Liberty Newspost Mar-19-10

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Democrats lead on fundraising for 2010, but the gap may be closing David Morgan (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 3/18/2010 11:49:21 AM

If new campaign dollars were votes, Democrats would be leading Republicans in the early returns for the 2010 congressional elections by about 7 percentage points overall. But that’s with Republicans closing the gap and eight months to go before Election Day. A report by the Federal Election Commission says the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pulled in $183 million in new donations during 2009, the first half of the 20092010 congressional election

cycle.

That put Democrats about 9 percent ahead of their Republican counterparts – the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee – which raised $168.6 million together.

But Republicans may b e g a i n i n g momentum: committee fundraising figures that also include the month of January show the Democrats with a $202 million 13-month total and a lead narrowing to 7 percentage points, vs. the GOP’s $188.7 million tally.

The Washington Post, which reported on the FEC numbers in its Thursday editions, notes that Democrats have had difficulties

given gridlock in Congress and President Barack Obama’s diminished popularity. Democrats are also the object of unhappiness on Wall Street over the prospects for financial and healthcare reforms.

But the FEC figures show the Democratic Party is still pulling in money from big donors, with $37.3 million from individuals who gave $10,000 or more

during 2009. Republicans could boast only $15.6 million from the high-end crowd.

The 13-month data for the Democratic Party also reflects a 33 percent gain compared to what the three committees raised in the same period during the 2005-2006 election cycle. Republican fundraising was down 17 percent over the same period.

The 2005-2006 cycle would be the one that ended with Democrats seizing control of Congress. Republicans hope to return the favor this year.

Photo credits: Reuters/Reuters Stringer (Big Bucks); Reuters/Jason Reed (U.S. Capitol Dome) Click here for more political coverage from Reuters

Google's fast pipe to Asia almost ready Tom Krazit (Webware.com) Submitted at 3/18/2010 11:31:00 AM

An undersea cable built by a group including Google and telecom companies is set to start

carrying traffic at any point, Originally posted at Relevant with Google to get as much as Results 20 percent of the capacity.

Soyuz space capsule lands safely in Kazakhstan (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:29:28 AM

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Who are you calling a “punk staffer”?

Warren Buffett as Axl Rose? It's All for You ...

Caren Bohan (Front Row Washington)

Andrew Clark (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

Submitted at 3/18/2010 1:34:05 PM

House Republican leader John Boehner’s comment about“punk staffers” involved in the writing of the financial regulation bill did not seem to sit well with White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers.

In an appearance at the National Press Club, Summers made a point of bringing up the comments by Boehner, who urged bankers to stand up for themselves and said they should not “let those little punk staffers” working on the bill take advantage of them.

Boehner may not have been spoiling for a fight, but he got one.

Summers pressed his criticism of lobbyists who the Obama administration accuse of trying to water down the proposals for tighter regulation of Wall Street.

“I do not think of the people who work on this project as ‘little punk staffers.’ I do not think that those who want to address these issues are ‘little punk staffers’ who need to be stood up to,” Summers said.

“And at a time when industry has hired –- has spent $1 million on lobbyists per member of Congress, at a moment when there are four lobbyists per member of the House and

Senate working on this issue, we in the administration do not believe that the prominent issue is allowing bankers to stand up for themselves.”

Summers, a former Treasury secretary, his deputy Diana Farrell and several Treasury staff members worked closely with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on the 1,336-page legislation the Democratic senator introduced this week.

The push for a revamp of Wall Street regulations has taken a back seat as President Barack Obama has spent the last several weeks focusing on healthcare.

Whenever that gets resolved — a vote is expected in the next several days — the White House is likely to resume a major focus on regulatory reform.

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Summers speaks at the National Press Club)

Google: Our future rulers? [video] (Holy Kaw!)

excellent video from Australia’s need a Wookie.

ABC1 comedy news show, Full story at The Daily What.

Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:02:00 AM Hungry Beast. Definitely stay Tons of Google news and If you have any doubt that tuned until the last seconds of views.

Google will emerge as the next the clip to get a glimpse into the Permalink| Leave a comment » world superpower (take that, possible future of the search Putin!), then check out this engine giant. Hint: We might

merits, you've got to admire the leather-clad Buffett for being game. It's hard to imagine his younger rivals on the global rich Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:03:26 AM Buffett's husky midwestern list, Carlos Slim or Bill Gates, tones cut in at about the two- rocking out in quite the same minute mark and perhaps we way. should charitably advise him not Geico, which has been fully to give up the day job owned by Buffett's Berkshire There's life in the old billionaire Hathaway investment empire yet. The world's third-richest since 1996, has been a major man, Warren Buffett, has shown moneyspinner for Buffett, who the world a whole new side of built his early fortune on himself by donning a purple insurance. In his annual letter to bandana, an Axl Rose wig and shareholders this year, Buffett fake tattoos to belt out a rock boasted that the business had ballad for staff at his US made an underwriting profit for insurance company, Geico. 13 of the 14 years under his In a promotional video rapidly ownership. going viral on the internet, the "I became excited about Geico 79-year-old tycoon, nicknamed in January 1951, when I first the "sage of Omaha" for his visited the company as a 20-year legendary stockpicking prowess, -old," wrote Buffett. "I'm even joins employees in a somewhat more excited today." cheesy number called "All for • Warren Buffett you"‚ which trumpets the • Guns N Roses importance of customer service. • United States Buffett's husky midwestern tones cut in at about the two- Andrew Clark minute mark and perhaps we guardian.co.uk© Guardian should charitably advise him not News & Media Limited 2010 | to give up the day job. A Use of this content is subject to commentator at Toronto's Globe our Terms & Conditions| More and Mail compared his singing Feeds prowess to "a drunken Neil Young".

Irrespective of his musical

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The White House Rose Garden strategy

Transport workers strikes in brief

Steve Holland (Front Row Washington)

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

Submitted at 3/18/2010 12:37:45 PM

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs succumbed to spring fever and held his daily news briefing out in the sunsplashed Rose Garden today.

A few dozen reporters and maybe a squirrel or two squinted their way through about an hour of Q and A with Gibbs, who advised that he had put on three layers of sunblock before exposing his pale skin to the sun.

“This will not be a regular thing.

I just thought it’s been a long winter and why not get outside and have a little fun for once in a while,” he said.

The assorted scribes were hopeful that President Obama himself might make an

appearance, what with him apparently just a few steps away in the Oval Office. But no surprises were to be.

Gibbs’ big news was that Obama was forced to reschedule a trip this weekend to Indonesia and Australia due to last-minute efforts to gain passage of healthcare legislation.

When out: Any time from April 1.

Impact: Immediate, serious disruption in many parts of the country when services will Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:01:09 AM

By David Millward, Transport stop.

Editor British Airways Published: 4:01PM GMT 19 Cabin Crew Mar 2010 Union: Unite Rail Number involved: Up to Maintenance workers: 13,500, though some expected Union: RMT to report for duty Number involved: 18,000 Issue: BA's cost-cutting Issue: Plans for 1,500 job cuts package, including reducing Other than the splendid setting, a n d c h a n g e i n w o r k i n g number of crew on plane.

When out: Three days from the briefing was pretty much the p r a c t i c e s .

When out: Any time from April S a t u r d a y , f o u r d a y s f r o m same as always…

Saturday 27.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason 1.

Impact: Nothing for first week, Impact: Immediate, hundreds of Reed (Gibbs holds his daily but lack of maintenance over BA flights cancelled. Around press briefing outside) For more Reuters political time will lead to branch line 26,000 passengers a day will closures and speed restrictions. not fly on BA news, click here Signallers Five Filters featured article: Union: RMT Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Number involved: 6,000 PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Issue: Roster changes to Term Extraction. increase working week to four days.

Matiliku Hospital Field Notes (LWI News Center)

Water is a scarce commodity, and people are used to walking long distances to find it. Most Submitted at 3/18/2010 11:54:15 AM people use dirty water from KENYA – Matiliku Hospital, shallow wells. At the clinic, the Nzaui most common diseases are GPS: 01 56.980 S, 037 32.161 malaria, typhoid, and dysentery.

E Ruth told us that she used to get This area of Kenya is very dry. w a t e r f r o m t h e r i v e r o n e

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kilometer away. Whenever it would rain, the river became muddy and Ruth would have to boil her water. “It made my family to be sick,” she told us.

“But the well water is very sweet and close to my home. I am so happy to get clean water for my family.” Now, she draws

three jerry cans of water each day—and she doesn’t have to boil it.

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Evangelical about immigration | Stewart J Lawrence Stewart J Lawrence (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

Most evangelical Christians, including most NAE members, backed George W Bush for President in 2000 and 2004.

Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:00:01 AM Pro-immigration activists are Even so, when rBush pushed marching on Washington DC f o r comprehensive this weekend, and evangelical immigrationeform in 2007, the Christians play a key role in NAE found itself too internally their fight divided over the issue to take a Thousands of pro-immigration p u b l i c s t a n d , a n d B u s h ' s activists from across the country proposed legislation suffered a will flock to Washington DC on crushing defeat.

21 March to demand that What happened to change the President Obama and Congress NAE's mind? NAE leaders say p a s s a c o m p r e h e n s i v e that continued "theological immigration reform bill in 2010. reflection" on the Christian M a i n l i n e C a t h o l i c s a n d concept of "witness" has led its Protestants who have long 40-member denominations, defended the rights of illegal including its largest group, the 3 aliens plan to be front and million member Assemblies of centre, as they have been for God, to recognise the need for years. But marching alongside greater clarity and purpose in its them this year will be some national policy views. A similar fresh religious faces: evangelical process has led the NAE to issue Christians. policy statements on climate Last October, the conservative- change, and to announce its leaning National Association of s u p p o r t f o r c o n g r e s s i o n a l Evangelicals(NAE), which legislation to limit greenhouse represents some 30 million gas emissions. evangelical Christians, passed a But another key factor is resolution at its annual meeting o r g a n i s a t i o n a l : H i s p a n i c in support of comprehensive evangelicals, whose ranks are i m m i g r a t i o n r e f o r m . T h e steadily growing, have been resolution, which received little actively lobbying the NAE to notice outside of religious support immigration reform as a circles, produced shockwaves part of a broader campaign to among US conservatives who make evangelical churches more frequently look to Christian attentive to the faith needs of e v a n g e l i c a l s f o r p o l i t i c a l their Hispanic members – in support, but who are still wary p a r t , b y p r o m o t i n g m o r e of embracing immigration Hispanic ministers but also by reform as a conservative-led developing more culturally cause. attuned models for worship and

outreach.

Leading the charge is Rev Samuel Rodriguez Jr, president of the 15 million-member National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, who, like an estimated 80% of Hispanic Christians, backed Bush for president. But in 2006, when Rodriguez tried to convince congressional Republicans that their increasingly strident attacks on illegal aliens would backfire politically, he was rebuffed.

Rodriguez's efforts to convince the NAE to adopt even a mild resolution supporting the need for immigration reform also went nowhere.

But GOP failures to attract independent white voters with their harsh anti-immigration rhetoric, and their steady loss of support from moderate Latinos, is now causing religious and secular conservatives to reassess their hard-line views. Another factor is the sheer growth of the Hispanic evangelical movement, which is beginning to outpace that of its non-Hispanic counterparts, thanks to everincreasing Hispanic immigration. With a growing flock, leaders like Rodriguez are gaining a stronger voice.

A similar trend is underway in the US Catholic church, which remains home to 70% of Hispanics. The nation's powerful Roman Catholic Bishops haven't needed a new

growth trend to convince them to embrace Hispanics or immigrants. But with the expanding Hispanic presence – an estimated 40% of the US Catholic church is now of Latino origin – the Bishops devote almost as much policy attention to immigration as they do their most visible concern, abortion.

The evangelical swing on immigration – and climate change – is also influencing secular leaders like the Republican senator Lindsey Graham, whose views on these issues largely dovetail with those of the NAE. Graham has replaced John McCain as the GOP's leading moderate voice on immigration, and he's currently working closely with Senate Democrats to get a reform bill passed in 2010.

Two years ago, when Graham ran for a second Senate term, outraged GOP conservatives tried to mobilise Christian evangelicals in South Carolina to run their own candidate in the GOP primary. Graham defused the challenge, and easily won re -election.

Another recent "convert" on immigration is Gary Bauer, who served as President Reagan's chief domestic policy advisor went on to found the Family Research Council, one of Washington's most respected Christian pro-life organisations.

Last month Bauer came out in

favour of a phased legalisation programme that would tie green card processing for illegal aliens to demonstrated improvements in border and workplace enforcement. Dan Stein, president of the rightwing Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform, which opposes an "amnesty" of any kind, recently branded Graham and Bauer "traitors".

For President Obama, the evangelical shift on immigration is especially welcome news.

Last week he suggested to immigration advocates gathered at the White House that he may still push for comprehensive reform in 2010, even in the face of Republican opposition. It's a dicey move, but one largely prompted by Democratic fears of an erosion of Latino electoral support. The NAE's endorsement of immigration reform legislation, and its active lobbying on the Hill, could be just what Obama needs to cover his right flank.

• US immigration • Religion • Race & religion • Race issues • Obama administration • Barack Obama • US politics • Christianity • United States Stewart J Lawrence EVANGELICAL page 7

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Fess Parker obituary Brian Baxter (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:15:35 AM

Rugged Texan actor best known for his roles as Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone The actor Fess Parker, who has died aged 85, was a quintessential westerner, a tall, rugged, Texas-born athlete turned actor, famous for his portrayals of two frontiersmen, Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, as well as sheriffs, cowboys and ranchers. He greatly appreciated the commercial rewards of these two title roles, and went on to become a successful businessman.

The Walt Disney studio was the first in Hollywood to move wholeheartedly into television, and had the bright idea of combining three episodes of the Davy Crockett series Parker had made for them in 1954 into a feature. The result, Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955), spawned the craze for coonskin hats and became a box-office hit on the back of its singalong theme. Bill Hayes's recording of The Ballad of Davy Crockett topped the charts for three months, and Parker's own version reached No 5.

Parker's relationship with Disney became the cornerstone of his career, and two further episodes were spliced together

as Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956). Since the first film had ended with the maverick Tennessee politician's death in 1836 at the Alamo, the fortress near San Antonio, Texas, that had been besieged by the Mexican army, these new stories had to be "prequels".

Parker was a cowboy in André de Toth's Bounty Hunter (1954) and a soldier in Raoul Walsh's memorable Battle Cry (1955).

But his best role from this period came as an army spy, James Andrews, in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956). This factually based story, set during the American civil war, had formed the basis of Buster Keaton's masterpiece The General (1926). Disney turned it into a colourful adventure movie, with Jeffrey Hunter as the good guy and the locomotive as the star.

Parker stayed with Disney for the highly successful weepie Old Yeller (1957), where his character role was upstaged by two brilliant child actors and a dog. More conventionally, he was a sheriff in Michael Curtiz's The Hangman, turned up fleetingly as Crockett in Alias Jesse James (both 1959) and was appointed platoon sergeant in Don Siegel's vigorous Hell Is for Heroes (1962).

Although he had had leading roles in westerns such as Along the Oregon Trail (1956) and The Jayhawkers! (1959), work

became scarce as the genre suffered from television competition. Parker returned to the small screen, in a change of pace, but the series Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1962-63), based on the 1939 James Stewart classic, proved only a modest success and Parker's tenure as the liberal senator was shortlived.

Salvation came with the role of a frontiersman less complex than Crockett. Daniel Boone was an orthodox, even more famous hero who opened up western territories, including the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian mountains, during the latter part of the 19th century. The character seemed tailor-made for Parker, who had appeared in the 1956 movie, Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer, but lost out to Bruce Bennett for top honours. There was ample compensation with the 1964 television series, in which Parker had a 30% stake. It ran for six years, allowing the star time for only one movie as Clint in Smoky (1966), a remake of a touching story about a man and his horse, which had first starred Victor Jory, then Fred MacMurray.

After 300 episodes, the Boone series ground to a halt, and Parker made only one more movie, Climb an Angry Mountain (1972). He played a sheriff and took his own second name of Elisha for the character,

followed by the surname of the great Gary Cooper, who had starred in one of Parker's earliest movies, Springfield Rifle, 20 years previously.

Born in Fort Worth and brought up in San Angelo, Texas, Parker served in the US navy during the second world war. He transferred from the HardinSimmons University, Abilene – where, at 6ft 6in tall, he had been a keen footballer – to the University of Texas, Austin, where he took a history degree in 1950.

He then studied drama at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and in 1951 took to the stage in the play Mister Roberts. The following year, his modest beginnings continued on television, in Dragnet, with further work on big and small screen.

He could be glimpsed in such series as Death Valley Days and worked for some of Hollywood's finest directors in minor roles, including three movies in all for De Toth, a western for the maverick Hugo Fregonese and two for Douglas Sirk, untypically in modern dress for No Room for the Groom (1952) and Take Me to Town (1953).

These parts paid the rent until one as a ranch foreman in the science-fiction classic Them!

(1954) caught the attention of Disney, and the resulting

television breakthrough established Parker's fame. Once he had given up acting, he returned to showbusiness only when named "a Disney legend" in 1991, and to appear a decade later in the documentary Walt: The Man Behind the Myth.

Not that Parker retired. He expanded his property interests, developed his vineyards in California and opened hotels in Santa Barbara and more substantially in Los Olivos, where his winery, restaurants and businesses dominated the area.

He adopted a hands-on approach and was a star attraction at his hotels, where affluent tourists and locals could reckon on talking to, or at least catching sight of, the well-built, still handsome man who was once king of the wild frontier.

In 1960, he married Marcella Rinehart. He is survived by her, his son, Eli, and his daughter, Ashley.

• Fess Elisha Parker Jr, actor, born 16 August 1924; died 18 March 2010 • Television • Walt Disney Company • United States Brian Baxter guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More FESS page 7

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Quartet blasts Israel over East Jerusalem settlements Luke Harding (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbours".

The quartet includes Hillary Submitted at 3/19/2010 5:10:21 AM Strongly worded statement Clinton for the US; Russia's from Middle East peace envoys f o r e i g n s e c r e t a r y , S e r g e i c a l l s f o r p u l l o u t f r o m Lavrov; Tony Blair, the quartet's Palestinian territories within 24 special representative; and Lady months Ashton, the EU foreign policy The Middle East quartet has chief. strongly denounced Israeli The statement expressed deep moves to build 1,600 new alarm at the deteriorating homes in East Jerusalem and situation in Gaza, urging Israel urged the Israeli government to lift its blockade of the Gaza and Palestinians to resume Strip for both humanitarian and peace negotiations. commercial traffic and calling In a hard-hitting statement after for a "durable resolution to the a meeting in Moscow, the UN, Gaza crisis". the EU, Russia and the US Clinton said she had spoken last condemned Israel's "unilateral" n i g h t t o t h e I s r a e l p r i m e construction plans and said the minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, status of Jerusalem could only following his apparent offer of be resolved through negotiations "confidence-building measures" between both parties. to encourage the renewal of The UN secretary general, Ban peace talks. She described the Ki-moon, said: "The quartet conversation as "very useful and condemns the decision by the productive … We don't believe government of Israel to advance unilateral action by any parties planning for new housing units are helpful. We've made this in East Jerusalem." clear."

The quartet expected that talks None of the quartet parties were b e t w e e n I s r a e l i s a n d willing to say what pressure Palestinians should lead to a they were prepared to put on negotiated settlement that Israel should it ignore today's "within 24 months" ends the statement. o c c u p a t i o n o f P a l e s t i n i a n The quartet called on Israel to territories begun in 1967. The freeze all settlement activity settlement should result "in the "including natural growth", to emergence of an independent, dismantle outposts erected since d e m o c r a t i c , a n d v i a b l e March 2001, and to "refrain

from demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem". It also appealed for the international community to back the Palestinians' commitment to build an independent state by offering immediate and concrete support.

A statement from Netanyahu's office said he proposed a series of steps that would make it easier for the Palestinians to join the talks. He did not specify what these would be, but they could include easing Israeli roadblocks in the West Bank, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from more parts of the West Bank and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

He did not announce, as the US had demanded, a freeze on the construction of Jewish homes in Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem, the key sticking point.

But diplomats in Washington, Moscow and Jerusalem said Netanyahu had privately promised a temporary freeze on new construction. The work, while not cancelled, is to be postponed for several years.

The Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, told the Washington Post: "The goal of both sides at this point is to put this behind us and go forward with the proximity talks as quickly as possible."

This morning Ban said the Israeli government had approved several long-standing UN humanitarian programmes in Gaza, including a water and sanitation project, a flour mill, temporary schools and 150 houses. The UN secretary general said he would be travelling to Gaza on Sunday to see the situation on the ground there himself, following yesterday's visit by Lady Ashton. The EU foreign policy chief is understood to have been shocked by her trip to Gaza, privately describing it as "worse than Haiti".

Asked about her phone conversation with Netanyahu, Clinton today struck a more conciliatory note following her comments last week that Israel's building plans for East Jerusalem – announced during a visit by the US vice-president, Joe Biden – were "insulting". Of US-Israeli ties, she said: "Our relationship is ongoing. It is deep and broad. It is strong and enduring."

She went on: "We believe that the launch of the proximity talks is very much in Israel's interests, as it is in the interests of the Palestinians. We hope to see these talks commence as soon as possible."

A US state department spokesman, PJ Crowley, said

Clinton and Netanyahu had discussed "specific steps" to improve the outlook for Middle East peace talks. Netanyahu's spokesman, Nir Chefetz, said the prime minister had proposed "mutual confidence-building steps" that both Israel and the Palestinians could take.

Last night Israel retaliated for a Palestinian rocket attack that killed a Thai agricultural worker. Israeli planes struck at least two targets in Gaza, officials and witnesses said.

The quartet condemned yesterday's rocket attack from Gaza and called for "an immediate end to violence and terror and for calm to be respected". It also urged the release of the captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

• Israel • Palestinian territories • Middle East • US foreign policy • United States Luke Harding guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Adam Kokesh, anti-war Republican | Jeremy Lott Jeremy Lott (World news: United States | guardian.co.uk)

Michelle Malkin called it a "fake hate crime". Last week she wrote on her blog that Kokesh and company had"weaseled out Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:00:01 AM The would-be New Mexico of the attacks by claiming they candidate for Congress has were 'satire.'" angered Michelle Malkin – and But they were satire, if slightly could find it hard to secure a sophomoric. Kokesh said that he nomination was motivated to jab at YAF "Do I really, seriously have to because he thought their event explain that I don't believe that "was really just part of the all Muslims have lasers in their general government fear tactics eyes? I hope not," said would-be of saying, If you don't give us New Mexico candidate for more power, and give up more Congress Adam Kokesh last civil liberties, and pay us more week. He was referring to a flier taxes and put more power in the he had helped produce and executive branch of the federal distribute in 2007 on the campus government, terrorists are" – o f G e o r g e W a s h i n g t o n gross exaggeration alert – University mocking Islamo- "going to jump out of your Fascism Awareness Week. television set and kill you and The headline read, "Hate then subject you to sharia law."

Muslims? So Do We!!!" The "When people are trying to raise flier helpfully explained that the a spectre of fear like that," "typical Muslim" has "lasers in Kokesh said, "satire is a good eyes, venom from mouth, hatred way to punch through it." Now for women, suicide vest, hidden t h e o f f e n d e d p a r t i e s a r e AK-47, [and a] peg leg for p u n c h i n g b a c k . smuggling children and heroin."

Malkin wrote that the Students who wanted to find out organisation that Kokesh is part more were told to "come to of, Iraq Veterans Against the Islamo-Fascism awareness War, had a membership that week" put on by GWU's Young included "bomb-threat bullies America's Foundation. The and death-threat nutballs who supposed sponsors of the flier threatened to assassinate me," as were "Students for Conservativo well as "fake army vet Jesse -Fascism Awareness."

MacBeth". She charged that The intent of the flier is clear Kokesh was "arrested for enough: to ridicule YAF's defacing signs and travelled to e f f o r t s . Y e t w h e n i t w a s Germany to urge soldiers to distributed around campus, abandon their posts … He is an powerhouse conservative pundit anti-war smear merchant in

GOP clothing."

Kokesh, a retired marine who was involved in the first battle of Fallujah, denied the charges.

Of his arrest in 2007, he said, "We were actually putting up posters. We weren't defacing anything. And we were doing it very deliberately in line with the code of the District of Columbia. And we were arrested for political reasons, then acquitted." I pressed him on the question of troop desertion: Q: If a soldier is out in the field and he all of the sudden decided that this war in unconstitutional, does he have an obligation to desert his post?

A: No, no, no, no! But to raise the issue, and if he feels the need, in conscience, to say, "I'm not going to participate anymore" there is a legal way to do that under the [Uniform Code of Military Justice]. But, no.

We've never said "Walk away from your post." That's a gross distortion of what we're talking about here and something I've never advocated.

Kokesh said that he understood why Malkin was angry and talked of the death threats that his own advocacy has provoked.

He had, he told me, voted to kick the veteran who threatened her with a "fatwa" out of Iraq Veterans Against the War. And he generally deplored the times when his fellow anti-war

veterans threaten their critics.

He called it both wrong and counterproductive.

But heading into the New Mexico state GOP nominating convention last weekend, Kokesh refused to give an inch.

"I'm running for office to continue my oath to the constitution that I swore when I joined the Marine Corps," he said. He aims to "take all the powers" the federal government has "taken on illegally" and "at very least, restore a republican form of government."

Some polling indicates that Kokesh has a shot to win the seat currently held by Democrat Ben Ray Luján, but first he has to get the nomination and that could be a problem with prominent conservatives like Malkin pushing against him.

"Obviously I'm not a party line Republican," said Kokesh, in the understatement of the week.

• Republicans • US politics • United States Jeremy Lott guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Obama urges lawmakers to remember history (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:33:11 AM

Jade buzzed up: Lifetime tiger hunter, 92, snared in Indonesia (AFP) 35 seconds ago 2010-0319T09:12:26-07:00 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Social services 'missed two chances' to save baby Palm killed by father Needs A Hand (Top stories from Times Online)

about to have his baby.

The girlfriend, Pamela Burdge, was already known to social Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:57:39 AM services as she had had a A four-week old baby girl was troubled childhood herself and brutally killed by her father had been in raised partly the despite two warnings from his care system. own parents to health and social The health visitor failed to pass services that he posed a danger on the information to social to children, a report said today. service, and when the social A serious case review into the worker was alerted, she did not d e a t h o f T i f f a n y S e l l m a n act on the information.

Burdge published today said the Even a midwife who helped at agencies missed "two optimum the birth and was alerted to the opportunities" to recognise the possible danger by Ms Burdge risk posed to the child and act, did not pass on her concerns to blaming "human error" and any other authority. "poor information sharing". Tiffany went home with her The 25-day-old baby died of a parents and died less than a fractured skull, bleeding to the month later. brain and other injuries while The serious case review into the being looked after by her father, death said two key opportunities Christopher Sellman, 24, in were missed to save Tiffany’s November 2008. life.

Sellman had two other children "There were two optimum by a previous partner, both of opportunities to recognise the whom were looked after by his risk and act upon it, when the parents after social workers paternal grandparents notified judged they were not safe in his and health visitor then the care. social worker of their concerns.

That followed an incident The first was missed due to where his young son suffered poor information sharing, the extensive facial bruising. There second due to poor individual were also reports of domestic practice," it said. violence.

Rosalind Turner, managing Sellman’s parents alerted first a director of children, families and health visitor, then the social education at Kent County worker of one of his other Council said it was an "isolated children as soon as they heard example of human error", their son’s new girlfriend was adding that the authority deeply

regretted what had happened.

"Human error is always a possibility. In this case, on a single occasion, a member of the family mentioned to the social worker that Christopher Sellman’s partner was pregnant.

The social worker, who had a 30 -year career with an exemplary record, was not dealing directly with the young woman who was pregnant and this information did not get registered. We deeply regret this," she said.

David Worlock, chairman of the Kent Safeguarding Children Board, said the findings of a report into the case had been accepted and several recommendations acted upon.

Every year, between 17,000 and 20,000 children are referred to Kent children’s social services.

In the year in question, to March 2009, the total number of referrals was 17,358 children, of which 1,233 were children with child protection plans.

Sellman, who had been cautioned for assault and child neglect in the past, was found guilty of the manslaughter of Tiffany at Maidstone Crown Court earlier this week.

Sentencing will take place on April 2.

Birmingham City Council also revealed today it has sacked six social workers just days before

it is due to face severe criticism over its role in the death of seven-year-old Khrya Ishaq who starved to death.

Colin Tucker, director of children’s social care at the council, said the sacked staff showed "no sign whatsoever" of meeting expected standards.

However none were in a senior position and none was involved in the Khyra Ishaq case.

Khyra died when her body succumbed to an infection after months of starvation at her home in Handsworth, Birmingham in May 2008.

Social workers made several attempts to visit her in her home after she was removed from school in December 2007, but then gave up.

Children’s services said lack of regulation over home education was partly responsible for failure to prevent her death.

However a family court judge involved in the case laid the blame at the door of social services and said if social workers had made a proper initial assessment, Khyra could still be alive today.

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

Renee Oricchio (Inc.com) Submitted at 3/18/2010 5:19:00 PM

Palm's latest quarterly report is out and the news is not good.

Smartphone sales are in the dumper, with only 408,000 units sold. Ouch!

By comparison, Apple sold 7.5 million iPhones during the same three months (ending February 26th). According to Google, 60,000 Android phones are selling each day. That's on pace to sell five million a quarter.

And then there's Palm that can't even break 500,000. Ouch!

Again!

Palm actually shipped just over 900,000 units. So 400,000 Pre and Pixi smartphones are laying around the backroom of a lot of stores and warehouses right now. Did I mention "ouch"?

Expect good sales to clear out the inventory at some point.

Palm is one of those companies that should be doing better than it is. But, it just isn't. So, is it too late to sit at the big table in the smartphone market? Would new ownership help?

My guess is "yes" and "no".

Too bad. I have a soft spot for Palm from the days of owning a trendy Palm Pilot back in 1997.

It coulda been a contender.

E-reader News Edition

World/ Business/

160 bravery awards for 'bloodiest summer' in Afghanistan

Resource Expert Powers Up Geothermal Plays

(Top stories from Times Online)

Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks)

The Rifles was unable to attend an awards ceremony in London this morning, however.

Submitted at 3/19/2010 6:52:10 AM He was due to appear in Soldiers who saved lives under T r o w b r i d g e T o w n H a l l , fire and the officers who Wiltshire, at the resumption of commanded British forces last an inquest into the deaths of the year, during their bloodiest five men who were killed in the summer in Afghanistan, were attack in Sangin, a notorious among 160 men and women town in the north of Helmand, who were today recognised for where Britain suffered many their courage. casualties.

One of the most impressive acts Headline awards also went to was by Serjeant Jaime Moncho. Brigadier David Hook, of the He was awarded t h e Royal Marines, who was Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for appointed OBE for his service saving the lives of fellow as deputy commander of Nato’s soldiers and retrieving the International Security and bodies of the dead during one of Assistance Force in southern the harshest days endured by Afghanistan from October 2008 British forces in Helmand to September 2009. province, when five troops were Brigadier Timothy Radford killed. received the Distinguished On July 10, 2009, a bomb Service Order, for commanding exploded killing one soldier and 9,000 British troops in Helmand injuring a number of others, between April and October 2009 i n c l u d i n g t h e p l a t o o n – one of the toughest periods commander. for Britain in Afghanistan.

Serjeant Moncho took charge The Conspicuous Gallantry and started extracting the Cross also went to a number of casualties. Barely 45 minutes other soldiers, including later, a second blast hit the Gunner Steven Gadsby, of the e v a c u a t i n g p a r t y , c a u s i n g Royal Artillery, who carried two further injuries and deaths. i n j u r e d s o l d i e r s a c r o s s a Serjeant Moncho oversaw the footbridge in view of enemy recovery of the bodies and of forces to evacuate them as the wounded before leading the quickly as possible to give them remaining men back to base. the best chance of survival.

The soldier, of 2nd Battalion Unfortunately one of the men,

Lieutenant Mark Evison, from Ist Battaltion Welsh Guards, died three days later on May 12, 2009, at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham.

Some of the recognised soldiers were awarded posthumously, including Captain Daniel Shepherd, 28, a bomb disposal expert, who was awarded a George Medal for outstanding bravery.

On one, particularly intense operation to clear a known drugs bazaar, he disposed of 13 separate improvised explosive devices in 36 painstaking hours, under sporadic enemy fire.

Without the aid of a protective suit or special electronic measures to counteract the bombs, Captain Shepherd, of the Royal Logistics Corps, deactivated the devices, relying purely on his technical expertise.

Several weeks later in late July, performing the same, dangerous but vital task, he was killed trying to defuse an explosive device in Nad Ali, in Helmand.

A further two members of his regiment were honoured.

Captain Wayne Owers and Lance Corporal David Timmins both received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.

Corporal Timmins lost an eye and sustained serious shrapnel

injuries when a Taleban pressure-plate bomb detonated whilst his group was attempting to clear an area of Sangin.

Despite his injuries he continued with the operation to clear a minefield. The citation to his medal praised his “incredible commitment” and “selfless sacrifice”.

Royal Marines and Royal Air Force personnel were also recognised as well as Captain Gail Whittle, from Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps.

She was made the Associate of The Royal Red Cross for her emergency service between April and October last year.

Other military personnel were recognised for service elsewhere in the world, including Iraq.

Brigadier Thomas Beckett was appointed OBE after commanding British troops in Basra between November 2008 and May 2009.

A full list of the honours was published this morning in The London Gazette.

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

9

Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:10:00 AM

Filed under: International Markets, Newsletters, Canada, Commodities, Oil, Stocks to Buy, Green Stocks"Most resources are depleting assets; they are no good once consumed. However, there are sources of renewal energy, and this area has been gaining attention because of environmental and global warming concerns, as well as fear about impending oil shortages," says Adrian Day. The editor of The Global Stock Analyst explains, "Geothermal is truly environment-friendly (that is, it has a small footprint, has no residual waste, and is not a blight on the landscape), and unlike most green power, it is profitable."

Continue reading Resource Expert Powers Up Geothermal Plays Resource Expert Powers Up Geothermal Plays originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Google Street View criticised for 'showing images of secret SAS headquarters' (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news)

demanded Google remove the pictures, claiming it made the SAS a target for terrorist attacks.

But Google defended the Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:38:10 AM

By Andrew Hough pictures, saying it had no plans Published: 4:00PM GMT 19 to take them off their site.

Mar 2010 The Ministry of Defence has The entrance to the base, which never made the exact details of has never before appeared on the base public but the maps for security reasons, can location of the nearest village is easily be identified on the available online. images, leading to fears it could “Military chiefs have had be used for terrorist planning. concerns with Google Street Users can even see the base, in View for some time,” one the country's west, is clearly military source said. marked as "British SAS" on “It is highly irresponsible for the website. military bases, especially special It also offers a detailed 180 forces, to be pictured on the degree view of the perimeter internet. boundary.

"Google claims it blurs faces The images, all taken within the and number plates to avoid past six months, also show a people being identified but military ambulance and a one mistake could be very police car at the gates of the d a n g e r o u s w e a p o n f o r a base along with three guards. t e r r o r i s t . ” The disclosures further fuelled They added: ''The question is, privacy concerns after the why risk a very serious security service was earlier this month breach for the sake of having a expanded to cover 95 per cent of picture on a website?''

Britain’s roads or a quarter of Paul Keetch, the local MP, million miles. labelled the footage M P s a n d m i l i t a r y c h i e f s unacceptable “during a time of

perceived terrorism”. ''There needs to be a certain degree of restraint shown by people like Google,” said the Lib Dem member for Hereford MP ''I wouldn't want a terrorist to be inspired by these pictures and it would be appalling if any help at all was given to our enemies.

"We all know where the Palace of Westminister is, we all know where the SAS camp is, but the issue is if you're going into such detail in such a way that you can undermine the security of that building, that could be a problem.''

One man, who did not want to be named but is associated with base, said: ''The SAS conducts operations where secrecy is absolutely vital to their success. ''Terrorists could potentially use their home computers to plot an attack capable of dire consequences on the base.

That's frightening.''

A Google spokesman said the service would not take down the images. ''One in five people already use Google Street View for house

hunting and the scheme has previously launched in 20 countries without any breach of security issues,” he said. ''Google only takes images from public roads and this is no different to what anyone could see travelling down the road themselves, therefore there is no appreciable security risk. ''We're happy to discuss any concerns as they arise.''

A spokesman for the MoD said it did not comment on where any special forces were based.

"The MOD cannot prevent satellites taking imagery of its establishments however we ensure that steps are taken to protect highly sensitive equipment," he said.

"It would be impractical to ask Google to withdraw images as they can be easily obtained from other sources over which we have no influence."

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

15 great project management and collaboration tools (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:59:15 AM

Managing a project online allows you to efficiently share resources with your team, oversee your team’s activity, analyze risks, assign tasks, coordinate schedules, and successfully complete your goals all in one convenient place. From Basecamp to Teambox, here are the fifteen best project management collaborations tools currently available. Find one that works best for you!

Full story at 1st Web Designer.

More project management resources.

Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

50 extraordinary creative (and free) fonts (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:05:59 AM

The last thing a web designer

wants to do is ruin a beautiful design with an icky font. To help you build up your typeface arsenal, here are fifty

extraordinary creative fonts sure

to impress. Did I mention they’re also completely free?

Get a taste below: See all fifty at Smashing Buzz.

More on typography.

Permalink| Leave a comment »

World/ Popular News/ Tech/

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11

Dutch outrage as US general blames gay soldiers for Srebrenica (Top stories from Times Online)

their combat focus after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and turned to Submitted at 3/19/2010 6:26:08 AM peacekeeping because “they did A retired American general has not believe the Germans were blamed the UN's historic failure going to attack again or the to protect the Bosnian "safe Soviets were coming back”. haven" of Srebrenica on the fact The general said that Belgium, that there were openly gay Luxembourg, the Netherlands s o l d i e r s i n t h e D u t c h and other nations all took the peacekeeping battalion assigned decision that there was no to it. longer a need for an active The comments from former combat capability in the Marine Corps General John military.

Sheehan prompted outrage in "They declared a peace dividend the Netherlands, where the and made a conscious effort to humiliation in July 1995 of 400 socialize their military — that armed Dutch peacekeepers and includes the unionisation of the subsequent massacre by their militaries, it includes open Serb forces of 8,000 Muslim homosexuality. That led to a men and boys remains a subject force that was ill-equipped to go of acute national sensitivity. to war," he said.

General Sheehan, one of two "The case in point that I’m Nato "supreme commanders" at referring to is when the Dutch the time of the massacre, w e r e r e q u i r e d t o d e f e n d testified before the Senate Srebrenica against the Serbs: the Armed Services Committee battalion was under-strength, against a proposal to allow poorly led, and the Serbs came homosexuals to serve openly in into town, handcuffed the the US military. soldiers to the telephone poles, He told the senators how the marched the Muslims off, and A r m e d F o r c e s o f v a r i o u s executed them.

European countries had lost “That was the largest massacre

in Europe since World War II." Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat, chairman of the committee, was incredulous. He asked General Sheehan: “Did the Dutch leaders tell you it was because there were gay soldiers there?”

“Yes, they did. They included that as part of the problem,” he replied.

“That there were gay soldiers?” the senator asked.

“That the combination was the liberalisation of the military; a net effect was basically social engineering.”

Mr Levin, who backs moves to allow openly gay soldiers to serve, went on to tell the general that he was "totally offtarget" in his comments — presaging a flood of complaints from Dutch officials.

Renée Jones-Bos, the Dutch Ambassador to the United States, said that she "couldn’t disagree more” with General Sheehan, adding there was no evidence of his claims in the extensive record of research on Srebrenica.

Roger Van de Wetering, from

Google Calendar gets 'smart' rescheduling Josh Lowensohn (Webware.com) Submitted at 3/18/2010 2:23:00 PM

Google Calendar users who want a non-third-party solution for finding the best times to reschedule a meeting now have

an official option by Google.

Originally posted at Web Crawler

the Dutch Defence Ministry added: “For us it is unbelievable that a man of this rank is stating this nonsense, because that is what it is.

“The whole operation in Srebrenica and the drama that took place over there was thoroughly investigated by Dutch and international authorities and none of these investigations has ever concluded or suggested a link between homosexual military personnel and the things that happened over there. I do not know on what facts this is based, but for us it is total nonsense.

"Every man or woman that meets the criteria physically and mentally is welcome to serve in our Armed Forces regardless of (religious) belief, sexual preference or whatever.”

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

How to hide an airplane factory (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:32:43 AM

In a clever attempt to protect the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant from a Japanese air attack during World War II, Army Corps of Engineers covered the plant with camouflage netting that looked like a rural subdivision from a bird’s eye view. Now those are some innovative engineers.

Before: After: See more amazing images of the hidden plant at Think or Thwim.

Learn more about history.

Permalink| Leave a comment »

12

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'Milestone moment' as boy undergoes transplant to regenerate trachea (Top stories from Times Online)

stem cells with the scaffold inside the body. It is also the first entire windpipe transplant Submitted at 3/20/2010 5:57:02 AM to be carried out on a child and A British boy has undergone a is also the first to involve the g r o u n d b r e a k i n g o p e r a t i o n entire length of the trachea. involving the transplantation of The doctors who carried out the a windpipe which is being procedure said the technique regenerated inside his body reduced greatly the risk of using his own stem cells. rejection of the new trachea, as S c i e n t i s t s d e s c r i b e d t h e the child’s stem cells will not o p e r a t i o n , c a r r i e d o u t o n generate any immune response.

Monday at Great Ormond They said the child, who is not Street Hospital in London, as a being identified, is recovering 'milestone moment' in the well and is able to speak. development of techniques that Professor Martin Elliott, who could allow people to rebuild led the surgery at Great Ormond damaged or transplanted organs Street, added that the technique inside their bodies. was a breakthrough because, The replacement trachea, the once the scaffold was ready, it bony tube that connects the could be carried out in a matter nose, mouth and lungs, was of hours. stripped of the donor's cells to The scientists added that leave a scaffold which was then b e c a u s e t h e r e g e n e r a t i o n laced with the child's stem cells. occured in the human body The boy, aged 10, then received rather than a laboratory, it cost the transplant hours later. The "tens of thousands rather than s t e m c e l l s a r e n o w hundreds of thousands of reconstructing the airway and pounds". They said that they ensuring it is not rejected by his hoped it would speed the course immune system. of organ regeneration, with the The operation is the first to use possibility of moving in to

operations involving the larynx or oesophagus.

Professor Paolo Macchiarini, who developed the scaffold technology and is based at Careggi University Hospital, Florence, said: "This underlines how we know that the time has come to change how we focus on transplantation. Rather than wait until an organ fails we should try to use stem cells in this way. It shows how we should be working towards treating organs such as the heart and lungs with the appropriate cells to try to replace the function of that organ."

The trachea transplant was carried out by British and Italian doctors. It follows an operation carried out by doctors in Spain in 2008 when a woman received a windpipe made with her own stem cells — the first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant. However the procedure was carried out in a laboratory before the rebuilt airway was transplanted in its entirety into the patient.

The latest operation involved

the stripping down of a trachea, which was donated by a woman who had died recently, to the inert collagen. Strong chemicals and enzymes were used to wash away all of the cells, leaving only a tissue scaffold made of the fibrous protein collagen.

The child recipient’s bone marrow stem cells were collected, and applied to the graft in situ in the body, to rebuild the cellular component of the trachea and make the new airway sealed and effective.

Scientists believe that breakthroughs in organ construction using stem cells will likely mean that any transplant organ could be made in this way in a matter of decades. American scientists have already successfully implanted bladder patches grown in the laboratory from patients' own cells into people with bladder disease.

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

A project called ANGLE aims to make the accelerated 3D graphics standard called WebGL

easier to use on Windows computers without hardware support.

David Winograd (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:00:00 AM

Filed under: Found Footage Urikane, an iPhone user with a LOT of time on his hands, has put together a full alphabet using 540 apps. Each screen contains one letter. Outside of this being really clever, you have to admire the resolve of Urikane to actually get this done. It must have taken forever.

TUAW Found Footage: iPhone alphabet made from 540 apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

March 19, 1979: House Proceedings Air Live on C-SPAN Hugh Hart (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/18/2010 9:00:00 PM

Google aims for easier 3D Web on Windows Stephen Shankland (Webware.com)

Found Footage: iPhone alphabet made from 540 apps

Originally posted at Deep Tech

A new cable network creates transparency in the House of Representatives' proceedings, broadcasting to 3.5 million households.

World/ Business/ Tech/ Tech News/

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13

Mumps cases 'triple in a year' (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news)

They added that last year's rise in cases was not attributable to low uptake rates of the MMR jab, following a scare over claims of a link to autism in Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:35:26 AM

By Kate Devlin, Medical 1998, because the numbers had Correspondent not risen among younger age Published: 3:35PM GMT 19 groups.

Mar 2010 A spokesman for the Health There were 7,628 confirmed Protection Agency (HPA) said: cases in 2009, up from 2,405 in "The high numbers are mainly 2008. among older teenagers and Many of the cases were among young adults in their early u n i v e r s i t y s t u d e n t s l i v i n g twenties, and mostly among together in halls or other those in further or higher shared accommodation. education establishments.

This group were too old to have "Some in this age group were received the MMR (measles, t o o o l d t o b e r o u t i n e l y mumps and ruebella) jab when vaccinated with MMR when it it was introduced in 1988. was first introduced in 1988 and Health Protection experts said some others may only have that they expected the number of received one dose of MMR. cases to remain relatively high "The number of cases has for the next few years, although increased more steeply in recent the total number affected was years because many of the much lower than in 2005, when young adults in this cohort (born there were 43,000 reported between 1980 and 1992) are cases. now at university or in further

education colleges.”

He added: "The disease tends to spread rapidly from person to person because of greater social mixing in further education establishments."

Since 1996 two doses of the vaccine have been given – one when a child is around 13 months of age and another between the ages of three to five.

Mumps causes swelling around the neck which can make it difficult to talk, eat or drink.

In some rare cases the infection can lead to more serious complications, including hearing difficulties and meningitis.

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

Google moves could bring fast Web apps closer Stephen Shankland (Webware.com) Submitted at 3/19/2010 4:00:00 AM

The Native Client technology for high-performance Web

applications is getting more versatile. And Google has the power to make NaCl a real force on the Web. Originally posted at Deep Tech

Analyst Calls: BBY, CPSI, CRAI, MAR, PALM, RIMM, SLB, SYNA, TTEK, WFT ...

Eric Buscemi (BloggingStocks)

target for shares to $40 from $27.

• Best Buy ( BBY) was Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:30:00 AM upgraded to buy from neutral at Filed under: Analyst Reports, Goldman.

A n a l y s t U p g r a d e s a n d • Mariott ( MAR) was raised to Downgrades, Research in buy from sell at Societe Motion (RIMM), Palm Inc G e n e r a l e .

(PALM), Analyst Initiations • Telus ( TU) was upgraded at Analyst Upgrades TD Newcrest to action list buy • Auriga upgraded Computer from buy.

Programs & Systems ( CPSI) to hold from sell after channel Continue reading Analyst Calls: checks indicated Q1 could be BBY, CPSI, CRAI, MAR, the bottom for stagnation of new PALM, RIMM, SLB, SYNA, system sales. The firm raised its TTEK, WFT ... target for shares to $38 from Analyst Calls: BBY, CPSI, $32.

CRAI, MAR, PALM, RIMM, • Janney Montgomery upgraded SLB, SYNA, TTEK, WFT ...

Tetra Tech ( TTEK) to buy from o r i g i n a l l y a p p e a r e d o n neutral due to valuation. The BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Mar firm has a $26 price target on 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see the stock. our terms for use of feeds.

• Deutsche Bank upgraded P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | Energy Transfer Equity ( ETE) C o m m e n t s to buy from hold and raised its

Alt Text: 'Final Fantasy,' Then and Now Lore Sjöberg (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/18/2010 5:00:00 PM

What's new in the latest installment of the venerable RPG franchise? Oh, only just about everything. A look back at

Final Fantasy's fantastic roots and the current state of affairs in Pulse and Cocoon.

14

Business/

E-reader News Edition

Test Driving RandomDorm: Collegiate, Dude-Heavy Version of ChatRoulette Lydia Dishman (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:07:24 AM

As the spotlight beams brightly on ChatRoulette and its attendant lumps, humps, and hairy backs, there is another, more wholesome, site that's just debuted. It promises all the thrill of videochatting with strangers with the protection that comes from limiting the audience to college coeds in possession of an .edu email address. Behold RandomDorm.com.

How It Started RandomDorm.com grew out of another recently launched site that cheekily claims to "connect student bodies." Called GoodCrush, the concept is the brainchild of Josh Weinstein, a recent Princeton grad who appears to have had a Newton's apple moment, romance version 2.0.

"During my sophomore year an idea hit me--there needs to be an easy way to offer my peers (read: myself) a risk-free way of expressing a crush wherein their (my) identity is only revealed if there's a match," explains Weinstein. Enter the Crush Finder.

The utility was simple: Enter the names of five people you've got a crush on and the Finder lets them know. If they've input

your name too, it's a "Good Crush." "Then you two live happily ever after--or at least for a few days," Weinstein says. If there's no match, the crusher's identity remains a secret. Period.

The site was so popular at Princeton that within one 24 hour period 30% of said

"student bodies" were connecting. Now a month after the site officially launched beyond the hallowed halls of Princeton, Weinstein says they’ve received over 12,000 user signups at over a dozen schools across the country.

Weinstein says the chat

component was always part of GoodCrush's overall concept, and right now he sees RandomDorm as "a cool, fun way to bring college students together without a romantic focus." The similarity to ChatRoulette ends with enabling person-to-person video

interactions via two windows on the screen. RandomDorm is supposed to reduce (ahem) inappropriate conduct, if not prevent it altogether, he says.

How it Works RandomDorm is a gated TEST page 16

Business/

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15

Four Ways to Keep the Museum Experience Relevant Steve McCallion (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:55:23 AM

Ziba Design helped create the massive exhibition, China Design Now which recently closed in Portland, Oregon.

Steve McCallion files his last report on how the experience transformed the city and what museums can learn from it.

After walking though the China Design Now exhibition, the youngest member of the Portland Art Museum's board proclaimed to executive director Brian Ferriso, "The museum is relevant again!" From Oct. 10 to Jan. 17, the Portland Art Museum hosted a conversation throughout the city about the evolution of design in China over the last 20 years. The museum's objective was to engage a broader audience in a deeper conversation by transforming the museum into a social media platform. The three -month experiment invited designers, artists, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, and others throughout the city to participate and shape the conversation.

The event was successful from both historical and new metrics.

Attendance surpassed projections and 1,700 new memberships were generated just from people waiting in line for the exhibition. More importantly for Ferriso, the citywide experience changed how

people perceive the museum.

Film students from NW Film Center, business investors, and traditional Chinese residents from Chinatown got involved for the first time. Kids showed up by the busloads. Local restaurants hosted after-parties for young patrons, and robust blog discussions were

moderated by some of Portland's design community. By extending the conversation throughout the city, the museum was able to attract a new audience and re-energize its traditional base.

At the close of the exhibition, I sat down with Ferriso and John Jay, executive creative director

of Wieden+Kennedy, who were instrumental in working with Ziba and the museum to extend the museum experience. We discussed how traditional institutions can build social media platforms while remaining authentic and came up with four methods for success.

Content: Why China? Why Design? Why Now?"If you're asking me if the exhibition would have been as successful if it were a show on Dutch design, I'd have to say 'no,'" said Ferriso. When considering traveling shows, Ferriso had the FOUR page 17

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TEST continued from page 14

community (albeit one with a South Park-like background image), with a login wall of protection. The secret password is that college email address which can be typed in directly, or can be accessed through Facebook if the user's FB account is under an .edu email (another shared trait with Facebook's early incarnation).

Once in, the fun (supposedly) begins.

To test out this thing, Fast Company dispatched our .edu email-using intrepid intern Austin Carr, who ventured into the outback of RandomDorm's unchartered territory Thursday evening. He found it ... almost empty. He did notice that unlike ChatRoulette, users have the option to narrow down potential partners to girls, guys, or both-the assumption, which is a bit closed-minded, is that girls are looking for guys and vice versa (isn't college the time of experimentation?). There's even a "cool people only" option, though it's unclear how the site vets the coolness factor.

Here's Austin's experience, in his own words: First off, you'll have trouble finding anybody, and unfortunately, there's no automated Next feature--you have to click Next each frickin' time, even when it can't find anybody! And believe me, there's nobody on this service.

Get used to clicking Next, Next,

Next.

Don't try searching for girls, cause you won't find any. You're constantly presented with this message: "All users are currently engaged in sessions.

Hit NEXT to try again." Click Next again, see the same message again. Over and over.

Nobody. No chicks man! What gives! What did I go to college for!? Switching to "Both," I got the following message: "Found somebody!" Trying to connect you to a partner. After 20 seconds: "Could not connect to your partner. She or he might have left." Such a tease! That exclamatory "found somebody" after minutes of searching can seem like a miracle. But alas, nobody’s there, and I have to hit Next. Again.

(I’m basically nexting myself at this point.)

Plus, during those 20 seconds, the Next button is gray-ed out – you can’t even click Next, you have to wait those painful 20 seconds while, I guess, the service figures out that nobody's on the other end.

So I finally went for "guys."

Cha-ching! "You are connected.

Chat along!" Sweet, finally, here's where everyone was hiding. All the guys looking for non-existent girls. You can tell this is legitimately a dorm-room service by the solitary confinement lighting and white walls--heck, you can even see the occasional university banner

in the background.Of course, these dudes instantly nexted me.

But no matter: I connected with them two seconds later, then they nexted me, then we connected…then again…then again…then again. It was like a game of peek-a-boo. We couldn't NOT connect to one another. We were the only ones on the service.

After, like, the 12th time of seeing these two dudes on the service, I finally flagged them down before they Nexted me.

Here's our brief convo (before they Next-ed me again, and then, predictably, reconnected again…I mean, they just didn’t get it): 23:33:48> You: quick question23:33:59> You: i'm doing a small story on chat roulette vs random dorm 23:34:03> You: this service seems to suck 23:34:09> You: has that been your general experience? 23:34:19> You: have you been able to see one girl so far? 23:34:20> Partner: Not enough dicks! 23:34:23> You: ha, right 23:34:26> You: i'll quote you on that 23:34:34> Partner: NOTENOUGHDICKS The problem is that right now, there are too few users and those that are on are seeking something more. It removes the best part of ChatRoulette: to leap into the foggy abyss of video-chat and experience micro-interactions with mostly

naked men and your occasional blurry-hooded figure.

How It Makes Money Weinstein is, nonetheless, cheerfully upbeat and focusing on the positive. "I see a huge opportunity by both connecting students--who are experiencing and contemplating similar issues, questions, social lives, opportunities and coursework-as well as potentially creating an international college video pen pal program."

It's too early to tell if RandomDorm will morph into a more desirable service but Weinstein's already been able to raise seed funding from FirstMark Capital to launch GoodCrush and is looking for more. That said, GoodCrush itself is still a work in progress and though monetization is on the menu, Weinstein says improving the service must come before implementing potential revenue models. What do those look like? "Potentially premium services and virtual goods."

What About the Competition?

ChatRoulette aside, Weinstein is quick to note that GoodCrush should not be dismissed as just another dating site. "We know first-hand that students are unaccounted for on other dating sites. There is a bit of a stigma associated with students joining prototypical dating sites like Plenty of Fish or eHarmony," he says adding that most students

wouldn’t feel comfortable admitting they needed help to find a match.

GoodCrush aims to be much more social, playful, and informal. Adds Weinstein, "Our goal isn’t for users to spend their time on their computer, but rather use our services as a social utility to complement and catalyze off-line activities and opportunities."

The Big Question - Privacy It’s also hard not to draw parallels to that other (wildly successful) social utility founded by an Ivy League student. Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg's original site, Facemash, had a "Hot or Not" voting function that quickly gained a huge campus following.

Similarly, GoodCrush's voting function has spawned a "Top 10 Most Crushed" which so far seems to be authentic (and rated PG-13). Can GoodCrush prevent users from posting compromising photos of someone else and creating a subset that isn’t all good clean fun? Sure, until it all becomes the next inspiration for a rippedfrom-the-headlines episode of Law & Order.

Weinstein maintains the campus approach offers significant privacy. GoodCrush does have several layers of moderation including site TEST page 20

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option to bring either CDN or a show about modern European design. Ferriso understood that the ability of the museum to involve more people in the conversation was based on the relevancy of the content. The CDN content was particularly relevant to Portland and had the potential to attract a new audience--the young creative class.

Portland has had a long trade relationship with China due to its location in the Pacific Northwest, and city officials intend to forge even closer ties.

Portland's entrepreneurs and business people are interested in understanding more about this global force that is transforming the sociopolitical dynamic of the world. In addition, the exhibition's focus on design, though not traditional for the museum, connected with Portland's thriving design community. The relevancy of the content opened the door for the museum to start new conversations. It even triggered local businesses that were not previously involved with the museum to get involved.

Discussions are ongoing about bringing in more exhibitions that are relevant to local businesses.

Conversation: If you build it, will they come? If they come, will you be ready?"Not everyone needs to be a creator," said Ferriso. "Some people want

a more traditional experience."

The museum was apprehensive about two aspects of creating a social media platform: 1) hosting a party and having no one show up, and 2) releasing control of the conversation. To overcome the first challenge, the museum created a platform with three levels of engagement-creators, commentators, and consumers--to intentionally engage a wider audience. They invited a small number of people from the creative community who they knew would help stimulate conversation, like a good host at a dinner party. These creators hosted their own events and were invited to blog on the exhibition's Web site.

Commenting was encouraged on the Web site and through the museum's educational program led by Christina Olsen, director of education and public programs at the museum.

"Consumers" were kept busy with a wide range of related cultural events and options extending beyond the exhibition throughout the city.

The bigger challenge for the museum was releasing control of the conversation. Museums are historically cautious, and protective of the intellectual rigor of each exhibition. To help shift the internal culture, Ferriso had his team visit London's Victoria & Albert Museum in 2008 to experience the CDN

exhibition--the result of five years of research. The trip gave the team confidence that the content was up to their standards and made them feel more comfortable opening up the conversation. He then encouraged his team to embrace social media technologies and reach out to Portland's creative community to create a more collaborative culture. The result was a healthy tension between two of the museum's seemingly conflicting values--preservation and conversation.

Curation: Stay true to who you are."At the end of the day, you still need to present a point of view," said Jay. "Curation is still king." The museum was able to successfully move beyond the traditional museum experience and remain authentic because it understood its core promise-inspiring conversations through art and culture. The medium of social media did not become the museum's promise, but a means to connect with a new generation of potential patrons.

It remained committed to curatorial rigor, the selection of collaborators was strategic, and the topic was timely and meaningful. By staying true to its purpose, the museum was able to be relevant to this new generation without alienating its traditional patrons. An 85-yearold board member said it best: "CDN allowed the museum to rethink how it connects with

people."

Continuing: What's next?"It's exciting to explore how this thinking would translate into a vision for the architecture of the museum," said Ferriso. He and his Portland Art Museum team are excited about the future of the museum as a social platform. New metrics are being discussed to measure the value of the conversations generated by the museum. Ideas include measuring repeat visits to the museum, quality of conversations, and influence (how do you measure the impact of inspiring the next Frank Gehry?). Other programs-including a tattoo exhibition that links historic roots of tattooing in the museum's Native American, Asian and Contemporary art collections to Portland's thriving tattoo culture --have been developed to keep the museum relevant to a new generation and do what Jay calls "stretch beyond the choir."

The museum has even started exploring how social platform thinking can influence the museum's architecture. The existing museum, one part Pietro Belluschi modern icon and the other part Masonic temple, is like most museums: introverted and stoic. Inspired by the China Design Now experiment, the museum is exploring the potential of adding an element of what J.S. May, the museum's director of

development, calls the city's living room--perfect for continuing the conversation.

Related: Steve McCallion's posts on China Design Now Read Steve McCallion's blog Beyond the Widget Browse more blogs by our Expert Designers Steve McCallion is a skilled innovation architect and brand strategist. His groundbreaking work includes redefining Umpqua Bank's role as an anchor for community prosperity, creating Sirius Satellite Radio's award-winning experience for the "iPod fatigued," and working with real estate developers Gerding Edlen to create more meaningful neighborhoods.

Other clients include Xerox, Black & Decker, Whirlpool, FedEx, McDonald's, Coleman, Kenwood, and Compaq. Steve's primary charge is to foster Ziba's consumer experience practice. He founded the company's award-winning Design Research and Planning practice group, which has developed proprietary research and design planning methodologies.

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Better Marketing Through Science Kasey Wehrum (Inc.com)

movies. But after the cameras stopped rolling, Parker went on to become a successful Washington girds for health California winery owner and care vote. The passage of hotel developer. Born in Fort President Obama's health care Worth, Texas in 1924, Parker plan looks increasingly likely, served in the Navy in World with a vote possible over the W a r I I b e f o r e m o v i n g t o weekend. Most of the coverage Hollywood where he would earn has focused on the big picture, his fame as Crocket and TV's particularly a report by the Daniel Boone. In 1986, with Congressional Budget Office money made from acting, Parker that says the bill will lower the bought 32 acres of prime Santa deficit by $138 billion over 10 Barbara waterfront property and y e a r s , w h i l e i n s u r i n g a n opened Fess Parker's Red Lion a d d i t i o n a l 3 2 m i l l i o n Resort, a successful hotel. From Americans. So what would there, Parker went on to develop passage mean for businesses? the Fess Parker Winery & For small companies, probably Vineyards, a medal-winning not much. But companies with winery whose bottles were over 50 employees that do not emblazoned with, what else, a provide health care coverage tiny coonskin cap. His real would have to pay $2,000 for estate career was not without every employee who receives c o n t r o v e r s y , h o w e v e r . A insurance that is subsidized by proposed deal in 2004 to sell the government.

745 acres of Santa Ynez Valley RIP Fess Parker: Actor turned land to the Chumash Indian tribe wine entrepreneur. A generation angered some local residents of baby-boomers may best who feared the area was being remember Fess Parker as the overdeveloped. Parker passed man who played Davy Crockett away Thursday at the age of in a series of 1950's-era Disney 8 5 . T h e n e u r o s c i e n c e o f Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:02:06 AM

marketing. We've already given you a peak inside the entrepreneur's brain, recently a group of scientists and ad execs at SXSW explained how neuromarketing, or measuring consumers' brain activity in response to products, could give you an extra edge (via CNN Money). The bad news is that companies who can afford this type of research tend to have ad budgets of between $30 million and $100 million, but the upside is that companies with smaller budgets have increasingly been making use of these tools. Just how beneficial is neuromarketing? "Who would have thought that people would buy pet rocks?" says Gary Koepke, the co-founder of Boston, Massachusetts-based ad agency Modernista. "The Snuggie? I don't know if neuromarketing would have figured that out. There's a lot of things up for grabs in this world yet."

How to craft a maternity-leave policy. For most start-up business owners, developing a

policy for female employees who are expecting isn't always top of mind. But, as The Wall Street Journal explains, "by taking the time to carefully research legal obligations, insurance options and other key issues early on, entrepreneurs may be able to avoid making costly mistakes."

So you have Facebook fans.

Now what? You've heard the buzz, read our guide to getting customers through Facebook, and now your company officially has fans. But what is the best way to interact with them? Mashable has these four suggestions: ask their opinion, test their knowledge, pair promotions with content, or thank them.Using gaming to motivate employees. Anyone who has seen the episode of The Office where the Stamford branch immerses itself in a game of "Call of Duty" knows the effect gaming can have on employee engagement. In fact, Indiana University professor Lee Sheldon tells iT News that game design techniques like

well-defined goals and fair, incremental rewards can motivate the 'gamer generation' among your staff. Sheldon has been testing out this theory on his own students by replacing the traditional grading system with "experience points (XP)" which were used to track progress in role-playing games.

Like World of Warcraft, students were divided into guilds and they picked up XP by completing assignments. As a result, students responded with far more enthusiasm. "It will be up to management, often of the pre-gamer generations, to figure out how to educate themselves to the gamer culture, and how to speak it most effectively." (Hat tip, peHUB)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.

Business/ Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

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

The AP is still waiting—after nearly three months—for records it requested about the White House’s “Open Submitted at 3/19/2010 5:58:57 AM Happy Friday. I was out sick Government Directive,” rules it yesterday but feeling a bit issued in December directing better. What I’ve seen so far — every agency to take immediate, a good William Cohen editorial specific steps to open their in the Times, the AP dissects operations up to the public.

O b a m a ’ s p r o m i s e s o n Runaway cars: Driver error or transparency, plus a little car malfunction?(NPR) college b-ball: No one has done research The rot at the heart of Wall specifically on sustained error Street(New York Times) with car pedals. But To that end, shareholders must psychologists have spent a lot of demand that corporate boards of time thinking about the errors directors revamp the entire humans make. Psychologist compensation structure on Wall Chris Wickens has written a Street away from one based on book on this subject, and he says revenue generation to one that that psychologists looking at rewards long-term profits. For people under intense stress have goodness sake, what other identified something called the business on the face of the earth, “perseveration response.” aside from Wall Street, pays out “You just keep repeating the between 50 percent and 60 same error over and over and percent of each dollar of over again,” he says. revenue generated to employees College basketball isn’t a great in the form of compensation! business model(Christian Promises, promises. Obama’s S c i e n c e M o n i t o r ) “ t r a n s p a r e n c y ” i s p r e t t y So, with all that cash rolling in, opaque(AP) basketball must be a The administration has stalled moneymaker for colleges and even over records about its own universities, right? efforts to be more transparent. Nope. Most college basketball

teams lose money.

How about championshipcaliber teams?

Not really. “If you look at basketball teams as a standalone company, virtually none of the teams come out ahead,” says Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College in Northampton, Mass.

What are the odds of picking a perfect NCAA basketball bracket?(PBS NewsHour) When the WSJ looked into it, their odds range from one in 150 million to one in 9 million trillion if each game were a true toss-up. “Put another way, you are about 60 billion times more likely to win the multistate Powerball lottery.”

Another favorite via Book of Odds: …if you follow the optimal strategy of always picking the higher seed to win, your odds of filing a perfect March Madness bracket are just 1 in 35,360,000,000—almost 18 times worse than your odds of being killed by a waterspout in a year (1 in 1,988,000,000).

Microsoft Customers Go to Opera Gary E. Sattler (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:50:00 AM

Filed under: Competitive Strategy, Microsoft (MSFT) Readers of this space may recall that about two weeks ago I wrote about an intriguing turn of events for Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT). Pursuant to an agreement with the European Commission, Microsoft has made available to it's new European customers a web page which provides those customers download utilities for a choice of twelve different web browser applications. As I suggested then, It appears that the reign of Windows Internet Explorer may come to a screeching halt.

According to a report from BBC News, a web browsing application known as Opera is knocking Internet Explorer back on it's heels in Europe. Opera

Scenarios: What's Next For Google's Operations in China?

Reuters (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:22:00 AM

Two months after Google

shook the world with its threat to leave China on censorship and hacking concerns, there are increasing signs that an exit is

imminent as the two sides refuse to back down. Following are the possible paths the world’s largest search company could

19

take -- and the possible reactions from Beijing.

Software of Norway states that downloads of it's web browsing software have doubled in some countries since the Microsoft provided selection page came on line. Anywhere from 60% to 75% of the new download requests for Opera have come via the new Microsoft provided service.

Continue reading Microsoft Customers Go to Opera Microsoft Customers Go to Opera originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

20

Business/ Tech News/

More Small Businesses Using Social Media to Attract New Customers Courtney Rubin (Inc.com) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:43:00 AM

Small businesses flocked to social media in 2009, with their adoption of the technology doubling from 12 percent to 24 percent, says a new University of Maryland/Network Solutions study.

The Small Business Success Index, as it's called, is the third in a series of surveys the pair have done over the past year.

The social media findings are based on a December 2009 telephone survey of 500 small businesses, compared to one done in December 2008.

Nearly one in five small business owners are mashing social media into the daily (and hourly) lives of their companies, with the most popular sites being Facebook and LinkedIn. Of the business owners using social media, 75 percent have company pages on the two sites, and 69 percent use status updates on the same two. Just 16 percent use Twitter.

Small business owners' biggest

Submitted at 3/18/2010 5:00:00 PM

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administrators and crowdsourcing to let users flag inappropriate content. hopes (and current use) for Glazier, the company's founder GoodCrush also has doubles o c i a l m e d i a i s f o r l e a d and CEO. "With a very small blind messaging in response to generation. Three out of five investment in social media missed connections. It’s a respondents use it to identify m a r k e t i n g , I w a s a b l e t o feature that Weinstein says and attract new customers. g e n e r a t e n e w b u s i n e s s would be less appealing if the Said Connie Steele, director of opportunities." One key success: other individual weren’t a Network Solutions: "Social His blog, which has been picked member of your social network media can be the best friend for up by news sources, which in or college community. "In small business owners who turn generates calls from the addition to the additional constantly seek new ways to media and then his company privacy, it also increases the attract new customers and retain n a m e b e i n g m e n t i o n e d i n excitement of and likelihood of the ones they have at a relatively articles (which is pretty much success for missed connections low cost." how it's turned up in this one.) and anonymous matching."

Half of small business social For help with your own blog, And unlike Zuckerberg’s alleged breach of user privacy media users complain that the click here. platforms take more time than Social media ranks third in when he used Facebook login they'd thought, but almost the technology investments small information to hack into email same number believe it's time businesses plan to make in the accounts, Weinstein wants well-spent -- that their social next two years. The top two: everyone to know that despite media initiatives will pay off Jazzing up (or first building) financially in a year or less . company web sites and ramping One small business cited – up the showcasing of company Shady Grove Eye and Vision products and services online.

Care in the Washington DC Just six percent of those metro area – said social media surveyed think the medium has had helped reduce the marketing hurt their business more than it budget by 80 percent. has helped it, with 17 percent "In order to meet the growing expressing concern that it gives Adam Pash (Lifehacker) challenge of a tough market last people a chance to criticize the Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:00:00 AM year, I was forced to consider company publicly. alternative options to keep my Windows: Ever wish you could business viable," said Dr. Alan guarantee your BitTorrent download didn't choke your streaming YouTube video—or Twitter has taken out South by meltdowns. Here's how you can vice versa—but don't feel like setting up Quality of Service Southwest presenters in the past, avoid a similar disaster. rules on your super-router? leading to very public — and NetBalancer shapes bandwidth very embarrassing — onstage

How I Survived My SXSW Keynote Interview Eliot Van Buskirk (Wired Top Stories)

E-reader News Edition

being hounded via email, text, and phone, he’s never revealed a the identity of an unrequited crush.

So Who’s Josh's Crush?

That goes for him, too. Though Weinstein is no longer in the target user base, he hasn't gone crushless. "I have a sneaking suspicion that one or two of the missed connections are about me and I have received a few crushes--so there is temptation-everyone always wants to know who their secret admirer is!"

Austin Carr contributed to this report.

NetBalancer Prioritizes Network Traffic by Application [Downloads]

allocations for different apps on your PC. More »

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21

The Long, Strange History of Prussian Blue William Bostwick (Fast Company)

inviting, and hopeful, which is why they're so common these days. But did you know that Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:43:24 AM blue pigment used to be more Everyone's favorite color--from valuable than gold?

Cezanne to rhesus monkeys- Joshua Cohen traces the history started out as a chemistry of what was once the most e x p e r i m e n t g o n e w r o n g , valuable color in his fascinatingaccording to Joshua Cohen's -and exhaustingly researched-history of the pigment. essay"Thirty-Six Shades of What's your favorite color? P r u s s i a n B l u e , " i n T r i p l e Probably blue, right? Everyone Canopy's latest issue. The first like it--five of Pantone's last 11 blues came from rocks and colors of the year have been plants and were either unreliably shades of blue, including this color-fast, or way too expensive. y e a r ' s p i c k , t u r q u o i s e . A Ultramarine was so rare when it Cambridge psychological study first became available that it showed even rhesus monkeys "was said to have once been pick blue as their favorite (green more expensive than gold, and was second). According to Renaissance artists had to Pantone, blues are calming, negotiate with their patrons for

use quickly spread. Cezanne's mustache was stained with it, Ruskin hoarded it, it was Wordsworth's favorite color, E.E. Cummings and Baudelaire wrote about it. It was used as an invisible ink in World War II (letters would be written in iron sulfate then sprayed with the cyanide solution) and the FDA even says it can be used to get rid of some radiation poisoning.

Crayola changed their Prussian Blue crayon to Midnight Blue in 1958 because they realized no individual drops." Then in 1704, the first synthetic color. one knew what Prussia was, but Heinrich Diesbach, a Berlin Prussian blue was an instant now you can know more than chemist, mixed some cochineal sensation. Its manufacture you ever thought possible about (a natural red dye) with iron escaped regulation by painters' the color that bears its name. sulfate and a cyanide mixture, guilds since it was considered a and discovered Prussian blue, chemical and not paint, and its

New Sky Energy Turns Waste Water Into Clean Water, Green Chemicals Ariel Schwartz (Fast Company)

source of clean water for the region.

New Sky is teaming up with the Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:38:01 AM Westlands Water District to Ever heard of California's build a drainage water treatment Central Valley? You might soon facility in the Central Valley --the region, known as the that uses New Sky's proprietary nation's breadbasket for its salt conversion technology. The agricultural plenitude, is facing p r o c e s s c o n c e n t r a t e s a n d severe droughts for a number of converts waste salts from reasons. But now One Sky, a drainage water into both fresh former Cleantech Open winner, water for irrigation and carbonis swooping in to hopefully save neutral and carbon-negative the day by providing a new c h e m i c a l s - - i n c u d i n g a c i d ,

caustic soda, and solid carbonates like limestone and soda ash. These chemicals can then be used in everything from

fertilizers to building materials.

Next up: building a $3.2 million demonstration water treatment facility in the Central Valley

later this year. If all goes well, New Sky expects that it will desalinate approximately 240,000 gallons of water each day and convert approximately five tons of waste brine salts into chemicals, and trap 2.8 2.8 tons of CO2 daily. Not bad for a day's work.

[Via Cleantech Open]

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YouTube Challenges Users to Make “Good” Videos [PARODY] Brenna Ehrlich (Mashable!)

Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:21:01 AM

The Onion has come out with a parody video in which YouTube entreats its users to make a “good” video — the incentive?

A $100,000 prize.

As someone who spends much of her day wading through the chaff of the online video realm, can I just say: Could this be a real thing now please?

Check out the video below and be sure to share some of your favorite YouTube vids in the comments. all. That means the gloomy That’s what you’re doing at the octopus has an "episodic m o m e n t , n o ? W a t c h i n g personality," or a personality YouTube videos? Don’t front — that changes over time. So now, it’s Friday. for the first time ever, scientists Tags: humor, the onion, viral can figure out how and why video, youtube octopus personality is so changeable--all thanks to our love of crisp, quality images.

[Via BBC]

HDTV Is Good Enough for the Octopuses Ariel Schwartz (Fast Company) Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:34:54 AM

Forget 3-D television; HDTV is good enough for discerning octopuses, so it must be good enough for us. Researchers at Macquarie University in Australia found that gloomy octopuses (Octopus tetricus) placed in a tank and exposed to

HDTV of predators, prey, and other other octopuses became very excited. Images broadcast in standard definition TV elicited minimal response.

The reason for the octopuses love of HDTV is simple: they have extremely good eyesight.

The high definition and high frame rate of HDTV are up to the standards of the intelligent cephalopods.

Beyond the entertainment factor of watching octopuses get excited over TV, the discovery has some important implications for octopus science. The Macquarie University team found that the octopuses didn't have consistent behavior while watching the HDTV clips--one day a clip of a crab might elicit excitement, while the next the same octopus might not care at

Business/ Popular News/ Tech News/

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23

New Insurance Product California kids stay calm, help Protects Media deliver mom's baby (AP) Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks)

(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

then she started bleeding all over her body and then the baby came so I called 911 for an Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:10:00 PM SAN FRANCISCO – By the a m b u l a n c e , " J a b a r i s a i d time 9-year-old Jabari Sanders Thursday evening outside the Filed under: Competitive called 911, his mom was already family's apartment. "Then my Strategy, Media World giving birth to his little brother sister told my mom to lie Now if you blame the media, in the bathroom of their home. down." someone else will have to share responsible for the news, the ads "The baby's coming now!" in the losses.

Faith described her Insurance company Aviva ( or the process of putting them in Jabari told the dispatcher as his conversation with the 911 AV) is taking the side of camera f r o n t o f e y e b a l l s , A v i v a m o m s c r e a m e d i n t h e dispatcher.

-wielding, microphone-thrusting probably has you in mind. b a c k g r o u n d .

"The operator started talking to C o n t i n u e r e a d i n g N e w So the woman on the other end me and telling me to take a pushy press folks with a new form of protection that will Insurance Product Protects of the line talked the 9-year-old piece of yarn or string and tie it and his 11-year-old sister around the umbilical cord and I c o v e r e v e r y t h i n g f r o m Media electronics to foot-in-mouth New Insurance Product Protects through the ordeal, telling them did," she said. "Shortly after that syndrome (i.e., liability). The Media originally appeared on to towel off the baby and tie its the paramedics knocked on the insurance product will be BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Mar umbilical cord with a string door." a v a i l a b l e t o a v a r i e t y o f 2010 12:10:00 EST. Please see w h i l e t h e y w a i t e d f o r Their father, Geoffrey Sanders, companies, including both our terms for use of feeds. p a r a m e d i c s . T h e i r f a t h e r , said his wife, Alana Sanders, online and print publishers, P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | Geoffrey Sanders, called the was not available for comment calm kids "super heroes." broadcasters, photographers and C o m m e n t s Thursday because she and the "I'm a proud father," he said. baby were resting. marketing and advertising "It's kind of a pat on the back Geoffrey Sanders, 35, said companies. So, if you're that we are doing something Thursday he had left for work right." around 1:30 a.m. and was not The 36-year-old Northern around when the baby came on California woman unexpectedly March 9. went into labor at her home in In a previous interview, Alana Fremont and was forced to turn Sanders said her kids stayed to her kids after giving birth c o m p o s e d t h r o u g h o u t t h e while standing in the bathroom. o r d e a l .

"My mom started screaming and "They didn't freak out. They Submitted at 3/19/2010 6:31:02 AM

Review: Squishy 'Repo Men' Sticks Shiv in Organ-Extraction Action Hugh Hart (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 3/18/2010 3:02:00 PM

Even with Jude Law, Forest

Whitaker and a perfect sci-fi setup, this movie sputters a bit in the middle, and the whole bloody affair suffers from a lack

of black humor. But that's one hell of a knife fight that firsttime director Miguel Sapochnik pulls out of his bag of tricks.

didn't fight with each other," she told the Oakland Tribune.

A 911 recording released Wednesday attests to the children's poise, as they relayed messages between their mother and a dispatcher.

After the baby was born, the dispatcher can be heard telling Faith to wipe the baby with a clean towel and tie, not cut, the umbilical cord with a string or shoelace about six inches from the baby's body.

"You did a great job," the dispatcher says, as paramedics arrive.

Alana Sanders and the newborn, Joseph, were taken to Saint Rose Hospital in Hayward.

The boy, who weighed 9 pounds and 4 ounces, was healthy, Geoffrey Sanders said. ___ Associated Press videographer Haven Daley contributed to this report.

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Boy Scouts' 'perversion files' could be exposed (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

attorney Kelly Clark recited the Boy Scout oath and the promise to obey Scout law to be PORTLAND, Ore. – The Boy " t r u s t w o r t h y . " T h e n h e Scouts of America has long kept p r e s e n t e d s i x b o x e s o f an extensive archive of secret documents that he said will documents that chronicle the show "how the Boy Scouts of sexual abuse of young boys by America broke that oath."

Scout leaders over the years.

He held up file folder after file The "perversion files," a folder he said contained reports nickname the Boy Scouts are of abuse from around the said to have used for the country, telling the jury the documents, have rarely been efforts to keep them secret may seen by the public, but that have actually set back efforts to could all change in the coming prevent child abuse nationally. weeks in an Oregon courtroom. "The Boy Scouts of America The lawyer for a man who was ignored clear warning signs that molested in the 1980s by a Boy Scouts were being abused," Scout leader has obtained about Clark said.

1,000 Boy Scouts sex files and Charles Smith, attorney for the is expected to release some of national Boy Scouts, said in his them at a trial that began own opening statement the files Wednesday. The lawyer says the were kept under wraps because files show how the Boy Scouts t h e y " w e r e r e p l e t e w i t h have covered up abuse for confidential information." decades.

Smith told the jury the files The trial is significant because helped national scouting leaders the files could offer a rare w e e d o u t s e x o f f e n d e r s , window into how the Boy especially repeat offenders who Scouts have responded to sex may have changed names or abuse by Scout leaders. The moved in order to join another only other time the documents local scouting organization. are believed to have been "They were trying to do the presented at a trial was in the right thing by trying to track 1980s in Virginia. these folks," Smith said.

At the start of the Oregon trial, Clark is seeking $14 million in Submitted at 3/19/2010 4:19:23 AM

damages on behalf of a 37-yearold man who was sexually molested in the early 1980s in Portland by an assistant Scoutmaster, Timur Dykes.

Clark said the victim suffered mental health problems, bad grades in school, drug use, anxiety, difficulty maintaining relationships and lost several jobs over the years because of the abuse.

Dykes was convicted three times between 1983 and 1994 of sexually abusing boys, most of them Scouts.

Although there have been dozens of lawsuits against the organization over sex abuse allegations, judges for the most part have either denied requests for the files or the lawsuits have been settled before they went to trial.

The Boy Scouts had fought to keep the files being used in the Portland trial confidential. But they lost a pretrial legal battle when the Oregon Supreme Court rejected their argument that opening the files could damage the lives and reputations of people not a party to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-

day Saints because the Mormons acted as a charter organization, or sponsor, for the local Boy Scouts troop that included the victim. But the church has settled its portion of the case.

The Portland trial comes as the Boy Scouts are marking their 100th anniversary.

"They spent a century building the Boy Scout brand," said Patrick Boyle, author of a book about sex abuse in the Boy Scouts. "It's one of the most respected organizations in the world."

The trial "can only erode what they have been doing for 100 years," he said.

The Portland case centers on whether the Boy Scouts of America did enough to protect boys from Dykes.

The Mormon bishop who also served as head of the Scout troop, Gordon McEwen, confronted Dykes after receiving a report of abuse by the mother of one boy in the troop in January 1983.

In a video deposition played for the jury, the bishop said Dykes admitted abusing 17 boys.

But McEwen said he contacted the parents of all 17 boys and

the boys themselves, and none would confirm any abuse.

Dykes was arrested in 1983 and pleaded guilty to attempted sexual abuse, received probation and was ordered to stay away from children.

Clark told the jury Dykes continued with his scouting activities until he was arrested in July 1984 during a routine traffic stop while he was driving a van full of Scouts on a camping trip.

A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America at its headquarters in Irving, Texas, said in a statement the organization cannot comment on details of the case. But it has worked hard on awareness and prevention efforts, including background checks.

"Unfortunately, child abuse is a societal problem and there is no fail-safe method for screening out abusers," Deron Smith said.

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Dial Zero Connects to Customer Service Humans [Downloads] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

When you're driving or traveling, that's when you don't want to wait on hold or talk to iPhone/Android/BlackBerry: an automated phone system. The

Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:00:00 AM

Dial Zero mobile app has a

database of buttons and phrases that will cut to the chase. More Âť

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The big yellow billboard that could take your kid to school (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 3/19/2010 4:19:34 AM

SEATTLE – School districts have imposed all sorts of drastic cuts to save money during the down economy, canceling field trips and making parents pay for everything from tissues to sports transportation.

And some have now resorted to placing advertisements on school buses.

School districts say it's practically free money, and advertisers love the captive audience that school buses provide.

That's the problem, say opponents: Children are being forced to travel to school on moving media kiosks, and the tactic isn't much different than dressing teachers in sponsoremblazoned uniforms.

"Parents who are concerned about commercial messages will have no choice," said Josh Golin, associate director of Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. "Parents won't be given the option to send their kids on the ad-free bus."

Washington lawmakers considered the idea of school bus advertising this year, and the concept is also being tossed around in Ohio, New Jersey and Utah. About half a dozen states already allow bus advertising— including Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas.

The idea can be traced back about 15 years, but budget woes have led to a recent resurgence.

"This issue comes up on a regular basis when funding gets tight and people are looking for alternative ways to fund school transportation," said John Green, supervisor for school transportation at the California Department of Education.

Green has a long list of reasons California has not sold ads on its school buses, despite the regular onslaught of creative parents and lawmakers who suggest the idea to him and other state officials.

He says bus ads are rarely as lucrative as the school district expects, they may distract drivers and lead to accidents, and keeping unwanted ads off

buses may not be as easy as people think.

A highway authority in Southern California recently lost a court case over its attempt to prevent the Minutemen militia group from "adopting a highway" and putting a sign on the freeway. The judge decided the case on First Amendment issues.

"I'm thinking that logic would hold for school transportation," Green said.

Jim O'Connell, president of Media-Aim of Scottsdale, Ariz., says school bus advertising can be lucrative and in five years of selling the ads for more than 30 districts in Colorado and Arizona, he's never once heard of accident tied to bus advertising.

Jefferson County Schools, the largest district in Colorado with more than 84,000 students in 150 schools covering more than 777 square miles, has a threeyear contract with First Bank of Colorado that is worth about $500,000 over four years, said district spokeswoman Melissa Reeves.

That translates into about $7 a day per bus for the length of the contract, still a fraction of the district's total $959 million budget but important at a time when every dollar counts.

In addition to having its logo on 100 of the district's 350 school buses, First Bank also will be prominently displayed in every high school gym, on the district Web page, in district stadiums and company announcements will be made during most varsity sporting events.

"It's not as large a revenue generator as you might think," said Mike Griffith, a policy analyst for the Education Commission of the States.

Paying a consultant to sell the ads usually cuts the profits enough to discourage districts, he said.

School bus advertising has been getting some traction in the past two years, as it did during the 2001 economic downturn, said Griffith. His organization does not keep track of which states allow school bus advertising, but he noted that few states have legislation or rules that

specifically disallow it.

Washington state Sen. Paull Shin, a Democrat who represents a district north of Seattle, raised the idea during the Legislature this year because the state's $2.8 billion budget deficit was literally keeping him awake at night with concern about its affect on schools and students, he said.

The bill failed.

"We thought this would bring a few shekels to the school boards," he said.

In staff meetings when the idea of bus advertising comes up, Green says he quashes the idea by suggesting other school marketing opportunities.

"Why not just have the teachers wear a uniform similar to NASCAR drivers?" Green wants to know. "Even though that's kind of a joke, my point is, why do they single out the school bus? Why not paint a billboard alongside the school?"

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PageAddict Charts Your Web Surfing Habits [Downloads] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:30:00 AM

Firefox:

Tracking

habits—whether you're tracking your spending, amount of sleep, or other personal metrics—is an picture of what's going on in excellent way to get a big

your life. PageAddict tracks and charts your web browsing for your review. More »

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US health bill 'will cut deficit' (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:51:42 AM

The US Congressional Budget Office says the final version of the Democrats' healthcare plan will cut the federal deficit by $138bn over 10 years.

The non-partisan body said the proposed legislation, which the House is expected to vote on at the weekend, would cost about $940bn over a decade.

President Barack Obama said the bill represented the most significant effort to reduce the deficit since the 1990s.

He has delayed a trip to Asia until June to help lobby wavering Democrats.

The reforms would deliver on Mr Obama's top domestic priority by providing insurance to some 30 million Americans who currently lack it.

They would increase insurance coverage through tax credits for the middle class and expanding of the Medicaid programme for the poor.

If approved, they would represent the biggest change in the US healthcare system since the creation in the 1960s of Medicare, the government-run scheme for Americans aged 65 or over.

Budget reconciliation

The House of Representatives and the Senate adopted different versions of the bill in November and December.

The usual procedure would be for two versions of legislation to be combined into a single bill for President Obama to sign into law. But after Senate Democrats lost the 60-seat majority required to defeat a filibuster by Republicans, Democratic leaders decided to use a controversial procedure to ensure the bill's passage.

Under the plan, the House will vote on a package of reconciliation "fixes" amending the Senate bill.

The Senate will then be able to make changes in a separate bill using a procedure known as reconciliation, which allows budget provisions to be approved with 51 votes - rather than the 60 needed to overcome blocking tactics.

In a preliminary estimate, the Congressional Budget Office said a revised Senate bill would provide coverage to 32 million uninsured people by 2016, bringing the total number of insured to 95% of eligible Americans.

The measures would continue to reduce the federal deficit in its second decade, although such projections were uncertain, it

added. Democrats say the total savings over 20 years will be $1.2 trillion.

Mr Obama said the bill represented "the most significant effort to reduce deficits since the Balanced Budget Act in the 1990s", when President Bill Clinton put the federal budget on a path to surplus.

"This is but one virtue of a reform that will bring the accountability to the insurance industry and greater economic security to all Americans," he added.

"I urge every member of Congress to consider this as they prepare for their important vote this weekend."

Later, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced that the president was postponing his trip to Indonesia and Australia until June so he could help Democrats rally last-minute support.

"The president believes right now the place for him to be is in Washington seeing this through," he said, adding that Mr Obama would apologise to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

He had already delayed his departure until Sunday, the earliest possible date for a vote.

House Democratic leaders published the updated legislation on Thursday afternoon. They have promised that lawmakers will be given 72 hours to review it before voting.

Democratic leaders say they have not yet mustered the 216 votes they need for passage, but they are pressing ahead in the belief that they can get them.

Republicans are opposed to the proposed reforms, arguing they will give the government too much control over healthcare and be mainly paid for by higher taxes and cuts in Medicare.

House Republican leader John Boehner said they would "do everything that we can do to make sure this bill, never, ever, ever passes".

Are you in the US? What outcome are you hoping for from the anticipated vote on Sunday? Are you in favour or opposed to the healthcare bill?

Send us your comments using the form below.

The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.

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Windows XP Mode No Longer Requires Virtualization Hardware [Windows 7] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:00:00 AM

Windows XP Mode is a preconfigured solution for Windows 7 users needing support for older software, and, until recently, it required AMDV or VT processor hardware.

An update released today should make XP Mode far more accessible to more Windows 7 users. More Âť

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Taga: Bike to stroller in 20 seconds

10 diet tips for pregnant women (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:51:00 AM

Ask almost any pregnant woman about eating for two, and she'll probably tell you this: It's not as much fun as it seems, and it's not all about eating extra Ho-Hos and cookie dough.

Nausea and vomiting can make it hard enough to eat for one, let alone two; pregnancy restrictions can make consumption a somewhat complicated prospect (which tuna is the safe tuna again?).

Some of the dos and don'ts of a pregnancy diet are a sure thing, others are educated guesses, and some are controversial. One thing nearly all pregnant women and their doctors can agree on, though, is that erring on the side of caution is the way to go.

These diet tips for pregnant women explain some of the dos and don'ts when eating while pregnant.

• Don't: Alcohol: Some people say it's different in Europe -specifically, that French women drink wine when they're

John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:00:52 AM

pregnant and no one gives it a thought. But in fact, many European countries are coming around to the American point of view: that no amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy.

• Do: Omega-3s: Coldwater seafood such as salmon, lake trout and sardines are excellent sources of omega-3s, including one of the most important ones for a growing fetus, called DHA. Fish oil supplements containing DHA are a

possibility during pregnancy, but they do have side effects for some people, like excessive burping or nausea, which pregnant women already may have trouble with.

• Don't: High-mercury Fish: Here's where it gets tricky, because avoiding all fish during pregnancy is a bad idea (see above). When it comes to seafood in a pregnancy diet, it's all about selectivity. Avoid predator fish like tilefish,

Party people put your hands in the air because Taga wants you to know that their stroller/bike system is rockin’ the block.

The company has been flogging their transforming bike for about a year now but it looks like they’re finally shipping in the US for $1,495 (!!!). As Treehugger notes, the video swordfish, King mackerel and shows a sporty mom in a town shark completely, and limit with wide paths and few cars albacore tuna to one 6 ounce suggesting this might be good in serving per week.

Bruges but not so nice in Flint.

My wife actually just uses this F u l l l i s t a t seat which sticks to her bike and H o w S t u f f W o r k s . c o m . instead of schlepping the whole T o t a l a g g r e g a t i o n o f thing inside she just locks it up HowStuffWorks.com. and goes shopping.

Photo credit: Fotolia Also, remember folks: kids Permalink| Leave a comment » grow up. I don’t know that spending $1,400 on a stroller bike is a great investment when junior will probably explode out of it in about two years.

However, the concept is cool and it would be nice to try if the price went down over the next few years.

Google Chrome Adds Support for Multi-Tab Aero Peek [Chrome] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 3/19/2010 6:30:00 AM

Chrome: If you're in love with

27

the Aero peek feature in Windows 7 and wish it could show you all your Chrome tabs at once, you're in luck. The

Chrome development channel.

More » feature is now active in the

28

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Davy Crockett's Parker dies at 85 (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 3/19/2010 2:41:58 AM

Actor Fess Parker, famous for playing American pioneer Davy Crockett in Walt Disney's classic 1950s TV series, has died in California at the age of 85.

The Texas-born actor launched a craze for coonskin caps and buckskin shirts with his sturdy turn as the US icon.

Parker went on to play Daniel Boone, another real-life frontiersman, in a 1960s TV show before retiring.

Actor turned California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger paid tribute to him as "a true Hollywood legend".

"Fess Parker has been a role model and idol of mine since I first saw him on the big screen," he said in a statement.

"As a talented actor and successful businessman, he was an inspirational Californian whose contributions to our state will be remembered forever."

Born in Fort Worth and raised in San Angelo, Parker served in the US Navy and graduated from the University of Texas before trying his hand at acting.

He subsequently landed a contract with Warner Brothers, making his motion picture debut in Springfield Rifle in 1952.

In 1954, at the age of 29, he was cast in a three-episode miniseries about Crockett, the "King of the Wild Frontier" whose life became an American

folk legend.

The programme was enormously popular with viewers and featured a theme song that topped the charts for 13 weeks.

After largely retiring from show business, Parker became a prominent California winemaker and developer.

He died of natural causes at his Santa Ynez Valley home on Thursday - the same day Marcella, his wife of 50 years, celebrated her 84th birthday.

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Windows Phone 7 Emulator Shots Show Inconsistent Vision [Windows Phone 7] Jason Chen (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:59:00 AM

It's unclear whether the task manager and file explorer found in these Windows Phone 7 emulator screens will make it to Here's why we're wondering. the final release, or if it will live More Âť only in emulators and debug versions of Windows Phone.

Polanski lawyers file new appeal (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

The 76-year-old director left the Submitted at 3/18/2010 4:52:30 PM US in 1978 before he could be Roman Polanski's lawyers have s e n t e n c e d a n d h a s n e v e r filed an appeal over alleged r e t u r n e d . judicial misconduct in his 1970s 'Secret testimony' child sex trial in the US. The appeal - asking that a The appeal cites new evidence special counsel investigate that a prosecutor was aware of alleged judicial misconduct m i s c o n d u c t b y t h e j u d g e was filed on Thursday at Los handling the case in 1977. Angeles Superior Court.

Polanski has been under house Polanski's lawyers say former arrest in Switzerland since Deputy District Attorney Roger September facing a US arrest Gunson gave secret testimony warrant over his conviction for this year on the judge's conduct.

They asked that the transcripts of Mr Gunson's testimony be unsealed. They also asked that Polanski be sentenced to time served without requiring his presence in court.

In January, a judge in Los Angeles ruled that Polanski must appear in court in the US before he can be sentenced.

Switzerland has said it will not decide whether to extradite the director until any appeal over his US trial is resolved.

The Swiss justice ministry has said it would make "no sense" to

move him from house arrest before a definitive ruling in the US. Polanski's latest film, The Ghost Writer, won the Silver Bear award for best director at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

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Nostalgia vs. Digital Reality: The Perils of Permanent Perfect Memory [Memory Forever] Adam Frucci (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:00:00 PM

It's easy to claim that the stuff you liked as a kid was way better than the crap kids watch today, because you haven't seen it in years. But now you can, in better quality, even. Does it hold up? More Âť

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Castro supporters heckle marchers (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

arrested some of the women, known as the "Damas de Blanco" because they dress in Submitted at 3/18/2010 5:01:35 PM white.

Hundreds of Cuban government Those marching on Thursday, s u p p o r t e r s h a v e h e c k l e d the fourth day of protests, members of the "Ladies in included the mother of Orlando White" rights group marching in Zapata, who died last month protest through the streets of after an 85-day prison hunger Havana. strike.

The women - wives and "We repudiate them because mothers of jailed dissidents - are they are against the revolution staging a week of protests on the a n d w e w i l l d e f e n d t h i s anniversary of Fidel Castro's revolution until the end," said 2003 Black Spring crackdown. Yamile Gonzalez, one of the pro They are demanding the release -government supporters. of some 50 government critics A US state department still being held. spokesman said Washington On Wednesday, police briefly was "dismayed that a peaceful

march was disrupted by the Cuban government".

Amnesty International has urged Havana to ensure the safety of the women, saying some alleged they were beaten by police following Wednesday's arrests.

Cuba has lashed out at the criticism, saying the dissidents are common criminals who are paid by the US to destabilise the government.

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How Apple Keeps iPad Developers on Extreme Lockdown [Apple] Brian Barrett (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:51:12 AM

If you're a software developer lucky enough to get a look at the iPad before its release, you'd better be ready to submit to some of the toughest security

measures this side of Super Max. More Âť

Survey says: Consumers intrigued by electric cars (CNET News.com)

percent of people said they are likely to consider a plug-in car Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:53:11 AM when shopping, with seven Despite few options, about one percent saying they are very quarter of U.S. consumers likely to do so. surveyed said they are likely to The survey indicated that consider a plug-in vehicle on consumers were not willing to t h e i r n e x t a u t o p u r c h a s e , give up much on performance or according to a survey from the convenience to use the new Consumer Reports National t e c h n o l o g y , a c c o r d i n g t o Survey Center. consumer reports.

Consumer reports on Thursday Driving range is perhaps the published the results of the biggest barrier to adoption of all survey which asked 1,752 adults -electric vehicles, such as the about their views regarding plug Nissan Leaf which is expected -in electric vehicles. In a to go on sale in the U.S. later random phone interview, 26 this year. In tests in the U.S., the

driving range of the electric Mini-E is between 75 miles and 100 miles, which varies with weather and driving habits, according to BMW. But there was a range of sentiment on the question of range. The median range that consumers said they wanted from an electric car was 89 miles. But, 45 percent said that they would be satisified with a driving range of under 75 miles and 29 percent said that under 49 miles would be fine.

On the question of price, there's a range as well. The median

extra amount consumers said they would pay was $2,068, but 20 percent said they are not willing to pay anything more and another 20 percent saying they would pay at least $5,000 extra.

One could interpret the top-line result in a different way: a majority of respondents--nearly three quarters--said they don't expect to consider a plug-in electric car for their next purchase.

However, there have been other studies that indicate that consumers are interested in

electric vehicles in their different forms because they have to potential to save drivers money on fuel and pollute less than gas-only vehicles.

Because of differences in driving range needs and availability of public charging stations, the roll out of plug-in cars is likely to happen in certain regional clusters, say experts.

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4 Easy Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans Leyl Master Black (Mashable!)

content in the context of a question, you provide an easy call to action. With a question, L e y l M a s t e r B l a c k i s a you engage people’s egos and Managing Director at Sparkpr, provoke viral distribution of o n e o f t h e w o r l d ’ s t o p your content — everyone loves independent PR agencies. Leyl to share their opinion! has more than 15 years At the DigiDay: Social experience driving high-impact conference this month, social communications programs for media marketing application e m e r g i n g t e c h n o l o g y developer Fan Appz highlighted companies. an example of how a simple While more than three million question can boost engagement. b u s i n e s s e s , b r a n d s a n d One of their customers — a c e l e b r i t i e s h a v e c r e a t e d leading video content provider Facebook Pages, many are with over 300,000 Facebook struggling to figure out how best fans — routinely posts videos to use them. Companies are on their Facebook Page. The finding that even when they company found that when they keep their pages updated with paired videos with a question, fresh content, they still aren’t v i d e o p l a y s j u m p e d b y a seeing steady growth in their fan whopping factor of 7 to 10. base.

This simple yet effective And yet there are many brands strategy also generated 100 who’ve surpassed the one times more Facebook media million fan mark, while their impressions, as people posted peers have languished in the videos to their walls in the thousands. What’s their secret? context of their response to the These companies have figured question. o u t h o w t o m o v e f r o m The NBA has also adopted this “ b r o a d c a s t ” m o d e i n t o approach, issuing a steady e n g a g e m e n t . T h e y h a v e stream of “Top Five” polls and engaged people so well that other engaging content that has their fans even invite others propelled the organization to top along for the ride. the two million fan mark, an Here are four ways that savvy unprecedented number for a Facebook marketers are using sports league on the social the medium to engage with their networking site. The NBA fans. 1. Ask Their Opinion routinely invites fans to rank If you post something on your their top five shooters, point Facebook Page, you might guards and more. During the generate a good number of 2009-10 NBA season, their Fan comments. But if you post your Page generated nearly 500 Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:38:44 AM

million status update impressions and more than six million video views. 2. Test Their Knowledge Consider testing people’s knowledge with a fun, relevant quiz, and even tying the results to a giveaway or promotion (more on that later). A clever quiz is not only entertaining, but also lengthens the time a user spends engaged with your brand.

One company embracing this approach is Molotov, a digital marketing agency whose clients include comedians such as George Lopez, David Spade and Jamie Kennedy. Molotov worked with George Lopez to create quizzes such as How Well Do You Know George Lopez? to push his fan base over the one million mark and drive viewership for his TV show.

In another Molotov program to promote a client’s new TV show, the company ran a series of quizzes about the celebrity in conjunction with a sweepstakes for signed merchandise. The quizzes were tests of knowledge about the comedian, his comedy, his routines, even

about what happened on last week’s show. Giving people the opportunity to test their knowledge got them into a competitive mode and provided an additional incentive to share their results with friends. In the span of a little over a week, the campaign drove over 12 million brand impressions — and the premiere of the show was the highest rated show on the cable network for the year. 3. Pair Promotions with Content While a contest or sweepstakes may get you some e-mail addresses, simply posting these on your page provides limited incentive to share with friends or even to participate. The way to boost participation is by tying the offer to content. People taking a brand-related quiz are great targets for your message.

They may already have an affinity for the brand, so this is the best time to make them an offer.

In the example mentioned above, Molotov gave fans a chance to enter a sweepstakes to win signed merchandise — but the offer was made within the flow of the quiz. This strategy resulted in a 50% conversion rate. For every ten fans who tested their knowledge, five signed up to participate in the promotion, generating over 30,000 sign-ups for the weekly e -mail blast to promote the show.

The offer doesn’t even have to be big. Before the Super Bowl,

the NFL ran a How Well Do You Know the NFL? quiz, with one lucky participant selected to receive a $50 gift card to NFLshop.com. Over 10,000 people took the quiz. If you estimate that each participant has 200 friends, that’s a possible two million impressions in the news feed with a relatively small giveaway. 4. Thank Your Fans Giving your fans something of value — whether it’s as simple as a coupon, or as flashy as tickets to the Tonight Show— is a great way to show that you appreciate their continued support.

But what about picking one fan at random to get something really special?

The NBA again shows that they are on the leading edge. This brilliant strategy taps some of their biggest stars to record personalized video clips thanking select fans. Here’s a picture of Shaq thanking fan #385. If you’re an NBA fan, you could be next!

Put These Ideas Into Action You don’t have to be a major brand like the NBA to turn your Facebook Page into an engaging destination. Any business can take these ideas and get creative.

A restaurant could pair a quiz about famous restaurant movie scenes with a $100 gift certificate sweepstakes, or a EASY page 31

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U.S. wind power growing fast but still lags (CNET News.com)

we generate electricity in the U.S. today. It's still relatively Submitted at 3/19/2010 6:28:05 AM small in terms of percentages, Wind-generated electricity is but it's growing rapidly...Only in growing rapidly in the United the last seven or eight years has States but the pace still lags far the cost come down...The price behind that in China, the of electricity from wind projects o r g a n i z e r o f a n i n d u s t r y has stabilized." conference in North Carolina Last year, 10,000 megawatts of said. wind capacity were added to the "With the right policies in place, grid, bringing the country's total w e c a n s e e e x p l o s i v e wind power capacity to 35,000 growth...It's a global footrace," m e g a w a t t s , A n t h o n y s a i d . said Jeff Anthony, business Industry growth in 2009 was 39 development director of the percent, he said.

A m e r i c a n W i n d E n e r g y "China is currently growing at Association.

100 percent. They are doubling Although the United States has the amount of wind power the largest amount of installed capacity in their country every wind power capacity in the year," Anthony said. world, the wind power industry To reach a goal set by the U.S. is "fighting to get on a level Department of Energy for 20 p l a y i n g f i e l d " w i t h o t h e r percent of the nation's electricity government-subsidized power to be generated by wind by providers, Anthony told a 2030, "we will need 300,000 c o n f e r e n c e o f p a r t s megawatts of power generated manufacturers, suppliers, wind by wind turbines," Anthony p r o j e c t d e v e l o p e r s , a n d said. "So we're one-tenth of the economic development officers way there." from around the southeastern Problems include a lag in United States. manufacturing--almost all "What the wind industry looks manufacturers of turbine parts like in the U.S. in 10 years are based outside the United depends a lot on what comes out States--and transmission. of Washington....Policy does " W e n e e d a g r e e n drive the industry," he told the superhighway" to get power conference in Greensboro, N.C. from the windiest parts of the A little more than 1.5 percent of country, in a north-south swath power supplied in the United through the middle, to the areas States is generated by wind, w h e r e d e m a n d i s h i g h e s t , Anthony said.

Anthony said.

"It's an important part of how " E l e c t r i c i t y i s t h e o n l y

wind power will improve, he said.

"The cost of offshore is high commodity you can't store," he right now," said. said.

But, he said "If we do not find a The highest demand is on the way to harness a large resource East Coast, where 28 coastal sitting near a big demand--it's states use almost 80 percent of Economics 101--I think we have the electricity in the country, some issues with ourselves," said Nick Rigas, a Clemson Rigas said.

University wind expert who "It comes down to: Do we as a spoke at the conference. nation think that carbon Offshore wind turbines, in use emissions have an adverse around the world for years, have impact on our environment and yet to be built off U.S. coasts. our future? The other issue with Duke Energy's three proposed the fossil fuels is that they are a wind turbines in Pamlico Sound finite resource. Why are we on the North Carolina coast will depleting a finite resource by probably be the first in-water just burning it?" wind engines to be built in the He agreed that sustainable country, Rigas said. energy policy is crucial. Energy Rigas is senior scientist and policy "can't come and go director of Clemson University depending on who is in office," Restoration Institute's $98 he said. "In China, wind power million drive-train testing is huge and still growing while facility being built on the coast we sit here and contemplate our of South Carolina to test the navels," he said. next generation of global large "We still think we're the center wind turbines, 15-megawatt of the universe and the big engines that can weigh up to economic engine, but the world 300 tons. is changing. Are we going to The facility is funded by the change with it?"

U.S. Department of Energy Story Copyright (c) 2010 along with public and private Reuters Limited. All rights partners, and will allow access reserved. to all manufacturers and protect Five Filters featured article: intellectual property rights, he Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: said.

PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, New technology will change Term Extraction. the wind power industry, Rigas said. Turbines will get quieter and lighter, and efficiencies in

31

EASY continued from page 30

Ford dealership could run a poll gauging people’s reactions to the Toyota recall news and give away interest-free financing to one lucky winner. The trick is to think about what your users would be interested in, what’s trendy or fun, then try it out.

In what ways are you engaging with your Facebook fans? More Facebook resources from Mashable: - 5 Fantastic Facebook Fan Page Ideas to Learn From - HOW TO: Build a Facebook Landing Page for Your Business - HOW TO: Block FarmVille on Facebook - How Facebook Can Become a Money Making Machine - 10 Musts for Marketing to Women on Facebook Tags: business, celebrities, engagement, facebook, facebook fan page, facebook fan pages, Facebook Lists, List, Lists, NBA, quiz, small business

32

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YouTube Motions Highlight How Entertainment Industry Lawsuits May Have Slowed Useful Platforms Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:22:00 AM

We've already written up an analysis of the motions for summary judgment in the Viacom/Google YouTube lawsuit, suggesting that Google's arguments seem stronger. It still seems unlikely that either motion will persuade the judge to skip a trial altogether, but the motions are certainly a bit of a preview of what to expect at any trial.

Most of the analysis out there sort of reiterates the talking points in the two motions, but Eric Goldman highlighted an important point that got me thinking in that time is working against Viacom here, as YouTube becomes more and more entrenched as a useful platform by the day: Perhaps more importantly, the intervening time has been good to YouTube as a business and as a brand. In this sense, compare Grokster to YouTube. At the time of the Grokster cases, it was still very much an open question whether Grokster would ever evolve into a tool where legitimate activity dominated. While we might still

have had that same question about YouTube in 2006, by 2010 YouTube has answered that question resoundingly.

YouTube's business practices have matured, everyone has had positive legitimate experiences with YouTube (even behind-thecurve judges), and it's clear that major legitimate players have adopted YouTube as a platform for their legitimate activities.

For example, YouTube's brief makes the point that all of the 2008 presidential candidates published YouTube videos as part of their campaign. I'm guessing no 2004 presidential candidates used Grokster for campaign purposes.

So as time goes on, YouTube solidifies a brand as a legitimate part of our information infrastructure. As we learn that the YouTube story has a happy ending, I suspect judges become less interested in punishing YouTube for past practices. For this reason (and others), I thought a lot of Viacom's

inducement arguments ran hollow because they ran counter to my brand impressions of YouTube. I would also note that Viacom appears to be giving up its litigation over activity after May 2008, so even Viacom seems to be happy with YouTube in its current form.

Goldman goes on to point out that this may bring up some challenges heretofore unfaced in determining how the "inducement" standard works -but, to me, it brings up an even more important issue: similar lawsuits against Napster and Grokster moved faster. Lots of people have commented on the fact that this particular lawsuit has taken three years from filing just to get to the summary judgment motions to be filed -and during that time, Goldman is correct, YouTube has had a chance to mature, refine its business model, and do many things that we now find to be quite beneficial to society.

The same thing likely would

have happened to both Napster and Grokster, if they had been given a chance to live.

Executives behind each company repeatedly laid out strategies to mature their business models and to work as partners with the industry. It's just that they never got a chance to put those into practice because these sorts of lawsuits and rulings from judges forced them (effectively) out of business. In YouTube's case, the slow pace of this particular lawsuit has allowed it to firmly establish tons of viable, useful, valuable non-infringing uses -to the point that it's a platform used by tons of companies, politicians, individuals and more. If Napster and Grokster had been given half a chance, they likely would have been able to evolve similarly.

And this is what is so painful about watching all these attempts by the entertainment industry to kill off any new technology that disrupts an old

business model. These lawsuits kill off those technologies before the natural progression and maturation is allowed -- and because of that, we all suffer.

Now, some will scoff and claims that Grokster was never going to turn into what YouTube is today, but you're saying that with the gift of hindsight. A large part of Viacom's motion tries to suggest that the two companies actually were quite similar -- but even Viacom is now admitting that YouTube's business model was able to mature and adapt.

Considering that we still don't have music discovery, promotion and distribution tools as convenient as Napster was back in the day, this can be seen as a real shame. These lawsuits killed off a useful path of exploration for legitimate business models, and that's not only shameful but a waste of innovative effort. It's only through the random quirk of a slow court that YouTube may avoid suffering the same fate.

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Tool Maker Loses Lawsuit For Not Violating Another Company's Patents Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:40:00 AM

Patent system supporters regularly point (slightly misleadingly) to the claim that the patent system gives patent holders the right to exclude others from using their inventions. And, thus, most lawsuits we see around patents revolve around cases involving a company manufacturing a product that includes a patented invention. But what about a lawsuit for a company that deliberately chose not to license or use a patented technology, because it was too expensive?

Welcome to today's world.

A few years back, there was a lot of attention paid to videos from a company called SawStop that made a pretty cool product that protected your fingers from a table saw. You may have seen the videos: The company tried to license the invention to various table saw makers, but after evaluating the technology, many were not convinced how well it worked and felt that the cost was way too high (both for themselves, and for consumers).

In fact, some appeared to fear

that if they did adopt this technology and then someone still got hurt, they were asking for a big lawsuit for promoting this technology as a safety feature.

But what about the other way around? Could someone be so bold as to actually sue for using a table saw that did not have this technology?

ChurchHatesTucker alerts us to the story of a lawsuit in Boston that involved a guy whose hand

table saws.

That, of course, conflicts with that basic "exclusivity" part of patent law -- and would effectively mean that SawStop has now been given total defacto control over who can be allowed to sell table saws in the US. That clearly is not what the law was intended to do. The government should never require companies to have to purchase a patent license for a technology they don't believe the market wants. And, in this case, the ruling has resulted in numerous other lawsuits against other table saw makers -- and a near guarantee that the price of table saws will go way up. Old saws can't be retrofitted, and was damaged in a table saw table saw makers need to totally accident while using a table saw change their manufacturing f r o m R y o b i . T h e g u y ' s process and greatly increase complaint was that Ryobi costs to offer this technology. should have included this This seems blatantly wrong. If technology and that it should be the government is going to required to protect hands. And, require companies to use a amazingly, the jury sided with patented technology, it seems the guy. that the only reasonable solution Yes, you read that right. The is to remove the patent on it and jury effectively claimed that any allow competition in the market table saw maker is liable for place. injuries if it does not license this Permalink| Comments| Email technology and build it into its This Story

Ohio stuns Georgetown to end tourney drought Associated Press (ESPN.com)

Top Performers Georgetown: G. Monroe 19 Pts, Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Ohio: D. Cooper 23 Pts, 3 Reb, 13 Reb, 6 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 Blk PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, 8 Ast, 3 Stl Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

Like a Surgical Mask...But Even Creepier! [Concepts] Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:20:00 AM

It's always nerve-wracking when the person beside you on a plane is coughing, but I'd imagine that them wearing this mask would only heighten the effect. More Âť

Ad Age Explains How Copyright Is The Buggy Whip Of The Digital Age Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 3/19/2010 4:07:39 AM

Michael Scott points us to a rather surprising (given the source) piece in Ad Age asking if copyright is "the buggy whip of the digital age." Of course, most regular Techdirt readers AGE page 34

34

Tech/ Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

Windows Phone emulator unlocked (CNET News.com)

star of the show at Mix. But while Microsoft had lots of Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:20:00 AM sessions on how developers can At its Mix10 event this week, write their own programs for the Microsoft released a software phones, Microsoft kept much of emulator for the Windows its own work under wraps. The Phone 7 Series platform, but software maker had prototype kept a lot of its own programs phones in its booth at the show, and features hidden. but employees were careful not However, with a bit of work, to let the devices out of their one developer says he has hands and have kept a good unlocked those features making chunk of their work--such as the them available for the world to mobile version of Office--to see and play with. themselves.

"I still cannot believe it but I did As shown over on Engadget, it," Don Ardelean said in a blog unlocking the emulator allows a post early Friday. "After a good look at the Windows Phone idea, 6 hours of work and a lot a versions of Word and Excel--at lot of digging I've unlocked the least whatever early versions ROM image in the emulator Microsoft included in the CTP. I will describe tomorrow emulator. the method but right now I will Sensing that Microsoft might just post some screenshots, not be too happy with his upload the bin somewhere so I discovery, Ardelean said he can give you the link and go to decided to take down the sleep cause it's almost 2 o'clock u n l o c k e d v e r s i o n o f t h e in the morning." emulator.

Windows Phone was clearly the "I have decided to take down the

link because Microsoft could get upset and I don't really want that (if someone at Microsoft will tell me that it doesn't bother them I will put it back)," Ardelean said. "Anyway I will explain later how I was able to do it (cause it was done for educational purposes only) and I think this won't cause me problems. Right? :)" I'll check in with the folks in Redmond this morning to see what they have to say.

Update: No word yet from Microsoft. But, for those that want to see what the unlocked emulator reveals (without having to find the code), TechAU has two good videos on its site.

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

Macs vs. PCs on Operating System Security [Blockquote] Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:13:43 AM

Security expert Charlie Miller

on the record-breaking 20 zero

day security holes soon to be announced in OS X. [ H-Online] More Âť

AGE continued from page 33

will not be surprised to find that I agree with that statement wholeheartedly. It's a tool for a very different system that isn't needed. If anything, I'd argue the situation is worse than with buggy whips. At least with buggy whips, they could just fade away as the automobile grew in importance. Buggy whips couldn't get in the way of the automakers. Copyright, on the other hand, is regularly used to stifle and hold back new forms of creativity and to silence expression.

The article itself, by Judy Shapiro, is really a conference report from an event called "The Collision of Ideas 2010," put on by the Copyright Clearance Center. It looks like they brought in a lot of fantastic speakers, highlighting how copyright law doesn't fit well with what content creators are trying to do, and how it's often being used to actively harm content creators. For example: Mr. Hoffman, the filmmaker, gave a presentation where he confided how challenging current copyright laws are for artists. As an example, he gave us detailed insights into the challenges he had creating his critically acclaimed Sputnik documentary. He explained that half his budget was spent on

copyright fees alone. Most unfairly, he had to pay exorbitant copyright fees to a network for old news footage they did not even have but which David himself had spent time to ferret out. David openly concluded that, "it was better to open the floodgates" and let anyone use his content than constrain its distribution.

Unfortunately, Shapiro is getting beaten up in the comments on that piece by folks who are doing the kneejerk thing of saying "but copyright is good, because otherwise who will create!" Still, it's good to see that this debate is reaching a wider and wider audience through conferences like this one and in the pages of AdAge. While you can always expect the kneejerk response from folks who have always been told that copyright must be good, the more people examine the actual issues, the more they'll recognize that as a tool, it's current design is woefully misguided and very much against the principles for which it was created.

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NComputing gets in the chip game (CNET News.com)

add similar abilities to devices like thin clients, monitors, and televisions, NComputing said.

NComputing, the virtualization " W e c o n t i n u e t o d r i v e c o m p a n y r u n b y f o r m e r innovation into the market to e M a c h i n e s C E O S t e p h e n bring the cost of clients closer to Dukker, is now in the chip zero,"" Dukker said in a press game. release announcing Numo..

The company said Friday that "Our technology has created its $20 Numo chip will allow a disruptive economics for the variety of uses, from TVs that desktop while delivering a rich can access the Web to the m u l t i m e d i a e x p e r i e n c e t o c r e a t i o n o f n e w k i n d s o f education, enterprise, and now terminals for businesses that can consumer users." remotely access Windows or NComputing said Numo-based Linux. devices will also have the option NComputing already offers its of running Android locally for own line of products that let a added power. Numo itself is a single PC or server power dual-core ARM-based chip with multiple computing experiences. embedded media processors.

The approach has gotten some At the Consumer Electronics traction, especially in the cash- Show in January, Korea's LG strapped education space as well showed a prototype network as in emerging markets. monitor using the Numo chip-With Numo, device makers can actually, 31 such monitors, all Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:38:00 AM

running off a single PC as the server. The 31 users were simultaneously computing, using Windows Server and NComputing's VSpace software.

NComputing said it will show Numo-powered devices at the Interop trade show in April and will announce more partners this summer "including industryleading PC, monitor, and TV manufacturers." Virtual desktop clients from NComputing and others will start being available in the second quarter, it said.

The company also said it plans to support the RemoteFX virtualization technology that Microsoft announced on Thursday.

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

Palm: We coulda been a contender John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:57:32 AM

In Greek tragedy, the flaw of hubris was the decisive plot point that brought down many great men. Palm, then, is the Oedipus of a modern tragedy, their efforts to rebuild hampered by a failure to see past their own greatness and a refusal to enter the market on the market's terms. To be honest, I was a Palm fan, then I wasn't a Palm

fan, and now am part of the chorus of voices bemoaning the lowly state to which the company has been thrust. Palm

recently reported $349 million in revenue with a third quarter loss of $102.8 million. Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said:"If we could have launched at Verizon prior to the Droid, I think we would have gotten the attention the Droid got. And since I believe we have a better product, I think we could have even done better."

35

Becoming a U.S. Citizen Twitter-Style Christina Warren (Mashable!)

Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:32:38 AM

Yesterday, David Chen livetweeted the process of becoming an American citizen when he, along with 900 other individuals, participated in the Naturalization Oath Ceremony at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Chen, the managing editor of/Film, is used to using his Twitter account to live-tweet film festivals or events like Comic Con, but this was something different.

“I didn’t anticipate being able to live-tweet the ceremony, because I had heard a rumor that they would confiscate my electronic devices. This ended up not being true, so after I checked in, I realized I had an opportunity to show people an aspect of citizenship that they might not usually be privy to.

And I took it.”

In addition to sending out tweets about the ceremony, Chen also uploaded videos to YouTube, photos to Flickr and even took the time to do an audio interview with another new citizen.

After the ceremony, Chen wrote about the experience on

his blog, sharing what it means to be an American to him. Born in Taiwan, Chen’s family came to America when he was two years old. Now more than 20 years later, he’s officially a U.S. citizen.

We’ve seen examples of people using social media to share love, report on breaking news and even on the birth of a child. It only makes sense that we now have one of the first instances of someone live-tweeting the naturalization process.

The mobile nature of something like Twitter — Chen was able to send out updates as he waited in line for his certificate, prepared to say the oath, etc. — makes it the perfect medium to capture some of these life events.

Congrats Dave! How do you use social media to share your stories with the world? Let us know!

Tags: citizenship, dave chen, Film, twitter

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Mac OS X 10.6.3 imminent?

Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Legal Fight Over Design Of Disposable Coffee Cups

Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:00:00 PM

Filed under: OS After only two days since the last build was seeded, Apple has pushed another 10.6.3 version out to developers. The newest build is numbered 10D572 and focuses on Graphics Drivers, Quicktime, Images & Photos, Mail, and Security Certificates. In addition, the build also includes: • Compatibility issues with OpenGL-based applications • Performance improvements for 64-bit Logic • Changes to QuickTime X that increase reliability and improve compatibility and security • Printing reliability and compatibility with third party printers • Issues resolved that prevented files from copying to Windows shares • Issues resolved with recurring events in iCal when connected to an Exchange server • Issues resolved that prevented files with the "#" or "&" symbols in their names from opening in Rosetta • Issues addressed that caused background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail when scrolling • Issue resolved that caused

Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

Dixie even provided alternative designs for Huhtamaki to adopt to differentiate its cup from Whatever happened to actually Dixie's, according to the judge's competing in the market place? order.

Copycense points us to a recent "Because Huhtamaki would legal battle between Dixie and either incur additional costs or Huhtamaki over the design of sacrifice design quality if it were their disposable coffee cups. forced to adopt one of Dixie's Seriously. Dixie claimed that alternative designs, the court Huhtamaki violated its trade finds that the product feature in dress because its cups, like question is functional under the Dixie's, included a white band at traditional test." Still, just the the bottom of the cup. After fact that lawsuits like this even its launch last August. If the two years in court, the judge, exist in the first place shows improvements are significant, thankfully, didn't see what the how far gone these things have it's very likely that Apple will big deal was over both cups gone. It's as if every company soon press 10.6.3 discs to be having a white strip at the feels entitled to having no sold in retail stores, much like bottom and ruled against Dixie. competition whatsoever, and they did with Mac OS X 10.5.3. In part, the judge noted, Dixie will sue anyone who offers TUAW Mac OS X 10.6.3 never proved that the white strip anything remotely similar. imminent? originally appeared was non-functional, which is What a sad state of affairs. o n T h e U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e important, since trade dress is Permalink| Comments| Email Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 19 s u p p o s e d t o b e f o r n o n - This Story Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please functional design elements: see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:44:18 AM

machines using BTMM and the Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly Like the previous build, there is a single known issue: Safari 4.0.5 will be re-offered by Software Update after upgrading to 10D572 from a previous seed.

As a general rule, the closer build release dates come to one another, the sooner the build will be released to the general public. 10.6.3 seems like it could very well be the biggest update to Snow Leopard since

Tech/ TV/

E-reader News Edition

37

27-inch Cinema Display, 12-core Mac Pro by June Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: Desktops, Hardware, Rumors, Mac Pro AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is preparing to launch a 27-inch Cinema Display and 12core Mac Pro by June. The 27inch Cinema Display is rumored to use the same panel as the one used in the 27-inch iMac and will look similar to the 24-inch Cinema Display launched in October 2008.

Internally, the display is referred to as "K59" and AppleInsider's sources believe its been lingering in Apple's labs for some time while Apple waited for the larger LCD panel - which supports resolutions up to 2560 by 1440 pixels - to drop in price.

Along side the 27-inch Cinema

'Glee' Cast to Appear on 'Oprah' Allison Waldman (TV Squad) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:09:00 AM

Display will be the long-awaited Mac Pro update. The tower would get at least one 12-core model using two of Intel's sixcore Xeon 5600 processors (that's a dodeca-core Mac Pro, baby!). The 5600 series will be available in 2.66, 2.8, 2.93, and 3.33GHz configurations.

A June time frame would be almost fifteen months after

Apple shipped the last Mac Pro. The late release would owe itself to Intel not delivering the Xeon 5600's for another month and a half. Apple typically updates their Pro towers in the first few months of the new year.

[Cinema Display mock-ups by AppleInsider] TUAW 27-inch Cinema

Chaos Rings trailer looks awesome Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

does it look great -- over in the console world, Final Fantasy's creators have been saying that Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:00:00 AM they can't make them like they Filed under: Gaming used to, because the newer HD Just yesterday, we heard about technology just makes oldthis new Square Enix RPG due school artisanship tough to do. to come to the iPhone this year, But a platform like the iPhone, and today, not only do we have with its built-in limits on official confirmation, but a first graphical fidelity, might be just official trailer as well. And boy the place for the old-school vibe

to live and thrive.

3D characters on 2D backgrounds? What appear to be turn-based battles against bosses and summons? A story featuring emo-haired heroes and J-pop ballads? Boy are we in. The Japanese version says "Available soon on the App Store," but we'll keep an eye on the other stores as well and let

The first week in April will be tumultuous for the folks from'Glee.' Sunday, April 4, is Easter, then on Monday, April 5, the gang will be at the White House for the annual Easter Egg festivities. Then on Wednesday, April 7,'Glee' goes to 'The Oprah Winfrey Show'! They should sing 'My Kind of Town' as a tribute to Chicago when they get off the plane, don't you think?

Continue reading'Glee' Cast to Appear on 'Oprah' Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, you know when this drops.

TUAW Chaos Rings trailer Music and Variety, Celebrities, l o o k s a w e s o m e o r i g i n a l l y Talk Show, Reality-Free, Glee Permalink| Email this| | appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, C o m m e n t s 19 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments Display, 12-core Mac Pro by June originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canon Becomes The Online Equivalent Ellen's Stripper Surprise Of Madonna Or Prince, Becoming The For Betty White!

First Single Word Domain Holder (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:01:00 AM

Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

that? Apparently consumer electronics firm Canon.

Dark Helmet alerts us to the It's been a while now since news that Canon is the first ICANN announced plans to company to get its own TLD, open up the top level domain appropriately: .canon. And, no, space. While we've questioned this doesn't mean that you'll now for many years the utility of still need to go to http://canon.canon r e q u i r i n g l i m i t e d T L D s , -- but just to http://canon (that ICANN's plan to open up top is, once it's launched, which level domains appeared to be won't be until at least late 2011). more of a moneygrab than any Oh, and apparently the cost has real attempt at openness. That's now solidified at $185,000. because to get your own vanity This really does seem like a TLD, it was going to cost pure vanity play. It's not like somewhere between $100,000 anyone was having any trouble and $500,000. Who would pay finding Canon before, and most Submitted at 3/19/2010 6:03:22 AM

browsers (the vast majority of those that are actually used) will often automatically add the .com if you leave it off anyway.

There might be an argument for some sites, such as social networking sites to go down this road, so that you can set up profile pages like YourName.Facebook or whatever -- but it's hard to see the value for companies like Canon.

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Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:00:00 AM

- Compatibility with Euphonix Eucon protocol in 64-bit mode.

The Logic Express 9.1.1 update weighs in at 139MB and addresses compatibility and numerous fixes including:

All-New Interviews With the 'American Idol' Finalists (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:58:00 AM

Apple updates Logic Pro, Express Filed under: Software, Software Update Apple has updated Logic Pro and Logic Express, its digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software applications.

The Logic Pro 9.1.1 update weighs in at 192MB and addresses compatibility and numerous fixes including: - Improved stability of the 32Bit Audio Unit Bridge - Compatibility with Novation"s Automap feature in 64-bit mode.

ET has the latest...

Ellen DeGeneres surprises Betty White with a sexy stripper on Monday's edition of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." Read on to find out why!

White will be hosting "Saturday Night Live" on May 8, so

DeGeneres decides to test the veteran actress' ability to keep a straight face by putting on fake teeth, funny glasses and even by bringing out a Chippendales dancer.

White plays along and admits to DeGeneres that she may not keep her cool while hosting SNL.

- Support for 64-bit native mode - Compatibility with 64-bit Audio Unit plug-ins - File names with over 32 characters are now supported - Samples are now mapped

ET has the latest...

In all-new interviews, the top "American Idol" finalists are c o r r e c t l y w h e n u s i n g t h e dishing about their favorite "Contiguous Zones" option in moments from the show so far!

"My very favorite performance the EXS editor Both Pro and Express require to date was when I sang 'Kiss Mac OS X 10.5.7 or later for 32- Me' the second week," says bit mode or Mac OS X 10.6.2 or Lacey Brown. "It was a fun song and it's a love song and it's later for 64-bit mode.

TUAW Apple updates Logic lighthearted and I thought, 'Well Pro, Express originally appeared this is a great opportunity to o n T h e U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e push myself and do something Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 19 out of the box for me.'"

Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please Meanwhile, Crystal Bowersox is just happy to be a part of of see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analyst: Palm Shares Headed to $0

Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw Are New Grandparents

Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

(ETonline - Breaking News)

Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:59:17 AM

Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:16:00 AM

Following a disappointing earnings report, a Wall Street analyst has cut his price target on Palm to $0. In other words, he believes the company’s shares will be worthless within twelve months.

The report comes from Canaccord Adams technology analyst Peter Misek, who wrote this morning that, “We believe Palm’s troubles will only accelerate as carriers and suppliers increasingly question the company’s solvency and withdraw their support.”

Although Palm’s revenue tripled in its most recent quarter versus the prior year, less than half of the smartphones it shipped to distributors actually sold. And for the coming

Dr. Phil McGraw and his wife Robin became grandparents on Thursday.

According to People.com, Dr. Phil's son Jay McGraw and his wife Erica welcomed a baby girl named Avery Elizabeth at 11:33 p.m. on Thursday night. The little girl weighed in at 6 lbs., 6 oz. and was 21 inches long at birth, the mag reports.

"Both Avery and Erica are resting comfortably and doing well," the family said in a statement to People. "The entire family is overjoyed!"

quarter, Palm offered a revenue estimate of less than half of what analysts were expecting.

Initial optimism about the Palm Pre and Pixi – which are now also available on Verizon— had sent the company’s shares as high as $18/share last fall, but following today’s report, the company sees its shares back under $5. As of December ’09, the company had an estimated 6 percent share of the US smartphone market.

Tags: palm

Facebook Warns of New E-mail Scam [ALERT] Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:19:58 AM

Facebook has warned users to “delete e-mails asking you to open an attachment to get a new Facebook password,” in the wake of a new scam making its way around the web.

Earlier in the week, security firm McAfee alerted users to such a threat, saying that because of Facebook’s size, the scam “threatens computers worldwide.”

In this case, if a user opens the malicious e-mail –- which can appear to come from Facebook as a result of spoofing –- and then the attachment, they’re actually installing a password

stealer that McAfee says can “potentially access any username and password combination utilized on that computer.”

This scam should be easy to protect yourself from –- after all, Facebook would never send you a new password unprompted, let alone one that requires you to open an attachment. Nonetheless, it’s probably a good idea to warn Associated Press your less savvy friends and (ESPN.com) family.

Here’s what one of the scam e- Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:14:54 AM mails looks like: Top Performers Tags: facebook, online security, Wake Forest: I. Smith 19 Pts, security 12 Reb, 7 Ast Texas: J. Hamilton 19 Pts, 6 Reb, 1 Ast, 1 Stl Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, BBC] More » Term Extraction.

Scientists Create Invisibility Cloak [Harry Potter] Ravi Somaiya (Gawker) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:32:24 AM

Except not really, because like

all potentially cool science stuff it's only kind of cool in a technical way and it will be decades before you can throw

one on and loiter in locker rooms. So put down your Harry Potter, scientists, and make me a hoverboard. Also a lightsaber. [

Smith's late swish sends Wake Forest by Texas

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Greek Tragedy Noam Scheiber (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 3/18/2010 9:00:00 PM

Shortly after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou took office last fall, he learned that he’d inherited a massive booby prize: a budget deficit that was twice the amount the previous government had disclosed. But, when Papandreou came clean and promised to address the problem, the financial markets reacted violently. Interest rates soared, adding billions in debtservice costs to an already dire budget picture. And so, when Papandreou arrived in Washington in March, the stated reason was to push his brief against speculators--who, he claimed, had driven up Greek borrowing costs to usurious levels. “[We] were bold enough to reveal these problems,” Papandreou said at the time.

“But we were also penalized for revealing these problems.”

Unofficially, however, the point of the trip wasn’t so much economics as political economy: to subtly suggest that Greece had allies outside Europe who could help deal with its debt crisis. For weeks now, the Greeks and their eurozone neighbors have been engaged in an awkward dance. The French and Germans, who hold outsize sway in the monetary union, have shunned talk of a bailout,

which would go down in their countries about the way the Wall Street bailout went down in this one. (The image of entitled Greeks frolicking on sun-splashed islands occupies roughly the same mental space in Northern Europe that “fat-cat bankers” do in Middle America.) The Europeans imply that there’s little risk of contagion and believe Greece should largely clean up its own mess. For its part, Athens has formally denied interest in a bailout. But it has desperately played up the seriousness of the situation so as to obtain some sort of assistance, suggesting the turmoil could spill into Ireland and Portugal, even large economies like Spain and Italy.

By trekking to Washington, Papandreou hoped to ever-soslightly tip the balance in this showdown. As Gikas Hardouvelis, a former economic adviser to one of Papandreou’s predecessors, described the thinking to me, “Let the Germans feel that you do have Obama’s ear so that they don’t feel like super dictators.” But the truth is that Washington can’t play a direct role for fear of meddling in European affairs.

Which raises an interesting geopolitical question: How does the world handle a crisis when the United States can’t step in?

The answer, so far, is not very well. Without a third-party broker, it’s not clear that the

Greeks and Europeans can strike a bold enough deal soon enough. And that could be a problem not just for Europe, but for the entire global economy.

“Just as subprime in the U.S. affected Europe,” says Ted Truman, a longtime Fed and Treasury official who advised Secretary Timothy Geithner last year, “there’s no reason a crisis in Greece, Portugal, and Spain couldn’t affect the United States and the rest of the world.”

The day after his meeting with Obama, Papandreou turned up at the Center for American Progress (CAP), an influential liberal think tank three blocks from the White House, to field questions from a small group of journalists. He is in his late fifties, trim and mostly bald, with a modest gray mustache.

All in all, he looks less like a world leader than the proprietor of a refrigerator-repair school you might see advertised late at night. Papandreou’s father, Andreas, was himself a Greek prime minister. But, while the father was famous for his fiery, rabble-rousing speeches, the son exudes a pronounced anticharisma. There were times during the Q&A when it was tough to hear him over the whir of the air-conditioning.

Still, what Papandreou lacks in physical presence he more than makes up for in stature on the international stage. Hardouvelis points out that Papandreou is the

current head of the Socialist International, giving him easy access to foreign eminences.

Perhaps more important, his five -year tenure as Greek foreign minister beginning in 1999 won rave reviews in Europe and beyond. In 1996, Richard Holbrooke marveled that Greece and Turkey had been on the verge of war “over a little piece of land smaller than the State Department.” Many in Foggy Bottom credit Papandreou with defusing the decades-old hostility behind such flareups.

Against this generally favorable backdrop, the particular card Papandreou wants to play in his dealings with Europe is the threat of turning to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). European federalists cringe at the thought of the Fund’s shock troops landing on their soil--the mere symbolism would deal a blow to the idea of continental self-sufficiency. So Papandreou has sought leverage by publicly musing about inviting the IMF to Athens. “We have done our duty, what we were told to do ... it’s important for Europe to recognize this,” he said at CAP, alluding to proposals to pare back his country’s deficit. “In the case that Europe does not have the necessary tools, and a country like Greece did have real trouble borrowing, then the alternative would be the IMF.” Of course, no one expects

Greece to call in the IMF unless it’s truly on the verge of a meltdown. Among other obstacles is the European Central Bank (ECB), whose authority over monetary policy is supreme. (By contrast, the Fed must answer to Congress on occasion.) The ECB jealously guards its bailiwick and would be horrified to take orders from IMF officials. “The Germans are concerned about the ECB,” says former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson, a TNR contributor. “They will control it next--it’s their turn dammit!

They don’t want the IMF kibitzing.” If nothing else, the Germans and French enjoy disproportionate influence on the IMF board. They could effectively prevent the Fund from accepting a Greek plea for help. This is all the more likely when you consider that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been warily eyeing his countryman Dominique StraussKahn, the IMF managing director, for months now.

Strauss-Kahn has hinted at a presidential run in 2012, and Sarkozy presumably isn’t eager to make him Europe’s savior. [ Editor's note: Following the print publication of this piece, the German government changed course and suggested it might support an IMF intervention. The French GREEK page 44

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People and Programs, March 19, 2010 (AEI.Org: Articles)

between its Hispanic and white students."

A closer look at the data also New AEI Report Examines reveals a silver lining. Some Hispanic Graduation Gap schools demonstrate A new AEI report released this c o n s i d e r a b l e s u c c e s s i n week documents the gap in g r a d u a t i n g t h e i r H i s p a n i c college graduation rates between s t u d e n t s , i n s o m e c a s e s Hispanic and white students. In graduating a higher proportion R i s i n g t o t h e C h a l l e n g e : of Hispanic students than white Hispanic College Graduation students. In addition, Hispanic Rates as a National Priority, women graduate at roughly the AEI's Andrew P. Kelly and same rate as white men, and Mark Schneider and Education even outperform white men in Sector's Kevin Carey show that less competitive colleges.

59 percent of white students What accounts for this who start college in the United difference among schools?

States complete a bachelor's Interviews with administrators degree in six years, compared to from eight colleges reveal that only 51 percent of Hispanic institutions with higher Hispanic students. This gap exists in graduation rates demonstrate varying degrees at all levels of sensitivity to the challenges admissions selectivity. The Hispanic students face and a report also finds that there is commitment to helping Hispanic c o n s i d e r a b l e v a r i a t i o n i n students complete a bachelor's Hispanic graduation rates d e g r e e . B a s e d o n t h e s e among schools that admit interviews, the authors identify similar students, suggesting that s o m e o b s t a c l e s H i s p a n i c while student characteristics students face. They also note have an important influence on specific conditions that seem to college completion, institutional affect graduation rates and practices and policies also play a discuss actions that can be taken role. to improve them. Among the "These data show quite clearly most important: that colleges and universities • Focusing on retention and cannot place all of the blame on completion for all students, students for failing to graduate," which is a crucial prerequisite to Kelly said. "Colleges struggling improving the percentage of to graduate their Hispanic H i s p a n i c r e t e n t i o n a n d students should learn from the c o m p l e t i o n r a t e s . s u c c e s s e s o f l e a d e r s l i k e • Providing better consumer Whittier College, which has i n f o r m a t i o n f o r H i s p a n i c successfully closed the gap students and their families about Submitted at 3/18/2010 4:00:00 PM

the true cost of college, the type of college they are qualified to attend, and college practices and culture. • Tying government aid for colleges and universities to meaningful performance metrics.

directly from the U.S. treasury secretary. Click here to register for the event.

Enviro-Embarrassments On the Senate floor Monday, Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) displayed a blown-up cover from The Weekly Standard featuring Al Gore in the buff.

R i s i n g t o t h e C h a l l e n g e The artwork references the represents one of the first efforts cover story by AEI's Steven F. to use national data on Hispanic Hayward, an article updating graduation rates to document the readers on a string of envirov a r i a t i o n i n r a t e s a c r o s s embarrassments beyond the institutions that grant bachelor's Climategate e-mails. Hayward is degrees. It builds on Diplomas the author of the Index of and Dropouts, a report AEI L e a d i n g E n v i r o n m e n t a l released last spring on the I n d i c a t o r s 2 0 0 9 , w h i c h dramatic variation in graduation d o c u m e n t s e n v i r o n m e n t a l rates across more than 1,300 of developments and milestones t h e n a t i o n ' s c o l l e g e s a n d here and abroad. New polls, to universities. be featured in the next AEI Read the report | Download the Political Report, show that full report (PDF) | Download the growing public skepticism about executive summary (PDF) | global warming predated the Download the appendix listing Climategate scandals. graduation rates for 641 colleges Republican Party's Standing. In (PDF) |View press release an interview with the National People and Programs Journal, AEI's Newt Gingrich U.S. Treasury Secretary to was asked to characterize the Speak at AEI. At an AEI event Republican Party's standing this Monday, Treasury Secretary today. In response, he said that Timothy Geithner is scheduled the party was "weaker than it to present his case for financial was in 1994. The upside for the regulatory reform and the role it Republicans is that they know s h o u l d p l a y i n r e s t o r i n g they can win a majority because responsibility and accountability they did it pretty recently. In to the U.S. financial system. 1994 . . . we had a bigger Now that the House has passed mountain to climb." financial regulatory legislation Standing Up to Analysis? The and a bill has been proposed in A m e r i c a n P s y c h i a t r i c the Senate, this AEI event Association recently released a presents an opportunity to hear draft of the fifth version of the

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM). The DSM affects whether someone will be diagnosed with an illness and whether insurance companies can pay for the treatment. AEI's Sally Satel, M.D., analyzes the draft in the Wall Street Journal.

She writes, "The problem is that the changes don't really advance psychiatry. Worse, some are prescriptions for trouble." She points out the addition of a new diagnosis that might stigmatize adolescents and young adults at risk for developing serious illnesses who may not actually develop them. Satel also highlights concerns that the new DSM will increase the proportion of people diagnosed with mental illness.

Hot Off the Enterprise Blog The real cost of TBTF [too big to fail] is an enormous cost to the economy in general, as creditors preferentially lend to companies that are TBTF rather than to smaller companies that are not TBTF and will be sent to ordinary bankruptcy if they fail.

This is exactly what happened with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They were seen as backed by the government, and with the lower cost of funds they received were able to drive all competition out of their markets and take exorbitant risks. The result of [Senator Christopher] PEOPLE page 43

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S.C. Gov Agrees to Pay Ethics Fine, Gets Divorced (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:01:15 AM

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has closed two chapters of his life, agreeing to pay $74,000 in fines to resolve ethics charges brought against him after last summer's revelation of an extramarital affair, and receiving word that a judge had formally ended his 20 -year marriage to his wife, Jenny.

The term-limited Republican agreed Thursday to pay the fines to resolve dozens of ethics charges, including a taxpayerfunded rendezvous with his Argentine mistress, marking the end to a months-long saga.

Within minutes, the governor's marriage had been dissolved by a family court judge in Charleston County, 100 miles from the state capital of Columbia.

Scrutiny of Sanford's travel started over the summer, when the then-married governor vanished for five days after telling some staff he was going hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

He was actually in Argentina, and he returned to tearfully confess a yearlong affair with a woman he later told The Associated Press was his soul mate.

The State Ethics Commission brought the 37 civil charges against the Republican last year, after a series of Associated Press

investigations questioned his use of state, commercial and private airplanes, bruising his image as a penny-pinching politician who once required staff to use both sides of Post-it notes.

But Sanford, who is termlimited and will leave office in January, still could face criminal charges. Attorney General Henry McMaster, who requested the ethics investigation, has yet to decide the results of that probe mean the governor will also face criminal charges.

McMaster's office said Thursday their inquiry is ongoing and is unaffected by the Ethics Commission agreement.

Sanford said in a statement he thinks he would have been vindicated if the commission had heard the case, but didn't want to continue what he called "an endless media circus."

Sanford was considered a potential 2012 presidential candidate until the bombshells about the affair. After the ensuing AP investigations, the ethics panel charged him with improperly buying first- and business-class airline tickets, violating a state law requiring lowest-cost travel; improperly using state-owned aircraft for travel to political and personal events, including a stop at a discount hair salon; and improperly reimbursing himself with campaign cash.

Among the violations the

commission alleged were: — approving the purchase of four first- and business-class commercial airline tickets for a June 2008 trip during which he met with his mistress in Argentina.

— personal use of state-owned aircraft for trips such as the birthday party of a campaign contributor in Aiken.

— reimbursing himself nearly $3,000 using campaign contributions, including about $900 for expenses to attend a Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami and a hunting trip in Ireland several days later.

Some of the allegations about Sanford's use of campaign funds first were revealed by The State newspaper in Columbia.

Under the deal, Sanford agrees to compensate the Ethics Commission nearly $36,498 for its investigative costs. He also agrees to pay back: — $18,000 to the state Departments of Commerce for first- and business-class airfare; — $7,792 to the Division of Aeronautics and $1,003 for personal use of state-owned aircraft.

In addition, Sanford says he will pay $2,941 to his own campaign account as a reimbursement for personal use of campaign funds.

The governor's signature on the consent agreement means he does not admit to violating state

ethics laws but does not dispute the accusations either.

Lawmakers have said they believed the accusations were not serious enough to warrant impeachment and instead censured him, a reprimand that had no practical effect but was the first of its kind to a sitting South Carolina governor.

Sanford again said he took full responsibility for his affair and personal failings, but said he felt his use of state planes was justified and the Ethics Commission was judging him by a different standard than other governors.

"I think it's important at this point to distinguish between a personal failure and the use of tax dollars," he said.

Also Thursday, a judge finalized Sanford's divorce, granting Jenny Sanford's request for an accelerated decision based on Mark Sanford's infidelity. In South Carolina, couples have to be separated for a year to be granted a no-fault divorce.

Jenny Sanford, who recently completed a book tour promoting her memoir about their relationship, filed for divorce in December. During a brief hearing in Charleston last month, she recounted her discovery of a letter that revealed the affair.

"I confronted him shortly thereafter, and he told me he would end it," she said. "We

worked very diligently to put the marriage back together. ...

Ultimately, we were unsuccessful."

The governor did not attend that hearing.

In her four-page order, Family Court Judge Jocelyn Cate said the agreement is fair to both Sanfords. She refused to release details of the settlement, saying that would hurt the couple's four sons, who are living with their mother in a beachfront home in Sullivans Island.

"Plaintiff has carried her burden of proof in convincing the Court of Defendant's adultery," Cate wrote in the four-page order filed Thursday afternoon. "Due to the very public nature of Defendant's actions and his admission of adultery, no further corroboration was necessary."

Both Sanfords declined Thursday to comment on the divorce.

—— Associated Press Writer Jim Davenport in Columbia and Bruce Smith in Charleston contributed to this report. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Housing Bust Marty Peretz (The New Republic - All Feed)

that it was specifically exempting East Jerusalem from this interdict. While recognizing Submitted at 3/18/2010 9:00:00 PM this exemption, on October 31, You do not need insider 2009, Hillary Clinton called information to know that Hillary Israeli forbearance on new Clinton threw a hissy fit at Bibi building “unprecedented.” So Netanyahu last Friday morning. w h a t h a s c h a n g e d ? T h e And you don’t need that kind of Palestinians proved to be more information to know that she recalcitrant rather than less, was sent out to do this little job likely because they had quickly by her boss. Just as Joe Biden surmised that Obama was in revealed that it was President their corner and would not push Obama who’d compelled him to them much. Their surmise “condemn” the Israeli interior turned out to be correct. In the ministry’s press release particular case of Ramat announcing that the fourth out Shlomo, the United States of seven required approvals had quickly joined its Quartet been passed, leaving three partners--the European Union others and several years to go (itself in some disarray), the before construction could even United Nations (a literal joke in begin on the 1,600 housing units the world), and Russia (which in Ramat Shlomo, an East has done so much for peace in Jerusalem neighborhood of the Middle East)--to denounce some 20,000 unpatriotic but I s r a e l ’ s d i s d a i n f o r t h e i r ultra-Orthodox Jews, may God s e n t i m e n t s . bless their little Shloymeles and Before anyone leaps to the Leahs. conclusion that I favor unlimited This is a pretty draconian Israeli construction in East response from Washington to a Jerusalem, allow me to say that I pretty minor (albeit ill-timed) don’t. Moreover, I envision, if provocation. Especially as the Palestinians come to their Israel, in agreeing not to start senses (which, frankly, I cannot new construction in the West assure they will do), that Arab Bank for ten months, had said neighborhoods in that part of the

city will be joined to land under the dominion of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to constitute Palestine. Most Israelis would be perfectly prepared to part with these areas under a finalstatus agreement. So, “undivided Jerusalem” will evaporate like the mist in the morning. Special and very delicate arrangements will have to be made for the Holy Basin, including the Temple Mount (or the “Haram Al Sharif,” as the Muslims call it). And let’s be clear about the sacred places on the Mount. When they were captured in June 1967, administrative authority over them remained with the Islamic waqf. Jewish prayer was forbidden there, although some Jews wanted to pray there, and some still do. Instead of the Mount being encroached upon

by Israeli authorities, it has been protected by them. The assault on the space has come from Muslims, who conjure up perils to its integrity. When prime minister the first time, Netanyahu opened the Western Wall Tunnel--and Arafat responded by inciting riots that claimed 80 lives. Ariel Sharon

PEOPLE continued from page 41

Dodd’s bill will be the same--to create Fannies and Freddies in every sector of our economy where these TBTF firms are designated, destroying

c o m p e t i t i o n a n d f o r c i n g Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: consolidations over time.[ Read PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, the full post] Term Extraction.

-- PETER J. WALLISON Five Filters featured article:

walked on the Mount and there followed the second intifada, a feast of terror.

The Israelis will not allow the future of Jerusalem to be decided by a riot-backed fiat of the Muslims, whose claims on the city are inflated. OK, I am a doubter. By way of compensation, then, I will concede that Muhammad did ride his winged steed Al Buraq on his Night Journey to Jerusalem and, from there, ascended on a ladder to see Moses and Jesus in heaven.

Otherwise, however, Jerusalem is to Islam what any other city with a big mosque is. And this particular city was ignored over the many centuries and especially when it was under the dominion of King Hussein of Jordan. But it lives centrally and vividly as the City of David to his people and to the faithful of Jesus who walked there along the Stations of the Cross to Golgotha--that is, in the two traditions whose cardinal books are centered in Zion. Jerusalem becomes sacred to Muslims when it is governed by Jews or Christians, Jews in particular.

I have distaste for the ultra-

religious Jews who, through both stealth and stupidity, maneuvered the Netanyahu government into this confrontation with its most significant ally. I also know a little about how this happened.

A mid-level, faceless bureaucrat issued a press release as she issues other press releases, mostly on the trivial. Did some higher-up grasp that this would make trouble for Bibi and give the information more life? My guess is that the answer is “yes.”

The Israeli parliamentary system is a vipers’ nest and has been for decades. The main activity of the coalition partners is to undercut each other. The Shas Party, whose functionaries run the interior ministry according to their dictates from God, uses every occasion it can to push its own idiosyncratic agenda, no matter how little support it has in the public. If it makes trouble for the government itself, so much the better.

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GREEK continued from page 40

and the ECB appear to remain opposed to the idea, though the situation is fluid.]

By the same token, observes Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, few doubt the French and the Germans would pony up if Greece were really teetering.

Nothing would deal a bigger blow to the European project than a spectacular flameout by one of its members. The point is just that resolving a situation like Greece’s shouldn’t require the threat of imminent collapse, by which time the crisis could have spread around the globe.

That’s the reason why, for all the headaches it poses, the IMF deserves to be more than a bargaining chip. While noble, Papandreou’s deficit-cutting efforts aren’t likely to be sustainable. They simply ask too much of his country too quickly, attempting to reduce a deficit of 12.7 percent of GDP to under 3 percent within three years--all at a time when Greece is already in recession. Even if Greece can painlessly refinance the roughly 20 billion Euros in debt that come due this spring, future refinancings will be brutal if the

austerity regime unravels. “I think the amount of adjustment they’re asking for in a short period of time is in the draconian category,” says Truman. “It’s likely to fail. So we’re going to have another chapter.”

Pretty much the only way to avoid a relapse is a financing package worth at least tens of billions of euros. That would buy Greece some time to roll back its deficit at a more humane pace. And, as a practical matter, the IMF is the only institution that can quickly muster enough cash.

But the case for IMF intervention isn’t just economic; it’s political. For all the tensions it would create in Europe, turning to the IMF could actually solve many more. As the Financial Times’ Martin Wolf has pointed out, the Germans are basically pursuing two contradictory goals in their dealings with Greece. On the one hand, they want to inflict pain so as to restore credibility to EU rules governing deficits, which members have flouted for years. On the other hand, they want to preserve European cohesion, which could fray if

the Greeks--and other countries at the continent’s periphery--feel they’ve been wronged. Wolf wagers that one or the other goal must give. But turning to the IMF might resolve this contradiction. However embarrassing it would be for Europe as a whole, it’s Greece that would bear the scarlet letter of IMF assistance--a loss of face few neighbors would care to repeat. At the same time, notes Randall Stone of the University of Rochester, the Greeks wouldn’t have the pedantic Germans to blame for their plight. They could focus their ire on those faceless bureaucrats at the IMF’s Washington headquarters.

And then there are the Americans. Though Obama administration officials don’t appear overly concerned about Greek contagiousness, they probably secretly pine for an IMF intervention. Both Geithner and Larry Summers, the top White House economic adviser, have said that most countries are too slow to respond to a financial crisis, and too tentative once they do. The two men have long favored a “Powell doctrine” of overwhelming

financial force. Only the IMF can execute that here.

Alas, decorum dictates that Geithner and Summers essentially keep quiet. And so, on his way out of Washington, Papandreou was left to plead his own case. At the CAP session, one reporter mentioned a recent Greek debt offering that went slightly better than expected.

“We had the good news of having our borrowing ... at a rate which was lower than previously, but still not low enough,” Papandreou bleated.

“That’s not, in the long run, sustainable.” Then again, he added joylessly, he was still “in the process” of negotiating with the Europeans. Somehow, it was not reassuring.

Noam Scheiber is a senior editor of The New Republic.

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Kirstie Alley Reveals How Much More Weight She Wants to Lose (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 3/19/2010 5:57:00 AM

ET has the latest...

Kirstie Alley has already lost 20 pounds and is now revealing how many more pounds she wants to shed!

"I want to lose about 60 more pounds," the actress said today on "Good Morning America."

"I love the challenge, I love the pressure. It feels like the same competitive spirit as being an athlete."

Alley says her weight gain has to do with nothing more than habit.

Flack Slaves Ordered Back to Flack Cave [5WPR] Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:17:20 AM

We hear America's worst PR firm, Ronn [sic] Torossian-led 5WPR, sent employees a note

this morning "telling them to 'work for a library or become school teachers' if they want to

leave by 6:30 p.m." Forward that here, would you? More »

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Md. Lawmakers Not Feeling so Southern Anymore

Debbie Rowe's Lawyers Asking to Be Compensated By Michael Jackson's Estate

(Newsmax - Politics)

(ETonline - Breaking News)

Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:14:08 AM

Maryland's official song may include a line about "Northern scum" left over from the Civil War era, but the state isn't feeling so Southern anymore.

Though Marylanders live just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, their attitudes and even their accents straddle that border.

These days, leaders feel they've got more in common with states to the north.

In one sign of the shift, lawmakers successfully petitioned to move from the Southern Region of the Council of State Governments to the Eastern Region, where they'll be able to trade ideas with fellow officials from Pennsylvania, New York, and other states they consider more like-minded.

"I just don't think we're as Southern as people used to think," said state Sen. Catherine Pugh, a Baltimore Democrat.

It's unusual for states to switch regions in the 77-year-old council, which provides a forum for state officials to share ideas.

The last time was when Missouri switched from the

Midwestern Region to the Southern Region in 1994.

Maryland supporters of the change cite the state's proximity to the District of Columbia, which is in the Eastern Region.

They share many concerns, particularly in public safety and transportation.

Maryland also belongs to the same electrical power grid as several states in the Eastern Region and shares environmental interests in preserving the Chesapeake Bay with states there, although fellow bay state Virginia is in the Southern Region.

"I think that we have common experiences that we can learn from," said state Sen. Verna Jones, D-Baltimore.

Longtime residents note a shift too. Diane Schwallenberg, who has lived in the Annapolis area all of her 53 years, said she feels more Southern because of the state capital's laid-back waterside atmosphere and smalltown friendliness. But she said she has noticed a change over the years as more people have moved to the area.

"Some of the new people that come in — not the real, true

Annapolitans in particular — but people that have come in are kind of preppy and all," she said.

Maryland has long felt influences from both parts of the country. During the Civil War, the state was torn between North and South.

While Maryland was officially in the Union, President Abraham Lincoln had to send troops to occupy Baltimore to keep the state in line. Recent attempts to update the state song, "Maryland, My Maryland," — which describes the occupation as "the despot's heel upon thy shore" and includes the mention of "Northern scum" — have failed.

Robert Brugger, whose wrote a history of the state titled "Maryland, A Middle Temperament," said Maryland's political interests and social makeup may link it more closely these days with Pennsylvania than Virginia. Still, he said many Maryland residents enjoy the cultural qualities that come from being a border state, and he expressed regret that some felt a change was needed.

"It is still too bad, in as much as

Maryland really is North and South together," Brugger said.

"It's a shame to have to choose."

But supporters of going Yankee mention Maryland's modern political differences with states in the South. In Maryland, a solid blue state, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 2-1.

"The South, which we have been a part of for more than 50 years, is a fabulous region, but the politics have changed dramatically, and much of the politics are dominated by tea party activists," said Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Democrat.

—— On the Net: Council of State Governments: http://www.csg.org © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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

Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:40:00 AM

ET has the latest...

The law firm Browne Woods George LLP ("BWG"), which represents Michael Jackson's exwife Debbie Rowe, is asking for thousands of dollars in compensation from the late singer's estate.

The court papers claim that the firm performed work on behalf of the estate from June of 2009 - January of 2010 and that Jackson's estate agreed to pay for the services, totaling $76,412,50.

Pope Benedict's German Diocese Ignored Abuse Warnings (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 3/18/2010 8:52:15 PM

Every day seems to bring ever more horrifying new revelations about the German Catholic school child abuse scandal.

Today we learned that the German archdiocese headed by Josef Ratzinger (now Pope POPE page 46

Reserve Bank of India raises interest rates Peter Boockvar (The Big Picture)

The Reserve Bank of India has raised interest rates by 25 bps to 3.5% from 3.25%. The timing is

unexpected but inflation has been a growing concern of theirs.

Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

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Benedict XVI) ignored a psychiatrist’s repeated warnings about a priest accused of molesting children, and simply let the priest continue preying on young boys for many years: German Diocese Ignored Abuse Warnings, Doctor Says. “ I said, ‘For God’s sake, he desperately has to be kept away from working with children,’ ” the psychiatrist, Dr. Werner Huth, said in a telephone interview from Munich. “I was very unhappy about the entire story.”

Dr. Huth said he was concerned enough that he set three conditions for treating the priest,

the Rev. Peter Hullermann: that he stay away from young people and alcohol and be supervised by another priest at all times.

Dr. Huth said he issued the explicit warnings — both written and oral — before the future pope, then Joseph Ratzinger, archbishop of Munich and Freising, left Germany for a position in the Vatican in 1982.

In 1980, after abuse complaints from parents in Essen that the priest did not deny, Archbishop Ratzinger approved a decision to move the priest to Munich for therapy.

Despite the psychiatrist’s

warnings, Father Hullermann was allowed to return to parish work almost immediately after his therapy began, interacting with children as well as adults.

Less than five years later, he was accused of molesting other boys, and in 1986 he was convicted of sexual abuse in Bavaria.

Benedict’s deputy at the time, Vicar General Gerhard Gruber, said he was to blame for that personnel decision, referring to what he called “serious mistakes.”

OneRiot Brings Its Real -Time Ads to the Web Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb)

services that are already in the real-time ecosystem, including Until now, anybody who social networks, real-time meme wanted to implement real-time trackers and other social sharing ads from OneRiot's RiotWise services. Some of the services network had to get these ads that currently use OneRiot's ads through OneRiot's API and through the company's API c r e a t e a c u s t o m i z e d u s e r include Digsby, ÜberTwitter interface around these ads. This and a number of real-time severely limited OneRiot's search engines. appeal for website owner who According to OneRiot these ads wanted to experiment with real- lead to "click through rates at time ads on their sites and four times industry norms." services but were looking for a While we can't verify this data, plug and play solution. Today, it doesn't come as a surprise that OneRiot is launching a new set these ads, which usually point to of real-time ads that website interesting and relevant content owners can just plug into their on OneRiot's partner sites would sites. These dynamic ads will have high click-through rates, r e f r e s h a u t o m a t i c a l l y a n d especially if users are already on (AEI.Org: Articles) lending to achieve this? conservative and much more display relevant ads based on news site or are using a browser The Canadian experience creditor-friendly.

Submitted at 3/18/2010 4:00:00 PM the topics that are trending on -based Twitter tool. On the other shows that it doesn't.

This article is available by the Internet right now. hand, we also don't know what Suppose we agree that we C a n a d a m a k e s a u s e f u l subscription from the Wall Sponsor kind of payout website owners would like our society to have comparison for the U.S. Both Street Journal.

For now, these new RiotWise can expect from these ads, so a widespread home ownership and countries are rich, advanced, Alex J. Pollock is a resident display ad units are only higher click-through rate could a property-owning citizenry. stable, have sophisticated fellow at AEI. available by requesting access still mean that publishers end up Does it take government- financial systems and pioneer P h o t o c r e d i t : directly from OneRiot. Chances earning just as much money sponsored enterprises (GSEs) histories, and stretch from i S t o c k p h o t o / d r a _ s c h w a r t z are that the company will make from RiotWise as they currently like Fannie Mae and Freddie Atlantic to Pacific. But Canada Five Filters featured article: it easier to get access to these do from AdSense or similar Mac with implied taxpayer has no housing GSEs. Mortgage Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: ads in the near future. OneRiot programs. Discuss guarantees, tax advantages for interest is not tax deductible. It PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, is targeting these new ad units at the interest paid on home does not have 30-year fixed rate, Term Extraction. mortgages, and government freely prepayable mortgage pressure for "creative" mortgage loans. Mortgage lending is more

Why Canada Avoided a Mortgage Meltdown

Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:00:00 AM

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Weekend Fun: New Apps for Your iPhone Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:17:25 AM

As one of ReadWriteWeb's iPhone users, I'm always looking for new applications to try out. Some get downloaded for a day and then deleted right away, others slowly inch their way closer to my homescreen.

Even rarer are the ones that become actively used on a regular basis. Occasionally, we like to share our findings regarding our favorite new apps.

(See, for example, last month's list here). Although I can't guarantee that all of the ones on the list below will become favorites forever, they piqued my interest enough to get a coveted spot on my iPhone this month. Let us know what you think about their potential for long-lasting success.

Sponsor 1. Miso I've been playing with Miso off and on for a week or so. Dubbed a "Foursquare-Like App for Homebodies" by yours truly, this app lets you "check-in" to the TV shows and movies you're watching and earn badges.

While I like the idea, I've found that the app suffers from the lack of an easy way to find and follow other users. That leaves us TV-watching "stay-at-home" folks feeling a little too isolated when already taking part in a rather non-social, noninteractive activity. However, if

the app can improve the ability to find and follow other likeminded entertainment consumers, there's potential for a fun "niche use" type of app here.(Review: Miso: A Foursquare-Like App for Homebodies) 2. MediaServer MediaServer seems so promising, but I've had trouble getting all aspects of it to work properly. The app is designed to be an easy way to view your iPhone media on your TV set by way of a Media Center-type hardware device (XMBC, Boxee, etc.) or game console (PS3, XBox 360). And it is easy to use. You install the app, launch it, and boom!, your media console sees your iPhone - no configuration required. As far as viewing user-created videos or photos, the app excels.

But streaming music or video?

Not so much. Due to varying degrees of DRM applied to the files themselves and codec support on the hardware device, playing media on your TV is harder than it should be. (I tried with the Xbox in my tests.)

Whether it's the app that's to blame or the hardware, I can't tell. However, MediaServer did become a great way to do iPhone photo slideshows on the TV and that alone is keeping it on my phone for now.

Hopefully the rest will be improved in time. 3. Sticky Bits The RWW bloggers who attended the recent SXSW

festival have come back raving about the barcode-scanning Stickybits app (iTunes link).

The app, which debuted at the conference, goes hand-in-hand with the online service that lets you either print your own barcodes or buy pre-made stickers which you can then associate with real-world objects. Then, using the Stickybits iPhone application, anyone encountering these stickers in the wild can scan them to discover whatever data theyv'e been associated with.

Will Stickybits actually stick around though? It's too soon to tell, but it sure is fun to play with in the meantime.(Review: Stickbits: Portal to Another Dimension or Graffiti for Nerds?) 4. Siri Although not brand-new, the Siri app which debuted in February on the iPhone is rapidly becoming one of our alltime favorites and therefore has to make this list again. If you have not installed Siri yet, do so now! Built with artificial intelligence technology, Siri functions as a personal assistant which can provide information

on a variety of topics from weather to movie listings to restaurants, events and more.

You can either type into the app's search box or speak your query to get started. And the more you use it, the smarter it gets. The voice recognition works rather well, although it never understood "Alice in Wonderland movie" no matter how many times I said it.

(Maybe it already knew I wouldn't like that movie?) We'll give it a pass there, though voice recognition is a tough nut to crack. Still, the intelligence of this app will soon have you relocating the apps it replaces (movie listing apps, restaurant finders, etc.) to back screens of the iPhone.(Review: Siri: Your Personal Assistant for the Mobile Web) 5. Tweeb Obsessed with ego-tracking your Twitter stats or tasked with managing a corporate account of some kind? Then Tweeb's new Twitter analytics tracker(iTunes link) is a handy app to have. For $1.99, you get access to realtime, on-demand statistics including tweet counts, follower counts, retweets, mentions and clickthroughs on your tweeted links. You can also use the app to tweet, manage your friends, block or unblock users, view Twitter profiles, view your following lists and manage multiple Twitter accounts. The data is presented in clean, easyto-read layouts and there is even

a history section so you can measure your growing influence over time. Well worth a couple of bucks if you access this data on a regular basis! 6. Buzzie The first app to access Google Buzz natively is pretty great, but I'll admit that I more likely to switch over to Buzz from Google Reader's mobile website than launch a standalone app. If the iPhone had app multitasking though, that would be a different story. Still, Buzzie has a few standout features - photosharing and photo browsing, most notably. It also feels "a lot snappier" than Google Buzz's web app, noted Frederic earlier this month during his demo.(Review: Buzzie: The First Native Mobile App for Google Buzz) 7. SpringPad Part of Springpad's service, this Evernote competitor functions as a mobile note-taking and reminder app. Similar to Evernote's offering, you can make a note or snap a photo to remember something (which is then added to your online account), but it also introduces barcode-scanning as another way to "remember" an item.

You can also use the app to access all your saved data useful for access shopping lists, recipes and restaurants you want to try while you're out and about.(Review: Springpad Takes on Evernote with Semantic WEEKEND page 49

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The Million Follower Fallacy: Audience Size Doesn't Prove Influence on Twitter Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:19:26 AM

A group of researchers have proven something we already expected to be the case: your Twitter follower count is somewhat of a meaningless metric when it comes to determining influence. To reach this conclusion, the researchers examined the Twitter accounts of over 54 million active users, out of some 80 million accounts crawled by their servers. They then went on to measure various statistics about these accounts, including audience size, retweet influence and mention influence. The conclusion?

Those with the largest number of followers may be "popular" Twitterers, but that's not necessarily related to their influence. High follower counts don't always mean someone is being retweeted or mentioned in any meaningful ways.

Sponsor The findings from this research project have been published in an research paper available here on the project's homepage. How the Data Was Analyzed The data the researchers had access to is astounding: 54,981,152 user accounts, 1,963,263,821 social (follow) links and 1,755,925,520 tweets.

In order to collect this massive

store of data, the researchers contacted Twitter and asked permission to crawl Twitter's service. Twitter granted them access and white-listed the IP address range for the 58 servers that were used in the data collection. In total, the crawler was able to scan 80 million Twitter accounts during the month of August 2009. Only 54+ million of those accounts were actually in-use at the time, which, in and of itself, is an interesting finding about how many people create a Twitter account and then abandon it.

Only 8% of the active accounts were set to private, so they were ignored during the data analysis.

The researchers also used the Twitter API to gather additional information about a user's social links and tweets.

The study focused on the largest part of the Twitter network - the "single disproportionately large connected component," notes the paper, that contained 94.8% of users and 99% of all links and tweets. Within that large network of "in-use" accounts, the researchers further narrowed

down the data to focus on the "active users." These users where those who had more than 10 tweets and had a valid screen name that could be retweeted by others. (Interesting - it's possible to have an account and not a screen name?) That left "only" 6,189,636 active users out of the initial 80 million to examine.

To measure the influence of these 6+ million users, the researchers looked at how the entire set of the 52 million users interacted with these active users. The Three Measures of Influence

After examining the data, the researchers found that the most followed individuals spanned a wide variety of public figures and news sources and included accounts like CNN, New York Times, Barack Obama, Shaquille O'Neal, Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears and others. However, the most retweeted users tended to be content aggregation services like TwitterTips, TweetMeme, and, interestingly enough, they counted the tech blog Mashable as an aggregation service, too.

Other heavily retweeted users included Guy Kawasaki, the humor site The Onion and again, The New York Times.

Meanwhile, those users with the most "mentions" - not a direct retweet including the original content of someone else's tweet, but just a casual mention of their name - were celebs.

These three measures of influence - followers, retweets and mentions - has surprisingly little overlap when looking at the top influentials. The top 20 lists from these three categories only had two users in common: Ashton Kutcher and Puff Daddy.

The researchers also examined the ability of Twitter users to influence others. They MILLION page 50

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Three iPhone Apps To Save Yourself & The World

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Technology, Barcode Scanner) Honorable Mentions Other apps getting demoed on Mike Melanson iPhone app put out by the explanation from the website on o u r i P h o n e s i n c l u d e t h e (ReadWriteWeb) Monterey Bay Aquarium helps how GoodGuide arrives at its f o l l o w i n g : you make sustainable choices ratings: GoodGuide aggregates • Brizzly for Twitter: Will we Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:33:00 AM when buying fish. But how does and analyzes data on both leave Tweetie 2 for this new We saw a cartoon recently that it do this? p r o d u c t a n d c o m p a n y Twitter iPhone app? It could s h o w s t h e a t t e n d e e s o f a The app offers a seafood guide, performance. The team employs happen "Climate Summit", with a single w h i c h c u s t o m i z e s c o n t e n t a range of scientific methods-- • Feathers: Want to have a little naysayer yelling out from the according to geographical h e a l t h h a z a r d a s s e s s m e n t , fun with your tweets? Feathers back of the crowd "What if it's a r e g i o n , l e t s y o u s e a r c h e n v i r o n m e n t a l i m p a c t lets you decorate them with big hoax and we create a better according to what type of fish help you. The app sells for assessment, and social impact symbols, icons or even post world for nothing?" you're considering buying or $2.99, which is chump change assessment--to identify major them upside-down.

Well, in the spirit of creating a eating at a restaurant. The guide in comparison to those organic, impacts to human health, the • Notifio: Just launched, this better world for nothing, we rates your choices according to a l o c a l l y - g r o w n , v i n e - r i p e environment, and society. Each app tries to bring Android-style bring to you three iPhone apps number of criteria, from whether tomatoes, but it's all for a good of these categories is then notifications to one central place that we hope can help do just or not it is overfished to how cause, right? further analyzed within specific on the iPhone, but it's dependent that. much the methods employed are Locavore shows where and issue areas, such as climate on others to use its API to do so.

Sponsor affecting the environment. The when certain types of foods are change policies, labor concerns, If successful, it could be In her panel on " Handheld ratings also take your health into in season, nearby farmers' and product toxicity. Currently, amazing. But that remains to be Awesome Detectors: World account, warning you to avoid markets and links to Wikipedia GoodGuide's database includes seen.

Changing Mobile Apps" last certain types of fish because and Epicurious to help with over 1,100 base criteria through week at the South By South they may contain chemicals. context on 234 different fruits which we evaluate products and You can see all the apps on my iPhone courtesy of AppsFire West festival in Austin, Rachel So, while everyone always says and vegetables. GoodGuide companies.

Weidinger got to talking about a to eat fish because it's good for GoodGuide is the more all- The guide is still in the beta here. number of iPhone apps that you, download this app and it encompassing package, looking stages - and this is quite an Discuss could help us all do just that - c o u l d b e g o o d f o r t h e at more than 60,000 products ambitious project - but if you change the world. While some, environment too. Locavore and rating them according to can have and pay attention to like Ushahidi are certainly Another bandwagon you have "health, environmental and this sort of information, then world changing, they're not may have seen careening past in social performance". The guide y o u c a n g e t p a s t f l a s h y much use for day to day life, so recent times, and may have even gives you information about the advertising and get to the we decided to let you know hopped on yourself (good for product your buying, from b o t t o m o f w h e r e y o u ' r e about three apps she clued us in you!) is sustainability through whether or not it contains spending your hard earned on that can help you make world e a t i n g l o c a l l y g r o w n a n d c a r c i n o g e n s t o h o w t h e money. Discuss -changing decisions in your harvested foods. This can be a c o m p a n y h a n d l e s w a t e r simple, everyday life. Seafood difficult endeavor at times, management. Here's a quick Watch Seafood Watch, the free though, and Locavore is here to

At 3.5 Teraelectronvolts, LHC Sets All-Time Energy Record Paul Adams (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

This morning in Switzerland, proton beams up to 3.5 TeV for the Large Hadron Collider the first time. This is the highest successfully ramped its twin energy a particle accelerator has

ever achieved. The next step: collide the two beams, at a combined energy of 7 TeV.

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Will Windows Phone 7 Series Be A Smartphone for the Enterprise?

Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb)

should expect: • Windows Phone 7 is no longer enterprise-centric but the Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:49:14 AM user experience is still catching We're seeing a few glimpses t h e f a n c y o f i n d e p e n d e n t from Mix10 of what Windows software vendors that want to Phone 7 Series will look like for sell it into the business market. the enterprise.

The iPhone and Google Android Perhaps most compelling is the are proof enough that people continued emphasis on creating w i l l f i n d r e l e v a n c e f o r an experience more so than an smartphones in the enterprise enterprise "phone." It appears even if the devices are meant that Microsoft has learned a primarily for consumers. lesson that is more apparent • A developer community is e v e r y d a y . P e o p l e w a n t ready and waiting to make s m a r t p h o n e s a s m u c h f o r applications for Windows Phone personal use as for business use. 7 . D e v e l o p e r s c a n c r e a t e Sponsor applications within a But Microsoft is saying little development environment they about what it does plan for the understand. Network World enterprise with its Windows n o t e s : "Visual Studio Phone 7 Series. They say more programmers can drag and drop is to come in the next few weeks controls onto a Windows Phone but clearly the emphasis is on surface, bring in existing the consumer market, not the Silverlight libraries or Azure enterprise. cloud projects, and wire them up Network World did a little to data sources, behaviors and sniffing around Mix10 and did services, just like they do when get a few tidbits of what we writing software for a Windows

PC." • Microsoft is expected to offer a secure area within its Marketplace to accomodate enterprise applications. The intention wold be to provide a place where enterprise customers could download company specific software or the framework for their own marketplace. This would provide IT administrators with ways to administer applications within the enterprise.

• It's uncertain what security features will become part of Windows Phone 7. Microsoft has historically provided Microsoft Exchange Active Sync which enables Windows Mobile devices the ability to sync with Microsoft Exchange.

Actice Sync has offered a

number of security features such as remote data wipe and encrypted connections. Will this rich security framework be kept intact? With such a consumer focus, it's uncertain what will come of it.

• Windows Phone 7 includes an Office Hub, allowing people to create and edit Microsoft Office documents. Microsoft has put a lot of effort into making Sharepoint a mobile site.

Windows Phone 7 will integrate with Microsoft Exchange. It appears users may set up tiles within Windows Phone 7 to edit and share Sharepoint documents.

It appears that Microsoft may not necessarily have to focus on the enterprise. Its rich user experience may be enough to get people interested. Core enterprise features will only help give Windows Phone 7 a chance to compete more effectively. Discuss

Katherine Heigl Tries to Flash a Room Full of People and Other Compulsions [Gossip Roundup] Brian Moylan (Gawker) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:36:08 AM

The Grey's Anatomy star can't stay dressed! Details about the

tattooed lady Sandra Bullock's husband slept with. George Clooney is a generous voter.

The Paula Abdul Star Search working on its farmer's tan. deal is off. Friday's gossip is More »

Boy Scouts of America Keep Secret Dossier on Extensive Sex Abuses [Unsurprising] Ravi Somaiya (Gawker) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:39:25 AM

Shockingly, sexual abuse was (and probably is) prevalent among scout leaders. And the scouts keep secret documents about it. About 1000 of the socalled "perversion files" have now come to light as part of a court case in Oregon. More »

MILLION continued from page 48

determined that the most influential users hold significant influence over a variety of topics, as opposed to being experts in just one area.

Examining the 233 "All-Time Influentials" Out of the 6 million active Twitter users, the researchers picked the top 100 users in each of the three categories. Due to the overlap, there were only 233 distinct users on these lists.

These were dubbed the "all-time MILLION page 51

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influentials." Some of these accounts belonged to news organizations or celebs, but others were just regular users.

Regarding that last group - it appears that those users who limit their tweets to a single topic are the most likely to increase their influence scores.

In the end, what the researchers found was that follower count alone is not necessarily a worthy measure of determining influence. Other factors come into play as well. Although some heavily-followed accounts are also mentioned and retweeted a lot, just looking at audience size doesn't reveal an

account's ability to influence and impact the Twitter universe.

According to the project's homepage, the researchers are hoping to make the data they collected available to the community at large. Before doing so, they will discuss it with Twitter in order to determine that their data sharing plan agrees with the company's policy. They plan to have an update on this situation possibly the data itself - by May 2010. Discuss

Lady Gaga's Prison GF Says Kissing Her Was 'Electric' [Interviews] Doree Shafrir (Gawker) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:17:02 AM

Heather Cassils is the awesome -looking woman who plays Lady Gaga's prison girlfriend in the "Telephone" video. But she's also a well-known artist in her

own right. And she loved making out with Gaga. More »

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Marvell to release Moby – a $99 tablet for educational use, may be OLPC related Tablet (BestTabletReview.com) Submitted at 3/18/2010 11:37:10 AM

Is this the new OLPC prototype?

A few days ago Harry McCracken (a name that always makes us laugh) at Technologizer posted a story on a new Marvell tablet prototype with a 10.1-inch screen that was on display at the Future of Publishing Summit. We didn’t originally run the story because there wasn’t much to talk about.

There was only a mention of screen size and an OS (Android) but no other details on a tablet Marvell stressed as being prototype only.

Now the story looks to be a much larger one. Charbax from ARMDevices stumbled on this press release from Marvell that says they’re selling a tablet similar to the one at the Future of Publishing Summit called the Moby. Oh, and they’re pricing it for $99 for students.

As Charbax goes on to define in his post, the price and mention of “educational use” certainly

prompts memories of the “One Laptop Per Child” project (or “OLPC”) that has been teasing us with sub-$100 laptops and tablets talk for the past couple of years. The release calls the Moby tablet a “connected multimedia pad [that] packs a punch” and says it will offer eReader, 1080p HD streaming capability, full Flash, gaming graphics, social media and live video conferencing. It will use the same low-power consumption chip as the prototype tablet — a Marvell ARM 600.

This could mean that the tablet on display at the summit could be the prototype for the new OLPC projects. And it could be here much quicker than expected. Make sure to read the rest of the well-written post at ARMDevices.net that further defines the link between Marvell and OLPC. Source: ARMDevices and Technologizer Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 sells many copies (plus bonus rant!)

Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:30:22 AM

God almighty do I have a bone to pick with Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which I bought on release day like a mark. The game is doing quite well for EA, having already sold 2.3 million units(and projected to sell 4 million by the end of the year).

So that’s ahead of expectations—it’s a hit, have a party. The thing that annoys me (and Matt, for that matter) is the game’s implementation of checkpoints. There’s not nearly enough of them, and it’s infuriating. I was very close to lighting my monitor on fire last night.

First off, why do PC games even have “checkpoints” in the

year 2010? I give all the credit in the world to Dice for actually taking the time to create a PC port, but is implementing a “save anytime, anywhere” feature so hard to implement?

It’s a PC game: I expect to hit F8 9 million times before I finish it.

I don’t want to hear any nonsense about how the inability to hit F8 helps create “tension” and “atmosphere.” No it doesn’t. All it does is make me want to throw my computer out the window, the re-create the scene from Office Space.

It wouldn’t be so bad if every

single enemy didn’t have an RPG. It’s ridiculous: “hey, you just survived a tank coming out of the middle of nowhere, no we’re going to throw RPGwielding bad guys at you, hope you can survive.”

I can’t survive! And because of the stupid save system, I have to

replay the previous 15 minutes all over again! To quote Bill Burr, this is unacceptable.

Modern Warfare 2 used a checkpoint system, too, but its checkpoints ticked pretty much every seven seconds. It’s annoying to have to put up with checkpoints on a PC game, but at least Modern Warfare 2’s were frequent enough that it wasn’t an issue.

So aside from the gigantic pain in the neck, yeah, the game is fun—I figure I’m about halfway through with the single-player campaign (I have no intention of playing multi-player).

Checkpoints in PC games should be outlawed. Tack that onto the healthcare bill, please.

Niko, the N900-powered Lego robot, looks poised to take over Twitter (video) Tim Stevens (Engadget)

Mindstorm NXT 2.0 components for a body and an N900 for a brain. The bot has While we've seen no shortage been under construction for a of smartphone- powered robots few weeks but it has just made in the past, the Nokia camp has its YouTube debut with the been sadly under-represented. short video posted after the But, there's a new one coming to break, showing it roving around balance things out, a machine and taking a photo whenever it called Niko that has Lego bumps into something. When all Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:01:00 PM

systems are go and the machine is set free Niko will be posting

messages and pictures to Twitter describing its every move in thrilling detail. We can't wait for it to start picking fights with @CourtneyLoveUK. Continue reading Niko, the N900-powered Lego robot, looks poised to take over Twitter (video) Niko, the N900-powered Lego

robot, looks poised to take over Twitter (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cablevision bumps Comcast to the back, 3D sports at home starts next week Richard Lawler (Engadget) Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:56:00 AM

Just as Comcast leapfrogged DirecTV's 3D plans, its claim to the first live HD 3D event has been stolen away by Cablevision, which will broadcast a Rangers/Islanders NHL matchup Wednesday, shown both in a special viewing party in the Theater at Madison Square Garden and on iO TV channel 1300 (if you already have a 3DTV but not Cablevision then keep an eye on your channel guide as, like the Masters broadcast, it may be shared with other networks.)

While this is probably just the beginning of another FCC battle over who it will have to share

the broadcasts with, MSG is just focusing on keeping a trend going since it was one of the first to jump on HDTV production of NBA and NHL games way back in 1998 and plans to keep 3D broadcasts

with its BCS National Championship broadcast a little over a year ago, which plans to use 5 cameras from a lower angle than usual to resemble the perspective of the actual players -- minus concussion-inducing blindside hits to the head.

Anyone willing to host a viewing party? We're totally down to bring snacks... if you'll cover our 3D glasses.

[Thanks, William & Vinny] Cablevision bumps Comcast to the back, 3D sports at home coming over the next year with more games and concerts. starts next week originally Production is being handled by appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 3 a l i t y D i g i t a l , p r e v i o u s l y Mar 2010 10:56:00 EST. Please responsible for the BCS game see our terms for use of feeds. t h a t t u r n e d s o m e o f o u r Permalink| MSG| Email this| preconceived notions about 3D Comments

NCAA Tournament Diary: Day Two (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:19:13 AM

Associated Press Temple guard Juan Fernandez The Journal’s Darren Everson anchors an afternoon of coverage of the NCAA tournament’s second day. Get all the latest NCAA news and scores here.

HP Slate tablet coming in June for around $500 Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

bad news is that HP looks to be giving us a JAN (“just another netbook”) tablet.

Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:38:28 AM HP says the Slate will be The HP Slate will hit in June powered by an Intel Atom The good news is that we’ve processor. That’s not such great finally heard a release date for news. While it could mean that the upcoming HP Slate tablet. the tablet will have a newer We also know it’s going to cost Atom Z processor (like the €400 for the European market. tablet that Samsung announced While the currency conversion they’re working on earlier this puts that at around $550, we’d week), it could also mean an expect HP to price it a little Atom N — a CPU that we’ve more competitively for the U.S. seen no shortage of recently. market and put it at $499. The HP will try to present the Slate

as the antiPad and capitalize on the lack of Flash support, no USBs and various other weaknesses with the Apple

tablet. Still, if we turn the focus to other capable tablets in the same price range we can’t help but notice the MSI Harmony

which features a 10-inch capacitive touch screen and runs a Tegra 2 processor. There’s also the Notion Ink Adam, but their recent announcement of a later Q3 release date and no price definition until May could have hurt the anticipation factor.

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

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ELLE Video Star: Leighton Meester's Makeup ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 3/18/2010 12:35:45 PM

New UK Internet Addiction Intel's X25-V and Kingston's clinic offers in-patient SSDNow V Series face off therapy to 'screenagers' as 12 could participate. A in battle for best value SSD Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget) young hospital spokesman said that the Vladislav Savov (Engadget)

took the advantage in the performance of random Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:13:00 AM read/write tasks, but was second Got $125 and a burning desire best when it came to sequential to get in on the SSD fun? Intel write jobs. Ultimately, that extra and Kingston both have models 10GB of storage and the fact priced to seduce that cash away you're more likely to capitalize from your pocket, and here o n r a n d o m , r a t h e r t h a n c o m e s A n a n d T e c h w i t h a sequential, drive access swung it comparative review to help you in favor of the X25-V. Hit up make an informed decision. To the full review for the more start off with, Intel's X25-V nuanced impressions. sports 40GB of storage and is Intel's X25-V and Kingston's described as a smaller version of SSDNow V Series face off in t h e X 2 5 - M G 2 , w h e r e a s battle for best value SSD Kingston's V Series boot drive originally appeared on Engadget offers a smaller 30GB capacity on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:13:00 but also comes with a fuller EST. Please see our terms for upgrade kit. Since this is 2010 u s e o f f e e d s . P e r m a l i n k | and not some prehistoric age, A n a n d T e c h | E m a i l t h i s | both drives naturally come C o m m e n t s equipped with Trim support. In benchmark results, Intel's drive

Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:19:00 AM

Internet addiction, as you know, is a growing worldwide concern.

Recently, the UK opened its first rehab clinic for Internet Addiction(the provocatively named Broadway Lounge), but that was only the beginning.

Capio Nightingale Hospital in London has announced its own plan to get gets out of the World of Warcraft and into the real world through an intensive inpatient, day care, or group therapy environment. The program is aimed at 15 to 17year-olds, although kids as

service hopes to "address the underlying causes of this addiction to transform screenagers back into teenagers." And if you thought we were running this because we wanted to use the word "screenagers," you might be on to something.

New UK Internet Addiction clinic offers in-patient therapy to 'screenagers' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leighton Meester isn’t one to shy away from red lipstick and a graphic smoky eye—and neither is ELLE Video Star Ann Lee. Her winning look was inspired

by Meester’s smoky eye makeup from the MTV Video Music Awards (see photo below) and penchant for wearing cherry lipstick (since September of last year, Meester has been favoring red). For gossip-worthy makeup similar to Meester’s, click here for Lee’s red lipstick and smoky eye tutorial.

View more makeup how-to videos here.

—Emily Hebert Photo: Meester: Retna; Lee: Courtesy of Lee Follow ELLE on Twitter Become our Facebook fan

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55

The HD JVC Everio GZKeepin' it real fake: Teclast's dual HM550 lets smartphones control functions via Bluetooth -screened K9 e-reader looks like

Street Chic: New York

Matt Burns (CrunchGear)

ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

functions directly from their interfaces. Bluetooth headsets Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:00:07 AM can also be used for monitoring The JVC GZ-HM550 brings a audio levels. new set of standards to the table. The functions seem limited at I t i s n ’ t t h e 1 9 2 0 x 1 0 8 0 best right now, but this is just recording or 9 MP stills. Nor is the first generation. Think about it the 32GB internal flash the live video preview and memory with an SD/SDHC card playback that’s possible with slot playing backup or even the this type of connectivity. Soon, Konica Minolta HD lens. Nope, you might be able to set your it’s the novel Bluetooth function camcorder on a tripod and that might make a full size comfortable control it from afar. camcorder relevant again in a Nice, eh? smartphone world.

The JVC GZ-HM550 is now Using Bluetooth, unspecified available and carries a $799 smartphones can remotely MSRP. control playback and recording

Alex and Kindle made a baby Tim Stevens (Engadget) Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:34:00 AM

We almost hate to throw the KIRF moniker on a product we wouldn't mind owning, but this e-reader that popped up at the EREXPO in Shenzhen certainly bears more than a passing resemblance to the Spring Design Alex e-reader -- and the button layout on the right is a dead ringer for the Kindle. It's called the K9, the latest reader from Teclast, and it follows a growing trend of Androidpowered devices with a color LCD on the bottom and an E-

Ink screen on top. The screens measure 3.6- and 6-inches respectively and, while we don't know anything else about it at this point, we wouldn't be surprised it inherits its father's tardiness.

Keepin' it real fake: Teclast's dual-screened K9 e-reader looks like Alex and Kindle made a baby originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Cloned In China| Shanzhaiben.com| Email this| Comments

Submitted at 3/19/2010 4:00:00 AM

Slouchy skinny jeans put a downtown edge on a tie-dye top (on Ferebee Taube).

Photo: Anne Ziegler Click here for our complete fall 2010 Fashion Week coverage Think you are Street Chic? Email us your photo and you could appear in ELLE.com's Street Chic Daily.

Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

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Surprise! HTC Doesn’t Agree With Apple Regarding Suit Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog)

added later by Google to the device via a software update.

Sure seems like an attempt to Submitted at 3/18/2010 1:00:07 PM dodge the ire of multi-touch’s HTC has finally spoken out proclaimed originator to me. regarding the pending lawsuit The Nexus One is almost Apple launched against the certainly the catalyst for this smartphone maker regarding its suit, and with good reason. use of multi-touch as an Despite the fact that the device interface navigation mechanism, itself isn’t selling anywhere near and around 20 other at the level of the iPhone, recent technologies. It should surprise evidence suggests that the phone absolutely no one that the has raised the profile of Taiwanese company doesn’t see Android, which seems to be eye-to-eye with the iPhone positioning itself to make a maker regarding the serious bid on Apple’s appropriateness of its use of the smartphone market dominance. tech.

If Apple is ever to strip Google HTC CEO Peter Chou released of some of that momentum, the a statement Wednesday time to do so is now. addressing the recently filed suit technologies as we have always But are the claims Apple is directly. According to Chou, as done, but we will continue to making valid, or is it just an that users need to step on a quoted by InformationWeek, embrace competition through attempt to strike down any and button at the base of the robot, “HTC disagrees with Apple’s our own innovation as a healthy all competition before the prompting a baseball to pop up actions and will fully defend way for consumers to get the consumer gets a chance to and stay suspended 10-20cm itself.” HTC’s stance, like that best mobile experience possible. choose? I’m no legal expert, but above a nozzle on a jet of air. of Apple, is that it respects and Apple is no stranger to suits it seems to me that Apple is Users can then practice hitting values healthy competition and from other companies, and it going after some very basic up to 70 balls one after another innovation. Of course, that certainly hasn’t shied away from concepts in its legal claims, ones (that’s how many balls the robot shared premise leads both pursuing legal action itself in the without which the concept of a can hold). Jet Hitter can be companies to quite different past. A suit against Nokia along modern smartphone would be similar lines is still ongoing. untenable. I’m all for giving filled with both soft and hard conclusions.

C h o u e l a b o r a t e s H T C ’ s HTC shouldn’t be surprised credit where credit is due, but if balls.

Meiji and MRC say Jet Hitter position further in the official a b o u t t h e m o v e , e i t h e r , we’re to see cell tech progress, it considering the fact that multi- has to be at the behest of the is already being used by several statement: H T C s t r o n g l y a d v o c a t e s t o u c h w a s n ’ t o f f i c i a l l y free market, and that means not Japanese pro baseball teams.

But the robot can actually be intellectual property protection introduced as a launch feature unduly placing restrictions on bought by anyone ready to and will continue to respect on the Nexus One, even though Apple’s competitors. other innovators and their the hardware supported it. It was spend $7,700 for it.

Jet Hitter: New Baseball robot allows solo practice Serkan Toto (CrunchGear) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:44:19 AM

Baseball robots are nothing new (there’s even a dedicated Wikipedia article on them), but that didn’t stop Japan’s Meiji University and Yokohamabased metal recycling company MRC[JP] to come up with the so-called Jet Hitter[JP].

This new model is a batting tee robot that makes it possible for a player to practice hitting baseballs by himself. And the makers say it’s the first of its kind.

The way Jet Hitter works is

Apple/

E-reader News Edition

57

iGroups: Apple’s Welcome to the Social Chris Ryan (TheAppleBlog)

exchange a token (or handshake, if you will). These tokens are tagged. If there happens to be a An interesting patent of Apple’s trusted source at this venue, for relating to a social networking example, like a wireless access app surfaced recently. Dubbed point or perhaps a website setup iGroups, the app aims to solve for this purpose, devices can the pitfalls of traditional social exchange tokens with it. Before networks, like Facebook, that this gets too technical, let’s require users be a member agree to call the trusted source before being able to participate. “Wilma.”

Instead, iGroups creates a This accomplishes two virtual social network based on important things. The first is proximity. that Wilma can match or To set the scene, imagine a correlate tokens to determine casual weekend enjoying drinks groups and their members. at a bar. Your device would be When my device approaches able to detect others nearby and and exchanges tokens, Wilma allow for easy communication now knows what group I’m part by the tools already built into of and similarly, I’ll know other your device: SMS, email or by g r o u p m e m b e r s t h a t h a v e phone. If you’re a Mac user, you checked in with Wilma. This could loosely term this as process allows the network to Bonjour for your iPhone. A grow by allowing its users to Network Of Proximity infer other users through this The idea of a network based on daisy chain process. Further, p r o x i m i t y i s i n t r i g u i n g tokens can be exchanged considering the technology built t h r o u g h a v a r i e t y o f into mobile devices that can mechanisms: Wi-Fi if available, help facilitate this. Bluetooth Bluetooth if desired or even 3G. and Wi-Fi, for instance, both By supporting all of these, it allow for discovering new b e c o m e s m u c h e a s i e r t o devices that are within range. visualize a realistic image of the But the problem arises when a n e t w o r k a n d p r e v e n t s t h e user leaves. If they are out of network from being stifled range, they are excluded from b e c a u s e u s e r s a r e n o t the network. exchanging tokens by just one iGroups attempts to solve this method that not all devices may issue when it first detects other support. users. At this point, the devices The second important goal that Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:00:10 AM

and protect the privacy of users if they did not wish to participate. Further, the patent sheds light on the fact that the tokens themselves do not contain information that would identify any particular user or device. Merely the tokens act as a way to tag an association with a specific group.

Still, the idea of creating these virtual social networks on the iPhone is appealing. In some regards, there are applications on the market that attempt to deliver similar functionality, like Loopt. However, as mentioned earlier, these solutions still require users to have an account with them which can be problematic if you meet someone and want to exchange information but they are not a member of Facebook or LinkedIn. Instead of waiting this serves is solving the issue of exchange tokens, even after our for them to sign up and register users leaving range and thus user has left, they are still a profile, iGroups solves the l o s i n g t h e w h o l e s o c i a l connected to the same event and whole problem faster. networking aspect. If a user will appear as part of the group. This definitely isn’t Apple’s interacts with Wilma either at Mac users? Think of this as first foray into patents on social the event or afterwards (through being similar to Smart Folders. interactions, but none of them something similar to MobileMe, The group “knows” who its have seen the light of day. With perhaps), the user can see the members are by this process of rumors of iPhone 4.0 around the entire group. Even if they are exchanging tokens, even if not corner, however, perhaps there j u s t u p l o a d i n g e x c h a n g e d all of the users are present at the i s a s u b s t a n t i a l s o c i a l between Fred and their self, the same time. component waiting to be inferring process described It’s worthwhile to mention that unveiled. What do you think earlier will allow the rest of the any sort of implementation of about the potential of iGroups? network to be recreated. As Fred such a technology would of moves on and continues to course be completely optional

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Race to Launch Day: The Story of an iPad Case Maker Chris Ryan (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:00:08 AM

Every major Apple product launch tends to follow a pattern that many of us have just accepted. Long lines, constrained supply and lack of accessories are all common for the launch day. But with the release of the iPad right around the corner, one company dared to follow Apple’s advice to the world. Instead of the frustrating experience of buying a new iPad and not being able to get a quality case for days or even weeks, Hard Candy Cases will be ready to deliver on day one — and all it took was just thinking different.

A visit to Hard Candy’s website quickly reveals that its iPad cases will ship this month, ahead of the launch for the device itself. Digging deeper, these cases are not just generic cases that happen to fit the general size of the iPad, but quality cases that snugly fit Apple’s multitouch wonder. So how did the company pull off quality products on such an amazing timeline?

It begins with the resolve of Tim Hickman, the CEO of Hard Candy Cases and founder of Speck Products, another popular accessory manufacturer. In the traditional manufacturing process, Apple would release technical documents (or the manufacturer could measure the physical device itself) to provide precise measurements for manufacturers. The next step is the expensive and sometimes lengthy process of setting up the tooling equipment to produce cases. It’s easy to see why accuracy is important. As a result, its not until a period of time after the product is released that the bulk of cases begin to enter the market. Hickman’s solution was to engineer the cases in such a way that if the final device was a millimeter or so different than anticipated,

specially designed bumpers inside the case could be adjusted to provide a snug fit. From a business perspective, Hard Candy Cases was able to start the tooling process weeks ago.

From a consumer perspective, that means cases will be available sooner rather than later.

But Hickman didn’t stop there.

In a move that is strangely reminiscent of Steve Jobs himself, a little over a month ago the CEO flew to China to persuade factory workers to work through the Chinese New Year and focus on manufacturing his product.

After four weeks of sleepless nights, sheer madness and a fight to the finish, Hickman’s chartered 747 delivered 18,000 Bubble Hard Sleeve cases to the U.S. Another 7,000 will be

delivered before the iPad’s launch on April 3.

Hickman’s purpose behind this isn’t to simply be the first on the market for the sake of being first. With iPad pre-orders numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the iPad opens the door for a huge market of thirdparty accessories and that can mean some serious profits. Hard Candy Cases, while a figurative new kid on the block, isn’t a stranger to this though. With revenue of $150,000 in its first month of operation, Hickman’s company has already captured the attention of the industry.

With prominent exposure in the Apple Store and the resolve of its CEO, Hard Candy Cases is poised to provide some serious competition to other popular case manufacturers, like Belkin, Speck and Incase.

If you’ve already pre-ordered your iPad, check out some Hard Candy Cases’ products so your iPad will be protected from day one. If you’ve used any of their other products, let us know what you think!

Rival warned regulators over Lehman (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/18/2010 4:06:37 PM

Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve officials were warned by a leading Wall Street rival that Lehman Brothers was incorrectly calculating a key measure of its financial health months before its collapse in 2008, people familiar with the matter say.

Former Merrill Lynch officials said they contacted regulators about the way Lehman measured its liquidity position for competitive reasons. The Merrill officials said they were coming under pressure from their trading partners and investors, who feared that Merrill was less -liquid than Lehman.

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

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Skeet Ulrich Back for Another CBS Pilot

Beau Bridges Joins 'Rockford Files'

Bob Sassone (TV Squad)

Allison Waldman (TV Squad)

Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:30:00 AM

Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:29:00 AM

Before everyone gets too excited, no, this isn't 'Return To Jericho,' so please hold your nuts (wait, that didn't come out right ...). But Skeet Ulrich has signed on to the pilot for a new CBS medical drama produced

by John Wells.

Yeah, I know, yet another medical drama. It seems we have a lot every pilot season (and every fall season). CBS' 'Three Rivers' died rather quickly and 'Miami Medical' hasn't even premiered yet (it starts in April) and now we're hearing about this one. Maybe CBS likes to have replacement medical dramas on the shelf in case one happens to fail in the ratings.

I think every network has to have at least one medical show on their schedule every season.

TV law. At least this one sounds a little bit different than one based at one particular hospital.

It's about a team of medical pros who go around the country in a mobile unit and help people.

It's rare when you hear about a casting and just say to yourself, "Oh, perfect." Well, that happened today. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Beau Bridges is going to be Dermot Mulroney's father on NBC's new 'The Rockford Files.' It's not just that Bridges, older brother of Oscar winner Jeff Bridges, is a terrific actor; he's really right for the role.

In the original 'Rockford Files,' Noah Berry, Jr. played Rocky, Jim's father, who served as both How about a show where a Jim's buddy and foil. They hung team of doctors treat patients out together and understood over the Internet? Sure, a TV each other. Rocky had been a show about people looking at a truck driver and had a nocomputer screen for an hour nonsense, clear vision of things. sounds boring, but you can have He'd give Jim advice or just them sit in different chairs each voice his opinion, often in a wry week. way. Presumably in NBC's Filed under: Other Drama version, which'House' creator S h o w s , P r o g r a m m i n g , David Shore is overseeing and Celebrities, Casting, RealityFree Permalink| Email this| | Comments

59

Trichet backs tougher CDS regulation (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/19/2010 3:46:08 AM

Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, on Friday threw his support behind tougher regulation and oversight of the huge credit default swap market.

It was important that “certain financial instruments, which were introduced in consideration of their positive effects for the hedging of risks, should not be misused in a speculative also involves 'The Office's' manner”, he told a BrusselsSteve Carell as executive based conference on bank crisis producer, Beau Bridges as management.

Rocky will be the same kind of Five Filters featured article: guy.

Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Continue reading Beau Bridges PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Joins 'Rockford Files' Term Extraction.

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Speculation grows on Google’s future in China (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/19/2010 5:30:05 AM

Google’s legal structure in China will allow the company to continue operations in the

country even if it closes its local search engine, local employees and industry and legal experts say.

The comments come amid frenzied speculation that Google is on the verge of carrying out

its January threat to retreat partly or fully from China.

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'Community' - 'Beginner Paula Abdul Says No to Pottery' Recap 'Star Search' Jason Hughes (TV Squad)

Bob Sassone (TV Squad)

Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:22:00 PM

Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:55:00 AM

(S01E19)"Congratulations, you failed a class so easy that people passing in the hallway get a contact credit."

Utilizing their setting on a college campus has allowed'Community' to seamlessly stream in guest stars without ruining the flow of the series. This week, Jeff took another stab at a "blow-off" class, bringing us the incomparable Tony Hale as the ethereal instructor of Beginning Pottery.

While Jeff was able to get Abed and Annie to join him in pottery, Pierce, Troy and Shirley instead took to the high seas ... of the parking lot, when they signed up for a sailing class. Jeff's journey was one in which he had to learn that being the "cool guy" doesn't necessarily mean he's good at

Just a few days ago Allison told you about Paula Abdul's possible new job as host of ABC's updated version of 'Star Search.' Alas, it looks like we're not going to be able to see her on it after all. The former 'American Idol' star has said no to the gig.

I never really saw her as the host of the show anyway, did everything. The lesson came you? I mean, we got a kick out from a not-so-surprising source: of the way she acted as a judge the resident expert on not being on'American Idol,' all loopy and confused and weary, but being good at things.

Continue reading'Community' - t h e h o s t o f a s h o w i s a completely different thing.

'Beginner Pottery' Recap Filed under: OpEd, Episode Though it would have fun to see R e v i e w s , R e a l i t y - F r e e , her try it for a while. I also wonder if there's a place for Community P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | 'Star Search' in this age of 'Idol,' 'America's Got Talent,' 'So You Comments Think You Can Dance?' and the coming American version of

“Witching” adds to investors’ nervousness (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:48:25 AM

Cowell's'The X Factor.'

Maybe Cowell and his team have convinced Abdul to be a judge on 'The X Factor.' That way it can be 'American Idol 2.'

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15:45 GMT: Risky assets were in retreat on Friday, with the expiry of futures and options contracts in europe and the US, a process known as “witching”, adding to investor nervousness.

The FTSE All-World equity index fell 0.7 per cent, and the euro again fell sharply as analysts awaited further news in the Greek ‘bail-out’ farrago.

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Tennessee Claws Past San Diego St. Dan Graziano (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/18/2010 5:24:00 PM

Filed under: Tennessee, NCAA Tournament, NCAA Tournament - Midwest Region PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- They could be this NCAA

tournament's most dangerous team -- the only team in the field that can say it beat both Kansas and Kentucky, both No. 1 seeds, this season. And after a gutwrenching 62-59 first-round victory over San Diego State Thursday night, the Tennessee Volunteers are still alive.

It took everything Tennessee

had to hold off the Mountain West champion Aztecs. Melvin Goins appeared to put the game away with a clutch 3-pointer in the final minute, but with 9.5 seconds left he fouled San Diego State's D.J. Gay while Gay was shooting a 3-pointer.

Gay's shot missed (as nearly all

the shots in this game did), but he hit all three free throws to cut the lead back down to one point.

Fouled on the inbound play, Wayne Chism made two free throws to push the lead back to three, and Kawhi Leonard's game-tying attempt missed everything at the buzzer.

Sports/

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61

Can Friday Possibly Top Thursday?

(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:18:44 AM

Looking back at Thursday’s Daily Fix live-blogs, it seems reasonable enough to assume that the Fix editors have astonishingly good judgment.

Only two games get liveblogged, and both Notre DameOld Dominion and MarquetteWashington are down-to-thewire thrillers? Reuters Where did all the Big East friends of Syracuse forward Wes Johnson go?

Yes, it does look impressive, until you consider just how many of Thursday’s games could be filed under “down-tothe-wire thriller.” Of the 16 games played on Thursday, three went to overtime, four featured last-second gamewinners, and seven were decided by three points or less.

Even Thursday’s few lopsided games — with the exception of a characteristically winceinducing slaughter of 16-seed East Tennessee State by topseeded Kentucky — were interesting, with Butler blowing out trendy upset pick UTEP and 14th-seeded Ohio University scorching three-seed Georgetown. So, really, there wasn’t a bad live-blog choice in the bunch on Thursday.

All of which makes the upcoming three days of highintensity hoops and the liveblogs, don’t forget those live-

blogs! that much more exciting.

“If you can remember a better opening day of the NCAA tournament than the opening day we just experienced, man, I’d like to hear it,” Gary Parrish writes in a rundown of the day’s action at CBS Sports. Speaking for himself, your Fixer can’t.

Even better, though, Thursday’s games suggest that there’s every chance the hoops played through the weekend will be as stirring, surprise-filled and hardfought.

“The most telling thing about Thursday was the confidence that the smaller schools displayed,” Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel writes. “They were rarely in awe of the famous name on the front of the other guys jersey. They pressed defensively, crashed the boards with purpose and tried to force the action, letting fear of being upset creep into the favorites minds.”

If there’s a lesson to carry forward from NCAA tournament Day One to Days Two, Three, Four and beyond, it’s that this year’s underdogs have plenty of fight in them. In the Journal, Jonah Keri and Darren Everson write that college hoops is undergoing something of a talent shortage.

“Does talent matter in college basketball?” Keri and Everson wonder. At ESPN, Andy Katz writes that a top-tier point guard is still vital to a successful

tournament team, but that Thursday’s action proved that big-time playmakers can be found on teams that don’t play in big-time conferences.

That was a lesson that the Big East, especially, learned in painful fashion on Thursday.

Generally considered one of the nation’s strongest conferences, the Big East went 1-3 on Thursday, with Georgetown, Notre Dame and Marquette losing to lower-seeded teams and the only win coming when second-seeded Villanova outlasted ultra-feisty Robert Morris University and its 5-9 dynamo Karon Abraham in overtime. In the Sporting News, Dan Levy breaks down just how terrible Thursday was for the Big East.

In the Boston Globe, Bob Ryan salutes Robert Morris for its tremendous effort against ‘Nova. “Sometimes its all about the losers,” Ryan writes. Ryan is certainly right to applaud RMU’s play, but if Thursday’s games proved anything, and offer anything to watch for going forward, it’s that the teams penciled in as losers on so many brackets this year seem

especially unwilling to accept that fate.

Over the next few days, your Fixer will be keeping his eyes on two sources for college hoops news: Luke Winn’s At the Tourney blog at Sports Illustrated and, naturally, The Journal, which will host liveblogs and regular updates thoughout the weekend, starting with Darren Everson weighing in on all of Friday afternoon’s games.* * * On Wednesday, Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington stepped before television cameras and did something nobody wants to do. It turns out, though, that Washington’s admission to using cocaine during the 2009 season was not destined to be his last drugrelated admission of the week.

On Thursday, Washington admitted to smoking marijuana and using amphetamines. That the former is true for many members of his generation and the latter true of virtually every big leaguer of Washington’s vintage did little to mitigate the scandal. At NBC’s Hardball Talk, Craig Calcaterra provides a bit of context on baseball’s notably more permissive drug culture during Washington’s playing days.

While Washington should be commended for making a clean break of it, his admissions did nothing to reduce the temperature of what was already

shaping up to be a fairly hot seat. “Chances are, the club will be galvanized by the ‘us against the world’ mentality that often unites sports teams in crisis,” Ken Rosenthal writes at Fox Sports. “But frankly, the only way the players can save Washingtons job is by winning games lots of games, right from Opening Day.” While all the Rangers have said all the right things about rallying around their embattled manager, the vote of confidence from AllStar outfielder Josh Hamilton was perhaps more important than the rest. Hamilton is baseball’s best-known recovering addict, an ex-junkie who has risen to stardom from the lowest lows of heroin addiction. At MLB.com, T.R. Sullivan reports that Hamilton understands the stress Washington faces.

What is still only murkily understood is how Washington’s case came to be public in the first place. On that front, the story of the day undoubtedly came from Randy Galloway of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, who reported that Washington’s hand had been forced by a disgruntled Rangers exemployee who had been blackmailing the organization.

“Rangers management could see this one coming,” Galloway writes. “For months, it watched CAN page 66

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NCAA Tournament Diary: Washington 80, Marquette 78 (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/18/2010 3:00:44 PM

Associated Press Washington’s Quincy Pondexter (left) drives past Marquette’s Jimmy Butler for the game-winning shot.

The Journal provides minute-by -minute analysis of Washington’s 80-78 victory over Marquette in an NCAA Tournament East Region firstround game in San Jose, Calif.

Guest blogger Pete McEntegart offers commentary on the game and the CBS telecast.

5:36 pm | Pregame | by Pete McEntegart Itâs a good thing the NCAA isnât in charge of collegiate academics as well as athletics, or one might reasonably wonder why tonightâs East Region game between sixthseeded Marquette and No. 11 Washington is being played in San Jose, Calif. You could question the NCAAâs math, too, since the game looks more like a toss-up than the usual 6vs.-11 entry.

In fact oddsmakers have declared this matchup virtually even (Marquette is favored by 1 1/2 points). The Huskies actually have a better record (24 -9 to 22-11), the same conference record (11-7) and are rolling off a Pac-10 tournament championship. UW boasts one of the top one-two punches in the nation in forward Quincy Pondexter (19.8 ppg,

7.5 rpg) and guard Isaiah Thomas, who scores 17.1 ppg when heâs not destroying NBA franchises from the inside.

(Oops, thatâs âIsiahâ Thomas, the current coach at Florida International; my mistake.)

The Golden Eagles, meanwhile, have been toughened by the Big East gauntlet and an ambitious outof-conference schedule. Theyâre especially strong in the frontcourt behind Lazar Hayward (18.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg) and Jimmy Butler (14.9 ppg), while the rest of the three-guard lineup generally runs around hoisting up threes, and quite effectively at that (40.6%, sixth in the nation).

7:59 pm | 1st half, 20:00 left; 00 | by Pete McEntegart

Marquette wins the tip ... and we're off!

8:03 pm | 1st half, 17:08 left; 10 -7 MU | by Pete McEntegart Quick start for the Golden Eagles as Hayward hits a 3, already the second for Marquette. Actually, both teams have started hot from the field.

Quick pace.

8:11 pm | 1st half, 12:06 left; 18 -17 MU | by Editor We're having some technical difficulties. We'll resume the live blog once we get them worked out.

8:16 pm | 1st half, 12:00 left; 18 -17 MU | by Pete McEntegart Sorry for the technical difficulties but the Internet connection here at Van Diemen's bar in NYC is very dodgy. Less so is the hand of

UW star guard Isaiah Thomas.

The MU fans around me were buzzing pregame that he was out with a broken hand. Wishful thinking. Turns out it's a broken bone he's been playing with for weeks. He's already drained a few trifectas today.

8:20 pm | 1st half, 10:00 left; 23 -21 MU | by Pete McEntegart Maurice Acker just stole the ball at halfcourt and was fouled to the delight of the pro-MU crowd here. Who knew there was a Marquette bar in NYC? 8:27 pm | 1st half, 7:38 left; 2928 MU | by Pete McEntegart At TV timeout. Thomas's 3s have been matched and more by MU's array of gunners. No surprise -- Golden Eagles rank sixth in nation in 3-point shooting. The five teams ahead

of them are all in the NCAAs. I'd tell you who they were if I weren't pecking this on a BlackBerry.

8:33 pm | 1st half, 5:46 left; 3331 UW | by Pete McEntegart Thomas (13 pts) just canned yet another deep 3, leading MU to call TO. (OMG -- Any more initials I can use?) Huskies are 6 -of-7 from behind the arc. At least I'm pretty sure that's what I saw in the split second I wasn't staring at my thumbs.

8:35 pm | by Editor The five teams ahead of Marquette in 3-point percentage are Cornell, BYU, Utah State, St. Mary's and Kansas.

8:38 pm | 1st half, 3:59 left, 3733 UW | by Pete McEntegart NCAA page 64

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Sources: San Francisco 49ers' Scot McCloughan on extended leave Adam Schefter (ESPN.com) Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:19:02 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 ("Sources:%2049ers\'%20McCl oughan%20on%20extended%20 leave")); }

I.setLinkBack("http://sports.esp n.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=500 6987"); 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=5006987' }); } A.userAction = I; gigya.services.socialize.showSh areUI(H,A); return false; } } By Adam Schefter ESPN Archive With just over a month before a draft in which they are scheduled to have two firstround picks, the San Francisco 49ers are giving general manager Scot McCloughan an extended leave of absence, multiple league sources said

Thursday.

The sources said McCloughan has been dealing with personal issues and the 49ers want him to be able to concentrate on those indefinitely. The organization is said to have been bracing for it for days and believes it is well prepared for next month's draft in which it is scheduled to have the 13th and 17th overall picks.

One league source said San Francisco knows the direction it is going and it has a plan to move forward.

McCloughan told AOL FanHouse via text message, "I'm fine and moving forward."

With McCloughan away indefinitely, the 49ers will lean more heavily on director of player personnel Trent Baalke and director of pro personnel Tom Gamble, who are widely respected in NFL circles. Team president Jed York will not, as some have speculated, take on a larger role of responsibility.

McCloughan's brother, Dave, is the 49ers' director of college scouting.

The league source said that the reason speculation is swirling

while answers are not flowing is that the 49ers are trying to be as respectful as possible of the process and McCloughan, who has roughly two years remaining on his contract. 49ers officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

The 49ers hired McCloughan in February 2005 to supervise their personnel department for Mike Nolan, a career assistant coach who was improbably given total control of the club's football operations by owner John York, Jed's father and the brother-inlaw of former owner Eddie DeBartolo.

McCloughan is a former minor league baseball player who became a respected young personnel executive during stints with Green Bay and Seattle. He has a mostly solid record during his years with the 49ers, compiling a young talent base that has steadily improved for most of his tenure -- yet the 49ers still haven't reached the playoffs in five seasons since his arrival, with an 8-8 record last season that was their best since 2002.

McCloughan was named general manager in January 2008 when the 49ers nominally gave him authority over Nolan instead of firing the coach after the 49ers' third straight losing season. Nolan lasted just seven more games, with Jed York abruptly replacing him with Mike Singletary during the 2008 season.

McCloughan had the final say on the 49ers' last two drafts, but Singletary told reporters at the NFL scouting combine last month the club would make its draft-day decisions according to players' rankings on an overall draft board, not on the gut feelings of any team executives.

Adam Schefter is an NFL reporter for ESPN Insider. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Paid tablet content must be different than the Web (Poynter Institute) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 3/19/2010 4:36:06 AM

Contributors: Damon Kiesow Regina McCombs About Mobile Media

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by e-mail Send tips & ideas to Mobile Media

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Pondexter is still on the line for the Huskies when we come back from the TO. He'll be looking to complete a 3-point play. I feel bad that I can't think of Pondexter without recalling the lyrics to Young MC's Bust a Move. He deserves better from me.

8:43 pm | 1st half, 2:29 left; 4136 UW | by Pete McEntegart Don't look now but Ohio is up 15 on Georgetown early in the second half.

8:48 pm | 1st half, 46.5 seconds left; 43-41 MU | by Pete McEntegart Quick 7-0 run by Golden Eagles, five from G Maurice Acker, all 5-foot-8 of him.

8:54 pm | Halftime, 43-42 MU |

by Pete McEntegart Crazy sequence at the end of the half. Golden Eagles tried to take the last shot, but the shot clock was a few seconds behind the game clock. When MU threw up an airball, the ball caromed out to Thomas. The UW sharpshooter promptly drained it from well beyond halfcourt.

8:56 pm | Halftime, 43-42 MU |

by Pete McEntegart Alas for the Huskies, it didn't count. Since Marquette's shot hadn't hit the rim, it was a shotclock violation and the refs had blown the whistle. So UW had

to try again, and this time Thomas' heave caromed off the rim. That miss "drops" him to six-of-eight shooting for 17 points.

9:19 pm | 2nd half, 16:40 left; 52-44 MU | by Pete McEntegart Huskies call time as Marquette opens half on 9-2 run. Last five points from big man Hayward, on a step-out 3-pointer on a high pick-and-roll followed by a pretty reverse lay-in after a baseline drive. Biggest lead by either team.

9:24 pm | 2nd half, 14:55 left; 54-44 MU | by Pete McEntegart Matthew Bryan-Amaning will be shooting two for UW when we get back from the TV timeout. Huskies have both gone cold from the field and turned the ball over to start the half.

Bad combo.

9:29 pm | 2nd half, 13:51 left; 60-45 MU | by Pete McEntegart Huskies forced to call another quick TO after the Golden Eagles drain consecutive 3s, one each from Hayward and Acker.

All of a sudden MU is running away with this one. Dangerous time for UW. 9:32 pm | 2nd half, 11:34 left; 62-54 MU | by Pete McEntegart Now it's the Golden Eagles who want to talk it over as Huskies reel off a 9-2 run to get back in it.

9:41 pm | 2nd half, 7:28 left; 66 -63 MU | by Pete McEntegart Huskies keep coming on.

9:44 pm | 2nd half, 6:43 left; 66 -65 MU | by Pete McEntegart After a Pondexter follow, Huskies have erased all but one point of a deficit that once reached 15. We have a ballgame again, folks.

9:47 pm | 2nd half, 5:12 left; 72 -71 UW | by Pete McEntegart Huskies go back in front on huge wing 3 from Elston Turner. Now MU calls time with 4:59 to play. This second half has had some wild swings, but now the teams are basically back to even.

9:51 pm | 2nd half, 4:15 left; 74 -74 tie | by Pete McEntegart Pondexter answers a 3 from Marquette's David Cubillan with two FTs and we're knotted up.

9:57 pm | 2nd half, 2:48 left; 76 -76 tie | by Pete McEntegart Pondexter follows his own miss to forge another tie. Huskies had at least four extra chances that possession by crashing boards.

10:00 pm | 2nd half, 2:09 left; 78-78 tie. | by Pete McEntegart The teams trade two FTs each way. Now MU misses a 3.

10:02 pm | 2nd half, 1:02 left; 78-78 tie | by Pete McEntegart MU throws it away. UW's turn.

10:05 pm | 2nd half, 1.7

seconds left; 80-78 UW | by Pete McEntegart Wow! Pondexter drives and scores with 1.7 seconds left.

Tough banker. That came after UW rebounded a missed 3 from Thomas to enable it to use almost the entire last minuteplus. MU will have to go the length of the court after this TO. 10:15 pm | FINAL, 80-78 UW |

by Pete McEntegart All the Golden Eagles could get off was a halfcourt heave from Hayward, which looked like it had a shot but caromed off the backboard a little wide of the hoop.

10:16 pm | Postgame | by Pete McEntegart Impressive win by the Huskies in a tense, exciting game. UW looked like it was done when Marquette opened the second half with a 17-3 run to take a 15 -point lead. Instead it was all Huskies from there. Both Pondexter and Thomas lived up to their advance billing. And chalk up another upset in a thrilling first day that has been anything but chalk.

Exhibition in Istanbul Zack Sheppard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 3/18/2010 2:37:46 PM

Members of the Turkish Flickr group dostr recently put on a gallery exhibit in Istanbul. The exibition was called “Ruya” which translates as “Dream” in English. In this article you can see photos of the event and read more about it. (Even if you don’t speak Turkish the article is worth it to just check out the pretty pictures of the exhibit.)

Above are a few photos from the exhibition and of the exhibition. To see more from this group of photographers, check out the dostr Group Pool.

Photos from Hodolomax™, Tûba, Emre [ 2006 - 2010 ], g a m z e, and k tanesi.

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St. John's Red Storm fires coach Norm Roberts after sixth season

Greentech Media Site Maintenance Notice

Associated Press (ESPN.com)

days, following Bobby Gonzalez's ouster at Seton Hall on Wednesday.

Roberts was 81-101 at St. John's. Including four years at Division II Queens College, he has a 105-185 coaching record.

"My wife and I appreciate the great opportunity to have coached at St. John's. ... Having grown up in Queens, I never could have imagined being afforded the opportunity to coach at one of the most prestigious basketball programs in the country," Roberts said in a statement. " I do believe the program is in a much stronger position than when I arrived."

The Red Storm will return all five starters and 94 percent of the scoring from last season's team.

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is seeded lower than it should be, and probably should have been seeded higher than it was in 2005, when coach Tom Brennan's 13th-seeded Catamounts stunned the fourthseeded Orange in the first round

of the NCAA tournament, 60-57 in overtime. It's all a testament to how balanced and deep the average tournament field has become.

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was fired Friday as the basketball coach of St. John's after six seasons -- only two of them with a winning record.

Athletic director Chris Monasch announced the dismissal two days after the Red Storm lost to Memphis in the first round of the NIT to complete a 17-16 season.

The Red Storm were 6-12 in the Big East this season -- 13th in the 16-team conference.

"Coach Roberts took over a very challenging situation and has advanced our program in many respects," Monasch said in a statement. "We appreciate the class and integrity he exhibited in his six years at St. John's."

Roberts was a longtime assistant to Bill Self at Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Illinois and Kansas. He joined a St. John's team coming off a 6-21 season under Mike Jarvis and interim coach Kevin Clark.

This was the second coaching firing in the Big East in two

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In order to continue to provide high quality news, market research and events, and to support our rapidly growing online community, we are performing some routine site maintenance. Please be aware that www.greentechmedia.com and www.gtmresearch.com will be down for 2 hours starting Thursday, March 18 at 11 p.m.

EST. Thank you for your patience!

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Syracuse Seeks Revenge on Vermont David Steele (FanHouse Main)

Technically, by Jim Boeheim's logic, his Syracuse team should be even more worried about Submitted at 3/19/2010 3:00:00 AM Vermont this time than it should Filed under: March Madness, have been five years ago. And NCAA Tournament - West five years ago, Vermont beat his R e g i o n B U F F A L O - - team.

The reason: Vermont probably

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a PR disaster building like a thunderstorm to the west. Let’s just say the ballclub had been warned.”* * * There are a great many reasons for a celebrity not to have an extramarital affair with a porn star, but one of those is the risk that eventually those (ugh) sexts would see the light of day. On Thursday, Joslyn James — one of the two porn stars with whom Tiger Woods has been linked — made his text messages public.

It’s tough to say where in Woods’s continuum of public humiliation these messages fall, but it’s probably somewhere near the top.

Woods, one can only imagine, is working on putting all this out of his mind and focusing on returning to golf at the Masters.

Your Fixer hereby promises not to cover every salacious bit of ESPN-fodder that will arrive between now and then. But Gwen Knapp’s perceptive piece on the evolution of Brand Tiger at CBS Sports deserves to be an exception to this rule. In it, Knapp makes the point that

Nike’s decision to stick with Woods, despite all the sponsors that have deserted Tiger, makes a vicious sort of sense.

“Woods has gained an increasingly fierce following among people who believe that a law-abiding athlete should be judged by his behavior and performance on a field of play,” Knapp writes. “This is Nike’s sweet spot. Named for the Greek goddess of victory, the company sells success and team loyalty. It doesn’t attach itself to the attributes that make a great politician or to subtle graces, such as dignity in defeat. It loves and markets ferocity.”* * * Garey Ris, whose last day with the Daily Fix is today, said an eloquent and heartfelt goodbye on Wednesday, and I couldn’t hope to improve upon that. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t add a personal note to today’s Fix on my co-Fixer’s last day in the (virtual) office. But before his stipple portrait leaves the righthand column, I wanted to say thanks to Garey one last

time.

I’m short on space, so I’ll say only that Garey was a pleasure to work with, enjoyable to read, and as good a human as you could hope to meet. He remains the last of those, of course, and his voracious media consumption (and generous sharing of links) will likely ensure that his name will continue to appear below in our “Tip of the Fix Cap” section.

But for now, in anticipation of that first cap-tip as a non-Fixer, I’d like to offer one last salute to my departing co-worker. I truly couldn’t have done this without him.

Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email David at droth11@gmail.com.

Is No Strong Seed Safe?

(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 3/18/2010 9:59:21 PM

Since the bracket was announced Sunday night, sixthseeded Tennessee was considered ripe for an upset.

Instead, the Volunteers led No. 11 San Diego State for nearly every minute of their 62-59 win Thursday night. Now theyve got one of the plushest paths in the tournament to a spot in the Sweet 16. Associated Press Tennessee’s Melvin Goins, left, and Steven Pearl, right, defend against San Diego State’s Brian Carlwell.

Tennessee shot poorly from the field but made eight of its final 10 free throws and led for the last nine minutes of the game despite never leading by more than five. On Saturday, the Vols get 14th-seeded Ohio University, which pulled the shock of the tournament in a day full of them with a seemingly easy 14-point win over Georgetown. Ohio, mind you, was 7-9 in the Mid-American Conference and needed to win its conference tournament just to make the Dance. Georgetown had wins over Duke and

Syracuse, both No. 1 seeds, in the past two months.

In keeping with the rest of the days dramatic games, the rest of the night was action-packed.

Wake Forest and Texas, two underachievers loaded with talent, traded barbs into overtime before Wake won on a jumper from guard Ishmael Smith with two seconds left. It was the third one-point game of the day and the third one to go to an extra period. At the same time, No. 3 New Mexico got a scare from unheralded No. 14 Montana before winning, 62-57.

Even No. 1 Kansas saw a bit of a scare, trailing 16th-seed Lehigh early on before pulling away for a 16-point win. The way this tournament has started, the fall of a top seed in the first round might not be so shocking.

No pressure, Duke and Syracuse.

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Murray State’s Non-Upset Upset (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

Vanderbilt were widely considered to be seeded too high.

We tried to warn you. We did But the committee sure everything but fill out your succeeded in creating bracket for you. Getty Images compelling matchups. Thursday Murray State’s Donte Poole afternoon was the most dramatic rides the shoulders of Ivan Aska opening afternoon in recent after the Racers’ buzzer-beating tournament history, though not win. exactly the most expertly In a frantic first afternoon of played. In 15th-seeded Robert games in the NCAA men’s Morris’s near-upset of No. 2 basketball tournament, 13thseed Villanova, the two teams seeded Murray State stunned missed a combined 62% of their fourth-seeded Vanderbilt at the shots. So did Old Dominion and buzzer late Thursday afternoon, Notre Dame. trumping 11th-seeded Old But there’s no knocking Dominion’s upset over No. 6 Brigham Young guard Jimmer Notre Dame earlier in the day. Dominion was never mind Fredette, who lit up Florida for But if you glance at betting lines where they were seeded. Both 37 points in BYU’s doubleor at this newspaper you’re teams were 2.5-point underdogs overtime victory. Murray State’s aware that neither one was much by the time they took the court, Danero Thomas also made this w h i c h a l s o s p e a k s t o t h e afternoon fun with his fall-away of a surprise at all.

In fact, as far as Vegas was questionable job the tournament 15-footer with time expiring to concerned, Murray State was no selection committee did with give his team the upset. bigger an underdog than Old seeding. Both Notre Dame and Submitted at 3/18/2010 2:40:15 PM

Michelle Obama Goes Green in Jason Wu ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 3/18/2010 11:46:41 AM

It’s hard to believe that Michelle Obama and Jason Wu only met for the first time last week. But, as we all know, the first lady is intimately familiar Patrick's Day at the White with Wu's ladylike-yet-playful House yesterday, the first lady d e s i g n s . T o c e l e b r a t e S t . went for an understated look,

wearing a custom Kelly green embroidered sheath created by Wu. Click here to shop a similar dress from Wu’s resort collection.

—Violet Moon Gayn or Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

67

Wake Calls on Ishmael to Stun Texas Terrance Harris (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/18/2010 5:35:00 PM

Filed under: Texas, Wake Forest, ACC, Big 12, NCAA Tournament - East Region NEW ORLEANS -- Wake Forest senior point guard Ishmael Smith is far from the best 3pointer shooter around and his free-throw shooting could use some work, too.

But when it comes to lastminute clutch shots there aren't many players you'd want to have the ball than Smith. Smith added to his collection of lategame heroics Thursday night when he raced down the floor and pulled up for a short jumper with a second remaining on the clock to lift the No. 9 seed Demon Deacons to a thrilling 81 -80 overtime win over No. 8 Texas in a East Region game at the New Orleans Arena.

"He makes big shots, he makes big free throws," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said of Smith. "He's a lion. This team is led by a tough son of a gun at point guard."

That was certainly evident after Texas forward Gary Johnson

missed two free throws with 10 seconds remaining and Smith raced down the court with the ball. His shot ended a thrilling game and put a stop to the Deacons' rapid late-season slide.

Smith had 19 points, seven assists and grabbed 12 rebounds in 44 minutes.

"This has to be No. 1, obviously," Smith responded when asked how Thursday night's pull-up jumper to clinch the win ranks among the big shots he has made in his career.

"I think in the regular season, you live to play another game.

But now you are in a position [where] you lose, you go home."

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CBS in Fine Form as Showtime Tips Around the Net In Media: Few TV Ads Are Viral Off Milton Kent (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 3/19/2010 5:27:00 AM

Filed under: NCAA Tournament, Sports Business and Media NEW YORK -- For a guy who drew to an inside straight, Sean McManus displayed his best poker face Thursday.

McManus, the president of CBS Sports, orchestrated the network's telecasts of the first day of the NCAA men's basketball tournament brilliantly, deftly moving the nation from one nail-biting finish to another.

And yet, McManus refrained from gloating, nearly pulling out the hoary clichĂŠ, "We take these telecasts one at a time."

"It's been a good start, but it's a marathon, obviously," McManus said after the first two groupings of games. "I don't get too excited if we have a great first window and I don't get disappointed if we have a bad first window. It's a really long tournament."

"But it's so wide open this year that even though we're lacking some of the big traditional teams, it's got the feeling of a tournament that's going to have a lot of surprises and a lot of people on the edge of their seat and a lot of higher seeds fighting for their lives."

That last part could accurately describe CBS, as it waits anxiously to find out whether it will keep the tournament, but more on that later.

If this year is the last of the network's 29-year run of tournament broadcasts, let the record reflect that CBS began the end in fine fashion.

Hits

(MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 3/18/2010 11:11:35 PM

The Holy Grail for many marketers is having their bigbudget TV spot become a viral hit online, providing millions in free exposure and publicity from consumer pass-along. The bad news is the chancesare slim, and even if it does happen, there's a good chance the spot won't do much to persuade viewers.

That's according to a Millward Brown study of TV commercials posted online. The researcher found that less than 15% of 102 ads studied were

viral hits. (Millward Brown defines a viral hit as a spot that generates more than 1,000 views per week in the United Kingdom market or 5,000 in the U.S.) In other words, for every Old Spice "The man your man could smell like" spot that has generated more than 4.5 million YouTube views, there are five duds.

Worse, even if the spot clicks, consumers don't always get the intended message, per MB. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Video: Vrbata Completes Phoenix Comeback With Lucky Goal Adam Gretz (FanHouse Main)

Vancouver, pulls the Coyotes to within just three points of the Submitted at 3/19/2010 2:28:00 AM top spot in the Western Filed under: Coyotes, Panthers, C o n f e r e n c e .

NHL Videos The Phoenix After Martin Hanzal and Lee Coyotes erased a 3-0 third Stempniak started the comeback period deficit on Thursday night early in the third period -in Florida and managed to walk S t e m p n i a k ' s g o a l w a s h i s deadline-- Radim Vrbata away with a 4-3 win. Their win, seventh in seven games since completed it with one minute combined with San Jose's loss in joining Phoenix at the trade

remaining in regulation.

As he carried the puck to the red line, Vrbata simply dumped it into the Florida zone and watched as it took a couple of bounces, and somehow found its way behind Panthers goaltender Tomas Vokoun.

Interview: Spoiling Heavy Rain with David Cage Ludwig Kietzmann (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:00:00 PM

Once a major release has been completed and propelled to the INTERVIEW: page 69

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INTERVIEW: continued from page 68

top of the sales charts, the critical discussion surrounding it typically evaporates just as the Next Big Thing appears on the horizon. But Heavy Rain-whether you like it, love it or loathe it -- has been kept afloat in popular opinion, with critics still debating its controversial design and embarrassing themselves as they attempt to shoehorn water puns like "afloat" and "evaporates" into ham-fisted introductory paragraphs.

We drew Heavy Rain's director and writer, the soft-spoken,

passionate and occasionally enigmatic David Cage, into the ongoing discussion and asked him to elaborate upon the game's story, its technology and its critical reception. Oh, and the nature of the Origami Killer, which means ...

SPOILER WARNING: The following interview contains massive, big-huge spoilers for Heavy Rain. If you have not completed Quantic Dream's cinematic adventure, do not proceed beyond the break -- and don't even think about reading the comments. Just turn around

and slowly R2 away.

Continue reading Interview: Spoiling Heavy Rain with David Cage Interview: Spoiling Heavy Rain with David Cage originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mass Effect getting an ongoing comic book series Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:30:00 AM

It looks like Dark Horse is champing at the bit to squeeze a bit more commercial success out of BioWare's deep space opera franchise following the impressive sales of the Mass Effect comic mini-series, " Redemption." During a Dark Horse Comics panel at the Seattle-based Emerald City

Comic-Con, it was announced that Mass Effect writer Mac Walters and John Jackson Miller, writer of the original mini-series, would be teaming up to create a regular, monthly Mass Effect comic.

According to Comic Book Resources, the plot of the series will "follow the second game."

We don't know if that means it will actually cover the events of Mass Effect 2, or if it takes

place shortly thereafter. What we do know is that the panel also brought the announcement that Patton Oswalt is working on

a Firefly comic which takes place shortly after the events of Serenity, and that's the best news we've ever heard in our

whole lives.

[Via Big Download] Mass Effect getting an ongoing comic book series originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rock Band Weekly: X, Carrie Underwood, Little Fish, Ace Frehley, OneRepublic Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)

MAG gets free 'Trooper Chaos Rings for iPhone looks like a real RPG Gear Pack' DLC next week JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

Submitted at 3/19/2010 12:30:00 PM

David Hinkle (Joystiq) Submitted at 3/19/2010 10:30:00 AM

Ten-hut, soldiers! HQ has just sent word that some new gear will be shipping to the front lines of MAG next week, free of charge: the Trooper Gear Pack.

In this parcel, we'll finally get access to the Flashbang grenade -- which should help us confuse and outwit the enemy. But, that's not all: our supplier, Zipper Interactive, also reports it's bundled in some new LMGs (Raven's APEX 100SE, S.V.E.R.'s RTK-74 Vla, and Valor's Mk 46 Mod 1) and uniforms.

The full rundown is available

via Zipper's site, where it's also revealed that next weekend (March 25 - 28) there will be double XP out on the battlefield.

It's a nice bonus for our continued service, however we feel it's bad timing. Operation PAX East will be in full effect by the 25th, so we doubt we'll find time to benefit from the extra incentive to hoist the S.V.E.R. flag.

MAG gets free 'Trooper Gear Pack' DLC next week originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, this is a surprise. Square Enix's iPhone RPG Chaos Rings looks, in terms of design, like one of its PlayStation-era RPGs, and, in terms of graphical quality, better than one of its PlayStation-era RPGs. Watch the trailer for the Media Visiondeveloped game after the break, and you'll see what we mean.

Dynamic camera angles, detailed -- and stylish -monsters and characters, and interesting prerendered environments are all on display.

ROCK continued from page 70

appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What's nice is that since RPGs don't really require precise controls, we can semi-safely get interested in this game without having our hopes dashed by the platform. It could still turn out to be terrible, but it isn't guaranteed to be.

[Via Touch Arcade] Continue reading Chaos Rings for iPhone looks like a real RPG Chaos Rings for iPhone looks like a real RPG originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Submitted at 3/19/2010 11:00:00 AM

Despite American punk rock band X being next week's featured Rock Band DLC pack artist, we decided to go with a picture of Carrie Underwood.

Why? Isn't it obvious?! Her single, "All-American Girl," available next week, speaks to the struggles of the middle-class American female. Of gender roles, a father's love and providing babies for your husband. It's like the "American Pie" of a new generation. So that's why Underwood gets featured with that "how do I spend my next million, y'all?" look.

Check out the full release list after the break.

Continue reading Rock Band Weekly: X, Carrie Underwood, Little Fish, Ace Frehley, OneRepublic Rock Band Weekly: X, Carrie Underwood, Little Fish, Ace Frehley, OneRepublic originally ROCK page 70

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The Financial Commentator: Special March Update Jim Welsh (The Big Picture)

And the economic data points in the U.S. must continue to support the recovery story. If so, ~~~ large institutions will shift back STOCKS to the buy side, after it becomes As I discussed in the Special apparent the correction has run Update on January 30, “Based its course. A self sustaining on a number of momentum recovery is far from a sure thing, indicators, the market has but that doesn’t mean the reached an oversold level, i l l u s i o n o f o n e c a n ’ t b e comparable to readings at the sustained for another 2 or 3 July and November lows. Any months.” additional weakness will get the As noted in the February 22, market even more oversold, and 2010 letter, “The EU gave stretched, laying the foundation Greece 30 days to get their for a rally. The odds favor the house in order, which has ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) made gown by longtime friend Thoughts? Do you like the idea S&P bottoming above 1,030, stabilized the Euro, and the Richard Chai. After leafing of matching dresses, or a mix of and sometime in the coming majority of U.S. economic Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:39:35 AM t h r o u g h h e r b r e a t h t a k i n g different color and styles? week.” The S&P made a low on reports have supported the While shooting Lerario Beatriz wedding photos, I had to ask Click here to Friday February 5 at 1,044.50 recovery story. The back bone designer Ana Lerario-Geller in some crucial questions, first of —Violet Moon Gayn or I also discussed in the January of the rally since July has been a her art-filled, airy apartment w h i c h w a s : W h a t d o e s a Ana (with husband Robert 30 Update what it would take lack of selling pressure, rather r e c e n t l y , t h e t o p i c o f designer who makes beautifully Geller and friend Richard Chai, for the rally I expected to take t h a n a s u r g e i n b u y i n g conversation jumped from romantic clothes dress her far right) let her bridesmaids, hold. “Two pieces will have to conviction. The low level of babies (she is eight months bridesmaids in? Ana’s answer: pictured here, pick their own fall into place for new highs. volume during this move up p r e g n a n t ) , t o W e s t E l m “I let my stylish friends dress dresses The overseas issues will have to supports this conclusion. This f u r n i t u r e , t o f a s h i o n a n d , themselves.” She just made sure Follow ELLE on Twitter. settle down. China is not likely isn’t the most healthy technical ultimately, weddings. Ana, who that the colors they wore Become our Facebook fan! to make additional tightening action, but as long as selling married menswear designer complemented one another. This steps in coming weeks, and the Robert Geller in 2008 in her simple and easy approach problems with Greece and the FINANCIAL page 74 native Brazil, wore a custom- sounds very appealing.

EU will also have to recede.

Submitted at 3/19/2010 6:00:43 AM

Ana Lerario-Geller on Chic Bridesmaids’ Dresses

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Explaining the Impact of Ultra-Low Rates to Greenspan Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/19/2010 6:00:06 AM

As noted last night, Alan Greenspan has blamed the crisis on a lack of regulation rather than ultra-low rates. (You can find his Brookings institute paper The Crisis here).

While the lack of regulatory enforcement — ironically, mostly notably by the Greenspan Fed — was no doubt a large part of the problem, his exoneration of ultra low rates is belied by history.

I detail all of this elsewhere; but perhaps the impact of low rates would be more easily understandable to the Maestro if we put it into numerical bullet point form: 1. Starting in January 2001, the FOMC began lowering rates, eventually to 1%. They kept rates below 2% for 36 months, and at 1% for over a year. This was unprecedented.

2. While these rates had myriad effects, lets focus on just two: The impact on Housing, and on global bond managers.

3. Since homes are (typically) a leveraged credit purchase, lowering the cost of that credit has an inverse effect on prices — i.e., cheaper mortgages = more expensive houses. Since

most people budget monthly, carrying costs are more important than actual purchase prices. Hence, a big drop in interest rates can cause a spike in home prices, with monthly payments remaining fairly similar.

Bottom line: Ultra low rates were the initial fuel sending home prices higher.

4. At the same time, bond managers were scrambling for yield. Pension funds, trusts, foundations require a certain annual gain, and without it, they have issues. Note that most of these managers by their own charters cannot purchase junk, they can only buy investment grade paper.

5. Wall Street had been securitizing collateralized debt for years. They turned credit cards, student loans, auto financing, and of course, mortgages into paper.

6. Making loans to people with weaker credit scores, lower incomes, or more debt was a risky proposition, and hence, generated higher yields for that risk. By collateralizing these subprime mortgages, Securitizers could generate higher yielding paper for the managers of bond funds. And because the rating agencies — Moody’s,, S&P, and Fitch were

totally corrupt — the securitizers could purchase AAA ratings. Hence, all manner of unqualified junk paper could be sold to these funds that wrreonly allowed to purchase investment grade paper.

Here is the first point where lack of oversight comes in (vs-avis the ratings agencies). But we never would have gotten to that issue BUT FOR the ultra low rates.

7. The triple AAA rated junk paper sells well, increasing demand for more of it. Huge Wall Street demand for more junk to feed into the maw of the securitization beast compels all manner of non-bank lenders to issue even more sub-prime mortgages. And since they was a finite number of people who afford mortgages, they got creative with ways to make mortgages even cheaper. First came the 2/28 variable loans, with a cheap teaser rate the first two years.

Then came Interest Only (I/O), where there was no principal repayment. I called these loans “ Rent with an option to default.” Lastly, we had the Negative Amortization (Neg/Am) mortgages, where the borrower paid less than the monthly interest charges, with the difference added to the

principal owed. Hence, with each passing month, the mortgagee actually owed more on the house than the month before, rather than less. These loans defaulted in enormous numbers.

8. The lack of regulation of these non bank lenders was a key factor. Ironically, it was the Fed’s job to regulate them, and moving beyond irony to surreal absurdity, it was then Fed Chair Alan Greenspan who called these non bank lenders “ innovators” and refused to regulate them. (This was around the same time, with rates at record low levels, when he was advising people go for variable mortgages). Their innovative business model was lend-to-sellto-securitizers.

9. Numerous states had on their books anti-predatory lending laws. These made it illegal to make loans to people who could reasonably not afford them (nor could they charge usurious rates or excessive fees that would make defaults much more likely).

The Bush White House issued its doctrine of“Federal Preemption,” which essentially told the States to step out of the way of these lenders. The data shows that states with anti-predatory lending laws had much lower

defaults and foreclosures than states that did not; the Federal Pre-emption significantly raised default rates in these states.

Hey, where were all those States right advocates back then? My Spidey-Sense is tingling! I suspect these new states rights people are not at all concerned with states rights at all, and are more likely little more than hypocritical partisans.

10. The lack of regulatory enforcement was a huge factor in allowing the credit bubble to inflate, and set the stage for the entire credit crisis. But it was intricately interwoven with the ultra low rates Alan Greenspan set as Fed Chair.

So while he is correct in pointing out that his own failures as a bank regulator are in part to blame, he needs to also recognize that his failures in setting monetary policy was also a major factor.

In other words, his incompetence as a regulator made his incompetence as a central banker even worse. ~~~ Class dismissed.

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This week's top stories [19 March 2010] (The Economist: News analysis)

the long day, Joe Barton, a House Republican from Texas, even declared that he had never Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:00:31 AM seen “so many members of the America's health reform Barack House and Senate behave so Obama’s bipartisan summit on well for so long before so many health policy accomplishes more television cameras.” than meets the eye From the Republican point of Feb 26th 2010 | NEW YORK | view, the event accomplished From The Economist online two important things. First, Mr IT IS tempting to dismiss the Obama was unable to outwit and bipartisan health-reform summit outcharm them on camera, as he convened by Barack Obama on had done brilliantly during a Thursday February 25th as a televised exchange with House colossal waste of time. After all, Republicans in late January. the gabfest involving senior Mitch McConnell and John Congressional leaders from both B o e h n e r , t h e i r s t r i d e n t l y parties lasted well over six partisan leaders in the Senate hours, with no tangible results. and the House, wisely allowed Neither side moved one jot on other Republicans —more any issue of substance and not charismatic and competent, it one vote is likely to have must be noted—to do most of changed on either side as a the talking. That allowed them result of the summit. to say no to Mr Obama’s plans And yet, the televised gathering without appearing, as is often was not pointless. For one thing, t h e a c c u s a t i o n w i t h the sight of America’s leading Republicans, merely the “Party politicians sitting together of No”. Mr McConnell even amiably for an entire day to admitted afterwards that “I d i s c u s s a m a t t e r a s would not call it a waste of inflammatory as health reform time.” (think “death panels”) was itself The event went less well for Mr heartening. Surprisingly, given O b a m a . A f t e r a y e a r o f the bitter partisan wrangling of dithering, he unveiled his own late, they did so in a manner that grand plan for reforming health w a s m o s t l y c i v i l a n d care on the eve of the summit. substantive. Towards the end of This scheme closely resembles a

health-reform bill passed by the Senate just before Christmas (the House passed a substantially different version earlier, and the two bills now need to be reconciled into a final health law). The big question before the summit was whether Mr Obama would really be open to modifying his plan to embrace Republican ideas, or whether the event was merely a sham.

In the event, Mr Obama appeared to make some progress on bipartisanship. He listened intently to Republican ideas—except the oft-repeated one to scrap Democratic efforts and just “start over”—and was often seen scribbling notes. At the end of the summit, he reviewed a number of areas where he believed the two parties had similar goals, and he asked the Republicans to think of ways to bridge the divide on them. Among those ripe for cooperation, he declared, were tort reform, inter-state competition in health insurance, the creation of insurance exchanges and tackling fraud in Medicare (a government health scheme for the elderly).

This is not likely to herald the start of a new, incremental and

heart-warmingly bipartisan approach to health reform, however. For one thing, Republicans made it clear that they are not willing to do anything to help Mr Obama pass health reform quickly. Mr Obama, for his part, made plain that he was willing to entertain Republican notions only as addons to his existing bill, not as an entirely new approach.

Rumours swirled during the summit that if Mr Obama’s big plan (which aims to extend health insurance to some 30m uninsured punters) fails to pass, he may then put forward a less ambitious scheme covering only half that number. But Kathleen Sebelius, the administration’s health secretary, denied this after the summit. Mr Obama himself rejected the incremental approach. He insisted, with some justification, that “baby steps” will not work because the pieces of the health-reform puzzle are tightly interlinked.

If so, that leaves Mr Obama with only one course of action: to push through some version of his health plan without Republican votes. It will be very difficult with only Democratic votes, given that moderates and progressives in his own caucus

have misgivings. Ramming a sweeping health law through Congress on a highly partisan basis using procedural wheezes, Republicans repeatedly warned, will prove unpopular. Despite those obstacles, though, Mr Obama now seems ready for battle.

That points to the biggest reason to think the summit was not a waste of time: it made clear that Mr Obama, after months of sitting on the sidelines, now has steel in his spine. If Republicans do not come up with a reasonable set of compromise measures over the next few weeks to add to his plan, he says that he intends to forge ahead anyway. The final verdict, he insisted, will come from the voters: “We’ve got to go ahead and make some decisions, and then that’s what elections are for.” Readers' comments Readers have commented on this article (the window for new comments is now closed).

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FINANCIAL continued from page 71

pressure remains at bay, the market can move higher.

Although the upside is likely limited to modest new highs, any substantial market decline will be postponed until a secondary phase of the financial crisis erupts overseas, or institutional money managers are confronted with a series of economic reports that severely challenge their recovery thesis.”

Last week, the S&P made a modest new high (1,153.41 vs.

1,150.45 on 1/19/2010) on the back of a number of less than stellar economic reports that investors warmly embraced, and on exceptionally low volume. In five of the past ten trading sessions, total volume didn’t even reach 1 billion shares. The last time the 21 day average of total volume was this low was on August 29, 2008, which was followed by the explosion of the financial crisis in September.

One has to go back to the summer of 2001 to find another example when total volume was so low, and that was just before the events of 9/11. However, the overall technical condition of the stock market is far different and far stronger than in those other instances of low volume.

The advance/decline line is making new highs, while in 2001, the A/D line was neutral at best, and in 2008 it was very weak. In July and August of 2001, the 21 day average of stocks making new 52 week highs ran between +60 and +114. In 2008, it ranged between -469 and -72. It ended last week at +279. For the week of March 8, 2010, 898 stocks made new highs, with just 7 recording a new low. Although total volume is pathetically low, the market’s internal strength is quite healthy.

As I have noted repeatedly since last summer, large institutional money managers believe a sustainable recovery is developing. As long as they believe, they will not do much selling, other than to sell one sector to buy another. This lack of selling pressure has been an important factor, and has created a supply vacuum, allowing even a modest increase in buying pressure to move the market higher. Recent economic reports underscore just how much most economists and large institutional money managers believe in the recovery story.

When only 36,000 jobs were

lost in February, it was hailed as good news, since bad weather had lowered estimates to a loss of -65,000. BOO Yeah! And when same store sales rose over 4% from February 2009, it was like the second coming of Christmas! Never mind that comparisons to the first quarter of 2009 make everything look better, since anything looks up from the bottom of the abyss.

The mentality of most economists and money managers reminds me of what happens about 30 minutes before the bar closes at 2 a.m.

Suddenly, the joint is crowded with girls and guys who are looking fine!

The secular and cyclical headwinds facing the economy are substantial and suggest any transition to a sustainable recovery will not be smooth, and may even fail. The goal of the Federal Reserve and policy makers has been to buy time, in hopes that time and a ton of borrowed money will allow the economy to heal, and stabilize the deflating credit bubble.

When your house is on fire, and the firemen rush to extinguish the blaze, who criticizes the firemen for water damage once

the fire is out? The fact that a larger longer term problem is being created is secondary to keeping the game going now, especially with another election cycle coming in November.

If the economy does not produce the expected sustainable recovery, I think the technical action of the market will weaken before the fundamental economic news softens. Since most economists and money managers do not pay much attention to technical analysis, they will not see it coming. A softening in the economy would surprise the economists and money managers who have priced a recovery into the market, and lead to a rise in selling pressure.

The market gave back 10 weeks of gains in two weeks, when selling pressure increased in late January, which might foreshadow the type of decline that could occur if the economy doesn’t deliver. The healthy technical condition of the market at this point suggests the day of reckoning is further down the road. Whether it is weeks or months, I don’t know.

The sharp break between January 19 and February 5

resulted in a swift pick up in negativity as measured by numerous sentiment surveys and the call/put ratio. The rally of the last few weeks has swept aside that caution. Most sentiment readings now show much more optimism. This suggests that the upside will be limited in the short run (1,1601,180), and likely lead to a choppy period, until the overbought status of most technical indicators is worked off. Short term support should come in around 1,130. If sentiment remains bullish during this process, a larger correction would be set up, once the internal strength shows signs of weakening. The bottom line is: Sell into strength and become a bit more defensive.

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

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American health-care reform: Presenting the bill (The Economist: News analysis) Submitted at 3/19/2010 2:16:14 AM

American health-care reform The stage is set for crucial vote on America’s health-care reform bill Mar 19th 2010 | NEW YORK | From The Economist online IT’S official, or as official as these things get. The health-care package destined for a vote in America’s House of Representatives on Sunday will cost $940 billion over the next ten years. Though the Congressional Budget Office score (as the estimate is known), along with the bill's final details, seems to clear the air on what the House will vote on, the package and the process remain complicated. The House is facing a two-part vote to pass the Senate bill and also tweaks through a process called “reconciliation”. The former may be done through a rule that Republicans are saying is unconstitutional (though they have used it themselves).

Procedural trickery or not, everyone in the House will cast a vote on the Senate bill plus reconciliation. Whether it passes

or not is far more important than quibbles about the House rules.

The CBO also reckon that the health-care package, through savings and new revenue, will cut the total deficit over those years by $138 billion against a baseline scenario. After that, the savings get even bigger, totalling (a much more speculative) $1.2 trillion by 2029, according to some Democrats. But the sums are questionable. The CBO process has been so thoroughly gamed that the true figures could be quite different. The Republicans claim that it will cost far more and totally reject the idea that it will cut the deficit by such a sum over the second decade.

The CBO is required to score what Congress says it will do, not what it is likely will actually be done. Republicans have accused the Democrats of ignoring some spending and promising spending cuts that may never come. Revenues from an excise tax on “Cadillac” health plans may never materialise. And spending has been back loaded to disguise its scale. Nevertheless Democrats are crowing, and Barack Obama has postponed a trip to Asia to

be present for the vote, the scene is set for drama.

The CBO said that it had not had time to compare fully the reconciliation proposal to earlier versions. But the Democrats claimed victory nonetheless.

They see the numbers as so favourable that they have started talking about “the largest deficit reduction of any bill we have adopted in Congress since 1993” even before mentioning that it will also extend health insurance to 95% of the population. Jim Clyburn, the Democrats’ whip, said he was “giddy” over the CBO score.

This is crucial because of the number of Democrats still on the fence though the CBO’s score won a few more firm commitments of support from previously wavering Democrats.

Every Republican in the House will vote against it. So Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, must convince some who voted no to a previous House bill—quite different in many respects—to vote in favour this time. This includes deficit hawks: “Blue Dog” Democrats in conservative districts.

Another issue is trickier. Many pro-life Democrats voted for the

previous House bill did so because of the “Stupak amendment”, a provision that would restrict money for abortions in the new health-care system. The Senate bill has looser, but convoluted, language. Some pro-life Democratic House members say that they are satisfied that the Senate language will not lead to looser abortion rules. Others, including Bart Stupak, author of the original House amendment, say they cannot vote for the bill.

How the rest of a group of his putative allies, called the “Stupak 12”, plan to vote will be vital.

The reconciliation deal involves a few significant changes.

Perhaps the biggest is the cutting of a provision letting federal regulators look out for and punish sudden and “unjustifiable” rises in private health-insurance premiums.

Giveaways to favoured groups to get the bills through earlier—a sweetheart deal for the state of Nebraska on Medicaid costs, and favourable tax treatment for unionised workers—will now be extended to everyone. This added to the bill's cost. So subsidies for

individuals to buy insurance will have to be phased in more slowly.

News that the president would stay in Washington this weekend, postponing a trip to Guam, Indonesia, his boyhood home, and Australia is being read in two ways. Those who think the bill is now a done deal say the White House and the Democratic leadership in Congress would not set up the president for a term-wrecking humiliation and that the bill will surely pass. Those who think the bill is still in doubt wonder why the president would not happily depart if the bill were, to use the words of his 2008 campaign theme-song, "signed, sealed, delivered". A presidency is on the line making for the most memorable Sunday in domestic politics in many years. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views.

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How Typical is the Current Rally in Terms of Age or Duration ?

Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:00:49 AM

Chart of the Day takes a broad — perhaps over broad– look at trading rallies. They found that major rallies (73%) result in a gains ranging from 30% to 150%. Typically, they last between 200 and 800 trading days.

Based on this data, you can conclude that the present rally is still young, and potentially has a

If we were to look at the duration and intensity of rallies between 1929-38 or 1966-82, or 2000-09, I suspect we would find they are both shorter, sharper. By definition, cyclical bulls are of smaller duration than secular bull markets.

Here’s your daily chart porn: > Age and Duration of Rallies long way to run. between cyclical and secular Source: Chart of the Day That might be a premature markets. I have been describing Five Filters featured article: assumption. the current short sharp run as a Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: As we’ve discussed before, cyclical bull within a longer, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, there are huge differences secular bear.

Term Extraction.

Research Brief: Teens Confident and Motivated Seeking Jobs (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 3/19/2010 6:16:01 AM

A recent Junior Achievement survey, "Kids and Careers," found striking differences in the opinions of teenage boys and girls in what motivates them to excel on the job and what tools they consider important in determining career success. The study found that fewer girls than boys said they needed perks such as a promotion and raise RESEARCH page 77

A Bicycle Suspension with Sensors Built In Automatically Adapts to Changing Terrain Mark Anders (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

smoother landing; reach a flat area where you're pedaling hard, and the shock firms up to boost your power. Simon is currently a prototype, but Cannondale Submitted at 3/18/2010 2:05:51 PM Mountain-bike suspensions are expects pieces of the technology difficult, if not impossible, to to arrive on bikes within a few a d j u s t w h i l e r i d i n g . years.

Cannondale's Simon-the first How It Works completely computerized bike- 1. A joystick lets riders select suspension fork-features a among five preset settings, such h y d r a u l i c s h o c k t h a t c a n as "DH" for swallowing up big instantly change its resistance downhill impacts. You can also a n d h o w f a r i t t r a v e l s . elect to have the suspension Meanwhile, motion sensors and continually recalibrate itself. a computer calculate the best 2. A motion-sensing settings for the trail. accelerometer in the front fork If you suddenly launch off a detects bumps and impacts. jump, the shock softens for a Meanwhile, an optical sensor

inside the shock keeps track of its position, gauging how open or compressed it is.

3. Info from the sensors is sent to a computer 500 times a second. Software decides how to

change the suspension based on how many bumps you've hit, how far the shock can still move, how fast you're going, and more.

4. An electric motor adjusts the

shock. It's a typical hydraulic shock, in which a piston pushes oil through a valve, but the motor changes the valve's size.

Smaller means less oil flow and a firmer ride; larger means a more cushiony ride.

5. The shock readjusts with thousandth-of-a-millimeter accuracy every seven milliseconds, protecting you from bumps faster than the human brain can register themmuch less react.

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(girls 38%, boys 56%), to excel on the job. When asked if they needed additional motivation to succeed, 40% of girls responded that they did not, while only 22% of boys said they needed no extra motivation. Also, when asked what would motivate them to take a less than ideal job, the poll found that fewer girls say they are motivated by a higher salary than boys, with 67% girl respondents saying they were motivated by a higher salary versus 74% of boy respondents.

Boys and girls also had differing opinions on how to prepare for career success. • 85% of girls identified schools programs, such as job shadowing, that help develop work skills and prepare them for a career • 78% of boys identified these schools programs as important for career readiness • 68% of girls placed more value on mentoring and networking than boys (61%) in helping them get a good job

energy and invest in their future careers... " According to the JA-ING poll, girls are still lagging behind boys in choosing careers in math and science - only 10% of girls picked engineering and science versus 19% of boys, and two% of girls are pursuing careers in computers versus eight% of boys. However, girls are choosing careers that are and will continue to be in high demand - 20% of girls want to be doctors versus only nine% of boys, and 13% of girls are pursuing teaching versus four% of boys. Girls are selecting those jobs which tend to be more in demand, which should further tilt the employment scales in their favor.

In contrast with other studies gauging adult job satisfaction, which currently is at its lowest levels in more than twenty years, teens remain confident in their abilities to get their ideal jobs.

The Survey indicates that almost 90% of US boys and girls ages 12-17 have Jack E. Kosakowski, president confidence they will have their of Junior Achievement USA, ideal job one day. 65% of said "... we're seeing that all respondents were very confident teens are thinking very seriously they would have their ideal job, about their career paths... telling a n d 2 5 % w e r e e x t r e m e l y us they want to channel this confident. Only 9% were not

very confident, and none expressed no confidence in their likelihood of finding their ideal job.

The Survey found that an overwhelming majority of teens said they'd forego getting that perfect job for the opportunity to make a difference in the world.

When asked to identify which factors would motivate them to sacrifice getting the ideal job, more teens chose "having a positive impact on society" than "being well paid," "having d e c i s i o n - m a k i n g responsibilities," having a job that was "extremely challenging," and a job that provided "publicity and recognition."

Teens are willing to sacrifice their ideal job for a variety of reasons. With multiple responses allowed, 84% of respondents would settle for a less-than-ideal job to have a positive impact on society.

Teens entering the workforce today face one of the worst recessions in decades but remain optimistic about their future careers. 90% of teens are confident they will one day have their ideal job, according to the study.

Although teens are mostly confident about finding their

ideal job, a sizable percentage admits to worrying about their job prospects. With multiple responses allowed, 36%% of respondents say they are more worried about their future job prospects today than they were a year ago, with 38% saying they are less worried. Another 26% have the same level of worry, and 1% are unsure.

The economy and the unemployment are the two biggest reasons respondents who feel more worried have those increased fears. Not having enough real world experience and not knowing what career to pursue are other leading worries.

When asked what factors are very important to helping them get a good job (with multiple responses allowed), respondents overwhelmingly chose factors directly within their control.

93% cited believing in yourself and getting good grades, while 92% said graduating from college/technical school and high school are very important.

With multiple responses allowed, 87% of respondents said school can help them prepare for a successful career by helping them understand more clearly how what they're learning now will be useful later. And about the same

number said schools could provide more outside-school opportunities.

Kosakowski concludes that "Teens' optimism and energy are inspiring... teens are telling us they want to channel this energy and invest in their future careers..."

Rhonda Mims, president, ING Foundation, says that"... programs such as JA Job Shadow... provide a multifaceted approach to teaching career skills... give students the foundational tools to build a successful career... provide important positive role m o d e l s i n t h e classroom volunteer who delivers the curriculum and the mentor whom the students shadow in the workplace... " For a full survey abstract, p l e a s e v i s i t JuniorAchievement.org here, or more information about ja-ing, please go here.

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Online Media Daily: Talking 'Bout My Ge-GeGeneration (MediaPost | Media News)

refrain familiar to anyone with teens under management, it Submitted at 3/19/2010 5:00:47 AM made me wonder if the Saying he deplores the lack of electronic age is solely to blame u n d e r s t a n d i n g a b o u t t h e for this condition. Just as Mike's importance of history and dad introduced him to the music tradition among today's kids of his formative years, so did "who have no tradition other mine, but I took a greater than slavish devotion to pop interest in the history and fads, digital social media and sociology that produced "We'll C h e e t o s , " M i k e C r o s s o n , Meet Again" and "Autumn p u b l i s h e r o f Leaves." If you are of a certain S o c i a l M e d i o p o l i s . c o m , i s age, your parents were raised in especially upset about music. the Depression, went to war in Said he: "My father taught me Europe or The Pacific or a b o u t t h e B i g B a n d s a n d Vietnam and lived out the GI Sinatra, and while it wasn't my Bill-funded "suburban dream." choice of music, I at least The music they played was listened and learned when I was strongly associated with those a teenager. Kids today don't, for eras, often a direct reflection of the most part. They don't expand their experiences within them. their selection and listen to You could not listen to Big c l a s s i c a l o r L a t i n o r Band and not think of World International music or anything War II. You couldn't listen to else other than pop rock and rap. swing and early rock and roll They seem extremely insular and not conjure images of your and opinionated and obsessed parents in their cocktail dresses with presentation rather than and jackets and ties (remember substance. In a word, they are them?). Perhaps it is our fault b l i s s f u l l y a n d w i l l f u l l y that our kids have only a passing ignorant." interest in our music because we While I am certain this is a don't have thunderous events to

tie it back to. Although Vietnam spawned a dozen movie soundtracks, it really only produced "The Ballad of the Green Berets" as any kind of affirmative anthem, Country Joe and the Fish notwithstanding.

How do you explain to your kids that you listened to the Moody Blues on the downward slope of an acid trip or were so stoned at the Allman Brothers concerts that they were 20 rows in front of you and you don't remember seeing them? Or you left the Black Sabbath concert because you HAD to get a couple dozen donuts before the stores closed? Or that you should only listen to Harry Nilsson's "The Point" if you have the psychedelic picture booklet that came in the album or that if you go see The Rocky Horror Picture Show you have to take a squirt gun and a pocket of rice?

Somehow all of that pales in comparison to troops marching off to save freedom to the music of The Andrews Sisters and Glenn Miller. Yes, there is

music associated with the antiwar movement of the 60s and 70s, the fight for civil rights and feminism, sexual liberation, and the start of the environmental movement, but John Denver was no Nat King Cole and Helen Reddy was no Billie Holiday.

All of my kids went through the phase of "discovering" the Rolling Stones or The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix, but soon moved on to hardcore ghetto rap or hip hop or whatever is featured on Rock Band. They took away no cultural context except to ask us if we were hippies. You would think that with ready online access to the music and history of the 60s, 70s and 80s that our kids would take something of an interest in whatever traditions or history developed around music when we were their age. But they don't -- not for long, anyway. Clearly, we were not The Greatest Generation.

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Online Media Daily: Talking 'Bout My Ge-Ge-Generation (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 3/19/2010 5:00:47 AM

Saying he deplores the lack of understanding about the importance of history and tradition among today's kids "who have no tradition other than slavish devotion to pop fads, digital social media and Cheetos," Mike Crosson, p u b l i s h e r o f SocialMediopolis.com is especially upset about music.

Said he: "My father taught me about the Big Bands and Sinatra, and while it wasn't my choice of music, I at least listened and learned when I was a teenager. Kids today don't, for the most part. They don't expand their selection and listen to classical or Latin or International music or anything else other than pop rock and rap.

They seem extremely insular and opinionated and obsessed with presentation rather than substance. In a word, they are blissfully and willfully ignorant."

While I am certain this is a refrain familiar to anyone with teens under management, it made me wonder if the electronic age is solely to blame for this condition. Just as Mike's dad introduced him to the music of his formative years, so did ONLINE page 79

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mine, but I took a greater interest in the history and sociology that produced "We'll Meet Again" and "Autumn Leaves." If you are of a certain age, your parents were raised in the depression, went to war in Europe or The Pacific or Vietnam and lived out the GI Bill-funded "suburban dream."

The music they played was strongly associated with those eras, often a direct reflection of their experiences within them.

You could not listen to Big Band and not think of World War II. You couldn't listen to swing and early rock and roll and not conjure images of your parents in their cocktail dresses and jackets and ties (remember them?). Perhaps it is our fault that our kids have only a passing interest in our music because we don't have thunderous events to tie it back to. Although Vietnam spawned a dozen movie soundtracks, it really only produced "The Ballad of the Green Berets" as any kind of affirmative anthem, Country Joe

and the Fish notwithstanding.

How do you explain to your kids that you listened to the Moody Blues on the downward slope of an acid trip or were so stoned at the Allman Brothers concerts that they were 20 rows in front of you and you don't remember seeing them? Or you left the Black Sabbath concert because you HAD to get a couple dozen donuts before the stores closed? Or that you should only listen to Harry Nilsson's "The Point" if you have the psychedelic picture booklet that came in the album or that if you go see The Rocky Horror Picture Show you have to take a squirt gun and a pocket of rice?

Somehow all of that pales in comparison to troops marching off to save freedom to the music of The Andrews Sisters and Glenn Miller. Yes, there is music associated with the antiwar movement of the 60s and 70s, the fight for civil rights and feminism, sexual liberation, and the start of the environmental

movement, but John Denver was no Nat King Cole and Helen Reddy was no Billie Holiday.

All of my kids went through the phase of "discovering" the Rolling Stones or The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix, but soon moved on to hardcore ghetto rap or hip hop or whatever is featured on Rock Band. They took away no cultural context except to ask us if we were hippies. You would think that with ready online access to the music and history of the 60s, 70s and 80s that our kids would take something of an interest in whatever traditions or history developed around music when we were their age. But they don't, not for long anyway.

Clearly we were not The Greatest Generation.

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More Americans Report Cancer Diagnoses (All Gallup Headlines)

additional adults with diagnosed with cancer than the year before.

Submitted at 3/19/2010 2:00:00 AM Among major demographic W A S H I N G T O N , D . C . - - groups, Americans 65 and older Slightly more Americans were reported the largest uptick in living with a cancer diagnosis in cancer diagnoses, from 17.7% in 2 0 0 9 t h a n w e r e i n 2 0 0 8 , 2008 to 18.5% in 2009 -- easily according to Gallup-Healthways dwarfing all other age groups.

Well-Being Index data. The Among major racial/ethnic nationwide increase of 0.3 groups, cancer diagnoses are percentage points represents approximately 690,000 MORE page 80

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substantially higher among whites than among other groups.

Lower income Americans are also somewhat more likely to have been diagnosed with cancer than their higher income counterparts.

Maine, South Dakota, and Florida Have Highest Cancer Diagnosis Rates; Hawaii the Lowest Despite the slight increase in cancer diagnoses nationwide, rates vary by state. People in Maine, South Dakota, and Florida are more than twice as likely to report having been diagnosed with cancer than those in Hawaii. In total, 14 states have a cancer diagnosis rate of at least 8%, while Alaska, New Mexico, and Mississippi join Hawaii as the only states with cancer diagnosis rates of less than 6%.

States with higher than average percentages of seniors, such as Florida and South Dakota, will be more likely to sustain higher

cancer rates.

See all states on page 2.

Implications It is possible that to some degree improving cancer survival rates influence the increase in the measured cancer diagnosis rate, although determining the extent of this affect is extremely difficult.

Ever earlier detection via aggressive screening, too, can result in a net increase in the percentage of Americans living with a cancer diagnosis, although this doesn't necessarily reflect an authentic increase in those that actually have it. As improvements in early detection and subsequent survival rates across all cancers collectively occur slowly over time, it seems likely, therefore, that both of these factors will at most have a small impact on the rate of cancer incidence in year-overyear measurement.

For ongoing monthly WellBeing Index results, read the

Gallup-Healthways Monthly U.S. Well-Being Report.

Learn more about the GallupHealthways Well-Being I ndex.

Survey Methods Results are based on telephone interviews with more than 350,000 national adults (aged 18 and older) each year, conducted between Jan. 2-Dec. 30, 2008, and Jan. 2-Dec. 29, 2009. The reported 0.3 percentage point increase in cancer diagnosis is statistically significant with 95% confidence.

For annual results based on the stated total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±0.2 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for most states is ±1-2 percentage points, but is as high as ±3.5 percentage points for smaller states such as South Dakota and Hawaii.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones (for respondents with

a landline telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell phone only and cell phone mostly).

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.

About the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™ The Gallup-Healthways WellBeing Index measures the daily pulse of U.S. well-being and provides best-in-class solutions for a healthier world. To learn more, please visit wellbeingindex.com.

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Drug Treatment Could Sharpen Adult Brains Stuart Fox (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:02:38 AM

Tests in mice show potential for reversing the slowdown in learning that comes with puberty Anyone who's tried to learn a second language knows that the earlier in life you start, the easier it is to learn. Now, a scientist at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center (SUNY) has not only discovered why learning becomes much harder after puberty, but also how to fix it.

The SUNY team found that learning difficulty resulted from the proliferation of special chemical receptors during adolescence, and that the stress steroid THP could reverse the

problem.

Sheryl Smith, the lead SUNY researcher, first discovered the learning impairment receptors in 2007, but only recently did she link the spread of the receptors during puberty to increased difficulty learning. Smith tested

themselves again and again.

Later, Smith began providing the mice with THP, a hormone that lowers stress in young and adult mice, but actually increases stress in teenage mice.

Surprisingly, the increased stress counteracted the learning disability, allowing the adolescent mice to learn to avoid electrocution much faster.

This research holds significant promise for human teenagers with learning disabilities, but even Smith cautioned that it will be some time before this mice on a rotating walkway research can be applied to containing an electrified section humans. Of course, considering of track. Young mice and older how stressful high school life mice learned to avoid the can be already, I'm not sure any electric shock after only one teens would volunteer. pass. The pubescent mice, [ New Scientist] however, failed to learn even after multiple passes, shocking

Most Flawless Diamonds Ever Are Meant for Lasers, Not Rings Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 3/18/2010 2:45:05 PM

Scientists need the diamonds to build the next generation of Xray lasers Powerful X-ray lasers may allow scientists to image tiny MOST page 82

A Mariner's Tool Could Help Astronauts Navigate Alien Worlds Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 3/19/2010 8:16:23 AM

Like GPS for marstronauts It will probably take another decade to perfect the sophisticated rocket and lifesupport technology needed to put a human on Mars. But once we're there, NASA may use centuries-old technology to keep us from getting lost during a

stroll.

Apollo crews never left sight of their capsule, but explorers will be expected to roam farther on the Red Planet. Mars, however, like the moon, lacks a strong magnetic field to point a compass needle north. This conundrum inspired Richard Speck, the founder of space-tech company Micro-Space, to design a camera system that tracks celestial bodies for personal navigation cues. It uses

sextant, the sun-mapping tool invented in 1731 for sailors to plot their course.

Four die-size cameras sit on an astronaut's helmet so that each points in one of the cardinal directions. The cameras gauge the position of any two celestial objects-including the sun, Earth and stars-and the helmet's computer provides instant the same principle as the

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drug molecules or even precisely target cancer cells, but the lasers require extremely high -quality mirrors to function well.

Now researchers have created a nearly-flawless diamond that can do the job, according to Discovery News.

One X-ray laser already exists in an underground facility at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory, where it spans several football fields in length.

A backlog of experiments in biology, physics and chemistry has already formed, which led to the need for more X-ray lasers.

Most lasers use silicon mirrors to bounce light wavelengths

back and forth, but silicon can't reflect powerful X-rays. That's where diamond mirrors entered the picture.

Two groups at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York built the near-perfect diamond by spraying carbon inside a highpressure chamber. The carbon atoms then neatly arranged themselves into the crystalline structure of a diamond.

"This is a huge milestone in this type of laser research," said Stephen Durbin, a scientist at Purdue University, in an accompanying article in the

MARINER'S continued from page 81

location information to within a quarter of a mile and projects it on a head-up display. The beauty of the system, Speck says, is that unlike a GPS network, it requires no satellites, no transmitters-barely any setup at all. "You could just start exploring," he says.

Speck recently began making prototypes, funded by a $100,000 award from NASA's Small Business Innovation

Research program. He thinks the military might also have use for the tool here on Earth.

Scrambling troops' GPS signals is Espionage 101, but there's not much enemies can do to block the sun and stars.

journal Nature Physics about the diamond mirror.

Jewelers can breathe a sigh of relief about these near-flawless diamonds not being available to the public, but they have already felt the pressure from other synthetic diamonds that give the mined rocks a run for their money. [via Discovery News]

Oorja Readies its Competitor to Bloom Energy, Panasonic info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines) Submitted at 3/19/2010 7:01:45 AM

Fremont, California-With stationary fuel cells hot again, Oorja Protonics is jumping into the market.

In a few months, the company, which specializes in methanol fuel cells, will release a fuel cell capable of generating 5 kilowatts of power, enough to run a home or small business or to provide backup power to cell towers.

It's somewhat small in size, as well. Check out the video: the 5kilowatt fuel cell fits on top of a gurney. It is about the same size as a 500-watt device Oorja produced a few years back.

"This will sit on large forklifts.

You could use it for auxiliary power for trucks, RVs or marine applications, or for off-grid power for homes or farms," said CEO Sanjiv Malhotra. "This opens up a plethora of other markets."

For larger applications, the fuel cells can be chain-ganged together. Connect twenty of them and they would be capable of generating 100 kilowatts of power -- as much energy as the recently unfurled Bloom Energy Server.

Declining prices, federal and state incentives, growing demand for cleaner power and improving technology have begun to revive the fuel cell industry. Panasonic began to sell residential fuel cells to the Japanese market approximately a year ago while start-up ClearEdge Power sells 5 kilowatt systems in California.

And last month, Bloom Energy came out with its server amid a worldwide frenzy of publicity.

Oorja will largely try to distinguish itself on two grounds. First, the company can point to a somewhat large file (for fuel cell makers) of realworld customer experience. Last year, it introduced a 1.5-kilowatt fuel cell and over 200 of these have already been installed by customers such as Nissan and Safeway. Last year, Nissan estimated that 60 of the methanol fuel cells in its Smyrna, Tennessee factory will save it close to $500,000 in operating and battery costs. The new 5-kilowatt system is effectively a larger, improved version of the 1.5 -kilowatt Model 3.

Second, Malhotra says Oorja will be able to undercut others OORJA page 83

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in price. Whether or not the company succeeds in that regard remains to be seen, but it will make for an interesting debate.

Bloom's Energy Server sells for around $700,000 to $800,000 (or $7,000 per kilowatt) before incentives, which can cover around half of the price. After incentives, Bloom claims its server generates power for 9 to 11 cents a kilowatt hour, a calculation that includes fuel, maintenance and hardware expenses. ClearEdge Power sells a 5-kilowatt fuel cell for $56,000, or more than $10,000 a kilowatt. ClearEdge initially sold its machine for $50,000 but subsequently raised the price.

Malhotra declined to give a price for the 5-kilowatt machine, but said it will cost less than Oorja's Model 3 fuel cell, which generates 1.5 kilowatts and sells for $15,000, or $10,000 a kilowatt, before incentives. The 5-kilowatt machine is approaching the point where it can provide electricity for 20 to 25 cents per kilowatt hour, he said, including maintenance, fuel, replacement parts and other incentives. Federal and state incentives can cover half of the costs. The fuel cell also produces about as much heat as energy and that heat isn't

included in the 20 to 25 cent figure.

Thus, in many respects, Oorja seems to be ahead of ClearEdge, a more direct competitor, and trailing Bloom in terms of electricity by a few cents. Oorja, though, can provide customers heat for free, unlike Bloom, and address a wider market.

Advantage, possibly, Oorja.

"It will offer the customer a payback in less than 12 months," Malhotra said. "It is extremely competitive with the grid" when the added incentives are considered.

Oorja's fuel cells produce both heat and power. Only around 35 to 37 percent of the methanol gets converted to electricity. If the heat is added into the equation, the fuel cell becomes 70 to 75 percent efficient.

ClearEdge claims it is close to 90 percent efficient with its heat and power fuel cell while Panasonic sells a 1 kilowatt fuel cell in Japan that is about 80 percent efficient when heat and power are both exploited.

Bloom's server is about 56 percent efficient, but it only produces a marginal amount of heat. Most of the power generated is electricity, which tends to be a higher value form of energy. Thus, Oorja will

likely more directly compete against ClearEdge and companies like Panasonic initially and aim for combined heat-and-power applications, such as hospitals, food processors or certain industrial sites where water needs to be boiled, rather electricity-only deployments.

One of the primary underlying differences between Oorja and the other large fuel cells lay in the type of fuel it consumes.

Oorja's fuel cell runs on methanol, similar to the fuel cells produced by Toshiba and others for consumer electronics.

Most methanol fuel cells are small. Oorja's is about 50 times larger than the others. The fuel cells from ClearEdge and Panasonic run on methane.

Bloom's fuel cell runs on methane, biogas and other fuels, but methane remains far and away the easiest to obtain.

Naturally, each camp claims to have the superior idea: methanol proponents claim that the methane-to-electricity process is unduly complex while methane proponents say that methanol fuel cells can require a more rapid turnover of components.

The debate, though, will be decided by buyers.

Regardless of the type of fuel,

all of these fuel cells can produce power at prices lower than solar, which costs 10 to 19 cents a kilowatt hour in California after incentives, with residential, distributed solar power costing them most. Wind costs less than power from fuel cells, but wind power is subject to weather conditions and generally gets generated in large, centralized power stations. Fuel cells deliver power locally. Fuel cells are also more efficient than the grid -- only about one-third of the power created in power plants makes it to your home -- so they can be considered clean forms of power.

Oorja to date has largely produced methanol fuel cells for forklifts. Because the lead acid packs can only produce power for around four hours, large grocery stores and warehouses have to maintain battery swapping stations. Oorja's fuel cells, which fit onto the forklift, continually recharge the battery packs and allow the forklifts to go a full shift without any swaps.

Although it landed a number of high-profile engagements and funding from Sequoia Capital, Oorja endured difficult times in 2009. The company came back

from the brink with the Model 3, which both increased the power and dropped the price of its products.

"With 1,500 watts, you can fill the bill with a lot of applications," according to CEO Malhotra.

And what are the incentives?

Buyers can get a federal tax credit for 30 percent of the cost of a fuel cell and California kicks in another $2.50 per watt.

Oorja's 1.5 kilowatt Model 3 therefore goes for $6,750 after subsidies ($10,500 adjusted federal price minus $3,750 in California incentives). That comes to $4,500 a kilowatt. If the 5-kilowatt model stayed level with the Model 3 pricing, it would cost $22,500 not including operations or maintenance.

Consumers can also get credits for feeding power into the grid via a feed-in tariff.

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SunPower Gives Its Outlook for 2010, 2011 info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

conclusion of the ongoing accounting investigation related to its Philippines operations.

• SunPower has a total pipeline of 1.6GW over the next five years

them "one of the more vertically integrated companies."

in future years,” he said. That said, Werner stated that SunPower likely won’t sell Submitted at 3/19/2010 9:00:36 AM Julie Blunden, Vice President, power directly. Instead, it will In a market where some Public Policy and Corporate s e l l i n c r e a s i n g l y t u r n k e y crystalline silicon companies are Communications led the press systems to developers. “We taking a severe beating (See b r i e f i n g a n d T h o m a s don’t want to own,” he said.

Shyam's Q-Cells analysis) 2010 Guidance Dinwoodie, Founder and CTO Thin film is intriguing but SunPower held an open house • For 2010, revenues are led a brief tour of the historic SunPower likely won’t get into for press and an earnings call expected to be between $2.0 Richmond, California SunPower it. The returns will likely be which revealed strong earnings billion and $2.25 billion f a c i l i t y . T h e a i r y , h i g h - greater if it continues to focus and a relatively bright outlook. • Management guidance takes ceilinged building is a former on improving its existing First, the numbers from the into account 20% declines in Ford Model A factory now products. earnings call: module pricing, and total capped with one megawatt of As for competition, Chinese 2009 Year End and Fourth production of least 550MW. solar panels on its roof. manufacturers are still not Quarter Numbers • For the first quarter of 2010, We saw deployment examples rivaling the company in the high • SunPower reported 4Q09 t h e c o m p a n y ' s n o n - G A A P of their massive T20 tracker efficiency end of the market. results with revenues of $548M, guidance is: revenue of $330 system (used at the 14 megawatt “High efficiency is mostly talk. g r o s s m a r g i n o f 2 1 . 8 % , million to $350 million Nellis Air Force Base project), W e d o n ’ t s e e C h i n e s e compared to $465 million in the the non-penetrating roof-mount companies competing with us third quarter of 2009 and $398 Press Briefing and Tour T5 model and the company's on energy density,” he said. million in the fourth quarter of SunPower will soon celebrate solar roofing tile.

Werner didn’t give a name of a 2008. its 25th anniversary and can SunPower still has the world's company, but he likely meant • The firm completed m a r k s o m e l a r g e highest efficiency commercially Suntech Power Holdings, which construction of more than 40 a c c o m p l i s h m e n t s : available solar cells -- NREL last year unfurled its high megawatts of large scale power • The company has grown from h a s c e r t i f i e d a S u n P o w e r efficiency Pluto panels. Pluto plant projects during the fourth 50 employees in 2003 to its module at 20.4% efficiency and panels do not hit the same levels quarter current 5,000 employees across the firm's Gen 3 cells are at of efficiency as SunPower’s best • On a non-GAAP basis for the the globe, of which 650 are in 24%. panels, but the high teens f o u r t h q u a r t e r o f 2 0 0 9 , the San Francisco Bay Area.

And some notes from Tom achieved by the panels beat SunPower reported a total gross • There are 500 megawatts of Werner CEO of SunPower Suntech’s regular panels. margin of 21.7% with an SunPower power plants around SunPower has not acquired or Despite the low impact of the operating income of $60.3 the world. invested in ingots and silicon r e s t a t e d n u m b e r s a n d t h e million.

• In 2009 the company's run manufacturers and don’t expect optimism at the firm, quarterly • The firm ended the year with rate was 400 megawatts. When that to change, he said. Instead, profits were down and some more than $925 million in cash t h e i r n e x t f a b i n t h e SunPower will continue to focus analysts were disappointed by and investments P h i l i p p p i n e s i s c o m p l e t e , m o r e o n t e c h n o l o g y a n d the 2010 guidance. The stock • Dennis Arriola, SunPower's SunPower will have 1 gigawatt products utility scale power fell about 9 percent on the news.

CFO said, "Despite the difficult of cell capacity. plants and building out the Five Filters featured article: industry conditions in the first • All four of SunPower's c h a n n e l s t o r e a c h m o r e Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: half of 2009, we grew revenue acquisitons over the last five c u s t o m e r s .

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• SunPower announced the downstream market -- making downstream of the value chain

Sources: BrightSource Raising $150M Mezzanine Round info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines) Submitted at 3/18/2010 5:00:45 PM

BrightSource Energy, the VCfunded solar thermal hopeful, is looking to raise a $150 million mezzanine round, according to sources. The effort has been going on for a few months -- the firm needs equity to match their DOE loan guarantee.

Investors in BrightSource have already put in more than $160 million into the firm. Their investment syndicate includes VantagePoint Venture Partners, Google.org, BP Alternative Energy, StatoilHydro Venture, Black River, Morgan Stanley, DBL Investors, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Chevron Technology.

BrightSource declined to comment.

The well-funded Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) firm is fresh from winning $1.37 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy and receiving conditional approval for their Ivanpah project, which would be the first new solar thermal plant built in California in almost 20 years. The Ivanpah project is notable as one of the world's largest solar projects at hundreds of megawatts of power -- capable of electrifying more SOURCES: page 85

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than 100,000 homes while providing hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions in tax revenues over its 30-year lifetime.

The power generated from these solar plants will be sold under contracts with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE).

Bechtel will serve as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating System. Bechtel Enterprises, Bechtel's project development and financing arm, is also an equity investor in the Ivanpah solar power plants.

When you hear the name Bechtel in the same breath as a solar startup, it's proof that solar has entered the realm of big money, big projects and utilityscale reality.

Electricity at Ivanpah is generated the same way as in traditional power plants -- high temperature steam turns a

turbine. The plant differs in how the steam is produced.

Thousands of mirrors are focused on a boiler filled with water that sits atop a tower.

When sunlight hits the boiler, the water inside is heated and creates high temperature steam.

The steam is then piped to a conventional turbine, which generates electricity. The flat mirrors, called heliostats, are cheaper than the traditional parabolic mirrors used in solar thermal power plants and the tower-style boiler can achieve higher temperatures than traditional systems.

Since the successful IPO of A123 Systems, there’s been a small flurry of VC-funded greentech startups filing to go public. Codexis, Solyndra, Fallbrook and Tesla Motors have filed their S-1s with the SEC, a prelude to an IPO. The S -1 doesn’t mean the IPO will occur -- companies can withdraw their offering, usually "because of market conditions."

Other IPOs in the works are Silver Spring Networks which hired Morgan Stanley and Jefferies & Co. to underwrite an IPO as well as biofuel maker Amyris, expected to file in the second quarter.

Greentech VC Investor Vinod Khosla's concern in greentech is that "too many companies have filed and we will get a nanotech moment." He's "much more concerned about premature IPOs" and gives an example: Codexis recently filed their S-1 form in preparation for an IPO but according to Khosla, the company is "pretending to be a biofuels company when it is an R&D firm."

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only for the first two years of college. The American Opportunity credit covers 100% of the first $2,000 of expenses, including tuition, fees and books, and 25% of the next $2,000. You can claim the full $2,500 credit if you are single and your income is $80,000 or less ($160,000 if you're married filing jointly). You get a partial

credit if you are single with income up to $90,000 ($180,000 for joint filers). The Cormiers can multiply that tax break by two, saving them up to $5,000 on their 2009 tax bill.

But here's where it gets confusing. Taxpayers with similarly generous incomes (up TAX-SAVING page 86

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expected to qualify for a tax credit to ease the pain of paying college expenses for two of their three children. But this year is different.

The new American Opportunity credit is worth up to $2,500 per student each year during the first four years of college. For most students this break replaces the Hope credit, which was good

85

Tax-Saving Secrets (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

Forget everything you thought you knew about filing your taxes. With so many changes to tax rules for 2009 resulting from last year's massive economicstimulus package, you may be able to claim some new tax breaks, particularly if you bought a house or a car, sent a kid to college, made energyefficient home improvements, or collected unemployment benefits.

And even if none of those special situations applies to you, you'll still save on your taxes if your 2009 income was about the same as it was the year before -thanks to new, inflation-adjusted income-tax brackets and higher amounts for the standard deduction (which 70% of taxpayers claim) and the personal-exemption amount, which every taxpayer can claim for each member of his or her household.

The standard deduction is $5,700 for individuals (up $250 from 2008); $8,350 for single heads of household (up $350); and $11,400 for married couples filing jointly (up $500). In addition, the $3,650-per-person personal exemption is up $150 from 2008. Tax brackets are wider, too. For a married couple filing a joint return, for example, the taxable-income threshold separating the 15% bracket from the 25% bracket is $67,900, up

from $65,100 in 2008. And there's an added benefit for taxpayers in the 10% and 15% tax brackets: They pay zero capital-gains taxes on profits from investments they sold in 2009 (as long as they owned them for more than a year).

Plus, most workers are eligible for the new Making Work Pay credit, worth up to $400 for individuals and $800 for married couples, depending on income. Although you probably received the money in the form of reduced tax withholding from your paycheck throughout the year -- rather than a bigger refund now -- you still have to claim the credit on your tax return to ensure that it is counted against your 2009 tax liability (see Tax Forms: Cracking the Code). If you don't, it could boost your tax bill or reduce your refund.

At times, filling out your 2009 return may feel as if you're taking a multiple-choice quiz, guessing at the best option to maximize your tax savings. If you're not already using taxpreparation software or working with a professional tax preparer, it may be time to seek help (see Tax Prep: Most Can File for Free).

Education breaks With a sizable, six-figure income, Timothy and Kathy Cormier of Fairfax, Va., never TAX-SAVING page 85

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to $80,000 for single or $160,000 for married filers) can claim a $2,000 tax deduction for higher-education costs even if they don't itemize -- but you can't claim both the credit and the deduction. So which should you choose? Take the credit if you can. A credit reduces your tax liability dollar for dollar, whereas a deduction merely reduces the amount of income that is taxed. In the 25% bracket, for example, a $2,000 deduction reduces your taxes by just $500, while a $2,000 credit reduces your taxes by the full $2,000.

Simple choice, right? Not so fast. The American Opportunity credit applies only to the first four years of college, so anyone paying bills for graduate school would want to choose the deduction -- that is, unless they qualify for the even more valuable Lifetime Learning credit, which has lower incomeeligibility caps than the deduction. The credit is available for 20% of the expense of any posthigh school classes up to a maximum $2,000 credit per tax return. For the full credit, your income can't top $50,000 if you're single or $100,000 if you're married filing jointly. A partial credit is available to those with income up to $60,000 ($120,000 if married).

And the choices don't end there.

Parents with students attending

college in one of the ten midwestern states that were declared disaster areas after the 2008 floods should compare their choices of credits to determine which saves them the most money, says John Roth, a senior tax analyst with CCH, a provider of tax information. The Hope and Lifetime Learning credits for the midwestern disaster area are twice the usual amounts and have been expanded to include room and board as qualifying expenses (but the credits are subject to the same income-eligibility limits).

The maximum Hope credit for freshmen and sophomores is $3,600 per student. But if you claim a Hope credit for a student in the midwestern disaster area, you cannot claim an American Opportunity credit for any student in the same year. The maximum Lifetime Learning credit for any posthigh school courses taken in the disaster area is $4,000 per tax return. (Parents of students attending colleges in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin are eligible.)

Home-buyer credit New-home shoppers celebrated when the popular $8,000 firsttime home buyer's credit was extended to contracts signed through April 30, 2010. But you might have missed some of the nuances. For example, incomeeligibility limits for this credit

differ depending on the date of purchase; and current homeowners who buy a new home now qualify for a tax credit, too.

If you bought your first home between January 1 and November 6, 2009, you are eligible for a maximum credit of $8,000 as long as your income doesn't exceed $75,000 if you're single or $150,000 if you're married filing jointly. You're considered a first-time buyer if you didn't own a principal residence during the three years prior to closing on the new home.

But the rules changed for purchases after November 6.

Income-eligibility limits were increased to $125,000 for the full credit for single filers, phasing out at $145,000, and to $225,000 for joint filers, phasing out at $245,000.

Homeowners who have lived in the same principal residence for at least five out of the past eight years also became eligible for a 10% credit of up to $6,500 on the purchase of a new home after November 6. To claim the credit, buyers must enter a binding contract by April 30 and must close on the sale before July 1. Members of the military who are serving overseas have an extra year of eligibility (see A Roster of Tax Breaks for Military Families).

To claim the credit, you must file Form 5405, "First-Time

Homebuyer Credit," and attach a copy of your settlement statement or a copy of the certificate of occupancy for newly constructed homes.

Homeowners must provide proof of five consecutive years of ownership, such as mortgageinterest statements, property-tax records or homeowners insurance.

Because of the new documentation requirements, you can't file your tax return electronically if you claim the home-buyer credit. Print it out and mail it with supporting documents to the IRS. Be prepared to wait. Refunds for paper returns normally take from four to eight weeks, compared with about ten days for e-filed returns. You can file for the credit on your 2009 return even if you close after April 15 by filing an extension or amending your return.

Home-energy credit So maybe you didn't buy a new house last year, but you did make some energy-efficient home improvements. You may claim a credit for 30% of the cost of eligible home improvements on your principal residence, up to a maximum of $1,500. The credit applies to insulation and to energyefficient exterior windows and doors, heat pumps, furnaces, central air conditioners, and water heaters. The new rule is in effect for both 2009 and 2010,

so if you claim the full $1,500 credit on your 2009 return, you are not eligible for additional credits in 2010.

Another residential tax credit, designed to spur investment in alternative-energy equipment such as solar hot-water heaters, geothermal heat pumps and wind turbines for new and existing homes, is worth 30% of the cost of such items, including installation, with no cap on the amount.

New-vehicle deduction If you sank some money into new wheels last year, whether it was a car, a motorcycle, a light truck or a motor home, there's a tax break for that, too. As long as you purchased the new vehicle anytime after February 16, 2009, you may be able to deduct the state or local sales tax or excise tax. The deduction is limited to the tax you paid on up to $49,500 of the purchase price, but there is no limit on the number of eligible vehicles.

To qualify for the full deduction, your income can't top $125,000 if you're single or $250,000 if you're married filing jointly. A partial deduction is available for individuals with income between $125,000 and $135,000 and for joint filers with income between $250,000 and $260,000.

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Think Like a Squirrel (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

Many of us don't have the sense God gave a squirrel. Consider this choice: Buy refrigerator A, which costs $50 less than fridge B but uses $50 more in electricity each year, or fridge B, which saves money in the long run. Select fridge B and one year later you'll break even, after which you'll save $50 annually. Yet despite the future savings, one study showed that most people faced with this decision would choose to buy the cheaper but less-efficient fridge.

In this situation, as in many others -- notably, neglecting to sign up for your company retirement plan -- immediate financial gratification proves to be a prime motivator. That's the case even though the short-term rush pales in comparison with the long-term savings realized from picking the more-efficient appliance. Squirrels, by contrast, stow nuts for the winter even when it means skipping an acorn or two in October.

Time plays tricks on our ability to make smart decisions, especially when it comes to money. Here's another example:

When offered the choice between taking $50 today or $100 a year from today, most people choose $50 now. But take away the instant gratification and the results are reversed. That is, given the alternative of receiving $50 in, say, five years or $100 in six years, most people will choose $100 in six years. Yet that's the same trade-off as with the shorter time frame.

"We care a lot more about today than about the future," explains Harvard economics professor David Laibson. "Humans, like a lot of other animals, place full weight on what happens right now and half weight on what happens even a few days away."

That's because we react emotionally to immediate gratification and think logically about future rewards. And emotion often trumps logic.

Logical thinking, including thinking about our financial future, occurs in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. This was demonstrated by Jordan Grafman, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health, who discovered that Vietnam War veterans with injuries to the prefrontal cortex struggled when

making long-term financial decisions. "They had a difficult time articulating goals for the future, especially far into the future, such as saving for their children's education or planning for retirement," says Grafman.

Be a noodge. So the trick to making better financial decisions for the long term is to think like a squirrel. In some cases, that's already being done for us. The study on buying a refrigerator took place in 1980.

Since then the government has raised the bar on energyefficiency standards for fridges and other appliances so that we no longer have the option of buying an appliance that's much cheaper but much less efficient.

With regard to retirement savings, many employers now automatically enroll employees in the company plan when they're hired, and workers must actively opt out if they don't want to participate.

In the book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, authors Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein defend such tactics as simple strategies to counteract our human limitations.

How do you nudge yourself to

make better long-term decisions? Laibson suggests making time your ally. Instead of immediately tackling a daunting task, such as reviewing your entire financial plan (when you'd rather go to the movies or play golf), take the first step by making an appointment with a financial planner to rebalance your investments or work on your estate plan.

Also, delaying a financial decision by a few days can help give the logical part of your brain a chance to kick in. That shiny new Rolex that screams "buy me" when you're in the store could look like an expensive bauble when you're paying your bills.

Kiplinger's is partnering with Nightly Business Report on the "Your Mind & Your Money" series, funding for which is provided by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. For companion video reports, tune in to NBR on your local PBS channel March 15 and 29.

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Prepare for Storm Season With Flood Coverage (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

The Northeast was hit hard by storms and flooding recently, and I hear that more storms are on their way throughout the country. What type of storm damage is covered by homeowners insurance and what is covered only by flood insurance? How much does a flood policy cost?

Homeowners-insurance policies typically cover damage that comes from the top down -such as rain and wind damage -but they don’t cover rising water and flooding.

You may be able to boost your coverage a bit by adding a sewage-backup rider to your home-insurance policy. This extra rider generally costs about $50 per year to cover $10,000 to $20,000 of damage if your sewer backs up or if water gets into your home because your sump pump stops working. It’s a good idea for everyone to add this coverage.

To get flood coverage, you must go through the National Flood Insurance Program. Your mortgage company may require you to get flood insurance if you live in a high-risk area, but the coverage can be important even if your lender doesn’t require it.

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or not they itemize their deductions. But some itemizers who bought a new car last year can snag a double tax savings by deducting both their state income taxes, as part of their itemized deductions on Schedule A, and claiming the special sales-tax deduction on the same form.

Itemizers may even be able to claim a tax break on the sales tax they paid on new vehicles purchased before the February 17 start date or even the sales taxes they paid on used or leased vehicles acquired in 2009. But it makes sense only under certain circumstances. To do so, you must choose to deduct state sales taxes rather than state income taxes on Schedule A. In most cases, income taxes will represent the bigger deduction and are the smarter choice. But those with little taxable income, such as retirees, or residents of states

continued from page 87

with no income tax, such as Florida or Texas, get a better deal with the sales-tax deduction. You can base the write-off on actual receipts or use IRS tables keyed to household income, size and state. Plus, if you use the tables, you can add sales taxes paid on big-ticket items, such as cars, boats, RVs and building materials. Of course, itemizing makes sense only if it gives you a bigger write-off than the standard deduction.

Break for unemployed With the highest jobless rate in decades, many Americans are receiving unemployment benefits for the first time. The first $2,400 of benefits collected in 2009 is exempt from federal income tax, but the exclusion isn't automatic. You must subtract $2,400 from the amount of total unemployment compensation shown on Form 1099-G to determine the taxable

amount to report on your Form 1040 (or 1040A or 1040EZ). If both spouses received benefits, each can exclude $2,400 from taxable income.

A lower income in 2009 may make it easier to deduct jobhunting expenses, such as résumé printing, postage, career counseling and travel costs for out-of-town interviews. You can deduct these and other miscellaneous expenses, such as tax-preparation costs, only to the extent that they exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income.

Give some back?

Despite all of these tax breaks, some taxpayers will receive smaller refunds than usual and others may end up owing money. Blame it on the Making Work Pay credit. Employers adjusted tax-withholding schedules during the year so that you could receive an immediate benefit from the 6.2% tax credit worth up to $400 for individuals

and $800 for married couples, subject to income limits. But some employees, such as teens with part-time jobs, aren't eligible for the credit if they can be claimed as dependents on someone else's tax return.

Others may have received more credit than they were due because they worked more than one job or because both spouses worked and their combined income topped eligibility limits.

The credit is reduced for individuals whose income is between $75,000 and $95,000 and for married couples with joint income between $150,000 and $190,000; it's eliminated for taxpayers with income higher than those levels.

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Most people can buy federal flood insurance through their homeowners-insurance agent. If you don’t have one, you can find a local agent at the NFIP’s FloodSmart.gov Web site. If you want to have coverage in place for the spring storms, you need to act quickly -- there’s a 30-day waiting period before the flood coverage takes effect.

Flood insurance can be inexpensive for low-risk areas.

If you don’t have a basement, the annual premium for a preferred-risk policy can cost as little as $348 a year for the maximum coverage of $250,000 for your dwelling and $100,000 for your possessions, or $388 per year if you have a basement.

Similar coverage can cost $1,484 per year in a moderaterisk area, or more than $2,600 in a high-risk area.

FloodSmart.gov has a great tool PREPARE page 89

Mergers and Acquisitions To Pick Up this Year (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

"Much of 2009 was a nuclear winter for the M&A industry,” Conditions for mergers and says Dennis White, senior acquisitions are improving, counsel at McDermott, Will & signaling more corporate deals Emery LLP and chairman of the this year and next. After a tepid global board of directors of the two years, the dollar amount of Association for Corporate transactions will likely climb by Growth (ACG). White blames more than a third this year. Deal last year’s conditions on the values will hit more than $950 general economic downturn, billion in 2010 and continue to lack of credit and a chasm grow an additional 20% in 2011. between buyers and sellers on

valuations. “I think all three are now improving somewhat,” he says.

Executives are keeping their eyes open for attractive businesses to buy. And they’ll actually find the money they need to finance these deals.

About 82% of financiers and consultants surveyed at the end of 2009 by Thomson Reuters and the ACG said they expected

the number of mergers and acquisition transactions to increase moderately or significantly in the first half of 2010. About 74% said they expected debt markets to be a little or much better.

As lenders remain cautious, companies will rely less on outside financiers such as private equity groups. Instead, buyers will put in more cash up

front, as they finally start to release their hold on funds they’ve been hoarding for the past two years. With the economic outlook improving, companies are more willing to spend their own money. “Now companies feel more comfortable taking risks,” says Dan Tiemann, who heads MERGERS page 89

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that lets you type in your address and immediately see your property’s flood risk, your estimated premium and contact information for agents serving your area. It also has an interactive tool to show how much damage you could have for each inch of flooding, and a cool new flood history map that lets you look up how many flooding events and how much flood damage there was in your state and county in the past year, along with a link to detailed information about the floods.

The federal flood program provides enough coverage for most people. But the maximum dwelling coverage of $250,000 could leave people who have expensive homes short of what they need in the event of a total

loss. Several insurers, such as Chubb and Fireman’s Fund, offer excess flood coverage to supplement the federal policy and increase the coverage limits to the same level as your homeowners insurance. These policies also provide some extra coverage beyond the federal plan, such as replacement value for contents (the federal plan covers only depreciated value) and the cost of additional living expenses should you have to move out of your home for a while because of the flood damage.

For more information about flood coverage and lessons from people whose homes were damaged in the Midwest floods of 2008, see Lessons From the Floods. Also see Insurance

Lessons After Katrina and Make Your Insurer Pay for more information about what is and isn’t covered by homeowners insurance after a storm, as well as strategies that helped homeowners get their claims paid after Hurricane Katrina.

For advice on preparing your finances for a disaster, see Protect Your Home and Finances Against Twisters and Protect Your Home Before Disaster Strikes.

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taking chances on any hot new start-ups or exciting technologies.

It will help that sellers are adjusting to and accepting lower market prices. “Sellers are more realistic about what their companies are worth,” says White. For smalls, in particular, valuations have finally leveled off after sinking by as much as 45% since the recession began and revenue streams started to dwindle.

Industries likely to see the most activity: Retail, construction, publishing, financial services

and others with too many players still on the field. Plus look for deals in technology and health care, industries that are solid growers.

For weekly updates on topics to improve your business decisionmaking, click here.

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MERGERS continued from page 88

KPMG’s transactions and restructuring group.

Expect buyers to pick and choose carefully, focusing on expanding existing business lines or filling in gaps in their offerings. “The downturn has separated winners and losers,” says Tiemann. “This is a great time for winners to be picking up weakened competitors and gaining market share.” They will also look at suppliers and other firms they do business with to increase revenue without building a division from the ground up. They won’t be