Liberty Newspost Mar-17-10 Edition by Liberty Newspost

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Attorney General Holder in virtual shouting match over Christmas bomber Jeremy Pelofsky (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 3/16/2010 3:58:00 PM

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder rarely raises his voice. But at the very end of a threehour congressional hearing on Tuesday he was in a virtual shouting match with Virginia Republican Representative Frank Wolf. Wolf, questioning whether valuable intelligence was lost, was furious about the initial hourlong interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man captured after trying to ignite a bomb aboard a U.S. commercial jetliner on Christmas Day last year. “There were so many things that were missed,” Wolf said during the hearing. He suggested that photos of detainees released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should have been shown to Abdulmutallab amid concerns

that some may have joined militant groups. Wolf said Abdulmutallab also should have been shown a picture of an American-born cleric believed to be in Yemen and tied to al Qaeda militants. “Did you see this man? Did you see this man? Did you see this person? You didn’t have enough time to do that,” Wolf said. “So there was an opportunity that was missed and we’ll never get it back again.” Abdulmutallab told investigators that al Qaeda militants in Yemen trained him and gave him the bomb he tried to ignite. Holder, who had kept his cool for much of the hearing, shot back at Wolf: “That’s simply not true.” Wolf retorted: “It is true, it is true, we missed opportunities.” Holder was clearly angry and fired back again with his own voice rising significantly: “That is not true. I know.”

“Well, I say it is true, you say it isn’t true, but the people that I’ve talked to say you missed an opportunity,” Wolf said as the two virtually shouted over each other. Wolf said Abdulmutallab was never shown pictures during his interrogations. Holder countered that he had access to documents and the

interrogation details. “For the record, that’s not true,” he said as he regained his composure and the questioning turned to other subjects. The Obama administration was roundly criticized for what was considered by some as a brief interrogation before Abdulmutallab was attended to

by doctors for injuries suffered when the bomb stitched to his underwear only burned him rather than exploding and destroying the plane. After receiving medical treatment, Abdulmutallab was again approached by investigators but after briefly talking with them again, he stopped and they subsequently read him his legal rights. Weeks later, with some prodding by his family, he began cooperating again and answering questions. Administration officials have said they’ve obtained valuable intelligence from Abdulmutallab from the initial interview and later ones as well. - Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Holder testifies to a congressional panel.)

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Pelosi cracks whip for healthcare votes Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington)

Half-Male, Half-Female Chicken Mystery Solved

Submitted at 3/16/2010 4:24:48 PM

(National Geographic News)

“I never stop whipping,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday. She was, of course, talking about the virtually non-stop quest for healthcare votes. (Sorry were you thinking something else?) “There’s no beginning, there’s no middle and there’s no end. My life is a constant whip operation,” she said to laughter at yet another event to promote healthcare reform on Capitol Hill. People not familiar with the process for getting votes on Capitol Hill often think of armtwisting, when in formality it is a whip operation with someone who actually gets the title “Whip.” House Democratic Whip James

Submitted at 3/16/2010 10:37:31 AM

Clyburn, the chief vote counter for the majority in that chamber, told Fox News on Tuesday that Democrats still don’t have the 216 votes needed for passage, but he was confident of getting there. Democratic leaders are doing everything they can to whip their members into shape so they will vote for healthcare

Firefox 3.0 reaching end of the line Stephen Shankland (Webware.com) Submitted at 3/17/2010 1:41:00 AM

Security and stability updates

will finally come to an end with the release of Firefox 3.0.19, due out March 30. Originally posted at Deep Tech

reform. It was unclear how many lashes have been dealt so far to those most reluctant… (OUCH!) For more political news, click here Photo credit: Reuters/Jose Luis Magaua (Pelosi speaks about healthcare reform)

Tuesday Afternoon Music: Bruce Hornsby, 'In The Low Country' (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 3/16/2010 1:24:02 PM

Here’s Bruce Hornsby with an excellent solo version of “In the Low Country,” from his latest album Levitate.[Video]

other half. Half-Sex Chickens Are Double Fertilized It was a tough egg to crack, but The scientists believe scientists have finally explained gynandromorphs are created why some chickens are born when chicken eggs become half male and half female. fertilized by two sperm—one The bodies of these hen-rooster carrying male genes and another hybrids, or gynandromorphs, carrying female genes. have a mixture of genetically Thus, two embryos—a male male and female cells, the and a female—form inside one research reveals. egg, and then fuse together. Only about 1 in 10,000 Despite their dual nature, the c h i c k e n s a r e b o r n a s hybrid birds typically have one gynandromorphs, which have of the sex organs, either testes or m a l e f e a t u r e s — s u c h a s a ovaries. The scientists did not rooster's comb and a defensive test whether the chickens could leg spur—on one side of their actually reproduce, however. bodies and dainty, henlike Gynandromorphs are known to features on the other. exist in other bird species, such Researchers had thought a rare as zebra finches, pigeons, and genetic abnormality causes the parrots, Clinton said by email. condition. To test this theory, It's likely that the phenomenon M i c h a e l C l i n t o n o f t h e occurs in all birds species, he University of Edinburgh and his added, but it's not always team analyzed cells from three obvious because males and gynandromorph chickens. females of many species often (Related picture: "Lobster look similar. C a u g h t ' H a l f C o o k e d ' i n The research appeared March Maine.") 11 in the journal Nature. To their surprise, the team Five Filters featured article: found that the chickens' cells Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: were normal. What was strange, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, however, was that male cells Term Extraction. made up one half of the body, and female cells composed the

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St. Patrick's Day Facts: Shamrocks, Snakes, and a Saint (National Geographic News)

St. Patrick's Disembodied According to folklore, a voice came to Patrick in his dreams, On St. P a t r i c k ' s telling him to escape. He found D a y — W e d n e s d a y , M a r c h passage on a pirate ship back to 17—millions of people will don Britain, where he was reunited green and celebrate the Irish with his family. with parades, good cheer, and The voice then told him to go perhaps a pint of beer. back to Ireland. But few St. Patrick's Day "He gets ordained as a priest revelers have a clue about St. from a bishop and goes back Patrick, the man, according to and spends the rest of his life the author of St. Patrick of trying to convert the Irish to Ireland: A Biography. Christianity," Freeman said. "The modern celebration of St. Patrick's work in Ireland was Patrick's Day really has almost t o u g h — h e w a s c o n s t a n t l y nothing to do with the real beaten by thugs, harassed by man," said classics professor t h e I r i s h r o y a l t y , a n d Philip Freeman of Luther admonished by his British College in Iowa. superiors. Who Was the Man Behind St. After he died on March 17, Patrick's Day? 461, Patrick was largely The real St. Patrick wasn't even f o r g o t t e n . Irish. But slowly, mythology grew He was born in Britain around up around Patrick. Centuries A.D. 390 to an aristocratic later he was honored as the C h r i s t i a n f a m i l y w i t h a patron saint of Ireland, Freeman townhouse, a country villa, and noted. plenty of slaves. 2010 St. Patrick's Day What's more, Patrick professed S h a m r o c k S h o r t a g e no interest in Christianity as a According to St. Patrick's Day young boy, Freeman noted. lore, Patrick used the three At 16, Patrick's world turned. leaves of a shamrock to explain He was kidnapped and sent the holy trinity: the Father, the overseas to tend sheep as a slave Son, and the Holy Spirit. in the chilly, mountainous Today, St. Patrick's Day countryside of Ireland for seven revelers wear a shamrock out of years. tradition. But people in Ireland "It was just horrible for him," hoping to wear an authentic Freeman said. "But he got a shamrock may be out of luck religious conversion while he this year. was there and became a very "We have had a long and hard deeply believing Christian." winter, which is still not fully Submitted at 3/16/2010 2:58:16 PM

over," John Parnell, a botanist at Trinity College Dublin, noted via e-mail. The growing season has also been affected, he said. For instance, Trifolium dubium, the wild-growing, three -leaf clover that some botanists consider the official shamrock, is in short supply, according to media reports. "It's quite possible that the hard winter has hit this species' abundance, as it's an annual which germinates in the spring," Parnell said. To make up for the shortfall, many sellers are resorting to other three-leaf clovers, such as the perennials Trifolium repens and Medicago lupulina. According to the Irish Times, these plants are "bogus shamrocks." Parnell agreed that Trifolium dubium is the most commonly used shamrock today, which lends credence to the claims of authenticity. However, he added, the custom of wearing a shamrock dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, and "I know of no evidence to say what people then used." "I think the argument on authenticity is purely academic—basically I'd guess they used anything cloverlike then." What's more, botanists say there's nothing uniquely Irish about shamrocks. Most species can be found throughout

Europe. As for whether or not the U.K.'s cold winter is a sign of climate change, the answers is probably not, experts say. "The current cold weather in the U.K. is part of the normal regional variations that take place in the winter season," the U.K.'s Met Office said in a statement. "It doesn't tell us anything about climate change, which has to be looked at in a global context and over longer periods of time." No Snakes in Ireland Another St. Patrick myth is the claim that he banished snakes from Ireland. It's true no snakes exist on the island today, Freeman said. But they never did. Ireland, after all, is surrounded by icy ocean waters—much too cold to allow snakes to migrate from Britain or anywhere else. But since snakes often represent evil in literature, "when Patrick drives the snakes out of Ireland, it is symbolically saying he drove the old, evil, pagan ways out of Ireland [and] brought in a new age," Freeman said. The snakes myth and others—such as Patrick using three-leafed shamrocks to explain the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost)—were likely spread by well-meaning monks centuries after St. Patrick's death, Freeman said.

(Related:"Snakeless in Ireland: Blame Ice Age, Not St. Patrick.") St. Patrick's Day: Made in America? Until the 1970s, St. Patrick's Day in Ireland was a minor religious holiday. A priest would acknowledge the feast day, and families would celebrate with a big meal, but that was about it. "St. Patrick's Day was basically invented in America by IrishAmericans," Freeman said. Timothy Meagher is an expert on Irish-American history at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. He said Irish charitable organizations originally celebrated St. Patrick's Day with banquets in places such as Boston, Massachusetts; Savannah, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina. Eighteenth-century Irish soldiers fighting with the British in the U.S. Revolutionary War held the first St. Patrick's Day parades. Some soldiers, for example, marched through New York City in 1762 to reconnect with their Irish roots. Other parades followed in the years and decades after, including well-known celebrations in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, primarily for flourishing Irish immigrant communities. ST. page 16

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St Patrick's Day: not just for the Irish | Sadhbh Walshe Sadhbh Walshe (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:08:18 AM

In the US, St Patrick's Day is not just an excuse to drink green beer – it's a celebration of the shared bond of being immigrants When I moved to New York in the mid-90s and witnessed for the first time how Americans celebrate St Patrick's Day I was kind of blown away. Growing up in Ireland the day that has become synonymous with Irishness around the world was a low-key event, which involved little more than wearing a bit of shamrock and getting a day off school. In recent years it has become a much bigger deal back home with Mardi Gras style celebrations happening in all the major cities but we still can't rival the sheer magnitude of the occasion as it is celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike. At last count there were approximately 36.3 million Americans who can claim Irish ancestry, yet according to a "fun fact" released by the census bureau in 2006, at least 93.3 million Americans planned to wear green on 17 March. This figure would suggest that almost

60 million people in this country with no discernible connection to Ireland celebrate Ireland's day. It might simply be the happy coincidence that the anniversary of the death of St Patrick falls around the beginning of Spring, a time when we could all use a party. Or the fact that Americans love to celebrate full stop and do it better than most. As Malachy McCourt, the much loved New Yorker/Limerick man put it to me: "It's a great credit to Americans that they want to get exuberant at the slightest opportunity." But when year after year millions of people choose to be, as the saying goes, "Irish for the day", there must be more to it than an excuse to drink green beer. The St Pat's for All parade in Queens (which was originally founded to accommodate Irish lesbians and gays who are to this day prohibited from participating in the official parade on Fifth Avenue) opened this year with a blessing by the Indians of the Choctaw Nation followed by a rap by a young Tibetan refugee about his own immigrant experience. The parade itself featured a Bolivian dance troupe, a group of Chileans who have marched

every year since 2000 and the Mexican community who marched under the banner honouring Our Lady of Guadalupe. There was a healthy smattering of Irish people in attendance too of course, no shortage of ceol agus craic(music and good times) and tricolours and shamrocks were the prevailing symbols of the day. But this unlikely gathering of diverse groups seemed to me to be more about the common struggle all immigrants face of trying to hold on to their heritage while they forge new identities as Americans, than about any nebulous genealogical connection to Ireland, though those connections do exist. Because of the famine and subsequent emigration, Ireland has lost almost half its population since 1840. And as Niall O'Dowd, editor and publisher of the Irish Voice Newspaper put it, "those emigrants cast a wide net". The first head of state of an independent Chile was a man called Bernardo O'Higgins and the Bolivian born Ernesto Che Guevara's grandmother was Anna Lynch from Galway. I don't know of any Choctaw Indians with Irish surnames but

our long-held fondness for their nation has to do with their extraordinary act of kindness during the famine. (Moved by stories of Irish starvation, the Choctaws sent a generous donation to a famine relief fund.) But it's not surnames that start with an O' that bring these people together nor is it to celebrate a catholic saint, who offers only a limited version of Irishness to those of us who are atheists or Protestants or subscribers to the numerous other belief systems on offer. What brought all these communities together in Queens and what causes millions of people from all sorts of backgrounds across America to become Irish for the day is the shared bond of being immigrants. As one of those immigrants, I can attest that leaving your country and your family behind to find a more feasible life in a foreign land is no small decision. And it is one that's made, more often than not, out of necessity rather than choice. As almost every family in America, other than the natives, has someone from some generation who has made that decision, it's no surprise that

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they can connect so easily with the diaspora of a nation who has lost so much of its population to emigration. I'd like to think anyway that St Patrick's day is something more than a grand old excuse for a party – not that there's anything wrong with that. But either way, this year again the Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen who hails from County Offaly will meet up with the great-greatgreat-grandson of a fellow Offaly man called Fulmouth Kearney, better known outside of Ireland as President Barack Obama, and the business of the White House will be put on hold for the day so that a nation of immigrants can celebrate the legacy of a nation of emigrants. • US immigration • Ireland • United States Sadhbh Walshe guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Hillary Clinton piles pressure on Israel over East Jerusalem settlements Ewen MacAskill, Ian Black (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

show he was serious about a peace process. She said: "We are engaged in very active consultations with the Israelis Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:59:24 AM US secretary of state says onus over steps that we think would is on Israel to restart peace d e m o n s t r a t e t h e r e q u i s i t e process as Israeli soldiers clash commitment to the process. It's with Palestinians been a very important effort on The US secretary of state, their part as well as ours. We Hillary Clinton, t o d a y know how hard this is. This is a demonstrated a new-found very difficult, complex matter. steeliness towards Israel by But the Obama administration is making it clear she was committed to a two-state expecting it to back down in the s o l u t i o n . " row between the two countries The rift began last week when and offer concessions needed the US vice-president, Joe for a resumption of Middle East Biden, visited Israel in the hope peace talks. of getting Israeli-Palestinian As rock-throwing Palestinians peace talks under way. But clashed with Israeli forces in Israel scuppered the talks with Jerusalem in protests dubbed "a an announcement that it planned day of rage", Clinton sent a to build 1,600 new Jewish double-edged message to Israel. homes in East Jerusalem, which She softened the tone of the Palestinians hope will one r e m a r k s c o m i n g f r o m t h e day be their capital. Hours Obama administration over the b e f o r e C l i n t o n s p o k e last few days by talking about Washington demonstrated its the deep bonds between the two anger with the Israeli leader by countries. But she combined this abruptly cancelling a visit to by firmly placing the onus on Israel planned fortoday by the Israel to make concessions US special envoy to the Middle needed to get the Palestinians East, George Mitchell. Clinton back into talks. has privately set out various Clinton told reporters at the demands for Israel, including state department that the Israeli the cancellation or freeze of p r i m e m i n i s t e r , B i n y a m i n planned Jewish homes in East Netanyahu, had to take action to Jerusalem, a promise to engage

in talks with the Palestinians on matters of substance, and confidence-building measures such as the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the West Bank and release of Palestinian prisoners. The steady build-up of pressure on Netanyahu has left him in a bind. If he backs down he is in danger of losing the support of the right in his coalition government. Responding to Clinton, his words did not suggest a readiness to bow to US demands, at least in public. In a statement issued by his office, he said: "With regard to commitments to peace, the government of Israel has proven over the last year that it is committed to peace, both in words and actions." He cited the removal of hundreds of roadblocks across the West Bank and a temporary freeze on construction of settlements on the West Bank. Middle East analysts in Washington said the Obama administration was not trying to engineer the collapse of the coalition but, if it happened, would welcome a more moderate one that might emerge. One of the underlying motives

of the US resolve to get the peace process moving was offered today by the top US military commander, General David Petraeus, the head of Centcom, which is responsible for the Middle East and Asia. Petraeus told the Senate armed services committee yesterday that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a root cause of instability in the Middle East and Asia and "foments antiAmerican sentiment due to a perception of US favouritism for Israel". The Israeli government has long objected to being linked to wider conflicts in such a way. Petraeus said there had been insufficient progress towards a comprehensive Middle East peace deal and this "presented distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests" elsewhere in the Middle East and Asia. Simmering Israeli-Palestinian tensions erupted into violencetoday with clashes in East Jerusalem after Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement, announced a "day of rage" following yesterday's ceremonial reopening of a synagogue in the Old City. The Palestinian leader

Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement faced pressure from its own largely defunct military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, demanding to be allowed to resume armed struggle against Israel. It condemned "the ongoing violation of the al-Aqsa mosque". Israeli forces tightened a blockade on the Old City, particularly the mosque compound. Israel's Ynet website reported 49 Palestinians injured in confrontations with Israeli border guards and police. Palestinian sources said more than 90 people were injured and some 70 arrested. Jonathan Freedland, page 27 Leader comment, page 30 • Israel • Hillary Clinton • Palestinian territories • Binyamin Netanyahu • Obama administration • United States Ewen MacAskill Ian Black guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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10 things you didn't know about the unemployment statistics Simon Rogers (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

year. Next come students (2.3m) and the long-term sick (2m). 74,000 are ' discouraged' - up by 21,000 on the year. Table 13 3. Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:26:20 AM Did you know how many If you work in the private sector, p e o p l e i n t h e U K a r e wages are going down … in the 'discouraged'? Or how many public sector, they're going up workers there are from the US? Average weekly earnings in the or how many of us are part- private sector are£426 per weektime? All of this info came out down 0.7% on January 2009. In today - and more the public sector, they're higher • Benefit claimants where you - £461 per week, up 4.1% on live Jan 2009. Table 15 4. Public Every month the Office for sector jobs are still going up National Statistics publishes the 6m people are employed in the UK's unemployment figures. public sector -+46,000 on the But the report doesn't just give year. 21.1% of us work in the the big numbers. It includes a public sector. The biggest fascinating breakdown of the percentage increase has been in UK at work - and out of it. the NHS- up by 4% on the year Here are 10 things we learnt to 1.6m people in January. In today(and the table numbers in c o n t r a s t , p r i v a t e s e c t o r the official release, so you can e m p l o y m e n t i s d o w n b y find them too): 1. There are 527,000. Table 1a and 4 5. The fewer people employed than at h i g h e s t w a g e s a r e i n any time in the last 12 years construction - the lowest in The employment rate in the hotels and restaurants three months to January 2010 is Construction workers get an 72.2%- it fell by 54,000 on the average of£564 per week quarter to reach 28.86m. Table 2 compared to£303 for those who 2 . T h e r e a r e o v e r 8 m work in restaurants and hotels. 'economically inactive' people in Table 15 6. There are more the UK workers from the USA; less 8,157,000 people between 16 from Europe and retirement age to be exact - Employed workers from the of whom 71% do not want a job. EU14 countries - the rich The biggest group are the 2.3m European countries - are down people looking after their by 26,000 on the year (-3.8%). families - up by 32,000 on the Those from the new accession

countries, such as Poland, have been hit less: down 3,000, or 0.7%. The biggest group going up are those from the USA+25.6% (21,000 people), although India(+14,000) and Australia/New Zealand(+11%) have seen rises too. Table 8 7. There are more long-term unemployed Those unemployed over six months has gone up by 58.7% to 549,000 people. Table 9 8. More of us are part-time Part-time jobs are up - by 1.3% or 87,000 on the year. Meanwhile full-time employment has gone down by 3.4% (-642,000). Table 3 9. There are less young people employed Employment is down for 16-17 year-olds (by 22.2% or 109,000) and 18-24 year-olds (down 6.6% or 237,000) Table 2 10. Southampton has the best unemployment figures this month If you count reducing benefit claimant figures, that is. Constituencies in Southampton and Hampshire have seen the biggest drops ion claimant figures in the UK. In Southampton Test, the are 7.8% less claimants, in Southampton Itchen there are 6.7% less. Similar falls have taken place in Eastleigh and New Forest East.

From our analysis World government data • Search the world's government data with our gateway Can you do something with this data? Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group or mail us at datastore@guardian.co.uk • Get the A-Z of data • More at the Datastore directory • Follow us on Twitter • Unemployment and employment statistics • Office for National Statistics • Credit crunch • Recession • Economic growth (GDP) • Economic policy • Poland • United States • India • Australia • New Zealand • Pay • Work & careers • Redundancy Simon Rogers guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

The transformation of tech companies’ logos over time (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/16/2010 10:13:05 PM

Feeling a little lost in the quest for the perfect logo? Cheer up, Joe Schmoe business dude (or lady), because even the biggest names of the tech world strike out a few times when it comes to designing an eye-catching logo that encompasses an entire company vision. Neatorama unveils the evolution of a few top tech companies’ logos and the fascinating stories behind their transformations. Full story and gallery at Neatorama. All things tech. Permalink| Leave a comment »

March 17, 1953: The Black Box Is Born Jason Paur (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/16/2010 9:00:00 PM

An Australian researcher invents an essential tool for identifying the causes of an airplane crash.

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Picasso's Absinthe Drinker set for auction (Top stories from Times Online)

When they come under the hammer in New York in May, and when Portrait of Angel Submitted at 3/17/2010 4:42:07 AM Fernandez de Soto(The The boom times are well and Absinethe Drinker) is offered to truly back for the top end of the the market in London on June art market, only a year after the 23, all thoughts in the room will traditional centres of the auction drift towards the world record world suffered their worst held by L'Homme Qui Marche I, slump in a generation. a stylised figure of a walking Christie’s in London announced man by the Swiss sculptor this morning that it is to sell a Alberto Giacometti. rare blue-period Picasso portrait It fetched just over £65 million, with a “conservative” estimate from a pre-sale estimate of of between £30 million and £40 between £12 million and £18 million, the highest for a work million, on February 3. This of art offered at auction in eclipsed the previous mark set Europe. by another Picasso, Garçon à la It is one of three modern Pipe. masterpieces that the auction The auction houses insist that house is selling this summer, the buyers for this sort of work a n y o n e o f w h i c h c o u l d never went away between late plausibly break the world record 2008 and the end of last year. price for a work of art at But the vendors did, meaning auction, which was set at that the big showpiece sales of Sotheby’s on New Bond Street Impressionist , modern and only last month. contemporary art had to be The others are a 1932 Picasso scaled back to humbler, much portrait of his mistress Marie- tighter selections that the Thérése Walter, which the auctioneers were confident they company expects to fetch could place with interested between $70 million (£45 buyers. million) and $100 million (£65 Now this careful strategy seems million), and a Jasper Johns to be paying off and confidence f l a g , o n e o f t h e s e m i n a l is returning, at the elite end of landmarks of Pop Art, which is the market at least. predicted to sell for more than Jussi Pylkkänen, president of $50 million (£33 million). Christie’s Europe, Russia and

the Middle East, said that masterpieces such as Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto and the Giacometti seemed to be impervious to recession. “It’s the one area of the market where we are seeing considerable growth. We have got a generation of what I call Medici collectors, who collect across the board and buy masterpieces from different areas. It’s about personal wealth, and acquiring masterpieces from different parts of the world and very different types of work," he said. The estimate for Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto was set before Sotheby’s Giacometti rewrote expectations of the market for the very best works by the most appealing artists. No one is more marketable than Picasso. Giovanna Bertazzoni, head of Impressionst and modern art at Christie’s London said: “it’s a bit schematic to say but its true that Picasso is one artist and seven artists because every phase [of his development] is seminal and every phase changes completely the lexicon and grammar of art forever. This is particularly true of the early phases, when he basically

How to Get on a Reality Show Mathew Honan (Wired Top Stories)

The casting director of Amazing Grace and Survivor

tells Wired what it takes to get a role in reality TV.

moves from the 19th century to the new century.” The blue-period paintings, of which there are relatively few, represent Picasso’s first radical phase, she added. Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, painted in 1903, shows Picasso’s dissolute artist friend in a café with a pipe and an oversized glass of absinthe. His features are distorted but hypnotic. Mr Pylkkänen called it “a portrait of 20th-century decadence". The work is being sold by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, a charity founded by the composer in 1992 to benefit the promotion of arts, culture and heritage in the UK. It was consigned for sale in New York in 2006 but withdrawn from the auction because of an eleventh-hour ownership challenge based on a sale of the painting in the 1930s. The claimants have since withdrawn all claims to the painting, leaving the foundation free to sell it. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

New Study Points Out That Gene Patent On Trial Is Very, Very Broad Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:50:00 AM

Last year a very important lawsuit was filed, challenging whether or not it was legal to patent genes. While that trial is still (slowly) moving forward, a study has come out pointing out that one of the genes that's at the center of that trial, BRCA1, from Myriad Genetics, is incredibly broad and could be used to stifle all sorts of important research: For instance, BRCA1 is on chromosome 17. But long stretches of DNA on chromosome 1 are identical to stretches in the Myriad patent, the researchers said. "This claim and others like it turn out, on examination, to be surprisingly broad, and if enforced would have substantial implications for medical practice and scientific research," they wrote. In the meantime, we're still waiting for someone to explain how it possibly makes sense to patent genes. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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Quarter of adults out of work, official figures show (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news)

about the monthly figures from the Office for National Statistics. The total number of economically inactive hit 8.16 Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:04:34 AM Published: 2:04PM GMT 17 million, the highest since the Mar 2010 ONS started recording this A total of 10.6 million people measure in 1971. either did not have a job, or The number out of a job, or have stopped looking for one, econically inactive totals 10.6 according to figures from the million, or 28 per cent of Office for National Statistics, adults of working age. which indicated that more The biggest rise in economic people than ever before had inactivity was down to the abandoned the workplace – increase in students, with choosing instead to study, go on nearly 100,000 deciding to study sick leave or just give up in the last three months. searching for a job. John Philpott, the leading A record 149,000 left the employment economist, at the workforce and became Chartered Institute of " e c o n o m i c a l l y i n a c t i v e " , Personnel and Development between November last year and said: "Unemployment is sharply January, the ONS said. These down, however you measure people more than offset the it. Yet there are also 54,000 f a l l i n t h e h e a d l i n e fewer people in work, with unemployment. full-time jobs particularly hard Unemployment fell for the third hit. The apparent paradox is month in a row, dropping by explained by a very sharp rise 33,000 to hit 2.45 million. It of 149,000 in the number of has yet to breach the symbolic economically inactive people, 2.5 million mark, let alone the 3 with the number of students million barrier that haunted the surging by 98,000. Jobless recessions of the early 1990s young people are thus turning and 1980s. to study in their thousands to H o w e v e r , e c o n o m i s t s avoid the dole." immediately expressed caution There were also a 18,000

increase in the number of people staying at home to care for children or parents to hit 2.3 million, while the long-term sick failed to fall and stayed at 2 million. The ONS said that of the 8.16 million economically inactive people, 2.3 million have said they would like a job. Theresa May, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary said: “What the headline figures don’t show is that many people have simply given up looking for work. One in five people of working age you meet won’t have a job. “Britain needs a credible plan on jobs and growth so that the 2.3 million people looking for jobs who don’t appear in the official unemployment figures can get back into the workplace.” Added to the economically inactive, were a further 1.04 million part-time workers that were on reduced hours because they could not find a full-time job. Experts also pointed out that the only jobs being created were in the public sector, with 22,000 created by central government, mostly in the NHS. Ironically, one of the biggest

Spring walk on the Highline (Scripting News)

I took a walk today on the Highline.

What a beautiful day it was!

institutions hiring new workers are Jobcentres, which took on 2,250 new workers in the last three months. In contrast, employment in the public sector fell by 61,000. Mr Philpott added: “Whether or not benign headline jobless figures limit the potency of unemployment as a vote clinching issue in the forthcoming General Election campaign, whoever forms the next Government will face a Herculean task in its efforts to return the UK economy to full employment within this decade.“ Yvette Cooper, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said: "The fall in unemployment for the third month in a row is very welcome, but we should remain cautious. "We're not out of the woods yet and we are still determined to do more to support jobs and help the unemployed this year." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Eddy Grant Accuses Gorillaz Of Copying After Gorillaz Manager Threatens People For Copying... Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:36:00 AM

So, the music press has been busy talking about the accusations from Eddy Grant that the band Gorillaz copied his old tune with one of their recent hits. You can compare the two songs here. There appear to be some similarities, but they're pretty different songs: The timing on this is a bit interesting. Gorillaz is a band from Damon Albarn, and just a couple months ago, the manager of Albarn's musical acts (Blur, Gorillaz) was screaming about how he wanted to give "pirates" who leaked the Gorillaz album a "good kicking." Perhaps he ought to stay away from Eddy Grant for a bit. Of course, it's a bit silly for Grant to be upset too. He wrote a song that was popular years ago, and now he wants free cash because some other band made a song that has some vague similarities? Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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NHS failings led to death of girl, 8, report finds (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:45:58 AM

By Richard Savill Published: 2:45PM GMT 17 Mar 2010 Sophie Waller, who would not open her mouth, and refused to eat, drink, or speak after she had eight milk teeth removed, died at home from kidney failure caused by dehydration, 23 days after the operation in 2005. A senior doctor at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro later admitted at an inquest that Sophie had been the victim of below-standard care. Now, a serious case review, held by the Local Safeguarding Children Board, has concluded that there was a need for better communication between those involved in Sophie’s care, particularly in relation to her discharge from hospital. The girl’s mother, Janet Waller, a nursery nurse, has said Sophie developed a fear of dentists at

the age of four when her tongue was cut during a routine check up. When she loosened a milk tooth on a sweet, she refused to allow a dentist to look at it. In November 2005 her family took her to a specialist at the Royal Cornwall Hospital who took all Sophie’s milk teeth out. The girl became so traumatised she refused to open her mouth to eat and had to be fed by a tube. She was kept in hospital for 11 days before being sent home. She continued to refuse to open her mouth, and when her parents tried to feed her she would not swallow. Mrs Waller said she had tried to get Sophie readmitted but was referred to a child psychologist. At the time of her death, Sophie had become so emaciated that she was unable to walk, her hair was falling out and her skin flaking. The inquest was told that she had lost 11kg (24lb), almost a third of her body weight. Mrs Waller found Sophie dead

in bed at their home in St Dennis, Cornwall, on Dec 2, 2005. A serious case review found a number of failings at the time of Sophie’s discharge from hospital. The report said: “No clear written plan was made on discharge and there was a lack of clarity about responsibility for medical review following discharge. “The clinical psychologist made telephone contact with the child's parents in the week after discharge but did not see her again. “There was a lack of clarity over the open door arrangement which was intended to allow the child's parents to bring her back in the week following discharge and when they phoned for advice on the seventh day, they were referred back to the psychologist for support.'' Mrs Waller, who has two other children, said of the report: “All we've wanted all along is for people to listen to us. “People ask me how many

children I have, I say three, but technically I haven't anymore. I've got to live with this for the rest of my life.'' At the inquest last year, the coroner Dr Emma Carlyo said the severity of Sophie’s malnutrition and dehydration was not recognised. “This prevented her from receiving the medical support that could have prevented her death,” she said. John Ellis, a consultant paediatrician, told the inquest: “There was a fall below standards. The death has had a wide impact across all disciplines at hospital trust level and I have implemented changes myself.” The Royal Cornwall Hospital has apologized to the family. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Xobni Mobile arrives on the BlackBerry (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:25:06 AM

The contact manager service Xobni has gone mobile with an application and plug-in for BlackBerry smartphones. Xobni Mobile, launched

Wednesday, offers rich contact profiles in both a standalone application and within the native BlackBerry e-mail client. The product also uses a new service from the company, Xobni One, which links information between Microsoft Outlook and

the mobile versions of Xobni. Wednesday's move is the first time that Xobni has been available in any other form than a plug-in for Outlook, where it adds search, threading, and relevance functionality. Read more of " Xobni Mobile

launched for BlackBerry smartphones" at ZDNet UK. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Angus Proposes iPod Tax... Balanced With Greater Fair Dealing Protections Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/17/2010 3:37:34 AM

As was expected, Canadian MP Charlie Angus has introduced a bill that would expand Canada's "you must be a criminal" blank media tax (they prefer "levy," but it's a tax) to iPods and other media players. However, to "balance" that out, he's also proposing a change to copyright law that would make Canada's "fair dealing" laws more flexible. Expanding fair dealing is definitely a necessary and important move, but it seems unfortunate that it appears to be coupled with this idea of taxing people just because they might make use of unauthorized content. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

The Sports Lodge: Charity Debacle, Jerry Jones, Duke Madness FanHouse TV (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/16/2010 4:15:00 PM

"The Sports Lodge" tees off on the Agassi/Sampras debacle, the fact that Duke shouldn't be a No. 1 seed and Jerry Jones as the new King of Boxing.

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Bank clerk who fled court is found hanged (Top stories from Times Online)

They have not yet formally identified but the deaths are not being treated as suspicious. Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:31:32 AM Dhanji had plundered the A bank clerk who fled court accounts of two customers for moments before she was due to four years while employed at be sentenced for stealing HSBC’s branches in Notting £120,000 from customers is Hill Gate and Portobello Road, believed to have killed herself in both in west London. a suicide pact with her husband. The clerk admitted making cash Bindi Dhanji, 31, was facing up withdrawals totalling £60,000 to six years in jail after earlier from one customer’s account, admitting two counts of theft by including for 10 months after an employee while working as a the woman had died. senior clerk for HSBC. She stole a similar amount from She and her husband appear to a second customer aged in her have agreed a suicide pact after 80s whom she had befriended she panicked and fled London’s a n d b o u g h t f l o w e r s a n d Southwark Crown Court before c h o c o l a t e s . the sentencing could start on Richard Parry, defending Tuesday afternoon. Dhanji, had told the court The couple from Neasden, yesterday afternoon that she north London were discovered " c l e a r l y s e e m s t o h a v e at 6.35am yesterday morning panicked" about the sentence hanged from a footbridge close that awaits her. He said she to their home at the busy Staples a r r i v e d a t c o u r t w i t h h e r Corner junction off the North husband this morning and he Circular Road. last saw her shortly after 11.30.

"She seemed to be, I thought, fairly stoical about the outcome," he said. "Her husband took a different view. He placed too much reliance on the pre-sentence report." Judge Anthony Pitts issued a warrant for her arrest saying: "It does seem like she’s taken flight, at first glance, I must confess, from what you tell me. It’s not unknown but it is a slightly unusual situation, given that she was here this morning." Detective Constable Malcolm Jolly, of City of London Police, said Dhanji abused a position of trust to steal from two elderly and vulnerable women. "Bindi Dhanji has admitted to committing a serious crime and now needs to face the judge and receive her punishment in full," he said. Dhanji was first investigated in in December 2008 when HSBC bosses learnt that the account of her first victim was still being

used even though she had died in February of that year. Relatives complained to the bank about Dhanji’s refusal to give them access to the woman’s statements and her employers identified irregularities in the savings of the second elderly client. In May 2009 she confessed to stealing from both customers but claimed a man she was not prepared to name had threatened her with violence unless she handed him cash. She said she targeted the pensioners because she thought their bank accounts would not be properly checked. It is thought the clerk used the stolen money to put down an £80,000 deposit on a house in Watford, Hertfordshire. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Wieseltier vs. The New Atheists TNR Staff (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 3/16/2010 9:00:00 PM

Richard Posner: The Supreme Court's appalling gun-rights ruling. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Space Photos of the Week: Spring Auroras, Starlets, More (National Geographic News) Submitted at 3/16/2010 2:21:57 PM

Dawn of Aurora Season Image by and copyright Yuichi Takasaka/TWAN/www.bluemoon.ca Absinthe-green Auroras course across the Yukon sky in a picture featured March 11 on

NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day site. Captured around dawn on March 11 near Dawson City, Canada, the image is a digital combination of several exposures, which allowed both the northern lights and the paths of stars—which appear to be moving due to Earth's rotation—to shine.

With the vernal equinox, or spring equinox, arriving on Saturday, northern lights should be in abundance this week. For reasons that remain a mystery, the sky shows tend to proliferate around the first day of spring, according to NASA. Auroras occur as particles from the sun speed toward Earth and

become energized as they encounter with the planet's magnetic field lines. As the powered-up particles smash into oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere, the particles release their energy as red, green, and blue light. (See aurora pictures.) (Related:"Giant 'Space Tornadoes' Spark Auroras on

Earth.") Published March 16, 2010 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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'Meow meow' ban advice to come within days (Top stories from Times Online)

Mr Campbell said:"We will receive the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs advice on Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:40:41 AM 29 March and subject to this The Government's official drug advice will take immediate advisers will make an official action. We are determined to act recommendation at the end of swiftly but it is important we the month about whether a 'legal consider independent expert high' drug linked to the death of a d v i c e t o s t o p o r g a n i s e d two teenagers in Scunthorpe criminals exploiting loopholes should be banned. by simply switching to a Ministers will receive advice on different but similar compound". the harm caused by mephedrone As headteachers demanded that - often known as Meow Meow - drug be banned, scientists and whether it should be w a r n e d a g a i n s t s p e e d y become a controlled drug under decisions being taken without a the Misuse of Drugs Act. sound scientific basis. Alan Campbell, a junior Home Professor David Nutt, who was O f f i c e m i n i s t e r , s a i d t h e sacked as chairman of the Government is "determined to Council after he said ecstasy act swiftly" on the issue but it is and LSD were less dangerous unlikely that mephedrone, than alcohol and criticised the which is sold as bath salts or decision to reclassify cannabis plant food, will be outlawed as a class B drug, said it was before the summer as the “ p r e m a t u r e ” t o b a n Council still has to decide on m e p h e d r o n e . whether it should be a Class A, Speaking as chairman of his B or C drug. rival committee, the

Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD), said "Such decisions need to be based on sound science. Some previously reported mephedrone deaths have also turned out to be false alarms. Police believe mephedrone contributed to the deaths of teenagers Louis Wainwright, 18, and Nicholas Smith, 19, in Scunthorpe on Monday and today headteachers led calls for it to be banned. It is sold online as plant food and is also known as “Meow Meow” or M-CAT. Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said that the drug had rapidly been gaining popularity in schools and was being taken by children as young as nine. But head teachers and police were powerless to act because the drug was legal — and schools even had to return confiscated

drugs after class. “This drug clearly has the same inherent dangers as any Class A drug and I think serious consideration should be given to banning it," Mr Brookes told the BBC. “The problem with that is that you then criminalise the people who take it, so we need to think very carefully about what we do, but act with some speed.” Mike Stewart, the head of Westlands School in Torquay, said that there was no time to be lost. He said: "We need the law enforcement agencies to be able to stop the supply of this: make it a Class A drug straightaway, don't muck about. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Google's Traffic Is Giant, Which Is Why It Should be Your ISP Ryan Singel (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:17:00 AM

Everybody knows Google is one of the net’s big kids, but how big is it exactly? Well, as Arbor Networks measures it, if Google were an ISP it would be the third largest in the world and the fastest growing — if you are measuring the amount of traffic passed from its network to another.

AIG to Hit Feds for Another $2 Billion Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks)

the property-casualty business units that will comprise the restructured company. AIG used Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:20:00 AM the cash from Treasury to Filed under: Amer Intl Group redeem some securities held by ( A I G ) , F e d e r a l R e s e r v e its insurance subsidiaries to American International Group ( increase liquidity and address AIG) has gone back to the feds. rating agency considerations. The insurer pulled another $2.2 According to David Havens, NMR), "AIG still needs to be b i l l i o n f r o m i t s T r e a s u r y managing director of credit cognizant of where the rating Department facility to support trading at Nomura Securities ( a g e n c i e s s t a n d o n t h e i r

solvency." He adds, in Bloomberg News, that the funds may have been sought after the company got "feedback from the rating agencies that the regulatory capital within the operating companies doesn't muster up." Continue reading AIG to Hit Feds for Another $2 Billion AIG to Hit Feds for Another $2

Billion originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Gordon Brown admits evidence at Iraq Inquiry was wrong

Mutant All-Black Penguin Found

(Top stories from Times Online)

(National Geographic News)

Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:14:53 AM

Gordon Brown was today forced into a humiliating retreat in his battle against retired generals who accuse him of giving disingenuous evidence on military funding to the Iraq Inquiry. The Prime Minister told the House of Commons that he now accepted that his evidence had been wrong. He admitted that defence spending “did not rise in real terms” in every year under the Labour government and said he had written to Sir John Chilcot to clarify his controversial claims. Throughout his testimony, Mr Brown repeatedly insisted that military spending had increased in every year since 1997 and claimed that every urgent operational request was met immediately. His claims were greeted by incredulity amongst retired generals including the former

Chief of Defence Staff General Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank and former defence chief, Admiral Lord Boyce. They accused him of giving deliberately misleading evidence to the inquiry. During Prime Minister’s Questions today, Mr Brown admitted that his evidence was incorrect in a response to Tony Baldry, the Conservative MP for Banbury. “Yes. I am already writing to Sir John Chilcot about this issue,” he told MPs “Because of operational fluctuations in the way the money is spent, expenditure has risen in cash terms every year, in real terms it is 12% higher, but I do accept that in one or two years defence expenditure did not rise in real terms.” David Cameron responded to the admission by congratulating Mr Baldry for extracting an admission from Mr Brown. "In three years of asking the Prime Minister questions I don't think I've ever heard him

making a correction or retraction,” he said. “Perhaps, on the day when he has to admit that he can't get his own figures right we shouldn't have to put up with him talking about Conservative policy." Former military commanders had accused Mr Brown of misleading the inquiry when he appeared to blame the military for failing to equip the Armed Forces properly. Admiral Lord Boyce said: “He’s dissembling, he’s being disingenuous. It’s just not the case that the Ministry of Defence was given everything it needed.” As the bitter row escalated Labour backbenchers appeared to suggest that remarks by retired military officials criticising Mr Brown were motivated by party political affiliations. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

coloring mutations, usually, the variations are partial. Dr. Allan Baker, an National Geographic Traveler ornithologist and head of the contributor Andrew Evans Department of Natural History recently spotted and filmed an at the Royal Ontario Museum, all-black king penguin—a very called the discovery of the ‘allrare mutant—on the sub- b l a c k ’ k i n g p e n g u i n Antarctic island of South “astonishing.” He jokingly said Georgia. ”it’s a one in a zillion kind of © 2010 National Geographic; mutation,” and scientifically video: Andrew Evans calls it ‘very rare.’ RELATED He explains that typically, Giant Penguins Once melanistic birds will have white Roamed Peru Desert, Fossils s p o t s w h e r e m e l a n i n Show pigmentation has failed to color "King Penguins" in National the feathers. But it’s extremely Geographic Magazine rare for there to be melanin UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT deposits over the entire breast of This all black-feathered king a bird. penguin could be ‘one in a Photographer Evans says he zillion.’ almost didn’t get the sighting The video was recorded on the recorded. As he got his camera Sub-Antarctic Island of South positioned, the penguin started Georgia by National Geographic walking away. Traveler Magazine contributor Five Filters featured article: editor Andrew Evans on his Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: bus2Antarctica expedition. PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, While many king penguins and Term Extraction. other penguins can have featherSubmitted at 3/16/2010 1:12:47 PM

Lunchwalla Makes Lunch Spot Selection Simple [Local Search] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:30:00 AM

When it comes dining out picking a spot can take up as much time as you'll actually

spend eating. Forgo the chaotic selection process by using Lunchwalla to find, share, and

pick a spot for lunch, dinner, drinks, and more. More »

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ST. continued from page 6

"It becomes a way to honor the saint but also to confirm ethnic identity and to create bonds of solidarity," Meagher said. Wearing Green, Dyeing River Green on St. Patrick's Day Sometime in the 19th century, as St. Patrick's Day parades were flourishing, wearing the color green became a show of commitment to Ireland, Meagher said. In 1962 the show of solidarity took a spectacular turn in Chicago when the city decided to dye a portion of the Chicago River green. The tradition started when parade organizer Steve Bailey, head of a plumbers' union, noticed how a dye used to detect river pollution had stained a colleague's overalls a brilliant green, according to greenchicagoriver.com. Why not, Bailey thought, turn the river green on St. Patrick's Day? So began the tradition. The environmental impact of the dye is minimal compared

with sources of pollution such as bacteria from sewagetreatment plants, said Margaret Frisbie, the executive director of the advocacy group Friends of the Chicago River. Her group focuses instead on turning the Chicago River into a welcoming habitat full of fish, herons, turtles, and beavers. If the river becomes a wildlife haven, the thinking goes, Chicagoans won't want to dye their river green. "Our hope is that, as the river continues to improve, ultimately people can get excited about celebrating St. Patrick's Day different ways," she said. (Related:"St. Patrick's Day Fast Facts: Beyond the Blarney.") Pint of Guinness on St. Patrick's Day On any given day 5.5 million pints of Guinness, the famous Irish stout brand, are consumed around the world. But on St. Patrick's Day, that number more than doubles to 13

million pints, said Beth Davies Ryan, global corporate relations director of Guinness. "Historically speaking, a lot of Irish immigrants came to the United States and brought with them lots of customs and traditions, one of them being Guinness," she said. Today, the U.S. tradition of St. Patrick's Day parades, packed pubs, and green silliness has invaded Ireland with full force, noted Freeman, the classics professor. The country, he noted, figured out the popularity of St. Patrick's Day was a good way to boost spring tourism. "Like anybody else," he said, "they can take advantage of a good opportunity." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Evernote Emailing is Actually Useful Now with Tagging [Email] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/17/2010 4:45:00 AM

Cloud-based note service Evernote does many things well, gifts, but its direct email like expand brains and improve functionality was always kind of

lacking. Not so anymore, as you can tag and organize mailed-in notes using subject line character codes. More »

Morning Reading nospam@example.org (Scott Jagow) (Marketplace Scratch Pad) Submitted at 3/17/2010 5:59:35 AM

Top of the mornin’ to ya. In honor of St. Patty’s Day, I think we should start with Marketplace’s own resident Irishman and his latest Whiteboard Video: Explaining collateralized loan obligations(Paddy Hirsch) CLOs from Marketplace on Vimeo. Public option supporters seek to resurrect it(NPR) Even some senators who support the public option oppose its revival. “They’re on the mark in saying that I’m for it, but they miss the larger point, which is that it would take down the passage of health care,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), one of the senators the TV ad says is a potential yes vote. The Rum War between two US territories(NPR) Diageo is relocating production of Captain Morgan — one of its most successful brands — from Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands. In exchange, the Virgin Islands is giving Diageo an estimated $2.7 billion in various incentives over the next 30

years. Rafael Fantauzzi, president of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, a lobbying group, says that’s twice what it will actually cost Diageo to produce rum at the new facility. “Which is outrageous,” Fantauzzi says. “And it’s extremely irresponsible of even the U.S. Virgin Islands to give so much money away to a foreign-owned company, instead of using it for their own vulnerable people.” Thieves pull off daring crime for pills(Planet Money) Here’s a reminder of just how vast the global black market for pharmaceuticals is: In a weekend raid, thieves stole $75 million worth of antidepressants, antipsychotics and other drugs from a Connecticut warehouse. The perps scaled a brick wall, cut a hole in the ceiling and rappelled down, the AP reports. They disabled an alarm then spent at least an hour loading pallets of drugs into a vehicle at a loading dock. A hard look at payday lenders(PBS NewsHour) First of two parts by Ray Suarez:

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Musician removed from train for writing name of 'The Killers'

TARP fraud exposed nospam@example.org (Scott Jagow) (Marketplace Scratch Pad)

the bank’s capital, the complaint said, even though the investment was made with the bank’s own (Latest news, breaking news, Mr Shaw, of Portsmouth, was asked politely to leave the funds through a “series of Submitted at 3/16/2010 11:24:04 AM current news, UK news, world Hampshire, said his band also train because it was busy and The TARP watchdog, Neil deceptive, round-trip loan news, celebrity news, politics intended to play All These the officers wished to speak to Barofsky, warned us a year ago t r a n s a c t i o n s ” d e v i s e d b y news) Things That I've Done by The him about their concerns. that the $700 billion program A n t o n u c c i . Killers but he had simply She added: ''We employ a team was ripe for fraud: “History Barofsky isn’t done sniffing out Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:26:22 AM Published: 2:12PM GMT 17 written ''killers''. of highly professional rail teaches us that an outlay of so the TARP liars and cheats. Mar 2010 He told the Portsmouth News: community officers who work much money in such a short Here’s what he said on Fox Tom Shaw was travelling on a ''They made me get out at c l o s e l y w i t h t h e B r i t i s h period of time will inevitably News today: South West Trains when he Fareham and when I asked Transport Police in protecting draw those seeking to profit CAVUTO: How do you know began writing a list of song what was wrong they told me to the security of passengers on criminally.” Well, he was right. others aren’t or weren’t doing titles which his band The Magic show them the piece of paper I'd the rail network. The first criminal charges have the same thing when it comes to Mushrooms would play at a been writing on. ''During a routine high-visibility been filed concerning abuse of TARP? That, what, $700 billion forthcoming gig. ''They said I'd been behaving patrol back in early March, they TARP funds, and there are more -plus that’s been — gone out. But the 25-year-old was s u s p i c i o u s l y . I c o u l d n ' t talked with a passenger on the cases on the way. BAROFSKY: Well, others are approached by two security staff understand it. It seemed very platform at Fareham station. The charges were filed against doing the same thing. e m p l o y e d b y t h e t r a i n strange as it was only a list of ''The team clarified the nature of the president of New York’s CAVUTO: So, you suspect company and asked to leave the songs. the individual's business, were Park Avenue Bank, which was there will be more cases like train at Fareham railway station. ''We had a gig coming up so I satisfied with his explanation shut down by regulators last that? Mr Shaw, who works with was writing out what we could and the man went on his way. week. From the Washington BAROFSKY: There will be young people with learning play. They made me explain ''We would like to thank the Post: more cases, both against difficulties, said that they told song by song.'' passenger for his co-operation Investigators said (Charles applicants and TARP recipients. him he had been behaving Mr Shaw added that the and understanding of the need A n t o n u c c i S r . ) t r i e d t o That’s what we were charged by suspiciously and asked him to security staff told him that he to be vigilant in the current f r a u d u l e n t l y o b t a i n $ 1 1 . 3 Congress to do, and that’s what explain the list he had been had been questioned because environment.'' million from the Treasury we’re doing, is uncovering those writing. there had been a number of Five Filters featured article: Department’s Troubled Assets frauds. The set list included Take Me arrests in the area including a Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Relief Program by lying about Now, if we could just get some O u t b y F r a n z F e r d i n a n d , man who had murdered his PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, the bank’s capital levels in its c r i m i n a l c h a r g e s f i l e d Cigarettes and Alcohol by wife. Term Extraction. November 2008 application for concerning the events that led to Oasis and Love Me Like You by A South West Trains bailout funds. He told regulators the $700 billion bailout… The Magic Numbers. spokeswoman said Mr Shaw that he had invested $6.5 million of his personal money to boost

PayPal 2.0 "Bumps" Money Between iPhones [Downloads] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:10:00 AM

iPhone/iPod touch: You're settling up a restaurant tab for three. One eater has no cash, the

other only twenty-dollar bills, PayPal 2.0 lets you "bump" the and you're left wondering. If at balance between phones. More » least two of you have iPhones,

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Clinton Pledges 'Unshakeable Bond' with Israel

Is Social Media Worth Your Time? Kasey Wehrum (Inc.com) Submitted at 3/16/2010 9:38:09 AM

Do you have time for social media? Chaitanya Sagar, founder and CEO of small business outsourcing company p2w2, makes an interesting point about the use of social media in a new post at Open Forum. Larger organizations -media companies specifically -have the time and resources to maintain a hefty Web presence through the use of social media. But for a small business owner or entrepreneur, "If you spend two hours a day on Twitter and Facebook, that is 25 percent of your day!" says Sagar. So how does one use social media in a way that ensures an ROI for the time spent? By focusing on marketing your brand instead of expecting direct sales, Sagar suggests, which includes boosting traffic to your site, creating relationships with customers, and making your company known for something. "If you expect immediate sales from social media, you will be disappointed," he says. "But if you have this perspective, you will be able to use social media for the right reasons and save a lot of time." Check out Inc.'s guide on How to Use Social Networking to Drive Business for more strategies to implement through your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

(Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 3/16/2010 10:36:30 AM

How bank failures will affect small business loans. As the recession ends, there will be an estimated lending shortfall for small business of as much as $250 billion to $500 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. The government's reaction will likely be to provide banks with incentives for increasing lending to small businesses, such as a proposed $30 billion small-business lending fund that will provide capital to smaller community banks. Despite the proposed program, the treasury expects increased borrowing costs and interest rates as the economy recovers. "It won't be that people are closed out of getting credit; it's that credit will become more expensive as the economy heals," Assistant Treasury Secretary Alan Krueger said. About that Twitter announcement. We told you yesterday that Twitter CEO Evan Williams was expected to announced a long-awaited business model at the annual South By Southwest conference. Oops. In fact, Williams surprised observers by making a minor announcement--Twitter is releasing a system that allows

publishers to access it within their websites--and insisting that the social network was still experimenting with ways to make money. "We haven't turned on the revenue yet, there's a lot of low-hanging fruit, but none of it is sustainable," he said (via TechCrunch's liveblog). The latest thinking regarding Twitter's plans: A business model will be announced sometime this Spring, according to All Things Digital. Social network, Ning, swaps CEOs. Netscape co-founder and Ning chairman Marc Andreessen announced the other day that the company's CEO, Gina Bianchini would be stepping down. Bianchini, who Fast Company named one of the most influential women in technology will not be going far; she is joining Andreessen's new VC firm Andreessen Horowitz as an executive-in-residence. Fortunately for Ning, COO Jason Rosenthal was primed to fill Bianchini's shoes. Wonder if they read our guide on how to hire a CEO? Is right-sizing Detroit's best option? In a blog post in today's New York Times, Harvard economics professor Edward L.

Glaeser argues that perhaps shrinking the fledgling city might be the best way to return it to its former greatness. That's the approach being advocated by Detroit's mayor, Dave Bing, a former NBA star and successful steel entrepreneur. As Glaeser points out, the last 50 years have demonstrated that areas with a large number of small companies have grown more quickly than places dominated by a few big firms. Of course, right-sizing a city is a far more difficult task than right -sizing a business. For example, Mayor Bing has proposed closing schools, discontinuing city services to Detroit's scarcely-inhabited areas, and even bulldozing blighted buildings and turning them over for alternative use. More from Inc. Magazine: Get this delivered to your inbox. Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Tumblr. Friend us on Facebook. Apply now for the 2010 Inc. 500|5000 .

Hillary Clinton dialed down the diplomatic confrontation with Israel this morning, pledging that the US has “ an unshakeable bond” with Israel, and dismissing suggestions that the relationship between the US and Israel was at its worst point in decades. “We have an absolute commitment to Israel’s security. We have a close, unshakeable bond between the United States and Israel,” Clinton told a news briefing. Her comments marked a turn after days of tough U.S. talk following Israel’s announcement last week that it would approve construction of a housing project in East Jerusalem, a move which infuriated the Palestinians and put hopes for resumption of Middle East peace talks on hold. … “We share common values and a commitment to a democratic future for the world, and we are both committed to a two-state solution” for Israel and the Palestinians, she said. “But that doesn’t mean that we are going to agree. We don’t agree with any of our international partners on everything.”

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Solving Your Small Business Growing Pains Marla Tabaka (Inc.com) Submitted at 3/17/2010 4:59:30 AM

When a solopreneur launches his business, it’s typically from a perspective of trading time for dollars. Now you’ve got a job, but you’re your own boss. Ideally, your days are more flexible and, if you have children, you get to be home with them. Wow! This is the life! If you work “x” hours per week you will be able to match your corporate paycheck! Soon we find out that a few things have influenced that equation. We begin to get overwhelmed with things like marketing and networking, administrative work, accounting, balancing the personal life with work, and – if you’re lucky – growing pains. Basically growing pains in a small business equate to lack of time and resources. After all,

“solo” means doing it alone, right? Not always. One of the answers to typical growing pains is to outsource the things that are non-entrepreneurial tasks. Michael Gerber, author of the popular business book, The e-myth, describes this work as the “technician’s” work. The technician’s work includes the list above as well as the work you may be doing yourself if you are a web designer, graphic artist, or any type of service provider. But how do you afford it? Since you’re so bogged down with day-to-day work instead of growing the business, funds are limited. Here’s one of the formula’s I use: 1) Make a list of resources for increasing revenue: new clients, a new market, upselling or increasing business from current clients, etc. 2) Calculate how much

revenue you could bring in and the length of time it would take to increase profits if you had 1020 hours per week to do nothing but marketing and sales. 3) Make a list of your most time-consuming tasks and separate them into administrative, book keeping, and technician’s work. You may add other categories as appropriate. How many hours per week do you spend on these tasks? 4) Determine an hourly wage for outsourcing the most time consuming tasks. In most cases, there is enough admin work to take off of the solopreneur’s plate to save them 15-20 hours per week. For the example we’re working with here, let’s say you could hire a virtual assistant or an offices assistant for $15 per hour. That’s $300 a week for 20 hours, or $1200 per month.

Now, how long would it take you to increase revenue by $1200 per month if you had 20 hours a week to focus on doing just that? Probably not long. Most of my clients will tell me it would take 2 months or so. So the next step is to put away $2400 to secure 2 month’s salary for your new administrative assistant. This may take some time, but be diligent about it. You can do it! Within 4 months of hiring your assistant (or appropriate contractor) you will see your profits growing and your sanity returning. This is just one solution, but you get the picture. For other ways to increase your productivity, download my free audio and workbook on Increasing Your Productivity by 40% at www.MarlaTabaka.com.

The Most Accurate Flyby of Mars to Date [Space] Jesus Diaz (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/17/2010 9:42:57 AM

This 4:50 flyby over the surface

of Mars—created by 3D artist Doug Ellison—is the most accurate to date, and the closest thing to being there than any of

spectacular. More » us would ever be. Simply

Chrome Dev Release Overhauls Bookmark Manager for Macs [Updates] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/17/2010 5:30:00 AM

Google's Chrome browser is out with a new Dev release, and the big change is inside the Mac bookmark manager, which we've heard was previously less than awesome to use. The new bookmark manager has drag-and -drop organizing, easy deleting and renaming, and a better look. The developers note that folders stuffed with bookmarks may not let you access all the bookmarks at the bottom, but a fix is coming. Auto-filled forms also saw improvements across all platforms. What still needs fixing in Chrome for Mac? Image via ReadWriteWeb.[ Google Chrome Releases via ReadWriteWeb] More »

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Apple Patent Beams Up Pico Projectors Into All Your Future Apple Gear Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:53:14 AM

Apple patent-watching is sometimes surprising, sometimes bemusing, but a newly-revealed patent for builtin projectors into Apple gizmos should be filed in the awesome category--imagine the future iPhone and iPad designs! Apple began patenting built-in pico projector ideas back in mid 2009, but its research and development teams have clearly taken this tech to heart since the new patent application is way more advanced. It talks both about including projector tech in different Apple gizmos, and about having these devices all chat wirelessly to make the projector experience superclever. The most attention-grabbing part of the patent is about embedded projectors (or possibly closely-paired projector accessories) in a future iPhone. The idea that you could then play your iPhone-stored movies anywhere is immediately attractive: Picture how that could change boring train commutes into work -- or a rooftop party. But Apple also plays up the business angle,

continuing the iPad-iWork business app vibe, with the notion that a projector-equipped iPhone could be used to pitch a proposal to your boss or a potential client, literally anywhere you happen to be-even on a long elevator ride. (Imagine wowing a potential employer by projecting your resume onto his office wall to highlight your experience.) It would also let you use your iPhone as a super-smart presentation tool, should you be giving a Keynote talk some

point--since the device would be both the presentation controller, and projector too. Of course if you need more powerful interactivity with content like this, you'll be needing a more powerful mobile computer...so the patent also mentions a picoprojector embedded in a MacBook lid. The patent mentions that several projector- and cameraequipped devices could all be networked to work in harmony. For one, this could help the projector get the picture quality

correct--with real-time feedback from an iPhone camera over wireless. But more excitingly it could allow for gadget control interactivity, which brings up more thoughts about motion control gaming, probably thanks to all the excitement stirred up by Sony's Move and MS's Natal. What about having a projector (possibly a more powerful one than can be fitted into a portable device) squeezed into a router, possibly even one like the Airport Express? Text in the patent mentions "in some cases,

the projection system may include a wireless router and act as a hub," which of course gets us pondering about some future Airport/Apple TV mashup, with local storage and wireless net access, plus a projector system. Does that sound like the core of your future home media system? [via PatentlyApple] To follow me on Twitter, and read more news like this, you can click here, or use the Microsoft Tag code on the left, if you've got the reader software on your phone.

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A Hat Trick for Elon Musk Courtney Rubin (Inc.com) Submitted at 3/16/2010 9:32:00 AM

Elon Musk's Falcon 9 rocket may not have gotten off the ground Saturday, but the South African-born PayPal co-founder (and Inc's 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year) has plenty to be fired up about. First, Musk’s upstart space company SpaceX, pulled off a successful test-fire of the rocket’s engines Saturday, paving the way for a possible real launch within a month. Then this weekend a newsletter from Tesla, Musk's luxury electric car company, announced that its Roadster will still be offered in 2012. (Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed in January ahead of an initial public offering revealed that problems with suppliers would force Tesla to yank the $109,000 car, its most visible product.) And finally, on Monday Loral Space & Communications Inc. announced a contract -- thought to be valued at about $50 million -- to launch a major

commercial satellite aboard the Falcon 9. The hot-fire – a 3.5 second test of Falcon 9's nine kerosene and liquid oxygen-burning motors – occurred at Florida's Cape Canaveral. It was Space X's second attempt: On March 9 launch technicians had to abort with two second to go. The next step: The inaugural launch of the rocket, already two years behind the company's initial projections. President Barack Obama, who has big plans to outsource space flights to companies like SpaceX, has a big space speech in Florida April 15 -- and the rumor mill suggests a launch of the blackand-white 735,000-lb rocket could happen as early as April 12. Of course, SpaceX's first offering, the sleek Falcon 1 booster, took four attempts to launch successfully. "Most likely, some set of unexpected things will happen that push launch to May or June," Musk e -mailed the Wall Street Journal about the Falcon 9 launch. Meanwhile, Tesla's new agreement with its suppliers to

keep churning out Roadsters simplifies the company's stock market debut and closes a potential gap for rivals to step in. (Irvine, California-based Fisker Automotive's$87,900 luxury gasoline-electric Karma will go into production late this year. And Nissan last week announced it had some 56,000 pre-orders for its $25,000 Leaf EV electric sedan, which will hit the road in 2012. Tesla's own sedan, the Model S, will also appear in 2012, but will sell for $49,900 with a federal tax credit.) From the current Tesla newsletter: "Responding to customer demand, Tesla has negotiated agreements with key suppliers that will increase total Roadster production by 40% and extend sales into 2012." The mailing on to say the company would begin selling in Asia and Australia next year, making the car available in 25 countries (the first Roadsters arrived in Spain and Ireland in February). The six-year-old start -up has sold some 1,000 Roadsters so far.

Submitted at 3/16/2010 11:14:58 PM

Top Performers

Addy Dugdale (Fast Company)

activity for the iPhone is up by 185%, although this is thought to be down to the iPad effect. Submitted at 3/17/2010 11:02:15 AM But it won't just be tablet and Put it down to the iPad effect if smartphone users who get the you like, but it's not the whole c o o l s t u f f . A s S a m s u n g ' s story. A study commissioned by appearance on the OS front, independent app store Getjar with its open-source Bada predicts that the mobile apps shows, there will, without doubt, market will be worth $17.5 be apps for feature phones, billion in just two years, with which account for 90% of the downloads up from 7 billion last cell phone market. year to 50 billion by 2012. The The study split the research into rocketing figures won't just different worldwide territories increase the Apple share price, and found that, while Asia is however, as the study expects a h o m e t o t h e m o s t a p p whole host of new app stores to d o w n l o a d s , i t i s N o r t h appear over the coming months, Americans who spend biggest in although not all of them will the market. With the average survive in the long haul. price for an app coming in at In short, the market is all for the around $1.90 in 2009, the cost is taking--and it probably won't be expected to drop by 29%. This the cell phone companies that is probably due to the fact that are making it big. While advertising-based revenue Minnesota: C. Brewer 21 Pts, 3 Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: manufacturers' apps accounted models will double their market Reb, 2 Stl PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, for over 60% last year, their share to 28%. share will fall to under 23% in [ Business Wire Via BBC Phoenix: J. Richardson 27 Pts, Term Extraction. 2012. Independent developers News] 4 Reb, 3 Ast, 2 Stl should win big--developer Five Filters featured article:

Defense rests: Suns score 152 in rout of Wolves Associated Press (ESPN.com)

Mobile Apps Sales to Hit $17.5 Billion by 2012

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Is Blockbuster on the Verge of Bankruptcy? GrowCo.: Growth by Involvement at Amy's Ice Creams Janine Popick (Inc.com) Submitted at 3/16/2010 2:07:00 PM

I'm at the Inc. GrowCo. conference here in Orlando. What an exciting group of small businesses and what an amazing group of speakers. I'm watching Amy Simmons, founder of Amy's Ice Creams in Austin, Texas. Bravo to Inc. for getting some great women speakers at this show. As a graduate student, Amy fell in love with working nights at the ice cream parlor. She loved it so much that she stayed with it, working for $14K per year. What I really enjoyed about Amy's session was hearing her passion for what she does. Her company makes about $6 million a year in revenue. Nice size? You bet. Huge? No way. But for Amy it seems like a lifestyle choice. Amy's can't pay employees a ton of money, because their core job is selling ice cream. So they need to be creative and get their employees excited. How do they do it? Involvement! Amy's gets involved in the community -- Amy wants to

know what impact her company has on the community, and what she can do to improve it. They do things like get involved with a local children's cancer center where they've built a room that looks like an ice cream shop. Kids can play games while the freezers are filled with ice cream for them and their families. They participate in any opportunities like this they can find. She gets her employees involved -- The employees choose what charities Amy's Ice Creams is going to support. Employees at every level of the company are encouraged to develop their speaking and story telling. Amy's also hosts a prom every year where they crown a King and Queen who have done the most charitable work with the company. When someone applies for a job at Amy's they get a white paper bag and are asked to be as creative as possible with that bag. Amy's wants to see that employees they hire have the same values as they do. One applicant put food in a bag, gave it to a homeless person, took a picture of that

and then put the picture in the bag. Amy's also gives their employees an entrepreneurial education. They even celebrate people leaving when they do something on their own. She gets her customers involved -- Amy's offers tours of the ice cream plant on a daily basis. They also have annual reunions where they gather all of the 14 store employees and they invite customers. Last year they gave away $7K in product for their anniversary party and their revenue increased for the next three weeks. She's involved -- Amy answers customer complaints, a task that might be daunting to most. She looks at it in a positive light, she loves that her customers are taking the time and care enough to tell her what they'd like to see. All in all, Amy's is a great example of a small local business that is doing some great things to grow, and getting employees excited about what they do. What are you doing to be involved with your company?

Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI) TheStreet.com ran an article stating that Blockbuster ( BBI) may be forced into bankruptcy if its cash flow doesn't improve and it can't restructure debt. According to the article, BBI's debt has been as high as $1 billion. In a filing with the SEC, BBI stated: "These factors raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern." The company currently faces $855.9 million in debt and is in talks with Hollywood studios in hopes of reducing BBI's DVD costs. The company also stated

that increased competition from the likes of Netflix ( NFLX) and Redbox has severely hurt its market share. Continue reading Is Blockbuster on the Verge of Bankruptcy? Is Blockbuster on the Verge of Bankruptcy? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

CutMP3.Net Extracts Audio From Files Entirely Online [Audio Editing] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:00:00 AM

Need a quick ringtone or an isolated snippet of audio from a bigger file? CutMP3.Net does it with a file upload button, two

sliders, and a "Cut" button, and does it all on the web. More Âť

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Cosmic rays and little green men nospam@example.org (Scott Jagow) (Marketplace Scratch Pad) Submitted at 3/16/2010 9:29:17 AM

The Toyota acceleration fiasco is starting to remind me of alien abduction stories. Like tales of failing car parts, spaceship stories seem to come in waves, too. Is it possible that thousands of people have been abducted even though no real evidence exists to support their claims? Is it possible that all of these runaway Toyotas from various model years have decided to act up all at once? I don’t know the answer, but sticking with the outer space theme, the Detroit Free Press suggests cosmic rays might be behind the Toyota phenomenon. No, seriously, this is a scientific valid possibility. For decades, electronics makers have known about “single event upsets” (SEU) — computer errors caused by radiation from space. There’s reason to believe the probability of SEUs has increased and may be affecting Toyota’s electronics: Only in the late 1970s did researchers discover that a

minuscule portion of such radiation falls to earth. It’s not enough to harm humans, but as circuits in computers and cell phones on the ground have shrunk to the width of several dozen atoms, the risk of errors has grown. “Five years ago, it was a problem in very few applications,” said Olivier Lauzeral, general manager of IRoC Technologies, which tests chips and software for SEU resistance. “In the past couple of years, we’ve seen a rise in demand and interest.” In an anonymous e-mail last

month to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a tipster said such an error “may be one reasonable explanation for incidents of sudden acceleration,” adding that the automotive industry had yet to adapt the techniques used by aircraft firms to prevent problems from SEUs. Toyota believes its cars are safe from radiation interference, but it doesn’t believe James Sikes’ story about his runaway Prius in San Diego. NHTSA can’t explain the incident either. From the Detroit News:

“Toyota engineers believe that it would be extremely difficult for the Prius to be driven at a continuous high speed with more than light brake-pedal pressure, and that the assertion that the vehicle could not be stopped with the brakes is fundamentally inconsistent with basic vehicle design and the investigation observations.” NHTSA said its investigators “have not been able to find anything to explain the incident that Mr. Sikes reported.” Sikes’ attorney, John Gomez, told reporters Sunday that “there’s a ghost in the machine,” referring to electronics problems, and it’s not unexpected that NHTSA can’t find the problem. Ghosts, cosmic rays, inexplicable events. Human nature. By the way, I don’t believe anyone has been abducted by aliens. Except me. My story’s true:

AT&T Zero Charger Sucks Absolutely No Vampire Power [Cellphones] Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:39:00 AM

Available at AT&T stores starting in May (for an unknown price), the AT&T Zero Charger is the world's first wall-based USB charger that draws absolutely no power when it's not refilling a cellphone. Now follow suit, everyone else. [ AT&T] More »

Blackberry Push Service Now Available to All Blackberry Apps [BlackBerry]

Toshiba Snuffs Out Old Light Bulb Production, Embraces the Shiny LED Future

Mark Wilson (Gizmodo)

Kit Eaton (Fast Company)

Submitted at 3/17/2010 9:47:48 AM

Blackberry's push notifications are now available to any developer who'd like to stick

'em in any Blackberry app. Blackberry, this update sounds Since battery-friendly push is fantastic. More » the best part of owning a

Submitted at 3/17/2010 11:01:48 AM

Toshiba hauled the gate24shut for TOSHIBA page

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TOSHIBA continued from page 23

the final time on its incandescent light bulb factory today--ending a production run that dates back to 1890. The reason? The eco-unfriendly, inefficient, thermo-luminescent tech has had its day. Toshiba's history in light bulb making dates back to the Tokyobased Hakunetsu-sha company, which churned out just 10 bulbs per day at first. Through various business incorporations, and advances in technology, Toshiba's bulb production soared to 78 million bulbs per year--over 900 per second-before slowly slipping to just 7 million last year. The compact fluorescent bulb made up some of that slack in 2009, with some 14 million of the more ecofriendly units rolling off the production line. It's the eco-footprint of the incandescent bulb that is really the cause of its doom. Due to hard physics and chemistry, its efficiency in turning electrical energy into visible light is extremely limited, and much of

the energy from all those whizzing electrons is diverted into waste heat. Of course it was cutting-edge tech for over a century, and the science that made them glow resulted in improved designs in terms of both efficiency and bulb longevity. But now there are alternatives that are so far advanced that the incandescent bulb really is a dinosaur. First up is the CFL--darling of governments worldwide who are keen to impress the public with eco-friendly policies. A 23-Watt CFL gives out about the same light flux as a standard 100-Watt incandescent. It may cost more per unit, and its production is much more complex (with a few questions over the ecofriendliness of the chemicals involved), but its electrical efficiency and longevity mean a smaller carbon footprint and reduced household energy consumption. But the real way ahead in lighting tech, which Toshiba is energetically following, is in

LEDs. The efficiency of standard LEDs is so far ahead of CFLs (by about a factor of 10) that they simply have to be the go-to tech solution for ecofriendly lighting in the future. The upcoming paradigm shift toward organic LEDs (OLED) will push this advantage yet further, while resulting in more natural light from the units. Despite a twinge of nostalgia for the end of Edison's invention, this is why Toshiba's shuttering of incandescent production is a fabulous thing--it frees up the company to really focus on the next gen stuff. [Via PCWorld, Image via Flickr user Obliot] To keep up with news like this, follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter. You can access that URL via the Microsoft Tag on the left there, if you've got a reader app installed on your smartphone.

Hartford to Repay TARP Cash Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 3/17/2010 9:30:00 AM

Filed under: Federal Reserve, Recession, Financial Crisis Hartford Financial Services Group ( HIG) is getting ready to repay its $3.4 billion in TARP money to the feds. The insurance company is using money raised from debt and equity offerings to settle its score with the American taxpayer. Hartford is going to issue $1.45 billion in common stock and $500 million in mandatory convertible preferred stock presented by depository shares. The debt offering will entail senior notes of $425 million. Hartford will pre-fund the

repurchase of senior debt that matures in 2010 and 2011 with the issuance of an additional $675 million in senior notes. Continue reading Hartford to Repay TARP Cash Hartford to Repay TARP Cash originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

YouTube Launches Partner Program for Musicians Brenna Ehrlich (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:24:32 AM

YouTube has helped launched the career of many an awesome band (and Justin Bieber), now the video-sharing site is taking active steps to help out struggling artists by launching a

YouTube Partner program at SXSW called Musicians Wanted. If you’re a band or musician on the brink, you can head to YouTube’s partnership page to apply for the program, which already counts bands like nowtotally-indie OK Go among its

denizens.

According to the YouTube blog, only U.S.-based artists can currently apply, but it’s planning on expanding in the future (so keep your ears peeled, Fully Sick Rapper). This is good news for many a musician. Viral music videos can really rack up the views, and

exposure that could actually garner bands cash could be a boon for dudes who subsist solely on Top Ramen and a dream. Here’s indie viral darlings, Pomplamoose, to tell you more: Tags: music, social media, sxsw, youtube

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It's okay, you can still gripe nospam@example.org (Scott Jagow) (Marketplace Scratch Pad)

we are starting a new revolution and our rally cry is Please Fire Me. It’s pretty simple. You start Submitted at 3/16/2010 1:29:49 PM It’s become almost taboo to your post with “Please Fire complain about your job, since Me.” You don’t use your name. you know, you’re lucky to have You file your complaint. Here one. That doesn’t mean people a r e s o m e o f t h e r e c e n t who were unhappy at work have s u b m i s s i o n s : suddenly become happy. No, Please fire me. Last week a cot h e s e p e o p l e n e e d a n worker asked me, “What day is anonymous forum to release Black History Month?” their bottled-up frustrations. Please fire me. My boss Fortunately, there is one. whistles “Mr. Bojangles” at the PleaseFireMe.com describes urinal. itself this way: Please fire me. Our Vice Since drinking at work is no President didn’t understand longer socially acceptable - what a scroll bar was—she except on AMC - thought whatever was showing PleaseFireMe.com is here to get on the screen was all that you through the hellish work existed—until I introduced her day. Post your gripe or join the to her scroll wheel. It was like chorus - let the world know you she saw God. are mad as hell and not going to Please fire me. I have take it anymore. The Man might customers that steal from an allbe saying “let them eat cake” in you-can-eat buffet. the break room every friggin’ Please fire me. The girl i was day someone has a birthday, but just training asked where to look

if she wanted to know what time it was. I pointed out the huge clock above her and she replied, “OOOHHHH I thought that was a thermometer!” Please fire me. Dude sitting next to me has been wearing the same shirt and pants for 10 days straight. Please fire me. I’m being forced to go to a week long “new employee training”. I’ve been at this job for almost two years. Please fire me. I walked in on my co-workers singing the McDonald’s “Gimme that Fileto-Fish” song. I just realized how cathartic it is to hear other people complain about their jobs. Although, I’m a little worried the last one might be a complaint about me. Come on, the song does stick in your head.

Welcome Back Tiger Woods? TGW Looks to Boost Nike Sales Zac Bissonnette (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:40:00 AM

Filed under: Marketing and Advertising, NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE) Can Tiger Woods' sexual transgressions actually be turned into a marketing opportunity for Nike ( NKE) -- his largest sponsor, the company that seems to be the biggest financial victim of his fall from grace? The Golfer's Warehouse is hoping so. An email sent to subscribers and an ad placed on the company's website proclaims: "Welcome Back Tiger! Get Free Ground Shipping on All Nike Items. No Minimum Purchase. Through March 17th (Midnight

CDT)." Continue reading Welcome Back Tiger Woods? TGW Looks to Boost Nike Sales Welcome Back Tiger Woods? TGW Looks to Boost Nike Sales originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

NYTimes takes on location (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/17/2010 12:04:41 AM

As TechCrunch predicted, talk about location technologies ruled this year’s SXSW interactive conference. The buzz seems to have prompted the New York Times to take a good look at the growing number

location services—mobile applications, like Foursquare and others, that allow users to broadcast their place in real time. As the Times investigates the services’ scope and promise, the piece makes a particularly interesting insight into what the new trend could mean for If checking in goes mainstream, it could give a lift to mobile advertising:

advertising, which is now just a tiny percentage of overall spending on online ads. If a company was able to pitch offers to people who say they are at a particular spot, it would “allow for the sharpening of mobile advertising,” said Anne Lapkin, an analyst at the research firm Gartner.

Read the full story at NYTimes.com. Stay on top of the latest in mobile. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Starbucks Sponsors Coffee-Cup Redesign Contest William Bostwick (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:50:39 AM

Betacup asks designers to invent a recyclable cup for your morning joe. Coffee is the second most popular drink in the world, after tap water, which means that the empty cappuccino cup on your desk will have plenty of friends when it inevitably gets to the landfill--58 billion of them get tossed every year in North America. Toby Daniels founded Betacup in May, 2009, to find a solution, and he just announced a major step: Starbucks has agreed to sponsor Betacup's contest to redesign the coffee

cup. ( Core77 has joined in as a media sponsor.) The goal: reduce the number of cups tossed into landfills. A lot of virtual ink has been spilled over the high end of coffeeindustry design, like"Japanese

coffee world--the cup itself--is something else. And understandably, it's caught Starbucks's attention. Starbucks is trying to serve all of its coffee in re-useable or recyclable cups by 2015, and they're offering $10,000 to the winner, and $10,000 to be split among the next best five. The contest kicks off April 1, and runs through June 15. Enter here, and who knows? Some slow-drippers" and the Clover, day soon you might be sipping and even some over the low end, sustainably. Until then, of like the undisputed genius of the course, just bring your own Solo coffee-cup lid or the hotly mug. disputed genius of the Dixie cup [Via Core77] design, but this full-scale reimagining of the keystone of the

Asus Rampage III Extreme Motherboard Encapsulates Evil [Guts] Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:40:00 AM

Wicked, diagonal heatsinks. Triple channel DDR3 slots. Bluetooth overclocking. Intel X58 chipset. USB 3.0. Red. Black. Unpriced. [ Asus via Slashgear] More Âť

Frank Gehry Mellows Out With Wood-Paneled Theater Design William Bostwick (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:52:07 AM

The notoriously metallic starchitect goes back to his roots with a cheap, plywood design for the Signature Theater Company. Don't worry--it still looks wild. I don't know what it is with architects and theater design these days (please, God, don't tell me something about "building-as-performance"), but

I like it. Add to the pile ( Herzog and de Meuron at the Met, REX/OMA in Dallas, Jean Nouvel in Copenhagen) Frank Gehry's home for the Signature Theatre Company. The Signature was supposed to get a $700 million arts center all its own--also designed by Gehry --at ground zero, but the plan was scaled back to this: a $60 million trio of theaters, plus a lobby, in a Midtown residential high-rise designed by Miamibased Arquitectonica. The

spaces are built with plywood (just like in high-school drama class). The smallest, the 190seat "Jewel Box," is covered in

Gehry's trademark, folded-paper motif. The largest, the 299-seat "End Stage," has a cracked sidewall meant to look like the

desert. It's an interesting move for Gehry because it represents him giving up the expensive materials like titanium panels he's known for now and returning to the cheap-and-dirty stuff of his early days, like chain -link fence and corrugated metal. Going soft on us, Frank? Wait... that might not be a bad thing. The curtain is expected to rise in January 2012. [Via Curbed]

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US men on Pakistan terror charges (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

attended Wednesday's hearing. Journalists were not allowed in, but afterwards defence lawyer Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:43:21 AM Shahid Kamal told journalists: Five young Americans held in "Charges have been laid against Pakistan on suspicion of plotting all the accused," reports AFP attacks have been indicted on news agency. terrorism charges, their lawyer "All these charges are terrorism has said. related. The offences are The five men, aged 18 to 25, p u n i s h a b l e b y l i f e denied the charges at a court in a imprisonment. All the accused jail in the eastern city of unanimously rejected them." Sargodha. The men are charged with They were arrested in the city planning attacks on Pakistan, in December on suspicion of conspiring to wage war against trying to contact al-Qaeda- its allies, planning attacks on linked groups. Afghan and US territory, giving The five face life imprisonment banned organisations money for if found guilty. Pakistan earlier use in terrorism and directing barred their deportation to the each other to commit terrorist US. acts. 'High spirits' A second defence lawyer, The men have claimed they Hasan Dastagir, told Associated were tortured in custody, and Press: "My clients were in good that US officials directed the shape and high spirits." abuse, but prison officials have He said the next hearing would denied the accusations. be on 31 March and that The US embassy in Islamabad, prosecutors would produce more which has also dismissed the than 20 witnesses. allegations, confirmed that an Mr Dastagir said the defence American consular official would present evidence of the

men's community service in the US, as well as witnesses from there. The five young Muslims disappeared from the US state of Virginia in November. Their families reported them missing after finding a farewell video message, which is said to have shown scenes of war and calls for Muslims to be defended. Investigators have said the men were planning to travel to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban. But the accused have denied any links to al-Qaeda and insist they wanted to go to Afghanistan for charity work. Two of them are PakistaniAmericans, while the remaining three are said to be of Eritrean, Ethiopian and Egyptian origin. All of them have US passports. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

'Wonder Years' Star Danica McKellar Pregnant (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:05:00 AM

Little Winnie Cooper from "The Wonder Years" is all

grown up! Actress Danica McKellar and her husband Mike Verta are expecting their first child together, the couple tells ET.

"Mike and I could not be more thrilled. I am excited to embark on 'The Wonder Years' of my own kids," Danica says.

Mobile App Market to Surge to $17.5 Billion by 2012 [STUDY] Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/17/2010 4:42:08 AM

Lithuanian-based GetJar, an independent mobile phone application store with over 60,000 mobile applications for major mobile platforms such as Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile, commissioned a study that predicts a huge surge in the number of mobile app downloads and the overall size of the mobile app market. According to the study, created by Chetan Sharma Consulting, mobile app downloads should jump from 7 billion in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012. By this time, the market will be worth 17.5 billion dollars, the study predicts, despite the expected lower price of mobile apps, which should drop from the current average of 2 dollars per app to 1.5 dollars in 2012. GetJar chief executive Ilja Laurs makes another bold prediction, echoing the one we’ve recently heard from a Google executive. “It is easy to see how mobile apps will eclipse the traditional desktop

Internet. It makes perfect sense that mobile devices will kill the desktop,” he said. He backs this up with more data from the study, citing that 17% of GetJar users spend more time on internet-linked smartphones than they do on desktops. Be that as it may, the work you do on your desktop is still a lot different than the work you do on your smartphone. The mobile application market definitely has tremendous room to grow, especially with the coming of iPad, which takes the mobile app paradigm and slaps it onto a bigger, tablet device. But let’s wait and see how it performs on the market before we declare desktop dead or irrelevant. Tags: android, app store, apple, Google, iphone, Mobile 2.0, mobile applications, trending

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Happy St. Patty's Day! Enjoy these 10 facts about Guinness (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/17/2010 12:39:57 AM

Federal Gov't Mostly Ignoring Obama Directive To Be More Transparent Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

Don’t just toast blindly to St. Patrick’s Day this year. Riverfront Times has pulled together 10 fascinating facts about Ireland’s famous stout. The tidbits make some great conversation starters (certainly better than pinching). For instance: What makes it black? The dark color (Guinness officially claims it is very dark ruby, not black) comes from roasted barley. Unlike most of the barley used in making beer, roasted barley isn’t malted. Still, this seemingly defining characteristic wasn’t a feature of Guinness until the late 1920s or early 1930s— well after the company had established itself as a brewing titan. What country consumes the most Guinness? Great Britain still hoists more pints of Guinness than the Irish, who come in second. Rounding out the top 5 are (in order) Nigeria, the United States and

responded to its own FOIA request about the gov't's new transparency plans. One of the first things that Along those lines, rather than President Obama did upon waiting for the government to taking office was promise a just be proactive in being much more open and transparent transparent, why not help them administration from what came along? You may recall last year before. He issued a "directive" that Jim Harper set up a system to federal agencies to start with to crowdsource a comprehensive the assumption of openness and collection of earmark data that only back down from it with was required to be released -good reason. And yet, as we've but which was released in a seen over and over again, v a r i e t y o f d i f f e r e n t a n d federal agencies have been confusing ways. Now that the anything but transparent -- and a feds are finally moving towards new study supports that. The standardizing how earmark data AP looked at Freedom of is released, Harper along with Information Act requests and Jerry Brito are trying to make found that agencies are turning sure that the standardized format down FOIA requests at a much is as useful as possible. They've g r e a t e r r a t e t h a n t h e l a s t set up EarmarkData.org to try to administration, and doing so help create a standardized using a "deliberative process" format that will actually capture exemption -- which Obama and present the data in the most specifically told agencies to useful way. avoid if possible. Amusingly, Permalink| Comments| Email t h e A P n o t e s t h a t t h e This Story administration still hasn't Submitted at 3/17/2010 5:06:12 AM

Cameroon. Those African nations are even more impressive, as most of their Guinness consumption is in the form of Foreign Export Stout, which checks in at almost twice the alcoholic strength of standard Guinness. What’s up with the head? Most beer is dispensed with pressurized carbon dioxide. Guinness popularized a system that uses a mix of nitrogen (75 percent) and carbon dioxide (25 percent). The beer is forced

through a special faucet that strips out the gases, leaving it “smooth”-tasting owing to the lack of carbonation, and letting the freed nitrogen work its chemical and physical magic to make the thick head that proudly sits atop your pint to the last sip. Read the full story at Riverfront Times. Learn more about beer and spirits. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

It's Guns Ablazin' for Dwayne Johnson in 'Faster' (ETonline - Breaking News)

with the fast-paced actionthriller 'Faster,' and he gives our own Kevin Frazier a personal Big cars, big guns, big bullets: tour of the set! Dwayne Johnson returns to form "It's a lot of fun getting back Submitted at 3/17/2010 3:15:00 AM

into the action genre," says Dwayne, who assures Kevin that this is not 'Tooth Fairy.' "Anytime you can get in a classic car, man, and drive it

around and shoot at the same time, it's like boys with toys." In 'Faster,' coming to theaters this fall, Dwayne plays "a pretty bad guy" out for revenge after

his brother is murdered.

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10 fiction writing tips

Publisher Experiments With 'Free' And Sees Book Sales Increase 20x

(Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/16/2010 11:43:00 PM

If you’re looking to pen a novel, Suite101.com offers 10 stimulating tips for writing good fiction. Here are just a couple: Maintain Emotional Truth If the novel does not ring true for the reader and he does not understand the actions of the characters or if he does not identify with them because they don’t seem quite human, the novel is flawed. The reader should root for the hero and hate the villian. Ultimately, the reader must experience a sense of justice and emotional satisfaction at the end of the day and end of the book. Otherwise, he will feel cheated and duped. Find a Sounding Board or Focus Group Who Will Not Try to Get Inside the Author’s Head An objective reader who would be the type of person the novelist wants to attract to her readership of the book, would make a good choice for sounding board. What the author wants to get from her is where does she laugh, where are details confusing, how can

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/17/2010 1:02:34 AM

something be clarified, etc. A writing group can fill this role very well. Starting one up in the author’s locale could be as easy as a Craig’s List advertisement in many places. The author does not want people to tell her what should or should not happen in the story. This can interfere with the author’s creative process if she listens to their ideas and then incorporates them in the mix. After the book is written in first draft, the author can seek

opinions on storyline very readily. Trust in one’s own creativity and storymaking ability is vital to the novel’s integrity. Fiction writers, do you resonate with this advice? Read the full story at Suite101.com. More on writing. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

We've pointed to numerous studies, at this point, that have all found that, when done right, free ebooks can greatly increase the sales of physical books (and, in some cases, even of ebooks). Here's another empirical example of that in action. Chris Anderson points us to a blog post by someone at a mid-list niche publisher, talking about how successful its experiments with "free" ebooks have been. In this case, the publisher would offer up the first book in a series as a free ebook, and found that it drove massive increases in sales: One of our free titles was the #1 download on Amazon for the entire month of February. The subsequent sales of books 2 and 3 in the series increased by a rate of 20 to 1. For this series, digital sales are approaching 20% of the total product sales

distribution and growing. With the visibility of the digital sales on Amazon, we have seen a substantial increase in print sales to the brick and mortar book chains. In this one instance, digital is driving print sales. Basically, what this publisher realized is that with most books, obscurity is a greater threat than "piracy," and free helps deal with that: Much of the talk by the big 6 publishers has been stress over cannibalization of print sales, or the idea of replacement sales, by ebooks. For midlist publishers such as ourselves, I believe we fight against substitution. We capture the "browser" market. If our title is not available or visible, a customer will simply substitute for another one in the genre. Free gave us the visibility that we could not purchase. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Sigourney Weaver Gets Sucked into Vampire Trend (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 3/17/2010 3:05:00 AM

Sigourney Weaver will strap on a cape and put in fangs for

'Vamps,' according to The Hollywood Reporter. Cast as a vampire queen, Sigourney turns two beautiful young women, played by Alicia

Silverstone and Krysten Ritter, into vampires too. The gals are enjoying the New York club scene until they find love. Romance puts them at a

crossroads that may cost them "Lights, camera, and action." their immortality. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'Vamps' is aiming for a target of late April to call,

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Notes from Guy's star-studded #SXSW panel on best Twitter tools (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/17/2010 12:23:00 AM

On Monday, Guy bought together Twitter superstars for the SXSW panel he moderated in Austin. The session included social media leaders, such as Laura Fitton, CEO and founder of oneforty.com; John Yamasaki, community evangelist at Seesmic; Nick Halstead, CEO of TweetMeme; Amita Paul, founder of Objective Marketer; and Robert Scroble of Rackspace. Wishing you were there? Not to worry, SmartBrief went to the panel for us and came back with a great summary of the session. For instance, here are Nick Halstead’s power Twitter tools, as reported by SmartBrief: • FriendOrFollow.com, a tool used to find out who you’re

Apple about to drop new hardware, raise prices? Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

following who’s not following you back. Nick says he “can’t cope with following more than 300 people,” and, personally, I don’t blame him. • CoTweet, for corporate tweeters, allows multiple users to stay in sync while managing accounts. • Echofon, another oldie-but-

goodie iPhone Twitter app. See what else Guy’s panelists loved and read the full story at SmartBrief. More on social media and SXSW. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

Lost WTF of the Week: Uh Oh, Evil Locke Has Mommy Issues [Clips] Richard Lawson (Gawker)

Lock opening up to Kate about kids who grow up with crazy moms. He spoke from experience. More »

Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:13:07 AM

Last night's episode was all about conning and double crossing. But there was at least

one honest-seeming moment during the islandcapades: Bad

Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:51:00 AM

Filed under: Hardware, Rumors A reader at Engadget has spotted new Apple ads on the Australian tech site PC Authority that show higher prices for the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro. Apple's Australian online store lists the most affordable versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Pro at A$1599, A$1999 and A$3599, respectively, but the ads show significantly higher "starting at" prices of A$1899, A$2399, and A$4499. While Engadget points out that clicking on the ads leads to Apple's currently priced machines, it is possible that this is another case where online ads have predicted imminent announcements. Despite the

rumors, no new Mac Pro's appeared yesterday but are still expected soon as they haven't seen a major upgrade in over a year. The rise in MacBook Pro pricing could be attributed to the cost of the i7 chipset, but it seems unlikely that in a recovering economy Apple would increase their prices significantly without having a cheaper baseline model available. Is this ad a sign of things to come? Only time and a "We'll be back soon" sticky note will tell. TUAW Apple about to drop new hardware, raise prices? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Intel powers its way inside the smart grid (CNET News.com)

settings from an IP television, she added. The companies expect to test that product, NEW YORK--Intel wants you w h i c h w i l l b e a b l e t o to take more interest in your communicate with utilities and a energy use but isn't fussy about home thermostat, later this year, how you do it. according to representatives. The chip giant has developed a The idea with home energy broad strategy to make money management systems is to give on smart-grid technologies, c o n s u m e r s t o o l s t o v i e w touching on everything from electricity use and better control high-performance computing to home appliances so they can cut simulate the electricity grid to utility bills. Simply providing home energy management more details will aid people who systems. are looking to reduce waste, but Its efforts have been relatively it's still unclear what sorts of low-profile because Intel's devices and business models microprocessors are embedded will stick with consumers. in other companies' products. Intel's view is that there will be But the company is seeing some different types of home energy early activity: it expects to pilot management systems, some of test different types of home which won't require a two-way energy management devices smart meter to be installed by a with partners in the next 30 to utility, Wigle said. And rather 60 days in Oregon, said Lorie than just provide a real-time Wigle, general manager of read-out of electricity usage, Intel's Eco-Technology group, at home energy systems should be the Jefferies Clean Tech mixed with other home Conference for investors here on automation features, such as Tuesday. security, she added. A prototype home energy " T h e r e d e f i n i t e l y i s a n dashboard from Intel.(Credit: opportunity to really use energy Intel) as a hook to do the things we Also in the works is a project tried to do for a long time with with smart-grid start-up Tendril home automation," Wigle said Networks to let consumers in an interview. Reducing p r o g r a m a h o m e ' s e n e r g y monthly bills, which could be as Submitted at 3/17/2010 4:00:00 AM

with energy. Intel's venture capital arm, Intel Capital, invested in iControl, a company that plans to offer a monthly fee for security services along with energy management features, such as turning off lighting from a central dashboard. Technology and service providers need to offer consumers different ways to access these systems--either through dedicated displays, PCs, or TVs, Wigle said. "This isn't going to be an instant phenomenon," she said. "One thing that you're trying to do is change norms and get people more concerned and aware of energy consumption." much as $470 in a U.S. home Plug-ins and solar cells per year, will help justify Intel is also seeking to put its investments in these devices. chips inside other components At the Consumer Electronics of the smart grid. One company, Show in January, Intel showed Moxa, has built a server for a o f f i t s H o m e D a s h b o a r d grid substation using an Intel Concept, a touch-screen display chip that can make translations that hangs on the wall. In b e t w e e n different addition to giving people communication protocols. Wigle information on electricity use, s a i d t h e c o m p a n y i s i n people could also program large discussions with incumbent appliances or leave video power equipment companies, messages for other members of such as Siemens and ABB. the family. Intel is one of several One Intel partner is Open Peak, companies working on a proofwhich has developed a tablet for of-concept building in France managing home media, along that aims to be net zero energy.

Its task is to determine what the ideal computing infrastructure should be for the building and to tie the building management system together with IT applications, Wigle said. Other areas that Intel is pursuing include equipment and data services around plug-in vehicles, said Steve Eichenlaub, managing director for platform technologies for clean tech and digital health at Intel Capital. Already, it has invested in a few solar and smart-grid companies. Providing the equipment for managing the flow of energy from distributed power generation onto the grid is another theme for its activities, executives said. "There are 16 microprocessors in a modern wind turbine. When we first started working in this area, we had no idea," said Wigle. You can see Martin LaMonica's tweets from the Jefferies Clean Tech Conference at www.twitter.com/mlamonica. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Web video issue remains deadlocked with IE9 (CNET News.com)

But Mozilla is adamantly opposed to open-sourceunfriendly H.264, supporting the Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 rival Ogg Theora codec instead, Platform Preview release on and Opera is in that camp with Tuesday sent a strong message its new version 10.5. Google's to Web programmers that a host Chrome supports both, tying the of standards will become safer score at Ogg Theora 3, H.264 3. to use. But in the case of one It's no surprise Microsoft standard, Web video, Microsoft signed up for H.264. It owns a r g u a b l y p u s h e d o n e many of the patents in the controversial impasse deeper technology, which is licensed on into gridlock. behalf of Microsoft and several The standard in question other patent holders by a group involves Web video that doesn't called the MPEG LA. And require a plug-in such as Adobe Microsoft of course isn't afraid Systems' Flash or Microsoft's of proprietary technology. Silverlight. It's one of the big H.264 support is included in e l e m e n t s o f H T M L 5 - - t h e Windows 7. Finally, H.264 by Hypertext Markup Language most accounts provides superior s t a n d a r d n o w u n d e r quality than Ogg Theora. development and aiming to It's not inconceivable Microsoft expand the abilities of Web could add Ogg Theora support pages and Web applications. in the future, but for now at The rough version of IE9 that least, Microsoft did little to M i c r o s o f t d e m o n s t r a t e d break the logjam. That means includes HTML5 video encoded Web sites with video will either with a particular technology have to include two streams for called H.264. Apple's Safari also different browsers or--and this is supports this encoding and more likely in the near term-decoding technology, or codec. continue to use Flash. (Much CNET News Poll Flash video, by the way, uses Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:22:00 AM

the H.264 codec.) The HTML5 standard describes how to build video into Web pages but, because of the disagreement among the major browser makers, leaves the codec unspecified. One wild card in the situation is what will happen now that Google has completed its acquisition of On2 Technologies, the company whose earlier VP3 codec underlies Ogg Theora and that was working on a newer codec called VP8. Google said regarding the acquisition that "video compression technology should be a part of the Web platform." I E G M D e a n Hachamovitch(Credit: Microsoft) The preview version of IE9 also didn't lend Microsoft's clout to a number of other developing standards: WebGL, which is designed to bring hardwareaccelerated video to the Web; Canvas, which makes it easier to construct two-dimensional graphics such as bar charts on Web pages; and Indexed DB,

which is designed to enable Web applications to work even when there's no network connection. Indexed DB support seems likely. Microsoft has endorsed the technology and over a rival called Web SQL, which along with a Mozilla's similar stance should help give Indexed DB a big boost in the HTML standardization process. In an interview, though, IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch wouldn't commit. Pointing to the "fun controversy there," he said, "We've got some of smartest peole engaged in a bunch of conversations between the principals right now." He was cooler about WebGL, though, because adopting it will require Web developers to learn a new variety of programming. "WebGL is yet another markup," Hachamovitch said. "How much do devs want that?" Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Big Chik-fil-A Fan Terrifies Chik-fil-A [Fast Food] Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:37:12 AM

Four times, Texas pastor Jesse Martin has traveled to grand

openings of Chik-fil-A restaurants—even camping overnight—to win a free year's supply of Chik-fil-A food. His passion for chicken burns so

bright it seems to discomfit even Chik-fil-A itself. More »

'Parenthood' 'The Deep End of the Pool' Recap Danny Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/17/2010 9:00:00 AM

(S01E03)"You know Crosby, however hard you think it is having a kid, just double it." Adam to Crosby as Crosby cleans kid puke out of his car This week, things have slowed down a bit, compared to the land speed record that last week's episode achieved. And the show has started to grow on me a little bit. It scored some great moments of sentiment and honest drama that were endearing and drew me a little closer to the characters, but it's still lacking in that other, all important area of the dramedy: the comedy. Continue reading'Parenthood' 'The Deep End of the Pool' Recap Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Design Free Digital Business Cards with DooID Christina Warren (Mashable!)

lack the time to handcode the JavaScript or CSS or don’t know where to start. This post is part of Mashable’s When you sign up for the Spark of Genius series, which service, you choose a username highlights a unique feature of that will become the basis for startups. If you would like to your DooID URL. From that have your startup considered for point, you fill in information inclusion, please see the details you want to share. You can add here. The series is made in user profiles from social possible by Microsoft BizSpark. networking sites like Twitter, Name: DooID Facebook and more. Plus, you Quick Pitch: DooID combines can add links to other websites. the basic ideas of business card You can also choose to add websites and e-mail signatures your personal and business to create a useful service for c o n t a c t i n f o r m a t i o n . T h i s everyone. information can be publicly Genius Idea: DooID is a free available, or you can choose to business card website tool that make things the details viewable lets you put an attractive, only to users who are given your accessible page together with all guest password. of your social networks, contact We really like that you can information and work info in customize the look of your one place. You can also choose DooID. Here’s what mine looks to make some information like, using one of the pre-built available only to users who have c o l o r t e m p l a t e s a n d f o n t access to a special “guest o p t i o n s : password.” DooID has pro features that you Inspired by Tim Van Damme’s can purchase for either $35.88 beautiful business card website, per year (or $2.99 per month) if DooID is a nice option for users you pay at once or $3.99 per that want a way to showcase all month. This lets you add an eof their information, but either mail contact form, upload your Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:57:43 AM

Do you have a digital business card website? If so, how did you build it? Let us know! Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access CV as PDF, have more control t o t h e l a t e s t M i c r o s o f t over your RSS feed, have access development tools, as well as to more themes and also have connecting you to a nationwide access to an iPhone version of n e t w o r k o f i n v e s t o r s a n d the site for an enhanced mobile incubators. There are no upfront look. costs, so if your business is DooID lets all users — pro or privately owned, less than three free — embed an easy link to years old, and generates less their DooID onto their website than U.S.$1 million in annual or on other social networks. revenue, you can sign up today. We really liked how easy it was Entrepreneurs can take to create a DooID, and think that advantage of the Azure Services this is a great idea, especially for platform for their website users that don’t have time to hosting and storage needs. build something themselves. If Microsoft recently announced we had any requests, it would be the“new CloudApp()” contest– that a) The Twitter icon get use the Azure Services Platform reversed (the “t” is currently for hosting your .NET or PHP backwards) and b) That the pro app, and you could be the lucky option also include the ability to winner of a USD 5000* ( please map to an external domain. see website for official rules and Even if domain mapping was a guidelines).” feature that cost more money, I Tags: business card, dooid, tim think it would make DooID a van damme really good option for users looking for a good landing page.

30 Rock Now a Dr. Pepper Subsidiary [Product Placement] Hamilton Nolan (Gawker)

last seen turning the mediocre show Chuck into an elaborate vehicle for peddling Subway NBC's marketing department, sandwiches, is now turning the

elaborate vehicle for peddling Dr. Pepper. Progress! More »

Submitted at 3/17/2010 9:59:17 AM

good show 30 Rock into an

America's Funniest Congressional Videos: Orrin Hatch Saying 'Dong' [Video] Pareene (Gawker) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:42:23 AM

C-Span put 20+ years of archives online. The first thing we did: search for bad words. Here is a classic clip from the Clarence Thomas hearings, of Utah Senator Orrin Hatch saying " Long Dong Silver" over and over again. More »

Study: Businesses start to embrace Windows 7 (CNET News.com) Submitted at 3/17/2010 5:00:00 AM

A new survey shows that businesses are increasingly planning their move to Windows 7, with more than half of those questioned planning to have some machines running the operating system in their corporations by the end of the STUDY: page 40

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STUDY: continued from page 39

year. The survey, conducted of 923 businesses in January, found that 16 percent are already running some Windows 7, with a further 42 percent planning to start their deployment by the end of 2010. "It is just very positive about Windows 7," said Dimensional Research analyst Diane Hagglund, the study's author. "They are planning to deploy it. They are planning to deploy it fast." The enthusiasm not only compares favorably with early response to Vista, but also shows that businesses have become more bullish on Windows 7 than they were as recently as nine months ago. Windows Vice President Brad Brooks said in a recent interview that he is starting to see signs that small businesses want Windows 7. In particular, Brooks pointed to the fact that electronics retailers are stocking

more PCs with the professional version of the operating system as opposed to just carrying computers running the Home Premium edition. Although many businesses are planning a move to Windows 7, that doesn't mean concerns have evaporated. Some 57 percent of businesses said they have worries, a drop of 10 percentage points from the April 2009 survey. The study was conducted by Hagglund and commissioned by corporate IT systems management firm KACE, which was recently acquired by Dell. "IT always has concerns about everything and rightly so," Hagglund said. "New technology always brings with it issues." But Hagglund said that early concerns about the stability, security, and performance of the operating system itself have waned, with most of the remaining issues having to do

with external issues, such as application compatibility. "IT is feeling much more confident that its secure, stable, and that it performs," Hagglund said. "It takes a little while for your applications to get caught up." Matt Rosoff, an analyst for Directions on Microsoft (as well as a member of the CNET Blog Network) said that the results of the survey make sense. "I think Windows 7 removes all the objections people have to Vista," he said. At the same time, Rosoff said he doesn't see a rush to Windows 7, just the gradual adoption as new PCs are purchased. But, that is still a big improvement over Windows Vista, where businesses actively downgraded new machines to Windows XP. As for XP, declining support is starting to creep onto the list of concerns for IT managers. The Dimensional Research study found that businesses are still

more worried about the issues around moving to Windows 7 than they are about those surrounding support for Windows XP. "XP has been really good to IT," Hagglund said. However, the gap is narrowing, with more businesses this year registering concern about XP. "Eventually support is going to become an issue for XP," Rosoff said. Hagglund said, in particular, those businesses that skipped Vista are going to come under pressure to upgrade, adding a pressure to move to Windows 7. "They've tried Windows 7 and they like it," Hagglund said. "It's just feeling like the best option." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Which Boy Bander Is Ready to Come out Thanks to His Fashion Designer Boyfriend? [Blind Items] Brian Moylan (Gawker) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:17:30 AM

Sure the designer already has a public boyfriend, but that's a small detail. Another pop star also likes to mess with the boys. Gosh, are the only straight people in Hollywood this kinky couple? More »

AT&T Intros Eco-Friendly Phone Charger Amy-Mae Elliott (Mashable!) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:44:16 AM

AT&T is offering folks the chance to be a small part of a big difference as it announces the launch of the ZERO Charger for phones. When you leave your mobile phone charger plugged in when its not actually juicing up a

handset, you waste electricity – some estimates see the overall power suck from such scenarios as enough to power 24,000 homes for a year. That’s where AT&T ZERO charger comes in — it works by automatically sensing when a cell phone is not plugged in and cutting the power supply from the wall socket. Now you can

save electricity (and your conscience) when you just grab

your phone and go without taking the time to cut the power. The new eco-friendly charger has a five-star efficiency rating, a “block and cable” design that will work with unspecified “future handsets” and packaging made from 100% recycled paper. The charger, which is said to be priced the same as a standard

charger, is due to hit AT&T stores nationwide in May. There’s more info on the new green option for phone lovers over on AT&T’s microsite. Tags: att, chargers, eco, gadgets, green

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Apple store in Brazil? Jobs says no Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 3/17/2010 8:30:00 AM

Filed under: Retail Rio de Janeiro may have picked up the 2016 Olympics, but they won't be getting an Apple store. According to MacMagazine Brazil, the city's Secretary of Heritage emailed Steve Jobs personally to ask if there were any plans to start up an Apple store in the city. Jobs replied back in the negative, citing high taxes on imports in the area and saying that "many [other] hightech companies feel that way." Apple has no stores at all in Mexico or Central or South America. Almost all foreign countries apply import tariffs to

products manufactured elsewhere, but apparently charges in those countries are too high for Jobs to be interested. H e said that the high charge"makes it very unattractive to invest in the country." Some manufacturers will lower their retail prices to a certain country in an attempt to

dodge higher tariffs on more expensive goods (taking a small cut on profits in order to avoid paying high fees), but obviously Apple, as a premium manufacturer, would rather not get involved if it means lowering their prices. So, for the moment, Brazil will have to go without an Apple Store. [Thanks, Silvio Sousa Cabra!] TUAW Apple store in Brazil? Jobs says no originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

FanHouse TV: West Region Preview FanHouse TV (FanHouse Main)

No team has ever won the national title after losing in the first round of its conference Submitted at 3/17/2010 3:43:00 AM tournament ... Coach Pecora Filed under: March Madness, tells you why Syracuse could be West, FanHouse Exclusive, the first. NCAA Tournament, NCAA Which is the one team in this Tournament - West Region Dan region that no one wants to Graziano is joined by Hofstra face? Will the winner of the head men's basketball coach West go all the way to the title? Tom Pecora. They break down Click below to find out: the West Region in this installment.

Tony Hawk coming to iPhone soon Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

this message, it looks like we may be seeing the seminial skating series on the iPhone in Submitted at 3/17/2010 9:30:00 AM the near future. Filed under: Gaming A leak on My Tony Hawk knowledge is Tony Hawk's official Twitter far from complete, but that level account has revealed this certainly does look like the picture, which appears to be hangar level from Tony Hawk's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game Pro Skater 2, which was my being played right there on the personal favorite way back on iPhone. The tweet that linked to the Playstation 1 (I also played this picture seems to be gone, it quite a bit on the PC back in but it promised that "This is real the day). Of course, just because & dropping soon." If we believe the aforementioned level is in

there, that doesn't mean that it's the full Pro Skater 2 (the iPhone version could be a mixup of levels from the previous skating

games). However, given the font, and the d-pad and button layout, it does seem that we'll be seeing some old school TH

action (as opposed to the recent Tony Hawk Ride debacle). We'll keep an eye on the store and let you know if and when we see something. TUAW Tony Hawk coming to iPhone soon originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Found Footage: Ridiculously fast iPhone typist Sang Tang (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Fake Steve Jobs to be a TV show Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

itself. It's set to air on Epix, which is a $10/month online video subscription service run Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:30:00 AM by Viacom. However, if the Filed under: Steve Jobs Dan show turns out to be a hit, it will Lyons, better known as blogger eventually appear somewhere on Fake Steve Jobs, has apparently cable. signed a deal with Seinfeld The show centers around Tom writer Larry Charles to create a Rhodes, a Silicon Vally big shot half-hour, single camera, who's designed to be a satirical TV show about a composite of Steve Jobs and a Silicon Valley hotshot. As of few other big tech company now, Lyons is only writing the names, and the "savage satire" is pilot script for the series, but supposed to be "a study of ego, since it's called "iCON," there power and greed." That sounds will probably be plenty of FSJ's like fun! Since "iCON" and the humor and voice in the series F a c e b o o k m o v i e a r e b o t h

scheduled to begin production, it certainly looks like Hollywood is interested in digging into the recent Silicon Valley past for a little humor and drama. [via Apple Insider] TUAW Fake Steve Jobs to be a TV show originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

fastest I've seen on an iPhone, is still markedly shy of hardware QWERTY keyboard record Submitted at 3/16/2010 8:00:00 PM holder Barbara Blackburn. The Filed under: iPhone late Blackburn, whose fame A c c o r d i n g t o a n I B M - made her a guest on Late Night University of Michigan study [ with David Letterman (when he link to PDF], when transcribing, was on NBC after Johnny t h o s e u s i n g a t r a d i t i o n a l Carson), can maintain 150 hardware QWERTY keyboard WPM for a full 50 minutes, and type at an average rate of 33 can top out at 212 WPM. words per minute. This means [via 148Apps] that YouTube user " TUAW Found Footage: konceptzoflife" is 152 percent Ridiculously fast iPhone typist faster than the average typist. originally appeared on The The only thing is, he can do it U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e W e b l o g on his iPhone. (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 Using iTextSpeed to test his 20:00:00 EST. Please see our typing speed, the Usain Bolt of terms for use of feeds. iPhone typists registered 83 Read| Permalink| Email this| WPM; his ultimate goal is to hit Comments 90 WPM. The 83 WPM, which is the

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Still Using Firefox POTUS v. SCOTUS 3.0.x? Time to Move On Jeffrey Rosen (The New Republic - All Feed)

Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Submitted at 3/16/2010 7:39:51 PM

Barack Obama is gunning for a confrontation with the Supreme After many months of testing, Court, and Chief Justice John five beta versions and 2 release Roberts has signaled that he candidates, Firefox 3.0 was welcomes the fight. Last week, released in June 2008. The 3.0.x the chief justice described the branch was the major stable president’s State of the Union branch of Mozilla’s web condemnation of the Citizens browser for a long time, and it’s United decision as “very been updated to version 3.0.18 troubling” and complained that so far. Now, however, it reached aggressive about upgrades, the speech had “degenerated to a the end of the line, as Mozilla’s reminding users of old versions political pep rally.” Roberts was development plans include only of Firefox that an upgrade is making an argument about one more update for it. available. They’re right: the etiquette--dissent was fine, he The users who have moved on latest stable version of Firefox said, but Obama had somehow to the current stable branch, 3.6, (3.6) has been around for transgressed the boundaries of are probably wondering what several months now, and in civilized discourse by delivering we’re talking about, but many most cases there’s no reason to his attack to a captive audience. users still use the 3.0.x version; But he was implicitly making a stick to the old branch. with this move Mozilla is Tags: Firefox 3.0, mozilla, web political argument as well. That indicating that it wants these is, Roberts seems to have joined browsers users to upgrade, too. the battle with Obama because Mozilla has recently been more he thinks the Court can win it. As a matter of history, this argument is wrong: In battles between a popular president and an anti-majoritarian Court, it’s almost always the president who (Financial Times - US losses on their borrowings. homepage) A trial of the banks, Deutsche prevails. Using the Court as a Bank, JPMorgan Chase, UBS punching bag puts Obama in the Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:13:01 AM and Hypo Real Estate Holding’s c o m p a n y o f h i s g r e a t e s t Four banks were on Wednesday Depfa Bank, has been scheduled predecessors, Jefferson, Lincoln, and both Roosevelts--all of charged with fraud linked to the for May 6. sale of derivatives to the city of Five Filters featured article: whom bashed the Court for Milan in a case that could set off Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: thwarting the will of the people. a string of lawsuits by Italian PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, l o c a l g o v e r n m e n t s f a c i n g Term Extraction. potentially billions of dollars of Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:58:32 AM

Banks face trial over derivative trades

As long as he plays his cards carefully, Obama has much to gain from challenging John Roberts, and the Roberts Court much to lose. The successful history of presidential Court-bashing shows how fragile the justices are in the face of presidential attacks supported by a mobilized majority of the country. Thomas Jefferson attacked his distant cousin and arch-rival, Chief Justice John Marshall, for his “twistifications” and suggested he couldn’t be trusted; he encouraged Jeffersonian Republicans to intimidate Federalist judges by impeaching Justice Samuel Chase. Marshall reciprocated Jefferson’s disdain, calling him “the great Lama of the Mountain.” But Marshall was so spooked by the Chase impeachment that he anxiously suggested in a letter to Chase that Congress should be allowed to reverse Supreme Court decisions it considered “unsound.” And he fell over himself to accommodate Chase’s accusers when called to testify at the impeachment. Marshall had diffused the crisis, and Chase was acquitted. There was, however, no doubt that Jefferson had accomplished his mission: Marshall

acknowledged that he never fought battles that he knew he couldn’t win. Likewise, Abraham Lincoln vaulted from the House to the presidency by bashing the Dred Scott decision. “[I]f the policy of the government, upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court the instant they are made … the people will have ceased to be their own rulers,” Lincoln declared in his first inaugural address, as an agitated Chief Justice Roger Taney looked on, trembling with rage. Lincoln continued his attack on the Court in his first State of the Union message, where he proposed reorganizing the federal circuits, part of a broader effort to break the longstanding Southern majority on the Court. But Lincoln also wisely rejected extreme Republican proposals to pack the Court by expanding it from nine to 13 justices, or to abolish the Taney Court entirely, acknowledging that Supreme Court decisions should be binding when “fully settled” by the people of the United States. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Jobs Debate Comes Amid Troubling Economic Forecasts (AEI.Org: Articles)

time of Ronald Reagan's first midterm, and his Republican Party took a hit but not a Weird as it is to write this, we catastrophic one, losing 26 of are nearing the stretch run for the 33 House seats they had health care reform. When it is gained in 1980 and actually finally past us--I share in the picking up one seat in the assessment of Intrade, the online Senate. But the gloom that hit market, that there is a much voters in 1982 was not as deep better-than-even chance of as it is now, partly because our enactment--Congress will turn sense of full employment back its attention back to the many in the late 1970s and early other issues still on the plate. 1980s was higher than in the Some have not yet been past few years--more like 6 resolved, such as climate percent, compared with 3 c h a n g e , i m m i g r a t i o n a n d percent to 4 percent of late--and financial regulation. Others are the willingness to punish the on the road to refinement, like president's party might have No Child Left Behind. Then been lessened by the divided there is the issue that has government at that time. received a lot of attention and a Let's look beyond the politics. lot of legislation but will There are much more worrisome continue to command even more trends. Those hardest hit by this attention and legislation for the recession are younger workers, foreseeable future: jobs. especially those in the "career It is of course not surprising builder" stage of 25-34 and that jobs is the big domestic those even younger, and it's issue of our time. Official w o r s e s t i l l f o r A f r i c a n u n e m p l o y m e n t r e m a i n s Americans in those age ranges. stubbornly high at 9.7 percent For African-Americans overall, and could easily move back into u n e m p l o y m e n t h a s b e e n d o u b l e d i g i t s . R e a l increasing faster than for other unemployment is much higher, groups; for those without a high since the official rate does not school diploma, it is currently at i n c l u d e p e o p l e w h o h a v e a staggering 21.3 percent. If stopped looking for jobs. The unemployment rates stay high only time in our adult lifetimes f o r a l o n g t i m e , a n d t h e that unemployment was higher equilibrium point is ratcheted up was in the late fall of 1982, for a generation or more, the when it hit 10.8 percent. problems are especially severe Politically, Democrats might for this generation. take a bit of comfort from that-- Don Peck has a telling and since it was right around the troubling article in the March Submitted at 3/16/2010 4:00:00 PM

Atlantic about the social costs of a new jobless era. For young people, the failure to establish a track record of employment, or to use a job at an early age as a takeoff point to a career, can have debilitating and even catastrophic effects throughout a lifetime. Earnings a decade later are substantially lower than for those who stayed employed-and the lag lasts throughout their careers. He notes that research shows that "as much as twothirds of real lifetime wage growth typically occurs in the first 10 years of a career." Educated people unfortunate enough to emerge in the work force during tough times are much less likely at mid-career to work in professional occupations or more prestigious jobs, or to move from the jobs they have secured. And other studies show much higher rates of depression, stress and problems in physical health years later among those who did not work during their formative employment years. Among African-Americans, Peck refers to work done by William Julius Wilson about the profound differences between neighborhoods in which people are poor but employed and those where people are poor and jobless. Wilson is not exactly optimistic these days. Thus, the jobs issue transcends both politics and the immediate need to relieve pain for those

families suffering from unemployment--it has consequences that can be frightening for the long-term future social fabric of America. But as we have seen, government attempts to create jobs or move quickly to reduce unemployment are not on the whole terribly powerful. Government can create temporary public-sector jobs, and given the numbers above, it might well want to go back and look at what worked in the New Deal and how it might be adapted now, especially if tied to a national service requirement for young people. But the big engine of job growth is the private sector, and most government policies to encourage job creation in the private sector don't work very well. There is one idea out there, however, pointed out to me by my American Enterprise Institute colleague Kevin Hassett in his Congressional testimony, that deserves both serious consideration and fasttrack action. It is to adapt an idea taken from Germany called "Kurzabeit," which means "short work" and refers to jobsharing. In Germany, Hassett notes, the policy "enables firms that face a temporary decrease in demand to avoid shedding employees by cutting hours instead. If hours and wages are reduced by 10 percent or more,

the government pays workers 60 percent of their lost salary. This encourages firms to use acrossthe-board reductions of hours instead of layoffs." Hassett notes that this policy fits the preferences of companies that face substantial costs of hiring and training workers to replenish their work forces when the recession ends, and it makes keeping employees, even in the face of tough economic times, much more cost-effective. Many states have tried work-sharing programs, but they are not working very well because the government's contribution is not large enough. Hassett's research suggests that the benefits could be substantial while the costs, compared to many other jobs initiatives we have tried, would be relatively low. And since minorities and young workers are often the first ones laid off, this program could have major benefits in ameliorating some of the problems noted above. If Kevin Hassett, a free-market conservative, can endorse this kind of government encouragement for job-sharing, there is little reason for it to face the same kind of partisan and ideological divide that we have seen with other attempts to deal with our economic problems. It ought to move near or to the top of the Congressional priority list JOBS page 46

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THE PICTURE: Excesses Jed Perl (The New Republic All Feed) Submitted at 3/16/2010 9:00:00 PM

In the past few days I’ve been reading the letters that Henry James wrote to the young sculptor Hendrik Andersen in the early years of the twentieth century. What fascinates me are the things that James has to say about the act of creation. He is begging his young friend to sacrifice the general to the specific, to express the boldest emotions through the subtlest formal calculations. Andersen was twenty-seven when James met him in Rome in 1899, and at least since Leon Edel published his biography of James more than a generation ago, this handsome, fair-haired, Norwegian-American youth has been a source of fascination for anybody who wants to understand the nature and extent of James’s homoerotic experience. But reading the letters now, the infatuation strikes me as less interesting than the clear-eyed attention that James gives to Andersen’s work. James, who was, even as he wrote to Andersen, developing the magnificent excess of his own late style, keeps pushing his young friend to attend to the details, to reject the general effect, “to individualize & detail the faces, the types, ever so much more—to study, ardently, the

question of doing it.” Here we have one of the great exponents of the madness of art arguing for the sanity of art. “You see,” he writes to Andersen, “I live myself in the very intensity of reality and can only conceive of any art-work as producing itself piece by piece and touch by touch, in close relation to some immediate form of life that may be open to it.” What has turned my attention back to Andersen right now is a visit I made, when I was in Rome a few weeks ago, to the Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen, the very existence of which I had been unaware until a friend who lives in the city told me I must go. I had known that Andersen’s sculpture was grandiosely neoclassical, but nothing can really prepare you for the homoerotic high camp of his prancing gods and athletes. And if this orgy of testosterone is not enough to convince you that the Museo Andersen is a kitsch classic, just wait until you take a look at Andersen’s lunatic designs for a World City dedicated to art, science, philosophy, and religion. The studies for this vast, Beaux Arts Babel are heaped and strewn with hundreds if not thousands of Andersen’s icy humanoids. Although some of the figures purport to be female, their musculature keeps giving them away. James—the man some have accused of being oblivious

to sex—is unequivocal about this. “I sometimes find your sexes not quite intensely enough differentiated,” he writes to this young man he found extremely hot, commenting that the ladies resemble “a shade too much the gentlemen.” Some of Andersen’s sculpted lovers are, James first says, “noble & admirable.” But he doesn’t “find the hands, on the backs, living enough & participant enough in the kiss. They would be, in life, very participant—to their fingertips & would show it in many ways.” When Andersen, in the years before World War I, was on the verge of putting together a folio volume outlining the World City, he sought a statement from James. James turned him down. He could not see “any use on all the made earth … for a readymade city, made-while-onewaits, as they say, & which is the more preposterous & the more delirious, the more elaborate & the more ‘complete’ & the more magnificent you have made it. Cities are living organisms, that grow from within & by experience & piece by piece; they are not bought all hanging together, in any inspired studio.” Looking at Andersen’s chilly, simplified heroes, you cannot help but think of Fascist sculpture. And there are certainly protototalitarian fantasies mixed up with the megalomania of the

World City. James felt this. His critique of the World City amounts to a plea for the city as a product of liberal experience. Andersen had some contact with Mussolini, who in 1926 promised him land for his urbanist fantasy. And in a 1935 radio broadcast, Andersen praised Mussolini and related his ideals to those that Andersen had developed in his plans for the World City. Andersen may be a ridiculous clown, nothing but a bit player in the tangled story of how art-for-art’s-sake precipitated the anti-democratic leanings of certain artists and writers, including, of course, Ezra Pound. But the Museo Andersen is a part of that story. And people are taking notice. Yinka Shonibare—the ultra-hot British artist responsible for the headless mannequins, outfitted in African-patterned eighteenthcentury outfits, that are popping up in museums around the globe—did an intervention at the Museo Andersen a few years ago, and the museum still contains a ridiculous Shonibare sculpture, of a headless James and Andersen reenacting the Birth of Adam from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The Museo Andersen has a power—the power of an overthe-top personality indulging his every whim. Walking through rooms full of figures so oversexed as to feel sexless—they were bankrolled by Andersen’s

wealthy American sister-in-law, who came to live with him after his brother’s early death—you can see that what held James in Andersen was more than his Scandinavian good looks. In the unabashedness of the young artist’s aims James recognized something of his younger self. He loved the excess of Hendrik Andersen. The man was excessively attractive and excessively ambitious. But James could not avoid the conclusion that Andersen’s was a simpleminded excess—an excess without depth or nuance. Looking at one of Andersen’s studies of two lovers, James insists that there has to be “more flesh and pulp in it, more life of surface& of blood-flow under surface, than you have hitherto, in your powerful simplifications, gone in for.” This was written in 1906. A decade later, when the world was at war, Andersen was sitting in Rome, fantasizing about a World City, while Henry James was in London, visiting wounded soldiers and Belgian refugees—“the exiled, the broken, and the bewildered.” Hendrik Andersen could not see, despite James’s best efforts, that art-for-art’s-sake is grounded in reality. He would be neither the first artist nor the last artist who has failed to grasp that essential point. PICTURE: page 46

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JOBS

Is Education on the Wrong Track? Kevin Carey (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 3/16/2010 4:22:29 PM

From: Kevin Carey To: Diane Ravitch, Richard Rothstein, and Ben Wildavsky Subject: Looking for answers to the problems plaguing education? Diane Ravitch doesn't offer them. Apostates always make a good story. So it's been no surprise to see Diane's high-profile repudiation of her ideological fellow travelers, chronicled in The Death and Life of a Great American School System, featured prominently in The New York Times and The Washington Post. The book is selling briskly. But those interested in ideas that might actually move our schools to greatness, or even goodness, should look elsewhere. Diane, you begin your book by saying you've abandoned the policymaker's perspective you acquired as an official in the first Bush administration and are returning to your roots as an historian. This is welcome news, because history is your strength. The early chapters of Death and Life describing major reform efforts in New York City and San Diego are characteristically lucid and succinct.

But the lessons the book draws from these stories are very strange. You've come to see the totality of American education policy from the late 1980s to the present day as a gigantic failure-despite the fact that you supported and promoted those policies of accountability, testing, and school choice for nearly all of that time. You "jumped aboard a bandwagon," but now you have "lost the faith." The problem with "I was wrong about everything" as the prelude to an argument is that it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the repudiator's judgment. And, in this case, the book simply trades one pre-defined agenda for another: the collected talking points of the reactionary education establishment. It is a philosophy of resentment and futility, grounded in the conviction that public schools-and the adults within them--can't really be expected to do better than they currently are. So, if an outsider comes in and improves results and test scores, as Bersin did in San Diego, then results and test scores "may not be the right question" to ask. If different tests show different levels of improvement in New York City under Michael Bloomberg, we should believe

whichever results are worse. Multiple econometric studies from respected academics finding that low-income children would benefit hugely from being assigned to the best teachers are lampooned as an "urban myth," because "this is akin to saying that baseball teams should consist only of players who hit over .300 and pitchers who win at least 20 games every season … no such team exists." Diane, you live in Brooklyn-haven't you heard of the 2009 World Series Champion New York Yankees, whose nine starters averaged 25 home runs apiece during the regular season? If the teachers in the Bronx were as good as the baseball players, students there would learn much more. Meanwhile, you say the intensive instructional model used by "high-performing charter chains such as KIPP and Achievement First" is "inherently unsustainable because it discourages teacher professionalism and relies on a steady infusion of newcomers." If the schools are highperforming without teacher professionalism, what does that say about professionalism as you define it? And what's unsustainable about relying on a

continued from page 44

steady infusion of newcomers? If one thing is certain, it's that our colleges will graduate a fresh batch of them every year. In addition to discounting the possibility of rapid improvement, you also seem oddly blind to the educational dysfunction that ruins so many young lives. You repeatedly slam Washington, D.C.'s reformist superintendant, Michelle Rhee, for shutting down some of the city's most notorious low-performing schools. Most neighborhood schools, you say, are "laden with traditions and memories … their graduates return and … want to see the trophy cases and the old photographs, to hear the echoes in the gymnasium and walk on the playing fields. To close these schools down serves no purpose other than to destroy those memories." This bizarre hypothetical nostalgia is utterly disconnected from the educational dead zones that blight many impoverished neighborhoods, places that students struggle to forget, if they can. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

as soon as health care mercifully moves from the to-do list to the checked list. Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at AEI. Photo Credit: iStockphoto/Rob Friedman Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

PICTURE: continued from page 45

Jed Perl is the art critic of The New Republic. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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O's Middle-Class Squeeze (AEI.Org: Articles)

plan, according to the Congressional Budget Office's estimates. After income taxes, The president has spent the they'll be spending almost a closing days of the health-care quarter of their net income for debate making his case to the health insurance. segments of Americans who How can these families make will benefit under ObamaCare. out so badly under ObamaCare? But lots of other people will be The plan does two things to squeezed under the scheme--and refashion the market for health not the rich folks that President insurance and inadvertently Obama singles out in his stump stacks it against these middlespeeches, but families who are class earners. decidedly middle class. First, it limits most consumers Health reform will leave many to choosing only one of three of them newly priced out of a basic health plans. (These will transformed market for health offer the same basic package of insurance. health benefits--the main The hardest hit won't be those difference is that the higherearning more than $250,000 a premium plan has lower coyear--the group that he says pays, while the lower-premium needs to "pay their fair share." one has higher co-payments.) Rather, it's families whose And even the cheapest option-combined annual income is the "bronze" plan--will start at around $100,000 who could be about $12,500 for a family, says crushed under this plan. the CBO. These folks will be too "rich" to People buying insurance q u a l i f y f o r O b a m a C a r e ' s outside the workplace won't be subsidies, but probably too poor able to shop around to find to easily afford the pricey cheaper options: ObamaCare insurance that the president's effectively outlaws that, because plan forces them to buy. the president wants everyone to Many of these $100K families have the same package of will be obliged to buy a policy generous benefits. It's a noble costing an average of $14,700 ideal--but it forces people to buy for the mid-level, "silver" health coverage that may be pricier Submitted at 3/16/2010 4:00:00 PM

than what they need, want or can afford. The individual-insurance market--which now lets you go to "ehealth.com" and buy a policy directly from Aetna or Wellpoint--will shut down almost immediately: The regulations ObamaCare puts on the private individual-policy market will simply leave it unable to compete with the new state-based insurance exchanges that the reform creates. Next, ObamaCare creates powerful financial incentives for employers to drop coverage-paying a small fee to "dump" employees on the exchange. Because of the new subsidies, the savings--to the employer and most employees--will be substantial. The financial incentives for employers to move workers into the exchanges are most powerful when it comes to middle-income wage earners. Here's an example: To buy that mid-level, "silver" health plan, the tax code effectively subsidizes a family earning $42,000 a year to the tune of about $5,500 for employer-provided coverage. But in the exchange, they'd get a

direct government subsidy in 2016 of $12,100. The exchange is clearly a better deal. But, again, the subsidies phase out, so that a family earning around $100,000 loses out: Because they won't get insurance through work, they'll lose the tax-code subsidy for insurance--but they'll get no subsidy to buy the mandated expensive policy. Yes, $100,000 a year allows a nice living in most of America (if not Manhattan). But it's the income of a real-estate broker married to a limo driver--not of the affluent folks that the president has said will bear the brunt of any financial burdens from reform. Many of these middle-class families will probably opt to pay the federal fine, and go without health insurance until they get sick. Scott Gottlieb, M.D., is a resident fellow at AEI. Photo Credit: Peter Gerdes/Flickr/Creative Commons Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Skate 3 rolls in on May 11 JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:40:00 AM

EA has narrowed down the May release date for Skate 3. On May 11, North Americans will once again have the opportunity to channel any interest in real, dangerous skateboarding into a nice, safe, sedentary video game. The game will be available May 14 "worldwide." EA has also revealed the roster of skaters that will appear in the game, including ... a bunch of guys whose names you'll totally recognize if you're into skateboarding -- as well as My Name is Earl star and former pro skater Jason Lee, in his Coach Frank persona. Skate 3 rolls in on May 11 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Hitchens: The Great Catholic Cover-Up (Little Green Footballs)

old German boy identified as Wilfried F. was taken on a vacation trip to the mountains The investigations into child by a priest. After that, he was abuse in Germany’s Catholic administered alcohol, locked in schools are continuing to widen, his bedroom, stripped naked, now getting close to Pope and forced to suck the penis of Benedict himself, as his brother his confessor. (Why do we limit Georg Ratzinger has been ourselves to calling this sort of implicated in covering up the thing “abuse”?) The offending systemic child abuse (with the cleric was transferred from n o w w e l l - k n o w n C a t h o l i c Essen to Munich for “therapy” Church practice of moving b y a d e c i s i o n o f t h e n priests around to different Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, parishes) — and he is also and assurances were given that accused of physically battering h e w o u l d n o l o n g e r h a v e children himself. children in his care. But it took Christopher Hitchens has a no time for Ratzinger’s deputy, scathing piece on this true Vicar General Gerhard Gruber, outrage at Slate: The Great to return him to “pastoral” work, Catholic Cover-Up. where he soon enough resumed There are two separate but his career of sexual assault. related matters here: First, the It is, of course, claimed, and it individual responsibility of the will no doubt later be partially pope in one instance of this un-claimed, that Ratzinger moral nightmare and, second, himself knew nothing of this h i s m o r e g e n e r a l a n d second outrage. I quote, here, institutional responsibility for from the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a the wider lawbreaking and for former employee of the Vatican the shame and disgrace that goes Embassy in Washington and an with it. The first story is easily early critic of the Catholic told, and it is not denied by Church’s sloth in responding to anybody. In 1979, an 11-year- c h i l d - r a p e a l l e g a t i o n s . Submitted at 3/16/2010 9:50:32 PM

“Nonsense,” he says. “Pope Benedict is a micromanager. He’s the old style. Anything like that would necessarily have been brought to his attention. Tell the vicar general to find a better line. What he’s trying to do, obviously, is protect the pope.” This is common or garden stuff, very familiar to American and Australian and Irish Catholics whose children’s rape and torture, and the cover-up of same by the tactic of moving rapists and torturers from parish to parish, has been painstakingly and comprehensively exposed. It’s on a level with the recent belated admission by the pope’s brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, that while he knew nothing about sexual assault at the choir school he ran between 1964 and 1994, now that he remembers it, he is sorry for his practice of slapping the boys around. Very much more serious is the role of Joseph Ratzinger, before the church decided to make him supreme leader, in obstructing justice on a global scale. After

his promotion to cardinal, he was put in charge of the socalled “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” (formerly known as the Inquisition). In 2001, Pope John Paul II placed this department in charge of the investigation of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. In May of that year, Ratzinger issued a confidential letter to every bishop. In it, he reminded them of the extreme gravity of a certain crime. But that crime was the reporting of the rape and torture. The accusations, intoned Ratzinger, were only treatable within the church’s own exclusive jurisdiction. Any sharing of the evidence with legal authorities or the press was utterly forbidden. Charges were to be investigated “in the most secretive way … restrained by a perpetual silence … and everyone … is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office … under the penalty of excommunication.” (My italics). Read the whole thing…

Street Chic: New York ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

Photo: Jonathan Alpeyrie Click here for our complete fall 2010 Fashion Week coverage A bright orange bag brings a Think you are Street Chic? Eburst of citrus to neutral pieces. mail us your photo and you

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BoJ and FOMC, BFF Peter Boockvar (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/17/2010 5:20:01 AM

The BoJ and FOMC, BFF. Overnight, the BoJ held hands with the FOMC in keeping rates at virtually zero. They also expanded its 3 month credit program to 20t yen from 10t. Japanese stocks rallied and the yen is down but 10 yr JGB’s are little changed. Commodity prices are rallying in response. Chinese stocks rallied 2% after a PBOC Q1 inflation expectations index fell from the record high in Q4. UK jobless claims were much better than expected and the pound is rising to a 4 week high. The US$ index is at 6 week low with the Canadian $ in particular .01 shy of parity to the US$. The weekly ABC confidence poll showed big improvement, rising 6 pts to -43, its highest level since Jan 5th and is now 4 pts above its one year avg. The MBA said the avg 30 yr mortgage rate fell to a 12 week low at 4.91% but purchases fell 2.3% and refi’s were down 1.7%. II: Bulls 46.1 v 44.9 Bears 21.3 v 23.6 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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California Governor's Race Tightens: Onion: New Initiative Poll by US Bigots (Newsmax - Politics)

executive who has never sought public office and rarely even voted. LOS ANGELES - Ex-Governor Whitman also widened her Jerry Brown, the presumed advantage over her rival for the D e m o c r a t i c n o m i n e e i n Republican nomination, state California's gubernatorial race, Insurance Commissioner Steve h a s s e e n h i s l e a d o v e r Poizner, 63 percent to 14 Republican front-runner Meg percent. In January, she led Whitman evaporate, according P o i z n e r 4 5 p e r c e n t t o 1 5 to a Field Poll of likely voters percent. The percentage of released on Wednesday. undecided Republican voters Brown, the state attorney shrank from 38 percent to 23 general who held double-digit percent. leads over Whitman in Field Brown, not surprisingly, still Poll surveys taken in October holds a better-than three-to-one and January, now trails the lead (69 percent to 20 percent) former eBay Inc. chief executive o v e r W h i t m a n a m o n g by 43 percent to 46 percent in a Democrats. But Whitman's lead two-way matchup. among Republicans is even Eleven percent of those polled, grater, 77 percent to 13 percent. a random sample of 748 likely Independents split in Whitman's general-election voters, said favor, 50 percent to 36 percent they were undecided. And for Brown. Whitman's lead was within the Whitman also holds huge leads statistical margin of error. over Brown among the roughly But the results mark a sharp one-third of likely California turnaround in a race likely to pit voters who identify with the Tea a veteran politician who served Party movement. She scored two previous terms for governor better among middle-aged and against a billionaire business older voters, while Brown was Submitted at 3/17/2010 3:43:41 AM

favored by younger voters. Both male and female voters preferred Whitman by small margins. By comparison, Brown led Whitman last October 50 percent to 29 percent, but saw his lead shrink to 10 percentage points, 46 percent to 36 percent, in January. Brown, a three-time presidential contender who served eight years as governor starting in 1975, only officially launched his campaign to succeed Republican incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger on March 2. © 2010 Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

(Little Green Footballs)

it,” ARBC chairman Tom Branson said at a rally Monday. “The time has come for our The Onion reports on an ugly, intolerant rhetoric to step initiative among the nation’s into the 21st century. Our bigots to develop new state of disgusting, dehumanizing slurs the art slurs to keep pace with s i m p l y m u s t r e f l e c t t h e rising numbers of multi-racial terrifying new global society we births. now live in.” WASHINGTON—A coalition Added Branson, “In order to of the nation’s most fervent continue going backward, we bigots convened in Washington first have to move forward.” Monday to address growing According to statistics provided concerns that the production of by the coalition, a rise in the hateful new racial slurs has b i r t h r a t e o f m i x e d - r a c e failed to keep pace with the rise Americans has left millions of in mixed-race births. confused racists with absolutely According to representatives nothing prejudiced to say when from the American Racists and confronted by a person of Bigots Council (ARBC), the i n d e t e r m i n a t e o r c o m p l e x growing number of children background. What frightens the born to parents of different coalition most is data suggesting ethnicities has posed a real that by 2015, ignorant bigots challenge to the nation’s hate- everywhere could be powerless speech developers—a challenge when it comes to reducing they say threatens their way of mixed-raced individuals to life. profoundly uninformed cultural “The world is changing, and we, stereotypes. the hateful and ignorant of Heh. America, need to change with Submitted at 3/16/2010 12:03:52 PM

Equities rally after Fed keeps rates low (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:56:46 AM

14:10 GMT: Things are getting better, but you can have lots of

very cheap money for a fair while yet, says the Federal Reserve. “What’s not to like?” say the bulls of risk. The FTSE All-World index rose 0.9 per cent to an eight-

week high, commodities rallied and perceived haven assets such as the yen and highly rated sovereign debt slipped back, as traders welcomed the Fed’s statement on US monetary

policy and news that the Bank Term Extraction. of Japan was taking further steps to combat deflation. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS,

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Rulers of the Cloud: Will Amazon's Computing Fabric Become a New Economy? Mike Kirkwood (ReadWriteWeb)

bits from upstream to downstream. Now let's look at the AWS Submitted at 3/16/2010 7:30:00 PM services to see if can it do the This is the third entry in our same for computing. We'll exploratory series " Will One analyze the services Amazon Company Dominate the Cloud". offers and how they work Today we're blinking twice after together, specifically in four reviewing the innovation engine areas: computing, storage, at Amazon. networking, and people. The Amazon AWS product is (Although we didn't include all about services. While others several areas in this roundup, are marketing the cloud with an i n c l u d i n g d a t a b a s e a n d explanation point, the cloud monitoring, we see them as leader is focused on the raw clear signs of momentum and building blocks. This includes scope of Amazon's evolution.) everything from storage to Compute people. Amazon is learning We signed up (again, as a new how to find new ways to user,) for EC2 to refresh o p t i m i z e c o n n e c t i o n s a n d ourselves with its offerings and monetize them in increments of to remind ourselves what it time. means to be utility-based. Sponsor Amazon defines workload in Amazon, the Verb: Motion relationship to the types of When thinking of Amazon as a instances the company offers in verb, one word stands out, the EC2 solution. motion. When Amazon was Windows on EC2 is optimized first introduced as the Internet around bringing a three-tier bookstore, it immediately Windows web environment into c r e a t e d a c h a n g e i n t h e the Amazon stack. It supports landscape. ASP.Net, AJAX, IIS, and SQL It seemed like the writing was Server. Amazon has also tuned on the wall for brick and mortar i t ' s n e t w o r k a n d s t o r a g e retail, and to a large degree, it offerings to nicely plug into the was. In a mere 15 years, it has Windows on EC2 package and d i s r u p t e d t h e e n t i r e b o o k offer seamless integration with vertical with an end-to-end existing Amazon EC2 features digital system. Amazon is now like Amazon Elastic Block Store in the position to completely (EBS), Amazon CloudWatch, automate the flow of content Elastic-Load Balancing, and

processing of these data sets. It leverages the Hadoop Map Reduce project and provides as an example of breaking the computer entirely into services. The Map Reduce service doesn't just host an application stack, but is automatically configured using Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). This is an example of an open-source implementation project (though Elastic IPs. Apache) optimizing in such a I B M W e b S p h e r e i s a l s o way that it fits on the EC2 stack supported on EC2, and hosts a as a core feature, and it has lineup of enterprise computing b e c o m e a p e e r t o t h e tools including the WebSphere WebSphere or .Net patterns. Server, Portal Server, DB2, Storage Tivoli Monitoring, and Data The storage offerings include Quality products. I B M S3, Elastic Block Storage, and mentions that one of the targets Input/Output. is getting developers to use this Amazon S3(Simple Storage model for getting development Service) has been out there or proof-of-concepts projects up several years serving web based and running quickly. applications as their simple The patterns for firing up a new c l o u d a w a y f r o m h o m e . instance are defined as AMI Customers of it have famously (Amazon Managed Instances) so stood up their entire data t h e s o f t w a r e h a s b e e n solution for images and other appropriately targeted the key storage tasks based on infrastructure instance it will run Amazon's S3 service. It's within. Have extra licenses, or popular, well known, and want to retire legacy hardware? evolving to include additional IBM has an agreement with features that enforce data level Amazon to allow you to migrate integrity like databases. your licenses to EC2. Elastic Block Storage is another The EC2 MapReduce is a storage service offered by service that targets large data Amazon. Instead of being a s t r e a m s a n d o p t i m i z i n g simple, writable data service in

the cloud like S3, it is focused on EC2 instances that need storage as part of their footprint. An EBS can be built alongside the EC2 instance that is 1GB to 1TB in size and can be mounted from that service. This is designed for applications that expect raw physical storage locally addressed by the server. Network Amazon offers Elastic Load Balancing. Considering Amazon's power as an elastic compute provider, this is a critical piece of the puzzle. Here, load can be configured to continually monitor and self heal across a set of hosts, moving the resources towards optimal performance. The company also offers Virtual Private Cloud, which enables an enterprise to segment access to a portion of Amazon's cloud with access control and security enforcements (such as subnet, encrypted VPN). People An amazing thing about all of these services coming from Amazon, is that Amazon is a consumer facing company with an amazing relationship with consumers. Amazon has the ability to learn about us. We share our ideology (books we buy), RULERS page 51

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RULERS continued from page 50

lifestyle (products we consume), and financial position (credit cards we use). The company has also implemented an important part of identifying consumers by going deeper with services and verifying identity. The company implements a two -factor signup process that goes the extra step in granting authorization to a user to change compute resources. This second factor gives Amazon some assurance that the person really is that person, because in addition to getting the credit card and password (which are network resources), it also calls out to your phone to verify that the person logging in to the network has the phone (physical resource) at the same time. Here is step one: Signup Here is step two: Verify PIN on your mobile phone: And, step three, proceed (you are now free to spin up resources): When combining these two things together, Amazon is in a position to easily bring its current customer base to a twofactor security solution, and providing a service that meets government level controls. And, with two factor credentials it's less likely that there will be automated bots being deployed in Amazon's cloud by scripts or hackers. Amazon is in the unique position to view the next

generation computing fabric from the consumer sales process. Amazon may be the only company in a position to see how it all pieces together, even perhaps a longer view of the future supply chain than its new book competitor, Apple. In addition to consumers and developers, Amazon also has the power of people as resources, with the Mechanical Turk marketplace. Need a simple task completed and queued for the Internet (of people) to execute on? Get started with one of these sample scripts and draw legions to your command. We find it compelling that Amazon has connected consumers, verified individuals, and tasks to be executed on. These pieces are perhaps foundations for a broad appetite for connecting workers with resources and optimizing along with way. Banking with Amazon - or - Selling Time Instead of Licenses The time value of money is the value of money figuring in a given amount of interest earned over a given amount of time. When signing up for the AWS features as a new user, we found ourselves asking looking at pricing options that reminded us of bank products. Earn more by committing to 1, 2, or 3 years. Are the Amazon Web Services an economy, and the individual services themselves currency?

First, let's look at Microsoft and its revenue. A server is sold, Microsoft gets a piece by the sell of the OS. Part of this business model is very predictable (company gets x% of all PC shipments. And part of it is a bit lumpy. Where consumers have choices, they may choose to exercise them. For example, choosing Google Docs as an alternate to Microsoft Office, or bypassing an entire OS update, such as Vista. These choices represent risk to Microsoft in its revenue position. Amazon, is increasingly using something more predictable to sell it's services, time. And the nice thing about time, is that it's always ticking. So, instead of waiting for an entire "new PC", or "OS update", Amazon's implementation of selling resources is triggered to contracts. And, if this works, the consumer of the risk chooses the service longevity and the risk is reduced for Amazon. To put this in financial terms, the time value of money states. "The method also allows the valuation of a likely stream of income in the future, in such a way that the annual incomes are discounted and then added together, thus providing a lumpsum "present value" of the entire income stream." What this means, is that Amazon is going to understand value for its AWS users over the

entire life of their contract and can start to model interaction patterns against future events. For example, if Amazon knows you have a 3 year contract for EC2, but you're 50% more likely to renew it if it also has SimpleDB services, it can trigger events and discounts based on these service connections. Here we see the EC2 reserved instance pricing chart. There is heavy discounting for committing to a term. From what we see, Amazon will be successful in gaining new efficiencies in pricing of computing resources, like it did with books. We expect the company to successfuly squeeze out hard costs that exist in the middle. We feel that Amazon is the quiet cloud company that you can "go long" with in terms of it's future value. Like the market itself, Amazon is a prime innovator in sharing the future into the terms of the present. Will cloud computing re-factor how we look at the technology stack for good, and will "payment" be in the middle? If so, is time the business model? Photo credit: wwworks Discuss

PPI falls more than expected but old news Peter Boockvar (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:22:35 AM

Feb PPI fell .6% headline vs expectations of a drop of .2% but the core gain of .1% was right in line with forecasts. The headline figure was led lower by a 2.9% fall in energy prices (led by gasoline) while food prices rose .4%. Energy prices have since reversed, with gasoline in particular at the highest level since Oct â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;08 so PPI will move up again in March. Inflation in the pipeline was mixed but comes after strong gains in Jan. Goods at the intermediate stage of production rose .1% after a 1.7% gain in Jan. Ex f&f it was up .9%. Crude goods inflation fell 3.5% but follows a 9.6% rise in Jan. Ex f&f, prices fell .6% but follows a 6.6% gain in Jan. On a y/o/y basis, overall PPI is up 4.4% and the core is up 1%. Bottom line, because of the moving piece of energy, the headline fall is old news and tomorrowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CPI report will be more relevant to market action. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Mobile App Marketplace: $17.5 Billion by 2012 Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:59:00 AM

According to a study commissioned by mobile application store operator GetJar, the mobile application market will reach $17.5 billion by 2012. By then, the number of mobile application downloads will have also grown to nearly 50 billion from just over 7 billion in 2009. Although those numbers may seem high, they line up with other estimates, such as those previously reported by analysts at both Gartner and research2guidance. Sponsor The GetJar study, run by independent consulting firm by Chetan Sharma Consulting, noted that over the past year, the number of app stores grew from 8 to 38 and that there are even more in the works. Apple's iTunes store leads the way with a reported 150,000 mobile apps and 3 billion downloads to date. Google's Android marketplace is growing fast as well, and now has more than 30,000 mobile applications that run on devices

like the Droid, the myTouch 3G and the Nexus One, among others. However, as Getjar founder and chief executive officer Ilja Laurs told the BBC, feature phones should not ignored either. "It is almost as if these phones don't exist. We know smartphones are an extremely important phenomenon, but in terms of consumer mindshare and revenue share, feature phones represent 90% of the global market compared to 10% for smartphones and data cards." He also made the bold prediction that "mobile apps will eclipse the traditional desktop Internet," even going so far as to say that "mobile devices will kill the desktop." Just the Stats: Here are a few other highlights from the report(via Paid Content and TechCrunch): • The annual growth rate for mobile app downloads is 92% • By 2012, off-deck, paid apps will be the biggest source of revenue • In 2009, mobile operators accounted for more than 60% of

account for over 50% of revenue

apps' revenue • By 2012, mobile operators will account for less than 23% of apps' revenue • The app store growth (8 to 38 by 2012) is an increase of 375% • Average app selling price is $1.09 in North America, $0.20 in South America and $0.10 in Asia • Revenue opportunities in Europe will grow from $1.5 billion in 2009 to $8.5 billion in 2012 • Revenue opportunities in North America will grow from $2.1 billion to around $6.7 billion in 2012 • Apps are most popular in Asia where they account for 37% of global downloads this past year • Users spent the most for apps in North America where they

House could bypass vote on US healthcare bill (Financial Times - US homepage)

of Representatives are considering using a complicated manoeuvre to pass a bill without Submitted at 3/16/2010 3:35:03 PM having to put it to a vote. Struggling to shore up support The tactic, which would for US healthcare reform, “deem” the bill passed once a Democratic leaders in the House series of fixes to it had also been

Analysts Agree: Apps are Big Business A report earlier this year from research firm Gartner predicted that application stores are expected to generate revenues of nearly $7 billion over the course of 2010. That figure is a combination of the $6.2 billion spent purchasing the mobile applications themselves combined with an additional $.6 billion generated through advertising revenues from inapp ads. The Gartner analysts also predicted that mobile application stores' revenue will grow to $29.5 billion by the end of 2013. Another forecast from research2guidance estimated the smartphone application market will grow from $1.94 billion in 2009 to $15.65 billion by 2013. Although these aren't exactly apples to apples comparisons, the overall trend is apparent: app stores are growing rapidly and generating massive revenue streams. Discuss

US producer prices slide in February (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:25:10 AM

US wholesale prices recorded their biggest drop in seven months in February as the cost of petrol plunged, confirming that inflation remains a distant threat. The producer price index declined by 0.6 per cent last month, labour department figures showed on Wednesday. That was a bigger drop than economists expected and marked a turnround from January when prices picked up. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

How US Government Spies Use Facebook

passed, would prove highly Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: contentious given the wide PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Marshall Kirkpatrick scope of healthcare reform. Term Extraction. (ReadWriteWeb) Republicans on Tuesday Submitted at 3/16/2010 9:57:32 condemned even the thought of using it. HOW page 53 Five Filters featured article:

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The US Department of Justice this week released slides from a presentation deck titled Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites. The document was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The DoJ presentation describes Facebook as much more cooperative with law enforcement requests for user information than Twitter and MySpace are. It also explains to officers what the advantages of going undercover on social networking sites are. The EFF posted IRS training documents for using various internet tools as well, including Google Street View, but those were much tamer than the Justice file. Sponsor Highlights from the deck include:

cooperative with emergency requests." • MySpace and Twitter, on the other hand, are described differently. MySpace "requires a search warrant for private messages/bulletins less than 181 days old." Twitter "will not preserve data without legal process," has a "stated policy of producing data only in response to legal process" and has no Law Enforcement Guide (or spying manual, as some parties call such documents). Wouldn't you like your social network to say no before it says yes and require a warrant before handing over information to law enforcement? We reached out to Facebook this evening about the government claim that it was unusually co-operative but have not yet received a response. • Funny: As social networks go, LinkedIn's "use for criminal communications appears limited" the document says. • O n " g e t t i n g i n f o f r o m You don't say. LinkedIn can be Facebook" - options include u s e f u l i n f i n d i n g e x p e r t photos, contact info, group w i t n e s s e s , h o w e v e r . c o n t a c t i n f o a n d I P l o g s . • "Why go undercover on "HOWEVER, Facebook has Facebook, MySpace, etc?" the other data available." The deck document asks. Three reasons notes that Facebook is "often are offered: 1. Communicate

Submitted at 3/16/2010 11:33:32 AM

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

Oops: Google Denied Trademark on Android Nexus One Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb)

work together to achieve our respective business goals." Does that mean Google will It's been a rough day for rename the Nexus One, or that it Google's Android phone, the w i l l e n d u p p a y i n g t h e Nexus One. First we learned t r a d e m a r k h o l d e r f o r t h e this morning that initial sales privilege of using the name? have been far weaker than the Google just expanded the Nexus iPhone saw when it first came One onto the AT&T network out of the gate. Now it's being today. reported that the U.S. Patent and Either way, we wouldn't be Trademark Office has rejected surprised if the hunt for a new its application for a trademark name is already on. What would you suggest, readers? We expect the Electronic on the name Nexus One. Frontier Foundation to offer The name "Nexus One" was It's tempting to say this is further analysis in coming days. ruled too close to Portland, another example of the Patent You can download a PDF of the Oregon based Integra Telecom's and Trademark Office moving document yourself here. For own registered trademark for its too slow, but note that Integra further discussion of these N e x u s f i x e d b a n d w i d t h was granted its trademark in documents, see blog posts integrated voice and internet T1 December 2008. The Nexus One was just release January 5, c l u s t e r e d o n T e c h m e m e . product. Sponsor 2010. Discuss Mike Rogoway, of Portland's Meanwhile, the open Android The Oregonian newspaper, got operating system marches on. the following statement from XML co-creator Tim Bray Integra: announced this weekend that he "We appreciate that the PTO is has joined Google to work on protecting our trademark rights. Android. He called the iPhone Integra has over $60 Million in in a blog post"a sterile Disneyannual revenue associated with fied walled garden surrounded o u r N e x u s b r a n d a n d i t by sharp-toothed lawyers. The organization, making photo Five Filters featured article: represents millions of new people who create the apps management an easy, natural Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: revenue for the company each serve at the landlord's pleasure and collaborative process. Get PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, year. Google hasn't contacted and fear his anger." Discuss comments, notes, and tags on Term Extraction. us since the PTO issued its your photos, post to any blog, objection but we hope we can share and more!

Storm batters the Northeastern U.S. Zack Sheppard (Flickr Blog)

with suspects/targets. 2. Gain access to non-public info. 3. M a p s o c i a l relationships/networks. • "If agents violate terms of service," the document asks, "is that 'otherwise illegal activity'?" No answer is offered in the text. • "Many witnesses have socialnetworking pages," the presentation notes. Those pages can be a "valuable source of info on defense witnesses" and "potential pitfalls for government witnesses." • Also funny: DoJ prosectors are urged to "use caution in 'friending' judges, defense counsel."

Submitted at 3/16/2010 8:40:02 PM

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4 Technology Partners And What They Say About the IBM Cloud

What BigTechCo's announce

Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb)

(Scripting News)

or IT manager looking for more efficient and powerful ways t leverage its assets in a private Submitted at 3/16/2010 7:47:12 PM cloud environment or in a public The IBM Cloud is a prototype cloud. Silanis of the ecosystem we expect to Silanis fits in the e-signature see emerge in the world of cloud W e b S e r v i c e s i n h e l p i n g market. In January, the company services. It has the flavor of companies deploy cloud-based a n n o u n c e d s e r v i c e s t h a t other platform environments, applications in the cloud. As integrate with IBM's LotusLive. w i t h t h e p r i m a r y g o a l o f part of an IBM ecosystem, the The service allows companies to integrating IBM with third-party company will be one of those go work with customers in an applications to serve developers to services that helps manage extranet environment where t h e c l o u d ' s i n h e r e n t contracts may be reviewed, and end customers. It is the partners that tie into c o m p l e x i t i e s . K a a v o modified and electronically K a a v o i s a n o t h e r c l o u d signed. The service would seem the larger ecosystems, often management application that to fit with IBM's efforts to existing on multiple platforms. The healthy platforms will leverages its position as a create a transaction environment resemble coral reefs in which service that according to the within IBM Cloud. Aviarc the partners are important to the web site, provides "middleware IBM is partnering with several cloud ecosystem as the platform on demand."That's a fascinating a p p l i c a t i o n d e v e l o p e r s , e x a m p l e o f h o w e n t i r e including Aviarc, a custom itself. infrastructures are moving off software application developer Sponsor But what is the importance of p r e m i s e a n d i n t o c l o u d for on-premise, private cloud, these third-party applications environments. For instance, appliances or the multi-tenant and what do they say about the Kaavo makes the claim that it environment of IBM Cloud. f u t u r e o f I B M C l o u d ? can bring online one or multiple These are just samplings of the server systems, configure e c o s y s t e m t h a t I B M i s RightScale RightScale http://rightscale.com m i d d l e w a r e a n d d e p l o y developing. You can tell that is becoming a power in its own applications The result being IBM is following its strategy to right. The San Diego-based that people may use the IBM serve hybrid environments and company provides a sought after platform to set up and tear down establish its platform as a place need. The capability to port test and and development where developers may build, applications to the cloud. environments within minutes. t e s t , s e l l a n d d i s t r i b u t e RightScale is playing across the Again, we see how IBM is a p p l i c a t i o n s . D i s c u s s market. It has served as an seeking to provide services that important partner for Amazon serve the needs of the developer

Submitted at 3/16/2010 10:41:10 AM

Big Tech Companies enjoy a weird kind of megalomania, when viewed from outside. The net-effect of their announcements usually are: "We will tell you soon how we plan to announce our universechanging plan to make everything work the way we think it should. When we figure it out we will announce how we will announce our plan. You will be even more impressed then than you are now." It is thus because in the meetings leading up to the big day, they can only agree that they will make an announcement, not what it will be. That comes later. In the meantime the partners have some demos. They don't do anything other than show how, when the BigTechCo's finally figure out how to announce their plann, they will submit to their will and become rich and powerful in their own domain.

What really matters are the TechCo's, large and small, that are not on stage. That usually is the point of the whole mess. "We invited them," they will say, "but they wouldn't come to be part of our open announcement of how we will announce our plan to dominate everything and do things the way we think they should be done (when we figure it out)."

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Sony Pictures learns the hard way: You don’t make friends with salad Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear) Submitted at 3/17/2010 8:00:30 AM

I love how this is controversial. Sony Pictures (creators of Spider-Man) chairman Michael Lynton has suggested that movie theaters offer healthy snacks in addition to their usual parade of garbage, and people have reacted with blind rage. How dare you tell me how to live my life, you pinko liberal communist! It’s like, really? What is so terrible about not covering your popcorn with metric tons of liquid “butter”? You would think movie theater owners would go out of their way to make their theaters as welcoming as possible, right? Yes, last year was a record year for Hollywood, but take away Avatar, an outlier if there ever was one, and do the numbers look as hot? Not bloody likely. If I were a theater owner, I’d make it so that I’d have, yes, plenty of garbage (buttered popcorn, soda, etc.) on hand, but

and I’m pretty sure it was to see Casino Royale. I picked a Sunday 11am showing, figuring most of the troublemakers would still be hungover. But no! Who should sit next to me but a rather large woman with two bags of popcorn and a soda! What she eats is her business, obviously, but my God in Heaven she was rattling the bag like she was auditioning for Stomp. 3D cinema may be a draw right now, but the minute I break down and say, “Eh, let’s go see Alice in Wonderland” and find that the theater is populated by loud, obnoxious people is the I ’ d a l s o h a v e f r u i t s a n d theater. I think I’ll wait for the The sony idiot would make a moment I walk right out the vegetables to cater to the Whole DVD and have my popcorn at perfect democrat congressman, door. Foods crowd. Can you imagine home. I hate liberals always one who loves to tell you how to And where is it written that you a small movie theater opening telling me how to live my life. live your life. When will the have to eat at all during a up in Park Slope that has *** public quit voting for these movie? Can’t people sit still for arugula as a snack? I’d be a is he WANTING to kill of morons? two hours without ingesting 18 millionaire! cinema?! *** bags of Milk Duds? A selection of the comments *** Y o u m i g h t h a v e a l r e a d y Flickr that made me laugh… He can have my popcorn when guessed it, but Drudge linked Hmmmm, watching Terminator he pries it from my cold dead this story, too. 12 eating blueberries. That fingers. I’m trying to remember the last should pack them in to the *** time I went to a movie theater,

Here’s to the land of the Shamrock so green Cris Stoddard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 3/16/2010 2:40:50 PM

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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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The $75 iPod levy that will solve all of Canada’s problems Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear)

day to check WoW.com before going to bed.) Why should I have to pay CAN$75, which is Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:01:37 AM like US$4,000 these days, to Apparently it’s illegal in subsidize other people’s habits? Canada to copy music from a Yes, I understand that the CD you bought to an iPod (or number of people who buy whatever). It’s simply not iPods and then don’t put any allowed, even if you’re not music on there is quite small, breaking any DRM in the but I needed to fulfill my daily process. (In the U.S., it’s illegal complaint quota. to copy a DVD to your Let’s turn it around, make it computer’s hard drive because local to our fair American you have to circumvent the copy readers. Let’s say Congress, for protection in the process.) whatever reason, creates and Solution? Some sort of levy, passes a law that says you’re which would ensure that Canadian legislature is anything (My hunch is that it goes right the entire concept of copyright 100 percent allowed to copy “artists” make money even DVDs (legally bypassing the like its American counterpart back to the record label’s in the 21st century. though you’re not re-buying it’s going to be a little while coffers, but whatever.) Granted, This so-called iPod levy could DRM) that you own to your their music. before anyone even raises the you could be buying blank also negatively affect people hard drive, but that from now The deal now is that an MP up issue again. m e d i a t o b a c k u p y o u r who buy iPod but don’t put any own all commercial DVDs there wants to introduce a The idea of a levy isn’t new, PowerPoint presentation, so it’s music on them—people like me, come with a $10 tax on them to CAN$75 “iPod levy” that would per se—there’s already a levy not a 100 percent fool-proof for example. I have an iPod cover the “losses,” so to speak. effectively legalize copying on blank media (CD-Rs and the thing, but it neatly solves the touch and I dare you to find one Would you go for that? music from a CD you bought to like) that supposedly help to problem in a way that prevents song on there. (I pretty much Flickr your iPod. The levy has just make sure that “artists” get paid. people from having to re-think just use it for like 10 minutes a been proposed, but if the

Xbox 360 'Valhalla' motherboard leaked on Chinese forum? Richard Lai (Engadget)

this diet could be the work of a scarily talented console modder, but it'd still be a near-impossible Been to the gym lately? If not, task to work in what appears to then let this be your new be a CPU / GPU combo chip motivation. What we're looking (pictured after the break) under a t h e r e i s a p u r p o r t e d l y that greatly reduced heatsink. f o r t h c o m i n g X b o x 3 6 0 Note that there's also an extra motherboard redesign that takes SATA port at the top left corner. aim at slimming down the portly Perhaps this is the " Valhalla" figure of Microsoft's console. revision that we've all been Microsoft is currently hiring a Sure, there's a small chance that waiting for? On a related note, Motherboard Design Engineer Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:04:00 AM

for the Xbox 360 Console Development team, with such saucy tasks as "specifying, designing, implementing and verifying the mother-board and other various sub-system boards that make up the XBOX 360 product line." Feel free to sign up if you think you can hack out a better motherboard. Continue reading Xbox 360 'Valhalla' motherboard leaked

on Chinese forum? Xbox 360 'Valhalla' motherboard leaked on Chinese forum? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Kotaku, AfterDawn| A9VG, Microsoft| Email this| Comments

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Charter Communications: All your streams are belong to us John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:47:11 AM

A young man rang Charter Cable to cancel his cable TV connection and maintain his Internet connection. Why? Because cable TV is an anathema to this generation’s vision of media consumption and/or it sucks. So he calls Charter and Charter informs him that he has to pay a $10 no-cable fee and he is told that soon Charter and the rest of the cable companies will control all streaming, thereby rendering all streaming media unusable after “May 1.” Consumerist has his note: At this point, he said he would see what the cost of internet alone was, and said there would be a $10 “no cable TV” fee (sounds like b.s. to me), which would make it $49.95 a month for internet alone. Then he went on to say that he strongly suggested that I keep the tv service because come May 1, all of the online streaming services would be shut down because the

'Lost' - 'Recon' Recap Jason Hughes (TV Squad)

cable TV providers are taking over, and that the FCC regulations are changing so that the cable companies will have total control over streaming video. Total control, eh? Sounds fishy. Look: cable companies have cables that come into people’s homes. They can make lots of money offering fat pipes to people who want them. But they don’t. They want to stick to whatever consumption model appeals to them and that model

is the the cable channel. Cable channels don’t cost them money to maintain, they don’t have to be up 24/7, and they can sell premium channels and services to rubes who don’t know any better. The Internet is like offering running water to the home. Cable TV is like offering a bottled water service with a special “shower package” for those who want to wash. Which one is more lucrative?

seen on the show. Imagine being surrounded by familiar faces Submitted at 3/17/2010 4:41:00 AM and yet none of them are who (S06E08) Mr. Ford was back at they are; it was like some the center of 'Lost' for this h o r r i b l e m i r r o r u n i v e r s e week's installment. The flash- s e q u e n c e . sideways started us off in Sawyer wasn't there for Kate's familiar territory before veering awkward moment, because he sharply into the unexpected. was off on some secret mission Pieces and characters are for MiB-Locke. A mission that starting to come together a little raised even more questions, more in the beta-verse, with lots while setting the stage for what of interesting potential. will likely be the ultimate Back in the alpha-verse, we conflict for the season. spent the entire episode with Continue reading'Lost' - 'Recon' MiB-Locke and his motley crew Recap of temple survivors. That meant Filed under: OpEd, Lost, Kate got to spend some quality Episode Reviews, Reality-Free time with Claire and the new Permalink| Email this| | and subdued Sayid. All in all, it C o m m e n t s was one of the most uncomfortable scenes I've ever

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Panasonic Touch the Future Tour lets production Full HD 3DTVs hit the public stage Richard Lawler (Engadget)

opened in NYC (the display runs through today at the Penn Plaza Pavilion and other Panasonic has never needed to locations in Chicago and Los wait for a new studio album Angeles, check the schedule for before putting together another 12 more cities on deck) and got major tour, the latest of which an eye full of the same 50-inch it's dubbed Touch the Future. plasma 3DTVs on sale at Best Trading in the traveling truck Buy stores around the country. exhibition for a more intimate One major new look for this i n d o o r s e t t i n g , t h e r e a l demo was an NVIDIA PC p r o d u c t i o n F u l l H D 3 D running the 3DTV Play solution, televisions are available and on as you can see from the pics display, along with glasses, Blu- even New York's finest enjoyed ray players plus a few other turning a lap or two of Need for products for good measure. We Speed: Shift in 3D. The action took a look as soon as the doors w a s s m o o t h a n d e a s y Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:56:00 AM

compatibility with 3D gaming on the PC should provide plenty of content while we wait for more true 3D games to hit consoles (which should ramp up

after the PS3 update this summer) while checking out Blu -ray demos on a 50-inch television proved every bit as engaging this time as it did on

the 152-inch CES display. . Continue reading Panasonic Touch the Future Tour lets production Full HD 3DTVs hit the public stage Panasonic Touch the Future Tour lets production Full HD 3DTVs hit the public stage originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Panasonic Touch the Future Tour| Email this| Comments

Dragonfly jet-powered helicopter runs on H2O2, shuns traditional tail rotors (video) Tim Stevens (Engadget)

spinning them up without pushing the body of the helo in the other way -- though a small Your average whirleybird is tail rotor is still needed to turn driven by a big motor in the the craft. It's much like the tech middle, spinning the blades one that propelled James Bond w a y a n d , a s p e r N e w t o n , toward his waiting DB5 in rotating the body of the craft the Thunderball, but unlike that other. A tail rotor counteracts jetpack this copter can fly for up the force, but a more efficient to 50 minutes. It's the product of solution is to have the rotors Swisscopter Americas and, power themselves, which is while they've been playing with exactly how the Dragonfly DF1 the DF1 for many moons now works. It has tiny, hydrogen- ( d e m o n s t r a t e d i n a v i d e o peroxide jets on the blade tips, below), the company is also Submitted at 3/17/2010 9:17:00 AM

traditional helicopters. That'll surely add to the premium. Continue reading Dragonfly jetpowered helicopter runs on H2O2, shuns traditional tail rotors (video) Dragonfly jet-powered helicopter runs on H2O2, shuns traditional tail rotors (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:17:00 working on the DF2 shown looks to be available for sale EST. Please see our terms for above, a rather more civilized and, while no price is listed, use of feeds. Permalink Gizmag| version that seats two. The DF1 they are said to be much more Swisscopter Americas| Email is certified for flight in the US, friendly to the environment than this| Comments

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Witspad W8 Maemo tablet – a mobile mobile internet device

True Blood Sets Season Three Premiere Date

Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

Brad Trechak (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:00:00 AM

Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:03:16 AM

The Witspad W8 Maemo MID/mobile tablet Nearly everyone has heard of a mobile internet device, or MID, but how many have heard of a mobile mobile internet device, or MMID? Probably none of you, because MMID is a term we just made up. The Witspad W8 Maemo looks to introduce that category though by coupling MID features with a mobile phone. The W8 Maemo allows you to make calls. Although there’s no SMS function currently, it does come with a 4.3-inch touchscreen and is powered by a Marvell PXA 320 806MHz processor. Also a bit out of the norm is the OS the W8 runs, which is Maemo (like the Nokia N900) instead of WinCE or Android like we usually see

with these devices. Other specs include 128MB of RAM, 256MB flash storage, 3.2MP camera, GPS, WiFi, 3G and a headphone jack. It can run a variety of video codecs and is capable of displaying H.264 at 30 fps. The style of the Witspad W8 Maemo reminds us of Palm Pre (or a buttonless Gameboy Advance) with its rounded edges. The screen makes up

80% of the surface real estate and it is 3/4 of an inch thick. The China-based product will be sold for 3,200 yuan (around $470) but there’s no word on release date. Source: Cloned in China Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Everybody sharpen your fangs. The best vampire series on television today,'True Blood,' returns to HBO for a new season on June 13th. When last we left Sookie and Bill, he was ready to propose before suddenly vanishing while Sookie was in the little girl's room. Of course, those that follow 'The Southern Vampire Mysteries' by Charlaine Harris know what's going to happen next. Or do they? Perhaps Alan Ball will decide to take the franchise in a different direction. Seriously, 'Twilight' fans can keep their sparkly Robert Pattinson and their Team Edward or Team Jacob.'The Vampire Diaries' is barely palatable. 'True Blood' is the best vampire series on the air since'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and for those that don't agree I

will roshambo you for it. What aspect of the new season are you most looking forward to? Which characters do you want to see more? Are you on Team Bill or Team Eric? Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

AT&T announces zero draw anti-vampire charger John Biggs (CrunchGear)

Conventional chargers left plugged in – even when not actively charging – can draw as AT&T’s ZERO draw charger much as 5 to 20 times more will turn itself off when it isn’t energy than stored in the actively charging. That is all. battery. The advanced, energyIt’s the eco-friendly charging saving AT&T ZERO Charger solution for your mobile phone. outperforms other chargers by Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:53:01 AM

automatically shutting down when not in use. “Vampire

draw” is 100% eliminated and you’ll never have to unplug your charger again! Plus, USB compatibility makes the AT&T ZERO Charger a convenient charging station for many mobile devices! You can give them your email

address. Why you would want to I don’t know. They should just put the product into every box that goes out the door.

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Caption contest: solar suits, or the future of punishment for eco -abusers? Darren Murph (Engadget)

Seriously -- check the video out after the break and tell us we're loony. We get the impression that Josh T.: "Totally off the grid in these guys are really just putting regard to both power and t h e p r e s s u r e o n " e v i l girlfriends." corporations" to stop grounding Thomas: "And now solar mountains in the everlasting sprockets, we dance!" search for coal, but it's not really Joe: "You have to go as far as the environmental activism that Brussels to find a Devo tribute they know what to do with it?" caught our attention here. act worth its salt." Rather, it's the fact that we're Richard Lai: "In the future, Justin: "In the future, all bands will play the washboard." 84.3 percent certain we saw humans won't need to eat." these exact same characters in a Paul: "Sure, they know how to Laura: "Did anyone make a Daft Punk video back in college. capture the electricity, but do Beastie Boys joke yet?"

contest: solar suits, or the future of punishment for eco-abusers? Caption contest: solar suits, or the future of punishment for eco -abusers? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:29:00 AM

Darren: "SABOTAGE." Richard Lawler: "This is not what Boston meant when they said I take what I find." Continue reading Caption

CHAdeMO: Japan wants to set global standard for electric cars Serkan Toto (CrunchGear)

will consist of a total of 158 different companies and Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:20:17 AM organizations. The electric car continues to be The goal is to turn a charging a hot topic in Japan. A slew of system developed by Tokyo influential Japanese companies Electric Power into a global like Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi standard for electric cars. That (whose i miev is pictured s y s t e m l e t s t h e c h a r g e r above), or Tokyo Electric Power determine what kind of batteries have now started an initiative are installed and how much aimed at creating a global charge they require, basically a and Subaru, with Nissan likely standard, dubbed CHAdeMO, c h a r g i n g p r o t o c o l . T h e to follow. for high-speed battery chargers technology is already being put Most electric cars still canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t for electric cars. The consortium to practical use by Mitsubishi travel more than 200km on a

single charge, which makes the availability of brand-agnostic charging stations a critical factor for their future success.

Apart from Japanese firms (Honda, Mazda or Toshiba will also take part), the consortium also has European engineering group ABB, PSA from France (Peugeot, CitroĂŤn), German auto equipment giant Robert Bosch and a few other foreign companies among its members. The Japanese government is supporting the joint venture with $13.7 million.

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DynDNS Wide Area Bonjour Support Goes Beta Andrew Bednarz (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:42:25 AM

Last week DynDNS released its beta support for Wide Area Bonjour and DNS Service Discovery. This means that if you own your own domain name, and you have a Custom DNS service with DynDNS, you can configure your Apple AirPort device (AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express and Time Capsule) to present itself wearing a toga-- is now on sale lunchbox charm. Though we cooled, passively hits online a s p a r t o f t h a t d o m a i n , with a completely fanless design haven't heard official word retail originally appeared on automatically updating your for silent cooling. Since CES, about US availability, Shuttle's Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 domain name and broadcasting the all-in-one has also gained domestic website places the 08:59:00 EST. Please see our configured services. What is legacy parallel and serial ports MSRP at $400, and online t e r m s f o r u s e o f f e e d s . Wide Area Bonjour? (you know, for your Zip drive) retailers including Newegg Permalink SlashGear| Shuttle Wide Area Bonjour enables the and room for up to 4GB of already show the tethered USA, Shuttle EU, Newegg| same zero-config automatic service discovery functionality memory, but hasn't lost any of touchscreen tablet in stock. Email this| Comments over the public Internet that we i t s d u a l - c o r e A t o m D 5 1 0 Shuttle's X50V2 all-in-one all enjoy on our local network 1.66GHz goodness or its school barebones PC gets passively (seeing our shared files, printers, DYNDNS page 62

Shuttle's X50V2 all-in-one barebones PC gets passively cooled, passively hits online retail Sean Hollister (Engadget) Submitted at 3/17/2010 8:59:00 AM

When you've got an entire desktop PC inches from your eardrums, it helps if the machine is dead silent... or as close to that dream as possible. That's why we're pleased that Shuttle's new XPC X50V2 -- last spotted

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BlackBerry to Lose More Ground to iPhone, Android: Survey Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 3/16/2010 9:25:28 AM

A new survey by research firm Crowd Science brings bad news for BlackBerry maker RIM, and some good news for Apple. The company that comes out best of all, though, is Google, whose Android operating system seems poised to see some major growth in the near future. The survey, which Crowd Science performs semi-annually, addresses smartphone brand loyalty. This time around, it found that iPhone and Android customers were well satisfied with their choice of smartphone, but that BlackBerry is hemorrhaging users badly to both of those primary competitors. A little over 90 percent of both iPhone and Android smartphone owners plan to stay with that OS when they purchase their next device, while nearly 40 percent of BlackBerry owners said they would opt for an iPhone next time around, and 34 percent said they’d go with Android instead of a RIM device. It’s bad news for the Waterloo,

Ontario-based BlackBerry maker, and this latest survey shows that Apple isn’t exclusively to blame for the company’s steady decline. According to Crowd Science CEO John Martin: These results show that the restlessness of Blackberry users with their current brand hasn’t just been driven by the allure of iPhone. Rather, Blackberry as a brand just isn’t garnering the loyalty seen with other mobile operating systems. For me, the real surprise is not that many are dissatisfied with RIM, which seems to have done very little but make incremental

cosmetic upgrades with its devices over the last couple of years, but that Android is nearly matching the iPhone in terms of consumer awareness and desire. Apple still has the advantage in terms of who its customers are and what kind of money they’re willing to spend — and on what — though. iPhone owners tend to be slightly older and more affluent, and are much more likely to buy paid applications compared to other smartphone users. Android owners skew younger and less affluent, and accordingly are much less likely to spend money on paid applications. And they do

DYNDNS continued from page 61

scanners and so forth). If you have a MobileMe account and utilize the Back To My Mac download more free apps than functionality, you’re already using Wide Area Bonjour any other user group. Finally, the Nexus One is without even knowing it. Why making a big splash, even if it would we use this? isn’t selling in droves. Android Most of us who use DynDNS awareness in general jumped six use it to be able to let the IP percentage points to 66 percent Address that our ISP give us since the last survey period, and resolve with a friendly domain ( s u c h a s 32 percent of BlackBerry n a m e myname.homedns.org). This owners would swap their current devices for a Nexus One right basic free DynDNS service away, given the chance. That works really well as long as you number jumps to 60 percent for have a third-party router that users of smartphones not made supports DynDNS (which most of them do). Unfortunately by Apple or BlackBerry. While RIM is the company that Apple, being Apple, does not should really be scared by the support DynDNS in its routers, results of this survey, Apple leaving you to run the OS X shouldn’t exactly be patting DynDNS updater application on itself on the back, either. your computer. The downside to Android is making steady gains, this is that if your computer is e s p e c i a l l y a m o n g c u r r e n t asleep and your home Internet smartphone users, and they connection drops and reconnects seem to have scored a special (giving you a new IP address) place in the hearts of young DynDNS does not get updated c o n s u m e r s , w h i c h , w h e n until the computer wakes up. combined with the 90 percent- When wanting to use Snow plus brand loyalty result, could Leopard’s Wake On Demand feature this is a problem, so this pay off huge going forward. Related GigaOM Pro Research h a s m e a n t “ t o u g h l u c k , ” requiring you to run the (sub req’d): Report: Surveying the Mobile DynDNS Mac client on multiple machines and hope the IP App Store Landscape updating occurs often enough. It generally works fine, with the occasional expected downtime when your home IP changes at midday if computers are DYNDNS page 63

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Wall Street Journal, NPR to Open iPad-Only Websites

DYNDNS continued from page 62

sleeping. Does it work? This DynDNS Community post explains the current problem the Darrell Etherington is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s DynDNS team are having. The (TheAppleBlog) News Corp. is doing something gist is that while the Wide Area along the same lines, although it Bonjour service discovery Submitted at 3/16/2010 2:19:17 PM will be more sound and fury works just fine, the domain At least two major news media than substance. While NPR’s name IP allocation will only outlets aren’t going to let the site is getting a complete work if your IP does not resolve iPad’s lack of Flash support overhaul, the WSJ will have a a reverse name lookup. This is keep owners of Apple’s latest Flash-free front page, but if you an issue since almost all Internet creation away from their start delving deeper into content, Providers that give you a content. The Wall Street Journal you’ll run into those annoying dynamic IP address have a full (WSJ) and National Public little mystery Lego icons. The domain name allocated already. Radio (NPR) are working on WSJ and other sites using this For instance, if you do a reserve a dedicated iPad application. iPad-specific versions of their tactic will likely wait and see name lookup on your dynamic websites, set to launch next According to Kafka, NPR is in how popular the iPad actually IP you may get a name of 123month alongside the official the process of developing such becomes before devoting many 148-53-102.dyn.ispname.com. an application, but it won’t r e s o u r c e s t o a f u l l - s c a l e This is a problem because of the ship date of the iPad. way Apple’s Global Dynamic The websites will launch necessarily be ready in time for c o n v e r s i o n . a u t o m a t i c a l l y w h e n e v e r the iPad’s launch. Also, having Related Research from Hostname configuration currently works. It will only someone navigates to either two options available for iPad G i g a O M P r o : NPR.org or WSJ.com, and will owners means that no matter • Web Tablet Survey: Apple’s attempt to configure a name for the IP address if a name doesn’t replace the standard sites, both what a customer’s preference, iPad Hits the Right Notes o f w h i c h f e a t u r e p r e t t y they should be able to access all • How AT&T Will Deal with already exist. DynDNS has queried Apple about the way significant quantities of Flash of NPR’s content. Just after the iPad Data Traffic device hits the streets, consumer content. Peter Kafka at • 5 Tips for Developers this works and it appears to be non-intentional behaviour MediaMemo also notes that this frenzy will probably be at its Targeting the iPad workaround ensures that iPad most heady, so anyone ready to • With the iPad, Apple Take caused by a bug. Apple has indicated on the bonjour mailing owners will be able to access go on day one stands to benefit Google to the Mat list that a fix will come some content from the two news the most by way of picking up time in the future, but at this s o u r c e s w i t h o u t t h e new readers and/or customers. organizations having to rush out The Wall Street Journal, which

stage there is no ETA. Apple will have to issue firmware updates for the Airport devices to make this work as expected. What is working fine at the moment is Wide Area Bonjour service discovery. So if you have a static IP that does not resolve with a reverse name lookup and would like to emulate the kind of automatic service discovery functionality that you experience with Back To My Mac, you can achieve this goal with DynDNS now. DynDNS have two guides to assist with the appropriate configurations if you want to give it a try: • Apple Wide Area Bonjour and DNS Service Discovery with Custom DNS • Dynamic DNS Support for Apple AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, and Time Capsule

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What should LittleCo's do? (Scripting News)

means NO LOCK-IN. You don't hold your customers by force, you hold them with the love Okay, the piece I wrote earlier they feel for you. And the only that mocked Bigs for wasting way they feel love for you is if their time with big plans that you love them. Sting once sang: amount to nothing begged a If you love someone set them question. free. The wisest words ever What if you don't work for a sung, imho. People are smart. Big and don't want to? What if Even if they don't see the locky o u l i k e t o d e v e l o p t e c h in, they feel it. Eventually they products for users and would will bolt. If your investors say prefer to do so in a truly free you need to force your users to and open market, without the u s e y o u r s t u f f , f i r e y o u r d i s t o r t i o n s c a u s e d b y t h e investors and keep the users. struggles of employees at the Money is fungible. People are Bigs? not. What should you do then? 2. Choose the best people to Well the question has a pretty compete with. If you're lucky obvious answer. You should do enough to have your company exactly what you want to do. grow, you're going to need great Just do it -- develop the c o m p e t i t o r s t o k e e p y o u r products, and sell them and employees from getting lazy and evolve them, and compete. starting to act like they work for If you're lucky enough to be a Big. It's amazing how quickly working in an area where there t h a t h a p p e n s . T h e m o s t already is a defacto standard, successful entrepreneurs have then don't wait for teh Bigs to b e e n a b l e t o i n c u l c a t e a reinvent it. Just Use It. tremendous fear of and respect Basic guidelines: for competitors among their 1. People come back to places people. It's much better than that send them away. This thinking your competitors are Submitted at 3/16/2010 1:15:22 PM

buffoons. If they're smart enough to compete with you, they're pretty freaking smart. 3. Make products for geniuses, for the simple reason that if you think your customers are stupid, then what does that say about you? You make a product that idiots choose? It must suck. So if you're making a good product, it follows that it's for really really smart people who can sort through all the crap out there and pick the best stuff. Yours. 4. Only steal from the best, and consider theft of your ideas the most sincere form of respect (it is). But when you steal, don't be

a dick and make your version incompatible. See item #1. That's lock-in and if you do it YOU SUCK and deserve to die. 5. If I were an asshole I'd make up a fifth rule because no lists have just four items. But I'm not so I didn't. That's about it for now. Let me know if you're going to build stuff according to these principles. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. PS: I've been talking with some folks in Comp Sci at NYU, trying to encourage them to build around these ideas. This school is interested in entrepreneurial development. Thats very cool. Now remember to give everyone choice and share your ideas, and compete based on price, performance and service, not locking people in. All universities should encourage their students to skip the shortcuts. Getting wealthy by cheating isn't a good way to live. Get wealthy by being the best! That's cooool.

James Marsters Joins the New 'Hawaii Five-O' Mike Moody (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/17/2010 8:30:00 AM

Bad boy for hire James Marsters has landed his next villainous role. The former'Buffy' bloodsucker and current'Caprica' cult leader will play Steve McGarrett's nemesis in the new 'Hawaii Five-O.' Marsters announced the big news on his official Facebook page. Sadly, he's only signed for a guest spot in the CBS pilot, produced by uber-geeks of the moment Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman ('Fringe,''Star Trek'). JAMES page 65

'Justified' - 'Fire in the Hole' Recap (Series Premiere) Danny Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/17/2010 9:29:00 AM

(S01E01)"Would you shoot me if you got the chance?" - Boyd Crowder "You make me pull, I'm gonna

put you down." - Raylen Givins Here at TV Squad HQ, no one really jumped at the chance to review the premiere of'Justified,' and that's not meant to belittle or embarrass any of the writers (except for one, you know who

you are and my mother still hasn't forgiven you). We're a busy bunch. That's why I feel so very fortunate that I got to watch it because it's one damn fine hour of kick-ass television and it's

well on it's way to be one of the Reality-Free best hours of the year so far. Permalink| Email this| | Continue reading'Justified' - C o m m e n t s 'Fire in the Hole' Recap (Series Premiere) Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews,

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Of course, the guest gig could turn into a recurring role if the producers like what they see (fingers crossed!). Continue reading James Marsters Joins the New 'Hawaii Five-O' Filed under: Other Drama

Shows, Other SciFi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, Casting Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Reports: NHL ready to impose head-shots rule Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/16/2010 11:06:43 PM

I.setTitle(decodeURIComponent ("Reports:%20NHL%20ready% 20to%20impose%20headshots%20rule")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp n.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=50 02178"); 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/nhl/ne ws/story?id=5002178' }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } Associated Press TORONTO -- The NHL wants to adopt a new rule against blindside hits to the head before

the end of this season, according to two reports Wednesday. The league is hoping to fasttrack the proposed rule and is preparing a DVD package after a number of players suffered concussions this season. The highlight package will illustrate what would, and wouldn't, be allowed under a proposed rule change adopted by general managers at meetings in Florida last week. The NHL plans to circulate the highlight package to all 30 teams within the next week or so, according to the reports. "It's a process that has never been done before in the season," NHL senior vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell told the Globe and Mail in a story published online early Wednesday. "But this is so important an issue that if we can possibly avoid just one concussion, we should do this." In order to get the new rule in place, the NHL needs to get the players, coaches, management

and officials involved, Campbell added. Also, the NHL board of governors would have the final say on any change. Meanwhile, deputy commissioner Bill Daly told the Toronto Star the new rule could be in place by the end of the regular season and in time for the playoffs. "We are working to see if the new rules can be implemented as quickly as possible, and perhaps as early as before the end of the season," Daly said. "We are proceeding on the basis [of] doing what is best for the game and the players on a responsible timetable within the parameters of our legal and contractual obligations." Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Was Augusta the Right Place for Tiger’s Comeback? (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:30:43 AM

Finally, after months in which the sordid details of his private life became fodder for late-night TV, gossips shows and the tabloids, Tiger Woods will try to shift focus back to his golf game. Woods might never rebuild his squeaky-clean image, but he’s more than capable of dominating the PGA Tour, whose ratings have cratered in his absence. Golf fans, sponsors and networks eagerly await his return April 8 at the Masters, the site of his first major triumph, a mammoth 12-stroke victory in 1997. Getty Images Tiger Woods, back when photos of him at the Masters were more hagiographic. Tiger’s place among golf’s greats isn’t debatable, but his return is. Only a month ago Woods said he needed time away from golf, hoping to save his crumbling marriage after WAS page 67

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Tiger Woods is back: Return to golf to come at Masters Bob Harig (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:02:30 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 ("Tiger\'s%20back:%20Return% 20to%20golf%20to%20come% 20at%20Masters")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp n.go.com/golf/news/story?id=49 99991"); 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/golf/n ews/story?id=4999991' }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } By Bob Harig ESPN.com Archive Tiger Woods will make his highly anticipated return to competitive golf at the Masters, ending a four-month hiatus brought on by a sex scandal. The world's No. 1-ranked player, who has never missed the year's first major as a professional, announced in a statement Tuesday that Augusta National Golf Club will be the site of his comeback. "The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I'm ready to start my season at Augusta," Woods said in a statement. "The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and, as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be, even though it's been a while since I last played." The Masters is scheduled for April 8-11. Since World War II,

only one player has made his first official event of the year the Masters and gone on to win - Ben Hogan in 1951 and 1953. Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National and the tournament, said: "We support Tiger's decision to return to competitive golf beginning at this year's Masters Tournament. Additionally, we support and encourage his stated commitment to continue the significant work required to rebuild his personal and professional life." Woods is a four-time Masters champion, although he has not won at Augusta National since 2005, his longest drought there. "We were pleased to learn that Tiger Woods will be playing the Masters in a few weeks," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement. "He has invested a lot of time taking steps, both in his personal and professional life, in order to prepare for his return. We all wish him and his family the best as he rejoins the Tour." “ The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and, as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be, even though it's been a while since I last played.”-Tiger Woods "We look forward to Tiger's return to the Masters and seeing him back on the course," said Nike, Woods' longtime sponsor,

in a statement. The Masters had been seen as a strong possibility for Woods' comeback, due to the relative scarcity of tickets and Augusta National's tight control of the event, which extends to media coverage. The Richmond County (Ga.) Sheriff's Office, which assists the private firm hired to provide security for The Masters, has not been asked for changes to the security plan and is not expecting any major problems, the Augusta Chronicle reported. "We have that place sealed up tight," Richmond County Col. Gary Powell said, according to the report. Woods last played on Nov. 15, when he won the Australian Masters in Melbourne for his 82nd career victory. His world then unraveled less than two weeks later; he was involved in a one-car crash outside his Florida home that required a hospital visit and led to a series of revelations about his personal life that included a later admission of multiple affairs. "I have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy and I am continuing my treatment," Woods said in his statement. "Although I'm returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life." Woods eventually confessed to infidelity and said Dec. 11 he would take an "indefinite break" from golf. Woods spoke

publicly for the first time on Feb. 19 at TPC Sawgrass, where he confessed to cheating on his wife, Elin. "I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did," Woods said that day. He was in a Mississippi clinic from Dec. 31 until Feb. 11, then went to an Arizona clinic for a week of family counseling. He returned to practice when he got home to Isleworth, and swing coach Hank Haney joined him last week. By choosing the Masters, Woods will skip next week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, which he has won the last two years and six times overall. He is also skipping next week's Tavistock Cup, an exhibition played at Isleworth. This will be the first time Woods has missed Bay Hill, the only regular PGA Tour event he has always played as a professional. ESPN Radio Extra Point Dan Davis reacts to the news that Tiger Woods will make his long-awaited return to golf at the Masters. More Podcasts » "When I finally got into a position to think about competitive golf again, it became apparent to me that the Masters would be the earliest I could play," Woods said. "I TIGER page 70

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admitting to numerous infidelities. The Journal’s John Paul Newport asks lots of questions about Tiger’s return to the limelight, but says returning at Augusta National makes the most sense. “One reason Mr. Woods must surely have chosen the Masters for his reappearance, apart from a love of green jackets (he has four in his collection already), is that no tournament provides better control of the crowds and the media,” Newport writes. “The Masters is a private tournament hosted by the secretive and august Augusta National Golf Club. That organization is under no imperative, implied or otherwise, to credentialize any media outlet it doesnt wish to, just as the club is under no imperative to admit women as members.” Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski agrees with the venue for Tiger’s return. After all, it’s where Tiger’s won four majors. “Tiger Woods knows the golf course better than anyone else,” Posnanski writes. “He handles pressure better than anybody. He is the best in the worldmaybe the best everat the 10-foot par putt. And he’s motivated like never before. Sure, it’s possible that he will come out rusty and nervous, will not look like himself, will miss the cut and go home and leave everyone wondering. But, I doubt it.”

It’s hard to pick against Tiger on one of his favorite courses, but CBS Sports’s Steve Elling notes that only one golfer, Ben Hogan, has won at Augusta when making it his first tour stop of the season. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Bryan Burwell likes the statement Tiger’s making by starting at Augusta. “The man I saw a month ago apologizing for his indiscretions was fragile and defeated. The man I watched last month apologizing was stripped bare of any pretense of the arrogance that once made him the most feared and dominant athlete on the planet,” Burwell writes. “A month ago, I was thinking, ‘Uh oh, that ain’t Tiger anymore.’ But the man who decided to make his return to golf at the Masters has to be the old Tiger, because nobody else would be crazy enough, competitive enough or athletically arrogant enough to think that after all the commotion of the last five months, he could just show up at his sport’s most significant major tournament and tell the world, ‘I’m back.’ ” The Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon isn’t sure the Masters is Tiger’s best choice to resume playing golf. “It’s like Kobe or LeBron deciding to skip warmup games in March or April and just report to work for the playoffs,” Wilbon writes. “Skipping Arnold Palmer’s Bay

Hill, where a member of the Mount Rushmore of golf could put his arm around Tiger and help usher him back into the fray, is wasting an enormous resource of potential strength, not to mention goodwill.” Filip Bondy thinks Tiger’s return at Augusta is a slap at women, who are still barred from membership at the storied club. “Woods treated his wife in a similar fashion, barring her from membership in his real life while objectifying other women in the worst sort of way,” Bondy writes in the New York Daily News. “He was playing. Elin was watching, never fully informed about the rules of his game.”* * * The adage that there’s no such thing as a sure thing in sports doesn’t apply to the opening round of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. Not when the No. 16 seeds are 0-100 all-time against No. 1s. So here’s a tip if you’re entering the Fix’s NCAA tournament contest at Yahoo Sports: Go ahead and pencil in top seeds Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse and Duke into the second round. There’s almost zero chance they’ll lose. The rest of your picks might not be so easy. While the big programs normally dominate the watercooler chatter, and will again soon enough, the Fix will give the 16th seeds their fleeting moment of fame. The Jayhawks,

the tournament’s top seed, face Lehigh University of the Patriot League in the Midwest Regional. Sounds like a cakewalk to this longtime Jayhawk fan, but the Daily Oklahoman’s Berry Tramel reminds readers that Thursday is the fifth anniversary of a major upset when No. 14 Bucknell became the first Patriot League school to win an NCAA tournament game by ousting No. 3 Kansas, 64-63. Vermont was a surprise 60-57 winner over Syracuse five years ago in another 3-vs.-14 battle, although no one is giving the Catamounts any chance of beating the Orange in the West Regional. The best storyline then is the Joseph brothers, Vermont’s Maurice and Syracuse’s Kris, Bucky Gleason writes in the Buffalo News. East Tennessee State’s in tough against powerhouse Kentucky in the East Regional, but just reaching the tournament has to be a blessing for the Bucs, a team that lost its best player to injury before the season not long after another player died in a car accident, Jerry Tipton writes in the Lexington Herald-Leader. In the South Regional, Arkansas-Pine Bluff earned a date with Duke after defeating Winthrop, 61-44, in the play-in game Tuesday. The Golden Lions’ appearance in the tournament is all the more remarkable considering they lost

their first 11 gamesall on the road. In the Dayton Daily News, Tom Archdeacon looks at how the historically black school rallied from their horrendous start to earn their first spot in the tournament. If you need help with your picks, take a few seconds to read how little time Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski spends making his selections. As in barely a minute. The Awl’s Abe Sauer crunches the numbers tuition coststo fill out his bracket. His pick for the championship game? Let’s just say it isn’t the Kansas-Kentucky matchup so many are choosing. Far from it. Some Web sites are offering $1 million for any fan lucky enough to pick all 63 tournament games correctly. Good luck overcoming the odds o f o n e - i n 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, Matt Severance writes at Doc’s Sports. At U.S. News & World Report, Ben Miller and Marc Isenberg debate allotting tournament bids based on graduation rates. Finally, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Frank Fitzpatrick suggests 10 ways to improve the tournament.* * * Mike Lowell’s baseball career has seen better days. He’s been with Boston for the past four seasons but at 36 faces a much WAS page 70

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Tiger Steps Into the First Tee Box And… (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/16/2010 4:07:09 PM

Tiger Woodss announced return to golf at the Masters next month raises a lot of questions: Will his game be ready? Does so quick a return to golf somehow belie the sincerity of his televised apology four weeks ago? Why did he forgo a warmup tournament, such as the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando next week? Getty Images Tiger Woods watches his misfired tee shot on the first hole during the final round of the 2009 Masters. But for my money none are more intriguing than what will actually happen on Thursday, April 8, when Mr. Woods tees off at Augusta National. How will the new Tiger Woods comport himself? How will the media and the other players treat him? Most importantly, how will the fans react? More than 20 million people in the U.S. alone watched Mr. Woods deliver his 13-and-a-half minute mea culpa on Feb. 19. It was carried live by 15 U.S. television networks. Next month, the audience for Mr. Woodss tee time with destiny probably wont reach that level. That’s partly because only one network, ESPN, is scheduled to carry it live (CBS has the weekend Masters coverage) and partly because Mr. Woods will not be directly addressing the

juicy topics marital infidelity, the wreck he has made of his life that drew so many viewers with zero interest in golf. But the moment will make for irresistible television nonetheless. Will we see signs of humility and repentance in the way Mr. Woods walks to the first tee? How will he shake hands with his competitors? Will he stride down the fairway with the proud, imperious, middle-distance gaze we’re so familiar with? Or will his gait, like his reputation, be noticeably altered? For that matter, will he hit a decent drive? The last drive Mr. Woods attempted on the first tee at Augusta National, in the final round of last years event when he was paired with Phil Mickelson and in contention, was a pull-hook disaster. It landed in the second cut nearly two fairways over and he finished tied for sixth. Mr. Woods, despite his brilliant record, is not immune to pressure and self-consciousness. One reason Mr. Woods must surely have chosen the Masters for his reappearance, apart from a love of green jackets (he has four in his collection already), is that no tournament provides better control of the crowds and the media. The Masters is a private tournament hosted by the secretive and august Augusta National Golf Club. That organization is under no

imperative, implied or otherwise, to credentialize any media outlet it doesnt wish to, just as the club is under no imperative to admit women as members. The waiting list for tickets is approximately forever. Most of the fans (please call them patrons at Augusta National) with badges for this years event have been showing up for years. They arent making a special trip to jeer Tiger Woods. In fact, anyone who does jeer or otherwise behave in an inappropriate manner can be thrown off the grounds at Augusta with little recourse. The majority of fans may or may not greet Mr. Woods warmly, but theres no tournament where hell encounter fewer drunken YouDa-Man-ers than here. Even so, there will be a few. Up and down Washington Road in Augusta near the club entrance, scalpers legally sell Masters tickets each year. More can be purchased through auction sites online. Badges for Thursday through Sunday competition rounds can fetch five figures. One way or another, you can bet a few yahoos will find their way

onto the grounds this year and make themselves known to Mr. Woods. Who knows what creative things they are dreaming up to say? Its likely, too, that some of the people buying scalped tickets will be using funds supplied by the tabloids. Admission to the media center where formal interviews take place is tightly controlled, but I would expect Mr. Woods and other players to hear some eye-opening questions called out from the galleries. In surveys conducted after Mr. Woodss Feb. 19 apology, roughly half the respondents said they believed he was sincere and a quarter said he was not. (Another quarter had no opinion.) Among journalists writing about Mr. Woods, it seems to me, those percentages are approximately reversed. The focus of much recent commentary has been what constitutes a suitable period of mourning for Mr. Woodss sins. Are the four-and-a-half months that have elapsed since the Thanksgiving week accident that triggered the Tiger scandals enough? Thats plenty long enough for a person to take stock of the damage done, decide on a path of reform and begin the long process of working on the issues involved while also working at ones day job. I see no reason to assume, as some commentators

seem to, that Mr. Woodss postaccident actions and timetable are primarily and cynically driven by his desire to start earning money again as soon as possible. No one not named Tiger Woods can know, of course, but the guy is a golfer. Thats what he does and always has done. I dont see how reengaging with his career, even at the Masters, is incompatible with whatever else in his personal life he may be working on. Its another matter whether hes actually ready to compete. Mr. Woods has played in majors directly after extended layoffs twice before. In 2006 he played in the Masters but not again, because of his fathers death, until the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. That year he missed the cut his only missed cut in a major since turning pro in 1996 until last year’s British Open. In 2008, suffering from a knee injury and surgery, he again didnt play between the Masters and the U.S. Open, but that year he won the Open in a playoff with Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines. At this years Masters, however, it will have been five months since he played a competitive round, at the Australian Masters in midNovember. Elite pros like Mr. Woods gear their seasons toward peaking for TIGER page 70

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Ben Roethlisberger has not met with Georgia Bureau of Investigations ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/17/2010 5:42:07 AM

20yet")); } I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp n.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=500 1162"); 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=5001162' }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } ESPN.com news services ATLANTA -- An attorney for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger says the two -time Super Bowl winner has yet to meet with Georgia authorities who are investigating a sexual assault allegation made against him by a 20-year-old college student.

Ed Garland told The Associated Press on Tuesday that his client is not in Georgia and has yet to speak with investigators regarding the accusation made on March 5 in Milledgeville. He has not been charged. Garland says there is no timetable for the interview. NFL.com reported on Tuesday that Roethlisberger and others who were with him the night of the alleged incident were interviewed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on Saturday in Georgia. When asked if the NFL.com report was true, Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Tom Davis told ESPN's Kelly Naqi on Tuesday in an e-mail, "Not entirely." "[The Georgia Bureau of Investigation] has not interviewed Ben Roethlisberger yet," special agent Tom Davis told Naqi on Tuesday. "We interviewed a majority of people that were in his group on Saturday in Georgia. I will not say who from his group we interviewed but we have not spoken to Ben yet. His lawyer

has not made him available. [Garland] has cooperated in every way, with the exception of the interview." Davis said Garland has cooperated with the investigation and has made the Steelers quarterback "available for everything we have asked with the exception of interviewing him at this point." When asked if Garland had told authorities whether Roethlisberger would be made available in the future, Davis told Naqi, "[Garland] has not decided for sure one way or the other." Davis added, "According to the Bill of Rights, [Roethlisberger] doesn't have to speak with police if he doesn't want to but [Garland] has been very cooperative in every other way." Davis declined to say whether Garland was considering having Roethlisberger submit a sample of his DNA for testing. Milledgeville Police Chief Woodrow Blue also confirmed to ESPN in an e-mail Tuesday that investigators spoke on Saturday to members of

Roethlisberger's party from the night of the alleged assault, but have not yet interviewed Roethlisberger. "We haven't set any timetable for ourselves [on when they'll complete their investigation]," Blue told Naqi. He reiterated that Garland has been cooperative. The student told police that the 28-year-old quarterback, who had been barhopping with friends, assaulted her at a nightclub in the college town. Garland has said the quarterback committed no crime. Roethlisberger's agent, Ryan Tollner, declined comment when reached by ESPN on Tuesday. Roethlisberger missed the start of the Steelers' offseason workout program Monday. Information from ESPN's Kelly Naqi and The Associated Press is included in this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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called both Joe Lewis and Arnold Palmer and expressed my regrets for not attending the Tavistock Cup and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. I again want to thank them both for their support and their understanding. Those are fantastic tournaments and I look forward to competing in them again. "I would also like to thank the Augusta National members and staff for their support. I have deep appreciation for everything that they do to create a wonderful event for the benefit of the game." Palmer said Woods sounded good in their conversation. "He had some zip in his voice," Palmer told the Golf Channel. "He sounded just fine. He knows what he wants to do with his life and the way he's going to handle it, and I guess we're going to give him that respect. I would think for Tiger it's going to be tough. It's going to be something that's going to take him a little time to get used to. "He expressed his regret for not being able to play. He said that he was sorry, that he really

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didn't feel his game was up to speed to start playing this early. " Rocco Mediate, who engaged Woods in an epic playoff battle in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, thought Woods would return at Bay Hill. "It's easy, it's close. But he may not be ready," Mediate said. "I don't know. I haven't talked to him. I'm not really surprised. It's the safest place. It's the most controlled place.'' Mediate also said that he expects Woods to be at the top of his game. "He's won four [Masters titles]," Mediate said. "That's probably his favorite golf course, I would think. There is some room for error off the tee. Not much anymore. But there's some. And for the distance that man hits it ..." Woods last played on the PGA Tour in the Tour Championship on Sept. 28, where he finished second. His layoff between the Australian Masters and U.S. Masters will be 144 days -- the second-longest of his career. He missed 256 days recovering

from knee surgery in 2009. "We want the best player in the world out playing golf again," longtime rival Jim Furyk said. "He's got to do what's best for him. I realize looking at the big picture it's good for everyone. What's good for the best player in the world is probably good for the big picture and the PGA Tour." Already the major with the highest TV ratings, this Masters could be the biggest yet. The first two rounds are televised on ESPN, with CBS Sports on the weekend. "Obviously, the ratings will be off the chart," PGA Tour player Heath Slocum said. "It will be interesting to watch -- not only the reaction from him, but from the fans, the media, the players. I would venture to say he might be nervous." The governing body of golf outside the United States said it hoped Woods would play at The Open Championship in July. "We're pleased to hear that Tiger is to return to golf. ... Golf needs the world No. 1 to be playing," Royal & Ancient

spokesman Malcolm Booth said. Woods has not yet entered to play at the British Open at St. Andrews, but has until May 27 to send in his entry form. Booth says it's "normal that he hasn't" entered yet. Woods has won titles at three of the four major championship venues this year -- Augusta National, Pebble Beach (site of the U.S. Open in June) and St. Andrews. The PGA Championship is at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, where Woods tied for 24th six years ago when the event was first held there. Bob Harig is the golf writer for ESPN.com. 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.

times, including the last two years.) Maybe he feared the fallout and chaos of playing in a preliminary event more than he valued the tune-up. Maybe he simply felt that he needed two more weeks of practice before

putting his game on display. He told Arnold Palmer in a phone call Tuesday morning that he didn’t feel his game was sharp enough yet to be competitive. Any way you look at it, April 8 may be Mr. Woodss toughest

round ever.

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the majors, so its hard to imagine that he wouldnt have preferred to be playing a tune-up next week at Bay Hill in Orlando. (He has won that tournament, now called the Arnold Palmer Inviational, six

reduced role with the Red Sox. The Miami Herald’s Greg Cote thinks it’s a good idea to bring Lowell back to Florida, where he played with the Marlins for seven seasons, and could help the team earn a playoff spot this season.* * * When I was a young boy, I aspired to be either a sports journalist or a forest ranger. I’ve been in journalism for the most part since the mid-1970s, when I began contributing to a couple of smalltown papers in high school, became a copy boy for the Canadian Press, went to college in the St. Louis area in my mid-20s and earned my B.A. in political science, writing for the school newspaper and spinning records on our 10-watt radio station. I returned to Ottawa in the late 1980s and soon began freelancing for the Ottawa Citizen. I complained enough about all the grammatical mistakes in the sports section that I was thrown on the copy desk. Sports was one of many departments I worked in before taking a voluntary buyout two years ago after 17 years. I thought my journalism career was over, but then I was offered the Fix gig 18 months ago. It’s been a great ride blogging for one of the world’s best newspaper Web sites, but today is my final Fix appearance. It’s WAS page 71

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Shaky Woods Won't Win, but Masters Is Right Call Jay Mariotti (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/16/2010 2:50:00 PM

Filed under: Golf, Masters So off we venture into a new pocket of surrealism, The Adultery Meets History Tour, starring a disgraced icon whose popularity has plummeted quicker than any celebrity since, oh, Pee Wee Herman. Tiger Woods is returning to competitive golf at his safest haven, amid the azaleas and dogwoods at the Masters, where Southern gents in green jackets will shield him from evil reporters while muzzling loudmouths anxious to shift once-reverent chants to wicked taunts. Such as, "You Da Sham!" It does make sense for him to push the reset button at Augusta National, where he has enjoyed his greatest triumphs and spent his every April since 1995, long before he was married and became the all-time sexual horndog. "The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect," Woods said Tuesday in words breathlessly awaited by a tabloid-daffy world. "After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel that I'm

ready to start my season at Augusta. The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and, as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be, even though it has been a while since I last played." Exactly. At last, a troubled soul who has lived so wrong finally got something right after a fourmonth vanishing act. It is vital to Woods' self-sabotaged psyche that he find the smoothest possible path back to who he was in the sport -- the most talented golfer ever. He'll never again enjoy the endorsement riches that made him the first billion-dollar athlete, but let's not be silly and think he'll fade away as a champion and stall out in his bid to break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major

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tough to leave, as everyone has been great to work with. Most notably I want to thank my titles. It will take Woods a while editors Carl Bialik, who offered t o r e g a i n h i s d o m i n a n c e , me the Fix job, and Adam especially as he ratchets down Thompson. Fellow Fixer David the very ego and cutthroat Roth, whose columns always are intensity that drove his 14 major an interesting read, brings a lot victories and 82 total victories of flare and nice turns of phrase worldwide. Challenged by Tom to the Fix. We have different Watson and others to become a styles and strengths that I think better human being in ways serve Fix readers well. Speaking beyond keeping his pants of readers, Don Hartline has zipped, Woods must channel been a savior more times than I maturity and decency into his can count by serving up lots of game. Imagine demanding links to share. Thanks to the Michael Jordan, the legend to many other readers who have w h o m h e i s m o s t o f t e n sent kind notes, and chided me compared, to stop scowling and when I messed up. It’s humbling shrugging and sticking out his w r i t i n g f o r s u c h a n tongue in the 1990s. No doubt k n o w l e d g e a b l e a u d i e n c e . this will be a different Woods, With so many staff cuts at one who won't win at the n e w s p a p e r s a r o u n d N o r t h Masters next month, might not A m e r i c a , I ’ v e f o u n d i t win a major this season and may increasingly difficult to find Fix need the better part of this -worthy links, spending much decade to hunt down Nicklaus, more time than I’d prefer to t h e f a m i l y m a n w h o w a s devote to the column. As much everything off the course that as I love reading about and watching sports, I’m also Woods hasn't been. "I need to make my behavior passionate about politics and more respectful of the game,'' he said, which means he no longer can curse, throw clubs and glare at anyone who blinks during his back swing. Follow Us on Twitter Friend Us on Facebook

economics. I’ll cherish having more time to devour all the books that have been piling up for too long. And sleeping in a little longer in the morning. Sports fans have never had it so good instant access to box scores, game stories and columnists’ opinions, not to mention a smorgasbord of viewing options for your favorite sports teams. In other words, change for the better. For me, it’s time for a change. Who knows, maybe I’ll become a forest ranger after all. – Tip of the Fix cap to reader Don Hartline and fellow Fixer David Roth. Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email Garey at ris84rap@gmail.com.

Sports/

Erin Andrews' Dream Turns to Nightmare Lisa Olson (FanHouse Main)

moment, it's like heaven has lowered a rope for her to grab and never let go. Filed under: Sports Business Imagine how proud you were and Media Imagine you're the when you saw the joy on your father of a girl who knows at a daughter's face as she told you young age what she plans to do she now worked for ESPN, the with her life. She's going to be crown jewel of the sports world. like you, a TV reporter, and as And imagine how revolted you she grows you watch her hone felt five years later, when she her craft and devote attention to revealed to her family that there detail as if she were studying to were pictures of her on the be a fighter pilot. Internet, naked pictures taken She sets up mock interviews the Barbie doll looks. She rises without her knowledge by a with school friends, writes fairly quickly in her chosen twisted lout who secretly elaborate scripts and performs Q field, moving from freelance videotaped her through hotel -and-A sessions in front of the reporter at a local station to a room peepholes. She couldn't mirror. She's blessed with reporter covering the Tampa even get through the details, so stunning genes, sure, but it's Bay Lightning to studio host for thick were her sobs, and you clear she's more than just a Turner Sports. Every day is a wondered what kind of sicko pretty face with to-die-for hair. new adventure, a new story, but could do this to your daughter. She's smart, funny, pals with she can't just know a little She said she felt ashamed, but most everyone and never takes something about all sports -- why should she be ashamed herself too seriously. Eventually baseball, college football, when all she had done was her she leaves the Tampa home to basketball, always floating job? She said she was scared, attend the University of Florida, wherever the job takes her -- really scared, for her career but w h e r e s h e m a j o r s i n because there are plenty of also for her life, because nobody telecommunications and trudges critics hanging on her every yet knew the pervert's identity. upon the path you, the father, word, hoping she'll fail. She If he was able to easily trace her stays up late at night perusing moves when she was on the have traveled for decades. Like most every twenty- stat charts and box scores and road, he could be anywhere -- in something maneuvering through s p o r t s h i s t o r y b o o k s a n d her house, in the bushes, in a the real world, she makes a few practicing, constantly practicing. parking lot waiting for her to professional mistakes, but she's Eventually ESPN calls with a walk alone to her car. driven and determined, two job offer, and for a young girl qualities that elevate her beyond who always dreamed of this Submitted at 3/16/2010 4:55:00 PM

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NFL Notes: Jets' Backfield Still Has Issues Despite Tomlinson Chris Harry (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/16/2010 2:15:00 PM

Filed under: Jets, NFL Notebook O.J. Simpson went to San Francisco. Franco Harris to Seattle. Tony Dorsett to Denver. Eric Dickerson gave Atlanta and Oakland a try. Eddie George journeyed to Dallas. Worst of 'em all: Emmitt Smith played his final game -- and fumbled on his final carry -- as an Arizona Cardinal. And so it was with relatively little shock value in these freeagency times that San Diego Chargers icon LaDainian Tomlinson, released last month after amassing the eighth-best career rushing stats in NFL history, signed Sunday with the New York Jets. It was never a question if Tomlinson would play in something other than a Chargers uniform. That he ended up with the Jets was no surprise, either. Once cut loose, "L.T." said he

wanted a shot at championship. But the J-E-T-S legions have to be wondering why Tomlinson, a 30-year-old in a three-season statistical free fall, is an upgrade from Thomas Jones, the 31-year -old who was released two weeks ago despite coming off a career season of 1,402 yards and 14 touchdowns. Jones, the best running back on the open market, signed with Kansas City. Can the Jets really say they're better off in the backfield now?

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Introducing the Daily Fix NCAA Tournament Bracket (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/16/2010 11:54:38 AM

Associated Press Every hoops fan has his own way of getting involved in March. If you’ll allow your Fixer a truism, NCAA tournament predictions are like windbreakers. Everyone has one, they’re pretty much universally unflattering, and Bobby Knight’s are loud and look ridiculous. As the beginning of the 2010 NCAA tournament approaches, this would be the time to pull that goofy metaphorical windbreaker on, and to embrace the opinionated, ultra-fervent, mostlikely-wrong college hoops dork within. Your Fixer, for one, has already done as much. And on behalf of the entire Daily Fix, I

invite all of you to join me in the inaugural Daily Fix NCAA Tournament Bracket at Yahoo Sports. You’ll need a Yahoo ID to play it’s free, and takes about 90 seconds to get if you don’t already have one but those 90 seconds are all it will cost you to join up. And the rewards, dear reader! The rewards! Right, about those rewards. As far as I know, there will be no actual rewards. I mean, we can probably work something out, and I’d be happy to add a suitable-for-framing autographed version of my unflattering Daily Fix stipple portrait (my jaw is not nearly that large, I swear) and a Daily Fix Jamz mix CD to any prize package. There’s also a chance that Daily Fix editor and likely Cornell-in-the-Sweet-16

exponent Adam Thompson may wind up scrounging something up around the office or at least contributing a hand-drawn portrait of Big Red center Jeff Foote but it’s most likely that Daily Fix NCAA Tournament

Bracket competitors will be picking for pride and bragging rights and other ineffable and inexpensive things. Whatever the case, you and I and everyone else will be competing against the Internet’s best and best-read

sports blog readership, and that’s surely worth something. So: here’s how to join. Direct your browser to Yahoo’s Tournament Pick ‘Em main page and click “Join Private League.” Our League ID is 139026; the password is “thefix,” all lowercase, no quotes. After that, you’re on your own. Just be advised that your Fixer has some rather unconventional opinions about Old Dominion, and isn’t afraid to back said opinions up with bold (read: consequence-free) picks. So get yourself signed up and let’s do this thing, Daily Fix readers.

Review: Perfect Dark (XBLA) James Ransom-Wiley (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/17/2010 11:00:00 AM

"Remastered" is the appropriate term for 4J Studios' Perfect Dark port, which takes Rare's classic console FPS and remodels it with high-resolution assets and tactful tweaks to better suit its new Xbox Live Arcade format. Perfect Dark is the third N64-generation Rare title that 4J Studios has remastered, following XBLA

ports of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, and it's likely the most anticipated. Perfect Dark is a historical landmark, after all, and it's one that should be visited from time to time by anyone interested in games. Originally released in mid2000, Perfect Dark arrived as I was staggering forth from my freshman year of college. I picked it up because, back in high school, we played GoldenEye until the sun came up. I never grew to worship

Perfect Dark as I had Rare's acclaimed Bond shooter, but my memory recalls it as a " slightly superior" game (if not as

personally beloved). As one of the more prominent entries on my "I woulda, coulda, shoulda played it more" list, I've been

looking forward to this reunion - a chance to get to know Perfect Dark better. Gallery: Perfect Dark (XBLA) Continue reading Review: Perfect Dark (XBLA) Review: Perfect Dark (XBLA) originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Reggie courts core devs, questions motivation to Move JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/17/2010 10:20:00 AM

In an interview with IndustryGamers, Nintendo of America president Reggie FilsAime asserted that Nintendo does care about third parties and does need them, despite the fact that Nintendo's business is sustained pretty well by firstparty games. "The fact of the matter is we know we create great content for younger consumers," he said, "we know we've got great content for more casual players, and we want fantastic content for that more active player who loves Metroid or Zelda, but maybe also wants something like a BioShock 2 to

play as well." Reggie then admitted, "We're not good at it and it's not a key focus area," thus Nintendo's interest in thirdparty developers. The boss man also reiterated, almost word for word, his previous position that Nintendo would begin work on the next Nintendo system when a developer was unable to do something on the current Wii hardware, and he repeated that an HD feature alone wouldn't be enough to justify a new console. When asked about the PlayStation Move, Fils-Aime questioned the Sony device's appeal. If the Wii already scratches the itch for motionbased gaming, then why would

consumers be moved to pick up a PS3? "What's going to motivate them to spend minimally $300 for a new [PS3] system, plus minimally $100 for the Move motion bundle? So [as a consumer], now I'm into this for $400 and I still have to spend money on software. What's going to motivate me to do that?" Reggie courts core devs, questions motivation to Move originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Gaikai's Perry says OnLive pricing is a 'shot in the arm' Justin McElroy (Joystiq)

is. But there's a nugget of truth in what Perry says; even though he neglected to discuss the Though we weren't particularly OnLive Game Portal, which thrilled to hear about game seems to more closely mirror his streaming service OnLive's service. Haven't you been a bit $14.95 monthly user fee, there's less interested in OnLive since at least one guy who's totally you learned you'd have to pay excited for it: Dave Perry, the $15 a month for the privilege to frontman for competing service buy and retain ownership of Gaikai. "We were just as games? surprised as everyone else when Gaikai's Perry says OnLive we heard the final business pricing is a 'shot in the arm' m o d e l , " P e r r y t o l d originally appeared on Joystiq GamesIndustry.biz. "That's why on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:10:00 it's a shot in the arm to us, EST. Please see our terms for because now we're just perfectly use of feeds. positioned." Read| Permalink| Email this| If it sounds like corporate chest Comments -beating, that's because it totally Submitted at 3/17/2010 9:10:00 AM

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The Selby on Making Cookies with Maria Sharapova, His New Book, and the House He Hopes to Shoot ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 3/16/2010 1:18:13 PM

I probably shouldn't admit this (being an online fashion editor and all) but the blog I visit most often is not about fashion. Theselby.com is my dirty little secret (well, not so secret—the whole fashion and design worlds seem to be just as smitten as me). Last night, I got to meet the source of my obsession, Mr. Todd Selby, at a party celebrating his photo tigers, there'd be enough fur the game with a co-op partner, puzzle object while the other collaboration with Cole Haan. I sat down with everyone’s coats left over to give everyone either online or on couch, you'll defends the rear. in the world a warm winter. have someone to yell at should Gallery: Lara Croft and the favorite voyeur to chat about personal space, making cookies, Lara Croft and the Guardian of that happen. Guardian of Light Light is heavy on the action, The game's isometric camera Continue reading Impressions: a n d t h e o n e h o u s e h e ’ s w i t h t e r r i t o r i a l e n e m i e s angle and twin-stick shooting Lara Croft and the Guardian of d e t e r m i n e d t o s h o o t . For spring, the photographer s w a r m i n g t h e e p o n y m o u s m e c h a n i c s b r i n g t o m i n d Light e x p l o r e r a n d a n e w f o u n d Assault Heroes(or Geometry Impressions: Lara Croft and the took a wholly unique, and very partner, the Mayan warrior Wars, at a basic level), but the Guardian of Light originally Selby, approach to shooting the Totec, from all directions. pacing here is different. A more appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 brand’s ad campaign (called The Thankfully, the guy knows how apt comparison -- that takes into Mar 2010 09:41:00 EST. Please Inspired Life). His subjects were a mix of his own personal to fire a gun and toss a spear -- account the lulls in action -- see our terms for use of feeds. though I pray he doesn't mix the w o u l d b e L e f t 4 D e a d , P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | friends (DJ Harley Vieratwo up when the situation gets especially when one player is C o m m e n t s SELBY page 76 out of hand. If you're playing tasked with manipulating a

Impressions: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Ludwig Kietzmann (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/17/2010 9:41:00 AM

Giant spiders. Why'd it have to be giant spiders? Mind you, seeing Lara Croft gun down squealing, eightlegged monstrosities doesn't bring with it the tinge of regret that I've come to associate with her tendency to permanently cross off creatures from the endangered species list. Had Crystal Dynamics opted to switch out the spiders with

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Newton and curator Nicola Vassel among others), as well as existing Cole Haan collaborators (including Maria Sharapova, who designs a line for the brand). Naturally, he shot in each person’s home, amongst their most personal possessions (paintings, photo albums, guitars, and beloved pets). Selby had heard that Sharapova loved to cook so, upon arrival at her Los Angeles home, he promptly said, “Let’s make cookies.” By the end of the shoot, he had the tennis pro playing badminton in her backyard.

Up next for The Selby: his first book, The Selby Is in Your Place(featuring the homes of Karl Lagerfeld, Lou Doillon, and Christian Louboutin), comes out the first of April. For the man who can make his way into almost anyone’s home, I had to ask what tops his wishlist of yet-to-be-photographed spaces. The Selby’s reply: “The White House. I’m working on it right now…I’ll get there.” Click here to shop Cole Haan’s latest styles, and here to see The Selby’s spring campaign. —Violet Moon Gayn or

Todd Selby (wearing glasses) with, from left to right: Nicola Vassel, Harley Viera-Newton, and photographer/filmmaker Moses Berkson ( subjects of his spring ad capaign for Cole Haan); The photographer snaps a photo of the crowd at 10 Downing last night Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/17/2010 5:15:29 AM

One of the things I hate about a secular bull market — especially towards its rampaging tail end — is how everyone and everything gets silly. Money and champagne flows, conspicuous consumption is on full display. I recall people — literally — dancing on bars during the late 90s in NYC. To be sure, Fed Chair Alan Greenspan was not going to be the spoilsport and take away the punchbowl. Every one was having a good old time. Except the people who knew. order): Jason Wu's body-con Those worrywarts who looked mini, Elise Øverland's wide at price, at valuations, who are leather belt, and Justin Giunta's familiar with market history and kryptonite collar necklace from understood mean reversion. his Deviated collection. These folks were aware of what —Violet Moon Gayn or was going to come next. Valerie Feigen, Joann Pailey, I hated the Manhattan party Jason Wu, Alissa Emerson, and atmosphere in 1999; it was Kate Davidson Hudson obvious how (but not precisely Photo: Patrick McMullan when) it was going to end: Follow ELLE on Twitter. Badly. The prices paid for Become our Facebook fan! baubles, the reckless, conspicuous consumption, and ostentatious displays of wealth — paying more than full retail— it was all a symptom of way too much money sloshing around.

ELLE and New York Boutique Edit Celebrate Spring Shopping in Style ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 3/16/2010 3:40:52 PM

Spring is finally in the air and last night ELLE and Upper East Side boutique Edit celebrated the start of the new season and the exciting launch of the ELLE Shops Edit online boutique with a cocktail party honoring Jason Wu. Market Director Joann Pailey and Executive Accessories Editor Kate Davidson Hudson, along with Edit's Valerie Feigen and Alissa

Emerson, walked the stylish crowd through the boutique's swoon-worthy selection of Derek Lam, Proenza Schouler, Elizabeth and James, and

Narciso Rodriguez. After checking out this month’s online selection at ELLE.com, I've added a few things to my shopping list (in no particular

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NBER: Having It Both Ways? Invictus (The Big Picture)

including Employment, Industrial Production, Real Income, and Real Retail Sales > (tracked here at the St. Louis There seems to be growing Fed). Business Cycle Dating consensus that the recession Committee member Jeffrey ended some time in mid-2009 F r a n k e l l i k e s t o l o o k a t (June or July), and we recently aggregate hours, too. In the real pointed out that regional St. world, all of this is mostly an Louis Fed economists have academic exercise in any event placed their bets on a July 2009 — Americans, like Associate trough. Now it’s up to the Justice Potter Stewart once NBER. famously said on a different We know that they weigh a t o p i c a l t o g e t h e r , k n o w a variety of economic indicators, recession when they see one, Submitted at 3/17/2010 8:00:36 AM

and they also generally have a pretty good idea when it’s ended. (I take pride in having nailed the NBER’s call that the recession began in December 2007 while blogging elsewhere.) But what about GDP? How does it figure into the equation? We’ve had two consecutive quarters of growth, including the 5.9 percent of Q4 2009. How will that play? Well, it’s a interesting question, as the NBER has very contradictory and conflicting

information at its own website about how it weighs the evidence: In announcing the 2001 recession, the NBER said(emphasis mine): Because a recession influences the economy broadly and is not confined to one sector, the committee emphasizes economy -wide measures of economic activity. The traditional role of the committee is to maintain a monthly chronology, so the committee refers almost

exclusively to monthly indicators. The committee gives relatively little weight to real GDP because it is only measured quarterly and it is subject to continuing, large revisions. Got that? Okay, let’s move on. October 21, 2003 Memo from the Committee(not coinciding with a peak or trough announcement; emphasis mine): The committee views real GDP NBER: page 78

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Mal-investments were everywhere, and prices became stupid — for cars, for apartments, and of course, for equities. That is, to say the least, no longer the case (equities excepted). Prices have plummeted, consumers are de-leveraging, and cash is king, For those of you consumers who are value sensitive — and still have jobs — this current environment is far more attractive a period of time to acquire goods and services than the mayhem at bull market tops. Everything is priced to sell. I started thinking about this issue in mid 2008 when a wealthy client had said the following to me:“Barry, I appreciate you steering us away from trouble during this mess, but your commentary is so relentlessly negative, its a bummer to read. What can you

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tell me that is not utterly depressing?” Now, this gentlemen measures his wealth in GDP of small countries, and while we have many similar interests — cars, watches, boats, travel, music, etc. — his “collections” are insane, museum quality work. (I have an old SL, he has a airplane hanger full of fully restored 196os Ferraris; I have a few nice antique watches, he has million dollar time pieces). So my advice – I mentioned this on Tech Ticker — was as follows: “ Make a wish list of what you have wanted to own, but were unwilling to pay top dollar for. Could be real estate, art work, collectible autos, jewels, sports franchises. Bid 50% of the peak market price. Then sit back to see what happens.” He thanked me for that, and acquired a number of items at a hefty discount to market value. Which leads me to this question

for us mortals: Are any of you readers going on a “spending spree” of sorts? What are you purchasing? What assets have dropped enough in price that they have tempted you to step up to the plate and buy? Since the crisis began, I have advised clients to consider buying: -Homes, Vacation Properties -Renovations, Construction, Extensions -Vacations, Travel -Collectible Automobiles -Investments, Stocks, funds -Boats, Planes, recreational vehicles -Art & Sculptures? -Audio, Video, Electronics, Computers. -Watches, Jewelry (especially those of Precious Metals) Fortunately, I avoided temptation and did not make many dumb purchases at the top. That made me more comfortable buying distressed

assets after the prices collapsed. And, putting my money where my mouth is, I have made many purchases this down cycle (no Gulfstream, but much of the rest of the list). So my question is simply this: What are you buying? ~~~ For those of you who want to be anonymous, send me an email at thebigpicture at optonline dot net, and I will assemble a list of the most interesting purchases for a future post . . . Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Race for Control of Congress Remains Close (All Gallup Headlines)

Club®, Emotional Economy™, Employee Engagement Index™, Employee Outlook Index™, Copyright © 2010 Gallup, Inc. Follow This Path™, Gallup All rights reserved. Brain®, Gallup Consulting®, Gallup®, A 8™, Business Gallup Management Journal®, Impact Analysis™, CE 11®, GMJ®, Gallup Press®, Gallup Clifton StrengthsFinder®, the Publishing™, Gallup Tuesday 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder Briefing®, Gallup University®, t h e m e n a m e s , C u s t o m e r HumanSigma®, I 10™, L 3™, Engagement Index™, Drop PrincipalInsight™, Q 12®, SE Submitted at 3/16/2010 9:30:00 AM

25™, SF 34®, SRI®, Strengths Spotlight™, Strengths-Based Selling™, StrengthsCoach™, StrengthsFinder®, StrengthsQuest™, TeacherInsight™, The Gallup Path®, and The Gallup Poll® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. These materials are

provided for noncommercial, personal use only. Reproduction prohibited without the express permission of Gallup, Inc. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

as the single best measure of aggregate economic activity. In determining whether a recession has occurred and in identifying the approximate dates of the peak and the trough, the committee therefore places considerable weight on the estimates of real GDP issued by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The traditional role of the committee is to maintain a monthly chronology, however, and the BEA’s real GDP estimates are only available quarterly. For this reason, the committee refers to a variety of monthly indicators to determine the months of peaks and troughs. Although the Committee qualifies its October 2003 remarks by mentioning the need to maintain a monthly chronology, the two comments nonetheless seem contradictory to me, and flip-flop the importance of what is to be considered. Whichever way they eventually call it, the NBER will have a document to which it can point to support its decision. Is it time — or long past — to formalize what it means to be in, or out of, recession? If so, my vote might easily go to the Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index. INSERT CHART HERE The Chicago Fed provides the NBER: page 79

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NBER: continued from page 78

following bogeys: ”A CFNAIMA3 value below –0.70 following a period of economic expansion indicates an increasing likelihood that a recession has begun. A CFNAIMA3 value above –0.70 following a period of economic contraction indicates an increasing likelihood that a recession has ended. A CFNAIMA3 value above +0.20 following a period of economic

contraction indicates a significant likelihood that a recession has ended.” It is an excellent indicator. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

MediaDailyNews: OOH Super-Graphics Go Green: Movie Billboards Morph Into Reusable Bags (MediaPost | Media News)

buildings -- appears to have been solved. The environment-friendly fix Big Billboards Become Chic comes courtesy of Midnight Oil Shopping Bags in L.A. Los and LA Graphico, sibling Angeles is a giant laboratory marketing companies based in and proving ground for new out- Pasadena, which specialize in of-home advertising strategies -- online advertising and super which also makes it a hotbed of graphics (focused on the movie opposition to the burgeoning, industry) in partnership with diversifying medium -- witness a n o t h e r l o c a l c o m p a n y , the seemingly endless battle Billboard2Swag, which takes over digital billboards, which LA Graphico's discarded vinyl now involves the LA City building wraps and turns them C o u n c i l , t h e P l a n n i n g into sturdy, stylish reusable Commission, and the state and shopping bags. Federal courts). But at least one Unlike the reusable shopping of the more contentious issues -- bags sold by green-thinking t h e e n v i r o n m e n t a l c o s t supermarket chains, each of the associated with vinyl "super- Billboard2Swag bags is unique. graphics" applied to the sides of Given the size of the superSubmitted at 3/17/2010 7:49:14 AM

bag made from, say, a giant super-graphic for "Avatar." The green selling point helps: Billboards2Swag is able to reuse over 95% of each LA Graphico super-graphic, leaving virtually no waste for the landfill. Although it forged the partnership with Billboard2Swag on its own initiative, LA Graphico hopes the green solution will help g r a p h i c s , w h i c h m e a s u r e attract more environmentallythousands of square feet in area, conscious advertisers that may there's no guarantee a particular have shied away from the giant b a g w i l l h a v e a n y t h i n g out-of-home ads. recognizable on it, but it does According to Brandon Gabriel, o f f e r s o m e e y e - c a t c h i n g a principal at Midnight Oil and abstractions. LA Graphico, the two Plus, there is a certain cachet companies' growth strategy (at least in L.A.) to owning a includes cross-selling more of

their online ad clients to outdoor and vice versa. The bags can only help persuade digital adherents to venture out-ofhome, while allowing existing super-graphic advertisers to polish their green credentials. One interesting PR advantage: as conversation pieces, the bags continue generating buzz and publicity for a movie long after the super-graphic comes down. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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MediaDailyNews: Kantar Media 4Q: Ad Spend Down 6%, '10 Sees Growth (MediaPost | Media News)

to outperform the overall ad market, down 2.4% for the fourth quarter and off 9.5% for F o u r t h - q u a r t e r 2 0 0 9 a d the full year. spending has showed signs of As with other estimates, Kantar recovery. says the best performance here According to Kantar Media, was with cable television -fourth-quarter 2009 ad spending losing just 1.4% for the entire was down 6% versus the same year and up 2.7%. While period in '08. This result was network TV was behind cable better than the year as a whole, television for the year -- down which sank 12.3% in 2009 to 7.6% -- the group exceeded $125.3 billion as compared to cable TV in the fourth quarter, 2008. up 4.1%. Jon Swallen, senior vice In a phone interview, Swallen president of Research at Kantar says network television gains Media, states: "The advertising should be looked at from a tworecession began to ease in the year perspective: "In the fourth final two months of 2009 and quarter 2008 network TV preliminary figures from the slipped further than cable." first quarter of 2010, when Local television continued to compared against the abyss of a suffer, plunging 23.7% for the year ago, indicate many sectors year. Still, TV stations have are experiencing growth." improved, cutting losses to Only two media groups showed being down 13.9% in the fourth gains: Internet and free-standing quarter. inserts. The best results came Print media did worse than the f r o m I n t e r n e t d i s p l a y entire industry as a whole, off advertising, which rose 7.3% 17.5% for the year and down during this year -- with higher 11.5% for the fourth quarter. spending from telecom, factory Local magazines and businessauto and travel categories. to-business magazines were Free Standing Inserts (FSIs) below print overall: down were up 3.0%. Kantar says 27.7% and 26.2%, respectively. consumer-products marketers Kantar said print was hit by that have been targeting price- lower media budgets across the c o n s c i o u s s h o p p e r s w i t h broad range of advertisers. c o u p o n i n g p r o g r a m s a r e 2009 U.S. Media advertising r e s p o n s i b l e f o r t h e r i s e . results National TV media continued (Percent Change in Measured Submitted at 3/17/2010 5:30:08 AM

Ad Spending) MEDIA SECTOR · Media Type (Sectors and types listed in rank order of spending) Full Year 2009 vs 2008 4 th Quarter 2009 vs 2008 TELEVISION MEDIA -9.5% -2.4% · Network TV -7.6% 4.1% · Cable TV 2 -1.4% 2.7% · Spot TV 3 -23.7% -13.9% · Spanish Language TV 4 -8.9% -4.7% · Syndication - National -4.9% -10.7% MAGAZINE MEDIA 5 -17.4% -11.5% · Consumer Magazines -16.6% -11.1% · B-to-B Magazines -26.2% -22.7% · Sunday Magazines -11.0% 3.6% · Local Magazines -27.7%

-18.2% · Spanish Language Magazines -21.6% -12.8% NEWSPAPER MEDIA 6 -19.7% -8.9% · Newspapers (Local) -20.0% -10.3% · National Newspapers -17.8% 0.4% · Spanish Language Newspapers -16.4% -10.7% INTERNET (display ads only) 7.3% -2.1% RADIO MEDIA -20.3% -12.5% · Local Radio 7 -20.6% -11.7% · National Spot Radio -24.6% -16.9% · Network Radio -8.7% -7.9% OUTDOOR -13.2% -5.4% FSIs 8 3.0% 0.0% TOTAL 9

-12.3% -6.0% Source: Kantar Media The top 10 advertisers combined for a total of $16.6 billion, virtually unchanged -down 0.9% from 2008. But much of this was held up by a handful of big advertisers. Three of the top 10 advertisers posted double-digit improvements -- Wal-Mart, up a big 35.4%; Pfizer, rising 32.7%; and Sprint Nextel, rising 29.9%. Procter & Gamble was again the largest advertiser, with $2.7 billion spent in 2009. But this was 15.6% lower than the year b e f o r e . V e r i z o n Communications again took second position. It was down 7% to $2.24 billion. Although finger-pointing for the hard recessionary times in the advertising market went in the direction of automotives, General Motors actually spent more -- albeit slightly, 1.3% -than the year before. It remained as the third-largest advertiser with $2.20 billion. Swallen says smaller advertisers -- those below the top one thousand advertisers -were the key in pulling down overall ad budgets. "They are the first ones to cut, and they are the last to return. That tells me MEDIADAILYNEWS: page 82

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Research Brief: The New News Landscape Is Omnipresent (MediaPost | Media News)

typical day. On that "typical day": • 78% of Americans say they A new survey by the Pew get news from a local TV Internet & American Life station. Project aimed at understanding • 73% say they get news from a the new news landscape, reports national network such as that 56% of American adults say CBS or cable TV station such as they follow the news "all or CNN or Fox News. most of the time," and 25% • 61% say they get some kind follow the news at least "some of news online. of the time." 99% of American • 54% say they listen to a radio adults say that on a typical day, news program at home or in they get news from at least one the car. of these media platforms: a local • 50% say they read news in a or national print newspaper, a local newspaper. local or national television news • 17% say they read news in a broadcast, radio or the internet, national newspaper such as and the internet is now the third the New York Times or USA most popular news platform, Today. behind local television news and national television news. While online, most people say The process Americans use to they use between two and five get news is based on foraging online news sources and 65% and opportunism, says the say they do not have a single report. They access news when favorite website for news. 21% the spirit moves them or they say they routinely rely on just have a chance to check up on one site for their news and headlines. At the same time, information. gathering the news is not In this new multi-platform e n t i r e l y a n o p e n - e n d e d media environment, people's exploration for consumers, even r e l a t i o n s h i p t o n e w s i s online where there are limitless becoming portable, personalized possibilities for exploring news. and participatory. These new Some 46% of Americans say metrics stand out: they get news from four to six • Portable: 33% of cell phone media platforms on a typical owners now access news on day. Just 7% get their news from their cell phones. a single media platform on a • Personalized: 28% of internet Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:45:21 AM

users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them. • Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

assess and react to news. • Second, the ascent of mobile connectivity via smart phones has turned news gathering and news awareness into an anytime, anywhere affair for a segment of avid news watchers.

government • 38% said their neighborhood or local community

Some 80% of American adults have cell phones today, and 37% of them go online from their phones. The impact of this new mobile technology on news 57% of online news consumers gathering is unmistakable. 26% say they routinely rely on just of all Americans say they get To a great extent, people's two to five websites for their some form of news via cell experience of news, especially news. Only 11% say they get phone today. That amounts to on the internet, is becoming a their news from more than five 33% of cell phone owners. shared social experience as websites and 21% regularly rely These wireless news consumers people swap links in emails, on just one site. Moreover, get the following types of news post news stories on their social many do not have strong loyalty on their phones: networking site feeds, highlight to particular online sources. Wireless news consumers have news stories in their Tweets and 65% say they do not they have a fitted this "on-the-go" access to haggle over the meaning of favorite online news source, news into their already events in discussion threads. For The most popular online news v o r a c i o u s n e w s - g a t h e r i n g instance, more than 8 in 10 subjects are: habits. They use multiple news online news consumers get or • Weather (followed by 81% of media platforms on a typical share links in emails. internet news users) day, forage widely on news The rise of the internet as a • National events (73%) topics and browse the web for a news platform has been an • Health and medicine (66%) host of subjects. 70% agreed integral part of these changes. • Business and the economy that "The amount of news and This report discusses two (64%) information available from significant technological trends • International events (62%) different sources today is that have influenced news • Science and technology (60%) overwhelming." consumption behavior: For more from PewResearch, • First, the advent of social And, they would like to receive please go here. media like social networking more coverage in these areas: Five Filters featured article: sites and blogs has helped the • 44% said scientific news and Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: n e w s b e c o m e a s o c i a l discoveries PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, experience in fresh ways for • 41% said religion and Term Extraction. consumers. People use their spirituality social networks and social • 39% said health and medicine networking technology to filter, • 39% said their state

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MEDIADAILYNEWS continued from page 80

they are more economically sensitive." Top 10 Advertisers: Jan-Dec 2009 vs. Jan-Dec 2008 1 Company (MediaPost | Media News) actually look at the screens -- up Jan - Dec 2009 ($Millions) 30% from 2007-2009, according Jan - Dec 2008 ($Millions) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:43:14 AM to a separate Nielsen study. On % Change Digital out-of-home networks this basis, with inventory prices Procter & Gamble Co are vying with each other in the remaining stable the CPM fell $2,714.3 measurement arena. Now from $4.89 to $4.12, according $3,217.1 Adspace is adding data from to Adspace. -15.6% Scarborough to the ad rate card Measurement strategies have Verizon Communications Inc for its Digital Mall Network. taken center stage in the DO $2,238.2 Scarborough will serve as market over the last couple $2,403.4 Adspace's third-party traffic years, including the formulation -6.9% measurement provider, in a of measurement guidelines by General Motors Corp partnership that Adspace hopes t h e O u t - o f - h o m e V i d e o $2,197.5 will offer greater flexibility to Advertising Bureau in 2008. $2,168.3 advertising clients and agencies. With these guidelines in place, 1.3% In particular, the Scarborough D O n e t w o r k s h a v e b e e n AT&T Inc data will provide greater maneuvering for competitive $1,904.4 comparability between mall foot advantage by augmenting the $1,986.0 t r a f f i c f i g u r e s , w h i c h a r e explained that "as the network is basic metric with more precise -4.1% currently measured in various integrated into more mainstream d a t a o n t h e i r a u d i e n c e Pfizer Inc w a y s b y d i f f e r e n t m a l l media plans that include TV and characteristics and the impact of $1,397.4 operators. It will also provide radio, our audience data must contextual factors, like venue $1,052.8 data describing individuals' support reach and frequency and location, on receptivity to 32.7% repeat visits over time, allowing planning models." a d v e r t i s i n g a n d b r a n d News Corp Adspace to calculate reach and While the Scarborough data p e r c e p t i o n . $1,252.2 f r e q u e n c y f i g u r e s f o r actually resulted in a downward Five Filters featured article: advertisers, broken down by revision of total mall traffic for Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: the Adspace digital network, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, DMA. A d s p a c e e x e c u t i v e v i c e with a 9% drop, this is more Term Extraction. president ad chief marketing than outweighed by a big bump o f f i c e r W i l l i a m K e t c h a m in the number of mall-goers who

$1,401.3 -10.6% Johnson & Johnson $1,250.4 $1,368.6 -8.6% Sprint Nextel Corp $1,227.1 $944.8 29.9% Time Warner Inc $1,204.8 $1,292.9 -6.8% Wal-Mart Stores Inc $1,169.6 $864.1 35.4% TOTAL 2 $16,556.1 $16,699.2 -0.9% Source: Kantar Media Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Gallup Poll/

Pakistanis, Afghans Unconvinced by Gov't Anti-Terror Efforts (All Gallup Headlines)

These findings reinforce how what happens after the battle is over is almost as important as This article is the second of a the battle itself -- which may be two-part series that looks at the key to creating meaningful Pakistanis' and Afghans' views change in Pakistan and of the Taliban's influence in Afghanistan that allows the their respective countries and governments to focus on other efforts to combat terrorism. issues important to their people. WASHINGTON, D.C. -In future articles, Gallup will Despite Pakistan's major analyze what these other military offensives against the potential issues are. Taliban last year, Gallup For complete data sets or surveys show Pakistanis' custom research from the more evaluations of their than 150 countries Gallup government's efforts to fight continually surveys, please terrorism didn't improve -- or c o n t a c t change much at all -- in 2009. worldpollpartners@gallup.com Nearly half (49%) of Pakistanis or call 202.715.3030. surveyed in November and Survey Methods December said their government Results are based on face-toisn't doing enough, similar to the face interviews in Pakistan with 47% who said so in May and 1,147 adults, aged 15 and older, June. conducted in Nov. 14 to Dec. 7, Pakistanis' views hint at 2009, and 1,133 adults, frustration with the lack of conducted May 1 to June 30, meaningful, lasting change after doing enough. But after the a n d O c t o b e r s a i d t h e i r Central region, which may 2009. For results based on the military operations in North Pakistani military moved the government isn't doing enough - reflect the heightened security in total sample of national adults, West Frontier Province (NWFP) battle to South Waziristan in - essentially unchanged from the the Kabul area ahead of the o n e c a n s a y w i t h 9 5 % in May and in South Waziristan October, less than a third (31%) 46% who said this in June. Like election and the relatively low confidence that the maximum in October. From Peshawar to of NWFP residents appraised Pakistanis, Afghans leaned risks of violence in other margin of sampling error is Âą3.7 Karachi, scores of Pakistani t h e i r g o v e r n m e n t ' s a n t i - slightly more toward saying the provinces. percentage points. civilians continue to die in terrorism efforts this way. g o v e r n m e n t i s n o t d o i n g Bottom Line FATA/FANA were excluded. Gallup's surveys show few The excluded area represents militant attacks and suicide In neighboring Afghanistan, e n o u g h . bombings, like those last week where residents also live under Afghans' evaluations of their A f g h a n s a n d e v e n f e w e r less than 5% of the population. the daily threat of terrorism, the government's anti-terrorism Pakistanis view the Taliban's Please note improved sample that claimed nearly 90 lives. When Pakistanis' opinions did view was much the same. Even efforts varied widely across presence as a positive influence. coverage and change in data change, they generally drifted in with an infusion of troops ahead their country. In the latter half of F u r t h e r , p a r t i c u l a r l y i n collection agency beginning a negative direction or toward of the August election, Afghans' 2009, Afghans' assessments Pakistan's case, offensives June 2009 measurement. The uncertainty. During the May grades for their government's took a negative turn in the a g a i n s t t h e s e u n p o p u l a r survey included Azad Jammu offensive, a majority (55%) of efforts to combat terrorism did Afghan-Pakistan border regions militants have failed to alter and Kashmir, but sample sizes those closest to the action in not change. Half (50%) of in the South and East. Afghans' perceptions of the government's PAKISTANIS, page 84 NWFP said the government was Afghans surveyed in September evaluations improved in the efforts to combat terrorism. Submitted at 3/17/2010 2:00:00 AM

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PAKISTANIS, continued from page 83

were too small to report results. Maximum margin of error by region in both survey waves ranged from ±6 percentage points in Punjab to ±11 percentage points in Baluchistan. Results are based on face-toface interviews with 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted Sept. 20 to Oct. 12, 2009, and 1,000 adults in June 4 -16, 2009, in Afghanistan. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points. Seventeen provinces were randomly chosen from 34 provinces and the sample was adjusted to reflect the population in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity, and rural and urban population. Sample sizes and margins of error for

each region were the same in both survey administrations. North Afghanistan: Results based on interviews with 290 adults from the provinces of Balkh, Kunduz, Sar E Pol, Takhar, Badakhstan, and Samangan. The maximum margin of sampling error is ±7 percentage points. Central Afghanistan: Results based on interviews with 250 adults from the provinces of Bamiyan, Kabul, Parwan. The maximum margin of sampling error is ±8 percentage points. South Afghanistan: Results based on interviews with 230 adults from the provinces of Ghazni, Kandahar, Zabul, and Paktika. The maximum margin of sampling error is ±8 percentage points. West Afghanistan: Results based on interviews with 130 adults from the provinces of

Badghis and Herat. The maximum margin of sampling error is ±11 percentage points. East Afghanistan: Results based on interviews with 100 adults from the provinces of Nurestan and Nangarhar. The maximum margin of sampling error is ±13 percentage points. The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Obama Not Meeting Americans' Lofty Expectations on Issues (All Gallup Headlines) Submitted at 3/16/2010 8:00:00 PM

Copyright © 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. Gallup®, A 8™, Business Impact Analysis™, CE 11®, Clifton StrengthsFinder®, the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names, Customer Engagement Index™, Drop Club®, Emotional Economy™, Employee Engagement Index™, Employee Outlook Index™, Follow This Path™, Gallup Brain®, Gallup Consulting®, Gallup Management Journal®, GMJ®, Gallup Press®, Gallup Publishing™, Gallup Tuesday Briefing®, Gallup University®, HumanSigma®, I 10™, L 3™,

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

Humans Could Regenerate Tissue Like Newts By Switching Off a Single Gene Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 3/16/2010 2:15:40 PM

Scientists have long been stymied by human regenerative healing-- that is, wholesale regrowth of, say, a severed limb -- an ability inherent in some species but lost on humans. But new research suggests the

ability to regenerate isn't based on something newts and flatworms have that we don't; rather, it's something we do have that's keeping us from regenerating tissues. Researchers think a gene called p21 may control regenerative healing, and that by switching it off, humans could perform our own regeneration.

The new research suggests that the potential to heal without scarring -- or possibly even to regrow a limb, albeit in a limited manner -- may lie dormant in human cells, kept in check by the p21 gene. A group of lab mice engineered to lack p21 were able to regenerate surgically removed tissue to the point that no evidence of the

surgery remained. Holes punched in their ears -- a standard procedure for tagging lab animals -- also healed perfectly, leaving behind no traces of scar tissue or previous damage. Essentially, switching off the p21 gene allows adult cells to behave like pluripotent stem cells, reorienting themselves

into whatever kind of tissue they need to be. But naturally there is a give-and-take; p21 is closely intertwined with another gene, p53, a cell-division regulator that, if allowed to run amok, can lead to many types of cancers. The p21 gene acts as a safety valve for p53, stopping cell HUMANS page 85

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Pfizer Employee Claims Company Fired Her After Infection From An Engineered Virus Stuart Fox (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

her to a different area. Additionally, Pfizer also claims that McClain's illness could not have resulted from the escaped Submitted at 3/16/2010 2:38:03 PM Lawsuit calls into question virus, since it was not whether cutting-edge research is engineered from a human virus, moving too fast for safety or with the genetic code needed regulations to keep up for reproduction and infection. A former Pfizer scientist is Most likely, we will never suing the pharmaceuticals giant know if it is Pfizer's virus that after alleging she contracted an caused McClain's health artificial, HIV-like, virus created problems. The court case will by a colleague. In her lawsuit, focus mostly on safety Becky McClain claims Pfizer procedures in the laboratory, not unlawfully dismissed her while on what exactly from the lab she suffered bouts of paralysis caused the illness. Also, Pfizer brought on by the man-made refuses to release the genome of virus. Pfizer denies these artificial lentivirus, a class of its facilities maintain the the suspected virus, preventing accusations, and says McClain viruses that also includes HIV. required level of safety, a both identification of the simply didn't come to work, and McClain believes that she position that OSHA agrees with. d i s e a s e , a s w e l l a s t h e only linked her problems to became infected by the virus P f i z e r c o n t e n d s t h a t t h e y development of a possible cure. engineered-disease exposure due to faulty safety measures, responded to McClain's initial [ The Hartford Courant] resulting in complete body complaints about the failure of after she was fired. A c c o r d i n g t o M c C l a i n , paralysis as often as 12 times lab safety devices, and that she refused to return to work even r e s e a r c h e r s i n h e r l a b every month. g e n e t i c a l l y e n g i n e e r e d a n For its part, Pfizer claims that after Pfizer offered to transfer

HUMANS continued from page 84

division in the case of DNA damage. So switching off p21 can allow cells to engage in regenerative healing, but the risks of doing so include rampant cell division (read: cancer). However, in the p21-free lab mice there was no cancer surge as one might expect, but rather

an increase in apoptosis, or cell suicide, which directs damaged cells to destroy themselves. So it would appear that by striking some kind of controlled balance between allowing regenerative cells to work, while letting apoptosis regulate out-of-control cell division, could lead to regenerative treatments for

humans somewhere down the road. [ Guardian]

Bad News for Terraformers: Periodic Bursts Of Solar Radiation Destroy The Martian Atmosphere Stuart Fox (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:58:10 AM

Unfortunately for anyone looking to terraform Mars, a new study shows that powerful waves of solar wind periodically strip the Red Planet of its atmosphere. Scientists had known for years that Mars has atmosphere troubles, but only by analyzing new data from he Mars Express spacecraft were they able to identify the special double solar waves as the specific cause. Double solar waves are a rare phenomenon that result when the Sun emits waves of differing speeds. If a fast wave follows a slow wave, the fast wave crashes into the back of the slow one, rolling them both up into a super-charged double wave. Scientists were able to correlate Martian atmosphere loss, as measured by the the Mars Express spacecraft, with records of double radiation waves in BAD page 86

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2007 and 2008 taken by the Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft. According to the study, one third of Martian atmosphere loss occurs during these waves, which are only present 15 percent of the time. Unlike Earth, Mars lacks a magnetic field that deflects waves of solar radiation. Without that protection, the waves simply strip the atmosphere right off the planet. However, at the poles, Mars does have the remnants of a

magnetic field, protecting the ice caps from these bursts. Only comet strikes and the occasional melting of dry ice from the poles provide Mars with any atmosphere at all. To make Mars habitable would require some sort of giant underground alien air generator. [ Discovery News]

Sanyo's Solar Parking Lots Charge Community Bikes Without Tapping the Grid Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

the panels charge both the lithium ion batteries installed directly on the bicycles as well as an array of lithium ion-based Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:47:44 AM The future of community bike storage cells that reserve power systems may not require much for those rainy days when pedaling at all; Sanyo has just sunlight is scarce. installed two "Solar Parking The storage arrays also include L o t s " t h a t s e r v e a s s o l a r AC converters that can be used c h a r g i n g s t a t i o n s f o r 1 0 0 to power external devices, Eneloop electric hybrid bicycles m a k i n g t h e s t a t i o n s g r i d in Setagaya, Tokyo. independent sources of The carbon-neutral bike shelter electricity in case of emergency. both charges the bikes and Eneloop bikes, you'll p r o v i d e s l o w - p o w e r L E D remember, are electric hybrids lighting from solar energy that do most of the work for you collected by panels on the roof. -- you still pedal to make them Based on Sanyo's own Smart go, but electric motors supply Energy Systems technologies, most of the energy needed to

propel the bikes forward (for a refresher see the video below). The Eneloops provided at the Solar Parking Lots will be used as community bikes, though it's unclear if they will be offered free of charge or rely on some sort of payment system. Green electricity, green travel and some good old-fashioned exercise amid the great outdoors; in the worst-case scenario, your battery dies and you actually have to provide some forward momentum yourself. There's a lot to like about Sanyo's scheme. Stuart Fox (Popular Science [ Sanyo] New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

Fastest Binary Stars Ever Discovered Orbit Each Other at 310 Miles Per Second Despite moving at 18 miles per FASTEST page 87

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second, it still takes the Earth a year to make it around the Sun. For HM Cancri, an orbit takes a little bit less time: around five minutes. At that speed, HM Cancri is the fastest binary star pair ever discovered, with each white dwarf circling the other at a speed of 310 miles per second. Initially, scientists were shocked that a solar pair could spin so quickly, and assumed it was a single, larger star whirling about. However, more recent studies that utilized Earth's second most powerful telescope found that the system wobbled more than expected from a single star. The only other explanation was a tightly bound pair of small stars. Not only is HM Cancri the

fastest binary star system every discovered, but it is almost the fastest binary star system possible. If they orbited each other any more quickly, say, on the order of three minutes per orbit, the stars would pull so close that they would begin siphoning helium off one another. At that point, the system would experience a special kind of supernova. The resulting blast would then slow down the system. So it looks like, even in space, speed kills. [ National Geographic]

South Korea Guns for Smart Grid Finish Line info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

factories and other facilities in Ontario, Canada. Both LG and Samsung have also unfurled Submitted at 3/16/2010 1:25:38 PM initiatives to reduce power Brightly colored and clear as consumption in their upscale day, a recently released road household appliances. map for South Korea’s smart Despite its strong foray into grid sends an unmistakable solar on the business side, South message: We’re ready -- are Korea set a relatively modest you? goal for renewable energy as a The country’s Ministry of country -- 11 percent in 2030 -Knowledge Economy’s two- yet it expects nearly one-third of page report hits all the high households to be energy selfpoints (and garners plenty of sufficient by the same date. style points) in its plan for smart Other targets are far more grid deployment through 2030, ambitious. The road map calls with hard targets for everything f o r a 1 0 0 p e r c e n t A M I f r o m a d v a n c e d m e t e r i n g penetration by 2020 and to hit infrastructure to PHEV quick- 5.6 percent penetration in 2010. charging stations and microgrid But the rollout doesn’t stop at communications. smart meters. “This presentation is on par or South Korea also expects to better than anything I’ve seen expand from 500,000 PHEVs in from a progressive utility in the 2012 to nearly 2.5 million by U.S.,” said David J. Leeds, a 2030, with the capacity for smart-grid analyst with GTM vehicle-to-grid transmission. Research. “They clearly intend Who is going to pay for all that? info@greentechmedia.com e n t r y , " D a v i s r e s p o n d e d , to be one of the first nations to According to the road map, (Greentech Media: Headlines) describing his prior work in a have a fully integrated smart approximately $6.2 billion ($7 commercial energy auditing grid in place.” trillion won) will get spent on Submitted at 3/17/2010 4:43:28 AM industry that is seemingly stuck South Korea sees energy and technology development and "When you were conducting in the 20th century. energy efficiency as one of its $18 billion will go into building energy audits, what was your Davis and Erwin are among the n e x t b i g e x p o r t m a r k e t s . infrastructure. medium of choice?" Carter entrepreneurs making Vice Samsung has laid plans to The SK Group, which included Erwin asked Colin Davis at a President Joe Biden proud. In become the world’s largest solar SK Energy, SK Telecom and recent MIT Energy Conference. O c t o b e r , B i d e n u n v e i l e d provider by 2015 from a base in SK Networks, is expected to be "Pen and paper, floor plans if I "Recovery through Retrofit," the 2009 of effectively zero. The a major player in developing the was lucky, Excel spreadsheets, O b a m a A d m i n i s t r a t i o n ' s company recently agreed to grid, according to The Korea and crying softly in a cubicle as build $1.6 billion worth of Times. SK Telecom is already MARCH page 89 my life ticked away doing data

March Madness: kWhOURS Aims to Modernize Energy Audits

partnered with Samsung on a pilot project on the island of Jeju to test multiple technologies. South Korea is at an advantage in that the country of 48 million depends on just one energy utility, KEPCO. Another major leg up is the country’s broadband. After the Asian financial crisis of 1998, South Korea embarked on an ambitious plan to become a worldwide leader in broadband. It worked. The country became an epicenter for online gaming development, social networking and other broadband services, and its communications backbone is one of the most robust in the world. “[With this road map] South Korea is saying look, this is what smart grid is and we’ve got the existing knowledge base to be tech leaders here," says Leeds. He further points out, or rather, cautions, that "South Korea imports essentially all of its energy, so there is a necessity there that may drive Korea to develop next-generation smart grid technologies ahead of the pack." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Intermolecularâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PV Development: R&D in Hyper-Drive info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines) Submitted at 3/17/2010 7:40:59 AM

Here's a (likely apocryphal) tale told in the thin-film solar manufacturing world: An unnamed CIGS solar startup was doing process development and ran out of the de-ionized water used as a cleaning agent in their manufacturing process. That particular day, they substituted straight California tap water in their process and rather than ruin their experiment - the efficiency of the new PV material jumped a few percentage points. The firm reacted by storing hundred gallon tanks of that day's tap water for later analysis to determine what mystery substance was improving their process. The point is that there are countless variables to control in a solar cell, whether it be silicon, CIGS or cadmium telluride. And exploring those material, temperature, thickness and control variables in a systematic, rigorous manner can be beyond the capabilities of many solar firms. And certainly most start-ups. Intermolecular changes that. I

spoke with Craig Hunter, the Vice President and General Manager, Solar and Energy Technologies (formerly with Applied Materials' SunFab group) about the 120 person company. I also spoke with Tony Chiang, the CTO and the CEO, David Lazovsky. For five years, VC-funded Intermolecular has partnered with semiconductor firms and more recently, solar firms in a collaborative development model to discover and hone new processes. What Intermolecular has mastered is the ability to do many experiments on a single wafer -- up to 72 experiments per cycle. These are essentially miniaturized and site-isolated experiments. As an example: a wafer can be run with 18 different silicon wafer texturing processes, each with four different passivation techniques. In a project that would take another company months and tax their analytical capabilities, Intermolecular can have a throughput of hundreds of uniquely characterized solar cells per week. Intermolecular has the flexibility to change gases, targets, chemistries and integration schemes. This is

combined with automated probing and an " Informatics" software system. Intermolecular has borrowed from its semiconductor industry experience to essentially provide a new type of R&D. Their sophisticated equipment brings massively parallel processing to materials-level experiments and their "High-Productivity Combinatorial R&D" allows companies to perform hundreds of experiments a week. Backed up by data that makes the experiments repeatable. Hunter called it "R&D in hyper-drive." Intermolecular is funded by CMEA, Redpoint and USVP. This trio of venture firms also funded cylindrical CIGS IPOaspirant Solyndra. CMEA has a related portfolio firm - Wildcat Discovery Technologies which rather than look for new processes, instead searches for new materials for use in photovoltaics, batteries and in carbon capture. According to Intermolecular, solar technology is like semiconductor technology in its ability to benefit from combinatorial R&D work flows The innovation at Intermolecular is "in applying a combinatorial methodology to

device development." Another innovation is in providing this semiconductor process development as a service. Note that Intermolecular doesn't focus on selling its equipment. The company sells its expertise for a fee and then, and here's the interesting revenue part -- it looks for a small royalty on the higher performance endproduct. On the premise that a bump in efficiency, a reduction in cost or a more consistent and faster throughput is worth a lot to any solar firm. It's a unique approach. The firm has already started working on projects aimed at improving alkaline texturing of monocrystalline silicon wafers and developing a more durable, lower cost antireflective coating for PV glass. The latest initiative getting underway is a development program focused on making high efficiency CIGS more manufacturable. The company is also considering programs targeting optimized transparent conductors and efficiency enhancement for earth-abundant PV materials like CZTS. Longer term ambitions include LEDs, thin film batteries, super-capacitors,

and electrochromics. The crew at Intermolecular is smart -- 50 percent of their 120 people have PhDs. And by all accounts -- their semiconductor business is rolling along. But there is a difference in the nature of semiconductor design and photovoltaic design and it's a difference that could limit Intermolecular's push into solar power. The IP in a semiconductor design is about clever layout and intelligent circuit and module design as well as process whereas the IP in a PV cell is often the process itself. Solar firms might be reluctant to share the entirety of their secret sauce with the good people at Intermolecular. That said, David Lazovsky, Intermolecular's CEO, cited Samsung's multi-billion dollar R&D budget as an indication of the opportunities that await Intermolecular, saying, "It's still so early in solar." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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aggressive program to promote residential energy retrofits. On March 21, kWhOURS, Inc., a startup Davis founded and at which Erwin works in product development, is releasing its first product: software that will enable energy auditors to perform commercial audits more efficiently and cheaply. "I proposed doing this within my old firm and they basically said, 'We're not a software company,'" said Davis. According to Davis, kWhOURS' product has been in development for a year and is currently being beta-tested by, among others, a large electric utility, a Northeast-based energy service firm, and several small private consultancies. kWhOURS' potential customers are interested in its technology because of the lengthy, expensive and archaic process through which most energy audits are currently conducted. "They take a long time. They're performed by people with an average of 15 years of experience. They're usually professional engineers with multiple degrees billing the equivalent of $150-200 an hour," said Davis. "These

highly skilled individuals spend a very significant portion of their day counting light bulbs, recording nameplate efficiencies on pumps, motors, HVAC equipments, manually migrating their shorthand notes to a digital platform, and trying to guess what all the site photos they took actually depict." "An investment-grade audit for a 500,000-square-foot hotel, for example, could take a month," continued Davis. "Data collection would take a week or so in the field. Then everyone goes to their dark little threewalled rooms, migrates from pen and paper to Excel spreadsheets, and manually inputs that data into Energy Star and different energy analysis and modeling tools to analyze various ECMs (Energy Conservation Measures). Then they write a report from scratch. It's a terrible misuse of highly skilled engineers to [have them] spend so much time on simple repetitive tasks." In the system developed by kWhOURS, auditors can export their Excel spreadsheets or instantly plug it into benchmarking and analysis software like Energy Star and

DOE-2. A second release, coming out in Q3-Q4 2010, will sport automated analysis and reporting tools. Dennis Costello, Managing Partner at Braemar Energy Ventures, believes that there is a market for innovative software that would help modernize the energy audit industry. "The whole idea of energy audits -- let's broaden it to include energy building commissions and LEED Certification -- is an industry that will need software and needs to be more automated than having individual engineers walking around with clipboards and then inputting the data into spreadsheets," said Costello. "There is a lot of opportunity there. I don't know who the winners will be yet. It is very intriguing." Many firms are currently working to develop software for more efficient energy audits. Some focus on residential customers and others, like kWhOURS, target commercial auditors. Perhaps the best established of the bunch is Recurve, formerly Sustainable Spaces, which was recently named a Greentech Media Top

50 Greentech Startup. The San Francisco-based firm's software enables it to conduct residential energy audits and retrofits quicker and more cheaply than traditional auditors. Currently, large builders in different regions in the U.S. are testing Recurve's software. Then there are companies like BuildingIQ that have created applications for dynamically controlling air conditioners, heaters, and someday soon, other applications in a building. These companies don't specialize in retrofits, but they create computerized models of the buildings they control and collect data on building performance. One can imagine companies like this moving into the retrofitting and auditing software space, as well. The challenge kWhOURS faces is selling into a fragmented market, as energy audits are conducted not only by utilities and large energy service firms, but also by thousands of small energy consultancies. Marketing and selling energy audit software could be expensive -- particularly when competition among software providers becomes intense.

"I really like the idea generally. The biggest worry that I have is that there are a lot of companies that are trying to chase the same customers in the same market," said Bilal Zuberi, Principal at General Catalyst Partners. "You have to stand out. To stand out, you need a direct sales force. These businesses will live and die by their cost of customer acquisition (COCA). I am standing on the sidelines. I want to invest in these companies when they can show me they are steadily bringing down their COCA to the point where it is sustainable." Yoni Cohen is a JD-MBA student at the Yale Law School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He previously worked as a reporter for Fox Sports, among other jobs. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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CPV Semi Startup Solar Junction Gets More Funding info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

Following a recent $3M funding award from NREL as part of DOE's Photovoltaic Submitted at 3/17/2010 6:00:58 AM Incubator Program, Solar It's quiet in the world of Junction just revealed their Concentrating Photovoltaics $13.3 million C round from (CPV). existing investors Draper Fisher While c-Si and CSP are J u r v e t s o n , A d v a n c e d furiously running the race, CPV Technology Ventures and New is still at the starting line. Enterprise Associates "to What little news there has been support the development of in CPV has been less than e a r l y s t a g e s o l a r e n e r g y dramatic. T h e r e w a s technologies and help them D e c e m b e r ' s C o n c e n t r i x advance to full commercial acquisition. And what amounts scale," as per the DOE website. to a big CPV deployment by Solar Junction is developing a Concentrix -- 1 megawatt in m a n u f a c t u r i n g p r o c e s s t o New Mexico which we covered produce a very high efficiency here as well as some other multi-junction cell. minor personnel developments. Solar Junction will use these There hasn't been a lot of news funds to reach high-efficiencies out of ostensible market leaders for multi-junction solar cells and S o l F o c u s o r E n e r g y to move forward with customer Innovations. We've heard a few sampling activities, according to rumors of an Amonix funding their press release. and of some progress at rooftop Solar Junction needs vendors CPV player Soliant. like Solfocus to deploy tens of But today, San Jose, California- megawatts of CPV systems and based Solar Junction announced to design-in the Solar Junction their next funding round. product. Both of those things

have to happen for Solar Junction to have a chance of succeeding. The startup's competitors include incumbent triplejunction solar cell providers Emcore and Spectrolab and startups Cyrium and QuantaSol. According to Greentech Media's recent report on CPV -CPV: New Applications and Emerging Markets, "With relatively high costs, CPV is even more dependent than other solar technologies upon government subsidies and R&D funds. This creates a certain level of policy risk, which refers to the governmental will to support innovative solar technologies and the uncertainty that the market could disappear when governmental funding stops." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.