Liberty Newsprint Dec-25-09

E-reader News Edition

24/12/09 - 25/12/09

http://www.LibertyNewsprint.com

Senate gives Obama Christmas present and then he gets Hawaiian holiday

By Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 12/24/2009 7:58:48 PM

How much better could it get?

President Barack Obama won a hard-fought victory on his signature domestic issue — healthcare reform — first thing in the morning with the Senate vote and then he left the frozen tundra of Washington, D.C., (we’re talking about the weather) for the balmy tropics of Hawaii.

A sweet start to the Christmas holidays for the first family.

Air Force One landed at Hickam Air Force Base on the island of

Oahu (even some of the Secret Service agents on the ground were in Hawaiian shirts) and everyone in the first family was greeted with the traditional lei around their necks.

Then it was off to their Kailua home, past lush green rolling hills, with gawkers stopping to take pictures, wave, call someone, flash the “hang loose” sign and essentially give the Obamas a warm welcome.

No word yet from the White House on first family Christmas presents or on precisely how they are planning to celebrate the holiday, except that the president

is going to relax.

“I think the president is going to wake up and see where the day takes him. I’ve checked out the

forecast for the entire time we’re there … Friday it’s 81 and sunny, Saturday it’s 81 and sunny. So I think that the weather ought to lend itself to some outdoor activity,” White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One. “This is an opportunity for the president to recharge his batteries, knowing that as president you never really get to power off all the way,” Burton said.

Photo credit: Larry Downing (Obama arrives in Hawaii)

Christmas Laser Beam Cats Are the Reason for the Season [Humor]

By Adam Frucci (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/25/2009 6:33:56 AM

What happens when a couple of engineers decide to make a Christmas edition of SNL's Lasercats sketch? Some legitimately fearsome lasercats with autoturrets, that's what. [ Laughing Squid via The Daily What]

Quest Diagnostics: Back Up the Truck

By Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/24/2009 2:15:00 PM

Filed under: Stocks to Buy There's no mystery regarding why Quest Diagnostics ( DGX) has a bright future: the United States is on the cusp of historic and civilization-advancing

change with Congressional passage of the health care reform bill and its ultimate signature by President Obama, and that means good things diagnostic test services, which is why I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for the company's shares, first recommended on June 25, 2009, Further, diagnostic tests are at the core of health care services, at a price of $55.89.

and even though the number of tests per U.S. citizen will likely decline in the years ahead, when one adds 30-45 million more citizens regularly accessing health care services annually, within 10 years, the probability of increased business is high, to say the least.

Continue reading Quest

Diagnostics: Back Up the Truck Quest Diagnostics: Back Up the Truck originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Comments

2

World/ Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo sentenced to 11 years in jail

By Jonathan Watts (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 12/25/2009 6:03:28 AM

Anger at harsh treatment of prominent activist found guilty of subversion One of China's most prominent human rights activists was condemned today to 11 years in prison, prompting a furious backlash from domestic bloggers and international civil society groups.

Liu Xiaobo, the founder of the Charter 08 campaign for constitutional reform, was given the unusually harsh jail term on Christmas Day in an apparent attempt to minimise international attention.

The case has raised fears that other drafters of Charter 08 could also face retribution from the authorities.

Following a year in detention and a two-hour trial, it took the No 1 intermediate people's court in Beijing just 10 minutes to read out the 11-page sentence.

Liu was found guilty on Wednesday of subversion, the vaguely defined charge that Communist party leaders often

use to imprison political opponents.

In a statement released by the state-controlled Xinhua news agency, the court said it had "strictly followed the legal procedures" and "fully protected Liu's litigation rights".

However, the author and academic had been detained without trial for a year. His wife, Liu Xia, was not allowed into an earlier hearing, nor were foreign diplomatic observers. Liu's lawyers have been warned not to discuss the case.

But the defence team said they were prepared to appeal against the verdict.

"We cannot accept this sentence because we have argued in court that Liu is innocent," said one of his lawyers, Mo Shaoping. His wife could not be reached as her mobile phone was suddenly out of order.

Amnesty International expressed outrage at the sentence, which it said was the harshest in 35 subversion cases since 2003.

"Liu Xiaobo's detention and trial shows the Chinese government will not tolerate Chinese citizens participating in discussions about their own form of government,"

said Sam Zarifi, director of the group's Asia pacific program.

"After this, more than 300 scholars, lawyers and officials who proposed the blueprint for improving the political system might be at risk as well, as nearly 10,000 signatories."

Outside the courtroom and in the Chinese blogosphere, Liu's supporters have initiated a yellow ribbon campaign for his release.

"China's Mandela was born this Christmas," wrote the influential blogger Beichen.

Many activists were kept under house arrest or warned not to attend the hearings, but the contemporary artist Ai Weiwei was among those at the courtroom. "This does not mean a meteor has fallen. This is the discovery of a star," he tweeted.

"Although this is a sentence on Liu Xiaobo alone, it is also a slap on the face for everyone in China."

Liu, a former Beijing Normal University professor, is a leading intellectual critic of the repressive Chinese government.

Liu was previously imprisoned for 20 months for taking part in the 1989 student-led protests in Tiananmen Square.

What did you get for Christmas?

By John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/24/2009 2:32:05 PM

Tell us. We want to know. I, for one, got nothing. Just beer. But it was an amazing beer called

Stiegle.

He told friends that he knew the risk of imprisonment when he drafted Charter 08, which demands the open election of public officials, freedom of religion and expression, and the abolition of subversion laws.

"We should end the practice of viewing words as crimes," the petition says.

Liu was arrested last December before the Charter was made public. Other drafters and signatories have been harassed.

The mainstream media have been forbidden to cover the subject and censors have blocked many related internet sites and articles.

Many Chinese are unaware that it exists.

Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco and Margaret Atwood are among 300 international writers who have called for the release of Liu, who is a former president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre.

"Liu Xiaobo's case is about agreed international human rights standards, not merely the internal affairs of China," said John Ralston Saul, the president of International PEN. "China is signatory to international treaties and conventions, and cannot be

given a free pass when it acts against its own and international standards."

The United States and European Union have also urged Beijing to free Liu. "We continue to call on the government of China to release him immediately," Gregory May, first secretary with the US Embassy, said outside the courthouse today. May was one of a dozen diplomats stopped by authorities from attending the trial and sentencing.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters this week that statements from embassies calling for Liu's release were "a gross interference of China's internal affairs".

• China • Human rights • Freedom of Speech Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

World/ Finance/ Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

3

Vatican security under fire after attack on Pope

By Haroon Siddique (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:16:33 AM

Woman who knocked over pontiff was known to officials after attempting similar assault last year The Vatican's security arrangements were being scrutinised today after Pope Benedict XVI was knocked to the ground during Christmas Eve mass by a woman who tried to launch a similar attack on him a year ago.

Susanna Maiolo, a Swiss-Italian national with psychiatric problems, jumped the barricade at the start of the service mass in St Peter's Basilica and was able to grab Benedict's vestments before security guards brought her down. The 82-year-old pontiff was uninjured and went on to deliver his Christmas Eve homily and his Christmas Day blessing today, although a French cardinal's hip was broken during the incident.

Questions are being asked as to why Maiolo, 25, who jumped the barricade at midnight mass last

year wearing a red sweatshirt similar to the one she wore yesterday, was allowed into the service. Last year's attack was foiled when she was tackled to the ground by security before she could reach the pope.

Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi said officials would review the episode to "try to learn from experience".

The pope is protected by a combination of Swiss Guards, Vatican police and Italian police.

Since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, the Vatican has tightened security at events where the pope is present. All visitors must pass by police to get into the square, with those entering the basilica going through metal detectors or being scanned by metal-detecting wands. Security analysts have frequently warned the pope is too exposed in his public appearances. Lombardi said that it was "impossible to prevent every possibility of something happening" as the pontiff wanted to maintain a "direct, pastoral relationship with people".

Maiolo, 25, had been taken to a clinic for treatment after being

arrested yesterday. She was not armed.

The French cardinal whose hip was broken, longtime Vatican diplomat Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, 87, will have to undergo surgery, Lombardi said.

Benedict lost his mitre and staff when Maiolo lunged for him as he walked down the aisle, knocking him over. He remained on the ground for a few seconds before being helped back up by attendants. After getting up he proceeded down the aisle to cheers of "Viva il Papa!" ("Long live the pope"). The pontiff, who broke his right wrist in a fall this summer, appeared unharmed but somewhat shaken and leaned heavily on aides and an armrest as he sat down in his chair. He continued to celebrate the mass without incident.

He made no reference to the disturbance after the service started or in his Christmas blessing today.

Benedict appeared a bit unsteady as he approached his chair on the loggia overlooking St Peter's Square to deliver today's blessing and was steadied by an attendant.

But he then spread open his

arms, blessed the crowd and delivered his "Urbi et Orbi" speech, Latin for "To the city and the world", without any apparent problem. He followed with Christmas greetings in 65 different languages, which drew sustained cheers and chants from the crowd.

In the speech, the pope decried the effects of the world financial crisis, conflicts in the Holy Land and Africa, and the plight of the "tiny flock" of Christians in Iraq.

"At times it is subject to violence and injustice, but it remains determined to make its own contribution to the building of a society opposed to the logic of conflict and the rejection of one's neighbour," he said.

• Pope Benedict XVI • Catholicism • Religion Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Today We Salute You...Guy Who Crammed a Mac Mini, Subwoofer and Coffeemaker Into an Old iMac [Mods]

By Sean Fallon (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:30:54 AM

The iMac CS: A Coffeemaker, Subwoofer and Mac Mini All-InOne. You don't even know why you want it.

This isn't modder Klaus Diebel's first experiment with the iMac case. In the past he has also used it to create a mailbox and a birdhouse. However, this design is far more ambitious—allowing you to use the computer, listen to bangin' tunes and make a cup of Joe all at the same time. Plus, if you ask him nicely (and fork over some cash), Klaus would be happy to make a custom version for you too. [ Kiwidee via TUAW via Technabob]

Top Picks for 2010: PepsiCo (PEP)

By Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks)

This post is part of a special report, Top Picks for 2010, the 27th annual survey in which Submitted at 12/24/2009 3:00:00 PM TheStockAdvisors.com asks the Filed under: PepsiCo (PEP), nation's leading advisors for their Newsletters, Stocks to Buy, best single favorite stock for the new stocks for 2010 year. See all 80 stocks listed here.

"PepsiCo ( PEP), my top pick for 2010, remains underrated by the market," says Jim Stack.

The money manager and editor of InvesTech Market Analyst suggests, "All too often, it's viewed as a stodgy soft drink

company, fully reliant on its namesake soda line. That's a misconception." Here, he sets the record straight.

Continue reading Top Picks for 2010: PepsiCo (PEP) Top Picks for 2010: PepsiCo

(PEP) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Comments

4

World/ Finance/ Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

Taliban release video of captured US soldier (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan."

The man identifies himself as Bergdahl, born in Sun Valley, Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:23:32 AM Idaho, and gives his rank, birth Insurgents provide footage of date, blood type, his unit and man named as Bowe Berghal, mother's maiden name before h e l d f i v e m o n t h s a g o i n beginning a lengthy verbal attack Aghanistan on the US conduct of the war in The Taliban released a video on Afghanistan and its relations with Christmas day showing a US Muslims. He appears healthy and soldier who was captured more does not appear to have been than five months ago in eastern abused.

Afghanistan.

The video, which has an English A caption in the video identifies -language narration in parts, also the man as "War prisoner: Bowe shows images of prisoners in US R o b e r t B e r g d a h l . " B o w e custody being abused. The B e r g d a h l , a U S a i r b o r n e speaker says he did not suffer infantryman, is the only known such ill treatment. captured American serviceman. A statement read by a Taliban He was taken by the Afghan spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban in Paktika province on appears at the end of the video 30 June. and renews demands for a Nato confirmed that the man in "limited number of prisoners" to the video, which was released to be exchanged for Bergdahl. The several news organisations, was s t a t e m e n t s a y s t h a t m o r e Bergdahl.

American troops could be He is shown seated, facing the c a p t u r e d . camera, wearing sunglasses and IntelCenter, a US contractor that what appears to be a US military tracks terrorist propaganda and helmet and uniform. On one side works with the intelligence of the image, it says: "An community and the military, said American soldier imprisoned by the quality of the latest 36-minute

video was better than the first one released in July and was more in line with the quality of video received in the past from alQaida.

The insurgents also released that video of Bergdahl a few weeks after he was captured. In it Bergdahl appeared downcast and frightened.

Bergdahl, who was serving with a unit based in Fort Richardson, Alaska, was 23 when he vanished just five months after arriving in Afghanistan. He was serving at a base in Paktika province near the border with Pakistan in an area known to be a Taliban stronghold. On Friday, Nato said a joint Afghan-international force killed several militants in Paktika while searching for a commander of the Jalaluddin Haqqani militant network that is linked to al-Qaida.

US military officials have searched for Bergdahl, but it is not publicly known whether he is even being held in Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan.

Tim Marsano, an Idaho national guard spokesman who has been serving as a liaison between the

family and media, said the family had not seen the video since word of its possible release surfaced earlier this month. He spoke to Bob and Jani Bergdahl, Bowe Bergdahl's parents, earlier this week and described their mood as "anxiously awaiting" any new information about their son.

"They're very hopeful that the message will be a positive one, as far as their son's health and welfare," Marsano said.

The man on the video said US officials keep leading America "into the same holes," citing Vietnam, Japan, Germany, Somalia, Lebanon and Iraq.

"This is just going to be the next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense," he said.

• Taliban • Afghanistan • US foreign policy

Cable Cars Are The Best Way For Your Ornaments To Travel Up The Christmas Tree [Christmas]

By Sean Fallon (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/25/2009 5:20:00 AM

A working cable car would be just the thing to help your modified action figure ornaments travel up the Christmas tree. I mean, the tree is like Everest to them. [ Walmart via OhGizmo]

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

Top Picks for 2010: Aflac (AFL)

By Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks)

This post is part of a special report, Top Picks for 2010, the 27th annual survey in which Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:00:00 AM TheStockAdvisors.com asks the Filed under: International nation's leading advisors for their markets, Newsletters, AFLAC single favorite stock for the new Inc (AFL), Japan, Stocks to Buy, year. See all 80 stocks listed here. best stocks for 2010 "Aflac ( AFL) is best known in

the U.S. for its 'duck ads,' but actually earns over 75% of its money from Japan," says Dirk Van Dijk.

In selecting the stock as his top pick for 2010, the strategist for Zacks.com, recalls "Aflac happens to be an old favorite of

mine, a stock that I first recommended back in 1991."

Here's his current update.

Continue reading Top Picks for 2010: Aflac (AFL) Top Picks for 2010: Aflac (AFL) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 25 Dec

2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Comments

World/ Tech/ Finance/

E-reader News Edition

Two Irish Catholic bishops resign over church cover-up of child abuse (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

and protect a serving priest. The archdiocese estimates its ultimate bill for settlements and legal costs may top €20m (£18m).

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, a veteran Vatican diplomat put in charge of Dublin in 2004 with a brief to confront the abuse scandal, had called for his two auxiliary bishops to quit, but both initially refused. Walsh had been a bishop since 1990, Field since 1997.

In his Christmas sermon, Martin said the church for too long placed its self-interest above the rights of its parishioners, particularly innocent children. He said they, as well as the dedicated majority of priests, had been betrayed by their leaders.

"It has been a painful year," he told worshippers at St Mary's pro -Cathedral in Dublin. "But the church today may well be a better and safer place than was the church of 25 years ago – when all looked well, but where deep shadows were kept buried."

In remarks to Dublin's thousands of victims of clerical child abuse,

Martin said: "No words of apology will ever be enough for the hurt caused and the way your hurt was brushed aside."

A fifth serving bishop named in the investigation, Martin Drennan of Galway, said he had done nothing wrong and would not resign. The report also criticised five retired bishops, including Dublin Cardinal Desmond Connell, for suppressing information on abuse and preferring to transfer priests to new parishes.

The report also found that senior police officers and other state agencies deferred to church authority until the 1990s – and even referred public complaints about child-molesting priests back to the bishops to handle on their own.

• Ireland • Catholicism

a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

P h o t o b y http://www.flickr.com/photos/bril Submitted at 12/25/2009 12:15:00 AM ling// CC BY-SA 2.0 Filed under: TUAW Business, TUAW TUAW wishes you... U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e W e b l o g Holidays originally appeared on The (TUAW) on Fri, 25 Dec 2009

00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:29:45 AM

Dublin Bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field issue joint statement announcing their resignation in wake of damning investigation Two Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland resigned on Christmas day in the wake of a damning investigation into decades of church cover-up of child abuse in the Dublin archdiocese.

Dublin Bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field offered an apology to child-abuse victims as they announced their resignation during Christmas mass. Priests read the statement to worshippers throughout the archdiocese, home to a quarter of Ireland's 4 million Catholics.

Earlier this month two other bishops, Donal Murray of Limerick and Jim Moriarty of Kildare, resigned following the publication on 26 November of a three-year investigation into why

so many abusive Dublin priests escaped justice for so long.

The government-ordered investigation found that Dublin church leaders spent decades shielding more than 170 paedophile priests from the law.

They began providing information to police only in 1995 – but continued to keep secret, until 2004, many files and other records of reported abuse.

In a joint statement Walsh and Field said they hoped their resignations "may help to bring the peace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ to the victims (and) survivors of child sexual abuse.

We again apologise to them."

"Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have so bravely spoken out and those who continue to suffer in silence," the statement said.

The Dublin archdiocese has faced a rising tide of civil lawsuits from abuse victims since the mid-1990s, after one abuse victim, former altar boy Andrew Madden, went public with the church's effort to buy his silence

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

TUAW wishes you...

By Michael Rose (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

5

Top Picks for 2010: Verenium (VRNM)

By Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/24/2009 5:00:00 PM

Filed under: Newsletters, Commodities, Oil, Agriculture, Stocks to Buy, Green Stocks, Obama Picks, best stocks for 2010 This post is part of a special report, Top Picks for 2010, the 27th annual survey in which TheStockAdvisors.com asks the nation's leading advisors for their single favorite stock for the new year. See all 80 stocks listed here.

"The Energy Security Act of 2007 has received little investor attention; however, it contains provisions that are likely to lead to significant returns for investors," suggests Andy Obermueller.

In his Government-Driven Investing, he notes, "The law codifies the federal production targets for biofuel, which we believe presents a real opportunity for Vernenium ( VRNM)."

Continue reading Top Picks for 2010: Verenium (VRNM) Top Picks for 2010: Verenium (VRNM) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Comments

6

World/ Finance/ Tech/

E-reader News Edition

Pope attacked at Christmas Eve mass

By Haroon Siddique (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

treatment after being arrested yesterday. She was not armed.

The 82-year-old pontiff was not injured and was able to deliver Submitted at 12/25/2009 5:59:02 AM his Christmas Eve homily, Woman jumps barriers at St although a French cardinal broke Peter's Basilica and knocks down his hip when Maiolo woman p o n t i f f a f t e r s i m i l a r b u t jumped the barricade. unsuccessful attempt last year Vatican spokesman The Rev Pope Benedict XVI delivered his Federico Lombardi said Cardinal Christmas Day blessing today Roger Etchegaray, 87, a longtime hours after being attacked by a Vatican diplomat, would be woman who jumped the barrier at operated on. the start of mass in St Peter's Maiolo jumped the barricade at Basilica. the start of Christmas Eve mass The woman was identified as and lunged for the pope as he Susanna Maiolo, a Swiss-Italian moved down the aisle. As n a t i o n a l w i t h p s y c h i a t r i c security guards brought her problems, who was involved in a down, she grabbed Benedict's s i m i l a r i n c i d e n t l a s t y e a r , vestments and pulled him down according to Vatican officials. with her.

On that occasion, wearing a red Benedict lost his mitre and staff sweatshirt similar to the one she in the fall. He remained on the wore yesterday, Maiolo jumped ground for a few seconds before the barricade at midnight mass b e i n g h e l p e d b a c k u p b y but was tackled to the ground by attendants. After getting up he security before she could reach proceeded down the aisle to the pope. cheers of "Viva il Papa!" ("Long Vatican spokesman The Rev live the pope"). The pontiff, who Federico Lombardi said Maiolo, broke his right wrist in a fall this 25, had been taken to a clinic for summer, appeared unharmed but

somewhat shaken and leaned heavily on aides and an armrest as he sat down in his chair. He continued to celebrate the mass without incident.

He made no reference to the disturbance after the service started or in his Christmas blessing today.

Benedict appeared a bit unsteady as he approached his chair on the loggia overlooking St Peter's Square to deliver today's blessing and was steadied by an attendant.

But he then spread open his arms, blessed the crowd and delivered his "Urbi et Orbi" speech, Latin for "To the city and the world," without any apparent problem. He followed with Christmas greetings in 65 different languages that drew sustained cheers and chants from the crowd.

In the speech, the pope decried the effects of the world financial crisis, conflicts in the Holy Land and Africa, and the plight of the "tiny flock" of Christians in Iraq.

"At times it is subject to violence and injustice, but it remains

determined to make its own contribution to the building of a society opposed to the logic of conflict and the rejection of one's neighbour," he said.

The pope is protected by a combination of Swiss Guards, Vatican police and Italian police.

Since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, the Vatican has tightened security at events where the pope is present. All visitors must pass by police to get into the square, with those entering the basilica going through metal detectors or being scanned by metal-detecting wands. Security analysts have frequently warned the pope is too exposed in his public appearances.

• Pope Benedict XVI • Catholicism

Happy Holidays Everyone!

By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)

Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:49:05 AM

Happy holidays to all of Mashable’s readers, friends and partners!

Image credit: Stockphoto, loops7 Tags: happy holidays, Holidays, mashable

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

Top Picks for 2010: Oceaneering International (OII)

By Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/25/2009 11:00:00 AM

Filed under: International markets, Newsletters, Commodities, Oil, Stocks to Buy, best stocks for 2010 This post is part of a special report, Top Picks for 2010, the

27th annual survey in which TheStockAdvisors.com asks the nation's leading advisors for their single favorite stock for the new year. See all 80 stocks listed here.

"Oil recently suffered a pullback,

but we think it's temporary," says Brandon Clay, who turns to the oil sector for his top pick for 2010.

The editor of Invest with an Edge suggests, "One stock that

should pull out of congestion when energy moves again in 2010 is Oceaneering International ( OII), a company involved in deep-water drilling services.

Continue reading Top Picks for 2010: Oceaneering International (OII) Top Picks for 2010: Oceaneering International (OII) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

World/ Politics/ Tech/

E-reader News Edition

I've changed my mind about the Soviet Union | MJ Akbar

North Face Lawsuit Against South Butt Going Viral With Facebook App

By MJ Akbar (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

restrain their imperial tendencies.

Would the Bush-Blair partnership have invaded Iraq in 2003 with such brazen impunity Submitted at 12/25/2009 6:00:00 AM if Uncle Stalin, or even Cousin W o u l d t h e B u s h - B l a i r Brezhnev, had been around? partnership have invaded Iraq My faith in principle was with such impunity if Uncle foolish. Principle is an impotent Stalin or Cousin Brezhnev had yardstick if it is used to measure been around?

Saddam Hussein but not Tony I celebrated the fall of the Berlin Blair. Few emperors have been as Wall, the downward slither of the airily indifferent to their own lies Soviet Union and the defeat of as Blair has been on Iraq. the counter-revolutionary coup Coincidentally, President Obama t h a t s o u g h t t o r e s t o r e a chose his Oslo moment, around communist regime in the Kremlin the same time as Blair was for two non-sustainable reasons: offering a who-cares justification principle and self-interest. The to the BBC, to define the second was more comprehensible relationship between justice and than the first. As a journalist I war. If the Anglo-American had a vested interest in free occupation of Iraq was based on expression, and the Soviet regime a lie, were those who resisted was its boring antithesis. But that American troops fighting a just was so last century. In the first or an unjust war? How many decade of this century, there is a more nations would Bush-Blair vacuum where once lay the have sought to conquer if there b r o o d i n g , l o o m i n g S o v i e t had been no resistance in Iraq? shadow, a force that kept its own Obama waded into uncharted citizens under a form of house territory when he stated a arrest and yet inspired enough proposition with the confidence fear in Anglo-American hawks to of conviction, that a holy war

could not be a just war. He was, of course, taking a sideswipe at jihad, understandable in the context of his need to be closer to American opinion than Muslim dogma. In the process, he might have slashed at Hinduism. Its two great texts, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are war epics, and a Hindu would be aghast to hear that Lord Rama and Lord Krishna were fighting an unjust war. The moral code of most eastern faiths is deeply ingrained into popular belief. Obama might be surprised to learn that the iconic holy warrior in the Qur'an is David, king of the Jews.

In the best of all possible worlds, we would have had, in the first decade of the 21st century, a half -Brezhnev as head of the Union of Semi-Socialist Soviet Republics, a muscular superpower in which Pravda was as free as the Guardian and Izvestia as irreverent as the Sun. A balance of powers has given way to an imbalance of power, and space for a legitimate counterweight has thereby been

handed over to shadow armies impelled by private agendas but mobilised in the name of nationalism. Patriotism gives theocratic movements strength that they might never have achieved by a more transparent declaration of intent. This was the story in Iraq; this is the story in Afghanistan. In Iraq, they have been co-opted into the system, where they bide their time, waiting for local politicians to self-destruct and American forces to leave. In Afghanistan they have history and geography on their side.

• Russia • Iraq • Tony Blair • Barack Obama • Afghanistan • Middle East MJ Akbar guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

7

Submitted at 12/24/2009 1:03:49 PM

Following North Face's incredibly short-sighted decision to sue parody clothing maker, South Butt, it seems that the story is going viral in a variety of ways. Not only is the press and various blogs talking about it, but Paul Alan Levy alerts us to the news that South Butt has released a Facebook app that helps you "sharpen your skills" to see if you can "tell a butt from a face." As Levy notes, this sort of application and attention gaining effort shows why these types of lawsuits are likely to bite you in the butt. Even if there's a legal basis here (and that's questionable), the backlash against such a lawsuit is clear (and was widely predicted when North Face first made its threat).

Anyone filing lawsuits these days needs to realize how the court of public opinion can weigh in quite loudly on such things.

Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Senate Passes Health Care Bill (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/24/2009 4:00:50 PM

You’ve probably already heard that the Senate passed the health care reform bill today, after months of political wrangling

designed to remove any vestiges of actual usefulness: Senate approves landmark health-care bill.

Democrats are increasingly confident that President Obama will sign a bill into law in early

2010 that would prevent insurers from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, limit the amount individuals have to pay for their own care and require other reforms that Obama called “the toughest measures

ever taken to hold the insurance industry accountable.”

“We are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country,” Obama told reporters in a White House appearance shortly after the

Senate vote. “Our challenge now is to finish the job.”

At least the commie “public option” to pollute our precious bodily fluids was defeated. Or was it?

8

World/ Finance/ Politics/

E-reader News Edition

Warmer weather brings respite for Christmas drivers

By Haroon Siddique (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

In Northern Ireland snow is expected to push in from the west during the afternoon with 10cm possible over higher ground. The Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:04:07 AM Scottish Highlands and Grampian Snow on the way for Scotland region could also see 10cm of and Northern Ireland but bookies snow. Aberdeen was favourite to unlikely to pay out for white see snow with William Hill at Christmas 5/6.

Drivers leaving their Christmas Motoring organisations had been getaway until the last minute advising people to delay their enjoyed some respite from the journeys over the past few days r e c e n t b a d w e a t h e r t o d a y , because of hazardous conditions, although more icy conditions are w i t h t e m p e r a t u r e s w e r e on the way and heavy snow is noticeably warmer in many areas expected later in Scotland and today and a high of 8C expected Northern Ireland. in Newquay on the south-west The higher temperatures mean coast. Before the big freeze, 15% bookies are very unlikely to have of the population were expecting to pay out for a white Christmas, to make a fairly long journey on which requires snow to fall on a Christmas Day but the recent specified weather station in problems caused by the weather London on Christmas Day. means more people are likely to Bookmakers William Hill said be on the roads. yesterday it had received 15,000 Driving conditions were still bets for a white Christmas in poor in areas, and the M1 was London, where it was offering closed for more than three hours odds of 2/1. Other parts of the after a crash involving seven or country are likely to see snow eight vehicles near Long Eaton. today.

One passenger was airlifted to

hospital with serious injuries.

The Met Office advised motorists to take extra care in areas affected by snow. It also predicted a return of icy roads in much of England and Wales from late afternoon into tomorrow morning as temperatures drop later today.

But temperatures are expected to rise once again during the day tomorrow, particularly on the south coast where they will be pushing double figures.

The recent disruption to roads, rail and flights continued yesterday. Most of the major UK airports reported delays and cancellations on Christmas Eve, with easyJet grounding 16 flights. The bad weather axed a number of train services from Glasgow Central station. There were lengthy queues at the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras in London where police helped to control the crowds. Eurostar resumed services between London, Paris and Brussels on Tuesday after a three-day

suspension following tunnel breakdowns. The company was running about two-thirds of its normal service yesterday and said it expects to run a "near normal" service from Boxing Day. On the roads, there were problems on the M40 in Warwickshire, caused by a broken down vehicle, and on the M25.

The Highways Agency has lifted roadworks at 44 sites until midnight on 3 January in an attempt to ease the congestion, but some works remain in place, including those around the northern part of the M25.

• Weather • Road transport • Transport • Transport policy Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Outrageous Outrage of the Day: Commies Take Over Washington DC (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/24/2009 2:46:36 PM

The Los Angeles Times “Culture Monster” blog has a piece on Andrew Breitbart’s shocking Mao Zedong White House Christmas tree ornament exposé, one of the year’s most outrageous outrages: A Warhol Christmas at the White House.

Blogger Christopher Knight points out that the commie infiltration of Washington DC is much, much worse than anyone realized — because right down the street from the White House, the National Gallery of Art has also been subject to a commie putsch, with twenty-one different versions of Andy Warhol’s Mao prints.

Those damned commies are everywhere. We are surely doomed.

(Andrew Breitbart shows up in the comments for this post, and invokes Hitler in his first six words.)

Don't Put an Economic Recovery on Your Christmas List

By Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks)

success may not be enough to push an uneasy economy on the road to recovery. Basically, the Submitted at 12/25/2009 10:00:00 AM retail sector has to do well to Filed under: Economic data, keep people from worrying more, Federal Reserve For retailers, it but we'll all have to wait a while doesn't get bigger than the f o r s o m e e c o n o m i c b l i s s . gift sales aren't as powerful as holiday season, but even a raving According to an MSNBC report,

many believe.

So, here are five reasons why a great visit from Santa won't be enough to kick-start the economy: Continue reading Don't Put an Economic Recovery on Your Christmas List

Don't Put an Economic Recovery on Your Christmas List originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Finance/ Gadgets/ Politics/

E-reader News Edition

Top Picks for 2010: AgFeed Industries (FEED)

Samsung's 14MP CL80 packs integrated WiFi, 3.7inch AMOLED touchscreen

Christmas Eve Music: Keith Jarrett, 'There Is No Greater Love' Submitted at 12/24/2009 7:29:55 PM

Here’s a little Christmas Eve virtuosity, as Keith Jarrett redefines the 1936 Isham Jones

Apple’s New Tablet To Be Baptized iSlate?

Let’s Dig A Little Deeper

By Robin Wauters (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:14:32 AM

By Darren Murph (Engadget)

shots to Facebook, Flickr, Photobox or Picasa, and for those Submitted at 12/25/2009 4:15:00 AM who prefer to capture motion It's not impossible to find a clips, it'll also shoot your videos

By Steven Halpern many mouths to feed," observes camera with integrated WiFi out to YouTube when a hotspot is (BloggingStocks) small-cap specialist Ian Wyatt. there, but your choices are found. Nary a word has been In his Small Cap Investor Pro, u n q u e s t i o n a b l y l i m i t e d . spoken regarding price or release, Submitted at 12/25/2009 12:01:00 PM he explains, "One of my favorite Thankfully for those in the but we're going out on a limb Filed under: International China small cap stocks is AgFeed market for such a device, it here and surmising that much markets, China, Newsletters, Industries Inc. ( FEED), a hog seems as if Samsung is gearing m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n w i l l b e Agriculture, Stocks to Buy, best feed and breeding company." up to release quite the formidable r e v e a l e d a t C E S . stocks for 2010 Continue reading Top Picks for opponent. Without so much as an Continue reading Samsung's This post is part of a special 2010: AgFeed Industries (FEED) official press release, the CL80 14MP CL80 packs integrated report, Top Picks for 2010, the Top Picks for 2010: AgFeed has emerged on the outfit's W i F i , 3 . 7 - i n c h A M O L E D 27th annual survey in which Industries (FEED) originally website packing a 14 megapixel t o u c h s c r e e n TheStockAdvisors.com asks the appeared on BloggingStocks on s e n s o r , o p t i c a l i m a g e Samsung's 14MP CL80 packs nation's leading advisors for their Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:01:00 EST. s t a b i l i z a t i o n , a 3 . 7 - i n c h i n t e g r a t e d W i F i , 3 . 7 - i n c h single favorite stock for the new Please see our terms for use of A M O L E D t o u c h s c r e e n AMOLED touchscreen originally year. See all 80 stocks listed here. feeds. Permalink| Email this| (capacitive with haptic feedback), appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 "With the worlds largest and a Comments a 720p movie mode (H.264), Dec 2009 04:15:00 EST. Please quickly growing population of m i c r o S D e x p a n s i o n s l o t see our terms for use of feeds.

1.3 billion people, China has (groan...), USB 2.0 connectivity P e r m a l i n k P h o t o R u m o r s | and an above-average 7x optical Samsung| Email this| Comments zoom. The Instant Upload feature enables users to upload their

(Little Green Footballs)

9

standard “There Is No Greater Love,” in another amazing track from the sadly out of print DVD

Solo Tribute: The 100th Performance in Japan.[Video]

Nice scoop by MacRumors, which reportedly retrieved historical evidence that Apple has acquired the domain name islate.com back in 2007.

Apparently, the Cupertino company registered the domain through brand protection firm Mark Monitor to conceal the fact that the domain name is theirs, as usual, but was briefly listed as the owner at some point in the past nonetheless.

If correct, that means we can add a rumor to a rumor: that the unconfirmed, unannounced but most definitely coming (maybe) Apple tablet device will be named iSlate. That would be in line with earlier connections of the ’slate’ term to the illusive tablet computer, based on New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller calling it something to that effect in a speech.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

10

Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

A Guide To Setting Up Your New Xmas Smartphone [How To]

By John Herrman (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/25/2009 9:30:48 AM

The moment you unpackage a new smartphone is a magical one.

Don't let the moment right after that, when you realize that it's practically useless out of the box, cancel that out. Here's everything you need to know: What You Need to Buy There are plenty of smartphone accessories that are worth considering, and a few that you actually need. Proceed with caution, but don't be afraid to treat your new smartphone, and yourself, to a few goodies.

A Case: They look goofy, Jason hates them, and they screw with your device's carefully designed curves. But here's the thing: smartphones are fragile. They aren't like dumbphones, and a single fall—especially with devices with a glass screen—can poop all over your new smartphone party. Until you're trained, play it safe. Wrap your unit. Case brand isn't important, so just take your pick from your local Best Buy or wherever. Just make sure your device's corners are covered, because it's edge impacts that break the most glass.

Just remember, you're stuck in a multi-thousand dollar contract with this device, which itself would costs hundreds of dollars to replace. It's actually kind of terrifying! Pretend it's a baby, if

is hold your phone in your line of sight. Just buy a dirt-cheap windshield or dash mount, buy a 12v DC converter to plug your USB charging cable into, and you've got all the functionality you need for about $20.

Cleaning Kits: Cleaning your smartphone isn't hard, and it shouldn't cost you much at all.

Just follow our instructions, and avoid any smartphone-specific cleaning kits. They're a guaranteed waste.

Bluetooth anything: Bluetooth headsets can make anyone look that helps. high transfer speeds. This is a in a matter of hours. like a dweebish soccer dad, and Headphones: Your smartphone place to store your music, photos What You Don't while they might make chatting is now your primary media and videos—that's it. Buy these Of course, the temptation of new on the phone while driving more player, too, so you're going to online, where branded 8GB cards accessories is great, and there are legal, they don't really make it need to ditch the headphones or regularly dip below $20—in legions of companies waiting to much safer. Just hold your phone headset it came with. Yes, they stores, you'll pay much, much seize on your post-transactional like a normal human, put it on all suck; no, your phone's aren't more. Also, don't worry too much bliss. When buying smartphone speakerphone, or take the call the one exception. If you don't about getting a full-sized SD a c c e s s o r i e s , p r o c e e d w i t h l a t e r . Y o u s h o u l d a v o i d care about a microphone, treat adapters, as pictured above. Most c a u t i o n .

Bluetooth headphones too, but yourself to a decent pair of in-ear phones will allow you to mount A dock: Again, people have a for a different reason: they suck. headphones. If you do, get a your smartphone's microSD card tendency to confuse their PMPs They sound terrible, they'll drain midrange wired headset. as mass storage when they're with their phones, which may your phone's battery and they're Storage: Phones either come plugged into a computer, so look and act similar, but are used overpriced. If you have to buy a with internal storage, like the Pre removal is rarely necessary. in a completely different way. pair, spend as little as possible. or the iPhone, or taunt you with Cables: Pick up a spare charging Unless you want to dock your Getting Started "expandable" storage, which cable for your phone. For most smartphone near your bed to use If your smartphone is a newborn, pretty much means they've got an smartphones this is a simple as an alarm, it's going to be this is where we teach it to walk. empty microSD slot. If your mini/microUSB cable, while for charging—and syncing—with Contacts: Somehow, in over two phone comes with less than 2GB i P h o n e s i t ' s a n i P o d d o c k your computer whenever it's not d e c a d e s o f c e l l p h o n e of space and has said slot, you connector. Why worry about the in your pocket. An impulse- development, we haven't settled need to fill it. Buying a microSD spare? Think of it this way: if purchased dock will, in all on a simple way to transfer card is a little different than you lose your only iPod cable, likelihood, live a lonely life. contacts from one phone to buying a regular SD card, you can't listen to music until you Don't let this sad thing happen! another. Here's how you should because speed doesn't really buy another one. If you lose your A branded navigation mount: matter, and nothing you're using only iPhone cable, you're out of T h e s e a r e a l m o s t a l w a y s GUIDE page 11 your phone demands particularly touch with the rest of the world overpriced, and all they really do

Politics/

E-reader News Edition

11

GUIDE continued from page 10

proceed through this somehowstill-painful process: • Get your carrier to do it. If you're upgrading handsets on one carrier, they should be able to transfer your contacts, and probably for free. If you're switching carriers, there may be a small fee. Don't spend more than five bucks.

• Use your SIM. Are you on AT&T or T-Mobile? Is your smartphone on the same carrier as your old dumbphone? Most phones will have an option to write all contacts to a SIM card, which is the little chip that your phone uses to identify itself on a cell network. Do this, pop your old card out, pop it into your new smartphone, and transfer all your contacts from the old SIM onto your new phone's memory.

Sadly, this won't work with Verizon or Sprint phones, which are CDMA-based, and therefore don't have SIM cards at all.

• Google Sync. Through a protocol called SyncML, Google Sync supports quite a few features phones, and can pull all your contacts into your Google account. Your new smartphone can then yank them back down from the cloud. Bonus: they're now backed up to Google server's, too.

Email: Email, you'll find, is one of the best things about owning a

smartphone. Setting up your email varies from smartphone to smartphone ( iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile) and service to service (Exchange and Gmail setups will be completely different, obvious) but there are few rules of thumb to keep in mind during account setup. For example, use IMAP (versus POP) whenever you can—this will keep your messages and their read/unread statuses in sync with your desktop clients. And since most of your email downloading will be happening over 3G, set the individual message size limit at or below about 10kb. This will ensure your messages come in quickly, but also that you have something to read once they arrive.

Calendars: If you keep a Google Calendar, having it sync with your smartphone is a revelation.

Android phones will automatically sync with your default Google account's calendars, as will the Pre, while the iPhone will need to be configured with CalDav. If you don't keep a calendar, your new smartphone is a good excuse to start.

Media and Syncing: Most smartphones rely on some kind of desktop software to transfer personal info, music, video and photos to and from the handset.

For the iPhone, this basically means downloading iTunes—which you have to do anyway. For BlackBerry, this means downloading BlackBerry Desktop Manager. Windows Mobile phones are best served by Windows Device Center, while Android and Palm phones—and optionally Windows Phones, iPhones and BlackBerrys—play nice with doubleTwist, a crossplatform music player/media syncing app.

Converting Video: You can't just copy your torrented videos or home movies over to your smartphone; you need to downsample those videos, stat.

Just download Handbrake for this—it's basically magic, and it works on Windows, OS X and Linux. These instructions are iPhone-centric, but videos converted to 320x240 h.264 will be suitable for most new smartphones.

Apps! Apps! Apps! Apps!

Without apps, smartphones are nothing. With apps, they're practically anything. Every smartphone platform has an app storefront now, from Apple's pioneering App Store to BlackBerry's App World to the Android Market, and they're all, to different extents, treasure troves. iPhone: First stop, Gizmodo's

Video: The Principles of Critical Thinking (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:39:33 PM

“QualiaSoup” makes some of the best scientific/intellectual videos you’ll find on YouTube, and his

new presentation explains the principles of critical thinking.[Video]

Essential iPhone Apps Directory.

These are the best of the best, and everything you need to make your iPhone into a mobile powerhouse. If you're averse to spending money on your new iPhone—this thing wasn't cheap, after all—check out our Essential Free Apps. We do regular posts and weekly roundups around here too, so just keep an eye out.

Android: It's got the second best app selection, which is to say there's some really great stuff out there. Our Essential Android Apps roundup cuts through the noise of the App Market, while our monthly roundups keep you up to date with the latest additions to the store.

BlackBerry: We cover the biggest new additions to App World, but it's best to defer to a specialist site like CrackBerry for this one—they have their own app store too, which isn't really much better or worse than BlackBerry's janky official shop.

Palm: We've just pulled one of our patented "Essential" roundups fresh out of the oven, so consult that first. Beyond that, PreCentral's official app reviews are fairly fantastic. Also worth checking out is their extensive homebrew app gallery, which has about as many decent apps in it as the official Catalog.

Windows Mobile: App

development for WinMo isn't exactly picking up nowadays but there's a tremendous backlog of useful reviews and materials at WMPowerUser, WMExperts, XDA and MoDaCo. And yeah, we occasionally still do Windows Mobile app roundups, though until things get exciting again, expect less, not more.

Living Happily Ever After Lastly, a few odds and ends to make sure your metal'n'plastic darling lives a happy life, at least before the end of its two-year contract.

How to back up your smartphone: Your smartphone probably contains as much personal data as your computer, and it's subjected to way more physical risk. Preempt the pain.

Back it up.

How to keep you smartphone clean: These little machines are fantastic at collecting fingerprints, dust and grime.

Wipe them off every once in a while.

Any other tips for new smartphone owners? Chuck them down in the comments. Happy Holidays!

12

Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

10 Things You Must Do With Your New Mac [Apple] By matt buchanan (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/25/2009 6:40:48 AM

You got a new Mac for Christmas? Awesome. But don't let Justin Long's smarmy face fool you, it doesn't just give you a warm hug and set itself up.

Here are 10 things you need to do pronto: 1. Check Out Snow Leopard's Interface Tweaks: They're not life-altering, but Apple's spiffed up the OS X interface in a couple of ways in Snow Leopard.

Notably, there's Dock Expose(which works like Windows 7's Aero Peek) to show you all the windows of open app by clicking and holding on its icon in the dock. Also, giant, scalable thumbnail previews.

2. Move All Your Stuff: The funny thing about switching OSes or moving to a new one is that it's really not hard anymore, since so much of the stuff we do is online. The most complicated gambit for most people, I'd wager, is moving your iTunes library to a new machine—especially going from Windows to Mac—since organizing that stuff (if you're anal about it like me) takes forever. Luckily, there's a hack for that. And if you're going from old Mac to new Mac, well it's pretty easy to move all your crap with the built-in Migration Assistant.

3. Learn What's Actually Under the Hood of Snow Leopard: Apple says a lot of the magic of

damn good option; and for those on a budget, there's Iomega's ix2 200), it takes just a few minutes a couple of lines of code in Terminal to get your Time Machine backup going on any NAS you please.

7. Make It Play Nice With PCs On Your Network: If you get a NAS, you obviously don't have to worry about moving crap back and forth directly between your Macs and PCs, but if you want a method that will work every single time, this is how to do it.

It's progressively easier with newer versions of Windows—stuff seems to just work more often.

8. Forget Apple TV, Stream to Your Xbox or PS3: If you've already got an Xbox 360 or PS3 (who doesn't?) there's no reason to bother with another media streamer, even if you're ditching Windows. The programs Connect Snow Leopard is actually under Book, and use Google Sync to address, there's no reason not to. 360 and Rivet will stream music, the hood, so you can't see it, like deliver 'em to your phone. Same It's even easier to move your movies and photos from your Grand Central Dispatch, which deal with calendars—use the Windows apps and files over that Mac to your Xbox for $20. For promises in the future to make open standard CalDAV to sync you wanna keep if you're making the PS3, there's MediaLink, from applications use all of those cores iCal with Google or Yahoo, the slow transition, with Parallels the guys who make Connect 360, in your machine that much better which is as simple as putting in Switch edition, which has a which does pretty much the same t o b e c o m e s u p e r f a s t e r . O r your account info now. And you handy USB transfer tool. deal, but with slightly better O p e n C L , w h i c h u s e s y o u r can upload photos to Flickr 6. Back Up to Any NAS With integration with iTunes and graphics card for non-graphics directly from iPhoto. Online Time Machine: Time Machine, i P h o t o . T h e P 2 P a p p applications to go more fasterer. storage? That's free too.

OS X's built-in backup, is Vuze—which is free—also And there's a whole bunch of 5. Install Windows: Whether indispensable. Unfortunately, if streams videos to Xbox 360 and other standards Apple's real big you do it through Boot Camp so y o u w a n n a d o i t o v e r t h e PS3 from any OS it runs on, but on too. you can play PC games ('cause network, it's kinda limited, unless obviously it's a little less feature4. Don't Buy MobileMe, Sync gaming on a Mac sucks, at best) you know what you're doing. rich.

Your Stuff With Yahoo or or use Parallels or Fusions to A f t e r y o u f i g u r e o u t y o u r 9. Download the Best Free Google: Don't buy MobileMe. virtualize it and run alongside network storage of choice(HP's Software: At first, there seems to Instead, sync your contacts with your Mac apps, with Windows 7 Windows Home Server with THINGS page 14 Google, straight from Address being$30 with a valid .edu Time Machine compatibility is a

E-reader News Edition

Gadgets/

13

10 Things You Must Do With Your New Windows 7 PC [Windows 7] By matt buchanan (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/25/2009 6:40:37 AM

If you got a new Windows 7 laptop for Christmas, you are truly in luck. But here are 10 things you need to get the most out of it.

1. Take a Spin Around the New Interface: Still glassy, glossy and damn near glittery, the Windows 7 interface is actually a major progression for Microsoft: It's not just easy to use, it's a whole new paradigm with the revamped taskbar and Aero Peek making multitasking with multiple windows more natural than ever.

2. Turn Off Everything You Don't Need: While Windows 7 is missing some odd things, like a mail application, the flip side is that you can turn off pretty much every major feature you don't want. Internet Exploder 8? Gone.

Windows Media Player? Poof.

And if you're used to tweaking the crap out of Windows, you still can—a lot of the old tricks, like for manipulating context menus, still work.

3. Move All Your Crap from Your Old Machine: Windows 7 actually has pretty decent built-in powers for moving all your crap from your old and busted PC to your new pride and joy, though you need to download Windows Easy Transfer separately onto XP if you're pulling stuff from that.

4. Master All of the New

aggregator and everything else you'd want out of a multimedia box, all thanks to Windows Media Center. The living room PC is legit now. Not to mention Play To, which beams music (and video and photos) to any compatible device on your network, no setup required (really!). All it takes it a rightclick, and those Sonos speakers on the other side of your house will magically start yelling the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

8. Upgrade Your Netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium: If you got a Windows 7 netbook, there's a good chance you got stuck with the artificially gimped out Starter edition, which sucks.

The cheapest way to fix this is to buy Windows 7 for $30 using a valid .edu email address, then follow our guide to installing Keyboard Shortcuts: Why deal couple years ago with Windows e a s i e r t o u s e w i t h Windows 7 on any netbook.

9. Set Up Some Network with flipping around a mouse or should still work. And newer H o m e G r o u p s — j o i n a scribbling on a trackpad when gear interacts with Windows in a HomeGroup, and all of the stuff Storage: A fresh computer is a you do the same thing in a tenth fancy new way with a big ol' you want to share with other fresh start—meaning it's a perfect of a second with a keyboard splash graphic and easy access to computers spreads like herpes to time to start a new life with fully combo? The Start key (oh sorry, all the stuff you'd wanna do with the rest of the HomeGroup, no networked storage for backup, Windows key), which I've always it. While even simple things, like arduous networking required. especially if you're using your n e g l e c t e d a s a u s e l e s s adding a second monitor, are Also, network in general— like m a c h i n e a s a D V R w i t h monotasker, is supremely useful more straightforward now, here's with Macs—seems to just work Windows Media Center. (But skip on faster drives.) One i n W i n d o w s 7 , a s t h e a device-by-device breakdown on better with Windows 7. underpinning for a metric ton of getting everything to touch 7. Stream Your Music and awesome option? A Windows keyboard shortcuts.

Windows 7 appropriately.

Videos Everywhere: Connecting Home Server machine, which can 5. Get It to Play Nice With All 6. Share Stuff With Your Other your PC to a TV sounds so 1999. do backups and stream out media of Your Gadgets: The good news Computers, 'Cause It's Easier Well, you might not know this, to all of your computers. about Windows 7 is that, unlike Now: The networking UI hasn't but your Windows 7 PC is a 10. Remote Control It From Vista, most of your gear that just gotten a facelift to make it badass music and video streamer, THINGS page 14 worked with your computer a more accessible, it's actually DVR, photo viewer, video

14

Gadgets/ Politics/

E-reader News Edition

Aluratek Libre Budget Ebook Review [Review]

By Jason Chen (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/25/2009 9:00:00 AM

Ereaders are still at the point where the price is slightly too high and the functionality is slightly too low to purchase on a whim. Aluratek's LCD-based reader, however, offers a damn low price but sacrifices functionality in return. The Price: $180 The Verdict: Relatively cheap, compared to the major ereader brands, but it's probably the worst ebook reader we've tested.

Instead of going for an e-ink screen like the Kindle or the Nook, Aluratek went with a monochrome LCD screen. This is fine, in theory, because it keeps costs low and actually improves refresh rates, it also sacrifices battery life. For example, I could only make it through 80% of the 7th Harry Potter book before it demanded to be charged. You're looking at a day or two's worth of reading at best, and by that I mean reading on and off and not for 24 hours straight.

Performance is pretty horrible as well. Aluratek seems to have only put in a processor strong enough to turn the pages at a decent speed, because startup times, navigation and book

loading times were atrociously bad. Granted, this won't be an issue when you're actually reading books, which is most of the time.

The worst thing about the reader is probably the button placement.

There are three ways you can turn a page: using the page turn buttons on the bottom left, the arrow keys on the bottom right or the page toggle on the left edge of the screen. They're all pretty clumsy. The bottom left and bottom right methods are too far down the reader for you to hold

your hand in that position while you're reading, so you'll have to move it down every time you want to advance. As for the left hand slider toggle, those traction edges that they placed in there to make it easier to grip and scroll is actually too rough for my delicate hands, so I avoided using it when possible. Basically, they've got an ebook reader that's difficult to turn the pages with.

Even if you go beyond the lousy controls, the sub-par performance and the LCD screen that's not all that readable, you've still got

up a VNC server so you can control your computer from anywhere, whether it's to pull files or schedule downloads.

That's it from us. Share your own tips and tricks in the comments, and Merry Christmas!

THINGS continued from page 13

Anywhere with VNC: While diving deep into the system and futzing with your network at the same time, you might as well set

yourself a fairly cheap ereader, and it's somewhat compact as well. If you're someone who actually doesn't mind reading books on their computers, this is one—albeit tiny—step higher. [ Aluratek] Screen refreshes faster than eink readers It's cheap (relatively) Slow Awkward button placement Lousy battery life

THINGS continued from page 12

be less freeware on a Mac, but you just need to know where to look. Lifehacker's essential free apps has you covered on everything from the best IM app (Adium) to better disc burning (Burn) to video playback (VLC, of course).

10. Remote Control It: Sure, you could shell out for MobileMe to use Back to My Mac—except, you shouldn't—but why bother when you do the same thing and remote control your computer from anywhere with VNC? An afternoon and you're done.

That's it from us. Share your own tips and tricks in the comments, and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Mist (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/24/2009 11:01:05 PM

Gadgets/ Tech/ Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

Datel claims new Action Replay works on PSP Go, we hope cautiously

By Darren Murph (Engadget) Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:26:00 AM

Now this is interesting. Datel, which is well known for enabling all sorts of hacks on varying consoles, seems to have just introduced a refreshed version of its Action Replay PSP. What's new, you ask? Why, PSP Go support, of course! In the item description, we're told that those using this on Sony's UMD-less portable console will have to install it directly on the inbuilt memory, but one of two things has to happen (in theory, anyway) for that claim to be true.

The first is that Datel is now an official Sony partner, which is about as likely as you getting a Foleo for Christmas. The other is that Datel found a way to run unencrypted code on the PSP Go, and if that's the case, we've got an idea that the homebrew junkies in the crowd will be all over this in search of further exploits. Hop on past the break for a promo video, and if you're down with shelling out funds for something that may or may not

Ask Engadget: Best 13inch laptop on the market? work as advertised, it's all yours for $24.99.

[Thanks, Bill] Continue reading Datel claims new Action Replay works on PSP Go, we hope cautiously Datel claims new Action Replay works on PSP Go, we hope cautiously originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Datel| Email this| Comments

Christmas Logos Around the Web

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Submitted at 12/25/2009 4:45:14 AM

It’s Christmas time, and there’s no need to stick to your standard

By Darren Murph (Engadget) advice for someone in my shoes? company logo. At Christmas Thanks!" There's no doubt that time, we let web designers have a Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:48:00 PM an update is around the corner, bit of fun, and in our world of We know you've got questions, but there's no telling how far that brand identity, we can spread a and if you're brave enough to ask corner is from being reached. smile of joy. the world for answers, here's the U S B 3 . 0 u p d a t e s a r e But say a prayer; pray for all the outlet to do so. This week's Ask unavoidable, and we wouldn't be other ones: all those weary web Engadget question is coming to surprised to see a few new SSD travelers who have woken up and us from Moe, who is dead-set on options creep up, either. That j u m p e d i n t o t h e i r r e g u l a r snagging a 13-inch machine just said, there's nothing quite like the browsing routine. If it weren’t for as soon as a model is decided here and now, so if any of you all the Christmas-themed logos, upon. Help a brother out, won't ultraportable owners wish to help would they know it’s Christmas time at all? you? out, you know where to head.

"I'm in the market for a new Ask Engadget: Best 13-inch Yes, it’s Christmas, and you’ll laptop, and I want a 13-incher. I laptop on the market? originally find bits of holiday cheer on need something with a great appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 almost every major website. Like keyboard for typing, as this will Dec 2009 22:48:00 EST. Please every year, we’ve scouted the mostly be used for note taking in see our terms for use of feeds. web and listed a couple of class. I am absolutely smitten Permalink| | Email this| Christmas logos we like.

Of course, if you know of any with the XPS 13, but I'm afraid Comments other cool examples, please let us that with its age Dell is going to know in the comments. And yes, give it an update soon. Any Merry Christmas to you all!

Tags: Christmas, design, logos, web design

Tops & Flops: A Month in Fashion!

(ETonline - Breaking News)

15

16

Gadgets/ Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

TV Decade in Review: Reality 1, Fantasy 0

By Hugh Hart (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:00:00 PM

ASUS ECleaner is ready to rumble with the So, what'd you get?

Roomba

By Darren Murph (Engadget)

what you did (or didn't) get in comments below, and be sure to

By Vladislav Savov hands-on househusband. The Submitted at 12/25/2009 11:52:00 AM tell us if you reacted similarly to (Engadget) biggest attraction though -- It's the final Christmas morning the kids posted up after the break beyond that killer paintjob -- is of the decade, and considering (no fibbing -- Sir Kringle is Submitted at 12/25/2009 6:33:00 AM likely to be the $150 price tag, that there are only two or three of already making his list for next Judging by the comparative which significantly undercuts these left before the world ends, year, don'tcha know?). e x p l o s i o n o f r o b o v a c u u m most of what's out on the market we certainly hope an exuberant When you're done, check out releases this month, you might right now. Video of the little Santa Claus dropped off a fairly what people got excited about in think 2010 is all set to be the year spherical hipster lies after the s w a n k s t a s h o f g a d g e t r y 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and of the automated floor sanitizer. break. overnight. 'Course, today just 2008.

Augmenting that impression is C o n t i n u e r e a d i n g A S U S wouldn't be today without Continue reading So, what'd you ASUS, who has now made its ECleaner is ready to rumble with pigging out on calorie-infested get? heavyweight presence known the Roomba foods and spending copious So, what'd you get? originally with the newly announced ASUS ECleaner is ready to quantities of time with folks you appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 ECleaner, to be released under r u m b l e w i t h t h e R o o m b a dearly love and desperately Dec 2009 11:52:00 EST. Please the AGAiT brand. This new bot originally appeared on Engadget loathe, but frankly -- we're just see our terms for use of feeds. comes with a UV light for on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 06:33:00 interested in learning what kind Permalink| | Email this| disinfection, a fragrance slot, the EST. Please see our terms for of gizmos entered your life this Comments usual photo sensor to prevent it use of feeds. Permalink Engadget morning for the first time. Tell us from falling off a cliff, and Chinese| Wired| Email this| naturally a remote control for the Comments

Whether documenting the real world or merely aping it, television took an unbelievable turn for the believable in the '00s.

From compelling disaster coverage to Battlestar Galactica's gritty space operatics, TV grabbed us by the eyeballs and wouldn't let go.

Researchers Create First Functional Molecular Transistor

By Priya Ganapati (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:30:00 AM

Nearly 62 years after researchers at Bell Labs demonstrated the first silicon transistor, scientists say they have created a functional molecular transistor that could help computing move to the next level.

Gadgets/ Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

17

MSI teases Wind Top AP1920, Wind Box DE220 and DC500

By Darren Murph (Engadget) Submitted at 12/25/2009 10:14:00 AM

Why the Predador drone encryption doesn’t matter

By John Biggs (CrunchGear)

changed. Today’s insurgent adversaries don’t have KGBlevel intelligence gathering or Bruce Schneier wrote a great cryptanalytic capabilities. At the piece on the unencrypted same time, computer and Predator drone video feeds, network data gathering has noting that the drones were built become much cheaper and easier, for a post-Soviet, pre-insurgent s o t h e y h a v e t e c h n i c a l era and that encryption, in the capabilities the Soviets could case of a live feed, is more of a only dream of. Defending against problem than a threat. these sorts of adversaries doesn’t The problem is, the world has require military-grade encryption Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:22:53 AM

only where it counts; it requires commercial-grade encryption everywhere possible.

While I agree with him wholeheartedly – Bruce knows his stuff – this is a huge PR mess for drone warfare. Luckily, these are drones and drones don’t have feelings and I suspect that once insurgents notice that they’re on a drone’s live feed, it’s probably too late.

There ain't much to go on just yet, but one thing's for certain: MSI will be unveiling a trio of new machines at CES in just a few weeks. Over on the Wind Top side, it'll be introducing the all-new AP1920 all-in-one PC, which will measure in at 35mm thick and sport an 18.5-inch display, Atom D510 or D410 CPU and a power-sipping attitude. The nettop lovers will be thrilled to know that a new duo of mini PCs will also get unwrapped, as the Wind Box DC500 and DE220 step in with Intel's newest Pine Trail processors and a whole slew of companion components that

Christmas Tree Torches Room in Less Than 60 Seconds

By Wired.com Video Department (Wired Top Stories)

we're still waiting to hear more on. Hey, we told you it was just a tease.

MSI teases Wind Top AP1920, Wind Box DE220 and DC500 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 10:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Hot Hardware| Email this| Comments

Best Music of the Millennium ... So Far

By Scott Thill (Wired Top Stories)

Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:00:00 PM

Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:00:00 PM

If you deck your halls with a Christmas tree, take a moment to note how a small flame can set its flammable foliage ablaze — possibly torching your entire living room in under a minute.

From Radiohead to El-P, these powerful and innovative bands and musicians laid down some of the '00s finest tracks. Give them a listen and nominate your own favorites.

18

Gadgets/ Tech/ Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

Rambler Socket tucks a recoiling extension cable, pinch of genius within your AC outlet

By Darren Murph (Engadget)

Granted, you'll need a pretty deep wall to make something like this Submitted at 12/25/2009 1:34:00 AM work (in theory, of course), but Meysam Movahedi's latest the result is nothing short of concept certainly isn't the first brilliant. If your AC cord is long revolutionary tweak to the tried- enough, you simply plug it into and-true power outlet, but it's the socket per usual; if you need easily one of our favorites. Put a little extra length, the built-in simply, the Rambler Socket is an extension cord pulls out with a in-wall box that contains 1.5 gentle tug. Once you're done, you meters of extra cabling along simply tug on the cable once with a traditional AC outlet. more and watch as it recoils back

Rambler Socket tucks a recoiling extension cable, pinch of genius within your AC outlet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Yanko Design| Email this| Comments

Mind-Game Movies Mark '00s Cinema of Paranoia

By Hugh Hart (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:00:00 PM

Head trips, brooding superheroes and dark fantasies take Hollywood for a wild ride in a decade indelibly imprinted with the horrors of 9/11.

within the wall. GE, or someone -- can we get a contract to this guy, pronto?

Elementary My Dear Watson....It's Called The Public Domain... Or Is It?

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 12/24/2009 5:06:57 PM

Fletch writes"Here's an interesting little article on why Sherlock Holmes remains so popular. Of course it happens to come right before the new movie opens and I am just sure it is pure journalism even though CNN and Warner are owned by the same company. Though I do find it rather odd that they don't mention a small part of the reason why Holmes is still so popular is that he is in the public domain and new and varied stories are created about him daily. Yes, he has always been a widely loved fictional character but there are a great many characters with fan bases. Holmes has stretched his

by being used in almost all genres and having been written by some of the most popular authors even today. People like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman have written Holmes short stories and will continue to because of his public domain status. Even TV shows have gotten into the act with House M.D. which is a thinly veiled Holmes knock off. I find it odd that the same companies who decry the public domain are more then happy to use it when it suits them."

Definitely an interesting point from Fletch, but there is some dispute over the state of Sherlock Holmes' copyright status. While the character is in the public domain in some countries, there's still at least one book in the US

covered by copyright, The Case Book, and the legal representative of the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle seems to suggest that this means the character itself is protected by copyright until 2023, though that doesn't seem correct to me. My understanding of other characters that have gone into the public domain is that when their first works enter the public domain, the characters themselves enter the public domain -- but only the aspects of their characters originally covered by copyright that were included in those works.

Of course, this is made even more complex because it's still something of an open question as to what, exactly, about a

character is covered by copyright. It used to be believed that the characters themselves were not covered by copyright, since it was only the expression, not the "idea" that was covered.

But, a variety of court rulings in the US have ruled in favor of the claim that characters themselves can be covered by copyright -leading to highly questionable legal results like the recent banning of a book using an updated version of Holden Caufield, the protagonist of JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Not surprisingly, the estate who owns the copyrights tries to present the situation as saying that all uses require a license.

But, then again, it's not like they're going to tell you what's in

the public domain when it's in their best interest to claim that nothing is. Either way, it appears that the initial claim concerning the public domain isn't quite the case -- and I would bet that the studio that made this latest movie paid for a license to avoid a legal fight. Why they should have to - especially given the fact that when the content was written there was no way for it still to be protected today under copyright law -- is a separate (but rather important) question.

Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Tech/

E-reader News Edition

19

Is Google Voice available for the iPhone?

By TJ Luoma (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/25/2009 12:00:00 PM

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone, App Store Need a refresher on the Google Voice and Apple saga? Let's recap the story to date: Apple pulled all Google Voice related apps from the App Store back in July, which led to an FCC inquiry, which led Apple to claim they had not rejected but were "studying" Google Voice, which Google contradicted. The biggest surprise in the whole scenario is that AT&T said that they had no problem with Google Voice on the iPhone.

Yet here we are, 4 months later, and still no decision (that we know of) has been made. I've previously referred to this as Apple's pocket veto of Google Voice where they are able to say they haven't rejected it when they have, in effect, rejected it. Put it all together, and this has led me to put up a website for your "Google Voice on iPhone" questions, which I narrowed d o w n t o IsGoogleVoiceAvailableForThei Phone.com?

As it stands today, the answer is a qualified "No" in that there are no Google Voice apps available from the App Store, but I was curious to see what options are available. I found three tools that you can use today, and one more which is on the horizon.

1) Google Voice's Mobile site:

Using Mobile Safari, you can get to Google Voice's Mobile site and access a variety of features, including turning phones on and off, making calls or sending SMS through your Google Voice account. This works, albeit slowly, and you are unlikely to want to make many calls this way, it's just too much of a hassle. And did I mention that it's slow? Especially compared to a local app, it's pokey.

2) Google Voice Bookmarklet Generator: David Friedman came up with an ingenious method for creating Google Voice "bookmarklets" for calling people using your Google Voice number. He then shared that idea on his website, which led someone else to write a Python script which will convert your entire address book to Google Voice shortcuts. His goal was not to reproduce Google Voice functionality, but simply to make it easier to call people through Google Voice.

Check out the article where he explains how this works for more details. It's fairly geeky, but some of you may find it a good tool for your utility belt.

3) GV Mobile: One of the apps pulled from the App Store was GV Mobile by Sean Kovacs.

Rather than see his work go to waste, Sean released GV Mobile for free to the jailbreak community through Cydia.

Jailbreaking involves trade-offs (then again, so does "not jailbreaking"), but if they are

trade-offs you are willing to live with, this is perhaps your best alternative today.

What if there was another option? What if there was a way to get most of the benefits of a native app, local speed, offline access... but without having to wait for the App Store approval process?

This is becoming an increasingly attractive solution to folks who are put off by the App Store delays, not only for initial approval (and the possibility of being yanked at any moment if Apple decides to "study" your app) but for updates. For example, what happens when you create a Twitter client for iPhone but Twitter makes API changes which render some or all of your app inoperable? Or, what if Google changes the authorization method for Google Voice? This happened recently, which broke some Google Voice apps that people had bought and downloaded before they were pulled off the App Store. Those developers have no way to get bug fixes to those customers who paid to buy their apps, which is bad for the developers (who get

support requests for a problem they can't fix) and for customers who paid for apps rendered useless by Apple's arbitrary decision.

It turns out there is another option. Neven Mrgan of Panic.com recently released an iPhone game called Pie Guy which is a web app, but is stored locally using HTML5. What that means is that it feels very much like a native app running at native-app speed, and it can be used offline.

Riverturn, which had developed a native Google Voice iPhone app called VoiceCentral, is looking to make the same approach for Google Voice.

Instead of waiting for Apple to figure out if they are going to allow iPhone clients for Google Voice, Riverturn is developing an HTML5 web app which you download to your iPhone. It is called VoiceCentral Black Swan Edition and it is currently in "very limited beta." Those who have Google Voice accounts can sign up for the beta list at the website, which has some additional information and screenshots.

Riverturn provided access to the beta to a few of us at TUAW and the response was a unanimous "Wow." Quite frankly, if someone handed you an iPhone which had Black Swan already set up, I'm not sure that you would be able to tell it isn't a native app. I used it to place a few calls and it worked quickly,

easily, and reliably. The best part is that when the app is updated, all users will immediately get the updated version. No waiting for Apple to approve it.

Web apps are not a panacea for the issues in the App Store.

Before the iPhone SDK was announced, Apple promoted web apps as the best (and only) way to develop for the iPhone. It didn't measure up: many users knew it, developers knew it, Apple knew it (they had already developed native apps, proving that for some cases they were needed).

That said, there is a lot more than can be done with "web apps" than you might imagine, especially with HTML5 and local databases. Pie Guy is a great example of a web app game, and BlackSwan looks like it is going to be another great example of what developers can accomplish even when Apple gets heavyhanded about what can be offered on the App Store.

In my opinion, Apple has been overly restrictive with the App Store, keeping worthwhile apps from the hands of users who want them. These apps don't violate Apple's initial list of limitations of what would be allowed in the App Store (as discussed previously): • Illegal • Malicious • Porn GOOGLE page 24

20

Tech/ Tech News/ Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

Foursquare vs. Gowalla: Location-Based Throwdown

The 15 Most Influential Games of the Decade

By Shane Snow (Mashable!)

By Chris Kohler (Wired Top Stories)

Gowalla tried to muster.

When asked if he was nervous when he heard about Based in New York City, Shane F o u r s q u a r e ’ s s i m u l t a n e o u s Snow is a graduate student in launch, Gowalla founder Josh Digital Media at Columbia Williams said, “On the contrary, U n i v e r s i t y a n d f o u n d e r o f I felt like the presence of other Scordit.com. He’s fascinated innovative location services was with all things geeky, particularly simply confirmation that we social media and shiny gadgets m i g h t b e o n t o s o m e t h i n g he’ll never afford. interesting.”

Just when you thought you had Nine months and millions of enough social networks in your dollars of funding later, Gowalla life, two hot new ones are vying has positioned itself as a serious for your attention. Combine the contender in the space. Bugs benefits of sites like Yelp, have been ironed out, and Twitter, and Google Latitude, according to Williams, Gowalla add in social gaming and some is now seeing 20,000 checkins a privacy measures, and you have day. While each app has its own the recipe that Foursquare, the specialties, they share some app that’s been called “ next remarkable similarities, even in year’s Twitter,” by Mashable’s the liner notes: own Pete Cashmore, and its chief I’m not sure who ripped off c o m p e t i t o r , G o w a l l a , a r e whom on this one, but at least we cooking. Each has attracted a all love everyone! Which Should rapidly growing user base in You Use? 2009, and each is rushing madly Regardless of who developed t o b e a t t h e o t h e r t o y o u r what first, these networks may smartphone in 2010. A Quick soon work their way into your History own social circles. The big Many of the world’s great question: Which should you use? inventions – television for The answer may simply be, example – have been developed “Whichever one your friends are in parallel, unbeknown to their using.” But if you’re the early authors. Both Foursquare and adopter in the group, the blow-by Gowalla started development in -blow comparison below can late 2008, and both launched in help you sway your social circle Austin at SXSW in March this to sign up for the one that fits year. At the time, Foursquare you best. stole the show, drowning out any Cells shaded in orange indicate a fanfare that the then-buggy feature that favors Gowalla, those Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:29:11 AM

enjoy the Pokemon-style gaming aspect, Gowalla with its pins and item swapping, is a definite first choice.

Also, likely because of Gowalla’s slow start, although the service is available everywhere, even in New York City, where I live I rarely check in blue favor Foursquare, while in somewhere where an actual crosshatching indicates a toss-up. Gowalla user is also checked in. I However, opinions will vary on bump into Foursquar users all this, so please tell us what you over the place, though. If this think in the comments. were the board game Risk, As you can see, Gowalla trumps Foursquare would be the guy F o u r s q u a r e i n d e s i g n a n d who’s got 1,000 armies in availability, but Foursquare takes Australia while Gowalla has one the cake when it comes to check- army everywhere else. Unless in location accuracy, device Gowalla is really lucky with the support, friend management, and dice, it’s probably only a matter value added features like a city of time before it gets edged out guide, and to-do list. Both apps everywhere else too. are equally impressive in the way As the location-based battle they dole out in-game and real- rages on, keep an eye on semilife perks and rewards. The competitors like Loopt and Problem with Gowalla Brightkite who may soon enter While Gowalla is very cool this particular fray. “I think both looking, my main beef is its Foursquare and Gowalla are great tendency to emphasize you more, apps – using the real world as the while Foursquare emphasizes backdrop for a game is a lot of your friends. One of the best fun,” Loopt CEO Sam Altman things these apps have over other recently confessed. “It’s probably social networks is the ability to a safe assumption that we’ll add meet and interact with new, real some gaming elements.” people, meet up physically with See also: 6 Tips for Getting the your actual friends, and get Most Out of Foursquare recommendations from people Tags: foursquare, gowalla, you trust. I’m not saying you location, Mobile 2.0, real-time can’t do this with Gowalla, just that Foursquare seems to do it better. However, for those who

Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:00:00 PM

Whether crafted out of elaborate, immersive worlds or built upon the simplest of ideas, these videogames made their mark on the '00s.

Duggar Baby Health Update (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/24/2009 11:59:00 AM

Jim Bob Duggar is opening up about how his and wife Michelle's 19th child Josie, born four months premature, is faring.

Plus, he details the family’s plans to relocate for the holidays to be closer to the newborn.

"Josie is 2-weeks-old today," Jim Bob tells People.com. "We continue to take things day by day – she remains in the NICU where doctors are tracking her progress."

The site says the Duggars live about 200 miles away from the Little Rock, Ark. hospital where Josie is being cared for – but the family intends to make a temporary move.

Tech/ TV/

E-reader News Edition

21

Why Are Publications Trying To Bite The Google Hand That Feeds Them?

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

Search--largely Google--now accounts for some 45% of the traffic at BW.com, up from less S o m e o n e a n o n y m o u s l y than 20% in 2006. That simple submitted a decent writeup by little box is driving vast amounts John A. Byrne, the former editor- of advertising inventory (and in-chief at Business Week who therefore revenue) to the site. It's recently left (amid the shakeup a similar story everywhere else. due to Bloomberg buying the In the war between the magazine) to start a new media traditional media brands and effort called C-Change Media. In Google, the old cliche about this blog post, Byrne argues that biting the hand that feeds you is the media complaining about certainly in play. Some of the Google sending them traffic is complaints from media can be biting the hand that feeds them. attributed to sour grapes. Many There's really not much new in incumbents resent that most the writeup, which runs over the efforts to find information on the same ground we've covered for a Web no longer starts with a few years now, but it's a nice brand. It starts with Google s u c c i n c t s u m m a r y o f t h e which is largely brand agnostic. situation: Rupert Murdoch's So, in effect, Google has become protestations aside, there is no this massive transaction machine, doubt that Google is driving vast a n d a s e v e r y o n e k n o w s , amounts of traffic to websites run transactions are the antithesis of by traditional media companies. relationships. If a brand wants a I n r e c e n t y e a r s , m o s t o f relationship with its audience, BusinessWeek.com's growth Google is getting in the way. It's came from search optimization how Google was able to siphon and direct traffic. Up until only nearly $22 billion last year in three years ago, the number one advertising from traditional r e f e r r i n g d o m a i n a t media. And it's the most obvious BusinessWeek was always a proof that media brands have portal until Google's popularity diminished in value. People are replaced Yahoo Finance and more routinely turning to Google MSN Money as the top referrer. to get information, rather than a Submitted at 12/24/2009 6:25:00 PM

brand known for its expertise in a given area. They'll google (yes, I'm using Google as a verb) leadership before going to The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, BusinessWeek, or Harvard Business Review. They'll google President Clinton before going to The New York Times, Time, or Newsweek. Why? Because they trust Google to serve up unbiased results; because they want to see what is generally available out there and not tied to a brand, and because most brands no longer wield the power and influence they did years ago.

Instead of complaining about this and threatening to block Google from crawling a site, media companies would do well to step back and more fully understand what they really need to do: rebuild the relationships they have with their readers, viewers, users. To offset the massive transaction machine that Google is, media brands need to focus on restoring relationships with users. That's why "user engagement" is not an idle phrase to throw around but is essential to making a brand successful online. Original content isn't enough. Gee-whiz tech tricks

aren't enough. Neither is a fancy design or a search trap gimmick.

You need an audience that is deeply and meaningfully engaged in the content of a site, so engaged in fact that many of those users become collaborators, and that requires tremendous amounts of work and editorial involvement with the audience.

Indeed. It's the point we've been trying to make for ages.

Newspapers were always in the community building business.

They would bring together a community of folks and then sell their attention to advertisers.

That was the business. But they thought they were in the news delivery business, and that's confusing them -- leading them to do things that are anticommunity and anti-relationship (registration walls, paywalls, etc.) that actually harm the value of the community and limit that.

Thus, people are going elsewhere for community -- whether it's other media publications or social network sites -- and newspapers are lashing out at the wrong party: the one who sends them traffic.

Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Pioneering Sports Machine host George Michael dies at 70

By Danny Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/25/2009 9:05:00 AM

One of television's biggest sports names long before people cared about the people who talked about sports on television has died.

George Michael, the sportscaster and longtime host of the nationally syndicated George Michael's Sports Machine, succumbed to a long battle with cancer on Thursday.

To call him ahead of his time would be an understatement. He basically invented the hyper clip style format of shows like ESPN's SportsCenter, brought a great deal of personality to TV sports reporting and sportscasting and even inspired and mentored the likes of Pardon the Interruption's Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon.

Filed under: Sports, Obituaries, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

22

Tech/

E-reader News Edition

Former Musician Now Lawyer Comes To Terms With What's Happening To His Music Online

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 12/24/2009 7:39:00 PM

G Thompson sends in this absolutely wonderful read by law professor Ben Challis, a former punk musician, explaining the mental back-and-forth he went through after discovering that some of his band's old music is available online -- specifically discovering that some sites are selling unauthorized copies of it.

He reacts naturally at first -which is to get upset-- but then as he thinks about it some more, he begins to recognize that this isn't all that productive. Eventually he seems to come all the way around to realizing that this actually is really good market research for him.

He begins to reason through the arguments, recognizing that he and his (one surviving) bandmate haven't actually put their own music online for sale, and they probably would have put some of it up for free anyway, so maybe having some free music out there isn't that bad. But more importantly, he realizes that this means there's actually both interest and demand in his old band (he even discovers that old copies of the band's single are selling for ÂŁ35), and he might as well do something about it, rather than worry about what others are doing: And should I really worry at all? Well clearly at this scale,

no, not really. But even so, it does get you thinking and suddenly you see beyond the immediate problems of 'piracy' to the new opportunities that come with the web. First of all, now I know we have fans, I have my new blog (I know you are desperate to know, it is www.theignerents.blogspot.com) . I then began to think of what other opportunities there are beyond those that just pander to my ego. Well with the Blog, I will soon have set up a mechanism for collecting fan data -- and databases are king now (I think!). And if we were still a band we could try and get a gig at the annual Rebellion

Festival in Blackpool in March, the highlight of the punk calendar in the UK -- and maybe try for a European punk festival or two too! And we could definitely try and sell those last few boxes of CDs I have somewhere -- fans in Japan and Germany seem increasingly keen on Ignerents' collectibles, or I could empty out my cupboards and try and find those last few copies of our first single I have -- at ÂŁ35 a pop that would pay for quite a few nice winter warmer! And what if I autograph them? Hang on, will the value go down? And maybe some PRS monies will come through - eventually I imagine they will; and hang on, and what

about that Glastonbury Festival thingy -- I work there -- I know the main booker! So many possibilities, so little time!

It's a funny old thing the internet: yes it has destroyed a number of traditional business models in the music industry, and maybe "Ignerence was bliss" for me until a few weeks ago -- but the internet has created many many other new and interesting opportunities. The clever bands of the future will be the ones who can seize these opportunities and move quickly and nimbly from technology to technology and embrace and react to ever changing patterns in consumer behaviour. This is really

important. It's totally natural for people to react the way Challis does above when they first see their work copied online. Even though we encourage people to copy our stuff, there are brief moments when I feel the same way when I see it. But then you think logically about it, and you realize that it's up to you to do something positive about it, and use it to your advantage.

Flipping out and going negative is a waste of time and does nothing valuable for anyone. But learning from it and realizing that it's actually valuable market research can be quite powerful.

FORMER page 23

Tech/ TV/ Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

Gas Cubby now available in a free, sponsored version

By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/24/2009 4:00:00 PM

Filed under: Software, Freeware, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch App Cubby has been producing three wonderful iPhone apps for a while, two of which are associated with keeping tabs on the costs of operating your car.

Both Trip Cubby[US$6.99, iTunes Link] and Gas Cubby[US$6.99, iTunes Link] have been lauded by users and bloggers alike for their functionality and usability.

Now there's one more reason to use Gas Cubby. App Cubby and Honeywell's consumer auto brands (FRAM, Prestone, and Autolite) have joined together to release Gas Cubby by FRAM [ iTunes link], a free sponsored edition of Gas Cubby. According to developer David Barnard of App Cubby, this could be the "first sponsorship deal of it's kind where an independent iPhone developer has partnered with a single company to sponsor a free app."

Gas Cubby by FRAM will

include ads for the Honeywell auto products, and Barnard explained to TUAW why Honeywell decided to partner with App Cubby rather than hire another developer to create their own app.

Barnard's comments: First, Gas Cubby is the leading fuel economy and/or vehicle maintenance app in the App Store. It's a proven entity with over a year of solid reviews from users and critics alike. It would have cost Honeywell tens of thousands of dollars to try and replicate the success of Gas Cubby, but with the App Store's hyper-competitive market, there's just no telling whether they would have seen anywhere near the same level of success.

Second, Honeywell isn't just buying ad space in some random app. I'm working very closely with them to hone our strategy. I personally oversaw the creation of the ads and landing pages to make sure they fit in with the app and were appropriate for the iPhone. Many large companies push iPhone related tasks to their web team who may or may not have their finger on the pulse of

iPhone app for free (albeit with advertising inserted), Honeywell gets a new, targeted audience for their car product advertising, and App Cubby gets a new group of enthusiastic customers.

For those who wish to avoid seeing the ads, the non-sponsored version of Gas Cubby will still be available in the App Store. David Barnard posted his feelings about "selling out" in the App Cubby the iPhone and the App Store blog, and the post is fascinating marketplace. I'm also working reading.

While this may be the first with them on long term plans to bring more value to Gas Cubby sponsorship deal of its kind, it users and find more innovative certainly won't be the last. What and user friendly ways to market a r e y o u r t h o u g h t s a b o u t sponsored iPhone apps? Let us within the app.

Third, iPhone owners are a know in the comments section diverse, but very desirable below.

TUAW Gas Cubby now demographic for advertising and Gas Cubby delivers a captive available in a free, sponsored audience of users who, by taking version originally appeared on the time to download Gas Cubby, The Unofficial Apple Weblog have demonstrated a concern for (TUAW) on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 f u e l e c o n o m y a n d v e h i c l e 16:00:00 EST. Please see our maintenance. It's the perfect terms for use of feeds. place to advertise consumer auto Read| Permalink| Email this| parts to mobile users. This deal Comments appears to be a win-win-win situation. iPhone users will be able to download a high-quality

What Would Tiger Woods Do? [Hazard]

By Ravi Somaiya (Gawker) Submitted at 12/25/2009 6:24:07 AM

Either Accenture didn't get all

the Tiger Woods ads down in time for the holidays, or they're starting a clever new campaign.

The intrepid Foster Kamer spotted this seven-foot-tall

backlit message next to the security line at LaGuardia Airport today.

23

FORMER continued from page 22

Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

All TV listing writers must either be extremely bored, drunk or both

By Danny Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/24/2009 5:33:00 PM

When I discovered a strange written TV listing in my cable box's menu, I thought I had discovered the rare bit of gold from TV's El Dorado. It turns out there are gold nuggets all over the place.

One of our eagle-eyed readers pointed us towards"WTF Comcast," a collection of similar weird TV listings that sound like they were written by...well, to be honest, me, except cleverer.

Filed under: Programming, Cable/Satellite, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

24

Tech/ Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

GOOGLE continued from page 19

• Privacy • Bandwidth hog • Unforeseen (the handy catchall)

you don't like the iPhone, don't use it." Except that I'm now in a contract with AT&T, a contract that I made based, at least in part, on Apple's promises regarding Google Voice apps do not fall the availability of apps which did under any of those categories not violate the above 6 points. (well, you could argue any app Even if I wanted to abandon my that didn't exist at the time Apple iPhone now, would Apple pay made its announcement was my early termination fee? Should " u n f o r e s e e n " ) . A p p l e h a d we start yet another class action approved several of those apps suit against Apple? Wouldn't it and profited from them; then, be easier on everyone involved if without warning or explanation, Apple would simply go back to removed them. It took an inquiry its original guidelines for the App from the FCC to get Apple to Store? How much faster would make any statement about it at the review process be if the all, even if that statement reviewers only had to worry includes the laughable suggestion about those 6 things? that Apple needed more time to As hopeful as I am that Apple "study" Google Voice. They said will loosen its grip on the App that four months and two days Store, I'm not holding my breath, ago. Apple could have completed which is why I'm glad to see an entire college semester course innovative developers like Neven in study of Google Voice by Mrgan and the folks at Riverturn now. Still we wait, with no finding alternative solutions. recourse, and no alternatives I'm planning a full review of other than jailbreaking our VoiceCentral Black Swan when iPhones -- an action Apple I've had more of a chance to use considers hostile enough to it. In the meantime I'll try to help violate the iPhone warranty. you keep track of Google Voice's I suspect that others will say "if official status on the iPhone. I

still hope that Apple will allow Google to release its iPhone app for Google Voice, as well as allow customers who have already bought and paid for apps to get bug fixes, etc. I applaud the folks at Riverturn for their ingenuity and creativity, and hope Black Swan is a terrific success. Perhaps it will inspire other developers to look at locally stored web apps as a development option.

P h o t o b y http://www.flickr.com/photos/alt emark// CC BY 2.0 TUAW Is Google Voice available for the iPhone? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Brittany Murphy Laid to Rest (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/24/2009 6:10:00 PM

It was a somber scene at Forest Lawn Memorial Park as a small group of family and friends gathered to say goodbye to Brittany Murphy at the late

actress' funeral in Los Angeles on Thursday.

About 40 mourners attended the private service, which was said to have been very emotional.

Among the guests was actor Eric Balfour.

Family friend and The

Hollywood Reporter contributing editor Alex Ben Block tells ET a much larger service for Murphy will take place in January or February, with friends and colleagues who were unable to attend Thursday's funeral.

Ursula K. Le Guin Resigns From Authors Guild, Because It Didn't Keep Up Its Silly Fight With Google

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

between Google and the Authors Guild, it is this settlement that has upset Le Guin so much. In Ursula K. Le Guin is a very her resignation letter, she claims famous author who many people refers to Google as "the devil," insist is one of the best -- though, and claims that the Guild has I have to admit never having read abandoned"the whole concept of her stuff. Yet, she is one of those copyright." Of course, nothing is who is rather aggressive in further from the truth, as the policing the copyrights on her Authors Guild notes in its work, and who does not tend to reply(found via Michael Scott). side with those who believe in As the Authors Guild points out, concepts like "fair use." Most Google had a more than decent certainly, she is not a fan of open chance of winning the lawsuit culture. A few years ago, she got because of something called fair into a bit of a scrap with Cory use, which Le Guin still doesn't Doctorow, because he dared to appear to recognize as a key part publish a single paragraph of hers of copyright law. In her own in a blogpost as part of a larger introduction to copyright law, (positive!) commentary. fair use makes no appearance Her latest scrap with the world whatsoever. of copyright is to publicly resign It really is a shame. Many from the Authors Guild. I'm no people tell me that Le Guin is a fan of the Authors Guild myself, fantastic writer, but I have no and find that it tends to take a desire to read works by someone rather antiquated view on things - who is afraid I might like it so - from its absolutely ridiculous much I might share that joy with claim that a Kindle with text-to- someone else. I also have no speech software infringes on interest in reading works by a authors' copyrights, to its equally science fiction author who seems backwards take on Google's book to hate technology to the point of scanning project, which helped calling a tool like Google "the index books and make them more devil." findable which many authors Permalink| Comments| Email have found helps increase sales. This Story While I am not a fan of the (still ongoing) settlement efforts Submitted at 12/24/2009 11:25:48 AM

Tech/ TV/

E-reader News Edition

It’s Not TV, It’s the HBO iPhone App

By Christina Warren (Mashable!)

episodes from Amazon.com or iTunes directly from the HBO app. So if you want to watch that Submitted at 12/24/2009 5:10:15 PM episode of True Blood right this Lots of television networks are second and there isn’t a TV starting to get into the mobile app nearby, you can buy it from business — the Discovery iTunes and then watch it on your Channel, MSNBC, CNN and phone. Or get it from Amazon for CNBC are just a few of the playback on your PC. networks with iPhone-specific service. Most digital cable What I like about the app is that applications. Now we can add providers that offer HBO also all of the features (except for one more channel to that list: offer HBO’s VOD content. Of all video preview) are available even HBO. of the premium channels, I think if you are offline. This means The HBO iPhone app[iTunes HBO does the best job of that you can check programming link] offers subscribers (or even offering a mix of new and data (assuming it has been just fans) easy access to HBO cataloged content on its On recently updated) and look at programming guides and show Demand service. Having access episode information even if you information. to what programs are available are using an iPod touch that The HBO app has a nice and when they expire is super doesn’t have Wi-Fi access. interface and makes it easy to get handy.

The integration with Twitter and SMS reminders of when your In HBO’s programming section, Facebook, as well as the SMS favorite show or movie is airing you can take a look at some new reminder support, add nice layers next. It’s also super simple to films and documentaries airing in of interactivity to what could share shows or movies you like the current month or peruse a easily be merely a programming on Facebook or Twitter. more extensive library of episode g u i d e . I f y o u ’ r e a n H B O The app features a detailed information. Each TV show subscriber, you should absolutely schedule of programming on the offers character backgrounds, an download this free app. various HBO channels as well as episode guide, episode previews [via NewTeeVee] Reviews: what movies and TV shows are and a feature that is a super-nice Facebook, Twitter available on HBO’s On Demand touch: the ability to buy selected Tags: hbo, iphone, television

Apple stockholders get record high for Christmas (CNET News.com)

told some of its key developers to prepare versions of their iPhone apps that will work on a device Tech stocks typically have to with a larger screen, in time for break significant price milestones an event next month. or have dramatic dips to make And Financial Times cited CNET's news story queue. "people familiar with the plans" Likewise, we try not hop on the saying that Apple has booked the Apple rumor bandwagon unless Yerba Buena Center for the Arts there's something credible or/and in San Francisco "for several novel to report. days in late January." That's the But being as it's Christmas Eve very venue where Apple CEO and all, we'll go out on a limb Steve Jobs made his first public and offer you this nugget appearance in September anyway. Apple's stock closed following his medical leave.

Thursday at an all time high of For what it's worth, Piper Jaffray $209.04, up 6.94 points (3.43 analyst Gene Munster also said in percent) in a shortened day of a research note Wednesday that trading on unconfirmed rumors there's a 50 percent chance Apple that the company might unveil a will announce a tablet at a long-awaited portable tablet January event. computer next month.

Five Filters featured article: The Apple blogosphere went Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: wild Wednesday following PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, several reports that the company Term Extraction.

Submitted at 12/24/2009 2:24:49 PM

All Annie wants for Festivus

By Annie Wu (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/25/2009 11:02:00 AM

Ooh! Is it that time of year again when I get to ask for things and then receive none of them?

Fantastic.

Okay, I don't ask for very much

each Festivus, but all my choices are very carefully made. I'll even put aside my desperate need to hang out with The Roots for a day or wish to surgically replace my own legs with those of Blake Lively. I can work on all that stuff next year. For 2009, these

wants for Festivus Filed under: OpEd, Festivus, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments are all I want for Festivus!

Continue reading All Annie

25

26

Tech/

E-reader News Edition

Win a copy of Things for Mac and iPhone

By Victor Agreda, Jr. (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

• To enter leave a comment telling us what you use to stay organized/productive and if it works for you.

Submitted at 12/24/2009 3:00:00 PM • The comment must be left Filed under: Software I have before Wednesday, December used a lot of productivity apps on 30, 2009, 11:59PM Eastern my Mac and my iPhone. I wound Standard Time. up using Things every day with a link to the email and the • You may enter only once. because, for me, it struck the selected text in the notes section. • Three winners will be selected perfect balance of features and As I loathe Mail.app for serious in a random drawing. flexibility. Now three lucky work, this has been a huge • Prizes: One copy of Things for winners will get a chance to see productivity booster. Google's Mac (Value: US$49.95 and one t h e M a c - i P h o n e s y n c , t h e task tool simply isn't up to par promo code for Things for keyboard shortcuts and the either. iPhone ($9.99). excellent tagging features in OK, the rules are the same as • Click Here for complete Things. As you can see in the always: US-only (sorry, promo Official Rules. picture, I keep the Things app [ code thing), 18 and up, only one iTunes Link]handy on my iPhone entry per person (we'll check!) TUAW Win a copy of Things as well -- it is an excellent and three winners. To enter just for Mac and iPhone originally complement to the desktop leave a comment below telling us appeared on The Unofficial how you "get things done" right Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, application.

Here's a pro tip for Things if you now, and whether or not it's 24 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. use MailPlane (an excellent working for you. Good luck! Please see our terms for use of Gmail front end for your Mac): feeds.

Select some text in an email, • Open to legal US residents of Permalink| Email this| p r e s s S h i f t - C t r l - O p t i o n - the 50 United States and the C o m m e n t s Command-P (yeah, that's a lot of District of Columbia who are 18 keys) and the HUD will pop up and older.

Chile Rejects Attempt To Force ISPs To Filter And Block Copyrighted Works

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

a victory for user rights) is that a big part of the argument pushed by the entertainment industry While some other countries have representatives, was that this law caved to pressure from the was necessary to remain in entertainment industry and US c o m p l i a n c e w i t h t r a d e d i p l o m a t s t o i m p l e m e n t agreements (there they are again) ridiculously draconian copyright with the US. However, it laws, it's always nice to hear of appears that Chilean politicians some pushing back. Nicolas A. recognized this was a load of Barriga points us to the news that bunk. Nothing in their trade despite several attempts by obligations required such a C h i l e ' s p r e s i d e n t t o p a s s solution. This sound similar to extremely draconian copyright pressure put on countries like laws, that would force ISPs to Canada and Israel, where they're actively police their networks and told they need to introduce block access to content that was copyright laws well beyond accused(not proven) of being anything in the US just to live up infringement, the provision was to their international obligations. definitively rejected(Google So far, both Canada and Israel translation of the original). have pushed back, and it's good Apparently, it was rejected in to see Chile doing so as well. such a way that the President can Permalink| Comments| Email no longer re-introduce it.

This Story What's interesting here (beyond Submitted at 12/24/2009 2:21:37 PM

Pope Knocked Down at Mass [YOUTUBE VIDEO]

By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)

Submitted at 12/24/2009 6:59:08 PM

What are the hottest topics on Twitter, YouTube and social media sites this Christmas Eve? While “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays” are trending

high, a full 0.83% of Tweets at 5pm ET tonight mentioned the word “Pope”.

Pope Benedict was unfortunately knocked down by a woman before the Christmas Eve mass – he was unhurt, and completed the ceremony. Of course, we can rely on user-generated content to

cellphone caught the moment on film while the TV cameras were pointed elsewhere.

It’s only the latest in a string of events – from the Hudson plane crash early this year, to the passing of Neda in Iran – where capture such remarkable events: people on the ground captured in this case a bystander with a shocking moments the media

would otherwise have missed.

Reviews: Iran Tags: christmas eve, mass, pope, pope benedict, trending

Tech/ Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

27

Foursquare Rolls Out BlackBerry Beta App

By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

Submitted at 12/24/2009 3:41:38 PM

Foursquare, the location-based game and social networking app, has been quietly testing its BlackBerry application with handful of users for the past month or so.

This afternoon, the company sent out an invite to about one thousand additional people so they can download and try the app too.

Word is spreading fast, and the download link quickly found its way into our inbox, so I decided to try it out. In all, the app certainly marks a big advance for BlackBerry users (who thus far have been relegated to using the Foursquare mobile site — m.foursquare.com) and includes most of the features users of Foursquare on iPhone and Android are already familiar with.

Upon logging in, you’ll immediately see where your friends are at, and have the options to either checkin or shout. Like the Android and iPhone apps, Foursquare will

Are New Music Tiers Segregating Fans?

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

show you nearby venues too based on either GPS or nearby cell towers (though I’m currently out of range of any listed venues, so can’t verify the accuracy).

You’ll be able to see each venue on a map, who the mayor is, and who has checked in recently.

When viewing your friend’s profiles, you can quickly call, text, email them, or jump to their Twitter profile. You can also opt to have Foursquare show pop-up alerts when your friends checkin. Foursquare’s recent addition of Facebook support is also included, so you can broadcast any of your check-ins to your

friends on there too.

In all, as a relative newcomer to Foursquare with both a BlackBerry and a Droid, the app seems fairly complete – especially for a beta – and quite good for a BlackBerry app in general.

We’ll humor Foursquare and not post the download link (per their email), but if you’re one of the folks who has checked it out, let us know what you think in the comments.

Reviews: Android, Foursquare, Twitter Tags: blackberry, foursquare, Mobile 2.0

support it in reality. First of all, as a recent excellent Hypebot Submitted at 12/24/2009 3:46:00 PM piece explained, true fan tribes Chris O'Donnell alerts us to a are nothing new, nor is the fact p o s t f r o m s o m e o n e w h o that many will shun outsiders or originally thought things like newbies until they've really T r e n t R e z n o r ' s m a s s i v e l y shown themselves worthy of successful Ghosts I-IV business acceptance. So I don't see how model experiment was a good this is particularly different. thing, but who is now worried Also, a lot of these super deluxe about the eventual consequences packages aren't necessarily about of somehow segregating fans. stuff you can "wear" that would The argument is that only a small be noticeable in gatherings. On group of true fans will buy these the whole, it just doesn't seem really high end offerings, that like that much of a problem. include certain things that other There will always be elitist fans true fans will recognize, making and some will always snub less them part of an elite tribe. The enthusiastic fans. I don't see how fear is that these tribes will that changes now that those more exclude those who don't pay up enthusiastic fans have more ways for the super duper deluxe to support the artists they love. versions.

Permalink| Comments| Email It's an interesting theory, but I This Story don't think there's much to

Thousands volunteer to search for missing Md. girl (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:59:26 AM

NameTaken buzzed up: Senate bill could hurt insurers at least initially (AP)

12 seconds ago 2009-12- Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: 25T09:40:02-08:00 PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

28

Tech/

E-reader News Edition

iSlate.com and the 'impending Apple slate'

By Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:00:00 AM

Filed under: Rumors As we mentioned earlier, MacRumors reported that Apple apparently bought the islate.com domain name a few years back. This name isn't so shocking when you remember the quote from New York Times executive editor Bill Keller at a meeting on October 26th about the future of digital content in the newspaper business: "I'm hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate..." At the time, Apple had been busy meeting with the heads of newspapers and magazines all over the world. Would Steve drop the name to the heads of the publishing industry? I think so.

At the very least this will get people to stop calling the Apple tablet the 'iPad'.

Let me say this clearly: Apple

Commodore 64 1.2 released in the App Store with three new free games

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

$1.99.

If you want to add in some extra games, it'll cost you 99 cents each, but they've now made Submitted at 12/24/2009 5:00:00 PM would never name the tablet the would call it. Tell us in the Alleykat, Uridium, Paradroid, 'iPad'. It's too similar to 'iPod'. comments!

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Stormlord and Nebulus all So, everyone, please stop calling TUAW iSlate.com and the Retro Mac, Developer, iPhone, a v a i l a b l e t h a t w a y . it the iPad. 'impending Apple slate' originally App Store, iPod touch The Unfortunately, not all emulator If you want to listen to an appeared on The Unofficial creators of Commodore 64, that developers have been able to interesting talk about the future Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, emulator app that eventually secure such a deal with Apple, o f d i g i t a l p u b l i s h i n g a n d 25 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST. gained Apple's blessing, emailed but C64 enthusiasts have to be distribution, check out the video Please see our terms for use of to say that they have released a excited about what's available of Keller's speech below. If you feeds. brand new version[ iTunes link] with this one. want to jump to the'impending Read| Permalink| Email this| with some brand new (old) C64 TUAW Commodore 64 1.2 Apple slate' mention, skip to Comments games to revisit. The gist of this released in the App Store with 8:30. one is that you can buy C64 three new free games originally IMHO, 'iSlate' is a great name, ROMs to play through in-app appeared on The Unofficial but I want to know what you purchases, but right out of the Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, gate with version 1.2, three 24 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST. different games are free: Bruce Please see our terms for use of Lee, Laser Squad, and Samurai feeds.

Warrior. So if any of those ring Read| Permalink| Email this| your nostalgic bell, you can go Comments jump in on the app now -- it's

Tech/ Entertainment/ Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

Apple Tablet to be Named iSlate?

[RUMOR]

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

29

Brittany Murphy Funeral Plans (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:15:00 PM

Brittany Murphy's private funeral is set to take place in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Even in Apple Rumor Land – a A small, invitation-only funeral magical place where the tiniest for the late actress will be held at hints of info can be turned into Forest Lawn Memorial Park, a full-fledged devices, concepts, plans and deals – this rumor is a regularly buy domains that sound family spokesman tells the

By Mike Schramm (The and they're pretty right about that long shot, but at least it has some like their products (past, present, Associated Press. A larger Unofficial Apple Weblog -- even the current mouse, while solid proof to back it up. and potential) simply to prevent memorial service might take (TUAW)) beautiful and well-designed, MacRumors has discovered that o t h e r s f r o m b u y i n g t h e m ; place early next year. doesn't have the functionality or Apple purchased the domain therefore, the fact that they own a The ‘Clueless’ and ‘8 Mile’ star Submitted at 12/25/2009 10:00:00 AM ergonomic design that you'll find name islate.com(which currently domain doesn’t really prove died Sunday morning at the age of 32. doesn’t lead anywhere) back in much.

F i l e d u n d e r : D e s k t o p s , in most other brands of mice.

Hardware, Peripherals, Odds and But nevertheless, these still look 2007. Originally, the identity of Still, now that we have the ends, Apple Wired's Gadget Lab great, and for the Apple fan, the domain’s true owner was name, we can mull it over in our points to this great Flickr gallery they'll probably bring back a hidden, but for a couple of weeks heads, trying to figure out if it’s b y r a n e k o o f A p p l e m i c e flood of memories all the way in late 2007, Apple was listed as good enough for a hyped device throughout the years, from the back to the Macintosh. Great the owner, and MacRumors has such as this one. iSlate? iSlaaate. the historic domain name record iSlate! Yup, it doesn’t sound too blocky one-button behemoths of gallery. years past up to the smooth and TUAW Nothing was stirring, not to prove this. bad. slick Mighty and Magic mice of even these mice originally While iSlate sounds like a decent Tags: apple, iSlate, Tablet today. Laid all in a row like that, appeared on The Unofficial e n o u g h n a m e f o r a t a b l e t , it's interesting to see just how Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, c o m p a n i e s s u c h a s A p p l e much care went into the look of 25 Dec 2009 10:00:00 EST. t h e s e t h i n g s , a n d h o w t h e Please see our terms for use of different iterations, across years feeds. travelled between Arequipa, Rescue efforts were difficult in of work, built upon the basic Read| Permalink| Email this| (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Peru's second largest city, and the the terrain, a local fire brigade idea. Wired says that Apple mice Comments town of Santo Tomas. member told AFP news agency. have never been its strong point, Submitted at 12/24/2009 1:04:02 PM Police said it fell 200m down the Print Sponsor At least 40 passengers were ravine, with recent rain and a Five Filters featured article: killed when a bus crashed down a m e c h a n i c a l f a i l u r e b e i n g Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: mountainside in the Andes of c o n s i d e r e d a s c a u s e s .

PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, southern Peru.

There were also reports of Term Extraction.

Another 10 people were injured overcrowding as people return in the accident as the bus home for Christmas.

Submitted at 12/25/2009 2:05:32 AM

Nothing was stirring, not even these mice

Peru passengers die in bus crash

30

Politics/ TV/

E-reader News Edition

Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws (Little Green Footballs)

instances did Acorn violate the terms of their funding, the report said.

More bad news for right wingers Since the 2008 elections, the who think ACORN is the very group, which works primarily to e m b o d i m e n t o f e v i l , a s a expand voter registration and congressional report totally affordable housing, has become a exonerates them. key Republican target. A series The controversial community of scandals brought to light by organizing group Acorn has not conservative activists led to broken any laws in the last five multiple Congressional hearings y e a r s , a c c o r d i n g t o a and repeated attempts to deny it Congressional Research Service taxpayer funding. report released Tuesday evening. Acorn has been the subject of T h e r e p o r t , r e q u e s t e d b y scores of investigations—a total Representative John Conyers, of 46 inquiries by federal, state, Democrat of Michigan, said that and local agencies, including the federal agencies, mainly the F B I a n d t h e T r e a s u r y Departments of Justice and D e p a r t m e n t , a n d f i v e b y H o u s i n g a n d U r b a n Congress as of October 2009, Development, have awarded according to the report. money to the group 48 times The report found no evidence since 2005. But, in none of those that voters attempting to cast Submitted at 12/24/2009 5:22:59 PM

ballots at the polls had been improperly registered by Acorn, a chief Republican accusation.

And the hits keep on coming, because the makers of those heavily edited“sting” videos endlessly hyped on Fox News and right wing blogs may be in serious legal trouble.

The report also said that a stingstyle effort to publicize the group’s allegedly illegal activities, may have broken state laws. Two conservative activists set off a firestorm in September when they posed as a pimp and a prostitute seeking financial advice and secretly videotaped Acorn employees offering advice on how the couple could hide their illicit activities and avoid paying taxes.

Imam Linked to Fort Hood Shooter Possibly Killed in Yemen (Little Green Footballs)

Anwar al-Awlaki, the embassy said.

Al-Awlaki recently told the Arab An air strike by Yemeni forces -language Web site of Al-Jazeera has killed at least 30 Al Qaeda that he had been in touch with the terrorists, possibly including the U.S. Army psychiatrist accused radical Islamic cleric linked to of fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Fort Hood, Texas, on November Hasan.

5.

(CNN) — Yemeni jets launched In that interview, al-Awlaki said an aerial assault Thursday against M a j . N i d a l M a l i k H a s a n s u s p e c t e d s e n i o r a l Q a e d a communicated with him via eoperatives meeting in a remote mail starting about a year before location, and about 30 militants he went on the shooting rampage. were killed, according to the Hasan wanted al-Awlaki’s advice Yemen news agency SABA. about killing U.S. troops, the Without mentioning a number, cleric said. the Yemeni Embassy in “Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the Washington said in a news regional al Qaeda leader, and his release, “Preliminary reports d e p u t y , S a e e d a l - S h i h r i , suggest that the strike targeted alongside Anwar al-Awlaki, were scores of Yemeni and foreign al presumed to be at the site (of Qaeda operatives.”

Thursday’s attack),” according to One of the militants may have a news release from the Yemen been the radical Muslim cleric Embassy in Washington.

Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:51:59 PM

Top TV Stories of 2009: The Jay Leno Experiment

By Jason Hughes (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/25/2009 10:02:00 AM

For better or worse, 2009 was inevitably going to go down as the season that NBC changed the game. If not the face of television, they certainly changed their own face. And this was

before they got bought out by Comcast. The jury's still out on whether or not it was a good move, with early returns mixed.

It looks like NBC had three problems kicking around their heads. First up was what to do about Jay Leno. They'd already Show to Late Night host Conan promised his gig on The Tonight O'Brien back in 2004, and yet

Leno remained doggedly at number one in the late night ratings war. "What if he defects to ABC and takes his sizable audience with him?" they worried.

Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2009: The Jay Leno Experiment

Filed under: OpEd, Talk Show, Reality-Free, Jay Leno Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Tech Tips/

E-reader News Edition

31

Set Up and Get to Know Your New Windows, Mac, or Linux Computer [Merry Christmahanukwanzaakkah]

By Adam Pash (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:00:00 AM

Good news! You woke up to find a shiny new computer waiting for you under the tree this year. Whether it's a Windows PC, Mac, or Linux box, here's a quick starter guide to getting it running on all cylinders.

Photo remixed with help from Shandi-lee.

We've separated this little get-up -and-running guide into sections depending on whether the machine you got is Windows-, Mac-, or Linux-based, so just find the section that makes sense for you and get going.

• Windows Section • Mac Section • Linux Section So You Just Got a New Windows Machine Get to know Windows 7: Chances are pretty good that this is the first time a lot of people will be using Windows 7—and even if it's not, take this opportunity to get to know Microsoft's solid new offering with our Complete Guide to Windows 7. While you're schooling yourself on Win7, you'll at the very least want to check out: • The Master List of New Windows 7 Shortcuts: Windows 7 adds loads of great shortcuts for switching between apps,

moving windows around your screen, moving them to another monitor altogether, and much more. Here's a quick-reference master list of the best new Windows 7 shortcuts.

• Windows 7's Best Underhyped Features: It's these less sexy, but very useful features, that make me think the more I use Windows 7, the less chance I'll ever use Vista or XP again.

• Set Up and Use XP Mode in Windows 7: Windows 7's new XP Mode lets you seamlessly run virtualized applications alongside your regular Windows 7 applications-so your outdated

tray, bloated application installs, and disorganized file structures, right?

Unfortunately that's not always the case. A lot of machines ship with a whole lot of pre-installed software that you didn't ask for and surely don't want. Our suggestion: Before you go nuts installing the software you really want, download Revo Uninstaller(a tool for getting rid of apps that's superior to Windows' default Add or Remove Programs tool) and get rid of all of the software that shipped with your machine that you don't want or need.

Install your favorite apps in a snap: Now that you've cleared out the crap, it's time to install the applications you really want.

We're huge fans of previously software will continue to work. documents and application tasks. mentioned Ninite, a simple utility • Turn Your Windows 7 PC Into You can even access it with the that lets you tick off checkboxes a Wireless Hotspot: Everybody's left mouse button if you choose. of your favorite apps, then got a wireless network at home, Here's a rundown of our favorite downloads them and installs them in the background. That but if you've ever wanted to get Jump List boosters. your iPod touch, iPhone, or other • Dual-Boot Windows 7 and means no more hunting all over wireless device connected, but all Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony: the internet to find and download you've got is a wired network at Windows 7 and Ubuntu, despite the apps, and no more mindless work, school, or elsewhere, their opposing missions, can get Next -> Next -> Finish clicking.

Windows 7 makes this process along like best pals on a single If you'd like a little help finding trivial. computer. Here's how to set up a the best apps around to fill up • Master Windows 7 Jump Lists dual boot system that lets you your Programs folder, check out t o B o o s t Y o u r W i n 7 enjoy the best of both worlds in the following: Productivity: For those of you perfect harmony.

• Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List that haven't yet tried out Windows 7, when you right-click Get rid of the bloat: There's of Essential Free Windows on a taskbar button in Windows nothing like a fresh machine. It's SET page 32 7, a menu slides out with recent free from an overloaded system

32

Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

SET continued from page 31

Downloads: We feature downloads of all kinds every day at Lifehacker. Here, we've bundled all the best free downloads for new computer owners, re-installers, would-be geeks, or anyone who wants to save time installing the best stuff out there. This is our 2009 Lifehacker Pack for Windows computers.

• Top 10 Tiny & Awesome Windows Utilities: It's the little things that make a Windows system great—like utilities that use less than 10MB of memory to make your life easier. Here are 10 apps that pack a lot of greatness into very little space.

• 61 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For: As we prepared to stuff our faces with a bountiful Thanksgiving feast, we turned our Thanksgiving spirit to the gobs of free software we love to say thank you to the developers, and to give our computers a feast of their own.

• Top 10 Windows 7 Booster Apps Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista, and a pretty convenient OS in general—but it's by no means perfect. These 10 downloads improve Windows 7's looks, functions, and make it easier, safer, and more convenient to upgrade to.

So It's a Mac, Is It? Dive into your Mac: Whether this is your first Mac or your first time in Snow Leopard, we've got you covered: • Hack Attack: A guide for switching to a Mac: If you're new to the Mac platform—fresh off the Windows world—this guide to switching explains how to make sense out of all the differences between Windows and OS X, highlighting how to accomplish the same things in OS X you're already completely familiar with doing in Windows.

• Snow Leopard's Four Best Improvements (for Civilians): Most of Mac OS 10.6's changes are deep in its underpinnings for developers to put to good use.

But what do the rest of us get out of Snow Leopard? Modest, but nice, improvements to the everyday Mac workflow.

Install some killer apps, make a few useful tweaks: Once you've got a better understanding of what's going on with your new computer, you're ready to go on an application installation binge and do a little tweaking.

• Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Mac Downloads We've featured countless apps of all sorts over the years, but if you

just want a quick look at the best free downloads for your Mac, this post's for you. This is the 2009 Lifehacker Pack for Mac OS X. • Secrets Updates for Snow Leopard, Still Tweaks Every Dark Corner of OS X: If you're not a big fan of using the Terminal but love hidden features in OS X, Secrets is the preference pane for you. Secrets provides a list of hidden features (and descriptions of each) that can be easily toggled on and off with a simple click of a checkbox.

• Get More Precise Font Smoothing in Snow Leopard Among the many changes in OS X 10.6 was a simplification of the font smoothing options to a yes or no toggle. If your monitor text isn't quite right, here's a quick Terminal tip to get nittygritty control.

• SnowChecker Determines If Your Applications Are SnowLeopard Compatible Free application SnowChecker runs a scan of your installed applications and tells you which may have problems running in Snow Leopard.

Linux-Lovers, This One's for You An overview and a few handy Linux tweaks:

• First Look at Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Beta Take a look at the new features in the latest major point release or Ubuntu.

• Make Compiz Run More Smoothly on Linux Desktops If you're running the Compiz window manager on your Linux system—known as "Desktop Effects" in Ubuntu—you might notice it doesn't slide windows around smoothly, and causes occasional video tearing. Here's the fix.

• Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony Windows 7 and Ubuntu, despite their opposing missions, can get along like best pals on a single computer. Here's how to set up a dual boot system that lets you enjoy the best of both worlds in perfect harmony.

Now let's get downloading: If you're a Linux person, you can rest assured that your system is likely running lean and mean right out of the box. (That is, without the bloat of pre-installed crapware some Windows systems start off with.) So let's get right to the downloading!

• Top 10 Ubuntu Downloads From Ubuntu tweaking to desktop customization and productivity boosting launchers, these apps promise to seriously

enhance your machine.

• Allmyapps Bulk-Installs Your Favorite Apps, Makes System Rebuilding Less Painful One of the most irritating things about reinstalling your operating system is installing all the nonOS applications you love.

Allmyapps lets you select all your favorite apps and roll them into a bulk installer to make rebuilding easy.

• Top 10 Cross-Platform Apps that Run on Windows, OS X, Linux, and More Whether your important data lives in the cloud, on your laptop, or on a different operating system, you shouldn't have to use sub-par tools to get at it. These cross-platform apps run on your Linux machine, but will also work when you've got to move to a Windows machine for work or wherever you may end up.

Happy holidays to everybody, whatever it is you may or may not be celebrating. Enjoy that new gear, and let us know what else has helped you get up and running in the comments.

Woman Has Pope-Charging Past [Pope Tackling]

By Adrian Chen (Gawker) Submitted at 12/25/2009 7:55:42 AM

That woman who tackled the Pope before he gave his Christmas Eve Mass last night?

She's the same person who ran at him last Christmas. She even wore the same sweatshirt. (It's

her "pope-tacklin' sweatshirt.") [ NYDN]

Tech Tips/ Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

Best Wallpaper Site? [Hive Five Call For Contenders]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/24/2009 2:00:00 PM

Nobody ever died from a lack of funky-fresh desktop wallpaper, but if you're going to stare at a box all day, it might as well be a personalized box.

Photo by Mauren Veras.

This week we want to hear all about your favorite site for finding great desktop wallpaper, including what makes it your goto-site for freshening up your virtual workspace. Whether it's the wide range of sizes they provide, the easy to use interface, or the constant updates, we want to hear about the features that keep you coming back.

Hive Five nominations take place in the comments, where

you post your favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of comments, so to make your nomination clear, please include it at the top of your comment like so: VOTE: Favorite Wallpaper Site. Please don't include your vote in a reply to another

commenter. Instead, make your vote and reply separate comments. If you don't follow this format, we may not count your vote. To prevent tampering with the results, votes from firsttime commenters may not be counted. After you've made your

nomination, let us know what makes it stand out from the competition.

About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get: "Which tool is the best?" Once a week we'll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get the job done.

Every weekend, we'll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best.

For an example, check out last week's Five Best Collaboration Tools.

33

Keys family gets white Christmas with crushed ice (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/25/2009 6:50:24 AM

NameTaken buzzed up: Senate bill could hurt insurers at least initially (AP) 11 seconds ago 2009-1225T09:40:02-08:00 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Make a Swanky Bookcase from Old Drawers [DIY]

By Lisa Hoover (Lifehacker)

repurpose a group of drawers, especially ones that are oddlysized or mismatched. All it took Then next time you're getting was a few coats of paint to ready to kick a beat-up clothes prettify the outsides and some dresser to the curb, take a minute nice-looking paper to lay down to remove the drawers. With a on the bottoms of the drawers little paint and decorative paper, (which will become the back of you'll have yourself a brand-new t h e b o o k c a s e o n c e i t ' s modular bookcase. assembled).

Home crafting blog Crafty Nest Take a few minutes to sand the drawer pulls, fill the in holes came up with a smart way to down any rough edges, take off with wood putty, and slap on a Submitted at 12/24/2009 1:30:00 PM

couple layers of paint. Measuring and fitting the paper into the bottom of the each drawer is the trickiest part, and even that's no big deal.

Paint a layer of glue onto the wood, then place the paper on top. I found it easier if I poured a thin line of glue onto the surface, then spread it with my paintbrush. Flatten the paper with a brayer or your hands. Smooth

out the air bubbles before the glue sets. Let dry.

This bookcase would make a great addition to a home office or children's playroom, but surely it's not the only way to repurpose an old drawer. What kinds of ideas can you come up with?

Brainstorm in the comments.

Salvaged Drawers=Modular Bookcase[Crafty Nest]

34

Tech Tips/ Sports/

E-reader News Edition

Evernote for iPhone Update Adds Offline Notebooks, Better Search Functions [Downloads]

By Lisa Hoover (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/24/2009 11:00:00 AM

iPhone/iPod touch only: Evernote's iPhone App just got a beefed up with some new features that will make Evernote lovers swoon, including features like offline access to notebooks and the ability to search notes during a sync.

A new feature available to everyone is the ability to create notes on your iPhone and cache them for later access. New local search capabilities mean you can access your cached notes when you're offline, which is awesome if you're in a bad coverage area or can't get a Wi-Fi signal.

Now users can also search during a sync instead of getting an error message telling you to

wait. In fact, sync has been given its own button now, so you've got more control over just when the deed gets done. Are you a fan of Audio Notes? Then you'll be thrilled to know you can yap

twice as long now—up to 20 minutes.

Premium users get the option to download all your notebooks onto your device so you can access, edit, and search them, no matter where you are and whether you have coverage or not. Evernote also added an option to upgrade to the Premium version from right within the app (hello, impulse purchasing for the impatient).

Check out what Evernote's developers have to say about all the changes in this version in their blog post—including speed boosts and more languages.

Then, let us know what dream feature you're waiting for in the comments. Evernote Blog

Submitted at 12/24/2009 11:35:00 AM

Filed under: Titans NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- His runs look cartoon-like. He cradles the ball and his legs churn so fast they spin like wheels. Like a whizzing, blurry circle.

Beep, beep.

"That's what Ochocinco calls me -- Chris 'Beep-Beep' Johnson, like the Roadrunner,"

By Whitson Gordon (Lifehacker)

Check out the video and the link for more details.

The only caveat is that the Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:30:00 AM necessary username and Google Reader is easily the most password will be in the feed's popular web-based RSS reader, url—which, with FeedBurner's b u t i f y o u ' v e e v e r t r i e d NoIndex option, shouldn't be subscribing to an RSS feed that indexed in search engines, but required password authentication, m a n y s t i l l m a y n o t f e e l you're out of luck in Reader. comfortable having, say, their Weblog Digital Inspiration Gmail or Twitter password in a demonstrates a clever trick to public feed URL (and rightfully circumvent this problem. so). This workaround is still Even though Google Reader pretty useful for, say, private d o e s n ' t s u p p o r t p a s s w o r d blogs and other such things. p r o t e c t e d f e e d s , G o o g l e ' s Subscribe to Password-Protected FeedBurner does—and what's F e e d s i n s i d e G o o g l e Christopher Duan Johnson says, more, it can turn it into a Reader[Digital Inspriation] his long, thick dreads swinging private(ish) feed that you can as he throws back his head and then subscribe to in Reader. offers a genial laugh. "I need a 200-yard rushing game for my Christmas present. I'd be happy with that. No one would have to get me nothing. That would be a great Christmas."

Our Christmas Gift: Watching Chris Johnson Motor to Greatness

By Thomas George (Fanhouse Main)

Access Password-Protected Feeds with Google Reader [Google Reader]

E-reader News Edition

Tech Tips/ Game/

Hang a Two-Hook Picture with Wax Paper [Weekend Project]

Mechs stand tall among Japan's top ten XBLA games

By Lisa Hoover (Lifehacker)

By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)

Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:00:00 PM

Trying to hang a heavy picture with two anchors and make sure it's level is enough to drive a person mad. Instead of peppering your walls with 3,000 holes trying to get it right, whip out the wax paper.

Photo by justinbaeder.

How-to-do-everything web site eHow has a pretty slick trick for getting pictures hung just so without a lot of trial and error.

Once you've marked the wall where you want to hang your frame, put your picture face down on a table and tear off a

strip of wax paper a few inches longer than the frame itself.

Tape the paper to the top of the frame, right over the mounting brackets, then mark the location of the bracket by piercing a hole in the paper. Pull the wax paper

off the frame, line up the two holes, and fold the wax paper in half. Now you've got a perfect template of your frame and its mounting brackets.

Tape the wax paper on the wall exactly where you want to hang

the picture, drive nails through the holes you pierced in the paper, and there you have it. Slap your frame on the wall and you're done. Check out the post for details on how to hang a picture with wax paper, then hit up our info on hanging perfectly centered artwork for more tips.

What's your secret to hanging pictures without tearing out half your wall in the process? Let us know in the comments. How To Hang a Picture Level With Two Anchors[eHow]

Submitted at 12/24/2009 1:00:00 PM

Google Chrome extension A Bit Better RTM is one of our favorite ways to tweak the popular Remember the Milk online to-do list web app, and now it's been ported as a native Google Chrome extension.

We've mentioned the A Bit Better RTM Greasemonkey

script twice before as one of our favorite user scripts for Greasemonkey in Firefox, and the the native Chrome version works much the same way—the most noticeable feature moves the tabs over to the left, saving precious vertical space for widescreen laptop users, and making them more readable in general.

In addition, you can rearrange the lists, hide the lists you don't

use, use keyboard shortcuts to switch between them, and even move an item to a folder from the

Submitted at 12/24/2009 6:45:00 PM

Microsoft has posted Japan's top ten Xbox Live Arcade games of 2009. It's unclear whether it's a list organized by sales or critical response, but the top title is Virtual-On: Oratorio Tangram-you know, the classic robot fighter from ... no? Just play along then. The rest of the list, scrawled down by Siliconera, features many titles that found a lot more success in the west.

Battlefield 1943, Castle Crashers, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Trials HD(another surprise) take spots two through five, respectively. Check out our XBLA in Brief on Virtual-On after the break if you'd like to know what all the Japanese fuss is about. keyboard. It's an extremely Gallery: Virtual On Oratorio helpful extension, and this Tangram (XBLA) author, at least, is thrilled to Continue reading Mechs stand finally have it on Chrome. A Bit tall among Japan's top ten XBLA Better RTM is a free download, games works wherever Chrome does. Mechs stand tall among Japan's Thanks, CookingCat! A Bit top ten XBLA games originally Better RTM[Google Chrome appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Extensions via Productive Geek] Dec 2009 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

A Bit Better RTM Enhances Remember The Milk for Google Chrome [Downloads]

By The How-To Geek (Lifehacker)

35

36

Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

2010 Predictions

By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb)

consumer complaints about content farms polluting Google search results.

Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:20:00 AM 4. A price war will erupt in the e Every year the ReadWriteWeb -book market and Amazon.com team tries its hand at predicting will offer the lowest prices, the future. Looking back at our leading to it gaining a dominant 2009 predictions, we got some position in the market with its wrong (I predicted that Facebook Kindle E-book Reader. would sign up to OpenSocial) but 5. Google will partner with a others turned out to be on the large PC manufacturer from money. I correctly guessed that Asia, which will launch an the usual suspects would remain inexpensive netbook powered by unacquired in '09 - Digg, Twitter, Chrome OS in the U.S. market. It Technorati - but that FriendFeed will become a hot consumer item would get bought. OK, so I among school kids and university guessed that Google would be the students. buyer. But close enough!

Marshall Kirkpatrick, Lead Without further ado, here are our W r i t e r & V P o f C o n t e n t predictions for 2010. We'd love D e v e l o p m e n t , @ m a r s h a l l k to read your predictions in the 1. Google Wave will win some comments. respect back as people discover Sponsor valuable uses for it and get used Richard MacManus, Founder & to the user experience.

CEO,@rww 2. Facebook will open aggregate 1. There will be a breakthrough -user-profile and social-graph consumer application for Internet data for outside analysis. of Things - involving the iPhone, 3. Some serious user interface RFID tags and a major consumer innovations will blow our minds. p r o d u c t s u c h a s b o o k s o r 4. Data portability will become groceries. In general, Internet of more real, standard, expected and Things will ramp up in 2010, viable. with thousands more everyday 5. A new social network will rise objects becoming connected to to join the big ones. It may offer the Internet. the privacy that Facebook is 2. Google will acquire PostRank moving away from; it may be and promptly consign it to the mobile and location-centric; it same graveyard Feedburner went may focus on personal content to. recommendations.

3. Microsoft will acquire Sarah Perez, Feature Wolfram|Alpha and Bing will W r i t e r , @ s a r a h i n t a m p a continue to make small gains in 1. MySpace doesn't quite make a the search market. Google will be comeback, but gets a fresh start d i s t r a c t e d b y i n c r e a s i n g of sorts with its music and

9. Spotify finally gets the green light in U.S. and people go nuts for it.

10. The netbook craze dies down. People start buying new "in-between" devices that are slightly larger and more powerful than today's netbooks, but smaller, more lightweight and cheaper than regular notebooks.

Features like better processors, separate GPUs and SSD HD entertainment offerings. The Gen options set these new "ultra Y/Gen Z demographic sees portable" devices apart from the growth on the site but the traditional netbook, but they're n e t w o r k ' s o v e r a l l n u m b e r s still often called "netbooks" because of their size. Market continue to decline. confusion ensues.

2. Twitter launches ads.

Jolie O'Dell, Writer & 3. TweetDeck finally launches a web version and becomes the Community Manager,@jolieodell number one Twitter client other 1. MySpace relaunches as a content network, leveraging the than Twitter.com.

4. Cloud computing heats up. bands and filmmakers they AWS, Google, Microsoft and already have on board and others begin price wars to dropping the emphasis on social networking. compete for customers.

2. Twitter will find a 5. The iPhone still rules and grabs more mobile market share monetization model and launch things like ads and pro features. than ever before.

6. Meanwhile, Android becomes 3. Facebook will become the the number two mobile platform Borg. Its number of users will continue to climb until the by year-end.

7. iPhone app backlash begins. network is as ubiquitous as There are too many worthless Google and lay people confuse apps and no decent way to find Facebook with "the Internet." the good ones. Then Apple They'll make more money and surprises us with a brand-new control more data than ever feature that improves greatly before.

4. iPhone's exclusivity with upon their "genius" offering to help us find new and useful apps AT&T will come to a breaking point and we'll see networkvia iTunes.

8. iTunes announces a web agnostic iPhones. service, thanks to the Lala 5. On the bright side, 2010 will signal the death of the login. acquisition.

Third-party authentications will become the norm, and user data will be entrusted to a discrete handful of online properties.

Users will pitch a hissyfit if ever they're asked to create a username and password and upload an avatar. After all, doesn't the Internet know they have a Facebook?

6. File-sharing will continue to be shut down around the world; by 2011, we'll all be downloading via Tor and the U.S. will have instituted a lame three-strikes-no-Internet policy.

7. Cybercrime will be more of an issue than ever. Expect to see a major governmental security breach in 2010, as the government continues to adopt 2.0 tech without strong and permanent infosec personnel and procedures in place.

Dana Oshiro, ReadWriteStart Writer,@SuzyPerplexus 1. AR: Geo-locational games and AR will come together in 2010. We're going to see strange behavior from those playing zombie shooter games on their commutes.

2. Agree with Sarah: Netbooks and gadgets like the PsiXpda are going to gain ground.

3. Mobile Music: Offline music caching will be expected of all streaming music apps.

4. The browser really will be the new OS. 5. Payment Systems: Between Square, PayPal X and advances 2010 page 38

Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

37

ReadWriteWeb Interview With Tim Berners-Lee, Part 1: Linked Data

By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb)

After shaking hands, I told Tim Berners-Lee that this blog's name was in part inspired by the first Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:00:00 AM browser, which he developed, During my trip to Boston earlier called " WorldWideWeb". That this year, I had the opportunity to w a s a r e a d / w r i t e b r o w s e r ; visit MIT. At the end of a long meaning you could not only day of meetings with various browse and read content, but MIT tech masterminds, I made create and edit content too. It was my way to the funny shaped a shame then when Mosaic, a building (see photo right-below) read-only browser, became the where the World Wide Web first mainstream Web browser in Consortium (W3C) and its the mid-90s. It wasn't until the director Tim Berners-Lee work. r i s e o f W e b 2 . 0 t h a t t h e Berners-Lee is of course the man read/write philosophy gained who invented the World Wide widespread acceptance. 2 On that Web 20 years ago. note, we launched into the This was my first meeting with interview... the Web's creator, whose work Note: the interview was and philosophy was a direct published in two parts, with Part inspiration for me when I 1 on the topic of Linked Data. launched ReadWriteWeb back in Part 2 explored other topics and 2003. 1 can be found here. How Linked Sponsor Data Relates to The Semantic Editor's note: This story is part Web of a series we call Redux, where RWW: Earlier this year you we'll re-publish some of our best gave an inspiring talk at TED posts of 2009. As we look back a b o u t L i n k e d D a t a . Y o u at the year - and ahead to what described Linked Data as a sea next year holds - we think these change akin to the invention of are the stories that deserve a the WWW itself - i.e. we've gone second glance. It's not just a best- from a Web of documents to a of list, it's also a collection of web of data. Can you please p o s t s t h a t e x a m i n e t h e explain though how Linked Data fundamental issues that continue relates to the Semantic Web, is it to shape the Web. We hope you a subset of it? enjoy reading them again and we TBL: They fit in completely, in look forward to bringing you that the linked data actually uses more Web products and trends a small slice of all the various analysis in 2010. Happy holidays technologies that people have put from Team ReadWriteWeb! together and standardized for the

Semantic Web. Linked Data uses a small slice of the technologies that make up the Semantic Web. We started off with the Semantic Web roadmap, which had lots of languages that we wanted to create. [However] the community as a whole got a bit distracted from the idea that actually the most important piece is the interoperability of the data. The fact that things are identified with URIs is the key thing.

The Semantic Web and Linked Data connect because when we've got this web of linked data, there are already lots of technologies which exist to do fancy things with it. But it's time now to concentrate on getting the web of linked data out there.

Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and ReadWriteWeb founder Richard MacManus How Linked Data Has Evolved via Grassroots RWW: Linked Data has had a lot of grassroots support, which you mentioned in your TED speech. This is something Semantic Web technologies, such as RDF, have struggled to get over the years. Has the W3C been pushing the more bottom-up Linked Data world, because of the frustration over lack of takeup of top-down Semantic Web? TBL: A lot of the initial RDF and OWL projects came out of the academic world; and some of them were projects to show what

you could do in a closed world.

And the files were zipped up and left on a disc. While they were interesting projects, and while the systems were useful systems, the Semantic Web community maybe missed the point of the 'web' bit and focused too much on the 'semantic'. However the work that's been done in the Semantic Web, the standards, was really valuable. It's relatively recently for example that SPARQL[an RDF query language] has been developed.

"It's time now to concentrate on getting the web of linked data out there."

Somebody drew an analogy the other day: can you imagine trying to promote a world of databases without SQL? Even though it's not an interoperable protocol, it's just a query language. So similarly, all that's been put into RDF, rdfs and OWL is very valuable to the linked data community.

The Linked Data community tend to use a subset of that [Semantic Web technologies], of OWL for example. But they certainly use SPARQL. So you could argue that really it wasn't ready to be deployed widely.

Linked Data started as a very informal Design Issues note that I put in; it was a grassroots movement from very early on. So yes W3C has been emphasizing the importance of Linked Data.

It's been the Semantic Web Interest Group of course, and various [other Semantic Web] activities, which has been pushing it. But also Linked Data has been seized on- a group of people for example put together DBpedia. 3 That wasn't commissioned, that was that they just thought it would be a really cool idea.

Graph of Linked Data sets on the Web, as at March 2009 Linked Data and Governments RWW: In a recent Design Issues note, you urge governments to put their data online as Linked Data (although you'd also be happy for governments to just make available the raw data presumably so that others can then structure it). What do you realistically expect, for example, the U.S. or U.K. governments to do over the next year? And in the near future, do you foresee different governments interconnecting their Linked Data sets?

TBL: One can't generalize, governments are (like most big organizations) fascinatingly diverse inside them. So you'll find that there are places inside governments where you get a champion who gets linked data and who's just written a script and produced some linked data.

So in the UK government for READWRITEWEB page 40

38

Game/

E-reader News Edition

2010 continued from page 36

in Internet TV, we're going to see payment options integrated in unlikely places.

Alex Williams, ReadWriteEnterprise Writer,@podcasthotel 1. Cloud computing will go through a shake out. There are just too many companies out there for the market to sustain.

The big players will go on a buying spree. The consolidation will deeply affect users. Some companies will fold overnight.

Users will lose access to their data, leading to a whole new wave of skepticism about cloud computing. But it won't be enough to slow down the move to cloud computing. More companies will consider the security risks as less of a factor, compared to the cost benefits and potential for innovation. Cloud computing technology will become more of a commodity.

The business applications for cloud computing will take center stage.

2. The big players will come back strong. IBM, SAP and Microsoft will innovate just enough to show big gains with customers.

3. Consumer-based social networks will make big efforts to gain wider access to the enterprise, as more companies seek to open up to the social Web. The information architecture of social networks

will change to accommodate the greater degrees of control that the enterprise requires. This will bring on the rise of "social middleware" - services that act as a layer between social networks and the enterprise.

4. A new breed of social networks will emerge that act as one-stop shops for applications and services. These will look more like marketplaces than social hubs for conversations around the proverbial virtual water cooler. SaaS leaders will face off for this growing market.

5. iPhone, Android or the Blackberry? I expect the Android to be the talk of the enterprise, especially if the Google Phone does make it to market. Such a phone would eliminate carrier costs and break down walled gardens that have limited application development.

Sean Ammirati, COO,@SeanAmmirati 1. Facebook will go public and the IPO will be a huge financial success.

2. Hyperlocal advertising will heat up, delivering another nail in the traditional newspaper industry's coffin. (Very similar to one of my 2008 predictions, but this time focused on the advertising aspects.)

Specifically, it will be more common for a local establishment to pay marketing dollars to Yelp or FourSquare, for example, then

their local newspaper.

3. Apple will release an "iTablet" and the world will be a better place for it. OK, more accurately we'll all think the world is a better place for it.

4. Agree with Jolie regarding "the death of the login." I'm hoping for open distributed alternatives along with Facebook and a handful of others.

5. Between Boxee's continued development and a new AppleTV (hopefully synched with their iTablet), it will become much more common to enjoy the Internet on a TV. Elyssa Pallai, Marketing & E x p e r i e n c e Manager,@boulderservices 1. Skype becomes increasingly pervasive, as the younger generations force their parents to get online, and consumers find new and interesting ways to cut costs and save money.

2. Software as service becomes ever more popular, as businesses and governments choose to focus on their core business and realize the benefits of lightweight technologies in the cloud including rapid deployment and the low cost of switching.

3. The online user experience has a renaissance, as web browsers and hardware become more sophisticated and designers and developers take advantage of that.

4. The growth of Internet of

Things continues, RFID tags in everything. The initial bugs will make funny things happen all around us.

5. iPhones and other smartphones become the purchasing tool of choice.

6. Consumers bypass carriers and create open wifi networks for all (which is already happening but not en mass).

J a r e d S m i t h , Webmaster,@jaredwsmith 1. Backlash against the App Store causes more and more developers to defect to Android and competing platforms.

2. Google Chrome's market share increases at Firefox's expense. Internet Explorer continues to lose ground as more rich, HTML5-aware Web apps spring up on the scene.

3. Opera begins to struggle, as WebKit becomes the rendering engine of choice on mobile devices.

4. Social analytics features explode onto the scene in 2010.

Twitter opens Pro accounts, including analytics and an API to access them. Google strikes a deal to integrate Twitter analytics with its Google Analytics product. Discuss

Hume 'ight want to see these new Final Fantasy XIV screens

By David Hinkle (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/24/2009 11:45:00 PM

Click image to embiggen Anxious to get your hands on Final Fantasy XIV's new job system and level-less gameplay?

Your best bet is to sign up for the beta-- oh, you've already done that? Well, there's nothing we can do to make your wait any easier, aside from assaulting your eye holes with a staggering amount of new screenshots.

Square Enix has unloaded the new media onto the game's official site, though in our usual style we've plucked out all of the good stuff and situated 'em into our gallery below. Consider it our gift to you this holiday season. Sharing is caring, y'know.

Gallery: Final Fantasy XIV (12.24.09) Hume 'ight want to see these new Final Fantasy XIV screens originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Tech News/ Game/

E-reader News Edition

39

Awsm.fm = Ffffound + Tumblr + Your Favorite Music - Respect for Copyright

By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/24/2009 9:30:01 PM

The new "artists" are curators of other people's created content, if sites such as Tumblr, Ffffound, WeHeartIt and newcomer Awsm.fm are any kind of zeitgeist.

Awsm.fm is a digital multimedia scrapbooking app that regards copyright issues with a gleeful abandon, allowing users to pick images and group them with text, tags and uploaded songs. But, licensing aside, the app does allow users to display their lovely and deeply sensitive tastes in pop music and evocative photography.

Sponsor The Awsm.fm user interface borrows liberally and haphazardly from a few sites we know and love, notably Vimeo.

It's a very new product and is still buggy with a UX that's less than intuitive and occasionally frustrating.

Although there is an attempt to attribute the uploaded songs by incorporating existing track information and letting users edit the artist and track title, there is no standardized way to link back to the music creator or ensure any work on the site is licensed for this kind of sharing. Images do

link back to their original source, which may but will not always satisfy the copyright holder.

Here's an example of an Awsm.fm post, featuring an image, some text, a few tags, a comment box and a song I uploaded: You can check out this profile page to see more Awsm.fm posts we created.

As I've written in the past, users have been given more and more tools for grabbing, spreading and remixing content over the past 10 years since Napster's birth. Most of those tools have been free or nearly so, and many of them border on piracy or explicitly enable it.

The founder of Awsm.fm, who introduced himself to us as "Wan," wrote that he is "sad by the lost of imeem, muxtape" and "frustrated at not being able to listen to lala.com." A selfproclaimed indie music fan and programmer, Wan has created a tool that does something to help distribute independent music to listeners but nothing to help independent musicians track and profit from their music.

However, as legendary rock music producer Steve Albini wrote in a comment on the above -linked post, "Internet file sharing is profoundly beneficial to bands in that it serves to promote them

likes, shares and web traffic.

There is, after all, something to be said for putting Ramen on the table of every starving artist.

Note: For demo purposes, I've uploaded images that belong to me and close friends and music from bands I support and/or went to college with. Because I'm to a worldwide audience at no using their content and they cost... I saw it in action myself deserve the plug, check out Chris l a s t y e a r w h e n m y b a n d Merritt if you're into indie-type conducted hugely profitable tours pop rock and Year Long Disaster of both South America and if you're of a more head-banging Eastern Europe, including places persuasion. l i k e C r o a t i a , B u l g a r i a , For revenue, the site seems to Macedonia and Turkey, where plan on sponsored posts and our music has virtually no formal advertising. If Wan has any idea distribution. People came to our about the cost of hosting and shows, knew our music and playing copyrighted music, he bought anything we had to sell might consult imeem (sold at a them. They were familiar with us huge loss because licensing fees because the Internet allowed w e r e o v e r w h e l m i n g t h e them to hear our music for free, company) or Pandora (just now and they developed a taste for it." beginning to see profitability as a While independent musicians possibility), he must have some may receive some ancillary radically profitable alternatives benefit from users' getting to hear up his sleeve. and distribute their music free of What do our musician/music charge, other copyright-holding startup friends have to say about songwriters hold opinions very Awsm.fm? Is it, as the name different from Albini's. We read would imply, simply and clearly about lawsuits over this kind of awesome - both for users and for issue every year, and as a the musicians they want to musician myself, I certainly promote or share? Or is it just w o u l d n ' t w a n t a s t r a n g e r more 2.0 content theft? Let us scattering my songs to the four know what you think in the winds without my being able to comments. Discuss track and monetize those listens,

Taito iPhone games on sale for the holidays

By JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/24/2009 7:45:00 PM

Taito is celebrating the success of its iPhone games in the best possible way: by making some of them cheaper. The Square Enixowned publisher announced that its lineup of iPhone games appeared in Apple's "Rewind 2009" lists for 65 different regional App Stores, and that it's temporarily discounting Cooking Mama and Bust-a-Move to mark the occasion.

Cooking Mama is $3.99 for the first 50,000 people who download it, or until January 4 (whichever comes first). Bust-aMove is just $2.99 from now until January 4. Taito also alerted us to new in-app purchases for that game, consisting of a new two-player cooperative mode and four additional 50-stage packs.

Taito iPhone games on sale for the holidays originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

40

Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

READWRITEWEB continued from page 37

example, you'll find there's RDFa [in the code of its website] for civil service jobs. So if somebody wants to make a database of all the jobs, they can do that very easily.

"The first step of actually putting the data out there is the one that nobody else can do."

There are other cases where the easiest thing for somebody to do is to just put data up in whatever form it's available. Comma separated values (CSV) files are remarkably popular. They're exported sometimes from spreadsheets. It's remarkable how much information is in spreadsheets. Or sometimes pulled out of a database and then put up on the web. It's not as good, not as useful to the community, as if Linked Data had been put up there and linked.

But the first step of actually putting the data out there is the one that nobody else can do.

Data.gov, a catalog of public data, was launched in May by the U.S. government The way to go is for government departments to go the extra step and convert [their data] into Linked Data. One of the nice things about Linked Data, when

they have a pile of it, is that they could run a SPARQL server on it. SPARQL servers are a commodity product, a solution for all of the people who say 'but actually I wanted to have XML.' A SPARQL server will generate an XML file [and] allow somebody to write out, effectively, a URL for the XML file.

"Linked Data is the backplane, it's the thing that you connect to in both directions."

In fact, I don't see why SPARQL servers shouldn't provide CSV files, something which as far as I know isn't in the standards. But I'd recommend it, certainly in government context, because CSV files are what people have and what people want.

So the message [for government] is to use RDF. Linked Data is the backplane, it's the thing that you connect to in both directions. As a [web] producer your job is to make sure that you produce Linked Data one way or another.

And as a consumer, there are lots of ways to consume that data once it's out there as Linked Data.

In Part 2 of this interview we discussed: how previously

reticent search engines like Google and Yahoo have begun to participate in the Semantic Web in 2009, user interfaces for browsing and using data, what Tim Berners-Lee thinks of new computational engine Wolfram Alpha, how e-commerce vendors are moving into the Linked Data world, and finally how the Internet of Things intersects with the Semantic Web. Read Part 2 here.

Footnotes: 1. The very first sentence written on this blog, on 20 April, 2003, was: "The World Wide Web in 2003 is beginning to fulfill the hopes that Tim Berners-Lee had for it over 10 years ago when he created it."

2. For more on read/write browsers, you can read another early RWW post entitled What became of the Browser/Editor.

3. DBpedia is a community project to extract structured information from Wikipedia; see ReadWriteWeb's profile of this and similar resources. Discuss

2009 Year in Review

By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:35:20 AM

The year is fast winding down and everyone is no doubt looking forward to a break over Christmas. If you want some reading and pondering material over the holidays, during December we've been publishing a series of annual review posts.

We've picked our best products of the year in 10 categories, analyzed the top companies and made our predictions for 2010.

Click on the links below for more details.

Sponsor For our Best BigCo of 2009, we selected Google - due to its continued innovation throughout the year. For our Best LittleCo of 2009, we chose a startup that exemplifies the Real-Time Web. For Most Promising for 2010, we selected a company that aims to change the way we search.

In late December the ReadWriteWeb team made a set of predictions for 2010, which we encourage you to comment on and add to over the holidays. It's always fun to look back on the previous year to see how well you did! ReadWriteWeb Readers Pick The Top 10 Products of 2009 As voted by our readers in December, these were the ten best products of the year: 1. Twitter 2. Google Chrome

3. Google Maps 4. Facebook 5. WordPress 6. iPhone platform 7. Google Apps 8. Adobe AIR 9. Hulu 10. TweetDeck The top 10 was voted on by our readers, based on the following lists of products: • Top 10 Mobile Web Products • Top 10 Consumer Web Apps • Top 10 Semantic Web Products • Top 10 International Web Products • Top 10 RSS & Syndication Technologies • Top 10 Enterprise Products • Top 10 Internet of Things Products • Top 10 Real-Time Technologies • Top 10 Startup Products • Top 10 Web Platforms Happy holidays to all of our readers and supporters! Discuss

Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

5 Very Last-Minute Gifts from the Internet Hero/Shopping Mall Zero

By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)

goodies for Wii and PS3. And for the youngsters and musicians, you can't go wrong with an Submitted at 12/24/2009 8:20:22 PM eMusic or similar subscription. 5) If you're reading this, you Know Thy Geek: Fonts, already know you're screwed.

Domains, and Software Someone, somewhere has been I've been lusting after a forgotten on your gift list, and particular domain name for a few you're scrambling. As per usual, months now. If someone knew we at RWW have got your back. me well enough to buy it, that Here are five ideas that will not are tiered, so you can be as lady or dude would be the most only save you from certain b u d g e t - c o n s c i o u s ( o r a s awesome Santa to date. And I disgrace but just might make you generous) as you like. 3) Pro won some brownie points myself look a little more with it and Apps or Paid Features for buying a special person a wired than your loved ones For all the free web apps we use very special font he'd been expected. and enjoy, there are often pro wanting for quite some time.

Sponsor versions with special benefits. Likewise, if you've heard a 1) Of-The-Month Clubs I've personally enjoyed a pro hobbyist or nerd enthusing about Flowers, beers, books, even dog Flickr account for ages, and the a software update that might treats - for every hobby, there's a RWW gang love the speedy, qualify as a bit of a splurge, the club membership that will bring unlimited-HD goodness of our holiday is the perfect time to the recipient monthly or even pro Vimeo account. If you have surprise him or her with a shiny, weekly gifts. With this kind of new parents in your life, try a kid new email notification or ZIP gift, you'll be the hero all year -centric subscription model web file. round - in fact it'll give you and service such as LilGrams. 4) These kinds of gifts show that t h e l u c k y r e c i p i e n t a d d e d Multimedia Gifts you know the person well enough incentive to communicate more Piracy is a dying art, so for the to understand and support his or often if you don't now. 2) Netflix m u s i c , m o v i e a n d g a m e her need to geek out. And what Membership aficionados on your gift list, look better gift is there, after all?

For the movie buff or couch around the web for legitimate Discuss potato in your life, this gift says sources of multimedia content. you condone and embrace the Gamers will love Microsoft cinematic lifestyle. Memberships Points for XBox Live or similar

41

5 Million NYC Property Records Available Via Startup's API

By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/24/2009 7:12:00 PM

Back in the fall, we told you about NYC's BigApps competition, which encouraged technological innovation to benefit government and civic engagement. Public voting for the submitted applications opened this week.

One of the submissions to come out of this competition is Blocks and Lots, an interesting app and API that essentially expose all the property records - more than 5 million records, total - for New York City. For site owners, there's a customizable widget that can be embedded in just about any kind of site.

Sponsor Blocks and Lots' API allows developers to integrate detailed property information into any web or mobile application.

Sample code is available in PHP and JavaScript.

Blocks and Lots comes from BlankSlate, an NYC startup offering a web platform and set of read/write APIs for making, sharing, monetizing, and monitoring web apps. The company provides capabilities

such as data, file, user and payment management through REST APIs. Using the same platform, BlankSlate was able to gather the city's data files from 45 file sources from three different city agencies, import them and instantly export APIs. This process took just a few days.

For example, you can use the Blocks and Lots widget to dig into the property valuation for Ellis Island, which is apparently worth about as much as Zynga these days.

In the near future, Blocks and Lots will add location-aware iPhone and Android apps (i.e., the user's mobile device will automatically retrieve property data depending on where the user it), and enabling the writable APIs to add user-generated content to the city's data (e.g., photos, documents or text).

To vote for Blocks and Lots - or any of the other apps submitted in the BigApps competition check out the app gallery and voting rules. Discuss

42

Tech News/ TV/

5 Sites to Help You Set Up Your New Gadgets

By Dana Oshiro (ReadWriteWeb)

Launched by former Engadget editors Ryan Block and Peter Rojas, the site offers specs and Submitted at 12/24/2009 1:37:15 PM reviews on some of the newest It's been almost a year since I products on the market. If you last worked with DIY repair site can't solve your gadget-related FixYa but I still remember the issue on one of the video sites, traffic spike we'd see every it's probably because the product Christmas. While families would is too new to have how-to videos. be thrilled to unwrap smart Check Gdgt for the listing and phones, netbooks and flat screen cooking to cars. The site's look at the discussion page for monitors in the early morning, technology and cars section details. they'd find themselves lost in a offers a variety of how-to 5. iFixit Teardowns: And finally, sea of instructions by noon. information including how to get if you're feeling ambitious and There is nothing worse than videos onto your iPod to how to you don't want to wait on the having a new shiny toy and not set up your PlayStation. phone for a manufacturer's 1-800 being able to play with it. In 3. Aardvark: When in doubt, ask number, iFixit offers useraddition to FixYa, below are a the mob. While not specifically a generated teardown guides. The few resources you can use to help gadget site, Aardvark allows you g u i d e s g i v e a p h o t o set up your new gadgets. query your network for answers d o c u m e n t a t i o n o f g a d g e t Sponsor via email, instant message, d i s a s s e m b l y a s w e l l a s 1. How Stuff Works: If you're iPhone app and web interface. c o m m e n t a r y o n p a r t s a n d looking for a basic understanding Named ReadWriteWeb's Best hardware. Check your product of your computer or device, you Little Co. of 2009, the beauty of documentation before venturing can always check out this site for this site is that only those with a into this territory, you wouldn't some helpful videos. The site self-proclaimed expertise will be want to void your warranty offers tips on everything from asked to solve your gadget b e f o r e g e t t i n g t h e d e v i c e adding RAM to your laptop to problems. working. deconstructing your wireless 4. Gdgt: Gdgt is a social wiki Discuss mouse. site where users trade tips and 2. Videojug: This site offers tricks on their favorite gadgets. videos on everything from

E-reader News Edition

What's On Tonight: 'Til Death, Sherlock Holmes, Christmas Episodes

By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/25/2009 12:06:00 PM

• Spike is showing Bad Santa all night.

• TCM is showing Sherlock Holmes movies all night.

• Fox Movie Channel is showing Home Alone all night.

• At 8, FOX has four new episodes of'Til Death.

• NBC has Saturday Night Live: A Very Gilly Christmas at 8.

• MyNetwork TV has a new Smackdown! at 8.

• USA has Elf at 8.

• ESPN has NBA Basketball at 8, the Clippers vs. the Suns.

• WE has two Christmas episodes of Golden Girls at 8, then two Christmas episodes of Hope & Faith and two Christmas episodes of Girlfriends.

• Nickelodeon has a Christmas episode of iCarly at 8.

• At 8:30, PBS has a new NOW, then a new Bill Moyers Journal.

• At 9, The CW has Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.

• Lifetime has Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage at 9, then two Christmas episodes of Will & Grace and a Christmas Frasier.

• At 10, Nickelodeon has two

Christmas episodes of The George Lopez Show, followed by a Christmas episode of The Nanny.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

Continue reading What's On Tonight: 'Til Death, Sherlock Holmes, Christmas Episodes Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Apple/ Fashion/

E-reader News Edition

43

Laptop or Desktop: Which Would You Find It Harder Surviving Without?

By Charles Moore (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:30:08 AM

The title of a recent Mac Night Owl column by Gene Steinberg grabbed me as a question that might have been more relevant 10 years ago. “Can You Survive Without a Desktop Mac?” Gene queries rhetorically.

From my perspective, and I think that of many others these days, the operative would more aptly be, “can you survive without a laptop Mac?” After all, the New York Times first reported that laptop sales exceeded desktops in May 2003, Apple notebook sales surpassed its desktops sold in July 2005, have done so consistently since April 2006, and now represent roughly three-quarters of Mac systems sold, although from time to time desktops gain back some ground, such as with the hotselling new iMacs. Industrywide, laptops began outselling desktops globally in Q3 2008, nearly four years sooner than anticipated.

I was somewhat ahead of the curve, making the switch from desktop to laptop as my main

production platform in October 1996, when I bought a PowerBook 5300. Aside from a brief dalliance with a G4 Cube in mid-2001, and purchasing a brand-new leftover SuperMac S900 tower clone for $300 a year before that to use as a backup machine, it’s been all laptop, all the time for me now for more than a baker’s dozen years. I honestly can’t imagine myself trying to get along with just a desktop Mac anymore.

Not that there aren’t some enticing and compelling Mac desktops. I found that Cube difficult to resist, at least conceptually. I loved the design, but in practical use I found it less enchanting and myself pining for laptop virtues, so after six months I grabbed an opportunity to swap the barely broken-in Cube even-trade for a year-old PowerBook G3 Pismo. I’ve never regretted the decision, and now, more than eight years later, I still have that same old Pismo in regular service. I’ve still got the big S-900 as well, but it’s been quite a while since it was booted up.

Meanwhile, since that first PowerBook 5300, which is also

still around and in working order, I’ve owned a PowerBook G3 Series WallStreet, two PowerBook 1400s, three Pismos, a dual USB iBook G3, a 17-inch PowerBook G4, and my present number-one machine — a late 2008 model unibody MacBook, purchased last March. Desktops simply haven’t been a significant part of the picture for me for nearly a decade, and I can’t say there’s anything I really miss about them.

There’s a bit of irony I suppose in that my MacBook serves mainly as a desktop workstation, perched on a laptop stand, connected to three USB hubs, an external keyboard, several pointing devices, a printer, a scanner, a USB microphone, and an Ethernet LAN. In many respects a desktop Mac would be a more logical and rational choice for my main home office production machine. I’ve seriously mused about a Mac mini (which I’ve always admired) for years, and the latest iMacs give you an awful lot of power and display real estate for your dollar.

Never say never, but even though I keep at least two other

laptops in service as utility portable/road machines, I would still find it frustrating not to be able to unplug my main axe from its spaghetti-tangle of workstation peripheral cables, drop it in a computer case or backpack, and take it along elsewhere — whether elsewhere is just another part of the house or on a road trip, with full, untethered functionality intact.

If I ever feel the need for a larger display (it does appeal), that’s easy to arrange as well. On the other hand, with a desktop, you’re limited to the availability of 110V wall current or some equivalent, and an iMac, or even a Mac mini with monitor and pointing devices, would be a lot more cumbersome to take along.

Also, if the power goes off, as it does fairly frequently in my neck of the woods, I can just keep on computing — for a long time if my emergency 12V battery pack is fully charged.

For me, getting along without a laptop would involve too much compromise. How about you?

Cool Kid Brand Timo Weiland's Revamped Site

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/24/2009 11:20:56 AM

Designer Timo Weiland and partner Alan Eckstein created a French-inspired spring collection obsessed over by fashion editors and it-girls alike. Now, the young duo have relaunched their site, offering fans an intimate glimpse into the chic Timo Weiland lifestyle, complete with short films, inspiration, close-ups of the collection, and retail availability. Welcome to Weiland -land.

—Violet Moon Gayn or At shot of Timo Weiland's spring 2010 collection from the newly relaunched site Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

44

TV/ Popular News/ Economy/

What's On Christmas Day

By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/24/2009 7:00:00 PM

E-reader News Edition

Aqua Teen Hunger Force says Have Yourself a Meaty Little Christmas

By Nick Zaino (TV Squad)

• TBS is running A Christmas Story all day.

• FX has Night at the Museum all day.

• AMC is showing National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation all day.

• Hallmark has Christmas TV movies all day.

• Nickelodeon has Christmas episodes all day, including iCarly, Fairly OddParents, True Jackson, VP, and Drake & Josh.

• BBC America has Christmas episodes all day, including Gavin & Stacey and Absolutely Fabulous.

• At 6AM, Cartoon Network and Boomerang start an all-day marathon of Christmas cartoons and specials.

• At 8, MTV2 has a Real World: Cancun marathon.

• At 8:30, Comedy Central has A Colbert Christmas.

• At 9, Discovery has a Mythbusters marathon.

• Spike has a Bad Santa

Submitted at 12/24/2009 6:07:00 PM

So you're out buying the last of your gifts on Christmas Eve, and you've just about had it. Before you pull up to the counter one last time, there's something you need for your ride home. Aqua Teen Hunger Force's Christmas album, Have Yourself a Meaty Little Christmas.

Yes, it is silly, downright juvenile, and even a tad obscene in places. But as holiday stress relief goes, it's hard to top "I Sure marathon at 9.

• A t 9 : 3 0 , L i f e t i m e h a s Hope I Don't Have to Beat Your Christmas episodes of various Ass This Christmas," with an shows, including Frasier, Reba, u n g r a t e f u l M a s t e r S h a k e and Will & Grace, as well as threatening poor little Meatwad (the live version of the song is Christmas movies. above). Or Meatwad's duet with Continue reading What's On alt.country siren Neko Case on "Santa Left a Booger in My Christmas Day

Chinese dissident sentenced to 11 years in jail (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:32:20 PM

One of China’s leading dissidents was sentenced to 11 years in jail on Friday for “inciting subversion of state power”, charges which have prompted the sharpest confrontation over human rights Stocking." Or Meatwad singing in recent years between western "Feliz Navi-wad." (If you're not a governments and Beijing.

Meatwad fan, don't pick this up, Liu Xiaobo, a former university he's featured on almost every professor, had pleaded not guilty track). to the charges, which are based Continue reading Aqua Teen on six articles he published on H u n g e r F o r c e s a y s H a v e the internet and his role in Y o u r s e l f a M e a t y L i t t l e organising Charter 08, a petition Christmas demanding the end of one-party Filed under: Animation, Adult rule in China.

Swim, Reality-Free Five Filters featured article: P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Comments PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Filed under: Programming, Festivus, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Man Dies After Skiing Into Tree at Colorado Resort (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/25/2009 9:00:57 AM

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. A 41-year-old Tampa, Fla., man has died after skiing into a tree at

Breckenridge Ski Resort.

Summit County Coroner Joanne Richardson says the man was on an intermediate trail, lost control and crashed into a tree where the trail merges with another. The

man's name was not immediately released.

Richardson said the man died of blunt force trauma to the head.

The ski resort says the man was not wearing a helmet.

At least two other people have died while riding at Colorado resorts this season, including a 14 -year-old girl who died after hitting a tree at Breckenridge on Nov. 20.

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

Entertainment/ Sports/ Media/

E-reader News Edition

Tim Robbins Saves Own Stalker's Life [Stalker Deluxe]

By Adrian Chen (Gawker)

our tipster's mouse of a life.

The moral of "The Lion and the Mouse" is, Little friends may There's that fable, "The Lion and prove great friends. But in the the Mouse," where a hungry lion real world, little friends will just spares a mouse, and the mouse rat you out to the very website eventually repays him by freeing that is rumormongering about him from a trap. Tim Robbins your old girlfriend and her saved some guy's life and was possible Ping Pong-playing repaid with this Gawker Stalker. hipster lover. (Lest we be A tipster wrote of his encounter charged with Sexist Ageism™, with the recently-publicly-single we just want to make clear that Robbins yesterday: "old" here is used in the sense of Ha. So normally I would have "former," and not "dating from texted this in the moment it the remote past," "showing the happened but I really wanted to effects of time or use," or even sit down and get it right. This "of a grayish or dusty color.") afternoon I was hustling from my were great!" The color then The tangled ping pong Christmas shopping in the East drained from his face. To try tournament that is life goes Village back to Queens. I was and mitigate, "At least the press thwacking along. making good time getting to the didn't have a chance to give you Has your life recently been Union Square station when I got too much shit?" He grumbled saved by a celebrity? Tell us: caught at the corner of 13th and back, "They will." Then he did a S t a l k e r s i g h t i n g s c a n b e 3rd. As I stood there, I turned to soccer mom save to alert me to s u b m i t t e d t o my right and realized that the the cab that was about to hit me. s t a l k e r @ g a w k e r . c o m o r t o man standing next to me in a full- And that was my Christmas Eve the#Stalker hashtag, if you're an length black fur coat was, indeed, with Susan Sarandon's old approved commenter.

Tim Robbins. My unfiltered boytoy.

And so Tim Robbins, the immediate reaction, "That really sucks about the split; you guys massively fur-coated lion, saved Submitted at 12/25/2009 8:09:35 AM

45

USC Trojans' Joe McKnight cleared to practice with team

By Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/24/2009 11:10:05 AM

SAN FRANCISCO -- USC running back Joe McKnight rejoined the Trojans for practice Thursday after missing their early preparations for the Emerald Bowl.

McKnight still hasn't been cleared by the school to play against Boston College on Saturday night, but coach Pete Carroll was optimistic he'll be available. USC is investigating whether McKnight violated rules by using an SUV that doesn't belong to him.

McKnight practiced with the Trojans in Los Angeles on Monday, but stayed home to deal with compliance issues when the Trojans traveled to San Francisco. Carroll said McKnight arrived in the Bay Area on Wednesday night.

"Joe did everything he needed to do compliance-wise in L.A., so it

was the right thing to get him up here right away," Carroll said.

"Compliance hasn't made a final ruling, but this is a most favorable sign."

McKnight is USC's first 1,000yard rusher since 2005, with 1,014 yards on 6.2 yards per carry and eight touchdowns during USC's worst season since 2001. With three losses in their final five regular-season games, the Trojans (8-4) failed to make a BCS bowl and win the Pac-10 title for the first time in eight years.

If McKnight can't play, Allen Bradford likely will start for the Trojans. Bradford rushed for 596 yards and eight scores, averaging 6.1 yards per carry.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

MediaDailyNews: U.S. Local News Net Gets More Financing (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:36:58 PM

U.S. Local News Network wants to roll out local news sites across

the country. So far, CEO Neil Senturia told Paid Content the startup received $1 million in new funding and expects to raise another $800,000 within the next

month-and-a-half; the company had already secured $2 million in backing over the summer. No word on who is bankrolling the effort. Senturia initially founded

the San Diego News, later PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, unveiling sites in Riverside and Term Extraction.

Orange County, Calif.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools:

46

Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

Some People Wait Until the Holidays To Do Mean Things [Sad]

By Ravi Somaiya (Gawker)

critical articles on the internet and organized a petition. One of the demands of that petition was Two examples of downright, that "we should end the practice calculating festive nefariousness of viewing words as crimes." The h a v e h a p p e n e d t o d a y i n irony will probably not keep him Afghanistan and China. One set warm in Siberia or wherever the of media-savvy people wanted to government send him. hide their cruelty and the other In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the wanted to show it off. See if you Taliban released a video of a can guess which is which. captured American soldier to T h e C h i n e s e d e c i d e d , taunt his family on Christmas completely by accident and with day. Which I suppose is not no thought that a lot of the West much worse than what went on in shuts down today, to sentence a Abu Ghraib, but that's really no political dissident, Liu Xiaobo, to bar to be setting for decency to 11 years for inciting "subversion your fellow man. Pfc. Bowe of state power." It was the R o b e r t B e r g d a h l , 2 3 , w a s h a r s h e s t p u n i s h m e n t o f a captured in June. From CNN: dissident for two decades, To release this video on according to the Times of Christmas Day is an affront to the London. Liu published six deeply concerned family and Submitted at 12/25/2009 9:10:12 AM

spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

To make it worse — the army has been unable to reach Bergdahl's family in Idaho because of the storm in the Midwest. People, people, people.

Can we all just be a little nicer to each other? Have countless heartwarming Christmas movies in which a mean person learns the value of generosity and warmth not taught us anything?

Copies of Trading Places and Scrooged should be dispatched to Hu Jintao and Maulana Fazlullah, friends of Bowe Bergdahl, or some other prominent Taliban demonstrating contempt for leader, immediately. religious traditions and the teachings of Islam," said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith,

Chestnuts Roasting On...

An Efficient Burner That Meets Emissions Standards [War On Christmas]

By Ravi Somaiya (Gawker) Submitted at 12/25/2009 4:44:51 AM

Christmas is a time for trees.

Stockings. The crackling of logs on a fire. Except that the last one causes emissions and ruins the planet! You bastards! In towns around the country, the government is battling this CHESTNUTS page 47

Obama Starts Vacation, Has Actual Red Phone in Case of Emergency [Lei-ing Low]

By Ravi Somaiya (Gawker)

while was in summer — but then Ted Kennedy went and died and Ben Bernanke was renominated While you may be hoping that as Fed chairman. He already had something happens today to to delay the start of this vacation break any familial tension and to helicopter over the healthcare give you something to talk about bill. Now he and the family — w i t h a g i n g r e l a t i v e s , t h e and his aides and military President is essentially crossing advisors — have taken off he his fingers for an incredibly really, really wants to do nothing. uneventful holiday in Hawaii. From the AP: Last time the Obamas tried to White House spokesman Bill Force One on Thursday that the get away from it all for a little Burton told reporters aboard Air president wants to spend his Submitted at 12/25/2009 3:34:06 AM

holiday in his birthplace away from the news-of-the-moment distractions that have dominated his first year in office. No public events were scheduled and the best any of the president's aides could promise would be bets whether lefty Obama would outdrive his good friends - joining him from Chicago - on the golf course.

Which raises the question, if he's really determined not to do much,

as to what are Presidential roundthe-house clothes are like. Are there some stained sweatpants with the presidential seal on? Do the Secret Service have to sniffer -dog a 'Vegas or Bust' hoody that someone gave the president as part of an in-joke in 1993? Are there — and this is a question of vital national importance — official Snuggies?

Entertainment/ Popular News/ Sports/

E-reader News Edition

CHESTNUTS continued from page 46

menace. With spies.

'Experts' say, in this New York Times article, that old stoves and fireplaces can put out as much bad stuff (a technical term) as seven diesel buses. So they've started a kind of cash-forclunkers program to replace these bad, dreadful, beautiful, romantic old stoves with microwaves and toasters. Well, more efficient new stoves. Whatever.

Some old-stove-havers are calling bullshit on the whole thing and refusing to take the $1000 cash in and buy a new one (which costs from $1500 to $4000). Others have gone all Stasi about it and are reporting

their neighbors to the Man if they spot smoke coming from chimneys. Here's what happened to a California woman. Probably a rosy-cheeked California woman at that: I get nasty notes from someone here in town on my woodpile," Mrs. Clark, 65, said. "There is one woman who walks up and down the street looking for smoke in people's chimneys. She has her own spies - kids and other women who walk around with notebooks, looking for smoke.

Even worse — the San Francisco bay area has banned wood fires today — on Christmas

motherfucking day— because weather conditions are not conducive to dispersing the emissions. You'll have to watch our Gawker Internet Yule Log™ instead.

In other news: Bing Crosby is to be replaced by Jar-Jar Binks in a new, all-CGI version of White Christmas. Michael Bay is slated to direct. Santa, played by Jason (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Statham, is graphically eviscerated by a reindeer at the Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:42:10 PM end. In 3-D. While this(NSFW Associated Press Can Brett — but who cares today) plays.

Favre make it through Monday’s game at Chicago without any

The Fix Picks the NFL: Week 16

under his command).

The rule prohibited: ...becoming nondeployable for Soldiers in Iraq were, until reasons within the control of the today, likely to face disciplinary soldier," including "becoming action for getting pregnant or pregnant or impregnating a getting another soldier pregnant. soldier ... resulting in the Not any more! redeployment of the pregnant It makes sense that a bunch of soldier. young people in peak physical Probably because eight women c o n d i t i o n t h r o w n t o g e t h e r got pregnant under his sexxxy would... go on exercises. But a command. While the rule said a CNN story today reveals the court martial was a possible s c a n d a l s a f o o t u n d e r t h e punishment, four of them got command of Major General letters of reprimand and four Anthony Cucolo (who put the were "not impregnated while rules in place for the 22,000 deployed" so beat the rule. Ha! troops, including 1,682 women The men were not so lucky.

Submitted at 12/25/2009 7:45:07 AM

Of the men involved, three were reprimanded, Cucolo said. One, a sergeant, was given a more severe punishment of a written

Ga. Couple Arrested for Allegedly Breaking Baby's Bones (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/25/2009 9:32:38 AM

MARIETTA, Ga. A Marietta woman and her boyfriend have been arrested after their 2-monthold daughter was found to have 20 broken bones and a skull fracture.

Cobb County police officials tell the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 32-year-old Kevin Straight is charged with second-degree cruelty to children and is being held on $50,000 bond.

They said 22-year-old Antoinette FIX page 48 White was charged with aggravated battery, felony cruelty to children and second-degree cruelty to children. She is being held on $100,000 bond.

A Children's Healthcare of Atlanta employee called police reprimand in his permanent file after the child was examined at because he fraternized with a the hospital Tuesday. subordinate and committed Investigators interviewed the a d u l t e r y . A l e t t e r i n t h e couple at the Crimes Against permanent file can affect a Children Office, then arrested person's career because it is them. A 1-year-old child at the evaluated when a service member home was taken into protective is considered for promotion. A custody. f o u r t h m a n w a s n e v e r Five Filters featured article: r e p r i m a n d e d b e c a u s e t h e Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: pregnant soldier refused to PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, identify who the father was... Term Extraction.

All this intrigue can now go on in the desert unabashed. So if the deployment's a rockin', don't come a knockin'.

Merry Christmas Soldiers! You Can Now Knock Each Other Up! [War Is Hell]

By Ravi Somaiya (Gawker)

47

48

E-reader News Edition

FIX continued from page 47

more existential crises with his coach?

Many teams are playing out the string, their playoff hopes sunk long ago. St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Washington, Kansas City and Cleveland are, for lack of a better term, not good. They’ve combined for 15 victories, or one more than the undefeated Indianapolis Colts. The dregs of the NFL have 69 total losses, one more than the top 15 teams combined.

Is it any wonder you’re being prodded to tune in games involving Indy, New Orleans, Minnesota and San Diego this weekend, or teams with playoff hopes? You could do worse — much, much, much worse.

Week 15 recap (overall): David Roth: 4-8-3 (101-116-4), Garey Ris: 4-8-3 (120-97-4), Al Toonie, the Lucky Canadian Two-Dollar Coin: 7-5-3 (100-117-4) FRIDAY’S GAME San Diego at Tennessee (-3): The Chargers are hot, having won 17 straight December games. They’re also on a ninegame winning streak and have won their past six meetings with Tennessee. But don’t discount the Titans, winners of five consecutive home games under QB Vince Young. One Charger to watch is Antonio Gates, the tight end who is averaging 14.3 yards per catch. Titans RB Chris Johnson needs 336 yards rushing over his final two games to eclipse Eric Dickerson’s record of 2,105 yards in a season.

Interesting stat: Tennessee is only

1-8 ATS against teams with a winning record.

Pick: David: San Diego, Garey: San Diego, Al Toonie: Tennessee SUNDAY’S GAMES Buffalo at Atlanta (-9): Unfortunately, not all late-season games can have playoff implications. But Matt Ryan is one reason to watch this game, if only to see how well he excels at home, where he’s lost only once in 13 games. Atlanta must win its last two games to have back-toback winning seasons for the first time in history. The best that can be said about the injury-riddled Bills, who haven’t had a winning season since 2004: They’re in line for a top 10 draft pick in April.

Pick: David: Buffalo, Garey: Atlanta, Al Toonie: Buffalo Kansas City at Cincinnati (13.5): At least the Chiefs are consistent — consistently bad.

They have three wins in 2009, one more than in 2008, one less than in 2007. All the Chiefs’ numbers are awful: 31st in scoring defense, 30th and 31st in total yards and rushing yards against. And they’re on a fourgame losing streak. At least the Bengals are a happier story this season. After years of mediocrity, they can clinch a playoff berth with a victory, which looks almost preordained.

Pick: David: Cincinnati, Garey: Cincinnati, Al Toonie: Kansas City Oakland at Cleveland (-3): In another lost season, the Raiders seek their fourth straight

December win. That’s as good as it’s going to get for a team that’s had it rough in recent years. It’s even hard for this Broncos fan to be bothered to show much hatred toward a team that’s no longer worth watching. The Browns are another sad-sack club, especially with Brady Quinn on the shelf for the last two games with a foot injury. What’s interesting about Cleveland is Mike Holmgren’s acceptance of the president’s post and what that may mean about the tenure of coach Eric Mangini, who’s only 3-11 after a so-so 2325 record with the Jets.

Whatever. Holmgren has a tough task ahead.

Pick: David: Oakland, Garey: Cleveland, Al Toonie: Oakland Seattle at Green Bay (-14): This is almost a no-win situation for the Seahawks, who have only one road victory (at St. Louis) all season. In no other road game did the Seahawks score more than 20 points. One team has motivation on Sunday, and that’s the Packers, who remain in the playoff hunt. Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers (28 TD passes, almost 4,000 yards) might have a field day going against a porous pass defense ranked 29th. But for that to happen Packer receivers might want to hang on to the ball.

Pick: David: Green Bay, Garey: Green Bay, Al Toonie: Green Bay Houston at Miami (-3): There are a number of ways for the Dolphins to sneak into the playoffs, but the best is the most direct: by winning victories over

Houston and Pittsburgh at home.

The Texans are a tough opponent, winning all four previous meetings. Their scoring defense is better than the Dolphins’, and they’re 6-2 playing outside the AFC South.

Although he hasn’t had a great season, Texans CB Dunta Robinson has been solid. He still catches a lot of gruff for his contract negotiations earlier this season, though.

Pick: David: Miami, Garey: Houston, Al Toonie: Houston Carolina at N.Y. Giants (-7): The Panthers’ rollercoaster season has had its thrills, but not enough to make up for a 0-3 start. They’ve struggled in wins against alsorans, then looked like worldbeaters against Minnesota and Arizona. They’ve been impressive ATS, going 6-2 in their past eight, including winning three straight. The Giants have the more prolific offense under QB Eli Manning, who has averaged over 300 yards a pop over three December games. Carolina, though, has the better defense. Worth watching: Panthers WR Steve Smith and Giants WR Steve Smith.

Pick: David: Giants, Garey: Giants, Al Toonie: Carolina Jacksonville at New England (9): The Jags are only 7-7, but with better finishes the past two weeks, QB David Garrard could have had Jacksonville sitting pretty at 9-5 and likely in the playoffs. Tom Brady has struggled for the Pats, too, throwing only four TDs and six

picks in his past four starts as his team’s gone two up and two down. That said, New England is 18-2 in December games under coach Bill Belichick, and 5-0 including playoffs against Jacksonville at home. And Brady has won 19 straight home starts.

Player to watch: Jags RB Maurice Jones-Drew, who has 15 TDs. Pick: David: Jacksonville, Garey: New England, Al Toonie: New England Tampa Bay at New Orleans (14): No more worrying about a perfect season in New Orleans.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by the Saints’ loss to Dallas last week. After all, New Orleans struggled in beating Atlanta and Washington the previous two weeks. At least one writer cautions against reading too much into one loss. Tampa Bay has been awful in 2009, but its defense has improved in the four outings since defensive coordinator Jim Bates was demoted.

Pick: David: New Orleans, Garey: New Orleans, Al Toonie: Tampa Bay Denver at Philadelphia (-7): These are the Broncos this Fixer expected to see when the 2009 season began. After a 6-0 start, Denver has stumbled in losing six of eight games, including a particularly brutal one-point loss to Oakland last weekend. But the Broncos have won two of their three games against NFC East FIX page 50

Sports/

E-reader News Edition

49

SMU dominates Nevada in return to postseason

By Associated Press (ESPN.com)

in the past 20 seasons to score at least 45 points while allowing 10 or fewer points in a bowl game.

Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:14:28 PM • The Mustangs held Nevada to 4 Padron's record 460 yards spur yards per rush in this game.

SMU to 1st bowl win since '84 • QB Kyle Padron threw for an HONOLULU -- SMU is back SMU-record 460 yards (previous from the dead. mark: Mike Romo's 450 yards in Freshman Kyle Padron threw for 1989) on his way to earning an SMU-record 460 yards, MVP honors. leading the Mustangs to a 45-10 • SMU finished the season at 8-5 victory over Nevada in the after going 1-11 in 2008; the 7Hawaii Bowl on Thursday night - win increase is the largest in FBS - S M U ' s f i r s t p o s t s e a s o n this season. appearance in 25 years.

-- ESPN Stats & Information It was a triumphant return to the "I wouldn't say the Pony Express, postseason and paradise for the but it brings back a lot of Mustangs and second-year coach boosters and a lot of the alumni June Jones, who left Hawaii after to know we have a football team nine seasons and has revived a a g a i n , " P a d r o n s a i d a f t e r dreadful SMU program hit hard breaking Mike Romo's school by the NCAA death penalty. record of 450 yards passing "What it means to me, it just against North Texas in 1989. feels good to be home," said It was chaos in the SMU locker Jones, 16-1 at Aloha Stadium r o o m w h e r e p l a y e r s w e r e since 2006 and 4-1 in Hawaii dancing, chanting and screaming.

Bowls.

Players couldn't even hear Jones' SMU fans chanted "Thank you, speech.

June!" in the fourth quarter, but it "I'm sure he said something was his young quarterback who g r e a t , " l i n e b a c k e r C h a s e shone and earned the MVP K e n n e m e r s a i d . award.

The Mustangs were motivated Fast Facts by the fact that 91 percent of • SMU's first bowl appearance America picked them to lose since the 1984 season produced online. the largest margin in school bowl The 18-year-old Padron, who -game history (previous largest was 32 of 41 and completed two was 8 points). touchdown passes, was confident • June Jones won in his first and composed on the biggest game back at Aloha Stadium, stage of his young career. where he coached Hawaii from "I was kind of chucking the ball 1999-2007. everywhere," Padron said. "Lot • SMU became just the 5th team of big gaps today and it was fun."

He earned the starting job after Bo Levi Mitchell was injured in the seventh game of the season and was largely unknown coming out of Southlake Carroll in Texas, which produced quarterbacks Chase Daniel and Greg McElroy.

Despite the tiny crowd at the game, people are paying attention to Padron -- and SMU. After going 1-11 the previous two years, the Mustangs (8-5) have their most victories since their last postseason game -- also in Hawaii when SMU beat Notre Dame 27-20 in the 1984 Aloha Bowl to finish 10-2.

The 12-point underdogs dominated from the opening bell, jumping out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter and building a 38-0 advantage by the third.

Padron had 303 yards passing in the first half alone, breaking SMU's bowl record of 281 yards

by Chuck Hixson in the 1968 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl.

Padron's 17- and 2-yard touchdown passes in second quarter gave SMU a 31-0 lead at the half and had the Wolf Pack searching for answers. The 17yarder was to Emmanuel Sanders, who had seven catches for 124 yards.

Sanders finished his career as SMU's career leader in receptions, touchdown catches and yards.

Shawnbrey McNeal added 63 yards rushing and three touchdowns, including two in the

first quarter. He also had seven catches for 53 yards.

The loss was the fourth straight in the postseason for the Wolf Pack (8-5), whose No. 1 rushing offense in the nation was grounded. But it was the Nevada defense that looked as if it was left behind feeding Wheel-ofFortune machines in Reno.

"They outplayed us, they outcoached us, they did an excellent job," Nevada coach Chris Ault said. "We were never involved for whatever reason."

While SMU racked up 534 yards of offense, Nevada had held to just 314, including 137 yards rushing. The Wolf Pack averaged 362.3 yards rushing during the regular season and is the first team in NCAA history to have three 1,000-yard rushers. But Nevada was without two of them in running backs Vai Taua and Luke Lippincott.

Taua was ruled academically ineligible and Lippincott was sidelined with a toe injury.

The Mustangs wasted no time getting on the scoreboard and attacking Nevada's anemic pass defense, ranked second worst in the nation.

On the second play of the game, Padron found a wide-open Cole Beasley near midfield. Beasley was dragged down from behind at the Nevada 9 for a gain of 71 yards. It was the longest pass in SMU bowl history, breaking Doak Walker's 53-yard pass to Paul Page in the 1948 Cotton

Bowl.

McNeal scored on the next play.

The Mustangs got the ball back on the next series by stopping the Wolf Pack on fourth-and-2.

Padron then connected with Sanders for a 58-yard gain, setting up McNeal's 1-yard TD that put SMU up 14-0 less than 6 1/2 minutes into the game.

After completing a 53-yard pass to Aldrick Robinson in the third that setup a 3-yard TD run by Zach line, Padron looked at Jones and just shook his head in disbelief. Robinson finished with nine catches for 176 yards.

Meanwhile, Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick couldn't get anything going on the ground or through the air. Kaepernick, who rushed for 1,160 yards in the regular season, had just 23 yards rushing on 13 carries.

"That game was embarrassing on a lot of different levels. We just have to look at the film and try to regroup for next year," said Kaepernick, who was 15 of 29 for 177 yards. He threw a 10yard TD pass with a minute left in the game.

"They did a nice job basically of taking away the consistency of our offense," Ault said. "We never got in rhythm. There's no question, we just played very, very poorly."

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

50

E-reader News Edition

FIX continued from page 48

foes (beating New York and Dallas, losing to Washington). Of note is Brian Dawkins’s return to Philadelphia, where he played for 13 seasons. There’s still much love in Philly for Dawkins. The Eagles are peaking at the right time, winning five straight games and leading the NFC East by a game over Dallas.

Pick: David: Philadelphia, Garey: Philadelphia, Al Toonie: Denver Baltimore at Pittsburgh (-3): The defending Super Bowl champion Steelers snapped a five-game losing streak with last week’s narrow victory over Green Bay, thanks to Ben Roethlisberger’s 503-yard passing performance.

But many of his targets are hurting. Three of Pittsburgh’s losses during that streak came against Cleveland, Oakland and Kansas City, hardly among the NFL’s elite. The Steelers have been swept only once by the Ravens, who won their earlier meeting. Baltimore is 2-8 lifetime at Heinz Field.

Pick: David: Baltimore, Garey: Pittsburgh, Al Toonie: Baltimore St. Louis at Arizona (-14): Tough to muster enthusiasm about a game between a team

that’s won only once all season going against a team playing only for seeding after winning the weak NFC West. Plus, have you checked out the line? QB Kurt Warner must be salivating at the numbers he could put up against the third-worst scoring defense.

As bad as they are, the Rams are 7-7 ATS. In a long season, maybe that’s something worth cheering about. And maybe the Rams’ winning the first pick in the NFL draft.

Pick: David: Arizona, Garey: Arizona, Al Toonie: Arizona Detroit at San Francisco (-12): Yet another game with no bearing on the playoff picture.

Both Lions wins have come at home, which isn’t surprising, considering they’ve lost 19 straight away from Ford Field.

Make that 20. To make matters worse for Detroit, Matthew Stafford is done for the year, heading to Dr. James Andrews’ table for knee surgery, meaning the immortal Drew Stanton and his 47.1 QB rating gets the start under center. The only question is whether they can beat the spread (4-9-1).

Pick: David: Detroit, Garey: San Francisco, Al Toonie: Detroit

N.Y. Jets at Indianapolis (-5.5): Indy has covered in five straight games (the sixth was a push).

Their impressive 14-0 start also continues a streak in which they’ve won 23 straight regularseason games. For the Colts, the only question is how long or whether their starters will play.

It’s been a trying season for rookie Jets QB Mark Sanchez, who has thrown way more picks than TDs, 20-12. The Jets have been streaky all season (they won three, lost six of seven, then won three of four), leaving them with only a minute chance of earning a playoff spot.

Pick: David: Indianapolis, Garey: Indianapolis, Al Toonie: Indianapolis Dallas (-6.5) at Washington: The Redskins are bad, but at least their ATS record is similar to the Cowboys’: 6-7-1 vs. 7-7. Sure, the Redskins run botched trick plays and have been terrible all season, but their games have been closer than many of us expected. A game against their biggest rival might be considered their Super Bowl: one last, big effort this season. Dallas has dominated the series recently, going 18-6, but Washington has

won three of the past four meetings at home. The Cowboys’ upset of New Orleans could be the start of a turnaround for a team that’s been notoriously bad in December the past few seasons.

Pick: David: Dallas, Garey: Washington, Al Toonie: Washington MONDAY’S GAME Minnesota (-7) at Chicago: A great rivalry that’s lost some of its luster, at least this season, what with Bears QB Jay Cutler performing worse than expected since arriving from Denver. He leads the NFL with 25 picks. One of the bigger stories this week was Brett Favre’s refusal to sit out the fourth quarter last weekend against Carolina at the behest of coach Brad Childress.

One way for the Vikes to put that distraction behind them is to beat the Bears, whose coach, Lovie Smith, is on the hot seat. Vikes RB Adrian Peterson hasn’t had a 100-yard game since Week 10.

Pick: David: Minnesota, Garey: Minnesota, Al Toonie: Minnesota

Sports/

E-reader News Edition

51

Report: NBA investigating Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas for gun possession

By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

CBSSportsline.com first reported the investigation.

Wizards spokesman Scott Hall Submitted at 12/24/2009 7:25:31 PM wouldn't say when or where Washington Wizards guard Arenas had the guns in his Gilbert Arenas stored unloaded locker. But speaking by phone to firearms in a container in his The Washington Times on locker, according to the team, Thursday night, Arenas said that and the NBA is looking into the the incident in question happened situation. about two weeks ago.

The Wizards issued a statement "It happened like Dec. 10. Right Thursday night saying there was after my daughter was born," no ammunition in the locked Arenas said. "I decided I didn't container, and Arenas and the want the guns in my house and team have notified authorities around the kids anymore, so I and the league. took them to my lockbox at “ Verizon Center. Then like a week I wouldn't have brought them later, I turned them over to team [the guns] to D.C. had I known security and told them to hand the rules. After my daughter was them over to the police, because I born, I was just like, 'I don't need don't want them anymore. I these anymore.”-- Gilbert Arenas wouldn't have brought them to Officer Quintin Peterson, a D.C. had I known the rules. After spokesman for the Washington my daughter was born, I was just police department, said Thursday like, I don't need these anymore." night there was no report of any The NBA's collective bargaining active investigation involving agreement allows for players to Arenas. legally possess firearms but The team and the three-time All- prohibits them at league facilities Star "are cooperating fully with or when traveling on any leaguelaw enforcement during its related business. review of this matter and will "We're aware of the situation and have no further comment at this are working to gain a full time," according to the Wizards' understanding of the facts and statement. relevant legal issues," the NBA

said in a release.

Los Angeles Clippers guard Sebastian Telfair was suspended for two games and fined an undisclosed amount in 2006 after a loaded handgun registered to his girlfriend was found in his pillowcase aboard the team's plane when he was with Portland.

Arenas scored 18 points in Washington's 109-97 victory at Milwaukee on Wednesday night.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Arenas is averaging 22.2 points after being limited to 15 games during the past two seasons following three operations on his left knee over 1½years.

Arenas, who turns 28 on Jan. 6 and is in the second season of a six-year, $111 million contract, is one of the NBA's most popular players, but a series of injuries has limited his time on the court.

Nicknamed Agent Zero, he has a career average of 22.7 points over nine NBA seasons.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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

Mayweather-Pacquiao Talks Back On?

By Lem Satterfield (Fanhouse Main)

enhancing drugs.

As a result, Arum told FanHouse earlier on Thursday that the fight Submitted at 12/24/2009 3:10:00 PM was off.

Filed under: WBA, WBC, IBF, But Arum, apparently, has WBO, Golden Boy Promotions, changed his mind.

HBO " Keith Kizer, the executive The negotiations for the Floyd director of the Nevada Athletic Mayweather- Manny Pacquiao Commission, has been authorized megabout slated for the MGM in to offer the services of the Las Vegas, thought to be near Nevada Commission to step in death, may yet be revived, thanks and to do all of the prefight drugto the potential involvement of testing if the two fighters agree," t h e N e v a d a S t a t e A t h l e t i c said Arum.

C o m m i s s i o n , P a c q u i a o ' s "So that is a real development, p r o m o t e r B o b A r u m t o l d because we would certainly be FanHouse on Thursday night. willing to sit down and work out Pacquaio's refusal to allow the a protocol with them. The United States Anti-Doping Nevada Commission would be Agency to draw blood within a perfect to handle this," said 30-day period of the bout's Arum. "The commission has March 13 date was in direct suggested it, and we're very disagreement with the demands much in favor of it. We would of Mayweather's camp, which love it. It's something that is a w a n t s b o t h f i g h t e r s t o b e positive development." randomly tested for performance

52

Sports/

E-reader News Edition

Source: Jason Bay still a long shot to rejoin Boston Red Sox

By ESPNBoston.com (ESPN.com)

budget to potentially allow for another offer" to Bay. The proposal would reportedly be in Submitted at 12/24/2009 6:13:22 PM the range of the four-year, $60 Is Jason Bay coming back to the million offer originally made to Boston Red Sox after all? Don't Bay by the team. bet on it.

That organizational budget was A t e a m s o u r c e t o l d already stretched by the fiveESPNBoston.com on Wednesday year, $82 million deal struck with night that while the club never free-agent pitcher John Lackey. says never, Bay's return to One source indicated to ESPN's Boston would be a long shot Buster Olney that the Red Sox since the Red Sox already have a have less than $5 million in left fielder: Mike Cameron, who s p e n d i n g m o n e y . S h o r t o f signed a two-year deal with the blowing up their budget, the only Sox earlier this month. (Of way the Red Sox could work course, Cameron could end up in something out with Bay would be center with Jacoby Ellsbury to find a way to dump some shifting to left). existing contracts, such as that of With Bay continuing to twist in Cameron, who would have to the free-agent winds, talk of his lend his permission to such an p o s s i b l y r e v i s i t i n g h i s arrangement. relationship with the Red Sox Gordon Edes' estimate of the surfaced Wednesday night. current payroll of the 2010 Red A c c o r d i n g t o a r e p o r t o n Sox falls somewhere around WEEI.com, which cites a team $166 million (give or take a few source, the Red Sox "have had m i l l i o n ) , w h i c h p u t s t h e m i n t e r n a l d i s c u s s i o n s a b o u t perilously close to the $170 extending their organizational million luxury-tax threshold.

Signing a big name like Bay would put the Red Sox over that number, meaning they would need to pay a 22.5 percent luxury tax on every dollar spent over $170 million.

The only other known offer to Bay is from the New York Mets, who extended Bay a four-year deal worth between $60 million and $65 million.

The New York Yankees don't appear to be a suitor for either Bay or Matt Holliday despite having a hole in left field.

"It won't be a big-name situation, I can promise you that," Yankees GM Brian Cashman told reporters.

ESPNBoston.com's Gordon Edes, ESPN The Magazine senior writer Buster Olney and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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

Oh, Boise! Did Broncos Have a Fiesta

By John Walters (Fanhouse Main)

in orange pants (Miami) on another New Year's Day (1984) usurped the national Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:00:00 PM championship from another Big F i l e d u n d e r : B o i s e S t a t e , 12 school ( Nebraska), also by a Oklahoma, Bowl Games margin of a single point (31-30).

David had a slingshot and a This was more than just the most stone. Posterity will recall that thrilling football game of the Boise State had both a hook-and- decade, after all (strangely lateral and Statue of Liberty play. enough, it took place inside the Actually, the Broncos had much same post-millennial venue as the more than gadget plays in their second-most thrilling contest, arsenal when they pulled off the Super Bowl XLII). It was a most memorable bowl game revolution. Utah had defeated upset in nearly a quarter century. Pittsburgh two seasons earlier in On New Year's Day, Boise State the Fiesta Bowl, shattering the culminated an undefeated season glass ceiling that had existed for with a 43-42 overtime victory mid-major programs in BCS over Big 12 leviathan Oklahoma bowls, but the Panthers were in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. nobody's idea of a juggernaut (in I n s o d o i n g , t h e W A C fact, the Utes had the better champions provided the greatest record and better talent). paradigm shift college football had seen since another team clad

Sports/

E-reader News Edition

Report: Gilbert Arenas Under NBA Investigation for Gun Possession

Bernard King Still Has Christmas Crown

By Michael Katz (Fanhouse Main)

By Tim Povtak (Fanhouse Main)

kids anymore, so i took them to my lock box at Verizon Center.

Then like a week later, I turned Submitted at 12/24/2009 11:30:00 AM them over to team security and Filed under: Wizards Gilbert told them to hand them over to Arenas hobbled off the court in the police, because I don't want Milwaukee on Wednesday, the them anymore. I wouldn't have result of a deep thigh bruise. brought them to D.C. had I Today Arenas has had other known the rules. After my concerns having nothing to do daughter was born, I was just with basketball. like, I don't need these anymore."

CBSSports.com's Ken Berger If you're looking for precedent first reported Thursday that the regarding a potential punishment, NBA and Washington Wizards authorities and the NBA and are the league fined then-Portland are investigating whether Arenas' cooperating fully with law Trail Blazer Sebastian Telfair an alleged possession of a firearm enforcement during its review of undisclosed amount in 2006 for resulted in a violation of league this matter and will have no carrying a loaded handgun rules. A source with knowledge further comment at this time." registered in his girlfriend's name of the league review told Berger T h e c o l l e c t i v e b a r g a i n i n g onto a team plane. That was the that it is not a criminal matter, agreement does not forbid last gun-related punishment in but that Arenas could possibly players from legally owning the NBA. receive a fine or suspension.

Also worth noting, as The firearms, but it does prohibit Now the Wizards have released weapons on league property and Washington Post' s Michael Lee the following statement ( via during league business. notes, Arenas pleaded no contest CSNWashington.com): Arenas explained himself via to a misdemeanor weapons and "The Washington Wizards have cell phone to The Washington vehicle charges for possessing a learned that Gilbert Arenas stored Times' Mike Jones: concealed weapon and driving firearms in a locked container in "It happened like December 10th. without a license in 2003. He was his locker, unloaded and without Right after my daughter was suspended for the 2004-05 a m m u n i t i o n . T h e W i z a r d s born. I decided I didn't want the season opener as a result. o r g a n i z a t i o n a n d A r e n a s guns in my house and around the promptly notified the local

53

Submitted at 12/24/2009 2:30:00 PM

Filed under: Knicks, Nets Jeff Turner can laugh about it now, 25 years later. As an NBA rookie in 1984, he was thrilled to be playing on Christmas Day in Madison Square Garden, the biggest stage of his life, primed to be starting now at small forward for the New Jersey Nets.

Two minutes after tip-off, though, he knew this would not end well for him.

Bernard King of the New York Knicks was on a mission, about to set the league on fire. And Turner would serve as the footnote, the guy trying to guard him.

"I still call it the 'Christmas Day massacre,' '' joked Turner last week. "I think I fouled out before I could break a sweat.''

It was King who made history that day and carved his name into NBA Christmas lore, torching Turner and the Nets for 60 points, most ever in the storied

sports cathedral, and still the most points ever scored on the league's annual celebration of basketball.

Turned played 10 seasons in the NBA as a serviceable role player, getting his turn against future Hall of Fame forwards like Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Adrian Dantley and Karl Malone, but no one ever impressed him more than King on that memorable Christmas Day.

54

Sports/ Game/

E-reader News Edition

Giants running back Brandon Jacobs fined $7,500, Redskins tackle Albert Haynesworth $10K for fight

Jonathan Bender's Long, Winding Road

By Adam Schefter (ESPN.com)

By Lisa Olson (Fanhouse Main)

throw another punch.

Haynesworth responded by throwing a punch of his own, one Submitted at 12/24/2009 7:47:59 PM that landed hard.

Giants running back Brandon "I guess they did it, but that was Jacobs was fined $7,500 and expected," Jacobs said of the Redskins defensive tackle Albert fines.

Haynesworth$10,000 for their The league also fined Minnesota altercation in the fourth quarter Vikings defensive tackle Kevin of the Giants' 45-12 win over Williams$5,000 on Thursday for Washington on Monday night. a tackle at the knees on Carolina Jacobs' fine was for unnecessary P a n t h e r s q u a r t e r b a c k M a t t roughness, Haynesworth's for M o o r e . unsportsmanlike conduct.

Adam Schefter is an ESPN NFL The altercation came after a play Insider. Information from The on which Giants QB Eli Manning Associated Press was used in this was sacked. After the whistle had report. blown, Jacobs tangled with Five Filters featured article: DeAngelo Hall and appeared to Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: throw a punch before teammates PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, stepped in. Haynesworth entered Term Extraction. the fray, and Jacobs appeared to

Today's Xbox Live deal: 50% off Secret of Monkey Island: SE

Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:30:00 PM

Filed under: NBA Before Jonathan Bender could come out of retirement, before he could slip on an NBA jersey following a four-year hiatus from the sport, he had to take care of some things.

He had to change a handful of lives, influence a few generations. He had to help rebuild a New Orleans school library that had been decimated

by Hurricane Katrina, replace the moldy books, raise money so the students could have computers.

He had to finance entire city blocks of land ripped asunder by the storm and move some 36 dislocated families into apartments he designed, and see to it that the details in those apartments allowed the families to feel as if they were living in luxury rather than low-income housing.

By Ludwig Kietzmann (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/25/2009 12:30:00 PM

He had to make sure his legs were healthy, of course, because he didn't want to broach a comeback if the bone-on-bone knee condition that forced his premature departure from the NBA in November 2005 hadn't completely healed. He had to radically change his workout program, adding special stretching routines and exercises developed specifically for his 7foot frame.

Yearning for a hearty adventure, but struggling to get by on the pathetic wages of a Caribbean flooring inspector? If so, today's advertised Xbox Live Deal of the Day (part of an ongoing promotion) should float your cup of tea -- right onto the shores of Monkey Island. The Xbox Live Arcade version of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition has been marked down by 50 percent to 400 MS Points ($5).

Some readers reported having some difficulty obtaining yesterday's deal at the advertised TODAY'S page 55

Lakers, Cavs Not Buying Christmas Hype

By Chris Tomasson (Fanhouse Main) Submitted at 12/24/2009 1:40:00 PM

Filed under: Cavaliers, Lakers EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Perhaps there should have been a sign posted Thursday at the Los

Angeles Lakers practice facility.

It would have read: "What the Lakers say doesn't necessarily reflect the views of the NBA and its broadcast partners.''

The NBA and ABC/ESPN have gone into overdrive hyping between the Lakers and Cavaliers Friday's Christmas matchup

at the Staples Center. As far as the Lakers are concerned, it might as well be the Pacers visiting.

"It's just a game that I guess people want to see,'' said Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, downplaying his duel with Cavaliers forward

LeBron James(more on that later). "For us, it's just another game to go out and execute and play well. "(Last year's Christmas game) was like a statement game for us.

This year's a little bit different.''

Game/

E-reader News Edition

55

TODAY'S continued from page 54

Name a Star Trek ship class for Star Trek Online

Quake Live's 'Silent Night' map adds festive fragging fun

By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)

By David Hinkle (Joystiq)

starship)

Make sure to read the full details regarding submissions [ PDF Cryptic is giving future Star link] before submitting ideas, T r e k O n l i n e c a d e t s t h e which are due by January 8, o p p o r t u n i t y t o n a m e t h r e e 2010. Winners will receive a different classes of starship in the copy of the game and poster game's universe. The gallery depicting their named class, below features the three as-yet- which they can then fly when the unnamed classes. From left to game launches on Stardate right, they represent an escort 63554.5 (February 2, 2010). type, science ship and cruiser. [Via Big Download] We suggest: Name a Star Trek ship class for Star Trek Online originally • Plot device class appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 • Eventual ghost ship class Dec 2009 22:45:00 EST. Please (alternative: Red Shirt class) see our terms for use of feeds.

• Youessess class (as in: the Read| Permalink| Email this| U . S . S . D i s t r e s s B e a c o n Comments Responder is a Youessess class Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:45:00 PM

Submitted at 12/24/2009 9:45:00 PM

Click image to deck the halls with larger images This time of year is usually one of peace and safe comfort for just about everyone. The same can't be said for the land of Quake Live, where id Software has injected some Yuletide spirit into the browser-based frag-em-up's usual industrial surroundings. For two weeks, players can enjoy a Christmas-themed remake of Team Arena map "Distant Screams," now named "Silent Night."

This update doesn't add particularly festive weapons to

the mix, but the fresh coat of winter wonderland paint is certainly welcome. Nothing tops off the Christmas spirit tank like a little rocket play beneath giant candy canes and a star-filled sky, after all.

Gallery: Quake Live (Christmas 2009) [Via CVG] Quake Live's 'Silent Night' map adds festive fragging fun originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

price. If the reduced price doesn't reflect on the Xbox Live Marketplace yet, be sure to try again later today. And if you're the good sort that's already completed this classic bout of pirating, perhaps you should join us later today as we taste pies and assign numerical scores to them.

Add The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition to your Xbox 360 download queue Gallery: Monkey Island Special Edition Today's Xbox Live deal: 50% off Secret of Monkey Island: SE originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Comments

More games released in 2009 than in 2008, barely

By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/25/2009 11:30:00 AM

MORE page 56

56

Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

MORE continued from page 55

Some people have decried the current calendar year for being light on high-quality games -- but they can't frown upon the quantity of titles released in 2009. According to Gamespot, the latest EEDAR GamePulse report reveals that 1,099 games were released to retail outlets throughout the year -- a slight increase over the 1,092 games which hit the market in 2008.

That's not exactly good news -according to the report, more games (such as Modern Warfare 2) are becoming permanent staples on store shelves, limiting the amount of free space for other

new titles. Also, the amount of expendable cash folks have to spend on these games is dwindling. But ... but let's not think about that, okay? It's Christmas. Happy thoughts, you guys.

More games released in 2009 than in 2008, barely originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Submitted at 12/25/2009 6:56:15 AM

WASHINGTON – In an epic struggle settled at dawn, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed health care legislation Thursday, a triumph for President Barack Obama that clears the way for compromise talks with the House on a bill to reduce the ranks of the uninsured and rein in the insurance industry.

The vote was 60-39, strictly along party lines, one day after Democrats succeeded in crushing a filibuster by Republicans eager — yet unable — to inflict a year-

(FOXNews.com)

Christmas shopping. At the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, some shoppers had MINNEAPOLIS A blustery entire stores to themselves. storm spread snow and ice across High winds blowing snow across the U.S. heartland Thursday as i c y r o a d s w e r e a c o n c e r n Americans rushed to get home elsewhere. Interstate highways for the holidays, grounding were closed in Oklahoma, South flights, stranding drivers on Dakota and Texas. Texas Gov. highways and forcing churches to Rick Perry activated military cancel Christmas Eve services. personnel to help drivers. North Up to two feet of snow was Dakota Gov. John Hoeven placed possible in some areas by additional state troopers and the Christmas Day. National Guard on standby.

Blizzard warnings were issued Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry for Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, declared a statewide state of Missouri, Nebraska, North emergency due to what he D a k o t a , O k l a h o m a , S o u t h described as a "record-breaking Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin, storm." The state set up shelters and drivers were encouraged to in central Oklahoma for motorists pack emergency kits before stranded overnight and closed all setting out during what is interstate routes and several normally one of the busiest travel turnpikes. periods of the year.

The storm closed Oklahoma's end political defeat on the White The storm was also expected to biggest airport. Mark House. glaze highways in the East with Kraneneberg, a spokesman for At the White House, Obama ice on Christmas.

Will Rogers World Airport in called the vote historic, and said Slippery roads were blamed for Oklahoma City, said there were because of it, "we are incredibly at least 18 deaths this week as the about 100 stranded passengers close to making health insurance slow-moving storm made its way and some airport employees were reform a reality in this country. across the country from the stuck as well.

Our challenge now is to finish Southwest.

The storm knocked out power the job."

The snowstorm also put the for more than 10,000 residents in Democrats, led by Majority brakes on some last-minute Oklahoma Thursday evening.

Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, said they would, by early in the new year. Even before they held a celebratory news conference, Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement pledging, "We will

Senate OK's health care bill in victory for Obama (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

Massive Winter Storm Shutting Down Midwest

SENATE page 57

Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:13:17 PM

Nearly 100 flights from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport were canceled by midday. By late afternoon, though, a spokesman said most flights were getting out. The Oklahoma City airport shut down one of its three runways and canceled nearly 30 flights. Two-hour-plus delays were reported at Houston's Hobby Airport, though by Thursday evening that was down to 15 minutes or less. Chicago's O'Hare had hour-long delays and more than 30 cancellations, and Wichita's Mid-Continent Airport canceled most flights Thursday.

The weather closed down Sioux Falls Regional Airport in South Dakota altogether late Thursday.

Since Tuesday, icy roads have been blamed for accidents that killed at least seven people in Nebraska, five people in Oklahoma, four in Kansas, one in Minnesota and one near Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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

E-reader News Edition

57

SENATE continued from page 56

soon produce a final bill that is founded on the core principles of health insurance reform: affordability for the middle class, security for our seniors, responsibility to our children by reducing the deficit, and accountability for the insurance industry."

The House passed its bill in November, and officials said it was likely to be February before the two sides can sort out their differences over issues as diverse as government's role in a remade health care system, coverage for abortion and federal subsidies for lower and middle-income families who would be required to purchase insurance.

Senate Republican attacked the bill to the end, and citing public opinion polls, said they would use it as an issue in the 2010 congressional elections. "This debate was supposed to produce a bill that reformed health care in America. Instead, we're left with party-line votes in the middle of the night, a couple of sweetheart deals to get it over the finish line, and a public that's outraged," said the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The Senate vote unfolded as the sun rose over the Capitol on the day before Christmas, and marked the culmination of a battle that lasted months and included failed bipartisan negotiations, a last-minute flurry of Democratic dealmaking to lock in 60 votes and a highly partisan debate that held lawmakers in session a near-

record 25 consecutive days.

For the third time since Sunday night, Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, 92, was wheeled into the Senate so he could cast his vote. Sen. Jim Bunning, RKy., did not vote.

For Democrats there was an air of bittersweet celebration, underscored by the presence of Vicki Kennedy in the visitor's gallery that overlooks the Senate floor. Her husband, the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, died in August after a career spent working relentlessly for universal health care.

"With Sen. Ted Kennedy's booming voice in our ears, with his passion in our hearts, we say, as he said: The work goes on, the cause endures," said Reid, echoing words Kennedy uttered in his most famous speech.

Beginning in 2014, the Senate bill would establish insurance exchanges where consumers could shop for private coverage sold under federal guidelines.

Most Americans would be required to purchase insurance or face penalties, and hundreds of billions of dollars in federal subsidies would be available to families up to incomes of about $88,000 a year. Insurance companies would be banned from denying benefits or charging higher fees on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. That provision would take effect in 2013 in the House version.

The Congressional Budget

Office estimates the Senate measure would extend coverage to about 31 million Americans who lack it, while cutting federal deficits by $130 billion over a decade and possibly much more in the following 10 years.

Premiums would rise for some, but fall for many others, particularly when the effects of federal subsidies are factored in, the agency says.

Literally hundreds of issues remain to be settled in the two bills, a House measure that ran to 1,990 pages and a Senate version of 2,074, not counting 383 pages of revisions that Reid unveiled over the weekend.

To finance extended coverage, the House bill relies on an income tax surcharge on incomes over $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for couples, a provision the Senate omitted. Its bill includes higher Medicare payroll taxes on high wageearners and a new tax on highcost insurance policies that labor unions generally oppose.

Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor, is expanded in both bills, but the House provision includes many more people. The House legislation also requires large employers to provide insurance to their workers or pay a fine.

There is no such mandate in the Senate bill, although companies would face penalties if any of their uninsured employees qualified for federal subsidies to purchase their own insurance.

The House-passed bill is

estimated to extend coverage to more individuals than the Senate measure, 36 million over a decade as opposed to 31 million.

It also provides more generous subsidies, on average, according to calculations by the Congressional Budget Office.

The agency says the approximate average subsidy in 2019 under the House will would be $6,800 a year; for the Senate bill, it is $5,600. Those differences reflect one of the biggest contrasts between the two bills — the $574 billion the House bill provides for subsidies over a decade, as opposed to $336 billion under the Senate measure.

Both bills also rely on hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts in future payments to doctors, hospitals and others who care for Medicare patients, with the largest reduction falling on insurance companies who provide a private alternative to traditional Medicare.

Over 10 years, the House bill closes a gap in coverage under Medicare prescription drug benefits popularly known as the doughnut hole. The Senate bill reduces but does not eliminate that interruption in coverage, although Reid has pledged to defer to the House, a pledge made to secure AARP's endorsement for the bill.

Already, the liberals who dominate the Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate have shown a willingness to yield on key issues to moderates whose votes are essential to passage of

legislation, and more of the same will be needed for a final compromise to emerge.

For her part, Pelosi, D-Calif., has already signaled she will not insist on a government-run insurance option in a final bill.

The House bill has one, a provision its liberal supporters said was designed to put pressure on the insurance companies to hold down premium prices.

Democratic moderates insisted no such plan make it into the Senate bill, which calls instead for national plans overseen by the same office that manages health coverage for federal employees and members of Congress. Those plans would be privately owned, but one of them would have to be operated on a nonprofit basis, as many Blue Cross Blue Shield plans are now.

A dispute over abortion clouded the final days of debate in the House, and again in the Senate.

In both cases, liberals were forced to yield more than they wanted to opponents of the procedures who insist that no federal funds be allowed to pay for abortion services. The two bills have different approaches to the subject, and that issue, once again, is likely to be one of the last resolved. ___ The bill is H.R. 3590 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

SENATE page 58

58

Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

Treetops glisten, but storm snarls Midwest holiday (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

days," Deputy Jesse Swenson said. "Everybody wanted a white Christmas— and they got it."

OKLAHOMA CITY – A fierce In Minnesota, Mike Ruhland, Christmas storm dumped more who was shoveling his driveway snow and ice across the nation's i n M i n n e a p o l i s o n F r i d a y midsection Friday after stranding morning, said he hadn't made t r a v e l e r s a s h i g h w a y s a n d much progress after two hours. airports closed and leaving many "I waited too long to start to celebrate the holiday just shoveling. For two days, it was where they were. the white powdery snow, and Meteorologists predicted the now it's the heavy, thick stuff," slow-moving storm would glaze he said. "It's a pain in the butt, highways in the East with ice but at least I'm getting my through Christmas night and that exercise for the month." gusty thunderstorms would The National Weather Service hamper the South. An ice storm said the storm posed a threat to warning was issued for parts of life and property. Officials West Virginia and the Blue warned travelers to stay home R i d g e m o u n t a i n s i n N o r t h and pack emergency kits if they Carolina and Virginia, while a had to set out. Oklahoma Gov. wind chill advisory cautioned of Brad Henry declared a state of temperatures as low as 30 below emergency. zero in Montana.

Slippery roads have been blamed The National Weather Service for at least 18 deaths this week as warned that blizzards would hit the storm moved east across the parts of North Dakota, South country from the Southwest.

Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Driving became so treacherous I o w a a n d W i s c o n s i n o n that authorities closed interstates Christmas Day and into the in Oklahoma, South Dakota and evening.

Texas to prevent further A sheriff's deputy in central c o l l i s i o n s .

Iowa's Guthrie County, where 6 Jonathan Cannon was spending i n c h e s o f s n o w f e l l s i n c e Thursday night at a Baptist Thursday night, said he saw only church in Goldsby, Okla., after snowplows on his way to work being stuck for several hours on Friday.

Interstate 35. He had left "It's going to be one of them Sherman, Texas, a little after Submitted at 12/25/2009 9:00:03 AM

SENATE continued from page 57

noon hoping to join his wife in Edmond, Okla. — a trip that usually takes about three hours.

Cannon said about 200 people — plus the dogs many travelers had with them in their cars — were in the church Thursday night, with more possibly on the way. He wasn't sure if he would be able to finish his journey on Friday.

"This is mine and my wife's first Christmas together, so she's not very excited," he said.

About 100 passengers and the same number of workers were stuck at Oklahoma's largest airport, which closed Thursday afternoon after several inches of snow clogged runways. At least 70 flights were canceled at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. Director Mark Kranenburg told The Oklahoman that the airport re-opened Friday morning, with one of three runways operational, though many flights remained delayed or canceled.

Robert Smith of Denver was forced to cancel plans to fly home on Christmas Eve after visiting family members and friends in Oklahoma City. Smith said he was accustomed to snowstorms — and that none had ever hampered his travel plans.

"We are going to wait it out," he

said. "We went to the grocery store to get stuff. We've got the generators ready just in case we need to use them."

Other stranded motorists took shelter at a high school gymnasium. Eric Adams, a U.S. Mail contractor from Memphis, Tenn., sought shelter at the Flying J Travel Plaza in Sayre in far western Oklahoma after strong winds caused his tractortrailer to sway.

Crews were working to restore power to thousands of customers in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.

Oklahoma City had received 14 inches of snow by Thursday night, breaking a record set back in 1914 of 2.5 inches. Winds gusted to 50 mph in central Kansas, while winds gusting at up to 65 mph in Texas drifted the snow as deep as 5 feet in some areas.

"The wind is killer, especially when you're empty," trucker Jim Reed said during a stop in Omaha, Neb. "Anything that's boxed, like a refrigerator trailer like I have, becomes like a giant sail in the wind."

The Star-Telegram said the Dallas-Fort Worth area was experiencing its first White Christmas in more than 80 years.

While the area had a sprinkling

of holiday snow in 2004 and 1997, the last time it experienced "a true, New England-style dose of snow on Christmas Day was Dec. 25, 1926," the newspaper reported.

Some churches canceled Christmas Eve services, while others saw sharply lower attendance.

"I don't think God wants anyone to get killed or break a hip or break a knee or something," said the Rev. Joseph Mirowski of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration in Mason City, Iowa. ___ Associated Press writers Rochelle Hines in Oklahoma City, Patrick Condon in Minneapolis, John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., Jean Ortiz and Josh Funk in Omaha, Neb., and Melanie Welte and Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report. ___ On the Net: National Weather Service: http://www.nws.noaa.gov Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

59

NJ dad rejoices in return of son held in Brazil (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/25/2009 3:34:15 AM

ORLANDO, Fla. – For the first time in five years, a New Jersey father went to bed knowing that no last-minute legal appeal could keep him from his mop-haired son, who was finally back on U.S. soil after a tumultuous intercontinental custody battle involving his Brazilian stepfamily.

David Goldman and his 9-yearold son, Sean, landed in Orlando from Brazil on Christmas Eve before being whisked away in a caravan of three SUVs, heading toward an unknown destination.

"My little boy is 5 feet away, sound asleep, peaceful," Goldman, of Tinton Falls, N.J., told NBC during the flight.

"We're on our way. My heart is just melting. I love him."

The father and son had been reunited Thursday in Rio de Janeiro after the youngster squeezed through a jostling throng of reporters and photographers while being marched to the U.S. consulate by his mother's relatives. The reunion ended an epic battle that pitted Goldman against Sean's

Brazilian stepfather, a powerful lawyer who had cared for the boy since his mother died last year.

Soon after Sean fought his way through the crowd, the smiling boy was back in his father's arms, talking about basketball and how much snow there was back in New Jersey.

The father said his holiday wish was to rekindle their relationship, put on hold since the boy's mother took him to her native Brazil in 2004 and refused to return him.

"It is now time for our new beginning, the rebirth of our family at such a special time of the year," Goldman wrote in a letter read to reporters after his departure.

Sean had lived in Brazil since Goldman's ex-wife, Bruna Bianchi, took him there for what was supposed to be a two-week vacation. She stayed, divorced Goldman and remarried, and Goldman began legal efforts to get Sean back.

After Bianchi died during childbirth, her new husband, prominent divorce attorney Paulo Lins e Silva, continued the legal fight and won temporary custody.

Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey

Republican who was with Sean's father in Brazil and supported him, said Thursday that "the abduction has ended."

The boy's maternal grandmother, Silvana Bianchi, however, said that taking him at Christmastime was "a heinous crime."

"My heart is empty and broken," she said, "because our love is missing."

The last act in the drama played out partly in public view. A tearful Sean, wearing a gold Brazil Olympic T-shirt, was walked a block to the consulate, surrounded by his stepfather, other members of the family and their lawyer.

Once spotted by the more than 100 reporters and cameramen waiting for their arrival, the group had to drag, shove and push its way about 50 yards to the consulate's front door.

Smith said he was disappointed to see Sean "marched through the streets like that."

The Brazilian family had been offered the same secure entrance to the consulate garage that Goldman used, which would have shielded the child from view, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Orna Blum said.

She said she had no idea why the family decided to walk the boy a block through Rio's streets.

Smith, however, said the Brazilian family's lawyer told him it was their way of protesting the handover.

Once inside, Sean calmed down and soon was eating hamburgers and talking with his father, the congressman added.

"Once he was with his dad they were smiling, with their arms around one another," Smith said.

"They looked just like best buddies."

Smith wouldn't say where they were headed after the chartered flight to Florida, which was paid for by NBC. He said only that they wanted to "cocoon" somewhere other than New Jersey for a while.

Goldman fought a long battle against one of Rio's best-known legal families to regain custody of his son.

When the boy's handover was blocked last week, the U.S. Senate put a hold on a trade deal worth about $2.75 billion a year to Brazil. President Barack Obama also discussed the matter with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

On Tuesday, Brazil's chief justice finally cleared the way for Goldman to take his son home.

Goldman had said this week that if he won he would allow the Brazilian family to visit Sean.

But the Brazilian family's lawyer, Sergio Tostes, said no visitation agreement had been reached.

"It is inhumane that he left without a guarantee that his grandmother would be able to see him in the United States," Tostes said.

Now, Goldman said, is the time for Sean's American family to get to know him.

"Please know that my love and the rest of Sean's family's love for him knows no boundaries," he wrote in his letter. "We will go to the ends of the Earth to protect him and shower him with every ounce of love that we have." ___ Associated Press writers Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo and Geoff Mulvihill in Mount Laurel, N.J., contributed to this report.

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

60

Popular News/ Picture/

E-reader News Edition

Accused Virginia Post Office Hostage Taker had Criminal Past (FOXNews.com)

behavior with a child under 16 and a count of attempted seconddegree murder. The 53-year-old WYTHEVILLE, Virginia As is a registered as a sex offender the hours of a post office standoff in Florida and in Sullivan wore on, Warren "Gator" Taylor County, Tenn., where he was slowly opened up to the three living before the post office people he's accused of holding attack. hostage.

On Thursday, Taylor was The gunman told them he had arraigned on kidnapping and been in the Marines for 20 years, other federal charges in the proud to talk about his military standoff. The hostages were experiences. He said his life the released unharmed after about last few years had headed south, e i g h t h o u r s a n d T a y l o r that his son had been killed in surrendered without incident.

Afghanistan and that his truck During the hearing in U.S. was being repossessed. He railed District Court in Roanoke, Taylor against the federal government. apologized.

"He was really down on the "I'm sorry I got everybody out on government," said Jimmy Oliver, Christmas," said Taylor, who sat 41, one of the hostages, who in his wheelchair wearing blue spoke with The Associated Press jeans and a black T-shirt. A judge Thursday, a day after the ordeal ordered him to have a mental i n W y t h e v i l l e . " A b o u t t h e evaluation. government taking over the right A woman who answered the to bear arms ... he was angry at door at Taylor's trailer in the the government overtaxing us." Beverly Hills Mobile Home Park Whether Taylor served those in Bristol, Tenn., said she was his d e c a d e s i n t h e M a r i n e s i s girlfriend and they spent a lot of uncertain, with military officials time talking about the Bible and not immediately able to locate religion. a n y r e c o r d s o n h i m . T h e "This is totally out of character Associated Press could not for the person I know," said the corroborate whether his son was woman, who identified herself as killed.

Barbara but would not give her What is certain is that Taylor last name. She said they met had a criminal record that when he moved to the trailer park includes convictions in Manatee eight months ago.

County, Florida, in 1994 on two His criminal past probably also counts of lewd and lascivious would have surprised her.

Submitted at 12/25/2009 12:21:27 AM

Taylor was released in December 1998 from a Florida prison after serving four years for shooting his ex-wife. The St. Petersburg Times reported in 1993 that Taylor shot Karen Taylor three times with a handgun when she was walking through a parking lot on her way to work.

At the time, Taylor was wanted on the lewd and lascivious behavior charges from a 1991 case involving a 13-year-old.

More than a decade later, Taylor again is behind bars after the post office attack that U.S Postal Inspector J. David McKinney said Taylor had planned for months or years.

Taylor had no apparent connection to picturesque Wytheville, a community of 8,500 in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Officials say he pulled off the interstate to buy gas and food and decided the post office would be the place to carry out his plans.

Oliver, a divorced father of two, was at the post office to mail Christmas gifts to his teenage son when he noticed a heavyset man using his wheelchair like a walker to brace himself.

He saw the man put an olive drab square ammunition can on the counter, then pull out a .40caliber Glock pistol. Customers scattered, and the man fired a

single shot at the postmaster as he fled.

The man stuck one of his four guns in Oliver's face and told him to get on the floor, where he laid next to an older man while the gunman grabbed Margie Austin, a postal supervisor.

As the night dragged on and negotiations continued, the gunman allowed the hostages to call their families Finally, the tired gunman turned to his hostages and told them, "It's over." He unloaded three of his four guns and waited with the hostages until police ordered them out of the building an hour later. The three hostages came out, one at a time, followed by Taylor in his wheelchair.

Oliver, who said he had served 18 years in the military, mostly with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, thought about his children and family and tried to stay calm.

Austin did the same, even as the gunman at one point grabbed her and used her as a human shield as he fired at police outside.

"I just wanted us to get out alive," Austin said. "There were times I didn't know whether that would happen."

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

Twas the night before Christmas

By Heather Champ (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:25:58 PM

…when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse The stockings were hung by the chimney with care In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there The children were nestled all snug in their beds While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads…

Team Flickr wishes you and yours all the very best of the season.

Photos from Canonshot Mole, Selby-Caitlyn, e³°°°, MatthwJ, Squig O, Renee Rendler-Kaplan, Tifty, Jonathan Mc, corypina, and catekustanczi.

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

Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

Holiday blizzards hit central US (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 12/24/2009 9:51:06 PM

A "humongous" winter storm is rolling across the central US, bringing chaos to road and air transport from Texas to Minnesota.

Icy roads were blamed for the deaths of at least 18 people, many of them in Nebraska and Kansas. Some 100 flights leaving Minneapolis were cancelled.

The US weather service said the storm was spanning two-thirds of the country.

It advised against non-essential travel and scores of churches cancelled Christmas services.

Up to 2ft (60cm) of snow was possible in some areas by Christmas Day (Friday), forecasters said.

Scott Blair, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Topeka, Kansas, said the wind was becoming a serious issue in the central part of that state, with gusts reaching 40mph (64km/h).

"We're going to see blowing snow," he said. "The big concern comes later when we see snowfall with the wind, causing

reduced visibility."

The US East Coast is still recovering from record snowfall last weekend, which brought much of the capital Washington DC to a standstill.

The new storm is expected to glaze highways in the east with ice over Christmas, the Associated Press reports.

'Killer wind' Blizzard warnings were issued for Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin, and drivers were encouraged to pack emergency kits before setting out during what is normally one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

"There's just a humongous storm moving across the centre of the country, basically from the Canadian border to Texas and spreading from west Colorado to Illinois," Pat Slattery, a spokesman for the National Weather Service, told AFP news agency.

"This is not a storm to be messed with."

He said freezing rain and high winds was making driving

extremely dangerous.

"The wind is killer, especially when you're empty," trucker Jim Reed told AP during a stop in Omaha, Nebraska.

"Anything that's boxed, like a refrigerator trailer like I have, becomes like a giant sail in the wind."

More than 20 vehicles were involved in a pile-up on Interstate 40 in Midwest City, Oklahoma.

'Avoiding funerals' The Rev Joseph Mirowski of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration in Mason City, Iowa, cancelled his Christmas Eve service as the area braced itself for up to 1ft of snow.

"I don't think God wants anyone to get killed or break a hip or break a knee or something," he said.

At the Grace Memorial Episcopal Church in Wabasha, Minnesota, the Rev Roger Claxton cancelled his Christmas Eve service out of fear his congregation's senior citizens would feel compelled to attend.

"I'd rather have people stay home than do their funerals in a couple of weeks," he remarked.

Texas Governor Rick Perry

activated military personnel to help drivers while North Dakota Governor John Hoeven placed additional state troopers and the National Guard on standby.

The latest storm began in the south-west on Tuesday, causing blizzard-like conditions and travel chaos, before spreading to the east and north.

Flooding was predicted across Texas and into the Ohio Valley.

Have you been affected by the winter weather? Send us your stories, pictures and video.

Send your pictures and video to yourpics@bbc.co.uk, text them to 61124 or if you have a large file you can upload here.

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

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

61

62

Popular News/

E-reader News Edition

Obama hails Senate health reform (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 12/24/2009 2:20:16 PM

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Obama welcomes passing of healthcare bill US President Barack Obama has welcomed the passage of his healthcare bill through the Senate, saying it paves the way for "real" reform.

The bill, which passed with 60 to 39 votes, aims to cover 31 million uninsured Americans.

"This will be the most important piece of social legislation since Social Security passed in the 1930s," he said.

It must still be reconciled with similar legislation passed by the House of Representatives.

Mr Obama said: "We are now finally poised to deliver on the promise of real, meaningful health insurance reform that will bring additional security and stability to the American people."

He described the measures as "the toughest measures ever taken to hold the insurance industry accountable".

Among various reforms, Mr Obama said the insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage with a pre-

existing condition nor end coverage when a person becomes ill.

"With today's vote, we are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country," the president said.

But he said it would be a challenge to "finish the job" of reform.

"For the sake of our citizens, our economy and our future, let's make 2010 the year we finally reform healthcare in the United States of America."

The process of reconciling the two bills is expected to begin in January and will require further tough negotiations.

Once that has been done - and the process could still be derailed by last-minute changes of heart among senators - Mr Obama will be able to sign the measure into law.

The bill's passage in an early morning vote on Christmas Eve follows months of political wrangling and 24 days of debate in the Senate chamber.

the people on this side who are going to support this bill don't like it - otherwise Democratic leaders wouldn't have had such a tough time rounding up the votes."

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that efficiency savings made as a result of the Senate healthcare reform bill will cut the federal deficit by $132bn (ÂŁ83bn) over 10 years, but critics say the predicted savings may never materialise.

As a nation, the US spent some $2.2tn (ÂŁ1.36tn) on healthcare in 2007. That amounts to 16.2% of GDP, nearly twice the average of other rich, industrialised countries.

As costs have spiralled, millions Opposition Republicans say the o f A m e r i c a n s h a v e f o u n d l e g i s l a t i o n i s e x p e n s i v e , themselves unable to afford authoritarian and a threat to civil health insurance and the cost to l i b e r t i e s , a n d a c c u s e t h e the government of providing care Democrats of rushing it through. for the poor and elderly has risen Republican Senate leader Mitch hugely.

McConnell said the bill's difficult Print Sponsor history highlighted its failings.

Five Filters featured article: "The most obvious problem with Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: the bill before us is that it doesn't PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, do what it was supposed to do. Term Extraction.

The one test for any bill was whether it would lower costs.

This bill fails that test.

"It's also clear that even many of

Popular News/ Media/

E-reader News Edition

US mortgage bosses may earn $6m (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 12/24/2009 2:50:51 PM

The heads of US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may each receive pay packages of up to $6m (ÂŁ3.7m) for 2009, depending on company performance.

The government has put $111bn of public money into the companies since taking them over and the awards go against moves to curb lavish pay packages.

But the regulator which decided the pay levels said the awards were 40% lower than before the government bailout.

The sums involved reflected the need to attract and retain talent, it argued.

In another development, the Obama administration announced it was removing the $400bn financial cap it will provide to the two companies to keep them from failing.

Treasury department officials

said the cap would be replaced with a flexible formula to ensure the companies could stand behind the billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities they sell to investors.

'Attract and retain' Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a role in funding threequarters of all US residential mortgages.

In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, the companies said Fannie Mae CEO Michael Williams and Freddie Mac CEO Charles Haldeman would each receive up to $6m, or $0.9m in salary, $3.1m in deferred payments and an additional $2m if performance targets were met.

The regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, defended the size of the pay deals.

For Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to continue to play a key role in the US mortgage market they must "attract and retain the talent needed to accomplish these

objectives", said the FHFA's acting director, Edward DeMarco.

The pay deals had, he added, dropped 40% from where they stood before the companies were seized by the government and put into conservatorship in September 2008, at the peak of the credit crisis.

However, according to housing consultant Thomas Lawler, the payments are "more than what is needed for them [the CEOs] to serve their function".

"To give to someone that much to just stay on makes you question just how critical they really are," Mr Lawler, founder of Lawler Economic And Housing Consulting in Leesburg, Virginia, was quoted as saying

by Reuters news agency.

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

63

MediaDailyNews: Clear Channel Radio Debuts Android App (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:29:05 PM

Following the success of its BlackBerry and iPhone apps, Clear Channel Radio's IHeartRadio is rolling out a parallel app for smartphones with the new Android mobile operating system distributed by Google.

Android users can find the app for IHeartRadio, a multiplatform digital content emporium that allows users to access streaming audio from about 400 Clear Channel Radio stations, online at the Android store or the IHeartRadio Web site.

The free app requires users to have Android 1.5 or any subsequent version of the operating system; it is compatible with a variety of models, including the Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris and MyTouch, and Samsung's Moment.

Currently, Google estimates there are 18 name-brand phone models using Android.

In addition to the roughly 400 audio streams from Clear Channel stations, IHeartRadio also gives users access to a

number of digital-only Clear Channel properties, such as eRockster, Pride, Christina Aguilera Radio, Eagles Radio and the White House Brief. It also supplies entry to a variety of on-demand audio and video content.

In October, Clear Channel introduced daily video-ondemand service to its IHeartRadio app for iPhones. The rollout of mobile video content followed high adoption rates for the app among iPhone and BlackBerry users. In the first two weeks of availability in April of this year, BlackBerry users downloaded the app over a quarter million times, making it the second-most-popular application offered by BlackBerry at that time.

Around the same time, it was the third-most-popular music download app at the Apple App store, following Pandora and Shazam.

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

64

Popular News/ Economy/

E-reader News Edition

Taliban video shows US soldier (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 12/25/2009 5:55:29 AM

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Pte Bergdahl is the only known American captive of the Taliban The Taliban has released a video that shows US soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl who was captured in Afghanistan almost six months ago.

Nato has confirmed the man in the video - seen wearing sunglasses, a military helmet and uniform - is Pte Bergdahl.

The 23-year-old airborne infantryman, originally from Idaho, appears healthy. He speaks calmly and clearly.

He was captured in Paktika province, a Taliban stronghold in eastern Afghanistan, on 30 June.

The insurgents also released a video of him a few weeks after he was captured.

'Affront' In the video, Pte Bergdahl gives identifying details about himself

such as his rank, date and place of birth, and deployment details.

"This is just going to be the next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense," he says.

US Navy Rear Admiral Gregory Smith has condemned the video in a statement, saying Pte Bergdahl had clearly been forced to read a prepared statement.

He said releasing the clip on Christmas Day was an affront to

the soldier's family and against the teachings of Islam.

The Pentagon has said Pte Bergdahl was serving with an Alaska-based infantry regiment in Paktika province.

He vanished from his base, near the border with Pakistan, just five months after arriving in Afghanistan.

The military has been trying to locate him ever since, and a reward has been offered for his

THIS continued from page 64

polled its members correctly: some votes were recorded from people no longer employed by BA, and the call for industrial action did not specify the intention to strike for 12 consecutive days precisely at Christmas. Had members known those details, fewer might have supported a strike, BA argued.

The judge agreed, and ruled against the strike.

Industrial disputes are not the only issue bothering BA. More than 20 years after privatisation, it is still struggling with the legacy of state ownership.

Grandfathered work practices safe return.

He is believed to be the first allow cabin crew to spend two soldier seized in either Iraq or nights at a destination if the Afghanistan for at least two itinerary has been disrupted, which plays havoc when planes years. are redirected because of bad Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: weather. According to the Civil Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Aviation Authority, it costs BA PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, an average of £29,900 ($49,000) in basic pay to employ a cabin Term Extraction. attendant, compared with THIS page 65

This week's top stories [25 December 2009] (The Economist: News analysis) Submitted at 12/25/2009 6:00:29 AM

British Airways Dec 17th 2009 From The Economist print edition Christmas woes for British Airways, even though a court orders that a strike is cancelled

THERE was a time, a decade ago, when British Airways (BA) could credibly claim to be “the world’s favourite airline”, as its posters proudly affirmed. Not any more. And certainly not to those passengers who were hastily booking alternatives to their BA flights this week as the threat of a long strike over Christmas loomed. The walkout

was averted on Thursday December 17th, but the underlying problems that led to the standoff remained unresolved. Compounding the woe came news of a series of two -day strikes at Eurostar, the passenger-train service under the English Channel, and the collapse of Flyglobespan, a Scottish airline.

The dispute at BA centres on its desire to cut costs by reducing cabin staff on most flights and limiting wage increases. The airline’s pilots and engineers have already accepted austerity measures; cabin staff, notified of the proposed changes in July, are less inclined to compromise (though some have taken voluntary redundancy). On

December 14th Unite, the union which represents almost all of the company’s 13,500 cabin staff, said they had voted overwhelmingly to strike.

The next day BA applied to London’s High Court for an injunction to stop them. The airline argued that Unite had not THIS page 64

Media/

E-reader News Edition

THIS

RESEARCH

continued from page 64

£20,200 for easyJet, the next-best payer among British airlines. BA staff work a maximum of 900 hours a year in the air, far fewer than European Union guidelines allow, and most can expect generous pensions.

Willie Walsh, the airline’s punchy Irish chief executive, was appointed in 2005 to knock such practices into competitive shape.

He is unlikely to yield much ground to union militancy. It seems that BA’s core shareholders support him: the share price hardly moved when the strike was announced. Many reckoned that the benefits of BA’s restructuring outweighed the likely damage from the threatened strike. Estimates of potential net revenue loss over the 12 days ranged from £60m to £160m, whereas the benefits of restructuring were put by some analysts at £60m a year.

Such numbers are in any event small change compared with other losses looming over the

65

continued from page 65

company. BA is already expected to report a pre-tax loss of at least £400m in the year to March 31st, and perhaps as much as twice that sum. Its important North American routes and business have been hard hit by the collapse in business-class travel.

This could bounce back quickly with economic recovery in America and, provided that cost increases from environmental measures are not too onerous, the long-haul travel on which BA’s profitability depends should revive in time. But, like all former national carriers in Europe, it is facing devastating competition on its short-haul flights from low-cost airlines.

The only remedy may lie in creating or teaming up with a low -cost partner.

The planned merger with Iberia, the Spanish airline, looked as if it would be a winning combination a year ago when it was first mooted. Today it seems more like a mutual rescue operation.

Both airlines’ national economies are still in the doldrums; both firms are struggling with costs greater than their revenues. Iberia seems unmoved by Mr Walsh’s fight with the union. It is also reasonably sanguine about BA’s other big problem: its enormous pension deficit. But according to the merger memorandum signed in November, Iberia can call off the wedding if BA cannot reach a satisfactory agreement with the trustees of its two pension funds.

On December 14th the trustees announced that they had recalculated the deficit of the two funds at £3.7 billion, based on March 31st valuations. BA is currently making cash top-ups of £131m a year. The Pensions Regulator will help to determine whether the trustees’ valuation is adequate and what must be done to plug the deficit. If BA has to pay in a lot more cash, Iberia could opt out of the merger.

Pension valuations are notoriously susceptible to

assumptions, and BA’s deficit could easily lurch between £1 billion and £8 billion.

Such uncertainties limit BA’s options, as well as its attractiveness to a merger partner. Any spare cash that the airline can generate should be used to replace its fleet of 55 ageing Boeing 747s, which are an average of five years away from retirement. But how much spare cash will BA have? Less, after its dispute with cabin staff, even though it won its case in court.

Back to top ^^ Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views.

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

-0:22 Source: The Nielsen Company.

Note: TV viewing patterns in the U.S. tend to be seasonal, with TV usage higher in the winter months and lower in the summer months, leading to a decline in quarter to quarter usage Overall Monthly Reach(Number of Users 2+ in 000's) 3Q09 2Q09 3Q08 % Diff Yr-Yr Watching TV in the home 282,957 284,396 282,289 +0.2% Watching Time-shifted TV 84,920 82,297 67,656 +25.5% Using the Internet 190,481 RESEARCH page 66

Research Brief: The Connected Consumer (MediaPost | Media News)

week, with 31 minutes spent in playback mode with their DVR. In addition, the average According to the Nielsen third consumer spent 4 hours on the quarter Three Screen Report, Internet and 22 minutes watching DVR and online video continue online video each week, and to show considerable growth in s p e n t 3 m i n u t e s w a t c h i n g time spent from the previous year m o b i l e v i d e o e a c h w e e k .

3rd quarter: up 21.1% and Monthly Time Spent(in 34.9%, respectively. In the 3rd Hours:Minutes Per User 2+) quarter, the average American 3Q09 watched 31 hours of TV per 2Q09 Submitted at 12/25/2009 5:16:02 AM

3Q08 % Diff Yr-Yr(3Q09 to 3Q08) Absolute Diff Yr-Yr(3Q09 to 3Q08) Watching TV in the home 129:16 141:03 129:45 -0.4% -0:29 Watching Timeshifted TV 7:12

7:16 5:56 +21.1% +1:14 Using the Internet 27:32 26:15 27:18 +0.9% +0:14 Watching Video on Internet 3:24

3:11 2:31 +34.9% +0:53 Mobile Subscribers Watching Video on a Mobile Phone 3:15 3:15 3:37 -10.0% RESEARCH page 65

66

E-reader News Edition

RESEARCH continued from page 65

191,035 160,070 +19.0% Watching Video on Internet 138,162 133,962 120,343 +14.8% Using a Mobile Phone 237,411 233,722 225,392 +5% Mobile Subscribers Watching Video on a Mobile Phone 15,744 15,267 10,260 +53% Source: The Nielsen Company More Highlights and Trends in the third quarter of 2009 included: • 99% of video in America viewed on traditional TV • Teens with mobile are the heaviest users of mobile video, at 7-plus hours per month • The age group 45-54 mobile users log nearly 3 hours of mobile video per month • Americans consume 129 hrs of TV, 27 hrs of Internet, 3 hrs of mobile video each month • 63% of Internet users and 39% of mobile video users are 35+ • 57% of Americans with home Internet access use TV and Internet simultaneously at least once a month Video Audience Composition(3Q 2009) Medium

% Age Group Watching K2-11 T12-17 A18-24 A25-34 A35-44 A45-54 A55-64 A65+ On TV 11% 7% 8% 12% 14% 16% 15% 18% On the Internet 6% 7% 9% 15% 19% 22% 13% 9% On mobile phones n/a 18% 12% 31% 21% 11% 6% 1% Source: The Nielsen Company.

Based on Total Users of each Media.

The American consumer is spending more and more time with his/her technology, especially with the three screens of television, Internet and mobile devices, says the report. Each age

group appears to be multi-tasking 24:21 media, but interesting patterns 22:44 emerge by comparing viewing by 28:29 device and across demographics.

30:26 Television is clearly where 34:36 consumers of all ages spend 39:45 the majority of their screen time. 43:44 A s o f 3 Q 0 9 , t h e a v e r a g e 31:19 person watched television 31 Watching Timeshifted TV hours:19 minutes per week 0:31 compared to 4 hours of Internet 0:23 time.

0:19 Though kids and teens are two 0:56 d e m o g r a p h i c s t h a t o n l i n e 0:52 a d v e r t i s e r s w a n t t o r e a c h , 0:33 their Internet usage is actually 0:31 o n l y o n e f o u r t h o f a d u l t s ' 0:08 Internet time. Also, young adults 0:31 18-24 are the only demographic Using the Internet group that spends more time 0:25 watching online video than 1:29 timeshifted TV. 3:47 Not surprisingly, notes the 5:35 report, older Americans 65+ use 6:39 traditional TV the most, at 43 6:44 hours:44 minutes per week, but 4:33 they also are on the Internet more 2:25 each week than teenagers (2 4:06 h o u r s : 2 5 m i n u t e s v e r s u s 1 Watching Video on Internet hour:29 minutes).

0:05 W e e k l y T i m e S p e n t i n 0:17 H o u r s : M i n u t e s ( 3 Q 2 0 0 9 ) 0:35 Medium 0:35 % Age Group Watching 0:33 K2-11 0:30 T12-17 0:14 A18-24 0:07 A25-34 0:22 A35-44 Mobile Subscribers Watching A45-54 Video on a Mobile Phone A55-64 n/a A65+ 0:13 Avg 0:05 On Traditional TV 0:05 24:49 0:03

0:02 0:01 n/a 0:03 Source: The Nielsen Company.

Based on Total Population in the U.S. (all 292 million Americans, whether or not they have the technology.)

Key Facts According to the Report: • The majority of video content c o n s u m e d i n America, approximately 99%, continues to be viewed on traditional television. TV viewing levels are down 29 minutes from 3Q08, most likely due to increased viewing in third quarter 2008 from the Beijing Olympics and the Presidential election • Internet video usage is also on the rise, with Internet users watching 53 more minutes of video online in 3Q09 versus last year • Americans continue to use their DVRs - third quarter results show the average DVR user timeshifts more than 7 hours of programming each month, 21% more than the year before • Overall, young adults 18-24 spend most of their three screen time watching live TV, but they typically devote more time to watching online video than timeshifted TV • Time spent among overall mobile video viewers remains consistent, with teens RESEARCH page 67

Media/

E-reader News Edition

MediaDailyNews: Mag Bag: 2009 Round-Up Of Magazine Closures (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/24/2009 12:19:29 PM

A total of 369 magazines folded in 2009, per a MediaFinder finding a few weeks ago. To its annual tally of launched and expired magazines can be added one certain casualty, I.D., and another likely casualty -- Need-which seems destined for the big recycling bin in the sky barring a last-minute intervention.

After cutting back its frequency to bimonthly in May, the forward -thinking design-oriented I.D. closed Dec. 16, while quarterly Need-- which covers humanitarian issues and philanthropy -- will close at the end of January unless it finds new funding, deemed unlike in Folio: interview.

These are just the latest in a long casualty list of magazines closed in 2009 -- a total of 433, if you include 64 titles that ceased print publication to go online-only.

MediaFinder noted that this number is actually down from previous years -- 526 in 2008, 573 in 2007 -- but the victims include a larger proportion of big titles. Among the high-profile magazines to close this year were Country Home, Teen, Wondertime, Domino(January), Hallmark(February), Best Life and Blender(March), Portfolio(April), Nickelodeon

and Vibe(June), Southern Accents(August), Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride, and Elegant Bride(October), Fortune Small Business, Metropolitan Home(November) and National G e o g r a p h i c Adventure(December).

Some titles closed shortly after their debut, including the print version of Rick Warren's Purpose -Driven Connection, which went online-only, and Mountain Time, Forbes' lifestyle magazine targeting the ritzy ski resort jet set. Niche titles that met their demise included two urban lifestyle titles, Urb and Giant, and two LGBT titles, Genre and The Advocate. Niche sports titles removed from play included Travel + Leisure Golf, and Tennis Week.

2009 also claimed a number of well-known and highly regarded trade publications, including Radio & Records, Editor & Publisher, and Kirkus Reviews; in May Television Week folded its print edition and went onlineonly.

Electronic Gaming Monthly to Relaunch in March Not every magazine that closes is gone for good: just consider Electronic Gaming Monthly, closed by Ziff Davis Media a year ago, which is supposed to resume publication beginning with a relaunched April edition

example of various corporate sponsors, including Gillette and Accenture, which withdrew their sponsorships (at least temporarily) during the media frenzy triggered by the revelation that Woods had extra-marital affairs with as many as 17 women. Studies suggest that anywhere from a quarter to half of American men and women have engaged in extramarital affairs at some point in their lives.

Smithsonian Preps Special Cultural Travel Magazine Smithsonian is preparing a (set to hit the newsstands in s p e c i a l e d i t i o n d e v o t e d t o March). According to Folio:, the "cultural travel" in partnership magazine's founder, Steve Harris, with travel author, television i s w o r k i n g t o r e v i v e t h e host, syndicated columnist and groundbreaking game geek radio personality Rick Steves, guide. After encountering some who will be the sole author in the delays, Harris pushed the date to i s s u e . W i t h a n e w s s t a n d the end of the first quarter in distribution of 100,000 as well as 2010; however, much of the a digital edition, the special issue f o o t w o r k i s a l r e a d y d o n e , is set to debut in early May 2010 including the hiring of an ad sales with a cover price of $5.99. The team and a newsstand marketing Smithsonian magazine Web site and distribution agreement with i s c r e a t i n g c o m p l e m e n t a r y Time/Warner Retail Sales & content, including audio guides, Marketing. video and images from Steves' Roar No More: Golf Digest travels. Advertising sales for the Axes Tiger Column special issue are open until Another media company has March 15. turned its back on Tiger Woods, Five Filters featured article: with the announcement from Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Golf Digest is suspending the PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, monthly column. The Golf Term Extraction.

Digest suspension follows the

67

RESEARCH continued from page 66

reporting the most time spent on average watching mobile video, at just over 7 hours per month; however, this is not just a young medium, as older mobile video users age 45-54 report viewing nearly 3 hours of video on their mobile phones each month • Time spent viewing video on social networking sites increased 98% from October 2008 to October 2009. The embedding of videos into existing social networks only strengthens the viral nature of online video For additional details and access to the PDF report file, please visit here.

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

MediaDailyNews: HD Radio Alliance Preps New Campaign (MediaPost | Media News) The HD Radio Alliance, an MEDIADAILYNEWS: page 68 industryatconsortium created to Submitted 12/24/2009 1:35:34 PM

68

E-reader News/

E-reader News Edition

MEDIADAILYNEWS continued from page 67

promote HD digital radio, is preparing a fresh wave of publicity in the New Year, with radio spots touting the availability of free HD2 and HD3 channels. Many radio stations are using HD to create niche channels devoted to a particular genre of music, e.g. all country or all classic rock.

The spots will also emphasize that the content is free, playing to what others have termed monthly "fee fatigue" among cashstrapped consumers. The HD Radio Alliance says the new spots will be heard on over 600 stations covering the top 100 markets, from Dec. 28 through March 28.

The first wave of HD Radio Alliance campaigns focused on building awareness of the new digital medium, which delivers CD-quality sound and allows broadcasters to offer a variety of

E-BOOK continued from page 68

the Internet, he is not convinced that the number of people who are actually downloading the digital files is increasing as rapidly.

Compared with music piracy, illicit e-books are not nearly as widespread or as easy to acquire.

Pirates must be determined to track down specific e-book titles.

Pirated e-book files (usually available as PDFs) can sometimes be poorly reproduced, and are sometimes made up of scanned page images窶馬ot text.

Publishers stuck between a

data-focused features, like traffic and weather reports, along with the HD2 and HD3 "multicasts."

Subsequent campaigns continued the awareness push while also promoting consumer electronics retailers selling HD radio sets. The latest campaign, which focuses on HD2 and HD3 multicasts specifically, aims to "make the consumer proposition easy to understand."

It arrives as the total number of radio stations broadcasting in HD exceeds 1,800; the number of local FM HD2 and HD3 channels topping 900.

After the introduction of HD radio in December 2005, the HD Radio Alliance has struggled to raise the profile of the new medium, which has not received the same free publicity enjoyed

by HDTV. In 2008, the HD Radio Alliance claimed that awareness of the medium had

reached 77%, but other research findings varied considerably.

Over the last couple of years, studies pegged awareness of HD radio among adults at 45% (May 2007), 24% (April 2008), 67% (September, 2008), leaving the picture fuzzy at best.

Turning to more concrete numbers, the installed base of HD radio sets in the United States remains fairly small: 1.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, up from about 600,000 at the end of 2008. Both figures include HD radios pre-installed in new automobiles.

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

E-book piracy: The publishing industry's next epic saga? (Macworld) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers)

longer dominated by technical how-to e-books but includes best -selling authors Janet Evanovich, Submitted at 12/24/2009 10:09:42 AM John Grisham, and James

by Tom Spring, PC World Patterson. PC World found that As e-readers such as the Amazon one-third of Publishers Weekly's Kindle continue to rise, so 2009 top 15 best-selling fiction follows the publishing industry's books were available for illicit worst nightmare: e-book piracy. download through a growing For years e-book piracy was the variety of book-swapping sites, e x c l u s i v e p r o v i n c e o f t h e file-sharing services, and peer-todetermined few willing to ferret peer networks. out mostly nerdy textbook titles The availability of best sellers is from the Internet's dark alleys j u s t t h e s t a r t . P C W o r l d and read them on their PC. But discovered virtual bookshelves publishers say that the problem is stuffed with pirated e-book titles ballooning as e-readers grow in r a n g i n g f r o m c o p y r i g h t e d popularity and the appetite for popular fiction and nonfiction mainstream e-books grows. titles to college textbooks and [Read our review roundup of how-to e-books. All of these eight e-book readers.] titles are downloadable and ready "We are now seeing large for viewing on your e-reader of volumes of e-books being pirated choice, be it the Amazon Kindle, digital rock and a hard place For a relatively small amount of on everything from file-sharing Sony Reader, or Barnes & Noble Worries of piracy have kept money, pirates can convert any networks to Websites," says Ed Nook. many publishers and authors, h a r d - c o p y b o o k i n t o a n McCoyd of the Association of "We know e-book piracy is a most notably J.K. Rowling, unprotected text file, even if a American Publishers, a trade problem, and we are taking the author of the Harry Potter book legitimate electronic book is organization representing major issue very seriously," says Paul series, from embracing the e- never created, Enderle says. U.S. book publishers. The year-to Aiken, executive director of The book format. They fear that e- "This fear of electronic piracy is -year percentage growth of Authors Guild, an advocacy book files protected by digital actually fueling the piracy a v a i l a b l e e - b o o k t i t l e s i s group for writers. "We've seen unknown, McCoyd says. Other the music and film industry deal r i g h t s m a n a g e m e n t ( D R M ) movement," he says. technology could be hacked That's what happened with publishers, such as Hachette with this, and it stands to reason anyway. However, refusing to Rowling's works. Even though Book Group, say that e-book we will grapple with it too." take advantage of the e-book Rowling's publisher, Scholastic piracy has grown "exponentially" Aiken says that while he is concerned about the growth in format can sometimes backfire Books, doesn't currently offer over the past year. and drive piracy, says consumer any Harry Potter titles in e-book A review of e-books currently the availability of e-book titles on available for illicit download technology analyst Rob Enderle E-BOOK page 69 E-BOOK page 68 confirms that e-book piracy is no of the Enderle Group.

E-reader News Edition

69

E-BOOK continued from page 68

format, hackers have scanned all of the books and turned them into PDF files that are viewable on any e-reader.

"If electronic books can't be had legitimately, others will step in and fill the need; and once a pirate industry is established, it probably won't go away easily," says Enderle. The best way for the publishing industry to combat piracy is to follow the music industry's lead and make more ebook titles available.

Publishers have been producing more digital editions for their books, and revenues are up.

Wholesale trade in e-books in the United States for the first three quarters of 2009 ($110 million) is up threefold compared with 2008, according to the International Digital Publishing Forum.

DRM is no e-book piracy fix While publishing e-books protected by DRM seems like a no-brainer solution to piracy, the idea has faced criticism from within the publishing industry and from consumers. First, publishers are weary of reports

that the DRM technology used in the Kindle and the Sony Reader has been hacked, says Nick Bogaty, an expert in DRM technology for Adobe. Second, consumers are hesitant to buy digital books with inflexible DRM that ties an e-book to a limited number of e-readers.

Critics say that the two providers of DRM-protected e-books, Amazon and Adobe, are stunting the e-book industry's progress.

For instance, Amazon's Kindle uses its own DRM-restricted AZW e-book format. People who purchase an e-book on a Kindle cannot transfer it for reading on another, competing e-book reader from a different company.

DRM issues get thornier when device makers, such as Amazon, start negotiating exclusive epublishing rights for their products. Amazon signed a deal with best-selling business writer Stephen R. Covey to publish several of his books, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Principle-Centered Leadership, exclusively for the Kindle. The company has also

negotiated exclusive rights for Kindle e-books from author Stephen King and for a biography of First Lady Michelle Obama.

The idea of exclusive e-book rights tied to devices seems as annoying as being allowed to play a particular new CD only on a certain company's CD players.

But Ian Fried, the vice president of Amazon Kindle, has stated that Kindle customers don't mind its DRM. That could change, however, as a predicted flood of new, rival e-readers hit the market in 2010, and Kindle owners think about jumping ship—only to discover that they can't take their e-books with them. Remember the backlash against DRM-protected content in Apple's iTunes Store?

Bogaty points out that Adobe, whose DRM technology is used

by Sony and Barnes & Noble, is yielding to critics who say that its antipiracy technology is too restrictive. Adobe is loosening the grip of its DRM, allowing users to share e-books with friends and to read books on up

to 12 different devices (six desktop and six handheld).

Author Marcia Layton Turner says she is less concerned about piracy and more interested in making her books available via the e-book format. Turner says the potential of new e-book revenue is reason enough to jump on the e-book bandwagon, despite the risk of piracy. "I'd rather sell twice as many books and lose a few sales due to stealing than to miss out on those additional sales altogether," Turner says.

And many other authors agree: The problem of piracy takes a backseat to the challenge of getting people to read books in the first place.

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