Liberty Newspost Mar-14-10 by Liberty Newspost

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Pay up for that Pepsi | Peter Preston Peter Preston (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

impost, unrefined, oblivious to health or environmental imperatives, when a little fine tuning shows the way? Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:00:02 PM Instead of a blanket hike on We know "food of a kind used VAT, a targeted tax on fizzy for human consumption" is zero drinks could raise money and -rated – but we also know that save lives too much human consumption The idea is alive and living in leads to an early grave. We New York state. Sugary canned acknowledge that in the rising drinks ruin your teeth and make price of beer and cigarettes, yet y o u f a t . T h e r e f o r e , l i k e there the logic of cost and everything else that palpably constraint runs out. You can hurts health, they should attract wade through the minutiae of extra taxation: say one penny the VAT rules for hours without per ounce, around 20% more on ever encountering an argument a a 75-cent can of sweet soda. Of doctor might salute. c o u r s e t h e n o t i o n i s n ' t The inspectors standard-rate universally popular. Fox News crisps, fizzy drinks, ice cream. is against, as it is against almost But tortilla chips, milk shakes, every policy supported by frozen yogurt (if it melts) escape Barack Obama. But at least scot-free. A bottle of mineral nobody can sing the "pain" song water rakes in 17.5%; a jar of too easily. You can't talk pain prunes in armagnac takes over a swig of Pepsi. One nothing on top. reason, perhaps, why Alistair Maybe, at first sight, a taxing Darling should get interested. obsession with chocolate in Is VAT going up to 20% under every shape or form has keeping whoever rules the Treasury fit somewhere in its rationale. next? It's a solid, sullen bet. Yet Expect standard rate on "biscuits why use this tax as a blanket wholly or partly covered in

chocolate or some product similar in taste or appearance" – except "chocolate chip biscuits where the chips are either included in the dough or pressed into the surface before baking". In fact, though, health takes a back seat the moment you find that spreading caramel all over shortbread attracts no charge, that chocolate chips to sprinkle on cakes come duty free (unlike chocolate buttons), that Bourbon biscuits with chocolate cream in the middle pass no-taxation muster. Health really isn't an issue in any of this introverted detail. When I wander down to a supermarket and pick up a lunchtime chicken sandwich shot through with salt and saturated fats, the VAT man looks the other way. When I reach into the chiller cabinet and pull out a pizza or a packet of burgers, then the needs of "human consumption" have the last word. Frozen mousses, toffee apples, prawn crackers ... welcome to the club. But don't

confuse standard-rated ice cream wafers with zero-rated communion wafers, or you'll end up in the mire. Any bureaucratic list built up over decades is open to ridicule, perhaps. But the disconnect between public policy and current concern right along the VAT chain is painfully clear. (And not just on the edible side either: Britain's reluctance to put a "tax on knowledge" – ie books, newspapers and magazines – means that all those lads mags and porn specials escape tax; under cover, presumably, of what Richard Desmond might call a "tax on carnal knowledge".) But let's not worry about no VAT on bingo club memberships and houseboat moorings, for the moment. There will always be another budget to clear up the peripheries. Let's stay with Mayor Bloomberg of New York, talking soda taxes in a city where nearly 40% of school -age children are overweight,

with "diabetes, heart disease, asthma and depression" lying in wait. Let's save many more lives than any new drink-driving purge. Let's send hundreds of millions more to our Treasury in the best of all possible causes – one where personal gain trumps minimal pain. For, as those self-same VAT regulations conclude: "Burial or cremation of dead people – exempt." • Budget • United States • Food & drink • Barack Obama • Children • Tax • Obesity • Health & wellbeing Peter Preston guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Answers for thoughtful ObamaCare opponents | Sahil Kapur Sahil Kapur (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

Democrats' healthcare takeover since July 2009? It says the Democrats' communications strategy has Submitted at 3/14/2010 10:00:01 AM The Cato Institute has put forth been weak. It says they upset a list of questions for supporters their base by ignoring universal of the healthcare reform bill. healthcare and not fighting for Here are my answers the public option. It says they The conservative/libertarian upset independents by not Cato Institute has put forth a list sticking by a clear set of of questions for proponents of convictions. It says they wasted the Democratic healthcare far too long trying to fruitlessly reform package. Here they are, court Republican votes. along with my answers. 1. What It says that Republicans have does it say that the American d o n e a m a s t e r f u l j o b o f polity has consistently rejected a spreading disinformation– if not wholesale government takeover outright lies(ie death panels) – of healthcare for 100 years? to take advantage of people's It says the issue is very tough fears and prejudices. It says the politically. It says Washington is mainstream media isn't doing a unresponsive to the interests of good job of calling nonsense the American people, who " n o n s e n s e " . J u s t a s k t h e overwhelmingly want healthcare opponents of the bill who r e f o r m . I t s a y s i n s u r a n c e demand that government keep companies, pharmaceutical its hands off their Medicare. companies and other health Conversely, what does it say i n d u s t r y s p e c i a l i n t e r e s t s that a tremendous majority of (including the AMA until just the American public has for last year) are exceptionally many years favoured a sweeping powerful with "the American healthcare overhaul? What does polity" and like the status quo. it say that a measly 4% of Also, to suggest this package is Americans, according to a new a " w h o l e s a l e g o v e r n m e n t Associated Press poll, are takeover" is intellectually satisfied with the current dishonest. The bill doesn't system? 3. What does it say that e x p a n d g o v e r n m e n t - r u n Democrats are having this much insurance by a whit. It simply d i f f i c u l t y e n a c t i n g t h e i r builds upon existing regulations healthcare legislation despite and subsidies while relying u n i f i e d D e m o c r a t i c r u l e ? purely on private insurers to Despite large supermajorities in expand coverage. 2. What does both chambers of Congress, it say that public opinion has including a once-filibuster-proof been consistently against the Senate majority (see more

below)? Despite an opportunistic change in Massachusetts law that provided that crucial 60th vote at a crucial moment? Despite a popular and charismatic president? It says Democrats are not very effective at fighting for progressive change. It says some party members are too subservient to special interests. It says they made a series of strategic blunders (like the Pharma backroom deal) that damaged their credibility. It says Republicans are very good at obstruction, however discredited or small in numbers they are. 4. What does it say that 38 House Democrats voted against the president's health plan? In addition to the above, it says the Democratic party is ideologically diverse and that some of its lawmakers represent Republican-leaning districts. 5. What does it say that Massachusetts voters elected, to fill the term of Ted Kennedy, a Republican who ran against the healthcare legislation that Kennedy helped to shape? It says Martha Coakley ran a lousy campaign and probably should have known who Curt Schilling is. It says the Democratic party has underperformed and is losing steam. It says the progressive base is disheartened while teabaggers and Republicans are energised. It says nothing about healthcare reform.

Massachusetts has universal healthcare (which Scott Brown voted for) and is very happy with it. 6. What does it say that the only thing bipartisan about that legislation is the opposition to it? It says the Republican party has shrivelled to a small group of hard-right ideologues. It says the GOP feels exceptionally threatened that Democrats may achieve a historic victory that improves – if not saves – the lives of millions. It says the GOP is cracking the whip of party discipline harder than ever, which Democrats don't do quite as well. 7. What does it say that 39 senators voted to declare that legislation's centerpiece unconstitutional? They were all Republicans. It says Republicans will go to virtually any lengths to kill this bill. 8. What does it say that healthcare researchers – a fairly leftwing lot – think the Senate bill is unconstitutional? They don't. You cited one quote by one research group that expressed doubts about one minor provision but made no definitive assertion. 9. What does it say that the demands of pro-life and pro-choice House Democrats, each of which hold enough votes to determine the fate of this legislation, are irreconcilable? It says Democrats tolerate members who have ideological differences. 10. What does it say

that House Democrats are actually contemplating a legislative strategy that would deem the Senate bill to have passed the House — without the House ever actually voting on it? It says they really want to get rid of the bill's dodgy giveaways, like the Nelson deal, before it becomes law. Both chambers have already passed healthcare reform with a majority or a supermajority. This strategy(which may not even be used) is simply a motion wherein the House stamps its approval on the Senate bill under the condition that the special deals are eliminated. 11. Given that ours is a system of government where ambition is made to counteract ambition, what does it mean that the only way to pass this legislation is for the House to trust that the Senate will keep the House's interests at heart? It says the legislative process is complex, especially when it comes to passing comprehensive reforms. It says the Democratic leadership still has some battles to fight before declaring "mission accomplished". And while we're asking questions, I have one of my own, for thoughtful opponents of ObamaCare: what does it say that the most fervent selfproclaimed fiscal conservatives ANSWERS page 4

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Don't look to Rahm Emanuel to explain Barack Obama's woes | John McQuaid John McQuaid (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 3/14/2010 5:00:00 AM

Rahm Emanuel is an easy target. But endless analysis of his personality does nothing to explain Barack Obama's problems All Washington is in an uproar over White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. There are whispering campaigns for and against him. The media are writing profiles that either exonerate or condemn him for the Obama administration's troubles. Even ex-Congressman Eric Massa, who resigned when allegations that he groped male staffers came to light, managed to work an alleged Emanuel naked lobbying incident into his own scandal. Emanuel is an easy target. A veteran of the Clinton White House and Congress (where he engineered the Democrats' 2006 electoral wave that took back control of the House of Representatives) he is famously aggressive, obnoxious and profane. And the Obama

administration has no shortage of problems – the economy is weak, healthcare reform still hasn't passed, Guantánamo hasn't been closed, and Republicans are eyeing major gains in the autumn elections. Obama could be in better shape, and his staff bears some of the responsibility for that. But Emanuel's congressional lobbying tactics did not create Obama's predicament. The incessant Rahm chatter reflects the narcissism of Washington's media and political classes: they're searching for answers and desperately hoping to find a villain or a thwarted hero among their own where none exists. The inner workings of the White House should be the stuff of high drama, especially now. But read the media's growing archive of Rahmobilia, and you will find ... almost nothing of note. It's deadly dull. This began last month with Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank's Rahm-boosting column. Then the Post news pages published another proRahm piece, which self-

consciously regurgitated the opinions of Emanuel defenders into an "emerging narrative" that he was a wise, loyal and oft -ignored aide who should not be blamed for the White House's problems. Then came ambitious profiles from Noam Scheiber of The New Republic and Peter Baker of the New York Times. Here's what these pieces say: Rahm Emanuel is loyal to Obama and a team player. He sometimes argues for more "pragmatic" positioning on issues, going for incremental wins at the expense of much riskier big ones. Sometimes Obama follows this advice, sometimes he doesn't. (And on healthcare reform, Obama appears to have done both.) He swears a lot. He is all business. He is also 50 years old. And thin: "At 50, Emanuel has the lean, taut look of a lifelong swimmer, with broad shoulders and distractingly prominent quadriceps." – Scheiber "At 50, he has the coiled energy of aides half his age, still as wiry thin as he was during his

improbable days as a ballet dancer." – Baker These pieces tell us almost nothing about how a candidate promising sweeping "change" and elected with the biggest popular majority of any Democrat since LBJ has gotten so bogged down on the big issues. I don't think Emanuel's incremental tendencies explain it (as Dan Froomkin has forcefully argued). In Washington, people think personalities are the best way to explain politics and policies. Sometimes they are. Nixon engineered his own downfall. Clinton couldn't control himself and Ken Starr couldn't avert his eyes. But Obama's troubles are a product of severe structural problems more than of any single staffer. Since the George W Bush years US politics have grown increasingly dysfunctional – a story the media have mostly glossed over. Bush and Co politicised once-insulated customs and institutions (war and the justice department, for example), exacerbating an

already-deep partisan divide and eroding the government's credibility. Add to this a brutal recession – the single overriding factor in any president's popularity – not to mention chronic media stupidity itself, and Obama's hand is much weaker than anyone expected a year ago. That doesn't mean he can't turn it around. But it won't be Emanuel's distracting quadriceps that make the difference. • Rahm Emanuel • Barack Obama • Obama administration • US politics • Democrats • Republicans • US Congress • United States John McQuaid guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

No word from woman freed in alleged plot, mom says (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:43:03 AM

Cheryl buzzed up: 2 Americans killed in drive-by shooting in Mexico (AP)

11 seconds ago 2010-03- Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: 14T11:55:02-07:00 PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

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Bulger judge Baroness Butler-Sloss rejects raising age of criminal responsibility (Top stories from Times Online) Submitted at 3/14/2010 8:51:38 AM

The judge who gave lifelong anonymity to James Bulger’s killers has said that the call by the Children’s Commissioner to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 is “unworkable”. Baroness Butler-Sloss, the retired President of the Family Division of the High Court, said that the public would never accept 10-year-old murderers being treated as children and escaping punishment. She was responding to comments from Maggie Atkinson, the new Children’s Commissioner, who said in an exclusive interview with The Times that Jon Venables and Robert Thompson should not have been prosecuted in an adult court. Dr Atkinson argued that children under the age of 12 should not be prosecuted for any crime and that even the most hardened of youngsters could still be frightened. Raising the age of criminal responsibility has already been ruled out by the Ministry of Justice and Dr Atkinson’s remarks have also been strongly

criticised by James Bulger’s mother, Denise Fergus, who called for her to be sacked for “twisted and insensitive” comments. Lady Butler-Sloss said that she had great sympathy with Dr Atkinson’s views but did not think that the public would accept her ideas. “I do not believe the Government, any government of any political persuasion, could introduce this at the moment. “I have great sympathy with the Children’s Commissioner but I believe it is unworkable because I do not think the public will accept it. “I think we should be working towards changing the culture of the public towards 10 and 11year-olds. In the meantime we should be more merciful to them. “The way I would like to go forward is to keep it as it is for the moment, because of public opinion, but to make it much more difficult to send such children to prison.” Mrs Fergus went further and said: “This woman owes James and me an apology for her twisted and insensitive comments. Then she should resign or be sacked. “To say that his killers should

not have been tried in an adult court is stupid. They committed an adult crime — a coldblooded murder that was planned and premeditated and they were tried accordingly.” Venables is back in custody after reports that he was allegedly caught in possession of child abuse images. Even if he is not prosecuted for the alleged offence he could still spend the rest of his life in prison. Under parole board rules lifers on licence who are recalled to prison usually serve between three and five years but Venables, who was recalled to prison earlier this month, is no ordinary lifer. Probation service sources have told The Times that Venables could be recalled for life. Before Venables and Thompson, who were both aged 10 at the time of the murder, were released on licence in 2001 the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, said that they would be “liable to be recalled to custody for the rest of their lives if they do not comply with the terms of their licence”. The police are not believed to have sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service on any alleged offences committed by

Venables, so no decision has yet been made on any possible charges. If the CPS decide there is not enough evidence to secure a conviction the decision on what happens to Venables will be taken by the Parole Board. They will examine all reports from when he was first arrested as a child and could ask for further reports to be conducted. If he is returned to custody by the parole board, he will have the right to appeal after a year and then after every subsequent two years. Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, had talks last week with Mrs Fergus to discuss the return to custody of her son’s killer. A spokesman for Mr Straw said that he had tried to answer Mrs Fergus’s questions as fully as he could. Mr Straw said that he could not reveal the exact reasons for the decision to return Venables to prison, saying only that there were very serious allegations against him. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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are among the biggest opponents of a bill that will cut – that's right, cut – the deficit by $118bn dollars over a decade, according to yet another CBO analysis? • US healthcare • Republicans • US politics • United States • Democrats • Obama administration Sahil Kapur guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Google '99.9 percent' sure to shutter Google.cn Zoe Slocum (Webware.com) Submitted at 3/13/2010 12:41:00 PM

Now "99.9 percent" certain that it will close its Chinese search engine amid conflict over censorship, Google has detailed plans to do so, according to a Financial Times source.

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Kandahar bombings a warning to Nato, says Taliban Jon Boone (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

this summer. "With all the preparations they have taken, still they are not able to stop us," he told Associated Press. Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:29:05 AM Attacks that killed at least 35 In Kandahar, residents said the people was a show of force city was struggling to return to ahead of Nato summer push in normal life. "People are afraid a n d a r o u n d c i t y f a c i n g because this shows the strength Talibanisation of the Taliban in Kandahar," A series of fatal bomb attacks said Abdul Karim, owner of a in Kandahar was a warning to construction company in the Nato forces that the Taliban is city. "They have close links to ready to challenge a coming c i t y o f f i c i a l s a n d t a r g e t offensive to take control of the w h a t e v e r t h e y w a n t . " area, a spokesman for the The governor of Kandahar militants said today. province, Tooryalai Wesa, said Insurgents let off a series of two car bombs and six suicide bombs yesterday evening in an bombers on motorbikes and apparent attempt to repeat their bicycles struck near the city c o u p o f J u n e 2 0 0 8 w h e n prison, police headquarters and bombers destroyed part of the a wedding hall. city's prison, releasing hundreds The provincial police chief of Taliban prisoners. The Sardar Mohammad Zazi said the ministry of interior said at least attacks in different parts of the 35 people were killed and 57 city appeared designed to wounded in the latest attacks. distract soldiers and police from The dead included 13 police the militants' main target – the officers and 22 civilians. prison. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Wesa demanded that more Y o u s e f A h m a d i , s a i d t h e troops be sent to a city already bombings showed that the i n t h e p r o c e s s o f b e i n g militants were still capable of reinforced, with 300 US military carrying out major attacks police on regular patrols since despite the build-up of foreign August. troops before the push by Nato Nato generals say Kandahar

and its outlying districts will be the focus of intense military efforts in June and July as General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, pursues his strategy of trying to secure the more populous south of the country. Afghanistan's second city has suffered from a creeping Talibanisation as insurgents have grown in influence. The militants, when unarmed, move unhindered around the city, using its backrooms to carry out their trademark swift justice and occasional executions. Some of the few foreigners and aid workers there have predicted the city's eventual fall, not through military offensives but through the emergence of insurgents as Kandahar's main power brokers. Most analysts agree that reversing that trend will require an overhaul of a local government that is riddled with corruption. In a recent interview, Brigadier General Craig King, the Canadian soldier in charge of planning future operations in the province, said improvements in governance would be more

SXSW Keeps Austin Weird, Wired and Wild Lewis Wallace (Wired Top Stories)

Geeks party like rock stars at South by Southwest's interactive

and film festivals. A photo tour of the Saturday night scene.

important than military operations during the summer push. But changing the way Kandahar is governed faces an obstacle, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Afghan president's half-brother who heads the Kandahar provincial council. Many Kandaharis believe he is involved in the province's drugs and criminal networks – charges he has always denied. Despite pressure on the president to send his halfbrother away most diplomats are pessimistic about that happening, with some even fearing that his removal would further destabilise the city. • Taliban • Afghanistan • Global terrorism • United States Jon Boone guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

U.S. Missionary Detained in Haiti Returns Home to Idaho (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 3/13/2010 11:21:24 PM

BOISE, Idaho A U.S. missionary released from a Haiti jail last week has returned to her home in Idaho. Twenty-four-year-old Charisa Coulter arrived at the Boise Airport Saturday night where her father, several other Idaho missionaries who had been detained, and dozens of others welcomed her by singing "Amazing Grace." Coulter is a diabetic and had medical difficulties during her five-week confinement. She was freed March 8 but spent about six days in Florida recuperating after leaving Haiti. She says she's happy to be home but sad to have left behind her friend Laura Silsby. Coulter and Silsby were among 10 Baptist missionaries, mostly from Idaho, who were detained Jan. 29 trying to take 33 children out of Haiti after a devastating earthquake. Silsby remains in custody. The other eight were released Feb. 17. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Britons sentenced to a month in prison for kissing in Dubai restaurant

A new generation of surfers: The Aerialists

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

(Holy Kaw!)

cheek as a greeting, nothing more,” Mr Najafi told Judge Aysar Fouad. Miss Adams pointed at her cheek to show where contact had taken place. Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:40:59 AM By Richard Spencer in Dubai, The two are not the first Britons and Aislinn Laing to fall foul of the strict laws in Published: 6:40PM GMT 14 the conservative Muslim state. Mar 2010 Last year Michelle Palmer, 36, Ayman Najafi, 24, a marketing and Vince Acors, 34, were consultant who lives in Dubai, sentenced to three months and Charlotte Adams, 25, an imprisonment for having sex on estate agent from North London, a beach. w e r e s a i d t o h a v e b e e n The latest incident took place touching each other and kissing when Miss Adams and Mr passionately as they dined with Najafi met along with four friends in a beachfront other friends for dinner at Bob's restaurant. Easy Diner on the beachfront at T h e y w e r e a r r e s t e d a n d the Jumeirah Beach Residence sentenced to a month in prison complex on November 27. after which they were told The police were called at they would be deported. around 2am by an Emirati But the pair told a hearing at woman sitting at a nearby t h e D u b a i A p p e a l C o u r t table with her children and yesterday that they were the claimed her daughter had been v i c t i m s o f a " h u g e upset by the display of misunderstanding" and had affection. simply exchanged a friendly "My daughter told me that the greeting. accused were kissing on the "We kissed each other on the mouth,” she said.

“Then I spotted them doing so myself. I also saw them touching each other, as they were seated two to three metres away from our table. A number of customers witnessed the scene as well.” After being arrested, the two were tested for alcohol and shown to have been drinking, though the readings of 22mg/dl are less than the drink-drive limit in Britain. At a first hearing in the Court of Misdemeanours, their defence lawyer Khalaf al Hosany said the couple admitted kissing each other on the cheek but denied any intention to break the law. “It’s part of their culture to kiss on cheeks as a greeting,” he told the judge. But their pleas of not guilty to indecency were rejected and they were sentenced to a month in prison followed by deportation. They were also fined 1000 dirham (180 pounds) for being

in a public place after consuming alcohol – an offence in Dubai, though drinking alcohol itself is not. Mr Najafi has lived in Dubai for 18 months, where he works as a consultant for the Hay Group, a marketing firm. Miss Adams, 25, was visiting the country and staying with another friend. Her flatmate Jade Christa Williams, acting as a spokesman for Miss Adams, said what had happened was simply "a huge misunderstanding". "She is completely innocent and is looking forward to coming home soon to carry on with her life and put this behind her," she said. The court reserved its verdict until April 4. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 3/13/2010 11:00:01 PM

This new NYTimes video discusses the latest trend in competitive surfing: air tricks. Until recently, most surfers have focused on consistency and length of time on the wave, but this new generation of competitors test their limits by performing tricks closer to skateboarding. By pushing themselves above the lip of the wave, these surfers create complex twists and tricks in the air—and change the game of surfing, too. Read the full story at a related article on the NYTimes.com. More on surfing. Permalink| Leave a comment »

NYC taxi drivers overcharged riders by $8.3M in past 2 years (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:48:48 AM

Before you hail your next cab in New York City, you might want to reconsider the benefits of walking. According to a new

report, thousands of NYC taxi drivers overcharged passengers by more than 8.3 million dollars over the past two years by setting their meters at a rate that was supposed to be used for trips to the suburbs.

Out of the 48,300 licensed cab

drivers in the city, 35,558 have illegally charged a rider on at least one occasion. Before any potentially dishonest cabbies are charged, an investigation will be conducted to rule out the possibility of faulty meters or

other technological issues. Full story at WBBM. More on crime. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

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British pair face jail for kissing in Dubai restaurant (Top stories from Times Online)

They are also accused of consuming alcohol, a charge to which they pleaded guilty, but Submitted at 3/14/2010 5:09:22 AM said they only kissed on the A British couple have been told cheek. The Misdemeanours they must wait a further month Appeals Court ruled that it to find out if they must serve a would reach a final verdict on month in prison for publicly April 4, Mr al-Hosani added. kissing in a Dubai restaurant. In a phone call to his mother Ayman Najafi, 24, a British yesterday, Mr Najafi said he had e x p a t r i a t e i n D u b a i , a n d done nothing wrong. Charlotte Lewis, 25, a tourist, The pair were allegedly seen have been accused of breaching kissing on the mouth in a strict public decency laws at the restaurant, breaching Dubai’s fashionable Jumeirah Beach conservative penal code. R e s i d e n c e i n t h e M u s l i m According to reports, a judge emirate. heard written evidence from the The pair had their passports woman who made the original confiscated after their arrest in complaint to police. November, and attended court She said she was offended by today to appeal against the their behaviour at the Jumeirah prison sentence imposed last Beach Residence, where she week. was dining with her daughter. Khalaf al-Hosani, a lawyer, told The judge dismissed Mr the AFP news agency today that Najafi’s claim that he had they are a c c u s e d o f merely kissed the woman on “committing a sexual act [by] the cheek and sentenced both k i s s i n g o n t h e l i p s a n d defendants to a month in jail touching”. followed by deportation.

The Britons have been on bail pending their appeal. The Dubai authorities are holding their passports so that they cannot leave the country. Mr al-Hosani said he told the court that the witness had presented different statements. “She told the police that she saw them kissing, while she told the prosecution that her children saw them,” he said, adding that the defence is arguing that the couple only kissed on the cheek “as a greeting”, which is allowed. Mr Najafi has been working for Hay Group, the marketing company, in Dubai for about 18 months. Speaking from the family home in Palmers Green, North London, his mother Maida Najafi said: “My Ayman is a good boy, very wise and mature. I can’t believe it. “He knows the rules over there. He would never do that. He wouldn’t even do it over here.

He said, ’I haven’t done anything wrong, Mum. Hopefully I will clear my name and then I can come back’. “He’s an unbelievable young man, strong, hardworking, confident. He is doing so well.” A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that a British national was arrested in Dubai on November 27. Consular assistance was provided at the time.” She said she had no further details. Dubai is a popular destination for British tourists, one of the kingdoms that form part of the United Arab Emirates, home to more than 100,000 British expatriates. The city state adheres to certain strict Islamic rules, and bans sex outside marriage. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Colourful lifeguard stations of Miami Beach (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/14/2010 9:49:28 AM

From the Art Deco hotels and thrilling nightlife to the exquisite cuisine—Miami is an exciting environment to visit. It’s no surprise that the lifeguard stations that sit atop the famous Miami Beach are just as memorable. See a few colourful stations below, and then click through for the entire gallery. See them all at Miami Beach Advisor. More inspiring designs. Permalink| Leave a comment »

Dividend Stock #1: Annaly Capital Management (NLY) Jeff Reeves (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 3/14/2010 1:00:00 PM

Filed under: Annaly Capital Management (NLY) Dividend Yield: 16.5% Market Cap:$10.2 billion Annaly Capital Management(

NLY) is a real estate investment trust(REIT) that deals mainly in mortgage-backed securities. Though there is a lot of uncertainty around these instruments that started the mess on Wall Street in late 2008, stability with consistent earnings Annaly is showing signs of growth in each of the past four

quarters. Continue reading Dividend Stock #1: Annaly Capital Management (NLY) Dividend Stock #1: Annaly Capital Management (NLY) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 14 Mar

2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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US woman held in Ireland over alleged plot to kill Muhammad artist James Sturcke (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

son. Irish police refused to discuss the case. Three are of those arrested are still in custody. Submitted at 3/14/2010 9:39:20 AM Mother says Jamie Paulin- Paulin-Ramirez's arrest is one Ramirez had been in contact of four developments in the last with fellow American 'Jihad week involving Americans and Jane' alleged terror activities abroad. A second US woman who The al-Qaida spokesman Adam converted to Islam has been Gadahn appeared in a video; arrested in connection with an Sharif Mobley, of New Jersey, alleged attempt to kill a Swedish tried to escape his detainment in artist, days after terror charges Yemen; and Colleen LaRose, were revealed against a woman who allegedly went by the name dubbed "Jihad Jane". Jihad Jane to recruit others Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, from online to kill Vilks, was named Colorado, was among seven in a federal terror indictment. people arrested in Ireland last Mott said Paulin-Ramirez had week over the alleged plot to told her family they would go to kill Lars Vilks, who depicted the hell if they didn't follow her prophet Muhammad as a dog in s t e p s a n d b e g a n w e a r i n g a sketch. headscarves, and later a hijab. Her mother, Christine Mott, "It came out of left field," she said Paulin-Ramirez was lonely said. "I knew she was talking to and had "got sucked in" to these people online ... What extremism. Paulin-Ramirez caused her to turn her back on announced last year that she had her country, on her family and converted to Islam and moved to become this person? I don't Ireland with her six-year-old know how or why. All I know is

she was in contact with this Jihad Jane." Mott said she and her daughter were "enemies ... We couldn't even speak to each other." When Paulin-Ramirez had discussed jihad with her stepfather, George Mott, who has been a Muslim for more than 40 years, she told him "she'd strap a bomb for the cause", Mrs Mott said. Last week an indictment was unsealed accusing LaRose of plotting to murder an unnamed Swedish man in order to frighten "the whole Kufar [nonbeliever] world". According to FBI agents who tracked her from at least July last year, she was potentially a dangerous would-be terrorist intent on martyrdom and using the aliases Jihad Jane and Fatima LaRose. There is mounting anxiety in the US about the incidence of American citizens engaging in jihadist activities. It is a phenomenon of homegrown terrorism that has previously

been considered rare in the country. In December last year FBI agents and their Pakistani colleagues interrogated five young American Muslims who were suspected of being on their way to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against US-led forces. Earlier in December another US citizen, David Headley, was charged with helping to plan the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people in 2008. • Ireland • United States James Sturcke guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

China looks to combustible ice as a fuel source (Holy Kaw!)

supply China’s energy needs for ninety years. This past week, the Qinghai province announced This past September, scientists plans to allow researchers and discovered, below the tundra of energy companies to tap the China’s Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, ‘combustible ice’ as a fuel a large reserve of methane gas source. The trick to completing and ice crystals that could this task successfully is to

damaging the environment. Full story at Physorg. All the latest and greatest in science. Permalink| Leave a comment »

Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:29:24 AM

develop a technology capable of excavating the fuel without

Police hunt wool graffiti bandit (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/13/2010 6:30:21 PM

Police in West Cape May are on the hunt for what could possibly be the least-threatning guerilla vandal in the history of graffiti. From tree branches to lamp posts - ‘The Midnight Knitter’ has been covering most of New Jersey in brightly covered wool. Technically, the crafty needle-wheeler is breaking the law, however, Mayor Pam Kaithern and local residents admit they’re delighted by the woolly rainbow colours. Full story at Metro. More on (legal) needlecraft. Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg says that Manhunt launched for power is within reach missing British student Jonathan Dorey (Top stories from Times Online)

of his most assured and passionate performances to a party conference since taking Submitted at 3/14/2010 5:27:13 AM over in 2007. After the speech Nick Clegg told the Liberal he said that he "only just” Democrats that power was coped. within their grasp as he urged He set an ambitious target of his party to allow him maximum securing one in three votes at flexibility in the event of a hung t h e g e n e r a l election, a parliament. significant rise from his party’s He insisted that he had no 22.1 per cent in 2005. secret plans to help either “Almost one in four voters G o r d o n B r o w n o r D a v i d chose the Liberal Democrats at Cameron into Downing Street, the last election. If that reminding the party that voters increased to one in three we are the “kingmaker” on election could lead the next election,” he day. said. He said that in the event of a He urged activists to give him a hung parliament, the Lib Dems f r e e h a n d i f i t c o m e s t o had a “moral duty” to support negotiating with Labour or the the party with the strongest Tories. mandate, but was vague on “When all the speculation is said whether this would be the party and done, I keep coming back to with the biggest number of some simple truths: I am not the seats, likely to favour Labour, kingmaker. The 45 million or votes, which would give the v o t e r s o f B r i t a i n a r e t h e advantage the Tories. kingmakers. They give the The Liberal Democrat leader politicians their marching battled a sore throat to give one orders, not the other way

around. It’s called democracy – and I kind of like it.” Mr Clegg’s spokesman said that in the event of a hung parliament, it would take about a week to arrange a special conference for activists to get their approval for any deal. Senior party figures are relaxed about getting backing from the party faithful, many of whom are left-leaning, arguing they are pragmatic and want to see them in power at Westminster. One Lib Dem adviser suggested that Mr Brown should be replaced by Alistair Darling in the event of the Lib Dems supporting Labour in a minority administration. The conference mood was upbeat after recent polls suggesting the outcome of the election could be a hung parliament. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Video: Attack of the Boxer Blimp

Star Birthdays This Week!

(Little Green Footballs)

Boxer. It’s still amusing, but the new video feels self-conscious; Submitted at 3/13/2010 3:38:31 PM her campaign is trying to California Senate candidate m a n u f a c t u r e a n o t h e r w e b Carly “Demon Sheep” Fiorina is sensation by being deliberately back with another bizarre video, weird.[Video] (ETonline - Breaking News) this time attacking Barbara Submitted at 3/14/2010 5:00:00 AM

(Top stories from Times Online)

bikers and walkers. He may have gone off on a mountain bike trail, had an accident and Submitted at 3/14/2010 6:17:41 AM injured himself. If he’s lying Hundreds of people were today there we want to find him.” expected to join a search in Police said that there was no Virginia for a British college e v i d e n c e o f f o u l p l a y . e x c h a n g e s t u d e n t w h o Detectives have been collecting d i s a p p e a r e d 1 2 d a y s a g o . electronic information in a bid Jonathan Dorey, a 22-year-old to piece together his last geography student from the movements. University of the West of Mr Beebe said it was hoped that England, was last seen leaving these clues, along with help the Virginia Commonwealth from people in the local area, University (VCU) campus in would help the search team to the city of Richmond at around retrace Mr Dorey’s steps and 11 am (1600 GMT) on March 2. follow his planned movements. He had his mountain bike, a “Someone somewhere must backpack and his mobile phone have seen Jonny Dorey that with him. Tuesday,” he said. His worried friends have spread “All it takes is somebody the word of his disappearance sending a message from an with a Facebook group which internet cafe, a phone box n o w h a s n e a r l y 1 9 , 0 0 0 (phone booth), Twitter, and that members. single piece of information will Bob Beebe, a friend of Mr help to complete that very Dorey’s family who is acting as complex jigsaw.” their spokesman, said that the Mr Dorey’s parents have latest search attempt would traveled from their home in focus on a rural area near the Guernsey to the US to aid the VCU campus. search. VCU has offered a “There’s a very large group of $5,000 reward for information people gathering around the which helps to locate the Belle Isle area, which was the missing student. last known message link to Five Filters featured article: Jonny’s phone,” he said. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: “It’s a beautiful rural setting, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, very popular with mountain Term Extraction.

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Nicolas Sarkozy votes with Carla Bruni in regional polls in show of unity

The Week in Preview: FedEx vs. Nike, Gamestop, Discover

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

Trey Thoelcke (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:18:52 AM

By Henry Samuel in Paris Published: 6:18PM GMT 14 Mar 2010 Mr Sarkozy's ruling centreRight UMP party was braced for major losses in the two-round elections seen as a referendum on the president mid-way through his five-year term. It is the last nationwide vote before presidential and parliamentary elections due in 2012, and the first since a year-long recession pushed the jobless rate up to three million people – the worst figure in a decade. The oppositions Socialists are set to retain the 20 out of 22 regions in mainland France plus Corsica that they won in the last vote in 2004, and possibly clinch a "grand slam" in the second round on March 21. Although one poll predicted the Socialists would clinch 31 per

cent of the vote in round one – just two points more than the UMP – they are expected to wipe the floor in the run-off by joining forces with third-placed Europe Ecologie, a growing Green force in French politics. The far Right National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen is expected to come in fourth over all. The Modem party of François Bayrou, the centrist former presidential candidate, was expected to crash out with only 5 per cent of the vote while the Trotskyist postman, Olivier Besancenot, was expected to muster little more than two per cent. Mr Sarkozy has insisted the vote is purely about local issues, and has ruled out a major reshuffle if the results are as bad as expected. But the Left-wing daily Libération newspaper wrote: "Rarely has a regional election been so national" and the president has pledged to be "attentive" to what voters say.

As he faced a political beating, the French president was also enduring a personal crisis, following rumours that his twoyear marriage to Mrs BruniSarkozy, the former model, was falling apart. The pair arrived to cast their ballots in a Paris school on Sunday in a show of unity, but in an unfortunate coincidence, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy was photographed before entering the building standing under a poster of Benjamin Biolay, the French singer with whom it was rumoured last week she was having an affair. Mr Sarkozy has since dismissed the rumour – along with another that he was having an affair with his ecology minister, Chantal Jouanno - as "idiotic". Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:30:00 PM

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, FedEx Corp (FDX), NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), Federal Reserve, GameStop Corp (GME) If FedEx can still be considered a bellwether for the U.S. economy, then judging by the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, things must be looking pretty bright. But then again, the expectations for this week's quarterly reports from Nike, GameStop, and Discover tell a different story. Memphis-based FedEx Corp.( FDX), announced an increase in ground rates and also delivered two pandas from the U.S. to China with its new Boeing 777F during its fiscal third quarter. Earnings for that period are expected to have more than doubled from a year ago to $0.72 per share. And revenue

SXSW: Comic Bill Hicks Posthumously Rocks Austin Eliot Van Buskirk (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/13/2010 1:27:00 PM

The North American premiere of American: The Bill Hicks Story delivers a biting dose of the late, great stand-up's

routines. But that's just the tip of the iceberg: Fans who've memorized every word will dig the documentary's inventive

animation sequences.

for the three months that ended in February is expected to have risen 2.4% to $8.3 billion. Analysts so far expect sequential and year-over-year growth of EPS and revenue in the fourth quarter. FedEx only fell short of earnings estimates in one of the past five quarters. Continue reading The Week in Preview: FedEx vs. Nike, Gamestop, Discover The Week in Preview: FedEx vs. Nike, Gamestop, Discover originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Professional couch potato wanted: get paid to do nothing and eat more junk food

CEO Takes HarleyDavidson for a Ride

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

Submitted at 3/14/2010 1:50:00 PM

test it in the real world. The job ad, which has already gone up in UK job centres, reads: “We know it’s incredible, but it’s true. Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:09:06 AM By Richard Alleyne, Science “We are willing to pay you Correspondent £23,750 a year to continue Published: 6:09PM GMT 14 doing EXACTLY what you do Mar 2010 every single day, and all we ask A company is advertising for a in return is that you eat 16% couch potato to do nothing and more calories a week – or 400 eat more. more calories a day – whilst It will pay more than £23,000 introducing Proactol into your to a "worker" with a big appetite diet. who is happy to eat 400 extra “The ideal candidate should not calories every day in high fat already be on a diet but eat a meals such as chips and h e a l t h y b a l a n c e of pizzas, to test the fat binding carbohydrates, fats and proteins properties of a weight loss and be prepared to increase their product. existing calorie intake by 16% a The position is open to men and week by eating fatty foods such women and the successful as Chinese takeaways, fish applicant will have their and chips, pizza or McDonalds calorific intake and weight “Essentially we want you to be closely monitored by medics. yourself. No strings, no catches. A spokesman for the firm “We are looking to hire the Proactol Ltd said that while their ultimate average Joe who isn’t fat binder was already afraid to eat more, be clinically proven, they wanted to t h e m s e l v e s a n d b e c o m e a

professional couch potato for a living. “Your basic salary will be £23,750 a year and every day will feel like a holiday in this job as you will get paid to be you.” The spokesman said the tester would help the company’s medical experts learn more about the health benefits of taking Proactol – which it’s claimed absorbs up to 30% of fat intake. After an initial in-house monitoring period the ‘couch potato’ will be given the opportunity to work from home – with supplies being delivered to their door. “It’s the ultimate work from home job,” said the spokesman. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Gary E. Sattler (BloggingStocks)

Filed under: Management, Industry, Harley-Davidson (HOG) How's this for a kick in the pants: Flying in the face of it's first quarterly loss in 16 years, a seriously questionable compensation package has just been awarded to the new, shorttime CEO of Harley-Davidson Inc. ( HOG). Keith E. Wandell, the new Harley-Davidson CEO, and former COO of Johnson Controls Inc. ( JCI), has been awarded a compensation package totaling approximately $6.4 million for his participation in Harley-Davidson operations from May 2009 through the end of that year. When given the company's downward slide

through 2009, and in consideration of tough times ahead for those who survive on high-end discretionary spending, might there be cause to wonder if Mr. Wandell's compensation package is just a tad excessive? Continue reading CEO Takes Harley-Davidson for a Ride CEO Takes Harley-Davidson for a Ride originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Turn an Old PC Into an Aquarium [Weekend Project] Whitson Gordon (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/13/2010 7:00:00 PM

It's a sad fact of life: PCs get old, become obsolete, and you have to buy a new one. Instead

of throwing your old one away, DIY web site Instructables. turn it into a snazzy aquarium fit More » for a geek with this guide from

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Dividend Stock #2: Och Leibovitz Leaves Art -Ziff Capital Capital for Colony Management (OZM) Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks)

Jeff Reeves (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:20:00 AM

Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:00:00 PM

Filed under: Deals, Private Equity, Scandals, Goldman Sachs Group (GS) Art Capital Group and Annie Leibovitz have moved on from each other. Last week, the photographer found something of an angel in private equity firm Colony Capital LLC. Leibovitz owed $24 million to the art investment bank last September, when she restructured her debt for terms that were not disclosed. The private equity firm, which worked with Michael Jackson in the past, settled the debt to Art Capital Group on March 8, 2010, and announced a "new

Filed under: Stocks to Buy Dividend Yield: 15.9% Market Cap:$1.2 billion Och-Ziff Capital Management( OZM) is a publicly traded hedge fund and investment manager. The bull market has been very kind to this stock in the past year or so, and the results show in its bottom line. In its latest earnings report in February, Och-Ziff said its assets ballooned by $500 million in the past six weeks with a total of $24 billion under management as of Feb. 1. The company's just paid a 58-cent quarterly dividend on Feb. 18 to shareholders of record on Dec. 31, and shows no sign of a cut anytime soon. Continue reading Dividend Stock #2: Och-Ziff Capital

Management (OZM) Dividend Stock #2: Och-Ziff Capital Management (OZM) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

partnership" with Leibovitz. None of the terms are being disclosed ... as usual. Continue reading Leibovitz Leaves Art Capital for Colony Leibovitz Leaves Art Capital for Colony originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Have a Conversation Instead of Writing Questions for Interviews [Interviewing] Whitson Gordon (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/13/2010 6:00:00 PM

Most of us, when we interview someone, compile a list of questions and go through them one by one. California Radio Personality Colin Marshall suggests that what you should do is the oppositeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;have a conversation led by the interviewee instead. More Âť

Cartoon: Can't Go to SXSW? We Feel Your Pain Rob Cottingham (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/14/2010 10:24:13 AM

For anyone in this business who isn't at SXSW in Austin, Texas this week, pretty much every social media channel feels like

sitting next to a high school clique loudly talking about a party you weren't invited to. If SXSW doesn't interest you, or if you're able to rise above it all, then my hat's off to you and your Zen-like transcendence. Sponsor

For those of us who still have

some lingering envy or a fear that we're missing out on... well, we're not quite sure what, but something really cool... there's actually some soothing relief this year. Check out the Twitter discussion on the #fakesxsw hashtag: if it doesn't bring a grin

to your face, well, maybe you don't deserve to be at SXSW. And if that doesn't help, well, there's always the Sally Struthers approach. More Noise to Signal. Discuss

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Body of Missing Portland Hiker Found

Shirky: Napster tapped into our primate instincts

(FOXNews.com)

(CNET News.com)

Submitted at 3/14/2010 9:16:57 AM

STEVENSON, Wash. Authorities say the body of a missing 24-year-old Portland woman has been found. Katherine Huether's had been missing since March 4 when she went hiking near Bonneville Dam in Washington's Skamania County. Undersheriff Dave Cox says her body was found Saturday in the Columbia River Gorge by some hikers wedged behind rocks at the base of an 800-foot cliff. He says deputies confirmed the body was that of Huether but because of darkness and hazardous conditions authorities

postponed recovering it until Sunday morning. Cox didn't disclose any information how she died in a news release, but he told the Portland Oregonian that Huether appears to have fallen from a cliff that is part of a steep rock face marking the site of the historic Bonneville Slide. The only information that authorities had to go on was her car found at a trailhead and a credit card receipt with her name found about four miles north of Bonneville Dam. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Happy Pi Day, Math Nerds! [Happy Pi Day] Dan Nosowitz (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:43:27 PM

Today's March 14th, which everyone knows is the day high school math club members further cement their alienation everyone celebrate nerddom in by celebrating their love of the comments! [ Wiki] More Âť math, or circles, or whatever. But today's Sunday, so let's

and that's what was revolutionary about it. "Back in the old days we used to AUSTIN, Texas--Author and have something called a CD New York University professor c o l l e c t i o n , " S h i r k y s a i d Clay Shirky thinks he's getting facetiously. "It was something old, or in other words, "my like keeping the box that the average age has been going up Amazon books came in, but you at the alarming rate of about one kept the container the music was year per year." Recently, he in all the time...If somebody else said, he had to explain Napster came over to my house and said, to a class of his students because 'That Vanilla Ice track is they were too young to have slammin'! Can I have that?' No! k n o w n m u c h a b o u t t h e This is my copy of 'To The groundbreaking music-sharing Extreme.' If I give it to you, I service in its heyday. will no longer be ale to enjoy But that wasn't the point. Vanilla Ice's music. That's Shirky's talk on Sunday morning sharing of goods." at the South by Southwest In other words, sharing Interactive Festival was called something physical makes us "Monkeys with Internet Access: possessive. Sharing information Sharing, Human Nature, and is easier, and Shirky argued, Digital Data," and it covered a biologically programmed dating rambling range of topics from back to our primate origins. the Gutenberg printing press to In the Napster era, some the rise of sites like Patients attributed the ascent of pirated Like Me that aim to transform digital music to a supposedly shared information into a civic criminal-minded nature among good. American youth. The argument But it was his point about didn't work. "It coincided with Napster that was particularly the largest fall in the rate of interesting: Napster was what crime in recorded history," turned the sharing of music from S h i r k y s a i d , " w i t h o n e sharing a physical good into exception, which was theft of sharing information, he said, digital property." Submitted at 3/14/2010 10:36:00 AM

He didn't offer a solution for the music industry, or for the regulatory bodies that he says are trying to put legislation in place that would make us "spiteful" about sharing digital goods (which are information, he'd argue) the same way that we'd share physical ones. "Sharing information is something that we're not only biased to do, but it's something we're biased to like," he said. "This freaked the music industry out, and the thing that freaked them out is we didn't voluntarily withhold the ability to share things with other people that would make their lives better at no cost to themselves." The music industry obviously has its own side of the argument. But some people in that camp might agree with the human origins connection: tackling the issue of digital music probably has been, indeed, like dealing with a room full of unruly monkeys. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Why User Competency Matters in Social Design Adrian Chan (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/14/2010 8:55:25 AM

Adrian Chan is a Sr Fellow with SNCR.org and is a social interaction design consultant and strategist. You can follow him on Twitter@gravity7 and at h i s b l o g : gravity7.com/blog/media. In designing for social participation, we can consider user goals and needs — even interests, features, functionality, adoption and scaling issues. Best practices and popular ways of using social media guide us in our decisions. But there’s a basic concern we seem to often overlook: “What is the user good at?” We each differ in what we’re good at socially, so asking this question raises other interesting questions that can be useful in mapping the social design objectives for tools, services, social brand campaigns and more. In the answers lie a rich set of possibilities. If we really take the user experience to heart, we ought to think about user competencies. Users have different competencies in social media applications, just as they have different social skills in the real world. How users socialize, and what they are good at — these are their competencies. In the case of social media, this is as much social and interpersonal as it is technical. Using Human

Insight When we think about user competencies we might first recognize that we need to know more about the user’s experience with social media, but we have little research upon which to draw solid distinctions. Researching this is hard, and methods are imperfect. Qualitative approaches are difficult to scale, and users do not always describe what they do online with the honest insight we want. Quantitative studies can scale better, but they rely on limited interpretations of user behavior. Let’s instead do a series of thought experiments using assumptions about some basic and essential insights and principles. What We Can Presume About People and Social Media If we start with the assumption that people on social media are good at social media, then the following are also true to varying degrees: • People are good at using social media. • People are good at interacting with others on social media. • People are good at making themselves look good on social media. • People are good at making others feel and look good on social media. • People are good at making things happen on social media. • People are good at these

things over time, not just once. From there, we can continue with the notion that people are good at using social media, which means we can presume that people also enjoy using it, because people generally enjoy things they are good at. So: • People enjoy using social media. • People enjoy interacting with others on social media. • People enjoy making themselves look good on social media. • …and so on for everything people are good at.

media. • People are interested in how they appear on social media. • People are motivated to help or make others look good on social media. • People are interested in making things happen on social media. • People sustain their interest for some period of time.

Fleshing Out User Motives If the above statements ring true and resonate, we can see how easily the user experience on social media might be fleshed out. We can address personal motives, interests, and reasons relating to the user’s sense of self, and reasons related to his or her social status, positions, relationships and activities in social media. We can easily see that a user’s competencies with social interaction might involve varying degrees of selfIt follows that if people enjoy reference, attention to and what they are good at on social interest in others, sustained media, their enjoyment is a engagement through interaction, reason for using social media. relationship maintenance, social Their enjoyment would vary awareness of activities and according to their own habits practices, and much more. and practices, which would Designing the Social include their competencies with Much of social media is social interaction, their presence designed within the context of and self-image online, their its own use. Once they’re relationships and their activities. established and populated, we • People have a reason to be on r e d e s i g n a p p l i c a t i o n s social media. incrementally. We do this in • People are motivated to p a r t t o a v o i d u p s e t t i n g interact with others on social conventions and practices that

have taken hold, and also because wholesale redesigns of social tools can be impractical or even counter-productive. Application design and architecture become limiting factors and shape many design considerations. But if we approach social design from the perspective of what users are good at, we might be better able to think outside our own box. Goals and rewards– Consider the kinds of goals you might set within your social application and the rewards that may be earned by users who reach them. These might be personal goals and rewards, like game levels, tasks, challenges, or points. Or social goals and rewards, resulting in status, ranking, visibility, lists, features and spotlighting members. Moods and feelings– Give expressive users ways in which to communicate their moods and feelings. For example, emoticons and gifts, or icons to be used and exchanged with friends or attached to messages and content. These small gestures, while small, can be curiously compelling. Knowledge and learning– For users interested in research, information, bookmarking, and more search and browse-related activities, provide ways to share discoveries. Capture those WHY page 26

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Ask TUAW: Clocks, screen guards, MacBook hard drive replacement, NFS automount, and more Mat Lu (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:00:00 PM

Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we have questions about replacing a MacBook hard drive, refreshing a NFS mount, getting a simple clock on screen, improving iCal's note handling, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhonerelated question, which iPhone version and OS version you have. Felix asks I'm a iMac user in search for a USB hub and a FireWire hub with a Mac-like design. Sure there are several of them (especially USB hubs) that have a Macish look but then theres the thing about performance. Some years ago I bought a USB2.0 hub just to find that some of the ports feel much

slower than others and that sometimes my iPod (now my iPhone) just don't get recharged at all when connected to the hub. So my question is, what do you think are the most Mac-like looking and well performing USB and FireWire hubs available? Here are a couple of combo hubs you might be interested in from Belkin and IOGEAR. The Belkin hub does not feature its own power supply (apparently it draws more current from the FireWire port), whereas the IOGEAR does have an independent power supply, so if you're concerned about power you might want to go in that direction. In general if you want particularly "Macish" hubs, I'd recommend searching for ones made for the Mac mini (there are quite a few out there). Derek asks I recently replaced the LCD in my aged Powerbook 15" 1.33 (A1095). When it arrived on my doorstep there was a plastic film applied on the face to protect it during shipping. I've always had a problem with the LCD on this Powerbook (and my old G3 Wallstreet, for that matter) touching the keyboard when the lid is shut, thusly leaving permanent marks on the face of the display. So, I left the film on the replacement LCD, and it has

worked very well to protect the new screen. However, it's starting to peel and bubble on one edge and I'd like to replace it. Does anyone make screen protectors such as the variety of stick-on protectors for iPod Touch/iPhones in sizes for laptop screens? I have considered hitting the local megamart and just getting several to piece together, but I think the seams would be more annoying than the bubbling. There are several different film screen protectors available, such as this Crystal Screen Guard at Amazon. The biggest problem is finding one that will exactly fit your PowerBook, since most everything sold today is made for the MacBook Pro line. I think that the PowerBook actually had a 15.2" screen, rather than the 15.4" screen on the MacBook Pro. So I'm guessing you'd have to trim down a MacBook Pro Screen Guard to fit your PowerBook. SMartenup asks I would like to find a way to save all of my open programs / documents, and then restore to that same set of programs & documents. Is there any way to do this? OS X does have a feature called Safe Sleep, which is much like the hibernation features on other operating systems. When

invoked it saves the state of your Mac to the hard drive and then actually shuts the computer off. When you restart the machine, it will be restored to the state that was saved. There's a handy Preference Pane app called SmartSleep that will allow you to invoke Safe Sleep automatically. I get the sense, however, that what you want is something analogous to session saving a web browser's tabs, but for all your open documents. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of anything that does quite what you want. ooglek asks I have a 250GB SimpleTech SimpleShare NAS. I've had it for about 3 years, and it works well enough. Now on Snow Leopard both my 2008 Mac Pro and my 2006 Macbook Pro can access the NAS via NFS Automount setup in the Disk Utility (new for Snow Leopard). My problem is that when I take my laptop out of my home office, when I come back, I have no way to "refresh" or reconnect to the NFS mount. I'm not sure if it is hung (used to have to kill nfsd in Leopard), awaiting some user action or just not set up right. I don't have much experience with NFS mounts, but if I'm understanding the problem

correctly you need to flush the cache with the sudo automount vc command. That should cause it to essentially "refresh." Check out this thread over at Apple Discussions. vulgo asks I am a long time Mac user and as far as I can think back I was using Microsofts Entourage as a calendar and before that Outlook for Mac. Since I got my iPhone 2 years ago I always wanted to migrate to iCal to use that as my main calendar application because of synching reasons. Unfortunately iCal is in my opinion a bad solution. It sure does allow notes in the notes field but there is no way to work properly with lots of text in the notes field like you can easily do in Entourage. You cannot just drag the corner of the window and make it bigger to get a good overview about what you write or copy/paste there. The column is and stays just too small. Do you have any idea for a good solution to make iCal fulfill the task of a proper note field without moving to another software? I know you asked for a solution that involves iCal, but I don't really think there is one. I completely agree with you that the iCal notes interface is ASK page 25

Tech/

E-reader News Edition

Inside the New Digg: An Interview with CEO Jay Adelson Adam Ostrow (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:25:17 AM

At last night’s “Bigg Digg Shindigg” in Austin, TX, Digg CEO Jay Adelson briefly revealed plans for a massive overhaul of the social news site. This morning, I had an opportunity to chat with Adelson in-depth about the new Digg and what users, publishers, and the web as a whole should expect. To sum it up, Adelson says the new strategy will “enable social curation of all the world’s content and the conversation around it.” To get there though, Digg has re-built its entire site from the ground up, with dramatic changes that will be rolled out over the coming weeks and months. New User Experience The days of the Digg homepage as we know it – the most recently popular stories on the service as a whole – are numbered. The site is shifting towards a personalization model, where the homepage will be based on characters like a user’s interests, location, who they follow not only on Digg but services like Twitter and Facebook, and other “signals” from around the web like retweets, Facebook shares, and more. But Adelson notes that not all of these signals are created

equal – for example, a retweet from a Twitter user with millions of followers will weigh much more heavily in the site’s ranking algorithms than one from a user with a few dozen. The concept of a Digg account is also changing. While you can already use Digg via Facebook Connect, the site plans to support logging in with Twitter, Google, Yahoo, and OpenID, among other identity providers. It goes even further than that though – users will be able to Digg and submit stories anonymously. Adelson says that this fundamental change will move the site from 20,000 submissions today to millions. Those submissions will be sorted into an infinite number of categories, with Digg autosuggesting them with users able to make additions and help rearrange miscategorized posts. Digg has also been watching what companies like Twitter and Facebook are doing for brands. The new Digg will eventually support publisher and brand profiles. Further, we might see something akin to Twitter’s suggested user list, where publishers and brands that accrue a large following and continually have popular content get recommended to Digg users. Along those lines, Leaderboards will also be making a return to Digg, but not in the old form of showing just

users Digg a story without leaving the site. Duplicate submissions will also no longer be an issue on Digg, because all submissions will be URL-based. But Digg has much larger ambitions for publishers as well. Websites like Mashable will be able to include Digg comments the most successful submitters (which are being re-done again) site-wide. Instead, Adelson right underneath stories. But it envisions leaderboards for the goes further than that – thirdinfinite topic and vertical pages party comment services like that will emerge, letting Digg Disqus will be able to integrate users become trusted sources in the comments right into their a given niche. Expect some sort platforms, making Digg a much of achievement system that will more relevant part of the reward Digg users for “good distributed conversation game. behavior” as Adelson put it. Beyond that, Adelson wants to Because of all these changes, p r o v i d e p u b l i s h e r s w i t h Digg’s suite of mobile apps is a n a l y t i c s a n d e v e n s h a r e also going to be completely revenue with them down the line revamped, with changes closely in an effort to better monetize mirroring those on the site. A traffic that comes in via Digg. New Paradigm for Publishers Digg the Business Adelson says the Digg we Beyond the publisher revenue know today is “a bit like share opportunity – which is gambling” for publishers, where likely well down the road – a story either hits the homepage Adelson sees significant page and sees an enormous one-time view growth coming from the spike in traffic or sits in relative thousands of new categories obscurity. With the new Digg, we’ll see in the new Digg. Adelson says publishers should However, he’s not in a hurry to expect a “more predictable” monetize them with ads, saying stream of traffic, as many more the company is in good financial stories receive placement on an shape. infinite number of personalized In the long-term, he sees Digg user homepages. ads– which the company says Digg has a lot of new features are seeing some success – as the in store for publishers too. The primary driver of revenue. new Digg button – which we’re Digg’s also in serious hiring testing here on Mashable – lets mode, with plans to add 50

engineers this year to help them deal with the inevitable question of … How Will Users Respond? Digg’s notoriously vocal community is in for some major changes, but the company is taking a very measured approach in rolling them out. Users will start receiving invites for the alpha site, which you can sign-up for at new.digg.com, within the next few weeks. From there, Digg plans “continuous iteration,” to address user feedback, a process Adelson says is made possible by the site’s recently announced architecture changes that he believes will let them scale indefinitely. Nonetheless, Digg is committed to its new vision. Within the next few months, the Digg we know today will be shut down, and the company will embark full speed ahead on its plan to be the most relevant aggregator and curator of the world’s news. How Digg’s rabid base of current users respond and if the new strategy is able to bring new people under the Digg tent will ultimately dictate the success of the ambitious new direction. Tags: digg, facebook, jad adelson, social media, twitter

Tech/

E-reader News Edition

#OMGConan: The big Digg party Twitter hoax (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/13/2010 11:35:00 PM

On Saturday night, Twitter rang out with news that Conan O'Brien was joining Internet TV network Revision3. The only problem? It was a huge hoax.(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET) AUSTIN, Texas--Did you hear that Conan O'Brien, fresh off his ugly divorce with NBC, is joining Internet TV network Revision3, home to the mega-hit Diggnation? That was the hot word blasting across Twitter Saturday night, with 426 tweets posted with the hashtag #omgconan in just four hours. The first tweet with the news, from @jimraymonds, hit just after 8 p.m. local time: "Holy [cow] Conan is on Revision3." And the flood picked up from there: "Wow, Conan is actually joining Revision3!" wrote @tuckerman just seconds later. And then, quickly, "Conan O'brien just walked onstage & confirmed that he's joining Revision3!" from @retfirdkeeg. Big news indeed, especially here in the Texas capital where Diggnation, the show hosted by Digg founder Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, had its second

annual live appearance at Digg's jam-packed South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival party. And where best to make as big an announcement as O'Brien's jumping from the old-media world of network TV to the new world of the Internet than SXSW? And that's why, clearly, the tweets flowed like wine among attendees of the festival and, more specifically, the Digg party. And then, naturally, the news was quickly picked up by followers of those tweeting about it and broadly retweeted. The only hitch? The news was actually the cooperative work of the Digg party crowd, eager to snicker along with the hosts of the Internet-based NSFW Show who, as an opening act to Saturday night's live Diggnation, had exhorted the audience to join them in an attempt at setting the world record for the largest-ever Twitter hoax.

The instructions: tweet some form of the news that Conan O'Brien was joining Revision3 and make sure, in order for the NSFW Show hosts to be able to track the progress of the joke, to use the hashtag, #omgconan. If only one or two people had tweeted the hoax, no one would have believed it. These days, most people's nonsense detectors ring out when things that seem a little too good to be true make their way across the Internet, especially on sites like Twitter where anyone can say anything. Indeed, that fact gives some people pause about treating Twitter as a legitimate source of information during breaking news events like earthquakes, fires, social unrest, and the like. But when dozens, or even hundreds of people, all tweet the same basic news at the same time, that would seem to lend the concept legitimacy; after all, hundreds of people wouldn't all

send out the same false information. Right? Having personally tweeted "We just found out at #digg party that conan o'brien is joining Revision3" within a minute of being exhorted to do so by the hosts on stage, I am in no position to get on any kind of high horse about this. To be fair, I think jokes like this are funny, particularly because no Twitter readers were hurt in the making of the hoax and because, hey, sometimes participating in something big and silly is good for us. It didn't take long, of course, for a few incredulous folks to call the hoax a hoax. Again, just a few minutes later, @madcapstudios tweeted, " Real-time hoax! Enjoy! :)" To which I felt honor-bound to respond, "Boooo! Spoil-sport :)" But some people seemed not to enjoy the joke. It didn't take long before @CarolFil posted,

"The whole @conanobrien joining Rev3 is a hoax. Not funny," and later, @Jersey_Girl87 tweeted, "ugh #omgconan is the #worsthoaxever. completely ruined my night now." To which I say, assuming @CarolFil and @Jersey_Girl87 were seriously unhappy about the joke, come on folks. Laugh with us. What's the harm? Didn't you hear that Jeff Goldblum had died? I'm pretty sure @saxifridge heard about the Goldblum died hoax. And laughed. About an hour after the #omgconan joke began, he posted what I think was the best encapsulation of the whole event, "HOLY CRAP! CONAN IS ACTUALLY AN ALIEN WHO CAN CRAP SKITTLES AND YODDLE IN JAPANESE!" But then again, maybe it was this gem, from @NHackett2: "I heard Conan just bought revision3! I can't confirm that at all though...I heard it through the internet." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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ASK continued from page 22

terrible, but I'm not aware of any way to make it work better. However, if you are willing to drop a little coin, you should check out BusyCal($49), which offers iCal / MobileMe / iPhone compatibility and superior better features, including a much more robust notes field (especially in List View). David asks I desperately need a bigger drive for my MacBook. Everyone says it's pretty easy to replace, I just need to buy a 2.5" SATA drive. But I'm so afraid of buying the wrong drive that I can't make a purchase. Here's why: Some folks have strongly recommend not using a drive that is larger than 250GB, and/or faster then SATA 150, 5400RPM. And most of the drives available out there are at least 320GB and often SATA 300 and 7200RPM. Am I being too conservative in my desire to stick to the recommended guidelines? Should I just stop worrying and buy a bigger/faster drive? If I understand the articles, I could/should be safe with a bigger drive as long as I

don't use more than 250GB of the drive? I'm nervous enough about replacing my drive so any advice you have would be much appreciated. Frankly, I don't really understand why anybody would tell you that you have to be limited to 250GB. I am aware of no reason whatsoever that you would need to limit yourself to a drive that small. You should be able to install any 2.5" SATA drive you like, including SATA 2 (SATA 300) / 7200 RPM drives. One thing to consider is that faster 7200 RPM drives will be more power hungry, thus reducing your battery life and increasing heat (your MacBook likely shipped with a 4200 RPM drive, so a 5400 RPM drive might be a good compromise). If you're particularly paranoid you could get a Mac-specific upgrade kit, like those from MCE Tech or OWC, but you don't really need to do that. One nice thing about some of these kits is that they include an external enclosure allowing you to continue to use the old drive as an external hard drive.

No matter which drive you end up with, it's a good idea to get an external enclosure, or at least a USB to SATA adapter (like this one). That way, as soon as you get it you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!($27.95) to clone your existing drive to the new drive. Then install the new drive into the computer and you should be able to start right back up where you left off without reinstalling anything. Good luck! Brent asks I am running dual monitors with my macbook and I don't need a menu bar on both, but I would like a clock running on the second screen. What is the best thing I could use? There are a gajillion little clock apps available for OS X. Check out this search at MacUpdate for a sense of what's out there. You'll probably have to churn through a few of them until you find one that fits your style. If you want a place to start, check out SimpleFloatingClock. David asks For the upcoming iPad my wife

and I are planning on sharing one. Our question is about the email. Is there a way to switch users so to our email is not available to the other. I don't see any way of doing that on the iphone, but we don't share them. Obviously we don't know for sure yet, but everything so far indicates that the iPad will function more or less like the iPhone. That being the case, just as the iPhone doesn't support multiple users, I consider it extremely unlikely that the iPad will either. TUAW Ask TUAW: Clocks, screen guards, MacBook hard drive replacement, NFS automount, and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Submitted at 3/14/2010 1:30:58 PM

Want to know where you can

get a glimpse of the ultra-rare total solar eclipse? This map shows exactly when and where every eclipse in the next fifteen

years will be visibleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and why

Darren Murph (Engadget) Submitted at 3/14/2010 5:08:00 AM

Well, that was quick. Just weeks after hearing that Tesla would be nixing Roadster production prior to the world ending, it looks as if those planning to blow their life savings in the next 18 or so months took issue with the intentions. So much so, in fact, that Tesla has now "negotiated agreements with key suppliers that will increase total Roadster production by 40 percent and extend sales into 2012." Better still, the iconic electric supercar will soon be hitting Australia and Asia, so even if you hit the relocate button in the next little while, you should still be covered should you choose to buy (or lease) in. Tesla switches gears, plans to keep Roadster till 2012 originally appeared on Engadget you should move to Memphis. on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:08:00 More Âť EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Autoblog| Email this| Comments

Total Solar Eclipses, 2001-2025 [Astronomy] Dan Nosowitz (Gizmodo)

Tesla switches gears, plans to keep Roadster till 2012

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WHY continued from page 21

learned moments and make them visible — perhaps surface and validate experts and top contributors. Giving and receiving– For users who enjoy social transactions provide gifts and a means of passing them around privately and publicly. Gifting is a highly social form of communication, and besides being kind, engages a sense of reciprocity in most of us. So it’s naturally contagious. Helping and assisting– Some users are just naturally good at paying attention to others, and enjoy helping and assisting those with needs or questions. Design ways to surface these needs and create channels by which helpers can pitch in. Reviewing, recommending, and rating– Users equipped with opinions and a sense of taste can make valuable reviewers and recommenders. Design ways to capture their contributions as social content. This can be designed then into lists, favorite, trends, news and more. Asking and answering– In a world of search, there are still

many occasions when users want to ask questions and get personal answers. And in a world of search results, there are those who enjoy sharing their knowledge, expertise, and help. But questions disappear if they are not captured and paid attention to. Announcing and sharing– There are users so on top of news that furnishing them with means to announce their discoveries makes for an easy and effective way to keep social content fresh and interaction active. Topical organization, along with trends, help users sort and filter what’s relevant to them. These suggestions may seem obvious and familiar, but in the context of a particular social service the manner in which they will scale socially will be unique. Unique to the site’s population, and unique to its existing activities and social practices. So, for example, Foursquare may have many users whose competency is an inclination to

recommend little-known discoveries or best-kept secrets associated with places they frequently check in to. Foursquare could capture and reward their interest in recommendations (i.e., what they’re good at) with a different set of badges. Or, instead of points, these users might be featured in a Q/A forum tied to locations or even regions. These users might then become local area experts, and their weekly checkins could be published along with recommended discoveries and social votes provided by users who tried out the recommendations. Foursquare would then benefit not only by expanding the social incentives and rewards it uses to engage users, but would be doing so for a different type of user. Social practices then become more diverse, new kinds of communication and connection open up, and the experience becomes richer for all when you pay more attention to the things at which your users excel. Conclusion

So I offer this as a supplementary consideration: take an interest in what your users are good at. Take an interest in how they are good at being social with and through your service or application. Learn how to observe what users are doing and how their social habits vary. Think outside yourself and from the perspectives of other people. Their behaviors may not give them away entirely, but if you develop a palette of personal and social skills that you can use to relate to people different from you, your design insights will be that much smarter. [ img credit: kooklanekookla, flawedartist] Reviews: Foursquare Tags: social design, social media, user experience, user experience design, UX, web design

Submitted at 3/14/2010 2:10:14 PM

This iPhone typist/possible

woodpecker earns today's Holy Shit YouTube Moment of the Day Award. I'm positive I couldn't beat him on my

Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:15:36 PM

So, the iPad is finally available for pre-order, and it turns out the half of the Giz staff that bought one aren't alone: CNN estimates Apple received about 120,000 iPad pre-orders on that first day alone. More »

Predators, the 2010 remake of Predator: This won’t end well Submitted at 3/13/2010 12:04:11 PM

fight against me on my laptop. More » Droid—hell, he'd put up a good

Dan Nosowitz (Gizmodo)

John Biggs (CrunchGear)

Ridiculously Fast iPhone Typist Shames Soft Keyboard Haters [Winners] Dan Nosowitz (Gizmodo)

The iPad's (Pre-) Opening Day Sales: 120,000 [Ipad]

Nowhereelse found what amounts to be a sneak peek for a new version of Predator, now called Predators which I suspect will eat les balles. Oh well.

Tech/ Economy/

E-reader News Edition

'Faster,' 'instant' Digg 2.0 unveiled at SXSW (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:51:00 AM

Digg CEO Jay Adelson used the opportunity of his companys big SXSW party to unveil what is essentially version 2.0 of the hit service.(Credit: Digg) AUSTIN, Texas--Digg announced at its annual South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) party Saturday night that it will soon launch a significantly revamped version of its service that is faster and has instant Digging and instant submissions. Just before Digg founder Kevin Rose and his Diggnation partner Alex Albrecht took the stage at Stubb's BBQ here, CEO Jay Adelson got in front of the audience of hundreds and took the opportunity to introduce, for the first time, what he said was "five years" of major work on the popular headline aggregation system. Among the new features, Adelson said, are that any keyword can be its own category; that submissions will be a one-click process; that users will no longer have to log in to Digg something; that people's Digg home pages will be affected by their own

interests; that the service is bringing back leader boards; and that it is ripping out its MySQL back end and moving to a infrastructure that will be "very, very fast." Adelson said over the loud noise of the Digg party that because of the one-click submission process, the site will likely go from handling 20,000 submissions a day to millions a day. "If you have content, we're going to get it on there in a single click...Can you handle that much content?" he boasted.

Referring to what he called "curation," Adelson said: "The bottom line is, the people who curate this stuff are you guys. One size fits all just doesn't work anymore, and I need more signals to organize this content. So from now on, [for] Digg buttons, you no will longer have to log in to click that Digg button. There will be instant Digging. If you're on another Web site, you click that button, [and] there's no more waiting. Adelson also talked about how users' Digg home pages will be

"heavily personalized" based on the content they submit. For now, this Digg 2.0 is not publicly available. But those in the audience were offered the first opportunity to get in on the early testing. Adelson didn't say when the new service would be rolled out to everyone. Over at Mashable, Ben Parr noticed that in the Digg comment threads on the announcement, Digg's Steve French posted his thoughts on the announcement: "Top to bottom, the entire company has

Bangkok faces mass protests (Financial Times - US homepage)

By Tim Johnston in Bangkok Published: March 12 2010 05:37 | Last updated: March 14

2010 11:49 PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools:

been in overdrive for this project. There are amazing things coming, and I'm glad the screen shots and [Adelson's] presentation didn't spill everything we have in the works for you guys. "My favorite new feature...it's blazing fast. There has been a lot of effort that's gone into the architecture and monitoring of performance." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Tech/ Apple/ Tech Blog/

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How to make Chatroulette a useful video network In a moment (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/14/2010 10:48:00 AM

Chatroulette's 17-year-old founder told the New York Times that he got the idea for the name from the Russian roulette game in 'The Deer Hunter.'(Credit: Internet Movie Database) Andrey Ternovskiy, the 17-year -old Russian high school student who created Chatroulette, is this week visiting New York and San Francisco to chat with investors and programmers. Perhaps with a little help, he can transform the site from a place where you're likely to stumble on someone playing with their private parts into a really useful video socialnetworking site. It seems what Chatroulette mostly needs is separate channels so that users can more easily find people with similar interests. I personally don't have any problem with consenting adults having video chats in the buff, but it would be nice if the rest of us could use Chatroulette to have real conversations with

fully clothed people. That could be accomplished if there were ways to select the subject matter of the conversation and perhaps a few other parameters such as language or region. Imagine a site where you could have a face-to-face discussion about our involvement in Iraq and Iran with people from countries who have a different perspective about those wars.

How about a channel where Israelis and Palestinians could get to know one another? I might visit a channel dedicated to technology. It might be interesting to see what people in Asia are thinking about the iPad or the latest Android phone. If Chatroulette does wind up allowing adult channels, there should be a tool for parents to

easily keep kids from accessing those channels. There could also be channels just for kids with live human monitors making sure nothing inappropriate takes place. But even if there were some controls, I'd recommend that young kids only use a live video chat site with a parent in the room. The site has a lot of potential for educational use. Teachers could use it to link their students with kids in other parts of the world, again with supervision and structure. With a bit of funding, some adult supervision and a good privacy and security team, young Ternovskiy could turn this site into a pretty powerful and useful tool for both the web and mobile devices. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Video How-To: Printer Sharing on a Mac Chris Ryan (TheAppleBlog)

and how to access printers on a network. Submitted at 3/13/2010 3:48:16 PM We will cover the following The following how-to video points: will walk you through the basics • Setting up Printer Sharing of printer sharing on the Mac. • Printing to a Shared Printer You’ll learn both how to set up • Adding a Printer via System

You can watch the embedded video below (lower quality) or watch the full quality version here(28MB). Preferences

of insanity (Scripting News)

Submitted at 3/14/2010 7:42:24 AM

I take the Fifth. I plead temporary insanity. Nolo contendere. I threw reason out the window. I felt smug for some reason. And I was feeling jealous of all the people who, on April 3, had their iPad. And I didn't. So, after reading that Andrew Baron ordered one with his winnings on AAPL stock, I figured I could do it too. So I sucked my gut and pressed Submit. Now I have one of these things, whatever the frack it is, on its way to me in just a couple of weeks. At least I'll be able to watch Fargo on it. PS: I am totally out of my mind.

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New Version of Digg Revealed Ben Parr (Mashable!)

new version of Digg as soon as we can. In the meantime, I’ve put up screenshots from Update: Here’s our follow-up to New.Digg.com and enhanced this story:“ Inside the New the brightness to make viewing Digg: An Interview with CEO the new interface easier. Jay Adelson.” Update: Digg’s Steve French left some more interesting At the “Bigg Digg Shindigg” information in the Digg event at the South by Southwest making.” comment thread for this post. While the company didn’t Here it is in its entirety: Interactive Conference ( S X S W i ) , D i g g C E O J a y reveal much about the new “Top to bottom, the entire Adelson revealed that the website, it seems that there will company has been in overdrive popular social bookmarking site be a cleaner interface, more for this project. There are is getting a major overhaul, personalization options, the amazing things coming, and I’m teasing the audience about new ability to submit news items glad the screen shots and features such as personalized with one click, and brings back p r e s e n t a t i o n d i d n ’ t s p i l l feeds and the return of the Digg the leaderboard for top users. everything we have in the works Digg’s famous website buttons for you guys. leaderboard. The new version of the website are also getting revamped. In My favorite new feature… it’s is not yet available. However, if fact, if you Digg an article on *blazing* fast. There has been a you visit New.Digg.com, you Mashable, you will see the new lot of effort that’s gone into the can sign up for the alpha and see buttons in action, as we are architecture and monitoring of a preview of what the new Digg currently helping test them. performance.” will look like in the background. We’re going to try to put up a [sniplet name] Mr. Adelson told the crowd that video of the announcement, Tags: digg, New Digg, trending the site was “five years in the along with more details on the Submitted at 3/13/2010 7:22:09 PM

Twitter is down this morning (Scripting News)

are fools to think that something like Twitter can run entirely on Submitted at 3/14/2010 7:16:15 AM one company's servers. Not sure how long it's been The Twitter guys should know down, but it's been a while. that can't work, and should be Nothing on status.twitter.com. planning on a resilient future, This reminds me what I'm one where we can trust them going to talk about at the because we don't have to trust Zack Sheppard (Flickr Blog) 140Conf on April 20. How we them. Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:23:22 AM

Boo Hoo! SimplifyMedia dropping products and changing direction Mel Martin (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 3/13/2010 2:00:00 PM

Filed under: Multimedia, Internet Tools, iTunes, iPhone, Music The problem is, we just don't know where they're going. In a Saturday blog post, the company announced it is "...taking a new direction" and won't be offering their current apps to new users. SimplifyMedia has been offering free software for computer-to-computer and iPhone-to-computer music sharing over the internet. Using the iPhone app, you could connect to your computer at home and stream albums, playlists or songs without any complicated firewall setups. A newer version of the software also allowed remote access to your iPhoto library. It also looks like the company is going to slowly sunset current customer accounts but will

continue to keep them functioning for at least another 3 months. The Simplify iPhone app has been removed from the App Store, and the company says new account creation will be disabled soon. I don't have any idea where the company is headed, but the current product will be missed. SimplifyMedia was offered for Mac, PC and Ubuntu. [Thanks to Robert for the tip] TUAW Boo Hoo! SimplifyMedia dropping products and changing direction originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Orange Crush

• About Flickr Flickr is a revolution in photo storage, sharing and

organization, making photo Five Filters featured article: management an easy, natural Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: and collaborative process. Get PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, comments, notes, and tags on Term Extraction. your photos, post to any blog, share and more!

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Classmates.com Agrees to $9.5 Why I Left the Right, Million False Advertising Settlement Exhibit R for Dan Riehl Amy-Mae Elliott (Mashable!)

(Little Green Footballs)

Submitted at 3/14/2010 10:39:57 AM

Submitted at 3/13/2010 1:46:22 PM

Michael’s — estimated to be just over 3 million people. Whether or not you sympathize Classmates.com — the website with those that fell for that promises to reunite people Classmate.com’s oh-so-obvious with their mullet-haired friends tactics, it’s an interesting case in of youth — has agreed to pay terms of wider web marketing. out a $9.5 million settlement for Dating sites are known to carry a lawsuit dating back to 2008 out similar practices, and this accusing the company of “false a dubious marketing ploy from settlement may make offenders a d v e r t i s i n g ” t h r o u g h Classmates.com. sit up and take note. “deceptive” marketing emails. Michaels initiated a false While this particular case may T h e p r o b l e m s f o r advertising lawsuit against be settled, it’s not the end of Classmate.com began back in Classmates.com, which became Classmates.com’s legal troubles. late 2007, when San Diego a class action suit that anyone The site is facing another resident Anthony Michaels who suffered the same fate as lawsuit filed just this month, this received an email from the the plaintiff could sign up for. time a class action privacy social networking company Fast forward to today: although l a w s u i t t h a t a c c u s e s informing him that his old Classmates.com has admitted no Classmates.com of ignoring classmates were trying to wrongdoing as part of the federal and state privacy laws by p r o p o s e d s e t t l e m e n t n o w making user profiles public via a contact him. In order to see who and why, waiting for U.S. District Court controversial opt-out scheme. Michaels had to upgrade to a approval, it has agreed to pay Tags: classmates.com, lawsuits, “Gold Membership.” However, out $3 for every Classmates.com social networking upon forking out to do so, he member who upgraded to a discovered that nobody was “Gold Membership” on the site trying to get in touch; it was just after receiving an email like

The City of Toronto Will Pay for Corey Haim's Funeral [Civil] Ravi Somaiya (Gawker) Submitted at 3/14/2010 2:09:01 PM

The actor died without much money to his name. So his

h o m e t o w n , r e p o r t P e o p l e will also contribute $20,000 for Magazine today, will cover the a t o m b s t o n e a n d o t h e r c o s t s o f h i s b u r i a l . miscellaneous expenses. More » Startifacts.com, a celebrity memorabilia website, say they

suffered a broken back and a broken neck in the crash; Barringer suffered minor Dim bulb wingnut blogger Dan injuries, Sen. Reid’s office said R i e h l i s i n c r e a s i n g l y Thursday. specializing in some of the most I realize her crook of a husband vile, ugly commentary on the and his pals in Congress have right; it’s a crowded field, but excluded themselves from the with posts like this one he mess they’re going to compel manages to stand out: Riehl everyone else to join, but we’re World View: Isn’t It Time To still paying the bills, are we not? Euthanize Reid’s Wife? I don’t see that she’s worth it at The excuse will be that it’s this point, frankly. I can’t recall “satire,” of course, and I her ever doing anything for me. suppose you could argue that it Come on, Harry - do your civic is. Rotten, mean-spirited “satire” duty. The nation’s broke and that lays bare Riehl’s shriveled counting on you guy. Pull the soul. What a disgusting creep. plug and get back to work. And I’m not sure I quite understand don’t bill us for a full day today, this, given that cost is so either. This is no time to be i m p o r t a n t a s a b u r d e n t o sloughing off. Air freight her taxpayers when it comes to home, you can bury her during health care. If Democrats want recess on your own time and so badly to abort babies because dime. Or are you going to bill us of it, why are we bothering with for that, too? someone who has a broken neck Reid has stayed at his wife’s and back at 69? It sounds to me bedside throughout the day like she’s pretty well used up Friday and returned to the and has probably been living off Capitol in the late afternoon. the taxpayers for plenty of years And of course, he’s getting a lot to begin with. Aren’t we at least of “atta boy!” comments from going to get a vote on it? the other basement-dwelling Sen. Reid’s daughter Lana Reid throwbacks at his site. Barringer, 48, who was driving Anyone still wondering why I the mini-van, and his wife, want nothing to do with the Landra G. Reid, 69, a passenger, right wing blogosphere any were both injured. Landra more?

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Pi Day: Google Doodle Celebrates Math Nerds Everywhere

A Big Defeat for the Anti-Vax Crowd

Ben Parr (Mashable!)

(Little Green Footballs)

Submitted at 3/13/2010 9:53:06 PM

For most of the world, today is March 14th, or 3/14. To most, that date doesn’t have any special meaning. But to us math nerds, it means only one thing: today is Pi Day! Thankfully, it looks like Google has no shortage of number nerds, because the search giant is marking the occasion with a spiffy new logo filled with some of choice geometry formulas. (Pi) is the mathematical constant that has helped school children and mathematics professors determine the circumference of a circle based on its diameter for centuries. The constant starts with 3.14 and continues forever (as it is an irrational number). Many math geeks celebrate the famous math constant (and mathematics in general) on every 14th of March

compensation program only for families whose injuries or deaths can be shown to be This week, Jenny McCarthy linked to a vaccine and that has a n d t h e a n t i - v a c c i n a t i o n not been done in this case. … “movement” were definitively Friday’s decision that autism is shut down by a special branch not caused by thimerosal alone of the US Court of Federal follows a parallel ruling in 2009 claims: Court says thimerosal that autism is not caused by the did not cause autism. combination of vaccines with because that date represents the occasion but created such an WASHINGTON – The vaccine thimerosal and other vaccines. first three digits of Pi. intricate logo to mark this day. additive thimerosal is not to The cases had been divided into Google’s new logo, which you Almost everyone worldwide blame for autism, a special three theories about a vaccinecan see on the top right, contains will see this logo: it’s Mothers federal court ruled Friday in a autism relationship for the court not only the famous r 2 formula, Day in the UK (the fourth long-running battle by parents to consider. The 2009 ruling b u t f i v e o t h e r u s e s o f : Sunday of Lent), and thus they convinced there is a connection. covered one theory, and a measuring the volume of a have their own logo to celebrate While expressing sympathy for second was dropped after that. sphere (V = 43 r 3), computing it, which we have included the parents involved in the Friday’s decision covers the last emotionally charged cases, the of the three theories. … the circumference of a circle (C below. = 2r), measuring the volume of How will you celebrate Pi Day? court concluded they had failed The new ruling was welcomed a c y l i n d e r ( V = r 2 h ) , Please let us know in the to show a connection between by Dr. Paul Offit of Children’s t h e m e r c u r y - c o n t a i n i n g Hospital of Philadelphia, who Archimedes’ calculation of Pi comments! preservative and autism. “Such said the autism theory had (223/71 Reviews: Google As a former physics major and Tags: Google, google doodle, families must cope every day “already had its day in science with tremendous challenges in court and failed to hold up.” But long-time math nerd, I love Pi google logo, Pi Day caring for their autistic children, the controversy has cast a pall Day, and I am very happy that a n d a l l a r e d e s e r v i n g o f over vaccines, causing some Google not only celebrated the sympathy and admiration,” parents to avoid them, he noted, special master George Hastings “it’s very hard to unscare people Jr., wrote. after you have scared them.” But, he added, Congress designed the victim Submitted at 3/14/2010 8:37:17 AM

Netanyahu regrets settler homes ‘incident’ (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/14/2010 9:40:56 AM

The Israeli prime minister expressed regret on Sunday for

the announcement last week during a visit by the US vicepresident of a plan to build Jewish settler homes in mostly Arab East Jerusalem. But, in his first public remarks

since the proposal was unveiled last Tuesday, Benjamin Netanyahu gave no indication of cancelling the construction. He also played down the growing confrontation with Washington

that the proposal and the timing PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, of its disclosure – made while Term Extraction. Joe Biden was in Israel – have triggered. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools:

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What Right Wing Racism? (Little Green Footballs)

VDARE.com (a site that has also featured Michelle Malkin for years). And they don’t White nationalist Richard appear to lack funding — the Spencer has launched a new site site is very professionally to promote his “academic” designed, and obviously not brand of racism: Alternative done on the cheap. Right - An Online Magazine of Erik Kain has a piece at Radical Traditionalism. True/Slant about “Alternative We’re not talking Stormfront Right,” and he links to this here, with neo-Nazi troglodytes article at Frum Forum by Alex tossing around the ‘N’ word K n e p p e r , d e s c r i b i n g a n with abandon. Spencer and his encounter between Knepper and cohorts are slicker than that. Richard Spencer at last year’s Their twisted breed of white CPAC circus: supremacism masquerades as “Show me one black nation intellectualism. These that’s ever been run “racialists” (as they sometimes competently,” he [Richard c a l l t h e m s e l v e s ) u s e t h e Spencer] challenged me. scientific-sounding phrase “ T h a t ’ s a r i d i c u l o u s “human biological diversity” to methodology. I’ll accept that make their argument: that claim for argument’s sake and w h i t e s ( a n d A s i a n s ) a r e still say that it’s bogus: African inherently, genetically superior nations have not failed because to other races. the skin color of the people is It’s the same age-old racism black. The skin color is just a w i t h a p s e u d o - s c i e n t i f i c coincidence. It’s the culture rationale. that’s the problem.” Also participating in this shiny “Not true,” he said. “You look happy-faced hate site: the at Liberia, where ex-slaves went N a t i o n a l R e v i e w ’ s J o h n back to Africa, tried to bring Derbyshire and Steve Sailer of American ideals to the country, Submitted at 3/13/2010 6:12:26 PM

and failed, because the blacks wouldn’t accept them.” “This is not Western,” I said. “How can you possibly claim to stand for Western civilization? What’s brilliant about our values is that they stand for the individual, not the supremacy of the group. You come to America, you’re judged by your merits — not by what you look like.” After a few more back-andforths, we arrived at our destination, and as our car-mates went ahead, he told me to stay with him for a minute so he could talk to me. As the others faded into the background, he moved just inches away from my face, gave me a menacing look and yelled: “You little child. How dare you talk to me — me! — about the West! You don’t know the first thing about the West! You’re a little twelveyear-old who thinks he knows shit. Don’t you ever talk to me like that again or I will beat your face into the fucking ground!” As with my infamous argument with gay-basher Ryan Sorba, my

confrontations with collectivists always tend to end up degenerating into threats of physical force. Richard Spencer is a fairly tough guy, and I’m, well, kind of scrawny. So I kept my mouth shut. But I was frightened. I let him walk ahead of me, and it ended there. But that is the real Richard Spencer: a white nationalist, a bully, and an intellectual coward. These “racialists” know how to clean up when the cameras are on them, but when it’s one-onone it doesn’t take much to make the mask drop. But perhaps even more disturbing are the comments posted at Frum Forum underneath Knepper’s article — because it’s quite clear that even at FF, a site that’s trying to define a moderate style of conservatism, there’s quite a bit of support for the ugly racism of people like Spencer.

Sunday Papers: Obama Photoshops His Shirt Off and Pill Parties Are Back [Front Pages] Maureen O'Connor (Gawker) Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:57:39 PM

In a special new Sunday newspaper roundup, we discover that Jamaica has the best photo illustrations and a crime boss named "Dudus Coke." SF Chronicle's still talking about pill parties, NYT identifies a new recession carpetbagger, NYPost on Jihad Junior. More »

What Happened to 'Who Is Clark Rockefeller?' on Lifetime? Allison Waldman (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/14/2010 1:09:00 PM

Were you watching Eric McCormack and Sherry Stringfield in the Lifetime original movie'Who Is Clark

Rockefeller?' on Saturday night? If so, did you see the whole movie? Apparently, an awful lot of people didn't. Both Comcast and DirecTV viewers have reported that the Lifetime signal cut out after the first 57 minutes

the sound was missing. Permalink| Email this| | Continue reading What Comments Happened to 'Who Is Clark Rockefeller?' on Lifetime? Filed under: Industry, of the broadcast. When the P r o g r a m m i n g , O p E d , movie returned some time later, C e l e b r i t i e s , R e a l i t y - F r e e

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Record-Shattering Warm Winter Stuns Canadian Climate Scientists (Little Green Footballs)

winter has been the warmest and driest in Canadian record books. Environment Canada scientists Even as the right wing screams report that winter 2009/10 was 4 l o u d e r t h a n e v e r t h a t C above normal, making it the anthropogenic global warming warmest since nationwide is a “hoax,” climate scientists in records were first kept in 1948. Canada are appalled at the It was also the driest winter on warmest winter on record: t h e 6 3 - y e a r r e c o r d , w i t h Wacky winter a signal of years precipitation 22 per cent below to come: Climatologist. normal nationally, and down 60 Of course, you already know per cent in parts of Alberta, what the climate change deniers Saskatchewan and Ontario. are going to say — these tricksy “ It’s beyond shocking,” David C a n a d i a n s c i e n t i s t s a r e Phillips, a senior climatologist o b v i o u s l y i n o n t h e p l o t . with Environment Canada, told From the balmy Arctic, to the C a n w e s t N e w s T u e s d a y . open water of the St. Lawrence Records have been shattered and snowless western fields, this from “coast to coast to coast.” Submitted at 3/14/2010 8:43:09 AM

“It is truly a remarkable situation,” says Phillips, noting that he’s seen nothing like it in his 40 years of weather watching. He also warns that “the winter than wasn’t” may have set the stage for potentially “horrific” water shortages, insect infestations and wildfires this summer. As much of Asia, Europe and the U.S. shivered through and shovelled out of freak winter storms, Phillips says Canada was left on the sidelines. “It’s like winter was cancelled in this country,” he says.

Another Paterson Aide Accused of Beating Girlfriend [Not Again] Maureen O'Connor (Gawker) Submitted at 3/14/2010 2:34:22 PM

New York's governor has terrible taste in friends. He should really stop hiring them. Adviser and ex-roommate aide abuse revelation in under a Clemmie Harris was accused of month. [ NYPost] More » beating his girlfriend in 1995, making his the second Paterson

Stanford develops safer lithium-sulfur batteries with four times the charge of lithium-ion cells Richard Lai (Engadget) Submitted at 3/14/2010 7:29:00 AM

Longer battery life is high atop our list of gadget prayers, and the brainiacs at Stanford are one step closer to making our dreams come true with a new lithium-sulfur technology. Half of this trick lies in the silicon nanowire anode that the same team developed back in 2007, whereas the new cathode consists of a similarly commodious lithium sulfide

nanostructure. Compared to present lithium-ion batteries, Stanford's design is " significantly safer" and currently achieves 80 percent

more capacity, but it's nowhere near commercial launch with just 40 to 50 charge cycles (Liion does "300 to 500") due to the compound's rapid

degradation. That said, we're promised a theoretical quadruple boost in capacity as the technology matures, so until then we'll keep that hamster running in our backpack. Stanford develops safer lithium -sulfur batteries with four times the charge of lithium-ion cells originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Technology Review| Nano Letters| Email this| Comments

Guy's Frozen Penis Snaps Off in Ian McEwan's New Novel [Literature] Maureen O'Connor (Gawker) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:22:18 AM

Post- Atonement Ian McEwan wrote a satirical global-warming thriller wherein a man tries to pee outdoors in -26F Norway, then experiences shrinkage so severe his dick turns into a frosty popsicle, cracks, and slips out the leg of his pants. More »

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Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible Admin (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/14/2010 10:00:00 AM

Our readers know ReadWriteWeb as the blog that's ahead of the technology curve. Our sponsors know us as that, too. Once a week we introduce our sponsors to our readers and let them know a little more about who they are and what they do. You can say thanks to the companies that make ReadWriteWeb happen by tweeting them (see the link below each sponsor) or following them using our Twitter list. Interested in being a ReadWriteWeb sponsor? Our readers are smart, tech-savvy decision makers; 40% have a graduate degree or PhD, and over 45% play a key role in information technology purchasing decisions. More than 1 million people on Twitter follow us to stay abreast of the latest Web technology trends from around the globe. To find out more about our sponsor packages, visit our advertising page or email our COO. Sponsor Skip to info about: Tableau: Data visualization | Crowd Science: Demographic data | Medill School of Journalism: Digital journalism programs | Mashery: API management services | Rackspace: Cloud computing experts | Sproutbox: Start-up investors | Aplus.net:

Web hosting | Clickatell: SMS provider |.Me: Domain Registrar | Conduit: Customized components | MyDomain.com: Domain registrar | Toopia: Our iPhone app developer Tableau Tableau Public is a free service that lets anyone publish interactive data to the web in interesting and compelling graphs. Download Tableau Public and in minutes, you can create interactive graphs, dashboards, maps and tables from virtually any data and embed them on your website or blog in minutes. Anyone can do it. You don't need to be a programmer or hire one - no language to learn, no plug-ins, no API. Your blog or website will stand out with colorful, interactive data visualizations. Bloggers using Tableau Public are averaging 3 times more reader comments. And, once on the web, anyone can interact with your graph and the data. They can re-embed your work, download the data, or create their own visualizations. Check out our gallery to see some of the cool graphs bloggers have created. Or learn how in our 5 minute video. Thank Tableau on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible. Crowd Science Crowd Science gives online publishers reports on the demographics and attitudes of

their audience. We at ReadWriteWeb have signed up to this new service, because demographic data is something we've struggled to get in the past. It's important for any online business to know their audience, so Crowd Science is a welcome addition to the stats armory that most of us in the Internet biz use. Sign up to get demographic data from Crowd Science. Thank Crowd Science on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible. Medill School of Journalism The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University offers programs that combine the enduring skills and values of journalism with new techniques and knowledge that are essential to thrive in a digital world. You might have a passion for creating finely crafted prose, or for telling stories using visual tools. Maybe you are invigorated by the possibilities of interactive publishing, or by videography

for the small screen. Maybe you are an experienced professional looking to renew and retool your multimedia skills. You can find your niche in Medill's graduate journalism program. Thank the Medill School of Journalism on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible. Mashery Mashery is a platform for Web services, allowing companies to manage their APIs using Mashery's expertise. At the "Business of APIs" conference, Mashery CEO Oren Michels explained to the audience that while APIs are a technology, their use is a business decision. He went on to say that Mashery has helped customers such as WhitePages.com, Thumbplay, Compete.com, and Calais. Check out the white paper " Five steps to scaling your business development using Web services" to discover how you can use APIs for your business. You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com. Thank Mashery on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible. Rackspace Rackspace is one of the world's largest hosting providers, but it's also competing in the cloud computing arena. Rackspace Cloud Hosting offers a suite of services which combines a scalable web and application hosting platform (Cloud Sites)

with a cloud storage solution (Cloud Files) and on demand server instances (Cloud Servers). The addition of SliceHost a popular cloud computing and hosting provider and JungleDisk, a favorite online backup service that supports Cloud files, makes the Rackspace Cloud a powerful cloud hosting solution. Explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions. Thank Rackspace on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible. Sproutbox SproutBox is an elite team of product developers, creatives, and business experts that invest their talent full-time in start-ups. SproutBox's new approach to venture capital has helped launch several successful companies including: CheddarGetter, a subscription billing and analytics tool; ScheduleThing, an online scheduling and reservations app; and Squad, a web-based collaborative code editor. To apply for start-up funding or find out more information visit sproutbox.com. Thank Sproutbox on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible. Aplus.net Aplus.net offers a variety of services relating to Web hosting, including shared hosting, Web design, marketing and online advertising services, search CHECK page 37

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Facebook Firehose May Be Released at Developer Conference F8 Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:11:23 AM

Facebook plans to announce the availability of a firehose of user data at its F8 developers conference in April, we believe based on research. Such an offering could be similar to the firehose that Twitter has shared with large partners and select small developers building the famous Twitter ecosystem of 3rd party applications around the web. A Facebook representative did not offer a denial, saying only that the company would not comment on speculation. The huge social network was once private by default, then made controversial changes in December that pushed hundreds of millions of users toward publishing their information in public and now appears aimed to complete the about-face at its F8 developer conference by offering up public user data in a huge river that outside parties can consume, analyze and build on top of. Sponsor If what people call Web 2.0 was all about creating new technologies that made it easy for everyday people to publish their thoughts, social connections and activities, then

the next stage of innovation online may be services like recommendations, self and group awareness, and other features made possible by software developers building on top of the huge mass of data that Web 2.0 made public.... "Nobody thinks about how much valuable information they're generating just by friending people and fanning pages. It's like we're constantly voting in a hundred different ways every day. And I'm a starry-eyed believer that we'll be able to change the world for the better using that neglected information. It's like an x-ray for the whole country - we can see all sorts of hidden details of who we're friends with, where we live, what we like." - Pete Warden, The Man Who Looked Into Facebook's Soul The first F8 conference saw the unveiling of the Facebook Platform, a way for app developers to build games and utilities inside of Facebook. This announcement would represent Facebook as a platform and enable far more to be built outside and on top of the social network. Privacy concerns? For sure. Genuinely world-changing potential? There's a lot of that too. It's not clear exactly what would be included in this firehose, it could be a stream of

coming to Facebook at F8, now picture all this rich data roaring like a river into the data digesting machines of a wide range of developers all over the low-value Fan Page promotional world. content, for example. The most A firehose of public Facebook likely thing content to be user activity data could function included though is user activity like a living, breathing global data published under public census. Cross reference that data privacy settings. There's far, far with any other data set and we more of that today than there may find an ocean of insights into the human condition, was just a few months ago. If you've participated in a around the world, for slices of supermarket loyalty program, people, second by second or you're familiar with the concept over time. of opting-in to sharing data This is something we've been about your activities with calling on Facebook to do for outside parties in exchange for some time. I've sat with founder benefits. In that common Mark Zuckerberg and discussed practice, though, consumers the importance and potential of gain shopping discounts but get releasing aggregate user data at nothing from the analysis of the length. That, though, was before last data they emit. In the case of the Twitter December when the privacy Firehose, the much sought-after policy changed. full feed of public user data Privacy Concerns"The social from across the site, users gain contract I and all users have access to all kinds of interesting with Twitter is clear. What you applications and insights based say on an open account is public on analysis of their use of a n d l i n k a b l e . I t i s c a l l e d microblogging for a Twitter. A Facebook firehose would be reason...The social contract with much bigger. We're hearing F a c e b o o k h a s c h a n g e d that there will be no launch constantly since it started....Last partners in the announcement, week's privacy enhancement's but the imagination runs wild change the social contract yet thinking about all the mashup again and this time it stripped possibilities. We learned last you naked." - Kaliya Hamlin, week that user location data is F a c e b o o k ' s P r i v a c y M o v e

Violates Contract With Users Just because something is posted publicly on the web, Microsoft researcher danah boyd said in her opening keynote at SXSW yesterday, doesn't mean people want it to be broadcast more generally. Making something public is not permission to publicize it. Is the inclusion of public activity into a firehose programatically available to outside developers a case of broadcast that violates user control and thus privacy? I don't think it's clear either way. In a discussion about aggregate Twitter data analysis late last year, a representative of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told me that Twitter users had no reasonable expectation that their data wouldn't be redistributed and analyzed in bulk because Twitter was a public forum. Facebook used to be different. It was private by default, our actions were shared only with friends and family that we gave permission to see our status messages and photos. Then in December the company made a dramatic shift, prompting users to re-evaluate their privacy settings and making "share with everyone all FACEBOOK page 40

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Big Changes Are Coming to Digg: More Power to Publishers, Less Power to Top Diggers Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:05:03 AM

Last night, during Digg's annual SXSW party, Digg's CEO Jay Adelson announced a set of significant changes to Digg. Among the changes Adelson announced are a streamlined submission process, a personalized homepage, an unlimited amount of topic pages, a new commenting system and better curation tools. Earlier this morning, we got a chance to sit down with Adelson to discuss these changes in greater detail. Some of these changes will surely be extremely controversial in the Digg community and might also make some publishers who rely on Digg's traffic a bit nervous. Sponsor It's hard to underestimate the influence these changes will have on the Digg community. Not only did the Digg team create a completely new backend architecture, but Digg is also making a lot of changes to how the site will work from a user's perspective - some of which will surely be controversial among Digg's most active users. Digg will launch the new site in alpha in a few weeks. You can sign up for an account here. It's

important to note that Digg plans to work directly with its users and is looking for feedback from its alpha users. The alpha site, for example, will feature a large feedback bar at the bottom of every page. Personalized Homepages as Default On the new Digg, every user will get a personalized homepage which will be populated with stories that are popular among this user's friends and relate to topics this user has expressed interest in. This personalized homepage will become the default Digg frontpage for all users who have signed in to Digg. Users who are not signed in will still see the old Digg homepage. With this, the Digg team is clearly looking to get more users to sign up for the service. Digg will also update its users' profile pages. Submitters Lose Power Another major change to Digg and one that will surely create some controversy among the most active users of the service is that the new Digg will de-

emphasize the power of submitters and put an even stronger emphasis on who votes for stories, as well as on outside signals from third-party services like Twitter and Facebook. Indeed, the new Digg will now allow publishers to auto-submit their stories through RSS feeds and a number of other mechanisms that the company plans to unveil in the next few weeks. Until now, while Digg didn't forbid publishers to submit their own content, this behavior was generally discouraged by the Digg community. As Adelson told us, on the new Digg, submitting a story will basically mean that you are the first voter. Currently, a relatively small group of submitters has a lot of power over which stories will appear on the Digg frontpage. Signals from Twitter, Facebook and Co. While there will still be a role for those users who regularly discover new and interesting content, the new Digg will put a strong emphasis on votes and

signals from your friends on third-party sites like Twitter and Facebook. Indeed, Digg will create a social graph for you that will take all of this information into account when it create your personalized homepage. On the homepage, Digg will also expose why a story appeared in your feed. While Adelson couldn't go into details, it seems like Digg has established a very good relationship with Twitter and has had access to Twitter's firehose feed to almost a year. Once the new digg comes out of beta, anonymous users will also be able to vote on stories. While the team is still working out the details, it is clear that Digg is looking to get as many signals as possible to augment the current voting process. It will be interesting to see how Digg will weigh all this information in the creation of personalized pages and the new topic pages. The submission process for stories that haven't been submitted to Digg already will

now be a one-click process. Digg will also soon use thirdparty sign-on systems, including Google, Twitter Connect and Yahoo to allow its users to sign in. Working With Publishers: What Will Happen to the Digg Effect? Obviously, quite a few publishers will worry that the old Digg effect - which would often take sites down because of the huge amount of traffic a story on Digg's frontpage can create - will now disappear. Adelson, however, who also noted that Digg "wants to be a good source for traffic for publishers," thinks that this new system will create a more regular stream of traffic to publishers. In the long run, Adelson noted, Digg also plans to open up its advertising platform to share revenue with publishers. This project is still in its early stages, but according to Adelson, this could involve using a widget on the publisher's site or by using BIG page 39

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CHECK continued from page 34

engine optimization, ecommerce solutions, and domain registration. You can register for Aplus.net here. Thank Aplus.net on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible. Clickatell Clickatell has over 22,000 customers utilizing our service from small mom & pop outfits to large Fortune 500 companies including Avaya, Oracle, Shell, Barclays, BP, CNN, BBC and more. Here's why you should trust us to mobilize your business: Our SMS gateway offers you wider coverage than any other SMS provider delivering messages to 600 network operators in 200 countries. Our gateway is not limited to SMS text messaging. You can also send a number of other message types including Ringtones, VCards, Binary, EMS, Unicode, Flash SMS, WAP Push, and more. Clickatell offers you direct connectivity to its core SMS gateway platform via a number of APIs (application programming interfaces) including; HTTP(internet post), SMPP, FTP, XML, SMTP(email to SMS), SOAP

and COM Object. Each API has full documentation with sample code where applicable. Learn more about Clickatell here. Thank Clickatell on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible..Me .Me is a Top Level Domain of a small, south-east European country of Montenegro, which restored its independence in 21st century. Due to its unforgettable meaning and truly personal tone, most of the registration restrictions have been cancelled. Some of the prominent tech and advertising savvies recognized TLD's potential and grabbed their .Me domain name. In less than 20 months 360.000 domains were registered by people from 200 different countries.ME is perfect for " yourname.me" blog or " yourname@surname.me" email address. It is also widely used as a callto-action domain ( notify.me, retwt.me) and as a social (YouAnd.Me) or community network (Missouri.Me, Oklahoma.Me). One may also choose to send a cool personal message (WillSheMarry.Me). In addition, some of the biggest companies recognized its

branding potential and started using .ME for various purposes. Check out Facebook (Fb.Me), Wordpress (Wp.Me), USA Today (USAT.Me), Universal Pictures (Despicable.Me) or Zappos.com (Zapp.Me). It seems that some countries are luckier than others when it comes to domain names. Are you lucky enough to grab your own .ME? Thank .Me for making ReadWriteWeb possible. Conduit Conduit enables Web publishers to distribute their offerings both directly and through its global network of 220,000 publishers and their 100 million users. The Conduit platform is a powerful marketing tool that allows you to offer the best of your site through a custom App or Community Toolbar, send desktop alerts to your users, and much more. The Conduit platform opens a new world of content sharing. Your site visitors can add your content right to their browser by clicking on a branded 2go button that you place on your site. You can also share your content in the Conduit

Marketplace, where all the publishers and users in the Conduit network can grab it. The platform has been adopted by major brands such as Fox News, iWin, Major League Baseball, TechCrunch, and Travelocity, as well as thousands of small and medium organizations in 120 countries. If you would like to Conduit your website, go to www.conduit.com. Thank Conduit on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible. MyDomain.com MyDomain is a leading ICANN -accredited provider of domain name registration and online business solutions. For over 10 years, MyDomain has offered low-cost domain names and free domain services including complete DNS management. Today, sub-$10 domains without the constant upsells you'll find at some competitors are the norm at MyDomain. MyDomain's complete range of solutions include Web hosting and VPS hosting, email, SSL Certificates and more. Toopia Nicolas Koenig is the developer who made our beautiful iPhone app a reality. He runs an iPhone development shop from the

CNOOC to pay $3.1bn for Argentine stake (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/14/2010 6:42:13 AM

China’s CNOOC has agreed to

take a 50 per cent stake in Argentina’s Bridas Group for $3.1bn in the latest example of Beijing’s thirst for global energy assets.

The deal, announced on Sunday through CNOOC’s Hong Konglisted unit, is the oil explorer’s largest acquisition to date and marks its first foray into Latin

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

Netherlands called Toopia. Toopia also created the Thermometer iPhone app, which enables your iPhone or iPod touch to get the current temperature based on your location. The RWW app lets you read us on the go, follow us on Twitter, share stories on Facebook and Twitter, and browse at your leasure using Read it Later and Instapaper. Download the ReadWriteWeb iPhone application here. Thank Toopia on Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible. The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer. Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's? Drop us a line and let's talk. Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support! Discuss

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This Week's Top Downloads [Download Roundup] (Lifehacker)

userscript for Gmail adds a "netbook mode" shortcut to Gmail that removes navigation and ads for a streamlined, • Tableau Public Brings Your netbook-friendly, messageBoring Data to Life(Windows) focused view of your inbox. Free application Tableau Public • Launchy 2.5 Beta 2 Improves creates beautiful visualizations P e r f o r m a n c e , L a n d s o n from your data and lets you Macs(Windows/Mac/Linux) publish them to the web, where Launchy, the little application users can interact with your l a u n c h e r t h a t c o u l d , h a s charts and graphs with live introduced a Mac version with updates. its latest beta. Bug fixes, • SecondBar Puts a Menu Bar performance overhauls, and new o n A l l Y o u r M a c ' s shortcuts and controls are also M o n i t o r s ( M a c ) M u l t i p l e baked into this beta for every monitors do great things for system. your desktop space, but your • Windows 7 Taskbar menu bar sticks to one screen. If Thumbnail Customizer Tweaks, you're looking for more menu E n l a r g e s Y o u r S u p e r b a r access, free utility SecondBar T h u m b n a i l s ( W i n d o w s 7 ) puts one at the top of each Hailing from the camp of monitor. "software that does exactly what • Mini Wide Fullscreens Gmail, its name implies", Windows 7 Is Very N e t b o o k Taskbar Thumbnail Customizer Friendly(Firefox/Chrome) Small fine-tunes the size, spacing, and netbook screens make you really margins of your Windows 7 appreciate every last pixel on Superbar previews. your device. The Mini Wide • F e e l H o m e G i v e s E a s y Submitted at 3/13/2010 8:00:00 PM

Remote Access to Your Files A c r o s s Platforms(Windows/Mac/Linux) If you would like to easily access, edit, and save files across multiple computers, free application FeelHome allows you to share files across operating systems and over the web. • SuperbarMonitor Puts System Monitoring Right on Your Windows Superbar(Windows 7) If you like visual indicators for things like disk capacity, battery life, memory usage, and speaker volume, and you like them prominent and easy to find, SuperbarMonitor puts easy to read indicators right on your Superbar. • Alfred Is Another Nice Application Launcher, Quicksilver Alternative for Mac Users(Mac) We've been fans of Quicksilver for years, but the universal application launcher and-then-some hasn't been in active development for a while.

Alfred aims to pick up where Quicksilver left off. • FastestChrome Soups Up Search, Auto-Loads Pages(Chrome) Chrome is a terrific browser on its own, but FastestChrome makes it even better. It adds extra search options to the Omnibar, creates "endless scrolling" for multipage articles, fixes text-only URLs, and tunes up other Chrome features. • Kiwi Monitors Your Running Apps, Performs Actions Based on Their Status(Windows) Kiwi is a free utility that monitors any application and springs into action when that application meets any user-defined criteria within a set of basic rules-like restarting an application or emailing you when its memory use exceeds a pre-defined level.

Submitted at 3/14/2010 1:53:35 PM

Let us celebrate this most nerdy

3.14 with a videos of preternaturally intelligent children reciting hundreds of digits of pi from memory. They can't tie their shoes, but they

Adam Gretz (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/14/2010 7:30:00 AM

Filed under: Blackhawks, Capitals, NHL Videos, NHL Discipline This is probably the last thing NHL discipline czar Colin Campbell wanted to see this week. Another hit that's sure to spark controversy and outrage, this time involving one of the league's best players. More » Late in the first period of Sunday's Washington vs. Chicago game, Alex Ovechkin and Brian Campbell were involved in a race for a loose puck, and just after Campbell played the puck, Ovechkin gave him a shove from behind, sending him crashing into the could balance your checkbook. boards. Ovechkin was issued a fiveMore » minute major and a game misconduct (his league-leading third of the season) for boarding.

Happy Pi Day: Here Are Some Baby Geniuses Reciting Hundreds of Digits [Nerds] Maureen O'Connor (Gawker)

Colin Campbell's Nightmare Continues: Ovechkin Ejected for Boarding

Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

Universal Check-in App Confirmed: Brightkite's Stealth Service

BIG continued from page 36

Digg's salesforce to sell ad inventory on these sites directly. To make all of this work, Digg completely stripped out the old Mike Melanson say: (ReadWriteWeb) "We currently do not allow infrastructure and started over write access to our API. For by building a completely new Submitted at 3/13/2010 5:14:00 PM n o w w e ' r e e x c i t e d t o s e e platform. This, said Adelson, We write this for you, the tired, severe check-in fatigue." creative use of the read API will allow Digg to easily make the weak and the weary, the When you take a closer look at while we continue to polish our changes to the frontend and react to user feedback during the dogged attendees of the South the sole image on the page, own native clients." By South West festival in which depicts a Check.in app on If this service is in the pipeline alpha and beta phase. At some Austin this weekend. We know both iPhone and Android, we to be released soon, it looks like point in the future, Digg might that you're exhausted, but it's not can see that the service appears Gowalla would not be included also open this platform up to from the booze, the parties or t o h a n d l e c h e c k - i n s f o r in the check-in service and that third parties. A Completely New the product pitches - it's the F o u r s q u a r e , G o w a l l a a n d would be a shame. It's only Platform endless location based check- Brightkite, and we would Friday and there are a number of Digg is clearly taking this new ins. If only someone had solved assume others are on the way. days left to SXSW Interactive, version extremely serious. The this in time, right? But we have to wonder how it AKA "Nerdfest 2010", but company plans to hire 50 From what we can tell, the would check in to Gowalla, as wouldn't it be that much more engineers this year to help with folks over at Brightkite have the the company's API is currently enjoyable if you didn't have to scaling the architecture. Adelson solution with Check.in, but have read-only. spend the first 10 minutes any was clearly proud of the work yet to release it to the achey- Check.in would be the first of time you arrived somewhere his team has done on the backend architecture. The new thumbed, smart-phoned masses. its kind in the market and would new checking in? site will be "wicked fast," Sponsor With that said, we have to surely co-opt a large amount of According to the splash page traffic and make the "severe wonder how much we would thanks to a complete retooling we found at Check.in, the app, check-in fatigue" that much lose out on the features now of every aspect of the site, up to which looks to be for both more manageable. offered by these services. Will the point where the bottlenecks iPhone and Android, will be the When we first wrote about this Check.in also offer tips, photos, "one checkin to rule them all". at the beginning of the month, check-in commenting and all of "Check.in takes the hassle out of the only response we received that or will it just let us c h e c k i n g i n o n m u l t i p l e was "no comment". We asked broadcast our location? For services," the page reads. And at again today, but have yet to now, we'll just have to wonder, the bottom, we're told that the receive any comment. We've but either way, fear not, a service is "made by Martin May, also asked the folks over at solution looks to be on the way. Brady Becker, and Jordan Gowalla and they had this to Discuss Harband of Brightkite after

for Digg are now network speed and latency. This is quite a feat, given that Digg now offers an almost unlimited amount of topic pages and a personalized homepage for every user - all of which will have to be recalculated constantly. How Will Users React? It will be very interesting to see how users will react to all of these changes. Adelson and the rest of the Digg team are very aware that this will create some controversy, but Adelson clearly thinks that this is the right way to go for Digg. The topic pages will allow Digg to cater to users who care about every type of news, be it the Boston Red Socks or the latest gadget news. Discuss

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FACEBOOK

Joystiq vs. GDC 2010

continued from page 35

over the internet" the new default for most options. Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook was only changing to reflect the way the world was changing, but we argued that was a disingenous rationalization of Facebook's culture-changing actions driven in part by its own profit motive. We also argued that by pushing users toward being more public the company was reducing user control over data and spreading distrust about making data available online at all. That put at risk the idea of sharing your data in a way that could be analyzed. Is there a reasonable expectation that online social networking activity set to "public" will not be redistributed in bulk to outside parties? How can a company

like Facebook respect user privacy as much as possible while still achieving the incredible things that can be achieved by making aggregate user data available for analysis? Let's begin to discuss it. See also: The personal blog of Cameron Marlow, Facebook's in -house sociologist and big data guy. Related analysis: Twitter 2.0: API Rate Change Could Lead to a World of New Apps & Features Chewing on the Issues: Twitter Data Dump: InfoChimps Puts 1B Connections Up for Sale Discuss

China hits at currency â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;protectionismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Financial Times - US homepage)

its currency system. But he pushed back strongly against international pressure on the Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:15:12 AM level of the exchange rate, Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier, which is becoming a flashpoint has warned other countries that in relations with the US. pressing China on currency Five Filters featured article: policy amounts to protectionism Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: and insists that the renminbi was PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, not undervalued. Term Extraction. Mr Wen said on Sunday that China would continue to reform

Richard Mitchell (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:30:00 AM

GDC generally isn't packed with the "oohs" and "ahs" that are typically exuded during E3 or the Tokyo Game Show. The name says it all, really, what with it being the Game Developers Conference. That doesn't mean their aren't hot scoops to be found though. This year we got our first taste of the PlayStation Move, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and, of course, the hamster ball-inspired future of video games. Now, with GDC over and done, it's time for us to say goodbye. You'll see a few more GDC stories popping up over the next few days but, for now, watch the certainly one of the more video above and see how the seductive retail shops that we've Joystiq team spent the week in seen. We'd bother knocking San Francisco. Joystiq vs. GDC 2010 Sony for following instead of leading, but considering just originally appeared on Joystiq how far the brand has fallen on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:30:00 over the past couple of years, EST. Please see our terms for we're just stoked to see it putting use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| forth an effort to turn things Comments around. Sony opens idyllic new retail store in Nagoya, Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Sony Insider| Impress| Email this| Comments

Sony opens idyllic new retail store in Nagoya, Japan Darren Murph (Engadget) Submitted at 3/14/2010 9:42:00 AM

We heard back in January that Sony was looking to reface itself somewhat by introducing a minty fresh retail look that takes a note or two from the Apple and Microsoft shops already in existence, and for those lucky enough to find themselves in Nagoya this weekend, you can check it out in person. March 13th marked the opening of the all new Sony Store Nagoya, and with an ample of amount of glass, white demo stands and black overhead signs, it's

Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

Review: Creative World of Warcraft headset Guest Author (CrunchGear)

no trouble finding the skeleton drivers once I plugged in the USB device. Short Version: Fresh from the I sought out to download the b o x , C r e a t i v e ’ s W o r l d o f drivers and was surprised that Warcraft, is here! They were they required me to register the designed for WoW players and product in order to install the their performance definitely drivers. Once that way squared reflects that. While a tad bulky, away, I played around with the they don’t feel heavy. Audio Control Panel. They Pros allow you to customize the •Very Comfortable Glyph illumination (change • Hard to hear outside the color, pulsation, etc). There’s a headphones panel that allows you to •Wireless Mic works well. Does customize 5 audio options that not get in the way. massively enhance the audio • D r i v e r a l l o w s d e e p quality. There are also voice customization of audio to serve filters that allow you to mask your needs. your voice into various Cons characters from WoW including •No way to determine battery XT-002 Deconstructor. Finally, power. you can bind your keys to •Volume buttons feel a little various actions like mute to your flimsy. keyboard. •Microphone can adjust but not There’s no way to tell how very well. much battery life you have on •In order to download drivers, the wireless headset. Eventually you must register the product. they will simply go off. They •Reasonable but not impressive can be charged by a simple mini range. -usb cable. They also work •Not compatible with consoles while plugged in so you can (at least the PS3) play while charging – granted – The headset packs a serious this technically defeats the punch. Immediately, when you purpose of a wireless headset. first put them on you’ll notice All the audio options make a they muffle out sound very well. huge improvement to the game. Despite the size they feel The surround sound works comfortable and even after surprisingly well. Better than prolonged periods of play your previous simulated surround ears won’t ache. Windows has sound devices I’ve ever used. Submitted at 3/14/2010 8:50:55 AM

Quick note: all sounds are based on the character’s perspective (not camera) so be wary if you’re in a PVP zone and you hear fire off in the distance. I only have 3 significant complaints. They probably placed the microphone far from the mouth to prevent pop but you can only bend it so far. This can also be troublesome if you raid late at night and loved ones

are in the room: you can’t mumble effectively. Other than that, the microphone works very well. The volume buttons are flimsy and often don’t feel like they work. They are sensitive but don’t increase the volume more than 2 percent making it quicker to adjust volume via the slider. You may also hit the volume (or even microphone mute) buttons while taking

off/putting on the headphones. My last major gripe is the lack of compatibility of with the consoles. The PS3 can recognize some USB headsets and the WoW headphones would have made an excellent headset but alas; the PS3 could not detect the wireless USB key. I haven’t checked for the 360 yet. You can walk around your room with the headphones on, but they won’t last a bathroom trip. This is mildly disappointing but considering you’re not meant to be roaming your household with them on, it can be forgiven. On that note, I discourage roaming around with the glyphs pulsating. Sure they may look cool to you, but to anyone else, you will be confused with a tool. Creative’s World of Warcraft wireless headset sells at $159.99. While not completely necessary, the audio improvements they make are incredible and the headset does serve as a status symbol. There’s nothing quite like going to the kitchen with your headset on listening to music of Dalaran. Gabriel Deleon, Nicholas’ younger brother who has like 10 level 80s, wrote these fine words.

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Why are people against the FCC’s National Broadband Plan? Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear)

Americans live in one-ISP towns, and if said ISP provides terrible service, well, though Submitted at 3/14/2010 10:30:42 AM cookies, chico. This is America! Up until a moment ago, this Love it or leave it~! was going to be a standard And really, the FCC isn’t doing “newsy” post: the FCC will a n y t h i n g p a r t i c u l a r l y a n n o u n c e i t s N a t i o n a l controversial, at least I don’t Broadband Plan on Tuesday, think it’s controversial. All it’s here’s what it’s all about. Then I doing is saying, by 2020, we’d read the comments of a PC like to see 100 million homes World article discussing that (out of an estimated 130 million very same plan—many people homes come 2020) have access a r e o u t r a g e d t h a t t h e to broadband with speeds of up government would muscle its to 100 mbps. Some people way into the free market! If already have access to that type A m e r i c a n s w a n t e d f a s t of Internet connection, myself broadband then the market included. Other ISPs, including would provide it on its own universally loathed Comcast, terms. That, of course, is plans to roll out 100 mbps complete nonsense: plenty of service in the coming months.

So it’s not like the FCC is making some sort of unreasonable demand: the market has already decided that it’s worth its while to deploy 100 mbps service all over the

country. A cynic might say that the FCC knows this, that 100 mbps service is closer than you might otherwise think, and is merely latching itself onto the ISPs so that it can be all, “See,

FCC = leadership.” But don’t be cynical, don’t hold grudges: while you’re holding a grudge, the other guy is dancing. I don’t know, I suppose it makes sense to get into this a bit more when the FCC actually makes the Plan public on Tuesday. But for now, all I have to say is: chill out. Not everything the government announces is tantamount to quartering British soldiers in your house without permission. I suppose I’m talking to people right now who actually believe, and understand, that a wired country is truly in the best interests of everyone.

Wii Fit push up bars make sense, but this one isn't worth dollars Sean Hollister (Engadget) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:52:00 AM

Push-up bars for the Wii Balance Board? Now that sounds like a fantastic idea -just the thing broad-shouldered individuals need to play Wii Fit without backstrain. Too bad this particular set of bars isn't worth the plastic it's printed from. The latest and greatest from the minds in the chintzy plastic peripheral industry, the $25 CTA Digital Wii Push Up Bar is held in place by only your

weight and a few foam strips without reinforcement of any kind, meaning it could detach itself with any significant exertion. The only good that comes out of all this is an

Continue reading Wii Fit push up bars make sense, but this one isn't worth dollars Wii Fit push up bars make sense, but this one isn't worth dollars originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Gizmodo| CTA e m b a r r a s s i n g v i d e o Digital, Amazon| Email this| Lenovo unleashes three demonstration after the break, Comments new monitors, one which features a pair of smiling boasting multitouch humans pretending to have fun with the contraption. QVC, eat Laura June (Engadget) Lenovo's quietly LENOVO pageunleashed 43 your heart out. three new 1080p resolution-

Apple/ Sports/

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LENOVO continued from page 42

boasting monitors. Up first, the 21.5-inch L2261 Wide LCD, a pretty basic affair with VGA and DVI inputs. The L2361p Wide is 23-inches, with a more stylized look than the L2261, with integrated speakers and microphone, a webcam, and three USB 2.0 ports. Finally, the real star of the show, the L2461X Wide is a 23.6-inch, multitouch display. It also has integrated speakers and microphone, a 2 megapixel webcam. There is no official pricing or availability information for any of these bad

boys yet, but there are two more images after the break. Continue reading Lenovo unleashes three new monitors, one boasting multitouch Lenovo unleashes three new monitors, one boasting multitouch originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Thinkpads| Email this| Comments

Is LaDainian Tomlinson Washed Up? JJ Cooper (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/14/2010 4:20:00 AM

Filed under: Jets, Vikings, NFL Analysis For an aging running back, LaDainian Tomlinson is very popular. He's already been told by the Vikings that he'd be running back 1A to Adrian Peterson's No. 1. The Jets are also making their pitch for how he could fit in and are willing to give him as much money as they would have paid Thomas Jones. Both the Vikings and Jets see Tomlinson as one of the great all-time backs -- a tailback with the ability to break a big run and serve as a useful third down

back who can catch the ball out of the backfield. But are they ignoring some pretty strong signs that Tomlinson's days as even an average NFL back are behind him?

iPad Battery Replacement Program Chris Ryan (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 3/13/2010 5:30:36 PM

Though some critics like to vilify Apple for its practice of building devices with inaccessible batteries, the benefits definitely outweigh the consequences for such a tradeoff. The MacBook Pros are rated for up to eight hours of battery life, the iPod nanos get up to 24 hours of audio playback and the new iPad is touted to go for 10 hours on a single charge. But what happens when your iPad doesn’t get a great charge anymore? Similar to programs in place for the MacBook Pros and iPhones, Apple has announced its iPad Battery Replacement program and it’s not a bad option, all things considered. The rules are pretty simple. If your iPad no longer holds a charge as good as it used to, you can pay Apple a service fee ($99 plus $6.95 shipping) and it will replace it. Of course, if your iPad is damaged because of an accident, neglect, liquid contact or if there is another hardware issue, then Apple reserves the right to say “No, sorry.” Fortunately though, unless your glass screen has been smashed, Apple is rarely picky on these types of issues. If your device turns on and displays what its supposed to on the screen and can connect to a computer to

sync, it’s pretty much eligible for a battery replacement. What is interesting about the iPad Battery Replacement program is that Apple outright acknowledges that your data will not be preserved because you will receive a replacement iPad. In reality, this is what usually happens with an iPhone replacement as well, but its refreshing to know Apple is actually acknowledging this now. Replacement devices (iPad or iPhone) are technically considered “refurbished” but, as a company who puts extra care into every little detail of the experience, refurbished to Apple means “almost new” to most users. As is the case with iPods and iPhones (and will likely be the case with the iPad) the “refurbished” unit will come with a new exterior case so even if your previous unit did have a

few superficial scratches, you’ll end up with a fresh and clean device. Arranging for a replacement can be done by calling AppleCare or through Apple’s website. Additionally, users can get service through the Genius Bar at their local Apple Store. Once the initial iPad demand settles, Apple Stores will begin to carry additional iPads as “service parts” which means that, should you need a battery replacement, you can simply walk into an Apple Store, pay your fee and walk out with your replacement. If you’re not keen on paying Apple such a price for a battery replacement or you’re one who doesn’t sync their device and therefore do not want to lose all your apps and settings, you can look into third party service providers for battery replacement options. These will likely be cheaper than going through Apple, but this route means you will lose the benefit of getting a nice, new and clean scratch-free exterior. What are your thoughts on Apple’s built-in batteries and their replacement plans? Have you had your iPhone or iPod replaced because of battery issues? Do you think their plan is fair? Sound off in the comments and share your thoughts!

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The lesson of Ikea (Scripting News) Submitted at 3/14/2010 7:27:18 AM

Every few years I almost get snookered into making a major furniture purchase at Ikea. Then I come to my senses. First, what Ikea is good for -the little chotchkas you need to get a house started. Dishrags. Flatware. They have a starter box with a few pots and pans, measuring cups, a spatula, scissors, cheese grater. A hundred little things that if bought separately would cost $500, but they charge about $100. And you don't have to think of everything. A shower curtain. Cheap drapes. But when you buy things that

require assembly, that's when I get in trouble. And it's even worse if you have to make a dozen choices before getting your order number. That's when you have to deal with Ikea sales people. Some of them are really nice, I imagine, but I always get the mean mofos. You know how we have unconferences? These are unsalespeople. I really appreciate them, because they save me from

having to deal with the assembly contractors and delivery people. Their function is to kick the people out of the system who have low tolerance for Ikea. For that, they are a blessing. So I buy real furniture. And I pay more for it. But the sales people treat me like a customer, and the delivery people actually bring the stuff into your house and set it up. When you're a kid I guess you have DIY this stuff. But when you get to be an adult, you should pay to have it done for you. That is, imho, the lesson of Ikea.

Chef Bobby Flay Cooks Up NBC Restaurant Show Allison Waldman (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:19:00 AM

NBC is determined to get a piece of the delicious pie that's known and cooking television. While Food Network would seem to be the destination of choice for all things culinary, Bravo's had successes with'Top Chef' and 'Top Chef Masters,' so NBC is enlisting those producers to cook up something foodie for its network that'll actually succeed. NBC has hired

CHEF page 45

What's On Tonight: '60 Minutes,' 'The Pacific,' 'Celebrity Apprentice,' 'Sons of Tucson' Bob Sassone (TV Squad)

Boss,' and'Cold Case.' • NBC has the series premiere of'Minute To Win It' at 7 (two Here's tonight's TV lineup (all episodes), followed by the times Eastern). season premiere of'Celebrity Apprentice.' • A t 7 , A B C h a s a • FOX has two new episodes new'America's Funniest Home of'Til Death' at 7, then a new Videos,' followed by new episode of'The Simpsons.' episodes of'Extreme Makeover,' • At 7:30, Disney has a ' D e s p e r a t e H o u s e w i v e s , ' new'Hannah Montana,' followed a n d ' B r o t h e r s & S i s t e r s . ' by new episodes of'Sonny with • CBS has a new'60 Minutes' at a Chance' and'Jonas.' 7, then new episodes of ' The • At 8, Food Network has a Amazing Race,' 'Undercover new'Challenge,' then the series Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:06:00 PM

premiere of'Ultimate Recipe Showdown.' • GSN has a new'High Stakes

Poker' at 8. • Style has a new'Ruby' at 8. • At 9, FOX has a new'Family Guy,' followed by the series premiere of'Sons of Tucson.' • HBO has the series premiere of'The Pacific' at 9, then a new'How To Make It In America.' • ESPN has a new'30 For 30' at 9. • History Channel has a new'Ax Men' at 10. • At 12:30AM, Cartoon Network has a new'Tim and

Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job.' Check your local TV listings for more. Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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'Saturday Night Live' 'Jude Law/Pearl Jam' Recap Annie Wu (TV Squad)

making up most of it. Unfortunately, they weren't. Maybe that's why they felt that (S35E17) Congratulations, Jude ridiculously long intro was Law. That was a solid episode n e c e s s a r y ? A n y w a y , t h e all around and a fine return to treatment of this topic was all the'Saturday Night Live' stage. right, though the absolute best And despite the fact that Pearl part was Bobby Moynihan as Jam was v i r t u a l l y Massa, attempting stealth unrecognizable to any ears that snorkeling on Andy Samberg haven't heard them since the (the weak distraction was e a r l y - ' 9 0 s , a t l e a s t L a w ' s especially nice). And no, sorry, musical guest didn't have any you can't unsee it. reason to do an awkward Continue reading'Saturday hoedown during a career- Night Live' - 'Jude Law/Pearl crippling blunder. Jam' Recap Cold Open: Of course they had Filed under: OpEd, Saturday to talk about this. Of course. Night Live, Episode Reviews, Now, if you haven't read up on Reality-Free the incredibly weird Eric Massa Permalink| Email this| | story, it probably would have C o m m e n t s seemed like 'SNL' was just Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:31:00 PM

chef Bobby Flay to top line 'America's Next Great Restaurant,' a new food competition show to air next season. Bobby Flay's already one of the most prolific stars at Food Network. He's on 'Iron Chef' as one of America's iron chefs, he's a judge on 'The Next Food Network Star,' and hosts (or has hosted) 'Throwdown,' 'Boy Meets Grill' and 'Grill It.' You would think he's busy enough with FN -- as well as four restaurants of his own -- but the lure of NBC has clearly gotten to him. This new show, formerly called'United Plates of America' will likely get a major Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad) episode of the series this season. p r o m o t i o n b y N B C . M a d a m e G r e t a l o o k e d s o Continue reading Chef Bobby Submitted at 3/14/2010 2:02:00 PM spooky and scary that I'm glad I Flay Cooks Up NBC Restaurant (S05E16) "Don't come back. forgot to record the episode on Show You'll be dead too." - Cassidy Friday so I couldn't watch it on Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, from the mirror my return around 11 p.m. and OpEd, Celebrities Last week's 100th episode was had to watch the episode online Permalink| Email this| | a tough act to follow. We during the day (which is why C o m m e n t s couldn't expect an episode as my review is late as I had to action packed as 'Implosion' was wait for it to be online). Yes, I this week but we were given scare that easy. spooky episode that, even if Continue reading'Ghost somewhat a "filler episode" Whisperer' - 'Old Sins Cast because we didn't learn a lot of Long Shadows' Recap new tidbits about the Shadows, Filed under: Other Scihelped push the issue about the Fi/Supernatural Shows, Episode Shadows and them wanting Reviews, Reality-Free children a bit further. Permalink| Email this| | 'Old Sins Cast Long Shadows' C o m m e n t s was yet another rather dark

'Ghost Whisperer' - 'Old Sins Cast Long Shadows' Recap

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Big 12 Championship Diary: No. 1 Kansas 72, No. 9 Kansas State 64 (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/13/2010 2:08:57 PM

Getty Images Sherron Collins had 12 points and seven assists for Kansas. The Journal provides minute-by -minute analysis of No. 1 Kansas’s 72-64 victory over No. 9 Kansas State in today’s championship game of the Big 12 Conference men’s basketball tournament in Kansas City, Missouri. Guest blogger Jonah Keri offers commentary on the game and the ESPN telecast. 5:08 pm | Pregame | by Jonah Keri Top-ranked Kansas and ninthranked Kansas State renew their intrastate rivalry tonight in Kansas City, Mo. to decide the Big 12 tournament championship. It's a bigger game for K-State. The Wildcats are 2-32 against Kansas since the formation of the Big 12 in 1996-97. Two of those losses came this season, including a heartbreaker at home that saw the Jayhawks prevail 81-79 in overtime. A win tonight and Kansas State not only sheds its little-brother status in the state (at least for a few days), it also all but guarantees a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Jayhawks will get a No. 1 seed regardless. But they'll have their

own reasons to get up for this game, from in-state recruiting battles to entering the big dance on a high note. The Wildcats will lean on their dynamic backcourt in this case. Leading scorer Jacob Pullen and running mate Denis Clemente combined for 50 points in knocking off Baylor in yesterday's semifinal game. Either one can shoot over Kansas' generously-listed 5-foot -11 senior Sherron Collins. That doesn't mean Pullen or Clemente -- or anyone else on K -State's roster -- will have an easy time slowing Collins down, let alone stopping him. A lightning-quick, deceptively

strong scorer who can get to the rim or hit from outside, Collins sprang for 26 points of his own in Kansas' Friday-night win over Texas A&M. He'll get plenty of support from freshman swingman Xavier Henry, rugged big man Cole Aldrich, and a deep stable of talent behind them. 6:30 pm | 1st half, 5-0 KU | by Editor We're having some technical difficulties. We hope to be back momentarily. 6:31 pm | 1st half, 5-2 KU | by Jonah Keri 14:40 left: K-State finally gets on the board after a Taylor block. Defensive struggle so

far. 6:33 pm | 1st half, 8-6 KU | by Jonah Keri 13:10: And suddenly a burst of action. K-State, Kansas, K-State hoops on consecutive plays. Wildcats force a steal, but Brady Morningstar grabs the steal, then draws a very close blocking call. 6:37 pm | 1st half, 8-8 tie | by Jonah Keri 12:30: And that's why I'm not sold on Cole Aldrich as an NBA prospect. Gets a perfect entry pass, has a smaller man pinned, settles for a turnaround hook shot that bricks off the rim. As good as this Kansas team is, if Aldrich had kept up the rapid

progression he showed earlier in his career, this team would be nearly unbeatable. 6:38 pm | 1st half, 11-11 tie | by Jonah Keri 11:23 left: Clemente and Reed exchange 3s. It's to K-State's advantage if it's a perimeter game, though. Pullen and Clemente can fill it up in a hurry. 11-11 as we go to break. And ESPN cameras torturing me with tight shots of big slabs of Kansas City barbecue. 6:42 pm | 1st half, 13-13 tie | by Jonah Keri 10:22: Dumb move by Jamar BIG page 47

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Samuels spinning into a doubleteam in the post. Which matters not a whit as Pullen nails a jumper at the shot-clock buzzer after the ensuing inbounds play. 6:43 pm | 1st half, 15-14 KU | by Jonah Keri 10:10: Collins in pain after Curtis Kelly hacks him for his second foul. Bill Self nearly pulls him, Collins waves him off, cans both free throws. Bobby Knight suitably impressed with the little guy's toughness. 6:44 pm | 1st half, 17-16 KU | by Jonah Keri 8:47 left: Heat-check by Pullen, which is to say he fired up a noprayer 25-footer with a man right in his face. Ball back to Kansas. 6:47 pm | 1st half, 19-16 KU | by Jonah Keri 8:00 left: Great set play by Kansas, Collins with a perfect lob to Xavier Henry for the dunk. Jayhawks seem to have a high-rising swingman on all of their teams, don't they? Milt Newton was the prototype. 6:50 pm | 1st half, 21-18 KU | by Jonah Keri 6:26 left: Jayhawks generally execute better in half-court sets than K-State. One factor to watch in this game: K-State ranks 28th in Division I in Ken Pomeroy's Adjusted Tempo, compared to Kansas' 99th-paced squad. Defensive rebounds will loom large -- Wildcats need to secure the ball to set up their

break and transition threes. 6:54 pm | 1st half, 23-20 KU | by Jonah Keri 5:02 left: Kansas switching defenses, going to something of a match-up zone. Tricky for the Jayhawks. If they go man-toman, either Pullen or Clemente can shoot over Collins. If they go zone, ample three-point opportunities. 6:56 pm | 1st half, 27-22 KU | by Jonah Keri 3:55 left: Kansas just throwing lobs over the top almost every time now. Morningstar to Marcus Morris for an easy deuce. 7:01 pm | 1st half, 27-22 KU | by Jonah Keri 2:25 left: Aldrich looking soft again, gets beaten on an offensive rebound by a smaller man, then commits a charge on an awkward dribble. 7:02 pm | 1st half, 27-22 KU | by Jonah Keri Granted a neutral court like this one is more fair, but watching highlights from tournaments like the America East and seeing the emotion when the home team (in that case Vermont) advances, can't help but imagine what this game would look like if it were played in front of the crazies in Manhattan, Kansas. 7:04 pm | 1st half, 27-24 KU | by Jonah Keri 1:20 left: The Wildcats mascot is just a guy with a cat head on him? Hella-lame. Put on a tree or something, dude.

7:06 pm | 1st half, 27-24 KU | by Jonah Keri 1:06 left: Two straight blocks by K-State turn away Kansas' inside efforts. They can sag back and dare Collins and Morningstar to beat them from outside -- Kansas has too much of an advantage when the court is spread. 7:09 pm | 1st half, 29-27 KU | by Jonah Keri 10 seconds left: No one is better at the 26-dribbles-then-a-3 move than Denis Clemente. 7:10 pm | Halftime, 31-27 KU | by Jonah Keri Collins draws a foul with five seconds left, nails two free throws to put the Jayhawkls up four. Follow-shot at the buzzer goes for K-State, prompting Bobby Knight to tell the officials to go have a Coke instead of reviewing the bucket. Problem is it came after the buzzer. So...yeah. 7:28 pm | 2nd half, 35-27 KU | by Jonah Keri 18:43 left: It's a barrage of offensive rebounds (and bricks) on both ends. K-State gets three cracks at it, misses them all, then blows two free throws. 7:35 pm | 2nd half, 35-27 KU | by Jonah Keri 17:50 left: No idea why the shot clock reset after a K-State airball, but Wildcats grab the offensive board and now on the free-throw line for two. 7:36 pm | 2nd half, 35-28 KU | by Jonah Keri

16:36 left: K-State looks completely disjointed on offense. Luckily Kansas has gone cold at the same time. Clemente needs to touch the ball more, to say the least. 7:40 pm | 2nd half, 35-28 KU | by Jonah Keri 15:56 left: Wally Judge muscling up impressively on the offensive glass after Pullen's forced into another shot clockbeating heave. Everyone in the arena (including Musberger and Knight) complain that Judge was swatted cleanly on the putback try. Of course the officials had it exactly right. 7:41 pm | 2nd half, 35-31 KU | by Jonah Keri 15:25 left: Big four-point swing. Markieff Morris blows a lay-up, Wildcats come back in transition, Pullen scores on a tough runner. 7:42 pm | 2nd half, 37-31 KU | by Jonah Keri 15:07 left: Yes, Aldrich is out of the game with three fouls. But the Morris brothers are taking it stronger to the rim than Aldrich has all game. 7:46 pm | 2nd half, 39-33 KU | by Jonah Keri 13:54 left: And another fourpoint swing! This time Henry with a sensational block from behind, triggers a Kansas break, Taylor hits the lay-in, and-one. 7:47 pm | 2nd half, 40-38 KU | by Jonah Keri 13:23 left: Samuels cans a three, Clemente follows with the

steal and the coast-to-coast drive. Manimal the Wildcat mascot goes wild! Two-point game, both teams' fans getting fired up. 7:53 pm | 2nd half, 45-41 KU | by Jonah Keri 11:59 left: Just perfect execution by the Jayhawks. Morningstar takes the hand-off at the top of the key, drives around the whole Wildcats defense, dishes to Aldrich for the dunk, and-one. And then Clemente comes back with an off-balance, contested three that was completely insane. We've got a ballgame. 7:54 pm | 2nd half, 47-41 KU | by Jonah Keri 11:26 left: Tweet of the night so f a r , from@ESPNAndyKatz:"There needs to be a hang time like a punter on Denis Clemente's 3pointers." 7:56 pm | 2nd half, 52-45 KU | by Jonah Keri 9:00 left: K-State mounts a comeback as Pullen hits, but Reed knocks down a three from Colorado to stretch the lead back to seven. 8:01 pm | 2nd half, 53-45 KU | by Jonah Keri 7:48 left: Iffy call on rebound tipped out of bounds, looked like K-State ball. Frank Martin runs out to nearly half-court, but doesn't get a T. Kansas by 8 under 8:00. BIG page 52

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Manny Pacquiao overwhelms Joshua Clottey, wins unanimous decision Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/14/2010 6:36:10 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 ("Pacquiao%20overwhelms%20 Clottey,%20wins%20by%20dec ision")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp n.go.com/dallas/news/story?id= 4993725"); 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/dallas /news/story?id=4993725' }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } Associated Press ARLINGTON, Texas -Fighting on the star, Manny Pacquiao showed once again why he is such a star. With the biggest fight crowd in the U.S. in 17 years cheering him on at Cowboys Stadium, Pacquiao dominated a strangely passive Joshua Clottey from the opening bell Saturday night to retain his welterweight title and cement his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. The fight wasn't close, and it was never in doubt. It was so one-sided that even those in the cheap seats among the crowd of 50,994 could tell without looking at the giant video screens over the ring that Pacquiao was in total command. Rafael: Show And Prove

Round after round, Manny Pacquiao, the greatest fighter in the world, proved he's truly one of the best, Dan Rafael writes. Story One ringside judge gave Pacquiao every round, while the two others gave him all but one. The Associated Press scored it a shutout for the Filipino sensation. It wasn't as flashy as his knockout of Ricky Hatton or as savage as the beating he gave Oscar De La Hoya, but there was no doubt Pacquiao was in command the entire way against a fighter who kept his gloves up high in front of his face and chose to engage him only in spurts. Clottey's strategy worked to keep him upright, but he was never competitive in the biggest fight of his career. "He's a very tough opponent," Pacquiao said. "He was looking for a big shot." Pacquiao was supposed to have been fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. instead of Clottey, but the megafight fell apart over a dispute over blood testing. He took out any frustrations over losing the biggest fight of his career by beating up Clottey on the biggest stage of his career. "I want that fight, the world wants that fight, but it's up to him," Pacquiao said. "I'm ready to fight any time."

That time won't come soon. Mayweather is fighting Shane Mosley on May 1, and the earliest the two could get together would be in the fall and only if Mayweather backs off his demands for blood testing. Pac-ing Them In Saturday was a big night in Big D. The 50,994 in attendance marked the third-largest indoor crowd for a U.S. boxing event. The fight this night was more of an event than a real competition, bringing in the biggest crowd in the U.S. for a fight since Julio Cesar Chavez fought Pernell Whitaker at the Alamodome in 1993. It paid off handsomely for Pacquiao, though, who earned at least $12 million and built on the reputation he has gained as one of the greatest fighters of his time. Promoters not only sold out the 45,000 seats available for the bout, but added thousands more standing room only "party passes" for fans who could get a glimpse of the action and see every drop of sweat on the huge overhead screens. "It's one of the most incredible stories not just in boxing but anywhere," promoter Bob Arum said. "Fourteen years ago he was sleeping in a cardboard shack in the Philippines and tonight he puts 51,000 people in this palace in Dallas."

The tone of the fight was set early, with Pacquiao advancing against his taller opponent and throwing punches with both hands from all angles. It was the same style that gave him spectacular wins in his last three fights and, though Clottey was clearly the bigger fighter, he fought back only sparingly. "Everything's working now," trainer Freddie Roach told Pacquiao after the third round. "It's easy." It was easy, too, much to the delight of the crowd and much to the delight of an entire country back in Pacquiao's homeland. There, traffic came to a halt and huge numbers of Filipinos, including army troops and allied American soldiers, jammed theatres in shopping malls and military camps nationwide to root for Pacquiao. In what has now become a familiar scene, Filipinos repeatedly yelled his name and threw punches in the air after the country's boxing hero was declared the winner. “ I want that fight, the world wants that fight, but it's up to him. I'm ready to fight any time.”-- Manny Pacquiao, on fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. Unlike most of Pacquiao's MANNY page 51

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Cleveland Browns, Jake Delhomme agree to twoyear contract ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/14/2010 4:53:47 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 ("Browns,%20Delhomme%20a gree%20to%20twoyear%20contract")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp n.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=499

2744"); 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=4992744' }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } ESPN.com news services CLEVELAND -- Jake Delhomme has a new NFL home, and the Cleveland Browns have another new quarterback. Delhomme, released last week by the Carolina Panthers, has agreed to terms on a two-year deal with the Browns, whose quarterback position has been nothing short of a merry-goround of players since the club returned as an expansion team 11 years ago. ESPN NFL Insider Adam

Schefter first reported the deal, and a source told Schefter that Delhomme is scheduled to make $7 million this season, including just under $900,000 in base salary. With $12.7 million from Carolina, Delhomme will make $19.7 million in 2010. Walker: Quinn era nearing close Brady Quinn hasn't left the Browns organization yet, but Saturday's deal with Jake Delhomme is the clearest sign yet that Quinn's not the QB answer the team's looking for, James Walker writes. Blog Delhomme's agent, Rick Smith, said the 35-year-old QB would sign his contract before the club's off-season conditioning program begins. Smith refused to comment beyond saying Delhomme would be resuming his career in Cleveland. A team spokesman said the Browns have no announcements planned. Cleveland has been busy trying to resolve a troublesome position. Earlier this week, the Browns acquired backup Seneca Wallace and released Derek Anderson, a one-time Pro Bowl selection who has struggled in the past two seasons.

Delhomme is expected to compete for Cleveland's starting job with Brady Quinn, who has yet to receive any endorsement from the club's new front office. Delhomme visited the Browns on Thursday but left without a deal. He had scheduled a meeting with the New Orleans Saints, his hometown team, but canceled that trip after working out the principles of a deal with the Browns. Since 1999, the Browns have had eight different openingweek quarterbacks. Delhomme is coming off his worst season as a pro. He threw 18 interceptions and the Panthers decided to cut him despite still owing him more than $12 million. Delhomme went 58-40 as a starter with Carolina, leading the franchise to its lone Super Bowl appearance to end the 2003 season. 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.

Q4 release for Mafia 2 (re)confirmed; Payne, Noire, Civ V still on hit list Christopher Grant (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/14/2010 12:59:00 AM

Earlier this month, Take-Two announced the potential movement of one of the titles planned for release in its fiscal fourth quarter, extending from August to October. The choices were: LA Noire, Mafia 2, Max Payne 3, or Civilization V. During our demo of Mafia 2 on Wednesday, we were told the game would make its Q4 release, removing it from the list of potentially delayed titles. If we were the betting type, we'd be looking at one of those two Rockstar titles; after all, we've seen Civilization V at this point while LA Noire and Max Payne 3 remain shrouded in mystery. Q4 release for Mafia 2 (re)confirmed; Payne, Noire, Civ V still on hit list originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Baltimore Orioles' Brian Roberts leaving camp to see back specialist Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/14/2010 10:22:17 AM

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areUI(H,A); return false; } } Associated Press SARASOTA, Fla. -- Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts is returning to Baltimore to see a specialist for an ailing back that has kept him out of games this spring. "I'm just going there to see a back doctor and just make sure we're progressing in a way we need to be and if we need to ramp it up and do anything else, then we will," Roberts after taking infield practice with the team on Sunday morning. "It's gone a while," said Roberts, who also has been slowed by a stomach virus this spring. "We'd like to get over the hump a little bit." He said that the decision to see Dr. Lee Riley at Johns Hopkins Hospital on Monday was not connected to his infield session and that he still aims to be ready for the Orioles' opener at Tampa Bay on April 6.

"I feel fine doing that sort of stuff," he said. "I still have a little bit of discomfort in certain areas and in certain ways, so those are the kinds of things that we're just going to check and make sure that we don't need to try to do anything different treatment wise." Roberts expects to return to Sarasota that night or Tuesday morning. "It's not fun," he said. "It's certainly not the way you want to prepare for a 162-game season." Roberts led the American League in doubles last season with 56. Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 3/14/2010 1:30:00 AM

Filed under: Cubs, Spring Training MESA, Ariz. -- You go to HoHoKam Park, the desert home of the Chicago Cubs, and you wonder the same thing that

crazy people have wondered for decades. Is this the year? You've polled a few old ball scouts who are skeptical. The Cubs are getting long in the tooth, they say. Unless they get lucky, no dice. Then you walk into the ballpark

and are told about the former Cubs star who the other day was

Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/14/2010 9:30:02 AM

There is an interesting PBS series titled “ Your Mind and Your Money,” with an extensive section on Behavioral Finance. There is a full run of video discussions with the likes of Daniel Kahneman of Princeton (Prospect Theory), Richard Thaler of University of Chicago (practical implications of behavioral finance) and Robert Shiller of Yale (How psychology impacts investor behavior). Edutainment video for a rainy Sunday afternoon . . . > kneeling outside the ballpark, click for video menu page looking prayerful. Beseeching Five Filters featured article: the heavens, perhaps. Calling Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: upon Harry Caray. Begging the PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, g o a t f o r f o r g i v e n e s s a n d Term Extraction. Cubdom's deliverance.

Despite Track Record, True Believers Dot Cubs' Camp Tom Krasovic (FanHouse Main)

Your Mind and Your Money

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Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin ejected for hit on Brian Campbell Jesse Rogers (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:02:29 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 ("Capitals\'%20Ovechkin%20ej ected%20for%20hit%20on%20 Campbell")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp

n.go.com/chicago/nhl/news/stor y?id=4994464"); 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/chica go/nhl/news/story?id=4994464' }); } A.userAction = I ; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } By Jesse Rogers ESPNChicago.com Archive Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin was ejected from Sunday's game against the Chicago Blackhawks after receiving a game misconduct penalty for boarding. With 7:44 remaining in the first period and the Capitals trailing 1 -0, Ovechkin checked

Blackhawks defenseman Brian Campbell into the boards behind Chicago's goal, moments after Campbell had released the puck. Campbell went face-first into the boards and lay on the ice for several minutes before being helped to the dressing room. Ovechkin was given a fiveminute major for boarding in addition to the game misconduct. A game misconduct penalty automatically incurs a fine and further review by the commissioner's office for possible suspension. On Dec. 1, he was suspended for two games without pay by the NHL for a knee-to-knee hit on Carolina defenseman Tim Gleason. Ovechkin leads the NHL in scoring with 96 points. Campbell was not expected to return against the Capitals. Jesse Rogers covers the B l a c k h a w k s f o r ESPNChicago.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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fights, this one lacked suspense from the opening seconds of the fight, when Clottey assumed the peek-a-boo position he would remain in except for brief spurts the entire bout. "He has speed, I lost the fight," Clottey said. "He's fast, that's why I was taking my time." Arum said he wasn't disappointed in the effort put out by Clottey, who was guaranteed to make at least $1.25 million. "What was he supposed to do? If he played offense he'd get knocked out," Arum said. "I can't blame the kid for trying to wear him down." Clottey seemed content to hold his hands high in a peek-a-boo style through much of the early rounds, trying to pick off Pacquiao's punches and perhaps rally late. But he gave away round after round, despite landing some clean punches on the rare occasions when he would throw a combination. "You gotta take a chance," Clottey's trainer, Lenny DeJesus, implored him after the sixth round. "You're in a fight and you gotta start taking chances." Clottey didn't, though, and his prize was that he was the first fighter in Pacquiao's last six fights to make it to the final bell. The only suspense when it came

time to announce the decision was whether the three ringside judges would give Clottey any of the rounds. Pacquiao threw three times as many punches as Clottey, an average of 100 a round, and landed as many power shots as Clottey threw. Final punch stats showed Pacquiao landing 246 of 1,231 punches to 108 of 399 for Clottey. Clottey had gotten the fight off a good performance in his last bout against Miguel Cotto, but he was clearly more concerned with surviving the all-out assault that Pacquiao is noted for than winning the fight. "Joshua Clottey had the power to knock him out but was reluctant to punch," DeJesus said. "We clearly got beat. I don't think he won a round." Roach agreed, saying he saw nothing in Clottey to win. "He had a good defense, but defense isn't enough to win a fight," Roach 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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8:04 pm | 2nd half, 57-50 KU | by Jonah Keri 6:27 left: "There is simply no answer for Cole Aldrich." He has 10 points. 8:06 pm | 2nd half, 58-52 KU | by Jonah Keri 5:56 left: Pullen looks like he's taking the game on his own shoulders. Hits a floater, then drives hard to the rim, bonks his head, gets up and makes the two FTs. 8:09 pm | 2nd half, 62-52 KU | by Jonah Keri 5:16 left: Collins, who's been dishing assists and deferring for the entire second half, crosses over one man, spin-dribbles another, and hits a gorgeous running hook in traffic. Sweet. Timeout K-State. 8:10 pm | 2nd half, 64-55 KU | by Jonah Keri 4:30 left: Aldridge triggers a steal, leads to an open lay-up. Samuels answers with a three. Time ticking down, though. 8:13 pm | 2nd half, 66-58 KU | by Jonah Keri 3:16 left: Reed hits two free

throws. Samuels answers with another three in perfect rhythm. Kelly with a block and K-State gets it back. Still an eight-point game at the last TV timeout. 8:17 pm | 2nd half, 68-60 KU | by Jonah Keri 2:47 left: Aldrich gets beaten off the dribble (again), two free throws cuts it to six. And then K-State lets Collins run free for an easy layup. 8:21 pm | 2nd half, 70-62 KU | by Jonah Keri 1:41 left: Tyrel Reed runner was probably option number 78 for Kansas. Fortunately for the Jayhawks, K-State misses a three. Marcus Morris back with the jumper, and this game is all but over. 8:25 pm | 2nd half, 70-64 KU | by Jonah Keri 35 seconds left: Reed improbably misses two free throws, Clemente goes coast-tocoast to chop it to six. Running out of time, though. 8:28 pm | 2nd half, 71-64 KU | by Jonah Keri 28 seconds left: Aldrich fouls

out. Why Kansas would willingly stop the clock when time is on their side is a mystery. Clemente misses a three, though, so this should FINALLY do it. 8:34 pm | Final, 72-64 KU | by Jonah Keri Roooooock, Chaaaaaaaalk Jayhawwwwwwwk...KUUUUUUUU!! Solid win for Kansas, balanced effort by the offense, Marcus Morris looked great, Collins with a nice all-around game, didn't need to bomb away this time. As talented as Kentucky is, Kansas' depth makes it a worthy favorite, or at least cofavorite, to win it all. K-State oddly profiles more like a scary mid-major with their killer backcourt, but they'll have the luxury of a high seed -at least a 3, and maybe a 2. The Big 12 will be well represented in the Big Dance.

Chicago Cubs 2010 Primer Matt Snyder (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/14/2010 1:30:00 AM

Filed under: Cubs, Spring Training After one of the best regular seasons in franchise history, the 2008 Cubs fizzled in the playoffs. In 2009, they picked right up where they left off, and fell drastically short of expectations. There were injury issues, a lack of cohesion (due to general manager Jim Hendry's awful offseason tinkering) and severe underperformance. Of the major contributors, you could probably only say Derrek Lee and Ted Lilly did not have disappointing campaigns. Everyone else either simply met expectations (like Ryan Theriot), battled injury (like Aramis Ramirez) or simply played well below their ability (like almost everyone else). The result was giving the NL Central title back to the rival St. Louis Cardinals(either the Cubs or Cards have won a share of the division for every season since 1999). Oddly enough, through all the

adversity, the Cubs still finished 83-78, marking the first time the team had three consecutive winning seasons since 1972 (when it had done so for six straight). It was a 14-game regression, but the Cubs were tied for first place in the first week of August. It's a testament to how talented the group is. With some offseason patchwork -- mostly just undoing the damage Hendry did last winter - it's possible the Cubs get back to the playoffs for the third time in four years. Tom Krasovic: No Shortage of Believers in Cubs' Camp

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Following the Nets: No Pity, Please Rob Peterson (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/13/2010 11:00:00 PM

Filed under: Nets, Rockets HOUSTON -- After spending four days on the road with a team that could finish with the worst record in NBA history, one thing has become crystal clear: the New Jersey Nets don't want your pity. They'll take your questions, settle for a little of your empathy and will brush off the occasional snide remark. But frankly, they can do without the sad looks, the sympathy and the "Oh woe is them" sentiment. The Nets have no use for it. They have work to do and time is getting short.

After Luis Scola scalded them for 44 points on 20-for-25 shooting Saturday at Toyota Center, the Nets have a 7-59 record and now only 16 games to get three more wins. Of

course, what they're trying to do is get to 10 in order to avoid finishing with nine wins -which would tie the all-time futility mark of the 1972-73 76ers-- or worse, which would be the Nets stopping at seven or ending up with eight. They're better than seven, eight or even nine wins. They know they're better than that. Their record, however, doesn't reflect it. It's a mark they don't want. Who can blame them? The Nets already set one record for futility when they lost 18 consecutive games to open the season. Adding another is just piling on.

GDC 2010: From student game to success Richard Mitchell (Joystiq)

own projects become a success. The panel included Kim Swift, designer of Portal and currently Believe it or not, many of the of Airtight Games, Matt Korba best games start out as student and Paul Bellezza of The Odd development projects. The G e n t l e m e n ( P.B. M i s a d v e n t u r e s o f P . B . Winterbottom), and Kellee Winterbottom, flOw and even Santiago of thatgamecompany ( Portal all began life as student flOw). projects. Speaking at a GDC The advice was wide-ranging, panel, the developers of the though all the panelists agreed games listed above gave their that the best way to get a game advice on how budding student noticed is to submit it to as game designers can see their many competitions and festivals Submitted at 3/14/2010 3:00:00 PM

as possible. Swift specifically noted that it's a good idea to literally drag people to come and play your game at festivals

and shows like GDC. The game itself should "grab" players as well, with Korba saying that a festival showing of a game

should be get players involved within five minutes. Continue reading GDC 2010: From student game to success GDC 2010: From student game to success originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Will Wright predicts social games will grow to 25 percent of market Andrew Yoon (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/13/2010 11:45:00 PM

One of the big trends at this year's Game Developer's Conference is social gaming, thanks to wild success stories like Facebook-powered Farmville. While many see social gaming as the next big thing, Will Wright-- famed creator of SimCity, The Sims and Spore-- warned GDC attendees that expectations for the genre are unrealistic. "What people tend to do is apply a power curve to this," Wright explained using the above diagram. "And so when you make an extrapolation based upon that, you're really way off, when in fact, what we were

really looking at was an Scurve." "It gets a lot of attention, of course, because investors, when they're looking to invest in something, they're looking to invest in the steep part of this curve. And so that's why there's

so much business interest in this sort of platform," Wright hypothesized. But don't think your mom is going to suddenly lose interest in raising animals on her virtual farm any time soon. In fact, while the genre may not

explode, it will ultimately represent a large percentage of the overall games business. "It's not that I don't think social games are going to be big ... I can imagine them doing about the quarter of the market, really." That's good news for Facebook, which is still looking for its Mario, its " iconic" game. Will Wright predicts social games will grow to 25 percent of market originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Words from the Investment Wise 3.14.10 Prieur du Plessis (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/14/2010 6:04:08 AM

Words from the (investment) wise for the week that was (March 8â&#x20AC;&#x201C;14, 2010) Shrugging off some lingering reminders of the credit crisis and recession, investors last week WORDS page 55

Blizzard 'hoping' for StarCraft 2 Mac beta client in April Ben Gilbert (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/14/2010 1:30:00 PM

This month, it's finally good to be a Mac-based gamer. In addition to the reveal that Valve will be moving Steam(and the Source Engine) over to Apple's OS, we discovered this morning that Blizzard is hard at work on a StarCraft 2 beta client for Mac. According to recent

Twitter Q&A with the game's devs ( catalogued here), the studio is "currently working on a Mac version of the beta and hope to release it sometime in April." Unfortunately, it seems that if you didn't register many moons ago, you still might not be eligible for inclusion, as the developers also reveal that "We have no plans to make an open

Blizzard 'hoping' for StarCraft 2 Mac beta client in April originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments beta at this time." Considering the game is still planned for release in the first half of this year, though, it would seem that

even without a beta invite you'll be playing the game fairly soon. Gallery: Starcraft II (6/29/09)[Via BigDownload]

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marked the one-year anniversary of the bear market low by pushing many benchmark equity indices to cycle highs. Wall Street scaled 17-month highs on the back of easing concerns of sovereign debt defaults and increased hopes for a global economic recovery as the US dollar pulled back and the CBOE Volatility (VIX) Index approached 22-month lows. The Index is also referred to as the “fear gauge” of US stock markets and is used as a contrary indicator that moves inversely to equity prices, as seen in the chart below where it is plotted against the S&P 500 Index. Source: StockCharts.com Meanwhile, US Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd plans to introduce a revised version of a financial regulatory reform bill on Monday. Dodd had hoped to release a bipartisan bill but has been unable to do so. Not a moment too soon, as a 2,200page report by Anton Valukas, appointed by a US court to probe the reasons for Lehman’s failure in September 2008, raised serious questions about the bank’s top management, including former CEO Dick Fuld, and auditors Ernst & Young, reported the Financial Times. Source: Doonesbury, SlateV.com, March 1, 2010. (Hat tip: The Big Picture)

The past week’s performance of the major asset classes is summarized in the chart below – a set of numbers indicating that a degree of risk taking has crept back into financial markets. Interestingly, similar to a number of stock market indices, investment-grade corporate bonds also scaled fresh cycle peaks, whereas high-yield bonds are testing their January highs. Although yields on US government bonds did not change much on the week, the bond market was actually quite strong in light of the US Treasury being able to sell $74 billion in 3-, 10- and 30-year Notes and Bonds at lower-thanexpected yields. Fears of further monetary tightening in China weighed on the Shanghai Composite Index (shown in the table of global stock market performance lower down) and commodities. Gold and silver were also out of favor. (Click here for Adam Hewison’s ( INO.com) latest technical analysis of the outlook for gold bullion.) Source: StockCharts.com A summary of the movements of major global stock markets for the past week and various other measurement periods is given in the table below. The cyclical bull market that commenced on March 9, 2009 celebrated its first anniversary with gains across a broad front. The MSCI World Index and the

MSCI Emerging Markets Index gained 1.4% and 1.8% respectively. Among mature markets, Japan (+3.7%) reached its highest close in seven weeks in expectation that further easing of monetary policy by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) on Wednesday will weaken the yen and boost exporters. The only weak spots were a few emerging markets such as China (-0.6%), Russia (-0.3%) and Venezuela (0.1%). Notwithstanding the huge rally since the March lows, only the Chile Stock Market General Index has been able to reclaim its 2007 pre-crisis peak and is now trading 9.3% higher. Mexico and Israel could be the next countries to eliminate the bear market losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Index and the S&P 500 Index are still 25.0% and 26.5% respectively down on their October 2007 bull market peaks. All the major US indices are back in the black for 2010 to date. The small-cap Russell 2000 Index, a clear leader among the indices, has registered 20 out of 23 up-days since the low of February 8. Click here or on the table below for a larger image. Top performers among the entire spectrum of stock markets this week were Kenya (+8.3%), Jamaica (+6.5%), Sweden (+5.4%), Nigeria (+5.3%) and Hungary (+4.6%). Debt-

burdened Greece’s austerity plans gained favor with investors, pushing the Athex Composite Share Price Index up by +3.7 for the week. At the bottom end of the performance rankings, countries included Nepal (_3.4%), Bangladesh (2.3%), Macedonia (-1.6%), Peru (-1.5%) and Botswana (-1.4%). Of the 94 stock markets I keep on my radar screen, 74% recorded gains, 21% showed losses and 5% remained unchanged. The performance map below tells the past week’s mostly bullish story. Emerginvest world markets heat map Source: Emerginvest(Click here to access a complete list of global stock market movements.) Seven of the ten economic sectors of the S&P 500 Index closed higher for the week, with defensive sectors Health Care, Consumer Staples and Utilities the only ones under water. Source: US Global Investors – Weekly Investor Alert, March 12, 2010. John Nyaradi ( Wall Street Sector Selector) reports that as far as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are concerned, the winners for the week included iShares MSCI Sweden (EWD) (+5.3), Claymore/Delta Global Shipping (SEA) (+5.0%), Market Vectors Indonesia (IDX) (+5.0%), First Trust Amex Biotech (FBT) (+4.5%),

Claymore/NYSE Arca Airline (FAA) (+3.9%) and iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors (ICF) (+3.9%). At the bottom end of the performance rankings, ETFs included iPath DJ AIG Sugar (SGG) (-12.2%), United States Natural Gas (UNG) (-4.7%), iPath DJ AIG Natural Gas (GAZ) (-4.5%), ProShares Short Financials (SEF) (-4.1%) and ProShares Short Emerging Markets (EUM) (-2.8%). The table below, courtesy of Bespoke, highlights the performance of key ETFs across all asset classes over the last month, six months and year. “Over the last year, just three ETFs shown are down – Natural Gas (UNG) at _48%, 7-10 Year Treasuries (IEF) at -4%, and 20+ Year Treasuries (TLT) at _13%. The best-performing ETF shown over the last year has been Russia (RSX) with a gain of 175%. India (INP) ranks second with a gain of 165%, and the Financial sector ETF (XLF) third with a gain of 144%,” said the report. Source: Bespoke, March 9, 2010. Referring to the ballooning US budget deficit, the quote du jour this week comes from 85-yearold Richard Russell, La Jollabased author of the Dow Theory Letters. He said: “The estimates of budget deficits are so huge WORDS page 56

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that they defy the ability of the average citizen to comprehend them. As the US continues to create more dollars, at some point our foreign creditors are going to want higher returns (rate) before they are willing to make loans to the US. Rising rates would be an extreme danger to the US. Not only would they hurt business. Rising interest rates mean a rising cost of carrying the national debt. The process of compounding the cost of the national debt would send US finances into a ‘death spiral’. “I think institutional investors are holding off on buying stocks because they don’t see stocks as safe long-term holdings. Big money investors are looking ahead to higher interest rates. That combined with current high valuations for stocks constitutes a red flag for seasoned investors. The key here is probably the action of the bond market, and particularly long-dated Treasury bonds. The 30-year T-bonds would be particularly sensitive to Treasury financing looking years ahead. “It is still not clear how the US is going to finance its enormous national debt. Reneging on the debt is unthinkable. To raise taxes and at the same time cut down on spending is almost an impossibility. That leaves inflation as the most probable answer. As soon as our creditors

realize our ‘way out’ is inflation, they will halt their process of lending to the US, or at least halt lending at current low, low rates.” Elsewhere, The New York Times reported that “the White House and Congressional leaders put Democrats on notice on Friday that they would push ahead next week toward climactic votes on the health care legislation.” Next, a quick textual analysis of my week’s reading. This is a way of visualizing word frequencies at a glance. The usual suspects such as “bank”, “China”, “debt”, “economy”, “Fed”, “market”, “policy” and “rates” featured prominently, with “Greece” taking a back seat after its prominence over the past few weeks. The major moving-average levels for the benchmark US indices, the BRIC countries and South Africa (where I am based in Cape Town when not traveling) are given in the table below. With the exception of the Shanghai Composite Index, the indices in the table are all trading above their 50- and 200day moving averages. The table provides the February lows for the various indices as these must hold in order for the cyclical bull market to remain intact. Importantly, although the Shanghai Composite Index is trading a little below its key moving averages, it is still

above the February low. On the upside, a break above 3,097 is required to again put the Index on a bullish path. The Dow Jones Transportation Index, the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Russell 2000 Index all made new cycle highs during the week, with the S&P 500 closing at exactly the same level as its January high and the Dow Jones Industrial Index still 100 points short. (The fact that the Transports recorded a new high but not the Industrials represents a so-called Dow Theory non-confirmation.) However, the indices still have more work to do in order to reach pre-Lehman levels – 1,250 in the case of the S&P 500 (i.e. a gain of 8.7% from here). Click here or on the table below for a larger image. Using Fibonacci retracement lines, the S&P 500 is now testing the 62% retracement line drawn from the May 2008 peak to the March 2009 bottom (see purple lines). According to John Murphy ( StockCharts.com), a break of this key upside target raises the possibility that the Index could retrace 62% of the entire bear market that started in the fourth quarter of 2007, in which case the potential upside target is 1,232 (see green lines). Source: StockCharts.com Also commenting on the technical picture of the S&P 500, Kevin Lane ( Fusion IQ) said: “Currently individual

investor allocations towards equities are slightly below the mean, which puts us in a zone where, though reduced, buying power is still ample. With buying power relatively strong and the AAII Bull Sentiment Survey still at a relatively neutral reading, it’s hard to see a big correction here. What may be a likely scenario is as follows: the market continues to move up and investors, even the non-believers, start chasing stocks, putting their last bit of buying power into the market.” Bill King ( The King Report) believes the stock market could make some kind of top in the next 3-6 weeks. “The recovery rally is stretched, the Fed is scheduled to end its monetization this month, volume is contracting, the usual small cap-tech rally has accelerated and April 30 is the end of the best seasonal rally period; expiration is next week and Q1 performance gaming looms,” he said. “But most importantly, March and April often contain important reversals or significant declines for stocks. Curfew hour is approaching.” From London, David Fuller ( Fullermoney) adds the following perspective: “All technical evidence to date suggests we have seen a normal correction to the cyclical bull market’s trend mean represented by rising 200day moving averages. The only

minor negative is that persistent rallies have replaced short-term oversold conditions with shortterm overbought readings. If this matters beyond brief pauses, we would see it in the form of downward dynamics and failed upside breaks from trading ranges. However, a more important factor is likely to be the months spent by most equity indices in ranging consolidations, as they gradually worked their way over to their rising moving average mean. In the absence of downward dynamics, perhaps caused by some currently unexpected fright, stock markets remain capable of running on the upside.” On a somewhat longer-term horizon, Fuller identifies a number of possible warning signals to look out for: “1) Strong economic growth competes for capital and invites monetary tightening by central banks; 2) strong growth and too much speculation would lift oil prices over the low $80s highs for this cycle to date, towards headwind levels of $100 or more; 3) US 10-year Treasury yields above 4% would be an advance warning but the real danger area is above 5%; 4) a very weak USD could undermine confidence but this is clearly not a threat today.” Although the fat lady has not WORDS page 57

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yet made her appearance to signal the end of the bull cycle, the steepness of the nascent rally, together with resistance in the area of the January highs, could result in stock markets consolidating in order to work off a short-term overbought condition. On the fundamental front, tighter money does not necessarily spell a declining stock market, but turning off the “juice” will certainly remove a tailwind, making earnings growth the key determinant for generating further gains (especially in light of stretched valuations). For more discussion on the economy and financial markets, see my recent posts “ Video feast: Make Markets Be Markets“,“ Stock market is overvalued, overbought and overbullish, according to Hussman“,“ Technical talk: Hard to see a big correction here“,“ Interview: James Montier on value investing“,“ Interview: James Montier on behavioral investing“, “ Stock markets – celebrating one year of gains, but only Chile above 2007 peak” and “ Q&A on emerging markets with Mark Mobuis“.(And do make a point of listening to Donald Coxe’s webcast of March 12, which can be accessed from the sidebar of the Investment Postcards site.) Twitter and Facebook I regularly post short comments (maximum 140 characters) on

topical economic and market issues, web links and graphs on Twitter. For those readers not doing so already, you can follow my “tweets” by clicking here. You may also consider joining me as a friend on Facebook. Economy “There has been little change in global business confidence since the beginning of this year. Sentiment remains consistent with only a modest global economic recovery. Businesses are upbeat when broadly assessing current conditions and the outlook through this summer, but remain stubbornly cautious in their assessment of sales strength, hiring and inventories,” according to the results of the latest Survey of Business Confidence of the World by Moody’s Economy.com. South Americans are the most upbeat and North Americans the most nervous. Confidence is strongest among financial and business services firms and weakest among those working in real estate and government. Manufacturing firms are in between. Source: Moody’s Economy.com Referring to the precarious debt situation of many countries, Mohamed El-Erian, co-chief investment officer of Pimco, said on the company’s website: “Every once in a while, the world is faced with a major

economic development that is ill -understood at first and dismissed as of limited relevance, and which then catches governments, companies and households unawares.” As seen in the chart below (courtesy of US Global Investors), the sovereign debt-to -GDP ratio is much worse for the G-20 largest developed economies (about 100%) than for the 20 most important emerging markets (approximately 40%). The G-20 ratio is forecast to increase by another 20% over the next few years, while the emerging countries’ ratio is expected to decline as a result of smaller budget deficits. Source: US Global Investors – Investor Alert, March 12, 2010. Although developed markets still have higher sovereign credit ratings (left axis) than emerging markets (right axis), the ratings of emerging markets are improving, while those of developed markets are worsening significantly. Source: US Global Investors – Investor Alert, March 12, 2010. Back to El-Erian who said: “Governments naturally aspire to overcome bad debt dynamics through the orderly (and relatively painless) combination of growth and a willingness on the part of the private sector to maintain and extend holdings of government debt. Such an outcome, however, faces

considerable headwinds in a world of unusually high unemployment, muted growth dynamics, persistently large deficits and regulatory uncertainty. “Countries will thus be forced to make difficult decisions relating to higher taxation and lower spending. If these do not materialize on a timely basis, the universe of likely outcomes will expand to include inflating out of excessive debt and, in the extreme, default and confiscation.” A snapshot of the week’s US economic reports is provided below. (Click the links to see Northern Trust’s assessment of the various data releases.) Friday, March 12, 2010 • Strength of February retail sales impressive, but Q1 consumer spending could show only tepid gain •Rebound in business inventory accumulation in store for 2010? • University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index again edges down Thursday, March 11, 2010 •Flow of funds: Net worth of households grew, household debt reduction continues, net lending remains a challenge •International trade: Decline in oil and auto imports account for narrowing of trade gap • Total continuing claims holding at elevated level Wednesday, March 10, 2010 •Budget deficits: The challenge

ahead in a picture • Wholesale inventories: Inventory-sales ratio at record low Considering the Fed’s Beige Book (released the week before last), David Rosenberg ( Gluskin Sheff & Associates) said: “The Beige Book is very useful in terms of its timeliness and granularity to the sector level. I always make a note to check and see which industries are seeing positive and negative momentum. In the latest Beige Book the list of positives was longer than I have seen in at least the last two years (twice as many positive sectors as there were negatives). “The positive mentions are: steel, natural gas, tech (especially semiconductors), software/information services, housing (entry level), tourism, staffing firms, chemical manufacturing, rail transports, airlines (fares stabilizing, leisure and business demand improving), heavy machinery (especially mining and agriculture equipment), plastic products, health care services, negative mentions, commercial real estate, banking, commercial aircraft, automotive, coal and petrochemicals.” A majority of economists in the National Association of Business Economists’ semiannual survey expressed the WORDS page 58

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opinion, as reported by MoneyNews, that a rise in interest rates was both likely and appropriate in the next several months. “I’m a little worried that the extended period language [used in the Fed's statements] is conveying too much of a particular date to markets about interest rates,” added St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard. Pimco’s co-chief investment officer and founder, Bill Gross, on the other hand, said he was skeptical of the economy’s ability to grow without the government programs and that it was possible for “some of the Fed’s liquidity programs to come back” if recovery was uncertain, according to CNBC reports (via MoneyNews). “When debt to GDP reaches 90%, as it looks like it will, growth slows and bad things happen. That’s the potential going forward, not a default,” he said. Bill King is of the opinion that “the FOMC meeting next Tuesday will certify or annul the scheduled termination of quantitative easing (QE) – the monetization of mortgagebacked securities (MBS) and agencies – on March 31. The bubble meisters must also address the issue of keeping interest rates low ‘for an extended period of time’. This rhetoric is causing internecine fighting within the Fed. The

financial center districts want to keep the juice flowing. Nonfinancial district presidents are more hawkish and concerned about inflation.” Moving across the pond, amidst debt concerns regarding the PIIGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Spain), the European Union released a report on Friday showing Eurozone industrial production had increased in January at the highest rate since the start of records in 1990. Further afield, Chinese exports increased by 45.7% in February on a year-ago basis, eclipsing forecasts and providing evidence of a strong economy. However, China’s inflation rate also rose significantly in February, registering a 2.5% increase from a year before – the highest in 16 months. According to US Global Investors, the latest inflation figure surpassed the one-year deposit rate of 2.25%. Negative real interest rates may provide an additional incentive to drive asset prices higher, increasing the likelihood of the Chinese central bank raising interest rates from a five-year low. Source: US Global Investors – Investor Alert, March 12, 2010. On the question of exiting from monetary stimulus, the chart below shows Citi’s estimates (via US Global Investors) of upcoming rate increases in emerging countries in 2010.

Higher rates are on the cards for countries where inflation pressures are building, notably Brazil and Turkey. Source: US Global Investors – Investor Alert, March 12, 2010. Week’s economic reports Source: Yahoo Finance, March 12, 2010. Click the links below for Wells Fargo Securities’ research reports. • Weekly Economic & Financial Commentary (March 12) • Global Chart Book (March 2010) • Monthly Economic Outlook (March 2010) Next week sees interest rate announcements by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) (Tuesday, March 16) and Bank of Japan (BoJ) (Wednesday, March 17). In addition, US economic data reports for the week include the following: Monday, March 15 •Empire Manufacturing Survey •Net long-term TIC flows •Capacity utilization •Industrial production Tuesday, March 16 •Building permits •Housing starts •Import and export prices Wednesday, March 17 •PPI Thursday, March 18 •CPI •Jobless claims •Current account balance •Leading indicators

•Philadelphia Fed Markets The performance chart obtained from the Wall Street Journal Online shows how different global financial markets performed during the past week. Source: Wall Street Journal Online, February 26, 2010. Final words Warren Buffett said: “The person that turns over the most rocks wins the game. And that’s always been my philosophy.” (Hat tip: Charles Kirk.) Let’s hope the news items and quotes from market commentators included in the “Words from the Wise” review will assist readers of Investment Postcards to “turn over many rocks”, i.e. research matters properly in order to take prudent investment decisions. That’s the way it looks from Cape Town (where a blogger is finishing off this post in order to celebrate his birthday for the rest of Sunday, while Lance Armstrong and over 40,000 cyclists are battling a stiff wind in the 2010 Cape Argus cycle race). Source: John Darkow, Comics.com, March 5, 2010. The Wall Street Journal: What was Lehman hiding? A 2,200-page report on precollapse Lehman Brothers raises serious questions about Enronstyle accounting, Peter Lattman reports on the News Hub panel. Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2010.

Financial Times: New York ties with London for finance crown “London has lost its crown as the pre-eminent home of banking and finance, as it tied for the first time with New York in the latest ranking of financial centres. “Fears about a regulatory backlash and new taxes drove down London’s score by 14 points to tie with New York at 775 points, in the Global Financial Centres Index compiled by Z/Yen for the City of London Corporation. “London was one of only four cities to lose points in the semiannual ranking, which combines a survey of financial professionals with factors such as office rental rates, airport satisfaction and transport. New York’s score rose by only one point. “Asian cities continue to rise in the ranking of 75 global centres. Hong Kong and Singapore posted double-digit gains in third and fourth place and the gap between London and New York and the rest of the world is at its narrowest since the survey began in 2007. “‘This research is a wake-up call for decision-makers,’ said Stuart Fraser, policy chairman for the City of London Corporation, which promotes the UK financial services sector and provides local services. ‘You WORDS page 59

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can’t take this route [of bashing banks and bankers] without endangering the competitiveness of London.’ “New York fared better than London for business environment, availability of people and infrastructure, even though those participating in the survey agreed that New York had taken the bigger hit from the financial crisis. “The most recent rankings were based on surveys taken from July to December 2009, when discussion of tougher regulation and higher taxes in the UK was at fever pitch.” Source: Brooke Masters, Financial Times, March 12, 2010. David Rosenberg (Gluskin Sheff & Associates): What’s beige and what isn’t “The Fed’s Beige Book is very useful in terms of its timeliness (information taken from midJanuary to February 22) and granularity to the sector level. I always make a note to check and see which industries are seeing positive and negative momentum. In the latest Beige Book the list of positives was longer than I have seen in at least the last two years (twice as many positive sectors as there were negatives). Although, the number of Districts reporting improved economic conditions did fall to 9 from 10 in the prior report published on January 13th.

“In the latest Fed Beige Book, looking at the industry breakdown, we see that the list of positive outweighed the negatives. The positive mentions are: Steel Natural gas Tech (especially semiconductors) Software/Information services Housing (entry level) Tourism Staffing firms Chemical manufacturing Rail transports Airlines (fares stabilizing, leisure and business demand improving) Heavy machinery (especially mining and agriculture equipment) Plastic products Health care services Negative mentions Commercial real estate Banking Commercial aircraft Automotive Coal Petrochemicals” Source: David Rosenberg, Gluskin Sheff & Associates, March 5, 2010. MoneyNews: Fed’s Bullard impatient about low rate pledge for “extended period” “A second senior Federal Reserve official has joined the ranks of those doubting whether the Fed should continue to commit to hold rates exceptionally low for an

extended period, a sign pressures are building to drop the wording. “‘I’m a little worried that the extended period language is conveying too much of a particular date to markets about … interest rates,” St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard recently told reporters before speaking on a panel organized by St. Cloud State University. “‘I think the extended period language, to the extent it’s dictating a particular time horizon, is not what the committee wants to do,” said Bullard, a voter on the Fed’s interest-rate setting panel. ‘And that’s making me a little less patient with the extended period language.’ “Bullard’s stance allies him with Kansas City Fed Bank President Thomas Hoenig, who dissented at the central bank’s January meeting, saying economic conditions have improved sufficiently to drop the promise. Both are voters this year on the 10-strong policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. “Most policymakers want to maintain the pledge and the Fed is expected to renew it at its meeting this month. Discarding it would signal that the Fed could be within several months of raising borrowing costs.” Source: MoneyNews, March 8, 2010. MoneyNews: Gross – Fed will

have to support economy if weakness remains “The Federal Reserve might continue to buy mortgagebacked securities and take other measures to inject liquidity into a still ailing economy, says Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer and founder of Pimco and manager of the world’s largest bond fund. “Many of the Fed’s liquidity programs are set to expire at the end of March, but monetary authorities might consider renewing such measures because growth won’t be strong enough without them. “‘These things have all been very critical but let’s face it – they’re expiring at the end of March,’ Gross says. ‘The critical question … is do we really need Uncle Sam and the check writing to continue?’ “Gross says he is skeptical of the economy’s ability to grow without the government programs and adds it’s possible for ’some of these programs to come back’ if recovery is uncertain, CNBC reports. “He said sees economic struggles continuing over a three - to five-year period – and even as long as 10 years, depending on circumstances.” Source: Forrest Jones, MoneyNews, March 8, 2010. MoneyNews: Former Fed Gov. Heller – double dip recession in cards “The economy is headed back

down, thanks to the exploding budget deficit, which will send interest rates soaring, says former Federal Reserve Gov. Robert Heller. “‘A double dip recession is still very much in the cards,’ the now retired he says. “‘The big elephant in the room that nobody talks about is the huge federal deficit, and that will eventually force up interest rates,’ Heller told CNBC. “The deficit totaled $1.4 trillion last year and is expected to register about the same amount this year. “‘As interest rates go up, it will kill both the business and consumer recovery,’ Heller said. “‘Therefore, the economy is likely to go down again. Sooner or later we’ll see a spike in interest rates, and that’s the danger awaiting investors.’” Source: Dan Weil, MoneyNews, March 5, 2010. Bloomberg: Pimco’s El-Erian says public finance shock may deepen “Mohamed El-Erian, whose company runs the world’s biggest mutual fund, said deteriorating public finances may affect the global economy more than is currently realized. “‘The importance of the shock to public finances in advanced economies is not yet sufficiently appreciated and understood,’ ElErian, co-chief investment WORDS page 60

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officer at Pacific Investment Management Co., wrote in an article on the Financial Times website. The potential damage from increased government borrowings is ‘at present being viewed primarily – and excessively – through the narrow prism of Greece.’ “Governments may have to raise taxes and slash spending to cope with swelling deficits after borrowing unprecedented amounts to stave off the global financial crisis, said El-Erian, who shares his job title with Bill Gross. A failure to carry out fiscal measures in time would raise the possibility of governments seeking to eliminate excessive debt through inflation or default, he said. “Pimco has said debt strains in Greece, Portugal and Spain underscore its view that 2010 will be a year of slower-thanaverage growth, and predicts there will be a shrinking global role for the US economy.” Click here for the full article. Source: Garfield Reynolds, Bloomberg, March 11, 2010. Bloomberg: Obama spending plan underestimates deficits, budget office says “President Barack Obama’s budget proposal would create bigger deficits than advertised every year of the next decade, with the shortfalls totaling $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected, according to the Congressional

Budget Office. “The nonpartisan agency said yesterday the deficit will remain above 4 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product for the foreseeable future while the publicly held debt will zoom to $20.3 trillion, amounting to 90 percent of GDP by 2020. By then, interest payments on the debt will have quadrupled to more than $900 billion annually, the report said. “Deficits between 2011 and 2020 would total $9.76 trillion, the CBO said. “Economists generally consider deficits topping 3 percent of GDP to be unsustainable because that means government debt is growing faster than the ability to pay back the money. “‘The news today from CBO is clear: The president’s budget will continue to lead our nation into a fiscal catastrophe – an ever worse one than the president’s own numbers suggest,’ Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the House Budget Committee, said yesterday. “White House Office of Management and Budget spokesman Kenneth Baer said the report ‘highlights how sensitive and uncertain budget projections are’. “Baer also said, ‘What is certain is that the irresponsibility of the past put the country on an unsustainable fiscal trajectory.’

“The CBO report is designed to give Congress an independent assessment of the administration’s budget request. The difference between the two outlooks is largely attributable to varying economic assumptions that affect projections of how quickly tax revenues will pour into the Treasury. “Revenues will be about $2 trillion less than the administration projects, while spending will be lower by about $600 billion, according to the CBO report.” Source: Brian Faler, Bloomberg, March 6, 2010. Bespoke: The deficit blob “Yesterday’s release of the monthly budget statement showed that the Federal government took in $108 billion and spent $328 billion, for a total monthly deficit of $221 billion. This marks the single largest monthly deficit reading in the history of the United States. The charts below show Federal Government revenues, spending, and deficits on a twelve month rolling basis. Not surprisingly, at a level of $1.48 trillion, this level is also at a record. “With the stock market bottom more than a year in the past, and the economy showing clear signs of recovery, there is now widespread agreement that the US economy is emerging from crisis and no longer on the brink

of collapse. For nearly two years now, Americans have been told by both Administrations that increased government spending was needed medicine to take the economy off of life support. Now that the economy is no longer on the brink, how much longer will Americans, and more importantly, the markets, accept this line of reasoning?” Source: Bespoke, March 11, 2010. MoneyNews: Romer – deficit a problem but don’t stop spending “The gaping US budget deficit is cause for concern but clamping down on spending immediately would be ‘pound foolish’ and derail the recovery, a top White House economic adviser said Tuesday. “Christina Romer, who heads the Council of Economic Advisers, said cutting back now ‘would inevitably nip the nascent economic recovery in the bud – just as fiscal and monetary contraction in 1936 and 1937 led to a second severe recession before the recovery from the Great Depression was complete.’ “Romer, in a speech to the National Association for Business Economics, also said President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package had been successful in pulling the economy out of a deep recession. “However, she said additional measures were necessary to

bring the jobless rate down from the current level of 9.7 percent, which she called ‘a terrible number by any metric’. “Romer said Obama’s job creation proposals – a hiring tax credit, additional aid for cashstrapped states, and providing capital to small banks – would help to bring down the jobless rate although she acknowledged that the economy probably would not grow fast enough to quickly close the labor gap.” Source: MoneyNews, March 9, 2010. Richard Russell (Dow Theory Letters): Heading for inflation or deflation? “It’s hard to believe, but there’s no consensus opinion on whether we’re headed for inflation or deflation. The fact is that the US national debt is now over $12 trillion. If the Treasury and the Fed just stare at this figure and don’t do anything the compounding interest on $12 trillion will ‘eat us up alive’. That’s the deflation part of the story. If the Fed and the administration cut back on the bail-out and stimulus programs, the US will probably sink back into an even more severe recession. “The number one problem on the administration’s collective minds is the chronic unemployment that seems to be imbedded in the guts of the WORDS page 61

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nation. The main ambition of every politician is to get reelected. Nobody’s going to get reelected while almost 20% of the voters in his district can’t find a job. So the problem for the Obama crowd is – how to create jobs. I believe their prescription for job-creation is ‘more inflation’. More printing of Federal Reserve Notes means that the banks will have even more money that they don’t want to lend. Thus, small business can’t get loans, and unemployment remains high. “The reckless creation of fiat money is basically inflationary, but the trade-off is that the National Debt increases. Is there any painless way out of this predicament? None that I can figure out. With $12 trillion in national debt, the US must try to inflate the debt away or renege on it. Reneging on the debt is unthinkable, which leaves the inflation strategy. The problem must be addressed, since if it is not, the compounding factor will simply make the problem that much more intractable. “The question becomes, will inflation produce more jobs? It was tried before during the Carter years, and the answer is that increased inflation does not guarantee more jobs. “What about a lower dollar? A lower dollar helps US exports, but a lower dollar presents other problems. In the old days it was said that ‘we owe the debt to

ourselves, so that it’s not a problem’. But today a large portion of our debt is owed to our friends overseas, and a lower dollar is the last thing they want to see. “So what’s the argument for coming deflation? In my opinion, a collapse in the stock market and a severe consumer strike. A cutback on dollar production and a halt to the bailout and stimulus strategy would also be very deflationary. “The bottom line is that nothing has been decided yet, which is why the stock market has been acting so ’spooky’. In the meantime, unemployment continues to be the main headache for the administration and with unemployment comes a consumer strike on spending. As Oliver Hardy would say to Stan Laurel, ‘A fine mess you got us in.’ Yes, indeed. “Inflation or deflation or both. We’ll know when it hits. And we will survive. “Meanwhile, the so-called ‘Greatest Generation’ is passing on into history. There aren’t a lot of the old guys and gals left. Maybe it’s time for a new ‘Greatest Generation’.” Source: Richard Russell, Dow Theory Letters, March 5, 2010. Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Flow of funds – net worth of households grew, household debt reduction continues “Net worth of households

increased $682 billion to $54 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2009. In 2009, net worth of households moved up $2.8 trillion following a $13.1 trillion loss on 2008. The gains in equity prices in 2009 more than offset the losses of real estate holdings (-$905 billion) of households. There has been an 11.7% increase in household net worth from the trough in the first quarter of 2009. “Although households experienced an increase in their wealth during 2009, they have significantly cut back on borrowing. In the fourth quarter of 2009, household net borrowing fell $54.4 billion, putting the annual decline at nearly $237 billion. The significant pace of debt reduction is a big negative for consumer spending. “At the same time, net lending in the economy continues to be problematic. Net lending fell at annual rate of $577 billion in the fourth quarter vs. $361 billion drop in the third quarter. Selfsustaining economic growth is unlikely to occur if this situation persists in 2010.” Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust – Daily Global Commentary, March 11, 2010. Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): International trade – decline in oil and auto imports account for narrowing of trade gap “The trade deficit narrowed to

$37.29 billion in January from a revised $39.9 billion deficit in December 2009. Exports and imports of goods and services dropped in January. Inflation adjusted exports of goods declined 1.6% and that of imports fell 3.1%. “Exports of food (-2.3%), autos (-5.6%0, and capital goods excluding autos (-2.6%) accounted for a large part of the weakness in exports. On the imports side, autos (-8.0%), petroleum (-3.1%), and consumer goods excluding autos (-2.6%) posted the significant declines. The real trade deficit of goods narrowed to $41.0 billion in January from $43.8 billion in December. However, the January reading of the real trade deficit nearly matches the fourth quarter average, implying that international trade will have a positive effect on real GDP in the first quarter if the trade gap narrows noticeably in February and March.” Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust – Daily Global Commentary, March 11, 2010. Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Rebound in inventory accumulation in store for 2010? “Total business inventories held steady in January. Factory inventories increased 0.2% in January, while wholesale and retail inventories dropped 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. Total business sales advanced 0.6% during January, after a 1.00%

increase in the prior month. “The inventory-sales ratio of the business sector was down one notch to 1.25 in January; the record low for this ratio is 1.24 set in 2005. As the economy gathers momentum, inventories are projected to make a sizable contribution to real GDP, which could be in the first-half of 2010 or later in the year. The timing is unclear but it is nearly certain that an inventory accumulation led spike in real GDP is in store for 2010.” Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust – Daily Global Commentary, March 12, 2010. Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Total continuing claims holding at elevated level “Initial jobless claims fell 6,000 to 462,000 during the week ended March 6. The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims is up nearly 8,000 from a low of 469,000 in February. Continuing jobless claims rose 37,000 to 4.558 million and the insured unemployment rate held steady at 3.5%. “Total continuing jobless claims, inclusive of those under special programs, edged down slightly to 10.2 million during the week ended February 20; these claims have held at over 10 million for eleven consecutive weeks. A meaningful decline of these claims should signal that labor WORDS page 62

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market conditions are indeed improving.” Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust – Daily Global Commentary, March 11, 2010. Asha Bangalore (Northern Trust): Strength of February retail sales impressive “Retail sales increased 0.3% in February, after a downwardly revised 0.1% increase in January (previously reported as a 0.5% increase) and a 0.2% drop in December (prior estimate was 0.1% decline). Excluding gasoline and autos, retail sales advanced 0.9% in February reflecting gains in sales of furniture (+0.7%), apparel (+0.6%), electronics and appliances (+3.7%), sporting goods (+1.2%), and general merchandise (+1.0%). “However, the January-February data of retail sales show a smaller increase in retail sales compared with the fourth quarter tally. Unless consumer outlays on services and March retail sales are significantly strong, the gain in consumer spending during the first quarter is most likely to be smaller than the fourth quarter’s annualized increase of 1.7%.” Source: Asha Bangalore, Northern Trust – Daily Global Commentary, March 12, 2010. MoneyNews: Obama may pay homeowners to sell at loss “The Obama administration, which has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their

homes, reportedly will start paying some of them to leave under a new program that would let owners sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to boot. “The new program implemented by President Barack Obama reportedly will allow homeowners to make short sales and receive a payment from the government to do so. A short sale occurs when someone sells his or her house for less than the value of the mortgage. “With five million households behind on their mortgages, the Obama administration faces loud cries for more assistance. Its $75 billion mortgage modification plan hasn’t helped many homeowners. “The new program, which takes effect April 5, makes mortgage lenders accept the short sales, which means they won’t be paid back the full amount of their loans, The New York Times reports. “To entice all parties to participate, servicing banks will receive $1,000 for the first mortgage and another $1,000 for the second if there is one. That’s the same payment as in the mortgage modification plan. “The new angle is $1,500 in ‘relocation assistance’ for the homeowner. “‘We want to streamline and standardize the short sale process to make it much easier on the borrower and much easier

on the lender,’ said Seth Wheeler, a Treasury senior adviser. “But lenders emphasize that participating homeowners won’t have it easy. “‘This is not an opportunity for the customer to just walk away,’ J. K. Huey of Wells Fargo told The Times. “‘If someone doesn’t come to us saying, ‘I’ve done everything I can, I used all my savings, I borrowed money and, by the way, I’m losing my job and moving to another city, and have all the documentation,’ We’re not going to do a short sale.’” Source: Dan Weil, MoneyNews, March 9, 2010. Bloomberg: Fannie, Freddie ask banks to eat soured mortgages “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may force lenders including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. to buy back $21 billion of home loans this year as part of a crackdown on faulty mortgages. “That’s the estimate of Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Chris Kotowski, who says US banks could suffer losses of $7 billion this year when those loans are returned and get marked down to their true value. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both controlled by the US government, stuck the four biggest US banks with losses of about $5 billion on buybacks in

2009, according to company filings made in the past two weeks. “The surge shows lenders are still paying the price for lax standards three years after mortgage markets collapsed under record defaults. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are looking for more faulty loans to return after suffering $202 billion of losses since 2007, and banks may have to go along, since the two US-owned firms now buy at least 70 percent of new mortgages. “‘If you want to originate mortgages and keep that pipeline running, you have to deal with the push-backs,’ said Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia, and former examiner for the Federal Reserve. ‘It doesn’t matter how much you hate Fannie and Freddie.’ “Freddie Mac forced lenders to buy back $4.1 billion of mortgages last year, almost triple the amount in 2008, according to a Feb. 26 filing. As of Dec. 31, Freddie Mac had another $4 billion outstanding loan-purchase demands that lenders hadn’t met, according to the filing. Fannie Mae didn’t disclose the amount of its loanrepurchase demands. Both firms were seized by the government in 2008 to stave off their collapse.” Source: Bradley Keoun, Bloomberg, March 5, 2010.

Financial Times: Big bank oversight to stay with Fed “Banks with more than $100bn of assets will be overseen by the US Federal Reserve in a regulatory reform plan that represents a partial victory for the central bank after months of attacks in Congress. “Chris Dodd, the Senate banking committee chairman, had proposed hiving off all bank supervision to a single regulator but is set to propose this week that the 23 largest institutions stay under the Fed’s oversight, according to people familiar with the plans. “At issue over the weekend was the regulation of several hundred state chartered institutions that also want to remain under the Fed’s supervision. “While attention has been focused on argument between Democrats and Republicans over the powers and location of new consumer protection functions, which may also be housed within the Fed, other elements of regulatory reform – deemed more important by many institutions and policymakers – are close to fruition. “A new ‘resolution’ regime to deal with failing, but systemically important, institutions would allow the government to wind up a WORDS page 63

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company quickly to avoid contagion spreading through the financial system. “But in a concession to Republican fears about giving government too much power over business, a bankruptcy judge would provide checks and balances. “The regime is designed to prevent a repeat of the costly bail-out of AIG or the damaging bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. “But Democrats have had to come up with a complex system that incorporates a role for the judiciary to meet Republican concerns, while also limiting the time and scope of a judge’s intervention to prevent an unruly process that infects the entire financial system. “The Fed’s retention of authority over the biggest banks is partly a result of demands by Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary and former president of the New York Fed, who has told senators that only the central bank is qualified to oversee the core of the system.” Source: Tom Braithwaite, Financial Times, March 7, 2010. The Wall Street Journal: Cracking down on swaps “Following Greece’s economic crisis, European leaders are considering banning creditdefault swaps, WSJ Brussels bureau chief Stephen Fidler reports on the News Hub.” Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2010.

Financial Times: France and UK seek hedge fund deal “Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy will on Friday try to hammer out a compromise deal over European Union reforms that the US and UK believe could damage the hedge fund and private equity industries. “The British prime minister shares the concerns of Tim Geithner, US treasury secretary, that a draft EU directive to introduce tighter regulatory controls could impose new barriers to business. “London believes that French cultural opposition to hedge funds lies behind the drive to clamp down on the operation of ‘alternative investment funds’. British officials say Mr Brown will discuss the issue when he meets the French president in London on Friday, ahead of an EU summit this month. “The debate over the shape of financial regulation and the EU directive has raised transatlantic tensions. “Mr Geithner, in a letter to Michel Barnier, Europe’s internal market commissioner, voiced concern about ‘various proposals that would discriminate against US firms’. “The US has stopped short of threatening retaliatory action. However, if the directive becomes law in its current form, Europe-based fund managers could face reprisals in the US Congress for what is being seen

as an attempt to dictate the global regulatory landscape. “Senior EU officials hit back on Thursday at the US criticism. 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. “Britain, Europe’s biggest centre for hedge funds, is leading opposition to aspects of the directive, which it fears could impede the operations of funds based in London.” Source: George Parker, Sam Jones, Nikki Tait and Tom Braithwaite, Financial Times, March 11, 2010. Financial Times: Eurozone eyes IMF-style fund “Germany and France are planning to launch a sweeping new initiative to reinforce economic co-operation and surveillance within the eurozone, including the establishment of a European Monetary Fund, according to senior government officials. “Their intention is to set up the rules and tools to prevent any recurrence of instability in the eurozone stemming from the indebtedness of a single member state, such as Greece. “The first details of the plan,

including support for an EMF modelled on the International Monetary Fund, were revealed at the weekend by Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister. “‘I am in favour of stronger coordination of economic policies in the EU and in the eurozone,’ Mr Schäuble told newspaper Welt am Sonntag. “If France and Germany can agree on such proposals – long urged by Paris – they are likely to set the basis for the most radical overhaul of the rules underpinning the euro since the currency was launched in 1999. “The German thinking emerged as George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, flew to Paris to seek the support of Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, for his government’s drastic austerity programme. “‘We must support Greece, because they are making an effort,’ Mr Sarkozy said before the meeting. ‘If we created the euro, we cannot let a country fall that is in the eurozone. Otherwise there was no point in creating the euro.’ “His words appeared to underline the greater readiness in France than in Germany to provide some sort of financial support or guarantee for the Greek economy. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, insisted that no such support had been sought or discussed when she met Mr Papandreou on Friday.

“Both France and Germany agree Greece should not turn to the IMF for support, so the idea of an EMF has clear attractions for Paris, though it could hardly be set up in time to help Greece.” Source: Quentin Peel and Scheherazade_Daneshkhu, Financial Times, March 7, 2010. John Authers (Financial Times): Credit market – no news is good news “John Authers says that it is good news that the credit market is much less newsworthy than it used to be.” Click here for the article. Source: John Authers, Financial Times, March 10, 2010. David Fuller (Fullermoney): What about US Treasury bonds? “I remain a long-term bear of US Treasuries. It seems selfevident that US 10-year Treasury yields will revert to more normal levels of 5% to 6%, sooner or later. In the event of serious inflationary problems resulting from spiralling debt and money printing, they could even soar to levels not seen since the early 1980s. “However, I remain an agnostic on timing. Arguments for yields remaining low for an indefinite period are equally convincing and this uncertainty is reflected by the ranging price action. So I will continue to watch, perhaps being tempted if rangebound 10WORDS page 64

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year yields retest their lower boundary near 3.15% and hold, or when they eventually maintain a break above 4%. “Meanwhile, the longer they remain rangebound near current levels, signalling neither a Japan -style deflationary slump or growing inflationary pressures, the better it will be for the global equity bull market.” Source: David Fuller, Fullermoney, March 9, 2010. MoneyNews: China embraces US Treasuries, wary about buying more gold “China, the world’s biggest holder of foreign exchange reserves, renewed its commitment to the US Treasury market on Tuesday but said it would be wary of adding to its gold holdings. “The country’s chief currency regulator said China would attract more capital inflows this year, partly reflecting expectations of a stronger yuan, but he left the market none the wiser as to when Beijing might let the currency resume its rise. “‘The US Treasury market is the world’s largest government bond market. Our foreign exchange reserves are huge, so you can imagine that the US Treasury market is an important one to us,’ Yi Gang, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), told a news conference. “The exact composition of China’s reserves, the world’s

largest, is a state secret and the subject of intense scrutiny by global investors aware that, with such large sums at stake, even marginal portfolio shifts have the potential to move markets. “Speaking during the annual session of parliament, Yi expressed the hope that China’s presence in the US Treasury market would not become a political football. China, he stressed, was not in the game of short-term currency speculation. “‘It is market investment behavior, and I don’t want it to be politicized,’ he said. ‘We are a responsible investor, and we can surely achieve a win-win result in the process of investing.’ “Yi dampened hopes of gold bugs that China might be itching to add to the 1,054 tons of the metal in its reserves. “On a 30-year horizon gold was not a great investment, he said, and China would simply drive up prices if it piled into the market. “‘It is, in fact, impossible for gold to become a major investment channel for China’s foreign exchange reserves. I have 1,000 tons now, and even if I doubled that holding, according to current prices, that would be about $30 billion,’ Yi said.” Source: MoneyNews, March 9, 2010. The Wall Street Journal: Bull market turns one

“As the bull market notches its first year anniversary, the News Hub panel weighs in on whether investors can still make money and how the market will react when the interest rates inevitably adjust.” Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2010. John Authers (Financial Times): Price of Nasdaq’s crash “In a week of anniversaries, it is 10 years since the Nasdaq Composite peaked, crashed and burned. The dotcom bubble seems to be from another world, a speculative aberration that is now over. “But we are still living with its consequences. “The dotcoms were a classic tale of speculative excess and overvaluation, to be compared with Japan in the 1980s or the US in the 1920s. As a chart shows, the fallout was identical. “But the Federal Reserve took deliberate steps to avoid a repeat of the US in the 1930s or Japan in the 1990s. It slashed interest rates, helping ensure that the macroeconomic damage from the dotcom crash, in the form of a very brief and shallow recession, was remarkably light. “The consequences of those steps have proved to be long lasting. The 1990s were driven by ‘irrational exuberance’ – huge and naively confident investments in the stock market by retail investors. “The past decade was driven by

leveraged investors. Those low interest rates made it far cheaper for investors such as hedge funds to magnify their returns with leverage. Thus they came to drive the market. “They were helped by another artefact of the dotcom crash. Mutual funds (and the portfolios of the new breed of day traders) crashed with the Nasdaq. Hedge funds, able to sell short and to switch between asset classes, were able to make money during the years of the dotcom bust. That in turn attracted huge new flows from institutions, who are as prone to chase performance as anyone else. “As a result, many of the technical and leverage-driven strategies used by hedge funds, and by banks’ proprietary trading operations, became topheavy. Far too much money was thrown at structured credit investments, or at emerging markets’ currencies. “We all now know the consequences. A decade on, they are the consequences of the Nasdaq boom.” Source: John Authers, Financial Times, March 9, 2010. Bespoke: Bespoke’s international snapshot “Below we provide our trading range charts for 20 major country indices around the world. For each chart, the blue shading represents the index’s ‘normal trading range’, which is between one standard deviation

above and below the 50-day moving average (white line). The red shading represents between one and two standard deviations above the index’s 50day moving average, and vice versa for the green shading. In general, the red shading is an initial overbought level, and a move above the red zone is an extreme overbought reading that suggests a short-term pullback is in the cards. “Only Sweden and Malaysia are currently trading above the red zone into extreme overbought territory. Canada, Brazil, the UK and Switzerland are trading within their red zones and are trending nicely higher, while the rest of the country indices are within their normal trading ranges. None of the countries are currently oversold, but some of them don’t have attractive chart patterns. China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Spain are all struggling to stay above their 50-days at the moment and have a lot of work to do to return to long-term uptrends.” Source: Bespoke, March 11, 2010. Bespoke: S&P 500 sector breadth “The percentage of stocks in the S&P 500 currently trading above their 50-day moving averages stands at 78%. As shown in the chart below, this is WORDS page 65

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getting up to the top end of the range the indicator has seen during the bull market. It still has a little bit farther to go before it reaches extreme overbought territory. “On a sector basis, Financials currently has the highest reading at 94%. This level is at the top of its range over the last year, and it’s the most overbought of any sector. Consumer Discretionary has the second highest reading at 89%, followed by Materials and Industrials which both stand at 81%. Telecom and Utilities – two sectors that have been severely lagging recently – have the lowest readings at 56% and 51% respectively.” Source: Bespoke, March 11, 2010. Bespoke: Large caps vs small caps “While the last year has been a period where practically all stocks, regardless of style or size, have risen, some stocks have risen more than others. Small caps (Russell 2000) have risen 95%, while large caps (S&P 500) are up a relatively modest 68.5%. This trend, however, is anything but a recent one. Small caps have essentially been outperforming large caps for the last decade. The chart below shows the ratio of the S&P 500 divided by the price of the Russell 2000. When the line is rising, large caps are outperforming small caps, and

when the line is declining, small caps are outperforming. “Based on the relationship between the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000, relative performance between large and small cap stocks follows longterm cyclical trends. As shown in the chart below, periods of outperformance and underperformance by either category are measured in years rather than months. Even with the typical cycle lasting several years, though, the current cycle has been the longest of them all. After peaking out in 1999, large caps have been consistently underperforming small caps for ten years and counting. When it ends is anyone’s guess, but it’s hard not to argue that large caps are at least due for their day in the sun.” Source: Bespoke, March 9, 2010. Bespoke: Estimated earnings growth for Q1 ‘2010 and beyond “Below we highlight the estimated year-over-year earnings growth for the S&P 500 for the next three quarters, along with expected growth ex financials. While ex-financials growth was low in Q4 ‘09, it is also beginning to pick up again. For the first quarter, S&P 500 earnings are expected to be up 28.7% versus Q1 ‘09. Earnings are expected to grow 28.6% in Q2 ‘10, and then drop a little to 22.3% in the third quarter.

“For the first quarter, seven sectors are expected to see yearover-year growth, while three sectors are expected to see a decline. The Materials sector is expected to see the most growth versus Q1 ‘09 at 144%, followed by Financials (86.6%), Technology (51.9%), Consumer Discretionary (47.8%), and Energy (44.7%). Telecom is the only sector expected to see a noteworthy decline at -15.1%. Utilities and Industrials are currently estimated to see yearover-year earnings fall by about 1%.” Source: Bespoke, March 10, 2010. Bloomberg: S&P rally slowed by fastest cash depletion since 1991 “Equity mutual funds are burning through cash at the fastest rate in 18 years, leaving them with the smallest reserves since 2007 in a sign that gains for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may slow. “Cash dropped to 3.6 percent of assets from 5.7 percent in January 2009, leaving managers with $172 billion in the quickest decrease since 1991, Investment Company Institute data show. The last time stock managers held such a small proportion was September 2007, a month before the S&P 500 began a 57 percent drop, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “For Parnassus Investments and Janney Montgomery Scott LLC,

depleted reserves is a sign returns will fall from last year, when the S&P 500 rose 23 percent, the most since 2003. Bulls say any pullback is a buying opportunity because investors have $3.17 trillion in money-market funds and may return to stocks after putting 16 times more money into bonds since last March. “‘It’s not a red light, but it’s a flashing yellow light that the strongest part of the rally is probably over,’ said Jerome Dodson, who oversees $3.6 billion as president of Parnassus in San Francisco and estimates the S&P 500 will climb 6 percent to 9 percent this year. ‘There’s not as much buying power out there.’ “Investors are trying to gauge how much money is left to move shares after the S&P 500 surged 70 percent in the 10 months starting in March 2009, and then began an 8.1 percent slide on Jan. 19. The drop, which matches the average size of 117 ‘moderate corrections’ tracked by Birinyi Associates Inc. since 1945, may herald a second phase of the bull market after last year’s advance surpassed every rally since the 1930s.” Source: Lynn Thomasson, Bloomberg, March 8, 2010. David Fuller (Fullermoney): Stock markets have further upside potential “It has been a good four weeks

and counting for global stock markets. All technical evidence to date suggests that we have seen a normal correction to the cyclical bull market’s trend mean represented by rising 200day moving averages. The only minor negative is that persistent rallies have replaced short-term oversold conditions with shortterm overbought readings. If this matters beyond brief pauses, we would see it in the form of downward dynamics and failed upside breaks from trading ranges. “However, a more important factor is likely to be the months spent by most equity indices in ranging consolidations, as they gradually worked their way over to their rising MA mean. In the absence of downward dynamics, perhaps caused by some currently unexpected fright, stock markets remain capable of running on the upside. “Meanwhile, Wall Street has not led – it seldom does – but its allimportant leash effect is positive. The US’s rally has been led by small-cap indices and the S&P is approaching its January high. Some temporary resistance may be encountered in this region but once again, a downward dynamic would be required to suggest more than a brief pause. “China’s leash effect is second only to Wall Street and stopped WORDS page 66

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being negative with the upside key day reversal on February 3. A break above 3,110 would reaffirm a new pattern of higher reaction lows, although considerably more strength is required to make the overall pattern unequivocally bullish once again.” Source: David Fuller, Fullermoney, March 9, 2010. David Fuller (Fullermoney): What will be the warning signs for equities? “In reverse order, I maintain that we are in a cyclical bull market for equities and a secular bull trend for precious metals and most industrial commodities. For instance, gold has a 10-year uptrend – the S&P 500 clearly does not. “However there has been a high degree of correlation so any sharp sell-off in equities will weigh on commodities for which there has also been considerable investment interest. Nevertheless, most commodities have bounced back quickly, bottoming in October 2008, for instance, in line with most other Fullermoney themes, while the S&P and most other OECD country stock markets did not reach their lows until March 2009. “The main point behind my stock market warning signals, which I have mentioned before and will again, is that too much good news is bad news. 1) Strong economic growth

competes for capital and invites monetary tightening by central banks; 2) strong growth and too much speculation would lift oil prices over the low $80s highs for this cycle to date, towards headwind levels of $100 or more; 3) US 10-year Treasury yields above 4% would be an advance warning but the real danger area is above 5%; 4) a very weak USD could undermine confidence but this is clearly not a threat today. Also watch the February lows for stock market indices; the cyclical bull is intact while they hold.” Source: David Fuller, Fullermoney, March 5, 2010. Bloomberg: Buy Asia stocks before “green” light, Goldman says “Investors should buy Asian stocks outside Japan after valuations dropped and before sentiment strengthens further, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said. “‘By the time all the lights turn green, the race will already be well under way,’ Goldman Sachs analysts led by Timothy Moe wrote today. ‘Sentiment and valuation will improve as the year progresses, and we would prefer to be early.’ “The MSCI Asia-Pacific excluding Japan Index remains 0.5 percent lower this year, having rebounded from year-todate losses of as much as 9.7 percent. Stocks slid earlier this year on concern that China will

tighten lending to combat faster inflation and that Greece’s debt crisis will spread. “Analysts’ earnings growth estimates for this year have climbed to 26 percent on average, near Goldman Sachs’s 30 percent forecast, according to the report. The most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history is predicting a 21 percent increase in Asian corporate earnings in 2011. “The MSCI index’s valuation has dropped to 14.4 times estimated earnings from as high as 29.3 times in November, after profit estimates were upgraded, according to weekly data compiled by Bloomberg. “‘We view the risk/reward balance very positively from a strategic perspective,’ the Goldman Sachs analysts wrote. “Goldman Sachs said it remains most optimistic on the outlook for stock markets in China, South Korea and Taiwan. Indexes tracking Chinese shares traded in Shanghai and Hong Kong and Taiwan’s Taiex index have retreated at least 5 percent this year, among the 10 worst performers globally. South Korea’s Kospi index has fallen 1.4 percent.” Source: Shiyin Chen, Bloomberg, March 11, 2010. MoneyNews: S&P – US debt level poses risk to strong dollar “The US dollar is still the most important world currency, Standard & Poor’s said on

Thursday, but added that rising levels of US debt and dependence on foreigners to finance much of pose risks to the currency’s primacy. “Without a credible plan to rein in fiscal spending, the agency said external creditors could reduce dollar holdings, which could put pressure on the United States’ ‘AAA’ credit rating, which keeps government borrowing costs low. “For now, the credit ratings agency said the size of the US economy – the world’s largest – and the depth of its financial markets mean the dollar will continue to dominate global trade and foreign exchange transactions. “Those advantages helped the dollar retain its top status despite the financial crisis of 2008-09, which began in the United States, S&P said in the report. “The agency also said the dollar’s role is an important factor supporting the United States’ AAA credit rating – the highest investment-grade rating. “The main risk to the dollar’s status comes from the growing amount of US government debt, S&P said, particularly the share held by foreign central banks and sovereign wealth funds. “It also said widening US fiscal deficits were a risk, adding ‘without a medium-term fiscal consolidation plan that the market views as credible,

external creditors could reduce their dollar holdings, especially if they conclude that euro zone members are adopting stronger macroeconomic policies.’” Source: MoneyNews, March 11, 2010. Financial Times: Beijing studies severing dollar peg “China’s central bank chief laid the groundwork for an appreciation of the renminbi at the weekend when he described the current dollar peg as temporary, striking a more emollient tone after months of tough opposition in Beijing to a shift in exchange rate policy. “Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, gave the strongest hint yet from a senior official that China would abandon the unofficial dollar peg, in place since mid2008. He said it was a ’special’ policy to weather the financial crisis. “‘This is a part of our package of policies for dealing with the global financial crisis. Sooner or later, we will exit the policies.’ “Mr Zhou’s comments contrasted with recent Chinese comments on its currency policy in the face of international criticism that the renminbi was undervalued. In December, premier Wen Jiabao said: ‘We will not yield to any pressure of any form forcing us to appreciate.’ Chinese officials WORDS page 67

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have repeatedly emphasised the need for a stable exchange rate. “However, while the recent increase in consumer prices in China has strengthened the hand of those officials who think the currency should now rise, it is not clear that this argument has yet won over the country’s senior leaders. “Indeed, Mr Zhou gave no hint about the possible timing of a shift in policy.” Source: Geoff Dyer, Financial Times, March 6, 2010. Bespoke: Bespoke’s commodity snapshot “The stock market is up about 65% since the 3/9/09 low, but oil has actually outperformed stocks over this time period with a gain of 72.64%. Below we highlight the performance of ten major commodities over the last year. As shown, copper is up the most with a gain of 108%, while orange juice ranks second with a gain of 101%. Of the three main precious metals, platinum is up the most at 50%, followed by silver at +33.73%, and then gold at +22.16%. Even natural gas is up since the March 9th, 2009 low with a gain of 16%. Wheat and corn are the only commodities shown that are down over the last year. Corn is down 11%, while wheat is down 18.27%.” Source: Bespoke, March 9, 2010. Bill King (The King Report): Why is gold declining?

“Our view is gold is retrenching because: •UK QE has ended (for now) •US QE will end in three weeks (for now) •The ECB did a massive €295B drain (can you imagine the market reaction if Bennie Mae drained $500B in one shot?] •China is signaling that it wants to rein in inflation by tightening credit, hiking real estate down payments to 50% and allowing the yuan to appreciate •Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has ebbed (for now) •Food commodities have broken down • Gold stocks have greatly underperformed gold since midJanuary (gold stocks tend to lead)” Source: Bill King, The King Report, March 11, 2010. Financial Times: Goldman and JPMorgan enter metal warehousing “As piles of base metals from aluminium to nickel build up due to poor demand, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have entered the little known but very profitable business of metal warehousing. The deals reflect banks’ appetite for exposure to physical commodities beyond traditional commodities derivatives. “Stockpiles at London Metal Exchange’s registered depots surge to an all-time high of 6m tonnes – up from 1m in 2007. Traders and bankers say

warehousing is a classic ‘anticyclical’ business as it flourishes when demand for metals is lacklustre and stockpiles mount. “‘The business is booming right now,’ says a commodities banker in London. “The current prosperous period contrasts with much of the 2000 -2008 cycle, when strong economic growth and metals consumption reduced LME inventories to near-record lows, sharply cutting warehouses’ income. “Traders say the bank decision will reshape the close-knit warehousing industry as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan will control the depots where more than half of the LME’s registered stocks are held. The LME is the world’s largest metal exchange.” Source: Javier Blas, Financial Times, March 2, 2010. The Wall Street Journal: What’s behind oil’s spike? “Oil prices hit an eight-week high today at $82 a barrel. WSJ’s Grainne McCarthy explains what’s behind the spike, including the potential for demand to pick up as the economy begins to recover. She joins Dennis Berman and Simon Constable in the News Hub.” Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2010. Bloomberg: Copper imports by China may fall 16%, analyst says

“China’s net imports of refined copper may fall 16 percent this year as manufacturers run down stockpiles and domestic production increases, an analyst at Shanghai Nonferrous Metals, said. “Net inbound shipments may fall to 2.6 million metric tons, said Zhou Qian in an interview at a Nanjing conference today. Real demand may grow 14 percent to 7.55 million tons, he said. “Inbound shipments of refined copper fell for the first time in three months in January as domestic supplies increased and seasonal demand slowed. The country has been running down stockpiles in bonded warehouses, Macquarie Group Ltd. has said. Traders store shipments in a bonded zone before paying duties. “‘Downstream demand is expected to be quite strong from real estate and transport industries in 2010, and still grow modestly from the home appliance sector,’ Li Lan, a researcher at Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, said in Nanjing. In addition, ‘demand from electronics makers may increase too as exports improve.’ “A steeper fall in imports may be avoided by firm demand and as scrap supplies fail to return to levels before the financial crisis, said Zhou. Buyers may run down stockpiles by about

350,000 tons this year, he said, without giving figures for total current inventories. China may produce 4.6 million tons of copper in 2010, up 12 percent from an estimated 4.11 million tons last year, Zhou said.” Source: Richard Dobson and Tan Hwee Ann, Bloomberg, March 9, 2010. Bloomberg: China may start raising interest rates as prices gain “China’s inflation accelerated in February, according to a survey of economists, and exports climbed in the month, increasing the likelihood of the central bank raising interest rates from a five-year low. “Consumer prices rose 2.5 percent from a year before, the most in 16 months, according to the median of 29 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey before tomorrow’s report. While the gain was likely exaggerated by seasonal factors, economists project the momentum to continue, sending the rate to as high as 4.4 percent during the year, a separate survey showed last week. “Inflation, property speculation and risks for banks are among Premier Wen Jiabao’s prime concerns after a record 9.59 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) of loans jumpstarted growth last year. Central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said March 6 WORDS page 68

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that while stimulus policies must end ’sooner or later’, China needs to be cautious in timing an exit because a global recovery ‘isn’t solid’. “‘We believe the central bank sees inflation as a big danger to the economy,’ said Wang Qian, an economist with JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Hong Kong. ‘As such, the central bank is likely to hike interest rates soon to manage inflation expectations.’ “Wang sees a 0.27 percentage point increase in the one-year lending and deposit rates as early as this month. In January, consumer prices rose 1.5 percent, the third monthly increase after a nine-month run of deflation. “Price pressures are stemming from rising commodity costs, an overhaul of resource prices and the expansion of credit, the nation’s top economic planning agency said in a report to lawmakers last week. Producer prices may have climbed 5.1 percent in February, the biggest gain in 16 months, the Bloomberg News survey showed.” Source: Paul Panckhurst and Chris Anstey, Bloomberg, March 10, 2010. Financial Times: China export growth beats estimates “Chinese exports rose 45.7 per cent in February from a year earlier, beating forecasts and providing fresh evidence of a robust recovery in the economy

poised to overtake Japan this year as the world’s secondlargest. “‘The export number points to solid underlying improvement in external demand, which should provide significant support to China’s recovery in 2010,’ said Brian Jackson, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. ‘This should make policymakers in Beijing more comfortable with the idea of allowing currency appreciation to help deal with building price pressures.’ “Chinese exports registered their biggest fall of the financial crisis in February 2009 and analysts were expecting high growth figures as a result but the performance last month was better than most had predicted. Exports had risen 21 per cent in January. “Imports rose 44.7 per cent in February from a year before. “‘The strong trade figures are partly due to a low base in February last year and but it is clear that exports are recovering strongly and this trend is likely to continue,’ said Zhu Jianfang, chief economist at Citic Securities in Beijing. ‘Rising imports show domestic demand is also very strong.’” Source: Jamil Anderlini, Financial Times, March 10, 2010. CNBC: China needs to drive consumption “China needs to encourage consumption, says Tomo

Kinoshita, deputy head of economics, Asia ex-Japan at Nomura International. He explains why inflation is not a big threat and why shifts in labor could become a problem, with CNBC’s Chloe Cho and Anna Edwards.” Source: CNBC, March 11, 2010. Financial Times: Debunking the myth of a China collapse “Global sentiment towards China’s economy and asset markets has turned from exuberance just a few months ago to overriding concern about the side-effects of last year’s remarkable credit growth. A number of commentators have warned of credit excesses and an over-investment bubble, which they say could bring economic turmoil. “Critics have also pointed to China’s Rmb 4,000bn stimulus programme and last year’s 33 per cent surge in new bank lending as obvious hallmarks of excess liquidity and a lowering of lending standards. Some have raised concerns about hidden debt risks among local government investment entities, while media reports of Chinese “ghost cities” and empty commercial property are cited as evidence of local excesses. “The worst-case fears concerning the property market are based on a layer of truth and we have previously highlighted the untenable nature of price

increases in some big cities, as well as the possibility that last year’s boom was partly fuelled by misdirected bank loans. However, there are crucial differences between China’s property markets and those of the US or Dubai. “Unlike the dramatic increase in household leverage that precipitated the US sub-prime crisis, Chinese household debt amounts to approximately 17 per cent of GDP, compared to roughly 96 per cent in the US and 62 per cent in the eurozone. Homebuyers in China are required to make minimum downpayments of 30 per cent before receiving a mortgage, and at least 40 per cent for a second home. “Although price increases in the Chinese residential market appear rapid (over 20 per cent in 2009), such headline figures cannot be viewed in isolation. Over the past 5 years, urban household incomes grew at a 13.2 per cent compound annual growth rate, compared to an 11.9 per cent CAGR in home prices. Pockets of overheating can be found in some regional markets: in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, for instance, prices outpaced income growth by more than 5 percentage points over the same period. But this can be seen as a symptom of new urban wealth being put to speculative use rather than the profligate use of

leverage. “The combination of excessive leverage and mortgage securitisation were at the epicentre of the US sub-prime crisis. Both these factors are absent in the Chinese context. The commercial property sector has inspired just as much concern, with prices rising 16 per cent in 2009, despite low rental yields and prime office vacancy rates as high as 21 per cent and 14 per cent in Beijing and Shanghai, respectively. Yet occupancy and rental rates have started to pick up for prime properties.” Click here for the full article. Source: Jing Ulrich, Financial Times, March 10, 2010. Bloomberg: Greek crisis is over, rest of region safe, Prodi says “The worst of Greece’s financial crisis is over and other European nations won’t follow in its path, said former European Commission President Romano Prodi. “‘For Greece, the problem is completely over,’ said Prodi, who was also Italian prime minister, in an interview in Shanghai today. ‘I don’t see any other case now in Europe. I don’t think there is any reason to think the euro system will collapse or will suffer greatly because of Greece.’ “Greek officials are trying to WORDS page 70

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The Forthcoming Financial Reform David Kotok (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/13/2010 4:30:47 PM

March 13, 2010 We are about to enter the great debate on financial reform. Unlike other stymied political initiatives, this one is likely to pass. The final form is still unknown but the details are being shaped up, and there is where the devil will emerge. The Obama administration will not cure the issues involving housing finance by proposing a fix to Fannie and Freddie. Thus, the GSEs will remain in need of change. Although they constitute the largest examples of the troubled financial enterprises needing radical surgical reform, they will not get it. So much for the so-called comprehensive reform. What we will get is a major alteration of the role of our Federal Reserve. That is a certainty. Herein we see the great debate. Should a central bank keep its role narrow and focused on monetary policy? Or should the role be broad and include oversight, regulation, consumer protection, and supervision? Are these roles better if they are separated among parties, or combined under one roof? When the political dust settles the outcome will likely be the one-roof version, and our central bank will be quite different than we are used to. Sure, it will still

set the nation’s policy-making interest rates, and sure it will still talk about monetary policy and inflation or deflation, but the direction of the Fed and the composition of the Board will have changed. After almost four years, the new Board of Governors will finally get a full complement of seven members, given the probable three new additions. Experienced, predictable, and accomplished San Francisco Fed president Janet Yellen will join chairman Bernanke as vicechair. Yellen is her own person and an exceptionally skilled monetary economist. She also realizes the importance of a consistent policy and a clear message. It is hard to see any controversy arising from the paired chair and vice-chair. The rest of the board will present a different picture than we are used to. After Kohn retires, the remaining present governors are Warsh (knowledgeable of financial markets but not a trained monetary economist), Duke (an experienced banker but not a trained monetary economist), and Tarullo (a lawyer regulator but not a trained monetary economist). According to some press reports, the two likely new governors are “Sarah Bloom Raskin, Maryland’s commissioner of financial regulation, and Peter Diamond, an economics professor at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Raskin would presumably focus on regulatory issues. Diamond’s research has been focused in public finance, pensions, and Social Security and does not provide much guidance on what his monetary policy leanings are likely to be.” Source: Barclays Capital We know that other skilled monetary economists were considered for these positions. That leads us to the conclusion that the bias of the Obama administration is toward the regulatory and supervisory role. Let’s speculate about the future of monetary policy. Consider the 12-voter structure of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in the postKohn format. We will see the seven Governors plus NY Fed president Bill Dudley, who holds a permanent seat on the FOMC. Dudley is a skilled monetary economist and also a team player. It is highly unlikely he would ever dissent from the chair/vice-chair nexus. The other four voting seats rotate among the other eleven regional bank presidents. Some are “hawks.” Others are mildly dovish, but most are centrist. Conclusion: there may one or two dissenting voters, but the policy of the Bernanke-Yellen axis will prevail on all monetary issues. Since the chair and vicechair have knowledge and argumentative power, it is not

likely that any other governor will oppose their combined and coalesced view of policy. We expect the monetary policy of our central bank to continue as it has been for some time. We believe they will continue the use of the term “extended period” to describe the ongoing very low interest rate policy. Discussion and testing of various “exit strategies” will continue, but the implementation of them is still in the distant future. To change policy the Fed needs to see the economic recovery on a more sustainable path. It needs to see the employment situation in the United States improving, and not because of the temporary hiring of census workers. And it needs to see how the housing and commercial real estate markets stabilize after the present stimulus stops and attempts are made to normalize those sectors. We expect to see continued very low short-term interest rates for the rest of this year. They will anchor the longer end of the bond market, and they will provide impetus for cash to move into stocks and bonds from the present very large and fear-driven multi-trillion-dollar hoard. Readers are advised to review the recent reports about the Lehman mess. The NY Times has accomplished terrific journalism in the last few days

on this subject. The 2200 pages of the court-appointed examiner’s report are a lot to read and digest, but the revelations are already sufficient to impugn the integrity of many. And one has to wonder about the role of the NY Fed, given that Mr. Fuld was a member of its board of directors and our present Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, was the NY Fed president during this critical time. We still have not learned the full inside story of what occurred in and around the NY Fed during the period between the Bear Stearns merger and the Lehman failure. We are told by those powerful decision makers at Treasury, Congress, and the Fed that they saved us from a worse disaster. Geithner repeats that constantly. Maybe so. It is easy to say that, since there is no way to prove otherwise. But we haven’t seen any evidence that the very same people who will now be asked to operate and manage the newly reformed supervisory structure in the United States will be able to do it any better in its new form than they did in the old one. In America, history shows, every major financial reform that followed a crisis and was offered to us as the way to avoid the next one. Each of those efforts failed. As for this newest FORTHCOMING page 70

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convince investors they can cut the nation’s budget deficit, which at 12.7 percent of gross domestic product was Europe’s largest in 2009. The government last week announced spending cuts and tax increases totaling 4.8 billion euros ($6.5 billion), the third round of austerity measures this year. “French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on March 7 the 16nation euro region must support Greece, which has more than 20 billion euros of debt falling due in April and May, or risk destroying the currency. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who runs Europe’s largest economy, has so far refused to give the green light to any aid package. “Intervention by European nations to date ‘was enough’ and countries such as Spain and Portugal have ‘plenty of time’ to get their finances in order, said Prodi. “Investors don’t yet share Prodi’s optimism about Greece. While the extra yield they

demand to hold Greek 10-year debt rather than German equivalents has eased 88 basis points from a record of 396 in January, it’s still more than four times the level of two years ago. The premium on Spanish 10year bonds is 69 basis points, twice what it was two years ago. “Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, during a trip to the US yesterday, said President Barack Obama supported the measures that Greece is taking to put its public finances in order. “‘We’re not asking for a bailout, we’re not asking for financial help from anyone,’ Papandreou told reporters in Washington yesterday. ‘We are taking measures to put our economy on the right path.’” Source: Bloomberg, March 10, 2010. Telegraph: Fitch warns Britain and questions Greek rescue as sovereign risks grow “Brian Coulton, the agency’s head of sovereign ratings, said the UK has seen ‘the most rapid

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one, the burden of proof is on the politicians in the Congress and the Obama administration. Time will tell. We are presently scheduled to discuss the financial reform initiative on CNBC at 11 AM on Monday, March 15. David R. Kotok, Chairman and

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

rise in the ratio of public debt to GDP of any AAA-rated country’ and is courting fate with its leisurely plan to halve the deficit by the middle of the decade. “‘It is frankly too slow, a pedestrian pace. Why the UK thinks it has more time than other countries, we’re not sure. This needs to be reoriented,’ he told the Fitch forum on sovereign hotspots. “A string of European states are stepping up the pace of retrenchment, aiming to cut deficits to 3pc of GDP within three years. The risk is that Britain will soon stick out like a sore thumb, left behind with a shockingly large deficit long after such loose fiscal policy can be justified as a crisis measure. The UK deficit this year is 12.6pc of GDP, the highest among G10 states. “The Government is clearly counting on a ‘Korean’ recovery, modelled on Korea’s fast return to trend growth following the Asian crisis in

1998. It relies on rising output and tax revenues to plug much of the deficit. ‘This is an optimistic assumption,’ said Fitch. “There is a ‘distinct possibility’ that Britain will face something closer to Japan’s ‘Lost Decade’ when a bursting debt bubble left the country on a permanently lower growth path. ‘The UK faces the same massive deleveraging by the private sector,’ said Mr Coulton.” Source: Ambrose EvansPritchard, Telegraph, March 9, 2010. Did you enjoy this post? If so, click here to subscribe to updates to Investment Postcards from Cape Town by e-mail. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The coming days: The week ahead (The Economist: News analysis) Submitted at 3/13/2010 9:28:24 PM

The coming days Barack Obama's off-again-on-again trip to Asia Mar 14th 2010 | From The Economist online • BARACK OBAMA is set for a trip to Asia, beginning with a stop at his boyhood home of Indonesia. But the visit, originally set to start on Thursday March 18th, will be delayed until Sunday 21st so Mr Obama can be present to give health-reform a final push before a crucial congressional vote. America’s president says that he is looking forward to visiting old haunts in the most populous Muslim country. He is certain to discuss counterterrorism efforts with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and is expected to reiterate the message of a speech in Cairo last year that sought to strengthen ties between America and the Muslim world. He is also set to visit Australia, too. • THE head of the Senate banking committee, Christopher Dodd, will unveil a longawaited proposal on reforming COMING page 71

Economy/

E-reader News Edition

Its ALWAYS a Good Time to Buy a House! Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture)

historically don’t fall, actually they do, and sometimes quite sharply. The housing market is Submitted at 3/14/2010 5:47:01 AM complicated, and the future I spoke with Damon Darlin of unknowable. Still, for clues to the NYT last week about the overall direction of prices, housing and RE agents. He Mr. Ritholtz advises buyers to recalled the “ It’s a great time to look at three metrics: the ratio of buy or sell a home” nonsense median income to median home spouted by Real estate agents prices, which suggests whether and the NAR in 2005. people can afford a house; the As it turns out, they were half c o s t o f o w n e r s h i p v e r s u s right. renting; and the value of the Darlin put together a good national housing stock as a discussion on home prices and percentage of gross domestic the cost of mortgages in the product. Sunday Business section. Here All those measures were are my contributions: aberrationally inflated during “What they are really saying is the housing bubble. And they that it is a good time to be still aren’t back to historical involved in a transaction that norms. We can get back to the generates a commission,” says norm in either of two ways, Mr. Barry Ritholtz, C.E.O. and Ritholtz says: home prices can director of equity research at either drop an additional 15 F u s i o n I Q , a q u a n t i t a t i v e percent or go sideways for seven research firm. He’s also author years or so, while G.D.P. and o f “ T h e B i g P i c t u r e , ” a n income presumably grow. irreverent blog on markets. One small but amusing typo If agents are always motivated requires mention: In the print to make a deal, buyers are often edition, that “15 percent” drop asking an impossible question: actually reads “50 percent” — “Will the price of this house go not 15%. Its been corrected in up?” the online version, but I hope A l t h o u g h t h e N a t i o n a l anyone who sees that 50% Association of Realtors said for number realizes the error. I hope many years that home prices we avoid any cardiac events

amongst some home owners . . . > Previously: It’s a great time to buy or sell a home!(November 3rd, 2006) http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/20 06/11/its-a-great-time-to-buy-or -sell-a-home/ Analyzing why “It’s a great time to buy or sell a home!”(November 4th, 2006) http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/20 06/11/analyzing-why-its-a-great -time-to-buy-or-sell-a-home/ NAR Housing Affordability Index is Worthless(August 13th, 2008) http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/20 08/08/nar-housing-affordabilityindex-is-worthless Source: Great Time to Buy (Famous Last Words) DAMON DARLIN NYT, March 12, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/0 3/14/business/14every.html Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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regulation of America’s financial industry on Monday March 15th. Attempts at molding a bipartisan bill foundered after Republicans insisted that a new consumerprotection agency should have few powers. The bill is likely to insist on central clearing for more over-the-counter derivatives and propose setting up a body to grab control of and wind-down financial companies that show signs of breeding systemic failure. • THE Sudanese government and one of Darfur's biggest rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, face a deadline of Monday March 15th to reach a formal peace accord. But Darfur’s other main rebel groups are not involved in peace talks, which may condemn any agreement to failure. Time is running out before Sudan’s political energies are redirected to general elections next month, the country’s first multi-party poll in some 25 years. South Sudan faces a referendum in January next year on the question of secession which could overshadow efforts to improve the situation in Darfur. • OIL-production quotas for OPEC will come under review at a meeting of the group in Vienna on Wednesday March 17th. Oil hovers above $80 a barrel but no immediate change

in production levels is anticipated. Oil demand is expected to recover later in the year as consumption in developing countries grows, but OPEC may not feel the need to take action on quotas yet. • FRANCE’S president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has a big parliamentary majority and no credible opposition leader yet he faces a political battering in regional elections. The second round of a poll to elect governments in France’s 22 mainland regions (plus four overseas) takes place on Sunday March 21st a week after the first round. Opinion polls suggest that the results will be terrible for Mr Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party. This is partly explained by customary midterm voter dissatisfaction and the odd disconnect between the Socialist Party at local level, where it is credible, and on the national stage, where it is not. Mr Sarkozy may need of a shoulder to cry upon. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

E-reader News/

E-reader News Edition

E-readers turn the page for bookworms (Business Standard India) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 3/14/2010 11:44:16 AM

A low price tag always gets our attention. So, when Infibeam.com launched its ereader Pi at nearly half the price of Amazon’s Kindle, it not only made headlines but also drew our interest. Infibeam Pi Price: Rs 9,999 Infibeam.com, an online retailer in India, has launched a cute little e-reader with a petite sixinch display (800×600 screen resolution), 512MB internal memory, SD card slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. Pi is extremely handy, weighing just 180 grams. And, being less than 10 mm thick, you can easily fit it in a folder. Still, it will do you good to keep your expectations grounded with the Pi. The e-ink display is quite standard, with only eight greyscales displayable, as opposed to 16 in leading e-readers, and lacks touchscreen functionality. With just 512MB of memory, it is definitely on the sparse side, but you can expand it with a 4GB memory card. When you turn the page, there is a slight delay and a little flash as the e-ink readjusts itself to the new content. This is an

inherent trait of the e-ink technology. Although it can be a bit disconcerting in the beginning, it is quite easy to get used to. Pi has eight buttons around the outer edge, all labelled with inarticulate icons, except for the obvious power button. There is no feedback when you press the buttons — a minor annoyance, as we prefer a satisfying click typical of most e-readers. The battery is good for about 8,000 page flips on one charge. One of the few unique features of the Pi is that it comes loaded with Sudoku games. Since it provides support for music, PDF, document and image files, you can also transfer personal data from desktop to the e-reader. Pi owners have the choice of downloading over 100,000 digital books and content from Infibeam.com, priced at Rs 50 and above. If you’re looking for a cheap, pure-function e-reader, then look no further than Infibeam’s Pi. Pros • Good battery support • Cheaper when compared with other e-readers Cons • Poor display quality • Non-responsive physical buttons

Sony Reader PRS-505 Price: Rs 18,500 We stumbled upon the Sony PRS-505 on eBay and could not resist ordering this six-inch diagonal screen with 600x800 pixel display size, courtesy an acquaintance in Hong Kong. We got it for Rs 18,500 (including shipping). Measuring just 17.5 x 12.2 x 0.8 cm, the Sony Reader resembles a thin paperback book. Although at 250 grams, it’s much heavier. The controls and menu systems are simple and intuitive (though the directional pad needed some pressure to click). There are various functions, like making bookmarks, picking up where you left off, fast forwarding and searching a collection by author, title, date, etc. To be fair, even the home-bred Pi had these functions. The device has 256MB of memory (can store about 160 books) and can be expanded up to 8GB, if you use the Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo. And to make sure you get to enjoy as many books as possible, the PRS-505 comes with a lithiumion battery that can last up to 7,500 continuous pages (or up to three weeks of active reading) on a single charge of internal rechargeable battery. However, if you do not shut it down completely, the standby mode

can kill the battery. There is no speaker, so audio playback needs a set of earphones. Unlike the Kindle, the only way to access content is through an internet hookup to a PC (the Sony Reader lacks wireless capability). We were disappointed with another fact — there was no support for importing RSS feeds. On its part, Sony Reader allows easy access to many open source or free ebooks. You can even go to sites that offer ebooks without any digital rights management. Adding your favourite content to PRS-505 is as simple as a drag and drop, requiring no additional software. Sony has allied with content partners, including Random House, Simon & Schuster and Harper Collins, among others, to provide digital content. It’s a good value for money, if you can’t get your hands on the Kindle. Pros • Simple and sleek design • USB mass storage mode works with all operating systems Cons • Can’t control music while reading • PDF rendering is very small for larger pages

Kindle DX Price: Rs 39,000 Again sourced via eBay, Kindle DX can be shipped for about Rs 23,000. A 9.7-inch diagonal display on the Kindle DX makes it an instant hit with bookworms. It measures 26.4 x 18.3 x 0.96 cm and weighs about 530 grams. The Kindle DX is as thin as a pencil and lighter than an average paperback. There is a five-way joysticklike controller, allowing you to easily select from menus. The screen automatically rotates from portrait to landscape when you turn the device — perfect for viewing maps, graphs, tables and web pages. Also unique to the new device is the full-zoom capability — essential for technical diagrams in PDFs. It also has an in-built PDF file reader that is perfect for reading personal and professional documents. There’s a Text-toSpeech feature in Kindle DX that works great as long as the author and publisher have approved the function. You can choose between a male and female voice and you can also slow down or speed up the speech. A memory of 4GB (3.3 GB of which is available for user E-READERS page 73

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content) can store nearly 3,500 books, although few people will have this many ebooks or PDFs. So, it’s likely that music or images take the left over space. The Kindle DX can play MP3s through speakers or through the headset jack. You simply copy the MP3 files from your computer to Kindle. We do recommend readers take a look at other sources for ebooks, particularly for classics in the public domain that are available for free. A basic web browser (which no other e-reader except the Kindle

2 has) is quite handy (runs on Wi-Fi connections). Though best for simple, text-centric sites, the idea of being able to check email on the go, without having to lug around a laptop is definitely a big plus. The Kindle DX has a fully functional QWERTY keyboard, albeit a smaller one. Kindle directly links to over 390,000 books from Amazon’s own catalogue. Pros • A large screen renders excellent text quality

• Speakers and headphone jack for audio Cons • Very expensive • Slightly awkward for lengthy reading Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.