Liberty Newsprint Dec-27-09

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26/12/09 - 27/12/09

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Still a special relationship | Peter Preston

By Peter Preston (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

Imagine a permanent and very cordiale entente, a new Third Force for planet Earth. And go on imagining. You saw Messrs Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:00:01 PM Brown and Sarkozy playing British leaders will continue natural best mates over bankers' clinging to the US, for fear of bonuses the other day. Now head what a break-up would expose for the Westminster conference What if Hitler had won the war? c e n t r e a s a v e r y e x - p r i m e Or Lee Harvey Oswald had minister faces the genteel dripmissed? History is full of what-if drip of Iraqi water torture. questions, the stuff of fiction and We know already that there's almost-fact – and here are two something dodgier here than the more as we pound into 2010. odd dossier. We have heard a What if Tony Blair hadn't parade of the diplomatic great dissembled about weapons of and good curl civilised lips over mass delusion? And – absolutely Downing Street's antics in March connected – what if Britain hadn't 2003. We have seen top lawyers copped out at Suez? furrow their brows at the That final question is posed (in illegality of it all. We have even crisp counter-factual terms) by endured Tony singing " Je ne Robert Skidelsky at the end of regrette rien" as per usual. Yet his essay on 20th century Britain the basic point – and harshest of f o r A W o r l d B y I t s e l f , a truths – has barely been touched chronicle of our small island's on. upheavals from Bede to Blair. George Bush and Dick Cheney What if the Brits and the French h a d t h e i n t e l l i g e n c e t h e y had told Eisenhower to go hang required. America's great secret in 1956, he asks. What if they'd sausage machine was sizzling put the Suez Canal Company with links to Saddam. It may all back in place, set up a joint have been craven rubbish (as a garrison on the waterway – and few brave souls declared). But it become the empowered driving was what the commander-inforces of a united Europe? chief deemed conclusive, with

necessary action to follow.

Mighty armies marched to the top of the hill with no chance of marching down again.

And what could our PM do then, poor thing? Wimp out and order the fleet to sail away? Court derision amid a frenzy of knocking knees? Back John Scarlett's iffy-squiffy conclusions against the torrent of supposed certainties pouring in from Washington? Of course, millions marched for a different answer.

Of course doves and hawks were at it again. But cast your mind back to Eden and Suez and ask, in reality, what other choice No 10 had.

So 53 years ago, strapped for cash, short of too many troops fighting a US war in Korea, we let Ike ring down the curtain on empire. (Good job? But that's not the point). So Britain's bomb became America's bomb, leaselent by default and impossible of independent operation. So MI5 and 6 became mere needy adjuncts of the CIA. So we couldn't fight a war of our own – see the Falklands – without US help, and permission. So our selfesteem and diplomatic status

came to rest on a bit-part role as America's best friend over the water, the Oval Office's bridge to the heart of Europe.

Blair, being Blair, gave such spear-carrying a rhetorical ring.

He talked up our influence. But why, after Clinton, put so much effort into getting cosy with George W? Because he thought – and surely still thinks – that it's the office that matters, not the name of who happens to be president. Don't worry whether it's an elephant in the room, or a donkey: just stick close to a relationship of extra special importance to Great Britain, because it haplessly defines us.

But Wilson stayed out of Vietnam. Why couldn't Blair do the same for Baghdad? Because Europe in 1964 wasn't the Europe of 2003. Because the whole dependency culture of British political life had changed. Call Tony Blair a "sycophant" like the Daily Mail, if you wish. Call him a twister and a cheat, like many in his own party. Call him any of the names Chancellor Brown used to whisper behind his hand.

But don't forget that PM Brown is first out of the traps when

Obama wants more troops in Helmand, or that would-be PM Cameron, mending his White House fences fast, stands right behind him. Regime change when Mullah Omar departed; regime change again if Karzai doesn't perform.

By all means dump on Blair if it makes you feel better. By all means cheer Chilcot on. But remember that this is by no means the whole of the story.

Remember that we are impaled on a relationship none of our leaders – past or immediately present – will change, specially constrained by a truth that cannot be boldly told. For what would happen if they did? Then – no counter-factual needed – the emperor would run desperately short of clothes.

• Iraq war inquiry • Tony Blair • Iraq • Egypt Peter Preston guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Al-Qaida links to Christmas Day plane bomb plot investigated

By Peter Walker, Chris McGreal (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:56:00 PM

Officials investigate British link to Nigerian's plan to destroy US airliner Investigators on both sides of the Atlantic were tonight urgently investigating the background of the would-be plane bomber, as international attention turned to al-Qaida's stronghold in Yemen.

Scotland Yard and MI5 want to establish how Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was radicalised and by whom, and whether he had accomplices either in the UK or the Arabian peninsula. He has told US officials that he met alQaida operatives in Yemen, where they gave him the device which almost brought down flight 253 to Detroit, and where they taught him how to use it. it emerged that after attending university in London, the 23-year -old had dropped out of a postgraduate business course in Dubai, telling his family he had gone to Yemen to study Islam, then cutting off contact with them.

Repercussions from the failed plot on Christmas Day continued, with Barack Obama ordering a review of US security as politicians demanded to know how the British-educated Nigerian was able to get on the plane when his own father, a wealthy banker, had himself

warned US diplomats that his son might be a security risk.

Obama's spokesman said he was seeking answers as to why Abdulmutallab was placed on the least urgent of three US watchlists of possible terrorism suspects, rather than a higher category which would have prevented him flying.

Robert Gibbs told ABC News: "The president has asked that a review be undertaken to ensure that any information gets to where it needs to go, to the people making the decisions. The president wants to review some of these procedures and see if they need to be updated."

Passengers on transatlantic flights faced delays of several hours at the weekend as extra security checks were rushed through, with people heading for the US being frisked and having hand luggage searched. Some reported having Christmas presents unwrapped.

Some new details about Abdulmutallab became clear today.

• Whitehall officials confirmed that in May they had turned down his application to return to the UK to study, although this was because his chosen college was considered a bogus institution rather than due to fears over terrorism.

• They said he did not come to MI5's attention during his three years studying engineering at University College London, though police were continuing to

search his luxury apartment in a central London mansion block.

• Abdulmutallab's father, a former government minister who recently retired as chairman of First Bank group in Nigeria, was still speaking to investigators. He had been so concerned at his son's views that several months ago he reported them to Nigerian security services and the US embassy.

• Al-Qaida activists in Yemen referred in a video recorded on 21 December to "a bomb to hit the enemies of God". It was not known if this was a general warning, or indicated a clear Yemeni link.

In the US, Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate's homeland security committee, said he believed that the fact Abdulmutallab was even allowed to board a flight from Lagos to the US, via Amsterdam, amounted to an intelligence failure.

"I am troubled by several aspects of this case, including how the suspect escaped the attention of the state department and law enforcers when his father apparently reported concerns about his son's extremist behaviour to the US embassy in Nigeria, how the suspect managed to retain a US visa after such complaints, and why he was not recognised as someone who reportedly was named in the terrorist database," he said. The Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said: "How

does a person on a terrorism watch list get a US visa? It's amazing to me that an individual like this who's sending out so many signals could end up getting on a plane going to the US." The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, said that while Abdulmutallab was on a general watchlist there had not been sufficient information to move him to the much shorter list of those barred from flying.

"The issue [is], was there enough information to move him to the more specific list which would require additional examination or indeed being on no-fly status?" she said. "You need information that is specific and credible if you're actually going to bar someone from air travel. He was on a general list of over half a million people, but there was not the kind of credible information that would move him up that list.

Now one of the things we'll be doing is looking at those watchlist procedures."

Napolitano said there was no indication Abdulmutallab was "part of anything larger" in terms of impending attacks.

More details emerged yesterday about the apparent radicalisation of a young man born into privilege in the Muslimdominated north of Nigeria. He attended an elite Britishcurriculum boarding school in the capital of Togo, Lomé.

A former teacher of his recalled the then-teenager expressing

sympathy for the Taliban after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

However, a friend from that time, James Ticknell, told the Guardian that, while Abdulmutallab had been a devout Muslim, he was not in the least militant.

"He was very decent and gentle, in fact a pacifist. His views on religion were very mainstream.

When I realised the man on the plane was him, the main thing I felt was disbelief."

Abdulmutallab reportedly told US investigators he had received al-Qaida training in Yemen.

Nigeria's civil aviation authority said last night that he bought his round-trip ticket from Lagos to Detroit via Amsterdam at a KLM office in Ghana's capital, Accra, on 16 December, with a planned return of 8 January. He paid the £1,775 fare in cash. Before the flight departed on Thursday, he checked in as normal, taking only a carry-on bag.

Security at Lagos had been found adequate by US authorities. Under EU rules, Abdulmutallab would have been checked again as a transfer passenger at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Dutch officials say these checks took place and were "well performed".

Aviation security experts said that scanners designed to pick up explosives rather than metal exist, but are not in widespread use.

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Nine deaths in bloody clashes at Ashura mourning ceremony in Tehran

By Robert Tait (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was killed after being shot through the heart in the city's Enghelab Square. The 35Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:33:59 PM year-old's death could provide • Reformist leader's nephew the opposition with a fresh killed in Tehran clashes rallying point by turning him into • Ashura bloodbath widens a martyr in its struggle against political rift in country the regime.

It was meant to be an event Earlier, an elderly man had been when Iranians unite to honour killed after being shot through one of Shia Islam's most revered t h e f o r e h e a d a t V a l i a s r martyrs. Instead, it turned into a c r o s s r o a d s . day of bloody carnage that left at The crackdown was triggered by least nine dead, many more the opposition Green Movement's injured and the country facing a decision to use Ashura – which potentially unbridgeable divide commemorates the death of and an escalating cycle of Imam Hossein, the Prophet violence.

Muhammad's grandson, at The Shia mourning ceremony of Karbala in 680 – as a day of Ashura became the setting for all protest. The movement has been -out confrontation between Iran's forced to limit its demonstrations torn political factions when the to state-sanctioned occasions in government unleashed a furious recent months in the face of a crackdown on pro-opposition fierce government crackdown. protesters that included orders to Opposition backers yesterday open fire. turned out in their largest In the most violent clashes since numbers since last June's postthe aftermath of last June's election protests, despite official disputed presidential election, warnings that the government s e c u r i t y f o r c e s f i r e d o n would clamp down hard on demonstrators who had gathered dissent. in their thousands in some of Showing that it anticipated Tehran's main thoroughfares. w i d e s p r e a d v i o l e n c e , t h e Riot police and plainclothed government had cancelled all agents attacked people with leave for emergency workers batons and iron rods, aiming for beforehand and put hospitals on the head to exact maximum a l e r t t o e x p e c t c a s u a l t i e s . damage, said witnesses.

Witnesses reported seeing A l i M o u s a v i K h a m a n e , a members of the special forces nephew of the reformist being ordered by their

commanders to kneel and fire on the demonstrators.

The reformist website, Rah-e Sabz, said some soldiers refused to obey orders. One was said to have been slapped by his commander and threatened with a military tribunal unless obeyed.

Rather than be cowed, however, demonstrators responded furiously. Reports from bystanders and on opposition websites described protesters attacking the security forces with stones. Some members of the security forces were assaulted with their own batons after having them seized. Other had their uniforms ripped away as they tried to assault demonstrators in Laleh park, Tehran. In a sign of open rebellion, police cars and motorcycles were set ablaze, and some reports last night said government buildings were on fire.

The fury of the protesters was directed more at Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rather than at the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Many chanted slogans including: "Khamenei is a murderer, his leadership is illegitimate."

Some of the chants linked Khamenei directly to rape allegations levelled by some opposition activists against the security forces after the election.

The chants were one of the

clearest sign yet of the rapid collapse of Khamenei's moral authority. In Iran's conservative culture, rape is often regarded as an equally heinous crime as murder.

Turning the religious tables on the Islamic regime, opposition supporters have sought to compare Khamenei to the Umayyad caliph, Yazid, who was responsible for Imam Hossein's death and is seen as a cruel tyrant in Shia Islam.

Hossein Bastani, an Iranian analyst based in France, said the nature of the demonstrations had changed since the post-election period and that most protesters now wanted a change of regime.

"Several months ago most people didn't want regime change," he said. "But now because of the behaviour of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, most are now in favour of some kind of regime change. They think there is no possibility that this regime or government can be modified. The other thing that has changed is that people are no longer keeping their faces covered. They know that the consequences of being identified and caught can be very serious, but they no longer care."

The government last night dismissed reports that it had ordered forces to fire on demonstrators – a denial it also issued during the post-election upheaval, when, the opposition

claims, at least 72 people were killed.

"No report of death has been sent to the police," Azizollah Rajabzadeh said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

"No one has been killed. Police did not open fire and the present officers did not carry weapons."

The White House condemned the "unjust suppression" of civilians. "Hope and history are on the side of those who peacefully seek their universal rights, and so is the United States," said Mike Hammer, the White House national security council spokesman.

Voices from the street: Protesters' stories Mohammad, 25, economic student, who was at Kalaj bridge: "I witnessed three people being killed. The security forces were beating people like dogs. The forces were ordered to kneel and aim and shoot at people directly.

We were Kolaj bridge and people started attacking.

The security forces began shooting at people. I saw one of them, his brain was blown out.

People started chanting: 'I kill, I kill, the one who killed my brother.' People for the first time are defending themselves by throwing stones and also with batons. People have been attacking them bare-handed. The NINE page 7

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Gordon, Barack, Dave, here's how to be better in 2010 | Jackie Ashley

By Jackie Ashley (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

Afghanistan bleeding away on a timescale you have just set, and the Copenhagen climate summit a disaster, maybe this should be Submitted at 12/27/2009 2:00:00 PM the year of going faster, and even Stop smiling, start worrying, be looking a little worried. In 2010 nicer. These new year resolutions your resolution should be to would be good for our political unveil the meaner Barack, and leaders, and for us kick some backsides. More For most of us, new year urgency please. resolutions are a parlour game. Robert Mugabe. Retire. Go. They last a few days at most. Pack up. You have stayed around Mine are to see more live theatre 20 years too long, and created a a n d t o T w i t t e r o n l y w h e n desert in what was once an Eden. mimicking songbirds. But here You may want to die in office; are some suggestions for our that's a paltry ambition, and too political leaders, at home and many other people will have to abroad. What should they change die to help you achieve it. about themselves in 2010?

Herman Van Rompuy. Get I'll start with Gordon Brown, the noticed. Surprise us. Everyone great survivor of a year of has written you off as a gentle, political mayhem and economic haiku-writing Belgian nonentity failure. The cheap-gag resolution who got the job only because for 2010 would be – resign. But neither France nor Germany that seems churlish for a man could stomach Tony Blair. Show who has staked everything on us what a European president fighting to the end. Nor is there could be like. Let's have angry much point suggesting any speeches about the climate, nosechange in policy, or a radical to-nose confrontations with switch of cabinet ministers. So Vladimir Putin, and shockingly Gordon, how about resolving to frank warnings about the misuse s m i l e o n l y w h e n y o u a r e of US power in the Middle East. genuinely amused or happy? If Come on Herman, you can do it. this means you never smile in Cathy Ashton. Ditto. Like your public again, I promise you the colleague Herman, you need to nation will cope. prove them wrong. As EU President Obama. The relaxed, f o r e i g n m i n i s t e r y o u a r e laid-back style has wowed the theoretically one of the most world. That slow, amused, Top powerful women in the world.

Cat walk; the high-five wave; the Go for it. irony – we love it all. But with Home again, and so to David

Cameron. Two for you, as befits someone being treated as prime minister-in-waiting. First, start being nicer to "the little people" – the makeup artists, photographers, drivers, bagcarriers and all the other slightly fuzzy attendants in the background. You aren't nice to them. It's being noticed. Second, tell Michael Ashcroft that until he personally shows you his tax bill cheque stubs, you don't want any more of his money. Dave, this is serious and sensible advice, even if it's coming from the Guardian.

George Osborne. Stop the smirk.

I know you're trying. Try harder.

You are probably going to be giving the whole country bad news for years to come. So please, don't look like you're enjoying it.

David Miliband. English.

Honestly, it's not a bad language.

Lots of people use it. It isn't as impressive in the thinktank world as full-on wonkerbabblegook, which all you very clever people speak so fluently. But voters would warm to you more if you started to sound … how can I put this… like a bloke.

Ed Miliband. We hear about The Deal. In Labour circles it's already becoming almost as famous as the Granita deal. We don't know where it was cooked up, but the story is that you and your elder bro have agreed never

to stand against each other for the leadership. You agreed, if you did, because you were, in your words, "the other Miliband", the younger one, the second lieutenant. But even before Copenhagen, where you proved to be rather a star, you were quietly wowing Labour audiences. You owe it to yourself, to the party and, in a funny way, to your brother too: Ed, when the time comes, let's have a proper contest. Repudiate The Deal.

Nick Clegg. Come off the fence.

You could be in the position of kingmaker by the spring. People want to know more about where your instincts lie. What you should say is: "I am on the centre -left. I could not imagine myself propping up a Tory minority government. But I think Labour has lost its moral compass and is an exhausted wreck of a party. So if there is a hung parliament my priority will be to agree a real reform package for British politics, which will include voting reform, as the first stage in the complete overhaul of the party system. When Tony Blair and Paddy Ashdown talked about a realignment of the left, to create a fresh liberal-left coalition, they were 15 years early. But it was a bold idea, and now is our chance."

Boris Johnson. Keep making us laugh. I can't think of one thing

you have done to improve life in London since becoming mayor, but you bring a smile to our faces. Whether it's falling into the river while collecting litter or the endless chuntering, you cheer us up – that can't be said about many politicians.

Peter Mandelson. Choose. Either the playboy lifestyle with megarich, aristo friends; yachts, huntin' and shootin' weekends.

Or Labour party politics. The two don't mix very well I'm afraid.

MPs with bills for overpaid expenses. Don't argue. Write the cheques. And you can't say sorry often enough. It may not be fair.

You may have thought you were acting within the rules. But the whole system was rotten, and there is no point in trying to justify it.

Professionally angry columnists and bloggers. It's fun. It's easy, especially when it's anonymous.

But remember that we need parliament and therefore we need MPs. We need good people to stand for the Commons and we need to encourage them. So after the violent tidal wave of disgust that almost drowned Westminster this year, let next year be characterised by moderate and thoughtful criticism – even the odd word of encouragement.

And to our readers … Keep buying a real newspaper. In a GORDON, page 7

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The newsmakers of 2009

By Esther Addley (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

year. Since the beginning of 2009, 7,603 articles have appeared in the British national press about Michael Jackson, or Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:38:29 PM an average of more than 20 a day, From Michael Jackson to the every day. In contrast, Farrah G20; duck islands to Twitter - the Fawcett, right, died of cancer on people, events and items that the same day. Her tally — 263. most transfixed Britain's media Recession So how was it for you? The 2009 may seem, looking back, Queen described 2009 as a year like the year when we fixated on best forgotten and, not for the the questionably acquired wealth first time, the monarch had a of others, but a little investigation point. There will, no doubt, be reveals that in matters financial, some who thrived over the past our own poverty is many times 12 months – that Jedward pair more interesting. haven't had an entirely dreadful Thus while MPs' expenses won a year – but the list of those glad to h i g h l y r e s p e c t a b l e 1 0 , 6 0 6 see the back of 2009 is perhaps mentions in the national press, rather longer. and 11,378 articles were And so, out of consideration for published on the subject of Tiger Woods, Thierry Henry, bonuses, feverish discussion former Speaker Michael Martin, involving the word "recession" (u Julie Myerson, Roman Polanski, -shaped, w-shaped, brief or J a d e G o o d y ' s ( c u r r e n t l y bottomless) brought a total of no i m p r i s o n e d ) w i d o w e r J a c k fewer than 52,368 articles in Tweed and the parents of the 2009. And we are still no clearer "balloon boy" Falcon Heene, we about when it will end. Moat will keep this brief.

Speaking of expenses, the Which were the stories that most acquisition of an uncensored transfixed the media in 2009? copy of our estimable MPs' Using an entirely unscientific expense claims created quite a yardstick how many times they few new stars this year step were mentioned in British forward Margaret Moran, MP national newspapers we present for Luton South, who claimed our arbitrary selection of the £ 2 2 , 5 0 0 f o r d r y r o t i n newsmakers of the year. Michael Southampton; take a bow Elliot Jackson Morley, who kept on claiming No surprises here. With one last mortgage interest even after his sha-mon!, and six separate doses mortgage was paid off. But of prescription drugs, the King of there's no question what became Pop moonwalked offstage for the the most talked-about symbol of final time on 25 June, becoming the scandal Sir Peter Viggers' one of the biggest stories of the £1,645 floating duck island.

Right?

Actually, wrong. The duck domain did merit a creditable 735 separate stories, but in fact it is the £2,115 claimed by Douglas Hogg to clear the moat at his Lincolnshire mansion that emerges as the star of the crisis, at 897 articles. Even Jacqui Smith's adult movies (686) can't compete. And as for David Cameron's wisteria-trimming (112) seems we weren't much bothered. G20 Britain hosted a summit and lots of famous and powerful people came, which got us all excited.

Protesters thronged the City of London. And a newspaper seller, Ian Tomlinson, died after an encounter with riot police: 7,226 articles. Twitter Well, of course. It will come as little surprise that the social networking phenomenon, without question one of the media's obsessions in 2009, merited 7,332 articles in the national press. What is perhaps more striking is the speed at which its cultural dominance has been achieved. In 2008, that number was 305.

And what of the people who owe some of their cultural currency this year to Twitter? Stephen Gately, the Boyzone singer who died in October, had 987 mentions; Jan Moir, the Daily Mail columnist accused of writing a homophobic piece after his death, 237. Daniel Hannan, the ultra-Eurosceptic MEP whose comments on the NHS sparked a

Twitter fightback: 350. And Neda Soltan, the young Iranian woman whose death after being shot during a protest became a symbol of that country's rebellion? 285. Silvio Berlusconi Well, let's just say it's been a busy year. There was the earthquake in L'Aquila, and the incident at the G20 summit in London when the Queen had to tell him to pipe down during a photocall, and his own G8 summit in July. Plus all that stuff about the alleged call girls and his (estranged) wife saying he "frequents minors". And then, just as the Italian prime minister was settling down for a quiet Christmas with what's left of the family, somebody punched him in the face with a souvenir statue of Milan's cathedral. 3,027 stories. Climate change 11,171 articles were published in British national newspapers in 2009 on the subject of climate change. Is that a lot? Hard to tell, but in 2008 the tally was 8,001, so one might say awareness of perhaps the most important existential crisis to face humanity is moving in the right direction.

Mind you, The X Factor got 11,908. Swine flu It's official, swine flu (8,047) is 2.3 times more entertaining than Susan Boyle (3,453). Helmand Last year, Helmand province, a lush corner of southern Afghanistan in which 42% of the world's opium crop is grown, was mentioned in 2,588 news articles.

In 2009 that tally was 5,649. 106

British soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, most of them in Helmand. Barbecue summer Remember that? Me neither.

And yet such is the power of hope, and regret, when it comes to Brits and the weather that 2009's non-existent barbecue summer still merited, at 433 articles, more mentions in the national press than Belle de Jour (187), Samantha Cameron (386), right, EU president Herman Van Rompuy (327) and the Christmas no 1 bunfight victors Rage Against the Machine (303). And it goes without saying that I, for one, have very high hopes for 2010.

• National newspapers • Newspapers & magazines • Michael Jackson • Recession • MPs' expenses • G20 • Twitter • Silvio Berlusconi • Climate change • Swine flu • Military • Afghanistan • Weather Esther Addley guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Apple poised to start new year with launch of tablet computer

By Richard Wray, Charles Arthur (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

computer, and the previous year saw Steve Jobs, chief executive, announce the first version of the iPhone.

Apple has previously Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:59:33 PM investigated the possibility of The device, likely to be called producing a tablet computer but the iSlate, has no keyboard and shelved the idea at the last allows users to watch TV shows minute, and there are already and read online magazines tablets available in the market Apple is expected to start the from rival PC manufacturers. new year with the launch of its F r a n c e ' s A r c h o s , w h i c h latest gadget: a tablet computer pioneered digital music players that will allow users to surf the but saw its market lead stolen by web, watch TV shows and read Apple, has already created an the next generation in online internet tablet based on Google's magazines and newspapers.

Android software. Microsoft's Speculation is rife that the l a t e s t t a b l e t p r o t o t y p e , Californian technology group codenamed Courier according to will unveil the device, which has rumours, involves two 7in multino keyboard and resembles a screens side by side in the form large iPhone, at an event on 26 of a booklet.

January in San Francisco. Some But the explosion of legitimate technology bloggers have already digital content services, the rise christened the touchscreen device of downloadable applications – the iSlate after it emerged that fuelled by the iPhone – and the Apple has registered the widespread availability of iSlate.com internet domain name. wireless broadband has created a Apple has used the month of market for a tablet PC that is January to launch revolutionary more of a multimedia device than products before, in part as a way m e r e l y a " k e y b o a r d l e s s " of diverting attention from its computer. It would essentially be rivals presenting their latest a cross between the iPhone, inventions at the Consumer Apple's TV service and an iPod. Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Apple refuses to comment on which Apple does not attend, and speculation about new products, that takes place the same month. but there is talk that it is working In January 2008 Apple unveiled on two versions of the iSlate, one its ultra-slim MacBook Air with a 10in screen and a smaller

AL-QAIDA continued from page 2

The transport secretary, Lord Adonis, said that he wanted to thank air passengers for their Apple announced the Tablet in patience. "I am sure they will January, it would likely ship later understand the extra precautions are being taken for their own in the March quarter."

Speculation about the arrival of protection," he added. the latest Apple creation helped Abdulmutallab is being treated shares in the company close in hospital for serious burns to Christmas week at a new record his leg. He is due to make his high of just over $209 (£131), first formal court appearance in making Jobs' stake worth more Michigan . than $1.1bn. The shares have • Global terrorism gained almost 150% this year as • Air transport the iPhone, and its success in • United States persuading users to download • Nigeria applications from the iTunes • Yemen store, has cemented Apple's • Al-Qaida position as the world's leading • Taliban • Barack Obama consumer electronics brand.

The company has rented a stage • UK security and terrorism at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco later next Peter Walker Chris McGreal month. It is the same venue that guardian.co.uk© Guardian News the company used in September & Media Limited 2009 | Use of for Jobs to make his first public this content is subject to our appearance since his recovery Terms & Conditions| More Feeds from illness, when he launched a new range of iPods.

• Apple • Technology sector • Steve Jobs • Computing • iPhone • United States

version with a 7in screen. Users would be able to download applications produced by thirdparty developers onto the device just as they can for the iPhone.

There are also a number of content deals in the works that would make the iSlate a valuable platform for media groups. Apple is rumoured to be trying to cement a deal with American TV companies including Disney and CBS that would see top shows appear regularly on the device.

Several American publishers, meanwhile, have got together to create an iTunes for magazines.

Condé Nast, owner of Vogue and Vanity Fair, has teamed up with Cosmopolitan owner Hearst, Meredith, News Corp and Time to set up an open magazine platform that will allow readers to buy and browse titles on socalled e-readers. The iSlate would be a perfect device for the next generation of digital publications, not least because it will be in full colour, unlike the current generation of electronic books such as the Amazon Kindle.

In a recent note on Apple, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster Richard Wray Charles Arthur estimated that there is "a 75% guardian.co.uk© Guardian News likelihood that Apple will have & Media Limited 2009 | Use of an event in January and a 50% this content is subject to our chance that it will be held to Terms & Conditions| More Feeds launch the Apple Tablet … if

World/ Finance/ Politics/

E-reader News Edition

Opposition leader's nephew among the dead in Iran riots

By Robert Tait (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

slogans against Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – retaliated by attacking members of the security forces, in some Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:39:14 PM cases ripping off their uniforms • Security forces open fire on and beating them with their own protesters in Tehran batons. Police cars were set on • Mir Hossein Mousavi's nephew fire and photographs appeared to Ali Mousavi killed show riot officers retreating Iran was plunged deeper into under a hail of stones. crisis on a day of religious A further four people were killed mourning as political tensions and many others injured in the erupted into violence that left at northern city of Tabriz, according least nine dead, including the to reformist websites. Clashes nephew of the main opposition were also reported in several leader. other cities, including Isfahan, Mayhem unfolded on the streets Shiraz, Arak, Mashhad, Babol o f T e h r a n a f t e r a b r u t a l and Najafabad. crackdown resulted in security The accounts could not be forces opening fire on protesters confirmed because of restrictions gathered on Ashura, one of the on the foreign media in Iran. holiest days in Iran's Shia H o w e v e r , I r a n i a n s t a t e calendar. The shootings killed at broadcaster Irib quoted a senior least four people, with another police official as saying 300 said to have died from head people had been arrested during injuries after being beaten by clashes. police. Among the dead was Ali It was Iran's worst outbreak of Mousavi, nephew of Mir Hossein v i o l e n c e s i n c e l a s t J u n e ' s Mousavi, leader of the reformist disputed election, which the movement. He was reported to opposition claims President have been shot through the heart. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole Demonstrators – many chanting through mass fraud. But today's

events differed from previous clashes in a way that seemed to herald further turmoil to come.

By using lethal force on a day meant to honour one of Shia Islam's holiest figures, Imam Hossein – seen as a martyr in the fight against oppression – the regime may have undermined its claim to uphold Iran's religious traditions. The violent response of the protesters to the security forces was also unprecedented and suggested many are becoming fearless in the face of state repression. While many demonstrators in the postelection protests covered their faces, footage from videos aired today on YouTube showed most people with their faces exposed.

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

NINE continued from page 3

plain-clothed agents are grasping pieces of metal sticks and beating people on the head."

Ali Reza, 23, computer engineering student at Tehran Azad University, who was at Ferdowsi Square: "In Azadi Street close to Eskandari Street people are attacking the forces. Most of the slogans have been against Khamenei rather than Ahmadineiad. In Imam Hossein Square, people set fire to the forces' motorcycles and ripped off the clothes of the revolutionary guard. One basiji, who was carrying a dagger in Azadi Street, was severely injured when people attacked him. In Laleh Park, 50,000 people had gathered. Around 50 or 60 of the security forces were

• • • • • •

Boris Johnson Nick Clegg David Miliband Ed Miliband George Osborne Herman Van Rompuy

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

(BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/27/2009 3:00:00 PM

(Little Green Footballs)

ADVERTISEMENT:

Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:12:48 AM

[Video]

continued from page 4

year.

• Gordon Brown • David Cameron • Barack Obama • Robert Mugabe • Lady Ashton

'arrested' by people and had their clothes ripped off. The forces are aiming at the upper part of people's bodies."

• Iran • Protest • Mir Hossein Mousavi • Ayatollah Ali Khamenei • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad • Islam

Video: Iranian Protesters Ransack a Police Station

GORDON, digital world where so many expect so much for free, please don't forget that somebody has to pay for the journalism. Would you really want newspapers to disappear altogether? Happy new

7

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

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Finance/ Politics/

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Lie #10: China Experienced DoubleDigit Growth in 2009

By Michael Shulman (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/27/2009 4:00:00 PM

Filed under: China If you think China saw doubledigit growth this year, you may also believe swine flu is spread via flying pigs.

The London-based Lombard Group, using energy data from the International Energy Agency -- which we can assume is a bit more accurate than the nonsense printed by the Chinese government -- shows GDP growth may have been just 2% in the first quarter rather than the reported 6.1%. And even that growth is being held up by government stimulus and state banks lending money to anyone and everyone to build capacity no one needs or to invest in Chinese equities no one can fairly value since Chinese accounting is as good as Chinese government data.

Bank Executives to Testify Before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

White House Condemns Iranian Suppression of Protests (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:40:39 PM

By Connie Madon (BloggingStocks)

The White House has made the following statement on the Iranian protests, which have now Submitted at 12/27/2009 2:20:00 PM been under way for more than 12 hours: Filed under: Politics, Financial “We strongly condemn the Crisis violent and unjust suppression of Is this the first time you've heard civilians in Iran seeking to about the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission? Probably. It seems U.S. bailout of the nation's banks. exercise their universal rights,” that Treasury Secretary Geithner C o n t i n u e r e a d i n g B a n k White House National Security organized the commission to Executives to Testify Before the C o u n c i l s p o k e s m a n M i k e investigate what went wrong F i n a n c i a l C r i s i s I n q u i r y Hammer said in a statement.

“Hope and history are on the side during the financial crisis of C o m m i s s i o n 2008! That's right 2008! Can you Bank Executives to Testify of those who peacefully seek imagine -- the public has been Before the Financial Crisis their universal rights, and so is clamoring for answers as to what Inquiry Commission originally the United States,” Hammer said. happened during the meltdown, appeared on BloggingStocks on “Governing through fear and Continue reading Lie #10: China and now a year later they decided Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:20:00 EST. violence is never just, and as E x p e r i e n c e d D o u b l e - D i g i t to open an investigation.

Please see our terms for use of President (Barack) Obama said in The Commission was created by feeds. Permalink| Email this| Oslo — it is telling when Growth in 2009 governments fear the aspirations Lie #10: China Experienced Congress to examine the causes Comments of their own people more than the Double-Digit Growth in 2009 of the collapse that roiled global power of any other nation,” o r i g i n a l l y a p p e a r e d o n markets and led to a $700 billion Hammer said in a reference to BloggingStocks on Sun, 27 Dec Obama’s speech this month 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Comments

Top Picks for 2010: Emerson Radio (MSN)

By Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/27/2009 3:00:00 PM

Filed under: Newsletters, 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.

"Emerson Radio ( MSN) is an

attractive, low-priced stock," says Bill Matthews, a specialist in lower-priced issues.

The advisor, who has been publishing The Cheap Investor for nearly three decades, suggests, "The stock has the

potential for significant appreciation in 2010."

Continue reading Top Picks for 2010: Emerson Radio (MSN) Top Picks for 2010: Emerson Radio (MSN) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 27

Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cheesecake Factory Is in an Uptrend

By Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks)

Contraception: The Most Green-Friendly Technology There Is

By Zac Bissonnette (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 12/27/2009 4:20:00 PM

Filed under: Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), Stocks to Buy Cheesecake Factory's ( CAKE) stock has broken out of a trading range, and that's one major reason I'm reiterating my buy rating for the company's shares, first recommended on June 25, 2009, at a price of $16.30.

The U.S.'s frugal consumer era has hit the restaurant sector hard, and there will be many chain restaurant casualties, but Cheesecake won't be one. Don't expect anything spectacular from CAKE in FY2010 -- flattish to slightly higher same-store sales, and only a slight increase in

9

Android 2.0 (or maybe 2.1) officially coming to T-Mobile G1?

Submitted at 12/27/2009 3:20:00 PM

Filed under: Green A recent study from the London revenue, with most likely a net School of Economics produced zero increase in restaurants some findings that could be seen operated. as a blow to proponents of Continue reading Cheesecake aggressive investment in Factory Is in an Uptrend emerging green technologies: Cheesecake Factory Is in an investments in contraception are Uptrend originally appeared on five times more effective in BloggingStocks on Sun, 27 Dec reducing carbon emissions than 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see green energy technologies like our terms for use of feeds. wind and solar power.

Permalink| Email this| Comments The symbol of the green movement shouldn't be a wind turbine. It should be a condom.

Continue reading Contraception:

By Ross Miller (Engadget) The Most Green-Friendly Technology There Is Contraception: The Most GreenFriendly Technology There Is originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don't know where this is coming from so take it with a grain of salt, but rumor has it from AndroidSPIN that the progenitor Android device, the TMobile G1, is destined to officially get an over-the-air update for an Eclair build, Android 2-point-something. It's not specified which version -whether it's 2.0 or the Nexus One -tastic 2.1 -- will be coming out, but if we had our say, always shoot for the latest and greatest.

Hey T-Mo, we know the holidays are pretty much over, but could you validate these whispers for Lie #11: The Palm Pre Is the us? Thanks!

Ultimate iPhone Killer originally [Thanks to everyone who sent appeared on BloggingStocks on this in] Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST. Android 2.0 (or maybe 2.1) Please see our terms for use of officially coming to T-Mobile feeds. Permalink| Email this| G1? originally appeared on Comments Engadget on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| AndroidSPIN| Email this| Comments

Lie #11: The Palm Pre Is the Ultimate iPhone Killer

By Michael Shulman (BloggingStocks)

board of directors, and his firm is an investor in the company.

Did I mention that PALM shot Submitted at 12/27/2009 5:00:00 PM up after his comment, before the Filed under: Palm Inc (PALM), mediocre and overpriced Pre hit Smartphones the market? The company then This little gem was perpetuated issued shares a few days later? by tech guru and investor Roger You and I would go to jail for McNamee. Of course, he is a doing this. member of the Palm ( PALM) Continue reading Lie #11: The

Palm Pre Is the Ultimate iPhone Killer

Submitted at 12/26/2009 9:59:00 PM

10

Gadgets/ Politics/

E-reader News Edition

On Mr. Sizzly Pants, terrorism, and airline safety

By John Biggs (CrunchGear)

now until forever. Random nuts will pop up, the news cycle will whirr itself to pieces over it, and I’m safely ensconced in a ski hut we will feel less safe. We will in Austria but I’ll be traveling have to turn off our iPods, won’t back to the US of A shortly and I be able to go to the potty, and look forward to not being able to will suffer under the theater of use electronic items in the last security. hour of my nine hour flight. After To quote Schneier again: all, that is the magic hour, the Only one carry on? No hour during which most electronics for the first hour of intercontinental planes are flight? I wish that, just once, circling over US soil and would, some terrorist would try therefore, apparently make the something that you can only foil biggest impression on a scared by upgrading the passengers to and frightened American first glass and giving them free populace. After all, if Mr. Sizzly drinks.

Pants (thanks, Xeni and There are better ways to stay Antinious), late of Nigeria, had safe and I know the TSA is trying blown his bomb over Amsterdam and the fact that passengers know MacBooks. Israel has a real their best but this parade of who would care? As O’Reilly et now to resist hijackers. problem on its hands and if our r e g u l a t i o n i s r e a c t i v e , n o t al point out, that den of iniquity The rest of the security theater threats are as real and as near as preventative. When the real Alan would be better off for it. happens on the ground and we t h e i r s , t h e n b y a l l m e a n s Rickman terrorist team wants to I’m all for airline safety. I’m all will have to give up a great deal incorporate that draconian system get its way, it will (ask the folks for security. I’ll stew in my juices of liberty and treasure to stop a t J F K . B u t t h a t ’ s n o t in Mumbai). All we can hope is for the last hour of the flight if future Sizzler’s from lighting up appropriate. They have an ages that our technology, our culture, need be. But security directives their seats. Try flying El Al from old hot conflict over their border. our politics, and our perception that expect terrorists to use the Jerusalem. You are examined to He have some Nigerian dude in the world will protect us as it same basic game plan over an within an inch of your patience with firecrackers. has for the past half-century. over again are, at best, magical by chipper but thorough Israeli We are working under the For more information check out thinking. Bruce Schneier once operatives. They had us take assumption that all terrorists are S a s c h a S e g a n ’ s a r t i c l e o n again hits the nail on the head everything out of our carry-ons, like Alan Rickman in Die Hard– Frommer’s about the delays. when he writes: gave us pat-downs, and generally we’ll appointed bad-guys with Only two things have made suspected every single thing in guns and bombs galore. I assert flying safer [since 9/11]: the their field of vision a potential that this is wrong. Most attacks reinforcement of cockpit doors, threat, including defenseless on planes will be thwarted from Submitted at 12/27/2009 7:39:28 AM

Photo: Protesters Battling Police (Little Green Footballs)

Just posted at Twitpic:

iToos M6HD PMP outputs 1080i without breaking anyone's bank

By Ross Miller (Engadget) Submitted at 12/27/2009 5:38:00 AM

There's really only two things you need to know about the iToos M6HD PMP, and at the risk of repeating the headline: it can output 1080i via HDMI and its price is pretty hard to argue with. As for the fine print, we're looking at a 4.3-inch TFT screen with 1360 x 768 resolution, 4GB internal memory upgradeable via memory card, and the usual variety of codecs you've come to expect from Asian PMPs, including FLAC audio and H.264 video. According to Akihabara News, it technically retails for only $58.50, but for the moment the best we've seen is online retailer Ownta for pocket change under $87. iToos M6HD PMP outputs 1080i without breaking anyone's bank originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink PMP Today, Akihabara News| Ownta| Email this| Comments

Gadgets/ Politics/

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11

Kindle most gifted item in Amazon's Pedal Brain’s Gadget Turns history, e-books outsell physical Your iPhone Into A tomes on Christmas Day

Powerful Cycling Computer

By Ross Miller (Engadget) Submitted at 12/27/2009 9:30:00 AM

We're still not about say the ebook reader industry has branched out beyond the infancy stage, but one of its flagship products certainly has reason to celebrate. Amazon has announced it's hit some pretty big milestones with the Kindle. The two bullet points it's currently touting loudest is that the reader has become "the most gifted item" in the company's history -quite an achievement given the size of the online retailer, but what's missing here is any quantitative sales data to give us even a ballpark of the number of units sold. The other big news is that on Christmas Day (we're guessing not Christmas Eve, else the press release surely would've mentioned it, too), e-book sales actually outsold physical books.

Those brand new Kindle owners needed something to read, right?

It'll be interesting to see if that momentum is maintained through next year, especially with some

Clover (Little Green Footballs)

By Jason Kincaid (CrunchGear)

major publishers starting to show some teeth with digital delays.

The Kindle bits were all part of Amazon's annual post-holiday statistical breakdown, so in case you're wondering, besides Kindle, the company is claiming its other top-selling electronics were the 8GB iPod Touch and Garmin nuvi260W, and in the wireless department the honor goes to Nokia's unlocked 5800 XpressMusic, Plantronic's 510 Bluetooth headset, and AT&T's

edition of the BlackBerry Bold 9700.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Kindle most gifted item in Amazon's history, e-books outsell physical tomes on Christmas Day originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Amazon| Email this| Comments

measure and analyze their performance over a ride, but until now there hasn't been a way to Submitted at 12/27/2009 4:37:40 AM connect these devices to your For years, runners have been iPhone. That's where Pedal able to take advantage of Nike+, B r a i n c o m e s i n .

The a nifty accessory that lets your bootstrapped startup is making a iPod communicate with your small device called the Pedal shoes to turn it into a personal Brain Synapse that plugs into running coach of sorts. Soon, your iPhone or iPod Touch and cyclists will have access to a tool allows them to receive this data, that's in the same vein as Nike+, which is then interpreted by an but far more powerful. It's called iPhone app. The application Pedal Brain, and it allows your s h o w s y o u h o w y o u ' r e iPhone or iPod Touch to receive performing in real-time (you'll and interpret data from a variety want to mount your iPhone in of exercise devices that use the plain view) and can also use GPS ANT+ wireless protocol. ANT+ to show the position of your team is used by cyclists (including members. many professionals) to accurately

12

Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

E-reader privacy policies compared: Big Kindle is watching you

By Nilay Patel (Engadget)

privacy laws and regulations when it comes to real books and Submitted at 12/27/2009 4:04:00 PM libraries, but much less so in the It's definitely shaping up to be digital realm. We'd say it's going the year of e-book readers: the to take a while for all the privacy Amazon Kindle is flying off implications of e-books to be (virtual) shelves, and we'd expect dealt with by formal policy, but the Barnes & Noble Nook to start in the meantime the best solution moving at a decent clip once the is to be informed -- which is kinks get worked out. But any where this handy chart from our device with an always-on 3G friends at the Electronic Frontier connection to a central server Foundation comes in. As you'd raises some privacy questions, expect, the more reading you do especially when it can broadcast online, the more you can be granular, specific data about what tracked -- and Google Books, the you're reading -- data that's Kindle, and the Nook all log a subject to a wide spectrum of ton of data that can be shared

Twilight reading habits, but honestly, we'd rather users weren't tracked at all. Check the full chart and more at the read link.

[Thanks, Tom] E-reader privacy policies compared: Big Kindle is watching you originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| EFF| Email this| Comments

Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:30:00 PM

Another year, another Star Trek "Synthehol" story. This time, however, there's some promise.

Could hangover-free late night binges be the feel good story of 2010?

For now, the answer is maybe, as is often the case with wild new scientific discoveries—especially those that pertain to the mythical substance first consumed by the crews seen in the Star Trek universe.

This latest substance is being developed in a way that mimics

Valium by a man named, I shit you not, Professor Nutt. He's totally sane though, and claims this substance delivers all the inebriating effects of alcohol, but without the mood-altering and

By Jack Loftus (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:00:00 PM

There can be only one Universe Ring. Unless you believe in the Multiverse. Then you can have as many as you want!

The Universe portion of this with law enforcement and concept ring lies in the tiny dot. various other third parties if Within the dust particle-sized required. Of course, we doubt the imperfection lies a tiny model. A cops are too interested in your model of what theorists like Stephen Hawking say our Universe looks like. You'll need some magnification to see it clearly, but it's there, inspired by scientists like Stephen Hawking and the anthropic theory.

Pop a pill and you'll soon be Artist/creator To22 says the ring good to go. "puts our daily pursuits into That said, it's time for the cold perspective and reminds us that water dose of reality that we are always a part of accompanies seemingly every s o m e t h i n g b i g g e r . " science-related story seen in a That's well and good and all, but mainstream news publication I can seriously see this being these days. You see, Prof. Nutt is used instead as a geek's dream without funding or a test country wedding band. "I gave you the t h a t ' s w i l l i n g t o c h a n g e Universe, baby." Or something. regulations and allow such a Let me know if she/he says yes. [ substance onto the open market. The Universe Ring via MAKE] addiction side effects. Better still, The liquor industry has also he claims that drinkers will be shown little interest, which I find able to flush their system almost unfortunate. Wouldn't they sell immediately with an antidote. more drinks this way? [ The Need to drive home after a rager Telegraph via Slashdot] of a holiday party? No problem!

"Synthehol" Substance Could Turn Drunkenness On and Off at Will [Synthehol]

By Jack Loftus (Gizmodo)

Universe Ring's Tiny Imperfection Is a Model of Everything We Know [Rings]

Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

13

Toyota's plug-in hybrids getting companion charging stations next year in Japan

By Ross Miller (Engadget) Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:41:00 AM

PaPaLaB's YC-3300 camera sees same colors as human eyes

By Darren Murph (Engadget)

a camera system that has been proven to see the same colors as the human eye, a feat that was We can't say that we've ever previously only achievable via heard of PaPaLaB, but all it takes huge, impractical camera rigs. t o g e t o n t h e c o n s u m e r The YC-3300, however, is far e l e c t r o n i c s r a d a r i s d o i n g smaller and manageable than something that no one has ever prior systems, and it has already done before. It's one of those been dubbed a "full-visible-color"easier said than done" things, gamut camera" by the powers we're guessing. Anywho, the that be. The creators expect it to Japanese outfit has just rolled out p r i m a r i l y b e u s e d f o r Submitted at 12/26/2009 6:21:00 PM

photographing digital archives and for use in the medical field, but we're already anxious to see such technology miniaturized further and ushered into the consumer market. Surely someone can make that happen before the next PMA kicks off, right?

Continue reading PaPaLaB's YC -3300 camera sees same colors as human eyes

PaPaLaB's YC-3300 camera sees same colors as human eyes originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Hot Hardware| Tech-On!| Email this| Comments

What's the best complement to a trial run of plug-in hybrids?

Why, matching solar stations, of course! Toyota Industries Corp has announced that it's been developing solar charging stations for its new Prius models.

The first place to test out the chargers is unsurprisingly Toyota City in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, where 21 stations will be built across 11 locales including government offices and train depots. Probably not worth planning a trip around, but if you want to be that extra special sort of tourist, schedule your vacation for sometime after April 2010.

Toyota's plug-in hybrids getting companion charging stations next year in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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14

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HTC Espresso's updated Sense UI shown off on video

By Nilay Patel (Engadget)

slightly cleaner all around, and that new launcher bar at the Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:06:00 PM bottom looks quite handy, but We'd been itching for some we're still not totally sold on video of the mysterious HTC those translucent app icon Espresso's updated Sense UI ever surrounds. CES is right around since we saw those intriguing the corner (and MWC is right screenshots last week, and here after that) so we're hoping to find we go: a leaked version of the out more soon -- check the video ROM has been hacked onto a after the break for now.

Hero and given a run-through. [Thanks to everyone who sent Overall, things seem to be this in]

Continue reading HTC Espresso's updated Sense UI shown off on video HTC Espresso's updated Sense UI shown off on video originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MobileTechWorld| YouTube| Email this| Comments

Roku adding porn to their lineup

By Dave Freeman (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:30:03 AM

We told you previously that Roku might be adding some hidden porn to their service, but we didn’t expect it to be this soon. Adult entertainment company EroticVision.TV just announced that they are teaming up with Roku to bring lots of nasty, nasty, girls (and boys) to your living room.

This isn’t just generic cable tv porn either. EroticVision will the be the portal on your Roku box,

but the content is provided by a multitude of sites for your selfabusing pleasure. The only site currently listed at launch is the decidedly not mainstream Wasteland.com – a BDSM related site.

The Roku parental controls will block little Timmy from seeing all this content of course, and your box must be registered with the EroticVision.TV site in order to even make viewing a possibility, but the future of porn is here.

Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

15

Q-TV2 Speakers Tuck Stereo Speakers, Subwoofer Behind Your Flat Panel TV [Speakers]

By Jack Loftus (Gizmodo)

The rig works with TVs that range between 30- and 42-inches, attaches to an existing frame or The sound quality could be can even just chill with your TV dubious, but the design is clever: on a stand. Available in Europe B y s q u i s h i n g t h e s u b a n d only for now, it costs a somewhat speakers down to a few inches in lofty $500. width, Q Acoustics has managed My only question is one related to hide a complete speaker to vibration. By placing the that supports it, will there be any system behind your flat panel subwoofer directly behind the visible vibration on the screen as TV. TV and against the wall/frame you watch Kirk and company

blast Nero into subspace? I ask because a similar thing happens to my rearview mirror when I blast my pop music at high decibels in the coche. [ Q Acoustic via Red Ferret via DVICE]

ANOTHER NWA Amsterdam/Detroit Flight Requests Emergency Assistance [Terrorism]

Some Sunday deals for your perusal

By Jack Loftus (Gizmodo)

Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:00:00 PM

Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:00:00 PM

Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:07:44 PM

Another flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, bearing the same flight number as the flight that featured the Christmas Day Firecracker pants guy from Nigeria, has been the target of some kind of "bathroom disruption."

Mike, asked, what's next, "new The man in this case, also from bathroom restrictions?" Whatever Nigeria, allegedly locked himself the case, we can be all but certain in the bathroom. Our tipster,

there will be no electronics allowed in the bathroom from here on out.

Thankfully, the plane landed safely in Detroit with no injuries, although we imagine that bathroom door is pretty banged up. This developing story will no doubt cast new uncertainties over the debate surrounding our on board electronics.[ Huffington Post]

By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)

Didn’t get what you wanted over the holidays? Still have a little money left in the bank? Here’s a handful of enticing deals for some lazy Sunday shopping.

- Refurbished 2GB Sansa Fuze for $23 ( Woot.com) - Xbox 360 Arcade for $179 ( Amazon via dealnews) - New Super Mario Bros. Wii for $40 ( Best Buy via FatWallet) - Spaceballs Blu-ray for $9 ( JR.com via dealnews) - Xbox Live points 10% off ( Amazon via FatWallet)

- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360 for $39 ( Target via dealspl.us) - Free Blu-ray player with 42- or 46-inch Insignia HDTV purchase ( Best Buy via dealnews)

16

Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

Apple Expanding iWork In The Cloud?

By Michael Arrington (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/27/2009 7:00:19 AM

Today In Android Rumors: Version 2.1 to T-Mobile, Espresso Sense UI Spotted in Video [Rumors]

A year ago Apple launched iWork.com in beta, which allowed users of their office suite of applications to publish documents online. It's a light

By Jack Loftus (Gizmodo) feature set compared to Google The second bit is a rumor Docs and Office 10- just viewing regarding Android 2.0.

It might Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:10:00 PM and commenting. But a job be headed to T-Mobile, you see, How about a nice Android on the T-Mobile G1. Further By Jack Loftus (Gizmodo) signifying the four marques of posting suggests Apple may be rumor and a nifty video to kick unconfirmed reports state it Submitted at 12/27/2009 2:00:00 PM Auto Union...it's enough to get a creating a true collaborative start your afternoon? Well we might actually be version 2.1 guy to park it in front of a mirror cloud based version of the iWork apps. The job posting popped up have both: Exhibit A is a rumor (Google Nexus One type stuff!). So I happen to like Audis. I for hours on end. regarding T-Mobile, while B is a CES is coming soon. We expect drive one, and I like her fine, but Good thing this is just an artist's on CrunchBoard on December video of Espresso in action: more then, but possibly sooner. nevertheless if I received this concept, as you can see above. 22. Apple is looking for a mid To be quirky, here's B first: This is the Internet after all. Total razor in my stocking, she would That said, if artist Poling Huang level engineer to "be part of the It's a down and dirty little walk- sieve. [ Mobile Tech World via have developed an inferiority ever gets it done, I'd love to give core development team" and through, featuring a slightly more Engadget and AndroidSPIN] complex at the sight of my it a quick review. Send it over in "engage in an area from design to polished menu and a new incessant shaving. an R8 or something. [ Coroflot development" of a new javascript rich internet application for the launcher bar in the corner.

You see, it's that mirror sheen. via Born Rich] iWork team: And those four red rings

Audi Traveling Shaver Concept Doesn't Come With an R8, But It Should [Audi]

Gadgets/ Tech/ Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

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Could Apple be moving to a spectrum of operating systems?

By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/27/2009 3:15:00 PM

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Odds and ends, Snow Leopard I was eating a late postChristmas breakfast this morning and perusing my email when I came upon a note from my friend and fellow Apple Consultants Network member Michael Kimble. Mike's been involved with Apple products since before the Mac arrived, so he has seen product trends come and go for decades. In his email, he mused that:"I've been wondering if

By Jack Loftus (Gizmodo) player, but for now all we know Apple, on their Jan. 26th product of is "Wasteland.com." For the announcement, won't start to Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:30:00 PM unfamiliar, that's a BDSM differentiate OS X to include OS I guess this was hinted at back in website.

X Mobile, OS X Touch, OS X November, but now it's an all but Parental controls will bar Desktop & OS X Server. But certain reality: the Roku player yougins from seeing any BDSM rather than discreet versions of will soon stream NSFW porn to tomfoolery, and to access the the OS, it is a spectrum where your television set. content you'll have to register features of one version can slide The streaming, no pun intended, your box with EroticVision.TV. up and down the scale depending comes from EroticVision.TV. Uh, enjoy? [ CrunchGear] on the functionality of the The company will deliver a hardware platform it's running number of channels to your Roku on. It seems to be moving in that direction whether a formal acknowledgment is made or not."

It's not that far a stretch to see Apple adding another variety of

Roku Player Will Soon Stream Porn [Roku]

OS X to the family tree. As a result of yesterday's post about the as-yet-unannounced Apple tablet, TUAW reader Dillon made a similar observation to Mike's:"Just a thought, but if the new Apple tablet ran straight iPhone OS, then it would probably be released in June with annual iPhone update... meaning that the Mac tablet will probably run a cross between Mac OSX 10.6 and iPhone OS or just Mac OSX 10.6.

Apple really won't release something unless it is speedy enough. They don't even let you run a background app or multitask on the iPhone due to speed issues. If they wanted to make a speedier tablet it would make sense that they would [deliver] a hybrid of the two operating systems, allowing better speed, battery, and more functionality than the iPhone, yet something not as relatively bulky

as Snow Leopard." Three of the four operating systems already exist (and there's always the family member they keep locked in the closet -- the Apple TV -with its odd edition of Mac OS 10.4 Tiger). All it would take is for Apple to add a new version of the OS that would, as Dillon points out, allow background processing and true multitasking, yet pull out a lot of the more weighty components of OS X. What do you think? Is a new, formal acknowledgment of a new Apple OS on the way, or will the tablet run a beefier version of the iPhone OS? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Illustration from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tig erpixel// CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 TUAW Could Apple be moving to a spectrum of operating systems? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twit Pic: Ricky Martin Bundles Up with Baby Son (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:33:00 PM

Ricky Martin enjoys the winter weather with his adorable baby boy in the nation's capital.

Ricky took to his Twitter handle to post the family pic. The caption read, "Today!

Somewhere in [Washington] D.C.!"

See more pics of Ricky and his

twin tots!

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What Twitter and Facebook’s 2009 Trends Tell Us About Ourselves

By Ben Parr (Mashable!)

Before you start reading this week’s column, please make sure to take a good, long look at this The Social Analyst is a weekly year’s top trends for Facebook column by Mashable Co-Editor and Twitter.

Ben Parr, where he digs into First, Twitter’s 2009 trending social media trends and how they topics: are affecting companies in the Here are Facebook’s top status space. trends: As the year comes to a close, 1. Diseases (Swine Flu) Scare several social media companies the Hell Out of Us decided to take a look back and The #3 trend on Facebook? reflect on the events, people, Swine Flu. The #2 and #6 news technologies that captured our trends on Twitter? Swine Flu. interest this year. Twitter took The #4 Hashtag on Twitter in the first crack when it revealed 2009? Yep, you guessed it, the most discussed topics of #swineflu. When it first burst 2009. Facebook was next when onto the scene, our propensity for i t r e l e a s e d i t s F a c e b o o k panic took over. We questioned M e m o l o g y f o r t h e y e a r . if this was the next epidemic, Both reports are interesting and reminiscent of the 1918 Influenza have a lot of useful information, Pandemic that killed 50 to 100 yet nobody’s really taken the million people. time to analyze just what these As we all now know, we dodged trends mean. What did our a bullet, for H1N1 proved not to society care about, and why? be any more deadly than most What scared the crap out of us? common flu variants. It still is a How were our tastes different dominant discussion topic today this year than they were last though, as H1N1 has spread year? across the world. The CDC W h i l e I c o u l d t a k e d a y s estimates that nearly 50 million analyzing trending topics (weeks Americans have contracted if you give me the raw data), I H1N1 and killed 10,000. There only have so much time for this is a reason why it was the biggest column. This is why I wanted to long-term story of the year. 2. share with you some of my Want a Blockbuster Movie? Sciconclusions about this year’s fi/Fantasy Is the Way to Go trend data from Facebook and If you wanted to make a splash Twitter. First, A Recap of at the box office in 2009, you Facebook and Twitter’s Top didn’t create an action thriller, a Trends of 2009 comedy, or a drama. No, you Submitted at 12/27/2009 6:41:39 AM

created a sci-fi or fantasy epic.

Out of the top ten Twitter trending movies, nine of them fell into the sci-fi or fantasy genres. Nine. The only one that doesn’t have anything to do with magic, vampires, weird suits, or aliens is Slumdog Millionaire.

The only movie on the Facebook side that wasn’t sci-fi was The Hangover.

The box office numbers agree: Transformers and Harry Potter top the list with $402 million and $301 million total grosses each, with Twilight, Star Trek, Monsters Vs. Aliens, and X-Men all in the top ten 2009s grosses.

This was clearly the year of the sci-fi film. It’s even more fitting that Avatar is December 2009’s big film. Don’t expect this trend to let up over the next few years either: Twilight, Transformers, Star Trek, and Harry Potter all have a few sequels left in the tank (and a perfect market for my sci-fi novel). 3. Trends Reflect Differences Between Facebook and Twitter Users First, let’s understand that Twitter and Facebook used different methodologies to come

up with their top trends lists.

Twitter’s top trends are likely based on words and phrases appeared the most as Twitter trending topics, while Facebook grouped together related phrases and put more emphasis on “bursts of activity” and percentage changes from 2008 to 2009.

Yet the result is still that we can see some stark differences between what Facebook and Twitter users like to do with their time and what’s on their minds.

Here are some of my random observations: - Facebook is still about personal connections: The fact that family ranks so high indicates that more mothers and fathers have joined the service, mostly to connect with their friends and their kids.

The fact that religion popped up as a top trend supports this assertion.

- NFL dominated Fb and Twitter: The Super Bowl appeared on the top 2009 Twitter trend list not once, but twice. The Steelers were a top trend on Facebook.

- Facebookers like baseball, Twitter users like basketball?

Well, the Yankees dominated the Facebook discussion just as much as the Steelers did, and on the Twitter side, the Lakers were the #2 sports trend and Koe Bryant was the #4 most discussed person in 2009. More likely, it’s just that basketball games have

more tweetable moments than baseball games.

- The #IranElection Crisis was a singular event that Facebook didn’t have: This is probably because Twitter users potentially had the power to change the course of events in Tehran by helping their fellow users in Iran.

It was a powerful message and one of Twitter’s watershed moments. Facebook definitely didn’t have an event that compared to it.

- How the hell is Lady Gaga not a top Twitter trend? Seriously, was Joe Wilson, A-Rod, and Chuck Norris more discussed than perhaps this year’s fastest rising music star? Maybe Facebook’s trend analysis was more accurate, or maybe Twitter users really just didn’t care about her. But they did care about Susan Boyle… very much. 4. This Year’s Big Technology Wasn’t Google Wave, It Was Twitter If you look at the top technology trend on Twitter in 2009, you’ll find that Google Wave dominated the list. That makes sense – it was one of the most hyped and anticipated products of the year, and it still continues to gain attention (and requests for invites).

Wave was groundbreaking technology, regardless of whether or not it goes mainstream.

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5 Big Real-Time Web Trends of 2009

By Samuel Axon (Mashable!)

Submitted at 12/27/2009 7:26:51 AM

Web technology and social media change radically from month to month, so it’s difficult to make predictions about what The Next Big Thing is, but you can be confident that the realtime web will get bigger and more essential in 2010. It came to a head in 2009, though, and this year’s applications can give you some idea of what to expect after the New Year.

Twitter’s influence and prominence in the growth of the real-time web goes without saying, but even if it’s the flagship, there’s a fleet of other new services and ventures that are bringing real-time to millions of netizens. Here’s a roundup of the five most exciting general applications of the concept, and examples of each. But if you know of a great one that should be here, fill us in.

1. Google Real-Time Results Search engines have relied on crawlers over the past few years — automated systems that regularly browse through web in search of new pages and changes to index. Real-time search doesn’t work that way. Instead, it aggregates information the moment it’s pushed out by a service like Twitter.

Bloggers were expecting Google to be slow to jump on the realtime bandwagon, and while it wasn’t the first big search engine to do so (it was beaten to the

punch by Bing and a few startups), it did just launch realtime search. Its implementation is impressive albeit minimalist.

You can expect real-time search to pop up everywhere next year, but it’s not without its drawbacks. For example, Google hasn’t found a way to filter out spam that bubbles up from some sources. And don’t expect realtime to completely replace traditional search. Historical information will of course remain relevant. 2. Aggregating News As It Happens: PubSubHubbub RSS seemed brilliant when it was first introduced and applied.

Now its weaknesses are showing: It’s slow and unwieldy. The client has to periodically poke the server to ask if there’s new content to be downloaded. If this happens too frequently from too many clients, it can overwhelm the server even when there’s no new content to distribute. It’s not practical to send requests every minute, and that still wouldn’t be real-time.

Enter PubSubHubbub, a decentralized Atom project in open development. It creates a hub that receives updates in realtime from the content host and immediately pushes those updates out to subscribers. The benefit: published items from websites the instant they’re posted, not several minutes later.

That’s a big deal for bloggers and media junkies in general. 3.

Real-Time Social: Facebook + FriendFeed

While Twitter remains the purest example of this trend, Facebook is bringing it to the masses that Twitter hasn’t reached. However, Facebook’s real-time vision was in part bought (rather than invented) when the company purchased FriendFeed in August.

Shortly after the acquisition, Facebook launched a revamped version of its News Feed incorporating some real-time web functionality.

Facebook has just overhauled its privacy settings and made public user profiles and updates searchable by Google and other engines. The company isn’t leaving search up to Google, though; it launched some basic real-time search features recently, too. Not only will users be able to stay connected to their friends at a second’s notice, they’ll also be able to use Facebook as a resource to tap the zeitgeist for insight just like they already could on Twitter.

While smaller networks and companies have pioneered realtime technology, Facebook has introduced more people to it in 2009 than anything else, and that will continue in 2010. 4. RealTime on the Go: Cuil and BNO

News The real-time web will become the norm on mobile devices in the coming months. 2009 only saw a few applications of mobile real-time, but they give us a glimpse at what push notifications of this-very-second info will look like.

Take two iPhone apps as examples: Cuil, the app for the search engine founded by two Google alums, and BNO News, a breaking news app with push notifications. The former gives streaming search results that you can flip through like cards as they come. The latter sends you push notifications the instant major news stories hit.

Mobile real-time wouldn’t have been possible on the wireless networks of just a few years ago.

As smartphones with unlimited data plans grow in popularity in 2010, real-time will be ready for them. 5. Collaboration Without Delay: Google Wave Google Wave’s announcement was accompanied by a hurricane of blogger enthusiasm, but the passion has died down somewhat as the service has deployed to most of the people who have wanted access to it. It’s an impressive, avant garde application of real-time web concepts in theory, but many users have struggled to find a way to fit it into their workflow or daily lives. That’s not always true, though; there have been creative uses both practical and entertaining.

Wave makes web e-mail realtime; it’s so real-time, in fact, that you can see the people you’re conversing with typing each word. This could have profound implications, but what are they exactly? It’s not completely clear yet. Google Wave might mature into e-mail’s real-time replacement, or it might just be an ambitious-but-flawed first pass that will be succeeded by something better. It’s been around for too little of 2009 for any of us to make a prediction, but you’ll get a better idea in 2010 as the service is refined and as competitors begin popping up.

Do you have any predictions about the real-time web in 2010?

Let us know in the comments.

More social media resources from Mashable: - 5 Tips for Building Lasting Online Friendships - Top 5 Must-Read Social Media Books - Social Media Can Change The World Through Common Ground - 5 Ways Social Media Is Changing Our Daily Lives - How Social Media is Taking the News Local - The Tao of Tweeting - Sports and Social Media: Where Opportunity and Fear Collide Image courtesy of iStockphoto, NickS Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Google, Google Wave, Twitter, iStockphoto Tags: Cuil, facebook, friendfeed, BIG page 22

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10 Best iPhone Apps for Dog Lovers

By Amy-Mae Elliott (Mashable!)

Cost: Free 3. Dog Park by Dogster.com Think Facebook for Fido. This Submitted at 12/27/2009 9:52:46 AM app from the social networking Man’s best friend is well catered site for dog owners – Dogster – for on the App Store with a pack helps users to meet other local of apps angled at the dog owner, dog owners and set up doggie ranging from functional to fun. play dates. The app also takes But there’s such a broad choice care of the social side between you could go barking mad trying humans with free messaging and to narrow them down. the less useful ability to send That’s where we step in with the “virtual gifts” and such. following ten that are top dog as Cost: Free 4. Dog First Aid far as canine-themed apps go, but Should you have a canine crisis, as always, be sure to let us know this app will help you with what of any we might have missed in to do until you can get some the comments. proper veterinary help. Offering 1. Off Leash fast and clear advice for the most As dog owners will know, the common dog emergencies, we most fun your furry friend can hope you never, ever have to use have, aside from sniffing other this, but if you do, the $1.99 cost dog’s butts, is to be let off the will be more than worth it. leash to run riot in a dog park, in Cost: $1.99 5. PetMinder which case the former may well Make no bones about it — happen. In order to help you managing the needs of a dog locate such places – regardless of requires organization. If you’re your zip code – pet food maker not naturally gifted with the oEukanuba’s “Off Leash” app skill, then try PetMinder which locates the five nearest to your schedules reminders for events location and provides driving related to your pet, such as directions to get there. Walkies! vaccinations, grooming, training Cost: Free 2. Cesar Says sessions, play dates and more, Those that subscribe to Cesar with e-mail reminders available “exercise, discipline, affection” to give you the timely nudge you Millan’s school of dog training might need. can carry Cesar around in their Cost: Free 6. Dog-A-Log pocket – and we’re not If you’d like to know the referencing his diminutive difference between a bearded and stature. The “Cesar Says” Dog border collie (“collie” comes Whisperer app offers sound bites from the Scottish word for a from the famous pack leader, sheep-herding dog rather than while a tap or shake of the phone suggesting one particular breed) will generate Millan’s trademark then this reference app, that “tsst!” warning noise. draws from Wikipedia info, will

have a spare 10 minutes you can fire it up, see the photo and video walk-throughs and give your pooch the chance to practice, whether it be simple tricks such as sitting, or circus-level dog skills like the hoop jump.

Cost: $2.99 10. Fail Dogs If you own a dog, chances are offer you just that, right in your you have a sense of humor. hot little paw.

We’ve saved the last slot for the Cost: $0.99 7. Pet Services very funny iPhone app from the Finder Fail Dogs blog, promising Perhaps more of use to those chortles galore as you browse the with a first dog, or new to an galleries of dogs that fail so very area, the Pet Services Finder will badly at being just that. Whether help you find all things mutt, you’re looking for spaniels such as dog walkers, sitters, g e t t i n g p w n e d b y c a t s , o r groomers, vets and even pet- Frisbees getting the better of fox friendly hotels with the ability to terriers, this app has it all — and search via zip codes and see more. Enjoy! reviews of the services from Cost: $0.99 More iPhone other users. resources from Mashable: Cost: Free 8. DogiDuty - 10 iPhone Apps to Avoid Work DogiDuty offers a specially Disasters tailored approach sending time- - 10 Essential iPhone Apps to stamped e-mail reports after each Avoid Dating Disasters walk, or dog sitting session, to let - iPhone TV: Top iPhone Apps owners know if the little woof for Live Streaming Television did a pee or poo, was fed, and - Top 10 iPhone Apps as Judged other notes of interest. It looks by Mashable Readers like it could be an invaluable app - 7 iPhone Apps That Can Save f o r t h o s e i n t h e d o g - Lives walking/sitting business, and a - 5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for good aide to busy professional Wine Lovers dog owners trying to keep track - 20 Creative Apps For Your of Fido’s “movements.” iPhone Cost: $0.99 9. Dog Tricks – Best Image courtesy of iStockphoto, of 101 Dog Tricks toddtaulman Reviews: Dog training is one of those W i k i p e d i a , i S t o c k p h o t o activities best done little and Tags: dogs, iphone, iphone apps, often, so having an app right on List, Lists your phone with a dog log of training activity means if you

Android 2.0 Coming to T-Mobile G1 [RUMOR]

By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)

Submitted at 12/27/2009 9:01:59 AM

Owners of T-Mobile’s G1 phone might be getting the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, if rumors are to be believed.

The rumor, credited to an “anonymous source”, says that G1 owners will get an over-theair update to the Eclair build – either Android 2.0 or perhaps even the latest Android 2.1 build on the Nexus One(aka Google Phone).

If true, it would be welcome news for G1 owners, who increasingly feel left behind with the release of the Droid and imminent launch of the Nexus One. Nonetheless, the sourcing is weak on this one: a single anonymous source on an unofficial Android blog doesn’t instill 100% confidence. [via AndroidSpin] Reviews: Android Tags: android, G1, Google

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Parallels Desktop 5 doesn't play well with Kaspersky AntiVirus on some Macs

By David Winograd (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

send in a bug report.

It's not clear which Macs are affected, but the thread only mentions it happening to a quad Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:45:00 AM core Nehalem Mac Pro with most Filed under: Software, respondents not reporting what Bugs/Recalls, iMac, Mac Pro My Mac they owned. Well, the iMac Christmas miracle was that after i7, at least, is affected as well. waiting a month and a half, my The only commonality I can see Godzilla iMac 27" 2.8 GHZ Intel offhand is that iMac i7 and the Core i7 iMac showed up on my Nehalem Mac Pro are both quad doorstep on Christmas Eve. This core. Whatever machine you was, ironically, two days after have (except the Macbook Pro, receiving a letter from Macmall where both someone in the thread telling me that my order was on and I can tell you that there is no indefinite backorder and asked problem), at the first sign of me to call if I still wanted it. I distress, jettison Kaspersky and did. your holiday season will be much I bought it with Parallels 5.0 and brighter.

Windows 7 preinstalled, since If you've seen this, please tell us I'm lazy and the price was very in the comments. It would be competitive. After adding quite nice if we can figure out memory to bring it to 12GB, and which models are prone to this plugging in my 23" Apple was crashing; like SharedInt.exe to use all 8 processors, which and Parallels Desktop 5.0 on hell, and which aren't.

Cinema Display, giving me 3.7 a n d m o r e i m p o r t a n t l y , according to iStat is a good idea, some machines. The answer is to And that's the first post written feet of horizontal screen space, I Explorer.exe. Every few minutes since the load is well balanced uninstall Kapersky and install on my new iMac. ran Parallels -- which promptly I was rewarded with messages between all the processors. When something like AVG 9.0(which is TUAW Parallels Desktop 5 crashed. I was unceremoniously saying that Explorer.exe had it ran, it seemed to run much free). doesn't play well with Kaspersky t o l d t h a t a f i l e n a m e d failed and Windows checked for quicker. But it didn't solve the I wasn't convinced that it solved A n t i - V i r u s o n s o m e M a c s wuawcIt.exe wasn't feeling well the potential problem, which it problem. This, I thought, was the problem totally, so I ran my originally appeared on The and had to close. The sugarplums never found. The Kaspersky Anti odd since I've been running both iTunes library along with playing U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e W e b l o g faded as I realized that this would -Virus tool, which came with XP and Windows 7 on my movies all night to put the (TUAW) on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 take most of Christmas day to Parallels, showed up each time I MacBook Pro via Parallels installation under some stress. 11:45:00 EST. Please see our When I came back the next terms for use of feeds. sort out. It did, and a bit more. rebooted. It gathered information without a burp.

There was a Parallels update to send to its server but when it After a good deal of searching, I morning all was well.

Read| Permalink| Email this| available which I installed and it tried to send the packet, it got f o u n d t h e s o l u t i o n o n t h e On December 11th, in the forum Comments Parallels forum in a thread that thread, a rep from Parallels didn't help. In fact, it got more nowhere and sent nothing. interesting. The wuaucIt.exe file Eventually I decided to trash the started before Thanksgiving. copped to the problem: they were invited some friends over for installation and start from T h e r e i s a p r o b l e m w i t h working on it, he said, and asked eggnog, since lots of other stuff scratch. This time I told Parallels Kaspersky Anti-Virus-Protection everyone who was affected to

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Using a Wireless Keyboard with an iPhone using Apple’s BTstack Keyboard MobileMe is Down

By Joachim Bean (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Submitted at 12/26/2009 4:30:00 PM

Filed under: Peripherals, Features, Bluetooth, iPhone, iPod touch, Jailbreak/pwnage A few days ago, the BTStack keyboard package was released to Cydia.

This package, which we posted about recently, allows owners of jailbroken iPhones to use a Bluetooth keyboard with their iPhone 3G or 3GS, or 2nd generation or later iPod touch.

The package is available for US$5.00 from Cydia.

Since the iPhone was first introduced, there have been efforts to bring support for external accessories. The iPhone 3.0 external accessory framework allowing accessories that connect to the universal dock connector or use Bluetooth has been closed, and only a few companies have developed accessories using the framework. The BTStack project

by Matthias Ringwald offers a more complete and open Bluetooth stack for jailbroken iPhones. The stack has even been used with an iPhone and a Wii Remote over Bluetooth. To use a Bluetooth keyboard for quick and easy data entry into your iPhone, you'll need to jailbreak your iPhone, which can be done with an application like blackra1n.

By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)

Submitted at 12/27/2009 2:20:07 PM

Read on to find how I set up my iPhone to use the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and how it works with the iPhone. A few days ago, the BTStack keyboard package was released to Cydia. This package, which we posted about recently, allows owners of jailbroken iPhones to use a Bluetooth keyboard with their iPhone 3G or 3GS, or 2nd generation or later iPod touch. The package is available for US$5.00 from Cydia.

Since the iPhone was first introduced, there have been efforts to bring support for

external accessories. The iPhone 3.0 external accessory framework allowing accessories that connect to the universal dock connector or use Bluetooth has been closed, and only a few companies have developed accessories using the framework. The BTStack project

by Matthias Ringwald offers a more complete and open Bluetooth stack for jailbroken iPhones. The stack has even been used with an iPhone and a Wii Remote over Bluetooth. To use a Bluetooth keyboard for quick and easy data entry into your iPhone, you'll need to jailbreak your

Apple’s MobileMe service, which provides synching between Macs, iPhones and PCs in the cloud (including mail, contacts and calendars) is down, according to Twitter reports.

Reports seem to go back about 3 hours, and at $100/year for the service, customers are more than justified in voicing their frustrations on Twitter. You might remember that MobileMe had a disastrous launch in 2008, requiring an apology. This latest outage not only dents confidence in MobileMe, but also in our increasing reliance on cloud computing.

Are you suffering amid MobileMe downtime? Let us know in the comments. [ VentureBeat also spotted the outage]

iPhone, which can be done with an application like blackra1n.

Read on to find how I set up my iPhone to use the Apple Wireless Keyboard, and how it works with the iPhone.

TUAW Using a Wireless Keyboard with an iPhone using BTstack Keyboard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, BIG 26 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. continued from page 19 Please see our terms for use of Google, Google Wave, real-time, feeds. real-time search, twitter Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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23

Dozen Daily Deals for December 27, Flickery 1.7 offers even 2009 more Flickr fun

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

items • Geeks.com: [Notebook Carrying Cases] AWP 14" Molded Laptop Backpack for Submitted at 12/27/2009 2:00:00 PM $15 + $9 s&h Filed under: Deals'Tis the season • Kohls: [Books & Magazines] to shop until your brains melt (or Kohl's sale: 50% off 2010 team skip it all entirely, depending on calendars + extra 20% off, free your interpretation of the term shipping holiday). In that spirit, for the • Tanga: [Magazines] 1-Year next few weeks we'll be rounding Subscription to Entrepreneur up a dozen daily deals courtesy Magazine for $3 our friends at DealNews.com. • SupermediaStore: [CD/DVD Each afternoon tune in to TUAW Cases] 4 SuperMediaStore 104for this handy summary. Keep in Disc CD / DVD Wallets for $20 mind that while our posts will + free shipping, more live on, the deals won't. Each is • Sears: [Plasma TVs] Samsung lovingly generated by the deal- 5 0 " 6 0 0 H z 7 2 0 p P l a s m a bot every day, so get 'em while Widescreen HDTV for $700 + they're hot. Enjoy! pickup • Kohls: [Digital Camcorders] • PopCap Games: [PC Games] S h i f t 3 S l i d e M i n i D i g i t a l PopCap Games Holiday Sale: C a m c o r d e r f o r $ 3 2 + f r e e 50% off all games, deals for $10 s h i p p i n g • Musician's Friend: Musician's • Best Buy: [46" - 47" LCD Friend coupon: 15% off select TVs] Samsung 46" 120Hz 1080p

Widescreen LCD HDTV for $1,000 + pickup • Beach Camera: [50" - 52" LCD TVs] Sharp AQUOS 52" 1080p Widescreen LCD HDTV for $999 + free shipping • Apple Store: [iPods] Refurbished Apple iPod nano 16GB MP3 Player for $129 + free shipping • Staples: [Color Inkjet Printers] Brother MFC-790CW Wireless All-In-One Printer w/ Touchscreen LCD for $100 + free shipping

Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:20:52 PM

This video shows protesters taking over Vali Asr Square in central Tehran — and shows the same ransacking of a Baseej station we posted earlier, from another angle.[Video] UPDATE at 12/27/09 12:21:29

pm: The latest Reuters video report on the events in Iran: Mousavi nephew, others die in Iran protests.[Video] UPDATE at 12/27/09 12:35:20 pm: Unconfirmed reports on Twitter from Iran say that protesters are attacking the state television

Submitted at 12/26/2009 3:30:00 PM

Filed under: Software We covered Flickery a while back, and it's been through a couple of big updates since our initial article. Flickery is a Macbased client for Flickr that provides extensive search, browsing, uploading, and downloading capabilities. I've been using Flickery since its release as my primary means of TUAW Dozen Daily Deals for working with the Flickr photos December 27, 2009 originally and videos for me and my appeared on The Unofficial friends. It's good-looking and has Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, been a great time-saver.

27 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Version 1.6, which came out at Please see our terms for use of the end of October, brought batch feeds. editing of photos, video Read| Permalink| Email this| t r i m m i n g , C o r e L o c a t i o n Comments integration for photos taken within Flickery, faster preloading when browsing, and a lot of other new features. The latest version, 1.7, brings an impressive list of additional features which build upon the 1.6 release, including a new preferences station IRIB, and Baseej are panel, auto-resizing of uploaded shooting into the crowd from the photos, "Set as desktop picture" top of the building, with many and "Download to Aperture" casualties. options, drag and drop There are also reports of clashes integration with Finder and more. between protesters, police, and Baseej at Farabi hospital in Tehran.

Video: Iranian Protesters Take Over Square in Central Tehran (Little Green Footballs)

By Brett Terpstra (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

I've never had many problems with stability in Flickery, but the latest releases also include dozens of fixes for potential crashes and bugs.

There's a holiday sale on Flickery running until January 1st that brings the price of the application down to US$13.99 (a 25% savings). Normal pricing resumes after that, so Flickr users in search of a solid desktop client should take a look as soon as possible!

TUAW Flickery 1.7 offers even more Flickr fun originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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24

Tech/ Politics/

E-reader News Edition

WHAT continued from page 18

Yet Google Wave wasn’t the technology of the year. Neither was Facebook, although I’d give it a very close second. No, it was Twitter and its emergence as a mainstream platform for communication.

Even Facebook’s memology report acknowledges the microblogging service’s profound impact on society.

Think all the way back to December 2008. Do you remember what Twitter looked like then? It was a smaller group of early adopters tweeting back and forth, with a few stars like Ashton Kutcher thrown into the mix. It had only 4-5 million U.S. visitors back then.

Then Twitter broke through into the mainstream consciousness.

Oprah, Ellen, Ashton vs. CNN, and quadruple digit growth made it the subject of intense media

attention. Then media outlets and businesses started latching onto the platform when the realized that it was an incredibly powerful promotional platform and communication tool. Nearly every media outlet has one, as do many companies.

Twitter trends may not have picked itself up as a top trend, but it really was. It scared Facebook enough to change. It became a regular part of U.S. and world culture. Hell, Twitter was even the word of the year. Its momentum may be stalling now, but the 140 character revolution clearly dominated 2009.

Tags: facebook, Movies, Sci-Fi, swine flu, The Social Analyst, trending, twitter

Google makes its home page a Chrome page

Breaking: Nigerian Removed from Same Flight As Christmas Attack

(CNET News.com)

(Little Green Footballs)

Submitted at 12/27/2009 7:40:00 AM

Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:57:41 AM

engaging Chrome campaign, the one that comes over all Picasso.

You might wonder whether the Those nice people at Google, company has had enough of engineers at heart rather than browser war talk and decided to craven, money-grabbing business enact browser war mayhem. people, seem to have suffered a You might also wonder whether, sudden attack of commercialism. following the rumors of a Google The folks at the Silicon Alley phone, the company has decided I n s i d e r a l e r t e d m e t o t h i s that it has had enough of its nicestartlingly commercial ad on the guy persona. Like a priest who's Google home page. It can't be, I renounced his vows in order to t h o u g h t . S o I w e n t t o play the field, Google is going to Google.com myself and there it make a grab for every last dollar still was: a dry little thing in the in the technological space. right-hand corner suggesting that Whatever the reason, it all seems I should download Google rather sweet. Which is just how Chrome.

Google wants it to seem.

You might be wondering why Five Filters featured article: Google might have taken this Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: sudden, almost alarming step into PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, advertising's dark hole.

Term Extraction.

You might consider that it comes soon after Google's extremely

Another Nigerian man was taken into custody today aboard the same Northwest Airlines flight that was attacked on Christmas.

DETROIT — A passenger onboard the same Northwest Airlines flight that was attacked on Christmas Day was taken into custody in Detroit on Sunday after becoming verbally disruptive upon landing, officials said.

A law enforcement official said the man was Nigerian and had locked himself in the airliner’s bathroom. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Delta Air Lines spokeswoman Susan Elliott said crew members requested that security remove the man from Flight 253 after he became disruptive. The remaining 255 passengers got off for December 26 originally s a f e l y , s h e s a i d . A i r p o r t appeared on The Unofficial spokesman Scott Wintner said it Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, was the same flight on which a 26 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. man tried to set off an explosive Please see our terms for use of on Christmas Day. feeds.

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App giveaways roundup for December 26

By Michael Rose (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/26/2009 6:00:00 PM

Filed under: TUAW Business Here's a few of our recent app giveaways. There's still time to enter!

Holiday giveaways: NBA apps and prize pack This giveaway has got it going

on: you could win both the League Pass and Game Time apps from the NBA, plus a swag bag full of gear and goodies...

Holiday giveaways: Cellar 2.0 for the wine lover This one is perfect for your New Year's Eve party planning: Cellar 2.0, which can help you track the wines you love so much...

Holiday giveaways: Eucalyptus ereader

Can't figure out what to put on the iPhone or iPod touch you got as a gift? We've got the prescription: holiday giveaways galore! Here's an app giveaway that will help you catch up on the classics... More app giveaways: • Win a copy of Things for Mac and iPhone TUAW App giveaways roundup

Tech/

E-reader News Edition

25

There are 15,740 Social iSlate has a friend -- meet the Media Experts on mysterious Magic Slate Twitter

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

By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)

Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:00:00 PM

Submitted at 12/27/2009 10:45:31 AM

Social media is growing fast, but how fast? Using Tweepsearch to search bios on Twitter profiles, blogger B. L. Ochman found there were 4,487 social media experts in May 2009. Today there are 15,740.

The stats, which include variations like social media“guru”, “ninja” and “superstar”, show that “marketer” is by far the most-used name.

There’s amusement to be found in the numbers, too: the blog Broadstuff points out that “This represents a 3.5x increase every 6 months. Projecting this growth forward means that there will be nearly 30m social media experts etc on Twitter by this time in

2012.

That humorous observation raises a legitimate point: a growing industry needs trust and reputation. With social media growing so rapidly and no certification yet established, how do we go about establishing reputation?

Without it, such stats provide fodder for those who would say that social media – which is touching every industry from entertainment to air travel – is simply hot air. Reviews: Twitter Tags: social media, social media experts

Filed under: Rumors The slates just keep coming. Now MacRumors is reporting that Apple has filed a trademark for a device called "Magic Slate."

The term was categorized broadly to cover computers, computer peripherals, computer hardware and much more.

"Magic Slate" adopts a similar naming convention to the recently released multi-touch Magic Mouse from Apple. It's not hard to imagine that a "Magic Slate" would be a multi-touch peripheral for computers, much like the multi-touch iGesture Pad released by Fingerworks before their acquisition by Apple. Back in October a multi-touch trackpad

was rumored to be making an appearance but it never materialized. If Apple does still plan on releasing the device, it would fit in nicely with the "Magic"-peripheral theme. Now, where's that trademark for "Magic Keyboard"?

TUAW iSlate has a friend -meet the mysterious Magic Slate originally appeared on The

Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Second Security Alert on Amsterdam-Detroit Flight 253

By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)

An update to our story yesterday about stricter rules for those taking electronics on aircraft: Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:52:17 PM today a second Amsterdam to UPDATE: law enforcement has Detroit flight with the same flight declared the man was “not a number – Northwest Airlines threat” to the plane’s security, Flight 253 – suffered disruption suggesting that no substances after a Nigerian man reportedly The plane landed safely in were found ( CNN). locked himself in the bathroom Detroit and was immediately – before landing.

surrounded by emergency vehicles. Flight crew said the man was “verbally disruptive” when approached. It’s not yet clear if there was a threat to the plane’s safety.

These security scares don’t bode well for in-flight Wi-Fi schemes, or any of us who enjoy our tech luxuries, particularly on

international flights. Yesterday it was reported that the TSA might prohibit the use of electronics in the last hour of flights. [via CNN]

26

Politics/ Tech Tips/ Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

This Week's Top Downloads [Hive Mind] (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/26/2009 5:00:00 PM

• XBMC Updates to 9.11 Camelot, Brings Awesome New L o o k , I m p r o v e d Features(Windows/Mac/Linux) XBMC is a killer open-source, (Little Green Footballs) more video. cross-platform media center, and UPDATE at 12/27/09 10:52:35 today they've released XBMC Submitted at 12/27/2009 10:24:50 AM am: 9.11, introducing a whole new Another round of massive A photo posted at Twitter shows default look and feel, and it's protests has broken out in Iran protesters beating the Baseej with very friendly on the eyes. today; this video shows a crowd their own batons: • Opera 10.5 Pre-Alpha is All fighting back against the Iranian UPDATE at 12/27/09 11:02:14 A b o u t S p e e d ( a n d P r i v a t e Baseej, the thugs and enforcers of am: Browsing)(Windows/Mac) the mullahs. Some Iranian sites Protesters stop a police van, Opera's developers have released are reporting up to 12 protesters trash it, and pull the policeman a very unstable but promising killed by the thugs so far.[Video] out of the window:[Video] version of their web browser into UPDATE at 12/27/09 10:30:34 UPDATE at 12/27/09 11:09:54 the open. What does Opera 10.5 am: am: have to offer? If a quick test is Andrew Sullivan has excellent Tehran Live has lots of photos. any indication, faster JavaScript coverage of the protests, and speed than any browser out there.

• Songbird 1.4.2 Released, Brings New Look, CD Ripping, a n d D e v i c e Support(Windows/Mac/Linux) Previously mentioned Songbird, the open source, Mozilla(ETonline - Breaking News) at the box office, earning another powered, supposedly iTunes$75 million over the three-day killing media player has updated Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:29:00 PM holiday weekend. Click the pics to 1.4.2, bringing a host of new J a m e s C a m e r o n ' s h i g h l y to see what new releases topped features, including AAC anticipated sci-fi 3D film 'Avatar' the weekend box office. metadata support, a new feather had another successful weekend

New Protests in Iran

'Avatar' Triumphs at Holiday Box Office

(skin), CD ripping, and support for many mass storage devices.

• LogMeIn Express Makes Screensharing Simple(Windows) LogMeIn Express is a screensharing tool from the makers of the popular remotedesktop software, LogMeIn. With this new offering, sharing your desktop is as simple as sending your friend or associate a URL. • Speed Dial Beefs Up Chrome's New Tab Page(Chrome) The oftimitated New Tab button on Google's Chrome browser isn't bad, but it's not the most customizable either. Soup it up—and access your favorite bookmarked web sites quickly—with Speed Dial.

• Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 Available, Faster, and Less Buggy(Windows/Mac/Linux) If you've been riding the Firefox 3.6 beta train, Mozilla just pushed out the whopping fifth beta of Firefox 3.6—with over a hundred bug fixes to improve performance, stability, and security, along with several allaround improvements.

• Bodega Is a One-Stop Shop for New Apps for Your Mac(Mac) Trying out new software is fun.

Digging around all over the internet to find cool stuff—not so much. Bodega is a download that does makes quick work of finding new apps for your Mac. • Get the Classic Network Activity Indicator Back in Windows 7(Windows 7) If you miss having a network activity icon that actually indicates if your network is active or not, this handy little hack will swap the static Windows 7 icon for the classic version.

• Googsystray Notifies You of New Activity Across Google Services in One System Tray App(Windows/Linux) Google has so many different services these days that installing a notification app for each one gets cumbersome quickly. Free system tray utility Googsystray watches Gmail, Google Voice, Calendar, Reader, and Wave so you can set it and forget it.

• Droplr Offers Simple Drag and Drop File Sharing for Mac OS X(Mac) Feeling left out because of all the neat file-sharing applications for Windows?

Droplr adds drag and drop support to OS X for sharing just about everything.

E-reader News Edition

Tech Tips/

27

Five Best Wallpaper Sites [Hive Five]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)

choice.

Interfacelift Interfacelift is an enormous Submitted at 12/27/2009 9:00:00 AM repository of wallpaper images.

Nobody likes staring at a boring Thanks to the button-based desktop when they fire up their layout at the top of the screen, computer every morning. Keep you can easily drill down through your wallpaper fresh with the wallpapers using factors like five most popular sites rating, number of comments, Lifehacker readers use to satisfy screen type, and so on. Once you their wallpaper needs. select your screen Photo by goincase. Wallpaper on type—widescreen, full screen, monitor available here. dual monitors, etc.—you can Earlier this week we asked you pick from available resolutions so to share your favorite wallpaper you never end up clicking on an site. We quickly learned image and finding out it's not that—while not everyone has a available in the resolution you strong opinion about Linux want. Every search result gives distributions or encryption you information about the image software— everyone has a plus a drop down menu for size favorite wallpaper site; readers selection and a quick download. logged nearly 500 votes for their Interfacelift has recently added a favorite wallpaper sites. Now subscription. Vlad is running a t h r o u g h a l l t h e i m a g e s i n many social aggregators (Reddit, feature called "The Loupe" which we're back to share the five most Christmas-special where the $30 /Wallpaper/. You can visit 4Chan Digg, etc.) and applies it to allows users to vote on incoming popular sites used by Lifehacker lifetime membership is available directly at the link above or you desktop wallpaper. Users vote up submissions to accelerator the can use services like Nik.Bot and their favorite, vote down their readers to dress up their monitors for $20. process of new materials being 4Chan Wallpapers/General/ 4Walled to browse through the least favorites, and upload their with fresh wallpaper. VladStudio added to the database.

Vlad Studio features the work of 4Chan is an image-based forum wallpapers available through own images to be ranked by DeviantART Wallpaper Russian wallpaper artist Vlad where anyone can anonymously 4Chan. Be strongly forewarned, other users. You can browse by If you've visited your fair share G e r a s i m o v . H e c r a n k s o u t post and share images and h o w e v e r : a l t h o u g h t h e rank, category, view random of wallpaper sites and gotten hundreds of great wallpapers, comments. It's divided into sub- /Wallpaper/ forum is much tamer images, and sort by screen size to tired of the endless stream of ranging from holiday themes to boards devoted to all sorts of than other areas of 4Chan, you'll help you drill down through the glowing line-art and video-game abstract art. Vlad Studio has topics like Anime, video games, still find a large number of huge collection to find the wallpapers, then you'll enjoy wallpaper in a wide range of etc., but has gained notoriety for Maxim-level NSFW wallpaper wallpaper you want. Prefer to browsing the wallpaper archives sizes suited for everything from some of its more unsavory sub- images and the occasional grab everything and sort it out of DeviantART—a subdivision your mobile phone to a multi- boards. The /Wallpaper/ board, Playboy-level NSFW images later? Social Wallpaper makes of the artist-centric site. You'll monitor setup. Mobile wallpaper nonetheless, is bustling and when you're browsing. If you're their entire wallpaper collection find everything at DeviantART and desktop resolutions at updated nearly 24/7 with images not prepared to explain some available for download via from the more common to glow1 6 0 0 x 1 2 0 0 a n d b e l o w a r e from around the web. Since the really awkward internet memes BitTorrent. If you're looking for a lines variety of abstract wallpaper available for free. Images larger 4Chan boards are a bit kludgy to to your boss, you'd better save site where you can not only find to quirky paintings, photographs, use if you're not trying to 4Chan /Wallpaper/ for home. fresh wallpaper but participate in than that are available only to and computer-rendered images. helping your fellow wallpaper registered users. If you want comment and just looking for Social Wallpapering Most of the users at DeviantART access to the larger resolutions, images, a variety of scrapers have Social Wallpapering borrows the lovers find the best images, FIVE page 30 now is a great time to pick up a sprung up to help you pick vote up/down model used by Social Wallpapering is a solid

28

Tech Tips/

E-reader News Edition

Create Realistic HDR Photos [Photoshop]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)

HDR to enhance photos without turning them into unrealistic and plastic-looking images. The goal, Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:00:00 PM as he outlines it, is to enhance the High Dynamic Range image to be closer to the way the photoraphy is a revolutionary eye sees the scene in real life and tool in the photographer's toolkit, not to increase the tonal range of but it can be over done and done the image beyond that which the poorly. Take more realistic eye would normally perceive. photos with these tips.

Check out his tutorial at the link For the unfamiliar, HDR below to see how to merge photography is where you take a exposures in Photoshop to series of exposures of a given increase detail without making scene and use software to your photo look like computercombine them together. When rendered version of itself. used properly an HDR photo images below show HDR done in and the HDR-processing is Have a favorite technique or tool creates a more dynamic image an unrealistic fashion: obvious. If you're going for that for creating realistic HDR which displays the scene more Photo by mescon. surrealistic look that's fine, but photography? Let's hear about it closely to the way the human eye Photo by extranoise. most people want to use HDR to in the comments. The Definitive sees it—richer detail in the Note that we're not judging the create better images while Guide to Realistic High Dynamic shadows and less loss of detail in quality of the photos, both are maintaining a more natural look. Range Images[Flickr] the bright areas. It can be very interesting and well composed. Flickr user Leviathor has put easily overdone however. The Neither one looks realistic though together a simple guide to using

Hack a Magic 8-Ball [Games]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/27/2009 2:00:00 PM

Why limit your Magic 8 Ball's answers to things like "Yes", "No", "Maybe", when you could hack it to say anything you wanted?

Photo by greeblie.

If you've never taken a Magic 8Ball apart before, you might be surprised to see the inside is mostly hollow with a simple cylinder that holds the murky blue ink and the answer die.

Every time you turn the Magic 8Ball over the die tumbles and

then floats to the surface, one of the faces of the die presenting you with an answer to your pressing questions—Will Susan make fun of my Hello Kitty collection?

Modifying the Magic 8-Ball is a simple hack. You'll need to open the ball and remove the die from the cylinder, then it's only a matter of lightly sanding the die with a fine-grit sandpaper to

smooth it and adding in your own text with a fine tip permanent marker—if you were really industrious you could even get your hands on some old printing dies and stamp the text right into the plastic.

Check out the tutorial at the link below for tips and tricks on getting into the Magic 8-Ball and reassembling it. Have a technique for hacking an old toy or game?

Let's hear about it in the comments. How-To Hack a Magic 8-Ball[Make]

Star Wars Weather Delivers the Weather Report via Star Wars Locales [Weather]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:00:00 PM

You'll find dozens of weather reporting services online, but all of them give you the weather in the traditional old sunny/cloudy/raining kind of way. None of them, however, will tell you if today will be as pleasant as Naboo.

Star Wars weather isn't a revolutionary way to check the weather report, but it's a nice diversion from a lifetime of "partly cloudy with a chance of rain". Rather than simply reporting the weather and forecast, Star Wars Weather gives you the conditions based on the climates and conditions of locales in the Star Wars universe like Hoth, Naboo, and Endor.

If you know of a fun site for sharing information in an unconventional way—stock quotes via Shakespeare perhaps, like "True is it that we have seen better days."—let's hear about it in the comments. Star Wars Weather[via Download Squad]

Tech Tips/

E-reader News Edition

29

Turn Light Art into an Animated Movie [Animation]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)

Use Hidden Rope Lights for Subdued Accent Lighting [Lighting]

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/27/2009 8:00:00 AM

If you're looking for a way to add soft ambient lighting to an area of your home or office, rope lights are a great way to provide accent lighting without the harshness of focused spotlights or lamps.

We've showed you how to set up home and office lighting with rope lights before, but it's a technique that's cheap and

flexible enough to be worth revisiting.

In the above photo Melinda, an Apartment Therapy reader, put rope lights behind her headboard to cast a warm glow up the wall and provide subdued bedroom lighting. While rope lights have a pleasant warm color to them to begin with, the deep red color of the walls certainly doesn't hurt.

Rope lights can also be placed above cabinets for soft downlighting or beneath furniture for a diffused floor-level light. If

you're looking for interesting new lighting ideas, take a stroll through our Featured Workspaces to find quite a variety of novel ways for using subtle—and not so subtle!—lighting.

Have your own favorite way for varying and enhancing the lighting in your home or office?

Let's hear about it in the comments. DIY Glowing Headboard is Cheap, Quick, and Easy[Apartment Therapy]

It involves a painstaking animation technique, whereby the team paints in the air with glow Submitted at 12/26/2009 4:00:00 PM sticks, frame after to frame to You might remember when we c r e a t e e n t i r e s e q u e n c e s o f shared a cool way to make light- animation, usually taking a whole based art with an LED flashlight night to shoot. and a long camera exposure. Check out the video below to see Take it a step further by creating their light-art masterpiece: not just a light art picture, but an Once you've shot your hundreds animated movie. of light-art pictures, you'll need a The process is simple in concept, way to animate them. You'll find but pretty ambitious in what you plenty of simple animation tools can create. How ambitious? online like previously reviewed "Lucky" by All India Radio, is PhotoLapse, more than adequate the viewable blood, sweat and for turning your SD card's bounty t e a r s o f A u s t r a l i a n b a s e d into a glowing animated movie. animation company ‘Dee Pee Stellar Light Graffiti[via Make] Studios'.

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E-reader News Edition

FIVE continued from page 27

are prolific contributors, so if you find a wallpaper you really like, make sure to check out the user's gallery to see if they have any other gems to share. DeviantART doesn't have the advanced wallpaper-oriented search features that many of the other wallpaper sites have, but you can still search by image size and sort by popularity.

Now that you've had a chance to look over Lifehacker readers' favorite wallpaper sites, it's time to cast a vote for your favorite: Which Wallpaper Site Is Best?(

polls) We have two honorary mentions to hand out this week to extremely deserving sites that have contributed a multitude of awesome wallpapers over the years: Digital Blasphemy and Mandolux. Got more to say about your favorite (or a favorite that didn't make the list)? Let's hear it in the comments.

Battlestar Galactica + Queen = Battlestar Rhapsody

By Danny Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/27/2009 9:10:00 AM

If you're anything like me (first of all, you have my deepest sympathy and secondly, some mild chafing down there is normal), you haven't had the

patience to catch up with the brilliance that is Battlestar Galactica but that won't make this song any less funny.

Comedy fanboy recording artist The Great Luke Ski has an eye for obscure musical references and turned Queen's classic stream -of-consciousness nightmare

Become a Test Pilot: Mozilla Wants Your Help To Make Firefox Better

By Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb)

however, you can download the Test Pilot add-on for Firefox 3.5 here and begin to help Mozilla Submitted at 12/27/2009 8:00:00 AM make Firefox even better.

If you want to help Mozilla to Sponsor make Firefox better but you are Editor's note: This story is part not a developer, here is your of a series we call Redux, where chance. Earlier this year, Mozilla we'll re-publish some of our best announced the launch of Test posts of 2009. As we look back Pilot, the organization's new at the year - and ahead to what distributed usability lab. Test next year holds - we think these pilots will be enlisted in various are the stories that deserve a usability tests and will be some second glance. It's not just a bestof the first to see some of of list, it's also a collection of Mozilla's ideas for new user p o s t s t h a t e x a m i n e t h e interfaces and Mozilla Labs fundamental issues that continue products. We first wrote about to shape the Web. We hope you Test Pilot when it was just a "still enjoy reading them again and we -in concept platform." Now, look forward to bringing you

more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! First Tests Are Coming Soon For now, Mozilla will start the program with a survey that aims to get a better understanding of

who is joining the Test Pilot community. The first actual tests should arrive soon after this first survey is complete.

Mozilla stresses that it will take its users' privacy seriously.

Participants have to opt-in and data will be stored in anonymous form. Only aggregate test data will be made available to the public.

Overall, this looks like a great project. Usability studies tend to be slow and costly, yet with Test Pilot, Mozilla will be able to quickly enlist feedback about new design ideas from its large community of users. Discuss

ballad into a near-complete retelling of Battlestar Galactica.

A fan of the "great referencer" created the video below.

Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Video, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Chicago Blackhawks setting local NHL viewing records on Comcast SportsNet Chicago

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:50:08 PM

Wednesday’s 3-0 win over the Boston Bruins averaged a 3.27 household rating in the Chicago market according to Nielsen.

The game averaged 114, 500 households, and peaked with a 4.72 rating and 165,247 households during the 8:45 p.m. quarter hour.

The 3.27 single game regularseason ratings record on Comcast SportsNet broke the previous record set earlier this month on December 9 vs. the New York Rangers with a 3.03 household rating.

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

Tech News/

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31

Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

By Admin (ReadWriteWeb)

Conduit: Customized components | Web 3.0 Conference in Santa Clara| Media Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is Temple and SixApart: Our hosts t o e x p l o r e t h e l a t e s t W e b and blogging software technology products and trends. Crowd Science We're fortunate to have a great Crowd Science gives online group of sponsors who support p u b l i s h e r s r e p o r t s o n t h e this goal. So, once a week, we demographics and attitudes of write a post about them - about t h e i r a u d i e n c e . W e a t who they are, what they do, and ReadWriteWeb have signed up to what they've been up to lately. t h i s n e w s e r v i c e , b e c a u s e Pay them a visit or tweet them a demographic data is something "Thank you" (see link below we've struggled to get in the past. each sponsor) to show your It's important for any online appreciation for their sponsorship business to know their audience, of this site. Or you can follow all so Crowd Science is a welcome of our sponsors at once using our addition to the stats armory that Twitter list. most of us in the Internet biz use.

I n t e r e s t e d i n b e i n g a Sign up to get demographic data R e a d W r i t e W e b s p o n s o r ? from Crowd Science.

ReadWriteWeb is one of the Thank Crowd Science on most popular blogs in the world T w i t t e r f o r m a k i n g and is read by a sophisticated R e a d W r i t e W e b p o s s i b l e . audience of thought leaders and Mashery d e c i s i o n - m a k e r s . W e h a v e Mashery is a platform for Web several innovative new features services, allowing companies to in our sponsor packages that we'd m a n a g e t h e i r A P I s u s i n g love to tell you about. Email our Mashery's expertise. At the COO for all the details.

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Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: The Real-Time Web

By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb)

analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! What is the Real-Time Web? Submitted at 12/27/2009 2:00:00 PM Ken Fromm wrote an insightful This week ReadWriteWeb is primer to the Real-Time Web for running a series of posts ReadWriteWeb. In it he analyzing the five biggest, most explained that the Real-Time cutting-edge Web trends to come W e b i s a n e w f o r m o f out of 2009. We're posting one communication, it creates a new trend analysis per day. Then at body of content, it's immediate, the end of the week we'll publish it's public and has an explicit a major update to our standard social graph associated with it, p r e s e n t a t i o n a b o u t w e b and it carries an implicit model of technology trends. federation.

Our opening post was about One of the early leaders in the Structured Data. In this article we Real-Time Web was FriendFeed, look at probably the most hyped a lifestreaming service that trend of 2009: the Real-Time became popular with early Web. It has become a core part of a d o p t e r s . C o - f o u n d e r P a u l many Internet products this year: Buchheit (who also built the first Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, version of Gmail, during his time Google, Delicious, Wordpress, at Google) told ReadWriteWeb in and many others.

May that "the open, real-time Sponsor discussions that occur on Editor's note: This story is part FriendFeed are going to become of a series we call Redux, where a major new communication we'll re-publish some of our best medium on the same level as posts of 2009. As we look back email, IM and blogging." at the year - and ahead to what Everything is Real-Time Now next year holds - we think these We must of course begin our are the stories that deserve a product overview with Twitter. second glance. It's not just a best- In March this year the superof list, it's also a collection of trendy microblogging service p o s t s t h a t e x a m i n e t h e marked its 3rd birthday. As fundamental issues that continue Marshall Kirkpatrick explained at to shape the Web. We hope you the time, it's really the story of enjoy reading them again and we Twitter as a platform that is most look forward to bringing you exciting. more Web products and trends However the Real-Time Web is

much more than Twitter. It has changed the products and strategies of almost every major Internet company in 2009.

Google may have missed the early action, but by May 2009 co -founder Larry Page was proclaiming that Google had to do a better job of being real-time.

It's started that process. For example Google is behind a project called PubSubHubbub, which delivers RSS feeds much faster(near real-time).

PubSubHubbub is already making Google Reader faster.

But while you're waiting for Google search to become truly real-time, you can at least add Twitter results to it with this plug -in.

In March, Facebook launched a site redesign emphasizing a realtime stream of updates on users' homepages. Although this was unpopular with users, Facebook

continued to dabble in RealTime. In June, Facebook announced a new search interface allowing users to search for content from people, organizations, and other public figures as soon as they share it on Facebook. This was described as "up-to-the-minute" search results - in other words a real-time search engine.

Meanwhile in April, FriendFeed introduced a revamped user interface that focused much more on real-time updates than previously. The most impressive change was the new advanced filters, which made it a lot easier for users to create streams based on keywords, groups, sets of friends and more. FriendFeed's filters added something powerful to the Real-Time Web. In August, Facebook further strengthened its Real-Time chops by acquiring FriendFeed. This immediately brought more realtime sophistication into the Facebook family- we're yet to see how Facebook will use it though.

In August Yahoo's influential social bookmarking service Delicious was re-born as a realtime news tracker. It launched a new home page, combining recent tagging activity and crossreferenced links on Twitter.

The real-time updates continue... earlier today, all blogs on the

WordPress.com platform and any WordPress.org blogs that opt-in will now make instant updates available to any RSS readers subscribed to a new feature called RSSCloud. Conclusion In May, Marshall Kirkpatrick identified three forms of value from the Real-Time Web: ambiance, automation and emergence. In August, Bernard Lunn compared it to the real-time world of the trader.

The Real-Time Web is all of those things and more. 2009 has in many ways been the Year of the Real-Time Web. But it's early days yet, because we collectively - are still looking for ways to use all of that extra realtime data. We've made a lot of data real-time and surfaced it in search and our filters. But what new applications and intelligence can we build off this data? That question will be answered over the coming few years.

ReadWriteWeb's Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: • Structured Data • The Real-Time Web • Personalization • Mobile Web & Augmented Reality • Internet of Things Discuss

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And now, here's video of a Muppet dying

By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/27/2009 3:03:00 PM

I know that The Muppet Show was for adults as much as kids, but this clip from the show is still rather odd. Guest Kenny Rogers sings "The Gambler" (which has lines about drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes) and then one of the Muppets dies. It's all a bit surreal. [via Pop Culture Junk Mail] Filed under: Video, Children, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Family Feud and The Simpsons on the iPhone

By Brad Trechak (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:05:00 PM

With the invention of the App Store, it should be no surprise that game versions of various television properties would appear on the iPhone and iPod

Touch. I have managed to get my hands on two of them ( Family Feud and The Simpsons) and offer a brief review of each.

Family Feud- This game is a wonderful recreation of the environment of the game show it's based on, right down to the

camera pans. The big difference

is that one has to type any of the top-however-many answers rather than speak them, so it's best if the player have excellent spelling skills. Currently the game is on sale for $2.99 in the App Store.

Continue reading Family Feud

and The Simpsons on the iPhone Filed under: OpEd, The Simpsons, Hardware, Software, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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CloudPipe changes for today (Scripting News) Submitted at 12/27/2009 9:22:01 AM

More work on CloudPipe.

Yesterday's notes here.

Getting some feedback finally, though some of it has been bitter and condescending.

Please everybody. Be respectful of everyone, including yourself.

And remember: Tis the season to be jolly!

Peace on earth, goodwill to men.

Ignore the grouchyness and try to find the substance. Even better if people self-edit and leave out the michegas.

Now on to the substance...

1. There is support for not normalizing the items, and that is still the plan. It's true, there's a lot of code out there that understands all the varieties of RSS and Atom. I've been saying that all along!

The reason to do fatPing is to start a bootstrap that makes everything more efficient. In this, the leadership will come from the content systems and the aggregators.

2. I've made a change to the

body of the fatPing element.

Instead of including the XML elements inline, I encode the text and pass it as CDATA. This means that it will make it through XML parsers that care about namespaces being declared. An example, I was passing through an item from the TechCrunch feed(they support rssCloud, btw) and they have elements from the DC namespace. My packet doesn't declare this namespace, so the Firefox XML parser declares it invalid (they're right about that). I have to encode the text because they might include CDATA elements, and that would break the XML. Let's see if this works!

3. The point has been raised that there is no "standard" way to include a element in Atom feeds.

As I said in the comments, I will not be the person to dictate that, or suggest a way to do it, even mildly. I've learned that Atom is a 300-degree stove. When I touch it I get burned. However, I am the author of an aggregator that consumes Atom feeds. If you are the author of software that

Father of Detroit would-be bomber warned US (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

27T14:20:01-08:00 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: LadyDay buzzed up: Bomb PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, suspect came from elite family, Term Extraction. best schools (AP) 13 seconds ago 2009-12Submitted at 12/26/2009 11:11:14 PM

creates Atom feeds, you could (just saying hypothtetically) create a namespace that contains the element in it, as spec'd by RSS 2.0, and include it in your feed. If you told me about it, I could implement support for it in River2. That way we keep it all among implementors. There can be no doubt that you have the right to do that, and I have the right to support it. If anyone wants to get grouchy and irritable, let em!

4. To notify the CloudPipe server what feeds you want realtime notification on, send a POST to the same endpoint you call for the long poll (instead of a GET). The body of the POST is the OPML text for the feeds you want to follow. The server returns immediately while it processes the request.

5. The biggest development of the day is the draft spec is now ready for review. Please read the "Document Status" section carefully and believe what it says.

Favorite Show of the Decade

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:41:49 PM

Frequent commenter “Forg” suggested we have a “favorite show of the decade” thread. And honestly, it’s not like we have a lot going on this week. We’ve done “favorite show” threads before, but never for the whole decade.

Once again, if I list my favorite shows of the decade based on actual viewing, without any doubt it’s ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption. I’ve had the good fortune since late 2002 of usually being able to watch TV around 2:30 PT (5:30p ET) and when I’m not, the DVR grabs it. Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon entertained me for almost the whole decade, and since late 2002 I couldn’t have missed more than a handful of PTI episodes (due to power outages and DVR malfunctions).

ESPN’s Around the Horn at 2pm winds up a close second. Sure, it has been referred to by some critics as a hideous abomination (and with Jay Marriotti involved it’s hard to reasonably attack such assessments) and even spawned a somewhat accurate parody called “Sports Shouting” on 30 Rock.

Still, I have definitely enjoyed

Messers Page, Adande, Cowlishaw, Plaschke, Ryan, Blackistone, Reali etc. (and of course Jackie MacMullan) shenanigans over the years. And even with Mariotti, there’s still love involved. Sure, it’s of the love to HATE variety, but it’s still a close second behind PTI for me. I’ve only missed a few episodes of it since late 2002.

But if I wind up watching both shows off the DVR, I always choose PTI first. Always. Sorry, Woody.

Given my love of sports, and TV -viewing that was predominantly sports related in the 2000s, that I’d pick a couple of shows that talk about sports isn’t a huge surprise.

As far as scripted shows go, The Wire was my favorite of the decade.

How about you?

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

TV/ Popular News/

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35

TV Ratings: FOX Wins Broadcast on Right now on Another Very Slow Saturday Cinematical

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

a percent.

Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:44:04 AM persons) using television who are With two repeats of Cops and a tuned to a specific program, new America’s Most Wanted, station or network in a specific FOX won another slow Saturday area at a specific time. (See also, night where the only other Rating, which represents tuning original telecast on the broadcast or viewing as a percent of the networks in prime-time was a entire population being n e w e p i s o d e o f 4 8 H o u r s include stations that did not air m e a s u r e d . ) Mystery on CBS at 10pm. the entire network feed, as well Time Shifted Viewing– Program Details: as local news breaks or cutaways ratings for national sources are for local coverage or other produced in three streams of data You can see TV ratings from programming. Fast Affiliate – Live, Live+Same other recent Overnight ratings ratings are not as useful for live Day(Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. reports here. programs and are likely to differ Time shifted figures account for Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The significantly from the final incremental viewing that takes Nielsen Company. All Rights results, because the data reflect place with DVRs which are R e s e r v e d . S o u r c e : M a r c normal broadcast feed patterns. currently in approximately 24.4% Berman/Mediaweek.

For example, with a World Series of all U.S. TV households.

Definitions: game, Fast Affiliate Ratings L i v e + S a m e D a y ( L i v e + S D ) Fast Affiliate Ratings: These would include whatever aired include viewing during the same first national ratings, including from 8-11PM on affiliates in the broadcast day as the original demographics, are available at Pacific Time Zone, following the telecast, with a cut-off of approximately 11 AM (ET) the live football game, but not game 3:00AM local time when meters day after telecast, and are coverage that begins at 5PM PT. transmit daily viewing to Nielsen released to subscribing customers The same would be true of for processing. Live+7 Day daily. These data, from the Presidential debates as well as ratings include incremental National People Meter sample, live award shows and breaking viewing that takes place during a r e s t r i c t l y t i m e - p e r i o d news reports. the 7 days following a telecast. information, based on the normal Rating: Estimated percentage of For more information see broadcast network feed, and the universe of TV households Numbers 101 and Numbers 102. include all programming on the (or other specified group) tuned Five Filters featured article: affiliated stations, sometimes to a program in the average Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: including network programming, minute. Ratings are expressed as PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, sometimes not. The figures may Term Extraction.

By Kona Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/27/2009 8:32:00 AM

season. So while I would really like to see Sherlock Holmes, I can't. I can, however, read Cinematical's Sherlock Holmes review here.

• We have been watching a lot of DVDs though, including The Hangover, which is on Cinematical's Blu-Ray/DVD shopping guide.

• Around this time of year, it's • One of the movies I'm looking always good to get the kids out of forward to the most is Cop Out, the house. But is taking them to the Tracy Morgan/ Bruce Willis go see Alvin and the Chipmunks: cop movie, directed by Kevin The Squeakquel a worthwhile Smith. It was originally supposed to be called, A Couple of Dicks, family adventure?

• If chipmunks aren't up your but in any case, it finally has a alley, Cinematical talks about the trailer. best family films of the decade.

Filed under: Site • I love going to see a movie over the holidays, but this year Announcements, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | I'm in the Outer banks with the family and the local movie C o m m e n t s theater has actually closed for the The folks at our sister site Cinematical are working hard to give you news and reviews of the best -- and worst -- the silver screen has to offer. Here are some of their musings on the latest blockbusters, indies, and everything in between:

Jon Gosselin's NYC apartment trashed over holidays (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:17:17 PM

Jack buzzed up: Indian tribes buy back thousands of acres of land (AP) 35 seconds ago 2009-12-

27T14:17:48-08:00 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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What's On Tonight: 60 Minutes, The Sound of Music, Pawn Stars

Top TV Stories of 2009: Adam Lambert vs. Kris Allen

By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)

By Jane Boursaw (TV Squad)

Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:20:00 PM

Submitted at 12/27/2009 10:03:00 AM

• Discovery has a marathon of new Everest: Beyond the Limit episodes all night.

• Bravo has a Law and Order: Criminal Intent marathon all night.

• At 7, ABC has The Sound of Music.

• CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7.

• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Cowboys vs. the Redskins.

• FOX has two new episodes of Brothers at 7.

• Nickelodeon has a new Nick News at 8.

• TNT has The Wizard of Oz at 8.

• At 8:30, ESPN has the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl, Clemson vs. Kentucky.

• At 9, Retro TV has two

episodes of the 1950s Mike Hammer.

• Animal Planet has two new episodes of Untamed and Uncut starting at 9.

• At 10, History Channel has two new episodes of Pawn Stars.

• Food Network has Cupcake Wars at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Even die-hard viewers of American Idol might have a hard time remembering that Adam Lambert didn't win the competition earlier this year.

Especially considering Lambert's high-profile persona lately, starting with his sex-filled American Music Awards performance.

But no, the winner of American Idol was, in fact, Kris Allen, who's seemingly the complete opposite of Lambert. There's no denying they're both great singers, but whereas Lambert is brash, theatrical and loves to knock those high notes out of the stadium, Allen is more low-key, folksy and laid back. The fellow contestants were also roommates

Expensive, Blurry Photo of Flight 253 Terrorist Given Ken Burns Treatment by CNN [VideUhOh]

By Foster Kamer (Gawker) Submitted at 12/26/2009 7:15:00 PM

So! CNN paid a bunch of money for this blurry photo of authorities restraining Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab—hereby known as The Testicle at the Idol mansion.

Continue reading Top TV Bomber—and you can watch Stories of 2009: Adam Lambert Brooke Baldwin and T.J. Holmes talk over it. Fun! vs. Kris Allen Filed under: OpEd, American I like it when T.J. Holmes calls Idol, Vs., Music and Variety, him a "major failure." Well put!

Alumni Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Jon Gosselin NYC Apartment 'Wrecked' (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/26/2009 6:28:00 PM

ET has learned that Jon Gosselin came home to his Manhattan apartment Saturday afternoon to find it "wrecked," according to his attorney, with a note "that had

been affixed to Jon’s bedroom dresser by a butcher knife."

The former "Jon & Kate Plus 8" reality star's attorney, Mark Jay Heller, Esq., claims that Jon "was horrified, disheartened, and saddened to observe the devastation of his furniture,

clothing and personal belongings, which were apparently slashed with a butcher knife by a very troubled and sick perpetrator."

"He came into city this afternoon to find the [following] destroyed," Heller tells ET. "In addition to the aforementioned

vandalism, Jon’s television, CD player, coffee maker, a Nintendo Wii game, dishes, pots and pans were burglarized from his apartment, and Jon’s shoes, shirts, luggage, bed, curtain, rugs and other furnishings in the apartment were slashed, most

likely by the same butcher knife that affixed the note to his dresser. Sadly, along with the trashing of Jon’s apartment, a Ming vase, believed to be over 100 years old that was a family heirloom, was smashed to pieces.

TV/ Entertainment/ Economy/

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37

Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, season three -- An early look

By Brad Trechak (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:03:00 AM

British female comedy impressionists like Catherine Tate should pay royalties to Tracey Ullman for copying her schtick. Ullman was the original and still remains one of the best, if not THE best, at what she does.

As with the first two seasons of her Showtime series Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, she pretends to be, or rather becomes, different personalities across the United States over a single day with an ubiquitous announcer informing us of who she is and where in the country she is located. She even impersonates various celebrities on the way, and sometimes she is more than

one of them at the same time.

Continue reading Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, By Foster Kamer (Gawker) season three -- An early look Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:45:00 PM Filed under: OpEd, Early Looks, Correct me if I'm wrong, but Reality-Free doesn't this sound like today's Permalink| Email this| | Flight 253 was evacuated Comments because a Nigerian was on the can for too long? Maybe he was reading Netherland. Who knows?

But another flight in Detroit was during protests in Tehran and the just evacuated. northwestern city of Tabriz. Honestly?

Among those killed, according to The passenger spent about an the opposition websites, was the hour in the bathroom and got n e p h e w o f M i r - H o s s e i n upset when he was questioned by Moussavi, the top reformist the crew of the flight from candidate in June’s disputed A m s t e r d a m , N e t h e r l a n d s , elections and de-facto leader of according to government sources. the opposition.

Law enforcement agents were Five Filters featured article: questioning the man Sunday.

Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: It sounds like he was taking a PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, really long shit. I'd be —uh, Term Extraction. pissed?—as well! You know

Eight die in Iran protests (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/27/2009 10:22:24 AM

Iran’s opposition movement on Sunday staged its biggest rallies in more than six months, using the Shia holiday of Ashura to pull hundred of thousands of supporters into the streets to protest against the regime.

Opposition websites said at least eight people had been were killed in clashes with security forces

Today's Northwest Flight 253 in Detroit: Evacuated Due to Nigerian Man's Extended Bathroom Stay [Breaking?] what it's like when you're in the bathroom at a party and someone keeps knocking on the door and you're like, Ugh, it's bad enough I'm going to the bathroom at this party, this person knows I'm in here. Why are they knocking?

Unless you're doing blow, in which case, you have no excuse.

But I don't think he was doing blow because who would do blow on an airplane in Detroit?

Talk about an instant comedown on five different levels. Unless he was doing blow and the blow was cut with some laxative, which would maybe merit being on the can for a while. But to evacuate the entire plane?

Also, maybe he's just another Nigerian Testicle Terrorist in Detroit. There's that, too.

ACLU Now an Exponentially Less Hardcore Lobby Than Previously Considered [Civil Liberties]

By Foster Kamer (Gawker) Submitted at 12/26/2009 7:30:00 PM

You'll be disappointed to find out that the ACLU's executive director doesn't spend Sundays burning anarchy signs into American flags while singing pre -abolition slave spirituals to the tune of "Poker Face." Per an NYT profile: he feeds horses grass. [ NYT]

38

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ReasonKarma When #4,671Crashes to Cherish Through the MTA: Jon Gosselin's StretchingMing WhenVase, It Leaves a Stabby Appropriate NowNote Outlawed [Gossip [Crime Roundup] & Punishment]

By Foster Kamer (Gawker)

• C u t e btown American a b y full w h oof khardeeps working people inexplicably staring who come at me home even and try toI've though smiledone but eventually nothing try to Jon When Gosselin's "old" New apartment Yorkers got to get onit,on provoke eata shit horse andordie. in aAlso, car ransacked, this remember someone city before left a stabby it was namedbeSally, that'll $75 bones. and are trying to note. Literally! "cleaned up," a nighttime Also, theysubway broke •race Oh,towards what, you salvation wannaaway commit froma h i s often ride's M i nrecalled g V aas s ea. Warriors Amy and/or bad" "really further crime? into TryAmerica. smoking Winehouse's -esque life-threatening looking to get transit into Actually, weed sometime.

The Nutcracker Yeah, justtotally try it.

Altarcations? option.

Now it'sMichael so safe, Lohan: people fucking Four of sucks. our cops It's will aboutjust a bunch rape Christmas can't even sleazy. stretch Katt out. Williams: of rats you in the andass a child until molester you end up who in gunslingy.

Stretching Bruce obviously Springsteen: poses a whisks the hospital. a girlTrue awaystory. with the help Nutcracky. violently dangerous Presenting threat when your •of Finally, the rats,ifwhich you're isseen basically riding S u n take we d a y up M o more r n i n g than G o sone sip everyone's the J/M/Z,worst you're nightmare obviously abouta R o u n d uempty seat....in p! trains. Or so the the E train, criminal, and you're except going far toless rot • I've been faithfully public-serving trying to think transit of a frightening. in jail like the He scumbag takesyou herare. to way to rhymeknown organization the word as the "Karma" MTA another kingdom after setting up with "Jon would haveGosselin" it. but I can't anThis elaborate city will scheme oneto day makebe it but Thanks how to 'bout them, we some go with of the appearAnd clean. as ifon a prince that day, helped the few her great tired most karmaand anthem wearyofofour ourtime fair get there thugs and and punks when and she gangbangers does, all using an EpiPen? Hands with and (that workers—busboys, city's isn't "Karma Police," line in what police told him was a Here, look at their numbers: she people does iswho just, arelike, left among watch An NYPD spokesman denied sharp objects end up in tight us, cobviously), o o k s , j a nlittle i t o rditty s , bthat o dgoes e g a quota-driven sting. p e owho p l e think f r oof m stretching d i f f e r eand nt something like attendants, street this:sweepers, Jon Gosselin, and Josh Stevens of Harlem, you that cops were cracking down on handcuffs. Punkass. nationalities drinking bottled dance. water That's and maybe the What like many goesthem—will around goes no around longer dirty rat motherfucker, that'll subway riders taking up more • Crowded 9AM car full of even entirelaughing second act. out Shit loud makes on empty no goes hostage hold around gonna our empty find it's subway way show you, and the rest of the than one seat. Year-to-date people overheard groaning when trains, sense. Iwhen saw that theyit,see I know a certain this back with cars arouuuuuund, their hyper-extended yeah.. 'Dude criminals ruining this town. figures show that there were 760 their local train decides to go sign for a in fact. theIt's night, bizarre they'll and think lame got hisWe're limbs. apartment takingJACKED care of those UP. Think you can slip an asscheek such summonses issued in 2008 express? We'll wait until you all again. and a They'll fairly be uncomfortable shaken to the No, seriously, deviants, now. By like, ticketing shit wasn't them. over between two seats past New and 784 issued as of early this have summons. Every one of core. experience.

Fear will[ drain Pagetheir Six] faces you. stolen, A F asomebody s h i o n I just n s t icame t u t e ino af York's finest? Well, guess where month.

• People of blood,wants like you the tovillains know that of beat the shitstudent Technology out ofand alla of waiter his t h e y ' r e g o n n a s t i c k t h a t Exactly. Numbers. They prove • Lady asking hostile MTA cNic o m Cage i c b oisn't o k s being w h o sued s e e tfor he material at a Brooklyn possessions, diner were and left eacha i n s u b o r d i n a t i o n : u p s a i d points. And us New Yorkers, station agent why her card BatSignal fraud, just, like, in everything the nightelse. sky.[ we're vigilant. We're not gonna scanned as "already used" on the Except note STABBED recently nailed by graveyard-shift to the wall. a s s c h e e k .

People]it won't be in the sky, and Can't make transit cops, who this hit up. them Watch: with And of course the NYPD's not stop with the stretchers. Other first swipe and being upset when it • Here's won't something be at night. aboutIt'll crazybe Somebody $50 fines forwielding taking up amore butcher than doing this to fill some kind of people who will soon feel the s h e ' s t o l d N O P E U H - U H eass v e King r y w hof e r eNew , a tYork a l l director times, SORRY WAIT 15 MINUTES whenever knife one seattore on virtually throughempty the entire trains end-of-year quota, despite what wrath of the law: Abel Ferrara, they try who's to traverse apparently this apartment at around 2:30 and "speared" a.m. Josh Stevens, a note - the embarrassed cops busting you • Guy whose iPod headphones I OR BUY A NEW ONE? You great making urban a Dr.kingdom.

Jekyll and AndMr. it signed of Harlem, by "Hailey a recent Glassman," transplant his said in order to try to humanize can hear playing "Juicy" from will take that attitude from her. looks Hyde feature like this: starring Fitty Cent gal palCincinnati, from - to Gosselin's was stunned dresser the experience of ticketing and/or across the empty car? That's a And you'll like it. Talk back, see and Previously: Forrest Whittaker. " Also, destroy Related: theI with the when he was blade, slapped according with backto being ticketed $50 on back-to- night in The Tombs. If you don't what happens. You'll get your MTA." just had one of those "seriously, I face smashed in. Complain about just work here" moments. Abel TMZ. The to-back summonses assailant at the sliced 96th back nights for stretching on an know, now you know.

• Kid going into diabetic shock that. through Street station Gosselin's on Nov. shoes, 19 and shirts, 20, empty subway car.

Ferrara's next project: A Tale of curtains and other furnishings Two Cities remake, starring with the knife, sources said. A Kathleen Turner and Ghostface television, CD player and a Killah. I'd actually pay good Nintendo Wii game were also money to see this. [ Page Six] Submitted at 12/27/2009 10:30:00 9:30:00 AM AM

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The Shady Mainstream Media Payday of Flight 253 Hero Jasper Schuringa [Exclusive]

By Foster Kamer (Gawker)

Schuringa appears to be looking off-camera, trying to end the interview, and in doing so, Jasper Schuringa probably didn't preserving his product for further think twice before dismantling sale.

Northwest Airlines Flight 253's Here's how this happens. would-be bomber. But before All the media organizations telling his story in toto, he found Schuringa's company wanted what every other media website, which had his cell phone whore wants: to get paid, baby. number on it. By the time he And here's how it worked: finally got to Miami, his final Yesterday Mediaite and TV destination, CNN and The New Newser did a tag-team on York Post had gotten to him.

Schurnga's two wares he's got for Once the Post and CNN got sale: the first, a blurry picture of through to Jasper, he handed over Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. all negotiations to his friend who The second is himself, for lives in Miami who he came to interviews. CNN got to the the U.S. to visit. His name is Shai picture first, and paid what some Ben-Ami. He's an Israeli guy are estimating to be about $10K who's in the restaurant business, for it. They also got an interview, as a Google search would turn which they're saying they didn't up. He owns some kind of Pick pay for. Steve Krakauer deftly Up Stix imitator. Though their explains how this goes down. Orange Chicken sounds good The practice of paying a about now. "licensing fee" rather than a Schurnga sold the "TV Rights" d i r e c t e x c h a n g e i s a w a y of the first of his two photos to networks who claim to never pay CNN for $10K. for interviews can get around the The"print rights" went to the issue. By paying for images and Post for $5K. video, they are free to say no Later, Schuringa was paid money was exchanged hands for upwards of $3K by ABC News the actual interview – which is for a second photo, which still viewed as unseemly for news Schuringa tried to sell to other outlets not named the National local news outlets for $5K, Enquirer or TMZ. But paying for unsuccessfully. something to secure an interview Jasper Schuringa made at least happens quite a bit. $18,000 from two shitty, blurry This is the interview. You can photos. watch the entire thing, but it only Why? gets good around 6:45, when Because the only way to get Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:00:40 PM

about photo 2 what can you offer forit!? I feel bad dropping with you after you have been cool with us ...

Sent from my BlackBerry® on the MetroPCS Network You might have to run it only for monday cuz abc wants to use it aswell for tv news and they interviews with this guy was to stressed if we could hold off till pay him, so CNN and The New monday with paper ? Would that York Post ponied up. Fox News work ... u s e d t h e P o s t ' s i n t e r v i e w , Sent from my BlackBerry® on because, well, welcome to the MetroPCS Network Murdoch-land. NBC apparently Others numbers are extremly didn't pay because they don't higher have an interview. Neither does Sent from my BlackBerry® on the New York Daily News or the the MetroPCS Network New York Times. But the New They have exclusive rights for York Daily News did take CNN's photo 1, that is a final, for photo photo (albeit watermarked) and 2 interview quotes for their story in they are offering 3k, we are this morning's paper for the low going with them soon if I don't price of free-ninety-nine. Thrifty! hear back One reporter reached Shai just from you on equal contract ... before Jasper went on CNN, and Thanks for all ... was told that after they were done Sent from my BlackBerry® on with CNN and worked out a the MetroPCS Network contract with ABC, they'd talk to Welcome to the wonderful world the reporter about the print rights of Checkbook Journalism. Have to the second photo, and Jasper you seen the photo? It looks like would talk to reporters if—and this. only if—the reporter decided to It's nothing. buy it. "He was quite upfront Neither is the other photo, which about it," we're told. "He made it is just more of the same. The clear that Jasper was only talking networks aren't really paying for to news organizations that paid." the photo, they're paying for the And he made it clear over emails. thing that comes with the photo: Which look like this. Emphasis an interview. Here's the "funny" thing: CNN admitted to Mediaite mine: The post and times still talking and TV Newser that they paid for

the photo, but wouldn't comment on the interview. When pressed, will they cop to it?

CNN tells Mediaite they paid a "licensing fee" for the exclusive cell phone image, which they have been using throughout the day... CNN clarifies the network did not pay for the actual interview during CNN Newsroom.

No. So: Technically, did they pay for the interview? Probably not.

Categorically, did they pay for the interview? Absolutely.

When CNN wanted to talk about Balloon Boy a few weeks back?

They wanted the goods—the exclusive—but they didn't want to pay, be seen as paying, or refer to the story as anything but allegedly true. So they got the next best thing: my boss, talking about the story!

Looks like they learned their lesson.

Checkbook journalism is back, and here to stay. Media critics who lambast some news organizations for paying for sources are going to have to deal with the cold, hard fact that getting a scoop has gotten a lot more competitive these days.

Not only that, but the mainstream outlets who hold themselves in higher regards than those (like ours) who openly SHADY page 40

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NYU's Stern School of Embezzlement: The Ten Step Whistleblowing 2010 Cheat Sheet [Shut Up, College]

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SHADY continued from page 39

admit to ponying up for a story are doing the same thing themselves, the sole difference being: We don't feel the need to lie about it. Why do they?

By Foster Kamer (Gawker)

part. Save up enough money for five years while not leaving the same trail behind you that you 24 year-old NYU film and did. history student Michael Peaden, 10. Cash in when you have who probably pays a lot of exactly enough—and no money to go to NYU, figured out more—to buy said Jamaican rum that the chemistry department's plantation. Stop the scheme, drop manager had been taking money out of school, and move to from the school.... via liquor Jamaica. Let me know when store receipts. His reward? you're through, and we'll write But Peaden went to the school's the story and send it to NYU for director of investigations. "I final approval. related the story as I knew it. And And once it appears here, that he said, 'No!' "Peaden said that, means you've passed! Learn from over the following year, he heard history: you save your school no further word about the matter. hundreds of thousands of dollars NYU never thanked him. He after spending tens of thousands learned of the outcome only by of dollars on education, they're reading The Post. only going to stonewall you for So, here's how you get past this helping them out until you learn class, winning the approval of about your valiant efforts and your chosen pricey institution of integrity through, of all places, higher education: the New York Post. Obviously, off, make sure you have all small Jamaican rum plantation.

1. Find liquor store receipts from potential tipsters killed, silenced, 7. Open up some offshore Michael Peaden failed. Learn one guy that have been turned or at least paid off. accounts. Put all your money in from his mistakes. Besides, you into the school's bursar for five 4. Find another department that there as well as the money you're didn't pay all that money from years, adding up to somewhere in doesn't have a manager smart making cheating NYU out of NYU to learn nothing about the the area of $409K in pocketed enough to do this. hundreds of thousands of dollars. value of whistleblowers, right? expense reimbursements.

5. Get that person fired. Don't 8. Get a good friend to remind Right.

2. Figure out exactly how this forget to buy the required you every nine days that they're a Showing up to class is only part works, down to the paperwork reading. Or steal it. private institution who doesn't of an education; when you get filed and everything.

6. Apply formula learned in give a shit about you, so you down to it, it's the passing grades 3. Then figure out how you that count. steps one and two to extort don't have to feel too bad. figured all of this out. If it enough money to buy you a 9. Hang tight. This is the tough involves somebody tipping you Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:30:00 PM

S Koreans win $20bn UAE nuclear power contract (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/27/2009 4:30:23 AM

A South Korean consortium has beaten French, US and Japanese competition to win a $20.4bn contract for developing a civilian nuclear programme for the United Arab Emirates – one of the world’s largest nuclear tenders on offer.

The Korean group of companies includes Korea Electric Power Corporation ( Kepco), Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung and Doosan Heavy Industries.

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Meyer’s Early Exit Nearly Unprecedented (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

greats, is following a far different path. In stepping down Saturday because of health concerns, Mr. (Editor’s Note: This column was Meyer the top active majorpublished before news broke that c o l l e g e c o a c h b y w i n n i n g Urban Meyer is taking a leave of percentage among those with at absence, not retiring.) least five seasons (.841) made an Like boxers, college football unheard-of move for a 45-yearcoaches usually hang on as long old coach in his prime. Arguably as humanly possible. Especially the last time the best coach in the the great ones. Getty Images game departed at such a young U r b a n M e y e r t a l k s w i t h age for reasons other than the quarterback Tim Tebow during NFL was in 1931, when 43-yearan Oct. 10 game at Louisiana old Knute Rockne died in a plane State. crash.

When Amos Alonzo Stagg Mr. Meyer will surely be lauded finally left the University of in the coming days as not only Chicago in 1932 at age 70, the the sports top coach but also the old coach was just getting best in Florida history the latter warmed up. He coached another of which isnt fair. That honor 14 years at Pacific. Alabama should forever belong to Steve legend Bear Bryant, who coached Spurrier, given what Florida 25 years in Tuscaloosa and 38 football was before he began overall, is reputed to have coaching there in 1990. quipped that hed croak within a People forget that Florida doesnt week of retiring and did so have near the rich history of within a month.

Alabama or Tennessee, two of its Joe Paterno, who turned 83 last Southeastern Conference foes. week, is still going strong at Penn Before Mr. Spurriers arrival as State. Bobby Bowden, Mr. coach, the Gators had never won Paternos contemporary at Florida a single SEC title that wasnt State, is only retiring after the vacated or disregarded because of Gator Bowl Jan. 1 because the ineligibility. Mr. Spurriers six school forced him to. outright conference titles and one Urban Meyer, whose nine-year national championship in 12 run as a head coach (five at seasons made Gainesville a Florida) stands with any of the desirable place for top recruits Submitted at 12/27/2009 8:51:54 AM

been much more traditional offensively, relying on tried-andtrue techniques like play-action throws over the middle and bootleg passes to the tight end.

Some of Floridas plays, by contrast, are bewildering in their novelty and intricacy, like the a n d m a d e i t p o s s i b l e f o r jump pass quarterback Tim successors though not his Tebow has used in goal-line immediate successor, Ron Zook situations and the option shovel pass he tosses to the tight end. to build on what he started.

Did Mr. Meyer ever build on it, The latter play looks like a though. He did so to the point simple option running play: The that Mr. Spurriers once-unrivaled defense waits for Mr. Tebow to offensive genius now looks pitch the ball backward, when all of a sudden he flips it forward to rudimentary.

M r . M e y e r a n d F l o r i d a a tight end the defense is represented the ultimate marriage ignoring. of cutting-edge strategy and top- This spread-option offense that notch athletic talent. So often in Mr. Meyer has used for years a college football its either one or run-based attack that uses the other: bluebloods like Ohio deception and spacing to create State that attract top high-school running room for ballcarriers p l a y e r s b u t p l a y o v e r l y was originally conceived as an conservatively, or have-nots like equalizer, since his teams at Texas Tech that use innovative Bowling Green had less talent strategy to compensate for than some of their conference opponents. inferior talent.

Mr. Meyer delivered both, That all changed two coaching working and strategizing like a s t o p s l a t e r i n G a i n e s v i l l e . s m a l l - s c h o o l c o a c h w h o “Working with Urban, it literally happened to have some of the takes your breath away, says best players in the country. Pete Troy Starr, who in 2007 was Carrolls USC, the one program Floridas director of football that has consistently been on operations in charge of playerFloridas level in recent years, has personel evaluations. His work

it’s Istanbul not Constantinople

By Cris Stoddard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:32:05 PM

• About Flickr

Flickr is a revolution in photo process. Get comments, notes, Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: storage, sharing and organization, and tags on your photos, post to PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, making photo management an any blog, share and more!

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ethic and intensity were just mind -boggling.

It was his recruiting that was the main thing that stood out. It was round the clock for him, completely year-round. When you’re competing against Alabama and USC, you can’t really breathe.

Indeed, it was the buildup of such stress coupled with Mr. Meyers health problems that seems to have compelled him to leave. He went to a hospital after suffering chest pains following Floridas SEC title loss to Alabama earlier this month.

The closest parallels to a coach leaving football at such an early point in a promising career are perhaps in the pros: Bill Parcells departure from the Giants after the 1990 season, his eighth in New York, at age 49, or 46-yearold Dick Vermeils decision to leave the Eagles because of burnout following the 1982 season, his seventh.

Only time will tell, but Mr. Meyers departure may bear yet another similarity to those two. “I would think he’d come back in a few years, says Mr. Starr. He’s one of those guys that can’t just stay away forever.”

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NFL Diary: New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:27:51 AM

Getty Images Joseph Addai (left) and Peyton Manning have helped the Colts get within two wins of an undefeated regular season.

The Journal provides minute-byminute analysis of today’s game between the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Guest blogger Steve Kornacki offers commentary on the game and the CBS telecast. Feel free to email Steve with questions or comments during the game.

2:31 pm | Pregame | by Steve Kornacki Since the hook for todayâs game is so obvious â- Indyâs Quest for Perfection, Part XV â- letâs have some fun with misleading data and declare that the Colts are probably better off losing. After all, every team in NFL history that has ever completed a 16-0 regular season has gone on to lose in the playoffs â- while fully half of the teams that went 15-1 won the Super Bowl. So if he wants to snag another ring this year, Peyton Manning really ought to mail it in against the Jets.

OK, OK, hopefully I donât need to point out all of the flaws in that logic. Suffice it to say, Indy has already tried the Late Season Loss strategy before -â when they dropped two of their final three regular season games after a 13-0 start in 2005 -â and all it got them was a divisional-round

playoff choke-job against Pittsburgh. So they might as well go 16-0 this year -â if they can.

Thatâs where the Jets come in.

Their playoff hopes were basically dashed by a home loss to those cold weather warriors from Atlanta last week, but they still should provide decent competition for the homestanding Colts. New York boasts (believe it or not) the top-ranked defense in the league and a rushing attack thatâs also No. 1. Then again, besides a Week 2 win over the Patriots, they really havenât beaten anyone. So it might be safer just to say that the Jets will be more of a challenge than Indyâs final opponent next week, the hapless Bills.

Vegas lists the Colts as a 4 ½ point favorite -â a number that

probably reflects more doubt about how hard Indy will play than respect for the Jets. But letâs reach back into our bag of misleading statistics and point out that in their entire 50 years of existence, the Jets have never lost a regular season game against a 14-0 team. Just donât ask how many games that includes.

4:07 pm | Pregame | by Steve Kornacki Kickoff is still a bit away, but already the Jets' playoff chances have improved rather dramatically today. The three things that they absolutely need to happen and that are completely out of their control actually appear to be happening: The Jaguars are getting trounced by New England, Miami is being

crushed by Houston, and the Ravens are in trouble at Pittsburgh (although as I write this, they've rallied from 10 points behind to tie the game at 20). If Baltimore does come up short, the Jets, one of the four AFC teams that entered today at 7-7, would suddenly control their playoff destiny. (They would also benefit from a loss tonight by 8-6 Denver, which is playing at Philadelphia.)

That's the good news for the Jets. The bad news is that all of these breaks won't add up to anything unless they win this game. Still, if Rex Ryan happens to bring up the out-of-town scores just before kickoff, it just might give New York some extra fire in the early going.

4:08 pm | Pregame | by Steve

Kornacki I love bonus coverage! CBS (at least here in New York, where we didn't get a 1:00 game) is giving us the last few minutes of the Baltimore-Pittsburgh game.

They're at the two-minute warning, with the Steelers leading by three and facing a third and 8 at around their own 40. Jets fans will be pulling hard for Big Ben on the next play.

Meanwhile, Fox has switched over to the Tampa-New Orleans game, which is now (startlingly) in overtime -- with the Bucs (even more startlingly) driving.

4:11 pm | Pregame | by Steve Kornacki Wow. An illegal-contact call wipes out an interception that, NFL page 44

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Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer could return after leave of absence

Stewart, Panthers coast in Giants Stadium finale

By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

By Associated Press (ESPN.com)

Meyer will coach in the Allstate Sugar Bowl against Cincinnati, as previously announced, but Submitted at 12/27/2009 2:08:29 PM then offensive coordinator Steve Report: Meyer Decides Not To Adazzio will take over the Gators Resign Report: Meyer Decides and will coach until Meyer is N o t T o R e s i g n V I D E O ready to return.

PLAYLIST When asked if he believed he • Report: Meyer Decides Not To would be coaching next season Resign Report: Meyer Decides Meyer said: "I do in my gut Not To Resign believe that will happen."

• Brown On Meyer: 'We Need Meyer led the Gators to BCS Him' Brown On Meyer: 'We national championships in 2006 Need Him' and 2008. Meyer is 56-10 with Florida, including 32-8 in the Florida coach Urban Meyer, SEC and a school-record 22who announced Saturday night game winning streak that was that he would step down after snapped by the Crimson Tide in coaching the Gators in the Sugar the conference title game on Dec. Bowl on New Year's Day, will 5. instead take an indefinite leave of "I want to make sure I do right by absence following the bowl my family," Meyer said. "My game, he said on Sunday. second family is my players and "I was offered and encouraged to my staff." take a leave of absence," Meyer Florida quarterback Tim Tebow said in a news conference on said the team was upset after Sunday afternoon.

Meyer announced he was Meyer said he got around his s t e p p i n g d o w n . players at a short practice on "The last 24 hours has been a campus and realized he wasn't whirlwind, knowing that Coach ready to call it quits. He then Meyer is going through a hard carefully considered the leave time with his heath,was hard on offer and discussed it with his me," Tebow said. coaching staff and team on "A lot of the guys on the team Sunday. were crying and upset [when he "I've accepted this offer to announced he was stepping improve my health," he said. down], but for the most part

everyone wanted what's best for Coach Meyer."

After the Southeastern Conference championship game three weeks ago, Meyer spent several hours in a Gainesville, Fla., hospital because of chest pains.

Florida is one of the most desirable coaching jobs in the country and if athletic director Jeremy Foley had to go searching for a permanent replacement, he likely would have found numerous interested candidates.

Last month, Sports Illustrated chronicled Meyer's coaching career and reported that he suffered from persistent headaches caused by a cyst that becomes inflamed by stress, rage and excitement.

Meyer told the magazine that since the diagnosis in the early 2000s he has tried to stay composed during games.

A tireless recruiter and creative motivator, Meyer came to Florida from Utah in fall 2004 amid speculation he would end up at Notre Dame.

Meyer brought most of his staff with him -- some of whom worked with him at Bowling Green (2001-02) and Utah (200304). Together, they restored the program to national prominence

two years later with the school's second national championship.

The Gators upset Ohio State 4114 in Glendale, Ariz.; they won another one last January by beating Oklahoma 24-14 in Miami.

With just about his entire team returning this fall, Meyer spent all season coaching under intense pressure and sky-high expectations. He said he welcomed it all as the defending national champions tried to become just the second team in the last 14 years to repeat.

But the season was far from smooth. Florida dealt with distraction after distraction, prompting Meyer to call it "the year of stuff."

Meyer is married with three children -- the oldest recently started college at Georgia Tech -and has said repeatedly he planned to leave coaching to spend more time with his family.

Information from ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach, ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen and The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Submitted at 12/27/2009 2:12:47 PM

Fast Facts • The Giants lost their final regular-season game at Giants Stadium by allowing 40-plus points for the fourth time this season and second time at home.

It's the first time since 1971 in which the Giants allowed two 40plus point games at home.

• Jonathan Stewart set a club record with 206 rush yards. He's the third player to reach 200 rushing yards against the Giants and the first since Terry Miller rushed for 208 for the Bills in 1978.

• Carolina scored 40-plus points for the first time since Week 17 of the 2005 season, when they scored 44 against the Falcons.

• Matt Moore is 3-1 as a starter this season. He threw for 171 yards with 3 TDs and no interceptions.

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Sources: Bill Cowher likely to coach Bucs stun Saints on in NFL in 2010 Barth's 47-yard FG in OT

By Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:39:06 PM

After turning down chances to return to the NFL in previous offseason, former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher is primed to get back in the game this offseason.

Those who know Cowher firmly believe that he plans to coach in 2010, according to two league sources. He is laying the groundwork, making calls to piece together a coaching staff and acting like a man who will be patrolling the sidelines once again next season.

Schefter's Blog Keep up with Adam Schefter's news and notes from around the NFL daily on his ESPN Insider blog. Schefter blog Many around the league have expected Cowher's name to surface in connection to the Carolina job, and it might. But others also believe that a more likely landing spot might be the Panthers' division-rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Over the past year, Tampa Bay has undergone more changes than any NFL team. More are coming. At the very least, their associate head coach/special teams coach Rich Bisaccia is on his way to join the University of Tennessee coaching staff.

Defensive line coach Robert Nunn and defensive backs coach Joe Baker were part of the Jim Bates package, and will not return.

And now there is an increasing sentiment with the Buccaneers organization that head coach Raheem Morris will be one and done. Two weeks ago, CBS announcer Rich Gannon criticized the way Buccaneers practices are run, the latest example of the job being too big for Morris right now.

NFC South blog ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas writes about all things NFC South in his division blog.

• Blog network: NFL Nation If the Buccaneers decide to part ways with Morris as well, then multiple people around the league think Tampa Bay will

wind up making a run at Cowher.

League sources labeled as erroneous any speculation the Glazer family which owns the Bucs may be too financially strapped to pursue Cowher. One source added that Joel Glazer, one of the team's owners, recently has expressed strong admiration for Cowher to other owners.

Additionally, those who know the Glazer family noted that they are always prepared to do the dramatic, citing the firing of Tony Dungy and the acquisition of then-Raiders coach Jon Gruden, Dungy's successor, in which the Bucs sent multiple draft picks, including two first rounders, and $8 million cash to Oakland.

Adam Schefter is ESPN's NFL Insider and Chris Mortensen is ESPN's senior NFL analyst.

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have to do is beat a 14-0 team on the road. (And 10-5 Cincinnati next week.)

4:17 pm | Pregame | by Steve Kornacki Suddenly, the Steelers are the

biggest Colts fans in the world.

After their win over Baltimore and with Miami and Jacksonville both going down, the Steelers -who were staring at 6-8 before a last-second miracle last week --

By Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:51:14 PM

Fast Facts • Connor Barth hit a 47-yard FG to give the Buccaneers two straight wins for the first time since weeks 9-13 last year and handed the Saints their second straight loss.

• The Bucs became the team with the fewest wins entering a game (2) to defeat a team with at least 13 wins in NFL history.

• Garrett Hartley missed a 37yard kick with 5 seconds left in regulation which would have

NFL continued from page 42

after a long return, would have set the Ravens up in Pittsburgh territory with plenty of time.

Pittsburgh can run the clock out now. The Jets now control their playoff destiny. Now all they

need only the Jets to lose to control their own playoff destiny.

(They'll play at Miami next week.) Â

won the game for the Saints. It's his first career miss inside 50 yards (21 for 21 before that kick).

• The Saints have been held to 17 points in each of the last two games, their longest streak of scoring fewer than 20 points since a 4-game streak to start the 2007 season.

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Patriots clinch AFC East Knuckle Puck: Top 5 Don behind dominant Brady Cherry Suits

By Associated Press (ESPN.com)

interception.

• The Patriots are 8-1 all-time against Jacksonville.

Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:33:18 PM • Maurice Jones-Drew (18 Fast Facts rushes, 63 yards) failed to record • Randy Moss (4 catches, 45 a rushing TD and has one 100yards, 3 TDs) recorded his ninth plus yard rushing game in his last career 3-plus TD reception game, six games. second most in the NFL since • Bloggers' wrapups 1960.

• Rapid reaction • Tom Brady (23 for 26, 267 -- ESPN Stats & Information yards, 4 TDs) recorded his Five Filters featured article: second 4-plus TD pass game this Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: season, set a Patriots record for PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, completion percentage and Term Extraction. snapped a streak of four straight games with at least one

By Kevin Schultz (Fanhouse Main)

only a very important topic but also a very festive one. It's going to be tough, but I've decided to Submitted at 12/27/2009 3:00:00 AM pick the Top 5 suits that CBC Filed under: NHL Media Watch, commentator Don Cherry has Sports Business and Media Each worn. Cherry has always been and every weekend this season very colorful, whether we're I'll be taking a look at the random talking about the opinions happenings and absurdities that coming out of his mouth during occur in the world of hockey. his Coach's Corner segment on Feel free to suggest stories, Hockey Night in Canada, or the complain or otherwise babble at suits he wears, which many times me via electronic mail. seem to be attempts at trying to This week in Knuckle Puck burn the retinas of his television we're going to cover what is not audience.

Fantasy Football Tailgate: Week 16

By Tom Herrera (Fanhouse Main)

that was. Pierre Garcon has already been ruled out because of injury, and you're going to be Submitted at 12/27/2009 3:30:00 AM strongly tempted to sit the other Filed under: Fantasy Football Colts as well. We'll give our Tailgate, Expert Chats If you've takes on that situation, as well as come this far, you deserve a Michael Turner, DeAngelo hearty congratulations. Making it Williams, Steven Jackson, the list t o t h e f a n t a s y f o o t b a l l start time) until kickoff to answer goes on. championship is no easy feat. all your crucial lineup questions, Join us for the post-Christmas But it's time to go for the throat injury concerns, or just to tailgate below. in Week 16. We'll be with you reminisce about the wild season from 11:30AM ET(note the later

Calif. Man Injured in Fire After Burning Divorce Papers (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/26/2009 11:50:03 PM

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

Sacramento firefighters say a man has been seriously injured after starting a house fire while apparently burning his divorce papers.

Sacramento Fire Department Capt. Jim Doucette says the man lived with his father, who says his son was distraught. The father tells firefighters his son had been lighting things on fire all night Friday. The fire began Saturday morning when the man set his

divorce papers aflame.

The fire damaged the two-story duplex in Sacramento's West Natomas area. It sent the man to a Sacramento hospital with serious injuries including smoke inhalation. He was not being named.

Doucette says the fire was in an upstairs bedroom where the man also was found. Two cats were also found dead of smoke inhalation.

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3D gaming is now big enough for its Nintendo's Aonuma own summit pitched Link's Crossbow Training 2

By Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)

brightest minds in the gaming industry" and "define the market Submitted at 12/26/2009 4:30:00 PM opportunity for 3D stereoscopic Spinning off of the annual 3D gaming and entertainment."

E n t e r t a i n m e n t S u m m i t , "Consumers are leading the way Unicomm announced intentions to pervasive 3D entertainment," late last week to launch the "3D commented Unicomm CEO John Gaming Summit" in April 2010. Golicz, lest we forget that 40 Headed up by former head of the million of us will have the new H o l l y w o o d R e p o r t e r B o b technology within the next four Dowling and Connecticut-based y e a r s ( t h e r e m i g h t e v e n b e event management company something in your house capable Unicomm, the two-day event is of 3D film viewing right this set for April 21 and 22 at the minute!). Though the release Hilton Universal City in Los didn't specify any major gaming Angeles. According to a press publishers or developers signed release issued by Unicomm, the on for the event, it noted that summit's aim is to "attract the "key sponsors" will help to

"highlight 3D gaming technology." We might still be skeptical, but after what we saw last year at CES from Sony, and our recent IMAX 3D experience with James Cameron's Avatar, we're (at very least) interested in what 3D tech in gaming has to offer.

3D gaming is now big enough for its own summit originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

By Ben Gilbert (Joystiq)

execs above him at Nintendo didn't think much of the idea, nixing it in favor of a completely Aside from efforts like The new entry in the Zelda series. " I Conduit and the Resident Evil 4 was thinking that maybe we Wiimake (no, we couldn't help could intensify the multiplayer it), Nintendo's Wii hasn't exactly mode ... [but] a lot of people enjoyed a glut of capable FPS inside Nintendo insisted that I titles. According to a recent should work on a new Legend of interview with games[TM] (via Zelda title." We're sorry about NowGamer), Zelda director Eiji that, Mr. Aonuma! And to the Aonuma recognizes this -- and Nintendo executives who killed a sees great potential for fixing that sequel to Link's Crossbow problem in Link's Crossbow Training, we'd like to personally Training, the pack-in minigame thank you. included with the Wii Zapper. Nintendo's Aonuma pitched "To tell you the truth, I actually Link's Crossbow Training 2 (Financial Times - US increasingly defiant tone amid development. wanted to create Link's Crossbow originally appeared on Joystiq on homepage) mounting international pressure. Five Filters featured article: Training 2... I thought that we Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:00:00 EST. In an interview published by the Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: should do something more and Please see our terms for use of Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:14:01 AM Xinhua news agency on Sunday, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, better in the field of the first- feeds.

Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, Mr Wen said some of the Term Extraction. person shooter." Wait, haven't we Read| Permalink| Email this| has said Beijing would not give demands for China to let its heard this before?

Comments in to foreign demands for its currency appreciate were an Unfortunately for Aonuma, the currency to strengthen, taking an effort to contain the country’s

Wen dismisses currency pressure

Submitted at 12/26/2009 7:00:00 PM

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47

GameStop giving $20 credit for your crummy presents

By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq)

Mass Effect 2's save game import features explained

By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/26/2009 9:30:00 PM

This past summer, we learned that Mass Effect 2 players could import save files from the previous entry in the franchise, bringing all of the decisions made in the first game into the sequel. But are decisions capable of decimating hordes of insidious, robotic invaders? No, boosted stats and abilities are -and according to a recent forum post from BioWare Community Coordinator Chris Priestly, players who import their saves will get access to these as well.

Of course, you won't be able to play as your super-high-level Shepard when you import -however, the higher your

character's level was when you finished Mass Effect, the better bonuses your Mass Effect 2 Shepard will receive. Some of the bonuses mentioned include extra money or crafting resources when you start the game. In addition, though BioWare has said that the game won't have a " New Game Plus" option, Priestly says that multiple playthroughs with the same Shepard will be possible.

Gallery: Mass Effect 2 Mass Effect 2's save game import features explained originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Submitted at 12/27/2009 4:30:00 PM

Zelda Reorchestrated project completes Ocarina of Time score remake

Sorry, that headline is a bit misleading -- GameStop's not going to give you $20 store credit in exchange for that Family Matters-branded Snuggie. Rather, the retailer has an extensive list of good and terrible games you

By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) You can stream some of the might have received this holiday t r a c k s o f f t h e Z e l d a season, which your local 'Stop Submitted at 12/27/2009 2:00:00 PM Reorchestrated site, or download will give you a Jackson's worth On Christmas day six years ago, the entire shebang for free. Or, of credit for. The offer's running one boy had a legitimate dream: you can just wait for the group to until January 10, so you've still To recreate the soundtrack for recreate the timeless music of got time to decide whether you The Legend of Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, which should can muster up the courage to ask Maw Maw for the gift receipt, or Ocarina of Time, making it sound be just around the corner. like it was recorded by live Zelda Reorchestrated project whether you should just cut your musicians. Three-fifths of a completes Ocarina of Time score losses. decade passed, and the boy remake originally appeared on GameStop giving $20 credit for became a man. More importantly, Joystiq on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 your crummy presents originally the Zelda Reorchestrated project 14:00:00 EST. Please see our appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please produced its first succulent fruits: terms for use of feeds.

A 22-track compilation of Read| Permalink| Email this| see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Ocarina's tunes, as performed by Comments Comments a virtual philharmonic.

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Fresh security scare on US flight (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

Airport alertness US President Barack Obama was told about the latest incident Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:59:08 PM during his holiday in Hawaii.

There has been a security scare The White House said in a o n b o a r d a f l i g h t f r o m statement: "The president Amsterdam to Detroit - two days stressed the importance of after an alleged attack failed on maintaining heightened security board the same flight. measures for all air travel."

The pilot of Northwest Airlines The US and international Flight 253 requested emergency airports were already on alert help when a passenger was after the 25 December failed described as disruptive as the attack, in which Umar Farouk plane landed on Sunday.

Abdulmutallab allegedly However hours later the FBI a t t e m p t e d t o d e t o n a t e a n said it was a "non-serious e x p l o s i v e d e v i c e . incident".

Fellow passengers reported It came a day after a Nigerian seeing flames coming from Mr man was charged with attempting Abdulmutallab's lap. He was to destroy a plane on a flight on treated for burns after his arrest.

25 December.

The FBI said he had explosives In Sunday's incident, flight crew on his body. He is due to appear

By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) to sink time into that still-fresh became concerned when the in court on Monday. copy of Dragon Age: Origins p a s s e n g e r - w h o w a s a l s o Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:30:00 AM Watch-list review once Peggle Nights snaps its described as a Nigerian - became White House spokesman Robert You've probably got plenty of colorful, unrelenting jaws down sick and spent about an hour Gibbs said the president wanted games from the present-receiving onto you. locked in the toilet, officials said. to know how a man carrying ceremony of your holiday of A whole bunch of PopCap "This raised concerns so an alert dangerous substance PETN had choice -- unfortunately, they're games offered at half-price was raised," FBI spokeswoman managed to board a flight in a l l a b o u t t o g e t b r u t a l l y originally appeared on Joystiq on Sandra Berchtold.

Amsterdam. n e g l e c t e d . C a s u a l g a m i n g Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST. "The investigation shows that The US system of watch-lists juggernaut PopCap is offering 15 Please see our terms for use of this was a non-serious incident." would also be examined after it of its games for half-price; for feeds.

The man was taken into custody emerged that the suspect was most of these titles, that knocks Read| Permalink| Email this| after the plane landed and no listed and known to US officials. the cost down to $9.95. Sadly, Comments explosives were found on him. The lists include a watch-list, there won't be any opportunities

A whole bunch of PopCap games offered at half-price

Soft commodities prices at historic highs (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:51:31 AM

The prices of key soft

commodities – including tea, cocoa and sugar – have jumped to multi-decade highs, boosted by supply shortages and robust demand.

The rises are set to translate into higher retail prices early next year, according to analysts.

Coffee and orange juice prices have also risen to their highest

level in more than a year.

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with some 550,000 names on it, a "selectee" list with 18,000 people within the higher-risk category, and a "no-fly" list with 4,000 names of people who are not permitted to board planes.

Speaking on Sunday talk shows before the latest incident, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said air passengers were safe.

"This was one individual literally of thousands that fly and thousands of flights every year," Ms Napolitano said.

"And he was stopped before any damage could be done. I think the important thing to recognise here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have."

US airlines especially have tightened security after the attempt, increasing screenings and body searches and, in some cases, confining passengers to their seats without pillows or blankets for the last hour of their flight.

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Merry Xmas in Hollywood: Box-office record falls (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/27/2009 1:45:35 PM

NEW YORK – It was a memorable and merry Christmas in Hollywood as moviegoers shattered box-office records, responding in droves to a diverse array of high-profile releases over the holiday weekend.

The estimated $278 million in weekend box-office revenue broke the previous record of roughly $253 million set in July 2008, the weekend " The Dark Knight" was released.

A diverse group of films drew throngs to the multiplexes: James Cameron's "Avatar" pushed strongly into its second week while " Sherlock Holmes," " Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" and "It's Complicated" all opened.

"Avatar," the 3-D epic, topped them all, earning $75 million for 20th Century Fox, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Remarkably, that was only a 3 percent drop from its opening weekend total of $77.4 million.

(Blockbusters typically drop 3050 percent in the second weekend.) In its 10 days of release, "Avatar" has made $212 million domestically — and could be on its way to a worldwide gross of over $1 billion.

"This thing is going to be playing and playing, I can tell you that," said Bert Livingston, 20th Century Fox distribution executive. "There's a lot of

business out there. Everybody's got good movies out."

In second was "Sherlock Holmes," Guy Ritchie's reboot of the franchise with Robert Downey Jr. starring as Arthur Conan Doyle's detective. The Warner Bros. film opened with a weekend total of $65.4 million, including a record Christmas Day debut of $24.9 million.

It was a start that seemed sure to pave the way for sequels. Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., called the result "sensational."

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," which opened Wednesday, took in $50.2 million on the weekend and $77.1 million in its five days of release. The film, also from Fox, earned an impressive $18.8 million on Wednesday alone. The strong start suggested that "Squeakquel" was likely to surpass its 2007 original, which made $217 million.

Also opening was Nancy Meyer's "It's Complicated," the romantic comedy starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. With an audience 72 percent female, the Universal film took in $22.1 million, a solid debut.

The sparkling Christmas weekend results spelled good things for all the films in release in the coming week — one of the most lucrative of the year.

"We all know what next week means to the industry. This is ... huge," said Nikki Rocco, head of

distribution for Universal. " Christmas is past us. No more shopping, no more returning.

College kids are home. ... I'm so optimistic about what the next weekend holds for us."

Said Livingston: "Starting this Monday, every day is a Saturday."

Two films with Oscar aspirations also released wide over the weekend: Jason Reitman's " Up in the Air" (Paramount) and Rob Marshall's "Nine" (Weinstein Co.).

"Up in the Air," which has some of the best awards momentum, grossed $11.8 million, bringing its cumulative total to $24.5 million — already nearly earning back its production budget.

"For us, this movie was always the movie that we felt was going to be a real focus during the awards season," said Rob Moore, Paramount vice chairman. "It feels like this should have a long run as awards season continues."

"Nine," the adaptation of the Broadway musical (which itself was a riff of Federico Fellini's classic film "8 1/2") earned $5.5 million in 1408 theaters.

"It's an absolutely fitting end to the biggest box office year of all time," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It's just been a total roller coaster ride. It's like audience members are on board."

2009 still has several days to go, but the year is already a record for domestic ticket sales with more than $10 billion at the box

office. That surpassed the $9.7 billion mark of 2007.

While some of the credit has to go the recession (movies historically do well in hard times when a trip to the movie theater is a relatively cheap form of entertainment and escapism), there was a feeling Sunday that Hollywood had put forth a better product this Christmas.

"People say it's the recession," said Dergarabedian. "It's the movies — it's really the movies.

It seems like when people aren't at home, they're at the movies."

He added: "You're going to find a smile on the face of every studio chief out there today."

Hollywood also seemed to be offering good ol' spectacle to moviegoers. "Avatar" grossed $8.8 million in IMAX theaters, actually increasing from its opening weekend. IMAX chairman and president Greg Foster said they were operating essentially at capacity.

"There is no context," said Foster. "It's so far beyond where we've ever been. It's not eking past a record, it's shattering it."

Christmas weekend was also neatly organized around various demographics. There was science -fiction, romantic comedy, family fare, action-packed thriller and serious awards-contender.

"That's what fueled this Christmas, the diversity of the films," said Dergarabedian. "It was like a cinematic buffet line.

If you can't find a movie that you like in the marketplace right now,

you don't like movies."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Avatar," $75 million.

2. " Sherlock Holmes," $65.4 million.

3. " Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," $50.2 million.

4. "It's Complicated," $22.1 million.

5. " Up in the Air," $11.8 million.

6. "The Blind Side," $11.7 million.

7. " The Princess and the Frog," $8.7 million.

8. "Nine," $5.5 million.

9. " Did You Hear About the Morgans?" $5 million.

10. "Invictus," $4.4 million. ___ On the Net: http://www.hollywood.com/boxo ffice ___ Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox MERRY page 54

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Indian tribes buy back thousands of acres of land (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

rally. About 17 tribes from the Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and Oklahoma still use O M A H A , N e b . – N a t i v e the mountain for religious American tribes tired of waiting ceremonies. for the U.S. government to honor Emily White Hat, a member of centuries-old treaties are buying South Dakota's Rosebud Sioux, back land where their ancestors said the struggle to protect the lived and putting it in federal land is about "preservation of our trust. culture, our way of life and our Native Americans say the traditions." purchases will help protect their "All of it is connected," White culture and way of life by Hat said. "With your land, you preserving burial grounds and have that relationship to the areas where sacred rituals are culture." held. They also provide land for Other members of the Rosebud farming, timber and other efforts Sioux, such as president Rodney to make the tribes self-sustaining. Bordeaux, believe the tribes Tribes put more than 840,000 shouldn't have to buy the land a c r e s — o r r o u g h l y t h e back because it was illegally equivalent of the state of Rhode taken. But they also recognize Island — into trust from 1998 to that without such purchases, the 2007, according to information land won't be protected.

The Associated Press obtained No one knows how much land from the federal Bureau of Indian the federal government promised Affairs under the Freedom of Native American tribes in treaties Information Act. dating to the late 1700s, said Those buying back land include Gary Garrison, a spokesman for the Winnebago, who have put the federal Bureau of Indian more than 700 acres in eastern Affairs. The government changed Nebraska in federal trust in the the terms of the treaties over the past five years, and the Pawnee, centuries to make property who have 1,600 acres of trust available to settlers and give land in Oklahoma. Land held in rights-of-way to railroads and federal trust is exempt from local telegraph companies. and state laws and taxes, but President Barack Obama's subject to most federal laws. administration has proposed Three tribes have bought land spending $2 billion to buy back around Bear Butte in South and consolidate tribal land Dakota's Black Hills to keep it b r o k e n u p i n p r e v i o u s from developers eager to cater to generations. The program would the bikers who roar into Sturgis pay individual members for land every year for a raucous road interests divided among their Submitted at 12/27/2009 10:42:06 AM

relatives and return the land to tribal control. But it would not buy land from people outside the tribes.

Today, 562 federally recognized tribes have more than 55 million acres held in trust, according to the bureau. Several states and local governments are fighting efforts to add to that number, saying the federal government doesn't have the authority to take land — and tax revenue— from states.

In New York, for example, the state and two counties filed a federal lawsuit in 2008 to block the U.S. Department of Interior from putting about 13,000 acres into trust for the Oneida Tribe. In September, a judge threw out their claims.

Putting land in trust creates a burden for local governments because they must still provide services such as sewer and water even though they can't collect taxes on the property, said Elaine Willman, a member of the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance and administrator for Hobart, a suburb of Green Bay, Wis. Hobart relies mostly on property taxes to pay for police, water and other services, but the village of about 5,900 lost about a third of its land to a trust set up for the state's Oneida Tribe, Willman said.

So far, Hobart has been able to control spending and avoid cuts in services or raising taxes, Willman said. Village leaders

hope taxes on a planned 603-acre commercial development will eventually help make up for the lost money.

The nonprofit White Earth Land Recovery Project has bought back or been gifted hundreds of acres in northwestern Minnesota since it was created in the late 1980s. The White Earth tribe uses the land to harvest rice, farm and produce maple syrup.

Members have hope of one day being self-sustaining again.

Winona LaDuke, who started the White Earth project, said buying property is expensive, but it's the quickest and easiest way for tribes to regain control of their land.

Tribal membership has been growing thanks to higher birth rates, longer life spans and more relaxed qualifications for membership, and that has created a greater need for land for housing, community services and economic development.

"If the tribes were to pursue return of the land in the courts it would be years before any action could result in more tribal land ... and the people simply cannot wait," said Cris Stainbrook, of the Little Canada, Minn.-based Indian Land Tenure Foundation.

Thirty to 40 tribes are making enough money from casinos to buy back land, but they also have to put money into social programs, education and health care for their members, said Robert J. Miller, a professor at

the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., who specializes in tribal issues.

"Tribes just have so many things on their plate," he said.

Some tribes, such as the Pawnee, have benefited from gifts of land.

Gaylord and Judy Mickelsen donated a storefront in Dannebrog, Neb., that had been in Judy Mickelsen's family for a century. The couple was retiring to Mesquite, Nev., in 2007, and Judy Mickelsen wanted to see the building preserved even though the town had seen better days.

The tribe has since set up a shop selling members' artwork in the building on Main Street.

"We were hoping the Pawnee could get a toehold here and get a new venture for the village of Dannebrog," Gaylord Mickelsen said. ___ On the Net: Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs: http://www.bia.gov White Earth Land Recovery Project: http://nativeharvest.com/ Indian Land Tenure Foundation: http://www.indianlandtenure.org/ Citizens Equal Rights Alliance: http://www.citizensalliance.org/ Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Terror Suspect Wasn't Considered Threat (FOXNews.com)

A former Homeland Security official told Fox News that Abdulmutallab's seat selection Despite mounting evidence of a does not appear to be accidental, sophisticated international plot to and that he was sitting in one of bring down a U.S. airliner on the two most vulnerable parts of Christmas Day, the man charged the plane. The suspect was sitting in the thwarted attack — who in seat 19A, which is over the was on U.S. officials' radar for fuel tanks, atop the wing and next years — was never considered a to the skin of the aircraft. sufficient threat to keep from There is a high likelihood an flying. explosion could be accelerated by The alleged Christmas Day the fuel tank, the official said — terrorist had been in one of the and that it could damage the U.S. government's largest terror plane's structure and puncture the databases since November, when skin, bringing down the aircraft. his father brought him to the The official, who has not been attention of embassy officials in b r i e f e d o n t h e c u r r e n t Nigeria. investigation but was intimately B u t U m a r F a r o u k involved in investigating the Abdulmutallab came to the 2006 Liquid Explosives Plot, attention of intelligence officials says that one of the first things months before that, according to Homeland Security considers is a U.S. government official where suspects were sitting on involved in the investigation. The the aircraft. official spoke on condition of Officials warn it is still early in a n o n y m i t y b e c a u s e t h e the investigation. But lawmakers i n v e s t i g a t i o n i s o n g o i n g . are already calling for hearings, Still, none of the information the and the government may order a g o v e r n m e n t h a d o n review. As President Obama Abdulmutallab rose to the level received regular updates on the of putting him on the official investigation from his staff, his terror watch list or no-fly list. On national security and policy aides Christmas Eve, the 23-year-old have been asking whether the Nigerian — who later claimed to policies the U.S. has in place are law enforcement that he was w o r k i n g . T h e s e i n t e r n a l operating on orders from Al discussions marked the informal Qaeda — was able to carry a start to what will likely become a concealed explosive device onto formal executive branch inquiry a U.S.-bound airplane. into an attack that failed because Submitted at 12/27/2009 7:29:19 AM

the bomb did not go off as planned and not because the intelligence community stopped it.

Passenger accounts and law enforcement officials describe the events around the Christmas Day attack this way: On December 24, Abdulmutallab traveled from Nigeria to Amsterdam and then on to Detroit with an explosive device attached to his body.

Part of the device contained PETN, or pentaerythritol, and was hidden in a condom or condom-like bag just below Abdulmutallab's torso. PETN is the same material convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid used when he tried to destroy a transAtlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes.

Abdulmutallab also had a syringe filled with liquid.

As the plane approached Detroit, Abdulmutallab went to the bathroom for 20 minutes. When he returned to his seat, he complained of an upset stomach and covered himself with a blanket.

Passengers heard a popping noise, similar to a firecracker.

They smelled an odor, and some passengers saw Abdulmutallab's pant leg and the wall of the airplane on fire. Passengers and the flight crew used blankets and fire extinguishers to quell the

flames. They restrained Abdulmutallab, who later told a flight attendant he had an "explosive device" in his pocket.

He was seen holding a partially melted syringe.

The airplane landed in Detroit shortly after the incident.

On Saturday, federal officials charged the young man with trying to destroy the airplane. A conviction on the charge could bring Abdulmutallab up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

U.S. District Judge Paul Borman read Abdulmutallab the charges in a conference room at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the former London university student is undergoing burn treatment. Abdulmutallab smiled as he was wheeled into the room, his left thumb and right wrist bandaged and part of the skin on the thumb was burned off.

Abdulmutallab claimed to have received training and instructions from Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, law enforcement officials said. He is also believed to have had Internet contact with militant Islamic radicals.

While intelligence officials said Saturday that they are taking seriously Abdulmutallab's claims that the plot originated with Al Qaeda's network inside Yemen,

several added that they had to yet to see independent confirmation.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is incomplete.

Four weeks ago, Abdulmutallab's father told the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, that he was concerned about his son's religious beliefs. This information was passed on to U.S. intelligence officials.

Abdulmutallab received a valid U.S. visa in June 2008 that is good through 2010.

His is one of about 550,000 names in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, known as TIDE, which is maintained by the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center and was created in response to the Sept.

11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Intelligence officials said they lacked enough information to place him in the 400,000-person terror watch list or on the no-fly list of fewer than 4,000 people who should be blocked from air travel.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Man arrested in new disturbance on Detroit flight (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:41:09 PM

WASHINGTON – A Nigerian passenger onboard the same Northwest Airlines route that was attacked on Christmas Day was taken into custody in Detroit on Sunday after locking himself in the bathroom for an hour and becoming verbally disruptive upon landing, officials said.

The latest disturbance aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 came as the U.S. system for checking suspicious travelers and airport security came under new scrutiny, prompted by an alleged terrorist bent on destroying a jetliner who was thwarted only by a malfunctioning detonator and some quick-thinking passengers.

Delta Air Lines spokeswoman Susan Elliott said crew members on Sunday requested that security remove the man from Flight 253 after he became disruptive. The remaining 255 passengers got off safely, she said.

A law enforcement official said the man was Nigerian and had locked himself in the airliner's bathroom. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

An apparent malfunction in a device designed to detonate the

high explosive PETN may have been all that saved the 278 passengers and the crew aboard Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day. No undercover air marshal was on board and passengers subdued the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, of Nigeria.

Abdulmutallab was hospitalized with burns from the attack and was read an indictment filed Saturday in federal court in Detroit charging him with attempting to destroy or wreck an aircraft and placing a destructive device in a plane. He was released from the hospital Sunday to the custody of federal marshals, who would not reveal where he was being held.

Abdulmutallab was on a watch list, but not one that denied him passage by air into the U.S. His own father had discussed concerns about his radical religious views before the attack.

Still, in appearances on Sunday talk shows, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the traveling public "is very, very safe."

"This was one individual literally of thousands that fly and thousands of flights every year," Napolitano said. "And he was stopped before any damage could be done. I think the important

thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have."

Even so, airport security and intelligence played no role in thwarting the plot.

Abdulmutallab was carrying PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, the same material convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid used when he tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes. Abdulmutallab is alleged to have carried the explosive in condom-like pouches attached to his body.

Abdulmutallab was on a "generic" terrorist watch list, which includes more than half a million names, but was not elevated to a no-fly list or even designated for additional security searches, Napolitano said. That would have required "specific, credible, derogatory information," she said.

"We did not have the kind of information that under the current rules would elevate him," she said.

Napolitano said the Obama administration is considering changing those rules.

Despite being on the broad terrorist watch list, Abdulmutallab, who comes from

a prominent and wealthy Nigerian family, had a multipleentry U.S. visa. It was issued last year. U.S. officials say he came to the attention of America intelligence in November, when his father expressed concerns to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria about his son's extremist views.

Napolitano said Abdulmutallab was properly screened before getting on the flight to Detroit from Amsterdam.

The administration is also investigating aviation detection systems to see how the alleged attacker managed to get on board the Northwest flight in Amsterdam with explosive materials, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

No other flights were known to have been targeted. However, Gibbs says federal authorities took precautionary steps "to assume and plan for the very worst." Napolitano said there is no indication yet Abdulmutallab is part of a larger terrorist plot, although his possible ties to alQaida are still under investigation.

The United States is reviewing what security measures were used in Amsterdam where he boarded the flight.

"Now the forensics are being analyzed with what could have

been done," Napolitano said.

Additional security measures are in place at airports around the world that are likely to slow travelers. Napolitano advised getting to airports earlier.

Congress is preparing to hold hearings on what happened and whether rules need to be changed.

"It's amazing to me that an individual like this who was sending out so many signals could end up getting on a plane going to the U.S.," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Republican leader in the Senate.

Gibbs appeared on ABC's "This Week," NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS' "Face the Nation."

Napolitano spoke on CNN's " State of the Union" as well as on NBC and ABC. McConnell appeared on ABC. ___ Hess reported from New York.

Associated Press writers Ed White in Detroit and Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.

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Obama orders air security review (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:42:33 AM

US President Barack Obama has ordered a review of air security measures after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a transAtlantic jet on Christmas Day. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president wanted to know how a man carrying dangerous substance PETN had managed to board a flight in Amsterdam.

On Sunday, a second Nigerian man on a plane with the same flight number was arrested, US media said.

Sunday's flight landed safely and all passengers were evacuated.

Mr Gibbs said the system of watch-lists would also be examined after it emerged that the Christmas Day suspect was listed and known to officials.

A US record for 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was created last month.

Mr Gibbs told ABC News that the review would examine, firstly, the system of watch-lists used by government agencies, which includes three lists which become progressively shorter as risk increases.

'Dangerous substance' The lists include a watch-list, with some 550,000 names on it, a "selectee" list with 18,000 people within the higher-risk category, and a "no-fly" list with 4,000 names of people who are not permitted to board planes.

Mr Abdulmutallab was placed

on the lowest-risk list by US authorities in November 2009, after his father alerted authorities about the behaviour of his son.

Mr Gibbs said the number of people on the watch-list was "a huge number".

"The president has asked that a review be undertaken to ensure that any information gets to where it needs to go, to the people making the decisions. The president wants to review some of these procedures and see if they need to be updated," he said.

On 24 December Mr Abdulmutallab travelled from Nigeria to Amsterdam and then on to Detroit with an explosive device attached to his body, US officials say.

Shortly before the flight was due

to land in the US, he allegedly attempted to detonate the device beneath a blanket but he was overpowered by passengers and crew.

Mr Abdulmutallab, the son of a prominent Nigerian banker, has been charged by US authorities with trying to blow up the Northwest Airlines flight as it was coming in to land.

US airlines especially have tightened security after the attempt, increasing screenings and body searches and, in some cases, confining passengers to their seats without pillows or blankets for the last hour of their flight.

Mitigation measures Mr Gibbs said "air detection capabilities" would also be

examined as part of the review.

"The president has asked the Department of Homeland Security to answer the - quite frankly - the very real question about how somebody with something as dangerous as PETN could have gotten onto a plane in Amsterdam."

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.

Jasper Schuringa: "We took the suspect out of the chair and we grabbed him by the neck" PETN, or pentaerythritol, is the same material used by convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001.

Mr Abdulmutallab's route originally began in Yemen, from where he travelled to Ethiopia,

then to Ghana and finally Nigeria.

According to Nigeria's information minister, Mr Abdulmutallab had arrived and flown out of Nigeria in the space of a single day.

"The man in question has been living outside the country for a while," said Dora Akunyili.

"He sneaked into Nigeria on the 24th of December and left the same day."

Nigerian authorities, who on Sunday pledged to co-operate fully with the US investigation, said screening would be enforced for all passengers passing through the country's 22 airports.

Wealthy or influential people and their families are often allowed to skip checks, media reports say.

Speaking to ABC News, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said there was no immediate indication that Mr Abdulmutallab was part of a broader terror plot.

"Right now we have no indication that it is part of anything larger. But obviously the investigation continues. And we have instituted more screening and what we call mitigation measures at airports," she said.

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Two Dead in Dispute Over California Ice Cream Business (FOXNews.com)

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MERRY Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of

Balwinder Singh died later at Kern Medical Center.

The two wounded men were BAKERSFIELD, Calif. Two treated for less serious knife men are dead and two wounded w o u n d s . P o l i c e w e r e n o t after a Christmas knife attack in releasing the names of the injured Bakersfield that grew out of an men Saturday. apparent family argument over an Police say the men have both ice cream distribution business. family and business ties to the One of the wounded men was company, which distributes ice being questioned by police in the cream products in Bakersfield murders. using small ice cream trucks. (The Economist: News Kern County coroner's officials Five Filters featured article: analysis) said Saturday that Moti Lal died Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Submitted at 12/27/2009 3:01:54 AM about noon Friday in the parking PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, lot of the GMB Ice Cream Term Extraction.

Dec 27th 2009 Warehouse, and 54-year-old From the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire Debate over reform of the dominant stateowned sector is growing, but it is not being matched by action Reform of Vietnam's lumbering (Financial Times - US burns sustained in Friday’s state-owned sector has slowed. homepage) abortive attempt on a flight from T h e g l o b a l e c o n o m i c a n d Amsterdam to Detroit, figured on f i n a n c i a l c r i s i s h a s m a d e Submitted at 12/27/2009 11:54:11 AM a US database of people with conditions for "equitising", or President Barack Obama on suspected terrorist connections p a r t - p r i v a t i s i n g , s t a t e - r u n Sunday ordered an urgent review but had not been added to a 4,000 companies more challenging, and of how US authorities use -name no-fly list. He has been some policymakers also seem to terrorist watch-lists to foil attacks charged with trying to blow up be having second thoughts about on US targets after a Nigerian the airliner as it was coming in to t h e p r o c e s s i t s e l f . T h e government is actively tried to destroy a transatlantic land. p a s s e n g e r a i r c r a f t w i t h a n Five Filters featured article: considering reforms, but it is explosive device he smuggled on Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: likely to move cautiously, and board.

PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, t h e r e i s s t i l l c o n s i d e r a b l e resistance to challenging the state Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Term Extraction.

-dominated status quo.

23, undergoing treatment for Debate over Vietnam's longterm economic development Submitted at 12/27/2009 12:55:09 AM

REFORM

continued from page 49

continued from page 54

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state's interest in SOEs, and of restructuring such enterprises.

However, despite its far-reaching mandate, the SCIC has only really been given responsibility for managing the state's equity in relatively small equitised firms, rather than in large SOEs. Larger state-owned firms and "economic groups" (powerful state-owned conglomerates) still typically REFORM page 55

Reform reversal?

Obama urges review of terror watch-list

strategy is growing.

Policymakers are preparing a Strategy for Socio-economic Development for 2011-20. One element of their discussion will be the viability (or otherwise) of the country's current industrial strategy, and in particular Vietnam's reliance on large stateowned enterprises (SOEs). For more than a decade, large SOEs have been at the forefront of the country's industrial development strategy. This has reflected a belief in government circles that the fledgling private sector is insufficiently developed to take on this role, as it lacks a sufficient number of large and robust companies.

This view has come under increased scrutiny as a number of big, strongly performing private firms have sprung up in several sectors. There is a sense on the part of some policymakers that SOEs show little flair for innovation and lack the

entrepreneurial talent demonstrated by many private companies. In addition to these shortcomings, the weak or dysfunctional corporategovernance structures of many (organisationally complex) SOEs are also readily apparent, as are the often cosy and convoluted relationships between some SOEs and the government ministries that regulate them.

However, as large SOEs are a significant source of economic growth and government revenue, instituting change in this area will be challenging even if the political will to do so exists on the part of some policymakers.

Some observers had hoped that the establishment in 2005 of the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) would usher in a new era of reform for SOEs. This body has the task of representing and managing the REFORM page 54

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REFORM continued from page 54

report directly to the Government Office (a ministry-level agency serving the prime minister). This does not bode well for reform of the state-owned sector, as, without devolution, political influence and corruption are set to remain rife.

Ominously for reform, the government has plans to create two new economic groups in the construction sector. The two new groups, the Industrial Construction Group and the Housing and Urban Development Group, will both be managed by the Ministry of Construction. The two groups will serve as core holding companies for all the state-owned construction companies that remain under the management of the ministry; the SCIC is not expected to play a role in their administration. One argument put forward for the creation of these two new superentities is that only by consolidating along these lines will domestic construction and

E-BOOKS continued from page 55

contractual standard in 1990.

The real battle here is not over who controls the backlist rights but what royalties the publisher will pay. Stephen Covey caused a lot of consternation at Simon & Schuster last week when it was announced that he was taking his best backlist titles and publishing them with RosettaBooks, the ebook publisher that tangled with Random House on the issue and won. RosettaBooks is offering

property firms be able to compete with the influx of foreign competitors that is expected to occur as a result of the ongoing liberalisation of the market following Vietnam's accession in 2007 to the World Trade Organisation.

The financial sector has been a prime candidate for reform, but here too there have been further setbacks. The long-delayed equitisation of the state-owned Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) has been formally postponed until the first half of 2010. BIDV was originally scheduled to be equitised in 2007, but, as in the case of the state-owned Mekong Housing Bank, the process has encountered repeated delays. The current plan is to value the bank at the end of 2009, and then attempt to sell 20% of the bank's shares to one or more strategic investors and a further 10% to retail investors. Of the other large domestic commercial banks,

Vietcombank and VietinBank have already listed shares on the country's main bourse, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. The Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and Mekong Housing Bank remain the laggards, having yet to equitise any shares. The government also owns and operates two so-called policy banks, Vietnam Social Policy Bank and Vietnam Development Bank, but these are not commercial entities and are unlikely to be equitised.

Back to top ^^ Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views.

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E-books spark battle inside the publishing industry (Washington Post) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers)

conglomerates have aggressively moved to protect their legacy.

Macmillan recently announced a Submitted at 12/26/2009 9:00:00 PM plan to delay the publication of eReaders want books that are books and offer enhancements plentiful and cheap, publishers that will justify a higher price. want to preserve their profit, and This tactic is aimed at Amazon's authors want a larger share of policy of trying to set $9.99 as revenue. The conflict has created the expected price for an e-book. a strident internecine battle inside Most are priced much higher -the publishing industry. At issue but that's beside the point. are the price and timing of e- Amazon and publishers are books, and who owns the rights fighting over this fiction, not the t o b a c k l i s t t i t l e s . W h i l e reality. Because Amazon's p u b l i s h e r s , a g e n t s a n d customers have made it clear that Amazon.com bicker, there is $9.99 is still too high for their little time for conceiving new t a s t e . M o s t t i t l e s i n t h e content that satisfies customer company's list of top 100 Kindle demand. If the book business bestsellers are priced below doesn't tune in to that demand, it $9.99, and the most popular price could wind up as a transitional point is $0.00. But publishers source for the e-readers. can't hear this, because they're a We know that readers want little distracted right now. content, because it's clear they're The New York Times recently not dazzled by the device. played up friction between Consumers have made Amazon's publishers and agents over the limited and rudimentary device a electronic rights to backlist Covey half of the publishing important shift that digital hit, which speaks to their desire books. Random House has sent a proceeds, not the 25 percent or publishing accelerates. The for books that are cheaper and letter to literary agents claiming l e s s h e ' d g e t f r o m S i m o n . success of the book business over easier to obtain. It surely isn't the to hold these rights even though Publishers want these backlist the past two decades was about device's design or functionality. it lost a court case on the subject. books to add dollars to their expanding the supply of books. Both are closer to the computer But agent, e-book publisher and bottom line; authors want to get a Growth came through increased aesthetic of the 1980s than blogger Richard Curtis puts the higher royalty for the backlist volume, more titles and more title today's digital world. The Kindle issue in perspective when he titles because the publisher availability. That's the story of may have lots of titles available - points out that few books are doesn't need to make any further the six big conglomerates and the - but good luck using the device actually at stake here, because investment to generate sales. growth of the superstores. But to decide what to read next. electronic rights became a There's not a lot of room here to digital publishing inverts that But publishers have ignored this meet in the middle. demand. In response, several E-BOOKS page 56 E-BOOKS page 55 The stalemate ignores an

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formula -- its magic is in the way it meets demand efficiently.

Barnes & Noble discovered that recently when the first of its Nook devices landed in the hands of reviewers. David Pogue and Walt Mossberg have both judged it a dud. The device seems to be a great packaging concept (dualscreen reader) marred by sloppy execution (slow navigation and refresh rates) that may leave them forever playing catch-up.

Just building a device is not enough to capture sales.

Amazon's advantage is its customer base and brand loyalty.

BN's was going to be better functionality. If the books-and-

mortar giant cannot make the breakthrough, more devices are coming to market -- and one of them will make a meaningful move forward.

This doesn't need to mean the end of book publishing.

Publishers can no longer be vast containers of intellectual property distributed in paper form to bookstores, supermarkets and warehouse clubs. But they don't have to be: They can become highly selective distributors to bookstores, supermarkets and price clubs. That's the lesson of the television, music and movie businesses.

But if the publishers want a role

in the e-books business, they'll need to get over it and get on with it, embracing lower-priced e -books with higher author royalties. That seems unlikely.

Because it's now clear that publishers just don't want to listen to what their customers are telling them.

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