Liberty Newsprint Jan-28-10

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If healthcare wasn’t enough, Obama just picked another fight By Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 1/27/2010 10:49:14 PM

One thing is clear. President Barack Obama is not afraid of a fight. He battled all last year with Republicans and some of his own Democrats trying to get healthcare reform through the political headwinds. Now he’s going to take on Republicans with trying to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gays serving in the military. “This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are,” Obama said. “It’s the right thing to do.” While that proposal will likely boost Obama with his liberal base, it was not received well by Republicans — and now with

Senator 41 from Massachusetts they have the votes to throw up procedural hurdles on just about everything. Republican Senator John McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election and is a war veteran, made clear his opposition. “I am immensely proud of, and thankful for, every American who wears the uniform of our country, especially at a time of

war, and I believe it would be a mistake to repeal the policy,” McCain said after the State of the Union. So add that to the list of policy battles in an election year when Democrats are nervous about losing seats in Congress and Republicans are loathe to give Obama any victories as they try to secure more seats in November. And some gay advocacy groups

basically said that’s nice, but it’s not enough. Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, said: “President Obama’s pledge to end discrimination against gay people serving in the military, repeated in tonight’s State of the Union, is an important show of support for gay and lesbian Americans as well as a boost to our national security. Unfortunately, the President failed to address the government’s discrimination against same-sex couples in his speech.” What do you think, should “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” be repealed? For more Reuters political news, click here Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama pauses while delivering State of the Union), Reuters/Jim Young (Obama waves at end of SOTU)

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Who cares that wood stoves are environmentally-unfriendly and are heavily regulated in some areas? This one hangs on the wall, people! [ Caminetti Montegrappa via Appliancist]


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JD Salinger obituary (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:53:54 PM

Reclusive author of the 20thcentury classic The Catcher in the Rye, whose hero Holden Caulfield spoke for rebellious youth JD Salinger, who has died aged 91, was the reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye (1951), one of the most beloved novels in the English language since the second world war. Millions of American high school and college students identified passionately with the novel's 16year-old hero, Holden Caulfield, whose blend of innocence and disillusion make him appear a version of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, translated from the American heartland to New York City, and from the simplicity of the 1840s to the anxieties of the modern era. Yet, although Holden is an American, his appeal transcended national borders. The Catcher in the Rye has been translated into 30 languages, and sold more than 65m copies worldwide. In his biography of Salinger, the British poet and critic Ian Hamilton wrote of his shock of recognition when, at the age of 17, he read Holden's story. Other non-American male critics have expressed a similar sense of wonder about how Salinger could have so perfectly captured their sense of their own

adolescent selves. Jerome David Salinger was born in New York City. After elementary grades at state schools, his parents sent him to McBurney, a private school in the city, for secondary education. At best an indifferent student, he was expelled from McBurney after two years for failing to apply himself. At 16 he was dispatched to Valley Forge military academy, Pennsylvania, graduating two years later. He then returned home. In 1932 his parents had moved to an apartment on Park Avenue, in the heart of Wasp gentility. Salinger's father, Sol, made his living as an importer of luxury foodstuffs from Europe. His mother, Marie Jillich, is described by biographers as deriving from Scots-Irish stock, and is reported to have changed her name to Miriam because of pressure from Sol's Jewish family. The secret of her background was so closely guarded that it was only after Salinger's barmitzvah at 14 that he learned that his mother was not Jewish. After Valley Forge, Salinger enrolled in New York University but lasted only a year. At this point, his father gave the young man money so he could spend time in Europe improving his language skills and learning about food imports. Salinger stayed abroad for five months, mainly in Vienna. During that time he showed as little interest

in Polish hams and fancy cheeses as he had in his schooling. And from letters of his that have since been uncovered, it is apparent that he was taking little notice of the political events that were about to convulse central Europe. Indeed, he may have left Vienna only a month or so before the German annexation of Austria in March 1938. Back from Europe, Salinger enrolled at Ursinus college, a Pennsylvania institution that disseminated the doctrines of the German Reformed Church. After one unhappy term, he returned to New York and completed his misadventures in higher education with a night course at Columbia University. This turned out to be especially important for him, because it was taught by Whit Burnett, the highly regarded editor of Story, a magazine that specialised in publishing short fiction. Burnett also had a solid record for discovering new talent. Encouraged by Burnett, Salinger began publishing his work in high-paying "slick" magazines such as Collier's and the Saturday Evening Post, as well as in Story. By the time he was 21, he had already had a story accepted by Esquire and had come close to it at the New Yorker, where he most wanted to appear. Just as Salinger's career was taking off, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and he was drafted into the army. From 1942 to

early 1944 he had an easy war, moving around army bases in the US, but in March 1944 he was shipped out to Tiverton, Devon, where his unit was to prepare for the Normandy invasion. During the time between his arrival in Britain and D-day, Salinger completed six chapters of a novel about a character very much like his own teenage self. Even before 1944 he had decided on a name for his hero: Holden Caulfield. Later he explained, half-humorously, that he chose it because it brought together two Hollywood film stars, William Holden and Joan Caulfield. When The Catcher in the Rye appeared, it marked the culmination of a decade of living with and thinking about his creation. Salinger was a counterintelligence officer in the 4th Infantry Division, but he did not escape the carnage of the liberation of Europe. He saw considerable combat, including the Battle of the Bulge. During much of this time he continued to write. To judge by letters and short stories he wrote at about this time, the experience of war had a traumatic effect on him. Salinger had already shown his emotional vulnerability as an unhappy schoolboy, and in his later fiction he would emphasise the emotional precariousness of his youthful heroes. Two early Salinger stories, later reprinted in his collection Nine Stories (1953), offer glimpses of men

suffering from what we nowadays call post-traumatic stress disorder. A Perfect Day for Bananafish and For EsmÊ – With Love and Squalor depict soldiers who have survived but with badly frayed nerves. Salinger himself suffered a nervous breakdown and was briefly hospitalised when the war ended. In late 1945 he met a German woman named Sylvia, who may have been some kind of doctor, possibly a psychologist. They married a few weeks after meeting. In her memoir Dream Catcher (2000), the novelist's daughter from his second marriage, Margaret Salinger, wrote that Sylvia was a low-level official in the Nazi party whom her father, working in counter-intelligence, met when he was sent to arrest her. Later, Salinger's second wife, Claire, said that her husband had told her that Sylvia was a passionate, evil woman who hated Jews with the same venom that he felt towards Nazis. This intense, physical relationship burned itself out after eight months. In 1946 Salinger returned to New York. Still emotionally shaken, he tried to resume life as a writer. In 1948 he had three stories accepted by the New Yorker and never submitted his work to the "slicks" again after that, his name becoming SALINGER page 4


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The real problem was Blair's policy to America, not Iraq | Martin Kettle By Martin Kettle (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:00:01 PM

He was not wrong about intervention. It was his political judgment that went badly awry. If only this was Chilcot's focus Tony Blair does not make it easy for those who still insist on trying to judge him and his era in the round. The money has become disturbing. The lapses into solipsism, even sanctimony, strike an undignified note. And then, much more seriously, there is always Iraq. To say Blair got the national interest wrong over Iraq, and that Iraq was the pivotal error of his premiership, is true. But to say such things now feels like weirdly perverse understatement. The level of hyperbole has been raised so high, and the level of Blair-hatred is so intense in some quarters, that anyone who says "Yes, but" about Blair and his era struggles to make themselves heard, much less have themselves taken seriously. Yet heard we should be. And heard we probably still are – by rather more people than some may credit – the further one journeys away from medialand self-absorption and the rantings of parts of the blogosphere, I suspect. Only 29% of voters think Iraq was Blair's fault, said

a PoliticsHome poll last night. The issue plays less in the hardgrind Britain that elected Blair and his party three times and that – who knows? – might even elect him again if it had the chance. I'd certainly back him to give it as good a shot as the other fellow, anyway. All of us are a mix of virtues and vices, and a lot of other stuff in-between. Blair is no different. Right now, the market is exclusively interested in his vices. Yet even on Iraq, where in the end he made a very large wrong call, the picture is more mixed than is often allowed. Listening to hours and days of the Chilcot inquiry, it is hard to recognise the totality and the nuance of these sessions in some of the later reports. Just as during the Hutton inquiry, there is a demand, often media-led, for a simplistic version of events that is simply not supported by the evidence as a whole. This will again be true in spades tomorrow, when Blair finally comes before the Iraq inquiry. I have absolutely no inside knowledge of what Blair is going to say. But I am certain that his account will not just be an accomplished one – the concession that even his enemies allow – but also that it will be far more principled and believable than too much liberal opinion now ever pauses to

acknowledge. Blair's decision to invade Iraq may have been, as Elizabeth Wilmshurst put it this week, a lamentable one. The lament endures. Wilmshurst, who with Robin Cook made one of the few principled resignations on Iraq, has a right to use the word. But the invasion of Iraq was not, in principle, lamentable. Blair was right to want to stand up to Saddam Hussein. He was right to support tough action from the United Nations against Iraq. He was right to fear the dangers from weapons of mass destruction in the hands of both tyrants and terrorists. And he was right, especially in the light of the major defects of the UN – powerfully exposed in Rwanda – to argue for a wider doctrine of international -intervention in catastrophic states. A lot of people will die until that idea is revived intelligently. Where Blair's judgment was wrong was on two big things, both of which are more political than moral or legal. First, he was wrong to believe that all these objectives came together to justify the UK giving such priority to the kind of invasion of Iraq, carried out by the kind of US administration then in power, that was mounted in March 2003. Second, he was also wrong to allow the domestic credibility of the only British centre-left

government of modern times to have ever overcome the challenge of successful reelection, to be wagered on such a manifestly divisive foreign sideshow. It bears repetition that the phrase that best encapsulates the Iraq policy is -Talleyrand's: "It was worse than a crime. It was an error." Instead of rehearsing who said what to whom and when over Iraq – there are surely very few significant secrets about Iraq still to be revealed – the Chilcot committee should be exploring two bigger questions with Blair and his minions. First, how and why did a centre-left British government lock itself so incautiously into such a subservient military relationship with the most rightwing, unilateralist and internationally toxic US administration in all of our lifetimes? And second, how and why was a Labour leader who had worked so hard, so seriously and so successfully to build and sustain a governing centre-left majority in Britain, so ready to squander it on a neocon adventure? To this day, these questions are hard to answer satisfactorily. It certainly won't do just to dump on Blair. A full answer may start by grasping that it was Labour's America policy, not his Iraq policy, that was the real problem. Maybe that policy might have

withstood a more statesmanlike US administration in the frenzied aftermath of 9/11. But the British political class as a whole failed to recognise that the Bush administration was something different and that, in responding to a crisis such as 9/11, it would test the traditional British embrace of the US to breaking point. For this, the collective self -interests of our diplomats, spooks and military were at least as culpable as our too-easilyimpressed-by-America politicians and their greenhorn advisers. 'I look back at what has happened to my constituency since 1997 and it really is very impressive," a veteran Labour backbencher observed to me this week. "Life there is transformed. Labour has made an incredible difference. A dozen new schools. A new hospital. Don't kid yourself. These things exist in large part because of Tony Blair. I've always had a lot of time for him. And I still have. But it all went wrong with Iraq. Why on earth did he tie himself to Bush?" He is one of many. In that sense, Iraq really does go to the heart of the story of the Blair government. If the MP's question was Chilcot's focus, this inquiry might really get somewhere useful. Instead, the REAL page 5


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SALINGER continued from page 2

indissolubly linked with that of the New Yorker. He also set about turning his Holden Caulfield sketches into a work that would be longer and more ambitious than anything he had attempted before. When The Catcher in the Rye first appeared, most reviewers were positive, but several attacked the book as subversive and immoral. One reviewer, who found Holden "vulgar" and "repellent", feared that "a book like this, given wide circulation, may multiply his kind". Indeed, many protectors of public morals contrived to get it banned from schools and libraries. More recent criticism has emphasised Holden's inchoate desire for something purer and truer than the cruelty and "phoniness" of the unredeemed world. The notion that The Catcher in the Rye is an immoral and irreligious work has largely given way to the antithetical view – that Salinger's chief impulse is specifically religious. Sympathetic readers have actually regarded Holden as a saint, albeit of an unconventional kind, and have seen the plot as an exercise in the spiritual picaresque. After The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger's rate of production slowed considerably. He was now reading Zen and Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, and Advaita Vedanta, and putting in long hours of meditation. He took up a macrobiotic diet and had

acupuncture and homeopathy. Nine Stories appeared in 1953, but many of them had originally come out in the 1940s. Then, in 1955, Salinger published Franny in the New Yorker. It was the first of his stories in which the religious impulse is explicit. Although, at 40 pages, Franny was much slighter than The Catcher in the Rye, it became as much of a young people's classic in its moment, and all the more the object of a cult because it was hard to get hold of until it was reprinted in 1961, in Franny and Zooey. That volume quickly shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Its publication marked the high point of Salinger's popularity, creating far more excitement than the publication of The Catcher in the Rye had 10 years earlier. Salinger's image appeared on the cover of Time magazine and the merit of his fiction was widely debated. The period from 1955 to 1963 in America was the time of rebellious youth as apolitical loner, and Salinger was the laureate of this diversely unhappy cohort. His three major subsequent stories – all novellas, and longer and more diffuse than the tightly crafted pieces in Nine Stories – were Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters (1955), Zooey (1957) and Seymour: An Introduction (1959). All are about members of the Glass family; the parents,

who were once stars of vaudeville, and their seven children, all of them precocious to a fault. Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam found an appreciative audience among Salinger's younger readers. But by 1960 his work had come to the attention of influential critics and academics, and for the most part they were not as appreciative. Salinger, who had always been extremely sensitive of critical opinion, was badly wounded by attacks on his work by John Updike, Mary McCarthy and Frank Kermode. In 1965, Salinger published Hapworth 16, 1924, a novella that took up 80 pages in the New Yorker. It was very negatively received, and his response was to quit writing or, as he claimed, to continue writing but to refuse to have anything to do with publishers or the commercial literary scene. On his 34th birthday he moved into a modest hilltop house Cornish, New Hampshire. It was far enough from New York City to make a point. Salinger had turned to eastern religious meditation in a serious way and largely withdrawn from the world. From this point on, the great drama in his life and work consisted of his battle to frustrate journalists and wouldbe groupies, whose interest in his life had been whetted by what seemed to them – not without reason – the autobiographical element in his fiction.

Here was a writer who had a deep distrust of the world and of the flesh, but one who periodically became enmeshed in both. In 1955, when Salinger was 36, he met and married a 19year-old Harvard undergraduate, Claire Douglas, daughter of the distinguished art critic Robert Langton Douglas. The eccentric eastern religious regime that he imposed on his household, and his exclusive concentration on his work, meant that the marriage was rocky from the start. Yet it was the longest relationship Salinger sustained, and it produced two children, Margaret, born in 1955, and Matthew, in 1960. In 1967, however, close to a nervous breakdown herself, Claire filed for divorce. She won the house in a settlement, but Salinger built a new one for himself only a mile away so he could continue to see the children. Salinger entered into a series of relationships with very young women. One of these was Joyce Maynard, an 18-year-old Yale fresher who attracted attention in 1972 when her essay An Eighteen-Year-Old Looks Back on Life appeared in the New York Times. Salinger wrote Maynard a fan letter, a correspondence ensued, and in 1973 she left Yale to move in with the writer. Their relationship lasted almost a year. In 1998, in a memoir entitled At Home in the World, Maynard recalled the period as one in

which she had been emotionally abused and finally cast off with indifference. Her intimate revelations certainly did not please Salinger, who regarded Maynard's book as a betrayal. But this was as nothing compared to its sequel the next year, when Maynard auctioned the letters Salinger had sent her during their relationship. In 1986 his lawyers had been able to prevent the publication of the original version of Hamilton's biography when a court ruled that his quotation of excerpts from unpublished letters violated the author's rights. But this time Maynard was the undisputed owner of the letters Salinger had sent her, and she was not proposing to publish them. In the event, the American inventor of a hugely profitable computer anti -virus software programme came forward and bought the letters – promptly making them over to Salinger as a gift. In June last year, launched legal action against the author, publisher and distributor of a proposed "sequel" to The Catcher in the Rye. Yet his victories were often pyrrhic, attracting more publicity precisely because of his reclusiveness. Salinger is survived by his third wife, Colleen O'Neill, whom he married in the late 1980s, along with his son, daughter and three grandsons. Jerome David Salinger, writer, SALINGER page 6


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State of the union pressed the reset button | Michael Tomasky By Michael Tomasky (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

speech worked in persuading a substantial segment of viewers that he was at least trying to do sensible things. One poll showed Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:00:00 PM that 70% thought the president Now Obama must work out how shares their priorities for the to harness any momentum the country, up from 57% who speech generates and stay in thought that before the address. control of the agenda And 76% approved of his plans The main task before Barack for dealing with the economy, up Obama in his state of the union 21 points from before the speech. address was to push the reset A few more numbers from a button. To reclaim some control poll released the morning of the over the agenda, which he had address offer evidence that basically lost since about last Obama has a bit of a wind at his O c t o b e r , w h e n i t b e c a m e back. While his approval rating apparent that the signature is middling (exactly 50%), he's healthcare initiative was going to still a lot more popular than the take longer to pass than Hadrian Congress. And Republicans are took to build his wall. least popular of all. When asked So did he? Yes, for now. On the whom they blamed for the lack most fundamental level, Obama of solutions to the country's made it clear that the top item in problems, people pinned it first his in-basket is the matter that on the Republicans (48%), most occupies Americas' minds: second on the Democrats in jobs. He mentioned the word 29 C o n g r e s s ( 4 1 % ) a n d o n l y times in the speech. Thursday, he distantly third on Obama (27%). and vice-president Joe Biden The most biting parts of followed up the speech with a Obama's address were spoken t r i p t o F l o r i d a – a m e r e with precisely these kinds of coincidence that it's a vital numbers, of which the White electoral state he won by just 2% House is surely aware, in mind. in 2008 – touting a jobs- He talked up bipartisanship, as p r o d u c i n g h i g h - s p e e d r a i l he always has, and he tossed a project. It is said he'll be doing little meat at the Republicans, more of this. expressing openness to a range According to the insta-polls, the of tax cuts and expansion of

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inquiry is serving two less vaunted purposes, neither of them attractive. On the one hand nuclear energy and other items and stay in control of the agenda. it is providing an opportunity for GOPers can back. Obama said on Wednesday Vicar of Bray officials in But he also called them on their night that "what frustrates the Whitehall, the foreign and intransigence. He looked right at A m e r i c a n p e o p l e i s a security services and the military them as he said: "Just saying no Washington where every day is to disclaim responsibility for a to everything may be good short- election day. We cannot wage a policy of which many of them t e r m p o l i t i c s , b u t i t ' s n o t perpetual campaign where the shared full ownership at the time. leadership. We were sent here to only goal is to see who can get On the other, it is a chance for an serve our citizens, not our the most embarrassing headlines angry articulate minority to rage ambitions." For the normally about their opponent – a belief with increasing hysteria at Blair. even-toned Obama, that was a that if you lose, I win". He may I hope it does not overflow gauntlet thrown down, and a lament that reality. But his today. I am dismayed by the signal that he's ready to fight adversaries live by it. To pretend mistakes of Iraq. But I am glad I them in a way he hasn't to this things are otherwise is to bring do not live in a country that is point. t h e p r o v e r b i a l k n i f e t o a ruled by the people who seem to And this is why I added the gunfight. He can and should hold want nothing more than to hang words "for now" to the answer to on to bipartisanship as a goal, Tony Blair from Tyburn tree and my question above. Today's but if he wants that reset button hold up his severed head to the Republican party is bad at almost to stay pushed, he also has to howling mob. everything: no new ideas, no muscle up a political operation • Tony Blair plan for governing, no forward that's been awfully flabby these • George Bush • Iraq war inquiry a g e n d a b e y o n d t a x c u t s , past few months. • Iraq deregulation, environmental • Barack Obama • Foreign policy d e s p o i l m e n t a n d g l o b a l • Obama administration • United States unilateralism. But it is very good • Republicans at one thing: day-to-day political • Democrats Martin Kettle combat. At this, Republicans • US Congress guardian.co.uk© Guardian absolutely excel. They run • US politics News & Media Limited 2010 | circles around the Democrats • United States Use of this content is subject to every day. our Terms & Conditions| More The White House simply must Michael Tomasky get better at this. The top two guardian.co.uk© Guardian Feeds political advisers, David Axelrod News & Media Limited 2010 | and Rahm Emanuel, along with Use of this content is subject to Obama himself, have to figure our Terms & Conditions| More out how to harness whatever Feeds momentum the speech generates


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I shot US abortion doctor to protect children, Scott Roeder tells court By Ed Pilkington (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

It is the first time in US legal history that a violent antiabortionist has been allowed to present the jury with his Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:07:22 PM justification for murder. Self-proclaimed born-again The judge in the case, Warren Christian killed George Tiller Wilbert, caused dismay among with .22 calibre rifle but has pro-abortionists and doctors this pleaded not guilty to murder month when he ruled that Roeder A self-proclaimed born-again would be allowed to present his Christian who believes all justification to the court. Wilbert abortions are a sin told his trial will decide later in the trial in for murder today that he shot Kansas whether the jury will be dead an abortion doctor in permitted to find the defendant Wichita, Kansas, to protect guilty of the lesser crime of unborn children. manslaughter. Scott Roeder said he had bought Tiller was killed in the a .22-calibre Taurus gun and Reformation Lutheran church ammunition on 30 May 2009, the with one shot to the head. He had day before he shot George Tiller, long been a target for antiand practised target shooting abortionists as he was one of few with his brother. Then he doctors prepared to perform legal checked into a motel in Wichita, late abortions, after 21 weeks of and the next day followed Tiller gestation. to the church in the town where In 1986 Tiller's clinic was the doctor was an usher. bombed and in 1993 he was shot His defence lawyer asked: "Did in both arms, but he carried on you go and shoot Dr Tiller?" working. Roeder replied: "Yes." Roeder told the jury that he was His confession is part of his b o r n - a g a i n i n 1 9 9 2 a f t e r defence that he felt forced to kill w a t c h i n g a n e v a n g e l i c a l in order to save the lives of television programme, the 700 unborn children. He has pleaded Club. "That day I knelt down and not guilty to first-degree murder. I did accept Christ as my

saviour." Despite frequent objections from the prosecution, the judge allowed Roeder to tell the court his conviction that abortion was murder, from conception onwards. "It is not man's job to take life — it's our Heavenly Father's. He is our creator, he gives and takes life. It's never up to man to take life, except in defence of self or others." At one point Roeder talked of foetuses being "torn limb from limb" and said foetuses in later stages of pregnancy "feel more pain". Both comments drew protests from the prosecution. Roeder said he did not approve of abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, as "two wrongs don't make a right". The only area he would consider – and he said that he "struggled" over this — would be if the mother would certainly die if she remained pregnant. After he turned to God, the jury heard, Roeder began taking part in "sidewalk counselling" – protests outside Tiller's clinic and other abortion clinics, where patients would be accosted in an attempt to dissuade them from

going through with the procedure. In the defence's opening statement, Roeder's lawyer, Mark Rudy, said Roeder had grown increasingly frustrated by the inability of the authorities to stop Tiller carrying out late abortions. He had been "astonished, upset and distraught" when a jury found Tiller not guilty of breaking abortion laws in a trial shortly before the killing. "He came to the view that he was going to have to take action himself," Rudy told the jury. "He killed Dr Tiller as he believed that was the only way to save the lives of the unborn. He will tell you he had no choice." • Abortion • Gun crime • United States Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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.

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born 1 January 1919; died 27 January 2010 Mark Krupnick died in 2003 • JD Salinger • United States guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Google Social Search out of Labs, into beta By Tom Krazit (Webware.com) Submitted at 1/27/2010 1:39:00 PM

Friends on social-networking services who add links to their content inside their Google Profiles will start showing up in search results for Google users. Originally posted at Relevant Results

Woz on the iPad (Holy Kaw!)

New objections in Google Books case due By Tom Krazit (Webware.com)

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Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:39:00 AM

Originally posted at Relevant Results

Woz on the iPad! Total coverage of Apple. Permalink| Leave a comment »


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JD Salinger: Excerpts of his work (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around – nobody big, I Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:13:24 PM mean – except me. And I'm Passages from some of the US standing on the edge of some novelist's best known works The crazy cliff. What I have to do, I Catcher in the Rye (1951) have to catch everybody if they "If you really want to hear about start to go over the cliff – I mean it, the first thing you'll probably if they're running and they don't want to know is where I was look where they're going I have b o r n , a n d w h a t m y l o u s y to come out from somewhere childhood was like, and how my and catch them. That's all I'd do parents were occupied and all all day. I'd just be the catcher in before they had me, and all that the rye, and all. I know it's crazy, David Copperfield kind of crap, but that's the only thing I'd really but I don't feel like going into it, like to be. I know it's crazy." if you want to know the truth." Franny and Zooey (1961) "I'm the most terrific liar you " I t ' s e v e r y b o d y , I m e a n . ever saw in your life. It's awful. Everything everybody does is so If I'm on my way to the store to – I don't know – not wrong, or buy a magazine, even, and even mean, or even stupid somebody asks me where I'm necessarily. But just so tiny and going, I'm liable to say I'm going meaningless and – sad-making. to the opera. It's terrible." And the worst part is, if you go "Anyway, I keep picturing all bohemian or something crazy

like that, you're conforming just as much only in a different way." "I'm just interested in finding out what the hell goes. I mean do you have to be a goddam bohemian type, or dead, for Chrissake, to be a real poet? What do you want – some bastard with wavy hair?" Seymour: An Introduction (1959) "I don't really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it's always nice, I'll grant you, if he has one." • JD Salinger • United States guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Apple iBooks e-reader: First Take By Jessica Dolcourt (Webware.com)

Apple's iBooks: A stylish, crisplooking, colorful e-book reader and storefront?

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Closing Bell: Bears Get Some Footing (POT, AAPL, CTS, F, NFLX, FLEX) By Jon Ogg (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:00:00 PM

Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL), Ford Motor (F), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT) Today was weak from the start, part on earnings but mostly on the trend and partly in reaction to last night's State of the Union. Bernanke's confirmation looking to be reconfirmed helped markets late in the day, as did some bargain buyers. The end of day results were much less-bad than intra-day trading lows. This may have been one more day that the bears and profit takers looked more right than wrong. Today's close on the S&P and intra-day lows on the S&P are bringing up some serious support levels that had been prior resistance levels at that 1,085 level. Here were today's closing bell levels: Dow 10,120.46 -115.70 (-

The Engadget Podcast, live at 4:15PM EST! By Nilay Patel (Engadget) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:40:00 PM

Hey, what do you think we'll be talking about this week? We'll be live at 4:15PM EST, get cozy in

7

the chat below! feeds. Permalink| Continue reading The Engadget Comments Podcast, live at 4:15PM EST! The Engadget Podcast, live at 4 : 1 5 P M E S T ! o r i g i n a l l y 28 Jan 2010 15:40:00 EST. appeared on Engadget on Thu, Please see our terms for use of

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1.13%) S&P 500 1,084.52 -12.98 (1.18%) Nasdaq 2,179.00 -42.41 (1.91%) Top Day Trader Alerts Top Analyst Calls Continue reading Closing Bell: Bears Get Some Footing (POT, AAPL, CTS, F, NFLX, FLEX) Closing Bell: Bears Get Some Footing (POT, AAPL, CTS, F, NFLX, FLEX) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments


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How Sandridge Natural Gas Could Turn Oklahoma City Into an Urban Hot Spot By Greg Lindsay (Fast Company) Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:53:13 PM

A one-time cow town, oil town, and even a tent city (when it was founded during the 1889 land rush), Oklahoma City is urgently trying to reinvent itself as the next big city in America. If "America is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas," as T. Boone Pickens puts it, then Oklahoma City is its Riyadh. It's home to three of the largest independent producers--Chesapeake, Devon, and Sandridge--which are helping to underwrite its urban ambitions. This afternoon, Sandridge will unveil an over $100 million expansion of its downtown headquarters across three city blocks. The plans include a renovated 1960s tower by architect Pietro Belluschi, a restored Braniff Building--built in 1923 by the brothers who started their namesake airline-and a public park recycled from a pair of windswept plazas. The New York-based architecture firm of Rogers Marvel will incorporate features like green roofs, native plantings, and storm -water management to meet LEED standards. Sandridge, which is the youngest and smallest of the city's gas giants, is touting the project as the largest private downtown

development in its history--for the time being, at least. What's unusual about the plan by local standards is that Sandridge is reusing existing buildings, rather than relocating to an exurban campus. Part of this has to do with timing--the company acquired a million

square feet on the cheap when yet another energy firm, KerrMcGee, was sold to Anadarko Petroleum in 2007 and immediately left town for Houston. Sandridge CEO Tom Ward had considered a campus, but found it was both too expensive and too inflexible for

his plans to grow the company from 600 to 1,500 employees. Ward went against his own employees' wishes by electing to remain downtown instead. "Their first response was that it was going to be a longer commute, and the idea was not one they embraced originally," Ward says.

"And then the Thunder came to town and a lot of things started changing." (Ward is also a minority owner in the Oklahoma City Thunder, the city's two-year -old NBA team.) Downtown Oklahoma City once HOW page 11


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Adobe on Steve Jobs' Flash Foul-Up at Apple's Presentation: iPad Limits User's Web Surfing By Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:53:49 PM

The lack of Flash capability in the iPhone's Mobile Safari browser has been a bone of contention for many naysayers for years, even if Apple's made its case pretty well. It seems the iPad won't have it either, and Adobe is upset. Over at Adobe's Flash Platform blog there's a new post on this very matter by Adobe's Adrian Ludwig, but it's a complex little twisty piece of writing. The blog post starts by complementing Apple on the iPad--Ludwig professes himself impressed, before noting that Apple's often previously been good at driving momentum into an entire product category. "It's no surprise that the iPad looks like it's a pretty good new device," he says. Then Ludwig's piece turns to Adobe's involvement in the new gizmo, things like PDF and ePub which were featured during Steve Job's presentation, though they didn't quite take "center stage" as Ludwig would like us to believe. He then notes that Adobe tech is "at the center of virtually every print and digital workflow, so undoubtedly a lot of what you'll see getting delivered to the iPad will have originated in Adobe creative software. Hmm.

Then comes the best bit, where Ludwig mentions the "oops!" moment during Jobs' speech whereby the Web page he surfed to contained a big empty square and a default graphic indicating that a Flash event had failed to run. Steve joked the OS wasn't quite yet optimized, but it's clear now that the iPad won't get Flash. And that's got Adobe all upset, because the next thing Ludwig does is slam Apple for "imposing restrictions" and "limiting both content publishers

role in the Open Screen Project, which is trying to let consumers get access to all sorts of media content on almost any digital platform. Basically Adobe is painted as being super consumerfriendly, while Apple is a tyrannical dictator. All Adobe's doing is portraying itself like a snarky, pissed-off teenager who's not getting his way. Flash is undoubtedly useful for some things, but in general it's a hindrance on a mobile device--eating up processor cycles that are best used elsewhere, requiring more data downloads over an expensive and slow 3G network. Having used an iPhone for 18 months I almost never notice that I'm missing out on something due to a lack of Flash--in fact I'm more annoyed when a Web site takes and consumers". makers of e-readers, Apple's me to their default mobile device And there was me thinking, ePub books will be DRM-ed so version automatically, when the "Wow! Apple just enabled a that you cant read them on other iPhone is more than capable of whole new type of surfing the e-readers (Ludwig ignores the viewing the original. With Web!" But if it's not done with fact that many of these other HTML5 slowly seeping into A d o b e t e c h , t h a t ' s n o t makers don't actually release Web programming, Flash may true...according to Adobe. Apple their own published content, well become redundant soon-is doing its usual trick of unlike Apple). We're not sure Google's already experimenting "imposing restrictions" that'll where he gets that from, as it's with the idea. And the iPad is limit people's enjoyment of Flash n o t o n A p p l e ' s s i t e certainly HTML5 compliant. -powered Web sites, including anywhere...and it's no different [Via blogs.Adobe] "over 70% of games and 75% of from Amazon's even more closed Read more about the Apple tablet video on the Web." He then -source solution. takes a swipe at Apple's use of The blog post closes with ePub--noting that unlike other comments describing Adobe's


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Obama Promises Help for Small Businesses By Courtney Rubin (Inc.com)

largest investment in basic research funding history -- an investment that could lead to the Staring down a 10 percent world's cheapest solar cells or national unemployment rate and treatment that kills cancer cells his own plummeting approval but leaves healthy ones ratings, President Barack Obama untouched. And no area is more made big promises to small ripe for such innovation than businesses during his first State energy." (When they enshrined a of the Union address last night. State of the Union in the The president devoted a full two Constitution, we can't imagine -thirds of his 71-minute speech the Founding Fathers envisioned to the economy, pledging to sign an audience at its feet, giving a new jobs bill and to create a perhaps the biggest cheer of the new lending facility, funded with night to the president's call for $30 billion, that will get construction of more nuclear community banks extending power plants.) credit to small businesses again. Obama also set a goal of (Where's the money coming doubling American exports over from? Wall Street's repayment of the next five years, which would what it borrowed to the Troubled support two million jobs. It could he proposed the elimination of also help companies looking to Asset Relief Program.) All good employ. news for entrepreneurs -- if, of "Now, the true engine of job capital gains taxes on small tap new overseas markets. course, the White House can creation in this country will business investment. He also The Republicans' post-address corral a skittish Congress into always be America’s businesses. reiterated his plans to invest response focused on jobs, too. But government can create the more in clean energy, which Said Bob McDonnell, Virginia's delivering. Addressing an audience that c o n d i t i o n s n e c e s s a r y f o r could juice funding -- and newly-elected governor: "We included First Lady Michelle businesses to expand and hire innovation -- in that sector. must enact policies that promote Obama, members of both houses more workers," Obama said. Thanks to last year's Recovery entrepreneurship and innovation of Congress, diplomats, the Joint "We should start where most Act provisions, the solar industry so America can better compete Chiefs of Staff, and the Supreme n e w j o b s d o - - i n s m a l l grew by almost 40 percent in w i t h t h e w o r l d . W h a t Court, Obama called for tax businesses, companies that begin 2009, creating 18,000 jobs, the government should not do is pile incentives for small business when an entrepreneur takes a Environment News Service on more taxation, regulation, and owners -- who do 60 percent of chance on a dream, or a worker reported. litigation that kill jobs and hurt the hiring in America -- to bring decides its time she became her " W e n e e d t o e n c o u r a g e the middle class." American innovation," Obama on new employees and give own boss." raises to those they already To jump-start entrepreneurship, said. "Last year we made the Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:59:00 AM

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

The Travelers: Pull-back Is Buy Opportunity By Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:30:00 PM

Filed under: Stocks to Buy, Travelers Companies Inc. (TRV) The Travelers ( TRV) represents one of the few moderaterisk/decent growth opportunities in this market, and that's a major reason I'm reiterating my buy rating for the company's shares), first recommended on April 24, 2009 at a price of $30.50. If you bought TRV in April 2009, you're up about 60%. I expect The Travelers to register earned premium growth of 1% to 3.5% in fiscal 2010. Meanwhile, investment income should increase 8% to 11% fiscal FY2010. Continue reading The Travelers: Pull-back Is Buy Opportunity The Travelers: Pull-back Is Buy Opportunity originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments


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HOW continued from page 8

boasted trolley lines, grand hotels, and stockyards. Oil was discovered directly below the city in 1928, leading to its first boom. By the 1960s, however, downtown suffered from white flight, suburban sprawl, and an elevated Interstate highways cleaving it in two. Drastic measures to fix the situation only made it worse. "We really messed up in the 1970s with urban renewal," says Craig Tucker, a senior vice president at the commercial real estate firm Price Edwards. "We tore down buildings we should have kept, going with I.M. Pei plans that left us with generic ones." Then the oil glut of the 1980s devastated the city's tax base. Unable to attract new businesses, the city bottomed out in the early '90s. In response, voters approved the Metropolitan Area Projects Plan (MAPS) to help finance downtown's reconstruction. The first-of-itskind one-cent sales tax, with a strict time limit of five years (later extended) raised $360 million in public funds, supplemented by more than a

billion dollars in private money to build a minor-league ballpark, the Bricktown entertainment district, a new central library, and other improvements. A second plan, dubbed "MAPS for Kids," paid for city schools, and the third, passed by voters in December, will underwrite the city's " Core to Shore" plan, which calls for rerouting the I-40 Crosstown elevated expressway and expanding downtown toward the Oklahoma River. The centerpiece of the plan is a 70acre Central Park, and $777 million has been earmarked for a restored trolley network, mass transit hub, new convention center, running and biking trails, and even sidewalks. (For decades, the city refused to pave them.) "It's the best possible example of how a populace must tax themselves if they want public works," says Rogers Marvel principal Rob Rogers. "I just wish we would recognize that nationally." The new Sandridge headquarters and adjacent park is only the first piece. "Downtown has nice open spaces, but they're

not particularly organized." By contrast, the new park will have restaurants open onto the plaza, on-site daycare for Sandridge employees, and enough furniture, shade, and privacy to stimulate traffic. Downtown needs it; the vacancy rate is still 27%. "If you're an urbanist, vacancy of any kind is super tough," adds Rogers. "So the decision to go downtown and be a part of the city, to redevelop and reuse, is fundamentally about reinvigorating downtown. Everybody talks about being green, but one of the greenest things you can do is simply reuse things." Ward's rationale is more practical: "Oklahoma City has become the second largest energy hub in the U.S. We have the ability to recruit people from Houston, and they're finally confident they could live here. We even have some advantages-less traffic, for one."

By Jessica Dolcourt (Webware.com)

Is it two steps forward, one leap back for Firefox Mobile? Originally posted at The

Eastman Kodak Up Big on Q4 News By Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:30:00 PM

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Eastman Kodak (EK) Well, Eastman Kodak ( EK) is having one picture-perfect trading session. At the time of this writing, shares of the photography concern, whose colleagues include Canon ( CAJ) and Sony ( SNE), were up over 16% on high volume. Yes, it's Kodak I'm talking about, the low -priced equity that many have written off as an investment idea. The reason for all the buying action? Fourth-quarter numbers. Were they that good? Sales increased 6%. On a GAAP basis, Kodak made $1.36 per

Americans Are Good Economists (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 1/27/2010 3:00:00 PM

Firefox Mobile inches towards 1.0, sheds Flash support Download Blog

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share from continuing operations. This compares to a loss of $3.40 per share booked in the year-ago period. According to Reuters, the non-GAAP number was $1.08 per share, beating the estimate of 18 cents by what is obviously a very wide margin. Continue reading Eastman Kodak Up Big on Q4 News Eastman Kodak Up Big on Q4 News originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Live Video: State of the Union

Sorry, readability was unable to (Little Green Footballs) parse this page for content. Submitted at 1/27/2010 5:57:36 PM Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: President Obama’s first State of PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, the Union address is scheduled to begin in about two minutes; Term Extraction. here’s the live video courtesy of Hulu.com. Hulu Video


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Get a Free Bagel With Friendship in Facebook's First Digital Coupon Campaign By Zachary Wilson (Fast Company) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:55:18 PM

Be my friend, get a free bagel! That's the message Einstein Bros. Bagels is telling potential customers on Facebook, and, at least in visible numbers, it's paying off. The bagel-andschmear giveaway started less than three full days ago, and already the bagel chain has increased its Facebook fan count from a measly 4,700 to a massive 336,000-plus. According to the company, this is the first instance of a Facebook advertiser providing a free offer though instant digital coupons. Is free the social media marketing campaign of the future? Einstein Bros. is calling this the world's biggest bagel giveaway, and if its hundreds of thousands of new fans cash in for their $2.50 bagel--or $840,000 worth of would-be sales--it certainly will be. Numbers don't mean everything, though--how many times have you followed and retweeted a company on Twitter during a contest just to turn around and unfollow them when it ends? (I didn't win those Lady Gaga tickets, so bye bye

@vcastmusic.) One of the most interesting things about Einstein Bros.'s campaign is that it has an indefinite end date. "We are gauging customers in real time," the company told us over email this morning. "We're looking at not only the number of Einstein Bros. Bagels fans, but also the rate in which we continue to add them."

Einstein Bros. worked with Facebook to develop the campaign, innovating features like staggered coupon expiration dates to control traffic to the restaurants. The company has "done extensive homework to ensure that this promotion is a success." A recent Nielsen survey showed that globally people spent an average of more than five and a

half hours per month on social networking sites this past December, an 82% increase year -over-year. In December 2007, we were spending just over two hours per month, so in just two years we've more than doubled our social networking time. In the U.S., there was a 210% increase in total minutes spent on social networking and blog sites year-over-year. If the future is social media, then apparently the future is now. Major social media sites are ramping up their user- and advertising-keeping features at a similar speed. A new feature currently testing on Facebook will allow advertisers to buy "cost per acquisition" ads, where the advertiser pays for users who click on the ad and then go on to make a purchase, as opposed to the current pay-per-click model popular Internet-wide. And over on Twitter, the new Local Trends feature that allows users to watch what's trending in their respective cities is making the site more and more targeted. Access to city-specific and ultratargeted data is something advertisers could be very interested in. [Via Nation's Restaurant News]

The Brother SV-70 EPD eReader is squarish and wants your Yen By Tablet (BestTabletReview.com) Submitted at 1/28/2010 5:41:05 AM

The Brother SV-70 is square chic After yesterday’s squarechic iPad announcement and today’s release of the Brother SV -70 eReader we have to ask ourselves, is square the new rectangle? This new Brother 9.7-inch 1280 x 825 resolution E-Ink screened eReader by Brother sure would like to think so. This is a followup to their previous eReader, the SV-100B which features the same dimensions. It has 100MB of internal memory, microSD slot, USB port and a battery that lasts over 80 hours. This will be a Japan-only release like Brother’s previous model and will cost a whopping 99,980 yen ($1,106 U.S.). The SV-70 isn’t meant to be a personal use eReader, but much like the Plastic Logic QUE is geared towards business professional use. And with that base we’re not surprised if it has a business card holder in it. Source: Slashgear Leave a Reply Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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MSI gives a price and release time on their Tegra 2 tablet By Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

launch in the second half of 2010 and cost $500. That’s a very good price for a Submitted at 1/28/2010 5:20:40 AM fast tablet and, while no official The MSI Android Tegra 2 tablet specs have been released, could will cost $500 Now that the include 3G capability. It also has Apple iPad prices have been an SD slot, HDMI, 1080p announced and all the other playback and miniUSB port. Canadian officials last year, and t a b l e t m a k e r s w h o w e r e This will certainly appeal to it might well listen again. collectively holding their breath people who want to use their Because the investigation itself have exhaled, we’ll start seeing t a b l e t w i t h o t h e r d e v i c e s throws a light into an area of some pricing on all the tablets ( s t r e a m i n g t o t h e i r T V , Facebook's business that it would present at CES. Keep in mind increasing their storage size, p r o b a b l y p r e f e r t o k e e p that Apple has priced their iPad connecting to their desktop or shadowy. As it tries to turn itself from $499 to $829 which means laptop) and have a more work from a closed friend-to-friend most tablet will be priced at the focused tablet at their disposal. service into an open, public- low point of that range unless We expect to see the floodgates s h a r i n g o n e F a c e b o o k i s they feel their tablet offers more. open for Android tablets in the basically trying every trick it can From what we saw at CES, the $500 range. Now that Apple has (including helpfully "redefining" MSI Tegra 2 tablet looks fairly shown their hand everyone else what it considers to be private impressive. It has a 10-inch will storm the table to try and get data about its users, without capacitive touchscreen, runs an a piece of the pot. Source: Slashgear Leave a giving anyone the option to Android OS, has a energydisagree). And it's all in chase of efficient and speedy Tegra 2 Reply money--the kind of money that (whooosh!) processor and a Five Filters featured article: real-time status updates are battery that could potentially Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: earning Twitter after its deal with keep the tablet running past the PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, G o o g l e . F a c e b o o k w o u l d 10 hour mark. Today MSI Term Extraction. probably prefer to hush up the confirmed that their tablet would Canadian questions, lest its user base start to campaign for changes again. (Little Green Footballs) and bare knuckle brawling in the [Via the Office of the Privacy aftermath of President Obama’s Submitted at 1/27/2010 7:20:46 PM Commissioner] first State of the Union speech. Here’s an open thread for pondering, debating, arguing,

Canada Investigates Facebook's Privacy Shenanigans Again By Kit Eaton (Fast Company)

could make individual's data more public than previous settings had made them. Remember when Canada's The Assistant Privacy officials reprimanded Facebook C o m m i s s i o n e r , E l i z a b e t h for playing fast and loose with Denham, notes that the office user's private data? Well, in the w a s a l r e a d y e x a m i n i n g light of the recent controversial F a c e b o o k ' s m o v e s i n t h i s changes to everyone's Facebook direction, but the new complaint p r o f i l e s , C a n a d a ' s p r i v a c y brought the matter into the commission has started a new spotlight. "Some Facebook users inquiry. are disappointed by certain The new moves were spurred by changes being made to the site-a complaint from a Canadian changes that were supposed to Facebook user concerning the strengthen their privacy and the pop-up tool Facebook used to protection of their personal data" force everyone to adjust their she remarked. The Office "will privacy settings last December. investigate the complaint it has Under the guise of looking like it received, while continuing to was making users think more follow up with Facebook as it about their data privacy, this introduces new changes to its system was a little suspicious-- site." and we called shenanigans. So Will Facebook care about this? did this particular user, who Almost certainly, but not because complained to the Privacy it's particularly worried by the Commission that the pop-up's Privacy Commission. Facebook default settings (which no doubt did make some concessions on many millions of users accepted user data protection at the without a second's thought) r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s o f t h e Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:50:03 PM

Post-SOTU Wrapup Thread


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Infographic of the Day: Government Bailouts Around the World By Cliff Kuang (Fast Company) Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:25:31 PM

How do the U.S.'s economic interventions compare, across the world? The recent economic woes have been truly global--but the the U.S. has been, by far, the hardest hit economy as this new graphic by the Harvard Business Review suggests: What you notice is that the U.S.'s financial interventions were indeed massive. The bank bailout came to 7% of GDP; the stimulus came to 35%. But

considering that we were the cause of the financial malaise-and that our economy, more almost any other world power, was based on a real estate bubble --our response was fairly measured. For example, bank bailouts in the U.K.--which had a similar, though smaller, consumer credit bubble--amounted to a whopping 20% of GDP. Meanwhile, China's fiscal stimulus was an astounding 47% of GDP. In that light, the bank bailouts really do seem to have worked, at a very nice price. (The banks are now largely stabilized and

profitable. The unseemingly return of massive bank bonuses is another matter--speaking to how little the banks gave up to get the bailout funds.)

And the stimulus? While our unemployment figures do seem to be ticking upwards, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office thinks it has saved

about 1.6 million jobs. A penny saved is a penny earned; likewise, a job saved is a job created. The real worry suggested by the graph is what happens in the future: As our economy has stalled, others are better primed to focus their resources on igniting innovation and economic growth. And that, coincidentally, was the trust of President Obama's State of the Union last night. [ HBR via The Big Picture]

Serious Money: Market Looks Cheap to Me -- 35 Stocks By Sheldon Liber (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:00:00 PM

Filed under: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), eBay (EBAY), Pfizer (PFE), Wal-Mart (WMT), International Business Machines (IBM), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), AFLAC Inc (AFL), Altria Group (MO), Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Campbell Soup (CPB), Chevron Corp (CVX), Chubb Corp (CB), ConocoPhillips

(COP), CVS Corp (CVS), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), General Mills (GIS), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD), Kimberly-Clark (KMB), Merck and Co (MRK), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Hasbro Inc (HAS), Serious Money, Stock Screen, S and P 500, Xcel Energy (XEL), Travelers Companies Inc. (TRV) We frequently receive comments that the market is overpriced. Recently one of our active readers commented that the market P/E was 30, which it's

not. The actual rate (S&P forecast) has been even higher at times do to the volatile market. The average should trend closer to the long term P/E of 15.7 in

the next few years. However, I have reviewed companies often covered on our site and come with a list of 35 stocks that have price-to-earning ratios below the

long term average already. I think there are dozens of bargains regardless of the status of the overall market. Continue reading Serious Money: Market Looks Cheap to Me -- 35 Stocks Serious Money: Market Looks Cheap to Me -- 35 Stocks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments


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Gadget Deals of the Day [Dealzmodo] By David Chaid (Gizmodo) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:00:00 PM

Land a Dell Mini 10 and throw an OCZ Agility SSD in it for killer performance. Celebrate your acquisition and ingenuity by stopping off at DQ for a Blizzard, unless you're currently stuck in an actual blizzard. Top Deals: • 10.1" Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook for $279 plus free shipping(normally $329). • 60GB OCZ Agility Series 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for $129.00 plus free shipping(normally $174 - use this form). (UPDATE: Deal is dead, sorry) • Dairy Queen Blizzard $0(use this form). Computing and Peripherals: • HP Pavilion Slimline S5280t Core 2 Quad 2.5GHz PC for $ 5 9 0 w i t h f r e e shipping(normally $880). • Dell Vostro 220 Desktop with Pentium Dual-Core Processor 2.60GHz and Samsung 2494SW 24" Widescreen LCD Display for $ 4 9 9 w i t h f r e e shipping(normally $830). • 18.4" Toshiba Qosmio X505Q860 Core i5 2.26GHz Laptop for $1,172.95 with free shipping(normally $1,199.99) • 17.3" Acer Aspire AS7740 Core i5 Laptop for $699.99 plus free shipping(normally $850). • 17.3" Gateway NV Core i3 Laptop for $599.99 plus free pick-up or $14.99 shipping(normally $650).

• 17.3" Samsung NP-R780JS01US Core i5 2.26GHz Laptop for $799.99 • 16" Toshiba Satellite A500ST6644 Core i3 2.13GHz Laptop for $699 with free shipping(normally $819) • 15.6" HP dv6 Core i5 Laptop for $729.99 plus free shipping(normally $848). • 15.6" Acer Aspire 2.1GHz Dual-Core Laptop for $500 with free shipping(normally $572). • 15.4" Dell Vostro 1520 Intel Core 2 Duo T6670 15.4in Laptop w/ Win7 Pro + Linksys WRT160N Wireless N Router for $579(normally $918). • 13" Apple MacBook Pro MB990LL/A for $1,108.39 plus free shipping(normally $1,147). • 13" Toshiba Satellite T135 Laptop for $529.99 plus free shipping(normally $671). • 13" Lenovo U330 Laptop for $499.97 plus free shipping(normally $543). • 12.1" HP TouchSmart tm2t Multi-touch Tablet for $939.99 with free shipping(normally $1,149.99 - use coupon code

SVP54664) • 10" Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 N450 Atom for $299 with free shipping(normally $429.99 - use coupon code USPS103BLACK) • 10.1" Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook with WinXP, 160GB HDD for $279 plus free shipping(normally $329). • 10" Acer AOD250 Netbook for $259.99 plus free shipping(normally $304 - use coupon code SHINE1530). • 26" Samsung T260HD LCD Monitor w/Digital Tuner for $ 2 9 9 w i t h f r e e shipping(normally $329.99 - use coupon code USPS103BLACK) • 25.5" ASUS VW266H Widescreen LCD Monitor for $268.98 plus free shipping(normally $309 - use this form). • 25" Hanns-G HH-251HPB Widescreen LCD Monitor for $179.99 plus free shipping(normally $246). • 24" Samsung Touch Of Color T240HD LCD HDTV Monitor for $269.98 plus free shipping(normally $323.12).

• 23" Asus VH232H Widescreen LCD Monitor for $159.99 plus free shipping(normally $180 use coupon code LAUGH0220). • 21.5" Dell SX2210 Full HD Widescreen Monitor with Webcam for $199 plus shipping(normally $299). • Targus TSM08001US Velos Messenger Bag up to 15.4" Laptops for $34.99 plus free shipping(normally $64). • Case Logic 15.4-Inch Neoprene Laptop Sleeve for $9.99(normally $20). • Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Wired USB Keyboard for $25.99 plus free shipping(normally $35 - use c o u p o n c o d e : 7Q?X6$9?JZSQW4). • OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W Power Supply w/ XFX Radeon HD4350 512MB Video Card for $59.99 plus free shipping(normally $99 - use this form). • Logitech V450 NANO Cordless Laser Mouse for $24 plus shipping (today only)(normally $52).

• 2TB Hitachi SimpleDrive HSD2000 USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for $149.99 plus free shipping(normally $172 - use this form). • Seagate Barracuda 2TB Internal SATA Hard Drive + BlacX HDD Dock for $159.99 plus free shipping(normally $219). • 60GB OCZ Agility Series 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for $129.00 plus free shipping(normally $174 - use this form). • Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 USB WebCam for $59.99 plus free shipping(normally $75 - use coupon code EMCYZNT25& use this rebate form). • Canon MP980 Wireless All-inOne Photo Printer for $149.99 plus free shipping(normally $184.98). • Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Keyboard for $25.99 with free shipping(normally $31.95 use coupon code 7Q?X6$9?JZSQW4) • Linksys WRT160N Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Router for $68.99 with free shipping(normally $79) Gaming: • Xbox 360 Elite Console with Madden 10 and Extra Black Wireless Controller for $309.97(normally $409.97). • Xbox 360 Rock Band Wireless Fender Stratocaster Replica (360) for 104.99 plus free GADGET page 16


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E-reader News Edition

GADGET continued from page 15

shipping(normally $230.61). • XBOX 360 Arcade Bundle for $ 1 7 9 w i t h f r e e shipping(normally $199) • XBOX 360 Elite 120GB Holiday 2009 Bundle + $50 Store Credit for $299.99 with free shipping(normally $349.99) • Romance Of The Three Kingdoms XI (PC download) for $9.99(normally $19.99). • Everquest II: Sentinel's Fate (PC) for $30.90(normally $37). • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition (360) for $129.90(normally $149). • Dante's Inferno (360/PS3) for $49.90(normally $57). • Silent Hill: Homecoming (360) for $11.99 with free shipping(normally $17.99) • Bionic Commando (360) for $9.99 with free shipping(normally $18.32) • Wolfenstein (PC) for $19.90(normally $34.49). • Fracture (PS3) for $9.90(normally $15.55). • Buzz Junior Robo Jam (PS2) for $8.99(normally $17.23). • The Golden Compass (360) for $5.97(normally $15). • Universe At War – Earth Assault (360) for $5.97(normally $19). • Guitar Hero World Tour (PS3) for $21.97(normally $29). • The Club (360) for $7.99 plus free shipping(normally $17). • Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (360) for $9.99 plus free shipping(normally $18). • Rock Band Light & Smoke Stage Kit for Xbox 360 for

$44.99(normally $59). • Warhammer: Battle March (360) for $8.99 plus free shipping(normally $19). • John Woo presents Stranglehold (360) for $7.99 plus free shipping(normally $15). • Red Faction: Guerilla (360) for $17.99 plus free shipping(normally $27). • MadCatz Xbox 360 Rock Band Wireless Fender Stratocaster Replica Guitar for $104.99 plus free shipping(normally $249). • WWE Smackdown vs Raw '09 (PS3) for $8.96(normally $21.63). • Pure (360) for $9.99(normally $19.92). • The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle (360) for $129.59(normally $179.99). • The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle (PS3) for $179.99(normally $192.89). • Konami Classics Volume 1 (360) for $14.99(normally $19.99). • World of Warcraft + WoW Burning Crusade (PC) for $19.90 plus $2.99 shipping(normally $38). Home Entertainment: • 60" Sharp AQUOS LC60E77UN 120Hz 1080P LCD TV for $1785 with free shipping(normally $1990). • 58" Samsung PN58B650 1080p 600Hz Plasma TV for $1,699.00 plus free shipping(normally $1850 - use coupon code BYE532).

• 55" Vizio VF551XVT 1080p 240Hz LED-backlit LCD HDTV for $1,699 plus free shipping(normally $1,800). • 52" Sharp AQUOS LC52D85U 52 inch LCD HDTV (1080p, 120Hz) for $999 plus free shipping(normally $1399). • 52" Samsung LN52B550 1080p LCD TV, plus Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-ray Player for $1,119 plus free shipping(normally $1245). • 47" LG 47LH85 120Hz, Wireless 1080p LCD HDTV for $999 with $29.99 shipping(normally $1,538) • 46" Samsung LN46B750 240Hz, 1080p LCD HDTV for $1,359 with free shipping(normally $1,449 - use coupon code LN46B750) • 40" Samsung UN40B6000 1080p 120Hz LED TV for $1,099.99 plus free shipping(normally $1170 - use coupon code NVH565). • 40" Sharp Aquos LC-40E77U 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV for $ 6 9 5 w i t h f r e e shipping(normally $779). • 40" Viore 1080p LCD HDTV + Soundbar w/ iPod Dock for $561.25 plus free shipping(normally $800). • 32" Panasonic TC-L32S1 Widescreen 1080p LCD HDTV for $379.20 plus free shipping(normally $435 - use this rebate form). • 26" LG 26LG40 720p LCD HDTV w/ DVD Player for $329.47 plus free shipping(normally $458).

• Argosy HV335T Mobile Video HDD Media Player for $89.99 plus free shipping(normally $110 - use coupon code EMCYZNW24). • Sony BDP-S360 Blu-ray Player for $119 with free shipping(normally $150). • Food, Inc. (DVD) for $9.99(normally $18). • Immortal (Blu Ray) for $6.99(normally $14.22). • 2001: A Space Odyssey (Blu Ray) for $7.99(normally $14.89). Personal Portables and Peripherals: • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS7K 10MP 5X Digital Camera (Optical Stabilized) for $105.98 plus free shipping(normally $159). • Samsung SL30 10MP 3X Digital Camera for $69.99 plus free shipping(normally $89 - use coupon code: JAM0310). • Nokia E72 Unlocked Smart Phone for $314.99 with free shipping(normally $369.99 - use c o u p o n c o d e VBMFS9FV$KCDSG) • Nokia E63 Unlocked Smart Phone (blue) for $149.99 with free shipping(normally $189.99 use coupon code KT5HFD9Q$PLP26) • Nokia E63 Unlocked Smart Phone (red) for $149.99 with free shipping(normally $189.99 use coupon code 4NW383RFLR5$SR) • Ryobi Tek4 5PC Combo Kit (Screwdriver, Snips, Smart Headphones, Flashlight, Charger) for $49 plus free

shipping(normally $99). • HTC Quad-band Touch Dual Cell Phone - Unlocked for $199 plus shipping(normally $290). • TomTom GO 630 Car Navigator GPS for $159 with free shipping(normally $257). • Radius Atomic Bass Earphones for $25 with free shipping(normally $60). • Samsung 10MP SL30 Digital Camera for $70 with free shipping(normally $90 - use • Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 Noise Isolating Earphones for $196.44 plus free shipping(normally $280). • Klipsch Image X5 Noise Isolating Earphones for $149.99 plus free shipping(normally $249). • Garmin nüvi 1200 3.5-inch GPS for $105.98 plus free shipping(normally $139). • Case Logic UP2 Gadget Protector Pouch for $2.99 plus free shipping(normally $12.99). • Kodak Easyshare Z915 10MP Digital Camera for $129.99 plus free shipping(normally $140.95). • JVC Everio MS120 Dual Flash Camcorder for $212.85 plus free shipping(normally $239.85). • Crucial Technology Gizmo 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive for $16.99(normally $27.97). • JBuds J2 Premium Hi-FI Noise Isolating Earbuds for $13.99(normally $29.95). • Sony ICD-UX71RED Digital Voice Recorder with 1GB Flash Memory for $79 plus free GADGET page 19


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E-reader News Edition

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The 6 rules of shopping for an HDTV this Super Bowl season By Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:30:23 AM

Next weekend Peyton Manning will lead the Colts to a victory over the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV. Hot new commercials will run and there will be remembrances a-plenty about Katrina. Retailers are hoping that you witness all this on a brand new HDTV. And you might want to think about it, too. After all, right now is the best time of year to buy a high definition TV — as long as you follow these six rules. Don’t pay the price on the tag This is an important time of year for retailers and most will bend over backwards to get a sales. Smart negotiation is your friend. Most of the time all you need to do is say “Will you match Sears’s price? They said they would give it to me for $xxx.” Keep the statement simple and free of any stipulations like “if I take it today” or “if I pay for delivery.” You must pre-shop for the model you want and sound like you know what you’re talking about to make this work. If the TV you want is already on sale, state a price 5% lower than what’s on the tag and 15% if the TV isn’t on sale. Don’t be greedy. The key is to do this very early in the sale before you’re pitched accessories or the warranty. Otherwise these high-margin items will be used as leverage.

You might still get the lower price, but the manager will probably tack something on as a requirement. You don’t want that. Just make sure you have a backup plan if this little game doesn’t work. Buy for your room Sometimes bigger isn’t always better. That 65-inch HDTV might look awesome hanging on Best Buy’s TV wall, but do you really want that monster in your livingroom? Often buyers are conned by the retail store’s high ceilings and excited salesmen

into buying too much TV. Consider how far away you’re sitting sit, the height of your ceiling, and the quality of the set you’re buying. A good rule is that if you sit eight feet or less away, buy a 46-inch or smaller TV. If your ceilings are higher than the norm, you could probably get away with a slightly larger set. Unless you’re considering buying a cheap HDTV with a sub-par picture: then you should probably go a bit smaller to compensate.

If you simply must have the largest possible set that will fit through your door, make sure it at least has an ambient light sensor that automatically dims when the room is darker. Otherwise your new HDTV will induce all sorts of headaches while making your house strobe like a laser light show at night. Brick and mortar stores have great return policies TVs get returned for all sorts of reasons and stores generally understand. Most do not even

have restocking fees on HDTVs. So this opens up all sorts of possibilities for-the-less than honest person. There really isn’t anything stopping someone from borrowing an HDTV for Super Bowl Sunday. This isn’t something we’re encouraging here. We’re just simply pointing out what some people do… Plan ahead if you want to wall mount the TV Don’t expect to walk into Best RULES page 22


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Gadgets/ Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

Kindle’s death sentence commuted: Why the iPad will fail as an eReader By Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

magazines and other reading material, placing the blockish Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:07:33 AM and heavy device in their lap and Apple grants the Kindle a stay staring into the bright screen for of execution It’s a question that up to 10 hours. They’ll be we’ve pondered for quite some comforted to know that an Apple time. What will happen to logo rests upon their khakis or eReaders when Apple releases jeans while they’re doing this. their long awaited tablet? After But there will be more people — all, why buy a dedicated device many more people — who desire for eReading when you have a an eReader platform and see the multi-function device that offers iPad as a weak offering. It has no color, a larger screen and reflective display to offer. It uses everything else? Of course the no new color screen technology answers to those questions rested that would have really excited on a few variables. Namely, how s o m e p e o p l e ( o u r s e l v e s much would the iPad cost, would included). It’s heavy and bulky. i t u s e n e w c o l o r s c r e e n It has a battery life that lasts technologies and what format or 2/5ths of a day. You’ll need a method of buying eBooks would murse (if a man) to carry it around. it provide. The iPad will be a success Now that we have those answers we can safely say to traditional (mostly due to the diluted price). EPD eReaders like the Kindle, It just won’t be a success when it Nook and Sony Readers that comes to reading. Out of our t h e i r e x e c u t i o n h a s b e e n three criteria it solidly hits the price element, fouls off on the commuted… for now. The Apple iPad is not going to eBook delivery method and replace eReaders. Sure, it will be disastrously strikes out on the used as an eReader. Plenty of display. It’s like The Natural(the people will have no problem book version, not the uplifting reading their favorite eBooks on movie). It swings for eReader it’s large, 9.7-inch screen. fences but comes up short. They’ll enjoy going to iBooks Apple was pretty ingenious in and downloading newspapers, the pricing of this thing. They’ve

fooled everyone into thinking that the iPad is a cheap device and affordable by all. But that’s only because they’ve introduced a very limited 16GB version with no 3G at a tasty price point. If you want a meatier storage capacity and 3G connection you’re now looking at a not-soreasonable $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

Get $5K for Your Documentary Photo Project By Brendan Seibel (Wired Top Stories)

A new grant promises cash if you've got what it takes to produce a quality photo story

that is socially progressive.

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


Gadgets/ Economy/

E-reader News Edition

What’s it going to take for PC game publishers to drop DRM altogether? By Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear)

“friends” on BitTorrent. That’s fine theoretically, except that the DRM implementations are often Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:00:41 PM destructive pieces of junk, For all of its stupidity, the music gunking up your PC with all industry should be commended sorts of unwanted nonsense. f o r r e l a x i n g i t s D R M Never mind the fact that they requirements. Every single song simply don’t work. on iTunes is DRM-free, as are I remember when Half-Life 2 the songs on Amazon MP3 and first came out, in 2004. People electronic music specialist didn’t think it could be pirated Beatport. The Zune Marketplace because it required Steam server works a little differently, but validation. So what did pirates many of the downloadable songs do? They reverse-engineered the there are DRM-free, too. But PC handshake between the game and game publishers? They’re still the servers, then created an bat-shit crazy, as evidenced by emulated server for the game to t h e D R M r e q u i r e m e n t s o f connect to. Congratulations, you BioShock 2 and presumably just cracked Half-Life 2. And every single one of Ubisoft’s this wasn’t months later, either, upcoming releases. What’s it but within a few days of the going to take for PC publishers game’s release. to step back and realize that The point is, what was DRM does absolutely nothing to considered to be an uncrackable prevent piracy? Not only that, game was cracked without but that it encourages piracy breaking a sweat. I mean, people because the pirated version of the have been cracking games for game ends up being superior to how many years now? It’s an the legitimate copy? awful lot of programming knowDRM’s purpose, nearest I can how to draw upon. tell, is to control the distribution The DRM only serves to annoy of copyrighted works. Company legitimate customers. You need A sells you Its Stuff but doesn’t to enter a CD key. You need to want you to make copies and keep the disc in the drive. You give them your friends, or to n e e d t o a u t h e n t i c a t e y o u r several thousand of your online installation at first launch. You

the pirate has a better gaming experience. I understand that publishers freak out over piracy, particularly PC piracy where the can only install the game five perception is that it’s easier to times before having to call the pirate a PC game than it is a FBI to get permission to install console game. (That’s nonsense, again. A CD key I can see; that’s by the way. Any 16-year-old kid only fair. But why do I need to with a free afternoon can hack keep the disc in the drive if I’ve his Xbox 360 and pirate games already installed the game to my all day long.) But it comes to a hard drive? Why should I have to point where they have to realize authenticate when I just put in a the only thing that DRM does is CD key? And what happens on to upset legitimate customers. r e l e a s e d a y w h e n y o u r That’s putting it lightly, for it’s authentication servers are getting not uncommon for DRM to absolutely hammered, and are totally hose a system. unable to authenticate a damn Can we all agree that, for a thing? (What happens if the while there, the music industry a u t h e n t i c a t i o n s e r v e r s a r e was dumb as a box of rocks? disconnected in five years?) Why And yet those guys got off their if your lousy DRM totally DRM kick. How long is it going trashes my Windows installation, to take PC publishers to set aside and I have to reinstall the game? the notion that you need to lock What happens in that happens d o w n a p e r s o n ’ s g a m i n g experience in order to protect five times? All the while, Mr. High School their investment? I think you’ll Pirate can hop on BitTorrent or find that treating PC gamers, R a p i d s h a r e o r w h a t e v e r , who are a prickly lot to begin download the game as fast as his with, would like to be treated connection will allow, copy over with a bit of dignity. a CD crack, then have to put up But that’s probably too much to with none of the above. The ask. DRM has stopped nothing, and

Early optimism fades as banking fears resurface (Financial Times - US homepage)

By Jamie Chisholm, Global Markets Commentator. Published: January 28 2010

08:33 | Last updated: January 28 Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: 2010 19:40 PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

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GADGET continued from page 16

shipping Hobomodo: • iStunt - Extreme 2D Snowboard (iPhone) for $0(normally $1.99). • Day of Fire "Lately" Mp3 Single for $0(use this form). • Mariani Dried Plums sample for $0(use coupon code ADSUPER in this form). • Avery Label Pads (not iPad) for $0(use this form). • Copy of How To Be Invisible for $0(use this form). • Subscription to Technology Review for $0(use this form). • MP3 Download - Acoustic Download of "Beloved"/10th Avenue North for $0(use this form). • RipTiger Full for $0(use this form). • Dairy Queen Blizzard $0(use this form). If a deal looks too good to be true, investigate the store and see if it's a good, reputable place to buy. Safe shopping! [ Thanks TechDealDigger, Dealzon, Logic Buy, GamerHotline, Cheap College Gamers, CheapStingyBargains and TechBargains.]


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Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

Withings Wi-Fi Scale Gets Creepier With Google Health Integration [Health] By Rosa Golijan (Gizmodo) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:09:16 PM

The Withings scale is great. It keeps track of your weight, BMI, and more to graph everything for an at-a-glance review of how fat you're getting. Now it's got Google Health integration for better—and slightly creepier—health records. The Google Health service has been around for a while and allows you to maintain an online health profile. In theory this would aid doctors and family members in keeping track of your health history. By integrating a device like the Withings scale, the service could theoretically be used to help keep a health or fitness plan on track. After all, it's kinda tough to fib if your scale tells on you—not only to Twitter, but to Google and your doctor. Withings Announces Integration with Google Health for its WiFi Connected Body Scale Issy-les-Moulineaux, France – January 28, 2010 — Today, Withings, maker of the world's first WiFi connected personal scale, is announcing its integration with the Google Health service. As of today, the Withings WiFi Body Scale can

NotSoCrunchDeals: Super special, ultrafast HTC Bravo charging cable! USB 2.0! Pro grade! By John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:00:09 PM

Did you know that your USB cable can be used to connect your phone to the Internet and provide updates to a user's a s p e c t s o f y o u r h e a l t h i s www.withings.com . To request bring over ringtones? I know, Google Health profile wirelessly important in maintaining a additional information or images right? Amazing! But unless you in real-time using its built-in consistent health plan, so being of the WiFi Body Scale, please own pro grade cable, you might WiFi connection. part of Google Health's effort to contact PR representative Jessica as well be carrying your data Google Health, launched last make this possible is thrilling." Darrican at (305) 576-1171 over in a feces-smeared year, is a personal health record The WiFi Body Scale is a e x t . 1 6 o r galvanized bucket scrounged up that allows users to store, u n i q u e p r o d u c t t h a t jessica@maxborgesagency.com. from a burned-down rendering organize, and manage health automatically records the user's About Withings: plant! information all in one place. It body weight, lean & fat mass, Withings is a French start-up Enter this professional grade o r g a n i z e s a u s e r ' s h e a l t h and calculated body mass index established by three executives data cable for $8.99. It’s is just information and allows them to (BMI) to his/her secure webpage from the technology and telecom what you need to outperform share that information with and/or free Withings iPhone industry. With a focus on the OEM cables by a factor of family members, caregivers and application, WiScale [ more info i n n o v a t i o n a n d d e s i g n f o r whatever percent! Plus it costs doctors. Now, the scale will on the scale here]. Also, if everyday products, Withings $5.99 for shipping, so you’ll pay automatically update the user's enabled by the user, the scale can introduced in September 2009 its a slight premium for all that weight and fat mass to their a u t o m a t i c a l l y " T w e e t " first-of-its-kind WiFi Bodyscale performance. But check out, Google Health profile. information in order to get in the United States. For more above, everything it can do! "It's exciting to be one of the motivation from the user's information on Withings, visit Email! Graphics! e a r l y h a r d w a r e d e v i c e s t o followers [ more info on that www.withings.com. Hurry! Only 5 left in stock! If integrate with the Google Health feature here]. [ Withings] they run out you can buy this one service," said Cedric Hutchings, The scale is currently available for 98 cents. Withings General Manager. o n w w w . w i t h i n g s . c o m f o r "Keeping your doctors and $ 1 5 9 . 0 0 U S D . F o r m o r e caregivers informed on all information on Withings, go to


E-reader News Edition

Gadgets/ Politics/

Apple and Fujitsu inevitably caught up in iPad trademark dispute

Alito Steals a Scene

By Nilay Patel (Engadget)

(Little Green Footballs)

Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:47:00 PM

Well, here we go again. Apple might have stolen all the headlines yesterday with the iPad, but as we've already noted, that name has been in dispute since September -- and it doesn't look like Fujitsu, which has been selling its own iPad since 2002, is going to back down. "It's our understanding that the name is ours," Fujitsu PR director Masahiro Yamane told the New York Times. Maybe, but it's not quite that simple. Here's the deal: Fujitsu applied for the "iPad" mark in 2003, specifically covering handheld devices used in retail. (The Fujitsu iPad is a $2,000 Windows CE point-ofsale device.) Along the way, the application got bogged down because a company called MagTek had already registered IPAD for its line of PIN-entry keypads, and Fujitsu's application was listed as "abandoned" in April of 2009. The notice of abandonment apparently woke someone at Fujitsu up, because the company then asked the Trademark Office to re-open the application, arguing that MagTek's IPAD had nothing to do with the Fujitsu iPad. The USPTO agreed, re-opened the

application, and the process continued until September, when the iPad application was published so other trademark holders could oppose registration. That's when Apple signaled that it wasn't so happy about things-- and filed its own "iPad" trademark application using a shell company called "IP Application Development." Phew -- still with us? That leaves us at now, with Mag-Tek

likely going to have to argue that "iPad" is confusingly similar to "iPod," while still trying to register "iPad" on its own and telling the Trademark Office that it won't be confusing to people looking for the Mag-Tek device, or the Siemens"iPad" motor trademark, or potentially even Coconut Grove's trademarked iPad bras. Of course, all these problems can be solved with the direct application of cash and some nice ambient media attention, so it's likely we'll see some friendly joint PR from Apple and Fujitsu along with an agreement to share the name sometime before Apple's formal opposition is due on February 28. That's pretty much what happened when Apple bit the "iPhone" name from Cisco, anyway. But still -- why can't Apple ever learn to have these selling the IPAD under a valid, conversations ahead of time? registered trademark, Fujitsu Apple and Fujitsu inevitably selling an iPad with a pending caught up in iPad trademark trademark application, and Apple dispute originally appeared on sucking all the air out of the Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 room with the launch of the iPad 14:47:00 EST. Please see our and no US trademark at all. We'll t e r m s f o r u s e o f f e e d s . be honest: we'd always simply Permalink| New York Times| discounted rumors Apple would Email this| Comments call it the iPad, because this is kind of a mess. Apple can't just take "iPad" from Fujitsu because it really wants the name -- it's

21

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 an outcome may be possible, the majority opinion specifically said it wasn’t addressing that point, and only further litigation would settle the matter once and for all. So we find Obama’s claim to be Barely True.


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E-reader News Edition

RULES continued from page 17

Buy next week, plop down a good chunk of change, and have your TV hung on the wall by the big game. Most of the time it doesn’t work like that. Sure, some stores might be able to provide that service, but many cannot. Besides, you don’t want this done improperly, right? Consider where all of your equipment will be located. Right now they are likely resting comfortably directly under the TV on a stand. But you’re mounting the TV on the wall, right? Do you still want a stand in your living room? If so, why not just put the TV on the stand and save the hundreds of dollars? There are few options. First, keep the stand even though that seems a bit foolish. This is the least expensive options as the cables need to connect the TV and equipment can be relatively short. Use the top of the TV stand to display photos or flowers. Whatever. Or you could stash the equipment somewhere else in the home like a bedroom or linen closet. They can really be placed

anywhere as long as you have a remote that works on radio frequency instead of line-of-sight infrared. You really should invest into a good universal remote anyway. But this option can increase the installation cost dramatically depending on the cost of the remote and how long of a cable is needed to connect the TV to the set-top boxes. Just plan ahead. Get your HDMI from your cable company or online Please don’t help brick and mortar stores by buying an HDMI cable from them. They often sell the cables with a 2400% markup. It’s a dirty racket. Many times your cable company will provide an HDMI cable when you subscribe to their service and you always have the option of buying one online. Monoprice.com is a good spot. But the cheapest option might not always be the best bet. New technology like 3D Blu-ray are often too much for some HDMI 1.3 cables to handle. If you’re planning on running this cable in the wall, opt for the more

Kobo E-Reader First on iPad By Charlie Sorrel (Wired Top Stories)

limited (the Mail app, anyone?). We think that it’ll be the third party e-book readers that turn the Submitted at 1/28/2010 7:44:00 AM Moses Tablet into the Kindle The iPad might have iBooks, Killer people so obviously want but if Apple’s built-in iPhone it to be. Like the Kobo. apps are anything to go by, then it will likely be gorgeous but

expensive and somewhat hard-to -find HDMI 1.4 certified cables. This way you won’t have to tear that cable out of the wall later down the road. All you need is an antenna to watch the Super Bowl in HD The Super Bowl is always broadcast on a major network. That means only an antenna is needed to pick up the HD feed. In fact, many find that over-theair signals offer enough content that they don’t need cable or satellite. Plus, OTA HD offers a higher-quality picture than anything subscription TV can offer. Most of the time a table-top antenna will do the trick, just don’t buy the cheapest option. Look for one that plugs into the wall for power and use this website to help fine tune its reception. Even the old aerial antennas many people still have on their houses will work.

Samsung's 3D Blu-ray player available for preorder on Amazon: $399 By Richard Lawler (Engadget)

promised 15 second bootup time is set for $299. The entry level and eco-focused BD-C5500 is It feels like we just left our still unpriced but instead of shutter glasses behind at CES, asking whether you can afford but already a few of Samsung's the price of a 3D Blu-ray player, new 2010 Blu-ray players(all ask yourself if you can afford not featuring Internet@TV and to own a Blu-ray player with a Samsung Apps features) have hole in the top. The answer popped up for preorders on should be obvious. Amazon, including the 3D Gallery: Samsung BD-C6900 p l a y i n g B D - C 6 9 0 0 . T h e 3D Blu-ray player company just announced 240HZ Samsung's 3D Blu-ray player 3D LCDs have begun mass a v a i l a b l e f o r p r e o r d e r o n production and isn't waiting for A m a z o n : $ 3 9 9 o r i g i n a l l y the competition before diving in, appeared on Engadget on Thu, issuing the first price we've seen 28 Jan 2010 15:11:00 EST. for one of the new plays at a Please see our terms for use of penny shy of $400. Moving feeds. Permalink 3D-Displaydown the line the super slim and I n f o | A m a z o n | E m a i l t h i s | woodgrain textured, but 2D only, C o m m e n t s BD-C7500 is also $399.99, while the speedy BD-C6500 and its Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:11:00 PM


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Adobe on Flash and the iPad: 'Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices' By Nilay Patel (Engadget) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:34:00 PM

Adobe's been trying to get Flash on the iPhone with zero success since Steve Jobs first held the thing in the air in 2007, and it looks like the tension is only going to grow as the iPhone OS moves onto the iPad. We noticed that the iPad doesn't have Flash support almost immediately when Jobs was demoing the browser, and the Adobe Flash Platform blog picked right up on it, saying: It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content

publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple's DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And without Flash support, iPad 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. If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab -- not to mention the millions of other sites on the web -- I'll be out of luck.

Yep, that sounds about right -and Adobe goes on to point out that the Open Screen Project is bringing Flash to all sorts of other devices. Considering the

Nokia N900 runs Flash 9 extremely well on a 600MHz ARM Cortex A8-based TI OMAP 3 processor (and the Palm Pre, which uses the same

chip, will be able to run Flash 10.1 when webOS 1.4 comes out) we don't see any reason other than politics that the iPad can't do it on that fancy new 1GHz dual-core Cortex A9based A4 chip. Turns out people might think "the best way to experience the web" might involve a little Hulu, you know? Adobe on Flash and the iPad: 'Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Daring Fireball| Adobe Flash Blog| Email this| Comments

McGraw-Hill Still In Deep Denial Over iPad Leak [Denial] By Brian Barrett (Gizmodo)

attempt to convince us we didn't see or hear those things we saw Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:06:56 PM and heard: Remember when McGraw-Hill [Mr. McGraw]'s speculative CEO Terry McGraw confirmed comments about Apple's pending the iPad—and its OS—a day launch, which he shared earlier early on national television? And i n t h e d a y i n a c a l l w i t h then Apple pointedly left them investors, were simply intended out of the presentation? Well, to suggest that if the new device McGraw-Hill doesn't! No sir, were to use iPhone applications, never happened at all. many of our education products In a statement given to All would be compatible with the T h i n g s D , M c G r a w - H i l l technology and could be made spokesperson Steven Weiss easily available on it. backtracks laudably in an See what he did there?

inconceivable. Honestly, the fact that Terry McGraw mentioned something that everyone knew—or at least, strongly suspected—was going to happen isn't going to affect the number of iPads Apple sells one bit. So why not just own up to it? Oh, right. Because does that, ever. [ All Things D] Whatever McGraw intended to suggest, what he actually said was that there was a tablet, and that it was running the iPhone OS. And he was right! Which

makes it a leak. And the idea that the CEO of a guaranteed major supplier of iPad content wouldn't have known those details about the device in advance is beyond


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Pitch a perfect game in MLB 2K10, get a million bucks By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)

conditioner on full blast with all the windows open! No more taking the garbage out! Man this Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:30:43 AM place is turning into a hot, Kids! Who needs school? Why smelly, sticky dump. sit in class learning about The rules are that the perfect nothing important when you game must be pitched on the could be at home trying to pitch Xbox 360 or PS3 and the entire a perfect game in MLB 2K10? If game has to be recorded. Twin your parents get all bent out of Galaxies, “official scorekeeper shape about you dropping out of for the world of video game and school to play video games, pinball playing since the early kindly refer them to this post and 1980s,” will handle the judging. direct their attention to the More details are available at following statement: The first 2KSports.com/perfectgame. person to pitch a perfect game in The game comes out March MLB 2K10 gets a million 2nd, 2010, so get those thumbs dollars. loosened up. And don’t really That oughta be enough money drop out of school. That’d be to buy your parents house and “whack” or whatever you kids then kick them out. Yeah! Ice use to mean something crazy. c r e a m f o r b r e a k f a s t ! A i r [via Kotaku]

Mouse pad + 10-key + USB hub = Converged hotness By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)

keypad would be to the left of the mouse pad but those of you lefties out there who also happen Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:00:20 AM to be accountants with at least Oh man, I must be dreaming. three USB peripherals that need Please don’t wake up! Please to be plugged in have found your don’t wake up! Please don’t ultimate work-related number wake up! A mouse pad with a crunching weapon. According to built-in 10-key number pad AND the product description: a three-port USB hub? All for “This 3 USB Hub PC Keyboard $25?! Mouse Pad provides your mouse Yum. with a smooth surface ensuring It seems a little odd that the greater accuracy, control, and

faster response. It makes you point, click and drag quickly, smoothly and accurately. The numeric keyboard is very convenient to you.” It’s also “easy to use, hot plug & play.” And who doesn’t like a little hot plug and play action? 3 in 1 Numeric Keyboard Mouse Pad Mat with 3 USB Hub[Meritline]


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Dell Adamo falls to under $1,000 for the first time, tempts you mercilessly

The Fed's AntiInflation Exit Strategy Will Fail

By Darren Murph (Engadget)

(AEI.Org: Articles)

Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:58:00 PM

Submitted at 1/27/2010 3:00:00 PM

just don't care, but you know you'll be back to visit that Source link when no one's looking. And You know what's hard to resist? the video after the jump, too. This. You know what else is [Thanks, Ben and Ryan] difficult to turn a blind eye to? Continue reading Dell Adamo One of the sexiest machines Dell falls to under $1,000 for the first has ever made, at a price point time, tempts you mercilessly that's below the all-important Dell Adamo falls to under four figure mark. Starting today, $1,000 for the first time, tempts the Adamo Admire is sporting an you mercilessly originally drive. If that's a little weak for 4GB of memory, integrated altogether sultry base price of appeared on Engadget on Thu, your tastes, the upmarket Adamo mobile broadband and a 256GB $999, which nets you a 1.4GHz 28 Jan 2010 15:58:00 EST. Desire has also undergone a SSD for $1,799 -- a full $500 Core 2 Duo processor, Windows Please see our terms for use of price reduction, enabling you to less than it was in Octobe r. 7 Home (64-bit), 2GB of DDR3 feeds. Permalink| Dell| Email get a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo chip, You're blowing it off like you RAM and a 128GB solid state this| Comments

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has explained his exit strategy to prevent future inflation. The Fed recently began to pay interest to banks on the reserves they hold in their vaults. Using this new tool, it claims the ability to get banks to keep the money instead of lending it out, thus containing the money supply and inflation. I don't believe this will work, and no one else should. The exit strategy is incomplete. Proponents are guilty of practicing economics without prices. They never say what the interest rate on reserves must be to get banks to hold the patent for LED backlighting, approximately $1 trillion of which makes sense given that the reserves above the minimum iPad will come with exactly that. they're legally required to hold. Whether we'll also be seeing it That's the critical question. Click i m p l e m e n t e d o n t h e n e x t here to read the full text from the generation of iPhones and iPod Wall Street Journal. Touches is anyone's guess. [ Allan H. Meltzer is a visiting Patently Apple] scholar at AEI. Photo Credit: Federal Reserve Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Apple Plans Video Camera For iPod Touch [Apple] By Brian Barrett (Gizmodo) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:00:00 PM

Usually reading the patent tea leaves is an inaccurate science at best, without knowing how exactly a proposed technology will fit into a company's product plans. Other times, there's an actual drawing of an iPod Touch with a video camera. The patent was filed in the

summer of 2009, but only just published today by the US Patent Office. It's maybe not the most surprising news in the world, given that the iPhone 3GS is already equipped with the technology. There really hasn't been a good reason for the Touch not to have a camera, other than Steve Jobs dithering about how and I'm glad it looks like Apple's people just don't want one. That's started to agree. always seemed like poppycock, Separately, Apple also filed a

Ten Things Missing From the iPad By Charlie Sorrel (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:08:00 AM

The iPad was supposed to change the face of computing, to be a completely new form of digital experience. But what

Steve Jobs showed us yesterday was in fact little more than a giant iPhone. A giant iPhone that doesn’t even make calls. The

iPad, though, is better defined by what isn’t there.


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Ask TUAW: Prepping a Mac for transfer, adding words to spell check, updating Boot Camp, and more By Mat Lu (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

access it it will mount but it may disappear and be difficult to reconnect to it... Any help? Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:00:00 PM I think that the solution to your Filed under: Features, p r o b l e m i s r e l a t i v e l y Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW straightforward: you need to Welcome back to Ask TUAW, upgrade OS X. This was a longour weekly troubleshooting standing problem with older Q&A column. This week we've versions of OS X, but Apple got questions about preparing a really managed to improve Mac that you're transferring to a performance with network disks new owner, updating Boot in Leopard. So I would suggest Camp, adding words to the built- that you at least upgrade to in spell check, dealing with flaky Leopard if not Snow Leopard. network disks, FTP clients, and Heimbachae asks more. I'm looking at selling my As always, your suggestions and Macbook to a friend of mine to questions are welcome. Leave upgrade to a Macbook Pro. My your questions for next week in question is what is the "proper" the comments section at the end way to clean out a hard drive and of this post. When asking a give a fresh new computer to my question, please include which friend that has nothing of mine machine you're using and what left on it. Note: my friend isn't a version of Mac OS X is installed genius and doesn't plan on going on it(we'll assume you're running through and recovering old files Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if so I don't need to do anything you don't specify), or if it's an crazy like hard drive shredding, iPhone-related question, which just a simple solution would do. iPhone version and OS version Assuming you've already you have. backed up / transferred your MJBauer asks data, the easiest thing to do is I have a Macbook Pro running simply reboot your Mac with an OS 10.4 (Tiger) and I often have OS X install disc. Then use the d i f f i c u l t y m a i n t a i n i n g a Disk Utility to erase your boot persistent connection to my disk. Disk Utility offers several NAS... OS 10.4 sees it as a options for erasing, but it sounds SMB/CIFS Shared Volume. It like you'd probably be fine with can be difficult to even find it Zero Out (in the Security and maintaining a persistent Options under the Erase tab). connection to it just doesn't work This will overwrite your disk for me ... I can find it and when I with random data; it wouldn't

make the data unrecoverable to sophisticated forensic procedures, but it should be more than adequate for your purposes. Once that's done, just install OS X from the disc as normal. When you're done the machine will be more or less "fresh" and will even present the new owner with the OS X Welcome video, etc. (Incidentally, it will also lack the latest updates; your friend will have to connect to the Internet and download those as soon as he's set up the Mac.) Doug asks Im a medical student constantly writing notes and summaries on my mac. As good as normal spell check is, in the face of such odd and specialized vocabulary that you get in medical school (i.e. postganglionic, synaptobrevin, trophotropic, ethanolamine) my pages end up so littered with red that I normally cant find the words that are really misspelled, nor can it help me with most. Is there a source of supplementary dictionaries that feature specialized terms for different fields that one can plug into the system wide spell check? OS X keeps track of the words you add to the spell check at~/Library/Spelling/en. If you open that file in a plain text editor you'll see that it's just a list of words. So if you could find a long list of medical terms you could simply copy and paste

(plain-text) into that file and they should no longer show up with the red underlining. You ought to make a backup of that file before you modify it, just in case. You can also check out Dictionary Cleaner, which provides a GUI for managing (including adding and deleting words from) the list. We've previously covered adding supplementary dictionaries to the built-in Dictionary.app, but even if you added a medical dictionary I don't think that would actually add those words to the spell check. Faye asks I frequently see a section in my Trash called "Recovered Files". When I expand it, I see things which don't make any sense like "MaglevExpressTempnnn" (nnn is some 3-digit number). What's with this Recovered Files business? I have an iMac (10.6.1) and a MacBook(10.6.2), and they both do this. This isn't really anything to worry about. As this Apple Support Document explains, these recovered files are basically temporary files created by applications that closed unexpectedly. You don't really need to do anything with these files and you can generally safely delete them (i.e. empty the trash). katerina asks I'm looking for an iPhone (3G)

app for creating a new habit using the 21-day method. Basically, something like habitforge.com, but as an app instead of emails and a website. Does this exist? There are actually quite a few applications on the iPhone for this kind of thing. Check out this iTunes Link to see if you might find something that meets your needs. Le_Renard asks I'm running Snow Leopard on a 13-inch MacBook Pro and Windows 7 in Boot Camp. If I want to update Boot Camp to the latest version (which officially supports 7), can I do that in place, or do I have to re-install Windows? No, you shouldn't need to reinstall Windows. The relevant Boot Camp update really just contains updated Windows 7 drivers. In fact, all you really need to do is download the appropriate update: 32-bit or 64bit while booted into Windows (the download is actually a Windows executable). jeremy asks What's the closest thing to WinSCP for the Mac? I haven't found much of anything that has anywhere near the interface. I'm using Cyberduck right now but would like it to store connections and have a remote/local view ASK page 30


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Guardian Editor Details Why Paywalls Harm Journalism By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

didn't. You trusted us filter news and information and to prioritise it -- and to pass it on accurately, While lots of newspapers have fairly, readably and quickly. That been talking up the idea of state of affairs is now in tension putting up a paywall (even as with a world in which many (but early results look really, really not all) readers want to have the bad), the Guardian has been one ability to make their own publication that has been pretty judgments; express their own adamant that paywalls for online priorities; create their own news make no sense. This view content; articulate their own was put forth again, quite views; learn from peers as much eloquently, as Editor Alan as from traditional sources of Rusbridger detailed why it authority. Journalists may remain makes little sense not just from a one source of authority, but business perspective, but from a p e o p l e m a y a l s o b e l e s s j o u r n a l i s m p e r s p e c t i v e : I t interested to receive journalism removes you from the way in an inert context -- ie which people the world over now c a n ' t b e r e s p o n d e d t o , connect with each other. You challenged, or knitted in with cannot control distribution or other sources. It intersects with create scarcity without becoming the pay question in an obvious isolated from this new networked way: does our journalism carry world. At the same time, he sufficient authority for people to points out how paywalls also try pay -- both online (where it t o p o s i t i o n p a p e r s a s a n competes in an open market of "authority" rather than being information) and print? Putting involved in a wider story: The up a paywall is really just second issue it raises is the one newspapers pretending they can o f ' a u t h o r i t y ' v e r s u s go back to being "authority" 'involvement'. Or, more crudely, figures without realizing that this 'Us versus Them'. Again, this is is not what people look to them similar to the other two forks in to be, nor is it what they want the road, but not quite the same. them to be. And this actually Here the tension is between a brings up a really important world in which journalists point. Beyond the business considered themselves -- and model issues, paywalls impact were perhaps considered by journalism in the connected age: others -- special figures of As an editor, I worry about how a u t h o r i t y . W e h a d t h e a universal pay wall would information and the access; you change the way we do our Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:38:00 AM

journalism. We have taken 10 or more years to learn how to tell stories in different media -- ie not simply text and still pictures. Some stories are told most effectively by a combination of print and web. That's how we now plan our journalism. As my colleague Emily Bell is fond of saying we want it to be linked in with the web -- be "of the web", not simply be on the web. Some stories can be told in one sentence plus a link. Some journalists are fascinated by the potential of the running, linked blog. Andrew Sparrow's minute by minute blog of Alastair Campbell's appearance before the Chilcott inquiry was a dazzling example of this new form of reporting, which relies on the ability to link out to sources and other media, including original documents and even (in the lunch break) Campbell's own Twitter feed.... This, journalistically, is immensely challenging and rich. Journalists have never before been able to tell stories so effectively, bouncing off each other, linking to each other (as the most generous and openminded do), linking out, citing sources, allowing response -harnessing the best qualities of text, print, data, sound and visual media. If ever there was a route to building audience, trust and relevance, it is by embracing all

the capabilities of this new world, not walling yourself away from them. As he notes, this open linking and sharing policy leads to better journalism, and that could be hurt in a paywall world. Not only that, but it would cut off the one part of the business that is actually growing and improving: In an industry in which we get used to every trend line pointing to the floor, the growth of newspapers' digital audience should be a beacon of hope. During the last three months of 2009 the Guardian was being read by 40% more people than during the same period in 2008. That's right, a mainstream media company -you know, the ones that should admit the game's up because they are so irrelevant and don't know what they are doing in this new media landscape -- has grown its audience by 40% in a year. More Americans are now reading the Guardian than read the Los Angeles Times. This readership has found us, rather than the other way round. Our total marketing spend in America in the past 10 years has been $34,000. He also effectively points out that the argument shouldn't be about "new media" vs. "old media," but about how the two work together: We are edging away from the binary sterility of the debate between mainstream media and new

forms which were supposed to replace us. We feel as if we are edging towards a new world in which we bring important things to the table -- editing; reporting; areas of expertise; access; a title, or brand, that people trust; ethical professional standards and an extremely large community of readers. The members of that community could not hope to aspire to anything like that audience or reach on their own; they bring us a rich diversity, specialist expertise and on the ground reporting that we couldn't possibly hope to achieve without including them in what we do. There is a mutualised interest here. We are reaching towards the idea of a mutualised news organisation. The whole speech is much, much longer and well worth reading. But it adds a rather important element to the debate. Most of the argument has really focused on the business question, and whether or not paywalls would even work (or if they would just hasten the decline of newspapers). But this speech points out how paywalls also seem to get in the way of doing the type of journalism that the world now craves, and which the technology now allows. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story


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Social Media Marketing: How Pepsi Got It Right By Leah Betancourt (Mashable!)

“Driving consumer interest and engagement takes imagination and often a certain amount of Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:06:05 PM reinvention, so it’s fair to say S o c i a l m e d i a m a r k e t i n g we’re rethinking everything we campaigns are proving to be do from product development to goldmines rich with customer marketing campaigns across our engagement and insight that entire portfolio,” said Bart companies wouldn’t likely have Casabona, a Mountain Dew otherwise. Companies like spokesman. A Closer Look at PepsiCo are going to extensive Mountain Dew’s Social Media lengths to foster this type of Campaign collaboration with fans, and the The first DEWmocracy payoff has been big. campaign launched in 2007. This The company’s Mountain Dew inaugural DEWmocracy effort division is several stages into its let consumers choose Dew’s new DEWmocracy campaign — a flavor, color, name and graphics, plan to launch a new Mountain and resulted in more than Dew flavor with the public’s 470,000 people voting and an involvement at all levels of the overall 1 million people taking process, and PepsiCo also just part in some phase of the launched the Pepsi Refresh p r o c e s s , a c c o r d i n g t o t h e Project on January 13th. Rather company’s DEWmocracy media than spending money on Super site. The winning new flavor, Bowl television ads this year, the Voltage, hit store shelves in company is spending$20 million January 2009. on a social media campaign. Brett O’Brien, Mountain Dew’s Jay Baer, founder of the social marketing director, said that for m e d i a s t r a t e g y c o m p a n y the first campaign a site was Convince & Convert, said brands built for people to interact with, are realizing they need to market which made sense at that time. for the long haul. “I do think it’s Fast forward to July 2009, when a good move for Pepsi. I don’t t h e s e c o n d D E W m o c r a c y know if every brand can pull it campaign launched. The multioff,” he said. stage effort tasks die-hard The Pepsi Refresh Project and Mountain Dew fans to narrow the DEWmocracy campaigns are seven sodas down to one final part of a crowdsourcing effort new flavor that will become a that’s part of the larger PepsiCo permanent part of the Mountain plan to more closely integrate Dew family, using social media consumers with the brand. platforms 12seconds.tv, Twitter,

Facebook and YouTube in the process. O’Brien said that with the explosion of social networking, they felt it was best to interact with people where they are. Flavor Nations Play a Large Role The second iteration of the Mountain Dew campaign is fueled by the 4,000-strong DEW Labs crew, an online community of die-hard fans. The DEW Labs are divided up into three Flavor Nations for the three Mountain Dew soda finalists: Typhoon, WhiteOut and Distortion. Once the three flavors debut in April, the Flavor Nations must talk up their flavor and get people to vote for it to become the permanent new Mountain Dew soda. That one winning new permanent soda flavor will debut on Labor Day, according to the company’s DEWmocracy media site. O’Brien said the several stages involved are really part of the normal product innovation process. He said if they were going to be totally transparent the whole time in launching a

new Mountain Dew flavor, they needed their customers to be there the whole time. Every part of the campaign involves the fans and the public — from picking flavor names, to voting on the best user-submitted ad campaign. Collaboration With Consumers “What we’re calling it [is] collective intelligence,” O’Brien said. “It’s less about crowdsourcing, but more about collaboration.” PepsiCo looks at DEWmocracy, which has literally been driven by word of mouth, as a way of doing business rather than an ad campaign, he said, and the most important thing to recognize is the passion consumers feel for Mountain Dew is like nothing that’s out there. According to O’Brien, PepsiCo looks at social media as the best way to get direct dialog with their fans and for the company to hear from those fans without filters. “It’s been great for us to have this really unique dialogue that we normally wouldn’t have,” he said. “It really has opened our eyes up.” Convince & Convert’s Baer said the DEWmocracy campaign fits with Mountain Dew’s brand and customer profile. He said giving customers ownership of the brand is a fantastic idea. “What they’re trading off is reach for depth and they’re

trading short-term impact for long-term impact,” he said. Baer sees this the process of brands asking customers to craft better products or services as a trend. He pointed out that companies aren’t just soliciting customer input, but they’re putting it into practice. And some business decisions are now based solely on customer feedback. “To me, that’s tremendously exciting,” he said. “To me, that’s the social media story.” More business resources from Mashable: - 5 Ways Small Businesses Can Avoid Social Media Panic - HOW TO: Take Advantage of Social Media in Your E-mail Marketing - HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy - 18 Online Productivity Tools for Your Business - HOW TO: Choose a News Reader for Keeping Tabs on Your Industry - The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration - HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs Reviews: 12seconds.tv, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Tags: 12seconds, business, crowdsourcing, dewmocracy, MARKETING, mountain dew, Pepsi, pepsi refresh project, social media, social networking


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New York examines Web marketing 'scam' (CNET News.com)

or username. Buried in the fine print however, are the full terms, which state that by providing an A n d r e w C u o m o , a t t o r n e y e-mail address, the customer is general for the state of New a g r e e i n g t o s i g n u p f o r a Y o r k , h a s l a u n c h e d a n membership program and investigation into the marketing authorizing their credit card to be p r a c t i c e s o f 2 2 e - t a i l e r s , charged sometimes as much as i n c l u d i n g S t a p l e s , 1 - 8 0 0 - $20 a month. How can these F l o w e r s . c o m a n d O r b i t z . marketers charge credit cards Cuomo's office said Wednesday without the owners giving them it issued subpoenas to the their card information? Simple, m e r c h a n t s a n d r e q u e s t e d they buy it from well-respected information about the retailers' merchants, such as Continental r e l a t i o n s h i p s w i t h t h r e e Airlines, Priceline and Buy.com. m a r k e t i n g c o m p a n i e s , Cuomo arrives a little late to W e b l o y a l t y , A f f i n i o n a n d what many regard as the biggest Vertrue. These firms have scandal ever to hit online allegedly misled consumers for shopping. The U.S. Senate years into joining membership Commerce committee launched programs and paying monthly its investigation last May. fees. Initially, the retailers suggested Webloyalty and the other that their customers were at fault companies are so-called post- for not reading the ads more transaction marketers that have carefully. They changed their compiled a long history of approach after investigators consumer complaints and class- working for the committee action lawsuits. Typically, the u n e a r t h e d h u n d r e d s o f three firms present pop-up ads to d o c u m e n t s t h a t s h o w t h e online shoppers when they're m a r k e t e r s k n o w t h a t t h e finalizing a transaction. Some overwhelming number of their consumers have said the ads program's members don't know appear to be a discount coupon they are signed up. Many don't from the retailer. learn about it until discovering Federal regulators and New the charges on their credit card York state officials are trying to statements. halt what they say are scam The materials produced by the marketing practices by some e- Commerce committee also t a i l e r s a n d m a r k e t i n g shows that the marketers know f i r m s . ( C r e d i t : G r e g that without the ability to obtain Sandoval/CNET) credit card information from The ads offer discounts or cash merchants, the revenue they back coupons if the shopper will make plummets. only provide an e-mail address Some people go months and Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:54:00 PM

retailers. The marketers have also changed up their ads, to include wording that obscures the fact that by entering their card number, the consumer is agreeing to be charged monthly. "Here's the fundamental problem with this industry," Cox said. "They have a product where if you tried to sell it legitimately, nobody would buy it. They have to use these tactics because they wouldn't have a business otherwise." Cox congratulated the Senate Committee and Cuomo for investigating and pushing the marketers to the "fallback position" of requiring consumers to provide their credit card numbers, which he predicts will even years before realizing that With the U.S. government and sharply reduce their revenue. But they're being charged. The the state of New York bearing he predicted that Webloyalty, government's investigation has down, many of the e-tailers have Affinion and Vertrue will go on also uncovered evidence that been severing ties with the paying retailers for whatever some of the Web merchants marketers, whose leaders have c u s t o m e r s ' c r e d i t c a r d i n v o l v e d a r e a w a r e t h e i r b e e n d o i n g t h e i r o w n information they can get until customers are duped into joining. backpedaling. All three now say merchants are prohibited from It's safe to say many consumers they will require consumers to sharing any of their customers' believe the only way that their key in their credit card number financial data. credit cards can be charged is if before signing them up to a "There's no commercially useful t h e y k e y i n t h e i r c a r d membership. reason for one company to be information. That's the way it has But that doesn't go far enough, selling a consumer's account always worked in the past. as the marketers have already information," Cox said. "If " T h i s o n l i n e s c h e m e h a s begun exploiting new loopholes you're selling a product then the impacted the finances and tried says, Prentiss Cox, a former consumer should have ultimate the patience of tens of millions assistant attorney general for the control over their account of consumers nationwide," state of Minnesota and a leading information...If you really want Cuomo said in a statement. expert in online marketing to put an end to the problem, we "Well-known companies are scams. carefully and well-written law or tricking customers into accepting Cox said that the marketers can regulations." offers from third party vendors, still get a credit card's expiration which then siphon money from date and the card's three-digit NEW page 30 consumers' accounts." credit security code from


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Could open source abandon the Google train? (CNET News.com)

speaking for the foundation, says that he'd welcome a switch from Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:10:00 PM Google given its rising As arguably the world's largest d o m i n a n c e o v e r t h e W e b . open-source company, Google Mozilla executive Mitchell has a big stake in maintaining its Baker, for her part, has noted place at the heart of the open- t h a t a l t e r n a t i v e s ( Y a h o o , source ecosystem. Recent events, Microsoft) would likely pay however, suggest that Google Mozilla more money and give can't rest on its laurels if it wants Firefox shelter from Google, to secure the hearts and minds of which has been building a rival open-source developers. browser, Chrome. Make no mistake: Google needs If Mozilla needs a nudge, those developers. Android, Canonical just gave it one, Chrome (and Chrome OS), and defaulting to Yahoo search for other Google initiatives depend future versions of its popular upon fostering vibrant open- Ubuntu Linux operating system. source communities that can help Mozilla and Canonical represent it to surpass Microsoft and the heart of the open-source Apple. community. If they move from Does Google need to search for Google, it paves the way for new friends? Such communities other communities to do so, too. may be ready to cut the Google Mozilla and Canonical arguably umbilical cord, however, which have their financial self-interest should be worrying to Google. at heart in such deals, but There have been rumblings that Gartner Research Vice President Mozilla would look to Google Brian Prentice points out an even alternatives for the default search bigger issue that could drive a engine within Firefox, despite wedge between Google and the Mozilla pulling in 91 percent of wider open-source community: its revenues from its Google Patents. partnership. Mozilla employee Google, after all, was recently Asa Dotzler, though not granted a patent on its

commons to ensure they are only used for defensive purposes, Google's response, as Prentice goes on, effectively amounts to "trust us - after all we're not evil." Don't get me wrong: Google is and will likely remain a very strong proponent of open-source M a p R e d u c e p a r a l l e l software, with projects like programming model. This puts Chrome that impress and push the Apache Software Foundation the boundaries of innovation. Hadoop project firmly in its But in its rush to serve a wide sights, even if Google likely has variety of customer needs, it may no intention to sue. It's the end up overlooking or stepping uncertainty that may end up on its erstwhile partners (like h u r t i n g t h e o p e n - s o u r c e Mozilla), and could pursue policies (like its MapReduce community. patent or even its H.264 video Prentice queries whether So, does that mean that it's only codec stance) that threaten the a matter of time before Google's open-source community just as legal team starts sending out much as Microsoft has. letters seeking license fees? I Google is powerful, but it still don't know. And that's the point. needs friends. Open source has been a chief ally of Google to No one else does either. I would suggest to you all that date. Will it remain such? That's the greatest threat to any open an open question. system is, in fact, uncertainty. Five Filters featured article: And what Google has done here Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: is to dump a whole lot of PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, uncertainty onto the market. Term Extraction. To those asking Google to submit such patents to a

ASK continued from page 26

interface. Well, I don't know what the closest thing to WinSCP is, but probably the best regarded FTP client on the Mac is Transmit($29.95) from Panic. Other readers also suggested you have a look at ForkLift($19.95)

from binarynights. If you want a free option with something more of a Windows ethos, have a look at the cross-platform, opensource FileZilla. All three of these can have a two-pane interface. TUAW Ask TUAW: Prepping a

Mac for transfer, adding words Read| Permalink| Email this| to spell check, updating Boot Comments Camp, and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NEW continued from page 29

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

Your Digital Fingerprint Can Pinpoint You Online, EFF Says By Scott Gilbertson (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:45:00 AM

A new web-based tool from the Electronic Frontier Foundation tracks the personal data your browser leaks as you surf the web. Ironically, the geekier you are, the easier you are to identify.

Superfast Bullet Trains Are Finally Coming to U.S. By James Glave and Rachel Swaby (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:30:00 AM

Thanks to smart tech, ambitious planners and boatloads of cash, the much-stalled concept actually has a future. But for trains to beat planes and automobiles, the hardware needs to really fly.


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Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 Newspad finally arrives, Video: Fake nine years late By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

simply need to tap on them to bring them up. We do need to know the "codes" for the world's major electronic papers; we refer Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:00:00 PM to them as URLs or specific Filed under: Hardware, Cult of apps. But like many things Mac, Internet One of my all-time Clarke foresaw in his lifetime of favorite movies is Stanley writing science fiction, the K u b r i c k ' s 2 0 0 1 : A S p a c e Newspad has finally become Odyssey. At several points reality in the form of Apple's during the film, we see ill-fated iPad. astronauts David Bowman and I think Arthur would be proud. Frank Poole using a flat, iPad- When he tired of official reports like device. In one of the posters and memoranda and minutes, he for the movie, astronauts at a would plug his foolscap-sized base on the Moon are seen using N e w s p a d i n t o t h e s h i p ' s this device (see image at right). information circuit and scan the Those who read Arthur C. latest reports from Earth. One by Clarke's novelization of the one he would conjure up the movie will remember that he world's major electronic papers; described this device as the he knew the codes of the more "Newspad," something that was important ones by heart, and had used by people of the future (as no need to consult the list on the envisioned in 1968) to watch TV back of his pad. Switching to the and read newspapers. You can d i s p l a y u n i t ' s s h o r t - t e r m read the full description of the memory, he would hold the front device after the break -- it's page while he quickly searched described as a newsreader, with the headlines and noted the items two-digit codes for each article that interested him. online, and a constant stream of Each had its own two-digit information from the hourly reference; when he punched that, updates on "electronic papers." t h e p o s t a g e - s t a m p - s i z e d Of course, we don't have two- rectangle would expand until it digit references to articles; we neatly filled the screen and he

pleased. (That very word "newspaper," of course, was an anachronistic hangover into the age of electronics.) The text was updated automatically on every hour; even if one read only the English versions, one could spend an entire lifetime doing nothing but absorbing the everchanging flow of information from the news satellites. It was hard to imagine how the system could be improved or made more convenient. But sooner or later, Floyd guessed, it would pass away, to be replaced by something as unimaginable as the Newspad itself would have been to Caxton or Gutenberg. could read it with comfort. When From 2001: A Space Odyssey , he had finished, he would flash by Arthur C. Clarke. back to the complete page and Published by Del Rey in 1968 select a new subject for detailed TUAW Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 examination. Newspad finally arrives, nine Floyd sometimes wondered if years late originally appeared on the Newspad, and the fantastic The Unofficial Apple Weblog technology behind it, was the last (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 word in man's quest for perfect 16:00:00 EST. Please see our communications. Here he was, terms for use of feeds. far out in space, speeding away Permalink| Email this| from Earth at thousands of miles C o m m e n t s an hour, yet in a few milliseconds he could see the headlines of any newspaper he

Steve Jobs on the Apple iPad By Josh Pigford (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 1/27/2010 6:08:47 PM

Om caught up with Fake Steve Jobs ( Steve Dan Lyons) and got his opinion on the launch of the Apple iPad today. A tad bit of not so safe for work language is used‌you’ve been warned.

PETA wants Groundhog Day, the robot way (CNET News.com) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:12:00 PM

Roboticists in search of a challenge, take note. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants to replace the weatherforecasting Punxsutawney Phil of Groundhog Day fame with an animatronic version. Robot PETA page 32

Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz on the Set! (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:04:00 AM

ET has the latest...

Hollywood.tv spots Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz on the set of their new movie! In the new video, the handsome

pair is seen in Long Beach, CA shooting scenes for their new action comedy, 'Knight & Day.' The movie hits theaters July 2.

And to see more behind the scenes footage from 'Knight & Day,' including ET's interviews with Cameron and Cruise, click

here.


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PETA continued from page 31

followers that we are here at Crave, we're all for an electronic rodent, but we're also pretty sure groundhog bots have a long way to go before they can charm crowds the way little Phil can. PETA maintains that the animal whose annual February 2 antics portend the duration of winter is mistreated--forced to be on display year 'round at the local Pennsylvania library; denied the ability to prepare for and enter yearly hibernation; and forced to endure screaming throngs of thousands, media attention, and human handling. According to legend, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, six more weeks of winter weather will follow. If he doesn't, expect an early spring. But PETA has had enough of the tradition that dates back to 1886, and believes robotic technology could be the solution. "If Punxsutawney frees Phil,

then the bitter winter that's made him into an unwilling media attraction will end, making way for a sunny spring that everyone can enjoy," PETA writes in post on its PETA Files blog. In a letter (PDF) written to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club and posted on PETA's Web site, animal specialist Gemma Vaughan notes that groundhogs are normally shy animals who "become stressed" when exposed to too much hubbub. She also notes that "other popular exhibitions have featured robotic penguins and dolphins who swim and communicate just like real animals do, and we think that an animatronic groundhog would similarly mesmerize a crowd full of curious spectators in Punxsutawney. "Tradition is no excuse for cruelty, and this opportunity would allow Punxsutawney to

engage in a futuristic, interactive, versatile, and humane annual event," she writes. So having seen time and time again that any robot that can be imagined can be created, we'll wait for the engineers of the world to come up with a cute machine version of the sleepy marmot. In the meantime, those who aren't offended by the reallife furry prognosticator can get notified by text message the minute Punxsutawney Phil pops out of his burrow Tuesday. Text "Groundhog" to 247365, the Pennsylvania Tourism Bureau instructs. And yes, standard text messaging rates do apply. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Sneak Peek: Bridgestone's Super Bowl ad By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:02:00 PM

The Super Bowl is coming up on February 7, and as usual TV Squad will have analysis of the game as well as predictions on whether Peyton Manning can handle the Saints' defense. Just kidding. Actually, we'll have analysis of the ads, including this

one from Bridgestone titled "Whale of a Tale." Three guys and a whale in a truck. Question: does this ad make you want to see the rest during the Super Bowl or will you completely forget about it and maybe just happen to see it because you're going to watch the Super Bowl anyway? Do these things work (and I guess

I'm asking if the other kind of ad works, the TV commercial that tells you to go to a web site to see the conclusion of the ad. I hate those.) [via Adfreak] Filed under: Sports, Video, Commercials, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Microsoft's bottom line gets a Windows 7 boost (CNET News.com)

ahead of the revenue growth." Chief Operating Oficer Kevin Turner touted the record quarter With a boost from the release of for Windows unit sales, spurred Windows 7, Microsoft on by the Oct. 22 launch of Thursday said that its quarterly Windows 7. "We are thrilled by revenue topped $19 billion as the the consumer reception to company sold a record number Windows 7 and by business of copies of its operating system. enthusiasm to adopt Windows The software maker said it 7," he said in a statement. earned $6.66 billion, or 74 cents The company said that through per share, on revenue of $19.02 the end of December it had sold billion. Those results included more than 60 million Windows 7 revenue deferred from the prior licenses, which it said made quarter, as the company was Windows 7 the fastest selling preparing for Windows 7 and operating system in history. offering free upgrades to those In October, Microsoft reported who bought Windows Vista- better-than-expected sales, also based computers. Excluding the boosted by stronger demand for deferred revenue, Microsoft said Windows. it had revenue of $17.31 billion, The company will have a and diluted earnings per share conference call at 2:30 p.m. PST would have totaled 60 cents per to discuss the results. share. Here's a chart of how each of " E x c e p t i o n a l d e m a n d f o r Microsoft's individual business Windows 7 led to the positive units performed: t o p - l i n e g r o w t h f o r t h e Five Filters featured article: company," chief financial officer Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Peter Klein said in a statement. PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, "Our continuing commitment to Term Extraction. managing costs allowed us to drive earnings performance Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:11:00 PM


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33

What's A Bigger Entitlement Mentality? Demanding Old Business Models Must Remain... Or Liking Free Stuff?

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:11:00 PM

One of the more recent "moral panics" that we've seen is around this concept of "sexting," where people (often youngsters who might not fully recognize the consequences of what they're doing) send either naked or at least revealing images of themselves to others. In the last year or so the press has written about it quite a bit, and while it seems like it's really just a situation that requires more education for kids to recognize what a bad idea this is, once you get a moral panic going, it's never long before politicians feel the need to "help deal with" the issue, "for the children," of course. Mark sends in the news that some politicians in Indiana have decided to tackle the issue with new legislation, though it's not at all clear that the state

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

name it, it's got it. Unauthorized access is "theft," the publishing and music industries are dying, Apparently times are hard over other business models simply at ECN Magazine. Rather than cannot fund stuff, paywalls will come up with compelling content solve everything for newspapers, to draw people in, its Technical and suing music fans is a Editor decided to pen the mother reasonable solution. It's all in Senators debating the subject keeping the phones in lockers of all troll-baiting editorials. there. even understand what sexting fixes anything. It just means NSILMike points us to Jason But as I read it, it again made means:"Until some terrible those messages will be sent after Lomberg's recent rant on The me wonder which is the real tragedy happens where a child or school when there's even less Internet Entitlement Mentality, "entitlement mentality"? Is it t e e n a g e r c o m m i t s s u i c i d e supervision of what the kids are which I think may set a record those who recognize what the because they have been bullied doing. I guess that's the head-in- for repeating pretty much every technology enables and uses that by e-mail, texting or sexting," the-sand approach to dealing long-debunked fallacy about to better share and spread culture said Rep. Sandra Blanton. with things, but I'm not sure how online content and business and information? Or is it those Bullied by sexting will lead to it helps any. models, as well as how it who insist that business models suicide? How? And how do you Certainly the issue of sexting is describes those folks who should go back to the way things create a law to prevent that? one worth educating kids about, a c t u a l l y u n d e r s t a n d b a s i c used to be, and that governments Then there's the politician who so they recognize the dangers of economics, and how free works should change and enforce laws wants to ban mobile phones in passing on such photos which a s p a r t o f a n e c o n o m i c to prop up those failing business s c h o o l s t o d e a l w i t h t h i s can quickly multiply and be ecosystem. It's really not worth models? It seems like you could issue:"Keep them in lockers and spread further in amazingly debunking all those points over make a very strong case that it's not allow them in the classroom embarrassing ways. But I don't again. Honestly, reading it the latter position that is the true or on school property to do the see how any law helps the issue makes me wonder if it's pure "entitlement mentality." sexting," Rep. Blanton said. at all -- but plenty of ways laws satire instead of troll-bait, given Permalink| Comments| Email Really? The sexting happens on c a n m a k e t h i n g s w o r s e - - the number of old debunked This Story school property? If that's the especially when the politicians cliches it tosses out. I mean, you case, then wouldn't the issue be writing and voting on the laws public nudity -- for which I don't even seem to understand would imagine there are already what the issue is beyond "sexting laws -- rather than "sexting"? If = bad!" he just means that the sending of Permalink| Comments| Email these photos continues on school This Story property, I'm not really sure how

Indiana Senators Rush To Put In Place Sexting Law When They Clearly Don't Understand Sexting

Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:58:00 AM

Nice Lady Does Nice Thing, Looks Nice [Open Caption] By Richard Lawson (Gawker) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:39:00 PM

[ Sometimes pictures are just... nice. Here's Julianne Moore at CS 154, celebrating some sort of

Save the Children Valentine's Day contest. I like that Randi Weingarten (apparently!) is

talking to a student instead of gawping at the movie star. Getty]


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Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook [STATS] By Jennifer Van Grove (Mashable!)

quite high when you compare it with the percentages of the other demographic groups. Also of Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:48:14 AM note is that nearly all the Senior A new eMarketer report shows social media users (90%) have that the number of Baby picked up Facebook as a new Boomers embracing social hobby. media, especially Facebook, It should come as no surprise jumped drastically between 2008 that the digitally connected youth measurable change — just 1% are the most socially active, with and 2009. In its Boomers and Social Media — i n t h a t d e m o g r a p h i c ’ s data showing that 77% of report, eMarketer takes a look at a d o p t i o n o f s o c i a l m e d i a . M i l l e n n i a l s a n d 6 1 % o f social media adoption among Boomers also love Facebook far Generation Xers maintaining different generations. Results more than other social media social media profiles. Social showed that while the percentage sites, with 73% of the group media profile maintenance may of Millennials maintaining a claiming to maintain a Facebook not be on the rise for these social networking site profile profile, while only 13% have groups, but that’s likely because was fairly consistent from 2007 taken a liking to Twitter. We also they’ve been familiar with the through 2009, the same cannot find it somewhat shocking that web as a social platform for be said of Baby Boomers’ social only 13% identify themselves as several years now. active LinkedIn users. One You can take a look at two of media usage. According to Deloitte data, 2009 would think that given their the telling charts referenced in was the year that social media place in the professional world, the report below: bloomed for Baby Boomers, Boomers would we more active [ img credit: Zazzle] Reviews: with nearly 47% of them actively on the professional site. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter maintaining a profile on the For another quirky finding, take Tags: baby boomers, emarketer, social web, which is up 15% a look at the percentage of facebook, linkedin, social media, from 2008. Further driving home “ M a t u r e s ” — i n d i v i d u a l s twitter that 2009 was the year of the between the ages of 63 and 75 — social BB is the fact that from who use Twitter regularly. 2007 to 2008 there was barely a Seventeen percent is actually

Senate approves Bernanke nomination (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:04:49 PM

The Senate on Thursday approved Ben Bernanke’s nomination for a second term

running the US Federal Reserve, despite misgivings over perceived policy missteps. Earlier on Thursday, Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the banking committee, mounted a full-bore attack on the record

of Mr Bernanke ahead of the vote. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Religion and Objectivity Collide in Google Suggested Searches By Samuel Axon (Mashable!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:22:06 PM

When you begin to type “Islam is” into Google’s search field, it will now list suggestions based on searches that were popular with other users. Previously, nothing came up for “Islam is” — but that wasn’t true when you typed in a different religion. For example, suggested completions for “Christianity is” include “Christianity is not a religion” and “Christianity is a lie,” among others. Similar results come up when you type in other belief systems like Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Scientology and Atheism. It seemed reasonable to speculate that Google was censoring the suggestions to avoid offending anyone with extremely harsh popular searches. Still, Google told Search Engine Land that Islam wasn’t an intentional exception — that it was a bug engineers were working on fixing. It seems an unlikely coincidence, but Google has strongly resisted censoring results in the past. (It’s

even threatened to pull out of China over the issue.) For example, even though a search for the word “Jew” produces many anti-Semitic results, Google stuck to its algorithm, issuing an explanation either at the top or the side of the results page. And two months ago, an uproar occurred when an offensive picture of U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama appeared at the top of Google’s image results. Google issued an apology, but didn’t make changes to the results. Either way, suggested completions for “Islam is” are now live, and they include both positive and negative phrases. Reviews: Google Tags: Google, islam, Search


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eHarmony Settles Lawsuit, Will Merge Gay and Straight Dating Sites

Bank Sues Identity Fraud Victim After $800,000 Removed From Its Account By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 1/28/2010 6:57:00 AM

Recently, we pointed out that what's often called "identity theft" involving someone falsifying bank account info to take your money is really nothing of the sort, but is instead a bank robbery where the victim gets blamed. This comedy routine makes the point quite clearly:"They took all the money? That sounds more like a bank robbery." "No, no. If only. 'Cause we could take the hit. No, no. It was actually your identity that was stolen, primarily. It's a massive pisser for you." "But, it's actually money that's been taken..." "Yes" "From you?"

By Samuel Axon (Mashable!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:17:33 AM

Dating site eHarmony has settled a lawsuit in California by agreeing to end the separation of its homosexual and heterosexual matchmaking services. "Kind of." recover about $600,000 of the eHarmony agreed to open a site "I don't know what you want money, but the company pointed for gay and lesbian customers f r o m m e o t h e r t h a n m y out that the bank should repay after another lawsuit in 2008, but commiserations." t h e r e s t - - a n d t h e b a n k it did not cross-promote or even "You see it was your identity. responded by filing a lawsuit link between the two sites, and it They said they were you!" asking a court to establish that it kept subscriptions separate. "And you believed them?" was not at fault and had taken A gay man from New Jersey "Yes, they stole your identity." "commercially reasonable" steps named Eric McKinley filed suit "Well, I don't know. I seem to to remain secure. This certainly against eHarmony in 2008 for still have my identity, whereas does seem like one of these not offering matchmaking for gays and lesbians. eHarmony you seem to have lost several insult to injury situations. thousands of pounds. In light of Of course, it also seems like a settled by agreeing to launch a that, I'm not sure why you think massively poor way to market service for gay and lesbian it was my identity that was stolen PlainsCapital. Not only will it customers called Compatible instead of your money." To make not protect your money for you, Partners. eHarmony’s launch of this even more ridiculous, there's if your money is taken by fraud Compatible Partners was called a now a case where a company from the bank, you may end up “shotgun wedding” by the Los who had $800,000 removed from in court. That's not exactly a Angeles Times, though. There its bank account is being sued by r i n g i n g e n d o r s e m e n t o f wasn’t even a link to Compatible Partners at eharmony.com. that bank, PlainsCapital, in a P l a i n s C a p i t a l . Furthermore, Compatible proactive attempt by the bank to Permalink| Comments| Email Partners had a completely have a court declare that it is not, This Story in fact, liable for the lost funds. The bank had been able to

A whale of a time By Cris Stoddard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 1/27/2010 3:29:30 PM

• About Flickr

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

c o l l a b o r a t i v e p r o c e s s . G e t Five Filters featured article: comments, notes, and tags on Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: your photos, post to any blog, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, share and more! Term Extraction.

different subscription system. Bisexuals had to pay two subscription fees to have access to both sexes. The newer lawsuit was settled in California yesterday. eHarmony will add its name to Compatible Partners, link it from the main eHarmony website alongside its Jewish, black, Christian and senior portals, and unify subscriptions. The company will also pay out $500,000 to around 150 Californians to settle. That’s in addition to the $1.5 million it has spent defending itself in court. [ via The Next Web] Tags: dating, eHarmony, online dating, politics


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iPad still pending FCC approval, not Motorola Developing a a problem Google Phone By Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:59:37 PM

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

Filed under: Hardware, Apple A few of our readers have pointed out this interesting little blurb currently found down at the bottom of the iPad's specs page: This device has not yet been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained. Did Apple just announce a "magical and revolutionary product" that they can't yet sell? Yes and no. Yes, given that the 3G iPads will connect to the cell phone network, the FCC will have to approve them. But will that be a problem? Probably not. As our own Mike Rose would say, Apple prefers to announce their products themselves, and they'd rather not have them leaked by a

government filing (since any applications filed with the FCC would find their way out to, well, this very Unofficial Apple Weblog). So it's no surprise Apple has waited until after their announcement to secure FCC approval, and it's very likely that they'll get that approval long before the 90 days until the 3G iPad's release are up. That notice on the page is a formality, and even if the FCC has an issue

with the iPad, Apple has plenty of time to fix it. TUAW iPad still pending FCC approval, not a problem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Motorola plans to launch a device with Google later this year that will be sold directly to consumers, the same strategy we saw with the Nexus One. According to TheStreet.com, the move was revealed in a conference call earlier today with Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha, who said the to-be-named device would be one of 20 smartphones the company releases this year. At this point, it’s not clear which carrier, if any, will offer a subsidy on the device. The move doesn’t come as much of a surprise — when Google debuted the Nexus One with HTC earlier this month, they indicated it wouldn’t be the only phone in which they worked directly with a manufacturer and sold the device

direct to consumers via the Web. That said, Motorola already put significant resources behind a major Android-based phone of its own – Droid – and some viewed the Nexus One launch as a smack in the face of Motorola. But apparently the handset manufacturer is still willing to try Google’s direct-to-consumer approach, even as early Nexus One sales estimates look disappointing. Reviews: Android, Google Tags: android, Google, Motorola

Chris Matthews: still on MSNBC, still won't shut up By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:02:00 PM

Last night during MSNBC's coverage of the State of the Union Address, Chris Matthews

said about President Obama, "I forgot that he was black tonight, for an hour." Now, even if you give him the benefit of the doubt about this statement (a dumb statement for many reasons -

what, he does remember that he's black all the other times of the day? What exactly does it mean?), it's still an odd statement to say out loud. He "clarified" the statement on Rachel

Maddow's show. Reality-Free Don't think what he said was Permalink| Email this| | odd? Imagine if someone on C o m m e n t s FOX News had said it. Filed under: News, Video, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities,


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TUAW Brainfark: Build or buy your own iPad mockup and fool your friends By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:15:00 AM

Filed under: Humor Denver-area Apple consultant, trainer, designer, and professional paraglider instructor Tim Meehan surprised me yesterday with the photo you see at right. It was one of a portfolio of pictures he sent to me via email, all of which had me wondering how the heck he had managed to get his hands on an iPad before the rest of us. At the bottom of the email was the answer: "A little foamcore, an inkjet printer, some spraymount adhesive, and voila! Something you can send all your friends to make them think you've been keeping a big secret from them..." If you'd like to amaze and

confuse your friends in the next 60 59 days, you can either follow Tim's easy instructions to make a faux iPad, or buy one of ten that he and Andrew McIntosh are selling on eBay. There's no word on whether or not Tim has developed mockups of the Keyboard Dock or Camera Connection Kit yet.

TUAW TUAW Brainfark: Build or buy your own iPad mockup and fool your friends originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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IFPI Claims That Three Strikes Can Surgically Remove One Family Member From The Internet, But Not The Rest By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

Shira Perlmutter, seems to be claiming some sort of magical ability to just block the single One of the major concerns about user from accessing the internet, various "three strikes" laws that saying to conference attendees kick people off the internet based that three strikes would only o n t h r e e a c c u s a t i o n s ( n o t require cutting off "one account." c o n v i c t i o n s ) o f c o p y r i g h t Perhaps the folks at the IFPI infringement, is that beyond don't quite understand how the b e i n g a s t u n n i n g l y internet works (or perhaps that's disproportionate punishment to a given) but generally speaking, the action, it also potentially when you have internet access at punishes many others: for your house, you don't set up example, a teenager can be separate access accounts for accused three times of file every family member... And if sharing and his parents and others in the family have access, siblings all lose their internet what's to stop the "cut off" one access because of it, that does from using the other's access? not seem reasonable nor fair. Permalink| Comments| Email A n d y e t , i n a r a t h e r o d d This Story statement, an IFPI representative, Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:16:00 AM

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

Proposals. A large majority of Americans who watched President Obama’s Interesting numbers for the State of the Union Address President’s first SOTU speech, g e n e r a l l y a p p r o v e o f t h e from a CBS News-Knowledge proposals he outlined in his Networks poll: Poll: 83% of speech, according to a CBS Speech Watchers Approve of News Poll conducted online by Obama’s State of the Union K n o w l e d g e N e t w o r k s Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:26:09 AM

immediately after the President’s address. Of the randomly selected 522 speech viewers questioned by CBS, 83 percent said they 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

conveyed a clear plan for creating jobs, and seven in 10 said his plans for the economy will help ordinary Americans. Another seven in 10 said President Obama has the same priorities for the country as they have.


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Tech/ Tech Tips/ Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

Make Do-Not-Do Lists for Better Productivity [Productivity] By Lisa Hoover (Lifehacker) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:30:00 PM

Nearly every time management system advocates to-do lists in some form to help keep us on track. Consider turning that advice on its head and make a do -not-do list instead. Photo by peekandeat. Success Magazine blogger Chelsea Greenwood says to-do By Dave Caolo (The Unofficial international uses can grab the lists can be helpful, but only to a Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Kindle app [Free - iTunes link] point. Eventually, they can get so (the irony is not lost on us), long and unwieldy they start to Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:00:00 PM Classics [Free - iTunes link] or take over our lives and sap our Filed under: Apple Corporate, any of the other ereaders in the energy to get anything done. After all, who wants to confront Hardware App Store [ iTunes link]. Apple Australia has published Of course, we're a few months a mile-long list of tasks staring iPad content to their site, and out of launch so things might them in the face? some keen-eyed observers have change. But we're not holding Instead, take a hard look at how you spend your day and try to noticed what's missing. our breath. identify where your giant black The list of features explained on [Via Engadget] the site includes much of what TUAW iBooks could be US- holes of time are. Too many we saw yesterday -- Safari, Mail, o n l y a t l a u n c h o r i g i n a l l y coffee breaks? Too much time YouTube, video ... all but iBooks appeared on The Unofficial spent surfing productivity sites and the iBookstore. Scroll down Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, (though we'll give you a free to the bottom of the page and 28 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST. pass on that)? Once you figure you'll see a footnote stating that Please see our terms for use of out where your time sinks are, write yourself a do-not-do list so iBooks will be U.S.-only at feeds. launch. Read| Permalink| Email this| you minimize how much time you spend doing things that In the meantime, all iPhone/iPod Comments aren't particularly productive. touch apps will run on the iPad, Depending on how drastic your

iBooks could be USonly at launch

findings are, implementing your do-not-do list may require persistence and teamwork. Post the list in one or more visible areas to remind yourself what you should not be doing, and enlist the support of co-workers, friends or loved ones to keep you on track. Now, no one's recommending that you never take a break or waste time during the day—everybody needs a little down time. Instead, use your donot-do list as a way to stay

focused on your goals and realize that the more time you spend avoiding things on your new list bring you that much closer to getting where you want to be. Hit up the post for tips on how to develop your do-not-do list. Do you keep a list like this? Does it help keep you on track? Share your thoughts in the comments. The Productivity Dilemma: To Do or Not to Do?[Success Magazine]

Halloween? (Via Oddee) All the latest fashion news and views.

Permalink| Leave a comment »

15 off-the-wall fashion runway trends (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:31:26 AM

Generally, runway fashions are

limited in their everyday wearability—but it’s difficult to think of even one appropriate occasion for these recent fifteen

wacky runway trends. Perhaps


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Senate Democrats Face Painful Votes On Debt Limit (Newsmax - Politics)

night to appoint a bipartisan task force to come up with a plan for Submitted at 1/27/2010 10:56:16 PM dealing with the spiraling debt. Senate Democrats are counting "I will issue an executive order on their soon-to-expire 60-vote that will allow us to go forward, majority to raise the federal debt because I refuse to pass this ceiling by $1.9 trillion so they problem on to another generation d o n ' t h a v e t o t a k e m o r e of Americans," he said. politically painful votes on The 60 votes Democrats need government borrowing until after from their own caucus include the fall midterm elections. those of incumbents facing They have no room for error. In difficult re-election battles this t h e f a c e o f m o n o l i t h i c year as well as longtime Republican opposition, they'll opponents of raising the debt need all 60 votes Thursday to let limit, such as Sen. Evan Bayh, D t h e g o v e r n m e n t c o n t i n u e -Ind. borrowing almost 40 percent of The task was made more what it spends. difficult last week when The legislation would put the Republican Scott Brown won the government on track for a late Edward M. Kennedy's national debt of $14.3 trillion — Senate seat from Massachusetts. equal to about $45,000 for every On Feb. 11, when Brown plans American — and provide a vivid to take office, the Democrats' reminder of the United States' majority shrinks to 59 and the dire fiscal straits. New estimates GOP will have a 41-vote ability released by the Congressional to block what it doesn't like in Budget Office on Wednesday Obama's and Democratic leaders' show that the U.S. this year agendas. could run a deficit matching last If the $1.9 trillion debt ceiling year's record $1.4 trillion increase fails, Senate leaders shortfall. planned to immediately offer a To make raising the debt ceiling fallback $925 billion increase e a s i e r f o r m o d e r a t e s a n d already approved by the House. p o l i t i c a l l y e n d a n g e r e d But that would require another Democrats to swallow amid a vote before Election Day to raise p o p u l i s t u p r i s i n g a g a i n s t the ceiling again. government borrowing and "It took 200 years to build the spending, President Barack federal debt to a total of $1.9 Obama promised in his State of trillion," Sen. Judd Gregg, Rthe Union address Wednesday N.H., said. "Now the majority

wants to increase the current limit ... by $1.9 trillion so that we can finance the government's borrowing binge long enough to get us past the November 2010 elections." Congress has until mid-February before the current $12.4 trillion debt ceiling is reached, so there wouldn't be an immediate crisis if the measure were to be defeated. But a losing vote — the tally was scheduled for around noon, when financial markets are open — could unnerve the stock market. Lawmakers in both parties have promised they won't permit a market-rattling, firstever default on U.S. obligations. Democrats and Republicans alike share responsibility for running up the debt, but it falls upon Democrats to pass the measure since they control the government. It makes no difference that Republicans routinely backed increases in the debt when former President George W. Bush was in office. Republicans blame recent generous spending bills enacted by the Democratic-controlled Congress for driving up the debt. Those measures, however, are just one relatively small part of the problem. The far bigger element is a sharp drop-off in tax revenues because of the recession and the economy's slow recovery, as well as higher

costs, since more people are taking unemployment benefits and food stamps in tough times. As part of the debt ceiling bill, the Senate will also vote on new budget rules that would make Congress cover any increases in government benefits with either a corresponding tax increase, spending cuts elsewhere or a combination of the two. The same would apply for new tax cuts, such as the tax credit Obama proposed Wednesday night for small businesses that hire more workers. The tax cuts would have to be "paid" for with corresponding spending cuts or increases in other taxes. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., whose own reelection is in danger this fall, reversed course and came out in support of the new rules after moderate "Blue Dog" Democrats in the House insisted on them as condition for passing a new $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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'The Bachelor''s Ella Nolan: I Stayed Out of the Drama (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:45:00 PM

Jake Pavelka surprised everyone on Monday night's episode of "The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love" when he sent home more women than he had to. On his two-on-one date with Ella and Kathryn, neither one of them received a rose; then at the rose ceremony, he only gave out four roses instead of five, sending home Ashleigh and Jessie. One of the most surprised to not receive a rose was Ella, a single mom, who had had a one-on-one single date with Jake and her son at Sea World a few weeks back that went really well. "I think that Jake was fantastic with my son. They really hit it off," she tells ET. "They really developed a bond because they both enjoy flying. My son wants to be a pilot. I think that bringing my son out on my first one-on one-date, as great as that was for me to see him with my son, it was also a double-edged sword because we didn't get to build a romantic connection."


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You Wanted Populism? By Noam Scheiber (The New Republic - All Feed)

2008. Which is why, in retrospect, Axelrod's tighter grip on the reins didn't foreshadow an Submitted at 1/27/2010 10:42:15 PM embrace of class-consciousness. Going into the State of the It foreshadowed a return to the Union, it was easy to expect a themes of the Obama campaign. speech steeped in populism. The At certain points, in fact, Obama consensus was that the White sounded much more like a H o u s e h a d m i s j u d g e d t h e candidate than an incumbent country's anger over bailouts and president. He repeatedly singled unemployment, all of which out Washington for abuse, as boiled over in Massachusetts. though he'd spent the last several A n d s o , b e g i n n i n g l a s t years in some provincial capital. Wednesday, Obama went out of "Washington has been telling us his way to channel that anger at to wait for decades even as the Wall Street. "We're about to get problems have grown worse," he into a big fight with the banks," complained. He railed against the t h e p r e s i d e n t t o l d G e o r g e city's customs ("fighting the Stephanopoulos the day after the same tired battles"), its currency Kennedy seat went Republican. ("earmarks"), and its denizens Close observers of the White ("lobbyists"). He panned its H o u s e o n l y a f f i r m e d t h i s cherished pastimes ("saying impression, noting the re- anything about the other side, no emergence of Obama's chief matter how false") and its most c o u n s e l o r , D a v i d A x e l r o d . scrupulously-practiced rituals Axelrod is known within the (greeting "every day" like it's administration as a champion of "Election Day"). If Clinton the little guy and an enemy to f a m o u s l y adopted overdogs. According to recent "triangulation," in which he put reports, he helped persuade distance between congressional Obama to pursue the latest round Democrats on his left and of tough-minded Wall Street congressional Republicans on his reforms. right, Obama has embraced But whatever his economic something akin to "cancellation"worldview, Axelrod is first and -ending his brief membership in foremost the chief curator of the the beltway establishment and Obama brand. Alongside the rediscovering his outsider roots. president himself, he is the man But Obama's successful m o s t r e s p o n s i b l e f o r t h e campaigns were about much persistent hope-mongering of

more than standard Washingtonbashing. They were primarily about unity--common purpose, common ideals and ambitions. In his campaign for Senate in 2004, Obama was fond of pointing out that Americans mostly want the same thing: a chance to build a decent life. He echoed that language last night, noting that, while Americans may have different backgrounds and beliefs, "The aspirations they hold are shared: A job that pays the bills. A chance to get ahead." Likewise, I'm sure most viewers heard echoes of Obama's famous 2004 convention speech in his closing riff on our values: not "Republican values" or "Democratic values," but "American values." As in the 2008 campaign, Obama placed himself and the country in a long line of dreamers who refused to be discouraged by impossible odds. Back then he joked about what would have happened had John Kennedy looked up at the moon and said, "Darn, that's far." Last night he riffed on what would have happened if earlier generations had been afraid to do "what was needed even when success was uncertain." One can argue that preaching uplift and unity are a necessity for a black candidate hoping to

win over a majority white electorate. Or that these impulses were a natural outgrowth of Obama's biography (a man who spent his young adulthood trying to break into elite institutions isn't likely to turn around and bash elites). Whatever the case, divisiveness just doesn't come naturally to this president. The last few weeks of jawboning with the banks felt vaguely reminiscent of the moment in 2007 when Obama announced he was getting tough with Hillary, only to mostly lose his nerve once the klieg lights were shining. And so, as in Iowa, Axelrod and the rest of the president's inner circle have calculated that the president is better off staying true to his persona than faking something he's not just because the moment seems to demand it. I'm not convinced it'll work-there are an awful lot of people out there just itching for a banker to hate. But, then, it's probably way too early in this presidency to get away from the things that got you here. Noam Scheiber is a senior editor of The New Republic. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Selena Gomez: Taylor Lautner is Amazing (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:16:00 AM

Disney star Selena Gomez opens up about her relationship with rumored boyfriend Taylor Lautner as well as her friendship with Lautner's ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift. The actress tells KIIS FM's OnAir with Ryan Seacrest that she's close with Swift and feels "very lucky to have her in my life." Gomez even recalls a time when she was coping with a broken heart and Swift came over to her house late at night with a bag full of junk food. She says Swift told her, "We're going to look forward to getting our heart broken, because now the other person gets the junk food."


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RNC Promises Light Touch in Fall Races (Newsmax - Politics)

The gathering - which in recent years had been held in Washington - is proving an HONOLULU -- The Republican unusually felicitous venue for a National Committee and its party that sees itself on the campaign management experts upswing. Daytime highs here will be available to give advice have run in the upper 70s and but will let candidates for nights in the upper 60s. statewide office calls the shots in Mr. Collins said the choice of their races this November, RNC Hawaii for the meetings was Political Director Gentry Collins dictated by important elections said Wednesday. here this fall - but the same can Candidates and their staffs have be said about virtually every routinely complained in the past other state. Some RNC members that Washington-based GOP have said selecting Hawaii was o p e r a t i v e s - w i t h l i t t l e RNC Chairman Michael S. knowledge of local issues or the Steele's quid pro quo for the i d i o s y n c r a s i e s o f l o c a l support of state Republicans in electorates - try to dictate his hard-fought election as party strategy, tactics and the message head a year ago. of the local campaign, sometimes To the irritation of some fellow r u b b i n g t h e c a n d i d a t e s , Republican officials, Mr. Steele campaign workers and voters the has claimed much of the credit wrong way. for the victories that the party "We will offer advice but not has rung up in recent months, micromanage," Mr. Collins said. including gubernatorial contests GOP victories in several high- in New Jersey and Virginia in profile contests so far in the 2009 November and the stunning -10 election cycle have helped upset win in the Massachusetts the party to recruit "top-notch special Senate election earlier candidates" for the November this month. congressional and gubernatorial In briefing reporters races, Mr. Collins told reporters Wednesday, Mr. Collins, a at a briefing on the first day of veteran political operative from the four-day annual RNC winter I o w a w h o w o r k e d i n t h e meeting in Hawaii. presidential campaigns of former Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:59:35 AM

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain, refrained from claiming major RNC credit for those victories. It was simmering tensions within the RNC over Mr. Steele's performance as party leader that have drawn much of the national political press corps to this year's meeting at the Hilton Hotel on Waikiki Beach, even though only 120 of the RNC's 168 members opted to attend. Two of Mr. Steele's rivals for the top RNC post a year ago one the former South Carolina party chairman and the other the former Michigan GOP chairman - are here, just in case a row breaks out between Mr. Steele and his critics on the national committee and Mr. Steele resigns or is forced out. A member of the Illinois state GOP central committee established a "dumpsteele.com" Web site that lists what it says are Mr. Steele's gaffes and transgressions as chairman. But it is unclear whether the Web site and other grumbling about Mr. Steele, the first black to head the party, has put his job in danger. Members who once said privately they would like to see

him go now say a coup is unlikely, just 10 months before midterm elections where Republicans increasingly are banking on major gains. Mr. Steele has faced sharp internal criticism over private paid speaking engagements and a promotional tour for a book he wrote while he also serves full time as party chairman. Critics have prepared motions directing Mr. Steele to halt the book tour, turn proceeds from the book's sale over to the RNC and cease making paid speeches to corporations and clubs around the country. They maintain Mr. Steele, who receives a $223,500 annual salary and unlimited expenses, is violating the ethics clauses of the RNC's employee rule book with his private business dealings. Mr. Steele has vigorously defended himself, saying many previous chairmen have done the same thing. © Copyright 2010 The Washington Times, LLC Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Carrie Underwood's Super Bowl Plans Revealed (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:52:00 AM

ET has learned what country music star Carrie Underwood's plans are for the upcoming Super Bowl game! The former "American Idol" champ and four-time Grammyaward winner will sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl XLIV at Sun Life Stadium in South Florida on Sunday, February 7 on CBS. Click here to look through ET's photo gallery of the country cutie! Former Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner Queen Latifah will belt out "America the Beautiful" as part of the festivities.

EU signals last-resort backing for Greece (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:42:15 AM

The European Union made clear

on Thursday it would not abandon Greece and let Athens’ mounting debt crisis jeopardise the eurozone, even as Germany and France played down

suggestions they had already formulated an emergency rescue plan. “It’s quite clear that economic policies are not just a matter of

national concern but European Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: concern,” José Manuel Barroso, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, European Commission president, Term Extraction. told reporters in Brussels. Five Filters featured article:


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Learn the Art of Smooth Transitions to Avoid Being Late [Time Management] By Lisa Hoover (Lifehacker)

And then, in a move that will make everyone else in the room overjoyed, let them know you Are you habitually late? Before want to make the 60 minute writing it off to laziness or being meeting 30 minutes and tell them disorganized, consider that how you plan to do it. maybe you've developed a habit Of course, there's more to of pre-meditated lateness. Get getting places on time than just past it by factoring more thinking about what you want to transition time into your day. do once you get there. You also Photo by wwarby. need to do some backwards Harvard Business Review's planning to figure out what time Peter Bregman comes clean as you need to end the previous someone who was chronically activity, factor in transportation late everywhere he went. Finally time, and so on. Check out the he admitted to himself he'd fallen post for more tips on how into the trap of pre-meditated smooth transitions can make it lateness—or, planning to be late easier for you to be on time. by not allowing for enough time Are you chronically late faster than is humanly possible. fumble around for 15 minutes wherever you go? If you're between activities. Here's my problem: I have a When Bregman finally padded unprepared at your next meeting, struggling with this issue in your very high need to be efficient his schedule with time to spare in take a few minutes ahead of time l i f e , l e t u s k n o w w h a t and productive. And transition b e t w e e n a p p o i n t m e n t s , h e to sort out what you need to do works—and what doesn't—to time is neither of those things; discovered he was actually more or say and the meeting will go a help get past it. Optimize it's annoying. I'd rather just be productive than when he was lot faster. Transition Time (And Stop somewhere. I don't want to waste constantly rushing around and Even five or 10 minutes of that Being Late)[Harvard Business the time getting there. So, even showing up late for meetings. kind of planning can shave 30 Review] though I know I should leave The key lies in using the minutes off a task. Think about more time, I push it, clinging to transition time to plan ahead for your outcome. Think about what the illusion that I can get places the next activity. Rather than you really need from people. Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:00:00 AM

Vice-premier defends Chinese policy (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:27:35 AM

Li Keqiang, the man poised to become China’s next premier in 2012, stepped on to the Davos stage with what looked like a royal wave. In easily his most high-profile speech abroad since his elevation to vice-premier two years ago, he resolutely defended China’s record in pursuing balanced growth, implicitly rejecting criticism that Beijing had not done enough to mend its exportled model. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Nancy Kerrigan's Emotional Goodbye To Her Father (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:14:00 AM

ET has the latest... Four days after her father Daniel

died following an alleged altercation with her brother Mark, Nancy Kerrigan says farewell to her dad as he's laid to rest in Boston.

A shroud of red umbrellas covered Nancy and her mom as they arrived at the funeral home. Then shortly after, the procession to the the funeral, held at St.

Patrick's Catholic Church, began. The private service lasted approximately an hour and Nancy's oldest son, Matthew, did a reading, as did her niece.


Tech Tips/

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43

Dorm Days and LEDs [Featured Workspace] Universal Darkroom Turns Any Application Into a Distraction-Free Zone [Downloads]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:00:00 PM

Today's workspace highlights how you can work within the tight constraints imposed by a college dorm and the lack luster By The How-To Geek i t t o s t a r t u p t h e different application—as soon as furniture that comes a long with (Lifehacker) application—there's no code the "darkroomed" window loses it and still have a sleek and tweaking required at all. It's very focus, the black border will functional workspace. Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:00:00 PM user-friendly, and even has a animate away, and then back Lifehacker reader Drkinggreen Windows only: We've often help window that hovers on the when you switch back to the took a few tips from Lifehacker featured distraction-free writing screen with instructions on how application. about how to build a cheap t o o l s l i k e W r i t e r o o m o r to use it. We're providing you with a monitor stand, integrated some Darkroom to help you focus To enable the darkroom effect download of the script, which LED pucks, and did his best to while writing, and now reader for a window, simply right-click can also be found on the forum rework the workspace that came Liang has created a solution that in the corner of the screen, thread linked below. Universal with his dorm room. The end will turn the application of your choose Define New Border, Darkroom works on Windows, result is a tidy workspace with choice into a distraction-free select the window you want to requires AutoHotkey. Impressive zone. use the effect for, and then tweak s c r i p t , L i a n g ! U n i v e r s a l Once you've downloaded the the borders to show or hide as D a r k r o o m [ D o w n l o a d ] Universal Darkroom script, much of the application as you Distraction Elimination / Full which requires that you've want. What makes this script S c r e e n S c r i p t [ A u t o H o t k e y already installed AutoHotkey, especially slick is the way it F o r u m s ] you can simply double-click on handles switching back to a

well managed cables, a great spot to tuck his docked laptop, and wireless peripherals that are easily stashed to make way for books and paperwork. Check out the pictures below to get a closer look: If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker. D o r m D a y s a n d LEDs[Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool]


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E-reader News Edition

TabJump is a Smart, Organized Tab Manager for Google Chrome [Downloads] By Whitson Gordon (Lifehacker) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:30:00 AM

Google Chrome (Windows/Mac/Linux): If you tend to have tons of small, hardto-read tabs open at a time, navigate through them with TabJump, a Chrome extension that lets you open recently closed tabs, jump to open tabs, and group related tabs together. We've all been there before—you open up Wikipedia for a five-minute break, and two hours later you have 30 tabs open. TabJump is a great tab manager for Google Chrome,

that sits in the address bar and organizes all your open and recently closed tabs, so you can easily navigate through your sea of open pages. Your open tabs are organized into two colums, one of which shows the tabs

related to the one currently in focus, so you can quickly jump between open pages from the same site. You can also lock certain pages, protecting them from accidental closure. If you try to close a locked tab, you'll

get a popup message from Chrome asking you if you are sure, preventing you from losing what was really important out of all those open tabs. TabJump is a free download, works wherever Google Chrome does (Note: You'll need to be running the beta channel for Road-Weary extension support on Linux, and the dev channel for extension Blackhawks in support in OS X). Thanks, MPS! Showdown With Sharks TabJump - Intelligent Tab By Susan Slusser (FanHouse N a v i g a t o r [ G o o g l e C h r o m e Main) Extensions]

Filed under: Blackhawks, Sharks, FanHouse Exclusive SAN JOSE -- This is the ugly part of the Blackhawks' season: eight consecutive road games and an itinerary that is, to put it kindly, creative. Game 7 is in San Jose Thursday, for instance, and Joe Wilson(South Carolina's government sites. Last August, and Game 8 is Saturday at 2nd District). These sites are for example, one member of the Carolina. currently down for maintenance. g r o u p d e f a c e d o v e r 4 5 0 The Sharks game is the one the Sponsor on the House's servers was government sites in Brazil. In team has had circled for some Here is the messages that a f f e c t e d b y t h i s a t t a c k . total, the group is responsible for t i m e , C h i c a g o c o a c h J o e l Queneville said after his team's greeted visitors to house.gov According to the Wall Street over 45,000 defacements. practice at HP Pavilion. After all, yesterday afternoon: It's not clear how the attackers Journal, all of these sites are FUCK OBAMA!! Red Eye managed by GovTrends, a managed to deface these sites, as Quenneville noted, a win C R E W ! ! ! ! ! O R E S T O E private vendor. Red Eye Crew but according to a spokesman for would put his team into a firstHACKER !!! by m4V3RiCk ; According to Praetorian Prefect, House chief administrative place tie in the conference (and HADES ; T4ph0d4 -- FROM which specializes in chronicling officer, the attackers broke into atop the league) with the Sharks. BRASIL web security issues, the Red Eye these sites while GovTrends was "It's a huge game," he said. "We All the affected sites used the C r e w , w h i c h c l a i m e d performing routine maintenance. have a lot of respect for San Jose and the way they play." Joomla content management responsibility for these attacks, Discuss system, but it's important to note s p e c i a l i z e s i n d e f a c i n g that not every Joomla site hosted

Bringing Down the House: Hackers Deface U.S. Government Websites By Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:35:48 AM

Yesterday afternoon, just before President Obama's first State of the Union address, the websites of the House of Representatives and those of multiple congressional members were defaced with anti-Obama messages. Among the defaced sites were those of Charles Gonzalez(20th District of T e x a s ) , S p e n c e r Bachus(Alabama's 8th District)

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


Tech News/ Fashion/

E-reader News Edition

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iBummer: Augmented Reality Fans Disappointed By iPad By Chris Cameron (ReadWriteWeb)

Have you seen those videos of people holding their iPhones up in London or New York to find Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:05:00 PM the nearest subway station? Been living under a rock these That's augmented reality, and days? There's this hip new tablet developers and followers of the device from Apple called the technology (myself included) iPad. Most are in agreement that were hoping a camera on the the new toy is pretty slick, but iPad would open the door to a they also agree on where the larger and more immersive AR iPad fails - there's no camera. experience. No such luck. i P o d T o u c h f a n s w e r e Augmented reality has already disappointed last year when gained traction on the iPhone and Apple announced that the iPod Android platforms with dozens Nano would be getting the much o f A R a p p s a v a i l a b l e f o r coveted camera, and now fans of d o w n l o a d t o d a y . M a r k a different sort are feeling the B i l l i n g h u r s t , o n e o f A R ' s same dejected feelings. "founding fathers" and a leading A u g m e n t e d r e a l i t y i s a AR researcher since 1994, technology that allows 2D and reached out to me yesterday to 3D objects to be placed onto a express his feelings about the live video feed, creating unique iPad - a device with which he u s e r e x p e r i e n c e s . A R says Apple has missed an a p p l i c a t i o n s e n t e r e d t h e opportunity. m a i n s t r e a m w i t h a f e w "The form factor, CPU and advertisements and installations graphics capability make it an for automobiles in 2008. Since ideal platform for a handheld AR then the technology has found its experience," said Billinghurst. way onto our home computers "A camera on the back of the with things like the GE Smart iPad would have enabled the Grid campaign, and onto our cell development of vision based AR phones with mobile AR browsers applications and created a whole like Layar and Wikitude. new class of AR Sponsor applications on the App store."

Billinghurst also points out that his company ARToolworks has already provided over 100 iPhone app developers with their ARToolKit SDK, a clear sign of the growing interest in mobile AR. However, one hurdle in the way of these developers is Apple's reluctance to open the video API on the iPhone to realtime image processing - an impedance which AR proponents have gone as far to petition Apple to overturn. Right now, applications can grab a few frames every couple of seconds to process, but the kind of accuracy needed for AR applications requires real-time frame-by-frame processing of the video feed. This would allow applications to track objects and motion seen through the camera's lens, greatly increasing the

chances for accurate placement of 2D and 3D objects as well as the interpretation of real-world items. In the grand scheme of things, augmented reality represents a drop in the ocean of iPhone app development, and Apple would need more than some petitions and disappointed developers to add a camera or change their API. However, hope may be on the horizon, as MacRumors.com reported this morning on the discovery of the option to take photos in the iPad simulator. While disappointed, AR fans are still optimistic about the iPad's future. Claire Boonstra and Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, cofounders of Layar, one of the most popular mobile AR applications to date, expressed their sentiments on Twitter Wednesday when they heard the news about the iPad. Boonstra noted that we may have to wait for version 2.0 to see Layar on the iPad, while Lens-FitzGerald added that they have plenty of mobile phones to work on for the time being. Thomas Carpenter at Games Alfresco, the leading augmented

Street Chic: Paris By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:00:00 AM

These friends—in a lingerieinspired top and miniskirt, and a

conservative all-black outfit—complement each other well. Photo: Stylesight Think you are Street Chic? Email us your photo and you

Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan! could appear in ELLE.com's Street Chic Daily.

reality news blog, may have said it best when he noted Wednesday that Steve Jobs didn't make the iPad for AR fans - he made it to give Amazon's Jeff Bezos nightmares. Either way, for those of us eager to have our realities augmented, perhaps we will be pleasantly surprised next year when AR developers like Boonstra and Lens-FitzGerald are the ones on stage with Jobs showing off the next iteration of the iPad. The best thing AR fans can do for now is create and promote amazing AR applications that will captivate the masses and launch AR further into the public eye. We can only hope that Steve Jobs is watching. Be sure to keep your eye out in the next few weeks, as ReadWriteWeb will be presenting our next premium report focusing this time on the use of augmented reality in marketing. Photo by Flickr user vlauria. Discuss


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Tech News/

Startup Stimulus: Obama Proposes $30 Billion For Small Businesses By Chris Cameron (ReadWriteWeb)

wrote about earlier this month. As is the custom when the president gives his yearly Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:40:00 AM address to congress, the Earlier this week we told you Republican party chooses a how New York Times op-ed representative to deliver their contributor and author Thomas formal response. This year's Friedman urged President choice, Senator Bob McDonnell Obama to take steps to help from Virginia, warned of foster a new age of innovation growing government and and entrepreneurship. Well it banks. increased spending, but agreed seems that Obama may have "We should start where more with the president that inspiring r e c e i v e d t h a t m e s s a g e , a s n e w j o b s d o - - i n s m a l l growth in small businesses is Wednesday night during his b u s i n e s s e s , " s a i d O b a m a . critical. State of the Union address to "Companies that begin when an "We must enact policies that Congress the president proposed entrepreneur takes a chance on a promote entrepreneurship and a bill to help small businesses dream, or a worker decides it's innovation so America can better time she became her own boss." c o m p e t e w i t h t h e w o r l d , " and entrepreneurs. Perhaps Obama listened to Obama also called for a tax M c D o n n e l l s a i d . " W h a t Friedman, or maybe he saw the credit which will go to small government should not do is pile frenzied excitement that grows businesses that raise wages or on more taxation, regulation and around new innovations like the hire more employees, along with litigation that kill jobs and hurt iPad- either way, the president with the reversal of taxes on the middle class." seems to have taken the first small business investments. Embedded below is the White baby steps toward a more Instead of paying capital gains House video of Obama's speech. e n t r e p r e n e u r i a l c u l t u r e i n taxes, Obama proposed that Skip ahead to 13:14 to hear the small businesses should instead p r e s i d e n t ' s i d e a s f o r America. be given tax incentives for e n t r e p r e n e u r s a n d s m a l l Sponsor In the first quarter of a speech investing in things like new b u s i n e s s e s . t h a t l a s t e d n e a r l y s e v e n t y plants and equipment. Photos by New York Times minutes - due in no small part One idea that Obama did not photographer Doug Mills and part to the customary and, at mention which could bolster the White House photographer Pete t i m e s , c o m i c a l l y f r e q u e n t nation's innovative spirit is the so Souza. applause breaks - Obama leveled -called " startup visa" which Disclosure: ReadWriteWeb is a his focus on small businesses, c o u l d b r i n g f o r e i g n syndication partner of the New calling for a $30 billion bill to entrepreneurs to the U.S. and York Times. Discuss help them attain credit from create jobs - a movement we

E-reader News Edition

Announcing The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:45:00 AM

We're really excited to announce the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app! The reading and sharing experience was key for us, so we kept the functionality smart and simple. As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we've made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook. We've integrated with Read it Later and Instapaper, so that you can mark things to read later. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to find out more details about the ReadWriteWeb iPhone app and download it now from iTunes. Sponsor I'd like to thank the developer of the app, Nicolas Koenig - who runs an iPhone development shop from the Netherlands called Toopia. Toopia also created the Thermometer iPhone app, which enables your iPhone / iPod touch

to get the current temperature based on your location. I'd also like to thank ReadWriteWeb's Webmaster Jared Smith and Marketing Manager Elyssa Pallai, who both put in a lot of work to develop this app. So check out the new ReadWriteWeb iPhone app and download it from iTunes. Then tell us what you think! Camera Plus Pro is the only iPhone camera app which offers geo-tagging, full-resolution photo editing, and multiple and simultaneous photo uploading to various sites. You can tag, search and personalize photos. Visit now and explore other powerpacked features! Discuss


Tech News/ TV/ Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

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Do We Love the iPad? The Numbers Joe Dirt the series is Say We Do coming to TBS. Yes, really. By Mike Melanson (ReadWriteWeb)

Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:40:00 AM

By Brad Trechak (TV Squad)

There seem to be a lot of middling responses to yesterday's announcement of the iPad, Apple's latest entry into the world of really neat looking mobile devices. A quick look at the front page of Techmeme shows the variety of responses, from the iPad killing the PC to the lack of a camera killing the iPad. Social media monitoring and analytics firm Sysomos took a look at the responses to the iPad over the past days, however, and said that the iPad has received an "extremely positive" response. Sponsor According the the company's Media Analysis Platform, the

Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:06:00 PM

Do we really need multiple nights of David Spade (he's currently appearing on Rules of response to the iPad was an Whatever it is we've been Engagement on CBS)? TBS overwhelmingly 83% positive. s a y i n g , w h e t h e r p o s i t i v e , believes the answer is "yes" and With only 17% of the results negative or otherwise, we've sure i s p r e p a r i n g t o l a u n c h a n coming in on the negative end of been saying it a lot. According to animated series of Joe Dirt which things, it would seem that we the blog, there have been is a continuation of the movie of love it. Even if we ignore the "477,537 tweets that included the same name. Spade will be neutral, the positive does beat "apple" and "ipad" over the past providing the voice of the title out the negative. two days; 33,892 blog posts and character, which makes sense We have to wonder, however, 7,315 traditional media articles." since he starred in and co-wrote what falls into the neutral Maybe Apple should just release the original movie. category? At 48%, neutral a product called the iBuzz that TBS is trying to create a Family sentiment makes up a majority of we could talk about and rate Guy-like animated comedy. Expect a lot of toilet humor from the 83% favorability Sysomos forever. Discuss the series, which is a staple of arrives at. Perhaps this is the the movies from Happy Madison middling response we're seeing? Productions. It's likely that this series will not disappoint the legion of fans of "The Adam Sandler Bunch". Family remembered 70-year-old father's death. The question I must ask is: does Daniel Kerrigan as a dedicated N a n c y K e r r i g a n s a y s i n the movie really warrant a spinfather and grandfather with a statement that her father was off television series? While we're great sense of humor. "my support ... behind me at it, did the original Deuce He died Sunday after what always." Bigalow movie really warrant a authorities say was a violent Click here for more from sequel? If this works out for struggle with his son, Mark MyFoxBoston.com. Kerrigan. Family members say Five Filters featured article: he died of an unrelated heart Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: attack. The 45-year-old Mark PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Kerrigan has pleaded not guilty Term Extraction. to assault. Authorities are awaiting tests on the cause of his

Nancy Kerrigan's Father Laid to Rest (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 1/27/2010 10:36:12 PM

STONEHAM, Mass. The funeral for figure skater Nancy Kerrigan's father was held on Thursday in Massachusetts. The former Olympian buried her face in a relative's back and appeared to weep as the flagdraped casket was carried into St. Patrick's Church in Stoneham, Mass.

TBS, we might be seeing Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo the animated series in a few years. You know it would happen. Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments


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E-reader News Edition

Who Will Buy an iPad? By Patrick Hunt (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:19:08 AM

The debate is raging. Man, that’s a wide bezel! How could they possibly leave out support for Flash? Where’s the frontfacing video camera? AT&T? Are you serious? Now that the dust has begun to settle on Apple’s announcement of the iPad, though, there’s another nagging question that only time can answer. Who, exactly, will buy an iPad? Lets face it: Macs fill what is a fairly obvious need. General purpose computing for personal or work reasons–whether web browsing, email, word processing, managing media, buying online–is pervasive, and is a common daily activity for millions and millions of people. The iPhone, first and foremost, is a phone with text messaging, but it is also a portable Internet computer and a gaming device. With the app store, you can make the iPhone and iPod touch what you want them to be. But ultimately, computers and phones have an obvious place in the market. A tablet style computer, not so much, despite Steve Jobs’ attempt to paint a picture to the contrary. Apple’s 125 Million Customers The likely market for the iPad consists of several distinct groups of consumers. The first and most obvious is Apple’s existing customers. Apple

consistently ranks at the top of industry customer satisfaction surveys, its customers are passionate and loyal, and its ranks for Macs, iPhones and iPods have been growing. In announcing the iPad, Jobs made it very clear that this is a key market for the device. Apple has 125 million customers who have stored their credit cards with Apple, presumably for iTunes purchases. They know, understand, and are comfortable with one-click publishing via the iTunes Store no matter which device they buy from. Still, if you have a MacBook and an iPhone, do you really need another device, and if yes, does the iPad fit those needs? It is important to remember that despite becoming far more pricecompetitive in recent years, Apple still plays in the high-end of the markets it addresses. It has no interest in low-cost, lowmargin, high-volume products. It prefers higher cost, higher margin products that, while perhaps not scaling like some other companies, are significant businesses nonetheless. That means its 125 million customers either have higher amounts of discretionary income than ordinary consumers, or they simply choose to spend outside their limits for Apple products. The iPad isn’t necessarily as much about fulfilling an existing need as it is creating desire. Even in a challenging economy, people want Apple’s products, as

two key user groups with the iPad. Gamers: The iPhone and iPod touch are very popular game devices, perhaps surprisingly so. The iPad offers similar experiences, but even broader capabilities, primarily due to the screen size. Games were not a big part of Apple’s marketing strategy for the iPhone and iPod touch early on, but they know its being used as a game device. How? Simply by looking at the numbers of game downloads from the iTunes Store. In more this week’s financial results Granted, this includes many recent months, Apple has run clearly demonstrate. The iPhone iPhone and iPod touch customers several game-specific ads for the is far from essential. I can get a who are Windows users, so there two devices. Look for this to c h e a p e r s m a r t p h o n e o r is some overlap with the existing increase, and to include the iPad. traditional mobile for far less and customer base identified above. Imagine the ability to use the fulfill the need. The iPhone But if you subtract another half, iPod touch while you are on resonates so soundly with you still have another 12.5 road, but the iPad when you get customers that they buy it even million customers, for a total of home. Among gamers, who though it also means higher 25 million. Because the iPad is doesn’t want a more immersive monthly costs for a data plan. If less about filling a need and gaming experience? Don’t Apple only got 10 percent of more about creating desire, the overlook the fact that games existing customers, or 12.5 retail stores play a key role in played a large part in the demo million people, to buy an iPad in customer adoption. Reports from portion of iPad capabilities. its first year or two, it’d have a the people who used it in the Readers: Apple has dusted off success on its hands. Retail Store demo area (alas, I was not one) the iBook brand for its e-book V i s i t o r s W h o A r e n ’ t Y e t are very positive. The emotional reader embedded in the iPad. Customers appeal of the product when The Kindle is the clear market Don’t underestimate the power people can actually pick it up leader in this space, and has the of Apple’s retail presence to and use it for 5 or 10 minutes weight of Amazon behind it. But have a major impact on iPad will be huge. Primary Purpose ask yourself, which would you sales. Apple has 283 stores in 10 Users rather have: a single-purpose ecountries, and welcomed over 50 One of the smartest things about book reader with a (admittedly million visitors to those stores in the iPhone design that has been very good) monochrome screen, t h e l a s t f i s c a l q u a r t e r . carried over to the iPad is this: or a similar sized, full-color Extrapolating a bit, Apple despite each device having a device that does the same routinely pegs the number of primary function, users can make customers in its retail store who the device whatever they want it WHO page 50 are new to Mac at 50 percent. to be. Apple is clearly targeting


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E-reader News Edition

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VoIP Over AT&T 3G Network Now Allowed By Weldon Dodd (TheAppleBlog)

their applications.” CNET was also able to get comment from both AT&T and Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:35:33 AM Apple confirming that VoIP AT&T has amended the terms applications are now supported of use for the iPhone and now on the 3G network. allows for VoIP applications to AT&T said it informed Apple run over its 3G data network. and the Federal Communications Previously, VoIP applications Commission of its decision were only approved for sale in Tuesday afternoon. the App Store if they were “We are very happy that AT&T limited to Wi-Fi. is now supporting VoIP The developers of the iCall a p p l i c a t i o n s , ” Apple VoIP application for iPhone spokesperson Natalie Kerris said. issued a press release yesterday “We will be amending our that they have the first VoIP over developer agreements to get 3G app for the iPhone. VoIP apps on the App Store and Apple Computer, Inc. has in customers’ hands as soon as updated the iPhone developer possible.” SDK to allow VoIP over cellular VoIP on the iPad? networks. iCall is the first and At yesterday’s announcements only VoIP application that Apple reiterated over and over functions on the iPhone and iPod that “virtually” all of the T o u c h o v e r c e l l u l a r 3 G 140,000+ apps in the App Store networks. would work with the iPad. Skype iCall CEO Arlo Gilbert is was mentioned by David Pogue quoted as saying, “I applaud in his coverage and I’m fairly Apple’s decision to allow iCall certain Apple provided him with to extend its functionality more briefing on the iPad than beyond Wi-Fi and onto the 3G they did for me. While there is networks. This heralds a new era n o e x p l i c i t a n n o u n c e m e n t for VoIP applications on mobile confirming VoIP for the $29 platforms, especially for iCall unlimited 3G service, it seems and our free calling model. I possible that iCall (or Skype) hope that now more developers would run unaltered on the iPad will begin using our VoIP as a and would work over the 3G data platform to integrate VoIP into 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.

Digital Foundry analyzes Darksiders post-patch By Justin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:30:00 PM

Removing screen tearing from a game requires plenty of work (probably!), so Digital Foundry was understandably skeptical when a patch to the 360 version of Darksiders, less than a month after its launch, claimed to help the game's image quality. But according to DF's analysis, Vigil and THQ were able to pull it off, reducing tearing by as much as 50 percent. How'd they do it? It would appear that this feat was achieved by locking the frame rate at 30 per second rather than letting the game push out as many frames as it could at any given moment. That seems like good news for fans and great news for all those poor, torn screens. Digital Foundry analyzes Darksiders post-patch originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments


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E-reader News Edition

WHO continued from page 48

thing–perhaps with a more elegant user interface–plus a whole lot more: color, video, photos, and other media in the books themselves, as well as browser, email, calendar, games, and the 140,000 other things from the iTunes App Store? And if you could do that for just $10 more (Kindle DX currently listed at $489, lowest-priced iPad at $499)? No brainer. The video game market is huge, with likely many non-Mac customers. The e-reader market is not as big, but is likely growing, and the iPad is likely to really juice the market for ebooks. Combined, these two markets represent millions and millions of potential customers. Families The iPad is light and thin, and supports both Wi-Fi and 3G wireless Internet. As Jobs said, its a mobile device. And though he didn’t come right out and say it, I expect the iPad to become primarily a room-to-room mobile device. I think most iPad buyers will be existing Apple customers. The parents will carry iPhones, the kids iPod touches, and the family will have a laptop or desktop Mac that tends to stay

chained to the home office desk and connected to peripherals. So the iPad becomes the device that everyone in the household can use at home when they want a more immersive media experience than the smaller devices allow. The calendar, contacts and notes apps appear to be designed specifically for families. And though the rumored multi-user and sharing features didn’t make it into yesterday’s announcement, my bet is that they appear before the devices ship. Newbies Its often hard for us to remember that there is still a huge percentage of the population that doesn’t make computing a part of their daily lives. Many of them have cheap desktop PCs that they occasionally use for email and shopping, but that’s about it. They don’t have game machines, media center PCs, laptops or smartphones. But one of the reasons they don’t have these things is how they fit their lifestyles. Yet all these people read books, watch TV and movies, listen to music, and more and more, browse the web. I conduct software usability

testing for a living, and I come across people like this every single day. The iPad will likely meet most or all of their computing needs, and become their primary computer. Who Will Buy the iPad? Who Won’t? The brilliance of the design of the iPhone and iPod Touch–and a key contributor to their success–is the combination of incredibly simple, well-made hardware that doesn’t look like anything but a small rectangular thingamabob. Turn it on, however, and it can do some pretty amazing things. With the SDK and resulting app store, you can turn these devices into anything you want them to be. I know some people who use them almost exclusively as iPods, others as game consoles, others still as business communications tools. The big screen is a great new feature that comes with the iPad. But the hardware is a small part of what the iPad represents, and the software will drive its adoption.

NBC takes down last Tonight Show blog post By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:00:00 PM

Tonight Show staffer (with Conan, anyway) Aaron Bleyaert kept a blog and a Twitter account for the show since Conan took over last year. Of course, Jay Leno is coming back so he's no longer going to be doing the blog and wrote his last blog post when Conan's run on the show ended recently. NBC, however, took the blog post down. But Bleyaert still had the blog post so he put it on his personal site. He talks about how Conan's last show went, what the status was on the show and Conan's future (unknown at the time), talks about the team at NBC.com, how the show will be in repeats until the Olympics, and generally says goodbye until a new show starts up. I'm not

really sure what NBC saw objectionable or questionable about it, unless it's like a reader says in the comments section of Aaron's blog that they might have been upset that he linked to his personal web site and personal Facebook and Twitter accounts. Filed under: Late Night, Web, Talk Show, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as classic art (Holy Kaw!)

Mutant Ninja Turtles got their names — Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo — from Everyone knows that the green, the world of classic art, but what mean fighting machines known would the turtles look like if collectively as the Teenage drawn by their namesakes? Plus, what would spin-off characters Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:13:00 PM

like Monet and Pollock look like? Luckily, some creative TMNT fan did the thinking and drawing for the rest of us and the result is quite tubular. Cowabunga! Pizza time!

(Via The Daily What) Oodles of funny bone-tickling humor. Permalink| Leave a comment »


Apple/

E-reader News Edition

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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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iPad and the Mobile Computer: Will the iPad Boost Desktop Sales? By Alfredo Padilla (TheAppleBlog)

(FOXNews.com) Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:58:27 AM

Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:47:37 AM

Apple told us yesterday that the iPad is not meant to be a replacement for either your iPhone or your Mac, but rather to fill a niche in between them. One result of this placement may be a resurgence in desktop Mac sales. For a long time now desktops have been in decline, both in the overall computer industry and for Apple. Laptops have become much more powerful and have dropped in price significantly over the past few years. Combined with a laptop’s convenience in terms of mobility, this has driven laptops to the forefront of the computing industry. In fact it is clear that small size combined with small price is a sweet spot for many consumers, which explains the explosion in sales of netbooks. What Apple has done with the iPad is create a product that is going to compete in large part with netbooks, but will fall short of giving you a complete computing experience. As such Apple expects us to continue buying Macs, while buying an

Sister: Stacy Peterson Feared for Her Life

iPad to complement them. If this strategy works, the result in terms of buying strategy for Mac users might change significantly for the laptop versus desktop question. Let’s take the situation before today. If you were looking to buy a new Mac, the $1,200 MacBook Pro was probably your sweet spot in terms of portability, price and power. Starting yesterday, however, the math could look very different. The best choice from Apple for a mobile device may now be an iPad given it’s light weight and

user experience. By itself it won’t match the capabilities of an entry-level MacBook Pro, but if you combine it with a Mac Mini, for example, you suddenly have two devices that probably match the capabilities of a MacBook Pro. And the price? Well, $500 for the iPad plus $600 for the Mac Mini is actually less expensive than a Macbook Pro. This works as you move further up the market as well, would you rather have a $2,000 MacBook Pro or a $600 iPad combined with a $1500 iMac? The iMac

JOLIET, Ill. Former Illinois police officer Drew Peterson's sister-in-law says Stacy Peterson warned two days before she disappeared that if anything happened to her, Drew Peterson was involved. Cassandra Cales testified Thursday at a pretrial hearing to determine what hearsay evidence can be admitted at Drew Peterson's upcoming trial on charges of murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Stacy Peterson is his fourth wife, who gives you a more powerful and disappeared in October 2007. expandable computing platform, Cales, Stacy Peterson's younger while the iPad might be able to sister, says the whispered fill your mobile computing conversation took place in the needs. I don’t think the decision Petersons' bathroom two nights is cut and dry — there is value in before her sister disappeared. having a singe device for all your Drew Peterson is the only computing needs — but it is suspect in her disappearance but certainly worth thinking about. I has not been charged. know that I’ll be considering the The former Bolingbrook police iPad plus Desktop route when sergeant has pleaded not guilty to the time comes to upgrade my charges of killing Savio in 2004. Mac. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Apple's jumbo Oreo (Scripting News) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:09:20 AM

It may just be a temporary thing, hardware development pipelines are long, and Steve was out of commission getting a liver transplant while the iPad was being birthed at Apple. Presumably. Hopefully. If that's not true, and this is the result of a careful gestation, then Steve is no longer the master, he has lost his touch. This thing, the iPad, is a dog. People who think it isn't comparable to a netbook are just plain wrong. It is, in every way because there are only so many points between an iPhone/Droid/Pre et al and laptops. As Adam Frucci in Gizmodo says so eloquently, where's the camera, where are the USB ports, where is the fracking keyboard? SD drive, removable battery, hard disk, etc etc. When netbooks first came out they flirted with all-solid-state storage. This meant a $600 unit only had 20GB of persistent storage. Made it almost totally unusable. Then they put a 160GB hard drive in the things and the price came down to $350, and they hit the sweet spot and started flying off the shelves. Okay the fanbois say this product is for marketing people, old people, one guy even said my parents would want it. My father isn't going to use it, no matter what, and we just bought

my mom an Asus, which she thinks is cute and is having just a bit of trouble with even though she's a bit of a technophobe. What they're really saying is that it's the computer for idiots. I agree. Idiots with $500 burning a hole in their pocket. Like me. I'll almost certainly buy one. But unless I'm missing something, I'll still travel with the Asus that I'm typing this review on. Now I was wrong about the iPhone, I bought one and used it for two years, saying goodbye to

my Blackberry. But I ended up saying goodbye to the iPhone for the reasons I thought I would at its roll out. It should have been a Mac. Same with the iPad. They should have come out with a netbook-style product, price and feature-comparable to the Asus products but running the Mac OS and Mac apps. Because huff and puff all you want, this baby is going to have to look good compared to the netbooks, and now it looks like testimony to hubris. Finally, Apple went too

carry the Nexus One as the admiration platform. It has the SIM that used to be in the iPhone. Fred Wilson and I agreed (we had breakfast yesterday) that it's like carrying a girlfriend in your pocket. What could be better. This is an important point. Finally Google is presenting them with a serious competitor in the lust category. No, they aren't all the way there yet, but they don't have the prison mentality for users and developers. Continuing the girlfriend analogy, who wants an uptight control freak GF when you can have a.. okay I think you probably get the idea. Also I don't care about the name. We get used to bad names. No one snickers anymore when you say Microsoft, but I remember when they did. I don't care that the name is a big gaffe. But I think the product itself is a gaffe, and that matters. Finally, my prognostication far, and the emperor is totally piece missed wildly. I was way naked for all of us to see. too ambitious on Apple's behalf. Ridiculous product. Absolutely I figured it's been so long since they shipped something completely ridiculous. Apple hasn't added anything wonderful that they must really new to my repetoire of computer have something incredible and toys in a very long time. I bought far-reaching in the lab, and here a 13 inch MacBook Pro, but it's a it comes. About the only thing I battery hog running the same got right was #9. Steve still loves apps as my Asus, and unreliable. to delete ports. It would have It stays home when I travel. I been sort of cute if he had will probably move it to NY to d e l i v e r e d o n s o m e o f t h e be my main computer here. The potential in this category. But iPhone also stayed home. My APPLE'S page 54 workhorse is the Droid, and I


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given the lack of imagination and original classic model made execution in this product, it's a sense. This bloated mess is just a cruel joke that illustrates that all bloated mess. that remains of Apple's brilliance is Apple's arrogance. The art has to be there, following Doc Searls' famous 1997 analysis. This is just a jumbo Oreo cookie. The

CW picks up pilot from Gilmore Girls creator and a La Femme Nikita remake

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Andrew Breitbart, David Shuster Yell At Each Other About ACORN and Teabugging [Teabuggers] By Pareene (Gawker) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:13:18 PM

Everyone in the world owes Andrew Breitbart an apology for jumping to conclusions about his employee James O'Keefe's alleged felony, he tells David Shuster today. Also, ACORN! ACORN!!! By Brad Trechak (TV Squad) Our favorite line is "you convicted him on Twitter!" Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:29:00 PM Andrew is so concerned about The CW has picked up two new the sanctity of our criminal pilots for the fall season. The justice system! Which is why he first is an untitled family drama also brings up the "pantyon a Wyoming horse farm that is My guess is that the new version bomber..."?? being done by Gilmore Girls of La Femme Nikita is going for Looks like we owe Andrew creator Amy Sherman-Palladino the name-brand recognition and Breitbart an apology, too! and her husband. The second is will evolve into something Breitbart is so, so, so mad that yet another television remake of different than its predecessors, people keep accusing O'Keefe of La Femme Nikita(which is based like Battlestar Galactica. Of wiretapping. But his idiot on a French movie that was course, if female assassins aren't protege was apparently not made into an American movie). your thing, you could always intending to wiretap Senator The latter is going to be w a t c h t h e d r a m a o n t h e produced by McG and have a W y o m i n g f a r m . Filed under: Industry, slight change in concept from the previous versions. In this one, Programming, Pickups and (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Nikita goes rogue and a new Renewals, Reality-Free P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:16:00 PM assassin is trained to replace her. By "replace", there's a chance C o m m e n t s Ben Bernanke has been they mean "exterminate". approved to serve a second fouryear term as chairman of the US Federal Reserve. The US Senate voted 70-30 in favour of Mr Bernanke serving a second term at the US central

Mary Landrieu's phones. They were just attempting to disconnect them. To prove an important political point! (That important political point was that Senator Landrieu is so mean that she would not even notice if her phone was disconnected, because sometimes when crazy people call her office it goes directly to voicemail. Looks like someone did notice, though, James!) But the other day, Andrew raised a very good point about weighing in before the facts are known. So, for the record, we are sorry we jumped to conclusions about precisely which felony O'Keefe was intending to commit when he failed at sneaking into a Senator's office under false pretenses. (The fact that Breitbart was

hammering the "wiretapping" line, but not disputing any other aspect of the official report, before this new information came to light? That is, if we may jump to more conclusions, suspicious!) Andrew, though, was so upset that Shuster invited him on TV that he angrily went on TV, to argue. Meanwhile, the various organizations that bragged about training this li'l Liddy in media hijinks have, predictably, distanced themselves from the kid. O'Keefe has been released from jail with a $10,000 bond, but the judge has ordered him to live with his parents.

Fed chief Bernanke gets second term bank. Mr Bernanke had faced the stiffest opposition to any nominee for Fed chairman in the three decades that the Senate has voted on the position. Mr Bernanke has been criticised by some for not doing enough to prevent the economic crisis. His nomination had earlier cleared a procedural hurdle with

a 77-23 vote. Mr Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as chairman in 2006. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Highlights From Last Week’s Project Runway Live Blog [Project Runway] By MisterHippity (Gawker) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:58:39 PM

Do you love Jesus? Well, the Gawker live bloggers don't. Oh, not Tim Tebow's lord and savior, the designer on this season of Project Runway. Look at all the funny (and mean) things they said about him last week! Here's a selection of our favorite comments from the Project Runway commenter live blog hosted on Gawker last week. Join us here for the next one tonight—the post goes up at 9 pm Eastern, and the show starts at 10. • summeroflove: Burlap, because potato sacks will become the must-have fashion trend in this economy. • naugahydeinplainsight: That'll be 98 pounds of model in a 125 lb bag. • dippitydoo: Poor Tim standing out there in pig shit. So not his scene. • Lizawithazee: I can't help but

• Old Ocho: Ping attempts to cover her ass, because she didn't cover her model's. Boo-yah! • summeroflove: Asymmetrical ass – is there a cream for that? • Lizawithazee:@summeroflove: If there is, it will be advertised here on Lifetime. • katekate is squared: Pamela's dress looks like a trashy 15-yearold's pregnancy pact outfit. • HercuLinds: Ping vs. Jesus. Quien es mas malo!! • CogInSystem:@HercuLinds: Me gusta Sra. Plinko, pero quiero chingar Jesus. Que voy hacer??? • katekate is squared:"Jay, think of poor Dorothy when she shouldn't be allowed to say you're the winner! Your look fell into the pigsty and almost "Diss" will be featured in the figure got et. • Old Ocho:@CogInSystem: skating competition in next • missing_piece: I think I'm Unless they're from Europe and month's winter Olympics." going to call Ping "Plinko", they're saying "Diss is not • Old Ocho: Jesus should thank because you never know where appropriate." himself. the fuck she's going to go. • mallorykeaton: Tim does not • mallorykeaton: Mila = "Petty believe in Jesus. Page" • michelegilliam01: Heidi's • CogInSystem: 40 year-olds pregnant! DRINK!!!

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

Post-Arenas, Wizards Wonder What Might Have Been By David Steele (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 1/28/2010 7:55:00 AM

Filed under: Wizards WASHINGTON -- Less than 24 hours after the onetime face of the franchise was suspended for

the rest of the season, the theme of the day around the Washington Wizards was "move on.'' The team practiced Thursday morning -- in its Verizon Center practice facility still adorned with blown-up images of Gilbert Arenas on the

wall -- before leaving for its

game Friday night in New Jersey. Still, head coach Flip Saunders and captain Antawn Jamison were in a reflective mood about their experiences with Arenas, who had led the Wizards to their greatest run of success in two

decades before first injuring his left knee three seasons ago, then violating the NBA's gun policy by bringing three unloaded firearms to the locker room last month.


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Gawker.TV: The Five Best Videos Ever of the Day [Clipjob]

The WaPo Editorial Writers Are Such a Bunch of Wusses [Media Crack] By Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:28:45 PM

In your shiny Thursday media column: internecine squabbling Mel Gibson Stars in Piggly City in America at the Washington Post(is fun), Wiggly: The Jimmy Kimmel British chef Jamie Oliver has a new hires at the WSJ, The Story new television series where he's Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:00:00 PM University of Florida is a Mac, Jimmy Kimmel's show seems to given the task of changing the Today at Gawker.TV, Jamie be a great venue for actors that w a y t h a t t h e r e s i d e n t s o f and the government has always Oliver takes over the fattest town are struggling with their image. Huntington, West Virginia eat. run the media. A Washington Post metro in America, Daniel Tosh's rant The most recent celebrity to It's both entertaining and sad to reporter wrote a blog post about Tom Cruise, Barbara jump aboard the revitalize-my- see his efforts in the fattest yesterday criticizing his own Walter's girl-on-girl kiss, Steven career-and-make-me hip-with- American city paper's editorial board, which Seagall may be the worst cop the-kids train is Mel Gibson. Joy Pokes Fun at Barbara pissed them off so much they ever, and Mel Gibson dons a wig Steven Seagal May Be the Walters, Calls Her a Lesbian on deleted it. Then it went back up, while portraying Jimmy Kimmel. Worst Police Officer Ever The View in an edited form. Now all the Daniel Tosh Goes Off on a On Steven Seagal: Lawman, During her "Month in Review" WaPo editorial board people are Hilarious Rant about Tom Cruise Steven chases after a perp, loses on The View today, Joy Behar still pissed off about it. Hey, Last night on Tosh.0, host him, thinks he finds him, barges showed some choice video clips Daniel Tosh took some very low into the wrong house, and of Barbara Walters claiming to WaPo editorial board: stop being -blows at Tom Cruise. Nothing recklessly uses his gun only to be a lesbian and kissing Julianne such pussies. Also, you suck. was off-limits from his legal lose him again. Be glad you don't Moore on the mouth. Bonus: a Heh. (See, it doesn't kill you!) threats, to his attack on Brooke l i v e i n J e f f e r s o n P a r i s h , cameo by Elisabeth Hasselbeck's We hear the WSJ has hired Erica Orden and Kate Taylor as Shields, to his "kidnapping" of L o u i s i a n a . husband. arts and culture writers for the "Dawson's sloppy seconds" Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution paper's new NYC edition. Both Katie Holmes. This. Is. Priceless. Tries to Save the Unhealthiest have written for New York magazine and the NY Sun, making them another part of the

By Whitney Jefferson (Gawker)

Sun's ongoing resurrection inside the WSJ building. The University of Florida is now requiring students to buy only Apple brand computers for their work. Why does Tim Tebow hate John Hodgman? What, you think government subsidies for the media are some sort of new idea?!? (Just go with it). Well they're not, and here is a big old study to prove that they're not. You and your foolish, foolish ideas. When will you grow up?

UK grocery store bans shoppers in PJs (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:53:00 PM

Who hasn’t stumbled out with frazzled hair and Superman PJ pants to pick up some milk at the local market? Well, for Brits, the

jammies fashion trend could be put to bed (no pun intended). UK-based grocery chain Tesco has ordered shoppers to leave their nightgowns, teddies and fuzzy, footed pajamas at home with a new ban on PJs. Notices

posted at one of the chain’s

supermarkets reads: “To avoid causing offence or embarrassment to others we ask that our customers are appropriately dressed when visiting our store (footwear must be worn at all times and no

nightwear is permitted).” (Via BBC) Oodles of oddities.* Permalink| Leave a comment »


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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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The Count: Serena Williams’s Latest Major Comeback (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 1/27/2010 4:57:45 PM

In a day of comebacks at the Australian Open, Serena Williams truly deserves the title of comeback kid. European Pressphoto Agency Down a set, Serena Williams often has her opponent right where she wants her. Li Na bounced back from a 2-6, 3-5 deficit to upset Venus Williams and advance to the semifinals. Roger Federer was down a set and a break and faced break points to go down a second break before storming back, winning 13 straight games to beat Nikolay Davydenko and advance to the men’s semis. But Serena Williams faced the biggest margin, down a set and 4 -0 in the second set before bouncing back to push Victoria Azarenka to a tiebreaker in the set, then winning the third set easily. There is no tool for tennis such as win probability in baseball, which is the chance that a team will win the game given a certain score, inning, number of outs

and runners on base. That tool is based on researching thousands of past games to see how many teams in the same situation, or similar ones, went on to win. Tennis seems ripe for such analysis, but the unique characteristic of players such as Serena Williams may resist lumping them together with the mere mortals among their peers. This helps explain why some blamed her loss in the U.S. Open to her tantrum rather than her poor play that left her trailing in her semifinal against Kim Clijsters. That’s because at Grand Slam tournaments, Williams — unlike her peers — is a good bet to win even when she drops the opening set. Including her comeback Wednesday, Williams has lost the opening set 49 times at major tournaments. She’s forced a third set 33 times, and won it 26 times. Consider how remarkable that is. If each player had a 50% chance of winning any given set, you’d expect Williams to have extended 24 or 25 of those matches to a third set, and to

impressive as Williams’s track record. He may be the best front runner in tennis, but if so, Williams is the best at coming back. These comebacks have included some memorable ones before Wednesday’s, including five have won 12 of them. Her loss of o t h e r q u a r t e r f i n a l s , f o u r the opening sets suggests that semifinals and two finals. At the she wasn’t the better player on 1999 U.S. Open, Williams beat those days, and perhaps had an three straight past or future even lower chance. Instead, Grand Slam champions after though, she won twice as many dropping the first set, in each of those matches as you might case winning the last two with expect — suggesting she’s either relative ease. At the 2002 French a slow starter or a great finisher, Open, she was pushed to a a d e p t a t a d a p t i n g t o h e r tiebreaker in the second set of her semifinal. She bounced back opponents. Federer — who’s been more from 3-1 down in the second set dominant in majors over his i n h e r 2 0 0 4 W i m b l e d o n career than has Williams over semifinal. And the next year at hers — nudged his record in the Australian Open, she trailed Grand Slam matches in which he 5-4 in the second set of the dropped the first set to 23-22 semifinal, then was tied 3-3 in w i t h h i s c o m e b a c k o v e r the second set of the final before Davydenko on Wednesday. storming back to win nine That’s impressive; by the same straight games and the title. calculation as above, but making allowance for the five-set men’s format, Federer would have been expected to have won about 14 of those matches. But it’s not as

J.D. Salinger dies at 91 (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:50:00 AM

J.D. Salinger, the legendary and reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye, has died at the age of 91. According to statement from the author’s literary representation and read by his son, Salinger passed away from natural causes at his Cornish, New Hampshire home on Wednesday. Read more about the interesting life of Salinger, from his Manhattan upbringing to serving in World War II to his quiet retirement. (Via Huffington Post) Pick up your pen and learn more on writing. Permalink| Leave a comment »


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Reports: Mark Sanchez of New York Flip Saunders of Washington hopes team can 'move Jets has knee examined by Dr. James Wizards forward' after suspensions Andrews By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

despite being 14-30, the secondworst record in the Eastern By Associated Press Toronto. He didn't make the trip how to improve his sliding Conference. Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:12:04 PM (ESPN.com) to Tampa Bay on Dec. 9 and was technique. Jamison said he has not asked to replaced by Kellen Clemens. Sanchez also banged up his left WASHINGTON -- Coach Flip Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:56:51 AM be traded. Sanchez returned the following knee against Carolina on Nov. Saunders hopes the Washington Commissioner David Stern Sanchez Has Knee Examined week against Atlanta wearing a 29. Wizards can "move forward" and suspended Arenas and Crittenton Sanchez Has Knee Examined brace, and had no apparent signs The fifth overall pick last year win more games now that star after an NBA investigation NEW YORK -- Jets quarterback of injury during the last several out of USC, Sanchez finished the point guard Gilbert Arenas and revealed that the two players, Mark Sanchez had his right knee weeks of the season. regular season throwing for Javaris Crittenton have been continuing an argument which e x a m i n e d b y D r . J a m e s He helped lead the Jets to the 2,444 yards and 12 touchdowns, suspended for the rest of the began during an earlier team Andrews, a person familiar with AFC Championship Game at b u t h a d a d i s m a l 6 3 . 0 season. flight, brought guns into the the situation told The Associated Indianapolis, and played some of q u a r t e r b a c k r a t i n g . NBA Today: 1/28 Verizon Center locker room and Press on Thursday. his best football during the Armed with a color-coded Frank Dale and Joe Mead speak displayed them to one another. Sanchez was in Birmingham, playoff run. After throwing 20 system and numbered plays on with Marc Stein about the season The suspensions -- 50 games for Ala., on Wednesday to visit interceptions during the regular his wrist to help him, Sanchez's -long suspensions for Gilbert Arenas and 38 for Crittenton -A n d r e w s , b u t i t w a s n o t season, Sanchez had just two in b a l l s e c u r i t y i m p r o v e d Arenas and Javaris Crittenton. are the third and fourth longest immediately certain if the three postseason games and fell a dramatically down the stretch. Stein also touches on trade suspensions in league history not quarterback will need surgery. win short of becoming the first He finished the playoffs going rumors and 2010 free agency. involving drugs, alcohol or The person spoke on condition rookie quarterback to play in the 41 of 68 for 539 yards with four More Podcasts  gambling. of anonymity because the team Super Bowl. touchdowns and a 92.7 rating. S p e a k i n g a f t e r p r a c t i c e "The issue here is not about the had not commented publicly on The New York Post first Sanchez also joined Baltimore's Thursday, Saunders said the legal ownership and possession Sanchez's visit. r e p o r t e d h i s m e e t i n g w i t h Joe Flacco as the only rookie "waiting and not knowing" was of guns, either in one's home or AFC East blog A n d r e w s o n i t s W e b s i t e quarterbacks to win two playoff more draining than finding out elsewhere. It is about possession ESPN.com's Tim Graham writes W e d n e s d a y n i g h t . games. Wednesday that Arenas and of guns in the NBA workplace, about all things AFC East in his Sanchez was injured when he C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 b y T h e Crittenton were done for the which will not be tolerated," division blog. dived headfirst on an 8-yard run A s s o c i a t e d P r e s s year. He said the last-place team Stern said. • Blog network: NFL Nation early in the third quarter against Five Filters featured article: " c o n t i n u e d t o t a k e b o d y Information from The Sanchez missed one game after the Bills. The play came a few Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: punches" while NBA and legal Associated Press was used in this suffering a mild sprain of the days after coach Rex Ryan PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, investigations into a locker-room report. posterior cruciate ligament brought in Yankees manager Joe Term Extraction. gun episode were ongoing. Five Filters featured article: against Buffalo on Dec. 3 in Girardi to help teach Sanchez Antawn Jamison and Brendan Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Haywood both spoke Thursday PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, about still holding out hope of Term Extraction. contending for a playoff spot


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St. Louis Rams 'aware' of assault report against Steven Jackson

Play MLB 2K10, Pitch Perfect Game, Win $1M

By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

By Ryan Wilson (FanHouse Main)

which ended when a relative told Jackson to stop. Harris claimed in the statement that Jackson was Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:34:47 PM immediately apologetic. The St. Louis Rams say they are There is a second report from "aware" of a police report that the woman's mother, also dated claims running back Steve Wednesday. TMZ.com and Jackson assaulted his former CBSSports.com both posted girlfriend when she was nine copies of the report on Thursday. months pregnant. "We are in the process of The criminal complaint, filed gathering information," Rams with the Las Vegas Police head coach Steve Spagnuolo said Department on Wednesday, in a statement released by the claims that Jackson pushed team. "We are always concerned Supriya Harris to the ground and w i t h i s s u e s i n v o l v i n g o u r "flung" her against a door. The p l a y e r s . " statement said that Harris was Jackson has not been arrested or bleeding after the altercation, charged. The baby was born less

than two weeks after the alleged incident, according to Harris' statement. The statement also said she left Jackson four months later after another argument. Jackson, who was born in Las Vegas and played high school football there, ran for 1,416 yards this season for the Rams. He's run for 6,707 yards in his six-year professional career, all with St. Louis. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Danica Patrick's schedule promises 12 Nationwide races By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

but its driver will not be determined until after Patrick's race in the ARCA event on Feb. Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:26:26 PM 6. MOORESVILLE, N.C. -That would leave Patrick's Danica Patrick will compete in season, as anticipated, beginning 12 NASCAR Nationwide Series w i t h t h e F e b . 2 0 r a c e a t races with the possibility of a C a l i f o r n i a ' s A u t o C l u b 13th in her debut season with JR Speedway and the Feb. 27 race at Motorsports, the team announced Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Thursday. Following Vegas, Patrick will The only event undetermined on take a four-month break to focus Patrick's schedule is the Feb. 13 on the IndyCar Series. She will season opener at Daytona. In a return to drive the No. 7 in the statement, JR Motorsports said Nationwide Series June 26 at the No. 7 GoDaddy.com N e w H a m p s h i r e M o t o r Chevrolet is entered in the event, S p e e d w a y .

"I'm thrilled to announce our 2010 Nationwide Series schedule," Patrick said in a statement. "Like I've said before, we just want to be smart and calculative about this process. The tracks we've selected not only complement the IndyCar schedule, but will give me quality seat time at a variety of facilities." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 1/28/2010 5:30:00 AM

Filed under: Video Games, MLB Despite President Obama's State of the Union proclamation that the economy has improved in recent months, the reality is that plenty of people are still out of work. Some good news on the jobs front: thanks to 2K Sports, guys who spend their days on the couch playing video games can now earn money working from home. Requirements: an Xbox, Major League Baseball 2K10, and the ability to sit front of a television for hours at a time. According to the press release: 2K Sports announced today that they will give away an unprecedented cash prize in the amount of $1,000,000 to the first person who throws a verified

perfect game in Major League Baseball 2K10. "You don't see too many perfect games thrown in MLB 2K, but we've seen it happen," said Jason Argent, vice president of marketing at 2K Sports. "Our goal is to celebrate and highlight Major League Baseball 2K10's superior pitching and hitting mechanics this season, while also giving one of our loyal fans the thrilling opportunity to be rewarded with a lot of money."


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61

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your 2010 All-Star Reserves

Thursday-and-Long: Colts' Collie Was a Draft-Day Catch

MediaDailyNews: 'Ugly Betty' Calls It Quits

By Bethlehem Shoals (FanHouse Main)

By Dan Graziano (FanHouse Main)

Submitted at 1/28/2010 6:15:00 AM

Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:00:00 AM

The current fourth season of ABC's "Ugly Betty" will be its last. The decision was announced early, reports The Hollywood Reporter to give show fans a head's up and producers time to craft a suitable ending for the dramedy, a format used in Fox's "Glee." The ending was due to poor ratings, but a network release called the series "groundbreaking," adding "it was important to give the fans a proper farewell." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Filed under: NBA All-Star Game The All-Star reserves haven't been officially announced yet, but the names are out. Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc J. Spears got the scoop on Ball Don't Lie, and there's something for everybody. Before reading these, remember that covering every position is a priority. More on that in a second. From the East: Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose, Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh, Gerald Wallace, Joe Johnson, and Al Horford. Playing the part of the West: Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Pau Gasol, Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, Zach Randolph, and Brandon Roy. That's a total of five first-time All-Stars (Williams, Rondo,

Filed under: Colts, NFL Draft, Super Bowl, NFL Analysis The Colts do things the Colts' way, and it works, obviously. So when last year's NFL draft rolled around to pick No. 127 -Indianapolis' pick in the fourth round -- the best thing Austin Collie had going for him was Horford, Wallace, and Rose), a they he looked, to the Colts, good sign that there's new blood familiar. coursing through the league -- " Brandon Stokley," Colts even if the fans haven't figured President Bill Polian said last that out yet. It's surprising not to week, invoking a receiver who see Chauncey Billups on there, had 10 touchdowns and 1,077 but Deron Williams had to start receiving yards for the Colts in racking these up at some point. 2004. "That's a little bit of who The strangest snub has to be Josh we saw when we watched Smith, whose spot appears to (Collie) play in college -- good have been taken by undersized slot receiver, good route-runner, center and fellow Hawk Al good hands." Collie has been that and more Horford.

for the 2009-10 Colts. He caught 60 balls in the regular season and seven more -- for 123 yards -- in Sunday's AFC Championship Game victory over the Jets. All of the big-name, first-round receivers from last year's draft will watch Super Bowl XLIV at home. Collie, a fourth-round pick out of BYU, will play in it. And one of the reasons is that he looked like the kind of guy who could play for the Colts.

(MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:27:13 AM

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 at the beach on Facebook. My posted the pictures from her day

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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iPhone game devs give us their thoughts on the iPad By Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)

concrete without actually playing with the thing personally, but I'm optimistic about it continuing to With yesterday's announcement open up video games to even from Apple of its much hyped more 'normal' people," Saltsman "latest creation" -- the iPad-- and told us. "I'm hopeful that having the news that already existing a big multitouch space will help iPhone applications (that means mediate the whole 'fat fingers on games too, folks) will be a tiny screen' problem." playable on the device, we PopCap's Andrew Stein agreed, started wondering how the telling us "We'll certainly look at developers of the world felt the unique capabilities of the about this shiny new piece of iPad and work hard to utilize gadgetry. So we asked a handful those in instances where they can of our favorites -- Canabalt's make our games even more fun." A d a m " A t o m i c " S a l t s m a n , Republic of Fun prez Mike Pocket God's Dave Castelnuovo, Rasmussen sees things a bit and PopCap's Andrew Stein, just d i f f e r e n t l y , n o t i n g t h e to namedrop a few -- to give us o p p o r t u n i t y i n t h e u p p e d their reactions. horsepower of the device. "From "It's hard to say anything a pure gaming perspective, I'm Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:20:00 PM

excited about the additional resolution and horsepower, and really interested to start understanding the 3D performance of the A4 [chip]." But even the most successful app

developer on the market -Pocket God creator Dave Castelnuovo -- seems a bit reticent of the iPad, telling us he sees "a lot of potential with the device," but his company is

going to "wait to see what kind of acceptance the tablet will have" before moving forward with development. But that's not all! See the full reactions from a variety of iPhone game developers after the break. Gallery: Apple iPad Continue reading iPhone game devs give us their thoughts on the iPad iPhone game devs give us their thoughts on the iPad originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

No dedicated servers or LAN play for BioShock 2 By Richard Mitchell (Joystiq)

not post to leaderboards. The game will also keep friends on the same teams and employs a Over on The Cult of Rapture, matchmaking system to find 2K Marin has posted a Q&A on opponents of similar skill levels. BioShock 2 multiplayer. First of Also, the game does not include all, on all platforms, the game an option to kick troublesome doesn't have distinct ranked and players. 2K Marin suggests that unranked multiplayer options. players report any cheaters and All public matches, including griefers, quit and find a different those played with friends, will be match. ranked and posted to And now for the big one: l e a d e r b o a r d s . M e a n w h i l e , BioShock 2 does not support private, invite-only matches will dedicated servers or LAN play Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:00:00 PM

on any platform. According to 2K Marin, the development schedule didn't allow enough time to create a solid multiplayer

solid game foundation and unfortunately that did not include LAN play or dedicated servers." So there you have it. No dedicated servers or LAN play for BioShock 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. c o m p o n e n t a n d i m p l e m e n t Read| Permalink| Email this| dedicated servers and LAN play. Comments The site reads, "We chose to spend the time we had creating a


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63

Video: Red Dead Redemption weapons detailed By Richard Mitchell (Joystiq)

allows players to slow down gameplay and paint targets. It behaves similarly to the "mark Rockstar has released the second and execute" system in Splinter in its Red Dead Redemption Cell: Conviction, which lets gameplay video series. The new players mark several targets and video, titled "Weapons & take them down in rapid Death," deals with the various succession. It all looks very nifty weapons found in the game. The and, thanks to the same classy game includes pretty much narrator from the first video, it everything one would expect in a still feels educational. Remember Wild West shooter, ranging from that when your significant other / rifles to revolvers to Gatling mother / teacher chastises you g u n s a n d e v e n d y n a m i t e . for playing too much. You're not U n s u r p r i s i n g l y , R e d D e a d just shooting cowpokes, you're Redemption takes advantage of learning about the Wild West. Rockstar's RAGE engine as well Video: Red Dead Redemption as NaturalMotion's Euphoria weapons detailed originally physics engine. The end result is appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 28 unique character reactions to in- Jan 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please game actions like, say, getting see our terms for use of feeds. shot in the gut. Permalink| Email this| The video also details the Dead C o m m e n t s Eye targeting system, which Submitted at 1/28/2010 2:40:00 PM

Tecmo sees 'opportunity' in expanding audience, pursuing women By Richard Mitchell (Joystiq)

says Egawa, "specifically women." Given Tecmo's offerings over the last few years, Speaking to Edge, Tecmo's it's hard not to find that just a Quantum Theory development little hilarious. team had a few things to say Regarding Quantum Theory about the Japanese game market, itself, the company sees the expanding its audience and, of g a m e a s i t s " t h i r d p i l l a r " c o u r s e , Q u a n t u m T h e o r y . alongside Ninja Gaiden and According to producer Yasuo D e a d o r A l i v e . C h a r a c t e r Egawa, the Japanese game designer Hiroyuki Yazaki notes market is shrinking, though the that Quantum Theory is a global gaming audience is departure from other shooters expanding. "We've been trying to thanks to its AI-controlled target customers who haven't female sidekick, Filena. Yazaki bought Tecmo games before," states that most shooters are "full Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:00:00 PM

of men; big, sweaty men," which lead Tecmo to design a "softer character" for the game. Yazaki adds, "We're Tecmo - we're good at female characters!" Again, just a little hilarious. Tecmo sees 'opportunity' in expanding audience, pursuing women originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments


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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) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:49:42 PM

On Tuesday night, Home Studios hosted the launch of Hellz x Vans new two sneaker collaboration collection featuring The Hadley, an edgy motorcycleinspired leather hi-top and The Sophie, a fresh take on the saddle shoe. Guests were greeted by a massive loft displaying TV screens that played a narrative on the collaboration process by Hellz owner Lanie Barcena, a projection screen of party-goers live photobooth pics, and the sneaks suspended from the

ceiling in vintage bird cages throughout the space. The urban chic crowd sipped on Red Stripe, Tequila, and Gin and tuned in to sets by DJ Elle and DJ Roxy Cottontail, as well as a special performance by the electronic band Glass Candy. The kicks are out in February, so get ready to suit up. —Erin Boyle Home Studios Loft Space Party-goers Hellz designer Lanie Barcena and Richie Rich of Heatherette Photobooth Snapshots Glass Candy Performing The Hadley 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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'Catcher in the Rye' author J.D. Salinger dies (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:09:33 PM

NEW YORK – J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose " The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91. Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son, actor Matt Salinger, said in a statement from Salinger's longtime literary representative, Harold Ober Associates, Inc. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in a small, remote house in Cornish, N.H. "The Catcher in the Rye," with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Bookof-the-Month Club, which made "Catcher" a featured selection, advised that for "anyone who has ever brought up a son" the novel will be "a source of wonder and delight — and concern." Enraged by all the "phonies" who make "me so depressed I go crazy," Holden soon became American literature's most famous anti-hero since Huckleberry Finn. The novel's sales are astonishing — more than 60 million copies worldwide — and its impact incalculable. Decades after publication, the book remains a

defining expression of that most American of dreams: to never grow up. Salinger was writing for adults, but teenagers from all over identified with the novel's themes of alienation, innocence and fantasy, not to mention the luck of having the last word. "Catcher" presents the world as an ever-so-unfair struggle between the goodness of young people and the corruption of elders, a message that only intensified with the oncoming generation gap. Novels from Evan Hunter's " The Blackboard Jungle" to Curtis Sittenfeld's "Prep," movies from " Rebel Without a Cause" to "The Breakfast Club," and countless rock 'n' roll songs echoed Salinger's message of kids under siege. One of the great anti-heroes of the 1960s, Benjamin Braddock of "The Graduate," was but a blander version of Salinger's narrator. "` Catcher in the Rye' made a very powerful and surprising impression on me," said Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon, who read the book, as so many did, when he was in middle school. "Part of it was the fact that our seventh grade teacher was actually letting us read such a book. But mostly it was because `Catcher' had such a recognizable authenticity in the voice that even in 1977 or so, when I read it, felt surprising and rare in literature." "Many readers were created by `

The Catcher in The Rye,' and many writers, too," said " Everything Is Illuminated" novelist Jonathan Safran Foer. "He and his characters embodied a kind of American resistance that has been sorely missed these last few years, and will now be missed even more." The cult of "Catcher" turned tragic in December 1980 when crazed Beatles fan Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon, citing Salinger's novel as an inspiration and stating that "this extraordinary book holds many answers." A few months later, a copy of "Catcher" was found in the hotel room of John David Hinckley after he attempted to assassinate President Reagan. By the 21st century, Holden himself seemed relatively mild, but Salinger's book remained a standard in school curriculums and was discussed on countless Web sites and a fan page on Facebook. Salinger fans shared their grief Thursday on social networks. Topics such as "Salinger" and "Holden Caufield" were among the most popular on Twitter. CNN's Larry King tweeted that "Catcher" is his favorite book. Humorist John Hodgman wrote: "I prefer to think JD Salinger has just decided to become extra reclusive." Salinger's other books don't equal the influence or sales of "Catcher," but they are still read, again and again, with great

affection and intensity. Critics, at least briefly, rated Salinger as a more accomplished and daring short story writer than John Cheever. The collection " Nine Stories" features the classic " For Esme — with Love and Squalor," the deadpan account of a suicidal Army veteran and the little girl he hopes, in vain, will save him. The fictional work " Franny and Zooey," like "Catcher," is a youthful, obsessively articulated quest for redemption, featuring a memorable argument between Zooey and his mother as he attempts to read in the bathtub. "Everyone who works here and writes here at The New Yorker, even now, decades after his silence began, does so with a keen awareness of J.D. Salinger's voice," said David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, where many of Salinger's stories appeared. "He is so widely read in America, and read with such intensity, that it's hard to think of any reader, young and old, who does not carry around the voices of Holden Caulfield or Glass family members." "Catcher," narrated from a mental facility, begins with Holden recalling his expulsion from boarding school for failing four classes and for general apathy. He returns home to Manhattan, where his wanderings take him everywhere from a Times Square hotel to a rainy carousel ride with his kid sister, Phoebe, in Central Park.

He decides he wants to escape to a cabin out West, but scorns questions about his future as just so much phoniness. "I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it?" he reasons. "The answer is, you don't. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it's a stupid question." " The Catcher in the Rye" became both required and restricted reading, periodically banned by a school board or challenged by parents worried by its frank language and the irresistible chip on Holden's shoulder. "I'm aware that a number of my friends will be saddened, or shocked, or shocked-saddened, over some of the chapters of `The Catcher in the Rye.' Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all of my best friends are children," Salinger wrote in 1955, in a short note for " 20th Century Authors." "It's almost unbearable to me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach," he added. Salinger also wrote the novellas " Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" and "Seymour — An Introduction," both featuring the neurotic, fictional Glass family that appeared in much of his work. His last published story, "Hapworth 16, 1928," ran in The 'CATCHER page 69


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'Catcher in the Rye' Author J.D. Salinger Dies (FOXNews.com)

grow up. Salinger was writing for adults, but teenagers from all over NEW YORK J.D. Salinger, the identified with the novel's legendary author, youth hero and themes of alienation, innocence fugitive from fame whose "The and fantasy, not to mention the Catcher in the Rye" shocked and luck of having the last word. inspired a world he increasingly "Catcher" presents the world as shunned, has died. He was 91. an ever-so-unfair struggle Salinger died of natural causes between the goodness of young at his home on Wednesday, the people and the corruption of author's son said in a statement elders, a message that only from Salinger's longtime literary intensified with the oncoming representative, Harold Ober generation gap. Agency. He had lived for Novels from Evan Hunter's "The decades in self-imposed isolation Blackboard Jungle" to Curtis in the small, remote house in Sittenfeld's "Prep," movies from Cornish, N.H. "Rebel Without a Cause" to "The "The Catcher in the Rye," with Breakfast Club," and countless its immortal teenage protagonist, rock 'n' roll songs echoed the twisted, rebellious Holden Salinger's message of kids under Caulfield, came out in 1951, a siege. One of the great antitime of anxious, Cold War heroes of the 1960s, Benjamin conformity and the dawn of Braddock of "The Graduate," modern adolescence. The Book- was but a blander version of of-the-Month Club, which made Salinger's narrator. "Catcher" a featured selection, The cult of "Catcher" turned advised that for "anyone who has tragic in 1980 when crazed ever brought up a son" the novel B e a t l e s f a n M a r k D a v i d will be "a source of wonder and Chapman shot and killed John delight — and concern." Lennon, citing Salinger's novel Enraged by all the "phonies" as an inspiration and stating that who make "me so depressed I go "this extraordinary book holds crazy," Holden soon became many answers." American literature's most By the 21st century, Holden f a m o u s a n t i - h e r o s i n c e himself seemed relatively mild, Huckleberry Finn. The novel's but Salinger's book remained a sales are astonishing — more standard in school curriculums t h a n 6 0 m i l l i o n c o p i e s and was discussed on countless worldwide — and its impact Web sites and a fan page on incalculable. Decades after Facebook. publication, the book remains a Salinger's other books don't defining expression of that most equal the influence or sales of American of dreams: to never "Catcher," but they are still read, Submitted at 1/27/2010 10:54:09 PM

again and again, with great affection and intensity. Critics, at least briefly, rated Salinger as a more accomplished and daring short story writer than John Cheever. The collection "Nine Stories" features the classic "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," the deadpan account of a suicidal Army veteran and the little girl he hopes, in vain, will save him. The novel "Franny and Zooey," like "Catcher," is a youthful, obsessively articulated quest for redemption, featuring a memorable argument between Zooey and his mother as he attempts to read in the bathtub. "Catcher," narrated from a mental facility, begins with Holden recalling his expulsion from a Pennsylvania boarding school for failing four classes and for general apathy. He returns home to Manhattan, where his wanderings take him everywhere from a Times Square hotel to a rainy carousel ride with his kid sister, Phoebe, in Central Park. He decides he wants to escape to a cabin out West, but scorns questions about his future as just so much phoniness. "I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it?" he reasons. "The answer is, you don't. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it's a stupid question." "The Catcher in the Rye" became both required and restricted reading, periodically banned by a

school board or challenged by parents worried by its frank language and the irresistible chip on Holden's shoulder. "I'm aware that a number of my friends will be saddened, or shocked, or shocked-saddened, over some of the chapters of `The Catcher in the Rye.' Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all of my best friends are children," Salinger wrote in 1955, in a short note for "20th Century Authors." "It's almost unbearable to me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach," he added. Salinger also wrote the novellas "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" and "Seymour — An Introduction," both featuring the neurotic, fictional Glass family that appeared in much of his work. His last published story, "Hapworth 16, 1928," ran in The New Yorker in 1965. By then, he was increasingly viewed like a precocious child whose manner had soured from cute to insufferable. "Salinger was the greatest mind ever to stay in prep school," Norman Mailer once commented. In 1997, it was announced that "Hapworth" would be reissued as a book — prompting a (negative) New York Times review. The book, in typical Salinger style, didn't appear. In 1999, New Hampshire neighbor Jerry Burt said the author had told him years earlier that he had written

at least 15 unpublished books kept locked in a safe at his home. "I love to write and I assure you I write regularly," Salinger said in a brief interview with the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate in 1980. "But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it." Jerome David Salinger was born Jan. 1, 1919, in New York City. His father was a wealthy importer of cheeses and meat and the family lived for years on Park Avenue. Like Holden, Salinger was an indifferent student with a history of trouble in various schools. He was sent to Valley Forge Military Academy at age 15, where he wrote at night by flashlight beneath the covers and eventually earned his only diploma. In 1940, he published his first fiction, "The Young Folks," in Story magazine. He served in the Army from 1942 to 1946, carrying a typewriter with him most of the time, writing "whenever I can find the time and an unoccupied foxhole," he told a friend. Returning to New York, the lean, dark-haired Salinger pursued an intense study of Zen Buddhism but also cut a gregarious figure in the bars of Greenwich Village, where he astonished acquaintances with his proficiency in rounding up dates. One drinking buddy, 'CATCHER page 71


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Lawyer: Phone scheme meant to embarrass senator (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

No matter their intentions, the four face the serious charge of entering federal property under NEW ORLEANS – Four men false pretenses for the purpose of charged with trying to tamper committing a felony, which with a senator's phones — carries up to 10 years in prison. including a conservative activist They are free on $10,000 bail. known for targeting ACORN — Charged along with O'Keefe and hoped to record embarrassing Flanagan were Joseph Basel, 24, h i d d e n c a m e r a f o o t a g e t o of Minnesota and Stan Dai, 24, document allegations her staff of the Washington, D.C. area. was ignoring calls critical of her The four are due back in court stance on health care reform, an Feb. 12. attorney for one of the four said Authorities said O'Keefe was Thursday. using his cell phone to try to Attorney J. Garrison Jordan capture video of two of his denied the four men were trying fellow defendants in Landrieu's to disable or wiretap the phones office before their arrest. The in Sen. Mary Landrieu's office at t w o p o s i n g a s t e l e p h o n e a federal building in New r e p a i r m e n — w e a r i n g Orleans. fluorescent vests, tool belts and "You're dealing with kids," he hard hats, one of which had a said. "I don't think they thought hidden camera — asked to see it through that far." the phones at Landrieu's office. Instead, Jordan said, they hoped The fourth is alleged to have to get embarrassing video waited outside in a car with a footage of her staff handling listening device to pick up constituent calls. transmissions. The four accused in the scheme O'Keefe has declined to discuss include James O'Keefe, made what he and the others were famous by posing as a pimp and doing in Landrieu's office. But t a r g e t i n g t h e c o m m u n i t y - late Wednesday he told his organizing group ACORN in Twitter followers that the hidden camera videos. government "concedes no Jordan said his client, Robert a t t e m p t t o w i r e t a p . " Flanagan, the 24-year-old son of Last month, protesters marched a federal prosecutor in Louisiana, in front of Landrieu's office in did not intend to break the law Baton Rouge to criticize her when he entered the office s u p p o r t f o r h e a l t h c a r e posing as a telephone worker legislation and complain that Monday. they couldn't get through on her Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:45:49 PM

office phones. Landrieu said at the time that her office received a high volume of calls. "Our lines have been jammed for weeks, and I apologize," Landrieu said in interview with The Advocate of Baton Rouge in December. "But no amount of jamming is going to keep me from supporting a good work for Louisiana and the nation." 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." O'Keefe hinted last week that he had a new, high-profile stunt in the works. Four days before he was charged in connection with the Landrieu incident, he promised his audience at a conservative think tank's luncheon they would be hearing about a project he was working on in New Orleans. He wouldn't elaborate, according to people who heard his speech at the Pelican Institute's event last Thursday in New Orleans. "He just sort of alluded to the fact that we would all find out

real soon. And we did," said Audra Shay, a Mandeville resident and chairwoman of the Young Republican National Federation. Flanagan worked part-time with the institute, writing for its blog and helping with luncheons. During the luncheon last week, audience members peppered O'Keefe with questions about Landrieu, but he didn't indicate that she was a target of his project, said Robin Edwards, a Baton Rouge resident and cofounder of the Louisiana Tea Party Federation. "He just said he had a project going in New Orleans, but he wouldn't say what it was," Edwards said. "I figured it had something to do with ACORN." Shay said O'Keefe told audience members to "stay tuned" for the results of his New Orleans project. "Everybody in the room knew something was going on, but nobody knew what the hell it was," she said. "I never thought it was going to be this." Shay said O'Keefe repeatedly stressed that he hadn't done anything illegal on his earlier investigative projects. "It's bizarre, because the guy is not stupid," she said. Shay said she spoke with Basel, who attended the luncheon with O'Keefe, and asked him about booking O'Keefe for a leadership

conference hosted by the federation. In the aftermath of O'Keefe's arrest, she didn't know if she would follow through with an invitation. Michael Madigan, O'Keefe's lawyer, said Wednesday that his client was not trying to wiretap or interfere with Landrieu's phones, but he would not explain why O'Keefe was there. He also would not say whether O'Keefe was working for someone or was on his own. "The truth will come out," said Madigan, a Washington lawyer who represented Sen. Howard Baker, the Republican who famously asked during the Watergate investigation, "What did the President know and when did he know it?" ___ Associated Press Writers Kevin McGill and Justin Pritchard in New Orleans, 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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'CATCHER continued from page 66

New Yorker in 1965. By then, he was increasingly viewed like a precocious child whose manner had soured from cute to insufferable. "Salinger was the greatest mind ever to stay in prep school," Norman Mailer once remarked. In 1997, it was announced that "Hapworth" would be reissued as a book — prompting a (negative) New York Times review. The book, in typical Salinger style, didn't appear. In 1999, New Hampshire neighbor Jerry Burt said the author had told him years earlier that he had written at least 15 unpublished books kept locked in a safe at his home. "I love to write and I assure you I write regularly," Salinger said in a brief interview with the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate in 1980. "But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it." The mystery of the safe continued Thursday. Salinger's representative at the Ober agency, Phyllis Westberg, declined comment on whether the author had any unpublished work. Spokeswoman Heather Rizzo of Little, Brown and Co., Salinger's longtime publisher, said she had "no news on future releases." Jerome David Salinger was born Jan. 1, 1919, in New York City. His father was a wealthy importer of cheeses and meat and

the family lived for years on Park Avenue. Like Holden, Salinger was an indifferent student with a history of trouble in various schools. He was sent to Valley Forge Military Academy at age 15, where he wrote at night by flashlight beneath the covers and eventually earned his only diploma. In 1940, he published his first fiction, " The Young Folks," in Story magazine. He served in the Army from 1942 to 1946, carrying a typewriter with him most of the time, writing "whenever I can find the time and an unoccupied foxhole," he told a friend. Returning to New York, the lean, dark-haired Salinger pursued an intense study of Zen Buddhism but also cut a gregarious figure in the bars of Greenwich Village, where he astonished acquaintances with his proficiency in rounding up dates. One drinking buddy, author A.E. Hotchner, would remember Salinger as the proud owner of an "ego of cast iron," contemptuous of writers and writing schools, convinced that he was the best thing to happen to American letters since Herman Melville. Holden first appeared as a character in the story " Last Day of the Last Furlough," published in 1944 in the Saturday Evening Post. Salinger's stories ran in

several magazines, especially The New Yorker, where excerpts from "Catcher" were published. The finished novel quickly became a best seller and early reviews were blueprints for the praise and condemnation to come. The New York Times found the book "an unusually brilliant first novel" and observed that Holden's "delinquencies seem minor indeed when contrasted with the adult delinquencies with which he is confronted." But the Christian Science Monitor was not charmed. "He is alive, human, preposterous, profane and pathetic beyond belief," critic T. Morris Longstreth wrote of Holden. The world had come calling for Salinger, but Salinger was bolting the door. By 1952, he had migrated to Cornish. Three years later, he married Claire Douglas, with whom he had two children, Peggy and Matthew, before their 1967 divorce. (Salinger was also briefly married in the 1940s to a woman named Sylvia; little else is known about her.) Meanwhile, he refused interviews, instructing his agent not to forward fan mail and reportedly spending much of his time writing in a cement bunker. Sanity, apparently, could only come through seclusion. Although Salinger initially

contemplated a theater production of "Catcher," with the author himself playing Holden, he turned down numerous offers for film or stage rights, including requests from Billy Wilder and Elia Kazan. Bids from Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein were also rejected. In recent years, he was a notable holdout against allowing his books to appear in digital form. Salinger so disliked fame he was willing to sue. In 1982, he sued a man who allegedly tried to sell a fictitious interview with the author to a national magazine. The impostor agreed to desist and Salinger dropped the suit. Five years later, another Salinger legal action resulted in an important decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court refused to allow publication of an unauthorized biography, by Ian Hamilton, that quoted from the author's unpublished letters. Salinger had copyrighted the letters when he learned about Hamilton's book, which came out in a revised edition in 1988. In 2009, Salinger sued to halt publication of John David California's "60 Years Later," an unauthorized sequel to "Catcher" that imagined Holden in his 70s, misanthropic as ever. Against Salinger's will, the curtain was parted in recent years. In 1998, author Joyce

Maynard published her memoir "At Home in the World," in which she detailed her eightmonth affair with Salinger in the early 1970s; she was less than half his age. She recalled an unflattering picture of a controlling personality with eccentric eating habits, and described their problematic sex life. In 2000, daughter Margaret Salinger's "Dreamcatcher" portrayed the writer as an unpleasant recluse who drank his own urine and spoke in tongues. Actor Matt Salinger, the author's other child, disputed his sister's book when it came out and labeled it "gothic tales of our supposed childhood." "He was a caring, fun, and wonderful father to me, and a tremendous grandfather to my boys," he wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. ___ Associated Press writer Norma Love in Concord, N.H., and Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle and AP Drama Writer Michael Kuchwara in New York contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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AP Exclusive: States struggle to keep top teachers (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

Teacher Quality is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:00:32 PM focuses on teacher policies at the ATLANTA – Most states are federal, state and local level. holding tight to policies that The report outlines weaknesses protect incompetent teachers and that frustrate parents like Barbara p o o r t r a i n i n g p r o g r a m s , Jones, who lives in the Atlanta shortchanging educators and suburb of Acworth and has four t h e i r s t u d e n t s b e f o r e n e w children in middle and high teachers even step into the school. Jones said she once classroom, according to a new pulled her daughter out of an national report card. elementary class after hearing The study from the National what teacher she would have — Council on Teacher Quality — the same teacher who had made which will be released Friday — her son miserable a few years paints a grim picture of how prior with her short temper, states handle everything from disorganized classroom and pay to discipline for public condescending attitude. school teachers. States are using "That teacher stands out as one "broken, outdated and inflexible" who probably should have lost policies that ultimately hurt how her job a long time ago," Jones children learn, according to the said. "It's sad that the really good report. teachers and the really bad In fact, even the top scoring teachers seem to get the same state, Florida, received a C, with treatment." most states getting Ds or Fs. A Still, not everyone — handful of states — including particularly teachers — agree Georgia, Texas and Louisiana — with the report's findings. got a C-minus. Jeff Hubbard, president of the "We think it's really a blueprint G e o r g i a A s s o c i a t i o n o f f o r r e f o r m , " c o u n c i l v i c e Educators, which represents president Sandi Jacobs said more than 40,000 educators in about the report, called the State the state, called the report Policy Teacher Yearbook. "Each "incredibly flawed" because it goal is something we think states doesn't do enough to promote could and should be doing to successful programs in states. reform teacher quality." "This was more of a 'gotcha' The National Council on document rather than 'here's

what's working, let's celebrate it, let's share it,'" he said. "Instead it's, 'this stinks, this stinks, this stinks.'" He said while he's proud that Georgia is in the top 10 in the report, the council's opinion that "everybody stinks" takes away from it. A few other key findings: • All but four states allow teachers who are fired multiple appeals of their dismissal, leading to a process that can last years. • Only five states have adequate preparation for elementary educators on how to teach reading, and only one trains educators to be effective math teachers. • More than half of the states don't require special education teachers to take subject-matter courses while in school and don't test them on how much of the content they know. • Nearly every state allows tenure to be awarded "virtually automatically," which protects inadequate teachers and makes it difficult for schools to fire them. The report, called the "State Teacher Policy Yearbook," comes on the heels of the deadline for states' applications for the highly competitive Race to the Top federal grants. Those

require states to prove they are strong in certain areas of education ranging from performance pay for quality teachers to welcoming environments for charter schools. Jacobs said some of the issues outlined in the report could be addressed as states scramble to show they meet the guidelines to get some of the $4 billion in Race to the Top money. Already, some states like Georgia and Colorado are eyeing laws on performance pay, while others, such as Tennessee, have made student test scores a large part of teacher evaluations. "We really agonized a bit over whether we should delay coming out, would there be a flurry of state activity? There is some, but it has to play out," Jacobs said. "It's a very exciting time to be doing this work because who would have thought there would be a $4 billion carrot?" ___ On the Net: National Council on Teacher Quality: http://www.nctq.org/ Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

New e-readers from BenQ and Delta shown off in Taiwan (CIO) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 1/27/2010 3:47:05 PM

Weekly Tech News Update: 22nd January, 2010 In this week’s World Tech Update rescue efforts continue in Haiti and technology allows donations to pour in, the European Commission grants Oracle approval to take over Sun, Fujitsu unveils a pocketsized Windows 7 laptop, Sony’s TransferJet finally comes to market, Amazon announces and SDK for its Kindle, Bill Gates joins Twitter, Nokia releases a free mapping application to compete with Google, Sony delays the launch of its PS3 motion controller and the world’s fastest texters are crowned. Play Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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'CATCHER continued from page 67

author A.E. Hotchner, would remember Salinger as the proud owner of an "ego of cast iron," contemptuous of writers and writing schools, convinced that he was the best thing to happen to American letters since Herman Melville. Holden first appeared as a character in the story "Last Day of the Last Furlough," published in 1944 in the Saturday Evening Post. Salinger's stories ran in several magazines, especially The New Yorker, where excerpts from "Catcher" were published. The finished novel quickly became a best seller and early reviews were blueprints for the praise and condemnation to come. The New York Times found the book "an unusually brilliant first novel" and observed that Holden's "delinquencies seem minor indeed when contrasted with the adult delinquencies with which he is confronted." But the Christian Science Monitor was not charmed. "He is alive, human, preposterous, profane and pathetic beyond belief," critic T. Morris Longstreth wrote of Holden. "Fortunately, there cannot be many of him yet. But one fears that a book like this given wide

circulation may multiply his kind - as too easily happens when immortality and perversion are recounted by writers of talent whose work is countenanced in the name of art or good intention." The world had come calling for Salinger, but Salinger was bolting the door. By 1952, he had migrated to Cornish. Three years later, he married Claire Douglas, with whom he had two children, Peggy and Matthew, before their 1967 divorce. (Salinger was also briefly married in the 1940s to a woman named Sylvia; little else is known about her.) Meanwhile, he refused interviews, instructing his agent not to forward fan mail and reportedly spending much of his time writing in a cement bunker. Sanity, apparently, could only come through seclusion. "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deafmutes," Holden says in "Catcher." "That way I wouldn't have to have any ... stupid useless conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. I'd build me a little

cabin somewhere with the dough I made." Although Salinger initially contemplated a theater production of "Catcher," with the author himself playing Holden, he turned down numerous offers for film or stage rights, including requests from Billy Wilder and Elia Kazan. Bids from Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein were also rejected. Salinger became famous for not wanting to be famous. In 1982, he sued a man who allegedly tried to sell a fictitious interview with the author to a national magazine. The impostor agreed to desist and Salinger dropped the suit. Five years later, another Salinger legal action resulted in an important decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court refused to allow publication of an unauthorized biography, by Ian Hamilton, that quoted from the author's unpublished letters. Salinger had copyrighted the letters when he learned about Hamilton's book, which came out in a revised edition in 1988. In 2009, Salinger sued to halt publication of John David California's "60 Years Later," an unauthorized sequel to "Catcher"

that imagined Holden in his 70s, misanthropic as ever. Against Salinger's will, the curtain was parted in recent years. In 1998, author Joyce Maynard published her memoir "At Home in the World," in which she detailed her eightmonth affair with Salinger in the early 1970s, when she was less than half his age. She drew an unflattering picture of a controlling personality with eccentric eating habits, and described their problematic sex life. Salinger's alleged adoration of children apparently did not extend to his own. In 2000, daughter Margaret Salinger's "Dreamcatcher" portrayed the writer as an unpleasant recluse who drank his own urine and spoke in tongues. Margaret Salinger said she wrote the book because she was "absolutely determined not to repeat with my son what had been done with me." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Americans Agree: Quality Jobs Remain Hard to Find (All Gallup Headlines) Submitted at 1/27/2010 8:00:00 PM

Copyright © 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. Gallup®, A 8™, Business Impact Analysis™, CE 11®, Clifton StrengthsFinder®, the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names, Customer Engagement Index™, Drop Club®, Emotional Economy™, Employee Engagement Index™, Employee Outlook Index™, Follow This Path™, Gallup Brain®, Gallup Consulting®, Gallup Management Journal®, GMJ®, Gallup Press®, Gallup Publishing™, Gallup Tuesday Briefing®, Gallup University®, HumanSigma®, I 10™, L 3™, PrincipalInsight™, Q 12®, SE 25™, SF 34®, SRI®, Strengths Spotlight™, Strengths-Based Selling™, StrengthsCoach™, StrengthsFinder®, S t r e n g t h s Q u e s t ™ , TeacherInsight™, The Gallup Path®, and The Gallup Poll® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. These materials are provided for noncommercial, personal use only. Reproduction prohibited without the express permission of Gallup, Inc. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Defendant testifies he killed Kan. abortion doctor (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

City, Mo. Roeder replied "yes" or "no" to many of the questions he was WICHITA, Kan. – The man asked, and his attempts to accused of murdering prominent e l a b o r a t e d r e w f r e q u e n t Kansas abortion provider Dr. objections from prosecutors, who George Tiller took the stand in say Roeder lacks the medical his own defense Thursday and expertise to describe Tiller's promptly admitted that he fatally practice. shot Tiller in an attempt to save When asked to detail the types unborn children. of abortion procedures he was Scott Roeder, who has pleaded familiar with, Roeder answered not guilty to first-degree murder "four or five" and then listed and aggravated assault, was t h e m . I n o n e i n s t a n c e , h e sworn in and made no effort to described a procedure as the deny prosecutors' claims that he fetus being "torn limb from killed Tiller in the foyer of limb" — a characterization that Tiller's Wichita church on May prompted a quick objection from 31. He previously confessed the prosecution. publicly to shooting Tiller. Before Roeder took the stand, Asked later by his own attorney District Judge Warren Wilbert about his views on abortion, the barred Kansas' anti-abortion 51-year-old Roeder said he c r u s a d i n g f o r m e r a t t o r n e y believes it amounts to murder. g e n e r a l P h i l l K l i n e f r o m "From conception forward it is testifying after listening to a murder. ... It is not a man's job to preview of Kline's testimony take life. It is our heavenly without the jury present. father's. He is our creator," said Kline investigated Tiller's clinic, Roeder, who is from Kansas Women's Health Care Services, Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:35:30 PM

in 2006 because he suspected Tiller was violating Kansas' laws pertaining to late-term abortion. The case was later dropped because of jurisdictional issues. Wilbert said allowing Kline's testimony would be "inappropriate" at the trial, and said much of it amounted to "exactly what this court seeks to avoid." "I said I would not allow this courtroom to turn into a forum or a referendum on abortion," Wilbert said. The decision to bar Kline's testimony hampers the strategy of the defense, which had hoped to show Roeder based his actions in part on Kline's belief that Tiller was breaking the law — a potential step toward a lesser conviction of voluntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter in Kansas is defined as "an unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force." A

conviction on the lesser charge involves considerably less prison time. Wilbert reminded Roeder's attorneys in court Wednesday that they must couple a voluntary manslaughter defense with a showing of imminent danger posed by the doctor. He noted abortion is legal in Kansas. Wilbert will rule later on whether to allow jurors to consider the lesser charge. The two counts of aggravated assault Roeder faces are for allegedly using a gun to threaten two ushers who tried to stop him after the May 31 shooting at Tiller's Wichita church. ___ Associated Press Writer Roxana Hegeman contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Obama hopes for rail grant boost (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

states are to receive funds, but only California's plans call for trains with maximum speeds Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:38:45 PM exceeding 200mph (322km/h). US President Barack Obama has Congress set aside funding for repeated a vow to improve the the rail projects, which Mr economy, as he sought to boost Obama said in April would confidence a day after his first "change the way we travel in State of the Union speech. America", as part of the $787bn During a visit to Florida, Mr economic stimulus package Obama said: "We're not going to approved in 2009. rest until we've rebuilt an Americans 'hurting' economy in which... businesses At the town-hall meeting at the are hiring again." University of Tampa, Mr Obama He also announced $8bn (ÂŁ5bn) echoed a theme of his State of in grants for high-speed rail the Union speech by calling for developments. improved relations with the Mr Obama said he wanted to get Republicans. Americans working on the "Our political dialogue in this country's infrastructure. country has always been messy The White House says the high- and noisy," he said. speed rail projects will create or "We're all Americans. We all save thousands of jobs in should anticipate that the other engineering, manufacturing, person, even if they disagree planning and maintenance. w i t h u s , h a s t h e b e s t o f "It creates jobs immediately and intentions. We don't have to call it lays the foundation for a them names. We don't have to vibrant economy in the future," demonise them." Mr Obama said at a town hall- In his speech on Wednesday, he style meeting in Tampa. said Americans were "hurting" Except for the line between and admitted he had not yet Boston and Washington, there delivered on his election pledge are no high-speed rail routes in of change. the US. Mr Obama called for new Thirteen rail corridors in 31 spending and tax cuts that he

said would build on the stimulus package and easily push the cost of all stimulus measures since he took office to over $1 trillion. The president said creating jobs had to be his administration's "number one focus in 2010" and said he wanted Congress to pass a jobs bill "without delay". Mr Obama said he had taken office a year ago "amid two wars, an economy rocked by severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt". "The devastation remains," he added. "One in 10 Americans still cannot find work. Many businesses have shuttered. Home values have declined. Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard. For those who had already known poverty, life has become that much harder." Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Machu Picchu rail link still shut (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

Andean villages near the Inca ruins as they finish four-day treks begun before the trail was Submitted at 1/28/2010 8:09:23 AM shut on Tuesday. The damaged railway to Peru's About 250 arrived on top tourist site, Machu Picchu, Wednesday, with the same will remain closed for three more number expected again on days as workers struggle to Thursday, Associated Press news repair it after mudslides. agency reported, putting a strain Continuing heavy rain has on accommodation, food and restricted helicopter flights to water. collect more than 1,500 tourists "It's worrisome. We didn't think cut off by mudslides. it would take this long [to fix the A b o u t 6 0 0 t o u r i s t s w e r e rail track]," Tourism Minister evacuated by helicopter earlier. Martin Perez told RPP radio, With the rail link cut, supplies according to AP. of food and water are limited. "We can evacuate 120 tourists Bottles of water are said to be per hour; now the only thing we selling at five times the normal need is for the climate to help us price. out a little bit." The train to the city of Cuzco is Foreign Minister Jose Antonio the only means of transport on G a r c i a B e l a u n d e t o l d A P : the last leg of the trip to the "Everyone is safe, though Machu Picchu ruins, and has obviously uncomfortable. They been suspended since Saturday are sleeping in tents, and the when it was blocked by one of food gets there late, but what's 40 landslides in the area. important is that they are safe." Five people are reported to have Print Sponsor died, including two residents Five Filters featured article: killed when their home was Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: destroyed, and a trekker crushed PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, while sleeping in a tent. Term Extraction. More tourists are arriving in the


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Catcher in the Rye novelist dies (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

Yorker. But he is best known for The Catcher in the Rye, which Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:54:34 PM quickly became a bible of American novelist JD Salinger, teenage dissent in America and a author of classic 20th Century s t a p l e o f h i g h s c h o o l a n d book The Catcher in the Rye, has f r e s h m a n c o l l e g e E n g l i s h died aged 91. courses. The reclusive writer died of Reclusive life natural causes at his home in the Almost immediately after state of New Hampshire, his son Catcher was published, Salinger said. became disillusioned with the The Catcher In The Rye, first publishing industry. published in 1951, is a tale of In 1953, he bought a house at teenage angst. It has become one Cornish, New Hampshire, and of the most influential American retreated into seclusion, giving a novels of the modern era. rare and final interview in 1980. Soon after its publication, Last year, Salinger took legal Salinger shunned the fame it action to block the publication of brought and became a recluse for a book by a Swedish author - 60 the rest of his life. Years Later: Coming Through T h e s o n o f a J e w i s h the Rye - that was billed as a businessman and Scots-Irish follow-up to his classic novel. mother, Jerome David Salinger He has taken legal action to was born in New York and grew protect his copyright on previous up in Manhattan. occasions, but has never He enjoyed early success in the appeared in court. He has also 1940s with the publication of refused filming rights for his n u m e r o u s s h o r t s t o r i e s i n story. magazines, among them the New His three subsequent books -

including Franny and Zooey were all best-sellers. But no new Salinger fiction appeared after 1965 and he has done everything possible to try to thwart the efforts of biographers. Although many years have passed since the publication of any work by Salinger, friends and visitors to his home have revealed that he has a large safe containing at least 15 completed manuscripts. Throughout his life, Salinger befriended women younger than himself. He married Claire Douglas, aged 19, when he was 35 in 1954. They had two children and then divorced in 1967. For nearly 30 years before his death, he lived with a woman named Colleen O'Neill, leading an ascetic life. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

MediaDailyNews: NBCU: Olympic Research Lab Charts Consumer Behavior (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:30:53 AM

Following its initial single source audience research effort during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, NBC Universal will start up another push for next month's 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. NBC will again issue a daily TAMI (Total Audience Measurement Index) to measure total Olympic exposure across all media platforms throughout the 17 days of coverage. NBC says this will include the first statistically projected singlesource measurement of television and Internet use. Using data from Arbitron's Portable People Meter media measurement service, as well as Internet data from comScore and Omniture, NBCU says it will measure TV and Internet use from the same person and update those numbers to a broad population. Viewer/user data will include simultaneous online and TV viewing. Also for the first time, it will differentiate video viewed for the first time versus repeat viewing. For social media, NBC will use

Keller Fay's TalkTrack to measure all forms of Olympic "word of mouth" marketing. This includes face-to-face, phone and Web communication. NBC will also use second-bysecond set-top box data from TiVo to measure audience retention for Olympic programming and commercials. Plus, it will analyze demographic and psychographic data. NBCU will partner again with IMMI to track a single consumer's Olympic exposure across all media platforms -- socalled "three-screen" measurement -- where viewers in the IMMI panel will carry a iMMi phone to measure Olympic viewing on television, online and mobile devices. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Mass. Parents Demand Action on Bullying After Suicide (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:27:48 AM

Parents in South Hadley, Mass., gathered at the town’s high school Wednesday night to voice their concerns and anger about school bullying following the suicide of a 15-year-old girl who was allegedly tormented by bullies, the Boston Herald reported. At the school committee meeting, the first since Phoebe Prince’s death on Jan. 14, parents told school officials they want to see more done to protect their children from bullying, the paper reported. One parent, who attended the school nearly two decades ago, said he had experienced bullying when he was a student, the Boston Herald reported. "It’s been 17 years," Matthew Bail told the school committee. "And now we have a fatality." Some parents said their children

had been harassed, and in some cases assaulted, by classmates often. "Until somebody stands up and admits there has been a failure -a complete failure -- we have nowhere to go," Luke T. Gelinas told the paper. Gelinas claimed his son had been "hit in the gut" after he became friends with a student who was often bullied. Friends and school officials told MyFoxBoston.com that Prince, 15, had been picked on since moving to Massachusetts from Ireland last fall. School bullies reportedly taunted the teen through text messages, Facebook and other social networking sites. South Hadley High School superintendent Gus Sayer said two students have been disciplined in connection with the incident, BostonHerald.com reported. "There’s still an investigation going on, which may lead to disciplinary action against other

students," Sayer said. One parent argued that school officials need to be held responsible for not taking action to curb the constant bullying that he claims occurs frequently, TheBostonChannel.com reported. "Wouldn't we all agree that not only have you not been successful, that you have failed?" that parent said, according to the Web site. Prince’s parents have not commented to the media because prosecutors are mulling whether to file criminal charges, TheBostonChannel.com reported. Click here for more on this story from The Boston Herald and TheBostonChannel.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Water Purification Chemical Uses Visible, Not UV, Light To Kill Bacteria By Stuart Fox (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 1/28/2010 9:30:45 AM

The World Health Organization estimates that around one sixth of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Since those billion people are also the poorest people in the world, water purification techniques need to be cheap to help those most in need. Since it activates under plain visible light, this new water-purifying photocatalyst may help bring purer water to the world's neediest people. The water-purifying chemical consists of nitrogen-doped titanium oxide enhanced with palladium nanoparticles. When exposed to visible light, the titanium oxide produces bacteriakilling free radicals, while the palladium nanoparticles absorb electrons that would shut that reaction down. Once activated, the material reduces the bacteria

levels from 40 million cells per gallon to just one cell per 2,500 gallons. Even more impressive, the palladium nanoparticles perpetuate the reaction so efficiently that the titanium oxide continues to purify the water even after the light is shut off. For countries with limited lighting infrastructure, or places prone to blackout, that greatly extends the purification power of the material. [ Technology Review]


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Afghanistan summit: Patching things up (The Economist: News analysis)

“We must reach out to all of our countrymen, especially our disenchanted brothers, who are Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:47:08 AM not part of al-Qaeda, or other Afghanistan summit A summit terrorist networks, who accept on Afghanistan sets the stage for the Afghan constitution,” said President Hamid Karzai to take the Afghan president before charge delegates from 60-odd countries Jan 28th 2010 | From The (Iran's seat was empty). Economist online Such comments are, on the face THE first battalions of President of it, nothing new for Mr Karzai, Barack Obama’s military surge who previously invited the in Afghanistan are deployed and Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, to preparing to sweep the Taliban talks in Kabul. But his overtures f r o m a s w a t h e o f c e n t r a l discomfit America, his main Helmand province in the coming b a c k e r . I t w o r r i e s t h a t a weeks. With commanders under premature courtship of the pressure to achieve quick results Taliban will seen as weakness before American troop levels just as Mr Obama is trying to begin to ebb next year, this could reverse the Taliban’s military be the bloodiest year yet of gains. Mr Obama has decided to America’s Afghan war. triple the number of American Yet several thousand miles away troops in Afghanistan since he i n L o n d o n , w h e r e a n took power, and has approved a international conference on counter-insurgency strategy A f g h a n i s t a n w a s h e l d o n designed to win over more of the T h u r s d a y J a n u a r y 2 8 t h , Afghan population, divide the diplomatic talk was all about insurgents and induce local p e a c e g a t h e r i n g s a n d Taliban fighters to defect. reconciliation with the Taliban. Senior American officials Afghanistan’s president, Hamid therefore stress “re-integration” Karzai, said he would convene a of low-level Taliban fighters “grand peace jirga(council of with an internationally-financed e l d e r s ) ” , a n d u r g e d S a u d i offer of cash, jobs and economic Arabia’s King Abdullah “to development in their villages. A guide and assist the peace fund for the re-integration process”. Mr Karzai’s officials programme attracted $140m said that the Taliban would be worth of pledges on Thursday. invited to attend the gathering, to Reconciliation with the Taliban be held in the coming months. leadership will be important

eventually to resolve the Afghan conflict, they argue, but for now the priority should be for NATO to regain the military and political initiative. Then it can negotiate from a position of strength. Even Saudi Arabia, the putative godfather of the peace process, sounded wary. Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, said his country would take part in Afghan peace efforts only if the Taliban denied sanctuary to al-Qaeda and cuts ties with militant networks. “By keeping their contacts with [Osama] bin Laden they won't be coming to any negotiations with a positive attitude”, he said. Yet Mr Karzai, supported by Kai Eide, the departing UN envoy to Kabul, seems convinced that reintegration on the ground must be accompanied by a wider peace process. The Afghan government has pushed the UN Security Council to agree to remove five ex-Taliban figures from its blacklist, and Afghan officials say they want some current Taliban leaders delisted as an olive branch. Mr Eide said more Afghan prisoners should be released from jail in the American military base in Bagram as “confidence-building measures”. The conference fell in with Mr Karzai’s peace agenda, though few delegates thought Mr Karzai

would get far with his reconciliation process. The Taliban issued a statement mocking the conference as futile and predicted “final defeat” for the “invaders”. In any case, the conference could hardly distance itself from Mr Karzai, given that it was designed to show that the Afghan government was taking “ownership” for solving its problems, and to lay out a plan for a “transition” to Afghan forces taking charge of security. David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, talked of a “viable and clear goal for bringing this conflict to an end”. Even if British officials think it implausible, the talk of a negotiated end to the war might help assuage the British public, which has grown more hostile to the war. The British government had sought a clear timeline for Afghan forces to take the lead, province by province, even district by district. Instead the communiqué gave a vague outline of how Afghan forces would be “taking the lead and conducting the majority of operations in the insecure areas” within three years, and taking overall control within five. It said some provinces may pass to Afghan lead by the end of the year, depending on conditions on the ground. They were not identified for fear of turning

them into targets for insurgent attacks. The conference approved plans for Afghan security forces to grow to 172,000 soldiers and 134,000 policemen by October 2011. It also endorsed granting Afghanistan a further $1.6 billion in debt relief. Donors, especially America, agreed in principle to increase the share of economic aid that passes through the Afghan government (currently 20%) to 50%—as long as it can improve its management of funds and cut corruption. Many details of how Mr Karzai proposes to improve the performance of his government will be spelt out at a new conference to be held in Kabul before this summer. Taken together, the London and Kabul meetings will place an international seal of legitimacy on Mr Karzai after last year’s fraud-riddled presidential election. For now, the most important reconciliation may not be between Mr Karzai and the Taliban, but between Mr Karzai and his Western backers. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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The state-of-the-union speech: The limits to verbiage (The Economist: News analysis) Submitted at 1/27/2010 10:50:38 PM

The state-of-the-union speech The president’s speech was underwhelming, which was probably better than the alternative Jan 28th 2010 | From The Economist online ONE thing you can generally count on when the lanky figure of Barack Obama approaches a podium is that you will hear a good speech; and the more trouble he is in, the better the speech is likely to be. He has never spoken more powerfully than just after losing the New Hampshire primary back in January 2008, or when the eruption of his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, threatened to derail him later that year. For his first stateof-the-union message on January 27th, the president needed something extra-special. His ratings are down below 50%, and the loss of a crucial Senate seat in Massachusetts a week earlier means that much of his domestic agenda, notably his efforts to reform health care, is stalled if not dead. But in place of the

mighty oratory one might have expected, the president delivered an inordinately long, unrepentant but ultimately rather cautious speech that eschewed the tubthumping and delivered a little bit to everyone. There were alternatives to the middle course he chose. He might have tacked to the right, in the hope of winning over Republicans, but he would probably have failed. He might have lurched to the left, embracing the sort of populism that seemed presaged by his post -Massachusetts declaration that he was “ready for a fight” with the banks, but that would have alienated the centre. So he chose to remain, just about, the pragmatist whom this newspaper endorsed back in November 2008. But he gave no sign of how he plans to pursue his agenda or solve the problems that are piling up around him. But what are you going to do about it? On the economy, Mr Obama tickled middle-class voters with a small-change package of family-oriented tax credits for child-care, student loans and suchlike. This sort of micro-

targeting worked for Bill Clinton when he found himself in a hole, but Mr Obama faces a far harsher economic environment. Unless the economy starts to recover powerfully enough to cut America’s high unemployment levels, this modest set of policies will seem footling. Such tiny giveaways are unlikely to help assuage Americans’ growing sense that this is an administration that has expended more effort on advancing longheld liberal dreams, like universal health care, than on securing middle-class jobs, nor to allay their suspicion that bailouts are only for bankers. There is a deep populist anger brewing in America, and Mr Obama risks having cooled it barely at all. The same is true for his efforts at fiscal rectitude. The Obama team has read the runes of Massachusetts, and has observed that one of the things that most angered voters there was the size of the deficit. Rightly so: the Congressional Budget Office gave warning this week that the deficit would run at more than $1.3 trillion this year, as a proportion of GDP the secondworst since the war (the worst

was last year), with a long line of horrors to come. But the president’s response was another exercise in having it both ways. His promise to freeze nonsecurity discretionary spending for three years was meant to reassure people who worry about a poisonous legacy of debt. But once military spending and entitlements (such as government -provided health insurance for the poor and the elderly, and Social Security) are stripped out, less than a fifth of the budget is left to freeze: and that freeze would be counteracted by the jobs bill that Mr Obama urged Congress to pass. America cannot return to budgetary health without tackling entitlements. Mr Obama said he wants a bipartisan commission to figure out how to get the deficit down. The Senate voted down just such a plan the day before his big speech. Mr Obama therefore intends to set up one of his own. But the chances of Congress accepting (or perhaps even debating) the commission’s recommendations hardly seem encouraging in light of the rejection. A better speech would have laid out an outline

for a return to fiscal health, not subcontracted it. Other questions remain unanswered. Is Mr Obama ready to fight hard for the things he said he believed in when he ran for office—health-care reform, a cap-and-trade system to rein in America’s carbon-dioxide emissions, the rebuilding of America’s schools? Will he act on his promise to impose sanctions on Iran? The answer to all those questions, he said, is yes. But he gave not the slightest clue how he intends to accomplish any of it. He could, for instance, have urged the House to pass the Senate health bill, which is imperfect but better than nothing; or he could have reached out to Republicans by offering compromises. He did neither, and that was a waste of a podium. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Europe.view: Say not the struggle naught availeth (The Economist: Daily columns)

turned his fire on a new, more insidious enemy: the overlap between organised crime and exSubmitted at 1/27/2010 11:59:19 PM Soviet intelligence services, and E u r o p e . v i e w R o m a n in particular the staggering K u p c h i n s k y , a s c o u r g e o f corruption of the oil and gas communists and post-communist industry. He edited a gripping kleptocrats alike fortnightly digest on crime and Jan 28th 2010 | From The corruption in the ex-Soviet Economist online region for Radio Free IN THEIR freedom they had no Europe/Radio Liberty. (For h o m e l a n d . A n d i n t h e i r readers who know that outfit homeland they had no freedom. o n l y i n i t s p a l e m o d e r n Roman Kupchinsky, a warrior in incarnation, a trip into the and out of uniform, who died on archives is recommended.) January 19th aged 65, was one of Those who read his reports the most remarkable of those t h e r e , a n d l a t e r f o r t h e who fought a seemingly hopeless Jamestown Foundation, a thinkb u t u l t i m a t e l y t r i u m p h a n t tank, found them eye-poppingly struggle against the Soviet well-informed and insightful. seizure of power in the eastern Yet they were only dilute half of Europe. versions of what he really knew. Much of what he did in the cold Western energy companies and war is still secret. The son of governments took him into their Ukrainian émigrés to the United confidence, using him as a States, he served as a marine in c o n s u l t a n t t o e x p l a i n t h e Vietnam. Then he worked “for m o n s t r o u s m e n a g e r i e o f t h e g o v e r n m e n t ” . H e cronyism, spookery and greed c a m p a i g n e d f o r p o l i t i c a l that they encountered in the wild prisoners and fought hard in the east. He kept their secrets. information war against Soviet Many people enjoy the title of a rule in Ukraine. “walking encyclopedia”. Mr But unlike many of his fellow Kupchinsky deserved it. But that cold-warriors, he did not declare w a s o n l y p a r t o f i t . H i s victory and retire in 1991. He companionship was uproarious;

his determination to outwit the bad guys inspirational. Your columnist once needed urgent help against a seemingly unbeatable enemy from that world. “Romko’s” salty humour calmed my nerves; his deep knowledge helped win the battle. Mr Kupchinsky was emblematic of a generation that had escaped totalitarianism and found new homes in the west. Others of the same ilk can be found all over the region: Valdas Adamkus and Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the former presidents of Lithuania and Latvia respectively, or Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Estonia’s serving head of state. From the past 20 years you could find plenty more, of all ages, in and around public life in the ex-captive nations. Their great asset was binocular vision. Having lived in the west, they understood far better than most of their compatriots at home how life in the rich, free world, for good or for ill, really works. But they also enjoyed a deep knowledge of their own countries’ history and traditions—more so, in some cases, than those who lived under Soviet rule. It didn’t

always work: after 1991 some returning émigrés proved to be patronising, bombastic and outright flaky. Some of them died too early: Stasys Lozoraitis, Lithuania’s top diplomat in the West, was struck down by liver cancer in 1994, aged 70, robbing his country of his integrity, charm and vision. But the best and luckiest of them have played a huge role in securing their countries’ future after the collapse of communism. Mr Kupchinsky was one of the most formidable: equally at home in dealing with troubled bureaucracies such as the FBI and CIA or with Ukraine’s also ill-run intelligence bureaucracies, as well as the private sector, the media and think-tanks. He continued reading, writing and talking—fuelled by a prodigious intake of nicotine and alcohol—right up to his death. What will we do without him? Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

MediaDailyNews: Polls: On Leno-O'Brien, NBC Screwed the Pooch -Big Time (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 1/28/2010 11:40:27 AM

NBC's management is overwhelmingly to blame for the recent controversy pitting Jay Leno against Conan O'Brien, and O'Brien against NBC itself, according to a poll of 129 advertising and marketing execs around the country. A majority of advertisers and marketers surveyed by Round2 Communications also believe the controversy will hurt the network's late-night advertising. They question the wisdom of NBC's decision to stick with Leno over O'Brien. Asked who was most responsible for the talk-show debacle, which saw the network publicly humiliated by O'Brien and gleefully ripped by competitors, 94% of respondents to the Round2 survey blamed NBC's management, compared to about 5% for Leno and 1% for O'Brien. What's more, NBC should have expected trouble: Recalling their initial reactions when the new late-night lineup was unveiled in September 2009, 50% said: "I MEDIADAILYNEWS: page 79


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MediaDailyNews: Time Warner Cable: Revs Up, Moves Toward Interactive Ads

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didn't think it would work, but expected NBC to stick with it anyway." While 23% said: "I expected something like this to happen," compared to just 27% who said: "I thought the new (MediaPost | Media News) to $702 million. Some of the s c h e d u l e w o u l d p r o b a b l y decline could be attributed to s u c c e e d . " Submitted at 1/28/2010 12:14:54 PM fewer political dollars after the A majority of respondents also By the end of the year, Time 2008 presidential election. said they thought NBC made the Warner Cable plans to have 7 In the October-December wrong decision: 47% would have million homes that could deliver period, excluding political kept O'Brien, versus 41% for interactive ads served by Canoe dollars, sales were down 6.3%. A Leno. 12% said NBC should Ventures, a company executive significant drop, but much have kept both, if possible, by already. said Thursday. improved from earlier in 2009. backing down after O'Brien Set-top boxes in the 7 million Canoe, for its part, is testing a Executives expressed optimism voiced his objection. homes would be equipped with request-for-information iTV 2010 would bring a return to As for the propriety of O'Brien's E B I F ( E n h a n c e d B i n a r y system. A viewer could use a growth, due in part to midterm response, 67% agreed with the Interchange Format) technology remote control to order a coupon Congressional elections. "We're statement that "It was fully - - t h e p l a t f o r m C a n o e i s or sample of an advertised poised to see growth in our high- justified in view of NBC's employing to serve iTV spots on product. TWC is part-owner of margin advertising business for treatment of him," compared to Canoe, along with five other the first time in over a year, due national cable networks. just 18% who chose "It was TWC now has 900,000 EBIF- cable operators. Canoe hopes to to a strengthening ad market and understandable, but it made enabled homes in the New York build a footprint of homes served political ad spending around the Conan look bad." 15% believed area as it moves toward its year- by all six operators, where iTV midterm elections," TWC CEO "It was unprofessional." end goal. Besides potential with ads on an ESPN or truTV could Glenn Britt said on the call. Moreover, 44% of respondents Canoe, TWC also wants to use run coast-to-coast. Speaking more broadly about said they believe the controversy t h e t e c h n o l o g y t o d e p l o y Hobbs spoke on a call with TWC's operations, Britt cast will hurt NBC's late-night interactive ads it can sell in local investors, where TWC discussed d o u b t a b o u t a n e c o n o m i c advertising, compared to 37% results for the recent October- recovery so far: "We have not markets. who believed it would have no Advanced advertising will be "a December period and full-year seen a material improvement" effect. 19% said they thought the focus" at TWC in 2010, said 2009. For the fourth quarter w i t h " h o u s i n g v a c a n c i e s controversy would actually help, COO Landel Hobbs. "The first 2009, TWC said overall revenues unemployment and consumer as in, "any publicity is good step is implementation of EBIF, rose 3% to $4.5 billion. It posted confidence" still dragging. publicity." which is a set of standards net income of $322 million. Hobbs said both are much higher The Round2 survey results are u n d e r l y i n g i n t e r a c t i v e Advertising overall is a small than a year ago. a p p l i c a t i o n , " h e s a i d . part of TWC's revenues (about Five Filters featured article: By comparison to TWC's 7 4%), but usually a profitable one. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: million EBIF aim by 2011, Like the market in general, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Comcast recently indicated it has h o w e v e r , s a l e s s u f f e r e d Term Extraction. 13 million EBIF-enabled homes dramatically in 2009, down 22%

echoed by another poll of media buyers and planners conducted by MediaLife, in which 37% of respondents gave NBC management the worst possible grade for its handling of the situation (1 out of 10), with another 48% giving it a 2-3 rating, for a grand total of 85% giving NBC a failing grade. Asked who was most damaged by the dustup, 75% chose NBC chief Jeff Zucker, trailed by Jay Leno at 18%. Conversely, 71% said Conan O'Brien came out of the showdown in the best shape, trailed by David Letterman at 14%. Perhaps most damning, 58% of the MediaLife poll respondents agreed on one point: "It was a spectacle like I've never seen before, proving just how poorly managed the company is. They should have never allowed O'Brien and Leno to let it play out like that on television." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Apple iPad: One heat seeking missile aimed at netbooks, ereaders (ZDNet) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 1/28/2010 3:19:35 AM

Latest Post| Last 10 Posts| Archives Previous Post: Do all signs point to a bounce in PC demand in 2010? [podcast] Next Post: Why Apple won’t be able to sell an iPad to this Mactard Apple iPad: One heat seeking missile aimed at netbooks, e-readers Posted in: • Amazon • Apple • Ebook • General • netbooks

compete more directly in 2011 as their functionality evolves and prices come down. However, if you follow the money---actually keyword advertising---it's clear that the iPad is also positioned as a netbook killer. Do a search on netbooks and you get an iPad sponsored ad. Apple's Tim Cook called netbooks junky so the company will chafe at the term used in the same sentence as the iPad, but the keywords say something different.

Meanwhile, the iPad is a souped -up e-reader (although I would like to try it on the deck or on the beach for it to truly upend the Apple has unveiled its iPad Kindle). In geek circles, the iPad tablet and almost instantly the Consider Jobs' unveiling on goals, but also aggressive price The Kindle DX goes for $489. can spark some debate about its debate began: Is this device a Wednesday ( Techmeme): Jobs goals because we wanted to put It's no coincidence that a Google p o s i t i o n i n g . C N e t ' s D a n computer or a mobile device? Is said the iPad is "more intimate this in the hands of lots of search on "Kindle DX" yields A c k e r m a n c a p t u r e s t h e it an e-reader or light laptop? than a laptop and more capable people. The iPad pricing starts at sponsored ads for Apple's iPad. s c u t t l e b u t t . I s t h e i P a d a Where does the iPad fit? Is this than a smartphone." Sounds like $499," he said. In fact, the Reading that it's clear that Apple computer or a mobile device? tablet really different? Apple a netbook rival. But then Jobs pricing probably saved the whole is aimed at the Kindle. Piper The debate could last longer than likes those questions since the uncorks the Amazon Kindle event. Every skeptic I know--- Jaffray analyst Gene Munster you'd think. Munster writes: iPad is one device aimed at two jabs."Amazon has done a great including the one I see in the writes: We believe the iPad and After using the iPad, we believe m a r k e t s - - - e - r e a d e r s a n d job with the Kindle and we're mirror---was on board for $499. Kindle can comfortably coexist it will cannibalize iPod touch netbooks. Simply put, boxing the going to stand Why? That price is well known for the next year given their sales, but not Mac sales. The iPad into a strict definition just on their shoulders and go a little and it's an amount where you different functionality and price gadget is a premium mobile doesn't work. In some respects, further."[video=387656] say, "I could do that." Andrew points. We've taken a look at the device, not a computer; as such, netbooks and e-readers are Nusca: Why Apple will sell iPad and believe Amazon's we see some iPod touch buyers designed for the same tasks: Jobs really revealed that the millions of iPads in 2010 Special Kindle is superior as a dedicated stepping up to the iPad, but Reading, Web content and light iPad is a netbook and e-reader Report: Meet the iPad: $499 and reading device because of its c o n s u m e r s l o o k i n g f o r a n use. Apple CEO Steve Jobs heat seeking missile when he up Apple iPad: First thoughts on e I n k t e c h n o l o g y , w h e r e a s affordable portable computer appears to be targeting both with outlined the device's pricing. how it will impact business users Apple's iPad is better suited as a w i l l l i k e l y s t i c k w i t h t h e the iPad. " W e h a d v e r y a m b i t i o u s To wit: multimedia device. That being APPLE page 82 technical goals and user interface said, we believe the devices will


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AT&T earnings: E-readers, iPhone, netbooks propel wireless subscriber gains (ZDNet) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 1/28/2010 5:27:07 AM

Latest Post| Last 10 Posts| Archives Previous Post: Why Apple won’t be able to sell an iPad to this Mactard Next Post: Motorola turns profit in fourth quarter, but outlook weak AT&T earnings: E-readers, iPhone, netbooks propel wireless

subscriber gains Posted in: • AT&T • General • Mobile • Verizon • Wired & Wireless AT&T added 2.7 million net wireless subscribers in the fourth quarter, its second-best gain in its history courtesy of e-readers such as Sony's eReader and

Barnes & Noble's nook, netbooks and the iPhone. The gains put it a little more than 2 million subscribers or so behind the largest wireless carrier, Verizon.

at the end of 2009. For comparison's sake, Verizon ended the year with 87.5 million and added 1.2 net retail customers in the fourth quarter. For 2009, AT&T added 7.3 million net subscribers. Verizon The company's fourth quarter added 4.6 million. And on the e a r n i n g s m e t e x p e c t a t i o n s churn front, AT&T had its best Thursday, but what's notable is quarter. AT&T's 1.19 percent AT&T's wireless momentum. postpaid churn and 1.44 percent AT&T's net subscriber additions total churn is nearly on par with gave it 85.1 million subscribers Verizon's tally. Verizon reported

wireless retail postpaid churn of 1.06 percent with total retail churn of 1.44 percent. AT&T's performance is more notable when you consider that Verizon's subscriber totals were boosted by the acquisition of Alltel. There are a few caveats. For instance, AT&T added 910,000 post-paid retail AT&T page 82


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subscribers, which would put it below Verizon's additions. AT&T credited "rapid adoption of smartphones and emerging devices such as eReaders, netbooks and navigation devices" for its overall gains. In addition, AT&T activated 3.1 million iPhones in the fourth quarter, its second best performance. A third of iPhone activations were for customers new to AT&T.

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billion. That tally is down slightly from 2008 levels.

• Oracle-Sun's great society vision: Will customers bite?(0128) • Motorola turns profit in fourth quarter, but outlook weak(01-28) • AT&T earnings: E-readers, iPhone, netbooks propel wireless subscriber gains (01-28) • Why Apple won't be able to sell an iPad to this Mactard(0128) • Apple iPad: One heat seeking missile aimed at netbooks, ereaders(01-28) • Do all signs point to a bounce in PC demand in 2010? [podcast](01-28) • BMC Software poised to cash in on hybrid data centers(01-28) • News to know: Meet the iPad; Oracle-Sun; Netflix, Google(0128)

MacBook lineup. These debates happen when a company is trying to redefine a category. Apple's iPod touch is more gaming machine than music player. Toss in the apps and you can make the argument that the iPod touch is a mini-PC. The waters get really murky with the iPad.

itself, not media, for its iPad "confirmation"(01-28) • Oracle-Sun's great society By the numbers: vision: Will customers bite?(01• AT&T's wireless data revenue 28) jumped 26.3 percent in the fourth • Motorola turns profit in fourth quarter to $3.9 billion. quarter, but outlook weak(01-28) • Emerging devices like e• AT&T earnings: E-readers, readers boosted the wireless iPhone, netbooks propel wireless subscriber base by 1 million in subscriber gains(01-28) the fourth quarter. • Why Apple won't be able to • AT&T U-verse TV subscribers The iPad doesn't fit well into sell an iPad to this Mactard(01jumped 248,000 in the fourth any category. What's unclear is 28) quarter to reach 2.1 million. Uwhether Apple dangled enough • Apple iPad: One heat seeking Verizon and AT&T reported verse broadband subscribers carrots in front of buyers to keep missile aimed at netbooks, esimilar quarters. Both met jumped 267,000 in the fourth them interested. Once the initial readers (01-28) expectations, but didn't deliver a quarter. reaction wears off consumers • Do all signs point to a bounce lot of upside surprises. start crunching the numbers. i n P C d e m a n d i n 2 0 1 0 ? AT&T also reiterated that it is ZDNet's Joel Evans walks [ p o d c a s t ] ( 0 1 - 2 8 ) AT&T reported earnings of $3 improving its problem areas--through his buying calculus. I • BMC Software poised to cash billion, or 51 cents a share, on notably New York and San h a v e m y o w n , b u t w o u l d in on hybrid data centers(01-28) revenue of $30.9 billion, down Francisco---on its network. probably lean in favor of an • News to know: Meet the iPad; from $31.1 billion a year ago. posted by Larry Dignan iPad. Overall, technology buyers Oracle-Sun; Netflix, Google(01Wall Street was expecting January 28, 2010 @ 5:19 am more Posts (Archives) have to ask whether they want to 28) earnings of 51 cents a share on Previous Post: Why Apple WordPress Mobile Edition carry yet another device. If so, revenue of $30.86 billion. AT&T won’t be able to sell an iPad to available at alexking.org. the iPad warrants a look. more Posts (Archives) CEO Randall Stephenson said this Mactard powered by WordPress. posted by Larry Dignan WordPress Mobile Edition mobile broadband has been Next Post: Motorola turns profit Five Filters featured article: January 28, 2010 @ 3:04 am available at alexking.org. propelling the company. "Our in fourth quarter, but outlook Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Previous Post: Do all signs point powered by WordPress. leadership in mobile broadband weak Last 10 posts: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, to a bounce in PC demand in Five Filters featured article: will continue to set us apart as • M i c r o s o f t e a r n i n g s : Term Extraction. 2010? [podcast] Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: we roll out even faster 3G speeds ' E x c e p t i o n a l d e m a n d ' f o r Next Post: Why Apple won’t be PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, this year and begin deploying 4G Windows 7 stokes bottom, top able to sell an iPad to this Term Extraction. capabilities in 2011," he said. lines(01-28) Mactard Last 10 posts: For 2009, AT&T reported net • McGraw-Hill should blame • Microsoft earnings: income of $12.5 billion, or $2.12 itself, not media, for its iPad 'Exceptional demand' for a share, on revenue of $123 "confirmation"(01-28) Windows 7 stokes bottom, top lines(01-28) • McGraw-Hill should blame


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Americans With Postgraduate Education Still Back Obama (All Gallup Headlines) Submitted at 1/28/2010 4:45:00 AM

PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama's job approval rating, which has averaged 50% since Dec. 1, continues to be significantly above that average among Americans with postgraduate education (58%). Among educational groups, only postgraduates show a rating above the majority level. These findings are based on aggregated data from Gallup Daily tracking in December 2009 and January 2010, consisting of more than 25,000 interviews, and at least 4,900 in each educational group. Postgraduates were a key constituency in Obama's winning 2008 presidential-primary and general-election coalitions, and have been Obama's top supporters among educational groups throughout his presidency. "Roughly 9 in 10 blacks approve of Obama, regardless of their educational background." Since July, when Obama last registered an approval rating of 60%, the gap in his approval rating between postgraduates and other educational groups has grown, with his support declining proportionately less among postgraduates than

among the other groups. Educational Relationship Varies by Group The relationship between educational attainment and support for Obama is not the same within all demographic subgroups. For example, the educational effects are quite pronounced among non-Hispanic whites, with double-digit gaps between postgraduates and those without postgraduate education. In contrast, there are essentially no educational differences among blacks. Roughly 9 in 10 blacks approve of Obama, regardless of their educational

background. Postgraduate men and women are Obama's greatest supporters among gender and educational groups. Obama fares especially well among women with postgraduate education (64%). Whereas postgraduates are the only educational group among men that shows at least 50% approval for Obama, all four educational groups among women do. Also, there are essentially no gender differences among those with a high school education or less, but notable gender gaps at higher education levels.

Bottom Line The support of postgraduates, who tend to be more liberal and Democratic in their political orientation, was important to Obama's being elected president. Since he has become president, postgraduates have been among his more reliable supporters, backing him at higher levels than do those in other educational groups. Survey Methods Results are based on telephone interviews with 25,387 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Dec. 1, 2009-Jan. 26, 2010, as part of Gallup Daily

tracking. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of error is ±1 percentage point. For results based on the sample of 6,626 adults with a high school education or less, the maximum margin of error is ±1 percentage point. For results based on the sample of 8,009 adults with some college education, the maximum margin of error is ±1 percentage point. For results based on the sample of 5,709 college graduates with no postgraduate education, the maximum margin of error is ±2 percentage points. For results based on the sample of 4,964 adults with postgraduate education, the maximum margin of error is ±2 percentage points. Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones and cellular phones. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.


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Renovating American Infrastructure, Step 1: Transportation By Adam M. Bright (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

Task: Replace miles of concrete highways with smarter versions Status: Field-testing for selfsensing concrete in progress Carbon nanotubes are prized for Submitted at 1/28/2010 10:16:20 AM both their strength and their Defeating soul-deadening piezoresistance-they change their gridlock, monster potholes and electrical resistance as they're dangerous road ice stressed. Xun Yu, a mechanicalChicago road crews are engineering professor at the scrambling to fill 67,000 University of Minnesota-Duluth, potholes a month. Communities is cooking up a concrete mix that in Pennsylvania rely on 100-year contains 0.1 percent carbon -old water pipes made of wood. nanotubes, making it harder to Squirrels still cause widespread crack than traditional concrete, blackouts. The country's 600,000 and smart too. By embedding bridges, four million miles of electrodes into it as it sets, Yu roads, and 30,000 wastewater can measure changes in electrical plants desperately need attention. resistance to detect compression The solution isn't patches, it's an from passing cars. Future overhaul. Soon roads and power versions will better calculate lines will fix themselves, and speed and vehicle weight on the we'll mine energy from sewage. go for a real-time view of the America's 21st-century tune-up ground-penetrating radar looks to scatter salt a couple of days Regular bridges are fairly rigid road's stress. Meanwhile, a new won't happen overnight, but we inside bridge decks for corrosion before a blizzard rather than structures that break down over concrete mix developed by could start reaping the benefits and lasers scan the road surface. waiting until the snow is already time from stress. "Tensegrity" Victor Li, a professor of civil and (faster broadband! cleaner A cellular data connection sends on the ground. SafeLane consists structures disperse load over a environmental engineering at the water!) within the next few data to control centers, where it of layers of epoxy mixed with n e s t o f t e n s e d c a b l e s a n d University of Michigan, contains years. can be assembled into maps of dolomitic limestone. The epoxy compressed struts that allow unhydrated cement grains that Cars that Report Potholes trouble spots. Roads that De-Ice layer is snowplow-proof, lasts up them to be both flexible and are activated when exposed to Task: Fix the third of major Themselves to 15 years, and helps seal the structurally rigid. Now the carbon dioxide in air and water roads that are in poor shape Task: Reduce the 1,300 road pavement to keep corrosive salts University of California at San from rain-exactly what you'd S t a t u s : T h r e e y e a r s t o a deaths a year from snowy and from leaching down to steel bars Diego is developing traffic- find in a small crack in the road. prototype icy winter conditions i n s e n s i t i v e b r i d g e d e c k s . bearing tensegrity bridges with The reaction produces a calcium In a new system developed at Status: In testing by more than Anecdotal results from its first feedback sensors to guide subtle carbonate seal, restoring the slab Northeastern University, vehicles 2 0 s t a t e d e p a r t m e n t s o f five years in the field show up to adjustments in cable length, to its normal load-bearing that cover lots of asphalt-taxis, t r a n s p o r t a t i o n a 70 percent decrease in winter which could alleviate the shifting capacity. Trackless Elevated buses, garbage trucks-will be A new road coating called accidents. Bridges that Flex on stresses of an overladen truck, Trains outfitted with acoustic wave SafeLane not only gives tires the Fly c o u n t e r a c t t h e v i b r a t i o n Task: Add urban railways for a sensors to detect potholes before more traction, it actually helps Task: Upgrade the 26 percent of frequency of an earthquake, or third the cost of conventional the human eye can see them. prevent the accumulation of ice decrepit bridges disperse the load of a severed light rail Sound waves probe the top three and snow by holding on to de- Status: Pedestrian versions exist; cable. Concrete that Senses feet of the road for telltale air icing salts, allowing road crews traffic bridges in 10 years RENOVATING page 86 Cracks and Heals on its Own pockets and small cracks, while


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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) Submitted at 1/28/2010 1:05:15 PM

Apple's redesigned touchenabled iWork office suite may seem like an afterthought, but more than anything else on the iPad it's indicative of how we'll use computers in the future During yesterday's iPad event, which largely played out just as the rumors foretold, Apple did do something unexpected: they unveiled a version of the word processing, spreadsheet and presentation suite iWork redesigned for the iPad's 9.7-inch touchscreen. It's easy to write off iWork's inclusion as a minor perk only for business types only, but don't. The suite's fullyredesigned touch interfaces actually reveal more about Apple's vision of the future of computing than any other element of their new tablet. Here's why. I used each iWork app yesterday, and while I couldn't spend enough time with them to come to a definitive conclusion, they definitely surprised me. Text-input issues aside (we'll get to that in a minute), each appeared more than capable of offering a similar, if not much improved experience, over their desktop counterparts. And for

that, all credit is due to multitouch. In Pages, one of word processing's most arduous tasks-formatting text cleanly and easily around graphical elements--has been made orders of magnitude 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, IPAD'S page 87


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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) 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

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

with the basic programming of running the maze, and reproducing less if the sensors were trigger by a bump into the wall. After less than 100 generations, the robots had not only evolved the ability to navigate the maze without any wall collisions, but even learned to have the side with more sensors face the direction of travel. With the final experiment, the scientists created robots that got points for placing tokens in a marked area. The more points, the more offspring. The catch was two types of tokens: one small enough for an individual to push, but worth fewer points, and a bigger token requiring two robots to move, but worth more points. Not only did the robots

evolve to help each other, but like in nature, they evolved to only help those robots from the same code lineage, a trait called "kin selection" in biology. Most amazingly, the code for the robots in all the experiments was amazingly short. In fact, for the token-moving experiment, the robots only had the programing equivalent of 15 neurons. By coaxing such complex behavior out of limited programming, the the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems team proved, once again, that some of nature's most complex behaviors are emergent phenomena that grow out of very simple instructions. [ Public Library of Science, Biology]

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Status: Texas A&M University's Texas Transportation Institute has offered free land for a twomile test track To save the multibillion-dollar cost of clearing 24-foot-wide swaths for new track, trainmaker Tubular Rail wants to shoot trains up to 150 mph over existing infrastructure through a series of elevated rings 100 feet apart. As it passes through each ring, the 400-foot-long carbonfiber car is pushed along by electrically powered steel rollers. To save juice, the motors gear up only as a train approaches; up to 90 percent of the kinetic energy of the train can be recaptured as the rollers wind down. Read the rest of PopSci's plan to rebuild America here.

NIF Moves 5.9 Million Degrees Closer To Fusion With the Power needpage for 87 a cheap and NIF abundant alternative to fossils


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fuels more important than ever before, the field of fusion energy is getting hotter. Really, really hot. 6 million degrees hot. Yes, the National Ignition Facility, the Department of Energy's pet fusion project, has finally fired up its 192 lasers and zapped something, moving us one step closer to the day of clean, nearly free, fusion energy. Writing in the journal Science, NIF scientists describe how their lasers, which occupy as much space as three football fields in Livermore, California, heated a small gold capsule up to 5.9

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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.

million degrees Fahrenheit. Had the capsule contained the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, that temperature would have been hot enough to cause a fusion-generating implosion. The scientists measured the record-breaking temperature by looking at the X-ray radiation emitted by the imploding gold capsule. The data shows that the lasers are hot enough, and targeted correctly enough, to proceed to the next step: actual fusion. Currently, there's no date for when the lab will attempt to

implode actual fusion fuel, but it will probably take at least a couple of months. In the meanwhile, to get an idea of the kinds of temperatures and energies the NIF scientists are dealing with, just take a look at that giant yellow thing in the sky.


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