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Anti-Americanism at play in Italian verdict? By Roberta Rampton (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:23:12 AM

Did anti-American sentiment play into the guilty verdict for American exchange student Amanda Knox? Her family and a prominent U.S. senator are crying foul. Knox was sentenced last week to 26 years in prison for murdering her British roommate during a drunken sex game. Sen. Maria Cantwell, from Knox’s home state of Washington, says she has“serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether antiAmericanism tainted this trial” and said she plans to pursue that with U.S. and Italian officials. Her family has said they will appeal, and her father Curt Knox said unfavorable media coverage

led to the guilty verdict. “Frankly, I believe it was the huge media perception and literally the character assassination that took place of her, and a completely different judicial system where jurors and judges are not sequestered,” he said on NBC’s “Today” show on

Monday. Criminal defense lawyer Theodore Simon told ABC’s “Good Morning America” show that the evidence against Knox was scant. “The real problem here was … an avalanche of negative pretrial publicity, combined with an enormous

amount of negative character assassination,” Simon said. Judy Bachrach, who has covered the case for Vanity Fair, said some jurors said they found Knox guilty before the trial ended. “There is the feeling that she is the classic American seductress. She’s been called in the newspapers a vampire, a praying mantis, and these are all forms of anti-Americanism,” she said on ABC. What do you think? Click here for more Reuters political coverage Photo: REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi American university student Amanda Knox arrives in court for her murder trial in Perugia December 4, 2009.

VMWare: Your Next Smartphone Might Run Two OSes At Once [Virtualization] By Brian Barrett (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/7/2009 8:53:31 AM

In an interview with Computerworld, VMWare's head of mobile phone virtualization has indicated that the company wants to move beyond dual-boot systems to allow phones to run a private and work operating system at the same time. They've already demonstrated the potential on a Nokia N800 running Windows CE and Android concurrently; now they're looking into multiple user interface scenarios for current generation smartphones. [ Computerworld]

What Is This? [Space] By Jesus Diaz (Gizmodo)

coming. Seriously: I just saw SpaceShipTwo. It's very large and shiny. It's really Hey Richard Dreyfuss, better impressive mounted to the hurry up to the Mojave Desert, mothership, makes Eve look because tonight the aliens are right. Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:33:00 AM

What you are seeing here is the

rehearsal for the presentation of beginning of a long series yet to Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, come. [ Flickr and Twitter via the first space airliner in history. Hyperbola] It will happen tonight, so stay tuned for images of this new spectacular aircraft, hopefully the

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McCain praises Palin…but calls her “irrelevant” By Jeff Mason (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:01:21 AM

How’s this for faint praise? Former Repubican presidential nominee John McCain talked up Sarah Palin — his 2008 vice presidential partner — on Sunday, saying she had earned an important place in the Republican party. But he also called the former Alaska governor ”irrelevant.” Huh? “I think that Sarah Palin … has earned herself a very big place in the Republican political scene,” McCain said on the NBC

program “Meet the Press.” “I am entertained every time I see these people attack her and attack her and attack her. She’s irrelevant, but they continue to

attack her. I am so proud of her and the work that she is doing,” he said. Right. McCain said he had a good relationship with Palin and her husband, Todd. They saw each other recently, he said. Perhaps he left out the “irrelevant” comment at that meeting… For more Reuters political news, click here. Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Theiler (Palin at book-signing event in Fairfax, Virginia)

This Is How a Record Made of Ice Sounds [Sound] By Jesus Diaz (Gizmodo)

vinyl. Then she played them in two turntables until they melted Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:00:00 AM over the course of two hours. As if we didn't have enough with Update: Reader Wolfgang frightening planetary sounds, Oblasser wrote to say that artist Katie Paterson has recorded A u s t r i a n a r t i s t C l a u d i a the chilling crackles of three Märzendorfer also uses ice for Icelandic glaciers. Nothing pressing records. special there... until you learn I know, pointless. And that's that she did it on 45rpm records exactly why I love it. [ Katie made with actual ice. Paterson via I'm Revolting via Katie pressed the record against Today and Tomorrow] re-frozen ice plates instead of

Lahore market bomb attack kills 34 (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

offensive against a Taliban stronghold in the north-west, close to the Afghan border. About 100 people were wounded Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:15:21 AM in the attacks in Lahore, Two synchronised remote- apparently timed to take place controlled bombs ripped through when the Moon Market was at its a market popular with women in busiest. The bombs exploded Lahore today, causing a huge fire within 30 seconds of each other, and killing at least 34 people, leaving dozens of cars and shops authorities said. ablaze late into the night. Another attack by a suicide Many of the victims were bomber killed 10 people outside women and children, including a a court building in the north- two-year-old, a police officer western city of Peshawar, part of said. a wave of militant strikes in Moon Market sells clothes and Pakistan as the army continues its shoes and is especially popular

with women and their children. Lahore's top government official, Khusro Pervaiz, said there were more than 34 dead and 109 wounded. "I fear the death toll might rise," he said. Punjab's law minister, Rana Sanaullah, said the bombs were apparently remote-controlled devices. "There was a blast. Then there was another," said Mohammad Nauman, who was bleeding from his nostrils. "Nobody knew what was happening. Everybody was running. There was fire everywhere."

Lahore is Pakistan's second largest city, not far from the border with India. It has been hit several times by militants over the past year, including an attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team and several strikes against security installations. Islamist militants have carried out scores of bloody bombings in Pakistan in recent weeks. Most have been directed at security forces, though several have targeted crowded public spaces such as markets. More than 400 people have been killed, including more than 100 in a

market in Peshawar in October. The Taliban generally claim responsibility for those killing security officers, but do not admit to carrying out the attacks on civilian targets. Government officials and security analysts say there is little doubt the militants are behind all the attacks. • Pakistan guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Evo Morales still has work to do | Mike Gonzalez By Mike Gonzalez (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

sits above La Paz, the country's capital. The battle over water was symbolic of a wider struggle to establish control over Bolivia's Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:00:01 AM oil and gas resources and to use Bolivia's popular president has the income from them to address been re-elected. He must repay the poverty in which the majority his supporters by fulfilling his of Bolivians lived – after a promise to redistribute wealth decade in which Bolivia was Evo Morales, the coca farmers' described as a "highly successful leader who became Bolivia's laboratory for neoliberalism"! president in 2005, has been re- The nationalisation of gas and e l e c t e d w i t h a n i n c r e a s e d oil were an urgent priority; majority of 63% of the country's Bolivia has the second largest gas 5 million voters. His slightly a n d o i l r e s e r v e s i n L a t i n hesitant Spanish is a clue to his America, but its prices were immense popularity. A native largely controlled by external speaker of Quechua, one of forces. It has been a major bone Bolivia's two main indigenous of contention, for example, that l a n g u a g e s , h e i s t h e f i r s t Petrobras the Brazilian state oil president who can claim to company is still taking significant represent the 65% of Bolivia's p r o f i t s f r o m t h e B o l i v i a n population who belong to industry. indigenous communities. The In May 2006, in an extremely constitution, finally ratified in popular move, the oil industry January of this year enshrines an was nationalised. Since then, the initial promise to acknowledge, increasing national share of oil again for the first time, Bolivia's revenues has been the major "plurinational" character and its f a c t o r i n B o l i v i a ' s m o d e s t cultural and linguistic diversity. economic growth, which reached Morales came to the presidency around 4% this year. Yet the after several years of intense other key undertaking Evo gave – political activity, beginning with t o e x p r o p r i a t e t h e l a r g e the mass campaign against water landholdings and redistribute privatisation in Cochabamba in t h e m t o t h e i n d i g e n o u s early 2000 and later, in 2003, in communities – has been sluggish El Alto, the indigenous city of at best. Unemployment remains more than a million people that extremely high, and while the

number of Bolivians living in extreme poverty has gone down from 37% to 31%, living standards for the majority remain very low. Every attempt to introduce change has met with the ferocious resistance of Bolivia's eastern provinces – the Media Luna (Half Moon) states of Santa Cruz, Pando and Tarija. The discussions over a new constitution were systematically blocked by their representatives and their increasingly violent campaign against the extension of indigenous rights and land distribution took on an overtly racist tone. It was not coincidental that these provinces were the location of much of Bolivia's mineral and agricultural (largely soya) wealth, where the bulk of the country's wealthy, white population lives. It is also the area most closely linked to US and other foreign economic interests. Their claim for regional autonomy, therefore, was a lightly veiled attempt to undermine the Bolivian state's control over the country's wealth. The violent confrontations with the Media Luna overshadowed Morales's first term in office – and explains why the constitution (proposed in August last year and ratified in a referendum six

months later with 62% in favour) has yet to be implemented. That would require a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the Congress, which Morales and his MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) party did not command. The results of this weekend's election suggest that he will achieve that majority in the Senate but still fall tantalisingly short of it in the Congress. In his acceptance speech, Evo expressed surprise at the size of his majority. It certainly confirms the support he enjoys not just among the indigenous communities but also among a sizeable section of the urban middle class. Yet the programme on which he was originally elected still remains largely unrealised. He has promised to redistribute one-fifth of Bolivia's land to the peasants and raise taxes on the private mining firms who have continued to enjoy concessions. Firms like the Spanish-Argentine corporation Repsol are pressing to invest in the energy sector; in addition the discovery of what may be the world's largest reserves of lithium under the stark salt flats of Uyuni, in the upper Andes, has attracted investors like Mitsubishi and others.

The rightwing opposition is in disarray at the moment. The corporations are hovering, however; and they will have been encouraged by the repeated insistence of Morales's extremely influential vice-president, Alvaro Garcia Linera, that the Bolivian project is to create an "Andean capitalism". While the past four years have brought great advances in the recognition of indigenous rights and culture, the communities remain poor. The next Morales government has a responsibility to reward their support with a more forceful redistribution of wealth and to continue the progress towards the "21st century Latin American socialism" that he and other Latin American presidents will be attempting to define at next week's conference of Alba, the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America. • Bolivia Mike Gonzalez guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

'Hulu for Magazines' to Be Announced Tomorrow [Publishing] By Adam Frucci (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:19:31 AM

According to this tweet by All Things D's Peter Kafka, a " Hulu for magazines" will be

announced tomorrow. You mean a way for people to freely access content that doesn't make any

money for the content makers? Should save publishing!

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Concrete tsunami is wiping out Russian heritage, say architects By Luke Harding (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

striking architectural monuments, including neoclassical, art nouveau, constructivist, industrial, and postwar buildings. Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:20:15 AM The city also boasts an avantDesign experts protest at garde masterpiece – a Soviet picturesque wooden dachas being factory canteen in the shape of a cleared to make way for 'concrete hammer and sickle. giants' Samara was the city to which The historic architecture of Moscow evacuated during the Russia's provincial towns is second world war. It was closed being destroyed at an alarming to the west during communism, rate, with "delightful traditional when it was called Kuibyshev. wooden houses" being replaced Since the end of the Soviet by "ill-proportioned concrete Union, however, corruption in giants", a group of international t h e c i t y h a s l e d t o t h e experts warned today. uncontrolled demolition of huge A report by a panel of Russian parts of it. and British architects says that "The thrill of a visit to Samara is the same depressing trends to discover a great European city visible in Moscow are being that few in the west have heard replicated across Russia's "great of. Yet today both the older European cities". The city of streets of the centre and the Samara on the banks of the garden cities of the suburbs are Volga is under particular threat. threatened with a tsunami of Classic wooden dachas with destruction," says the report by delicate "fretwork ornament to SAVE Europe's Heritage and the windows, doors, cornices and M o s c o w A r c h i t e c t u r e gables" are disappearing, says the P r e s e r v a t i o n S o c i e t y . report. A third of the wooden "The promenade along the river buildings in the old quarter have in Samara compares with those been bulldozed in the last seven of Cannes or Nice on the French years. "The situation gets worse Riviera … Now regulations have e v e r y y e a r , " s a i d V i t a l y been relaxed and a rash of huge, Stadnikov, one of the report's co- ungainly blocks of apartments authors. have appeared on the northern Samara, 400 miles south-east of end of the riverfront." Moscow, is home to other Architecture experts say the

[Video]

Amgen draws skeptical option trade after hiking buyback program

By Elizabeth Harrow same trend is visible in other have almost entirely vanished. (BloggingStocks) provincial towns including Russian and British architects Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:40:00 PM A s t r a k h a n a n d N i z h n y have now proposed saving a Novgorod, Russia' fourth largest group of wooden houses in a Filed under: From the boards, city, on the Volga, Tomsk in pilot scheme of repairing and Amgen Inc (AMGN), Options Amgen Inc.( AMGN) announced Siberia, and Yekaterinburg and repainting. Ufa in the Urals. "In the next 10 "The task for Samara is to stop this morning that its board of to 15 years our historical visual the haemorrhaging of its heritage. directors has authorized an c u l t u r e w i l l h a v e g o n e , " If the present rate of loss additional stock buyback of up to K o n s t a n t i n M i k h a i l o v , a n continues Samara will cease to be $5 billion. The newly approved architectural historian, said last a European city and join those p r o g r a m a d d s t o A M G N ' s week at a press conference in unplanned Asian cities which existing share repurchase plan of Moscow. have become an urban jungle roughly $1.2 billion. "This new The report says corrupt local with no coherent sense of authorization reflects Amgen's officials and businessmen are townscape or identify," warns the confidence in its long-term prospects," said the biotech firm responsible for knocking down report. historic buildings and replacing "[It will be] no more than a in a press release. them with over-sized office sprinkling of old buildings left as Apparently, AMGN's confidence blocks. In other cases monuments a pathetic remnant of its once is not contagious, with the stock trading fractionally lower at last that are supposed to enjoy powerful Russian identity." protected status mysteriously M o s c o w A r c h i t e c t u r e check. In fact, the stock is now burn down. In extreme cases P r e s e r v a t i o n S o c i e t y h a s hovering below short-term architects have even been killed, published two previous reports support from its 10-day moving it says. on the threat to the Russian a v e r a g e , w h i c h h a s b e e n One of Samara's most celebrated capital's diverse architectural breached only once on a daily art nouveau buildings, the heritage. The reports prompted a c l o s i n g b a s i s s i n c e e a r l y Naimushin mansion, caught fire brief pause in demolition. Then N o v e m b e r . Continue reading Amgen draws in 2007. The wooden property the bulldozers continued. skeptical option trade after hiking had been the home of the Soviet • Russia buyback program writer Alexei Tolstoy and served • Architecture Amgen draws skeptical option as the 1941-1943 headquarters of trade after hiking buyback the British military mission. It is Luke Harding now threatened with demolition. guardian.co.uk© Guardian News program originally appeared on In August this year Samara's & Media Limited 2009 | Use of BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Dec administration secretly cut the this content is subject to our 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see number of listed buildings from Terms & Conditions| More Feeds our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments 2,000 to 900. The city's picturesque Soviet courtyards

Smarmy Time with Bill Maher: How Stupid Are Americans? (Little Green Footballs)

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Prices go through the roof as Parisian McDermott International (MDR) soars on breakup restaurant clears cellar space announcement (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

Its British chief sommelier, David Ridgway, said: "The easiest comparison is that of a vine; for the wine to grow Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:48:35 AM strongly, you have to cut it back." The celebrated Tour d'Argent But while ordinary wine lovers auctions 18,000 bottles of wine had been encouraged to come to and champagne bid for a bottle or two they might They were some of the world's e n j o y o v e r C h r i s t m a s , t h e finest wines from the renowned extraordinary prices put most of cellar one of the world's finest the lots beyond the reach of all restaurants. But as the gavel fell b u t t h e c o n n o i s s e u r s a n d on the first of 18,000 bottles c o l l e c t o r s . being auctioned by the celebrated It was not only the Chateau Tour d'Argent restaurant, there Lafite Rothschild, the Chateau was not a drop of the stuff to be Margaux, the 1858 Grande Fine seen anywhere. "You don't bring Champagne Monnet or the 1788 a 100-year-old bottle of wine out Vieux Cognac listed at €3,000 and start waving it around an (£2,700) that set the electronic auction room," said one wine bidding board spinning. More collector among the bidders. recent and less coveted bottles In fact, the stars of this sale were provoked a flutter of cards some way from the gilt and m a k i n g b i d s j u m p € 5 0 , m a r b l e h a l l s o f t h e P a r i s sometimes €100-200 a time. auctioneers in a dark, cool cellar For Helena Puolakka and her across the other side of the city. husband Tuukka, who had visited After all, these were no ordinary from London for the day in the bottles of wine. The 427-year-old hope of picking up a bottle or Tour d'Argent – the French t w o , i t w a s a g r e a t capital's oldest restaurant – is d i s a p p o i n t m e n t . famous for the quality of its "We have been going to the Tour cellars, the maze of dark alleys d'Argent to eat for many years below the restaurant that house and we know they have wines about 450,000 bottles of wines, there that you cannot find champagnes and spirits. This was anywhere else in the world," said stock it had decided to sell off to Helena, a chef from Finland. make room for other vintages. "But, at these prices, it's cheaper

to buy the wine in the restaurant." Her husband said: "To be honest, the prices have gone through the roof. They are ridiculous." Marc Verchere, a private wine collector from Paris, was also disappointed. "I just hope the people paying these prices are going to drink the wine and not put in on the mantelpiece so they can tell everyone it came from the Tour d'Argent," he said. Wine experts said prices were high because almost all of the wine had never been previously moved from the Tour d'Argent's cellars, where it has been preserved in perfect conditions. It is not only the wine list that makes the restaurant famous: it has served its signature dish of pressed duck served in its own blood to a colourful succession of celebrities including French King Louis XIV, Russian Tsar Nicolas II, the Prussian Prince Bismarck, Sir Winston Churchill and American presidents Franklin D Roosevelt and John Kennedy. • Wine • France guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

By Brent Archer (BloggingStocks)

that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:20:00 PM at a bullish hedged trade on Filed under: Major movement, MDR. Deals, Good news, Options, MDR opened this morning at Technical Analysis McDermott $22.40. So far today the stock International ( MDR- option has hit a low of $21.88 and a chain) shares have risen over 10 high of $23.05. As of 12:00, percent in early trading on news MDR is trading at $22.81 up that the company plans to split $2.15 (10.4%). The chart for i t s e l f i n t o t w o f i r m s : T h e MDR looks bearish. Babcock & Wilcox Co., and J. Continue reading McDermott Ray McDermott. Current MDR International (MDR) soars on shareholders will receive one breakup announcement share of each company when the McDermott International (MDR) transaction closes in 2010. B&W soars on breakup announcement will manufacture nuclear o r i g i n a l l y a p p e a r e d o n components and other power BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Dec generation systems. J. Ray will 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see design, build and install offshore our terms for use of feeds. production facilities, pipelines Permalink| Email this| Comments and subsea systems. If you think

Google Favorite Places coming to window near you By Tom Krazit (Webware.com) Submitted at 12/6/2009 9:00:00 PM

Businesses that are popular in Google's Local Business Center are receiving special decals

denoting them "Favorite Places," with a scannable bar code that provides more information. Originally posted at Relevant Results

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Aides in firing line as Hugo Chávez Google catches a wave targets bank corruption in Venezuela with AppJet purchase By Rory Carroll (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

own ranks and the arrests were not a clean-up so much as a feud between rival factions. Authorities last week shut the Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:27:28 AM seven banks, which comprise 8% A corruption scandal has shaken of the nation's deposits, citing Venezuela's financial system and capitalisation problems and triggered the arrest of tycoons unexplained funds. Chávez who are linked to President Hugo threatened to nationalise the Chávez's government. financial system. Authorities have closed seven Investors dumped Venezuelan banks and detained eight bankers bonds and the Bolivar currency in a widening crackdown which and Moody's Investor Services has toppled Jesse Chacón, a downgraded credit ratings on two cabinet minister and senior big Venezuelan banks, the Chávez ally. Twenty-seven private Banco Mercantil and the warrants have been issued, state-owned Banco Venezuela. including nine requests to Markets recovered yesterday Interpol for international arrests. when the president signalled he "We are demonstrating that there would work with private banks to are no untouchables here," stabilise the financial system. Chávez said on his TV show, Alo Analysts said most banks in the Presidente. He told his socialist South American oil exporter p a r t y t o d e n o u n c e c o r r u p t were sound and not at risk of members. collapse unless the government The scandal is the first serious did something rash. breach between the president and Chávez said well-run banks a group of businessmen who would not be touched but warned have grown extremely wealthy those who broke the law would from deals with, or sanctioned be punished. "What I have said is by, the government. They are that he who slips up, loses. known as the "Boli-bourgeoise", Banker, I don't care if you are the a play on the name of Simón biggest." Bolívar, the liberation hero In a newspaper column Chávez revered by Chávez. added: "These bankers should be Opponents said Chávez had long shown for what they really are to ignored corruption within his the public: vulgar robbers,

thieves in ties, pickpockets and obstinate kleptomaniacs." His rhetoric has regularly targeted "vampire capitalists" and "squealing oligarchs" who opposed his socialist revolution. Until now, less was said about government supporters who grew rich from an oil boom which flooded state coffers with petrodollars. Their rise was spectacular. One, Ricardo Fernandez Barrueco, amassed a billion-dollar fortune by supplying corn and transport services to a state-run network of subsidised food stores. "Whoever falls, falls. Those are the president's instructions, to get to the bottom of these problems," said Jorge Giordani, minister of economic planning. With legislative elections looming next year, the crackdown could help Chávez to neutralise corruption allegations. • Hugo Chávez • Venezuela Rory Carroll guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

By Tom Taulli (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:00:00 PM

Filed under: Google (GOOG) For the company the size of Google ( GOOG), the recent deal for AppJet is fairly small (the rumor is that the price tag was about $10 million or so). But such deals can -- over time -make a big impact (just look at the transaction that resulted in Google Maps). For the most part, AppJet is an early-stage company in an earlystage market: real-time online document collaboration. This is done through a service called EtherPad, which is essentially a word processor. But, when multiple users make changes to a document, it's done at the "speed of light." Keep in mind that Google Docs can take anywhere

Google launches real-time search By Tom Krazit, Stephen Shankland (Webware.com) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:02:00 AM

A new section of Google's search results page will be dedicated to so-called "real time"

Dec. 7, 1999: Recording Industry Sues Napster By David M. Kravets (Wired Top Stories)

"Ten years ago, on a cold dark but it was the day the recording night ..." Well, it wasn't at night, industry threw a long, black veil

from five to fifteen seconds for text updates. No doubt, this can be a hassle for managing projects. Continue reading Google catches a wave with AppJet purchase Google catches a wave with AppJet purchase originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

over file sharing.

searches with automatically refreshed updates from sources like Twitter. Originally posted at Relevant Results

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Switzerland looks to lure disaffected Chasing Value: Ten bankers with tempting tax laws stocks for 2010 -- Part 6 By Zoe Wood (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:13:08 AM

• Canton of Uri alleged subject of DVD circulated in City • Financial industry branching out from Geneva and Zurich The Swiss canton of Uri is more used to holidaymakers flocking to see its stunning Alpine vistas and the statue, in the capital Altdorf, dedicated to national hero William Tell. But the diminutive state could be readying itself for a different kind of influx next year after it was claimed to be the subject of a DVD, also featuring fellow cantons Geneva and Zurich, that is being circulated in the City. It is claimed the cantons are trying to poach disaffected London bankers who may be looking for a fresh start in a country where bonuses attract less scrutiny – and, crucially, lower levels of tax. The DVD's existence could not be verified today, but one could

hazard a guess at the contents. While it is likely to highlight opportunities for dog sledding, mountain biking and cable car rides in the environs of Altdorf, even the canton's official tourism website carries a special section highlighting the "attractive tax conditions". The website suggests a Uri-based banker who earns around £180,000, would attract income tax at rate of just 11%. It also flags that tax applied to an individual's savings is one of the lowest rates in Switzerland at 0.001%. The generous regime also allows qualifying "resident aliens" to pay income tax as a one-off sum that is based on living expenses. There is nothing new in the attractions of Switzerland as a financial centre, given its benevolent tax laws and reputation for discretion. However, the industry has begun to branch out from traditional centres such as Geneva and Zurich to quieter spots such as Pfaffikon, a small Swiss town on the shores of lake Zurich.

Pfaffikon has become a mecca for hedge funds including Man Group, which also has a base there. With 1,000 investment bankers already estimated to have resigned from state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland alone, movement has already begun in the sector. Bankers are said to follow the deals and experts predict America, the Middle-East and China would also be high on the list for those without family ties to the UK. It remains to be seen whether they heed the Swiss siren call – as Uri's website puts it: "See you soon in Uri." • Banking • Switzerland • Financial crisis • Banks and building societies • Tax

By Sheldon Liber (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/7/2009 12:40:00 PM

Filed under: International markets, Management, Exxon Mobil (XOM), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Chasing Value, Stock screen, Oil, Stocks to Buy, Brown Forman (BF.A) In Part 6, we're going back for seconds: our second alcohol company, energy company and medical company. The reasons should be apparent, but in case they aren't: I think all three are essential -- maybe alcohol more than the other two. Ironically alcohol can be substituted for the other two, and often has been. All three companies are wellestablished and U.S. based, lead their respective industries, have top flight management in the

judgment of their peers and the investment community, pay dividends and have a long history of high return-on-equity. Continue reading Chasing Value: Ten stocks for 2010 -Part 6 Chasing Value: Ten stocks for 2010 -- Part 6 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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

Fusion Garage CrunchPad video conference liveblog By Nilay Patel (Engadget) Submitted at 12/7/2009 12:24:00 PM

We're just getting settled in for Fusion Garage's CrunchPad webcast-- we've been promised CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan's

version of the 12-inch tablet's bizarre saga, and we've certainly got quite a few questions of our own to ask. We'll start updating just as soon as it starts, so make sure you're up to speed on what went down over the weekend and

get ready for some fireworks. Continue reading Fusion Garage

CrunchPad video conference feeds. Permalink| liveblog Comments Fusion Garage CrunchPad video conference liveblog originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of

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Bad news for Intel is good news for its competitors

EPA would be smart to forghet about E15 ethanol

By Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks)

By Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 12/7/2009 12:20:00 PM

Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:30:00 PM

Filed under: Bad news, Intel (INTC), Advanced Micro Dev (AMD) Monday morning, Intel ( INTC) confirmed that it will delay the introduction of its stand-alone graphics chip, which is named Larrabee. The processor was supposed to be released in the 2009-2010 time frame, but this will not happen as the company has "fallen behind" on the work. Intel spokesman Nick Knupffer would not give any reasons for the delay, but added that "our first Larrabee will not be launched as a standalone discrete graphics chip. ... Rather it will be used as a software development

Filed under: Politics, Commodities, Agriculture Regarding the alternate fuels for vehicles project, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has slow-tracked the proposal to mix larger amounts of ethanol with gasoline, commonly known as E15, or 15% alcohol/85% gasoline, The New York Times reported. Currently, the maximum blend is 10% and is common in many regions of the U.S. The EPA has sent the E15 idea back for more study. What would be the best decision? Not a slowtrack, but a 'no-track' for E15. E15 should be abandoned outright. Here's why:

platform." Continue reading Bad news for Intel is good news for its competitors Bad news for Intel is good news for its competitors originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Leaked: HTCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s handset releases for the first half of 2010 By Greg Kumparak (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:40:10 AM

Continue reading EPA would be smart to forghet about E15 ethanol EPA would be smart to forghet about E15 ethanol originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

If HTC's trying to keep their device releases top-secret, they're not doin' a very good job. While individual leaks seem to be rare, they seem to be making a habit out of bundling up all their upcoming releases into one big presentation, which in turn leaks all over the internet. It happened right at the beginning of 2009 and, sure enough, it looks like the first half of 2010 has already been locked down and leaked out.

The unemployed are seeking answers: Obama, Democrats must deliver By Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks)

problems waiting for him and his administration -- problems that no-doubt have discouraged many Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:00:00 PM qualified, future aspirants from F i l e d u n d e r : F o r e c a s t s , even thinking of running for the Employees, Politics, Recession presidency during what will As most investors know, before surely be a decade of repair and President Obama took the oath of correction for the United States. problem President Obama must office, there were a half dozen But if one had to isolate one f i x - - o n e o n w h i c h h i s

presidency will likely hinge -- it would be, of course, the U.S. economy, and within that, the issue of jobs. Continue reading The unemployed are seeking answers: Obama, Democrats must deliver The unemployed are seeking answers: Obama, Democrats

must deliver originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Fusion Garage's 'Crunchpad' Unveiling Liveblog [Crunchpad] By Jason Chen (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:20:00 AM

Fusion Garage, the engineering side that booted TechCrunch off of their own Crunchpad project, is about to be unveiled in a live webcast. We're going to be liveblogging it at 9:30 AM PT (12:30 PM ET). That's basically now. 9:22: The stream was active for a second—I got a screencap of it above—but it looks like they shut off the video. 9:23: In case you're not familiar with the story, hit up this link while the webcast is still preparing, and check it out. Basically, Fusion Garage, on behalf of their shareholders, decided that they wanted to cut TechCrunch out of any involvement (besides a crappy advisor role) after the two parties had developed the thing together. Think of it as if your wife one day told you that she'd be raising your kid by herself, and your involvement was no longer needed. 9:28: It's sad, really, since the CrunchPad was supposed to be one of the first (if not the first) cheap tablets that was designed just for web browsing and "consuming" content. The perfect bed/toilet computer, essentially. 9:29: I mean, even if it does end up being released under a different name by Fusion Garage without TechCrunch's involvement, would you buy it? Or would you be loyal, in

deliver funding or connections. 9:42: Chandra is saying that there was no agreement for an acquisition by TC. There were talks, but no agreement. He's saying Fusion Garage owns all IP and proprietary rights for the production. The OS developed entirely by them. "TechCrunch didn't contribute a single line of code." 9:43: FG provided Arrington terms for being an advisor role, but was turned down. 9:44: The product will be introduced this week. And they call it Joojoo. 9:45: The reason why they call it Joojoo was because it's an "African term that stands for magical" principle, to TechCrunch, since he's upset by all the posts on him 9:40: Mike was "unable to 9:45: The device boots in 9 they're the ones who actually from the last week. deliver", in February 2009. seconds. came up with the idea? 9:37: "Fusion Garage is the only Without further development, 9:46: All icons on the site are 9:30: It's a tough decision. actual do-er in this story." including a finished prototype, "web services", and the screen is Would most people care about 9:37: Since 2008, they tried to nobody would provide funding to really really green. petty stuff like this if the final make a browser-based operating bring a product to market. He 9:46: You can get online, to the product was good? Would most system that supported a "thin, then takes a shot at the birthday internet, in 9 seconds. 9:46: It has a 12.1-inch people even KNOW about it? tablet-like touchscreen device." cake photo. Probably not. 9:38: In his first meeting with 9:40: "If the project was going to capacitive touchscreen. "The 9:31: Though, we'll get to hear Arrington, he explained what FG go forward, it would be up to largest screen of any device in its FG's side of the story today. Who was developing, and how his OS Fusion Garage. It was clear that class on the market." knows if TechCrunch's side was would be the key to making the Michael was not able to deliver." 9:47: No physical buttons other the entire truth. It'll probably end " v i s i o n a r e a l i t y " . M i k e 9:40: They finished their than the on-off buttons. up being somewhere inbetween. Arrington would introduce them hardware prototype, and did all 9:47: Joojoo has no preloaded 9:34: It's starting. Chandra is to investors, secure funding and the engineering challenges by applications, Windows or menus. saying this webcast is a good introduce them to hardware themselves—as you'd expect. I t w i l l a c c e p t s l i d i n g a n d way to address misconceptions vendors. He would want to make 9:41: Chandra said that he scrolling gestures with your introduced by Arrington's TC a deal so TechCrunch could secured funding through "his" fingers. And it can be used as a post. acquire the company so that network, instead of through digital book. "The internet is the 9:36: "I'm a dreamer of big Mike would have controlling Michael Arrington. It seems like application", similar to Google's dreams." And he's a engineer. interest. They had many talks this might be the thing that Chrome OS. 9:36: Chandra is going over his about the acquisition, but nothing t r i g g e r e d t h e b o o t i n g o f FUSION page 14 past as an engineer. He's saying solid ever came out of it. Mike—the fact that TC couldn't

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CrunchGear in China: The Factory By John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:00:45 AM

The driver pulled up to a small office complex in the heart of the city and beckoned us into the back of his scuffed white van. The surface of the vehicle was caked in dust and the seats, clad in new blue velvet, were sized for someone much smaller. I curled up in the back and we were off into the city, cars coming at all sides and bikes darting out in front of the unflappable driver, his smile never wavering as we drove. I was on my way to a factory outside of Shenzhen, a city of 14 million people mostly dedicated to the manufacture of the things we buy. If it beeps, makes phone calls, or increasingly, if you can wear it, it’s probably come from out here. We roll through the city to the outskirts and then onto a wide five-lane highway that rolls up through the smog, past rocks and hills that look like a stage set for a Kung Fu fable. This is modern China, a place of conflicting images and a world of untrammeled growth. The factories are about forty minutes outside of town in a special economic area dedicated to commerce. Sadly, the smoke from the endless stream of cars and trucks heading back and forth from the manufacturing center along with whatever is coming out of the factories themselves casts a pall on the landscape; little can be done

about that right now, though. Motorcycles are outlawed here for safety and environmental reasons, and if this van is indicative of the current state of

repair of many work vehicles, it’s going to take a long time to scrub this city’s skies clean again. Most of this most recent smog comes thanks to this chilly November.

People outside of town – and in – are burning wood. It won’t get clear again until the Spring and then the Summer will bring idling cars, their air conditioners

cranked up in the heat. We trundle along into the economic zone, down long roads CRUNCHGEAR page 12

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CRUNCHGEAR continued from page 11

lined with people returning from work. We narrowly miss a man on a bike and we pass electric cycles carrying huge, heavy loads of plastic and other scrap. This zone is where the factory workers live and raise families. There are no street lights and I see children meeting their parents after work, silhouetted by the lights of a stream of cars. We pull into a guarded complex of smaller factories. The man I’m here to see runs a company that makes USB keys. I probably have twenty of his products, all of them given to me by PR people, in a jar at home and don’t even know it. He has clients all over the world and most don’t even know they’re doing business with him. A chain of distributors come to him to make the finished product. When people say “OEM,” this is who they’re talking about. I climb up the dark stairway into a wood-paneled office area where sales and marketing people sit. I sit down with the president who offers me a water and a cigarette. He shows me his new selection of LED lights: he’s coming in on the ground floor with these just as compact fluorescents are leaving the realm of the profitable and moving into the commodity. He’s betting on these new lights to take him through the next decade. He’s been doing this for about

seven years. He used to work in integrated circuits but he bought a few used Japanese PCB manufacturing machines and started making devices for clients. He stuck with USB keys because it’s a steady market and he lives comfortably. We walk into the factory. This is no “Intel Inside” clean room. A dozen long benches run through the room. There are ten old Dells with CRT monitors for quality control and a line of soldering irons at the ready. It’s late – about 6pm – so everyone is home. During the day the factory is full of people. All of them are making USB keys and the company can punch out about 30,000 a day, a minuscule number compared to the capacity of the behemoths down the road. The keys start out as circuit boards. There are about five keys per board and they come already milled to specifications. One employee lays down a layer of solder and puts the board through to the SMT machine. SMT stands for surface mount technology; it’s a way to tell a robot how and where to place resistors, transistors, and capacitors on a board. The machines here are old. They still use 3.5 floppies to program them and they’re all in Japanese. They cost about $100,000 each, now, used. The better ones can hit the $1 million mark.

The first SMT machine grabs tiny components from a long reel of electronic parts. It’s a mad dance. The hand – a box with pistons, really – picks the part and then places it. Pick, place, pick, place. It takes about a minute to do a set of five. Another employee checks the work and then it moves on. There’s plenty of room of error here simply because this is a commodity. The machine breaks down, it places transistors a bit skew. It doesn’t matter. In the end it’s going to hold whatever data you put on it, at least for a while. The dead devices go back into the recycling bin. The second SMT places the IC chips, the controllers and the memory. A final employee spot checks the board and sends it out to the soldering line. There they solder on each USB port by hand. The PCB itself costs maybe 50 cents to manufacture – that’s only parts – but the IC and the memory add about three dollars more. In the end, you’re looking at about $5 in costs, including labor. The final step is the application, by hand, of the silk screen, embossing, or laser etching. Each piece. By hand. The margin is slim at best, especially considering distributors sell these things to customers for about $7. So is this a place of horror? No. This is where men and women

are given a wage and living quarters to make USB keys. There are few amenities here, no child care, no donuts at lunch. The toilets are squat toilets; the sinks are overflowing into the bathroom. The lockers are six inches by six inches. Enough for shoes, maybe, and a jacket. But this is how this stuff is made. Bigger companies won’t touch these orders – a run of 1000 pieces to them isn’t even worth the energy it takes to start up the machines. This factory fills a hole in the market. The employer fills a hole in the employee’s life. The employee lives in a free house and comes to a steady job. It’s hard, to be sure, and it’s a mess — but it’s a living. We moved our manufacturing over here. That’s what happened. To say this is good or bad, positive or negative, is not my place. The employees here are content and the owner has a nice car and is planning a vacation to the US next year. On a micro scale, this is what countless small businesses have done all over the world for about two centuries. You fill a need. You fill an order. On the macro scale you can cry and moan about exploitation, pollution, and capitalism. Pittsburgh was probably once as dirty as Shenzhen is right now. Blue laws were put into place there early on to prevent desolate

employees from drinking themselves into an oblivion. We changed, and China will change. My fear, however, is that we’ve become inured to the way things are made here. We love how our phones spring to life a touch of a button. We love how we can buy a terabyte of disk space for $100. We love how Moore’s law is always punching something new across the transom. But consumption clouds the true value of this stuff. We need to rethink what we buy and expect more from the companies that try to sell it to us. This is a mom and pop USB factory. Someone like Foxconn, manufacturers of the iPhone, are a different animal entirely. But both are part of the menagerie that is Chinese manufacturing. It’s globalized. It’s monstrous. It caused this smoke and this darkness and this mind-numbing work. Don’t be fooled by clean rooms and white walls you see on TV with magical robot arms carrying iPhones into the heavens. This is dirty work and it will get dirtier. This is an industrial process to fulfill our desire. Shenzhen, and this small factory on her outskirts, show us the price of that desire. Next: Order Fulfillment

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It's Time To Make Phone OSes Work On Any Phone [Rant] By John Herrman (Gizmodo)

handsets from a handful of manufacturers, many of which, at least for now, don't even support VMWare is making noise about the same version of the OS. If smartphone virtualization again, you think webOS looks cool, buy claiming their new system will a Pre. If you like Symbian, run two operating systems at import a Nokia or settle for a once, sorta. It's a compelling Samsung. And most predictably, idea! But even more, it's a if you like the App Store, reminder: Why the hell can't we Apple—and only Apple—is choose our smartphone's OS, ready to process your credit card. again? Like the Touch HD2's obscenely When you buy a PC, the most hot hardware, but don't like important decision you make is Windows Mobile? Tough luck. selecting its OS. Do you want Think the Droid is a perfect piece W i n d o w s 7 , f o r a m o d e r n of hardware, but don't understand Windows machine-slash-media what all this Android hubbub is center? Are you a little more about? Shut up. conservative, hanging back with In the last half-decade, we've Windows XP for a gaming become acutely aware of what m a c h i n e ? D o y o u w a n t a goes into our smartphones. New lightweight Linux OS on your phones get a spec rundown that netbook, so you don't have to mirrors a PC's: Qualcomm w o r r y a b o u t v i r u s e s , o r processor X! RAM speed Y! slowdown? Are you a Gentoo Screen technology Z! It fosters a purist, building your OS flag by c l i m a t e r i p e f o r P C - s t y l e flag, penguin shirt moist from h a r d w a r e w a r s , w i t h n e w excitement? Or, god forbid, are p r o c e s s o r a r c h i t e c t u r e s you a hackintosher? Whatever competing head to head, an choice you make, you're making o n g o i n g — a n d a choice. You're choosing the fruitful—resolution race, and interface with which you interact each new phone edging out its with your computer, and by predecessors with even more extension, the entire digital onboard storage, or support for a world. This makes sense. new input or output cable. It's This just isn't how things work f a s c i n a t i n g t o w a t c h t h e in the mobile world. If you want competition unfold, but it's even Windows Mobile, you need to more fascinating to see how buy a Windows Phone, complete tightly grouped development is. with a dedicated Start button. If These are ARM-based phones, you want Google's Android, for the most part. They share you've got a narrow selection of memory types, display types, Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:00:10 AM

support into existence, and the entire industry is currently built around locked relationship between software and hardware—and that some hardware ( guess which!) is probably doomed to live out its life in a hollow monogamous relationship, but it's time for handset manufacturers, along with Google, Microsoft, the Symbian Foundation, and Palm, maybe, to start setting goals. Or at minimum, it's time for us to start asking them to. For the companies, this would mean working on driver support for common componentry, opening up to the enthusiast communities who already do so much amazing software work on their own, and agreeing on some kind of common bootloader, from which users can choose to install their operating system. For users, this would mean freedom. Going into 2010, our smartphones are more central to our lives than ever, and it's time cameras, chipsets, processors and variations on your default OS, to acknowledge that. Consumers o f t e n , o r i g i n a l d e v i c e not a wholly new one. It's as if t r e a t s s m a r t p h o n e s l i k e manufacturers. They're the same everyone in the mobile world is computers, and more. The people thing. emulating what Apple does in the who make them, though, treat When you buy a smartphone, computer space, except worse: at t h e m l i k e d u m b p h o n e s ; you're stuck with its OS. Your least Macs have Boot Camp, for prepackaged products, artificially carrier might toss you a few fuck's sake. (And before they did, limited, for no good reason—at software updates, and if you're they at least had the PowerPC least, no good reason to the people who buy them. particularly gutsy, you might excuse.) install some custom-baked I know something like this is software of your own, though miles over the horizon—you you're generally stuck with can't just will new hardware

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9:48: "Unfortunately Arrington's dream of $200 or $300 price for something like this was unrealistic. Nothing worthwhile can be delivered to market at that price." How are they pricing it? 9:48: The Joojoo is more than 3x the iPhone 3GS's screen. How about netbooks? Those have "noncapacitive touch and a poor web experience". 9:49: Joojoo "provides the best in class internet experience for everything we do." And it can "watch full HD videos," as well as read magazines and books. It weighs 1.1 kg. 9:50: It's going to be $499. 9:50: Preorders are available this friday on the Joojoo website. It'll be sold online only, without retail until the near future. 9:50: Q&A Section: 9:50: Q: "Please respond to Arrington's post." 9:51: A: "There is no legal case filed today. We are very confident in our position, and we believe we own all the IPs." 9:51: A: There are no contracts of any kind between us and TechCrunch. 9:51: Q: "What do you say to Michael saying you ambushing him out of the blue."

9:51: A: Chandra says, basically, Arrington failed on everything he promised he would do (funding, getting connections), so FG had to "move on on their own." 9:52: Q: "Other companies have tried to introduce tablets to the market and failed. Why is your device different?" 9:52: A: Tablets today run the full Windows operating system. They're expensive, and heavy, and it wasn't a form factor that could deliver the way you would like to use. "We believe we can make a big difference." Then he goes over the features like a 12.1inch screen and the fact that they "don't boot to an operating system." 9:53: There have been verbal discussions about a possible acquisition, but "nothing was delivered on Michael's part." There weren't any verbal assurances, except for Michael saying that he wants to acquire the company. 9:54: Q: "What exactly was the offer you made to Michael that he refused?" 9:54: A: "Michael promised a lot of things, but he did not deliver. We offered the possibility to work with us, and be part of this.

Despite us doing everything, software, hardware, funding. But Michael turned down the offer." 9:55: Q: "Can you comment on Google Chrome OS." 9:55: A: "They see things in relation to Netbooks, but we believe that Netbooks' use cases aren't what they should be for what you want to do." 9:56: Q: "What kind of offline capabilities does the machine have?" 9:56: A: You can use your Gmail, for example, using a local cache. You'll synchronize when connectivity is available. 9:56: Q: "Does this product have any real chance to succeed without TechCrunch's marketing?" 9:57: A: If you define marketing as doing a blog post, then no. Michael has been "talking about this for the longest while." He really wants to hammer home that Arrington didn't deliver on any kind of promises. 9:57: Q: "What are the specs?" 9:57: A: "It has a 12.1-inch screen, 4GB SSD, but most of the storage is stored in the cloud." 9:58: Q: "The screen was extremely green. Is that normal?"

9:58: A: "It's a trick of the camera. I'll show this in 1 to 1 demos, and the screen is fine, and the colors are fine." 9:58: Q: What is the battery life? 9:59: A: 5 hours. Wi-Fi only. 9:59: Q: Do you have any relationships with content providers? 9:59: A: No. We're in discussions with companies. 9:59: Q: Will there be any Joojoo accessories? 10:00: A: Yes, we'll announce them in the next couple weeks. 10:00: Q: Will we be showing complete demos in 1:1 meetings? 10:00: A: Yes. 10:00: There will be one color at the moment. 10:00: "We think there will be a lot of demand for this product." 10:01: Fusion Garage has raised 3 million to date since 2008. 10:01: "Thank you so much for your time today. I look forward to seeing many of you over the coming weeks." 10:01: That looks like the end. I'll be getting a hands on with this thing as soon as possible, so check back for that.

Harman Kardon Has the Balls to Charge $1,000 for 2.0 Computer Speakers [Speakers] By Brian Barrett (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:19:52 AM

These Harman Kardon GLA-55 speakers may look right at home in Superman's Fortress of Solitude, but for that kind of money they'd better also tap dance and do my laundry. Look, it's nice and all that you've got Atlas woofers and CMMD tweeters and DSP equalization, but seriously, Harman Kardon? You're going to charge a thousand dollars for speakers with no subwoofer? To you I say good day, sir! [ BusinessWire via Coolest Gadgets]

Should we sue cellphone companies over car accidents caused by distracted drivers? By Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:00:26 AM

You knew this was coming. Someone's driving a car. They're talking on their cellphone, too. The car crashes. It crashes into another car. The driver of the

other car dies. And now the family of the killed driver wants to sue someone. That â&#x20AC;&#x153;someoneâ&#x20AC;? just so happens to be the wireless

provider and the manufacturer of the phone.

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The 10 best Sci-Fi movies of the past decade By Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:30:07 AM

It’s the end of the year. There’s pretty much zero tech news to discuss (CES is right around the corner, so companies are holding out), and all we want to do is play in the snow. So let’s mix it up, list style! Over the next few days we’ll be doing a few “best of the decade” lists primarily for our own entertainment. You’re encouraged to call us knownothing fools. The first list is “Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies of the Decade.” Sci-Fi is weird because it’s so broad. Do comic book or superhero movies count? What about fantasy? You can see we wrestled with this. So, presenting the “Top 10 SciFi Movies of the Decade,” as determined by your friends at CrunchGear. 10. X-Men(2000) This was the first superhero movie done right in a long, long time. If it weren’t for X-Men, there’d be no Batman reboot, no Spider-Man, and no Watchmen. In many ways, the 2000s was the decade of the superhero movie,

for better or worse. 9. 28 Days Later(2002) Amazing, a “zombie movie” that doesn’t make you feel like an idiot for enjoying it. And to show our indie cred, it was directed by the guy who directed Shallow Grave. 8. Donnie Darko(2001) Want to feel depressed? Listen to “Mad World” while walking around your city and observe the people doting about, doing

such a scenario. 3. V for Vendetta(2006) Yes, it’s a little bit “you can’t tell me what to do, Mr. Authority Figure,” but that never hurt anybody. It also manages to make England seem even more bleak and authoritarian than it actually is, which is astounding. 2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind(2004) “I liked you immediately. You didn’t come on to me at all. I liked that. I was so tongue-tied around you at first. I wanted you to think I was smart. I couldn’t wait to come to work. I had these fantasies of us being married… and having kids and… just… Oh, Howie, I can’t do this.” 1. Lord of the Rings: The Return nothing in particular. The beauty of Moon is that it’s a of the King(2003) 7. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge pretty accurate portrayal of your Of course, right? I was torn of the Sith(2005) friendly CrunchGear writers’ between this one and the first If only because it finally put an actual lives, locked away in an Lord of the Rings, which I end to all of our suffering. attic or home office for hours on thought gave more of feeling of, “Battle of the Heroes” was fun. end, only sporadically interacting “Oh boy, we’re having an 6. District 9(2009) with actual human beings, and adventure.” (I like adventures.) What is sci-fi if not a vehicle for freaking out in between posts. The Return of the King wins out because, well, we’re suckers for societal critique? This movie gets 4. Children of Men(2006) extra points for being made It doesn’t let up. It portrays a big battle sequences. outside of the whole Hollywood sort of end-of-the-world scenario, Again, feel free to call us fools, rigamarole. which is a favorite of ours if only but you’d be wrong. Fact. 5. Moon(2009) because we’d love to live through

Navteq to supply Microsoft with 3D map data

A Poster Boy's Retro Space Out

By Stephen Shankland (Webware.com)

Submitted at 12/7/2009 6:19:00 AM

Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:23:00 AM

It takes a long time to drive every street in the world to supply your online map service with 3D data. Navteq is giving

Microsoft some help for its new Bing maps. Originally posted at Deep Tech

By Betsy Mason (Wired Top Stories)

Looking for a cool gift for a

space enthusiast? These striking retro posters designed to commemorate the International Year of Astronomy are just the thing.

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McCracken looks at the Nook By John Biggs (CrunchGear)

sluggish, there are some usability gaffes, and I encountered a major Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:30:02 AM bug with the device’s mostWe didn’t get a Nook yet but touted feature. Even the muchH a r r y M c C r a c k e n a t hyped lending feature has a Technologizer did, which means major gotcha: You can lend a he’s better than us. Why? book once. Period. contract to prove otherwise. The this thing back into the realm of Because his last name reminds So what we’re dealing with is device is much along the lines of reality. We're supposed to see me of a sea monster. the first Kindle with an extra what we'd been hearing: it runs a demos of the Joo Joo in the wild Anyway, Harry found the Nook feature. That extra feature could UNIX-based OS, boots straight this week, and another shot of the to be a 1.0 product at best and a be considered the second screen to a web browser (otherwise no device can be found after the 0.1 product at worst. His bottom or the lending system, but I’d apps at all), weighs about 2.4 break. line: estimate that those features aren’t pounds and features a 12.1-inch Continue reading Fusion Garage Let’s get one thing out of the enough to sell these things to capacitive touchscreen. There are Joo Joo tablet rises from the way right now: The Nook isn’t a many folks who have already no physical buttons on the slate ashes of the CrunchPad Kindle killer–not in this initial seen the Kindle. Amazon clearly outside of the on-off switch, Fusion Garage Joo Joo tablet form, at least. For all its pleasing has the lead here and I don’t which taps into a 9 second boot rises from the ashes of the touches, intriguing innovations, think the Nook will grab it. time. Under the hood there's a CrunchPad originally appeared and clear advantages over the Maybe we’ll get on this week 4GB SSD, WiFi (no 3G), an on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec Kindle, it feels like a less-than- and we’ll be amazed. Until then, accelerometer and about 5 hours 2009 12:50:00 EST. Please see perfectly-polished 1.0 product, w e ’ l l l e t M c K r a c k e n g e t of battery life. Pre-orders start on our terms for use of feeds. just like Amazon’s first e-reader c r a c k i n g . December 11th, with a dream- Permalink| The Joo Joo| Email did a couple of years ago. The shattering $499 pricetag bringing this| Comments user interface is surprisingly

Fusion Garage Joo Joo tablet rises from the ashes of the CrunchPad By Paul Miller (Engadget) Submitted at 12/7/2009 12:50:00 PM

Fusion Garage has finally come clean with its side of the story in regards to the CrunchPad debacle, and just unveiled its new Arrington-free version of the device: the Joo Joo. The way Fusion Garage tells it, the device was already in the works at the time of the original TechCrunch post about the idea, and that Michael Arrington and co. made zero contributions to the development of the device -- and apparently don't have any sort of

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Virgin Galactic reveals SpaceShipTwo, plans commercial space flights in 2011 By Darren Murph (Engadget)

ship still has an awful lot of regulatory passing to do, and the Spaceport America in New We've been waiting an awful Mexico still has to be built, but long time for this day to come, it's nothing short of fantastic to and now we're doing our darndest see the wheels turning in the right to rush away 2010. Today, Sir direction. Just think -- you can Richard Branson officially took finally tell you kid that an the wraps off of a spacecraft that aeronautical engineering degree we initially peeked back in June isn't required to leave the of 2008: the SpaceShipTwo. atmosphere. Future, we heart Designed to hold six passengers thee. and two pilots, this magnificent P.S. - Peek that MSNBC link for craft will reportedly be ready to the unveiling shots! ship wealthy tourists into space Virgin Galactic reveals as early as 2011. Reportedly, the S p a c e S h i p T w o , p l a n s craft will be taken up to launch commercial space flights in 2011 altitude by the WhiteKnightTwo, originally appeared on Engadget after which the 2.5 hour tour will on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:57:00 take patrons high enough to EST. Please see our terms for experience around 5 minutes of use of feeds. Permalink| Virgin weightlessness. Of course, the Galactic| Email this| Comments Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:57:00 PM

Castoven: Microwave with built-in YouTube player (video) By Serkan Toto (CrunchGear)

speakers into the microwave, too. It’s connected to a Mac, but I Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:40:51 AM suppose this would work with Two researchers from Japan’s Windows computers as well. The Keio University(which yours concept, first made public in a truly attended just until recently research paper published last by the way) have developed a year[JP, PDF], is to make kitchen appliance aimed at the people’s everyday lives a little total web geek in you, a more worthwhile through YouTube-powered microwave. mashing up web contents with The so-called Castoven[JP] is electric appliances. b a s e d o n a c o n v e n t i o n a l , The main idea is to display a unbranded model of “good YouTube video whose length quality” but sports a 10.4-inch depends on the time you need to LCD screen in the door panel. h e a t u p w h a t ’ s i n s i d e t h e Needless to say the researchers Castoven. Say, you want to didn’t forget to build a set of prepare a lunch box that takes

3.30 minutes to be ready. The Castoven would then automatically pull a video from YouTube with that length and display it on the screen until the meal is finished. Software-wise, the microwave is based on a special Adobe AIR app that gets the videos through YouTube’s API. The Castoven isn’t available for sale yet, but I do see stuff like this coming into kitchens in the near future. Here’s a demo video: Via Asiajin

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Google’s Future of Search: Location, Translation, and “Google Goggles” By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:51:01 AM

Capstone's CMT-380 hybrid supercar does 150MPH with batteries and a jet engine By Darren Murph (Engadget)

batteries and a conventional engine, this whip combines the Submitted at 12/7/2009 12:02:00 PM former with a diesel / biodieselStep aside, Tesla-- we've just powered microturbine, which is spotted the hottest Earth-lovin' - for all intents and purposes -- a supercar since the Lightning GT. jet engine. Reportedly, the car Shown off to wide-mouthed c a n r e a c h 6 0 M P H f r o m a onlookers at the LA Auto Show standstill in just 3.9 seconds, hit this month, the Capstone CMT- 150MPH before being cut off by 380 prototype is an automotive the electronic limiter, cruise 80 beast unlike anything we've ever miles on battery power alone and seen. Rather than mixing drive from Idaho Falls to

Spokane on just a single tank of fuel. It's being bruited about that the company is considering flipping this bad boy into the production line, but with an estimated asking price north of $200,000, there's sufficient evidence to think that the volume here would remain relatively low. Hit up Autoblog Green's gallery of shots from the show floor below, but only if you love

peering at high-resolution images of stealthy, sexy things. Capstone's CMT-380 hybrid supercar does 150MPH with batteries and a jet engine originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink OhGizmo| Capstone| Email this| Comments

What does the future of search look like? In Google’s world, much of it seems to revolve around getting away from the desktop. At an event in California today, the company unveiled a number of new search technologies, including a Labs feature it calls “Google Goggles” that allows users to snap a picture and get information about it (not unlike other technologies we’ve previously written about). Google’s also demonstrated a number of new voice search features — such as the ability to speak in one language and have resulted translated on the fly into another — as well as new location features, like making the mobile Google.com homepage location-aware. The event is still ongoing, and we’ll post updates as we learn more. Reviews: Google Tags: Google

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Yelp finds you food on Android By Jessica Dolcourt (Webware.com) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:01:00 AM

Frequent Yelp users will be pleased to see a Yelp for Android app take its place in the Android Market on Monday. Originally posted at Android Atlas

Google backtracks on EtherPad closure By Rupert Goodwins (Webware.com) Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:08:27 AM

Prank Pack fake gift boxes double up on holiday cheer By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)

mean, how would you feel if you thought you were getting travel coffee mugs with built-in walkie Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:30:00 AM talkies only to open the box to Just a friendly reminder that find a pair of argyles or a dumb these “Prank Pack” fake gift Red Robin gift card? boxes exist for your amusement. So maybe use these boxes on Be careful, though, as you run people you don’t like all that the risk of disappointing the much but for whom you’re still person who opens the gift. I obligated to buy presents. Aside

from the Coffee Talkies, you’ve got the following: • Beer Beard: Sneak beverages into sporting events under a fake beard • Birdie Belt: GPS rangefinder, belt, and buckle with integrated tools and tee storage • Noggin’ Net: Hat that doubles as a fishing net

• Motorized Rolling Pin: 1/16horsepower motorized rolling pin • Wake & Bake Griddle: Combination alarm clock and breakfast griddle Boxes cost $8 each or get three for $20. Available at Prank Pack’s website. [via Gizmodo]

AppJet, the company behind the EtherPad collaborative online editor that was acquired by Google last week, says it will be maintained until it is opensourced.

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Study: Facebook users willingly give out data By Don Reisinger (Webware.com) Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:34:36 AM

Facebook users still haven't mastered the whole "privacy thing" when it comes to sharing personal information with others, a study from security firm Sophos finds.

NAVTEQ, Microsoft team up for better 3D maps By Nilay Patel (Engadget)

benefit everyone. P.S.- This is a pretty wonky Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:39:00 AM note, but remember that M i c r o s o f t a l r e a d y u s e s NAVTEQ is wholly owned by NAVTEQ maps in its products, Nokia(although it operates and now it's going to start i n d e p e n d e n t l y ) s o t h i s i s helping to make 'em better: the technically the second Microsoft two companies have agreed to / Nokia alliance announced in the work together on new ways to past four months. Ah, young collect, create, and store 3D map love. data and visuals. The basic idea NAVTEQ, Microsoft team up seems to be for Microsoft to help for better 3D maps originally NAVTEQ create better 3D appeared on Engadget on Mon, mapping tools in return for 07 Dec 2009 11:39:00 EST. supplying the data for Bing Please see our terms for use of M a p s , b u t N A V T E Q s a y s feeds. Permalink Pocket-lint| whatever improvements are made NAVTEQ| Email this| Comments will be rolled out to all its clients, so this should pretty much

iPhone 3GS emulates N64, blows minds in the process By Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget)

some crashing -- and he has yet to implement the L, R, and Z keys. That said, this thing is Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:23:00 PM pretty sweet! Hit up the YouTube Look what we have here -- a links for info on becoming a beta preview of 3G4, a N64 emulator tester -- but not before you see d e v e l o p e d b y N W o r k s D e v . the thing in action after the break. Compatible with the iPhone 3GS Continue reading iPhone 3GS and the iPod Touch 3G, this bad emulates N64, blows minds in boy appears to be rendering the process down the graphics (as one would iPhone 3GS emulates N64, expect) but all in all it seems to blows minds in the process be running pretty smoothly. Of originally appeared on Engadget course, this is a work in progress: on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:23:00 the developer (who claims to 14 EST. Please see our terms for years old) says that he has to use of feeds. Permalink Mod My overcome duplicate button I| | Email this| Comments registers, delayed presses, and

EBay and Craigslist square off in Delaware court By Tom Hals (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/7/2009 8:07:00 AM

GEORGETOWN, Delaware (Reuters) - Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman takes the witness stand to make the case that Craigslist unfairly denied the Internet giant a seat on its board.

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Zemlin: 'Industry transformation depends on Linux' (Q&A) (CNET News.com)

Linux due to the recession and I would expect analyst research to surface an even greater growth Most businesses would die spurt for Linux over the last without centralized marketing couple years as they get better at and operations. The Linux kernel, accounting for unpaid Linux and however, thrives under this open source use. model. Linux provides better value than Jim Zemlin(Credit: ZDNet) The Windows, and in tough times this closest thing to a CEO in Linux d i f f e r e n c e m a k e s a l l t h e land is Jim Zemlin, executive d i f f e r e n c e . d i r e c t o r o f T h e L i n u x But the recession isn't what's F o u n d a t i o n . W h i l e Z e m l i n positioning Linux for growth in doesn't steer the Linux ship, he the coming decade. With or does a great deal to corral its without the current economic competing interests--vendors, climate, Linux is the only developers, customers--to guide operating system (OS) that can Linux to the impressive market help OEMs achieve any margin position it holds today. at all from devices that will soon I caught up with Zemlin late last be free. week to get a pulse on the state of The PC industry is moving Linux in the market. As ever, towards a services business, Zemlin didn't disappoint. much like the one we see in Q: Nearly a whole decade has telecom. The OS must be free or gone by since the original tech nearly free or OEMs can't bubble burst, and Linux has done compete. This is why Microsoft quite well. How does the current is investing so much in search recession compare to the hit that and other initiatives; it knows the tech took ten years ago and how business model for its former does it position Linux for the cash cow, Windows, is slowly next decade? dying. Zemlin: IDC says the largest There has been a lot of increase in Linux adoption took consolidation in the market. For place in 2001/2002 during that example VMWare's Springsource bust. Since then, it has become acquisition and now the E.U. is mainstream and is being used saying they are concerned about everywhere. Oracle's acquisition of Sun Today's recession is quite because of MySQL. Is this good different than the bubble and bust for open source? we experienced nearly a decade Zemlin: Industry consolidation ago, since it has reached every is not something that will stop corner of every market around o p e n s o u r c e . O p e n - s o u r c e the world. IDC already restated licenses and particularly the GPL their growth forecast upwards for prevent this from happening. I Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:19:00 AM

that will only go so far when you're in a market where cost is paramount. Netbooks sell for as little as $199. OEMs can't afford to license Windows and still keep their margins in check. Linux will increasingly be used on Netbooks and other devices for that matter. Consider the Moblin project and what impact that will have on infotainment systems, phones, printers--any device! agree with Eben Moglen and In the smartphone market, when others who have pointed out that: the industry got a competitive All scenarios likely to result wake-up call from the iPhone f r o m O r a c l e ' s ( M y S Q L ) almost three years ago, it turned acquisition of the (MySQL) to Linux. Every credible iPhone copyrights, whatever Oracle's competitor is Linux-based: business intentions may be, are Motorola's Droid, Nokia's N900, tolerable from the point of view and Palm's Pre are all based on of securing the freedom of the Linux. codebase. Apple will be in smart phones Open-source licenses enable what it is in the PC market: the competition rather than restrict it luxury penthouse suite. But, there no matter which direction the is a huge market for affordable winds of the M and A market smartphones that have nearly all blow. the functionalities of the iPhone. How does Linux compete with Linux ensures OEMs get their e n t r e n c h e d M i c r o s o f t o n margins out of these devices as Netbooks and with innovative well. Apple on smartphones? Open source has taken some Zemlin: First off, the death of digs recently. Consider The New Linux in the Netbook market is York Times piece that included g r e a t l y e x a g g e r a t e d . A B I sources saying that besides Red research has shown that Linux Hat, "everyone else is in trouble." actually has more like 32 percent As the lead Linux advocate, what share in Netbook shipments and do you say in response? that XP will be outsold in the Zemlin: We have to get over this Netbook market by 2012. The idea that open-source software battle for the Netbook market will produce companies that look isn't a sprint; it will be a j u s t l i k e t h e i r p r o p r i e t a r y marathon. counterparts. I owe much of my Microsoft has market share career to venture capitalists, but today and brand awareness, but if they are expecting the same

returns from the proprietary software portfolio's that they had in the 1990s they are crazy. I would add that this has nothing to do with open source and it is a mischaracterization to say, "everyone else is in trouble" in the open-source industry. The real value of Linux and open source is its ability to enable technology advancement and to make technologies accessible. Without Linux, would Google or IBM be what they are today? Would Google exist if it were written using Microsoft .NET? The answer is simple: no. And, the same can be said for a variety of companies. Linux has contributed over $10 billion in R&D value to the world. It runs every major financial trading platform in the world. It the only way the mobile industry could respond to the iPhone. It has over a $50 billion economy just in enterprise computing alone. It runs 90 percent of the world's fastest supercomputers. It powers Sony cameras, Samsung televisions, your DVR, your GPS system and most of the major Web sites in the world. How on earth does this spell "trouble" for open source? This year's biggest, most strategic technology initiatives, such as Moblin and Android, are being propelled into the future with Linux and open-source software. These projects would take decades longer to see to ZEMLIN: page 24

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10 Essential iPhone Apps to Avoid Dating Disasters By Amy-Mae Elliott (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:52:28 AM

The dating arena can be a dangerous place. It’s a battleground out there, and you need every tool at your disposal. It’s not cheating — it’s just using the resources available to you. Here we’ve hand-picked 10 iPhone apps that will help you navigate the dating minefield and avoid potential disasters. From asking that special someone out, to knowing what fork to use, to how to make a hasty escape if things don’t quite go according to plan, these apps should be part of every dater’s arsenal. 1. Awesome Pickup Lines To get to the dating stage you’ve got to meet someone first. Imagine you’ve just seen the human of your dreams across the room but your mind’s gone utterly blank. There are tons of apps offering pickup lines on the App Store, with some even specializing in pirate, ninja, vampire or robot-themed conversation starters. But we like the “Awesome” offering as it serves up hundreds of tried and tested lines added by users — you know, real people like you. Price: Free 2. Date Smart You’ve aced the ask, but now need an amazing date idea to really make that crucial first impression. Based on your location or the input of a zip

code, Date Smart will generate tons of ideas for what you could do on your outing. Categories include cultural, outdoors, adventurous, romantic and novel, with “first date” options offering suggestions for the yet-to-beproperly-acquainted. Price:$1.99 3. Romantic Recipes For Dinner Dates He/she has just taken you up on your casual suggestion, “Why not just have dinner at my place?” Now, assuming your noodle sandwich special is not going to impress, this app will provide you with particularly romantic dinner recipes, advice on creating a great atmosphere, as well as some random dating tips thrown in, which we’re less sure about, such as: “Women will ask questions about your prospects. Even if they pretend it isn’t important, it is”. Price:$2.99 4. Fine Dining Etiquette – Mind Your Manners You may have been dragged up rather than brought up, but your date doesn’t have to know this. Remember the scene in Pretty Woman with the silverware confusion? That will never happen to you with this handy app, as it will guide you through the pitfalls and perils of fine dining. There’s advice on how to order your meal, and that allimportant section on “napkin usage.” Good manners are free, you know. Well, technically they’re 99 cents if you get them

brush up. In minutes you’ll be explaining why you’ve always loved Nashville Skyline, and who knows? In years to come you could both be laughing about it together. Price:$0.99 7. Excuse Me “Oh really, Robert/Roberta, I had no idea there were so many ways from this app. to preserve insects in Price:$0.99 5. Conversation formaldehyde. Oh, there’s five Starter more methods? Oh, hang on, my When the small talk runs out and phone, sorry… Hello, what’s you’re a little tongue-tied from that? Trapped in a well, you say? sitting across from such a I’ll be there right away.” stunning specimen, you may Fake call apps are a dime a need a bit of assistance to keep dozen, but this one lets you set a t h e c o n v e r s a t i o n m o v i n g timer, displays the “slide to forward. This app promises answer” screen and even offers p r o v o k i n g , i n t r i g u i n g a n d an indistinguishable male or challenging conversation starters female voice. It’s ideal for those that you can use to spice up the times when you absolutely, dialogue. Having topics readily at positively have to leave. hand will also stop you from Price:$1.99 8. Taxi Magic blurting out what should really be After a date’s gone well (or if it a third date revelation (”Did I hasn’t, see #7 above) you want to mention I collect airline sick make as smooth an exit as bags?”) just to avoid an awkward possible in order to maintain the silence. positive impression. Avoid any Price:$0.99 6. AnswerWiki awkward hanging around on Everything’s going well, the street corners and get you and/or conversation is flowing, but in your date safely in a cab faster your eagerness to match tastes, than you can say “back to my you’ve just found yourself place for a drink?” Taxi Magic agreeing that Bob Dylan is God’s lets you book a cab with the tap gift to music. It’s not technically of the iPhone’s screen, and offers a lie, as you did own a Bob CD live updates on where the cab is way back when, but the finer on a map. points of his huge catalog are lost Price: Free 9. Cover Up on you. This sticky situation You know how when you first calls for AnswerWiki. Just meet someone you pretend you excuse yourself for some digital generate no gaseous bodily

emissions? This app will help you keep up that polite pretense. Not to put too fine a point on it, a press of the screen and the app will generate socially acceptable bathroom noises (flushing toilet, running water, hand dryer) to mask any more unpleasant audio. Price: Free 10. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover To use a cliche, breaking up can indeed be hard to do. If you really can’t think of the words, then this app offers you the proverbial 50 to get you out of an unwanted romantic entanglement. With audio clips (so you can hear how bad it sounds aloud, perhaps?) there’s letting-them-down-gently lines as well as harsher options, presumably for those that have done you wrong. If you’re still indecisive, then the “random” feature will present you with one option out of blue. That, or just slip out the back, Jack. Price:$3.99 More iPhone resources from Mashable: - iPhone TV: Top iPhone Apps for Live Streaming Television - Top 10 iPhone Apps as Judged by Mashable Readers - 7 iPhone Apps That Can Save Lives - 5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Wine Lovers - 20 Creative Apps For Your iPhone Reviews: App Store Tags: dating, iphone apps, List, Lists

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Study Shows Counterfeit Buyers Frequently Buy Real Products Later By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

changes, but even the counterfeiting claims are suspect. Submitted at 12/7/2009 8:34:00 AM In the past, we've noted that both As the negotiations over the the GAO and the OECD have ACTA treaty continue in secret, noted that the "problem" of one of the more frustrating c o u n t e r f e i t i n g h a s b e e n aspects is how defenders of massively inflated by lobbyists. A C T A r e p e a t e d l y c o n f l a t e And, a new study suggests that " c o u n t e r f e i t g o o d s " w i t h even the counterfeit goods that " c o p y r i g h t i n f r i n g e m e n t . " do get sold aren't really a huge Witness Senator Evan Bayh's p r o b l e m t o t h e o r i g i n a l nonsensical response to being manufacturers(thanks to Dave asked about ACTA, where it Barnes for sending this in) -- if becomes clear quite quickly that there a problem at all. In a study he's unfamiliar with the most that was actually carried out by a basic information on the subject. former brand manager at LVMH, He switches back and forth it was discovered that people between counterfeiting and don't view counterfeit goods as a copyright as if they're the same substitute to the real goods. thing, and seems to think that any People aren't being tricked -- they treaty on the matter must be know they're buying counterfeits, good. and others know that they have But, an even more annoying part c o u n t e r f e i t g o o d s a s of all this is the use of fear w e l l : " C o n s u m e r s a r e a l o t mongering over "counterfeit smarter than we may give them goods" as some huge problem credit for -- just because you've that has to be solved, when the got a nice fake doesn't mean evidence increasingly suggests you're going to get away with it." o t h e r w i s e . T h e c o p y r i g h t But, even more importantly, it lobbyists are using the cover of looks like counterfeit products s o m e m y t h i c a l m a s s i v e often act as a stepping stone to counterfeiting problem to push get people to go forward and buy for unnecessary and potentially t h e o r i g i n a l v e r s i o n : " T h e d a n g e r o u s c o p y r i g h t l a w counterfeit actually served as a

Cool Toys for Nerds, Ages 8 to 80 By Wired Staff (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/6/2009 9:00:00 PM

We all know the best part of the

holidays is playing with toys meant for tots. Here are the finest gizmos you and your younglings can share this holiday.

placebo for brand attachment," she said. "People were becoming increasingly attached to the real brand even though they never possessed it at all." Forty-six percent of the counterfeit-bag owners bought the authentic products within two and a half years, she said. Shoppers were willing to pay $786 for a real luxury bag.... So, for all the reports of "harm" done by counterfeit products, here's a study suggesting that it actually helps build brand loyalty, and appears to often lead to the counterfeit buyer later buying a massively expensive real offering in a relatively short time frame. As some are noting, this suggests that the counterfeit goods act as advertising for the real goods. These are the sorts of things that would probably be useful to discuss with those negotiating ACTA. If only those discussions weren't all happening behind closed doors due to "national security" issues. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

P2P Pre-Settlement Letters In Germany May Have Been Illegal; Lawyer Who Reveals This Threatened With Lawsuit By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:34:36 AM

There have been plenty of legal questions over the activities of a small group of companies in Europe, including law firm Davenport Lyons, ACS:Law, Logistep and Digiprotect among others -- who all seem to work together to purposely put files online that they have licensed, and then send threat letters to the owner of any IP address that connects to them. This leads to a fair number of totally bogus demands for people to pay up to avoid getting sued. Apparently, the business is quite profitable, even as no actual lawsuits have been filed. Yet, now reader Dan alerts us to the news that, at least in Germany, the pre-settlement letters and relationships between these companies may be entirely illegal. This was discovered due to a recently leaked document -the one that showed how profitable all this was -- which also noted that the relationships between the various companies were not based on any direct monetary exchange: The document states that "the whole project is kind of a joint venture where no party charges the other party with any costs." The problem with such a set-up is that the pre-settlement offers are usually based on costs incurred

by retaining a law office to pursue the claim. File sharers are asked to pay 450 bucks for a porn movie because it costs money to investigate their IP address and send them the cease and desist letter. However, German law specifically states that these costs can't be based on the success of the claim. In other words: In order to invoice file sharers for lawyer fees, these fees have to occur and be paid by someone no matter whether a file sharer pays up or not. Invoicing someone for costs that haven't actually occurred could be seen as fraud. Oops. After a German lawyer, Thomas Stadler, reviewed all this and posted his analysis saying that the efforts in Germany were clearly illegal under German law(Google translation from the original) , the German lawyer who had sent the original document (the leaked one, detailing how these operations worked), Udo Kornmeier sent him a cease-and-desist letter(again, Google translation from the original), demanding he take down his blog post that showed the whole operation was illegal. Apparently, lawyers who may be breaking the law in Germany don't like other lawyers exposing them... Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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ZEMLIN: continued from page 21

fruition without the low cost and collaborative methodologies (including fast development/time to market) inherent in open source. You've said that patents will get tougher to get and more controversial to wield. Why? Zemlin: First, Dave Kappos is the new head of the USPTO[United States Patent and Trademark Office]. This is a guy who was a development engineer at IBM and has an in-depth understanding of software technology and markets. It is highly unlikely under his leadership that software patents will get easier to obtain. Better tools for discovering prior art, better examiners, and perhaps even a shot at regulatory reform, will happen in 2010. In addition, companies that wield their patent portfolios to stifle innovation, lock people out of markets, and tax an entire industry will simply be ignored. Developers are the lifeblood of any computing platform and I rarely talk to an engineer that wants to create interesting new technology on a platform that

will tax him to death with patent litigation or arduous licensing. What are you anticipating as the most significant Linux and open source milestones for 2010? Zemlin: Linux is accelerating a major industry transition that is already well underway--an industry in which we pay for software and hardware to one in which we pay for neither. Today I can walk into a wireless store in London or New York, sign up for a data plan and get a laptop completely for free. In fact, today it is cheaper to build an average Netbook than it is to build an iPhone ushering in carrier subsidies and essentially free hardware. PC and smartphone makers are countering this trend by moving towards services. Apple has iTunes and Nokia has Ovi; expect other consumer device markets to move towards these services in an effort to maintain the profitability of their companies that face increasing margin pressure from the "free hardware" trend. And don't even get me started about Google. The same applies in the

enterprise space. New Web companies are built with free software and hosted on virtual machines on Amazon's cloud. Hot Web start-ups today don't buy software or hardware. Salesforce.com and most major software as a service offerings remove the request to buy software or hardware. Today a company can get free Netbooks from T-Mobile, sign up for a Salesforce.com account and pay a monthly fee for a full blown enterprise CRM solution they can access anywhere. Expect interesting new bundling to take place in this area. If Linux didn't already exist, companies would be scrambling to build their own OSes just to afford to compete in today's market. And, it would be a compatibility nightmare. But Linux does exist, and this industry transformation is depending on it. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Why I Left the Right, Exhibit A (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:51:11 AM

Because the wackos have taken over. Should the “Tea Party” movement organize itself to run congressional candidates across

the country, it would poll better than the Republican Party, according to a new survey by Rasmussen Reports. In the national telephone poll of 1,000 likely voters released Monday, 23 percent said they preferred to vote for a candidate

from the yet unformed “Tea Party” for Congress in 2010. The Republican Party trailed the nonexistent political organization by 5 percentage points, getting the support of 18 percent of respondents.

Rumor: Comcast, NBC deal to hinder Apple By Dave Caolo (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:00:00 AM

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Corporate, Multimedia, Rumors Last week, cable giant Comcast purchased a controlling interest in US television network NBC, resulting in a media behemoth to rival Disney. The results remain to be seen (Must See TV ... it's Comcastic!), but it's been suggested by AppleInsider that the switch could affect Apple's rumored TV subscription model. Last month we heard a rumor that Apple was working on a deal to offer iTunes customers a subscription for content. For $30 per month, Peter Kafka mused at the Wall Street Journal, customers could stream all the content they want. You'll also remember that NBC and Apple had a spat a while ago that resulted in the network pulling their content from the iTunes Store. They eventually made up, but Wall Street Journal analysts believe that a Comcastowned NBC would be less likely to participate in an "all-you-caneat" subscription model. If Apple charged me X amount of money per month for unlimited access to the iTunes

library of television and movies from any approved device, including Macs, iPhones, iPods and, of course, Apple TVs, I'd be a happy customer. Yes, I want to have my music files physically on my hard disk. But if the shows and movies I wanted to watch all lived on a server farm in Cupertino (or North Carolina), that'd be fine with me. I'd save a lot of disk space. There'd be nothing to sync, or forget to sync, before a vacation. I wouldn't have to cough up three bucks just to watch The Office, and and Apple would maintain its revenue stream. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. TUAW Rumor: Comcast, NBC deal to hinder Apple originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Ven1 vid1 ja1lbreak1: Hands on with blackra1n By Erica Sadun (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:00:00 AM

Video: Smacking the Hack Attack (Little Green Footballs)

Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage When it came time recently to jailbreak an iPod touch, I decided to take a look at George Hotz's BlackRa1n tethered solution. Unlike the Pwnage approach that creates a custom ipsw (iPhone software) bundle that you install via iTunes, the tethered approach communicates directly with your iPod or iPhone via the USB connector cable you use for normal syncing. That makes the tethered solution a very fast and easy-to-use approach, especially for units shipped with the 3.1.2 software installed. Download the BlackRa1n tool for both Windows and Mac from the GeoHot site. Complete instructions are available at his Weblog. If you own more than one iPhone unit, make sure you unplug all but one from the system before you start the jailbreak. Launch BlackRa1n and click the "make it ra1n" button. Then be patient and wait as the software does its job, including

Submitted at 12/6/2009 5:46:50 PM

Environmentalist Peter Sinclair’s new video is about the most absurdly overblown phony scandal in a year overflowing with phony right wing scandals, drearily dubbed “Climategate” by right wing blogs and Fox News, replacing your recovery logo this behavior on my iPod touch on that one but that's only one in hopes that it will turn out to be a death blow to global warming. (normally a picture of the iTunes 2nd generation unit. It reboots experience among many. logo and the connector cable) without problem, and, no, it had Although BlackRa1n is free It’s not a death blow. It’s not with a vanity image of the not been jailbroken before. software, the author asks for even a stubbed toe. It’s a big software's author. Once the jailbreak has finished donations to support this effort, nothing, a yawning chasm of Be aware that the blackra1n and your iPhone has rebooted, so he can continue providing foolishness filled with idiocy and jailbreak may present issues you can run the on-device tools in the future. A donate link hot air. The screaming from every right wing blog over this during reboot, forcing you into v e r s i o n o f t h e B l a c k R a 1 n appears on his home page. recovery mode and requiring software to install Cydia, the TUAW Ven1 vid1 ja1lbreak1: nonsense would actually be BlackRa1n to launch properly. Rock store, and (for iPhones) the H a n d s o n w i t h b l a c k r a 1 n funny, if it weren’t so utterly, H o t z w r i t e s , " I f y o u r sn0w unlock that allows phones originally appeared on The shamefully pathetic. ipt2/3GS/ipt3 is rebooting into to be used with other carriers. U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e W e b l o g Sinclair puts some of the emails recovery after running blackra1n, I found the whole process (TUAW) on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 most distorted by the deniers into this isn't a bug. It's a feature. You extremely easy to perform and 11:00:00 EST. Please see our their proper context, and shows the incredibly dishonest tactics need to run blackra1n every time would recommend it to anyone terms for use of feeds. to boot it. This 'feature', called who had difficulties using Read| Permalink| Email this| they’re using to continue trying to pump up this non-story, by tethered jailbreak, is enabled by Pwnage. The trade off, of course, Comments fooling the gullible.[Video] upgrades Apple made to the is an easier install versus possible bootrom and the fact ipt3 uses long-term reboot issues. It seems nand flash." I did not experience that my touch ducked the bullet

The Endless Flood of Phony Scandal-Gates (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/6/2009 7:26:21 PM

In the previous thread, I mentioned that I was considering

doing a post about the endless flood of phony scandals from right wing blogs, Fox News, World Nut Daily, etc. etc., and it was more than a little amazing

how many examples LGF readers came up with. Climategate is just the most recent in a long, long line. So here’s a thread dedicated to

the subject, for the lizard army to post comments reminding us of the incredibly numerous right wing nontroversies that stopped living but refused to die. To keep

things manageable, let’s limit this to non-scandals that have bubbled up from the fever swamps since Obama’s election. Have at it.

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Microsoft labs tests a Wikipedia of average Joes (CNET News.com)

different people with the same name. Particularly of note is the "Quanxi map" it can generate, The EntityCube listing for although this feature seems to run Microsoft Research chief Rick particularly slow. Rashid.(Credit: CNET) Although Web users can find Think of Microsoft's latest labs information on just about anyone effort as the software maker's using search engines, they attempt to give everyone their typically have to do so manually own Wikipedia entry. by going to many different sites. Dubbed EntityCube and now T h e g o a l o f E n t i t y C u b e , live to try out, the research Microsoft researchers say, is to p r o j e c t p u l l s t o g e t h e r pull together all of that biographical information on i n f o r m a t i o n . anyone found on the Web. "Even if a search engine could Similar in some ways to other find all the relevant Web pages people-search projects that have about an entity, the user would been around for some time, need to sift through all the pages EntityCube tries to cull the Web to get a complete view of the to build a dossier on whomever entity," Microsoft said on a page you can think of. Among the d e s c r i b i n g t h e p r o j e c t . interesting features is the social "EntityCube is an entity search graph that EntityCube builds, as and summarization system that well as its effort to automatically efficiently generates summaries sort out information about of Web entities from billions of Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:09:00 AM

Bing tries to put automatically generated summary information at the top of certain search queries, including notable people. Something like EntityCube could conceivably allow Microsoft to expand that beyond the types of well-known people, such as musicians, for whom it currently offers summaries. Even in cases where people do have a Wikipedia listing, they may only have a small entry, known as a stub. Such is actually the case with Microsoft Research chief Rick Rashid, whose considerably more detailed EntityCube page is show above. crawled Web pages." The project is coming out of Microsoft gave an early look at Although Microsoft's site makes Microsoft's research arm, but it E n t i t y C u b e a t t h i s y e a r ' s reference to enitites, not people, would seem to be highly relevant TechFest internal science fair the public EntityCube site at this to where the company's Bing back in February. point seems focused mainly on efforts are headed. Last week, This content has passed through people. The EntityCube site went Microsoft announced an effort fivefilters.org. public late last week. called "entity cards," in which

Boxee’s Beta Unveiling to Add an Interactive Twist By Christina Warren (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:11:00 AM

December has been a busy month for Boxee, the media center with a social twist. Last week, the company partnered with Sony to bring Crackle.com content to Boxee users, and tonight the company is showing off the first beta version of Boxee at an event in New York City. At the event, Boxee will also be displaying some mock-ups for

the Boxee Box. If you’re like me and stuck some place that isn’t NYC, you don’t have to miss out on the fun. Boxee will be livestreaming the event through, you guessed it, Boxee. Even better, Boxee is partnering with Cliqset so that users can choose to connect either anonymously or through their Cliqset accounts and talk to each other while watching the event. When I wrote about Cliqset in September, one of the features

that really stood out was the Boxee app and integration. The idea of bringing real-time communication to areas other than those that employ text and to devices that aren’t personal

computers or mobile phones is really exciting. With the live event, Boxee is able to show off its service while also offering users interactivity. More than a decade ago, Microsoft introduced WebTV to the world, and while it was a failure, the idea of being able to interact with your content hasn’t gone away. As more and more content converges across platforms and TVs, and set-top boxes become connected appliances rather than just

playback mechanisms, there’s huge potential for real-time social communication. The Boxee event starts tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET. To tune in, just load the Boxee Beta Unveiling app in the Recommendations section of Boxee. Reviews: Boxee Tags: boxee, boxee beta, cliqset, realtime, social web

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MIT wins DARPA balloon challenge (CNET News.com)

Pay-For-Delay Agreements Again Show How Pharma Abuses Patent Law To Harm Us All

though a few teams got at least eight correct. Prior to winning the contest, A team from the Massachusetts Team MIT explained its strategy Institute of Technology has won at its DARPA challenge Web $ 4 0 , 0 0 0 f r o m t h e D e f e n s e site. Interested parties could Advanced Research Projects register to submit the coordinates Agency for correctly finding the of any balloons they spotted. All locations of 10 red balloons people who signed up would be scattered across the U.S. given their own individual Web Launched on Saturday, the p a g e s , w h i c h t h e y c o u l d DARPA Network Challenge p u b l i c i z e u s i n g F a c e b o o k , released the 10 red balloons into Twitter, and other social sites. A the air, then dared contestants to snowball effect would entice find their latitude and longitude more people to join the effort. by the end of the day. Since no And apparently...that strategy one person could track down all paid off. 10 in just one day, the point of One contestant who managed to the contest was to see how pinpoint eight of the 10 balloons participants would use the called himself 10redballons. This Internet and social networking to person also reported that as the team up with others to solve the day progressed, most teams quest. managed to find at least five of DARPA said that more than the balloons and had started to 4,300 contestants registered for publish the coordinates on the the challenge, of which 218 Web. He also said many teams actually submitted answers. MIT were scrambling for clues to was the first and only one to get uncover the last two balloons. all 10 answers right, finishing the DARPA enjoys a reputation for contest in just under nine hours, launching offbeat research

projects that it hopes will provide useful information. "The Challenge has captured the imagination of people around the world, is rich with scientific intrigue, and, we hope, is part of a growing 'renaissance of wonder' throughout the nation," said DARPA's director Regina E. Dugan in a statement. "DARPA salutes the MIT team for successfully completing this complex task less than 9 hours after balloon launch." DARPA kicked off the Network Challenge, marking the 40th anniversary of the Internet, to see how social networking could be used to tackle broad problems and issues. The agency said it plans to meet with MIT and other contestants to learn what strategies they used to track down the locations of the balloons. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

EMI Licenses Content to Vevo in 11th-Hour Deal

Gallery: Chevrolet Volt Sure Drives Sweet

By Eliot Van Buskirk (Wired Top Stories)

By Chuck Squatriglia (Wired Top Stories)

Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:20:10 AM

Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:36:00 AM

New video music site backed by

Universal and Sony fills a major catalog gap just as it preps to go live.

Submitted at 12/6/2009 9:00:00 PM

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

which in any other market would be a clear anti-competitive Submitted at 12/7/2009 5:30:00 AM activity. How do patents fit into We've discussed in the past how the equation? Well, the big pharmaceutical patents actually pharma companies are suing the t e n d t o s l o w d o w n t h e generics for patent infringement, development of better healthcare but know they don't have any solutions, and earlier this year, legal leg to stand on. The filing we mentioned how the EU was of the lawsuit is basically just a growing increasingly concerned negotiating ploy, bringing the about how patent holders were generic manufacturer to the table. abusing their patents to try to If there were actual infringement, prevent generic competitors from then the generic maker could be entering the market. Recently, barred or would have to pay up. US FTC officials have noticed Instead, the money flows the the same thing and are trying to other way. The two parties settle do something about it -- but are in a "pay for delay" pact, f a c i n g t r e m e n d o u s ( w e l l whereby the patent holder pays organized and well financed) off the generic maker to stay out pushback from pharmaceutical of the market, even if there's no lobbyists (the kind who are able real infringement. This basically t o g e t m o r e t h a n 4 0 grants the patent holder extra Congressional reps, on both sides monopoly time on a drug, which of the aisle, to repeat talking can be worth billions, but makes points into the Congressional d r u g s s i g n i f i c a n t l y m o r e record with no shame). expensive for everyone. At issue is the fact that the big Permalink| Comments| Email pharma firms are paying off This Story generic drug makers to keep them from entering the market--

There are still some bugs to be worked out, but GM's electric car is the real deal.

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Google demonstrates real-time search (CNET News.com)

Internet content from sources like Twitter. Singhal showed off how a search for "Obama" would Google announced Monday the bring up tweets, Web pages, and fruits of its earlier deal with other Internet content related to Twitter, showing off how it has the president as it was generated. decided to present real-time At the Web 2.0 conference in Internet content within search October, Google struck a deal results. with Twitter to get access to the Amit Singhal, Google fellow, service's "firehose" of tweets. introduced the real-time section Updated 11:13 a.m. PST: during an event at the Computer Google plans to roll this out over History Museum in Mountain the next several days, and not all View, Calif. "We are here today users may see the new section to announce Google real-time immediately, Singhal said. The search," Singhal said, calling it c o m p a n y a l s o a n n o u n c e d "Google relevance technology p a r t n e r s h i p s w i t h s o c i a l meets the real-time Web." networking companies Facebook Twitter search will show the and MySpace to display updates latest matches for a particular from those services. search term, but Google wants to Updated 11:22 a.m. PST: Realdo more than sort results by time. time search at Google involves "Relevance is the foundation of more than just social-networking this product," Singhal said. "It's and microblogging services. relevance, relevance, relevance." W h i l e G o o g l e w i l l g e t Google will build a section information pushed to it through called "latest results" into the deals with those companies, it regular Google search results also has improved its crawlers as page that automatically refreshes to index and display virtually any Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:02:00 AM

Web page as it is generated. Facebook updates posted to public Facebook Pages will be indexed, while any Myspace update designated as public will appear in search results. Updated 11:30 a.m. PST: Google also demonstrated a Google Labs project called "Google Goggles," which allows a smartphone user to take a picture of a given object and send it to Google in hopes of finding out more information that object. Up until the real-time announcement, mobile search was ruling the day, as Google's Vic Gundotra demonstrated Google Goggles, a new Android application that can show locations of interest surrounding a GPS position, and the ability for Japanese speakers to now use Google's voice search features. More to come.... This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

EPA ruling boosts US climate efforts (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/7/2009 8:57:32 AM

The Obama administration was preparing to crack down on large greenhouse gas emitters on Monday by ruling that carbon dioxide and five other gases were

a danger to human health, showing its determination to tackle climate change as an international summit opened in Copenhagen. The expected ruling from the Environmental Protection Agency will give President Barack Obama new authority

when he heads to Copenhagen next week and will undercut much of the international criticism that Washington has been dragging its heels on climate change. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Yahoo Doesn't Want You To Know It's Spying Price List; Issues DMCA Takedown By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

someone to leak Yahoo's spying price list(or, more accurately, its Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:44:00 AM "compliance guide for law Last week, well-known privacy e n f o r c e m e n t , " w h i c h a l s o activist, Chris Soghoian, got a lot includes some pricing info) to of attention for revealing some Cryptome.org. Other, similar data on how often Sprint was documents were also posted to sharing GPS data with the Cryptome from other service government. However, perhaps providers, but the only one who an even more interesting part of freaked out appears to be Yahoo. his detailed writeup about various Robert Ring alerts us that Yahoo service providers and how they sent a DMCA takedown request provide data to the government, to Cryptome over the document. was his attempt to uncover how Cryptome appears to have just much various service providers posted the takedown request charge the government. This was along with its ongoing email interesting, in that it showed how discussion with Yahoo's lawyers, giving the government private w h i l e l e a v i n g t h e o r i g i n a l data could be a bit of a profit d o c u m e n t i n p l a c e . center for some firms. Soghoian Of course, by now, you can rest uncovered some price lists, but assured that Yahoo's document Yahoo and Verizon refused to has been copied in all sorts of reveal their price lists, claiming places, just by nature of Yahoo's that doing so would "shock" or attempt to hide it. It makes you "confuse" customers. That was wonder why the company even odd, since other firms did reveal bothered in the first place. their price lists, and the results Permalink| Comments| Email weren't all that shocking or This Story confusing. Of course, it didn't take long for

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TUAW Holiday Gift Guide: Displays By Joachim Bean (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:00:00 PM

Filed under: Accessories, Peripherals, iMac A display, whether it's a primary, extra display for a portable, or a desktop secondary, is something that's very useful, and makes a great gift. Here's a few gift ideas for displays to use with your Mac. Dell ST2210 This display offers a 1920x1080 resolution, a 21.5 inch viewing area, and is available for only $189. It has a DVI and VGA port, which means that you might need an adapter to connect it. There's also a 24 inch model of this display, the Dell ST2410, if you're looking for something a little bit bigger. Samsung XL2370 If you're wanting another option, there's the Samsung XL2370. It's LED backlit, like the Apple LED Cinema Display, and can be purchased for around $399. It has a display resolution of 1920x1080, and it features a DVI and HDMI port, so you'll need an adapter to hook it up to a Mac with a Mini-DVI or Mini DisplayPort. Apple LED Cinema Display The Apple LED Cinema Display offers unique features that make it easy to connect to a Mac, like the MagSafe connector that charges a MacBook. The display is measured at 24 inches, and can

SOCAN Wants To Charge Buskers Performance Fees By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

one sent in by a few people (Jesse was the first) about how Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:54:00 AM SOCAN is trying to get buskers One of the themes of 2009 was - street musicians -- to pay a that collection societies around performance fee if they perform the world went nuts trying to i n S k y T r a i n s t a t i o n s i n charge for anything they possibly Vancouver. SOCAN is claiming could, while also trying to that TransLink, the transit increase the rates they could authority for the trains in charge. Remember how one Vancouver should be paying up collection society wanted to to $40,000 in performance fees charge a woman because she put for all the buskers singing in on music for her horses? Or how s t a t i o n s , a n d T r a n s L i n k ' s about the woman who worked in response is to pass those fees on a grocery store, who was told to to the buskers. stop singing while stock the Of course, many musicians shelves, or the store would have actually got their start as buskers, display a 1900x1200 resolution. the iMac is a computer, so we to pay a performance fee. And, and built up their performance It also features a built-in iSight a r e n ' t s u g g e s t i n g u s i n g i t of course, we had ASCAP trying chops that way, but SOCAN is camera, a mic, speakers, and a primarily as an external display. to claim that ringtones were about to put them out of business three-port USB hub. You can Do you have any suggestions for p e r f o r m a n c e s , a n d m o b i l e by making it pretty damn costly purchase it for $899, though displays? Leave a comment and operators needed to pay up -- to busk where it often makes the beyond the license fee that was most sense. Nice work, SOCAN, refurbished models have shown let us know! in harming the very musicians up for$599 from Apple. TUAW TUAW Holiday Gift already paid on the recording. SOCAN, up in Canada, has been you're supposed to be helping. 27 inch iMac Guide: Displays originally The 27-inch iMac, can be used appeared on The Unofficial n o e x c e p t i o n , p u s h i n g f o r Permalink| Comments| Email in Target Display Mode as a Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, drastically increased rates that This Story monitor for another Mac with a 07 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. cover new places as well. But Mini DisplayPort. It offers a Please see our terms for use of the most ridiculous may be the resolution of 2560x1440 pixels, feeds. and it's LED backlit. You'll just Read| Permalink| Email this| need a cable to do so, and you Comments can purchase a Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable from Apple or Monoprice. Of course,

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AT&T offers app so you can report crappy service. Huh? By Mel Martin (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:00:00 PM

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, iPhone In one of life's supreme ironies, AT&T today posted an iPhone app that allows you to report substandard service. That's right folks. Got a dropped call? No reception? AT&T Marks the Spot [ iTunes link] is designed to get that info to your favorite cell company so they can act on it. Let's see... I don't have any reception, so I pull out my new AT&T app to notify them of the problem. Doh! No reception to do that. And the app even nicely brings up a GPS map showing where I am. The GPS signal is much more reliable of course. Look, I know AT&T means well, but the app is a tacit admission that all is not well on the AT&T network. I know you could travel to someplace with good reception, and send the data

to them, but I think this app will rub salt in an already sensitive wound. This reminds me of when I worked at a PBS station many years ago in Ohio. We had pretty weak reception, and the Station Manager decided to do an hour long program to tell people how to adjust their antennas if they couldn't receive us. I tried, and

failed, to convince him that the very people we were trying to reach couldn't see the program. My pleas fell on deaf ears, so we did the program and great hilarity ensued as the local press chewed us up for our stupidity. AT&T says they will acknowledge the report with an SMS (and I assume not charge for it) and I truly hope that they use the information they get to improve the network, because if it is just a PR stunt it is likely to backfire. There are already reports of people sending reports and not getting any acknowledgment. Oh well. TUAW AT&T offers app so you can report crappy service. Huh? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Snoop Dogg’s Album Launch to Become Reality TV on Ustream By Jennifer Van Grove (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:37:51 AM

In some ways, Ustream can be considered reality TV. Anyone with a webcam and an Internet connection can broadcast his life to the world. Celebrities, professionals and wannabe Web stars have all turned to the medium to try their hand at producing their version of reality TV. The Internet network’s latest venture, Ustream All Access, is now upping the reality factor with hours of live footage of bigname celebrities and athletes streamed to the site throughout the day. The Ustream All Access reality series kicked off on December 1 with Will.i.am, but tomorrow cameras will follow Snoop Dogg on the day his new album, Malice N Wonderland, hits stores. Viewers can tune into Snoop’s channel to watch an unfiltered stream of the rapper as he attends events and interviews in Los

Angeles. Unlike the reality content you see on your television, however, the Ustream All Access series will feature only unedited footage. Depending on the celebrity, the unfiltered broadcasts could make for mustsee-Web-TV. What we can expect from Snoop Dogg is anybody’s guess, and that appears to be the main draw. Ustream’s approach to reality TV is certainly an interesting one, and given that their debut broadcast with Will.i.am attracted 255,000 viewers, we anticipate it being a big hit with viewers. Reviews: ustream Tags: snoop dogg, ustream, ustream all access

'New Moon''s Taylor Lautner Turns Action Hero (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:26:00 AM

ET has the latest...

'New Moon' star Taylor Lautner is getting set to trade in his werewolf duties for the superhero world.

Variety has announced that based on a Mattel toy. Lautner has signed on to play the The movie tells the story of an title character in the new action extreme sports enthusiast who is adventure flick, 'Max Steel,' recruited by an undercover

agency after an accident infects his blood -- making him superhuman.

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Foursquare Checks In For Charity By Jennifer Van Grove (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/7/2009 8:38:08 AM

Foursquare players in New York opened their eyes this morning to a spiffy new leaderboard for the week. No, the rules of the game haven’t changed, but there’s now even more reason for New York Foursquare users to check in; every point they add to the leaderboard through December 13 equates to four cents for CampInteractive. This move to support CampInteractive, an organization that aims to inspire inner-city youth through technology, is a joint venture with Pepsi, who is sponsoring and financially

backing the endeavor. In exchange, Foursquare’s New York leaderboard now sports Pepsi blue and includes a call to action encouraging users to compete for leadership. Dennis Crowley, CEO and cofounder, tells us that they’ve had their minds set on using the location-based game to raise funds for charity for some time now. Should this first endeavor

be proof of concept for Foursquare as a platform for raising money for charity, then we expect that you’ll start to see more of these branded and goaloriented leaderboards in your city. You may recall that Foursquare, the popular location-based game that continues to roll out to more cities across the world, has already proven that their competitive platform is ripe for business participation, with even BART in San Francisco willing to take a ride. Reviews: Foursquare Tags: campinteractive, foursquare, new york, Pepsi

Yelp Comes to Google Android By Christina Warren (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:50:38 AM

Thanks to phones like the Droid, more and more online services are taking an interest in developing mobile apps for Google’s Android platform. The latest company entering the Android pool is Yelp. Yelp already has mobile apps for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre and WAP phones. Yelp for Android determines your current location (either using built-in GPS or a Wi-Fibased location) and then lets you search for nearby businesses, read reviews of establishments

and access a moveable Google map that can help you easily redefine your search based on locale. Yelp’s game plan for its mobile apps: Release an app that’s a useful, stable product first, and then add bells and whistles and other updates over time. Yelp says they plan to release more updates to the Android app

before the new year, but wanted to make the app available so Yelp users could start taking advantage of the service now. In addition to location-aware searches, Yelp for Android also lets users filter their search by “Price,” “Open Now,” “Special Offers” and “Hot on Yelp.” Yelp for Android is available in the Android Market and works in all of Yelp’s markets (U.S., Canada, UK and Ireland). The app is free — just go to the Android Market on your handset and search for Yelp. Reviews: Android, Android Market, Google Docs, Yelp Tags: android, yelp, yelp mobile

Found Footage: The iPhone-controlled, solar -powered Arduino tank By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

modules and robot kits, and the Arduino open-source electronics prototyping platform to create this cool little tank. The tank can Submitted at 12/7/2009 8:00:00 AM be charged by exposing a bellyFiled under: Hardware, Open mounted photovoltaic panel to Source, Found Footage, iPhone the sun. Are you the type of person who Maybe it's just me, but I'd love likes to handcraft your Christmas to see one of these modded out gifts? This year, perhaps you can with a spinning saw blade, lasers, make someone's Christmas Day and maybe a paintball gun... just a little bit brighter and What would be your accessory of happier when they unwrap their choice for your iPhone-controlled very own iPhone-controlled, tank? solar-powered Arduino tank. [via Cult of Mac] As you can view in the video TUAW Found Footage: The a b o v e , t h e t a n k i s p r e t t y iPhone-controlled, solar-powered impressive in its current form; it Arduino tank originally appeared could be used to strike terror into on The Unofficial Apple Weblog the hearts of unsuspecting senior (TUAW) on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 citizens or small animals. It was 08:00:00 EST. Please see our built by Chris Rojas, a Colorado- terms for use of feeds. based geek who used the iPhone Read| Permalink| Email this| TouchOSC app [US$4.99, iTunes Comments Link], various parts from SparkFun including XBee

Your Best Shot 2009: Vanishing Point By Heather Champ (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 12/6/2009 8:33:44 PM

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

easy, natural and collaborative process. Get comments, notes, and tags on your photos, post to any blog, share and more! This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Fix a Loose Battery Cover on Your Droid [Repair] By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/7/2009 8:00:00 AM

Play the Nintendo 64 in portable form (CNET News.com) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:30:00 AM

The N64Mini.(Credit: Zenloc) The modding community has been quite active improving old game consoles. I'm such a fan of the Nintendo 64 that the latest mod of the venerable console was just too cool to pass up. Dubbed the N64Mini, the portable Nintendo 64 device from

modder Zenloc features the familiar Nintendo 64 controller buttons (minus the D-pad, unfortunately) in a nicely compact package. Users can place their Nintendo 64 cartridges in the back of the device to play some of their favorite games. According to the device's developer, the N64Mini runs on a 4-cell battery and comes with a

charger. It also features a headphone jack and an A/V out port for those who want to play the title on a display that's a little larger. It even comes with builtin brightness controls. But here's the best part: the N64Mini is available now on eBay. Bidding ends in five days, but so far, 26 bids have been placed. The price is at $205 at the time of this writing. I obviously

haven't been able to get my hands on the device, but based on the video below, it might be something worth considering if you plan to spend some cash this holiday season. Check out a video of the N64Mini in action below. [Via Engadget] This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Verizon's Droid is a very capable smartphone, but a loose battery cover makes mobile life with some models less than ideal. A small screwdriver tweak, however, appears to repair the problem. As demonstrated in the video above, the fix shouldn't take more than a minute, or a few minutes, if you're being very careful. It's basically just pushing in a bit on a small metal piece that, when too far out, makes it easy for your battery to slide right off. You'll want to be careful, of course, and especially with your SIM card so close by, but if you've had the unpleasant experience of a falling battery cover, this fix might just be what the (DIY) doctor ordered. Found another fix for your Droid's battery cover slippage? Tell us about it in the comments. DIY Droid Battery Cover Fix[The Gadgeteer]

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"Preview All" added to albums in iTunes By Ken Ray (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:30:00 PM

Filed under: iTS Apple has made iTunes a bit more useful for surveying entire albums. A TUAW reader directed our attention to the addition of a 'Preview All' button for albums on the iTunes Store. The store has always given perspective buyers the ability to preview individual tracks. While 30 seconds of sound may not be an adequate representation of an entire song, it is at least enough to make sure that the song you're buying is the one that's been stuck in your head for days. For previewing entire albums, however, AmazonMP3.com has, since its launch, provided a better solution for previewing entire albums. TUAW's own first look at Amazon's would-be iTunes killer in September of 2007 noted the convenience of the site's 'preview all' button versus the need on iTunes to select each track to preview individually. Why it's taken a bit over two years for iTunes to catch up remains a mystery, but let it. Hit

Artists To National Gallery Of Canada: 'Pay Us Again And Again And Again!' By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

also uses some of the artwork it displays in brochures, catalogs Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:22:00 AM and other offerings. Of course, Rose M. Welch writes in to you would think that artists point to the latest example of would be thrilled to be displayed entitlement culture gone wrong. in the National Gallery, to get A p p a r e n t l y , t w o g r o u p s that recognition and promotion, representing artists in Canada, and the ability to declare their T h e C a n a d i a n A r t i s t s ' artwork "as seen in the National R e p r e s e n t a t i o n , k n o w n a s Gallery," which you would think CARFAC, and t h e would certainly boost what they Regroupement des artistes en arts can charge. But, apparently, visuels du Quebec (RAAV), have that's not enough. At some point, filed a complaint against the it makes you wonder if the National Gallery in Canada. The National Gallery shouldn't just National Gallery already pays focus on artists who aren't artists an exhibition fee to display members of these organizations, their art. But, CARFAC and so they can work with artists who RAAV think that the National actually appreciate being in The Gallery needs to pay them National Gallery of Canada. multiple times for the same Permalink| Comments| Email artworks, because the Gallery This Story

the 'Preview All' button and let the music play (in 30-second increments). Thanks pisbonanza for the tip! TUAW"Preview All" added to albums in iTunes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Comments

Behind the scenes of this Thursday's episode of Fringe By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:29:00 PM

One of my TV-related New Year's resolutions is to catch up on Fringe. I watched the first few episodes but drifted away because of other commitments. But every clip I've seen since looks pretty awesome, including this behind-the-scenes look at this week's episode, "Grey Matters." It has to do with brains. [Watch clips and episodes of Fringe and other shows at SlashControl.] Filed under: Video, Reality-Free, Fringe Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Batman and Robin did their Christmas shopping at Zayre Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:37:00 PM

When I was a kid, the big department store in my area (Boston) was Zayre. Anyone else remember that chain?

Here's an interesting TV commercial for the stores. Apparently Batman and Robin shopped there. And not as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, they actually shopped as Batman and Robin, in their costumes. Yeah,

I'm sure that didn't cause a ruckus. Filed under: Video, Commercials, Festivus, RealityFree Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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BREAKING: Google France Agrees With Spain Launches Real-Time In Saying Modding Search Submitted at 12/7/2009 3:33:00 AM

We had just recently written about how a Spanish court had ruled against Nintendo, saying that a company making "flash carts" for the Nintendo DS -basically alternative cartridges that can be used for nonauthorized games -- was not breaking the law. The ruling basically said that since the flash carts extended the utility of the Nintendo DS, it should be allowed. The reasoning is that Nintendo should not be the only one who can extend the functionality of its devices. This was a nice surprise, but not a huge surprise, since Spain has a good track record of reasonable

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:33:00 AM

Count down to the New Year with " Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:56:17 AM copyright law decisions. 2010," featuring some of the top However, what is surprising is We knew it was coming, and music acts of 2009. this story, sent in by a few folks, now it’s here: Google has just Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas with reader "Sauce" getting it in l a u n c h e d r e a l - t i m e s e a r c h , will return to host the Las Vegasfirst, noting that there has been a integrated into search results based party portions of the similar ruling in France, the pages. special, which will include inventors of the infamous "three Google real-time search updates performances by Selena Gomez, strikes and you're out" form of as stuff is happening around the means public Facebook Pages, Justin Bieber, Keri Hilson, copyright law. The court there Web – for example, live tweets, and for MySpace, it means any Colbie Caillat, Robin Thicke and seemed to have a problem with Yahoo Answers, news articles, stream data that is publicly Orianthi. Nintendo purposely locking and web pages now stream in on available. This is on top of the The bi-coastal celebration will developers out of its device, and the actual result pages for your partnership that the company include three and one-half hours even suggested that it should be query. It works on mobile too (at announced with Twitter back in of special performances and required to be more open to least iPhone and Android for October. reports on New Year's Google says the features might celebrations from around the d e v e l o p e r s , l i k e W i n d o w s . now). Here’s a video demo from not be available to everyone yet, globe, as well as the American Fascinating to see European but will be within the next few tradition of Dick Clark counting courts recognizing the rights of Google: individuals to have a "freedom to That’s not all though. Google’s days. down to midnight from Times announced that they’ve inked More to come on this developing Square in New York City. tinker." Permalink| Comments| Email partnerships with both Facebook story … Reviews: Android, and MySpace to pull in data in Facebook, Google, MySpace This Story real-time. For Facebook, that Tags: Google

Nintendo DS Is Not Illegal By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

Rock in the New Year with 'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'

By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

5 gifts for the iPhone owner By Dave Caolo (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

are five great gifts for the iPhone owner. WallDock - $25 Submitted at 12/7/2009 12:00:00 PM iPhones need frequent charging F i l e d u n d e r : A c c e s s o r i e s , and it isn't always convenient to Hardware, iPhone, iPod touch connect them to your Mac. If The iPhone owner on your list Apple's own wall unit doesn't loves her iPhone. Really loves it. float your boat, check out the Become an enabler and give her WallDock from Digital Lifestyle the gifts she really wants. Here Outfitters. It plugs into any US

wall outlet for cable-free charging. The top is cushioned so

it won't scratch your precious and it supports a slew of devices, from the iPod classic to the iPhone 3GS. If you're traveling this season, just pop one in your bag and go. Continue reading 5 gifts for the iPhone owner TUAW 5 gifts for the iPhone owner originally appeared on The

Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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IPCC Statement on Stolen Emails (Little Green Footballs)

and the integrity of its authors. IPCC WGI condemns the illegal act which led to private emails The 2007 Intergovernmental being posted on the Internet and Panel on Climate Change has firmly stands by the findings of issued a statement about the the AR4 and by the community stolen CRU data, defending the of researchers worldwide whose scientists and their work, and professional standards and condemning the criminal(s) who careful scientific work over many stole and cherry-picked the data: years have provided the basis for Working Group I Statement on these conclusions. Stolen Emails. The key finding of IPCC AR4, Statement by Working Group I “The warming in the climate of the Intergovernmental Panel system is unequivocal […] “, is on Climate Change on stolen based on measurements made by e m a i l s f r o m t h e C l i m a t i c many independent institutions Research Unit at the University worldwide that demonstrate of East Anglia, United Kingdom significant changes on land, in Bern, 4. December 2009 the atmosphere, the ocean and in W o r k i n g G r o u p I o f t h e the ice-covered areas of the Intergovernmental Panel on E a r t h . T h r o u g h f u r t h e r , Climate Change (IPCC) firmly independent scientific work stands behind the conclusions of involving statistical methods and the IPCC Fourth Assessment a range of different climate R e p o r t , t h e c o m m u n i t y o f models, these changes have been researchers and its individuals detected as significant deviations providing the scientific basis, and from natural climate variability t h e p r o c e d u r e s o f I P C C and have been attributed to the Assessments. increase of greenhouse gases. Comments on blogs and in the The body of evidence is the media about the contents of a r e s u l t o f t h e c a r e f u l a n d large number of private emails painstaking work of hundreds of s t o l e n f r o m t h e C l i m a t i c scientists worldwide. The internal Research Unit at the University consistency from multiple lines of East Anglia, United Kingdom, of evidence strongly supports the have questioned both the validity w o r k o f t h e s c i e n t i f i c of the key findings of the IPCC’s community, including those Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) individuals singled out in these Submitted at 12/6/2009 2:30:54 PM

email exchanges, many of whom have dedicated their time and effort to develop these findings in teams of Lead Authors within the production of the series of IPCC Assessment Reports during the past 20 years. The IPCC assessment process is designed to ensure consideration of all relevant scientific information from established journals with robust peer review processes, or from other sources which have undergone robust and independent peer review. The entire report writing process of the IPCC is subjected to extensive and repeated review by experts as well as by governments. Consequently, there is full opportunity for experts in the field to draw attention to any piece of published literature and its basic findings that would ensure inclusion of a wide range of views. In compliance with the procedures of IPCC, the conclusions of AR4 have undergone scrutiny in the form of several stages of reviews by peers and governments, have been revised and refined to take into account these review comments, and have finally been approved word by word by the governments of the world.

Zach Galifianakis — [Pullquote] By Gabriel Snyder (Gawker) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:45:28 AM

The Hangover and Bored to Death star explaining the pleasures of living in Brooklyn, to the New York Daily News.

Every layer in the process (including large author teams, extensive and multi-step reviews, independent monitoring of review compliance, and plenary approval by governments) plays a major role in keeping IPCC assessments comprehensive, unbiased, open to the identification of new relevant literature, and policy relevant but not policy prescriptive. Therefore, no individual scientist in the IPCC assessment process is in a position to change the conclusions, or to exclude relevant peer-reviewed papers and scientific work from an IPCC Assessment Report. In conclusion, IPCC WGI firmly stands behind its unique procedures and behind the scientific community and their collective work which has been, and continues to be, the basis of unbiased, open and transparent assessments of the current knowledge on the climate system and its changes. Of course, that’s what you’d expect from these evil tricksy scientists, isn’t it? Yes, that’s sarcasm, in case you were wondering.

RSS for BitTorrent, and other developments (Scripting News) Submitted at 12/6/2009 3:19:25 PM

TorrentFreak has a piece today talking about my efforts to sort out the differences in the RSS used by various BitTorrent websites. I also posted some ideas for a Torrent namespace that can be used in RSS, or any other XMLbased format that accepts extensions, such as Atom and OPML 2.0. On the Droidie site I look at what it will take to make it the perfect podcatcher. And a think piece on Protoblogger on the tension between doing something big and getting rich. This will lead to a followup piece that talks about creating incentives for people who don't want to go the corporate route. There really isn't that much money at stake but the really large ideas suffer if they get caught up inside corporations. Twitter has been down now for about 1/2 hour. 3:30PM Pacific. Oy -- we're so dependent on it. Where would you go now to find out what's up? status.twitter.com has nothing about an outage. (Postscript: It was down for just about 1/2 hour. TechCrunch has a story about it.)

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Was Russia Behind the Stolen CRU Emails? (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/6/2009 9:05:08 PM

A senior member of the IPCC is charging that Russia mounted a sophisticated operation to discredit the Copenhagen climate change summit: Was Russian secret service behind leak of climate-change emails? The news that a leaked set of emails appeared to show senior climate scientists had manipulated data was shocking enough. Now the story has become more remarkable still. The computer hack, said a senior member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was not an amateur job, but a highly sophisticated, politically motivated operation. And others went further. The guiding hand behind the leaks, the allegation went, was that of the Russian secret services.

The leaked emails, which claimed to provide evidence that the unit’s head, Professor Phil Jones, colluded with colleagues to manipulate data and hide “unhelpful” research from critics of climate change science, were originally posted on a server in the Siberian city of Tomsk, at a firm called Tomcity, an internet security business. The FSB security services, descendants of the KGB, are believed to invest significant resources in hackers, and the Tomsk office has a record of issuing statements congratulating local students on hacks aimed at anti-Russian voices, deeming them “an expression of their position as citizens, and one worthy of respect”. The Kremlin has also been accused of running co-ordinated cyber attacks against websites in neighbouring countries such as Estonia, with

which the Kremlin has frosty relations, although the allegations were never proved. “It’s very common for hackers in Russia to be paid for their services,” Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, the vice chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, said in Copenhagen at the weekend. “It’s a carefully made selection of emails and documents that’s not random. This is 13 years of data, and it’s not a job of amateurs.” I don’t know if Russia was responsible, but this has never looked like a simple case of computerized vandalism to me. After looking through the stolen data, it’s very clear that whoever did it spent a lot of time picking out the bits that would look the most incriminating, specifically to sabotage the Copenhagen summit.

Dennis Quaid to Launch Family Foundation (ETonline - Breaking News)

Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) to announce a new alert system and training program -- as After nearly losing his newborn w e l l a s h i s o w n f a m i l y twins to a medical mishap, f o u n d a t i o n . Dennis Quaid is on the forefront Quaid is announcing his support of change in patient care. for ASHP's Pharmacy Technician The Hollywood dad is teaming Initiative and the new National up with American Society of Alert Network (NAN). The Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:00:00 AM

Pharmacy Technician Initiative will secure standardized requirements for pharmacy technician training, and NAN will help prevent dangerous and repeated medication errors.

Majority of Americans Believe Knowledge of American Revolution is Important - But Fail Test for Knowledge (Little Green Footballs)

issues related to the Revolutionary documents, people, and events, and also A new survey commissioned by asked attitudinal questions about the American Revolution Center the respondents’ perception of has found that an overwhelming the importance of understanding majority of Americans (90%) the Revolutionary history and the believe that knowledge of the institutions that were established American Revolution and its to preserve our freedoms and principles is very important. liberties. The survey results The survey also found that highlight the importance of, nearly the same number of i n t e r e s t i n , a n d l a c k o f people (89%) believed they could understanding of our Founding. p a s s a t e s t o n t h e i r b a s i c For a printable PDF copy of the knowledge of the Revolution. survey, click here. But when they were given that Among other interesting test, only 17% passed. findings, more than 50 percent of Oops. Americans wrongly attributed the The American Revolution quote, &##x201C;From each Center commissioned the first according to his ability, to each national survey to assess adult a c c o r d i n g to his knowledge of the American needs&##x201D; to George Revolution. The results show that Washington, Thomas Paine, or an alarming 83 percent of President Barack Obama, when it Americans failed a basic test on is in fact a quote from Karl Marx, knowledge of the American a u t h o r o f & # # x 2 0 1 C ; T h e Revolution and the principles that C o m m u n i s t have united all Americans. M a n i f e s t o . & # # x 2 0 1 D ; Results also revealed that 90 How many of these people who percent of Americans think that put such value on knowing their knowledge of the American history (yet actually know very Revolution and its principles is little history) show up at tea party very important, and that 89 demonstrations dressed in 18th percent of Americans expected to century clothing? pass a test on basic knowledge of Here’s a quiz at the American the American Revolution, but Revolution Center site — see scored an average of 44 percent. how you do. The survey questions addressed Submitted at 12/6/2009 3:43:55 PM

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The Complete Guide to Avoiding Online Scams (for Your Less Savvy Friends and Relatives) [Security] By The How-To Geek (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:00:00 AM

Our readers are a savvy bunch who aren't likely to be taken in by an online scam—but we've all got those friends and relatives we worry about. Here's our definitive guide to helping them stay safe online. Photo from Futurama. When training your loved ones how to keep themselves safe online, you should remind them of the rule your parents probably taught you: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Using a little common sense goes a long way to realizing that you aren't going to suddenly win the Spanish National Lottery when you didn't even know you had a ticket. That said, here's a few tips that you should share with your less-than-savvy friends and family to help them avoid falling victim to an online scam. Never, Ever Click a Link to Your Bank or Financial Institution From an Email Legitimate banks or financial institutions like Paypal will never email you asking you to click a link to verify your information, reset your password, or login to view anything. You should simply create a browser bookmark to your bank, and when you receive an email, use the bookmark or type in the bank

name manually into the address bar. Combined with training your parents to look for the special lock icon in the address bar, this should prevent them from giving away their bank login. Never Give Out Your Email Password It's become a trend in "web 2.0" sites to ask people to invite your friends to join by entering your email address and password into their web site—but this is something you should always avoid. Not only will you most likely end up spamming all of your friends with invite requests, but some sites will keep that information and continue to spam your friends forever. Of course,

that is secondary to the fact that all your password reset requests will go to your email address—so if the wrong people get your password, they can access your entire online life. You should simply never give that information out to anybody for any reason. Use Strong Passwords (and Secret Questions) If your password is as simple as your spouse's name, it won't even matter if you give your email password out, since it can be guessed easily by scammers or hackers trying to get in. You'll want to make sure to read our guide on how to choose and remember a strong

password—but your security lesson doesn't stop there. The weak link in your email security is those secret questions and answers that most sites ask you to enter to help you reset your password. Even if your password is tough, often your secret question isn't—so you should make sure to protect your email account with strong secret questions. Do Not Buy Anything from an Email You Didn't Ask For The easiest way scammers get you is by dumping spam in your inbox for everything from cheap watches to fake maleenhancement products—which is not only going to be bogus but

probably redundant. The easiest and simplest rule is to never buy anything from an email. Sure, you could probably make an exception for email newsletters from sites you trust, like Amazon, but remember—it's relatively easy for scammers to pretend they're Amazon, just like it's easy for them to pretend they're your bank. Just make sure that you aren't buying, or even clicking on, anything from an unsolicited email. (You can always go straight to Amazon and search for the product they're advertising.) Watch Out for Job Postings That Look Too Good If you're out of work or just looking for a way to make some extra cash on the side, you should be very careful about the jobs posted on online sites like Craigslist, because there are scammers lurking there as well. It's not that Craigslist isn't a great place to look for jobs, but you have to be careful. Those jobs that say you can "Make $25+ / hour working from home!" or "Mystery Shopper Needed!" and promise tons of money for almost no work—yeah, they are completely fake. The biggest thing to avoid is anything involving Western Union, Moneygram, wire transfers, money orders, or dealings with any financial COMPLETE page 38

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COMPLETE continued from page 37

transaction. The scammers will ask you to deposit a check or money order and wire transfer the money back to them—and it's not until later that you find out it was a forgery. I personally know somebody who was scammed out of $12,000 this way. Do Not Give Out Your Personal Info or Social Security Number This should go without saying, but no legitimate site is going to ask you to enter your Social Security number unless you are applying for credit. You should be very careful not to divulge your personal information to anybody online. The same thing goes for sites that ask you to reenter your personal information, even though in some cases, like your bank, they should already have that information. Learn to Use a Modern Browser's Security Features The latest versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer have enhanced support for checking certificates from trusted web sites—you can click on the lock icon to see all the information about the certificate. In addition, the latest browser versions maintain a list of phishing and malware sites, and

will warn you any time you try and access a known bad site. Internet Explorer makes checking the URL even easier by highlighting the root domain name so you can more easily detect a new phishing site. Ignore Web Site Popups Saying You Have a Virus Last Friday half of my day was wasted removing a malware called Advanced Virus Remover from somebody's PC because they clicked an ad that said they had a virus, and then installed the "recommended" software, which proceeded to hold their computer hostage. These "scareware" viruses are becoming commonplace, and there are so many different names that it's impossible to keep track of all of them. The simple solution is to pick a single antivirus app for your loved ones and train them to know exactly which one they have installed. My mom's PC came pre-installed with Norton Antivirus, and I've trained her to ignore any other messages unless they come from Norton—and that if she isn't sure, she should click the X in the upper righthand corner of the screen, or

even just turn the PC off entirely and restart it. It's not a perfect solution, and I'd rather have her using Microsoft Security Essentials, but she's used to it now and it's a whole lot better than spending a day removing a scareware virus from her computer. Aren't sure which antivirus to choose? You've chosen your five favorites, and we've explained the virtues of the free Microsoft Security Essentials, so the choice is up to you. Now that you know how to help prevent your parents from scammers, you should sit down and cover these points with them—or at the very least share this article with them. Was there something we forgot to include? Let us know in the comments. The How-To Geek is tired of dealing with scammers and wishes the government would crack down on them more. His geeky articles can be found daily here on Lifehacker, How-To Geek, and Twitter.

Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:33:30 AM

An early exit from stimulus strategies to pull the world out of recession would put millions

By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)

or not the information has been faked. Model Year: (Digit 10) This You're probably at least aware number or letter describes the that all cars have a unique year the MY for the car. Vehicle Information Number Assembly Plant: (Digit 11) This (aka VIN), but you may not s i n g l e d i g i t i d e n t i f i e s t h e know that the 17-digit VIN is a s s e m b l y p l a n t . p a c k e d w i t h i n t e r e s t i n g Sequence Of Model Production: information about your vehicle. (Digit 12-17) These digits The car jockeys over at our indicate the order in which the sibling weblog Jalopnik detail vehicle left the assembly line. how to decode your car's VIN. Jalopnik's post runs through nine The meaty part: steps for decoding your VIN to The VIN is broken down into six decipher such information as parts: vehicle features, where it was Make/Model: (Digits 1-3) This built, its sequence in production, breaks out the make, model and a n d m o r e . R e m e m b e r t h a t manufacturer of the vehicle. checking the VIN is an important Vehicle Features: (Digits 4-8) part of protecting yourself when These digits identify the various buying a used car, but beyond features of the specific model. that, it's just an interesting source Verifying #: (Digit 9) Using a of info about your vehicle. How more people out of work and levels before 2013, unless more complex mathematical formula To Decode Your Car's jeopardise the fledgling recovery, is done to promote job creation, t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l L a b o u r the ILO said in a report publish this number determines whether V I N [ J a l o p n i k ] O r g a n i s a t i o n h a s w a r n e d . on Monday. Even without an early exit, This content has passed through employment in rich countries is fivefilters.org. unlikely to return to pre-crisis

End to stimulus moves threatens more job losses (Financial Times - US homepage)

Learn to Decode Your Car's VIN [Cars] Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:00:00 AM

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How to Know When Your DNS Servers Are Failing [DNS] By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)

Networks Lights Turns Your Keyboard LEDs Into Activity Indicators [Downloads] By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)

Submitted at 12/7/2009 8:30:00 AM

Now that both Google Public DNS and OpenDNS offer alternative, public DNS services anyone can use instead of their service provider's DNS servers, the question is: How do you know if your DNS service isn't working properly and if you should switch? Smarterware reader Nicholas has the answer. He says: The easiest way to determine if your chosen DNS servers are down, you can use nslookup or dig command line tools. Open a command line prompt (Select "Start > Run" and type "cmd" on a Windows machine, "Applications > Utilities > Terminal" on the Mac) and type: dig google.com or nslookup google.com If an IP address comes back and the web page appears to be loading properly in your browser, your DNS servers are working

Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:00:00 AM

fine. If no address comes back, or an unexpected web page appears despite a successful dig, there is a problem. "dig" is the newer and recommended tool, but both should work fine for basic troubleshooting purposes. A few months back I knew my DNS servers were screwy when I couldn't load certain web sites, b u t DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.co m said those sites were up. At that point I switched my DNS service to OpenDNS and that solved the problem. Here's more on how to troubleshoot a flaky internet connection. Thanks,

Nicholas! Update: Reader danger the pirate points out that Windows users don't get the dig command by default, but they can follow these instructions to download and install it. How to Know When Your DNS Servers Are Failing[Smarterware] Smarterware is Lifehacker editor emeritus Gina Trapani's new home away from 'hacker. To get all of the latest from Smarterware, be sure to subscribe to the Smarterware RSS feed. For more, check out Gina's weekly Smarterware feature here on Lifehacker.

Windows only: You squeeze every bit of customization and productivity out of your computer, why let those lazy keyboard LEDs sit idle? Put them to work as network activity indicators. Network Lights is a tiny application that turns the NumLock and ScrollLock keyboard indicators into incoming and outgoing network traffic indicators. Check out our video here to see the lights in action. The video starts with some simple browsingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we were looking for a Linux ISO to grab in order to really light things upâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and by the end of the video you see the burst of blinking that occurs when the large ISO download was underway. In addition to turning your keyboard lights into indicators, Network Lights also keeps stats on your network activity if you're curious. Note: If you run the app and nothing happens, right click

on the system tray icon and open the Settings dialogue. Check the box that says "Force Keyboard Capture". Despite it being tagged as a solution for older motherboards, our test machine has a motherboard manufactured within the last year and an equally as new keyboard, we needed to use the force capture function. Network Lights is freeware, Windows only. If you know of another app that helps you squeeze some usefulness out of your computer in an unexpected way, let's hear about it in the comments. Network Lights[via Download Squad]

Tennis Pro Lindsay Davenport Defends Tiger Woods' Wife (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:50:00 AM

Lindsay Davenport is a friend of Tiger Woods and his wife Elin

and tells ET that the picture being painted of Elin by the media as an aggressive woman is completely false. The tennis pro has a home near

Tiger's house in Orange County, California and describes the acclaimed golfer's spouse as "very loving, very loyal" and "level-headed."

Lindsay tells ET, "The insinuation that [Elin] would be aggressive or attacking is just preposterous. ... She always handles herself with class."

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The Google Wave Invitation Donation Thread Is Open [Google Wave] By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)

that generous soul with a means to invite you get invitations. Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:30:00 AM Here's the important part: We're pretty into Google Wave, Do not start a thread unless you and we want to give our readers have invitations to hand out. get a crack at playing around These threads get unwieldy very with the invite-only preview, so quickly if we don't follow some we're back with our weekly ground rules. Despite that, we Google Wave invitation donation really want to help give our thread. Note: Read the entire post readers a chance to try Wave, so carefully before commenting. we're giving it a go anyway. (Apologies that we forgot our Please, please only start a thread i n v i t a t i o n t h r e a d l a s t if you've got invitations. Don't Fridayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we're making it up just post your email address today.) thirty times hoping someone will If you've got Wave invitations grab it. If you want an invitation, you're willing to donate, post a reply to someone who's offering c o m m e n t b e l o w , s a y i n g one. Finally, it takes our interns something like: "I've got 10 hours to admin comments every Wave invites; who wants one?" day, and these threads wreak In that case, the first ten people to havoc on their efforts, so if you reply to that comment providing don't already have an approved

commenter account, please don't comment on this thread. Make sense? Good luck, and thanks to everyone who's donating invitations. If you do happen to secure an invitation, be sure to check out The Complete Guide to Google Wave, Gina and Adam's comprehensive book on Wave. Note: If you're posting comments but they aren't showing up on the post, that means you are not an approved commenter. How can you become an approved commenter? Read our comment FAQ. In the meantime, please don't post any more comments on this thread asking for invitations if you're not an approved commenter.

Bolster Your Holiday Playlist with 40+ Free MP3s [Dealhacker] By Adam Pash (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:30:00 AM

Looking to get into the holiday spirit but find your holiday playlist a bit skimpy? Lifehacker alum and CNET editor Rick Broida rounds up dozens of free holiday MP3s from Amazon and others, featuring the likes of Lady Gaga and Tori Amos. (Click the image above for a closer look.) The easiest place to get started is this page of 29 free holiday songs on Amazon. On the other hand, if you want to get in the spirit with story rather than song, web site Learn Out Loud is hosting a free download of Charles Dickens'

classic A Christmas Carol. Over at CNET, Broida suggests a couple of other solid sources, to be sure to check out his post for a few more gems. If you want to enjoy some good holiday music but don't want to clutter up your digital music app's shuffle with holiday songs the rest of the year, you can also do plenty of free listening online at places like Last.fm, Pandora, o r ( m y o w n ) MixTape.me(playlist embedded below; read more about it here). Got your own freebie holiday favorites? Share them in the comments. Download dozens of free holiday MP3s[CNET]

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How Google Will Infiltrate the Real-World: Mobile Coupons, Barcodes, and Visual Search By Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/7/2009 6:36:00 AM

The rapid growth of the mobile web is a force that could be disruptive to Google, a company that built its search engine for a desktop-based world. On the handheld, all bets are off. Anyone with an innovative concept for improving mobile search could gain ground, possibly even overtaking Google as the top search provider for mobile devices. But don't worry Google hasn't been ignoring this trend. The company has been busy prepping various initiatives designed to get people googling from their mobile phones. From scannable barcodes to an innovative visual search app that lets you perform searches by taking photos, Google is slowly revealing how they plan to dominate search in the real world too. Sponsor Google Does Barcodes (Again) Google hasn't given up on barcode scanning just yet. Although a failed Print Ad program featuring barcodes for newspapers was shut down at the beginning of the year, that hasn't stopped the company from giving barcodes another go. This time, the venue isn't the old-fashioned newspaper, but local businesses. Through Google's Favorite

Places program, over 100,000 of the United State's most popular local businesses will receive stickers sporting Google's logo, a scannable barcode and a message reading, "We're a favorite place on Google." Business owners can post these decals to their store windows to show off their respectability and popularity and you can bet many will. Customers scanning the barcode will be taken to that store's "place page" which reveals various details about the business, including hours of operation, reviews, photos, directions, phone numbers, brands carried, menus (if a restaurant) and even mobile coupons, if available. In addition, users can "star" (rate) the establishment and submit their own review, turning Google Local Businesses into a Yelp-like user-generated review service. While this initiative has a better chance for success in introducing barcode-scanning to the United States market than the Print Ad program did, there's still going to be some confusion on the part of consumers as to how to get started. Google notes in its Favorite Places FAQ that many modern smartphones including the iPhone, Blackberry, Droid and other Android devices offer barcode scanning applications, but no links or suggestions are provided. This leaves consumers with the problem of having to

figure it out on their own. In addition, feature phone owners whose more basic devices include cameras may also wonder if there is software for their phones, too. In some cases there is, but the less tech-savvy mainstream user base has no way of discovering that without taking the time to do some research on the topic. Perhaps Google should have introduced a cross-platform barcode-scanning application of its own? If it had, it could have definitely helped push the technology adoption forward. It's almost surprising that it hasn't yet done so, especially considering that its latest search rival, Microsoft, has. With Microsoft Tag, for example, you can create your own barcode-like "Tag images," as well as download mobile, Tag-reading software. Mobile Coupons As mentioned above, the Favorite Places' barcodes will link to pages that support mobile coupons, assuming the business chooses to offer them. However, these coupons aren't limited to "favorite" businesses - any business listed on Google Local Search can use this feature. Announced late last month,

Google introduced the mobile coupon feature to its Google Local Business Center program which lets any company offer coupons that consumers can access right from their mobile phone. At checkout, the shopper just needs to show the coupon on their mobile's screen to receive the discount. Visual Search via Mobile Photos Google Visual Search is an upcoming technology that's still in development. It was revealed on CNBC's " Inside the Mind of Google" segment on December 3rd. This innovative mobile application aims to provide an even more intuitive way for interacting with the real world via your mobile phone. With Visual Search, users with phones running Google's own mobile operating system, Android, will be able to take a photo of their location and use that to trigger a Google search. In order for this to work, advanced algorithms have to match the photo with those stored in a massive database on the backend. Initially, this service could be used to provide information about various landmarks, businesses or other notable locales, but really the possibilities are endless. Eventually, the same technology that recognizes landmarks could recognize other objects, too, like products on store shelves,

billboard ads or street intersections. It could even recognize people. As sci-fi as that sounds, that last technology already exists today. Other companies and startups working on facial recognition include Polar Rose, which identifies people in your Flickr and Facebook photos, Face.com, which offers two applications for identifying people in Facebook photos, a concept technology called Augmented ID, which does mobile-enabled facial recognition, and Apple's iPhoto, which offers facial recognition, too. And, of course, so does Google's own photo service, Picasa. Google Knows Mobile is the Platform of the Future While it's true that any company has a shot at dominating the mobile platform, you can't count out Google yet. It's clear the company is aware of just how important this new platform is to the future of search, and it has been busy designing mobile technology to take advantage of this new trend. From GPSenabled, turn-by-turn navigation applications, to voice-enabled mobile search apps, to all the technologies mentioned here, Google plans to become the king of mobile search just as it is the king of web search today. Discuss

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Facebook Forms New Safety Advisory Board By Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb)

Cyberbullying, a crime that affected as many as a third of all teen Internet users as of 2007, Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:54:06 AM became even more of a hot topic Social networking site Facebook when a particular incident led to has just announced the formation the suicide of a 13-year-old girl. o f t h e " F a c e b o o k S a f e t y And even though MySpace Advisory Board," a group of five kicked out 90,000 registered sex Internet safety organizations that offenders in February of this will council the company on all year, it wasn't actually good PR issues related to online safety. for the company; concerned The board members will review parents were shocked there were Facebook's current safety-related that many in the first place. procedures and documentation as Meanwhile, MySpace visitor w e l l a s m a k e s u g g e s t i o n s counts declined to the lowest regarding best practices and other levels ever this year. p r o c e d u r e s . A l t h o u g h t h e Facebook is determined not to company has sought council g o t h e s a m e r o u t e a s i t s from many of the participating predecessor when it comes to organizations in the past, this online safety. From day one, the new board formalizes those site has been more careful about relationships so Facebook can who can join their network than gather even more feedback as to MySpace ever was. Based on a how they can improve safety on "real-name" culture, Facebook their site. users have to sign up with their Sponsor real names, not their nicknames. Facebook is Determined Not to They can't set up fake profiles, Go the MySpace Route either. In addition, the company What killed MySpace? One recently announced a series of could argue it was a combination privacy controls for its users, of factors, but at the top of the which will allow even more list was spam, cyberbullying and protections regarding what sex offenders. A friend request content is shared and with who. from a pretty girl on MySpace And as the Facebook press was, at best, spam for an adult- release noted, the company has oriented business and, at worst, b e e n w o r k i n g t o k e e p s e x a n a t t e m p t e d v i r u s a t t a c k . offenders off the site and has

Facebook says it plans on meeting with the advisory board regularly. Hopefully, that means that Facebook will vet new features through the board prior participated in various task forces to launching in order to avoid and campaigns regarding online privacy disasters like the all-toosafety. About the Global revealing Beacon advertising Advisory Board system of the past. However, the With the formation of this new company will need to be careful advisory board - which includes about letting safety concerns members from Common Sense stifle future innovation. Keep in Media, ConnectSafely, mind that hundreds of thousands WiredSafety, Childnet of users declared the Facebook International and The Family News Feed, now one of the site's Online Safety Institute (FOSI) most valuable features, an Facebook hopes to stretch their invasive and unwanted breech of safety initiatives even further trust when it launched. What than before. The first task the would the council have said board will address is an overhaul about the News Feed? Make it of the safety-related content opt-in only? That would have hosted on the site's Help Center. dramatically changed what Currently the page details Facebook is today, if so. Facebook's policies regarding Still, Facebook today seems like safety, privacy and abuse, but the a company that's smart enough to Q&A section only contains 12 toe that thin line between questions. The overhaul will between innovation and disaster, expand this one-page help center likely in part due to its missteps to become what the company in the past. Meanwhile, the new describes as "a comprehensive advisory board should help the resource with specific company sustain their continued educational content for parents, growth by making sure that new teachers, and teens." users have the resources they Future initiatives will involve need to feel safe and protected. addressing other safety and Discuss privacy concerns, especially those affecting young children.

Tokyo poised to back JAL with Y700bn (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:50:59 AM

Shares in Japan Airlines rose 7

per cent on Monday after it emerged that Tokyo was looking at expanding public guarantees for investors in the carrier. A provision for up to Y700bn

($7.7bn) in guarantees on future loans or equity injections was likely to be included in a forthcoming supplementary budget, according to people

familiar with the situation. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Review: The Venture Bros. The Better Man By Annie Wu (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:46:00 AM

(S04E07) Wow. And wow again. Not only did we actually get closure on a few issues that had the potential to drag on forever (Archie and Betty/Veronica style), but we got one the best episodes of the season. I carefully considered whether my love for the Order of the Triad was making me a bit biased, but I honestly think this episode was a perfect example of advancing characters without sacrificing the comedy that made us fall in love with The Venture Bros. in the first place. Also, they introduced the hottest VB lady yet, and I dare anyone to try and convince me otherwise. Continue reading Review: The Venture Bros. - The Better Man Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Episode Reviews, RealityFree Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Wikipedia Co-founder Joins Flickr Co-founder's New Startup By Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb)

fruit.

Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:25:33 AM

Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake launched a new startup this Spring called Hunch and today announced that Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales has joined the company's board of directors. Hunch is a social Q&A service that, in effect, says, "people who are like you and who have preferences like yours tend to be happiest with the following answer to that question you're asking." The company reports seeing one million unique visitors last month, and in his own blog post about the announcement, Wales calls the intersection of community and algorithm "the future of the web." "This," he writes, "is what we are going to come to call Web 3.0." Sponsor Hunch relies on users providing information about themselves, something they do by answering a series of fun multiple-choice questions. The company says that 28 million of these "Teach Hunch About You" questions have now been answered, and all

kinds of interesting correlations can be drawn as a result. Hunch went so far as to write a 13 page report all about the differences it has observed between the selfperception of Mac owners vs. Windows owners. In another report about the intersection of food choices and political ideologies, the company says it found the following: • When it comes to choice of lettuce, everyone likes romaine, but conservatives trend heavily towards iceberg and liberals trend heavily towards arugula. • For kitchen styles, conservatives vote for the wooden, country look and liberals lean towards sleek, stainless steel. • Conservatives are more likely to drink sugar soda but less likely to drink wine; liberals are more likely to eat vegetarian options and more frequent portions of

These questions and answers are ostensibly not the point of Hunch, though. The point is to help users make decisions about things like what blue jeans to buy or what neighborhood to move into. The site has undergone some recent design changes and it's unclear that the main Q&A is as compelling or interesting as the Teach Hunch About You part. Hunch says it aims to become the "Wikipedia for decision making." The sites are clearly similar: both are user-created and curated collections of knowledge. While that's a laudable goal, I haven't found myself going back to it regularly after our initial review. I'm more of an Aardvark kind of guy when it comes to social Q&A. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise then that Hunch says Jimmy Wales and I have a lot in common demographically but very little in common in our ways of thinking. Discuss

Lazyfeed Gets Even Lazier: Users Get TVLike Feed Reader By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/7/2009 8:00:56 AM

We've been keeping an eye on super-simple feed reader Lazyfeed for about six months now. Cofounder and CEO Ethan Gahng wrote us today to let us know about some exciting changes users will see tomorrow morning when the startup launches Lazyfeed Squared, the second version of the product. "In our previous version," he said, "users had to click on updated topics to see what's inside. That is not lazy. And it wasn't fun enough. With the new version, it's not just the topics that update - each topic has its own live updates which show the latest headlines along with images." Sponsor In days of yore, users would type in a tag or single-word search term, and LazyFeed would return videos, photos and blog posts tagged with that term. Users were then prompted to add that term as a topic, which essentially meant the search was saved. The UI looked like a

typical feed reader: In September, the site announced support for both RSSCloud and PubSubHubBub protocols, making the product even quicker, in some cases as fast as an IM client. Lazyfeed Squared retains the real-time capabilities of the previous version, but it's a more passive experience, like watching television. "It delivers updates (updated content) of updates(updated topics)," said Gahng. "You don't even need to flick a finger to see what's up with your topics. You can just add stuff and watch live content flow in." Lazyfeed has also eliminated the need to sign up to use the service. "This will make it much easier to recommend Lazyfeed to your friends," said Gahng. "We think this will greatly make Lazyfeed more approachable for first-time users." Discuss

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5 Fabulous New Features Google Unveiled Today By Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:46:29 AM

Google is holding a major demo event at the Computer History Museum today and unveiled a number of incredible new features. It was the kind of event that restores a person's faith in Google as a major innovator. From voice search and translation, to location and visual search, here are the five most impressive technologies unveiled so far. Sponsor The demos are all being done by Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering for Google. Near Instant Voice Translation A new prototyped product allows not just search by voice, but near instant translation between English and Spanish in the cloud, via your mobile phone. Gundotrpha spoke a paragraph's worth of words into his phone and within seconds the phone

recited a translated version back in Spanish. It was amazing. Google hopes to have support for all the world's major languages completed sometime in 2010. Customized Suggest Based on Location Google Suggest is a very smart, if under-appreciated, feature. The feature will soon make use of location information when searches are performed on mobile devices. Gundrotrpha demonstrated on one phone that believed it was in Boston and one that believed it was in San Francisco. Upon typing the letters "RE" the Boston phone suggested searches for Red Sox, the local baseball team. The San Francisco phone suggested a search for REI, the outdoor gear outfitter. Google Product Search Combined With Inventory Feeds

from Local Retailers Local mobile product search will soon tell you where the nearest store with a product is and whether that product is in stock. Near Me Now Next: Google Launches Real-Time Search Now Google.com on mobile, starting today on Android phones, will offer top-level search categories like restaurants or stores on the front page. Click that button and you'll see the closest-by search results ranked by user rating. Google Goggles Visual search. Take a photo, click a button and Google will analyze imagery and text in the photo for your search query. Pretty exciting. 1 billion images are included in the index today but Google says it has made the decision not to include facial recognition until privacy concerns are figured out. Stay tuned for the next update... on Google's new real-time search. Discuss

Dollar’s data-driven rally holds back stocks (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:16:20 AM

16:35 GMT. Global stock markets struggled to make much headway as traders warily eyed

continuing strength in the dollar following better than expected US jobs data unveiled on Friday. The S&P 500, New York’s benchmark equity index, rose just 0.1 per cent at 1,107.2, London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.2 per cent

at 5,310.7, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 shed 0.5 per cent to 1,020.8. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

What is The Memex? Xerox Presents Trailmeme By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:20:04 AM

Last week Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt wrote a guest article for the Wall St Journal, discussing the need for new forms of newspaper publishing to replace the old print paradigm. Another not-so-new paradigm, but one more suited to the networked computer age we live in today, is Vannevar Bush's 1945 pre-hypertext concept the Memex. Trailmeme is a product by Xerox that models itself on The Memex. It's a destination site for Xerox Trails, which is being promoted as "a new kind of Web-based publishing technology." Sponsor We last saw a product attempting a Memex-like service over 3 years ago, when we reviewed Trailfire in 2006. Trailmeme enables users to map a set of web pages or other digital objects. So what is the Memex? Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Memex is. You have to see it for yourself. Check out this example using a ReadWriteWeb post: ReadWriteWeb's Top 5

Web Trends of 2009. Trailmeme includes a "collaboratively filtered" destination site, a bookmarklet and a toolbar for consumers, and a set of plug-ins compatible with WordPress and Media Wiki. Xerox has created Trailmeme in the hope that it will be one solution to the decline of paper use and print publishing. The problem is, the Memex as a concept has been around for over 50 years and it has yet to catch on. Nevertheless, just as Google is looking for ways to rejuvenate the publishing industry (see the Google Labs project mentioned by Schmidt in the WSJ, Google Fast Flip), Xerox is searching too. Discuss

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Google Real-Time Search Live Now (Video, Links)

Rumor Has It: Apple Says “No” to Mobile Intel Core i5 and i7 Chips By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog)

probably try to accommodate if it isn’t financially irresponsible to do so. Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:09:16 AM By Marshall Kirkpatrick If no special, non-GPU version (ReadWriteWeb) Apple uses the desktop version of the processor is forthcoming, Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:05:21 AM of Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 two outcomes are possible. Most processors in its current iMac likely, Apple will just continue to Google held a major search use existing processor tech until that page. Replace the search lineup, and despite some DOA product event today and among Intel finally does introduce a query in that page's URL with a machines and some odd display many incredible new products GPU-free version. The other, less new search term and if real time problems being reported, people and features displayed was realprobable outcome is for Apple to results are available, you'll be seem generally pleased with the time search. Fresh search results results. It makes sense then that either seek CPUs from AMD, able to see them. pushed live to the search results Intel’s biggest competitor, or to This looks a lot like what Apple would be interested in page, with a pause button above begin producing its own inCollecta offers with its XMPP using the mobile version of those that section of the page. house, something it might be API. This option should be p r o c e s s o r s , c o d e n a m e d Results are coming in from baked into Google.com's main “ A r r a n d a l e , ” i n u p c o m i n g off the integrated graphics. That p r e p a r e d t o d o t h a n k s t o freshly published web pages, v e r s i o n s o f i t s n o t e b o o k s . would allow the Mac maker to acquisitions and hires made over search results pages soon. Tweets, MySpace updates and But Apple apparently isn’t t h e n m a k e u s e o f i t s o w n the years. I still think going inThe company also says that shockingly, Facebook public technologies like personalization interested in using the mobile graphics option, which at this house is kind of a nuclear option profiles. Check out the demo and localization will be baked platform, at least not in its default point seems like it will continue for Apple, since outsourcing is video below. into real-time search in the configuration. The problem is to be NVIDIA despite rumblings probably much more costSponsor that the yet to be released 32nm about a serious rift between the effective. future. Want to see real-time results for Core i5 and Core i7 processors two companies. Either way, I’d love to see a Discuss any query right now? Go to include mandatory integrated In the past, Apple has received major change in the MacBook http://google.com/trends and graphics. Since switching to the special treatment from Intel on and MacBook Pro line soon. click on any of the hot topics on N V I D I A G e F o r c e 9 4 0 0 M numerous occasions. Perhaps They’ve been using Intel Core 2 graphics processor, we haven’t most relevant to the matter at Duo processors for quite a while seen hide nor tail of an Intel hand, the original MacBook Air now, and while incremental integrated chip, and thank featured a custom-designed processor speed upgrades are all Merom Core 2 Duo processor well and good, a serious boost goodness for that. (Financial Times - US the 10-year Greek bond and the According to reports from Bright that featured very low power would be much better. Still no homepage) benchmark German 10-year note Side of News citing sources usage. Due to Apple’s continued quad-core mobile computing widened to 182 basis, up from “close to the matter,” Apple is success in the marketplace, and anywhere on the horizon, though, Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:53:37 AM 174bp late on Friday, as investors said to have demanded that Intel its high-profile public image, d e s p i t e l o n g - s t a n d i n g C o n c e r n s o v e r t h e G r e e k remained concerned over the build it a custom version of the Intel must consider them a e x p e c t a t i o n s . economy continued to drive the outlook for Greece’s economy. Arrandale platform that leaves valuable customer and will country’s stock market lower on This content has passed through Monday, weighing heavily on the fivefilters.org. banking sector across Europe. The spread between the yield on

Greek woes weigh on European bourses

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The Case for Partitioning Your Mac’s Hard Drive By Charles Moore (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:30:47 AM

I’ve been partitioning my hard drives since my very first Mac — a used Mac Plus back in 1992. Yes, I divided the Plus’s commodious 20MB external SCSI HD into two partitions so I could boot either System 6 (for speed) or System 7 (for Internet support). I’m not as big an aficionado of partitioning as I once was, although all of my Macs since the Plus have had partitioned hard drives, including the unibody MacBook I’m typing this on, which has two HD partitions. That’s down from the four or five I used to configure back in the days of PowerBooks and OS 9. Reasons to Partition Partitioning means formatting the hard drive with two or more virtual volumes, which appear on your Desktop and function as if they were separate drives. I have a number of reasons for using multiple partitions. • I like to be at least potentially able to install two different bootable operating systems on the same Mac — for instance, I have both OS X 10.5.8 Leopard and OS X 10.4.11 Tiger installed on my old G4 PowerBook (plus OS 9.2 to support Classic Mode in Tiger). Installing multiple boot systems makes version upgrades less of a dice-roll or leap of faith.

Retaining a known-reliable older system installed is good insurance against disrupted work flow if the upgrade doesn’t go as smoothly as hoped. Also you may have favorite apps that aren’t supported by the latest OS version, of do a lot of testing of beta and/or alpha software, which has the potential to bollix things up. • Troubleshooting is easier if you have two bootable partitions. For instance, you can usually run diagnostic and repair utilities from one partition on another, which goes much faster than booting from a CD or DVD, and diagnostically if a problem goes away when booted from a different system install, it’s more likely a software issue. • By dividing up critical data, there’s less likelihood of catastrophic data loss due to file corruption. For example, a partition used strictly for document storage is unlikely to be affected by a serious system crash. Also if you have files that you want sharable without hassle among multiple users or across a network, you can create a partition volume for them with “Group” and/or “Others” read or read and write access. • Partitioned drives make it easier to find particular files if you always store certain types of files on particular volumes. Boot

Camp

Requires

Some folks tout using a partition for file backups, a practice I’m less enthusiastic about as it will be no help if the hard drive itself fails. Other potential disadvantages of partitioning are that as smaller volumes fill up, fragmentation can increase, there will be less free space for swap files when running applications that depend a lot on virtual memory, and partitioned drives are more Partitioning • If you’re running Boot Camp complex to restore after serious o r o n e o f t h e t h i r d - p a r t y crashes. virtualization solutions for As I mentioned above, while I W i n d o w s s u p p o r t , h a v i n g still partition, I don’t go as ape Windows installed on a separate with it as I used to, partly drive partition is a tidier way to b e c a u s e t h e r e a r e f e w e r proceed. In fact, Apple’s Boot advantages to multiple partitions Camp obliges you to have two with OS X’s excellent support for (but no more) partitions. Boot multiple users and today’s drive Camp Assistant (OS X 10.5 formatting schemes than there L e o p a r d a n d n e w e r ) were back in Classic Mac OS and automatically creates a discrete HFS formatting days, and partly FAT 32, NT, or NTFS formatted because hard drives are so much Windows partition, but an bigger and faster than they used important caveat is that Boot to be (plus there’s the twoCamp Assistant doesn’t work on partition Boot Camp limitation, if already partitioned disks, so with that applies). Boot Camp you’re limited to two The most convenient time to partition your hard drive is when partitions. • Since OS X supports both the you first set up the Mac, although Apple HFS+ file system and the these days you can partition and standard Unix UFS file system, change partition sizes without creating a UFS-based partition erasing and re-initializing the will allow the drive to be drive using OS X Disk Utility or accessed by Unix systems over a third-party partitioning software like Prosoft Engineering’s $99 network. Drive Genius 2 or Coriolis System’s $44.95 iPartition. Downsides to Partitioning

White Collar shocker causing all sorts of controversy (even on Twitter) By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:02:00 PM

The twist at the end of the fall finale of White Collar last week has fans divided. Some think it came out of nowhere, some (like me) thinks it was shocking but will go with it (because I think it's misleading and Peter is actually still a good guy), and there are some that think it makes perfect sense because they saw it coming (yeah, right). People on Twitter are talking about it too, including the show's creator. Continue reading White Collar shocker causing all sorts of controversy (even on Twitter) Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Web, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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The App Store Opus and the Unasked Question

Changes coming to Rex Is Not Your Lawyer

By Charles Jade (TheAppleBlog)

By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)

Submitted at 12/7/2009 6:47:04 AM

In a 3,000-word analysis of a paradigm shift in personal technology fit for a press release, the New York Times has declared the App Store worthy of buzzword status. Including comments from Apple executives Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue,“Apple’s Game Changer, Downloading Now” is also something of a Rorschach test on the App Store review process. There is no shortage of praise for the App Store, starting with Lynch Smith of gaming company Freeverse, who cites the App Store as the “future of digital distribution.” That’s followed by Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley, not the most accurate of analysts when it comes to projecting Apple’s quarterly results, saying Apple is attempting “to become the Microsoft of the smartphone market.” I guess that’s supposed to be good, but is the App Store good, as in not evil? With the App Store, Apple has

replaced a carrier distribution model for applications that was expensive, time-consuming, and mercurial with one that is inexpensive, time-consuming, and mercurial. Not a week goes by that a bizarre rejection is reported on, occasionally to be approved on appeal, and it seems that not a month goes by that Schiller isn’t defending the review process: “I think, by and large, we do a very good job there,” Mr. Schiller said. “Sometimes we make a judgment call both ways, that people give us feedback on, either rejecting something that perhaps on second consideration shouldn’t be, or accepting

something that on second consideration shouldn’t be.” What does that even mean? Anyway, senior VP Cue is a little more cogent on Apple’s App Store efforts, noting that with music “we really don’t have to review each and every song.” According to Apple, more than 10,000 applications are submitted each week. Most “sail through with no difficulty,” with “greater scrutiny” being largely applied to apps with “bugs or glitches in the coding.” It’s a “necessary evil” to protect “customer trust.” Which customers? That’s the real question. Who, exactly, is Apple trying to persuade that the App Store review process is not a mess? While personal technology enthusiasts and developers might care about the Byzantine nature of the App Store review process, the vast majority of iPhone and iPod touch users don’t, at least if one measures opinion by downloads. So what, or who, is Apple worried about?

Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:04:00 PM

Just a week or so ago we told you about Heroes' Sendhil Ramamurthy being cast in the new NBC comedy Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, which stars David Tennant, Jane Curtin and Jeffrey Tambor. Now comes word that maybe Ramamurthy shouldn't give up his gig on Heroes just yet. Jerry O'Connell has replaced Ramamurthy in the role of a lawyer who is a close friend of Tennant's (the plot of the show has Tennant as a lawyer who suddenly gets nervous and can't appear in court so he trains his clients to represent themselves can't wait to see how they keep that plot fresh). Of course, we should have seen this coming. I believe O'Connell has a contract with the universe that he has to appear in a new quirky sitcom every single year. In 2008 he starred in the short-

'Leap Year' Star Amy Adams Talks Baby News (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:40:00 AM

Amy Adams tells ET that she is expecting her first child this

spring. ET caught up with the 'Enchanted' star to talk about her upcoming movie, 'Leap Year,' and the baby she is expecting

with fiancé Darren Legallo. "We will probably find out," she tells ET when asked if she knows the sex of the baby. "I thought about waiting but that is not my

personality. I am impatient. It is not about planning a nursery, it is more about I want to know. I want to relate in that way."

lived Do Not Disturb, and in 2007 he starred in the short-lived Carpoolers. Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Apple Tops U.S. Retail Sales Rankings in October

AP lists Top TV shows of the decade

By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog)

By Brad Trechak (TV Squad)

Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:56:29 AM

NPD Group has released its latest numbers for U.S. computer sales in October, and Macs are occupying many spots at or near the top of the list in all categories. Sales of both Mac desktop and notebook computers were very impressive for the month, but a good amount of that success can be attributed to the introduction of new models. Among the big winners for October were the new 21-inch iMac, which topped the desktop sales charts, and the more expensive and more powerful 27inch iMac, which took a surprisingly high third place overall. The iMac wasn’t the only winner, as Apple also saw strong sales in the notebook department. The entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro came in first overall in notebook sales, and Apple occupied four of the top 10 spots for the month, though its other offerings placed low, taking the eighth, ninth, and tenth locations.

Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:01:00 AM

The television writing staff at The Associated Press has listed their Top 10 TV shows of the decade. The exact criteria of the list remains uncertain, but I believe it's based on the impact of the shows on popular culture. It's a good list. The only show on it I would question would be The NPD Group’s Vice President of themselves, the iPod, or iPhone. I Shield. In its place I would likely industry analysis attributed think it’s a combination of all put Firefly or Family Guy, either of which proved that poor initial Apple’s success to low numbers those things. on the PC side of the equation, There’s no doubt in my mind ratings do not translate into the too, in an interview conducted that customer experience is the failure of a franchise. with CNET: key to Apple’s success of late. The Internet changed television Apple gets a bounce whenever The iPod and iPhone might have when it came to popularity in the t h e y c o m e o u t w i t h n e w been the gateway drug for many 1 9 9 0 ' s . T h e c o n c e p t o f a computers. For the most part, users, but these days I find just as continuing storyline in a series October was a down month on many people for whom the became a necessity. Shows like the Windows side because [PC opposite is true. The common Babylon 5 would not have manufacturers] were working denominator is user friendliness survived the first season without through inventory before the and great support. The November Windows 7 launch. numbers will be a much better Baker goes on to speculate about indicator of Apple’s true success, what’s behind Apple’s success: however, since it will see a lot of Over past few years, Apple has holiday sales, and also should continued to gain share in the show how Mac is faring against market, and there are a lot of Windows 7 machines. ways to explain that. It could be the stores, the computers

Street Chic: New York By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/7/2009 4:00:00 AM

A leather jacket and rugged boots toughen up a tailored shirt. Photo: Lee Satkowski 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!

it. In the 2000's, it was more of the same allowing for shows like the aforementioned to be given life after death and even restart certain franchises ( Futurama). What do you think the next decade will bring? Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Awards, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Bravo Goes for Ultimate Social Media Buzz For “Top Chef: Las Vegas” Finale on December 9

President Obama Applauds Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen, and Mel Brooks

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

(ETonline - Breaking News)

Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:44:27 AM

BRAVO KICKS OFF ULTIMATE VIRTUAL VIEWING PARTY FOR “TOP CHEF: LAS VEGAS” FINALE ON DECEMBER 9 Salon.com Serves As The Exclusive Sponsor NEW YORK – December 7, 2009 – Bravo is giving “Top Chef” fans an inside view and chance to watch the season six finale among their favorite chef’testants with the awardwinning ultimate virtual viewing party for the finale of “Top Chef: Las Vegas,” this Wednesday, December 9 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Fans of the show can voice their opinions on the series through Twitter, Facebook Connect, and live mobile chat. Bravo viewers will also get the chance to interact directly with their favorite “Top Chef” judges and chefs live, when they join the party by Twittering their comments during the finale or by following Twitter.com/BravoTV, and answering live viewer questions via mobile and online chats. Bravo has partnered with Salon.com as the exclusive sponsor of the ultimate virtual viewing party with elements that include branding on pre-event

promotion across all NBCU sites as well as branding across all event platforms – BravoTV.com, Facebook, Twitter, live mobile chat and m.BravoTV.com. Salon.com will also create custom tweets to fans on BravoTV.com and on m.BravoTV.com. This social media event, which combines interactive elements on every platform to bring fans the ultimate viewing experience was first seen on Bravo and continues to add an extra element to fans by bringing the series off the TV screen and directly into the viewers’ homes. The first virtual viewing party held for “The Real Housewives of New York City” won the prestigious MMA Global Mobile Marketing Award. “‘Top Chef’ fans are passionate and opinionated and we celebrate that by giving viewers more ways to engage and interact with our chefs and judges,” said Lisa Hsia, Senior Vice President, Bravo Digital Media. “We kicked off this initiative with ‘The Real Housewives’ and are proud to maintain a live event on every platform available to its audience.” During the finale, fans will have the chance to Twitter with “Top Chef” judge Toby Young, the three season six finalists Bryan Voltaggio, Michael Voltaggio, Kevin Gillespie, and chef’testants

Eli Kirshtein, Ash Fulk, Jennifer Carroll and Robin Leventhal. Fans will receive exclusive behind-the-scenes content from the “Top Chef” mobile fan club, and some fans may get answers to their sizzling questions directly from the chefs on BravoTV.com/TCparty and on their mobile phones by texting PARTY to 27286. Fans can interact with their friends on Facebook Connect, where they can share their thoughts, post comments on all the drama and action seen in the final and have the chance to win signed “Top Chef” cookbooks, “Top Chef” board games and other great prizes. It has all come down to three chefs in the dramatic season finale of “Top Chef: Las Vegas,” airing Wednesday, December 9 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The final three chefs – Kevin Gillespie, Bryan Voltaggio and Michael Voltaggio compete – along with some twists and surprises – to determine who will take home the title of “Top Chef.” Will it be one of the Brothers Voltaggio? Or will Kevin show the judges some winning Southern cooking? There can only be one “Top Chef.” For a sneak peek at some finale drama, fans can go to http://www.bravotv.com/topchef/videos/one-will-be-top-chef.

Then, the drama is served piping hot on Bravo’s “Top Chef: Las Vegas: Watch What Happens Reunion Special” on Wednesday, December 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Bravo programming executive and “Watch What Happens” host Andy Cohen chats up season six’s chef’testants and judges – host Padma Lakshmi, head judge Tom Colicchio and judges Gail Simmons and Toby Young. Cohen will answer viewers’ questions and dish on season six’s good, bad and overcooked. Bravo is a program service of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Bravo has been an NBC Universal cable network since December 2002 and was the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts when it launched in December 1980. For more information, visit www.BravoTV.com. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BravoPR. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Submitted at 12/7/2009 6:42:00 AM

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts acknowledged the accomplishments of Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen, and Mel Brooks on Sunday by presenting the entertainers with the esteemed Kennedy Center Honors. In his address to the honorees, President Barack Obama admitted to stealing a line from wife Michelle, saying, “The arts are not somehow apart from our national life, the arts are at the heart of our national life.” The December 6 event also acknowledged the distinguished careers of jazz great Dave Brubeck and opera star Grace Bumbry. The Kennedy Center Honors will be broadcast December 29 on CBS in a twohour special.

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Hitting Season-Highs, ABC’s Brothers & Sisters Generates the Series’ Biggest Audience and Highest Adult 18-49 Number in 9 Months

Brad Pitt Teams Up with 'Twilight' Production Company for New Vampire Film

By Bill Gorman (TVbytheNumbers)

The production company that made Robert Pattinson a heartthrob in the 'Twilight' film series is joining forces with renowned ladies man Brad Pitt for another vampire movie. Summit Entertainment is working on a movie about the most famous vampire of all, Dracula and Pitt is on board to produce the film. The film is called 'Vlad,' written by actor Charlie Hunnam, and follows the life of Dracula as a young prince best known as Vlad the Impaler. Pitt will produce alongside Dede Gardner and Summit is in negotiations with music video hot shot Anthony Mandler to direct the film.

Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:55:22 AM

via press release: Up Week to Week, ABC Continues to Beat its Non-Sports Sunday Competition Sunday’s No. 1 Non-Sports TV Show, “Housewives” Grows Week to Week In Viewers and Young Adults, Matching its Largest Overall Audience this Season Hitting Season-Highs, ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters” Generates the Series’ Biggest Audience and Highest Adult 18-49 Number in 9 Months Sunday Night (7:00-11:00 p.m.) Opposite NFL driven NBC(Vikings-Cardinals) and Fox(Cowboys-Giants primetime overrun), ABC once again beat out its non-sports boosted competition on Sunday, topping CBS’ Sunday line-up by 7% in Total Viewers(11.0 million vs. 10.3 million) and by 42% in Adults18-49(3.4/8 vs. 2.4/6). • Despite the increased week-toweek competition, ABC was up

over the prior Sunday by 1 million viewers and by 10% in Adults 18-49(10.0 million and 3.1/8 on 11/29/09). “Desperate Housewives” (9:0010:00 p.m.) TV’s No. 1 non-sports program on Sunday, ABC’s “ Desperate Housewives’” numbers grew from the prior week by nearly 2.0 million viewer s (14.7 million vs. 12.8 million) and by 9% in Adults 18-49(4.8/11 vs. 4.4/10). In fact, Housewives tied its biggest overall audience this season. • “Housewives” registered as the night’s most-watched entertainment series for its 10th straight telecast this season, while standing as Sunday’s No. 1 series for 8 consecutive airings with Adults 18-49. • “Housewives” is generating an even bigger increase this season than last over its first-reported numbers through DVR playback, picking up an average 1.7 million viewers and an additional 8tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating

point from the initially reported Live + Same Day Numbers to the Live + 7 Day DVR finals. “Brothers & Sisters” (10:0011:00 p.m.) ABC’s“Brothers & Sisters” placed a strong second in the 10 o’clock hour to NBC’s NFL game, topping its CBS competition (“NCIS: LA” encore) by 3.6 million viewers (10.9 million vs. 7.3 million) and by 131% (3.7/9 vs. 1.6/4). • Hitting season-highs and jumping week to week by 2.2 million viewers (10.9 million vs. 8.7 million) and by 28% in Adults 18-49 (3.7/9 vs. 2.9/8), ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters” achieved the series’ strongest numbers in 9 months on both counts – since 3/1/09. • Like its lead-in,“Brothers & Sisters” is seeing a sizeable uptick this season over its firstreported numbers through DVR playback(also bigger than last season), picking up an average 1.3 million viewers and an additional 5-tenths of an Adult 18

-49 rating point from the initially reported Live + Same Day Numbers to the Live + 7 Day DVR finals. A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to 33% currently, from 28% at the same point in 2008. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen. Source: Nielsen Media Research (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 12/6/09. DVR Playback = 9/21-11/15/09. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Entourage Edge e-reader shows off its softer-ware side on video (Engadget) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers)

Boss of the Year Entry Form Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to

get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're

required. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 8:07:00 AM

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ABC Family sets world record for largest gathering of Santa’s elves By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

programming event on cable – ABC Family today (Monday, December 7, 2009) set a new Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:37:38 AM Guinness World Record™ for the not ratings related, but there are largest gathering of Santa’s numbers involved, and it is the “elves” together in one place! holidays… ABC Family’s World Record Elf Via ABC Family press release: Party took place in New York’s ABC FAMILY SETS THE The Pond at Bryant Park.“Santa GUINNESS W O R L D Baby 2: Christmas Maybe” stars RECORD™ Jenny McCarthy and Dean F O R T H E L A R G E S T McDermott were on hand to help GATHERING OF SANTA’S gather 607 “elves,” surpassing ELVES IN NEW YORK CITY’S the 250 needed to set the new THE POND AT BRYANT world record. Joining McCarthy PARK and McDermott to celebrate the Jenny McCarthy and Dean festivities were cast members McDermott of Network’s New from the network’s hit series Original Holiday Movie, “The Secret Life of the American “ S a n t a B a b y 2 : C h r i s t m a s Teenager” and “Make It or Break M a y b e , ” o n H a n d t o It.” Commemorate the Event New Yorkers and tourists New Yorkers and Tourists visiting the city, including adults Joined in on the Fun by Dressing and children of all ages, took part in Guinness World Record- in the record-setting event during Approved Elf Costumes which participants dressed in New York, NY(December 7, official Guinness World Record2009)– In support of its new approved elf costumes. At original holiday movie,“Santa approximately 2:00 PM ET, Baby 2: Christmas Maybe,” and G U I N N E S S WORLD the network’s annual 25 Days of RECORD™ officials declared Christmas event – the biggest the record had been set.

“There’s nothing like the holidays to bring people together to share in the spirit of the season,” said ABC Family President Paul Lee. “This is our favorite time of year, and what better way to celebrate it than by bringing together over 600 of Santa’s ‘elves’ and successfully setting a new Guinness World Record. The people of New York were just fantastic!” “What better way to kick off the festive season than a Guinness World Record attempt featuring iconic holiday characters such as Santa’s elves,” said Guinness World Record adjudicator Danny Girton. “I congratulate ABC Family and all involved in setting a new Guinness World Record.” In the holiday movie, ”Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe,” McCarthy stars as Santa’s business-minded daughter, Mary Class, who must contend both with Santa’s mid-life crisis and his elves going on strike right at the height of Christmas madness. Santa’s tired of the responsibilities of the job and is ready to pass on the reins to

Mary, who feels torn between the family business and running her own high stakes firm in New York City, along with balancing a relationship with the love of her life, Luke (Dean McDermott). The situation gets increasingly dire when a disgruntled former elf, Teri (Kelly Stables), in cunning disguise, sows dissension at the North Pole in an effort to take over Christmas.“Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe” premieres on Sunday, December 13 (8:0010:00PM ET/PT). Part of the Disney-ABC Television Group, ABC Family is distributed in over 98 million homes. ABC Family features programming reflecting today’s families, entertaining and connecting with adults through relevant stories about today’s relationships, all told with diversity, dysfunction, passion, humor and heart. ABC Family’s programming is a mix of network defining original series This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Condemned Killer Tries to Delay First One-Drug Execution (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:03:16 AM

COLUMBUS, Ohio A condemned killer scheduled to become the first person in the U.S. put to death with a single drug on Tuesday will ask a federal appeals court to delay his execution. The office of attorney Tim Sweeney said Monday that 51year-old Kenneth Biros is requesting a delay from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. A divided appeals court on Friday rejected a similar request by Biros, but that involved Ohio's old, three-drug process. Biros has appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. A federal judge earlier Monday refused to delay Biros' execution based on the one-drug method. Biros arrived at the death chamber in southern Ohio Monday morning where prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn says he is resting and appears relaxed. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Optical Genius: Natalia Brilli By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:34:11 AM

It’s a crying shame that this Natalia Brilli leather contact lens

travel kit ($220) isn’t available in stores now because it would definitely be on my wish list for Santa. It’s an obvious jet-setting must-have, so I’ll patiently wait until spring to snag one of

Brilli’s “rockabilly” pieces of

studded leather with the hopes her brilliant creations will save me from my mounting contact lens catastrophes. For more on Natalia Brilli’s collection visit nataliabrilli.fr

—Natasha Clark, Associate Fashion Credits Editor Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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VH1 Gets In The Game With Basketball Wives By Bill Gorman (TVbytheNumbers)

travel first class. But living the high life is not all glamour. In order to protect it, they have to Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:49:48 AM deal with the jealousies and via press release: dramas of living in — and VH1 Gets In The Game With staying in — the inner circle. ‘Basketball Wives’ They must also keep the groupies The New Eight-Episode 30- at bay while their husbands and Minute Series is Set to Premiere boyfriends are traveling on the on VH1 on March 15, 2010 road for over six months of the L O S A N G E L E S , D e c . 7 year playing ball all-the-while /PRNewswire/ — VH1 has wondering if their spouses are teamed up with the wives and being faithful to them. girlfriends of some of the NBA’s The cast is filled with the wives most elite players to give the and ex-wives of superstars viewers a behind-the-scenes look including Jennifer Williams (wife at the glamorous life of a of Eric Williams), Evelyn Lozada professional basketball player’s (ex-fiance of Antoine Walker), wife in VH1’s original series, Mesha O’Neal (wife of Jermaine “Basketball Wives.” Production O’Neal), Royce Reed, Faith Rain is set to begin on the series in (Udonis Haslem’s girlfriend) and December 2009. The eight- S h a u n i e O ’ N e a l ( w i f e o f episode 30-minute series is set to Shaquille O’Neal) who will also premiere on March 15, 2010. serve as Executive Producer on This series is about the insider the series. life of the wives, girlfriends and a “The public has an obvious few ex-wives of some of the fascination with the wives of star biggest ballers in the game. athletes. This series will show These ladies live the life. They viewers not only the glamorous drive the best cars, live in the side of being a celebrity wife but biggest mansions, wear designer also the challenges and hard clothes and jewelry and only work that go with it,” said Jeff

Olde, Executive Vice President of Original Programming and Production. “The wives of star athletes form one of the most unique and exclusive groups of women in the world. You only have to look as far as the nearest headlines to see what sort of pressure they are up against to keep their relationships and their families together. These women truly have a strength formed by fire. We are thrilled that they are allowing us into their lives to see things through their lens and understand why their friendships and bonds make them a force to be reckoned with.” “Having been around these remarkable women for several years, I have always recognized that behind every NBA star is a strong, exceptional woman, one who must deal with the unique challenges of being married to the game as well as the player. I am happy to be teaming with Shed Media and VH1 in bringing this entertaining and enlightening world to television,” stated Shaunie O’Neal, executive producer for “Basketball Wives”

and wife of NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal. Shed Media is producing the series. Executive producing for Shed Media are Nick Emmerson, Jennifer O’Connell, and Alex Demyanenko. Tom Huffman is a consulting producer. Shaunie O’Neal is an executive producer. Executive producing for VH1 are Jeff Olde, Jill Holmes and Noah Pollack. VH1 connects viewers to the music, artists and pop culture that matter to them most with TV series, specials, live events, exclusive online content and public affairs initiatives. VH1 is available in 95 million households in the U.S. VH1 also has an array of digital channels and services including VH1Classic, VH1 Soul, VH1 Mobile, VH1Games and extensive broadband video on VH1.com. Connect with VH1 at VH1.com. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

MediaDailyNews: WE tv Ups 2 Digial Execs (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:09:02 AM

WE tv and Wedding Central has upped two digital media execs and expanded the department's oversight to include new business development. Jennifer Robertson has been promoted to senior vice president from vice president and Andrea Bell Macey has been promoted to vice president from director. Renamed Digital Media and Business Development, the group's main responsibility is to extend the brands via non-linear, advanced media platforms, including online, video on demand, mobile and interactive applications. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Christopher Bailey Honored by the Queen By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

British Empire (MBE) bestowed upon him by her majesty the Queen herself. Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:36:01 AM Dressed in a dapper tails tuxedo, L a s t F r i d a y a f t e r n o o n , the Burberry Chief Creative C h r i s t o p h e r B a i l e y w a s a t Officer was notified of the honor Buckingham Palace picking up in June of this year, but it was able to collect the medal itself. his Member of the Order of the just this past Friday when he was

At 38, Bailey has accomplished feats in fashion well beyond his years, from the very public resurrection of Burberry from a storied British label to an of-theminute house, to the two honorary doctorates he's received from the University of

Westminster and the University of Huddersfield. Congratulations to Christopher on this great honor! —Rebecca Suhrawardi Austin Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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As “Monk” exits with series high 9.4 million, “White Collar” also sets series high with 5.55 million viewers By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:13:16 AM

Bill posted the numbers last night, but here’s the official press release from USA with a bit more detail, including Friday’s fall finale of “White Collar.” 9.4 MILLION VIEWERS OBSESS OVER MONK SERIES FINALE MONK Finale Becomes Basic Cable’s Most-Watched Original Drama Episode Ever USA’s Newest Original Series WHITE COLLAR Also Hits Series Highs NEW YORK, NEW YORK – December 7, 2009 – After eight successful seasons on the air, the series finale of the USA Original MONK on Friday Night (9pm) set records as it became the mostwatched basic cable original drama series telecast of all time in total viewers. Hitting series highs for its final episode, a rare feat in the TV landscape shared by only an elite group of iconic series, the finale brought in 9.4 million total viewers, beating the prior series high by +37% ( MONK had never been above 7 million total viewers in its eight seasons). The series that experts say started the resurgence of original programming on cable

garnered seven best comedy actor Emmy nominations (and three wins) for Tony Shalhoub in the title role throughout the run. • The finale delivered series high in P18-49 with 3.2 million beating the prior series high by +10% (This was the first time MONK surpassed the 3 million benchmark in this demo). • MONK delivered 3.7 million P25-54 viewers beating the prior series high by +2%. • The MONK finale now holds

the title of USA’s top original series telecast of all time among total viewers, is #2 among P2554 and #3 among P18-49. • MONK easily topped everything on broadcast for the night in P2+, P18-49 and P25-54 based on fast nationals for broadcast. • Among cable entertainment telecasts for 2009TD, the MONK finale on Live+Same is the #1 P25-54 scripted telecast on basic or pay cable, the #1 scripted

telecast on ad-supported basic cable in total viewers and the #1 P18-49 scripted telecast on basic cable. The fall season finale of USA’s newest original WHITE COLLAR(10pm) also hit series highs. The show delivered 5.55 million total viewers topping the series premiere – the prior series high – by +3%. This is the best performance for USA in the Fri 10-11 time slot in total viewers in

more than three years. The finale also garnered amazing demo deliveries, including 2.1 million P18-49 (topping the series premiere by +18% and best in time slot since 1/11/08) and 2.25 million P25-54 (topping the series premiere by +3% and best in time slot since 2/15/08). WHITE COLLAR also beat new originals on broadcast in total viewers and key demos (based on fast national data). USA Network is the #1 network in all of basic cable and is seen in over 98.5 million U.S. homes. A division of NBC Universal, USA is the cable television leader in original series and home to the best in blockbuster theatrical films, acquired television series and entertainment events. The award-winning USA website is located at www.usanetwork.com. Characters Welcome. USA Network is a program service of NBC Universal Cable a division of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. ### This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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What's On Tonight: Santa Claus, Carrie Underwood, The Closer, Cake Boss By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)

• Bravo has a new Million Dollar Listing at 10. • History Channel has two new episodes of Pawn Stars at 10. • Fine Living has a new Three Sheets at 10.

Submitted at 12/7/2009 12:16:00 PM

• At 7, ABC Family has'Twas the Night Before Christmas, followed by Cranberry Christmas. • At 8, ABC has Santa Claus is Coming To Town, then new episodes of Find My Family and Castle. • CBS has a new How I Met Your Mother, followed by new episodes of Accidentally on Purpose, Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory, and CSI: Miami. • FOX has Carrie Underwood: An All-Star Holiday Special at 8. • The CW has new episodes of One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl. • PBS has a new Antiques Roadshow at 8.

• TBS has two Christmas episodes of Seinfeld at 8. • Also at 8: TLC has two new episodes of Little People, Big World, then a new Cake Boss. • At 9, TNT has the season premiere of The Closer, followed by the series premiere of Men of

a Certain Age. • Syfy has the conclusion of Alice at 9. • Lifetime has three new episodes of Rita Rocks. • USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 9. • A&E has a new Hoarders at 10.

MediaDailyNews: Hasbro To Create 'Sesame Street' Toys (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:56:11 AM

Hasbro and Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind "Sesame Street," signed a 10-year global strategic alliance giving Hasbro the rights to manufacture and Check your local TV listings for market a wide-range of toys and more. co-branded games based on the After the jump, the late night TV show's characters. The range talk shows. of products, featuring Elmo, Big Continue reading What's On Bird, Abby Cadabby and Cookie Tonight: Santa Claus, Carrie Monster, among others, will be Underwood, The Closer, Cake designed to entertain and educate Boss young children. They will be F i l e d u n d e r : L a t e N i g h t , available beginning in 2011. Programming, Celebrities, Talk This content has passed through Show, What To Watch Tonight, fivefilters.org. Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Idiot Inks Boffo Book Deal [Publishing] By Pareene (Gawker) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:18:26 AM

Oh, good, Jonah Goldberg just got a million dollars to write another book. Hooray for the publishing industry! Jonah Goldberg—who has a career of any kind solely because his mother told Linda Tripp to secretly tape conversations with a lady who gave the president a blow job, and who is generally

considered to be one of the most intellectually lazy pundits of any political persuasion of all time—writes about The Simpsons for The National Review Online. His last book, Liberal Fascism, was based entirely on the fact that someone told the 40-year-old Goldberg that "Nazi" stood for "National Socialist" and then he basically stopped listening. It was a number one New York Times

best-seller, because a couple thousand people will buy anything that says mean things about liberals and because the conservative publishing industry buys its own product in mass quantities in order to distribute

via World Net Daily donation gifts and "book clubs." This next book is, for now, called The Tyranny of Cliches, though one wonders how Goldberg will make it through the foreword without employing a thousand of them. (And does he know the word is French?) Also: that's a terrible title, and it will most likely be changed to The Tyranny of Barack Obama's War on America's Freedoms prior to

publication. (The content of the book—an incoherent succession of Battlestar jokes, the Wikipedia entry for Mencken clumsily rewritten, and a repeated insistence that The Emperor was a liberal and Han Solo was a conservative—will not be affected.)

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New York Post Columnist Trips, Falls, Sues New York City for $2 Million [Lawsuits] By John Cook (Gawker) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:18:25 AM

New York Post TV columnist Linda Stasi had a rough night in December 2005: She tripped over a police barricade walking home from dinner, injuring her face and wrists. It was bad, but nothing $2 million wouldn't take care of. The Post hates lawyers, because it's getting sued a lot by its own reporters, and because, as a story last month bemoaning the state's " Suer System" put it, "New York's court system is among the most lawsuit-friendly in the country — socking citizens with millions of dollars in wacky jury awards, higher taxes and increased costs of insurance and health care...." They oughtta know! All they need to do is ask their own television columnist, Stasi, who is suing the city for $2 million over her run-in with a broken barricade at 49th St. and Second Ave. almost four years ago. Stasi's heel caught a wooden plank from the barricade that was lying in the crosswalk and went flying into the street, suffering a cut lip and severed tendons in her wrists. A tipster recently pointed us to the $2 million lawsuit she filed against the city over the incident, claiming mental anguish and lost wages. The case, which hasn't been previously reported, was filed in

2006, and is due for a jury trial at some point in the next six months. To judge by the complaint, which you can read in full here, Stasi's injuries were pretty bad: We called Stasi for details, and she insisted that her case was the real deal—no "wacky jury awards" here. "I'm not trying to get away with anything," she told Gawker. "You can ask my doctor. I looked like I'd gone 16 rounds with Mike Tyson. I went to a hand surgeon, but didn't want to risk surgery because God forbid, I'm a writer. So I had to wear braces on my arms for a year. They still swell up

the number. "As far as I know, there was never any figure attached to the suit. I'd be very, very happy to sue for $2 million. I'd go out and buy the whole city a Christmas present." Here is the relevant entry on the case's notice of issue, which indicates that a jury trial has been set and that Stasi is indeed seeking "$2,000,000." Get ready for your Christmas presents, New York. Surprised by the number, Stasi sent us to her lawyer, Lawrence Wertheimer, who explained that $2 million was an arbitrary figure. "Those are pro forma numbers," he says. "Certainly, she's not looking for $2 million, and she's certainly not going to get $2 million. You basically get whatever the jury decides, and sometimes." disability. I worked from home. you have to enter a number, so We don't doubt that Stasi took a If you work at a newspaper, you what you do is, you go high." hard fall and was hurt. But can't just stop writing—someone Again, don't worry about any whatever happened to her wrists, else will come in to fill your "wacky jury awards" here. it wasn't so bad that she couldn't seat." Well, what about those lost Wertheimer is decidedly Zen watch TV and write about it earnings she's suing for? "I lost about the whole case. "It is what anymore. Her fall happened on about a month of the show I do it is," he says. "If a jury gives her December 18, 2005, and she had for New York 1 until my face money, great. If it doesn't, then bylines in the Post on December healed," she said, "and I had to that's why we have a jury 22, December 24, December 25, stop writing my book for a system." Might as well try it and December 30—you get the idea. couple months." Because after all see what happens, right? In the month after the fall that, that writing she did during the If our skepticism as to the merits a c c o r d i n g t o h e r s w o r n day for the Post, her wrists just of Stasi's legal gambit strikes you complaint, left Stasi "severely couldn't take it any more at night. as heartless, we plead guilty. But injured and damaged, rendered When we expressed skepticism we learned from a master! Here's sick, sore, lame and disabled," that Stasi's injuries and the loss S t a s i ' s t a k e o n a s e x u a l she wrote 14 stories. of a month's worth of freelance harrassment lawsuit filed last "I wasn't disabled," Stasi told income from New York 1 were NEW page 57 Gawker (!). "I didn't ask for worth $2 million, she laughed at

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Is Google's Cupcake Princess Planning to Electronically Track Her Wedding Guests? [Request For Information]

New Mass Effect 2 trailer showcases the Engineer class and its killer robot

By Ryan Tate (Gawker)

BioWare has just released a new trailer for Mass Effect 2, featuring the exploits of strategic tactician "Commander Shepard the Engineer" and his murderous robot. Much like the first game, engineer class players will rely more heavily on strategery and tech management than direct confrontation. Lead gameplay designer Christina Norman guides us through some combat-heavy gameplay, which depicts the aforementioned android aggressor along with some cool abilities, like freezing enemies on the spot and hacking mechanized enemies. Oh, Mass Effect 2, you had us at killer 'bot. Gallery: Mass Effect 2 (Engineer class) New Mass Effect 2 trailer showcases the Engineer class and its killer robot originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:56:14 AM

We're still gathering details on the fairy-tale wedding Google's glamour geek Marissa Mayer is having this weekend. The latest: Guests are murmuring about some sort of tracking system that sounds as creepy as SkyNet â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or Google itself. Mayers' three-day nuptials at the San Francisco Four Seasons, where she lives, were announced via an elborate invitation, a heavy red box covered in a velvety material, as we've reported previously. That sounded about right for the fashion-conscious overachiever. The Google VP's obsessiveness apparently extends to security, as well: The invitations indicate guests are to keep some sort of ID card on them at all times during the weekend, we're now told. And said guests aren't sure what this means: Are these "smart" cards implanted with radio "

RFID" tags? If so, guests could theoretically be tracked across a 135-foot radius with a stationary receiver. Or maybe they'll be simple credit-card-style tokens with a magnetic stripe, swiped on demand. Or maybe former cheerleader Mayer has something more festive and creative in mind. If you've got a clue, do

share it with us. Requiring that guests basically wear a tracking tag will certainly further the image of Google as Big Brother. The search giant tracks a staggering amount of personal data, and company executives have lately been clumsy in answering mounting media questions about the info-

hoard. Then again, some of Mayers' guests will be fellow Google executives; perhaps having a taste of their own medicine will have a moderating effect on the data Google collects. Speaking of which: Though Mayer is employee number 20 at Google and has great power within the company, it's not at all clear that co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be in attendance at her wedding. Mayer was not invited to Page's private-island wedding to Lucy Southworth, a source close to the event tells us, so she could hardly be expected to invite Page to her bash. In any case, a tracking scheme will certainly help Mayer keep out the likes of Valleywag as her wedding party makes its way around the Four Seasons, even as it reinforces her rep as something of a data-hungry cyborg. No worries Marissa; we'll try not to take it out on your gift. (Pic: Mayer, by Esther Dyson)

By Ben Gilbert (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:20:00 PM

MediaDailyNews: Bloomberg Shutters Print Version Of 'BW Small Biz' (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 6:10:11 AM

Just three days after Bloomberg

LP completed its $9.3 million cash acquisition of BusinessWeek, the company is axing the print edition of

BusinessWeek SmallBiz, reports the New York Post. The pub is being folded into the main weekly print edition and Web

site. Editor Kimberly Weisul will stay with BW; no additional layoffs are anticipated. This content has passed through

fivefilters.org.

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Glenn Beck Advertiser: Pundits 'Say What You Pay Them to Say' [Scams] By Pareene (Gawker) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:41:39 AM

Politico has a great story(no fooling!) about how people who play on the fears of the old and scared have formed a mutually beneficial alliance. Conservative pundits and gold-selling scam artists have joined forces to rip you off! Talk radio and Fox conservatives fear-monger to keep their audience coming back. But a happy unintended consequence of constantly telling your followers that the nation is heading off the cliff is that it attracts advertisers who depend on stupid, ill-informed, terrified consumers. Like shady firms that sell gold! So: suddenly Glenn Beck's post-apocalyptic survival

tips include amassing vast stores of gold, which you can purchase (at a massively inflated abovemarket price, of course) from Beck sponsor Goldline! Here is a quote from a remarkably forthcoming Beck advertiser:

Peter Epstein, president of Merit Financial Services, which advertises on Beck's show, says gold retailers expect favorable coverage from commentators on whose shows they pay to advertise. "You pay anybody on any network and they say what

you pay them to say," said Epstein. "They're bought and sold." Yes. Well. But some people are not happy with their purchases: In one such complaint, Mary Sisak of New Castle, Pa., wrote in August that she contacted Goldline because she saw a television ad featuring Beck, and online endorsements from Levin and Thompson. After spending $5,000 on Swiss Francs, Mary said she learned she could have purchased the same number of coins for $1,600 less. "How could I be mislead by Glenn Beck, Fred Thompson and Marvin [sic] Levin?" she wrote. I don't know, Mary. I just don't know.

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year by four waitresses against the owners of Times Square's Hawaiian Tropic Zone restaurant: [S]omehow, being harassed and groped at a restaurant billed as the "Hottest Place on Earth" came as a giant surprise to four employees who filed a sexualmisconduct suit against the restaurant for 600-million big ones on Wednesday. That's a lot of suntan lotion! [snip] I'm sorry, but if you apply for a job in a bar that doesn't require a shirt, you'd have to be brain-dead not to figure out that slobbering men would be as plentiful as draught beer. And apparently they were, according to the lawsuit. [snip] Another alleged victim said she wants revenge against the Riese NEW page 58

The New York Times Buyout List [Media] By Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:58:18 AM

Today was the deadline for New York Times staffers to take the buyout package that was offered to everyone in October, as the paper seeks to cut 100 newsroom positions this year. Some big names are taking the buyout. Here are the notable names that have reportedly decided to take the buyout. Business reporters, from Silicon Alley Insider: • Louis Uchitelle, who covers

economics. • Geraldine Fabrikant, veteran business reporter. • Alex Berenson, who used to cover pharma for the business section but who has lately been focused more on writing novels. • Jonathan Glater, a Californiabased reporter. DC reporters, via Michael Calderone: • Stephen Labaton, who's been covering financial regulation and reform.

buyout, according to Keith Kelly.

• Neil A. Lewis, DC reporter. • David Johnston, a veteran most recently covering the Ft. Hood shootings. • David Stout, another NYT

veteran. Metro reporters: • Ralph Blumenthal, a Metro reporter, is likely to take the

Keith Kelly says that the copy desk and the Sports and Metro sections could be primary targets for the layoffs that will have to come to make up the balance of the 100 cuts that need to be made this month. If you have more info on who's taking the buyouts, email us. We'll update this post.

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The Twitter Song Is Media Thing of The Year [Media Crack] By Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:19:10 AM

In your monstrous Monday m e d i a c o l u m n : TWITTERTWITTERTWITTER, a German plan to save newspapers, the shockingly democratized Portfolio.com, and Chicago sports writer wars. TWITTERTWITTERTWITTER. The founders of Twitter are the 2009 "Media Person of the Year," according to IWantMedia.com. Their primary accomplishment: inspiring the Twitter song. Congrats, fellas! Here is a plan to save newspapers, from the German publisher of the biggest daily paper in Europe: You can see links for free, but you pay for all the news content you read on the internet, either per-story or a flat subscription rate. Is not a bad idea! Now just put it into place and make it work before you go bankrupt. That's the trick. This, then, is the only thing left of Conde Nast's $100 million investment in Portfolio: a repurposed Portfolio.com, with

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NEW continued from page 57

Organization, which owns the joint. "I want to see the entire organization completely closed." Six-hundred million could about do it. And here's Stasi "ranting" about the case—complete with a gratuitous "ka-ching" sound effect when she mentions the amount they're suing for—courtesy the Post's

YouTube channel. Brain-dead waitresses dare to protest being groped by customers? They were asking for it. Brain-dead reporter doesn't watch where she's walking? Two million could about do it.

Hall of Fame Veterans Committee Adds Whitey Herzog, Doug Harvey By Ed Price (Fanhouse Main)

thought to the Hall of Fame," he said Monday. "It was just in the last few years Filed under: MLB Hall of Fame when I was only missing by a INDIANAPOLIS -- Umpire few votes that I thought, maybe I more news you can use, and an owner who "wants it to be a must D o u g H a r v e y a n d f o r m e r do deserve it." -read site for small- and medium- manager White Herzog were Washington Nationals manager size business owners." How elected to the Baseball Hall of Jim Riggleman called Herzog F a m e b y t h e V e t e r a n s "the best baseball person I've declassé! Last week the Chicago Sun- Committee, it was announced ever been associated with," at the Times lost a sports columnist to Monday morning at the Winter Winter Meetings Monday. Harvey umpired for 31 seasons. the Chicago Tribune. This week, Meetings. the Chicago Tribune lost a sports Herzog won six division titles He worked in five World Series, c o l u m n i s t t o t h e C h i c a g o with the Royals and Cardinals, nine LCS and six All-Star Tribune. Next week, both papers going to the 1982, '85 and '87 Games. "I am very touched by will still be going broke, and all World Series with St. Louis, this honor. I accept this election the Chicago sports teams will winning in 1982. In 18 total to the National Baseball Hall of seasons as a manager (including Fame on behalf of all umpires still be mediocre. a one-season stint with the Texas from the minor leagues to the Rangers and four games with the major leagues - and for those California Angels), Herzog went who umpire at every level," 1,281-1,125. When at the helm Harvey said. quot;Ten years into for the entire season, Herzog only my career, my late father said to endured three losing records. me that one day, I would realize "I really never, ever as a player, what I have achieved. When I manager or executive gave any woke up this morning, and I Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:59:00 AM

received the call from Cooperstown, I realized for the first time exactly what that means. My mother tried to stay alive for this day. Unfortunately, she was unable to share in this great honor with my wife, Joy, and me."br /> Of the 16 members of the veterans committee for managers and umpires, 15 voted for Harvey and 14 for Herzog. Twelve votes were needed for induction. The committee for executives and pioneers did not elect anyone. Players union founder Marvin Miller got seven of 12 votes, with nine needed for election. Herzog and Harvey will be inducted in Cooperstown, N.Y., July 25, 2010. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

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Warner Tops Favre in Geezer Bowl By Lisa Olson (Fanhouse Main) Submitted at 12/6/2009 7:00:00 PM

Filed under: NFL GLENDALE, Ariz. -- They're ridiculously old and wrinkled to be playing such a brutal, violent game, two quarterbacks who've sacrificed their bodies and health in ways we may never know. Someday Kurt Warner and Brett Favre may regret extending their careers for so long, rather than retiring in their early 30s without permanent limps, or possible damage to their brains. But admit it, football fans. We get tingles up the spine every time Favre or Warner remain standing in the pocket just long enough to avoid raging, hefty linemen nearly half their age. When the gray-bearded quarterbacks do get stuffed to the turf -- and Favre sure did become intimately familiar with it Sunday night in this marquee matchup -we wonder if they'll get up, how they'll get up, and then somehow, they readjust their bones and blink away the circling stars and jump back into the huddle, ready for one more round of vicious abuse. Warner, at age 38 the spry QB on this chilly night in the desert, limped slowly out of the University of Phoenix locker room following the Arizona Cardinals' surprisingly easy 3017 win over the Minnesota Vikings. He looked as if the hitch in his hip had turned his body

lopsided, and he couldn't really say how the repercussions from the concussion that kept him from playing last week might affect him long-term, but he did know this: the Cardinals, now 84 and nursing a safe three-game lead in the NFC West, needed him more than ever to play like a future Hall of Famer. "My head or the rest of me? My head feels good." Warner responded, when someone wondered how he felt after playing, and surviving, every offensive down. He had been kept safe and sackless behind a terrific offensive line that made sure Warner had plenty of time to throw accurate, precise spirals to receivers who could moonlight as acrobats. Warner connected on 22 of 32 passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns, popping up after every hit like a Jack-in-thebox to watch Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin complete his handiwork. "I took a couple of good shots in there, and I don't feel any symptoms or anything worse or any issues whatsoever as far as that is concerned," added Warner, who was cleared to play by doctors on Friday. "I did get my hip hit on that last play. It's pretty sore right now, so we will monitor that, but as far as the concussion and all that goes, I feel like I got out good." Favre, at age 40 enjoying a renaissance unlike anything we've witnessed at this position, in this sport, shuffled through the

fracturing it while attempting to tackle Tim Hightower in the fourth quarter. Trainers and team doctors spent several tense minutes working on Henderson, and once he was stabilized and laid in the cart on his back, it was a slow, long procession off the field. A rough bump could damage his leg further, and as cameras caught Henderson mouthing a few words, Favre could be seen on the sideline, tunnel at the stadium's other end, wincing, praying. looking like a man who could use That's the sport's precarious a good chiropractor, or perhaps a n a t u r e , i t s c r u e l a p p e a l . cane. He had been knocked Henderson, such a key part of the around badly by a Cardinals Vikings' 10-1 season entering defense playing its best game of Sunday night, had his year cut the season. Favre was sacked short last year because of a toe three times and intercepted twice, i n j u r y . A d r i a n P e t e r s o n , and was rather unremarkable (for Minnesota's terrific running back, him, anyway) in his 283rd was spotted limping to a team consecutive game, an NFL record bus after being held to a seasonfor longevity that proves again low 19 yards in 13 carries as the Cardinals outrushed the Vikings, why he is such a marvel. "I kind of let their defense get to 113-62 (insert your own joke me. In a game like this, where it about speeding here). With a is hard to stop their offense from rough schedule ahead, and scoring, I don't need to give them injuries piling up, Minnesota any advantage. I made some suddenly looks vulnerable. decisions that I haven't made up "I feel bad for E.J. That's awful t o t h i s p o i n t , a n d I ' m for him and for our team," Favre disappointed about it," said said. "We lost Phil [Loadholt], Favre, who was 30 of 45 for 275 w h o c a m e b a c k . B r y a n t yards with two touchdown passes [McKinnie] played with an -- the second, a 31-yarder to injured ankle. We've got to get Percy Harvin, coming with 1:20 healthy. This is the time of year to go and the game out of reach. w h e r e y o u w a n t t o p e a k . Nothing rattled Favre as much as Physically, I'm more concerned the sight of Vikings linebacker about the rest of our guys than E.J. Henderson being taken off me." the field on a motorized cart after The game, moved to a coveted twisting his leg violently and prime-time slot because of the

pair of aging, remarkable quarterbacks, began auspiciously for Favre and the Vikings, after Hightower fumbled on the second play from scrimmage. Favre did what he has done so spectacularly in this MVP-type season, ripping off a stream of short, exact passes in a drive that ended with Visanthe Shiancoe catching a 3-yard pass for an early 7-0 Minnesota lead. It was vintage Favre, prepping a sold-out stadium for what figured to be a long, perhaps seasondefining night. Especially since there were so many questions circling Warner and his health, questions that added heat to the hot debate about concussions in the NFL. Warner missed last Sunday's game against Tennessee, and after the Cardinals suffered the crushing loss to the Titans, Warner wondered aloud if his teammates were angry at him for not suiting up. He had played in 41 straight games before a blow to the head knocked him to the sidelines, but football is a sport where grit and machismo are valued as much as talent. After Warner shredded the Vikings' defense, after he proved courage should never be questioned unless you're wearing his cleats, Warner was far more comfortable talking about Jeremy Bridges, who had moved over to tackle and held his own against the Vikings' Jared Allen. "What a WARNER page 64

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MLB winter meetings: Whitey Herzog elected to Baseball Hall of Fame By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:36:32 AM

INDIANAPOLIS -- Manager Whitey Herzog and umpire Doug Harvey got the call Monday, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. Herzog Herzog and Harvey missed by one vote in their previous tries. This time, they easily drew enough support to reach Cooperstown. "Well, it took a little," Herzog said at Busch Stadium. "I don't think I would've had my heart broken if I'd missed by another vote or two. But I'm damn happy it's over." Among those who came close this year was former players' union head Marvin Miller. He was on a separate slate for executives and officials, and fell two votes short. Herzog was a fixture in major league dugouts for two decades. He won the 1982 World Series and three NL pennants with the St. Louis Cardinals and three division titles with Kansas City. He became the 19th manager to make the hall. Harvey "I think he was one of the guys who started managers looking at doing more creative things," said Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie

Smith, one of Herzog's star players. Smith was a late addition to the 16-member panel that considered managers and umpires. Candidates needed 12 votes (75 percent) to make it, and Herzog got 14 in voting Sunday at baseball's winter meetings. Results were announced Monday, and the 78-year-old Herzog was told he was in. It was somewhat strange that Herzog was elected along with an umpire. In 1985, a missed call by ump Don Denkinger in Game 6 of the World Series damaged the Cardinals' chances of winning another championship. "No, I'm not bitter at Denkinger," Herzog said. "He's a good guy, he knows he made a mistake, and he's a human being. It happened at an inopportune time but I do think they ought to have instant replay in the playoffs and World Series." Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog drew his nickname because of his light blonde hair while playing minor league ball. He wasn't much of a major league outfielder, but made his mark with the Runnin' Redbirds. Herzog started managing in 1973 with Texas and compiled a .532 career winning percentage. "He gave his entire life to the game," said Hall of Fame manager Tom Lasorda, another Veterans panel member. "When

he didn't make it last year, I was very, very down. This year, everyone understood he belonged there." Herzog missed by one vote in 2007. He will be enshrined with Harvey at the induction ceremonies on July 25. "I don't know why he should get in," Herzog joshed. "Doug kicked me out of more games than any other umpire." Harvey umpired in the National League for 31 seasons before retiring in 1992. He worked five World Series and six All-Star Games, and handled more than 4,600 games overall. The 79-year-old Harvey also came close two years ago. He was picked on 15 of 16 ballots this time, and became the ninth umpire in the Hall. "Ten years into my career, my late father said to me that one day I would realize what I have achieved. When I woke up this morning and I received the call from Cooperstown, I realized for the first time exactly what that means," Harvey said in a statement. "I accept this election ... on behalf of all umpires from the minor leagues to the major leagues and for those who umpire at every level," he said. Harvey has been in frail health since being diagnosed with oral cancer in 1997. He often chewed a wad of tobacco while on the

field. Harvey was distinguished by his shock of silver hair, and players often called him "God" in tribute to his work. He helped bring a new style to umpiring, too. Rather than make emphatic, instant calls, as was the norm when he began in 1962, he would take a split second to get a clear picture of the play in his mind. "He had the players' respect. He had the pitchers' respect -- most of the time," Lasorda said. "Sometime you see umpires and you say that guy's not giving his best, he's getting lackadaisical. Not him," he said. "He would listen to you and he would admit when he made a mistake. A lot of guys want you to come out so they can give you the heave-ho." Managers Billy Martin, Gene Mauch, Davey Johnson and Tom Kelly were among the other managers on the ballot. Danny Murtaugh, who guided Pittsburgh to a pair of World Series titles, and umpire Hank O'Day each received eight votes, four shy of election. A separate 12-person committee that reviewed 10 executives didn't elect anyone. John Fetzer, who owned the Detroit Tigers from 1956 to '83, got eight votes and fell one vote short. The 92-year-old Miller, who became head of the players' association in 1966 and built the union into a powerful force, drew

seven votes. Jacob Ruppert, who owned the Yankees when they acquired Babe Ruth, also drew seven. "I agree with the process, but I don't agree with the result regarding Marvin," Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver told ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick. Seaver is a member of the 12man panel voting for executives and officials and voted for Miller. "I think we probably have to have a couple more players [on the panel] to have a balance in that meeting," Seaver said. "That's the thing I'm going to suggest. This is not about your feeling on Marvin Miller. This is about the history of the game of baseball. It's a no-brainer for me." Miller came aboard the MLBPA at a time when players had no labor rights and the minimum salary was $6,000. He helped do away with the reserve clause and saw the advent of the collective bargaining agreement in 1968 and then free agency. With each passing failure to gain election to the Hall of Fame, Miller urged the Veterans Committee to remove his name from the ballot two years ago. "I said it in the meeting," Seaver told Crasnick. "He is on a par with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson in terms of his impact MLB page 64

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Experts: Women in NBA Long Way Off By Milton Kent (Fanhouse Main)

Illustrated writer Ian Thomsen, Stern, when asked if it would be possible to see a woman play in Submitted at 12/6/2009 4:15:00 PM the NBA in the next decade, said Filed under: WNBA, NBA "I think we might. I don't want to Rumors CATONSVILLE, Md. -- get into all kinds of arguments Phil Stern had the look. You with players and coaches about know the one. It's the one where the likelihood. But I really think someone suggests something so it's a good possibility." patently absurd that you want to It didn't take long for a number scoff, but living in a polite of NBA players, including James society precludes it. himself to cast doubt on the Stern, the coach of Maryland- notion. Baltimore County's women's Indeed, Cleveland reserve basketball, drew that countenance Anthony Parker, whose sister when it was relayed to him that Candace (above) is considered Commissioner David Stern had one of the world's best female recently posited that the day players and among a handful of would soon come where a women to dunk in a college woman could play in his league. game, doesn't see it happening. And Stern, the Retrievers coach "Men are just physically stronger, for the last eight years, has been faster, and can jump higher than in the women's game for over women. Even though someone two decades. He's seen where the like [Sylvia] Fowles who is 6'6 is sport was and has a pretty good a different breed of player, you handle on where it's headed. have players in the NBA (and not And, in his mind, it's not heading even in the NBA) who are 6'6 towards a woman lacing them up guards and can do so much more in the NBA. than Sylvia can." "I got into this 20 years ago, and - A n o n y m o u s W N B A we're so much further along,' said Player"First of all, I don't see Stern, who took UMBC to the why, other than to say a woman NCAA tournament in 2008. "But can do it," Anthony Parker said. I don't think we're at the point "But for long term? No way. My where someone's going to go sister is a good player and has play against LeBron (James) and great skill, but as far as making those guys so it's probably a an NBA roster? No. She's 6-4, ways off." which is the average height of a "It's a great conversation to have. shooting guard. I'm never going It's probably great for talk radio to say never." one day. It's probably great The topic is apparently marketing for David Stern to say radioactive enough that of a that, but it's way down the road." group of seven women's coaches, In a conversation with Sports broadcasters and WNBA players

pointed out, his sister, Candace, a power forward or post player in the women's game, would only be a guard in the NBA. And that leads to the second, and most important difference between the games, the physicality. The anonymous WNBA player said she believes Parker, Chicago center Sylvia Fowles and Indiana forward Tamika Catchings, who are all stars in the WNBA, would contacted by FanHouse for be "ineffective" in the NBA comment on this idea, only one because of the size and strength p l a y e r , w h o r e q u e s t e d of the male players. "Men are just physically stronger, anonymity, replied. The player, who has won an faster, and can jump higher than NCAA championship and a women," said the WNBA player. WNBA award in her career, was "Even though someone like a d a m a n t t h a t s h e c o u l d n ' t Fowles who is 6'6 is a different envision a woman playing in the breed of player, you have players in the NBA (and not even in the NBA. "I do not think there will ever be NBA) who are 6'6 guards and a day that a woman would play in can do so much more than Sylvia the NBA," said the player. "The can." only way I could see something Going forward, Phil Stern said, a like that happening would be for woman who could combine the strength of University of some type of publicity stunt." From a skill level, the idea isn't Connecticut center Tina Charles, so preposterous. Women shoot the speed of a smaller guard and and handle the ball better now the skill set of Delaware redshirt than ever and female players freshman Elena Delle Donne, have occasionally won collegiate could have a shot to make it in long distance shootouts over men the NBA, provided she could beat out the thousands of men at equal distances. However, there are a couple of who don't quite make it in the important differences between league. the two games that appear to "That's a good way to look at it,' make a flood of women to the said Phil Stern. "Think of how NBA unlikely in the short term. many guys who don't get a One is that male basketball chance to play in the NBA. Delle players are, on average, taller Donne is incredible ... and she's a than women. As Anthony Parker great player, but could she play

in the NBA? Not now. That's a ways away, I think." Follow Us on Twitter Friend Us on Facebook Indeed, Delle Donne, who, at 6-foot-5, a height normally reserved for frontcourt players in the women's game, can handle, shoot and pass the ball like a guard, would appear to have the kind of profile suitable for a woman trying to make it in the NBA. Her box score line of 20 points (including two three-pointers), eight rebounds, four assists and four blocks in Delaware's 70-61 win over UMBC Saturday hints at her versatility. Her coach, Tina Martin, however, scoffs at the notion that any woman can handle the physical demands of the NBA. "Coming off the screens and the way that they (the NBA players) do and a lot of one-on-one isolations, it would be hard for female players to turn the corner with guys with guys like Dwyane Wade as strong as he is pushing and shoving you," said Martin. "I just don't see female athletes being able to handle the physicality and just the mere strength of the NBA players." Martin, who would not make Delle Donne available for comment, would just as soon not let David Stern's musings get in the way of her freshman being a freshman. "She's never talked about the NBA or anything like that," said EXPERTS: page 63

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College Football’s Unique Postseason Creates No Controversy (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 12/7/2009 7:11:36 AM

Fans can debate endlessly whether Texas deserves its spot in the BCS championship game. The Longhorns had a baby-soft non-conference schedule and struggled against many of their ostensibly inferior Big 12 foes in a year when three other undefeated teams could’ve taken their slot in the game. What’s indisputable — that no one deserves to be there more than Alabama. Getty Images Why settle for a classic David vs. Goliath battle anyway? Thanks to its 32-13 rout of Florida in the SEC title game, the Crimson Tide is No. 1 in the nation and earned a spot in the national championship game Jan. 7 in Pasadena. (Amazingly, ‘Bama hasn’t headed into bowl season as the nation’s No. 1 since 1973.) Texas needed a lastsecond field goal to defeat an, ahem, ostensibly inferior Nebraska team, 13-12. Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel showers Nick Saban, the third-year Bama coach, with praise. “This was a Saban special, a game won with discipline and defense, with straight power football and big players in position to make the big plays,” Wetzel writes. Even before the BCS title game is played, the Orlando Sentinel’s Andrea Adelson is ready to give Alabama the title. The Longhorns barely escaped

Nebraska, but they still deserve their shot against Alabama even if they may not be the nation’s second-best team, the Journal’s Darren Everson writes. The Austin American-Statesman’s Cedric Golden argues more directly that Texas should be there, saying the close game may have made the Longhorns stronger. However, ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski thinks Boise State, Texas Christian or Cincinnati would have made a better title-game combatant for Alabama than Texas. In the Idaho Statesman, Brian Murphy warms up to Boise State’s Fiesta Bowl matchup with TCU, the first time a BCS game has paired unbeaten teams outside the championship. Yahoo’s Wetzel makes a second appearance in the Fix. He’s arguing — again — for a Division I playoff. You can find the rest of the BCS schedule here.* * * All season until Sunday, Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints had steamrolled most opponents in building an 11-0 record. They almost didn’t get to 12-0. The Saints trailed for most of Sunday’s game, including by 10 points in the fourth quarter, before rallying to defeat the stubborn Washington Redskins in overtime, 33-30. It was a bizarre game. Consider Robert Meachem’s TD late in the first half after he stripped the ball from Kareem Moore, who had

and threw for another. In the Philadelphia Daily News, Rich Hofmann says Vick earned his accolades from the fans. Finally, the Dallas Morning News’s Jean-Jacques Taylor grouses after another December loss by the Cowboys, 31-24 to intercepted Brees, and returned it the New York Giants.* * * for a score. Or Shaun Suisham’s It’s been a star-crossed few years miss of an easy field goal that for Greg Oden. The top pick of would have clinched victory for the 2007 draft by the Portland Washington. “Maybe it’s because Trail Blazers, Oden sat for the they’re called Saints,” Peter 2007-08 season with an injury, Finney writes in the New Orleans played only 61 of 82 games last Time-Picayune. “You break a s e a s o n b e c a u s e o f v a r i o u s commandment and you go on to injuries, and is now out for the win with one miracle after remainder of this season after another. Seriously, this season is i n j u r i n g h i s l e f t k n e e i n Saturday’s game against getting downright biblical.” In the Washington Post, Thomas Houston. In the Oregonian, John Boswell laments another tough Canzano is worried about Oden’s will after the latest setback.* * * Redskins loss. Indianapolis remains perfect, Manny Pacquiao may be close to too, but the Colts didn’t need a much-desired date with Floyd divine intervention to defeat Mayweather Jr. But after that, a Tennessee, 27-17, for their 21st meeting between Pacquiao and straight regular-season victory. Amir Khan may be the one fans The Indianapolis Star’s Bob demand. On Saturday, Khan Kravitz urges the Colts to finish needed only 76 seconds to undefeated. “Go. For. It. Run annihilate American Dmitriy down the Perfect Season like it’s Salita in the junior welterweight Tennessee’s Chris Johnson title fight in Newcastle, England. turning the corner,” Kravitz K h a n e a s i l y d e f e a t e d t h e overwhelmed Salita, landing a implores. I n A t l a n t a , t h e J o u r n a l - knockdown only 10 seconds into Constitution’s Mark Bradley the bout and foreshadowing the fumes after Falcons’ listless rout to come. “It was the step in performance in a 34-7 throttling the direction of greatness that by the Philadelphia Eagles and Khan deserves and he looked former Atlanta quarterback mightily impressive taking care Michael Vick, who scored a TD of business, even if Salita’s improbable and dangerous

position at the top of the WBA’s rankings was comical,” the Independent’s Steve Bunce writes. The Guardian’s Kevin Mitchell says it would be a shame if Khan, a practicing Muslim, were forced to move from Britain because of racism.* * * Len Chenfeld is nothing if not realistic. He’s not very tall and he can’t dunk. So instead of dreaming of playing Division I hoops or in the NBA, he’s eager to play professionally overseas. For his senior year in high school, Chenfeld has transferred to Brooklyn’s private Poly Prep high school to raise his basketball IQ, Robin Finn writes in the New York Times.* * * Despite the investigation of a major European gambling ring, there’s plenty of good news about soccer, and not just that the World Cup draw has been set. The Independent’s Richard Rae writes about keeper Mark Schwarzer’s humanitarian efforts. – 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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Patriots' Dynasty Coming Back to Pack By Dave Goldberg (Fanhouse Main) Submitted at 12/6/2009 11:30:00 PM

Filed under: NFL Analysis In the NFL, dynasties usually don't crash, they just slide into mediocrity. That may be what we're watching with New England right now. Unless, of course, Bill Belichick really is smarter than everyone else in football combined. It wasn't that New England lost in Miami 22-21 on Sunday, because it still leaves them at 7-5, a game up on the Dolphins and Jets in the AFC East. They'll still probably win the division after improbably missing the playoffs last season despite an 11-5 record with Matt Cassel filling in at quarterback for an injured Tom Brady. But the Patriots' chances of going very far in the AFC if they do make the postseason are minimal. Because if they win their division, they'll get one home game and if they win that, they'll have to go on the road where they are 0-5 -- assuming you don't count their nominal "home'' win in London over Tampa Bay, where they were designated the "visitor.'' Yes, they were two yards away from handing Indy what would have been its only loss in Indy.

But Belichick's gamble to go for a first down on fourth-and-2 in that game demonstrates what they really are: a team in transition, especially on a defense that Belichick didn't trust to keep Peyton Manning out of the end zone from 70 or so yards away and less than two minutes left. If the Patriots were a normal team, not one that has won three Super Bowls this decade and went 18-0 two years ago before losing in the title game, you'd expect days like this. "We certainly had our opportunities today and we didn't make them,'' said Brady, who was rumored to be suffering from a hand injury that had the betting line fluctuating wildly before the game. "We're just not closing the game out when we have an opportunity." Brady's hand didn't seem to be bothering him in any visible way. He was 19 of 29 for 352 yards. But he threw two interceptions, one in the end zone, when his fade to Randy Moss came up short, something that almost never happens. Then he threw another as he was hit on New England's final possession while the Patriots were trying to get into position for a game-winning field goal. That's the thing about dynasties and superstars -- we expect too

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Martin. "People can dream, but I just think it's unrealistic."

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24 to Oakland Sunday, and people are noting that they are just 6-6 and blame the absence for most of the year of Troy Polamalu, one of the true defensive impact players in the NFL. But the Steelers haven't had the "dynasty'' tag since the 1970s, when they won four titles in six seasons. Yes, they've won two in the last four years -- 2005 and 2008 -- but they haven't had the consistency, slipping to 8-8 after winning as a wild-card entry the much of them. Eli Manning, for example, threw first time. So nobody expects as an interception worse than much. But we really should have Brady's to Moss. But the Giants beat the Cowboys anyway, and known about the Patriots. As h e w a s t h r o w i n g t o t h e they kept winning in 2007, you i n e x p e r i e n c e d M a r i o had to notice that Rodney Manningham, not to one of the Harrison and Mike Vrabel and game's best receivers. And Teddy Bruschi, three of their Manning's teammate, the ultra- defensive stars, were well into reliable Steve Smith, who no their 30s. You had to notice that longer is "the other Steve Smith''' Richard Seymour, their best because Joe Buck and Troy defensive lineman, was playing Aikman said so during the hurt much of the time. But telecast, dropped an easy TD Belichick had been so good at plugging in other guys since their pass. But the Giants aren't a dynasty, run started in 2001, you didn't the Giants are only a generally notice. good team that won one title this This year, he traded Seymour, decade, and Eli is a quarterback and then he didn't plug as well -who fans (unjustifiably) love to Adalius Thomas, a major freeagent acquisition in '07, has been spend their time bashing. It really is an expectations game. such a disappointment at times S u p e r B o w l c h a m p i o n that he was inactive for one game Pittsburgh, for example, lost 27- this season. And drafts haven't produced the gems they used to.

Yes, they have some good young players like Jerod Mayo, the new leader of their defense. But one who emerged this year, offensive tackle Sebastian Vollmer, has been hurt and the aging offensive line has missed him. With Belichick in charge, the Patriots are not going away the way the 49ers did after winning five titles between 1981-94. When they fell, they fell hard, something that won't happen as long as the Kraft family owns the team -- unlike the 49ers, who changed hands, the Krafts will find someone almost as capable when B.B. hangs it up. They may not even be like the Steelers after their run ended -- in Chuck Noll's last 12 seasons as coach after the final title, he was 91-89 in the regular season, almost perfect mediocrity. But it looks like New England now will be just an ordinary good team -- a contender most years like the Steelers or Giants or Colts, the teams that have won Super Bowls the last three years. But no longer the team that everyone fears. Follow Us on Twitter Friend Us on Facebook Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

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Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen decides to enter draft By Tom Friend (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:06:30 AM

McShay: Right Move For Clausen McShay: Right Move For Clausen VIDEO PLAYLIST • McShay: Right Move For Clausen McShay: Right Move For Clausen • Clausen To Enter NFL Draft Clausen To Enter NFL Draft Jimmy Clausen enrolled at Notre Dame to learn about the NFL. Looks like he's learned enough. Following the advice of deposed Irish coach Charlie Weis, Clausen has decided to forgo his senior season and enter this April's draft. Rated as perhaps the top quarterback in this year's class, he is believed to be coveted by St. Louis, Cleveland and Washington -- three teams that will conceivably pick in the top five. “ Coach Weis told me whether he was going to be here or not be here, it was time for me to go. He thought I've improved so much since I came to Notre Dame. So, I'm taking his advice, and I'm going to head out.”-- Jimmy Clausen "After the season, in talking to my parents and obviously Coach Weis, I just feel it's the right time," Clausen told ESPN.com on Monday before a scheduled 2

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on the game of baseball. He is right there." Roberto Alomar, Edgar Martinez and Barry Larkin are eligible for p.m. ET news conference in 1994 (over Hawaii). In the according to scouts, is that he's the first time in Hall voting now South Bend. "Coach Weis told offseason before his junior year, already 22 and has already been me whether he was going to be he invited several Irish receivers away from home to play football under way by the Baseball here or not be here, it was time to his home in Westlake Village, -- meaning the transition to the Writers' Association of America. for me to go. He thought I've C a l i f . , a n d t h e b o n d i n g pro lifestyle won't be an issue. They join carryover candidates improved so much since I came experience paid off. He was The other top-rated quarterbacks Mark McGwire, Andre Dawson to Notre Dame. So, I'm taking his picked as a team captain, and in the upcoming draft -- Sam and Bert Blyleven, with results to advice, and I'm going to head ended up throwing 24 of his Bradford of Oklahoma and Colt be announced Jan. 6. out." touchdowns to wide receivers McCoy of Texas, to name two -- The next Veterans Committee Notre Dame wide receiver Tate and Michael Floyd. went to college in their home vote for players is in 2010. Joe Gordon was elected last year. Golden Tate also announced he The Irish slumped to a 6-6 states. Information from The will enter the draft Monday. finish, and Clausen was sucker "I don't think I could've gone to a Associated Press was used in this The consensus No. 1 high school punched by a fan outside of a better place to get prepared to recruit in the country three years S o u t h B e n d b a r a f t e r a play than under someone like report. ago, Clausen chose Notre Dame devastating overtime loss to Coach Weis," Clausen said. "The This content has passed through over USC solely because of Connecticut. But six days later, NFL is something I've always fivefilters.org. Weis' NFL pedigree. Weis -- who he threw for 340 yards and five wanted to do since I was a little tutored both Tom Brady and touchdowns at Stanford, and his kid growing up. It's just a dream Drew Bledsoe in New England -- ability to persevere is why come true, and I'm just having a a s s u r e d C l a u s e n h e w o u l d several general managers, who great time right now. prepare him best for the pro h a v e r e q u e s t e d a n o n y m i t y , "It'll probably be just like going game, and Clausen rewarded the believe he is the most NFL-ready from high school to college, but a WARNER coach with a spectacular junior quarterback in this year's draft. l o t f a s t e r t h a n c o l l e g e i s . continued from page 59 season. They say he's already mastered Obviously, being under Coach huge performance on a big stage He completed 68 percent of his an NFL offense, has already been Weis, being in a pro-style against one of the best players in passes, and threw 28 touchdowns subjected to a leaky offensive o f f e n s e , k n o w i n g t h e this league," Warner said of with only four interceptions -- line and has already been part of terminologies, will help me. But Bridges, the guy who made sure three of which were tipped. Weis a rebuilding process. They like the biggest thing will probably be his quarterback remained intact. has told NFL scouts that Clausen that he played his entire college just getting in the playbook and "Just a tremendous job." "didn't miss a read all year," and career on national TV and that he mentally preparing myself to do Left unsaid was the cold truth particularly raved about his thrived in one of the biggest everything I can to get on the that without Warner, the accuracy and personal growth. fishbowls in sports: Notre Dame. field as quick as I can and help Cardinals were at risk of having As a freshman, coming off "The scrutiny of being the whichever team I go to win." to rely on a must-win showdown elbow surgery, Clausen weighed quarterback at Notre Dame and Tom Friend is a senior writer for in San Francisco next Monday. only 190 pounds and played the head coach at Notre Dame is E S P N . c o m a n d E S P N T h e Now they can exhale slightly, behind a porous offensive line. tough," said Clausen, who is 6- M a g a z i n e . having proven they can still get He was vilified during that year's foot-3, 225 pounds. "And I think This content has passed through the job done at home, and might 3-9 season, but bounced back as it'll prepare me really well for the fivefilters.org. even be a better all-around team a sophomore to lead Notre Dame next level." than the one that skipped to the to its first bowl victory since Clausen's other advantage, WARNER page 65

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Meyer, Gators Looking to Rebound By Jim Henry (Fanhouse Main)

Meyer was asked twice about his health. But Sugar Bowl spokesman John Submitted at 12/6/2009 4:15:00 PM Sudsbury refused to let the coach Filed under: Cincinnati, Florida answer, requesting that all Urban Meyer sounded hoarse and questions be related solely to the tired. New Year's Day game against While Florida's head coach did unbeaten and fourth-ranked not elaborate on his health -- he Cincinnati. was treated and released at a Sudsbury referred any questions Gainesville, Fla., hospital for about Meyer's health to UF dehydration earlier Sunday, just spokesperson Steve McClain, hours after the Gators lost to who declined to elaborate on A l a b a m a i n t h e S E C Meyer's condition. Championship game -- Meyer Meyer was admitted to Shands promised his team will be ready Hospital early Sunday morning to face Cincinnati in the Jan. 1 and released around 2 p.m. Sugar Bowl. McClain said the coach was "Players are somewhat smarter feeling much better. than coaches," Meyer said. It remains unclear what caused "As soon as we get the Bearcat Meyer to be admitted into the film, you flip it on and it's game hospital and how long he spent on. It would be a different deal if there. Several reports said Meyer you don't (have) respect. experienced chest pains after his "Our guys talk about Cincinnati, team returned from Atlanta. they've watched them play and Follow Us on Twitter Friend Us you see some of the scores and on Facebook UF, the defending the way they throw the ball national champion, tumbled to around, the Gators will be highly Alabama 32-13 Saturday night at motivated to play in this game." the Georgia Dome. The loss Expect Meyer to be motivated, snapped Florida's 22-game too. winning streak and left the No. 5 Speaking on a teleconference for G a t o r s t o f a c e C i n c i n n a t i , the Sugar Bowl Sunday night, Meyer's alma mater, in New

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the appropriate time. "Until the decision is made at the University of Louisville, then we'll sit down," Meyer said. "I've been very fortunate to have some great coordinators. Every coordinator we've ever had has gone on to be a head football coach. Last year Dan Mullen did." Meyer is confident his team will be able to move on from the Alabama defeat and focus on the Bearcats. Orleans. "We'll get this team going," "If I'm going with an immature Meyer said, pointing out that his team then I'd have an issue but seniors, paced by quarterback we don't and it's a BCS bowl Tim Tebow, set an SEC record game," Meyer said. for most wins in a four-year span. "The plan is not put in place yet "Our legacy is going to be but we'll be ready to go." dependent on how we end this Meyer's health wasn't the only topic off-limits during the season." Meyer said no determination has teleconference. been made on defensive end The moderator cut in again when Carlos Dunlap, arrested early a reporter asked Cincinnati coach Tuesday for driving under the B r i a n K e l l y , c o n s i d e r e d a influence and suspended for the favorite for the Notre Dame job, if his coaching situation at SEC Championship Game. When asked whether defensive Cincinnati would be resolved coordinator Charlie Strong would quickly so it's not a distraction to coach the Gators if he accepts the his team. Louisville coaching job, Meyer Permalink| Email this| Linking said he would talk with Strong at Blogs| Comments

Super Bowl last season. Fitzgerald sure thinks so. "Like Kurt told you guys, we proved we can play with the big dogs," Fitzgerald said. Fitzgerald, a Minneapolis native who filled what seemed like half the loges with his own personal cheering section, caught eight passes for 143 yards and a TD. There was one play that provided a glimpse of how Fitzgerald works, how the Cardinals feed off his connection with Warner. It came early in the second quarter, on a second-and-10 at the Arizona 25, Warner finding Fitzgerald in the right flank. Besieged by defensive tackle Kevin Williams and then a gang of purple, Fitzgerald hung on to the ball, pushing, huffing, refusing to go down until he gained a few more yards. It's amazing what sheer will can accomplish. The Cardinals failed to score on that drive, but their defense, still stunned and frothing over the Titans' 99 yarddrive in the final minutes last week, stumped the Vikings on a three-and-out (it would be a WARNER page 66

Proenza Schouler Offers Instant Gratification Online By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:47:10 AM

Just in time for the holidays, the

Proenza Schouler boys have launched e-commerce on their site, offering web-exclusive items and limited-edition goods. The Day-Glo-bright key chains for

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reoccurring theme). Two plays later, Warner spotted a wormhole in the ozone and hit Boldin with By Ariel Helwani (Fanhouse "It's a little step up from my last a pinpoint perfect pass. Boldin, wearing cornerback Main) pay check, but a lot less than a lot Cedric Griffin like a parka in the of other guys are getting paid," Submitted at 12/7/2009 3:09:00 AM Henderson added when asked desert -- the natives here can't Filed under: Strikeforce, what kind of salary he was quite adjust to the 50-degree freeze -- curled and wound his FanHouse Exclusive After seeking. months of speculation, Dan According to the Nevada State way an extra 10 yards to the end Henderson has finally agreed to Athletic Commission, Henderson zone for a 39-yard scoring play sign with Strikeforce. FanHouse earned $100,00 to show for his that gave Arizona a 14-7 lead has learned that the 12-year UFC 100 fight and an extra with 7:42 left in the half. veteran, who was last seen $150,000 for the win. He also "It shows what type of team we knocking out Michael Bisping at earned an extra $100,000 for are. Everybody in this locker UFC 100 in July, recently came winning the "knockout of the room was upset about what happened last week," said to terms with the San Jose-based night" award. organization on a multi-fight The addition of Henderson to its Boldin, the gloss still on his agreement. roster beefs up Strikeforce's 185- seven catches for 98 yards and At this time, it is unknown when middleweight unification match pound and 205-pound division. two touchdowns. "We wanted and where Henderson will make with Anderson Silva at UFC 82. The obvious money fight right nothing more than to get back out on the field and get that taste out his debut for Strikeforce. Following those back-to-back off the bat would be against light More: Dana White Responds to losses, he would go on to win his heavyweight champion Gegard of our mouth." Last season, when Favre was Henderson's Move next three UFC fights against Mousasi, who is currently riding still in a groove with the New Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole first Rousimar Palhares, Rich Franklin a 14-fight winning streak. reported the possibility of and Bisping. "He's a very tough opponent. York Jets, before he hurt his shoulder and seemingly tarnished Henderson signing with R e c e n t l y , H e n d e r s o n h a d Those are the type of guys I like Strikeforce in October, but at publicly talked about being to fight and the guys that it's his legacy to all those Monday Strikeforce's CBS event in frustrated with the fact that he going to be a big challenge for morning quarterbacks working the keyboards, he torched the Chicago last month, the former didn't receive a middleweight me," Henderson said. PRIDE middleweight and light title shot following his victory In November, Henderson said Cardinals for a career-high six heavyweight champion told over Bisping and that he was that he was hoping to fight again touchdowns in a 56-35 victory. FanHouse that he had not come hoping for a bump in salary. around Super Bowl weekend This time Arizona flipped around to terms with the organization "I'm just hoping to get out there (early February), which works the story line, aggressively stopping Peterson on first and yet. and fight again and get paid what o u t w e l l f o r h i m b e c a u s e Henderson returned to the UFC I would like the get paid. I'm not Strikeforce has a show scheduled second downs and getting to Favre before he could conjure in September 2007 following asking to be the top-paid guy at for Jan. 30 in Florida. Zuffa's purchase of PRIDE. He o u t t h e r e a t a l l , " h e t o l d Permalink| Email this| Linking magic with his pump-fakes. lost a light heavyweight title FanHouse at the last Strikeforce Blogs| Comments unification bout against Rampage event. Jackson at UFC 75 and then a

Favre still has a cannon of an arm, his passes dripping with hot sauce, but it didn't do much good with defensive tackle Darnell Dockett dragging down Peterson in the backfield late in the third quarter, the Cardinals up, 24-10. Calais Campbell stuck Favre with a nine-yard loss on the next play, followed by Michael Adams picking off a Favre pass over the middle. With one quarter remaining, this QB showdown clearly belonged to Warner. "I'm pretty sure everybody is going to talk about what Brett Favre did wrong. How Brett did this wrong and that wrong, but not talk about how our defense stood up today. We're going to stay humble though, because we are going to play that team again," Dockett said. Wouldn't that be something if Dockett is correct, if Minnesota and Arizona clash again in the playoffs, if Favre and Warner pick their bodies off the turf and stare each other down one more time? For a couple of geezers, they still have it going on. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

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NFL reviewing hit by Dallas Cowboys' Flozell Adams By Adam Schefter (ESPN.com)

2 when he tripped him. After the game, Tuck lashed out at Adams. Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:52:26 AM "I laugh at stuff like that," Tuck The NFL is reviewing the said. "It just just proves what p e r s o n a l f o u l p e n a l t y t h a t kind of dirtbag he is." Cowboys offensive tackle Flozell In the Cowboys locker room Adams drew at the end of after the Giants beat Dallas 31Sunday's first half against the 24, Adams had this comment New York Giants for potential about Tuck: "I ain't talking about disciplinary measures. him. He's a nobody." More on the Cowboys The league declined to speculate C a l v i n W a t k i n s a n d T i m on the potential outcome of its MacMahon have the Cowboys review, but Adams at the very blanketed for ESPNDallas.com. least will be fined and could wind Check in with their constantly up getting suspended. updated coverage. Blog "Any altercation of that nature is Adams and Giants defensive end reviewed for discipline," NFL Justin Tuck got into a verbal spokesman Greg Aiello told exchange that forced the referees E S P N D a l l a s . c o m ' s C a l v i n to flag Adams for a personal foul. W a t k i n s . Adams, who has a history of runIf the NFL opts to suspend ins with New York, caused a Adams, it would inform Dallas of shoulder injury to Tuck in Week its decision by the end of

Tuesday for game-planning purposes. The Cowboys (8-4), who are tied for the NFC East lead, play host to the AFC Westleading Chargers on Sunday. Adams was fined $12,500 for committing two fouls in a Week 2 loss to the Giants. He tripped Tuck, injuring him, and kicked Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora. One week earlier, in its season opener against Tampa, Adams was fined $5,000 for unnecessary roughness. Adam Schefter is an ESPN NFL Insider. Information from Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com was included in this report. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

MLB winter meetings: Veteran left-hander Andy Pettitte to return in 2010, sources say By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

Pettitte late last month and thought Pettitte wanted to continue playing. Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:34:42 AM "I told him to enjoy his holiday," Winter Meetings Report Winter Girardi said of Thanksgiving. "I Meetings Report knew he was to going to make a INDIANAPOLIS -- The first decision fairly quickly. By step is complete for free agent playing all the way up to left-hander Andy Pettitte's return November 4th, this time gets here to the world champion New York really quickly. Yankees next season as they seek "I said, 'Enjoy your vacation and to repeat. you'll make the right decision.' " Pettitte, who has indicated a Pettitte was 14-8 with a 4.16 preference to play for the ERA in helping propel the Yankees if he came back for a Yankees to their 27th World 16th season, has decided to pitch Series championship, bringing in 2010, major league sources his career record to 229-135 with told ESPN The Magazine's a 3.91 ERA. Buster Olney at baseball's winter He went 4-0 in five starts in the meetings. postseason with a 3.52 ERA. For the 37-year-old, it's now just With 458 career starts, Pettitte a matter of working out a deal has spent all but three seasons with the Yankees, the sources with the Yankees. He played for told Olney Monday morning. the Astros from 2004 to '06. Yankees manager Joe Girardi, Information from Andrew speaking at a charity event Marchand, the managing editor Monday, said pitching is what of 1050 ESPN Radio in New the Yankees need to address York, was used in this report. "first and foremost." This content has passed through Girardi said he spoke with fivefilters.org.

Authorities Capture Escaped Texas Inmate (FOXNews.com)

Alfredo Perez of the U.S. Marshals Service says Arcade Joseph Comeaux Jr. was captured HOUSTON A convicted sex Monday morning. offender who escaped from a Comeaux was in a wheelchair Texas prison has been caught in Nov. 30 when he pulled a gun on Houston after a week on the run. two guards during a transfer from Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:27:13 AM

a unit in Huntsville to one in Beaumont. Both guards were released after being forced to drive to the Baytown area, where Comeaux ran way. Perez says Comeaux had two pistols when he was captured. He

says investigators don't know if assault. they were the same ones taken Click here for more from during the escape. MyFoxHouston.com. Further details on the capture This content has passed through were not immediately released. fivefilters.org. Comeaux was serving life in prison for aggravated sexual

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Source: Notre Dame Fighting Irish to US man charged over interview Cincinnati Bearcats coach Mumbai attack Brian Kelly on Tuesday (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:02:46 AM

Notre Dame To Interview Brian Kelly Notre Dame To Interview Brian Kelly Notre Dame plans to interview Cincinnati's Brian Kelly regarding its head coaching vacancy Tuesday, most likely in New York City, a person close to the situation told ESPN's Joe Schad on Monday. Kelly declined to discuss the Notre Dame job after his team beat Pittsburgh 45-44 on Saturday afternoon, but at least

two Bearcats players have said their coach told them he was staying put. Big East blog ESPN.com's Brian Bennett writes about all things Big East in his conference blog. â&#x20AC;˘ Blog network: College Football Nation The 12-0 Bearcats (No. 3 BCS, No. 4 AP) will cap their season against fifth-ranked Florida in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day. "He said, 'It's not an issue; I'm not going there,'" safety Aaron Webster said of Kelly about a Thursday conversation. "He said, 'I love Cincinnati, and I'm staying

here.'" Kelly has chided the media for spreading what he called "misinformation" and added, "You folks need to get a handle on this, because it's ridiculous." Kelly has been rumored to be one of Notre Dame's top candidates and told ESPN this week that he would "entertain" a request from the Irish to speak to him after the Pitt game. Information from ESPN.com's Brian Bennett was used in this report. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:23:45 AM

US prosecutors have charged a Chicago man with involvement in the deadly Mumbai (Bombay) attacks of a year ago. David Headley is said to have helped identify targets for the assaults which left 174 people dead, including nine gunmen. He had already been accused with another man of plotting to attack a Danish newspaper over cartoons that caused outrage in the Muslim world. Federal prosecutors said Mr Headley was co-operating with both investigations.

Mr Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana are charged with planning attacks on the Danish offices of the Jyllands-Posten, which in 2005 printed controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. US prosecutors said they had also unsealed charges against a retired Pakistani military major, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, for participating in the conspiracy to attack the Danish newspaper and its employees. Print Sponsor This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

HausCast 39: More Tiger, Tebow Tears, NFL Week 13 By Ryan Wilson (Fanhouse Main)

women will have come forward announcing that they too slept with the world's best golfer*. Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:00:00 AM Which is why Will and I start off Filed under: Sports Media, the podcast with ... Woods. What Podcast, Backporch Features The all this means, how he will cope FanHouse Podcast: Because with the hugest distraction of his bloggers are much sexier on the career, and most importantly: if phone. he loves the ladies, why get Ten days later and Tiger Woods married in the first place? is still the story. And in the time We also talk Alabama, Florida what has become a weekly it takes me to hit "publish" and and why Baby Jesus would let therapy session, I whinge about for you to read this, tens of Tim Tebow lose. And finally, in the plight of the Steelers. I don't

expect you to sympathize (Pittsburgh won two Super Bowls since 2005, after all), -- if anything you should be gloating. And you know what? I probably deserve it. Also: a special thanks to the geniuses at HalfDayToday-- we played the Tiger Voicemail Slow Jam Remix throughout the podcast and it was a nice distraction from the train wreck that has become the 2009

Steelers. So there's that. Click below to listen. * allegedly And while you're at it, give the gift that keeps on giving: Subscribe via iTunes. Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

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What's In A Name: Blizzard Entertainment By Justin McElroy (Joystiq)

the people working at the organization, and then you get feedback from the legal It's been about a month since department after they have done we've done one of these, but we some trademark searches. And thought it would be worth after that big bringing WIAN out of retirement extensive process, "Blizzard" is for one of the biggest developers where we landed. Blizzard o n t h e p l a n e t . H e r e ' s t h e Entertainment. (astoundingly dry) story behind We specifically selected to Blizzard's name: append "Entertainment" as Blizzard co-founder Frank compared to anything else, Pearce: You know, it is a because we always felt like we complicated process. You look wanted to have the option to do through the dictionary and make more than games. I mean games a list of big long words, and you are our foundation, but we s t a r t n a r r o w i n g i t d o w n . always felt like, you know, if we [Laughs.] You get feedback from were creating our own franchises, Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:35:00 PM

we would want to someday seem them on the big screen or see them in novelizations or comic books, or whatever. And so, we were conscious of the name when

secret meaning of your own behind "Blizzard?" Pearce: No. One of the first things that [fellow co-founder] Allen Adhem does as part of the process is literally start perusing the dictionary. Like this feature? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name archives. What's In A Name: Blizzard Entertainment originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 we selected it to call it Blizzard Dec 2009 14:35:00 EST. Please Entertainment, because we knew see our terms for use of feeds. we wanted to have the option to Permalink| Email this| do more than games in the future. C o m m e n t s Joystiq: So you don't have a

Grand Theft Auto franchise may have 'peaked,' according to analyst By Andrew Yoon (Joystiq)

worried about the future of TakeTwo's flagship brand. Submitted at 12/7/2009 12:30:00 PM "Has the Grand Theft Auto While Take-Two has a number franchise peaked? Given the of solid properties, such as strength of GTA IV in 2008, the BioShock and Borderlands, question may seem misplaced, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto is but our concern is that the very unquestionably its largest and highly rated new GTA content m o s t i m p o r t a n t f r a n c h i s e . for Xbox as well as PSP and DS However, sluggish sales of recent d i d n o t p e r f o r m u p t o GTA efforts, from the handheld expectations in 2009," Scahchter Chinatown Wars to the 360- notes, while addressing potential exclusive DLC Episodes from criticisms to his claim. "Now, we Liberty City, have Broadpoint very clearly understand that these AmTech analyst Ben Schachter do not represent 'true' new GTA

titles. However, the fact is that they fell relatively flat." these were compelling titles, Considering well over ten a t t r a c t i v e l y p r i c e d , a n d million people purchased GTA reasonably well-promoted, yet IV, the lackluster sales for these

spin-off efforts is even more evident. Does the GTA name no longer carry the weight it once did? Or, are gamers simply waiting for a game that doesn't take place in Liberty City? Grand Theft Auto franchise may have 'peaked,' according to analyst originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Review: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks By JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

This Wednesday: XBLA gets its Qix ++ [update: screens] By Richard Mitchell (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:00:00 PM

Update: We've unearthed some screens of the PSP version, courtesy of Game Watch. There may be some difference between it and the XBLA version, but they'll probably look pretty similar. Peruse them in the gallery below. Microsoft's Major Nelson has announced that Qix ++ is headed to Xbox Live Arcade this week. Apart from the price (800/ $10), that's really all we know. The "++" in the title might be a clue,

though, given that Jeff "Why'd you buy Frogger" Minter seems to have an affinity for throwing plus signs at the end of retro game titles. It's also worth noting that Minter worked on the XBLA version of Space Invaders Extreme which, like Qix, is a Taito (via Square Enix) game. For now, with no assets of the game available, you'll have to settle for a video of the original Qix posted after the break. In other news, the Xbox Live Deal of the Week is Rock Band DLC, specifically No Doubt's The Singles 1992-2003 album.

The DLC has been discounted from 1600($20) to 1200($15). Shortcut: Download The Singles 1992-2003[Xbox.com] Gallery: Qix ++ (PSP) Continue reading This Wednesday: XBLA gets its Qix ++ [update: screens] This Wednesday: XBLA gets its Qix ++ [update: screens] originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Linebeck. As a result, I groaned a little Submitted at 12/7/2009 12:00:00 PM when I started playing Spirit Nintendo is creating a deep rut Tracks, seeing all these common for the Zelda games by turning Zelda elements played out for the every new development since umpteenth time. But as I played O c a r i n a o f T i m e i n t o a the game, I forgot all about my compilation of overused tropes. gripes, won completely over by The fact that people liked the first its charm and by its excellently N64 outing, for example, is no designed challenges. The great reason to include a magical game shines through all the cruft instrument in every subsequent Nintendo has thrown on top of it. game. The same goes for the Gallery: The Legend of Zelda: chatty sidekick, and (especially) Spirit Tracks the tradition of forcing Link to Continue reading Review: The walk around and meet everyone Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks in town before someone finally Review: The Legend of Zelda: hands him a sword. Even the Spirit Tracks originally appeared train in The Legend of Zelda: on Joystiq on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 Spirit Tracks, which seemed out 12:00:00 EST. Please see our of place when the game debuted, terms for use of feeds. is a variant on the oft-repeated Permalink| Email this| vehicle gimmick, including C o m m e n t s conveyances like Epona, the King of Red Lions, and the S.S.

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Psychiatrist: Religion Used to Justify Smart Kidnapping (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/6/2009 10:51:34 PM

Pachter: Modern Warfare 2 sold 6m units in Nov.; PS3 Namco Bandai adopts hardware sales skyrocketed stereoscopic 3D dev By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq)

gold-star sticker to the PlayStation 3, which is predicted to have sold 700,000 units in Though the November NPD November, an 85-percent yearsales report won't be released over-year sales increase. Despite until later this week, gaming the two upswings, Pachter's industry analyst (and possible report ends on a decidedly dour soothsayer) Michael Pachter has note, stating, "as 2009 draws to predicted November's biggest an end, it is clear that it will end players in the gaming hardware as a horrible year for video game a n d s o f t w a r e m a r k e t s . publishers." Pachter suggests that Unsurprisingly, Call of Duty: sales will drop off once more in M o d e r n W a r f a r e 2 i s t h e December. Happy holidays, highlighted title in his report -- gaming industry professionals! not only does the report claim the Pachter: Modern Warfare 2 sold game sold around 6 million units 6m units in Nov.; PS3 hardware last month in the U.S. (for about sales skyrocketed originally $350 million), it credits the game appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 07 with pulling the industry out of a Dec 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please d o w n w a r d s p i r a l t h a t i t ' s see our terms for use of feeds. followed for seven of the past Permalink| Email this| eight months. Comments The report also awards a large Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:40:00 PM

tools

By JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

3D viewing, and head tracking with a camera peripheral. The software will be used in the In the near future, the Prince of development of "upcoming as yet All Cosmos may roll a Katamari unannounced NAMCO BANDAI at you! Or some blood in Games titles," allowing us to Splatterhouse may splatter at continue thinking of things for you! Mr. Driller may drill at you! the developer to make 3D. Like Other Namco characters may Metro-Cross! It would be like perform their signature actions large soda cans are rolling at you! directly into your face! That's Namco Bandai adopts because Namco Bandai has s t e r e o s c o p i c 3 D d e v t o o l s licensed RealD's Stereoscopic originally appeared on Joystiq on Gaming API. Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:05:00 The software allows Banamco EST. Please see our terms for not only to render visuals in use of feeds. RealD's stereoscopic 3D format, Read| Permalink| Email this| but also to implement automatic Comments camera movements for optimal Submitted at 12/7/2009 2:05:00 PM

SALT LAKE CITY A psychiatrist says the man accused of the abduction of Elizabeth Smart used religion and his exaggerated sense of his relationship to God to justify his actions. SLIDESHOW: The Elizabeth Smart Saga Dr. Michael Welner also testified Monday that Brian David Mitchell used religious talk to avoid answering questions by authorities when he was arrested after Smart was found in March 2003. Welner is testifying during an ongoing hearing in federal court to determine whether Mitchell is competent to stand trial on charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines. Welner, a prosecution witness, also commented on video shown in court of Mitchell's interview with law enforcement. Defense attorneys say Mitchell is incompetent to stand trial and cannot participate in his defense. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Heist Gallery Hosts Stephen Floyd By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:24:21 AM

A funny thing happened to Brooklyn-based artist Stephen Floyd on his drive out to Montana a few years ago. “I was picking up my wife from taxidermy school,” he recalls, “when I noticed all these empty billboards along the highways—they reminded me of blank canvasses.” And just like that, Floyd made some calls, rented some space in remote Colorado (Fairplay, CO, to be specific), blew up two of his playful drawings, each featuring a signature color-blocked cursive script caption, and added yet another medium to an eclectic portfolio that already includes intricate cut-outs, hurricane

portraits, and what Floyd is most known for: his self-described “self-indulgent, compulsive” drawings, 64 of which you can view (and purchase) right now at Heist Gallery. Though Floyd, a Galveston, TX native, may err on the side of

subway ads, and media images into provocative statements,” Eisenberg says. “He does not endeavor to give a moral value to any of his ideas, he simply points out that the[y] exist.” For a smart, unique art experience without the pretension of man berets, make your way over to the Lower East Side soon and check out Stephen Floyd’s aptly named "I Love America and America Loves Me" exhibit, on display at Heist until December 18th. modesty when it comes to his —Johanna Cox, Junior Editor w o r k , H e i s t o w n e r T a l i a Welcome to Stephen Floyd’s Eisenberg has nothing but praise w o r l d ( s o o n w i t h m o r e for the young artist and his b i l l b o a r d ! ) deceptively simple approach. Photos: Courtesy of the artist “Stephen transforms his (and and LLR Consulting our) everyday experiences, conversations, dirty jokes,

Virgin Galactic unveils commercial spaceship (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 9:46:10 AM

LOS ANGELES – A spacecraft designed to rocket wealthy tourists into space as early as 2011 was unveiled Monday in what backers of the venture hope will signal a new era in aviation history. The long-awaited glimpse of SpaceShipTwo marks the first public appearance of a commercial passenger spacecraft. The project is bankrolled by Virgin Galactic founder, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, who partnered with famed aviation designer Burt Rutan, the VIRGIN page 73

Chavez aide resigns over scandal (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

The government has intervened in seven banks recently, all of which are accused of the misuse Submitted at 12/7/2009 4:45:34 AM of public funds. Venezuela's science and It has announced plans to technology minister has resigned liquidate at least two of them. after his brother became Jesse Chacon is by far the embroiled in a corruption scandal highest profile casualty of a involving several local banks. growing banking scandal Jesse Chacon's brother Arne, involving people with alleged who is the president of Banco links to some of the top figures in Real, was arrested as part of an P r e s i d e n t H u g o C h a v e z ' s investigation into banking government. irregularities. Inner circle President Hugo Chavez said Mr The resignation of Mr Chacon Chacon's resignation was for the comes a day after his brother was best. arrested as part of an

investigation into irregularities at Banco Real. "Jesse asked me if it would be best if he resigned," Mr Chavez said on national television, "and I told him I thought it would." The minister's resignation and his brother's arrest are the latest episodes in a banking scandal in which seven banks were taken over by the government for alleged irregularities in their financial activities and the administration of state funds. In total, eight bankers have been detained, including one billionaire businessman, Ricardo

Fernandez, who supplied most of the maize flour for the government's subsidised supermarkets. For the opposition in Venezuela, the scandal is evidence of something they have claimed for years - that there is a inner circle of super-rich businessmen who have amassed their fortunes through close links to the socialist government. But for Mr Chavez, it involves only a small group of rogue bankers who are now being purged from his government and dealt with by the justice system.

With important elections due to be held in Venezuela in September next year, Mr Chavez will hope that the resignation of one of his closest aides, a man who he routinely referred to as a comrade and a brother, will prove to the electorate that he is prepared to act on the scandal no matter who is involved. Print Sponsor This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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VIRGIN continued from page 72

brains behind the venture. "We want this program to be a whole new beginning in a commercial era of space travel," Branson said. He is hopeful that they can begin the flights sometime in 2011, only after a series of rigorous safety tests. Branson said he, his family and Rutan would be the first people to make the trip to space aboard the craft. SpaceShipTwo is based on Rutan's design of a stubby white prototype called SpaceShipOne. In 2004, SpaceShipOne captured the $10 million Ansari X Prize by becoming the first privately manned craft to reach space. Since the historic feat, engineers from Rutan's Scaled Composites LLC have been laboring in a Mojave Desert hangar to commercialize the prototype in heavy secrecy. Some 300 clients have paid the $200,000 ticket or placed a deposit, according to the company. " NASA spent billions upon billions of dollars on space travel and has only managed to send 480 people," Branson said. "We're literally hoping to send thousands of people into space over the next couple of years. We want to make sure that we build a spaceship that is 100 percent safe." The last time there was this level of hoopla in the high desert was a little more than a year ago when Branson and Rutan trotted out to

great fanfare the twin-fuselage mothership, White Knight Two, that will ferry SpaceShipTwo to launch altitude. Despite the hype, hard work lies ahead before space journeys could become as routine as air travel. Flight testing of White Knight Two has been ongoing for the past year. The first SpaceShipTwo test flights are expected to start next year, with full-fledged space launches to its maximum altitude by or in 2011. SpaceShipTwo, built from lightweight composite materials and powered by a hybrid rocket motor, is similar to its prototype cousin with three exceptions. It's twice as large, measuring 60 feet long with a roomy cabin about the size of a Falcon 900 executive jet. It also has more windows including overhead portholes. While SpaceShipOne was designed for three people, SpaceShipTwo can carry six passengers and two pilots. "It's a big and beautiful vehicle," said X Prize founder Peter Diamandis, who has seen SpaceShipTwo during various stages of development. The ability to view Earth's curvature from space has been limited so far to government astronauts and a handful of wealthy people who have shelled out millions to board Russian rockets to the orbiting international space station.

The debut of the craft could not come sooner for the scores of wannabe astronauts who have forked over part of their disposable income for the chance to float in zero gravity. "We've all been patiently waiting to see exactly what the vehicle is going to look like," said Peter Cheney, a 63-year-old potential space tourist from Seattle who was among the first to sign up for suborbital space rides marketed by Virgin Galactic. After SpaceShipOne's historymaking flights, many space advocates believed private companies would offer suborbital space joyrides before the end of this decade. George Washington University space policy scholar John Logsdon called the milestones to date "measured progress." "They've been appropriately cautious and making sure that every step is done correctly," he said. Tragedy struck in 2007 when an explosion killed three of Rutan's engineers during a routine test of SpaceShipTwo's propellant system. The accident delayed the engine's development. Virgin Galactic plans to operate commercial spaceflights out of a taxpayer-funded spaceport in New Mexico that is under construction. The 2 1/2 hour trips â&#x20AC;&#x201D; up and down flights without circling the Earth â&#x20AC;&#x201D; include about five minutes of

weightlessness. SpaceShipTwo will be carried aloft by White Knight Two and released at 50,000 feet. The craft's rocket engine then burns a combination of nitrous oxide and a rubber-based solid fuel to climb more than 65 miles above the Earth's surface. After reaching the top of its trajectory, it will fall back into the atmosphere and glide to a landing like a normal airplane. Its descent is controlled by "feathering" its wings to maximize aerodynamic drag. Virgin Galactic expects to spend more than $400 million for a fleet of five commercial spaceships and launch vehicles. It's not the only player in the ultra-secretive commercial space race. A handful of entrepreneurs including Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, computer game programmer John Carmack and rocketeer Jeff Greason are building their own suborbital rockets with dreams of flying people out of the atmosphere. ___ Associated Press video journalist John Mone contributed to this report. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Around the Net In Media: Epix Talks To Dish (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 5:43:17 AM

Epix, a new movie channel owned by three Hollywood studios, is talking with Dish Network Corp and other carriers to secure another distribution deal by early 2010. Epix was launched two months ago as a joint venture of Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp and MetroGoldwyn-Mayer Inc, with just one distribution partner, Verizon Communications Inc's FiOS TV service. To date, it's available only to about 2.5 million households. Epix also introduced a Web site at EpixHD.com that can be accessed only by Verizon FiOS subscribers, who log in with a special code. The site has movie titles from the libraries of Epix's three studio parent companies, which users can watch and also invite friends to view remotely with them, from their own computers. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Pearl Harbor Survivor Back for 1st Time Since War (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/7/2009 4:23:47 AM

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii Retired firefighter Ed Johann was a teenage apprentice seaman on Dec. 7, 1941, when he spotted Japanese planes coming in over Pearl Harbor. He thought they were U.S. aircraft conducting drills until explosions and flames erupted from stricken ships in the harbor. Then came screams of sailors; the stench of burning oil and flesh. The 86-year-old is due to return Monday to Pearl Harbor for the first time since World War II to attend a ceremony marking the 68th anniversary of the attack on the U.S. naval base that pulled America into the war. "I really don't know how I'm going to handle it," said Johann, from his home in Oregon. "When I think about it, all I have is unpleasantness. I'm sure it's not like that now." Then, he and two other sailors were waiting to ferry passengers on a small boat to and from the USS Solace, a hospital ship that was moored in Pearl Harbor. Johann's motor launcher boat rushed to the USS Arizona, which was hit by several bombs, one of which struck her forward ammunition magazines and set

off a massive explosion. Already fueled and manned when the attack began, their 30-foot boat was the first rescue vessel to arrive at the scene. They found the water littered with people — some wounded, some dead, some unharmed. Many were covered in the leaking oil from the ships. They loaded as many as they could and delivered them to the hospital ship before returning to the USS West Virginia for more. "As we're pulling them out of the water, a lot of times the skin would come right off the arm," Johann said. "They would just be black with oil, except maybe you could see the white of their eyes." The planes kept coming. Divebombers plunged out of the sky, dropping bombs and strafing the water and ships with machine gun fire before roaring back up for another round. Torpedo bombers flew in level to drop their submersible weapons for underwater assaults. The burning, sinking vessels at first lowered men into Johann's makeshift rescue boat. But some sailors started to panic and jump into their small ship, forcing it to pull away so it wouldn't sink too. "Some of the sailors would be like in shock and some of 'em would be like going out of control, screaming and

hollering," Johann said. The next morning — after nervously worrying the Japanese planes would return — Johann's boat unloaded men from the Solace who failed to make it through the night and delivered them to land. "We had them stacked like cordwood in our boat. The open end where the feet was sticking out was these big brown tags that said 'unknown, unknown,"' Johann said. The military hadn't adopted dog tags yet and many couldn't be identified. The attack sank four U.S. battleships and destroyed 188 U.S. planes. Another four battleships were damaged, along with three cruisers and three destroyers. More than 2,200 sailors, Marines and soldiers were killed. "We didn't survive by any skill," Johann said of his boat. "It was just luck, pure luck. Because all we were concentrating on was trying to save people, and not save ourselves." Johann served the rest of the war on the USS Wright, a seaplane tender. After 1945, he returned to California where he worked in sawmills before moving to Portland, Oregon. where he spent 28 years as a firefighter. He retired to a beach cottage in Lincoln City and where he served

on the city council, helping build hiking trails and campaigning against domestic violence. Every Independence Day on July 4, he goes to bed early to avoid the fireworks because they remind him of Pearl Harbor's explosions. Even so, the blasts keep him awake. But the horrors he went through also led him to become a firefighter. "I think I had it in my mind," Johann said, "I wanted to help people." For years, Johann said he wouldn't go to the annual observance in Hawaii in honor of those killed in the attack. But now that he's 86, it seemed liked a good idea. "If I'm ever going to do anything like that I'd better do it now," Johann said. His son, who lives on Maui, will accompany him. Organizers expect between 40 and 50 survivors of the attack to come. Overall, some 2,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony on a pier overlooking the spot where the Arizona sank. The bodies of more than 1,000 sailors and Marines are still on board, and small drops of oil continue to rise from the battleship. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Suspect charged in killing of Pittsburgh -area cop (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/7/2009 11:08:34 AM

PENN HILLS, Pa. – A suburban Pittsburgh police officer awaiting backup was fatally shot in his parked patrol car by a man who emerged from a home moments after killing someone over a $500 drug debt, police said. Penn Hills police Officer Michael Crawshaw, 32, was the first to respond to a 911 call made around 8:20 p.m. Sunday. Crawshaw was advised to wait in his patrol car because of past problems reported at the home and because dispatchers heard shots over the phone, Penn Hills Chief Howard Burton said. Ronald Robinson, 31, walked out of the home and opened fire as he approached Crawshaw's car, Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said Monday. Robinson used "some kind of assault rifle" — possibly an AK-47 — judging by shell casings found at the scene, Moffatt said. "The gunman exits, sees the officer there, so he takes it upon himself to open fire upon the officer as he sits inside his car," Moffatt said. The officer's weapon was removed from his holster, showing that he might have been able to draw his .45-caliber Glock pistol and fire a shot, SUSPECT page 75

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Mullen to troops: Afghanistan casualties will rise (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

the Marine Corps base that will supply about 1,500 Marines for the first surge units by Christmas. FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The After the first of the year, the nation's highest-ranking military Marines will begin sending officer Monday told soldiers, another 6,200 from Lejeune and i n c l u d i n g m a n y b o u n d f o r Camp Pendleton in California, Afghanistan, that he expects t h e P e n t a g o n a n n o u n c e d casualties to rise next year as Monday. The Army will also additional U.S. troops pour into begin sending in the first of its the war. forces in the spring â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a training A d m . M i k e M u l l e n , t h e brigade with about 3,400 soldiers chairman of the Joint Chiefs of from Fort Drum, N.Y. About S t a f f , a n s w e r e d s o l d i e r s ' 4,100 support forces from questions for about an hour at various places will also deploy this sprawling Army post on the early. Kentucky-Tennessee line. Many At Fort Campbell, Capt. at Fort Campbell already had Matthew O'Neill, 31, a member orders for Afghanistan before of the 101st Aviation Brigades, P r e s i d e n t B a r a c k O b a m a said he expects his scheduled unveiled his plan last week to add d e p l o y m e n t n e x t y e a r t o about 30,000 new troops to about Afghanistan may be sooner than 70,000 already there. expected as a result of the new "I am sure we will sustain an strategy because ground troops increase in the level of casualties rely on aviation units like his to and I don't want to be in any way move around the country. unclear about that," he told about "I just think the support that is 7 0 0 t r o o p s . " T h i s i s w h a t needed in Afghanistan is finally happened in Iraq during the surge getting put in," he said after and as tragic as it is, to turn this Mullen's talk. thing around, it will be a part of Many questions from soldiers this surge as well." focused on the role of Pakistan "I expect a tough fight in 2010," and America's NATO allies in Mullen said. containing al-Qaida and the Mullen was due to talk later in Taliban. the day at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Mullen said the border between Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:48:16 AM

SUSPECT continued from page 74

Moffatt said. Police were still investigating. Robinson fired at least nine shots at the officer, Moffatt said. Afghanistan and Pakistan is "the p a r t o f t h e t r o o p b u i l d u p . Three or four hit Crawshaw, epicenter for global terrorism." Mullen's visit to the post seemed He said Pakistan's military has to confirm the rumors to many including a single fatal shot to the made huge gains in routing out soldiers who listened to the head, said Dr. Karl Williams, county medical examiner. An terrorists from that country, but speech. reminded soldiers that Pakistan is M u l l e n s a i d t h e q u i c k autopsy is planned. Police were able to locate a sovereign nation and that the deployment of troops is needed U.S. wants to maintain a long- to reduce recruiting among Robinson, of Pittsburgh, because term stable relationship with insurgent and radical groups. he was on parole and wearing an Pakistan. "We are not winning, which electronic ankle bracelet, Moffatt "In the long run, we are anxious means we are losing and as we said. He has an arrest record for to get at al-Qaida and the are losing, the message traffic out drug and firearms charges and leadership that resides in that there to recruits keeps getting was paroled after in August 2007 b o r d e r a r e a , " h e s a i d . better and better and more keep after serving time for carrying an "Strategically the way you do this coming. That's why we need the unlicensed firearm. Robinson was charged with in my view is to bring pressure 30,000 and in particular, and you from both sides." are the lead on this, getting in burglary and two counts of Mullen, the president's senior there this year, over the next 12 homicide after he went to police military adviser, said Obama's months, almost in lightning bolt for questioning about 4 a.m. Monday, Moffatt said. It was not announcement last week of a fashion." scheduled transition to a greater Lt. Col. Ivan Beckman, 42, said clear whether he had an attorney, role for Afghan forces starting in after the speech that he expects and court documents were not July 2011 wasn't a deadline for his 4th Brigade Combat Team available because Robinson pulling out troops. will get orders soon to go to hadn't been arraigned. " President Obama has not said Afghanistan. Beckman said he Crawshaw was taken to UPMC we are leaving," he told the felt reassured by Mullen's Presbyterian Hospital, where he troops. "There's no deadline, e x p r e s s e d c o m m i t m e n t t o was pronounced dead shortly before 9 p.m. there's no amount of troops that A f g h a n i s t a n . The other victim, Danyal will come out in July 2011 and "We don't know for sure, but Morton, 40, who lived at the there's no withdrawal date." we're hoping to be a part of the house, had been the one to call Three brigades of the 101st force that goes over," he said. Airborne Division were already This content has passed through 911 and was found dead in a second-floor bathroom, Moffatt planning to go on a scheduled fivefilters.org. said. rotation to Afghanistan next year, Morton owed Robinson $500 for but other brigades were still either cocaine or heroin from a waiting to hear if they would be drug deal Saturday, Moffatt said. Both shootings occurred within four minutes, judging by 911 records and police logs. SUSPECT page 77

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Morales claims Bolivia poll win (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

This newfound political freedom will give Mr Morales the opportunity to push through his Submitted at 12/6/2009 6:59:55 PM sweeping social reforms - which President Evo Morales has he says are aimed at improving claimed victory in Bolivia's the lives of the more than 30% of presidential election and appears Bolivians who live on less than set to serve a second five-year $2 a day. term. But despite what appears to be a Exit polls suggest Bolivia's first landslide victory, Mr Morales is indigenous leader polled at least still likely to continue facing stiff 61%, defeating his conservative opposition to his socialist agenda rivals. from the country's wealthy, Mr Morales, who had vowed to eastern provinces like Santa expand state control over the Cruz. There, the main opposition economy, said it was now his candidate, Manfred Reyes Villa, duty to "accelerate the pace of appears to have won the majority change". of the votes. A referendum earlier backed They indicate that his main rival changes to allow presidents to Manfred Reyes Villa, a former seek a second term. governor, secured about 23%. Exit polls The BBC's Andres Schipani in Mr Morales, 50, won between La Paz says the exit polls also 61% and 63% of the vote, suggest the president is set to avoiding a run-off, the exit polls take control of the upper house of suggest. Congress from the opposition. With this apparent victory, Evo Mr Morales said that "by Morales doesn't only gain a holding two-thirds of Congress it second term in office. He's also now is my duty to accelerate the now freed of any real opposition pace of change". i n C o n g r e s s , w h e r e h i s Official results are expected in Movement to Socialism party is the coming days. expected to win an outright Foreign observers have praised majority in both the lower house the election for its transparency and the Senate. and fairness.

Mr Morales's support base is chiefly among poor indigenous people who account for some 65% of the population - in contrast to his challengers. "He's changing things. He's helping the poor and building highways and schools," Veronica Canizaya, a 49-year-old housewife, told Reuters news agency before casting her vote at a public school on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Analysts say a victory for Mr Morales will solidify his dominance in Bolivian politics and weaken the split conservative opposition tied to the business elite. His other challenger was Samuel Doria Medina, a wealthy businessman. Both challengers accused Mr Morales of having "totalitarian" ambitions for the country and of being responsible for the rise in cocaine production, says our correspondent, Andres Schipani. Mr Morales told crowds at his final campaign rally: "There are two roads: continue with change or return to the past." Print Sponsor This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Authorities Find Body in SUV Linked to Wis. Killings (FOXNews.com)

outbuilding and contacted police Monday morning. DeSpain said he did not know MADISON, Wis. Authorities when the property owner first on Monday located the sport noticed the SUV, but it appeared utility vehicle of a man wanted in the vehicle had been parked there the slayings of his two young for several days. He said he didn't daughters and their mothers. know the name of the property They said they found a man's owner. body inside. Police have not identified the Police have been searching for dead man. DeSpain said he had Tyrone Adair since Thursday no information on what may have evening. They discovered the caused his death. The Dane bodies of 25-year-old Amber County coroner is investigating. Weigel and 2-year Neveah The snow-covered vehicle was Weigel-Adair in Madison and the surrounded by crime scene tape bodies of 33-year-old Tracy Judd as police officers milled around and 23-month-old Deja Adair in the scene Monday afternoon. suburban Middleton within hours Authorities planned to tow the of each other that night. vehicle to the state crime lab, Adair, 38, was last seen driving DeSpain said. Judd's silver GMC Acadia on Adair was charged Friday with Thursday afternoon. two counts of first-degree He called Judd's older daughter intentional homicide in Judd and that night and said he was behind Deja Adair's deaths. Police have a Walmart in Dodgeville, about called him a "person of interest" 50 miles west of Madison. He in Weigel and Weigel-Adair's said Judd and Deja Adair had deaths, but prosecutors have not been in an accident and wouldn't charged him in that case. be home that night, according to Police alerted law enforcement a criminal complaint. agencies nationwide to be on the Madison Police spokesman Joel lookout for him. Adair's family DeSpain said a property owner in issued a statement to the media Cottage Grove, about 15 miles Saturday night urging him to turn east of Madison, noticed a GMC himself in. Acadia parked next to what This content has passed through D e S p a i n d e s c r i b e d a s a n fivefilters.org. Submitted at 12/6/2009 10:42:52 PM

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'Risky' kidney transplant success (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 12/7/2009 1:51:28 AM

Surgeons say they have had success with a controversial transplant technique that uses risky donor kidneys containing cancerous masses. So far five patients have been treated by the team at Baltimore's University of Maryland School of Medicine. The US surgeons say the technique offers a vital lifeline to patients with end-stage renal failure who could die waiting for a healthy donor organ. None of the patients has yet developed cancer urology journal BJUI reports. Before the transplants took place, the doctors said they had detailed discussions with the patients and the donors about the discovery of the cancer in the donor kidneys so that they were both aware of the risks, including recurrence of the cancer. Urologist and head of the surgical team, Dr Michael Phelan, said: "Transplanting a living donor kidney which has been affected by a renal mass is

controversial and considered high risk. "However, the ongoing shortage of organs from deceased donors, and the high risk of dying while waiting for a transplant, prompted five donors and recipients to push ahead with surgery after the small masses were found in the donor kidneys." Measured risk The kidneys were removed from the donors, put on ice and taken to the operating rooms for preparation for transplantation. The surgeons then removed all visible traces of the tumours five masses ranging from 1cm to 2.3cm in size, three being malignant and two benign before transplanting them in to the recipients. One of the recipients has since died, from an unrelated accident. But the remaining four are well between nine and 41 months on. Dr Phelan told the Journal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons this was proof that 'risky' kidneys could be a viable option for some. He said: "The current study provides evidence to suggest that

kidneys from donors with renal masses offer a minor, yet feasible, solution to the current organ shortage. "These organs can be transplanted into recipients with limited life-expectancy on haemodialysis after careful removal of the renal masses. "However, diligent follow-up of the donor and recipient is imperative in these cases." Keith Rigg, medical advisor for the charity Kidney Research UK, said: "New initiatives to increase the number of life changing transplants are welcomed. "The results of removing small tumours from kidneys prior to transplantation are encouraging from this small study. "It is important though that the potential risks and benefits are fully discussed with the donor and recipient, and that the recipient of the kidney is subject to long term close scrutiny, to ensure that any risks in the long term are minimized." Print Sponsor This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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The slain officer apparently heard gunfire as he sat in his car awaiting backup officers and was shot moments later, Moffatt said. "He didn't go rushing in by himself; he wasn't (trying to be) a hero," Burton said. Morton has a criminal record dating to 1991, including two prison terms for burglary, records show. Another man who sometimes lived in the home was also present during the shooting, but police could not explain why he was not shot, Moffatt said. He made a second call to 911, police said. Neighbors reported hearing about 10 gunshots at the home in Penn Hills, a middle-class community about 10 miles east of Pittsburgh. No crime scene tape was visible outside the two-story brick home, and no one answered the door or the phone. Schoolchildren walked to bus stops in the neighborhood. Robert Cephas, 57, who lives next door, said that he wasn't home at the time, but that his wife and grandkids were. "They were hitting the floor, my grandkids did," he said. Crawshaw was a three-year

member of the force and had worked at the University of Pittsburgh police department, Burton said. "Officer Crawshaw was a fine officer, and Penn Hills was lucky to have him patrolling our community," Mayor Anthony DeLuca Jr. said. Gov. Ed Rendell ordered state flags to fly at half staff in honor of Crawshaw, whose brother, Matthew Crawshaw, is also a police officer in suburban Pittsburgh. The slain officer is the fourth to be killed on duty in Allegheny County this year. Pittsburgh officers Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo were fatally shot in a gun battle while responding to a call at a home in April. The last time a Penn Hills officer was killed in the line of duty was March 25, 1972, when Sgt. William Schrott and Officer Bartley Connolly Jr. were shot while trying to catch an armed robber at a shopping center. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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AP source: No charges planned in Conn. chimp case (AP)

US to regulate greenhouse gases

(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

(BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

disfigured face last month on " The Oprah Winfrey Show." Nash's family is suing Herold for NEW HAVEN, Conn. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A $50 million and wants to sue the Connecticut prosecutor does not state for $150 million. Nash's plan to charge the owner of a family has said Herold was chimpanzee that mauled and negligent and reckless for lacking blinded a woman in February, the ability to control "a wild according to a person with direct animal with violent propensities." knowledge of the investigation. A biologist for the state State's Attorney David Cohen Department of Environmental refused to comment ahead of a Protection warned officials news conference scheduled for before the attack that Travis Monday afternoon, but the could seriously hurt someone if person with knowledge of the he felt threatened, noting that he investigation said no charges are was large and strong. planned against Sandra Herold, Herold's attorney has called the of Stamford. attack work-related and said her The person was not authorized family's case should be treated to speak publicly before the news like a workers' compensation c o n f e r e n c e a n d t a l k e d o n claim. The strategy, if successful, c o n d i t i o n o f a n o n y m i t y . would limit potential damages in Attorneys for Herold and victim the case and insulate the chimp Charla Nash said they had no owner from personal liability. knowledge of the decision and Test results showed that Travis couldn't comment on it. had the anti-anxiety drug Xanax The 200-pound chimpanzee in his system. went berserk after Herold asked The animal, which was shot and Nash to help lure him back into killed by police, had also escaped her house. The chimp ripped off in 2003 from his owner's car and Nash's hands, nose, lips and led police on a chase for hours in eyelids. downtown Stamford. No one was Nash revealed her heavily injured. Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:38:39 AM

Records obtained by The Associated Press through an open -records request show the state began receiving warnings immediately after that event. Nash's attorney has said the environmental department had information for at least five years that would have allowed the agency to remove Travis from the home. Environmental protection officials have said that during the 13 years Travis was with Herold, the agency received only a few inquiries about the chimp among thousands in general about possession of wild animals. They said the memo from the biologist underscored the need for a clear, new law that would forbid ownership of potentially dangerous animals as pets and impose stiff penalties for those possessing them, and they blamed the failure to act on a communications problem and a lack of expertise in exotic animals at the agency. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

national carbon trading scheme. But progress of a similar bill through the Senate is not likely Submitted at 12/7/2009 10:47:59 AM before March at the earliest. The US has declared greenhouse Public consultation gases harmful to human health, In April, the EPA decided that paving the way to regulating carbon dioxide and five other emissions without the backing of greenhouse gases may endanger Congress. human health and well-being. L i s a J a c k s o n o f t h e U S The decision had to go into E n v i r o n m e n t a l P r o t e c t i o n public consultation, giving Agency (EPA) said the agency people 60 days - until 23 June h a d f i n a l i s e d i t s s o - c a l l e d to respond. "endangerment finding". An EPA spokeswoman told the She said the EPA was now B B C t h a t t h e a g e n c y h a d "authorised and obligated to received more than 300,000 make reasonable efforts" to cut comments and had been working greenhouse gases. on its response since. The EPA will now be able to act In 2007, the US Supreme Court even if Congress fails to pass instructed the agency to review legislation. the evidence on climate change The announcement cames as with a view to reconsidering its global climate talks got under stance on the possible threats of way in Copenhagen. climate change. T h e U S H o u s e o f Print Sponsor Representatives passed a bill in This content has passed through June that would cap greenhouse fivefilters.org. gas emissions and establish a