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Obama uses V-word in Afghan speech, and we don’t mean victory By Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 12/1/2009 7:35:51 PM

President Barack Obama uttered it four times in his speech at West Point about the way forward in Afghanistan. It was the V-word that is often linked with the Q-word that conjures up the ghost of a past war that still is a raw wound in the American psyche. Obama charged head-on to try and address one of the key fears for Americans about continued involvement in an overseas war by saying that Vietnam, often described as a quagmire, was not Afghanistan. Invoking Vietnam is usually avoided when trying to make the case for war. But apparently Obama believed saying it out loud would help convince the American public of the need to send 30,000 more troops to a war

that has lasted eight years. Obama addressed critics who suggest Afghanistan is another Vietnam and that the United States should cut its losses and rapidly withdraw. “I believe this argument depends on a false reading of history,” he said. And he gave the following reasons for why the two wars are not alike: “Unlike Vietnam, we are joined by a broad coalition of 43 nations that recognizes the legitimacy of our action. Unlike Vietnam, we are not facing a broad-based popular insurgency. And most importantly, unlike Vietnam, the American people were viciously attacked from Afghanistan, and remain a target for those same extremists who are plotting along its border.” Obama gave a timetable for starting the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July

2011, but with a caveat that he would be “taking into account conditions on the ground” (a phrase his predecessor President George W. Bush often used in referring to withdrawing troops from Iraq). That appeared to leave the door wide open for adjusting the

Obama's Afghanistan Speech (Little Green Footballs)

Here’s a thread to discuss President Obama’s speech, and

here’s the full text of the speech…

timetable when the time is up. Former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel also used the V and Q words in talking about Obama’s strategy. “This is a very bold gamble by the president. It is a bold gamble first of all in terms of Afghanistan where we are in a

very difficult situation. This president inherits a quagmire,” he said. “It is also a bold gamble in terms of American domestic politics. His own party is increasingly divided over this war. His liberal, Democratic base is increasingly tired of it and his own party is haunted by the ghost of Vietnam right now,” Riedel said. “Wars tend to consume presidencies and this is now Obama’s war.” Did Obama convince you that Afghanistan will not be his Vietnam? Click here for more Reuters political coverage Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama speaks to cadets at West Point)

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White House adviser nods to bubble Serious Money: risk in China Fortune's 25 leaders, 18 remain By Alister Bull (Front Row Washington)

By Sheldon Liber (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 12/1/2009 1:26:31 PM

He was probably only trying to be funny. But White House economist Austan Goolsbee touched a raw nerve by inferring Chinese investors currently exhibit the same kind of bubble mentality that Americans displayed prior to the collapse of the U.S. technology stock bubble in 2000. Goolsbee, chief economist to Obama’s Economic Recovery and Advisory Board, was asked if poll findings that 72 percent of Chinese would invest money in technology stocks, versus 60 percent of Americans who would put it in a bank, meant the United States had lost its nerve on taking risk. “We are in a deep recession. It is clear that that has scared people,” Goolsbee told a panel at a conference on innovation and the economy sponsored by Intel Corp. and the Aspen Institute. “I bet in 1999 in the U.S., we’d have had 72 percent saying ‘yeah, I want to invest in a tech company’. Give them a few popping bubbles, and maybe they’ll be putting it in the bank,”

Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:40:00 PM

Filed under: Management, General Electric (GE), PepsiCo (PEP), Intel (INTC), McDonald's (MCD), International Business Machines (IBM), 3M Corporation (MMM), American Express (AXP), FedEx Corp (FDX), General Mills (GIS), Procter and Gamble (PG), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Lilly he said. sad grain of truth to that,” (Eli) (LLY), Deere and Co (DE), Surging U.S. technology stock Goolsbee said, referring to the Unilever ADR (UL), Serious Money, Stock screen, China prices peaked in March 2000, satirical U.S. publication. with the subsequent collapse Candid, but not very diplomatic. Mobile Limited (CHL), ICICI tipping the economy into a short Obama just got back from a trip Bank (IBN) recession. through Asia where he tried to This is the third screening to find Analysts warn that China is ripe encourage China to do more to v a l u e a m o n g F o r t u n e ' s 2 5 for a bursting bubble of its own. boost domestic spending and corporate world leaders that have T h e c o u n t r y ’ s b e n c h m a r k allow its yuan currency to demonstrated an ability to Shanghai Composite Index appreciate, which the United regenerate themselves from closed on Monday at 3,235, back States hopes would make it easier within. The list has been cut to 18 from a recent peak above 3,470, to sell exports into this fast- and will be cut further here. The methodology of using basic but almost twice its trough during growing market. last year’s global financial crisis Photo Credit: Reuters/stringer stock data points to identify around 1,700. (Electronic board showing stock potential value investments only “ D i d y o u s e e T h e O n i o n information at a brokerage house sets the stage for success -- it headline? They had a joke in Wuhan, Hubei province, Nov. assures nothing. While it is true that paying less is better than headline: ‘Nation Demands New 2, 2009.) paying more and getting a higher Bubble To Invest In’. There is a

yield is better than less, this gives you a scant picture of what is in people's hearts and minds, and that is harder to judge. Like the weather, no matter the predictions, you may not find out it is raining until you are standing in it. Regardless, it should be advantageous to start with good stock (pun intended) before you take to whittlin', and that we have. Continue reading Serious Money: Fortune's 25 leaders, 18 remain Serious Money: Fortune's 25 leaders, 18 remain originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Our DIY Electric Car Gets Some Batteries By Matthew Redd (Wired Top Stories)

Anyone who’s built an EV knows you spend a lot of time waiting for parts and they don’t

always work out when you get them. Such was the case with the adapter plate I need to bolt an

electric motor to the transmission in my 1967 Volkswagen Beetle EV. I finally got it last week, and

then the "fun" began.

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Obama has charted an Afghan course. Britain must lead the way on Pakistan | Timothy Garton Ash By Timothy Garton Ash (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

action in Afghanistan was entirely justified as a response to the 9/11 attacks. In Tuesday night's speech at West Point, Obama reminded us of the Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:04:35 PM domestic and international European states should not legitimacy that action initially simply make foreign policy in enjoyed, including solidarity – reaction to Washington, but look "all for one, and one for all" – to our own vital interests from America's European and Obama has spoken, but we must C a n a d i a n N a t o a l l i e s , a n d think for ourselves. What are our e n d o r s e m e n t f r o m t h e U N vital interests in Afghanistan and security council. The proclaimed Pakistan? It is our vital interest to objectives were limited: hammer prevent another terrorist attack al-Qaida, get Osama bin Laden, c o m i n g f r o m , o r c l o s e l y destroy the military capability of connected with, violent extremist the Taliban. Islamist groups located in If you had to point to the Afghanistan or – now more likely moment it began to go wrong, it – Pakistan. This is true for all might be on or around 16 E u r o p e a n c o u n t r i e s , b u t December 2001 when, according especially for Britain, with its to a recent report prepared for the large minority of Pakistani Democratic majority on the origin. It is our vital interest to S e n a t e f o r e i g n r e l a t i o n s ensure that Pakistan does not committee, Bin Laden and his become a failed state with, in the bodyguards "walked unmolested worst case, its nuclear weapons out of Tora Bora and disappeared f a l l i n g i n t o t h e h a n d s o f into Pakistan's unregulated tribal terrorists. It is, too, our vital area" – even though there was a interest to ensure the United large American military presence States does not feel abandoned around the Tora Bora caves. The by its European allies, but also precise details are still disputed, that it does not make the kind of but there is no doubt that Bin disastrous blunders it made in the Laden got away to Pakistan. If he Islamic world during the Bush had been caught, the whole story years. could have been different. W e a r e w h e r e w e a r e i n The more fundamental blunder Afghanistan today – that is, came a few months later, as the teetering on the edge of failure – Bush administration stormed on because of those blunders. Unlike to Iraq, which had nothing to do the Iraq war, the original military with the 9/11 attacks, leaving the

job in Afghanistan unfinished. "Everyone's going to forget us now," president Hamid Karzai told the war reporter Christina Lamb. And so they did. Western troop levels crept down; the Taliban came slinking back; the Karzai regime sank into a pit of corruption. What Obama now proposes is a mongrel policy: more than the limited counter-terrorism strategy advocated by some; less than what would be needed for a fullblown comprehensive counter -insurgency campaign to have a serious chance of success. Large though the hike of 30,000 soldiers and $30bn is, it does not bring the total numbers – military, civilian and financial – close to what a comprehensive counter-insurgency strategy would require. Above all, it is strictly limited in time, with a drawdown due to start in 2011, ready for the 2012 US presidential election. Afghans will therefore make their personal calculations on the assumption that western troops will withdraw – albeit leaving a residual security presence – over the next three to five years. Five years in Afghan history is a very short time. The empires come and go, the clans remain. There is a seemingly unavoidable political hyperbole that requires Obama to talk in his

speech of bringing this war "to a successful conclusion", and will doubtless have him declaring his policy a "success" in the midterm Congressional elections and again in the 2012 presidential election campaign – just as, in that same speech, he talks of "successfully leaving Iraq to its people". We should not be fooled, any more than I suspect he himself is. The word "success" here translates as the avoidance of failure. Beyond that, if all goes well, it means achieving those limited counter-terrorist and counter-proliferation objectives that are in our British and European vital interest as much as they are in America's. The rest is humbug. Only those who know Afghanistan and Pakistan well, and travel there regularly, can give us an informed guess about the prospects of "success", thus modestly defined; and even they will only really know after the event. Yet every citizen of a country that has troops in Afghanistan must make his or her own political judgment on this basic question: do you think it is worth our sons and daughters continuing to risk their lives for these objectives, pursued in this way? Can such a strategy justify the agony of those grieving widows, husbands, parents and

children whose photos we see on our front pages, the tears of little Victoria Chant, the funeral marches through Wootton Bassett? This is a question that many countries face: Canada, Germany, France and Poland as well as Britain. To some extent we do need to give a common answer, because this is also about the solidarity of allies. Once upon a time it used to be Germany that was most directly threatened; the US and Britain stood by it. Now it is the US and Britain that are more directly threatened; Germany should stand by them. But the moral and political demands of alliance solidarity should not prevent us from thinking for ourselves, assessing our own national interests, and working out what we think the policy should be – rather than simply reacting to whatever the American president of the day asks us to do. So far as Britain is concerned, my answer is this. No one would wish to start from where we are; nor should we have needed to. However, having already expended so much blood, sweat and tears over a period of eight years, and being part of an alliance of democracies, the continued deployment of some of our troops for only a few more OBAMA page 12

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Iran releases British sailors By Adam Gabbatt, James Meikle (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

were locked for much of the time, their guards left it open to let in air when they were eating dinner. The men were allowed, under Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:39:26 AM escort, to check their boat, which • Yachtsmen free after week-long was damaged in the incident. ordeal This morning, the guards had • Skipper says team were 'very "knocked on the door, opened the well treated' door and said: 'You are free to The British yachtsman held in go'." Smith said it "our mistake" Iran described tonight how they that they had found themselves in were blindfolded by their captors disputed waters: "It was not while their skipper, Olly Smith, clearly marked on our charts." was made to sail their vessel to The men said they had had no an island where they spent almost intention of upsetting anyone as a week. they sailed the Kingdom of The men, who arrived in Dubai Bahrain yacht to Dubai for the today after their release in the start of an offshore race last early hours of the morning, said week. they had been "very well treated" Earlier, British sailor David by members of the Iranian B l o o m e r d e s c r i b e d h o w Revolutionary Guard. But "it was "wonderful" it was to be free a very tense situation" for the after he and Oliver Smith, Oliver first couple of days, Smith told a Young, Sam Usher and Luke press conference in Dubai this Porter were released. evening. Bloomer, a Bahrain-based radio While the Foreign Office was presenter, said the five were all engaged in quiet diplomacy to fit and healthy, adding: "If secure their release after their anything, we may be a bit boat inadvertently strayed into overweight because they were Iranian waters, the men said the feeding us so much." atmosphere grew more relaxed The foreign secretary, David the longer they were held. Miliband, welcomed the men's Smith, 31, said the captors had release this morning, saying it kept all the men together in "a proved "diplomacy can work". perfectly reasonable room", in "I have had confirmation that what may have been officers' they are now heading towards quarters. It had an en-suite international waters on their way bathroom. Though the doors to Dubai. I welcome the fact that

this has been dealt with in a professional and straightforward way by the Iranian authorities." The sailors are believed to have been held on the Iranian island of Siri for the past week. The FCO said Iran would take the men to international waters. Miliband said Iranian authorities had given "every indication" that they wanted to deal with the matter in a "straightforward, consular" way. "As I said yesterday, this is a purely consular case," Miliband said. "Obviously, there has been a real ordeal for the young men and for their families and I am really delighted that it is over for them and that we can call the matter closed. It was never a political matter and I welcome the fact that they have dealt with it in this professional way. "I think that this is just a straightforward matter. I do not believe there is any wider significance ... it shows that diplomacy can work." A spokesman for Gordon Brown said: "It was dealt with in a quiet, diplomatic way, which is entirely right, and the result is that the yachtsmen are free." Earlier, Iran's official Irna news agency said the yachtsmen were freed after an interrogation by authorities found they had entered Iranian waters by mistake.

Blue Whale Song Mystery Baffles Scientists By Brandon Keim (Wired Top Stories)

Blue whales are singing in a but scientists can't figure out lower voice all around the world, why.

The Kingdom of Bahrain racing yacht, owned by Sail Bahrain, is being towed into international waters by Iranian officials. A spokesman for Sail Bahrain said team director Nick Crabtree will meet the freed sailors and tow the stricken vessel to Dubai using a RIB (rigid inflatable boat). He said the team were unsure where in Dubai the sailors will be arriving. "The boat's still out of radio contact, so we've had no update as to when and where going to arrive," he said. The Kingdom Of Bahrain was stopped as it sailed from Bahrain to Dubai. Oliver Smith, 31, from Southampton, Oliver Young, 21, from Saltash, near Plymouth, Sam Usher, 26, from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Luke Porter, 21, from Westonsuper-Mare, and Bahrain-based radio presenter David Bloomer, understood to be in his 60s, were on board. Luke Porter's mother, Beverly, told reporters the incident had been a "misunderstanding". "It appears now that they had technical problems with the boat," she said. "The boys never meant to be there in the first place. "Thankfully, Iran have seen it that way." David Young, the father of

Oliver, one of the men being held, said he was "very relieved" at the news. He told the Press Association he heard the news from the FCO and the sailors' team manager. "We thought it would be over quickly," Young said. "This is what we were hoping for." The website of Press TV, the 24hour news channel funded by the Iranian government, carried a statement from Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps this morning saying the sailors had been freed "a few hours ago". "Five Britons, who have been detained after their illegal entrance into the waters of the Islamic republic near Siri island, were freed a few hours ago," the IRGC reportedly said. "They gave the necessary commitments and were freed afterwards." They had been heading to Dubai to join the 360-mile DubaiMuscat offshore sailing race, which was due to start last Thursday. • Iran • Middle East Adam Gabbatt James Meikle guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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UK claims victory in war over EU finance rules By Ian Traynor (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

charge of financial services in Europe in the new European commission. The City of London fears a Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:09:27 AM regulatory attack from the new Britain claims several lobbying French commissioner after victories as ambitious deal is France's president, Nicolas agreed for new banking super- Sarkozy, proclaimed the English regulator "the big losers" in the debate and Britain has claimed victory in its prime minister Gordon Brown dispute with European partners faced withering criticism for over how the City should be allowing a French coup. governed as an ambitious new The British Bankers' Association system of market regulation w e i g h e d i n t o t h e d e b a t e , designed to head off future accusing Sarkozy of damaging financial calamities was agreed in confidence in the EU's new Brussels. institutions. "M Sarkozy must After an escalating war of words surely recognise that he has between Paris and London over undermined the EU with his the shape of regulation, ministers statements and put a question agreed a new regime, which will mark over the impartiality of his centre around a Frankfurt-based nominated commissioner that risk assessment agency headed will not be easily dispelled," by the European Central Bank BBA chief executive Angela a n d t h r e e n e w E u r o p e a n Knight said. regulatory boards for banking, The dispute is continuing in securities and the insurance Brussels, with the British isolated sector. but claiming to have seen off But Britain claimed it had won further French advances. concessions reducing the Under the new regulatory likelihood of any financial impact s y s t e m , t h e E u r o p e a n on the UK government and Commission was to have enjoyed public. sole authority for declaring a The chancellor, Alistair Darling, f i n a n c i a l c r i s i s i n E u r o p e . said he was satisfied with the Ministers have abandoned that deal, while Christine Lagarde, the proposal and made member French finance minister, called states' governments responsible the agreement a compromise. for deciding when a crisis is The deal follows a war of words taking place. over the past few days between "That [decision] is something Britain and France since Michel that should be decided by Barnier, the former French ministers who have to answer to agriculture minister, was put in their parliaments; it should be

made by elected representatives rather than the Commission," said Darling. British officials said that Barnier's wings had been clipped because the commission had been denied the power to declare a financial emergency. Lagarde admitted it had been difficult to reach agreement. "Not everyone was on the same wavelength," she said. "We're in the process of creating a real European authority." Of the three new regulators, the board dealing with the banking sector is to be based in London. Despite European suspicions of freewheeling City practices, Darling argued strongly that the City's pre-eminence as a financial centre was a European and not just a British asset. He sought cast-iron guarantees that the European regulator would not be empowered to overrule the FSA and take decisions compelling the government to spend taxpayers' money. The agreement, to be turned into European law and implemented next year, expresses the intention that "no decision adopted impinges in any way on the fiscal responsibility of member states" – meaning, in theory, that Europe cannot dictate how a British government spends public money. In fact, EU governments can contest a decision made by the new regulator, invoking an

appeals procedure. A contested decision can be halted using what is known as the "emergency brake" and referred to an EU summit, where decisions would be taken by consensus. "There is effectively a veto," said Darling. However, this mechanism is only invoked when a crisis has been declared, meaning that in normal circumstances the European regulator can overrule the British authority. Were this to happen, said Darling, Britain could take the issue to the European Court of Justice. "The agreement today is entirely satisfactory to us." The package also still has to be endorsed by the European parliament, where it is already encountering criticism, before becoming law. • European banks • European Central Bank • European commission • Financial crisis • Financial Services Authority (FSA) • Banking • Europe • European Union • Alistair Darling Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Did this guy just ‘beat’ World of Warcraft? (Answer: No.) By Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:00:17 AM

Does getting every achievement in World of Warcraft mean you’ve “beaten” the game? I wouldn’t say so, but that seems to be the meme going around, with word that a man in Taiwan has ticked off all but one achievements in the game. The character, Small Gray(according to Google Translate), has 986 of the game’s achievements. There are 986 achievements in the game, but sharper eyes than mine have noticed that he only got to magic number 986 via a glitch. He’s actually missing one achievement called “BB King,” but he glitched the game to give him one, unearned achievement. The bottom line is, the guy has 986 out of 986. Good for him. The beauty of this is that a new patch, Patch 3.3, comes out in the next few days, so he’ll have a whole bunch of new achievements to attain. More importantly than any of this: achievements are dumb. I don’t care for them, no sir.

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UN wants football tax to fund education for poor By Ashley Seager, Owen Gibson (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

education at the heart of international development efforts. But Unesco wants it to back its support with cash amid fears the world will miss its Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:09:56 AM target of getting all children into The United Nations today school by 2015. launches an appeal to Fifa and The Unesco proposal, which is five major European football backed by Sport Against Racism leagues, including the Premier in Ireland (Sari), has been sent to League, to place a small levy on S e p p B l a t t e r , F i f a ' s sponsorship revenues that would president."This is a chance for help get 2 million children in football to step up to the mark poor countries into school over and make a difference to the lives the next five years. of some of the world's most On the eve of the World Cup disadvantaged kids," said Brian draw in South Africa, Unesco – Kerr, a Sari board member and the UN's culture, science and manager of the Faroe Islands. education arm – says a "Better "Most footballers, managers, and Future" levy of just 0.4% on all f a n s w o u l d w e l c o m e t h i s b r o a d c a s t a n d s p o n s o r s h i p proposal. This is a chance to revenues from next year's World ensure that Africa's first World Cup and the five main European Cup leaves a legacy that will be leagues between 2010 and 2015 remembered." The proposal would raise $48m (£29m) a year echoes growing calls for a Tobin between now and the following tax on all foreign exchange World Cup in 2014. trades, named after the Nobel That sum would put half a prize-winning economist James million children in poor countries Tobin, as a way of raising into school every year, of whom revenue to boost development aid 140,000 could be financed by the to poor countries. English Premier League's Kevin Watkins, director of contribution. Unesco's upcoming Education for Commercial revenues from the All global monitoring report, 2010 World Cup are projected to said: "The $48m in revenues reach $850m. Annual revenues from the levy is less than many for the major leagues in Europe of Europe's top clubs spend on a range from $1.4bn in France, to single footballer. This is a small about $2bn in Spain, Italy and price to pay for giving half a Germany, and $3.5bn in England. million children each year the Fifa already backs the "1 goal" chance for an education that international coalition and aims could transform their lives." to use the World Cup to put Chris Hughton, the manager of

Newcastle United, called on Fifa to act on the proposal. "Football is a high-pressure environment. But at the end of the day it's a sport. Education is a human right – and that right is being violated every day for millions of kids. As a sport we can help to change this picture through the Better Future levy." For a country like Ghana, the home of Chelsea's Michael Essien, pictured, the English Premier League's financing of 140,000 school places would represent a 15% decline in the number of children out of school.Italy's contribution could put 82,000 children into school, which would fill the San Siro stadium in Milan. In a country like Mali, where Lamine Sissoko of Juventus comes from, this would represent 10% of the outof-school population. The contribution from Spain could create 83,000 primary school places annually – a figure just under the capacity for Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium. France could create 57,000 additional school places , equivalent to 10% of the out-ofschool population in Patrick Vieira's Senegal. The Premier League appeared cool on the idea, however, pointing to the share of its revenues it already distributes to a range of groups and charities. "We already redistribute 14% of our revenues to a variety of good causes, including education and

health projects," said a spokesman. Fifa did not reject the idea but a spokesman said that since 2007 it had committed at least 0.7% of its annual revenue to social development initiatives, including education. "The real problems in education cannot be solved by money alone, nor solely by Fifa or the football world. That is also why the 1 Goal campaign which Fifa supports is not about raising funds or building schools or education facilities, but about collecting signatures worldwide to put the necessary public pressures on donor countries, who need to action their – already made – commitments to education, which stand at approximately $11bn." A Uefa spokesman said: "We aim at 0.7% of Uefa gross income which complies with the international standard of 0.7% of GDP." • United Nations • Fifa • European football • Premier League • Children Ashley Seager Owen Gibson guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Next up on Boxee: Sony Picture’s Crackle By Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:00:57 PM

Boxee is only days away from announcing the details about its upcoming hardware venture, and the good news keeps rolling. Crackle, which is a site I’ve never heard of but is apparently a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, is the latest video site to be available on Boxee. Actually, this is really good news for Boxee users. Crackle has some great shows. Okay, maybe not. Here’s the thing. A lot of the shows listed are just 5:00 long minisode’s that have been available on YouTube, and Boxee, for years. The only shows that have full episodes are 80’s and 90’s crap like V.I.P. (3.8 rating on IMDb), S.W.A.T. (6.3 on IMDb), Max Steel (5.3 on IMDb). There are a few gems here like The Tick and News Radio, so I guess I can’t complain about the video site that much because, well, the Crackle brings more free videos to the free Boxee service.

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Public sector jobs protest shuts French museums and galleries By Lizzy Davies (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

Across France state-run institutions were affected and unions warned the strike might continue tomorrow . Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:33:28 AM Queues at the Louvre were S o m e o f F r a n c e ' s m o s t unusually short as news spread prestigious cultural institutions that the whole of its second floor were closed today as staff went had been closed off. The Arc de on strike to vent their fury over Triomphe was shut, and Notre government plans to cut jobs and D a m e a n d t h e C h â t e a u d e costs. Vincennes were also affected. Unions said that around 20 President Nicolas Sarkozy plans museums, art galleries and public to trim France's state-run cultural monuments had suffered either services by cutting jobs and total or partial closure as public controlling budgets, as part of sector workers downed tools over wider attempts to cut public what they described as an attempt spending. to "dismantle and destabilise" But the unions have warned that France's flagship cultural sector. France's reputation as a cultural The Musée d'Orsay, home to the powerhouse and the world's world's largest collection of number one tourist destination Impressionist paintings, shut its could be destroyed by the doors after a staff vote in the changes. morning. The Musée Rodin, They claim plans to replace only famed for its sculptures and half the number of retiring exquisite gardens, was also employees as of next month closed. The Pompidou Centre has could leave national treasures been subject to industrial action with skeletal workforces unable since last week. to protect or showcase their

collections. They also say that reductions in state funding are leading to a more aggressive form of "business-driven" cultural policy in which profitability trumps artistic value. "Now every time we put on an exhibition we have to think about how much money we can make from it," said Didier Alaime, the national secretary of the CGT union's culture branch. Tourists were left bewildered by the closure of some of the capital's leading attractions. Rob Ainsley, a journalist from London who had come over specially for the art, said: "I'm very disappointed. I feel like I've been cheated out of it." Yolanda Espinoza, from California, standing outside the Musée d'Orsay, said her family had missed out on "the opportunity of a lifetime". "We have spent a lot of money on this holiday," she said. She had been looking forward to showing her

13-year-old daughter the wonders of French culture. "People come from all over the world to see these things." Some 80 million tourists visited France last year, 6 million went to the Louvre. This afternoon Frédéric Mitterrand, the culture minister who has been put in charge of pushing through the controversial restructuring, met union representatives for a meeting that had been scheduled since before the industrial action. Depending on what – if anything – he offered, Alaime said, staff would vote again tomorrowon whether to pursue or abandon the strike. • France • Museums Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

JBL Creature Speakers Are Back (Baby) [Speakers] By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:50:56 AM

Since the original JBL Creature speakers were released seven years ago, Apple's designs have (d)evolved into metal bricks. But that doesn't top JBL from selling the sci-fi-inspired Creature III exclusively through Apple channels. The same, fluid 2.1 setup we've remember from the original Creature speakers are recaptured in the $130 Creature IIIs, though the latest edition features a more compact subwoofer than Creatures of yore. Does the design hold up all these years later? You tell us. [ BW via CrunchGear]

In an car accident? There's an app for that By Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks)

Bott & Co found a new question to which the answer is: "There's an app for that." The Car Submitted at 12/2/2009 2:20:00 PM Accident Assistant is the firm's Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL), latest contribution to humanity iPhone, Technology and is available for download Leave it to the lawyers to build a from Apple's ( AAPL) iTunes better mousetrap with an iPhone. environment. If you're in a car In the United Kingdom, solicitors a c c i d e n t , y o u c a n u s e t h e

application to connect to the law firm's 24-hour accident help system. As the ol' infomercial guys love to say, "But, wait! There's more!" The Car Accident Assistant can

be used to help the afflicted collect information about the accident, including vehicles and location. And, you can even take pictures of the accident and gather info from witnesses. It's like having a lawyer in your phone! Continue reading In an car

accident? There's an app for that In an car accident? There's an app for that originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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OBAMA continued from page 7

years is just about justified – but only on two conditions. The first is that Obama's military and civilian surge really is a case of "advancing the better to retreat". Let us harbour no illusions that we shall turn Afghanistan into a fundamentally different kind of place. If for the next decade, with a residual security presence, we can stop it again becoming a safe haven and breeding ground for terrorists, that will be the avoidance of complete failure (in politician-speak: success). The second condition is even more important. It is that we in Britain develop a comprehensive, long-term, non-military policy for helping Pakistan to save itself from a descent into chaos,

violence and the triumph of extremism. (In his blog on the Foreign Office website, David Miliband writes approvingly about the idea of a Marshall Plan for Pakistan.) In doing this, British citizens of Pakistani origin, many of whom have intense connections to their other motherland, should be regarded not just as a security threat (which a very small radicalised minority clearly are) but as a source of understanding and a huge potential asset. Having drafted this policy, we should work with our European partners and American allies to refine and implement it, as Washington asks us to implement its chosen strategy in Afghanistan. For

Pakistan, not Afghanistan, is the bigger danger today. No one is better placed than Britain to craft a policy to help it. • Afghanistan • Middle East • Barack Obama • US foreign policy

Palm Pixi gets an upgrade to WebOS 1.3.2, fixes “Security Issues” By Greg Kumparak (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:16:39 AM

Timothy Garton Ash guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Just a few weeks after launch, it looks like the Pixi is already hoggin' all the update-love. Early today, Palm pushed WebOS 1.3.2 out to Pixi owners, leaving Pre owners wondering when they'd get theirs. Palm's not making a big fuss about this update, but we

managed to dig up the patch notes and find out what was goin' on.

Twitter cofounder looks to strike gold again with Square By Tom Taulli (BloggingStocks)

want a piece of the action. And one of the newest players is Square. In fact, the mastermind Submitted at 12/2/2009 3:20:00 PM of this new venture is also the Filed under: Next big thing, c o f o u n d e r o f t h e w i l d l y Small business Even during a s u c c e s s f u l T w i t t e r ( w h i c h t o u g h r e c e s s i o n , p a y m e n t recently raised capital at a $1 companies -- like Visa ( V), billion valuation). MasterCard ( MA) and eBay's ( Simply put, Square allows you EBAY) PayPal -- have continued to accept credit cards by using a to thrive. So it should be no gadget -- which is essentially a surprise that other companies magnetic card reader -- that

connects to a mobile device, such l o w e r t h a n t r a d i t i o n a l as Apple's ( AAPL) iPhone. alternatives. There's even talk Apparently, the fees will be much that Square will give away the

devices. Continue reading Twitter cofounder looks to strike gold again with Square Twitter cofounder looks to strike gold again with Square originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

It Took This Long To Make iPhone Icon Pillows? [Pillows] By Sean Fallon (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:20:00 AM

I thought we saw every kind of nerdy pillow imaginable but, for

some reason, iPhone icons slipped under the radar despite being well represented as coasters and paperclips. Finally, someone has delivered.

And that someone just happens

to be Etsy user iconpillow. gadgets and naps—including Actually, he has quite a few Facebook and Firefox. [ Etsy via pillow designs outside of iPhone Geeky Gadgets] icons that might make a great gift for someone who enjoys both

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GameStop (GME) drops Aflac's uptrend on Wal-Mart (WMT) continues price cuts By Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks)

By Brent Archer (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 12/2/2009 3:00:00 PM

Filed under: AFLAC Inc (AFL), Stocks to Buy Steady as she has hit a high of $23.36 and a goes, with Aflac ( AFL), to Filed under: Major movement, low of $21.36. As of 12:55, GME borrow a Star Trek phrase, and is trading at $21.56, down $2.28 ( Bad news, Industry, Wal-Mart that's why I'm reiterating my buy (WMT), Options, Technical -9.6%). The chart for GME looks rating for the company, first Analysis GameStop ( GME- bullish and S&P gives GME a recommended on May 28, 2009 option chain) stock is trading positive 5 STARS (out of 5) at a price of $36.07. If you lower today after retail giant Wal strong buy ranking. bought AFL in May, you're up -Mart ( WMT) announced price Continue reading GameStop about 30%. (GME) drops on Wal-Mart cuts on many top 2009 video After a slow start, institutional games and a $50 Gift Card with a (WMT) price cuts investors in mid-2010 finally GameStop (GME) drops on Wal Nintendo Wii console purchase. noticed that not every insurer If you think this stock won't be - M a r t ( W M T ) p r i c e c u t s w o u l d b e w i p e d - o u t b y rising too far in the coming o r i g i n a l l y a p p e a r e d o n collateralized debt obligations months, then it could be a good BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Dec and bad bonds. Aflac boasts time to look at a bearish hedged 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see primarily high-quality corporate our terms for use of feeds. play on GME. debt, Wall Street realized this in This morning, GME opened at Permalink| Email this| Comments $23.09. So far today the stock Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:20:00 PM

the spring, and it's been off to the races ever since. Aflac is one of the largest sellers of supplemental insurance in the U.S. and is a major cancerinsurance company in Japan (14 million policies). Continue reading Aflac's uptrend continues Aflac's uptrend continues originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Why was Fritz Henderson made CEO in the first place? By Zac Bissonnette (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/2/2009 2:00:00 PM

Filed under: General Motors (GM) The announcement of General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson was surprising to most observers -- he'd only been in power since March and by most accounts, had been making progress in executing a

turnaround. What went wrong? The New York Times reports that "if G.M. was to truly reinvent itself - as the company promised in commercials after a government bailout helped it emerge from bankruptcy - the board decided that the 25-year veteran of G.M. was too tied to the company's its decades-long slide." past mistakes to bring a fresh Continue reading Why was Fritz approach that could help reverse Henderson made CEO in the first

place? Why was Fritz Henderson made CEO in the first place? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Duct Tape Hoodie Is Basically Geek Chain Mail...Err, Geekier Chain Mail [Fashion] By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:00:00 AM

Duct tape, Man's greatest micro engineering accomplishment. It's strong, waterproof and it glows like some magical metal shark skin alloy. Why aren't we wearing this stuff? Over at Instructables, one young visionary has shared his technique for weaving a hoodie from these godly adhesive strips. He says the resulting garment is quite warm and impervious to rain. And, if we might add, it's quite handy if you ever need to half-assedly fix something and you're too lazy to grab a roll of tape. [ Instructables]

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Apple iPhone coming to T -Mobile instead of Verizon Wireless in 2010? By Brian White (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/2/2009 2:40:00 PM

Filed under: Rumors, Products and services, Apple Inc (AAPL) Apple's ( AAPL) iPhone has been the biggest feather in the cap of U.S. partner AT&T ( T), which has recruited millions of new wireless customers every quarter just based on the iPhone handset alone. Without it, AT&T could have slipped far behind larger rival Verizon Wireless in the last few years. In part due to the iPhone's incredible success, Verizon Wireless had to buy rival Alltel earlier this year just to keep up (and surpass) AT&T's wireless subscriber numbers. But what would happen if the iPhone

went to another wireless carrier? Continue reading Apple iPhone coming to T-Mobile instead of Verizon Wireless in 2010? Apple iPhone coming to TMobile instead of Verizon Wireless in 2010? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

AT&T and Verizon drop lawsuits, make nice for the holidays By Nilay Patel (Engadget)

out over service quality and pricing, like they should have been doing all along. Or AT&T Well well, maybe we can all get c a n j u s t m a k e s o m e m o r e along after all: AT&T and n o n s e n s i c a l L u k e W i l s o n Verizon just dropped their c o m m e r c i a l s , w h a t e v s . v a r i o u s a d v e r t i s i n g - r e l a t e d Update: Whoa, so this is crazy. lawsuits against each other. We We just checked out the other By Nathan Hodge (Wired Top why the Pentagon is in the c a n ' t s a y w e ' r e s u r p r i s e d , suit that was dismissed, and it Stories) middle of a crash program to considering AT&T lost its turns out that Verizon actually build and ship to Afghanistan a request to have Verizon's ads sued AT&T back in July, but not Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:07:00 AM new generation of bomb- pulled down for the holidays -- for any damages -- instead, Big The new troops headed to r e s i s t a n t o f f - r o a d v e h i c l e , spending money to litigate this Red asked the court to rule that Afghanistan are important, sure. equipped with everything from further would have have simply its various "Most Reliable 3G But unless they can get around composite armor to "electronic been a waste, and generated even Network" taglines were actually the country without getting keels." more bad PR. Now let's just hope true. That wackiness certainly blown up, this latest surge is these two suck it up and battle it explains why AT&T felt the need going nowhere fast. Which is

High-Tech, Armored OffRoader Key to Afghan Surge

Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:55:00 AM

to push back, we suppose, and it makes Verizon's current whining over Sprint's "Most Dependable 3G Network" claims part of a larger, lamer pattern. We've included a shot of the case after the break, check it out. Continue reading AT&T and Verizon drop lawsuits, make nice for the holidays AT&T and Verizon drop lawsuits, make nice for the holidays originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

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With an Eye to the Future, Try Raw Photos Today [Photography] By CNET (Gizmodo)

wedding, you might want them for later. I've included below some If you enjoy photography, don't samples of a noisy image shot in make the mistake I did. near-darkness at ISO 25,600 Using my then-new SLR in 2005 from my SLR. They may not a n d 2 0 0 6 , I p h o t o g r a p h e d convince you that shooting raw is everything from my new son to a miracle cure for photo quality, otherworldly canyons we visited but they do illustrate some in Utah. The only problem: the differences with the camera's photos were taken only in JPEG J P E G a n d t h a t t h e r a w format. processing software isn't standing JPEG is fine as far as it goes, still. and indeed for most folks it will Raw? What's that mean anyway? suffice. But having rediscovered But first, a little background. my enjoyment of photography in What exactly are raw images? the digital era, I wish I'd used the A digital camera's image sensor raw image format that comes is a grid of pixels that captures with SLRs and higher-end light from a scene. Cameras can compact cameras. interpret this image, processing it My initial regret was from the in various ways to produce a realization that raw photos, JPEG. A raw file, though, is the although taking up about three unprocessed data from the image times the storage space as a JPEG sensor. However, there's no raw and requiring manual processing, standard; each digital camera has offer higher quality and more its own, usually proprietary, raw flexibility. But what I've come to format, though they're sometimes understand since then is a second related. advantage of raw: because Although cameras can produce processing software improves JPEGs, a subset of the imageover time, raw photos in effect editing industry serves those who can get better with age. shoot raw. Options include For that reason, I've begun Adobe Systems' Photoshop and recommending friends who show Photoshop Lightroom, Apple's s o m e e n t h u s i a s m f o r Aperture, DxO Labs' Optics Pro, photography that they should Phase One's Capture One, and a think about shooting important handful of others. events in raw format alongside The variety of proprietary JPEG. You don't have to mess formats means these applications with the raw files today, but if it's must be constantly updated for a n i m p o r t a n t e v e n t l i k e a the newest cameras. All SLRs Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:36:34 AM

can produce raw images, as can a variety of higher-end compact cameras such as Panasonic's LX3 and GF1, Canon's S90 and G11, and Olympus' E-P1 and E-P2. Raw files vary from JPEG in several ways. Here are some of the nitty-gritty details. Let's start at the individual pixel. Each one you see on a computer screen has a mixture of three colors of light: red, green, and blue. But with most cameras' image sensors, each pixel captures only one of those colors. A process called demosaicing converts this checkerboard-like arrangement of colors, called a Bayer pattern, so each pixel in the final image gets all three colors instead of just one. Another difference is in white balance. Unlike film cameras of

with some kind of software. But here are some of the first advantages I found shooting raw. Some professionals with lots of experience and time to set up shots get everything right. For the rest of us, shots often are overexposed or underexposed. One of the main advantages of shooting raw is better flexibility to correct such problemsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;in part because of that better color depth than JPEG affords. "Shooting in raw is usually more forgiving than just shooting jpeg files, so should you make a mistake when capturing an image you have a better opportunity yore, digital cameras can make a with a RAW file to go back and snap judgment whether a shot is correct any mistakes," said being taken under yellowish Richard Pelkowski, product incandescent light, under white manager of digital SLRs for sunlight, or in bluish shade, then Olympus Imaging America. "We try to correct the image so white typically encourage our Olympus looks white. This processing consumers to shoot in both raw change is baked into a JPEG p l u s J P E G m o d e s o t h e y i m a g e , b u t i t ' s j u s t a immediately have both a JPEG recommendation in a raw shot. file you can easily share and use Finally, each color in a JPEG instantly and a more forgiving pixel is stored with an 8-bit raw file that you can go back to value, providing 256 steps later for post processing." between, the darkest and lightest Take the example of Jonathan green, red, or blue. With raw, Machen, an artist I know in most cameras today record 12 or Boulder, Colo., who embraced 14 bits per color, providing 8,192 raw as he moved from point-andshoot cameras to an SLR. or 16,384 levels, respectively. "While I strive to understand my What does raw get you? The big drawbacks of raw camera completely and hope to images are that the files are larger take images that approximate the and that you can't share them WITH page 16 easily until you've edited them

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WITH continued from page 15

balance of light that my eye sees, it's not always possible, especially in fast-moving family situations. I love to take pictures of the kids in unusual lighting and compositional situations, but it can be a distracting combination trying to watch them and trying to take a good picture," he said. Case in point: at dinner in a restaurant recently, a kid-friendly lap dog appeared, but Machen's camera was set wrong. "I got the shot, but the image was almost black," he said. "Later, editing the raw file, I brought it back to a place that brought a smile to my face as well as that of my wife." Even if you don't make mistakes, raw images offer more flexibility in editing to bring out details otherwise lost in murky shadows or bright highlights. This is the particular ability I wish I had for shots of my newborn son held under bright heat lamps and of a twisty narrow canyon in both sun and shade. Adjustable white balance is another nicety. On many occasions I've fixed the colors of conference speakers whose faces were turned to yellow putty by stage lights or of a friend's darling daughter whose position in the shade made her look like an ice queen in the making. Computers also get more power to compensate for lens shortcomings or reduce the sensor noise that speckles images, said Cyrille de la Chesnais, director of sales and

marketing for photography at the Paris-based DxO Labs. "Optical corrections and noise removal are much more precise and effective on raw files than on JPEG files," he said. Many cameras let you adjust noise reduction levels when you take the photoâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but again, with a JPEG, your choice is baked permanently into the image. Moore's Law and the subtler promise of raw Here's where I hadn't appreciated raw's advantages: computers get faster. Demosaicing is a complicated process that benefits from more computing horsepower, and unlike many computing tasks, it happens to be one that can easily benefit from multicore processors. When you take a photo with your camera, it uses a relatively feeble image-processing chip to produce the JPEG. It's remarkable to me how well those chips can perform the task, but even with the best quality on the market today, your camera will only have one chance to make that JPEG. But if you're converting a raw image with software, you not only get more computing horsepower than a camera offers, you get algorithms that are updated. "You can revisit this digital negative and reprocess it as technology improves," said Tom Hogarty, Adobe's product manager for Lightroom. Hogarty likens the situation to

what he saw looking at prints in a museum by the famed landscape photographer Ansel Adams. "You could tell the earlier prints didn't stand out. They didn't have same kind of depth that the later prints did. The printing technology and chemicals were getting better," Hogarty said. "Imagine if all you had was original print and you couldn't improve it going forward." DxO Optics Pro 6, released in November, and the beta version of Lightroom 3, introduced in October, both are designed to extract a better image from the raw data. De la Chesnais said DxO Optics Pro improves noise reduction so that one F-stop's worth of noise can be fixed. That means that if you previously were happy shooting photos at ISO 800, you could push your camera to ISO 1600 for better low-light performance, for example. Noise reduction is a complicated problem. In addition to getting rid of the color and brightness variations from pixel to pixel, lower-frequency noise patterns often lead to blotches of red or blue that span many pixels. Good noise reduction preserves original colors and fine details and doesn't give the image a smeary watercolor-painting look up close. Another software matter: software can take its best guess what sort of editing settings to apply. In my experience, that's a good starting point if not always a good final result, but I expect

improvements here, too, just as cameras are generally getting better at automatically gauging the right exposure, focus, and other settings. Is raw for everyone? No, but I think it's for more people than use it today. If you're just uploading photos of your smiling friends to Facebook, chances are the core value of the image easily transcends a little pesky noise or skewed colors. Robert Balousek, from the San Francisco Bay Area, shoots rawâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but mostly because Adobe Lightroom corrects some defective pixels in his SLR image sensor. "Auto-fix is a gamble," he said. "I don't apply it to all photos, just ones that I would like to use but are a little off. Sometimes it does what I want, but more often than not I tweak a few knobs until it looks how I expect. I don't claim to be an expert, I just know what seems right to me." If you're a bit more serious, though raw could be worth sampling. Give it a serious thought if you're an experimental students, a tourist who wants to compile memories in a photo book, a photo enthusiast sharing shots on Flickr, or a parent printing poster-size prints of your children. I believe software will ease today's manual pains of handling raw photos. Aperture and Lightroom have made it easier to process large numbers of shots, though there's plenty of work to be done. Automatic adjustments

will steadily improve, and perhaps Windows will get the better built-in support Mac OS X has so people looking at a folder full of raw files see thumbnail images rather than a list of filenames with generic icons. It's true raw shots take up more space on your flash card, hard drive, and backups. But storage is cheap these days with 1.5 terabyte hard drives costing less than $100 and 8GB SD memory cards costing about $20. Today's large image files will look gradually more ordinary as storage technology gets roomier. Standardization could help One big change that could help raw catch on is standardization of the file formats. Today's profusion of formats ensures that operating systems or editing software have a hard time keeping up. The most promising avenue here is Adobe's Digital Negative format, which the company controlled for years but more has submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as a proposed standard. DNG has been improved to address a number of earlier shortcomings, for example by adding profiles that can mirror camera tonal settings such as neutral, landscape, or portrait. Another more recent example are "opcodes" that can register lens settings used to so software can automatically correct optical problems such as vignetting or WITH page 17

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Sprint to Humans: We Know Where You Are, and So Do the Police [Privacy] By John Herrman (Gizmodo)

Paul Taylor described an automated system that law enforcement could use to easily look up subscriber whereabouts. They can submit a request for a particular user's location up to every three minutes, for a period of 60 days, which accounts for

the 8 million figure. What else does Sprint collect about you, for sharing? Sprint keeps 24 months worth of URL history for some devices and that's not even because of law enforcement. "It's because marketing wants to rifle through

the data," [Taylor] said. The marketing data retention sounds like the kind of thing you might unknowingly sign off on in some kind of unintelligible user agreement, and the location stuff could conceivably be used only in palatable ways (if you broadly consider warranted wiretapping palatable) but they're both reminders that your telco—no, this isn't just Sprint's issue—knows a lot about you. Or, more to the point, that the average cellphone user has no idea how much data their wireless provider is collecting (or can collect) from them, and specifically, how it's used. Queasy yet? No worries! There's a pharmacy two blocks to the west, and one block to the south. And they have your favorite pills. [ PCWorld]

Nikon and Canon still don't. Hogarty hopes the standardization process will improve its prospects. "I believe the gating factor in camera manufacturer adoption is the fact it is a format controlled by Adobe," Hogarty said. "Clearly it's not available in the majority of cameras shipped in the world today. That's why we're pursuing the ISO standard, so

other companies can feel comfortable with the standard format." Ultimately, Hogarty believes raw usage will spread more widely "If you look at images shot by the mainstream market, they need the most latitude in editing and correction capabilities. They're not as passionate about getting the perfect image," Hogarty said.

"I think they'd be able to take that raw product to a finished product that would make them happier." I suspect it'll be a long time before raw processing is simple enough that mainstream snapshooters will embrace raw. But the trajectory is clear: the technology is improving. So if you care about your shots and have a camera that'll do it, set it to shoot raw+JPEG next

Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:59:48 AM

In the last year alone, Sprint turned over users' GPS data to authorities 8 million times. While that number is misleadingly high—this could translate to under a thousand individual users—it's still terrifying. But wait, it gets even better! There are convincing arguments to be made for law enforcement agencies' access to location data, like in missing person cases, kidnappings or maybe fugitive situations. It just seems like it ought to be a little more mediated than this: [At the Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception, Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Gathering conference] Sprint Nextel's electronic surveillance manager

Games Workshop Goes After Its Biggest Fans With Takedown Order By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 12/2/2009 5:49:32 AM

dave blevins points us to the unfortunate news that game publisher Games Workshop seems to be attacking its biggest fans by ordering the super popular site BoardGameGeek to takedown all fan-made player aids. Basically, the biggest fans of Game Workshop's games have been helping make those games better, including "scenarios, rules summaries, inventory manifests, scans to help replace worn pieces." Basically increasing the value of those games so that it's easier to play them and easier to keep playing them. And, in response, Games Workshop sends out its lawyers? How does that possibly make any sense at all? Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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barrel distortion. DNG already could gracefully accommodate metadata such as copyright notices or editing instructions, and it for those worried about how well a specific raw format is converted into a generic format, the DNG can house the original raw file, too. Pentax is the most prominent company to build DNG support into its cameras, but SLR leaders

time you're photographing something important. You may not want to mess with the raw shots today, but why curtail your options if you don't have to? This story originally appeared on CNET

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The Engadget Show: Kindle etching and DIY adventures with Adafruit Industries By Joshua Topolsky (Engadget)

with their massive laser, we convinced Limor and Phil to show off some of the other crazy Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:23:00 PM kit they've got in the labs -- and If you'll recall, some months ago we've captured it all on film... er, we held a little competition for video. Take a look at our r e a d e r s t o s u b m i t a r t w o r k excursion into the world of destined for laser-etching on the dynamic DIY'ing -- we think backsides of Amazon's Kindle. you'll like what you see. Check it After everyone voted on the top out after the break! five out of the mountain of Host: Joshua Topolsky selections, we took the gaggle of Produced and Directed by: Chad readers down to our friends at Mumm Adafruit Industries(headed up by Edited by: Michael Slavens the lovely and delightful Limor Titles by: Julien Nantiec Fried and Phil Torrone) for some Subscribe to the Show: time under the laser. While we [ iTunes] Subscribe to the Show were there getting our etch on directly in iTunes (M4V).

[ Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [ RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS

aggregator and have it delivered automatically. Download the Show: Download The Engadget Show in HD (720p M4V)

Download The Engadget Show formatted for iPod / iPhone Gallery: Etched Kindles Continue reading The Engadget Show: Kindle etching and DIY adventures with Adafruit Industries The Engadget Show: Kindle etching and DIY adventures with Adafruit Industries originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

RedEye turns your iPhone and iPod touch into bona fide universal remote (video) By Darren Murph (Engadget)

app itself is completely free to download, though it's the $188 Submitted at 12/2/2009 2:27:00 PM base station that really makes the Apple's ' Remote' application magic happen; your handheld was a good start, but we've talks to said dock via WiFi, and if known for some time now that you've got an AV device, home the platform was capable of far, automation system or pretty far more. ThinkFlood is stepping much anything that responds to u p t o d a y a n d p r o v i n g o u r IR signals, your iPhone can now assumptions right, as the RedEye control it. The setup supports universal remote control system multiple rooms, controllers and effectively converts your iPhone users simultaneously, and we're or iPod touch into a remote for told that it "controls a virtually any IR-equipped component. The unlimited number of devices and

can store a virtually unlimited accelerometer controls. Don't number of commands." Heck, believe us? Check the vids just t h i s t h i n g e v e n r e a c t s t o past the break. m u l t i t o u c h g e s t u r e s a n d Continue reading RedEye turns

your iPhone and iPod touch into bona fide universal remote (video) RedEye turns your iPhone and iPod touch into bona fide universal remote (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Marketwire| ThinkFlood| Email this| Comments

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Video: Wii Remote controls MAME on iPhone, our collective heart skips a beat

Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: Smartphones By Chris Ziegler (Engadget)

and Droid all coming to market in the past few months, there's Submitted at 12/2/2009 2:54:00 PM never been a better time to be a Welcome to the Engadget smartphone lover, buyer, or -- in Holiday Gift Guide! The team this case -- giver. Of course, in h e r e i s w e l l a w a r e o f t h e the States, giving a phone as a heartbreaking difficulties of the gift isn't the easiest thing in the seasonal shopping experience, world since you've got contracts and we want to help you sort to worry about, but it can be done through the trash and come up -- even if you've got to drag the with the treasures this year. lucky recipient kicking and Below is today's bevy of hand screaming into the store and hold curated picks, and you can head their hand to the dotted line. So back to the Gift Guide hub to see let's get to it, shall we? the rest of the product guides as Continue reading Engadget's they're added throughout the Holiday Gift Guide: Smartphones holiday season. Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: If your BFF's HTC has a code Smartphones originally appeared name like Blue Angel, Harrier, or on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec Canary, trust us: the time has 2009 14:54:00 EST. Please see come to intervene and forcefully our terms for use of feeds. bring that particular chapter of Permalink| | Email this| their technological life to a close. Comments It's 2009, after all, and with devices like the Pre, iPhone 3GS,

By Greg Kumparak (CrunchGear)

Large Hadron Collider grinds to a halt... again

Submitted at 12/2/2009 7:18:00 AM

A key, centrist digital rights group is set to put out a report calling for strong federal privacy laws and guidelines to regulate

Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:45:50 AM

A few weeks back, the Internet saw its first proof-of-concept video of an iPhone interacting with a Wii remote over By Laura June (Engadget) no long-term damage seems to Bluetooth. This was part of the have occurred. The trouble-prone Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:55:00 PM "BTStack" project, which is Large Hadron Collider is In an increasingly unsurprising e x p e c t e d t o r e s u m e f u l l a i m i n g t o a d d a b u n c h o f turn of events, the Large Hadron operations sometime later today, Bluetooth protocols to the iPhone Collider suffered a major power and is currently operating on that it doesn't otherwise support. failure this morning, knocking limited power from a backup Once in place, however, its the the machine and its website out s u p p l y . R e g a r d l e s s , t h e homebrew developer's job to of service. The failure occurred unfortunate event is sure to m a k e u s e o f t h e n e w in an 18,000-volt power line in resurrect that zany Higgs boson functionality - and make use of it they have. They very much have. Meyrin, Geneva where the LHC time-travelling theory. is housed beneath the ground, Large Hadron Collider grinds to causing pretty much everything a halt... again originally appeared How the Salahis begged t o s h u t d o w n . T h e L H C ' s on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec for State Dinner tickets: m a g n e t s m a i n t a i n e d a 2009 13:55:00 EST. Please see temperature of 1.9 degrees above our terms for use of feeds. ... [Documents] absolute zero(having to re-cool Permalink| The Register| Email By Gabriel Snyder (Gawker) them would have been a pretty this| Comments Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:02:40 AM sizeable setback), however, and How the Salahis begged for State Dinner tickets: ABC News has the complete email correspondence t h e g r o w i n g t r a c k i n g a n d hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worked. targeting of Americans online, arguing that the self-regulation approach industry fights for just

Centrist Group Calls for Laws Curbing Online Tracking By Ryan Singel (Wired Top Stories)

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Google Ending Unlimited Free Access To Subscription News [Google]

Google May Build Green-Tech Power Plants

By Sean Fallon (Gizmodo)

By Alexis Madrigal (Wired Top Stories)

Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:17:00 AM

The days of bypassing subscription fees on Google News appear to be numbered now that Google has updated their First Click Free program. Publishers can now limit access to five articles per day before readers are routed to payment pages. Previously, publishers had to make a choice between making their content less discoverable on Google or allowing unlimited access to subscription content via Google News. Naturally, many

newspaper publishers who are struggling to survive the transition from print have criticized Google for profiting on their paid contentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a point that is hard to argue. I don't agree with

the business model, but publishers have a right to to deliver their content how they see fit without having to bow down to a search engine. Still, it's just another sign that

we are in for some negative changes to our online experience. As you may recall, Rupert Murdoch is front and center in this battle, and there has been some serious talk lately that Microsoft will attempt to pay him to delist his holdings from Googleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;setting an extremely bad precedent for how we might (or might not) access content online in the future. Blend that with the concept of a tiered internet or oppressive data caps and things start looking pretty bleak. [ Google via BBC]

Submitted at 12/2/2009 7:42:00 AM

This week, a Google representative let slip that the company plans to move beyond supporting green-energy research, and will participate in building power plants.

Motorola Sholes Tablet detailed, sounds as tasty as we'd hoped By Chris Ziegler (Engadget) Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:49:00 PM

Knowing what we now know of the Droid-- codename Sholes -the mere mental image of that " Sholes Tablet" that we've been hearing about for a while brings us to our geeky knees. Taiwanese forum Mobile01 seems to have details on just what the Sholes

Tablet is all about, and while we'd normally be skeptical to the point of dismissal, the presence of a few believable-looking images has us on the bandwagon. The biggies on the rumored spec sheet include HDMI out, 720p video recording paired to an 8 megapixel cam (which is hopefully of much, much higher 5 ) w i t h x e n o n f l a s h , a n d quality than the Droid's miserable Motorola's own CrystalTalk tech

for background noise reduction on calls. It'll apparently be running Android 2.0 -- the presence of BLUR is unknown -and the screen is a predictably awesome 3.7 inches at WVGA resolution with multitouch support; missing, as the name suggests, is the original's sliding QWERTY keyboard. All signs point to use seeing this in the

next few months, so enjoy those Droids and Milestones while you can, yeah? Motorola Sholes Tablet detailed, sounds as tasty as we'd hoped originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink BGR| Mobile01| Email this| Comments

Microsoft's Folio and NXT acquired by Rocket Software (CNET News.com) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:51:00 AM

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Animated musical Star Trek lamp

UK Man Jailed For Refusing To Decrypt His Files

By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:53:07 AM

Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:30:00 AM

Ah, perfect. Use your Star Trek cologne to woo the ladies and then wow the ones you bring home with this $100 Star Trek bedside lamp from Hammacher Schlemmer. Pop open a couple of juice boxes, light some candles, and then fire up the old lamp to let Shatner’s voice and the Star Trek theme accompany all 2-3 minutes of awkward, lanky lovemaking. Per the product description: This is the lamp that plays the iconic Star Trek theme song, including the entirety of the famous prologue: “Space… the final frontier…” spoken by William Shatner. As the music plays, an 8 die-cast replica of the Starship Enterprise rotates on the the base of the lamp. The

Two years ago, a US judge ruled that a guy with an encrypted hard drive did not have to hand over his encryption key to the police, as it would be a violation of the 5th Amendment (the right not to self-incriminate). The argument there is that the encryption key is a form of "speech." This is quite a reasonable ruling -- but it Starship Enterprise has authentic appears that over in the UK they details like Bussard intake view encryption keys quite collectors and a sensor array differently. Last year, we wrote platform that are illuminated by about a UK court ruling four color-changing LEDs. The interpreting the Regulation of shade has an image of the NCCInvestigatory Powers Act 2000 1701 flying at warp speed (RIPA) to mean that people could through the Final Frontier. be required to hand over Set phasers to FUN! encryption keys, since encryption The Animated Musical Starship By Serkan Toto (CrunchGear) or Mac OS will work). Price: $23 keys were not "speech" but an Enterprise Lamp[Hammacher per pair. Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:30:57 AM object that could be demanded. Schlemmer] Then there are the Hot Room Unfortunately, this has now It’s Thanko time again. The Shoes. I am not really sure what resulted in a schizophrenic man Tokyo-based company, famous the difference to the Hot Slippers being jailed for refusing to for gadgets like the USB- is function-wise, as these shoes decrypt his files. As many are powered boob warmer, the USB are supposed to keep your feet noting, this seems to be an abuse eye warmer or the USB gloves, is warm via USB power, too. Price: of law enforcement, as the now offering not one[JP] but $23 (available in M or L). purpose of the RIPA law was explanation for weird, triangular two[JP] USB-powered, heated Thanko already sells both supposed to be about stopping snowflakes, which are more slippers – just in time for winter. versions on their Japanese common than they should be I can’t decide which one is website. As the company closed organized crime and terrorism, statistically and have baffled uglier, but maybe you can. their English store recently, not dumping the mentally ill in prison. scientists for 100 years. First, we have the Hot Slippers you’ll need to contact import Permalink| Comments| Email (pictured above). They are specialists such as the Japan This Story available in brown or grey and Trend Shop or Geek Stuff 4 U to get the power they need to keep get a pair. your feet warm through the USB port of your computer (Windows

Strange Triangular Snowflakes Explained By Laura Sanders (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/2/2009 7:48:00 AM

Scientists finally have an

Thanko announces not one but two USBpowered, heated slippers

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We Got Mail! (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/1/2009 8:01:23 PM

Kingston 40GB SSDNow review By Ben Drawbaugh (Engadget) Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:31:00 PM

From the moment that we heard of the the new 40GB Kingston SSD, we couldn't help but get our hopes up. Who knows if (or more likely, when) SSD drives will ever completely replace spinning platters with all the digital media people collect today, so rather than stretching your budget and compressing your media in order to stuff everything onto a 256GB solid state drive, we dug the idea of snagging a small (and affordable) SSD for boot / application operations and

utilizing a spacious HDD for archival. Not to mention -regardless of how fast a disk is -two are almost always better than one. If you're interested in rigging up a similar setup, hop on past the break to have a look at our impressions. Gallery: Kingston 40GB SSDNow Review Continue reading Kingston 40GB SSDNow review Kingston 40GB SSDNow review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

Lots and lots of mail. So much that there’s no way I can respond to all of it, so I’m posting this to thank everyone who sent supportive comments today. In a rather amazing turnabout, the supportive emails outnumbered the hate mail by almost two to one. Apparently, there are quite a few conservatives out there who are equally disgusted with the craziness on their side, and quite CCD sensor, the video on the GZ a few liberals who miss having -M980 isn't quite full HD at just opponents who aren’t insane. 720 x 480 resolution, though the Me? Call me independent, and I 39x (F1.8 - 4.3) optical zoom and won’t be unhappy. I have bones 80GB HDD are pretty decent. An to pick with both sides, and big issues with the extremists on both SD/SDHC slot rounds it off. Measuring in with similar specs, sides. And if you’re a politician, t h e G Z - M S 2 3 0 m i s s e s t h e you need to prove to me that you generous 80GB capacity of the deserve my support, because it’s former model, with just 8GB not a given just because you’re instead. The GZ-MS210 is the on “my team.” most basic of the three, with no Boring politics aside, I thank internal memory—just two you all again for the supportive S D / S D H C s l o t s . J a p a n e s e comments. conversions pit these three at And server hamster-wrangler $690, $515 and $460 each. [ Stinky Beaumont thanks you for your PayPal donations, with CrunchGear] which he will buy energy bars, water, new shoes, and methamphetamine for the hamsters. Just kidding about the methamphetamine. Or maybe not.

Three New JVC Everio Camcorders, Still Remember What They Are, iPod Nano Users? [Camcorders] By Kat Hannaford (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:22:29 AM

I've always been fond of JVC Everio camcorders, but with the latest round of pocketcams grabbing attention for far too long, it's about time we reverted back to a model with a decent sensor. The GZ-MG980, GZ-MS230 and the GZ-MS210 have been announced for the Japanese market under the Victor JVC branding, with US pricing and availability expected to be confirmed at CES. With a 10.7-megapixel, 1/6-inch

Tech/

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Warner Music's Royalty Statements: Works Of Fiction By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

five years across their three Warner albums. You really should read the whole thing, as For years we've all heard the it's quite detailed about how the stories about how bad the major major labels view most bands on labels are at accounting for t h e i r r o s t e r . B a c k t o m y royalties they owe bands. There r i d i c u l o u s W a r n e r B r o s . have certainly been a large statement. As I flipped through number of lawsuits from artists its ten pages (seriously, it took claiming that this rather opaque ten pages to detail the $62.47 of accounting system is used to hide income), I realized that Warner money from musicians, with wasn't being evil, just careless various multi-platinum selling a n d u n c o n c e r n e d - - a n musicians claiming they never impression I confirmed a few saw a dime of royalties from their days later when I spoke to a guy albums, thanks to major label in their Royalties and Licensing accounting. This is, of course, department I am going to call rather amazing in this day and Danny. age where technology allows for I asked Danny why there were amazingly accurate accounting no royalties at all listed from practices -- even for massively iTunes, and he said, "Huh. There complex operations. But, then are no domestic downloads on again, these are the major labels here at all. Only streams. And it we're talking about, and they're has international downloads, but often proud of their technical no international streams. I have cluelessness. no idea why." I asked Danny why Still, it's quite interesting to see a the statement only seemed to list blog post, sent in by Quentin tracks from two of the three Hartman and written by the albums Warner had released -- an singer for the band Too Much entire album was missing. He Joy, Tim Quirk. Quirk is in an said they could only report back interesting position. Having been what the digital services had a moderately successful major provided to them, and the label artist who is now an services must not have reported e x e c u t i v e a t d i g i t a l m u s i c any activity for those other company Rhapsody, he's seen songs. When I suggested that different sides of the business -- seemed unlikely -- that having and in his must-read blog post, he every track from two albums details the absolute fiction that is listed by over a dozen different a royalty statement from Warner services, but zero tracks from a Music Group-- leading to the flat third album listed by any seemed -out false claim that Too Much more like an error on Warner's Joy earned a grand total of side, he said he'd look into it. As $62.47 in digital royalties over I asked more questions (Why do Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:09:00 AM

we get paid 50% of the income from all the tracks on one album, but only 35.7143% of the income from all the tracks on another? Why did 29 plays of a track on the late, lamented MusicMatch earn a total of 63 cents when 1,016 plays of the exact same track on MySpace earned only 23 cents?) he eventually got to the heart of the matter: :"We don't normally do this for unrecouped bands," he said. "But, I was told you'd asked." As you hopefully know, with a major record label, the band gets an advance to record the album. From then on, the label no longer pays the band anything. Even though the band accrues royalties on albums sold, those royalties simply go towards repaying the advance. Most label bands never fully repay the advance, and are thus considered "unrecouped." This does not mean (as record label defenders will claim) that such bands were money losers for the label. The labels still take their own hefty cut from any album sales. They just also hang onto the tiny fraction of album sales that are officially designated for the actual musicians. Basically, what Quirk notes, is that whether through malice or indifference (or a combination of both), the general major label attitude towards "unrecouped" bands is that the accounting is meaningless, so they don't even bother. That means they make massive mistakes -- such as the time Warner just happened to

make a $10,000 mistake in Warner's favor, and then mocked Quirk for even caring about such a measly sum. Now, when it came to digital revenue, for most artists, Warner apparently doesn't even bother to tell artists what their digital royalties are. They're unrecouped, so it doesn't matter in the minds of Warner execs. Quirk, by nature of also being an industry exec was able to (thanks to a chance meeting at a conference and 13 months of waiting) get Warner to agree to detail his digital earnings. But, because the band is unlikely to pay off the nearly $400,000 in "unrecouped" advance money, basically Warner did a slipshod job of it all. What this tells you is that Warner either has no serious accounting system to track this sort of thing or has mastered the art of obfuscating everything and purposely acting like their accounting department is run by six-year-olds. I'm not sure which is scarier. Now, Quirk is reasonably clear that he's just as likely to attribute all of this to a combination of indifference and incompetence than to malice -- and there's nothing to indicate otherwise. But, you do have to ask how seriously anyone can take any of the ridiculous numbers that Warner Music Group or the RIAA toss around concerning the music industry and "losses" due to "piracy" and such, when it can't even put together an

accounting system that can track (let alone accurately count) the most basic information that it is contractually obligated to both track and report. It also should highlight, for any bands who still actually think signing a major record label contract makes sense, how little regard major labels like Warner Music Group actually have for most of the artists on their label. As Quirk notes in discussing the $10,000 error: When I caught this mistake, and brought it to the attention of someone with the power to correct it, he wasn't just befuddled by my anger -- he laughed at it. "$10,000 is nothing!" he chuckled. If you're like most people -especially people in unrecouped bands -- "nothing" is not a word you ever use in conjunction with a figure like "$10,000," but he seemed oblivious to that. "It's a rounding error. It happens all the time. Why are you so worked up?" So, perhaps, the next time that Warner Music claims that it deserves$22,500 for a "pirated" song, someone will point out that according to Warner Music's own accountants, such numbers are really just a "rounding error" and there's no need to pay them. Somehow, I get the feeling that Warner Music will take a different view on such numbers about then. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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Author Sherman Alexie's Rants On Colbert Against Ebooks, Piracy And 'Open Source Culture' By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

download an unauthorized copy of the book (and Alexie is fooling himself if he thinks they On last night's Colbert Report, don't exist). How can not giving author Sherman Alexie spent people what they're asking for most of the interview ranting and are willing to pay for be a against digital books and how smart business model? "piracy" was destroying the book He compares the book business business. The whole thing was t o t h e m u s i c b u s i n e s s , odd not just because of how saying:"When the music industry uninformed it was, but also went digital, somewhere between because he seemed to contradict 75 and 95% of music is pirated. himself multiple times. I haven't Nobody makes money off their read any of Alexie's books, but if music any more. Everything is his logic is so twisted, it's about live shows now." First of difficult to think that his books all, it wasn't the industry that are worth reading: He starts out went digital. Music went online by insisting that he won't put his way before the industry even book on the Kindle or any digital realized it, and one of the main book format because he's afraid reasons that the piracy rates are of piracy -- but that makes no as high as they are (and his sense at all. By not giving numbers are industry figures that readers what they want, he's aren't reliable at all) was because actually encouraging more the industry held back for so long piracy. There are probably in giving people what they plenty of people actively willing wanted: which is exactly what to buy ebook versions of his Alexie is now doing! book, and his response is that As for his claim that no one because of piracy, he won't offer makes money off their music any it to them. How does this help? more, that's obviously silly. He Those people now have more admits that they now make their incentive to actually go and money from live shows (which is

making money off their music). And then later in the interview, he points out that one of the parts he enjoyed most about being a published author was doing live performances and readings of his works. In other words, he already does what he claims happened to the music industry. So why is he so worried about piracy? That's not clear at all. He also seems rather uninformed about how file sharing has helped some authors. I'd be really worried if I were Stephen King or James Patterson or a really big best seller that when their books become completely digitized, how easy it's going to be to pirate them. Where to start....? First, Alexie doesn't seem to understand how book file sharing happens. It's not because the industry digitizes the books, but because others digitize those books, and, yes, they're most likely already available on file sharing networks, whether those authors released them in ebook form or not. It's not the official ebook they're sharing in most cases anyway.

Cormac McCarthy's Typewriter Hits The Road

New Pictures: Tiger Woods' Damaged SUV

Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:23:00 AM

By Charlie Sorrel (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/2/2009 6:01:00 AM

Cormac McCarthy, author of

cheery favorites such as The Road and Blood Meridian, is about to trade in the typewriter he used to write them, and maybe five million words.

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:00:00 AM

Second, as for the claim that it will harm the biggest name authors most of all, Alexie might want to talk to Paulo Coehlo. Coehlo is the guy who quietly set up operations to"pirate" his own book and saw the sales of his physical books increase massively. Oh, and the book he chose to offer up via BitTorrent, The Alchemist is one of the best selling books of all time. Stephen King and James Patterson, by the way, do not have any books on that list -though, to be fair, if you combine all of their books, King has sold more than Coehlo, and Patterson seems to be in a similar ballpark, probably selling slightly more than Coehlo, but both have published many more books. Then, really strangely, he attacks "open source culture": With the "open source culture" on the internet, the idea of ownership -of artistic ownership -- goes away. Now, beyond this just being flat out wrong about what "open source" means or what "open source culture" is, what's the most bizarre thing about this

ET has obtained the all-new pictures of the damaged SUV Tiger Woods was driving during

statement is who it's coming from. Alexie is most well-known for his writing about modern Native American life -- and Native Americans aren't exactly known for their strong believe in artistic ownership. In fact, much of the understanding of so-called "gift economies," which are sometimes (though not always accurately) used to describe the open source world are actually based on Native American gift giving culture of tribes in the Pacific Northwest, which is where Alexie is from. Colbert actually does a good job pushing back on this, in his usual self-mocking manner, pointing out that sharing helps get the word out there, and the only reason he's so famous is because of how easily his content is shared via TV. Without that, he notes, he'd have to just go door to door shouting at people. To which Alexie responds: "I'm a fan of door to door shouting at people." Good luck with that. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

his accident early last Friday morning.

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RedEye gives you a universal iPhone remote for your home entertainment center By Brett Terpstra (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

base unit has a fairly good IR range, but no built-in options for extending it. A repeater may be required in some circumstances, Submitted at 12/2/2009 2:00:00 PM especially if your equipment is Filed under: Hardware, Reviews, behind closed cabinet doors. The App Review device has built-in Wi-Fi T h i n k F l o o d h a s r e l e a s e d broadcast, and can connect to RedEye, their universal remote your iPhone/iPod right out of the add-on for iPhone and iPod box. You get better performance touch. The RedEye remote is a (and easier configuration), combination of hardware and however, by modifying the setup software that turns your iPhone to use an existing Wi-Fi signal in into a truly universal remote your home. Multiple units can be control for IR-based devices. I used to cover additional rooms received an advance unit to take and control them all from a single for a spin, and tested it out with i P h o n e / i P o d , a n d m u l t i p l e my (modest) home theater setup iPhones/iPods can connect to a and an iPhone 3GS. single RedEye unit. T h e R e d E y e h a r d w a r e i s Configurations are stored in the retailing at $188US. I mention u n i t i t s e l f , s o s o f t w a r e this early because the price point modifications made on one affected my perception of the iPhone/iPod are available to any product quite a bit. From the other iPhone/iPod. packaging to the construction of The RedEye software [ iTunes the unit, it doesn't really feel like link] is a free download on the high-end hardware -- not the way App Store. It detects RedEye my Harmony 1000 remote does. units on the current network, and Granted, it's still almost half the allows you to add multiple cost of the Harmony 1000 and rooms, IR devices, commands less than half of the 1100, but the and activities. Devices are easy to lightweight, plastic unit just add from an extensive list, and doesn't pull off the aesthetics or most devices have commands feel of a $200 piece of hardware. p r e s e t s a v a i l a b l e . N e w The hardware portion of the commands can be learned at any RedEye is an IR-blaster with a time by capturing the control built-in charging dock for the signal from an existing remote. iPhone/iPod touch. It creates a Activities combine commands bridge between Wi-Fi (from the for multiple IR devices into a iPhone/iPod) and IR devices. The s i n g l e c o n t r o l p a n e l w i t h

and reliable at this point. I think it would be well-served by a desktop-based application that could upload directly to the base unit. That would allow the user to build a remote/activity much faster than is possible with the iPhone, and decrease frustration significantly. I'm not saying the RedEye isn't assignable buttons. Activities worth $188. It's a great universal also have optional startup and remote system, and as far as I can shutdown macros, so devices can tell, it's the only device of its type be turned on or off, inputs can be available for the iPhone/iPod set, volume controlled, etc. when touch ( UIRemote seems to be starting or stopping an Activity. dead?). It just needs some Control panels can be built by construction refinement, and a d d i n g b u t t o n s , a s s i g n i n g maybe some software usability commands and icons to them and tweaks. If you've got an iPhone dragging them around to create or an iPod touch, a lot of remotes your own remote. Ready-to-go on your coffee table, and a little templates are included for many time to spend with the initial devices/activities. setup, RedEye is really a very Ignoring my concerns about cost-effective solution. For more hardware quality for a bit, the information (and ordering info), f u n c t i o n a l i t y o f t h e take a look at the RedEye site. hardware/software combination TUAW RedEye gives you a is quite impressive. The premise universal iPhone remote for your is simple -- turn commands sent home entertainment center over Wi-Fi into infrared signals - originally appeared on The - but the possibilities are endless. U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e W e b l o g The large touch screen of the (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 iPhone/iPod touch rivals that of 14:00:00 EST. Please see our the Harmony 1000/1100 or terms for use of feeds. Pronto remotes. It lacks any Read| Permalink| Email this| hardware buttons, of course, but Comments provides custom configurations limited only by screen space. The software setup is not as simple as I'd like, but the app itself is stable

2010: A Spaced Odyssey (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:32:10 AM

The moronic convergence of 2010 will feature the two loony superstars of the far right: Palin, Bachmann to headline Tea Party convention. (CNN) – Sarah Palin will be the main attraction at what’s being billed as the “First National Tea Party Convention.” Tea Party Nation announced Wednesday that last year’s Republican vice presidential candidate will serve as keynote speaker for the conference, scheduled to take place in Nashville, Tennessee February 46. A representative for Palin has confirmed the former Alaska governor’s speaking role at the gathering. The group also announced that Rep. Michele Bachmann will be speaking at the gathering as well. The Minnesota Republican has become a hero among many in the conservative movement. A representative for Bachmann confirms her speaking role.

Tech/ Politics/

Free Content Undermines Democracy? By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

are more and more forums to help with that -- such as Wikileaks, combined with the A journalism professor by the ability to self publish or more name of Tim Luckhurst is easily contact those with a larger claiming that newspaper audience. paywalls are needed to preserve • Putting up a paywall will democracy, and that free content somehow fund more journalism. online undermines democracy. Again, remains to be seen, but We've heard this argument there's little evidence to support before, and it makes no more this claim. There are numerous sense now than when it was first competing offerings providing raised. The basic argument is news in the marketplace today. that free content online isn't There is little indication that bringing in enough revenue to enough people are interested in pay reporters, thus newspapers paying directly for news to the are going under and firing level it would take to support reporters. Thus, with fewer news operations. Combine that reporters, there are fewer people with the decrease in ad revenue to watch the government and (the real source of revenue for therefore corruption runs most news organizations) from rampant. Or something like that. the cost of the newsprint and futures to ridiculous levels made cutting off a large chunk of an Of course, there are so many delivery. Newspapers have sense. audience, and it seems likely that fallacies wrapped up in this always made their money on • W i t h o u t o l d s c h o o l these paywalls will actually serve argument, it's difficult to even advertising and classifieds (a n e w s p a p e r s , g o v e r n m e n t to decrease overall revenue over know where to start (though, one form of advertising). corruption is not well covered. the long term rather than increase w o u l d h a v e h o p e d t h a t a • Free content online is why This one remains to be seen, but it. It's not clear how that helps journalism professor would have newspapers are in trouble. there is growing evidence that it, anyone. done the decent thing and Again, not true. In most cases, too, is not true. The power of the checked into these things a bit the publications that are in internet has made it such that On the whole, if one were to more carefully before writing a trouble are in that position many more people can hold our grade this professor's analysis, silly opinion piece based on a b e c a u s e t h e y t o o k o u t governments accountable by you'd have to give him a failing variety of myths): tremendous amounts of debt. gaining a voice and speaking out grade for basing an argument on • Newspapers need readers to Most newspapers are actually against corruption or corruptive o u t r i g h t f a l s e h o o d s a n d pay to survive. Not true. Not still profitable on an operational influences. It's not fixing the u n s u p p o r t e d s t a t e m e n t s . even close to true. First, basis, but aren't making enough problem entirely, but then again, Permalink| Comments| Email newspapers have almost never to repay the debt. The problem neither did newspapers. The fact This Story made money from subscription was poor management thinking is that it's much easier now to call fees or newsstand purchases. in believing that leveraging their attention to corruption, and there Those fees rarely even covered Submitted at 12/2/2009 7:50:43 AM

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The Comment That Killed Global Warming (Not) (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/1/2009 9:56:28 PM

As the phony scandal dubbed (with mind-numbing banality) “Climategate” continues to descend into a black hole of everwidening stupidity, one of the claims currently making the hot rounds of the right wing blogs is that one tiny bit of source code from the stolen CRU files contains one comment that proves the evil scientists made it all up! Tim Lambert absolutely destroys this idiotic claim here, in a post aptly titled: Quote mining code. Bottom line: The code in question was neither false nor deceptive … and it was not even used in the final resulting graph. Read Tim’s post for the pathetic details. But one prediction is easy to make — his debunking will be ignored by the deniers, and “The Comment That Killed Global Warming” will enter the lexicon of anti-science, to be recycled over and over and over and …

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Entertainment Giants Looking At The Future... And See Cable?

Digg Makes it Easier to Get Dugg

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

By Christina Warren (Mashable!)

Submitted at 12/2/2009 3:48:38 AM

We've discussed in the past why we think that the cable companies' "TV Everywhere" strategy is destined to fail. If you don't recall, it's the way the cable companies are looking to respond to the rise of competition in the form of Hulu, Netflix, Redbox, Boxee and others -- not by offering something more compelling, but by putting up a giant wall around content and forcing you to keep your cable subscription (which fewer and fewer people seem to want) if you want to access TV shows online. Reid Rosefelt has a nice rant explaining why this won't work, pointing out (quite accurately) that all those competitors are winning because they deliver what people want, and locking things up doesn't make customers want cable any more: Why do we enjoy freewith-ads sites like Hulu and Crackle? THEY HAVE FEWER ADS! And we can watch what we want whenever we want to. What do we like about Netflix? For a fraction of the cost of cable,

it gives you DVDs by mail plus the ability watch a lot of movies instantly, either on your computer or with their many compatible set-top boxes. What do people like about Redbox. One buck! Pick it up and return it to the supermarket! What do we like about cable? Ummm, cable is a monopoly. You only get one store. You may only want a pair of socks and a shirt, but you are forced to buy a Yankee cap (even if you are a Mets or a Sox fan), cufflinks, perfume, towels, ladies underwear, two ties, a bedspread, low-slung hip-hop shorts, and a lamp. The kicker is that the price goes up all the time and the Calvin Klein shirt you actually came to buy costs extra. And of course LOTS AND LOTS OF ADS! It's not that we don't like cable any more--we've always hated it! But the key insight in the piece is how this, combined with Comcast's attempt to buy NBC Universal, show the backwards thinking of industry execs: There's one tiny hitch though. Every single TV show and movie from NBC and Universal is

available for free to anybody who has ten seconds to look for them. So what exactly is Comcast locking up? This isn't 1995, you know. Either you just shrug your shoulders about file-sharing or you start offering some alternatives that have benefits that people are willing to pay for like Hulu, Netflix, Redbox, and iTunes. Or maybe you work a little and come up with something new? Bill Maher said recently that the Republicans looked into the future and saw... radio. These entertainment giants are looking into the future and they see... cable. Bingo. It's yet another case of execs looking to lock up content and block value, rather than providing additional value to users. It's people thinking about the way things used to work and trying to recreate it with a digital facelift, rather than looking to actually take advantage of what the new technology enables. That's only a snippet of Reid's analysis, so go read the whole thing. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Gold soars past $1,200 to new record high (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:03:07 PM

Gold soars past $1,200 to new

record high By Jamie Chisholm, Global Markets Commentator Published: December 2 2009 07:07 | Last updated: December 2

2009 20:03 This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:42:52 AM

Digg has announced that it is revamping its API so that developers can create more feature-rich applications for the social content-sharing site and write/contribute data using OAuth. The new API will also let developers write tools that give users the ability to Digg, bury or comment on stories. Digg has also updated its API documentation with a focus on usability and interaction, giving developers more freedom to create apps for the platform. To show off the new API, Digg has created a few reference apps. These include: An updated toolbar for Firefox that includes the ability to Digg URLS without having to come back to site every time ( yes!). The new toolbar is also more customizable, and has been revamped for better UI and usability. You will be able to read the details here soon and download the source code from Github. Digg has also created a streamlined version of its site called DiggLite(which will be live soon). DiggLite includes a stream of the most popular stories — which can be Dugg or buried remotely — and it can organize stories by top-level

categories. Developers can use DiggLite as a framework for creating a new Digg app. You will be able to download the source code from Github presently. Digg says that the ability to create applications that can write data will initially only be available to a limited number of beta testers. Eventually, however, the site will extend this feature to all developers. In the last year, Digg has faced some tough criticism over the DiggBar and other initiatives, so it’s great to see that the API is becoming more usable for developers. I firmly believe that having an API isn’t enough; the interface needs to actually be valuable to the developer (and in turn, the end-user). Allowing write-access and giving developers more control is a step in the right direction for Digg. What Digg-related apps would you like to see hit the Web? Reviews: Digg, Firefox Tags: api, digg, diggbar, digglite

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New York eyes offshore wind farms MOG Launches All You on Great Lakes Can Eat Music Service [FREE INVITES] (CNET News.com)

come from energy efficiency and renewable resources by 2015. New York is a member of the NEW YORK--New York State about $1 million a megawatt. Regional Greenhouse Gas is looking for developers to build One megawatt powers about 800 Initiative, which uses a cap-andwind farms on its Great Lakes homes in New York. trade program to reduce that could generate 120 to 500 Companies interested in making greenhouse gas emissions from megawatts of power to boost the a proposal have to inform the power plants. Wind power amount of electricity that comes state-owned power generator by produces no greenhouse gas from renewable sources by 2015. March 20. Proposals are due June e m i s s i o n s s u c h a s c a r b o n The New York Power Authority 1. dioxide. w o u l d b u y a l l t h e p o w e r The state will announce any Several firms want to build wind generated from the offshore winners by December 2010 with power facilities in New York. projects, which could be located p o w e r p u r c h a s e a g r e e m e n t The state power grid operator in either Lake Erie or Lake negotiations completed by May said earlier this year it was 31, 2011. The Power Authority s t u d y i n g p r o p o s a l s t o Ontario. Offshore wind power costs about said it would favor projects interconnect more than 8,000 twice as much as land-based completed in 2015 and those that MW of wind projects. Of course, wind projects, according to benefit the local economy. most of those projects will not be The project would generate built. industry estimates. Offshore wind farms cost about $4 million much needed Upstate jobs and New York already has more than per megawatt if no interest help the state and its Democratic 1 , 2 0 0 M W o f w i n d p o w e r accrued during construction. governor, David Paterson, meet capacity, most of which was built However, typically offshore ambitious renewable-power goals over the past year or so in part to wind farms can generate more and the region's greenhouse gas capture substantial federal and power. Five firms are studying reduction efforts. state incentives. the Great Lakes wind project, New York's renewable portfolio Story Copyright (c) 2009 which was first proposed in standard requires 25 percent of Reuters Limited. All rights i t s e l e c t r i c i t y c o m e f r o m reserved. April. A combined cycle natural gas renewable sources by 2013, This content has passed through plant, which does produce carbon while the governor set a goal of fivefilters.org. dioxide, meanwhile costs just 45 percent of the state's power Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:13:11 AM

Ohio suspect's old home searched for more bodies (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:22:32 AM

Allie buzzed up: All the

President's Climategate Deniers (Michelle Malkin) 2 seconds ago 2009-1202T12:11:51-08:00

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By Barb Dybwad (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/2/2009 7:03:04 AM

We wrote last week about the impending launch of the MOG music subscription service, and now that day is here. To recap, MOG will be taking on Napster and Rhapsody in the all-you-caneat, on-demand listening experience for $5 per month. With an extensive library of millions of tracks backed by all four of the giant major label consortiums and an innovative music management interface (see the embedded video below for a demo), it seems like MOG is stepping up to the plate with a compelling offering in the music subscription space. MOG will be offering the first 100 Mashable readers to follow the instructions below a free monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth of service. Find out how to get yours after the break. How To Get a Free Month of MOG Service 1. Follow the@mogdotcom account on Twitter. 2. Use the retweet button at the upper left of this post to RT it on Twitter.

3. If you are one of the first 100 retweeters, MOG will send you a Direct Message on Twitter with an invite for your one month of free subscription service. If your trigger finger is too slow to net you a slot in the first 100, you can still head over to MOG and check out a hour-long free trial of the service (no payment information required up front). You can also feel free to keep following @mogdotcom on Twitter for other upcoming contests and giveaways, including lifetime memberships and other prizes. Were you one of the lucky 100? If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had a chance to check out MOG, be sure to let us know your impressions in the comments. MOG Overview Video Tags: MOG, music, playlists, startups, subscription

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Sony Pictures Bringing Online Video Psystar's Mac clones all to Boxee sold out By Christina Warren (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/2/2009 8:03:05 AM

Boxee, the media center with a social twist, will be launching its public beta on December 7— which is great news for those of us who have been using the service since the very early alpha days on our Apple TVs or Macs. Even before Boxee enters its official beta, the service will continue to expand its contentpartner offerings. In October, Anime portal Crunchyroll joined Boxee, and today another commercial partner joins the mix: an entertainment source called Crackle. Crackle is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment and has a great backlog of movies, TV shows and original content. The partnership between the two content sources will garner Boxee 49 different TV show miniepisodes and 37 original Web shows. The miniepisodes are 5-minute condensed episodes of shows like Voltron, Who’s the Boss?, Rescue Me, Diff’rent Strokes and

one of my personal favorites, Married With Children. Sony offers some of these same condensed episodes to services like Hulu and On-Demand cable offerings. Crackle also has a ton of really funny, super-high quality original Web shows. I suggest the animated series A Priest, Rabbi and Minister walk into a Bar, which is laugh-out-loud funny (and very, very wrong). Disruptive Technology For the Living Room Boxee is available for Mac, Windows and Ubuntu Linux systems, as well as on Apple TV, and pretty soon the service will be getting its own dedicated hardware device— mock-ups of which will be on display at the big Boxee unveiling on December 7.

Because Boxee is disruptive technology, we seen a range of reactions from content partners over the last 14 months or so: They either embrace the service or run from it. Some partners have recognized Boxee’s potential, others (like Hulu) have fought to try to pull content from the service. The fact that Crackle, which is backed by a very large media content group, is coming to Boxee speaks volumes. It’s one thing for media companies to make deals with portals under the assumption that people will be watching from their computer, but Boxee is designed to be used from the living room (although you can use it from a computer or laptop without a problem). In partnering with Boxee, Crackle is making a bold (and shrewd move). We hope to see more companies and content providers take notice of these events when contemplating their own digital strategies. Reviews: Boxee, Crackle, Hulu, Ubuntu Linux Tags: boxee, crackle, crackle.com

By Aron Trimble (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:00:00 PM

Filed under: Apple Corporate It didn't take long, but it seems that sometime in the night, following their agreement with Apple, Psystar has mysteriously run out of stock on all of their Mac clones. Apparently their settlement with Apple on the order of $2,000,000USD has caused them to accept defeat. Given that they only sold 768 clones over the course of the past two years, I don't imagine the inability to sell their hardware will have much of an impact on their financial statements. Down but not out, however, Psystar is still selling its Rebel EFI product which is used to circumvent OS X's EFI requirements for installation. In other words, it aims to make it dead simple to install Snow Leopard on any PC. Psystar's basis for continuing to sell Rebel EFI is that it was not included as part of the original case in San

Francisco. Even though another major chapter in the Apple v. Psystar battle has come to a close, it looks like Apple has some more work to do in Florida in order to stamp out the Rebel fires and finally squash this little bug of a company. Remember that Psystar is suing Apple in its native state Florida and in this case the issue of Rebel's legality/legitimacy is likely to come up. Psystar may be circling the drain, but they're not done kicking yet. TUAW Psystar's Mac clones all sold out originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

What You Missed Last Night: Colbert on Jesus and ET By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:00:00 PM

If you haven't heard, the Vatican says that the possible existence of

aliens doesn't hurt Christianity. Last night, Stephen Colbert talked about it. I like how Colbert can do a little funny rant on a topic but then get

a serious guest to discuss the topic and bring up some very interesting ideas. And like most Colbert rants, it somehow manages to get other pop culture

references in, including Jabba The Hut, the ShamWow, and James Cameron. [Watch clips and episodes of The Colbert Repor t and other shows

at SlashControl.] Filed under: Late Night, Video, Watercooler Talk, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Yet Another Nobel Prize Winner Says That Intellectual Property Is Harming Science By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

rather than promote it: drugs are "evergreened" when patents are on the verge of running out -We've discussed in the past how companies buy up the patents of Noble Prize winning economists potential rivals in order to have been worried about the prevent them being turned into impact of intellectual property products. Moreover, the prices laws, and how at least one Nobel c h a r g e d , e s p e c i a l l y f o r Prize winning physicist is p h a r m a c e u t i c a l s , a r e o f t e n warning that strict intellectual grossly in excess of those property laws are harming required to cover costs and make science and innovation. Now we reasonable profits. He goes on to can add a Nobel Prize winning attack the massive growth in biologist to the list (his Nobel things like gene patents, which was for medicine). Sir John has resulted in: "research on Sulston has written up a column certain genes [being] largely for The Guardian explaining how restricted to the companies that i n t e l l e c t u a l p r o p e r t y i s hold the patents, and tests "shackling" science: The myth is involving them are marketed at that IP rights are as important as prohibitive prices. We believe our rights in castles, cars and that this poses a very real danger corn oil. IP is supposedly to the development of science for intended to encourage inventors the public good." He points to and the investment needed to the long history of how scientific bring their products to the clinic a d v a n c e h a s c o m e f r o m and marketplace. In reality, collaboration and the sharing of patents often suppress invention knowledge, rather than the Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:32:52 AM

Yahoo’s Newest Strategy: Lots and Lots of Facebook By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/2/2009 7:35:28 AM

With more than 350 million users, Facebook is winning the social networking race by a hoarding of it, and fears where landslide. But another area things are heading now that they’re winning big (in large part knowledge is so often locked up: due to that growth) is in portable For science to continue to identity, where their Facebook flourish, it is necessary that the Connect platform competes with knowledge it generates be made offerings from Google, Twitter freely and widely available. IP and MySpace. rights have the tendency to stifle Today, Facebook is getting a access to knowledge and the free massive new partner for Connect: exchange of ideas that is essential Yahoo. The#2 search engine, t o s c i e n c e . S o , f a r f r o m which is also one of the world’s stimulating innovation and the m o s t v i s i t e d W e b s i t e s , dissemination of the benefits of announced that it will be rolling science, IP all too often hampers o u t F a c e b o o k C o n n e c t o n scientific progress and restricts numerous Yahoo properties that access to its products. We keep in the aggregate represent tens of hearing more and more people millions of users worldwide. w h o r e c o g n i z e a l l o f t h i s Yahoo says that Connect will be speaking out against what is integrated on its Mail, News, happening. But the politicians Sports, and Finance sites, as well only seem to listen to the lawyers as Flickr, allowing users to do and the lobbyists who have every things like leave comments, share incentive to ignore the reality news stories, and view friends’ around them. How do we change that? Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

feeds by using their Facebook account on Yahoo. Like any Connect-powered service, Yahoo benefits by that activity being shared back on the Facebook news feed, which in turn drives traffic to Yahoo. This is a no-brainer for Yahoo, who has been trying for years to make its services more social on its own. Now, they’ll start to see some of the benefits that smaller publishers have seen from Facebook Connect (more comments, extra traffic from Facebook, etc.) on a massive scale. The new features are expected to launch next year. Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, news Tags: facebook, Yahoo

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Spring Design Nook injunction denied, but battle's still on (CNET News.com)

for a preliminary injunction, but states that a halt to sales could still be appropriate if the plaintiff Start-up Spring Design has been ultimately prevails. The court denied an injunction to halt also says it will expedite the preBarnes & Noble from selling its trial process to accommodate Nook e-reader, according to court Spring's request for an early documents. hearing. The company had requested the Barnes & Noble does not i n j u n c t i o n , i n a d d i t i o n t o comment on litigation as a matter monetary damages, as part of a o f p o l i c y , a c o m p a n y recent lawsuit filed in federal spokeswoman said Wednesday. court in San Jose, Calif. The suit CNET has contacted Spring charges that the bookseller Design for a comment and is misappropriated Spring Design waiting to hear back. trade secrets in the design of its The Nook, like Spring Design's Nook, which launched October Alex (which has yet to be 20, the day after Spring Design released), combines a color touch announced its Alex e-book screen with an e-ink display, and reader. both readers use the Android The court's decision (PDF), operating system. In its lawsuit, based on a Monday hearing, Spring Design said it showed its denies Spring Design's request plans for the Alex to Barnes & Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:17:00 AM

Noble, which showed interest in the product and gave no indication it was working on a similar device. So sales of the Nook will move forward for now, though not without hitches of a non-legal

sort. When Barnes & Noble officially entered the e-reader market in late October, customers placing early preorders were told they could expect the Nook to ship by the end of November. However,

the bookseller pushed that date back, telling preorder customers they could expect shipment by December 11. And Sunday, Barnes & Noble said that it won't feature the Nook in stores for sale or demonstration until later than expected because the bookseller is making it a priority to deliver the high-demand $259 Nook to customers who ordered the device before November 20. Spring Design's Alex (left) and Barnes & Noble's Nook. (Note: the images are not to scale.) (Via Engadget) This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Mac 101: Building a bootable diagnostic and repair flash drive By David Winograd (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

some diagnostic and repair utilities. This is not meant to replace or in any way affect backing up your Submitted at 12/2/2009 3:00:00 PM hard drive. Time Machine makes Filed under: Troubleshooting, it so easy that not having a Mac 101 More Mac 101, our tips backup plan is just silly... but so and tricks for novice Mac users. much for the disclaimer. It's a good idea to have a To make a diagnostic and repair strategy in place in case of flash drive, I'd suggest buying an emergencies. If your hard drive 8 GB flash drive, which can be tosses you errors, behaves badly had for around US $20 these or doesn't even appear, what to d a y s . W h e n y o u g e t i t , i t do? If programs crash at random, probably won't be formatted for you need to be ready. You can your Macintosh, so plug it in and prepare for this by creating a r u n D i s k U t i l i t y ( i n bootable flash drive containing /Applications/Utilities) to format

the flash drive. In doing so, you have a number of choices. With your flash drive highlighted click on Erase and choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and give

the flash drive a name. Then click on Erase on the bottom right side of the screen and in a few seconds your flash drive will be ready for an operating system.

Continue reading Mac 101: Building a bootable diagnostic and repair flash drive TUAW Mac 101: Building a bootable diagnostic and repair flash drive originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Tiger Woods and the Destruction of Personal Privacy By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

But Tiger goes on to bring up what is perhaps a more interesting issue about the world For the past six days, much of we live in. The extremely private the world has been riveted by the superstar goes on to write, fallout from the Thanksgiving car “Although I am a well-known accident of Tiger Woods. The person and have made my career story has been driven in large as a professional athlete, I have part by the online tabloid media been dismayed to realize the full and the all-knowing eyes of extent of what tabloid scrutiny TMZ, who has speculated about really means.” the athlete’s marriage, affairs, Continuing, Tiger writes: and perhaps even prescription “But no matter how intense drug use before taking the wheel. curiosity about public figures can As it turns out, much of what be, there is an important and deep TMZ’s been reporting appears to principle at stake which is the be true, as this morning Woods right to some simple, human issued a statement on his Web measure of privacy. I realize site, acknowledging wrongdoings there are some who don’t share and writing, “I have let my my view on that. But for me, the family down and I regret those virtue of privacy is one that must transgressions with all of my be protected in matters that are heart.” intimate and within one’s own Submitted at 12/2/2009 8:04:44 AM

family. Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.” Tiger’s right. While we’ve come to expect a certain level of

accident. Of course, as the world’s first billion-dollar athlete, Tiger could conceivably be deemed a company and brand, but nonetheless, as a man, it’s his right to remain private and accept the consequences, whether they’re lost endorsements or unforgiving fans. That right was seemingly stripped away from him by the “we deserve to know everything about everything” culture we now live in. As a sports fan, a social media connoisseur and a man, today is a transparency from companies, sad day. brands and even public figures Tags: social media, tiger woods, thanks to social media, it’s not trending our God-given right to know what Tiger does in his personal life, as many seemed to think it was in the days following his

Song Summoner and sequel coming to iPhone By Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:30:00 AM

Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPhone, App Store I actually did buy Song Summoner, the strange, out-of-nowhere tactics RPG from Square Enix that was made for the iPod last year. Yes, that's right it was made for the iPod -- at a time when everyone was waiting to see pro apps on the iPhone and the iPod touch, Square released a game controlled with a click wheel that

used your iPod's songs as characters in a tactical RPG. And now, we've heard that Song Summoner is returning-- this time as a touchscreen based iPhone app.

to Apple's dropping support of clickwheel games (which makes sense, given the App Store's popularity). It'll be in the App Store on December 3rd. No price listed yet, but there will be a lite version to try as well. TUAW Song Summoner and sequel coming to iPhone originally appeared on The I have to say -- especially if you import into the game, and then it U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e W e b l o g like Square Enix RPGs in the becomes a character with specific (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 style of Final Fantasy Tactics, stats), it's definitely worth a look. 11:30:00 EST. Please see our and you're intrigued by the "song A n d f o r S o n g S u m m o n e r terms for use of feeds. conversion" engine (you choose a completists, the game comes with Read| Permalink| Email this| song in your mp3 playlists to a sequel as well, unreleased due Comments

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Intel hopes 48-core chip will solve new challenges (CNET News.com) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:14:00 AM

Intel's 48-core Single-chip Cloud C o m p u t e r ( S C C ) processor(Credit: Intel) SAN FRANCISCO--Pushing several steps farther in the multicore direction, Intel on Wednesday demonstrated a fully programmable 48-core processor it thinks will pave the way for massive data computers powerful enough to do more of what humans can. The 1.3-billion transistor processor, called Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC) is successor generation to the 80core "Polaris" processor that Intel's Tera-scale research project produced in 2007. Unlike that precursor, though, the secondgeneration model is able to run the standard software of Intel's x86 chips such as its Pentium and Core models. The cores themselves aren't terribly powerful--more like lower-end Atom processors than Intel's flagship Nehalem models, Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner said at a press event here. But collectively they

Shield alums to reunite on Lie to Me By Jonathan Toomey (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/2/2009 2:01:00 PM

Despite the fact that FX's late drama The Shield has only been pack a lot of power, he said, and and will demand as a result very high-core count processors like off the air for a little over a year, it looks like the gritty cop Intel has ambitious goals in mind ( p o w e r f u l ) c o m p u t i n g the SCC?" for the overall project. capability." The chipmaker found only one drama's cast just can't get enough Intel CTO Justin Rattner holds a Intel is working with companies flaw with the chip so far and has of each other -- a handful of them wafer made of Intel's 48-core facing large-scale computing booted Windows and Linux on will be staging a mini- Shield experimental SCC chips.(Credit: challenges that today require SCC systems. The company reunion on Lie to Me this coming S c r e e n s h o t b y S t e p h e n thousands of networked servers. demonstrated computers using spring. Shankland/CNET) That's very much a here-and-now the processor running Microsoft's According to the press release "The machine will be capable of problem compared to the more Visual Studio on Windows and from Fox, former Shield cast members Catherine Dent understanding the world around sci-fi challenges of computer other tasks at the event. them much as humans do," vision. This content has passed through (Danny), Kenny Johnson (Lem), David Marciano (Billings), Rattner said. "They will see and Intel's idea with the SCC and its fivefilters.org. Benito Martinez (Aceveda), hear and probably speak and do a ilk, Rattner said: "Could you Cathy Cahlin Ryan (Corinne), number of other things that replace a rack full of equipment and David Rees Snell (Ronnie) resemble human-like capabilities, today with one or a number of will all be featured in the episode, entitled "Pied Piper." Continue reading Shield alums to reunite on Lie to Me s o m e t i m e s h o w g o o d a n I like spy shows and movies awesome Filed under: Other Drama animated show is going to be, but anyway, and this animated, Filed under: Video, Animation, Shows, Programming, Casting, if Jonathan's review of the pilot modern take looks really funny. Reality-Free Reality-Free, Lie to Me and the video clips below for It debuts on FX on January 14 at Permalink| Email this| | Permalink| Email this| | Archer are any indication, it's 10 p.m. Comments Comments going to be all kinds of awesome. Continue reading Archer looks

Archer looks awesome By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:30:00 PM

Is it too early to name Archer as one of my favorite shows of 2010? It's hard to judge

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Airport diversion: Adrenaline Golf Online By Mel Martin (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:30:00 PM

Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review I think the iPhone really solves the 'sitting at the airport with hours to kill' problem quite well. As iPhone owners, we know we can browse the web, catch up on email or the news, even check to see why your flight is late. I have another suggestion. Give Adrenaline Golf Online[ iTunes link] a try. It is one of the few games that really harnesses the power of 3GS graphics, but look quite good if you are on older hardware, and it works fine on an iPod touch too. The game is basically miniature golf, with a pretty accurate physics engine. There are 72 courses in 3 different game modes. You can play online with golfers all over the world, or just play by your lonesome. There are 4 different playing environments for 18 courses, which is how you get a total of 72. There is beach, forest, lava, and night. The animation and rendering of water and reflections is really stunning. The game play is challenging, and I easily blew an hour working through a

AT&T and Verizon mutually drop lawsuits, customers rejoice By Mel Martin (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:00:00 PM

Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone Both companies were looking pretty stupid, with halfbaked attack ads and claims, counter claims and lawsuits that get lawyers rich and customers wondering if the money might be better spent. Anyway, the Wall Street Journal and others are reporting that: couple of the courses. have time on your hands I AT&T Inc. (T) on Wednesday All the courses have 3 difficulty suggest giving this game a try. I dismissed its lawsuit against levels, and have interesting think it is especially good for Verizon Wireless and its recent challenges in getting your ball in p e o p l e w h o l i k e p o o l a n d "There's A Map For That" campaign. the hole past a series of animated m i n i a t u r e g o l f . obstacles. Here's a gallery of some screen AT&T had already suffered a legal setback when a judge I'm not really a big game person, shots: but I was instantly hooked by Gallery: Screen shots from rejected its request to pull the ads last month, which the Dallas Adrenaline Golf. If I have any Adrenaline Golf Online criticism it is that it is hard to TUAW Airport diversion: carrier argued inaccurately predict how a particular hole will A d r e n a l i n e G o l f O n l i n e suggested inferior network play and how far the ball will originally appeared on The coverage. The court ruled that roll. Eventually I got the hang of U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e W e b l o g Verizon Wireless's ads, which it. (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 s h o w e d m a p s c o m p a r i n g It might seem a little pricey at 12:30:00 EST. Please see our coverage, clearly talked about third-generation, or 3G, U.S. $4.99, but I think the effort terms for use of feeds. involved in making this game Read| Read| Permalink| Email c o v e r a g e . Meanwhile, Digital Daily reports was substantial, and I didn't mind this| Comments Verizon has dismissed a similar the higher tariff. lawsuit against AT&T. If you're stuck at an airport or

OK AT&T. How about using that found money to improve your network and customer service? Come on. You can do it. TUAW AT&T and Verizon mutually drop lawsuits, customers rejoice originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Apple looking to sell iPod AT&T Drops Lawsuit A Dave Koz touch-based EasyPay Against Verizon and its Smooth Jazz checkout system to others? Coverage Slamming Ads Christmas By Joachim Bean (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:35:00 AM

Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:03:49 AM

Submitted at 12/2/2009 2:30:00 PM

Filed under: Accessories, Retail, Rumors, Apple, iPod touch Apple has recently moved away from the old Windows Mobilebased EasyPay point-of-sale systems formerly used at the Apple Stores to a new iPod touch -based system. Now, Apple may be looking to sell the new system to other retailers. ifoAppleStore is reporting that Apple has received many inquires from people interested in purchasing this new system for their own use. The system consists of an iPod touch outfitted with an accessory case that has a built-in barcode scanner, magnetic card reader, and battery. The device also uses a Pogo stylus for capturing customer signatures. The iPod touch runs a custom application that handles all the aspects of the sale.

(ETonline - Breaking News)

By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

Sales of the system outside of Apple retail outlets still remains only a possibility, but Apple is reported to be compiling a list of customers who might be interested in purchasing it. If demand grows, this Appledeveloped tool could be sold to many other retailers. TUAW Apple looking to sell iPod touch-based EasyPay checkout system to others? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

The ongoing war of words between Verizon and AT&T has come to an end — in the courtroom, anyway. According to CNET, AT&T has dropped the lawsuit it filed last month against Verizon that claimed ads comparing the respective coverage maps of each carrier were misleading. As anyone that watches much TV can attest, the ads continue in full force, with Verizon airing a seemingly unending array of commercials slamming AT&T’s coverage, and AT&T responding with its own ads attacking Verizon’s weaknesses and spinning the coverage story in a more positive light. Here’s one of Verizon’s recent ads that ran over this past weekend: AT&T didn’t seemingly have much of a leg to stand on in this

Saxophonist Dave Koz is bringing good cheer and smooth jazz to all this December, celebrating the 12th anniversary of his Dave Koz & Friends: A Smooth Jazz Christmas Tour, and case, as Verizon’s current batch the six-time Grammy nominee of ads clearly indicate that the has announced his final show. map comparison is based on 3G Read on for details… coverage. But worse than that, Presented by 94.7 The Wave the telecom giant has a big radio station, the concert will p e r c e p t i o n p r o b l e m a t t h e take place on December 23 at the moment. A new Consumer G i b s o n A m p h i t h e a t r e a t R e p o r t s s t u d y p u b l i s h e d Universal City Walk in Los yesterday indicated that AT&T Angeles, with a portion of the h a d t h e l o w e s t c u s t o m e r proceeds benefiting the Los s a t i s f a c t i o n a m o n g m a j o r Angeles Regional Food Bank. wireless carriers in the US. The concert represents a reunion H o w d o e s A T & T f i x t h e of the original quintet, with Rick problem? In the long run, the Braun, David Benoit, Peter White only option seems to be simply to and Brenda Russell joining Dave improve its service, which is on the 22-date tour, which launched just last week. much easier said than done. Tags: advertising, att, verizon

James Lipton wants you to think before you text By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:00:00 AM

I'm not sure the host of Inside The Actors Studio is the best

person to get kids to stop texting I mean, "give it a ponder?" Do Commercials, Celebrities, Reality naughty words and/or pictures, kids really talk like that today? -Free though I guess this ad is as much Maybe British kids. Permalink| Email this| | for parents as it is kids. But is it [via Adfreak] Comments really successful? Filed under: Video,

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Facebook Death Threat Another news tweak for Leads to Arrest in Google Columbia (CNET News.com)

Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:49:00 AM

By Barb Dybwad (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:32:14 AM

The perpetrator of death threats against the son of Columbian president Alvaro Uribe on Facebook has been identified and arrested, thanks to help from Facebook and the FBI. Police say they placed the subject under arrest Wednesday on the outskirts of Bogota, although his name has not yet been released. The man reportedly posted a very unambiguous death threat against the Columbian president’s son back in July of this year, with a Facebook message reading, “I promise to kill Jeronimo Alberto Uribe, son of Alvaro Uribe.” With help from the American FBI, Columbian intelligence were able to determine the IP address of the computer used to post the threat. Columbian police say he’ll be charged with incitement to

commit crime. It’s not the first arrest made possible by Facebook, whose IPharnessing power can work both ways. It’s a stark reminder that you’re probably not as anonymous as you think on the Internet. Do you think we’ll see more criminal cases mediated by Facebook and other social networks in the coming years? [Image courtesy of davidsonscott15] Reviews: Facebook Tags: Alvaro Uribe, arrest, Columbia, death threat, facebook, FBI

Following modifications to its "First Click Free" policy that gives Google News users access to some content that would otherwise be behind a pay wall, Google has released an additional tweak that lets publishers decide whether they want their sites to show up in Google News, Google Web search, both, or neither. Previously, if a publisher wanted to request inclusion in one or the other, but not both, sending a request to Google was required. This now automates the process. These updates to Google's news indexing come at a time when media outlets are once again

pointing fingers at the search giant as a revenue suck--and in response, Google insists it's good for publishers because it drives traffic. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has made concrete threats that he will pull his publications' content from Google and is reported to be in talks with Microsoft to strike an exclusive deal on its Bing search engine. By offering more flexible options for choosing where exactly news outlets want their content to appear, Google comes across as friendlier and less authoritative--at least on the surface. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

The Hills : Comic Book Adventures in Finale Land [Recaps] By Brian Moylan (Gawker) Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:04:21 PM

Sadly another season of this show has come and gone. Like most episodes, nothing happened, but the plot still seemed to progress. That's why we translated the action into serial comic form. It's later, the same day... And there were still so many questions to answer: Will Brody and Jayde stay together? Is Heidi pregnant with Spencer's devil spawn? Will Kristin get together with Justin Bobby? Does Audrina actually have something to do? What ever happened to drunk Holly? Did Stacie the Bartender drink her under the table permanently? Stop wondering, you silly goose, and get your answers in bite-sized illustrated form!

Matt Houston might be coming to DVD next year By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/2/2009 3:10:00 PM

It's funny how shows you didn't think would ever be released are suddenly released on DVD. Case in point: Matt Houston, the series

from the early '80s that starred Lee Horsley as a Texas-born private eye. Yes, his last name was Houston and he was born in Texas. It's always great when your last name is also the name of a city in your state. Maybe the

show didn't trust viewers enough

to know that even though he lives in Los Angeles HE'S A COWBOY. TVShowsOnDVD is reporting that the show is going to come out on DVD some time in 2010. Continue reading Matt Houston

might be coming to DVD next year Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on DVD, RealityFree Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Gen. McChrystal Praises Obama's Afghanistan Decision (Little Green Footballs)

will work toward improved security for Afghanistan and the transfer of responsibility to Here’s the statement just Afghan security forces as rapidly released by the senior NATO as conditions allow. In the commander in Afghanistan, meantime, our Afghan partners General Stanley McChrystal: need the support of Coalition “ T h e A f g h a n i s t a n - P a k i s t a n forces while we grow and review led by the President has develop the capacity of the provided me with a clear military Afghan army and police. That mission and the resources to will be the main focus of our accomplish our task. The clarity, campaign in the months ahead. commitment and resolve outlined “The 42 other nations of the in the President’s address are Coalition will benefit from a critical steps toward bringing strengthened U.S. commitment, security to Afghanistan and as success in Afghanistan must eliminating terrorist safe havens be an international, integrated that threaten regional and global civil-military effort – from our security. security and training capacity to “ T h e N A T O I n t e r n a t i o n a l the governance and economic Security Assistance Force (ISAF) development assistance that objective is equally clear: We sustains long-term stability. The Submitted at 12/1/2009 9:00:44 PM

concerted commitment of the international community will prevail in bringing real change to Afghanistan — a secure and stable environment that allows for effective governance, improved economic opportunity and the freedom of every Afghan to choose how they live. “We face many challenges in Afghanistan, but our efforts are sustained by one unassailable reality: neither the Afghan people nor the international community want Afghanistan to remain a sanctuary for terror and violence. The coalition is encouraged by President Obama’s commitment and we remain resolute to empowering the Afghan people to reject the insurgency and build their own future.”

Kate Hudson: A-Rod and I Are Not in That Place Yet (ETonline - Breaking News)

"It's unfair to talk about somebody else, especially when you're not in that place yet to be Kate Hudson tackles single discussing those things." motherhood, the tabloids and Of course, she's used to tabloid dating in the new issue of speculation and rumors. "If I Harper's Bazaar. walk out on the street with any O n h e r r e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h man, I'm dating him. I've been Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, dating two of my best friends Kate is hesitant to define their from high school who are like status. "I have a child, and there girls to me," she muses. "I'm not are people involved," she says. going to hide going to breakfast." Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:45:00 AM

Inside the Grammy Nomination Concert Preps with LL Cool J (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/2/2009 8:52:00 AM

Freepers Respond to 'Hate Speech' Criticism By Spewing Hate Speech (Little Green Footballs)

at Free Republic, the site where thousands of people gleefully cheered and applauded the Well, the right wing blogosphere murder of Dr. George Tiller: has responded to my post about Why I Parted Ways With The their almost universal hate speech R i g h t ( L G F B l a m e s F r e e and ugly ranting with … a deluge R e p u b l i c ) . of hate speech and ugly ranting. I won’t quote the comments, but You can easily find numerous let’s just examine the tags they examples just by taking a short put on their post about LGF, shall cruise around the right wing we? sites, but probably the best one is 0bangs1whimper; antichristian; Submitted at 12/1/2009 5:03:56 PM

barkingmoonbat; bds; bigot; bipolar; cair; charlesjohnson; cjwldslouthsownmom; coopted; crappedthebed; creationism; cultureofcorruption; dncbrownshirts; drankthekoolaid; evolution; fakebutaccurate; freerepublic; frinthenews; gaystapo; globalwarmingscare; goodriddance; homobama; homofascists; homosexual; homosexualagenda; hysteria;

jumpedtheshark; lbtg; lgf; lgf2point0; lickedthepitcher; littlegreenfagbots; littlegreenfootballs; obamunist; perverts; quisling; rathergate; religiousfaggot; religiousfaggots; seeya; sellout; snivellingliberal; sodomhusseinobama; thehorror; traitor; truther; whocares Aren’t they cute?

LL Cool J hosts this year's Grammy Nomination Concert at Club Nokia in Downtown Los Angeles, and he's giving ET the inside scoop on what to expect! In addition to hosting the party, LL will perform along with the Black Eyed Peas, Sugarland, Maxwell and Nick Jonas & The Administration. Plus, the nominations for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards will be announced. The Grammy Nomination Concert airs live Wednesday night at 9/8c on CBS. The Grammy Awards themselves air January 31 on CBS.

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The Human's Guide to Running Google Chrome OS [Chrome Os] By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:00:00 AM

Two weeks ago Google released the source code of their upcoming Chrome OS operating system, and thanks to some fast and hard-working developers, you don't have to be a coder to try it out. While Google's official word is that you have to build Chromium OS from source to try it out on your computer, several developers have released installable builds that save you the trouble. Let's take a look at how to take Chromium OS out for a spin without typing make or build. Setting Expectations: Meet Your New Bicycle Before you get started, you should know that Chrome OS (or in this early development stage, Chromium OS) is an operating system that essentially consists ONLY of a browser. You can't install applications or twiddle with settings—Chromium OS feels like it's just Google Chrome with no layer between it and your computer. It's a neat idea, but kind of disappointing for software geeks who like lots of settings. It acts just like a regular old browser with not too many innovations, except that it's lightning fast. For more on Chrome OS's backstory, see our first glimpse at Google Chrome OS.

Mac-lover John Gruber predicts that Chrome OS will be the operating system on your secondary computer; he says that Google's betting that instead of two cars, you just need a car and a bicycle. Meet what might someday become your new bicycle. Testing Method 1: Run Chromium OS as a Virtual Machine The easiest, surefire way to try out Chromium OS without even rebooting your computer is running it as a virtual machine. If you've got a Mac or an incompatible PC and you just want to see what Chromium looks like without having to restart or worry whether or not

on Google's list of approved hardware. Testing Method 2: Boot Chromium OS from a USB Drive A virtual machine is just that— virtual—and you want to see the real thing. You can run Chromium OS natively on your computer from a USB stick if you've got the right hardware. What you'll need: To boot Chromium OS natively, you'll need a netbook or laptop known to work with Chromium OS(note: that list isn't exactly complete, so your mileage may vary if you try gear that's not listed), a 1 gigabyte USB drive, and the bootable USB image. Download the "Diet" Chromium OS for a 1 gigabyte USB drive here. (Thanks to Hexxeh for your internet connection or Linux/Ubuntu as shown. keyboard will work, this is the Then, use the vmdk file you offering these!) way to go. downloaded from gdgt as the Note that the USB stick method does NOT work on Macs. (See What you'll need: First you'll virtual boot disk. need software that can run virtual For a detailed step-by-step below.) Also, a Chromium live machine images; I'd recommend screenshot tour, check out The CD is not available because it you go with the free, cross- How-To Geek's guide on how to needs to write to the disk; therefore, a writable USB stick is platform VirtualBox. Secondly, run Chrome OS in VirtualBox. you'll need to download the The disadvantage of this method the way to go. prefab Chromium OS virtual disk is that Chromium OS won't be as How to boot it: The USB build image. For the price of a free site fast as the operating system is developer Hexxeh describes how registration, you can download a designed to be, because it's to prepare your USB drive for working virtual machine from running in a virtual machine—in booting on Windows: Download Image Writer for gdgt.com. other words, you won't get to see W indows and extract the How to boot it: If you've used Chrome OS's amazing boot time VirtualBox before, firing up or snappy responsiveness. The program. Launch the program, Chromium OS in it isn't much a d v a n t a g e o f t h i s m e t h o d , a n d s e l e c t t h e i m a g e ( different than any other operating however, is that your internet chromiumos.img) and your USB system. When you create the new connection, keyboard, and mouse HUMAN'S page 39 image, set the OS Type to will work whether or not they're

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HUMAN'S continued from page 38

drive letter from the drop down box. Click "Write". The install image will then be copied to the drive. Once it's done, close the program and you can then boot from the USB drive. Mac users can prepare the USB drive as well, but remember, Macs cannot boot into Chromium OS from the USB drive. Linux users, here's how you can install the image to the USB drive. Now that your USB drive is bootable, shut down your computer, insert the drive, and start your computer. As it's booting, hit the boot menu key and set your computer to boot from the USB drive. (The boot menu key and method for setting the boot drive to the USB stick varies from computer to computer; check your user manual or Google your model to see how to do it.) When your computer starts up for the first time, if you're using Hexxeh's build, the username and password are both facepunch. Normally these login details will be your Google account

username and password, but if your machine is not yet connected to the internet, facepunch it is. If all goes well, your keyboard, mouse, and wireless or Ethernet adapter will work with Chromium OS and you'll be in the cloud in seconds. If not, check this hardware compatibility list for more info about what might or might not work with your computer. For an alternative to Hexxeh's USB build, check out the handy torrent with instructions from MakeUseOf.com. (Note that the default login username and password is different than Hexxeh's build in the MakeUseOf.com build.) If you've got an ASUS Eee PC and you've already downloaded the virtual image in the first method, you can turn that into a bootable USB stick as well. Here's how to create a USB stick from the virtual image and boot up your Eee from it. If you're already running Ubuntu Linux (Karmic Koala) on your laptop and you can't get

Chromium OS to work with your Wi-Fi card, Linux user Lee Briggs explains how you can patch the USB build with your current drivers. The main advantage to testing Chromium OS using a bootable drive is you'll get the native experience with the speed and responsiveness of a real computer. The disadvantage is that your current hardware might not work with Chromium OS. What's your favorite method for test-driving Chromium OS? Was it worth the time? Are you using it regularly? Let us know what you think in the comments. Gina Trapani, Lifehacker's founding editor, looks forward to Chrome OS's official release. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:40:00 AM

ET has obtained the crash report of Tiger Woods' one-car accident that occurred early last Friday morning, Nov. 27.

The reports cites that the pro golfer hit a fire hydrant in the front lawn of his estate before the front of his vehicle collided with a tree. The report includes a diagram of the accident. Florida police announced on

By Sarah Rae Trover (Lifehacker)

notes for each ingredient, in case you need a reminder as to why you need itâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or what dish it's Submitted at 12/2/2009 8:30:00 AM destined for. The whole thing It's easy to forget things grocery prints out in an easy to read list shopping once you're bumping that's divided by category to e l b o w s w i t h t h e m a s s e s . ensure you don't leave something GroceryWiz is an easy to use, behind, before leaving a certain fully customizable webapp that section of the store. keeps your weekly grocery needs Sign up is free, and the site also in check. offers freebie offers and coupons, (Click the image above for a though those features require a closer look.) bit more of your time than a few GroceryWiz is a quick and easy off the cuff edits to stay on top of tool for adding grocery items to a your daily or weekly shopping virtual and printable list to make list. If this seems a little over the your trips to the grocery store top for your needs, you can easier and more productive. It always try using a basic template keeps track of your weekly t o s t r e a m l i n e y o u r o w n purchases and saves your lists handwritten lists, or try shopping Tuesday that they had closed the from week to week to help every two weeks to save money investigation into Woods' identify frequent purchases you and make things a little more accident and said they had issued may have left off before you hit routine. GroceryWiz the pro golfer a moving violation the print button. You can add for careless driving. This could mean a $164 fine and up to four points on Woods' license.

Documents: Tiger Woods' Crash Report (ETonline - Breaking News)

GroceryWiz Is a FullFeatured, Grocery-ListMaking Webapp [Groceries]

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Craigslist Car Research Extension Makes UsedCar Shopping Easier [Downloads] By Sarah Rae Trover (Lifehacker)

Is it a Celebrity Lookalike or the Real Deal? (ETonline - Breaking News)

Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:00:00 AM

Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:41:00 AM

Craigslist is a great resource when you're searching for a deal on a vehicle, but it can also be time consuming. This Craigslistcentric Firefox extension displays consumer reviews, pricing info, and similar vehicles to make searching as painless as possible. (Click above to enlarge) We've purchased vehicles from Craigslist several times in the past, and there's always a certain amount of extra internet searching that goes on. When you find what seems like a deal, you're sure to look up Blue Book pricing, consumer reviews, and check up on safety information. The new "Craigslist Car Buy Research Firefox Extension" (longest name ever) is a simple install that provides all of that available information at the top of each page so you can quickly determine whether sifting through the posted ad is worth your time. We road tested it on several different ads in our area and it did its duty when it came to notifying us of cars that had been in accidents before we got our hopes up on finding a real deal; it also alerted us to pricing that was likely too good to be true, suggesting inquiries to make

"I Get That A Lot" is back for a second go-round, featuring celebrities tricking everyday people in a case of supposed "mistaken identity." Working ordinary jobs, these celebrities confuse customers who can't decide if it's the actual celebrity or an astonishing look-alike. Celeb participants include Paris Hilton, Rachael Ray, Gene Simmons, Tony Hawk and Julie Chen. "I Get That a Lot" will air Wednesday, Jan. 6 at 8 p.m. on CBS.

about its condition. In all, the extension aims to round up the following information on each car classified: • Gives estimated price from multiple sources. Also provides links for further research. • Factory car recalls for the car model. • Consumer reviews, this is the real gem. • Car reliability information. It shows the msn autos page focused at reliability section. This shows what kinda engine problems occur in that particular car. Other info is also there but

reliability info is most useful on that page. Takes like 2 sec to get idea of how reliable that car model is. • Scans the posting and shows a highlighted message on top informing about:- accident car, rebuilt car, moving sale, one owner, suggests buyer to ask if the car was involved in an accident. • Lists similar (year/make/model) ads from craigslist on top. This gives the idea of going price and the supply/demand. • If there is a phone number in

the post then it makes it easy to do a search of the phone number on Craigslist to find out if the ad poster has posted any other ads. This sometimes help in determining if its moving sale or [an] ad by a reseller etc. Give it a go to see how else this add-on can make your Craigslist searching a little easier. Craigslist Car Buy Research is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. Craigslist Car Buy Research Firefox Extension[Mozilla Add-ons]

How Do You Handle Email Misfires? [Ask The Readers] By Adam Pash (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:30:00 AM

The New York Times' Gadgetwise Blog dives into the subject of email misfires, discussing what you should do HOW page 41

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Quicksilver Releases Update, Improves Performance [Downloads] By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)

homepage, but the changelog on software download site MacUpdate lists a ton of changes, Mac OS X only: Universal including claims of performance application launcher and then boosts: some Quicksilver has a pretty Default compiler changed to shaky future, so we were both Clang, Apple's and the Open surprised and thrilled to find a Source community's next gen new release of Quicksilver compiler. By doing that a 20 to boasting, among other things, 40% increase in runtime speed improved performance. was gained while managing a Rather than simply bringing catalog library with approx. 13k Quicksilver up to spec with Snow items. Quicksilver also feels a lot L e o p a r d ( l i k e t h e l a s t snappier too. m a i n t e n a n c e r e l e a s e ) , Not bad for an application that's Quicksilver 1.0 Beta 57 actually not really in active development comes complete with some fixes anymore (and whose creator is and improvements. For whatever busy working on Chrome OS). reason, the release isn't currently I'll venture to say that the new available on the Quicksilver build does feel a touch faster, but Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:30:00 AM

speed is always a tough call, so let's hear how the new release feels to you in the comments. Update: As some readers have pointed out, this build seems to have come from the active development of Quicksilver that's going on over at GitHub. It's great to see that users are actively developing the open-sourced app. Quicksilver is a free, opensource download for Mac OS X only. If you're new to Quicksilver, check out our beginner's guide. Quicksilver 1.0b57[MacUpdate via Macworld]

when someone mistakenly sends you an email meant for someone else. We're wondering what you would do—whether you're the sender or receiver. For her part, Gadgetwise's Jenna Wortham suggests the following when you've received an email by error: It's hard enough to field the deluge of daily e-mail messages from colleagues, significant others and friends without the added headache of dealing with a surplus of correspondence from strangers passing along chain eletters or inquiring about their bacon-of-the-month order status. But your level of obligation depends on both the nature of the note and where it was sent. "If the message is ‘I am in a life threatening situation….' it's one thing," said [founder of Cc:Betty's Michael] Cerda. "If it's ‘what's the best basketball to buy' it's another." Basically, Wortham suggests that it's okay to ignore email mis-

fires as long as you're not ignoring something serious. Seems fair enough, right? I'm not sure I know one person who hasn't received the occasional email from that friend, coworker, or family member who has an email address off by one initial. I'd ignored mine until two days ago when my email alter-ego's mother wrote an email asking if he was all right. At that point, a quick and simple, "Hi, I believe you've got the wrong email. I hope everything's all right," should suffice. Your thoughts? How do you deal with email misfires (whether you did the firing or you just received the misfire)? Share your suggestions in the comments. Ethics of E-mail Misfires and Facebook Complications[NYT via Gizmodo]

Pentagon races to save air tanker contest (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:42:39 AM

The Pentagon was scrambling on Wednesday to save a multibillion dollar contest to replace the US Air Force’s ageing fleet of air refuelling tankers after Northrop Grumman and EADS in effect withdrew their joint bid.

Robert Gates, US defence secretary, told the US Senate armed services committee on Wednesday that he believed “both of the principal competitors are highly qualified and we would like to see competition continue in this process”. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Find Subtitles for Movies and Shows at AnySubs [Subtitles] By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:00:00 AM

Don't let a lack of subtitles detract from your enjoyment of a movie or television show. Visit AnySubs and grab a set of subtitles. The most obvious reason for using subtitles is understanding a movie or show filmed in a language you don't speak. Another great use is for understanding soft spoken dialogue without having to crank up the volumeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I discovered the

value of this while trying to watch LOST without the shifts from soft whispering to giant explosions waking up the entire house. Anysubs catalogs subtitles in

If you'd like to permanently embed subtitles into a movie you can use previously reviewed DivXLand Media Subtitler to so New York State Senate do and for more information about subtitles and applications Votes Down Gay you can use to work with Marriage [Gay subtitles, check out how to add Marriage] subtitles to any movie or By Pareene (Gawker) television show. Have a favorite subtitle search Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:12:45 PM multiple languages for popular engine or tool? Let's hear about it movies and television shows. i n t h e c o m m e n t s b e l o w . The good news: the New York You can use the service for free A n y S u b s [ v i a M a k e U s e O f ] State Senate had an actual up-and without registrationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which is -down floor vote on a only required for uploading controversial and important issue. subtitles, not downloading them. Bad news: they voted down Gay Marriage. So nice work, everyone. The Democrats have a one-seat majority, so, of course, the bill went down 38-24. Not a single Republican supported it. close the application to revert the Meanwhile, Washington DC's city council embarrassed all of us taskbar to its default state. AeroWorks is freeware and by overwhelmingly approving requires Windows Vista or gay marriage higher. Have a favorite tool for skinning Windows? Let's hear about it in the comments. AeroWorks[via Download Squad] system beyond changing the appears of the taskbar while the application is running. If you don't like the changes you can undo them within the program and try a new skin or simply

AeroWorks Reskins Your Windows 7 Taskbar Without Patching [Downloads] By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:00:00 PM

Windows: If you want to mess around with reskinning your Windows 7 or Vista taskbar without having to muck around with patches, AeroWorks is a nofuss method for skinning the taskbar without modification to your system. AeroWorks swaps out the taskbar background and special effects with those of the seven

included skins. You can combine your own images and special effects by clicking on the Choose Base and Choose FX buttons in the upper right hand corner. It doesn't patch or modify your

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Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009 By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:30:00 AM

2009 has seen a lot of Semantic Web and structured data activity. Much of it has been driven by Linked Data, a W3C project which gained momentum this year. According to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, Linked Data is a sea change akin to the invention of the WWW itself. We've gone from a Web of documents to a Web of data. The 10 products we've picked out for this end-of-year review are ones that have done interesting things with data. Connecting to other data, building new applications with data, sharing data, and more. These 10 products may not be the type of Semantic Web apps that the W3C envisaged in the 90s, but that no longer seems to matter. What's important is that the Web is becoming more meaningful - more semantic. Sponsor This is the third in our series of top products of 2009: • Top 10 Mobile Web Products of 2009 • Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2009 • Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009 Google Search Options and Rich Snippets In May, Google announced two significant additions to its search

product: Search Options and Rich Snippets. The two features notably extended Google's core search product and the 'rich snippets' part in particular was based around structured content. Rich snippets extract and show useful information from web pages. Google is using structured data open standards such as microformats and RDFa to power the rich snippets feature. It is inviting publishers to mark up their HTML (webmasters can find more details here). Feedly Feedly describes itself as "magazine-like startpage." When it launched in August 2008, we labeled it just "an alternative interface for Google Reader." However with the launch of Feedly Mini, a mini bar that hovers at the bottom of the screen as you surf through blogs on the web, the service has become a much more inclusive blog reading companion. Feedly Mini integrates Twitter, FriendFeed, Google Search, Mozilla's Ubiquity, and more. A number of our writers love this tool - Sarah Perez went so far as to call it "a must-have tool" for anyone who uses services like Twitter and FriendFeed. Apture Apture is a Javascript plug-in for publishers that adds contextual information to links, via pop-ups which display when users hover over or click on them. In our February review, we came away impressed by Apture due to

post. Open Calais 4.0 In January Thomson Reuters released their most significant update yet to the Calais web service and open API: Calais 4.0. Calais is a toolkit of products that enables publishers to incorporate semantic functionality within their properties - enabling them to categorize content as people, places, companies, facts, events, and more. Calais 4.0 went beyond the amount of multimedia that can be packed into such a little m e t a t a g g i n g a n d e n a b l e d p o p - u p . A l s o t h e e n d - u s e r publishers to integrate their experience is sophisticated - content with Linked Data assets readers on washingtonpost.com from Wikipedia, GeoNames, the and other sites that use Apture I n t e r n e t M o v i e D a t a b a s e can see rich, relevant, contextual (IMDB), Shopping.com and c o n t e n t f r o m t h e l i k e s o f others. Calais 4.0 also let Wikipedia, YouTube and Flickr publishers share semantic metadata about their content with without leaving the host site. "content consumers" such as Zemanta Zemanta is a real-time semantic s e a r c h e n g i n e s , n e w s analysis tool that plugs into your aggregators, related stories b l o g g i n g s o f t w a r e . A s w e recommendation services and explained in April, Zemanta more offers bloggers relevant links, Next page: Semantic Web apps 6 photos and other assets to include -10 BBC's Semantic Music in their blog posts. Zemanta's Project API is also being used by The BBC has long been a major startups. Over 2009, the company experimental force in the Web has continued to iterate and ecosystem, backed with large impress. For example in October dollops of British taxpayer Zemanta released a new engine funding and an equally large measure of British geek talent. and API. Zemanta is open source and The BBC Music Beta project standards-based. It works well caught our eye earlier this year. w i t h t h e r e s t o f t h e t e c h It's an ongoing effort by the BBC c o m m u n i t y a n d h a s s o m e to build semantically linked and interesting tools for supporting annotated web pages about artists who are played on BBC radio non-profit organizations. Note: We compared Zemanta to stations. Within these pages, Apture in an August analysis collections of data are enhanced

and interconnected with semantic metadata, letting music fans explore connections between artists that they may have not known existed. The backend of this BBC project comes from the Linked Data world - specifically MusicBrainz, an open content music "metadatabase" that lists information for over 400,000 artists. Glue Once just a browser add-on that allowed users to surf smarter across several verticals, AdaptiveBlue's Glue is now a site -centric product that acts as both a hub and a spoke of the social web. As we wrote in October, Glue's technology is based on a user's browsing across common sites such as Amazon, Wikipedia and YouTube. Those visits and any interactions (comments, "likes," etc.) feed back to Glue to automatically create a taste profile and a web of affinity with other users. The idea is to recommend items or content across categories including music, books and movies. Freebase Freebase is an open, semantically marked up database of information. It looks similar to Wikipedia, but Freebase is all about structured data and what you can do with it. Freebase has been one of the more hyped companies in the Semantic Web, TOP page 47

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How Facebook's New Privacy Changes Will Affect You By Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/2/2009 7:27:14 AM

In a late night post on Facebook's company blog, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a round of upcoming changes that will affect all users of the social network. Specifically, the changes focus on new privacy controls for information sharing. For those who have been following Facebook closely, the announcement doesn't deliver any new information, it only confirms some previously discussed plans. However, for Facebook's user base, now 350 million strong, the updates represent a major overhaul as to how privacy is handled on the site. Sponsor Change #1: No More Regional Networks Over the years, Facebook has grown from a tightly closed social network designed for connecting college students to an entirely open network which anyone and everyone can join. At first, Facebook's privacy model revolved around "networks" communities for your school, your region, or your company. "This worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students," Zuckerberg writes, "since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students." Over time, the company added more networks,

including some for entire countries. But now, thanks to Facebook's ever-growing popularity, these "regional" networks have grown so large that some have millions of members. The problem with networks of this size when it comes to privacy is that people who had opted in to sharing content with their network (via the setting share with my "networks and friends") were inadvertently be sharing personal updates with far more people than they intended to. To address this issue, Facebook demoted cities and regions from being considered networks although the information still exists in user profiles, listed under "Current City" and/or "Current Region." This update isn't exactly news the company revealed their plans to remove regional networks back in July of this year. Zuckerberg's mentioning of this update seems to be more of a confirmation that indeed, this process is underway, than any sort of major announcement about a new direction for Facebook. Change #2: Control Who Sees Each Piece of Individual Content You Add or Upload A second privacy update involves Facebook's plans to allow its users more control over individual pieces of content uploaded or added to the social network. This control will be implemented on a per-post basis

through a mechanism dubbed the "Publisher Privacy Control." Simply put, this change adds a new feature to the publisher box on Facebook - aka the status update box. From here, Facebook users post their status, upload photos and videos, and share links. At the moment, when you click the "Share" button, who sees that content is governed by settings tucked away under a cavalcade of menus (Settings -> Privacy Settings -> Profile -> Status and Links.) With the the upcoming Publisher Control functionality, already in beta testing, a new button featuring an image of lock will appear beneath the status update box. Click on this button and you'll be able to choose precisely who is allowed to see that update or other piece of content ("everyone," "friends," "friends of friends," etc.) Change #3: A Simplified Privacy Page Facebook's granular privacy controls have always been sort of a blessing and curse for the social network. Although savvy users could drill down into each individual setting and adjust it to their needs, the majority of the site's users don't even know where these settings are, much less how to change them or to what. The problem, as noted

above, is that many of the privacy settings are buried in a series of complex menus. Even if you can find the Privacy Page, the drop-down boxes and their lists of choices stump average users who aren't sure what a setting like "my networks and friends" really means. To make privacy simpler, Facebook's controls will be changed to permit sharing with three groups: "only friends," "friends of friends," or "everyone." In addition, the Privacy Page itself will be simplified to combine some settings which currently overlap. This, too, was announced in July. Although neither post details specifically what settings will be combined, a quick glance at the Privacy Page allows for some speculation. Perhaps the "basic info" and "personal info" boxes will become one? There really isn't that much distinction between the two, despite what their names imply. For example, "basic" information includes what many consider "personal" information such as birthday, hometown, and religious views. Meanwhile, the so-called "personal" information setting controls more innocuous content like favorite books and movie. The "Photos Tagged of You" and the "Videos Tagged of You" settings also seem like worthy contenders for combination. It seems that you're either okay with people seeing content you've been tagged in by others

or you're not. Whether that's a photo or video doesn't really matter to most. However, these are just guesses, mind you - until the update goes live, there's no way to tell what will and will not be changed. How the Transition Will Occur Although not mentioned by name in Zuckerberg's blog post, the July post mentioned a new "Transition Tool" that would be rolled out to users to aid them in configuring the new settings. This is likely what Zuckerberg was referring to when he noted that "we'll suggest settings for you..." With the Transition Tool, users are prompted to pick from different privacy level options like "open," "recommended," or "limited." According to the recent post, the recommended settings will be based on your current level of privacy but you'll be able to read through the other options to make changes if you so desire. Beginning with a small group of users, Facebook has been testing six different versions of this tool to determine what works best. Based on feedback from the group, the testing tool will be refined to a final version before all the changes are made available to the entire network. However, since the recent post made no mention of a timeline for these changes, the implication is that these new updates are not going live just yet. Instead, the HOW page 46

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MOG $5 Service Launches: Spotify Is Going Down By Dana Oshiro (ReadWriteWeb)

that. Now you're taking a more active role. Do you want to comment on that? Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:00:00 AM There's two types of bloggers on MOG's $5 all-you-can-eat our network, there are those that streaming music subscription use MOG.com as a platform and service has finally launched. take advantage of our tools and Although we interviewed CEO there are the 3rd party bloggers David Hyman in mid October, (1,000 top music bloggers) that the music industry has changed are on our network but use their considerably in the last two own tools. Platform bloggers will months. Imeem sold to MySpace see music playlists seamlessly for a song, and competitor integrate through the MOG Spotify is rumored to be delaying service - you'll notice that a United States launch as it whenever you go to review a refuses to enter North America song, it's already pre-embedded with a paid-only version. We in the post. Whereas 3rd party spoke to MOG CEO David bloggers will get the VIP service Hyman to find out his thoughts for free and be able to use on the industry and why his embedding tools to become part service is different from his of our affiliate program. competitors. You've got some great discovery Sponsor tools. Between all your discovery How has Spotify's delay and features and a mobile app that Imeem's acquisition affected your caches playlists on the horizon, service? why would anyone want to buy a We've just been watching from track through your site? Are the sidelines waiting for the stars downloads really necessary to align to launch a service that's anymore? sustainable. Anyone in ad- Well, it's important to download supported music has had a hard a song if you're listening on a time, including free radio. The device that can't sync. But freemium services have to offer honestly, we're betting that their subscriptions at at least $15 consumption in the cloud is the per month to offset the cost of future. One problem subscription their free service. We're the first music services have faced is lack personal radio service where you of portability. Today, with the can play radio, jump to an album power of smart phones, playlist on demand and offer it all online caching and 3G there's a lot more without client installation. you can do. In the past MOG allowed Your mobile app is supposed to bloggers to link to music through offer offline caching of playlists. the blogging network, and you When will that appear on the weren't really responsible for scene?

You'll see that in the first three months of 2010. While you've remarked that freemium models are not sustainable, a few of your competitors have scratched their heads on how you'd make a $5per-month service sustainable with this mobile component. Can you comment? Our mobile service will be at a slightly higher rate - under $15 but more than $5. I wish I could charge $5 for everything but the labels charge me more than that. We noticed you're featuring video content on the blogs. Spotify's Daniel Ek once suggested that streaming media services can stream anything, including video. Have you got any plans to incorporate video into the service? You'll likely see some video content featured next year, but the amount of video we have compared to music files in tiny. We've only got about 1 or 2 videos per album and that's for the really popular artists. And finally, what are your favorite features in the site?

I'm lazy. I just like that I can type anything I want to listen to into the search bar and stream radio. I like to listen to Miles Davis radio or Tom Waits radio and I don't even move the discovery slider over. Click through for a complete list of MOG All Access features and more screenshots MOG All Access Features While MOG offers your basic web service with a pop-out player and the ability to save to your streaming library or playlists, it also offers a number of unique features: Discovery Bar: Users move a s l i d e r a c r o s s a discovery/recommendation bar to listen to similar artists. The top of the slider offers music from just your searched artist, and the other end of the spectrum offers all new recommendations. Voting and Radio: Users can also vote music up and down in a Pandora-like fashion and listen to music in "radio"-mode (continuous play), or simply listen to their playlists. Reviews: Users can also search for lyrics and info through the player, and MOG will push them back to the MOG blog network. From here you can rate songs with the song pre-linked in your posts, and add your favorite concert memory, videos and images. Review pages also show the top listeners of a particular artist ,and like other music fan services, you can scroll through artist bios, news, photos, songs,

albums and reviews. Users can also play music through the blogging network if they choose to discover music via the reviews. Playlists: Users can add any searchable track to their personal library or to a custom playlist. You can also search for an artist and add entire albums or artist collections as one big playlist. In addition to being able to listen to your own playlists, you can also listen to featured community playlists and playlists created by artists. For instance, if you're in the mood for an artist-curated experience, TV on the Radio gives you a "Radio on the Internet" playlist while DJ Shadow offers his "Hyphy" mix. You can also share your own playlist with others by making it public. Users upload a photo that represents their mix, and add tracks either through the website or via the player. Social: Similar to Facebook, user activity is shown in a feed and friends can watch each other depending on user privacy settings. You can also track your favorite MOG-users and music bloggers. In the past you could see when your favorite blogger was posting, but now you can also build playlists around that post. Users can also push their playlist choices and blog entries out to Facebook and Twitter. To check out the service for yourself register for it at MOG page 46

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Google Rolls Out New Format for Image Results By Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb)

search, and the other specialized engines linked from the top of Google's homepage. With Submitted at 12/2/2009 5:55:44 AM universal search, you only have According to an announcement to refer to one set search results on the Official Google Blog, the page to see all the relevant search engine giant is rolling out information on a particular topic. a new format for their universal The page serves as the jumping image results. Set to go live over off point for whatever knowledge the next 24 hours, the updated you're after - whether that's a format will now feature one photo, a video, the latest news, or larger image alongside multiple j u s t g o o d o l ' f a s h i o n e d smaller images. Because of this i n f o r m a t i o n . new layout, you'll be able to see The updated image search "more pictures than before," results represent a minor change writes Google Software Engineer to Google's interface and one that Alex Petcherski in the blog post. many mainstream users may not Sponsor have even noticed. But every The New Image Results little tweak that Google makes is To be clear, this update is for only done after extensive testing. universal image results only - not In this case, the update allows for Google Image search itself. one more image to appear in the "Universal" results refer to the universal image results box. One search results you receive when image may not seem like a major doing a traditional search on improvement, but it could mean www.google.com. Introduced the difference between a user back in 2007, the term refers to clicking through to see more or the combined search results from abandoning their Google Search multiple verticals, including altogether. (You would be image search, news, video surprised how quickly some

announcement of their own - for example, how they were planning on adding Twitter to their results, too. And when Bing announced u s e r s g i v e u p o n a n o n - Visual Search, Google posted to p r o d u c t i v e s e a r c h . F o r g e t their blog about a Google refining queries, they just go Experiment called "Fast Flip" elsewhere or stop their search which lets you visually peruse entirely!). G o o g l e print articles online. Announcement's Timing Aimed There's no doubt that the timing of this latest, albeit minor, news to Deflate Interest in Bing It's also notable that Google is a b o u t I m a g e S e a r c h announcing this change around improvements has to do at least the same time as Microsoft plans partially with the upcoming Bing to make another announcement announcement. Clearly, we have regarding updated features for entered a new era of "search Bing, the company's new search wars." As angel investor Ron engine. Since its launch earlier Conway noted earlier this fall at this year, the Bing Search Team the TC50 conference, this time at Microsoft has been busy war is a good thing: "I think the rolling out updates that have h u g e w i n n e r h e r e w i l l b e included things like a revamped consumers because competition mobile search, improvements to breeds innovation, and this nice maps, integration with math little battle between Google and engine Wolfram Alpha, Twitter M i c r o s o f t i s f a n t a s t i c f o r integration, and a new visual c o n s u m e r s . " search interface. As most of these Disclosure: Sarah Perez also announcements were made, f r e e l a n c e s f o r M i c r o s o f t ' s G o o g l e w o u l d m a k e a n Channel 10. She is not a Microsoft employee. Discuss

MOG continued from page 45

mog.com. Discuss

HTV: Tiger Woods' Alleged Mistress Caught in Pap Frenzy (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:10:00 AM

HTV is on the scene as the alleged mistress of Tiger Woods is spotted arriving at Gloria Allred's Law Office in Los Angeles. Rachel Uchitel-- who calls her rumored affair with the sports star "ridiculous" -- pushes through the pap frenzy as she makes her way into the building. Later, she's spotted leaving Spago. Watch the video to see how her attorney distracts the photogs -- with cookies!

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post was merely setting the stage for what's to come. Why Facebook Cares About Privacy It's good to see Facebook taking the issue of privacy seriously. Although it's easy to blame the user for over-sharing and then having to deal with harsh consequences like job loss or even, remarkably, the loss of

health-care benefits by sharing some items too publicly, at the end of the day, affected users will not blame themselves, they will blame Facebook. And those reading these "social network horror stories" in the media could ultimately become too afraid to post to the site, leading to a less active user base, or worse - users

deleting their accounts. Privacy issues are bad news for Facebook, just as they were bad news for MySpace back when they were king. For years, there were so many news stories about sexual predators on MySpace that eventually the public perception of MySpace was that the network wasn't very safe. Instead of going

that route and allowing the media stories about Facebook blunders to control the network's public image, these privacy changes are designed to preempt the missteps and mistakes the not-so-savvy user base may make by making Facebook privacy simpler and more refined while also more representative of the large

network Facebook has become. Discuss

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TOP continued from page 43

leading to some skepticism that the product is too much like Wikipedia and offers nothing much new. Our verdict at the end of 2008 was that Freebase was still lots of work to do, in terms of usability and useful data. However over 2009 Freebase has continued to build out its ambitious vision. It recently announced the publication of its 10 millionth topic, up from 4 million a year ago. While it's obviously still working on its user experience for the consumer audience, Freebase continues to get the respect of Semantic Web and Linked Data aficionados. DBpedia DBpedia is not a commercial product, but it's one of the largest sources of Linked Data on the Web - so we think it deserves to be recognized in our top 10. Essentially, DBpedia extracts structured information from Wikipedia and makes that data available on the Web. At the present time, DBpedia has

more than 2.9 million "things" including at least 282,000 persons, 339,000 places, 88,000 music albums, 44,000 films, 15,000 video games, 119,000 organizations, 130,000 species and 4400 diseases. Data.gov The trend towards opening up government data has been a significant one during 2009. The inventor of the Web, Tim Berners -Lee, is currently helping the British government to do thisusing Linked Data. It's a subject he's very passionate about, as we discovered when we interviewed him in June. The Obama administration has had a mixed record so far in terms of opening up government data, however the launch of Data.gov in May was a positive step in 2009. It was announced by the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the United States, Vivek Kundra, and it aims to "increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets

generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government." Although we found Data.gov to be too limited an offering, it's a start. Those are our picks for the top Semantic Web (or structured data) products of 2009. Let us know in the comments if you disagree with our choices, or think we missed something important. ReadWriteWeb's Best Of Lists for 2009: • Top 10 Mobile Web Products of 2009 • Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2009 • Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2009

(Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:23:40 AM

The number of European companies defaulting on their debts is set to continue to run at more than twice the historic average rate until 2011, with up to 75 companies with junk credit

New York Times Launches Times Skimmer: A New Way to Read the Paper Online By Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:54:18 AM

The New York Times just launched a new way to read the paper's stories online. With Times Skimmer, which first launched as a prototype application earlier this year, the New York Times is trying to bring the feeling and serendipity of reading the physical newspaper to its online presence. Users can choose from seven different layouts. Most of these are based on a grid-based design, Discuss though some also mimic the feel of an RSS reader with stories organized in chronological order, or ranked according to the the recommendations of the New York Times' editorial team. Sponsor Besides the different layout options, the New York Times made some major changes to the ratings at risk of default. They are forecasting the default prototype we looked at in Standard & Poor’s said on rate to be between 8.7 to 11.1 per February. The navigation menu Wednesday that while the annual cent next year, with 55 to 75 has moved to the right, for default rate is likely to have western European companies example, and clicking on a peaked at 13.1 per cent in the with sub-investment grade credit headline now opens the article in third quarter of 2009, the slow ratings at risk of default in 2010. a pop-up window that is nicely pace of economic recovery is This content has passed through integrated with the rest of the application. likely to be insufficient to save fivefilters.org. The app feels somewhat similar many highly leveraged and to the paid Times Reader poorly performing companies.

European corporate defaults to stay high

application - especially if you use an application like Fluid or Prism to pack it into a standalone app. One nice feature of the app is that it smartly rearranges stories according to the size of the browser window. Times Skimmer also features keyboard shortcuts. Times Skimmer features a separate section for blogs, as well as a section for collections of articles about special topics, e.g. swine flu, credit crisis and bacon. According to Denise Warren, senior vice president and chief advertising officer at the New York Times Media Group and general manager of NYTimes.com, Times Skimmer is meant to give "online readers another way to view the latest news and updates in a choice of formats that best suit their preferences." Disclosure: ReadWriteWeb has an existing syndication arrangement with The New York Times. Discuss

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Bing Maps Beta Launches with Twitter Integration and Better Streetview By Dana Oshiro (ReadWriteWeb)

gallery. Some of the maps featured by the company include: 1. Twitter: Users can get realSubmitted at 12/2/2009 12:11:00 PM time event updates and tweets At Microsoft's San Francisco from the originating location. 2. campus this morning, a room full Local Lens: Microsoft indexes of tech journalists were treated to local blogs to form hyperlocal their first glimpse of Bing Maps routes and event feeds. Says the Beta. When Microsoft talked company, "It's an entirely new about it's efforts towards internationally available. w a y t o c o n s u m e l o c a l geospatial projects, many were Photosynths Microsoft has crowdsourced information skeptical but it looks like the already begun incorporating something 72% of customers do search giant has delivered. Photosynths or user generated routinely on the web." 3. What's Sponsor d a t a o n t o i t s m a p s . T h e s e Nearby: If you already know Bing Maps is built on Silverlight Photosynths can be viewed from where your meeting is, Bing and offers 3 different viewing the Streetside perspective and Maps offers users a chance to dimensions. The most interesting, offer users a chance to drill down search nearby restaurants and the 3D Streetside (street view), for more information on a services. The company combines offers seamless stitched imagery particular point of interest. There public data from sites like Yelp for 100 major cities at this time. are already multiple points within and Citysearch and allows users As for bird's eye view, the N e w Y o r k ' s M e t r o p o l i t a n to gain rich data for their location mapping service has data on Museum of Art. App Gallery -based searches. Discuss about 95% of the US. And Microsoft has already seeded the finally, the aerial perspective is beginnings of its map app

US may revise Afghan withdrawal date (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:03:07 AM

The US has said that it may rethink its plan to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by July 2011 if conditions on the ground prevent

a security handover to the Afghan government. Pressed on Wednesday by Republicans sceptical about fixing a timeline for withdrawal, Robert Gates, defence secretary, said that the strategy unveiled by President Barack Obama on Tuesday was narrower than past

US objectives for Afghanistan and achievable within the timespan the president had set out. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Digg's New Read/Write API Launches Today: Will Make Content Sharing Easier By Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:20:48 AM

Later today, Digg will open up its rumored read/write API. Up until now, developers could only read data from Digg. With the new API, web and desktop apps will also be able to contribute data to Digg. This will allow developers to write desktop and web applications that enable users to, for example, interact with Digg without having to go to the site. Digg will use the OAuth protocol to authorize applications. According to Forbes' Taylor Buley, however, the writable API will not allow users to submit stories remotely. Sponsor Buley spoke to Digg's lead API developer Jeff Hodson, who acknowledged that there are still a few obstacles that stand in the way of remote submissions. The two main roadblocks are duplicate detection and captchas. Digg currently makes users jump through a few hoops before they can submit a story. This ensures that the submission pipeline on Digg remains relatively free of duplicate entries and spam. Implementing these safety measures in the API will be

difficult. Competing with the Real-Time Web As our own Sarah Perez pointed out earlier this year, a full read/write API would allow Digg to compete with the real-time Web. To do this, Digg doesn't really need to enable users to submit stories remotely. What Digg really needs is a way to get more users to vote for stories more often. Currently, it can take hours - and sometimes days - before a story appears on Digg, while services like Tweetmeme can pick up trends and breaking news stories on Twitter within minutes. To pick up speed, Digg needs to get its voting mechanism into more places - and the new API would allow the company to do just that. Discuss

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Fiat’s 500C the Makings of an Apple iCar By Charles Moore (TheAppleBlog)

him much longer than that to come up with the G.M. iCar.” Fiat Chrysler a More Logical Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:30:10 AM iCar Partner Back in 2007, the Mac web Steve Jobs of course has had rumor mill was abuzz for a while other challenges to contend with about a reported September over the past year, but the ideal meeting in California between of an Apple iCar still tantalizes Steve Jobs and Volkswagen CEO some of us crossover auto-buff W i n t e r k o r n o v e r p o s s i b l y Mac and gadget fans. I think a integrating the iPod, iPhone, and rather more promising candidate other Apple products into an for an Apple automotive venture automobile — with blogosphere joint partner would be Chrysler, speculation about possibly even rather than GM or VW. an Apple/VW joint venture Why? Well for one thing, “iCar” project. Chrysler is now controlled by However, by late November, the Italy’s Fiat S.p.A., currently in G e r m a n s i t e C a p i t a l w a s the hunt to re-enter the U.S. reporting ( Google translation) automobile market after a nearly that Apple/VW discussions, two-decade absence, building the a l t h o u g h c o n f i r m e d b y brand from the ground up, as it Volkswagen, had ground to a were, and the CEO of both halt. Steve Jobs as Auto Exec.? companies, Sergio Marchionne, Fast-forward two years. It’s an is reportedly a big fan of the understatement to say that the Apple business model. automobile industry has been Last June, TIME magazine noted turned on its head by the global that, “Since he took over as chief recession. Apple, however, is executive of Italy’s Fiat in 2004, doing considerably better, which the chain-smoking Canadianhas led to speculation as to what Italian has used Apple as a Steve Jobs would do were he model, focusing on the way running an auto-making firm — Steve Jobs transformed it from an say beleaguered General Motors. also-ran computer company into Last fall the New York Times’ a g l o b a l i c o n o f c o o l . H e T h o m a s F r i e d m a n m u s e d , encourages Fiat managers to take “Somebody ought to call Steve a close look at Apple’s branding Jobs, who doesn’t need to be prowess and even asks them to bribed to do innovation, and ask benchmark their activities against him if he’d like to do national the company.” service and run a car company The TIME piece also cited Carlo for a year. I’d bet it wouldn’t take Alberto Carnevale, professor of

strategic management at Milan’s Bocconi University’s business school, observing, “The challenge for Fiat Chrysler is to move away from popular products and into ‘pop’ products, full of cool environmental technology and on the right side of history. In that sense, it’s the same bet as Steve Jobs’. That’s why Marchionne uses that metaphor.” Why Not an iCar Version Too? But what if it became more than a metaphor? I say this because the iconic Fiat 500C (“Cinquecento”), which has been a rip-roaring sales hit in Europe and elsewhere (currently sold in 59 markets), is expected to anchor the brand’s re-entry into the North American car market, with Road & Track magazine

reporting that at least four Fiat 500 versions will be gracing showrooms here for the 2011 model year, including hatchback, convertible, wagon, and sportyhatch versions. Why not a fifth, “iCar” version? The Fiat 500 seems to me an ideal base for an iCar treatment. Unveiled at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, the new Fiat 500C version is like the VW New Beetle, the BMW Mini, and arguably even the Ford Mustang, a retro-interpretation of an automotive icon from the ’50s or ’60s, in this instance the original 1957 fabric roof Fiat 500, but with thoroughly modern mechanicals and engineering under the classic-appearing skin. Fiat notes that the new Cinquecento was developed by

the Centro Stile Fiat design center using an IT industry-esque “open-source approach,” continually evolving on the basis of input from users and enthusiasts. Environmentally Friendly and Uber-Cool The Fiat 500, available with a variety of what the company says are “environmentally friendly engines,” has reconfirmed its status as an Italian style icon, winning more than 30 awards, and with upwards of 11 million internet users visiting its website. Fiat affirms that is sees the Cinquecento to be a “platform upon which Fiat Automobiles is building a whole family of cars with advanced technology and high attention to detail.” It’s not at all an extravagant stretch to imagine that an iCar version of the Fiat 500C could quite harmoniously be included in that vision. A Cinquecento-based, Apple cobranded iCar would have both the timely characteristics of small size and light environmental footprint, which, combined with the uber-cool Apple “i-factor” that could at least conceivably make it the iPhone/iPod/iMac of the automobile world. Perhaps I’m wildly fantasizing, but it sounds like a workable plan to me.

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True Visual Voicemail: PhoneTag, Google Voice and AT&T’s New Voicemail to Text Service By Dave Greenbaum (TheAppleBlog)

maker of well-known transcription software Dragon Naturally Speaking, provides the Submitted at 12/2/2009 8:47:24 AM transcription services. Because In case you didn’t realize it, Nuance is a well-known provider listening to voicemail is a of voice to text services, I suspect Visual Voicemail. service. If you can get an invite, colossal waste of time. Humans it will be much better than PhoneTag costs $30 a month the entire service is free and it read much faster than they can Google Voice’s option. While I (free 1 week trial and other also provides transcription of listen, so AT&T’s entry into the haven’t tried the service, AT&T pricing plans available) for v o i c e m a i l s . Similar to Voicemail to Text field is claims you can still use your unlimited transcriptions and you PhoneTag, you’ll need to forward welcome, but it’s a bit late to the existing voicemail system and can forward any number of your busy or no answer calls to party. Other services have been similar to PhoneTag and phones to their service for Google’s phone number. quietly providing this for years; GoogleVoice, makes it easy to t r a n s c r i p t i o n a n d t h e The transcriptions Google Voice some less expensive and some archive old messages. Obviously, transcriptions go to any number provides border on the ridiculous more expensive. PhoneTag the service will only work with of phones you specify. For and I found the service too Personally, I’ve been a your AT&T phone. example, I have multiple phone unreliable for serious business PhoneTag(formerly Simulscribe) I’ll stick with PhoneTag due to numbers for my business and use. Forwarding the messages to subscriber since June 2007 and the quality of its transcriptions they all forward to that same multiple phones was difficult and love the service. PhoneTag and the flexbility of working with unified voicemail. When I’m out archiving the messages to my replaces your carrier’s voicemail multiple phone systems. AT&T’s o f t o w n o r o t h e r w i s e computer required manual service with its own. PhoneTag service is an attractive option for inaccessible, the transcriptions go download of each message. will text and/or email you a those that don’t need all of to one of my technicians. Best of PhoneTag was simply a more transcription of your phone PhoneTag’s features. all, since the voicemails come in elegant and scalable solution messages along with optionally Now iPhone customers have as attachments, I can save every when compared to Google Voice. attaching an electronic copy of three options in three different voicemail I’ve ever received right However being free, Google the voicemail in a variety of price ranges to avoid listening to to my computer for daily backup. Voice makes a great way to find formats. voicemail messages and get The transcriptions are nearly out if a voicemail to text service iPhone users who use PhoneTag “true” visual voicemail; flawless, especially if you upload is right for you. AT&T’s New will lose the ability to use voicemails they can read and see your contacts to the system so Service AT&T’s Visual Voicemail, since without putting their phone up to you can help it recognize proper AT&T’s new service costs $9.99 PhoneTag supersedes the built-in their ear. names. Google Voice per month — priced squarely in voicemail. Because I can read all Why are you still actually On the other end of the spectrum the middle between PhoneTag my voicemails via email and text, listening to your voicemails? is Google’s free Google Voice and Google Voice. Nuance, I don’t really mind not having

NHL FanHouse Live Chat: Suspensions, The Legend of Corey Perry By Adam Gretz (FanHouse) Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:20:00 PM

by Adam Gretz Filed under: NHL Fans, NHL Live Blogging It's that time again, and this week in our NHL FanHouse live chat we'll be talking about the suspension of Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin, the under-the-radar point streak (now up to 19 consecutive games) that Anaheim's Corey Perry is riding and anything else you want to talk about in the world of hockey. Please stop by and join us, starting at 2 PM ET. NHL FanHouse Live Chat: Suspensions, The Legend of Corey Perry originally appeared on Fanhouse NHL Blog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

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Ravensword: Why Birds and Blades Don’t Mix By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 12/1/2009 3:00:04 PM

Chillingo’s Ravensword ($6.99, iTunes link) is being touted as a Morrowind-type experience for the iPhone. That’s a lot to live up to. A full-fledged action RPG on my diminutive Apple portable seems like a dream come true, if it can actually hold a candle to its console counterparts. That’s a big if. The iPhone faces control issues and what seems like a natural reticence towards developing lengthy, in-depth game experiences on the iPhone. I say natural because most users still game only casually on the device, since that’s what a phone lends itself to. So does Ravensword manage to pull off an in-depth action RPG gaming experience? Read on to find out. Graphics and Audio At least superficially, Ravensword looks like the console and PC games from which it so clearly takes its inspiration. By default, you operate your character from a third-person perspective, and you can switch to first-person. That’s a standard borrowed from the Morrowind series, among others. It’s a little jarring to see some of the visual effects the game has in

forest creatures. Otherwise, you just hit the attack button like it’s going out of style. Also, you die a lot early on, since the game design is unbalanced. Plot It’s a bad sign when the first thing I have to say about a game’s plot design is to question whether or not it actually has one. To be fair, there is a story lurking somewhere in the background, about a kingdom in denial and a king who’s been missing for three years. Presumably, you’re meant to find out exactly what’s up with all of that nonsense at some point, but after spending quite a bit of time killing rats and warthogs, I just wasn’t convinced that finding out would be worth it. Verdict I was perhaps too excited to pick up Ravensword, since it seemed to have a lot of promise as an store. For example, everyone’s If you’ve ever played any kind get experience, or you die and action RPG for the iPhone, but eyes are plastered open all the o f R P G b e f o r e , t h e g a m e wake up in town. If you kill even if you aren’t expecting time, and look painted on and mechanics of Ravensword will be enough critters, you gain a level, much, I’d definitely take a pass terrifying. Every time your familiar to you. Basically, you and your stats are increased by a on this offering from Chillingo. character wakes up after having run around killing monsters and pre-determined amount. No level Dungeon Hunter is a much better fallen in battle, I have to suppress get experience for doing so. In customization, no skill selection, experience, and if you’re looking a little scream. most cases, the RPG mechanics nothing. To make matters worse, for a Morrowind clone, I’d Ravensword’s soundtrack and are a little more structured and y o u d o n ’ t c h o o s e a suggest just waiting a few e f f e c t s s o u n d a l i t t l e p r e - complex than that. In most cases. class/race/gender etc., so you’re months since I’m sure Gameloft packaged and stock, but they In Ravensword they are not. stuck as a human warrior whether will get to copying it, too, in due don’t really hurt the experience, As soon as you venture out you like it or not. course. and you can always flick the beyond the city walls, bad guys Nor is combat challenging. The silent switch is the soundtrack appear, and you hit them with most you can do is switch becomes too repetitive, as it did whatever you happen to be between your bow and your for me. Gameplay wielding, then they die and you sword when killing animals and

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Rejected App Gets Special Approval From Steve Jobs Himself By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 12/1/2009 12:34:10 PM

If there’s one thing you can count on about Apple’s App Store review policy, it’s that the process will be consistently inconsistent. Today, an app launches that was originally rejected for known and acknowledged use of private APIs, despite the fact that developers haven’t modified the app in any way since its rejection. Knocking Live Video, the app in question, makes use of Apple’s forbidden private APIs to enable live video streaming over Wi-Fi and 3G for the first time on the platform. Apple has made clear its policy on the use of private APIs, most recently via the introduction of an automated layer of the review process for app submissions that automatically checks all code for the presence of unauthorized API usage. Knocking’s usage of live streaming video is very

emails personally on occasion, so it was at least worth a shot. Meehan’s plea was not about self -interest, but instead focused on appealing to Jobs as a lifelong Apple user who wanted to create a better experience for other members of the community. The Monday following Meehan’s email, which was sent on a Saturday night in late November, he was contacted by an unnamed Apple executive who informed him that the app’s rejection had been reversed, and particular, as Ars Technica notification. Once answered, you that the decision to allow it into explains, something which may can then stream live video the App Store had come “directly have had something to do with it directly to them. An iPhone 3GS from the top.” It is now available being approved while other apps or iPhone 3G is required to for free in the App Store. like Qik haven’t been able to transmit video, but other iPhones Hopefully this means that Apple break down the streaming wall: and iPod touches can receive and is at least considering expanding Knocking Live Video uses an view the stream via WiFi. the pool of publicly available interesting take on streaming The app was initially rejected A P I s . A c c e s s t o t h e l i v e video. Unlike Qik, which is a b o u t a m o n t h a g o f o r streaming video API would allow designed to stream video to unauthorized use of the private a lot of applications that have multiple clients, Knocking APIs, but Knocking development been shelved to see the light of streams from one iPhone to Brian Meehan decided not to just day. It proves one thing at least: another. (…) You simply launch take the refusal lying down. Apple is listening to the iPhone the app and “knock” another Instead, he went straight to the development community, even iPhone user with Knocking Live top, contacting Steve Jobs though it may not always appear Video installed. That user will directly via email. Jobs has been that way. receive the “knock” via push known to actually respond to

Street Chic: New York By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/2/2009 4:00:00 AM

A structured jacket and bandage

skirt make a posh statement. (Aldo shoes, Topshop tights, H&M skirt, and Betsey Johnson coat) Photo: Jonathan Alpeyrie

Think you are Street Chic? E-

mail us your photo and you could appear in ELLE.com's Street Chic Daily. Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

Cobra Command now on iPhone, and you could win a copy! By Justin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:00:00 PM

For those of you who haven't already tired of our slavish devotion to lesser-known FMV shooters, we have some great news: The helicopter action of Cobra Command has finally made its way to the App Store. Now you could just buy it for $4.99 and be a better person for owning this odd little anomaly of a game, but since you're special and dear to us we'd like to just give it to you for free. We've already given five away to our beloved Facebook fans (just one example of why you should already be our fan), but head over and join up right now and there should be a fresh batch of codes waiting just for you. Cobra Command now on iPhone, and you could win a copy! originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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TV, YouTube and iTunes: Change in Get Chrome for OS X the Wind Early With Chromium Nightlies By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog)

Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:24:27 AM

Would you buy a show on iTunes that you could stream at any time to YouTube? The way that most people answer that question could be crucial to the fortunes of both Apple and Google in the coming months. Google is apparently following up on its plan to offer streamed movie releases for rent with another to do essentially the same thing for current television shows. As Ryan at NewTeeVee reports, Google is in the process of convincing the TV industry to allow it to stream the kind of new, copyright-protected content that now gets pulled down for a reasonable fee, say multiple sources close to the issue. Streaming vs. Downloading The idea would be to do what iTunes already does, which is offer commercial-free first-run TV shows to users for the price of around $1.99 per episode, on or around the first day of their airing. The difference, of course, would be that unlike Amazon and

Apple’s download-and-watch services, YouTube would be sticking to its existing streaming video formula, so users couldn’t keep the files on their computers for later viewing. There’s no official word on whether or not users would be able to go back and stream shows after the initial viewing, but I doubt TV content providers would agree to such terms. YouTube execs think that isn’t necessarily a game-ender, but they acknowledge that it is a problem: Executives at YouTube and TV insist that the disparity is simply a perception problem and cite studies showing that most people who download TV episodes only watch them once, anyway. But that’s a tough sell. I know I’d rather have something I can store and potentially rewatch, even if I never actually do. A lifetime

subscription arrangement might make me more comfortable, but the opportunities for misuse on the consumer side are too great for the television industry to take that risk. YouTube Mobile Support The key factor in whether or not YouTube’s TV efforts will be successful, though, lies not with the way it delivers the content, but the places it delivers said content to. YouTube is accessible on any number of platforms and devices, including computers, Blu-Ray players, video game consoles, televisions, and cell phones. If mobile content usage trends are any indication, the last delivery route will be the most significant going forward. If YouTube TV rentals extend to YouTube’s mobile apps on Android and iPhone devices, I foresee users more than willing to accept the trade-off of not having any downloaded content in exchange for quick and easy instant accessibility anywhere they have a data connection.

By Jon Buys (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 12/1/2009 1:00:57 PM

Google’s Chrome browser is fast, small, and “nearly” perfect. Using the same Webkit rendering engine as Safari, and its own custom V8 javascript engine, Chrome has been blowing away the competition on Windows for over a year. Google is finally nearing a release for the Mac, but since the browser is open source, you can get almost everything from Chrome in the Chromium Nightlies. These builds are separate from the official Google Chrome developers preview, they are in-development versions of Chrome, and are updated almost every night. I’ve been using the Chromium builds off and on for months, and have recently switched back to it as my primary browser. Chromium reminds me of when Firefox first spun off of Mozilla. It was then, as Chromium is now, small, bare-bones, devoid of feature bloat, and fast.

Unfortunately. the Nightlies are not the easiest thing in the world to find, and Chromium doesn’t update itself when a new build is available. So, I used a little Automator and shell script action to build this tiny app that will download the latest version of Chromium to your Downloads folder. If you’ve got Growl installed it will also send Growl an alert that it is finished, but that’s it. That’s all it does, very simple, nothing fancy. You can download the “ChromeUp” Automator application here(45kb, ZIP).

Web giants oppose copyright amendments (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/2/2009 8:50:56 AM

Four of the world’s largest internet companies have urged Lord Mandelson to drop plans to allow ministers to change UK

the business secretary expressing their “grave concerns” at the clause in the Digital Economy bill, which has its second reading

in parliament on Wednesday. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Rumor Has It: iTunes LP Authoring and Submission Coming to iDVD

NFL On FOX National Game Is Television’s No. 1 Show; On Pace For Most-Watched Season In History

By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog)

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

cite any specific examples. The Report itself has a fairly good track record regarding AppleSubmitted at 12/2/2009 8:32:11 AM related rumors, and this one in When Apple revealed its particular isn’t that far-fetched or documents and templates hard to believe. detailing the process of creating There’s still no word on a time iTunes LP and Extras for small line for the release of iLife ‘10, studios and indie artists to take but if past practice is any advantage of, it also noted that indication, pricing for an upgrade for the time being, submission for existing ‘09 users will be would be manual, but that somewhere around the $79 mark automated electronic submission f o r A p p l e ’ s s t a n d b y D V D — which is not a very high was on its way. A new report a u t h o r i n g p r o g r a m : barrier of entry for access to suggests the vehicle of delivery We’ve been informed that Apple iTunes LP authoring and creation for that submission could be none plans to completely redo their tools, meaning that anyone who other than Apple’s own iDVD iDVD application (in addition to can get their music in the iTunes media authoring program, part of others in iLife 2010), and besides Store should be able to create the iLife suite. iDVD not being refreshed in a enhanced content. It’s a win-win, The new ability would be part of pretty long time, one of the since Apple gets to flesh out its a major update to the program, r e a s o n s a p p e a r s t o b e t h e enhanced content library, and which in turn would be one of a inclusion of iTunes LP creation. artists get to expand their oeuvre series of updates planned across This will allow artists (indie and and provide more incentive to the iLife catalog for the 2010 major) to create a custom iTunes paying customers. version of the software bundle. LP and submit it directly to No word yet on whether iTunes iDVD hasn’t had a significant A p p l e r i g h t f r o m t h e n e w Extras authoring and submission refresh in quite a while, and application that will be a part of w i l l a l s o b e i n c l u d e d . honestly, even the title of the iLife 2010. Considering that iDVD was a p p l i c a t i o n s h o w s i t s a g e . BGR goes on to say that the designed at least partially with Perhaps a rename will be in order rumor, while unconfirmed, home movie DVD enhancement as it transitions to a means of comes from an industry source in mind, I’d say there’s a very digital publication. that has been fairly reliable in strong possibility we’ll see Extras Boy Genius Report is the source past instances, though it doesn’t support, too. of the rumors about the transition

million) and +31% and +33% better, respectively, than NBC’s Sunday Night Football (11.8, Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:51:43 AM 19.5 million). via FOX Sports: Last Sunday (11/30), the NFL on NFL ON FOX NATIONAL FOX National Game, led by the GAME IS TELEVISION’S No.1 C h i c a g o B e a r s - M i n n e s o t a SHOW Vikings contest, averaged a solid S u n d a y ’ s N a t i o n a l G a m e , 14.3/26 household rating/share, Driven by Bears-Vikings, Is No. with 23.6 million viewers to rank 1 Show of Week for Sixth Time as the highest-rated and most NFL on FOX on Pace for Most- watched program of the week on Watched Season in History all networks for the sixth time The NFL on FOX National this season in as many tries. Game ranks as the highest-rated Complete NFL season to date and most-watched NFL game and ratings and audience figures are is the No. 1 program in all of available through Week 11 and television across all key male and t h e N F L o n F O X r e m a i n s a d u l t d e m o s t h i s s e a s o n , squarely on pace for its mostaccording to figures released watched season in history. FOX today by Nielsen Media is averaging an 11.6/24 Research. household rating/share and 19.1 The FOX National Game is million viewers, up +13% and averaging an outstanding 15.4/29 +16% respectively over last household rating/share and 26.0 year’s 10.3/22 and 16.4 million. million viewers through six This season’s average audience broadcasts, up +11% over last of 19.1 million is FOX’s biggest year’s season-to-date rating ever by a comfortable margin. (13.9/27) and up +16% in FOX’s second-best season on average audience (22.5 million). record is 1995’s 17.3 million FOX’s 15.4 rating and 26.0 through Week 11. million viewers is +19% and This content has passed through +21% better, respectively, than fivefilters.org. CBS’s National Game (12.9, 21.4

MediaDailyNews: Ogilvy Cuts 90 Staffers (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:23:45 AM

WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather

let go of 90 staffers or 4% of its North American workforce, per Adweek. A loss of business from various clients, including Yahoo,

Kraft and Barclays, as well as the recession were blamed for the layoffs. Also, in August, Mattel moved about $30 million in ad

duties to WPP's Y&R; Ogilvy Pfizer and Bayer, among others. handled some of the account. This content has passed through However, the agency did add fivefilters.org. work from UPS, Sarah Lee,

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Cartoon Network, truTV, Adult Swim, TBS, and TNT ratings notes By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

48%. The network’s Sunday night family movie franchise Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:47:44 AM Flicks(Sundays, 7-9 p.m.) also via Turner: earned considerable improvement Cartoon Network compared to its performance last Cartoon Network’s Nov. 25 (7- November. Kids 6-11 average 8:30 p.m.) presentation of the r a t i n g s ( 2 . 9 ) a n d d e l i v e r y o r i g i n a l l i v e - a c t i o n / C G I - (716,000) both jumped by 19%. animated movie Ben 10: Alien Kids 2-11 average ratings (2.5) Swarm earned both broadcast and grew by 14% and delivery cable television’s#1 telecast (1,016,000) by 11%. And kids 9ranking of the day among ALL 14 average ratings (2.5) and kids and boys demos—kids and delivery (609,000) both advanced boys 2-11, 6-11 and 9-14. by 32%. Scoring triple-digit delivery and Additionally, Friday night ratings gains vs. the 2008 time telecasts of Batman: The Brave period, the film delivered & the Bold(7:30 p.m.) in 4,018,000 viewers age 2+. The November attracted more older telecast now ranks as Cartoon kids audiences vs. the same time Network’s #2 most-watched period last year—kids 9-14 original movie premiere in its 17- ratings (1.9) increased by 12% year history, just behind last and delivery (452,000) by 9%, September’s Scooby-Doo! The and boys 9-14 ratings (2.9) Mystery Begins. increased by 7% and delivery Among Cartoon Network’s (357,000) by 8%. stand-out original programming, truTV November ’09 presentations of With 11 months of the year the live-action Destroy Build complete, TRU-TV on track to Destroy(Wednesdays, 8 p.m.) deliver the highest yearly ratings earned solid ratings and delivery in its history. The network took gains among kids 6-11, kids 9-14 another step toward achieving and boys 9-14. Across the month that goal by chalking up its mostcompared to November ‘08, watched November ever in average kids 6-11 ratings (2.2) delivery of key demos, including g r e w b y 5 % a n d d e l i v e r y adults 18-34 (236,000); adults 18 (539,000) by 3%, kids 9-14 -49 (537,000); adults 25-54 r a t i n g s ( 1 . 9 ) a n d d e l i v e r y (542,000); men 18-34 (118,000); (467,000) both grew by 36%, and men 18-49 (298,000); men 25-54 boys 9-14 ratings (3.1) and (302,000); and women 18-34 delivery (382,000) both grew by (118,000).

truTV scored superb growth for the month compared to a year ago, with adults 18-34 up 22%, adults 18-49 up 13%, adults 2554 up 5%, men 18-34 up 11%, men 18-49 up 17% and men 2554 up 8%. truTV ranked among adsupported cable’s Top 10 networks for November in total day delivery of men 25-54 (194,000). truTV’s median age for November was three years younger (45) than the same time period last year. Premieres of truTV’s smash hit series Operation Repo continued to deliver amazing results in November, with the fifth-season premiere on Nov. 9 garnering truTV’s biggest audience ever for a series telecast, with 2.2 million viewers and 1.6 million households. In addition, the show ranks as cable’s #2 entertainment program in the Monday 10 p.m. timeslot in delivery of viewers (1,929,000); adults 18-49 (1,040,000); adults 25-54 (972,000); men 18-34 (273,000); men 18-49 (581,000); and men 25-54 (566,000). Also contributing to truTV’s strong November were two new series: It Only Hurts When I Laugh(1.3 million viewers; 671,000 adults 18-49) and Full Throttle Saloon(1.2 million viewers; 714,000 adults 18-49). Adult Swim

Ranking #1 for young adult delivery among all ad-supported basic cable across November 2009—adults 18-34, adults 18-24 and men 18-24—Adult Swim’s average total day delivery of adults 18-34 (457,000) increased by 7% and ratings (0.7) by 17%, compared to the same time period last year. Additionally, average monthly adults 18-49 delivery (642,000) improved by 17% compared to November ’08. November results also note that Adults Swim programs accounted for 12 of the top 50 telecasts of the month on adsupported basic cable with adults 18-34. Among the late-night network’s original programming, The Venture Bros.(Sunday, 12 midnight) earned double-digit delivery increases across the board—adults 18-34 average delivery (906,000) increased by 40%, while adults 18-24 average delivery (502,000) increased by 20%. Similarly, men 18-34 delivery (642,000) improved by 35% and men 18-24 delivery (351,000) improved by 4%. Metalocalypse(Sunday, 12:30 a.m.) also earned solid increases, with adults 18-34 delivery (633,000) jumping by 22% and adults 18-24 delivery (367,000) by 3%. Ad-supported cable’s top-rated #1 comedy, Family Guy(Monday, 11 p.m.) scored

solid November ’09 delivery gains among adults 18-34 delivery (1,025,000 – up 9%) and men 18-34 delivery (647,000 – up 15%). Adults 18-49 average delivery (1,478,000) also improved by 19% and men 18-49 delivery (910,000) improved by 22%. TBS In its first three weeks on TBS, Lopez Tonight averaged 1.4 million viewers; 1 million households; 482,000 adults 1834; and 870,000 adults 18-49. • Among both adults 18-34 and 18-49, the first three weeks of Lopez Tonight outdelivered the season-to-date averages for The Colbert Report, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Last Call with Carson Daly. In addition, Lopez Tonight has outdelivered the season-to-date average for Late Show with David Letterman and The Wanda Sykes Show among adults 18-34. • Lopez Tonight has delivered outstanding growth for TBS in the 11 p.m. hour, with viewers up 33%, households up 27% and adults 18-34 up 30% and adults 18-49 up 34% when compared to the same time period for the four weeks leading up to the premiere. CARTOON page 58

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Syfy Breaks Viewership Records again; Best November in History By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

Women 18-49, Women 25-54, Men 18-34, Men 18-49 and Men 25-54. Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:49:24 AM Fueled by the July 7 rebrand, via press release: Syfy has scored its most watched SYFY BREAKS VIEWERSHIP five month stretch ever (JulyR E C O R D S F O R T H I R D November) in total viewers. STRAIGHT RATINGS PERIOD In Fourth Quarter to date, Syfy B E S T N O V E M B E R I N is currently the #4 basic cable HISTORY AMONG ALL KEY entertainment network in Adults DEMOS INCLUDING TOTAL 25-54 (782,000, +8%) and #5 VIEWERS, ADULTS 18-34, among Adults 18-49 (707,000, ADULTS 18-49 AND ADULTS +12%), as well as rising 16% in 25-54 Adults 18-34. FUELED BY THE JULY 7 Driven by Ghost Hunters, R E B R A N D , F R O M J U L Y - Stargate Universe, Sanctuary and NOVEMBER SYFY SCORES f r e s h m a n G h o s t H u n t e r s M O S T - W A T C H E D F I V E Academy, the record-setting MONTH STRETCH November performance featured: EVER IN TOTAL VIEWERS • 266,000 Adults 18-34 (+6% In Fourth Quarter to Date, Ranks vs. Nov 08) #4 in Adults 25-54 and #5 in • 663,000 Adults 18-49 Adults 18-49 (+5%) New York, NY – December 2, • 743,000 Adults 25-54 2009 – For the third consecutive (+3%) ratings period (following Third • 121,000 Women 18-34 Quarter and October), Syfy (+9%) shattered viewership records by • 318,000 Women 18-49 drawing the largest November (+8%) audience in its 17-year history • 349,000 Women 25-54 among total viewers. It was also (+6%) the network’s best November • Growth in all the key male ever in Adults 18-34, Adults 18- demos including 146,000 Men 18 49, Adults 25-54, Women 18-34, -34 (+5%)

• 1,349,000

P2+ (up +2%)

Online, Syfy.com continued its sizzling year-long growth. The site reached its best November ever, hitting highs in all key metrics for the third straight month: • • 3.6 million uniques • 5.6 million visits • 31.5 million page views • 5.4 million video streams • SCI FI Wire delivered 3.5 million page views, which is the best month ever for the second month in a row. Syfy closes out its historic 2009 with a diverse array of original programming in December, highlighted by: • • Conclusion of Stargate Universe’s fall season Friday, December 4, at 9PM (ET/PT) • Four hour movie event Alice, starring Kathy Bates and Caterina Scorsone, Sunday, December 6, and Monday, December 7, at 9PM (ET/PT) • Premiere of Outer Space Astronauts Tuesday,

December 8, at 9:30PM (ET/PT) • Season five finale of Ghost Hunters Wednesday, December 16, at 9PM (ET/PT), followed by the last episode of Ghost Hunters Academy’s rookie season Wednesday, December By Andrew Yoon (Joystiq) 16, at 10PM (ET/PT)

PixelJunk Shooter to whet your skills on December 10 Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:31:00 PM

Syfy is a media destination for imagination-based entertainment. With year round acclaimed original series, events, blockbuster movies, classic science fiction and fantasy programming, a dynamic Web site ( www. Syfy.com), and a portfolio of adjacent business ( Syfy Ventures), Syfy is a passport to limitless possibilities. Originally launched in 1992 as SCI FI Channel, and currently in 95 million homes, Syfy is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. ( Syfy. Imagine greater.) ### This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Q-Games' latest entry in its PSN PixelJunk series will arrive on PlayStation Network worldwide next Thursday, December 10. Shooter follows the legacy of previous PixelJunk games, by adding a modern twist to oldschool gameplay. In Shooter's case, the twist happens to be realistic liquid physics, as players manipulate the flow of water, lava and ice. Like Monsters and Eden before it, PixelJunk Shooter is expected to cost $10 or the foreign currency equivalent. Gallery: PixelJunk Shooter Source- 'Tis the PixelJunk Season... [PlayStation.Blog] Source- Dylan Cuthbert [Twitter] PixelJunk Shooter to whet your skills on December 10 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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ABC’s Scrubs Opens as Tuesday’s #1 TV Show with Hard-to-Reach Men 18-34 By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

lead-in at 9:00 p.m. (+33% – 2.0/5 vs. 1.5/4) against stiff established competition, ABC’s Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:07:27 PM season premiere of “Scrubs” via ABC press release: finished No. 1 in its half-hour December 2, 2009 among hard-to-reach Men 18-34, Q u i c k T a k e f o r T u e s d a y , besting second-place NBC’s December 1, 2009 “Biggest Loser” by 11%(2.1/7 (Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day vs. 1.9/6). In addition, the ABC Ratings) comedy earned second place in O p p o s i t e E s t a b l i s h e d the half-hour with Men 18Competition, ABC’s “Scrubs” 49(2.0/6). Opener Surges from its Lead “Scrubs” (9:30-10:00 p.m.) With Young Adults and Wins its Building on its lead-in among Half-Hour Over NBC’s “Loser” Adults 18-34 and key Men (M18in Men 18-34 34/M18-49), a second episode of Building on its Lead-in Among “Scrubs” also won its half-hour Key Demos, “Scrubs” at 9:30pm among hard-to-reach Men 18-34, Wins by defeating NBC’s “Loser” by an 28% in Men 18-34 and Stands as even wider margin of 28%(2.3/7 the Night’s No. 1 TV Show with vs. 1.8/6). In fact ABC’s back-to Young Men -back episodes of “Scrubs” At 9:30pm, “Scrubs” Matches finished as the Top 2 TV shows t h e S e r i e s ’ H i g h e s t - R a t e d on Tuesday night with Men 18Telecast 34. In Men 18-34 and Men 18-49 Since its ABC Premiere in • At 9:30 p.m. among Men 18January 2008 49(2.3/7) and Men 18“Scrubs” (9:00-9:30 p.m.) 49(2.1/6),“Scrubs” matched the Surging from its Adult 18-49 series’ highest-rated telecast

since its ABC premiere on January 6, 2009.

World Television Debut of The Dog Who Saved Christmas is the Season’s No. 1 Cable Movie in Total Viewers By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:54:50 AM

via press release: World Television Debut of “The A note about increasing DVR Dog Who Saved Christmas,” penetration and year-to-year S t a r r i n g D e a n C a i n , E l i s a rating comparisons: Year-to-year Donovan and Mario Lopez, is the rating comparisons based on the Season’s No. 1 Cable Movie in Live + Same Day data stream are Total Viewers distorted by the level of DVR “ T h e D o g W h o S a v e d p e n e t r a t i o n i n t h e N i e l s e n Christmas” is Cable’s No. 1 sample, which has jumped up to Program in its Time Period more than 33% currently, from in Total Viewers, and the No. 1 28% at the same point in 2008. Scripted Cable Telecast of the More viewers are watching Day shows on their own timetables, “ T h e D o g W h o S a v e d which may not be reflected in the Christmas” Ranks as Cable’s No. overnight next day numbers. The 2 Scripted Telecast only truly valid year-to-year in its Time Period in Adults 18comparison would be one based 49 and Women 18-49 on the Live + 7 Day metric, once “ T h e D o g W h o S a v e d those stats are released by Christmas” Exceeds Year-Ago Nielsen. Time Period Levels in Key Source: Nielsen Media Research Demos (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day “ T h e D o g W h o S a v e d Ratings), 12/1/09. Christmas” (Sunday, 11/29/09, This content has passed through 8:00-10:00 p.m.) fivefilters.org. In its television premiere, “ The Dog Who Saved Christmas,”

starring Dean Cain, Elisa Donovan and Mario Lopez as the voice of “Zeus”, became the season’s most-watched cable movie in Total Viewers(4.0 million – tie), ranking No. 1 in its time period versus all cable, and as Sunday’s No. 1 scripted cable telecast. • From 8:00 – 10:00 p.m., “The Dog Who Saved Christmas” stood as cable’s No. 1 program in Total Viewers(4.0 million), and cable’s No. 2 scripted program in Adults 18-49(1.4 million) and Women 18-49(844,000). • “The Dog Who Saved Christmas” surpassed year-ago time period averages(11/30/08), increasing by 14% in Total Viewers(4.0 million vs. 3.5 million, by 8% in Adults 1849(1.4 million vs. 1.3 million) and by 5% in Women 1849(844,000 vs. 801,000). This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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What's On Tonight: Rudolph, The Middle, Ghost Hunters, Lawman By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:16:00 PM

• At 7, ABC Family has Pixar Short Films(repeated at 9). • At 8, CBS has Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, followed by The Grammy Nominations Concert Live. • NBC has Christmas in Rockefeller Center at 8. • FOX has a new So You Think You Can Dance at 8, then a new Glee. • Cartoon Network has a new Destroy Build Destroy at 8. • Hallmark has The Christmas Choir at 8, followed by I'll Be Home For Christmas. • BBC Amercia has the season premiere of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares at 8, then the season finale of Mary Queen of Shops. • At 8:30, ABC has a new episode of The Middle. • At 9, DirectTV 101 has a new Friday Night Lights. • Discovery has a new Mythbusters.

• NBC has a new Jay Leno Show at 10. • TBS has a new Tyler Perry's House of Payne at 10, followed by a new Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns. • FX has a new Nip/Tuck at 10. • Travel Channel has a new Man vs. Food at 10. • Current has a new Vanguard at 10. • Also at 10: Bravo has a new Top Chef: Las Vegas, then the • A&E has the season premiere series premiere of Launch My Dog The Bounty Hunter at 9, Line. then the series premiere of Steven Seagal: Lawman(two Check your local TV listings for episodes). more. • Food Network has a new After the jump, the late night Throwdown with Bobby Flay at talk shows. 9. Continue reading What's On • Syfy has a new Ghost Hunters Tonight: Rudolph, The Middle, at 9, followed by a new Ghost Ghost Hunters, Lawman Hunters Academy. Filed under: Late Night, • F i n e L i v i n g h a s a n e w Programming, Celebrities, Talk Whatever, Martha at 9. Show, What To Watch Tonight, • There's a new Inside the NFL Reality-Free on Showtime at 9. Permalink| Email this| | • At 10, ABC has a new C o m m e n t s Eastwick.

CARTOON continued from page 55

• A continuing hit with multicultural viewers, Lopez Tonight’s audience is 32% Hispanic and 26% AfricanAmerican. The hit series Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns enjoyed an outstanding November, ranking as ad-supported cable’s #1 comedy series in delivery of total viewers (2.7 million), adults 1849 (1.3 million) and adults 25-54 (1.3 million). TNT Through the first month of the 2009-10 NBA regular season, TNT continues to experience the most-watched NBA regular season in Turner’s 26 years of NBA coverage. Through 12 games, the network is averaging a 1.4 national household rating, up 27% over the first 12 games of the 2008-09 NBA season (1.1 national household rating). In addition, delivery of total viewers is up 27% (2,082,000

vs. 1,642,000), while delivery of households is up 24% ( 1,568,000 vs. 1,265,000). The network has also seen significant increases in key demos including: • Adults 18-34: +28% 691,000 in 2009 vs. 538,000 in 2008 • Adults 18-49: +20% 1,162,000 vs. 966,000 • Adults 25-54: +22% 1,035,000 vs. 845,000 • Men 18-34: +31% 516,000 vs. 394,000 • Men 18-49: +24% 836,000 vs. 674,000 • Men 25-54: +29% 746,000 vs. 580,000 Source: Nielsen Media Research, Live + Same Day data. NBA Regular Season on TNT through 1 st 4 weeks, 11/04/1994 through 11/26/09. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Gucci and UNICEF Spread Holiday Cheer Around the Globe By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/1/2009 3:41:53 PM

Joy to the world! Gucci, in collaboration with UNICEF, has released a limited-edition

collection of adorably exotic, animal-print bags and key chains with proceeds to benefit children affected by HIV/AIDS. (Twentyfive percent of the purchase price of each piece—available through health care and clean water for a December 31—will go to support

sub-Saharan orphan.) Based on Snowman in Africa, a new illustrated book by Michael Roberts, the accessories line features colorful cartoon elephants, monkeys, snakes in the grass, and, yes, one fluffy,

carrot-nose snowman. Hurry to a Gucci store before the little guy melts. —Whitney Vargas

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Caveman Billionaire Got U Now, Gurl [Recessionomics] By Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:27:06 AM

Kurt Sutter unofficially confirms third season of Sons of Anarchy By Jonathan Toomey (TV Squad)

Trioblidi," had one helluva cliffhanger. Beyond that, Sutter's interview with Sepinwall also Submitted at 12/2/2009 2:30:00 PM served as a nice post-mortem of As if there were any doubt. the season and he offered plenty In an interview with the New of info on where season three is Jersey Star-Ledger' s TV critic likely headed. Spoilers after the Alan Sepinwall, Sons of Anarchy jump, so read on at your own creator and executive producer risk. Kurt Sutter has unofficially Continue reading Kurt Sutter confirmed that the show will unofficially confirms third season indeed be back for a third season. of Sons of Anarchy It's just a matter of FX finalizing Filed under: Pickups and some contracts and getting all its Renewals, Reality-Free, Sons of "financial ducks in a row." Sutter Anarchy said he had been assured the Permalink| Email this| | show would be back though. C o m m e n t s Good thing, too, since last night's season two finale, "Na

The Way We Live Now: Caveman billionaire style. Here's the difference between a normal billionaire and a recession-era cavemen billionaire: All caveman billionaire needs is a nice woman, rich hockey teams, and a job at the W hotel. Two brothers so poor they're living in a cave outside Budapest just found out that their "long lost grandmother" may have left them a fortune worth more than $6 billion. How you like them now, ladies? "If all of this works out, it will certainly make up for the life we have had until now . . . No women would look at us living in a cave," one brother said. Ooooo, but everything changes when $6 billion comes in the picture, eh? Gurl U no U rong. Before I was a caveman

billionaire, I was just a caveman. Before I was a caveman billionaire, I was one of 11,000 people applying for 400 jobs at the W Hotel. Before I was a caveman billionaire, I was a bankrupt Texas oysterman. Before I was a caveman billionaire, I couldn't even sell my used clothes for cash. Before

I was a caveman billionaire, I owned a hockey team in Canada but sold out before currency fluctuation would have put me well in the red. Before I was a caveman billionaire, I was... me. Gurl U no I can buy U mad clothes now. Gurl this caveman billionaire wanna holla at U.

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The City : Subhuman Resources [Recaps] By Brian Moylan (Gawker)

who I work with really sucks. Especially Olivia Palermo. Make sure you get that right, it's P-A-LDue to an unfortunate run in E-R-M-O. And yes, I said she with an Elle magazine intern we sucks. I hate her. I almost quit were unable to watch The City my job because of her." last night. However there is one The feud between the socialite intrepid reporter who can not be a n d t h e P R s t a r b e c o m e kept down, and she was there to noticeably public when they were fill us in. heard bitching at each other in She's Not the Bad Guy: Erin the background of a recent Today Kaplan Clears Her Name show segment. by Betsey Morgenstern "I knew something was amiss PRWeek.com when I got all the looks together H a v e y o u h e a r d o f E l l e to go to the studio and there was magazine? Well, of course you nothing that Olivia and I had have since it's been a knockout pulled the week before," said an on the newstands for years as Elle magazine intern named Bryn well as the main prize for who asked her last name not be winners of America's Next Top used because she does not talk to Model and P r o j e c t fake reporters. "Erin told me that Runway(before the magazine she went and redid all the looks. was kicked to the curb for She really has it out for Olivia. I Seventeen and Marie Claire). just don't want to get fired. But, Still, the reason it was there in yeah, I'm totally scared of Erin." the first place is due to Erin And that is with good reason. Kaplan, the young PR maven Not only is she in charge of who has taken the magazine getting the magazine's name out world by storm by turning the there, but also, apparently, in magazine brand into something overseeing the duties of junior that even Anna Wintour must e d i t o r s , a v e r y d i f f e r e n t respect. responsibility for someone who But with the increased publicity specializes in communications. for the publication comes an "Look, I'm not a fashion editor increased profile for Kaplan, who and I never claim to be," Kaplan some think is only a tan and a set said after her third vanilla cake of SUV keys away from being with chocolate frosting. "But the next Lizzie Grubman. Olivia Palermo is so bad at her "Really, I'm not that bad," Erin job that I had to step in and do told me during a recent interview something or else my segment outside of Magnolia bakery, would be ruined and Elle would where we indulged in sweet look stupid. I can not have that treats and threw pebbles at happening. I have no social life, tourists. "It's just that everyone my last boyfriend dumped me for Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:38:29 AM

another guy, and no one wants to talk to me at parties. Without this job, I have absolutely nothing. When Olivia put that in jeopardy, I had to fight back." She explains that at the Today show, Elle creative director Joe Zee asked Palermo about the prices and designers of the dresses he was about to talk about on air. Since Kaplan vetoed Palermo's looks and inserted her own, Palermo had no clue what was going out, and out of spite, wouldn't brief Joe. He had a short flub on the air with Hoda Kotb, but was able to recover. Good thing Mr. Zee was on his A game. After they show, Kaplan and Zee tried to confront Palermo about what happened. "I'm sorry, but I did a whole afternoon of hard work before going home to do bong hits and then attend a Twilight screening," Palermo says. "Erin never thinks I do anything right. She has horrible style, can't dress, is poor, and doesn't respect me. She makes it impossible for me to do my job. And have you seen what she wears? She shouldn't be picking out clothes at all. But she is impossible. Until she shows me some respect, we can't work together." Kaplan was more than happy to respond to her comments. "Of course I don't respect her, she doesn't know what the fuck she's doing!" Kaplan screamed while

brushing her hair out of her face and scowling—a look that should be familiar to anyone who knows her. "And the worst part is, you can't talk to her. Whenever I confront her about something, she is either too stupid or too stoned to care and just doesn't get the message. Unless it's news about a sample sale or the opening of a new bottle service club, she just can't retain any information. She is completely useless. I told Joe Zee that it was either her or me." And what did Joe Zee say? "Erin is a consummate professional," Zee says from his Midtown office. "She is great at her job and I trust her implicitly. I like Olivia a lot—mostly because she's pretty. But I am not a guidance counselor, I don't want to be deciding who wins in a fight between Erin and Olivia." Now that the ultimatum has been placed—Kaplan says that she even awkwardly stormed out of Zee's office!—who is going to hit the road and who is going to stay? "Well, let's just say that the magazine needs PR more than it does socialites, but sometimes socialites are what brings the PR," Kaplin says cryptically giving her signature sly smile. No matter what, we have a feeling that Kaplan will end up on top. You Say You Want a Revolution: Kelly Cutrone Talks about the Help by Betsey Morgenstern PRWeek.com

One of the biggest challenges for any PR agency is keeping the stable of young communications majors in check. Between all the swag, the nights out in New York, and the boy drama, it can be more difficult that pleasing clients and getting them good media placement. To find out how to do it the right way, we talked to Kelly Cutrone, the saucy boss at People's Revolution PR and the star of the new reality show Kell on Earth, which starts in February on Bravo. "I can't stand these fucking girls," Cutrone screams in her office, pushing her hair back and bugging her eyes out that signals she is about to go off on one of her famous, expletive-laden tirades. "They come in here and they think that they know everything and they can do whatever the fuck they want. I've been doing this for decades. I started this whole company on my own. They better learn some fucking respect and learn it quick." Most recently she has had completely opposite experiences with Whitney Port, an aspiring designer, and Roxy Carmichael Olin, a girl who seems to have no skills, no drive, and doesn't do much of anything. Still, Kelly sees something of herself in Olin. "That is what really pisses me the fuck off," she says. "She's just like me. She's brash, an outsider, likes to wear black, isn't afraid of CITY page 62

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How the Climate Change Summit Will Be Spun [Lies] By Pareene (Gawker) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:49:33 AM

Whatever happens at the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen next week, we can be sure of one result: the entire event will be hijacked by bad actors spreading lies that will become conventional wisdom. Ahead of the conference, Americans generally support some sort of agreement on emissions, with a plurality hoping congress ratifies a binding treaty. Ahead of the health care debate, Americans broadly supported health care reform, too. The wheels of disinformation are already spinning. Lou Dobbs went fucking nuts on his radio show today while talking with complete loon Jim Inhofe. The idea of the President attempting to win support for international emissions reductions by promising that the US will attempt to meet similar targets drove Dobbs over the edge. DOBBS: Who the hell does this president think he is? INHOFE: I don't know, because you can't do that. And I think it's certainly disingenuous to mislead countries into thinking that a president â&#x20AC;Ś You know, this is not a kingdom. He's not able to do that. DOBBS: Not yet! If there's one thing repressive, autocratic monarchs are known for, it's attempting to cede their nation's sovereignty to a world

government, or something. Inhofe, of course, believes that global warming is a great big hoax. And here he is commenting on Obama's trip: "I suspect President Obama is

climate â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;consensus'-revelations that cast doubt over the entire global warming enterprise. Right. Those emails. Those fucking emails. You can argue that the emails reveal improper behavior (if you suspect a casual reference to "throwing out the peer-review process" is actual proof of any sort of wrong-doing) but there's actually not anything in any of the emails that suggests that anyone manufactured any data, at all. But it doesn't matter. The "story," in its easy-to-digest form, is that secret emails prove climate scientists made up global warming. Naomi Klein's recent Harper's story on the 2001 UN conference on racism was, you know, typical Naomi Klein-in- Harper's stuff (long), but it did brilliantly illustrate how these lies endure: they start with a modicum of truth and then, through enough repetition and distortion, they become ingrained "knowledge" that is wholly wrong. That conference, popularly referred to as Durban, was supposed to be about Africa. But ahead of the conference, a few Islamic countries asked to include anti-Israel language that also downplayed the Holocaust. That language never had a making the trip to Copenhagen in due in large part to the fact cap- chance of making it into a final order to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;save' the climate and-trade legislation in the UN document, but it gave the conference," Sen. Inhofe said. Senate is dying on the vine, and, Bush administration a convenient "Yet no amount of lofty rhetoric as important, recent revelations excuse to avoid a conference that o r p r o m i s e s o f f u t u r e of leading climate scientists who HOW page 62 commitments can save it. This is appear to have manufactured the

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what people think. But then she just fucking sits there. And when she's not sitting there, she's making things difficult for everyone and pretending like she knows more than she does. Yes, she may be like me, but I know when the dresses should be ordered. I know how to set up a photo shoot. I know what a look book is. She just knows how to get drunk and dance on banquettes." Asked to defend herself Olin says that she doesn't really need Cutrone. "You know, my parents are rich, so I only do this for fun and so I can hang out with my friend Whitney," she says in her voice that is a strange mix of a drawl and a rasp. "Maybe that's why I don't give a fuck what Kelly thinks. But yes, she can yell, and that keeps people in check." Olin tells a story where she recently went into Cutrone's office to ask why she was being left out of a meeting between Port and the buyers of Bergdorf Goodman. Olin has nothing to do with the line whatsoever and knows nothing about retail, marketing, fashion, or merchandising, but for some

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reason thought it was a good idea to stand by Whitney at her meeting. "Kelly totally snapped on me," Olin cackles. "She was going on and on, spouting all this jargon, and all I could do was get up and leave." Cutrone is still worked up about the meeting. "I got Whitney, who I love and adore, a meeting with the big shots at Bergdorf Fucking Goodman, the most important department store in the world," she rants. "We're talking Linda Fargo, Ginny Hersey-Lambert, Sunni Spencer. These are people that will make or break her career. And she wants to take her little sour-faced drinking buddy? Get real! I was so pissed I didn't even go to the meeting. Let those bimbos fend for themselves." For what it's worth, Port seemed to think the meeting went well. "They said some nice things, and they looked at my clothes. I don't really know what I'm doing," she purred while twirling her hair on her finger. Cutrone disagrees. "Went well? It was a fucking disaster," she screams. "We're talking Marc Jacobs 1993 grunge line for Perry Ellis disaster. They hated it. She wasn't ready at all. Some of her

dresses had crap all over them. And then she had that chucklehead Roxy there undermining her. She only has one shot left and that's a fashion show I'm putting together for her." That's right. Cutrone may be a fierce disciplinarian and makes her stances known, but she has "the old ball and chain" with her employees, as she calls it. If they go down, she goes down with them. She also helps to raise them up by giving them as many opportunities as they can in the industry. She is including Port in a group show she is organizing for fashion week in the spring. "She said something about it being not a baby step of faith but a leap of faith and if I don't do it, she'll slit my throat and fire Roxy," Port cooed. "I'm not quite sure what is going on, but she says it's a big deal so she must be right." While Kelly certainly has this whole thing under wraps, the biggest lesson she has to teach is never hire anyone as smart as the boss.

they didn't want to participate in in the first place. Then the offending language was removed, a nice little document about how bad racism is was produced, and everyone was happy. Moreover, Southwick was quite right: after he left, all of the offending language was excised in the final round of negotiations. Which is why, in a detail conveniently excluded by Durban's critics, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres praised the Durban Declaration at the time as "an accomplishment of the fi rst order for Israel" and "a painful comedown for the Arab League." Then, in the post-9/11 recollection of Jewish politicians in America and the right-wing press in Israel, the conference suddenly became an Israelbashing antisemitic festival of hatred. The genuine antisemitism on display by some protesters and the legimitate criticisms of Israel's security and citizenship policies were conflated, and "Durban" became both a dirty word and a rousing reminder that threats to the Jewish people were real and pervasive. The story of what happened at Durban spun out of control, with right-wing academics and journalists publishing dozens of stories repeating and exaggerating the myths. But the worst distortions were in Bayefsky's bellowing full-page

ads, which appeared in the Washington Times, the New York Sun, and other papers, and were signed by a long list of notables including Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, orientalist Bernard Lewis, former New York mayor Ed Koch, and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. In big bold letters the ads claimed that the final Durban Declaration stated "That ISRAEL, and ONLY ISRAEL, is guilty of racism." Never mind that nowhere in the document was Israel accused, let alone convicted, of racism. Yes, right. It all got so ridiculous that a spokesman for Israel's foreign minister said the conference's final report called Israel "the most racist state on Earth. When a BBC interviewer read him the actual Durban Declaration, which, of course, did not say any such thing, he was baffled: "even though I don't have the text in front of me, I remember quite precisely some quotes that were completely contrary to those that you've just quoted. So we must be speaking about two different documents." Indeed! Obama avoided Durban 2, because it was already too poisoned. Here's hoping he can bring a truthful version of what happens at Copenhagen home with him, but we're not holding our breath.

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The Disruption Is Coming from Inside the Building [Print Is Dead]

No. 86 South Africa Gets the Easy Road

By Ryan Tate (Gawker)

(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:34:08 AM

Submitted at 12/2/2009 8:21:34 AM

Layoffs at the fast-shrinking San Francisco Chronicle have freed up a lot of office space in the newspaper's headquarters. So naturally the Chronicle is now subleasing to a guy who severely undercut its business model in the first place. Spooky. Jack Dorsey is no longer a dayto-day executive at Twitter, but he used to be CEO of the microblogging service and is widely credited with coming up with the idea for brokering 140character status updates. Those updates, in turn, now carry a large amount of local news and commentary of which papers like the Chronicle, which is losing circulation and money most months, were once the main

In anticipation of the World Cup draw, its hard not to the examine the group of teams in the best pot and realize very quickly that one of them does not go with the others. The outlier would be host South Africa, which is in the same group as the top seven teams in the world and therefore wont play them in the first round even though it is currently ranked 86 th in world. Getty Images Kirsten Nematandani In other words, South Africa not only received automatic admission into the tournament but also gets the easiest possible ride into the elimination phase of the tournament. (Imagine North Dakota State getting a one seed in the NCAA mens basketball tournament and opening in Fargo and you get the idea). In an interview in Cape Town earlier today, Kirsten Nematandani, president of the South Africa Football Association, defended the preferential treatment of his team, known as Bafana Bafana. We put a lot into this event and now it is our chance to get a lot out of it, Nematandani said. We have had to expend a lot, not just money, but also energy and time on behalf of the people of this country. And so this is what we

suppliers. Which is why it's more than a touch ironic that Dorsey is leasing space in the Chronicle building for his new credit-card processing startup Square. Joining him will be two tech "incubators" that promise to nurture technology as disruptive as Twitter. This is sort of like

renting space inside your body for one of those creatures from Alien. It will explode out of your stomach and devour you someday. Look out, Chronicle! [ via BayNewser] (Pic by Esther Dyson)

2 Military Men Found Stabbed to Death, Suspect in Custody (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/1/2009 10:53:25 PM

EVANS MILLS, N.Y. Authorities say two men found murdered in an apartment just outside Fort Drum were members of the U.S. military assigned to the Army post, and a third service member suspected of killing them is in custody in another state.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department says 20-year-old Waide James and 23-year-old Diego Valbuena each had multiple stab wounds. Autopsies are scheduled Wednesday. Police aren't releasing where the suspect is being held. The victims' hometowns, ranks and units also aren't being released yet by police or officials at Fort Drum, the 10th Mountain

Division's home base in northern New York. The bodies were found Tuesday morning in an apartment complex housing mostly military families in Evans Mills, near the main entrance to the post. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

get. Indeed, this is standard treatment for a host country - the U.S. got the same boost when it hosted the Cup in 1994. Its been an awful few months for Bafana Bafana since it made it to the semifinal of the Confederations Cup in June. The team lost eight of nine games through October when it rehired World Cup-winning coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, who led Brazil to the title in 1994 and is known for both his tactical and motivational skills. Indeed, the South African squad may be anything but a walkover. Playing the host nation in front of 80,000 screaming fans will not be a picnic even if Bafana Bafana lacks the major international star that several of the other African nations feature. When our 11 goes onto the field, anything can happen because we will be playing 12 or even 13 against the opponent, Nematandani said. For any nation, going up against a team with 13 players is going to be terrifying.

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Tiger Woods issues Web statement: 'I am far short of perfect' By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:22:56 AM my family. Those feelings should Reilly Shocked By Public b e s h a r e d b y u s a l o n e . ” - Admission Reilly Shocked By Statement by Tiger Woods P u b l i c A d m i s s i o n V I D E O "Although I am a well-known PLAYLIST person and have made my career • Reilly Shocked By Public as a professional athlete, I have Admission Reilly Shocked By been dismayed to realize the full Public Admission extent of what tabloid scrutiny • Woods Posts Apology Woods really means. For the last week, Posts Apology my family and I have been • Corporate Impact On Tiger hounded to expose intimate Woods Corporate Impact On details of our personal lives. The Tiger Woods stories in particular that physical violence played any role in the Tiger Woods, charged with car accident were utterly false careless driving and fined $164 and malicious. Elin has always by Florida authorities on Tuesday done more to support our family and squarely in the crosshairs of and shown more grace than the celebrity and tabloid media, anyone could possibly expect. issued a statement Wednesday "But no matter how intense apologizing for actions he did not curiosity about public figures can specify. be, there is an important and deep "I have let my family down and I principle at stake which is the regret those transgressions with right to some simple, human all of my heart," Woods said on measure of privacy. I realize his Web site. "I have not been there are some who don't share true to my values and the my view on that. But for me, the behavior my family deserves. I virtue of privacy is one that must am not without faults and I am be protected in matters that are far short of perfect. I am dealing intimate and within one's own with my behavior and personal family. Personal sins should not failings behind closed doors with r e q u i r e p r e s s r e l e a s e s a n d my family. Those feelings should p r o b l e m s w i t h i n a f a m i l y be shared by us alone. shouldn't have to mean public “ confessions. I have let my family down and I "Whatever regrets I have about regret those transgressions with letting my family down have all of my heart. I have not been been shared with and felt by us true to my values and the alone. I have given this a lot of behavior my family deserves. I reflection and thought and I am not without faults and I am believe that there is a point at

which I must stick to that principle even though it's difficult. "I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves. For all of those who have supported me over the years, I offer my profound apology." The Web site posting came hours after US Weekly magazine put Woods on its cover, released Wednesday, alleging he had a two-plus-year affair with a Los Angeles cocktail waitress. It also comes a week after the National Enquirer reported that Woods had an affair with a New York VIP host -- a charge the woman strongly denies -- and less than a week after he was involved in a car accident. The US Weekly report claims that Jaimee Grubbs has more than 300 text messages from Woods, and the US Weekly Web site posted a voice mail Grubbs says is Woods calling her last week and asking to change the ID on her phone so that his wife wouldn't recognize it. Grubbs says she met Woods at a Las Vegas nightclub the week after the 2007 Masters -- two months before Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren, gave birth to their first child. Wednesday morning, the magazine published what it said was a voice mail provided by Grubbs that she said was left by Woods on Nov. 24, three days before his early morning car crash. In the voice mail, a man,

who calls himself "Tiger," asks Grubbs to take her name off her phone. "My wife went through my phone," the man's voice said. "And, uh, may be calling you." The call ends with the man saying: "You gotta do this for me. Huge. Quickly." ESPN could not confirm Woods was the caller. Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, did not immediately return an email requesting comment. When asked whether US Weekly paid Grubbs for her story, spokeswoman Cheryl Crowley said, "As a policy, we do not comment on obtaining stories or photo transactions." MSNBC reported that "rumors" are Grubbs could have been paid $100,000 for her story. Grubbs was recently part of the VH1 cable channel reality series "Tool Academy." Several of Woods' sponsors told CNNMoney.com Wednesday that they still are in business with Woods. Nike, Gatorade, EA Sports and Gillette all said that their relationship with Woods remains as it was before the announcement. Woods was involved in a onecar traffic accident on Friday. He hit a fire hydrant and a tree in his Cadillac SUV. The Florida Highway Patrol investigated the case, but closed the investigation on Tuesday, saying Woods would be cited and fined. But that hasn't stopped tabloid rumors. Woods hasn't met with

the media since the incident, and has only issued statements on his Web site. Sunday, Woods released a statement saying, in part: "Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible. The only person responsible for the accident is me. My wife, Elin, acted courageously when she saw I was hurt and in trouble. She was the first person to help me. Any other assertion is absolutely false." Woods has remained at home in the exclusive gated community of Isleworth, while some of the world's top golfers were in Southern California preparing for the start of a tournament he hosts. Woods, citing injuries from the crash, issued a statement Monday saying he would not attend or play in the Chevron World Challenge. Tuesday, the Florida Highway Patrol said it "is not pursuing criminal charges in this matter nor is there any testimony or other evidence to support any additional charges of any kind other than the charge of careless driving," according to department spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Montes. "Despite the celebrity status of Mr. Woods, the Florida Highway Patrol has completed its investigation in the same professional manner it strives to TIGER page 67

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Bowden’s FSU Exit Is Almost Too Quiet (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 12/2/2009 7:33:51 AM

Bobby Bowden’s 44-year coaching career has one game remaining before he retires. No longer a football powerhouse, Florida State forced the issue with Bowden, who paced the Seminoles sidelines for 34 years, earning a remarkable 14 straight top-five finishes and two national championships. Jimbo Fisher is FSU’s coach in waiting. Associated Press Bobby Bowden celebrated after beating Nebraska in the 1994 Orange Bowl, but really, had he done enough in his 34 years in Tallahassee to leave on his own terms? The past decade hasn’t been kind to Bowden, who can claim just one top-10 finish since winning the national championship in 1999. Including this year’s 6-6 mark, Bowden’s gone 37-27 over the past five seasons. Still, the way his retirement was announced Tuesday — by videotape and a prepared news release — was weird for such a beloved, respected coach. “Hard to believe that the most media-friendly coach in the history of sports never even showed up to address the media,” Mike Bianchi writes in the Orlando Sentinel. “And neither did FSU President T.K. Wetherell. Nor FSU athletic director Randy Spetman. What a surreal, strange, somber day.” Ray McNulty of Treasure Coast

Newspapers says Bowden deserved to choose when to leave. “He didn’t ask for another five years. He didn’t ask for another two. He wanted next season,” McNulty writes. “That’s all. And Florida State should’ve given it to him, even if it turned out to be nothing more than a farewell tour.” Sports Illustrated’s Ted Staple says FSU made a mistake by not explaining Bowden’s ouster. Instead of focusing on Bowden’s messy exit, ESPN’s Ivan Maisel remembers the qualities Bowden brought to college football. “He leads without intimidation and measures his words by the gross,” Maisel writes. “He treats football as a serious business but always saw a bigger picture. He once wrote that his priorities in life are: God, Family, Others, Football.” The Florida Times-Union’s Garry Smits sees unanswered questions surrounding Bowden’s departure. Finally, the Washington Examiner’s James Irwin lists his top five Bobby Bowden games.* ** North Carolina’s date with Michigan State on Tuesday ended the same way the national basketball title game did in April: with a Tar Heel victory over the Spartans. Despite losing Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington to the NBA after last season, this year’s North Carolina team was able to

hold off a late Spartans rally for a 89-82 win. ESPN’s Dana O’Neil says a balanced effort paid off for Carolina. Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn says the Spartans’ defensive shortcomings must be addressed.* * * Alex Ovechkin’s take-noprisoners approach and goalscoring wizardry make him one of the most dynamic players in the NHL. His brash play has also gotten the Washington Capitals superstar suspended for two games for his reckless knee-onknee hit on Carolina’s Tim Gleason on Monday. Ovechkin was injured on the play, but not seriously. In the Washington Post, Thomas Boswell warns Ovechkin to slow down a little. “So, Ovechkin’s knee will get better, just like the shoulder injury that sidelined him six games earlier this season,” Boswell writes. “Are these just warning shots from Mother Nature? What’s clear is, at 24, Ovie is no longer indestructible, even if he thinks he is.”* * * FIFA, soccer’s governing body, meets Wednesday and could decide whether to add another

referee or to use video replay at next summer’s World Cup in South Africa. The impetus for this emergency meeting was France’s controversial aggregate victory over Ireland last month in which Thierry Henry’s handball goal should have been disallowed but was missed by the referee. That goal kept Ireland from qualifying for the World Cup. MirrorFootball’s Oliver Holt says soccer could learn a lot from the NFL’s use of instant replay. The Independent’s Daniel McDonnell says many questions remain after the Nov. 18 incident. Although incidents of racism in soccer are waning, work still needs to be done to eradicate it, the Times of London’s George Caulkin writes. Be sure to follow the Journal’s Matthew Futterman the rest of the week as he reports from the FIFA meetings in Cape Town, South Africa. This morning he focuses on the setup of the World Cup draw to be announced Friday.* * * By now you’ve heard about the record $82,500 fine against Serena Williams for her profanity -laced tirade against a line judge at last year’s U.S. Open. A fiery competitor, Williams could face a U.S. Open suspension if she has another outburst. The Telegraph’s Mark Hodgkinson wonders what someone has to say to be suspended from a Grand Slam tournament.* * * Fans have always had a love-

hate relationship with announcers, but most would agree that Chip Caray had a horrendous, error-prone postseason broadcasting for Turner Sports. Caray and Turner parted company Monday even though he had three years remaining on his contract, David O’Brien writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Meanwhile, Tommy Henrich, the oldest surviving member of the Yankees, died on Tuesday at age 96. In the New York Times, Richard Goldstein remembers the right-fielder known as “Old Reliable.”* * * Pithy quotes add spice to a great, absorbing read. Unfortunately, not all athletes are easily quotable. Perhaps a sportswriter, seeing promise in a quote that’s too wordy or too convoluted, improves it for publication. Is that the right thing to do? While the National Sports Journalism Center’s Dave Kindred argues for cleaning up an athlete’s quote, others disagree. – 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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Allen Iverson accepts Philadelphia 76ers' contract offer By Associated Press (ESPN.com)

him to Brett Favre, a guy who people think is too old to play and he's almost having an MVP Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:16:07 AM year," Jordan said. "That's off the Iverson Returns To The Sixers top of my head. When I woke up Iverson Returns To The Sixers this morning, I said, 'Maybe he PHILADELPHIA -- Dust off the can be that.' It's not a big maybe. No. 3 jersey. Allen Iverson is I think he can be that." with the Philadelphia 76ers The 34-year-old Iverson again. announced his retirement last Iverson signed a free-agent week after a stint with the contract with Philadelphia on Memphis Grizzlies. The 10-time Wednesday, three years after All-Star was NBA MVP in 2001, their acrimonious split led to his when he led the Sixers to the trade and seemingly ended any NBA finals. chance of his return. Iverson's "We had, at times, a rocky road brief retirement is over and he's with Allen Iverson, but we also expected to make his debut had a fantastic run with Allen," Monday at home against Denver. Peter Luukko, COO of ComcastThe Sixers needed a replacement Spectacor, which owns the 76ers once they lost starting point and Flyers, told The Associated guard Lou Williams, who's Press. "The expectations with expected to miss eight weeks Allen have changed dramatically. after jaw surgery. Williams, who We're not looking for Allen to averaged 17.4 points and 5.1 individually lead this team the assists, broke his jaw in a loss to way he has in the past." Washington on Nov. 24. Iverson was offered a one-year, Question And Answer non-guaranteed contract Is the return of Allen Iverson to Tuesday, according to a person the 76ers a good move or a bad who spoke to The Associated move? Our experts debate the Press on condition of anonymity Answer's return to the City of because the talks were private. Brotherly Love. Roundtable The Sixers would owe just under Iverson, his agent and business $650,000 if they guarantee his manager met with team president contract for the remainder of the Ed Stefanski, coach Eddie Jordan season on Jan. 10. and two other members of the "The whole situation wasn't organization Monday to talk about the contract and the about returning. money," Iverson's agent, Leon "Without really seeing him on the Rose, told The AP. "It was about floor, I would like to compare the opportunity and the chance to

"I told him I would like for him to start, and that's where it sort of ended," Jordan said. "And he was really like a kid at Christmas. That's how he sort of explained it to me. He's really excited and we're looking forward to it." come to Philadelphia." Iverson's last game with â&#x20AC;&#x153; Philadelphia was Dec. 6, 2006, in I told him I would like for him to Chicago. He refused to play the start, and that's where it sort of fourth quarter and was banished ended. And he was really like a from the team two days later. He kid at Christmas. That's how he was eventually traded to Denver sort of explained it to me. He's as part of the Andre Miller deal, really excited and we're looking and bounced to Detroit before forward to it.â&#x20AC;?-- 76ers coach landing in Memphis. Eddie Jordan "Certainly, the way it left off, it's In 10 seasons with the Sixers, surprising," Luukko said. Iverson posted the highest Rose said he wasn't surprised scoring average in team history both sides put their bitter parting (28.1), was second on the points behind them. list (19,583) and holds the record "It was a good situation that for 3-pointers (877). He was a made sense for them," Rose said. seven-time All-Star, won four "Allen has always had an affinity scoring titles and two All-Star for the city of Philadelphia, the game MVPs. fans, the memories of playing "He's like a rock star," Stefanski here. He's always talked about said. the opportunity to come back." The Sixers (5-13) had lost seven The 6-foot Iverson played three straight entering Wednesday games this season with Memphis night's game at Oklahoma City before taking a leave of absence and need Iverson to spark to attend to personal matters. He sagging ticket sales. The Sixers was waived after the two sides a r e 2 9 t h i n t h e N B A i n agreed to part ways. attendance. The New York Knicks Luukko said Iverson's deal was considered signing Iverson after "absolutely, strictly a basketball he cleared waivers, before decision." deciding he would take too much Jordan said Iverson will likely playing time from younger start in place of rookie Jrue p l a y e r s t h e y a r e t r y i n g t o Holiday. develop.

Iverson would get another look at his former teams after playing Denver. The Sixers, who have not won a playoff series since 2003, play at home Dec. 9 against Detroit. Iverson was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1996 draft, but his 10 turbulent seasons in Philadelphia were marred by rants about practice, run-ins with former coach Larry Brown, arrests and a failed rap career. In one infamous blowup at the end of the 2002 season, he repeated the word "practice" nearly 20 times during a rambling monologue. "Times change, situations change," Luukko said. "The best way was to make this a basketball decision. Don't get personal with it." Iverson has a career average of 27 points in 889 games over 14 seasons, and is tied for the fifthhighest scoring average in NBA history. He ranks third among active players. "It's a great challenge, and I think it's a motivational aspect to it, too," Jordan said. "Guys are going to be jacked up. He's a winner, he's an assassin on the floor and that sort of thing is contagious." Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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TCU's Gary Patterson signs extension through 2016, supports bowl system By Richard Durrett (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:58:23 AM

PTI Debate: Texas or TCU in Title Game? PTI Debate: Texas or TCU in Title Game? VIDEO PLAYLIST • PTI Debate: Texas or TCU in Title Game? PTI Debate: Texas or TCU in Title Game? • Patterson On TCU's Undefeated Season Patterson On TCU's Undefeated Season FORT WORTH, Texas -- On a day when Gary Patterson received a contract extension through 2016, the TCU coach stated that the Horned Frogs can win a national championship despite not being in a BCS conference. And he believes they can do so without a playoff system. Patterson, whose contract includes salary increases for his assistants, maintains that he's in favor of the bowl games and not a playoff system.

"Is it easier to win one game for a championship? Or to have to win four?" Patterson asked. "If you have a playoff, you practice and get on a plane and play. And if you lose, it's over. If you go to a bowl game, you're there seven days and the kids can enjoy a place and get rewarded." Patterson noted there's still a chance his 12-0 team -- TCU's first undefeated squad since 1938 -- could play for a national title this season. For that to happen, No. 4 TCU would need Nebraska to upset No. 3 Texas in the Big 12 championship Saturday at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. Then, the Horned Frogs would need the BCS formula to work in their favor. "We had a vision nine years ago of reaching a BCS bowl and going to a national championship," said Patterson, who is 85-27 after completing his ninth season. "A lot of people laughed and shook their heads and said, 'Well, that's nice.' We're now crossing that threshold.

"We feel like we're very blessed. I do not feel like our work is done. We still have a mountain to climb, a championship to win." Patterson, who has led TCU to five 11-win seasons in the past seven years, believes that playing for a national title is as much about reputation as anything. "You have to show that you can play with everybody consistently," he said. "You have to establish you can do it every year." Last season, TCU finished No. 7 in The Associated Press and USA Today polls, the highest-ranked two-loss team in the nation. If the Frogs win a BCS bowl this season, they could begin 2010 in the top five. That means fewer teams to leapfrog on the way to a possible BCS national championship berth. TCU started this season 17th in both polls. Patterson said even though TCU is not in a BCS conference, the program is gaining national respect and is proving it can play

in the big games. "Ninety percent of the teams [in the BCS] don't have an opportunity to win a national championship," Patterson said. "It's the same 10 teams. We've now gone to a BCS over 80 percent of the Big 12, 80 percent of the SEC, 80 percent of the Big Ten. We've achieved something that all those other teams talk about because they are part of a conference that can get there. We've now jumped over a hurdle by going to a BCS game." Patterson quickly said a BCS bowl wasn't official, as bowl pairings will be announced Sunday. "We're going into houses and everyone knows about TCU," Patterson said. "The only thing that was held over our heads was we couldn't play in a BCS game or play for a national championship." Patterson believes strongly that isn't the case anymore. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

hospital visit after the crash, Montes said. Reached in Sweden by The Associated Press on Wednesday, Woods' father-in-law, Thomas Nordegren, said: "I don't want to comment on this whatsoever." Woods is also on the cover of

the January issue of Golf Digest, a magazine he's had a longstanding relationship with. In a photo illustration, he's pictured with President Barack Obama. The issue offers "10 things Obama could learn from Tiger -and vice versa" according to a

Golf Digest news release. A magazine spokeswoman said Tuesday that the issue was printed before the car crash involving Woods. Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Sources: Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong is Louisville's top candidate By Pat Forde (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:39:55 AM

Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong has emerged as the leading candidate for the Louisville head-coaching job, multiple sources have told ESPN.com. Big East blog ESPN.com's Brian Bennett writes about all things Big East in his conference blog. • Blog network: College Football Nation Cardinals athletic director Tom Jurich has had no contact yet with Strong, sources said. Jurich told his counterpart at Florida, Jeremy Foley, that he will not interfere with the Gators' preparations for the SEC championship game Saturday against Alabama. However, shortly after that game is over, Jurich is expected to contact SOURCES: page 68

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complete each traffic investigation." After consulting with the local prosecutor's office, investigators also decided there was insufficient evidence to issue a subpoena that would have given them access to records from his

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Ron Artest of Los Angeles Lakers says he drank booze at halftime of NBA games By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:50:36 AM

Ron Artest, the oftencontroversial Los Angeles Lakers forward, told a magazine interviewer he used to drink alcohol at halftime of NBA games. “ I used to drink Hennessy ... at halftime," Artest says in the interview, which hits newsstands this week. "I [kept it] in my locker. I'd just walk to the liquor store and get it.”-- Ron Artest to The Sporting News "I used to drink Hennessy ... at halftime," Artest said in an interview with the Sporting News, which is publishing the story in its Dec. 7 issue. "I [kept it] in my locker. I'd just walk to the liquor store and get it." Hennessy is a French cognac. Artest said he drank when he

played for the Chicago Bulls, where he played for his first three seasons (1999-2002). He has since played for Indiana, Sacramento, Houston and the Lakers. He was a member of the Pacers when he was involved in a fight in Detroit that spilled over into the stands. He was suspended for the rest of the 2004-05 season, which turned out to be 73 games. Artest told the Sporting News that the brawl "wasn't my fault. ... I don't see anything I could have done different." Artest told the Sporting News that he has tamed his admittedly wild lifestyle, but still likes to "party and I have fun." TrueHoop: More on Artest Is anybody really surprised about Ron Artest's admissions in a Sporting News story? True Hoop's Henry Abbott has some thoughts. Blog "When I was a 19-year-old

SOURCES: continued from page 67

Strong, and an interview could take place as early as Sunday. Jurich is expected to spend time this week traveling to do research on other prospective candidates for the job, but Strong is the clear father, whew. I was a single f r o n t - r u n n e r a c c o r d i n g t o pimp! I was wild," he told the m u l t i p l e s o u r c e s . magazine. "A lot of marijuana Others who have expressed and alcohol -- even before [that interest in the Louisville job age]. ... I [still] party and I have include Central Michigan coach fun, but not like I used to. I used B u t c h J o n e s a n d f o r m e r to drink every night and party Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer. every night." Sources said Fulmer had a He also criticized NBA referee telephone discussion with Jurich Joey Crawford, who was on the Tuesday to discuss the job, but he floor for two games of the 2009 i s n o t c o n s i d e r e d a p r i m e N B A W e s t e r n C o n f e r e n c e candidate for the position. semifinals. In Game 2, Artest The fact that Strong has not been was ejected after an altercation hired as a head coach yet has with Kobe Bryant. In Game 7, been an enduring mystery to Crawford also officiated, and the many college football observers Lakers won 89-70 to close out - and an enduring frustration to the series. the Black Coaches Association, "Joey Crawford basically said, which seeks to promote minority 'Who cares about the Houston candidates for jobs. Rockets? Kobe Bryant is on the Strong's current Florida defense floor,' " Artest said, according to leads the nation in fewest yards the Sporting News. and points allowed per game, and This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

last year's national championship unit was ninth in total defense and fourth in scoring defense. Strong has carte blanche from head coach Urban Meyer to run the defense; after the Gators held LSU to three points earlier this season in Baton Rouge, Meyer referred all questions about the defensive game plan to his coordinator. He has also been a vital part of Meyer's recruiting machine in the state of Florida and around the South. If Jurich hires Strong, it would be a departure from his previous two head coaches -- Bobby Petrino and the freshly fired Steve Kragthorpe both have offensive backgrounds. Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Britney Spears Does it Again By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:17:19 AM

Britney Spears has had a triumphant year. The pop princess has spent the last 12

months performing in sold out shows all over the world, and topping the charts with her latest album, Circus. Her on-stage looks, designed by DSquared2, reveal the star’s playfully sexy, i s c l a s s i c B r i t n e y — c o t t o n confidant side. Offstage, the look

sundresses, cutoffs, and, of —Violet Moon Gaynor course, Uggs. Here, a look back Photos: Getty Images at Britney’s style from 2009. Follow ELLE on Twitter. (Click here to shop DSquared2's Become our Facebook fan! fall 2009 collection, policewoman costume not included).

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U.S. Close to World Report: Kalika Moquin Cup Seed, Faces Tough Is Third Woman Linked Draw on Friday to Tiger Woods

Reward Offered in Search for Missing Fla. Lottery Winner

By Brian Straus (FanHouse)

By Will Brinson (FanHouse)

Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:00:00 AM

Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:00:00 PM

LAKELAND, Fla. A $5,000 reward is being offered in the search for a missing Florida Lottery winner from Polk County. Abraham Shakespeare won $31 million in 2006. The 43-year-old was last seen in the Lakeland area in early April. The reward was announced Tuesday by the Polk County Sheriff's Office. Spokeswoman Donna Wood had previously said that perhaps Shakespeare does not want to be found, but authorities still need to ask for the public's help in locating him. In April 2007, Shakespeare was sued by a co-worker who alleged that Shakespeare had stolen the tickets from him. Authorities say Shakespeare won the suit in October 2007. Anyone with information should call (863) 534-6379 or ( 863) 534 -6200. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

by Brian Straus Filed under: FIFA World Cup, US Soccer, U.S. Men's National Team FIFA's World Cup organizing committee met Wednesday in some smoke-filled room in Cape Town and, in between bites of caviar and peeled grapes and just after confirming the delivery of a lifetime supply of Coca-Cola products to Jack Warner's compound in Trinidad, announced the procedures and seeding for Friday's World Cup draw (Noon, ESPN2). The decision to base the eight top seeds (including the host) on FIFA's monthly soda-sponsored national team rankings, ignoring past World Cup performance, means the U.S. came tantalizingly close to landing in the first pot -- closer than any of us may have expected when seeding was mentioned as a motivation following October's

by Will Brinson Filed under: Sports Media, Current Events, Golf Kalika Moquin is a nightclub manager in Las Vegas and the third woman allegedly linked to golfer Tiger Woods. draw with Costa Rica. If FIFA This is according to a New York and Coke want to promote their Daily News article that cites a ranking, all the better for the source claiming that Moquin can Americans, who probably always confirm the extramarital affair will be higher than they deserve. with Woods. They cited "an B u t t h e p o t s a n n o u n c e d insider" as its source. "They've Wednesday were anything but a hooked up a bunch of times," favor. The road to next summer's Life & Style's unnamed source second round will be treacherous. said. More Coverage: Final Seeds "Tiger told Kalika that married life isn't all it's built up to be. He Revealed for Draw U.S. Close to World Cup Seed, said he wasn't happy in his Faces Tough Draw on Friday marriage or his home life and that originally appeared on Fanhouse there was just so much pressure Soccer Blog on Wed, 02 Dec on him." However, Moquin 2009 11:00:00 EST . Please see appears unwilling to publicly confirm the affair, stating that our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Linking "It's not appropriate for me to Blogs| Comments

comment one way or another" and claiming that she preferred to remain "focused on her job." More coverage: Grubbs' Alleged Voicemail From Tiger| Ravenous Media Storm Engulfs Tiger, Us| Tiger Talk of Tournament| Full Tiger Coverage Report: Kalika Moquin Is Third Woman Linked to Tiger Woods originally appeared on Fanhouse Backporch on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

(FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/2/2009 5:42:01 AM

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Artest Used to Drink Alcohol at Halftime

Allen Iverson Signs With 76ers

By Matt Moore (FanHouse)

By Will Brinson (FanHouse)

Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:40:00 PM

Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:01:00 AM

by Matt Moore Filed under: Bulls, Lakers The fact that Ron Artest says outlandish stuff is not really noteworthy. For the man called "Crazy Pills" to actually say something which shocks the NBA world means it's pretty far out there. He'd have to say something which strikes right at concerns over safety, or respect for the game, or substance abuse ... And look! He managed all three! In an interview being published this week by Sporting News Magazine, Artest discusses a number of things including the Malice at the Palace (which he says he doesn't know what he could have done differently- Ron, we have a suggestion. How's about deciding not to run into the

by Will Brinson Filed under: 76ers Allen Iverson is returning "home," as the Philadelphia 76ers announced via their team website Wednesday morning that they have signed the future Hall of Famer and stands and hit some guy?), his longtime Philly favorite to a oneimmaturity as a player, and his year deal. role on the Lakers. But the big Team President Ed Stefanski gun is his admission that during said in a news release that the halftime of games when he was team believed "Allen was the with the Bulls between 1999 and best available free agent guard to 2002, he would drink alcohol. help" after the injury to Lou Williams, who will miss up to Hennessy, to be exact. Artest Used to Drink Alcohol at eight weeks. Halftime originally appeared on And from Iverson's perspective, Fanhouse NBA Blog on Wed, 02 the signing offers him a chance to Dec 2009 13:40:00 EST . Please erase the bitter taste that lingered from unsuccessful stops in see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Linking Detroit and Memphis, as well as the opportunity to finish his NBA Blogs| Comments

career in a place where he has always been considered a sports idol. The 34-year-old Iverson is expected to make his Sixers debut Monday against Denver. Allen Iverson Signs With 76ers originally appeared on Fanhouse NBA Blog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:01:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

Vince Young Better QB for Chris Johnson By Michael David Smith (FanHouse) Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:45:00 AM

by Michael David Smith Filed under: Titans For most of the season, the NFL MVP conversation has looked like a three-man race among Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Brett Favre. But now, in one of the VINCE page 71

Final Seeds Revealed for World Cup Draw By Michael Cardillo (FanHouse)

World Cup feels a lot like a latenight lottery drawing, where the numbers are vacuumed out of a Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:58:00 AM large hopper. On Friday FIFA by Michael Cardillo executives -- along with celebs Filed under: FIFA World Cup, like Charlize Theron -- will I n t e r n a t i o n a l S o c c e r , literally pull the names of the 32 International, Soccer Posts participating countries out of four There's a good reason that the pots to determine the eight, fourscheduling and seeding for the team groups for next June's

tournament in South Africa. Wednesday -- two days before

the actual draw -- FIFA shed a little light on the process by divulging the top eight seeds for the draw. Hosts South Africa, an outlier in the FIFA rankings, joins Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Italy, Germany, England and the Netherlands in "Pot 1." Final Seeds Revealed for World Cup Draw originally appeared on

Fanhouse Soccer Blog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:58:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

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biggest shocks of this 2009 season, two members of the previously 0-6 Tennessee Titans are starting to get some MVP talk. Both quarterback Vince Young, who has led the Titans to a 5-0 record after Kerry Collins led them to that 0-6 start, and running back Chris Johnson, who just completed the most productive rushing month in NFL history, are now legitimate MVP candidates.

Vince Young Better QB for Chris Johnson originally appeared on Fanhouse NFL Blog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

ECA members cry foul over auto-renewal cancellation hassles By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:00:00 PM

In an attempt to bolster its ranks with thrifty members of the gaming community, the Entertainment Consumers Association recently partnered with a few online retailers to offer its members some nice deals on video games, including a pretty sweet discount on purchases from Amazon. To accompany these offers, the ECA had its own spectacular deal: One free year of membership, which would normally cost $19.99. All applicants had to do was provide their credit card information, sign up and enjoy the discounts that were being passed along to ECA members. Sadly, this is where the idyllic tale begins to go south. Shortly

after the ECA began offering the free year of membership, the Amazon offer mysteriously disappeared. This drew the ire of the group's new members, but would be quickly forgotten when the option to cancel the autorenewal of the membership fee, through the ECA's website, also

vanished without a trace. An ECA forum moderator explained the option only appeared "for some browsers, but it wasn't intended to be there, wasn't a working option and was removed as soon as we became aware." Now, users who were drawn in by these discounts can only

cancel their memberships (and subsequent annual $20 fees) by sending a letter directly to the ECA's accounting department (the address is posted after the jump). What's worse, those who canceled their auto-renewal plans with the temporarily available online option could still be

locked into the annual fee, if the moderator's claim that it "wasn't a working option" is accurate. We've contacted the ECA to find out if anything is being done to inform these honorable, duepaying members that they're still, you know, due-paying members. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!] Continue reading ECA members cry foul over auto-renewal cancellation hassles ECA members cry foul over auto-renewal cancellation hassles originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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EA's Riccitiello predicts fewer titles per year, harder push for digital distribution

New Medal of Honor promises 'most authentic modern war experience' By Ludwig Kietzmann (Joystiq)

on missions no one else can handle," and not described as an oddly militant member of ZZ Submitted at 12/2/2009 12:35:00 PM Top. EA claims that "Tier 1 Click to enlarge Operators from the US Special S h r u g g i n g o f f y e a r s o f Operations Community" have m e d i o c r i t y a n d p a r t i a l l y been involved since the earliest descriptive subtitles, EA's newly s t a g e s o f t h e g a m e ' s announced Medal of Honor d e v e l o p m e n t . reboot will thrust players into a The publisher seems intent on modern milieu: Afghanistan. Set throwing the gauntlet down in the for release in 2010 on PC, modern war arena (do they still PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the use gauntlets?), promising a "best new first-person shooter follows -in-class single-player campaign" the Tier 1 Operator, described as from the minds at EA Los "a relatively unknown entity Angeles, as well as a multiplayer directly under the National component developed by the Command Authority who takes Battlefield veterans at DICE.

You can bear witness to the game's full unveiling during Spike TV's 2009 Video Game Awards on Saturday, December 12 at 8:00PM PT. You can witness beard in the gallery below. Gallery: Medal of Honor (2010) New Medal of Honor promises 'most authentic modern war experience' originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)

and distribution. Riccitiello believes packaged games like Madden NFL will always have a Submitted at 12/2/2009 3:00:00 PM following, but that digital [ EndSights] distribution will account for half Having already implemented the industry in 2010, up from 40 major layoffs for a second year in percent. He states that EA's a row, EA CEO John Riccitiello "goal" for the publisher's digital needs to start cutting more nitty- distribution operation is to gritty costs. Following up on become "as important as, and previous statements about cutting over time maybe more important the number of releases per year, t h a n , o u r p a c k a g e d g o o d s the executive tells Reuters that b u s i n e s s . " the company will have 40 EA's Riccitiello predicts fewer releases in the next fiscal year, titles per year, harder push for but that around 30 releases a year digital distribution originally "wouldn't shock [him] at some appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 point in the future." Focusing on Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please fewer, quality titles sounds like see our terms for use of feeds. the THQ gambit. Read| Permalink| Email this| Another way EA can reduce Comments costs is by cutting down on its packaged goods manufacturing

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Silent Hill's Akira Yamaoka officially leaves Konami

Converse Gets Inspi(RED) With New Kicks

By Richard Mitchell (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/2/2009 1:58:00 PM

That eerie, oppressive sound you hear is that of a million Silent Hill soundtracks being played in memoriam of Akira Yamaoka. Original Sound Version has confirmed Yamaoka's departure from Konami, a rumor that began circulating yesterday. Yamaoka is known primarily for his work on the characteristic soundscapes of Konami's Silent Hill series, including the upcoming Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. In fact, the man has composed the soundtrack for every game in the series (with the exception of the GBA spinoff, Silent Hill Play Novel). He has also served as a producer on the series since Silent Hill 3. Exactly where the composer plans to go from here is unknown, though OSV claims to be preparing an interview with

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

Rumor: Sun sets on 'Edge of Twilight'

Submitted at 12/1/2009 1:04:18 PM

In recognition of World AIDS Day, Converse has once again Yamaoka in "the coming days." partnered up with JoinRED to In the meantime, we plan to let By Alexander Sliwinski c o n t a c t e d t o d a y , p u b l i s h e r bring us a new twist on their his music lull us into a nervous, (Joystiq) SouthPeak Games offered, "No oldie but favorite-y Chuck Taylor nightmare-ridden sleep. comment." If the rumor is true, sneaker. The RED Leather Jacket Submitted at 12/2/2009 2:30:00 PM [Via Hell Descent] don't be too sad about missing (j acket because of its zipper Silent Hill's Akira Yamaoka Little-known " steampunk out on Fuzzyeyes' God of War- detailing down front and back) is o f f i c i a l l y l e a v e s K o n a m i f a n t a s y " g a m e E d g e o f inspired title. After all, the a limited edition, more than a originally appeared on Joystiq on Twilight(hey, Tim Langdell, original Ghost of Sparta will star little ‘80s-inspired hi-top, 5% of Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:58:00 that's your cue) has apparently in a new installment early next whose retail price of $200 goes EST. Please see our terms for gone over the horizon and into year -- and there's always Dante's directly to The Global Fund to use of feeds. fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and oblivion. Kotaku cites sources at Inferno. Read| Permalink| Email this| A u s t r a l i a - b a s e d F u z z y e y e s Gallery: Edge of Twilight Malaria. Comments Studios (which may have shut Rumor: Sun sets on 'Edge of First produced in 1917, the now down) that claim the game Twilight' originally appeared on famous shoe didn’t get its ceased development months ago. Joystiq on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 familiar moniker until six years The title was supposed to release 14:30:00 EST. Please see our later when high school basketball player Chuck Taylor went to this year on PC, PS3 and Xbox terms for use of feeds. 360. Read| Permalink| Email this| Converse, asked for a job, and began making suggestions on The last we'd seen of Edge of Comments how his favorite footwear could Twilight was a Japanese trailer be made even better. This year, released in late 2008. When the company’s 101st, there are so many varying styles of—not to mention, designer collaborations with—the original, it’s hard to CONVERSE page 75

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The Perfect Holiday Gift: Tateossian Zodiac Bracelet By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/2/2009 7:57:26 AM

Send Letters from Lanvin By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:50:03 AM

They’ve already got Carla Bruni and Colette, and now the French have something else we don’t: a pair of Alber Elbaz designed postage stamps. In celebration of Lanvin’s 120th anniversary, the fashion house has teamed up with La Poste (the French USPS) to produce the prettiest .90€ and .56€ ways to send your handwritten sentiments, starting

early next year. The stamps, which feature original prints of Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz’s well-loved whimsical cartoons, are only the first for-sale item to come out of the unique collaboration; later next year, expect to see limited edition ceramic hearts as well as pencils, notebooks, and other such letterwriting accoutrements. The only catch? Until the e-commerce store is up and running on the La Poste’s website (their latest news update is over three months old,

mind you), you’ll have to travel to Paris, specifically the post office on Rue des Mathurins, the only location at which Lanvin’s most affordable designs are to be sold. —Johanna Cox, Junior Editor Elbaz and his pretty draw-rings Photos: WireImage and Phil@Poste Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

This is it, the holiday gift that will fit any recipient, any budget, and will likely be loved by all who receive it. It's Tateossian's Zodiac bracelet. In an effort to create something personal while staying on current jewelry trends, designer Robert Tateossian infused the simplicity of an adjustable waxed cord with the sturdiness of silver to create an item that's as classic as it stylish. "Men are increasingly wearing very thin bracelets around their wrists, usually on the same arm as their watch, so I wanted to incorporate an element of silver in it and make it very personal," said the designer, "I thought this is the way to do it, to make it personal, by having your zodiac." In January, Tateossian plans to unveil in variations of the Zodiac

bracelet, incorporating semi precious stones like onyx and amethyst and other metals like 18 carat rose gold. And though it is technically a men's piece, it looks just as chic (and is just as loved) by the ladies. Best of all, it won't break the bank, as the cost is only in the neighborhood of $100. Check out tateossian.com to order. —Rebecca Suhrawardi Austin Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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keep track of them all. Fortunately, if you’re looking for a pair that gets you from here to there and benefits those in need, all you have to do is click on over to Converse and pick these up. Or, head over to JoinRED to see Converse’s entire selection of charitable sneaks. —Johanna Cox, Junior Editor

For your next ‘80s party, or just to kick around downtown: Converse’s RED Leather Jacket hi-top Photo: Converse.com

Warrant: Blood found in Yale murder suspect's home (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:36:36 AM

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Police found blood on the kitchen floor of the home of a Yale University lab technician charged with killing a Yale graduate student days before her wedding, according to search warrant affidavits released Wednesday. Raymond Clark III sent e-mails to 24-year-old Annie Le "in the recent past," the affidavits said. Her e-mail address was found in a laboratory locker labeled "Ray," the documents said. The warrants do not indicate the source of the blood found in Clark's apartment. Le's body was found stuffed behind a research lab wall in September on the day she was supposed to get married on Long Island. Autopsy results show Le was strangled, but the motive remains unclear. Clark has not yet entered a plea.

His public defender, Joe Lopez, did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday. The affidavits show that police searched for evidence in Clark's home, two cars that he used and numerous lockers in the laboratory building where Le's body was found. The suspect "has gone to great lengths to conceal evidence in multiple locations in unusual places," the affidavits said. Two days before Clark was arrested, investigators said they found blood "in plain view" on the kitchen floor near the entrance to his apartment. Authorities took plastic door panels and carpeting with "bloodlike stains" from the Taurus in which Clark was riding in the hours after Le's disappearance. Investigators found a white rag, tweezers, scissors, a screwdriver and several plastic tubes in a clogged drain pipe in the building

where Le's body was found, the affidavits said. Portions of the affidavits released Wednesday were blacked out. Police had previously revealed that they discovered other items linking Clark to Le's death, including a green-ink pen under Le's body with her blood and Clark's DNA. Police have said Clark signed into the secure building with a green pen on Sept. 8, the day Le disappeared. They had also said DNA from Le and Clark was on a bloody sock found hidden in a ceiling. Elsewhere in the building, they found a pair of work boots labeled "Ray-C" that had bloodlike stains on them, and a hospital scrub shirt with bloodlike stains that was similar to the shirt Clark wore that day, police had previously said. In arrest warrant affidavits released last month, Clark told

investigators that he never socialized with Le or had contact with her outside of work. He told investigators that he knew Le for about four months, according to court papers. Clark told police that Le left the building 15 minutes before him, carrying her notebook and two bags of mouse food. An extensive search of the crime scene failed to locate Le's notebook or her shoes. Court papers previously released describe a bloody crime scene and Clark's efforts to scrub floors. Investigators say Clark tried to hide a box of "Wipe-Alls" that later was found to have traces of Le's blood. Clark was also seen by investigators scrubbing floors with SOS pads and cleaning solution even though the floor appeared to be clean, according to the affidavit. He was also

spotted "on the floor" inside Le's lab scrubbing under a sink with a brush or cleansing pad, the affidavit said. Investigators uncovered "a possible medium velocity bloodlike spray pattern" on the wall that tested positive for blood and showed apparent efforts to clean the blood off the wall. The blood at the scene suggests there was a struggle, experts said, noting the scratches on Clark's body and the surgical gloves Le was wearing that left her thumb exposed. ___ Associated Press Writer John Christoffersen in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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More charges likely in Wash. police killing (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/2/2009 11:51:26 AM

SEATTLE – With an ex-convict suspected in the coffee-shop ambush killings of four police officers now dead, authorities focused on pursuing those who may have helped him escape and stay on the lam for two days amid a frantic manhunt. Prosecutors were expected Wednesday to charge Maurice Clemmons' alleged getaway driver, Darcus D. Allen, according to Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer. Authorities accuse Allen, a convicted murderer who served time in an Arkansas prison with Clemmons, of being the getaway driver for Clemmons as he fled the scene of the shootings at coffee shop in Parkland early Sunday. Two women accused of giving Clemmons first aid and rides also may be charged Wednesday in Tacoma, Troyer said. He said Clemmons' aunt, Letricia Nelson, was arrested Tuesday evening in Pacific, northest of Tacoma, for allegedly giving first aid to Clemmons, helping him change clothes and making arrangements to get him to other locations. Arrested around the same time in Des Moines, Wash., was Quiana Maylea Williams, an acquaintance of Clemmons. Both women are being held in the Pierce County jail. Three other people appeared

Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court. Two brothers, Eddie Lee Davis and Douglas Edward Davis, are charged with rendering criminal assistance. A third man, Clemmons' halfbrother Rickey Hinton, was ordered held pending charges. Clemmons, 37, was shot to death early Tuesday by a Seattle police officer. His death ended two days of fear across the Seattle-Tacoma area and a huge manhunt. Dozens of police officers milled around at the scene afterward, some solemnly shaking hands and patting each other on the back. Officer Benjamin Kelly had spotted a stolen car, its hood up and engine running, on a south Seattle street and pulled over to check it out. As the patrolman sat in his cruiser, a burly man with a large mole on his cheek came up from behind, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel said. The officer turned, stepped outside his car and recognized the most wanted man in the Pacific Northwest. Clemmons was shot by the patrolman after Clemmons made a move for a gun he had taken from one of the slain officers, police said. "Good thing he wasn't able to get the gun out here or we might have had a different ending to this whole thing," Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. "The officer in Seattle did a good job of making sure he went home safe." Clemmons eluded capture thanks

to family and friends who provided him with shelter, cell phones, cash and first aid for the severe wound he suffered when one of the dying officers in Sunday morning's Pierce County coffee-shop rampage got off a shot, police said. Six to seven of those associates were being arrested. Among them, police said, was Allen, who served in prison with Clemmons in Arkansas and is accused of driving the getaway truck after the coffee shop rampage; the Davis brothers, accused of traveling with Clemmons as he eluded police; and a woman who allegedly bandaged him up and gave him a lift part way to Seattle. It wasn't immediately known if she or Allen had attorneys; the other two have pleaded not guilty. "Some are friends, some are acquaintances, some are partners in crime, some are relatives. Now they're all partners in crime," Troyer said. Troyer said paramedics were stunned that Clemmons lived as long as he did with the bullet wound. It was not entirely clear where Clemmons was while on the run. But authorities believe he visited locations in Seattle, Pacific and Auburn in the hours after the ambush in the Tacoma suburb of Parkland, according to Pierce County documents filed in the case against Eddie Lee Davis, one of those charged with

rendering assistance. On Sunday, Clemmons briefly took refuge at a house in Seattle's well-to-do Leschi neighborhood, slipping away before police surrounded the home in an allnight siege that ended when SWAT officers stormed the place and realized he wasn't there. Before Clemmons arrived at the Seattle house, a woman described by police as a friend bought medical supplies for him and helped treat the gunshot wound. Clemmons also washed and dried a load of laundry at her house, according to court documents. Clemmons has a violent, erratic past, and authorities in Washington state and Arkansas — where then- Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2000 commuted his 108-year prison sentence for armed robbery and other offenses — are facing tough questions about why an apparently violent and deranged man was out on the street. In a statement posted on the conservative Newsmax.com Web site, Huckabee said: "I take full responsibility for my actions of nine years ago. I acted on the facts presented to me in 2000. If I could have possibly known what Clemmons would do nine years later, I obviously would have made a different decision. But if the same file was presented to me today, I would have likely made the same decision." Court documents say police first suspected Clemmons after finding an abandoned pickup

truck registered to a business address of his. A truck matching that description was seen fleeing the ambush scene by the baristas who witnessed the start of the attack. "The only motive that we have is he decided he was going to go kill police officers," Troyer said. Investigators also reported that Clemmons told others the night before the shooting that he was going to kill police and they should watch the news, but they wrote it off as "crazy-talk." At the time of his arrest in Washington state earlier this year, investigators said Clemmons had visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse. He also told the officer that President Obama and LeBron James are his brothers and Oprah Winfrey is his sister, and referred to himself as "the beast," according to court papers obtained by The News Tribune of Tacoma. A psychological evaluation in October found he was a risk to public safety, but not enough of one to justify committing him, the newspaper reported. ___ Contributing to this report were Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Curt Woodward in Tacoma, Donna Blankinship, Manuel Valdes and George Tibbits in Seattle, Jill Zeman Bleed in Little MORE page 79

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Getaway Driver, Others to Be Charged in Cop Shootings (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/2/2009 8:57:52 AM

SEATTLE With an ex-convict suspected in the coffee-shop ambush killings of four police officers now dead, authorities focused on pursuing those who may have helped him escape and stay on the lam for two days amid a frantic manhunt. Prosecutors were expected Wednesday to charge Maurice Clemmons' alleged getaway driver, Darcus D. Allen, according to Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer. Authorities accused Allen, who served time in an Arkansas prison with Clemmons, of helping him flee the scene of the shootings at the coffee shop in Parkland early Sunday. Two women accused of giving Clemmons first aid and rides also may be charged Wednesday in Tacoma. SLIDESHOW: Deadly Lakewood Police Shooting Three other people appeared Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court. Two brothers, Eddie Lee Davis and Douglas Edward Davis, are charged with rendering criminal assistance. A third man, Clemmons' halfbrother Rickey Hinton, was ordered held pending charges. Clemmons, 37, was shot to death early Tuesday by a Seattle police

officer. His death ended two days of fear across the Seattle-Tacoma area and a huge manhunt. Dozens of police officers milled around at the scene afterward, some solemnly shaking hands and patting each other on the back. Officer Benjamin Kelly had spotted a stolen car, its hood up and engine running, on a south Seattle street and pulled over to check it out. As the patrolman sat in his cruiser, a burly man with a large mole on his cheek came up from behind, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel said. The officer turned, stepped outside his car and recognized the most wanted man in the Pacific Northwest. Clemmons was shot by the patrolman after Clemmons made a move for a gun he had taken from one of the slain officers, police said. "Good thing he wasn't able to get the gun out here or we might have had a different ending to this whole thing," Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. "The officer in Seattle did a good job of making sure he went home safe." Clemmons eluded capture thanks to family and friends who provided him with shelter, cell phones, cash and first aid for the severe wound he suffered when one of the dying officers in Sunday morning's Pierce County

coffee-shop rampage got off a shot, police said. Six to seven of those associates were being arrested. Among them, police said, was Allen, a convicted murderer who served in prison with Clemmons in Arkansas and is accused of driving the getaway truck after the coffee shop rampage; two men who later traveled with Clemmons as he eluded police; and Clemmons' sister, who bandaged him up and gave him a lift part way to Seattle. It wasn't immediately known if she or Allen had attorneys; the other two have pleaded not guilty. "Some are friends, some are acquaintances, some are partners in crime, some are relatives. Now they're all partners in crime," Troyer said. Troyer said paramedics were stunned that Clemmons lived as long as he did with the bullet wound. It was not entirely clear where Clemmons was while on the run. But authorities believe he visited locations in Seattle, Pacific and Auburn in the hours after the ambush in the Tacoma suburb of Parkland, according to Pierce County documents filed in the case against Eddie Lee Davis, one of those charged with rendering assistance. On Sunday, Clemmons briefly

took refuge at a house in Seattle's well-to-do Leschi neighborhood, slipping away before police surrounded the home in an allnight siege that ended when SWAT officers stormed the place and realized he wasn't there. Before Clemmons arrived at the Seattle house, a woman described by police as a friend bought medical supplies for him and helped treat the gunshot wound. Clemmons also washed and dried a load of laundry at her house, according to court documents. Clemmons has a violent, erratic past, and authorities in Washington state and Arkansas â&#x20AC;&#x201D; where then-Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2000 commuted his 108-year prison sentence for armed robbery and other offenses â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are facing tough questions about why an apparently violent and deranged man was out on the street. In a statement posted on the conservative Newsmax.com Web site, Huckabee said: "I take full responsibility for my actions of nine years ago. I acted on the facts presented to me in 2000. If I could have possibly known what Clemmons would do nine years later, I obviously would have made a different decision. But if the same file was presented to me today, I would have likely made the same decision." Court documents say police first

suspected Clemmons after finding an abandoned pickup truck registered to a business address of his. A truck matching that description was seen fleeing the ambush scene by the baristas who witnessed the start of the attack. "The only motive that we have is he decided he was going to go kill police officers," Troyer said. Investigators also reported that Clemmons told others the night before the shooting that he was going to kill police and they should watch the news, but they wrote it off as "crazy-talk." At the time of his arrest in Washington state earlier this year, investigators said Clemmons had visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse. He also told the officer that President Obama and LeBron James are his brothers and Oprah Winfrey is his sister, and referred to himself as "the beast," according to court papers obtained by The News Tribune of Tacoma. A psychological evaluation in October found he was a risk to public safety, but not enough of one to justify committing him, the newspaper reported. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Taliban defiant over Obama surge (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

opposition to the eight-year-old war. Gen Stanley McChrystal, the US Submitted at 12/2/2009 10:28:26 AM commander in Afghanistan, who Please turn on JavaScript. Media had asked for 40,000 extra requires JavaScript to play. troops, welcomed Mr Obama's Taliban commander warns US speech, saying he had been given The Taliban say they will step "a clear military mission" and the up their fight in Afghanistan, necessary resources. after pledges by the US and its The reinforcements will take the allies to send large total number of US troops in reinforcements to the country. Afghanistan to more than A Taliban commander told the 100,000. BBC that if more US troops The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in came, more would die. Kandahar says that Gen US President Barack Obama, McChrystal's message is that the announcing a long-awaited president's announcement is not strategy on Tuesday, said another just about troop numbers but 30,000 American troops would about a new clarity in the US be deployed quickly in mission there. Afghanistan. He told troops that the success of Defence Secretary Robert Gates their operation would be judged t h a n t h r e e m o n t h s o f not on how many militants were told the US Congress that a staging area for resurgent forces. militant groups on the offensive A Taliban commander, who did deliberations and 10 top-level killed but how many Afghans curbing the Taliban was essential in Pakistan." not give his name but is part of meetings with advisers. for regional security. were given new opportunities Speaking to the Senate Armed He said the first of the new US the ruling council in Wardak In his speech at the West Point and gave up their support for the Services Committee, Mr Gates troops could hit the ground in province, told the BBC there military academy in New York, insurgency, our correspondent stressed that the US goal in Afghanistan in two to three could be no peace talks until all he said US forces lacked "the full says. f o r e i g n t r o o p s h a d l e f t support they need to effectively Gen McChrystal also backed Mr Afghanistan and Pakistan was to weeks. "Beginning to transfer security Afghanistan. train and partner with Afghan Obama's estimate that enough defeat the al-Qaeda network and to do that, the Taliban must responsibility to the Afghans in He said: "Obama is sending security forces and better secure progress would have been made summer 2011 is critical - and, in more troops to Afghanistan and the population". be pushed back. by 2011 for the withdrawal of that means more Americans will "I have determined that it is in A m e r i c a n f o r c e s t o b e g i n , Please turn on JavaScript. Media my view achievable," he said. Senator John McCain, the senior die. With just a handful of our vital national interest to send although he warned of further requires JavaScript to play. President Obama on the troop Republican on the committee, resources we can cause them an additional 30,000 US troops to casualties to come. said he backed Mr Obama's even more casualties and deaths." Afghanistan," he told cadets. surge Some 32,000 other foreign "Failure in Afghanistan would decision to deploy more troops The commander claimed that "After 18 months, our troops will troops are also serving in mean a Taliban takeover of but not the announcement of an foreign forces, not the Taliban, begin to come home." Afghanistan. Nato Secretary much, if not most, of the country " a r b i t r a r y d a t e " f o r t h e i r w e r e r e s p o n s i b l e f o r m o s t 'Common fight' General Anders Fogh Rasmussen Afghan civilian deaths, but the Rising violence - more than 900 urged members to do more. and likely a renewed civil war," w i t h d r a w a l . 'More casualties' opposite is true, the BBC's Ian U S s o l d i e r s h a v e d i e d i n He told reporters on Wednesday he said. Afghanistan - and August's that 5,000 extra troops would be "Taliban-ruled areas could in The Taliban expressed defiance Pannell in Kabul says. M r O b a m a r e a c h e d h i s discredited elections in the short order become, once again, a in the face of Mr Obama's TALIBAN page 79 sanctuary for al-Qaeda as well as commitment to send additional deployment decision after more country have fanned domestic

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Affidavits: Blood Found in Yale Murder Suspect's Home

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sent in 2010, and "probably" a few thousand in addition. "This is our fight together," he said. "We must finish it (FOXNews.com) searched for evidence in Clark's Clark's DNA. Police have said floors. home, two cars that he used and Clark signed into the secure Investigators say Clark tried to t o g e t h e r . " Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:34:57 AM n u m e r o u s l o c k e r s i n t h e building with a green pen on hide a box of "Wipe-Alls" that The UN envoy to Afghanistan, NEW HAVEN, Conn Police laboratory building where Le's Sept. 8, the day Le disappeared. later was found to have traces of Kai Eide, told the BBC he did not believe the announcement from found blood on the kitchen floor body was found. They had also said DNA from Le's blood. of the home of a Yale University The suspect "has gone to great Le and Clark was on a bloody C l a r k w a s a l s o s e e n b y Washington amounted to an exit lab technician charged with lengths to conceal evidence in sock found hidden in a ceiling. investigators scrubbing floors strategy because a long-term killing a Yale graduate student multiple locations in unusual Elsewhere in the building, they with SOS pads and cleaning commitment remained. He stressed the need to d a y s b e f o r e h e r w e d d i n g , places," the affidavits said. found a pair of work boots solution even though the floor strengthen Afghan institutions at according to search warrant Two days before Clark was labeled "Ray-C" that had blood- appeared to be clean, according affidavits released Wednesday. arrested, investigators said they like stains on them, and a to the affidavit. He was also a l o c a l l e v e l a n d b u i l d a Raymond Clark III sent e-mails found blood "in plain view" on hospital scrub shirt with blood- spotted "on the floor" inside Le's s u s t a i n a b l e e c o n o m y . to 24-year-old Annie Le "in the the kitchen floor near the like stains that was similar to the lab scrubbing under a sink with a The Afghan government said it recent past," the affidavits said. e n t r a n c e t o h i s a p a r t m e n t . shirt Clark wore that day, police brush or cleansing pad, the supported the new US strategy. Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Her e-mail address was found in Authorities took plastic door had previously said. affidavit said. S panta said that with a laboratory locker labeled panels and carpeting with "bloodIn arrest warrant affidavits Investigators uncovered "a "Ray," the documents said. like stains" from the Taurus in released last month, Clark told possible medium velocity blood- international help, Afghanistan's The warrants do not indicate the which Clark was riding in the investigators that he never like spray pattern" on the wall armed forces would be able to source of the blood found in hours after Le's disappearance. socialized with Le or had contact that tested positive for blood and start taking responsibility for Clark's apartment. Le's body was Investigators found a white rag, with her outside of work. He told showed apparent efforts to clean security in 18 months. Print Sponsor found stuffed behind a research tweezers, scissors, a screwdriver investigators that he knew Le for the blood off the wall. lab wall in September on what and several plastic tubes in a about four months, according to The blood at the scene suggests This content has passed through was supposed to be her wedding clogged drain pipe in the building court papers. there was a struggle, experts said, fivefilters.org. day. Autopsy results show Le where Le's body was found, the Clark told police that Le left the noting the scratches on Clark's was strangled, but the motive affidavits said. building 15 minutes before him, body and the surgical gloves Le remains unclear. Portions of the affidavits carrying her notebook and two was wearing that left her thumb Clark has not yet entered a plea. r e l e a s e d W e d n e s d a y w e r e b a g s o f m o u s e f o o d . A n exposed. His public defender, Joe Lopez, b l a c k e d o u t . extensive search of the crime This content has passed through did not immediately return a Police had previously revealed scene failed to locate Le's fivefilters.org. phone call Wednesday. that they discovered other items notebook or her shoes. SLIDESHOW: Yale Graduate linking Clark to Le's death, Court papers previously released Student Murdered including a green-ink pen under describe a bloody crime scene The affidavits show that police Le's body with her blood and and Clark's efforts to scrub

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Rock, Ark., and researcher Judy Ausuebel in New York. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Woods admits letting family down (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:56:46 AM

Golf star Tiger Woods has apologised to his family, amid continuing speculation about his private life following a car crash last week. "I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart," he said in a statement, without elaborating further. "I have not been true to my values and the behaviour my family deserves." Woods was found bleeding and semi-conscious after his car hit a tree and fire hydrant outside his Florida home. He was charged with careless driving, which carries a $164 (ÂŁ98) fine and four points on his driving record. 'Personal sins' The 14-time major champion has been married to his Swedish wife Elin for five years and has two young children. He denied rumours that physical violence played any role in the

incident, saying they were "utterly false and malicious". In his statement, he also said: "Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn't have to mean public confessions. "I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves." His statement follows a story in a US gossip magazine in which a Los Angeles cocktail waitress claims to have had a 31-month affair with Woods. Us Weekly magazine posted online an audio clip of what was purported to be Tiger Woods begging the 24-year-old woman to take her name off her voicemail greeting in order to hide their affair. The caller's identity has not been verified. 'Closed doors' In his statement, Woods also appealed for privacy for his family. "Although I am a well-known person and have made my career as a professional athlete, I have been dismayed to realise the full extent of what tabloid scrutiny

really means," he said in the statement. "I am dealing with my behaviour and personal failings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone." The golfer also offered a "profound apology" to his supporters. Woods has become an international sporting icon since winning his first major in 1997 at the age of 21. The 33-year-old American, who is just four short of equalling Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major victories, is regarded as one of the world's all-time great golfers. He has been fiercely protective of his personal life, and his cleancut image has helped him amass a fortune through product endorsements and appearance fees. Print Sponsor This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, known as the West Memphis Three, were innocent after watching documentaries on the case. Her letter seeking donations for the trio's legal defense fund mentioned a DNA test that found a hair belonging to Hobbs on a shoelace used to bind one of the murdered boys. "I am confident that you will see the DNA evidence is irrefutable and that these three men did not get the kind of trial that is promised to us â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as Americans," Maines' letter said. Echols was sentenced to death for the killings, while Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison. Courts have repeatedly rejected their appeals for a new trial. Hobbs' lawsuit claimed the letter "when taken as a whole, accused (Hobbs) of committing the murder of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore." The lawsuit, filed in November 2008, claimed Maines' comments were "malicious, libelous, slanderous and false" and sought damages. But U.S. District Judge Brian Miller ruled Tuesday that Hobbs couldn't establish " actual malice" â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that Maines knew the

statements were false or that she made them with " reckless disregard" of the truth. Miller noted Maines rejected changes to the letter she posted on the Web site because she didn't want to stray from information she'd received from the West Memphis Three's attorneys. "All of the legal stuff is copied directly from the court filing and legal papers that were written by the defense team," Maines wrote to an e-mail to her manager, which was included in the court record. "I don't want to put any of that in my own words." Miller also pointed out that Hobbs has spoken publicly about the DNA test. "Hobbs admits that he wanted the public to know that if the victims had his hair on them, it was because the boys played with Stevie pretty regularly, not because Hobbs committed the murders," Miller's order said. Hobbs' attorney, Cody Hiland, didn't immediately return a call for comment Wednesday, nor did an attorney for Maines. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Congress to debate Zelaya return (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

As well as Brazil, several other nations, including Argentina and Venezuela, have refused to Submitted at 12/2/2009 9:29:21 AM recognise the vote, arguing it was Congress in Honduras is due to h e l d u n d e r a n i l l e g i t i m a t e debate whether ousted President g o v e r n m e n t . M a n u e l Z e l a y a s h o u l d b e The US cautiously welcomed the restored to office to serve out his p o l l s , a n d P e r u , P a n a m a , term which ends in January. Colombia and Costa Rica also Mr Zelaya, who was ousted in voiced their support. June, has told the BBC that he 'Honduran reality' will refuse reinstatement because On Monday, Mr Zelaya said the he does not want "to legitimise a election of Mr Lobo as the next coup". president had served only to Conservative politician Porfirio intensify the political crisis. Lobo won Sunday's presidential Speaking to BBC Mundo from elections, which were condemned inside the Brazilian embassy by Mr Zelaya. where he took refuge in Regional reaction to the election September, he said: "Will the has been split. elections change the military "We can't pretend nothing leadership that conducted the happened," Brazilian President coup that ousted me? It remains Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on the same. Will the elections Tuesday. change the composition of the "If this state of affairs is allowed Supreme Court that issued an to remain, democracy will be at arrest warrant [against me] serious risk in Latin and Central without due cause? It remains the America," he was quoted as same," Mr Zelaya said. saying by the Associated Press. Mr Lobo, who lost to Mr Zelaya

in the 2005 election, has pledged to form a unity government and seek dialogue. Mr Lobo, who is due to take office on 27 January, also urged the international community to "understand the Honduran reality and stop punishing the country". Mr Zelaya was forced into exile on 28 June after trying to hold a vote on whether a constituent assembly should be set up to look at rewriting the constitution. His critics said the vote, which was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court, aimed to remove the current one-term limit on serving as president and pave the way for his possible re-election. Mr Zelaya has repeatedly denied this and pointed out that it would have been impossible to change the constitution before his term in office was up. Print Sponsor This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Man charged with mass Ohio murder (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 12/1/2009 1:52:00 PM

A former US marine has been charged with 11 murders after the remains of 10 bodies and a separate skull were found in his Ohio home. Anthony Sowell is also charged with kidnapping, rape and abusing a corpse, among other indictments. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the 50-year-old if he is found guilty. Mr Sowell has denied carrying out the attacks and killing the women in Cleveland. Mr Sowell is also alleged to have attacked a further three women on three separate occasions in 2008. Prosecutor Bill Mason said that the suspect lured vulnerable women to his home before attacking them, Associated Press reported. He said: "The Cuyahoga County grand jury has returned an indictment against this monster for brutalising three women, two

of whom were raped, and murdering 11 more." Most appear to have been poor black women with drug addictions. 'Vulnerable' The case has prompted calls for Cleveland police to respond faster and devote more resources to missing-person cases. Human remains were found in his home following a complaint to police by a 36-year-old who said she was attacked by him. He has already pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, kidnapping, attempted murder and felonious assault in relation to that attack. Mr Mason said investigators are examining whether the former US marine was connected to unsolved killings elsewhere. He said the 11 victims were, in general, strangled. Mr Sowell had already been charged with five counts of aggravated murder. Print Sponsor This content has passed through fivefilters.org.