Liberty Newspost Mar-11-10 by Liberty Newspost

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Two Bills on the Hill. One mission JoAnne Allen (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 3/10/2010 5:38:16 PM

Bill Clinton and Bill Gates banded together on one mission Wednesday: deliver a message to Capitol Hill that increasing funding for the U.S. Global Health Initiative would be good foreign policy and the right thing to do. The program administered by the State Department works to improve healthcare in poor nations, with a particular focus on women and children. The Obama administration proposes to invest $63 billion in the program over six years. The State Department’s budget request for FY2011 includes $8.5 billion for GHI. The former president and the founder of Microsoft have more in common than just their first names — they both head foundations that focus on global health. The two Bills testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that while

improving and saving lives.” The senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, wanted to know about possible foreign policy implications in the work of their foundations, and asked whether they consult with the State Department about their objectives. “I think I can say without fear of contradiction that no NGO (nongovernmental organization) leader in American history has ever consulted as much as I have with the secretary of state,” Clinton responded. That got a laugh. Not to be outdone, Gates raised his personal situation. “My they were aware of the federal Gates implored lawmakers to personal experience is that if budget challenge, adding to the do a better job of telling you’re rich enough, there will be Global Health Initiative now Americans about how well U.S. some resentment no matter would pay off in the long run. investments in global health are what.” “This is an important part of our working. He cited success in That got a laugh too. “And the foreign policy. It makes a world n e a r l y e r a d i c a t i n g p o l i o , U.S. is the richest country in the with more friends, and fewer reducing deaths from malaria, world,” Gates continued. enemies,” Clinton said. “If and providing 4 million people Photo credit: Reuters/Larry people think you care whether with AIDS treatment who would Downing (Clinton and Gates their children live or die, you have died years ago. “These testify before Senate Foreign don’t have to send our young i n v e s t m e n t s a r e t h e m o s t Relations Committee) people off to war as often.” effective we can make for

Protesters clash with riot police in Athens, Greece (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news) Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:45:41 AM

• "; } s+=''+google_ads[i].line1+""; s+=" "+google_ads[i].line2+" "+google_ads[i].line3+""; s+=' '+google_ads[i].visible_url+""; s+=" Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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DOCTOR continued from page 6

the single best idea, I think – though I am a bit prejudiced – in all of fiction.’ Upper Boat, near Cardiff February 9, 2010 The security guard at the Doctor Who studios is on his rounds. Gaynor, who is staffing reception, says she’ll phone him: only he has the key to the locked studio. Meanwhile, Gaynor passes a form across the reception desk, to be signed by every visitor and in which they promise complete confidentiality. Demand for information and gossip about Doctor Who is intense, the form says, and even confidences shared with friends can end up being published. It is a bizarre message to receive in the dowdy reception area of a light industrial unit just off the road to Merthyr Tydfil. But when the guard gets back with the key, it becomes clearer why things are so cloak and dagger. Inside the locked studio is the one big new Doctor Who feature of which no photo has yet reached the outside world: the interior of Matt Smith’s Tardis. The set sits, rather sweetly, in the same studio as the old, Tennant-era Tardis,

separated in a rather low-tech way by some portable fencing and curtains. This new Tardis – not an obligatory accessory for each new Doctor, but required by the damage done to it in Tennant’s last episode – is big. It must be three times the size of Tennant’s, on multiple levels with staircases in between. Less grubby than its predecessor, with a transparent plastic floor on the main level, its walls are resplendent with polished copper and its central column features a blown glass decoration that could be straight from Tales of the Unexpected. There are old car seats and downstairs – downstairs! – a swing. With a nod to Paul McGann’s Tardis, the central column features an old TV screen on an extendable trellis. It also has a 1980s-style computer keyboard, and a HisMaster’s-Voice style trumpet speaker. Viewers won’t see this Tardis until the end of episode one, when the Doctor and Amy walk in for their first journey together. That first episode is now just about finished, barring a couple of CGI monsters that are a bit rough

round the edges, and the occasional smudge in the dialogue. The aliens hold off from actually boiling the planet, but that exploding screwdriver still looks a bit of a shock. Most importantly, from the moment he stumbles out of his crashed Tardis, Smith is certainly his own Doctor. Less prickly than Eccleston and without the slapstick of Tennant, he brings an air of muddled intensity that’s a bit reminiscent of, say, Tom Baker (though without the stripy scarf). Today, Smith is filming in the studio next door. Production has reached episode 12, with the storyline that will arch across the series about to explode into its hide-behind-the-sofa conclusion. 'The Doctor you meet in the first episode is a different Doctor from the Doctor we’re filming now,’ Smith says. 'Because in episode one, of course, he’s a man getting used to his body, going “How do I fit into this world…”’ Smith trails off, apparently brewing further thoughts about his first episode. But then, with a conspiratorial grin, he asks, 'Have you seen the new sonic screwdriver yet?’ and

pulls it from his pocket. It’s a very shiny metal toy with a green light and, when Smith flicks his hand, metal claws that pop out at one end. Smith is evidently as chuffed with it as all the eight-year-old boys who are given replicas of it for Christmas will be. The titanium sparks on the Cathedral Green in Llandaff are now a distant memory. Having shared his secret, Smith thinks again. 'I think episode one has a lovely fairytale quality to it, which is a credit to Steven. I think it’s quite filmic, actually, and has a great story,’ he says. And then, almost in a whisper, he adds, 'It’s a good start for us.’ 'Doctor Who’ returns to BBC One on April 3 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

for mobile phones, Google launches a fancy new RSS reader, and Sex.com is up for grabs.

3 minutes 52 seconds PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, March 11, 2010 7:37 AM PST Term Extraction. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools:

Sex.com sells (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:37:55 AM

Target starts a coupon program

National Geographic and New York top Digital Ellies nominations (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/10/2010 10:16:00 PM

The American Society of Magazine Editors recently released its nominations for the esteemed National Magazine Awards, otherwise known as Digital Ellies. This year, for the first time, ASME is recognizing magazines in 12 categories for digital journalism. Making the top of the list with the most nominations this year were National Geographic (5), New York (4), The Atlantic (3), Sports Illustrated (3), The Daily Beast (2), ESPN The Magazine (2), IEEE Spectrum (2), Mother Jones (2), The New Yorker (2), Newsweek (2), Runner’s World (2), and Slate (2). Awards will be presented on March 18. Read the full story at ASME. More on journalism. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Labour goes to war against the ex-generals (Top stories from Times Online) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:22:54 AM

The row between senior former service chiefs and the Prime Minister escalated today with the Prime Minister defending the government's record against renewed criticism and the Defence Secretary accusing the former Defence Chief, Lord Guthrie, of "having an issue" with the Prime Minister. Gordon Brown led the dedication of the 'Basra Wall' at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire this morning which was attended by the families of the 178 men and women killed in the Iraq War as well as the current Service Chiefs and David Cameron. He had earlier rejected as "wrong" the claims of Former Defence Chiefs including General Lord Guthrie and Admiral Lord Boyce that he was "disingenuous" in his claims to the Iraq inquiry that British forces in Iraq were given all the equipment they asked for. "I think they are wrong. To be honest, I don't think it is

appropriate for people to criticise us for not providing what we did provide," Gordon Brown told the British Forces Broadcasting Service. "The urgent operational requirements that were asked for by our forces were always met." The Prime Minister went on to defend himself against charges that the government failed to provide an alternative to the lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover, which is now being phased out. Gordon Brown said that it was only belatedly clear that Snatch Land Rovers would be unsuitable as insurgents turned to the use of roadside bombs. "This happened in Iraq in about 2005/06 and it happened in Afghanistan a bit later," he said. "The moment people realised that this was the nature of the guerrilla warfare that was going to be practised, Des Browne the Defence Secretary came to me and said we need to buy new vehicles and we approved those new vehicles immediately. "In 2006 we took a decision that we needed to do more and put about £90 million in and bought

Mastiffs and Ridgebacks. Then we decided to put out to competition a design for a light patrol vehicle and that is what we have done in the last few months." On the BBC's Today Programme this morning Lord Guthrie, the Chief of Defence Staff between 1997-2001, restated his belief that as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown was "unsympathetic to defence". "Particularly in the early days when he was Chancellor," said Lord Guthrie, "and there was a lot of money in this country and he showered it at other departments but he didn't give much to defence." He added: "Nowadays the personal kit of soldiers serving in Afghanistan is better than it ever has been, but goodness me it has taken some time to get there." At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday Labour backbenchers greeted mention of the former service chiefs by David Cameron with shouts of “They’re all Tories.” Lord Guthrie called the catcalls

“cheap” and retorted that he sits as a Crossbencher in the House of Lords. On a visit to Helmand Province today, the Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said Lord Guthrie appeared to "have an issue" with Gordon Brown. He also refuted the evidence given by a number of military figures to the Chilcot Inquiry who complained that funding was withheld from the armed forces. "Lord Guthrie appears to have an issue with the Prime Minister. I don't know what is the reason for that. I know of no request (that was turned down)," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One. "It is not for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to decide in detail how the money is spent that he allocates to defence. That is a matter for the defence secretary of the day and the MoD to decide." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Chasing Groupon, LivingSocial raises $25 million Caroline McCarthy (Webware.com) Submitted at 3/11/2010 4:30:00 AM

Despite the fact that Groupon dominates all of its smaller competitors in the daily-deals market, rival LivingSocial is

trying to draw some blood by expanding with the help of a new infusion of venture funding. Originally posted at The Social

FBI looking into NJ man linked to attack in Yemen (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:32:08 AM

calvin buzzed up: NJ man accused of raping, beating 5 daughters (AP) 2 seconds ago 2010-0311T07:39:53-08:00 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Wearing your Stickybit on your sleeve, or elsewhere Caroline McCarthy (Webware.com) Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:00:00 AM

One of the start-ups hoping to make a splash at this year's South by Southwest Interactive Festival is Stickybits, a set of bar code stickers that you can "tag" with anything. Originally posted at The Social

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Stolen Sarcophagus Handed Over to Egypt (National Geographic News) Submitted at 3/10/2010 4:46:10 PM

Confiscated by U.S. Customs agents in Miami, a brightly painted, 3,000-year-old sarcophagus was handed over to Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, on Wednesday. © 2010 National Geographic; video courtesy I.C.E RELATED • Intelligent Travel Blog: Stolen Sarcophagus Returned to Egypt • Zahi Hawass, Archaeologist UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT A stolen ancient Egyptian sarcophagus is returning home. The sarcophagus, nearly 3,000 years-old was seized by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or I.C.E , during a routine shipments inspection at the Miami International Airport in 2008 Agents became suspicious when they noticed inconsistencies in the shipment’s documentation. Customs investigated the

importer and the seller in Spain and concluded the sarcophagus was indeed stolen property. An Egyptologist verified that the sarcophagus is an authentic Egyptian artifact. With its elaborate hieroglyphs, the wooden coffin belonged to a prominent man named Imesy who lived during the 21st Dynasty of Egypt. After the sarcophagus was seized, the United States and the Spanish art gallery that sold the artifact engaged in a legal battle over ownership. Eventually the gallery abandoned its challenge and Egypt’s ownership was ensured ICE. arranged a repatriation ceremony at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, DC to officially return the sarcophagus to its home country. To prepare for its journey, agents thoroughly wrapped and boxed the delicate delivery for its departure from Miami. Agents accompanied the

sarcophagus to Washington and were greeted by staff from the National Geographic who were on hand to make sure the precious cargo arrived safe and sound. The sarcophagus was carefully unpackaged and further inspected. At the repatriation ceremony, representatives from the Egyptian and United States governments signed the official custody documents. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and a National Geographic Explorer-InResidence, accepted the sarcophagus on Egypt’s behalf. Once the sarcophagus safely returns home it will be put on display at the Global Egyptian Museum in Cairo in early April in an exhibition showcasing artifacts recovered in the last 8 years. So far approximately 31,000 Egyptian artifacts have been repatriated yet the number of items that are still illegally distributed and owned is

unknown. The repatriation of the sarcophagus called attention to the ongoing struggle to protect ancient art and antiquities from the black market trade. Egyptian artifacts are often smuggled because there is a high demand for them on the international market, and as a result countries such as Egypt have been robbed of their history and culture. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the largest investigative agency in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and it plays a leading role in combating the trafficking of lost or stolen cultural properties, art and antiquities, and returning them to their countries of origin. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Motorola bringing Bing to China, via Android (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:47:19 AM

Report offensive content: If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the CNET's Site Terms of Use, you can report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once reported, our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed. Select type of offense: Offensive: Sexually explicit or offensive language Spam: Advertisements or commercial links Disruptive posting: Flaming or offending other users Illegal activities: Promote cracked software, or other illegal content Comments(optional): Report Cancel Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

ArcelorMittal Downgraded to Hold from Buy Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:30:00 AM

Filed under: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades ArcelorMittal ( MT) was downgraded to hold from buy at ING, which noted that "major price increases

imminent for iron ore and coking coal, we believe the steel industry may suffer from cost increases on the order of 35%, as new contract prices are set." ING believes steel prices will rise 10% to 20%, which would come to fruition, MT's costs then put the industry under could increase by roughly 15%. pressure. If this scenario were to

Although these increases are less than MT's peers, ING prefers putting money in "diversified mining shares." Continue reading ArcelorMittal Downgraded to Hold from Buy ArcelorMittal Downgraded to Hold from Buy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Sea Spray Detected 900 Miles Inland (National Geographic News) Submitted at 3/10/2010 3:06:31 PM

Sea spray has been detected in the middle of the United States, some 900 miles (1,400 kilometers) from any ocean, a new study says. Scientists discovered chlorine—a key element in sodium chloride, or the type of salt found in seawater—in Boulder, Colorado's (see map) mountain air. Boulder's sea spray is too sparse to taste or even smell. But it's still much more abundant than previously thought—and it may be contributing to air pollution, said study team member Joel Thornton, an atmospheric chemist at Seattle's University of Washington. "We discovered chlorine chemistry happening in a region that we didn't expect it to be happening," Thornton said. (Related:"Pollution From U.S.,

Europe, Others Speeding Arctic Warming, Study Says.") Accidental Discovery The chlorine discovery above Boulder was accidental, Thornton said. Thornton and his team were testing out a custom-built chemical ionization mass spectrometer that they intended to use later, during a research cruise across the Atlantic Ocean. "In preparation for that, we put our tubes out a window to do some tests, and we made the first observations of this compound," Thornton recalled. When the team shifted their focus to study chlorine, they found that, worldwide, as much as ten billion metric tons of chlorine enters the atmosphere from sea spray annually, but only a tiny fraction—perhaps a third of a percent—does not fall back to the surface. Yet not all, or even most, of the United States' inland chlorine comes from the ocean. Other

sources include coal burning, the burning of biomass such as trees, the application of chemicals on icy winter roads, and even the release of dust from salt flats, the study said. Salty Smog While sea spray may be a pleasant beach experience, its presence so far inland may worsen air pollution in cities, added Thornton, whose research is detailed in this week's issue of the journal Nature. That's because chlorine can react with other molecules to create smog. (Find out how much you know about the dangers of pollution.) In the absence of chlorine, for example, haze-forming pollutants such as nitrogen oxide become bound to other molecules at night and are "cleaned" from the atmosphere. During the daytime, sunlight plays a role in keeping pollutants in the atmosphere.

Man weds pillow. Seriously. (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:44:16 AM

“Do you, nerdy amine dork, take this oversized body pillow to be your wife?” “I do.” “You may now fluff the bride.” Ok, that might not be a verbatim account of a wedding

ceremony that recently took place in Korea, but you get the idea. Lee Jin-gyu swapped vows with a pillow that features a picture of a character from the anime series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. The 28-yearold groom reportedly loves to take his fluffy chick out on the town, always making sure to

treat her to dinner and fun. Lee even outfitted his bride in

If chlorine is present, this nighttime removal process doesn't occur, and the nitrogen oxides can be regenerated in the morning, when the sun rises and rush hour traffic adds more pollutants to the air. Atmospheric chlorine may also enhance the production of ozone, a key ingredient of smog that is potentially toxic to animal and plant life, Thornton said. But chlorine may also reduce the concentration of certain global warming-causing greenhouse gases, such as methane. However, he added, the chemical reactions associated with chlorine are so numerous and interconnected that it will take time for scientists to parse them all out. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Pink Floyd wins court fight on downloads (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:09:00 AM

In covering digital media for CNET News, Greg Sandoval has broken stories on Apple, Microsoft, YouTube, The Pirate Bay, and the digital efforts of the major music labels and Hollywood studios. Before that, in his first tour with CNET News, he covered e-commerce during the dot-com boom and bust. A dogged investigative reporter, he began his journalism career at the Los Angeles Times and followed that with a short TV stint at The E! True Hollywood Story. Later, he spent three years as a staff writer for The Washington Post. Greg is an alumnus of USC and was raised in Chatsworth, California, which is distinguishable only for being the porn capital of the world. Add this feed to your online news reader • Google wedding dress for the big day. • Yahoo No word if the honeymoon will • MSN include a crazy, drunken orgy with the hotel bed pillows. Five Filters featured article: Full story at Metro UK. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Oodles of oddities and wedding PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, resources. Term Extraction. Permalink| Leave a comment »

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See-Through Vision Invented (National Geographic News)

enters them. In experiments, the researchers shone a green laser beam at a Scientists have figured out how roughly 80-micrometer-thick "see" through opaque barriers layer—that's 80 thousandths of a by unscrambling what little light millimeter—of zinc oxide, a passes through. common ingredient in white The reason you can't see paints. On the unseen side of the through thin materials such as zinc layer were a series of tiny dry paint, eggshells, paper, or dots. skin is because any light that By analyzing the patterns of manages to pass through them is light that came through, the scattered in complicated and physicists generated a complex seemingly random ways. model called a transmission (Related:"See-Through Goldfish matrix—essentially a formula B r e d ; C u t s O u t N e e d f o r decoding the seemingly chaotic Dissection.") way light travels within the However, it's actually possible opaque material. to project light through such By applying the formula, the opaque materials and reveal researchers say, they were able objects hidden behind them, "translate" the green light according to a new paper by coming through the zinc oxide, scientists at the City of Paris's resulting in a digital camera I n d u s t r i a l P h y s i c s a n d image of dots in shades of Chemistry Higher Educational green—revealing exactly what Institution(ESPCI). was behind the "wall." The trick is knowing exactly (Read about the power of light.) how materials alter light that The team is now attempting to Submitted at 3/10/2010 2:55:53 PM

make out far more complex images of familiar objects, though they're awaiting publication before giving specific examples, ESPCI physicist Sylvain Gigan told National Geographic News. The see-through vision isn't perfect, though, since a lot of light never makes it through to the other side of the opaque material. In more complex, future experiments, this missing "information" might result in grainy images, said Gigan, who co-authored the new study. (Also see"Two New Cloaking Devices Close In on True Invisibility.") Sorry, Peeping Toms The technology will probably never be any good for looking through walls, said physicist Allard Mosk at University of Twente in Amsterdam. "Looking through a hundredmillimeter [four-inch] wall would be a million times more

difficult than looking through a hundred-micrometer layer of paint," said Mosk, who wasn't involved in the new research. But the method might one day be used to peer into bodies, study co-author Gigan said. The system, though, would need to be thousands of times faster than it is, to compensate for all the scattering generated by the movement of living tissue. Still, it may become possible to look through several millimeters of skin, the University of Twente's Mosk said. "I think that is still far off but not unrealistic to hope for." Findings detailed in the March 8 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Google tries to make its RSS reader fun, too Stephen Shankland (Webware.com) Submitted at 3/11/2010 1:18:55 AM

The Net giant unveils Google Reader Play, an attempt to put an easy-to-use, entertaining interface on its feed-reader Web application Originally posted at Deep Tech

More Bloggers Suing For Gov't Press Passes Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/10/2010 11:59:00 PM

We recently wrote about how a lawsuit filed by three alternative publication reporters against NYC for denying them press passes to NY Police press conferences ended in a settlement with NY setting up new rules for getting press credentials. There was a fair

amount of back and forth in the comments, with some still believing the lawsuit was sound, even though we had trouble with the idea that the lawsuit had any merit at all. However, it looks like that result may have inspired others as well. A blogger in Maryland is now suing the state for denying him a press pass. The article is long and detailed -- and it does sound

(yet again) like the government should have issued the guy a press pass, but does that make the lawsuit sound? Let's take an extreme example. I write for an "alternative publication," but if I requested a press pass from the White House, I would totally expect to get turned down. There is limited room in such press conferences, and the White

House has every right to determine who gets that access. Same with the NYC police and the Maryland General Assembly. I agree that perhaps these gov't organizations should have a clear process and clear standards for who gets let in, but I can't see how it's a free speech violation to deny press credentials under these circumstances. They're not

saying these people aren't press, or that they can't publish whatever they want. They're just saying they don't get to enter the building as press. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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'Jihad Jane' met Islamists plotting to kill cartoonist, Irish police say Henry McDonald (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

throat to ensure he was "slaughtered like a lamb". LaRose is understood to have visited Ireland last August after Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:23:05 AM Accused US Islamist Colleen cancelling a trip to Sweden. Renee LaRose 'discussed plan' While in the Republic, she was to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks said to have met some of the over Muhammad cartoon seven people arrested in An American woman convert to Waterford and Cork earlier this Islam who called herself "Jihad week. Jane" travelled to Ireland to It was after her trip to Ireland meet some of the suspects that the FBI contacted the Garda arrested over a supposed plot to Síochána, who then put a kill a Swedish cartoonist, Irish n u m b e r o f p e o p l e u n d e r police said today. surveillance. Detectives believe Colleen The seven suspects – three Renee LaRose met a number of A l g e r i a n s , a L i b y a n , a Irish-based Muslims through Palestinian, a Croatian and an Islamist websites and discussed American woman married to an alleged plot to kill cartoonist one of the Algerians – were Lars Vilks. arrested on Tuesday, hours Vilks had a $100,000 (£67,000) before the US authorities b o u n t y o n h i s h e a d a f t e r announced a terror indictment drawing a cartoon depicting the against LaRose. prophet Muhammad with the Irish police are still questioning body of a dog in 2007. seven suspects, four men and Al-Qaida also offered a 50% three women aged between their bonus to anyone who slit his mid-20s and late 40s.

Officers seized computers, phones and documents, but security sources in the Republic stressed today that they did not believe they had uncovered an active al-Qaida cell in the Republic. LaRose, who also called herself Fatima LaRose online, allegedly posted a comment on YouTube in June 2008, saying she wanted to help "the suffering Muslim people". According to the indictment, filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania, she sent emails to unnamed co-conspirators offering to become a martyr, as well as offering to use her US background to avoid detection. The indictment accuses LaRose of agreeing, in March 2009, to marry a co-conspirator from a south Asian country who was trying to obtain residency in Europe. He allegedly urged her to go to Sweden, find the unnamed

Swedish man "and kill him". The indictment claims she tried to raise money over the internet, lure others to her cause, and lied to FBI investigators. LaRose was arrested after returning to the US in October 2009 on a charge related to the theft of a US passport, according to court documents. If convicted on the four counts in the indictment, issued on 4 March, LaRose could face a sentence of life in prison and a $1m fine. • United States • Islam • Ireland • Freedom of speech Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Android phones get Opera Mini 5 beta Jessica Dolcourt (Webware.com) Submitted at 3/11/2010 12:00:00 AM

Opera adds Android to its updated browser lineup. Originally posted at Android Atlas

Video: Bart Stupak's Connections to 'The Family' (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 3/10/2010 2:49:42 PM

Rachel Maddow has been doing some excellent investigative work looking into the secretive religious-political group known as “The Family,” and their connections to the “C Street House” where anti-choice health care opponent Rep. Bart Stupak lived until very recently.[Video]

Take a Virtual Walk through Hong Kong with Google Street View Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/11/2010 3:17:43 AM

If you’ve never been to Hong Kong, and you’ve heard legends about the busy streets of the

city, you can now see how it looks for yourself without leaving your comfy chair, as Google has launched its Street View service for Hong Kong. The huge city has been covered

extremely well; just zoom out of

Street View, pull the little In addition to Hong Kong, yellow Street View figure on the Google Street View is now also upper left side of the screen and available in the city of Macau, you’ll see that most of the south of Guangdong province. streets are blue, which means Tags: Hong Kong, street view Street View is available there.

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Silvio Berlusconi to escape corruption charges thanks to new law (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news)

held up copies of the Italian constitution, accusing Mr Berlusconi of trampling the principle that all citizens are equal before the law. Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:13:35 AM Nick Squires in Rome The law, which will also apply Published: 2:13PM GMT 11 to ministers in the centre-Right Mar 2010 government, will enable the T h e l a w w i l l a l l o w M r media tycoon to string out the Berlusconi to avoid court judicial process until both hearings by arguing that he trials expire under Italy's statute has a "legitimate impediment" – of limitations. for instance a Cabinet meeting It was passed by the lower or some other official house of parliament last month engagement. and is likely to be approved by In the past he has argued that a I t a l y ' s p r e s i d e n t , G i o r g i o ribbon-cutting ceremony to open Napolitano, despite the leader of a stretch of new motorway an opposition party, Antonio was a valid excuse for not Di Pietro, appealing to the turning up at court. president to "open your eyes There were tumultuous scenes and block this destroyer of when the Italian Senate, the legality." upper house of parliament, His lawyers are expected to cite voted in favour of the law that the legislation on March 26 will allow trials involving the when a trial involving David billionaire prime minister to be Mills, the estranged husband of suspended for up to 18 months. O l y m p i c s M i n i s t e r T e s s a O p p o s i t i o n M P s s h o u t e d Jowell, resumes in Milan. "Shame! Shame!" while others Mr Berlusconi is accused of

paying Mr Mills, his one-time tax adviser, a £370,000 bribe in exchange for the British businessman providing false testimony in two trials in the 1990s. Oxford-educated Mr Mills was convicted last year of accepting the backhander and sentenced to four and a half years in prison, but an appeal court threw out the case last month on the basis that it had expired under a 10 year statute of limitations. The three-times prime minister, 73, who has been dogged by corruption and allegations for most of his 16-year political career, is also on trial on charges of tax fraud and false accounting involving one of his companies, Mediaset. He and his lawyers have been working for months on various legal initiatives which his opponents say are designed to allow him to wriggle out of his judicial entanglements.

Last year Italy's highest court ruled as unconstitutional a law introduced soon after Mr Berlusconi returned to power in 2008 which gave him immunity from prosecution and froze all his trials. Mr Berlusconi has repeatedly accused judges and magistrates of having Left-wing sympathies and of waging a politically-motivated campaign against him in an attempt to bring down his government. Last month he compared prosecutors and judges to Taliban of Afghanistan – an insult which earned stern reprimands from the National Association of Magistrates. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Acorn Filmmaker's Fresh Tapes: Inside HUD Noah Shachtman (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:01:00 AM

Conservative activist and guerrilla filmmaker James O'Keefe has a habit of posing as someone he's not in order to get "news" about politicians and others he wants to paint as dirty. Yes, he's the same guy who taped Acorn workers, so Andrew Breitbart, the exDrudge crony and conservative media provocateur, could smear the organization.

The Twilight Saga: “Eclipse” Trailer Is Out [VIDEO] Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:51:32 AM

OK, Twilight fans, brace yourself because the first trailer for the upcoming third

installment of the saga — Eclipse— is now available for your viewing pleasure. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is based on Stephenie Meyer’s novel Eclipse, and should be

However, you can have a taste of some action, and (of course) more of the vampire-werewolfhuman (but-maybe-not-humana i r i n g o n J u n e 3 0 , 2 0 1 0 . for-long) love triangle you’ve probably grown accustomed to

in the first two movies. Reviews: Eclipse Tags: eclipse, twilight, video

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Suicide bomb plot suspect 'volunteered as British Airways cabin crew' (Top stories from Times Online)

including security measures, and offered to take advantage of planned strikes by BA staff to Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:19:19 AM join the airline’s cabin crew. A British Airways computer Anti-terrorist sources told The expert charged with terror T i m e s l a s t n i g h t t h a t o f f e n c e s p l a n n e d t o t a k e investigations were continuing advantage of a strike by BA into possible contact between staff to become a temporary Mr Karim and militants in member of the cabin crew, a Yemen from where al-Qaeda court heard today. launched its failed attempt to R a j i b K a r i m , 3 0 , f r o m bring down a US airliner over Newcastle upon Tyne, faces Detroit at Christmas. three charges under counter The terror threat level in Britain terrorism legislation. He is was raised to “severe” in accused of two counts of January after the attempted planning suicide bombings and D e t r o i t a t t a c k w h i c h w a s his own martyrdom. allegedly carried out by Umar It is alleged that Mr Karim Farouk Abdulmutallab, a came to Britain, obtained a former student at University passport and secured a job at College London, who had the airline as part of the e x p l o s i v e s s e w n i n t o h i s conspiracy. underwear. Prosecutor Colin Gibbs told The computer expert also faces C i t y o f W e s t m i n s t e r a charge alleging that he Magistrates’ Court that the collected money and transferred charge sheet alleges he shared it through trusted associates and information about his work, w i r e s e r v i c e s t o t e r r o r i s t

associates overseas. The offences are alleged to have taken place between April 2006 and February this year. Mr Karim was arrested by officers from Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command, working with colleagues in the north east of England, on February 25. They raided the office complex where he worked in Newcastle as a computer software developer and searched his home in the city. Forensic specialists are continuing to sift through hundreds of files held on computers seized from his workplace and home. Urgent inquiries are also understood to be under way in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Yemen to trace the others allegedly involved. Mr Karim, a well-built man with a thin beard and closecropped hair, spoke only to

confirm his name and date of birth during the 15-minute hearing. He wore a black fleece. His solicitor James Nicolls said he did not want his client’s address made public over fears of reprisal attacks against his young family. He did not apply for bail. District Judge Timothy Workman remanded Mr Karim in custody and adjourned the case until March 26 at the Old Bailey. Scotland Yard also arrested three men in Slough, Berkshire, during the inquiry. They were released without charge on Tuesday. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

DoubleTwist Adds Podcasting to Its Device Syncing Powers [Updates] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:00:00 AM

Windows: doubleTwist makes for a convenient way of syncing your smartphone, camera, and other USB-plug-able gadgets, especially if you're not using Apple products. Now doubleTwist does a great job of finding and monitoring podcasts, and sending them where you want to listen. More »

Dodd to Offer His Own Financial Regulation Bill (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 3/11/2010 2:11:28 AM

WASHINGTON AP) — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd plans to offer his own version of a financial regulation bill as bipartisan talks have failed to yield agreement

on consumer protections and other sticking points. In a statement Thursday morning, Dodd said that his talks with Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee produced areas of common ground but a "few outstanding issues remain."

The development raises new questions about one of President Barack Obama's top priorities. Congress and the administration have been trying to assemble legislation overhauling financial system regulation in hopes of preventing a recurrence of the economic crisis that hit the

nation in the fall of 2008. Dodd said that some of the issues that he and Corker did agree on will be incorporated into his proposed legislation. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,

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

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David Askew collapsed and died after decade of attacks (Top stories from Times Online)

campaign of harassment. Avona Davies, 49, said: “This has been going on for about 10 years. Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:44:57 AM We have complained to the A 6 4 - y e a r - o l d m a n w i t h police and council and they put l e a r n i n g d i f f i c u l t i e s w a s cameras in their back garden “tormented to death” after about three years ago. They being bullied by yobs for more tormented David for money and than a decade, neighbours cigarettes. They harassed him claimed today. every night without fail.” Police had been warned David Mrs Davies, a shop worker, Askew was being targeted said sometimes the gang would before he was found dead at his just be a few teenagers. At home in Hattersley, Greater other times big gangs of youths Manchester, last night, locals would climb into neighbours’ said. One neighbour said he had gardens and smash windows. been “tormented to death - like She said his tormentors were bear baiting”. “about 18 or 19 years old”. Residents criticised police and “For the past two or three weeks officials for not supporting Mr the harassment has moved to the Askew and his brother Brian front of the house, which never and mother Rose, who was usually happened. Last night it wheelchair-bound. started really early. I got home Officers were called to the about 6.30pm and it was already address on Melandra Crescent happening," she added. last night after being told yobs “We have stopped complaining were causing an “annoyance”. for about 12 months because When they arrived the youths nothing gets done. David had had vanished but officers learning difficulties and I think discovered the man, who was that is why they tormented him pronounced dead at the scene. because he would scream out of As news of his death spread, the window at them. They neighbours told how Mr Askew would torment him all the time. had been the victim of a “David would throw money and

cigarettes into our garden to get rid of them but they would always go back. That’s why they did it. “There had been screaming and shouting between the hoodies and David before but never physical violence. We have had our patio windows put through and David’s windows were smashed lots of times because they would throw stuff. They hounded them." A neighbour who has lived near the Askews for 39 years said “his misery is over”. The woman, who did not want to be named, broke down as she remembered happier times bringing up her son “when everyone respected each other and got along”. She went on: “Not that many children live around here so this gang comes from elsewhere. They would come and bait David, he was a harmless soul. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

ChatRoulette Spin-Off Uses Google Maps to (Almost) Shed Anonymity Addy Dugdale (Fast Company)

some badly-spelled signs leaving you in no doubt as to what the user is looking for. Submitted at 3/11/2010 8:46:14 AM The site has already had to It only took a couple of months, tweak its M.O., as some of the but it seems the first spin-off of ChatRouletters were being C h a t R o u l e t t e i s h e r e . unmasked, and user-identifiable ChatRoulette Map does exactly information was being found in what it sounds like, using their IP details. Most busted, Google Maps to plot the IP however, may have been users addresses of all the voyeurs and up in the Northeast: a message weirdies who are online and on the Web site reads, "We'd using the crazy site. You can like to advise maine.edu to stop choose whether to hoist up a using students' names in their picture of yourself--so far, FC hostnames." has spotted a couple of dirty [ C h a t R o u l e t t e M a p V i a bras, some tops-off Latin guys L a u g h i n g S q u i d ] with dubious facial hair, and

Ear Infections Could Cause Long-Term 'Lazy Ear' Tina Hesman Saey (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:28:00 AM

Some folks who don’t seem to listen may just have a lazy ear. A new study in rats shows that short-term hearing impairments

at any stage of life can lead to rewiring in the part of the brain that processes sounds, making the ear seem as if it is loafing on

its duty to make sense from noise

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Expenses four defy court and plead not guilty (Top stories from Times Online)

for the parliamentary commissioner to rule on, he said. Hundreds of other MPs Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:03:48 AM were last month told to pay Three Labour MPs and a back a total of £1.12 million Conservative peer pleaded not after an audit of their expenses g u i l t y t o f i d d l i n g t h e i r claims dating back to 2004. Parliamentary expenses today as The barrister requested that the they insisted that they should MPs should be spared the not face justice in court. humiliation of standing in the Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, dock. He was denied. They Jim Devine said they should be spoke, from behind 12ft security j u d g e d b y t h e H o u s e o f glass, only to confirm their Commons authorities rather than names and dates of birth. endure a trial by jury. Mr Knowles told District Judge During an historic court Timothy Workman: “They also appearance a barrister for the maintain that to prosecute them three MPs said they were in the criminal courts for their protected from prosecution by parliamentary activities would t h e a n c i e n t r i g h t o f infringe the principle of the p a r l i a m e n t a r y p r i v i l e g e . separation of powers, which is Julian Knowles told City of one of the principles which Westminster Magistrates’ Court u n d e r p i n s t h e U K ’ s it would also be unfair for the c o n s t i t u t i o n a l s t r u c t u r e . men to face a criminal trial “The principle of the subject when other MPs accused of matter of these proceedings is fiddling their expenses had been a l s o c o v e r e d b y the dealt with by the parliamentary P a r l i a m e n t a r y p r i v i l e g e authorities. conferred upon [the MPs] by The legitimacy of their expense Article 9 of the Bill of Rights claims should also be a matter 1689.”

Lord Hanningfield also entered a not guilty plea in the court on charges relating to his claims for House of Lords allowances. His barrister indicated that he would also challenge the jurisdiction of the court. If found guilty, the four men could face jail sentences of up to seven years. The case was sent for trial at Southwark Crown Court where it is expected to be heard by Judge Geoffrey Rivlin on March 30. All three MPs are expected to seek legal aid for the trial. Historians have said that this is the first time that four parliamentarians have been hauled before the courts together since the 17th century. It is also one of the first cases in a generation to involve the misuse of public money by MPs. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Pointless Stats: Number Of Patents Held By Apple, Google And HTC Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:01:00 AM

A bunch of news sites have been playing up a minor item in a Deutsche Bank note to clients about how Apple has a lot more patents than Google or HTC. I have to say, this is one of the most meaningless bits of data out there, and it's getting way too much attention for its import. First of all, it looks like the report counted overall patents -- not even patents just in the spaces where these companies overlap. Second, the number of patents one holds is absolutely meaningless when it comes to actually being able to enforce the patents. More troubling is the report's conclusion:"While litigation appears to be an increasingly common cost of doing business," he concludes, "we

view Apple's willingness to aggressively defend its patent portfolio favorably and welcome the defense of its IP." Historically, this is generally not a good sign. It's usually a sign that a company has run into an innovation stumbling block, and doesn't think it can really continue to innovate at the pace the market is expecting, so it seeks to hold back competitors and pump up revenue through litigation, rather than innovation. A smart research report would note that breaking out the offensive patent lawsuits is generally a warning sign. But, then again, this is a research report that thinks the overall number of patents a tech company has is a meaningful metric. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Launch Games and Emulator ROMs from Boxee [Games] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:30:00 AM

If Boxee is your main media interface, you don't have to shut it down to enjoy some old-

school emulation gaming. A clever Launcher app, and some command line tweaking, lets

you jump right into Zelda, Mario, and other ROMs. More »

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Sean Penn: Journalists who call Hugo Chávez a dictator should be jailed Rory Carroll (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

who's gone through 14 of the most transparent elections on the globe, and has been elected democratically, as Hugo Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:19:28 AM Actor accuses US media of C h á v e z ? " smearing Venezuelan president Penn, speaking on Bill Maher's Sean Penn has defended Hugo HBO chatshow, is part of a Chávez as a model democrat small but vocal pro-Chávez and said those who call him a H o l l y w o o d g r o u p w h i c h dictator should be jailed. includes Oliver Stone and The Oscar-winning actor and Danny Glover. political activist accused the US They have remained steadfast media of smearing Venezuela's even as Venezuela's leader has socialist president and called for lost fans at home and abroad. journalists to be punished. Inflation, crime and water and "Every day, this elected leader is electricity shortages have hit his called a dictator here, and we popularity and led to defections just accept it, and accept it. And from his socialist party. this is mainstream media. There The Organisation of American should be a bar by which one States recently accused Chávez goes to prison for these kinds of o f i n t o l e r a n c e a n d lies." authoritarianism, and a Spanish Penn, who has visited Chávez judge accused Venezuela of in Caracas, said Venezuela's cosseting Farc and Eta terrorists, poor majority had willingly sparking a diplomatic spat with embraced his leftist revolution, Madrid. but that this view was concealed Chávez thanked Penn for his from Americans. support in what he said was a "We are hypnotised by the daily battle for public opinion. media. Who do you know here "I was reading the declarations

from our friend Sean Penn, the famous American actor," he told a televised rally in Caracas. "Penn defended what he considers to be the truth." The Hollywood star was an ally in the effort to counter a campaign to "confuse" Venezuelans, said the president, who has been in power for 11 years. "From here I thank you very much." Other celebrity endorsements have come from the linguist and writer Noam Chomsky and model Naomi Campbell. • Hugo Chávez • United States • Venezuela • Sean Penn Rory Carroll guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Keith Barry (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:22:00 AM

Five paragliders are flying and hiking the length of the Himalayas all the way through Nepal, and they’re sharing the

Conan Launches TeamCoco.com to Promote 30-City Comedy Tour Adam Ostrow (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:49:27 AM

We now know how Conan O’Brien plans to leverage the huge swell of support he found online in the wake of being forced out at NBC: a nationwide comedy tour. The comedian announced on his Twitter account this morning the launch of TeamCoco.com, where fans can buy tickets to one of 30 shows, kicking off in Eugene, Oregon on April 12th. The tour, fittingly enough, is called “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour,” a reference to the deal he made with NBC that keeps O’Brien off the air until the Fall. A comedy tour has been rumored since shortly after Conan stepped down, and we

once-in-a-lifetime experience with anyone who has a computer.

suspected something might be in the works when he finally joined Twitter (and immediately found a huge fan base, and changed one random girl’s life along the way). Now, Conan officially has an outlet to keep the momentum going while he determines his next move on TV. Are you going to go see one of Conan’s shows? Let us know in the comments! Tags: conan o'brien, team coco

How Andrew Breitbart Hacks the Media Noah Shachtman (Wired Top Stories)

Paragliding the Himalayas With iPhones

Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:00:00 AM

How Andrew Breitbart -- Matt

Drudge's former right hand -infiltrated the media machine and fought the vast left-wing conspiracy.

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New Frog Found—Has "Striking" Color Change

Massa Was Into Snorkeling

(National Geographic News)

(Little Green Footballs)

Submitted at 3/10/2010 3:20:04 PM

A newfound frog species undergoes a "striking" change from a black, yellow-spotted youngster to a peach-colored, blue-eyed adult, scientists say. Oreophryne ezra was discovered in 2004 in a tiny, mountaintop cloud forest in southeastern Papua New Guinea. The forest has been long avoided by locals, who believe the misty jungle to be taboo, and perhaps guarded by spirits. Though a few other frogs are known to switch colors as they mature, "I don't think the difference in color pattern is as startling as what's seen in this species," said Fred Kraus, a vertebrate zoologist at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. But why the amphibian undergoes such a drastic

transition is far from black and white, added Kraus, leader of a new study on the frog in the December 2009 issue of the journal Copeia. (See a picture of another colorchanging frog species found last August.) The juveniles look like poison dart frogs, so "the first thing that comes to mind is 'warning,'" Kraus said. The young frogs even sit on leaves in broad daylight, consistent with the "danger doesn't bother me" audacity of poisonous frogs, he added. But "if the juvenile has a warning color, why would adults lose it? It makes no sense at all." To solve at least part of the riddle, Kraus would like to test whether the young frogs have poison to back up their bluster. Color-Changing Frog Threatened by Warming But Kraus may have to hurry

up—even fear of spirits can't protect the frogs and their extremely small home against global climate change. (Related:"Cloud Forests Fading in the Mist, Their Treasures Little Known.") For one, cloud forests—which require cool temperatures to thrive—may dry up as the planet warms. Cold-averse lowland plants may also start to creep uphill and displace mountaindwelling species. "If this happens on a mountain where you only have 650 feet [200 meters] to play with, which is nothing," Kraus said, "you could easily lose your cloud forest"—along with the creatures that thrive within, including the color-changing frog. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

incident, but did confirm to me in an email that he was groped by Massa: “In 1990, aboard the Via Joshua Green at The U.S.S. Jouett, I was awakened Atlantic, here’s the latest info when a senior officer, Lt. about the man Glenn Beck said Commander Massa, seemed to was going to change the course b e g r o p i n g m e . ( I w a s a of American history (before lieutenant at the time.) I believe saying he was a fraud the next he may have been drinking. I day): Eric Massa’s Navy Files. shouted at him and he left. I According to Peter Clarke, a mentioned the incident to Navy shipmate, Massa was several other officers. I did not notorious for making unwanted officially report it.” advances toward subordinates. Clarke says that Massa’s He tells the story of his friend roommate, Tom Maxfield, was Stuart Borsch, with whom also assaulted. “Tom lived on Massa shared a hotel room upper bunk,” Clarke say. “When while on leave during the first you’re on ship, you’re almost Gulf War. “Stuart’s at the edge exhausted 24-7. So a lot of times of the bed,” Clarke says Borsch you sleep with your uniform on. told him at the time, “and T o m a n d M a s s a s h a r e d a [Massa] starts massaging him. stateroom together. Massa Massa said, ‘You’ll have to get climbed up on the top of his one of my special massages.’ He bunk, which is hard to do—you called them ‘Massa Massages.’” never crawl up on somebody Ron Moss, a Navy shipmate and else’s bunk. He wakes up to Borsch’s roommate, confirmed Massa undoing his pants trying that Borsch told him this story at to snorkel him.” the time. Snorkel him? I don’t even want Borsch, now a history professor to know what that means. at Assumption College in (Hat tip: torrentprime.) Worcester, Massachusetts, didn’t addresss that specific Submitted at 3/10/2010 3:01:08 PM

TESTED: The Best New Netbooks [Battlemodo] Brian Barrett (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:00:00 AM

If you're in the market for a

netbook—the gimpy kittens of the laptop jungle—know this first: on the inside, they're all basically the same. Making the

important! And yes, they do add up. More » little differences all the more

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New York restaurant kitchens face threat of salt ban Ed Pilkington (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

of sodium on to the plate would be fined $1,000 (£600) every time they were caught. The idea of an outright ban, Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:14:44 AM City politician proposes £600 except for salt cellars on diners' fines for restaurants that use salt t a b l e s , h a s l e d t o r a i s e d in recipes eyebrows across the city, which Over the past few years New prides itself on its cuisine. "If York has gained a reputation for state assemblyman Felix Ortiz taking the health of its citizens has his way," quipped the Daily seriously – or nannying them, News,"the only salt added to depending on your point of your meal will come from the view. chef's tears." Now a member of the city's Tom Colicchio, who owns the legislative assembly has gone a restaurant Craft, told the paper: step further by introducing a bill "If they banned salt, nobody that would ban the use of salt in would come here anymore." restaurant kitchens. Ortiz's bill comes on the back Bill A10129 would forbid the of a high-profile attempt by the city's chefs from using salt in c i t y ' s m a y o r , M i c h a e l any of their recipes. The ban's Bloomberg, to encourage New proposer, Felix Ortiz, a Yorkers to consume less D e m o c r a t i c m e m b e r f r o m sodium. The city estimates Brooklyn, says it would give about 1.5 million residents consumers the choice about already suffer from high blood whether to add salt to their meal. p r e s s u r e , w h i c h c a n b e Restaurants trying to sneak a bit e x a c e r b a t e d b y

overconsumption of salt. In America as a whole, the average daily intake of 3,400mg is well above the recommended maximum of 2,300mg. Bloomberg's campaign aims to cut the amount of salt in prepackaged and restaurant food by a quarter, in five years. Unlike Bill A10129, however, it is purely voluntary. • New York • Restaurants • United States • Food & drink industry • Health & wellbeing Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Revisionist History: Coming Up on Fox News (Little Green Footballs)

stacked the board with religious fundamentalists dedicated to ruining the minds of Texas Fox News is going to be schoolchildren. heavily pimping the “founding The Texas Freedom Network f a t h e r s w e r e C h r i s t i a n has been live-blogging today’s fundamentalists” canard tonight, hearings, if you’d like to see the courtesy of Michelle Malkin, kind of garbage Fox News James Dobson (Malkin does her defends. interviews from Dobson’s TV UPDATE at 3/10/10 6:57:06 studio), and Sean Hannity pm: tonight: Malkin may have gotten michellemalkin: Will be on bumped off the show in favor of @hannityshow on FNC tonite yet another discussion about the 930pm Eastern to talk Texas incredible wonderfulness of tea educ stds/txtbook controversy. parties. Meanwhile, the Texas @seanhannity State Board of Education Why is there suddenly a push to continues their important work p r o m o t e t h i s r e v i s i o n i s t of revising the history of the nonsense? Because the Texas United States to be more like State Board of Education is something the founding fathers holding hearings on the state’s would have abhorred. social studies curriculum, and Governor Rick Perry has Submitted at 3/10/2010 6:30:00 PM

Mich. Lawmaker Threatening to Derail Health Bill (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 3/10/2010 11:38:13 PM

Rep. Bart Stupak has become the unofficial leader of a small but powerful bloc threatening to derail President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

A dozen socially conservative Democrats say they won't support the legislation without a prohibition on paying for abortions with federal money. Stupak wrote a provision to their liking for a House bill approved last November, but the Senate

replaced it with wording he considers unacceptable. Opposition from his faction could doom the measure and cripple Barack Obama's presidency. Some Democrats in his northern Michigan district are so

reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Google Opens An App Store Max Chafkin (Inc.com) Submitted at 3/10/2010 9:05:00 AM

Happy Birthday Craigslist. The schlubby classified ad site, which managed to blow up the newspaper business by behaving decidedly unbusinesslike, was founded nearly 15 years ago, according to a blog post from the site's eponymous founder Craig Newmark. He digs up what he calls "the earliest archaeological find" from the site's early days. It's a message directing users of the Well, an early social network, to Newmark's new home page. "My focus, on this page, is on events around San Francisco that involve arts and technology, privacy rights, local writers and artists, and any other item that strikes my fancy," he wrote. "The approach is as minimalist as I could make." PSFK, which flags the post, puts it in perspective, "From that simple start, today the site serves over twenty billion page views per month, putting it in 37th place overall among web sites worldwide and 11th place overall among web sites in the United States." When is it okay to check your

is] a viable ecosystem, a bubble or a house of cards." How to simplify your phone system. Can't get an invitation to Google Voice, the free service cellphone? If you're having Now Google is trying to pull off down the issue from every side: that transcribes voicemails and dinner with your spouse and the same trick for business the employee, the current rings multiple numbers? (Read your phone buzzes with a text, software, which could be great e m p l o y e r , a n d t h e f u t u r e more about Google Voice here.) start-up called do you reach for it? If you reach news for business-to-business e m p l o y e r . O n e A for it, do you text back? In companies in need of customers. recommendation: If a key Phonebooth.com is attempting Farhad Manjoo's house, that TechCrunch reports on the employee leaves suddenly, it's to pick up the slack, Mashable would be verboten (at least not release of the Google Apps worth exercising some patience reports. The website is now without asking permission). In Marketplace, which allows before bringing an outsider o f f e r i n g P h o n e b o o t h fact, one shouldn't text at all companies to sell web-based onboard. In that scenario, a OnDemand, which is a fullwhen having a face-to-face business software that integrates "battlefield promotion" might be featured phone service that will set you back $20 a month per conversation, according to with programs like Gmail and the best option. Slate's attempt to set the ground Google Docs. The app strategy C h a r t i n g t h e F a c e b o o k user. The no-cost version, which rules for cell phone use. On will undoubtedly improve economy. We've written in the is called Phonebooth Free and is T w i t t e r l a s t w e e k , y o u n g Google's already impressive past about the dangers of aimed at small businesses, will technophiles like the New York (and free) software offering. But building your business on give you a local number with up Times's Nick Bilton argued the it could also be an opportunity someone else's platform. But t o f i v e e x t e n s i o n s , c a l l o p p o s i t e . W h e n B i l t o n ' s for entrepreneurs. "For...small many companies, undeterred by forwarding to multiple sources, lunching with his boss he leaves startup developers, it means that risk--and attracted by the a n d v o i c e m a i l w i t h his phone alone, but around instant access to more users than prospect of hundreds of millions t r a n s c r i p t i o n . other tech-savvy people his own they can likely imagine," of potential customers--have More from Inc. Magazine: Get this delivered to your a g e , h e t e x t s w i t h o u t TechCrunch writes. "It also built business models that rely compunction. We're hoping the potentially means something heavily on Facebook. The inbox. Or get it on the Kindle. bit about his wife texting him to more important: money." G u a r d i a n t a k e s a s t a b a t Follow us on Twitter. And on get his attention during dinner How to handle employee estimating the size of the Tumblr. was a joke. turnover. Entrepreneur turned Facebook economy, figuring Friend us on Facebook. Google begins selling business venture capitalist Mark Suster that among a slew of companies software. Apple's iPhone App posted on his blog, Both Sides such as Playfish, Zynga, and Store has created a billion dollar of the Table, about how the Plancast, the social network's opportunity for small businesses difficulty of moving from one broader economy is easily worth that develop applications and job to the next. On A VC, Fred several billion dollars. The games for the popular gadget. Wilson responds by breaking article asks "whether [Facebook

Three-Story Washing Machine [Concepts] Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:40:00 AM

So this was obvious: Place a few dividers into an otherwise normal front-loading washing

machine, and separate your reds from your whites without washing a whole separate load. [

Yanko Design via Ubergizmo] More Âť

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Former Rep. Shays Aide Expected to Plead Guilty

Introverts as Entrepreneurs Howard Greenstein (Inc.com) Submitted at 3/10/2010 12:57:24 PM

The stereotype startup guy or gal is a high energy, always schmoozing, hard pitching and hand-shaking go-getter. But since 50 percent of the population are identified by psychological studies as introverts, that stereotype might need some examining. But most people believe there’s some sort of stigma about being an introvert, according to Nancy Ancowitz, author of Self Promotion for Introverts and blogger for Psychology Today. Ancowitz is a self-proclaimed introvert with a history in both large companies and her own enterprises. Many introverts, she says, “make great entrepreneurs.” Introvert stereotypes include being more considered, looking inward for approval and guidance, and researching problems looking for perfect answers. These same characteristics can make great business leaders. What advice can help the introvert succeed in a startup? Ancowitz says “When selling as an introvert, use your abilities as a good researcher to really know audience, know what matters to them, and figure out a product match before you go in. You’ll

(Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 3/10/2010 11:11:31 PM

be meeting with people, so rest up before social interactions with those you are selling to or speaking in front of. Prepare and practice because as an introvert you will think before you speak - as opposed to extroverts who speak as they think. So having a few lines ready, or thoughts composed in advance will be beneficial. Rest, prepare and practice is the magic formula because of the way introverts are wired.” That seems to work for Adelaide Lancaster, co-founder of In Good Company Workplaces, a community and workspace for women entrepreneurs in NYC that provides events, consulting, shared desks and meeting rooms. As a graduate student in a psychology program, Lancaster found out she was an introvert. In 2003 she formed a consulting practice helping women in professional transition. It was research and data driven. “As an introvert it was more comfortable being a resource instead of being in an interpersonal mode all the time. Now I’m in business now with

an off-the-charts extrovert. Our focus is on entrepreneurs, and our consulting led into creating the workspace.” Lancaster gave me a tip for startup introverts. “While putting your business model in place, feedback is a critical component, but introverts may close themselves off to that - it might not occur to them to ask others for advice. They need opinions and iteration.” Lancaster didn’t talk to lots and lots of people, but she strategically chose 5 people to check in with and get advice from. She also notes “There's an opportunity cost if you're not connected to other business owners - if you over-emphasize research it can prevent you from finding easy solutions to your problems right, in your business network.” Lancaster uses Twitter and LinkedIn groups to connect with business resources and share tips. This connects well with Ancowitz’s advice to “Get known as an expert, and build deep and meaningful relationships. Introverts do well with deep relationships and

conversations rather than chitchat. Be generous in introducing people to each other as well. Then it’s easier for you to ask for introductions from your good contacts.” She also notes “if you're an introvert there may be activities you'll like more than others, like writing or speaking to one person at a time. There are many ways to market with quiet activities like blogging, using Twitter, writing for newsletters, and doing guest columns that can help you promote yourself.” Any introverts out there? Share your tips and tricks in the comments below. (Disclosure: I am quoted in Ancowitz’s book as an expert and an NYU colleague. We both teach at NYU SCPS, but I did not hire her or have a business relationship with her. I report on the book not because of my quotes in it, but because it’s an important guide for those who may have trouble promoting themselves, and that's why I agreed to be interviewed.)

The campaign manager for former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays is expected to plead guilty to charges of embezzling campaign funds. Michael Sohn, of Fairfield, Conn., is scheduled to enter his pleas Thursday in U.S. District Court in Hartford. Prosecutors charged Sohn in December with embezzling about $250,000 from Shays' campaign accounts. Sohn's attorney, James Pickerstein, told The Associated Press last week that Sohn will plead guilty to campaign finance and tax violation charges. Pickerstein said Sohn will admit he embezzled campaign money. Sohn worked for nearly six years as campaign manager for Shays, a moderate Republican who served 10 terms in Congress representing southwestern Connecticut. Shays narrowly lost the seat in 2008. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Nationalizing education standards nospam@example.org (Scott Jagow) (Marketplace Scratch Pad)

equations, of two- and threedimensional space and figures using distance, angle, similarity, and congruence… Submitted at 3/10/2010 10:22:23 AM Today, a coalition of governors The standards aren’t and state school superintendents dramatically different than what proposed a new set of learning you’d find in most states. It’s standards that would apply to just that they are laid out schoolchildren nationwide. The c o n c i s e l y a n d v e r t i c a l l y , i d e a i s t o e l i m i n a t e t h e meaning each grade level builds patchwork of state standards for upon the previous grade level. English and Math. Is it a good Here’s the main problem with idea? the way the system works now: The standards are available for Since the late 1980s, many public comment until April 2nd. educators and policymakers Read them here. Here’s an have considered the current example from the New York system of state standards as a Times: weak link in American In English, for instance, they e d u c a t i o n . B e c a u s e t h e say that fifth graders should be standards vary so widely, a b l e t o e x p l a i n m a j o r standardized tests keyed to them differences between drama and are not comparable from state to prose stories, and refer to state, nor to national tests. As a elements of drama like casts of result, for example, 87 percent characters, dialogue, and stage of Tennessee students achieved directions when writing or scores rated as proficient or speaking about specific works above in math on state tests in of dramatic literature, among 2005, while only 21 percent other skills. scored in the proficient range on In seventh grade math, as the federal math test. another example, instructional Almost all states seem on board time should focus on developing with this. Only two have students’ understanding of decided not to participate — proportional relationships, of Texas and Alaska. The state o p e r a t i o n s w i t h r a t i o n a l superintendent of Texas says: numbers and solving linear “Texas has chosen to preserve

its sovereign authority to determine what is appropriate for Texas children to learn in its public schools.” As always, there are several monetary aspects to the story. President Obama has said he wants to tie federal education dollars to reading and math standards, but he says states would not have to use these standards to get their funding. The standards will most likely prompt a ton of new business for textbook publishers and standardized test companies. The government has already opened bidding for $350 million worth of work on new tests that would reflect the national standards. We’ll be looking more at the business end of this tonight on Marketplace. This a big deal. There are often drawbacks to standardization — think of the many criticisms of standardized testing itself. But in thinking about the education level of our current workforce vis-a-vis other countries, do you think national education standards are a step in the right direction or no?

Q&A: Vitamin D and window light? rss@consumerreports.org (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 3/11/2010 3:02:59 AM

Q&A: Vitamin D and window light? You've reported that people generally need some sun exposure to maintain adequate vitamin D levels. But does sunlight passing through windows trigger production of vitamin D? — D.P., Baie Verte, Newfoundland, Canada No. Glass blocks ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation, the type that stimulates vitamin D synthesis by the skin. To get enough of the vitamin, you probably need to briefly expose some skin to direct sunlight a few days a week during the warmer months––unless you take a multivitamin containing D or consume lots of D-fortified milk plus some fatty fish. (Avoid high fatty-fish intake, which may supply excessive amounts of mercury and other toxins.) However, you can get sunburned through a window. That’s because windows don’t block UVA, the other harmful type of radiation from sunlight, unless the glass is specially

Mavs tie season's longest win streak with 13th Associated Press (ESPN.com)

Top Performers New Jersey: T. Williams 18 Pts, 13 Reb, 3 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 Blk

Dallas: J. Kidd 20 Pts, 4 Reb, 9 Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Ast, 4 Stl, 1 Blk PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

coated or tinted. Like UVB, UVA can cause sunburn and skin aging as well as an increased risk of skin cancer and possibly cataracts and macular degeneration. So apply sunscreen if you’re driving or just sitting in front of a window in bright sunlight for more than about 20 minutes in most parts of North America, and less than that in southern states in the U.S. Find out if it makes sense for you to take a vitamin D supplement and read the latest research on vitamin D and heart disease preventi on. 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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Sony Announces PlayStation Move, Its Wii-Baiting Motion Controller Dan Nosowitz (Fast Company)

attached to a side-controller for two-handed play. But whereas Nintendo's Wiimote had to be Submitted at 3/11/2010 8:55:57 AM attached to its Nunchuck subSony gave a brief tech demo of controller, the Move connects its motion controller at the E3 wirelessly via a little lightbulbshow last year ( and discussed it s h a p e d a d a p t e r ( w h i c h , with us just a few weeks ago), thankfully, looks more like a but a lot of the particulars were m i c r o p h o n e t h a n , w e l l , left unknown. Today, they something less savory). For demonstrated the newly-dubbed s o m e g a m e s , l i k e a PlayStation Move, and released swordfighting game, you'll details about accessories, price, actually need two separate and release date. Sony's hoping controllers--and everything, the Move will attract buyers including the sub-controller, tempted by the Wii's motion- will almost certainly be sold sensing gaming--but they've got individually. a lot of ground to make up. The use of the PS Eye is The basics are much like the interesting; it's definitely an Nintendo's motion controller, advantage over the Wii's sensor except instead of Wii's motion- bar, since it can use augmented sensing bar that sits on top of reality to add graphics to your TV, the PlayStation Move w h a t e v e r y o u ' r e d o i n g , will use Sony's PlayStation Eye o n s c r e e n . I n s t e a d o f j u s t camera. Other than that, the pretending you're holding a Move is also a remote-control- tennis racquet, you can see like controller that can be yourself onscreen holding one,

which is pretty cool. But beyond augmented reality, it's not clear that Sony's doing much to dispel the notion that they're just releasing a Wiimotelike accessory. Compared to Microsoft's Project Natal for Xbox 360, which forgoes the

Clean Your Earbuds for Better Sound and Hygiene [Headphones] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)

will help you defunk your earbuds to keep your eyes happy and the tunes clear. More Âť

Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:30:00 AM

After extended use your earbuds get pretty dirtyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;both on the microscopic and the

visible "that came out of my ear?" level. This simple guide

controller entirely for a system that maps your body and can respond to individual limbs or even other objects, Sony's doing very little innovating here. Gizmodo tried out the Move and found that it's slightly more responsive than Nintendo's Wii

MotionPlus, and of course the PS3 is a far more powerful console than the Wii, but that it was mostly underwhelming. We've seen this before--and a "me too" product may not be enough to drag Sony out of third place in the current-gen console wars. The Move will be sold in a few configurations, including a standalone controller; a package with a PS Eye, Move controller, and a game; and a package with an Eye, Move, game, and a PS3 console. The only price we have for now is that the Eye, Move, and game combination will fall under $100. Sony is aiming for a fall 2010 launch window. [youtube H9o9fRsK59c] [ Sony]

Elizabeth Warren: Why Did We Save GMAC? Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:05:57 AM

The TARP oversight committee is questioning the need for a bailout of GMAC, saying the company did not pose a systemic risk to the financial

system. Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, shares her insight. Airtime: Thurs. Mar. 11 2010 | 7:14 AM ET Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Morning Reading nospam@example.org (Scott Jagow) (Marketplace Scratch Pad)

direct money to private companies.” Watchdog: GMAC bailout could cost taxpayers $6.3B(AP) Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:55:21 AM Good morning. Some of the “ T r e a s u r y m i s s e d m a n y things I’ve seen so far — o p p o r t u n i t i e s t o i m p r o v e Hollywood’s about to get into accountability and protect the derivatives game, the taxpayer money,” panel chair GMAC bailout is looking like a Elizabeth Warren said in a disaster and the House is saying conference call with reporters. no to pork for corporations: She said Treasury didn’t make House leaders ban earmarks to GMAC show how it would corporations(NPR) return the taxpayer money, or Rep. David Obey (D-WI), how the investment would chairman of the Appropriations increase credit to consumers. panel said he’s killing off one of “These decisions mean that lawmakers’ most lucrative Treasury is now struggling to perks: corporate earmarks. deal with a GMAC that is not Obey said the panel will stop f i n a n c i a l l y r e h a b i l i t a t e d , a p p r o v i n g e a r m a r k s t h a t Treasury has no exit strategy lawmakers request on behalf of and taxpayers are not fully for-profit corporations. protected,” Warren said. “Earmarks to private entities Investors can soon make bets p r e s e n t o p p o r t u n i t i e s f o r on movie box office receipts(LA corruption, and getting members Times) in trouble,” says Ryan Welcome to Hollywood’s Alexander, of the advocacy n e w e s t v e r s i o n o f r i s k y group Taxpayers for Common business: movie derivatives. Sense. “It’s not the best way to Two trading firms, one of them spend taxpayer money to have an established Wall Street individual members of Congress player and the other a Midwest

upstart, are each about to premiere a sophisticated new financial tool: a box-office futures exchange that would allow Hollywood studios and others to hedge against the boxoffice performance of movies, similar to the way farmers swap corn or wheat futures to protect themselves from crop failures. Stimulus Funds Cluster in Cities, Bypass Latino Communities(PBS NewsHour) Google Maps finally adds bike routes(Autopia) “This new tool will open people’s eyes to the possibility and practicality of hopping on a bike and riding,” says Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists. “We know people want to ride more, we know it’s good for people and communities when they do ride more — this makes it possible. It is a game-changer, especially for those short trips that are the most polluting.”

Use Foam Packing Peanuts to Hold a Nail, Secure a Screw [Clever Uses] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:00:00 AM

Order a lot of stuff online? You know what an infection foam packing peanuts can feel like in your house. Keep a few handfuls of the little buggers handy, though, for home projects that involve nails and screws. More »

So Does Street Fighter IV Actually Work on the iPhone? [IPhone Apps] matt buchanan (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/11/2010 9:37:52 AM

Fighting games have always been awkward—and a little sad—as portable experiences, like Rottweilers stuffed in sweaters. Touchscreen controls, you'd think, would be adding a bowtie. But Street Fighter IV iPhone is a poodle in a cardigan. It fits. More »

First screenshots of Medal of Honor sure do look familiar… Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:00:08 AM

Fresh from EA, here’s the very first screenshots of Medal of Honor, currently scheduled for release this fall. It’s quite

modern, if you catch my drift. The game was on display at the same EA event where Jimin and I played FIFA World Cup 2010 last week. There’s very little point in spending many words describing the game, primarily because I’m very much

beginning to feel that all these modern shooters are going the

way of the music genre: you can only pump out Guitar Hero(or Modern Shooter) so many times before people are like, “Yeah, I played this a few months ago.” Not to say that the game won’t be good (who knows how the final package will turn out), but

the source material is wearing a little thin, I think. But you know what they say about opinions.

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Shiny happy news nospam@example.org (Scott Jagow) (Marketplace Scratch Pad)

Video of the Hott MD500 Android tablet Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

power the tablet for up to five hours. Alright, enough with the The only bone we have to pick Submitted at 3/10/2010 11:12:41 AM depressing stories about the is with companies who refer to unemployment rate, runaway The Archos 5 Internet Tablet their product as an “iPad killer” Toyotas, the banks and the better watch its back, yo. It when their tablets aren’t even in record budget deficit. Let’s hear looks like the Hott MD500 is the same category. A 5-inch some good news for a change. steppin’ too, you feel me?* MID is not the same thing as a A city worker in California — The Hott MD500 features a 4.810-inch MID. Size does matter. the mother of four — has inch touchscreen powered by an So check yourself!* volunteered to give up her job ARM9 Rockchip CPU. It seems We can forgive Hott for that so that someone else can keep that Hott has forgone the infraction as they’re selling the theirs: Windows CE OS like on their MD500 for under $100 — $92 In an economic downturn that has millions of people looking released, I can confirm that creating a network of charging H O T T M D 7 0 0 M I D a n d to be exact if buying in mass f o r w o r k , a L a t h r o p c i t y between now and 2013 I will stations, much as there are now replaced it with Android for the quantities. This is why it’s Hott. employee has willingly given up give up to GBP4 million to gas stations dotting every MD500. That puts the MD500 * Please note that all “urban in direct comparison with the s p e a k ” w a s l e a r n e d f r o m her job. charities around the world, neighborhood. She’s Patricia Overy, and she’s including important causes in See, good news. It even says popular Archos 5 Internet seasons 1, 3 and 5 of The Wire. Tablet. Charbax, who shot the It’s possible that the lingo is worked in the city’s finance Hong Kong and in the U.K… so. video, from ARMDevices as now outdated and that I’ve department for seven years. Instead of angst over Toyotas And if you’re worried about the It was announced at Monday’s that won’t stop, you could read, avalanche of debt — I mean, v e r y i m p r e s s e d w i t h t h e greatly embarrassed myself and city council meeting that she studies show electric vehicle s n o w — t h i s w i n t e r i n compact nature of the tablet and my profession by trying to speak liked its minimal screen bezel. it. was leaving her position so range not a problem: Washington, well, the Cherry The MD500 supports nearly all Source: ARMDevices another finance worker in her Studies of drivers who already Blossom trees don’t mind: the video codecs in addition to Five Filters featured article: 60s could keep her job. have electric cars are finding “Cherries need a certain amount Meanwhile, the CEO of HSBC that they prefer the convenience of cold in order to bloom,” he 720p HD video. It also has a Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: microSD card for storage PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, bank has decided to give his of charging at home, and despite said. expansion and a battery that will Term Extraction. entire bonus to charity: their vehicles’ limited range, So the Cherry Blossom trees In a statement, Geoghegan said most are able to avoid public will greet visitors with particular h e a c c e p t e d t h e a w a r d , charging. beauty this Spring. consisting entirely of deferred That’s good news as tightfisted Okay, I’ve gotten things started. stock to be paid over three states and cities prepare to deal If you know of encouraging years, in order to make up for a with the transition by some stories out there, by all means, shortfall in his charitable drivers to battery-powered share them here. donations the year before when vehicles. And it’s also good he waived his right to any news for automakers who were bonus. worried that acceptance of the “Provided that the stock is vehicles would depend on Submitted at 3/10/2010 12:46:13 PM

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Missiles to Mammals: Old Nike Missile Base Now Home to Cutest Seals EVER William Bostwick (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/11/2010 9:26:11 AM

Noll & Tam Architects and Scott Dennis Architect turn a decommissioned missile silo into a marine mammal rehabilitation center. It's one thing to turn an empty building over to plants--set up a couple veggie carts, like they did in Cleveland, or strap on a green roof. But what about turning it over to animals? And what if that building is a missile silo? In one of the most unlikely architectural transformations I've seen, San Francisco Emeryville studio Noll & Tam Architects and Scott Dennis

Architect, turned a decommissioned Nike missile base in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area into a new home for Sausalito's Marine Mammal Center. The Center has been using the base since 1975, when the last Ajax and Hercules missiles were dismantled, but hadn't done anything with the silos themselves. When they started renovating in 2005, some suggested they abandon the two, 3,000-square-foot chambers. Instead, the designers turned one into a specimen research library and the other into a water recycling plant that cleans and recirculates 200,000 gallons of fresh or salt water to the various tanks around the center.

It's a big deal: you wouldn't think it, but the headlands where the Center is located can get pretty try, so saving water is a smart move. It's also hot, and since most of the tanks are

outdoors, their temperature has to be carefully monitored and adjusted. Normally, heating and cooling different pools to different temperatures for different animals would make

for a nasty electric bill, but the designers outfitted the Center with thousands of square feet of shading panels, which do double duty as solar cells, providing about 20% of the energy for the buildings. The coolest thing about the design, though, is that Noll & Tam and Dennis kept the silos' military/industrial vibe intact. It's a tricky idea, filling silos with seals, but it works--the raw concrete floors, vinyl-coated chain-link fences, and black asphalt roofing make it feel kind of like a sleek, hipster spa (like the one from Zoolander...) which, if you're a sea lion, it kind of is. [photos by David Wakely]

TiVo will be offered by Virgin Media in UK later this year Matt Burns (CrunchGear)

a major player in the European DVR market. See, I told you the company didn’t deserve the One of the three points I laid deathwatch label. out as TiVo’s keys to survival However, Virgin Media subs was to partner with more will not be getting the justcontent providers. And just like announced Premiere model. It that, Virigin Media announced it does seem, however, that it will will be offering TiVo set-top be very similar as TiVo’s CEO b o x e s t o i t s 3 . 8 m i l l i o n Tom Rogers stated that the subscribers sometime this year. Series4 hardware “heavily This move, along with the inspire the development work” Conax partnership, makes TiVo of Virigin’s model. Most of the Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:50:41 AM

features we’ve known here in the states will definitly be

included, such as TiVo Search, Amazon, Youtube, along with the addition of BBC’s iPlayer. TiVo won’t be the only new kid in town, though. Sky is also working on an internetconnected device — dubbed Project Canvas — that will offer streaming services as well. However, the project is still waiting BBC Trust approval. The irony here is that Sky introduced the UK to TiVo five

years ago but the partnership fell apart and SKY ended up developing its own DVR. The Daily Telegraph report states that the box should hit sometime before Christmas, but there isn’t any mention of expected up-front cost or monthly subscription rates. [ Telegraph via Engadget

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Boyfriend of 'Jihad Jane' Had No Clue She Was Muslim (FOXNews.com)

activities. She has an arraignment scheduled for next Thursday at Colleen LaRose, the self- t h e f e d e r a l c o u r t h o u s e i n described Jihad Jane, spent P h i l a d e l p h i a . many hours caring for her Investigators say that according boyfriend's father in the small to court documents, LaRose town of Pennsburg, Pa., as she started building an online family hid her terrorist activities on the of conspirators in support of a Internet, Fox 29 in Philadelphia "violent jihad" back in June reported. 2008 on YouTube, Fox 29 Online, federal authorities say, reported. the devoted caretaker developed In e-mails recovered by the FBI a daring alter ego, refashioning over 15 months, LaRose agreed herself as "Jihad Jane" while to marry an online contact from helping recruit and finance South Asia so he could move to M u s l i m t e r r o r i s t s — a n d Europe. She also agreed to eventually moving overseas to become a martyr, the indictment try to kill an artist she perceived said. as an enemy to Islam. But perhaps she felt like one Leading a double life, LaRose already. kept her religion a secret from Born in Michigan, LaRose b o y f r i e n d K u r t G o r m a n . moved to Texas as a girl and Gorman said he never picked up had married twice by age 24. on any Muslim leanings. She Her first marriage came at 16, to never attended religious services a man twice her age in Tarrant of any kind. County, Texas, public records LaRose, 46, was charged show. There are no records or Tuesday with conspiring with reports of any children from jihadist fighters and pledging to either union, both of which were commit murder in the name of a long over by the time she met Muslim holy war, or jihad. The Pennsylvanian Gorman in 2005. indictment was announced hours LaRose lived with Gorman and after authorities arrested seven his father in Pennsburg, caring suspected terrorists in Ireland for the older man while Gorman allegedly linked to LaRose, who worked at his family's small has been in prison since her Oct. business in another town, 15 arrest while returning to the Gorman said this week. United States. "She was a good-hearted C o u r t r e c o r d s a n d o t h e r person," he said Wednesday. documents show that LaRose "She pretty much stayed around may have used YouTube as part the house." of her alleged trail of terrorist But online, she grew Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:55:45 AM

increasingly devoted to a loose band of what authorities say were violent co-conspirators from around the world. They found her after she posted a YouTube video in June 2008 saying she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" ease the suffering of Muslims, the indictment said. She eventually agreed to try to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who had angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog, according to a U.S. official who wasn't authorized to discuss details of the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. Despite Web images that show LaRose in a Muslim head covering, Gorman said he was not aware of the Islamic influences in LaRose's life. Gorman, 47, sensed nothing amiss in their five-year relationship until the day after his father's funeral last August. "I came home and she was gone. It doesn't make any sense," he said Wednesday outside his firm in nearby Quakertown. That same day, LaRose had removed the hard drive from her computer and set off for Europe — federal authorities won't specify where. She had swiped Gorman's passport and planned to give it to the co-conspirator she had agreed to marry, the indictment said. It's unclear how she was able to

travel overseas, given that the FBI, presumably tipped to her online postings, had interviewed her July 17. According to the indictment, she denied soliciting funds for any terrorist causes or making the postings ascribed to "JihadJane." By Sept. 30, she wrote online that it would be "an honour & great pleasure to die or kill for" her intended spouse, the indictment said. "Only death will stop me here that I am so close to the target!" she is accused of writing. Her federal public defenders, Mark T. Wilson and Ross Thompson, declined to on the case again Wednesday. Irish police disclosed, though, that they had arrested two Algerians, two Libyans, a Palestinian, a Croatian and an American woman married to one of the Algerian suspects. They were not identified by name. "I'm glad she didn't kill me," Vilks told The Associated Press on Wednesday, saying the suspects appeared to be "lowtech." He said he has built defense systems in his home to thwart would-be terrorists, including a safe room and electrified barbed wire. LaRose is scheduled to appear in court March 18 on the indictment, which was returned March 4 and unsealed Tuesday. The document does not link her to any organized terrorist

groups. She is unusual in being one of just a handful of U.S. women ever charged with terrorism, the Justice Department said. And her online conversations suggest she knew that to be an advantage — as she thought her blond, American profile would help her move freely in Sweden to carry out the attack, the indictment said. The case "shatters the conventional wisdom that somehow the U.S. is immune to the heady currents of radicalization that have affected citizens of other Western countries," said Georgetown University professor Bruce Hoffman, an international securities expert. LaRose lived in a tidy red brick apartment building on Main Street, a busy roadway lined with porch-front houses, many decorated with American flags, and a post office. "It's a great place. A quiet little town," said Pennsburg real estate agent Debbie Turner. "But you never know who your neighbors are. You have to be careful." LaRose had a few minor convictions in Texas in the 1980s for trespassing and other misdemeanors, according to online records, which list her then as 4 feet 11 and 105 pounds. She was also twice BOYFRIEND page 32

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Mexican shakes up world rich list (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ($4bn), who, aged 25, also regained the title Submitted at 3/11/2010 4:39:49 AM of youngest billionaire. Please turn on JavaScript. The news was a far cry from Media requires JavaScript to 2009 when the financial crisis play. took its toll on the world's Steve Forbes: "Carlos Slim ... richest people, wiping 332 has put together quite an names off the list and an empire" average of 23% off the wealth Mexican telecom giant Carlos of the remaining billionaires. Slim has topped Forbes Falling stock markets and magazine's billionaire's list - the collapsing commodity prices first time since 1994 that an were blamed. Russia's ultra-rich American has not led the appear to have recovered from rankings. last year's commodity-related Mr Slim's fortune rose by losses, however, with 62 $18.5bn (ÂŁ12.4bn) last year to billionaires on the 2010 list, $53.5bn. compared with 27 last year. That beat Microsoft founder Consumer focus Bill Gates ($53bn) into second In Europe, shopping dominated place, with US investor Warren executive Steve Forbes told the firm LVMH, also moved back interests range from oil and gas, the money list with six of the Buffett ($43bn) third. top 10 European billionaires BBC that Mr Slim had been into the top 10, increasing his to food and clothing. In 2009 332 names left the list slowly climbing the rich list for fortune by $11bn to $27.5bn. China's wealthiest billionaire - making their money in retail and after a tough year, but the total a number of years. Their mounting wealth helped excluding those based in the t h r e e m o r e i n c o n s u m e r number of billionaires on this " H e h a s b e e n d o m i n a t i n g to push Ikea's Ingvar Kamprad H o n g K o n g s p e c i a l p r o d u c t s . year's list rose from 793 to businesses in Mexico, and and Theo Albrecht - one of the administrative region - is Zong Top of the list was Bernard 1,011, Forbes said. Arnault (7) from LVMH, businesses in the US as well," men behind Aldi - out of the top Qinghou. 'Dominating businesses' Mr Forbes said. 10. In 103rd place on the list, Mr closely followed by Amancio A spokesman for Carlos Slim " H e f o r e s a w t h e r i s e i n Asian rise Zong is worth an estimated Ortego of clothes retailer Zara refused to confirm the Forbes t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s , One of the most notable aspects $7bn. He owns Hangzhou (9), Karl Albrecht of cut-price e s t i m a t e o f t h e M e x i c a n particularly cell phones. And he of the Forbes list in recent years Wahaha, China's largest soft supermarket Aldi (10), Igvar tycoon's wealth, saying they did is also big in cement." Kamprad and family (11) of has been the growth in Indian drinks company. not "waste their time" on such Ikea and Stefan Persson (13) of The year's biggest gainer, and Chinese billionaires, as the Upturn calculations, but he welcomed Brazilian mining tycoon Eike economies of the two countries In a sign that the global discount retailer Hennes & the result. Batista, broke into the top 10 for have grown strongly. economy could be improving, Mauritz. "We're pleased that he has been the first time. This year there are 41 Indian the average net worth of the In the UK, the sixth Duke of considered the best businessman He came in at number seven, billionaires, and 60 from China. world's billionaires is now Westminster Gerald Grosvenor of the world," spokesman having boosted his wealth by The richest Indian is Mukesh $3.5bn, up $500m from last (45) remained the wealthiest Arturo Elias told the BBC. "It $19.5bn to $27bn. Briton with a net worth of Ambani in fourth place. Worth year. means there is trust among the France's Bernard Arnault an estimated $29bn, he owns Furthermore, 97 names made $12bn as he improved his investors." ($27.5bn), the man behind the Reliance Industries, India's their debut while a record 164 MEXICAN page 35 F o r b e s m a g a z i n e ' s c h i e f world's biggest luxury goods largest company. Its business returned to the list in 2010 -

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Biden tries to ease Mid-East row (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:19:06 AM

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Mr Biden said Israeli plans undermined trust needed for talks US Vice-President Joe Biden says there must be no delay in resuming Mid-East peace talks, despite a row over Israeli plans for new homes in East Jerusalem. Mr Biden repeated his criticism of the timing of the building decision, but praised the response of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the controversy. He also stressed that the United States had "no better friend than Israel". The Palestinian Authority earlier said talks would be "very difficult" if the plans for the homes were not rescinded. President Mahmoud Abbas informed Arab League Secretary -General Amr Moussa that he had "demanded that the Americans help us revoke this order" at a meeting with Mr Biden in Ramallah on Wednesday, chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told the BBC. Earlier, Mr Moussa said the Palestinians had decided not to take part. Both sides had only agreed on Monday to hold indirect,

"proximity talks" in a bid to restart the peace process, which has been stalled for more than a year. 'Willing partners' In a speech at Tel Aviv University on Thursday, Mr Biden said the US had "no better friend in the community of nations than Israel" and that their relationship was "impervious to any shifts in either country, and in either country's partisan politics". But, he added, the decision by the Jerusalem municipality to approve the 1,600 new housing units in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo had "undermined the trust required for productive negotiations" and warranted his unequivocal condemnation.

It seems that the White House had decided to try to avoid another damaging and protracted tussle with the Israeli prime minister about settlements. After all, Israel came out on top in the last test of wills - agreeing to something far less than the total settlement freeze that Washington and the Palestinians had been demanding. The particular formula put forward by Israel for Ramat Shlomo - and seemingly accepted by the US - still leaves the Palestinians in a very difficult position. "Sometimes only a friend can deliver the hardest truth," he told the audience. However, the US vice-president

said he also appreciated the response of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "who announced this morning that he is putting in place a process to prevent this sort of occurrence, and who clarified that the beginning of actual construction would likely take several years". "That's significant because it gives negotiations the time to resolve this as well as other obstacles," Mr Biden said. Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. Mr Biden warned Israeli leaders that in President Mahmoud

Abbas and his Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, they "finally have willing partners who share the goal of peace between two states". "Their commitment to peace is an opportunity that must be seized." He said Washington would continue to hold both sides accountable for any statements or actions that inflamed tensions and prejudiced the outcome of the indirect talks brokered by the US special envoy, George Mitchell. "The most important thing is for these talks to go forward and go forward promptly and go forward in good faith," he added. "We can't delay because when progress is postponed, extremists exploit our differences." 'Crisis ended' Mr Abbas has refused to resume direct negotiations with Israel for 17 months because of its refusal to put a complete stop to the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In November, Israel announced a 10-month suspension of new building in the West Bank, under heavy US pressure. But it considers areas within the Jerusalem municipality as its territory and thus not subject to the restrictions. Tuesday's announcement by the BIDEN page 36

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KC superintendent says school closings are painful (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

further information. AP's earlier story is below. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kansas Facing potential bankruptcy, the City School Superintendent board that governs the once J o h n C o v i n g t o n s a y s t h e flush-with-cash Kansas City decision to close almost half the school district is taking the district's schools was difficult unusual and contentious step of and painful but "unquestionably shuttering almost half its the right thing to do." schools. The Kansas City school board Administrators say the closures voted 5-4 Wednesday night to are necessary to keep the district close 29 of the district's 61 from plowing through what little schools in an effort to stave off is left of the $2 billion it bankruptcy. The schools will r e c e i v e d a s p a r t o f a close at the end of the school groundbreaking desegregation year. case. The Kansas City school During a news conference board narrowly approved the Thursday, Covington thanked plan to close 29 out of 61 the board for its vote. He said schools Wednesday night at a the district was spreading itself meeting packed with angry too thin by educating less than parents. The schools will close 18,000 students in 61 schools. at the end of the school year. Despite the close vote, Although other districts Covington says he's confident nationwide are considering t h e b o a r d a n d d i s t r i c t closures as the recession ravages administration could work their budgets, Kansas City's plan t o g e t h e r t o c o m p l e t e t h e is striking. In rapidly shrinking massive restructuring, which Detroit, 29 schools closed i n c l u d e s l a y i n g o f f 7 0 0 before classes began this fall, employees, including about 285 but that still left the district with teachers. 172 schools. Most other districts THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS are closing just one or two UPDATE. Check back soon for schools. Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:06:10 AM

Emotional board member Duane Kelly told the crowd of more than 200 people Wednesday night, "This is the most painful vote I have ever cast" in 10 years on the board. Some chanted for the removal of the superintendent, while one woman asked the crowd, "Is anyone else ready to homeschool their children?" Kansas City Councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks said the closure plan had prompted some housing developers to consider backing out of projects. "The urban core has suffered white flight post-the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. the Board of Education, blockbusting by the real estate industry, redlining by banks and other financial institutions, retail and grocery store abandonment," Brooks said to applause from the standingroom-only crowd. "And now the public education system is aiding and abetting in the economic demise of our school district," she said. "It is shameful and sinful." Under the approved plan, teachers at six other low-

performing schools will be required to reapply for their jobs, and the district will try to sell its downtown central office. It also is expected to cut about 700 of the district's 3,000 jobs, including about 285 teachers. District officials face dozens of issues as they begin the massive job of downsizing the district — reworking school bus routes, figuring out what to do with vacant buildings and slashing its payroll. Superintendent John Covington has spent the past month making the case to sometimes angry groups of parents and students that the closures are necessary. Once the district had enough desegregation money to build such amenities as an Olympicsized swimming pool. But the effort to use upscale facilities and programs to lure in students from the suburbs never worked quite as planned. Covington has stressed that the district's buildings are only halffull as its population has plummeted amid political squabbling and chronically abysmal test scores. The district's enrollment of fewer

than 18,000 students is about half of what the schools had a decade ago and just a quarter of its peak in the late 1960s. Many students have left for publicly funded charter schools, private and parochial schools and the suburbs. The school district also isn't the only one serving students in Kansas City; several smaller ones operate in the city's boundaries. Covington has blamed previous administrations for failing to close schools as the enrollment — and the money that comes with it — shrank. Past school closure plans were either scaled back or scrapped entirely. Administrators warned that without the cuts, the district would have been in the red by 2011. "None of us liked voting for this," board member and former desegregation attorney Arthur Benson said, "but it was necessary." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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arrested in Texas on misdemeanor public intoxication charges. "For all intents and purposes, she's the neighbor next door," said Hoffman, noting that the

Internet enables like minds around the world to meet up, for better or worse. "You could get all the thrills of participation in an illegal clandestine act in the comfort of

your own bedroom," he said. Click here to read more on this PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, "This is someone who, I think, story from MyFoxPhilly.com. Term Extraction. because of the communicative The Associated Press power of the Internet is able to contributed to this report. ... enter into something that is Five Filters featured article: larger than herself." Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools:

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Police Release Photos Calif. Serial Killer Took of Girls (FOXNews.com)

and four women dating back to the seventies Prosecutors said Alcala, an SANTA ANA, Calif. amateur photographer and Prosecutors said convicted serial U C L A g r a d u a t e , u s e d h i s killer Rodney Alcala used his camera to put his victims at camera to gain the trust of ease. young women and now they fear "We'd like to locate the women photographs he snapped decades in these pictures," prosecutor ago could contain images of Matt Murphy told the Orange more potential victims. County Register. "Did they H u n d r e d s o f A l c a l a ' s simply pose for a serial killer, or photographs, apparently taken did they become victims of his before his first arrest in 1979, sadistic, murderous pattern?" were released by Huntington Detectives recovered hundreds Beach police Wednesday, of photos during courtfeaturing women and girls in authorized searches of Alcala's candid and posed shots. Some Monterey Park home and a show them naked and engaging rented storage locker. in sex acts. Some photos show women Most of the dozens of subjects posing in remote settings similar in the photos have never been to the locale where 12-year-old identified and now police are Robin Samsoe's body was found asking for the public's help in in 1979. A few are of young figuring out who the women are. men in sexually suggestive A jury recommended death poses. Tuesday for Alcala, 66, in the Jurors took just an hour to murders of a 12-year-old girl r e t u r n the death Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:18:00 AM

recommendation after a sixweek trial in which Alcala represented himself and took the stand in his own defense. Alcala was sentenced to death twice before in the 1979 murder of Robin Samsoe, but those verdicts were overturned on appeal. Prosecutors refiled charges in that case and added the four other murders in 2006 after investigators linked them to Alcala using DNA samples and other forensic evidence. Those cases, which had gone unsolved for decades, went on trial for the first time this year. Alcala focused his entire defense on the Samsoe case and ignored the murders of the four Los Angeles County women murdered between 1977 and 1979. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

You're Not a Loser, You're Just Sexually Anorexic [Sex Problems] Richard Lawson (Gawker)

what world famous celebrity rehabist Dr. Drew tells us this morning anyway. More Âť

Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:32:25 AM

You might be. If you have not gotten laid in a while, and haven't really been trying, you

could have sexual anorexia, an actual medical problem. This is

T-Mobile webConnect Rocket available March 14, already blowing minds in Philly Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget)

1780Kbps to 2797Kbps "on a couple of [DSLreports.com] East Coast servers." Hell, after I t l o o k s l i k e T - M o b i l e ' s moving to a location with w e b C o n n e c t R o c k e t U S B "prime, perfect signal (-51dbm)" modem will be released right on things picked up considerably, schedule, even if you currently with, on average, 6480Kbps have to be in Philadelphia to d o w n l o a d s a n d 2 1 6 0 K b p s enjoy those HSPA+ speeds uploads. Not bad, eh? Hit the ( t h e n a g a i n , i f y o u ' r e i n source link to get into the nitty Philadelphia you probably gritty. PR after the break. deserve a break). Accordingly, Continue reading T-Mobile folks jumping on that March 14 webConnect Rocket available release date can expect to pay March 14, already blowing $99 with a two-year contract minds in Philly that entitles you to monthly T-Mobile webConnect Rocket charges of $50 for 5GB or $20 available March 14, already for 200MB -- with a $0.20 / b l o w i n g m i n d s i n P h i l l y megabyte overage charge. Fun! originally appeared on Engadget Additionally, the kids at Mobile on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:14:00 Burn got their hands on a unit EST. Please see our terms for for a review and were generally use of feeds. Permalink| Mobile quite impressed with consistent Burn| Email this| Comments download speeds ranging from Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:14:00 AM

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GDC 2010: How to develop an app with EA Mobile Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 3/11/2010 8:00:00 AM

Filed under: Gaming, Developer, iPhone, App Store For the first panel of day two here at the 2010 Game Developers Conference's iPhone gaming track, Oliver Miao of Centerscore Studios took the stage to talk about working on Surviving High School for the iPhone as a part of Electronic Arts' Mobile division. As Miao made clear early on, he's an "insider outsider" at EA: his company was started with a few friends, purchased by Vivendi in 2006, created a hit mobile game called Surviving High School in 2007, and was bought by EA in 2008. Last year, they were commissioned to recreate their game for the iPhone. In one of the most interesting iPhone panels at the conference yet, he talked about the ins and outs of working with EA on an iPhone title, and explained both, what it was like to work with the company, and his own philosophies on game design, especially concerning in-app p u r c h a s e s a n d microtransactions. Most users seem to believe that microtransactions and episodic content are, at the very least, a pain to deal with (and are, at worst, a scam), but Miao is convinced that they're actually necessary to having a successful

game -- he said that every developer, going forward, "will need to have them." Read on to find out why. Miao told the story of creating the game for the iPhone -- early last year, EA Mobile came to Centerscore and asked for an iPhone version of their game, and asked that it be done quickly and cheaply. Quickly because, as Miao explained, EA

is very intent on seizing new technologies fast. iPhone OS 3 had just been announced, and EA wanted a game with microtransactions to go up on the App Store quickly. And cheaply because Miao says both EA and Centerscore were worried that if production costs ran high, the game would need a higher price than just 99 cents, and wouldn't sell at all. So they

had just a few months to put a successful microtransaction model together on a platform that they weren't sure their audience (teenagers using mobile phones) was even using. The first model they came up with was a kind of virtual currency for the game, in which you'd spend real money on ingame coins that you could then spend on more content. But

virtual currency isn't technically allowed in the App Store (even though some developers do it anyway), and EA didn't want to shake the boat with Apple. Miao says he was surprised by that -he thought that EA, as a big company, could get away with whatever they want, but instead he found that the opposite was GDC page 42

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GDC 2010: Canabalt postmortem Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Other Events, iPhone, App Store"What kinds of games do you like?" Adam "Atomic" Saltsman asked of his panel audience at the Canabalt postmortem during the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. "Role-playing" was yelled out, as was "puzzler," and eventually Saltsman picked "platformer" as the genre. Without another word, he quietly went to work on a laptop. Then, his partner at Semi Secret Software, Eric Johnson, took the podium to tell us all about what it was like to make one of the App Store's most popular games. He started by saying that the game was originally developed in just "five very long days," and was created for the Experimental Gameplay Project and based around simplicity -- it only uses six colors and, obviously, the one button. For a game that's so simple, it actually had a lot of complex influences. It drew from older games, like Another World and Flashback, as well as modern works, like Half-Life 2 and District 9. The level design was originally assembled around the idea that "the farther you go, the harder it gets," but they later evolved the difficulty to be based around the

player's running speed, so that, to an extent, you could selfmediate the difficulty by hitting obstacles and slowing down a bit. The buildings were all designed with what Johnson called "lego pieces" -- little bits of graphics that are interchangeable to create somewhat randomized designs. Jackson also talked about what he said might be the most inventive part of Canabalt: the marketing. The game was

originally designed as a Flash game, and throughout the entire time the game was available for $2.99 on the App Store, there was always a free complete version available online for the public to play. The developers were ok with that, however, for three reasons. First, they said, there was no Flash on the iPhone, so if you wanted to play the game on the iPhone, you had to buy it. Second, there was a "try before you buy" element

that a lot of people liked, and that they believe sold some games for them. Third, they figured some people would buy the game just to support the developers, especially because of the Flash game. Jackson said no matter what the reasons, having a free Flash version to play worked great for them (they shared that they'd sold 115,000 copies on the App Store in just five months), and while the server costs of keeping

a popular game up online are not insignificant, Semi Secret Software will continue to do the same thing with their future games (in fact, you can currently play Gravity Hook HD, their next game, online right now even before it's released on the iPhone. The other decision they made on marketing was with price -despite calls to the contrary, GDC page 44

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The Real Problem With The Economy: Misallocation Of Capital? Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

capital got overallocated and too quickly, as momentum mutual funds (momos) and day traders Andy Kessler has one of his furiously drove up stock prices standard thought-provoking of every company with dot-com opinion pieces discussing the in its name for no fundamental economy of the past decade, reasons. Wall Street trading was suggesting that the real lesson broken. But, he notes, there was learned from the past decade is a core of a good idea in there. the dangers of bad gov't policies What made the investment in leading to misallocated capital. t h e i n t e r n e t a n d n e w S t a r t i n g w i t h b a d t e l c o technologies make sense was regulations in the 90s that drove t h a t i t a c t u a l l y d i d d r i v e a bubble in unnecessary and productivity. The proper use of misguided investment in s u c h t o o l s i n c r e a s e d infrastructure, some of which productivity, decreased costs overflowed into a ridiculous dot and opened up new markets. com gold rush: The late '90s B u t w i t h t h e f l o o d o f Internet love fest was crazy misallocated money, a lot of that enough, driven by former FCC got obscured in chasing sock C h a i r m a n R e e d H u n d t ' s puppets selling pet food. misguided telecom reform that Following this, there was a had the effect of keeping data combination of bad policy rates artificially high. This decisions -- Greenspan flooding created a gold rush to install the system with money out of fiber and build applications that f e a r o f a Y 2 K p r o b l e m , didn't make economic sense combined with Enron freaking (though electronic commerce, people out and leading to online banking, as well as Sarbanes Oxley -- and a new w i r e l e s s a n d b r o a d b a n d mess was created: Instead of deployment would eventually finishing what the dot-com era prove productive over the next started to deliver--a productive, decade). Bad policy meant wealth-producing economy-Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:06:00 AM

capital was seduced into the financial lair of private equity and real-estate mortgages. Trillions were pumped into unneeded housing stock. Fannie and Freddie fanned the flames, and then fizzled and failed. And leveraged buyouts reigned. Even in 2007, one Blackstone private equity fund raised almost as much money as all of the venture capital industry. The key point here is that venture capital tends to (though, certainly not always...) invest in real innovation, nurturing concepts from idea to market and beyond. Private equity, however, is more about just moving money around and looking for quick hit opportunities to get increasing returns. One grows the economy. The other does not. But, by punishing the capital markets that fund real innovation and company growth via Sarbanes Oxley, money that used to go to venture investment went towards the east coast private equity world, where it was shuffled around, rather than invested productively. And,

tragically, it doesn't look like anything the government is doing is designed to fix this: Today, we are still left with almost no initial public offerings. While private equity fund-raising was down 68% in 2009 to $96 billion, venture capital barely raised $13 billion. Capital gains taxes are set to return to 20% on Jan. 1, 2011. And worse, investing is as uncertain as ever. No one wants to fund health care, medical devices or even much biotech if they can't figure out how they are going to be paid via reimbursements from ObamaCare. Energy investing is also a mess. And while "green" investing is booming, with few exceptions that is about efficiency rather than productivity. There's a big difference: You can make the Post Office more efficient while email makes us more productive and wealthier. Big regulated oligopolists control our communications infrastructure. Startups are nowhere to be found. Few are willing to take the risk of true

venture investing. It's been 10 long years since the economy has created real wealth, as opposed to easycredit induced real-estate or paper wealth. Amidst all the current confusion over health care and tax rates and energy and banking reforms, maybe it's time that the market transitions back to investments that drive productivity and increase living standards rather than just paper profits. Reaching back to our economic parables, it's a question of whether or not our government has been making a giant broken window fallacy. It's not working on plans that fund actual productivity and economic growth. The government is focused, instead, on getting money moving around again, and all that means is it will move into another unproductive bubble, until we align the incentives properly again. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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Street Chic: Paris Fashion Week ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 3/11/2010 4:00:00 AM

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GDC continued from page 39

true: they had to follow the rules even more closely, since one game could upset the entire relationship with Apple. So the next plan was to follow the Pocket God model, says Miao. His team noticed that the reviews on Pocket God loved the free weekly content, so his studio thought they'd develop weekly content for free, and then create exclusive content to sell separately as microtransactions. EA rejected that idea in a greenlight meeting, however -- they said that no, the studio couldn't give away free content that it could be charging money for. The next idea they came up with was timed content -- they would give away that week's content, and if the player wanted any old content, they'd have to pay to catch up. But this model was rejected as well, and at the same time, development on the game wasn't coming along correctly -- EA executives visited to play the game, said the quality wasn't up to snuff, and threatened to end the project. Miao says this was surprising: it showed that not only is EA very interested in the quality of their games (despite doubts of some), but that they are very agile when it comes to dropping projects and distributing the resources

elsewhere. Even if a game is almost done, if EA doesn't like it, they'll cancel and move on without a second thought. So the studio went back to the drawing board for a ten day push last summer, and when they were done, they re-pitched the "timed content" idea, this time stating that the weekly content was actually "promotional," and offering up microtransactions both for past weeks' content and next week's content as well. Additionally, they emphasized hitting the top 50 paid apps as a goal, and this time EA approved them. Miao says that he found EA's approach to microtransactions very interesting -- the executives he worked with, he says, firmly held the belief that microtransactions should be for extra content, not content that you originally planned with the game. In other words, you don't sell levels that should be released with the game via inapp purchases -- you make a solid game experience, and then make more levels after release to sell via microtransaction. If customers pay you more money, you give them extra content, not content that was in the original game plan. Interesting take. Surviving High School for the iPhone released last November,

and while the game floundered at first (causing anxiety at the studio), a listing in the "What's New" section of iTunes catapulted them out from obscurity and into the charts. Miao shared a few lessons from their sales. He says that the "TV model" they came up with worked: you can sell a game based on episodic content and charge money for the old episodes. He also says that ratings matter a lot -- the game had one bug that caused their iTunes ratings to drop (even though people liked the game), and that directly affected sales. Once the bug was fixed, the ratings rose back up, and sales followed. And Miao had some interesting thoughts on microtransactions, too. He said that microtransactions actually drove sales peaks -- when new content is added to the game every week, the team sees a spike in both sales and in the chart listings on the App Store. He says that microtransaction revenue definitely translates to where a game is listed on the Top Grossing chart, and that directly moves games into the Top Paid chart, both of which drive sales directly. In other words, Miao believes that a successful paid game on the

App Store must have microtransactions to stay successful. "With no microtransactions," he said, "your app will be at a disadvantage." It was a pretty fascinating conclusion for those of us who have been watching the App Store from day one, and Miao's experience with EA Mobile showed a few good insights about how that big game developer thinks and works. Even he said he didn't agree with everything they did -- as "a startup guy," he says "it was often a pain" to deal with some of their rules and procedures. But big companies are trying to figure out the iPhone platform just like everyone else, in their own way. TUAW GDC 2010: How to develop an app with EA Mobile originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Y'all Trying to Say States Ain't Runnin the Schools Right? [Edumacation] Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:40:02 AM

A national panel of experts has recommended that the US should adopt uniform education standards for all public schools nationwide, rather than leaving it to the states to set the standards. Why, are the states doing something wrong? More Âť

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New OpenGL 4.0 aims to match DirectX 11 (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:49:56 AM

Aiming to keep pace with Microsoft and advance the computing frontier, the group behind OpenGL has announced a new version of its interface designed to make advanced graphics easier for programmers to handle. OpenGL 4.0 adds more support for using a graphics processing unit (GPU) for other computing chores and for tesselation, which subdivides a region on a graphics object into many smaller patches for more detailed imagery. The technology got its start as a graphics library at graphics pioneer Silicon Graphics but has grown into a standard that works on many different computer systems and overseen by the Khronos Group. "OpenGL 4.0 exposes the same level of capability of GPUs as DirectX 11," the competing interface from Microsoft, Khronos said in a presentation. The company announcd the new

standard, along with the 3.3 update to the earlier version, at the Game Developers Conference on Thursday. OpenGL 4.0 builds on earlier versions of the graphics standard.(Credit: Khronos Group) OpenGL 4.0 is compatible with a technology called OpenCL designed to let graphics chips handle many chores that

otherwise would be the work of the main processor. Graphics chips aren't suited to all tasks, but they can help with some computationally intense work such as videogame physics. Graphics chips are steadily growing more powerful and widespread since modern operating systems, not just shoot -em-up videogames, now require 3D graphics abilities.

If you want to plunge into the details, here's how Khronos describes the new OpenGL 4.0 abilities: • two new shader stages that enable the GPU to offload geometry tessellation from the CPU; • per-sample fragment shaders and programmable fragment shader input positions for increased rendering quality and

anti-aliasing flexibility; • drawing of data generated by OpenGL, or external APIs such as OpenCL, without CPU intervention; • shader subroutines for significantly increased programming flexibility; • separation of texture state and texture data through the addition of a new object type called sampler objects; • 64-bit double precision floating point shader operations and inputs/outputs for increased rendering accuracy and quality; • performance improvements, including instanced geometry shaders, instanced arrays, and a new timer query. OpenGL also has variations called OpenGL ES for mobile devices including Apple's iPhone and WebGL for Web browser applications. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Opera Mini 5 on Android mini review Tim Stevens (Engadget)

we thought a little walk-through to demonstrate the impressive speed of the thing was Opera's Mini 5 beta finally hit worthwhile. So we have a short Android in the wee hours of this video for you below, with a morning and, while writing comparison against the stock about what it looks like is nice, Android browser, plus some Submitted at 3/11/2010 9:25:00 AM

impressions of just how it is to

use. So, click on through, won't you? Continue reading Opera Mini 5 on Android mini review Opera Mini 5 on Android mini review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010

09:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

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Poynt for iPhone is a mixed bag Mel Martin (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

businesses there is no list. You have to type a name of the place you are looking for, or manually Submitted at 3/11/2010 9:00:00 AM type something like Filed under: Freeware, iPhone, supermarket. It's not exactly a iPod touch, App Review Poynt time-saver, and that's just what has come to the iPhone, after you want from an app like this. having been a very popular free It needs to be quick and easy. app on BlackBerry phones. Now for the omissions. The Poynt provides local searches of BlackBerry version gives you an individuals and businesses. It up to date gas price directory also shares a database with based on your location. The Open Table, so you can use it to iPhone version? Zip. The make reservations at restaurants. developers say it will be in a Unlike the BlackBerry app, it future update. has augmented reality, but is At the end of the day, Poynt has missing some features beloved promise, the price is right, and it by the Blackberry crowd. business, you can save the is somewhat useful. It doesn't Like some of the other iPhone information to your contact list, break any ground over other search apps, you can enter the which is a nice feature. similar apps like Around Me or name of a business, and get a If you turn your phone to Where To?, which are better phone number, links to a landscape mode, you get either a organized and easier to use. website (if there is one), a map, or you can select the We'll keep an eye on Poynt and mapped location, or directions. augmented reality view. I don't see how it evolves, but at this If you use the theater search, think that view adds much to the 'Poynt', even for free, it's not you'll find nearby movie houses. program. You can see a business going to become your favorite You can also search by movie name floating on the screen, and app. genres, or get a list of the top 10 click for information. You won't Poynt runs on the iPhone or box office films. You can't buy get a distance to the destination iPod touch, and requires Phone tickets, but you can stream in AR mode, just a little floating OS 3.1.2 or greater. trailers. label. Basically, it's a yawner. TUAW Poynt for iPhone is a W h e n y o u s e a r c h f o r What's most frustrating about mixed bag originally appeared restaurants, you get similar this app is the inconsistency of o n T h e U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e results to those of the business t h e w a y i n f o r m a t i o n i s Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 search. Results include phone presented. When you search for Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please numbers, restaurant websites, restaurants, you are presented see our terms for use of feeds. maps, and directions. You can with a nice list that lets you Read| Permalink| Email this| also narrow your search by choose the type of cuisine, but Comments cuisine, or by distance.For any when you are searching for

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GDC continued from page 40

they decided to stick with the $2.99 price on the iPhone. That proved to be very "polarizing" -almost all of their App Store reviews mentioned the price, both positively ("this is totally worth the money") or negatively ("How dare you charge this much"). They believed that while they would have sold more copies at 99 cents, the $2.99 price gave them a different type of customer, and as they showed with the chart below, they got a different type of reviewer. Free apps, they said, tend to attract a lot more negative reviews in general, while people who pay for paid apps tend to take a little more "ownership" in the game they support. Finally, the guys announced their brand new development kit for the iPhone, called Flixel. The app, which they're bringing into a closed beta right now but will eventually release publicly for free, is designed and used by the guys to bring Flash games right over into the iPhone, and help developers rapidly prototype Flash games in an iPhone format. To show off the software, Saltsman hooked the computer he'd been working on

into the projector, and showed off a quick little platformer game (as per the audience's request at the beginning of the 20 minute panel) called "Platformer (I guess)." The game was super simple (and bugged -- he had to tweak it a little bit as he played, and the little guy couldn't go downstairs), but it was a very nice working prototype of a possible touch-based platformer. Nothing you could sell, but as a demo for Flixel, it worked. We'll keep an eye out for both Gravity Hook HD and Flixel, and we'll try to corner the guys from Semi Secret later this week to try and talk to them both about their work on Canabalt and what they're up to in the future. TUAW GDC 2010: Canabalt postmortem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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How Does Copyright Apply To Your Kids' Monster Drawings? Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/11/2010 3:02:00 AM

Justin Levine has an interesting blog post up about a book I hadn't heard of, called The Monster Engine. The author, Dave Devries, took children's drawings of monsters, and turned them into paintings that use the identical line structure of the kid's drawings (he projects them on the wall and then draws over them). Apparently, Devries' work is quite popular, and people have talked about it on the internet for years: Seems pretty cool. But Levine is wondering about the copyright issues involved in all of this: Given the fact that: • There is no doubt that the children's original doodles are protected by copyright for their entire life, plus 70 additional years. • There is no doubt that Devries' paintings of the doodles are 'derivative works' stemming from the original creations of the children. Do you believe that Devries should be forced to get formal copyright releases from each and every one of the kids in

President Lindsey Graham Is Getting Things Done [Leadership] Pareene (Gawker) Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:35:31 AM

question? Do you think he has done so? If so, should they be able to repudiate their copyright agreement when they turn 18 since many jurisdictions allow minors to repudiate contracts signed before they reach 18? If so, should they be able to take Devries's work out of circulation? Do you think that the children should all share in the royalties from books, art and showcases that Devries produces for the rest of their lives (and beyond -

for 7 decades)? Do you think that is in fact the case of what is going on? If Devries hasn't gotten a copyright release and/or isn't paying royalties, do you feel that he is somehow "exploiting" these kids or "stealing" from them? These are pretty serious questions -because under copyright law today, this book is trouble, and that's unfortunate, because it looks like a lovely book. My guess would be that Devries actually had to get permission

from the parents, but do parents have the right to sign away the copyright on a child's work? And do those children then have the right to terminate that agreement at a later date? Perhaps people think the likelihood of kids later terminating the agreement is quite low -- and maybe they're right. But what would happen if a kid no longer wanted to be associated with that artwork? Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

American Commander-in-Chief Lindsey Graham has been keeping himself incredibly busy lately, tackling all the tough issues that the American people sent him to Washington to fix. Let's look at some of his efforts. More »

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Facebook Threatens to Sue Daily Mail Over Sex Predator Claims Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:28:16 AM

According to the Guardian and Global Dashboard, Facebook has threatened to sue Daily Mail over an article which wrongfully claimed Facebook makes it easy for older sex predators to approach and seduce minors. Daily Mail’s article, which can (in edited form) be found here, was written by a former police detective Mark WilliamsThomas, and had originally been titled “I posed as a girl of 14 on Facebook. What followed will sicken you.” It contained the account of the author posing as a minor on Facebook, which, according to him, attracted sexual predators right away. The problem? He wasn’t really using Facebook to conduct the experiment, he used a “different social networking site”, as explained in today’s update to the article, added at the bottom by Daily Mail staff. The full text

considering legal action due to the “brand damage that has been done”. “If you were a Middle England reader and your child was on Facebook, this sort of thing would have a very serious effect on what you thought of us,” she said. Facebook has a point here; of the update is as follows: besides the obvious erroneous “In an earlier version of this reporting, the article details how article, we wrongly stated that someone posing as a 14 year old the criminologist had conducted girl would get messages from an experiment into social older men (more accurately, networking sites by posing as a users whose Facebook profile 14-year-old girl on Facebook indicates they’re over 18 years with the result that he quickly old), which cannot be done on attracted sexually motivated Facebook. Therefore, Facebook messages. In fact he had used a can argue it has measures in different social networking site place to prevent exactly the kind for this exercise. We are happy o f b e h a v i o u r t h e a r t i c l e to set the record straight.” describes, unlike the unnamed Needless to say, this caused a social network the experiment strong response from Facebook, was conducted on. w h i c h i s s t i l l r e f e r e n c e d We’ve contacted Facebook’s t h r o u g h o u t t h e a r t i c l e . UK PR representative on this According to the Guardian, a matter but have yet to hear back. UK spokeswoman for Facebook Reviews: Facebook said that the company was Tags: Daily Mail, facebook

Not just China, it seems. The spectre of monetary tightening came back to haunt Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:10:40 AM investors after news that 14:55 GMT: Inflation will be a i n f l a t i o n i n t h e P e o p l e ’ s “big problem” for China this Republic is running at a faster year, the country’s minister of pace than expected heightened commerce said on Thursday. fears that Beijing would act

John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:36:38 AM

I think Gagan is at GDC but he’s clearly not getting the good meetings. Firaxis is showing off Civ V and Kotaku has a nice run down, including a few new features. For starters, your opponents have definite AI based on their strengths and weakness. Ranged weapons can fire from further away – one space for archers – and cities can fight back. Cities also have “health bars,” which is a big change. Usually you’d just keep aggressively to reduce stimulus pounding the city until all of its measures. protectors died. Five Filters featured article: I totally want to play this new Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: game. This looks more like a PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, simulation than the boardgame Term Extraction.

Jitters over economy curtail risk appetite (Financial Times - US homepage)

Meet Civ V: The cities have health bars that the old game was and it seems like you’ll be able to actually feel like you’re playing with others even while playing alone. Take a look at this: The developers said great civilizations can now agree to commence a research agreement, instead of just establishing trade or declaring war. The game will now allow easy access to a catalogue of user-uploaded mods. And, as a tease, the developers said there will be surprises as to how nonmilitary ways of winning the game, the standard cultural and technological victories, for example, will be designed. Drool.

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HP attacks Apple iPad over Flash Sang Tang (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 3/10/2010 10:45:00 PM

Filed under: iPad During CES 2010, HP gave the public a slight tease of its upcoming slate device. The touchscreen device, which runs Windows 7, sports a form factor similar to Apple's iPad, as well as similar uses; it supports eBooks, music, videos, and of course, the Internet. But wait, there's more. According to a post on HP's Voodoo blog, the device will give you a "full Web browsing experience," not a "watered-down Internet" with "sacrifices." In other words, the HP slate device supports Flash and, well, the iPad doesn't. While the blog posting didn't mention the iPad by name, it

was fairly clear that the statement in question was an indirect jab at it. Accompanying the post is a short, 30 second clip. The highlight of the clip, which occurs toward the end, shows the user going to Hulu.com and watching a Flash-

based video. The reason that the clip is only 30 seconds long, and the Hulu portion is at the end of it, is that running Flash may have drained all of the device's batteries before all footage could be shot.(Just kidding! I couldn't

help myself). On a serious note, while the lack of Flash on the iPhone, and now the iPad, has its drawbacks, these drawbacks have been muted to a degree. The advent of the App Store created a nonFlash, potentially monetizable, playground for the creations of developers and content creators to play in. In addition, HTML 5 is emerging as a potential Flash development alternative. via [ AppleInsider] TUAW HP attacks Apple iPad over Flash originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Teclast C430H and C430TH PMPs enter the market Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

will play RM, RMVB, FLV, AVI, WMV, MPG, VOB, 3GP and DAT video codecs and Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:58:46 AM support 1080p HD video (as The Teclast C430 model PMP well as stream it via HDMI). Teclast is expanding their PMP They also play MP3, FLAC, line with the newly announced WMA and ACC audio and come C430H and C430TH PMPs. with microSD expandable card Both the Teclast C430H and slots. will cost a minimal 299 yuan C430TH will feature a 4.3-inch As for the differences, the (around $45). The C430TH has touchscreen, T8100 chipset and C430H has 4GB of storage and

8GB of storage, a 800 x 480 resolution and will cost 399 yuan (under $60). Both are expected to launch by the end of the year. Source: Akihabara News Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Which Oscar Nominee Is Installing a Stripper Pole for At-Home Performances? [Blind Items] Brian Moylan (Gawker) Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:09:53 AM

It's not for his wife, it's for the hired help. This actress quit a job to get away from a power couple and their "arrangement." A friendly duo is only partying together for the fame. Two's company, three's a party! More Âť

Toyota: Car Crash with the World Watching (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 3/10/2010 3:00:00 PM

Toyota's massive recall of cars is serious stuffâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;-a safety concern that may have cost lives. It's a disaster of still immeasurable consequences for "the world's greenest carmaker". TOYOTA: page 48

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TOYOTA: continued from page 47

But by now, we've heard enough about Toyota's supposedly selfdestructive and greedy management. But before we bury Toyota in ridicule, let's address what's really happened and what it means. Comments from the media, academics and politicians have ranged from bemusement that Toyota could let minor mechanical defects threaten its image as a sustainability leader to outright hostility. It's "just another corporation", which in liberal-ese is the worst put-down ever, groused one suddenly cynical Australian professor on an ethics website that I frequent. Let's dispense with the myths that Toyota was somehow trafficking a "we don't know what's causing this" lie or was slower to respond than other companies that have faced catastrophic challenges. It's still not clear, and may never be, whether any lives were lost or anyone was ever in serious danger. But perception matters. "You're fighting a very complex multi-front war when something of this magnitude hits," says Eric Dezenhall, a top crisis management adviser. Audi faced a similar crisis in the late 1980s, leading to the coining of the term "sudden acceleration syndrome". The media in the US, capped by the

60 Minutes show, ran exposés marked by gruesome pictures of sheet-draped bodies next to wrecked Audis, and the National Transportation Safety Board dutifully issued warnings. Professing bafflement, as it couldn't figure out what was wrong, Audi was reluctant to issue a recall to fix something that it didn't have evidence needed fixing, which led to more public pillorying and lawsuits. It didn't matter in the end that safety authorities totally cleared Audi. The reputational damage to Audi, then considered a gold standard of safety and mechanical excellence, was catastrophic, and it has never fully recovered. "In this [Toyota] case, there appears to be some genuine mechanical issues," says Dezenhall. "But there is still the conspiratorial assumption that company executives suppressed the problem while making costbenefit calculations about how many lives might be lost versus how much a recall or potential class action suit might cost." Toyota saw that it would face far more destructive problems if it proposed a quick fix that either it couldn't execute or didn't really address a problem that it didn't yet fully understand. Long Road Ahead

"Toyota is now caught in a vortex where legitimate grievances collide with hysteria and motivated adversaries who only gain by keeping this crisis in the news," Dezenhall observes. He says that when there are plaintiffs' lawyers looking to sue, PR people looking to selfpromote by declaring the crisis to have been botched, politicians "making hay", competitors who want to exploit Toyota's problems, distressed consumers, and a media that is desperately seeking–-and will surely find–some kind of telltale memo, Toyota is in for a long fight. But what should they do? "Fix the mechanical problem as fast as possible, hold consumers' hands throughout the process, and consider it a long-term investment in the brand," Dezenhall concludes. Finally, let's dispense with the narrative that Toyota is a fallen socially responsible angel. That designation, for any business, is silly–-the lazy analysts' way of ignoring the vast array of practical and moral trade-offs that every organisation confronts even without crises. Toyota first caught everyone's attention in the 1970s, when it made cheap but reasonably well -made low margin vehicles that consumed less fuel, which was

fortuitous when oil prices soared. It later sold its hybrid technology as green to credulous enviros, turning the Prius into a premium-priced status symbol. But when you apply environmental metrics, the ultimate "green car" is a lifecycle green bust, as it takes more combined energy to produce a Prius than a Hummer. What's the verdict? Toyota was, and by all reasonable measure remains, a great company. It has been a marvel of efficiency and brilliantly innovative. Its historical success, well deserved, is one of the most impressive business stories of the past 50 years. But, it makes mistakes–-in manufacturing, and in management of a crisis. Let's wish a still admirable company fast healing. In this challenged economy, we all need all the help we can get. Jon Entine is a visiting scholar at AEI. P h o t o C r e d i t : iStockphoto/Brasil2 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

PlayStation Move: the everything you need to know post Kevin Kelly (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:05:00 AM

Good morning, dear reader! You've got a lot to catch up on: • "PlayStation Move" is official name of motion controller • We touched it: PlayStation Move from every angle Gallery: PlayStation Move (Joystiq's Photos) That's it, you ask? Oh, no -wait till you see what we've lined up for you after the break! Continue reading PlayStation Move: the everything you need to know post PlayStation Move: the everything you need to know post originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Report: Senator Sought Work for Ex-Lover's Husband

China matters

(Newsmax - Politics)

Peter Boockvar (The Big Picture)

the work might involve congressional lobbying, which Submitted at 3/10/2010 11:44:45 PM could violate a federal ban on E-mails turned over to the FBI such activities by staff members and Senate ethics investigators f o r a y e a r a f t e r l e a v i n g provide new evidence about g o v e r n m e n t . Sen. John Ensign's efforts to The e-mail messages also hint find lobbying work for the at what Ensign's office now says husband of his former mistress was an effort by the Las Vegas and could add to his legal f i r m , P 2 S A E q u i t y , t o problems, The New York Times i m p r o p e r l y l i n k E n s i g n ' s reported. possible assistance to a Ensign, R-Nev., suggested that promised donation, the Times a Las Vegas development firm said. hire the husband, Douglas The FBI and the Senate Ethics Hampton, after it had sought the Committee are investigating senator's help on several energy whether Ensign, in trying to projects in 2008, according to contain the fallout from his previously undisclosed e-mails affair with Hampton, conspired and interviews with company to find lobbying work for her executives, the Times reported husband after they left their jobs on its Web site late Wednesday. after the affair ended in 2008, The newspaper said the e-mails despite the federal restrictions. are the first written records from According to the e-mails, Ensign documenting his efforts Ensign met in May 2008 with to find work for Hampton, a P2SA co-owner Greg Paulk, former top aide and close friend, who has been a campaign after the senator had an affair contributor to the senator, and with his wife, Cynthia Hampton, Bob Andrews, then P2SA's a former Ensign campaign e x e c u t i v e v i c e p r e s i d e n t . staffer. Andrews told the Times he The Times said the messages sought Ensign's support for a appear to undercut the senator's biodiesel project to be built in assertion that he did not know Las Vegas and a possible land

swap in Sloan, Nev., with the federal Bureau of Land Management for a solar power plant. Ensign brought up the idea of P2SA's hiring Hampton, Andrews recalled. The senator mentioned "that he might have somebody we should talk to who might be able to provide us with assistance in our biodiesel program," Andrews said. "I took this as a helpful hint." In a follow-up e-mail message obtained by the FBI and Senate investigators, Andrews wrote to Ensign: "We are excited about the assistance that you and your staff may be able to give us in regards to the biodiesel and our properties south of Sloan." Andrews added: "Give me the information regarding next week's fundraising and we will certainly attend. Thanks again." P2SA ultimately decided not to hire Hampton. Reached by The Associated Press by phone, Hampton lawyer Dan Albregts had no comment. The Justice Department also declined comment.

Ensign's spokeswoman, Rebecca Fisher, told the Times: "Sen. Ensign has stated clearly, he has not violated any law or Senate ethics rule." In August 2008, Paulk donated $10,000 to a political action committee affiliated with Ensign and a half-dozen other politicians, the Times said. Ensign's office returned $1,666 his share of the contribution in late 2008 after a staff member alerted him to the potential ethics problem. In a statement late Wednesday, Fisher said the senator "not only returned the donation, but also informed the company that his office could not be of assistance in any capacity due to the connection of a fundraiser and legislative requests made by any employee of the company." © 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.

Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:00:46 AM

Inflation in China in Feb rose more than expected as CPI was up 2.7% y/o/y vs the consensus gain of 2.5%. It is the fastest gain since Oct ‘08. Combining this with Feb loan growth 100b yuan above forecasts at 700b and expectations are rising that the PBOC will soon raise interest rates. The recent underperformance in the CRB index relative to the S&P rally is partially explained by this belief. Retail sales and IP ytd growth rates were about in line with forecasts. Asian stocks were mixed in response to the data but global bond markets are trading lower with yields higher. Ahead of today’s 30 yr auction, the US bond yield is at a 2 1/2 week high and in a still glacial pace and very low level, 3 month US$ LIBOR rose to a 3 month high. Australia Feb jobs report was weaker than expected but follows the big upside surprise in Jan. The BoKorea and RBNew Zealand both left rates unch as expected. US Claims data are key today. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Government report projects increasing alternative-fuel car choices Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:20:35 AM

Government report projects increasing alternative-fuel car choices The latest projection by the U.S. Energy Information Agency forecasts that by 2035, almost half of the cars sold in the United States will be alternative-fuel vehicles. That includes: diesel, flex-fuel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid electric, pure electric, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and fuel-cell vehicles. Most of those sales will be hybrids, according to the forecast. In 2008, alternative-fuel vehicles constituted only 13 percent of overall sales, led by conventional (non-plug-in) hybrids. Today, automakers are looking to introduce the next wave of alternative-fuel cars, required by the upcoming CAFE standards that will raise average fuel economy requirements to 35.5 mph by 2016. With these improvements in fuel economy,

gasoline cars will continue to make up 51 percent of the car market in 2035, but consumers looking to reduce their environmental footprint will have more choices. Currently, the Prius is the most popular hybrid and no other has come close to beating it in sales, but recent new offerings such as the Ford Fusion hybrid are strong alternatives. (Currently, hybrids comprise 2.7 percent of vehicle sales.) Besides Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota, more and more automakers are looking to join in the hybrid market. Hyundai will unveil a hybrid version of the redesigned Sonata at the upcoming New York Auto Show and Porsche will display their Cayenne hybrid. Subaru showed its Hybrid Tourer Concept in Los Angeles last fall, and Volkswagen displayed its New Compact Coupe hybrid earlier in the year in Detroit. Besides hybrids, electric vehicles are gaining momentum. The Nissan Leaf is set to go on sale in December. The Chevrolet Volt extended-range

electric vehicle is also scheduled to arrive at dealerships at the same time. A Chinese-built small sedan, marketed by California start-up Coda may roll out at the same time, as well. Another Chinese automaker, BYD, made bold promises to launch its E6 electric multi-purpose vehicle this calendar year, starting out West. The Mitsubishi iMiev is slated to go on sale sometime in 2011. While the EIA projections to 2035 look possible, they are uncertain. A number of factors such as innovations in technology, government emissions policies, incentives to consumers to adopt alternative fuels, gas prices, and consumer preferences will determine the future mix of vehicle sales.â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Liza Barth 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

Location-based content (Scripting News) Submitted at 3/10/2010 6:58:21 PM

I can't figure out how the new location-based Twitter works. Firefox can't figure out where I am. No surprise, My 13-inch MacBook Pro doesn't have GPS. Is there some place I can click on a map to say This Is Where I Am? Not at all obvious. Other people say they see it. Not on my machine. Anyway, that doesn't mean we can't have fun with location stuff. On Twitter, I posted a link to a Google Map asking if this was the location of the Fillmore East. I got back an answer that it was close, but the supermarket next door is where the Fillmore was. I tweeted back that I had read somewhere that that was where the Ratner's was, next to the Fillmore, and if you go in there you can even see a giant R on the floor. Ratner's was a great Jewish dairy restaurant. Until I read the article (can't remember where it was) I only knew about the now-gone Ratner's on Delancey St. I once took a blonde shiksa VP-Marketing from California to Ratner's on Delancey, and the waiter yelled at me for bringing such a fine woman to such a lousy neighborhood. That was before it all got gentrified and yuppified. Both Ratner's are gone now.

Anyway, the same guy dug up a picture of the old Fillmore just before a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert. My theory was correct. It's the site of the bank. I went to the Fillmore a few times. The most memorable concert was a Grateful Dead show with a surprise toward the end. A bunch of dirty hippies with long hair and beards come out and jam with the Dead. The music sounds weirdly familiar but hard to place. They were being deliberately misleading. Then all of a sudden a rock and roll standard -- Good Vibrations. It was the all-new dope-smoking Beach Boys! Oh man those were the days. I also saw the Incredible String Band there. Ten Years After. We're getting ready to do an East Village blog for the NY Times. Going down memory lane is my way of getting ready. PS: I read about Ratner's on Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, an intriguing blog with lots of great stories about the ever-changing and not-alwaysfor-the-best New York Shitty.

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Smart back-to-school money moves for grown-ups, part 3 Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)

$160,000 for joint filers. This deduction is taken as an adjustment to income, which Submitted at 3/11/2010 3:51:59 AM means you can claim it even if Smart back-to-school money you do not itemize deductions moves for grown-ups, part 3 As on a Schedule A. we mentioned here yesterday Note that even if you qualify you may be able to deduct your for all of them, you can choose educational expenses if they only one of the three tax breaks meet certain criteria. Even if discussed here. Most people will you don't qualify, there are two r e q u i r e m e n t s a n d o t h e r find the American opportunity t a x c r e d i t s a n d a n o t h e r conditions. To meet the income credit provides the greatest tax deduction that could make a requirement, your modified savings, according to Eric L. return to the classroom easier to adjusted gross income can not Smith, an IRS spokesman. exceed $90,000, or $180,000 in Rules for these credits and other afford. • American opportunity credit. the case of a joint return. education-related tax breaks are This an expanded version of the • Lifetime Learning credit. This available for your downloading old Hope credit, available in tax break allows you to claim up pleasure in IRS Publication 970. 2009 and 2010. If you haven’t to a $2,000 credit each year for Tomorrow: Tapping your kids’ completed four years of post- p o s t - s e c o n d a r y e d u c a t i o n , 529 plans or your own IRA. secondary education, you might including graduate school, or — Greg Daugherty be eligible to take this credit of courses to acquire or improve Greg writes the “Retirement up to $2,500. To do so, you your job skills. Your modified Guy” column each month in our must be working toward an adjusted gross income can not Consumer Reports Money undergraduate degree or “other exceed $60,000, or $120,000 for Adviser newsletter. Subscribe r e c o g n i z e d e d u c a t i o n a l joint filers. now! credential,” and you must be • Tuition and fees deduction. S u b s c r i b e t o enrolled at least half time for at Students at any level of post- ConsumerReports.org for expert least half of the year. A credit, secondary education who meet Ratings, buying advice and you’ll recall, is even better than the income criteria may be able reliability on hundreds of a deduction, since it comes right to deduct qualified education products. Update your feed off the tax you’d owe rather expenses up to $4,000. To meet preferences than from the income on which t h e i n c o m e c r i t e r i a , y o u r you’re taxed. You will have to modified adjusted gross income m e e t c e r t a i n i n c o m e must not exceed $80,000, or

Betty White's 'SNL' Hosting Gig Set For May 8 Joel Keller (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:32:00 AM

This whole "Betty White as'SNL' host" movement has been fascinating to watch. Think about it: the users of a decidedly 21st century technology, Facebook, got together in support of a star who started working before the vast majority of the site's users were even born. No one on FB is looking to have Tony Curtis be a guest panelist on 'The Marriage Ref,' or want Dick Cavett to be the new host of 'The Tonight Show,' for instance. Most people were overjoyed to hear that the online movement to get her on the show was a success; now, according to WNBC and People magazine, White's 'Saturday Night Live' hosting gig has an air date: May 8. She'll be part of a Mother's Day-themed episode which will feature former cast members who are also moms, including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and

Molly Shannon. Rachel Dratch will also be there; she's not a mom but tended to play one in a lot of her sketches when she was a cast member. Continue reading Betty White's 'SNL' Hosting Gig Set For May 8 Filed under: TV Royalty, Saturday Night Live, RealityFree Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Daily electronics deals Nicholas Kolman-Mandle (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:29:59 AM

Daily electronics deals Today's electronics deals, courtesy of The Consumerist: • Lenovo: Lenovo IdeaCenter K300 $466.65 + free shipping • Dell Home: 17" Dell Inspiron 17 w/ Intel Core i3 Laptop $549 + free shipping • Lenovo: 4-inch Lenovo ThinkPad T410 w/ Intel Core i5 $899.10 + free shipping • JR.com: 14-inch MSI X400 $399 + free shipping • Best Buy: DXG HighDefinition 5MP Digital Camcorder w/ 2.4" LCD - Blue for $49.99 + $6.43 Shipping • Vanns: Samsung 40" LCD 1080p HDTV + Bonus Wall Mount for $762 w/ Free Shipping • Amazon: Haier 22” LCD 720p HDTV for $198 w/ Free Shipping

• Buy.com: McAfee AntiVirus 3-PC Pack $15 Shipped

informational. These deals are often fleeting, with prices changing or products becoming unavailable as the day • Amazon: nano 16GB 4th p r o g r e s s e s . Generation $140 Shipped These posts are not an • Amazon: The Hannibal Lecter endorsement of the featured Anthology [Blu-ray] Manhunter, products or the Web sites that Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal sell them—though some of the $39.99 + free shipping sites may be included, and • Amazon: Monsters vs. Aliens recommended, in our Ratings of + B.O.B.'s Big Break in Monster retailers for computers and other 3D: Ginormous Double Pack major electronics(both available $10.49 to subscribers). Price shouldn't • Dell: Playstation PSPgo be your only criterion. Be wary S y s t e m f o r $ 1 9 9 w / F r e e of lower-priced deals that seem Shipping too good to be true, and check • Borders: 40% Off List Price return policies for restocking Of One DVD or Blu-Ray Disc fees and other gotchas. w/ Printable Coupon For general buying advice for • Dell: Uncharted 2: Among many of the products on sale Thieves Playstation 3 Game for above, check out our free $39.99 w/ Free Shipping Buying Guides. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o Neither Consumer Reports nor ConsumerReports.org for expert T h e C o n s u m e r i s t r e c e i v e Ratings, buying advice and a n y t h i n g i n e x c h a n g e f o r reliability on hundreds of featuring these deals; the posts products. Update your feed are intended to be purely preferences

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'The Middle' - 'The Break Up' Recap Jason Hughes (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/11/2010 4:50:00 AM

(S01E16) Sometimes it's important to realize that there are things going on in your kids lives that you know nothing about. It's important, but horrible at the same time. It certainly makes me afraid for when my son becomes a teenager. If they can keep a relationship with a Hollywood superstar a secret, imagine what else you don't know? Okay, Alexa Vega, of'Spy Kids' fame, wasn't playing herself but she was playing Axl's secret girlfriend. A girlfriend that on the surface seemed way too good to be true. I certainly didn't trust her. The remainder of the episode spotlighted an all too common phenomenon. What happens when kids watch scary movies at too young of an age. When I was Brick's age, I made the

mistake of walking into the living room to ask my mom a question during the wrong part of'The Exorcist.' Later, an encounter with'Psycho' had me showering with my eyes open for more than a decade. Continue reading'The Middle' 'The Break Up' Recap Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Nomar Didn't Need Title to Capture Boston's Heart Andrew Johnson (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/10/2010 1:50:00 PM

Filed under: Red Sox, MLB Transactions The 14-year-old hidden away in a corner of my brain is counting down the days

to Nomar Garciaparra's Hall of Fame induction ceremony, unable to envision a scenario where he doesn't become an alltime great. He can not fathom Garciaparra playing his home games at Ravine, much less imagine him Wrigley Field or Chavez

as a reserve infielder, pinchhitter or part of a first base platoon. He also can't imagine the Red Sox winning the World Series, especially with an Expos castoff starting at shortstop. He can, at least, wrap his head

around what took place in Fort Myers, Fla., Wednesday -Nomar throwing out the first pitch before a cheering crowd at a spring training game after retiring as a Red Sox.

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Paul Allen Backed Semantic Service Evri Has Been Acquired Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/11/2010 12:55:38 AM

Think the semantic web is all hype with no bite? Paul Allen backed semantic startup Evri will announce tomorrow that it has been acquired, we've learned from a reliable source. The service specializes in extracting the names of people, places and things from raw streams of text in order to facilitate smart user navigation and related content recommendation. The company launched a striking new version of its website earlier today. Evri launched just short of two years ago and raised $8 million from Vulcan, the fund of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. More interesting than the business side of this story, though, is the technology. Evri brings the semantic and the realtime web together in some very interesting ways. Sponsor We profiled Evri as one of 10 intriguing companies in the realtime web space in our recent research report The Real-Time Web and Its Future. Also included was the now Googleacquired Aardvark. (See our coverage: How I Loved and Lost an Aardvark)

Here's how we described the real time part of what Evri does in that report: Evri is a semantic Web recommendation service for online publishers. The company tracks the real-time Web to know when it needs to create or update a topic page for one of its emerging news topics. Evri watches news sources to see when a news topic is trending, including articles on Wikipedia that publicly available data shows have

neighbor and kin Microsoft, where the service would compliment the Powerset team nicely and change the Bing user experience in news search dramatically. Now that we know that Google is working on building a real-time index of the web ( our coverage) the prospect of a competitor upping the ante with near real-time semantic parsing, riding on top of realtime indexing, sounds like a hot move. A number of people have raised the possibility of an Amazon acquisition as well. Evri was also tested out by Yahoo! starting last Fall as a way to facilitate navigation throughout its Sports content pages. Take that, semantic web doubters. We'll update this post when the leaped in page views. Then it w i d g e t , a n i P h o n e a p p , acquiring party is identified. visits structured databases like automated content portals for Geeky types interested in an inWikipedia and FreeBase to publishers and a sentiment depth explanation of Evri's work check for updates to entries analysis product. The company w o u l d b e w e l l s e r v e d b y about related entities. It then didn't see a particularly large checking out a 6 part video creates or updates a topic page amount of hype but was closely series on YouTube wherein with news links, photos and watched. Robert Scoble, for Deep Dhillon, CTO of Evri, Twitter search results. The example, named Evri one of his d i s c u s s e s t h e c o m p a n y ' s language used in those Twitter top startups to watch for 2010, technology with students at the posts is analyzed and the names even a year and a half after it P a u l G . A l l e n C e n t e r f o r Computer Science & of news entities in the posts are launched. linked to other Evri topic pages, We haven't been able to E n g i n e e r i n g . D i s c u s s like pivots. identify the company that has Evri has done lots of other acquired Evri yet but the most things as well, including a blog obvious candidate would be its

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Chatroulette Being Used for Marketing? Say It Ain't So! Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:20:28 AM

That didn't long. Leave it to marketers to find a way to use any innovative new web service to promote their own ends. The latest example? A Chatroulette contest launched by international clothing brand French Connection. According to contest rules, participants are asked if they can "conquer the sinister world of Chatroulette" by charming a member of the opposite sex. (Initially, the contest was for men only, but due to protests, the rules were adjusted to permit women the opportunity to try and seduce men, too. Oh joy.) Sponsor According to the initial company blog post about the contest, "if you rise above the seas of failing men and charm a woman on Chatroulette," the company promises to give you a voucher worth 250 pounds which you can spend at the company's retail stores. The blog post then provides an

example of what they mean by a "seduction attempt" by way of a screenshot of a Chatroulette chat session - and be warned, it's not what we would consider safe for work. Instead, what French Connection is promoting is essentially a nod to the often perverse nature of the popular webcam-surfing site. Chatroulette for Marketing: Risky or Brilliant? Although the French Connection brand may pride themselves on their youthful, hip nature, it's an arguably risky move to promote themselves via a service as odd, off-the-wall, and yes, occasionally very disturbing as Chatroulette. Like Casey Neistat recently explained in a charming video demo of this latest Internet craze, on any given day, Chatroulette is 71% male, 15% female and 14% pervert. In fact, it's the possibility of running into something odd - or rather someone odd doing something odd- that makes Chatroulette so exciting for its users. Like the game of Russian

win a few bucks to spend at a clothing store. Thanks to French Connection's bravery, they have the honor of being the first brand to attempt using Chatroulette for marketing purposes. However, if the contest goes well (i.e., it generates a lot of press), other marketers will likely soon follow suit. Roulette from which its name is Is that a good thing? We're not derived, most of the time so sure. At least, it's not good nothing remarkable happens - for us, the Chatroulette surfers. you run into another bored Marketers, though, may think voyeur looking back and you it's a downright brilliant move. and maybe even have a casual And maybe it is - after all, who conversation. But every now would have thought that anyone and then... bang! could have figured out how to And it's the bang that seems to promote a brand on a service appeal to French Connection. like this? Still, we sort of wish They want to send out their the marketers would leave this customers into the wild, wild one alone. Stick to Facebook west of Chatroulette to become and Twitter and the other the very sort of creepy perverts straight-laced social sites of the that make the site so darned Internet - leave Chatroulette and i n t r i g u i n g . S o n o w , d e a r all its unrestricted debauchery Chatroulette users, you'll have alone. Discuss to wonder whether that freaky guy/gal hitting on you is doing so because they're actually a weirdo or if they're just trying to

Pandit sees revival of Citi’s fortunes (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/10/2010 3:02:03 PM

Vikram Pandit, Citigroup’s chief executive, will on Thursday raise the prospect of the US bank earning as much as $20bn from its core business within a few years, a big increase from current levels that would mark a sharp revival in Citi’s fortunes. Mr Pandit’s move – to be made as he details Citi’s strategy to investors – is a bold attempt to shift financial markets’ attention away from Citi’s huge losses and repeated government bailouts during the crisis. But it will also raise the stakes over Mr Pandit’s tenure at the helm of the financial group by linking his future to the success of the strategy and financial performance. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

BP strikes $7bn Brazil oil deal (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/11/2010 3:18:14 AM

BP on Thursday confirmed it

would enter the deep waters off the coast of Brazil, one of the world’s most promising areas for oil exploration, with a $7bn (£4.7bn) deal to buy

international oil and gas assets from Devon Energy. Under the terms of the deal, BP will also expand its operations in the Gulf of Mexico, where it

is already the largest producer of PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, oil and gas, and increase its Term Extraction. interests in Azerbaijan. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools:

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SuperGlued: The Can't-Miss Live Music iPhone App for SXSW 2010 Mike Melanson (ReadWriteWeb)

SuperGlued connects with Flickr, YouTube, Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr, so when Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:37:00 AM the shows all over, you can both If you've ever done SXSW know what shows your friends add and check out block posts, before, then you know about the are seeing so you can ask them videos, set lists and more from music here in Austin. If you if it's any better. the website. haven't, let us tell you now A n e w p a r t n e r s h i p w i t h Doshi told us that they have there's a lot. But how do you BandsInTown not only helps the made extra efforts to make sure find it all? And how do you find service find all the shows going that all of the SXSW shows are out which show is best? And on, but lets you buy tickets from list, but if a show isn't there, how do you share blogs, photos, your iPhone. And for special users can add shows via the videos and tweet about it all at events, like SXSW, Superglued website. With the number of once? brings all the shows together shows springing up in parking S u p e r G l u e d , w h i c h h a s into a separate event listing. lots and backyards, this is a integrated with both Foursquare Aside from the iPhone app, the must-have feature. In the near and Twitter, will be your your website lets you continue to future, the company is looking one-stop shop for the more than interact around the shows you've t o i n c l u d e s h o w - s p e c i f i c 1,200 bands that are set to seen long after they've ended. merchandise in its iPhone app, invade Austin over the next Rush Doshi, who co-founded letting you browse and even week and a half. SuperGlued with Gawker CTO order show merchandise from Sponsor Tom Plunkett, told us on the your phone and having it SuperGlued is a can't-miss app p h o n e t h e o t h e r d a y t h a t shipped to your house. for navigating SXSW without SuperGlued is the water cooler Beyond SXSW, SuperGlued is having the schizophrenically for everyone to gather around available around the world with switch between iPhone apps just and talk about that crazy show nearly 200,000 show listings, to keep up. With the release of a they saw last week. many of which it pulls from new version of its iPhone app, "The idea came about from BandInTown and Last.fm, in users can find shows, buy going to a lot of shows and 140 countries. So, wherever you tickets, tweet and read what wondering about who else was are, get off your duff, download others are tweeting, post photos there - it just seemed that there the iPhone app and go see some and check-in to Foursquare. And was no one place to go to see live music. Discuss if you find yourself at a lame what everyone else thought," show, the new "Where My s a i d D o s h i . " W e b u i l t Friends At" feature will let you SuperGlued to be that place."

Miami Beach Will Be 'Jersey Shore's' New Home Brad Trechak (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/11/2010 9:50:00 AM

This is a reason to rejoice. No, it is not the fact that'Jersey Shore' is getting a second season. Indeed it is questionable whether the show even having a first season is a reason to rejoice. Rather, I am referring to the fact that the second season of 'Jersey Shore' will take place in Miami Beach instead of my home state of New Jersey. On behalf of the state, good riddance. Of course, this brings about the question of the name of the program. It's not really the Jersey Shore anymore, is it? Will the show now have a subtitle: 'Jersey Shore: Guidos in Miami?' Perhaps future seasons (and sadly there will likely be future seasons) will

have the crew on a different beach in a different state every year. That is, until they turn 30 and the Sandmen have to hunt them down and kill them. If MTV makes a show of that concept, I would tune in. Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Industry, Programming, OpEd, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Kiwis to Bring $900M in Bandwidth- Report: Roethlisberger Denies He Had Sexual Building Cables to New Zealand Intercourse With Accuser Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)

spend money to make money something anyone with an interest in NZ's economic future For obvious reasons, we care and global competitiveness must about what goes on in various consider. parts of the world, particularly "The New Zealand Institute New Zealand and other areas identified billions of dollars in that are underserved in terms of economic potential by Internet access. unleashing the Internet," he said, So, we were quite excited to Terabits per second-capacity "and it is beyond time to address learn this evening of a new fiber cable to connect Australia the issue. This is necessary and proposal that would give New and New Zealand to the U.S. - a basic infrastructure - we must Zealanders - including a couple cable that would deliver data at decrease the distance between RWW staff members - a better five times the speed of the N e w Z e a l a n d a n d t h e b r o a d b a n d e x p e r i e n c e . current network. international markets. According to NZ website Stuff, This proposal puts Warehouse "Doing so will be incredibly a halndful of well-known f o u n d e r S t e p h e n T i n d a l l , valuable for New Zealand and innovators and entrepreneurs are TradeMe creator Sam Morgan, Australian businesses and teaming up on a $900 million entrepreneur Rod Drury, and consumers. If we are able to dollar project that would give techies Mark Rushworth, John deliver on this cable this it could K i w i s ( a n d t h e i r A u s s i e Humphrey and Lance Wiggs in be as valuable to our NZ neighbors) "virtually unlimited" competition head-to-head with economy as the quantum leap b r o a d b a n d a c c e s s v i a a n Southern Cross Cable, a large refrigerated ships were to our international cable that would network partially owned by export trade many years ago." run across the Pacific Ocean. Telecom New Zealand. The How feasible do you think this Just how much of a difference team, called Pacific Fibre, hopes project will be? Is 2013 a w o u l d t h i s c a b l e m a k e to complete the project by 2013. realistic time table? And where compared to current Internet Of course, the next step is do you think Pacific Fibre's access? figuring out the exact cost of the investors will be found? Let us Sponsor proposed cable - the group know your opinions in the The difference would be thinks $900M might be a comments. Discuss significant, as Stuff's graphic highball figure - and find shows: investors. However, as Tindall The plan is to construct a 5.12 eloquently noted, you have to Submitted at 3/11/2010 12:50:30 AM

A.J. Perez (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/10/2010 2:10:00 PM

Filed under: Steelers Ben Roethlisberger told police there was no sexual intercourse with the woman who is accusing the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback of assault, a Pittsburgh television station reported on its Web site Thursday night. Citing unnamed sources, KDKA-TV reported Roethlisberger conceded to Milledgeville, Ga., police the night of the incident that he had contact with the 20-year-old college student, but said a sexual act was not consummated inside the dance club. Roethlisberger said the woman injured her head after she slipped in the bathroom. The accuser immediately reported the incident to police and was treated at an area hospital. TMZ.com reported Thursday that police have taken possession of the security tapes from the Capital City Night Club. "We intend to finish this case in a way that neither his liberty nor

his future is damaged," Roethlisberger's attorney Ed Garland told KDKA-TV. The Atlanta law firm hired by the family of the accuser has asked for for discretion as the case progresses. "Their daughter has done the right thing and reported this matter to the police," lawyer Lee Parks said in a statement. "She has been, and will be, available to the authorities to assist them in the criminal investigation. While the matter is under investigation, we ask you to respect her privacy, keep her name out of the press and allow the family space and time to heal."

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OpenGL 4.0 comes out to play Devin Coldewey (CrunchGear) Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:59:32 AM

With Microsoft becoming increasingly marginalized in areas like mobile media, DirectX is becoming less of a must-use toolset and more of a gaming-specific one. The other side of the coin is, of course, the increasing relevance of standards like OpenGL, OpenAL, and OpenCL: powerful cross-platform systems for graphics, audio, and parallel processing. You may remember OpenCL from its debut on the Mac in Snow Leopard, and OpenGL ES of course powers the UI on the iPad. OpenAL is still a ways from being brought under the public eye, but it’s getting there. In the meantime, OpenGL 4.0 was announced today at GDC, and clearly it has DirectX in its sights. 4.0 has a lot of features which users like you and I don’t really need to know about. Texture swizzling? Awesome. Tessellation? Sure, as long as it’s not like whatever they used in Messiah— remember that game? These new toys for developers will make for a richer and faster graphical experience, to be sure, but I’m not going to list them off for you. The big news for graphics is handhelds right now. Mobile gaming is blowing up and

Microsoft can’t get a foot in the door. Hell, it’s getting its foot booted out from the other side. In the other corner, OpenGL (and the rest of the Open toolset) is setting itself up as being flexible enough to be applied on a handset, a laptop, or a desktop. It may not have DirectX 11 fidelity in water shaders or the latest normal mapping technique, but it’s

damn close and what’s more, it doesn’t need a high end graphics card to be the library in use. Though I feel I should add that the games coming out on Windows Phone 7 Series and the Zune HD 2 are looking pretty awesome. This race isn’t over by far. The OpenCL thing is great as well. If you remember, OpenCL is a set of tools for offloading

certain tasks from the CPU onto the GPU, when those tasks are better served by parallel processors. Loading web pages may work fine on your Snapdragon, but decoding video will have it at 100% and drain your battery — better to send it over to the GPU. The GPU computing thing hasn’t quite taken off yet, but it’s pretty much inevitable that it’ll start

being implemented on a low level, since it can improve the user experience so dramatically. I’m always happy to see this kind of steady progress. More capabilities, more competition, and better devices for everyone, OpenGL-based or not. If you’re interested, there’s much more information available. Many OPENGL page 58

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OPENGL continued from page 57

links in the press release: March 11, 2010 – San Francisco, GDC 2010 – The Khronos™ Group today announced the release of the OpenGL® 4.0 specification; a significant update to the most widely adopted 2D and 3D graphics API (application programming interface) that is used on all major desktop operating systems. OpenGL 4.0 brings the very latest in crossplatform graphics acceleration and functionality to personal computers and workstations and the OpenGL standard serves as the basis for OpenGL® ES, the graphics standard on virtually every shipping smart phone. The OpenGL 4.0 specification has been defined by the OpenGL ARB (Architecture Review Board) working group at Khronos, and includes the GLSL 4.00 update to the OpenGL Shading language in order to enable developers to access the latest generation of GPU acceleration with significantly enhanced graphics quality, acceleration performance and programming flexibility. This new release continues the rapid evolution of the royalty-free OpenGL standard to enable graphics developers to portably access cutting-edge GPU functionality across diverse operating systems and platforms. The full specification is available for

immediate download at http://www.opengl.org/registry. OpenGL 4.0 further improves the close interoperability with OpenCL™ for accelerating computationally intensive visual applications. OpenGL 4.0 continues support for both the Core and Compatibility profiles first introduced with OpenGL 3.2, enabling developers to use a streamlined API or retain backwards compatibility for existing OpenGL code, depending on their market needs. OpenGL 4.0 has been specifically designed to bring significant benefits to application developers, including: - two new shader stages that enable the GPU to offload geometry tessellation from the CPU; - per-sample fragment shaders and programmable fragment shader input positions for increased rendering quality and anti-aliasing flexibility; - drawing of data generated by OpenGL, or external APIs such as OpenCL, without CPU intervention; - shader subroutines for significantly increased programming flexibility; - separation of texture state and texture data through the addition of a new object type called sampler objects;

- 64-bit double precision floating point shader operations and inputs/outputs for increased rendering accuracy and quality; - performance improvements, including instanced geometry shaders, instanced arrays, and a new timer query. Lastly, Khronos has simultaneously released an OpenGL 3.3 specification, together with a set of ARB extensions, to enable as much OpenGL 4.0 functionality as possible on previous generation GPU hardware, providing maximum flexibility and platform coverage for application developers. The full OpenGL 3.3 specification is also available for immediate d o w n l o a d a t http://www.opengl.org/registry “AMD sees the release of OpenGL 4.0 as another major accomplishment for the OpenGL ARB,” said Ben BarHaim, vice president of design engineering at AMD. “AMD contributes to the Khronos workgroups, and we consistently find that Khronos is successful at developing healthy, thriving, and evolving open standards such as OpenGL and OpenCL.” “OpenGL 4.0 continues the ARB’s schedule-driven roll-out of new functionality, and this significant major release enables developers to access leading-

edge GPU functionality across multiple platforms with full backwards compatibility,” said Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group and vice president at NVIDIA. “OpenGL continues to be a keystone in Khronos’ API ecosystem through driving innovation into OpenGL ES and WebGL™ to bring high-performance programmable graphics to mobile platforms and the Web, and by interoperating with OpenCL to create a seamless visual and compute platform for application developers.” Learn about OpenGL at Game Developer Conference March 11 -13, 2010 Attend this session to learn about the latest updates on the OpenGL standard, and how the OpenGL ARB is addressing the latest graphics hardware capabilities. Also discover how WebGL is bringing OpenGL based graphics to browsers on any platform supporting the OpenGL or OpenGL ES standards, without the need for any plug-in. Additionally, Khronos is offering sessions on OpenCL, COLLADA, and Khronos Mobile APIs. All Khronos GDC Sessions are in Room 123, North Hall, Moscone Center, San Francisco: O p e n C L Thursday, March 11 1:30pm – 2:30pm

OpenGL featuring WebGL Thursday, March 11 3:00pm – 4:00pm COLLADA featuring WebGL Friday, March 12 1:30pm – 2:30pm Mobile featuring WebGL Friday, March 12 3:00pm – 4:00pm About The Khronos Group The Khronos Group is an industry consortium creating open standards to enable the authoring and acceleration of parallel computing, graphics and dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. Khronos standards include OpenGL®, OpenGL® ES, WebGL™, EGL™, OpenCL™, OpenMAX™, OpenVG™, OpenSL ES™, OpenKODE™ and COLLADA™. All Khronos members are able to contribute to the development of Khronos specifications, are empowered to vote at various stages before public deployment, and are able to accelerate the delivery of their cutting-edge media platforms and applications through early access to specification drafts and conformance tests. More information is available at http://www.khronos.org.

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JooJoo takes a month off, gets its groove back

Irish Roll; Seton Hall Clings to Hope

Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

Brett McMurphy (FanHouse Main)

Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:31:48 AM

Submitted at 3/10/2010 2:16:00 PM

The much more inviting JooJoo interface In the last chapter in the JooJoo/Crunchpad saga, the JooJoo needed to take a break. It wasn’t you, it was them. They needed to enlist in a period of self-discovery (and fix their capacitive touchscreen problems) so they pushed back their launch date by a month. Well now it looks like Fusion Garage — makers of the JooJoo — has put that time to good use and come back with a new look and better features. To start, the JooJoo now has an interface that you can look at. Gone is the random solid color screen and tiled interface. It has been replaced by a full screen image, left menu and icon column that makes the screen look oh so much better. Gone is the pinch gesture dedicated to backing out of applications. Now it’s a much more intuitive swipe down that displays a menu with home, navigation controls, status and URL/search

Filed under: Notre Dame, Seton Hall, Big East Tournament FanHouse Big East senior writer Brett McMurphy is in New York breaking down every game of the Big East tournament. NEW YORK TABLOID HEADLINE HARANGODY ALMIGHTY function (similar to Android). While these changes may not START SPREADING THE They’ve also added gestures be enough to breath life into the NEWS including scroll wheel using two already delayed and litigated NEW YORK -- Was Notre fingers and single-finger pan d e v i c e , t h e y ’ r e c e r t a i n l y Dame's 68-56 victory against control. improvements that we’re happy S e t o n H a l l a n N C A A In addition to revising the to see. The main question will elimination game? Nonsense, onscreen keyboard (it now has be exactly how well the cloud said Notre Dame coach Mike smaller keyboard that you can computing concept of the Brey and Seton Hall coach position for one hand typing and JooJoo stands up to MID Bobby Gonzalez. t h e f u l l s c r e e n k e y b o a r d capability of the basic iPad "How about this being promoted supports multiple touch input) model. Will anyone take a as a [NCAA] play-in game?" Flash is now fully up and chance on it and see? Brey said. running. YouTube runs smooth Source: Engadget "You know what? Right now and quick and, although you can Five Filters featured article: nobody is going to talk about still use it, doesn’t require the Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Seton Hall. Just give it a few H.264 player the JooJoo used in PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, days. Keep Seton Hall on the the past to play video files. Term Extraction. board. Just keep Seton Hall on They’ve also changed the case the board. I know everybody color from the classic black to a champagne brown.

knee-jjerks. Give it two days and come back and look at the big picture." Gonzalez also was happy to politic about his club's NCAA tournament resume. "I know that for some reason there's all these gurus and experts that listen to what everybody else says," Gonzalez said. "And they say, 'Well, if Notre Dame wins, they're in. If Seton Hall wins, they're out.' " Gonzalez then went on to point out Seton Hall has a better RPI than Notre Dame, played a tougher schedule and had fewer bad losses.

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$92 MD500 Android tablet from Hott actually looks pretty cool Tim Stevens (Engadget)

according to the guy doing the demonstration. We'll believe that when we see it, but it is At this point we really need shown playing a 720p clip from another tablet like we need the cinematic masterpiece another hole in the head, but Tokyo Drift without too much when this one could cost around trouble. The somewhat iPhone$100 and still look quite good, esque design looks very nice well, it's worth talking about. It's and is much smaller than a the Hott MD500, an Android comparable Archos 5. The price device with a 4.8-inch, 800 x is $92 to distributors without 480 screen and plenty of OS any flash memory and, since customizations to make it rather you can get a 4GB microSD more media-friendly, including card for a few bucks these days the ability to "play every codec" (even a legit one), we wouldn't Submitted at 3/11/2010 9:52:00 AM

be surprised if these sell for for $115 or $120. Whether they'll ever hit retail in the US is, of course, another question. Video

demonstration is embedded below if you want to hear the hype, just try not to lose your breakfast every time this is

'Human Target' - 'Salvage & Reclamation' Recap Mike Moody (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/11/2010 5:05:00 AM

(S01E07)'Human Target' returned to the tube with a fun episode packed with big explosions, clever gags, an exotic locale, and some femme fatale hotness. The hotness came courtesy of guest star Leonor Varela, the latest in a string of babes we've seen pair up with Chance during the show's freshman season (according to star Mark Valley, she definitely won't be the last).

Varela did a fine job playing Maria, one of Chance's old flames - an old flame who could've turned out to be "the one" for Chance, if only he

would've stuck around to find out. But, as our boy explained midway through this ep, he left her because everyone he's ever gotten close to "has been taken

away." Was Chance making a reference to Katherine Walters here, the woman we found out about a few episodes ago? The woman he was in love with? The woman whose death he might be responsible for? Continue reading'Human Target' - 'Salvage & Reclamation' Recap Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Episode Recaps Permalink| Email this| | Comments

enthusiastically called an iPad killer. Continue reading$92 MD500 Android tablet from Hott actually looks pretty cool $92 MD500 Android tablet from Hott actually looks pretty cool originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| ARMdevices.net| Email this| Comments

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App Store SEO: The Impact of iTunes Web Preview Weldon Dodd (TheAppleBlog)

published on February 4 and podcasts were added March 1. TV Show and Movies still have When iTunes web preview the old style pages that just pages first appeared for songs launch the iTunes application. and albums the industry was In hindsight, the launch of abuzz with the possibility that iTunes 9 on September 9, 2009 iTunes could be migrating to the with store pages rendered cloud. iTunes preview has so far completely in WebKit using had little impact on how we use HTML was a sign of things to purchased media content, but it come. iTunes Web Preview has has had a huge impact on how SEO Mojo we find iTunes media content on These web preview pages have the web, especially with iPhone exposed text content to Google apps. The iTunes web preview and other search engines that pages are an enormous draw for can now crawl and index these search engines and consistently pages. To measure the impact rank high in the results when this has had on search results, I searching for the names of apps. did a short study on the Top 100 A Quick History of iTunes Web Paid Apps in the iTunes App Preview Store. I chose to track the Previously, web links to iTunes relative ranking in Google content opened a redirect page search results of the iTunes (hosted on phobos.apple.com) preview page and the app’s that asked you to wait “One homepage when searching on Moment Please” while the the app name. i T u n e s a p p l i c a t i o n w a s For this study, I only looked at launched. This page only had a the search results for the app thumbnail of the cover and name. While keywords would sparsely listed just the title and have been interesting to track, publisher. they are not publicly available. iTunes web preview first The keywords that publishers appeared on November 13, 2009 submit to Apple are hidden w i t h f u l l p a g e s i n c l u d i n g content in the iTunes App Store descriptive text (hosted on and are not included in the web itunes.apple.com). Audio clip preview page. I dropped special previews were added on January c h a r a c t e r s t h a t a p p e a r e d 7, 2010. These pages still launch unlikely to actually be typed the iTunes application, but also into a search (trademark and include the full description, c o p y r i g h t s y m b o l s , f o r select customer reviews, and e x a m p l e ) . links to related content. Preview In almost all results, iTunes pages for iPhone apps were appeared in the first 10 results Submitted at 3/10/2010 1:00:00 PM

median homepage result was#71. We can see here that homepages that rank well for searches on the app name have a pretty good chance of capturing customers who are looking for that app. However, if the homepage is not doing well for a search on the app name, it is far more likely that the customer will end up at the iTunes store, on Google. In fact, the median or perhaps a review site. Some result was#4. In some cases, the Surprises pages were only launched only a While I was not surprised to see month ago, so that’s impressive. the iTunes preview pages come iTunes appeared above the app in at the #1 result for App Store homepage for 68 of the Top 100 specific titles like “Space Miner: Apps. Space Ore Bust,” I did not In about 2/3 of the apps, the expect to see the iTunes page iTunes preview page ranked fall near the top with some older higher in search results. There is brands that predate the App a marked difference between Store. “Frogger,” “Skee-Ball,” these two sets of apps. and “SpinArt” — single word For all 100 apps, the median titles — all show iTunes at#6. r a n k o f t h e d e v e l o p e r ’ s Tetris, Scrabble, Rock Band and homepage (as published in Final Fantasy have the iTunes iTunes) in Google search results preview page holding a spot was#1 7. Developers should between#13 and#15. “Playboy” take note here because a rank of — another single word term that 17 means that your app’s I would have thought to have homepage is pushed off to the lots of search results — shows much less visited second page of the iTunes page for the app at#7. results. Why Do iTunes Preview Pages For those cases where the Rank So High? homepage appeared before iTunes preview pages rank well iTunes, the median search result in Google search results because rank was#1. The iTunes preview they are very search engine page median result was#5. friendly for app names. The When we look at the other set, U R L , p a g e t i t l e , m e t a where iTunes appeared above description, meta keywords, and the homepage, the median the H1 tag are all loaded with iTunes result was#3 and the the app name. These pages also

have lots of incoming links from every blog entry, review, and so on that uses the iTunes link. I suspect that the Playboy app comes in at #7 because of all the recent news and opinion articles that link to the app as an example of a big publisher that escaped the iTunes sexy app purge. The old phobos.apple.com links are 301 redirected (permanently moved) to the new preview page which helps transfer all the links directed to the old page to the new preview page as well. It is interesting to note that the iTunes preview page uses the “nofollow” attribute for links to the app’s homepage, so the PageRank of the preview page does not convey any benefit to the developer’s site . The Upside to iTunes Preview Ranking High for App Names The advantage to publishers in having the iTunes preview rank high in search results for an app name is clear. It gets customers who are searching for their app to the one place where they can download your app and pay money for the privilege to do so. But there may be times when a publisher would want someone searching for their app to get to their own site first. What is the Impact of Ranking Below the iTunes Preview Page? There is no easy answer to questions about what this all APP page 63

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Revisiting Fluid Patrick Hunt (TheAppleBlog)

examples of invitations not coming through properly or at all, and I invested the maximum I first used Fluid, the site- amount of time I was willing to specific browser creation tool solve it. Last year, I also tired of for Mac OS X, a long time ago. Mail.app’s performance when But I didn’t find it compelling dealing with many accounts and enough to integrate it into my large numbers of messages. I daily life, in part because was using Google Apps for virtually all of my digital life several accounts with IMAP still lived on the desktop. As I enabled, and using Mail.app as personally moved more and my client. Since they were all more to the cloud, it became Google accounts anyway, I key. made the decision to switch to I tend to use Fluid apps for Mailplane, which performs things that I want to have open flawlessly and had the added and at the ready all day. These benefit of saving a lot of are things I consider to be more precious space on my MacBook like apps than websites, so Air’s hard drive. having a separate window Then I started noticing how makes sense, if for no other good email invitations looked in r e a s o n t h a n I c a n e a s i l y the Gmail interface, and how c o m m a n d - t a b a m o n g easy it was to add them to the applications by selecting the Google Calendar associated appropriate high-resolution with that account. It just logo. With Safari, Chrome and worked. But I also have several Firefox, I’m in and out of a lot calendars. So I decided to make of websites throughout the work one Google Calendar account day, but most are content sites, my main or master account, and or web applications that I use shared all my other accounts once per week or less. Here are with it, with full read and write a few of the key ways I’m using permissions. Then I created a Fluid today. Google Calendar Fluid app for that Google I long ago tired of problems Calendar account. I now have with invitations in iCal. There one Fluid app called gCal that were just too many frustrating holds my various calendars in Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:45:11 AM

one view, and I turned on Google Mobile Sync for them all, so I immediately get changes on my iPhone and vice versa. Pandora Pandora has become my music source of choice while working. I’ve got several stations queued up, including Wilco, Spoon, Ben Harper, and Res, among others. I haven’t really tracked it, but I don’t think I come close to Pandora’s maximum of 40 hours of listening per month. If I exceed that, I’ll need to look into a paid Pandora One account, which has its own player download. In the meantime, I’m quite content to load Pandora in a Fluid app, start it up, and hide the window from view until I need to click the button that says I’m still listening. Again, having it in a separate window that I can hide from view while still using Safari is a huge win for me. Facebook

There’s not much I need to say about Facebook, which has taken the world by storm. But I am now syncing my contacts with Facebook via their iPhone app, which I love because it’s the easiest and best way to have friend’s pictures show when they call. I once suffered from Facebook Fatigue, but I’ve gotten past that and now use it as an essential communications tool for certain contacts. I’m just starting to use it for some serious social marketing for my projects, and having it open in its own window makes it easier to keep abreast of messages and other updates. WordPress Finally, TheAppleBlog is hosted on WordPress, so I created a Fluid app specifically for creating posts like these. I’m also finding it more and more useful to tap out ideas that pop into my head and create rough outlines while the ideas are fresh, and save them as drafts. Then, when I have dedicated time later in the day or week, I can spend more time working on the posts. Are you using Fluid in your daily Mac experience? If so, how do you use it? If not, why?

EU hits back at Geithner on regulation (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:29:03 AM

Top European Union officials hit back on Thursday at criticism from Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, who has accused Brussels of pushing ahead with rules to regulate managers of hedge funds and other alternative investment funds that could be protectionist. A spokesman for Michel Barnier, the new EU internal market commissioner who is responsible for financial services regulation and to whom Mr Geithner addressed his concerns, said that the EU decision to act on hedge funds was in line with a G20 decision to reinforce transparency in the financial system. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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APP continued from page 61

means for App developers. However, let me point out one key advantage of ranking higher than the iTunes preview page — developers can influence what shoppers learn about their company and their app outside of the iTunes App Store. Also if they come to the publisher’s site first and then go to iTunes, the publisher has a chance to see what brought them there. The iTunes Store does not provide any information about individual customers or even reporting on keyword searches that lead to apps. David Barnard of App Cubby sees a positive side in the iTunes App Store climbing in the search results. It’s a better user experience for potential customers to land on a preview page. I’m also happy to see Apple working the SEO angle on behalf of developers (something myself and many fellow developers have little experience in). It does concern me that developers do not have access to analytics on these preview pages (or anything in

the App Store for that matter). With iTunes preview pages ranking so high in search results, I get an even smaller window into my potential customer base. But I do appreciate Apple’s efforts to help users discover and purchase apps and the long term impact that has on my pocketbook. Use URL-safe Characters in App Titles One finding from this quick study is that apps with a special character like the trademark or copyright symbol in the name, do not get the app name in the URL of the iTunes because the algorithm to generate the URL must not be able to deal with these characters. In these case, the URL contains the app id only. There are nine apps with this issue in the Top 100 Paid Apps list. Of those nine, the median ranking of the iTunes preview page is#8, well below the#3 ranking of sites that do have the name in the URL. Homepages for this set of apps dropped in the results significantly. The best homepage result of this set

was#15 by “Need for Speed Undercover” but six of the nine homepages did not appear in the first 100 results from Google. In the case of “Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front” the iTunes link is in the#1 spot, but the specially created web site for the iPhone g a m e , brothersinarmsiphone.com, does not even appear in Google search results. I do not think that we can say that the non-safe characters in the title are the cause of the low ranking for these homepages, but perhaps the inattention to SEO practices in the App Store are linked to a lack of effort to optimize the homepage as well. Developers should pay more attention to SEO to make sure that customers looking for their app can find their site. What Does It All Mean? There are two issues that most developers should look for right away. The first is the non-safe characters issue mentioned above. The second is to look closely at the app description. Previously, the app description was not indexed for iTunes

searches. Only the name and hidden keywords are used for searching inside iTunes. However, the description text is being indexed by Google now. It would benefit publishers to spend more attention on crafting the right message in the app description to reach those searching on the web. Apple’s move to go with HTML content in the app store and the new preview pages for the App Store and other content have had a clear effect on where iTunes content appears in web searches. More web traffic is going to go straight to the iTunes Store as this trend continues but developers can take a few steps to make sure that customers find the info that they have prepared for shoppers on their own web sites. Related GigaOM Pro Research: Needed: A Neiman Marcus for Mobile Apps

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Champions League Diary: Manchester United 4, AC Milan 0 (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/10/2010 10:11:55 AM

A c t i o n Images/ZUMApress.com Wayne Rooney (10) heads in a 13th-minute goal to give Manchester United the lead. The Journal provides minute-by -minute analysis of Manchester United’s 4-0 victory over AC Milan at Old Trafford that gives it a 7-2 two-match aggregate victory in the Champions League round of 16. Journal staffer Jonathan Clegg offers commentary on the match and the television broadcast. 1:01 pm | Pregame | by Jonathan Clegg The last time Manchester United and AC Milan met in the Champions League was three short years ago at the semifinal stage. Then, as now, United led 3-2 after the first leg. And on both occasions, Wayne Rooney has proved the matchwinner, netting twice in the opening match. What happened next? United was brushed aside in the return as a rampant Milan cruised to victory by three goals en route to lifting the Champions League trophy in Athens. So are we in for a case of dejavu tonight? Probably not. The crucial difference on this occasion is that United is at home for the second leg, having edged a five-goal thriller in Italy a few weeks back.

Consequently, most people expect a similarly one-sided match tonight, only with United coming out on top. Sir Alex Fergusonâs side is considered an overwhelming favourite to join Arsenal and Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals. The Champions League knockout rounds use away goals as the tiebreaker in the event that the scores are level after 90 minites. United scored three times in the first leg at the San Siro, so barring another shootout, Milan is essentially looking for a two-goal victory here. That means an early goal will be crucial. Milanâs side is packed with experience, but the old legs began to creak as the first game wore on and Unitedâs

superior fitness showed as it rallied from an early deficit to take a 3-1 lead late in the second half, before Clarence Seedorf struck late on. Italyâs Gazetta dello Sport described that late intervention as âthe goal of hopeâ in the following dayâs newspaper and it certainly requires some wishful thinking to see anything other than United booking its place in the quarterfinals. Still, the first match between these sides was a thrilling spectacle and both teams are strong in attack and somewhat suspect in defense, so whatever happens we should be in for an entertaining 90 minutes. 2:46 pm | Pregame | by Jonathan Clegg Team news from Old Trafford

and it's bad news for "Goldenballs" as David Beckham is known in these parts. Making a first return to his boyhood club since his acrimonious departure in 2003, Becks starts on the bench. No great surprise after his lackluster display in the first leg. Elsewhere the big news is that Wayne Rooney starts after shaking off a knee injury, but Milan's Brazilian hotshot Alexandre Pato doesn't even make the matchday squad. Big blow for the Italians. Rio Ferdinand is back too to strengthen United's defense, but it's the recall of Gary Neville that will raise eyebrows. As one critic noted recently, the 35-year -old United veteran is starting to resemble a fan who's won a

compeition to play for United. His matchup with Ronaldinho could be crucial. 2:52 pm | 2nd minute, 0-0 | by Jonathan Clegg And nearly an electric start for United. Neville robs Ronaldinho -- what did I tell you? -- and picks out Rooney, who plays a one-two with winger Antonio Valencia before turning on the edge of the box and firing a leftfoot shot narrowly wide. Milan must resist United's early pressure to have a chance. 2:54 pm | 4th minute, 0-0 | by Jonathan Clegg Valencia again causing Milan problems down the right, his cross is headed clear by Bonera before Rooney fires an CHAMPIONS page 65

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CHAMPIONS continued from page 64

ambitious shot miles wide. The England man is finding space easily though. Ever since halftime of the first leg, the Milan defense appears to have decided not to mark him. An interesting tactic to say the least. 2:58 pm | 6th minute, 0-0 | by Jonathan Clegg On a personal crusade to embarrass me -- perhaps my pregame comments fired him up -- Gary Neville unleashes an improbable left-foot shot from 25 yard that passes this far over the crossbar. At the other end, he's up to his old tricks, though, failing to pick up Ronaldinho from a free-kick -- the Brazilian puts his header a foot wide with Van der Sar beaten. 3:00 pm | 10th minute, 0-0 | by Jonathan Clegg Nani cuts in from the left as United continues to force the pace early on. His right-foot shot is pushed behind by Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati, and then Vidic heads the resulting corner over the top. 3:02 pm | 13th minute, 1-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg GOAL! It's been coming and it's that man Rooney again. Gary Neville -- who else? -- gambols down the right and crosses to Rooney, who's found space between two defenders and heads low past Abbiati. I was joking about that Milan tactic earlier, but I'm starting to think I'm on to something... 3:05 pm | 16th minute, 1-0

United | by Jonathan Clegg Well that's that surely? Difficult to see Milan coming back to score the three goals it needs to progress and very surprising that a team with so much experience should start the game so flat. Having said that, Rio Ferdinand is at full stretch there to stop Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from connecting with Ronaldinho's cross. 3:11 pm | 20th minute, 1-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Nani tracks back to win possession from Andrea Pirlo and when that happens you know you're in trouble. The Portuguese winger is not known for his defensive work, to put it mildly. He is known for his fantastic quotes though -- see this on his fallout with Alex Ferguson earlier this season: "Sir Alex Ferguson is a very complicated man. He is tough. If things are all right, then they are all right, but when he thinks something is wrong, then everything is screwed. He can go from complimenting you to trashing you in a matter of minutes." 3:13 pm | 24th minute, 1-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Mathieu Flamini receives possession deep on the right flank and produces a magnifcent cross to exactly no one. On the sidelines, Beckham fumes. 3:19 pm | 28th minute, 1-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Paul Scholes rears his head,

doing exactly what he does best -- sliding in for a tackle five minutes after the ball disappeared. In fairness to Scholes, the player who narrowly avoided the challenge was Flamini, who seconds earlier had clobbered the United midfielder on the back of the head. Plenty of history between those two -- Flamini used to play for United's great rival Arsenal. Their tussle bears watching -- Scholes has a reputation as a walking yellow card. 3:22 pm | 32nd minute, 1-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg This is turning into exactly the sort of game United wanted. Milan is being forced to push forward, but their aging legs are no match for United on the counterattack. Another redshirted wave pours forward there, but Neville's cross is just behind Rooney. Neville's having a storming game tonight, it must be said. Wonder if he's looking for a new agent? 3:27 pm | 35th minute, 1-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Elsewhere in the UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid is 1-0 up over Lyon with a goal from Ronaldo. That match is now 1-1 on aggregate after Real lost the first leg in France by a single goal. With an hour left at the Santiago Bernabeu, Real looks well on the way to another come-frombehind win -- or remontada. Of

more consequence to this West Ham fan, Stoke City is beating Burnley -- a great result that would keep the Clarets in the Premier League relegation zone. 3:34 pm | 40th minute, 1-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Exquisite long pass from Pirlo - just inside the United half and on the left of the field, he pings the ball to Flamini who's moving forward on the right. The Frenchman's low cross is cut out by his compatriot Patrice Evra, though. Pirlo is such a joy to watch. He can hardly run these days, but his vision and range of passing are quite stunning. In fact, he pretty much personifies this Milan team now. Oozing class, great to watch, but doesn't quite have the legs to get the job done these days. 3:37 pm | 44th minute, 1-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Approaching halftime and United appears happy to sit back and protect its lead. Having said that, Nani flashes forward and picks out Darren Fletcher, who takes one touch and then fires narrowly wide of Abbiati's right -hand post. On the subject of Fletcher, it's de rigeur in England to talk about how crucial he is for United these days, but watching him control midfield again today, it really is astonishing how good a player he's become. A couple of years ago I honestly thought the only reason Ferguson kept him around was because he was

Scottish and the United manager needed someone to hang out with on Burns Night. Can anyone think of a sports player who's so completely reinvented themselves at such a late stage of their careers? 3:39 pm | Halftime, 1-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg That's halftime by the way... Sorry, got carried on with that rambling comment about Fletcher. So, United leads 1-0 and the game is surely up for Milan now. Three goals in 45 minutes? At Old Trafford? Can't see it myself. I'm just looking forward to the inevitable Beckham cameo now. What's the betting he curls home a freekick for old time's sake? Anyway, join me for more in 15 minutes or so... 3:51 pm | 46th minute, 2-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg We're back underway at Old Trafford... and GOAL! Rooney again -- what a finish! Seconds after the restart, Nani steals possession and hares forward before curling a delightful pass with the outside of his root foot right into the path of Rooney, who pokes the ball under the onrushing Abbiati and wheels away to celebrate as the ball trickles over the goalline. 3:56 pm | 49th minute, 2-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Valencia runs at the increasingly hapless Milan CHAMPIONS page 67

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Is Nascar Pleasing its Fans, Toying With Death or Both? (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/10/2010 9:14:38 AM

Associated Press Cars are not supposed to point in this direction. Like fighting in the NHL, concussive brutality in the NFL and neck tattoos in the NBA, the threat of wild, scary, supertelegenic car crashes is one of the less reputable but undeniable elements in Nascar’s appeal. Put a bunch of macho dudes in souped-up sedans in a tight space, and accidents will happen. The issue that Nascar faces at the moment is different. In Sunday’s Sprint Cup race in Hampton, Ga., star racer Carl Edwards nudged the bumper of Brad Keselowski’s car in retaliation for an earlier on-track incident, propelling Keselowski into a dramatic airborne crash. On Tuesday, Edwards was handed a penalty that many drivers and racing pundits found stunningly light: a three-race probation. This might be a good time to look at the picture of that accident again. “You know what? He did get off easy,” Yahoo’s Jay Busbee writes. “If it had been someone else other than a controversial rookie flying through the air, if it had been a less notable driver causing the wreck, you can bet the hammer would have hit harder. NASCAR, like every other enterprise, is a

celebritocracy; the brighter lights get the biggest breaks.” In the Baltimore Sun, Tania Ganguly notes that the protectthe-star sentiment runs the other way, too, as Keselowski is an unpopular figure among his fellow racers. Some see the crash as the immediate and unmistakable consequences of Nascar’s recent decision not to enforce harsh discipline for incidents like this one. Now, that decision has its signature image. It will likely not be the last such image, Scott Fowler writes at ThatsRacin.com. “This is the dark side of ‘Boys, have at it,’ ” Fowler writes. “Those four words make economic sense, adding more excitement and selling more tickets. But

sometimes, when emotions are boiling, it’s a philosophy that is tantamount to letting the inmates run the asylum.”* * * The transition from what’s-thematter-with-UConn/UNC articles to ones pondering the weirdness of an NCAA tournament field without either team was made about a month ago. Reality now just about has caught up to those articles, as UConn left the Big East tournament in the first round on Tuesday in a strikingly disengaged 73-51 loss to St. John’s. North Carolina faces the prospect of having to win the ACC tournament to secure a March Madness berth. Eventually, sprawling post mortems will be written on the collapse of these two bluest of

blue-chip programs this season. For the time being, as obscure mid-major and small-conference teams punch tournament tickets every day — way to go, Wofford — all most fans can do is wonder what happened. UConn’s experienced roster and super-talented backcourt suggested great things ahead when the season started. But the Huskies were hobbled by inconsistency all season, and coach Jim Calhoun’s healthrelated sabbatical in the middle of the season ensured plenty of distracting is-he-retiring speculation. Still, the Huskies seemed just too good to wind up in the NIT. In the Hartford Courant, Jeff Jacobs writes that the team has been forced to realize that it isn’t. “The big

hopes are gone, of course, dashed by a four-game losing streak that ended with three mind-numbing stinkers,” Jacobs writes. “Only the little hopes are left now. Jim Calhoun said he had never thought about turning down an NIT invitation before, but he wanted a few days this time.” The schedule has given North Carolina an extra day of hope, but the Tar Heels have looked far worse than the Huskies all season long, despite a comparable level of big-time talent. In the Greensboro NewsRecord, Ed Hardin examines the team-wide apathy that doomed a Heels team with plenty of players left over from the roster NASCAR page 71

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CHAMPIONS continued from page 65

defense and fires a couple of feet over the crossbar from a tight angle. Well, well -- Wayne Rooney. He continues his remarkable scoring record this season with his fourth goal of this Champions League tie. Whatever Milan coach Leonardo said at halftime, I don't think his players were listening. 4:01 pm | 54th minute, 2-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Dreadful miss from Huntelaar. Ignazio Abate crosses from the right and the Dutch forward contrives to head miles over from about six yards. Lost in all the excitement after halftime, Clarence Seedorf -- the only man to win the Champions League with three different clubs -- has come on for Daniele Bonera. Still no sign of Beckham. 4:05 pm | 59th minute, 3-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg GOAL! That was too easy. JiSung Park scores it after Paul Scholes receives possession on the edge of the area, feints to shoot and manages to fool the entire Milan defense, which moves out to block the shot. Except there isn't one. Instead, Scholes slides a neat pass into Park, who beats Abbiati at his far post with a well-placed shot. This is starting to get embarrassing for Milan. 4:09 pm | 64th minute, 3-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Neat piece of interplay between

Valencia, Scholes and Nani sees the latter tumble in the area. He's looking for a penalty but no referee's going to give on for that. And here he comes -David Beckham's on, a 64thminute substitute for Flamini. Old Trafford rises to applaud the returning hero. You know he's loving this. 4:12 pm | 65th minute, 3-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg It's like a changing of the guard here. Less than a minute after Beckham enters the game, United's newest darling is coming off. Rooney leaves the field, to be replaced by Dimitar Berbatov. And Milan's defense can breathe a sigh of relief. Rooney has been a one-man wrecking crew over the course of the two legs. 4:19 pm | 68th minute, 3-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Another change: Brazilian defender Rafael has come on for Gary Neville, who really turned back the clock with his first-half performance today. For Milan, Pippo Inzaghi is on for the frankly anonymous Marco Borriello. The game has lost a bit of rhythm since the teams started making all these substitutions. Expect more stoppages now that Inzaghi's on. Ferguson once described him as having been "born offside." 4:21 pm | 72nd minute, 3-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Paul Scholes comes off for Darron Gibson. Good shift by

the United veteran, who was forced to cover a lot of ground with Michael Carrick suspended tonight. Beckham strikes a beautiful volley straight at Van der Sar, who tips it behind for a corner that comes to nothing. 4:24 pm | 78th minute, 3-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Rafael does well to dig out a cross on the byline but the assistant referee erroneously rules that it had already gone behind. Plenty of green-andgold scarves on display at Old Trafford -- the colors of protest against the Glazer family, which owns the club. A huge banner has just been unfurled bearing the legend: Love United Hate Glazer. Tiny bit embarrassing for United's Florida-based owners. 4:30 pm | 80th minute, 3-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Stunning news from Spain where Miralem Pjanic has just scored for Lyon, leveling its match with Real Madrid at 1-1 on aggregate. With 10 minutes to go, Real now requires two more goals to avoid a humiliating exit. Coach Manuel Pellegrini could find himself out of a job tonight, despite having guided the team to the top of La Liga and on course for its greatest season in 50 years. For more, see my article from today. 4:30 pm | 84th minute, 3-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg Mathieu Flamini's been booked for a scything lunge on Nani.

Looked like a challenge borne out of frustration to me. 4:36 pm | 86th minute, 4-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg GOAL! United seals this result in style. Good work by Valencia down the right, but his cross is cut out by Marek Jankulovski, but the ball finds its way to Rafael, who whips in a deep cross from the right that is perfectly aimed for Fletcher to head home from two yards out. This has been an utter rout and after Arsenal's 5-0 win last night, the English teams in the Champions League have now progressed by a combined scoreline of 13-4. 4:40 pm | Final, 4-0 United | by Jonathan Clegg That David Beckham can still cross a ball, you know. Deep into injury time he conjures one of his trademark curling crosses, picking out Inzaghi two yards from goal. All Inzaghi had to do was stick out a leg to score, but somehow he succeeded in touching the ball wide. Eeeesh. And with that the full-time whistle goes: 4-0 to United tonight, 7-2 on aggregate and Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi will have enjoyed that only slightly less than the Glazer family, who have been serenaded by a chorus of protests for most of the match. 4:41 pm | Postgame | by Jonathan Clegg Real Madrid is now out of the Champions League, held to a 1-

1 draw at home by Lyon. That's the sixth straight season that Madrid has failed to advance past the last 16. Wonder if Ronaldo's rethinking that decision to quit United now? 5:17 pm | Postgame | by Jonathan Clegg Well that was a bit of a letdown. Manchester United strolled into the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League with almost embarrassing ease, swatting aside AC Milan 4-0 in tonight's second leg at Old Trafford to record a 7-2 aggregate triumph. Never in doubt from the moment Wayne Rooney headed his side in front inside a quarter of an hour, the Italians were abject, a pale shadow of the team that has been one of European soccer's most formidable opponents for the best part of two decades. Rooney added a second goal seconds after the restart -- his 30th of a remarkable individual season-- and Ji-Sung Park finished coolly for a third before Darren Fletcher rounded things off three minutes from time. There were fears before kickoff that Milan had wasted its opportunity three weeks ago, letting slip a first-leg lead at the San Siro. The Italian team missed a hatful of chances that night and in fairness, could have taken the lead here when CHAMPIONS page 72

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Torii Hunter says black Latino players are 'impostors' Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/10/2010 11:21:08 PM

• Email • Print • Comments '); document.write(''); } else if ( show_gigya ) { document.write('• '); document.write(' '); function showShareUI(){ var 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 A = {}; I.setUserMessage(""); if (jQuery(":header:first").length > 0 ) { I.setTitle(jQuery(".article").find( ":header:first").text()); } else { I.setTitle(decodeURIComponent ("Hunter%20says%20black%20 Latino%20players%20are%20\'i mpostors\'")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp n . g o . c o m / l o s angeles/mlb/news/story?id=498

3236"); 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, href: 'http://sports.espn.go.com/losangeles/mlb/news/story?id=498 3236' }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } Associated Press PHOENIX -- Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter insists he meant no harm toward Latino players when he recently referred to them as "impostors" while discussing the number of African-Americans in the major leagues. Hunter's original comments were made two weeks ago in one of a series of USA Today roundtables about baseball and published in Wednesday's editions. "What troubles me most was the

word 'impostors' appearing in reference to Latin American players not being black players. It was the wrong word choice, and it definitely doesn't accurately reflect how I feel and who I am," Hunter posted on his Angels-sponsored blog Wednesday afternoon. "What I meant was they're not black players; they're Latin American players. There is a difference culturally. But on the field, we're all brothers, no matter where we come from, and that's something I've always taken pride in: treating everybody the same, whether he's a superstar or a young kid breaking into the game. Where he was born and raised makes no difference." Hunter has long been known as one of baseball's sincere, good guys. A call to USA Today's Bob Nightengale, the article's author, was not immediately returned. In the report, Hunter was quoted as saying: "People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they're African -American. They're not us. They're impostors. Even people I know come up and say: 'Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?'

I say, 'Come on, he's Dominican. He's not black.' ... "As African-American players, we have a theory that baseball can go get an imitator and pass them off as us. It's like they had to get some kind of dark faces, so they go to the Dominican or Venezuela because you can get them cheaper. It's like, 'Why should I get this kid from the South Side of Chicago and have Scott Boras represent him and pay him $5 million when you can get a Dominican guy for a bag of chips?' ... I'm telling you, it's sad," he said. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, a Venezuelan, scoffed at Hunter's remarks before Wednesday's game against the Oakland Athletics. Angels spokesman Eric Kay said Hunter will not further discuss the subject. "I was laughing because when he said, `They go there and sign for potato chips,' I said, `Well, we've got Chapman. They gave him $12 million. [Cincinnati actually agreed to a $30.25 million, six-year contract with pitcher Aroldis Chapman.] We've got [prospect Dayan] Viciedo. They gave him $10 million. I remember in my time, one scout goes [to Venezuela

and] 30 players show up. Now, 30 scouts go there and one player shows up. In our country, we play baseball. That's no choice. Here you can play basketball, you can be another athlete, you can do so many things when you have the opportunity. And that's why there's not many [AfricanAmerican] players out there." There has been some concern about the number of AfricanAmerican baseball players. Many blacks are choosing to play other sports instead. Black players accounted for 10.2 percent of major leaguers in 2008, the most since the 1995 season, according to the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. "I keep saying a lot of times, in 10 more years American people are going to need a visa to play this game because we're going to take over. We're going to," Guillen said. Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Report: Ben Roethlisberger denies to police having sexual intercourse with accuser ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:10:25 AM

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(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, href: 'http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/ne ws/story?id=4984207' }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } ESPN.com news services Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger told police in Milledgeville, Ga., no sexual intercourse took place between him and his accuser, a television station in Pittsburgh reported on Wednesday. A 20-year-old woman told police Roethlisberger, who had been out barhopping with friends, assaulted her early March 5. Roethlisberger has not been charged. As previously reported by ESPN's Kelly Naqi, Roethlisberger talked to Milledgeville police the night of the alleged attack.

KDKA, the CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, reported Roethlisberger told police and others in his party he did not have sexual intercourse with the young woman. Sources told KDKA Roethlisberger said he had contact with the woman that was not consummated and afterward she slipped and fell, injuring her head. It was also reported Wednesday that two off-duty Pennsylvania law enforcement officers were with Roethlisberger at the Georgia nightclub. Anthony Barravecchio, an officer on the force in the Pittsburgh suburb of Coraopolis, and Pennsylvania Trooper Ed Joyner were among about eight people with Roethlisberger celebrating his birthday at the club, attorney Michael Santicola said. Santicola said the men were there because they are friends of the two-time Super Bowl winner. "They were not there in their official capacity," said Santicola, who represents Barravecchio but said Joyner is also a longtime friend. Santicola, who's based in western Pennsylvania, said both of the law enforcement officers

who were with Roethlisberger are cooperating fully with the investigation, but say they saw nothing inappropriate. "They saw nothing inappropriate, no criminal activity and no inappropriate contact or behavior," Santicola said, adding that Barravecchio was "completely sober" during the evening. Santicola also said the two do not remember meeting the woman who has accused Roethlisberger of assault. "If they did meet the woman, they have no memory of it," Santicola said. "This was a crowded bar with people everywhere." Ed Garland, an attorney for Roethlisberger, has said the quarterback is innocent of any crime and that no sexual assault occurred. Two Atlanta-based attorneys for the woman who accused Roethlisberger have said that she did the right thing and asked for her family's privacy. Milledgeville police have said they expect to interview Roethlisberger this week and are planning to take a DNA sample from him. Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Tom

Davis said his department hasn't interviewed Roethlisberger yet. "We're here to do a thorough investigation and there is not a timetable [on when we will complete our investigation]," Davis said. "Our role is, we're fact gatherers. We are honestly looking to pursue the truth in this matter. You've got two people involved and both deserve a fair investigation. We're trying to do things as expeditiously as we can. We are not going to compromise the integrity of the investigation just to satisfy the media or to meet an expected deadline; it will be done when it's done." Roethlisberger, who owns a home about 30 miles north of Milledgeville on Lake Oconee, is also being sued by a woman who claims he raped her in 2008 at a hotel-casino in Lake Tahoe hotel and casino, an allegation he strongly denies. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Ravens re-sign Mason, add to robust WR corps ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/11/2010 6:35:26 AM

• Email • Print • Comments '); document.write(''); } else if ( show_gigya ) { document.write('• '); document.write(' '); function showShareUI(){ var 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 A = {}; I.setUserMessage(""); if (jQuery(":header:first").length > 0 ) { I.setTitle(jQuery(".article").find( ":header:first").text()); } else { I.setTitle(decodeURIComponent ( " R a v e n s % 2 0 r e sign%20Mason,%20add%20to %20robust%20WR%20corps")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp

n.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=498 4839"); 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, href: 'http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/ne ws/story?id=4984839' }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } ESPN.com news services BALTIMORE -- After twice reaching outside the organization to enhance their wide receiving corps, the Baltimore Ravens secured one of their own Wednesday night: two-time Pro Bowl player Derrick Mason. Mason, an unrestricted free agent, agreed to a two-year deal with the team he joined in 2005. It's a two-year, $8 million deal that includes $3.5 million in the first year, a league source told

ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. Fantasy: Mason's Impact? Derrick Mason's return to the Ravens means that Anquan Boldin's fantasy value takes a hit but quarterback Joe Flacco's value is rising, Christopher Harris writes. Story Mason's future with the Ravens appeared unclear after they obtained free agent wideout Donte' Stallworth and traded for Anquan Boldin. Mason hinted after the 2009 season that he might retire, and there also was a chance he would sign with another team. But now he's set to end his career with Baltimore, and his return assures third-year quarterback Joe Flacco a familiar target to go with Stallworth and Boldin. "This is outstanding, just great news for the Ravens," coach John Harbaugh said. "Our coaches are happy. Derrick's teammates are happy and you know Joe is smiling. ... We would have lost something special if Derrick had gone to another team. We have gotten better in the last couple of days." The announcement comes just

two days after Boldin signed a four-year contract with Baltimore. Boldin had 84 catches for 1,024 yards and four touchdowns last season with Arizona. The 36-year-old Mason had 73 receptions for 1,028 yards and seven touchdowns in 2009. He started all 16 games and became the 23rd player in NFL history with 800 career catches. Before the season, he announced his retirement and then returned during training camp. Then, after the Ravens were eliminated in the playoffs by Indianapolis, Mason indicated he would again consider ending his career. AFC North blog ESPN.com's James Walker writes about all things AFC North in his division blog. • Blog network: NFL Nation Instead, he will spend the next few months preparing for his 14th NFL season. "I'm getting myself ready to play football and help the Ravens win," Mason said. "But the first thing I am going to do is take my family on vacation. I'll see everybody back in Baltimore soon." Baltimore entered the offseason

intent upon improving at the wide receiver position. Running back Ray Rice led the team with 78 catches, and no wideout besides Mason had more than 34 receptions. That should change in 2010. "We know exactly what we're getting with Derrick and that's production," general manager Ozzie Newsome said. "Every Ravens fan knows what Derrick brings to this team. It's reliability, toughness, leadership, the fight to win, the want of the ball in the clutch times. He has a two-year history with Joe that says 'we know how to produce together.' They are on the same page." Mason played eight years with the Tennessee Titans before going to Baltimore as a free agent. He made the Pro Bowl in 2000 and 2003, and has 863 career receptions for 11,089 yards and 59 touchdowns. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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that won last year’s NCAA championship. The NCAA tournament field will get to 65, with other teams probably filling the spots usually given by default to UConn and UNC. Count North Texas, one of the worst basketball programs in the nation a decade ago, among that group. The Mean Green held off Troy University in the Sun Belt Conference finals and are staging an impressive programwide comeback, Tim MacMahon writes at ESPN Dallas. Another member of the tournament field will come out of the Mid-American Conference, but as the Journal’s Darren Everson reports, that likely will be the last we hear of them. No MAC team has won an NCAA championship in any sport since 1965, and the conference hasn’t had a team win an NCAA tournament game in six seasons.* * * Because he does his work quietly, and in the small baseball market of Minnesota, Joe Nathan remains somewhat underrated. By the numbers, though, only Mariano Rivera has even approached Nathan’s excellence as a closer during the

last half-decade or so. All of which is to say that the news of Nathan’s torn elbow ligament and likely date with Tommy John surgery is a very big deal indeed for the Twins. In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Jim Souhan assesses the impact of Nathan’s likely absence. In Sports Illustrated, Joe Posnanski runs down the list of the Twins’ in-house replacements and goes in-depth on Nathan’s mastery. “With Nathan out, there is definitely a new wind of hope blowing through the American League Central,” Posnanski concludes. “Combined, the Indians, Tigers, Royals and White Sox hit .161 against Joe Nathan. They’ll be happy to take their swings against someone else.”* * * Many professional athletes charge fees for their autographs. The biggest names can score a solid payday simply by scribbling said name a few hundred times. So there was nothing so controversial about Tim Tebow participating in an autograph signing in Jacksonville last weekend, nor even about the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner’s fees of $160 per autograph and $75 for a photo. Still, because that price

was more than the rate for other former collegiate star quarterbacks Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford, and because it’s Tebow — surely the most vanilla controversy-magnet in sports history — it has become a story. At CNBC, Darren Rovell brushes off the controversy over Tebow’s pricy signature as an example of the market at work. At Deadspin, Dashiell Bennett does Rovell one better, floating the idea of Tebow as a one-man economic-stimulus package. “If a guy can get this much attention for an autograph signing, imagine what would happen if he actually appeared in a football game,” Bennett writes. “Granted, this probably only applies to Northern Florida, but the economic benefits may be much greater than we ever anticipated.”* * * Willie Davis enjoyed a long and successful big-league career, but was never mentioned in the first tier of National League outfielders during his glory years with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Given that said first tier comprised Hall of Famers such as Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Frank Robinson and Roberto Clemente, it’s understandable that — despite

two All-Star Game appearances and three Gold Gloves — Davis never quite reached that level. But Davis, who died Tuesday at the age of 69, remains a legend to those who saw him play. “What none of those [top tier] players had — few that I can recall in any era — was Davis’ combination of urban cool and blazing speed,” the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bruce Jenkins writes. “He addressed the world at a slow, measured pace, never in a rush. He basically let life come to him. Even as he approached home plate with a bat in his hands, he struck the impression of a man wearing shades at the far corner table of a jazz club.” — Tip of the Fix cap to readers Gerard Cosloy, Don Hartline and Steve McCants, and to fellow Fixer Garey Ris. Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email David at droth11@gmail.com.

The Count: The Big East’s Haves and Have-Nots (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/10/2010 2:51:06 PM

Marquette, which lost two nailbiters to Villanova over eight days in January, will have a chance for revenge in the Big East tournament’s quarterfinal round on Thursday. The winner may take on Georgetown if it survives its own quarterfinal clash with Syracuse. Marquette advanced to that Villanova rematch by knocking off St. John’s in the second round of the tournament. Associated Press Marquette’s Dwight Buycks and Villanova’s Reggie Redding are doing OK even without BCS football programs on campus. All four of those Big East programs have this in common: None play football in the conference. Marquette and St. John’s don’t even have teams, while Georgetown went winless in the Football Championship Subdivision. Villanova, at least, COUNT: page 72

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COUNT: continued from page 71

won the FCS title. A New York Times article Tuesday pitted that quartet plus the Big East’s other three nonmajor football schools — Providence, DePaul and Seton Hall — as the have-nots of the powerhouse conference, considered by many the best in college basketball. And in a sense, that’s true. Those seven teams went a combined 28-46 against the other nine Big East teams. The Times also correctly pointed out that the schools that spent the most on their men’s basketball programs in the year ending last June tended to get the most wins this past season. Overall, the eight schools that

CHAMPIONS continued from page 67

Ronaldinho headed inches wide in the fourth minute. But make no mistake, Milan was outclassed tonight and looked simply incapable of dealing with the pace and power of United, and Rooney in particular. The England forward's two goals took his tally for the two legs to four. The closest a Milan player got to him came once the final whistle had blown and he was embraced by England national-team colleague David Beckham. Beckham made a largely

spent the most — an average of $7.3 million — went 93-51 against the eight lowestspending programs, which shelled out an average of $4.1 million. What’s less clear is the link between football and basketball money. “The Big East is sensitive to the notion that the football-playing universities, with their hefty television revenue from that sport, are pulling away from the nonfootball universities,” the Times reported. There’s little evidence that they are in the basketball spending department. This year the football nine spent an average of $5.5 million, with a median of $5.3 million. The

seven schools without a major football program? An average of $5.9 million, with a median of $5.2 million — essentially the same. Evidently, other factors are at work in connecting football to basketball success. Perhaps those schools with a presence in the Bowl Championship Series place a greater emphasis on the athletic culture and on facilities used by all jocks. But whatever the connection, it doesn’t appear to run through the wallet.

Cincinnati Rallies to Beat Louisville, Ignores Bubble Talk For Now Brett McMurphy (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/10/2010 5:20:00 PM

Filed under: Cincinnati, Louisville, Big East, NCAA Tournament, Big East Tournament FanHouse Big East senior writer Brett McMurphy is in New York breaking down every game of the Big East tournament. NEW YORK TABLOID HEADLINE UL'S HOUSE OF CARDS COLLAPSES DOWN STRETCH START SPREADING THE irrelevant 30-minute cameo, and that Madrid president NEWS although he received a fantastic Florentino Perez splashed out NEW YORK -- Cincinnati reception from the United fans $350 million in pursuit of c o a c h M i c k C r o n i n i s n ' t at Old Trafford, and even European success last summer, concerned about the NCAA produced a couple of flashes of that's a defeat that will hurt. tournament bubble talk. He said the old brilliance for good The night's other big match? It his club has more immediate measure. finished 1-1 between Stoke and concerns. E l s e w h e r e , R e a l M a d r i d Burnley, meaning West Ham "I'm sure that the [NCAA crashed out of the competition, remain three points clear of the tournament] bubble talk will managing only a 1-1 draw at E n g l i s h P r e m i e r L e a g u e ' s home to Lyon and slipping to a r e l e g a t i o n z o n e . H u r r a h . 2-1 aggregate defeat -- the sixth time in as many years the European Cup's winningest team has been eliminated at this stage. Given that the final will be held at the Bernabeu in May

begin again," Cronin said after Cincinnati rallied past Louisville 69-66 Wednesday night in the second round of the Big East tournament. "We've been through all that so much. Our guys really -- it's funny they'll tell you -- they're not even interested in that. They want to win the Big East championship."

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Next Red Faction planned for March 2011, focus on franchise's roots Xav de Matos (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/11/2010 8:55:00 AM

In an interview with Joystiq during the 2010 Game Developer's Conference, THQ's executive VP of Core Games Danny Bilson let a few new details slip about the upcoming sequel to the critical-smash hit Red Faction: Guerrilla. "The new game takes [ Red Faction] to a whole new place, it kind of goes back to the old Red Faction because about 80% of it is underground," Bilson said. According to Bilson, the as-yetproperly-named sequel -- which he describes as a "hybrid" between the first two titles in the Red Faction franchise and Guerrilla-- is planned for release in March 2011. (In February, THQ's annual investors conference call vaguely stated a Guerrilla sequel was planned for the company's "fiscal 2011"

window.) Bilson was tight-lipped on other details but did confirm the upcoming open-world thirdperson shooter would be far more "structured," akin to a "narrative" shooter. The sequel will still feature the destructibility Bilson says cost THQ"a fortune" to develop for

Guerrilla, but will have a much greater impact on cities built closer together in the tight confines of the new underground world. Although Guerrilla captivated most critics (netting a Metacritic average of 85 across three platforms) the third-person shooter failed to meet THQ's

sales expectations. While Bilson said it would have been easy to scrap the characters and setting in the upcoming sequel and shift it into a new intellectual property -- effectively severing its connection to Guerrilla's poor retail showing -- he felt the quality in the previous entry was too great to abandon the Red

Faction universe. The strategy now, says Bilson, is to expose gamers to the series in order to prepare them for the future, citing the recent Red Faction: Guerrilla giveaway promotion as an example of giving the title the exposure it "deserved" at launch. "Giving away the stock now, on Red Faction, is getting more people exposed to the IP because we're going bigger on Red Faction next time," Bilson told us. "If the game wasn't so good, we wouldn't be giving it away at all." Next Red Faction planned for March 2011, focus on franchise's roots originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Chile's New President Inherits Economic Challenges (All Gallup Headlines)

theme names, Customer Engagement Index™, Drop Club®, Emotional Economy™, Copyright © 2010 Gallup, Inc. Employee Engagement Index™, All rights reserved. Employee Outlook Index™, Gallup®, A 8™, Business Follow This Path™, Gallup Impact Analysis™, CE 11®, Brain®, Gallup Consulting®, Clifton StrengthsFinder®, the Gallup Management Journal®, 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder GMJ®, Gallup Press®, Gallup Submitted at 3/10/2010 7:00:00 PM

Publishing™, Gallup Tuesday Briefing®, Gallup University®, HumanSigma®, I 10™, L 3™, PrincipalInsight™, Q 12®, SE 25™, SF 34®, SRI®, Strengths Spotlight™, Strengths-Based Selling™, StrengthsCoach™, StrengthsFinder®, StrengthsQuest™,

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

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Green Day: Rock Band releases June 8 worldwide David Hinkle (Joystiq)

Up When September Ends" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Oh, and if you're looking to That's right, folks -- Harmonix export these tunes, worry not: has just revealed that Green all 47 tracks are fully exportable D a y : R o c k B a n d w i l l b e to a console hard drive and available for all come June 8 on playable in Rock Band, Rock Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. Up to 6 B a n d 2 a n d t h e r e c e n t l y players (3 mics; 3 instruments) announced Rock Band 3. The will progress through the career export fee is $9.99 via Xbox of the trio, unlocking collectible L i v e o r P S N . T h e e x p o r t i m a g e s ( m o r e t h a n 1 0 0 , features is not available for the a p p a r e n t l y ) a n d s o m e 4 0 Wii system. Additionally, if minutes of "rare and unreleased" you've picked up the six Green f o o t a g e f r o m i n t e r v i e w s , Day tunes already available as outtakes and performances DLC, you can play them in the along the way. new game with added As alluded to above, GD:RB harmonies, "unique" visuals and will also sport the same vocal m o r e " e x c l u s i v e a r c h i v a l harmonizing feature that made m a t e r i a l . " The Beatles: Rock Band such a Green Day: Rock Band will be delight for mic hogs and comes available as a standalone game loaded with 47 Green Day for Xbox 360 and PS3 for tracks, including "Brain Stew," $59.99, while Wii owners will "Jaded," "Hitchin' a Ride," get a bit of a price break at "American Idiot," "Wake Me $49.99. A special edition Green Submitted at 3/11/2010 9:45:00 AM

Day: Rock Band Plus will also come to Xbox 360 and PS3 for $69.99 and includes fancy packaging, an "export" feature (we assume, a voucher to export the disc tracks to the hard drive) and the six previously released Green Day DLC tracks. Update: The GameStop preorder bonus for the standalone game is an export voucher (for Xbox 360 or PS3). Essentially, pre-order GD:RB from GameStop, and you can export all 47 tracks to your console hard drive for free. Gallery: Green Day: Rock Band Green Day: Rock Band releases June 8 worldwide originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Majesco cooks up Crafting Mama for DS JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/11/2010 10:33:00 AM

Almost a year ago, a trademark for "Crafting Mama" was spotted. It's now being put to use, as Majesco has announced, well, Crafting Mama for DS. In her latest endeavor, Mama will occupy her seemingly endless time with a new task: arts & crafts. In a series of 40 projects, players will create things like birdhouses, quilts, kaleidoscopes and adorable new aprons for Mama to wear, as well as Mama dolls. Of course, these creations will all be realized through the familiar touch-based minigames, played alone and in multiplayer, which

so many of us have grown to love in the utterly populous Cooking Mama game franchise. It's kind of crazy that a company can announce a game about making quilts and birdhouses, and we can already pretty much imagine how to play it! Majesco plans a fall 2010 release for Crafting Mama, but we suspect the publisher is at least considering bumping that up a bit. Majesco cooks up Crafting Mama for DS originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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New Designers: Pedro Lourenço ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 3/10/2010 1:28:51 PM

A 19-year-old Sao Paulo native, already designing professionally since age 12, makes his Paris debut. WHO: Pedro Lourenço. You read that right, he’s been a professional designer in Brazil since age 12, and staged fashion shows in his parents’ Sao Paulo home for years before. Since mom and dad are Gloria Coelho and Reinaldo Lourenço, two of Brazil’s leading designers, you could say precocious Pedro was born into his métier. WHAT: For his first show outside of Sao Paulo, Lourenço sent out sharp, futuristic dresses, coats and pants made out of panels of leather, plastic, and grey double-faced wool felt. Leather and plastic strips sewn into beaded, venetian blind-like grids added extra dimension to many of the pieces. “I’m lucky that my parents have really good factories, but still, I was

pushing, pushing, pushing the seamstresses on some of these techniques,” Lourenço says. BONA FIDES: Lourenço took to sewing when he was still a toddler, and since the onset of adolescence, intermittently handled his mother’s diffusion line, Carlota Joakina. His parents swear up and down they

INSPIRATIONS:“Diana the huntress, and also the architect Oscar Niemeyer,” says the designer. Familiarity breeds respect: Lourenço has spent much of his young life among Niemeyer’s stunning complex of buildings his hometown’s Parque Ibirapuera, where Sao Paulo Fashion Week is held. POSSE: Lourenço’s front row was packed with all the fashion business bigs. Longtime supporters include Vanity Fair’s Michael Roberts, the Brazilian designer Alexandre Herchcovitch, stylist Brana Wolf (who worked on Lourenço’s show this season) and jewelry designer and style never pushed him into his field. icon Judy Blame. “In fact, we couldn’t have —Alexandra Marshall stopped him if we tried,” says Pedro Lourenço Fall/Winter C o e l h o . M o r e r e c e n t l y , 2010, Look 1 L o u r e n ç o s p e n t a m o n t h Look 2 working for Giambattista Valli Look 3 in Paris. Look 5 HQ: Sao Paulo, with some Look 24 operations being handled out of Look 25 Paris.

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FW10 Favorites From Fashion’s Four Corners ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

Bruno Pieters, who put forth last fall one of the most covetable collections in recent memory. As models at Miu Miu finished Feel free to enjoy (or express their finale and filed backstage your dismay over) my picks, yesterday, another month-long and please share in the Ready To Wear season came to comments which looks and a close. And though I didn’t collections were your favorites attend a fraction of the shows I this season! did in the two previous seasons, NY Fashion Week Favorites I can for the first time since from: Victoria Beckham, fashion became my day job Jeremy Laing, Elise Øverland, claim that I have pored over Alexandra Owen, and Juan every last look in every last Carlos Obando designer’s collection. As London Fashion Week relieved as I’m sure the entire Favorites from: Mary fashion side of ELLE’s editorial Katrantzou, Erdem, Antonio house is right about now (is that Berardi, Peter Pilotto, and a popped cork I hear down the Jasper Conran hall?), I can’t help but think I Gabriele Colangelo, and in Peter Copping, with their Milan Fashion Week Favorites wasn't the only one who was a Paris, allow me two: Haider i n n o v a t i v e m a t e r i a l from: Jil Sander, Gabriele little sad this morning not to Ackermann and Giambattista m a n i p u l a t i o n a n d Colangelo, Bottega Veneta, have a brand new tranche of Valli. Designers I generally love r e i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s o f t h e i r Marni, and Dsquared2 runway photos to click through enchanted me a little less this o w n — o r t h e i r H o u s e ’ s Paris Fashion Week Favorites with my morning coffee. time around, but a few newish o w n — d i s t i n c t s i g n a t u r e , from: Valentino, Giambattista As for my favorite collections ones like Juan Carlos Obando, assuaged the disappointment by V a l l i , L a n v i n , H a i d e r (as opposed to individual looks), Christopher Kane, Gareth Pugh, really picking up the sartorial A c k e r m a n n , a n d A k r i s in New York it was and Celine and Nina Ricci slack. The only major letdown Photos: Imaxtree threeASFOUR, in London, designers Phoebe Philo and this season was the absence of Mary Katrantzou, in Milan, Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:28:20 AM

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Paris Fashion Week Fall 2010: Supermodels Return to the Runway at Louis Vuitton ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 3/10/2010 3:00:00 PM

In New York last month, Marc Jacobs broke the unwritten rules of the runway and chose a handful of real women to model his fall 2010 looks. Today in Paris, where he showed his collection for Louis Vuitton, the designer went in the opposite direction, casting models of the

“super” variety. Laetitia Casta opened the show, while model icon Elle Macpherson ended it. In between, Bar Rafaeli, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Adriana Lima walked the circular runway wearing silhouettes that highlight their womanly curves (hips and all). Cleavage was on full display skirts. I loved seeing curvier thanks to Marilyn Monroe-esque models on the catwalk. Do you corset dresses with full swinging agree?

—Violet Moon Gayn or Left to right: Supermodels Laetitia Casta, Bar Rafaeli, Adriana Lima, and Elle Macpherson on the runway today at Louis Vuitton Photos: Imaxtree Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

Europe.view: Harmony in Riga (The Economist: Daily columns) Submitted at 3/10/2010 11:46:59 PM

Europe.view For once, the anniversary of a wartime battle in Latvia should pass off peacefully EUROPE.VIEW: page 78

Time to Regulate Derivatives (like every other financial instrument) Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture)

his wife Wendy, who was a member of the Board of Directors of Enron. Submitted at 3/11/2010 4:26:34 AM What the CFMA did was create What is it about derivatives that a unique financial product. m a k e s o t h e r w i s e r a t i o n a l Derivatives and Swaps entered a humans become so damned world where they were treated stupid? There is no need to over very differently from all other -complicate this; a rather simple financial products. Stocks, series of steps can be undertaken bonds, options, futures all to bring the most dangerous of f o l l o w s p e c i f i c r u l e s . derivatives out of the shadows Securitized derivative products and into light of day. (collaterallized paper such as Radical derivative deregulation CDOs, CMOs, CLOs, etc.) and had a bastard birth: On the eve Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) do of a holiday break, Texas not. Senator Phil Graham attached a Consider for example these budget bill rider titled the characteristics of most financial C o m m o d i t y F u t u r e s instruments: Modernization Act of 2000. -They trade on an exchange; This was done at the behest of -Participants have sufficient

capital to engage in trading; -Counter-parties disclosure is known (at the least to the exchange) -Potential future payments require capital reserves to meet obligations; -The full amount of traded instruments is transparently disclosed; -There is a regulator in charge of insuring the above rules are followed. Derivatives had none of those. Indeed, the CFMA specifically exempted derivatives not only from these items, but added they were exempt from state insurance regulators. Let’s not over-complicate this: We need to do 3 things to rein in

the worst aspects of derivatives, and dramatically reduce the systemic risk they present, while retaining their ability to be a valid financial instrument for hedging risk: 1. Repeal the Commodity Futures Act of 2000 2. Treat Derivatives like all other financial instruments: All of the above elements need to be derivative requirements; 3. Give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission full oversight and the teeth to enforce the rules. Wall Street and the banks will fight this tooth and nail, as they are reaping billions in derivative trading profits. Never mind that whole 2008-09 meltdown

thingie — that’s ancient history. This is simple, folks: Derivatives should not receive special treatment — they need to be regulated the way most other financial products in the world are. > See also: Goldman Deal-Maker Now Advocates Regulation GRAHAM BOWLEY NYT, March 10, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/0 3/11/business/11cftc.html Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Mar 11th 2010 | From The Economist online THAT March follows February is not a state secret, but it sometimes seems to come as a surprise to Latvian officials. Sometime in February, they notice that March 16th is approaching and start worrying, belatedly, about what outsiders will think. That date is the anniversary of a battle in 1944, when two Latvian units raised by the Nazis fought against the Soviets side by side, under Latvian command, for the only time during the war. The commemoration highlights a sharp historical controversy in the ex-communist region. On one side are those who regard those Estonians, Latvians and others who fought on the Nazi side as wilful collaborators with the genocidal regime of Adolf Hitler. That they bore the uniforms of the SS—the epitome of Nazi brutality—is a key incriminating fact. Given the slaughter of Jews in the Baltic states during the war, the only defensible position is to accept that the Soviet forces were liberators. Any form of

commemoration of their opponents, such as the Latvian SS, is tantamount to nostalgia for the Nazis. In the middle are those that see mitigating circumstances. By this late stage in the war the “SS” label was used for all conscripted non-Germans, who were not allowed to join the Wehrmacht. The label “volunteer” was a Nazi propaganda trick: the vast majority of soldiers in these units were conscripts. Though many war criminals did join the new units, fighting in the Third Reich’s military forces was not in itself a war crime. The Soviet claim that the Estonian and Latvian SS were “traitors” is based on the idea that the 1940 annexation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union was legal. That is not an approach that any civilised country accepted then, or believes today. On the other side are those who think that Latvians and others who fought against the Red Army were fighting in a just cause: to defend their countries against a return to the horrors of Soviet rule they had experienced in 1940-41. Their military

prowess and bravery in a doomed fight deserves recognition, particularly given the huge casualties and persecution they experienced after the end of the war. It is this last group that most wants to mark March 16th. The anniversary is marked not by a march or parade. Instead, veterans of the Latvian units, in civilian attire, lay flowers at the Freedom Monument in Riga, in memory of their fallen comrades. The event attracts unpleasant attention from neoNazi and skinhead groups on one side, and self-proclaimed anti-fascists on the other. Russia usually makes a big deal of this. Tarring Latvia (and Estonia) as “fascist” is a big theme of Kremlin propaganda. Claiming that the authorities honour “SS veterans” (or at least permit them to meet in public) adds an extra twist. By skilful manoeuvring and news management, Estonia has managed to defuse the issue. But in Latvia, the authorities have found it a perennial and perplexing headache. This year, the pot is, for once, off the boil. Regnum, a normally

polemical Russian news website, published a remarkably balanced commentary here(in Russian). Riga city council has banned the veterans’ wreathlaying. This reflects Latvia’s changing politics. Riga is run by a coalition led by the Harmony Centre party, which has good chances in the October parliamentary elections. The party is mainly Russian-led, but its pro-welfare policies attract Latvian voters too. A big row over March 16th would polarise opinion, driving Latvian voters to support the mainstream parties that thrive on fears of Kremlin mischief-making. The leaders of Harmony Centre don’t want that. Neither do their friends in Russia. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Sovereign debt and the euro: All for one (The Economist: News analysis) Submitted at 3/10/2010 9:45:34 PM

Sovereign debt and the euro Eurocrats offer up half-baked ideas to prevent a future sovereign-debt scare Mar 11th 2010 | From The Economist print edition NOW that Greece has given in to pressure from its peers for a more austere budget, the euro zone’s policy brass suddenly seems more sympathetic towards its most troubled member. On reflection, perhaps the fault with Greece’s parlous public finances lay not just with its budgetary profligacy but also elsewhere: in the absence of a central euro-zone authority for helping out cash-strapped countries; or with the creditrating agencies that had unhelpfully downgraded Greek government bonds; or with the amoral speculators who had bet against those bonds and helped drive up borrowing costs. It was mildly surprising that some of the messages of support came from Germany, where fiscal indiscipline is least tolerated. On March 7th the finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, floated the idea of a SOVEREIGN page 79

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European Monetary Fund (EMF) to act as a lender of last resort to euro-zone countries that could not raise funds in capital markets on tolerable terms. He offered few details about how an EMF would be financed or how it would operate. It would not be a “competitor” to the IMF, based in Washington, DC, though it would seek to police the fiscal policies of lax member countries. Cynics suggested this was a ploy to talk down Greece’s borrowing costs—a pledge of concrete action made in the knowledge that agreement on such a body could not be brokered quickly, if at all. The idea was swiftly drenched in cold water. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said an EMF could not be set up without a change to the EU treaty, a daunting task. Axel Weber, the head of Germany’s central bank, dismissed the idea as a “sideshow”. The French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said it was not an “absolute priority”. Progress on such a scheme is

always likely to stall because euro-zone countries are reluctant to cede any control of their public finances. That makes agreement on financing a common fund tricky. It also means it is hard to punish countries that run slack fiscal policies. In any case, a safety net big enough to persuade investors that all euro-zone sovereign bonds were safe would leave lax countries with little incentive to control their budgets. If harmony on a bail-out fund is elusive, ministers have found something on which they can all agree: the dastardly role played in Greece’s recent troubles by “speculators”. They are accused of buying credit-default swaps (CDSs), a form of insurance against default, in order to drive up Greece’s borrowing costs and then to profit from the ensuing panic. France and Germany have echoed calls for a ban on the so-called “naked” trading of sovereign CDSs, where investors do not hold the bonds they have bought insurance on, and asked the European Commission to look

into the matter. The possibility that gyrations in Greek bond yields could be explained by uncertainty about its public finances is, oddly, ignored. The rating-agency issue is more grounded in reality. From next year bonds will again only be eligible as collateral at the European Central Bank if they are rated A- or above by at least one of the three big rating firms. If Greece loses its remaining A rating from Moody’s, its bonds will be less prized by banks, raising its borrowing costs. But as Mr Weber says, the ECB could choose to lend against lower-rated bonds on more punitive terms. This at least is a real problem with a sensible solution. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Return of the Consumer? Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:00:42 AM

The Ahead of the Tape column today in the WSJ suggests that the consumer is “not quite dead.” “Household net worth plummeted during the recession thanks to sharp declines in real estate and financial assets such as stocks, falling to a low of $48.5 trillion in the first quarter of 2009. The massive decline knocked out a key support for consumer spending at a time when labor market and credit conditions were worsening rapidly. Monthly consumer spending fell as much as 2% last May compared with the prior year—the worst reading of the recession—after posting gains of more than 7% during the boom. Spending growth has since resumed—a source of surprise and widespread skepticism given the steep contraction in consumer credit and the high 9.7% unemployment rate.” I prefer to spend countercyclically, hence the posts regarding shopping for big ticket items during the recession (more on this later today). Anecdotally, the stores and

malls seem busier, as the slowly recovering economy may be returning consumers — and their pent up demand — back to some of the prior consumption. At least, that is what the data seems to be showing . . . > Source: U.S. Consumer, the Sequel: Beaten but Not Out KELLY EVANS WSJ, March 11, 2010 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB 10001424052748704655004575 114133625156648.html Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Color technology in works for e-readers (San Diego Union-Tribune) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 3/11/2010 12:46:41 AM

By Mike Freeman, UNIONTRIBUNE STAFF WRITER Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:26 a.m. With a slew of color-display tablet computers, such as Apple’s iPad, coming to market soon, makers of e-readers are looking for ways to add color screens to their devices without gobbling up too much power. Executives of San Diego-based Qualcomm’s Mirasol subsidiary, which is working on low-power color display technology, and E Ink, the firm that makes many of the black-and-white displays used in today’s e-readers, say they are well on their way to bringing these low-power color displays to market. Color screens on tablet computers, including the iPad, use liquid crystal display technology. While LCDs offer full color, they are also heavy, generate heat and use a lot of power, limiting battery life. Mirasol and E Ink, based in Cambridge, Mass., use reflective technology, which gathers light and reflects it, requiring less power than the LCDs. E Ink technology is used in Amazon’s popular Kindle and

the Sony Reader. “Do we want the e-reader to be something like a phone that you charge every day, or a laptop that you charge maybe twice a day?” said Brian Gally, director of product development for the Mirasol division. “I don’t think so. Mirasol is the display technology that enables us to maintain charge cycles on a (once a) week timetable.” Reflective display companies say their screens are better for reading text because the technology generates less glare than typical LCD screens. These reflective screens weigh considerably less, and because they use less power, the devices don’t get hot in users’ hands. “We’re going to see a ton of tablets coming out,” said Jim Cathey, a vice president of the Mirasol division. “But if they don’t capture that experience that the user needs, they’re going to be a big miss.” Qualcomm said it expects an ereader product with a colorcapable Mirasol screen to be announced by the end of the year. The company won’t say who will make the e-reader or release other details. But it did confirm the display will be capable of full color and video. Qualcomm likely won’t be alone. Sriram Peruvemba, vice

president of marketing for E Ink, said his company also is working on color. “We have full motion video working in the lab,” Peruvemba said. “We have full color display coming out at the end of this year.” Peruvemba acknowledged that E Ink’s initial color screens won’t allow video. They will, though, show color for advertising and illustrations. Peruvemba and Gally spoke last week at a conference in San Diego organized by DisplaySearch, an industry research firm. DisplaySearch, which is owned by the NPD Group, estimates that 5 million e -readers were shipped last year. The market is expected to grow to 98 million units by 2018. Color is seen as one way to enhance the appeal of e-readers. It could make the devices more attractive to newspaper and magazine publishers because they would boost their ability to provide color photos and advertising in eye-appealing page layouts. Mirasol’s display technology has a fast enough refresh rate that it allows users to zoom in and out of stories, or flip through pages at a fast rate, Cathey said. That is a key feature for newspapers and

magazines looking to provide compelling page layouts on ereaders. Mirasol is based on microelectrical mechanical technology. Microscopic moving parts bend white light to create color on pixels of a display screen. Mirasol saves power because the screens also reflect ambient light. Last summer, Qualcomm teamed with Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., also known as Foxlink, to open a 133,725-square-foot manufacturing plant in Taiwan to make Mirasol screens. Qualcomm thinks that consumers eventually will want more from the e-readers, including the ability to watch video. “Consumers are not going to be satisfied with just a reading experience,” Gally said. “They’re going to demand that you can browse the Web, that you can go to Hulu, that you can watch a video. … Tablet computers have been tried in the past and they failed. But I think there is an opportunity now for a great resurgence in tablet computing.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Sony Brings More Newspaper and Magazine Content to its E-Readers (ReadWriteWeb) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 3/10/2010 11:39:40 AM

eInk vs. LCDs For users who don't own an ereader yet but are looking into getting one, the question right now is to either wait for the iPad and go with a regular LCD screen for reading books, or to choose a more traditional (and cheaper) e-reader like the Kindle or Sony Reader that feature electronic ink. While some users don't mind the blacklit LCD screens of their phones to read, others can't fathom reading any long-form content on these screens. Fighting Off the iPad For Sony, Amazon, B&N and others who are currently betting on electronic ink for their devices, one of the best ways to distinguish themselves from Apple is to offer more content over their free wireless connections and to play up the advantages of eInk. In this context, adding a newspaper like the New York Times (which is also a favorite of Steve Jobs and features heavily in Apple's iPad ads and other promotional material) makes a lot of sense. For the newspapers, getting on SONY page 82

E-reader News/

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New York Times to offer book review on ereaders (Guardian Unlimited) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:27:59 AM

The New York Times book review, here with cover artwork by Cristiana Couceiro, is now available by standalone digital subscription The search for revenue by deconstructing the New York Times into its most valuable pieces for various platforms continues. Up next: the New York Times Book Review for ereaders. The NYT marketing executive James Dunn mentioned the new subscription effort during a session of the Digital Publishing Alliance (DPA) and E-Reader Symposium, according to Poynter's Bill Mitchell. After the session, he told Mitchell the standalone subscription should be available on Sony digital readers in the next couple of weeks, with Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook versions to follow.

Dunn didn't share any pricing details. The Book Review is already sold as a standalone print subscription for $1.75 a week surface mail, $3.75 a week priority, which may offer some guideline. The Book Review is part of the Sunday edition via Kindle, where a monthly subscription runs $13.99; the crossword puzzle isn't.

The Times sells online subscriptions for its famed crossword puzzles at $39.95 (free for print subscribers) and licenses a subscription mobile version that runs $1.99 a month, $9.99 for six months and $17.99 for the year. Related stories New York Times annual report stresses advantages of online over print advertising

NYT Hit 75 Million Mobile Pageviews In December; Reached 3 Million iPhone App Downloads NYT Starts Serving Up Intrusive Ads in Its iPhone App Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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more devices and selling more subscriptions is simply good business. Sony charges up to $14.99 per month for these subscriptions. Given that all of these papers could sell their own apps and subscriptions on the iPad as well - and that some of them will be available for free - the availability of newspapers may not be a deciding factor for a lot of potential iPad and e-reader buyers. Hopefully, however, we will also see a lot of innovative newspaper and magazine apps on the iPad. Chances are that these new apps will make today's traditional e-readers seem rather quaint in

comparison. The availability of these apps could easily sway a lot of potential e-reader buyers to get an iPad instead. What is your experience? Do you think e-books and newspapers just look better on eInk? Or are you waiting for the innovative newspaper apps on the iPad that will include video and other interactive content? Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The Light from Your Desk Lamp Could Carry Broadband Signals Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

benefit for signal pirates but a detriment for those who want a signal that is both secure and free of interference. Submitted at 3/10/2010 1:19:27 PM T h e f u t u r e o f w i r e l e s s : Related Articles Deploying illumination as information Household Wireless Sensors A bright idea coming out of Galore to Monitor Health of Germany's Fraunhofer Institute Elderly Japan Wants to Power could change the way we 300,000 Homes With Wireless connect to the Internet in the E n e r g y F r o m S p a c e T h e future, as well as drive the W i r e l e s s S h o r t L i s t T a g s nascent market for interior LED Technology, Clay Dillow, lighting. Researchers there have broadband, Fraunhofer, Internet, found a way to encode a visible- wifi. visual-spectrum wireless, frequency wireless signal in the wireless technology Visiblelight coming from lamps and frequency wireless works by fixtures, turning the light that flickering all the lights in a surrounds us into a high-speed room ever so slightly -- so broadband source. slightly, in fact, that the human That's not to say there's eye could never detect it. anything particularly wrong Incandescent and fluorescent with radio-frequency wi-fi, but bulbs can't flicker fast enough, its limited bandwidth restricts it so the scheme does require LED to a certain spectrum within an lighting, but the connection already crowded field of signals. doesn't require any kind of It also leaks through walls -- a s p e c i a l i z e d f i x t u r e , j u s t

commercial LEDs. And, though standard LEDs also have a limited bandwidth, the researchers were able to expand that bandwidth drastically by filtering out all but the blue light. In the lab the Fraunhofer team has downloaded data at a rate of 230 megabits per second, a record for visible wireless using commercial LEDs and comparable to high-end radio wireless connections. With a better modulation signal the team thinks they can double that data speed. Meaning that in the future, in-room only secure, super-fast wireless connections may be just a flip of the switch away. [ Science Daily]

Super Mario Gets Real Pixelated in DIY Arduino 8x8 Version Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 3/10/2010 2:45:49 PM

Mamma mia, I'm the ultimate science project! Nintendo's Mario has long been beloved by geeks and scientists everywhere, as evidenced by a fluorescent bacterial version(seizure warning!) and a

Mario "multiverse" that acts as a better guide to parallel universes than "Lost." Now a Carnegie Mellon University student has concocted a playable pixel tribute on an 8x8 LED matrix. The lady known only as Chloe concocted the project as intended for artists, designers homework by using an Arduino and hobbyists. She simply added Nano, an open-source two buttons for the forward or electronics prototyping platform

jump input, and a piezo sensor that connects to a separate Arduino platform for the classic

Mario theme song. Just don't go backward lest your square Mario meet with death! Ah, Mario -- what can't a fat little Italian plumber teach us about science and technology? Even the computers want to play your game. [via Crunchgear]

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Americans' Global Warming Concerns Continue to Drop (All Gallup Headlines) Submitted at 3/10/2010 7:00:00 PM

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's annual update on Americans' attitudes toward the environment shows a public that over the last two years has become less worried about the threat of global warming, less convinced that its effects are already happening, and more likely to believe that scientists themselves are uncertain about its occurrence. In response to one key question, 48% of Americans now believe that the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated, up from 41% in 2009 and 31% in 1997, when Gallup first asked the question. These results are based on the annual Gallup Social Series Environment poll, conducted March 4-7 of this year. The survey results show that the reversal in Americans' concerns about global warming that began last year has continued in 2010 -- in some cases reverting to the levels recorded when Gallup began tracking global warming measures more than a decade ago. For example, the percentage of Americans who now say reports of global warming are generally exaggerated is by a significant margin the highest such reading in the 13-year history of asking the question. In 1997, 31% said global warming's effects had

been exaggerated; last year, 41% said the same, and this year the number is 48%. Fewer Americans Think Effects of Global Warming Are Occurring"In a sharp turnaround from what Gallup found as recently as three years ago, Americans are now almost evenly split in their views of the cause of increases in the Earth's temperature over the last century." Many global warming activists have used film and photos of melting ice caps and glaciers, and the expanding reach of deserts, to drive home their point that global warming is already having alarming effects

on the earth. While these efforts may have borne fruit over much of the 2000s, during the last two years, Americans' convictions about global warming's effects have waned. A majority of Americans still agree that global warming is real, as 53% say the effects of the problem have already begun or will do so in a few years. That percentage is dwindling, however. The average American is now less convinced than at any time since 1997 that global warming's effects have already begun or will begin shortly. Meanwhile, 35% say that the effects of global warming either will never happen (19%) or will

not happen in their lifetimes (16%). The 19% figure is more than double the number who held this view in 1997. Fewer See Global Warming as Serious Threat In similar fashion, the percentage of Americans who believe that global warming is going to affect them or their way of life in their lifetimes has dropped to 32% from a 40% high point in 2008. Two-thirds of Americans say global warming will not affect them in their lifetimes. The shift in these views during the past two years has been particularly striking. The

percentage who said global warming would pose a serious threat increased gradually from 1997 through 2008. The trend in these responses changed course last year, with slightly fewer Americans saying global warming would have a significant effect in their lifetimes. This year, that percentage is down even more, marking a six-point drop from 2009, and roughly similar to where it was nine years ago. Americans Divided on Causes of Global Warming In a sharp turnaround from what Gallup found as recently as three years ago, Americans are now almost evenly split in their views of the cause of increases in the Earth's temperature over the last century. In 2003, 61% of Americans said such increases were due to human activities -- in line with advocates of the global warming issue -- while 33% said they were due to natural changes in the environment. Now, a significantly diminished 50% say temperature increases are due to human activities, and 46% say they are not. Americans Less Sure About Scientists' Beliefs Since last fall, there have been widespread news accounts of allegations of errors in scientific reports on global warming and alleged attempts by some AMERICANS' page 84

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scientists to doctor the global warming record. These news reports may well have caused some Americans to re-evaluate the scientific consensus on global warming. Roughly half of Americans now say that "most scientists believe that global warming is occurring," down from 65% in recent years. The dominant opposing thesis, held by 36% of Americans, is that scientists are unsure about global warming. An additional 10% say most scientists believe global warming is not occurring. The percentage of Americans who think most scientists believe global warming is occurring has dropped 13 points from two years ago, and is the lowest since the first time Gallup asked this question back in 1997. Implications The last two years have marked a general reversal in the trend of

Americans' attitudes about global warming. Most Gallup measures up to 2008 had shown increasing concern over global warming on the part of the average American, in line with what one might have expected given the high level of publicity on the topic. Former Vice President Al Gore had been particularly prominent in this regard, with the publication of his bestselling book, "An Inconvenient Truth," an Academy Award-winning documentary movie focusing on his global warming awareness campaign, and Gore's receipt of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. But the public opinion tide turned in 2009, when several Gallup measures showed a slight retreat in public concern about global warming. This year, the downturn is even more pronounced. Some of the shifts in Americans' views may reflect

real-world events, including the publicity surrounding allegations of scientific fraud relating to global warming evidence, and -- perhaps in some parts of the country -- a reflection of the record-breaking snow and cold temperatures of this past winter. Additionally, evidence from last year showed that the issue of global warming was becoming heavily partisan in nature, and it may be that the continuing doubts about global warming put forth by conservatives and others are having an effect. A forthcoming analysis here at Gallup.com will examine shifts in global warming attitudes in recent years among various demographic and political groups. Survey Methods Results are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,014 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted

March 4-7, 2010. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is Âą4 percentage points. Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only). In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Bigger, Better, Faster: The Quake Proof Airport, Floating Freighter and Fast-Acting Fake Platelets Carina Storrs (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 3/11/2010 7:35:18 AM

Every now and then, we like to gather three things that have gone bigger, better and faster this month. This time we're saluting airports that operate after strong earthquakes, giant cargo-hauling green airships, and artificial blood platelets that could save soldiers' lives. Bigger: The Quake-Proof Airport There's a 60 percent chance that an earthquake will level Istanbul by 2040. But when it does, the newest terminal at Sabiha Gรถkรงen International Airport can soldier on. The world's largest earthquake-protected building, which opened last November, can absorb 80 percent of back-and-forth shaking, the most destructive movement. Designed by the engineering firm Arup, the building features a foundation with 300 dampers, each with a

bearing sandwiched between sliding steel plates. In an event like the city's 1999 7.4magnitude quake, the airport could be used to fly in emergency medical supplies and food, says Atila Zekioglu, a principal at Arup: "Transportation is what makes a city tick." Faster: Bleeding Blocker A soldier hit by shrapnel can bleed to death in 10 minutes. Now engineers at Case Western Reserve University have created artificial blood plateletscomponents that clump together to form clots. Last December

they showed that the plastic platelets, which don't need refrigeration, can stop bleeding in rats 25 percent faster than donated natural platelets. Up next, the researchers hope to test them in larger mammals. Greener: The Floating Freighter Take a blimp, add plane engines and wings, and you get Dynalifter, a fuel-efficient aircraft. When the 120-foot airship prototype begins test flights this spring, its 20,000 cubic feet of helium-filled compartments will offset half its weight so the engines won't have to work as hard. The

engines propel the craft at 80 mph, 30 mph faster than conventional blimps, says Robert Rist, the co-president of Ohio Airships, which is developing the ship. This year, the company will build a freighter-size Dynalifter that can haul at least 22 tons, which it's eyeing for cheaper, greener shipping in developing nations where rough roads limit traditional trucking.

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Oldest Known Flying Car is Up for Sale Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 3/10/2010 1:59:00 PM

Just don't try to fly this 1934 contraption before reading all the fine print Flying cars may seem to keep receding into that deliciouslyimagined future, but this, one of the earliest prototypes, hails from 1934. It is now slated to go up on the auction block in Atlanta this coming weekend, according to Wired's Autopia. Inventor Frank Skroback designed the 21-foot-long plane that includes six wings with seven-foot spans. As Autopia points out, that sounds a bit lacking when it comes to producing the necessary lift to get the beast off the ground. Maneuvering the plane … car

… in the air might also present a problem with the relatively tiny vertical control surfaces. The winning bidder would receive documentation on the invention from Red Baron's Antiques, such as the 1921 design patent and letters

showing previous attempts to sell the contraption. We previously covered a more modern "roadable aircraft" in the form of Terrafugia's Transition, which made its first successful flight back in March 2009. The four-wheeled, folding

wing vehicle can fit in a garage while it's not roaming the roads or skies, and may represent one of the most practical, engineering-based attempts to bring a flying car -- I mean roadable aircraft -- to life. That's not to say we don't enjoy our pie-in-the-sky visions, such as a DIY flying motorcycle that would put those kids from ET to shame. And perhaps the Pentagon's DARPA might spark someone's imagination by proposing a transforming VTOL vehicle. But here's our advice for the winning bidder on the Skroback invention -- consider keeping it on the ground. [via Wired's Autopia]

Who Wins in Home Star Program? GridPoint, Big Box Retailers info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines) Submitted at 3/11/2010 3:59:40 AM

GridPoint is going home again. The Arlington, Va.-based company--which has raised over $200 million--started out in the early part of the decade promoting a system for managing energy in upper middle class homes. Because energy prices were still comparatively low, the market failed to develop. In turn, GridPoint decided to take the software and transform it into operating system for the grid. Then in 2008, it started to go on a buying spree. It bought WHO page 87

Mystery Electric Car Maker Wants to Take Over Toyota’s Nummi Plant info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

plant. The company claims that it's Recurve drivetrain allows Aurica's car to go farther on a Submitted at 3/10/2010 5:55:15 PM charge than competing cars. Aurica who? "Aurica's drive train holds the A u r i c a M o t o r s t o d a y secret to increasing range," the announced plans to take over the company's web site says. (The Nummi automotive plant run by drivetrain is not associated with Toyota in Fremont, California. Recurve the retrofitter.) When Toyota vacates, Aurica It's not the only secret. Other wants to make all-electric cars ones are: who are these guys? with swappable batteries at the where did they come from?

Who backs them? The maiden press release says it was founded by a noted Silicon Valley physicist and scientists have worked three years on the drivetrain. There is an illustration of the battery swap system on this link: It is the thing that looks like the entrance to a wedding chapel in Reno. The car will cost less than half of cars that sell in the $100,000

range like the Tesla Roadster, it claims. If the company can get federal funding, Aurica says it will be able to retain the 4,700 Nummi employees and come out with a car in two years. Whether Aurica has an application for funding in, however, is unknown. There's virtually no chance, however, that millions would pour in to save the factory by April even if

Aurica had applied for funds a long time ago. Ideas for reviving Nummi have been fielded by the company since the closure became certain. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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NC Utilities and Regulators At Odds Over Smart Grid Reporting info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

Energy Carolinas, Dominion North Carolina Power and Progress Energy Carolinas. All Submitted at 3/10/2010 10:00:17 AM three have major operations in Regulators and utilities in North other states including Virginia, Carolina agree that more Ohio, Indiana and South information needs to be shared Carolina, so the North Carolina about smart-grid deployment in proceeding could produce a the state, but they're not yet regulatory template. synced on what information that The duel's roots go back three should be. months, when the NCUC voted The North Carolina Utilities a g a i n s t a d o p t i n g f e d e r a l Commission has proposed that s t a n d a r d s o n s m a r t g r i d each utility file a "smart grid investments and functionality technology plan" as part of its that were included in the Energy biennial resource plans. Two of Independence and Security Act the three utilities regulated by of 2007. Citing input from the NCUC h a v e utilities, consumer advocates counterproposed to limit their and big electricity consumers, reporting to the "impacts" their the commission declared that t e c h n o l o g y d e p l o y m e n t i s "policies and a regulatory having on their operations. framework accomplishing the The difference boils down to same goals . . . already exist in advance disclosure vs. follow- this state." up reporting. The regulators and The NCUC followed up by utilities also disagree on how proposing numerous smart-grid certain information on smart related amendments to its grid interactivity and customer Integrated Resource Plan rules. control should be handled. The IRP is a biennial process in How they resolve the issues which each utility obtains will be worth watching. approval for the mix of With multiple population generation, purchased power, centers and diverse demographic conservation and efficiency and political segments served by actions they will use to meet three major utilities, North c u s t o m e r demand. Carolina would be a valuable Commissioners reasoned that c a s e s t u d y f o r r o l l o u t s smart-grid development should elsewhere. be addressed in the IRP based The utilities involved are Duke on the potential effect it has on

demand, time of use and other factors, both known and unknown. Duke and Dominion collaborated on alternative amendments. Progress did not offer comments or an alternative approach. However, Progress disclosed in a Jan. 26 presentation to the NCUC that it is working on both smart grid and battery storage initiatives in the state. A Progress spokesman told GTM that the company "will likely file a reply" to the alternative offered by Duke and Dominion. Besides their preference for retrospective disclosure only, Duke and Dominion want to include in the reporting a comparison of megawatt load with and without smart grid technology. They also want to compare the megawattdenominated impacts and program cost by customer class. The utilities oppose disclosure in their IRPs of financial metrics such as capital layouts, costbenefit analyses, evaluation of facilities obsoleted by smartgrid deployment. They say that if they're forced to comply with the reporting requirements proposed by the commission, they "would be burdened unnecessarily with the details of smart grid programs

that have not been fully developed, may not have been deployed, and that may be subject to frequent changes." Absent from the utilities' counterproposal is any reference to "real-time, automated, interactive technologies that optimize operation of consumer devices and appliances" and "control options" for customers -- both of which are explicit in the commission's proposal. Raleigh attorney Robert Kaylor, the utilities' representative before the NCUC, did not respond to a request for the reasoning behind those omissions. The NCUC now has the ball and must act based on the utilities' input and that of other parties to the proceeding. A commission staff member said that an order is forthcoming, but he wouldn't discuss internal deliberations or give a timetable. Stephen Munro is a D.C.-based analyst and journalist specializing in state and federal utility regulation. Contact him on (202) 744-8553 or stephenmunro.llc@gmail.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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V2Green, which allows utilities to communicate with electric cars, in 2008 and followed in 2009 with Lixar, which makes a building energy management consoles and tools. But in February of this year, GridPoint took an unusual turn. It bought Standard Renewable Energy, a company founded by a former Enron exec that markets energy efficiency retrofits, weatherization services and solar module installations. It's about as un-smart grid as you can get. The move, though, signals a push that's likely going to become more prevalent. With President Obama asking Congress for $6 billion for the Home Star retrofit program and Vice President Joe Biden promoting PACE programs as a means to finance home retrofits and repairs, everyone is going to start getting into manual labor and household repairs. Last month, Rick Rommel, senior vice president of emerging business at Best Buy, says the electronics retailer wants to become your big brother in home energy management. You want an electric car? They will sell it to you. Networked appliances? Check. Services? Yes. "We are that last five feet to make it possible," Rommel said. Lowe's and Home Depot are WHO page 88

Energy/

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News Wednesday: Revenue, Losses Grow at a123; EnerNoc Bundles its Apps; Algae Soap and Smart Meters info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

company. One of the big customers is Fisker Automotive, which will come out with its Submitted at 3/10/2010 2:18:45 PM first car later this year and start It still hasn't made a profit, but t o m o v e i n t o v o l u m e customers want their batteries, productions over the subsequent says A123 Systems. years. The Watertown, Mass-based A123 held a celebrated public battery manufacturer said that offering last year. The stock its net loss for 2009 came to zoomed from its starting price $85.8 million, higher than the and, although it has come down loss of $80.5 in 2008. The good a bit, it's still above water. The news, however, is that sales are stock today trades at around growing fast. Revenue for 2009 $16. In the wake of the IPO, came to $91 million, a 33 others filed the preliminary percent jump from the year papers to hold their own IPOs before. Total battery capacity but to date none have gone shipped for the year came to public. 66.5 million watt-hours, well Elsewhere: above the 44.9 million watt- --EnerNoc put a formal platform hours shipped in 2008. wrapper around a lot of the new The company further said today products it has introduced in the that it would expand factory last two years. The demand capacity by 200 megawatt-hours response company, which has to bring total capacity to 560 over 3 gigawatts of power under megawatt-hours. That's still way its control, bought eQuilibrium a b o v e w h a t t h e c o m p a n y Solutions, a carbon accounting s h i p p e d , y e s , b u t m a n y company, in 2008 and followed customers of A123 have yet to w i t h C o g e n t E n e r g y i n move into full production December to accelerate the push themselves. That may happen in into building management. 2 0 1 1 a n d 2 0 1 2 , s a i d t h e Morgan Stanley hired the

company to analyze the efficiency of its New York offices. The platform--which renames applications DemandSMART or CarbonSMART--effectively could make it easier for customers to adopt the suite. No word if PetSMART plans to sue. Side note: both EnerNoc and A123 were founded in 2001. EnerNoc went public in 2007 and had its first profitable quarter in the fall of 2009. --Solazyme and Unilever formally announced an agreement to develop algae oil for soaps and personal care products. The soap market isn't as big as the diesel market, but Solazyme can get these types of oil to market relatively quickly. You don't need a 100 million gallon a year refinery for soaps. Solazyme already sells algae oil to food makers. --Metabolix says it has started to ship quantities of its Mirel bioplastic. Commercial deliveries could start next month. --Echelon said it has shipped 2

million of its NES smart meters. (This total does not include the 30 million meters that Echelon has shipped to Italy for the smart meter project owned by Enel.). The NES meters mostly allow utilities to conduct remote activation and termination of accounts and track energy consumption. Over time, the meters will connect to appliances in the home for demand response functions, said Michael Anderson, the senior vice president of NES from a phone call in Europe. NES meters largely connect to substations through power line networking, which Echelon promotes heavily. Utilities in the U.S. have yet to fully embrace power line, but that is changing. Another side note: one of Echelon's early investors was Mike Markkula, who helped Apple get off the ground. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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expected to continue to expand offerings for solar panels and energy retrofits. In December, Obama actually made one of its pitches for retrofits and green jobs near a Home Depot in Virginia. Sears will work with Coda Automotive to help electric car buyers ready their homes for car charging--how big of a step will it be for Sears to look at the energy needs of other appliances in the home? A large part of the appeal of home energy retrofits and services lay in the relatively cheap and easy gains that can be made in energy consumption. Building operations consume roughly 39 percent of all of the energy in America--half gets consumed in commercial buildings and the other half goes into homes-- and that energy is not consumed particularly efficiently. Construction also remains, despite the downturn, a somewhat large industry: green building entrepreneur Marc Porat estimates that $40 trillion in new construction and $15 trillion in renovations will occur in the U.S. between 2008 and 2035. On top of that lay the political advantages. Although national unemployment has dropped below the ten percent mark, unemployment in construction rose from 18.7 percent last October to 24.7 percent in WHO page 89

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recent months, according to Matt Golden, co-founder of energy efficiency retrofit specialist and software developer Recurve and one of the creators of the Home Star program. The vast majority of building materials consumed in the construction industry are produced domestically, so retrofits would boost factory jobs, as well, he said. Politicians on the left and right ends of the spectrum canm gain points by voting for Home Star or other programs. (Growth in green buildings, though, will likely attract overseas companies too. Several Japanese companies are collaborating on research projects in New Mexico to see if many of their domestic building

technologies work well in the U.S.) And finally, there are the policies that have been, or may soon get, enacted to provide the needed cash to get the trucks rolling. At least fourteen states and 30 municipalities have enacted PACE programs that allow homeowners to finance retrofits through property tax supplements. Renewable Funding, whose president Cisco DeVries helped created PACE, received $12.2 million in funds from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and other VCs recently. Citibank and other large banks are currently setting up programs to funnel credit to PACE programs. "With a federal loan guarantee

(for PACE programs) it grow from a hundreds of millions to a $400 to $500 billion program," Jack Hidary, a PACE advocate, told us last year. "It can also help the 1.5 million people out of work in the construction industry." Pin stripes and work boots: it will be the fashion statement of 2010. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.