Liberty Newspost June-15-2015

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- 15/06/12

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Pentagon finishes contingency plans for Syria invasion RT (News RSS : Today)

Defense Department officials speaking on condition of Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:44:15 AM anonymity; in a separate sit-down US Army soldiers (AFP Photo/ however, Joint Chiefs of Staff Roberto Schmidt) Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey Officials with the US Department confirms to the outlet that of Defense have confirmed that intensifying violence overseas in t h e P e n t a g o n h a s f i n a l i z e d recent months has prompted the procedures that outline how Pentagon to expedite establishing American forces could soon a role for US forces. combat the government of war- The violence "gives us all pause torn Syria and officially involve that have been in Iraq and seen itself in that state’s bloody how these issues become sectarian uprising. and then they become civil wars A f t e r m o n t h s o f r u m o r s and then they become very suggesting that the US has difficult to resolve," Dempsey unofficially made efforts to tells CNN this week. weaponize rebel forces fighting "There is a sense that if the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, sectarian violence in Syria grows, o f f i c i a l s w i t h t h e D e f e n s e it could be worse than what we Department tell CNN that the saw in Iraq," he adds.

Pentagon has finished drafting Although the issue of involving blueprints that lay-out just how US forces in the war against the US military could aid in Assad’s regime has been on the ousting the leader with America’s table since the beginning of the own troops. uprising, authorities in In their report, CNN cites Washington — off the record —

have all but officially thrown their hat in the ring in regards to offering assistance. RT reported earlier this week that intelligence forces have revealed to Israel’s Debka news agency that the US was believed to be readying the establishing of a no-fly zone in Syria, and last month discussed murmurings that suggested US President Barack Obama had quietly approved a shipment of anti-tank weapons to Syrian rebels.

CNN’s report confirms that the military has indeed drafted instructions that lay-out the implementation of the no-fly zone. Additionally, officials say that a large number of US troops could soon be installed overseas to aid in the war.

As early as March of this year, lawmakers including John McCain (R-Arizona) began rallying together to ask Congress to consider authorizing strikes on

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Assad. Without the permission of the United Nations, though, the US has been hesitant to offer any formal assistance.

“NATO took military action to save Kosovo in 1999 without formal UN authorization. There is no reason why the Arab League, or NATO, or a leading coalition within the Friends of Syria contact group, or all of them speaking in unison, could not provide a similar international mandate for military measures to save Syria today,” Sen. McCain told Capitol Hill constituents earlier this year.

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content] [unable to retrieve full-text

China Suspends Officials in Forced-Abortion Case - Wall Street Journal (china - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:26:30 AM

The Associated Press China Suspends Officials in Forced-Abortion Case Wall Street Journal Chinese authorities suspended family planning officials who forced a woman to have a lateterm abortion after news of the case sparked outrage online.

China suspends officials in forced abortion case The Associated Press Public anger spurs China to suspend 3 officials over forced abortion Christian Science Monitor China vows punishment over forced abortion at seven months Chicago Tribune CBS News- Businessweek all 519 news articles » [unable to retrieve full-text content]

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Obama administration to stop deporting some young illegal immigrants - CNN (Top Stories - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:09:37 AM

Young Latino protests hold placards outside Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Nevada campaign headquarters. STORY HIGHLIGHTS • NEW: Republicans criticize the change as a political move that grants amnesty • Secretary Napolitano says the change is not amnesty or immunity • Only those younger than 30 who came to America before the age of 16 qualify • They must be successful students or have served in the military, with clean records Editor's note: Will this affect you? Share with us on CNN iReport.

Washington (CNN)-- In an election-year policy change, the Obama administration said Friday it will stop deporting young illegal immigrants who entered the United States as children if they meet certain requirements.

The shift on the politically volatile issue of immigration policy prompted immediate praise from Latino leaders who have criticized Congress and the White House for inaction, while Republicans reacted with outrage

that the move amounts to amnesty -- a negative buzz word among conservatives.

What to know on immigration in the U.S. Those who might benefit from the change expressed joy and relief.

Pedro Ramirez, a student who

has campaigned for such a move, said he was "definitely speechless," then added: "It's great news."

President Barack Obama will make a White House statement about the policy change Friday afternoon.

Under the new policy, people

younger than 30 who came to the United States before the age of 16, pose no criminal or security threat, and were successful students or served in the military can get a two-year deferral from deportation, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.

Read the Napolitano memo

(PDF) It also will allow those meeting the requirements to apply for work permits, Napolitano said, adding that participants must be in the United States now and be able to prove they have been living in OBAMA page 4

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Romney and Obama compete for rural voters' support - CBS News (Top Stories - Google News)

House, it will be the rural vote that pushes him over the top."

Even the Democratic president's COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa top aides acknowledge the hurdle &#8212 Mitt Romney tells voters he faces with these voters. in small towns that he planted "Democrats have for some time alfalfa on his uncle's farm as a been challenged in how they teenager. And Barack Obama communicate directly with rural doesn't hesitate to remind people America," Patrick Gaspard, in such far-flung places that his e x e c u t i v e d i r e c t o r o f t h e mother grew up in Kansas.

Democratic National Committee, So go the nostalgic pitches as said recently. each of the presidential candidates And yet, the fight for these voters tries to connect with rural voters is close, worrying Republicans &#8212 and convince them that and buoying Democrats. o n l y h e c a n j u m p - s t a r t a The most recent Associated Press struggling economy.

-GfK poll of voters who identified Both campaigns expect Romney as living in a rural area backed to win the majority of the voters Romney 47 percent to Obama's 45 in these reliably Republican percent. places, but Obama's team is trying That helps explain why Romney to keep the margin as narrow as it had breakfast with farmers in was in 2008, when he lost rural Council Bluffs last week and is voters by just 8 percentage points heading on a small-town bus tour to John McCain. Romney's team, from New Hampshire to Iowa in turn, is looking to run up the over the weekend. It also sheds score, perhaps as high as the 19 light on why Obama recently gave percentage point advantage that interviews with local television George W. Bush enjoyed among anchors to highlight a 32-page rural voters in his 2004 re-election report on his administration's bid. accomplishments for rural voters.

"Romney's going to win the Rural voters tend to be more rurals. The question is by how socially conservative, more much," said Ford O'Connell, a religious and more focused on Republican strategist who advised what strategists call the core McCain's rural outreach. "If values of a candidate than voters Romney cannot boost rural who live in urban or suburban turnout, he's going to lose. If Mitt regions. They also tend to be Romney's going to win the White overrepresented in the military; Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:50:59 AM

the White House says rural America represents 17 percent of the country's population but accounts for 44 percent of those in uniform.

Like everywhere else, the economy is dominating concerns in rural America.

It remains an open question whether Romney's Mormon faith or Obama's race &#8212 he's the first president who is black &#8212 could prove disqualifying for some voters in rural areas.

Sabrina Matthews, 36, is a customer service representative from Marion, Va., population 5,968 in the 2010 census, who supports Obama.

"I feel like he just knows where people like me came from," she said of the president who often talks of humble beginnings. "He started out with nothing. To get where he's at, he didn't start out with an advantage."

That, Matthews says, stands in contrast to Romney, the multimillionaire founder of a venture capital firm.

"I do not like him at all. I don't know him personally but the things that he says, says he's for the big companies and he's not for the little people," she said. "He's always had things handed to him.

He started out rich. He is still rich.

I'm a middle-class person. I work really hard for what little I have."

Even so, she isn't optimistic about the president's chances in Virginia, which voted for a Democratic presidential candidate four years ago for the first time since 1964.

"It's the Bible Belt. Unfortunately, and I hate to say this &#8212 we should all be above this &#8212 but there are prejudiced people here with him being black," she said. "I see the state going for Romney."

To be sure, it isn't as though voters in rural areas are clamoring for Romney.

"Between the two, neither one of them is a conservative Southern Baptist like we are around here," said Kathy Smith, 58, a home caregiver from LaFollette, Tenn.

She plans to vote for Romney.

"I do have some qualms about Mormonism, but I'm concentrating on what Romney can do for our economy," she said. "I don't really trust big business people. But maybe in this economy, it might be what we need."

Both sides have steadily courted rural voters, and the attention to them is certain to ramp up between now and the fall.

Obama routinely taps Vice President Joe Biden, the plainspoken native of hardscrabble Scranton, Pa., to venture into small towns to talk up the

administration's efforts to help the economy rebound.

"This is a make-or-break moment in America for America's middle class. It's been losing ground for the last 15 years. It's been hemorrhaging for the last five," Biden said last week in WinstonSalem, N.C. Four years ago, McCain carried rural voters in national exit polls, 53 percent to Obama's 45 percent.

But Obama carried rural voters over McCain in New Hampshire and Colorado, states that the 2012 campaigns see as lynchpins of their strategies.

Obama essentially split the rural vote with McCain in Virginia, North Carolina and Iowa. But the Democrat lost rural voters in other battlegrounds: Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Ohio.

That's why Obama's team is redoubling its rural-voter outreach in those states &#8212 and why Romney is refusing to cede ground.

In western Iowa, Romney sat down with farmers last week to hear about their livelihoods and concerns about Washington. He listened to their complaints about the Endangered Species Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, politely nodding in a diner across from the town square.

ROMNEY page 4

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OBAMA

ROMNEY

continued from page 2

the country continuously for at least five years.

The change is part of a department effort to target resources at illegal immigrants who pose a greater threat, such as criminals and those trying to enter the country now, Napolitano said.

It "is not immunity, it is not amnesty," she told reporters, adding the shift is "well within the framework of existing laws" and "is simply the right thing to do."

2009 study: 4 million 'illegal' immigrant children are nativeborn citizens The move addresses a major concern of the Hispanic community and mimics some of the provisions of a Democratic proposal called the DREAM Act that has failed to win enough Republican support to gain congressional approval.

Obama has been criticized by Hispanic-American leaders for an overall increase in deportations of illegal aliens in recent years. Last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed 396,906 illegal immigrants, the largest number in the agency's history.

Immigration lessons for the U.S. from around the world Friday's policy change is expected to potentially affect 800,000 people, an administration official told CNN on background.

Napolitano emphasized the move

continued from page 3

does not provide a pathway to citizenship or permanent residency, and she called for Congress to pass the DREAM Act, which would put into law similar steps for children of illegal immigrants to continue living and working in the country.

Republicans who have blocked Democratic efforts on immigration reform immediately condemned the move.

In a Twitter post, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said the decision "avoids dealing with Congress and the American people instead of fixing a broken immigration system once and for all."

"This is a classic Barack Obama move of choosing politics over leadership," Graham's tweet said.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, called the change a "decision to grant amnesty to potentially millions of illegal immigrants."

"Many illegal immigrants will falsely claim they came here as children and the federal government has no way to check whether their claims are true," Smith said in a statement. "And once these illegal immigrants are granted deferred action, they can then apply for a work permit, which the administration routinely grants 90% of the time."

However, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who sponsored

the DREAM Act, welcomed the announcement that he said "will give these young immigrants their chance to come out of the shadows and be part of the only country they've ever called home."

Immigration shift sparks reaction from both sides "These young people did not make the decision to come to this country, and it is not the American way to punish children for their parents' actions," Durbin said in a written statement.

Ramirez, the student activist, said the chance to live and work in the United States "gives us a chance to show the American people that we're not here to use your tax dollars, we're not here to take your jobs, we're here to contribute."

Hispanics make up the fastest growing immigrant population in the country, and the Latino vote is considered a crucial bloc for the November presidential election.

A spokeswoman for a major Latino group, the National Council of La Raza, hailed the administration's move.

Joy, skepticism at immigration policy shift "In light of the congressional inaction on immigration reform, this is the right step for the administration to take at this time," said NCLR spokeswoman Laura Vazquez.

Immigration lawyers also called the change a major step in the right direction. However, one immigration expert warned that the new policy does not guarantee the result sought by participants.

"I worry that the announcement will be implemented more stingily than the administration would like," said Stephen Yale-Loehr, who teaches immigration law at Cornell Law School.

For Jose Luis Zelaya, who came to the United States illegally from Honduras at age 14 to find his mother, also an illegal immigrant, the new policy means that "maybe I will be able to work without being afraid that someone may deport me."

"There is no fear anymore," he said.

Photos: Putting a face on the immigration debate CNN's Ted Barrett and Jessica Yellin contributed to this report.

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Former Armstrong team manager declares innocence (Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News)

The team manager behind Lance Armstrong's seven consecutive

Tour de France victories says he's innocent of doping charges raised

by U.S. officials.

"I'm not a farmer myself, as you know," he told his guests. "But as a young guy, as a 15-year-old, I worked on my uncle's ranch in Idaho. We raised corn and alfalfa.

Lots of alfalfa."

Just days later, Obama &#8212 he was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia and his mother came from Kansas &#8212 tried to connect with that same constituency.

"This rural strategy that we put forward ... can make a big difference," he told a California television anchor invited to the White House for an interview.

"We're going to keep on working steadily to try to bring about the improvements that need to be made." ___ AP Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

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Body Found, Believed to Be Fugitive Buffalo... - ABC News

By CARLOS BOETTCHER and JOHN SCHRIFFEN (Top Stories - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:26:15 AM

(ABCNEWS.com) A body believed to be that of Dr. Timothy V. Jorden, the trauma surgeon suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend Wednesday, was found near his home today, with what appeared to be a selfinflicted gunshot wound, ABC News' Buffalo affiliate reported.

The deceased male was wearing scrubs when his body was found beside a creek in a wooded area near his Lakeview, N.Y. home, according to the station.

Jorden, 49, was wanted in connection to the death of his onetime lover, Jackie Wisniewski, 33, a nursing student who died Wednesday morning on the floor of the Erie County Medical Center.

The trauma surgeon, who also had Army weapons training, was considered armed and dangerous.

He was the target of a hunt by local, state and federal authorities, including the U.S. Marshals and the FBI. The fatal drama at the hospital began around 8 a.m., when Jorden allegedly shot and killed

Wisniewski, a woman identified as his former lover, according to sources familiar with the investigation. She was found dead in a covered passageway joining the hospital's Kidney Center and another wing of the medical center, The Miller Building, WKBW reported.

Buffalo police, backed up by a New York State Police SWAT team, converged on the hospital and locked down the facility, treating the situation as an active

shooter scenario. The lockdown was lifted at noon, but no news emerged as to the circumstances of Jorden, who was officially described as a person of interest.

Jorden had experienced emotional difficulties recently, according to officials, who did not elaborate.

A career soldier, Jorden graduated from the University of Buffalo School of Medicine in 1996.

"I've wanted to be a doctor since

early in my military career as a medic," Jorden told the newspaper in a 1996 profile.

Francisca Wellsbury, who was married to Jorden, but long divorced, told ABC News that she was shocked by the news that her ex-husband had become the suspect in a murder.

"We've lived separate lives for a long time," Wellsbury, who lives on the West Coast, told ABC News. "I'm just as shocked as anyone. It's traumatic."

She declined to go into further detail, but said: "This is not the person I knew. I wish he would seek help."

A decorated soldier, Jorden had a military career that spanned 18 years and two periods of service.

During his years of service, he earned numerous medals and commendations including the Army Achievement Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service Medal and Master Parachute Badge Scuba Diver Badge Special Forces Tab. ABC News' Richard Esposito, Jennifer Wlach, Jack Date and Alyssa Newcomb contributed to this report.

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Obama legalizes young ‘It’s the real undocumented immigrants thing’ back in Myanmar RT (News RSS : Today)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:07:48 AM

U.S. President Barack Obama (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque) The White House has announced that the Obama administration will stop deporting some undocumented immigrants and will begin granting work permits to those that were brought to America at a young age.

Officials close with US President Barack Obama confirmed the change of policy to reporters early Friday; the commander-in-chief is scheduled to discuss the specifics of his plan during a televised press conference later in the afternoon.

The latest news out of the White House is believed to directly affect as many as 800,000 undocumented immigrants, many who have lived in constant fear of expulsion as the issue of deportation has heavily divided American politics — so much so that the president will be bypassing the US Congress to come through with his new initiatives. The president supported provisions under the 2010 DREAM Act that are mirrored under his

administration’s latest decision, although earlier attempts at immigration reform through past legislation failed in the US Senate.

In a memo released early Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledges that the immigration policy update seems only fair when compared to the way the country conducts other business.

“Our nation’s immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and sensible manner,” Napolitano writes,“But they are not designed to be blindly enforced without consideration given to the individual circumstances of each case. Nor are they designed to remove productive young people to countries where they may not have lived or even speak the language.”

"Many of these young people have already contributed to our country in significant ways," the secretary adds. " Prosecutorial discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is especially justified here."

Specifically, the policy change will defer attempts of deportation at any current American residents, documented or not, that entered

the United States before the age of 16, have continuously lived in the US for at least the last five years, are in school or have graduated school, have a relatively clean criminal record and are currently under the age of 30.

Earlier this year, President Obama told the Spanish-language television network Univision that he was still committed to immigration reform, a promise that had been largely unfilled despite being touted heavily on the campaign trail before Election Day 2008.

“I can promise that I will try to do it in the first year of my second term. I want to try this year,” Obama told Univision’s Al Punto program this April.

Napolitano adds that the directive announced Friday will go into effect immediately.

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RT (News RSS : Today)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:53:46 AM

The iconic cola is set to return to stores in Myanmar after a gap of sixty years. Myanmar is one of three countries where Coca-Cola doesn’t sell their drinks. The other two are Cuba and North Korea.

The world’s biggest soft drink maker says it will resume its business in the country as soon as the US government allows such investments.

The decision comes following the US government’s announcement last month that it was suspending restrictions on US investments in the Myanmar to reward the military dominated country for its democratic reforms.

Until last year, Myanmar had been led by an oppressive military junta. Last year the junta ceded power to a civilian, President Thein Sein who has undertaken reforms including freeing political prisoners, opening dialogue with ethnic minorities and launching talks with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. She was elected to Parliament after years under house arrest.

US President Barack Obama's administration has also announced a loosening of restrictions on financial services to Burma, allowing credit cards to return.

However the US has not removed restrictions on imports from the country, saying gems, timber and other goods provide a lucrative business for anti-reform elements in the army.

Coca-Cola said it expected to make "significant investments" over the next three to five years saying its products will initially be imported from neighboring countries as it establishes local operations in Myanmar.

"The Coca-Cola Co. has always stood for optimism at times of change and progress around the world," Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said in a statement.

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China's Yili recalls tainted China's first woman milk powder, shares astronaut takes the starring role - msnbc.com slump - Chicago Tribune (china - Google News)

space...

China sending first woman in Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:39:37 AM space to test module Boston.com msnbc.com China Chooses Liberation Army China's first woman astronaut Pilot as First Woman Astronaut takes the starring role San Francisco Chronicle msnbc.com Chinese women push for a place China is sending its first woman in space CNN into outer space this weekend, Christian Science Monitor- Voice prompting a surge of national of America pride as the rising power takes all 414 news articles » another step toward putting a

Rossi finds form in the rain Sportal.com.au (Andrea Rossi - Google News)

Dovizioso third with 2:20.127.

Rossi leads wet opening practice Eurosport.com ASIA Eurosport.com ASIA MOTOGP: Stoner Over Spies On Rossi finds form in the rain Friday SPEEDtv.com Sportal.com.au British MotoGP, Silverstone Hayden finished 0.077 seconds Friday practice (1) crash.net behind Rossi in a very wet Sydney Morning Herald practice session at Silverstone, all 193 news articles » with Tech 3 Yamaha rider Andrea Submitted at 6/15/2012 5:53:38 AM

(china - Google News)

China's top dairy firm recalls tainted milk powder MyFox Washington DC Bloomberg Yili Recalls Mercury-Laced Milk China's Yili recalls tainted milk P o w d e r A m i d C h i n a F o o d powder, shares slump Campaign Bloomberg Chicago Tribune Yili Recall of Tainted Milk SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's Powder Reignites Fears Wall biggest milk producer by revenue, Street Journal Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial BBC News Group Co , has recalled baby all 90 news articles » formula tainted with "unusual"...

Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:18:54 AM

LENR-to-Market Weekly -- June 14, 2012 - Pure Energy Systems News (andrea rossi e-cat - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 12:13:47 AM

LENR-to-Market Weekly -- June 14, 2012 Pure Energy Systems News

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LENR-to-Market Weekly -- June 14, 2012 - Pure Energy Systems News (Andrea Rossi - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 12:13:47 AM

LENR-to-Market Weekly -- June 14, 2012 Pure Energy Systems News A frequent on Andrea Rossi's Journal of Nuclear Physics, Hank Mills, recently... Dear Andrea Rossi, the writer belongs to a category indistinct, but very large...

Andrea Rossi has mentioned many times that his only goal for his E-Cat technology is to put working products into the marketplace, and that the only validation...

Housing Market Smackdown CounterPunch (housing - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:32:16 AM

Housing Market Smackdown

CounterPunch “The Canadian government requires that buyers only pay 5 per cent down payments…

However, for buyers who do not have 5 per cent, the 6 major banks offer...

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REVEALED: Here's How The Supreme Court's Health Care Decision Could Go Down Abby Rogers and Erin Fuchs (Business Insider) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:32:00 AM

The American public is eagerly awaiting the Supreme Court's verdict on health reform.

That case – unlike many that come through the high court's pipeline – could have a very real impact on regular people.

But how will the decision shake out?

We asked Supreme Court experts from the across the U.S. to tell us what could happen later in June when the decision is expected.

Read on to find out about the fate of the health care law, and how the aftermath of the ruling could affect the country. Chief Justice John Roberts' vote hinges on Anthony Kennedy.

"I think the court is, in my best guess, more likely than not to uphold the individual mandate," Stanford Law School professor Hank Greely said.

Greely predicted the most likely outcome was a 6 to 4 vote with both Justice Anthony Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts voting in the majority.

But everything hinges on Kennedy.

"I think Roberts will go whatever

way Kennedy goes," Greely said.

Under the law, the federal government will give the states funding so they can expand Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income Americans.

Greely predicts the justices will uphold the Medicaid expansion, but that they might do so reluctantly.

The proposed expansion isn't that different from the current system and court precedent says Congress can bribe states to accept federal mandates, Greely said. But the bribe has to be within reason.

"Well this is a pretty big bribe," Greely said.

The court won't pass on the opportunity to judge the individual mandate.

"The first question they've got to get over is 'are we going to decide the mandate issue,'" said Lyle Denniston, a reporter for Bloomberg's SCOTUSblog.

The fate of health reform turns largely on whether the federal government can police health insurance under its Constitutional powers to regulate commerce between states.

But before the court weighs in on the Constitutional issue, it must decide whether the requirement

that people buy insurance or pay a penalty is simply a tax.

If the court decides it is a tax measure, it can't vote on the mandate until it's implemented in 2014.

But Denniston said he believes the court will vote on the constitutional merits of the mandate – controversial as it may be.

While the mandate is close to the edge of Congress' power, the court will recognize it owes some respect to Congress' judgment and uphold the mandate, Denniston

While he wouldn't offer a definitive prediction about the fate of the expansion, Denniston said the states made a pretty good argument that it would increase the burden on their budgets.

"I do think it is at risk," he said.

Say goodbye to the Medicaid expansion.

While she also thinks the court won't pass on the opportunity to judge the mandate, legal expert Abby Moncrieff isn't so sure about other controversial parts of the law.

"I'd be surprised if they don't invalidate the Medicaid expansion," said Moncrieff, an associate professor at the Boston University School of Law. predicted.

Five of the Supreme Court If the justices uphold the justices are serious advocates of mandate, then the court will not federalism, meaning they'd to like have to decide whether the law limit the government's spending. can still survive without the Plus, the Supreme Court took the controversial measure, which has time to debate the Medicaid been described as the heart of the expansion even though it was not law.

But the high court could still required to do so, she pointed out. strike down another part of the It's hard to imagine why the court law even if it upholds the w o u l d a g r e e t o d e b a t e t h e expansion unless the justices had mandate.

"Nothing else will fall with the d e c i d e d t o d e c l a r e i t p o s s i b l e e x c e p t i o n o f t h e unconstitutional, Moncrieff said. e x p a n s i o n o f M e d i c a i d , " While Moncrieff doesn't think REVEALED: page 10 Denniston said.

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Here Are All The Reasons It Sucks To Work At Google (GOOG) Matt Lynley (Business Insider)

"live" at Google.

It's becoming harder to move up Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:34:00 AM at Google.

Google is supposed to be one of Here's a great example of why the best places in the world to you can't always trust what people work. say word for word. One review Googlers have some of the best said that it can take upwards of 15 perks and they are among the years to reach senior management highest paid in the industry. at Google.

But it's not all fantastic. In fact, Google was founded in 1998, so as with any huge company with if you believe this guy, no one thousands of employees, there are could ever make it to senior bound to be a few hiccups here management. and there.

But there's a grain of truth in this We've compiled a list of some of obvious exaggeration. Google has the top negatives about working at gotten more hierarchical over time Google culled from recent and the earliest employees—those Glassdoor reviews. Keep in mind in the industry from current and people feel it's more about who who have been around, say, 10 that this is a site that is built former Googlers. The reward you know than how you perform. years or more—wield outsized around reviews and complaints system is strongly biased toward There's a lot of peer pressure to influence. about an employer—so these are "launches." spend a lot of time at the office How to deal with this: Jump individuals' views. Some may be You can't get promoted for doing because everyone else is spending horizontally to other projects to e x a g g e r a t e d o r s i m p l y i n c r e m e n t a l i m p r o v e m e n t s . time at the office. learn as much as you can and use unreflective of the typical work Instead, you have to help build Since its earliest days, Google Google as a stepping stone in your experience. and launch a new product. has hired engineers right out of career before you join another A lot of them are also "big- Of course, most programmers get college. These are kids that are business. company problems"—issues any assigned to fix bugs and rebuild very ambitious and want to move See the rest of the story at company would experience as it code to make it more efficient. up in the world—so they spend a Business Insider grows larger.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and And yet Google's rewards don't lot of time working.

Still, Google has prided itself on give incentives for doing that Most of their time, actually. Facebook. its supposed ability to keep its work.

Google encourages this by having startup values as it grows ever Getting a spot on a launch team is a lot of food facilities on campus larger. And the complaints we've highly competitive and some and other ways to essentially included to jive with what we hear

9

Canada's housing market stronger than forecast Canada.com (housing - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:48:11 AM

CTV.ca Canada's housing market stronger than forecast Canada.com The Canadian Real Estate Association said Friday that the national home price and sales activity this.

Home sales fall in May for first time since start of year Globe and Mail Home sales, price data for May will provide portrait of housing...

CanadianBusiness.com CREA Updates Resale Housing Forecast Canada NewsWire (press release) all 50 news articles »

Tiger, others chasing Thompson on Day 2 of US Open (Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:05:12 AM

BUY WITH ME! noreply@blogger.com (Ad ServeRSS) (AdServRSS Feed)

Get the Best Deals in ANY CITY!

Day 2 of the U.S. Open has begun with 155 players all chasing leader Michael Thompson.

10

Business/ World News/

Curated News Edition

9 Impressive College Students Every Tech Company Should Try To Poach Alyson Shontell (Business Insider) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:27:00 AM

They're automating dorm rooms and becoming the world's youngest VCs. Meet 9 college students that tech companies should -- or are already trying to --- poach before graduation. Alice Lee spent four hours creating a resume website for Instagram that went viral.

Now she's interning at Path Twitter Handle:@byalicelee Currently attends: University of Pennsylvania, class of 2013 Majors: Economics, Marketing, Computer Science Past experience: Interned at Microsoft, Foursquare and now Path What she has accomplished: In February, Alice Lee spent 2.5 days building a resume website titled Dear Instagram - With Love, Alice. The tech community was impressed by her creativity and hustle. Instagram angel investor Chris Sacca tweeted that, while he had never met Alice Lee, he was sure he would some day.

Lee's Instagram resume was published on Business Insider,

The Atlantic, The Next Web, and other publications.

Since then, Lee has spoken with Instagram's CEO Kevin Systrom on the phone, but she's currently interning at Dave Morin's mobile social network, Path.

Brian Yee has won a Yahoo hackathon two years in a row, and he's developing software to assist the blind.

Twitter Handle:@BadKemer Currently attends: Carnegie Mellon University, class of 2012

Yee is also a Yahoo Hackathon winner two years in a row and is currently working on a college project to develop tracking software for assisting the blind and physically disabled.

Peter Thiel's team aggressively tried to recruit Maxwell Hawkins for a startup and he was featured in the Wall Street Journal.

Twitter Handle:@maxhawkins Currently attends: Carnegie Mellon University, class of 2013 Majors: Computer Science and Art Past experience: Interned at YouTube and Apple What he has accomplished: Hawkins decided to stay in school even though he was aggressively (August) Majors: Information Systems and recruited by Peterson Conway for PayPal cofounder and investor, Human-Computer Interaction Past experience: Interned at IBM Peter Thiel.

What he has accomplished: Brian Hawkins has also been involved Yee got a great gig as one of the in building the Kinect-based 400 student ambassadors for “Hackstic Surgery,” a dating tool Google, which helps recruit the to help computer programmers brightest students from the best snag a date. t e c h u n i v e r s i t i e s . B e s i d e s See the rest of the story at spreading the word about Google, Business Insider Yee also gets paid to hand out Please follow SAI on Twitter and pajamas and gather students for Facebook. pizza parties.

REVEALED: continued from page 8

much about the case could surprise her anymore, one oddball decision still has the power to shock experts.

"If they held that the case is barred by the anti-injunction act, I'd be surprised by that," she said, referring to the law that would put off a decision on the mandate until 2014.

"I don't think they're going to hold they can't decide the case right now," Moncrieff added.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Bikies sweeping for police bugs Perth Now (Nation - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:21:46 AM

Bikies sweeping for police bugs Perth Now On location at the Bandidos clubhouse in Woolloongabba where neighbours seem undisturbed and accepting of the Bandidos. Detective Inspector Garry Watts from State Crime Operations Command speaks to media in regards to Operation Kilo Cajun and overnight... and more »

Business/ News Wire/ World News/

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California Housing Market Continues to Post Strong Gains in May ... - MarketWatch (press release) (housing - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:02:08 AM

California Housing Market Continues to Post Strong Gains in May...

MarketWatch (press release)

Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News

California's housing inventory sank lower in May, with the Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes dropping to 3.5 months in May,... and more »

(Epoch Times | National, World, China, Sports, Entertainment News)

Rajat Gupta guilty of insider trading (Reuters: Top News)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:15:10 AM

Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member Rajat Gupta leaves Manhattan Federal Court in New York June 8, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Andrew Kelly

By Grant McCool and Basil Katz NEW YORK| Fri Jun 15, 2012 12:15pm EDT (Reuters) - Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member Rajat Gupta was convicted on Friday of illegally tipping his hedge-fund manager friend Raj Rajaratnam with secrets about the investment bank, a major victory for prosecutors seeking to root out insider trading on Wall Street.

A Manhattan federal court jury found Gupta guilty of three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy, ending the four-

week trial. He was found not guilty on two other securities fraud charges.

The jury delivered the verdict on the second day of its deliberations. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff has set sentencing for October 18.

The verdict marks a stunning fall for Gupta, who is also a former top executive at business consulting firm McKinsey & Co and a former director of Procter & Gamble.

Gupta's one-time associate Rajaratnam, who was convicted of 14 counts of insider trading at a trial last year, is now serving an 11-year prison term.

Since being implicated in the Rajaratnam case more than a year ago, Gupta has denied the charges and vowed to put on a vigorous defense. At trial, his lawyers

11

argued that prosecutors "had no real, hard, direct evidence" against Gupta, who did not take the witness stand.

The U.S. government crackdown on insider trading has led to guilty verdicts or plea bargains of scores of executives, lawyers and financial consultants.

The case is USA v Gupta, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 11-907.

(Reporting by Grant McCool and Basil Katz. Editing by Bernadette Baum) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

pulls off with [...]

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it Special Section Artist Profile: on someone else's site, please read Kexin Li the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentChinese classical dance employs only/faq.php#publishers. Five u n i q u e p o s t u r e s , p h y s i c a l Filters recommends: Donate to expression, as well as highly Wikileaks. complicated leaps, tumbles, flips, and spins, all of which Ms. Li

Downing Street has 'no record' of Rupert Murdoch's disputed telephone call ... - Daily Mail (Nation - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:38:22 AM

Daily Mail Downing Street has 'no record' of Rupert Murdoch's disputed telephone call...

Daily Mail

By Phil Vinter The Cabinet Office has no record of a disputed telephone call in which Rupert Murdoch claims Gordon Brown said he was declaring war on the media mogul, it emerged today.

The only recorded telephone

contact between the then prime minister...

Phone records suggest no Brown 'war' call to Murdoch BBC News Cabinet Office backs Gordon Brown over Murdoch phone call The Guardian Cameron defends Hunt, Coulson – and his Christmas with Murdoch The Independent The Sun- Telegraph.co.ukMirror.co.uk all 2,101 news articles »

12

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Obama Administration to Stop Deportations of Young Illegals (FOXNews.com)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:50:14 AM

• The Obama Administration will stop deporting and issue work permits to as many as 800,000 young illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and have never committed a crime, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Friday.

Napolitano said the change is needed to ensure enforcement resources are not expended on “low-priority cases” and are instead focused on people who “meet enforcement priorities.”

But the move angered Republicans, who viewed it as an overreach by the administration on a matter that should be addressed legislatively.

“Today, I am announcing that effective immediately, young people brought to U.S. by no fault of their own and meet several criteria no longer are removed from country or entered into removal proceedings,” Napolitano said in a conference call with reporters.

The election-year announcement was met with surprise and question by GOP lawmakers, while raised by at least one leading Capitol Hill Democrat.

“This is another example of executive overreach,” Florida Rep. Allen West told Fox News.

West said he just learned about the policy change and that such a move should have come through legislation on Capitol Hill where it could be debated.

“That’s how we do business in the

United States,” said West, R-Fla. "“How can the administration justify allowing illegal immigrants to work in the U.S. when millions of Americans are unemployed?"

- Texas GOP Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee

Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer, chairman of the Immigration, Refugees and Border Security Judiciary subcommittee, said the president accomplished "in one fell swoop" what far too few Republicans were brave enough to even discuss.

President Obama is scheduled to further discuss the issue this afternoon on national television.

The policy change was reported first by The Associated Press.

Two senior administration officials told the wire service the OBAMA page 13

Curated News Edition

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OBAMA continued from page 12

policy partially achieves the goals of the so-called DREAM Act, a long-sought but never enacted plan to establish a path toward citizenship for young people who came to the U.S. illegally, but who have attended college or served in the military.

Obama plans next week to address the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials' annual conference in Orlando. Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney is scheduled to speak to the group on Thursday.

Under the administration plan, illegal immigrants will be immune from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. before they turned 16 and are younger than 30, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, have no criminal history, graduated from a U.S. high school or earned a GED, or served in the military.

They also can apply for a work permit that will be good for two years with no limits on how many times it can be renewed. The officials who described the plan spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it in advance of the official announcement.

The policy will not lead toward citizenship but will remove the threat of deportation and grant the ability to work legally, leaving eligible immigrants able to remain in the U.S. for extended periods.

It tracks closely to a proposal offered by Sen. Marco Rubio, (RFla.), as an alternative to the

DREAM Act. "Many of these young people have already contributed to our country in significant ways," Napolitano wrote in a memorandum describing the administration's action.

"Prosecutorial discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is especially justified here."

The extraordinary move comes in an election year in which the Hispanic vote could be critical in swing states like Colorado, Nevada and Florida While Obama enjoys support from a majority of Hispanic voters, Latino enthusiasm for the president has been tempered by the slow economic recovery, his inability to win congressional support for a broad overhaul of immigration laws and by his administration's aggressive deportation policy. Activists opposing his deportation policies last week mounted a hunger strike at an Obama campaign office in Denver, and other protests were planned for this weekend.

The change is likely to cause an outcry from congressional Republicans, who are sure to perceive Obama's actions as an end run around them. Republicans already have complained that previous administration uses of prosecutorial discretion in deportations amount to back-door amnesty. Romney and many Republican lawmakers want tighter border security measures before considering changes in

immigration law. Romney opposes offering legal status to illegal immigrants who attend college but has said he would do so for those who serve in the armed forces.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last month found Obama leading Romney among Hispanic voters 61 percent to 27 percent. But his administration's deportation policies have come under fire, and Latino leaders have raised the subject in private meetings with the president. In 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a record 396,906 people and is expected to deport about 400,000 this year.

A December poll by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that 59 percent of Latinos disapproved of the president's handling of deportations.

The changes come a year after the administration announced plans to focus on deporting serious criminals, immigrants who pose threats to public safety and national security, and serious immigration law violators.

One of the officials said the latest policy change is just another step in the administration's evolving approach to immigration.

Under the plan, immigrants whose deportation cases are pending in immigration court will have to prove their eligibility for a reprieve to ICE, which will begin dealing with such cases in 60 days. Any immigrant who already has a deportation order and those

who never have been encountered by immigration authorities will deal with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The exact details of how the program will work, including how much immigrants will have to pay to apply and what proof they will need, still are being worked out.

In making it harder to deport, the Obama administration is in essence employing the same eligibility requirements spelled out in the proposed DREAM Act. The administration officials stopped short of calling the change an administrative DREAM Act -- the name is an acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors -but the qualifications meet those laid out in a 2010 version that failed in the Senate after passing in the House. They said the DREAM Act, in some form, and comprehensive overhaul of the immigration system remained an administration priority.

Illegal immigrant children won't be eligible to apply for the deportation waiver until they turn 16, but the officials said younger children won't be deported either.

Last year, Napolitano announced plans to review about 300,000 pending deportation cases and indefinitely suspend those that didn't meet department priorities.

So far, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reviewed more than 232,000 cases and decided to stop working on about 20,000.

About 4,000 of those 20,000 have

opted to keep fighting in court to stay in the United States legally.

For the people who opted to close their cases, work permits are not guaranteed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• Print • Email • Share • Comments • Recommend • Tweet Related Stories Costner wins legal fight with Stephen Baldwin over BP oil cleanup His Slogan is ‘Forward,’ But Obama Keeps Looking Backward Liberals increasingly wary of Mormons in office, study shows Documents detail accusations against Secret Service agents Share This Article Newsletter Signup Sign up for free e-mail news alerts from FoxNews.com and FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter Signup This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Obama relaxes deportation rules for young immigrants (Reuters: Top News)

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also is set to address the group next week.

U.S. President Barack Obama sits While public opinion polls show n e x t t o U . S . S e c r e t a r y o f Obama getting overwhelming H o m e l a n d S e c u r i t y J a n e t support among Hispanic voters, Napolitano during the National his relations with the fastest Peace Officers Memorial Service growing minority group in the on Capitol Hill in Washington, United States have been strained May 15, 2012. because of his administration's Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing aggressive deportation of illegal

By Jeff Mason immigrants.

WASHINGTON| Fri Jun 15, There are an estimated 1 million 2012 12:18pm EDT to 2 million illegal immigrants (Reuters) - About 800,000 young who came to the United States as illegal immigrants who came to children living in the country, the United States as children according to immigration group could be spared deportation under estimates. new immigration rules announced U.S. officials said the new by the Obama administration on measures would affect roughly F r i d a y t h a t m a y a p p e a l t o 800,000 people.

Hispanic voters in an election "Effective immediately, young year. people who were brought to the U . S . H o m e l a n d S e c u r i t y United States through no fault of Secretary Janet Napolitano said their own as children and who that illegal immigrants up to 30 meet several key criteria will no years old who came to the United longer be removed from the States as children and do not pose country or entered into removal a risk to national security would proceedings," Napolitano told be eligible to stay in the country reporters on a conference call. and allowed to apply for work "This grant of a deferred action is permits. not immunity, it is not amnesty," The policy was announced one she said. "It will help us continue week before President Barack t o s t r e a m l i n e i m m i g r a t i o n Obama, seeking re-election on enforcement and ensure that November 6, is scheduled to resources are not spent pursuing speak to a meeting of the National the removal of low priority cases Association of Latino Elected and involving productive young Appointed Officials in Florida. people."

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:18:08 AM

To be eligible for the new enforcement rules, a person must have come to the United States under 16 years old and have resided in the country for at least five years. They must be in school or have graduated from high school or be honorably discharged from the U.S. military. They must also be free of convictions of felony or significant misdemeanor offenses.

A top Republican in Congress quickly attacked the new policy.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith called Obama's decision a "breach of faith" that he said will have "horrible consequences" for unemployed Americans looking for jobs.

HOT POLITICAL ISSUE Most of the illegal immigrants in the United States are Hispanics.

Immigration is a big issue for Hispanics, an important voting bloc in the United States that could help determine who wins the election between Obama, a Democrat, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who like many other Republicans has taken a hard line on illegal immigration.

Obama supports immigration reform but has been unable to gain bipartisan support in Congress for a law that would address the issue.

Legislation known as the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act passed the House of Representatives in 2010, but fell a handful of votes short in the Senate.

A more limited version of the Democratic legislation is being developed by Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who is keeping the Romney campaign informed, according to congressional aides.

Napolitano said the administration's new stance was meant to create a more efficient and productive immigration policy.

The Obama administration's move came after a long push by immigration advocacy groups for action and after numerous attempts to pass legislation sputtered in the deeply divided Congress. Those groups would still like to see Congress move on legislation that has a more permanent impact.

Cheryl Little, executive director of the Miami-based Americans for Immigrant Justice, said the administration's decision "throws 'Dreamers' a life line" until a longterm policy can be worked out for this group of people living in the United States.

Republican lawmaker Smith, however, said, "President Obama's amnesty only benefits

illegal immigrants, not Americans, and is a magnet for fraud. Many illegal immigrants will falsely claim they came here as children and the federal government has no way to check whether their claims are true."

"And once these illegal immigrants are granted deferred action, they can then apply for a work permit, which the administration routinely grants 90 percent of the time," added Smith, whose panel oversees immigration legislation and he has been on record opposing limited measures introduced in Congress.

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering a challenge to Arizona's immigration laws targeting people living and working in the state illegally, with a ruling expected as early as next week.

Supporters of the Arizona crackdown, which has been replicated in other states, say it was needed because Obama has failed to secure the border with Mexico. Critics say it could lead to ethnic and racial profiling of Hispanics, and government lawyers argue it interferes with federal powers on immigration.

(Additional reporting by Samson Reiny, Laura MacInnis, Richard Cowan, and Donna Smith; Editing OBAMA page 16

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15

Al-Awlaki Waged Digital Jihad, Emailed Followers (FOXNews.com)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:50:14 AM

• The American cleric Anwar alAwlaki used more than 60 email addresses and sent several thousand emails to his followers, some with encryption and code words, while under FBI surveillance -- according to a fivemonth investigation by Fox News.

Some of those emails were exchanged with accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan.

"Fox Files: The Enemy Within," which debuts on Fox News Channel June 15 at 10 p.m. ET, draws on exclusive interviews and first-hand accounts of the Fort Hood massacre which killed 13 and injured at least 43 others on Nov. 5, 2009. For the first time, victims of the shooting, as well as senior investigators, break their silence about the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11.

"He (Anwar al-Awlaki) was incredibly busy. He -- during his peak period -- had upwards of 60 email accounts that he was using at any given time," retired FBI agent Keith Slotter told Fox Files.

Slotter, whose career spanned 25 years at the Bureau, was the special agent in charge of the San Diego field office from 2007 to

2012. His agents at the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), which included detailees assigned to the FBI, tracked the cleric who was the public face of Al Qaeda 2.0 and the new digital jihad.

Since the attacks of 9/11, there are now more than 100 JTTFs across the country.

But in the 2011 Senate Homeland Security Committee investigation of the Fort Hood massacre, the FBI came under criticism for failing to act as an "effective interagency information sharing and operation coordination mechanism."

In other words, at times the FBI

failed to share key information with intelligence analysts under their supervision.

Slotter, who now works at a private international investigative firm specializing in cyber crime and digital forensics, characterized the number as "thousands of emails ... over a

three-year period, tens of thousands."

By 2009, the cleric, the first American on the CIA's kill-orcapture list, understood he was the target of U.S. and foreign intelligence services. Fox Files AL-AWLAKI page 17

16

News Wire/ World News/

Curated News Edition

Weak factories, sentiment show shaky U.S. recovery (Reuters: Top News)

Now household confidence in the economy is falling amid worries about deterioration in the jobs Shoppers ride an escalator at a market and Europe's debt crisis.

T a r g e t S t o r e i n C h i c a g o , That poses a big threat to November 25, 2011.

President Barack Obama's Credit: Reuters/John Gress chances of winning reelection in

By Jason Lange November. It could also lead WASHINGTON| Fri Jun 15, c o n s u m e r s t o c u t b a c k o n 2012 11:53am EDT spending, which would reduce (Reuters) - Manufacturing output economic growth. contracted in May for the second "Consumers are scared," said time in three months and families Sharon Stark, managing director took a dimmer view of their at Sterne Agee in Birmingham, economic prospects in early June Alabama. in signs the American economy's U.S. consumer sentiment fell in recovery is on shaky ground. early June to a six-month low, and Factory production shrank 0.4 a gauge of household confidence percent last month, the Federal in the economy's future fell, too.

Reserve said on Friday.

The Thomson Reuters/University "It's more convincing evidence of Michigan's index on consumer that the economy is stuck in low sentiment fell to 74.1 in June, gear," said Joe Manimbo, a falling short of even the most market analyst at Travelex Global pessimistic forecast in a Reuters Business Payments. poll.

Until recently, manufacturing had While manufacturing is an been a buttress of strength for the anchor of the economy, consumer U.S. economy, helping it to resist s p e n d i n g i s i t s f o u n d a t i o n , h e a d w i n d s f r o m E u r o p e ' s accounting for about two thirds of snowballing debt crisis. gross domestic product.

But in May, output sank at Economists at Capital Economics A m e r i c a n p l a n t s m a k i n g reckon the drop in consumer everything from cars to computers sentiment is consistent with while another report showed growth in consumer spending factory activity in New York state slowing to a mere 1 percent cooled in early June. annual rate in the second quarter, Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:53:34 AM

down from 2.7 percent in the first three months of the year.

EUROPE LOOMS The slackening U.S. recovery and a worsening debt crisis in Europe have bolstered expectations of a further easing of monetary policy by the Fed, although economists are divided on whether the central bank will act when it meets on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hiring by U.S. employers has slowed for four straight months, while retail sales contracted in May and new applications for jobless benefits have risen for five of the last six weeks.

Also looming over the outlook, Europe's snowballing debt crisis threatens to send the global economy into recession.

On Friday, U.S. stocks rose on optimism major world central banks will take coordinated action if the closely watched election in Greece this weekend results in market turmoil.

Within the Fed's report on U.S. industry in May, the softness in the factory sector was widespread.

Output for durable - or longlasting - goods dropped 0.5 percent as auto production slid 1.5 percent. Production for nondurables fell 0.2 percent.

Total industrial output, covering

OBAMA continued from page 14

by Will Dunham) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentfactories, mines and utilities, only/faq.php#publishers. Five declined 0.1 percent. Analysts Filters recommends: Donate to polled by Reuters had expected Wikileaks. industrial production to rise 0.1 percent.

And in a sign the factory sector's weakness could continue into June, the New York Federal Reserve Bank's "Empire State" index fell to 2.3, a 15-point drop from the month before and the lowest level since November 2011.

That was far below economists' expectations of 13, although the level still points to some growth.

"That is another indication that the U.S. economy is slowing," (Nation - Google News) said Justin Hoogendoorn, a fixed Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:22:27 AM income strategist at BMO Capital Markets in Chicago. "It's an ugly Jagran Post situation."

Presidential poll: Process for (Additional reporting by Anna f i l i n g n o m i n a t i o n s s t a r t s Louie Sussman and Richard t o m o r r o w Leong in New York; Editing by Economic Times Neil Stempleman and Bernadette NEW DELHI: The process for Baum) filing of nominations for the July This entry passed through the 1 9 P r e s i d e n t i a l p o l l s t a r t s Full-Text RSS service — if this is tomorrow with the issue of your content and you're reading it notification by the Election on someone else's site, please read C o m m i s s i o n . T h e f i l i n g o f the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- nominations will start at 11 AM only/faq.php#publishers. Five tomorrow and will continue till Filters recommends: Donate to June 30.

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AL-AWLAKI continued from page 15

has learned al-Awlaki shunned the use of phones and turned to his keyboard because he believed email communications were more secure.

"He'd let some (email accounts) go dark, and he'd use 10 or 15, and then those would go dark, and he'd go to a different set. So he was constantly revolving," Slotter explained. "As you can imagine with that many accounts, it was quite a lot to stay on top of."

Asked how much of it was encrypted or used code words, Slotter replied: "I'll simply say, some was encrypted. And leave it at that. I don't want to get into the technological aspects."

Slotter has reviewed the emails between al-Awlaki and Major Hasan. The former FBI agent went to them many times after the attack to consider if anything was missed.

"I reviewed those emails many times. I had them bound on my desk, had all of them. There was nothing really in there that would indicate al-Awlaki prompting Major Hasan to do something."

Also in 2009, at the same time alAwlaki was exchanging emails with Hasan, Fox Files has confirmed the radical American cleric was sending highly encrypted emails calling for a major terrorist attack.

British court documents obtained

by Fox Files show the highly encrypted emails included specific operational instructions to blow up a British plane heading to the United States. The recipient -Rajib Karim -- is now serving 30 years in a British jail.

While the 19 emails between alAwlaki and Hasan appear much less specific, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the mere contact between an Army officer and a known extremist should have led to more action by federal and military investigators.

"I have read the emails and they should have given rise to alarm," Collins said. "Just the fact that a member of our Armed Forces was communicating at all with a radical cleric in Yemen should have given rise to an investigation that was thorough and complete."

Army Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, who was shot six times at Fort Hood, told Fox News that he heard Hasan scream "allahu akbar."

Manning spoke exclusively to Fox Files about the massacre. At one point, Manning said he pretended to be dead fearing the shooter would try to finish him off if he appeared only wounded.

"You could lose your security clearance in the Army for having bad credit and be kicked out of the Army. But you can't lose your security clearance for talking to, uh, a member of Al Qaeda, through e-mail. I mean, it doesn't make any sense."

Fox Files requested an interview with FBI Director Robert Mueller to discuss the Fort Hood shooting and the independent review by former FBI and CIA director Judge William Webster. The FBI has yet to respond to the formal request.

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Related Images • FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVE Photo: al-Awlaki’s California driver license • Anwar al-Awlaki gives a religious lecture in an unknown location in this still image taken (Nation - Google News) f r o m v i d e o r e l e a s e d b y Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:36:55 AM Intelwire.com on Sept. 30, 2011.

IBNLive.com Share This Article Newsletter CBI asks BS Yeddyurappa's sons, son-in-law to appear before Signup Sign up for free e-mail news it alerts from FoxNews.com and Economic Times FoxBusiness.com. Newsletter BANGALORE: The CBI has asked two sons and son-in-law of Signup This entry passed through the former Karnataka chief minister Full-Text RSS service — if this is BS Yeddyurappa to appear before your content and you're reading it the investigating agency here on someone else's site, please read tomorrow in connection with its the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- ongoing probe into donations only/faq.php#publishers. Five received by their trust from a Filters recommends: Donate to mining...

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Balcony crash injures six people in Collaroy - Perth Now (Nation - Google News)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:21:45 AM

Balcony crash injures six people in Collaroy

Perth Now The balcony which collapsed in the Sydney Northern Beaches suburb of Collaroy. Picture: Simon Bullard Source: The Daily

Telegraph SIX people were injured last night after a balcony crashed three metres to the ground. Neighbours at the Collaroy St,...

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Neighbors Saw Change In Doc Before Shooting (FOXNews.com)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:50:14 AM

• BUFFALO, N.Y. – A body was found Friday near the home of a special forces soldier-turnedtrauma surgeon who was the subject of a nationwide manhunt after the killing of his exgirlfriend in a Buffalo hospital, a law enforcement official said.

Police have been searching for 49 -year-old Dr. Timothy Jorden since Wednesday morning, when 33-year-old Jacqueline Wisniewski was found shot to death in a stairwell at the Erie County Medical Center.

A body was found Friday not far from Jorden's suburban home near Lake Erie, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing. It couldn't immediately be confirmed whether the body was Jorden's.

SWAT teams had spent hours Wednesday searching the home without success.

"It's terrible," said Tom Wrzosek, a neighbor of Jorden's. "It's a tragic situation. Nobody wins in a situation like this."

Wrzosek had told police he heard a single gunshot from the steep,

thick terrain behind Jorden's house on Wednesday morning, about 90 minutes after Wisniewski was gunned down at the hospital where she and Jorden worked.

Some of her friends told local media outlets that Jorden stalked her after she ended the relationship. One of her friends told WIVB-TV that Wisniewski told her the doctor had put a GPS tracking device in her car and once held her captive in her home for a day and a half, wielding a knife.

Jorden earned a medical degree

from the University at Buffalo and trained at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash.

He received his certification from the American Board of Surgery in 2004.

The Buffalo News reported that Jorden joined the National Guard in high school, went into the Army after graduation and served with the Army's special forces, first as a weapons expert, then as a medic. In those roles, he served in the Caribbean, Japan and Korea.

He was honored by various local organizations over the years for

his teaching skills and involvement in the Buffalo community.

Jorden's colleagues told local media outlets that he had been acting strangely in recent months and lost as much as 75 pounds from his 6-foot-2, 250-pound frame.

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• Police respond to a shooting in Buffalo. Dr. Timothy Jorden is sought as a “person of Interest."

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The Realist Prism: In a GZero World, U.S. Should Go Minilateral (World Politics Review: Articles)

EURO 2012 LIVE: Ukraine vs. France (Sports News Headlines Yahoo! News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:33:55 AM

Co-host Ukraine plays France in Donetsk, Ukraine, in their second Group D match at the European Championship.

in the aftermath of World War II. This is not to argue that the Submitted at 6/15/2012 6:35:00 AM United States has entered into a Speaking at the Naval War period of irreversible decline.

College’s Current Strategy Forum Indeed, the other major power this week, Ian Bremmer, president centers that are often presented as of the Eurasia Group and author future peer competitors are of the recently published “ Every experiencing their own shocks, Nation for Itself: Winners and from the eurozone crisis to Losers in a G-Zero World,” economic stagnation in Japan to argued that we are living through the protests rocking Russia to the a period of “creative destruction” formidable challenges that Xi of the post-World War II global Jinping and the “fifth generation” a r c h i t e c t u r e . T h e p r o b l e m , of leadership in China will have to however, is that no single state confront. As a result, the United currently possess the necessary States is benefiting from the preponderance of resources to be perception that it, like the dollar, able to construct a new global remains a “safe haven.” But system, as the U.S. was able to do t h o u g h t h e U . S . i s s t i l l a

superpower, its current fiscal and economic problems leave it in no position to finance a new global system or impose common standards on the nations of the world, the way it did in the postwar period by rebuilding Western Europe and East Asia and creating the institutional foundations that paved the way for globalization. ...

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Jagan's YSR Congress sweeps Andhra bypolls - Zee News (Nation - Google News)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:24:54 AM

Zee News Jagan's YSR Congress sweeps Andhra bypolls Zee News

Hyderabad: As expected, YS Jaganmohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party on Friday swept the crucial Andhra Pradesh bypolls by winning 15 out of 18 Assembly constituencies and the Nellore Lok Sabha seat, polling

for which were held recently.

It's people's victory, Jagan YSR Congress wins Nellore LS, Mohan Reddy's mother says 15 assembly seats Hindustan Times of India Times Deccan Herald- Indian ExpressAP bypolls: Jagan kills Cong, Economic Times Telangana with a single shot all 308 news articles » Firstpost

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Argentina demands negotiation over Falklands sovereignty - The Upcoming (Nation - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:22:12 AM

The Upcoming Argentina demands negotiation over Falklands sovereignty The Upcoming Argentina has demanded Britain enter into talks over the sovereignty rights of the Falklands, as the 30 th anniversary of the island's liberation is marked. The Falklands' flag flew over Number 10 Downing Street to commemorate the liberation of the...

Argentina demands talks over Falklands Channel 4 News Falklands row sours anniversary The Press Association Falklands mark 30th anniversary of war as Argentina ups claims for sovereignty The Guardian Telegraph.co.uk- BBC News all 2,051 news articles »

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With No Interests at Roxon says Slipper case Stake, China's Syria politically motivated ABC Online Stance Could Shift

(Nation - Google News)

(World Politics Review: Articles)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:59:13 AM

Submitted at 6/15/2012 6:29:00 AM

The Age Roxon says Slipper case politically motivated ABC Online The Federal Government has launched an attack on the sexual harassment case against embattled Speaker Peter Slipper, saying it is politically motivated. Lawyers for the Commonwealth yesterday told a Federal Court that former staffer

has traditionally sought to keep United Nations resolutions precisely worded to tightly China has taken an atypically c o n s t r a i n h o w m e m b e r strong stand in opposing efforts to g o v e r n m e n t s a p p l y t h e m . force the Syrian government to Furthermore, China strongly end its brutal repression of anti- supports traditional interpretations regime protesters. But China, of national sovereignty that unlike Russia, with which it has severely restrict the right of joined to block measures seeking foreign powers or international to remove Syrian President organizations to intervene in a Bashar al-Assad from office, is country’s internal affairs. ... motivated primarily by principles This entry passed through the rather than concrete strategic and Full-Text RSS service — if this is economic interests in Syria. And your content and you're reading it China, unlike Russia, seems more on someone else's site, please read open to changing its position. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentFor the past two decades, only/faq.php#publishers. Five Chinese leaders have typically Filters recommends: Donate to o p p o s e d f o r e i g n m i l i t a r y Wikileaks. interventions seeking regime change. The Chinese government

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Daily Mail Herald Mrs Beese was removed from the all 277 news articles » court for disrupting events. She yelled: 'My husband is a sick man and does not know his actions' By Jill Reilly A man who stabbed his wife's cat to death after a drunken row was jailed for 14 weeks today.

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Can social networks protect your kids?

Donna Tam (CNET News)

have quickly shifted into damagecontrol mode with attempts to reassure users and the media that Social networks catering to it will improve the protection that adolescents have a serious trust it offers to its users. Both issue -- and justifiably so. companies have said they are Location-based flirting app Skout trying to upgrade their security and teen social-networking game m e a s u r e s , m o d e r a t o r s , a n d Habbo were hit by reports that t e c h n o l o g y . a d u l t s a l l e g e d l y u s e d t h e i r Paul LaFontaine, CEO of Habbo services to sexually prey on parent company Sulake, did not underage users, causing both sites respond to questions, but did post to temporarily restrict access this on the company blog, indicating week. that the company is working to The incidents serve as a reminder " e n s u r e t h a t b e s t - i n - c l a s s of the potential risks that arise moderation and detection systems when a minor logs on to any are in place to create a safer and social network, an issue that has improved experience for our gotten even more scrutiny with many responsible users."

Facebook looking to possibly Skout, likewise, has said it would open its doors to users under 13. look into upgrading its safeguards More importantly, it reinforces and take additional steps to the notion that no network is truly protect its users. safe, no matter the technology Age limits safeguards that are put in place. One protective measure is age Michelle Collins, vice president limits, which Skout has said it of the exploited children division w o u l d l o o k i n t o f o r i t s for the National Center for community. But the measure has Missing and Exploited Children, long been debated within the said it's important for the online industry, particularly because it's industry to make sure that social usually ineffective. networks are safe, but it is equally "It's a huge problem. In most case, important for parents to be it really doesn't work," said Chris vigilant and not rely solely on Babel, CEO of TRUSTe, a technology. Teens may not want c o m p a n y t h a t h e l p s o n l i n e to hear this, but parents need to be c o m p a n i e s a d d r e s s p r i v a c y proactive in their children's social- c o n c e r n s . networking lives.

TRUSTe is in the process of "You can never know completely certifying Skout's safety practices. that the person at the other end of Skout said it currently monitors mail addresses of users. the conversation is a kid," she its app, bands inappropriate users, Babel said he could not comment said. and never reveals the actual on Skout's practices specifically, Nevertheless, Skout and Habbo location, phone numbers, or e- but in general, age verification Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:49:56 AM

uses the data of existing databases. When a user signs up for an account, they are asked a series of questions to determine

identity. These questions can include year of birth, location, and name. Once answers are received, the data is bounced off databases, like the DMV, voting records, or credit reports, to look for matches.

Clearly, this sometimesexpensive practice is not a catchall since children are usually not in many databases. Additionally, the technology needs a lot of data to be efficient, which means asking more questions.

"There's no foolproof way to do this which is still consumer friendly," Babel said, adding that companies would have to ask so many questions, it would likely deter users from signing up at all.

This could be why Facebook only uses the technique of simply asking for an age when people sign up.

Collins said the online industry and law enforcement agencies have discussed age verification for a long time. She said is not familiar with the practices of Skout or Habbo.

"It's something that I think many companies struggle with," she said of age verification. "And, it's certainly even more of a concern, if their products are specially geared to children, to ensure that the individuals there are indeed kids."

These recent incidents with Habbo and Skout are not unique, Collins noted. For years and years, the Internet industry has CAN page 22

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CAN continued from page 21

been addressing child safety concerns.

Collins runs the center's CyberTipline, which collects reports of the sexual exploitation of children. Since it opened in 1998, the tipline has collected 1.4 million reports. Last year alone, the number was 326,000. Collins said she encourages people to use the tipline because reports are then sent to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

Babel said other ways to deter people from signing up with false ages is monitoring user behavior.

For example, if a person signs up with one age on their profile, but then changes it to another age later, the action could trigger a red flag for sites.

Skout said it is already practicing this in addition to other safeguards. Andrea Torres, a Skout spokeswoman, said Skout is commited to a safe teen community and dedicates more than a quarter of its staff to community management and monitoring.

"While there are no perfect solutions, Skout has many mechanisms in place which include continual community monitoring, which is also supported by the self-policing efforts of their user community, to detect suspicious behavior," Torres wrote in an email to CNET. "Additionally, Skout has advanced proprietary technology that continuously monitors activity to identify users who are behaving inappropriately or

violate our terms of use (by registering under a false age, for example) and bans thousands of devices a month. Skout is building better safeguards and has partnered with a leading risk management advisory firm to enhance current security measures including age verification."

Call for change Habbo, meanwhile, said the recent incidents should inspire broad change in social networks.

A screen shot of Skout's app for adults. The company started its teen app after teenagers started signing up for accounts in the adult community.(Credit: Screenshot by CNET) "We would like to emphasize that the issues raised around the Habbo site are a challenge for every social media community," LaFontaine wrote. "We hope that the recent focus on Habbo's safety challenges will deliver a call to action to the many wholly unregulated social media sites that currently pose equal and greater challenges to the safety of legitimate user communities."

A look at the company's safety guidelines (which I accessed by logging into Habbo using my Facebook account -- note that I am not under 18 nor does Facebook think I am) shows that it encourages users to protect their identities and report abuse.

Ways to report abuse include reaching out to moderators or clicking the help button at the top right of the screen. Users can also ignore other users and ban users

from a chat room in some cases, according to Habbo's guidelines.

On Skout's app, if its nowsuspended teen version works the same as the adult version, abuse can be reported within a conversation window. Users can also block others from communication with them.

Collins said it is important to have mechanisms in place that allow for easy reporting. If reporting abuse takes too many clicks or the mechanism is too difficult to find, a lot of incidents will go unreported, she said.

Involved parents No matter what technology is used on sites, the real safeguards will always be parents, Collins said.

This means parent communication with teens before and during the use of the site. In addition to warning young users that they shouldn't meet any of their online friends offline, parents should remind kids that they shouldn't send photos or other information. Collins said it's a mindset of "being very aware of what you are sharing with a person."

Babel agrees and said parents need to educate their children about risks.

"Just like there's risk walking down the street and talking to strangers," he said, adding that technology isn't the golden ticket.

Some of the teenagers cut off from their networks certainly feel that way. Among the cries of "This isn't fair :'( I was in a great

relationship.. When will it be back??" and "u HONESTLY couldn't of given us a DAYS NOTICE BEFORE U COMPLETELY CUT US OFF ........... REALLY I now have no way to contact some of my friends THANKS," left on Skout's blog post regarding the suspension, were comments challenging the security upgrades.

"I think that risks come with ANY website regardless," wrote one Skout user. "We just need people with some common sense if predators are the concern. No matter what this site does, it is not..n-o-t gonna stop creeps. Just sayin. I think this websites staff is lacking some common sense.

EVERY day, people fake their age to get on websites, and people pretend to be some one they are not. This isnt something new.

Welcome to the world."

While teens understand the risks of the online world (or think they do), it's up to parents to make sure they avoid them.

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Largest tidal array in the world to be built in Scotland Ian Steadman Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:16:00 AM

Western Scotland will see the world's largest tidal array constructed off the coast, as the first large-scale rollout of tidal energy generation.

A trial with one 30m turbine, the HS1000, anchored to the ocean floor in a fast-flowing channel near the Orkney Islands, raised one megawatt of electricity -enough to power around 500 homes. Now, Scottish Power is planning on building two farms of turbines off the Scottish coast.

By: Ian Steadman, Edited by: Nate Lanxon Continue reading...

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23

ReadWriteWeb DeathWatch: Nokia Cormac Foster (ReadWriteWeb)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:00:00 AM

Like RIM before it, this week's DeathWatch victim is another looming casualty in the smartphone race. But despite its fall from grace, Nokia still has friends in high places. If CEO Stephen Elop can reorganize the company's business fast enough and catch some lucky breaks from best-buddy Microsoft, it just may be able to stave off the inevitable.

But time is running out.

The Basics Nokia is a massive telecommunications company, headquartered in Finland. In 1987, it launched the Mobiria Cityman, one of the world’s first mobile phones, and helped launch the GSM standard that led to massive mobile adoption worldwide. By 1998, on the back of iconic models like the 5100 and 6100 series candy bar phones that flooded the U.S., Nokia was the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer, and it’s currently the 143rd largest company in the world, with more than 120,000 employees. In February, 2011, Nokia agreed to an extremely cozy deal with Microsoft in which Nokia would produce flagship

Windows smartphones and combine mobile services on the devices. Nokia would offset its licensing costs by reducing its inhouse development, and Microsoft incentives could net Nokia several billion dollars.

The Problem Nokia is massive, but it’s also massively unprofitable. In its Q1 2012 filing, Nokia posted an operating loss of 1.3 billion euros (260 million euros non-IFRS, which ignores certain intangible expenses) created by a 26% drop in net sales from 10.4 billion euros in Q1 2011 to 7.4 billion euros this year, with negative margins in every area of the business. Particularly worrying is a 38% drop in smartphone sales, the highest growth and highest profit sector of the industry.

Nokia says it has 4.9 billion euros in cash on hand, but analysts predict that money will be gone in just a year or two.

Nokia blames “greater than expected competitive challenges” for the problem, which translates to “Apple, Samsung and even HTC are eating our lunch.” iOS and especially Android are devouring the smartphone market, and like RIM’s Blackberry, Nokia’s Symbian-based smartphones haven’t kept up with

consumer demand. (See Nokia Versus Android: Death by a Thousand Cuts.) For too long, Nokia also ignored the U.S. carriers, with the recently released, Windows-based Lumia devices as their first real push into the American smartphone market.

(See The Nokia Lumia 900 Could Be Today’s Best Smartphone, But…) On the low end, Nokia is struggling against Samsung, which recently stole the #1 overall spot Nokia had held for 14 years.

And yesterday Nokia reported that it will cut 10,000 jobs worldwide.

The Players When it announced the layoffs, Nokia also indicated that Chief Marketing Officer Jerri DeVard, Executive Vice President of Mobile Phones Mary McDowell and Executive Vice President of

Markets Niklas Savander were leaving the company as well. In the wake of their departures, the one man running the show is clearly Stephen Elop.

Elop, whom ReadWriteWeb ranked as one of the five worst CEOs in technology in 2011, is defined by his previous job as the head of Microsoft’s business division. In 2011, we criticized his decision to place Nokia’s future in the hands of Windows Phone, but given how horribly Nokia has handled its own OS, Microsoft might be the only shot Nokia has. But the current NokiaMicrosoft relationship gives all the power to Microsoft, so don’t expect any earth-shaking leadership from Elop over the next year. The Prognosis Nokia is running out of money.

While the current restructuring is a step in the right direction, the company needs its partnership with Microsoft to score some major wins while Nokia trims more staff and focuses on being a hardware company. Nokia certainly has the technical resources not just to survive, but actually thrive - but the fastmoving and hypercompetitive smartphone may not give the company the time it needs to retool. Can This Company Be

Waiting for British Summer to load (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:41:00 AM

And the forecast for Great Britain is rain, rain and rain. Time for a holiday!

Not-so-jolly old England.

Permalink| Leave a comment » Full story at Kuriositas.

Saved?

Unlike RIM, Nokia has some truly cutting-edge, consumerfriendly hardware (including a 40MP camera in the 808 PureView that can provide lossless digital zoom and incredibly crisp smaller images through oversampling).

In the right hands, with the right operating system, Nokia’s technology could definitely find a market. A buyout would be ideal, both financially and organizationally, giving Nokia the resources needed to make drastic changes and consolidate further.

Unfortunately, the company’s biggest potential suitor has already balked. Microsoft apparently evaluated the company’s financials last year and declined, leaving Nokia to muddle through as a preferred supplier, rather than a full member of the team. If Nokia’s sticker price continues to drop, however, more buyers will emerge. Let’s hope Nokia has more than just patents to offer when they do.

The DeathWatch So Far Research In Motion: no change in status HP: No change in status

24

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Curated News Edition

Apple harvests MacBooks, iOS 6 Steven Musil (CNET News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:17:32 AM

The Retina MacBook Pro is 0.71 inch thick, 14.13 inches wide, and 9.73 inches deep. It weighs a somewhat hefty 4.46 pounds.(Credit: James Martin/ CNET) Apple's announcements at WWDC were skewed heavily toward its Mac line, while also providing a first glimpse of the latest version of its iOS mobile operating system.

Perhaps the biggest news of the show was a redesigned 15.4-inch MacBook Pro that takes some design cues from the MacBook Air line. It boasts a 2,880x1,800pixel resolution Retina Display screen, an HDMI port (an Apple first), USB 3.0, discrete Nvidia graphics, and the requisite Intel Ivy Bridge CPU, and Thunderbolt connections. However, starting at a whopping $2,199, this one is strictly for those with deep pockets.

• Apple playing hard to get with the newest MacBook Pro Apple also unveiled iOS 6, the next version of the company's mobile operating system, which includes 200 new updates, as well as upgrades to Siri. iOS 6 comes with more personalization options, allowing users to turn on a do-not-disturb mode, as well as respond to phone calls with a set message, and set VIP status to

individuals whose e-mails come through as an alert.

• Apple's iOS 6 to add privacy controls for user contacts Apple also unveiled a new inhouse 3D Maps app built entirely from the ground floor up. The 3D option isn't turned on by default but can easily be switched on by the user via a large button logically dubbed 3D. • WWDC 2012 rumor scorecard: The hits and the misses • Facebook integration comes to Mountain Lion in the fall • Apple CEO says Mac Pro update to come 'next year' More headlines The most coveted domains, from .app to .home ICANN releases its list of top-level-domain applications, and .app appears as the most popular domain.

Surprisingly, .sex and .sucks garnered less interest.

• Apple, Google, Amazon: Give us our own domains • Dot-mayhem: The domain landgrab, by the numbers • The strangest new top-level domain applications • Guess who wants new military top-level domains? Not the military... Verizon unveils 'Share Everything' family plans for data The plans allow for unlimited voice, text messages, and a set amount of data for up to 10 devices. They also mark the end of unlimited data for many.

• Hoping to keep your Verizon

After three reports of sexual assault in which men allegedly posed as teenagers on the location -based flirting app, Skout suspended its 17-and-under community for "safety upgrades."

• Habbo silenced after accusations of improper behavior NASA sends NuStar black-hole unlimited plan? Here's how hunter into space Using state-of• Why Verizon's shared data plan the-art mirrors and detectors on is a raw deal Facebook's U.S. opposite ends of an extended 33growth eases on the brakes New foot-long mast, a small X-ray data shows the rate at which U.S. telescope launched today will users frequent the social network s t u d y b l a c k h o l e s a n d t h e has markedly decreased along m e c h a n i c s o f s u p e r n o v a with users spending less time on explosions.'Expanded Tweets' the site. bring more content to Twitter • Samsung: No, we're not making feeds Microblogging site partners a Facebook killer with online media sites to deliver • Facebook said to be launching a wide range of stories, images, platform for real-time ad bidding and videos that can be previewed • Facebook plugs in WordPress from within tweets. for social sharing Disaster awaits • Twitter rolls out tailored trends U.S. power grid as cybersecurity based on location, your peeps lags Digital signatures that protect Also of note access to power-plant control • Reddit anti-spam sweep snares systems are highly insecure, an The Atlantic, Business Week industry leader warns -- and some • Kleiner Perkins denies Ellen companies want to make the Pao's harassment complaint problem worse. Thunderbolt vs. • Mysterious Microsoft media USB, HDMI, PCIe Cable: How event coming June 18 does it compare? Intel's high- This entry passed through the speed communications technology Full-Text RSS service — if this is is pitted against strong incumbent your content and you're reading it interfaces -- and the nascent PCI on someone else's site, please read Express Cable could provide more the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentcompetition. only/faq.php#publishers. Five • Where Thunderbolt is smart -- Filters recommends: Donate to right now Skout suspends under- Wikileaks.

18 service after it's linked to rapes

In focus: 'Mushroom' storm cloud spotted over Beijing Nate Lanxon Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:18:13 AM

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Study: Personality Type Drives Facebook Usage More Than Originally Thought Dave Copeland (ReadWriteWeb)

self-reported data from Facebook users. That allowed Moore and McElroy to analyze the actual Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:00:00 AM content that users were posting Your personality type plays a role a n d s e e w h i c h t y p e s o f in how you interact with social personalities did what when they networks, and can factor into how went online. much time you spend on sites like Previous research had suggested Facebook and Twitter, what kind that the Five Factor Model used to of information you post and how assess personality was the best much you regret posting material predictor of Internet activity. The t h a t o t h e r s m a y c o n s i d e r model covers five personality questionable. While research in factors, including extraversion, the area is preliminary, future agreeableness, conscientiousness, studies could be crucial for emotional stability and openness companies looking to target users to new experiences. Moore and who are most likely to comment McElroy also factored in gender on a brand page or recommend considerations (women tend to products to friends through social spend more time on social networks. networks, post more photos and The findings of the most recent have more Facebook friends, study in the field were recently while men tend to check them published in the academic journal more often).

Computers in Human Behavior.

What they found is that While limited in scope - the study personality played a much bigger included 143 college students who factor in how people use social c o m p l e t e d b o t h p h a s e s - networks than previously thought. researchers Kelly Moore and While personality only accounted James C. McElroy said theirs was for a 6% difference in selfthe first to make use of actual reported time spent on Facebook, usage data. it accounted for a 14% variance in The personality study disputed regret over Facebook posts and some findings of earlier studies, interactions, a 16% variance in where researchers had relied on postings about one’s self and a

friends on Facebook. The 41% variance in postings about reasoning was that people with others. Emotional Stability, those personality characteristics Personality and Facebook Use believe Facebook will not drive The study confirmed previous efficiency or production. research that showed people with The study, however, upended that less social stability reported notion, showing that scoring spending more time on Facebook, highly for conscientiousness in while more emotionally stable and personality tests was not a reliable more introverted users primarily predictor of Facebook activity. used Facebook to keep up with What It Means friends. The study also lent some Moore and McElroy warned that credibility to the theory that further research is needed and introverts often use Facebook to said future studies should work on make up for a lack of developing a theoretical interpersonal communication. framework explaining why some Previous, self-reported studies people spend more time and had suggested that extroverts energy on Facebook and social spent more time on Facebook and networks than others. tended to post more personal Advertisers are getting wise to posts - think of the dreaded “this the idea that, unlike traditional is what I had for breakfast” status mediums, social media requires update. But Moore and McElroy them to find influencers who can turned that notion on its head. In effectively make word-of-mouth fact, people who scored high in r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s f o r t h e i r t h e a g r e e a b l e n e s s o f t h e products and brand. Future personality test tended to be the research in personality type may ones most likely to offer status not only make it easier to find the people most likely to do this, but updates about themselves.

Based on previous studies, the firms could develop ways to researchers also predicted that identify those people based on conscientious people would likely their social network posts. spend less time and have fewer

25

Military Boiling Bottles - The Heatgear 'Heatstick' Packs a Punch (TrendHunter.com) (TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends) Submitted at 6/15/2012 7:27:03 AM

( TrendHunter.com) The ‘Heatstick' does exactly as the name suggests within the contents of a Nalgene bottle. The metal shaft boils the liquid inside to provide safe drinking water.

Developed for the...

Recycled Skateboard Feet Get Stoked Over These Haroshi Transparent Shoes (TrendHunter.com) (TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends) Submitted at 6/15/2012 7:17:03 AM

( TrendHunter.com) These Haroshi Transparent Shoes will show you how to put your best foot forward. Self-taught Tokyobased artist Haroshi is constantly using his passion of skateboarding to drive his craft. In these...

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Curated News Edition

Facebook Plays Catch-Up With Ad Targeting and Bidding Dave Copeland (ReadWriteWeb)

Williamson, an analyst at New York-based EMarketer Inc., told Bloomberg. The company “is Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:00:00 AM hoping to use that inventory on F a c e b o o k a n n o u n c e d o n the right side of the page to Wednesday that it would allow deliver advertising that is more advertisers to bid on highly targeted.” targeted ads. The surprising thing Unless you log out after each isn't that the social network is visit to the site, Facebook can making a major change in its ad follow your actions as you view sales strategy, but that it isn’t other sites on the Internet. And already doing what rivals Google, with Facebook becoming the Yahoo and AOL have done for universal login for so many thirdyears. party sites, many users are T h e n e w p r o g r a m , c a l l e d choosing to remain logged into Facebook Exchange, offers a real- Facebook all the time. As a result, time auction for ads aimed at Facebook collects an everusers who, through their online increasing trove of data on its behavior, have shown an interest users' online behavior. Facebook i n a p a r t i c u l a r p r o d u c t . I f Exchange puts that data to Facebook's cookies detect that l u c r a t i v e u s e b y a l l o w i n g you looked at a pair of running advertisers to send their message shoes on the Brooks Running to potential customers when they website and did not make a are most primed to make a purchase, an advertiser like p u r c h a s e . S a v i n g G r a c e o r Zappos might bid a tidy sum to S h o r t c o m i n g ? show you an ad for those shoes Facebook’s ability to track the the next time you log into online activities of its more than Facebook.

900 million users and use that “Facebook has been having data to target advertising was a challenges coming up with major justification for its $100 effective advertising,” Debra Aho billion valuation following last

third-party brokers who would be responsible for tracking user behavior. Facebook is essentially setting up a layer of middlemen, which suggests the company is not ready to do the job itself.

Facebook’s Possible Edge Nonetheless, Facebook brings important strengths to its new adauction program. In an email, Marc Poirier, co-founder and CMO of Acquisio, said Facebook gives credibility to advertisers month’s initial public offering. who may be concerned about the (Facebook’s value has since quality and content of sites on slumped to about $58 billion.) which their ads may appear.

But it’s unclear why Facebook “Facebook would instantly be the hasn’t been allowing advertisers m o s t b r a n d - s a f e [ r e a l - t i m e to bid on ads all along, or why the bidding] environment there is,” company was not taking full Poirier said. "This would attract advantage of the data available to significant budgets from brands target ads. The most recent who are afraid of [real-time changes to the company's service bidding] because of the inherent terms made clear that such an ad risks of ads being displayed on platform was in the works, while undesirable sites. Facebook will also allowing Facebook to offer be a very attractive choice for ads on other websites in much the direct-response advertisers such same way Google targets ads as search marketers, who may through its AdSense program. find in Facebook a natural Further muddying the picture, extension to their current efforts.”

Facebook said that Facebook Exchange ads would be sold by

Donate to World Vision noreply@blogger.com (Ad ServeRSS) (AdServRSS Feed)

Your gift to provide seeds, tools, and training will be multiplied 4 times by grant funds, and can mean the difference between life

and death for hungry children.

Couture-Inspired Nail Art Fashionistas Will Love the Fashion Magazine 'Marc Jacobs' Manicure (TrendHunter.com) (TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends) Submitted at 6/15/2012 7:07:02 AM

( TrendHunter.com) Inspired by the endlessly popular Marc Jacobs line, the Fashion Magazine Marc Jacobs manicure is making a splash. Strongly referencing a piece from the Resort 2013 collection, this is some very of-...

Thread: Why did Dropbox kill the Public folder?

(Dave Winer) Submitted at 6/15/2012 7:39:14 AM

First, I know they aren't eliminating the feature for current users, at least not at this time. And I know I can share any file in any folder. Of course this is deliberately misleading, because the sharing isn't the same. We're all smart, so I don't have to explain how. And sharing is the one feature that makes a difference if other people have it or don't have it.

Technology/ Culture/

Curated News Edition

27

The Wrong Motorola Bought Psion Chris Davies (SlashGear) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:07:38 AM

Mention Psion among geeks of a certain age and you’re likely to trigger a lengthy conversation about how they had – or coveted – one of the company’s iconic Series 3 or Series 5 PDAs in the 90s. Known for their innovative QWERTY keyboard design and futuristic – for the time – functionality, you arguably couldn’t call yourself a proper mobile enthusiast if you didn’t own one at some point. So, you’d be forgiven for the briefest, mistyeyed reminiscimoment at the news today that Motorola Solutions is buying up the company in a $200m deal. Problem is, the wrong Motorola bought Psion.

The Psion of today doesn’t make consumer PDAs. Instead it focuses on industrial devices, such as the sort of ruggedized handhelds that your delivery driver might ask you to sign, or which a mobile repairman might use to track jobs and report back to base. Motorola Solutions – the non-consumer half of Motorola,

after it was split up in 2011 – plans to merge the Psion expertise with its own enterprise division.

What’s not quite clear is who controls the particularly special patents on some of the elements that made the Psion PDAs so great. Designed by Martin Riddiford – now of Therefore design consultants – and variously assigned to him and to Psion, the filings covered the hinged sliding/ folding mechanism, the form-

factor which prevented the PDA from toppling back even if touched near the top of the display, and the tactile keyboard used in the Series 5 and other designs.

It’s those designs that I’d most like to see show up on the market again, and I can’t help but wish that it was Motorola Mobility – itself in the process of being gobbled up by Google – that had showed an interest in Psion, not

It’s not clear if this was the same project as the PsiXpda Android MID we reported on back in June 2011, but either way the trail has gone cold.

Given Google’s interest in pushing both Chrome OS and Android, and Motorola Mobility’s experiments with the Lapdock form-factor, all of that coalescing with the Psion keyboard and form -factor could’ve made for a very tempting device that stood out from the rest of the tablet/phone ecosystem. It seems, though, that such a product is unlikely to be found in the next chapter of the Psion story. Story Timeline • PsiXpda planning Psion 5mxstyle QWERTY Android MID its enterprise-obsessed cousin. • Psion bought by Motorola They may be old – the hinge Solutions in $200m cash deal patent was granted back in the late -90s – but there’s nothing on the The Wrong Motorola Bought market which has quite the same Psion is written by Chris Davies& imaginative use of space. originally posted on SlashGear.

In one particularly cruel moment, © 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All I was even shown images of a right reserved. prototype third-party design that borrowed the hinge and keyboard mechanism but which ran Android on a modern processor, though was unable to share them.

Can your own hands turn against you?

(HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:00:56 AM

HowStuffWorks Videos "Stuff You Should Know on Science" Playlist | Stuff You Should

Know on Science Can humans cause earthquakes? What the heck is alien hand syndrome? Join Chuck and Josh as they explore the some of the coolest (and weirdest) Stuff You Should Know

in their television shorts on Science. There are 10 videos tagged "Stuff You Should Know On Science" Enterprise Feedback Management

CRM Integration This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-

only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

28

Technology/ Culture/

Curated News Edition

Amazon's music cloud is licensed by all top labels Greg Sandoval (CNET News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:06:29 AM

Warner Music Group, home singer Bruno Mars (above), is one of the top four record labels to license Amazon's cloud service.(Credit: Harper Smith) Amazon's cloud music service is fully licensed by the top four record labels, numerous sources have told CNET. The labels and Amazon aren't talking but my sources say Amazon is expected to roll out new features for the company's cloud-music offering in the United States sometime in July.

We reported on Tuesday that Amazon had wrapped up cloud deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI and was in negotiations with Warner Music Group.

Information is coming in now that Warner Music Group was actually among the first to sign.

In all the ways the licenses will change Amazon's Cloud Drive or

Cloud Player are still unclear, but sources said one feature Amazon will likely offer is Scan and Match.

When Amazon launched its cloud music service last year, the retailer required users to upload each of their individual song files to the company's servers. For people with a lot of music, this was a hassle. Amazon now has

A year ago, the licensing issued threatened to create a rift between some of the big music stores and top record companies. When Amazon launched without licenses, label executives were saying that they didn't concede that Amazon's store was legal.

They said much the same thing last November, when Google's cloud was launched without licenses.

Now, Google is the only service among the big three without a licensed service. The company remains in negotiations but there's not telling when a settlement will be reached. the rights to scan each user's hard the labels have argued.

This entry passed through the drive to see what songs they Apple was first to roll out a Full-Text RSS service — if this is possess. Then the merchant can licensed Match feature. To store your content and you're reading it just give users to access to copies songs purchased from iTunes is on someone else's site, please read of the songs stored on Amazon's free but to store music obtained the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentlibrary. They're listening to the elsewhere costs $25 annually. only/faq.php#publishers. Five same song but not their own song Amazon is expected to offer a free Filters recommends: Donate to files. as well as paid version of its Wikileaks.

To distribute a song this way cloud, which will work on required a license because to do Android as well as iOS devices, otherwise is a copyright violation, industry insiders said.

Tiny telescope discovers two weird planets (Holy Kaw!)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:27:00 AM

A telescope in Arizona with a lens that’s no more powerful than

a high-end digital camera has discovered two strange, distant planets.

One planet is a massive, puffedup oddity that could change ideas

of how solar systems evolve, say

researchers at Vanderbilt Photo credit: Julie Turner/ University.

Vanderbilt University Full story at Futurity.

Permalink| Leave a comment Âť More research news from top universities.

Technology/ Featured/

Curated News Edition

29

Uber Learns To Drive Woot Founder And On The Left, Soft Pioneer Of The Daily Deal Launches In London Leaves Amazon Ingrid Lunden (TechCrunch)

director of astronaut relations (yes, that is a real job title) at Ryan Lawler (TechCrunch) Virgin Galactic. inventory and office supplies the sites certainly helped Woot to find Uber, the breakthrough car Navigating small London streets team had lying around. a buyer in Amazon, Rutledge says Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:32:52 AM Then the company hit the big looking back he might have liked service app with big ambitions to in quite possibly large luxury cars Matt Rutledge, founder and CEO t i m e a n d w a s a c q u i r e d b y to stay independent and compete do much more, is now making its is not the only challenge that way to international markets: might face Uber as it builds out its of Woot, and the grandfather of Amazon for $110 million two in that fast-growing market. the daily deal, is stepping down years ago. While it had already As for why he left, Rutledge said today the car service company London service. from his position, two years after b e e n e x p a n d i n g i n t o n e w that he was too much of a founder kicked off its London operation There is also the basic issue of the website sold to Amazon.com. verticals, with the introduction of to fit into a large organization, with a soft launch, just in time to competition: London has Black In an email sent to staffers, and W i n e . W o o t . c o m a n d and that earlier stages of growth start prepping for the summer cabs, but it also has two other s u b s e q u e n t l y p o s t e d t o t h e Shirt.Woot.com, adding a big are far more interesting than tourist rush and the visitor classes of cars for hire: small, community’s website, Rutledge parent company like Amazon managing a subsidiary in a onslaught also known as the independent local minicab firms and more established car service said that he was resigning his quickly accelerated the addition of behemoth like Amazon. All in all, Summer Olympics. position effective June 15th to new deal segments on Woot. though, he said it’s a little The launch is still at a very early companies (like Addison Lee). “move on to future projects with I spoke with Rutledge for a few bittersweet to leave the company stage — with “secret Ubers” It’s the latter that perhaps most prowling the roads, and the closely matches Uber for the fewer acronyms.” minutes this morning about the that he founded.

Woot was founded way back in changing landscape and what his So what’s next? Rutledge has a company still in research mode to “luxury” experience it offers.

There are also two other 2004, and became a pioneer in the plans were for the future. few ideas kicking around, but said figure out the best way of tackling burgeoning “daily deals” market. He said that while Groupon, it’s too early to tell what he’ll the city according a blog post on companies offering car hire apps It sought to give visitors one deal LivingSocial, and others appeared work on after leaving Woot. He Uber’s site. London, like many in London, Hailo and GetTaxi. At a day, posted to the website (like on the scene and copied the s a i d h e s t i l l s e e s a l o t o f other European cities, is a tangle least two of them will get to duke clockwork) at midnight. As the general marketing idea — offer a opportunity for disruption in of streets — Black cab drivers it out over their relative merits site grew and the deals improved, set of deals once a day — what retail, particularly in the ability to have to pass a special test called before a live audience: both Uber items regularly sold out just they were doing was different directly connect manufacturers “the knowledge” to be able to and Hailo will be squaring off minutes after they were posted — than Woot’s core strength, which with consumers. So stay tuned. drive here, although this isn’t against each other next week at required to operate a non-Black the LeWeb conference in London. especially Woot’s famous “bag of was sourcing items (primarily cab.

Uber’s international director Sam crap,” which usually contained a electronics) for its daily sales.

As it has done with other city Gellman tells me that a full rollout hodgepodge of whatever leftover While the explosion of daily deals launches, the Uber crew has laid won’t be coming for a couple of on a few VIPs to be the first weeks. The operation will be led passengers. Rider number one by UK country manager Chelsea Daniel Halper (The Weekly i t s l a t e s t i s s u e t o b e d o n illegal immigrants who "do not was a Dragon’s Den judge, Cooper.

Standard) Wednesday evening—and 36 present a risk to national security Richard Farleigh. h o u r s l a t e r t h e O b a m a or public safety."

Rider two was David Clark, Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:49:00 AM administration announced that it H o w c o n v e n i e n t ! H o w would be using "prosecutorial coincidental! Time magazine put discretion" not to deport young Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:37:53 AM

Time Mag Super PAC?

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Technology/ Economy/ Finance/

Curated News Edition

Microsoft planning to launch its own tablet... again Chris Rawson (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

WATCH: A British MEP Quotes Tupac In Bid To End Euro Crisis Rob Wile (Money Game)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:00:00 AM Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:12:00 AM

Microsoft has scheduled an event on Monday, June 18 in Los Angeles. According to AllThingsD and other sources, the topic of this event will be Microsoft's unveiling of its very own tablet hardware.

This is not the first time Microsoft has tried to tackle the tablet space. As anyone who hates the iPad will be happy to tell you, Windows-powered tablets existed for almost a full decade before Apple's device hit the market. Not too long before Apple introduced the iPad, Microsoft went up in front of the crowds at CES 2010 and proclaimed its partnership with HP in creating the Slate(pictured above), a product that hit the market with an unceremonious thud.

Microsoft also investigated another tablet project, the dualscreen Courier, before the iPad was even announced. The project was killed within days of the original iPad's launch.

The point? Microsoft has a great

We don't know a whole lot about UK Conservative European Parliament representative Syed Kamall, but we respect his choice in rappers.

Earlier this week, Kamall rose in the Strasburg chamber to discuss proposed Eurozone budgetary discipline rules dubbed the"two pack" that would be critical to staving off further crisis.

You can see where this is going.

"We need look no further for inspiration than the rapper, singer track record for planning tablet Microsoft also runs the risk of decade of "innovation" coming Tupac, who actually has some launches, but its execution leaves alienating its hardware partners out of Redmond, I truly wouldn't very interesting things to say much to be desired. Just like the should it launch its own tablet; but count on it. about this" Kamll told the Zune, a Microsoft tablet is on the other hand, Google has Microsoft planning to launch its assembled MEPs. entering a market dominated by d o n e t h e s a m e t h i n g w i t h own tablet... again originally WATCH: Apple and a handful of also-rans. Android, so PC makers like Dell, a p p e a r e d o n T U A W - T h e h/t LabourList And we all know how the Zune HP, and Lenovo may feel they Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, Please follow International on turned out. have nowhere left to go.

15 Jun 2012 11:00:00 EST. Twitter and Facebook.

Just like with the iPod, Microsoft Perhaps Microsoft has something Please see our terms for use of Join the conversation about this is going to have to answer the all- truly magical and revolutionary feeds. story Âť important question: "Why should up its sleeve for its Monday event. Source| Permalink| Email this| I buy this thing from Microsoft Maybe its tablet will be more Comments instead of what Apple's selling?" Xbox than Zune in terms of its A s A l l T h i n g s D p o i n t s o u t , success. But based on the past

IMF urges Europe to help refinance Irish bank bail-out Telegraph Staff (Finance News - Business news from the UK and world)

The International Monetary Fund on Friday urged Europe to help Ireland refinance its crippling

bank bailout and consider taking equity in state-owned banks to help Dublin return to bond

markets and avoid a second bailout next year.

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31

Making The Web Faster: CloudFlare Adds Support For Google’s SPDY Protocol Frederic Lardinois (TechCrunch)

possible. Today, SPDY is obviously being used heavily by Google, both on its servers and in Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:37:18 AM its Chrome browser. Since the CloudFlare, the fast-growing launch of Firefox 11 earlier this s e r v i c e t h a t a i m s t o m a k e year, Mozilla’s browser now also websites faster and safer, today supports it and Amazon’s Silk announced this it starting to roll browser for the Kindle Fire uses it out support for Google’s SPDY to talk to Amazon’s servers. A protocol on its network. For the number of large web services, time being, this is just a beta test including Twitter, have also (you can sign up here), but the enabled SPDY support over the company will likely roll this last few months. feature out to all of its paying On the server side, developers customers later this year. can now enable SPDY support on Google announced its SPDY their Apache servers without too project more than two years ago. much effort. The increasingly The idea behind it is to improve popular nginx web server also HTTP by reducing overhead added supports for it recently. As (SPDY only opens one connection C l o u d F l a r e u s e s n g i n x to the server and can fetch more extensively, as the company’s cothan one resource at a time) and founder and CEO Matthew Prince c o m p r e s s i n g d a t a w h e r e v e r noted today, it’s this support for

SPDY in nginx that now allows his company to roll this feature out to its users.

As SPDY currently requires SSL, though (that’s a decision Google made early on), and as SSL is only available for paying CloudFlare users, you need to be a paying customer to apply for the SPDY beta on CloudFlare.

Sometimes, SPDY Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be According to some recent research, SPDY works well in some situations, but can actually slow some servers down when resources are distributed among multiple domains. CloudFlare can avoid most of these issues though, as it caches all of these resources on its own domain courtesy of its RocketLoader feature.

Gamers still fail at talking while driving (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:20:00 AM

No matter how much time you’ve spent training your brain to multitask by playing “Call of Duty,” you’re probably no better

at talking on the phone while driving than anybody else.

"It doesn't matter how much you've trained your brain, we just aren't set up to do this," says Duke University researcher Stephen Mitroff.

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Permalink| Leave a comment »

Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan says iTunes, Facebook "killing rock" Kelly Hodgkins (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

something truly radical, are you ready to withstand the forty negative comments?," Corgan Submitted at 6/15/2012 12:00:00 PM asks. "Most people aren't. So Have you ever heard of the old they're getting peer pressured at adage about the dog that bites the levels they don't even realize," he hand that feeds it? Someone adds. should share that age-old wisdom Ironically, his comments, come at w i t h B i l l y C o r g a n o f t h e a time when his long-absent band Smashing Pumpkins. Speaking to launches a comeback album that's the Antiquiet, Corgan laments the featured on the iTunes Store and p a c i f i c a t i o n o f t h e c u r r e n t available for free streaming before generation of musicians who are its official release. happy to cuddle up with iTunes Smashing Pumpkins' Billy and not kick in their own door by Corgan says iTunes, Facebook embracing a movement and doing "killing rock" originally appeared something radical like Nirvana or on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple the Clash.

Weblog on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 Corgan also blasts Facebook and 12:00:00 EST. Please see our says it stifles free thought because terms for use of feeds. musicians are weary of dealing Source| Permalink| Email this| with all the negative comments. Comments "You've got a Facebook with a few hundred friends. If you do

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Curated News Edition

Qualcomm readying 4G LTE chips for next iPhone Rue Liu (SlashGear)

the iPhone will reportedly represent one-third of TSMC’s 28 -nm manufacturing capacity. And, Several chip makers have already Q u a l c o m m i s n ’ t t h e o n l y begun stockpiling parts for the components supplier expecting to production of Apple’s next-gen u s e T S M C f o r f a b r i c a t i o n . iPhone, which is expected to Broadcom plans to produce its arrive this fall along with iOS 6. WiFi chips for the iPhone at A c c o r d i n g t o D i g i T i m e s , TSMC, while OmniVision, which Qualcomm is set to produce the has supplied the iPhone’s camera new iPhone’s 4G LTE chips on components, is also seeking the 28-nanometer process at TSMC for production.

T a i w a n S e m i c o n d u c t o r TSMC is expected to have a M a n u f a c t u r i n g C o m p a n y difficult time meeting market (TSMC). demand for the 28-nm process Qualcomm’s 4G LTE chips for until it reaches a capacity of Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:44:58 AM

50,000 units per month in the fourth quarter this year. NVIDIA, Texas Instruments, Altera, and Xilinx are among TSMC’s customers also seeking its 28-nm

process.

STMicroelectronics, NXP Semiconductors, and Texas Instruments are also reportedly stockpiling inventory to meet

Apple’s demand for the next-gen iPhone. Other companies selected to supply important radio chips to Apple, include Skyworks, Avago Technologies, and TriQuint. [ via Apple Insider] Qualcomm readying 4G LTE chips for next iPhone is written by Rue Liu& originally posted on SlashGear. © 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Galaxy S III MHL-HDMI adapter headache gets cheaper workaround Chris Davies (SlashGear) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:28:55 AM

Confirmation last week that Samsung’s Galaxy S III demands a new MHL-HDMI adapter cast a shadow over the flagship smartphone, but now a more affordable solution has been spotted. While the Galaxy S III uses a newer pin layout than existing MHL adapters – meaning old dongles won’t work with the new phone - MobileFun has discovered a converter adapter-tip

that fixes it for a third of the price.

Rather than a whole new MHLHDMI connector, which is currently retailing in the UK for around £29.99 ($47), the Samsung Galaxy S3 HDTV Adapter Tip converts an existing adapter. It’s priced at £9.99 ($16), and while we’d still rather the Galaxy S III were backward compatible, we won’t argue too much with saving £20.

It’s not entirely clear whether the adapter tip will limit any functionality brought by the

different pin layout on the Galaxy S III nor, indeed, what changes have been introduced by Samsung altering the layout in the first

place. Samsung’s product page for the official MHL-HDMI adapter makes no mention of how it is unique.

The new Samsung Galaxy S3 HDTV Adapter Tip is up for preorder now, though there’s no indication of when, exactly, it will begin shipping. For more on the Galaxy S III itself, check out our full review.

Galaxy S III MHL-HDMI adapter headache gets cheaper workaround is written by Chris Davies& originally posted on SlashGear. © 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Technology/

Curated News Edition

Kodak loses ruling in patent fight with Apple Kelly Hodgkins (TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog) Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:00:00 AM

Struggling camera and film pioneer Kodak is going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. While it deals with angry creditors, the company is also juggling a legal battle with Apple over the rights to several patents in its patent portfolio. According to Bloomberg, Kodak recently was handed a setback in its fight with Apple when US Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper told the camera maker the dispute would

be processed as part of the bankruptcy proceedings and won't be fast tracked by the court.

"An adversary proceeding will permit the parties to raise issues in an orderly and expeditious fashion and preserve all of their just rights," Gropper said in a hearing on Wednesday.

The dispute involves imaging patents that Apple says it should own. The patents, Apple claims, are derived from technology it shared with Kodak when it worked with the camera company on the QuickTake 100, an early digital camera Apple sold in 1994.

Apple says Kodak misappropriated this technology and patented it without Apple's consent. Kodak, however, claims it owns the patents and want to sell them to raise money for its bankruptcy proceedings.

Kodak loses ruling in patent fight with Apple originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source| Permalink| Email this| Comments

33

Twitter support for schoolgirl forces council to u-turn on blogging ban Liat Clark

after the now-demonised Argyll council put a ban in place.

It all began on 30 April when The blog of a nine-year-old girl Payne, with a little help from her from Argyll, which prompted her dad, started a blog documenting local council to ban school dinner her daily school meals. Her foodphotos, has triumphed against the o-meter and health ratings, along ban following a stream of support with the photos demonstrating a on Twitter. All in the space of a few particularly puny portions, month and a half. proved an instant hit, with the Quite a lot for schoolgirl Martha blog gaining 25,000 hits by post Payne to process, but she seems three. By the sixth post, the to have taken it all in her stride. council had sent a representative I n a p o s t o n h e r b l o g over to the school and, week by NeverSeconds, Payne -- or Veg, week, more and more fresh as she likes to be known -- vegetables began appearing on her announced on 14 June that she white plastic tray. had been taken out of a maths By: Liat Clark, Edited by: Nate class and informed there would be Lanxon Continue reading... no more photo-taking at lunch Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:05:00 AM

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Policy/

Curated News Edition

The Five Stages of Egypt's Revolution - By Charles Holmes CHARLES HOLMES (Foreign Policy) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:04:31 AM

It matters little who wins the presidency this weekend -- a much bloodier uprising is inevitable. BY CHARLES HOLMES| JUNE 15, 2012 CAIRO – I was put on the spot by a wise old friend of mine in Washington several years ago. He wanted my pitch on Egypt in 30 seconds or less. "This is a town beset with attention deficit disorder," he said, "so what have you got?" I gulped and offered up the "three Ms of Egypt": the military, the mosque, and the masses.

Despite the popular revolt against Hosni Mubarak's regime last year, it remains true that the only political contest that counts in Egypt has pitted its military generals against the mosque's imams and leaders. Both want control over the masses -- 85 million Egyptians. The recent elections highlighted these three Ms: However depressing for many reformers and activists, the culmination of nearly 18 months of mass protest now pits the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammad Morsi against Ahmed Shafiq, a retired military officer and former Mubarak prime minister.

Whether the military or the mosque wins the runoff this weekend, reformers and their supporters around the world need to consider some equally

important potential futures scenarios. Their first step should be to dust off a copy of Crane Brinton's An Anatomy of Revolution, a 1938 study that

considers major revolutions in history, identifies the factors influencing them, and attempts to extrapolate certain "rules" for how such seismic political transitions

play out. In the startling air of uncertainty pervading Egypt's current impasse, it provides at FIVE page 37

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Curated News Edition

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Egypt’s Subsidy Blues - By Peter Passell PETER PASSELL (Foreign Policy) Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:23:26 AM

When Egypt's next rulers finally tackle urgently needed economic reform, they should look to an unlikely model: Iran. BY PETER PASSELL| JUNE 15, 2012 If people are hungry, provide food prices they can afford. If they need fuel to cook it, or perhaps to bring their crops to market, give them a break at the pump. What could be fairer or more straightforward?

What, indeed. Governments all over the developing world have been seduced by the populist logic of subsidizing consumer necessities. The approach was especially alluring in centrally planned economies (including hybrids such as China and India), where prices didn't reflect costs to begin with. And, of course, subsidies for petroleum proved to be as Arab as hummus for the oil exporters of the Middle East, where citizens have come to think of fuel at circa 1979 prices as a birthright.

If subsidies are good for the poor, why not let everybody else in on the deal? That's a formula for multiplying the waste -- subsidies reduce prices below cost, after all, artificially increasing demand and, where the subsidies are borne by the producers, undermining supply incentives. Nonetheless, extending eligibility to include both middle-class and business

users has, more often than not, proved irresistible.

The catch, of course, is that few developing countries can really afford the drag on efficiency or budgetary cost. Case in point: Egypt, which devotes an astounding 10 percent of GDP to subsidies for food and fuel-- both

of which it must import. Whoever wins the presidential election runoff this weekend will thus face the unenviable task of prying both the middle-class and powerful business interests from their accustomed perquisites.

It needn't (and probably shouldn't) be done overnight;

among other problems, that would spike inflation, which Egypt can't afford, either. The big question is whether the new government will have the will and the way to manage it at all. Much, alas, is at stake here: Egypt's failure to confront the subsidy issue would put at risk the gains of two

decades of growth in which GDP per capita, measured in terms of purchasing power, almost tripled.

More from Democracy Lab • Get ready, world, here comes Indonesia • The Freedom to Hate EGYPT’S page 39

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Policy/

Curated News Edition

The Most Important War You Probably Know Nothing About - By James Traub JAMES TRAUB (Foreign Policy) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:18:00 AM

Gather round, children, and let me tell you about the War of 1812. BY JAMES TRAUB| JUNE 15, 2012 Can you feel the excitement in the air? June 18 is the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, and I'm sure you're thinking: Why no parades down Main Street?

Why no historical reenactors costumed as President James Madison, who signed the declaration of war, or Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the Hero of Lake Erie? Because Americans have a short historical memory, that's why. Or perhaps it's because we don't commemorate equivocal wars.

But don't be fooled by the absence of huzzahs: The War of 1812 was one of the great liberating events of American history, and I'm here to tell you why.

One of the buried facts of our collective past is that the United States came very close to dissolving long before slavery sundered the union. America was in almost perpetual peril during the quarter century from the French Revolution to the Treaty of Ghent, which concluded the war with Britain in 1814.

Throughout this period, the two great world powers of the time,

France and England, sought to destroy each other; each tried to bribe, seduce, subvert, or intimidate the neutral states in order to tip the balance in their

favor. In this great and cynical game, the United States, which at the time constituted what we would now call "an emerging nation," was one of the most

valuable prizes. republican Holland and autocratic American politics consisted of, in Russia, among others, tilted back effect, an "English" party and a and forth between partisans of the "French" party. This was scarcely unusual at the time: Both MOST page 38

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FIVE continued from page 34

least a framework -- and often strangely accurate reference point -- from which to contemplate events. And it serves as a guide, and a warning, to Egypt's future.

This week's court ruling blessing Shafiq's candidacy and dissolving parliament -- reasserting the military's grip on power and infuriating millions of Egyptians in the process -- should only be taken as another sign that the center, hemorrhaging ever more legitimacy, ultimately cannot hold.

Brinton would tell you that in the long run, it actually doesn't really matter who the next president of Egypt is. Morsi and Shafiq are doppelgangers: Both are ghosts of the past, circling each other, embedded in the old system that has defined and sustained them for decades. Of course, the man from the military and the man from the mosque each claim to be the true champion of the revolution. In truth, it's likely that neither is -- and that both will pass from the scene as the revolution's pendulum swings inexorably to the extremes.

You may be asking: How can it not matter? While the mosque (in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood) and the military (in the form of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) stand triumphant, each risks losing its grip on political power.

Both will inevitably be the victims of true political transformation and swept away, as Brinton would say, through the course of events.

There are signs now that this could happen and, not surprisingly, both Morsi and Shafiq know it. The Brotherhood's initial reluctance to support last year's revolution has been replaced by its enthusiastic participation in the democratic process, from elections to constitutional reform. The mosque is now seen as fully committed to regime change, and is quietly flirting with the more extreme revolutionaries, both secular and religious, on the margins of Egypt's political environment -ranging from the revolutionary youth to the ultraconservative wings of his Salafist counterparts.

But despite this tentative flirtation, Morsi and his coleaders would far rather Shafiq and his military allies take the vote than turn the country over to Egypt's true revolutionaries. For example, a deal struck between the SCAF and the Brotherhood's leadership on the eve of last November's parliamentary elections apparently benefited both camps more than the many thousands of protesters who had threatened to derail the election schedule. As the vote went ahead as planned, the Brotherhood won nearly half the seats, while allowing the SCAF to retain ultimate power -- a deal that served the short-term interests of both sides.

In the near future, however, the three Ms are far less significant than the big E: Egypt's economy.

Whoever the next president is, the economic challenges that confront

him -- ranging from chronic unemployment to ailing foreign credit -- are urgent. In the last 18 months the country's foreign currency reserves have plummeted by more than half, and foreign direct investment last year totaled only one-third of the 2010 figure. Tourism has cratered.

Aside from the military establishment, the state's resources and capacity are worn out and poorly functioning -when they function at all.

Finally, the relationships between the legislative assembly, the presidency, and the executive have yet to be defined. They limp along today in a dystopian setting, as Egypt's political forces bicker over the makeup of the assembly to draft a new constitution. The parliament has historically been little more than a rubber stamp for regime policies and, even as Egyptians go to the polls to select a new president, it is a mystery what powers that figure will possess. A relatively emasculated presidency with little real capacity to enforce policy changes remains a distinct possibility.

It seems all too possible now that, to effect real political change, Egypt's revolution will need to somehow devour both mosque and military. Genuine redistribution of political power will require a dramatic upheaval of these entrenched systems. As political theorist Gene Sharp warns in his 1993 treatise From Dictatorship to Democracy: "Nowhere ... do I assume that defying dictators will be an easy

or cost-free endeavor. All forms of struggle have complications and costs. ... The fall of one regime does not bring in a utopia."

In Egypt, these casualties would not only include the hundreds of young men dead on the streets, but also the destruction of arrangements that favored certain sections of Egyptian society and provided the foundation for its political order. Once again, Brinton offers guidance for how to think of this process by conceiving of revolutions in terms of stages: In his model, Egypt has traversed the first stage -- the collapse of the regime -- and begun stage two, epitomized by an ineffective, moderate interim government that fails to deliver sufficient political change.

Depending on how you apply this framework to the Egyptian setting, this second stage may equate to either the interim SCAF or some kind of "inclusive" -- i.e. badly fudged -- government that will be unpopular, and destined to fail. Again, whether this administration is led by Morsi or Shafiq makes little difference in the long run.

The failure of the moderates will bring about stage three: the wholesale disintegration of a measured transition process, leading to widespread political confusion, major clashes, and the beginnings of violence verging on anarchy. Stage four ushers in the radical, purging, period -terrifying for its uncompromising zeal and tyranny. This "fever," in

Brinton's terminology, breaks in the final stage, as the radical leadership burns itself out and is replaced by a more stable and long-term representative government.

It's unclear who the "stage four" zealots will be in the Egyptian context, though some kind of militarized religious force seems probable. Indeed, the Salafists and other more extreme religious groups are conspicuously absent from the current clash of the mainstream factions -particularly considering their astonishing election performance that gave them 25 percent of parliament.. Their silence, like that of France's Jacobins or Russia's Bolsheviks, is telling.

They are, quite obviously, patiently awaiting the weakening of the military and the mosque, which are just now in the process of weakening each other -- as the contending moderate parties in revolutionary France and Russia weakened each other -- paving the way for the extremists.

Of course, this kind of framework is often dismissed as the mindless wanderings of historical structuralists. Egypt is neither Russia nor France. Yet, in the context of Egypt's current political dilemma, Brinton's scenarios need to be taken seriously. What they suggest is what we already know to be true: The outcome of Egypt's revolution will not be decided by a committee, it will not be FIVE page 40

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MOST continued from page 36

two. In America, however, the Founding Fathers recognized that this contest for supremacy posed a mortal threat to the nation. In his brief farewell address, George Washington ardently defended the policy of neutrality to which he had consistently hewed. The president warned his fellow citizens that "excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other."

Alexander Hamilton largely wrote Washington's farewell address; and Hamilton, an Anglophile, was using the president's immense prestige to warn of the susceptibility of Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party to France and the doctrines of the French Revolution.

Federalists like Hamilton derisively referred to the Jeffersonians as "Jacobins" -revolutionary camp-followers.

France, for its part, sought to use the U.S. Republicans as an extraterritorial arm of the revolution. In 1792, France sent an ambassador to the United States with the express goal of enlisting Americans in its war with England. The minister, EdmondCharles Genet, outfitted privateers in the pro-French South with the goal of preventing New England merchants from trading with England and encouraged the creation of "democraticrepublican societies" to fight

against alleged "aristocratic" tendencies in America -- until an outraged President Washington demanded that he desist.

France was the chief provocateur during this period. Like Russia after 1917, France saw itself as the standard-bearer of a global revolution; a lev ĂŠ e en masse produced a standing army of 800,000 prepared to overwhelm the reactionary forces of Europe.

A combination of diplomatic insults and attacks on American shipping drove President John Adams to the very edge of declaring war against France in 1798 (as I described here). Later, Napoleon channeled those revolutionary energies into the more traditional French goal of dominating neighbors and bringing England to its knees.

Napoleon even dreamed of sending a force from Haiti up the Mississippi in order to seize the western territory of the United States. The plan came to grief when his army was decimated by yellow fever and Haitian guerillas. The emperor reacted to his failure with a magnificent gesture of disgust: He sold Louisiana to President Jefferson in 1803.

Although it was the greatest windfall in the nation's history, the Louisiana Purchase also came very close to dividing America in half. Federalists now feared -rightly, as it turned out -- that the new citizens of the south and west would identify with the democratic Jeffersonians rather

than with a party that looked back nostalgically to a prerevolutionary European order. In late 1803 and early 1804, most of the leading Federalists plotted to secede from the union and seek an alliance with England. The conspiracy appears to have collapsed when Aaron Burr killed Hamilton in a duel (though Hamilton had not supported the secessionists).

France continued to intrigue against the United States, but even the most ardent American Jacobins lost faith in the revolutionary project once Napoleon placed the imperial crown on his own head.

Washington's warning now applied far more to the partisans of England than of France. British ships patrolled the waters of the Atlantic hunting for U.S. merchant vessels carrying goods from the French West Indies and regularly boarded American ships searching for English sailors who had fled the abysmal pay and dreadful conditions of His Majesty's Navy. And while most Americans were outraged by these incursions on national sovereignty, leading Federalists sided with Britain and publicly excused their offenses. The party split between, in effect, a proBritish and pro-American faction, and the extremists, known as the Essex Junto, degenerated into precisely the kind of fifth column they had earlier accused the Republicans of being. At the Hartford Convention of 1810, the

Junto once again sought to turn New England into a separate nation.

Both Jefferson and Madison went to great lengths to overlook British provocations, especially the impressment of American sailors into the British navy. Both understood, as Washington had also observed in his farewell address, that owing to America's "detached and distant situation," "the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance"-- so long as the country could steer clear of European broils. They recoiled in horror from the pointless bloodshed of the Napoleonic wars, and worried that the United States would become a Europe of its own, divided into eternally warring states. Both men hoped that diplomacy would make war unnecessary; indeed, the U.S. had cause enough to go to war in 1807, when English depredations against American shipping began in earnest, though it would have been even more woefully unprepared than it proved to be in 1812.

The war itself was basically a draw: American land forces were humiliated in Canada, but sailors like Commodore Perry achieved stunning victories over the greatest navy the world had ever seen. The Treaty of Ghent merely restored the status quo ante. But the war had put a decisive end to the Federalists, who had barely been able to celebrate American victories. Even more important,

the world war between France and England had ended with the ruin of the former. England no longer needed to block American shipping or to shanghai U.S. sailors to fill out a wartime navy.

For the next century, Europe would basically leave America alone.

For the previous decades, American politics had consisted essentially of foreign policy. Only with the war's end could rival political parties form around differing visions of the country's own future: a strong versus a weak central government; a manufacturing versus an agrarian economy; and, ultimately, a nation of freemen versus one of owners and slaves. America was now free to fulfill its territorial, economic, demographic, and -for better and worse -- political destiny.

So now you know. You still have two years left to organize the parade for the bicentennial of the Treaty of Ghent.

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EGYPT’S continued from page 35

• Egypt’s Constitutional Chaos

growth under Mubarak ended up in the hands of cronies. Raising As you might have already the price of bread and gasoline is guessed, subsidy withdrawal can hardly a way to win them over. be harmful to health. Back in On the other hand, the failure to 1977, when Egypt was effectively cut the budget deficit over the bankrupt, Anwar Sadat decided to next few years might well leave let food prices rise and Egyptians the economy broke and stagnant. took to the streets. Days of rioting Egypt made it through the global and some 160 deaths later, Sadat recession in good shape, but changed his mind. stumbled badly in the wake of the Apparently, the passage of time revolution as tourism collapsed hasn't made the process any safer. and investors (domestic and Yemen's initiative to reduce fuel foreign) put their plans on hold. subsidies in 2005 led to riots that To bring back growth, the new left dozens dead; the decision was government will need to woo the quickly reversed. Today, Yemen's people who can vote with their transition government must checkbooks. And a critical step in finance fuel subsidies equal to that direction would be to spell nine percent of GDP -- the highest out a credible plan for containing fuel subsidy burden in the world. spending -- a virtually impossible It was much the same story in task without reducing subsidies, Nigeria, where the cash-starved which have ballooned over the government lifted fuel subsidies years to absorb more than a this past January and then quickly quarter of the government budget. c o m p r o m i s e d a f t e r t h e Actually, the most realistic path announcement was countered to investor confidence runs with a general strike. The issue is through Washington: There's no far from settled, though: There are way Cairo will be able to lure press reports that the government back private investors unless it is so hard up for cash that it hasn't can win a vote of confidence (and paid gasoline marketers for a multibillion dollar line of credit) subsidized deliveries since the f r o m t h e I M F a n d o t h e r beginning of 2012. multilateral lenders. While the None of this bodes well for IMF won't hold all the cards in the Egypt's next president, who will coming negotiations -- the rich be caught between conflicting countries it represents have a economic priorities from the get- strong interest in stabilizing Egypt go. One the one hand, he must -- the Fund will surely insist on a make headway in meeting the believable plan to slow the expectations of middle- and lower hemorrhage of foreign currency -income Egyptians who resent the from the Egyptian Central Bank fact that a disproportionate share before it throws good money after of the (very substantial) fruits of bad. And I can't imagine any plan

passing the laugh test that doesn't include cuts in subsidies.

How, then, might the government thread the needle, making nice to Washington without alienating the home crowd? The model for subsidy reform, ironically, comes from a country (Iran!) not known for either political subtlety or effective economic management.

But I get ahead of myself.

Any realistic plan to reform subsidies must start with natural gas and petroleum products. Yes, food subsidies are also wasteful: Heavily subsidized bread is available in any quantity to everybody, and close to 70 percent of all Egyptians have ration cards that allow them to buy other staples at a fraction of cost. But lower-income Egyptians are far more sensitive to the price of food than to the price of gasoline. Equally important, food subsidies cost less than half as much as fuel subsidies.

By the same token, it also makes sense to delay the day of reckoning on subsidies for liquid petroleum gas (butane/propane), which most middle- and lowerincome Egyptians use for cooking. Price hikes would hit the wrong people hard, yet only modest sums would be saved since only 14 percent of the fuel subsidy goes for LPG. The big money -- but relatively little of the benefit trickling down to the poor -- is in the subsidies for gasoline, diesel fuel, heavy boiler fuel and natural gas. Much of it goes to industry, whose

owners will no doubt raise a formidable fuss if it is taken away. But one has to hope that the folks who gained the most from economic growth under Mubarak (and have the most to lose if growth does not resume or the revolution turns anti-capitalist) will be in a mood to compromise, perhaps settling for tax incentives to install more fuel-efficient equipment. The large numbers of middle-class Egyptians who've become very attached to private cars are another story.

That's where the Iran model fits in. Like Nigeria, Iran ran out of money to pacify ordinary citizens with subsidized fuel. And, as in Nigeria, the inefficiencies created by the subsidies were a formidable drag on growth. But unlike Nigeria, Iran played reform smart, offering cash compensation to roughly 80 percent of consumers before it sharply raised the prices of liquid fuels in March 2010. That outlay reduces the net budget savings by half. But, combined with a heavy PR effort (and a show of force against protestors), the money made it possible to set the economy on a path toward efficient energy use without creating a political blowback.

Egypt can't afford to recycle such a high percentage of the savings from reform. But it could give all households ration coupons for very limited amounts of fuel at pre-reform prices, and allow those who don't need them to sell the coupons to others who do. This

would, presumably, go a long way toward making the reform palatable without undermining incentives to conserve fuel. And with time (and the restoration of economic growth), the coupons could be phased out.

No Egyptian government since Sadat's has taken subsidy reform seriously. But, then, no Egyptian government before this one had the political legitimacy to take on so onerous a task. Moreover, no government has been confronted with so stark a choice between change and stagnation.

There are, in fact, signs that some Egyptian politicians are ready to bite the bullet. Last week the interim government quietly presented parliament (now dissolved) with a proposed budget that would cut fuel subsidies by 27 percent and end all subsidies to industry in 2013. The new government isn't bound, of course, by the wishes of the old. But it's an opening -- cross your fingers.

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Economy/ Culture/ Finance/

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managed, and it will not be moderated. It will be decided in the streets, as all revolutions are.

Egypt's revolution is not nearing an end, it's only just beginning.

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Debt crisis: live Amy Wilson (Finance News Business news from the UK and world) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:16:20 AM

The International Monetary Fund on Friday urged Europe to help Ireland refinance its crippling

bank bailout and consider taking equity in state-owned banks to help Dublin return to bond markets and avoid a second bailout next year.

IN 80 SECONDS: Here's Why The Greek Elections Matter Simone Foxman (Money Game)

;amp;amp;lt;param name="movie" value="http:// Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:57:00 AM player.ooyala.com/ We're two days away from the player.swf?embedCode=tkbzkzN Greek parliamentary election.

ToECYTmDDhkl4Rl5bJHpc2XK Investors are worried that the O& elections could set up a "Lehman a m p ; v e r s i o n = 2 " / moment" which would lead to a > breakdown of the European < Monetary Union. param name="bgcolor" But if you haven't been following v a l u e = " # 0 0 0 0 0 0 " / the drama, don't worry: we've got > you covered in this quick guide to < the latest on the Greek elections. param name="allowScriptAccess" < v a l u e = " a l w a y s " / object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E- > A E 6 D - 1 1 c f - 9 6 B 8 - < 4 4 4 5 5 3 5 4 0 0 0 0 " param name="allowFullScreen" id="ooyalaPlayer_kxex_h3hbvzy v a l u e = " t r u e " / 3" width="616" height="347" > c o d e b a s e = " h t t p : / / < fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/ p a r a m n a m e = " f l a s h v a r s " f l a s h p l a y e r / c u r r e n t / value="embedType=noscriptObje swflash.cab"&amp ctTag&a ;amp;amp;gt;&amp mp;amp;embedCode=tkbzkzNTo

ECYTmDDhkl4Rl5bJHpc2XKO &a mp;videoPcode=BhdmY6l9g002r BhQ6aEBZiheacDu" / > < embed src="http:// player.ooyala.com/ player.swf?embedCode=tkbzkzN ToECYTmDDhkl4Rl5bJHpc2XK O& a m p ; v e r s i o n = 2 " bgcolor="#000000" width="616" h e i g h t = " 3 4 7 " name="ooyalaPlayer_kxex_h3hbv zy3" align="middle" play="true" l o o p = " f a l s e " allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwavef l a s h " flashvars="&a mp;amp;amp;embedCode=tkbzkz NToECYTmDDhkl4Rl5bJHpc2X KO&am

p;amp;videoPcode=BhdmY6l9g0 02rBhQ6aEBZiheacDu" pluginspage="http:// www.adobe.com/go/ getflashplayer"&a mp;amp;amp;gt;&a m p ; a m p ; a m p ; l t ; / embed& amp;gt;& a m p ; l t ; / object&a mp;gt; Produced by Daniel Goodman Don't Miss: • Why Spain Isn't Falling Apart Right Now • Your Complete Guide To This Sunday's Greek Elections Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Choose, Lace, and Replace Your Running Shoes Based on How You Run [Infographics] Melanie Pinola (Lifehacker) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:00:00 AM

There are a bunch of factors that go into choosing the right running shoe, including what kind of surface you run on and if you have a high or flat arch. This infographic from REI summarizes all the basics of running shoes, including tips for when to replace them and how to lace them. More »

Economy/

Curated News Edition

41

CNBC Asks, "So Why Are Spanish Bond Yields Falling?" I Ask The Better Question, "Why Are Spanish Banks Considered Solvent?"

Reggie Middleton

central planning cartel, otherwise known as the central banks. Of course, this begs the question, CNBC asks So Why Are Spanish "Should the rates go down since Bond Yields Falling? Well, that's the 'Global Central Planning a good question. Short answer: Cartel' has failed for 5 years and Well rates spiked dramatically, running to put this monster to bed a n d w e a r e s e e i n g s o m e with liquidity injections?" Alas, r e t r a c e m e n t f r o m t h e I'm already ahead of myself. Let's psychological balm of even more peruse said CNBC/Reuters article, liquidity thrown from the global shall we?

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:05:17 AM

Spanish and Italian bond yields fell on Friday as sentiment toward riskier asset improved thanks to plans for coordinated central bank liquidity injections to help stabilize markets if Sunday's Greek elections cause turmoil.

The prospect of easy access to central bank cash helped settle nerves ahead of Sunday's Greek vote which could put Athens on a

path to exit the euro zone if parties opposed to the conditions of Greece's international bailout come to power.

"It's having a good impact... on the bond side we see Spanish yields turning lower. It tells us that central banks at least won't let markets collapse on Monday," said Emile Cardon, market economist at Rabobank in

Utrecht.

After reaching a euro-era high above 7 percent on Thursday, Spain's 10-year bond yield eased 12 basis points from its closing level to 6.84 percent, while Italian yields fell 10 bps to 6.06 percent.

What???!!! Isn't this still quite close to a record? Sovereign CNBC page 43

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Curated News Edition

100% of U.S. Jobs Added Since 2010 Have Been Self-Employment, Contractor, or Other Jobs Without Unemployment Insurance Benefits noreply@blogger.com (Mike Mish Shedlock) (Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)

government-sponsored fraud to have to pay unemployment insurance when there is no chance of ever collecting it.

Submitted at 6/15/2012 2:44:00 AM Here are some charts from The next chart shows state level Reader Tim Wallace that help employment data. Net covered explain my report a few days ago employees (those currently with a that 23% of Small Business job covered with unemployment Owners (Approximately 6.21 benefits) was calculated by million) Report "No Pay for a s u b t r a c t i n g c o n t i n u i n g Year"; New Zealand, Singapore, unemployment claims from the US, Best Places to Start and Run a pool of all covered workers.

Business Covered Employees, Net The first chart below shows Covered Employees, Continuing actual employment of covered Claims workers compared to the civilian The next chart compares BLS population and labor force. employment numbers to net Covered employees are those covered employees (those actually e l i g i b l e f o r u n e m p l o y m e n t working). benefits (working or not). Some BLS Employment , Covered are currently collecting those E m p l o y m e n t , N o n - C o v e r e d benefits.

Employment In the following charts, "covered Notice the widening gap between e m p l o y m e n t " o r " n e t covered employment and employment" refers to those with employment as reported by the benefits and currently working.

BLS. In 2008 and again in 2010 P o p u l a t i o n , L a b o r F o r c e , the difference between BLS Covered Employment employment and Covered click on any chart for sharper Employment as noted by the image green line (right axis) was about Self-employed workers and 15 million. contractors are not eligible for This month the difference is unemployment benefits even nearly 19 million. The table below though they have to contribute to shows the precise numbers. state unemployment insurance Year Covered Employees BLS schemes. It believe it is Employment Non-Covered

Employment 2003 123,193,833 137,687,000 14,493,167 2004 123,717,669 138,867,000 15,149,331 2005 124,663,546 141,591,000 16,927,454 2006 127,217,409 144,041,000 16,823,591 2007 129,399,094 145,864,000 16,464,906 2008 130,553,967 145,927,000 15,373,033 2009 127,539,427 140,363,000 12,823,573 2010 124,096,266 139,497,000 15,400,734 2011 122,146,266 140,028,000 17,881,734 2012 123,996,700 142,727,000 18,730,300 Since 2010, the economy has

Unemployment insurance benefits vary state to state.

Bouncing around between temporary jobs may also make one ineligible, especially if there are lengthy lapses between jobs.

Inquiring minds may be interested in Unemployment Insurance Eligibility FAQs for Connecticut. You need to consult rules for your state.

Non-Covered Employment Percentage Hits All-Time High Year"Non-Covered Employment" 2003 10.5% 2004 10.9% 2005 12.0% 2006 11.7% 2007 11.3% 2008 10.5% 2009 9.1% 2010 11.0% 2011 12.8% 2012 13.1% added 3.23 million jobs according Non-Covered Employment in the to the BLS. Of those 3.23 million above table means any job that jobs, 3.33 million (slightly greater does not provide unemployment than 100%) have been self- insurance benefits. employment, contractor, familyN o t e s A b o u t business jobs, or other jobs with Unemployment(From the Link at insufficient wages and therefore Top) i n e l i g i b l e t o c o l l e c t Bear in mind, that making money u n e m p l o y m e n t i n s u r a n c e . or receiving a paycheck is Since 2009 the numbers look irrelevant to the BLS when they much worse. In that timeframe the compute the unemployment rate. economy added 2.36 million jobs If you work as little as 1 hour, according to the BLS. Of those whether you collect a paycheck or 2.36 million jobs, 5.91 million n o t , y o u a r e c o n s i d e r e d (250%) were self-employment or e m p l o y e d . jobs otherwise not covered by 100% page 47 unemployment insurance benefits.

Talk/

Curated News Edition

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CNBC continued from page 41

bonds spike to record yields, after being forced upon private banks, causing insolvency, then said banks request bailouts from said sovereigns who do bail them out, thus bankrupting the country and forcing said bailed out banks to lend the bankrupt countries money again. Wash, Rinse, Repeat! Remember i n Dead Bank Deja Vu? How The Sovereigns Killed Their Own Banks & Why Nobody Realizes They're Dead…

I have explained this nonsensical methodology in detail. I also showed how well it worked out for: • Greece How Greece Killed Its Own Banks!

• the ECB Over A Year After Being Dismissed As Sensationalist For Questioning the ECB’s Continued Solvency After Sovereign Debt Buying Binge, Guess What.

• Italy Bank Run! Italiano Style?

• and now for Spain, as I will demonstrate a little further on in this post.

investors ever so slowly start to realize that The Biggest Threat To The 2012 Economy Is??? Not What Wall Street Is Telling You. Some of the relief in Italian and Spanish debt was due to speculative traders buying back bonds to close out short positions that profit when prices fall, traders said.

"People had probably gone quite short (on Italy) after the moves this week on Spain, so I'd expect, with the weekend coming up, people don't want to be short risk and are squaring up," the trader said.

In the medium term, Spanish debt was expected to stay under pressure despite the liquidity contingency plans, analysts said.

The agreement of a 100 billion euro ($125 billion) rescue for Spain's banks has sparked concerns about whether existing bondholders would be pushed further down the queue for repayment, denting appetite for new debt and driving borrowing costs toward unsustainable levels.

Back to the MSM...

"Spain is still in deep trouble, let's Bund futures were flat at 141.83, not forget that. It has fundamental recovering after a fall in after- problems so liquidity to help hold hours trading on Thursday when things together doesn't really Reuters reported that major solve that," a second trader said. central banks were ready to pump On Thursday, 10-year Spanish in liquidity, if needed, to prevent a bond yields hit 7 percent for the credit squeeze. first time since the launch of the Of course, as more and more euro. The breach of this level

raised expectations that the country would be cut off from funding markets and forced to seek a bailout for public finances on top of the agreed banking rescue.

So, as clearly articulated in Dead Bank Deja Vu? the sovereign debt shell game cum financing Ponzi of creating artificial demand through private banks simply assist in destroying both banks and sovereigns when initially you just had to worry about the banks.

But in the case of Spain, there's a lot more to worry about - A lot more. Our current subsccriber update (click here to subscribe): Spanish Target Bank Update 62012 outlines the problems of a Spanish bank we have covered that is poised to suffer from a gargantuan issue that it simply cannot wiggle away from any longer. As a matter of fact, this issue, when coupled with its state imposed sovereign debt problem means "here comes the next big bailout!". As excerpted from the subscriber report.... Asset / loan Portfolio deterioration off weakened macroeconomic environment The Subject Bank, like other major Spanish banks, is being forced to buy sovereign debts as the country finds fewer international buyers for its bonds.

The Bank therefore continues to

struggle from an asset quality perspective, weighed down by its sovereign & toxic property loans and assets. This has been a major cause for the deterioration of Subject Bank's portfolio over the past couple of years.

The Bank derives ~70% and over 20% of its total gross revenues from net interest income and fees & commission, respectively. The quality of its asset portfolio is therefore extremely important in determining the health of the Bank.

The Bank’s value of financial assets in Spain as of Dec 31, 2011 is over quarter trillion EURO, comprising nearly 50% of the total financial assets in its balance sheet or more than 600% of its total equity (think the negative effects of leverage and gearing as you witness asset value depreciation). In addition, of the bank’s total loans and receivables, over 50% are in Spain.

With that being said, a picture (or a chart) can be worth a thousand words (or even more Euros considering the rate of depreciation that I see ahead)!

When viewing the chart below, keep in mind that the asset values used to calculate this chart are most assuredly overstated, and even then the numbers really look pretty bad. Simply imagine what happens when truth (margin/

collateral call, haircut, resumptions, etc.) start calling... #000000; width: auto !important; height: auto !important; display: inline-block;"> Spain's Ugly Real Estate Crash Will Wreck Banks and Force One of Europe's Biggest Banking Bailouts.

Remember a run on one big bank causes counterparties to panic.

Counterparty induced bank runs do the most damage.

Archived subscriber reports: Related subscriber download Sovereign Contagion Model Retail (961.43 kB 2010-05-04 12:32:46) Sovereign Contagion Model - Pro & Institutional Online Spreadsheets (professional and institutional subscribers only) Average: Your rating: None Average: 5( 1 vote) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

TED: LZ Granderson: The myth of the gay agenda - LZ Granderson (2012) TEDTalks (TEDTalks (video))

In a humorous talk with an urgent message, LZ Granderson points

out the absurdity in the idea that there's a "gay lifestyle," much less

a "gay agenda." (Filmed at TEDxGrandRapids.)

44

Economy/

Curated News Edition

When Everything Trades As One: Goldman Declares War On ETFs, Says "May Generate Negative Alpha" Tyler Durden

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:04:58 AM

Overnight, Goldman's Robert Boroujerdi released a report whose conclusion we have been warning about for the past 3 years, which also happens to be its title: " ETFs: An Imperfect Hedge?" Goldman's findings in a nutshell: "The rise of investor usage of ETFs as hedges continues. In a bid to gain quick exposure to evolving markets, avoid single stock M&A risk or take sector views, we believe the use of “blunt force” hedging via ETFs may impair portfolio returns and potentially create negative alpha." Read that again: not zero alpha, i.e., same returns as market, but negative alpha. In other words, the great cottage industry that has been the basis for so many riches for the likes of BlackRock, and that has ensnared so many gullible retail investors, is essentially a guaranteed money losing get rich quick scheme?

Who da thunk it.

What is more curious, are Goldman's observations on historical cross industry correlations because they show that in the grand scheme of things, virtually everything trades as one!

To wit: Given the rise in trading activity in ETFs, we compare and contrast where correlations sit for individual sectors against (1) one another, (2) versus history, and (3) the market as a whole.

To begin, we frame the basis of our discussion by providing a historical analysis of daily and weekly pair-wise correlation of ETFs versus one another, summarized in Exhibits 10 and 11 below. These matrices yield insights on the growing impact of price movements in certain sectors versus each other. They also highlight the unpredictable impact that “blunt force” ETF usage can have on portfolio construction and returns.

Indeed, of the 36 sector ETF pairs we examined, correlations on a 3-year basis are higher than 70% for 31 of the instances, emphasizing the importance for portfolio managers to choose sectors wisely when hedging at specific points in time.

Although correlations for the individual components of the S&P 500 are now broadly in line with their 1-year and 5-year medians (1 -month correlations now stand at 53% versus 50% and 44% on a 1and 5-year median) we see higher levels of correlations on a sectorto-sector basis (using ETFs as a proxy). To give some context, the average sector-pair correlation is 72% when measured on a 3month basis.

In Exhibit 10, we show a 3month daily correlation snapshot along with a guide to the most and least correlated pairs.

To gauge correlations on a longer horizon, we include a 3-year view in Exhibit 11. We note that these figures are calculated on a weekly basis.

Current (3m) cross-sector correlations and hedging takeaways…

• Perhaps not surprisingly, we see among the least amount of dispersion between Industrials and Energy as well as Materials and Industrials. Surprising, however, is that less obviously paired ETFs exhibit strikingly high correlations. For example, we highlight: Financials &

Industrials, Tech & Discretionary and Materials & Discretionary.

• Utilities is the sector least correlated to others and, as such, may provide a more optimal hedge if an investor has a specific sector view on the group. We do note that Staples are the second least correlated.

We provide a full listing of 3month and 3-year sector-pair correlations in the Appendix for those who wish to dig deeper. … and how they’ve moved: now vs history (3 months vs 3-years) • Tech (XLK) and Industrials (XLI) show pockets of falling correlations to other sectors, albeit WHEN page 47

Economy/ Culture/

Curated News Edition

45

Traders Are Betting That These 14 Banks Will Default Eric Platt (Money Game)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:46:00 AM

As Italian and Spanish sovereign borrowing costs shoot higher, corporate credit default swaps (CDS) have remained remarkably high.

CDS is essentially insurance on a security that pays in the event of a default.

Business Insider analyzed CDS prices on more than 100 publicly traded banks across the U.S., Europe, Middle East, AsiaPacific, and Latin America.

What we found: for at least 14 banks, the cost to insure debt remains above 500 basis points.

It should be noted that some CDS markets are very illiquid and the quotes can be quite volatile.

What follows is a look at the cost to insure $10,000 of five-year CDS per year. Values are presented in basis points, as firms issue debt in differing currencies.

(Ex: If a CDS on a U.S. corporate issued in dollars is trading at 500 bps, it would currently cost $500 to insure $10,000 for one year).#14: Bayerische Hypovereinsbank, Cost To Insure $10,000 Sovereign Debt: 507.5

bps Year-to-Date Change: -8.6 Percent 5-Year CDS Price (1/1/2012): 551.12 bps Description: Hypovereinsbank was acquired

by UniCredit in 2005 for â‚Ź19.2 billion, or $22.8 billion. The bank serves as UniCredit's German arm, employing some 20,000 people through 780 branches. The company's debt still trades separately from UniCredit.

Source: Bloomberg CDS Intraday London #13: Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, Cost To Insure $10,000 Sovereign Debt: 509.32 bps Year-to-Date Change: +5.7 Percent 5-Year CDS Price (1/1/2012): 482.03 bps Description: Banca Intesa is the result of the mergers of Banco Ambrosiano Veneto, Cariplo and Banca Commerciale Italiana, forming the

largest bank in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. Intesa employs 99,504 employees across four main areas: retail, investment, and private banking, as well as asset management.

Source: Bloomberg CDS Intraday London #12: UniCredit SpA, Cost To Insure $10,000 Sovereign Debt: 552.9 bps Year-to-Date Change: +3.3 Percent 5-Year CDS Price (1/1/2012): 534.99 bps Description: UniCredit is one of the largest Italian banks, with operations in 22 euro-area countries. Top and bottom line results have been challenged at the firm, with revenue declining in 2010 and 2011. The company's retail division provides the largest revenue power, accounting for half of UniCredit's $25.2 billion in sales.

Source: Bloomberg CDS Intraday London See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.

IngenuiTEA Is the Most Satisfying Way to Brew a Perfect Cup of Tea [Video] Melanie Pinola (Lifehacker) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:30:00 AM

The IngenuiTEA teapot from Adagio Teas makes brewing tea not only easy but incredibly fun.

After steeping loose tea leaves in hot water, place the teapot atop a mug and watch as the clear brew automagically pours into your cup. More Âť

46

Economy/ Culture/

Curated News Edition

Spain Bond Drubbing Continues As Stocks Surge Tyler Durden

We've Infused the Air with Donuts and Caffeine in This Week's Open Thread [Open Thread]

Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:58:38 AM

Spanish sovereign bonds ended the week at all-time record wide spreads to bunds, pushing back up near 7% yields today before falling back into the close, and +55bps on the week. This is a 50bps underperformance of Italian sovereigns on the week, while Spanish stocks notably outperformed Italian stocks on the week (though faded notably today having been unable to regain Monday's opening highs). German Bunds also deteriorated notably relative to Treasuries on the week (the biggest wekly jump in Bunds -Treasuries in almost 7 months) and while equity and credit markets reconverged into the weekend - with position-squaring evident - as the shifts in Swiss rates suggest all is not well under the surface as repatriation flows drove EURUSD up over 115pips on the week to near its Sundaynight opening highs (amid a 200 pip range). Finally for all the ebullient US investors, we note that Europe's VIX was bid notably higher today to near a 3 week high relative to US VIX as hedges into the weekend were very

Adam Pash (Lifehacker) Submitted at 6/15/2012 8:30:00 AM

Grab a cup of joe, your favorite pastry, and satisfy your daily sugar and caffeine fix in this week's open thread. More Âť prevalent.

It seems the end of the week in Europe - just like in the US - was about position-squaring as earlyweek protection (cheap macro overlays in MAIN - Europe's investment grade index) was sold back and stocks and credit resynced... with Spanish stocks (pink) rallying the most on the week (though fading today and unable to reachMonday's opening highs) and Italy underperforming (red).

And clearly Spain (red) bonds

diverged notably in the last two days from the rest of European sovereigns - especially Italy. Also note the green curve which reflects the almost 18bps decompression of German Bunds over Treasuries this week (as 10Y bunds rose 12bps while 10Y Treasuries are down around 6bps from Europe's close last Friday)... leaving Spanish 10Y spread to Bunds at an all-time record high... but Bund 10Y yields rose the most relative to 10Y TSYs in almost 7 months!

as hedgers were active into this event-heavy weekend as Europe's VIX ramped relative to US VIX (for now)...

Charts: Bloomberg Average: Your rating: None Average: 5( 2 votes) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Products/ Finance/

Curated News Edition

100%

WHEN

continued from page 42

In addition to the 6.21 million business owners with no paycheck, factor in those selling trinkets on EBay out of desperation and collecting a few dimes in the process.

Also factor in all those starting multi-level marketing schemes and calling it a business. How many get sucked into that losing proposition every year? Yet, to the BLS, it's a job if you worked any hours.

The ease of starting a business in the US is a great thing.

Unfortunately, making money in a small business startup is not so easy.

Historic trends suggest half of small businesses will fail within 5 years, and I highly suspect future trends will be much worse. See article for additional stats on working with no pay as well as a county-by-country comparison as to the best places to start and run a

continued from page 44

business.

Also note that Doing Business offers economic rankings of 183 countries on numerous categories including starting a business, ease of doing a business, getting construction permits, etc.

Conclusion 6.21 million working without pay in conjunction with the reported boom in self-employment looks rather believable in light of excellent charts from reader Tim Wallace.

Factor in disability fraud (see 2.2 Million Go On Disability Since Mid-2010; Fraud Explains Falling Unemployment Rate; Will Higher Disability Taxes Fix the Problem?) and the realistic conclusion is the unemployment rate is much higher than reported while the alleged recovery is much weaker than reported.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock h t t p : / /

globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. 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. Visit http:// www.sitkapacific.com/ account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:30:00 AM

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Newegg: Installing Linux On Your Computer Is Basically

The Same As Breaking It Just How Fake Is HGTV's House Hunters? Newegg: No, We'll Totally Take Returns After You Install Linux Father Stuck With Dead Son's Student Loans But No One Will Tell Him How Much He

the figures remain high. In addition, the correlation between the Tech and Industrials fell to 77% on a 3-month basis from 89% on a 3-year basis. Among the notable examples of falling correlations, those between Tech and Energy fell to 72% from 83% over the same two periods.

• Healthcare (XLV) has become more coupled to other sectors.

While 32 of the examined 36 sector pairs showed decreases in correlations, all of the four that showed increases included Healthcare. As an example, correlations between Healthcare and Financials rose to 76% from 73%, versus an average decrease in correlations of 8% among all 36 pairs.

How sectors are correlated to the broader market • Utilities (XLU), Staples (XLP) and Tech (XLK) are the sector ETFs least correlated to the S&P 500, with current 3-month correlations of 47% each.

• Energy (XLE) is the only sector with an increase in correlations to the S&P 500, having risen to 62% on a 3-month basis versus 56% on

Top Posts Of The Week And Open Thread Laura Northrup (The Consumerist)

47

a 3-year. In contrast, Tech (XLK) and Discretionary (XLY) saw the greatest declines in correlations.

They fell to 47% from 60% and 50% from 58%, respectively, on a 3-month and 3-year basis. *** So... HFT is basically done now that GETCO liquidated a third of their sales force, and the focus is now shifting on ETFs which will be the next to fall under the knife.

Which leads to the question: will anyone be left trading anything in the stock market in a few years time? full report can be found here Average: Your rating: None Average: 4.5( 4 votes) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Rajat Gupta found guilty of insider trading charges

Owes Father Stuck With Dead Son's Student Loans But No One Will Tell Him How Much He Owes People Of Nunavut Tired Telegraph Staff (Finance News Of Paying $30 For Coffee, $65/lb. - Business news from the UK and world) For Chicken Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:19:54 AM

Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs board member, has been

convicted of illegally tipping his hedge-fund manager friend Raj Rajaratnam with secrets about the investment bank.

48

Culture/

Curated News Edition

Evangelicals Should Be Gospel Centered, Not Salvation Centered, Theologian Says (Christianpost.com > Most Popular)

June 14, 2012| 8:39 am "The Gospel of salvation has produced what I call a 'salvation culture' – a culture marked by who's in and who's out. So a very strong sense of 'we are the in group and others are the out group.' ... A 'Gospel culture' is a culture shaped by following Jesus, by living under Jesus as King. A 'Gospel culture' includes personal salvation, but it includes so much more," McKnight said in an interview with The Christian Post.

The Christian Post spoke with McKnight earlier this month while he was at the Pastorum Live conference in Chicago, hosted by Logos Bible Software. McKnight also wrote a book on the topic called The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited.

"The central question of the Bible is not, 'how can I be saved?'"

McKnight said during his presentation. "This is the 'me' question. The central question of the New Testament is, 'who is Jesus?' This is the 'God' question.

The 'me' question follows the Jesus question.

"The fundamental job of the

evangelist is not to get people to feel guilty about sins, or to feel terrorized by an angry God. The central question of evangelism is, 'who do you think Jesus is?'"

Evangelical pastors, McKnight explained in his interview, are more concerned about precipitating decisions than making disciples.

Follow us "Pastors ... preach revivalistic sermons that precipitate decisions, that precipitate experience, and the result is, if I've had the experience, I'm in; if I haven't had the experience, I'm not in. But more importantly, if I've had the experience, I'm in and I know who else is in -- those who've had my experience. So all other people are basically off the map unless they've had the same experience. That's revivalism and that has created what I call a salvation culture."

McKnight clarified that he is not opposed to salvation, or having a born-again experience. He had a born-again experience himself.

But he believes that evangelicals are so focused on that one part of the Gospel that they fail to understand whole of Jesus' message.

This is demonstrated, McKnight

believes, by how few people continue to follow Jesus after they have had a born-again experience.

Ninety percent of those who grew up in an evangelical culture make decisions to follow Jesus Christ, he noted. But by age 35, only 20 to 35 percent are still following Jesus.

"What I'm arguing is that we need to have less emphasis on a message that precipitates a decision and more emphasis on a message that guides people into following Jesus."

Some evangelicals believe "once saved, always saved," or that once someone makes a decision to follow Christ, they are assured entry to Heaven, even if they stop following Christ. McKnight rejects this contention. Further, he says that neither Calvinists nor Arminians would make that argument.

"A Calvinist doesn't believe in 'once saved, always saved.' They would not be tied into those categories. They would say, once saved, you will persevere. That 'once saved, always saved' is revivalist. It's not Arminianism or Calvinism."

McKnight noted that even in the "great commission," (Matthew 28:19-20) the emphasis is not on

getting people to make decisions, but on making disciples.

"It didn't say, 'go and get people to make decisions.' It said 'make disciples.' How? Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded. So the goal is to get people to become disciples of Jesus by obeying all that Jesus taught."

Getting Western evangelicals to change from a salvation culture to a Gospel culture would be difficult, McKnight believes, because the salvation culture represents a core part of evangelical identity. But the good news is that renewal is also a core part of evangelical identity.

"I do think that evangelicalism is fundamentally a salvation culture.

I think that's a major part of it. So many components, so many parts that are a simplistic, superficial, shallow salvation culture. But within evangelicalism is the capacity for renewal. This is what we believe in, in the Bible. God is at work today and He can renew us. Also, there are so many powerful examples within evangelicalism of a robust Gospel culture."

One of those examples, he said, is reformed evangelicalism.

Though McKnight is not a

reformed evangelical himself, he applauds reformed evangelicals' emphasis on a broader Gospel culture rather than a narrow salvation culture.

"Reformed evangelicalism is a robust Gospel culture. There is no shallow stuff there."

If more evangelicals would embrace a Gospel culture, McKnight said, "we would become people who are for other people, not just conscious that we are unique saved ones. We would become people who are here to serve others, to show them the love of God. We would be concerned about fellowship with one another and a life of community that embodied the kingdom of Jesus."

READ: IS THE GOSPEL STILL RELEVANT? Contact: napp.nazworth@christianpost.co m,@NappNazworth(Twitter) This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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49

'Gray Eagle' Drone Fails All the Time, But Army Still Wants More Robert Beckhusen (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:00:00 AM

The Army's Gray Eagle at an unknown airfield. The Army's ambitious drone program is suffering from poor reliability and repeated delays, according to a Pentagon report. Photo: U.S. Army The Gray Eagle is supposed to be the Army’s own version of the Air Force’s famous Predator drone.

The Army wants its own version of the Predator so much, it’s spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and buy 164 of the things through the year 2022.

Problem is, the Army is having trouble getting the drone to, y’know, work.

Beginning in March 2011, “ poor reliability across all major subsystems” led to delays that would seemingly never end, according to a report from Edward Greer, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for developmental test and evaluation. During the same month, a Gray Eagle drone crashed in California after a faulty chip blocked a subsystem from sending commands to “a portion of the aircraft’s flight control surfaces,” Col. Timothy Baxter, the Army’s project manager for unmanned aircraft systems,

elaborated in an e-mail to Inside Defense.

“Flight testing was suspended,” Greer’s report added. The faulty chip was replaced and testing resumed, but the Army was now left with fewer available flight hours. The drone’s mean times between failures — or the average time the drone or a component works without failure — is also short. First, the drone itself has an

average failure every 25 hours, short of a required minimum of 100 hours. The drone’s ground control station has a rate of 27 hours before a failure, short of a required 300. The Army has since lowered the requirement to 150 hours. The Gray Eagle’s sensors fare a bit better: 134 hours to 250 hours required.

Then the Gray Eagle was delayed again last October. The report

concludes that for the 2011 fiscal year, the Gray Eagle is meeting only four of seven “key performance parameters,” and the drone’s “system reliability continues to fall short of predicted growth,” which could be a problem for the upcoming tests scheduled for August. The Gray Eagle is also necessary for the Pentagon’s plans to double its unmanned air force.

Like the Air Force’s (nowdiscontinued) Predator and its successor, the MQ-9 Reaper, the General Atomics-designed Gray Eagle is intended to operate for long periods at medium altitude while packing missiles and advanced sensors. A squadron of four Gray Eagles has been sent to Afghanistan, which “continues to 'GRAY page 52

50

Culture/

Curated News Edition

Dogs 'Grip It and Rip It' in Annual Surf Contest Sol Neelman (Wired Top Stories)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:25:00 AM

Barb Ayers and Dude ride an, um, wave at the Loews Surf Dog Competition. Photos: Sol Neelman/Wired I’ve seen a lot of surreal scenes in the years since I started shooting Weird Sports. Mexican wrestling comes to mind, as does that insane Tough Guy competition in England. But nothing has been so bizarre as seeing a basset hound surf.

Not only can bassets surf, but they’re quite adept at it, simply because of how they’re built.

“Low and heavy is good,” said Barb Ayers, whose dogs love to hang 10. Or is it 20? “It’s especially helpful to be fat and low.”

Ayers is an old pro when it comes to dog surfing, even if she won’t be competing at the seventh annual Loews Surf Dog Competition this weekend south of San Diego. It claims to be “the nation’s original surfing competition for man’s best friend,” and we’re not about to argue.

Dog surfing is pretty much what it sounds like. There are four heats. The first is for dogs less than 40 pounds. The second is for larger dogs. Then there’s a

tandem competition, where dogs surf with their human companions. The final heat brings the winners of those three rounds together to determine the “Ultimate Champion.” Dogs and teams have 10 minutes to catch their top two waves. They’re scored on confidence, length of ride and overall ability to “grip it and rip it.”

I first met Ayers three years ago.

I was rolling through California on a Weird Sports tour that included Segway Polo, Lucha

Libre and a gay rodeo. (A run-ofthe-mill trip in my world.) I’d heard about dog surfing and knew I had to check it out. Ayers caught my eye, mostly because you don’t often see someone surfing with a basset. Her energy is fun, wacky and terribly infectious, and her dog, Duke, was super friendly.

Ayers has been surfing for about 20 years, having been inspired by watching Rocky the Surfing Dog in The Endless Summer 2. She hit the waves with Howdy, the basset she had at the time, and never

looked back.

“We were doing it back when no one was,” she said.

Turns out basset hounds don’t much like water. Ayers’ second basset, Elvis, was resistant to this weird sport and took two years to come around. “He got the basset memo: ‘We basset hounds don’t do water,’” Ayers said. But in what had to be a cosmic karmic twist, Elvis caught his first wave the same day Ayers scattered Howdy’s ashes.

I never got to see Elvis surf. It

seems he was not pleased with the waves. But the Dude abided, stepping in to take his place. He and Ayers finished third in the tandem division.

“Dude goes ‘Pick me. Pick me!’”

Ayers said. “He was a natural.”

If you are a dog and you live with Barb, you surf, simple as that.

You also wakeboard, stand up paddleboard and ride on surfboards in parades.

“Dog surfing is our attempt to connect with nature,” said Ayers. “‘Weird Sports’ is my middle name.”

The Dude is now 10 and suffers from glaucoma — “He looks like a pirate,” Ayers says — but he still hits the waves from time to time. He and Elvis have a new surfmate, a 1-year-old Dotson named Doodle. Ayers is on the DL with a torn rotator cuff, so she won’t be competing this weekend in SoCal. But if you want to check it out, it’s free. Eddie would go.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Culture/

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Benny Hinn Says Wife's Drug Problems Led to Divorce, Praises God's Reconciling Power

51

Rihanna Shares Joyce Meyer's Teachings With Fans, Calls Christian Speaker 'Awesome' (Christianpost.com > Most Popular)

godly message from Meyer.

"God works according to the law of gradual growth, so don't be (Christianpost.com > Most reason. Hinn, a popular prosperity Follow us June 13, 2012| 3:58 pm discouraged if your progress Popular) preacher who travels the world "The covenant we made with God This month, the record-breaking seems slow," read Meyer's words performing faith healings, had more than 30 years ago was never Barbadian singer has been using on Rihanna's page.

June 13, 2012| 12:15 pm previously suggested that it was broken in His sight. Both of us her Twitter account to spread The singer followed up Meyer's • (Photo: AP Images / Ronen his time away from his family that believe our greatest days are Meyer's teachings. tweet with another one of her own Zilberman) Benny Hinn prays had caused marital problems. ahead and the best is yet to come!

"If Satan can defeat you in your that seemed to reflect her own during a service at the Blaisdell W h i l e h e r e i n s t a t e d t h e s e Sue and I have submitted to godly thoughts then he can defeat you spiritual beliefs.

Concert Hall in Honolulu on Jan. suspicions in his latest message, counsel and oversight to ensure anywhere else as well," reads a "Whatever may be your task, 11, 2002. His crusades around the and even suggested they played a our past mistakes will not be message written by Meyer and re- work at it from the soul, as it was world draw thousands who hope part in his wife turning to repeated, and we will continue to tweeted by Rihanna on June 4. something done for Jah and not the diminutive minister will zap medication, he also revealed do so," the minister continued in To underline her point, the singer for men," Rihanna wrote. them with power absorbed from details about the divorce that were his message, and stressed his sent a tweet to Meyer directly.

While Rihanna has taken Twitter the graves of dead faith healers. not previously known. resolve to make the marriage last "@JoyceMeyer you're awesome," by storm with over 20,000 "The truth of the matter is that a lifetime.

Rihanna told the minister via followers, it seems Christian "Suzanne started taking certain Suzanne filed for divorce because Hinn also revealed that he and Twitter on the following day. leaders may be more popular than prescription medications to help she was in a deep emotional and Suzanne were planning to open a When one of Rihanna's fans entertainers in terms of how many her cope with some of her physical crisis that affected her in h o m e f o r c o u p l e s w h o a r e tweeted about Meyer being "one messages are shared with others. personal struggles. She became such a way that caused her to struggling in their marriages, but of the few with the non-corny Meyer has topped the list of dependent on those for nearly 15 make a decision she now regrets. noted that he would go into details quotes on Twitter," the singer popular Christian figures, with years, and those medications And although it was, without about those plans at a later time. retweeted the message and gave 170 reactions to her tweets per made her behave erratically at question, the most agonizing two Benny Hinn Ministries and the person some advice. every 50,000 followers, according times," Hinn wrote in a message and a half years of my life, the Hinn's World Healing Center Follow us to The New York Times. on his ministry website. "As her e n d o f o u r m a r r i a g e m o s t Church are located in Grapevine, "Get into her books," Rihanna READ: SPIRITUAL WARFARE husband, I did not know the certainly woke me up, and the Texas. told the fan.

- PRAY FOR RIHANNA extent of her reliance on these Lord used it to show me -- as a This entry passed through the The singer stayed on the topic of This entry passed through the medications, nor did I fully man of God and as a man -- that I Full-Text RSS service — if this is spirituality, tweeting her own Full-Text RSS service — if this is understand just how much harm cannot function properly without your content and you're reading it wisdom to followers. your content and you're reading it t h e y w e r e c a u s i n g t o h e r , my wife and family," Hinn on someone else's site, please read "The devil wants to steal your joy on someone else's site, please read physically and emotionally," explained. the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentbecause he knows that joy is your the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentSuzanne Hinn filed for divorce Despite these past hardships, only/faq.php#publishers. Five strength," Rihanna tweeted. "That only/faq.php#publishers. Five from the popular preacher in Feb. Hinn affirmed that the love he Filters recommends: Donate to is why sometimes we need each Filters recommends: Donate to 2010, with court documents citing shares with his wife is now Wikileaks. other."

Wikileaks. irreconcilable differences as a stronger than ever.

A few days later, the Barbadian entertainer retweeted another

52

Culture/

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5 Things to Know on the First Day of Kindergarten Julia Layton (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:00:56 AM

In the realm of childhood milestones, starting kindergarten is up there with potty training and first steps. It's where children learn some of the most basic skills they'll use throughout their lives and it marks the start of what will hopefully be an illustrious school career.

That doesn't mean kindergarteners begin school as blank slates, though. There are skills they need to enter the classroom with, ones they've spent five years learning at home with you or with other caretakers - things like sharing, listening and playing well with others. Social

'GRAY continued from page 49

provide vital support to our soldiers in combat and continues to exceed the 80 percent operational available requirement every day,” Baxter wrote to Inside Defense. development is a prime marker gamut from spoken language to But while the Army is also for kindergarten readiness and color recognition, and they vary in preparing to test its giant greatly increases your child's importance. A handful of them, surveillance airship, the Gray chances of success. though, are fairly essential.

Eagle is all the Army has for a And then there are the skills that Here, five of the most important Predator-esque hunter-killer are more academic in nature, and things your child should know on drone. t h e s e c a n s o m e t i m e s b e the first day of elementary school.

Drones are the centerpiece of overlooked by parents. After all, Luckily, these objective, core how the U.S. fights terrorists, with the kid is 5 years old! Certain abilities are pretty easy to assess.

U.S. warplanes 31 percent — or 1 academic skills, though, are just The first one lays the groundwork in every 3— now robotic. The as important as the social ones. for what's arguably the most Navy is developing its own drone Kindergarten teachers will expect important skill required for that can launch from an aircraft that their new students already success in life ... carrier, though it won’t be ready know particular things at the start This entry passed through the in 2018 at the earliest. And in a of the year, and if your child Full-Text RSS service — if this is time of relative budget austerity, doesn't, he or she may end up your content and you're reading it the Air Force is funded for 65 lagging behind. Not a great way on someone else's site, please read Predator and Reaper squadrons of to start that illustrious school the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentup to four drones per squadron, career. only/faq.php#publishers. Five with the option of increasing to 85 So, which skills should your Filters recommends: Donate to squadrons. The Army is losing child walk into kindergarten with? Wikileaks.

100,000 soldiers, but funding for There are quite a few, running the the Gray Eagle is going strong,

5 Engine Oil Myths Christopher Lampton (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:00:56 AM

We all know that our cars need engine oil in order to operate smoothly. The role of engine oil is to keep the moving parts of the engine lubricated, to protect them against rust corrosion, and -- with modern detergent oil additives --

to keep them free of sludge and general engine gunk.

But most of us also know some things about engine oil that aren't actually true. For instance, isn't it always necessary to change your oil every 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometers)? And when the color of your oil starts becoming dark, doesn't that mean that it's about to fill your engine with harmful

sludge?

Well, no. These ideas are myths and over the next few pages we'll debunk them, along with a few other engine oil "facts" that don't happen to be true. A little knowledge isn't necessarily a dangerous thing, but a little knowledge that doesn't happen to be true could quite possibly ruin your engine, or at least cost you a

lot of unnecessary expense.

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with $150 million budgeted for construction costs and another$518 million to buy them.

Meanwhile, Greer’s report mentions that the Gray Eagle’s software is unstable, and fixes to problems “have led to 11 unplanned software revisions.”

But in general, software reliability h a s i m p r o v e d .

Nonetheless, testing should be resumed “only when the system demonstrates adequate readiness and satisfies [testing] entrance criteria,” notes the report.

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53

Mozilla Celebrates a Year of Shrinking Firefox Memory Scott Gilbertson (Wired Top Stories)

back at the progress and some of MemShrink’s “big wins,” including better JavaScript Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:40:00 AM performance, fewer memory leaks Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired in add-ons and the new One year ago Mozilla launched about:memory page, which is, M e m S h r i n k , a n a g g r e s s i v e according to Nethercote, “the campaign to trim Firefox’s then single most important tool we’ve much larger memory footprint. created, and has driven a lot of the Since then not only has the MemShrink improvements.” browser’s overall memory use If you’re interested in the finer dropped considerably, but the details about everything that’s effort has been expanded to tackle been done to reduce Firefox’s add-ons, a common source of memory over the last year, be sure Firefox memory woes. to read through Nethercote’s full Mozilla programmer Nicholas post.

Nethercote, head of the As for the future, look for MemShrink effort, takes a look MemShrink to keep bringing

down the memory overhead.

“There’s no real secret to MemShrink,” writes Nethercote, “so far it’s basically been a long, steady grind, gradually improving

tools, fixing leaks, slimming down data structures, and responding to user’s problems… there are no plans to change that.”

If you’d like to get on the leading

James Marsden Goes Shirtless For a Dip in Hawaii Meghan Rooney (PopSugar) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:27:57 AM

James Marsden went shirtless in Maui yesterday, showing off his buff body as he relaxed on the beach and toweled off from his swim in the ocean. James is in Hawaii for the Maui Film

Festival, which will award him with the Nova Award for original performances tomorrow. The getaway comes as a relaxing vacation for James, who became a series regular as Liz Lemon's boyfriend on the most recent season of 30 Rock. He was in NYC just last week. James looked

dapper at the Tony Awards to present the statue for best

performance by a featured actress in a musical. Another special day is coming up for the dad of two.

James, dad to kids Jack and Mary, is one of the celebrity dads marking Father's Day. View Slideshow ›

edge of MemShrink improvements, you can switch from Firefox’s stable channel to either the Beta or Aurora channels, which include any new features, as well as any memory improvements, much sooner.

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Leonardo DiCaprio and Erin Pregnant Sarah Michelle Heatherton Have Biking, Acting, Gellar Preps For an Exciting and Philanthropy in Common Weekend With Charlotte Allie Merriam (PopSugar) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:34:56 AM

Lauren Turner (PopSugar) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:15:49 AM

Leonardo DiCaprio and Erin Heatherton mixed love and exercise yesterday while on a bike ride in NYC. The couple have been hanging out in the Big Apple for the last week, enjoying cycling sessions and meals together at places like the restaurant Candela Candela. Leo and Erin checked out the musical Once as well, after the stage version of the 2006 movie picked up a slew of statues at last weekend's Tony Awards.

Leo's on a break from making movies, after wrapping up work on Django Unchained and before starting up on Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street.

Erin seems to have taken a page from Leo's book and has taken up acting, too - she recently filmed a small part in Adam Sandler's Grown Ups 2. She and Leo also share a passion for philanthropy.

Erin's involved in the charity, The Global Poverty Project, and recently wrote about her involvement. Of discovering the

Sarah Michelle Gellar held her daughter Charlotte's hand as they ran errands in Santa Monica yesterday. Sarah's maternity style was on display as she covered up her pregnant stomach in a fitted jacket. She's expecting her second child with husband Freddie Prinze Jr. later this year, and the soon-toorganization, which aims to help be dad of two will be the center of those living in extreme poverty, attention with Father's Day on Erin wrote, "In my heart I felt I Sunday - we're taking a look at found that missing link in my life, 100 celebrity dads to mark the a way I could use my voice to occasion. SMG will be in the make a difference in the world . . . spotlight first though, since she's I'm only 23, and while every day being honored with a leadership brings a new challenge, a new lesson and a new self-discovery, I now know that I'm on the right path. I know that I can make a difference in the world." She wrote an article for the Chicago Sun-Times, the biggest local paper for the Skokie, IL native.

View Slideshow › Daniel Halper (The Weekly Standard)

Heroes of Ruin launch trailer means it's really coming soon JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:30:00 AM

We don't want to jinx it, but Heroes of Ruin may actually make it into stores this time. Its European release date is today, and Amazon UK has it in stock.

There's even a launch trailer (above) which suggests a launch for the 3DS dungeon action-RPG! The email in which Square Enix included this trailer also offered a July 17 release date for North America, which is consistent with the last announced date. All signs point to the game actually coming out. deportations" with only an Heroes of Ruin launch trailer executive order. "With respect to means it's really coming soon the notion that I can just suspend originally appeared on Joystiq on deportations through executive Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:30:00 EST. order, that’s just not the case, Please see our terms for use of because there are laws on the feeds. books that Congress has passed," Permalink| Email this| Comments President Obama said then. award at the LA Zoo's annual Beastly Ball tomorrow. Sarah's also featured in our PopSugar 100, so make sure to place your votes before the contest ends on Sunday. View Slideshow ›

Obama: I Can't Just Suspend Deportations Through Executive Order, There Are Laws on on the Books Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:19:00 AM

In March 2011, speaking at Univision town hall in Washington, D.C., Barack Obama firmly stated that, as president, he can't simply "suspend

Politics-Left/

Curated News Edition

55

Brotherhood says Egypt uprising 'overturned' (AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)) Submitted at 6/15/2012 8:49:24 AM

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has warned that a court ruling to dissolve parliament and let Hosni Mubarak's former prime minister run for president is a move toward reversing the gains of last year's revolution.

The group, which held the most seats in parliament, said in a statement on Friday that the decision will lead to more dangerous days than those under the Mubarak government.

The Brotherhood statement said progress made since Mubarak was ousted is being "wiped out and overturned".

"Back to where you were," read a huge red headline in the Friday edition of independent daily AlShorouk.

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday in two unprecedented same-day decisions that the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament must be dissolved and that former officials in the previous Mubarak government be allowed to hold political office.

The rulings were a harsh blow to the Brotherhood and effectively approved the candidacy of presidential hopeful and former prime minister Ahmed Shafik.

The verdicts were quickly followed by an announcement that Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)

would now oversee the writing of a new constitution.

Mohammed el-Beltagy, the vicepresident of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), called the sequence of events a "fully fledged coup" in a post on his Facebook page.

But Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, said in an interview with Egyptian channel Dream 2 that the constitutional court's decision to dismiss the entire parliament did not amount to a military coup.

"I love the military forces," he said, adding that the court rulings indicated "there [are] some who seek, strive for, and plan ill against the people".

There are signs from the Brotherhood and the Salafi Nour Party, the legislature’s other main power broker, that parliament may refuse to dissolve itself.

No authority Deputy speaker and Nour MP Ashraf Thabet told local media on Thursday night that parliament would continue with its usual session on Tuesday.

Last week, Saad el-Katatni, an FJP member and speaker of parliament, said that Egypt's interim constitution gave no institution the authority to dissolve parliament. In depth At issue in the rulings on Thursday was the way in which the People's Assembly was elected, which involved a hybrid

ballot, two-thirds of which was meant for political parties and one -third for independents.

The Brotherhood pushed the military to change the rules at the last moment, opening the independent seats for parties, and hemming in the right of former regime elites to run for election.

That push now seems to have backfired, with the court ruling that the change to the hybrid system unfairly discriminated against independents.

Although Egypt's judiciary was long respected as a bulwark of independence, and one of the only checks on the Mubarak government, analysts say the court was stacked with Mubarak sympathisers in recent years.

Many viewed the Supreme Constitutional Court's decision on Thursday as deeply political.

On the three previous occasions the court has dissolved parliament, it never made such a speedy same-day ruling, sometimes taking years to decide, wrote legal scholar Nathan Brown, an expert of the Egyptian judiciary at George Washington University.

Exacerbating the perception were remarks made last week by

Ahmed el-Zend, the head of the Judges Club, who declared that judges would not have overseen elections if they had known the kind of representatives who were going to win.

Ruling 'legal' The Brotherhood's success in pushing through what was known as the Political Isolation Law was also reversed on Thursday.

Egyptians elect first new president in post-Mubarak era The law, passed by parliament and approved by SCAF in April, banned Shafik and others who had held high-level positions in Mubarak's government from holding office for the next decade.

Shafik continued to run after the presidential election commission, filled with some of the same judges who sit on the Supreme Constitutional Court, decided to allow him in. The court has now officially approved that decision.

The ruling, analysts agree, is legal, since the law was poorly tailored to target only a select group of individuals.

But the way in which it was reached, with conflicts of interest and last-second timing, make the court appear to be on the side of the military and the state.

'Historic verdict' When state television announced that the court had decided to allow Shafik to stay in the race while also dissolving parliament, word spread through the crowd, who were reading Twitter and receiving text messages.

Some protesters surged toward the barbed wire, and a military armoured personnel carrier and two Central Security Force armoured vans moved into position on the other side.

The crowd soon thinned, however, leaving a few dozen people shouting at the police on the other side and leading antimilitary chants.

Hours later, Shafik held a triumphant press conference and declared that the era of "tailoring laws" had ended.

He promised a civil state and return of stability.

"The message of this historic verdict is that the era of political score settling has ended," Shafik told supporters.

"I'm not surprised," said 18-yearold Mohammed Maher, an engineering student at Helwan University who had carried a revolutionary socialists flag to the court protest.

"But I think all the judges they don't rule from their heads, they rule from the head of the army."

Maher said everyone expected the judiciary to rule in favour of the establishment.

BROTHERHOOD page 57

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Curated News Edition

Syria violence 'derailing' UN peace mission (AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:23:23 AM

The head of the UN observers in Syria has said a spike in violence is derailing the mission, which is the only functioning part of an international peace plan to calm the country's spiraling crisis.

Major General Robert Mood on Friday blamed both sides of the conflict for the escalating bloodshed.

"Violence over the past 10 days has been intensifying willingly by both parties, with losses on both sides and significant risks for observers," Mood told reporters in Damascus.

He said the escalating violence is now limiting the mission's ability "to observe, verify, report as well as assist in local dialogue and stability projects".

Mood's comments were the clearest sign yet that a peace plan brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan two months ago is disintegrating.

The regime and the opposition have both ignored a truce that was supposed to go into effect on April 12.

The government kept up a ferocious offensive on rebel areas around the country on Friday in one of the most serious escalations in violence since

Annan brokered the truce.

'Raging battles' An activist in the northern city of Aleppo said troops backed by helicopters and tanks were engaged in "raging battles" in the rebel-held town of Anadan and several other locations in the province.

Syrian troops have been sweeping through villages and towns in Syria's northern, central, southern and seaside provinces this week.

The military on Wednesday overran the town of al-Hiffa in the coastal Latakia province, pushing out hundreds of rebels after intense battles that lasted eight days.

UN observers entered the nearly deserted town on Thursday and found smouldering buildings, looted shops, smashed cars and a strong stench of death, according to UN spokeswoman Sausan Ghosheh.

The siege of Hiffa, a Sunnipopulated village, had become a focus of international concern because of fears the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad is evolving into a sectarian civil war pitting his minority Alawite sect against the majority Sunnis and other groups.

Recent mass killings in other Sunni-populated areas have fed

those concerns.

Hiffa aftermath The fighting, now mostly quelled in Hiffa, was mirrored in other parts of Syria, where more than 40 civilians and opposition fighters were killed Thursday, according to activists, alongside more than a half-dozen Syrian forces.

The fighting included clashes in the town of Hamuriya, near Damascus, that killed at least nine men who were allegedly butchered with knives.

A video circulated by activists showed a pile of lifeless men, including one who was apparently slashed through the neck.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, urged observers on Friday to "immediately investigate" the men's alleged slaughter.

UN observers have reported a steep rise in violence and a dangerous shift in tactics by both sides in Syria in recent weeks.

Car bombings and suicide bombings have become increasingly common as the 15month uprising against Assad becomes militarized.

Most have targeted security buildings and police buses, symbols of Assad's regime.

Abusive tactics Also on Friday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that Syrian government forces have used sexual violence to torture men, women, girls and boys detained during the current conflict, The New York-based group said it had interviewed 10 former detainees, including two women, who described being sexually abused or witnessing such abuse in detention.

This included "rape, penetration with objects, sexual groping, prolonged forced nudity and electroshock and beatings to genitalia", a statement said.

Many witnesses said they were were imprisoned because of their

political activism, while others said the reasons for detention were unclear but that detainees suffered the same abusive tactics.

"Sexual violence in detention is one of many horrific weapons in the Syrian government's torture arsenal and Syrian security forces regularly use it to humiliate and degrade detainees with complete impunity," said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director.

Activists say about 14,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011.

State-run news agency SANA reported that authorities had arrested an al-Qaeda terrorist who planned to blow himself up in a Damascus mosque during Friday prayers. It identified the man as Mohammad Hussam al-Sudaqi.

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US to halt deportations of young immigrants (AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:01:36 AM

The United States will stop deporting young law-abiding illegal immigrants who satisfy broad criteria, in a move that will be seen as a concession to the Hispanic community ahead of November's election.

The move applies to minors brought to the country before the age of 16, who are currently under 30, are in school or have graduated from high school, and have not been convicted of a felony, officials said.

President Barack Obama was due to make remarks on the decision in the White House Rose Garden later on Friday.

The move will likely be vigorously protested against by conservative Republicans and be seen as a bid by the president to solidify his hold on the youth and Hispanic vote that could be critical in several swing states in November.

"Our nation's immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and

sensible manner," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.

"But they are not designed to be blindly enforced without consideration given to the individual circumstances of each case.

"Nor are they designed to remove productive young people to countries where they may not have lived or even speak the language.

"Discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is especially justified here."

The decision will go some way to enshrining the goals of the DREAM Act, legislation backed by the White House that could lead to young illegal immigrants, brought to the US by their parents, gaining permanent residency.

The legislation, opposed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and conservative Republicans, has failed to pass Congress and become law.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Washington DC, Brent Wilkes,

the executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the US Latino community is "delighted that Obama has taken this initiative".

"But this is not the DREAM Act, which is something we really hoped to get passed in congress.

The DREAM Act would allow for folks to have permanent legal residency and a pathway to citizenship. This divert action doesn't do that,” Wilkes said.

"It only prevents their deportation and perhaps in some cases gives work permits to these young folks who have been here for a long time, but it doesn't give them a pathway to citizenship and we are going to keep pushing for that."

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57

BROTHERHOOD continued from page 55

"The son of a rich man becomes rich and the son of a poor man stays poor," he said.

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Comcast Tech Saves Sleeping Customer From Fire Chris Morran (The Consumerist)

floor, tells WBZ-TV. "He's the one I woke up to screaming 'fire fire.'"

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:15:00 AM The woman was able to get out A woman in Boston says she has with her life intact and luckily no a Comcast tech to thank for her one was on the first floor, which being alive today, after he alerted is where the fire started. her to a fire in her building. And "I love him to death," the woman before you ask, no, the tech did says of her rescuer. "If I could get not start the fire. him right here I'd give him a hug The Comcast contractor was and kiss, and take him to dinner. working nearby when he saw He was awesome." some coming out of the woman's This is a nice change of pace building. But rather than just from stories about Comcast techs s t a n d i n g b a c k a n d t a k i n g driving their trucks into buildings, cellphone photos of the fire, he or robbing check-cashing places approached the building to see if while on the job. anyone was still inside.

This entry passed through the "We were just trying to kick the Full-Text RSS service — if this is door down, me and another your content and you're reading it gentleman," says the tech. "We on someone else's site, please read saw black smoke coming out from the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentaround the door." only/faq.php#publishers. Five "If it wasn't for the cable guy, I'd Filters recommends: Donate to probably be dead," the woman, Wikileaks. who was asleep on the second

58

Products/ Gaming/ Featured/

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How to choose the best car wax for Father's Day Consumer Reports News (Consumer Reports)

We did not evaluate spray-on/ wipe-off products this time, because earlier tests have shown Submitted at 6/15/2012 8:59:59 AM them to be less effective for How to choose the best car wax cleaning, to be ineffective against for Father's Day weather, and they rate worst for Father's Day gifts needn't be durability. They're best only for expensive to be appreciated. If newer finishes and if you wash you're looking for a last-minute and wax frequently. gift, consider car wax. Buying If Dad has an older car, or one Dad a top-rated car wax will help whose finish has already begun to him preserve the finish on his car oxidize or has embedded grime, and help ensure it is looking its you may want to consider a best. Plus, an afternoon of car care product that scored high for can make a great bonding activity, cleaning to help bring back and if you help wash and wax the car. maintain the finish. Liquid waxes Premium car wax brands don't proved best for this. necessarily hold up any better Waxes can be abrasive, and the than lower-priced alternatives, tiny particles in car waxes or based on our latest tests of 19 harsh chemicals can leave fine products. We have found that scratches or a haze on a car's some moderately priced liquids finish. Dark-colored vehicles scored near the top of our show scratches more easily than R a t i n g s — b e t t e r t h a n s o m e lighter-colored ones. If Dad owns products costing twice as much. a black or dark-colored vehicle, We also found that pastes be especially wary of products performed no better than liquids that scored low in our scratching overall, though the two top- and hazing tests. The same scoring pastes were the only abrasiveness can make clearwaxes to rated excellent for coated surfaces look hazy or durability. Both wax types had cloudy by leaving fine scratches, similar scores for ease of use. giving the paint a duller look than

rags to apply and remove the wax.

We have found these work much better than a terry cloth rag. While they may cost slightly more, our testers say they are worthwhile.

Testing shows that a coat of wax lasts only a few weeks, meaning you might want to plan to help Dad wax again in about three b e f o r e w a x i n g . M o s t w a x months. Or if he's a really good packaging indicates whether a Dad, maybe just go ahead and product is safe for clear-coat wax the car for him. After all, it's his day. finishes.

All waxes require elbow grease, Check our latest car wax buying patience, and time—typically advice and Ratings. about an hour to do a good job. Of Related: course, it will go quicker if you Dream rides for Dad - Our Cars staff makes their picks for Father's help Dad. For best results, be mindful that Day some waxes can leave a visible How to choose the best GPS residue on non-glossy, porous navigator for Father's Day 2012 plastic parts such as bumpers, Subscribe now!

S u b s c r i b e t o plastic body panels, and door trim. Those parts are often black ConsumerReports.org for expert or gray, and some newer cars may Ratings, buying advice and have a lot of them. If Dad's car r e l i a b i l i t y o n h u n d r e d s o f has such trim, choose a product products. Update your feed t h a t s c o r e d w e l l i n o u r preferences compatibility-with-plastic tests.

While buying car wax for Dad, treat him to some new micro-fiber

Political News for the Silly Season Geoffrey Norman (The Weekly Standard) Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:01:00 AM

Sandra Fluke has endorsed waiting to see which way Ms. President Obama for reelection.

Fluke would be voting, before This is sure to be a game-changer making up their own minds. who have been holding back, as there are, doubtless, millions

Rock Band Weekly: Angels & Airwaves, Owl City, Queens of the Stone Age JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:00:00 AM

This week brought only a single song to Rock Band, Incubus's "Drive." Next week, Harmonix takes the opposite approach, with a random grab bag of tracks from three different bands. You're statistically more likely to find something you like there!

Continue reading Rock Band Weekly: Angels & Airwaves, Owl City, Queens of the Stone Age Rock Band Weekly: Angels & Airwaves, Owl City, Queens of the Stone Age originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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School's Ban On 9-Year-Old Blogger's Cafeteria Photos Lasts All Of One Day Mary Beth Quirk (The Consumerist)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:00:00 AM

First, the bummer news: After various news reports bashed a Scottish school and its lunches, which were the subject of a 9-year -old student's food blog, school officials told the girl she couldn't take photos in the cafeteria, rendering her blog pointless. Now the yay news: a local official ordered the school to reverse the ban after just one day.

Martha first started blogging on"Never Seconds" about six weeks ago, taking pictures of her sometimes uninspiring, unappetizing meals and posting them with comments and her ratings of the food. Her blog was set up as a project to help raise money for a school-meals charity, and soon gained attention from around the world. Her school also changed up its meals to make them more healthful.

Yesterday, she was told she had to stop taking photos, as local officials said the photos were "misleading" and had caused distress to cafeteria staff, reports the Washington Post.

Apparently a particularly

scathing report headlined "Fire the Dinner Ladies" had ticked off the school, and it complained about "unwarranted attacks on its schools catering service" and said the blog "misrepresented the options and choices available to pupils." As a result, it announced that no photos could be taken in the school canteen.

Martha wrote what she thought would be her last post yesterday, titled "Goodbye."

This morning in maths I got taken out of class by my head teacher and taken to her office. I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper today.

I only write my blog not newspapers and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos. I will miss sharing and rating my school dinners and I'll miss seeing the dinners you send me too. I don't think I will be able to finish raising enough money for a kitchen for Mary's Meals either.

Goodbye, VEG Her dad added a note to the post, explaining that "Martha's school have been brilliant and supportive from the beginning and I'd like to

thank them all," and that he'd contacted the council about the ban.

A quick Internet storm gathered after the photo ban, causing the council to order school officials to reverse it. The leader of the council called Martha "an enterprising and imaginative pupil."

"There is no place for censorship in this council and never will be whilst I am leader," he added.

All of this publicity has been good for Mary's Meals, the charity Martha promotes on her blog.

Donations went from around $4,700 to almost $31,000 as of today.

You go, girl. *Thanks for the tips, Victoria and Kristina!

Scottish council conceds in online food fight, lifts gag on 9year-old school lunch blogger[Washington Post] This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Flash In The Brain Pan: Medieval Golf (Woot)

You'll have your choice of golf bows so you can drive, putt or shoot distances over obstacles.

We're wrapping up Dad Week You also should be careful, here on the blog, and getting because you can overshoot, ready to head out the door to undershoot, or bounce off a cow. make our awkward phone calls Each hole is a new adventure! and half-hugs in honor of the man What more is there to add? Set who raised us. In the meantime, Dad up with a laptop and he can why not enjoy a little golf after distract himself from all those the jump? Here's what it's gonna boring ties and race car mugs until look like‌ it's time to eat. We're gonna bet In Medieval Golf, you're shooting Medieval Golf might just be the an arrow into the air. On the end day he'd hoped for. of that arrow is your golf ball. As always, post your scores in Your goal is to put the golf ball in the comments below. Highest by the hole.

Monday will be our Quality Post Rules are the same as regular Champion! golf, with Birdies and Bogies.

Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:00:00 AM

60

Products/ Science/ Food/

Curated News Edition

SANYO 42" 1080p LCD HDTV (Woot)

"to-watch" stack? Looks like... oh.

Highlander 2. I didn't even know I owned that. Must have lost a bet This Takes Place Before He Got while I was drunk. But I'm pretty Benched, Okay, Nitpickers? sure, if I had something decent, Oh boy! My SANYO 42" 1080p my SANYO 42" 1080p LCD LCD HDTV has finally arrived!

HDTV would really bring out Time to check out what's on! depth in every frame. As long as Man, I've been waiting for this the movie had depth to begin day for weeks now. The day when Sports! It'll be like the players are with.

I'd FINALLY be able to enjoy a right in my living room! With the So it looks like it's gonna be a true 16:9 aspect ratio, from pretty 4000:1 contrast ratio and the 178 video game night. No shame in much anywhere in the room. Let degree vertical and horizontal that! This baby works as a PC me just plug it in... there! Now I angles, I'm gonna be living the monitor, so why not? I bet once I wonder what I'll see first? dream! Okay, dream, pull me in! plug in the HDMI... yes! Success!

So it's... whoa. Is that... oh, man, Here we go! Tonight's game is... It looks so good! And now, I'll that's a housewife! That's really a huh. Bobcats/Wizards. Well, at just click here... and click there... housewife! In fact, the SANYO least the uniforms look colorful. player one... AHA! It's amazing!

42" 1080p LCD HDTV brings her Hey, and Blatche just accidentally It's FANTASTIC! Boy, am I ever so close... I can see the plastic passed to the mascot, I guess glad I FINALLY got to test my surgery she's had. And did she that's pretty funny.

SANYO 42" 1080p LCD HDTV even iron that dress? Look at how Well, I might as well plug in my properly!

Dan Nosowitz (Popular Science it wrinkles! The SANYO 42" wasn't-included-with-purchase I just never knew the cards in - New Technology, Science 1080p LCD HDTV sure changes Blu-ray player and check out a Solitaire could look so good. They News, The Future Now) how I look at that reality TV. Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:00:58 AM film. Wonder what's on top of my really just pop out at me!

But hey, sports, right? Yeah!

Moto's Garden Hugh Galdones Grant Achatz's Alinea may get all the national (and international) press, but over at Moto, chef Homaru Cantu and pastry chef (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks) them up by making just a few This entry passed through the Ben Roche are turning out minor tweaks while still salvaging Full-Text RSS service — if this is delicious, ridiculously innovative Submitted at 6/15/2012 3:00:00 AM the flavors they crave. So go your content and you're reading it meals--and they have a kitchen Guys get a bad rap for their ahead, blame the guys (and enjoy on someone else's site, please read a n y s c i e n t i s t w o u l d e n v y . "diet." From pizza and beer to your beer and wings with them). the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentfried chicken and wings, these Here are a few of man's best food only/faq.php#publishers. Five stereotypical “man foods” can friends lightened.

Filters recommends: Donate to really pack on the calories, Watch Video:"Man Foods" Wikileaks. saturated fat, and sodium. Lighten Lightened Next Beer Submitted at 6/15/2012 12:00:29 AM

Inside Chicago's Other Most Innovative Kitchen

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Included is a gorgeous indoor farm where they grow square watermelons made sweeter by bombarding them with classical music, as well as all kinds of exotic produce like mumeplant fruit, white pineberries, and poontalai seeds. Oh, and a huge array of gels, powders, and other additives. Check out the tour over at Saveur.

Sports/

Curated News Edition

61

LeBron steps up, delivers home court for the Heat - NBA (- Bing News)

involved in the James myth after all these years than anything you might have actually seen. He can OKLAHOMA CITY -- Changing own the floor for 46 minutes, yet minds nine years deep into one of all anyone wants to talk about is the most scrutinized careers in the the final two minutes he spent history of sport is not the goal caught up in the matrix.

LeBron James set for himself this But Thursday night, with the season. He knows better than to Heat's season, his legacy and the even bother. franchise's championship hopes As absolutely spectacular as he caught up in a late-game swirl has always been, James will likely a g a i n s t t h e O k l a h o m a C i t y never be the player his critics Thunder, James delivered the want him to be. defining plays and points in a 100 They demand an emotionless, 6- -96 Game 2 win that evened the f o o t - 8 , 2 5 0 - p o u n d h u m a n series at 1-1 as the stars from both destroyer with little regard for sides take their talents to South anything that stands between him Beach for Games 3, 4 and 5. and the basket. They want to see a The Heat let a 13-point advantage player who is as devastating in the slip away in their Game 1 loss. final, tense seconds of a game as James wasn't about to let it he is during its lighter moments, happen again. when his mind-boggling abilities "We played too well in the first 36 are on full display without any minutes to try to let this one slip added pressure. away from us," he said. "We Instead, they've had to settle for knew we were going to keep the game's most imposing force of fighting. We knew they were nature who, no matter what he going to keep fighting. They've does, never quite seems to b e e n d o i n g i t t h i s w h o l e measure up to his critics' ideal. postseason against all teams Real or imagined, the notion of a they've played against, especially supremely talented superstar who on their home floor. We just gets rattled at the most critical wanted to make one or two more moments of games is the lasting plays than they made and come impression so many of his out with a victory, and we were detractors cling to where James is able to do that." concerned.

One or two more plays from And truth be told, it's become James, it turned out, was all it easier to rely on the fiction took.

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:07:45 AM

He banked a jumper off the glass with 1:26 to play that pushed the Heat's lead to five points, 96-91, with Kevin Durant and the Thunder charging late.

He followed that up with two free throws, his 11th and 12th-straight makes, with 7.1 seconds left to ice the game.

He was locked in at a time his critics insist he always drifts away.

"He's been doing it in so many different ways in this playoff run," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "Sometimes it's been the rebounds, sometimes he's had close to 20 rebounds, defensive plays, attacking the basket, big threes. He's at that point right now [where it's] whatever it takes."

If that means James has to resort to playing the role of the physical bully, so be it. He shot 8-for-10 from the floor in the restricted area while going just 2-for-10 outside of it -- although, his lone make outside of the paint Thursday night was an offbalance banker he drained while drifting to his left with just under 90 seconds to play.

James wasn't perfect, far from it.

After all, he did take that illadvised 3-pointer with 14.9 seconds to play and survived a nocall on a Durant shot attempt with 11 seconds left, a shot that had it gone in and the Thunder

somehow completed their miraculous comeback, would have instantly transformed James from the hero to the goat.

He got his shot blocked four times, with Serge Ibaka getting him with two highlight swats -one on a James drive to the basket where they met at foot above the rim on the second-to-last possession of the first quarter and another with 3:28 to play in the game when an Ibaka spike of his layup attempt triggered a Thunder fast break.

That said, if this was James' latest attempt at freeing himself from the late-game demons that have haunted his game in recent years, overall it was a masterpiece.

Clearly, the Heat wouldn't have made it this far without James, the league's reigning and a three-time MVP, putting together a torrid stretch in these playoffs.

James has been absolute monster this postseason, scoring 30-plus points in eight of the Heat's last nine games and 10 of their last 12.

His 32 points, eight rebounds and five assists in Game 2 served as the perfect example of how effective he can be when he plays to his advantages.

Tracing his current run back to the Heat's 2-1 series deficit to Indiana in the Eastern Conference semifinals, it's been one unbelievable effort after another.

James is averaging a ridiculous 32.9 points, 10.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists while shooting 52.1 percent from the floor during that 12-game stretch, easily one of the best of his career.

He's carried the load for the Heat through Chris Bosh's injury crisis and Dwyane Wade's identity crisis. When their season seemed on the brink and they were facing a 3-2 deficit against Boston in the conference finals, it was James who came up with that "uglyfaced" 45-point, 15-rebound, fiveassist storm in Game 6. That performance woke the Heat up as they finished off the Celtics in Game 7.

His will and his determination against the Thunder in Game 2 proved to be the difference. The Heat led by as many as 17 points and had to withstand rally after rally from the Thunder. The Heat's answer almost each and every time was a James drive to the basket, feeding him in the post or a play made off of one of his assists.

With the Big 3 playing with a renewed energy and realizing that they're the ones (unlike the Thunder) who have been here before, James served as the catalyst on a night when Wade (24 points, six rebounds and five LEBRON page 62

62

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LEBRON continued from page 61

assists) and Bosh (16 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks) finally played their parts.

The Heat won a game here. the series continues on their terms now, with them controlling the home court and their own destiny.

James has lived his entire career in the spotlight, but it'll be hotter than it's ever been between now and the finish. His triumphs will be celebrated like never before, just as his failures will be examined like never before.

We'll find out in the coming days if James has what it takes to finish the deal this time, and perhaps silence a critic or two along the way.

Sekou Smith is a veteran NBA

reporter and the author of NBA.com's Hang Time blog. You can e-mail him here and follow him on twitter.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Perfect Pasta Salad (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks) Submitted at 6/15/2012 3:00:00 AM

Pantry-friendly ingredients make this pasta salad easy on your budget. Toss warm pasta with the tangy dressing so it will absorb more flavor. If you prefer to serve this salad chilled, make it up to a day ahead, toss, and refrigerate until you're ready to serve.

View Recipe: Warm Pasta Salad

with Shrimp Next Gemelli Salad with Green Beans, Pistachios, and Lemon-Thyme Vinaigrette This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

South Korea banning trade of in-game items JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

that allow automatic collection of items, which the ministry estimates as the source of 60 South Korea's Ministry of percent of items on the virtual Culture, Sports and Tourism will market. enact a ban on commercial trading The ban also prevents arcades of in-game items starting next from handing out gift certificates month, the Korea Times reports. for in-game items, as that has Like the online gaming curfew, resulted in the certificates being this move is aimed at reclaiming traded for cash. students' time for non-game- A different restriction on virtual r e l a t e d a c t i v i t i e s . T h e b a n goods was recently enacted in specifically targets the use of bots South Korea's neighbor, Japan: Submitted at 6/15/2012 12:30:00 PM

the Consumer Affairs Agency banned the "compu gacha" scheme, in which players buy randomly selected virtual items, with bonuses for the completion of sets.

South Korea banning trade of ingame items originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Science/

Curated News Edition

63

How to Build a Homemade Clapper to Adjust the Lights and Set the Mood Pete Mills as told to Amanda Schupak (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:15:57 AM

A sound-activated device that gives you more freedom than any store-bought clapper could wish for One night, I was trying to draw a circuit on a chalkboard, but it became too dark to see. The next day I bought a new lamp, only to find that the board gave off too much glare. I needed a light I could easily adjust. I could have just installed a dimmer, but where's the fun in that? As an engineer, I like to do projects that use a little electronics, a bit of mechanics and some software.

My friends and I had been talking about those old '80s commercials for the Clapper, and it occurred to me that I could make a circuit that would dim the lights when I clapped my hands. The one I made is relatively inexpensive and a lot more functional than the original-it's even got a Party mode that can pulse the light along with the beats of the music from my stereo. THE LAMP Pretty much any lamp will do, but a DC-powered LED one works best. Direct-current lamps run at around 12 volts, one tenth the power of regular AC lights, which also require different

claps by comparing the volume and pitch with a preset threshold.

• The wheel on the potentiometer controls the gain, or amount of amplification. Turn it down if the device is too sensitive.

• The signal moves from the opamp to the microcontroller, the brains that run the clapper software. Once a clap is registered, the microcontroller listens for its next cue. A second clap within 1.2 seconds toggles the lamp on or off. Three claps start the lamp ramping up to maximum brightness and then back down to its dimmest point, until a fourth clap locks the light level in place. Four consecutive claps puts the device in Party mode, modulating the lamp's brightness to the beats from your speakers. (To stop Party mode, you'll need to flip a switch on the circuit board or the wall switch.)

THE PROGRAMMER Download WinAVR for circuitry and carry the risk of a t h e l i g h t o f f a n d o n a n to the operational amplifier input. Windows or AVRDude for Mac, nasty shock. imperceptible 40,000 times a If the leads aren't labeled (+) and ( both of which are free, to get the Close-Up on the Clapper Circuit: second. The longer the "on" -), check the product manual to clapper software from your Be sure to wear safety goggles duration, the brighter it looks. see which one is which. computer to the programmer, while building the circuit. When • A n E l e c t r e t c o n d e n s e r • The sound is amplified up to w h i c h s e n d s i t t o t h e working with solder, avoid microphone, like the one in a 100 times in the first stage of the microcontroller via a six-pin ISP inhaling fumes and wash hands cellphone, picks up the claps you op-amp, filtered to weed out connector. thoroughly afterward. Greg intend-and the clangs, bangs and highfrequency noises like a Time: 5 hours Maxson THE CIRCUIT BOARD crashes you don't. Note: You'll vacuum cleaner, and sent to the Cost:$50 • A D a r l i n g t o n t r a n s i s t o r need to ground the mic's negative c o m p a r a t o r s t a g e , w h i c h manages brightness by switching lead and connect the positive one distinguishes claps from nonHOW page 64

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HOW continued from page 63

Difficulty: 3 out of 5 For a full list of illustrated instructions, click through to the next page.

Instructions This is a revised hardware and software version of the original Clever Clapper Chalkboard Lights, which can be seen here.

In this version of the Clever Clapper: • If you clap two times, the lamp will toggle its output on or off • If you clap three times, the lamp will fade up and down until you clap a fourth time to stop it. Once it stops that brightness level is stored and restored for subsequent on and off cycles. This mode will also stop fading after one minute of operation and not hearing that fourth exit clap • If you clap four times, the lamp will enter "party mode," where the light output is modulated by the beat of music coming from a nearby radio of other sound source. The only way to exit this mode is to press the push-button switch on the circuit board or reboot the whole system.

You will need: • A soldering iron and solder • Diagonal cutters (or some method of cutting component leads and wire) • Wire stripper • Hookup wire • Some proto board. I use a lot of RadioShack #276-150 • A multimeter with DC voltage and resistance measurement capability • The software, which can be

found here • The bill of materials (BOM), which you can download here • And, optionally, the schematics, which are here In addition to the usual electrical tools you will need an AVR In System Programmer (AVR ISP). I use the ATAVRISP2.

You will also need a DC lamp to connect your circuit to. Pick a lamp that is somewhere around 12VDC. Anything from about 9VDC to 18VDC should work fine with this circuit. This circuit is not capable of switching Alternating Current (AC).

Lamp for Clapper: Pete Mills I picked up an LED Desk Lamp from Target. Above is a picture of the lamp I bought and below is the wall power adapter showing its specifications (350 mA at 12 VDC).

Power Adapter for Clapper: Pete Mills I made the Bill of Materials (BOM_Clever Clapper v2.0.ods) so that I could order all of the parts from one distributor. I included the part numbers for mouser.com, but you can order from wherever you like.

In addition, you will need a circuit board to solder all of those components to. I used a RadioShack #276-150 (picture below).

Circuit Board for Clapper: Pete Mills To build the circuit using point-to -point wiring on some proto board open up the Eagle and/or Fritzing schematics. (The Fritzing pictorial

schematic is useful for showing how to connect your circuit board to the DC lamp.)

It took me about three hours, working at a very relaxed pace, to put the circuit together. I started with placing some IC sockets for the LM385 and ATTiny85 Ic's.

This is an optional step, but I highly recommend the use of IC sockets; they pay for themselves the first time you smoke a chip (or think you did and want to check).

IC Sockets for Clapper: Pete Mills Here you can see how I bend the appropriate pins on the IC sockets to make the power and ground connections. Little things like that can save a lot of space on densely populated protoboard.

Protoboard for Clapper: Pete Mills Continuing construction I discovered that the electret microphone does not have markings on it to show which connection is positive and which is negative. I downloaded the datasheet for the part and discovered that the pinout is as shown in the picture below. The circuit will not work if the electret mic is installed backwards.

Electret Microphone for Clapper: Pete Mills As you continue adding parts, trim off the component leads from the back side with your diagonal cutters. I save these cutoff bits and bend them up for jumper wires later during assembly.

Potentiometer Installation for Clapper: Pete Mills Here we are installing the audio

sensitivity potentiometer (pot).

This adjusts the gain of the amplifier half of the op amp.

Adjusting this will control how sensitive your circuit is to your claps. If you have it set too high it could potentially turn on and off unintentionally.

Potentiometer for Clapper: Pete Mills When you install the pushbutton switch, be careful with the orientation. Tactile switches generally switch "across" the line molded into the bottom (see photo). If the switch is installed in the incorrect orientation, the circuit will not respond to button presses.

Push-Button Switch for Clapper: Pete Mills Next, cut off the wall adapter power supply. Check the polarity with your multimeter and wire it back up, including your completed Clever Clapper v2.0 circuit board using the Fritzing schematic from the download as guidance.

Here is a top and bottom picture of the completed clever clapper, including connections to the lamp and power supply.

Completed Board from the Top for Clapper: Pete Mills Completed Board from the Bottom for Clapper: Pete Mills After you check all of the electrical connections you made, plug in your lamp and your programmer. My programmer displays a green status light, which means that my ISP connections are wired correctly.

You will need some software on

your computer to tell the programmer (ATAVRISP2) what to program. There are several ways to accomplish this. In Windows, use AVRDude to upload the *.hex file through the programmer to the ATTiny85 on the circuit board.

1: Install WinAvr from here.

2: From the software zip archive you downloaded above (or right here), find the file "clever_clapper_v2.0_main.hex" located in the and copy it to your root (C:\).

3: Open a command prompt by typing "cmd" (without the quotes) at the run prompt.

4: At the command prompt change to the directory where you have the above mentioned *.hex file, C:\ in my case, and enter the following and hit enter. avrdude -c avrispmkII -P usb -p a t t i n y 8 5 - U flash:w:clever_clapper_v2.0_mai n.hex (If you use a different programmer you will have to let AVRDude know that by changing the -c switch. You can get all of the options for AVRDude by just typing " avrdude " at the command prompt.)

Your output should look like this: Programming Screen for Clapper: Pete Mills (If you are familiar with programming AVR's the entire source code is also included in the Zip file you downloaded above.)

Here is a photo of the finished product. (Shown with optional HOW page 65

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Curated News Edition

2012 Invention Awards: A Simple Helicopter Engine

65

HOW continued from page 64

LED indicator) Finished Product for Clapper: Pete Mills

Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:33:17 AM

A new helicopter engine design that's both safe and simple When James O'Neill, a retired marketing executive, first learned how helicopter powertrains worked a decade ago, he immediately started redesigning them. Most helicopters have a huge transmission that reduces the engine's high speed to a level more fit for the main propeller and turns the tail rotor to keep the aircraft from corkscrewing out of control. Engineers had found a way to get rid of the tail rotor years ago: Place a coaxial propeller on the main propeller, and spin it in the opposite direction. But doing so still required a complicated assembly to achieve the proper speed and to create spin in opposite directions.

O'Neill realized that a cam engine, which trades a crankshaft for a series of lobed cams, could power both propellers at the right speed without the need for a weighty, maintenance-heavy gearbox. If he could just design a cam system that produced counter-rotational force, he'd have a new kind of helicopter that was simpler and lighter.

In O'Neill's NorEaster engine, eight opposing pistons drive a pair

Delicious Destinations (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks) Submitted at 6/15/2012 3:00:00 AM

of four-lobed cams. (The system could also work with four pistons.) A piston stroke cycle creates a quarter of a cam rotation. Piston engines run efficiently at 2,000 rpm; the fourlobed cams reduce the piston speed to 500 rpm at the rotor, ideal for smaller (up to 2,000 pounds) and unmanned helicopters. Between the two cams is a bevel-gear assembly whose sole function is to make the cams, and the rotors they drive, turn in opposite directions.

The current NorEaster prototype has a power-to-weight ratio comparable to most conventional helicopter power systems, even though O'Neill made it in a local machine shop from generator and weed-whacker parts. But it's not yet light enough. To make the NorEaster a salable alternative, O'Neill will build a version made from lighter-weight, custommachined parts with the goal of

generating one horsepower per pound.

Cutting weight without losing power is a challenge, but O'Neill isn't going it alone. A group of students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts recently analyzed and redesigned the NorEaster system for their senior project. O'Neill is now overseeing a team of volunteer machinists, engineers and friends to build the next prototype. They could test it in a helicopter as soon as next year. "These are basic pistons and cylinder heads and cams that have been used for 100-odd years," O'Neill says. "It's not rocket science."

Inventor: James O'Neill Invention: NorEaster Cost to Develop:$10,000 Distance to Market: short long HOW IT WORKS The NorEaster proof-of-concept prototype eliminates the crankshaft in favor of two rotating

cams. A bevel-gear assembly makes them rotate counter to each other, providing equal rotational force in opposite directions. The next prototype will have fourlobed cams that work with four or eight pistons.

The Other 2012 Invention Awards Winners Are...

• A Spring-Loaded Ice Skate • A Mister for Firefighters • A Modular Cast • An Assisted-Walking Device With Senses • A Recirculating Shower • A Higher-Efficiency, LowerEmission Engine System • An Inflatable Tourniquet • A Better Lobster Trap • A Simple Helicopter Engine • Augmented-Reality Contact Lenses • Where Are They Now? Winners From Past Years

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us.

An asterisk* indicates a required field.

Your Name Your Comment* 500 characters remaining This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Politics-Right/

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David Frum (David Frum)

Andrew Sullivan complained yesterday that I had engaged in a “McCarthyite” attack on Ron Paul by writing the following: A politician isn’t answerable for the antics of every one of his supporters. But there’s surely a reason, isn’t there, that racists, anti-Semites, 9/11 Truthers, and Holocaust deniers are so strongly attracted to the Paul campaign.

They hear something. They continue to hear it too, no matter how firmly Ron Paul’s more mainstream supporters clamp their hands over their own ears.

Andrew’s riposte: Notice how pure the smear is, enabled and not diminished by the first sentence. Notice the key concept of Beltway ideological policemen: there is a mainstream and a non-mainstream. Dabble with the latter at your peril. Since David has perished by the cult of the “mainstream”, it’s odd he should deploy it against others.

But to throw in “Holocaust denial” and 9/11 Truthers for good measure! Really.

And notice how particularly cheap and easy it is to use such tactics against a libertarian. The traditional left is often based on collective associations, building a movement out of oppressed groups and their grievances, whether it be class or race or even

sexual orientation. Libertarianism is the opposite. It’s about dis associating. When you listen to Paul saying he will not turn anyone away from supporting his platform regardless of their motives or beliefs, you are hearing a reflection of his libertarianism, not his bigotry. He will accept support from any quarter and compared with the corporate money flowing into the other candidates’ coffers, he is about as independent as a presidential candidate can be.

Because he is a radical individualist, he doesn’t even understand why he should somehow explain the belief of others, or justify their support.

You should ask them, not him.

This kind of gotcha-association game is particularly easy because libertarians favor liberty above all, and that will necessarily mean liberty for bigots as well as others.

A principled belief in states’ rights will doubtless lead to more racist and homophobic policies in many states – but also, of course, more enlightened and successful inclusive states like Oregon or New York or Massachusetts or California. A rejection of statism might lead to more discrimination in the private sector. But it doesn’t mandate it. And it need not encourage it. A noninterventionist foreign policy will allow evil to triumph elsewhere in

the world, because it believes it’s none of our business or too riddled with unintended consequences to try extirpating.

That may be right or wrong, but it is not an approval of the evil of Assad or Ahmedinejad or the North Korean junta. And again, it is actually much deeper an American tradition than permanent warfare. But if you can trot out David Duke or Ayatollah Khamenei as potential Paul supporters, you have a very easy, cheap and essentially McCarthyite target. It saddens me that this kind of tactic works.

I still believe that the newsletters, because they were in Paul’s name, require a clearer explanation from Paul than the muddled ones he has given. He should not be left off the hook. And his proposals deserve a thorough vetting and discussion.

But there is something awry when a candidate is assessed not on his arguments and proposals but on the shadiness and ugliness of some of his fringe supporters.

Ron Paul’s supporters ask that their candidate not be judged by his associates. Or by the people he chose to employ. Or by the newsletters he published. Or by the book he wrote. Or by the way he earned the largest part of his living when out of office in the 1990s. Or by his purchase of the mailing list of the Holocaust-

denying Liberty Lobby. Or by the radio shows he chooses to appear on. Or by his strategic decision to reach out to racist voters. Or by the conspiracy theories to which he lends credence, from government creation of AIDS to Israeli culpability for the 1993 bombing to a putative 9/11 “coverup.”

And here I thought that libertarianism was a doctrine of personal responsibility?

May Ron Paul at least be judged by the words he has spoken with his own mouth within the current campaign? The supporters say “no” again. When Ron Paul tells an interviewer that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made race relations “worse,” we’re not supposed to consider what he might mean by “better.” When Ron Paul warns that a border fence would be used to prevent fleeing American citizens from exiting the country, we’re not supposed to conclude that he’s a paranoid crank.

Andrew deploys what might be called the ontological defense of Ron Paul, as follows: 1) Ron Paul is a libertarian.

2) Libertarians espouse individualism.

3) Racism is a form of antiindividualism.

4) Therefore Ron Paul cannot be a racist.

That is a demonstration of what

might be called the deductive method of reasoning. But there’s another way to study reality: induction.

Like this: 1) Ron Paul has again and again exploited bigotry, paranoia, and hate as fundraising devices.

2) Ron Paul is a libertarian.

3) So yes, I guess it is possible for a libertarian to do that.

Here’s my question for Ron Paul supporters: why the denial of the undeniable?

Perhaps you like Paul’s message of legalized marijuana? Why not just say so? You don’t think it’s important to stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons? Argue it forthrightly. If you regard Social Security and Medicare as literally the moral equivalents of slavery, go ahead, make your case.

But all this excuse-making, special pleading and jiggering of the rules of evidence so as to exculpate Ron Paul from the record of his whole political life?

For what?

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Morning Bell: How Taxmageddon Will Impact You Amy Payne (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)

$4,223, and low-income taxpayers can expect a $1,207 increase.

Millennials will be hit with an average hike of $1,099, and Submitted at 6/15/2012 7:54:47 AM “I’ve said that this is a make-or- retirees $857. Check out the break moment for the middle infographic to see where you fall. class, and I believe it,” President Taxmageddon falls primarily on Obama told an Ohio crowd m i d d l e - a n d l o w - i n c o m e yesterday. Indeed it is—because Americans. That’s because, in a sluggish economy, American contrary to the President’s t a x p a y e r s a r e a b o u t t o b e rhetoric about “the wealthiest clobbered by the largest tax Americans,” 60 percent of the increase in history.

Bush tax cuts went to middle- and Starting January 1, 2013, low-income taxpayers. The Americans will face a $494 expiration of the patch on the billion tax increase, the highest Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) ever in one year. According to will cause these taxpayers to pay a T h e W a s h i n g t o n P o s t , tax that was never supposed to hit congressional aides started calling them, and the expiration of the it “Taxmageddon”—a chilling payroll tax cut is a tax hike almost reference fit for an apocalyptic exclusively on middle- and lownightmare. Federal Reserve income families.

Chairman Ben Bernanke has This is only the direct impact on warned that it will be a “massive individual taxpayers. Americans fiscal cliff” for the economy. at all income levels will feel the How will this affect you? pain of Taxmageddon, because it Heritage has a new Taxmageddon will slow job creation and wage page that shows the impact of g r o w t h . A t 8 . 2 p e r c e n t these tax hikes on individuals. It unemployment, it’s the last thing includes an interactive map where the economy needs. you can click on your state to see Where are these tax increases what the average tax increase will coming from? Under current law, be, based on the average income tax policies in seven different of taxpayers in your state. categories will expire, and just Heritage research shows that five of the 18 new tax hikes from families will see an average tax Obamacare will begin. i n c r e a s e o f $ 4 , 1 3 8 . B a b y About a third of Taxmageddon’s boomers’ average increase will be i n c r e a s e c o m e s f r o m t h e

expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts. These cuts are best known for reducing marginal income tax rates, but they also reduced the marriage penalty, increased the Child Tax Credit and the adoption credit, and increased tax breaks for education costs and dependent care costs.

What is the President doing to prevent this? Congress and President Obama have developed a penchant for waiting until the very last minute to act on pressing tax legislation. In 2010, they waited until late December to extend the expiring Bush tax cuts for two years. At the end of 2011, they waited again until late December to extend the expiring payroll tax holiday. This is a bad habit.

The threat of Taxmageddon is clouding jobs and family finances now. Businesses, families, and investors are uncertain about the future. They need to know as soon as possible that this massive tax increase will not hit them on New Year’s Day 2013.

But yesterday, Obama told the crowd he was their economic savior: “I have approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his.” He also warned that Republicans want to raise taxes

on the middle class, adding, “This is not spin. This is not my opinion. These are facts.”

The fact is that during his first three years in office, the Obama Administration unleashed 106 new major regulations that increased regulatory burdens by more than $46 billion annually, five times the amount imposed by the George W. Bush Administration during its first three years. Hundreds more costly new regulations are in the pipeline, many of which stem from the Dodd–Frank financial regulation and Obamacare.

Conveniently, of course, many of Obamacare’s main provisions—including tax increases—don’t kick in until 2014.

And as for the threat of raising taxes on the middle class, the President needs look no further than the laws that are already in place. If he really wants to prevent a cataclysmic tax increase on working Americans, preventing Taxmageddon is the answer. These are facts.

Quick Hits • The EPA is set to release a new air quality standard today—the Administration “had sought to delay the politically fraught rule until after the election, but was forced to act by a court order,”

according to the AP. • In advance of Sunday’s election in Greece, bankers, governments, and investors are starting to prepare for a worst-case scenario that could involve theU.S., the AP reports.

• Now that “don’t ask, don’t tell” has been repealed, the Pentagon is planning the first gay pride event for the military.

• Egypt is in chaos approaching Saturday’s presidential runoff election. A court ruling yesterday dissolved its parliament, and the military has authorization to arrest civilians in the event of public protests.

• Online chat today at noon Eastern: Reagan’s Impact on Foreign Policy. Heritage’s Marion Smith will take your questions about the impact of Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” speech and its implications for foreign policy today.

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Commemorating the ABM Treaty Withdrawal Michaela Bendikova (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:00:25 AM

This week, The Heritage Foundation hosted an event to celebrate “The 10th Anniversary of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Withdrawal.”

This 1972 treaty kept America at risk to a ballistic missile attack.

Despite the withdrawal, the danger remains grave, because a missile launched anywhere in the world can reach the U.S. homeland in 33 minutes.

The Heritage Foundation was honored to bring together some of the foremost experts on this issue.

Ambassador Robert Joseph, former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, and John Rood, former Acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, delivered keynote remarks focused on lessons learned from the withdrawal from the treaty, to which both of them were instrumental.

It is essential to debunk myths surrounding the treaty, such as that the withdrawal would cause an arms race. It has not—and the treaty itself has not prevented an arms race, as the U.S. and Soviet nuclear arsenals grew exponentially after the treaty entered into force.

Douglas Feith, director of the National Security Strategies Center at the Hudson Institute and former Under Secretary of Defense, pointed out that the moral argument for withdrawal from the treaty was made when President Reagan refused to perpetuate U.S. and allied vulnerability in the face of the Soviet threat.

The Honorable Stephen Rademaker, principal of the Podesta Group and former Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, pointed out that the treaty was a hard case that made bad law. During the 1990s, the Clinton Administration tried, and ultimately failed, to transform the treaty to adopt it to a post–Cold War environment.

However, the treaty itself became an impediment to the arms control process itself due to Clinton’s effort to keep the agreement alive.

The Obama Administration has not been able to bring into force any nuclear arms control treaty.

According to Mark Groombridge, vice president of Global Communicators and former advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control, it was essential to get the process of withdrawal right, because it forced people to engage on the substance of the treaty. This provided many opportunities to further demystify the treaty.

Alison Fortier, vice president of missile defense at the Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Mira Ricardel, vice president of business development, strategic missile, and defense systems at the Boeing Company, spoke about advances in the missile defense program that the industry was able to achieve since the U.S. withdrew from the treaty.

All of the participants shared concerns that the battle over whether the U.S. protects its

people and allies from a ballistic missile threat is not over yet.

President Obama’s missile defense policies—such as the cancellation of the Multiple Kill Vehicle, Kinetic Energy Interceptor, and Airborne Laser programs—signal his lack of commitment to the protection of the U.S. homeland.

In addition, looming sequestration does not provide the certainty in which the business sector can plan for the future and operate. Yet President Obama said that he would veto any legislation that would prevent sequestration. The strategic environment is growing more uncertain, and U.S. enemies are growing bolder. This is not the time to cut U.S. defenses.

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Wiki Wars: The Ultimate Web Scavenger Hunt [VIDEO] Christine Erickson (Mashable!)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:34:13 AM

Wikipedia is a valuable research tool, containing more than 22 million articles. But how many times have you looked up a particular topic, like the Revolutionary War, only to find yourself researching the entire history of ska music? (Not that that's happened to me.)

SEE ALSO: Hit Tumblr Mocks Wikipedia’s Most Ridiculous Claims The Gregory Brothers, famous for autotuning the news and introducing the world to Antoine Dodson's "Bed Intruder Song," have made a scavenger hunt out of Wikipedia's vastness.

"WikiWars," as they call it, require the participants to begin on one specific topic page, then only use links within the article to get to the final designated topic page. For e…

Continue reading...

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Egypt’s High Court Tries to Stave Off Sharia Robert Spencer (FrontPage Magazine » FrontPage) Submitted at 6/14/2012 11:50:57 PM

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that onethird of the parliamentarians had been elected illegitimately; as a result, “the makeup of the entire chamber is illegal and, consequently, it does not legally stand.” The court dissolved the parliament entirely, dealing a major blow to the pro-Sharia forces in Egypt that had dominated it since elections last November.

Will the court’s action be enough to prevent Egypt from becoming an Islamic state? For that, it may be too late. Many see the upcoming runoff presidential election between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi and secularist Ahmed Shafiq, a longtime friend and associate of Hosni Mubarak, as the great showdown that will determine whether Egypt will embrace Sharia and become an Islamic state, or whether it will continue on the relatively secular path it has been on for decades.

But in reality, even if Shafiq is elected, it is unlikely that the

Islamization of Egypt is going to be stymied in any significant way.

The transformation of Egypt from a Western-oriented state to one dominated by Islamic law has been proceeding for decades. The Muslim Brotherhood’s societal and cultural influence has long outstripped its direct political reach, and shows no sign of abating. One highly visible example of this influence is the fact that while in the 1960s women wearing hijabs were rare on the streets of Cairo, now it is rare to see a woman not wearing one.

Meanwhile, since the presidency of Gamel Abdel Nasser (19561970), the Egyptian government has practiced steam control with the Brotherhood, looking the other way as the group terrorized Coptic Christians and enforced Islamic strictures upon the Egyptian populace, but cracking down when the Brotherhood showed signs of growing powerful enough actually to seize power. Nasser’s successor Anwar Sadat (1970-1981) not only released all the Brotherhood political prisoners who had been languishing in Egyptian prisons,

but also promised the Brotherhood that Sharia would be fully implemented in Egypt.

Sadat didn’t live long enough to fulfill that promise; he was murdered by members of another Islamic supremacist group that was enraged by his peace treaty with Israel. Sadat’s successor Hosni Mubarak didn’t keep that promise to the Brotherhood either, and so it remains unfulfilled to this day, and the Muslim Brothers still want to see Sharia in Egypt.

So do most Egyptians. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in Spring 2010, before the Arab Spring and the toppling of Mubarak, found that no fewer than eighty-five percent of Egyptians thought that Islam was a positive influence in politics.

Fifty-nine percent said they identified with “Islamic fundamentalists” in their struggle against “groups who want to modernize the country,” who had the support of only twenty-seven percent of Egyptians. Only twenty percent were “very concerned” about “Islamic extremism” within Egypt.

5 Lessons From Obama’s Twitter Town Hall Zach Green (Mashable!)

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:16:21 AM

Twitter town halls have become a popular campaign tool during this presidential election season.

That's why campaign strategist David Axelrod followed President Barack Obama’s economic speech in Ohio yesterday with a powerpacked Q&A, sending 28 tweets and re-tweets through the@BarackObama account in as many minutes.

Certainly, an endless stream of presidential and congressional candidates have tried their own variations of this medium, but Axelrod’s was the most effective execution to date. Here's why.

1. Created a Controlled Venue Most town halls fail by not taking the reader’s viewpoint into account. Where are users supposed to be watching the town hall’s tweets?…

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Justice Kennedy Issues Stay of Arizona Noncitizen Voting Case Elizabeth Garvey (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation)

registration provision conflicts with the National Voter Registration Act to the extent that Arizona would require an Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:00:02 AM On the heels of Florida filing suit applicant to provide proof of a g a i n s t t h e D e p a r t m e n t o f citizenship when he or she is Homeland Security for trying to using the National Mail Voter stop the state from removing Registration Form to register to noncitizens from its voting rolls, vote. yesterday Supreme Court Justice Arizona asked the Ninth Circuit Anthony Kennedy issued a to stay its ruling from going into t e m p o r a r y s t a y i n a n o t h e r effect until after the upcoming noncitizen voting case. election, but the Ninth Circuit Arizona v. Gonzalez involves declined. Arizona sought review Arizona’s Proposition 200, which in the Supreme Court, and Justice would prevent noncitizens from Kennedy granted a stay pending a illegally voting by requiring proof r e s p o n s e f r o m A r i z o n a b y of U.S. citizenship to register to Monday and a response from the vote in Arizona. The Ninth Circuit groups challenging Arizona’s law determined that Proposition 200’s by next Wednesday. This case has

been lingering in the federal courts since 2004 and already made one trip to the Supreme Court.

From Florida to Arizona, states are recognizing that the integrity of elections is at stake, and some are directly confronting the issue of noncitizen voting and voter fraud.

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Photos: History of Baseball's Perfect Game - Denver Post (news photos - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:24:53 AM

Photos: History of Baseball's Perfect Game

Denver Post Of the 22 perfect games in baseball, half have come in the last 24 years. Here are some photos from the perfect games of

the past. and more »

The Pros and Cons of 4 Personal Branding Sites Rob Lammle (Mashable!)

branding sites and the pros and cons to each.

1. About.Me With so many social networks, With design features like dragonline portfolios, digital resumes, and-drop elements, simple font and video channels to showcase and color selection and a screenyour work, the traditional filling background photo, business card has basically About.Me is one of the easiest become obsolete. As a result, and most professional personal many people are turning to brand options available. The personal branding websites to ability to add as many social have one place where they can networks and… build their online professional Continue reading... persona. But how do you decide More About: brands, contributor, which site to use? features Here are four top personal Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:34:17 AM

Politics-Right/ Daily World/ Technology/

Curated News Edition

2nd Verse Same as the 1st: Tainted Baby Formula Found in China (The Feed)

Week” and a day after the cabinet introduced fresh measures to tighten supervision of the sector, Via Reuters: sent Yili shares down by their 10 China’s biggest milk producer by percent daily limit. It shows how revenue, Inner Mongolia Yili Yili and competitors like secondIndustrial Group Co (600887.SS), ranked China Mengniu Dairy Co has recalled baby formula tainted Ltd (2319.HK) are struggling to with “unusual” levels of mercury get to grips with food safety four in the latest safety scare for the years after a major scandal where children. . . country’s dairy sector. The recall, tainted milk powder was blamed Horrible, but this is what you get during China’s “Food Safety for the deaths of at least six Submitted at 6/15/2012 5:33:49 AM

when you have a country run by c o r r u p t bureaucrats.— Greg Pollowitz This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:18:29 AM

Unite said buses in the capital will come to a standstill as bus workers from every London bus operator will walk out for the first time in a generation.

The strike is over Unite's claim for a £500 bonus for over 20,000 workers to recognise the "massive increase" in workload during the Games.

Unite said that unless the bus operators make an offer, the union will call further strikes up to and

FCC Fridays: June 15, 2012 Brad Molen (Engadget) Submitted at 6/15/2012 12:05:00 PM

We here at Engadget tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there individually, we've gathered up an exhaustive listing of every phone and / or tablet getting the stamp of during the Olympic Games. intervene. giving workers at Heathrow approval over the last week.

The last London wide bus strike "This dispute could be resolved at Express £700, Network Rail £500, Enjoy! took place in 1982. a stroke but if the bus companies Docklands Light Railway £900, Continue reading FCC Fridays: Unite's regional secretary for and TfL continue to do nothing V i r g i n R a i l £ 5 0 0 , L o n d o n June 15, 2012 London, Peter Kavanagh, said: Unite will call further strikes up to Overground £600 and London FCC Fridays: June 15, 2012 "London buses will come to a and during the Olympic Games.

Underground at least £850, said originally appeared on Engadget standstill for the first time in a "Bus workers are on the frontline Unite. on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:05:00 generation across London on 22 of London's transport system This entry passed through the EDT. Please see our terms for use June. d e a l i n g w i t h m i l l i o n s o f Full-Text RSS service — if this is of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| "The blame lies squarely with the passengers yet all TfL has done so your content and you're reading it Comments bus operators and Transport for far is insult them." on someone else's site, please read London. The bus companies Unite said bus workers were the the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contenthaven't met with Unite once to only London transport workers only/faq.php#publishers. Five d i s c u s s b u s w o r k e r s ' e x t r a not receiving an award for their Filters recommends: Donate to contribution to the Olympic extra effort during the Olympics. Wikileaks. games and TfL has refused to Deals have been announced

London bus drivers to go on strike in Olympic bonus row (Evening Standard - News)

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Judge orders anorexic woman to be fed 'forcibly if necessary' (Evening Standard - News)

fed, forcibly if necessary".

The "resulting interference" with the rights of the woman, who Mr Justice Peter Jackson found lives in Wales and cannot be that the 32-year-old, who has named for legal reasons, but is other chronic health conditions, r e f e r r e d t o a s E , w a s "lacked capacity" to make a "proportionate and necessary in decision about life-sustaining order to protect her right to life". treatment.

The judge said of her: "Albeit Sitting at the Court of Protection g r a v e l y u n w e l l , s h e i s n o t in London, the judge said it was a incurable. She does not seek "very difficult decision" to make death, but above all she does not in a situation requiring "a balance want to eat or to be fed. to be struck between the weight "She sees her life as pointless and objectively to be given to life on wants to be allowed to make her o n e h a n d a n d t o p e r s o n a l own choices, realising that refusal independence on the other". to eat must lead to her death."

Her case had "raised for the first Her case came before the court time in my experience the real last month when an urgent possibility of life-sustaining application was made by her local treatment not being in the best authority, which also cannot be interests of a person who, while identified, which was "concerned lacking capacity, is fully aware of that her position should be her situation". investigated and protected".

Giving his conclusion in a Mr Justice Jackson said: "E's judgment made public today, he death was imminent. She was said: "The competing factors are, refusing to eat and was taking in my judgment, almost exactly in only a small amount of water. e q u i l i b r i u m , b u t h a v i n g "She was being looked after in a considered them as carefully as I community hospital under a am able, I find that the balance palliative care regime whose tips slowly but unmistakably in purpose was to allow her to die in the direction of life-preserving comfort." treatment.

The former medical student, "In the end, the presumption in described as an "intelligent and favour of the preservation of life charming person", who began to is not displaced." control her eating at the age of 11, He declared that "it is lawful and has not taken solid food for more in her best interests for her to be than a year and when her Body Submitted at 6/15/2012 8:39:42 AM

Mass Index (BMI) was last measured it was 11.3 - a healthy BMI is in the region of 20.

E, who has also abused alcohol since adolescence as a "means of escape", has an "obsessive fear of weight gain". She was "an adult with an entrenched history of acute difficulties".

The judge said: "For E, the compulsion to prevent calories entering her system has become the card that trumps all others.

The need not to gain weight overpowers all other thoughts."

Explaining the reasons for his decision, the judge said: "At its simplest, the balance to be struck places the value of E's life in one scale and the value of her personal independence in the other, with these transcendent factors being weighed in the light of the reality of her actual situation."

He said: "In E's situation, any decision is a heavy one. The balancing exercise is not mechanistic, but intuitive, and there are weighty factors on each side of the scales.

"On one side, I have been struck by the fact that the people who know E best do not favour further treatment.

"They think that she has had enough and believe that her wishes should be respected. They believe she should be allowed a dignified death."

He said he acknowledged the "impossible" position of her parents and had also reflected on what was involved in the course of treatment.

"It does not merely entail bodily intrusion of the most intimate kind, but the overbearing of E's will in a way that she experiences as abusive."

The judge also said E's views "are entitled to high respect".

He added: "She is not a child or a very young adult, but an intelligent and articulate woman, and the weight to be given to her view of life is correspondingly greater."

Regard "must also be had to the fact that this application was only brought after E and her family and carers had embarked a long way down the course of palliative treatment".

He added: "The state is now seeking to intervene very late in the day and a return to compulsion will be excruciating for them."

The judge said he acknowledged the significant risks involved in treatment, "not excepting a risk to life", the modest prospects of success, the "wholesale and prolonged invasion of E's privacy and self-determination that is proposed", the "high chance that, even if short-term progress can be made, long-term difficulties will

remain" and accepted that a resumption of treatment "deprives E of an imminent and relatively peaceful death".

Against those "weighty factors", the judge said he placed E's life "in the other scale".

He said: "We only live once - we are born once and we die once and the difference between life and death is the biggest difference we know.

"E is a special person, whose life is of value. She does not see it that way now, but she may in future."

The judge went on: "I would not overrule her wishes if further treatment was futile, but it is not.

Although extremely burdensome to E, there is a possibility that it will succeed.

"Services and funding will now be provided that were not available before and it would not be right to turn down the final chance of helping this very vulnerable young woman."

He said he was also influenced by the fact that those who know her best were not in outright opposition to treatment taking place, "however sceptical they justifiably feel".

The judge said: "I record that the state, having instigated this plan of action for E in the way that it JUDGE page 73

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The Dogtor will see you Verse of the Day now: Why a furry therapist is - Matthew 6:15 good for your mental health (Verse of the Day)

heart by your Spirit, cleanse my soul of any bitterness or resentment, and please empower vows. might not be able to speak or have But if you do not forgive men me to let go of the pain of the past Respondents said by speaking the foggiest what’s being said to their sins, your Father will not and forgive. I thank you for this aloud in front of a pet first, they them, they are looked upon as forgive your sins. — Matthew grace to not only be forgiven, but could organise their thought f a i t h f u l c o m p a n i o n s w h o s e 6:15 Thoughts on Today's Verse... to also forgive. In Jesus' name I processes and work out exactly l o y a l t y a n d a f f e c t i o n i s C a n y o u t h i n k o f a m o r e pray. Amen. what they want to say to relieve u n w a v e r i n g . frightening thought than God not The Thoughts and Prayer on worry and stress.

“The majority of Brits don’t see forgiving our sins? We know how Today's Verse are written by Phil R e l a t i o n s h i p p s y c h o l o g i s t their pets as substitutes for people, much he paid so our sins could be Ware. You can email questions or Corinne Sweet said: “Pets don’t but more as silent friends who forgiven! We know how much he comments to phil@heartlight.org. judge, talk back or complain. they can turn to whenever they loves us! We know how much he © 1998-2012, Heartlight, Inc. Instead they listen well, have open need to organise their thoughts or wants us to be in relationship with Verseoftheday.com is part of the minds and faces and enable their de-stress after a hard day.” him! So why would he withhold Heartlight Network. o w n e r s t o f r e e l y u n b u r d e n This entry passed through the his forgiveness? Because we All scripture quotations, unless themselves.”

Full-Text RSS service — if this is demonstrate that we have not otherwise indicated, are taken More Than is holding the first- your content and you're reading it received it or do not understand it! from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW ever “Dogtor’s Surgery”– offering on someone else's site, please read God is gracious and he will not INTERNATIONAL VERSION. members of the public one-on-one the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content- a c c e p t t h o s e w h o a r e n o t © 1 9 7 3 , 1 9 7 8 , 1 9 8 4 b y therapy sessions with a canine only/faq.php#publishers. Five gracious! My Prayer... Holy God, International Bible Society. Used psychiatrist.

Filters recommends: Donate to there are those that I do find it by permission of Zondervan Janet Connor, Managing Director Wikileaks. difficult to forgive. Please, right Publishing House. for More Than, said: “While pets now while I'm praying, soften my Submitted at 6/15/2012 12:00:00 AM

Lamiat Sabin (Evening Standard - News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:01:56 AM

85 per cent of all cat and dog owners talk to their animals about relationships, work, family and finance, according to a study by insurer More Than.

When asked why they talk to their furry companions, 59% of those surveyed said it was because they fear they will be judged, embarrassed or at risk of sparking conflict if they share their feelings with their human peers.

A fifth of pet owners use their cats and dogs to rehearse job interview answers and 12% use them to practise their wedding

JUDGE continued from page 72

has, is now honour-bound to see it through by the provision of resources in the short, medium and long-term.

"Had the authorities not made that commitment, I would not have reached the conclusion that I have."

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Dads' First Photos With Their Babies [SLIDESHOW] Huffington Post (news photos - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:34:02 AM

Dads' First Photos With Their Babies [SLIDESHOW] Huffington Post They say a woman becomes a

mother when she gets pregnant, but a man becomes a father when he sees his baby for the first time.

We're not exactly sure who... and more »

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Rep. Richie Rich (Retired): Lawmakers' Net Worths Are Way Above Median National Journal (Politics : The Atlantic) Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:51:47 AM

Among the many retiring lawmakers, there's a high concentration of millionaires.

Retiring Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, is worth at least $151 million and owns the Milwaukee Bucks. (Getty Images) Many of the nearly four dozen lawmakers set to leave Congress at year's end are wealthy, boasting cushy bank accounts, stock portfolios, and property that include pro sports teams, race horses, and other glitzy holdings, according to their 2011 personal financial disclosures.

But not all soon-to-be departing members are quite so well off, according to the annual House and Senate filings released publicly on Thursday.

Some of the 44 outgoing House and Senate members -- a number that does not include those leaving to pursue another office or who resigned -- face high creditcard debt, large student-loan balances, and even multiple jumbo mortgages, as they brace for retirement either on their own terms or as the result of primary defeats or because of redistricting.

For instance, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, defeated in last month's primary, will head back

to El Paso without much more than his congressional pension.

The total value of the assets he reports is only between $2,000 and $30,000. He still owes between $50,000 and $100,000 on a mortgage on his primary residence.

Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas,

reported assets valued at between $166,000 and $416,000. But he also listed credit-card debt of between $15,000 and $50,000. He also is cosigner on two separate student loans, listing the liability on one of between $100,000 and $250,000 and between $10,000 and $15,000 on the other.

And Rep. Dennis Kucinich, DOhio, retires after eight terms, potentially in debt. The one-time presidential candidate owed between $315,000 and $650,000 on mortgage-related debts but is only worth between $250,000 and $516,000. He has two homeequity loans on which he owed

between $50,000 and $100,000 and $15,000 and $50,000, respectively. He also owed between $250,000 and $500,000 on a refinance of his Washington home. Now that he is leaving Congress, perhaps he and his REP. page 75

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animal-advocate wife will decamp for the United Kingdom, where he inherited an apartment worth between $250,000 and $500,000 last year.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R -Ariz., will leave relatively poor for a senator. Kyl reported assets worth between $467,000 and $1.08 million. Kyl's reported liabilities, two mortgages and a home-equity loan, were worth from $510,000 to more than $1 million.

Meanwhile, Rep. Don Manzullo of Illinois, who will leave Congress with a score of service under his belt, lost his state's March GOP primary to freshman Rep. Adam Kinzinger, but at least heads home with a decent amount of assets. He reported being worth between $570,000 and $1.3 million. He reported a mortgage with a balance of between $100,000 and $250,000 as well as two college loans adding up to between $20,000 and $30,000.

His report did not clarify if the student-loan debt remains from his 1970 graduation from Marquette University law school or is for one of his three children.

And after completing his 30th year of service, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., will head back to Indianapolis essentially a millionaire. He reported assets of between $950,000 and $1.6 million, which could buy a lot of pumpkins or watermelons. (He infamously acted out what he believed was the murder of White House deputy counsel Vince

Foster in his backyard during the Clinton administration by shooting one or the other, but reports of which one he used have varied). Burton also reported owing between $350,000 and $750,000 on two mortgages.

MORE FROM NATIONAL JOURNAL • Deportation of Young Illegal Immigrants to End • Obama's Toughest Critic? A Democrat • Huntsman Corp. Could Be Acquired by Bain Capital Outgoing members who sought and were granted filing-deadline extensions are House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif.; Reps. Steve Austria, R-Ohio, Dan Boren, DOkla., Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and Jerry Lewis, R-Calif.; and Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Jim Webb, D-Va. Because of the rules members of Congress wrote for themselves, pinning down specific values on their assets and liabilities is difficult. Lawmakers are required to report most information in only broad dollar-amount ranges. The 2011 reports contain, for the first time, information on values of mortgages on personal homes, but only similarly in broad ranges.

The reports can be found online.

Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin -- a businessman who's been one of the wealthiest lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the owner of the NBA's Milwaukee

Bucks during his almost 24-year tenure -- reported his minimum worth as $151 million. In his retirement, he is expected to continue operating the Bucks.

Among his many other holdings are a ranch in Wyoming and a horse-breeding operation. But he is not the only member of Congress involved in horses. Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., reported his worth as at least $1.6 million, some of it tied to his onehalf interest in Cardoberg Stables and a number of horses, including a racehorse named Unanimous Consent. Cardoza also reported three mortgages, the balances amounting to between $765,000 and $1.5 million.

Running in a redrawn district, Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, lost her bid for the GOP nomination for her Cincinnati-based seat to Iraq War veteran Brad Wenstrup in March. But when the 112th Congress adjourns and her tenure is up, she will not be done with politics. She still owes between $515,000 and $1.5 million to lawyers for fees incurred fighting ethics charges. That potentially eclipses her net worth, which she reported as between $487,000 and $1.6 million.

Rep. Steven Rothman, who earlier this month lost his member -vs.-member matchup with fellow Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell, can head back to New Jersey with the consolation prize that he can fall back on his part-time role as landlord. He's a partial owner of 16 rental properties in the Garden

State, most in Hackensack, the heart of his district. He reported his worth as between $1.4 million and $3.9 million. He reported no liabilities.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., reported assets worth between $1.5 million and nearly $2.5 million. He listed a mortgage in Florence, S.C. worth between $500,000 and $1 million. He listed a check overdraft worth between $10,000 and $15,000 as well as a credit line with $10,000$15,000 in debt.

Among other soon-to-retire lawmakers, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D -Hawaii, reported assets of between $630,000 to about $1.3 million, with no liabilities; Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, showed assets of between $9.3 to $18.2 million, with mortgage liabilities on homes in Maine and Florida of between $550,000 and $1.1 million.

Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., reported assets of between $135,000 and $360,000, and liabilities of between $230,000 and $550,000, all in mortgagerelated debt, including a $15,000 to $50,000 home-equity loan; Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., showed assets of between $148,000 and $395,000 with no reported liabilities.

House Appropriations ranking Democrat Norm Dicks of Washington reported between $316,000 and $665,000 in assets, but held debt through several mortgages that totaled between $950,000 and $2 million.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., reported assets totaling anywhere between $950,000 and $2.9 million, including a certificate of deposit at the FirstBank of Puerto Rico worth from $15,001 to $50,000. He had liabilities totaling anywhere between $350,000 and $750,000. Both of his liabilities were mortgages on his personal residence in Fairfax, Va. that were refinanced in 2010.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, RTexas, reported assets worth between $3.6 million and $10 million. Some of her largest assets were stocks, including between $250,000 and $500,000 in Exxon Mobil stock. She also reported owning between $100,000 and $250,000 in Merck, Microsoft, and PepsiCo stock, among other stocks and mutual funds. No liabilities were listed.

This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/06/reprichie-rich-retired-lawmakers-networths-are-way-above-median/ 258554/ This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Can we prevent a fiscal collapse without reforming entitlements?

Dustin Siggins (Hot Air » Top Picks) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:01:34 AM

posted at 12:01 pm on June 15, 2012 by Dustin Siggins Note: This post was done in tandem with Just Facts President James Agresti. The data we cite below can be found in this spreadsheet.

If the U.S. government continues with its current tax and spending policies, children born this year will be saddled with a crippling publicly held debt that is more than twice the size of Japan’s by the time they turn 30 years old.

This grim picture, projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in its newly published annual long-term budget outlook, expects U.S. publicly held debt to grow from 73% of GDP by the end of 2012 to 247% of GDP by 2042.

Worse still, the CBO projects that current policies will continue to drive the U.S. deeper into debt, and by the time today’s newborns reach 38 years of age in 2050, the major federal healthcare programs and Social Security will consume all federal revenues, leaving nothing for any other function of federal government or even interest payments on the national debt.

Despite this ominous forecast,

prominent economist and former Obama advisor Jared Bernstein is declaring that we don’t need to reform Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, or “government’s other critical functions” in order to prevent an “explosive” debt that “swamps the economy.”

Bernstein says “it is well within our means” to reduce the national debt by following the “broad outlines” of current law, “meaning all the Bush tax cuts expire, for example.”

When the CBO makes long-term budget projections, it typically projects two scenarios informally called “current law” and “current policy.” Current policy is what the federal government is actually doing, whereas current law is what is on the books. These are dramatically different because Congresses and Presidents have enacted tax and spending laws that don’t account for inflation or wage growth, expire in the future, or become effective in the future.

Bernstein suggests that we stick with the current law to solve the looming debt catastrophe.

While Bernstein concedes that some elements of current law may be “unrealistic” in the short-term, he insists “there’s no reason” we can’t follow this plan for the longterm and those who ignore this approach “are doing so not for substantive, but for ideological

reasons.”

Bernstein describes his proposal for taming the debt by saying that the “Bush tax cuts would all have to eventually sunset, and we’d need to continue – and ramp up – what looks like early progress on slowing the growth of health care spending.” Although this description is based upon CBO’s projections, Bernstein misrepresents these projections by whitewashing the details of the path he advocates. In truth, it would involve far more expense and sacrifice than he reveals.

Under current law, the good news is that publicly held debt drops from 73% of GDP today to 0% by 2069. This is a vast improvement over just last year when the CBO projected that the publicly held debt would be 75% of GDP in 2069 (this is partly due to the changes in law, but most of the improvement is attributable to CBO’s altered assumptions about future economic and demographic circumstances). The bad news, however, is that the following will also occur: • federal taxes will perpetually consume a greater share of the U.S. economy, rising to 21% higher than the average of the past 40 years by 2025, 40% higher by 2045, 57% higher by 2065, and 66% higher by 2085. The CBO explains that this incessant tax

growth occurs because “most parameters of the tax code are not indexed for real income growth, and some are not indexed for inflation.” As an example, the typical married couple with two children earning the median income of $96,200 will see their income and payroll taxes steadily rise from 13% of their income today to 24% over the next 25 years—an 85% increase.

• Medicare payments for physician services will be cut by 27% starting in 2013, bringing Medicare payment rates down to Medicaid levels. These payment rates have caused substantial problems for patients trying to get access to doctors. These Medicare cuts will increase in subsequent years and then be deepened by Medicare cuts in the Affordable Care Act. • spending on all federal programs but Social Security and the major healthcare programs will decrease from 12.1% of GDP in 2012 to 7.9% of GDP over the next 25 years—a 35% reduction. This includes programs such as national defense, food stamps, other nutrition programs, unemployment, veterans’ benefits, federal employment retirement benefits, transportation, and education.

The specifics above paint a much fuller and far different picture

than Bernstein’s sanitized description of the path he would have us take. It also bears nothing that this is an optimistic scenario because it does not account for the prospect of future severe recessions or major wars, which the CBO acknowledges “will probably” occur and “will probably cause significant and persistent worsening of the budget outlook relative to the projections contained in this report.” These projections also “omit the impact” that higher taxes “would have on people’s incentives to work and save,” and as the CBO explains, these higher tax rates will discourage “many taxpayers” from working and saving.

Like Bernstein, Ezra Klein of the Washington Post has also supported this plan and grossly understated its downsides, calling it the“do nothing” plan. Media Matters for America recently did the same while incorporating significant factual errors into its analysis.

Could we tame the debt in the way Bernstein and Co. claim?

Yes, but if Congress and the President do nothing, drastically higher taxes and deep cuts to wide -ranging government programs are also a part of the scenario.

Rather than ignore this reality, CAN page 79

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Obama's Speech in Cleveland Clive Crook (Politics : The Atlantic) Submitted at 6/15/2012 9:51:09 AM

I would have been less disappointed with Obama's Cleveland speech if it hadn't been trailed so elaborately as a big event. The speech had some good points, but this was no "reset".

There wasn't really anything new, and it didn't help that he talked too long and kept repeating himself. The tone was improved, with less class warfare and fewer efforts to thrill the Democratic base as though nobody else might be listening. Now and then he explicitly addressed undecided voters, but without much conviction and it wasn't sustained.

It was an uncompelling unmemorable performance.

What does Obama need to do? I disagree with those who say that he must make this election either a referendum on his record or a choice between him and Romney, but not both. Nonsense. Unless Obama is about to disown his record and promise something brand new after November, he has to defend his first term.

Unavoidably, the election involves a judgement about what he's done. At the same time nobody is going to vote for

Romney without thinking about what that might mean and measuring it against Obama's record and platform. The election isn't either forward-looking or backward-looking. It's both.

There's no trade-off for Obama in defending his policies (which are very defensible) while also attacking the GOP program (which is eminently attackable).

The speech was pretty good on the second, but rotten on the first.

Obama has been bad throughout-amazingly bad--at explaining and defending his policies. His defense of the health-care reform, for instance, concentrates on the denial of insurance to newly covered groups if the act should be repealed. Voters understand that the reform widened coverage, and I'd be stunned if anybody thought that was a bad thing. The reform isn't unpopular because it covered more people. Its unpopular because it's unfathomably complicated, because it threatens great disruption to a system that voters are accustomed to and most quite like, and because they don't believe it's going to end up costing them nothing. It's unpopular because the Democrats did all this knowing that most voters were unhappy, and pressed

on as though it didn't matter. We were assured the selling of the policy would be done after the reform became law. We're still waiting.

This is just one instance of the administration's biggest weakness: the White House seems stone-deaf to the country's doubts about its policies. The polling on healthreform, the polling on deficits and debt, the election of Scott Brown, the mid-term rout of House Democrats, Wisconsin--it's as though these things never happened. It's not even that they're dismissed, which would be bad enough. They aren't even acknowledged. They aren't even noticed. The White House just carries on regardless.

The first thing I was looking for in the speech was, "I hear you."

He didn't say it.

The second thing was a program for the second term. That's still missing too. Romney and the GOP have a bad, unworkable fiscal plan. It's right to attack it and spell out what it would mean.

If voters can be made to understand it, they'll be less disposed to vote Republican. But Obama's assault on the GOP plan is fatally undermined by the fact that he lacks one of his own. His budget fails even to stabilize long-

term public debt at its elevated post-recession level, let alone bring it back down so that the public sector is ready for the next emergency. What he said about bringing "domestic spending" down to its lowest level for decades was a clumsy effort to mislead. (You can't boast about all the necessary and enlightened spending you're undertaking and also claim to have cut spending to the bone.) He was referring, presumably, to domestic discretionary non-security spending--which is a sliver of the budget. Obama still has no plan for controlling entitlement spending, which is the real problem, and no plan to pay for it except to raise taxes on the rich, which won't suffice.

Obama said the election is a choice between two fundamentally different visions of America's future, that Washington is stalemated, and that November can break the stalemate. This is no good. First, November is unlikely to break the stalemate, whoever wins, and voters know it. The new president's job will be the same as now: to make a stalemated Washington work, after a fashion, not to execute a partisan mandate.

Obama has to show he can still be the man to do that. Second, when

it comes to competing visions, is Obama quite sure voters prefer a future of high public spending and high taxes to one of low public spending and low taxes? That's the choice many voters think he's offering. Rather than pitching a Democratic transformation of the country as the alternative to the GOP transformation, he'd do better to offer moderation, pragmatism and measured fiscal restraint to the GOP alternative of ideology, extremism and fiscal incoherence.

I don't think America wants to be transformed, or wants radicals of any kind in charge. It wants Washington to work and the country to be mended. If I were Obama, I'd get myself a secondterm program and dial the clash of big ideas right back.

This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/06/obamasspeech-in-cleveland/258551/ This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Obama's Game Changer on Young Illegal Immigrants Garance Franke-Ruta (Politics : The Atlantic) Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:18:10 AM

First, he came out for same sex marriage. Now a second bold move on behalf of a marginal group will dominate the conversation.

Is this how Obama's 2012 campaign is going to go? Boring economic speeches that have trouble breaking through, mixed with daring pronouncements in support of long-standing drives toward a more equitable society for some of America's most marginal residents?

First President Obama came out in support for same-sex marriage in a move bolder than even many gay and lesbian activists expected.

Now he's using the authority of the bully pulpit and the power of the regulatory state on behalf of young Americans born abroad but raised here, the illegal immigrants /undocumented Americas (how awful that there is no longer even any neutral term for such residents of this country, so partisan has the issue of their rights and future become) who would have been covered by the DREAM Act, should the U.S. Congress ever have seen fit to pass it. The executive order taking advantage of prosecutorial discretion in deportation cases

will cover individuals brought to the United States through no fault of their own before the age of 16 who have lived in the U.S. at least five years and have no criminal record. They must also have earned a high school degree or served in the military, and still be under 30. Those who meet the criteria can get deportation proceedings (or the threat of same) deferred for two years and seek work permits.

Coming in the wake of the publication of a cover story in Time magazine on the plight of "undocumented Americans" by Jose Antonio Vargas, founder of Define American (and a former colleague of mine at The Washington Post), the move seems certain to electrify the presidential race and solidify the support of Hispanic Americans.

Vargas says the administration's move in support of "deferred

action" on deportation will allow all but three of the 36 "undocumented Americans" pictured on the Time cover to "now be legal residents," though it won't impact him, since he's over the age cut off outlined in the new "deferred action" executive order.

His full statement: Today our country embraces upwards of one million young new Americans: DREAMers.

They grew up here, they were

educated here and they have so much to give back to the country they call home. With a stroke of President Obama's pen, our country lives up to its ideals and finds a fair and pragmatic solution, ending the nightmare of a generation of young people who are Americans in all but documents. Every social movement in the world is led by OBAMA'S page 79

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The Obama campaign would like to see some ID, please Erika Johnsen (Hot Air » Top Picks)

campaign offices in Northeast Ohio beginning on Monday, though tickets to the event made Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:41:04 AM no mention of an ID requirement. posted at 12:41 pm on June 15, …

2012 by Erika Johnsen “We checked every ID at the door To gain entry into President to make sure it matched with the Obama’s speech in Ohio on name on the ticket that supporters T h u r s d a y , a t t e n d e e s w e r e filled out,” she said. “We did this apparently required to present a for every person who came in.” photo identification along with Discrimination! Bigotry! Racism! their ticket. Which just so After all, as DNC Chairwoman obviously, impartially, logically Debbie Wasserman Schultz has so begs the question: Why does the aptly reminded us, asking people Obama campaign want to f o r g o v e r n m e n t - i s s u e d d i s e n f r a n c h i s e m i n o r i t i e s ? identification is going to literally CLEVELAND — President drag us back to the era of Jim Barack Obama’s presidential Crow laws. As U.S. Attorney c a m p a i g n c h e c k e d t h e General Eric Holder has so identification of the supporters patiently chided us, requiring attending Obama’s “framing” proof of identity jeopardizes the event at Cuyahoga Community entire civil rights movement. As College today.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) so T h e 1 , 5 0 0 s u p p o r t e r s i n recently proclaimed, requiring an attendance picked up tickets at ID makes it “almost impossible

for young people, for students, for our seniors, for minorities to participate, for the disabled to participate, is a sin. It’s obscene…”

Oh, what’s that? President Obama’s security requires an IDcheck to deter the crazies from coming out, which is completely just and legitimate and in no way speaks to any innate racism, but protecting the ballot box from the many proven attempts at fraud and abuse is somehow completely different?

[Head meets desk.]

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CAN continued from page 76

those who support the “do nothing” plan should candidly argue their case instead of masking how this proposal would impact the nation.

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OBAMA'S continued from page 78

young people, and DREAMers are the beating heart of this growing immigrant rights movement. Like generations of immigrants before them, they have insisted on a better life not just for themselves and their families but for the country they love. This is a victory for DREAMers and the members of their underground railroad -educators and faith leaders, friends and neighbors -- who have aided and supported them. The journey is far from over for the remaining millions of undocumented Americans like me -- at 31, I am past the age limit -but this is a big, bold and necessary step in the road to citizenship. Thank you, President Obama, for this principled and courageous act. The executive order does not constitute amnesty and won't provide the young people with a path to citizenship,

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters on a conference call Friday morning.

"These young people do not represent a risk to safety or security," she said.

This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2012/06/obamasgame-changer-on-young-illegalimmigrants/258550/ This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/contentonly/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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Ramirez — and others — on the reboot that wasn’t Ed Morrissey (Hot Air » Top Picks)

(news photos - Google News) Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:00:00 AM

Submitted at 6/15/2012 10:21:37 AM

posted at 11:21 am on June 15, 2012 by Ed Morrissey So much reaction — so little bandwidth. In earlier posts, we focused on reaction to Barack Obama’s reframing speech from Mitt Romney’s campaign and from the print media. Let’s cast the net a bit wider and see what other reactions Obama’s booted reboot hath wrought. First, IBD’s indispensable Michael Ramirez has a new editorial cartoon comparing Obama with the great Presidents of history — a pastime in which the White House often engages these days, too — and boils down Obama’s standing among his predecessors: Two new video spots from Obama’s opposition attack the notion that the “reframing” speech reframed anything at all. The RNC does this by cutting between yesterday’s speech in Ohio to a nearly-identical speech Obama gave in April and his State of the Union speech last January.

Obama basically cut-and-pasted

Lunch blogger's photos ban lifted - The Press Association

his earlier efforts into this overhyped speech, which in fairness could be one definition of “reframing” (via Guy Benson): American Crossroads has a briefer take on the same theme, but one with a little more bite to it. Using a different theme from Peanuts than I did earlier today, the conservative group puts the familiar “wah wah wah” from the Charlie Brown television specials used when adults speak, as a way of arguing that no one’s listening

to Obama’s repetitive droning any longer. Viewers of The Ed Morrissey Show will recognize something else familiar — the background music: Not to toot my own horn, but I was all over this meme almost a year ago. In August 2011, after the US suffered the first credit rating downgrade in over 90 years, I put together some clips from Obama’s speech afterward to Caroline Af Ugglas’ “Nothing Left to Say”:

That’s the big takeaway from yesterday’s speech. Obama has nothing left to say, and it’s more true today than it was last August.

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Fife Today Lunch blogger's photos ban lifted The Press Association Martha Payne was told she could no longer take the photos to illustrate her NeverSeconds blog, which has notched up more than two million views in just six...

Martha Payne's 'NeverSeconds' blog photos ban lifted Digital Spy Photos ban for school lunch blogger Fife Today Girl banned from taking photos of school meals for hit blog The Guardian My Fox 8- The Independent all 747 news articles »

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Insert Coin: Deeper Smart sonar Fishfinder for Android and iOS Zach Honig (Engadget)

smartphone or tablet within 150 feet via Bluetooth. You simply use a standard rod and line to In Insert Coin, we look at an lower Deeper from a bridge, boat exciting new tech project that o r s h o r e , a n d t h e d e v i c e requires funding before it can hit automatically powers on when it production. If you'd like to pitch a makes contact with water -- a sixproject, please send us a tip with hour battery should suffice for all "Insert Coin" as the subject line. b u t t h e m o s t d e d i c a t e d o f We can't say a smartphone- fishermen, unless they have a connected sonar fish detector USB power source nearby for ranks high on our must-have list, charging. but man is it a cool idea. Friday Naturally, the sphere is waterLab's taking the plunge with its and shock-resistant, and can Deeper Smart Fishfinder -- a operate in temperatures ranging spherical waterproof device that from -10 to 40 degrees Celsius beams back individual fish depth (14 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit). and location info, along with The Deeper app also provides air temperature and floor depth to temperature and moon phase your Android 2.2+ or iOS 4.0+ readouts, and social media Submitted at 6/15/2012 11:47:00 AM

functionality that lets you post fishing updates to Facebook or Twitter -- so all of your less fortunate friends can see how much fun you're having catching fish and stuff. The first 60 Deeper

There's just shy of four weeks left for Friday Lab to meet its $49,000 goal, so hit up our source link after the break to show your support. And if you're not quite ready to commit, there's a video awaiting you there as well.

Continue reading Insert Coin: Deeper Smart sonar Fishfinder for Android and iOS Insert Coin: Deeper Smart sonar Fishfinder for Android and iOS originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:47:00 backers can snag one set for $129 EDT. Please see our terms for use (plus $20 shipping) on Indiegogo, of feeds. Permalink| Indiegogo, while latecomers can hop on Friday Lab| Email this| Comments board for $20 more. You can also place your pre-order through the company's site, also for $149.

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Samsung files a patent for a capacitive stylus with NFC and headset, your next C-Pen may get talkative Jon Fingas (Engadget)

separate earpiece -- something that we've only seen recently in the real world. It would even find Samsung is clearly big on pens. room for NFC to pair the pen up It's no shock, then, that we now with a host device using a know the company applied for a minimum of fuss. The most patent on a new stylus while the appealing part of the patent may original Galaxy Note was still be its pragmatism. Unlike some of f r e s h o u t o f t h e b o x . T h e the flight-of-fancy patents we've capacitive pen of Samsung's noticed lately, the technology in dreams includes its own wireless the new stylus is well within headset in the clip to make voice reach. No patent is ever a surefire calls without having to buy a sign of action, but it's no great Submitted at 6/15/2012 12:33:00 PM

leap in logic to see a follow-up to the C-Pen or S Pen letting us call for pizza in between drawing

sessions.

Samsung files a patent for a capacitive stylus with NFC and headset, your next C-Pen may get talkative originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Patent Bolt, Phone Arena| USPTO| Email this| Comments