Liberty Newspost Mar-07-10 by Liberty Newspost

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Karl Rove says families should be off limits in politics David Morgan (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:04:20 AM

Karl Rove thinks the families of public figures should be off limits from the nasty, maligning, ad hominem attacks of election politics. On an NBC Today show appearance to promote his new book,“Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight”, Rove was asked about reports that his adoptive father, Louis, was gay. Some critics have gone so far as to speculate that a gay father might help explain his parents’ divorce, his mother’s suicide and even his opposition to gay marriage. But Rove wants to “set the record straight” in the book, which is due for release on Tuesday. “This was a political attack on me, that in order to get to me, people had to say ugly things

about my parents. I don’t know whether my father was, at the end of his life, gay or not. I just don’t. I don’t think so, but I don’t know,” he told NBC. “My mother never said to us that their marriage fell apart because my father was gay. So, the journalists who say, ‘Well obviously he was gay and Karl had to know that and this is why she committed suicide,’ they don’t know what they’re talking about.” “Our view on political issues, on issues of public policy, can and should be divorced from our families. And our families shouldn’t be used as convenient targets to shoot at in order to get at people in politics,” Rove said. That may sound ironic to people connected with John McCain’s 2000 run for the White House. They blame Rove for the famous South Carolina whisper campaign that sought to undermine their candidate in a key Republican primary battle

against George W. Bush by implying McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. The senator and his wife, Cindy, had in fact adopted a girl from Bangladesh. Rove denies any involvement in the smear, saying the rumor was started by a professor at Bob Jones University, a private fundamentalist Christian school and conservative political powerhouse. Despite his denials, Rove isn’t out of the woods. As NBC points out, former Bush speech writer Matt Latimer says in his

own book,“Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor,” that Rove is in fact a calculating political operator, though one with considerable shortcomings. “He was what all the liberals said he was: the villain. And to make matters worse, a clumsy one at that. He employed hamhanded tactics, put forward obviously unqualified subordinates and stubbornly defended them. He turned out to be less a Voldemort than a Boris Badenov chasing Rocky and Bullwinkle,” Latimer wrote. Rove’s response? “Well, I do like Rocky and Bullwinkle.” Photo credits: Reuters/Robert Giroux (Rove); Reuters/Win McNamee (McCain with wife Cindy and daughter Bridget); Reuters/Jeff Christensen (Rocky and Bullwinkle flyover at Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade) Click here for more political coverage from Reuters

Letter from US Congressmen to David Cameron (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:27:18 AM

A bipartisan group of US Congress members have told the Tory leader he must 'aggressively' encourage the Conservatives' Ulster Unionist partners to endorse the final stage of the Northern Ireland peace process Body text here • Northern Irish politics • Northern Ireland • Conservatives • David Cameron • United States guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Working outdoors reduces male kidney cancer risk, study says James Sturcke (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:26:13 AM

Research shows vitamin D, produced by skin when exposed to ultraviolet light, associated with reduced rate of renal cancer Men who work outdoors, enabling their bodies to create vitamins through exposure to sunlight, have a reduced risk of kidney cancer, researchers said today. In the largest study of its kind, scientists found that vitamin D – produced by the skin when exposed to ultraviolet light – was associated with a reduced rate of renal cancer of up to 73% among men. However, the study, published by the American Cancer Society, found that the reduced risk only applied to men – there was no drop in renal cancer among the women studied who worked outdoors. The researchers, from the National Cancer Institute in the US, said the study of 2,500 workers in central Europe supported emerging evidence that the prevalence of a number of cancers, including breast, ovarian and colorectal cancer, was lower when people were exposed to ultraviolet light. They said vitamin D, a known

anti-carcinogenic, was carried by the body to the liver and on to the kidneys, and recommended further research. "Scientific evidence suggests that vitamin D, which is generally made in the body after exposure to the sunlight, may help prevent a number of diseases, including cancer," the research author, Sara Karami, said. "In our study, we used job titles to estimate sunlight exposure at work. We observed that men with high estimated levels of sunlight exposure had a lower risk of kidney cancer than men who had lower estimated sunlight exposure at work." Scientists have monitored an increase in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the main form of kidney cancer, in the US and globally over the past 20 years. A reduction in vitamin D – probably caused by many more people having sedentary lifestyles and indoor jobs – is believed to be a likely contributory factor. The researchers studied more than 2,500 workers of Caucasian descent in Russia, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic, splitting them into three groups according to exposure to daylight in their jobs. A significant fall of up to 38%

in the risk of RCC was found with increasing occupational UV exposure among men. In northern-most regions, that increased to a 73% drop. But after finding no similar decrease in the risk for women, Karami said: "We do not have an explanation for the apparent differences in risk between men and women". "Biological or behavioural differences between men and women may play a role. For example, hormonal differences may influence the body's response to sunlight exposure, and men may be prone to working outdoors while shirtless." Although some foods contain vitamin D, the majority of people receive up to 90% of the chemical through exposure to ultraviolet light. Farm workers and those who receive strong UV light reflected from the sea were in the highest category. Those in high-sunlight jobs were assumed to receive double the intensity of sunlight to those in lowexposure jobs. Despite the findings, the researchers warned against ignoring the "well-documented risks" of skin cancer resulting from excess exposure to the sun. "There are no public health

recommendations from this study. Men and women should continue to consult their healthcare providers regarding the appropriate amount of sun exposure, weighing the welldocumented risks between sun exposure and skin cancer risk," Karami said. Healthy Caucasians can generate a full dose of vitamin D with 10-20 minutes' exposure to strong sunlight on unprotected skin. After that, photo-degradation ensures no higher levels are created. The anti-carcinogenic properties of vitamin D include the prevention of tumour cell replication. • Cancer • Cancer • United States • Russia • Romania • Poland • Czech Republic • All sectors James Sturcke guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

ADVERTISEMENT: (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:20:00 AM

Rework: A Live Chat With 37signals Founder Jason Fried - Monday, March 8th Jason Fried (Inc.com) Submitted at 3/7/2010 9:00:00 PM

Social media dorks get an anthem [video] (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:37:00 AM

The Pantless Knights, the guys responsible for the hilarious I’m on a Mac video, are back at it—and this time they’ve delivered a new anthem for for all you proud social media geeks. Full story at Mashable. Keep tabs on social media. Permalink| Leave a comment »

Evian Roller Babies Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:00:20 AM

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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SAS Colonel objected to Snatch Land Rover's before quadruple death blast (Top stories from Times Online) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:29:07 AM

The SAS Colonel in charge of an operation which claimed the life of the first female British soldier to die in Afghanistan was denied access to safer vehicles, an inquest heard today. Corporal Sarah Bryant, 26, of the Intelligence Corps, was taking part in an operation east of Lashkar Gah when her Snatch Land Rover was hit by a mine on 17 June 2008. The blast devastated the vehicle, killing her and three SAS reservists, Corporal Sean Reeve, 28, Lance Corporal Richard Larkin, 39, and Trooper Paul Stout, 31. There were widespread concerns among troops about the use of Snatch Land Rovers nicknamed ’mobile coffins’ and the lack of metal detectors to spot roadside bombs, the inquest heard. Known only as Colonel A, the Commander of the 23rd Regiment told the inquest at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, that Snatch Land Rovers were ”not the optimal solution”. He had repeatedly requested the more mobile and better-equipped WMIK Land Rovers but was told it was not possible because

of a ”general shortfall” of vehicles. Colonel A said: ”There was at that time a general shortage of vehicles available. We were an additional element to the task force so there was a requirement for additional vehicles to resource our deployment and in addition to that, the wear and tear on vehicles meant that they needed repair which took them out of service for a long time. ”We were allocated vehicles which were assessed to be appropriate for the role that we were conducting, even though that role was changing. As I saw the task evolving, particularly in the areas to the north of Gershak and Musa Qala in which we were conducting operations in more of a rural area, it seemed that the Snatch Land Rover was not the optimal solution and that a WMIK would have provided a better solution in terms of mobility, the ability to mount a weapon and enhanced firepower. ”The preferable solution would have been to be able to use different vehicles for different tasks but that was simply not possible at that time. There were not the vehicles available to do that.”

On 17 June 2008, the unit had been patrolling a main road with the Afghan National Police when they were diverted to pick up a deceased soldier from a nearby prison. The Colonel said: ”Throughout our deployment our role of mentoring the police very much meant that we had to assist them in terms of the wider Afghan security effort within the province. The requirement to adapt or change to the situation was the case throughout the tour.” The Colonel relayed his concerns about the lack of equipment both to his chain of command in Afghanistan and procurement officials in the UK. He said: ”My concerns were that giving the evolving nature of the task it would be preferable to have access to different vehicles in different environments. The response really was to confirm that this would not be possible because there was a general shortfall in vehicles available. ”The only response was that we would be given vehicles available to us. I continued to make requests but ultimately had to accept that there were only a finite supply of vehicles.”

Once the Colonel accepted that Snatch Land Rovers were the only vehicle available, steps were taken to ensure that all troops knew the correct ”risk mitigation strategy” for their vehicles. This involved training in Operation Barma - a method of surveying land with Ebex metal detectors - to determine the threat from Improvised Explosive Devices. But this training was often not possible because access to metal detectors was limited, the Colonel said. He told the inquest: ”We did not have access to metal detectors for the majority of our pre-deployment training. Of course that training becomes difficult if that equipment is not available. You cannot conduct the training if you do not have the equipment to train. That was undoubtedly an issue.” However, the Colonel said that all of the troops in his unit had been using Operation Barma drills for around five months before the blast took place on 17 June 2008. The inquest, at Trowbridge, Wilts., continues. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Airman With Shotgun Disarmed at Texas Air Force Base (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 5:59:51 AM

WICHITA FALLS, Texas A shotgun-toting airman in training at Sheppard Air Force Base is in custody after being confronted outside a dormitory. Spokesman George Woodward says no shots were fired, nobody was hurt and the base "wouldn't issue a weapon to an airman in training." Woodward says the base at Wichita Falls had to be shut down Sunday night during the incident but reopened Monday. Woodward told The Associated Press that security forces received a call about a man with a weapon outside Building 776, housing male and female personnel. Woodward says security confronted the airman and he dropped the shotgun. Woodward says there was no immediate indication that the airman was targeting anyone. The spokesman could not confirm if the airman lives at the dorm. Wichita Falls is about 130 miles northeast of Dallas. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Statement by US congressmen on UUP and Conservatives (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:26:10 AM

US Friends of Ireland and Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs urge Ulster Unionist party to back devolution of policing powers Statement of the Friends of Ireland and the ad hoc committee on Irish affairs March 6, 2010 Washington The Friends of Ireland in the United States House of Representatives and the ad hoc committee on Irish affairs released the following statement today after the Ulster Unionist party announced it would not be supporting the formal devolution of policing and justice powers when a resolution comes before the Northern Ireland assembly for a vote on Tuesday. Both the Friends of Ireland and the ad hoc committee are bipartisan organizations in the US Congress that have been active supporters of the peace process in Northern Ireland for more than 20 years. As bipartisan members of the United [States] House of Representatives with a

longstanding interest in the peace process, we were deeply disappointed to learn last night that the Ulster Unionist party (UUP) does not plan to vote for the formal devolution of policing and justice powers when a resolution comes before the Northern Ireland assembly on Tuesday. The people of Northern Ireland on a crosscommunity basis want to see these important powers transferred now and have confidence that the local powersharing government is working effectively on their behalf. A no vote by the UUP is a direct rejection of their hopes for peace and stability. At this crucial and defining moment in the peace process, we urge Sir Reg Empey [the UUP leader] and the UUP to reconsider their position and vote yes on Tuesday. As one of the architects of the Good Friday agreement, we can't understand why Sir Reg would not support a deal that promises a better and more secure future for the people he represents. We also call on Conservative party leader David Cameron to use his considerable influence with his election partners in the UUP and convince them to take

a risk for peace. As a supporter of the Hillsborough agreement, he should aggressively be seeking unanimous crosscommunity support for the landmark accord. The first minister, Peter Robinson, and the deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, have shown great courage and leadership in negotiating the agreement on the devolution of policing and justice powers reached last month at Hillsborough Castle. Because of their efforts, the new dispensation of partnership and equality promised in the Good Friday agreement and the St Andrews agreement is one step closer to reality. Both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the accord and pledged their continued engagement in the region. As members of the US House of Representatives, we remain deeply involved in the peace process, and our support for the people of the island of Ireland will not waiver. The murder [of] Kieran Doherty is a stark reminder that anti-peace process elements in Northern Ireland remain determined to turn the clock

back. These dissidents will continue to be emboldened if they sense there is no political unanimity on the way forward. They must be sent a clear and unambiguous message that the future of Northern Ireland is in the crucible of politics. On Tuesday, the eyes of the world will be on Belfast and the Ulster Unionist party. The choice they make will have significant and lasting consequences. They can vote yes for a more peaceful and prosperous future. Or they can be on the wrong side of history and vote for the past. Congressman Richard E. Neal(Democrat, Massachusetts) Congressman Peter King(Republican, New York) Congressman Joseph Crowley(Democrat, New York) Congressman Tim Murphy(Republican, Pennsylvania) • Northern Irish politics • United States • Northern Ireland guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Suspected Gunman Killed Outside Walmart in Texas (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:02:38 AM

COMMERCE, Texas Authorities say a suspected gunman was killed and an offduty officer injured in a shootout outside a Walmart store in the east Texas town of Commerce. Commerce spokeswoman Marty Cunningham says the incident Sunday began when police received a call of shots being fired from a car in the nearby town of Greenville, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas. Cunningham says the suspect exchanged gunfire with Commerce police just outside the city limits before driving to the Walmart. Cunningham says the suspect entered the store carrying "a long gun and a pistol." She says an off-duty officer from another agency followed the suspect out of the store, where the suspect was killed. The officer was taken to a hospital with unknown injuries. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Sex offender jailed for life for murdering girl he ensnared on Facebook (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news)

messaging, Teesside Crown Court heard. Ashleigh, who was training to be a nursery nurse, also gave him details of her mobile Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:43:16 AM By Paul Stokes telephone number to the person Published: 3:43PM GMT 08 she knew as Peter and they also Mar 2010 communicated through text Peter Chapman, 33, evaded messages. police for 13 months after Mr Reeds said: “It is apparent breaking the terms of his Sex from the very start that he was Offenders’ Register order by obsessed with sex and was failing to notify a change of trying to meet her.” address. Chapman failed to make their He posted a photograph of a first rendezvous at the edge of a bare-chested, good looking boy playing field, realising she in his late teens on the was unlikely to get in his Facebook social networking site battered Ford Mondeo when she to snare Ashleigh Hall,17. saw that he was nothing like G r a h a m R e e d s Q C , the Facebook image. prosecuting, said according to Instead he invented “Pete’s her friends she was interested Dad” to persuade her to be in boys, but they generally were collected from her home in not interested in her. what Mr Reeds described as a As a result, if she was shown “calculated and wicked” plan. attention by a male she was He used one of his two mobile likely to be flattered by it and phones and two days late sent a like most teenagers her interests text which read: “Its pete here revolved around her mobile come on msn this is me dad’s phone and social networking phone.” sites on her computer. Chapman later made It made her easy prey to arrangements for his “father” to Chapman’s cunning and sexual collect her from her home in depravity as their “chats” Darlington, Co Durham, to stay moved to a website called overnight with them. T a g g e d . c o m a n d M S N Pretending to be “Pete’s dad”,

he picked her up near her house and drove her to a dark and secluded lay-by on October 25 last year. Mr Reeds said examination of Chapman’s car satellite navigation suggested he had researched the location before springing the trap. Once there he forced her to perform oral sex on him, gagged her by winding gaffer tape around her face and bound her forearms before raping her. After the attack further tape was put over her face, killing her through suffocation, Mr Reeds told the court. He drove the body to a track near a Little Chef cafe on the outskirts of Sedgefield and dumped the body down a gully against a fence. Chapman returned to the scene the next day and was stopped by a routine patrol when his car activated the police vehicle’s Automatic Number Plate Recognition system. He had been put into the system as a convicted sex offender who was not complying with the terms of the Sex Offenders Register over notifying a change of address. Chapman told officers “You

can crush the car”, aware that it still held evidence which incriminated him in Ashleigh’s murder. While being held at Middlesbrough Police Station, he asked to speak to a senior officer and told him: “There has been a terrible accident…” He refused to answer questions and later produced a nine page prepared statement giving his version of events which investigators exposed as “a web of lies”. Ashleigh’s phone was recovered from the car and her mother Andrea, who had been making frantic calls to it throughout the day, finally heard it answered by a policeman. She wept uncontrollably as Chapman – shaven-head, bearded, bespectacled and wearing a grey sweat shirt – was led into the dock. He admitted murder, rape, kidnap and failing to notify of a change of address as a convicted sex offender. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Ky. Student Reportedly Wrapped in Tissue, Set on Fire (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:39:08 AM

LEXINGTON, Ky. Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity has suspended its University of Kentucky chapter after a prank involving fire. WKYT-TV in Lexington reported 19-year-old fraternity member Shaun Dunn wrapped another member in toilet paper and set it on fire. The carpet caught fire and the smoke detectors went off. Dunn is charged with first degree arson, wanton endangerment and tampering with physical evidence. The incident early Saturday also disclosed fire code violations, so the house was closed for the semester. Members were given 24 hours to move out. Fraternity member Joe McKinley is charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest — accused of hitting the officer in the face when told to leave his room. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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US Congress warns Cameron over danger of failed Ulster police deal

Gay youth reluctant to report cyberbullying

Nicholas Watt (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

(Holy Kaw!)

Without a unanimous vote, they said, the province's elected officials would be sending the wrong message to the people Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:26:39 AM Yes vote on Hillsborough they represent, and to the world. agreement would see policing " D i s s i d e n t s a r e t r y i n g t o and criminal justice powers d e s t a b i l i s e t h e p o l i t i c a l devolved to Belfast next month institutions and turn the clock David Cameron has been given back … These dissidents will a s t a r k w a r n i n g f r o m continue to be emboldened if Washington that dissident they sense there is no political terrorists will be "emboldened" unanimity on the way forward to intensify their attacks in … The challenge of bringing Northern Ireland and millions of good jobs to Northern Ireland dollars of US investment will be will be made more difficult if threatened if he fails to persuade potential investors do not the Tories' Ulster Unionist b e l i e v e t h e r e i s p o l i t i c a l partners to endorse the final s t a b i l i t y . " stage of the peace process. The letter by congressional In a sign of deep unease in leaders of the 41 million-strong Washington at the Tories' Irish-American community has electoral pact with the UUP, a been passed to the Guardian bipartisan group of US Congress before the crucial vote on last m e m b e r s h a v e d e m a n d e d month's Hillsborough agreement Cameron must "aggressively" between Sinn Féin and the encourage his partners to Democratic Unionists. endorse the deal in a vote in the A yes vote would see policing Northern Ireland assembly on and criminal justice powers Tuesday. devolved to Belfast next month "At this defining moment in the in what the British government peace process, it is crucial that has dubbed the final piece in the all the political parties speak jigsaw of the 1998 Good Friday with one voice about their agreement. shared future," the members of The congressmen and women, Congress wrote in a private whose views reflect the private letter to Cameron. misgivings of the US secretary

of state, Hillary Clinton, wrote to Cameron after learning that his electoral partners in Northern Ireland were voicing doubts about endorsing the deal. Clinton is said to be alarmed that Cameron has either failed, or not bothered, to warn the UUP of the dangers of obstructing the deal. A Tory source said: "David Cameron has consistently made clear that we support the devolution of policing and criminal justice powers … We welcomed the agreement between the DUP and Sinn Féin. The final details are for the parties in the executive, working as a four-party coalition, to decide. We hope that between now and Tuesday any outstanding issues can be solved." The Hillsborough agreement was brokered last month under a system endorsed by the UUP when it was the largest party in Northern Ireland. This says that any change must have the consent of 50% of both the nationalist and Unionist communities and 50% of the assembly. Sir Reg Empey, the UUP leader who was one of the architects of

the Good Friday agreement, will meet his party's executive tomorrow night to decide how to vote. The deal could still be passed tomorrow without the support of the UUP because the DUP's 36 assembly members account for more than 50% of the unionist bloc. But there are fears in Washington that a no vote from the UUP, seen as a moribund force until Cameron breathed new life into it, would destabilise many members of the DUP and undermine support for the devolution of policing and criminal justice powers. • Northern Irish politics • David Cameron • Conservatives • US Congress • Northern Ireland • Hillary Clinton • United States Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:24:41 AM

One out of two lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) youth have been victims of cyberbullying, according to a new survey of more than 400 junior high, high school, and college students between the ages of 11 and 22. Among the non-heterosexual respondents, 45 percent reported feeling depressed as a result of being cyberbullied, 38 percent felt embarrassed, and 28 percent felt anxious about attending school. More than a quarter (26 percent) had suicidal thoughts. More than half also indicated that they didn’t think a school official could do anything to stop it. Full story at Futurity. Get smarter: more research news. Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Eric Massa's '15 gin and tonics' explanation | Richard Adams Richard Adams (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:30:05 AM

The Democratic representative digs himself in deeper with his latest versions of why he is resigning so abruptly Eric Massa's explanations for why he first decided not to seek re-election to Congress, and then to abruptly step down as of today, get more convoluted. Last week Massa insisted that the cancer he has been battling for several years was the reason he was resigning, despite a news report that the harrassment of a male staff member was a more proximate cause. By Friday Massa was saying that he had acted inappropriately, but defended himself by saying that, as a Navy officer for many years, he used " salty language", and that he was retiring immediately. By Sunday Massa was on radio

giving another explanation, about his own drunken behaviour at a wedding but this time blaming sinister forces for pushing him out because he voted against healthcare reform. In his rambling statement, Massa said that, for various reasons: "Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill. And this administration and this house leadership have said, quote unquote, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill. And now they've gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots." He later continued in the same vein: "The future of the Democratic party rests on passing this health care bill. They can get anyone to say anything about me concerning anything at all.... I was set up for this from the very, very beginning." Turning to the allegations of harrassment reported by a staff

member to the House ethics committee, Massa told his audience of a staff member's wedding he had attended on New Year's Eve, where he danced with a bridesmaid: "I said goodnight to the bridesmaid. I sat at down at the table where my whole staff was, all of them, by the way bachelors. One of them looked at me and — as they would do after, I don't know, 15 gin and tonics and goodness only knows how many bottles of champagne — a staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid. His points were clear and his words were far more colorful than that. "And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and I said, 'What I really ought to be doing is frakking you,' and then tossled the guy's hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a

point where I shouldn't be there. Was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely." Since Massa is resigning, the ethics committee won't undertake an investigation, so quite what this adds up to is anyone's guess. Politco reports that the allegations against Massa go back much further than New Year's Eve. As Massa himself says: "You connect the dots." • Democrats • US Congress • US healthcare • United States Richard Adams guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Thank You, Internet Gods (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 3/7/2010 8:39:47 PM

I’d just like to express my gratitude to the gods of the Internet that I’m not associated with irrational anti-science lunatics like Tim Blair any more. UPDATE at 3/7/10 9:04:59 pm: And white supremacist blogger Robert Stacy McCain is chiming in too, with another thousandword essay! It’s a two-fer! I must say, it’s pretty comfortable here living inside McCain’s head, once you get past the stench of racism. Excuse me while I relax and put my feet up on McCain’s medulla oblongata.

The Scary Unemployment Picture Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks)

graph. That's a graph of the job losses in the past recessions, and ours is that rather nasty-looking Submitted at 3/8/2010 11:00:00 AM dark blue line. Notice how steep F i l e d u n d e r : E m p l o y e e s , the decline compared to other Economic Data, Recession recessions at the same time. W h i l e l o o k i n g a r o u n d Yes, this recession has been N Y T i m e s . c o m I s t u m b l e d rather ugly, but I am not telling The article points out that 6.1% across this rather scary-looking you any "breaking news" here. of the economy's nonfarm

payroll jobs were lost since the beginning of the recession. Unfortunately, we can't be certain that we have reached the end of the job losses. Continue reading The Scary Unemployment Picture The Scary Unemployment Picture originally appeared on

BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Father Hans Kung blames Catholic views on sex for clerical child abuse

Breaking News: American Al Qaeda Operative Adam Gadahn Arrested in Pakistan

(Top stories from Times Online)

(Little Green Footballs)

three decades by Father Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI. The Holy See Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:41:00 AM said that it backed the diocese’s A leading Roman Catholic attempts to investigate the theologian has linked clerical scandal by analysing “the s e x a b u s e w i t h p r i e s t l y painful question in a decisive celibacy, blaming the Church’s and open way”. Also last week, “uptight” views on sex for child in the Holy See, an adult abuse scandals in Germany, c h o r i s t e r w a s s a c k e d f o r Ireland and the US. allegedly procuring male Father Hans Kung, President of prostitutes for a Papal usher. the Global Ethic Foundation and Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of professor emeritus at the F r e i b u r g a n d h e a d o f t h e University of Tübingen in German bishops’ conference, Germany, said that the Church’s b r a n d e d c l e r i c a l a b u s e attitude was also revealed in its “ o u t r a g e o u s ” a n d b e g g e d opposition to birth control. forgiveness from the victims The German church rejected but denied any link between any suggestion that abuse was abuse and celibacy. l i n k e d t o c e l i b a c y , Writing in The Tablet, Father h o m o s e x u a l i t y o r c h u r c h Kung, who in 1979 was stripped teaching. of his licence to teach Catholic Last week the Regensburg theology after he rejected the Diocese in Germany revealed doctrine of Papal infallibility, that a former chorister claimed welcomed the apology but he was abused while a member described the denials of any link of its choir, which was led for between abuse, celibacy and

other teaching as “erroneous”. He said that it was the case that abuse was found also in families, schools and other churches. But he asked: “Why is it so prevalent in the Catholic Church under celibate leadership?” He said that celibacy was not the only cause of the misconduct but described it as “the most important and structurally the most decisive” expression of the Church’s uptight attitude to sex. Citing the New Testament, he says that Jesus and St Paul practised celibacy but “allowed full freedom in this matter to each individual”. St Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians wrote: “Because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.” Peter and the apostles were married and their ministries did not suffer, he said, pointing out that thousands of priests

protested when the new law was introduced as late as the 11th century. Father Kung said: “Compulsory celibacy is the principal reason for today’s catastrophic shortage of priests, for the fatal neglect of eucharistic celebration, and for the tragic breakdown of personal pastoral ministry in many places.” He argues that there are two simple solutions to the shortage of priests: “Abolition of the celibacy rule, the root of all these evils, and the admission of women to ordination. The bishops know this, but they do not have the courage to say it in public.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 3/7/2010 10:19:51 AM

Just coming over the wires: a report that Pakistani officials have arrested Adam Gadahn, the American traitor who’s been Al Qaeda’s anchorman in a series of jihad videos… UPDATE at 3/7/10 10:41:11 am: Here’s the AP story: Officers: Pakistan arrests American-born al-Qaida.

Gasoline: Prices Likely to Move Higher This Summer Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:20:00 AM

Filed under: Bad News, Oil The U.S. Labor Department's February jobs report, which indicated the world's largest economy lost just 36,000 jobs in

the past month, points to a month in the near future in which in the U.S. economy final starts adding jobs on a monthly basis. Job growth appears to be up ahead: that's the good news. The not-so-good news concerns the likely trend for gasoline prices: when the U.S. economy

which will likely send alreadyhigh gasoline prices up even more. Continue reading Gasoline: Prices Likely to Move Higher This Summer Gasoline: Prices Likely to starts adding jobs, that means Move Higher This Summer increased gasoline demand, o r i g i n a l l y a p p e a r e d o n

BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Kent car bomb: first picture of Victoria Fabian as her family tell of 'sadness'

How to get away with drink driving: urban myths

(Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news)

released a picture of her. ''The family is deeply saddened and shocked by Friday's incident and the sequence of events as they unfold,” they said. Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:56:52 AM By Andrew Hough ''At the moment all our energy Published: 4:00PM GMT 08 and attention is focused on Mar 2010 supporting Vicky and her A s M r s F a b i a n ’ s a r m y children. explosives husband was still ''Vicky is in the best place and being questioned by police on has started her long road to suspicion of killing her, her recovery. We would like to family were “deeply saddened request that our privacy be and shocked” by Friday’s respected at this difficult time.” incident. Police are questioning Mr Mrs Fabian, a 32 year-old Fabian, who left the Army in mother-of-two, was left fighting 2003 but was thought to have for life after the blast near been recently recalled for t h e i r h o m e i n V i g o , n e a r service in Afghanistan, on Meopham, Kent. suspicion of attempted murder Her 32 year-old husband after being granted more time Nicholas Fabian, a former Army to interview him on Sunday bomb disposal expert in the night. Princess of Wales’ Royal Witnesses said Mrs Fabian, a Regiment, was arrested within n u r s e w h o h a d j u s t b e e n hours of Friday afternoon’s a c c e p t e d i n t o t h e A r m y ' s attack, which left her with Royal Medical Corps, was horrific leg injuries. pulled from the blazing Doctors believe her unborn wreckage of her silver Mazda child, believed to be due in three 323 by her husband, who was in months, is unharmed. another nearby car. On Monday, in a statement She is due to undergo further released through Kent Police, operations at the Royal London the family, including her sister Hospital as well as specialist Anna Head, 37, spoke of their skin graft treatment on her legs. distress at the attack as they The couple’s two sons Charlie,

eight, who was in the back seat and Harry, four, who was in a nearby car, both escaped any injuries from the blast. Friends on Monday claimed that Mr Fabian, 32, had been left traumatised by a tour year duty of Northern Ireland and further service in Bosnia and could be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Charlie was released from hospital on Monday after he was put under observation. Neighbours said the couple had been subjected to numerous arson attacks last year including their car, caravan and trampoline being set alight while Mrs Fabian’s her car was also tampered with. One police source said detectives had uncovered a domestic arrangement that was "out of this world". A Ministry of Defence spokesman has declined to comment. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

alcohol sitting in the stomach, but the alcohol will take longer to leave the system. Anything with a strong odour, such as a piece of gum, can Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:38:15 AM By Richard Savill falsely raise the reading. Published: 3:38PM GMT 08 Holding the breath makes no Mar 2010 difference because the body will Some of the most common continue to perspire alcohol include sucking on an alkaline into the lungs and will increase battery, licking a piece of the concentration of alcohol tinfoil and putting a fresh stick into the breath. of gum in your mouth. “Breathalysers are pretty Others claim that you should foolproof devices and if you hold your breath before the test, have been drinking there is no while conflicting rumours escaping a positive result,” said suggest that how hard you blow H u n t e r A b b o t t , m a n a g i n g into a detector could influence director of AlcoSense, which the results. claims to be Britain’s largest Breathalyser manufacturers said p r o d u c e r o f consumer none of these methods affect the breathalysers, aimed at stopping blood alcohol content. Stalling unintentional morning after was another method people drinking and driving. employed, but, while a delay He added: “The best advice for may make the test better, anyone who has had a drink is, p o l i c e h a v e a f o r m u l a t o don’t drive. You will always calculate the blood alcohol find people trying them [urban c o u n t w h e n p u l l e d o v e r myths]. But police have seen compared to the time that has them all and if they think you passed. are trying it on, you will get Hardly blowing at all can more closely examined.” produce a lower reading but Five Filters featured article: breathalysers have air pressure Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: sensors built into them so the PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, system cannot be fooled, one Term Extraction. manufacturer said. Starchy foods will absorb

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Iraq poll turnout at up to 60 per cent Analyst Calls: AMTD, despite attacks CSCO, M, PALM, PNC, RIMM, YHOO ... (Top stories from Times Online)

according to the American military. Al-Qaeda is said to have fooled the Iraqi Submitted at 3/8/2010 4:45:55 AM government and millions of T u r n o u t i n y e s t e r d a y ' s voters into believing they were parliamentary election in Iraq under attack from sustained reached 62.4 per cent despite a mortar fire. concerted effort to intimidate Instead insurgent cells voters and scare them away apparently planted drinks bottles from polling stations. filled with C4 in rubbish bins Hamdiyah al-Husseini, a senior around the city and set them off official with the Independent in series with the help of mobile High Electoral Commission, phone triggers. The mortar-like released the figure at a press sound of explosions was meant conference in Baghdad. The to frighten Iraqis into staying figure is lower than the 76 per home. c e n t t u r n o u t f o r t h e t h e For several hours yesterday p a r l i a m e n t a r y e l e c t i o n o f morning, loud explosions could December 2005 but higher than be heard across Baghdad in last year's provincial elections quick succession. General Ray when just over half of voters O d i e r n o , t h e t o p U S cast ballots. commander, said most of these T u r n o u t i s a n i m p o r t a n t were caused by "bottle bombs". measure of success for the Two houses were blown up election. To be credible and with large bombs planted inside, e f f e c t i v e , I r a q ' s n e x t causing all 38 reported government will need the fatalities. But there were no car backing of a large number of b o m b s , s u i c i d e b o m b e r s , people in the deeply divided mortars or rockets, the general country. said. The election was marred by The US military flies large violence - although less than balloons high above Baghdad, was initially r e p o r t e d , where about four million people

were eligible to vote, carrying sophisticated tracking equipment that can identify the path and point of origin of all "indirect fire", mostly mortars aimed at the fortified Green Zone. The general said the bottle bombs did not cause any injuries. They were meant to intimidate, sending a warning signal to every breakfast table in the capital to stay away from the polls. Mr al-Husseini said that turnout was particularly high in the country’s autonomous northern Kurdish region, with 80 percent of voters in Dohuk casting ballots. He said that initial results from the election, in which Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, is facing stiff competition from the former premier Iyad Allawi, are expected tomorrow. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

at Dangerous Minds: Charles Johnson: Why I Parted Ways Submitted at 3/7/2010 1:54:54 PM with the Right. Here’s part one of my video (I’m sending you to Richard’s interview with Richard Metzger, site instead of posting the video

Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:40:00 AM

Filed under: Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Yahoo! (YHOO), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Research in Motion (RIMM), TD AmeriTrade Holding (AMTD), Analyst Initiations Analyst Upgrades • JMP Securities views Yahoo!'s ( YHOO) risk-reward as compelling, especially as cyclical and secular growth of online advertising improves. The firm upgraded shares to outperform from market perform and has a $21 target. • FBR Capital upgraded PNC Financial ( PNC) to outperform from market perform, citing an attractive valuation and better risk profile following the company's capital raise. The firm raised its target price on shares to $65 fro $55.

• Janney Montgomery upgraded SEI Investments ( SEIC) to buy from neutral on expectations the company's revenues will accelerate in 2011. The firm has a $28 price target on shares. • Research in Motion ( RIMM) was upgraded to outperform from market perform at BMO Capital. • Cisco ( CSCO) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan. • Macy's ( M) was upgraded to buy from hold at Soleil. Continue reading Analyst Calls: AMTD, CSCO, M, PALM, PNC, RIMM, YHOO ... Analyst Calls: AMTD, CSCO, M, PALM, PNC, RIMM, YHOO ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Video: iPad Debuts at the Oscars Charlie Sorrel (Wired Top Stories)

LGF at Dangerous Minds (Little Green Footballs)

Eric Buscemi (BloggingStocks)

here, because there’s lots of other interesting stuff there too…)

Submitted at 3/8/2010 5:41:00 AM

If anyone doubted that Apple doesn’t care about the geek

market for the iPad, and is shooting direct for the mainstream, last night’s Oscar ceremony confirms i

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Alice in Wonderland eclipses Avatar Cat Bond Impact from for most successful 3D film opening Chile Unlikely, but weekend Future to Change (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news)

weekend, bringing its cumulative domestic total to $720.2 million (£478.52 million). The weekend's second best Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:56:48 AM By Chris Irvine performer at the box-office was Published: 3:56PM GMT 08 Overture's Brooklyn's Finest, Mar 2010 Antoine Fuqua's gritty police The Disney film, starring thriller. It earned $13.5 million J o h n n y D e p p a n d H e l e n a (£8.97 million) in its first Bonham Carter, made $116.3 weekend of release, according to million (£77.27 million), the studio estimates. total surpassing that of James Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island Cameron's film, which missed for Paramount followed closely out on Oscar glory on Sunday. It with $13.3 million (£8.84) in a l s o m a r k e d t h e b i g g e s t its third week of release, opening weekend for a non- bringing its cumulative total to sequel. Worldwide, Alice took $95.8 million (£63.65). $210.3 million (£139.73). Alice's release was a record for "This is just one of those the first quarter of the year, cultural phenomenons that has typically a time of lower boxcaught everybody's interest," office expectations and critically said Chuck Viane, Disney's acclaimed Oscar contenders. president of distribution. The previous first quarter record "They don't come like this very was Mel Gibson's Passion of often." the Christ. In its 12th week of release, "We went into Friday thinking Avatar earned $7.7 million that we really had a big hit with (£5.12 million) over the us, and then all of a sudden the

numbers started to roll in," said Viane. "They started to roll in from midnight Friday morning and you could tell from the size of the crowd. We did $4 million that day at midnight. You could tell the broad interest in the movie." "Alice" also played across 188 IMAX screens in North America and gave IMAX its best opening ever, with $11.9 million domestically. That beat the previous record of $9.5 million set by "Avatar." "The momentum on 3-D is so massive right now," said Greg Foster, IMAX chairman. "They were ready for a new movie. They were ready for a new, cool 3-D experience." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 3/8/2010 11:20:00 AM

Filed under: Deals, Competitive Strategy Despite the magnitude of the recent earthquake in Chile- in both physical and financial terms - it's unlikely to trigger a catastrophe bond payout. Catastrophe modeling firms AIR Worldwide and EQECAT offer a range of estimated insured losses of $2 billion to $8 billion, though the dust is still settling. According to insurance securitization blog Artemis.bm, "A similar quake in the right area of the U.S. or Japan would most certainly have triggered a cat bond." Though there has been cat bond activity in Latin America, none have been issued in the region to cover earthquake risk. Low rates

of insurance penetration are likely to keep what will already be a costly situation for insurers and reinsurers from being even worse -- i.e., because not much coverage has been written in Chile. Continue reading Cat Bond Impact from Chile Unlikely, but Future to Change Cat Bond Impact from Chile Unlikely, but Future to Change originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Why little touches mean so much (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:27:54 AM

Before you completely commit your life to a protective bubble built out of hand sanitizer, read

this article. New research suggests that a warm quick hug, a Jerey Shore-worthy fist pump, or a friendly high five can communicate a wide range of emotions—often times more accuratel than words. What’s

more, is that touchy-feely people tend to achieve higher levels of motivation and success than those who keep their hands firmly shoved in their pockets. Read all about it at The New

York Times. More on positive psychology. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Serial sex offender Peter Chapman killed teenager groomed on Facebook

Major Rock Slide Closes Interstate in Western Colorado

(Top stories from Times Online)

(FOXNews.com)

sat with her hands clasped and arms linked with two friends in the public gallery as the hearing Submitted at 3/8/2010 5:53:25 AM began. She wept, grimaced and A serial sex-offender was twisted round in her chair to sentenced to life in prison today stare at Chapman as he entered for kidnapping, raping and the guilty pleas. murdering a teenager whom he As well as murder, he also lured to meet him using a false pleaded guilty to failing to i d e n t i t y o n t h e s o c i a l notify police of a change of networking site Facebook. address, as required by the sex Peter Chapman, 33, changed his offenders register. plea to admit to killing Ashleigh Chapman has been investigated Hall, a 17-year-old student, on for six violent sexual attacks but the eve of his trial at Teesside only convicted of two rapes. At Crown Court. the age of 19 he was sentenced He was told by Judge Peter Fox to seven years in jail for raping QC that he must serve a two young prostitutes at minimum of 35 years in prison k n i f e p o i n t . before he can be considered for He was released from prison in release. 2001 and has since been Miss Hall, from Darlington, suspected of carrying out a was strangled and dumped in a number of attacks – none of the farmer’s field near Sedgefield, cases went to trial. County Durham, in October last In September last year, he made year. contact with Ashleigh, who was Ashleigh’s mother Andrea Hall attracted by a picture of a

handsome young man that Chapman had posted on the Facebook. He pretended the image was a true picture of himself and called himself Peter Cartwright. Ashleigh was one of 173 people to accept him as a friend on the networking site, almost all of whom were young women The night before Ashleigh’s body was found, she told her mother she was going to stay with a friend, but had decided to go and meet her internet friend. Unemployed Chapman who used to live in Kirkby, Liverpool, and has links to Teesside, was arrested by traffic police on suspicion of minor motoring offences soon after he left her fully clothed body. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Ford's First EV Isn't Sexy, But It's Smart Chuck Squatriglia (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:26:00 AM

Ford’s first mass-market

electric vehicle isn’t a sexy sports car. It isn’t a sleek sedan. And it isn’t cool compact. It’s a van. A delivery van, to be exact, designed specifically for fleet

use. It isn’t the sexiest way to break into the electric arena, but it’s a smart move for Ford and a logical place for EVs.

mountainous Flat Tops Wilderness Area. Highway crews working with GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. flashlights said the slide left two A 17-mile stretch of Interstate large holes in a westbound 70 has been closed in western bridge, one of them about 10 Colorado after a rock slide feet by 20 feet. All lanes were punched gaping holes in a blocked by boulders, some the bridge and left huge boulders on size of a tractor-trailer rig. the highway. Some of the boulders are so big T h e s l i d e s t r u c k a r o u n d they will have to be blown apart midnight Sunday near the with explosives before they can H a n g i n g L a k e T u n n e l i n be hauled away, Stegman said. Glenwood Canyon, a deep and Crews planned to do a more narrow chasm about 110 miles thorough assessment in daylight. west of Denver, the Colorado A 1995 rock slide on I-70 in Department of Transportation Glenwood Canyon killed three said. people. No injuries or damage to A slide on Thanksgiving day in vehicles were reported. 2004 closed the highway and All lanes are closed from required nearly $700,000 worth Glenwood Springs east to the of repairs. No one was hurt town of Dotsero. Up to 25,000 b e c a u s e t h e h i g h w a y h a d vehicles a day travel that previously been closed for an section, CDOT spokeswoman unrelated crash. Stacy Stegman said. Click here for more from Officials haven't determined KDVR.com how long the highway will be Five Filters featured article: closed, Stegman said. Because Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: of the rugged terrain, the PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, shortest detour is more than 200 Term Extraction. miles long, around the Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:13:50 AM

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Online Retail: Getting the Right Product in Front of Your Customers Vijay Chittoor (Inc.com)

two subtle announcements that have the potential of completely transforming how users search After surviving the bust at the for products. The first affected end of the '90s, online retail has Google's organic (or unpaid) done quite well in the first results, when the company decade of the new millennium. launched what it called rich From being just 0.6 percent of snippets, using microformats all retail in early 2000,online a n d R e s o u r c e D e s c r i p t i o n commerce has now grown to Frameworka (RDFa) standards. account for nearly 4 percent of Google was late to the game, as all retail in the United States. In Yahoo had already announced this article, we review some similar support a year ago. The technology trends that are likely s e c o n d c h a n g e a p p l i e d t o to further accelerate this trend. Adwords, Google's paid search Our focus will be around program, when the search looking at technologies that help engine started listing richer consumers find the right product product listing ads from retail easily as well as help retailers advertisers, displaying an image put the right merchandise in of the product, the price, and front of customers. many other attributes. These ads W h i l e m o s t o f t h e s e will be priced on a "cost per technologies trends apply to a action" basis, as opposed to the wide spectrum of applications, standard "cost per click" model t h e i r i m p a c t o n o n l i n e that's offered for all other commerce deserves a special Adwords advertisers. m e n t i o n . M a n y o f t h e s e It is interesting that Google's technologies have been around rich snippets were first rolled for a while, but it's only now out only for 2 applications, one that they are gaining wide of which is closely related to adoption. online commerce: Semantic Web and structured â&#x20AC;˘ Providing a summary of data reviews, when searching for The semantic Web and p r o d u c t s o r s e r v i c e s . â&#x20AC;˘ structured data will make Distinguishing between people product search dramatically with similar names, when better. Last year, Google made s e a r c h i n g f o r a p e r s o n . Submitted at 3/8/2010 5:04:00 AM

Similarly, Google's CPA program was also rolled out only for product searches. Search-engines are already a very important tool for online shoppers, and a Nielsen study had found that more than one third of shoppers use search engines. Richer snippets and richer ads will make search engines even more important to shoppers, and consequently to retailers. According to Yahoo, "enhanced search results" drive 15 percent more clickthroughs for many websites. With results like that, it's no wonder that adoption is picking up among websites. In the same blog post, Yahoo reported an increase of more than 400% in the RDFs structured data driven by Search Monkey. Best Buy recently released their entire product catalog in RDFa, perhaps becoming the first Fortune-500 company to join this trend, and has reportedly seen strong results. Recommendations and personalization engines Recommendations and personalization engines are now available as plug and play components. Outside of search, one of the most important ways for shoppers to discover

products has been through recommendation engines. Personalization and recommendation engines have been around for a while and have been a strong driver of sales. For example, Amazon's recommendation system was said to account for up to 35 percent of sales in 2006. Recently, the adoption of recommendation engines has increased substantially because of the emergence of third party services that are easy to plug into your ecommerce store. For instance Urban Outfitters has seen a triple digit percentage increase in sale by using a solution offered by Baynote. Other companies like Mybuys and Certona also deliver hosted solutions for personalization. Creating application programming interfaces (APIs) Creating APIs that distribute products across the Web is easier. Over the last few years, the Web is increasingly becoming a collection of Web services that can be accessed through APIs. Retailers like Ebay and Amazon have for a long time used APIs to expose their data to the external world, primarily to affiliates and partners who then sell these

products at other places on the Web. Now many traditional retailers are jumping into the fray, utilizing services that make it easier to create and manage APIs. For instance, Best Buy recently launched Best Buy Remix powered by API management infrastructure from Mashery. In addition to these, in one of my previous columns I had written about how the real time Web is becoming an increasingly important tool, and how companies like Dell are using it to increase their online retail sales. The increasing adoption of these technologies sets up online commerce for an exciting new decade, for shoppers as well as for retailers. Vijay Chittoor is a co-founder of Six Times Seven. He was previously director of product management at Kosmix. A former McKinsey consultant, Chittoor is a graduate of Harvard Business School and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He shares his thoughts on technology at his blog.

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Windows 7 Tips n' Tricks for Business Marc Saltzman (Inc.com)

way to manage and access documents and other files you need," says Microsoft's Sandrine So you've purchased Windows Skinner, a director within the 7, Microsoft's latest and greatest Windows 7 small business operating system, and found it group. "I know a manager of a to be fast, stable and full of personal staffing company, for features to support your small to example, and she uses pinning mid-sized business. to prepare the desktop for temp Critics agree the Redmond, workers." Wash. software giant have their It's a snap mojo back, after delivering the You've got a widescreen laptop much-maligned Windows Vista or computer monitor, so why a few years back. aren't you taking advantage of To get even more out of the this added real estate? leaner and meaner Windows 7 Windows 7 makes it easy to do for your growing business, here just that by letting you view w e p r o v i d e a h a n d f u l o f multiple files or applications at productivity-enhancing tips and the same time. Called " Snap," tricks -- with some help from s i m p l y o p e n a c o u p l e o f the experts. programs -- such as Microsoft One-click access Office and Internet Explorer 8 -Windows 7 lets you " pin" large a n d t h e n h o l d d o w n t h e icons to the taskbar for a one- Windows key (beside Alt) click launch of your favorite before using the right or left applications or files. To do this, arrow keys to snap them beside simply right mouse-click on a each other. You can also drag file or program icon and one of and drop content from one to the your options will be to "Pin to other (such as a website photo Taskbar." Run your mouse over into Paint or highlighted text these taskbar icons and you'll into Word). see a live preview of what's Lock it up inside as a thumbnail image -- Your employees likely carry and even multiple websites open around a laptop, netbook, or as "tabs" in your browser. USB thumbdrive with company "A lot of people rave about this data on it, but what happens if feature as it's a fast and easy the computer or drive is lost or Submitted at 3/7/2010 11:01:00 PM

stolen? The Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Windows 7 include " BitLocker" protection that can encrypt files or folders - preventing anyone from accessing them unless they know the password. Simply right-click on a drive letter (such as F:) in Windows Explorer to enable BitLocker protection. "This reduces the risk in case the device goes missing, and makes up for the fact that employees, consciously or not, don't always put data security at the top of their to do list," says Carmi Levy, an independent technology analyst based in London, Ontario. "With the BitLocker To Go feature activated, however, nothing gets copied unless the target device is encrypted." Kick it old school It's not secret Windows Vista was plagued with software and hardware compatibility issues, therefore Microsoft made this one of the top priorities in Windows 7 -- including an optional " Windows XP mode" for those businesses who need it. "We've heard companies tell us 'this software here is my bread and butter and if it's not compatible with Windows 7 I

won't upgrade," explains Skinner. "We listened." To serve and protect No computer should ever be powered on unless it has at least some protection against malware -- such as viruses, spyware, rootkits and the like -especially for computers used for business. "While full-blown security suites from market leaders like McAfee and Symantec do a better job, the free Microsoft Security Essentials tools, along with Windows Defender and Windows Firewall, are more than adequate, and should be activated no matter what other solutions you have in place," advises Levy. Get outta my way If things get too cluttered because of multiple programs open at the same time -- such as a Web browser, word document, calculator, e-mail, and sticky notes -- simply grab hold of the program you want to see clearly, by clicking and holding on the top bar of the window, and give your mouse a shake left and right. This will automatically minimize everything else. Do it again and it brings back all the apps that were minimized.

Oscar Upset: Avatar Loses to The Hurt Locker Hugh Hart (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/8/2010 5:57:00 AM

Avatar lost the Best Picture Oscar Sunday to The Hurt Locker. Avatar filmmaker

James Cameron also ceded the best director accolade to Locker director Kathryn Bigelow, who

steered the Iraq War movie to the Academy Awardsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; top honor.

How massage therapy can benefit children with autism (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:09:18 AM

According to a new study, massage therapy may be beneficial for children with autism. The study followed sixty autistic children, between the ages of three and ten, as they received eight weeks of either Thai massage or sensory integration therapy. By the end of the treatment period, both groups of children showed significant improvements in conduct problems and anxiety. They also had an easier time sleeping, better classroom concentration, and more productive social intereactions. Full story at About.com. Learn more about autism. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment Âť

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No iPad Tethering, but Games for Days: Steve Jobs Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:51:33 AM

It's just 25 days 'til iPad arrives on sale in some global locations, and the fever's mounting. To spur it on, Apple pushed its first ad during the Oscars, which Steve Jobs was at. He's also been emailing fans to confirm some details too. The Oscars The Oscars, like 'em or loathe 'em, count as one of the most viewed TV events around the World...making them an absolutely perfect platform for Apple to tease its upcoming tablet PC. The glamor, the glitz, the very media-centric nature of the show all tie in sweetly with the iPad phenomenon. And it all acts to accelerate the typical prelaunch hype Apple uses to get everyone excited in the several months between it launches a new product and it arriving on sale. iPad-to-iPhone Tethering When he launched the iPad back in January, Steve did a neat job of showing the World how cool the device is (without having to resort to his trademark "Boom!" either) but he also kept a lot of information back, leaving plenty of room for rumors. And for Apple to maybe add in some surprising "extra" features before it actually launches--just as it did for the iPhone. One of the key features that

Jobs (and Apple, on the iPad Web page) omitted was details on iPad 3G tethering to supply mobile Net to a PC. We know the iPhone can do it (mine's happily connected up right now to write this piece in fact--but then I am not in the U.S. with your ever-so-friendly AT&T) and the assumption as soon as we learned the iPad ran iPhone OS was that it would be able to too. Sure enough, code fragments inside the SDK have revealed it to be true--and

frankly, it's not surprising. But what we didn't know is if the iPad Wi-fi version could tether to a 3G iPhone. This concept also makes sense on a practical level, as who'd want to pay for two 3G connections if you're carrying both devices frequently. Well, we now know that lots of people will have to do this--Steve just did one of his famous short emails to a answer a question that a member of the public in Sweden put to him on this very matter. And all Steve

said in response was "No," the iPad won't tether to an iPhone. It's a shame, but it's probably a feature of business negotiations with 3G carriers who are concerned about potential lost revenue and network overloading. Will this news play into user's decisions on which iPad version to buy? It's definitely influenced mine. Battery Life Another little gem Steve revealed by email (from his iPad --neat!) answered a question

concerning the claimed 10 hour life of the iPad. The figure seems phenomenal--and it's been used as part of the long running Flash fiasco--and it's a key statistic in the iPad's battle to steal some of the Amazon Kindle's market, with its huge battery life. So, when a skeptic quizzed Steve about the matter, he felt the need to step in: "... yes we are getting 10 hours in 1.5 IPAD page 16

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IPAD continued from page 15

pounds" of iPad weight. Of course, no one apart from Apple Submitted at 3/7/2010 10:05:00 PM employees have really put the figure to the test yet, since The state of entrepreneurship nobody has gotten their hands education and training in U.S. on one for long enough. Only schools has declined sharply, then will we see if the figures with a 2008 survey of experts been consistent even though the y o u n g a g e c u l t i v a t e s a n likely requires more than adding ring true. And for Apple's sake rating it barely half as good as it pool of experts has changed – entrepreneurial spirit early on, new courses," concludes the they better had, since all this was in 2005. The findings are with the U.S. and Spain being but college-level training is report. Educators and policy hype will result in one or two p a r t o f t h e G l o b a l the exception. "Clearly, this i m p o r t a n t t o o , b e c a u s e i t makers may need to move (almost inevitable) class action E n t r e p r e n e u r s h i p M o n i t o r issue is of concern to experts," validates entrepreneurship as a b e y o n d o n - s i t e u n i v e r s i t y law suits. (GEM) Special Report: A write the report's five authors, potential career path," says programs and consider Internet- Games G l o b a l P e r s p e c t i v e o n including Babson professor Kelley. "Besides skill-building, based learning or creative As soon as the iPad's screen Entrepreneurship Education and Donna Kelley. Ratings of non- training increases an individual's computer applications, the latter size was confirmed, it was clear Training, released today at s c h o o l e n t r e p r e n e u r s h i p awareness of entrepreneurship of which "may attract and hold that it'd be even more perfect as Babson College, the project's education – such as self-study or and their intent to start a the interest of some people, a gaming platform than the lead sponsor and co-founder. Internet courses – also have b u s i n e s s , a n d i m p r o v e s influencing their attitudes iPhone or iPod Touch--all that GEM teams conduct surveys in declined in the U.S., although perceptions about their ability to t o w a r d – a n d t h e i r extra real-estate and resolution 31 countries, polling a sample of nowhere near as sharply as that do so." (According to the report, u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f – is just asking to be exploited. people who are considered of the formal programs. The college dropouts Bill Gates and entrepreneurship." Other study And now Secret Exit has e x p e r t s i n s o m e 1 0 a r e a s r e p o r t a l s o s h o w e d t h a t Steve Jobs may make for findings: Across 38 countries revealed screenshots of its iPad including financial support for instruction for innovators "interesting news stories" but (not including the U.S.), Finland version of the runaway iPhone entrepreneurs, bureaucracy, and w o r l d w i d e i s i n a d e q u a t e , they don't represent the typical and Chile – both countries with success story Zen Bound, and taxes, and, of course, education especially in primary and entrepreneur, "particularly for government policies designed to they look utterly gorgeous. i t s e l f . T h e e x p e r t s r a t e secondary schools – which also businesses with knowledge- spur entrepreneurship – had the They're also the first big conditions such as whether the happens to be where most of the based products and services.") highest levels of training. Men screenshots of an iPad-only education system "encourages formal training occurs, and One problem with beefing up were more likely than women to game. creativity, self-sufficiency and where it has greater impact. A e n t r e p r e n e u r i a l e d u c a t i o n : pursue training, and the young Zen Bound 2 does lend itself personal initiative," and whether 2009 World Economic Forum University doctorate programs were more likely to have been perfectly to the touchscreen and it provides "adequate instruction report found that the earlier aren't producing enough faculty trained in start-up techniques, accelerometers in the device, of in market economic principles." p e o p l e a r e e x p o s e d t o to meet demand – and the thanks to their being included in c o u r s e . A n d t h o u g h i t ' s Although training has received entrepreneurship, the more faculty available may be too many countries' educational beautiful, it's hardly graphically low ratings every year since the l i k e l y t h e y ' l l b e c o m e narrowly specialized. "The systems in recent years. intense. So we've yet to see how surveys began in 2000, the entrepreneurs in some format d e v e l o p m e n t o f e f f e c t i v e the iPad's A4 processor copes ratings in most countries have during their lives. "Training at a programs for entrepreneurship with serious 3-D graphics. It won't be long though. To learn more about iPad as its Gary Wolf (Wired Top Stories) The history of using mice as with failures. Science uses the sending it into a future where launch date approaches, follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter. tiny stand-ins for humans in lab mouse today to explore the flesh is blended with code. Submitted at 3/7/2010 9:00:00 PM medical experiments is replete limits of biological systems, Courtney Rubin (Inc.com)

How the Inbred Lab Mouse Helps Reprogram Human Genome

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White House Tweets, but How Many People Are Listening? Addy Dugdale (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:53:49 AM

Cast your minds back to 2008. As well as the traditional settings of TV, radio and print, the race for the White House saw a new battleground: that of social media. The presidential campaign of Barack Obama used Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook to good effect, alongside a massive online push for fundraising. Fifteen months on, Twitter is still being used, but this time as a tool for spreading the President's message. But, post election, does it work? The White House's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, is a voracious tweeter. With 33,000 followers (his deputy, Bill Burton, boasts 6,000) he uses those 140 characters for anything from the U.S.'s prowess in the Winter Olympics, announcing Obama's first press conference, to posting links to articles that reflect government policy. But, given

that someone like Ashton Kutcher can boast over four and a half million followers on his Twitter account-- POTUS has, at the time of writing, 3,384,285 followers--just how useful can Twitter be to a government in power? We all know that the birds do it (but let's not forget about the bees and the educated fleas), and even the U.S. state departments have twitter feeds. Susan Rice, Obama's ambassador to the UN has got an account--although maybe her somewhat Lilliputian 1,496 followers can be put down to the

fact that she's only been tweeting since January. But maybe it's more than that. Only last week the Environmental Protection Agency started tweeting, and Lisa P. Jackson has already got one call wrong: she thought Avatar would win Best Picture at last night's Oscars. Oops. I have a little theory about why social media works so well in an election campaign. It's because it's war, chaps. Every four years the country gets enthused about who's going to be roller-skating down the corridors of power next (but let's not forget the age-

old adage of not voting governments in, but voting them out) and a clever campaign (Obama enlisted the services of Chris Hughes, who'd lent a hand to classmate Mark Zuckerberg when he was starting up Facebook) and red goes mano-amano with blue. Once a new administration is in, however, the hubbub dies down--and the figures support that. People just want the powers that be to roll up their sleeves and get on with the job of improving people's lives. If you think that just 60,000 people watched Obama speak

on the subject of health care to Congress, with 20,000 of them staying behind to quiz officials about the speech, that's not what I'd call interaction with the public on a grand scale. Director of New Media at the White House, Macon Phillips, claimed that it gave the administration "a taste of what questions the actual public had in raw form, rather than simply the questions cable news and Beltway pundits have." Which begs the question: just how many non-journos and policy wonks were watching? [Via Breitbart]

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BBC survey: Net access is basic right (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:04:29 AM

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Inc. 5000 Applicant of the Week: Twenty20 Sarah Kessler (Inc.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 1:13:00 AM

As applications for the 2010 Inc. 500 | 5000 arrive, we thought it would be worthwhile to shine a spotlight on some of the companies that are vying to appear on our ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. (For more information and to apply, go to http://www.inc.com/inc5000app ly/2010/.) One that caught our eye was Seattle-based Twenty20.The front tire of the motorcycle tilts at an impossible angle on the ice as it pulls through a turn and toward an opponent who is blowing a stream of snow powder behind him. You watch in horror as the man ahead suddenly swerves to the ice and out of the video frame, only to appear smiling and waving from a stretcher in the next shot. This is just one of many moments in Motorcycle Ice Racing that was made recordable by co-founders Marc Barros and Jason Green's wearable camcorder business, Twenty20. The company makes two versions of a tube-shaped, high-definition camcorder called the ContourHD that can be

attached to helmets, goggles, handle bars, or cars to capture adventure sports from the perspective of the participants. "There's been everything from paintballing to cooking," Barros says. "Anything where you have your hands on the wheel, on the pole, or on the gun, and you want to record video." Almost 50,000 cameras were sold in more than 50 countries last year, and more than 25,000 videos have been uploaded to the Twenty20 site. But Barros and Green didn't imagine they

would have such success when they began Twenty20 as students at the University of Washington. At the time, they simply liked to ski and wanted to show their friends what they were doing. They won their start -up capital in a business plan competition. "We got third place, and the prize was 20 grand, so it was either a keg party or a company, and we decided company," Barros says. From there, they cold-called a designer who they eventually convinced to create a hands-free

camera. The original version could be worn on a helmet, but needed to be attached with a wire to a video recorder in a backpack. Sales weren't exactly taking off, the pair was working from a garage with no heat, and Barros's mother asked him when he was going to get a real job.Things turned around when Twenty20 launched the first wireless wearable camcorder in January 2008, which made it possible for adventurers to film hands-free with the flip of one button and to easily share their

Four In Five Consider Web Access A Fundamental Right Reuters (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:44:00 AM

Four in five adults believe access to the Internet is a fundamental right â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with those

feelings particularly strong in South Korea and China â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and half believe it should never be

regulated, according to a global survey.

video on the company's website. In 2009, the company released two HD versions of the product and received a tremendous response that facilitated the growth of the company to 25 employees. Revenue tripled within a single year, and the days of working in a cold garage and living off of PBJ seemed further away than ever."The company took off like a rocket ship," Barros says.

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Pixel Qi Skips Shows You How to Bolt a Power-Saving Screen Into Your Laptop, Sidesteps Manufacturer Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:57:32 AM

Pixel Qi' s screen tech is impressive in many ways, and neatly solves the e-ink versus LCD question at one stroke. It's curiously not available on many devices, however. Until now, that is: Pixel Qi is releasing a DIY mod kit for your laptop. The company's CEO Mary Lou Jepsen revealed the plan in a blog posting yesterday. "The DIY kits from our distributors will be available towards the end of Q2. We will be announcing with them prior to distribution" is the important part, revealing we can expect bolt-in Pixel Qi units sometime in June. The inspiration comes from Jepsen's work in Nigeria where an 11 year-old girl opened a "laptop hospital" to fix broken OLPCs that suffered falls, bumps, and scrapes. As Jepsen notes, "Most people are scared to change their laptop screen,"

but in reality, "It's only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb: It's basically 6 screws, pulling off a bezel, unconnecting the old screen and plugging this one in. That's it. It's a 5 minute operation." Pixel Qi's screens offer significant benefits over plain old LCDs that are usually found in laptops and netbooks: It's a lower power than "normal" LCDs when in LCD mode, and

also switches to a sunlightviewable e-ink-esque mode that consumes much less power while also retaining full color capability. These benefits will be tempting to many netbook users who are looking for better battery performance or outdoors -reading capability. Jepsen's promoting the ease of performing the mod--and she's right, though you'll have to be gentle and confident when

tinkering with the ribbon connector that actually hooks the screen up to the PC's motherboard. The idea has set us wondering, though, about exactly how successful Pixel Qi's business model is. The tech is undoubtedly clever, but as I noted above it's not something you see utilized in many places-Pixel Qi is obviously having a hard time breaking into the

Iron Man 2 Trailer Hits YouTube Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/8/2010 12:47:09 AM

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s here: The biggest action movie for gadget geeks, Iron Man, returns with a sequel, and you can see just how high tech

itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll all be in the Iron Man 2 trailer, now available on YouTube. Besides a long-haired, electric whip-wielding Mickey Rourke, the movie features more iron desire, and you get to see most man suits than you could ever

of them ripped to shreds. Yes, this thing is destined for success. Check out the trailer below. Tags: Film, Iron Man 2, trending, video, youtube

supplier chain between screen makers and PC manufacturers. It's not a surprise, given the billions of dollars big names like LG have invested in fab plants, and the multi-million dollar deals these companies sign up to with makers like Apple...but it is a shame. Maybe the company will achieve better success with this new DIY system. [ PixelQi via PCWorld]

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Ubisoft's 'You Must Be Connected To This Server' Annoying DRM Servers Go Down Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:12:00 AM

Sometimes you have to wonder if folks like Ubisoft, who keep insisting that it needs to use DRM, are just messing with everyone. As you certainly know, Ubisoft decided to go with some incredibly annoying DRM for some new games, requiring you to be online at all times, even for single-player games. So, what happens? The servers that you must be connected to crashed, making those games completely unplayable for many, while creating lengthy login delays for others. That basically makes the game useless for many. Well, unless you downloaded the cracked version. Once again, Dan Nosowitz (Fast however. They work via a BlackBerry, will be coming out impressed with the build quality DRM is shown to harm buyers, Company) magnetic field, but gadgets in a few months. The Hug's got of both the case and the dock; b u t d o n o t h i n g t o s t o p (aside from the Palm Pre Plus) a lot of great features, like smart they've got a nice solid heft and u n a u t h o r i z e d u s e . Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:55:47 AM don't have the required magnetic charging, which switches the feel to them, and the case feels Permalink| Comments| Email The Case-Mate Hug is a parts, so you need to use a case. power off once your iPhone is like it actually would provide This Story wireless inductive charger, a lot It's a little lame, but if you were fully charged to conserve some protection. like the Powermat or Palm's p l a n n i n g o n u s i n g a c a s e b a t t e r y l i f e . I t ' s a l s o The Case-Mate Hug is available Touchstone. Inductive chargers anyway, Case-Mate's solution significantly better-looking than starting today online and at most let you plop your gadget down e s s e n t i a l l y a d d s w i r e l e s s the Powermat, and is actually retailers. The kit sells for $100, onto a special surface for charging (which is undeniably cheaper once the Powermat's and includes the dock, case, and charging, rather than fiddling cool) for just a bit more money. required case is factored in a screen protection kit. around with wires--and the Hug The Hug is compatible with the (about $30 cheaper at Amazon). [ Case-Mate] is one of the best out there. iPhone 3G and 3G S only, for I played with the Hug at CES Inductive chargers aren't magic, now--other models, including t h i s y e a r a n d w a s v e r y

WANTED: Case-Mate Hug

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Oldest person in US dies in NH at age 114 (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

recorded as the oldest person ever to live in New Hampshire. The oldest living American is WESTMORELAND, N.H. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; now Neva Morris, of Ames, Mary Josephine Ray, the New Iowa, at age 114 years, 216 Hampshire woman who was days. The oldest person in the certified as the oldest person world is Japan's Kama Chinen at living in the United States, has age 114 years, 301 days. died at age 114 years, 294 days. Ray was born May 17, 1895, in She died Sunday at a nursing Bloomfield, Prince Edward home in Westmoreland but was Island, Canada. She moved to active until about two weeks the United States at age 3. before her death, her She lived for 60 years in granddaughter Katherine Ray Anson, Maine. She lived in said. Florida, Massachusetts and "She just enjoyed life. She never elsewhere in New Hampshire thought of dying at all," b e f o r e s h e m o v e d t o Katherine Ray said. "She was Westmoreland in 2002 to be planning for her birthday party." near her children. Even with her recent decline, Ray's husband, Walter, died in Ray managed an interview with 1967. Survivors include two a r e p o r t e r l a s t w e e k , h e r sons, eight grandchildren, 13 granddaughter said. great-grandchildren and five The Gerontology Research great-great grandchildren. Group says that Ray was the Five Filters featured article: Hollywood. One's serious. The are all kinds of other fascinating oldest person in the United Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: other's silly. nuggets. The most expensive States and the second-oldest in PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, The first: Hollywood by the movie ever made? Not Avatar: t h e w o r l d . S h e w a s a l s o Term Extraction. Numbers. What's surprising Next up: Not much to say about about all these stats is that amid Flowing Data's chart of famous all the talk of Hollywood movie quotes, depicted as floundering, movies remain both g r a p h s . E x c e p t t h a t i t ' s a tremendous deal--and an a w e s o m e : experience which, by audience, [Via We Love Data Vis and dwarfs any other form of live Flowing Data] entertainment. And then there Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:11:14 AM

Infographics of the Day: Movie Madness! Cliff Kuang (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:58:46 AM

Post Oscar, two infographics about the film industry. How about those Oscars? The Hurt Locker! Avatar :( We're still a little bleary-eyed from our Oscar viewing, so we couldn't chose between two infographics, both about

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Did Google Ignore A Takedown On The Italian Video? Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/8/2010 4:22:15 AM

Totally inspiring story of Pandora (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:12:00 AM

Do you use Pandora? It’s the music service that helps you find music that you’d like. It’s been around for ten years now and has frequently been on the edge of death. Now it has 48 million users and did $50 million in revenue in 2009. The company will probably do $100 million this year. CEO Tim Westergren and his

team have shown how perseverance, a great product, and nimbleness can yield success. Pandora is a great inspiration for tech entrepreneurs. The New York Times has a great profile of the company where you can learn how: • Tim made 348 pitches to venture capitalists to raise money. • He couldn’t pay his employees for two years.

• 35,000 people a day were installing the Pandora iPhone app. Disclosure: Garage Technology Ventures is an investor in Pandora (because of the efforts of Geoff Baum). Full story at New York Times. Total tech news. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

As the arguments continue over the Italian verdict convicting Google execs of criminal privacy violations for a video on Google Video, there is one interesting tidbit that's now coming out. One issue is that the judge has only released the verdict, not the full reasoning -and that's leading to an awful lot of speculation. But now, Stefano has alerted us to reports claiming that Google had received an earlier takedown request which it had ignored. Throughout the case, Google had insisted that within hours of receiving a takedown notice from the police, it had complied. But, apparently, the prosecutors are claiming that there definitely was an earlier takedown. So now we go back to our post from last week about the law, and whether or not Google had sufficient notification for a takedown. Part of the problem appears to be that current EU law does not clearly state the process for a valid takedown. In the US, at least, with the DMCA, the process for what counts as a valid takedown and

how it needs to be delivered is extremely clear. And that way you can guarantee what is, and what is not, sufficient notice that requires a takedown. In this situation, where the law is not clear, you are left with a problem of interpreting what counts as sufficient notification. But that brings us to the second issue: even if Google was notified, but somehow missed the notification, does that then mean that it makes sense to convict three totally unrelated executives of criminal charges? It still sounds like that would be a massive leap. At worst-- if we take as a given (and I'm not saying it's true, but for sake of argument, let's say it was true) that Google was sent a takedown notice which it ignored -- I would think that it would make sense to fine Google and require it to have a clear process for handling takedowns. To go beyond that and criminally charge and convict three totally unrelated execs because it took a second notice to get the video taken down seems pretty ridiculous. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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Online retailers poised for further growth (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:53:06 AM

The online retail trade in both the U.S. and Western Europe is in store for double-digit growth over the next five years, according to Forrester Research. The U.S. online retail business is likely to grow 10 percent a year compounded annually, reaching $249 billion by 2014, according to the report "US Online Retail Forecast, 2009 To 2014," released Monday. Online firms in Western Europe, meanwhile, are eyeing an 11 percent annual gain over the next five years, hitting 114 billion euros ($155.7 billion) by 2014, according to a second Forrester report out Monday, "Western European Online Retail Forecast, 2009 To 2014." Last year, as consumers continued to weather a recessionary economy, 154 million people in the U.S. bought items online, about 67 percent of the total number of online users and a 4 percent rise

from 2008. Those numbers helped the online retail trade grow 11 percent over the prior year, ringing up $155.2 billion in sales, according to Forrester. A brisk holiday shopping season helped buoy the numbers for the overall year, according to a number of market watchers. In the U.S., the hottest online retail categories have been and will continue to be clothing (apparel, footwear, and accessories); consumer electronics; and computers (hardware, software, and peripherals). Those three markets already capture around 40 perent of all online retail sales across the country. Online sales of apparel, footwear, and accessories hit $27 billion alone last year, a 17 percent jump over 2008. Since younger and more tech-savvy buyers are the ones most likely to buy clothes online, Forrester expects this market to outpace that of overall online retail sales over the next few years. In 2009, consumer electronics

also saw growth of 17 percent over the preceding year. This category is particularly suited for online sales since consumers can easily compare products, look for low prices, and read reviews on the Web. Last year's online sales of computer hardware, software, and peripherals weren't as strong, advancing only 7 percent over 2008 to reach $27 billion, notes Forrester. Since more than 90 million U.S. homes already own a PC, this market will continue to depend heavily on new technologies and devices like Netbooks. In Western Europe, clothing is also one of the top online trades, but books and event tickets are popular sellers as well. Online growth in the more mature Northern European region will probably lag gains in the Mediterranean countries, says Forrester. But the U.K. will likely remain the largest market, where online sales make up 35 percent of the total Western European segment, currently

Alex Jones on Fox News At Last (Little Green Footballs)

been one of the most persistent; he introduced Jones on his Fox News webcast as “the one, the Fox News and the right wing only, the great Alex Jones.” k o o k o s p h e r e h a v e b e e n GOP Rep. Ron Paul has a gradually bringing insane 9/11 r e g u l a r f e a t u r e o n J o n e s ’ Truther Alex Jones into the conspiracy radio show. And mainstream for the past year. Jones now has a permanent link Judge Andrew Napolitano has to his site infowars.com at Submitted at 3/7/2010 12:42:42 PM

Drudge Report. Well, last night Fox News finally stopped tiptoeing around and put Jones on Geraldo Rivera’s mindless show, to ask him if the shooting spree by right wing extremist John Patrick Bedell will “stick to the 9/11 Truther people.” The

worth around 40 billion euros ($54.6 billion). Online shopping in Europe has progressed over the past few years, moving from early adopters to more mainstream users. More than half of online buyers across Europe say they find products on the Web that they can't find elsewhere, according to Forrester. Consumers have flocked to online stores for a variety of reasons, notes Forrester. Convenience, selection, value, and price are all key drivers. But buyers appreciate the richer and more innovative shopping experiences offered by more Web sites. Retailers have also attracted more customers and boosted sales by maintaining leaner inventories and providing social shopping tools. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Optimizing Your Savings - from Consumer Reports Press Room (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 3/7/2010 9:00:59 PM

Optimizing Your Savings from Consumer Reports Americans are saving more since the economic downturn started in 2008. But interest rates are in the basement. Consumer Reports' financial experts tell you how to optimize your savings. Podcast Optimizing Your Savings Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

Got Mail? Cris Stoddard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 3/7/2010 4:45:54 PM

• About Flickr Flickr is a revolution in photo storage, sharing and organization, making photo management an easy, natural idiocy. It burns. Jones complained that people and collaborative process. Get “demonize” 9/11 Truthers, comments, notes, and tags on which is one of the most your photos, post to any blog, hilarious things I’ve ever heard. share and more! T h e y ’ r e s e l f - Five Filters featured article: d e m o n i z i n g . [ V i d e o ] Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Europe 'supergrid' hopefuls cast fate Report: China Unicom to wind preps iPhones with WiFi (CNET News.com)

wind power to make better use of Europe's growing green energy capacity. Ten companies pushing to build decade. Last October Britain and a pan-European offshore power "We now need to integrate this Norway began studying linking network that could help cut huge resource into Europe to up the world's longest subsea carbon emissions and cost e n a b l e t h e o p e n t r a d e o f power cable to share energy customers over 20 billion euros electricity between Member from wind farms in the North got together in London on States," Mainstream Renewable Sea when it is windy and Nordic Power's Chief Executive Eddie hydropower when it is not. Monday. T h e F r i e n d s o f t h e O'Connor said. The 10 companies in the FOSG S u p e r g r i d ( F O S G ) b r i n g s "The Friends of the Supergrid is are 3E, Areva, DEME Blue together companies that want to uniquely placed to influence E n e r g y , E l i a , H o c h t i e f build the High Voltage Direct policy-makers toward creating C o n s t r u c t i o n , M a i n s t r e a m Current (HVDC) infrastructure the Supergrid and ultimately Renewable Power, Parsons together with those that hope to changing how we generate, Brinckerhoff, Prysmian Cables develop, install, own, and transmit and consume electricity and Systems, Siemens, and for generations to come." operate it. Visser & Smit Marine Building interconnectors to link Around 57 billion euros ($83 C o n t r a c t i n g . offshore wind farms across the b i l l i o n ) o f c u m u l a t i v e Story Copyright (c) 2010 North Sea from Sweden and investments in wind energy is Reuters Limited. All rights Denmark to Britain could cost expected by 2020 to build 40 reserved. 15 billion to 20 billion euros, g i g a w a t t s o f g e n e r a t i n g Five Filters featured article: a c c o r d i n g t o a r e p o r t capacity, according to the Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: commissioned by Greenpeace, E u r o p e a n W i n d E n e r g y PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, in addition to the tens of billions A s s o c i a t i o n . Term Extraction. needed to build the wind farms Backers say a "supergrid" could t h e m s e l v e s o v e r t h e n e x t compensate for the variability of Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:48:00 AM

The New 'Dancing With The Stars' Co-host Announced! (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 3/8/2010 5:50:00 AM

ET has the latest... The premiere of the upcoming season of"Dancing With The

Stars" is only two weeks away and now former champ Brooke Burke has been named the new co-host! Current co-host Tom Bergeron announced the big news on

"Good Morning America" this morning. The new season of "Dancing With The Stars" debuts March 22 on ABC.

(CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:13:14 AM

China Unicom is working with Apple to finally launch a Wi-Fi version of the iPhone, according to The Wall Street Journal. The iPhone hit China in October, but sans Wi-Fi. Chinese regulations had prohibited the sale of any Wi-Fi device that does not use the country's own wireless standard known as WAPI (Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure). As a result, Apple was forced to introduce the iPhone with Wi-Fi disabled in order to enter the Chinese market without delays. Due to a relaxation of rules, devices sold in China can offer Wi-Fi as long as they also include WAPI. Speaking with reporters at the National People's Congress, Unicom Chairman Chang Xiaobing said Saturday that the change in regulations has opened the door for a new iPhone with built-in Wi-Fi, the Journal reported. He gave no specific launch date for the new phone but did say the company would try to compensate users of current

iPhones that lack Wi-Fi, possibly by giving them greater access to the 3G network. iPhone sales in China have been brisk but likely restrained by a couple of factors. The phone sells for $730 to $1,020, according to the Journal, much higher than gray market smartphones and iPhone knockoffs. And without Wi-Fi, Chinese users have been forced to tap into expensive 3G connections. Unicom's chairman acknowledged the high cost of iPhone ownership in his country and said his company will try to lower the cost if possible. China Unicom is currently the only carrier in that country to offer the iPhone, although Apple has conducted on-again, offagain talks with China Mobile. China Unicom also indicated it will be selling Android-based smartphones. The launch of Android phones in China was postponed earlier this year due to strained relations between Google and the Chinese government. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Mac 101: Use the tab key in more dialog boxes TJ Luoma (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Michael Rose (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:30:00 AM

Filed under: Mac 101 TUAW reader Cody Rogers wrote in to say: "I'm fairly new to my iMac and Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard. One of my biggest annoyances from switching over from PC to Mac is when a dialogue box comes up and says 'cancel' or 'okay' I can't find the keyboard shortcut to go from cancel to okay. In Windows, I could just hit 'tab' to go to the other option. Is this possible on a Mac? I've been doing some searching on it and can't find anything!" I happened to have found the same thing when doing a clean reinstall of Snow Leopard over the weekend. The good news is that there is a way to do it, but it is not turned on by default and it does require a bit of hunting around. I didn't remember where it was either.

Talkcast reminder: Oscar night show 10pm ET Submitted at 3/7/2010 7:00:00 PM

• At the bottom of that panel there is an option to use Tab to move between either "Text boxes and lists only" (default) or "All controls".

Select the radio control next to "All controls" and you will now • Launch System Preferences, be able to use the tab to go either by choosing it from the between "Save" and "Cancel" or "Apple" menu or by going to any other dialog boxes which your /Applications/ folder. appear. • In System Preferences, select Also note that for most dialog the "Keyboard" preference pane boxes, the Enter/Return key will (middle of the 2nd row) select "OK" and • T h e n c l i c k " K e y b o a r d command+period (or the Escape Shortcuts" at the top of that key) will cancel. window (see image above) If you'd like to learn more

Filed under: TUAW Business, Podcasts It's the biggest night in show business, but just in case you're not caught up in the Hollywood horse race(go Hurt Locker!) you're welcome to join Mike Schramm and I for our Sunday night Talkcast, as we dive into all things Mac, iPhone and iPad. This week, of course, the big news was the announcement of the on-sale date for Apple's newest platform and the teaser of Steam for Mac, but there's also a lot coming up at the about using keyboard shortcuts Game Developer's Conference with Mac OS X, Apple has a over the next few days; we'll really useful page which will preview it with you. As always, come in handy, especially for your calls and questions help us those switching from Windows. make the show the best it can TUAW Mac 101: Use the tab be. key in more dialog boxes To participate on TalkShoe, originally appeared on The you can use the browser-only Unofficial Apple Weblog client, the embedded Facebook (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro 10:30:00 EST. Please see our Java client; however, for terms for use of feeds. maximum fun, you should call Read| Permalink| Email this| in. For the web UI, just click Comments the"TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free

cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then! TUAW Talkcast reminder: Oscar night show 10pm ET originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Tumblr Hits Major Milestones, Plans BTW, Wi-Fi Scanner Apps Were Begging to Get Banned to Start Generating Revenue Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

by Apple [App Store]

Submitted at 3/8/2010 12:17:39 AM

matt buchanan (Gizmodo)

uploads. Last but not least, Tumblr plans to launch two revenue Tumblr, one of the simplest generating features next month. blogging platforms around, is Details are scarce (all we know doing really well. Situated is they’ll be powered by the between WordPress, which widget, pictured below), but requires a bit more effort to with constant talk of Twitter’s create and organize content, and sent us (see below), its traffic revenue generating plans (which Twitter, which requires almost and user base is growing fast, are still completely open to no effort but also doesn’t offer and it has recently hit some i n t e r p r e t a t i o n ) , i t ’ l l b e many features, Tumblr is the major milestones. interesting to see how Tumblr perfect tool for users who want Compared to Twitter, Tumblr is plans to tackle the issue. Its to have a blog with photos, still a small dot on the radar, but success (or lack thereof) might v i d e o s a n d o t h e r c o n t e n t it’s definitely growing fast pave the way for microblogging embedded, but simply haven’t enough to make an impact. The networks (although Tumblr got the time or the will to Tumblr team isn’t slacking on arguably stands in the middle, s t r u g g l e w i t h a c o m p l e x the features, either; they recently b e t w e e n b l o g g i n g a n d blogging platform. added the option to add static m i c r o b l o g g i n g ) , a n a r e a How is this working out for the pages to your blog, as well as traditionally devoid of revenue. company? Well, according to dead simple, direct video Tags: blog, blogging, tumblr the neat infographic which it’s

these apps might've been useful, especially the ones with GPS functionality to locate hotspots, Also shitcanned by Apple in the using private frameworks is Great App Store Purge of 2010: kinda like painting a big "ban Wi-Fi scanning apps. The me" target on your back, even if reason being that they used you do slip through the approval private frameworks to access p r o c e s s . [ S o f t p e d i a v i a wireless info. While some of M a x i m u m P C v i a D V I C E ] Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:45:45 AM

Bing Takes On “Goliath” Google with Huge UK Ad Campaign Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

with Bing. It’s therefore no surprise to hear Managing Director and Vice I t ’ s a b i t f u n n y t o h e a r President of Consumer and Microsoft referring to any other Online at Microsoft UK Ashley company as the “Goliath,” but H i g h f i e l d r e a d i l y a d m i t when it comes to the business of Microsoft is the underdog in this search, there’s no doubt that battle. “This is a big moment — G o o g l e h a s m a n a g e d t o we are taking out our slingshots overshadow Microsoft’s efforts, and taking on Goliath,” she said. m i l l i o n s o f p o u n d s o n which prompted Microsoft to The moment is big, indeed, as promoting its search engine, ditch Live Search and start anew M i c r o s o f t p l a n s t o s p e n d starting with a series of TV ads Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:37:54 AM

in the UK next week. According to the Guardian, the ads will emphasize Bing as a decision engine that simplifies information overload and gives users simple, straight answers. Will it be enough to capture some of Google’s enormous market share? In the UK, it’s a frightening 90%, while Bing is at 3%, which explains the Goliath comparison. In the U.S.,

however, Bing fares much better, which was probably (at least partly) the result of a strong advertising campaign. We’ll see if Microsoft can repeat the same success in the UK. Tags: Goliath, Google, microsoft, Search

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Zen Bound 2 for iPad out by April 3rd, looks great Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

before April 3rd, because they're aiming to have a day one iPad version ready to go as well. As Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:00:00 AM you can tell from the pics, it's Filed under: Gaming, Software, going to be just gorgeous -- high iPad We've heard from Secret resolution, a crisp UI with lots Exit (creators of Zen Bound) a of room to breathe, and the same few times about the new version physics-based rope-twisting of their game coming soon, but gameplay as the first game. Touch Arcade has some brand Of course, there will probably new pics and insight about the be at least a few kinks -- unless game itself. Kotaku also has a Secret Exit is super lucky, they few preview pics, and the game probably haven't run the code on looks terrific -- not only is it due an actual iPad just yet, so even out in the App Store soon, but if the app is in the store on day we know for sure that it'll be one, it might still need a few

adjustments once they actually get a production device to run everything on. But these pics only make us even more excited at the possibility for gaming on

the iPad -- just like we'd never had a mass-market touchscreen device before the iPhone came along, we've never had a widespread touchscreen device

of this size before, and the bigger screen is going to make a big difference in games like this one for sure. TUAW Zen Bound 2 for iPad out by April 3rd, looks great originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

How to: Get your 1984 Mac running Snow Leopard Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

any way -- besides its value as a collector's item, the thing still looks great. And don't skimp on Submitted at 3/8/2010 9:00:00 AM costs -- you could probably do it Filed under: OS, Cult of Mac, a little cheaper than he did, but Mods It couldn't happen, they why would you? This is a onesaid. It wouldn't work, they of-a-kind project, and he went warned. But gmjhowe over at all out. Instructables did it anyway: he Because of that, his instructions c o n v e r t e d h i s o l d 1 9 8 4 get a little technical (he actually Macintosh into a machine that replaced the innards rather than could run Snow Leopard. And just trying to fit a Mac mini in he laid out some pretty good there or something similarly instructions on how to do so easy). So this isn't a very good yourself. His two rules are as project for a first-timer for sure. thus: don't hurt the old Mac in But if you've got a little DIY

experience, or just want to see what it looks like to take apart an old Mac and refill it with modern PC parts(he went Hackintosh on the OS), you

should definitely check out his writeup. I wouldn't use the computer as a workstation any more -- because, come on now, who can really do any serious

computing on a 9-inch screen?-but as a music server or just a conversation piece, it's great. TUAW How to: Get your 1984 Mac running Snow Leopard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

The Academy Awards: Clips, Pics & Commentary [Recap] Remy Stern (Gawker) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:55:26 AM

Did you miss the Oscars last night? Catch up on what you missed with clips of the 10 most

memorable moments, pics from

the red carpet, Gawker.TV's five mortem. -minute Oscars highlight reel, and our official Oscars post-

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A Real Copyright Problem In The UK: The Difficulty Of Archiving Important Websites Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

needs to get permission from every website that it wishes to archive. Obviously, that greatly While UK politicians are limits the archival activity that arguing over a ridiculous and the Library can be involved in -unnecessary change to copyright and, as a result, the public law as part of the Digital suffers greatly. This is a clear Economy Bill, it appears there's case where fair use should cover Mike Masnick (Techdirt) lying about yourself. However, want to better "fit in." So, it's a much bigger problem with UK the issues, but current law does we wondered if the same would more about appearing "normal," copyright law that isn't getting not adequately handle this. Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:28:00 AM be true on dating sites. We don't r a t h e r t h a n a p p e a r i n g very much attention at all. Making fair use work better There's this generally accepted quite have the answer to that e x c e p t i o n a l i n s o m e w a y . Slashdot points us to the news should be a priority -- but wisdom out there that on the yet, but Nancy Baym points us Oh, and as for the overall that due to the way copyright instead we have politicians internet, people lie about to a study that says that daters amount of lying? It was law currently works in the UK, trying to prop up Hollywood's themselves freely. Recently, we w h o e x a g g e r a t e a b o u t actually "quite small," because archiving websites without business model by pushing pointed to a study that found, themselves are equally likely to the online daters hope to permission is illegal. Yes, even copyright law in the other actually, people are pretty exaggerate about themselves in actually meet in person with the for the British Library and other direction. honest about themselves when real life as well. That is, the people they meet online, they institutions who are designated Permalink| Comments| Email creating social networking exaggeration has nothing to do know that lying in the dating by law to keep a copy of every This Story profiles. At the time, we noted with it being online, and profile will also quickly be printed publication. But when it comes to the web, the Library that this might just be because everything to do with what kind discovered. on social networking sites of person they are. Permalink| Comments| Email people know they're connecting Furthermore, the study found This Story (mostly) with friends who that those who lie online aren't already know them -- and then doing it to necessarily be there are social mores against manipulative -- but because they

People Who Exaggerate Themselves On Online Dating Sites Do So Just As Much In Real Life As Well

Submitted at 3/8/2010 1:59:26 AM

Reports of Adam Gadahn's Arrest Were Premature (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 3/7/2010 5:39:40 PM

Pakistani officials did arrest an Al Qaeda operative who might be American, but it now looks like it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Adam Gadahn. American and Pakistani officials said the man arrested

was Abu Yahya Mujahdeen alAdam, who was described as having been born in Pennsylvania and who was thought to be affiliated with the operations division of Al Qaeda, commanding fighters in Afghanistan. One American official briefed

on the arrest described the operative in custody as fairskinned and someone who spoke both English and Pashto. Little else was known about him, American officials said, and it was not immediately clear that American officials were involved in the arrest. There was

no confirmation that the arrested man was in fact an American. Initial reports seemed to have confused him with Adam Gadahn, a California native who has been a Qaeda spokesman and often appears on videos calling for strikes against targets in the United States.

Senior administration officials said on Sunday that they did not believe the arrest was of Mr. Gadahn.

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Social Media Dorks Get an Anthem [VIDEO] Brenna Ehrlich (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:28:08 AM

Remember the Pantless Knights of “ I’m on a Mac” fame? Well, they’re back today with a new vid titled “ The New Dork,” a parody of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’s “Empire State of Mind” that pays tribute to social media adherents and hipsters alike. With shoutouts to Zuckerberg, Mashable, Valleywag, Gizmodo, LinkedIn, Twitter and tech nerds camped out in their mothers’ basements, this video Sang Tang (The Unofficial beginning March 12, with is all about using your social Apple Weblog (TUAW)) shipments slated for April 3. media cache to attain new levels Here's a link to the ad at of irony-spun hipness. Submitted at 3/7/2010 9:38:00 PM Apple's site. The ad is also According to these tech-savvy Filed under: iPad embedded in the second half of dudes, Internet denizens of Talk about big premieres. Like this post. today are raking in the cash and it did with the iPhone and As we noted on Twitter earlier, models whilst rocking skinny its"Hello" ad, Apple used the Apple chairman Steve Jobs was jeans and “steady Jerkin’” (it’s a Oscars as the platform to debut spotted on the red carpet before dance craze, guys — get your its iPad commercial. The ad, set the awards... maybe he brought to the background of The Blue his iPad with him. Van's "There Goes My Love," TUAW Like iPhone, iPad ad shows the iPad being used in a premieres at Oscars originally variety of ways: viewing a appeared on The Unofficial movie, reading an eBook, Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, displaying photos, editing an 07 Mar 2010 21:38:00 EST. matt buchanan (Gizmodo) iWork document and viewing Please see our terms for use of Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:28:25 AM email among them. The ad feeds. f o l l o w s A p p l e ' s r e c e n t Read| Permalink| Email this| Though they could've fooled announcement that pre-orders Comments me, Barnes & Noble apparently for the device will be accepted isn't content to let ebooks and digital mags be a two-horse race between Amazon and Apple. They just made a big hire in

Like iPhone, iPad ad premieres at Oscars

Microvision’s ShowWX pico-projector goes on sale today Matt Burns (CrunchGear)

mind outta the gutter). As the refrain goes: “Social networks what dream are made of.” Apparently, the “New Dork” is the next hot thing. That’s cool and everything, but I’m more stoked that the video features a guy wearing jorts. Check it out below. What do you think of the concept of the “New Dork”? Let us know in the comments. Tags: humor, pop culture, social media, viral video

Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:30:20 AM

Ready to get your picoprojector on? The Microvision ShowWX goes on sale today at 12:00 EST. Get excited. This little projector – think iPhone size – uses lasers to beam a 848 x 480 image up to 200-inches in size. The secret is the unit’s so-called infinite focus that keeps the image as clean as can be without any user intervention. Remember the gun -controller we played with at CES? Yeah, it was a demo of this projector to show off its goods. The standard edition will start out at $549, but there will also be a $999 limited edition bundle available as well that comes Jonathan Shar, from Time, with a VGA dock, accessories, who's going to be running their and special badging. Shipping is " D i g i t a l N e w s s t a n d a n d expected to start on March 24. Emerging Content, Barnes & Noble.com" division. Though that division name tells me they're already kind of fucked. [ MediaMemo]

Barnes & Noble Doesn't Want Digital Magazines to Be Owned Apple and Amazon After All [Ebooks]

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Court and Racket E.J. Dionne Jr. (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 3/7/2010 9:00:00 PM

WASHINGTON -- In a city where the phrase “bipartisan initiative” is becoming an oxymoron, the urgency of containing the damage the Supreme Court could do to our electoral system creates an opportunity for a rare convergence of interest and principle. At issue is the court’s astonishingly naive decision in January that allows unlimited corporate spending to influence elections. Its 5-4 ruling in the Citizens United case was a shocking instance of judicial overreach and reflected an utter indifference to how politics actually works. Liberals and Democrats are already mobilizing to fight against Citizens United because they fear the impact of unconstrained corporate activity on elections and legislation. But conservatives and Republicans should also be alarmed that this decision could encourage politicians to extort campaign spending from businesses. Is it really so hard to imagine a

congressional leader quietly approaching a business executive and suggesting that unless her company invested heavily in certain key electoral contests, this regulation or that spending program might be changed at the expense of her enterprise? That's why both parties should join to pass a bill that Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, DMd., hope to introduce this week placing some rules around the new electoral casino that the Roberts court has opened. The proposal is expected to win Republican co-sponsorship. And it should. The measure does not try to overturn the court's ruling. Instead, it puts boundaries around this precedent-shattering decision and might make executives think twice before unleashing their companies’ treasuries. It would also limit the capacity of politicians to work out cozy deals with business, and thereby help prevent extortion and other forms of corruption. Its provisions would require full and timely disclosure of corporate political expenditures,

and make it as difficult as possible for companies to hide efforts to influence elections by funneling their money through front groups. Corporations would have to disclose political expenditures to their shareholders and make them public, through links on their Web sites and in their annual reports. Politicians now have to tell viewers or listeners as part of their advertisements that they approve the messages in question, and the Schumer-Van Hollen measure would put the same responsibility on corporate officials. If a third-party group were used, the leading financial backer would have to appear in the ads, and the five largest contributors to the message would also have to be identified. If a corporation is trying to affect an election, the voters should know about it. Certain companies would be explicitly barred from making political expenditures: domestic corporations that are under foreign control, recipients of government contracts, and recipients of TARP money. Think about it: If a company is getting government money, why

should it be able to turn around and use receipts that include that money for electioneering? The bill’s strong ban on coordination between candidates or parties and corporate entities in their political activities is essential to containing the ability of elected officials to pressure companies -- and to prevent parties from becoming mere extensions of corporate interests. And to give candidates a chance to fight back against a corporate onslaught, the bill strengthens requirements that broadcast, cable or satellite outlets offer candidates and parties the lowest unit rate for their ads and provide them with reasonable access to airtime. Republican leaders such as Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl have shown some sympathy for this idea in the past. The conventional view is that this bill is destined to be caught up in Washington’s mire of partisanship because Republicans will welcome corporate expenditures to strengthen their political position. It’s not clear to me why the GOP would want to proclaim

itself as the corporate party by opposing a bill of this sort. Many Republicans, above all Sen. John McCain, have been at the forefront of trying to clean up the campaign money system in the past. And it is clear that rank-and-file Republicans know how radical and foolish this Supreme Court decision was. A Washington Post-ABC News poll last month found that 76 percent of Republicans were opposed to the ruling, along with 81 percent of independents and 85 percent of Democrats. A bipartisan coalition of that sort is rare in politics these days. Congress should be eager to take its lead from a public far more realistic about politics than is the Supreme Court’s majority. E.J. Dionne's e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com. (c) 2010, Washington Post Writers Group For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

MetLife buys Alico from AIG for $15bn (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/8/2010 3:51:23 AM

AIG has agreed to sell Alico, its international life assurance business, to MetLife for about $15.5bn in cash and shares in a

deal that would further reduce its indebtedness to US taxpayers. MetLife is paying about $6.8bn

in cash and the rest in common PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, stock and preferred shares. Term Extraction. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools:

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More Kidney Donors Are Needed to Meet a Rising Demand (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 3/7/2010 3:00:00 PM

"Adonation that resonated a dozen times over," said the Dec. 16 front page of the Post, joining media around the world to trumpet the good medical news: Thirteen patients are now alive and healthy with new kidneys from a successful 26operation kidney exchange. The six-day marathon of operations, believed to be the world's largest ever, was performed at Georgetown Medical Center and Washington Hospital Center. Such organ exchanges are a godsend for sick people with loved ones who are willing to give them a kidney but are not biologically compatible with them. In an exchange, unmatched couples switch partners to form compatible pairs. Perhaps the most heartwarming aspect of the Washington "domino" swap, as such chains are called, were the three people who volunteered to be partners in a pair, giving a kidney even without having a family member or other loved one benefit. But now for the bad medical news. There are more than 83,000 Americans with renal failure on the national waiting list for kidneys, a grim new high. Almost 13 die each day.

As ingenious, painstaking and justifiably attention-getting as domino swaps are, they shouldn't blot out the dismal news that rates of kidney donation, from both living and deceased donors, fall woefully short of the need. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the nonprofit entity overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, which maintains the national waiting list, the number of transplant operations has been basically flat since 2004. Even with the recent increase in kidney swaps, there will probably be fewer operations this year than in 2006. As the number of renal transplant operations remains mired between 16,000 and 17,000 a year, the number of candidates on the waiting list mounts. Within the last four years, for example, the list grew by more than one-third, from about 65,000 patients at the end of 2005. This means that only one kidney transplant operation was performed last year for every five needy patients, making the chance in 2009 of getting an organ only about one in five--an all-time low. As recently as the early 1990s, patients on the waiting list had a greater than 50

percent chance of receiving a kidney in a given year, but the situation has worsened every year since 1991. Thus, even if surgeons were able to schedule an additional 13 -kidney swap operation every day of the year, more than 60,000 patients would still languish on dialysis, facing premature death. The only realistic long-term solution to the kidney shortage in the United States is to allow some form of donor compensation. This would require Congress to amend the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 so that people who give organs could receive a benefit, perhaps a tax credit, tuition voucher, lifetime health coverage or a contribution to a retirement plan. Such compensation would be regulated by the government, with kidneys allocated to ill patients according to the national formula being used across the country. One of the magnificent altruistic souls who gave a kidney in the 13-way swap, a 45 -year-old Maryland woman, explained her rationale. "I just wanted to help someone out who needed my help, to give them a better life," she told the Associated Press. Perhaps a handful of people who read about her spectacular

generosity will now volunteer to do the same thing. Bless them all. Now imagine how many more people might come forward if it were not illegal for them to accept some reward for saving the life of another. And keep in mind that more transplants not only save lives, they also save money. For every patient taken off dialysis after receiving a kidney, $72,000 in Medicare expenditures are saved every year, compared with the roughly $12,000 annual cost of anti-rejection medications. Congress should take note of this fact as it pursues health-care savings. We should surely celebrate the world's largest-ever kidney exchange and hope that more of them occur. Yet we shouldn't lose sight of the reality that the most promising long-run solution to the kidney shortage is a system of donor compensation. Sally Satel, M.D., is a resident scholar at AEI. Mark J. Perry is a visiting scholar at AEI. P h o t o C r e d i t : iStockphoto/Eraxion Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Vertical Prison Concept Hides Prisoners Up In the Sky [Design] Adam Frucci (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/8/2010 11:20:00 AM

Alcatraz was designed to be impossible to escape from by being out on an island in San Francisco Bay. And this vertical prison concept has the same idea: if you want to escape, it's a long way down. The design, which was the winner of Evolvo Magazine's 2010 skyscraper competition, probably won't be built anytime soon. But it's still interesting! It would use "pods" to transport people and equipment up to the top levels where everyone is, which is fun. And really, even if this just stays a concept, it might just inspire some filmmakers to include it in a sci-fi movie, which is almost better than it becoming a real prison. [ DesignBoom]

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N.Y. Democrats Brace for Losses in Midterms (Newsmax - Politics)

House rules on accepting gifts. • Rep. Eric Massa, a freshman Democrat from upstate New NEW YORK -- Colorful, York, announced he would ethnic, tribal, the New York retire after a single term after political scene is much like the reports he is being investigated Big Apple itself, a bit rough by the ethics committee for around the edges. harassment. Mr. Massa said he But the political upheaval was stepping down for health taking place in the state now has reasons but acknowledged using shocked even hardened New "salty language" with his staff. Yorkers and added to the • Then there's Sen. Kirsten Democratic Party's headaches as Gillibrand, whom Mr. Paterson it braces for potentially historic appointed to serve the rest of losses in the November midterm Hillary Rodham Clinton's term elections. after President Obama named Just in the past week: Mrs. Clinton secretary of state. • Democratic Gov. David A. Mrs. Gillibrand is widely Paterson dropped his re-election viewed as weak and nearly drew bid because of evidence he may a primary challenge from former have pressed the girlfriend of his Democratic Tennessee Rep. closest top aide to drop charges Harold E. Ford Jr., who opted of domestic violence against the out of the race but wrote a aide. That bombshell, along column in the New York Times with accusations that Mr. on Monday blasting party Paterson broke ethics laws when leaders for protecting Mrs. he sought World Series tickets Gillibrand and trying to "bully" and then lied about his intention him. to pay for them, has spurred a • As if she weren't bruised drumbeat of calls for his e n o u g h , M r s . G i l l i b r a n d resignation. received the political equivalent • Rep. Charles B. Rangel, the of a Bronx cheer from New state's most influential member York City Mayor Michael R. of Congress, relinquished his B l o o m b e r g , w h o s a i d post as chairman of the tax- Wednesday that either Mr. Ford writing House Ways and Means or Mort Zuckerman could have Committee after the ethics beaten her and that voters would c o m m i t t e e f o u n d t h a t t h e be "better off" with more Harlem Democrat had broken choices. Mr. Zuckerman, a real Submitted at 3/8/2010 12:24:06 AM

estate mogul and publisher of the New York Daily News, considered entering the Senate race as a Republican but announced last week he would not run. "Everywhere you look, there's an arrogance about New York politics," said Joseph Mercurio, a political strategist who has worked for both Republicans and Democrats. "Like the rest of the country, most elected officials here are honorable and hardworking and loved by their electorate. But New York has also bred a lot of bad apples." The most eye-popping New York political scandal took place exactly two years ago, when Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace after being linked to a high-priced prostitution ring. His departure elevated Mr. Paterson, Mr. Spitzer's hand-picked candidate for lieutenant governor, who seemed in over his head from the start. Mr. Paterson botched his highest-profile act as governor, courting Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, Robert F. Kennedy's niece, to replace Mrs. Clinton in the Senate before abruptly picking Mrs. Gillibrand instead. New York Republicans, however, haven't done much so

far to capitalize on their rivals' woes, even with so many targets of opportunity. The GOP has an exceedingly thin bench in the state with its few big names notably former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and former Gov. George E. Pataki opting not to run for office this year. Andrew M. Cuomo, the popular and well-financed attorney general, will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee to replace Mr. Paterson in the governor's race. Former Rep. Rick Lazio, the likely Republican nominee, lost badly to Mrs. Clinton in the 2000 Senate race and is given little chance against Mr. Cuomo, a political leviathan and the son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo. The GOP also lost two New York House seats in special elections last year in conservative districts that had long elected Republicans. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Amanda Holden Gets the A-list Dish at the Elton John Oscar Bash (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 3/8/2010 3:17:00 AM

Some stars who skipped the Academy Awards ceremony inside the Kodak Theatre still scored another lucrative ticket in town -- an invite to the annual Elton John AIDS Foundation viewing and after party. ET's special correspondent, "Britain's Got Talent" judge Amanda Holden, was on hand for all of the star action! This Tinseltown soiree is so exclusive and esteemed, they have to "turn people away." The guest list keeps growing every year with A-Listers and yes, some "D-Listers," but the "core" attendees come back for more year after year. Elton is grateful for the charitable support of his fellow celebs and aims for him and David Furnish to greet every guest. In her own stunning creation, Victoria Beckham was looking as posh as ever. She spoke fashion with Amanda, who too has worn Beckham's signature line. The former Spice Girl said, "What Uncle Elton does is so great. He's giving something back...I don't really go out that much, but I will go out for Elton and David to support them."

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Okla. Conservatives Debate Divorce Legislation (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 3/7/2010 11:09:27 PM

Touching on a sensitive issue among conservatives nationwide, the Republicancontrolled Oklahoma Legislature is embroiled in a dispute over whether lawmakers should remain focused on the state's budget problems and other fiscal priorities or delve into family issues, especially the state's chronically high divorce rate. Republican members proposed three pieces of legislation imposing new regulations on marriage and divorce in Oklahoma. Two of the measures were defeated, but another â&#x20AC;&#x201D; requiring counseling for those planning to wed, and therapy sessions for couples considering divorce â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is awaiting action. The issue has produced sharp clashes among conservative colleagues who normally find themselves in agreement. The debates have featured charges of hypocrisy and of betraying Republican principles against government intrusion into private lives. "How far do I want government to come into my home and your home about private personal matters?" asked Rep. Leslie Osborn, a Republican from

Tuttle, in a debate. She referred to state government as a "huge monster." But supporters of the new divorce legislation insisted it was a valid area for government action. "The intervention is minimal," said Rep. Mark McCullough, a Republican from Sapulpa. "It might provide a little benefit up front to newly married couples," McCullough said. And for couples on the edge of divorce, "It could very well satisfy a compelling government interest. It's a terrible crisis." The clash corresponds with an ideological fault line between fiscal and social conservatives. Similar debates have played out in other legislatures over measures involving gay marriage and women's reproductive rights. But in Oklahoma, the divorce problem is a particular flashpoint. The most recent federal health statistics in 2007 show the state has the third highest divorce rate in the nation, behind only Nevada and Arkansas. More than half of marriages in Oklahoma end in divorce. In 2007 there were 28,419 marriages and 18,851 divorces. The divorce problem, which is attributed in part to poverty,

teenage pregnancy and a tradition of marrying early, is particularly bedeviling because Oklahoma also has one of the highest rates of church attendance. Promoting family values is a staple of political campaigns at all levels. After Republicans won control of both houses of the Legislature in 2008, they pressed forward with a conservative fiscal agenda. The Legislature struggled with a $665 million budget hole this session, but some members argued that the divorce problem was contributing to the financial woes. A study released in 2008 by the Institute for American Values, a private, nonpartisan research group in New York City, estimated the taxpayer cost of divorce and unwed childbearing at $112 billion a year nationwide. The Legislature debated a bill to require troubled couples to visit a therapist or a faith-based counselor before seeking to end their marriage and another to eliminate incompatibility as grounds for divorce if the couple has children or has been married 10 years or more. Neither were approved, but McCullough's measure to require pre-marriage and troubled-marriage

counseling remains alive. "The more dysfunction you stop up the stream the less you will have to spend down the stream. We need to take this seriously," McCullough said. Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, a conservative public policy foundation in Washington, D.C., said he endorsed efforts to address divorce but that direct government involvement should be avoided. States could perhaps offer a "covenant marriage" in which couples voluntarily entered extensive pre-marriage counseling and limited their options when seeking a divorce. McCullough's bill includes such a covenant provision. "I prefer the carrot versus the stick," Perkins said. "It's a good thing. It's needed. We've got to break the cycle of divorce. But I don't think we should mandate it." ÂŠ Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Oprah Winfrey Surprises Oscar Winner Mo'Nique (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:52:00 AM

Oscar winner Mo'Nique celebrated her Academy Award nomination at a luncheon with her friends and colleagues, including a surprise appearance by her friend and 'Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire' producer Oprah Winfrey. On Saturday, Oprah joined ET's Kevin Frazier in honoring Mo'Nique, telling ET, "I called [director] Lee Daniels and then I called Mo'Nique [after I saw 'Precious'] and said, 'Who's your favorite designer?' ... because you will be going to the Academy Awards." "I'm so proud of her," Oprah says of the actress.

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Adjusting to Reality (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 3/7/2010 3:00:00 PM

The danger of having the government regularly disperse hundreds of billions of dollars is that we can grow careless about how we spend a mere $14 billion. A case in point is a plan to pay out checks to everyone receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and disabled veteran benefits. The reason? To compensate them for not receiving a cost-ofliving adjustment this year. Though the Senate recently rejected an amendment that would give each recipient $250, President Obama has signaled support for the idea, and an identical bill in the House is gaining support. This is a mistake. With the deficit expected to reach 10.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2010, it's important that we spend every dollar wisely. Such one-time payments are a bad idea on two fronts. First, they suggest that Social Security recipients are being treated unfairly with respect to the program's cost-of-living adjustments. They are not. Second, the payments would give money to those who are

relatively unaffected by the financial crisis. The Social Security adjustment is intended to maintain the purchasing power of benefits once recipients retire. Social Security cost-of-living adjustments are calculated every October by comparing the thirdquarter Consumer Price Index for Urban Workers with the previous year's numbers; if an adjustment is needed, it's made the following January. But in 2008, this time lag led to an unnecessary adjustment: rising energy prices in the fall of 2008 called for a 5.8 percent increase in benefits to be paid starting in January 2009; however, before the adjustment went into effect, prices plummeted by nearly 5 percent. As a result, Social Security recipients got a benefit increase to compensate for a price increase that no longer existed. Social Security never reduces benefits when prices decline. This is perfectly equitable and does not disadvantage Social Security recipients in any way. In fact, they come out a little bit ahead because the real value of their benefits has increased, at least for a while--a fact that many recipients and lawmakers don't seem to understand, hence

the political push to dispense one-time payments. True, Medicare premiums could rise in the meantime, but that affects only the richest beneficiaries; for everyone else, Medicare premiums are not allowed to increase in a year without a cost-of-living adjustment. Moreover, some have argued that the Consumer Price Index for urban workers, which is based on the spending habits of working-age Americans, doesn't capture the larger role of health care expenses for retirees. But price declines were so large this time that even if the adjustments had been calculated using an experimental index focused on spending by the elderly, there would still have been no adjustment. Why? While elderly people spend more on health care, they also spend a lot on gasoline and heating oil, where prices dropped precipitously. If the payments can't be justified on equity grounds, how about the stimulus argument? After all, in a recession it always helps to have consumers with more pocket money. But retirees did all right over the last few years. Social Security checks went out on schedule. Those

with financial assets suffered, but the market has recovered substantially. The real burden has landed on those who have lost their jobs, so money to the unemployed would pack more punch than money to those with a steady income. Even if we had a spare $14 billion, there's no case for giving it to Social Security recipients on either equity or stimulus grounds. But we don't--we face large and growing deficits for the foreseeable future. The economy may still require additional stimulus to help reduce the atrocious level of unemployment. But we need to spend that money intelligently-and every $14 billion counts. Andrew G. Biggs is a resident scholar at AEI. Alicia H. Munnell is a former member of the Council of Economic Advisers and the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. P h o t o C r e d i t : iStockphoto/William Mahar Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Oscar's Big Winners React Backstage! (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 3/8/2010 3:01:00 AM

Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges were among the Oscarwinning stars to open up about their big wins backstage at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. Bullock, who was named Best Actress for her role in ‘The Blind Side,’ told reporters she intended to celebrate by eating and not worrying about her dress busting open! She also said she wouldn’t mind taking a nap. Bridges, who claimed the Best Actor trophy for his role in ‘Crazy Heart,’ said his personal key for success is his wife, Susan. He said he is grateful for their strong marriage.

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Senators Wrestle with Fed Bank Oversight Issues (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 3/7/2010 11:52:47 PM

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve could retain oversight of large bank holding companies under a scaled-back regulatory reform plan being considered by key senators, but important questions remained unanswered, lobbyists said on Sunday. In a retreat from a bold proposal to streamline a patchwork bank regulatory system, lawmakers were considering keeping supervision of companies such as Citigroup and Bank of at the Fed, as Reuters reported in February. It was still unclear, lobbyists said, if the Fed under the evolving plan would be an "umbrella supervisor," continuing to rely on other agencies for detailed bank exams, and how many companies might be put under the Fed. One option, they said, was to assign holding companies with assets of $100 billion and up to the Fed, which would include nearly two dozen major firms. Other, more expansive options were also being considered, with Senate Banking Committee

Chairman Christopher Dodd expected to unveil legislation as soon as this week after months of negotiations with fellow Democrats and Republicans. Regulatory reform is a top domestic priority of President Barack Obama, who wants to crack down on banks and capital markets following the worst financial crisis in decades. Dodd in November called the Fed's past performance as a banking supervisor and consumer protection watchdog an "abysmal failure." When he made that remark, he proposed consolidating bank supervision into a super-cop for the industry to be called the Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration, or FIRA. But the FIRA proposal has unraveled as Dodd has discussed a range of compromises with Republicans and moved closer to embracing regulatory reforms watered down from a sweeping bill approved in December by the U.S. House of Representatives. The FIRA would have streamlined the bank oversight duties of the Fed, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp

and other agencies. The Fed in recent weeks has pushed hard to preserve its role as a supervisor. Senators are discussing doing that up to a point, but stripping the Fed of its job as supervisor of a large number of state-chartered banks. Dodd was said to be leaning toward reassigning those banks to the FDIC, which already examines many other statechartered banks not in the Fed system, lobbyists said, Dodd also plans to call for closing the Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulates thrift institutions. On Friday, Dodd said he was uncertain whether bipartisan support for a compromise reform bill could be achieved. © 2010 Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Daily electronics deals Nicholas Kolman-Mandle (Consumer Reports)

buying tips; DVD & Blu-ray player Ratings and buying tips; Pocket camcorder guide; TV Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:31:59 AM Ratings and buying tips; Video Daily electronics deals Today's game console buying tips and electronics deals, courtesy of video: "Choosing a video game The Consumerist: system"; Digital camera Ratings and buying tips. Neither • Toshiba Direct: Toshiba Consumer Reports nor The Satellite L500 15.6-inch Laptop Consumerist receive anything in $399 + $24.99 shipping exchange for featuring these • A m a z o n : S h a r p deals; the posts are intended to LC19SB27UT 19-Inch 720p be purely informational. These LCD HDTV $169.95 + free deals are often fleeting, with shipping prices changing or products • SonyStyle: Sony STR- becoming unavailable as the day D A 4 4 0 0 E S 7 . 1 - C h a n n e l progresses. These posts are not R e c e i v e r $ 7 9 9 . 9 9 + f r e e an endorsement of the featured shipping products or the Web sites that • Amazon: Sony Cyber-shot sell them—though some of the DSC-W290 12MP Point-and- sites may be included, and shoot $166.45 + free shipping recommended, in our Ratings of • B&H Photo: Kodak Zx1 HD retailers for computers and other Pocket Video Camera $84.95 + major electronics(both available free shipping to subscribers). Price shouldn't • Sony Style: Sony Webbie HD be your only criterion. Be wary C a m c o r d e r - O r a n g e of lower-priced deals that seem (Refurbished) for $99.99 w/ too good to be true, and check Free Shipping return policies for restocking • Dell: Dell 17" Laptop Dual fees and other gotchas. For Core 2.1GHz w/ 2GB Memory general buying advice for many + 160GB Drive for $449 + $25 of the products on sale above, Shipping check out our free Buying Guides. Subscribe now! • Toys R Us: Buy One Game S u b s c r i b e t o G e t O n e $ 2 0 O f f ( W i i , ConsumerReports.org for expert XBox360, PS3) Ratings, buying advice and • Newegg: Nintendo Wii Game reliability on hundreds of Blowout $6-$15 with Free products. Update your feed Shipping Sale preferences Related: Computer Ratings and

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Reconciling with the Past (AEI.Org: Articles)

unprecedented for a bill like health reform. Senator John McCain of Arizona said that the With President Obama and use of reconciliation would have Congressional Democrats intent "cataclysmic effects." on one last push for health care So, would reconciliation reform, the main Republican represent an anomalous and talking point is outrage over the dangerous power grab? The likely use of the reconciliation accompanying chart, which lists process to pass a separate House 15 major reconciliation bills - S e n a t e c o m p r o m i s e . T h e passed by Congress since the Republicans' best hopes of process was first used in 1980, killing health reform rest on the provides evidence for assessing use of a filibuster in the Senate. that charge. But bills considered under Reconciliation was intended to r e c o n c i l i a t i o n c a n n o t b e be a narrow procedure to bring filibustered and therefore can revenues and spending into pass the Senate by a simple conformity with the levels set in majority vote. the annual budget resolution. Bill Frist, a former Senate But it quickly became much m a j o r i t y l e a d e r , c a l l e d more. The 22 reconciliation bills reconciliation an "arcane" so far passed by Congress (three procedure that Congress has o f w h i c h w e r e v e t o e d b y "never used . . . to adopt major, President Bill Clinton) have substantive policy change." i n c l u d e d a l l m a n n e r o f Senator Lamar Alexander of budgetary and policy measures: Tennessee asserted that this deficit reductions and increases; p a r l i a m e n t a r y t a c t i c w a s social policy bills like welfare Submitted at 3/7/2010 3:00:00 PM

reform; major changes in Medicare and Medicaid; large tax cuts; and small adjustments in existing law. Neither party has been shy about using this process to avoid dilatory tactics in the Senate; Republicans have in fact been more willing to do so than Democrats. The history is clear: While the use of reconciliation in this case --amending a bill that has already passed the Senate via cloture--is new, it is compatible with the law, Senate rules and the framers' intent. Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at AEI. Thomas E. Mann is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Raffaela Wakeman is a research assistant at Brookings. Fogelson-Lubliner is a graphic design studio in Brooklyn. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Q&A: Nutritional benefits of fruit and vegetable skins? rss@consumerreports.org (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:54:09 AM

Q&A: Nutritional benefits of fruit and vegetable skins? Does eating fruit and vegetable skins provide nutritional benefits? — Y.Y., Amherst, Mass. Yes, but there may be hazards, too. Skins tend to be fairly high in insoluble fiber, which can lower the risk of some digestive disorders, and they’re loaded with phytonutrients, which may help prevent many diseases. But conventionally grown produce is usually coated with tiny amounts of pesticide residues. With certain items––apples, bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, peaches, pears, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes––the pesticides may be trapped under a layer of wax. Whether it’s harmful to consume those residues is not clear. For maximum safety, (ETonline - Breaking News) Bullock the she was a "leading sat in the chair while people particularly with children, you horse" in the Best Actress Oscar fluffed and folded. I read some, could scrub produce in a highly Submitted at 3/7/2010 11:10:00 PM race, she joked, "I've often been I had some tea, I had some diluted solution of liquid dish On their way into the Oscars, referred to as a horse. I say, berries. I got into a dress while the stars shared their nerves and neigh, neigh." they stitched. It was really nice." laughs with ET's Mark Steines But the first-time Oscar and Steven Cojocaru. nominee said that she enjoyed a When Mark tells Sandra relaxing Oscar day: "I slept in, I

Oscars' Best and Brightest Spill Secrets on the Red Carpet

detergent, which should remove most of the pesticides and wax. Or you could peel it––especially apples, peaches, and pears, which may be waxed and have particularly heavy residues. Alternatively, choose organically grown produce, which harbors very little or no residue. Organic produce should still be washed to remove other contaminants. Test your organic IQ and take a look at 5 ways to save on organic food. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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7 car problems that can leave you stranded Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)

all tires, including the spare, properly inflated to the automaker’s recommended Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:09:59 AM pressure by checking them 7 car problems that can leave monthly. Also, inspect the tire you stranded sidewalls for bulges or cracks. Most of us don’t like surprises (See our tire buying advice and when it comes to our cars, ratings.) especially the kind that leave us 3. Fluid Leak. Check the car’s stranded on the highway in bad fluid levels regularly, using your weather. For the Annual Auto owner’s manual as a guide. Issue, the editors of Consumer Look for leaks on the pavement Reports produced advice on where you park. Black drips are h o w t o a v o i d u n w e l c o m e oil; green, orange, or yellow are surprises like blowouts, dead coolant; and brown or reddish batteries, blown fuses, and oily drips can be transmission or broken drive belts, and suggest brake fluid. Any of those can how to deal with them if they do spell trouble and warrant a trip h a p p e n . B e l o w a r e t h e to the mechanic to inspect your highlights from “ Unwelcome car. Surprises” on how to prevent 4. Worn out wipers or no fluid. these problems. Consumer Reports’ auto testers 1. Dead Battery: Although the have found that wipers usually effect of a drained battery often degrade in their first six months shows up on cold mornings, it’s so it’s best to replace them twice t h e h i g h t e m p e r a t u r e s o f a year. Wipers that have done summer that usually do the most well in Consumer Reports’ tests damage. So a battery can fail at include the Valeo 600 Series, any time. Be sure to have the RainX Latitude, Anco 32 Series, battery and alternator tested as and Michelin RainForce. Stash part of an annual inspection. spare wiper blades and a gallon (See our car battery buying of nonfreezing washer fluid in advice and ratings.) the trunk. (See our windshield 2. Flat tire or blowout. Many w i p e r b u y i n g a d v i c e a n d tire problems result from ratings.) underinflated tires that overheat, 5. Blown fuse. When a fuse due to low tire pressure. Keep goes, it can disable a critical

Consumer Reports advises periodic checks under the hood. If a belt has cracks or the rubber is fraying or feels brittle, it should be replaced. If there’s a lot of slack in the belt, the underside is shiny, or you hear squealing while driving, it should be adjusted or repaired. Most drive belts should be electrical system, such as the replaced after about 60,000 headlights, defroster, or antilock miles. brake system, any of which 7. Locked out. Some carmakers could lead to an accident. What provide a valet key or a plastic to do. You can’t prevent an key for emergency use. If your electrical problem, but a blown spare key won’t fit in your purse fuse should be the first thing or wallet, consider a magnetic you check if one happens. box for $5 to $10, which you Consumer Reports recommends can hide beneath the car or carrying a selection of spare behind the license plate. Often a fuses and a fuse puller in the dealer can cut a door key for car. Fuse kits range from $5 to much less than a locksmith $20 and can be purchased at w o u l d c h a r g e . T e l e m a t i c s auto parts stores. Be sure to services, such as GM’s OnStar, check your owner’s manual to can unlock a car remotely. make sure the fuses you buy are Read the complete article “ the correct amp rating and size. Unwelcome Surprises” and visit I f t h e s a m e f u s e b l o w s our guide to car maintenance. repeatedly, have a mechanic Subscribe now! inspect the system. S u b s c r i b e t o 6. Broken drive belt. It can ConsumerReports.org for expert disable the car’s water pump or Ratings, buying advice and alternator, leading to engine reliability on hundreds of overheating and battery failure. products. Update your feed A n d w h e n i t c o m e s t o preferences maintenance, belts are easy to forget. How to prevent it.

NintendoWare Weekly: Final Fantasy II, Max & the Magic Marker JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:10:00 AM

Sure, you could play Final Fantasy XIII on PS3 and Xbox 360 this week, but you could also buy a Final Fantasy game whose quality isn't under any debate -- partly because it's really good, and partly because Final Fantasy II for SNES was released in 1991 and the debate has pretty much elapsed by now. Or you could bypass that whole Final Fantasy thing and play a cute game about a kid and his amazing drawing ability. Gallery: Max & the Magic Marker (WiiWare) Continue reading NintendoWare Weekly: Final Fantasy II, Max & the Magic Marker NintendoWare Weekly: Final Fantasy II, Max & the Magic Marker originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Chatroulette Creator Coming to America? Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)

the Internet economy. "The combined value of Google, Microsoft and Facebook It seems the 17-year-old truant amounts to roughly $500 billion, who created Chatroulette has or about a third of the Russian applied for a visa. economy's annual output. So if The youngster, be he lucky or Russia - which has more than 50 brilliant, has indicated he might million Internet users and boasts want to transition to the one of the fastest-growing American scene at some time in markets - hopes to catch up, the near future. With all the then it will need to keep talents media attention he and his like Ternovskiy at home." service have received and the its userbase, and "a great way to The Russian investors who explosion of traffic - and kill time," one of the most have contacted Ternovskiy also monetization potential - on his common uses of the social web. invest in Facebook and Zynga; site, his application further I've frequently described it as a clearly, they have an eye for opens the can of worms we've box of game pieces with no social virality and profit and see b e e n d i s c u s s i n g t o n i g h t : rules. Users are invited to create a great deal of potential in Where's the best place to raise any kind of experience they Chatroulette. But Ternovskiy, a choose given a simple set of longtime hacker, dreams of your startup? constraints. It's inherently viral, founding a Silicon Valley Sponsor In December 2009, Chatroulette addictive, imaginative and startup of his own. had 500 users. Today, just four essentially human. Will this young man reinforce months later, the site sees 1.5 Here's the rub: The site is the American idiom of Silicon million daily visitors. That currently unfinanced and non- V a l l e y b y r e l o c a t i n g h i s statistic alone is enough to commercial. The site's creator, a seemingly overnight success to inspire investors to beat down teenaged school kid, has been the Bay Area? Or will he prove the door of its creator, Russian p l a c e d a t t h e c r u x o f that the startup economy is truly high school student Andrey nationalistic, capitalistic and becoming global by accepting technological debates by being R u s s i a n f i n a n c i n g a n d Ternovskiy. B u t w h a t ' s m u c h m o r e a s k e d t o c h o o s e b e t w e e n remaining in north Moscow? interesting to many is the Russian financing and a yellow A more interesting question: mechanics of the site itself. "It's brick road to Silicon Valley. Can Ternovskiy sustain this v i d e o 4 c h a n . U n b e a t a b l e According to one site, the wild success? Or has he simply formula," said Muhammad Russian investors involved are b e c o m e l u c k y w i t h Saleem, considered by many to seeking to "break the American Chatroulette? Let us know your be an excellent authority on hegemony in cyberspace - an opinions in the comments. engineering virality. Others ambitious plan, particularly as Discuss have called it "brilliant," "the the United States is home to purest form" of the Internet and many of the market leaders in Submitted at 3/7/2010 9:00:07 PM

Restore a Scratched-Up iPhone with Sandpaper [IPhone] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

on the technique of wet sanding, along with tips on taping up Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:00:00 AM your controls and glass and iPhones are scratch-resistant, polishing off the finished result. but life throws some tough stuff For those with cracked or deeply at our phones. One MacRumors s c r a t c h e d g l a s s , t h e r e ' s a user, owning a phone that looks replacement guide included, too. pretty beat, demonstrates the full It's a cheap process and not too process of restoring his phone much time, especially if you with sandpaper and a new LCD don't plan on upgrading to a new kit. model any time soon (ha!). The poster makes a point of While you're at it, you can also noting that on most phones, try giving your bezel a brushed you'll only want to use a rougher look. If you've discovered a sandpaper to try and remove 90 similarly complete and thorough percent of the scratches, not get iPhone transformation guide, to a completely clean and tell us about it in the comments. polished lookâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;with the scratch- T h a n k s f o r t h e t i p , resistant coating completely NomadDNA![DIY] Restoring removedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as shown at the full a n I p h o n e ( F r o n t a n d post. For those looking to Back)[MacRumors Forums] completely refinish their phone, there's a very informative post

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ReadWriteStart Weekly Wrapup Chris Cameron (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/7/2010 2:30:00 PM

Wow! It's March already? 2010 is chugging along and as we head into the second week of March its time to look back on the highlights from this week on ReadWriteStart. In this installment of the Weekly Wrapup we talk about how startups make use of crowdsourcing, how outsiders see startup culture, and we even glean some useful lessons from one man and his dancing. And finally we take a look at South by Southwest for startups as the even draws nearer. Sponsor Are Crowdsourcing and Outsourcing No-Nos For Startups? Chances are, if you've called customer service to enough companies, you've come across a representative who works for a call-center which has been contracted to handle a comapany's account. Large corporations that don't want to employ their own agents and maintain their own facilities will often outsource customer service to a third party, which at times can mean a company in

another part of the world. Bangalore, India was famously portrayed for its role in callcenter outsourcing in the Thomas Friedman book The World Is Flat, servicing many large American companies. But tools like outsourcing or crowdsourcing are not always beneficial to every breed of company. Follow the Hippie: Leadership Lessons Through Dance When Sigma Partners' Richard Dale posted a video of a random dancing guy to his Venture Cyclist blog I was skeptical. I'd seen the original video sans narration and dismissed it as a strange sociological phenomenon condensed into a quick three minute clip. Nevertheless, when the same video is narrated by MuckWork and CDBaby founder Derek Sivers, it provides some valuable leadership lessons for entrepreneurs. The Startup Bus: Is This How Outsiders See Startup Culture? Monday evening I was made aware of a particularly interesting promotion that will

be taking place over the course of two days before South by Southwest(SXSW). The event, or tour, is called The Startup Bus, and will challenge 12 participants to create as many tech startups as possible during a 48 hour bus ride from San Francisco to SXSW in Austin. The question this event raises in my head is whether these "beatthe-clock" entrepreneurship experiments are actually healthy for the broader startup culture. Never Mind the Valley: Here's SXSW 2010 For all of our startup friends from coast to coast and around the world, we look forward to seeing you at SXSW Interactive! More and more, we're seeing good folks creating great products outside the SF Bay Area, and we love highlighting and showcasing vibrant startup communities in unexpected areas. As it turns out, we're not the only ones who have a penchant for non-Valley startups! While you're in Austin, check out these ten panels, parties and events focusing on entrepreneurialism outside Silicon Valley. Discuss

Replace Your Thermostat with a Programmable Model [Video Demonstration] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

a simple thermostat with a fully programmable model. The best advice in the clip? Secure the Does your home's heating and wires before you pull the old cooling only go up, down, or thermostat awayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;you do not off? Installing a programmable want to have to fish around for thermostat can save you a lot of them, or run new leads. cash and frustration. Microsoft's With spring just around the Hohm team shows you how corner, you might now be able easy it is in a how-to video. to turn off the heat for the time Hohm is Microsoft's energy- required to install, and if you've conscious how-to and report- got a dual heating/cooling generating site, which we've system, you'll get ahead on air previously covered and found conditioning costs. pretty useful for pointing you in Done your own thermostat directions for future energy upgrade? Tell us any tips you s a v i n g s . P r o g r a m m a b l e picked up, and brag righteously thermostats, too, have some a b o u t t h e s a v i n g s , i n t h e geek-friendly controls and comments. How to install a options these days, and are well p r o g r a m m a b l e worth the hassle. Microsoft's t h e r m o s t a t [ Y o u T u b e ] how-to video shows you what to watch for when you're replacing Submitted at 3/8/2010 5:30:00 AM

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Titanium 1.0 Launches: Build Native Apps for Desktop, Mobile & iPad Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb)

interface (over *100* native APIs)? We're the only provider. Push notifications? We're it. Today Appcelerator is Native maps? Same thing. launching version 1.0 of their Facebook Connect? We're the Titanium app-building system only one. Application analytics? which allows developers to That's us. Augmented reality? build mobile and desktop Ditto. The list goes on and on." applications using standard web Since June of last year, the technologies like HTML, Titanium platform has attracted JavaScript and CSS. In addition 20 seconds, transitions between over 27,000 developers thanks to supporting desktop platforms pages are instantaneous and to what the company has dubbed like PC, Mac, and Linux, the processing speed has improved t h e i r " n a t i v e a d v a n t a g e . " new version of Titanium now five-fold." They've additionally D e s c r i b e d h e r e o n t h e supports both iPhone and added more features to offer company's website, this includes Android with RIM Blackberry over 100 native UI controls, support for things like native and Apple iPad support just n a t i v e 2 D / 3 D a n i m a t i o n c o n t r o l s , l o c a t i o n - b a s e d around the corner. capabilities and data and media s e r v i c e s , s o c i a l s h a r i n g , Unlike other DIY toolkits that presentation capabilities. With HTML5, online or on-device promise mobile apps without t h e s e n e w i m p r o v e m e n t s , databases, integrated analytics, needing to know code, Titanium developers can now build rich multimedia and more. lets web developers leverage branded apps, casual games and With the launch of the iPad their existing skills to build augmented reality applications only weeks away, Appcelerator native mobile applications that that run on any of the supported is promising support for Apple's do anything any app built using platforms. Why Titanium? new slate device by the third t h a t p l a t f o r m ' s s p e c i f i c When asked to explain what week of March. Blackberry technologies could, like access really made Titanium different support will follow in May/June. the phone's camera or stream than the other app-building Appcelerator is available now in video, for example. s e r v i c e s o u t t h e r e , t h e three editions: "Community," an Sponsor company's VP of Marketing, ad-supported version, "Indie," What's New Scott Schwarzhoff explained an ad-free version for a single Titanium's code base has been that many of its competitors d e v e l o p e r ( $ 4 9 9 ) a n d improved over the past few were simply offering web apps "Professional," which includes months resulting in a number of disguised as native apps as premium support and analytics upgrades to performance. Notes opposed to offering the real ($199 per developer per month). the company, "load times are deal. Every other offering is not Discuss under 3 seconds, down from 10- even close, he says."Native user Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:12:12 AM

Photo Friday's Monitor Calibration Tool Makes Easy-on-the-Eyes Monitor Tweaks [Monitors] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:30:00 AM

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to adjust your monitors without a lot of fussing with multi-step processes, the calibration tool at Photo Friday can help you tweak your monitor. Nothing is a true substitute for hardware calibration, but if you're not working in the print industry or as a professional photographer, you don't need to calibrate your monitor to match the physical worldâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;you need to calibrate it so that the contrast is correct and you can use the monitor without straining your eyes.

Over at photography site Photo Friday, they've created a simple calibration image you can use to adjust the brightness and contrast on your monitor to an optimum level. Visit the link below and follow the simple instructions to tweak your screen. If you like your calibration tools to have a few more sliders, bells, and whistles, check out previously reviewed Online Monitor Test. Have a favorite software or hardware tool for monitor calibration? Let's hear about it in the comments. Photo Friday Monitor Calibration Tool[via MakeUseOf]

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Open Thread: When Is The Valley Worth Moving To? Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)

unparalleled. Everyone has a fairly public track record. Yes, it can be an insular and selfFor many years, I have been aggrandizing little echo chamber famously (or notoriously) antiof Mutual Admiration Society Silicon Valley. There's nothing nitwits at times, but I'm no wrong with the place in iteself; longer saying that the benefits what I detested was the snobbish don't outweigh the cost. notion that the Valley is the de Ah, yes - the cost. Living in the facto or "best" place to run a Bay Area is, to employ a startup or be involved with the common NorCalism, hella tech world. expensive. Salaries are higher, I'm now forced to eat my words The tech scenes are smaller and real estate is more scarce and as my hetero life mate and I more easily navigable, and most more spendy, the overall cost of p r e p a r e t o m o v e i n t o a people are willing and excited to living borders on obscene unless B u r l i n g a m e a p a r t m e n t collaborate. When contrasting you're used to, say, Tokyo. But conveniently located a few these areas with the SF Bay again, perhaps for many startups blocks away from the startup Area, NorCal seemed vast, cold, situated here, the benefits he's now working at; I have to inflated and self-important by outweigh the financial costs, as admit, living in the Bay Area comparison. well. has been amazing so far, in For months, I railed, "You don't So, I'm left wondering exactly professional and personal terms. have to be in the Valley to have w h a t a l c h e m y m a k e s t h e Still, if I were starting a a successful startup!" Examples benefits worth all the costs for a company, would I move from of this abound, from Austin's startup. I've been asked by a few Omaha or Nashville or Boulder Gowalla to L.A.'s Mahalo to the companies about transitioning to come to the Valley? Would d o z e n s o f i n c u b a t e d a n d from other states and even other accelerated teams in cities all countries to the Valley, and my you? over the country. Sponsor advice has tended to be a mixed U P D A T E : I t s e e m s t h e However, on moving to San bag lately. Chatroulette creator is having Francisco, I quickly learned a I'm interested to hear from the same dilemma. How's that few of the benefits of being a startups living in and outside of startup in the Valley. Everything Silicon Valley: When do you for unwitting timeliness? Back when I started the Never loves much faster. You have think being in SF is worth it, Mind the Valley series, I was more access to more capital. and when is it wiser to stay put? fascinated by communities such The depth, breadth and strength Let me know your thoughts in as Boulder and Los Angeles. o f t h e d e v e l o p e r p o o l i s the comments. Discuss Submitted at 3/7/2010 7:33:35 PM

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Getting Away From it All... And Taking it With You Rob Cottingham (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/7/2010 1:00:00 PM

You've probably heard that ReadWriteWeb has just announced the 2010 Mobile Summit, which â&#x20AC;&#x201C; judging by last fall's real-time web summitâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; is going to be a bang-up event. (With Kaliya Hamlin facilitating, how can it be otherwise?) This one's in honor of the summit... and in honor of all of us for whom ubiquitous connectivity means you're never really 100% present in physical space. Sponsor Oh, sure, it has its drawbacks the car accidents, the walking

into parking meters, the wedding that got called off because you just had to Twitpic a photo of the moment to your tweeps, which was awkward as you were the bride. But let's admit it: We're part of the hive mind, and we're proud of it. Onward to Mountain View! More Noise to Signal. Discuss

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AutoPatcher Keeps Windows 7 Systems Up to Date [Updates] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

Jeff Clement Tackling First Challenge John Hickey (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/7/2010 11:01:00 AM

Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:05:00 AM

Windows: AutoPatcher, the small but powerful utility that makes it easy to install Windows updates while offline, and on multiple systems, has added support for Windows 7, giving users more control over when and how they update their systems. We've previously offered big props for AutoPatcher, because for people with slow connections, big jobs to pull off, or quite a few systems to keep updated, it's far more convenient than going the official Microsoft Updates route. To use this version, you'll download the package, run "apup," then let

Filed under: Pirates, Spring Training BRADENTON, Fla. -Pittsburgh first base coach Carlos Garcia came to Pirates camp this spring as a man on a mission. What he didn't know was that his mission was going to be as driven and focused as Garcia himself. His mission is Jeff Clement, a AutoPatcher build its own grab can be brought to any other left-handed hitter with power program from the most recent Windows 7 system, and you can who was being asked to change updates. Once that's done, run grab updates for XP, Vista, and positions. Clement, the one-time AutoPatcher from your initial other editions as well. Seattle catcher, and Garcia have downloaded folder, and tell it AutoPatcher is a free download gotten together almost every which updates you want to for Windows systems only. morning before regular team download and, optionally, AutoPatcher 5.6.0.100 and install. Because it's a portable ApUp 1.3[AutoPatcher Blog] application, those updates you

workouts start, working on defense on one of the back fields. Sometimes they talk defense, sometimes handling the pickoff throw or positioning. Mostly, however, Garcia hits lots and lots of ground balls and Clement does his best to handle them.

Use Dropbox to Sync Custom Dictionaries [Dropbox] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

computers, as commenter caryo points out. Image via eHow. From the files of the What From the "Spelling and Can't Dropbox Handle Dept.: Grammar" tab in Microsoft the web-based file syncing Word's options, you can choose service makes it easy to keep w h e r e y o u r c u s t o m custom dictionaries in Word, or d i c t i o n a r y â&#x20AC;&#x201D; w i t h a l l y o u r most any other app, available custom words for the spell and synchronized between checker not to catchâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;should Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:05:00 AM

reside, and export it somewhere else. Move it into your Dropbox

folder, and set up other computers to pull their custom dictionaries from there, too. When you add a word into one system, it gets updated on others. Browsers and other apps also keep custom spelling dictionaries (here's where Firefox keeps its own), so Dropbox, and other instant file-

syncing services, can be very handy indeed. Got a similar clever use to tip us to? Drop it in the comments and add#tags somewhere in your text.

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LG announces availability of the X300, their fancy ultrathin laptop John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:00:16 AM

What is it with the last three letters of the alphabet? Why aren’t the letters STU more popular? We have the Sony Zseries and now what amounts to the LG X-series. Anyway, this wee laptop is only 17.5mm thick and weighs 2 pounds, which makes it considerably smaller than the Zseries. Standard specs: a 2GHz processor, 11.6-inch screen, and a 1.3-megapixel webcame. Xciting! No US availability right now. It is, as so many things are, Asiaonly. SEOUL, Mar. 7, 2010 –LG Electronics (LG), a global leader and technology innovator in mobile communications, today announced the launch of the LG X300, the ultra-thin premium mobile PC. Its sleek and stylish look wowed the visitors at CES 2010 in Las Vegas. “Given how demanding and discerning consumers are nowadays, we were delighted to

receive such acclaim from the public and media at the CES for our new mobile PC,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “It’s a vindication of LG’s efforts to maintain the very highest standards in design without any sacrifices in hightech or functionality, and ensure our consumers’ experiences

with LG PCs just keep getting better.” The LG X300, LG’s new flagship mobile computing device for 2010, tips the scales at a mere 970g and is only 17.5mm thick for the ultimate in portability. What’s more, the LG X300 boasts an array of enticing design features. The sleek but wide 11.6-inch LCD screen

maximizes the viewing area by eschewing a bezel. Also, its unique reflective keyboard and borderless touchpad add further elegance to this premium mobile PC. To offer the complete package for the most styleconscious users, the LG X300 comes in two colors, shiny white and light brown. Fitted with a 2.0 GHz Intel Menlow platform with up to

2GB memory and 128GB SSD, the LG X300 runs Windows 7 Home Premium OS and ships with a spare 2-cell battery to provide up to seven hours of use. Thanks to its fan-less, silent operation, the portable PC is also extremely quiet to run, while the LG Smart Pack – LG’s smartest software suite for PC users – ensures the LG X300 is easy to use, even for novices. The LG X300 packs multimedia features including a 1.3-megapixel webcam with a You-Cam viewer, and SRS TruSurround HD sound. And thanks to an embedded 3G modem chipset, users can easily get online via GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, or HSDPA networks. The LG X300 will be available in Asia starting in March, followed by the Middle East and South America. Prices will vary country-to-country and will be announced separately in each market.

Oscars 2010 Best Actress Beauty Face-Off ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 3/7/2010 8:58:58 PM

Kate Winslet and Sandra Bullock dazzled on the red

carpet tonight—each paired silvery dresses with deep side parts, loose locks, and gray eye shadow. A point of difference? Their lipstick shades. While

2009 Best Actress winner Winslet opted for a creamy nude hue, Bullock—this year’s Best

Actress winner—chose to wear bright pink. Which shade suits a silvery gown best? Vote below. Which lipstick color suits a silver dress best? poll

—Emily Hebert Follow ELLE on Twitter Become our Facebook fan

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Time Warner's Plan to Make AT&T Suck Less [IPhone] matt buchanan (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/8/2010 11:17:54 AM

I thought I'd never forgive Time Warner for their abominable service before I switched to FiOS—but I just might, if their plan to lease their pipes to AT&T and Verizon makes using an iPhone in NY actually tolerable. AT&T's iPhone problems are two-fold. There's the wireless aspect, which is having enough towers with enough spectrum for everybody—that's probably what you're familiar with. (The problem in really crowded areas is that there's only so much wireless coverage you can provide before you run into issues like cross talk. We'll see how it goes down at SXSW this year, since AT&T's almost certainly loaded Austin after last year's implosion. In the meantime, the FCC is pushing to get more spectrum into carriers' hands to ease congestion.) The other side is backhaul—the actual pipes carrying data. I've never been able to get AT&T to tell me how much of their backhaul is copper vs. fiber, which would tell us a lot about their backhaul capacity. (Fiber can carry a lot more data to and from towers than copper, obvs.) Supposedly, they're increasing

Amazon's galactic deal of the day: Mass Effect 2 Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/8/2010 9:40:00 AM

BioWare's space opera epic, Mass Effect 2, is Amazon's " Deal of the Day." The Xbox 360 version is currently $40, which is$10 cheaper than you'd pick it up at your local Quarian pawn shop. A PC copy is 40 percent off, with a $30 price tag. At that price, one could pick up Mass Effect 1 and 2 for the regular retail price of the sequel. For those who like their sci-fi fiber deployments alongside than installing more backhaul o f i t a s p o s s i b l e . U n l i k e soapy and their shooters refined, with their U-Verse rollouts, but themselves, but would give Comcast, Time Warner hasn't this is a deal worth going I'm not sure how (or if) that's them additional bandwidth for publicly announced they'll through the Omega 4 Relay for been affected by the slowdowns data-hungry iPhones. throttle your whole connection - see, if you play the game, i n U - V e r s e d e p l o y m e n t . Which, incidentally, makes me during periods of congestion(a you'll know what that means. (Presumably not much, if at all.) r e a l c u r i o u s a b o u t T i m e net neutral way to manage [Thanks, Russ P!] Either way, their needs for W a r n e r ' s b r o a d b a n d c a p traffic), but if they're making a Amazon's galactic deal of the backhaul have been exploding. trials(which haven't hit NYC, side business out of selling day: Mass Effect 2 originally What Time Warner Cable's yet, because of how competitive whatever's not eaten by assholes appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 offering is more backhaul. That the market is, thanks to FiOS) like you watching tons of Mar 2010 09:40:00 EST. Please is, according to BusinessWeek, and how they sell capacity to internet video, it's easy to see see our terms for use of feeds. they're pitching Verizon and customers. They'd be selling where the squeeze could come. Read| Permalink| Email this| AT&T on leasing their pipes in unused capacity to the carriers, You will pay for your data. Comments New York City, which is one of so their incentive would be to That's the future. But hey, at AT&T's two admitted problem sell you as much bandwidth as least your iPhone might work areas, besides SF. A short-term possible for the highest price, now! [ BusinessWeek] solution, it's cheaper for carriers while getting you to use as little

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Ubisoft tries to spin DRM server crash, says the games are just too popular for their own good! Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear)

you really mean to tell me that SO MANY people were looking forward to play the port that you Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:00:21 AM didn’t have enough servers on Oh, Ubisoft. You so quickly hand to meet demand? went from the guys that brought • This obviously doesn’t justify us Splinter Cell(young people: piracy, but man alive does it Splinter Cell used to be cool in prove the adage that only the early to mid 2000s) to the legitimate customers are harmed guys that have created the • The people who initiated the by DRM stupidest DRM known to man. denial of service attacks are Those bullet points only Oh, and you’re also incapable of morons. No one looks to them slightly helped. t e l l i n g t h e t r u t h . T h e as heros for attacking Ubisoft. I seriously don’t understand authentication servers for Seriously, the only civilized way what Ubisoft’s deal is. Did you Assassin’s Creed II(I thought to complain/protest the DRM know that Ubisoft said would that comes out tomorrow?) and measure is to simply not buy the consider an “offline” mode it if S i l e n t H u n t e r V w e r e game AND not pirate it. Pretend and when the DRM was broken? completely inaccessible for a it doesn’t exist, and Ubisoft will Then why bother in the first number of people yesterday. be all, “Hey, why don’t we have place?! Why? Ubisoft claimed it was more money? Is it because our Pirates are going to pirate your b e c a u s e o f “ e x c e p t i o n a l DRM is dumb?” game! You have plenty of demand,” but the real reason is • Why can’t Ubisoft just tell us people who would love to buy that some punk kids (I assume the truth? If your servers were the game, either from Steam or it’s punk kids) decided to launch attacked, just say so! Don’t from a boxed copy, who don’t a denial of service attack. I m a k e u p s t o r i e s t o m a k e want to be treated like Australiasuppose, technically, a denial of y o u r s e l f l o o k g o o d . bound thieves in the 18th service attack involves, on some “Exceptional demand” my foot! century! Let’s be honest: Silent Hunter V JUST LET US INSTALL THE level, demand… I’m almost overwhelmed with isn’t exactly Modern Warfare 2 GAME AND WE’LL BE ON what I have to say about this. or New Super Mario Bros. Wii, O U R M E R R Y W A Y ~ ! Let me put this in bullet points sales-wise. And Assassin’s B L A H ~ ! to better organize my thoughts. Creed II came out last fall: do

Acer looking to launch super thin laptop with ‘touch keyboard’ this year? Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)

cover for a frameless design. The design will help reduce the thickness of the ultra-thin T o u c h s c r e e n k e y b o a r d notebook and can also reduce sentiment can be divided into material costs.” two camps: those who don’t In order to keep everything as mind it and those who can’t do svelte as possible, DigiTimes’ without a physical keyboard. If sources mentioned that “Acer you’re part of the first camp, will also adopt a touch keyboard you may be excited to hear that to allow the notebook to be even Acer might just be working on a thinner.” And judging by Acer’s notebook so thin that it uses a relatively aggressive pricing frameless screen and touch strategy, I’d guess that the k e y b o a r d , a c c o r d i n g t o whole thing might cost less than DigiTimes. you’d expect. Details are pretty I t ’ s a p p a r e n t l y e x p e c t e d scant at the moment, though, so sometime in the second half of let’s take this all with a grain of this year. According to the salt until we get some more article: concrete information. “Acer is expected to adopt Acer to launch a framelessCorning’s reinforced glass screen ultra-thin notebook with substrate and simply print color t o u c h keyboard in on its back to allow the substrate 2 H 1 0 [ D i g i T i m e s ] to function like a notebook Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:30:19 AM

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Apple's Sexy App Purge Was Just the Beginning [App Store] matt buchanan (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:20:19 AM

The Great App Store Purge of 2010 continues. They came for the sexy apps, and other apps said nothing. Now, according to some developers, they're coming for pre-fabbed apps—like RSS apps built using ready-set-go templates from app-building services. Specifically, they're blocking new submissions of apps that are basically just re-packaged RSS feeds or business cards. What makes this purge not-at-all outrageous is that they're not clearing out apps they've already approved, and they're at least telling app-building services like AppMakr what they need to change in order to make themselves worthy of the App

Store: adding features like push notifications, offline access and in-app purchases. They're pushing developers to make their apps useful and different, in other words, rather than taking up virtual shelf space for goods that could be

web apps. If Apple's going to be policing App Store submissions for more than mere maliciousness—which seems like it's going to be the case for the immediate future—it's the kind of policing you'd want them to do, at least in theory. A

cookie-cutter app is a cookiecutter app, a determination that's far less inscrutable than the process to decide what's too prurient to be sold. But it's clear now that the sex app purge was apparently just the beginning of a larger process to clean up the App Store. Apple's eminently concerned with the App Store's perception as a huckster-y bazaar, and the reflection of that image upon the Apple brand itself. Tacky, shitty apps populating the store are inevitably stains on that glossy Apple logo, and Apple's just starting to wipe them up. The purge will burn hotter before it's over. [ TechCrunch]

AmbienTec's SolarFold and SolarFan charge your gadgets, available without perscription (video) Tim Stevens (Engadget) Submitted at 3/8/2010 11:22:00 AM

You might expect a product from a company called AmbienTech to make you a bit drowsy, but we're thinking this pair of solar chargers are actually rather interesting. For one thing, they aren't just concepts: they're available for purchase right now -- or at least AMBIENTEC'S page 52

The Million-E Culture MReader offers touchscreen, 3G, iPhone look Tablet (BestTabletReview.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:28:01 AM

Here’s a video by Charbax from ARMDevices showing off the Million-E Culture MReader eReader which offers a resistive touchscreen, WiFi and 3G

connection and a eerily similar iPod Touch/iPhone look for around $220. The MReader has a 6-inch 600 x 800 resolution resistive touchscreen with 16 shades of grayscale along with SD card which can increase the storage to a maximum 16GB. The

eBook reader supports ePub, PDF, TCR, PRC, PDB, MOBI, OPF, OEB, HTM, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, DJVU, IW44, IW4, DJV, PNG, GIF, FIT, BMP, J P E G a n d M P 3 eBook/audio/image formats. It has USB and headphone ports, external stereo speakers,

measures 7 x 5 x 0.39 inches and weighs around half a pound. They also offer non-touchscreen version for $20 less. Since it is resistive you’ll notice quite the murky screen in the video — similar to the Sony Reader touchscreens. Million-E plans to increase their MReader

line with a nine-inch version which should be available within the next month or so. Source: ARMDevices Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

AMBIENTEC'S continued from page 51

1Cross Tech MIDhybrid is the Android-powered e-reader that looks like a book (video) Tim Stevens (Engadget) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:11:00 AM

It's debatable whether the act of reading on a Kindle or the like is actually preferable to perusing something bound and printed on paper, but regardless 1Cross Tech's MIDhybrid helps to bring bring the two experiences closer together. It's an e-reader with an E-Ink screen on the left and a

small LCD plus keypad on the right, with a hinge in the middle that allows it to fold in half either way. It's Marvell-powered and running Android 1.6 that, much like the tardy Alex, allows you to render content from the LCD over to the E-Ink screen. This could mean browsing PDFs, looking at spreadsheets, or maybe even playing Robo Defense at 1fps (probably not).

The device also packs 3G, Bluetooth, and a front-facing webcam, making it sound like a very usable little thing, and while we do have a 15 minute video exploring the thing embedded below, we sadly don't have a price or release date for you just yet. Continue reading 1Cross Tech MIDhybrid is the Androidpowered e-reader that looks like

a book (video) 1Cross Tech MIDhybrid is the Android-powered e-reader that looks like a book (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink ARMdevices.net| 1Cross Tech| Email this| Comments

they are in Japan. They're called SolarFold and SolarFan, two designs that both deliver four panels of sperical-based solar cells, comprised of 1,900 globes each, making them slightly flexible and rather more durable than your average photovoltaic. They're reasonably efficient, too, delivering 2W over USB and, in 10 minutes, are able to charge an iPhone enough to make a 3 minute call. (We'll leave it as a reader exercise to figure out how many days would be required for a full charge.) Both models are available now for 짜22,050 (about $250), but only the fan comes with a cool little tripod, making the decision of which to buy a little easier. Continue reading AmbienTec's SolarFold and SolarFan charge your gadgets, available without perscription (video) AmbienTec's SolarFold and SolarFan charge your gadgets, available without perscription (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink DigInfo| AmbienTec| Email this| Comments

Gadgets/ Economy/

E-reader News Edition

Onda introduces two new PMP tablets – the Vi20 Touch and VX530 Tablet (BestTabletReview.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:49:21 AM

The Onda Vi20 Touch Onda has recently come out with two more PMPs to add to their already massive portable media player product line. The Onda Vi20 Touch has a 5inch 800 x 480 touchscreen and supports 720p HD video playback. It also supports the usual video formats, such as RM, RMVB, AVI, MKV (H.264), FLV, MPG, MOV, VOB, DAT and MPE. Throw in MP3, WMA, FLAC and APE audio plus an FM radio and eBook reader for TXT files and you have yourself a rather wellrounded device. The only other information we have is that the Vi20 will features a USB OTG and microSD slot which can expand the unknown onboard

storage by up to an additional 32GB. The Onda VX530 The Onda VX530 steps up to 1080p HD support in addition to RM, RMVB, MKV (H.264), AVI, FLV, MOV, MPG, DAT, VOB, TS and more. Hope that limited information satiates your needs, because that’s all the hard info

we currently have on the VX530. However, if it sticks to the same size as the other Onda VX models, you can expect a 4.3-inch screen. Source: Cloned in China Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:26:11 AM

15:00 GMT: The rally in riskier assets, given extra propulsion by expectation-beating US jobs data, continued to traverse the globe on Monday, pushing

stocks to fresh six-week highs and boosting demand for commodities. Sentiment was also helped by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France making clear he stood shoulder to shoulder with George Papandreou, Greek prime minister – amid tough

Tim Stevens (Engadget)

friendly video guide below to decry "I cannot exit the cats." That said, this is not a final It's been a few months since we device we're looking at here, so last heard of Archos's supposed with any luck things will be a bit new player lineup, as all the talk cleaned up inside and out before lately has been tablet-this and retail. Just don't go hoping for a tablet-that, but we finally have surprise infusion of Android some video of a new Vision before then. device, the A43VB. Somewhat Continue reading Archos's tragically, though, it apparently budget Vision A43VB PMP is not a real Archos device at all, caught on camera making rather a re-branded discount kittens sad (video) media player given the Archos Archos's budget Vision A43VB t a l k a n d i n i t i a t i v e s t h a t silkscreen and a UI refresh. The PMP caught on camera making increased hopes the markets good news is this means a low kittens sad (video) originally c o u l d m o v e o n f r o m t h e cost -- just €99 (or $135) -- for appeared on Engadget on Mon, eurozone debt difficulties. The this 8GB model with a 4.3-inch 08 Mar 2010 10:36:00 EST. screen and microSD expansion, Please see our terms for use of euro made good ground. Five Filters featured article: but the bad news is that the feeds. Permalink| PlayerBites| Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: result is slightly janky. The Email this| Comments PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, plastic looks rough and the UI far from intuitive, leaving our Term Extraction.

Stocks and commodities rally as recovery hopes rise (Financial Times - US homepage)

Archos's budget Vision A43VB PMP caught on camera making kittens sad (video) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:36:00 AM

Gadgets/ Fashion/

E-reader News Edition

Street Chic: Paris Fashion Week ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 3/8/2010 4:00:00 AM

High-speed, medium-format DM40 DSLR puts Mamiya back in the money again Tim Stevens (Engadget) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:58:00 AM

The last time we heard from Mamiya it was doing something rather shocking: selling a camera for less than $10k! For a moment we were worried that this medium-format camera company with large-format MSRPs was letting the economy

Over-the-knee boots and chicly layered separates are wellproportioned. Photo: Stylesight Click here for our complete fall dictate its designs, but its latest with FireWire output for those in the money again originally 2010 Fashion Week coverage entrant quashes those fears, doing it live from the studio. appeared on Engadget on Mon, Think you are Street Chic? Epriced at a solid $19,990 Bodies are shipping soon, so get 08 Mar 2010 10:58:00 EST. mail us your photo and you ($21,990 if you want the 80mm ready to sign that mortgage Please see our terms for use of could appear in ELLE.com's lens). It's the DM40, a 40 over. feeds. Permalink Digial Street Chic Daily. megapixel medium-format body Update: As many commenters Photography Review| Mamiya| Follow ELLE on Twitter. that can manage 60 fps frames pointed out, that's 60 frames per Email this| Comments Become our Facebook fan! per minute, making it the fastest minute, not per second. Still the in this class of sensor. As per fastest, believe it or not. usual for Mamiya it sports High-speed, medium-format CompactFlash storage along DM40 DSLR puts Mamiya back

Gadgets/ Economy/

E-reader News Edition

Big bank oversight to stay with Fed (Financial Times - US homepage)

The Dell Adamo XPS has been discontinued along with our hopes and dreams Matt Burns (CrunchGear)

It took a couple of months to get the notebook to the retail market, but then in December So long, Adamo XPS. It was Dell started to sell it. Best Buy wonderful knowing you while picked it up a few weeks later. we did. We can’t help feeling B u t t h a t d o e s n ’ t m a t t e r like you had too short of a life anymore. The Adamo XPS is though. You were only available now just a footnote on Dell’s for sale since December and Wikipedia page. It’s no longer Dell probably spent an untold listed with the other Adamo fortune developing your 9.9mm m o d e l s o n D e l l . c o m a n d thin body. It’s kind of weird, according to a Dell Chat Rep, it actually. has been discontinued. The Adamo XPS launched with Hopefully Dell isn’t done with much fanfare last October. the line and we’ll see version People were amazed that Dell 2.0 shortly. Maybe at SXSW. could produce such an amazing That’s where Dell showed off piece of computing goods, the Adamo line for the first time c o m p l e t e w i t h a r o b o t i c one year ago next week. keyboard as John Biggs calls it. Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:09:28 AM

Submitted at 3/7/2010 2:30:20 PM

A lava lamp and a Nexus One tested under 3 Gs of force (video) Vladislav Savov (Engadget)

which is comfortably above the 2.5 G gravitational pull that one might experience on the solar Neil Fraser, a true pioneer of system's biggest planet. So, did science, wasn't satisfied with the goo keep its mojo under just wondering whether a lava pressure? Did the Nexus One lamp will work on Jupiter. He survive the ordeal intact? Click opted instead to build a freaking past the break to find out. centrifuge in the middle of his Continue reading A lava lamp living room, strap an innocent and a Nexus One tested under 3 lava lamp and a Nexus One to Gs of force (video) one end with counterbalancing A lava lamp and a Nexus One weights on the other, and spin tested under 3 Gs of force that monster up to find out for (video) originally appeared on himself. His instrument was able Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 to generate 3 Gs of lateral force 09:44:00 EST. Please see our (despite the Nexus One's G- t e r m s f o r u s e o f f e e d s . Force reporting 2.0 Gs due to a Permalink Gadget Venue| Neil bug, now reported to Google), Fraser| Email this| Comments Submitted at 3/8/2010 9:44:00 AM

Banks with more than $100bn of assets will be overseen by the US Federal Reserve under a regulatory reform plan that represents a partial victory for the central bank after months of attacks in Congress. Chris Dodd, the Senate banking committee chairman, had proposed hiving off all bank supervision to a single regulator but is set to propose this week that the 23 largest institutions stay under the Fed’s oversight, according to people familiar with the plans. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Apple/ Economy/

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Mac Developer Program Invites iPhone SDK Halo Effect Weldon Dodd (TheAppleBlog)

Benefits Developers that enroll in the new Mac Developer Program This past Thursday Apple have access to pre-release builds announced sweeping changes to of Mac OS X, OS X Server, the Developer Program. The old tools, and SDKs. Xcode was Select and Premiere programs always available for free, but h a v e b e e n r e p l a c e d b y a access to Snow Leopard for $ 9 9 / y e a r M a c D e v e l o p e r development will encourage Program that is similar to the d e v e l o p e r s t o b e g i n iPhone Developer Program. The i n c o r p o r a t i n g t h e u n i q u e o l d A D C p r o g r a m s w e r e technology available in 10.6 substantially more expensive ( G r a n d C e n t r a l D i s p a t c h , ($499 and $3,499) and the O p e n C L , e t c . ) i n t o t h e i r program benefits have been applications. OS X Server, even simplified to match the new for development testing, is a lower cost. nice plus. Apple had this to say… The annual subscription Modeled after the highly includes two technical support successful iPhone Developer incidents where Apple will Program, we’ve relaunched the assign an engineer from the Mac Developer Program to offer developer support team to help members technical resources, track down a problem and support, access to pre-release r e c o m m e n d a s o l u t i o n . software, developer forums and Additional support incidents are more, all for just $99 per year. still available for purchase as As our developer base continues t h e y w e r e u n d e r t h e o l d to grow in leaps and bounds, program. Incidents are $99 for a we’re working hard to ensure two-pack or $499 for a fivewe provide our developers with pack. everything they need to create Members also have access to innovative applications for both developer forums and video the iPhone OS and Mac OS X training. The forums are a great Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:00:31 AM

resource because they are filled with posts from registered developers, including many recognizable names from wellknown Mac shops. The videos do not include the WWDC session videos, which are still available for purchase separately ($299 for a Mac session, or $499 for the complete collection). It appears that access to the compatibility labs and the ADC Hardware Purchase discounts are not available in the new Mac Developer program. Existing members can continue to access their ADC benefits until their subscription expires. Apple has not made any changes to its current programs

for Support and Pro Apps certifications to expand into developer certifications. The iPhone SDK Halo Effect The new pricing and web site modeled after the iPhone program should serve to bring more developers over to the Mac side. With all the interest in iPhone apps, there are a number of developers that are now familiar with Objective-C and the Cocoa frameworks. There may be a sort of programming halo effect similar to the phenomenon seen on the consumer side where customers happy with the iPod or iPhone are convinced to try the Mac for their next computer. Gedeon Maheux co-founder of the successful design and development outfit Iconfactory had this to say: The lower entry price and the ability to use knowledge learned for their mobile platforms both seem like a logical evolution of what they’ve done in the last few years. The Mac has been out of the lime light for quite some time and I think Apple is rightfully

Brussels ready to back monetary fund (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/8/2010 5:17:24 AM

The European Commission on Monday signalled its

willingness to swing into action with a plan for a monetary fund equipped with sufficient resources to assist highly indebted eurozone nations such as Greece.

Commission officials said preliminary work was already in progress and a proposal for a European Monetary Fund could be prepared by June, when EU heads of state and government

are due to meet for a summit. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

attempting to put the focus back on the platform. It sure is exciting! With the new file-sharing support in the iPad, desktop companion apps will be a great benefit to iPhone/iPad apps. Of course, designing apps for the iPad with its large screen is getting awfully close to designing an app for the Mac. I am hopeful that the new program will encourage even more development on the Mac OS platform. For example, casual games have made a huge splash in the App Store and bringing over some of these titles to the Mac might be great fun for those without iPhones, and an alternate revenue stream for publishers. The $99 price might be just enough to convince some iPhone developers to give it a go on the Mac as well. Related GigaOM Pro Research: The App Developer’s Guide to Choosing a Mobile Platform

Apple/ TV/

E-reader News Edition

Social CRM on the Cheap David Klein (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:42:42 AM

Mac users are missing out on cheap (read: free), social customer relationship management. Windows users have xobni, a simple tool that integrates with Outlook, and Microsoft will also be releasing a solution in Office 2010 called Outlook Social Connector. But what if you have a Mac? Xobni doesn’t support Entourage or Mail.app, and who knows when Entourage will receive features its cousin on Windows has. Now there’s a solution for the Mac: Rapportive. It takes over the advertisements area in Gmail, and provides basic information about your email correspondents: occupation, Twitter/Flickr/LinkedIn links,

ABC restored to Cablevision Brad Trechak (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:05:00 AM

age, location and custom notes. Yes, it supports Google Apps accounts, and the preview version of Mailplane now has an option to view Rapportive data. The experience definitely feels like a beta, with occasional inaccurate or missing information, but it’s great having so much additional context inside my email. The problem? Rapportive so far only works in Google Chrome and Firefox as an extension. Safari is missing out since it doesn’t support simple extension development. Now that Chrome has overtaken

Safari in market share, Apple needs to step up its game in terms of features. Both Safari and Mail.app need extension support to integrate all of these new social products. I am aware that some important extensions like Evernote and 1Password exist for Safari, but there is no official Apple documentation or support on how to build extensions. This needs to change. Unfortunately for Apple, Google and Mozilla already have thousands of extensions available.

In a nick-of-time save that was worthy of a movie unto itself, ABC was restored to Cablevision just in time for the Academy Awards. Apparently both sides hammered out enough of a deal for the awards show to be broadcast. Cablevision customers -- 3.1 million in the New York City area -- got another treat on the same day. To accommodate those that lost their ABC, the company offered free On Demand movies all day. As a Cablevision customer, I was interested in the veracity of the claim and took advantage of that

particular offer. Later this month, it will be determined how legitimate that offer was when I see my bill. So many people were using this freebie that the first few times a ABC page 58

Landry Is Leaving 'Friday Night Lights' Allison Waldman (TV Squad)

the NBC show. Well, not totally. He'll be out of East Dillon High School, but still Unlike'Happy Days' or'Fame' living in Dillon, Texas. or'Welcome Back, Kotter,' kids Executive producer Jason today do not remain in high Katims says that Jesse will be school for life on television any on'Friday Night Lights' for the more. No, today, the actors and fifth and final season, but not a their characters are chewed up regular. It'll be part-time, which and spit out in real time, just i s n ' t t h e w o r s t s i t u a t i o n . like life. That means we have to However, with his status as accept that'Friday Night Lights'' recurring and Taylor Kitsch as Scott Porter as Jason and Gaius Landry is leaving the show, and Tim definitely gone -- along Charles as Smash before them -with that, Jesse Plemons is off with Zach Gilford as Matt and they're definitely breaking up Submitted at 3/8/2010 11:00:00 AM

that old Panther team from the first couple of seasons. Sigh ... is it too soon to hope for a Dillion Panther Championship team reunion in the next decade? Continue reading Landry Is Leaving 'Friday Night Lights' Filed under: OpEd, Friday Night Lights, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Live from Phoenix, Arizona, Coco might be page unemployed, but LIVE 58 It's Conan O'Brien! he's not spending his days half-

TV/ Economy/

CBS Gives Dockers Free Ads for Super Bowl Underwear Screw-Up

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LIVE continued from page 57

naked in a bean bag chair and hitting a bag of Doritos like he's trying to earn "Nacho Miles." He's hard at work on a new live show, the big loophole in his contract that precludes him going on television for some time, starting with Phoenix, Arizona. TMZ confirmed that Conan is holding a stage show at the Dodge Theatre on April 30 and tickets go on sale today. Ticketmaster started selling seats for the soon to be sold out show but took the listing down when TMZ broke the story. A theater representative confirmed the show will still go on as

planned. There isn't any word yet on what the show is exactly, but expect a lot of angry puppets, a heavy dose of death humor and 1,001 cracks at Jay Leno that Bob Sassone (TV Squad) would have gotten him thrown Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:30:00 AM in FCC's "Naughty Word Jail" until the end of the next century. Remember when CBS ran two In other words, the depth of Super Bowl commercials in a your standard NBC contract. Invictus (The Big Picture) row that featured guys running Filed under: Late Night, around in their underwear? I Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:30:53 AM Celebrities, Reality-Free mentioned it in my picks for the P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | This WSJ headline (March 8), worst Super Bowl ads, and now Comments perfectly captures the contrarian CBS is actually apologizing for case for bullishness: The it (and that's not all). marketâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s up ~70% from the year The network is going to give what if the ads were similar in -ago lows, and investors are still Dockers three free commercials content? It's not like Dockers either apathetic or outright and CareerBuilder are Coke and during the NCAA March dislike stocks. There seems to Madness basketball tournament Pepsi and they ran ads next to ABC be neither fear nor greed, just coming up this month. The each other. Maybe CBS should continued from page 57 complacency (VIX = 17.42). Dockers ad ran first before give viewers something for free movie download was attempted, around. What do you think? f o r h a v i n g t o e n d u r e t h e another men-in-shorts the system would return an Filed under: Industry, > commercial for CareerBuilder, commercials. I'd like a 'Late error. This issue stopped once Programming, OpEd, Awards, Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: so they're the ones that will get Show' mug. the Academy Awards started. Reality-Free [via Mediabistro] the free spots. It seems more likely that P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. Filed under: Commercials, This is rather odd, and I wonder Cablevision acquiesced to the C o m m e n t s if it will set an unwanted Reality-Free demands of ABC given the P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | timing of the channel restoration precedent when it comes to what advertisers can expect/want. So C o m m e n t s rather than the other way

Room To Run?

'Big Love' - 'End of Days' Recap Danny Gallagher (TV Squad)

With those very words, Bill released his family from four seasons of hiding and seclusion (S04E09)"I'm Bill Henrickson, and finally brought his lifestyle and I believe in the principle of and faith out in the open in a p l u r a l m a r r i a g e . I a m a way very few fans could have polygamist." - from Bill's seen coming. It was bound to go acceptance speech public somehow someway, but Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:50:00 AM

no one could have predicted it would have been on the steps of

the state capitol as he accepts Reality-Free the keys to a state senate office. Permalink| Email this| | So why did it feel so Comments unfulfilling and empty? Continue reading'Big Love' 'End of Days' Recap Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews,

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Entertainment/

America's Love of 3D Grows Curiouser and Curiouser [Monday Box Office] Richard Lawson (Gawker)

as Alice and all her friends Came Right At You? What's that? You went with friends or While everyone in Hollywood on a date and are fabulously was busy preparing for last g o o d l o o k i n g a n d h a d a night's celebrity prom, a 3D fabulously good looking time? movie was quietly having the Well, I guess people I don't best March opening weekend know are jerks too. ever. Sure it was on IMAX 2) Brooklyn's Finest— $13.5 screens so every ticket cost $40, million but it's still impressive. What do you think? Was it the 1) Alice in Wonderland— Richard Gere appeal? Ethan $116.3 million Hawke? Wesley Snipes?? Yes, one hundred and sixteen Something about this movie was million. That's a lotta millions! attractive to people and I just What this basically means is that don't think it could be the plot. t h o s e o f y o u w h o w e r e What was the plot, even? The desperately hoping that this movie basically should have whole 3D renaissance would be been called We Own the Yards a crazy and passing fad are of Pride & Glory because it is unfortunately going to have to the same exact thing as every suffer and endure for a bit other movie in this new-ish longer, because that shit is Gritty Cop Movies About eminently bankable right now. Family and Honor genre that's People love to think that the b e e n k i c k i n g a r o u n d stuff on the screen is coming at inexplicably for a few years them. Just love it. The question now. The individual movies for Alice is now whether or not aren't bad, it's just that they are it will hold on and continue all the same movie, over and dominating with good word of over and over again. Has anyone mouth and all that. Everyone I ever seen Antoine Fuqua and know who saw it said it was James Gray in the same room? dumb and bad, but everyone I 4) Cop Out— $9 million know is a jerk. So what did you It's holding on! Even though think, lowly reader? Did you boyfriends the nation over were shuffle off sadly to your local forced to go see that Alice rundown cineplex and wheezily movie instead of this, their true say "Ticket for one, please" and hearts' desire, this weekend, the then chomp greasily on popcorn Bruce Willis/Tracy Morgan and vaguely, whiningly delight dramedy dropped only about Submitted at 3/8/2010 11:04:45 AM

its crazy, crazy heart. It's really a miracle that anyone is actually going, because for me it's one of those movies that I know I should see and I've even gone so far as to make plans to see it, but then something comes up or I'm just not in the mood and it gets postponed and I still haven't seen Crazy Heart. I suppose I will someday. But now that the Oscar urgency is suddenly gone... I wonder when that will be. Some time in the future, when I am old and tired, they will rerelease Crazy Heart and I'll go see it and sigh to myself and say "Ohh, remember Jeff Bridges?" And then I'll say "Look how young Colin Farrell was!" and I will think about the winter I was 26 and how I never went to see Crazy Heart, because I foolishly thought I had all the time in the world. 18) The Hurt Locker— $439,000 This movie, a bigtime Oscar winner, has only earned $14 million in domestic box office. 50% and pushed its two-week Story before you, but no matter. Which makes it the lowesttake to $32 million. That's a Cop Out 2: The Cops Are grossing Best Picture winner in respectable number, especially Coming At You should be a big, ever. Go see this movie! Or rent for a Kevin Smith movie, big hit. it! Is it on video? It can't be, I especially these days. So well 9) Crazy Heart— $3.3 million don't think. Not if it's still done, Cop Out! You may go T h i s g r i z z l e d o l d m o v i e playing in theaters. Or maybe it down in film history as the continues to ride a wave of is. I don't know. Either way, movie that's actually redeemed Oscar buzzzz, and actually find a way to see it and go do by Seann William Scott, like increased its grosses from last AMERICA'S page 61 Balls Out: The Gary Houseman week by 36%. Good for it and

Entertainment/

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Why George Clooney Was Mean at the Oscars, and Other Mysteries [Gossip Roundup] Brian Moylan (Gawker)

because some Olympians were in attendance. Shaun White wore an outfit only slightly less It's because his secret stash of r i d i c u l o u s t h a n h i s booze ran dry. Sandra Bullock snowboarding costume, and wins worst actress, Mo'Nique Evan Lysachek brought Vera and Oprah clash, Farah Fawcett Wang as his beard date. Of is forgotten, terrorists hate course, all the celebs still Hollywood, Tom Cruise gets in showed and partied, but the a wreck. Monday's gossip has a whole time they were looking champagne hangover. over their shoulders for Osama • George Clooney was getting bin Laden himself to come in tanked drinking out of a flask on and grab Graydon Carter by the the red carpet. That may explain l a p e l a n d a s k w h e r e h i s his behavior, but it isn't a invitation was. All he really justification for his mullet. wants is to be recognized for his When he started making mean work. [ P6] faces during the program, we • thought for sure it was going to • Sandra Bullock, stop trying to be part of a gag later on, but it make us like you! First you gave either never happened or he was the Platonic ideal of a great just pissed off. Maybe he ran out Oscar speech, then we found out of his contraband appletinis. [ E! that you showed up on Saturday Online] night to the Golden Raspberries • to accept your award for Worst • Hollywood is afraid of Actress for All About Steve. terrorists. How do we know? Way to keep it real, sister.[ P6] Apparently the Vanity Fair • Oscar party had bomb sniffing • At a luncheon on Saturday dogs and ex-CIA agents dressed afternoon, Oprah Winfrey and up as waiters in case something Mo'Nique either made nice went horribly awry. Maybe this happy faces at one another, or year they thought Al Qaeda Mo'Nique got so pissed at were especially threatened Oprah stealing her thunder that Submitted at 3/8/2010 11:12:29 AM

she pouted and forced the restaurant to be cleared so that she could shaker her booty to "What's Going On." [ P6, NYDN] • • Nobody went to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences official New York party at the Palace Hotel. Maybe

it's because of the scary appetizers. [ P6] • • Yes, you were right, they did leave Farrah Fawcett out of the And Now They're Dead montage at last night's Academy Awards. Don't worry, the happy memory of her work in Saturn 3 will live far longer than this

snub. [ TMZ] • • Gossip dowager Cindy Adams thinks Meryl Streep was robbed. God, I hate when I agree with her. [ Cindy Adams] • • Itty bitty Tom Cruise crashed his itty bitty motorcycle when he mistook his real life for Mission Impossible IV and ran a stop sign crashing into another car. He is luck that Xenu is on his side and saving him from harm. [ Hollywood Life] • • " Prince William gives shitty gifts. Well, not really. He gave girlfriend Kate Middleton a pair of $28,000 antique pearl earrings, and they were eaten by her dog! Of course they eventually came out the other end, but were "damaged beyond repair." It sucks for whichever member of the royal staff was tasked with searching for the studs in order to make that assessment. [ NYDN] • [ Image via Getty]

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Salty Eric Massa Reveals Details of Supposed Harassment, Swears At Rahm Emanuel [Meltdowns] Pareene (Gawker) Submitted at 3/8/2010 10:50:44 AM

Is"salty old sailor" Eric Massa being railroaded by Democratic leaders for voting against health care, or is he actually a creep who harasses his staff? No one knows. But he had awesome things to say about Rahm Emanuel, today. Massa is a one-term Democrat from a very conservative district in New York's southern tier. Last week, he announced that he was retiring, because his nonHodgkin's lymphoma had come back. Then, immediately, word of an ethics violation was leaked to Politico: Massa was under investigation for sexual harassment of a male staffer. Massa opposed the Democratic health reform bill because he is a staunch single-payer advocate. And on his weekly radio show, he gave his own version of the event that led to the harassment complaint. Apparently he was just really drunk at a wedding and he sat down with his staff of bachelors. And then things got ribald! "One of them looked at me and as they would do after, I don't know, 15 gin and tonics, and

Absolutely. Am I guilty? Yes." According to Massa, the guy who he threatened to "frack" was not the guy who complained. It was some other guy at the table who told Steny Hoyer that this "fracking" thing made him uncomfortable. Conveniently, a Massa retirement brings the threshold for passing health care down by one vote. Oh, and also, apparently, Massa and Rahm Emanuel reenacted their favorite scenes from In The Loop on the phone, once: "When I voted against the cap and trade bill, the phone rang goodness only knows how many and it was the chief of staff to bottles of champagne, a staff the president of the United member made an intonation to S t a t e s o f A m e r i c a , R a h m me that maybe I should be E m a n u e l , a n d h e s t a r t e d chasing after the bridesmaid and swearing at me in terms and his points were clear and his words that I hadn't heard since words were far more colorful that crossing the line ceremony than that," Massa said. "And I on the USS New Jersey in grabbed the staff member sitting 1983," Massa said. "And I gave next to me and said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Well, what it right back to him, in terms and I really ought to be doing is words that I know are physically fracking you.' And then [I] impossible." tossled the guy's hair and left, So. Eric Massa is perhaps just went to my room, because I one of those people who is just knew the party was getting to a not cut out for elected office. point where it wasn't right for me to be there. Now was that inappropriate of me?

AMERICA'S continued from page 59

so. Things blow up and there are guns! It isn't artsy and boring. There aren't women in period costumes weeping and holding parasols while they diffuse bombs. Although that would be kind of wonderful. "Madam, your bustle has activated that

explosive." "Oh dear..." BOOM. But yeah. Go watch! What are you waiting for, a Crazy Heart double feature rerelease?

Villegas Runs Away to Win Honda Classic FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/7/2010 11:25:00 AM

Filed under: PGA PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) -- Camilo Villegas' week started with one celebration, then ended with another. Villegas shot a final-round 68 to win the Honda Classic by five shots Sunday over Anthony Kim, giving the Colombian his third PGA Tour victory. He finished at 13-under 267, the lowest 72-hole score since the Honda moved to PGA National in 2007, four shots better than Y.E. Yang's winning total a year ago. And Villegas made it look easy most of the way, too, capping his day with a 20-footer for birdie, then raising both hands skyward. "It's been a long week, man," Villegas said. "But man, it's been a good one. I just loved

every second of it." Midway through his round, it seemed like Villegas could waltz to the win. He led by only two after Vijay Singh made a 45 -foot birdie putt at the par-3 fifth, but three straight birdies -starting with a 25-footer on No. 8 -- sent Villegas to 15 under and six shots clear of the field. Good thing he had that cushion, because the putter stopped working after that. Fortunately for Villegas, no one made much of a run.

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Malepocalypse: Metrosexuals by Another Name [Trendwatch] Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 3/8/2010 11:14:19 AM

As if men didn't have enough to worry about, with all the sports viewing: prepare for "the biggest array of product launches for men in nearly a decade and maybe ever." Translation, fellas: corporate America's comin' fer yer balls. In the Good Old Days When Men Were Men, the only fancy things a man was expected to possess were a razor and a watch, and possibly a nice Zippo for cross-burnings. But clever marketers figured out that simply by inventing a social expectation that men would adhere to the same grooming standards as women, they could create a massive new market for personal care products. Ad Age points out that the first wave of this assault upon the testicular fortitude of the American male was the attempted hyping of the "metrosexual" lifestyle, which failed, probably due to skinhead stompings(?). But we are now

Louisville’s Freedom Hall Farewell JumpStarts March (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:18:58 AM

mired firmly in the second wave. From fancy underwear to fancy shampoo to more fancy underwear, the newest marketing Malepocalypse has been broad-based. And it's about to get much worse. Take this simple test, men: Do you have one of these items in your homes? It is a loofah. It is used for caressing oneself with body wash. Both a loofah and a body wash would have been unthinkable items in the

bathroom of, say, Tom Brokaw's Greatest Generation. But thanks to an easy bit of Axe advertising fuckery, the average man is not ashamed at all to be caught caressing himself with this loofah concealed in a rugged rubberized grip—a " Shower Tool." (Fittingly). The ballshrinking truth: we are all potential metrosexuals. Marketers who had heralded the arrival of the "metrosexual" last decade found the term tended to

Bubbles and brackets and RPI and automatic-bid conferences and so on: this is lingo every hoops fan knows, but it’s seasonal stuff. It seems strange and difficult to believe, but that season the season of NCAA pigeonhole their products with a tournament-related jargon, and relatively narrow segment of all the sensory-overload joys upscale, fashion-conscious men. that it describes is just about The reality is that the segment upon us. A wild Saturday in exists and has kept growing, but college hoops further inflated a marketers seeking to sell such very slippery bubble, with more p r o d u c t s a s s h a m p o o a n d teams making their cases for bodywash to men are appealing March Madness invites and the to a much broader audience, too. t u m u l t o f c o n f e r e n c e That broader audience: You, championship play looming. As bro. in “the big ones start this week.” Reuters If we’re running shots of tank-topped young men with peach-fuzz goatees surrounding giant smiles, it must be March. “[Saturday's] games were entertaining, but they left us feeling deathly unprepared,” the Journal’s Jason Gay writes. “It’s sophomore-year literature all LOUISVILLE’S page 64

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Kurt Busch gets first Sprint Cup win of 2010 at Atlanta Motor Speedway Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/7/2010 9:59:13 PM

• Email • Print • Comments '); document.write(''); } else if ( show_gigya ) { document.write('• '); document.write(' '); function showShareUI(){ v a r H = {APIKey:"2_B48MVBl19K9C Qj72UVrAqLh7VSAyZDfMkcl kt8foSSRaAbdWu36H_N3Ky_ ERWhDG", enabledProviders: "facebook,twitter", cid:"ESPN.Story"}; var I = n e w gigya.services.socialize.UserAct ion(); var containerID = "gigyacontainer"; var D="Test "; var A = {}; I.setUserMessage(""); if (jQuery(":header:first").length > 0 ) { I.setTitle(jQuery(".article").find( ":header:first").text()); } else { I.setTitle(decodeURIComponent ("Kurt%20Busch%20gets%20fir st%20Cup%20win%20of%2020 10%20at%20Atlanta")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp n.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/ story?id=4974034"); if (jQuery("#videoInfo").length >

0 ) { I.setDescription(jQuery(".article p:not(div.beta-opt p):first").text()); } else { I.setDescription(jQuery("p:first" ).text()); } if (jQuery(".article .image, .headshot").length > 0) { var theimage = (jQuery(".article . i m a g e , .headshot").find("img").attr("src ")); I.addMediaItem( { type: 'image', src: theimage }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } Associated Press HAMPTON, Ga. -- Kurt Busch was running out front with three laps to go when things really got interesting. First, a frightening crash that seemed intentional between two feuding drivers. Then, another spinning, slamming melee before the white flag came out. "We've got to win this race three times, maybe even four times," a frustrated Busch said on his radio. Not to worry. Busch survived a couple of overtime restarts and 16 extra laps to win again Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a race marred by accusations that Carl Edwards purposely wrecked Brad Keselowski's car, sending it hurtling toward the main stands

upside down. Busch won the spring race at the 1.54-mile trioval for the second year in a row, beating Matt Kenseth to the line by nearly half a second in the Kobalt Tools 500. Juan Pablo Montoya was third, followed by Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard. "The Deuce is back, baby!" Busch said after his No. 2 Dodge took the checkered flag. The race went 341 laps instead of its scheduled 325 because of two big crashes near the end. The first one drew the most attention. Edwards, running 156 laps behind, clipped Keselowski and caused his car to spin, then lift into the air at around 190 mph. It smashed into the barrier in front of the stands roof-first, then flipped back onto the track right side up. Keselowski was OK, but NASCAR ordered Edwards to park his car and summoned him to its trailer. "That's not cool," Keselowski said. "He could have killed someone in the grandstands." NASCAR put off a decision on whether to discipline Edwards until at least Monday. On the first attempt at a greenwhite-checkered finish, another crash took out seven cars coming through Turns 3 and 4. Finally, they got in two clean laps, and it was Busch all the

way for his third career win in Atlanta. "You have to adjust to whatever circumstances there are to win these races," said Busch, who claimed his 21st victory overall and snapped Jimmie Johnson's two-race winning streak. "I felt we won the race outright today." Keselowki and Edwards were involved in a spectacular crash racing for the win at Talladega last year. Edwards' car flew up toward the stands, ripping out the fencing, and Keselowski sped on by for the victory. Early in the Atlanta race, more trouble between those two. Keselowski nicked Edwards coming through the turn, which sent him crashing into Joey Logano. Edwards spent much of the day in the garage, but returned to take out his frustration in what appeared to be an intentional tap on Keselowski coming across the start-finish line. "Brad knows the deal between him and I," Edwards said. "The scary part was his car went airborne, which was not what I expected at all." Kobalt Tools 500 Results Kurt Busch held on in the second green-white-checkered restart attempt and outran the field for his first victory of 2010. Complete results Johnson, the four-time

defending Sprint Cup champion, was coming off wins at California and Las Vegas. He climbed into contention again, getting as high as third, but a bad pit stop and a scrape with Ryan Newman cost Johnson a chance to become the first driver since 2007 to make it three in a row. He finished 12th. Denny Hamlin cut a tire with 36 laps to go -- one of at least a dozen drivers taken out by tire problems -- and Busch emerged from the pits out front. As the race headed into its final laps, Montoya was cutting big chunks out of Busch's lead. But the leader said he wasn't worried. "He could have gotten to our outside coming to the checkered," Busch said, "but there was no way he was going to get by." The Edwards-Keselowski scrap with three laps to go made it a moot point, leading to the first attempt at an overtime finish. Busch came to the restart trailing a couple of drivers who took only two tires in the pits, but a brilliant move shot him right back to the front. Busch hugged the rear bumper of Clint Bowyer's car, then dipped to the inside and split both him and Menard heading KURT page 66

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LOUISVILLE’S continued from page 62

over againwe’re barely 20 pages into Faulkner’s ‘Light in August,’ and the quiz is tomorrow. There’s only so much Red Bull we can drink. Can’t CBS just tape the men’s NCAA tournament and show it in May? C’monNBC would.” Fair enough points, but if reading Faulkner were as easy as watching the Horizon League or MAC conference semifinals, your Fixer would be writing this while wearing a Phi Beta Kappa ring. The tough part is keeping up with the up-and-down fortunes of the teams in the March Madness mix. At USA Today, Tim Gardner runs down the most important 18 games of the weekend. That’s 18 games. Among the weekend’s biggies, Louisville’s 78-68 upset of topranked Syracuse Saturday stands out as particularly significant. It was the Cardinals’ second win over the Orange this season, and the sort of signature win that can guarantee a spot in the NCAA tournament’s field of 64. In the team’s previous win against the Orange, sophomore reserve Kyle Kuric played just three minutes and missed his only shot. On Saturday, Kuric stepped delivered a stunner of a 22-point performance highlighted by a second half that featured four dunks and four three-pointers. At MSNBC, Mike DeCourcy hails the game’s unlikely hero. But Kuric’s unexpected breakout

wasn’t what made Saturday’s game significant, either. The victory marked Louisville’s final game at Freedom Hall, the Cardinals’ home for the past 54 years. In the Louisville Courier-Journal, C.L. Brown discusses Freedom Hall’s home-court advantage with the players who made the final game on the court such a smashing success. For all the history made in that building, though, SB Nation’s Jon Bois can’t muster much in the way of nostalgia for the old place. “Remember fifth period in high school, when you wanted to grab a seat next to the wall so you could lean against it and try to fall asleep? Freedom Hall is made entirely of that wall,” Bois writes. “I do not know who designed it but I will bet you ten dollars that his favorite dish was oatmeal If you’re the sentimental sort, though, none of this really has to matter. Some of the truest moments of nostalgia take place in some of the blandest environments.” In the Courier-Journal, Antoinette Konz catches up with Vince and Terry Tyra, a pair of long-time Cardinals fans who have significantly fonder memories of the place than does Bois. Louisville’s tournament fates were certainly helped by their victory, but they’re not guaranteed a bid unless they win the Big East Tournament, which

begins Tuesday. A few lucky programs enter the work week with a more secure sense of what they’ll be doing later this March. Such non-powerhouses as Winthrop, Murray State and Cornell joined mid-major supersleepers Northern Iowa as conference champions over the weekend, earning automatic bids to the big dance. Congratulations are due to all of them, of course especially Cornell, which is totally a powerhouse in its own way! (Guess where my editor went to school?) but Northern Iowa looks especially scary heading into the tournament. In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bernie Miklasz examines the deep, talented Missouri Valley Conference champs and proclaims, “This much we know for sure: The University of Kurt Warner can hoop.” Last year, Binghamton University was among the NCAA’s automatic bids; this year, after a tsunami of scandal discussed in this Daily Fix, the school ranks among the most disgraced programs in NCAA Division I. In Sports Illustrated, Jeff Pearlman examines the perils that major-league ambitions can pose to midmajor college hoops programs.* ** If you were looking anywhere but Boston for a stat-head sportswriter or analyst during the weekend, you were likely to

be out of luck. The 2010 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference attracted a record 1,000 participants over the weekend, with another 400 on the waiting list. That’s more than twice as many as attended in 2009, and another sign that metrics-based analysis is ascendant in baseball, basketball and other sports. So, what were all these guys and it was mostly guys, unsurprisingly talking about? The ways in which numbers help people more clearly understand sports, broadly. At Baseball Musings, David Pinto rounds up the wide-ranging discussion topics; ESPN’s Henry Abbott does the same from a basketball-centric perspective. At the blog Hardwood Paroxysm, Zach Harper sees the Sloan conference as another example of the meritocratic democratization of the sports world, both in front offices and press boxes. Or, if you prefer it in plainer English, the Rise of the Dorks. “The guys who were once called ‘nerds’ and shunned away from the world of sports are still being called ‘nerds’ but at least theyre contributing to the knowledge and success of NBA franchises,” Harper writes. “And isnt that sort of where blogging has come from and where its going?”* * * As Saturday’s much-anticipated welterweight bout between

Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey approaches, a good percentage of what you’ll read will concern itself with the fighters. It’s a reasonable enough approach, given that both fighters are interesting men with fascinating life stories. But Freddy Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, is one of the most intriguing men in the sport, in large part because he has emerged as one of the sport’s great strategists and teachers in recent years. “Roach has become the John Wooden of boxing in the past five years,” Yahoo’s Kevin Iole writes. “Hes sought out by every manager who has a pug with a dream. He turns ordinary fighters into good ones, and good ones become great after working with him.”* * * While the Paralympic Winter Games will begin in Vancouver this week, the Winter Olympics party is officially over at this point. With the Games themselves a pleasant memory for fans and a large, looming tab for Vancouver itself, now seems like a reasonable enough time to look ahead to the next games. In the New York Times, Christopher Clarey assesses the lessons of Vancouver and formulates some guidelines for the International Olympics Committee in choosing an Olympics host site. LOUISVILLE’S page 65

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Reports: Philadelphia Eagles to Gasol Has Inside exercise quarterback Michael Vick's Perspective on Lakers' $1.5 million bonus Recent Woes ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:20:01 AM

{ I.setTitle(decodeURIComponent ("Reports:%20Eagles%20to%20 exercise%20Vick\'s%20$1.5M %20bonus")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp n.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=497 5463"); if (jQuery("#videoInfo").length > 0 ) { I.setDescription(jQuery(".article p:not(div.beta-opt p):first").text()); } else { I.setDescription(jQuery("p:first" ).text()); } if (jQuery(".article .image, .headshot").length > 0) { var theimage = (jQuery(".article . i m a g e , .headshot").find("img").attr("src ")); I.addMediaItem( { type: 'image', src: theimage }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } ESPN.com news services The Philadelphia Eagles have decided to exercise a $1.5 million roster bonus for Michael Vick, signaling they will likely keep the quarterback along with

Donovan McNabb and Kevin Kolb, according to several reports. The bonus, which was to kick in Tuesday unless they released him, would be part of Vick's $5.25 million salary for next season. Vick spent the 2009 season as the Eagles' third quarterback. Eagles coach Andy Reid, in an interview Friday with a Philadelphia radio station, said there was "a pretty good chance" the Eagles would keep all three quarterbacks for next season, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. "I haven't changed my opinion, and I don't think they have, either," Reid said on WPENFM, referring to the Eagles' front office. "They've agreed, and mentioned some of the same kinds of things I've said -- that Donovan's our quarterback." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll

consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email David at droth11@gmail.com.

LOUISVILLE’S continued from page 64

— Tip of the Fix cap to reader Fred Sternburg. Found a good column from the

Tim Povtak (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/7/2010 2:05:00 PM

Filed under: Lakers, Magic ORLANDO -- When things start to unravel -- like they clearly are with the Los Angeles Lakers-perspective can be a funny thing. Kobe Bryant seems to think there's nothing wrong with the first three-game losing streak in more than two years. After all, he scored 39, 26 and 34 points, respectively, in those three games. Pau Gasol, who has averaged less than 14 points in the three losses, has a different take. He believes the defending NBA champions have been thrown out of sync because one guy again has become too dominant in the offense. And guess who that guy would be? "Kobe is a great player, the best offensive player out there ... but at the same time, we need to find some balance with our interior game, develop it a little more, moving the ball and

changing sides,'' Gasol said gingerly, knowing he was treading on sacred territory by questioning Bryant and the offense of coach Phil Jackson. "We need to get focused on that a little more, to find balance, to find some flow.'' Gasol has grown frustrated recently by his lack of offensive opportunities. He was speaking Sunday after the Lakers had lost, 96-94, to the Magic in a rematch of last season's NBA Finals.

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Twins closer Joe Nathan returning to Minnesota for tests Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/8/2010 6:51:02 AM

":header:first").text()); } else { I.setTitle(decodeURIComponent ("Twins\'%20Nathan%20returni ng%20to%20Minnesota%20for %20tests")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp n.go.com/mlb/spring2010/news/ story?id=4973472"); if (jQuery("#videoInfo").length > 0 ) { I.setDescription(jQuery(".article p:not(div.beta-opt p):first").text()); } else { I.setDescription(jQuery("p:first" ).text()); } if (jQuery(".article .image, .headshot").length > 0) { var theimage = (jQuery(".article . i m a g e , .headshot").find("img").attr("src ")); I.addMediaItem( { type: 'image', src: theimage }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } Associated Press FORT MYERS, Fla. -Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan is headed back to

KURT continued from page 63

through the first turn. Busch appeared to be pulling away, but Jamie McMurray got into Minnesota to get his surgically Bowyer before the field could repaired right elbow checked take the white flag, leading to a seven-car pileup and another try out. Nathan says he felt fine while for a clean finish. he was working out before There wasn't much drama on spring training games. But there the next restart. Busch got away was some soreness when he cleanly, zipped around the track threw 20 pitches against the two more times and took the Boston Red Sox on Saturday. checkered flag. He then headed Nathan was expected to fly off on a victory lap in reverse. back to Minnesota on Sunday Pole winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. for tests. The 35-year-old right- lost the lead on the very first lap hander had surgery Oct. 20 to but was running near the front remove bone spurs from the when a mysterious tire problem sent him to the pits on Lap 114 elbow. Nathan says he isn't too under a green flag. He radioed worried, and will know more that a tire felt loose, but the after doctors compare tests crew found it fully inflated after results with those taken last making the change. Junior returned to the track just year. Nathan was 2-2 with a 2.10 as teammate Mark Martin blew ERA with a career-high 47 saves last year. Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

a tire, which sent him spinning through the trioval grass to bring out a caution flag. The unfortunate timing cost Earnhardt dearly; he slipped a lap down and never got back in the mix, though all the trouble at the end boosted him to 15th. His winless streak is now 61 races. "We weren't very good," Earnhardt said. "It felt like the damn wheels were coming off." Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

2010 Oscars: Zoe Saldana Goes Bold in Givenchy Couture ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 3/7/2010 5:47:00 PM

Zoe Saldana made my Oscar night dreams come true. The Avatar star chose a daring Givenchy Couture gown

tonight, my favorite look from Riccardo Tisci's spring 2010 Paris runway presentation in January. The voluminous gown has it all: Sparkle, ombré, countless floating layers of tulle, Amongst the sea of black and and pops of saturated color.

metallic, this show-stopper topped my best-dressed list. Do you agree? Who were your red carpet favorites? —Violet Moon Gayn or Photos: Imaxtree and Getty Images

See our complete gallery of 2010 Oscar dresses here and find more designer Oscar dresses here. Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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Przybilla Slips in Camby Seeks Portland Shower, Reinjures Knee Return Although 'Anything's Possible'

Chris Tomasson (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/7/2010 3:15:00 PM

Filed under: Trail Blazers, NBA Injuries DENVER -- How bad has it been this season for the Portland Trail Blazers? "Now, even our injured players are getting injured,'' lamented Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan before Sunday night's game at Denver. McMillan got a call Saturday afternoon from athletic trainer Jay Jensen with the news Portland center Joel Przybilla had slipped in the shower earlier in the day at his Milwaukee home. It was confirmed Sunday that Przybilla, who was lost for the season Dec. 22 due to a ruptured patella tendon in his right knee, had re-ruptured that tendon in the mishap and will undergo in a few days his second surgery in 2 Â˝ months.

Chris Tomasson (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/7/2010 4:21:00 PM

Filed under: Clippers, Knicks, Nuggets, Trail Blazers DENVER -- Just about every place Marcus Camby has been wants him to have a homecoming. But who is the leader in the clubhouse? The guys he plays for now. The center started his NBA "At first Jay called me right career way back in 1996, having before (the Trail Blazers) left a two-year stint with Toronto. (Saturday) for Denver and said, There's been no word about the 'You're not going to believe Raptors wanting to bring Camby this,''' said McMillan, whose back, but every other NBA team team has been riddled by he has toiled for just might go injuries all season. "I didn't after him when he becomes a when he said it ... It's been that free agent this summer. type of season where we've had New York, where he played this happen. We've just got to from 1998-2002, is expected to have interest. So is Denver, keep moving forward.''

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is new king of UK sales charts Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/8/2010 9:05:00 AM

It's debatable whether or not the server crashing this past week was a symptom of Battlefield: Bad Company 2's success. What isn't debatable is the game's explosive debut on the UK's where he played from 2002-08. Chart-Track all-formats chart. The Clippers have been the most The multiplayer-centric shooter, vocal in wanting to bring back which we've been thoroughly Camby, but the Clippers perhaps enjoying, outsold the original didn't get bonus points by Bad Company's launch week dealing him last month to n u m b e r s a l m o s t 3 t o 1 . Portland after 1 1/2 seasons in According to Chart-Track, BC2 Los Angeles. is the "best ever launch for any For now, the Trail Blazers are game released this early in the the leader. BATTLEFIELD: page 68

Paris Fashion Week Fall 2010: Karl Lagerfeld's Dominatrix Mix ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

Wasson and Dree Hemingway among them). On the runway today in Paris, the designer Shiny latex, dominatrix leather, showed a mostly black big hair, and fire engine red lips. collection (with bursts of white Just another day for Karl and plum) filled with structured Lagerfeld and his girls (Erin jackets and liquid leggings. My Submitted at 3/7/2010 1:05:00 PM

favorite was the evening

offering: Romantic-with-anedge mini and maxi dresses paired back with those PVC pants. To add a touch more glamour (those red lips and floor-sweeping dresses weren't enough), Mr. Lagerfeld

threw some serious sparkle into the mix. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Violet Moon Gayn or Photos: Imaxtree Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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BATTLEFIELD:

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continued from page 67

year." Interestingly, 53 percent of BC2 sales went to the Xbox 360 version, followed by 31 percent and 16 percent of sales for the PS3 and PC, respectively. (The game also topped the three, individual platform charts.) Of course, lurking in the corner was Just Dance. The game will not go away and continues to stay in the top three week after week after week. Last week's top game, Heavy Rain, slipped down to fourth and the battle of Aliens vs. Predator held onto third. Check out the complete top ten after the break. Source- Battlefield: Bad

continued from page 68

Company 2 is a born leader [GFK Chart-Track] Source- Latest UK Software Charts [GFK Chart-Track] Continue reading Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is new king of UK sales charts Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is new king of UK sales charts originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

Majesco threatened with Nasdaq delisting, again Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/8/2010 11:10:00 AM

Majesco, publisher of Cooking Mama and ... other stuff, has received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq stock market. The company now has 180 calendar days to bring its stock above $1 per share, the minimum required to remain on the exchange. It can't just pop its fiscally hurting head above a buck for a day and everything will go back to being right with the world again. The company needs to hold the price for "a minimum of 10 consecutive trading days prior to August 30, 2010."

Codemasters' new FPS, Bodycount, announced briefly

CODEMASTERS' page 68

Codemasters' new FPS from Black creator Stuart Black has been revealed by OXM UK -and then promptly unrevealed, when the article was taken down. Bodycount is not based on Ice-T's metal band Body Count, because the world couldn't possibly be that beautiful. However, the cover of OXM (accessed through a Google cache of the article) calls it "the ultimate shooter." Since there won't be any shooters after this one, we assume that means it's really This is not the first time cool. Majesco was threatened with We'll find out more this week being kicked from the exchange. as the magazine arrives in UK The company came back from homes, and presumably when an the brink of that potential announcement is put online for delisting disaster early last year. good. Given the venue of If you're curious to see what announcement, we at least know happens after a company is it is an Xbox 360 game. delisted, here are two case [Via Destructoid] studies: Midway and Atari. Codemasters' new FPS, Majesco threatened with Bodycount, announced briefly Nasdaq delisting, again originally appeared on Joystiq originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:40:00 on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments Comments

CODEMASTERS' continued from page 68

CODEMASTERS' page 68

Economy/

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Dough, a Deer Guest Author (The Big Picture)

hoc, at best. Policy makers are behaving in a reactionary fashion, making it up as they go Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:30:17 AM within the context of what We had discussions last month measures may be politically with passive global investors acceptable at the moment. It is including individuals, high net- Kabuki Theatre. There is no worth families, institutions, and grand design or proactive fund aggregators and allocators. strategy among outside agents Most shared a common theme: that market participants may they had little conviction about follow to gain insights into future economic trends and asset future public policy or asset values, and they were reluctant valuations. We, and you, are to express themselves forcefully potentially as knowing as in the markets. We also spoke anyone about future events and with several active market we think it will pay to think for o p e r a t o r s i n c l u d i n g f u n d one’s self. managers and position and prop We scrubbed our own traders. These traders and trend m a c r o e c o n o m i c l o g i c , followers, up to their eyeballs in scrutinized the markets, and recapital flows each day, do ran our numbers. We think the indeed have opinions, usually gap separating our sense of well reasoned yet almost always macroeconomic and market applied to the near term. Our outcomes from those commonly sense is that market sponsorship accepted among the majority of is lacking conviction across the m a r k e t p a r t i c i p a n t s board. Very few investors are (extrapolators) has rarely been looking strategically across the wider. We characterize the valley and even fewer are c u r r e n t g l o b a l e c o n o m i c positioning assets that way. environment as one with severe We also compared closely the a n d u n p r e c e d e n t e d c r e d i t stated intentions of policy d e f l a t i o n i n d e v e l o p e d makers with the policies they economies being combated by are actually prosecuting. There central banks with equally continues to be a substantial u n p r e c e d e n t e d m o n e t a r y gap. We read others’ economic inflation. The net effect will be a and market-based analyses of substantial loss of purchasing these intended policies — some power for holders of paper of which made sense, much of currencies and most financial which was illogical and self- assets denominated in them. serving, in our view. In our Nowhere in memory does the view, global monetary and fiscal magnitude of this volatile policies are contingent and ad combination imply a repeat, a

rhyme or a reminiscence of any post-war economic cycle. Never before have global central banks had the power to inflate their currencies infinitely when massive credit contractions take hold. Most market participants, however, still seem to be ignoring the 1971 change in the Bretton Woods monetary regime, wherein central banks gained unilateral primacy in setting monetary conditions at the expense of more organic economic incentives. As a result, economies that now want to shrink to become sustainable again will not be allowed to do so by political establishments. The vast majority of economists seem to be using econometric models that fail to capture the impact of vast money printing, and markets remain priced as though most investors are extrapolating past cycles forward. Market observers and participants do not seem to understand there is no such thing as goods, service and asset deflation in a world where central banks can, are, and will continue to, double, triple, quadruple their money supplies. Global investors, especially those in the developed world, seem to have split into two camps: the smaller camp (in numbers) is comprised of professional investors that are currently staying close to home (hugging indexes) or, in the case of “more aggressive” managers,

trading quickly in and out of “risk assets” and cash. (One very large hedge fund manager bragged about taking all risk off in a month when they’re down 2 %. This sounds more like a very expensive savings account to us.) Such meaningless trading is providing the marginal pressure each day that forces prices of stocks and commodities higher or lower, and (inversely) dollardenominated bonds and currencies lower or higher. The other camp, non-professionals, seems to have chosen simply not to participate in any major way in stocks and commodity markets for fear of volatility. The great irony is that index huggers and non-participants are taking far more risk than they know. In a world defined by overtly debasing paper currencies, paper currency holders (in cash, money market funds or bonds) indeed may be ensuring they receive all their money back, but they are also ensuring that they receive less purchasing power back. Their cash and bonds may prove to be “money good” but in the end they will be left with bad money. And professional investors avoiding volatile periodic returns may think they are complying with their fiduciary responsibilities. They are not. Instead they are raising the probability of risk of loss to their constituents in real terms. While it is true that daily pricing

in equities and commodities fall each day more than cash; and while it is true that commodities rise or fall more each day than equities sponsored mostly by dedicated long-only investors; it would be a mistake to assume the higher volatility within secularly up-trending commodity markets is an indication of greater risk. Rather, it is an indication of increasing awareness from more and more investors that paper currency-denominated financial assets offer negative real returns (nominal returns less monetary inflation). Higher volatility within up-trending markets is a good thing, not a manifestation of risk. It implies greater riskadjusted opportunity. Investors wedded to stable monthly returns above all else are the ones that will be left holding the bag. We think a growing number of global investors are joining previously third-world private wealth holders in migrating from “acceptable” portfolio constructions dominated by stocks and bonds (and now real estate) into far smaller real asset markets characterized by little or no debt encumbrances. Periodic volatility is a small toll early investors must pay when put in the context of massive current and future global currency debasement. DOUGH, page 70

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In short, unprecedented credit deflation and monetary inflation naturally engender a changing global monetary regime, yet the vast majority of market participants remain unwilling or unable to change their investment objectives and behavior. We believe paper currency-denominated cash and the majority of financial assets in developed markets will produce negative real rates of return over time. Further, we believe our real return objective keeps us free to position the Fund to exploit substantial secular market mis-pricings along these lines. We will continue to seek to increase our purchasing power vis-à-vis other market participants who are merely pursuing index or nominal alpha returns. (Or to put it another way, we will continue to seek to take advantage of “fiduciaries” being so “nominally” careful that they’ve become imprudent.) Accordingly, we continued to position assets more aggressively in February. We rearranged some theme weightings, added new positions and let other positions go. We feel good about our book, strategically and tactically. Brief Euro Thoughts We think the immediate lesson to be learned from the current EU conundrum is that economic principles can’t be denied forever. We don’t mean to hit

‘em when they’re down by discussing the Euro’s structural flaws, but applying that term is nothing new for us. The Euro just happens to be even more overreaching in its construction than other currencies. The notion that a common currency could be satisfactorily applied to a range of disparate economies with varied fiscal and tax policies throughout booms and busts seems a fundamental stretch. If one were to counter this claim by asserting all would have been okay had the PIIGS abided by the required Euro-compliant debt-to-GDP and deficit-to-GDP ratios, then we would have to argue in turn that the PIIGS: a) did not start from the same place as did stronger Euro economies in terms of productivity, current accounts and sustainable incomes; b) do not have economies comprised of the same revenue drivers and cost structures; and c) do not have perfectly similar political systems. At the very least these differences ensure staggered economic reactions to changes in global output and in turn varied and staggered political pressures to react to them. (The analogy that Greece is to the EU as California is to the US fails when we consider Greece still recognizes a discrete sovereign political system and California does not.) A few weeks back we lunched

with a senior economist at the Bundesbank who, while he was careful not to divulge how Germany planned to treat Greece, declared in no uncertain terms that “the Greeks had better get their act together quickly.” To be frank, we never thought the ultimate decision on Greece would be made by the Bundesbank or by any central banker – it is simply above their pay grade. The decision whether to help Greece roll its sovereign debt was always going to be made in the political sphere, more specifically by Merkel and Sarkozy (more specifically by German and French voters). The decision announced at the end of February to enlist German stateowned bank financing to save the day is clearly a temporary solution contingent upon the inability of disparate German voters to immediately link stateowned German banks holding Greek debt with their own obligations down the road. As long as Greek sovereign debt is not serviced by Greeks alone, German tax payers will be on the hook for Greek profligacy regardless of whether they write checks directly or whether they must later bail-out German banks that do. There is nothing of value in stereotyping societal differences between Mediterranean cultures and those in more industrialized European economies, just as there are no economic lessons to

be learned in distinguishing among peoples in Utah and the Bronx. The relevant distinction here is that all individual EU governments, including Greece and Germany, cannot have comprehensive domestic economic policies whereas a country with its own currency can (at least in theory). When Greece can’t roll over its debt, Frenchmen have no incentive to help. When California can’t roll over its debt, a US Federal agency can assume it, along with the debt of Detroit homeowners and the debt of large corporations owned by pension funds. Americans across all states might benefit from that federal agency. German state-owned banks provide the same services to the German government as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now provide the US government. Unless all nations comprising the EU want to take ownership of German state-owned banks, the burden to continue subsidizing Greek labor unions will ultimately fall entirely on the backs of German citizens who will not receive benefits from the whole affair. We don’t see any way Merkel and Sarkozy can get away with keeping a 16 member Euro zone (unless they want to risk Les Miserable). Ultimately it is not the rule of law or a fundamentally sounder economy that makes the US

dollar a more stable currency than the Euro; it is the lack of incentives that exist for those holding Euros to adhere to its perpetuation. We have no great conviction about how to play this situation within the relative FX game. Obviously the Euro, as it stands, would appear to be weak vis-à-vis other currencies like the US dollar. However, if next month German state-owned banks and global bond investors step away from rolling over Greek debt, in turn causing expectations that the Euro zone will reduce its membership to 11 from 16, we could see the Euro as the world’s best fiat currency. (We are playing Euro FX weakness in a small way and all currencies’ weakness versus gold in a far bigger way.) Fundamentals Show Opportunity Growth in an economy’s Monetary Base (MB), (defined as currency in circulation and bank reserves), leads directly to an upward adjustment in the value of gold. The accompanying graph, which we print periodically and feel compelled to update, shows the Fed’s relentless printing of highpowered US dollars – money that may be further levered. As ridiculous as it may seem at first blush, the graph represents our best guess as to the magnitude of ultimate loss already baked DOUGH, page 71

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into the US dollar’s purchasing power. Most dollar holders don’t seem to know this yet. Investors seem to have chosen to wait before setting up for rising goods and service prices seen in popular consumer price baskets. What are they waiting for? Perhaps they are still equating output contraction with price declines? Or perhaps they are waiting for all those newly created dollars, and the 10x-plus claims those dollars will be multiplied to in the banking system, to begin chasing the relatively constant supply and demand equilibrium for global goods and services? Or, perhaps they believe the Fed will withdraw enough money and credit at just the right time to retard output growth? We are not waiting to see if policy makers will successfully manage expectations for goods and service inflation. What they intend to do does not concern us. We think it is highly likely MB growth will continue on its parabolic path until consumer prices begin to rise. Indeed developing “a little” price inflation expectations must be the current, albeit unstated, policy objective. If policy makers are “successful” at stimulating the economy, they will not get a little price inflation; they will get a lot — record amounts — and they will not be able to do anything about it. Paper money will lose its

purchasing power. Gold is simply cash in a scarcer currency; wealth placed in an asset with a better future exchange rate; a legitimate store of current purchasing power; and possibly (probably) a legitimate store of increasing future purchasing power because so few own it today. It is looking more likely that there will be a sudden and equally parabolic shift in precious metals prices and their derivatives, just as we have begun to see in the Monetary Base graph above. The gold price has risen each year since the turn of the century. Have you ever seen a strong, secular bull market end without a blow off? “A Meaningless & Intangible Social Construct” “Low market interest rates should continue to induce savers to diversify into riskier assets, which would contribute to a further reversal in the flight to liquidity and safety that has characterized the past few years. As the economy improves and credit losses become easier to size, banks will be able to build capital from earnings and outside investors, making them more able and willing to extend credit–in effect, allowing the low market interest rates to show through to the cost of capital for more borrowers. A more stable economic environment and greater

availability of credit should contribute to the restoration of business and household confidence, further spurring spending.” –Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn, October 13, 2009 Mr. Kohn, who has been at the Fed since 1970 and just announced his retirement, no doubt intended his remarks last fall to provide a reasonable roadmap for economic recovery – one that no reasonable person would dispute or be offended by. He would be wrong. The accompanying graph shows US total bank credit (TBC), which we would argue is the secret sauce and leading indicator of the price of “risk assets”. In short, the increase in bank credit promotes leveraged investment in assets that promise a return in excess of the cost of that credit. The more bank credit in the system, the more financial asset borrowers reach for yield. All the credit chasing financial assets drives down their risk-adjusted returns. Eventually, asset bubbles burst and the credit remains. Then, credit values begin to decline as they are no longer collateralized by inflated assets. Mr. Kohn’s solution is to inflate another asset bubble. As the graph shows, TBC is about $9 trillion presently, or over 4 times the Monetary Base. It has risen quite steadily over the last generation until just

recently when it began to stumble. As Mr. Kohn shows clearly, public policy is to get TBC rising again, which will increase borrowing, money velocity, consumption, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. What Mr. Kohn and others do not seem to understand is that they have lost control over their own banking systems. Despite its growth, TBC does not present a complete picture of dollar-based leverage. According to John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics, total US dollar denominated GAAP based obligations are about $71 trillion, or almost 8 times TBC and over 32 times the US Monetary Base. The US is one hell of a levered economy and US dollars seem to be, as our friends at “The Onion” joked, “just a meaningless and intangible social construct.” What comprises the difference in $9 trillion TBC and $71 trillion total US dollar denominated GAAP based obligations? We don’t know for sure but we think we know where to look. According to Jim Rickard’s revealing interview in welling@weeden: “The ratio of world financial assets to world GDP grew from 100% in 1980 to 200% in 1993 to 316% in 2005. Over the same period, the absolute level of global financial assets increased from $12 trillion to $140 trillion. The drivers of this

exponential increase in scale are globalization, derivative products, and leverage. Globalization, we’ve talked about. Derivatives have grown even faster than the underlying financial assets, owing to improved technology in their structuring, pricing, and trading – and to the fact that the size of the derivatives market is not limited by the physical supply of any stock or commodity. It can theoretically achieve any size, since the underlying instrument is notional rather than actual. Thus, the total notional value of all swaps increased from $106 trillion to $531 trillion between 2002 and 2006. The notional value of equity derivatives increased from $2.5 trillion to $11.9 trillion over the same period while the notional value of credit default swaps increased from $2.2 trillion to $54.6 trillion.” The numbers are daunting. Theoretically, if we wanted to completely settle dollar based claims versus dollars outstanding we would have to: a) increase the MB by 32 times; b) decrease credit by 32 times; or c) increase the MB and decrease credit until we found equilibrium. Of course, this is not really a fair analysis because aggregate US dollardenominated debtors will never have to completely pay-off their DOUGH, page 72

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DOUGH,

Iraq's election: Defiant Iraqis (The Economist: News analysis)

most of their votes along the lower stretches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Shia Submitted at 3/7/2010 10:22:20 PM heartland. Non-sectarian Iraq's election Counting begins alliances are expected to do well after Iraq's modestly hopeful in Baghdad and Anbar province, general election once one of the most restive Mar 8th 2010 | BAGHDAD | parts of the country. From The Economist online Sunni parties expect to have DESPITE a wave of violent done well in parts of northern attacks, millions of voters took Iraq outside Kurdistan and part on Sunday March 7th in the turnout in Sunni-dominated s e c o n d f u l l p a r l i a m e n t a r y areas was reportedly higher than election in Iraq since the 2003 expected. The autonomous invasion. In a country snlowly ethnic region along the Turkish emerging from years of bloody border is seeing a struggle for fighting, voters faced a choice s u r v i v a l b e t w e e n l o n g between a Shia-dominated established forces that fought government and a non-sectarian Saddam Hussein and a new one. Neither option offers an party called Goran, Kurdish for obvious path to full peace and c h a n g e , t h a t p r o m i s e s prosperity. modernisation and reform. Much of the effect of the No party is expected to win election depends on the horse- more than a third of the total trading and coalition building vote. Mr Maliki's State of Law that is to follow. But the election alliance has the best chance of result will give an indication of success but vies with the Iraqi who is to lead the oil-rich National Movement of Ayad nation. The prime minister, Nuri Allawi, a former prime minister. al-Maliki, should do well in the M r A l l a w i i s a n a v o w e d main Shia population centres of secularist who has promised to Baghdad and Basra. His rivals reduce the influence of Iran's from the Iraqi National Alliance, Shia religious leaders in Iraq. comprising a number of Shia Both men will need partners to religious parties, expect to win win power. The prime minister

could once again form a coalition government with his Shia rivals and the Kurdish block. Mr Allawi may try to attract smaller Sunni parties as well as some of Mr Maliki's Shia rivals, many of whom do not trust him. The latter would amount to a genuine government of national unity, combining representative numbers of Sunnis and Shias in one cabinet for the first time. If that were the outcome, it could help to stabilise the country. Much of the ongoing sectarian violence is committed by Sunnis who feel disenfranchised. Giving Sunni leaders high-profile government jobs might end the sense of isolation felt by their supporters. However, such a coalition would combine many former enemies and may prove ineffective in office. The biggest concern on election day was turnout. Western diplomats last week said they expected roughly 50% to get to the polling stations. Yet, despite a series of attacks that disrupted voting in Baghdad and other parts of the country, turnout was at first reported to be relatively

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strong. Bombs deposited in houses and by the side of roads killed at least 38 people. Rockets rained down on the government quarter in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Mortar-like noises were made by home-made concussion devices. “We started hearing explosions the moment we got up this morning and they continued for a long time,” said Kamal Nuhad, a father who brought his oneyear-old daughter to a polling station in eastern Baghdad. Insurgents tried to frighten voters and stop them from casting a ballot. How successful they were will become clear later. Despite massive help from the Americans and the United Nations, Iraqi officials expect to need about a week to announce a result. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

debts, but it does indicate the magnitude of the leverage currently in the system and imply the difficulty with which this leverage can be paid down – and the difficulty with which even more credit will stimulate growth. Good riddance, Mr. Kohn, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. (We know, meet the new boss; same as the old boss…) *** If you accept the proposition that gold’s correlation lies with MB and stocks’ (as a proxy for risk assets) lies with TBC, as we do, then the two graphs above imply one should consider buying gold and selling equity. While the ratio is what matters for the pairs-trade, the nominal level of the numerator is what matters for the solvency of the banking system. In that sense, banks are agnostic towards the gold price unless a higher gold price ultimately flows through to a higher risk asset price (which, in time, we think it clearly will). Think of it this way: In good times (nominal asset price appreciation), banks enjoy robust lending conditions and therefore are the “money creators” (loans create deposits). In bad times (nominal asset price depreciation), banks suffer balance sheet pressures and therefore curtail lending. Under this scenario, the Fed is the DOUGH, page 73

Economy/ Gallup Poll/ E-reader News/

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money creator. Mother Nature, being more powerful than even the Fed, applies the disciplinary constraint (a perceived upside limit on TBC/MB) in the modern monetary system that the gold standard did under former monetary regimes. Under the gold standard, however, MB was a constant so the ratio could only normalize from an inflated level via a contraction in TBC. As we discussed above, under our existing fiat currency system, the ratio can be normalized via a

contraction in TBC, an expansion of MB or, a combination of the two. A $2.2 trillion MB has a long way to rise to meet $9 trillion TBC or $71 trillion total claims, even if they meet in the middle. In the end this is nothing more than savers funding speculative bank lending, as it is the savers who foot the inflationary bill. Buy your Treasuries and be safe, if you like. We will fade you. Take “a little risk” if you dare by buying highly levered real estate or equity indexes. We will take the other side of your

Republicans', Dems' Abortion Views Grow More Polarized

trade. Your investments may turn out to be “money good”, but in the end you will have bad money. Best, Lee & Paul (All Gallup Headlines) Paul BrodskyLee Quaintance Five Filters featured article: Submitted at 3/7/2010 7:00:00 PM Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Copyright © 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. Term Extraction. Gallup®, A 8™, Business Impact Analysis™, CE 11®, Clifton StrengthsFinder®, the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names, Customer Engagement Index™, Drop Club®, Emotional Economy™, Employee Engagement Index™, Employee Outlook Index™, Follow This Path™, Gallup Brain®, Gallup Consulting®, Gallup Management Journal®, GMJ®, Gallup Press®, Gallup Barry Ritholtz (The Big “lacking discretion, wisdom, or duty or obligation. Picture) good judgment.” (Imprudence is When Greenspan made the Publishing™, Gallup Tuesday the “state of being imprudent”). decision to ot regulate or Briefing®, Gallup University®, Submitted at 3/8/2010 8:15:37 AM If the Fed was only guilty of oversee non-bank lenders, his HumanSigma®, I 10™, L 3™, In his column titled An Irish b a d j u d g m e n t o r l a c k o f choice was nonfeasance. He Mirror, Paul Krugman notes “ wisdom, we could live with that. elected not to do something that the most striking similarity After all, people are fallible and he was bound to do as part of between Ireland and America judgment can go awry. his official duty. (In common was “ regulatory imprudence”: But that was not what occurred; law, this was punishable by the people charged with keeping rather, under Alan Greenspan, fines or imprisonment or both). News Search Results banks safe didn’t do their jobs.” t h e F e d w a s g u i l t y o f Five Filters featured article: (Yahoo! for e-readers) (emphasis mine) Nonfeasance. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: The phrase “regulatory A c c o r d i n g t o W e s t ’ s PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Submitted at 3/8/2010 4:07:01 AM imprudence” is far to imprecise Encyclopedia of Law, the Term Extraction. SCREEN TECHNOLOGY is — and wimpy — to describe definition of nonfeasance is far about the only reason that ewhat took place. Impruden t, as harsher: It is the intentional book readers exist as a category defined by Merriam Webster, is failure to perform a required distinct from other mobile computers. Their displays, typically using an e-paper layer from E-Ink, draw so little power

Not Regulatory Imprudence, Nonfeasance~!

PrincipalInsight™, Q 12®, SE 25™, SF 34®, SRI®, Strengths Spotlight™, Strengths-Based Selling™, StrengthsCoach™, StrengthsFinder®, StrengthsQuest™, TeacherInsight™, The Gallup Path®, and The Gallup Poll® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. These materials are provided for noncommercial, personal use only. Reproduction prohibited without the express permission of Gallup, Inc. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

MEMs screens speed up e-readers (The Inquirer) that batteries can last for days rather than hours between between charges. But anyone who has used an ereader knows their drawbacks. There is none of the fast interactivity of a normal computer and the nearest the screen gets to white is a MEMS page 74

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parchment colour that offers poor contrast and so requires strong ambient lighting for reading. E-Ink has promised colour for this year. The power drain is low because the screens are bistable, requiring power only when they change state. Stick an image on screen and it will stay there without power, as if you had drawn it on paper. However these screens do draw significant power when they change state, and the overall drain is low because book readers turn the page at a leisurely rate. If you tried to run video on an e-reader screen (assuming it could switch fast enough) it could be thirstier than an LCD. So the race is on to find a screen with the advantages of both E-Ink and the LCD, or at least an acceptable compromise between the two. Most people, for instance, would be happy to get a fast interactive device that could comfortably last a day, rather than several days, between charges. As The Inquirer reported last year, one possibility is being touted by Qualcomm MEMs Technology (QMT). Its Mirasol displays use a matrix of tiny cavities that act as optical resonators that can be tuned to emit red, green or blue when light falls on them.

The cavities are opened and closed by micromechanical shutters and the system is bistable, though its voltage regulation circuitry draws around 1mw even when the image is static. QMT says the overall power drain is still far lower than that of an LCD, and even of an E-Ink display, given the way e-readers are used in the real world. The company's figures on this are shown in the chart above: you may take them with a pinch of salt but they do make the valid point that people browsing magazines and newspapers turn pages far more often than when they are reading a book, and each turn draws power even on an E-Ink screen. This is important because e-readers, whether dedicated models or modules in general-purpose tablets, are expected to become the dominant publishing medium. And if E-Ink machines make more use of animations, as expected, then their power consumption will rise Mirasol displays have so far been used only in tiny handset screens capable of showing video at 15 frames per second. But QMT has been showing off a stylish e-reader (pictured top) with a 5.7in Mirasol screen that the company says will be launched later this year (this

format, pocketable yet large enough for serious use, is interesting in itself). The whites on the Mirasol display are muddy and the colours lack the vibrancy of LCD, though your eyes do adjust to them as you read. Qualcomm's public relations manager Beatrix Hernando put it rather more delicately: "It's a different aesthetic." QMT says the screen can show video at 30 frames per second but a recent demonstration at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona could manage only a sluggish 15fps. Hernando said 30fps would be available in production models. Nearby Philips-spinoff Liquavista was showing a 6in display based on a technology called electrowetting Each pixel contains drop of water lying above a layer of coloured oil on a transparent hydrophobic surface - ie one that tends to repel water. When a voltage is applied the oil is pushed to one side, so that the water â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;wets' the surface. The display can be reflective, backlit or both (transflective). The screen is not bistable but the power drain compares favourably with backlit LCDs and OLED displays, drawing in reflective mode only just over a third as much when screening video, according to Liquavista

(see chart above - iMoD refers to a Mirasol screen). The colours in reflective mode looked similar to those on the Mirasol display and the white was muddy. Eric Derckx, Liquavista's vice-president of engineering, said this was simply the colour of the substrate on the demonstration screen and production models would give a better white. The colours were more vibrant when backlit, but of course this would draw more current. The screen is surprisingly fast. Derckx was using a TI OMAP 4 system-on-a-chip to screen a video at 30 frames per second video but he said it could go even faster. The other big advantage of the screen is that is can be largely made using existing LCD technology, Derckx said. Another technology demonstration by TI literally added another dimension to mobile displays, delivering 3D video on a 3in handheld screen with no need for special glasses. It used a transparent layer with a corrugated surface that presents a different image to each eye. The system again used a TI SoC to drive the screen at 60 frames per second - 30fps for each eye - to give 3D picture. The stereoscopic layer was announced last year by manufacturer 3M but the idea is

not new: Sharp has used a similar system to create dualimage screens that could, for instance, display a map to a driver while a passenger watched a movie. The 3M layer would not work out so well on TV screens because it has a narrow angle of view, but that is not an issue with handhelds which are held directly in front of the viewer. TI's demonstration system could be used to watch 3D video and even create it - twin cameras for stereo capture were mounted at the back. But of course it had all the components necessary for a 3D videophone, an idea more feasible and useful that it might appear at first. Compressed stereoscopic streams would require well below twice the bandwidth required for normal video. And, judging from a demonstration at CeBIT a few years back, you don't realise until you have experienced a 3D videophone link how much you miss with a 2D image. Âľ Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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What locals say as technology changes the way we read (The Bakersfield Californian) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 3/7/2010 12:25:50 PM

What locals say as technology changes the way we read BY JASON KOTOWSKI, Californian staff writer jkotowski@bakersfield.com| Sunday, Mar 07 2010 12:00 PM Last Updated Sunday, Mar 07 2010 12:00 PM Books have entered the electronic age. While e-books have been available for years, the latest devices with which they're read, called e-readers, are bringing more attention to them. Sony, Amazon and Barnes & Noble have e-readers on the market and Apple's iPad is scheduled for release in early April. Many people get their news, do their shopping and pay their bills online. But will they want to read a book on a computer screen? Jason Frost, manager of Russo's Books, said the technology has both positives and negatives. On the plus side, you can store dozens of books on an e-reader, Frost said. Instead of lugging a bunch of books around, you have months' worth of reading

in a device that can be held with one hand. But the downside is there's no uniform format for e-books, Frost said. For example, if you own Amazon's Kindle, you can only get your e-books from Amazon or other Kindle content providers. Sony has its own format, as does Barnes & Noble's e-reader, called "nook." "If I buy a book I don't want to be a slave to the device," Frost said. Another negative, in Frost's opinion, is that reading a book on an electronic screen puts more strain on the eyes than reading a printed page. He expects technology to eventually improve to the point where the screen will look like an actual page. Russo's started selling e-books about nine months ago, but Frost said so far the response hasn't been overwhelming. He hasn't bought an e-reader yet, but he's excited to see what the iPad can do. "To call an iPad an e-reader is like calling a Porsche a car," Frost said. "There's so much more you can do with it." Bakersfield resident Jose Gutierrez, 27, isn't sold on e-

readers yet. He's going to wait for the price, which can run more than $300, to come down. His brother, however, owns an e -reader and he was surprised at the high quality. Chris Krigbaum, 46, said he's interested in eventually purchasing an e-reader because of how much content they can hold and other features they'll have. Karyn Rutherford, an employee at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers on California Avenue, said they now stock the nook e-reader in store. She declined comment on nook sales. Barnes & Noble reported total sales of $2.2 billion for its fiscal third quarter ending Jan. 30, 2010, a 33 percent increase from the year before, according to a Barnes & Noble news release. Store sales fell 4.7 percent to $1.4 billion, but online sales increased 32 percent to $210 million for the quarter, as compared to the prior year, the news release said. Steve Riggio, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc., said in the news release that "in addition to the accelerating online sales trends, nook sales

have been strong at our bookstores since the product became available." Erin Thompson, training supervisor at the Borders Bookstore on Stockdale Highway, said e-books and ereaders have proven very popular. Borders sells Sony ereaders. She declined to provide sales numbers. Thompson said she hadn't heard any complaints about the devices, but she said some people probably won't embrace the new technology and will stick to regular books. She said those people will probably skew toward those 65 and older and include people who also haven't bought computers or cell phones. Frost said e-readers have hurt sales, but he doesn't think book stores are going to disappear as e-readers become more sophisticated and more people buy them. The industry will have to adapt to the changes in technology, he said. "I hope there's a way to encourage people to keep buying books," Frost said.'); } else { $('dsq-authenticate').update(' Please sign in or register to

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You Built What!? A Closer Look at The Jet-Powered ATV Cassandra Clawson (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 3/8/2010 7:16:39 AM

PopSci's builder-in-residence outfits his four-wheeler with a screaming turbine When John Carnett-Popular Science staff photographer, inventor and tinkerer-abouttown-began confiding in people about plans for his latest project, he found few allies. Not surprisingly, almost no one wanted any part of his scheme to stuff a jet-turbine engine in a Polaris RZR all-terrain vehicle. But Carnett, who grew up near an airfield, remained undeterred. His early attempts to procure a jet by calling manufacturers proved futile. When he told them of his idea to put the engine in a land-based vehicle, they inevitably hung up. He did find a few turbines for sale on eBay but decided that probably wasn't the safest bet. Finally he turned to the gray market of turbine hobbyists, ultimately deciding that a gas turbine was most appropriate and secured a Garrett GTP 30-67 model, along with some other parts, for $6,000. The 87-pound engine, made back in the 1960s, was used in a power generator for the military. In all, it took 10 months, more than $15,000 and countless headaches to bring "Project Whirl" to life. And getting the

other parts together was a feat in itself. Fortunately, Polaris donated the RZR out of curiosity to see what would become of it in Carnett's workshop. He got parts such as the roll cage, suspension, wheels, tires and lights gratis too. He also had to spend hours on the phone with anyone he thought could help propel his invention to the next step. "I would go through 20 or 30 days at a time of total failure," Carnett says, like the time he used the wrong hydraulic fluid,

causing the starter motor to blow up. Eventually someone instructed him to use automatictransmission fluid instead because it's much thinner and better suited to a jet engine. Six weeks after an initial test run that took him all of 20 feet from his driveway, Carnett fixed the design and found himself driving five miles around his Philadelphia hometown, half expecting to get arrested. Next he took the Whirl out to the woods to let it roam in its natural habitat. The beast gets

seven miles to the gallon on a mixture of three gallons of regular gas to one gallon of diesel, and it roars at a rockconcert noise level of about 114 decibels. Topping out at just over 60 mph, it isn't much faster than a stock RZR, but the Whirl's gas turbine reaches maximum power in seconds and stays at that level all the time, so it can get up to its top speed almost instantly even from a dead stop. And the vehicle does some other things a stock model doesn't: require the driver to don

ear protection, have a fire extinguisher at the ready, and wear a flame-resistant Nomex suit. How It Works Time: 10 Months Cost:$15,000+ To build the Whirl, Carnett replaced the RZR's original engine with a gas turbine connected to a custom gearreduction box, which is then connected to a pump that controls a hydraulic motor and the transmission. The turbine runs a consistent 8,000 rpm at an output shaft mated to the gear -reduction box, which drops the rpm output to 3,650 (the speed required by the Eaton piston pump to which it's connected). The piston pump pressurizes the hydraulic fluid and is attached to the final part of the hydraulic drive, a Sunfab hydraulic motor. From there, a pulley mounted on the motor spins a three-inchwide Gates transmission belt and a pulley connected to the input shaft of the RZR's stock gearbox. A control stick installed in a box between the seats runs the Sunfab motor and acts as a hand-controlled accelerator. The turbine requires 24 volts to jolt it into action, so Carnett added two 12-volt batteries under the driver's seat. All those parts connect to the turbine, mounted in the cargo area of the RZR with a custom YOU page 77

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YOU continued from page 76

frame that ties into the stock frame. The H2Whoa Credo: DIY Can Be Dangerous We review all our projects before publishing them, but ultimately your safety is your responsibility. Always wear protective gear, take proper safety precautions, and follow all laws and regulations.

We previously posted on Carnett's Jet Quad when it was completed last summer.

MIT Harnesses Molecule Power info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

devices could also possibly generate either direct or alternating current. Submitted at 3/7/2010 10:20:57 PM The nanotube-powered car is Chalk up more remarkable likely years away, but the results skills for carbon nanotubes. add to the interesting collection Researchers at MIT have of physical properties of these d i s c o v e r e d t h a t c a r b o n molecules that one day could nanotubes can convert heat into transform quite a number of electricity with surprisingly i n d u s t r i e s . N a n o t u b e s a r e efficient results. The amount of hollow tubes of carbon that are p o w e r r e l e a s e d i n t h e stronger than steel, can conduct experiments greatly exceeded electricity better than metals, the mathematical predictions. and are flexible. Potentially, the discovery could A key characteristic is their lead to autonomous sensors the impossibly small diameter: they size of a grain of rice, smaller m e a s u r e o n l y f i v e o r s o bodily implants or batteries that billionths of a meter wide. It's can pack more than 100 times such a small space that electrons power than today's lithium ion traveling down nanotubes are batteries, according to Michael conducted ballistically. The Strano, MIT's Charles and Hilda electrons are never scattered or Roddey Associate Professor of lost, a property that makes Chemical Engineering, one of nanotubes zero-dimensional the principal authors. The o b j e c t s . D e n s e l y p a c k e d

nanotubes could also lead to ultracapacitors capable of storing far more power than today's capacitors. (Blowing gases onto the outside surface of nanotubes can also generate current.) The MIT researchers coated the nanotubes with a fuel and then ignited it. The heat penetrated to the inside of the nanotube and began to travel 10,000 times faster than the normal spread of the reaction. The traveling thermal wave in turn pushed electrons along the tube, creating a current. Meanwhile, elsewhere on campus, another group of researchers has discovered a way to transform polyethylene, a common plastic, into an effective conductor of heat. If it can be brought to market, the plastic could be used to produce

heat sinks for solar panels or computer chips. Additionally, you could see this material being exploited to draw heat to thermoelectric chips, which turn heat into electricity. The plastic conducts heat as well as metal, but has several distinct advantages over metal. For one thing, the plastic could be produced in such a way as to conduct heat in a specific direction, whereas metals radiate heat in all directions. The plastic also serves as an electrical insulator. The core of the discovery revolves around getting the polymer fibers to line up in an orderly direction by drawing them out of solution with the tip from an atomic force microscope, according to Gang Chen, the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power

Engineering and director of MIT's Pappalardo Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratories. (Side note: these microscopes are incredible. IBM let me move a few atoms with one once. Click link for pictures.) Typically, polymer fibers get tangled like hairs in a hairball. Aligned, the polymer conducted heat 300 times better than regular plastic. Carbon nanotubes could also be added to the mix to improve conductivity. Last year, MIT researchers demonstrated how carbon nanotubes could boost the efficiency of fuel cells with carbon nanotubes. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Is Energy Storage a Product or Service? info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

big bet yet," he said. "We are acting as a utility in the state of New York." Submitted at 3/8/2010 4:02:59 AM By building its own flywheel Energy storage companies park, Beacon can garner revenue generally get their revenue by in the near term, compile selling products. performance data, keep its But they might do better if they factory humming and effectively position themselves as mini- s e r v e a s i t s o w n p r i m a r y utilities. customer until utilities To overcome some of the themselves want to purchase economic realities of the energy flywheels en masse. market and to better highlight Additionally, it gives Beacon a some of the advantages of platform to experiment with storage systems, makers of large ways to drive down costs. Now, -scale batteries, flywheels and a 20-megawatt flywheel park other types of equipment may might cost $50 million. Beacon start to position themselves as wants to drop that to $25 million power providers or service or $30 million. Beacon could p r o v i d e r s i n s t e a d o f build larger parks, but it may manufacturers. hold steady at around the 20Take Beacon Power, for megawatt level: it is easier to example. The Tyngsboro, Mass. get approval for facilities -based company originally providing this much power or planned to sell its flywheels as a less. (Storage companies rate pieces of equipment to utilities their products by capacity -- in to help fine-tune power output t e r m s o f k i l o w a t t s a n d from power plants. megawatts -- and secondarily in Instead, it has -- for now -- the number of megawatt-hours a shifted to a service approach. It system can generate.) built a three-megawatt flywheel Start-up Megawatt Storage farm in New England and Farms, co-founded by industry r e c e n t l y b r o k e g r o u n d o n vet Ed Cazalet, wants one day to another 20 megawatt farm in provide similar sorts of storage upstate New York. Beacon owns s e r v i c e s i n C a l i f o r n i a . the farm and sells its capabilities Meanwhile, Xtreme Storage as a service. Grid balancing and wants to commercialize a dryother so-called interconnect cell battery initially developed services could rise to $1 billion in the early 90s by Corning, i n a f e w y e a r s a s m o r e British Aerospace and Ford renewable parks get built, said Aerospace by making the CEO William Capp. storage system part and parcel "Utilities don't want to make a of alternative energy power

parks. In Hawaii, Xtreme's equipment will be deployed for voltage regulation at a wind farm. Department of Energy loans will provide the cash for both the turbines and the dry battery pack. Xtreme also wants to integrate its batteries into the solar parks erected and operated by Clairvoyant Energy. Clairvoyant developed a 12-megawatt rooftop solar project in Zaragoza, Spain with General Electric and Veolia Environnement. Last year, Xtreme and Clairvoyant formed a joint venture to resuscitate a Ford manufacturing facility in Michigan. "The new approach would be integrating our approach with large-scale solar," CEO Carlos Coe told us last November. Does that make Xtreme a supplier of components to energy developers, or a partner in an energy development selling power? It's a distinction that is in the eye of the beholder (and the amortization allocation set by the accountant), but the line between product and service is clearly being blurred. Thinking of storage as a service that competes or can substitute for conventional power tends also to enhance the economic potential because of the high costs associated with erecting new power plants. A 1.2megawatt sodium sulfur storage facility in West Virginia

commissioned in 2006 trimmed peak power in the region by 10% to 15% and postponed the need to erect another plant, according to Imre Gyuk, the project manager for energy storage systems research at the Department of Energy. "The upgrade was deferred. That almost pays for the installation itself," he said. "The operating costs are low compared to a peaking power plant." Storage can also be added incrementally. "You just can't add a few kilowatts" if you are adding capacity by adding additional power plants, he said. Power demand in the region actually didn't rise as quickly as anticipated, so the benefits of the incremental approach turned out to be larger than anticipated. In California, a storage project championed by flow battery specialist Primus Power will provide 24 megawatts of capacity to an irrigation project and effectively replace the need to build a $75 million natural gas project, Gyuk said. Another way to look at the economics of storage lies in its ability to prevent power outages. Power outages cost $79 billion a year in the U.S., according to a study conducted by Joe Eto at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Momentary interruptions that last five minutes or less account for $52 billion, or 67%, of the total. (The power market as a

whole comes to $250 billion.) Storage, Gyuk added, is arguably more environmentally friendly, as well. Power plants need to run constantly and need to warm up. Storage can dispatch power on demand. As a result, power from storage has a carbon footprint that's on average 70% lower than that drawn from conventional power plants. Right now, the storage industry hopes to get a boost from the Wyden bill in the U.S. Senate, which proposes to provide tax credits ranging from 20% to 30% to storage equipment buyers. Although a storage proponent, Gyuk -- among others -- remains skeptical of using electric cars to store and deliver power. Storing power is relatively easy. Cars can be plugged in at night to soak up energy generated by wind turbines. It's the other side of the transaction that will give car buyers and manufacturers the willies. "Batteries have a limited cycle time. With vehicle-to-grid, you basically make your batteries more expensive because they won't last as long," he said. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.