Liberty Newspost Jan-29-10

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28/01/10 - 29/01/10

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Now a U.S. senator, Scott Brown is ready to take on Obama

Toyota Facing Huge PR Problem After Recalls

By David Morgan (Front Row Washington)

By Brian White (BloggingStocks)

magazine notes, the president can’t dunk and doesn’t have a hoopster nickname.

Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:43:22 AM Brown does have a nickname.

Fresh from a stunning election At Tufts University, he was victory that shook the confidence known as “Downtown Scotty of the national Democratic Party, Brown,” possibly for his longScott Brown says he’s ready for distance jumpshots. And that’s a showdown with President not all. In a given week, Brown Barack Obama — on the told Leno, he swims close to 2 basketball court. miles, bikes about 95 and runs Brown, known only a few 15 or 20 miles. weeks ago as a dude with a interview with TV comedian Jay If Obama’s really looking for truck, says he challenged Obama Leno. ways to reach out to to hoops when the two spoke by “He looks like he’s in great Republicans, a friendly game of telephone on the night the shape. It’d certainly be a tough basketball might make a nice Massachusetts Republican won game,” he said. change from all the ankleTeddy Kennedy’s dyed-in-the- Brown didn’t mention how the t r i p p i n g , e l b o w - j a b b i n g , wool-Democratic-blue seat in the president responded. floorboard-thumping contests on U.S. Senate.

Obama, a hard-core hoophead, Capitol Hill.

“The only time I spoke to him has shot baskets on the campaign Photo Credits: Reuters/Brian was election night and I did trail, with U.S. troops in the field S n y d e r ( B r o w n V i c t o r y ) ; challenge him to pick his best, and with kids on the South Lawn Reuters/Mario Anzuoni (Leno); and I’ll take my daughter Ayla of the White House. At 48, he Reuters/Jim Young (Obama and who plays for Boston College, w o u l d h a v e a t w o - y e a r Young Hoopster) and we’d challenge him to a little advantage over the 50-year-old Click here for more political 2-on-2. I think we’d have the Brown. But as Sports Illustrated coverage from Reuters upper hand,” Brown said in an

Submitted at 1/29/2010 10:30:00 AM

Filed under: Products and Services, Ford Motor (F), Marketing and Advertising, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) In light of Toyota Motor Corp. ( TM) string of recalls recently, one can wonder what the large automaker is going to do in the U.S. to salvage its reputation.

Toyota, as far as this writer can recall, has never seen a modelvariety recall like this in its history. So much is wrong that the world's largest automaker has halted production of eight separate vehicle models until it finds out just what is causing some of them to accelerate uncontrollably.

Five assembly lines that help build these models are being suspended as of Monday, and Toyota has sent messages to

1,200 U.S. dealers asking them to stop selling the models in question immediately. The models include some of Toyota's most popular: RAV4, Corolla, Matrix, Avalon, Camry, Highlander and the Tundra pickup.

Continue reading Toyota Facing Huge PR Problem After Recalls Toyota Facing Huge PR Problem After Recalls originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Blair, Wakefield, climate change – beware of scapegoats | Michael White

By Michael White (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

hysteria, charges of illegitimacy levelled against each other by rival camps, an atmosphere which smacks of a witch-hunt ...

Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:09:20 AM it all sounds a bit like the Chilcot I don't like witch-hunts even of hearings, and ought to trouble people I mistrust, because minds sensible people. are best kept open against the When does a very proper quest pressures of conformity for the truth – scientific, legal, There seems to be a lot of zeal political – tip over into a blame in the atmosphere this week. Not game, a search for scapegoats just over Tony Blair's appearance which – as scapegoats are meant before the Chilcot inquiry today, to do – enable the rest of us to but Scott Roeder, that righteous feel better and move on? Egged born-again Christian doctor- on by neocon zealots (and killer in Kansas and, of course, supported by T Blair), George t h e c a s e o f D r A n d r e w Bush scapegoated Saddam Wakefield, the MMR researcher. Hussein, a very bad man. Plenty As overnight media has been are now seeking to return the reporting, Wakefield and two favour. colleagues were condemned by In Wakefield's case his the General Medical Council's published 1998 findings – never disciplinary panel in ferocious replicated by other researchers – terms yesterday. Wakefield was stopped short of blaming the accused of "dishonesty and triple measles, mumps and irresponsibility" as well as a rubella (MMR) jab for later "callous disregard" for the development of bowel and suffering of children whom he a u t i s m p r o b l e m s i n s m a l l tested without appropriate c h i l d r e n . B u t a t a p r e s s consents or safeguards. conference he went further, Yet when the verdict was suggesting that the jabs should announced there were cries of prudently be given separately. "bastards", "it's a set-up" and Thanks to generous publicity in "disgusting" from the doctor's scaremongering newspapers, passionate supporters at the rates of MMR vaccination fell hearing, many of them parents of from 91% to 80% by 2003 – well children with degrees of autism – below the "herd immunity" rate "the Lancet families" – who saw of 95% – and 50% in some parts Wakefield as the only doctor of London, probably the poorer who "ever really listened". parts, though you can never be Powerful feelings bordering on sure. The take-up of cancer

screening tests are lower in the capital, but almost equal among all classes, a top medic told me recently.

As that admirable scourge of humbug and quackery, Ben Goldacre, points out in today's Guardian, the media has a lot to answer for by spreading the scare story rather than demanding better evidence.

Tony and Cherie Blair added to the confusion by refusing to say whether their fourth child, Leo, born in 2001, had been given the MMR jab. They invoked privacy when they should have shown leadership, as the Queen did in the 50s by letting it be known that her children had been given the polio shot we all had during that fearsome epidemic.

In fairness – let's be fair; that's the point – Cherie Blair combines high lawyerly intelligence with a new age daffiness in some matters. So it is always possible that she gave little Leo a few sacred crystals in his cornflakes and hoped for the best.

In which case, silence was the best policy.

Wakefield's prosecutors at the GMC were not passing judgment on his research, which now takes place in Texas, where he cannot practice medicine but can raise money for his autism centre – the Thoughtful House – in Austin, and does.

Its condemnation – after a record hearing of 148 days, the longest in the council's 148-year history – was on process and probity. He paid children at his son's birthday party a fiver apiece to give blood, and failed to declare conflicting financial interests – including £55,000 from the legal aid board – even to the Lancet, which published his findings.

The Lancet was the same magazine that published the Johns Hopkins mortality survey which reported there had been 600,000 excess deaths in Iraq between 2003-06 because of the US-UK invasion. It is a figure that has also been hard to replicate, even by the Shiadominated Malaki government in Baghdad. This is a week where many zealous paths cross.

I'm even less qualified to judge Wakefield's work than I am statistical fieldwork methodology in a war zone.

There were professional whispers about him from the start, as there were about Johns Hopkins. But the Times reports today that "with a handful of honourable exceptions many vaccine experts ran the other way when the story broke in 1998". It may help explain the severity of their censure today. Sound familiar, does it?

In 1998 that failure left opponents of vaccines (which

have after all been around for over 200 years, when George III and Catherine the Great showed good family examples) to fill the vacuum along with media hucksters, some of them the same outlets now throwing stones at Wakefield. It's a familiar pattern: think the McCanns, think Baghdad.

Such people skillfully deployed parents with damaged children – understandably eager to blame something or someone for a tragedy in the family. It's human instinct, one encouraged in our own slightly hysterical times where running hot and cold zeal is available on demand 24/7.

The medical response may be better now. As a result of the MMR shambles, a Science Media Centre has been established – manned by independent press staff – to advise scientists how best to get the facts (as we know them) over to a puzzled public.

My own instinct has been to mistrust Wakefield, not least because of the media company he kept. But I don't like witchhunts, even of people I mistrust, especially when science is involved, because minds are best kept open against the pressures of conformity.

This week the government's chief scientific adviser, Professor BLAIR, page 6

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I believed beyond doubt that Iraq had WMD, Tony Blair tells inquiry

By Stephen Bates (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

"I decided that this intelligence justified our [understanding] that Saddam continued to pose a significant WMD threat."

Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:08:03 AM Blair's only concession was that Former PM tells Chilcot panel tabloid headlines in the run-up to intelligence that Saddam Hussein the war, which said Iraq had had weapons of mass destruction weapons it could deploy in 45 was consistently strong minutes should have been Tony Blair today robustly corrected by the government. defended his decision to take But he maintained the figure had Britain to war against Saddam only later taken on a significance Hussein in 2003, saying he that was not appreciated at the believed "beyond doubt" that time.

Iraq had weapons of mass He said he had sought to give destruction.

George Bush's US administration In three hours of examination at the assurance that it would not the Chilcot inquiry this morning, act alone. the former prime minister The absolute issue was weapons insisted that the joint intelligence of mass destruction and that a committee's assessments that brutal regime could not be Iraq had a WMD programme allowed to develop them, he said. were consistently strong.

Blair argued that he had "It was at least reasonable for me d i f f e r e n c e s w i t h B u s h i n at the time, given this evidence persuading him that the Middle of what the JIC was telling me, East peace process was linked to that this was a threat I should terrorism, and he acknowledged take very seriously," he said. that Britain had never believed "All the intelligence we received Saddam's regime was linked to al was to the same effect. There -Qaida. were people perfectly justifiably But he added that rogue regimes and sensibly also saying that you had the capacity to link up with cannot sit around and wait ... you terrorist organisations and used have got to take action clearly the platform to highlight what he and definitively. said he regarded as remaining

dangers in the region.

The former prime minister, now a Middle East peace negotiator, pointed repeatedly to Iran as posing a threat to the region because of its willingness to assist terrorist organisations.

He told the inquiry: "When I look at the way Iran links up with terror groups, a large part of the destabilisation in the Middle East comes from Iran.

"There are very strong links between terrorist organisations and states that will sponsor them.

There are those states, Iran in particular, which are linked to this extreme and misguided view of Islam."

Earlier, the former prime minister had opened his appearance before the Chilcot inquiry in London by stating that the government's assessment of the scale of the terrorist threat changed after the al-Qaida attacks on the US on September 11 2001.

Looking greyer than when he was in office, Blair told the inquiry that the British and American view changed "dramatically" after 9/11.

"Here's what changed for me: the whole calculus of risk," he said.

"The point about this terrorist act was over 3,000 people had been killed, an absolutely horrific event. But if these people, inspired by this religious fanaticism, could have killed 30,000, they would have [done].

"Those of us who dealt with terrorism by the IRA [knew] their terrorism was directed towards political purposes, it was within a framework you could understand.

"That completely changed from that moment – Iran, Libya, North Korea, Iraq ... all of this had to be brought to an end."

Blair told the inquiry that, prior to 9/11, the British and American policy of containing Saddam's regime with "smart" sanctions had been worth trying, although there were holes in the way it was working.

He pointed out that his government's first military action against Iraq had been taken in conjunction with Bill Clinton's administration in 1998.

"I would fairly describe our policy as doing our best, hoping for the best, but with a different calculus of risk assessment," he said.

"We thought he was a risk, but

New objections in Google Books case due

By Tom Krazit (Webware.com)

Once again, deadline looms in the Google Book Search settlement process, as a new

round of objections to the revised settlement must be filed by the end of Thursday.

Originally posted at Relevant Results

we thought it was appropriate to contain it."

The former prime minister avoided demonstrators outside the Queen Elizabeth Centre in Westminster, where the inquiry is being held, by being driven in early through a cordoned-off area at the back of the building.

At the start of the hearing, at 9.30am, the inquiry chairman, Sir John Chilcot, warned members of the public attending not to interrupt and distract the session.

He also said Blair could be called back at a later stage to give more evidence.

• Iraq war inquiry • Politics and Iraq • Politics past • Defence policy • Foreign policy • Military • Iraq • September 11 2001 • Tony Blair Stephen Bates guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Airlines investigated for price-fixing during World Cup

By David Smith (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

Africa because of the huge distances involved and the relative lack of public transport.

Johannesburg, for example, is Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:27:15 AM some 880 miles from Cape • Implicated airlines include Town, equivalent to travelling British Airways-owned Comair from London to Warsaw – a • Domestic flights are vital link drive of around 17 hours. between World Cup venues Organisers have said that extra Airlines are under investigation flights will be put on with over alleged price-fixing to airports open all night and an exploit travellers during this estimated 2,000 planes crossing year's football World Cup. the country every day.

South Africa's competition But numerous South Africans watchdog announced that it was have complained of unreasonable investigating domestic operators price hikes, helping prompt the for "allegedly colluding" over Competition Commission's ticket costs and pricing strategies investigation. for the tournament in June and Deputy competition July. commissioner Thembinkosi The implicated companies are Bonakele said that a company, the part-British Airways-owned which he declined to name, had Comair as well as state-owned submitted a proposal to fix South African Airways, 1time, prices.

SA Airlink, Mango and SA "There is an issue about whether Express. other airlines actually followed The competition commission that proposal or they didn't," was approached with evidence Bonakele told Johannesburg's

by South African Airways. The 702 Talk Radio. "The proposal company requested "leniency was very clear about the strategy from prosecution" in exchange that needed to be followed for email correspondence that around the World Cup period." allegedly proves "airlines might The commission said it would adjust their airfares ahead of the refer the case to the competition World Cup". tribunal for a hearing and request Internal flights will be crucial to a penalty if the airlines were thousands of fans in South found guilty. Passengers could

then be allowed to seek compensation.

South African Airways, which was found guilty of price fixing four years ago, said: "SAA undertook to fully co-operate with the commission in exchange for leniency from prosecution under the Competition Act. SAA can further confirm that discussions with the commission relating to the application are under way and that the airline has the full intention of complying with the legislation."

Other companies denied any involvement in price-fixing. SA Airlink said it received but did not respond to an email "by a Comair employee raising the issue of co-ordinating pricing strategies ahead of the World Cup".

Comair chief executive Gidon Novick declined to comment on SA Airlink's allegation without seeing its basis. "There has been no discussion of pricing, we set our own pricing, pricing is set in the context of the market," Novick said. "Airlines watch what other airlines are doing, but we certainly don't collude."

South Africa hotels have also been accused of increasing prices to five times the usual rate for holidaymakers in June. Kevin

Miles, international co-ordinator of England's Football Supporters' Federation, warned last month: "England's regular travellers are having to take a long and sober look at the costs involved of following the team. It would be a mistake for South Africa to regard the World Cup as a fourweek opportunity to rip off fans."

South Africa hopes the World Cup, the world's most watched sporting event, will attract as many as 450,000 visitors. But Jérôme Valcke, Fifa's general secretary, admitted this week that the true figure will be lower because of a lack of flights from Europe.

• Airline industry • Air transport • World Cup 2010 • Regulators • South Africa • South Africa • Africa • Fifa David Smith guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Options Update: TiVo February Volatility of 121 at 13-Month High

By Paul Foster (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:00:00 AM

Filed under: Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Options TiVo ( TIVO) closed at $9.28.

Microsoft ( MSFT) filed a suit against TIVO on January 20 claiming TIVO illegally uses technology related to purchasing and delivering video. February option implied volatility is at 121, March is at 118, May is at 95; above its 26-week average of 74, according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Netflix ( NFLX) surged 12% on January 28 after reporting better than expected EPS and subscriber growth. February and March put option implied volatility is at 44, June is at 46, versus its six-month average of 44, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Options Update: TiVo February Volatility of 121 at 13-Month High originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tony Blair at Chilcot: nuance is the order of the day | Afua Hirsch

By Afua Hirsch (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

alongside Bill Clinton in 1998.

Confused? Sometimes the panel appeared to be. "Just to clarify what you said," was a phrase Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:12:48 AM repeatedly used by Freedman.

So far this session has done little Another was "just to keep focus more than allow the former at the moment", a phrase that prime minister to state his i r o n i c a l l y s e r v e d t o d r a w defence – hardly the point attention to how lacking in focus The sheer length, lack of focus, the morning session was. and scope for manoeuvre in the Freedman sometimes went on to Chilcot panel's questions were summarise his interpretation of revealed in all their vagueness at Blair's answer, allowing Blair to the Iraq inquiry today, as a reply with a simple "correct" nervous and tense Tony Blair rather than giving clear evidence nevertheless managed to remain himself. more or less within his comfort One interchange between Blair zone. and Freedman was little more Questions appeared to be on than a series of interruptions, average five or six sentences each interjecting over the other's long. Sometimes, crucially statements, with Freedman at important, distinct issues were times so lacking focus he rolled up together, allowing Blair appeared to be doing little more to answer only the last, or than thinking out loud. sometimes none at all. He The usually relatively effective responded to a question about Sir Roderic Lyne was also guilty the controversial intelligence o f i n d u l g i n g i n l e n g t h y dossier with a speech about how statements – only questions seriously he takes the nuclear insofar as they ended with an threat from Iran. He responded to inflection – although taking up a question about weapons of after Freedman, he appeared mass destruction in Iraq with a relatively concise. reply about military action taken Sir Martin Gilbert asked

questions that were at least shorter, although hardly devastating in their tone. "Didn't you have the skill to explain to parliament that you were still on the UN route?" he asked, questioning Blair about his failure to state publicly what he now claims was a commitment to a second UN resolution.

"Parliament can be a tricky forum to engage in a nuanced exercise," Blair responded, inviting an unavoidable comparison with Chilcot, where nuance – it seems – is the order of the day.

The key flaws in the panel's handling of Blair are, as usual, in the omissions. If Blair believes, as he says, that resolution 1441 authorised military action, why did so many others on the UN security council take a different view? If Blair "believed", as he said, that the intelligence made the case beyond doubt, when the intelligence itself did not state the case beyond doubt, does he acknowledge he misled parliament? And if Blair was "made aware" of the legal questions by Goldsmith, how

does he explain his failure to seek that advice – given its vital importance when committing troops to war?

The question of legality will become more central to the panel's inquiry this afternoon.

But, unless they tighten up their questioning technique and persist on a line of interrogation until they get an answer – as opposed to simply giving up and moving on – there is little hope that Blair's session will do more than allow him to advocate his own defence. Which is not really the point of the exercise.

• Iraq war inquiry • Politics and Iraq • Politics past • Defence policy • Foreign policy • Military • Iraq Afua Hirsch guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Canadian official launches new probe into Facebook

By Caroline McCarthy (Webware.com)

The government agency's original investigation was part of why Facebook cleaned up its

controls in the first place, and now it's dissatisfied with the results.

Originally posted at The Social

5

Steve Jobs Gets Candid on iPad, Kindle, and Love Battery Life [Apple]

By Brian Barrett (Gizmodo) Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:44:17 AM

Walt Mossberg was able to get a moment with Steve Jobs immediately after Wednesday's iPad event, and scored some great unscripted commentary from the Apple honcho on the iPad and its competition.

The interview portion starts at 1:55. Most impressive to me is how dismissive jobs is of the only clear advantages Kindle has right now. 10 hours of battery life versus a week on Kindle?

Ptttthhhhppptt. "You're not going to read for 10 hours." And yes, he is talking to you, specifically.

Kindle books currently priced five dollars less than iBooks?

HA! "The prices will be the same," although what that price will be and how that gap will be closed remain a mystery. But it's been decreed, so there you go.

My other favorite part is Jobs encouraging Mossberg to write his review on a tablet, which is something we knew would happen, and which would also likely take months to accomplish. [ All Things D]

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BLAIR, continued from page 2

John Beddington (he has a beard to show he's a real scientist) called for such openness. He had in mind climate change scientists, who should be less hostile to sceptics.

"I don't think it's right to dismiss proper scepticism. Science grows and improves in the light of criticism," Beddington told the Times in the wake of assorted problems which have beset those melting Himalayan glaciers, UEA temperature data and other global warming evidence.

Quite right too. The reaction to challenge of the climate change priesthood – which is how too many sound as if they see themselves – was sneaky and defensive. Most of their critics may be charlatans, but not all are.

Indeed, the history of science is full of wrong roads taken, stifling orthodoxy and petty spite among great men fighting to deny each other credit. Science is not always good at admitting its

mistakes as wrong-science, not non-science.

The worst of it is that – across all endeavours, scientific or not – excess zeal leads us to deny the very legitimacy of our opponents. Not just the legitimacy of their opinions, actions or their research, but their legitimacy as fellow human beings.

Blair, Wakefield (both sides), Scott Roeder, the Kansas zealot who tried persuade that judge it was right to save lives by shooting dead an abortion doctor (he lost); even the BNP's more zealous opponents rush to delegitimise all their complaints as glibly as the BNP itself condemns ethnic minorities and other perceived enemies.

The most conspicuous target of this process in the world today is actually Barack Obama, whose enemies accuse him not just of being an anti-American socialist (a Nazi too), but of not even being an American because he

was "really" born in Kenya.

That's what they say and they mean it, lots and lots of them.

That's what the man's up against.

Scary stuff. I wonder what Scott Roeder thinks.

• Tony Blair • Iraq war inquiry • Iraq • Politics and Iraq • Andrew Wakefield • Climate change • Climate change • Climate change scepticism Michael White guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Sync Chrome's tabs via FreshStart

By Seth Rosenblatt (Webware.com) Submitted at 1/28/2010 6:09:00 PM

FreshStart delivers to Google Chrome the long-overdue child

of tabbed browsing and browsing sessions: tab synchronization.

Originally posted at The Download Blog

Timeline: Toyota's recall woes

By Katie Allen (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

death".

January 21 2010: Toyota said it would recall around 2.3m vehicles in the US to fix Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:56:13 AM potentially faulty accelerator Japanese carmaker suffers year pedals. The action comes on top of headaches as millions of of the on-going recall of some vehicles recalled around the 4.2m vehicles over "pedal world due to accelerator pedal, entrapment" risks. seatbelt and exhaust problems January 26 2010: Toyota said it January 2009: Toyota said it was suspending US sales and would recall 1.3m vehicles h a l t i n g N o r t h A m e r i c a n worldwide because of seatbelt production of eight models and exhaust system problems. involved in accelerator pedal May 2009: Toyota reported the recall, including the country's worst results in its history as it best-selling Camry. s t r u g g l e d w i t h t h e g l o b a l January 28 2010: Toyota said it economic crisis. would widen the net to include August 2009: Toyota recalled Europe– potentially involving almost 690,000 cars made in Britain – and China in its recall China because of faulty window s c h e m e . U S c o n g r e s s i o n a l switches – its biggest recall in investigators launch probe into the country. accelerator problems.

S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9 : T o y o t a • Toyota announced the biggest recall in • Automotive industry its history over fears involving • Japan almost 4m vehicles in the US that accelerator pedals could Katie Allen become trapped in floormats and guardian.co.uk© Guardian "may result in very high vehicle News & Media Limited 2010 | speeds and make it difficult to Use of this content is subject to stop the vehicle, which could our Terms & Conditions| More cause a crash, serious injury or Feeds

Video: Breitbart on MSNBC (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:04:41 PM

Here’s MSNBC’s latest update on the case of James O’Keefe,

arrested in the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu, featuring Andrew Breitbart defending himself and O’Keefe.[Video]

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Higher Education's Purpose: A Healthy, Just, and Sustainable Society

By Anthony Cortese (Fast Company) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:15:26 PM

This blog is part of our Inspired Ethonomics series. It's coauthored by Second Nature President Anthony Cortese and Senior Fellow Georges Dyer.

At colleges and universities, tomorrow's business leaders, architects, product designers, policy-makers, schoolteachers, economists, etc. learn about how the world works and how things get done. To date, they've learned how to do this in an unsustainable way. But a change is coming, with hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities transforming the way they teach and the choices they pursue in research and operations. Simply put, they are preparing students for 21st century citizenship.

The presidents of more than 665 colleges and universities in all 50 states, representing a student population of over 5.6 million, have signed the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment ( ACUPCC)--an institutional pledge to integrate climate and sustainability into education and research, and to pursue climate neutrality in campus operations.

Green MBAs are proliferating.

There has been an explosion of green job programs at community colleges. And even

that dismal 'science' of economics is getting a fresh look as the financial meltdown has people questioning old assumptions and giving ecological economics the serious consideration it deserves. ( See Fast Company's Definition of Ethonomics [eth-uh-nom-iks]) Students and businesses alike see the need for education for sustainability. Sixty-six percent of the nearly 16,000 college applicants and parents surveyed by the Princeton Review last year said they would value having information about a

college's commitment to the environment in making their decision. Seventy-eight percent of businesses surveyed by the National Environmental Education Foundation said the value of environmental and sustainability knowledge as a hiring factor will increase over the next five years.

This is no fad.

We're facing huge social and health challenges worldwide.

Twenty-five percent of the world's population consumes 70% to 80% of the world's resources. Even before Wall

Street imploded, 3.14 billion people lacked safe sanitation and lived on less than $2.50 per day.

Humanity's greatest challenge is figuring out how all people will have thriving communities and economic opportunity in a world that will grow to nine billion people and to increase economic output four to five times by 2050.

To get there, we need to redesign an economy that operates on renewable energy, cradle-to-cradle production (where the concept of 'waste' is eliminated), and natural

resources that do not outpace their ability to self-regenerate.

More than mere environmentalism, it's about investing in innovation to create an economy that works for everyone without systematically undermining anyone. A growing consensus of business, government, labor, and NGOs agree that a clean, green economy is the only way to restore American economic leadership, create millions of jobs, and deter global health, HIGHER page 12

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Lean With It: To Succeed, iPad Must Revolutionize Reading.

It Hasn't...Yet

By Cliff Kuang (Fast Company) Submitted at 1/28/2010 6:57:30 PM

Five things that magazines and newspapers can now do, which they've never been able to do before.

More than a few people--myself included-- panned the iPad yesterday. Or at least yawned. A computer that you can hold in your lap, and read like a book?

So what? Sure, as Steve Jobs noted, it's a far more "intimate" way to read the Web--finally, a way to lounge with a computer, rather than just sit at one. But without the right content, the allure of that vision can feel a bit thin.

Here's the thing: iPad was never going to be revolutionary by itself. As many people have pointed out, it's a content consuming device rather than a content creator. And that's where yesterday's reveal fell short. The two big examples--iBooks and The New York Times--were slick and polished but also familiar. I'm willing to bet that, in the future, the reading experience on the iPad will change vastly, as developers get into gear.

To be sure, the Web has toyed with these ideas. But what's held them back is that no one wants to get elbow deep in a rich-media experience while sitting at a desk

or balancing a hot laptop on their crotch. And a mouse and keyboard aren't the most intuitive ways to navigate something you're reading. A tablet should be able to ignite those developments, as it finally offers a "lean-back" way to consume Internet content. That's a revolution, but it's so subtle that it hides in plain sight.

Here's a few ideas:

1. Interactive graphics Infographics have obviously become huge for every print medium. Witness The New York Times's heavy focus on them as a way to lure advertisers; and remember the explosion of "charticles" in print. Writers and editors usually hate charticles because they're so much work and so quickly consumed. But there's now an opportunity to

create illustrative graphics that are indispensible to a story.

Imagine reading a news report about economics--and clicking on several layers of graphs, illustrating the content at hand.

Or imagine fashion charticles that are almost like Choose-Your -Own-Adventure novels, offering myriad paths based on your tastes and whims.

2. Continual publishing

As Luke Hayman points out, there's no reason for magazines and newspapers to publish monthly or daily issues. Rather, they should be curating content all of the time. A big problem with magazines lately is that by the time they're out, they're responding to old news. No more. Now, there's every LEAN page 10

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The Crying Game: How Disney Killed Miramax

By Alissa Walker (Fast Company)

Game," the source says. "It turned into a mini-major studio that produced titles like Chicago, Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:47:17 AM Gangs of New York, and Kill The storyline is almost Bill. This wouldn't have been Tarantinian. An evil empire possible without the financial enslaves two flashy, fiercelybacking from a larger independent brothers, and then corporation." leaves them to die, while the Case in point: The Weinstein virtuous duo ironically attempts Company, which hired a to buy back their own identity (a financial adviser to restructure portmanteau of their own the company in 2009. When parents' names!) as well as the Inglorious Basterds was released lifetime of groundbreaking work it came with a whispered they helped to create. ultimatum that if it didn't do box At least, that's how one former office gold, the Weinsteins Miramax employee sees it. would be out of business (it did).

After 31 years, the company Miramax's demise means six responsible for a wide swath of films in production will be cinematic history, from Pulp scuttled, the most anxiouslyFiction and The Crying Game, to anticipated being The Tempest, a Good Will Hunting and Julie Taymor-directed picture on Swingers, to Bowling for which filming is not yet Columbine and Sicko, to complete. As for the rest of the Chicago and Gangs of New York films in Miramax's archive, it is will be absorbed into Walt uncertain whether or not Disney Disney Studios, leaving its 80 will try to offload them--or if employees in Los Angeles and Harvey and Bob can buy their New York to search for a script archive back. "I'm sure that is with a happier ending. Such a already in the works," says the fate seemed unavoidable since it source. kind of thing," says the source. no doubt about Miramax's was that original sale to Disney Disney roster.

Audiences on the hunt for in 1993 that our source, who "Disney wanted to greatly cut "And finally Harvey and Bob legacy, as it spawned some original approaches to cinema requested not to be named, says our marketing budget and were said 'Enough. You know what? inspired competition when are the real losers here, says the sucked the life out of the not entirely supportive of the At the end of the day, we just s t u d i o s o p e n e d t h e i r o w n s o u r c e , s i n c e M i r a m a x ' s company right there and then. movies we were releasing," the want to make movies, and we arthouse departments like Sony l e g e n d a r y c o m m i t m e n t t o t e l l s aren't going to be compromised Classics, Warner Independent, arthouse will wither within Michael Eisner was no fan of e m p l o y e e Miramax, says the source. Nor FastCompany.com. As a slap on artistically.'" They left their and Universal's Focus Films. Disney's walls. In 2008, studios did he enjoy the meaty blend of the wrist, employees got a name, a catalog they had worked But Miramax itself would only Paramount and Warner Brothers violence, sex, and politics Disney handbook, informing over a lifetime to acquire, have been able to survive--and closed their arthouse divisions, delivered by directors like them about proper ethics for produce and release, and started grow--with the Mouse's cash. which doesn't bode well. t h e i r o w n c o m p a n y , T h e "Miramax started as a small M i c h a e l M o o r e , Q u e n t i n Disney "cast members."

Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez "At the end, it ended up just Weinstein Company, in 2005. company that acquired movies CRYING page 13 --clearly they didn't fit the being a 'who had a bigger penis' As a business innovation, there's like Clerks and The Crying

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LEAN continued from page 8

Obama Promises Help for Small Businesses

By Courtney Rubin (Inc.com)

on new employees and give raises to those they already employ.

Staring down a 10 percent "Now, the true engine of job national unemployment rate and creation in this country will his own plummeting approval always be America’s businesses. ratings, President Barack Obama But government can create the made big promises to small c o n d i t i o n s n e c e s s a r y f o r businesses during his first State businesses to expand and hire of the Union address last night. more workers," Obama said.

The president devoted a full two "We should start where most -thirds of his 71-minute speech n e w j o b s d o - - i n s m a l l to the economy, pledging to sign businesses, companies that begin a new jobs bill and to create a when an entrepreneur takes a new lending facility, funded with chance on a dream, or a worker $ 3 0 b i l l i o n , t h a t w i l l g e t decides its time she became her community banks extending own boss." credit to small businesses again. To jump-start entrepreneurship, (Where's the money coming he proposed the elimination of from? Wall Street's repayment of capital gains taxes on small what it borrowed to the Troubled business investment. He also Asset Relief Program.) All good reiterated his plans to invest news for entrepreneurs -- if, of more in clean energy, which course, the White House can could juice funding -- and corral a skittish Congress into innovation -- in that sector. delivering.

Thanks to last year's Recovery Addressing an audience that Act provisions, the solar industry included First Lady Michelle grew by almost 40 percent in Obama, members of both houses 2009, creating 18,000 jobs, the of Congress, diplomats, the Joint Environment News Service Chiefs of Staff, and the Supreme reported.

Court, Obama called for tax " W e n e e d t o e n c o u r a g e incentives for small business American innovation," Obama owners -- who do 60 percent of said. "Last year we made the the hiring in America -- to bring largest investment in basic Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:59:00 AM

research funding history -- an investment that could lead to the world's cheapest solar cells or treatment that kills cancer cells but leaves healthy ones untouched. And no area is more ripe for such innovation than energy." (When they enshrined a State of the Union in the Constitution, we can't imagine the Founding Fathers envisioned an audience at its feet, giving perhaps the biggest cheer of the night to the president's call for construction of more nuclear power plants.)

Obama also set a goal of doubling American exports over the next five years, which would support two million jobs. It could also help companies looking to tap new overseas markets.

The Republicans' post-address response focused on jobs, too.

Said Bob McDonnell, Virginia's newly-elected governor: "We must enact policies that promote entrepreneurship and innovation so America can better compete with the world. What government should not do is pile on more taxation, regulation, and litigation that kill jobs and hurt the middle class."

possibility of being both beautifully curated (which is the hallmark of magazines) and highly news-oriented (the hallmark of blogs and newspapers). Magazines should become more newspaper-like, and vice versa.

3. Woven Narratives The Web has been toying with this for some time, with video content embedded into stories.

But the integration there is still pretty primitive. Videos and text seem fairly tacked on to each other. But if you're sitting back with an iPad or a tablet, the content you read can quite easily vacillate between words and images. Imagine a book where at crucial points the author narrates a video, of the place he's evoking in the text. Or an article where hyperlinks take you to the real live interviews with the subjects.

4. Communal Reading Reading is a largely solitary activity. Sure, you can share links on Nebul.us or through social bookmarking sites like Digg or Stumble Upon. But you can't really read as a group. Now imagine if you could annotate a book--and have those annotations shared with a virtual book club. Or imagine if you could buy a textbook annotated by a commenter you trust, who could function basically as a tutor. And even wackier: Imagine if Oprah actually sold book editions where she's offered her personal commentary or responses. Of it you could buy

obscure books that Neil Gaiman loves but that you've never heard of--complete with Gaiman's own critical responses.

5. Custom Content Places like Yahoo and Google have long toyed with home pages that you can tune to your own needs. The tablet should be able blow those out of the water.

The main problem with all those customizable content options is that they're still hideous to navigate and a pain to set-up.

Now imagine if you can create your own, continually updated issue of The New York Times or Fast Company, simply by dragging and dropping items from a table of contents. Each format would automatically create live layouts, tailored to your reading patterns. They might even push stories to your front page, based on the things you've spent time with in the past.

All of which puts Apple in an unaccustomed position. Usually, they've always relied on themselves to sell a gadget--the iPod and the iPhone were lust objects because of Apple, not because of the content providers.

This is different. iPad will live or die on how well the content providers step up.

Read more about the Apple tablet

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11

Osama bin Laden: An Unlikely Ally for Climate Change EcoWarriors?

By Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:49:24 AM

Chalk this one up under the "Whhaaat?!" category: Osama bin Laden has just dropped one of his infamous video tapes on Al Jazeera. And amid the usual rhetoric is an absolute gem--he blames the U.S. for climate change.

Let's get one thing clear right off the bat: He's a murderous psychopath of the highest order.

Any hint of truth to anything he spouts is likely bait for a bigger lie. So that means one of two things: 1. Climate change is so apparent that even a cavehopping psycho gets it; 2. He's just given giant ammunition to climate change opponents, who will subsequently link anyone who agrees with global warming data to the terrorist supreme.

The tape lasts a scant three minutes, but it contains this fabulous line: "Talk about climate change is not an ideological luxury but a reality [...] All of the industrialized countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility for the global warming crisis." Okay, so

he's not directly targeting the U.S. for blame...and his words could easily be applied to China's massive polluting potential too. But he did single out George W. Bush's assbackwards rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, compared to other wealthy nations acceptance of the need to limit emissions. And he also singled out the dollar for blame--comparing its use to the way the Mafia uses money, and urging the international community to "finish with it in

the fastest possible time" as a way to help combat climate change.

Confusing, no? What would he have the World replace the dollar with: The Afghani? What's his agenda here, other than more bad mouthing the West and the East again? And let's not even begin to dig in to the ideological implications of how much of the World's oil, responsible for many of the worst climate-change abuses, is pumped out by the billion barrel-load from Islamic

nations...

The timing is also wonderfully ironic, if you cast your mind back to some of President Obama's words in his State of the Union speech this week. "I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change [...]

But here's the thing--even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future" is the key phrase, but his speech was

Video VoIP calls over iPhone 3G? You betcha

By Jessica Dolcourt (Webware.com)

Apple's new iPhone SDK gives video calling feature. the go-ahead for 3G VoIP calls.

Originally posted at The We tested it out using Fring's D o w n l o a d B l o g

peppered with other climatechange references and warnings: Obama and Osama unlikely allies in the war on climate change? Though it's probably the only matter either man will see eye to eye on, it's still worth an exclamation along the lines of "Great Scott! What has the world come to?" [ AlJazeera via Yahoo.com, theHill]

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HIGHER continued from page 7

security, and environmental threats.

Over 200 of the 660+ ACUPCC institutions have already reported climate action plans that are open to public scrutiny. They show how campuses are ramping down energy demand through green building, conservation, and efficiency and creating markets for clean, renewable energy. The ACUPCC is setting precedent and serving as a model for the regional, national, and international climate agreements we need.

Higher education must rapidly accelerate this trend by making a healthy, just, and sustainable society an overarching goal of higher education. Frank Rhodes, former president of Cornell University, suggests that the concept of sustainability offers "a new foundation for the liberal arts and sciences." Higher education has risen to great challenges before and must do so again--now at great speed..

[Image via alyak/ CC BY-SA 2.0]

Anthony D. Cortese is the Founder and President of Second Nature, a national nonprofit organization working to accelerate movement toward a sustainable future by serving and supporting senior college and university leaders in making healthy, just, and sustainable living the foundation of all learning and practice in higher education. Second Nature is the lead supporting organization and Dr. Cortese is the Organizer of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, which more than 665 schools have joined as they pursue climate neutrality in their campus operations and educate their students to address climate change upon graduation. Second Nature also runs the Higher Education Associations in Sustainability Consortium as well as the Advancing Green Building in Higher Education initiative, which helps underresourced and minority-serving colleges and universities to build and renovate sustainably on

campus. Dr. Cortese has spent the past four decades working for sustainability and environmental protection, including his time as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection as a Dean at Tufts University.

Georges Dyer is a Senior Fellow at Second Nature, where he focuses on the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and other leadership initiatives. He holds a Master's in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden, and a BA from Dartmouth College.

For more information, see SecondNature.org, PresidentsClimateCommitment.o rg, and CampusGreenbuilder.org

U.S. Health Care Reform Is History

By Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 1/29/2010 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: Politics Health care reform remains in "File 13" (the waste-paper basket).

There is about a 1-in-20 chance that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DCalifornia, will attempt to jumpstart the process, but at this juncture, the chances are slim and none, and as that old joke goes,"Slim is out of town."

At this juncture, the only possible tack would be the reconciliation process. That would involve the U.S. House of Representatives first passing the U.S. Senate's health care reform bill as-is -- without any changes - then have the House and Senate pass a second bill with specified changes under the reconciliation process, which enables a bill to bypass the Senate's filibuster and

needs only a simple majority -51 votes - to pass the Senate.

(The reconciliation process also streamlines committee review.)

The reconciliation bill would have the changes some members in the House seek.

Continue reading U.S. Health Care Reform Is History U.S. Health Care Reform Is History originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Honeywell International Reports a Drop in Quarterly Profit

By Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks)

cents per share a year ago.

Quarterly sales dropped to $8.1 billion from $8.7 billion a year Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:30:00 AM ago. Honeywell beat consensus Filed under: Earnings Reports, earnings estimate by a penny per H o n e y w e l l I n t l ( H O N ) share, but sales came in shy of Honeywell International ( HON) expectations for $8.2 billion. on Friday released fourth-quarter "Honeywell continues to execute earnings of 91 cents per share, or well, as evidenced by our strong free cash flow generation in $698 million, compared to 97 fourth quarter finish and record 2009," chairman and CEO Dave

Cote noted. "Despite a challenging year, we delivered on our financial commitments, while continuing to invest in new products." Cote added the company has "strong momentum entering 2010."

Continue reading Honeywell International Reports a Drop in Quarterly Profit

Honeywell International Reports a Drop in Quarterly Profit originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Marketing Fail: Clean Coal Company Names Itself After the Lorax

Microsoft Q2 Earnings Jump, Aided by Windows 7

By Ariel Schwartz (Fast Company)

By Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:14:21 AM

Submitted at 1/29/2010 8:30:00 AM

We didn't have a problem when a company called Lorax Motors popped up to sell the Lorax Motor Works Hauler, a recumbent tricycle outfitted with a solar panel that powers an onboard electric assist motor.

Solar tricycles don't exactly tarnish the reputation of Dr. Seuss. But now a clean coal company has emerged that is calling itself LoraxAg. Really?

LoraxAG plans to use coal gasification technology to create farm fertilizer from previously worthless coal. Five years from now, the company will sell urea, ammonia, and sulfuric acid from its process. Essentially, LoraxAG wants to build high-sulfur coal

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), International Business Machines (IBM), Technology Microsoft ( MSFT), the tech giant behind the Windows operating system, whose colleagues include Apple ( factories--not the worst use for For its part, Seuss Enterprises AAPL), Google ( GOOG), IBM coal, but certainly not up to Dr. had no idea that LoraxAG ( IBM), and Yahoo! ( YHOO), Seuss standards. And in case existed until this week. Now that issued Q2 numbers after the bell there was any doubt about the it does, we hope that LoraxAG o n T h u r s d a y . R e v e n u e s origins of the name, LoraxAG will be denied any further increased 14%, and diluted president Mike Farina recently opportunities to destroy Dr. earnings per share went up well s t a t e d , " T h e L o r a x i s t h e Seuss's legacy. over 50% to 74 cents. protector of the truffula trees. [Via Treehugger] In terms of expectations, We think this is the greenest use Earnings.com says 59 cents was of coal." the number to beat. Obviously, the company had no problem

CRYING continued from page 9

But that spirit lives on in the Weinsteins--provided they, too, can stay afloat. "I don't think that Harvey and Bob would ever go down without a fight," says our source. "Their goal is to do what they have always done: bring the arthouse movie that was once seen by a select few in

cosmopolitan areas to a level where it is readily available to everyone, even in small town America." The source tells FastCompany.com about meeting a gay man from a rural area who said he wished he would have been able to see The Crying Game growing up. "He

really had no outlet to express The Princess and the Frog himself or know that there were probably wouldn't cut it. others like him," the source says. [ Wax Word] "Miramax's films made people like that know it was okay to be that way. It gave them more confidence and made their experience growing up a little easier."

13

doing that. As the news outlets have been reporting, Windows 7 was the big driver of the quarter's success.

Continue reading Microsoft Q2 Earnings Jump, Aided by Windows 7 Microsoft Q2 Earnings Jump, Aided by Windows 7 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Cigarettes May Cause Infections

By Janet Raloff (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:00:00 AM

In addition to causing cancer, cigarettes may carry hundreds of different germs, some that are responsible for human illnesses.

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Kindle’s death sentence commuted: Why the iPad will fail as an eReader

By Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

comforted to know that an Apple logo rests upon their khakis or Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:07:33 AM jeans while they’re doing this.

Apple grants the Kindle a stay But there will be more people — of execution It’s a question that many more people — who desire we’ve pondered for quite some an eReader platform and see the time. What will happen to iPad as a weak offering. It has no eReaders when Apple releases reflective display to offer. It uses their long awaited tablet? After no new color screen technology all, why buy a dedicated device that would have really excited for eReading when you have a s o m e p e o p l e ( o u r s e l v e s multi-function device that offers included). It’s heavy and bulky. color, a larger screen and It has a battery life that lasts everything else? Of course the 2/5ths of a day. You’ll need a answers to those questions rested murse (if a man) to carry it on a few variables. Namely, how around.

The iPad will be a success much would the iPad cost, would (mostly due to the diluted price). it use new color screen It just won’t be a success when it technologies and what format or method of buying eBooks would comes to reading. Out of our three criteria it solidly hits the it provide.

Now that we have those answers price element, fouls off on the we can safely say to traditional eBook delivery method and EPD eReaders like the Kindle, disastrously strikes out on the Nook and Sony Readers that display. It’s like The Natural(the t h e i r e x e c u t i o n h a s b e e n book version, not the uplifting movie). It swings for eReader commuted… for now.

The Apple iPad is not going to fences but comes up short. replace eReaders. Sure, it will be Apple was pretty ingenious in used as an eReader. Plenty of the pricing of this thing. They’ve people will have no problem fooled everyone into thinking reading their favorite eBooks on that the iPad is a cheap device it’s large, 9.7-inch screen. and affordable by all. But that’s They’ll enjoy going to iBooks only because they’ve introduced and downloading newspapers, a very limited 16GB version magazines and other reading with no 3G at a tasty price point. material, placing the blockish If you want a meatier storage and heavy device in their lap and capacity and 3G connection staring into the bright screen for you’re now looking at a not-soup to 10 hours. They’ll be reasonable $829. While the no

contract AT&T 3G service is a masterful stroke, you’re still looking at paying $360 a year for an unlimited 3G connection.

That means you’ll be paying $1,200 for the Apple iPad you really want during the first year.

Still, Apple can wisely claim their iPad is only $500 and that’s what people will remember when they associate price with the device.

With the introduction of iBooks, Apple has given iPad owners an iTunes for eBooks. It uses ePub but it appears that Apple haven’t learned their lesson from the proprietary iTunes days. Apple’s ePub is still DRM controlled and can’t be used on anything but other Apple products. Still, the main problem with the iPad’s eBook strategy is a good one for consumers — they leave the door open for other eBook marketplaces. Having iPhone/iPod Touch application compatibility means there’s nothing stopping a user from downloading the free Kindle or B&N eBook marketplace applications and “double pixeling” (the stupidest term to come from yesterday’s announcement in our opinion) it to full screen for reading. In effect, it’s allowing users to go shop at another store while using your shopping cart. It’s also something that Amazon will

latch onto. Now you can read your Kindle books on your iPad. Good for Kindle users, bad for Apple strategy.

Yes Kindle, you are safe. You have been granted a stay of execution and Apple will not be flipping the switch on you or your other E-Ink deathrow inmates. In fact, this may give the Kindle enough time to introduce its 3rd generation Kindle. One with a Mirasol or Pixel Qi screen that is capable of supporting a high framerate and reflective color. Apple had a chance to do away with the EInk generation but they’ve failed quite substantially. It’s a reprieve that Amazon and Sony are sure to take advantage of. 3 Responses to “Kindle’s death sentence commuted: Why the iPad will fail as an eReader” • Excellent assessment, thank you! The question I have now is, will Amazon cut the price on the Kindle DX before the public can order the iPad? • Very interesting post and I do see your point. Difficult to say whether it´s valid at this stage though. My guess is that we have two groups of consumers: One that finds the color plus extremely user friendly Apple experience a much bigger pro than the con represented by the screen tech. Then we also have the other group: Those who think

that the screen tech and battery time is what matters. Those that are not that into other activities than reading. They will probably continue to go Kindle.

• I think the question to ask (vs. the “Kindle killer” question) is will the iPad limit the growth potential for the Kindle. With the exception of Sony, thus far Amazon has enjoyed a near monopoly on eInk based readers.

An exciting number of new eInk based players offered some interesting alternatives, but I would guess that Amazon felt some comfort competing in that tightly defined space given their current success. Apple’s iPad will impact that comfort zone. It introduces color, multi-media and frankly a “cool factor” at a price point that will clearly impact Kindle sales. Like the Kindle, Apple will evolve this product and we should expect in time all the known deficiencies (with the possible exception of the name ;>) to be addressed: multi-tasking, oled, camera, default gps, and 16:9 and HDMI for the movie set. Flash support will require an acquisition of either Apple or Adobe of each other ;> Kindle will need to move to color and other formats, and that hill has for now been claimed by Apple. So I think it’s KINDLE’S page 16

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Slate Showdown: iPad vs. HP Slate vs. JooJoo vs. the Android Tablets [Tablets]

By Dan Nosowitz (Gizmodo) Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:00:00 AM

Everybody's talking about tablets, especially those singlepane capacitive touchscreen ones more specifically known as "slates." The iPad is the biggest newsmaker, but there are lots headed our way (most with builtin webcams). Here's how they measure up, spec-wise: Click on the image to view it larger As you can see, they have different strengths and weaknesses, some of which will become more clear in the coming months as we learn more about each tablet. (That Dell Mini 5 is especially inscrutable right now.)

The iPad has the most storage, cheap 3G, the time-tested iPhone OS and its mountain of apps, and a serious amount of Apple marketing juice behind it. But it's also famously lacking features common to the other tablets, such as webcam and multitasking. The Notion Ink Adam is perhaps the most interesting of the bunch, with its dual-function transflective screen from Pixel Qi: It can be either a normal LCD or, with the flick of

I Spy? Not Anymore (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:00:00 PM

Sorry, readability was unable to

First Render of Richard Branson's Underwater Plane [Richard Branson]

By AddyDugdale (Gizmodo) Submitted at 1/29/2010 10:15:00 AM

A few days before Crimbo last year, Blam posted on the news that Virgin boss Richard Branson was getting into deep water.

Well, we've now got a render of a switch, an easy-on-the-eyes web-only device in the bunch. It DanceWithShadows, Gizmodo] the hydrobatic Necker Nymph, reflective LCD that resembles e- doesn't really have apps, can't A quick word about "slates" vs. as it's been named. i n k . I t s h a r d w a r e i s a l s o multitask, and pretty much "tablets": These are tablets, and The billionaire is taking delivery surprisingly impressive—but it confines you to an albeit fancy it's a word we prefer. The sad of the carbon-fiber underwater remains to be seen if Android is browser, sort of like Chrome OS fact is, it's overused. There's no plane on February 20, and it will really the right OS for a 10-inch will. The JooJoo is also the only way to say "tablet" without be available to guests at his tablet. t a b l e t h e r e t o h a v e n o including every godawful stylus- luxury Necker Island resort. Sub, T h e D e l l M i n i 5 a n d d e m o n s t r a t e d w a y t o r e a d based convertible laptop built underwater plane, call it what forthcoming Android edition of e b o o k s . since 2002. (Thank you, Bill you will, the Nymph uses fighter the Archos 7 tablet are two of a Data Sources: Gates!) And even the new jet technology (pew pew) and is k i n d , a l m o s t o v e r s i z e d Apple iPad: [ Gizmodo] touchscreen tablets come in piloted with a joystick. smartphones in their feature sets. HP Slate: [ Gizmodo, GDGT; single-pane and keyboard- Although Branson has said that Is an extra two or three inches of Tipster] equipped laptop styles. So the carbon-fiber underwater screen real estate worth the F u s i o n G a r a g e J o o J o o : [ "slate," good or bad, is the more plane would be able to go down c o n s e q u e n t d e c r e a s e i n Gizmodo] apt term. to 35,000 feet, the $670,000 pocketability? Perhaps not. And Notion Ink Adam: [ Slashgear] submersible can, for now, only finally, there's the maligned Dell Mini 5: [ Gizmodo, dive to 130 feet. Yeah, well so JooJoo, formerly the CrunchPad, Gizmodo] can I, Richard - the only a bit of an oddball as the only Archos 7 Android: [ difference being, as far as I can see, is that I'm not a virgin. [ Daily Mail] parse this page for content.

Term Extraction.

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

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SoundGraph launches new FingerVU touchscreen auxiliary monitors that run independently from your computer

By Tablet (BestTabletReview.com) Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:29:58 PM

The FingerVU auxiliary monitors Korean manufacturer SoundGraph has launched two new touchscreen USB auxiliary monitors called FingerVu that can run independently from your computer. The FingerVU 436 is a 4.3-inch resistive touchscreen while the larger FingerVU 706 features a 7-inch resistive touchscreen.

We recently saw a tablet/auxiliary monitor at CES with the same general concept in the Cydle M7. Both FingerVU monitors continue this trend by connecting through USB to your computer and becoming an

addition monitor, or by running completely independent to your computer through the FingerUI. In essence, it’s an applicationbased screen not too dissimilar to the Sony Dash or Chumby. You can control the apps on the FingerVU by touching the screen and play music, view movies, watch YouTube, check the weather or do any other manner of tasks.

The screen we’re most interested in is the FingerVu 706 which is really a Samsung 7-inch resistive touchscreen with an 800 x 480 resolution. It has two USB 2.0 ports (one for power and one for data trasmission) and measures 7.09 x 4.72 inches. The FingerVu monitors both come with an IR remote control and

KINDLE’S continued from page 14

easier for iPad to evolve to be a better Kindle than a Kindle to become a better iPad. If consumers move to a new device at the current price points, all but the hard-core reader will choose iPad or other multi-media device.

Kindle could still have a place, but not at the current price point.

I expect they know that and we’ll see a rapid decline of price for all eInk based readers in the near

future. Even Kindle lovers should thank Apple for that.

are mounted to their bases, however each base allow you to rotate it between portrait and landscape mode. The smaller monitor, the FingerVU 436, is a Samsung 4.3-inch resistive touchscreen with a 480 x 272 resolution. It measures 4.8 x 3.15 inches.

Both are available for sale now from SoundGraph’s website and they’re quite affordable. The FingerVU 436 is currently $129 while the FingerVU 706 is $179.

Here’s a video that shows just what both can do.

Source: Aving Leave a Reply Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

But He Was So Funny in That One Movie [Hacks]

By Pareene (Gawker) Leave a Reply Five Filters featured article: Submitted at 1/29/2010 10:01:51 AM Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Ben Stein: is he still an idiot and Term Extraction. a hack? Yes, Felix Salmon reports.

Broadcom co-founder cleared of drug-related charges, party at Henry T. Nicholas III's place!

By Tim Stevens (Engadget)

necessarily false: the case is being thrown out thanks to improper conduct on behalf of Usually when a judge says that the prosecution, who apparently you have had "a serious drug not only used improper means to problem," you're in trouble. influence witnesses but was also When he does so in a court of r e s p o n s i b l e f o r l e a k i n g law in which you've been information to the press. (Oops.) a c c u s e d o f d r u g - r e l a t e d Nicholas indicates he's now d e b a u c h e r y . . . w e l l , s u r e l y planning on doing some charity nothing good can happen. Yet work, but he shouldn't party somehow, thanks to the luck of away his legal fund just yet -the filthy rich, Henry T Nicholas this has appeal written all over it.

III, co-founder of Broadcom, has Broadcom co-founder cleared of managed to escape the crazy drug-related charges, party at allegations of wild, drug-filled Henry T. Nicholas III's place! parties, of spiking executives' originally appeared on Engadget drinks with MDMA, and of once on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:09:00 smoking so much marijuana on a EST. Please see our terms for private airplane that the pilot had use of feeds. Permalink| The to don a gas mask. That said, our Register| Email this| Comments visions of wild telecom nights and coke-riddled days aren't Submitted at 1/29/2010 8:09:00 AM

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Steve Jobs compares iPad battery life to Kindle's: 'You're not going to read for 10 hours' (video)

By Tim Stevens (Engadget) Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:09:00 AM

Hey, remember back when Steve Jobs said " people don't read anymore" when discussing why the Kindle would be a failure? Heh, funny story: turns out Apple just released a device called the iPad and, at its unveiling, spent an awful lot of time showing off what a great reader it is. However, when comparing it to Kindle ( as we did here) you have to think about that battery life figure: 10 hours

vs. seven days. When Walt Mossberg caught Jobs after the unveiling for a little gonzo-style interview he asked about this, and Jobs said "you're not going to read for 10 hours...you just end up pluggin' it in." So, Steve now concedes that people do read, but apparently they don't do it for long without coming close to a power receptacle. When asked about price differentials between books on the devices, rumored to be as much as$5 more than on Kindle, Jobs somewhat reluctantly states that

"publishers are actually withholding books from Amazon because they're not happy," and that "the prices will be the same" -- but doesn't indicate whether

Amazon's prices will be going up or that rumored $14.99 price point is going down. It's all in the video after the break, including plenty of face time with Walt.

Continue reading Steve Jobs compares iPad battery life to Kindle's: 'You're not going to read for 10 hours' (video) Steve Jobs compares iPad battery life to Kindle's: 'You're not going to read for 10 hours' (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| All Things D| Email this| Comments

Nexus One experiencing nationwide data outage?

By Darren Murph (Engadget)

As you can see above, our own Josh Topolsky is seeing the error Submitted at 1/29/2010 10:26:00 AM in Brooklyn, NY. Some users Well, Happy Friday to you, too! have reported that their SIM card We've been inundated with tips pulls down data when swapped from perturbed Nexus One users out of the Nexus One and into across the country (and even in another handset, and both TPuerto Rico) suggesting that Mobile and HTC tech support their T-Mobile data coverage is centers have purportedly been completely out of commission. slammed. At the moment, no one

originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink XDA Developers| T-Mobile Forums, Google Forums| Email this| Comments

really seems to know what the issue is, but we have seen some

reports from owners that their data is coming down just fine.

So, what say you? Let us know what's going on with your Nexus One in the poll below.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in] View Poll Nexus One experiencing nationwide data outage?

OS run like Windows Mobile on a good day, be my guest. Push servers work great for alwaysconnected applications. As for Flash, I think it’s all political.

Anyway, rant over. Those little minxes at 9to5mac found Flash you watch the video after the running in Safari on the iPad. If

jump, you notice that when they browse the NYT you can see the Dining section pop up. The Dining section is usually represented by video in a Flash box.

Obviously this could all just be ’shopped in, so don’t get your

hopes up if you totally want to play some wonky Flash games in the browser and they don’t work.

However, maybe the Flash thaw is coming.

Here is the same page in Safari for the iPhone.

The iPad runs Flash?

By John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:30:02 AM

Listen: cry me a river about Flash and multi-tasking. If Apple wants to keep multi-tasking for their own apps in an effort to prevent folks from making their

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Sony says the Reader is selling 'very well,' thank you very much, isn't planning color versions

By Tim Stevens (Engadget) Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:37:00 AM

With all this talk of iPads and Kindles shaking up the print world, few people are sparing a thought for Sony's noble Reader series, so the company would like to take this opportunity to remind you that it is "selling very well." Fujio Noguchi, Deputy President of Sony's e-book division, indicated that the gadget is its most popular item in the Sony Style store, with the Touch Edition selling the most units. He says that his focus is on "readability" and that the company will continue to use e-

paper, good news for those with sensitive eyes, but that Sony has no plans for a color Reader until color e-ink screens are of sufficient quality. So, for now, you'll just have to buy yourself the one on the left above if you're looking to tickle your cones.

Sony says the Reader is selling 'very well,' thank you very much, isn't planning color versions originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink E-Reader -info| Tech-On| Email this| Comments

Videos: Machine turns office paper into toilet paper

By Serkan Toto (CrunchGear)

a perfectly made toilet paper roll.

The machine shreds the paper, Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:00:16 AM which is then dissolved in water, What we have here is a machine thinned out, dried and wound that automatically turns office into toilet rolls. Oriental says one paper into toilet paper. It’s called roll costs 10 Yen ($0.11) to White Goat (seriously) and is make, which isn’t bad. And the made by a Japanese company White Goat can be installed right called Oriental[JP]. The way it in your office, too. Oriental also works is simple: You just feed claims that regular usage of the the machine with about 40 sheets machine can save up to 60 cedar of office (or whatever) paper, trees annually. wait for 30 minutes and take out The White Goat stands 1.8m tall

and weighs 600kg. It will go on sale in Japan this summer (it’s been in development for years).

Price: $100,000.

This video (English/Japanese) shows how the White Goat works in more detail: Here’s a longer one (in Japanese) I pulled from the company’s website:

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Wall Of iPads Could Be Used In Libraries To Display iBooks, Just Like This Concept Rendering [Apple]

Giroux Daguerreotype is world's first mass-produced camera, about to become the most expensive one too

By Kat Hannaford (Gizmodo) Submitted at 1/29/2010 8:40:32 AM

Review: Crush the Castle for iPhone/iPod Touch

If only Apple had recreated its app wall from WWDC last year, but with iPads! The 300 iPads

By Vladislav Savov tripod as well. Speaking of (Engadget) used in this concept wall from budget, if you know the meaning Austraian architects would cost of the word you're not probably Submitted at 1/29/2010 8:37:00 AM $149,700 if it was real. Apple not the target audience here, as a could've afforded it, I'm sure.

If you thought that shooters like May auction in Vienna is set to ClarkeHopkinsClarke, the Olympus' E-P1 or Leica's M8 start at €200,000 ($280,000), By John Biggs (CrunchGear) a trebuchet with weapons (rocks, had old school aesthetics, think with predictions placing the final Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:24:36 AM firebombs, whatever else) by Aussie architects who mocked again. The real old school -- sale price closer to €700,000 tapping once. You tap again up the above concept wall, we're talking 1839 here -- was all ($980,000).

Every so often you find a game launch and then tap to release at believe it'd be the perfect about wooden boxes and brass Giroux Daguerreotype is world's so addicting that you can't stop some point in the arc. The items installation for a library, with lens protrusions, as you can see first mass-produced camera, playing it. I'm that way with two swing out into space and land at hundreds of different ebooks above. The double box design of about to become the most g a m e s o n t h e i P h o n e : some point on a castle that is displayed. But that's not the end the Daguerreotype lets you expensive one too originally Fieldrunners and Civ Revolution. essentially made of beams. The of this story—due to the size and achieve focus by moving the appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 C l o s e r u n n e r s u p a r e beams react in a naturalistic way weight of the iPad, we could be smaller inner box away from the Jan 2010 08:37:00 EST. Please iShoot(there are only so many meaning they move as if they seeing a lot of innovative uses front-mounted 15-inch lens. see our terms for use of feeds. times you can launch nukes) and were real beams and you then for them, as interactive wallpaper Exposure times can take up to Permalink| Reg Hardware| Email now Crush the Castle. Designed crush little people underneath in clubs, teaching aides in schools, and so on. There's the half an hour, though, so you this| Comments

by Armor Games, CtC was them. Rinse. Repeat. small hurdle of cost, of course. [ might wanna budget for a sturdy originally a Flash game ported to ClarkeHopkinsClarke via the iPhone. To play you load up TUAW]

Gun Show Touts Digital Revolvers, Koosh Bullets and Triple-Tasers

By Aaron Rowe (Wired Top Stories)

Blaze through the highlights F r o m a g u n a r m e d b y a from the 2010 Shooting and wristwatch to a laser taser that Outdoor Trade (SHOT Show. can entertain your kitty, we look

at the tech weaponry on display this year.

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Intel and AMD Six-Core Processor Roadmaps Leaked [Rumor]

By Brian Barrett (Gizmodo) Submitted at 1/29/2010 8:43:51 AM

Toshiba to sell Hello Kitty Regza LCD TV

By Serkan Toto (CrunchGear)

pop up on the screen every time you mute the TV or change channels (see picture below).

It’s not the first Hello Kitty TV Technically, we have an HD TV out there, but this new Toshiba (1,366×768 resolution) from TV is perhaps the one with the Toshiba’s REGZA line with m o s t d i s c r e e t d e s i g n . 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 2×3W By Doug Aamoth Announced[JP] today, the Hello speakers and 2 HDMI ports. (CrunchGear) Kitty 19A800KT is a 19-inch The Hello Kitty TV will go on LCD TV that sports the cartoon sale in Japan on February 5 for Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:00:19 AM cat on both the device itself and $700. Needless to say, the device Have you heard about Blu-ray? the remote controller. But that’s is Japan-only at this point.

Don’t question it, just get a not all. player! They’re all the rage!

In addition, a Hello Kitty will You can get into the whole Bluray game for just $90 today as Amazon is selling the Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray Disc Player at a $42 discount.

This is an entry-level player, so you’ll miss out on internet Submitted at 1/29/2010 3:41:00 AM

CrunchDeals: Sylvania Blu-ray player for $90 connectivity, but you get the allimportant 1080p resolution, HDMI 1.3a support, and the 1.1 BonusView profile (no 2.0/BDLive because, again, there’s no internet connectivity).

Outputs include one each of HDMI, component, composite, and coaxial. There’s also an SD card slot for viewing photos and whatnot.

Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray Disc Player[Amazon]

According to DigiTimes, we'll be seeing both AMD Thuban and Intel Gulftown six-core desktop processors hitting in just a few short months.

It's all from anonymous sources, but at least on the Intel side the information matches up with what we've seen previously.

Gulftown (aka the Core i7-980X) will apparently be available as early as this March, although at a hefty $1,000 or more per chip.

Gulftown is also rumored to be the processor for the next Mac Pro, so it's encouraging to see it nearly ready to debut.

On the AMD side, you'll have to wait a little longer. According to DigiTimes, the Phenom II X6 1075T, 1055T and 1035T, all 45nm process chips, will be available in May. [ DigiTimes]

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Is eBay facing seller revolt?

(CNET News.com)

eBay items with a starting price of 99 cents or less no longer have a listing fee, and if they eBay's latest move, some of the don't sell, the seller pays nothing; auction site's devotees say, is but if they do sell, the final value straight out of the Ministry of fee is 9 percent with a maximum Truth's playbook. of $50. Previously, it had been T h e c o m p a n y m a d e a n 8.75 percent for the first $25, and announcement on Tuesday 3.75 percent after that. For more announcement about lowering s e r i o u s e B a y s e l l e r s w h o the listing fees for items--even purchase subscriptions to run though, in many cases, final "stores," final value fees have value fees will be raised. The been altered so that they start at a company's discussion forums lower threshold, but in some simmered with outrage over the cases can ultimately get higher. e x e c u t i v e d e c i s i o n , a n d eBay piloted these changes in frustration over the lack of other some European markets starting options for auction-style e- i n 2 0 0 8 ( w i t h s u c c e s s , commerce. representatives say), and later "What a joke," commented one added some U.S.-based beta person on the eBay Seller testers whom it's showcased in a Central forum, asking for advice new promotional site explaining about transferring the items from it all, called " The Best Place To an eBay "store" to another Sell." auction site. Another suggested " P e o p l e w h o h a v e s t o r e putting together an April Fool's subscriptions, who sell thousands Day protest. of items a month, are being eBay representatives say that advantaged," explained Alan these opinions come from the Lewis, who worked at eBay as a minority. "A lot of the sellers product manager for five years that we're talking to are very, and now serves as the platform very happy with these changes," manager for Auctiva, a site that said Todd Lutwak, eBay's senior makes tools for eBay sellers. director of seller experience. He "(This) continues the direction said it gives a better array of that they've been going for the options for different kinds of past couple years, which is sellers. "What we've done with catering more and more to large these price changes is, we've sellers...It's something that segmented the seller population makes sense for eBay. They just and then we've provided those h a v e t o d e a l w i t h t h e segments with what we feel are c o n s e q u e n c e s . I f t h e y a r e better options to meet their bringing on larger sellers, there needs." will be consequences for smaller Here's the math: Individual sellers."

Submitted at 1/29/2010 4:00:00 AM

An eBay pundit who goes by the handle "AuctionWally" wrote a blog post in which he speculated that the fee changes "will benefit the savvy consumer of collectibles, antique and unique items as this plan brings a lot more product to the marketplace with low starting bids," and that "this stuff can be more like reading tea leaves than a flow chart, but it looks pretty good from an auction seller's perspective, and just as nice for most store sellers." Still, many of Wally's own commenters disagreed with him--some with extremely strong language.

Granted, when a company makes a product change announcement, it's the ticked-off ones who are the most vocal. But those dissatisfied sellers sure want to be heard.

"The lower announced listing fee decreases are absurdly trivial to the extreme, and will cause eBay to become more cluttered than ever with overpriced, worthless stuff that people will put purely on speculation that some fool will bite," an Alexandria, Virginia-based antiques dealer related to CNET in an e-mail. "I have been selling on eBay since 1997 and I know eBay like the back of my hand. It is a true love -hate relationship."

Any community site-particularly one where members may be making a profit by participating in that community-is sure to experience some dissent when changes are made.

For eBay, however, the uproar from some sellers about this week's fee changes was more vociferous than usual. It amounted to Orwellian doublespeak, some claimed; and the "Best Place To Sell" microsite was little more than propaganda.

"Maybe eBay thinks a simple and transparent 'spin' that they are trying to offer will work-dropping their listing fees, which are small, and then upping the final sale fees from 3.5 percent to 9 percent--and just slip by all their sellers," said Northville, Mich.-based eBay seller Bill Wever, who says he has used the site for over a decade and owned eBay stock since its initial public offering in 1998, in an e-mail to CNET. "After reading (this week's) announcement, I will be expanding my presence on other sites and will be significantly reducing my presence on eBay," another seller e-mailed to CNET on the same day the fee changes were announced. "It never ceases to amaze me that eBay management seems to dismiss or disregard how constant change negatively affects their feepaying sellers. Last year, there were two major change announcements. This year there will be three."

At the center of the mayhem, really, is a problem that eBay has had a rough time with in recent years: It obviously wants to make a profit. That profit comes

from commission fees, and those commission fees are biggest coming from the sales of relatively expensive goods by well-established sellers--many of whom pay a subscription to operate "stores." Hiking up listing fees has had a noticeable impact on eBay's quarterly earnings in the past.

"All the things that they've done in the past couple years have been to bring more large sellers onto the site and bring them the economic incentives to do so, and they really haven't done anything for small sellers," said Alan Lewis of Auctiva, which targets smaller-scale sellers.

And eBay has been feeling the pressure for years. It made some arguably poor acquisition choices in the past half-decade that ultimately resulted in the selling off of properties like Skype and StumbleUpon, all of which dealt a blow to shareholder confidence. Plus, online auctions are no longer the hub of deals that they used to be: An increasingly diverse cornucopia of e-commerce innovations has emerged in recent years, from handmadegoods emporium Etsy to fire-sale deal-a-day outlets like Woot and Gilt.

But the flip side of this is that eBay still has a lock on auctions.

It smoked out much of its wouldbe competition years ago, and EBAY page 26

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Does Freedom Of The Press In The UK Include Just Making Things Up?

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 1/29/2010 4:17:00 AM

Personally, I've had pretty good experiences in dealing with the UK press, who have interviewed me on a few different occasions.

I haven't found the experience to be particularly different than talking with the American press (or, frankly, the press from a number of other countries). I was aware that the UK press has, in general, more of a reputation for sensationalism, but in general I hadn't seen a huge problem.

However, Jake points us to a couple of blog posts from a psychology professor discussing how one of the more respected UK publications apparently made up a story, claiming an American professor's research said something that it didn't come close to saying, and then didn't seem particularly interested in correcting it: The article reported that "Researchers claim that blondes are more likely to display a "warlike" streak because they attract more attention than other women and are used to getting their own way -- the so-called "princess effect."" The Times article quotes the evolutionary psychologist at the University of California -- Santa Barbara,

Aaron Sell, and his findings are purportedly published in his article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, written with the two Deans of Modern Evolutionary Psychology, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby.

As it turns out, however, none of this is true, as Sell explains in his angry letter to the Times. He and his coauthors do not mention blondes at all in their paper and they don't even have hair color in their data. The supplementary analyses that Sell performed after the publication of the paper, as a personal favor to the Times reporter, show the exact opposite of what the Times article claims.

After he presumably listened to Sell explain all of this on the phone, the Times reporter nonetheless made up the whole thing, and attributed it to Sell.

Reading through the actual letter from Sell is really quite damning as he details one by one all of the false statements in the Times' article. Here's just a snippet (it goes on and on): Mr. Harlow called to ask me about blonde women in particular. He said he was writing an article about

anyway).

I have no evidence whatsoever on the effects of dying one's hair blonde. Of course, it's also noted blondes, and that he knew of ancestry constitute essentially the that Reporters Without Borders other research showing that only ethnic group in the sample ranks the UK higher than the US blondes feel more entitled._I told whose members could be blonde when it comes to freedom of the him that my research did not o r n o t , a n d t h e r e i s _ n o _ press, leading the professor to look at blondes at all._ At his r e l a t i o n s h i p a m o n g t h e m claim that perhaps the UK press request, and as a courtesy to him, between blondeness and attitudes is a little too free when it feels I reanalyzed our unpublished toward use of the military. Any comfortable making such totally data to see if there was any analysis of "blondeness" that unsubstantiated claims. relationship between being does not control for ethnicity on I'd be curious if some of our UK blonde and any variable I questions about political attitudes readers could weigh in on all of measured. There was not, and I creates the possibility that one this, as it does sound a bit told him so. (Although we had could find a spurious correlation, extreme. We're all familiar with not taken hair color in the because women of Asian and newspapers twisting stories or studies, being uninterested in it, I African-American ancestry (e.g.) getting facts wrong, but the was able to recode the data are never blonde. I explained description here seems a bit r e t r o a c t i v e l y b a s e d o n t h i s t o M r . H a r l o w , a n d ridiculous. Also, as we well photographs.) explained that this means_there know, the UK has very strict Specifically, I told him, based is no evidence in my data that libel laws, and it seems like on our data: blondeness causes militaristic outright lying could get a Blonde women do_not_ feel attitudes._) reporter in trouble pretty quickly, more entitled.

The data aside, Mr. Harlow so it sounds odd and surprising Blonde women are_not_ more attributes statements to me, in that it would be done often, if at prone to anger quotation marks, that I have all. In the meantime, if all of this Blonde women do_not_ feel never said: is true, it again makes me more attractive than other I h a v e n e v e r p u b l i s h e d , wonder about those who seem to women. researched, thought about, or think that a strong press is Blonde women are_not_ more used the phrase, "Princess important. What they really militaristic.

Effect." mean is that good reporting is ( T h i s l a s t a n a l y s i s a b o u t I did not refer to Southern important, and that does not militarism controls for ethnicity, California as the "homeland of appear to be the same thing. a necessary control because the privileged blonde."

Permalink| Comments| Email political attitudes are correlated I never speculated on why This Story with ethnicity and social class. blondes would be less likely to Moreover, women of European be in fights (which is not true

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Next Week: Mashable NextUp NYC, The Future Journalist [Social Media Week]

By Adam Hirsch (Mashable!)

writer for Mashable.com, where he covered trends in news media, and contributed to Poynter Less than 100 tickets remain for A Conversation and Q&A with: Online’s E-Media Tidbits. You Mashable’s Social Media Week Sree Sreenivasan– Prof. Sree can follow him on Twitter at event, NextUp NYC – The S r e e n i v a s a n , C o l u m b i a twitter.com/lavrusik and the Web Future Journalist on Wednesday, Journalism School Dean of lavrusik.com. Thanks to our F e b r u a r y 3 r d , 2 0 1 0 a t Student Affairs and contributing Sponsors 92YTribeca. editor, DNAinfo.com.

“Pepsi believes in the power of Join us for networking and a Sree Sreenivasan is a tech written articles for The New people and their ideas to make conversation and Q&A with Sree e v a n g e l i s t a n d s k e p t i c York Times, BusinessWeek, positive change. That’s why Sreenivasan (Professor and s p e c i a l i z i n g i n e x p l a i n i n g Rolling Stone, National Journal, Pepsi is giving away more than Columbia Journalism School technology to non-techies. He is Bloomberg, Forbes and Popular $20 million this year to fund Dean of Student Affairs and a professor and dean of students Science. You can find him on good ideas, big and small, that c o n t r i b u t i n g e d i t o r o f affairs at Columbia University’s Twitter at twitter.com/sreenet move communities forward. The D N A i n f o . c o m ) a n d V a d i m Graduate School of Journalism, and on the Web at sree.net.

Pepsi Refresh Project invites Lavrusik (new media journalist where he teaches in the digital V a d i m L a v r u s i k – O n l i n e individuals to share their ideas and digital media graduate media program. Sreenivasan is journalist and M.S. candidate in about how they can refresh the student at Columbia University c o n t r i b u t i n g e d i t o r a t Digital Media at Columbia world. The public votes for their Journalism School). Details DNAinfo.com, a Manhattan- Journalism School favorite ideas and Pepsi will give Location: 92Y Tribeca, 200 news startup he helped launch in Vadim Lavrusik is a new media out up to $1.3 million each Hudson Street, New York, NY 2009 with Joe Ricketts, the journalist and social media month to fund the winning ideas.

10013 founder of Ameritrade and consultant studying digital media Pepsi is leveraging the power of Socialize: Facebook Event Page whose family just bought the at the Columbia University social media platforms to inspire Pricing:$20 in advance, $25 at Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Graduate School of Journalism ideas and encourage individuals door. Tickets on Sale Now. Field. He also has been a fixture where he is launching NYC 3.0, to participate.”

Food and drink: Full cash bar on NYC-area television. For a tech start-up news site as part “ Zemoga is an award-winning a n d f o o d m e n u a v a i l a b l e more than eight years, he served of his Master’s project. He’s digital innovation agency that Schedule as technology reporter for reported for publications like the specializes in the creation of • 6 : 0 0 – 7 : 1 5 = O p e n WABC-TV and WNBC-TV and Star Tribune, The Minnesota m e a n i n g f u l a n d e n g a g i n g Networking now occasionally appears on D a i l y , t h e M p l s . / S t . P a u l interactive experiences and • 7:15 – 8:45 = Conversation various TV shows (on CNN, Business Journal and most applications. With offices in the and Q&A with Sree Sreenivasan NBC’s Today Show, CNBC and recently was a guest feature US and Colombia, Zemoga and Vadim Lavrusik elsewhere) to talk tech. He has empowers customers with Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:38:18 AM

• 8:45 – Bar Close = Open Networking

Alt Text: Your Geek Guide to Poker-Chip Snobbery

By Lore Sjöberg (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 1/28/2010 5:00:00 PM

Home gamblers double down on obsession, delving into the weight, composition and relative cool factor of various types of

"casino tokens." Don't let this happen to you.

groundbreaking solutions through a model that provides efficiencies at every level.

Zemoga’s clients include Sears Holdings, HBO, ING, Yahoo, Viacom, A&E Television Networks, Toyota, SONY Music, and Rodale.” Thanks to our Partner“ SMAC– the Social Media Advertising Consortium fosters collaboration throughout the entire social media ecosystem, diving deep into critical issues and staying ahead of this constantly evolving industry. By bringing together buy side, sell side, and research professionals to develop relevant standards, comprehensive research and definitive measurement tools, our goal is to grow revenues and increase engagement. SMAC members are groundbreakers.

Entrepreneurs. Thought leaders.

Together, we form a community that feeds off each other’s creativity, creating an environment for learning and discovery.”

Tags: Events, nextup-nyc, social media week

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Adobe speaks up about Flash on the iPad

By Chris Rawson (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:45:00 PM

Filed under: OS, Software, Internet Tools The iPhone and iPod touch haven't run Flash natively in the years since their respective debuts, and it's pretty clear based on Steve Jobs's presentation yesterday that the iPad won't run Flash, either.

When scrolling through the New York Times's main page, for example, where Flash ads or video might have been there were instead broken LEGO icons, big as life on the screen at the keynote.

Predictably, Adobe isn't happy about this, and is accusing Apple of "continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers." They go on to say that without Flash support, "users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web."

Let's work backwards from this.

First of all, I'd be very interested to see where Adobe got those percentages. Apparently YouTube now accounts for a mere 25% of video on the internet? As for Hulu and a few of the other specific sites mentioned in Adobe's rant, now

that Apple is in the business of selling content, exactly how is it in the company's best interest to provide access to that same content, through another company's platform, for free?

And as far as games are concerned, once again Apple has this covered, through the App Store. Far from being limited, content publishers and consumers will merely have to adjust to a new method of publishing and consuming content: one that doesn't involve Adobe in any way.

I know anecdotal data is the worst kind there is, but in nearly a year of using my iPhone to connect to the internet, not only have I not missed Flash, I've been glad it isn't there. Flash's performance on Mac OS X is so abysmal that when YouTube announced an opt-in HTML5 beta to replace Flash, I bounced up and down in my office chair in glee. I can only imagine the bag of hurt that would be introduced if Apple let Flash run on its mobile devices.

If you want to know why Flash doesn't run on the iPhone, the iPod touch, or the iPad, why Flash will never run on those devices, and why that's a really good thing, check out this piece

by Daring Fireball's John Gruber. One of the key points of Gruber's argument is that Flash

awfully restrictive to me. It seems like a really bad idea to let a single company have that much control over the creation and delivery of the internet's content, don't you think?.

With the iPhone and iPod touch we already have tens of millions of mobile devices owned by tens of millions of highly satisfied consumers, and not one of those devices runs Flash. With the advent of the iPad, we can expect millions more mobile devices to hit the market, and none of them will run Flash, either. Thanks to YouTube and vimeo, HTML5's star is on the rise for delivering free video content on the internet, and the App Store has gaming covered. There's no telling what the internet will look like in ten years, but one thing appears certain: if things continue as they have, Adobe will no longer have the is, by far, the biggest source of performance on the Mac, gee, stranglehold over video and application crashes in OS X. why wouldn't Apple want it gaming content that it enjoys Flash crashes so often that running on their mobile devices? today.

Apple's engineers went out of Want to see something that [Via Engadget] their way to create a new "imposes restrictions on content TUAW Adobe speaks up about mechanism for running plugins publishers and consumers?" Flash on the iPad originally in Snow Leopard; in 10.6, Flash Look no farther than Flash itself. appeared on The Unofficial runs as its own process rather According to the company's own Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, than being lumped in with Safari, (possibly made-up) numbers, 28 Jan 2010 22:45:00 EST. meaning than when (not if) Flash 70% of games and 75% of video Please see our terms for use of crashes, it doesn't bring all of on the internet is all shuffled feeds.

Safari down with it. Considering t h r o u g h o n e c o m p a n y ' s Read| Permalink| Email this| Flash's poor stability and fan- proprietary plugin. I don't know Comments b l a s t i n g , C P U - h o g g i n g about you, but that sounds

Tech/

E-reader News Edition

iPad vs. Kindle: Which way to go?

By Mel Martin (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 1/28/2010 7:00:00 PM

Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, Cult of Mac, Books In my post yesterday I touched on the likely long faces at Amazon H.Q. in Seattle. The iPad is something I'm sure they wished hadn't happened, but of course it did, and I thought I'd take a closer look at the competition between the Amazon and Apple devices.

First off, if you were thinking of buying a Kindle DX, I'd say forget it. The iPad is a knockout punch to that device. At just ten dollars cheaper than the low end iPad, there just is no contest. The two devices are the same size (both are 9.7"), but the iPad has a color screen and can do a lot of things that Kindle just can't do.

Yes, the DX has free 3G wireless for buying books, but the iPad has 802.11n, and for most common usage, it just isn't that hard to find a place to hook up. Book prices may be a bit higher on the iPad, but they will be in color and multimedia with the promise of moving video, color charts and pictures, and so on. I also consider the on-screen keyboard an advantage for the iPad -- the keyboard on the Kindle is basically a waste of space.

As a travel companion, all you can do on the DX is read, although there is a rudimentary

browser, and more functionality coming. Subscriptions are another Kindle selling point, but it's not a stretch to believe that Apple has something like that coming as well. Comparing the iPad to the Kindle DX, I just don't think there is any contest, and Amazon is going to be forced to think about how they are pricing and marketing the Kindle DX. OK, on to the standard issue Kindle at U.S. $259.00. This decision is a bit trickier. It's about half the cost of the low end iPad, has a smaller screen, but does have built in no-charge 3G. That's mainly for buying books, as web browsing is pretty painful. Once again, books seem a bit cheaper on the Kindle at this stage, but I've noticed prices creeping up. Battery life with wireless off is about 2 weeks, and the iPad can never touch

examples makes me giddy. As a consumer, I'll want to get books that have those kinds of features.

In the early days of technology, new inventions tend to mimic the old. The TV was really a small movie screen, with radio quality audio. In fact, a lot of early TV was really old radio shows repackaged with pictures, i.e.

Jack Benny and the Lone Ranger.

The Kindle mimics the book reading experience. It does it well, with a crisp display and an easy-to-use interface. Apple seems to want to take the that. experience beyond just For the immediate future, mimicking a book, to create a Amazon has far more books on new experience. Publishers will offer, but that will likely change have to extend themselves to over time. If you have the meet those goals, and so will smaller Kindle, I would not have authors. anxiety about the iPad if you are In the short term, these gradual mainly a reader. If you have the changes will be invisible, and I'll DX, I'd feel a bit queasy. happily keep using my Kindle. In It's likely you'll be able to read the long term, devices like the your Kindle books on the iPad, iPad will win us over and evolve just as you can on your iPhone or our relationship with our media, iPod touch, but they'll be black just as the iPod did. and white, with no rich How about you? Second illustrations. Amazon will stress thoughts about a Kindle? Or a that the iPad will be a great place Nook. Or a whatever? to read Kindle books, but I don't TUAW iPad vs. Kindle: Which think in the long run that's a way to go? originally appeared cogent argument. on The Unofficial Apple Weblog Looking out to the future, I (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 think the odds favor the iPad. As 19:00:00 EST. Please see our an author myself (of a book terms for use of feeds. about a sixties film producer), Permalink| Email this| the idea of converting my dead C o m m e n t s tree book to something with short film clips and even musical

25

US Olympic Committee Sues Organization Trying To Build Sports Museum

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:02:00 PM

The Olympics are notoriously protective of the Olympic name, even trying to block the trademark application for the Olympian, a newspaper in Olympia, Washington. Paul writes in to let us know that the US Olympic Committee has now decided it's worth suing what appears to be an almost defunct non-profit organization called The International Institute for Sport and Olympic History.

Apparently the organization was set up to try to raise funds for a museum dedicated to sports, but from the article, it sounds like it has failed to get very far, and has been (perhaps) left to die already (at one point, it was reported that the Institute's bank account contained $52). But never one to let a dead organization die peacefully, the USOC has sued and is seeking "treble damages."

What damages? This is basically a defunct organization that never did anything. The USOC says, at the very least, it deserves three times the profits the organization made off the Olympic name.

Well, three times zero is zero... so seems like this one could be settled pretty quickly.

Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

26

Tech/ Politics/

E-reader News Edition

EBAY continued from page 21

many of its sellers deal in niches that are better off operating as auctions rather than flat-fee sales that could be handled over Amazon or Craigslist. eBay can make many of these controversial descisions and rest assured that it still owns the market.

"All of us have been hoping for someone else, perhaps Google or Amazon, to step in and provide true competition, but that has not happened," said the antiques dealer from Alexandria. "It would require a huge investment to do a proper worldwide advertising campaign to get something going." eBay admits that the most recent changes will make the auction process more expensive for some sellers, but stands by its decision.

"There are cases in which this new fee structure is actually more expensive than what they were paying before," admitted eBay's Lutwak, "but the fact is, what (the sellers) asked us for is they want the lower risk

associated with lower fees on the front end, and that they were willing to pay the final fees." eBay hopes to extend an olive branch in the form of new buyerprotection coverage that it says will make buyers more comfortable spending money on eBay, particularly in large amounts--and that sellers will make more money as a result.

"Coupling these two messages not only shows that we're making some adjustments to the fee structure but that we're also making major investments as a company to ensure that our customers are coming back more," said Kellie Cobaugh, manager of the buyer protection program. eBay, after all, has seen this sort of mutiny before. Two years ago, after eBay raised seller fees and chose to prohibit sellers from leaving feedback about buyers, sellers organized a weeklong boycott. The company ultimately weathered the storm. Around the same time, it attempted to

mandate the use of its PayPal payment system for Australian customers--and then backed down amid protest.

Todd Lutwak suggests that sellers protesting the new regulations take a look at their own tactics for profit. "If you see that these changes do not have the impact on your business that you want, I would re-look at your eBay strategy," he said, pointing out that the new "Best Place To Sell" site has a listing fee caluculator for members to try. "There could be another selling approach that might be more beneficial to you."

Some sellers agreed. Rhonda Shrader, a San Francisco-based eBay seller who has "a half-time job" selling primarily women's clothing on the auction site, thinks she'll ultimately benefit from the listing fee changes and thinks that other sellers should figure out how they can, too. "I think for any small business person, any change in your macro and micro environment is

going to cause you to react. I'd rather spend time doing that than complaining," she said.

"Sellers with strong business acumen will adapt to new (rules) and find ways to thrive," an eBay seller who goes by "Compulsive Collector" announced on Twitter.

"As for others? Survival of the fittest, and all that."

But frustrated sellers scoffed at that thought.

"Given the current announced changes, coupled with eBay's history of revisions after changes roll out, it is impossible for a seller to build a business strategy that lasts longer than a few months," one said via e-mail.

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

Submitted at 1/29/2010 5:00:00 AM

We've been testing a new commenting system called Echo on my Deep Tech blog for a few weeks, and now we're looking for your thoughts about it.

What do you like or dislike about reading and posting comments using Echo? How do

you think Echo could be improved?

One thing we like about Echo: it allows readers to comment on our stories by logging in through CNET or through various social networks of their choosing. For example, there may some readers who don't want to create a CNET account.

Also, Echo collects some

conversation about our stories that happen elsewhere on the Web, including Twitter. And it pulls in new comments in real time; you might notice new ones arrive as you're typing or reading comments. One goal with Echo is to make it easier for more users to participate in the discussion and to pull in relevant conversation about CNET

(Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:24:57 AM

It’s clear that the State of the Union speech has become a performance, and not just by the President; all the politicians in the audience are performers too, and everything they do during the speech is under the microscope: Alito’s State of the Union moment.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. responded to President Obama’s criticism Wednesday night of a Supreme Court decision last week by appearing to mouth the words “not true.”

Politifact checked President Obama’s statement that caused Justice Alito to mouth “not true,” and ruled it “ Barely True.”

Based on our reading of the court’s opinion and interviews with campaign law experts, we find that Obama has overstated the ruling’s immediate impact on foreign companies’ ability to spend unlimited money in U.S. political campaigns. While such stories, even if they happen on a an outcome may be possible, the majority opinion specifically said different domain.

If you haven't used it yet, now's it wasn’t addressing that point, a good chance to try it out. Your and only further litigation would comments will help us decide settle the matter once and for all.

So we find Obama’s claim to be our future direction.

Five Filters featured article: Barely True.

Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

New CNET comment system: Is it better?

(CNET News.com)

Alito Steals a Scene

Tech/ Politics/ Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

Web searches for iPad leading to malicous sites (CNET News.com)

sure they are using the latest version of their web software.

I have a bit of experience with Security companies are warning injected code. I operate a number consumers and Web site of WordPress blogs including operators to be wary of iPad SafeKids.com which, a few years related search scams. ago started serving up Google "This is just the kind of ads for Viagra and other male opportunity fraudsters like to enhancement products. These exploit by poisoning search were far from appropriate terms," said Symantec's Candid their machine or tempt them to the popular search topics and context-sensitive ads for an Wueest. Wueest also warned install a rogue security product. then "feeding that information Internet safety site and when I about "iPad-related spam and Google Trends displays popular into compromised web sites so took a look at my site's code, I that those compromised sites and discovered that there were p h i s h i n g a t t a c k s h i t t i n g searches(Credit: Google) consumers hard over the coming It has nothing to do with the the content they put on those hundreds of links and terms that iPad itself. Similar techniques sites get indexed by the search had been injected to my site as a weeks."

In an interview, Don Debolt, have exploited other popular engine bots." To the end user it result of a security flaw in my CA's director of threat research, searches such as the Haitian looks as if those sites have WordPress template. I replaced warned about "black hat search earthquake and the death of relevant content but when you the template and updated the optimization"--a scam whereby Michael Jackson. Google has a click on those pages, you are WordPress software and the hackers take advantage of trends page that shows hot topics immediately taken to another site problem went away. Now I'm security flaws in blogs and other and hot searches. On Thursday that has the malware. careful to make sure I'm always Debolt warns people to be running the latest version of sites that use PHP to imbed a f t e r n o o n t h e i P a d w a s popular search terms like iPad to represented four times on the top careful if a search engine points WordPress. t r i c k s e a r c h e n g i n e s i n t o -10 list. "Obama State of the to a site where "the root domain As usual, people are cautioned of the URL doesn't have any type to make sure they are using up-to directing people to compromised Union" led the list. legitimate sites that may have The entire process is automated, of affiliation of the topic or is not -date security software and that nothing to with the subject said Debolt. "We found that it's a an information portal you're both their operating system and matter at hand. If someone clicks v e r y s y s t e m a t i c a n d familiar with." He warns site browser are up-to-date. on the link to a page on that programmatic process right operators, especially those with a Five Filters featured article: infected site they are then now," Debolt said. The attackers, content management system that Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: redirected to a malicious site he said, are using software to uses PHP, including Joomla, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, which can implant malware on query search engines to find out WordPress and Droopa, to be Term Extraction.

Submitted at 1/28/2010 7:07:00 PM

Image of the Day: Oliver the Koala (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 1/28/2010 5:12:21 PM

It’s been a while since we checked in at The Internet Center for Intensive Analysis of Infant Animal Cuteness, ZooBorns, but

their picture of a mama koala and her joey is impossible to resist.

Little Oliver the Koala was born back in April at the Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina but, like other marsupials, spent his first

little joey is only now too large for mom “Lottie’s” pouch but still spends his days close by, usually clinging to her back or tucked under her stomach. months in mom’s pouch. The

27

Snowmobile Deftly Glides Through Backcountry

By Bryan Gardiner (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 1/28/2010 5:00:00 PM

The engineers at Polaris have your back — literally. After five years of development, the terrain -taming Rush snowmobile is a meld of stunning beauty and beastlike performance.

Jan. 29, 1901: DuMont Will Make TV Work

By Hugh Hart (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:00:00 PM

Allen B. DuMont will advance television by making the CRT a practical picture tube. He'll manufacture TV sets and start a network to provide programming.

28

Tech/ TV/

E-reader News Edition

Funny or Die Presents premieres next month

By Danny Gallagher (TV Squad)

Who Dat Holds The Trademark To Who Dat? NFL Threatens While WhoDat Inc. Asks Why?

Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:00:00 AM

The comedy website that made the Internet its bitch aims to do the same to HBO. Next month marks the premiere

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Saints. The NFL apparently Its colors are very specific -- years and these NFL guys are of Funny or Die Presents, an claims that it holds the trademark they're 'old gold and black.' But here harassing the local small Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:18:00 AM HBO sketch show from the on the phrase and is threatening for the NFL to expand that businesses," Monistere said.

It seems like every year there's some retailers who were offering definition and say that no matter "Their merchandise sales are creators of the revolutionary some sort of controversy over "Who Dat" merchandise. Only what color and what style of well over $320 BILLION a year! video comedy website created trademarks and the Superbowl. problem? There's a company fleur de lis, if you put it on an T h e N F L h a s b e c o m e a n and founded by Will Ferrell and Of course, the NFL has been called WhoDat Inc., and it claims item, it means Saints, it is, as intellectual property company. Adam McKay. The trailer below f a m o u s f o r a g g r e s s i v e l y to own the trademark. a-dub many believe, is just not correct. They make money selling their isn't technically safe for work, so defending trademarks. For points us to an interview with the The fleur de lis belongs to logos and image. With that kind i f y o u r b o s s c a t c h e s y o u example, it's been so aggressive brothers who own WhoDat Inc., everyone including the people of of money coming in, they focus watching it on the job, just in claiming that no one other who also recorded the Who Dat New Orleans. The Monistere their attention on Fleurty Girl? I threaten to stick the nearest sharp than official sponsors can even song back in the 1980s. It brothers seem particularly don't have a problem with them object right in his eye. That mention the word Superbowl appears the issue, from the NFL, annoyed by the NFL bullying protecting their intellectual always works for me. Plus, the (even though it should be legal if may be with the use of a fluer de small t-shirt makers, saying that property, but when they do it to great thing is they've got two, so u s e d d e s c r i p t i v e l y a n d lis with the phrase, since the they're more than happy to grant the extent of trying to intimidate t e c h n i c a l l y t h e y w o n ' t g o accurately), that when many NFL owns the trademark on the licenses to those folks to produce people into believing that the completely blind if they call your advertisers started switching to fleur de lis in association with Who Dat merchandise, and Fleur de lis is theirs -- well, that's bluff. the euphemism "The Big Game," the Saints. But the WhoDat merchants have said that the just a bullying technique." As for Funny Or Die Presents Trailer the NFL tried to trademark that folks say even there the NFL is NFL communication has been t h e N e w O r l e a n s S a i n t s from FODPresents too, even though it wasn't even overstepping its bounds:"Sure, a tremendously threatening and themselves? The organization Filed under: Other Comedy the one who had come up with fleur de lis can belong to the aggressive, while the Monistere's there has apparently publicly Shows, Video, Pickups and the phrase.

T h i s y e a r , Saints, but in very specific usage, have been quite friendly and said that WhoDat holds the Renewals, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | apparently, the big issue is over and everybody knows what that accommodating. In fact, the rights on the trademark.

C omments who owns the phrase "Who Dat" is," Monistere explained. "If you Monistere's seem particularly Permalink| Comments| Email which is apparently a catch- go back to 1967, to date, they annoyed that the NFL is bullying This Story phrase associated with the have registered and used the small shop owners like Fleurty Superbowl- Big Game- Final fleur de lis in a very specific Girl, who received a cease-andSporting Event Of The Football way. They put it on the Saints desist:"Here we are going to the Season-bound New Orleans helmet and on the Saints 'shield.' Superbowl for the first time in 43

Tech/ TV/ Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

iPad: Investors shouldn't think short-term

By Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 1/29/2010 8:30:00 AM

Filed under: Apple Financial No doubt about it, Apple stock has been on a wild ride since yesterday's iPad announcement.

Investors were hoping Apple would deliver big, and while many Wall Street analysts believe they hit a home run thanks in large part to not just the technology, but the price point of the device - the stock took a large dip today. On news of the iPad, AAPL closed at $207.88 yesterday. Today the stock lost over 4% to close at 199.29.

Why? Well, most of the time there's a huge sell off after Apple announces something new. A majority of the sell off is because people generally price the stock according to the rumor. It's the old "buy on the rumor, sell on the news" mentality. I've already stated in the past that I believe AAPL is headed past $300, and their latest earnings certainly seem to be pointing in that direction. But how does the iPad fit into all of this?

Frank Cioffi Founder and editor of Apple Investor News has written an interesting editorial

for The Huffington Post about what the iPad should mean to investors.

Cioffi (who's long on AAPL) admits that while he's a huge Mac fan, he probably won't be buying the iPad because he's not sure how it would give him anything he doesn't currently have in his iPods, iPhone, or Mac laptops. He goes on to recognize that if one veteran Apple fan doesn't see the iPad as providing something his other Apple devices don't, it can't bode well for the short-term outlook for the iPad, which many

investors, will also grow over time and indeed create a new device category. But it will take time... Apple is planning for the long haul. This company has moved beyond an e-reader and created an e-entertainment device. Cioffi also points out one thing investors should be even more ecstatic about than the Apple tablet - Steve Jobs' weight.

He's looking like he gained some (not a lot, but some) and IMHO is looking much better than last we saw him.

But what say you? Are we going to be seeing dissapointing iPad Q3 numbers? Will the iPad eventually become the next "must have" tech gear like the investors are expecting to be an iPod and iPhone? Tell us in the iPhone-like megahit. But then he comments! brings up a critical point: the Disclaimer: This author owns iPad is a slow-growth device. shares in AAPL. Opinions in this Apple has just reinvented post are those of the author only portable entertainment and and should not be considered as mobile computing. No, it's not investment advice. "magical," as Apple claims, but TUAW iPad: Investors shouldn't it is an elegant form factor that think short-term originally will engage niche industries to appeared on The Unofficial create apps for their businesses. Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, It will likely become a hit with 29 Jan 2010 08:30:00 EST. educators... just as Apple started Please see our terms for use of the decade with the iPod, which feeds. grew slowly into an iconic Read| Permalink| Email this| device, I predict the iPad, after Comments initially underwhelming

29

Mel Gibson is Jimmy Kimmel, but not vice versa

By Danny Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 1/29/2010 10:00:00 AM

Sure when it comes to Hollywood's leading leading man and late night's smarmy frat boy, the two can't hold a candle to each other. But when Mel Gibson takes on the Jimmy Kimmel character, he transforms himself into a wild-eyed monster with a ravenous appetite for anything filling and an unrestrained consumer of mindless amusements, basic human urges and monkeys.

Gibson unveiled his portrayal of the ABC late night host in a new film coming soon to a theater near you. I'm hoping that Gary Sinise will be cast as Kimmel's wide eyebrowed sidekick, Adam Carolla.

Filed under: Late Night, Video, Celebrities, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Great TV Alert: Tony Blair Squirming [War]

By Pareene (Gawker) Submitted at 1/29/2010 10:15:36 AM

Famous Victorian-era crimesolving butler Tony Blair is answering for the fact that he

lied his country into Iraq without Bush's excuses (being stupid and messianic). Armando Iannucci

compared the inquiry to Mad Men so you should blog about it.

30

Tech/ Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

Dating Site For Gay Men Enters Super Bowl Ad Fray [VIDEO]

By Brenna Ehrlich (Mashable!)

Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:34:02 AM

The Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad isn’t the only controversial commercial on the block. Enter the ManCrunch.com spot, now in hot debate over at CBS. If you haven’t already seen this 30-second spot, we’re embedding it below. The video in question is basically an ad for a dating site catering to gay men.

In the commercial, two football fans are watching a game when their hands touch in a bowl of chips. Making out then ensues.

According to a rep from the site, the company submitted the ad on January 18, and when they checked in again on January 22, they were told that the ad had not yet been approved and that all the spots were sold out.

ManCrunch then requested that the ad still be considered, in case a place opened up.

According to Fox News, a CBS representative told Pop Tarts that spots were still open, so the situation is rather murky.

“Although the CBS Sales rep told us that it typically takes 24 to 48, hours it’s been 11 days and although we follow up with CBS every day they keep telling us they’re still reviewing it,” said a ManCrunch rep. Officials from the dating site say that they think the process is taking so long because CBS does not want to air the ad, yet the network doesn’t want to reject it outright for fear of backlash from gay and lesbian advocacy groups.

Such an ad airing during the Super Bowl would be a big coup for the site, “At no other time during the year can you reach men at the same point in time,” said the rep. “Plus, we knew our ad was going to be one of the more memorable ads that the media and public would talk

about well after the big game.”

The rep still anticipates that CBS will accept the ad, but expressed distress that the process was taking such a long time. “We do wonder how long it took for them to approve the Pro-Life ad,” he said when asked about Tim Tebow’s hotly debated spot, “[but] regardless of whether or not you agree with CBS’ decision to accept the ProLife ad, we do applaud them for allowing freedom of expression and hope they treat our commercial the same.”

Still, unlike the Tebow spot, the ad is currently all over the Internet, and is likely to become more and more visible as the days go by. In fact, the ManCrunch rep said that he believes that it is sure to go viral.

So perhaps the controversy will make the commercial more ubiquitous than a Super Bowl showing would.

Tags: MARKETING, media, online dating, Super Bowl, Super Bowl ads, viral video

Hitler responds to the iPad (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:55:17 PM

The Internet meme Angry Hitler is back. In the past, joksters have remixed this clip from Der

Untergang( The Downfall) to sofa, too! make fun of all sorts of events, More on the iPad. but this time even one of the Permalink| Leave a comment » world’s most detested men can’t take the new iPad! I wanted to watch lol cats while lying on the

Apple icon drops pants, suggests you e-mail your senator (CNET News.com)

commercial claim to fame, by suggesting you should e-mail "whether it's on a Mac," before It's nice when people care about pausing very slightly to add, "or something. Even when those any other kind of computer." people are actors.

Some might find this veers very So you might enjoy this strongly s l i g h t l y t o w a r d t h e worded PSA from the NRDC uncomfortable side of blissful Action Fund that features, commercialism. a m o n g o t h e r s , L e o n a r d o Apple itself has been criticized DiCaprio and Edward Norton, as for perhaps not being quite as well as Justin Long, Mac from green as makers of electronic the "Get a Mac" campaign. things ought to be, a claim that The Natural Resources Defense CEO Steve Jobs refutes. He does C o u n c i l i s d e s p e r a t e f o r admit, on Apple's own site, that everyone to e-mail their senators w h e n i t c o m e s t o t h e repeatedly in order to elicit their environment, "we have failed to support for the Clean Energy communicate the things that we Jobs and American Power Act. are doing well."

The idea behind this bill is to He also declares: "By 2010, change America's dependence on A p p l e m a y b e r e c y c l i n g oil that it buys from, as the significantly more than either NRDC puts it, "countries that Dell or HP as a percentage of don't share our values." past sales weight."

America can, the council However, it will be interesting b e l i e v e s , " l e a d i n t h e to see whether actions such as development of clean energy that of the NRDC, with so many technology and manufacturing." famous marketable faces might At one point in the PSA, Long lead, one day, to iPads that are drops his pants (which are out of made without any dependence on shot, boys and girls) because f o r e i g n o i l a n d w i t h a global warming is making things b i o d e g r a d a b l e c a m e r a . a little too hot for his legs. Then Five Filters featured article: he joins in the plea for everyone Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: to e-mail their senators in order PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, to get them to vote for the bill. Term Extraction.

Interestingly, Long wryly reminds you of his most Submitted at 1/28/2010 7:16:29 PM

Tech/ Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

AT&T Will Spend $2 Billion To Improve Wireless Network

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:12:21 AM

AT&T kicked and screamed when Verizon stung it with their “ There’s a map for that” series of ads, but deep inside they know their wireless coverage needs to be improved.

In order to add some more blue dots to its map, AT&T plans to spend additional 2 billion dollars to improve its network this year.

During their fourth-quarter earnings conference call, AT&T admitted their 3G coverage wasn’t good enough, promising they have a plan to improve it, adding more cell towers and connect them with fast fiberoptic lines. “Wireless is our No. 1 investment priority,” said John Stankey, head of AT&T’s

Operations division.

It’s good to hear, because AT&T has wireless data deals for several very popular, very data-intensive mobile devices – Kindle, iPhone, iPad, and more – and all those users will definitely want better wireless data coverage. From AT&T’s investor briefing: “In the fourth quarter, AT&T posted a net gain in total wireless subscribers of 2.7 million, the second-highest quarterly net add total in the company’s history…Full-year wireless net

adds totaled 7.3 million, equaling the company’s best-ever annual total, to reach 85.1 million subscribers in service.”

Yeah, no wonder 3G was slow.

However, things are looking bright for AT&T customers, especially when it comes to HSPA. From the briefing: “AT&T also has begun an aggressive deployment of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) 7.2 technology. HSPA 7.2 software was deployed nationwide in Jan. 2010, ahead of schedule…By the end of 2010, AT&T anticipates that the majority of its mobile data traffic will be carried over the expanded fiber-based HSPA 7.2 and LTE-capable backhaul.”

Luke Wilson would be proud.

Tags: 3g, att, network, Wireless

Barry Manilow Shares 'Greatest Love Songs' with ET (ETonline - Breaking News)

tells our own Mary Hart, "but this is the most beautiful album I've ever made, all together from Barry Manilow is back with an the beginning to the end. I'm so all-new album in stores today, proud of it."

The Greatest Love Songs of All The follow-up to Barry's megaTime, and he performs select bestselling series of "Decades" tunes from the album for ET! albums that he masterminded "I've made some beautiful with super producer Clive Davis, records over my career," Barry The Greatest Love Songs of All Submitted at 1/29/2010 3:13:00 AM

Time includes such timeless standards "The Theme From Love Story (Where Do I Begin)," "The Look Of Love," "We’ve Only Just Begun," Irving Berlin's "How Deep Is The Ocean?" and George Gershwin's "Love is Here To Stay."

31

Wall Street: Apple Might Sell 1-5 Million iPads in the First Year

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Submitted at 1/29/2010 3:56:02 AM

We can talk about the iPad as much as we want, but we all know that cold, hard sales numbers will do the real talking.

When iPad lands in stores, if it doesn’t fly off the shelves, it will be further proof that Apple has made a rare stumble this time.

AppleInsider rounded up some predictions from Wall Street analysts, and boy, do they not agree. Some of them are calling the iPad “risky”; some are saying that it “has potential”, and some are saying it’s “another winner”.

How does that translate into numbers? Anywhere from one to five million in the first year.

Mike Abramsky from RBC Capital Markets forecasts firstyear sales of 5 million, claiming the iPad is “a revolutionary ereading, browsing, media, gaming experience,” but also noting that it lacks certain sought -for features, like multitasking and a camera.

Kaufman Bros’ Shaw Wu didn’t

predict sales, but claims that Apple intends to build 5 million units in the first year, and 10 million by the end of the second year. Analyst Charlie Wolf from Needham & Company is predicting that Apple will sell 4 million units in the first twelve months, but Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner and Brian Marshall from Broadpoint.AmTech are far more cautious, predicting 1.1 and 2.2 million units sold in the first year, respectively.

Apple has surprised us many times in its history, and no one can be certain just how well the iPad will sell. If it beats these estimates, though, it will cement its place in history as one of the most successful tech companies of all time.

Tags: apple, Apple Tablet, ipad, wall street

32

Tech/ Picture/

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Others Claim To Hold The Trademark On iPad. Is There An App For That?

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

iPad SDK allows you to take photos and other insights

By Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

of the device did have a camera, and/or that we'll eventually see one in a future revision.

There's a few other interesting Submitted at 1/28/2010 6:00:00 PM things sneaking out of the SDK Filed under: Software, iPhone, as well, including the fact that App Store, SDK Turns out a "popovers" (those windows and camera in the iPad may have menus that were popping up in been closer than we thought -- the video yesterday) are listed in Engadget has been diving into Human Interface Guidelines as the SDK r e l e a s e d iPad-only flair. That would make yesterday(NDAs be darned, I designing for the two platforms guess?) and discovered that the pretty different -- while it's ability to "Take Photo" is still certainly possible, as we learned hidden in the iPad's code. Of yesterday, to run iPhone apps on course, the device doesn't the new platform, it seems like actually have a camera, but the Apple is telling developers that fact that there's code written for iPad apps will have a very one could mean that prototypes different feel than their smaller

predecessor's versions. A year from now, the two platforms may end up being different markets entirely.

Update: The "touch to return to the call" bar made the trip to the iPad, too. Makes it more likely that this is just vestigial code.

TUAW iPad SDK allows you to take photos and other insights originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

trademark (and earlier it had been considered abandoned Submitted at 1/29/2010 2:16:00 AM before the company re-opened It really was just about three the file). Then there's another y e a r s a g o w h e n A p p l e company called Mag-Tek that announced the iPhone and was does have a trademark on iPad quickly told that Cisco actually for PIN-entry keypads, though owned the trademark on the that might not be considered w o r d i P h o n e . A l a w s u i t competitive at all. Still, Fujitsu followed, but it was quickly is posturing about how it doesn't settled with some cash changing want to give up the name. Apple hands and all was good. So you has an application in for its own would think that Apple would trademark and is disputing take care of such things in Fujitsu's right to the trademark advance these days. Apparently and chances are, once again, not. mrharrysan alerts us to the eventually some money will news that there are a few other c h a n g e h a n d s a n d f o r e v e r companies with various iPad forward the iPad name will be t r a d e m a r k s a n d F u j i t s u i n Apple's to control when it comes particular is claiming it has no to tablet-like devices. intention of giving its name up. Permalink| Comments| Email Of course, it's a bit more This Story complicated than that since Fujitsu only has a pending

Dinagyang Festival 2010

By Zack Sheppard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:26:30 AM

• About Flickr Flickr is a revolution in photo storage, sharing and organization, making photo management an easy, natural and

collaborative process. Get comments, notes, and tags on your photos, post to any blog, share and more!

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33

Review: Fringe - The Bishop Revival

By Jane Boursaw (TV Squad) Submitted at 1/29/2010 4:32:00 AM

Netsize calls out App Store as most successful mobile platform

By Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

industry professionals surveyed put Apple's App Store front and center when asked about the most successful platform for Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:30:00 AM mobile software. Android came Filed under: Surveys and Polls, i n n e x t a t 6 0 % o f p e o p l e A p p l e , i P h o n e , A p p S t o r e expecting it to find success, and Netsize unveiled the results of then drops off into generic something called the Mobile answers and lots of smaller Trend Survey 2010 at European mobile outlets. mobile tech conference M-Days, What's perhaps most interesting and they say that 87% of is that while this announcement

came out today, the survey was likely done before the official iPad announcement, and since Apple has made it clear that the App Store will play a huge part in the iPad's future as well, that's just more checks in the win column. Apple gets a lot of credit for its quality hardware (and rightly so), but it might actually be the App Store model (for better or worse) that becomes the

most significant creation of the past few years.

TUAW Netsize calls out App Store as most successful mobile platform originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(S02E14) An episode titled "The Bishop Revival" almost has a little religious overtone. But Fringe this week was all about Nazis and Walter's dad's involvement with them. Turns out Dr. Robert Bishop (a.k.a.

Bishov or Bishoff) was affiliated with the University of Berlin and came to this country in 1943.

Also that he was a spy for the allies, smuggling scientific secrets to the Americans. Thus the setup for this episode and a little backstory for Walter.

Continue reading Review: Fringe - The Bishop Revival Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe Permalink| Email this| | Comments

34

Tech/ Politics/ TV/

Lord Lucas Keeps Wanting To Chip Away At Digital Economy Bill: Exempt Search Engines

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

search engines from copyright law. While, for the most part, Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:22:00 PM what search engines do seem to We've been discussing how be covered by existing law (fair Lord Lucas in the UK has use, and the like), there are still s p o k e n o u t a g a i n s t P e t e r some questions about whether or Mandelson's Digital Economy not the fundamental actions of B i l l , w h i c h w o u l d g i v e search engines do or do not Mandelson (and his successors infringe. Clearly exempting or anyone he deputized) massive them, however, could expand powers to change copyright law what search engines could do in on a whim. Beyond that, the some pretty impressive ways. technology-savvy Lord Lucas This would also serve to negate has been proposing various the threats by the likes of Rupert amendments to the bill, including Murdoch to remove News Corp. requiring copyright holders to content from Google (since detail actual damages and also a Google could then ignore any penalty for bogus copyright attempted block, as there would threats. be no copyright violation).

Another proposed amendment, Permalink| Comments| Email as pointed out by Copycense This Story would automatically exempt

E-reader News Edition

Upload Your Old Emails to Google Apps

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Submitted at 1/29/2010 5:51:21 AM

Google has a cool little surprise in store for heavy email users (and Mac owners): Google Email Uploader for Mac. It’s a free app that can archive your old emails from Apple Mail, Eudora, and Thunderbird on your Google Apps email account.

It’s actually a great idea; chances are that in the pre-cloud era, you’ve had volumes of email stored somewhere in your desktop email client. Now, you can move everything to the cloud in one easy step.

If you’re a Windows user, check out the previously available Google Email Uploader for

Review: Burn Notice Friendly Fire Windows. Unfortunately, you can only upload your emails to Google Apps email accounts, not your gmail.com or googlemail.com accounts.

[Beautiful Google hard disk illustration courtesy of Joy of Tech] Reviews: Windows Tags: email, gmail, google apps

State of the Union Address generally approve of the Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:26:09 AM proposals he outlined in his Interesting numbers for the speech, according to a CBS President’s first SOTU speech, News Poll conducted online by from a CBS News-Knowledge K n o w l e d g e N e t w o r k s Networks poll: Poll: 83% of immediately after the President’s Speech Watchers Approve of address.

Obama’s State of the Union Of the randomly selected 522 Proposals. speech viewers questioned by A large majority of Americans CBS, 83 percent said they who watched President Obama’s approved of the proposals the

President made. Just 17 percent disapproved — typical of the high support a president generally receives among those who choose to watch the State of the Union. In January 2002 — when George W. Bush gave the State of the Union Address a year into his presidency — 85% of speech watchers approved.

Six in 10 of those asked said they thought Mr. Obama

Submitted at 1/29/2010 2:05:00 AM

(S03E11) For a nice change of pace, Burn Notice played up the local color. Lots of Little Dominica (not Little Havana) and action, including multiple explosions, a little face-forward repelling and a new somewhat mystical character for Michael to play. No Southern boy this week.

No tank tops or muscle shirts.

Nope. Michael was looking like Mr. Applegate, the devil in the musical Damn Yankees.

Continue reading Review: Burn conveyed a clear plan for Notice - Friendly Fire creating jobs, and seven in 10 Filed under: OpEd, Episode said his plans for the economy Reviews, Reality-Free, Burn will help ordinary Americans. Notice Another seven in 10 said Permalink| Email this| | President Obama has the same C o m m e n t s priorities for the country as they have.

Poll: Large Majority Approve of Obama's SOTU Proposals (Little Green Footballs)

By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)

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35

Why Do People Love 'Catcher in the Rye'?

By Gish Jen (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 1/28/2010 6:59:32 PM

To remember J. D. Salinger is, of course, to remember The Catcher in the Rye—though not, perhaps, how some critics didn't like it in 1951. Catholic World noted its "formidably excessive use of amateur swearing and coarse language," and there seemed to be some question as to whether an alienated, harddrinking, chain-smoking flunkie like Holden Caulfield was going to prove a good influence on the young. Other critics did say it made them "chuckle and ... even laugh aloud," and many immediately compared Holden to Huck Finn. Still, Harcourt Brace, which rejected the book, did not yet have much to live down: The overall critical reception was decidedly un-extraordinary.

Sales-wise, too, Catcher did reasonably but not exceptionally well. But, now, that was in hardcover. What with the recent invention of the "perfect binding"--a book binding using glue rather than stitching--there was the paperback to consider, as well. Did not Catcher seem like the sort of book that might do well in the new format?

And so it did, going on to sell over 60 million copies.

Moreover, in 1956, some dam in critical interest seemed to burst.

So many Catcher studies appeared that the '50s were dubbed "the Decade of Salinger"; contemporaneous writers complained of neglect as Holden Caulfield was compared not only to Huck Finn but to Billy Budd, David Copperfield, Natty Bumpo, Quentin Compson, Ishmael, Peter Pan, Hamlet, Jesus Christ, Adam, and Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom put together. What critic George Steiner was to call the "Salinger industry" began to swell fantastically, until it sat like a large, determined bird on a bunker-like egg.

Where did all this start? In a 1940 letter to a friend, a 21-yearold Salinger described his noveli n - p r o g r e s s a s "autobiographical"; and decades later, too, in an interview with a high school reporter--the only interview he's ever given-Salinger said, "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book." Of course, there were differences: unlike Holden, Salinger was, among other things, a half-Jewish, halfCatholic brotherless World War II vet who attended a military academy. He did, though, like Holden, flunk out of prep school.

And he was also, like Holden, manager of his high school fencing team, in which capacity he apparently really did once lose the team gear en route to a

meet.

More importantly, Salinger seems to have shared Holden's disaffection. Numerous youthful acquaintances remember him as sardonic, rant-prone, a loner. His daughter, Margaret Salinger, likewise traces the alienation in the book to him, though it does not reflect for her either her father's innate temperament or difficult adolescence so much as his experiences of anti-Semitism and, as an adult, war. Where Salinger fought in some of the bloodiest and most senseless campaigns of World War II and apparently suffered a nervous breakdown toward its end, shortly after which--while still in Europe--he is known to have been working on Catcher--it is hardly surprising that Holden's reactions should evoke not only adolescent turmoil but also the awful seesaw of a vet's return to civilian life. Holden may be a rebel without a cause, but he is not a rebel without an explanation: It is easy to read the death of his brother as a stand-in for unspeakable trauma. And witness the notable vehemence with which Holden talks about the war--declaring, for instance, "I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will."

But what of Margaret Salinger's theory regarding anti-Semitism?

She characterizes Salinger as sensitive about his Jewishness with good cause—noting, for example, that a few years before her father’s arrival at the military academy, a Jew who had graduated second in his class found his picture printed on a perforated page of the yearbook so that it could be torn out. Ian Hamilton's unofficial biography of Salinger, too, cites a letter from the father of a girl to whom Salinger once proposed, describing him as "an odd fellow. He didn't mingle much with the other guests [at their Daytona Beach hotel]. … He was—well, is he Jewish? I thought that might explain the way he acted. ... I thought he had a chip on his shoulder."

Interestingly, though, Salinger's sister, in an interview, focuses on his in-between-ness as well. "It wasn't nice to be part-Jewish in those days," she says. "It was no asset to be Jewish either, but at least you belonged somewhere.

This way you were neither fish nor fowl." Additionally complicating the picture is the fact that Salinger seems to have grown up revered by his IrishCatholic mother but disparaged by his Jewish father, who wanted him to enter the family foodimport business. Fish and fowl, adored and criticized, Salinger

was remembered by some military academy classmates as a guy whose conversation "was laced with sarcasm" but by others as "a regular guy" and by teachers as "quiet, thoughtful, always anxious to please."

Strikingly, this sometimes scathing student wrote a class song so convincingly straight ("Goodbyes are said, we march ahead/Success we go to find./Our forms are gone from Valley Forge/Our hearts are left behind) it is still sung at graduation. He edited the yearbook, too, with what so completely passed as earnest conscientiousness that though it is tempting to view his activities as virtuoso performances of deep subterfuge--given his youthful interest in acting, especially-they might also be imagined to have been painfully disconcerting. Holden's description of himself as "the most terrific liar you ever saw" might well have applied to Salinger, and Salinger's own judgment of his divided nature, in this era before "situational selves," might well have involved the word that haunts his book, "phony."

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Nude Awakening

By Jeffrey Rosen (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:00:00 PM

Last summer, I watched a fellow passenger at Washington’s Reagan National Airport as he was selected to go through a newly installed full-body scanner. These machines--there are now 40 of them spread across 19 U.S. airports--permit officials from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to peer through a passenger’s clothing in search of explosives and weapons. On the instructions of a security officer, the passenger stepped into the machine and held his arms out in a position of surrender, as invisible millimeter waves surrounded his body.

Although he probably didn’t know it, TSA officials in a separate room were staring at a graphic, anatomically correct image of his naked body. When I asked the TSA screener whether the passenger’s face was blurred, he replied that he couldn’t say.

But, as I turned to catch my flight, the official blurted, “Someone ought to do something about those machines--it’s like we don’t have any privacy in this country anymore!”

The officer’s indignation was as rare as it was unexpected. In the wake of the failed Christmas bombing of Northwest Flight

253, the public has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic about these scanners. A recent USA Today poll found that 78 percent of respondents approved of their use at airports. Western democracies have been no less effusive. President Obama has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to install $1 billion in airport screening equipment, and the TSA hopes to include an additional 300 millimeter-wave scanners. Britain, France, Italy, and the Netherlands have all made similar pledges to expand their use. (At the end of January, the European Commission's Information Commissioner, Viviane Reding, announced that in light of body-scanners' "privacy-invasive potential" and unproven usefulness, the machine should not be imposed without "full consideration of its impact.")

Let’s not mince words about these machines. They are a virtual strip search--and an outrage. Body scanners are a form of what security expert Bruce Schneier has called “security theater.” That is, they give people the illusion of safety without actually making us safer.

A British MP who evaluated the body scanners in a former capacity, as a director at a leading defense technology

company, said that they wouldn’t have stopped the trouser bomber aboard the Northwest flight.

Despite over-hyped claims to the contrary, they simply can’t detect low-density materials hidden under clothing, such as liquid, powder, or thin plastics. In other words, the sacrifice these machines require of our privacy is utterly pointless. And, as it happens, it’s possible to design and use the body scanners in a way that protects privacy without diminishing security--but the U.S. government has failed to do so.

Millimeter-wave scanners came on the market after September 11 as a way of detecting highdensity contraband, such as ceramics or wax, that would be missed by metal detectors when concealed under clothing--while avoiding radiation that could harm humans. The machines also reveal the naked human body far more graphically than a conventional x-ray. But, from the beginning, researchers who developed the millimeter machines at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory offered an alternative design more sensitive to privacy. They proposed to project any concealed contraband onto a neutral, sexless mannequin while scrambling images of the passenger’s naked body into a

nondescript blob. But the Bush administration chose the naked machine rather than the blob machine: Some blob skeptics argue that blotting out private parts would make it harder to detect explosives concealed, for example, in prosthetic genitalia.

Of course, neither the blob nor the naked machine would have detected the suicide bombers who have proved perfectly willing to conceal explosives in real body cavities, as a Saudi suicide bomber proved in a failed attempt to assassinate a Saudi prince using explosives planted in a place where the sun doesn’t shine.

Former DHS director Michael Chertoff, whose consulting firm now represents the leading vendor of the millimeter machines, Rapiscan, has been a vocal cheerleader for body scanning: He called the Christmas bombing a “very vivid lesson in the value of that machinery.” In 2005, under Chertoff’s leadership, TSA ordered five scanners from Rapiscan, claiming that its naked images were less graphic than those of competitors. TSA also introduced one additional privacy protection: Agents who review the images of the naked bodies are in a separate room and, therefore, can’t see the passengers as they’re being

scanned. According to the TSA website, the technology blurs all facial features, and, based on some news accounts, private parts have been blurred as well.

But because the TSA remains free of independent oversight, it’s impossible to tell precisely how they’re being used.

Most troubling of all, the TSA website claims that “the machines have zero storage capability” and that “the system has no way to save, transmit or print the image.” But documents recently obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center reveal that, in 2008, the TSA told vendors that the machines it purchases must have the ability to send or store images when in “test” mode.

(The TSA told CNN that the test mode can’t be enabled at airports.) Because no regulations prohibit the TSA from storing images, the House (but not the Senate) voted last year to ban the use of body scanning machines for primary screening and to prohibit images from being stored.

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Unsentimental Education

By Marty Peretz (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:00:00 PM

“The cruel God of the Jews has you beaten too.”-- Racine An interview by Joe Klein in Time magazine is hardly a historical event. But, when the interview is with Barack Obama, it lays claim to some newsworthiness. This is especially true when it is ballyhooed as a firstanniversary event. Since, moreover, (right after awarding himself good grades on Al Qaeda in Yemen and Somalia) it’s clear that Obama wanted to make a point: “The other area which I think is worth noting is that the Middle East peace process has not moved forward. And I think it’s fair to say that for all our efforts at early engagement, it is not where I want it to be.”

Klein then throws the president an easy ball, which Obama hits just outside the third baseline.

“I’ll be honest with you. ... This is just really hard. Even for a guy like George Mitchell, who helped bring about peace in Northern Ireland. This is as intractable a problem as you get.” I suppose this is an admission of sorts for the president. But, as he goes on, you find that his understanding of “the problem” is not an

understanding at all. It is a disposition, and the disposition is his. Not his alone, mind you.

Still, it is his, and that’s what counts.

How does one characterize this disposition? Of course, you can read the interview. Or let me quote briefly: “Both sides--the Israelis and the Palestinians-have found the political environment, the nature of their coalitions or the divisions within their societies, were such that it was very hard for them to start engaging in a meaningful conversation. ... Moving forward, though, we are going to continue to work with both parties to recognize what I think is ultimately their deep-seated interest in a two-state solution in which Israel is secure and the Palestinians have sovereignty and can start focusing on developing their economy and improving the lives of their children and grandchildren.” One is tempted to ask what Arab model the Arabs of Palestine will use as a prototype for their own prosperity and freedom. Is there such anywhere in the Arab world? Perhaps the president will himself propose one.

Obama’s confidence in himself on matters that he used to know nothing--or, to be charitable, next to nothing--about leads him astray. But even self-absorbed

people tend to have crutches.

Frankly, I don’t believe that Rashid Khalidi is his tutor, although he may have lived in his neighborhood. The person he seems to rely on, at least for public fare, is Mitchell. I know that, last month, Mitchell was awarded the ncaa “Teddy” Award, named for Theodore Roosevelt and bestowed on people who played undergraduate athletics, or something like that. Mitchell’s sport was basketball. But even the president’s enchantment with the game can’t explain his enchantment with Mitchell, who, after all, screwed up his own investigation of drug use in the baseball majors.

I am not being cruel to the exsenator from Maine. Even that faux Harvard scholar, Stephen Walt, co-author of the noxious The Israel Lobby, believes that the president should put him out to pasture. I, myself, don’t think it makes any difference. If the president believes that George is correct in his views, then the president believes it. I do not know how many frequent-flier miles Mitchell has accrued in his travels to the region. But he is becoming desperate.

In only the last fortnight, Mitchell allowed himself to be drawn into preposterous discussions with Mahmoud

Abbas that revolved around the rais’s proposal that the Obama administration negotiate with Israel on the final boundaries of the Palestinian state. Presumably, Mitchell was not happy with the idea. Of course, he delivered the message to Washington and discussed it with Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s response to the Mickey Mouse conditions Abbas has set, particularly the first-time demand of a halt to construction any place in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem, can be summarized: “Stop wasting time talking about how to enter the peace process.”

On the other hand, Mitchell was almost delirious with the news he found in Beirut and Damascus.

Now “delirium” is a clinical description. But it is, in fact, the only way to explain Mitchell’s reading of the Lebanese and Syrian situations, especially vis-à -vis the United States and Israel, individually or together. The cliché about Lebanon used to be that it would be the second state to make peace with Israel. Quite to the contrary: I believe it will be the last state to make peace with Israel, if it ever will.

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37

'The Bachelor''s Vienna Fights for Her Man (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 1/29/2010 4:30:00 AM

There is only one episode left before the hometown dates on "The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love," which means that Jake Pavelka has to narrow down his pool of five bachelorettes to four on this week's episode, sending home either Ali, Corrie, Gia, Tenley or Vienna.

But first, the six-pack head to San Francisco for a little romance with three one-on-one dates and one two-on-one date.

Happily for the ladies, no roses are at stake until the rose ceremony, when one unhappy lady will leave her heart in San Francisco.

For the first one-on-one date, Jake has one of the bachelorettes join him for a private trolley ride through Chinatown and a visit to a fortune cookie factory, where they write their own fortunes.

The second bachelorette gets a real San Francisco treat: a trip to the top of the historic Coit Tower for a private dinner with breathtaking views of the city.

The third date finds Jake and the chosen bachelorette in Golden Gate State Park, followed by a private dinner at the California Academy of Science, where she risks it all by surprising Jake with a very personal revelation.

38

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Assessing Ahmadinejad's Closed Circle

Tea Party Convention Apocalypse

(AEI.Org: Articles)

(Little Green Footballs)

Minister Mehdi Bazargan's transitional government (1979), all cabinets in the history of the "Tell me who your friends are, Islamic Republic have been and I will tell you who you are," broad coalition governments the saying goes and Iranian representing powerful elite President M a h m o u d groups such as various factions Ahmadinejad's second cabinet among revolutionary Shia clergy, surely says a good deal about the traditional bazaar class, w h o h e i s . A h m a d i n e j a d technocratic elites recruited from presented his 21-minister cabinet t h e n o w d e f u n c t I s l a m i c to parliament in two rounds: 20 R e p u b l i c a n P a r t y , m o d e r n August 2009, where 18 of his business elites of the 1990's, and cabinet candidates gained a m e m b e r s o f t h e I s l a m i c parliamentary vote of confidence R e v o l u t i o n G u a r d s C o r p s thanks to Supreme Leader ( I R G C ) . B r o a d c o a l i t i o n A y a t o l l a h A l i K h a m e n e i ' s governments secured the highest i n t e r v e n t i o n , a n d o n 1 5 degree of consensus in political November 2009 where the decision making among elites of cabinet was completed. In the Islamic Republic. addition, since the 12 June Ahmadinejad, however, has election, Ahmadinejad has moved away from the political appointed 14 vice presidents and traditions and elites of the past. advisers by presidential decree, His first cabinet (2005-09), bringing his immediate network which was characterised by the up to 35, as reported by the highest number of shuffles in Iranian presidency's website. government since 1979, boasted With the exception of Prime 29 appointments. A record Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:00:00 PM

Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:00:00 PM

Partners HealthCare is a Harvard Medical School offshoot that provides health care and runs two hospitals-Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's--which themselves are largely staffed by

Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:56:17 PM

Bad news for the first National Tea Party Convention: two of its biggest names are bailing out.

In another sign that controversy is taking a toll on next week’s National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tenn., two of its top attractions — Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Michele Bachmann (R-Mars) — have decided to opt out of their prior plans to speak at the event.

The high-profile blows to the convention come as several sponsors have backed out and organizers are struggling to sell tickets to Sarah Palin’s keynote address amid controversy about the convention’s unusual finances.

As first reported by POLITICO, the convention is being run by a for-profit Tennessee corporation called Tea Party Nation, registered to a little-known Tennessee lawyer whose efforts to position himself as a national tea party leader have put him at Medical School faculty, so that supplemented by limits (not a odds with some state tea party s o m e 8 , 0 0 0 o f P a r t n e r s ban) on fees for serving on the activists. The lawyer, Judson employees have Medical School board of directors of such firms. Phillips, intended to turn a profit appointments. Faculty meetings The goal is to help patients by from the convention, with the are held in the Boston Garden curtailing conflicts of interest. stated goal of seeding a so-called when the Celtics are out of town. Whether things will actually 527 group that would air ads Partners HealthCare recently work out that way is highly praising conservative candidates imposed a ban on faculty speaker doubtful. Judging by news or criticizing their opponents, though he now concedes he’s fees from pharmaceutical and CONFLICT page 39 biotech companies,

Conflict of Interest (AEI.Org: Articles)

number of 17 cabinet appointees were former officers of the IRGC, 10 of the cabinet ministers were technocrats while the clerical representation in Ahmadinejad's first cabinet was limited to just two clerics-neither of whom lasted the entire tenure. Indeed, following Ahmadinejad's 26 July 2009 dismissal of Intelligence Minister Gholam-hossein Mohseni Ezhehi, there was no clerical representation in the cabinet during its last week in power.

Click here to view the full article as an Adobe Acrobat PDF. Ali Alfoneh is a visiting research fellow at AEI. Photo credit: Daniella Zalcman/Flickr/Creative Commons Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

hoping just to break even and has tabled the 527 idea.

Blackburn and Bachmann, tea party favorites along with Palin, cited the financing arrangement in announcing Thursday that they were pulling out.

Former Governor Sarah Palin is hanging in there, though.

Palin, who is being paid a $100,000 fee to speak at the convention, in a statement to POLITICO on Tuesday night said she remained committed to the event.

“This is about the people — the grass-roots’ activists whose core values demand a responsible government,” she said. “This is not about politics or organizers, it is about the soul of our blessed country.” She added that “any speaker’s fee will be contributed to the cause, and I will not be personally gaining from this.”

Politico’s Kenneth Vogel fact checks that claim immediately: The only way Palin could donate her fee to conservative groups that get involved in federal elections would be to make dozens of $2,400 or $5,000 maximum contributions to candidates and political action committees, respectively. (She could make larger contributions to 527 groups, but those are barred from directly supporting or opposing candidacies.)

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CONFLICT continued from page 38

reports, pharmaceutical companies typically tap highlevel Partners employees--such as chief medical officers--for their boards. People in that kind of position oversee such vastly diverse medical decision-making that it is hard even to imagine why or how they subvert medical care to the interests of the firms on whose boards they serve.

After all, they have to protect the reputations that attracted attention in the first place. Of course, they are eager to see new treatments emerge from the formidable research capabilities of the Harvard Medical complex,

but the rules of the drug development game leave almost no room for anything beyond the paramount goal of finding out what actually works.

As for speaking fees, these typically go to outstanding faculty whose greatest assets, again, are academic reputations-precisely the reason they are tapped for speaking roles, advisors, and so on. That circumstance greatly diminishes the chances of patient harm. The real problem lies elsewhere, in the role of physician as both decider (you need surgery) and provider (I actually do this kind

of surgery a couple of times a week!). The new Partners conflict-of-interest policy does nothing to address this timeless and persuasive conflict of interest.

John E. Calfee is a resident scholar at AEI. P h o t o c r e d i t : iStockphoto/Bluberries.

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39

Aussie Hottie Andy Whitfield Is One Sexy 'Spartacus' (ETonline - Breaking News)

like to do all the nudity and love scenes.

ET: When you auditioned, did "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," they ask you to take your shirt which made record ratings for off?

Starz when it premiered last Andy Whitfield: Surprisingly, I Friday night, is so steamy it wasn't. I was wearing clothes. should be called "Spartacus: That didn't happen, so I had a Blood and Sex." ET talks to month to convince them they series star and Aussie hottie made the right decision.

Andy Whitfield about what it is Submitted at 1/29/2010 4:20:00 AM

Memonic Helps You Clip and Organize Data From Across the Web [Notes]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:30:00 AM

Memonic is a free web-based tool that seeks to help you clip out just what you need from your web-based research and organize it in a personally meaningful and helpful way.

Memonic allows you to move away from the model of bookmarking sites that contain data you want and instead snipping that data out of the page and saving it to your Memonic account. If you're doing research

on a vacation for instance you wouldn't bookmark every page you found with interesting content about that vacation you would use Memonic to clip out the bits that were of interest to you—a specific restaurant review from a restaurant critic page, a landmark you want to visit you found on the visitor's bureau site, some photos of local street performers you'd like to keep an eye out for, and so on.

All the things you clip end up in your Memonic inbox, seen below: From there you can sort and

organize your clips, edit the associated information, and share your clippings and organized portfolios with others. Memonic accounts are free and you can

enter information into Memonic using a bookmarklet—see the top screenshot, the green box is the clipping border—or by emailing the information to your

Memonic account or manually creating a new entry within Memonic. If you're curious to try out Memonic but hate signing up for new accounts, you can try out all the features of Memonic just by visiting the main page. If you like the service you can create a free account to save the clippings you made during your trial run.

Have a favorite service for gathering web-based clippings and media together? Let's hear about it in the comments. Thanks Mick! Memonic

40

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Download Over 150 Free PowerPoint Advanced PowerPoint Slides to Jazz Up Your Presentations [Powerpoint]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:00:00 AM

If you're tired of your PowerPoint presentations being a bit tame, Microsoft has released a collection of PowerPoint slide sets that show how you can push the envelope in slide design and get away from boring slides.

They've collected dozens of slide sets that are not only interesting for their color schemes and animations, but also include instructions on how each was created. If you see a set in the collection that you'd like to not only use but learn how to make, download it and check out the attached notes—they'll detail the creation process slide by slide like an elaborate tutorial. If you have Microsoft Silverlight

installed you can check out the video below: While you're improving your presentation chops you might want to check out how to deliver polished presentations Steve Jobs style, skim over SlideFinder to find inspiration for your next presentation, or grab Theme Builder to help build themes

across your Office documents.

Have a favorite tool or trick for spicing up your presentations?

Let's hear about it in the comments. Free Picture and Text E f f e c t s f o r PowerPoint[Microsoft via Download Squad]

City home Tuesday night and told her mother she was heading out to a store. She has not been A pregnant New Jersey woman seen since, police said, according has disappeared days before she to MyFoxNY.com. was expected to deliver her baby, Anyone with information on her family told MyFoxNY.com Vasquez's whereabouts is asked Aileen Vasquez, 27, tucked her to contact the Jersey City Police children into bed at their Jersey Department Missing Person's Submitted at 1/29/2010 5:55:32 AM

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

consumer reviews at the moment, and the coverage is mainly in bigger cities. Still, if I Not every coffee shop is was lugging my laptop up to friendly to laptop toters these Toronto, I'd hit this site before days. Then again, some are venturing out. absolutely great to set up inside. The site is free to use, allows for LaptopFriendlyCafes.com lists cafe submissions, and offers an more than 300 places around the i P h o n e a p p v e r s i o n t h a t , globe that have plugs, Wi-Fi, 3G, honestly, only covers New York, and, oh yes, coffee.

London, Sydney and The specs that the database site Melbourne—though, if you live has on each cafe is pretty in those cities, it will get you to impressive—confirmed tests of laptop-friendly spots with turnUnit at 201-547-5341. directions.

Click here for more from 3G coverage (though no carrier b y - t u r n in particular is mentioned), free Laptopfriendlycafes.com[via MyFoxNY.com.

Five Filters featured article: or low-cost Wi-Fi, and directions WebWorkerDaily] Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: and official web site links, when PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, available. There aren't a lot of Term Extraction.

Pregnant N.J. Woman Vanishes Days Before Due Date (FOXNews.com)

LaptopFriendlyCafes Finds Great Wi-Fi Spots Worldwide [Laptops] Submitted at 1/29/2010 5:00:00 AM

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41

John Travolta on Haiti and his Radical 'From Paris with Love' Look (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 1/29/2010 3:15:00 AM

John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers premiered their outrageous action-thriller 'From Paris with Love' in New York Thursday night, and John talked to ET about his mercy mission to Haiti!

John and wife Kelly Preston flew 22 doctors plus medics along with several tons of supplies to earthquake-stricken Haiti with the help of Qantas, and he said, "The important part of this is that the supplies that we brought were able to stay with those doctors. … They've handled hundreds of people already."

By Jason Fitzpatrick s t a r t u p o r r u n i n t h e In 'From Paris with Love,' in (Lifehacker) background—no matter how theaters February 5, John sports deeply buried in the system they a bold bald look and a dastardly and the database constantly Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:00:00 AM are—WinPatrol is a great tool for goatee as Charlie Wax, a looseupdates so the chances of Windows: WinPatrol Plus is a doing so. You can visit the cannon CIA agent who takes low something sneaking through the powerful Windows monitoring a u t h o r ' s s i t e f o r m o r e -level operative James Reese NSFW filter are moderately tool which regularly retails for information or jump directly to (Meyers) under his wing, giving high, keep that in mind if you're $40. It's available, today only, the Yahoo! store that processes him more action and bulletbrowsing at work. You can also for 99 cents. the orders—in case the offer dodging than he ever imagined specify image size, screen ratio, WinPatrol Plus continually today tanks the author's site. possible as they attempt to thwart and whether or not you'll scan all monitors your system and takes WinPatrol Plus is Windows only a terrorist attack. When James the available boards or a specific system snapshots to record and on sale, today only, for 99 discovers he's a crime ring target, sub-board. system changes, critical spikes in cents. Have a favorite Windows he realizes that Wax may be his For more places to find great resource usage, and other events monitoring tool? Let's hear about only hope for making it through wallpaper check out our Hive you want to be alerted of. If you it in the comments. WinPatrol the next 48 hours alive.

Five on top wallpaper sites. Have want to monitor your system and Plus[via Download Squad] a favorite place of your own? keep tight control over aspects of L e t ' s h e a r a b o u t i t i n t h e it like what programs launch at comments. Wallbase[via MakeUseOf]

Wallbase Helps You Find Fresh Desktop Wallpaper [Wallpaper]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 1/29/2010 5:30:00 AM

Wallbase catalogs wallpaper bring you over 350,000 unique wallpapers. Take a peek inside to find something new for casual Friday.

Wallbase is a huge database built by scraping the image boards of 4chan related to wallpapers and high resolution images. The database is searchable by keyword as well as variables like whether or not images are NSFW—we'd caution you that images are user tagged

Grab Windows Monitoring Tool WinPatrol Plus for 99 Cents [Downloads]

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In Networks We Trust? Sure, But Privacy Is Another Matter

By Mike Kirkwood (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:41:00 PM

Privacy is a touchy subject. In almost all cases, the more fame and fortune a person or company acquires, the more scrutiny they receive. And, out comes the trolls, worms and paparazzi.

Twitter and Facebook are the beacon examples of this issue.

People like being famous, and we want followers! And the evidence shows, the more personal information we put out there, the more people consume it. Today, on International Data Privacy Day, we explore the social and technical norms and issues of privacy in the network and the cloud.

Sponsor International Data Privacy Day is an event that asks, "In this networked world, in which we are thoroughly digitized, with our identities, locations, actions, purchases, associations, movements, and histories stored as so many bits and bytes, we have to ask - who is collecting all of this - what are they doing with it - with whom are they sharing it? " One of the official sponsors of Data Privacy Day is the recently launched, The Privacy Projects.

Interestingly, the other official sponsors include Google, Microsoft and AT&T. Each of these organizations themselves have been under intense scrutiny for privacy policies in the recent

past.

Google and Microsoft have industry-leading cloudcomputing initiatives. Google Apps, and Microsoft Azure both want to use the cloud for productivity applications. Also, both companies have significant investments in the future of healthcare and becoming middleware for health information online. It is clear that both of these organizations have a stake in data privacy as the physical infrastructure moves into the cloud. Is it a Technology Problem?

We've compiled a few considerations to keep in mind about the underpinning technologies that power our online lives. Hard questions keep coming to mind: Is the system that we use to communicate secure at all? Is it even possible to build a privacy-enabled application on top of the 2010 Internet?

• Internet Protocol (IP) itself has been proven to be hackable in many ways, shapes and forms.

Will it ever be possible to build a truly private experience on this protocol?

• Can the communication networks win the encryption arms race? This month, the 64bit 3G encryption used by a majority of mobile providers was cracked. Researchers quickly demonstrated that they could optimize around this weakness and penetrate the 3G encryption.

Our voice traffic and data traffic

government to view the search history for a user. Yikes!

• Virtualization and cloud computing come to the rescue (or not). The biggest trends in computing this year actually advocate taking data outside of private data centers and putting it can now be seen by others - i n t o c o - l o c a t e d c o m p u t i n g centers, or running multiple anytime.

• Anonymous data is not really instances of software on one anonymous. Paul Ohm's recent physical host. The benefits are paper illustrates how easy it is to tremendous, but there are also take current best-practices in significant unsolved privacy data management and prove issues that are going to continue they're not worthy of our trust. to lag the adoption of cloud "Scientists have demonstrated solutions. they can often 'reidentify' or 'deanonymize' individuals hidden Or is it a Motivation Problem? i n a n o n y m i z e d d a t a w i t h This all begs a question of motivation. Many companies astonishing ease."

• Social networks are actually m o n e t i z e s h a r i n g d a t a , o r taking the opposite approach to promote the existing state of p r i v a c y . F a c e b o o k i s a n affairs in the technology stack. astonishing example of where Others have questioned whether the rules of engagement have it is desirable to have a tamperchanged. Mark Zuckerburg's proof private network solution, recent statements that " privacy even if such a technology exists. is no longer a social norm" show Would that top technologies with remarkable clarity that it companies promote a private will be especially difficult to network to their customers. achieve privacy if we're not • Google may have a motivation actively trying.

• Search history has been a p r o b l e m . B y m o n e t i z i n g constant issue with privacy. heavily on "knowing" what we Google is in perhaps the most do, it is hard to see how Google difficult position by both having will be the best guardian of our the history of what we look for online data. Google clearly on the Web and a reason to sell wants to do the right thing, but it. Recently it was reported w i l l t h e a p p r o a c h t o d a t a (again), with relatively little management ever catch up? fanfare, that Google has a That being said, major progress backdoor that allows the federal is going on at the company that tries to not do evil, including the

recent launch of the Google Privacy Center and the establishment of the five privacy principles.

• Cisco provides a good portion of the technology infrastructure for computing. Cisco was built on the IP and has wielded IP to its advantage in gaining traction in the enterprise and in voice networks. Would Cisco be willing to take an aggressive approach in guarding citizen privacy if it risked the networking architecture franchise?

• Microsoft has been criticized and brought into court for its efforts that breach anti-trust and user privacy. Microsoft may be the most experienced company in the world when it comes to seeing the challenges inherent in having the keys to peek into a user's data but choosing not to use it.

• ATT is a network company that wants to avoid be relegated to a just a "dumb pipe". The company has been brought to task in the past by the EFF and others for its use of private data and billing information. It seems that all the networks will be challenged in producing a truly private network. It is also a question of whether they have the ability - whether they're blocked on in a technical or regulatory way - to monetize personal data enough to truly be NETWORKS page 44

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43

Never Mind the Valley: Here's Beijing

By Dana Oshiro (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:12:00 PM

It's Data Privacy Day and when it comes to generating privacyrelated buzz in the blogosphere, there are few governments as controversial as China. From Google's recent security issues, to blocked social media sites to the proposed Green Dan censorship program, Western netizens have always had a tenuous relationship with China.

As part of our Never Mind the Valley series, ReadWriteWeb spoke to several investors and entrepreneurs to find out what it's like to run a startup beyond what many describe as the "Great Firewall".

Sponsor RWW's Never Mind the Valley series: While areas like Shanghai's Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park and PKU-HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institution have sprung up as tech hubs, there's no denying that Beijing's Zhongguancun National Innovation Model Park is considered the country's tech epicenter. Nestled in the southwest corner of the city, the region plays host to the University of Beijing, Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Science. Since the early eighties, major players like Baidu, Sina and Sohu have skyrocketed to success while sharing the land with global companies like Nokia, IBM and

Microsoft. Today, the region tax breaks and opportunities for large and small companies alike.

Emerging Markets While Facebook often boasts of its 350 million users, in China alone there are 340 million netizens with the majority opting to use alternative social sites like 51.com QZone and RenRen. Says Barrett Parkman, International Business Development Manager at Mobile Internet Great Wall Club, "Having user generated content as the core of a company here is risky business. Not to say UGC isn't alive and well, it's just that companies have to take strong measures to restrict it to uncontroversial topics. This is another reason that the gaming sector and virtual goods industry are growing so rapidly since they are generally uncontroversial in nature."

Because of China's leadership in the gaming sector, CMUNE CEO Ludovic Bodin is taking Chinese revenue models and applying them to his Westernlaunched products such as Paradise Paintball. Says Bodin, "China is one of the most advanced country in the world for online gaming and has strong knowledge of the sale of virtual goods as a primary business model. CMUNE is taking the best practices in China and adapting for a non-Chinese context and audience.

Developing here gives us an advantage to later launch into the

and from a unique matchmaking service with a hybrid call center/online component called Zhenai. Funding There is no shortage of venture capital firms in China. Groups such as GSR Ventures, Sequoia China and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers are all present for those seeking large-scale funding. As well, Huang Shengli's China Renaissance and a number of other firms help broker private Chinese market. " Plus Eight Star CEO Benjamin equity deals.

Joffe further addresses China's On the other hand, entrepreneurs meteoric growth in gaming and with more modest needs can find virtual goods. Joffe frequently fundraising challenging. Says presents emerging trends in Richard Robinson, CEO of China's mobile, telecom and casual gaming site Kooky Panda, "Later stage VC funding is Internet markets.

Explains Joffe, "The online advanced and even frothy here in gaming market is still booming the Middle Kingdom and the despite being already very large. early stage is still quite nascent."

There are nine companies listed Robinson goes to explain how on NASDAQ and Hong Kong much of the angel funding in stock exchanges including China comes from friends, Tencent." Joffe argues that while family and industry insiders. many Chinese companies began Nevertheless, that environment is s i m i l a r t o t h e i r W e s t e r n improving as new groups step up counterparts, founders quickly with seed money and mentorship realized the need to generate for early-stage investors. revenue beyond the ad model. As Former president of Google the leading community portal in China Dr. Kai-Fu Lee launched China, Tencent earned more than Innovation Works as a $115 $1.5 billion dollars in revenue million dollar venture fund for last year with a large portion of early-stage entrepreneurs. The that generated through virtual fund focuses on web, mobile and cloud computing technologies goods.

In addition to watching the targeted at the greater Chinese social gaming space, Joffe market and investors include suggests that technologists look YouTube cofounder Steve Chen for interesting plays from the and makers of Lenovo, Legend business social networking space Group. Additional sources for angel funding include

associations such as the Asia America MultiTechnology Association angel group, the China Business Angel Network and The Chinese Founders Fund.

Says Dr. Jovan Hsu founding partner of the Chinese Founders Fund, "There are few funds looking to invest in companies where the valuation is less than $10 million dollars and private equity firms are even higher.

Early stage companies need more angel funds. The Chinese Founders Fund finds itself in a good position in the investment food chain in China. We're providing smart money."

Mentorship and Learning Organizations like the Great Wall Club and China Entrepreneurs offer opportunities to network and gain mentorship, while Mobile Monday and Web Wednesday offer regular events for those looking to discuss the latest trends. Meanwhile, research firms like Analysys, iResearch and China ICT host larger conferences for annual business development opportunities.

Operations With 35 million unique visitors per month to his site, CEO Fritz Demopoulos' Qunar is China's leading online travel company. Some of the advantages Demopoulos lists in keeping his business in China is the close proximity to the world's largest internet market, the NEVER page 46

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iPad Gets Its First Development Fund

By Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb)

process of building an iPad application from "sketches to finished product." More importantly, the company is looking to fund development efforts that are not just mere ports of iPhone applications, but rather take advantage of the new features the iPad has to offer.

Notes the company, the apps should "do stuff better than it would be done on an iPhone, and differently from the way it would be done on a laptop or desktop machine." What "stuff" is that exactly? That's for developers to decide.

In order to qualify, apps also must have the potential to generate revenue, be ready to launch by summer 2010, be developed by teams where at least 70% of the talent is within the North East region where NFM is located, and not replicate the functionality of apps already designed for the iPad. That last stipulation was likely made because it could lead to the app's rejection from the iTunes App

Store, as has been the case in the past with iPhone apps such as Google Voice, a VoIP application for making calls and receiving voicemail.

NFM also says that the development team requesting funding should have an investment of money from a private investor, either an equity firm or the company's own resources. Applications NFM selects for funding will receive anywhere from £1,000 to £10,000, depending on the app's potential as NFM sees it.

The iPad is set to launch worldwide in March, at least in the Wi-Fi version. 3G versions outside the U.S. will take a bit longer with no solid dates available at this time.

So far, reactions to the iPad have been decidedly mixed among the tech press. Some have claimed the device is the future of computing while others state the iPad is a failure.

solutions to online privacy.

• @jtrentadams- Technologist, What Should a Mere Mortal Futurist, and Innovator- "Tip to Do? minimize browser fingerprinting: The leading thought leaders use the most common browser & have not been silent on the settings with no plugins (& turn balance of privacy and trust. o f f J a v a S c r i p t ) . # p r i v a c y These leaders leave us with a bit # i d e n t i t y " of hope that smart people, rather • @identitywoman- Saving the than smart companies may offer World with user-centric identity-

"People are not free to leave with their info these systems if they lose trust. #ftcprivacy sorry LinkedIN" • @adrielhampton- Govie. PI. Gov 2.0 Radio. Ran for Congress.- "RT @EFF Help EFF Research Web Browser Tracking http://eff.org/r.f82 Check out our new research site, Panopticlick!

Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:07:17 AM

A regional development firm in the U.K. is the first to announce a development fund for the Apple iPad, offering up to £40,000 ($64,500) for iPad application ideas. The introduction of this fund comes less than twenty-four hours after Apple's chief exec Steve Jobs demoed the the company's highly anticipated touchscreen tablet computer on stage at an event in San Francisco. Although this fund is limited to developers in the U.K., there's little doubt that this firm will soon be one of many offering similar incentives to developers in order to encourage the creation of an entirely new ecosystem of applications tailored specifically for this unique handheld device.

Sponsor According the statement released by NFM, the fund will aid developers throughout the

Nevertheless, analysts are predicting Apple will sell 1 to 5 million iPads in its first year.

Developers, too, will be itching to create new applications for the device - at least according to Joe Hewitt, the man behind the iPhone version of Facebook. His application, which many say is an even better way to use the social network than the website itself, is a testament to how new platforms can enhance and transform applications from the boring Web 1.0 world of desktop computing to the Web 3.0 world of mobile devices. The iPad will only push this trend even further.

Says Hewitt, "if you're a developer and you're not thinking about how your app could work better on the iPad and its descendants, you deserve to get left behind."

U.K. firms looking to be the forerunners in iPad development can fill out the application for funding here. Discuss

Eliot Spitzer — [Pullquote]

By Gabriel Snyder (Gawker) Submitted at 1/29/2010 10:00:12 AM

former New York governor, prostitution enthusiast and hopeless romantic responding to the question "What's love?" in an interview with BigThink.com via the New York Post's front page.

NETWORKS continued from page 42

a risk for citizens.

#privacy" These people - and many more are working to make sure our backs are covered in this new world of trade-offs between our privacy and the free Internet.

Should there be a technical solution offered for a private Internet? Under what conditions

would you support it, if offered?

Discuss

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An Inside Look Into Boxee's Systematic UX Overhaul Process

By Chris Cameron (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:00:00 PM

Anyone who has been using Facebook for a few years knows that even minor changes to an interface design can cause a wide variety of reactions from a loyal user base. When the popular social network has made design tweaks in the past, there is always some portion of their users that are upset, if not enraged, by the changes made. A couple of weeks ago, we told you how your registration process could be driving potential users away, and a large part of that has to do with the design.

Sponsor These days, the look and feel of a website or product is just as important as the features that it provides. One product with one of the hottest new interfaces available is the new Boxee Beta software which allows for streamlined local and Web media viewing. Whitney Hess is the user experience (UX) designer behind the framework of the Boxee interface, and recently on her blog Pleasure and Pain she described the systematic process she went through to design it.

"Overall, we wanted to provide users with greater ability to discover content across sources, easier ways to sort and lter lists, When Boxee hired Hess to and quick access to their favorite overhaul their UX, she began by programming," writes Hess on interviewing eleven people, her blog. some of which were current Boxee's set-top product, aptly users of the software, and others named the Boxee Box, was one who weren't. She asked them a o f t h e m o s t p o p u l a r n e w variety of questions about their products at this year's Consumer use of multimedia, including Electronics Show earlier this "Have you ever played music at m o n t h . O n e o f i t s m o s t a party you were hosting?" and distinguishing characteristics is "Have you ever displayed your its beautiful interface design, photos on your TV?" among which was raved about by several others. Hess then held reviewers on blogs and in the u s a b i l i t y t e s t s w i t h f i v e press. The design owes its participants and gauged how p o s i t i v e r e c e p t i o n t o t h e they navigated around the framework it sits on, a product of software when asked to complete Hess's systematic approach to the redesign. a series of tasks.

From this process, Hess was "As more and more living rooms able to uncover what current borrow content from the Internet, users needed to make their they're going to have to borrow experience better while at the t h e w e b ' s f o c u s o n u s e r same time discovering what experience as well," Andrew potential users would find K i p p e n , B o x e e ' s V P o f attractive. Her work led to the marketing, told ReadWriteWeb. inclusion of several UX features "Websites rise and fall based not and her wireframe submissions only on the content but also on certainly influenced the final UI's the experience they provide, look and feel. The screenshot soon connected TVs, BluRay below demonstrates how the players, and Set Top Boxes will final design compared to her do the same." Discuss wireframe shown above.

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Overhyped, Overpriced & Disappointing: iPad? No, iPod in 2001

By Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:57:34 PM

"I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! ... I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!"

Sound familiar? That wasn't a reaction to yesterday's Apple iPad launch, that was a MacRumors commenter in 2001 reacting to the launch of the iPod. The iPod, the device that symbolized personal electronics more than any other product in the last decade, was widely criticized when it was unveiled.

It was "just another MP3 player."

Sponsor One notable detail in comparing the history of the iPod with the new iPad: iPod sales were no big deal until three years after the product was launched. There was no iTunes for Windows until two years after the iPod came out - the iPad already has a thriving app store. (See this conversation on Hacker News for more snarky historical perspective.)

Thus while these old comments about the iPod are humorous in retrospect, the history of the iPod is a reminder of just how much

has to go right for even a revolutionary Apple product to really explode. There may be a lot of us who wait for the iPad 2.0.

"I'd call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time... and it's not really functional. Uuhh Steve, can I have a PDA now?" That's what they said then. Will we look back in 10 years at today's complaints about the iPad missing a camera and chuckle in the same way? Maybe not about the camera, but the missing Flash support? Now that might seem silly in retrospect. Discuss

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NEVER continued from page 43

thriving startup ecosystem with professional firms and universities, and a large number of capable professionals willing to work in a startup business.

Says Demopoulos, "I've lived in China for many years and I've been involved in media and internet projects for nearly a decade. Globalization provides talent, resources, and the chance to deploy anywhere and seek returns. I'm no exception."

Says Victor Tong, an angel investor in WebPlus and former director at Talentsoft, "China has

built up a market-oriented economy and the business environment is quite free now.

Meanwhile, great development in information technology provides companies a lot of support in their business operation...Doing business in China is a great experience. The 1.3 billion person consumer market is a temptation that's too hard to resist. " Discuss

E-reader News Edition

RSVPs are 'Glittering' for Clive Davis' Pre-Grammy Party (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 1/29/2010 4:00:00 AM

The crème de la crème of the entertainment industry annually get all jazzed up for a night of music at Clive Davis' PreGrammy Party. This year will be no different. Clive is keeping his lips zipped on most of the details, but did do a teensy bit of name-dropping for ET.

The music producing extraordinaire explained, "This is a party to celebrate music and what makes it unique is really that that word has gotten out, so whether you're Tony Bennett or Natalie Cole or Sheryl Crow or whether you're Prince or Jay-Z or Taylor Swift, they all will be coming and it's great to see musicians from all genres at the height of their power have such

respect for each other."

He promises a "glittering" guest list that includes rookie attendee Bon Jovi and a performance by another party newbie, Harry Connick, Jr., who will be performing with a "big, big female star" who is eager for the duet.

iPod touch Now Outselling iPhone

By Charles Jade (TheAppleBlog)

known. It won’t matter either way, but let’s assume the latter.

Through 2009, Apple sold Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:52:01 PM 42.517 million iPhones. Subtract It’s something that was easy to that number from 75 million miss, but in talking up the user iPhone OS devices and we get base for the iPad, Steve Jobs 32.483 million iPod touches. indirectly revealed what many If you’re still awake, here’s the following the company suspect. bottom line: the rate of sales If the iPod touch has not already growth of the iPod touch is very become Apple’s best-selling likely greater than the table iPhone OS device, it soon will shows, as in double that of the be. iPhone. True, the period includes Much to consternation of sixthe holiday quarter, the best figure analysts, Apple doesn’t quarter for iPods, but it just break out iPod sales, but there However, it was a remark from through the end of June Apple million, three million, it doesn’t doesn’t matter. The iPod touch, are hints. At the conference call WWDC ‘09 and the one from the sold 26.38 million iPhones. really matter. Let’s say two the stealth device for iPhone OS, for last quarter, it was stated that iPad event that add up to the Subtracting that number from 40 million, or 15.62 million iPod will be the best-selling model for iPod touch sales for the quarter iPod touch now being the million gives us 13.62 million, touches, 42 million iPhone OS the platform in 2010, if it isn’t were up 55 percent year over leading iPhone OS device. which admittedly leaves out devices total through June, 2009. already, and it is. year. That helped explain how On June 8 at WWDC ‘09, it was sales of the iPod touch in June. At the iPad event, Steve Jobs iPod revenue was up by one announced that more than 40 However, we do know for that announced 75 million iPhone OS percent from a year ago, even million iPhone OS devices had entire quarter Apple sold 10.22 devices had been sold to date, though total iPod units sold were been sold, and this is where it million iPods. Pick a number for though whether that date was down eight percent. gets a little tricky. We know that June iPod touch sales. One January 27 or January 1 is not

Apple/

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47

iPad Buying Guide

By Weldon Dodd (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:18:54 AM

We all know that you want an iPad. You haven’t even touched one yet, but you have read every word published on the device since before it was announced on Wednesday’s event. You’ve been up all night dreaming about surfing the web, and looking at your address book in split view.

You can’t wait to download iTunes movies and watch them on the gorgeous 9.7 LED-backlit, glossy widescreen multi-touch display with fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating.

In fact, you have been repeating that last sentence in your head all morning as you watch the keynote again after downloading the high-res podcast from iTunes. You are making a list of which iBooks you will buy from the iBookstore so you can decide which title will be the first to have it’s icon gracefully displayed on your faux wood electronic bookshelf.

You are going to buy an iPad. All that is left to decide is which one. This, unfortunately, could be a difficult decision. What Are the Choices?

There are six variations on the iPad with various combinations of storage, with and without 3G support, ranging from $499 to $829.

Somewhere in that $330 spread is the perfect iPad for you.

Storage Capacity

You have three choices here: 16GB, 32GB or 64GB. How do you decide how much you need? iPhone apps are generally pretty small (a quick survey of the 400+ apps I have in my library indicates that they range from 56KB for single-purpose utilities to almost 200MB for some 3D games). It would take a lot of apps to fill up your iPad, even when you consider that the larger screen size will likely require iPad-specific games with larger graphic assets to fill that amazing screen from edge to edge with gaming goodness.

Email and all that doesn’t require a ton of onboard storage either, especially when you are using something like Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo, IMAP, Exchange or any other solution that keeps most of your archived messages on the server.

Music and movies are the big culprits here. If you want to carry around a lot of music and movies on the device, you will want the bigger capacity iPad. And, if you’re honest with yourself,

you’ll want to watch movies on this thing and show them off to your friends.

The real kicker is the pricing. It costs $100 to go from 16GB to 32GB ($6.25/GB) and $100 to go from 32GB to 64GB ($3.13/GB). The storage is actually getting cheaper as you buy more. Don’t be conservative here. Buy the biggest model you can afford. To 3G or not to 3G? That is the Question The 3G model offers nearly ondemand access to a wide-area network when you are out of range of Wi-Fi. In the United States, that access will cost you $14.99 for data transfer up to 250MB for the month, or $29.99 for unlimited data. With no contract required, you can sign up for these data contracts on the iPad itself only when you need it (no word yet if you can upgrade mid-month from 250MB to unlimited for the prorated difference). In addition, you also get access to AT&T hotspots as part of your subscription. But Why Would You Want 3G?

iPad while out and about, but those solutions all require longterm contracts. If you already have a MiFi or similar device, then just use that. If you don’t, the 3G model at least offers the opportunity to get online when you need it. Other Considerations iPhone Users: If you have an iPhone, the iPad 3G might not be necessary. If you are really in a Adding the 3G support to the pinch where you can’t use Wi-Fi, iPad will cost an extra $130 on you can rely on your iPhone until top of whatever size model you you get back into range of an choose. I think the biggest reason access point. to splash out for 3G is that this Upgradeitis: It seems obvious model includes support for that there will be a new iPad next assisted GPS. You won’t get year. Who knows, it might even GPS at all on the Wi-Fi model. have a camera. If you think you The mapping application might upgrade next year, demonstrated during the iPad consider what you need for the introduction (shown at 22:35) next 12 months. I think the two looks absolutely stunning andis models that will have the highest a huge improvement over the resale demand in 2011 will be iPhone. The speed on the new the low-end $499 device because A4 processor in the iPad really of the price point and the $829 takes the Maps app to the next 64GB 3G model because it will still be appealing to a power user level.

The only other reason to get the that is looking for a used iPad to 3G model is to plan ahead for the save a little money over next possibility that you might need year’s high-end model. What to use the iPad while not near Wi Am I Buying?

-Fi. If you’re taking this thing I was leaning towards the $829 o u t t o c l i e n t m e e t i n g s , 3G model because I know I will conferences with sketchy Wi-Fi, love the iPad but now I’m pretty or Apple press events filled to sure I’ll get the $499 Wicapacity, you will love having a Fi model. I want an iPad, but I w i d e - a r e a n e t w o r k o p t i o n already have a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. If the iPad proves available.

You might consider using a indispensable, I will sell the MiFi or other mobile hotspot to IPAD page 48 provide connectivity for your

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Take Rumors and Hype With a Grain of Salt

By Nick Santilli (TheAppleBlog)

developed in our heads (and on our blogs)? An empty feeling of disappointment following Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:35:24 AM Steve’s unveiling.

Apple plays the media game as History has shown that these well as anyone. There’s a frustrations and feelings of rigorous cat and mouse game of discontent will generally dwindle filing patents, trademarks, and with time. Sometimes it’s with domain registrations, fake the first hands-on experience, images, rumors, leaks, and and sometimes it’s a slightly m i s s p o k e n ( o r a r e t h e y ? ) longer road as the new thing (the comments in public forums. ‘MacBook’ name, for instance) Each of these manage to whip becomes familiar and accepted. the public into a frenzy of The problem as I see it, is that anticipation which can last for the more time we have on our years. But add to this equation, hands to wonder, the more the ravenous fans, bloggers, and creative we (by ‘we’ of course, I tech pundits, who all keep the mean the Internet) get with the ball rolling, and it easily enters a things the mythical device might completely new level of crazy. do.

Then the day of reckoning Think about it, we didn’t even arrives (as it did Wednesday), know if Apple was actually and perhaps the stock dips and developing a tablet. For at least a the feedback is mixed as many couple years there’s been much f a n s q u i c k l y t u r n o n t h e talk and guessing that it would, company that they revere. I get it but we really didn’t know for — we’re all so smitten with the sure. So people start thinking genius of these products we use about what an Apple tablet all the time, that we expect would look like, what it would nothing but perfection from do, and so on. From there, the Apple. But as the anticipation creative juices start to flow, and b u i l d s , o v e r t i m e , t h e the list of specs and possible “requirements” of the consumer technologies spin quickly out of outpace what may be logical or control. Sure, I would’ve loved even feasible. And then what to have seen a camera on the happens when reality doesn’t iPad. It also would’ve been live up to the expectations we’ve pretty neat if it had some sort of

proximity awareness of other iPads. Or if it functioned in a way that brought my home media viewing system together — that would’ve been ideal.

But take a step back and consider what Apple did: It now offers a great middle device for doing the simple things that a majority of computer users need, for only $500! As an aside, some close friends pined for a

IPAD continued from page 47

original iPad once iPad 2.0 comes out and buy the biggest and baddest model then. Tell Us Which Model You Will Buy

Here’s your chance to weigh in.

Vote in the poll to tell everyone which iPad you’re planning on buying. View This Poll

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MacBook to replace their aging iBook, but they couldn’t justify it because the iBook was nicknamed “The Email Checker.” Now for only $500 they could pick this up and browse the web casually, use Facebook, and do the simple tasks that their somewhat outdated (and slow) machine does for twice the price. I for one think that for what it is, the iPad

is going to be spectacularly successful.

And then there was the lack of any mention of the iPhone SDK 4.0 availability, Aperture, iLife, and on and on. But think about what this event was — it was the release of a new product from Apple. It’s something never before seen by 99.999 percent of the world. Steve doesn’t want to take away from the hype with anything if it doesn’t directly impact his new offering. Perhaps we’ll see or hear evidence of some of the aforementioned software in coming weeks as the iPad buzz subsides, but yesterday’s event was not the forum for such things.

So a couple of days later, we’re beginning to come down from the Apple event. For some it’s been everything they were hoping for (and did I mention, for only $500?!). For others, frustration and disappointment.

But listening to the rumor mill and pinning our hopes to those wild, and largely unfounded ideas is what made it hurt the most. Maybe we should stop that. I enjoy the rumors as much as the next guy. But perhaps it’s time to reign our technolust in just a skosh and enjoy the ride.

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Apple Allows VoIP App Over 3G Network

By Weldon Dodd (TheAppleBlog)

platform to integrate VoIP into their applications.”

CNET was also able to get Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:35:33 AM comment from both AT&T and AT&T has amended the terms Apple confirming that VoIP of use for the iPhone and now applications are now supported allows Apple has apparently on the 3G network. updated its iPhone SDK to AT&T said it informed Apple allow VoIP applications to run and the Federal Communications o v e r 3 G d a t a n e t w o r k s . Commission of its decision Previously, VoIP applications Tuesday afternoon. were only approved for sale in “We are very happy that AT&T the App Store if they were i s n o w s u p p o r t i n g V o I P limited to Wi-Fi. applications,” Apple The developers of the iCall spokesperson Natalie Kerris said.

VoIP application for iPhone “We will be amending our issued a press release yesterday developer agreements to get that they have the first VoIP over VoIP apps on the App Store and 3G app for the iPhone. in customers’ hands as soon as Apple Computer, Inc. has possible.” updated the iPhone developer VoIP on the iPad? SDK to allow VoIP over cellular At yesterday’s announcements networks. iCall is the first and Apple reiterated over and over only VoIP application that that “virtually” all of the functions on the iPhone and iPod 140,000+ apps in the App Store T o u c h o v e r c e l l u l a r 3 G would work with the iPad. Skype networks. was mentioned by David Pogue iCall CEO Arlo Gilbert is in his coverage and I’m fairly quoted as saying, “I applaud certain Apple provided him with Apple’s decision to allow iCall more briefing on the iPad than to extend its functionality they did for me. While there is beyond Wi-Fi and onto the 3G n o e x p l i c i t a n n o u n c e m e n t networks. This heralds a new era confirming VoIP for the $29 for VoIP applications on mobile unlimited 3G service, it seems platforms, especially for iCall possible that iCall (or Skype) and our free calling model. I would run unaltered on the iPad hope that now more developers and would work over the 3G data will begin using our VoIP as a p l a n . T h i s c o u l d m e a n a

$30/month unlimited calling plan for the iPad that would work anywhere, not just when in range of a Wi-Fi signal. VOIP Means the iPad Needs Multitasking While I was quick to dismiss the early complaints about the lack of multitasking on the iPad, it seems that VoIP calling is a critical application that would require this functionality. On the iPhone, it is really convenient to jump into email and contacts while on a phone call to pull up some information relevant to the conversation. It will be really annoying to be on a VoIP call on your iPad and have to hang up (by quitting the VoIP app) to look something up.

I suspect we will see some VoIP

apps with integrated web browsing for the simple reason that conference calls with web slides will work a lot better if you can look at the slides while on the call. Google Voice?

It is less clear if this change in the terms of the SDK and AT&T’s policies will allow Google to move forward with a native iPhone app. Apple apparently rejected the app because it substantially duplicated existing functionality and the interface could confuse customers. Google Voice is not a VoIP application in that it actually uses your cell phone minutes by redirecting calls to and from your Google Voice number (which might result in free calling using AT&T’s AList feature). Still, if there are VoIP apps that run on 3G, it seems like the duplication and confusion arguments would be weakened and might convince Apple to approve the Google Voice app. In the mean time, I have found the new Google Voice web app to be a good implementation given the lack of integration that would have been possible with a native app.

Hobo Princess Arrives Home After Diplomatic Tour [Open Caption]

By Richard Lawson (Gawker) Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:19:00 AM

[ J-WOWW Jersey, who married into the kingdom of Hobo Ken, arrives in her ancestral homeland of Long Island; image via INF]

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An Inkling of Things to Come for the iPad

By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:45:40 AM

The cat is only just out of the bag, and still there are iPadrelated websites, accessories, and apps being promoted across the web. Some were clearly just waiting to create something for whatever Apple released, and some appear to have been potentially been in on the secret for quite a while, unless they just have a very fast, talented graphics department.

Inkling is one of those that had a very slick website apparently waiting to go, since its updated site design went live shortly following the announcement, complete with mock-ups of the new iPad running its yet-to-bereleased software. And Inkling covers a blind spot in Jobs’ iPad announcement, one which may have been created by a McGrawHill faux pas: education.

Billing itself as “the world’s first end-to-end platform for mobile learning content,” Inkling aims to go beyond the traditional textbook before traditional textbook availability has even really been discussed as an iPad advantage. As of yet, details about what that means for an actual distribution product aren’t

that clear, though there are some promising suggestions about what it could mean.

First of all, there’s interactivity.

It may seem like an obvious detail, but truly interactive independent learning education material is actually quite hard to come by. I can count on zero fingers how many times I cracked the seal on the CD cases that came bundled with my university textbooks which promised interactivity through software applications.

I think the iPad has a better chance at accomplishing true

interactivity for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is the potential for sharing learning experiences between iPad devices. As Inkling’s site points out, learners and educators will be able to network using the devices and share what they’re working on. Research and comparing notes could actually take place with an ongoing element of synthesis, instead of via periodic check-ins, which could change the way we learn in a fundamental sense.

Right now, Inkling is mostly vague promises about a fairly

Utopian view of a futuristic educational environment in which every student and every educator has an iPad, all of which can be connected. The scenario effectively eliminates the need for paper textbooks, and promotes collaborative work and healthy competition between students. I’m not naive enough to imagine that this is how things will look in June, or even in a few years following the iPad’s release, but I am glad to see people thinking this way.

If I’d had an iPad when I was a student, I probably would’ve

paid a lot more attention to my studies. I definitely would’ve been more organized, since I wouldn’t have been using a single padfolio to organize all of my course notes. And I might’ve become a better group learner and worker, which would definitely be beneficial in the long run. I may not be sure about how useful the iPad is for everyday use, but it definitely has a future in education, so long as Apple makes a concerted effort to cultivate that future.

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Attn Joe: Should we trust iPad? (Scripting News)

choices necessary. While they could see the potential of the multi-touch interface and a fresh Brent Simmons, Joe Hewitt and start (they don't have to live Miguel de Icaza all write that with a UI design that's 40 years they look forward to developing old), the iPhone screen is so on the iPad. I found their essays small, that they couldn't nearly surprising, especially Joe's -- deliver on the promise. All the given his decision to stop while they're thinking "If only developing for the iPhone Apple would make one of these because of the review process things that isn't so small." And t h a t A p p l e i m p o s e s o n that of course is exactly what the developers. I totally supported iPad is. I'm sure they can him in that, and since his understand that we, as users, decision (though not because of w e r e n ' t h a v i n g t h e s a m e it) I have switched from the thoughts. Until I read Joe's piece iPhone to Google's Android I had not heard this idea in any platform, as a user. of the flood of discourse on the I don't develop for any of the iPad, pro or con. Since I don't new platforms because they don't develop for the platform I never run my software, though Google had the thought myself. could. Apple would never So, if Brent, Joe and Miguel like approve anything remotely like it, it stands to reason that they the OPML Editor, and that will create software that users makes it very unlikely that I'd will like. So the success of the develop for them, but also for iPad is assured, in ways perhaps some really important reasons, that the Asus isn't. Or perhaps makes it equally unlikely that I'd even Android, because it doesn't use it. I found Joe's piece thought have multi-touch enabled, just provoking (it provoked this g u e s s i n g t h a t m i g h t h a v e piece). I hope he gives mine something to do with a patent. similar consideration.

Which is a shame, because while First, after reading Joe's piece, I Joe has the option to put some or understood why developers find most of the functionality that the iPad interesting. It's because A p p l e w o n ' t a l l o w o n a while they liked creating apps for Facebook-owned server, the user the iPhone, the tiny screen made doesn't have any say in this some very difficult design choice. So the user's data will Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:15:29 PM

live where Facebook, or some other funded company, wants it to live.

While Joe et al have been thinking about great new user interface, I was too when I was their age, now I'm thinking about something else, that I believe is even more important -- keeping big tech companies from controlling what has become our primary means of expression and communication, computer networks.

When I was young, some of us envisioned the world we live in today, only we tended to think only of the upside of networked thinking, never the dangers. I guess that's human nature and the nature of youth. Won't it be great if everyone can access everyone else's ideas anywhere, we thought -- on any kind of device, all inter-connected and fast. Some believed, me included, that computers without networking interfaces were totally uninteresting. Everything I created was designed to communicate. I ached because early Macintoshes had such awful networking APIs. Eventually all that got sorted out when we got HTTP -- it was so simple, the big companies couldn't control what we did with it.

But ever since that watershed moment the big tech companies have been trying to get the genie back in the bottle. It's the nature of bigness and corporateness to do that. Facebook didn't exist when I started my work, but now they're here and they're huge, and they view the world the way a big company does.

The problem is this -- if Facebook goes away -- and it could, so does everything everyone created with it.

Facebook investors and developers like Joe (who I respect enormously) probably aren't worrying about this, because necessarily everything they do is tied up in the success of Facebook. Now if Joe can show me, in his architecture based on the iPad, where all my work is mirrored in a service I pay for, like Amazon S3, in a simple format I and others can write software against, then I can relax and look forward to the future he, Brent and Miguel want to create. But if my work is tied up in their success, then the price is too high. I'll take the lower fidelity but open playing field of the netbook, and keep my own data on my own hard drives, and back it up as I see fit. And continue to exercise my First Amendment rights.

I know that "most users" aren't thinking like this, it's easy to be lulled into a false sense of confidence. But I don't trust these companies, and I especially don't trust Apple or Google with my writing work. I can see a day when what I write has to be approved by someone who works for Steve Jobs before it can be read publicly. That's a day when freedom is completely crushed.

All three of these men know that freedom is important. So what's the answer. You're all willing to give up some of your freedom to play in Apple's new ballpark.

How much of our freedom should we be willing to give up, and is this the only way to get it?

Is it possible to create an iPadlike platform that has none of the drawbacks of Apple's offerings?

If not, why not?

Update: A must-read piece by Alex Payne. "If I had an iPad rather than a real computer as a kid, I'd never be a programmer today." Well put, even if it's not a sure thing. (I didn't have any kind of computer growing up and I'm a programmer.)

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Vince Wilfork: Franchise tag from New England Patriots would be 'slap in the face'

By ESPNBoston.com (ESPN.com)

Patriots could prevent him from being a free agent if they place the franchise tag on him, which Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:56:17 AM they could do during a two-week Defensive tackle Vince Wilfork stretch in February. said Wednesday he would "I didn't like that six-year deal consider it a "slap in the face" if but I did honor my six-year the New England Patriots place deal," Wilfork said on WEEI. the franchise tag on him, which "Now that the deal is up, it's time is expected if a long-term for me to move forward, with the extension is not reached.

Patriots or without the Patriots." “ Wilfork, 28, is a two-time Pro [The franchise tag] is decent Bowler. He would view being money for most people out there. tagged as an insult by the What I do, it's OK. But I don't Patriots. look at myself as an OK player. "[The franchise tag] is decent

By Michael Pascua (TV contestants: we finally see ... It's just basically a slap in my money for most people out there.

Squad) i n t e r v i e w s f r o m s e v e r a l face and an insult to me to What I do, it's OK," Wilfork contestants who have blended basically tell me I'm an OK said. "But I don't look at myself Submitted at 1/29/2010 1:48:00 AM with the walls. Of course we're player."�-- Patriots nose tackle as an OK player. Like I said, it's ( S07E03) This week on Project treated to Ping running around Vince Wilfork just basically a slap in my face Runway, the contestants finally like a chicken with her head cut "I want a long-term deal or I and an insult to me to basically get the opportunity to go to off announcing, "oh shoes!" and want to be free. Point blank," tell me I'm an OK player."

Mood. The contestants are being convinced that hooker- Wilfork said during an interview Analysis: Wilfork taking a hard on Boston sports radio station line divided into teams of two and wear is classy fabric. have to make a high end ESPNBoston.com's Mike Reiss Continue reading Review: WEEI. signature look with $500 and Project Runway - The Hi's and Wilfork, who has been vocal thinks Vince Wilfork is saying since before the season about his "No more Mr. Nice Guy" to the two days to work on it. Tim Low's of Fashion announces a twist after day one: Filed under: Other Reality desire for an extension, just Patriots. Blog. they have to make a look for Shows, OpEd, Project Runway, finished the final season of a six- For Wilfork, the franchise tag -year rookie contract. He is in line which is a one-year deal -- also less. The big twist was that the Episode Reviews look for less had to be another P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | for a raise and long-term deal if means a missed opportunity to he hits the open market. The gain long-term financial security. team's dress.

Comments We get one advantage of pairing up the high number of

Review: Project Runway - The Hi's and Low's of Fashion

"There's a short window of opportunity for me to make the type of money that I want to make," Wilfork said. "I'm not selling my family short and I'm definitely not selling myself short just to stay back and to win and be part of a great organization.

"Winning is a big part of sports, but a lot of teams win. ... We'll see. I will do what's best for my family. But I definitely will not sell myself short of my ability.

Not at all."

Wilfork said he and his agent have not heard from the Patriots since the end of the season and the sides have not talked about an extension since the beginning of the season.

"I'm not sitting by the phone waiting for them to call," said Wilfork, who will play in the Pro Bowl in Miami on Sunday.

"Either they call or they don't.

They have all the numbers they need. ... Whenever they call, they call."

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

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53

Which Star Tried to Upstage Clooney's Haiti Benefit [Blind Items]

By Brian Moylan (Gawker) Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:39:25 AM

Somedays we're flying blind and sometimes the answers are obvious. Who is arrogant enough to throw a competing Haiti telethon? Who is jealous of her musical ex? Whose dad made her get fake boobs? Duh! 1."When the first rumblings of a George-Clooney-led charity event hit the entertainment community, one star was surprisingly reticent about chipping in to help. This celeb was convinced that Clooney and friends were just looking to sweeten their own profiles with a humanitarian gesture. He decided that he didn't want to play second fiddle to Clooney & Friends, and started making some calls to try to get people to rally around his effort, which was going to be staged as a similar event ‌ except that our guy would be the star. He made a few calls around, and was surprised to discover that he

didn't have many takers for his event. He says that it was because people just didn't have enough time to pull together performances for his event. The reality is that no one really wanted to be part of a charity event that put more of an emphasis on this arrogant guy than on the charity itself." [

infuriated. She has demanded that her agent start arranging more events where the two will be able to meet up or run into one another. She is said to be slowly developing an obsession with keeping tabs on her ex and wants to sabotage any new love he might have. If she can't be happy, no one will! Not Cameron Diaz." [ BuzzFoto] 3."This Hollywood actress was big news thanks to her starring role in a TV show over the past couple of years. And yet she somehow managed to get herself bad press. She put in some heroic partying performances and has a habit of dating guys way older. Anyway, studio execs Blind Gossip] who had pencilled her in for 2."She broke up with this stardom have pulled back. She's musician a while ago, and still in the same role that made pretends that it is friendly. her famous and getting annoyed However, our jilted actress is about it." [ PopBitch] still very hurt over how things 4."This reality star with her own turned out. Whenever she hears s h o w j u s t g o t h e r b r e a s t s or reads about the musician in augmented because her dad t h e n e w s a n d h i s l a t e s t insisted." [ CDaN] relationship or fling, she is

Permanently geeky: Internet memeinspired tattoos (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:01:00 PM

Contemplating a trip to the tattoo parlor for a dramatic prairie dog tramp stamp? Well, my geek ink friend, you and your new body art could score a coveted spot on the list of the best internet meme-related tattoos.

(Via Ink Art Tattoos) Get inked with all the top tattoo news.

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John Daly's New Look at Life, Golf, Self

By Lisa Olson (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:00:00 PM

Golf's biggest loser still has his vices. He smokes, he's determined to foist a lethal

combo of tequila and hot sauce upon the public and he dresses as if he just raided Versace's closet.

John Daly will never be perfect, which is exactly why he is so popular. He's everyman with a around an extra suitcase of belly vault of faults, but lugging

fat is no longer one of them.

While Tiger Woods spent the winter self-destructing, Daly was busy getting his world in order.

After all his travails -- a sixmonth suspension from golf for conduct unbecoming a human

being was Daly's latest nadir -- it took the simple act of tying his shoes to trigger a much-needed personal makeover.

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NBA All-Star Game reserves add to hometown vibe for Dallas

By Tim MacMahon (ESPN.com)

Colony, Texas.

Oklahoma City swingman Kevin Durant, who played at Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:05:56 PM Texas, will also make his AllNBA Announces Reserves For Star debut.

All-Star Game NBA Announces The reserves were chosen by the Reserves For All-Star Game head coaches from each DALLAS -- Mavericks forward conference, who weren't allowed Dirk Nowitzki might be playing to vote for their own players. the role of host to the NBA's best They had to select two guards, talent for the All-Star Game, but two forwards, one center and two a few other reserves announced players regardless of position.

T h u r s d a y k n o w t h e i r w a y Bosh, who averages 23.9 points around. and 11.3 rebounds, is the only Nowitzki, who narrowly missed p l a y e r t o r a n k a m o n g t h e being voted in as a starter for the league's top 10 in scoring and first time in his career, is the rebounding.

Mavericks' lone representative in "Just to be able to be an All-Star the Valentine's Day event at year in and year out, that's a Cowboys Stadium. It will be the special feeling, but the fact that ninth consecutive All-Star it's in Dallas is kind of a appearance for Nowitzki, who bittersweet thing," Bosh said surpassed the 20,000-point before the Raptors faced the milestone earlier this season and Knicks on Thursday. "Sweet ranks seventh in the NBA in because I get to play in front of scoring (25.2 points per game). my home crowd and it's bitter "It is an honor to represent the b e c a u s e e v e r y b o d y w a n t s Mavericks in my new hometown t i c k e t s . " of Dallas," Nowitzki said. "I am The glut of great guards in the a l w a y s t h a n k f u l f o r t h e West has prevented Williams opportunity to play in the All- f r o m m a k i n g a n A l l - S t a r Star game. We hope to put on a appearance despite ranking good show for our fans." among the NBA's assist leaders There will be no need for while scoring averaging 20 Nowitzki to play tour guide for points game. Williams ranks some of the other reserves. fourth in in assists with 9.5 a Toronto power forward Chris game.

Bosh, who attended Lincoln Durant averages more points High in Dallas, will make his (29.3) than every player in the f i f t h c o n s e c u t i v e A l l - S t a r league other than perennial Allappearance. Utah point guard Star starters Carmelo Anthony Deron Williams will make his a n d L e B r o n J a m e s . H i s All-Star debut within a short emergence has helped make the drive of his hometown, The Thunder (24-21) legitimate

playoff contenders in the loaded Western Conference.

NBA All-Star Game reserves • Eastern Conference • Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics • Joe Johnson, Atlanta Hawks • Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors • Paul Pierce, Boston Celtics • Gerald Wallace, Charlotte Bobcats • Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls • Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks • • Western Conference • Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks • Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder • Brandon Roy, Portland Trail Blazers • Chris Paul, New Orleans Hornets • Deron Williams, Utah Jazz • Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers • Zach Randolph, Memphis Grizzlies

"There's going to come a day that they don't pick me," Pierce said in Orlando, where the Celtics are facing the Magic. "So every time I get a chance to make it, it's definitely an honor."

Among those missing out were New York's David Lee, Atlanta's Josh Smith, Milwaukee's Andrew Bogut, Cleveland's Mo Williams, Denver's Chauncey Billups and Clippers center Chris Kaman.

Horford likely edged out Lee, who is averaging 19.4 points and 11.4 rebounds for a Knicks team far below .500. Horford is averaging 13.6 points and 9.8 boards.

"It's out of my control and Coach [Mike D'Antoni] always tells me to try to control the things I can control and I think the overall message was that nobody was taken off a team with a sub-.500 record," Lee said. "So that means one thing: We've got to get some more victories, and that's what The other reserves announced we'll go after right now." for the Western Conference Also left out was a second include New Orleans Hornets Cleveland player behind James. guard Chris Paul, Los Angeles The Cavs felt point guard Lakers forward Pau Gasol, Williams should have been Memphis' Zach Randolph and selected -- though he is injured, Portland's Brandon Roy. anyway.

Boston Celtics guard Rajon "Mo has [played well] for us as Rondo and Chicago Bulls guard our second-leading scorer and Derrick Rose will make their All we're not going to be represented -Star Game debuts. Boston's Paul by anybody except for LeBron.

P i e r c e , C h a r l o t t e ' s G e r a l d It's tough but it's out of our Wallace, Bosh and Atlanta control," Cavs coach Mike teammates Joe Johnson and Al Brown said. "We have the best Horford will also be on the record in the league but there is Eastern Conference bench. nothing we can do about that. I

don't know what it's going to take."

Rose and Wallace both have helped their teams surge to .500 records after terrible starts, and Wallace was rewarded with the first All-Star selection in Bobcats history.

"It's truly an honor to be named to the All-Star team," Wallace said. "This is an amazing moment for me and for the Bobcats franchise, and I'm excited to be the first player to represent this team in the AllStar game. I want to thank all the fans who voted for me and the coaches who selected me to play in the game."

Voted to start by the fans in the East were James, Boston's Kevin Garnett, Orlando's Dwight Howard, Miami's Dwyane Wade and Philadelphia's Allen Iverson.

The West starters are the Lakers' Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire of Phoenix, Denver's Carmelo Anthony and San Antonio's Tim Duncan.

If any players are injured, commissioner David Stern would choose the replacement.

Tim MacMahon covers the Mavericks for ESPN Dallas. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Gilbert Arenas and His $7.36 Million Pistols (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

Wojnarowski writes. “As much as anything, Arenas and the union gave the commissioner the The bill Gilbert Arenas must pulpit to grandstand on gun pay for his role in a disputed control when past punishments card game is now at $7.36 were arbitrary and modest.” million and mounting. On ESPN’s Henry Abbott wonders Wednesday, NBA commissioner which team might take Arenas David Stern suspended Gilbert and the four years remaining on Arenas and Javaris Crittenton his $111 million contract off the without pay for the rest of the Wizards’ hands. season for bringing guns into the In the New York Daily News, Washington Wizards locker Mitch Lawrence thinks the room in December. Both guards players got off lightly. “Arenas had already been suspended gave Stern the best chance he indefinitely, and Arenas had will ever have to solve his gun already pleaded guilty to a felony problem, once and for all. And gun charge and faces sentencing Stern blew it,” Lawrence writes. in late March. The financial toll “He handed suspensions for the is staggering for Arenas, who rest of the season to both Arenas may yet see the Wizards move to and Javaris Crittenton, when void the rest of his giant contract. what he needed to hand out were And it’s not insignificant for a pink slips.”* * * y o u n g j o u r n e y m a n l i k e The women’s final is set at the Crittenton, who will forfeit just Australian Open. American over $500,000. Getty Images Serena Williams will face Justine L o n g b e f o r e t h i s r e c e n t Henin after both defeated their controversy, Gilbert Arenas was Chinese opponents. Williams known as a gunner. Because he needed two hours before finally liked to shoot a lot. Shoot subduing Li Na, while Henin basketballs. cruised over Zheng Jie. The Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski Sydney Morning Herald calls the places says the players’ poor Williams-Henin match “ a final judgment allowed the NBA to to savor.” claim higher moral ground it ESPN’s Ravi Ubha chronicles hasn’t earned. “This is a sport in Henin’s climb to the final, while which owners and front-office the Guardian’s Simon Cambers executives have mismanaged writes that Henin’s thorough franchises into financial ruin, but victory made it seem as if she the fall-back plan never changes: had never taken a break from The public always wants to tennis. believe the worst of the NBA’s The Globe and Mail’s Tom players, and they’re given the Tebbutt laments the decline of ammo to validate stereotypes,” V e n u s W i l l i a m s ’ s g a m e , Submitted at 1/28/2010 7:44:35 AM

Dawson’s numbers didn’t merit his induction into the Hall.* * * The U.S. figure skating team is especially deep for the Vancouver Olympics, but its women’s contingent might not even bring home a medal for the first time since 1964. Foreign p u n c t u a t e d b y h e r l o s s competition is strong, led by South Korean Kim Yu-Na and Wednesday to Li. Click here to keep track of all Japanese stars Mao Asada and the action at the Australian Miki Ando. Despite the hurdles in women’s skating, the Open.* * * Fans of the late, lamented Washington Post’s Amy Shipley Montreal Expos, including this s a y s t h e U . S . h a s h i g h Fixer, are happy that Andre e x p e c t a t i o n s .

In the New York Times, Dawson will enter Cooperstown with an Expos cap. Dawson Christopher Clarey notes that himself isn’t so thrilled. The Hall rule changes allow pairs skaters of Fame has final say over which t o s k a t e u n d e r f l a g s o f cap a player wears. The played c o n v e n i e n c e .

The Journal’s Matthew dubbed the Hawk had hoped to go in as a Chicago Cub, a team Futterman writes that the dangers for which he played six seasons, inherent in many events — compared to 11 in Montreal. The bobsled, luge, skiing — are what Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rogers compel us to watch the Winter says the Hall made the correct Olympics.* * * decision about Dawson. “Along Villanova is off to its best start with guys such as Tim Raines, in team history. The Wildcats, Gary Carter, Steve Rogers, Jeff who improved to 19-1 with a 90Reardon, Ellis Valentine, Warren 72 victory over Notre Dame on Cromartie, Larry Parrish and Wednesday night, are ranked Tim Wallach — among others — third overall and poised for a he was part of a remarkable run possible jump to No. 1 after f o r t h e E x p o s ’ p l a y e r Kentucky’s loss to South development staff and, no matter Carolina on Tuesday. In the what he thinks about the turf at Philadelphia Daily News, Rich Olympic Stadium, belongs more Hofmann writes that Nova’s to Montreal’s fans than any record was built on merit, among us in Chicago,” Rogers although tough Big East battles loom. writes.

In the eyes of Around the Elsewhere in college hoops, H o r n ’ s J o h n M a n f r e d e , Sports Illustrated’s Andy Glockner calls Ohio State’s Evan

Turner a genuine candidate for player of the year.* * * You’re supposed to be a bit crazy to play competitive ice hockey. High-speed collisions abound, and players sacrifice their bodies in front of 100-miles -per-hour slap shots, sometimes losing a few teeth in the process — often topping that off with a good fistfight. But after photos surfaced on the Internet of some shirtless Chicago Blackhawks, the Chicago Sun-Times’s Rick Morrissey wonders what’s happened to hockey’s tough-guy image. “Am I offended by the Internet photos showing some shirtless Blackhawks in a limousine — a limo that also carries several fully dressed women? No, I’m offended that the players look like members of ‘N Sync or Backstreet Boys in the photos,” Morrissey grouses.* ** Here’s your Pro Bowl fix.

Actually, the Miami Herald’s Greg Cote calls the exhibition game, to be played in Miami this weekend, “ an embarrassment.”

Agreed.

– Tip of the Fix cap to reader Don Hartline and fellow Fixer David Roth.

Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email Garey at ris84rap@gmail.com.

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Roger Federer destoyed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach the Australian Open final.

By Associated Press (ESPN.com)

singles.

Murray beat Marin Cilic in the semifinals after ousting Nadal in Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:55:37 AM the quarterfinals. Now, hopes are Federer Returns to the Aussie high in the United Kingdom that Open Finals Federer Returns to he could be the first British man the Aussie Open Finals VIDEO since Fred Perry in 1936 to win a PLAYLIST major singles title.

• Federer Returns to the Aussie "I know he'd like to win the first Open Finals Federer Returns to for British tennis since what is it, the Aussie Open Finals 150,000 years?" Federer joked to • Federer Ready to Face Murray the crowd amid much laughter.

Federer Ready to Face Murray "The poor guy who has to go • Who Has the Edge, Federer or through those moments over and Murray? Who Has the Edge, over again ... " Federer or Murray?

If Federer plays Sunday the way he did Friday against Tsonga, the MELBOURNE, Australia -- drought could continue for at Roger Federer is through to his least another Grand Slam.

22nd Grand Slam final after Turning Point For Murray? defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6The list of active players 2, 6-3, 6-2 in a near-flawless (minimum two matches) with display Friday at the Australian winning records against Roger Open.

Federer is short. On it, though, is Federer, seeking his fourth Andy Murray, who is 4-2 since Australian title, hopes to reverse losing to Federer in the 2008 his tear-filled exit from last U.S. Open final. year's final when he was beaten "Don't mess with Roger," one

by Rafael Nadal, the left-handed fan wrote on a sign at Rod Laver Spaniard's first hard-court title.

Arena. And the shell-shocked This time, the man between Tsonga didn't.

Federer and another title here Federer reached his 18th final in Sunday will be Andy Murray, the last 19 Grand Slam events by whose motivation has been o v e r p o w e r i n g t h e 2 0 0 8 fueled by a 74-year drought for Australian Open finalist -- his British men in Grand Slam semifinal loss here to Novak

NBA continued from page 54

Djokovic in 2008 being the only break in the finals sequence.

Federer did not face a break point against Tsonga.

"It's nice going through a match like that," Federer said. "I think against top players, it's always positive if you can win the first set."

"Maybe mentally he was more fatigued than physically," added Federer. "That's unfortunate for him."

Tsonga hit a backhand into the net on break point to give Federer a 2-1 lead in the third set, and the match was all but over. The 24-year-old Frenchman double-faulted on break point to give Federer a 4-1 lead in the third, and Federer clinched it on his serve in 88 minutes when Tsonga hit a forehand wide.

Earlier Friday, Serena and Venus Williams won their fourth Australian Open doubles title, beating Cara Black and Liezel Huber 6-4, 6-3.

The Williams sisters broke Huber's service to open the second set and won the match when they again broke Huber, clinching it on a winning reflex volley by Serena. The sisters high-fived each other at the side

of the court after the win.

The Williams sisters won the Australian title for the first time in 2001 and added championships in 2003 and last year. Black, of Zimbabwe, and Huber, a South African-born American citizen, won the Australian Open doubles title in 2007 and were the top-seeded team in the tournament this year.

Serena has 11 singles majors and is hoping for a 12th in the Australian Open final on Saturday against Justine Henin.

Henin's stunning success comes only two tournaments into her return from a 20-month retirement, a comeback that the Belgian herself has called "extraordinary" and Williams called an "amazing" story.

"It's more than a dream for me," Henin said Friday. "The challenge of facing the No. 1 player in the world is magnificent."

Henin and Williams both agree that their center-court showdown will be as much a mental battle as a physical one.

"We both want it. But we'll just see who's playing better tomorrow," Williams said.

The two have played 13 times, including six Grand Slam

showdowns that went as far as only the semifinals. Williams holds a 7-6 edge in their overall matchups. In Grand Slams, Henin leads 4-2.

Henin has said she was inspired to return to tennis in part by the comeback of fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters, who won the U.S. Open after taking off two years to get married and have a baby.

The return of Henin and Clijsters has restored some life and rivalries to the women's game, which has many promising newcomers but suffered some lackluster finals in their absence.

If Williams wins, she will tie Billie Jean King for a career total of 12 major singles titles.

"It will be a defining match for both of us," Williams said. "It definitely will be mental and [about] who wants the title more and who's willing to go the extra step."

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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57

The Count: Ichiro’s Fluctuating Stats Colts' Garcon Pride of Mount Union's Purple Raiders (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:02:22 PM

What do Ichiro Suzuki, Babe Ruth and Alan Trammell have in common? Getty Images Ichiro Suzuki doesn’t like to be pinned down to just one number.

Someday, all three men may be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

But already they share a different quality in common, a statistical anomaly: All started their careers with a stretch of nine full seasons or longer in which their batting average in each season wasn’t within 10 points (out of 1,000) of their career average.

That may sound like a trivial point, and it didn’t affect any of their teams to any great degree, if any noticed. But these fluctuations caught the attention of the author of the blog The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived, who is an Ichiro fan but is surprised by the Mariner outfielder’s inconsistency.

Though his career average is .333, he’s never hit between .323 and .350 in any of his nine full seasons.

I asked sports stats guru Phil Birnbaum how unlikely this is.

He calculated that for any one season, it’s hardly a surprise. In fact, given the number of at bats Ichiro compiles and the minuscule number of hits it would take to deviate by at least .01 from his career average — eight hits more or fewer in a typical season — he’s more likely to fall outside that range in any one season than to come up with a mark near his career total.

However, for it to happen nine out of nine times is less likely, about 1 in 150.

Birnbaum pointed out lots of caveats with that calculation. A whole host of factors — age, injuries, varying slates of opposing pitchers, changes in batting approach — could account for fluctuations from

year to year. Also, 10 battingaverage points was a cherrypicked figure; he hit within 11 points in 2006, and within 12 points in 2002.

Also, if one were to examine the career totals of not only The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived, but also the mere mortals among his contemporaries, and look at other stats besides batting average, the chance of finding such an anomaly in one of their sets of stats would go way up. To demonstrate this, Birnbaum looked for other players whose careers started with such an inconsistent stretch. At least a dozen other players fluctuated for as long or longer than Ichiro has. Ruth, for instance, had hit .348 through 1926, but had never come within 26 points of that figure in his nine full seasons to that point. And, most dramatically, Trammell hit .288 through 1993, but the closest he came to that mark in his 15 full seasons to that point was .277.

By A.J. Perez (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:35:00 PM

Filed under: Colts, Super Bowl ALLIANCE, Ohio -- Mount Union College head football coach Larry Kehres grabbed and poured the school's other symbol of NFL renown that rested atop the counter.

Mr. Coffee.

Before there was Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Pierre Garcon, this small Methodist university between Canton and Youngstown had one player drafted by an NFL team: Vince Marotta, chosen in the 26th round in 1948 by the New York Giants. His pro career, however, would be eclipsed by the first automatic drip coffeemaker he later invented.

While the Purple Raiders' NFL rep went from a drip to a guy who hasn't dropped much of late, many at Mount Union would rather talk about what Garcon

Street Chic: New York

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 1/29/2010 4:00:00 AM

Lace-up boots and a statement

scarf add a double dose of downtown style.

Photo: Anne Ziegler Think you are Street Chic? Email us your photo and you

Street Chic Daily.

Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan! could appear in ELLE.com's

has done for his ancestral homeland than his record-setting 11 catches and 151 yards in Sunday's AFC title game.

"Pierre is a from-the-heart story here," says Kehres, who has led the Mount Union to 10 Division III football titles in his 24 seasons as head coach. "OK, he made the Colts and he's gotten to play. Then there's the whole push for Haiti. He didn't get a publicist to organize a campaign."

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Senior Bowl Black-andWhite for QBs

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James fined $25,000 for kicking a water bottle

By Kevin Blackistone (FanHouse Main)

By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:58:00 PM

Filed under: NFL He stands 6-4 and weighs 220 pounds, which is pretty much the prototypical frame of an NFL quarterback. He passed for over 2,000 yards and ran for more than 1,000 last season for the second campaign in a row to become the first college quarterback ever to be so prolific in consecutive seasons.

But the NFL isn't extending an opportunity to University of Alabama-Birmingham senior quarterback Joe Webb to play quarterback at its level. Instead, he was invited to the Senior Bowl this week to line up at receiver.

Webb was assigned to the South team where, coincidentally, he may catch a pass from another throwing-running phenom,

Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:24:27 PM

Cavaliers forward LeBron James has been fined $25,000 for kicking a water bottle during Wednesday's 109-95 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, league executive Stu Jackson announced.

The incident occurred with 12.4 seconds remaining in the first Florida senior quarterback Tim quarter.

Tebow.

James did not play in the fourth A lot of criticism was heaped on quarter and finished with a teamTebow after just one workout at high 11 assists in just 31 the Senior Bowl. He struggles to minutes. handle snaps from under center.

James is averaging 29.6 points He can't read defenses. His per game, second in the NBA to E v e n b e t t e r n e w s : C r a n e Denver's Carmelo Anthony t h r o w i n g d e l i v e r y i s t o o By Mick Elliott (FanHouse Main) actually did shoot 65 to trail first ( 2 9 . 7 ) . R i d i n g a s i x - g a m e elongated.

-round leader Scott Piercy by winning streak, the Cavaliers But at least Tebow is getting a Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:13:00 PM one shot. That's more than can be have the league's best record at chance to prove whether he'll said of his reported comments 36-11. have to play another position in Filed under: PGA SAN DIEGO -- Ben Crane about Woods. order to realize an NFL career.

Information from the Associated finally had an opportunity to The harsh words attributed to Press was used in this report speak for himself.

Crane last month by Life & Style Five Filters featured article: That was something new. magazine, penned by what the Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: The 33-year-old PGA Tour p u b l i c a t i o n c a l l e d a n PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, veteran with two career wins "experienced freelance reporter,'' Term Extraction. shot a 7-under 65 Thursday in were never spoken. The "face-tothe opening round of the Farmers face interview" conducted in Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. West Palm Beach, Fla., that also It earned Crane more attention included similar criticism of than anything he has done since Woods' personal life by Charles being quoted during December's Warren, never took place.

PGA Tour ripping Tiger Woods Crane is certain of it. as "a phony and a fake."

Phony Tiger Quotes Behind Him, the Real Ben Crane Stands Up

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59

'Pro Bowl' an All-Star Game In Name Only

By David Whitley (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:00:00 PM

Filed under: Pro Bowl What if they threw a Pro Bowl and a Missouri Valley Conference AllStar Game broke out?

Hold on to your tickets, football fans. It just might happen.

The Pro Bowl is scheduled for Sunday in Miami, meaning there is still time for the remaining starters to be replaced by David Garrard's pool boy. It seems everybody who's anybody won't be showing up at the supposedly new and improved game.

In short, this is the worst NFL facelift since Jerry Jones.

Sorry, Jerry. That was strictly for perspective.

When it comes to ridicule, the Pro Bowl ranks with Jones' face and Mel Kiper Jr.'s hair. It's

become almost clichĂŠ to make fun of it. The best approach is to simply ignore the game unless Jones shows up looking like Joan Rivers.

But this year's Pro Bowl has gone from inconsequential to embarrassing. Something has to be done before JaMarcus Russell is named the AFC's starting quarterback.

LGJ: Wait, it's not a derivative?

By Mark Methenitis (Joystiq) Submitted at 1/29/2010 8:00:00 AM

Filed under: Features Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq("LGJ"), a column on legal issues as they relate to video games: I noticed an interesting point brought up in the comments to the last LGJ: that the new NBA Jam was certainly a derivative work, so even if the trademark issue weren't a problem, the holder of the copyright to the original game could certainly bring suit for copyright infringement. Given that no one seems to know who acquired

those rights in the Midway dissolution, I can see why this is brought up as an issue. However, a deeper look at the derivative works analysis suggests that EA's NBA Jam might not be a derivative at all; of course, much of this depends on the final product, which we have yet to see.

The old standby statement that sequels are derivative works is, for the most part, a true one in the broad context of all copyrighted works. After all, sequels to books and movies are derivatives, or at least I cannot think of a single sequel that is not one in those media. And for

the most part, game sequels are derivatives as well, but not always. And to understand the difference, you have to look at what a derivative work is, what it isn't, and how sequels are different in a book and movie context than they can be in a game context.

Continue reading LGJ: Wait, it's not a derivative?

LGJ: Wait, it's not a derivative? originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo's 'The Last Story' is new Mistwalker RPG; Xenoblade is Monado

By JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

Additionally, The Last Story is a new RPG for Wii being developed by Nintendo and Blue We didn't have to wait long to Dragon's Mistwalker. According find out about Nintendo's two to Andriasang's translation of a mystery Wii games. Xenoblade, statement from an investor as we guessed before, is the new meeting, the game is an attempt name for Monado: Beginning of at a "new form of RPG." The last the World, the RPG by Monolith time Nintendo worked with Soft, creators of Xenosaga. Mistwalker, the result was Nintendo has launched a site for Archaic Sealed Heat, which the title, featuring little more Nintendo didn't bother to localize than music and a bit of artwork for North America. for now. More of the game, as Finally, a Metroid: Other M Monado, can be seen in last teaser site has also been newly year's E3 trailer and screens. launched. It doesn't really reveal Submitted at 1/29/2010 9:44:00 AM

anything about the game, other than confirming its summer 2010 release in Japan. Interestingly, the game doesn't appear to use the traditional Metroid logo,

opting for something much plainer.

[Via Andriasang: The Last Story; Xenoblade; Metroid] Source- The Last Story teaser

site Source- Xenoblade teaser site Source- Metroid: Other M teaser site Nintendo's 'The Last Story' is new Mistwalker RPG; Xenoblade is Monado originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We're not going to freak out about a new Pokemon game

By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 1/29/2010 10:14:00 AM

Unfortunately, it's become commonplace among my coworkers to mention me in any posts relating to Pokémon. Let me make one thing clear: I don't have an unhealthy obsession with the franchise. I just think it's an incredibly deep and compelling series of turn-based RPGs, and while there may have been a time in my youth when I

watched the anime or bought the merchandise, I'd like to think I've grown older and wiser since the late 90s. I only wish my coworkers would treat me as such.

Now, let me just check my news feed real quick, and I'll ... I'll ...

Holy CRAP! You guys, they announced a new Pokémon DS game-- not like a crappy offshoot like Trozei or Snap, but a totally new generation -- can you BELIEVE IT? Well Snap was

okay, but anyways. Nintendo's announcement said there'd be new Pokémon and that "everything is planned to be born

anew," and while I don't know what that means, I think my heart stopped a little when I read it!

AHH!! It's coming this year.

2010! I knew when this year started that it was going to be the BEST YEAR EVER. [Via IGN] We're not going to freak out about a new Pokemon game originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rentrak lists top game rentals of 2009

By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)

typo and the list also includes online rental outlets, like GameFly. That's a good thing, Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:00:00 AM otherwise the list would have Fallout 3 on Xbox 360 tops been: "The Top 20 game rentals Rentrak's list as the most rented by people who still go to stores

By Ben Gilbert (Joystiq) tough. the black-and-white switch (in game in 2009. The company's to rent their games." Not having GameStop customers will get addition to making the blood a data reveals that the Xbox 360 online information in there Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:00:00 AM their hands on the "Jack Pack," more intense red). Now do you "dominated" the US rental would have made the data a bit Were you sitting there reading which includes "Grant City Anti- have enough reasons to go out charts, holding 17 of the top 20 . . . o f f . N o t t o m e n t i o n , spots. Rentrak states that its Blockbuster's in-store selection Joystiq, thinking about how Crime armor" for the game's and pre-order it? Do ya? much you want to pre-order main character and a "gunsG a l l e r y : D e a d t o R i g h t s : tracking system follows "65,000 varies greatly. Check out the list DVD, Blu-ray Disc and Video after the break. upcoming reboot Dead to Rights: blazing action mode," which R e t r i b u t i o n R e t r i b u t i o n ? N a m c o h a s apparently turns your regular ol' Dead to Rights Retribution pre- Game properties in the brick-and Continue reading Rentrak lists a n n o u n c e d t h e p r e - o r d e r bullets into exploding bullets. o r d e r c a m p a i g n s d e t a i l e d -mortar, online, and kiosk top game rentals of 2009 campaign for the third game in Madness! The folks who drop originally appeared on Joystiq on channels across North America." Rentrak lists top game rentals of two years to offer up a fighting their bucks early at Amazon are Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:00:00 EST. The original Rentrak release 2009 originally appeared on dog, but here's the catch: There granted the "Shadow Pack," Please see our terms for use of from this morning states that the Joystiq on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 r a n k i n g s w e r e b a s e d o n 06:00:00 EST. Please see our are separate pre-order bonuses which turns the aforementioned feeds. should you choose to go with dog into a stealth ninja dog with P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | "spending via US brick-and- terms for use of feeds. mortar rental channel." We Read| Permalink| Email this| GameStop versus Amazon. We camouflage and also adds a "noir C o m m e n t s followed up with the group, Comments know, we know, but life is mode" to the game, said to flip which clarified that this was a

Dead to Rights Retribution pre-order campaigns detailed

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Editors on Their New Album, In This Light and on This Evening

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:59:24 AM

With In This Light and on This Evening, British rockers Editors veered in a different direction from their first two albums. A finely tuned synth-driven collection of darkly atmospheric soundscapes (note that the band teamed with Mark “Flood” Ellis, producer for Depeche Mode, U2, and Nine Inch Nails, among others), the record debuted at No. 1 in the UK this past October. In honor of its stateside release last week, we caught up with drummer Ed Lay. —Erin Clements What were you aiming for on In This Light?

As always, our goal was to make really melodic music. But we wanted to wrap up nice pop songs in dark, interesting sounds.

Our philosophy was, if we get the record on the radio, and it’s got something really twisted and kind of nasty but is still a pop record, we’ve succeeded.

What were your biggest influences? I read you were inspired by the Terminator soundtrack.

We didn’t look at just our musical peers. We tried to get inspiration from film

soundtracks and the atmospheres that sci-fi films like Terminator and A Clockwork Orange create.

We wanted to make up our own storylines in our heads to the music we were writing.

What did you learn from working with Flood?

What he really gave us was confidence to try different techniques and ways of putting songs together, ones that we might not have been confident enough to do on our own. He

was constantly pushing us to put our own personality on a track whereas we might have shied away from that before. We found a bit of a soul mate with him.

Tell me about the video for “Papillon,” the first single.

The directors hired a load of guys who looked nothing like us—they were athletic and goodlooking—and told them to run as fast as they could through the streets of LA. We enjoyed the idea that no one really knows

what these people are running away from. And I love the way it’s shot. It’s kind of got that 28 Days Later feel about it. It’s quite eerie. I hope they got paid well. I’d have been flat 30 seconds in.

What was your reaction when the album debuted at No. 1?

We were delighted that the fans who have been with us over the past two records were interested in hearing our third record. That gives you a sense of belief in

your own ability. And it’s quite a nice thing to tell your parents.

You had a song on the New Moon soundtrack. Are you a fan of the vampire genre?

I’ve not seen or read any of the Twilight films or books, so it’s a new world for us. We’re not monks—we know that it’s a very successful franchise. And from our perspective it opens our band up to a whole new audience—teenagers, and older people who seem to be watching the films. And I thought the soundtrack they put together had some great artists.

The album’s title track contains the lyric, “London’s become the most beautiful thing I’ve seen.”

What’s your favorite city to tour in?

I’m a big fan of San Francisco.

The Fillmore is legendary, a beautiful venue. We played there a couple times. If you fill out a show, they commission a poster for your band. I have one hanging in my house and it brings back great memories whenever I look at it.

What’s on your current playlist?

The last song I listened to was “1,000,000” by Nine Inch Nails, and before that I played “Sexy MF” by Prince. So it’s slightly mixed up.

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Home Studios Hosts the Launch of Hellz x Vans

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

ceiling in vintage bird cages throughout the space. The urban chic crowd sipped on Red Stripe, Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:49:42 PM Tequila, and Gin and tuned in to On Tuesday night, Home sets by DJ Elle and DJ Roxy Studios hosted the launch of Cottontail, as well as a special Hellz x Vans new two sneaker performance by the electronic collaboration collection featuring band Glass Candy. The kicks are The Hadley, an edgy motorcycle- out in February, so get ready to inspired leather hi-top and The suit up.

Sophie, a fresh take on the saddle —Erin Boyle shoe. Guests were greeted by a Home Studios Loft Space massive loft displaying TV Party-goers screens that played a narrative on Hellz designer Lanie Barcena the collaboration process by and Richie Rich of Heatherette Hellz owner Lanie Barcena, a Photobooth Snapshots projection screen of party-goers' Glass Candy Performing live photobooth pics, and the The Hadley sneaks suspended from the The Sophie

Kate Moss and Co. Celebrate Her New Longchamp Line in Paris

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:00:04 PM

When Kate Moss throws a party, you can bet the ladies in attendance will look their chicest. Among the guests at The Ritz Club in Paris last night to celebrate Moss’s first collection for Longchamp, including model

Audrey Marnay, French actress Delphine Charriau, and Loulou De La Falaise, there was plenty of sparkle, a bit of lace, one pair of short shorts, and a fedora. The lady of the evening showed off her a-m-a-z-i-n-g legs in a black lace Valentino mini, crisp white jacket, and classic Louboutins.

Here, a few of the style stars of the night.

—Violet Moon Gayn or Clockwise from left: Audrey Marnay, Kate Moss in Valentino, actress Delphine Chaneac, Kattty Besnard, Marine Neuilly, and Louise Basilien of Les Plastiscines, and the always chic Loulou De La Falaise Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

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Fashion/ Popular News/

Stark’s Silver Lake Candle Inspires California Dreaming

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:32:04 AM

Here in NYC, we’re trapped in the frozen heart of winter, where a day that’s 40 degrees is considered warm, and all I can do is imagine the sunnier scene some of my east-coastabandoning friends are experiencing in L.A (freak downpours not included). In fact, I don’t need to imagine it, because a certain someone posted the pictures from her day at the beach on Facebook. My consolation, Stark’s Silver Lake (a la the hipstery annex of Los Angeles) candle. It may be small, but the effervescent blend of spicy cucumber, tuberose and chamomile is enough to make me forget the blustery January

winds—at least until I go outside. Check out the line at starkwaxingstudio.com.

—Maura Lynch, Associate Beauty & Fitness Editdor Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

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Haiti recovery 'to take decades' (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

Dozens are missing.

At the service, a visibly emotional Mr Mulet read a Submitted at 1/29/2010 3:02:31 AM message from UN Secretary The acting head of the UN General Ban Ki-moon: "To you I m i s s i o n i n H a i t i h a s s a i d say: we are with you in spirit. To reconstruction will take several those no longer with us I say: we d e c a d e s , f o l l o w i n g t h e will never forget you." devastating earthquake two Later, Mr Mulet told the BBC weeks ago. that all of Haiti's recent Edmond Mulet told the BBC the development had been undone. logistics of the relief effort were "I think this is going to take a n i g h t m a r e , w i t h H a i t i ' s many more decades than only 10 i n a d e q u a t e i n f r a s t r u c t u r e years and this is an enormous destroyed and a shortage of b a c k w a r d s s t e p i n H a i t i ' s vehicles. development. We will not have Mr Mulet said reconstruction to start from zero but from below was not starting at zero, but zero," he said. "below zero".

The UN's assistant secretaryAs many as 200,000 people died g e n e r a l f o r p e a c e k e e p i n g in the earthquake on 12 January, operations, who is acting head of while an estimated 1.5 million mission in Haiti, described the are now homeless. logistics of the relief operation as The UN has estimated that 75% a "nightmare", but said those of the capital, Port Au Prince, involved were still managing to will have to be rebuilt. Salvage improve their capacity to provide crews have begun to clear the the help needed. rubble.

"All this is coming together right Heavy-duty tents now," he said. "Every day you On Thursday, the UN held a can see more and more Haitian memorial service in the Haitian national police on the ground, c a p i t a l , P o r t - a u - P r i n c e , t o working with our troops and remember dozens of its staff who more and more water being were killed. distributed, so it's a matter of People hugged each other as the time and putting all these l i s t o f 8 5 c o n f i r m e d U N elements together." fatalities, including mission head He said areas around Port-auHedi Annabi, was read out. Prince were being prepared for

the creation of tented settlements for the homeless currently living in makeshift camps.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) was working with UN and Brazilian engineers at one site near Croixdes-Bouquets that would house around 30,000 people, and four other sites had been identified, he added.

Mr Mulet said 200,000 heavyduty tents had been ordered to cope with Haiti's rainy season, which typically begins in May, and its hurricane season, which is expected to start around June.

"Of course, 200,000 family-sized tents - solid ones that can withstand a hurricane season are not available in the market just like that, so they have to be made. It's going to take a few days and weeks before they can arrive, but all this is coming," he added.

Haitian President Rene Preval earlier this week called for the urgent airdrop of 200,000 more tents and 26 million ready-to-eat meals before the rainy season begins.

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Lawyer: Phone scheme meant to embarrass senator (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 1/29/2010 12:05:43 AM

NEW ORLEANS – Investigators pressed ahead with their probe of four men accused of trying to tamper with a senator's phones after a lawyer said the conservative activists were just trying to capture embarrassing video of her staff ignoring constituent calls.

For her part, Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu wasn't impressed with the lawyer's explanation Thursday that the men hoped to document claims that callers couldn't get through with complaints about her support for health care reform.

"Attorneys are hired to spin for their clients," she said Thursday in an interview in Washington.

"Good luck."

J. Garrison Jordan, an attorney for one of the men, denied they were trying to disable or wiretap the phones in Landrieu's office.

The four, including activist James O'Keefe, known for posing as a pimp and using a hidden camera to target the community-organizing group ACORN, were arrested Monday.

"You're dealing with kids," Jordan said. "I don't think they thought it through that far."

Monday's incident came weeks after callers began claiming that Landrieu's office was ignoring them. Protesters marched in front

of Landrieu's office in Baton Rouge in December to criticize her support for Senate health care legislation and complain that they couldn't get through on her office phones. Landrieu said at the time that her office was flooded with a high volume of calls.

Jordan said his client, Robert Flanagan, the 24-year-old son of a federal prosecutor in Louisiana, did not intend to break the law when he went into the office posing as a telephone worker.

No matter their intentions, the four face the serious charge of entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which carries up to 10 years in prison.

They are free on $10,000 bail.

Investigators are aware of Jordan's explanation, but are pressing ahead to see if that was indeed the men's motive, a senior federal law enforcement official said Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Charged along with O'Keefe and Flanagan were Joseph Basel, 24, of Minnesota and Stan Dai, 24, of the Washington, D.C., area.

The four are due back in court Feb. 12.

O'Keefe, Basel and Dai stayed with Benjamin Wetmore, a friend of O'Keefe's, while they were in New Orleans. Wetmore,

a 28-year-old law school student, was O'Keefe's boss when he worked at the Leadership Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based program that trains conservative activists.

Wetmore declined to discuss their stay at his house and what they did while there. But he praised O'Keefe's work targeting ACORN on his Web site and said he hired O'Keefe in 2006, helping him hone his undercover camera craft.

In an Oct. 16 blog post, Wetmore criticized the Leadership Institute, where he no longer works, for not supporting O'Keefe's budding activism.

Wetmore said he was "nearly fired for buying the initial video equipment that James used."

O'Keefe last year became famous for his videos about ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, which has affiliates that register voters in urban and other poor areas of the country. He used a hidden camera to record as he brought a young woman posing as a prostitute to the group's offices.

In Monday's incident, authorities said O'Keefe used his cell phone to try to capture video of two of his fellow defendants in Landrieu's office before their arrest. The two posed as telephone repairmen — wearing fluorescent vests, tool belts and

hard hats, one equipped with a hidden camera — and asked to see the phones at Landrieu's office. The fourth is alleged to have waited outside in a car with a listening device that could pick up transmissions.

Andrew Breitbart, whose biggovernment.com site launched O'Keefe's ACORN videos and who has since hired O'Keefe as a contributor, also downplayed the federal case.

"Their uniforms were outlandish," Breitbart said in an interview. "This was like ' Hee Haw,' a blatant clown-nose-on spectacle to make a salient political yet mildly humorous point." ___ Associated Press Writers Justin Pritchard in New Orleans and Ben Evans and Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Pelican Institute: http://www.pelicaninstitute.org BigGovernment.com: http://www.biggovernment.com Sen. Mary Landrieu's official s i t e : http://www.landrieu.senate.gov Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Amtrak Passenger Taken Off Train in Colo. for Threats (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:01:47 AM

LA JUNTA, Colo. An Amtrak passenger who alarmed fellow passengers by talking about terrorist threats was pulled from the train and is being held in Colorado.

Sixty-four-year-old Ojore Nuru Lutalo was arrested Tuesday on an Amtrak passage from Los Angeles to Chicago. Passengers on the train alerted authorities after hearing the man from Elizabeth, N.J., making threats in a cell phone conversation.

Police say in an affidavit that passengers overheard Lutalo mention Al Qaeda. He allegedly said he hadn't killed anyone yet and talked about going to jail.

Police say Lutalo was not armed but was carrying propaganda for an anarchist group called Afrikan Liberation Army.

Lutalo is being held without bond in Otero County.

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Jury to hear closings in slain abortion doc case (AP)

Man Accused of Keeping Cache of Weapons Due in N.J. Court

(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

(FOXNews.com)

Roeder's own testimony — clearly showed Roeder planned the shooting.

WICHITA, Kan. – Jurors must His courtroom confession decide whether a man who capped four days of prosecution openly confessed to killing a testimony that left no doubt K a n s a s a b o r t i o n d o c t o r Roeder gunned down Tiller in committed murder now that the foyer of his Wichita church defense attorneys have lost their on May 31. Roeder, 51, of bid for a lesser charge of Kansas City, Mo., is charged manslaughter. with premeditated, first-degree Scott Roeder's lawyers failed to murder and two counts of show that Dr. George Tiller a g g r a v a t e d a s s a u l t f o r posed an imminent threat and threatening two ushers who tried therefore will not be allowed to to stop him after the shooting. ask jurors to consider a voluntary "I did what I thought was needed manslaughter charge, District t o b e d o n e t o p r o t e c t t h e Judge Warren Wilbert ruled children," Roeder said. "I shot Thursday. Wilbert also noted him." abortion is legal in Kansas.

Roeder testified he told no one V o l u n t a r y m a n s l a u g h t e r of his plans and targeted only required the defense to show Tiller. But he acknowledged Roeder had an unreasonable but talking mostly to "like-minded" honest belief that deadly force people about his belief, which he was justified. Roeder says he began to hold in the late 1990s, acted to save the lives of unborn that killing abortion providers children. was justified.

Jurors return to the courtroom If convicted of first-degree Friday to hear closing arguments m u r d e r , R o e d e r f a c e s a and jury instructions before mandatory sentence of life beginning deliberations. imprisonment with the Wilbert also refused to allow possibility of parole after 25 them to consider a second-degree years. Prosecutors could later ask murder conviction, which does the judge to impose a so-called not involve premeditation, "Hard 50" sentence, which because the evidence — and would require he serve at least Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:48:13 AM

50 years before he can be considered for parole.

Roeder was the sole defense witness after the judge barred testimony from two state prosecutors whom the defense subpoenaed in a futile bid to show Roeder believed Tiller was performing unlawful abortions and was frustrated charges against the doctor had been dismissed in one case. Jurors in the other case acquitted the doctor.

Roeder testified that he considered elaborate schemes to stop the doctor, including chopping off his hands, crashing a car into him or sneaking into his home to kill him. But in the end, Roeder told jurors, the easiest way was to walk into Tiller's church, put a gun to the doctor's forehead and pull the trigger.

"Those children were in immediate danger if someone did not stop George Tiller," Roeder told jurors.

Roeder testified he went to Reformation Lutheran Church on three other occasions to kill Tiller: once the evening before and once the week before Tiller was shot, and once in 2008, but Tiller was not at the church on

those occasions.

The ruling prohibiting jurors from considering lesser offenses dismayed Andrew Beacham, a Falls Church, Va., man who came to watch the proceedings.

"The very thing (the judge) is attempting to suppress, vigilantism ... he is actually promoting it by not allowing Scott to have a fair trial," Beacham said.

Kathy Spillar, executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said after Roeder's testimony that the prosecutor's questioning showed Roeder was talking to people about justifiable homicide of abortion doctors — an admission she hopes opens the door to a federal investigation and prosecution of any others who might be involved. ___ Associated Press Writer Roxana Hegeman contributed to this report.

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Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:08:55 AM

NEWARK, N.J. A man who authorities say had a cache of weapons and a map of an Army base in a New Jersey motel room is due in court on Friday.

Lloyd Woodson was arrested Monday after a convenience store clerk in Branchburg called police to report he was acting strangely.

Police say Woodson was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying an assault rifle. Officers found weapons including a grenade launcher and a map of New York's Fort Drum in his motel room.

Woodson is charged with state and federal weapons violations.

Authorities have not said whether they think he was planning an attack. The FBI said Woodson has no known terrorist connections.

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Heavy snow, ice bury southern Plains, cut power (AP)

MediaDailyNews: MediaCom Taps Aegis' Greenhalgh As Global Director

(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

site. Flights were also canceled Thursday in Tulsa and in Texas out of Lubbock, Amarillo and Wichita Falls, officials said.

The Texas Department of Transportation closed I-40 east and west of Amarillo on Friday and a few other major roadways.

Downed power lines and icy, dangerous road conditions also temporarily closed a 50-mile stretch of I-44 southwest of Oklahoma City and parts of I-40 in far western Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico on Thursday. _____ Associated Press reporters Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Texas, and Heather Clark in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report.

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Agriculture Minister was even on hand at the unveiling to help the Mickey D’s staff prepare the burgers.

The partnership could bring in an estimated $3.6 million to the Italian economy because of its use of local produce, but some

observers, like Matthew Fort of The Guardian, call the McItaly deal a “monstrous act of national betrayal.”

(Via Huffington Post) All the latest news from Italy.* Permalink| Leave a comment »

Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

"In some places, as far you can OKLAHOMA CITY – A storm see there are hundreds of utility that toppled power lines, closed poles on the ground," said major highways and buried parts A n d r e a Chancellor, of the southern Plains in heavy spokeswoman for Public Service ice and snow began moving into Co. of Oklahoma. She said it the South early Friday, leaving could be five days before tens of thousands of people in electricity is restored to all the dark — possibly for several customers. more days.

More than two dozen flights Winter storm warnings were in were canceled Friday morning at effect from New Mexico to Oklahoma City's main airport.

North Carolina, and Arkansas The snow, sleet and freezing rain Gov. Mike Beebe declared a were expected to crawl east state of emergency. The storm through Friday. In Arkansas, as threatened to dump up to a foot much as a foot of snow could fall of snow across the region after n e a r t h e M i s s o u r i b o r d e r , leaving 13 inches in the northern n o r t h e r n p a r t s o f c e n t r a l Texas Panhandle, where nearly Tennessee could see up to 8 all of Interstate 40 from the i n c h e s a n d w e s t e r n N o r t h Texas-Oklahoma line to New Carolina could get hit with a foot Mexico was closed. of snow, according to the H e a v y i c e b r o u g h t d o w n National Weather Service. electrical lines and trees limbs, More snow also was expected in leaving nearly 142,000 homes Texas and Oklahoma, where and businesses in Oklahoma dozens of shelters were opened without power Friday, the for those who needed a warm Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:54:42 AM

place to stay, including First United Methodist Church in Hobart, about 120 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.

Pastor Kyle Clark said downed trees and utility poles littered the slick roadways and most of the town of about 4,000 residents had no electricity.

"We've got gas heat and we are illuminating the place with candles," Clark said late Thursday.

Farther southwest in Altus, home to about 7,000 residences and businesses, power was out except at the hospital and other emergency operations with generators, said emergency management director Lloyd Colston.

More than two dozen flights were canceled Friday morning at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City following the cancellation of more than 100 flights Thursday due to concerns about ice buildup on planes, according to the airport's Web

Submitted at 1/29/2010 4:15:02 AM

WPP's MediaCom Worldwide unit this morning named former Aegis Media executive Paul Greenhalgh has joined MediaCom global commercial director, responsible for overseeing all client contract negotiations and compliance worldwide. He had been COO Latin America and before that executive vice president-director of corporate development & strategy, North America at Aegis. Also at MediaCom Worldwide, Christian Schmalzl has been promoted to chief operations & investment director from CEO of MediaCom Germany.

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McDonald’s + Italy = McItaly (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:21:00 PM

No doubt that Silvio Berlusconi’s reign as Italian prime minister has included plenty of eyebrow-raising decisions, but the latest one

could hit at the heart of a country that prides itself on its delicious cuisine.

The Italian government has teamed up with McDonald’s to create the McItaly burgers, two fast food creations that include toppings like artichoke spread

and Asiago cheese. Berlusconi’s

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US pressed to move 9/11 NY trial (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

New York Congressman Peter King has introduced a bill to block Justice Department Submitted at 1/29/2010 3:01:23 AM financing for federal court trials The US administration is of Guantanamo detainees. considering moving the trial of However, White House officials the alleged mastermind of the s a y M r O b a m a r e m a i n s 9/11 attacks out of New York committed to the civilian option.

City, officials have said.

'Too disruptive' Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is Last month officials said the due to be tried with four other trial would be held at a federal suspects. court in lower Manhattan, after On Thursday Mayor Michael a n n o u n c i n g t h e m o v e i n Bloomberg said he had asked the N o v e m b e r . attorney general not to hold the Mr Bloomberg initially said it trial in Manhattan, near the site would be fitting that the suspects of the attacks. should face trial near the site of The mayor had strongly backed the World Trade Center. the trial but changed his mind But on Thursday he called t h i s w e e k c i t i n g c o s t a n d Attorney General Eric Holder to disruption. ask for the trial to be moved.

Several other senior politicians Several lawmakers from around i n c l u d i n g G o v e r n o r D a v i d the country have made similar Paterson and both state senators requests. have expressed opposition to or "There are places that would be doubts about the proposal. less expensive for the taxpayers The suspects are currently being and less disruptive for New York held in Guantanamo Bay, but City," he told journalists. w i l l b e m o v e d a s p a r t o f "For example, military bases President Barack Obama's efforts away from central cities where it to close the prison. is easier to provide security at Some relatives of 9/11 victims much less cost." say they oppose a federal court However, Mr Bloomberg said trial, and many Republicans in that if necessary "we will do C o n g r e s s f a v o u r m i l i t a r y what we're supposed to do". tribunals over civilian trials. 'Number three'

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been described by US investigators as "one of history's most infamous terrorists".

They say he has admitted being responsible "from A to Z" for the 9/11 attacks.

Believed to be the number three al-Qaeda leader, he was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.

He told a pre-trial hearing at Guantanamo in December 2008 that he wanted to plead guilty to all charges against him.

But intelligence memos released last year revealed he had been subjected to harsh interrogation techniques including waterboarding on multiple occasions since his capture - potentially rendering some evidence inadmissible.

The other four men - the two Yemenis, a Saudi and a Pakistani -born Kuwaiti who have shared hearings with Mr Mohammed at Guantanamo Bay - are also accused of helping plan and finance the attacks.

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How the iPad will (and won't) change the news (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:06:00 PM

Gadgets don’t get much more messianic than the iPad. While some rubbed their hands raw waiting for a cool, new toy, journalists hung every hope on a news reader that would bring back jobs, salaries, craftsmanship, and certainty of an informed tomorrow (little wonder where the buzz came from, right?). Now that the thing is unveiled, though, is the iPad a game changer for journalism or simply a plus-sized iTouch?

Nieman Lab gives it a think with five thoughts on how the iPad will—and won’t—revolutionize the news. One of the most thought-provoking points was that the iPad does not change the paid-content equation: But the iPad, as we know it today, doesn’t change any of the fundamental economics of news commerce. On the iPhone, you can sell news apps through the App Store; you can upsell specific pieces of content to people within your apps; and you can sell advertising within those applications. (Apple takes chunks of the revenue from those

first two options.)

On the iPad, you can…do those same three things. The only thing that has changed is the size, and that big beautiful screen. Will people who weren’t willing to buy news on an iPhone be sold on the idea just because the text is bigger and the photos are prettier? I’d be surprised. The commerce proposition hasn’t changed.

What do you think? Could the iPad save the day? (via Nieman Lab) More on journalism and the iPad. Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Body Found in Search for Missing Fla. Lotto Winner

Man shot doctor 'to save unborn'

(FOXNews.com)

(BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

payment of $16.9 million instead of annual installments.

He bought a Nissan Altima, a PLANT CITY, Fla. Human Rolex from a pawn shop, a $1 remains been found near a Plant m i l l i o n h o m e i n a g a t e d City house where investigators community. He talked about were looking for the body of a starting a foundation for the poor missing Florida Lottery winner. and insisted the money wouldn't The body found Thursday has change him. not been identified, but a medical "I'm not a material person," he examiner was at the scene. said in 2007. "I don't let material Authorities had suspected they things run me. I'm on a tight might find the remains of budget."

Abraham Shakespeare, who was The money quickly caused him last seen in April. problems.

The house is owned by the A former co-worker sued him in boyfriend of Dorice Moore, who 2007, accusing Shakespeare of authorities have called a "person stealing the winning ticket from of interest." him. Six months later, a jury Moore has said she doesn't r u l e d t h e t i c k e t w a s know where Shakespeare is, but S h a k e s p e a r e ' s . authorities say she transferred Then there were the people more than $1 million from his constantly asking him for a piece bank account into hers. She said of his fortune. the money was a gift. No charges "They didn't wait. They just have been filed. came right after they found out Shakespeare — who had a he won this money," his mother, criminal record that included Elizabeth Walker, said recently. arrests and prison time for She said her son was generous, burglary, battery and not paying paying for funerals, lending child support — won $31 million m o n e y t o f r i e n d s s t a r t i n g in 2006 and took a lump-sum businesses and even giving a Submitted at 1/29/2010 3:11:23 AM

million dollars to a guy known only as "Big Man." Not long after he bought the million-dollar home in early 2007, he was approached by Moore, said family and officials.

Moore said she was interested in writing a book about Shakespeare's life. She became something of a financial adviser to Shakespeare, who never graduated high school.

Property records show that Moore's company, American Medical Professionals, bought Shakespeare's home for $655,000 last January. His mother said the last time she saw him was shortly afterward, around her birthday in February.

The sheriff said the last time anyone saw Shakespeare was in April — but it wasn't until Nov. 9 that he was reported missing, by a police informant.

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The judge also ruled out a second-degree murder conviction, which does not Submitted at 1/29/2010 2:24:55 AM involve premeditation.

A US man accused of murdering Mr Roeder told the court on abortion doctor George Tiller has Thursday that he had long said he did it to save the lives of thought about killing Dr Tiller, unborn children. saying he considered chopping "I did what I thought was needed off the doctor's hands, sneaking t o b e d o n e t o p r o t e c t t h e into his home to kill him or children," Scott Roeder told the driving a car into him. court in Wichita, Kansas. "I shot " T h o s e c h i l d r e n w e r e i n him." immediate danger if someone did Mr Roeder has pleaded not not stop George Tiller," he said. guilty to murder, arguing that he He was the sole witness to committed manslaughter to testify in his defence. prevent a greater harm.

Dr Tiller was killed by a single But the judge said the jury must gunshot at his Wichita church on only consider the more serious 31 May, 2009. charge of premeditated murder. Mr Roeder faces a possible life Judge Warren Wilbert ruled that sentence if found guilty. a c h a r g e o f v o l u n t a r y Print Sponsor manslaughter could not be Five Filters featured article: considered because abortion, Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: including the late-term abortions PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, conducted by Dr Tiller, was legal Term Extraction. in Kansas.

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Genealogist: Obama, Mass. Sen.elect Brown related (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

connection with colleague Chris Child.

Lambert said the work was BOSTON – It was bad enough aided by prior research about that President Barack Obama lost Obama, as well as Brown's his filibuster-proof margin in the cooperation with the society U.S. Senate to a Republican. when researchers first contacted Now it turns out he also lost it to him in December. a relative.

"I'm glad to be in such Genealogists said Friday the distinguished company," Brown Democratic president and the said of the findings. newly elected Massachusetts In 2008, the society discovered senator, Scott Brown, are 10th that Obama is related to seven cousins. prior presidents, including The New England Historic George H. W. Bush, George W. G e n e a l o g i c a l S o c i e t y s a i d Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Dunham, and Brown's mother, Truman and James Madison.

Judith Ann Rugg, both descend They also learned he was related from Richard Singletary of to actor Brad Pitt.

Haverhill, Mass.

Brown, a once little-known state He died in 1687 at, for the time, senator, jolted the national the unusually old age of 102. political landscape by capturing "I think it's a really interesting the Senate seat held for nearly a thing, where you have the half-century by late Democratic separation between a Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy. and a Republican, but you have The genealogical chart shows one link," said David Allen that Obama descends from Lambert, the society genealogist Richard's eldest son, Jonathan w h o c o - d i s c o v e r e d t h e Singletary. He later changed his Submitted at 1/29/2010 6:56:10 AM

surname to Dunham. Brown, meanwhile, descends from Jonathan's brother, Nathaniel Singletary.

Also on Friday, George Stephanopoulos, co-anchor of ABC News' "Good Morning America" learned he was likely related to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Stephanopoulos underwent DNA testing to promote "Faces of America With Henry Louis Gates Jr.," a four-part series on family histories premiering Feb. 10 on PBS. Gates told him during Friday's "GMA" show that he's "very likely a maternal cousin with Hillary Clinton."

"Sorry, Secretary Clinton," Stephanopoulos said. "I did not set this up."

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Does your blog pass Chris Brogan's Alltop test?

(Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:36:00 PM

How do you know if your blog headlines are effective? Chris Brogan recommends a little site we’re rather fond of: Alltop.

Find out how to use Alltop as a tool to measure the power of your blog against some of the best. Chris writes: Swing by any page at Alltop and browse the titles other bloggers are using. Now, compare their titles to yours. Which would you click? Go back and look at the last 30 days of your blog. How many posts does that encompass? If someone only had the last 30 days of your blog to go on, what would they say

about it?

Does your blog pass the Alltop test?

Keep up reading the news by creating a personalized MyAlltop page.

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US growth reaches six-year high (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

much into a single report, positive or negative," she added.

"There will surely be bumps in Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:15:42 AM the road ahead. Nonetheless, The US economy grew by an today's report is a welcome piece annualised rate of 5.7% between of encouraging news."

October and December, official US GDP is expressed as an figures have shown. annualised rate, or annual pace, The number, which is a first which shows what the three estimate, is a big rise from the months' economic activity would previous quarter's growth rate of mean if it carried on for a year.

2.2%.

The Bureau of Economic I t s u g g e s t s t h e c o u n t r y ' s Analysis, which releases the economy is growing at its fastest data, emphasised that the fourthpace for six years and confirms quarter advance estimate was the US economy has left its year- based on incomplete information long recession behind. and was subject to further But even with the rebound, revision. gross domestic product (GDP) Growth in the third quarter was shrank by 2.4% across 2009 as a o r i g i n a l l y e s t i m a t e d a t a n whole. annualised rate of 3.5%, but was That was the worst annual revised down to 2.2% after more performance since 1946. information was received.

'Encouraging news' Most of the growth came from W h i t e H o u s e e c o n o m i s t increased manufacturing to Christina Romer said the strong rebuild inventories. Consumer growth in the fourth quarter of s p e n d i n g - t h e b i g g e s t 2009 was "the most positive component of the US economy news to date on the economy". was down on the previous "It is important not to read too

quarter.

Great number?

That point was singled out by Manoj Ladwa, a senior trader at ETX Capital: "The 'engine of the economy' that is consumer spending contributed little to the overall improvement in the numbers, indicating the recovery may still falter."

Others saw the news as more positive. Jack Ablin, the chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago said: "Wow, great number. It's very solid and gives us a running start into the second half of the year when we can't rely on government stimulus.

"That's part of the plan, to get us moving as fast as possible, so when life support is removed we'll have a pulse."

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Greece would ‘draw blood’ for credibility (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 1/29/2010 5:07:47 AM

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US Congress probes Toyota recalls (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 1/29/2010 2:31:32 AM

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minimum, however we have detailed below areas of the service that might be impacted by the work.

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• Registering / subscribing to the site • Accessing portfolio • Accessing News by Email Briefings & News Alerts We have removed the subscription barrier from all articles for the duration of the work to reduce the risk of

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US GDP growth fastest Asia hit hardest by in six years global move from risk (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:12:42 AM

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(Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:11:50 AM

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Around the Net In Media: Study: Federal Subsidies For Press Decline (MediaPost | Media News)

newspapers and magazines has fallen from more than $4 billion in 1970, to less than $2 billion.

Government subsidies have Since 1792, publications have b e e n c r u c i a l t o A m e r i c a n enjoyed discounted postage newspapers and magazines for rates, but over the last 40 years, more than two centuries, even if it's whittled down from 75% to most journalists and readers don't 11%, a difference of about $1.7 realize it, according to a new billion in today's dollars. Local, report by the Annenberg School state and federal laws require f o r C o m m u n i c a t i o n a n d governments to publish notices J o u r n a l i s m a t t h e U S C . in effect, buying newspaper ads.

G o v e r n m e n t s u p p o r t f o r But there is a growing movement Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:11:07 PM

to put such notices on their own Web sites. Value: $1 billion.

Final category: special tax treatment for publications, like reduced sales tax rates on paper and ink. The tax breaks are worth at least $900 million.

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In U.S., 35% Would Rather Work for Gov’t Than for Business (All Gallup Headlines) Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:00:00 PM

Copyright © 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.

Gallup®, A 8™, Business Impact Analysis™, CE 11®, Clifton StrengthsFinder®, the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names, Customer Engagement Index™, Drop Club®, Emotional Economy™, Employee Engagement Index™, Employee Outlook Index™, Follow This Path™, Gallup Brain®, Gallup Consulting®, Gallup Management Journal®, GMJ®, Gallup Press®, Gallup Publishing™, Gallup Tuesday Briefing®, Gallup University®, HumanSigma®, I 10™, L 3™, PrincipalInsight™, Q 12®, SE 25™, SF 34®, SRI®, Strengths Spotlight™, Strengths-Based Research Brief: Daily Selling™, StrengthsCoach™, Newspaper Reading StrengthsFinder®, S t r e n g t h s Q u e s t ™ , (Print or Online) Down TeacherInsight™, The Gallup to Two in Five Path®, and The Gallup Poll® are (MediaPost | Media News) trademarks of Gallup, Inc. All other trademarks are the property Submitted at 1/29/2010 5:16:02 AM of their respective owners. These According to the findings of a materials are provided for new Adweek Media/Harris Poll, noncommercial, personal use of 2,136 U.S. adults surveyed only. Reproduction prohibited online between December 14 and without the express permission 16, 2009 by Harris Interactive, of Gallup, Inc. the era of Americans reading a Five Filters featured article: daily newspaper each and every Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: day is coming to an end.

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Just two in five U.S. adults (43%) say they read a daily newspaper, either online or in print almost every day. Just over seven in ten Americans (72%) say they read one at least once a week while 81% read a daily newspaper at least once a month.

One in ten adults (10%) say they never read a daily newspaper.

Frequency of Reading Daily Newspaper(% of Age Groups; Base: All U.S. adults) Age Group Frequency Total 18-34 35-44 45-54 55+ At Least Once a Month (Net) 81% 71% 83% 85% 88% At Least Once a Week (Subnet) 72 59 72 76 82 Almost every day 43 23 36 44 64 A few times a week 17 19 23 23

10 Once a week 12 18 14 9 9 A few times a month 9 12 10 9 5 A few times a year 9 12 9 9 5 Never 10 17 9 6 7 Source: The Harris Poll, January 2009 One reason for the dying of the daily newspaper, says the report, is the graying of the daily readership. Almost two-thirds of those aged 55 and older say they still read a daily newspaper almost every day. The younger one is, however, the less often they read newspapers. But less than one quarter of those aged 18 -34 say they read a newspaper almost every day while 17% in this age group say they never read a daily newspaper.

One potential business model that newspapers are exploring is charging a monthly fee to read a

daily newspaper's content online.

This model, however, seems unlikely to work, as 77% of online adults say they would not be willing to pay anything to read a newspaper's content online. While some are willing to pay, one in five online adults would only pay between $1 and $10 a month for this online content and only 5% would pay more than $10 a month.

There is a slight regional difference in who would pay for online content. Over four in five online adults in the Northeast say they would not be willing to pay anything to read a daily newspaper's content online.

Those across the country, however, are more willing.

While seven in ten Westerners still say they would not pay, almost one-quarter of Westerners would pay between $1 and $10 a month to read a paper's content online.

Amount Willing to Pay (per month) For Daily Newspaper Content Online(% of Category Respondents; Base: All online adults) Payment Region Total East Midwest South West Nothing 77% 81% 76% 78%

71% Willing to pay (Net) 23 19 24 22 29 $1 - $10 19 15 18 17 24 $11 - $20 4 4 5 5 3 Source: The Harris Poll, January 2009 The report concludes that the struggles of the daily newspaper will continue as Americans have more and more ways to find the news content they need and want. The challenge for newspapers will be discovering a way to get their content to people and make money doing so. One area they were intently exploring was charging for online content, though it appears they need to find another way.

For more information, please visit Harris here.

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Online Media Daily: The Morality of Network Money (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 1/29/2010 4:30:17 AM

So far this year CBS is second only to Fox in network ratings.

They sold north of $200 million in Super Bowl XLIV ads and analysts say CBS will be an obvious bottom line beneficiary of the Supreme Court ruling striking down longstanding restrictions on corporations' political campaign spending.

They have a solid Late Night Show (as long as Dave keeps his johnson under control). The only apparent problem other than upfront ad sales taking a beating like everyone else's, is that their audience has half a foot in the grave. So why then invite trouble?

In spite of the fact that all the broadcast networks, including CBS, have policies that rule out the broadcast of certain types of contentious advocacy ads, they apparently have decided to run an anti-abortion 30-second spot for the Colorado-based conservative Christian group Focus on the Family during the Super Bowl.

The spot is said to feature Tim Tebow, University of Florida QB, marginal NFL prospect and proponent of face paint for Jesus (http://www.mediapost.com/publ ications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.s ONLINE page 74

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howArticle&art_aid=98498&pas sFuseAction=PublicationsSearch .showSearchReslts&art_searched =Jesus&page_number=0) and his mother who contracted dysentery in 1985 and was advised by her physician to have an abortion, because the prescription medication she would take would likely cause damage to the fetus. She refused and Florida won the national football championship twice.

Perhaps CBS is a little gun shy since the network took some heat for rejecting a 2004 ad by the liberal-leaning United Church of Christ highlighting the UCC's welcoming stance toward gays and others who might feel shunned by more conservative churches.

Or maybe it is the $2.6 million that CBS is asking for such a spot?

Trust me when I say that CBS will suffer far in excess of $2.6 million worth of grief for

essentially siding with abortion opponents. A protest letter from the Women's Media Center says "By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, antichoice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will damage its reputation, alienate viewers, and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers." The National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority have also called on the network to pull the ad.

But, hey, media dollars are getting harder to come by every day and maybe this will simply open the door to advocacy ads that will have a polarizing effect on the country but will fall to the bottom line of all the networks at a time when dollars are more important than judgment (read: Wall Street bonuses).

Pretty soon, in addition to

asking you to text $10 for Haitian relief, the advocacy groups that have your email and home address will start asking you to contribute to funds built to buy airtime so that your views can be imposed on everyone else. Defenders will call it freedom of speech. Opponents will call it bullying by the bestfinanced. The networks will call it found money.

On the other hand, it remains to be seen if saving Tim Tebow from suction aspiration is sufficient reason to change anyone's mind about having an abortion.

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The iPad's Unexpected, Hidden Peek at the Future of Computing

By John Mahoney (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

actually reveal more about Apple's vision of the future of computing than any other element of their new tablet.

Here's why.

Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:05:15 PM I used each iWork app Apple's redesigned touch- yesterday, and while I couldn't enabled iWork office suite may spend enough time with them to seem like an afterthought, but come to a definitive conclusion, more than anything else on the they definitely surprised me. iPad it's indicative of how we'll Text-input issues aside (we'll get use computers in the future to that in a minute), each During yesterday's iPad event, appeared more than capable of which largely played out just as offering a similar, if not much the rumors foretold, Apple did improved experience, over their do something unexpected: they desktop counterparts. And for unveiled a version of the word t h a t , a l l c r e d i t i s d u e t o processing, spreadsheet and m u l t i t o u c h . presentation suite iWork In Pages, one of word redesigned for the iPad's 9.7-inch processing's most arduous tasks-touchscreen. It's easy to write off formatting text cleanly and easily iWork's inclusion as a minor around graphical elements--has perk only for business types been made orders of magnitude only, but don't. The suite's fullyredesigned touch interfaces IPAD'S page 76

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Preview: Hubble 3D IMAX Puts a Tear in a Spacewalker's Eye

By Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 1/29/2010 7:17:33 AM

Get ready to float alongside astronauts and explore the farthest reaches of the universe "It's OK for astronauts to cry, right?" asked Mike Massimino, one of seven NASA astronauts who flew the space shuttle Atlantis on a daring mission to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. The New York City native made his jest during a special preview screening of early footage from the upcoming Hubble 3-D IMAX film on Thursday, and all the reporters laughed. No one doubted his sincerity in describing his surge of emotion upon watching himself and his fellow spacewalkers floating on the big screen.

The preview clips were from raw footage that had not been color-corrected, but still gave a taste of what to expect when the IMAX film officially opens on March 19. Moviegoers watching in 3-D will have the chance of accompanying astronauts during almost every step of the Hubble repair mission, including a thunderous shuttle launch sequence that Massimino describes as riding an

enormously powerful beast. For most of us who may never get the chance to hop aboard a private spacecraft for a seemingly weightless thrill-ride, the film may represent the best opportunity to experience what astronauts have long struggled to describe.

Perhaps the crowning moments of Hubble 3-D IMAX will come from the eight minutes of film captured by a 700-pound IMAX 3-D camera that flew aboard the space shuttle. We talked

previously with IMAX director Toni Myers about the challenges of condensing five marathon spacewalks down to the pivotal highlights, and many of the preview clips reflected her hard work. The space-hardened camera tucked away inside the shuttle cargo bay presents a wide -angle view of 3-D astronauts looming overhead on the shuttle's robotic arm and crawling around inside the cylindrical Hubble, all set against the blue-and-white vista of a

slowly rotating Earth.

Moviegoers should also stay alert for views taken from the helmet cameras of the spacewalkers. But there's no confirmation of whether that footage includes a tense spacewalking moment where Massimino had to rip out a stubborn handrail by force. "I hope so," Massimino said.

Hubble 3-D IMAX ultimately links the human experience of spaceflight with that larger sense of searching for humanity's place

in the infinite void of space. The very end of the film will showcase never-before-seen 3-D tours of the cosmos that come courtesy of the repaired Hubble-a fly-through of the Orion Nebula, and a truly epic voyage from our Milky Way galaxy all the way out to the edge of the observable universe.

Massimino spent time after the preview talking about his enjoyment of seeing the Hubble 3-D IMAX trailer when he took his kids to see James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster Avatar. He also listed some home repair misadventures as part of his premission training, and recounted his wife telling him to "Think of Hubble!" during each mishap.

The astronaut did not shy away from more somber subjects, even as he joked about crying again when asked about the Obama administration ending NASA's plans to return to the moon.

"I've always seen great support [for NASA] from the President, Congress and the public," Massamino said. He voiced confidence that the U.S. will continue to move forward on spaceflight -- a sentiment that many more people may hope for after seeing the Hubble rescue in all its IMAX glory.

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easier with touch. Once tapped, pictures and charts can be moved, resized, rotated and masked with finger swipes, pinches and twists, as the text instantly and naturally wraps around them. Once a graphical element is touched, a contextual box can be summoned to the surface with another tap offering options unique to that element, such as its layering position, size, and the like. Again, my time with the app was brief, but the potential available once clicks and drags are replaced by our natural inclination to touch and interact with our fingers was immediately apparent.

Keynote provides a similar interface for composing presentation layouts, which are more graphically intensive and thus even better served by touch.

Added to the mix is an intuitive way to rearrange sides individually or in batches with taps and swipes. And while spreadsheets may be the least

exciting runt of the litter, one thing touch certainly improves is navigating to or selecting multiple cells in the document: tap, and you're there.

The apps, especially Keynote and Pages, function almost as light versions of far more advanced software like Adobe's InDesign. PopSci's art director probably won't be ditching InDesign for an iPad any time soon, but having a large tablet of the future flat on a desktop could merge the benefits of working digitally with an interface that feels more like working with a pencil and paper.

This is significant. It's the underlying concept behind all touchscreen interfaces--removing the mouse and pointer's layer of abstraction to get us back to working with our hands. Most previous attempts at a more natural and expansive touch interface have been hampered by too small a screen or inelegant design. The iPad has neither.

And in choosing productivity apps as the first test case for these new interfaces, Apple is providing a familiar stepping stone into the world of interacting with nothing-buttouch in software we've been using for decades. The first personal computers were largely about getting work done, and word processing and spreadsheets were for several years the only real software options. Apple's not plunging us into some wild, augmented reality desktop interface navigated by touch. They're weaning us off the keyboard and mouse in baby steps.

But there's still a ways to go.

After about 30 minutes, my impression of typing on the iPad is that it's doable, but awkward.

Apple is usually content to let users sort out such limitations for themselves, but with the iPad, they've uncharacteristically provided the option to attach a physical keyboard. Paired via

Bluetooth or connected to the dock, a keyboard solves the problem of awkward text entry-and ties you to a desktop-creating a hybrid machine that's 90 percent touch, 10 percent traditional desktop PC or laptop.

The iPad, then, is a transition to a future when, in Apple's mind, multitouch is so good that we no longer need anything but a screen. Whether that's an appealing place for you or something that sounds dreadful, Apple obviously has a vision of the future for which they're smartly and methodically laying groundwork. And once the text input problem is solved (hyperaccurate handwriting or speech recognition, perhaps?), you can bet that's the future we'll have.

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Robots Display Predator-Prey Co-Evolution, Evolve Better Homing Techniques

By Stuart Fox (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

British Police to Monitor Civilians with UAVs by 2012

Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:52:53 AM

When we last checked in with the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in the Ecole Polytechnique FĂŠdĂŠrale of Lausanne, Switzerland, their evolving robots had learned how deceive other robots about the location of a resource. Since then, their robots have continued to evolve, learning how to navigate a maze, beginning to cooperate and share, and even developing complex predatorprey interactions.

As before, the Swiss scientists placed within the robot's operating system both basic instructions, and some random variations that changed every generation in virtual mutations.

After each trial, the code for the more successful robots got passed on to the next generation, while the code for the less successful robots got bred out.

This time, however, the researchers designed a whole new menagerie of robots, including a set of hunter robots that pursue prey-bots, mazerunning robots, and robots designed to deposit a token in a given area.

For the first experiment, the scientists created two sets of

By Stuart Fox (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:47:24 PM

bots: predator bots with better eyesight, and prey bots with more speed. Initially, the predator was only programmed to find the prey and then drive towards it, while the prey was only programmed to move away when it detected the predator. At first, the robots just bounced towards and away from each other randomly. But over 125 generations, the hunter-bots learned to approach the prey from blind spots and to hide against the walls in wait, while the prey-bots learned to stay away from the walls and retreat with its sensors facing the hunter -bots, so it could keep the danger in sight.

In the maze experiment, robots with six sensors on one side and two sensors on the other started

In a move sure to generate plenty of Orwell name-drops in the Boing Boing comments with the basic programming of evolve to help each other, but section, the British police have r u n n i n g t h e m a z e , a n d like in nature, they evolved to begun developing UAVs for the reproducing less if the sensors only help those robots from the s u r v e i l l a n c e o f d o m e s t i c were trigger by a bump into the same code lineage, a trait called civilians. The British police hope to have a national UAV system w a l l . A f t e r l e s s t h a n 1 0 0 "kin selection" in biology. generations, the robots had not Most amazingly, the code for i n o p e r a t i o n b y t h e 2 0 1 2 only evolved the ability to the robots in all the experiments Olympics in London, so they can navigate the maze without any was amazingly short. In fact, for watch out for any disturbances. wall collisions, but even learned the token-moving experiment, Britain already has far fewer to have the side with more t h e r o b o t s o n l y h a d t h e restrictions on government sensors face the direction of programing equivalent of 15 monitoring than the US, with travel. n e u r o n s . B y c o a x i n g s u c h much of London currently With the final experiment, the complex behavior out of limited covered by CCTV cameras. scientists created robots that got programming, the the Laboratory However, this development points for placing tokens in a of Intelligent Systems team would greatly expand how much marked area. The more points, proved, once again, that some of o f t h e c o u n t r y t h e p o l i c e the more offspring. The catch nature's most complex behaviors c o n t i n u a l l y m o n i t o r . T h e was two types of tokens: one are emergent phenomena that program, spearheaded by the small enough for an individual to g r o w o u t o f v e r y s i m p l e Kent Police Department, is a spin off of the South Coast push, but worth fewer points, i n s t r u c t i o n s . and a bigger token requiring two [ Public Library of Science, Partnership, an effort to us robots to move, but worth more Biology] BRITISH page 78 points. Not only did the robots

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E-reader News Edition

New Computer Program Studies Trees on TV to Simulate Their Movement

By Stuart Fox (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:35:08 PM

The same subtle, random movements, bouncing shadows, and immense complexity that make plants fascinating to observe in life also make them hell to animate. Like water and fire, a rustling tree is one of the hardest things for a computer animator to realistically render.

Thankfully, a new computer program can design realistic trees by watching and copying video of real ones, saving animators plenty of time and money.

Developed at the University of Bath, England, the program works by analyzing digital video

of actual trees. Then, the computer program can make copies of the original video, but with enough slight, random variations to make the new tree appear unique. Apply those variations to the movement of a wholly new computer generated

tree and viola, all the realism of a painstakingly animated tree with none of the hassle.

This may seem like a trivial advance, but imagine animating an entire forest, and you get the idea of how this could speed up and cheapen the animation

In documents obtained by the British newspaper The Guardian, police officials envisioned using the drones to monitor, "...theft from cash machines, preventing theft of tractors and monitoring antisocial driving."

According the police department, video feeds from UAVs are no more invasive than the feeds from CCTV cameras, which the British government has already approved for police

use.

So far, the British police have not purchased any UAVs, and the progress of the program remains a mystery. [ The Guardian, via Futurismic]

BRITISH continued from page 77

UAVs to monitor England's southern coast.

So far, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Britain's equivalent of the FAA, has not cleared UAVs to fly in the same airspace as manned aircraft.

However, the Kent police department has petitioned the CAA to expedite the licensing processes so the police operated UAVs can take to the sky by the time the Olympics starts.

process. In fact, the technology is so promising that Aardman, the animation studio responsible for the Wallace and Gromit movies has already expressed interest in the project.

Additionally, this technology is only the first step. The University of Bath scientists hope to develop similar programs that allow computers to learn from videos of other notoriously difficult to animate materials like smoke, fire, clouds, and water.

Now, with the painstaking process of animating fluids and trees automated, animators will need to come up with a new reason to stay long hours at work, avoiding their friends and loved ones.