. Opt for the calciumfortified kind to benefit your bones. Salad. Tossing together a variety of greens (romaine and spinach are rich in vitamin A and folate, and iceberg has fiber), tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers is a smart way to sneak vegetables into your diet. Studies have shown that getting at least three servings of vegetables a day can reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Peanut butter. It's chock-full of protein, fiber, zinc, and vitamin E. It contains mostly unsaturated fat, which helps lower both total and LDL ("bad") cholesterol. Peanut butter and jelly on whole -wheat bread with a glass of milk is a quick, nutritious meal. But don't go for the reduced-fat version. Since the fat is replaced with carbohydrates, you'll get the same number of calories anyway.

Sweet potatoes. These spuds—which are available year -round—should be a staple in your diet, not simply a holiday treat. They're an excellent source of potassium, fiber, and cancer-fighting antioxidants such as beta carotene and vitamin C. Salmon and fish. This fish is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, which can lower your risk of heart disease. Eating salmon once or twice a week may boost your immune system. If you're pregnant or nursing, the fatty acids in salmon help aid fetal and infant brain and central nervous-system development. Government agencies recommend that pregnant or nursing women not eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish. Consumers Union recommends that such women hold off on eating canned tuna, as well. Broccoli. It's low-cal and rich with vitamins A and C, beta carotene, folate, and fiber—all of which can help reduce your risk of heart disease and protect against certain kinds of cancer.

Enjoy it raw or lightly steamed. Whole-grain cereal. One bowl of whole-grain cereal typically supplies 10 or more vitamins and minerals, as well as complex carbohydrates (for energy), disease-fighting fiber, and phytochemicals—nonnutrient plant ingredients that help prevent disease. Choose cereals with at least 5 grams of fiber per serving. Lean red meat. Women, especially those who have given birth within the last two years, are at risk for low iron levels, which can lead to a type of anemia. Red meat is an excellent source of iron that's more easily absorbed by the body. Stick with trimmed lean cuts—anything with loin or round in the name—for their low saturated-fat content, and eat no more than one 2- to 3ounce serving (about the size of your palm) each day. Vegetable soup. There is a slew of vitamins and minerals in soup loaded with veggies such as carrots, potatoes, and onions. Even better, because it's mostly liquid (and contains fiber), vegetable soup will fill you up on relatively few calories. Yogurt. A good source of bonestrengthening calcium (an 8ounce carton contains about a third of your daily needs), lowfat or nonfat yogurt also supplies protein and potassium with less saturated fats. Choose plain yogurt, since the flavored

kinds are often high in sugar, and make sure the label says the brand contains "live and active cultures," since these bacteria have been shown to benefit the gastrointestinal tract. Eggs. They're packed with the protein moms (and dads) need to help build and repair weary muscles. Eggs are also a good source of vitamin D, which helps the body absorb calcium. Still, because egg yolks are high in cholesterol, moderation is key. Tomato sauce. Tomatoes are loaded with lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that has been shown to help keep arteries clear and reduce the risk of heart disease. Most jarred sauces also contain fiber and vitamins A and C. Beans. Canned or dried varieties, such as kidney, black, garbanzo, and navy beans, are a low-fat source of protein, iron, and soluble fiber, which can help lower your cholesterol level. You can make any meal healthier—from soups and stews to salads and pasta dishes—by adding a can of beans to it. However, since canned beans can be high in sodium, rinse them well under cold water or buy the no-salt kind. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and FOODS page 56


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categories comprising the Retail Index (major appliances, small appliances, major home electronics, personal electronics, major yard/garden equipment), most categories were down slightly from the prior month. Small appliances registered a small gain in July (17.4%) versus June (15.0%) in the proportion of Americans buying in the past 30 days.• Among the non-index categories, past 30day purchases, reflecting June activity, were down for new cars (1.7%) and used cars (4.8%) from the prior month, 3.2% and 5.8%, respectively. Home purchases were also down in July (2.3%) relative to June (3.1%), halting three straight months of increases.

The Consumer Reports Retail Index looks at consumer purchases in the past 30 days as well as the outlook for planned purchases in the next 30 days across several categories. The Consumer Reports Retail Index represents the proportion of respondents that made a purchase in the following

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categories: major home appliances, small home appliances, major home electronics, personal electronics, and major yard and garden equipment. The Retail Index is a weighted calculation. For example, a major appliance is of greater value than a small appliance. Because of their size and frequency, car and home purchases are tracked separately. Consumer Reports Stress Index: 61.0 • According to the Consumer Reports Stress Index, the level of stress consumers feel they are under (61.0) is up slightly compared to the prior month (57.6), as well as from one year ago (58.4).

Stress). Consumer Reports Employment Index: 51.1 • Job creation increased to its highest level in July (7.8), adding to three months of improved hiring. Consequently, the Consumer Reports Employment Index is now back in positive territory for July (51.1), its highest reading since April 2009.• The Employment Index has pointed to employment growth in three of the last four months. In July, 7.8% of Americans started a new job versus 5.7% losing their job.

The Consumer Reports Employment Index examines the change in employment of The Consumer Reports Stress those that reported starting a I n d e x c a p t u r e s a t t i t u d e s new job versus those that have regarding the amount of stress lost their job or were laid off in consumers feel compared to a the past 30 days. An index year ago. It asks whether they below 50 indicates more jobs are feeling more stressed or less were lost than gained, while a stressed. When the Stress Index score more than 50 indicates is more than 50, consumers are more jobs were gained than lost feeling more stress and when it in the past 30 days. is below 50 they are feeling less For more information regarding stress compared to a year ago. the Consumer Reports Index The index can vary from 100 v i s i t (Total Stress) to a low of 0 (No www.ConsumerReports.org.

The Consumer Reports Index, reliability on hundreds of conducted by the Consumer products. Update your feed Reports National Research preferences Center is a monthly telephone and cell phone poll of a nationally representative probability sample of American adults. A total of 1,258 interviews were completed (1,007 telephone & 251 cell phones) among adults aged 18+. Interviewing took place between June 24 – June 27, 2010. The margin of error is +/- 2.8 points at a 95% confidence level. The complete index report, methodology, and tabular information are available. Contact: C. Matt Fields, 9 1 4 . 3 7 8 . 2 4 5 4 , cfields@consumer.org. 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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CR Index: Consumers are advancing ... slowly Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)

consumers in the past 30 days, declined to 57.6 from 63.5 the prior month, and is slightly Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:14:59 AM below July of last year (58.8). CR Index: Consumers are The most notable improvement advancing ... slowly was in the proportion of The climb out of this recession A m e r i c a n s t h a t m i s s e d a remains slow with frequent mortgage payment, down to 2.4 setbacks. In July the economy percent from 3.9 percent the and the consumer are once again prior month. gaining traction. But unlike Per capita retail spending was most recoveries, where the up in July and is hopefully a climb out is roughly linear, we sign of growing confidence are seeing many ups and downs among consumers. Among the as consumers once again try to non-index categories, past 30regain their footing. day purchases was down for The truly bright spot for July is new cars (1.7 percent) and used Americans who are heading cars (4.8 percent) from the prior b a c k t o w o r k , w i t h t h e month. Home purchases were employment index climbing into also down in July (2.3 percent) positive territory and gains relative to June (3.1 percent), posted in three of the last four halting three straight months of months. Job creation increased increases. Though showing to its highest level in July (7.8), improvement, some dogged adding to three months of p r o b l e m s r e m a i n . S i x t e e n i m p r o v e d h i r i n g . T h e percent of Americans were Employment Index has moved unable to afford medical bill or back into positive territory medications, while 8.9 percent (51.1), its highest reading since lost or had reduced health care A p r i l 2 0 0 9 . T h e T r o u b l e coverage. Problems in affording Tracker Index, the measure of healthcare are well above levels financial difficulties faced by s e e n i n 2009. Another

45.2, virtually unchanged from June (45.0). The Consumer Reports Index report comprises five key indices: the Sentiment Index, the Trouble Tracker Index, the Stress Index, the Retail Index, and the Employment Index. It is conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research worrisome development in the C e n t e r a n d i s a m o n t h l y Trouble Tracker is a rise in telephone and cell phone poll of Americans’ homes going into a nationally representative foreclosure in the past 30 days. probability sample of American Foreclosures were reported by a d u l t s . A t o t a l o f 1 , 2 5 8 1.3 percent of consumers in interviews were completed June, capping three straight (1,007 telephone & 251 cell months of increases. phones) among adults aged 18+. In addition, the Stress Index, a Interviewing took place between measure of the stress consumers June 24 and June 27, 2010. The feel in their everyday lives margin of error is +/- 2.8 points versus a year ago, was up at a 95 percent confidence slightly in July to 61.0 from l e v e l . — M a n d y W a l k e r 57.6 the prior month and 58.4 S u b s c r i b e n o w ! one year ago. Over the past four S u b s c r i b e t o months, Consumer Sentiment ConsumerReports.org for expert has crept upwards at a glacial Ratings, buying advice and pace, rising from 43.7 in April reliability on hundreds of t o 4 5 . 2 i n J u l y . D e s p i t e products. Update your feed advances in employment and preferences declining consumer difficulties, Consumer Sentiment stands at

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LG joins 3D party with 3D TVs, 3D Blu-ray player and 3D glasses James Willcox (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 7/13/2010 7:05:06 AM

LG joins 3D party with 3D TVs, 3D Blu-ray player and 3D glasses LG Electronics' LX9500 -series LCD 3D TV Photo: LG Electronics LG Electronics is joining Panasonic, Samsung and Sony at the 3D TV party with its first 3D TVs—two Infinia-series 3D LCD models—plus its first 3D Blu-ray player and 3D glasses. The company is also offering a bundle that includes 3D glasses to those who buy one of the 3D TVs and Blu-ray player together. Both the Infinia LX9500- and LX6500-series 3D TVs, offered in 47- and 55-inch screen sizes, are LCD models with LED backlights. The flagship LX9500 is a super-slim, THXcertified model that uses a fullarray LED backlight with local dimming. It's also the first 480Hz 3D set we've seen, and it comes with LG's "Magic Wand" remote. The LX6500-series TVs, which include LG's TruMotion 240Hz technology, use edge LED backlights with local dimming. Both TVs are

Wi-Fi-ready (they accept an optional wireless adapter) and come with LG's NetCast online service, which provides access to streaming movies from both Netflix and Vudu. In the LX9500 series, the 55inch set is priced at $5,400, and the 47-inch model at $4,300. The 55-inch LX6500 3D TV is priced at $3,600, and the 47inch set costs $2,700.The sets are available this month. No 3D glasses are included; they cost $180 per pair. LG's first 3D Blu-ray player is

the $350 BX580, which has built-in Wi-Fi and the company's NetCast online service. It's also a DLNAcertified models that can access content, such as music and photos, from a home computer. A promotional bundle, including two free pairs of the 3D active shutter glasses, a $100 instant rebate, plus a mail-in offer to receive Warner Home Video's 3D Blu-ray title, IMAX Under the Sea 3D while supplies last, is offered to those who buy a 3D TV an the 3D Blu-ray

player together. You can get more information about LG's 3D promotion, and a PDF mail-in coupon(Adobe Acrobat or equivalent PDF reader software required), via the website: www.LGusa.com/ 3Dpromo. —James K. Willcox Next Steps • Blu-ray & DVD Player Buying Advice: • Types of Blu-ray & DVD Players| • Blu-ray & DVD Player Features| • Blu-ray & DVD Player

Brands All Blu-ray & DVD Player Ratings Subscribers can view and compare all Blu-ray & DVD Player Ratings. Recommended Blu-ray & DVD Players Look at the ones that we chose as the best of the best. 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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Daily electronics deals Paul Eng (Consumer Reports)

• HP: HP dv6tse Intel Core i5450M 2.26GHz 15.6in Touchscreen Laptop w/ BluDaily electronics deals Ray, Switchable Graphics Today's electronics deals, $899.99 courtesy of The Consumerist: • Buy.com: TDK DVD+R 150- Entertainment Pack Blank Media (3 x 50-Pack • Toys R Us: Nintendo Wii Spindles) for $22.99 w/ Free Guitar Hero 5 Bundle + DJ Hero Shipping Turntable Bundle for $89.99 + • Walmart: Emerson 32" LCD $14.92 Shipping 720p HDTV for $299 w/ Free • JR.com: Nintendo Wii Dual Shipping Charger Station - Black for • Newegg: Seagate 1.5TB $18.99 w/ Free Shipping External Hard Drive for $89.99 • Amazon: Split Second $44.99 w/ Free Shipping + free shipping • Newegg: 1TB Samsung F2 • Amazon: "Comedown" by HD103SI 5400 RPM 32MB Bush, Acoustic MP3 single Cache SATA Internal Hard • A&E Store: Sale on DVDs Drive $55 + free shipping • Superbiz: Samsung EcoGreen Neither Consumer Reports nor F3 HD153WI 1.5TB SATA2 T h e C o n s u m e r i s t r e c e i v e 5400rpm 32MB Hard Drive $70 a n y t h i n g i n e x c h a n g e f o r + free shipping featuring these deals; the posts • TigerDirect: TomTom XXL are intended to be purely 530S Portable GPS Navigation informational. These deals are (5in, Text To Speech) $99.99 often fleeting, with prices Free Ship changing or products becoming Submitted at 7/13/2010 6:17:17 AM

unavailable as the day progresses. These posts are not an endorsement of the featured products or the Web sites that sell them—though some of the sites may be included, and recommended, in our Ratings of retailers for computers and other major electronics(both available to subscribers). Price shouldn't be your only criterion. Be wary of lower-priced deals that seem too good to be true, and check return policies for restocking fees and other gotchas. For general buying advice for many of the products on sale above, check out our free Buying Guides. 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

Flash In The Brain Pan: Circuit Cycles (Woot! - One Day, One Deal)

you judge? Because driving those lightcycles around is still a lot of fun, and plus, can you You oldsters might think back believe how influential that to the glory days of Encom in music turned out to be? You can wonderment, amazed that now almost imagine something like you can play a once cutting- that would come from the mind edge game like Circuit Cycles in of present-day Daft Punk! your freaking browser, but you Really, it's a shame that Kevin baby geeks are probably sitting Flynn vanished off the face of there thinking "hey, how is this the earth all those years ago, fun"? Well, shut your yaps, because just imagine the sort of whippersnappers, because to us video games he'd be creating old guys, Kevin Flynn was a today… if only we knew where hero. he was... but, whatever, Circuit Sure, Circuit Cycles may not Cycles is still a blast, and the seem ahead of its time today, perfect game for the lunch hour. but just play it, okay? Before Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:00:00 AM


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Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz wins 2010 Home Run Derby Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 7/13/2010 1:34:44 AM

• Share • '); } else { $(_this).append(' Follow him on Twitter: @'+value+'.'); } } }); } }); T(_t.selector).hovercards(anywh ereOptions); T(".fortwitter").hovercards(anywhereO ptions); //REMOVE THE CLASS NAME SO WE DON'T ANYWHERE IT TWICE $ ( " . f o r twitter").removeClass("fortwitter"); }); } if(typeof(twttr) == "undefined") { $.getScript("http:// platform.twitter.com/ anywhere.js?id="+config.key+" &v="+config.version,anywhere) ; } else { anywhere(); } return this; }; })(jQuery); ANAHEIM, Calif. -- David Ortiz believes his power swing is all the way back. After a big finish in the Home Run Derby, Boston's beloved slugger has a trophy to prove it. Big Papi won his first derby title Monday night, hitting 11 homers in the final round to beat Florida's Hanley Ramirez at Angel Stadium. Stark: Ortiz Still Commands

Big Stage David Ortiz still remembers a few months back people saying he was finished. His triumph at the Home Run Derby was just the latest reminder Big Papi isn't ready to leave the stage, writes Jayson Stark. Story Showing plenty of potency in the fierce swing that once made him one of the majors' most feared hitters, the Red Sox star put a relentless series of drives into the elevated stands above the right-field wall. With New York Yankees bench coach Tony Pena crossing rivalry lines to feed fastballs straight into his wheelhouse, Ortiz hit 21 homers in the first two rounds of his fourth derby before holding off Ramirez to emerge from a field missing most of baseball's top power hitters. "This is my fourth time, so I just kind of used the experience," Ortiz said. "I wanted to come here and make sure the fans enjoy what we do." Ortiz triumphantly held up the trophy featuring two crossed bats. He dedicated his performance to former major league pitcher Jose Lima, a Dominican Republic native who passed away in May after paramedics found him in cardiac arrest at his Southern California home.

Ramirez, Ortiz's fellow Dominican slugger and former Boston teammate, matched Papi's 21 homers in the first two rounds, pulling most of his shots over the left-field wall. But Ortiz became just the second slugger to reach double digits in the final round, while Ramirez managed only five. Big Night For Big Papi • David Ortiz tied Bobby Abreu (2005) for the most home runs hit in the final round by crushing 11. • Ortiz is the first Boston Red Sox player to win the Home Run Derby. • This was Ortiz's fourth Derby appearance but he had never finished better than third prior to this year. • Milwaukee Brewers slugger Corey Hart became the first player to hit zero home runs in the second round since the format was changed in 1995. "It's good for him," Ramirez said. "He's been through a tough time. I know he's going to come back in the second half." Ortiz reached the derby semifinals in 2005 and 2006, but hadn't been back in the field since. His entire career was on the skids after he struggled in 2009 and again in April, but Boston's longtime star is back on his game with 18 homers and 57 RBIs this season, earning his

sixth All-Star berth. "I've been dealing with so many things the past few years," Ortiz said. "Coming back here [to another All-Star Game], I want to thank the players for giving me the opportunity to be here. This is a job that we have, but it's called a game. That's what I try to do during the season -have fun with my teammates and make sure everything goes the right way." Milwaukee's Corey Hart and Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera were eliminated in the second round, with Hart failing to connect after hitting 13 in the opening round and then waiting about 90 minutes for his second crack. Ortiz finished with 13 in the second round after getting off to a fast start. Ortiz gave ample credit to Pena's pitching after he coolly outslugged his younger competitors. "Whenever we played the Yankees, I saw [Pena] throw batting practice," Ortiz said. "As soon as I found out he was going to be here, I said to him, 'Hey, Tony, can you pitch to me?' And he said, 'Fine. It's not a problem. I'm going to throw to [Nick] Swisher, but I can throw to you, too.' It's the Home Run Derby, and we're here for the fans to have fun. It's not a Yankees and Boston kind of

situation, so let's do it." The derby field wasn't exactly a murderers' row, featuring five first-time competitors and no returning champions. Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and defending champion Prince Fielder all sat out. So did major league homers leader Jose Bautista, NL coleaders Adam Dunn and Joey Votto, and Texas' Josh Hamilton, who hit 28 homers in a single round at Yankee Stadium two years ago. Still, eight sluggers took aim at the artificial rock pile, moss and trees behind the center-field wall at Angel Stadium, the longstanding Orange County park that underwent a thorough renovation in recent years. The Anaheim crowd booed Ortiz during pregame introductions, still remembering several years of postseason clashes between his Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels. But Ortiz hadn't homered at Angel Stadium since hitting a shot during the 2007 AL division series. Ortiz hit eight homers in the opening round, which included plate-side delivery of a towel and a refreshing drink from laughing Tampa Bay closer Rafael Soriano. BOSTON page 65


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NBA commissioner David Stern: LeBron James' decision 'illadvised' but allowed ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 7/12/2010 9:25:41 PM

• Share • '); } else { $(_this).append(' Follow him on Twitter: @'+value+'.'); } } }); } }); T(_t.selector).hovercards(anywh ereOptions); T(".fortwitter").hovercards(anywhereO ptions); //REMOVE THE CLASS NAME SO WE DON'T ANYWHERE IT TWICE $ ( " . f o r twitter").removeClass("fortwitter"); }); } if(typeof(twttr) == "undefined") { $.getScript("http:// platform.twitter.com/ anywhere.js?id="+config.key+" &v="+config.version,anywhere) ; } else { anywhere(); } return this; }; })(jQuery); NBA commissioner David Stern congratulated LeBron James on his decision. He just wishes it came without "The Decision." Stern said Monday he would have advised James to tell the Cleveland Cavaliers of his choice to leave for the Miami Heat earlier than he did, and that the two-time MVP's public announcement shouldn't have

come in a made-for-television special that attracted nearly 10 million viewers. "I think that LeBron is a really good guy and he's going to be a great player and I don't think that this particular production showcased him to the best of our abilities," Stern said. Adande: No Collusion Shadow On Trio While awaiting a good nickname for the new LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh collaborative, let's establish that there are three things they can't be called: conspirators, colluders or tamperers, writes J.A. Adande. Story The commissioner said James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh violated no league rules in discussing free agency among themselves, and that the league isn't investigating how the Heat managed to land all three. That doesn't mean Stern didn't take issue with certain elements of free agency, particularly James' decision to say he was leaving Cleveland on ESPN. "The advice that he received on this was poor," Stern said after NBA owners met in Las Vegas. "The performance was fine. His honesty and his integrity, I think, shined through. But this decision was ill-conceived." Meanwhile, Stern also took

action against Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert, fining him $100,000 for words that the commissioner described as "a little bit extreme." Gilbert released a sharptongued statement shortly after James' announcement last Thursday, calling it "narcissistic" and "cowardly behavior." Later, Gilbert told The Associated Press in a phone interview that he felt James quit on the Cavs during the playoffs the past two years. Even Rev. Jesse Jackson received a rebuke of sorts from Stern. Jackson responded to Gilbert's remarks on Sunday by saying the Cavs owner sees James as a "runaway slave" and that Gilbert's comments put the player in danger. "He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers," Jackson said in a release from his Chicago-based civil-rights group. Stern said Jackson is a friend and ally to the league, but as with Gilbert, felt the reaction simply went too far. "However well-meaning Jesse may be in the premise on this one, he is, as he rarely is, mistaken," Stern said. "And I would have told him so had he called me before he issued his statement, rather than this

morning. But he is a good friend of the NBA and our players. Has worked arduously on many good causes and we work together in many matters." James, Wade and Bosh all decided last week to play together in Miami, working out six-year deals after talking with each other at times throughout the free-agent process. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Sunday he wanted the NBA to examine how all three joined the same team. But in the Monday meeting of the league's Board of Governors, no formal complaints were levied, Stern said. "Our players, having negotiated for the right to be free agents at some point in their career, are totally within their rights to seek employment with any other team," Stern said. "That's something we agreed to. That's something we embrace. That's our system." Stern said he believes it is fair to punish owners for tampering but not players for colluding. "They don't collude, they just sort of talk about how nice it is to be able to play together and they're allowed to do that," Stern said. "There's nothing wrong with it. That's just the way it is." Further, Stern said James was "entitled" to make his move to

South Florida. He also congratulated Miami for its freeagent approach. "Miami did a pretty good job of clearing out cap space and putting together a plan," Stern said. Stern added that there could be free-agency changes in the future. "That's something that we are definitely going to discuss with the labor relations committee because there was a consensus that we should talk about this as a group to see what we can do going forward, or what should be done going forward," he said. One representative from each team met with Stern and NBA officials on Monday, where other conversations besides free agency included an update on the league's labor deal, negotiations with the players' association, and revenue sharing. Owners want a "much revised" system, Stern reiterated, while saying the union would like the present system to remain largely intact. "Our finances are what they are," said Stern, who added that the league lost about $370 million this past season. The league will contact the union later this summer, "to continue our dialogue," Stern NBA page 63


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2010 British Open: Tiger Woods grilled on personal life in news conference Bob Harig (ESPN.com) Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:08:48 AM

• Share • '); } else { $(_this).append(' Follow him on Twitter: @'+value+'.'); } } }); } }); T(_t.selector).hovercards(anywh ereOptions); T(".fortwitter").hovercards(anywhereO ptions); //REMOVE THE CLASS NAME SO WE DON'T ANYWHERE IT TWICE $ ( " . f o r twitter").removeClass("fortwitter"); }); } if(typeof(twttr) == "undefined") { $.getScript("http:// platform.twitter.com/ anywhere.js?id="+config.key+" &v="+config.version,anywhere) ; } else { anywhere(); } return this; }; })(jQuery); ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -There were some uncomfortable moments Tuesday during Tiger Woods' first news conference in Great Britain following his wellpublicized scandal. But the answers were mostly the same ones he has given

since returning to competitive golf in April at the Masters. “ I'm not going to go into that.”-Tiger Woods on his reported impending divorce Woods, who will attempt to win for the third time at the Old Course when the 139th Open Championship begins Thursday, fielded 17 questions that were in some way related to events surrounding his personal life, including how he expected his image to impact his week at St. Andrews. "It doesn't impact it at all," Woods said. "I'm here to play a championship, and this is the Open Championship at St. Andrews. I mean, this is as good as it gets. It's the home of golf. I'm just like every other player in this field, really looking forward to getting out there and playing the Open Championship." The British media is known for its aggressiveness and sensationalism and most of the questions pertaining to Woods' personal life came from those factions. And the only divorce Woods spoke about was the one from

his putter. Woods was asked about his reported impending divorce from his wife of six years, Elin, but only said, "I'm not going to go into that." But he did disclose that he is putting a new putter in his bag for the first time in 11 years. Gone, at least for this week, is the Scotty Cameron Newport 2, a putter which has been in use for 13 of his 14 major championships going all the way back to May of 1999. Woods is going with a new Nike model called the Method. "I've always been tempted to change my putter on slower greens and I've always struggled when greens are really slow," Woods said. "I've always felt more comfortable when the greens are quick. I've always experimented with other putters throughout the years but I've never put one in play until now." Woods was not as expansive with other answers. He again confirmed reports that he had met with authorities to discuss his relationship with Canadian doctor Anthony Galea -- who treated Woods' surgically

repaired knee -- but said "I can't go into any of that because of the fact that it's an open case so far." And then there was this exchange: " Tom Watson has said you need to clean up your act on the golf course. He's gone on record. Many of us over the years have heard you use the F word, we've seen you spit on the course, and we've seen you throw tantrums like chucking your clubs around. Are you willing to cut out all those tantrums this week and respect the home of golf?" Woods: "I'm trying to become a better player and a better person, yes." This will be Woods' seventh tournament this year and it is the longest he has gone into a season without a victory since 1998. "I'm looking forward to getting out there and playing, and I understand how to play this golf course," said Woods, who has played three practice rounds so far at St. Andrews. "It's a matter of going out there and putting it together and putting it together at the right time."

As for his personal life, Woods spoke mostly in generalities. "All that really matters is I have two beautiful kids, and I'm trying to be the best dad I can possibly be, and that's the most important thing of all," Woods said. Last week, Woods took a break from his Open preparations in Europe to return to the U.S. to spend time with his children, 3year-old Sam and 1-year-old Charlie. "That was an incredible experience, to hang out with my kids," he said. "Normally I don't come over here, play two days and then go back home. But the reason I did is obviously for my kids, and we had a great time." Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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George Steinbrenner, New York Yankees owner, dies at age 80 ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:18:13 AM

• Share • '); } else { $(_this).append(' Follow him on Twitter: @'+value+'.'); } } }); } }); T(_t.selector).hovercards(anywh ereOptions); T(".fortwitter").hovercards(anywhereO ptions); //REMOVE THE CLASS NAME SO WE DON'T ANYWHERE IT TWICE $ ( " . f o r twitter").removeClass("fortwitter"); }); } if(typeof(twttr) == "undefined") { $.getScript("http:// platform.twitter.com/ anywhere.js?id="+config.key+" &v="+config.version,anywhere) ; } else { anywhere(); } return this; }; })(jQuery); George Steinbrenner, who rebuilt the New York Yankees into a sports empire with a mix of bluster and big bucks that

polarized fans all across America, died Tuesday. He had just celebrated his 80th birthday July 4. Steinbrenner "It is with profound sadness that the family of George M. Steinbrenner III announces his passing. He passed away this morning in Tampa, Fla., at age 80," the family said in a statement. "He was an incredible and charitable man. First and foremost he was devoted to his entire family -- his beloved wife, Joan; his sisters, Susan Norpell and Judy Kamm, his children, Hank, Jennifer Jessica and Hal; and all of his grandchildren. "He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again." He had a heart attack, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Fla., and died at about 6:30 a.m ET on Tuesday, according to multiple reports. The Steinbrenner family said

that funeral arrangements will be private, however details about an additional public service will be announced at a later date. “ He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again.”-- Steinbrenner family statement Flags were immediately lowered to half-staff at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees' spring training complex. The Yankees say many employees there were in tears. For more than 30 years, Steinbrenner lived up to his billing as "the Boss," a nickname he earned and clearly enjoyed as he ruled with an iron fist. He was known for feuds, clashing with Yankees great Yogi Berra and firing manager Billy Martin twice. But as his health declined, Steinbrenner let sons Hal and Hank run more of the family business. Steinbrenner was in fragile

health for years, resulting in fewer public appearances and pronouncements. Yet dressed in his trademark navy blue blazer and white turtleneck, he was the model of success: The Yankees won seven World Series titles after his reign began in 1973 Till the end, he demanded championships. He barbed Joe Torre during the 2007 AL playoffs, then let the popular manager leave after another loss in the opening round. The team responded last year by winning another title. His death was the second in three days to rock the Yankees. Bob Sheppard, the team's revered public address announcer from 1951-07, died Sunday at 99. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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said. The current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire at the end of the 2010-11 season, and a lockout is possible on July 1. "We are very anxious to make an agreement," Stern said. Information from ESPNLosAngeles.com's Dave McMenamin and The Associated Press was used in this report. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Miami Scheme Machine? NBA Should Probe Heat Jay Mariotti (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 7/12/2010 9:56:00 PM

Filed under: NBA, Sports Business and Media Not to interrupt the Dance Dance Revolution on South Beach, of course. Or further aggravate the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has the laugh-outloud gall to say LeBron James-still on track to be sport's next billionaire athlete -- is being treated like "a runaway slave." But consider this: What if James and Chris Bosh already had decided to join Dwyane Wade in Miami when the superstars still were playing meaningful games elsewhere? Wouldn't that be a scandal of epic proportions? What if the domino effect of signings actually was a threeway conspiracy hatched over months, if not years? What if LeBron was planning all along to bolt the Cleveland Cavaliers, as accused by jilted owner Dan Gilbert, allowing him to deliver less-than-maximum effort at times because he was, um, a dog in Heat? Wouldn't that be an integrity breach similar to Pete Rose's gambling crimes and the disgrace of the 1919 Black Sox? It's one thing for three close friends to gather on July 1, when their free agency kicks in and they no longer belong to other

Nolan Ryan, Chuck Greenberg Sue Rangers in Bankruptcy Court Jon Weinbach (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 7/12/2010 2:59:00 PM

Filed under: Rangers, AL West, Sports Business and Media franchises, and devise a plan to Hollywood's powerhouse talent about such a secret arrangement, Nolan Ryan is suing his own triple-up on an unsuspecting shops? What if I said Henry particularly amid Gilbert's team, Major League Baseball NBA. It's quite another for them Thomas, agent for Wade and claims that James "quit" on the has angered some of its primary to talk as far back as four years Bosh, joined CAA in July 2009 Cavs in Game 5 and three other financial bankers, and the best ago about joining hands, to the -- where a waiting Leon Rose, games of the ill-fated Boston team in the American League point of agreeing in 2007 to the James' agent, already was on the playoff series, as well as the West could end up making the exact terms with their respective staff? Considering how close the concluding game of Cleveland's playoffs with no owner. As the lords of baseball teams -- three years, opt-out three players have been, from postseason failure against a ssembled in Southern clauses in 2010 -- and creating the night they entered the league Orlando last year. When James California for Tuesday night's the contractual uniformity to together in the 2003 draft to is trying to break through to the All-Star Game, the battle for make their dream possible. playing on a U.S. international NBA Finals, only to encounter control over the Texas Rangers In a sports world complex team in 2006 and then on the frustration, would he believe it's enough to give us all headaches, gold-medal Olympic Redeem OK to diminish his effort when took another bizarre twist the union of James, Wade and Team two years ago, it would be Cleveland is in his rear-view Monday, as the prospective Bosh came together too easily to naive to believe this hasn't been mirror and Miami is set for at o w n e r s h i p g r o u p l e d b y think it just magically happened in the works for some time. least six seasons of a flamboyant Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg and Ryan, the Hall of last week. Ever hear of Creative Share I can't overstate what superteam? NOLAN page 65 A r t i s t s A g e n c y , o n e o f would be so hideously wrong


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BOSTON continued from page 60

Ortiz, who has been known for goofing around during the derby silliness in recent years, gave a towel break during the final round to Ramirez, who he said is "like a son to me." Ramirez was traded to Florida when the Red Sox acquired ace Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell. "Of course, I wish Hanley would be playing on our team, like he was supposed to be, but there are things we can't control," Ortiz said. "The move that the Red Sox made was good for both sides." Ortiz took control of the last round with consecutive homers on his first four swings. Ramirez couldn't catch up, hitting three straight before ending it by making outs on six of his last seven swings. Hart highlighted the first round

with six homers on his first eight swings. He had 11 on his first 15 whacks against Sandy Guerrero, the Nashville Sounds' hitting coach. St. Louis' Matt Holliday, the Yankees' Swisher, Toronto's Vernon Wells and Arizona's Chris Young didn't escape the first round. Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Vincent Jackson Officially Suspended Three Games

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Fame pitcher and current Rangers president, filed suit against the team in federal bankruptcy court in Dallas. The Greenberg/Ryan group was selected to purchase the team in Chris Burke (FanHouse Main) January, but its bid has been Submitted at 7/12/2010 10:55:00 PM rejected by the club's creditors, who oppose the terms of Filed under: Chargers, NFL Greenberg's $575 million deal Free Agency, NFL Rumors The for the Rangers. Monday's NFL announced that Chargers lawsuit takes aim at William receiver Vincent Jackson would Snyder, the court-appointed be suspended for the first three chief restructuring officer, who games of the 2010 season, was tapped to work out an confirming an earlier report agreement between the creditors from ESPN's Adam Schefter. and the club, which filed for The suspension is for violating bankruptcy protection in late the league's policy on substance May. The suit accuses Snyder of abuse, related to Jackson's guilty skirting previously agreed-to plea to DUI in February. It was rules and soliciting rival bids for Jackson's second DUI the Rangers in "an attempt to conviction during his five-year mired in a contract standoff. hijack the proceedings." Jackson, a restricted free agent A spokesman for the Rangers NFL career. "Obviously we're disappointed," heading into this offseason, told FanHouse the team has no Chargers GM A.J. Smith said in refused to sign his $3.268 comment on the Greenberg suit. a statement. "Vincent made a million tender and that number mistake and now must deal with was reduced all the way to t h e c o n s e q u e n c e s . I t ' s $583,000, or 110 percent of unfortunate, but we'll deal with what Jackson earned in 2009. He's reportedly seeking a deal it and move on." Jackson is eligible to participate somewhere in the neighborhood Pat McManamon (FanHouse a n g r y l e t t e r a b o u t J a m e s ' i n S a n D i e g o ' s p r e s e a s o n of the four-year, $47.5 million Main) departure reflected a master- activities, including games. contract Brandon Marshall slave mentality, and that Gilbert However, he's yet to show for signed with Miami. Submitted at 7/12/2010 4:44:00 PM was treating James like a any of the Chargers' offseason Filed under: Cavaliers, Heat, "runaway slave." workouts as he and the team are NBA Free Agents Cleveland Gilbert's statement, released Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert through the team, was brief and " s t r o n g l y " d i s a g r e e d w i t h to the point: remarks made by the Rev. Jesse "I strongly disagree with Rev. Jackson Sunday about LeBron Jesse Jackson's recent comments James. DAN page 66 Jackson had said the owner's

Dan Gilbert Releases Statement on Jesse Jackson's 'Runaway Slave' Comments


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Source: Buck Showalter to Take Over as Orioles Manager This Weekend Ed Price (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 7/12/2010 7:51:00 PM

Filed under: Orioles, FanHouse Exclusive, MLB Inside Scoop Buck Showalter is expected to take over as Orioles manager on Saturday or Sunday, a source familiar with the organization told FanHouse on Monday. Showalter, who has managed for the Yankees, Diamondbacks and, most recently, the Rangers from 2002-06, emerged as the front-runner for the Baltimore job over the last week, with numerous reports tipping him as the next skipper to take the helm in the Charm City. Another source said "nothing is imminent." Showalter is scheduled to work for ESPN, his current employer, through the

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and we are not going to engage in any related discussion on it. Going forward, we're very excited about the Cavaliers and the positive future of our region." Gilbert is attending the owners' meetings in Las Vegas, where NBA commissioner David Stern said Monday he was fining the Cavaliers $100,000 for the comments. "He was completely correct in expressing his disappointment,"

Stern said, adding that Gilbert's statement and the sentiments he expressed in a follow-up interview with the AP were "a little bit extreme." Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Super fan-made paper Mario and Luigi Mike Schramm (Joystiq) It's ourat sincere hope that SUPER page 67 Submitted 7/13/2010 8:00:00 AM if the

weekend. The Orioles, who come into the All-Star break with the worst record in the majors at 29-59, fired Dave Trembley on June 4. Juan Samuel, previously the club's third base coach, has stepped in to manage the club on an interim basis since.

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most noticeable new feature of the Nintendo 3DS, the company has some other ideas for extending the boundaries of gameplay past the flat screen -like Tag Mode, a passive wireless communication feature that allows DS systems to talk to each other and beam game data back and forth. Speaking to Wired, platform producer Hideki Konno offered

additional details about the hardware's expanded implementation of Tag Mode. "In the hardware," Konno said, "we have the capability that when you first play a game that supports Tag Mode, it will save to a Tag Mode data slot in the hardware system. We are planning to support multiple 3DS page 67

3DS producer explains new Tag Mode, confirms final hardware shape

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Super Mario Bros. ever actually did show up in our world, they wouldn't look anything like Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo-instead, we'd really prefer they look something like what you see above: Two papercraft statues put together by D e v i a n t A r t - i s t TouchFuzzyGetDizzy. Definitely click the Source link below to see these guys as big as possible. The actual statues are 40 and 50 centimeters tall, and with the detail on them, you're probably looking at quite a bit of paper. If you want to try cutting, folding, and pasting them together yourself, you're welcome to -- the creator has uploaded patterns of each,

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though he warns that there are no instructions to go along with them yet. Elsewhere in his gallery, you can see more angles of Luigi, as well as models of Aryll and Salvatore from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Very cool. The best thing we ever made with paper? The football from ... er ... Tecmo Bowl. Super fan-made paper Mario and Luigi originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

games at the same time: Mario Kart, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, etc." The current DS system allows Tag Modeenabled games to communicate only when that game is running, with data saved to the cartridge. Konno said that Nintendo was planning a "Tag Mode Viewer" that would allow users to manage the data received in this way. He hopes the use of Tag Mode will "bring consumers a sense of wanting to play a game again, after they get new data from games that they'd forgotten about." At the end of the interview,

Konno said about the design of the 3DS shown at E3, "You can take this as the final shape." Nintendo has previously said (and is still saying on its E3 site) that the design was "TBA." Gallery: Nintendo 3DS 3DS producer explains new Tag Mode, confirms final hardware shape originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Sniper: Ghost Warrior shipments upped following success Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:45:00 AM

City Interactive is increasing shipments of Sniper: Ghost Warrior following the game's unexpected success in the UK. The game premiered two weeks ago at fifth place on ChartTrack's Xbox 360 chart and tenth on the All Formats chart, dipping four spots last week. Not bad for the developer's first major title.

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MCV reports that City Interactive CEO Marek Tyminski stated, "We are extremely pleased with the reception Sniper: Ghost Warrior

has received." Tyminski is likely talking about the game's financial success and not its critical reception. The game currently has a Metacritic score

of 55 and 45 on the PC and Xbox 360, respectively. Gallery: Sniper: Ghost Warrior (Xbox 360/PC) Sniper: Ghost Warrior shipments upped following success originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Expendables gets retro-inspired Facebook game Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 7/13/2010 7:00:00 AM

The film which critics are hailing as "the muscliest video escapade in the whole of cinematic history" now has a similarly masculine video game adaptation. The Expendables an upcoming summer blockbuster starring Sly Stallone, Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Brock Stonejaw and Mickey Rourke - now has a free-to-play Contra clone on its official Facebook fan page. (Also, one of the actors listed above isn't real. Can you guess which one?) Take heed: You'll have to "Like" the Expendables fan page in order to gain access to the game. We realize that some people might not feel comfortable broadcasting their endorsement for what is clearly the movie of the decade, though, for the life of us, we can't imagine why. Expendables gets retro-inspired Facebook game originally EXPENDABLES page 68


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appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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After 3 Years of Data Crunching, NASA and Microsoft Release Stunning New Interactive Mars Tour Rebecca Boyle (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 7/12/2010 4:32:55 PM

Take a Tour of Mars You can take an interactive tour of Mars with Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope program. NASA Using Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope program, you can now take an interactive tour of Mars with the highest-resolution images available of the Red Planet -- something even scientists have never been able to see before. NASA scientists have been crunching data for three years on more than 100 computers to come up with the brand-new Mars map. Its image collection spans the Viking orbiters nearly 40 years ago to the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is still snapping pictures. NASA says it was looking for a way to share its wealth of Mars

images, and WorldWide Telescope was a good fit. To use it, you have to download the PC -only free program, or use a Web client. NASA says the map may lead to new scientific discoveries. The program lets you fly through a 3-D rendering of Victoria Crater, soar past

Olympus Mons and examine rock formations with surfacelevel detail. In some Martian locales, you can right-click an image, and you'll find Web pages for the missions that captured them. The 3-D effect is derived from information provided by an instrument called MOLA, the

Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, which flew on the Mars Global Surveyor. Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., combined the data with regular images to come up with 3-D views. The images themselves reside on the Nebula cloud at NASAAmes. Two NASA scientists also offer video tours. James Garvin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., walks viewers through the geological history of Mars and discusses three possible landing sites for human missions there. Carol Stoker of Ames addresses the question of whether Mars harbors life, and discusses the findings of NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander. [ NASA]


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Juno Probe, Built to Study Jupiter's Radiation Belt, Gets A Titanium Suit of Interplanetary Armor Rebecca Boyle (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

stainless steel, NASA says. To test the system, JPL engineers put pieces of the spacecraft in a lead-lined tub and bombarded them with Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:13:21 AM Armored Spacecraft Workers gamma rays. Engineers place the special radiation vault analyzed the results to be sure for NASA's Juno spacecraft the radiation vault will hold up. onto the propulsion module. It won't protect Juno from every Juno's radiation vault has bit of radiation, but it will help titanium walls to protect the considerably and will slow spacecraft's electronic brain and down the radiation-related aging heart from Jupiter's harsh process, NASA says. radiation environment. NASA/ The tough spacecraft will study Lockheed Martin Jupiter's powerful A satellite that will help magnetosphere, which by itself scientists understand the solar is the largest structure in the system's largest planet is being solar system. It protects Jupiter outfitted with some special from charged particles emitted interplanetary armor. by the sun. Jupiter's fast rotation The Juno spacecraft will study speeds those particles to nearly Jupiter's powerful radiation belt, study Jupiter's origins. It will be to withstand the equivalent of in Denver designed a titanium the speed of light, resulting in a but it has to be built to survive the first solar-powered craft to more than 100 million dental X- box, roughly the size of an SUV halo of radiation around the t h a t r a d i a t i o n . E n g i n e e r s visit Jupiter and will carry nine rays," says Bill McAlpine, trunk, to hold the spacecraft's planet's equator. recently added a special shield science instruments, which will J u n o ' s r a d i a t i o n c o n t r o l command center and power It will take five years for Juno a r o u n d t h e s p a c e c r a f t ' s investigate the existence of a manager, based at NASA's Jet controls. Each wall covers about - named for the Roman god electronics, turning it into a solid planetary core; map P r o p u l s i o n L a b o r a t o r y i n nine square feet and is one-third Jupiter's wife/sister -- to reach Jovian armored tank, says its J u p i t e r ' s m a g n e t i c f i e l d ; Pasadena, Calif., in a news of an inch thick. The whole the fifth planet. Juno will orbit thing weighs about 500 pounds. around Jupiter's poles, ensuring principal investigator, Scott measure the amount of water release. and ammonia in the atmosphere; A protective lead vest wasn't Some wires extend from the that it spends as little time as Bolton, based at Southwest and observe the planet's auroras, space-y enough, however. Lead box to other parts of the possible near the radiation belt. Research Institute in San according to NASA. is too soft to withstand the stress s p a c e c r a f t , s o e n g i n e e r s [ Jet Propulsion Laboratory] Antonio. Juno is scheduled to launch in "For the 15 months Juno orbits of launch, so engineers at wrapped them in a chain-mailAugust 2011 on a mission to Jupiter, the spacecraft will have Lockheed Martin Space Systems esque braid of copper and


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MIT's New Multifunctional Fibers Combine Piezoelectric Sensitivity with Heat and Light Sensing Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 7/12/2010 3:59:39 PM

A New Multifunctional Material MIT's multilayered optical fibers can also sense and produce pressure or acoustic waves. Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT/Greg Hren Photograph Mashing together optical fiber technology and piezoelectrics, MIT scientists have developed a new kind of multifunctional material that can not only carry and modulate light, but can sense or create pressure changes in the material, layering additional sophistication onto already complex materials. The fibers could be used to create smart textiles that monitor the body, structural sensors that detect even the smallest stresses on a structure, or biomedical devices that could be tucked into the tightest corners of the human body. The MIT team, headed by

professor of materials science and engineering Yoel Fink, has previously cobbled together heat sensitive and light sensitive materials, but adding piezoelectric functionality to these fibers adds a whole new dimension, giving materials the ability to convert mechanical changes in shape to electrical signals and vice versa. But making these properties

as well as electricity. Vibrations or pressure generate an electrical signal, while electrical signals can be used to elicit mechanical changes in the fiber or cause vibrations that in turn can even be turned into acoustic waves. Such materials could be used to perform a variety of tasks, not least of which is to monitor bodily functions via very tiny biosensors. The less-than-onemicrometer-wide fibers could be inserted into organs or the cardiovascular system to monitor for biomarkers or blood flow, while their ultrasound-like w o r k t o g e t h e r p r e s e n t s a To make a piezoelectric layer, ability to perform acoustic particular challenge. In order to they had to do the same thing, sensing and carry infrared light make their previous heat- and mixing and matching polymers essentially makes them tiny light-sensitive materials, Fink and polycarbonates to get a ultrasound imagers. and company devised a method material that would heat and [ Technology Review] o f l a y e r i n g t h e n e c e s s a r y stretch uniformly and still retain materials into a thick "perform" its crystalline piezoelectric cylinder that is then heated and structures. stretched into a long, thin fiber. But after combining the earlier All these materials -- polymers, materials with the piezoelectric metals, etc. -- have to melt and layer, the team now has a stretch at similar temperatures. finished fiber that carries light


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New Type of Brain-Computer Interface Lets You Control Robots With Your Eyes Rebecca Boyle (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 7/12/2010 3:20:32 PM

Mind Control A new braincomputer interface allows a user to control a robot's movement by looking at various quadrants on a computer screen. Boston Globe With this head gear, you could make robots go grab you a beer simply by glancing at the refrigerator. A team of researchers at Northeastern University in Boston is working on a brainrobot interface that lets you command a robot by looking at specific regions on a computer screen. The system detects brain signals from the user's visual cortex, and commands a robot to move left, right and forward, the Boston Globe reports. Each quadrant on the computer

screen corresponds to a different command and each flashes at a different frequency. If you stare at one quadrant, your visual cortex will emit a corresponding frequency, which is detected by an electrode cap covering your head. A computer translates that

robot interfaces we've seen. The new brain-computer interface could be used to control household appliances, according to Northeastern U. professor Deniz Erdogmus. Starting this school year, students will rig a wheelchair to accept commands from the interface, allowing people with physical impairments to move around simply by looking in the direction they want to go. Students in Erdogmus' Cognitive Systems Laboratory work on several brain sensing devices that enable people to frequency into a directional communicate with computers command, then wirelessly and robots. People with various transmits the command to a physical impairments would be small laptop attached to a robot. able to use the technology to You can even track the robot control a mechanical avatar, for t h r o u g h a S k y p e v i d e o instance. connection, the Globe reports. [ Boston Globe] It's a simpler and smaller system than other mind-control

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DARPA Asks for a Flying Car, Gets a Dual-Rotor Five Road Warrior Turned Helo Fantasy Adventures Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

Of course, sketches are only sketches and it will be interesting to see if AVX can flesh this design out into a Submitted at 7/12/2010 5:09:11 PM AVX's Transformer Candidate practical battlefield vehicle that Takes to the Sky AVX Aircraft reliably complies with the Just after the new year, DARPA written laws of physics and the put out a broad agency unwritten practicalities of announcement requesting a combat. But as concepts go this flying car, specifically a one-to one is pretty cool. Feel free to four-person, vertical takeoff and pull the pic above into landing-capable vehicle that can Photoshop and add the air-tonegotiate off-road conditions as surface armaments of your well as take to the skies. Today, be able to carry a 1,040-lb. -off and landing requirement, choice. Fort Worth-based AVX Aircraft payload 250 miles on a single and at least the sketches make it [ D e f e n s e T e c h n o l o g y has responded with a proposal, tank of fuel, peaking at 80 miles look off-road rugged. Unfolding I n t e r n a t i o n a l ] releasing some mock-ups of a per hour over land and 140 the rotor blades for flight should dual-rotor, ducted-fan driven miles per hour on land. It's convert the vehicle from road aircraft that's also road-ready. coaxial rotor design would warrior to aircraft in just one AVX says the four-seater will certainly satisfy the vertical take minute.

(Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 7/13/2010 5:00:00 AM

Ordinary vacations become memorable adventures at these locales by Elyse Dupre Print Article Email to Friend Canyonlands National Park, Utah Located near the world mountain-biking mecca of Moab, Canyonlands Park is a more thrilling (and less wellknown) option, covering 500 FIVE page 73

Reddit Goes Freemium Out of Necessity Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

claims Reddit in a blog post today, with about 6,000 Reddit members donating. However, Social media site Reddit the effort to “save” Reddit recently asked its readers to help changed its business model in an it out, financially, as it was unexpected and interesting way. running out of staff and means At first, users who donated to keep the site running. An odd were only promised a badge on request, given that Reddit is their user accounts. Now, Reddit owned by a billion-dollar writes the “ gold” status that corporation, Conde Nast, but its donors received will give them owner has a fixed budget for the additional benefits, which site – and that budget is simply effectively means that Reddit not enough, Reddit’s admins has turned freemium. From the claimed. blog post: The plea was a huge success, “As soon as possible, we’re Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:38:51 AM

going to start giving our gold supporters something more than just a trophy. Now that the pilot has succeeded so well, we’re going to grow reddit gold into a bona fide subscription service a

la TotalFark or Ars Technica. … As always, we’re taking suggestions for which cool things we should work on first. Our aim is to get something out to you by this time next week.” This goes on to show that a very dedicated community can sometimes shape not only your service – which has been the case with social media sites such as Digg and Reddit alike – but also your business plan. On the other hand, it also shows that being owned by a huge corporation does not always

equal financial freedom. We look forward to seeing how this new freemium financing model works out for Reddit. Reviews: Digg For more Social Media coverage: • Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter • Become a Fan on Facebook • Subscribe to the Social Media channel • Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad


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square miles of spectacular stone pillars and arches, steep river-carved canyons, and jagged mesas. MF Fantasy: Sign up for a guided bike tour. With so much possible scenery to cover, you'll never get it all in on your own. Companies like Austin-Lehman Adventures offer trips that take you through up to 40 miles of vibrant red, yellow, and orange landscape daily on both bike and the occasional hike—perfect for working up a sweat and scoping out the numerous ancient Native American rock carvings. Bonus Tip: Experience Canyonlands from ridge to rapids with Tag-A-Long's Jump and Raft skydiving and whitewater rafting tour. Embark on this $225 adventure July October for prime air and water temperatures. Yosemite, California Four million people visit Yosemite each year, but your experience doesn't have to leave you drowning in crowds. The park, located within the Sierra Nevada mountain range covers a remarkable 1,170 square miles of rugged, breathtaking scenery. So there are plenty of lessertraveled trails ripe for exploration. MF Fantasy: Hike the Half Dome. The rigorous 16-mile round-trip hike up this incredible granite cliff takes you

to the peak. There, you'll stand nearly 4,800 feet above the floor of Yosemite Valley and marvel at the wonder. Bonus Tip: Explore some of Yosemite's most breathtaking landmarks—including its waterfalls, canyons and stunning rock domes—on Timberline's six-day hiking adventure. This expedition departs in September and $2,095 gets you all lodging, meals, park entrance fees, guides, maps and shuttles. Sayulita, Mexico This small fishing village lies 35 minutes by car from Puerto Vallarta, on the Pacific Coast. Its warm, sandy beaches, lush foliage, and vibrant, restaurantlined cobblestone streets offer an incredibly authentic taste of rural Mexico. Soar over the jungle on a zip line tour, cliff dive at Playa Los Muertos, or explore some of Sayulita's secret beaches and winding wooded trails. Then, recharge at the nearby St. Regis Punta Mita Resort. MF Fantasy: Catch a wave. Thanks to its consistent yearround right and left breaks, Sayulita is a surfer's dream. Bonus Tip: Learn to catch some gnarly waves at WildmexSayulita Adventures. For just $50 you'll get private surf lessons, transportation and all surfing equipment included, or try one of several other activities

including mountain biking, kayaking, horseback riding or snorkeling. The Forks, Maine Hundreds of miles of extensive hiking trails, 6,000 miles of rugged ATV routes, three untamed white-water rivers, incredible fishing, geocaching, kayaking, canoeing, camping—even a bit of volleyball, golf, and swimming. Clearly, this outpost in Somerset County, Maine, has something for everyone. MF Fantasy: Tackle the white water. Head to Northern Outdoors campground, a sort of holy ground for the sport thanks to its backyard access to the Kennebec, Dead, and Penobscot Rivers. Rafting/camping packages start at $99 a night. Bonus Tip: Want the ultimate guys' getaway with your buddies? Set out for Northern Outdoors' ManCamp for an adrenaline filled day of rafting and a two-night stay in a Club Cabin. "Mancations" are available May through October for $246-$345 per person. Shawangunk Ridge, New York Just 90 minutes from New York City, The Gunks (as they are often called) are home to some of the best rock climbing in North America. The Sky Top, a prominent stone face with more than 300 different routes to the top, has cliffs up to 350 feet.

Check out one or two of The Gunks' ice caves, where the deep rock fissures stay icy cool throughout the summer months. MF Fantasy: Sleep in a castle. Yes, a castle Mohonk Mountain House is a 267-room Victorian resort that is centrally located to offer easy access to all the fun. Bonus Tip: Ascend one of National Geographic's top-rated rock climbing cliffs, the 'Gunks, with HighXposure Adventures Inc. Whether you're a novice climber or you've already learned the ropes, HighXposure has a wide range of classes starting at $240 per person. Book your climbing excursion in the fall to witness the ravishing colors of the foliage from above. Related articles: 5 Summer Adventure Challenges Eight Tips for Road Tripping Earth-Friendly Retreats [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more] Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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What You Need to Know About H2O (Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 7/13/2010 4:00:00 AM

Why staying hydrated is key to looking and feeling your absolute best by Bari Lieberman Print Article Email to Friend If you're still holding onto the notion that eight cups of water a day is sufficient (I bet you also still believe that you need to wait 30 minutes after eating to go for a swim), you're not working at your body's peak performance level. "Water makes up about 60-70 percent of our body and plays a role in virtually every function in the body — from keeping our blood flowing, our skin healthy and right down to our ability to blink our eyes," Wendy Bazilian, DrPH, RD and author of The SuperFoodsRx Diet says. "Water is our most important nutrient." Sure, hydration is important to survival, but if you are healthy and have access to clean water, death by dehydration probably isn't a major fear. So why should you be concerned with hydration? Even mild dehydration can begin to compromise your health and stifle the effectiveness of your WHAT page 75


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Pain in the Butt (Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 7/13/2010 3:00:00 AM

Sirius Radio's Dr. Steve on how bicycle seats might affect your love life by Dr. Steve Print Article Email to Friend I've recently gotten into bicycling and I love it, but there's one problem. Every time I go for a long ride, my whole pelvis hurts for days. I'm no expert but this can't be good. Can riding around with a little bicycle seat lodged up my ass end up doing any permanent damage to my prostate or anything else? — Vincent J., Scottsdale, AZ We hear constantly that Americans need to exercise more, and bicycling is a great option. It's low impact, variable resistance, and has great cardiovascular potential. However, the position bicycling puts you in can cause some physical problems in some people, as you've noticed. Although your prostate gland is deep enough in the body to be safe from harm, a commonly

reported condition is called "Pudendal Nerve Entrapment." The pudendal nerve may be the most important nerve in your body. It's involved in sensation of the penis and perineum (also known as "the taint"), and is intimately involved in the process of ejaculation. Sitting on a bicycle seat (leaning forward, to boot) can put a lot of pressure on the pudendal nerve and some of the blood vessels in the area. The theory is that this pressure causes "entrapment" and dysfunction of the nerve. Pudendal nerve entrapment has been implicated in pelvic pain, loss of sensation in the penis, erectile dysfunction, and difficulty ejaculating. Overall a bad scene. Not all researchers believe this is a real problem. A 2004 study in the Journal of Urology looked at 688 cyclists and found no statistically significant difference in erectile problems in the study group compared to non-cyclists. However, a study of 90 bicycle-riding police officers did show that using a "saddle without a nose" seat

design resulted in less penile numbness and pain. Another study showed that riders who used seats with a wider posterior region (distributing weight to the "assbones," or "ischial tuberosities") had fewer physical complaints. Unfortunately, the data on bicycle riding is not complete. There is a huge body of evidence that indicates that exercise is good for your general and cardiovascular health. If bicycling is your thing, you're probably in more danger from someone driving a car carelessly than you are from your bicycle seat. Get to your bike shop and make sure the machine fits your body, encourages proper posture, and the seat distributes your weight properly (away from your genitalia). A good bicycle mechanic can make this work for you. You'll know the adjustments you've made to your ride are working when the pain goes away. When exercise ceases to be enjoyable, people naturally give it up. Making a few ergonomic changes to your bicycle will

hopefully bring the fun back. For those who can never seem to find a way to ride without pain, my best advice is to find another hobby. **Remember, don't do anything you read here without first consulting with your own health care provider.** Dr. Steve is the resident medical expert for the Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez shows, and the host of his own Sirius XM Radio program, Weird Medicine. Related articles: Dr. Steve goes into the belly of the beast to help an irregular reader Dr. Steve: Can Laptops Damage Your Family Jewels? Dr. Steve uncovers the true dangers of recreational drug use [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more] Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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workout. Here are the top four reasons to make sure you stay hydrated at all times. • Weight Loss A few years ago Michael Boschmann, MD, and colleagues from Berlin's FranzVolhard Clinical Research Center found that after drinking about 17 ounces of water, the metabolic rates of the study's participants increased by 30 percent. And the researchers estimated that if a person increases his water consumption by 1.5 liters (51 oz) a day, he would burn an extra 17,400 calories per year. That's about five pounds just from drinking more water. Additionally, a study by Dr. Brenda Davy, an associate professor at Virginia Tech, found that people who drank water before a meal consumed an average of 75 fewer calories at that meal. • Better Mental Clarity"Poor hydration leads to increased tiredness, reduced alertness and impaired short-term memory. Good luck with using that as an

excuse to your boss. "Even mild dehydration — being only 1-2 percent dehydrated has shown to impair cognitive performance — like the ability to perform mental tests and skills requiring thinking," Bazilian says. • Greater Results in the Gym Not seeing gains in the gym? Perhaps a lack of water is to blame. "If you don't hydrate yourself correctly you won't perform very well and you won't see results," American Council on Exercise spokesperson and exercise physiologist Fabio Comana, M.S. says. Muscles are about 80 percent water and dehydration diminishes blood flow to brain, the delivery of nutrients to your muscles and slows down your recovery process. Water also helps reduce the chance of injury and pain because of the key role it plays in keeping joints lubricated. • General Appearance While water may not be the fountain of youth, it will help improve dry skin, cracked lips and wrinkles.

Water is required to make saliva which is the body's best natural defense against tooth decay, and good hydration helps preserve skin's elasticity and tone.

steel Klean Kanteen 27oz classic ($19.95), the sportier looking CamelBak 1-liter (about 34oz) Better Bottle ($15) or Sigg Lifestyle Water Bottles with Active Top, 20oz ($21.99) How Much Do You Need? or 1-liter ($24.99). The Beverage Institute For Bonus Tip: Recent studies have Health & Wellness has created a shown that all hydration does hydration calculator to help you not need to come from fluids. determine your daily water Up to 20 percent of a person's needs based upon your age, daily intake can come from food weight, health, environment and s o u r c e s s u c h a s s o u p , activity level, and you can use watermelon, spinach and more. the Institute of Medicine's Related articles: recommendation of 3.7 liters Sports Drinks vs. Water (125 ounces) daily for men as a Safe Water: What To Know g u i d e l i n e . B u t i f y o u ' r e How to Boost Your Metabolism physically active, living in a hot [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and climate or taking workout more] supplements such as creatine, Five Filters featured article: take precautions to consume Headshot - Propaganda, State extra water. Religion and the Attack On the Choose the Right Water Bottle Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available Get in the habit of drinking tools: PDF Newspaper, Full fluids throughout the day. Help Text RSS, Term Extraction. yourself and the environment by carrying a reusable water bottle with you. Stylish BPA-free options include the stainless


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The elder Schuller’s non-retirement Brad A. Greenberg (GetReligion) Submitted at 7/12/2010 12:22:06 PM

There is some seriously conflicting information out there right now concerning Crystal Cathedral founder the Rev. Robert H. Schuller. The Los Angeles Times, which has the more recent story, explains: Crystal Cathedral’s senior pastor Sheila Coleman expressed outrage in an interview Sunday after rumors spread across the media and Internet that her father, famed televangelist Robert H. Schuller, was stepping down. “Dad is not retiring,” she said. “I told [the congregation] that Dad’s role would not be changing and mine would not be changing.” The media storm started when the Orange County Register reported that the 83-year-old Schuller announced his departure during the morning service at the Garden Grove cathedral. The Associated Press picked up the Register story. And within the hour, dozens of papers and media sites picked up the AP article and Twitter was buzzing with the news that the man who created the empire behind the popular weekly Christian TV show “Hour of Power” was moving on. Wikipedia added to its entry that Schuller was retiring. As of 10:15 am PST, neither

the Orange County Register nor The New York Times, which ran the AP story under the headline “ Founder Retires From Megachurch” — had changed its tune. Twitter still hasn’t caught up. The AP, 10 hours ago, ran an “updated” version of the story, which was the sorriest attempt

I’ve seen to get around running a correction: The 83-year-old Schuller will take on a new role as head of the church’s board of directors. Coleman told the Los Angeles Times that the move is not a retirement for her father, that he will still make appearances at the church and continue to

preach “until the day he dies.” Previously the AP had hidden behind the reporting of the OC Reg. It’s events like this that remind me that, at least on occasion, the Associated Press is the local TV news of print journalism. So what happened with the OC Register? The paper opened its

story with something of an obit intro, followed by the “announcement” that Schuller was going to be the new head of the church board and then this quote: “I’m very proud that Sheila has earned her doctorate at the ELDER page 80


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Orthodox ‘fundamentalism’ and obscenity mark (GetReligion)

in an advertisement with the words, “This is my body”; an icon of the Virgin Mary with Apparently, a major religious what looks like caviar where the obscenity trial in Moscow has f i g u r e s s h o u l d b e ; a n d a been going on. I only know this painting of Jesus with a Mickey thanks to a New York Times Mouse head. A work titled story, the Times being one of “Chechen Marilyn,” of a veiled the few papers left these days woman with her long dress that has the resources to do its billowing up, was deemed own foreign coverage: offensive to Muslims. The trial of two prominent The article suggests that the Russian intellectuals over a Russian Orthodox supporters of 2007 c o n t e m p o r a r y a r t the obscenity charges are a exhibition at the Sakharov pretty radical lot: Museum here that included Those divergent views were works on religious themes w e l l r e p r e s e n t e d i n t h e ended … with a guilty verdict c o u r t r o o m . H u m a n r i g h t s and fines but no jail time for the activists and artists showed up defendants. to support the curators. In the culmination of the trial, O p p o s i n g them were which began two years ago, f u n d a m e n t a l i s t R u s s i a n Yuri Samodurov, 58, a former Orthodox activists dressed in d i r e c t o r o f t h e S a k h a r o v black T-shirts decorated with Museum, was fined 200,000 the Orthodox cross, skulls and rubles (about $6,500) and crossbones and the words Andrei Yerofeyev, 54, the “Orthodoxy or Death.” show’s guest curator, was fined There’s the dreaded “F” word 150,000 rubles (about $4,800) again. Dare we ask the logical on charges of inciting religious question: What is the difference a n d e t h n i c h a t r e d i n a n between an orthodox Orthodox exhibition called “ Forbidden Christian and a fundamentalist Art — 2006,” which displayed Orthodox Christian? works that had been banned by Looks like the Times is Russian museums. Among the catching the same disease as the offending works were a Pop Art Washington Post in deciding to juxtaposition of an image of use the word “fundamentalist” J e s u s a p p e a r i n g w i t h as a catch all for religious McDonald’s golden arches as if conservatives, rather than Submitted at 7/13/2010 8:41:11 AM

staying true to its real meaning as defined by the Associated Press stylebook. But what jumped out about an otherwise good, nuts-and-bolts report was the lack of context about the church’s involvement in the suit. There’s some bold allegations about the church’s influence: The prosecutor had asked for three years’ imprisonment for the defendants, a move that caused critics to warn that Russia was reliving the cultural oppression of Soviet times or, as Viktor Yerofeyev, a writer and older brother of Andrei Yerofeyev, warned, that it was becoming a Russian Orthodox version of the Islamic republic in Iran. And: Andrei Yerofeyev and some of his supporters said they believed that the Kremlin had intervened to prevent a prison sentence that could tarnish Russia’s image abroad. Officials of the Russian Orthodox Church had said in recent days that although they were offended by the exhibition and believed it was criminal, the defendants should not be imprisoned. So we have the accusation that the church’s influence is trending toward Iran-like levels

of theocracy and conjecture that the government intervened in the case to counter the church’s influence. This is pretty strong stuff, especially without knowing what the Russian laws actually say on this subject. Also, it should be noted that the story lacks even one actual quote from a Russian Orthodox official or an outside religious expert that might counterbalance the perspective being offered by the defendants or address their accusations. Perhaps the church really has gone overboard here, but I’d feel a lot better accepting this perspective if there was even just one impartial or outside religious expert that could contextualize the church’s contemporary influence in Russia. I really hope we see a follow-up that explains the church’s role in Russian society a bit better. That would go a long way toward illuminating what is going on here. Despite the clear suggestion the church has an out -sized or even pernicious influence, there’s a lot of smoke here but little fire. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Wow, that’s a subtle label! tmatt (GetReligion) Submitted at 7/13/2010 9:24:09 AM

If one looks up “reform” in a dictionary, it’s obvious that, when used as a label, this is a pretty good finger-pointing word, a term that separates the good guys from the bad guys. For example, when used as a verb: 1. To improve by alteration, correction of error, or removal of defects; put into a better form or condition. 2. a. To abolish abuse or malpractice in: reform the government. b. To put an end to (a wrong). … 3. To cause (a person) to give up harmful or immoral WOW, page 78


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Who dreamed a dream? Sarah Pulliam Bailey (GetReligion) Submitted at 7/12/2010 5:14:31 PM

Step aside, book clubs. Enter: dream clubs. Kate Murphy recently wrote for The New York Times about the proliferation of dream groups where people gather to discuss their sleep experiences. The story is mostly experience-quote -experience-“expert” opinion, but I was glad she at least mentioned that dreams might be associated with religion. Over the last five years, classified ads to form or join dream groups have proliferated in alternative newsweeklies and on Web sites like Craigslist and Meetup.com. The groups are social and don’t cost anything unless they are led by psychotherapists or a growing number of self-styled shamans, dreamworkers or dream coaches, who charge $15 to $45 a meeting. There are also an increasing number of church-affiliated dream groups—not surprising, perhaps, given the long association of dreams with religious experience or epiphany. More than 200 church

-sponsored dream groups have formed in the United States since 2002, according to the Haden Institute, a Christian organization in Flat Rock, N.C., which, in addition to courses on spirituality, offers dream-group leadership training to clergy and laity. However, I wish she would have added another sentence or paragraph to explain why dreams are associated with religious experience. There are several instances in the Bible where dreams appear: think Jacob, Pharaoh and Joseph, Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, (New Testament) Joseph, the Magi. Dreams and the interpretation of dreams played a large role in often-recounted biblical stories. What’s unclear is whether the religiously-affiliated groups in the Times story are connecting the dreams to religion or spirituality more broadly. “Telling your dream to a group of people can be very intense experience,” said Liz Hill, 55, a technical writer, who, after attending a workshop at the Haden Institute last year, organized a dream group at the First Unitarian Universalist

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Church of Youngstown, Ohio, where her husband is the minister. “It invites different perspectives, which illuminates aspects of the dream that you might not have thought of on your own.” So are the dreams interpreted at all? Is it mainly for sharing experiences? Are they asked to glean lessons from their dreams? The story quotes two Unitarian Universalists but no one from another religious group or denomination. Jeremy Taylor, a former Unitarian Universalist minister who has written several books on how to start and sustain dream groups and has become something of a New Age guru on the subject, said projective dreamwork “takes dream interpretation from a parlor game to an authentic spiritual discipline.” But Tess Castleman, a Jungian analyst in Dallas who has also written guides on facilitating dream groups, said, “Saying something like ‘if this were my dream’ is just code for ‘this is what it means.’” Instead, she advocates that the group ask the dreamer clarifying questions to

get the fullest and most detailed account of what happened in the dream and then help the individual find meaning by exploring the symbolic nature of images in the dream. These paragraphs feel so obvious to me. I would be interested in how some conservative denominations reconcile dreams and interpretations. What kinds of ministers believe God still speaks through dreams? Are there some concerns with dream interpretation? Most mornings, I wake up and quickly forget the dream I just had. Some have been more vivid, especially when I would study for a test or work on a project for too long. Dreams are fascinating to discuss because they inherently ask you to suspend reality. Unfortunately in this case, this story could have been taken higher. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

practices; persuade to adopt a better way of life. You get the idea. This is just as obvious when dealing with “reform” as a noun: 1. A change for the better; an improvement. 2. Correction of evils, abuses, or errors. 3. Action to improve social or economic conditions without radical or revolutionary change. So what, precisely, is a “reformer,” outside the reference in church history to Protestant Reformers? A reformer is someone who helps correct evils, abuses and errors. So, what do you call a person who is the opposite of a “reformer”? As it turns out, The New York Times has a simple answer to that question, at least that was the case in a recent story covering a key battle in the civil wars inside the global Anglican Communion. LONDON — The Church of England moved another step closer to an unbridgeable schism between traditionalists and reformers … when its General Synod, or parliament, rejected a bid by the archbishop of Canterbury to strike a compromise over the ordination of women bishops aimed at preserving the increasingly fragile unity of the worldwide Anglican Communion. WOW, page 79


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The rejection of proposals aimed at accommodating those who oppose women bishops appeared to strike a serious blow to the authority of the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, whose position as archbishop of Canterbury makes him the spiritual leader of the Communion. Although he has a long-established reputation as a liberal on theological issues, the archbishop, 60, has spent much of his seven years as the Anglican leader seeking to fashion compromises with traditionalists over the role of women and gays as priests and bishops. Wow, what a balanced, neutral lede! This leap in labeling takes us light years past the whole “moderate” vs. “fundamentalist” question that was so troubling (and rightly so) to Times editor back in 2005. In this case, the ancient tradition of male clergy is actually identified, in the mirror, as evil and abusive and, thus, in need of reform. Take that Rome. Take that, Jerusalem, Constantinople, Moscow,

Athens, etc., etc. The majority of the world’s Christians worship at altars in churches of this kind, of course. The issue of the ordination of women, and certainly the raising of women to the episcopate, also divides many of the world’s Anglicans. Now, no matter what you think of the ordination of women, is it really a good idea for the world’s most powerful newsroom to bluntly label one side of this doctrinal debate the party of REFORM, which means that those who oppose them are the party of evil, abusive policies that need to be REFORMED? Surely there is some way to use language that is both accurate and neutral. That’s what mainstream journalists are supposed to do, right? Later in the story, the label for the doctrinal right is cranked all the way up to “hard-line traditionalists.” However, it is pretty clear that someone at the Times has decided to completely tilt the scales in favor of the liberal Anglican establishment. Here we go

again: The proposed compromise in York was co-sponsored by the second most senior prelate in the Church of England, John Sentamu, the archbishop of York. The two men had staked their authority and prestige on winning support for their proposals, and their failure left the Church of England — and the wider Anglican Communion, with an estimated 80 million followers worldwide — facing a new low in its long battle to avert a breakup that would create two rival Anglican communions, one traditionalist and the other reformist. “Reformist”? Now that’s really subtle. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Man Sues Facebook for 84% of Ownership Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 7/13/2010 7:44:38 AM

Could 84% of Facebook soon fall into the hands of a web designer (later wood pellet distributor) called Paul Ceglia? It’s unlikely, but to prevent it, Facebook will have to disprove Ceglia’s claims in court. According to the lawsuit (embedded below), filed in the Supreme Court in New York’s Allegany County last month, Paul Ceglia signed a contract with Facebook in April 2003 to design and develop thefacebook.com (Facebook’s original name). Ceglia claims that, according to the contract, he was to be given a $1,000 fee and a 50% stake in Facebook for services rendered, with a further 1% stake for each day until the site was finished, which was on February 4, 2004. Add it all up, and Ceglia claims he should be the owner of 84% of Facebook. The terms of the contract are weird, and the timing (more than six years after the contract was signed) of the lawsuit is suspicious at best, but the story gets even weirder from there, as Ceglia was sued last year for failing to deliver wood pellets to customers, with damages to the

tune of $200,000. We don’t see Ceglia winning this, but it already caused some problems for Facebook the court has issued a temporary restraining order, barring founder Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook from transferring any assets. Facebook asked for the case to be transferred to a federal court, and is trying to have it annulled. Ceglia v. Facebook Motion for Dissolution [via Guardian] [ img credit: KLH49, iStockphoto] Reviews: Facebook, iStockphoto More About: facebook, lawsuit For more Social Media coverage: • Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter • Become a Fan on Facebook • Subscribe to the Social Media channel • Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad


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University of California, Irvine, and that this university has declared her to (have earned) a distinguished alumnus award,” Schuller told his congregation during the 9:30 a.m. service. “Congratulations, I’m very proud of her.” It’s difficult to imagine that a televangelist of Schuller’s skills couldn’t give a better, to-thepoint quote about why his daughter was fully taking over and why he was stepping aside. But that’s all the OC Reg offered. While we are at it, please note this as well: Shouldn’t that first reference to his daughter, under Associated Press style, be the Rev. Sheila Coleman? I would imagine that the elder Schuller is legally ordained, as well. You think? Meanwhile, where is the rest of this story? Was there any? Was this a reporting snafu or just a matter of he said, she corrected? The LAT appears to have answered those questions. And

it doesn’t look good for the Register. Part of the blame likely falls on circumstances. This story “broke” on a Sunday. That’s not usually a day when religion reporters — if the paper even has them on staff — are just sitting around the newsroom listening to church sermons on the police scanners. And with that in mind, I thought the LAT did a good job. The story was fairly short, but considering that it was a story clearing up a non-story, the length is sufficient. And the context was impressive for reporters who previously had not covered the schism between Schuller and his son, Robert A., that put Coleman into (hour of) power. They even worked a quote from Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, about whether Coleman would be able to have the success that her father did. Of course, this non-story says

some uncomfortable things about the continuing evolution of the news business. I don’t want to call it a devolution, because so many good things have come from the added speed and readership of stories being analyzed on blogs and shared on Twitter. But, not surprisingly, when stories are inaccurately reported the first time around, a lot more people get the misinformation — and you can expect that far fewer people are re-tweeting that Schuller didn’t retire. PHOTO: The Rev. Sheila Coleman, fronting the church that her father built. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Google Researchers Exploring Social Networking, Possibly for Google Me? Jolie O'Dell (Mashable!) Submitted at 7/12/2010 11:34:50 PM

Adding more fuel to the wildfire of rumors about a possible Google social network, one Google staffer has posted a huge slide deck of research findings on social networking problems and solutions. Social networking is a complex, fascinating puzzle that we’re just beginning to solve. Technologists as a group are making great strides in user adoption and functionality, but we’re still missing some important elements that would allow our online lives to better emulate our real-world experiences. In a killer 216-slides-withfootnotes presentation posted on SlideShare, Google UX researcher Paul Adams laid out the full gamut of challenges for today’s web designers. It’s a topic of great importance for every product designer, interface designer, web startup and social media consultant struggling with social groups in the online space. The Social Web of the Web Social media is here to stay, and it’s becoming an integral, irrevokable part of the Internet. Our identities and our friendships are creating

connections with content; never before has the term “web” been more appropriate. Yet with all these linked synapses firing away, our “web” is looking a lot more muddled and a lot less systematic than the average engineer might like. For example, as the Adams points out, “People don’t have one group of friends.” We’ve got work friends, neighborhood friends, family friends, hobby friends, school friends — and although filters and lists attempt to make better sense of these disparate groups, we haven’t quite mastered the art of correlating our online and offline social lives. For example, in the real world, the people Google’s researchers have interviewed have tended to have between four and six distinct social groups of 2-10 friends each — that adds up to between eight and sixty realworld friends per person, and GOOGLE page 81


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Keep Track of Business Contacts Anywhere on the Web Lauren Indvik (Mashable!)

organize follow-up reminders with their team. What do you think of Noteleaf? Mashable’s Spark of Genius How do you keep track of your series highlights a unique business contacts and organize feature of startups. If you would successful follow-ups? like to have your startup [ img credit: Senator Mark considered for inclusion, see Warner] Sponsored by details here. The series is made Microsoft BizSpark possible by Microsoft BizSpark. LinkedIn, Twitter or elsewhere. BizSpark is a startup program You can also create follow-up that gives you three-year access Name: Noteleaf Quick Pitch: Noteleaf helps you r e m i n d e r s v i a N o t e l e a f ’ s t o t h e l a t e s t M i c r o s o f t remember the people you meet. i n t e g r a t i o n w i t h G o o g l e development tools, as well as Easily take notes about people C a l e n d a r . connecting you to a nationwide and keep in touch using follow- The service launched in Beta n e t w o r k o f i n v e s t o r s a n d just this week, and still needs incubators. There are no upfront up reminders. Genius Idea: When Noteleaf’s several key features to be truly costs, so if your business is creators first moved to the Bay serviceable. While you can pull privately owned, less than three Area several months ago, they in your contacts from Facebook years old, and generates less were delighted to meet so many to Noteleaf, for instance, it does than U.S.$1 million in annual interesting new people they not currently offer the same revenue, you can sign up today. wanted to keep in touch with — support for some other obvious Reviews: Facebook, Gmail, b u t t h e y d i d n ’ t h a v e a players, like Gmail, Twitter and Google Calendar, LinkedIn, convenient way of remembering LinkedIn. Even more critically, Twitter who they were and how best to Noteleaf has not yet released More About: bizspark, noteleaf, follow up. And so they created any mobile apps, although the small business, spark-of-genius Noteleaf, a simple service company plans to launch a For more Business coverage: designed to help users keep mobile-friendly version of its • Follow Mashable Business on track of the people they meet site at the end of the week. Once Twitter they have a working iPhone app, • Become a Fan on Facebook and to organize follow-ups. Currently Noteleaf exists as a I intend to take advantage of the • Subscribe to the Business web app and bookmarklet. You service. channel N o t e l e a f p l a n s t o s t a y • Download our free apps for can add the bookmarklet to your toolbar to create new profile completely free during its Beta iPhone and iPad entries and add notes to existing period and will eventually offer o n e s a s y o u c o m e a c r o s s premium upgrade subscriptions important information on f o r e n t r e p r e n e u r s a n d G o o g l e A p p s , F a c e b o o k , professionals who need to Submitted at 7/13/2010 12:40:37 AM

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most of us meet on a weekly basis with around 10 people with whom we have close ties. Trying to mix these groups together in real life doesn’t generally go so well (imagine, if you will, the last awkward birthday party, wedding, or band show you attended, and you’ll get the idea). But in our online lives, we constantly combine our conversations with multiple groups of friends. Our party conversations have to use the same space as our family conversations and our school or work conversations, and it can be just as awkward as the misfits table at a big wedding. Adams went so far as to state that we can’t even call all of our online connections “friends” with any verisimilitude to real life, given that most of his team’s interviewees didn’t use that term for most of their realworld connections. In other words, not all the names in our mental or digital Rolodex are equal. In its current state, the social web is a bit busted in this regard. We censor ourselves, fearing professional and personal recrimination for “oversharing,” and we make ourselves digital hermits to avoid those we’re not close to or with whom we don’t want to communicate. Laying the Foundations for a Social Network?

So, how do you design a social application for different groups of connections with different degrees of closeness to the user? How do you design in a way that helps people maintain close ties with their true friends without making them overshare to more casual connections, including professional contacts? How do you help your users maintain vibrant digital tribes — even nomadic ones — that still remain somewhat segregated from one another? These fascinating questions are several others are explored in the deck below. Its 216 slides are well worth the read; peruse, ponder, and let us know your opinions, conclusions, and conjectures in the comments section. Do you think this is a sign that a Google Me social network is coming soon? What do you think of Google’s conclusions? Let us know in the comments. The Real Life Social Network v2 Reviews: Google, Internet More About: Google, research, social app, social media, social networking For more Dev & Design coverage: • Follow Mashable Dev & Design on Twitter • Become a Fan on Facebook • Subscribe to the Dev & Design channel GOOGLE page 82


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NASA and Microsoft Let You Explore Mars Like Never Before Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Reconnaissance Orbiter. These images are taken in an incredibly high resolution – Microsoft Research and NASA each image is a gigapixel in size have teamed up once again and – and the team took all 13,000 brought the “most complete, HiRISE images and stitched highest-resolution coverage of them onto one map. This map, Mars available” to WorldWide says NASA, is the “highestTelescope, Microsoft’s app resolution map of Mars’ surface which lets you explore space an immersive new experience ever constructed.” either through a zoom-and-pan WorldWide Telescope is for the Worldwide Telescope. interface or guided tours. a v ailable as a desktop “NASA had the images and they This imagery is the handiwork application or a web client were open to new ways to share of a group informally called the (which requires Microsoft them. Through the WorldWide Mapmakers, led by NASA’s S i l v e r l i g h t ) o ver at Telescope we were able to build Michael Broxton. Their job is to www.worldwidetelescope.org. a user interface at WWT|Mars take satellite images from Mars that would allow people to take More About: Mars, microsoft, and elsewhere in our solar advantage of the great content NASA system, and turn them into For more Tech coverage: they had,” said Fay. maps. • Follow Mashable Tech on As far as what kind of imagery Yes, it sounds like every geek’s Twitter you can expect here, one dream job, and having a name example is a new dataset from • Become a Fan on Facebook that sounds like something from the University of Arizona’s • Subscribe to the Tech channel a William Gibson novel doesn’t H i g h R e s o l u t i o n I m a g i n g • Download our free apps for hurt, either. Director of Science Experiment (HiRISE), iPhone and iPad Microsoft Research’s Earth Dan which is a remote-sensing Fay has worked with Broxton to camera on NASA’s Mars turn these images and maps into Submitted at 7/13/2010 3:30:09 AM

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