Liberty Newsprint Dec-31-09 by Liberty Newspost

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Rusal is first Russian company to list on Hong Kong exchange By Richard Wachman (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

detailed information about Deripaska – a winner in the struggle for economic power after the collapse of communism Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:52:31 PM in 1991, including the fact that Struggling aluminium company the US and Canada have in the plans IPO to raise £1.6bn to cut past refused to grant him an entry debt and add to international visa. profile In addition, it discloses that The aluminium company Rusal, Deripaska still faces a legal controlled by the controversial challenge in the UK high court b i l l i o n a i r e i n v e s t o r O l e g from Michael Cherney, a fellow Deripaska, is to become the first oligarch and former business Russian company to list on the associate who claims he was the Hong Kong stock exchange, beneficial owner of 20% of illustrating how the centre of Rusal's stock which, he alleges, financial gravity is moving east. Deripaska held in trust for him. The heavily indebted Russian Deripaska is strongly contesting firm today published its flotation the claim. prospectus, revealing that it A restructuring of Rusal's debt planned to raise $2.6bn (£1.6bn) obligations last month paved the in an initial public offering (IPO) way for the flotation, with the of its shares this month in an trading of Rusal's shares in Hong attempt to cut debt and raise its Kong due to start on 27 January. international profile. Rusal is the In what was a hugely protracted w o r l d ' s l a r g e s t a l u m i n i u m and complicated refinancing of company, with a market value of loans involving 72 international about $24bn but borrowings of banks, lenders agreed to give nearly $15bn. Rusal more time to repay money The prospectus also reveals owed by the company.

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The flotation of Rusal will see Deripaska's stake fall from 53% to 47% as new investors dilute his holding but the listing is viewed as a victory for the Russian tycoon, who is married to one of Boris Yeltsin's daughters and was once feted as one of Russia's richest businessmen. The aluminium industry has been hammered by the global recession and Deripaska's fortune has been decimated as his stake in Rusal has slumped in value. Some analysts say that his wealth has shrivelled from $28bn in early 2008 to $3.5bn. The flotation gives Deripaska the chance to put the company on a firmer financial footing. The Rusal float is being supported by four "cornerstone investors" who will buy 40% of the shares on offer. They include VEB, the Russian state bank which has the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, as its chairman; Paulson & Co, the US hedge fund; Nathaniel Rothschild, the

British financier; and Robert Kuok, a Chinese-Malaysian billionaire. But the listing announcement came after weeks of uncertainty about the IPO as Hong Kong's bourse delayed making a decision on whether to give the green light to the float amid concern about the magnitude of Rusal's indebtedness. Unusually, the Hong Kong exchange is insisting that Rusal stock only be sold to institutions and "professional investors" who must buy at least HK$1m (£80,000) worth of shares. The rare stipulation is reportedly a condition imposed by the city's market watchdog, the Securities and Futures Commission, to discourage retail investors from taking part in the highly complicated offering. Rusal's debt-restructuring agreement has imposed restrictions on the company's ability to expand its business in the near term or to pay dividends, according to the prospectus.

There is no possibility of a dividend payout until at least 2013. The third page of the prospectus carries a warning in red ink that Rusal may cease to continue as a going concern should it fail to comply with repayment terms or be unable to extend, refinance or repay a $4.5bn loan from VEB. The VEB loan, which comes due on 29 October 2010, was one of the key concerns cited by Hong Kong authorities when examining the IPO proposal. Rusal said it would seek to extend it or ask the state-run Sberbank to assume the debt. • Commodities • Oleg Deripaska • Russia Richard Wachman guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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This year, Britain must finally grasp the nettle of our chronic loss of trust | Anthony Seldon By Anthony Seldon (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:00:01 PM

The recession must not distract us. If we are to build a fairer, happier society, we must start by rebuilding trust Trust is the one issue above all others which must dominate 2010. We have just lived through a deplorable year, with the parliamentary expenses scandal, bankers and businessmen living in a parallel universe and fresh questions about trust in politicians over the conduct of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the latest Ipsos Mori poll, trust in politicians is at the lowest yet, at just 13%, down eight percentage points from 2008. Trust in government is down from 24% to 16%, while trust in businessmen is down five points to 25%. We may be richer – or at least some of us – we may have more consumer comforts, we may be able to travel further and faster, but quality of life and human happiness have not increased in step. Trust levels are so low that the bonds that hold civil society together are beginning to break. Does decline in trust matter? Some, like Nick Ross, as he told me when I interviewed him for my book, applaud the decline of trust, which they associate with

deference to government and obsequiousness to those in power. But this ignores the difference between blind trust, which is lazy and weak, and active trust, based on informed probing and diligence. Trust, when it is active or informed, is not only a valuable but a vital ingredient for success. High trust companies flourish economically. Trusting countries see less corruption and crime. Trusting people are happier, and live longer. Sadly 2009 was not a freak year but the culmination of a longterm crumbling of trust. Internationally, low levels of trust and a failure to pursue the common good explain the fiasco that was Copenhagen. A decline in agreed moral or religious codes, the breakdown of traditional family life, continuing social exclusion, rising crime and the fear of it, an increasingly atomised society, and the loss of personal interaction have all corroded trust. In our headlong rush for personal gratification, we have lost sight of the common good. The difficulty is not diagnosing why trust has broken down, but deciding how it is to be rebuilt. No matter which party wins power in 2010, it will need to put re-establishment of trust at the heart of its programme. It must rebuild trust in politics, trust by

government in the governed and trust between individuals. The expenses crisis did not come out of a blue sky: for years politicians have behaved poorly. Governments of both main parties have wantonly eroded trust by promising far more than they could deliver to gain votes. Their actions once in power, notably the Blair government's conduct of the Iraq war, allowed a corrosive cynicism to fester, variously summed up as "they are all as bad as each other" and "they've all got their noses in the trough". Turnout in elections, the litmus test of the health of a democracy, has fallen to deplorable levels, and not just for local government. The Brown government missed the post-expenses opportunity of radical constitutional reform to revivify the British body politic and trust in its individuals and institutions. Politicians, unsurprisingly, continue to defend a status quo that needs not paracetamol and plasters but radical surgery. A new constitutional settlement is urgently required, exploiting communication technology unavailable to any earlier generation to reconnect politicians to the electorate. The new settlement needs to ensure government and politicians act in ways that are trustworthy, and which re-engage the electorate,

including the young, in the political process. The package must include not only an elected second chamber, local mayors and a reformed electoral system, but also politicians who act morally: morality and goodness are not dirty words, nor are they words we should be afraid to use. Government needs to start trusting institutions and individuals again. The allpervasive "target" culture from government, with inspections, micromanagement and surveillance, has failed to improve public services or corporate life. The quality of service provided by schools, the NHS and the police has declined because, for the last 20 years, the government has had a "presumption of mistrust". Professionals have been deskilled and institutions and services reorientated around the achievement of targets, which are monitored on checklists by Whitehall. This tired thinking must be superseded by a "presumption of trust": we need teachers, medics, police and social workers who are trustworthy, certainly, but also who feel trusted and who have pride again in their professionalism. Trust must be repaired between individuals within society. Fear and suspicion stalk every street. Living communities have died

and have all too often been replaced by dysfunctional and fractured localities which only bond together in the face of common threats. We need not live like this. Our schools need to place far higher emphasis on communal rather than consumerist values, and on serving others above looking after self. Community leaders of all kinds, who must prove themselves to be trustworthy, should receive higher recognition. Dawkins et al, who despise religion and its bodies, have yet to advance alternative organisations which would do as much to build communities and pursue the common good. "Villages" are not only essential for raising children: they are the necessary entitlement of all for happy and meaningful lives. We must not let the recession distract us from the need to make 2010 the year when government and society finally grasped the nettle of the loss of trust, and took decisive steps, after years of decline, to reverse it. • MPs' expenses • Financial crisis • Banks and building societies • Executive pay and bonuses • Iraq war inquiry • Afghanistan • NHS THIS page 3

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I've changed my mind about the Clintons | Niall Stanage By Niall Stanage (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

towards the end of a campaign in which the family that had dominated Democratic politics for most of the previous two Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:00:01 AM decades had shown little When Bill and Hillary started reluctance to play the race card. playing the race card during the Bill had been somewhat slyer Democratic primaries, I realised and more oblique than his wife. their critics were right The morning of the South I remember the moment when Carolina Democratic primary, the last vestiges of the admiration four months before his wife's I had once felt for Bill and appalling remark, he made an Hillary Clinton vanished. unprompted comparison of By May 2008, Barack Obama Obama to Jesse Jackson. had opened up an all-but- " J e s s e J a c k s o n w o n S o u t h insurmountable lead over Hillary Carolina twice, in '84 and '88, in the contest for the Democratic and he ran a good campaign. And party's presidential nomination. Senator Obama's run a good The former first lady was asked campaign here," he said. why, therefore, she was To people outside the US, prolonging the battle, risking u n f a m i l i a r w i t h t h e c o d e d significant damage to the party in language that has sprung up the process. around racial issues in America, " W e a l l r e m e m b e r B o b b y the remark seemed innocuous. Kennedy was assassinated in But the audience that mattered June in California," she replied. heard the "dog whistle" perfectly To raise the spectre of political clearly. An Obama victory in murder in any campaign would S o u t h C a r o l i n a w o u l d b e have been startling. To do so meaningless, Clinton was saying, against Obama – whose status as since it was the first state in the the first serious African- p r i m a r y p r o c e s s w i t h a American candidate for the significant African-American White House had obliged him to population, Obama was The have secret service protection Black Candidate and … well, from a conspicuously early stage those black folks, you know what – was disgusting. they're like. Hillary's comment was even "I was offended by it," Hermene more incendiary because it came Hartman, a Chicago publisher

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and acquaintance of Obama's, told me months later. "It was a dismissal of the people who voted for Barack. It was: 'If you don't vote for her, you don't count.'" At the start of the decade – and for its first half, at least – I held the generally positive view of the Clintons that was common among liberals. After all, Bill had twice won the White House for Democrats after a protracted period of Republican dominance, and had presided over eight mostly peaceful and prosperous years. His input into the peace process in my native Northern Ireland had been vital. His wife had less charm than he possessed, but went some distance towards making up for it with a formidable intellect and an ability to withstand heavy verbal fire from opponents. This last point was important. During Bill Clinton's presidency, it was easy for any left-of-centre observer to rally to the first couple because their attackers seemed so loathsome. With their tormentors including the creepily prurient Kenneth Starr, the egotistical Newt Gingrich and the shadowy Richard Mellon Scaife, it was credible to believe that the Clintons were indeed victims of what Hillary famously termed a

"vast rightwing conspiracy". It is not to my credit that it took until 2008, and the battle with Obama, for me to realise that although the politics and personalities of some of the Clintons' foes may have been odious, their assessment of the couple's uncommon ruthlessness was on-the-button. Politics is no garden party but, even in the early months of the contest with Obama, whispered stories of attempts to keep party colleagues in the Clinton camp through threats and bare-faced intimidation were commonplace. The stuff that went on out in the open was no less distasteful. Bill Clinton was happy to give a nod-and-a-wink to the extremist wingnuts who alleged Obama was, in some ill-defined but dangerous way, "un-American". Among the reasons he favoured a Hillary-John McCain general election match-up, he told one audience, was that "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country." What were those of us who had defended the Clintons in the past to make of Hillary's comment that Obama had difficulty obtaining support from " hardworking Americans, white

Americans", as if those two categories were one and the same? Then there was the mendacity. Bill's fondness for lying had been well-established in relation to Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers. Hillary's inventions seemed, if anything, weirder and more baffling; none was more so than her dramatic – and fictitious – account of landing under sniper fire in Bosnia in the mid-1990s. Now, with Hillary as secretary of state in the Obama administration and Bill trying to reclaim his "elder statesman" lustre, the bitterness of the primaries can seem a long time ago. But count me out when it comes to forgiving and forgetting. • Bill Clinton • Hillary Clinton • Barack Obama • US politics • Race issues • United States Niall Stanage guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Auschwitz sign theft linked to bomb plot By Kate Connolly, Julian Borger (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

prosecutors as common criminals who had apparently acted for financial gain. But according to the Swedish daily Aftonbladet, the men were Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:58:26 AM contracted by a neo-Nazi group Thieves contracted by a neo- which planned to sell it on to a Nazi group that planned to sell third party, a foreign rightwing sign to fund attacks in Sweden, extremist or collector of Nazi newspaper claims memorabilia, with the aim of It sounds like the plot of a Steig using the funds to finance a Larsson thriller: a band of eastern string of attacks in Stockholm. European criminals is contracted Boguslawa Marcinkowska, the to steal an iconic piece of Nazi spokeswoman for the public memorabilia, which is then sold prosecutor's office in krakow, to a mysterious collector to said: "The evidence that we have finance a neofascist bomb attack so far points to there being links on the Swedish parliament. with Sweden". Polish state But today it emerged that television TVP1 quoted official Swedish investigators are helping sources saying that Swedish neoPolish detectives investigate the Nazis were behind the theft. theft of the sign from Auschwitz, Poland's justice minister, amid reports that the robbery was Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, said: linked to a rightwing terror plot. "The investigations have taken The wrought iron plaque reading on a much broader dimension Arbeit Macht Frei (work sets you than we had initially thought". free) which spanned the entrance The Swedish justice ministry has at the former Nazi death camp confirmed that it is helping the was wrenched from the gate on Polish police with investigations 18 December, and recovered after the state prosecutor's office three days later, cut into three in Krakow lodged an official pieces, in a forest in northern application asking for its help. Poland. Separately, the Swedish security The robbery prompted Poland to service Säpo, confirmed that it declare a state of emergency, and was investigating an alleged neoprovoked impassioned calls for N a z i p l o t t o b l o w u p t h e t h e s i g n ' s r e t u r n f r o m Riksdagen, the parliament concentration camp survivors and building in Stockholm, as well as the Israeli prime minister, the foreign ministry and the Binyamin Netanyahu. home of the prime minister, The five men being held in Fredrik Reinfeldt. The aim of the police custody in Krakow in plot, according to Säpo, was to connection with the theft have create as much disruption as b e e n d e s c r i b e d b y P o l i s h possible ahead of the 2010

parliamentary elections. It would not confirm or deny reports of a possible connection between the plot and the Auschwitz sign theft. Polish investigators, who said from the start of the inquiry that they suspected the mastermind of the robbery operated outside Poland, would only say today that he or she "came from a European country". The five suspected robbers, aged between 25 and 39, all have criminal records but none is suspected of having a neo-Nazi background. They were reportedly set to receive a total of 20,000 zlotys (£4,320) to share between them for the theft. The police told the Polish press agency PAP that they believe a foreign national, possibly the person who ordered the theft, visited the former death camp prior to the robbery in order to be able to plan it in detail. The theft was carried out without attracting the attention of nightwatchmen or being caught on CCTV cameras. But in their haste to make off with the sign, the thieves dropped the letter i from the word Frei. It was found in the snow nearby. The wider plot has the whiff of a thriller by the late Swedish writer Larsson, not least because he was an expert on right-wing extremism, a subject which he wove into many of his books. Larsson sought to expose neoNazi activity in Sweden, forming in 1995 the group Expofoundation, following eight

murders for which neo-Nazis were held responsible. For several years the scene was considered small but particularly brutal. There are plans next month to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in which around 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, died. Blacksmiths are meanwhile working on repairing the sign, which stands as a cynical commentary on the Holocaust, in time for the event. Concern about the safety of the Auschwitz site, which is now a memorial and museum, has prompted local authorities to promise to install more close circuit television cameras and to review its security procedures. Publicity surrounding the robbery has attracted financial donations from around the world. • This article was amended on 31 December 2009. The original described Aftonbladet as a Danish newspaper, and Fredrik Reinfeldt as Sweden's president. This has been corrected. • Poland • Sweden • Global terrorism • Holocaust • Second world war Kate Connolly Julian Borger guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Top Picks for 2010: American Superconductor (AMSC) By Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 12/31/2009 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. "Looking for a way to bet on a continued rebound in technology stocks, a rise in worldwide demand for energy, and China ... all in one?" asks small-cap growth stock expert Jim Oberweis Jr. The money manager and editor of The Oberweis Report suggests, "Take a look at American Superconductor Corp. ( AMSC), my choice for the top idea for 2010. Continue reading Top Picks for 2010: American Superconductor (AMSC) Top Picks for 2010: American Superconductor (AMSC) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Qais al-Khazali: from kidnapper and prisoner to potential leader By Martin Chulov (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

Khazali's clout stems directly from his patrons in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and in the hardline Shia Islamic state's Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:40:46 PM clergy, which directed and Cleric and key member of funded the militant group to Righteous League portayed as which he belongs, known as the resistance hero with a big Righteous League. A highly political future secretive and disciplined band in Iraq's Shia Islamic groups and t h e m o u l d o f L e b a n o n ' s political blocs are casting Qais al Hezbollah, the Righteous League -Khazali as a resistance hero with i s a p r o x y a r m o f t h e a big political future, despite Revolutionary Guards' al-Quds American insistence that the soon Brigades, whose main brief is to -to-be-freed cleric plays no direct export Iran's 30-year-old Islamic role in politics. Revolution. Khazali's rise from a Shia political leaders have been lieutenant when he was arrested anxious to tap into a popular by the SAS three years ago to figure ahead of a general election potential leader-in-waiting has scheduled for 7 March, and been dramatic. Khazali has been courted, while "Qais has already given great still in prison, to stand for office. service to Iraq, first as someone He remains a key member of the who served the resistance and Righteous League, which was then as someone who helped jointly responsible for the placed pressure on the occupiers kidnapping of Peter Moore, who to commit to the withdrawal of was freed in Baghdad within foreign forces," said senior Shia hours of Khazali's transfer to figure Ali Faisal al-Lami, who is Iraqi custody. The group is now closely aligned to the Righteous being touted as a political force L e a g u e . " H e w a s a l r e a d y under national reconciliation politically involved when he was banner that the government is spokesman for Muqtadr al-Sadr trying to promote in advance of and he will resume a political the poll. role even if it is not as part of the

government." In 2008 Lami was suspected of links to Moore's kidnapping and spent 18 months in American detention, where he was interrogated by an MI6 officer who was leading the government's efforts to find the IT consultant and his four guards. In prison he spoke regularly to Khazali, along with Khazali's brother Laith and a third man, Lebanese Hezbollah member Ali Mahmoud al-Dakduk. The three were captured by the SAS in March 2007. Moore and his guards were kidnapped two months later, partly to be used as pawns for the trio's release. The head of the Righteous League's dialogue committee, Salam al-Maliki, confirmed that Khazali would take an interest in Iraqi politics, but from the sidelines, for now. "He will not take a direct role in political process but will support it," he said. "This was one of the conditions in the deal to release all of our prisoners." The leader of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's reconciliation committee, Mohammed Suleiman, said: "Qais al-Khazali

has committed no crime under Iraqi law and is welcome to play a role in public life as we welcome all groups to be part of the political process." A senior leader of the Sadrist movement, which has also embraced Khazali, despite him leading a breakaway faction to strengthen the Righteous League, said a hero's welcome awaited the young cleric. "Them and us are preparing a warm reception for him. He will continue to be respected in his works. He is a good character and has many followers." The US military accused him of co-ordinating an ambush on behalf of al-Quds brigades that led to five US soldiers being killed in the holy Shia city of Karbala in January 2007. However, even if proven, such an action does not constitute a crime under Iraqi law. Negotiations between the US and Righteous League leaders – usually brokered by Iraqi intermediaries – have focused on stripping the group of its resistance role. American officials have asked it to hand over its heavy weapons, to stop firing rockets at

ExtraLives Zelda marathon is happening now By John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:00:45 AM

Online video chat by Ustream

These dudes are doing a 48 hour Zelda marathon for Free the Children. They’re playing Faces of Evil(the CDi version, which is

amazingly bad) right now and are You can chat with the guys here accepting donations at Extralives. and they have some giveaways. If Up next is Ocarina of Time. you’re not doing much, it’s a lot Watch and donate! of fun.

Baghdad's international zone and to support reconciliation. For two years, Britain and the US have been engaged in a bitter regional power struggle with Iran, with Iraq the main battleground for a proxy war fought on diplomatic and military fronts. Khazali's brother Laith was released from US custody in June and immediately travelled to the Iranian city of Qom, where he was hosted by clergy. Qais alKhazali is also expected to travel to meet his backers as soon as he is freed, probably within days. Martin Chulov Additional reporting: Enas Ibrahim • British hostages in Iraq • Iran • Iraq • US foreign policy Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Iraq hostages: the tragic sideshow | Robert Tait By Robert Tait (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

swapped the language of the diplomat for the argot of the street yob by threatening to give Britain a "slap" – all because Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:30:01 AM David Miliband, the foreign Hostage-taking in Iraq is part of secretary, had the temerity to a great game being played out for speak out on behalf of Iranian Middle East hegemony demonstrators whose dissent How does Iran's involvement in against repression met with the kidnapping of five Britons in bullets during last Sunday's Baghdad in 2007 – as revealed Ashura ceremonies. The Islamic by the Guardian yesterday– affect regime, in its increasingly the fragile diplomatic links desperate quest to retain power, between London and Tehran? is trying to smear its domestic Not much, judging by the opponents as foreign-backed – Foreign Office response: "We are and worse still, backed by pretty clear there is no firm Britain. It's just six months since evidence that links Iran directly the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali with the kidnappings." Iranian Khamenei, demonised Britain as state TV, meanwhile, resorted to the "most evil" of Iran's enemies. the standard official mantra in So forget about relations between dismissing the disclosures as London and Tehran "sinking to "part of a psychological war new lows". They're already at against Iran". subterranean levels. Neither London nor Tehran, it The kidnappings – and the fates seems, wants to know about of the four British security guards t h e s e r e v e l a t i o n s – a r a r e believed to have been killed – example of British and Iranian should be viewed in the context policy in harmony, you would of Iran's determination to end the think, the implication that neither US-British military presence in side wants relations to be neighbouring Iraq and its view of damaged. Except that there is not kidnappings and hostage-taking much of a relationship left to as legitimate foreign policy damage. tactics. Of this latter art, Iranian This week, Iran's foreign officials will argue – not without minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, reason – that they are not the sole

exponents. The kidnapping of Peter Moore, a British computer expert, and his four compatriots from the Iraqi finance ministry, took place during a period of seizures not only by Iranians of western citizens, but by the US against Iranian government operatives. Two months earlier, in March 2007, the revolutionary guards detained 15 Royal Navy and marine personnel on patrol in the Gulf. Weeks before that, a US citizen, Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent, disappeared on the Iranian island of Kish, where he reportedly went to investigate tobacco smuggling. He has not been seen since. The Islamic regime was smarting at the time over the arrests and disappearances of some of its people. These included five men Tehran described as diplomats arrested in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil in January 2007 by US forces (the Americans insisted the five were Revolutionary Guards) and the abduction of a senior diplomat in Baghdad who, on being released, claimed he had been tortured by US captors. Most serious of all from Iran's viewpoint was the disappearance in Istanbul of a

Rank your favorite songs with Rank'em By Matt Rosoff (Webware.com) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:00:00 AM

In beta-testing now, Rank'em lets you vote on favorite songs by your favorite artists, then shows aggregate ratings.

Originally posted at Digital Noise: Music and Tech

former deputy defence minister, Ali Reza Asgari, in December 2006. Western intelligence agencies say Asgari defected but Tehran insists to this day he was kidnapped. The seizures came at a time when the Bush administration was blaming Iran for a series of roadside bombings that had killed US troops. That controversy has passed but the seizures and disappearances continue. They are part of a great game being played out for hegemony in the Middle East as Iran asserts authority in its historic backyard. Against that backdrop, the deaths of four Britons are a tragic sideshow. But a blow to Anglo-Iranian relations? Forget about it. • Iran • Foreign policy • Politics and Iraq • Iraq • Middle East • US foreign policy Robert Tait guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Mountain Dew and Pepsi Throwback bring real sugar back to sodas once again By Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:11:48 PM

They’re baaaack! I just spotted the greatest beverages on Earth in my local Rite Aid while shopping for New Year’s Eve refreshments. The last I heard, Pepsi discontinued the Throwback line after a brief early summer run. But according to Wikipedia– who’s never wrong — the HFCS-free sodas are back for a limited time. Why, oh why, did I give up soda a few days ago. Who does something like that before New Year’s anyway? The original Mountain Dew throwback was a love it or hate it sort-of thing. I adored it and teared a bit when I couldn’t find it anymore mid-July 2009. But the Mountain Dew Throwback recipe is slightly different this time around. It still uses real sugar instead of HFCS, but now contains more caffeine and orange juice, among other items. So how does it taste? I don’t know. I gave up soda four days ago and I’ll be damned if I give in now.

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Afghanistan bomb dead were CIA agents By Daniel Nasaw (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

of life since a CIA station in Beiruit was bombed in 1983. Seventeen agency employees died in the Beirut attack. Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:54:05 AM The details of the latest attack T h e T a l i b a n c l a i m e d remain hazy, in part due to the responsibility for an attack on a sensitive nature of the agency's US military outpost that killed operation in Afghanistan. s e v e n C I A o p e r a t i v e s a n d The attack occured inside the w o u n d e d s i x o t h e r s o n gym at Forward Operating Base Wednesday, in a strike that Chapman in Khost province, in illustrates the insurgents' growing eastern Afghanistan. The base reach and military capability. had been used to house a Former CIA officers said the provincial reconstruction team dead agents were part of a providing humanitarian aid to the paramilitary unit, likely involved local Afghan population. in recruiting and training local The Taliban claimed the attacker Afghans in security roles and was a sympathiser in the Afghan carrying out military operations army who detonated a vest of against Taliban and al-Qaida explosives at a meeting with CIA militants along the Pakistan workers. "This deadly attack was border. carried out by a valorous Afghan The attack took place at a a r m y m e m b e r , " a T a l i b a n military outpost about a dozen spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, m i l e s f r o m t h e f e d e r a l l y told Reuters. administered tribal areas of A spokesman for Nato-led forces Pakistan, a Taliban stronghold. said Afghan security forces were One of those killed was the base's working at the base, but denied f e m a l e c h i e f , f o r m e r C I A that any Afghan troops were officials told the Associated involved in the attack and none Press. were stationed at the site. Larry Johnson, a counter- But Johnson said the Taliban's terrorism consultant and former account was not impossible, CIA officer, said the incident was noting that north Vietnamese probably the agency's largest loss agents infiltrated US intelligence

operations during the Vietnam war. "I'm surprised we haven't lost more CIA officers over the last eight years. This probably will happen again," he said. If the attacker was indeed an Afghan army official, the attack illustrates a major risk in President Barack Obama's strategy for the country, which relies heavily on training the Afghan police and military to take over security duties from US and Nato forces. The infiltration would raise questions about the competence and loyalty of the Afghan forces, and shows insurgents' ability to strike inside supposedly secure military and intelligence installations. Obama this month announced the swift deployment of an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan, bringing the American force to about 100,000 by the summer. That number does not include the large number of US government civilians and contractors working in economic development and training roles. In addition, a significant number of private security contractors and intelligence agents work in Afghanistan on paramilitary

operations, including launching drones into the neighbouring Pakistani tribal areas. In separate incidents on Wednesday, two French journalists working for the public television broadcaster France Télévisions were kidnapped along with their driver and translator, while Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang and four Canadian soldiers died when the armoured vehicle in which they were travelling was blown up by a landmine. • Afghanistan • Taliban • CIA • United States • Global terrorism • Nato • Pakistan • Barack Obama • Obama administration • US foreign policy Daniel Nasaw guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

OMG! IBM Patented LOL! ROTFLMAO! By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 12/31/2009 6:19:02 AM

theodp writes"The USPTO has granted IBM a patent covering the Resolution of Abbreviated

Text in an Electronic Communications System, lawyer -speak for translating "IMHO" to "In My Humble Opinion" and vice versa. From the patent: "One particularly useful application of

the invention is to interpret the meaning of shorthand terms...For example, one database may define the shorthand term 'LOL' to mean 'laughing out loud.'" So much for Big Blue's professed

aim of stopping "bad behavior" by companies who seek patents for unoriginal work!" Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Dell netbook modded into a rather large handset (video) By Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget) Submitted at 12/31/2009 1:43:00 PM

Eager to get a hold on your very own Dell-branded Android smartphone? This guy here took matters into his own hands with nothing more than his modding skill, his imagination, and a Dell Inspiron Mini. Of course, this thing won't exactly fit in most pockets, but as a curiosity (and a conversation starter) it performs admirably. Have you ever seen a 10.1-inch novelty handset in action? Now's your chance -peep the video for yourself after the break. Continue reading Dell netbook modded into a rather large handset (video) Dell netbook modded into a rather large handset (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Shanzai.com| Email this| Comments

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Buyout Capacity for Private Equity Biz Still Growing

Chasing Value: 2010 -#10 E-Trade 'Naked Put'

By Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:00:00 PM

Submitted at 12/31/2009 1:40:00 PM

Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy, Private equity, Economic data In the buyout corner of the private equity business, "dry powder" continued to grow in 2009. Industry slang for capital available for investment, this measure points to how much activity private equity funds are capable of completing. From December 2004 through December 2008, according to data from alternative investment research firm Preqin, the amount of funds on the sidelines surged from $178 billion to $501 billion for the buyout sector, nearly tripling. This year, buyout dry powder only increased by $3 billion, to $504.28 billion. While this may feel like little more than

a rounding error, it suggests stability in the sector after what has been a trying climate for financial services business of all types. Continue reading Buyout Capacity for Private Equity Biz Still Growing Buyout Capacity for Private Equity Biz Still Growing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

By Sheldon Liber (BloggingStocks)

Filed under: Competitive strategy, Options, Chasing Value, E*TRADE (ETFC) For the first time my annual picks will include a stock option. I have written numerous blogs this year about something called "naked puts" -- that is a sell to open put position -- committing me to buy a certain number of shares by a certain date if the closing price is less than the strike price. In this case I have selected the E*TRADE ( ETFC) January 2011, $2.50 puts last traded on December 28, 2009 at $0.97 for a 39% return. If it expires, as I am betting it will, by the third Friday of that month I have no further obligation.

Leaked: The Motorola Mirage might just be the best Android phone yet By Greg Kumparak (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:25:34 AM

This type of option transaction is not available to most investors. It is marginable, but you pay no interest. Continue reading Chasing Value: 2010 -- #10 E-Trade 'Naked Put' Chasing Value: 2010 -- #10 ETrade 'Naked Put' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Oh, Android - how good you have been for Motorola. It was only months ago that they were teetering on the edge of obscurity; one 350-person Android task force later, they've got the most popular Android handset in the lands and are being name dropped on a nearly daily basis around the rumor mill. A Chinese leakster managed to get his mitts on this (confusingly obscured) shot of an unreleased Motorola handset, and was nice enough to share it with the world.

GM CEO Ed Whitacre Recruiting Old AT&T Colleagues By Brian White (BloggingStocks)

Southwestern Bell Communications for those keeping track). SBC became Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:30:00 PM AT&T of course, as the old Ma Filed under: Management Bell companies started Former AT&T ( T) head Ed combining back together years Whitacre may be shaping up the ago after two decades apart. new General Motors to be like Whitacre, a tough CEO with the old monopolist SBC (that is, thousands of people in his

pocket, has now tapped two

former AT&T colleagues as lobbyists in Washington to chew the fat with politicians over the future of the former automaking behemoth. Continue reading GM CEO Ed Whitacre Recruiting Old AT&T Colleagues GM CEO Ed Whitacre

Recruiting Old AT&T Colleagues originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Delta-Northwest Merger Chasing Value: 2010 -Prepares to Take Flight #9 Brasil Telecom By Trey Thoelcke (BloggingStocks)

By Sheldon Liber (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 12/31/2009 3:30:00 PM

Submitted at 12/31/2009 1:20:00 PM

Filed under: Delta Air Lines (DAL) Delta Air Lines Inc. ( DAL) said Thursday that it was one step closer to completing its merger with Northwest Airlines, which will create the world's largest air line by passenger traffic. The two carriers received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization to operate as a single carrier. They can now fully combine flight numbers, schedules and ticketing under the Delta name. The air lines have already integrated many operating procedures, including the use common technical

Filed under: International markets, Brazil, Bargain stocks, Chasing Value, Stocks to Buy, Brasil Telecom (BTM) The Olympics are coming! The manuals. C o n t i n u e r e a d i n g D e l t a - Olympics are coming to Brasil Northwest Merger Prepares to Telecom ( BTM) -- well actually to Rio de Janeiro, where BTM is Take Flight D e l t a - N o r t h w e s t M e r g e r headquartered, in the summer of Prepares to Take Flight originally 2016. This company came to my appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST. attention while screening midPlease see our terms for use of caps for yield, currently a healthy feeds. Permalink| Email this| 7.81% (not distributed quarterly) and a very low price-to-sales Comments ratio of 0.52. This first glance was followed by more scrutiny

Thorium, the Next Uranium [Science] By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) with an interest in Brazilian companies for potential growth and diversification. Continue reading Chasing Value: 2010 -- #9 Brasil Telecom Chasing Value: 2010 -- #9 Brasil Telecom originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Wired has a fairly epic look into a material that could make nuclear power both clean and safe called thorium窶馬amed after the Norse god of thunder. Of course, scientists recognized its promise back in the 1950s. Whereas uranium is extremely rare, requires purification and creates waste that will be with us for hundreds of thousands of years, thorium is extremely common, burns more efficiently in reactors and leaves less, less radioactive waste (that can't be of the app in action -- check it out turned into a nuke). In fact, if it weren't for the after the break! [Thanks to everyone who sent Soviet Union building uranium reactors in the 60s (and us this in] Continue reading Hardware responding in typical Cold War accelerated 'Doom' comes to the fashion), we'd probably be using thorium today. Pre Hardware accelerated 'Doom' But as Wired explains, thorium comes to the Pre originally may be poised for a comeback. [ appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Wired and Image] Dec 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Palm Infocenter| Email this| Comments

Hardware accelerated 'Doom' comes to the Pre By Joshua Topolsky (Engadget) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:01:00 AM

Pre homebrew has certainly come a long way in its short but happy life -- and now it's just gotten another little notch in its belt. Apparently, with the release of webOS 1.3.5, Palm has included a software library called SDL (or Simple Directmedia Layer) which allows developers low-level hardware access -- like the kind needed to tap into accelerated 3D graphics. With a

little bit of elbow grease, webOS hacker extraordinaire zsoc was able to put together a port of Doom which can be run within a card in the OS, and completely functions (including keyboard controls). You've got to get your hands a little dirty with the Terminal app to make things happen right now if you want to try it for yourself, though the experimenters promise an easier solution in the coming days. Palm puts this into play come Exciting stuff for webOS users CES. h u n g r y f o r a l i t t l e m o r e Update: PreCentral has a video horsepower... now let's see if

Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:30:00 PM

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Gadget Deals of the Day [Dealzmodo] By David Chaid (Gizmodo)

download) for $14.95(normally $25). • Star Wars Jedi Knight II : Jedi Cop these bargains before the Outcast (PC download) for calendar clicks into the next $4.95(normally $10). decade. Get an eMachines 22" • Guitar Hero III Bundle w/ monitor for $99, check out the Wireless Guitar Controller (360) Sony DSLR with extras for $700, for $32.99 plus free and snag an Ani DiFranco MP3 shipping(normally $56). to groove to this evening. • Alone in the Dark (360) for Top Deals: $9.99 plus free • 22" eMachines E211H Monitor shipping(normally $19). for $99.90 plus free • Virtua Tennis 2009 (360) for $79.99 plus free $10.99 s h i p p i n g ( n o r m a l l y $ 1 3 8 ) . Laptop for $507.35 plus free free shipping(normally $209). with free • Canon PIXMA MP560 Photo s h i p p i n g ( n o r m a l l y $ 1 2 5 ) . s h i p p i n g ( n o r m a l l y $ 2 3 . 4 8 ) • Sony a380 14.2 MP DSLR with shipping(normally $549). e x t r a s f o r $ 7 0 0 w i t h f r e e • 10" Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Printer for $79.97 plus free • Punch-Out!! Little Mac Boxing • F.E.A.R. Files (360) for $9.99 Netbook for $254 plus free shipping(normally $99.99). Glove (Wii) for $39.98 plus free with free shipping(normally shipping(normally $800). • N e t g e a r R a n g e M a x shipping(normally $69.99). • Red Letter Year by Ani shipping(normally $378). $19.82) Difranco (MP3) for $0(download • 10" MSI U100-869US Netbook WNDR3700 Wireless-N Router • Resident Evil 5 (360/PS3) for • 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand for $249.99 plus free for $143.99 with free $ 2 4 . 9 9 plus f r e e (PS3) for $14.99 with free here). shipping(normally $291 - use shipping(normally $159.99 - use shipping(normally $36.99). shipping(normally $34.46) Computing and Peripherals: c o u p o n c o d e • Tekken 6 Limited Edition • Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and • 16" ASUS K61IC-A2 Laptop coupon code SHINE0530). f o r $ 8 9 9 . 9 9 p l u s f r e e • 28" Hanns-G HH-281HPB B B F 5 X C D 2 P K $ 1 2 Q ) Wireless Fight Stick Bundle DualShock 3 Bundle (PS3) for shipping(normally $958 - use Monitor for $299.99 plus free • BELKIN F5D9050 USB 2.0 (360) for $68.72 plus free $ 5 3 . 9 9 with free shipping(normally $337). MIMO Network Adapter for shipping(normally $99.99). s h i p p i n g ( n o r m a l l y $ 5 9 . 9 9 ) coupon code EBAAA375). • 15.6" Dell Studio 15 Laptop for • 24" Acer H243Hbmid Monitor $12.28(normally $35 - use • Lost: Via Domus (PS3) for • World of Warcraft (PC) and $225 w/ F r e e coupon code EMCMNNX78). $ 5 . 9 9 with f r e e World Of Warcraft Expansion: $999 plus free shipping(normally f o r Shipping(normally $250). • Dell Bluetooth Wireless s h i p p i n g ( n o r m a l l y $ 1 5 ) Burning Crusade (PC) for $1,313). • 15.6" Dell Inspiron Laptop for • 23" Dell Professional P2310H Headphone for $19 with free • Don King Presents: Prizefighter $ 1 7 . 9 9 ( n o r m a l l y $ 3 4 ) . (360) for $7.99(normally $16). $649 + shipping(normally $909). 1080p LCD for $188 with free shipping(normally $60). • LOGITECH Wireless Driving • 15" Lenovo ThinkPad T500 shipping(normally $249 - use • Dell AX210 USB Speakers $9 • Transformers: Revenge of the Force Wheel (PS3/PS2) for c o d e w/ Free Shipping(normally $30 - Fallen (360) for $19.99(normally $29.99(normally $50). 2.8GHz Laptop for $1,099 with c o u p o n coupon c o d e $30). free shipping(normally $1,849 - B B F 5 X C D 2 P K $ 1 2 Q ) u s e Home Entertainment: use coupon code USPINSTOCK) • 22" Dell S2209W 1080p LCD B B F 5 X C D 2 P K $ 1 2 Q ) . • King of Fighters XII (360) for • 65" Samsung LN65B650 1080p $21.99 plus f r e e HDTV for $4,268 with free • 14" Toshiba Satellite L515- f o r $ 1 3 9 w i t h f r e e 3 - d a y Gaming: S 4 9 6 0 2 . 1 G h z L a p t o p f o r s h i p p i n g ( n o r m a l l y $ 1 9 9 ) . • PlayStation 3 Slim 120GB for s h i p p i n g ( n o r m a l l y $ 5 7 ) . shipping(normally $4430.49 plus f r e e • Raven Squad: Hidden Dagger u s e $ 4 4 9 . 9 9 w i t h $ 9 . 9 9 • 22" ViewSonic VX2240w LCD $ 2 7 4 . 9 9 coupon code: shipping(normally $529.99) f o r $ 1 7 0 w i t h f r e e shipping(normally $300 - use (PC download) for $20(normally L O G I C B U Y 2 0 ) $28). • 14" ASUS K40IJ-D2 Laptop s h i p p i n g ( n o r m a l l y $ 1 8 5 ) . coupon code TRADEPLY). • 47" VIZIO VT470M 1080p f o r $ 5 2 9 . 9 9 p l u s f r e e • 22" eMachines E211H bmd • Xbox 360 Elite + 12 months • GUN (PC download) for H D T V f o r $ 8 9 9 w i t h f r e e shipping(normally $678 - use L C D f o r $ 9 9 . 9 0 p l u s f r e e XBL & 4 Bonus Games for $9.95(normally $20). shipping(normally $999.99) $349(normally $410). • Manhunt 2 (PC download) for • 46" Samsung UN46B8000 coupon code EBAAA375 and s h i p p i n g ( n o r m a l l y $ 1 3 8 ) . • 2TB Toshiba PH3200U-1EXB • Xbox 360 Hori EX-SE Real $14.95(normally $29). this form). GADGET page 11 • 13.3" Lenovo Ideapad U350 External HDD for $189.99 plus Arcade Pro Fight Stick for • C h a m p i o n s O n l i n e ( P C Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:00:00 PM

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GADGET continued from page 10

HDTV for $1,878 w/ Free Shipping(normally $2178). • 46" Toshiba 46RV525U 1080p TV for $799.99 plus free shipping(normally $900). • 46" Screptre X460BV-F120 1080p LCD HDTV for $699.99 with $19.99 shipping(normally $899.99) • 32" JVC LT-32D200 720p HDTV w/ Built-in DVD Player for $464.99 plus free shipping(normally $530). • 32" LG 32LH30 1080p HDTV for $429 with free shipping(normally $458) • 32" Sharp LC-32DV27UT 720p HDTV w/ DVD Player for $378.99 plus free shipping(normally $498 - use c o u p o n c o d e HH?6C5Z1QL0GCC). • 26" ViewSonic VT2645 1080p HDTV for $268.99 plus free shipping(normally $368 - use c o u p o n c o d e G2F783PD5SGQV0). • 19" Samsung LN19B360 720p HDTV for $201 plus free shipping(normally $230). • Sylvania NB501SL9 Blu-Ray Player for $119.89 plus $20.86 shipping(normally $250). • Logitech Harmony 1100 Advanced Universal Remote for

$317 w/ Free Shipping(normally $350). • Klipsch CS-500 DVD Home Theater System for $400 with free shipping(normally $450). • Yamaha HTR-6250BL 7.1-Ch Receiver for $299.96 plus free shipping(normally $369). • Patriot Box Office PCMPBO25 1080p HD Media Player for $99.99 plus free shipping(normally $140 - use this form). • The Sopranos: The Complete Series DVD for $119.99 plus free shipping(normally $159). • True Blood: The Complete First Season HBO Series (Blu-ray) for $24.99(normally $31.86) • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Seasons 1 & 2 (DVD) for $17.99(normally $27.22). • Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season for $15 w/ Free Shipping(normally $45). • Harry Potter Years 1-5 (Bluray) for $53.49 plus free shipping(normally $84). Personal Portables and Peripherals: • Sony a380 14.2 MP DSLR with extras for $700 with free shipping(normally $800). • 12MP Pentax Optio P70

Digitial Camera for $99.99 plus free shipping(normally $170). • 12.1-MP Canon PowerShot SD960IS Digital Camera w/4GB Memory Card for $239 with free shipping(normally $249 - use coupon code LOGICBUY10) • Flip Mino 60 Minute Digital Camcorder for $99.99 plus free shipping(normally $124.95). • JBuds J3 Micro Atomic In-Ear Earphones with Travel Case for $24.01(normally $79.95). • Microsoft Zune 120GB MP3 Player for $199.99 plus free shipping(normally $230). • Sony Ericsson AiNo U10 3G Unlocked Phone for $422.99 with free shipping(normally $529.95 - use coupon code BBF5XCD2PK$12Q) • GARMIN nüvi 1200 GPS for $109.99 plus free shipping(normally $143). • Nokia N86 3G Unlocked Phone for $341.99 with free shipping(normally $425.99 - use c o u p o n c o d e BBF5XCD2PK$12Q) • Samsung WEP850 Bluetooth Headset for $9.99 plus free shipping(normally $30 - use this form). • Skullcandy INK'D Earbuds for $7.97(normally $12.99)

• Microphone Recorder for iPod and iPhone for $2 with free shipping(normally $7 - use c o u p o n c o d e MLC401552123172T). • 4.3" Garmin Nuvi 1350T GPS with FM Live Traffic for $179.99 with free shipping(normally $200). Hobomodo: • Coffee at White Castle Jan 1st $0. • Draw 'n' GO! (iPhone) for $0(normally $.99). • Red Letter Year by Ani Difranco (MP3) for $0(download here). • Amazon Prime - 3 Months for $0(use this form). • Blockbuster Total Access 4 week Blu-ray & DVD movies rental for $0(use coupon code face1m) If a deal looks too good to be true, investigate the store and see if it's a good, reputable place to buy. Safe shopping! [ Thanks TechDealDigger, Dealzon, Logic Buy, GamerHotline, Cheap College Gamers, CheapStingyBargains and TechBargains.]

The Year In Image Cache: 50 Shots That Wowed Us In 2009 [Imagecache] By Kyle VanHemert (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:00:00 AM

The Internet offers an endless stream of cool pictures, but here's a look at the best we've come across this year. Inside you'll find images that amaze and amuse. Though#imagecache has only been around since March, we've collected some incredible images in these last nine months. Click through to the original posts for hi-resolution images and more information.

The Known Universe by the AMHN put to the music of Muse By Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:30:07 AM

It’s New Year’s Eve and you’re

stuck in front of a computer. Natural History’s The Known Sorry, bub. You might as well Universe video put to Exogenesis turn your speakers on and zen out by Muse. to the American Museum of The somewhat boring, but also

high-def, original video is after the jump if you want to burn even more of your day.

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How To: Execute the Ultimate Phone Prank With Skype [Pranks] By John Herrman (Gizmodo)

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:14:00 AM

Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:22:47 PM

Here's an old gem of a trick for anyone feeling lonely, vindictive, or very drunk this New Year's Eve: with Skype, you can connect any phones in the world, and listen in on the results. Man, what a decade. Here's the game, as articulated by Reddit user quicksilver 5: Here's a fun trick - download Skype and set up a conference call by calling two of your friends simultaneously. They'll both answer and be thoroughly convinced that the other has called them. While you sit there at your computer trying to hold back laughter (or with your microphone muted), you can listen to them try and figure out what the hell is going on. If they chalk it up to an accidental speed -dial and hang up, keep calling them and hilarity will ensue. Here's what you'll need to do: 1.) Get some SkypeOut credit: To call landlines or cellphones with Skype, it costs money. You need to sign up for SkypeOut and buy $10 of credit—the minimum amount available—which should supply you with hours of phoneto-phone pranking. I had some

Eddie Vedder Sued For Changing Lyrics On A Song

Skype credit sitting around already, because SkypeOut, in addition to offering local calls for a few cents a minute, offers international calls at extremely low rates. 2.) Choose your victims: Who, of all the people you know, would you like to call one another at an inopportune time? Because you can pick whoever you want. Asshole boss and his terrible ex-wife, at 11:59 on New Year's Eve? Why not! Two people who you know will be in

the same room at the time? Even better. You can add more than two people to a call, but two is the funniest, since it's less obvious what's going on. 3.) Organize the call: Under the "Call" menu in Skype, select "Start conference call." To add someone to the call they need to be in your contacts, so make sure you've added your victims to your main Skype list first. 4.) Do it: It may take a couple tries to get them to both pick up, but nobody's to alarmed by a

phantom call or two—they happen all the time. After your first call, which your victims will probably write off as a pocket dial, do it again. And again. And again, until things start to feel dangerous. or your conscience kicks in. And If you can't keep quiet, hit the mic mute button in the Skype call window; you'll still be able to hear the other callers, but they won't be able to hear you. And that's it, asshole. Happy new year. [ Reddit, Previously]

Usually when you see copyright infringement claims, it's for copying something that someone else held a copyright on, but THREsq points us to a case where Canadian songwriter, Gordon Peterson, is suing singer Eddie Vedder for supposedly changing lyrics in a version Vedder did of Peterson's song "Hard Sun." Assuming that the song was properly licensed (which is also in dispute, but that seems to be a separate issue), it's difficult to see what sort of copyright infringement claim there would then be for modifying the song. After all, the modifications wouldn't be covered by Peterson's copyright at all. But, alas, this is what you get with today's "ownership culture," where people just assume more ownership rights over something than they actually have under the law. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

The Decade's 10 Most Dastardly Cybercrimes By Kevin Poulsen (Wired Top Stories)

It was the decade of the megaheist! Stolen credit card magstripe tracks became the pork

bellies of a new underground marketplace. Eastern European hackers turned malware writing

into an art. And a nasty new crop of purpose-driven computer worms struck dread in the heart

of America.

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Invetech Delivers World's First Production Human Tissue Printer [Medicine] By Sean Fallon (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:47:00 AM

Or, as they call it, a "3D bioprinter." Essentially, it allows scientists to build tissue cell by cell. It's that cool sci-fi medical stuff we all dream about. "Scientists and engineers can use the 3D bio printers to enable placing cells of almost any type into a desired pattern in 3D," Murphy said. "Researchers can place liver cells on a preformed scaffold, support kidney cells with a co-printed scaffold, or form adjacent layers of epithelial

and stromal soft tissue that grow into a mature tooth. Ultimately the idea would be for surgeons to have tissue on demand for various uses, and the best way to do that is get a number of bio-

printers into the hands of researchers and give them the ability to make three dimensional tissues on demand." The system includes software that enables engineers to build a

model of the tissue before layering cells with lasercalibrated print heads. So, it seems pretty similar to a standard 3D model printer. Hopefully, most of us will live to see the day when we can have new hearts and livers printed on demand. That would be handy. Teeth would be great in the short term too. That whole Polygrip lifestyle where corn cobs and apples could lead to disaster does not seem appealing. [ Livescience]

responsible for hearing loss allegedly caused by iPods. While that may be a possibility, the Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:58:00 PM court said that the "plaintiffs do Well, it looks like that iPod not allege the iPods failed to do hearing loss lawsuit that's been anything they were designed to nagging Apple for the past do nor do they allege that they, or couple of years may finally be any others, have suffered or are going away (in its current form, substantially certain to suffer at least), as the Ninth Circuit inevitable hearing loss or other C o u r t o f A p p e a l s i n S a n injury from iPod use" -- further Francisco has now affirmed a a d d i n g t h a t , " a t m o s t , t h e 2008 district court ruling and plaintiffs plead a potential risk of rejected a class-action lawsuit hearing loss not to themselves, that sought to hold Apple but to other unidentified iPod

users," which doesn't quite make the grade for a class-action suit. Not surprisingly, neither Apple nor the plaintiffs are making any

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 12/31/2009 7:50:00 AM

A few years back, someone sued Apple, claiming that the iPod caused hearing loss, saying that the devices have an "inherently defective design" and that they need more warnings that you can acquire hearing loss if high volumes are used. The lawsuit eventually turned into a class action, which a district court dismissed. Now an appeals court has agreed, saying that the plaintiffs showed no evidence that an iPod "poses an comments on the verdict, and unreasonable risk of noisewe're pretty sure that Apple induced hearing loss." Basically, would like to keep it that way. the argument amounted to "you Appeals court sides with Apple know, Apple could make iPods in iPod hearing loss dispute that are less likely to lead to originally appeared on Engadget hearing loss." But that's not on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:58:00 legally actionable, and it's good EST. Please see our terms for that the courts were quick to use of feeds. Permalink| Yahoo point that out. Permalink| Comments| Email News| Email this| Comments This Story

Appeals court sides with Apple in iPod hearing loss dispute By Donald Melanson (Engadget)

Court Dumps Class Action Lawsuit Saying Apple iPod Responsible For Hearing Loss

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A Boon to the Indecisive: The New Year’s Resolution Generator By Barb Dybwad (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:03:38 PM

Acer Aspire One AO532h joins the Pine Trail party with a $299 pricetag By Joanna Stern (Engadget)

but its brand new Intel Atom N450 CPU, GMA 1350 graphics Submitted at 12/31/2009 1:24:00 PM and promised 10-hours of battery It's about time that the number life should give it bragging rights o n e n e t b o o k m a n u f a c t u r e r at the family dinner table. The officially release details on its rest of the specs are standard fare Pine Trail packing netbooks. The - Windows 7 Starter, 1GB of 1 0 - i n c h A c e r A s p i r e O n e RAM, 160GB hard drive, and a A0535h seems to look slightly 4400 mAH six-cell battery. We're different than its predecessors, impressed that Acer has seemed

to finagle a $299 price tag, undercutting most of the competition -- including the$380 Pine Trail Eee PC 1005PE-- by at least $50. It should be available in the coming weeks, but in the meantime you can check the full PR after the break or start searching for that Amazon preorder page.

Continue reading Acer Aspire One AO532h joins the Pine Trail party with a $299 pricetag Acer Aspire One AO532h joins the Pine Trail party with a $299 pricetag originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

It’s a conundrum: We want to be better people in the New Year, but what the heck does that look like? If you’re one of those souls lacking in resolve, the New Year’s Resolution Generator just might help you out. If you’re struggling to figure out what to commit to in the new year, a whole new you could be just a button click away. Or maybe you feel you’ve done it all already, and need something automated on the interwebs to subtly guide you toward the next pinnacle of your selfactualization. With or without an Internet assist, what are your resolutions for 2010? [via BuzzFeed] Tags: humor, new years eve, resolutions, social media

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The Decade in Tech Stocks: Hope You Had GOOG and AAPL [Y2k10] By Brian Barrett (Gizmodo) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:00:00 AM

Turns out it was a tough decade for tech companies. First the bubble they helped create burst and took the rest of the economy down with them; now the credit markets have sunk them in return—with two notable exceptions. I'll admit that this chart would be more readable if it had been a more competitive field. But isn't that kind of the point? While everyone else was mucking around trying to recover from the mistakes of the late nineties, two t r u l y i n n o v a t i v e companies—Apple and

Google—distinguished themselves in spectacular fashion. Granted, Google didn't join the party until 2004 and benefits from a severely undervalued IPO, but even taking that into consideration, their current stock price of $622 is 20 times that of Microsoft. No matter what kind of dividend Ballmer hands out, that's an enormous—and telling—gap. That's the big picture. But I'm curious as to what you guys see in the details, too. A stock can pop on a rumor and drop on a dime. What's behind some of the peaks and valleys we see here? [Chart via Google]

Time Warner Cable's Genius Solution to Possible Fox Outage: The Internet! [TimeWarner]

Would You Share Your Credit Card Bills Online? By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:50:08 AM

By Brian Barrett (Gizmodo)

main response has been to produce silly full-page ads, but Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:30:00 AM now they've pulled out the big PSSSSST! Hey, Time Warner guns: spilling the dirty little Cable! If you tell everyone how secret that'll some day put them to watch Fox shows from their out of the TV business. PC, they'll probably start doing it You could watch their how-to for all your other programming, video below, but for a full too! Self-defeating bitterness explanation I'd recommend our really is the perfect way to say own Giz guides to living without goodbye to 2009. cable or satellite TV and home The spat between Time Warner theater PCs. In the meantime, a n d N e w s C o r p h a s b e e n let's all just sit back and enjoy escalating steadily this week, w a t c h i n g t w o c o r p o r a t e with the latter threatening to pull monoliths greed themselves to their content at midnight tonight death. unless the two sides reach an [ Time Warner Cable via All agreement on subscription fees. Things D] Thus far, Time Warner Cable's

With Facebook attempting to push users toward public sharing, and most web users becoming more than accustomed to sharing their every opinion in blog comments, Twitter feeds, user review portals and the rest, our attitudes to online privacy have evolved rapidly in 2009. How far will we go? Will you be posting your credit card transactions online in 2010? That’s the topic of my CNN column this week. Check out the column at CNN.com >> Tags: cashmore, cnn, petecashmore

Crazy Clip of the Day: Jesse Ventura Freaks Out About the 'Bilderbergs' (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:44:14 PM

Jesse Ventura’s insanity has reached epic proportions, and

now he has a slick production team courtesy of the amazingly irresponsible TruTV — and help from conspiracy freakazoid Alex Jones.

In this clip, Alex Jones tells Ventura the evil Bilderberg group is planning to exterminate 80% of the world’s population, and Ventura promptly reports this to

his “staff,” who sit there with dumb, open-mouthed expressions as Jesse rants, then proceed to come up with more crazed theories about “poisoning the

medicine.”[Video]

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Put Your Party Hat On in This Week's Open Thread [Open Thread] By Adam Pash (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/31/2009 8:15:00 AM

Pine Trail equipped Acer 532h netbook specs leak for all to see By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)

exception today for Acer’s 10.1inch 532h, which features Intel’s upcoming N450 “Pine Trail” Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:00:00 AM chipset sporting a 1.66GHz Atom I n m y h u m b l e o p i n i o n , CPU ( see previous info here). conventional wisdom should The main draw of the Pine Trail dictate that any netbook that’s platform, you’ll recall, is a move s t i l l s p o r t i n g a 1 0 2 4 × 6 0 0 from a three-chip architecture to resolution should be overlooked a two-chip architecture. The i m m e d i a t e l y . W e m a k e a n graphics and memory controller

move in with the CPU while the I/O makes up the other chip. The end result is more efficiency, better battery life, and cooler running temperatures. After all that, though, we’re still dealing with a small-resolution screen here. Other specs include 1GB of RAM, 160GB or 250GB hard drive configurations and,

presumably, some flavor of Windows 7. None of this stuff is officially confirmed yet but I’d be willing to be it’ll be outed at CES next week. Pricing would probably fall somewhere in the $299 to $349 range, I’d guess. [ Netbook News(translated) via Gizmodo]

New Year's Eve is upon us, but before you step out for a night of reverie, join us for the last open thread in 2009, won't you? Photo by rainy city. The open thread, as always, is your weekly opportunity to talk it out with your fellow commenters. Unlike our regular comment threads, where we ask you stay on topic, the open thread is your chance to discuss anything under the sun, no matter how related or unrelated it is to Lifehacker. Share your New Year's plans, ask for advice, and just enjoy yourself. (You can also continue the conversation at any time of the week at the#openthread hashtag page.) Normally on Friday, we're running a little early this week since most of you will be recovering tomorrow, so: Happy Thursday!

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BPhone looks like a netbook, acts like a netbook, has 'phone' in its name (video) By Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget)

if you like -- just check out the videos after the break. As for us, we think we'll just wait for the Submitted at 12/31/2009 3:25:00 PM xpPhone. If you were looking for a large Continue reading BPhone looks and impractical "cellphone," we like a netbook, acts like a just might have some news for netbook, has 'phone' in its name part of Android's game). Any you. Hot on the heels of a certain (video) b r a v e s o u l s d a r e t o g u e s s Dell netbook mod, we submit for BPhone looks like a netbook, y o u r a p p r o v a l a 5 - i n c h acts like a netbook, has 'phone' in otherwise? Picture of Motorola 'Shadow' convertible device that features a its name (video) originally leaked, inverted on Taiwanese QWERTY chocolate keyboard, appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 forum originally appeared on trackball, and quite possibly Dec 2009 15:25:00 EST. Please Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 Windows XP. We've got no see our terms for use of feeds. 11:44:00 EST. Please see our relevant data for you, such as Permalink Cloned in China| M8 terms for use of feeds. Permalink manufacturer, price, and release Cool| Email this| Comments Electronista| Mobile01| Email date are all mysteries at this point, but you can see it in action this| Comments

Picture of Motorola 'Shadow' leaked, inverted on Taiwanese forum By Richard Lai (Engadget)

thickness, 4.3-inch 850x484 screen (larger than the devices on Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:44:00 AM the leaked roadmap), HDMI port While everyone's gearing up to and 8-megapixel camera capable celebrate New Year's Eve, it of 1080p video recording. Not seems that Motorola's busy much else came out of the "tightsqueezing out the last bit of lipped" tipster who might've rumor juice of 2009. We're inverted the picture's colors -- see looking at what's purported to be above for our fix -- but an Motorola's 'Shadow' (not 'Mirage' educated guess should point to as Google Translate unhelpfully that friendly green robot(though suggests) -- a phone with 9mm that battery icon certainly isn't

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The Mobile Decade: Greatest Innovative Gadgets

Gruber on the Tablet By John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:30:50 PM

Good old John Gruber. While the rest of us are panting, he sits in the corner, calmly stroking his luxurious beard. He thinks the Tablet is real, I doesn’t know anything about, all of his best sources say Apple’s best designers are incognito, and that Steve loves the project. From his long, worth-reading post: Do I think The Tablet is an ereader? A video player? A web browser? A document viewer? It’s not a matter of or but rather and. I say it is all of these things. It’s a computer. And so in answer to my central question, regarding why buy The

By Gadget Lab Staff (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:00:00 PM

Tablet if you already have an iPhone and a MacBook, my best guess is that ultimately, The Tablet is something you’ll buy instead of a MacBook. So what are we looking at? It’s another Mac. Straight up. It’s not a better iPod or a better Touch or a better Tablet. It’s a new computer from Apple. Here’s hoping.

Underground Services How-To Wiki: Let Virus Writers Estimate the Height Check Their Work of Tall Objects By Brian Krebs (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:00:00 PM

For as little as $1, automated sites will see if your virus is detected by any of 22 antivirus products, with a guarantee that the malware won't be sent to the antivirus community.

By How-To Wiki (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:00:00 PM

Determining the height of tall objects from a glance doesn't require a prohibitively large tape measure -- just a little math, a sharp eye and a protractor.

From the iPod to the Kindle, the past decade has seen the rise of portable electronics like never before. Wired brings you the top gadgets of each year from 2000 to 2009, charting the rise of the mobile decade.

SmartQ V5 MID available now to a world that's just stopped caring By Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:24:00 PM

When we first laid eyes on the SmartQ V5, we were pretty underwhelmed... yet another resistive touchscreen MID? We're beginning to long for those halcyon days of late 2009 when an Android handheld was a thing of awe and wonder. Just a refresher: this guy features a 4.3inch display, 600MHz ARM11 processor (which the brave among us can overclock to 800MHz), 256MB RAM, HDMI

out, and more. Of some interest to the jaded gadget-head, this guy ships with Android, Ubuntu, and Windows CE 6.0 pre-installed -not a bad feature, if that's your thing. If you poke around the Internets you should be able to find this bad boy for near $180. SmartQ V5 MID available now to a world that's just stopped caring originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Pocketables| iMP3| Email this| Comments

Predict Our Apple Tablet Coverage, Win an Apple Tablet By Dylan Tweney (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:14:00 AM

Tell us how many stories Wired.com will publish about an Apple tablet in 2010, and you could win an actual Apple tablet. Assuming one exists, that is.

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Apple misses its mark on Windows 7 Boot Camp support (CNET News.com)

October, Apple released a knowledgebase document claiming that Windows 7 would The release of Windows 7 has supported in Mac OS X Snow had a number of Boot Camp Leopard before the end of 2009; users wondering about official however, to date there has been support from Apple. Installing no mention of an update from Windows 7 over Vista will give Apple (though to be fair, from numerous advantages, even if for the time of this posting they have nothing more than to increase the about 16 hours left). stability of the operating system; According to AppleInsider, the however, because Apple has not official Windows 7 support officially supported Windows, updates are still undergoing tests our recommendation so far has at Apple, and will be released been to hold off on using it under next year. Clearly, Windows 7 Boot Camp, and run it in a virtual support on Apple hardware is not machine instead. a priority of Apple's, but given While a number of people have Apple's initial claim of an update been successfully using both the before the end of this year, it is beta and official Windows 7 likely they are finishing up the releases on their Macs in the drivers and will have them out Boot Camp environment, the lack sooner rather than later. of official support from Apple While Boot Camp is a great may result in odd and unexpected o p t i o n f o r m a x i m i z i n g behavior. Most people who've performance when running noticed problems have found the Windows, it may not necessarily multi-touch mouse drivers to not be the best. The main drawbacks behave properly, but others have for it are: found the system to boot and run • You cannot run your Mac slowly, and in some cases refuse applications simultaneously to boot back to OS X ( 1, 2). In • You cannot safely resize the Submitted at 12/31/2009 8:03:00 AM

Snuggle Suit: It’s a robe with pants By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)

second look. Where the Snuggie hangs like a smock in a doctor’s office, the Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:30:00 AM Snuggle Suit blends the comfort If you’ve been following of a bathrobe with the cat-like Snuggie news as closely as I agility afforded by common have, you’ll definitely have trousers. noticed that most, if not all, The fact that it’s only available Snuggie knock-offs are far for women makes me downright superior to the original. Take this irate, but maybe I could stuff Snuggle Suit, for instance. It’s myself into an extra large. $20 and you could wear it as an Snuggle Suit[JCPenney via actual outfit around many parts Consumerist] of New Jersey without getting a

Android-Powered Archos Tablet Is Crash-Prone, Sluggish By Christopher Null (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:30:00 AM

The Archos 5 internet tablet

would be fantastic ... had it not been hampered by an OS (Android!) that essentially hampers it.

Mac or Windows partitions • You cannot easily transfer files between the two partitions (without third-party support) These problems can easily be overcome by running a virtualization program such as VMWare Fusion, Parallels Desktop, or the free VirtualBox from Sun. These programs allow you to easily integrate Windows into your Mac environment, manage the Windows disk size by creating dynamically expanding hard disks, and use your same documents in both Windows and OS X (or at least easily copy them between the two environments). Questions? Comments? Post them below or email us! Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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6 Tech Predictions That Helped Shape 2009 and 6 That Might Shape 2010 By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:37:20 PM

Since I’ve been at Mashable, my track record with year-end predictions has been pretty good. That’s probably because rather than making wild and sexy pontifications about what will happen in the year ahead (but almost certainly will not), I tend to just look at the trends of the past year and make educated guesses about how those will evolve. Boring and predictable, perhaps, but also a good way to round up the year past (in our little part of the world) and talk about the year ahead. Below, a look back at 2009’s picks— six of which were pretty spot on — and some educated guesstimates for 2010. Happy New Year! 2009’s Report Card Facebook and MySpace Become Aggressive Acquirers Both Facebook and MySpace made a number of significant deals this year. Most notably, Facebook gobbled up FriendFeed, while MySpace pushed further into digital entertainment by acquiring both iLike and iMeem. With$100 million in fresh financing, Twitter also got into the acquisition game, buying up Mixer Labs to bolster its geolocation features. Look for this trend to continue in 2010,

with mobile and geolocation startups making attractive targets for the big social sites (along with more traditional acquirers like Google and Microsoft). The eBay Breakup As expected, what I called “the Internet’s biggest holding company” began to dismantle. Skype was sold off to private equity firms and StumbleUpon was sold back to its original founding team. Wall Street seems to have responded positively to the refocus on ecommerce and payments, with eBay’s share price more than doubling from its lows of the year. A Big Year for Amazon One need look no further than Amazon’s share price to see the kind of year the company had. With its retail business continuing to flourish, its data services business gaining steam, and its Kindle becoming perhaps the hottest gift this holiday season, Amazon had a very big 2009 indeed. Google Chrome Gains Meaningful Marketshare One of the most aggressively marketed products in Google history, Chrome has been downloaded more than 40 million times, making it the third most popular web browser. Google finally launched a Mac version earlier this month, and with Chrome OS expected to make its debut on netbooks next

year, Chrome is going to continue to be a force in the browser market. At Least One Big Newspaper Goes All Digital The implosion of print media continued in 2009, but as expected, newspaper outfits aren’t just hanging up their hats without a fight. The Seattle-Post Intelligencer and The Rocky Mountain news both ended their print editions, but continue to publish online editions (the latter at a new website started by former reporters) with a leaner staff and without the overhead of paper and trucks. This trend will only intensify in the next year. Comments Become the New Blogs This didn’t evolve quite as I saw it happening, but as the social stream came to prominence in 2009, our actions on third-party sites — like comments on blogs and news websites — became an important part of what’s being fed into our Twitter and Facebook streams. Startup Incubators Flourish The cost of launching a web startup continues to decline, and

the incubator model continues to flourish. In addition to Y Combinator and TechStars, which continue to be launch pads for dozens of startups, other programs like Launch Box and Next Start are also providing an alternative to traditional funding. Local governments are even getting in on the low-cost startup game, with both New York and San Francisco launching programs to foster tech innovation. Twitter Doesn’t Go Mainstream This was one of my more controversial predictions last year, and although Twitter has grown many times over since then, it could be argued that Twitter is currently stalled just short of mainstream. Sure, everyone and their mother has heard of Twitter at this point, and it certainly has an awareness in the media and with big brands that isn’t going anywhere, but as I suggested, many are simply using the service passively — occasionally checking the tweets of a favorite celebrity, media outlet, or a friend — as opposed to using the service themselves. Twitter is still many orders of magnitude smaller than Facebook and MySpace, despite the latter’s continuing decline. Predictions for 2010 Facebook Gets into Location and Payments Location is hot on everyone’s 2010 prediction lists, and for

good reason. Most new smartphones includes GPS, Twitter is integrating location (and making deals to bolster its capabilities), and startups like Foursquare and Gowalla are gaining traction. But the company that can and most likely will bring location mainstream is Facebook. With your whole social graph already neatly organized on Facebook (close friends, strangers, people I friend because I have to) and the social network’s mobile apps already downloaded tens of millions of times across platforms, the company is in prime position to launch location features and dominate the space. And while Location could be the feature that gives Facebook the staying power that previously dominant social networks lacked, it could be payments that make the company a financial powerhouse. Leveraging Facebook Connect, it’s conceivable that Facebook will launch a PayPal competitor, providing e-commerce sites with not just an easy way to accept payments, but also rich data about who their customers are based on their profiles and connections. iPhone Launches on a New Carrier in the US Along with Kanye West and TECH page 23

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Jalen Rose: How Social Media Could’ve Changed My Career By Jalen Rose (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:36:12 AM

This post is part of Mashable’s Fab Five series with Jalen Rose, which highlights trends in the social media space. Jalen Rose is a former 13-year NBA star and current ESPN basketball analyst but may be best known for being a member of the famous University of Michigan Fab Five. As I look back at the journey that has led me to this point in my life, I have to say that I’ve been blessed to be a part of some pretty amazing situations. At times, I wish I could have had access to social media, so that I could have shared my experiences with the world. There are many, but here are five such moments. 1. South by Southwestern: Ustream The legendary Coach Perry Watson led my Detroit Southwestern high school basketball team to a national championship my junior year. Our “up in your face, run and jump game” earned us a #1 national ranking by USA Today, and I may be the only athlete that can say he had two high school teammates who also went pro. The three of us (Howard Eisley, Voshon Leonard, and myself) each put in over ten years in the NBA. Playing in the Detroit Public School League gave us a frenzy filled gym that was always packed with die hard

knowledgeable fans. Ustream, a platform that allows users to video broadcast for an audience, would have been great to have on the infamous yellow team bus as we left the opposing hostile arenas. Fans would have been able to see just how much camaraderie the greatest high school team in Michigan shared. Even the chance to upload video from my Flip cam or off my phone to sites like YouTube, alone would have given the fans an inside look they would never have forgotten. 2. Fab Five Forever: Twitter Ah, 1991-1992. This historic season captured the moment when the members of the Fab Five (Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson, Jimmy King, Chris Webber, and myself), who were college freshman at the University of Michigan, started against Notre Dame. Not only was this the first time a starting line-up consisted of all freshmen, but we took the world by storm in our baggy shorts, black socks and black shoes; a cultural phenomenon still in place today. The five of us scored every one of our team’s points during that nationally televised game. The intensity of this game was portrayed as “good vs. evil” and the announcers vilified us every chance they had. If I was able, I would have definitely sent a tweet to the world before I left the locker

Ustream If only I could have used Ustream when I was traded, it would have been nice to officially say goodbye to my loyal fans who didn’t want to see me move on to another team. Some of the fans would have probably enjoyed being able to room to let them know we were reach out to me to say goodbye about to go down in history as as well. the first group of all freshmen to Getting traded is quite an start a game at UM and to make experience. Twice in my career, I sure they didn’t miss it. I am a was traded to the league’s last huge fan of Twitter and I think if place team. After playing for the it were available back then, the Pacers for six and a half years, I culture of basketball could have had to leave a team that had the r e a c h e d e v e n m o r e f a n s best overall record in the NBA worldwide! We all would have for the team with the worst – the been tweeting all the time, trying C h i c a g o B u l l s . T h e s a m e to spread our legacy. 3. Motown scenario occurred when I was Style: Twitter, Facebook traded from the Raptors to the In 1994, I was drafted in the first Knicks, and what made this day round by the Denver Nuggets. unique was that the two teams As I prepared for the big day, it were playing each other that would have been great to have night. I woke up a Raptor and the capability to use Twitpic as I ended up sitting on the Knicks shopped for my draft suit. I bench a few hours later. I packed would have used Twitter as well a few things during the day, and as Facebook to get opinions from after the game, I had to get on my fans on which suit to wear on their plane with my new team the big day I had dreamt about and head to New York. Even for years. Many people think my though I was on the wrong red pinstriped suit is one of the bench, the Raptors fans still gave greatest draft suits of all time— me a standing ovation. Those as you look back at it, just were the kind of fans I wish I remember it was 1994 and the would have been able to reach style was definitely different out to on a personal level through back then. It’s a draft day classic Ustream. 5. Best of Both Worlds that reappears every year leading Most people don’t realize that I up to and on NBA draft day. 4. began my media career during The Bottom of the Barrel: the NBA Finals in 2001, even

though I didn’t retire until 2007. I was simultaneously playing basketball and broadcasting after my season came to an end each post-season. While I was still in the league, I was fortunate to be able to cover numerous sporting and entertainment events on media outlets such as TNT, ABC, and Fox Sports. It would have really changed the game if I could have also involved social media back then. I’m a multimedia junkie now and would have definitely reached out through ALL social media outlets as well. The scoops that I could have delivered would have probably intrigued an even wider audience. Looking back, I wonder how we did it without social media! Social media has truly given celebrities, entertainers, and athletes the ability to reach out to their fans across the world. More sports resources from Mashable: - 5 Predictions for Athletes on Social Media in 2010 - 5 Most Memorable Sports Tweets of 2009 - 5 Best YouTube Sports Moments of 2009 - 5 Social Media Athletes to be Thankful For - 5 Athletes Who Would Have Been Social Media Mavens Images via Sports Illustrated and TIME. Tags: fab five, jalen rose, social media, sports

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Apple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App Store By Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:30:00 PM

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, App Store It's being reported by PC World that Apple has begun censoring iPhone applications that contain any reference to the Dalai Lama in the Chinese App Store. At least five applications that contain references to the Dalai Lama have been banned: three of the apps - Dalai Quotes[$.99, iTunes], Dalai Lama Quotes[$.99, iTunes], and Dalai Lama Prayerwheel[$.99, iTunes] - contain quotes by His Holiness, while a fourth, Paging Dalai Lama[free, iTunes] tells users where he is currently teaching. A fifth app called Nobel Laureates[$.99, iTunes], details information about all the Nobel Peace Prize winners since the prize began in 1895. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. If you don't know much about the Dalai Lama, there's a great documentary you should check out called 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama[ iTunes]. The filmmaker poses some tough questions to the Dalai Lama about today's world and the individual's place in it, as well as presenting the viewer with an excellent biography of this

remarkable man. In May of 2008 I had the honor of seeing the Dalai Lama speak in London. He's a wonderful person with an infectious laugh (and he even sounds like Yoda - no joke, check out my videos here). If his laughter doesn't win you over, perhaps the fact that he's a spiritual leader who loves and embraces technology will. It's no secret that I'm very bullish on Apple [ AAPL] stock. I've made money investing in it since 2003. But as a shareholder

second and a human being first, Apple's censorship sickens me. This is capitalism at its worst. It's no mystery why Apple, along with many other tech companies, cave to China's totalitarian demands: China has the largest population of consumers on the planet. Apple is gunning for many more than its existing 300,000-strong customer base of the 1.3 billion Chinese mobile handset market. Now, I'm a realist. Apple's move isn't surprising. Though it's

publicly stood up for human rights in the past, Apple exists to sell products, and a billion people is a lot of cheddar. In Steve Jobs' eyes, the goal of the company may be continued innovation (he may even be"the Dalai Lama of integration"), but there are plenty of money men at Apple and their number one concern is to grow the bottom line. China can add a lot to that bottom line. So it's no surprise when Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller shrugs off Apple's censorship

with a "We continue to comply with local laws" jibe. Just go ahead and read that as"Not our problem. Anyway, do you know how much cheese is over there?" But here's where the real problem lies. I'm a hypocrite. Things won't change until we do and I can't really convey to you just how hard that is. If you're a shareholder, as I am, you're complicit in Apple's and others decisions to cave to China (and APPLE, page 29

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TECH continued from page 20

Tiger Woods, AT&T sits near the top of the list for most-used punch lines of 2009 (I even managed to combine them this morning). Rest assured, Apple isn’t ignorant to the service issues its customers have been facing, and perhaps more convincingly, is fully aware they’re making more money in parts of the world where they don’t have iPhone exclusively on one carrier. Combine all that with the need to keep growing market share in light of increasingly worthy competitors and it’s very likely we’ll see iPhone on a new carrier in 2010 — most likely Verizon, but perhaps T-Mobile. BlackBerry Loses Market Share As someone who has used BlackBerry his entire working life (recently making me the butt of jokes among colleagues), it saddens me to say that I think 2010 is the year that the device finally loses some ground. When you consider the plethora of Android devices hitting the market and the potential of

iPhone launching on a new carrier, someone has to be the loser, and that will likely be BlackBerry, whose interface and app selection sorely trails that of its competitors. Recent service outages also aren’t helping the cause. Live Video Goes Mainstream and Becomes Immensely Profitable We’ve recently highlighted some of the huge numbers that live web video broadcasts are generating. Much of that has to do with live video evolving from people turning on a webcam in their bedroom to professionally produced programming with celebrity talent, as highlighted by the recent Ashton Kutcher Katalyst HQ broadcast. In 2010, I expect this narrative to move from “wow, huge numbers” to “wow, it’s a real business” as top live video broadcasters are able to turn their programming into mini-media outfits with the help of sponsors. Sell Outs: Twitter, Ustream, Foursquare or Gowalla OK, so I lied, here are a few random guesses at some deals

that might happen in 2010 (and why): Twitter’s acknowledged that it has a growth problem. And while a business model appears to be coming together, selling out might start to look increasingly attractive if the company can’t reignite growth. In line with my thinking that live video is going to go big in 2010, the web’s giants are going to want to get in on it. And Ustream, with its mature platform, celeb users and evolving business model, is the logical choice. Facebook might build its own location features — or it might just buy them. In addition to getting both technology and teams by acquiring someone like Foursquare or Gowalla, Facebook would also get a potentially huge new business model to roll out to its existing base of advertising clients: location-based mobile ads. More Paywalls … Some of Them Successful One of the more compelling (if

not overdramatized) media stories of the past year has been Rupert Murdoch’s plan to put up paywalls on News Corp. websites. Murdoch’s not alone in his vision of how to make more money online. Variety recently put up paywalls of its own, and along with easier ways to pay (Facebook, perhaps?), more media companies will try it in 2010. And I have a hunch that some of them (of the WSJ and Variety ilk) will be successful, at least in terms of making more profit, albeit from a smaller audience. What do you think of my 2010 picks? Have your own ideas for the year ahead? Let us know in the comments! [img credit (header): greeblie] Tags: amazon, blackberry, ebay, facebook, Google, google chrome, iphone, live video, Mobile 2.0, myspace, social media, twitter

Top Scientific Breakthroughs of 2009 By Wired Science (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:00:00 PM

Wired Science runs down our picks for some of the best science of the year.

Wall Street set to end the year in the red (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:18:38 AM

Wall Street set to end the year in the red By Samantha Pearson in New York Published: December 31 2009 16:10 | Last updated: December 31 2009 19:18 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Want to see Google's new phone on YouTube? (CNET News.com)

of Google's decision to " dogfood" the device with employees. Google won't officially unveil its And now, some video. Nexus One smartphone until Wednesday, a 10-minute clip of Tuesday, when it has scheduled what appears to be someone an Android Press Gathering. taking the phone through its There are plenty of descriptions paces popped up on the Web. and images of the phone floating There's no sound, and the device around the Web, though--a result appears to be configured for Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:39:00 AM

place where I'd embed the relevant YouTube video. But this is one video Google doesn't want French speakers, so if you're an o n i t s v i d e o s i t e , a n d t h e American with a short attention company is pulling the footage span, I'm not sure what the down as quickly as it can. (This appeal would be. But some of is where I imagine the Viacom you are going to want to watch it, guys chortling and rubbing their anyway. hands). This normally would be the That said, you can find the clip

without much effort, particularly if you search other video sites not owned by Google. Have at it, if that floats your boat. Story Copyright (c) 2009 AllThingsD. All rights reserved. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Rank your favorite songs with Rank'em (CNET News.com) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:00:00 AM

Everybody likes contributing an opinion, especially in subjects on which we consider ourselves experts. Rank'em(located at gorankem.com), now in beta testing, uses this human urge as the basis for a crowdsourced song recommendation engine. This obviously wouldn't work without some structure--asking users to pick their 10 favorite songs at random, for instance, would be too scattershot and yield useless results. So Rank'em has users select particular artists, then asks them to choose between 5 and 20 songs and rank them in order. Users must also rate their level of enthusiasm--or "fanstanding" as the site calls it-for each artist. These self-ratings are limited by the number of songs picked. If you only know a handful of Modest Mouse songs, Rank'em will assume you can't be a very big fan, and will only let you rate yourself on a scale of one to five. If you pick 20 songs, they'll let you give yourself up to 10 points. Rank'em urges me to pick the original version of any song I

select as a favorite, but how am I supposed to know which version of "Boris the Spider" is the original? They're all exactly the same, but released at different times on different albums. When other users search for that artist's name, they'll see aggregate rankings of the songs, weighted by each voter's fanstanding, along with links to buy them on iTunes, Amazon, and eMusic (assuming they're available through these sources). Although the site is still in beta, so far it looks pretty promising: for example, the results for Jimi Hendrix place well-deserved fan favorites like "Spanish Castle Magic" and "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" above overplayed radio hits like "Purple Haze" and "Foxy Lady." You can try it yourself: enter the code "CNET" when you register (you'll also need a valid e-mail address) and you can start ranking songs and reading aggregate rankings in a few minutes. Unfortunately, Rank'em is only as good as the song data it offers, and that data's flawed right now. The site draws song data from the user-maintained MusicBrainz

database, but MusicBrainz is obsessively complete, listing multiple releases for the same album. This completeness is a drawback when you're just trying to find a song and rank it. For instance, the Who--notorious for repackaging songs and albums-has some songs show up five times. This can really mess up

the rankings, as votes are split among multiple versions of the same song. There are other data-related problems as well: albums often have the wrong years associated with them and some albums are listed twice with two different years. Rank'em has neglected to import data from some singles

and soundtrack albums, which means several of my favorite songs--"Hey Jude," "Hey Bulldog," and "It's All Too Much" by The Beatles, "Positively Fourth Street" by Dylan--are completely missing from the site. And many artists operate with different bands-Neil Young solo, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, and Neil Young & the Shocking Pinks, for instance. Rank'em lists these as separate artists, but casual fans just want to know which Neil Young songs are the best. For the time being, rating songs on Rank'em is a fun diversion, and the site could be a useful starting point if you're just discovering a new artist. But the company will have to do some pretty heavy manual data scrubbing--or find a more appropriate data source--before it can become a truly great recommendation engine. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Update: Rush Limbaugh Hospitalized with Chest Pains (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:32:00 AM

Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh was taken to a

Honolulu hospital on Wednesday, and his Web site is offering an update on his condition. “Rush was admitted to a

Honolulu hospital [Wednesday] and is resting comfortably after suffering chest pains,” a statement on Limbaugh’s Web site says. “Rush appreciates your

prayers and well wishes. He will keep you updated via RushLimbaugh.com and on Thursday's radio program.” Honolulu television station

KHNL says the conservative talk -show host was rushed from the Kahala Hotel and Resort to the hospital by ambulance yesterday afternoon.

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Photographers bless improved Canon autofocus (CNET News.com) Submitted at 12/31/2009 8:24:00 AM

After testing Canon's newest professional SLR, professional sports photographer Brad Mangin offers praise for the camera's autofocus system that's as lavish as the scorn he heaped upon the model's predecessor. Mangin tested the Canon EOS1D Mark IV at a football game, and his overall assessment published on his blog doubtless was music to the ears of designers at the Japanese camera maker: "This camera performed flawlessly...Canon should be able to keep long-time (and heavily invested) users like me happy with the new Mark IV." The Canon EOS-1D Mark IV(Credit: Canon USA) Perhaps not so pleasant to hear was his excoriation of the earlier model. "To be brutally honest, I found the Canon EOS-1D Mark III to be a complete disaster. I consider it to be the biggest lemon professional 35mm camera in modern photographic history. I have a considerable investment in Canon cameras and lenses, and was reluctant to jump ship to Nikon," said Mangin, whose customers include Sports Illustrated. "With the Mark IV, it

was do or die for Canon." He shot with Canon's 400mm f2.8 lens, sometimes with a 1.4x teleconverter, in bright sunlight. "Using a Canon Mark III with a 400mm lens and a 1.4x converter in this exact same situation was not an option. The results were embarrassing and upsetting. However, the new Mark IV seemed to like working with the 400mm lens and 1.4x combination and delivered some

very nice, tack-sharp images," Mangin said. His assessment of the 1D Mark III jibes with that of Rob Galbraith, a photographer who extensively chronicled his gripes with the SLR's autofocus system in 2007. Mangin said two others photographing the game using the earlier EOS-1D Mark IIN were relieved that the Mark IV performed well. Another photographer to get an

early model of the 1D Mark IV to test is Jens Dresling, a Danish photojournalist. He also praised the autofocus, judging by a translation of his views that indicates the camera focused well both with wide-angle and telephoto lenses. The $5,000 EOS-1D Mark IV is Canon's first full-on professional SLR that can shoot video, but it also shoots 10 still frames per second for conventional photography. The 16.1megapixel sensor can shoot up to ISO 12,800 at a regular setting and up to 102,400 in its extended range setting. Its sensor is an unusual intermediate "APS-H" size that measures 27.9 by 18.6mm. That's about halfway between the fullframe sensors of most high-end SLRs and the APS-C sensors on Canon's mainstream SLRs. Larger sensors are more expensive but enable better lowlight performance and a wider dynamic range. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Could There Be the First Winter Classic Fight? By Christopher Botta (Fanhouse Main) Submitted at 12/31/2009 6:40:00 AM

Filed under: Bruins, Flyers, Winter Classic BOSTON -Good-natured Boston Bruins bruiser Shawn Thornton initially dismissed the question, almost

sounding offended. Is it possible this year's NHL Winter Classic could be the first to feature a fight?

Person of the Decade?! (Scripting News) Submitted at 12/30/2009 5:25:59 PM

You aren't going to believe this. Slate's culture podcast chose three people as Person of the Decade and they were: George W. Bush, Paris Hilton and Dave Winer. It's the weirdest thing. They said my name and no one said Who dat? I don't think it was a joke. And it was for a good thing, podcasting -- and they're right about how nice it is to have all those great podcasts to listen to. I didn't make a dime off podcasting, but in a more important way I did get rich from it. There's an incredible wealth of great stuff to listen to. It really took off, and it's something I'm really proud of. Here's the full MP3. The segment starts around minute 27. And here's the 3.5 minute excerpt where they talk about the Person of the Decade. Update: Another honor. :-)

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Can't find the apps you need? Of course there's an app for that.

Dozen Daily Deals for December 31, 2009

By Mel Martin (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

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

and there are plenty of sites that review apps (including TUAW), but there are so many apps out Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:30:00 PM there that finding what you want Filed under: Odds and ends, can be a matter of luck rather iPhone, iPod touch, App Review than skill. If you're like me, you find it That problem has largely been impossible to keep up with the solved with Appsaurus[iTunes constant stream of apps being link], a U.S. $0.99 app that can written for the iPhone and iPod quickly focus on what kinds of touch. As a result, you wind up apps you like and make decent missing some useful or fun apps suggestions for new apps to try that you would buy if you just or buy. knew that they were in the App Here's how Appsaurus works. Store. When you launch the app for the Searching the App Store using first time, it presents you with an iTunes doesn't work very well, explore mode. It displays a list of and there are plenty of sites that apps, and you tap the ones that review apps (including TUAW), probably won't have all of them. are of interest to you. You may but there are so many apps out When you select a favorite you'll have some of the apps, but you there that finding what you want get a new list that includes apps probably won't have all of them. can be a matter of luck rather that match the general description When you select a favorite you'll than skill. of the app you clicked on. Run get a new list that includes apps That problem has largely been through a few iterations of this that match the general description solved with Appsaurus[iTunes process, and the app begins to of the app you clicked on. Run link], a U.S. $0.99 app that can learn your preferences. If you're through a few iterations of this quickly focus on what kinds of like me, you find it impossible to process, and the app begins to apps you like and make decent keep up with the constant stream learn your preferences. suggestions for new apps to try of apps being written for the TUAW Can't find the apps you or buy. iPhone and iPod touch. As a need? Of course there's an app Here's how Appsaurus works. result, you wind up missing some for that. originally appeared on When you launch the app for the useful or fun apps that you would The Unofficial Apple Weblog first time, it presents you with an buy if you just knew that they (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 explore mode. It displays a list of were in the App Store. 14:30:00 EST. Please see our apps, and you tap the ones that Searching the App Store using terms for use of feeds. are of interest to you. You may iTunes doesn't work very well, Read| Permalink| Email this| have some of the apps, but you Comments

Camcorders] 4GB Pen DVR Digital Camcorder for $33 + free shipping • OfficeMax: [Office Furniture] Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:00:00 PM OfficeMax Divoga Task Chair Filed under: Deals'Tis the season for $50 + free shipping, padding to shop until your brains melt (or • Dell Small Business: skip it all entirely, depending on [ C o m p u t e r S p e a k e r s ] D e l l your interpretation of the term AY511 Multimedia Soundbar holiday). In that spirit, for the with Virtual Surround for $63 + next few weeks we'll be rounding free shipping, more up a dozen daily deals courtesy • PC Micro Store: [Store Events] our friends at DealNews.com. PC Micro Store coupon: $9 off Each afternoon tune in to TUAW $18 or more + free shipping for this handy summary. Keep in • PC Connection: [24" - 26" mind that while our posts will LCD TVs] Samsung 24" 1080p live on, the deals won't. Each is Widescreen HDTV / Display for lovingly generated by the deal- $240 + free shipping bot every day, so get 'em while • H a n d H e l d I t e m s : [ i P o d they're hot. Enjoy! A c c e s s o r i e s ] • iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / HandHeldItems.com: Up to 80% iPod Apps] App Store Freebies: off Apple iPod touch cases + Falling Gems, Koala Dartz, Stop 20% off coupon and Go, Pattrns Turbo, more • ExperCom: [MacBook Pro] • Finish Line: [iPod Accessories] Apple MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo Nike + iPod Watch Remote for 3.06GHz 17" Laptop for $2,699 $20 + $8 s&h + $10 s&h • Apple Store: [iMac] Refurbished Apple iMac Core 2 TUAW Dozen Daily Deals for Duo 3.06GHz 27" Desktop for December 31, 2009 originally $1,449 + free shipping appeared on The Unofficial • MacUpdate Promo: [Home & Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, Hobbies Software] Optimism 3.1 31 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. for Mac downloads for $20 Please see our terms for use of • Dell Home: [Headphones] Dell feeds. Bluetooth Headphones for $19 + Permalink| Email this| free shipping Comments • Shop4Tech: [Digital

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Why Schools Should Learn To Use Mashable’s Most-Dugg Online Services Like Facebook & Posts of 2009 YouTube Rather Than Banning Them By Ben Parr (Mashable!)

Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:59:00 AM

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:44:00 AM

It's no secret that we live in a world of moral panics -- where new technologies are feared by those who don't understand them, often leading to regulations that block their potential. For years now, a number of politicians have sought laws to ban social networks in schools, assuming that they are either bad or simply inappropriate for schools. While those laws have yet to pass, many schools already do ban access to social networks and other sites. I've never quite understood how this makes sense. Rather than training students to use those sites properly, now they're seen as forbidden -- which only makes them more attractive to students, while making it even clearer that students won't be prepared to handle those sites properly. On top of that, as more powerful mobile phones become popular, students will easily bypass the school's own network and access those sites on their own -- and

there will be nothing the schools can do about it. So it's nice to see a sensible opinion piece in Slate arguing that rather than ban or block social online services like Facebook and YouTube, schools should be embracing them and looking for ways to incorporate them into the learning process. There are a variety of strong arguments for why this makes sense, but two that stick out: • Students already like using these sites quite a bit. Using those sites to make other things more relevant and interesting seems like a good way to reach kids in a manner that they understand, and which doesn't feel quite as much like "education," but more like something fun that they want to do. • Using these kinds of free tools may be cheaper, easier and much more effective than a number of the super expensive e-learning tools out there, which would require a steep learning curve anyway. But incorporating

Visit our Sponsors By noreply@blogger.com (Ad ServeRSS) (AD ServeRSS) Submitted at 12/30/2009 4:00:00 PM

Visit Starbucks

lesson plans and info and assignments into the tools that students already use would be both cheaper and more likely to actually be used.

Today is the ultimate day of reflection, where millions (maybe billions) take a look back at the year that has passed and what they have accomplished during that time. You’ve probably seen Of course, some will decry that a lot of tweets, blog posts and these sites are automatically bad status updates in the social media for kids -- or that it makes no space reflecting on the year sense to waste time on such we’ve all shared. issues. But the fact is kids are We’re no different. We’ve been going to use these sites no matter reflecting on the year some of the what. Ignoring that doesn't top companies in social media change that. Banning the sites experienced, including Twitter, doesn't change that. It just makes Google, Microsoft and Facebook. the activity more underground We’ve also reflected on some of without any oversight or the top stories of 2009. reasonable lessons. But Today we’re going to take a look incorporating the technology into back at some of the stories that the educational efforts could people have shared the most via actually get a lot more attention. various social media channels. Yes, some of the examples in the We’re starting with the king of Slate article seem pretty lame social news, Digg, by listing our (and would be seen as such by top 10 most-dugg stories of 2009. the kids), but if done right, it The list is a great cross-section really could add a lot more value of what made headlines in social to students' educations. media in 2009, along with some Permalink| Comments| Email of our most entertaining humor This Story stories. The king of our list is about to cross the 4,000 digg mark. Think you know what story that was? Check out our top 10 most-dugg stories of 2009, in reverse order: zChocolate.com Mighty Leaf

10. 2160+ Diggs: Neil Patrick Harris Mocks the Internet at the Emmys 2009 [VIDEO] 9. 2315+ Diggs: Judge: Microsoft Banned from Selling Word in the US 8. 2390+ Diggs: Google Logo on 09/09/09 09:09:09 7. 2460+ Diggs: Top 5 Funniest Fake Facebook Pages 6. 2590+ Diggs: Yooouuutuuube Puts YouTube on LSD 5. 2670+ Diggs: IE6 No More! Popular Web Companies Start Project to Kill IE6 4. 2800+ Diggs: Firefox 4.0: Early Screenshots Released 3. 2900+ Diggs: Perez Hilton’s Despicable Michael Jackson Coverage Creates Backlash 2. 3780+ Diggs: IE6 Must Die for the Web to Move On 1. 3990+ Diggs: CEASEFIRE DECLARED: AT&T Unblocks 4Chan Tags: digg, mashable, social media

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Mac 101: Making Text Replacement Work By Erica Sadun (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/31/2009 1:30:00 PM

Filed under: How-tos, Mac 101 Text replacement: it's one of Snow Leopard's really cool features. With it, you can type abbreviations and they'll automatically expand into full text. You can convert your most common phrases into just a few keystrokes, and let Snow Leopard take care of the rest. Here's a quick summary of what you need to do to make text replacement work for you. Creating Macros in System Preferences. Open System Preferences (it's in the Apple menu at the top of your screen) and navigate to Language & Text > Text. There you'll find a Symbol and Text Substitution list. Click the + button to add a new item. For this example, put (tuaw) into the Replace column and The Unofficial Apple Weblog into the With column. Leave the box to the left of these items checked. So why use the parentheses? Strictly speaking, they're not

necessary. You can define text substitutions on any set of characters, as shown in the screen shot below. What these parentheses do for me, is that they distinguish between when I want to type TUAW and not have it expand, and when I want the abbreviation to transform into the full Weblog name. Enabling Text Replacement

Replacement is checked. If it is not, select it to toggle the option from on to off or off to on. Applying Text Replacment The big secret to making text replacement happen, once you've defined the shortcuts and enabled Text Replacement in the contextual menu, is the space key. Snow Leopard does not apply the shortcut replacement until it detects you have finished typing a phrase. Only then does it perform its internal look up and substitution. Also prepare to wait a second or so. The replacement text often lags behind your typing. So go ahead and keep entering text. The operating system will catch up and perform its substitution work without your oversight. For Mike G., with TUAW Text replacement works on a per affection -application basis. Many applications default to this TUAW Mac 101: Making Text feature being off. To make text Replacement Work originally replacement happen, right-click appeared on The Unofficial within any text entry area such as Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, a composition window in Mail or 31 Dec 2009 13:30:00 EST. the text entry field in Colloquy, Please see our terms for use of e t c . T h e c o n t e x t u a l m e n u feeds. Permalink| Email this| provides a Substitutions submenu. Make sure Text C o m m e n t s

Chris Robinson Welcomes Baby Cheyenne (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/30/2009 5:30:00 PM

The Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson welcomed a baby daughter into the world this past Saturday with his wife Allison Bridges. Read on for detailsâ&#x20AC;Ś A rep for the singer tells People.com, "Chris Robinson and his new wife, Allison, have a healthy and beautiful baby girl. Cheyenne Genevieve Robinson, 6 lbs., 3 oz., was born on Dec. 26, 2009 at the Robinsons' home in California." Cheyenne is Robinson's second child. His first, five-year-old Ryder Russell, was with ex-wife Kate Hudson. The 43-year-old rocker married Allison earlier this year, and reportedly is planning a new project and tour with the Black Crowes in 2010.

Cool 10 Year Chart of Cable News Network Averages from TV Newser By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:03:15 AM

TV Newser has charts with

annual averages for the last 10 years on the cable news networks. They have charts for P2+ and A25-54 for total day and also for prime-time.

It is interesting to see the longer view and just how far things have progressed over the decade. Things still arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t so great for CNN (though perhaps not nearly

as bad from that vantage point) and things are very great for FNC. MSNBC was well above its averages for the decade in 2009, but FNC was at its all time

highs in 2009. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Author Robin Sloan Offers Up Money To Fans For Good Remix Ideas By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 12/31/2009 4:27:47 AM

I'm always amazed at the claims by some of our usual band of critics in the comments that "remixing isn't creative." They never seem to explain how something like what Kutiman has done could ever be considered not creative. Nor do they explain how taking a clip of a note and using it to make a new song is really different from using a keyboard (which plays "prerecorded" notes) and playing a song. And we've certainly seem plenty of content creators encourage remixing of their work, and now more and more musicians have been purposely releasing stems and asking fans to make their own mixes. But how about with a book? A few months back, we wrote about how author Robin Sloan was offering a tiered support model, similar to what many musicians have done, so he could

APPLE, continued from page 22

capitalism) at the expense of human rights. I mean, I know I was downright giddy when I heard the news that Apple had come to an agreement with the Chinese government to sell the write a novella. He used but I'm greedy! I want more: I iPhone there. All I could think Kickstarter, and it turned out to want other people to trans-form it was ka-ching! be a huge success, with him and make it their own. If you're a We may read (or in my case, earning much more than he writer, an artist, a musician, a write) opinion pieces like this originally targeted as his goal. mathematician, a pastry chef--or and lament"Gosh, that censorship The novella has been published, a fan of one of the above--where is just horrible" but then we look and apparently it's getting quite a could you or they take this story? at the ten-, fifty-, one hundredresponse. But Sloan has realized I want to find out. It's yet another thousand, or even millions of that you don't stop there. cool way of connecting with dollars of Apple stock sitting in He's taking things a step further, fans, and going explicitly against our brokerage accounts and and has reserved $1,000 as a what copyright allows. It's think,"But, that's my nest egg and "remix fund," to encourage explicitly encouraging people to I want to see that puppy grow. people to take the book that he copy his work and even offering What's the harm in five little apps just wrote (which is available for money to them if they do a good being censored?" download in a variety of formats job. I imagine this will confuse The harm is this: that line of under a Creative Commons those who will say "but... wait, thinking doesn't change the status license) and do some sort of he should be getting paid any quo. It doesn't move the world remix project on it. He's asking t i m e a n y o n e w a n t s t o d o forward. Our inaction is a form his supporters to pitch remix something with his characters." of complicity with Apple's ideas (including how much it But what Sloan appears to deliberate censorship. But, as would cost to do), and then those recognize is that building up a long as we don't experience the who helped pay for the creation larger audience for his works will oppression first hand, what the of the original story will vote on certainly pay off a lot more in the shareholder wants will always the ideas -- and the top ones will long run than trying to squeeze o u t w e i g h t h e g o o d o f t h e get funded (until the $1,000 runs people in the short run. individual - even if it's 1.3 billion out): I wrote and published Permalink| Comments| Email individuals. I'd like to believe Annabel Scheme with the help of This Story that I think mindfully; that I'm about 600 patrons. It's got-ten a warm reception from read-ers,

AT&T Drops Tiger Woods Sponsorship (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/31/2009 7:54:00 AM

AT&T has announced it is cutting ties with embattled golf

great with Tiger Woods. "We are ending our sponsorship agreement with Tiger Woods and wish him well in the future," the phone company said in a

statement. Earlier this consulting decided to relationship

month, the global firm Accenture end its working with Woods, and

Gatorade discontinued a Tigerthemed beverage. Plus, TAG Heuer and Gillette announced plans to scale back Woods' role in their marketing programs.

strong enough morally to sell my Apple stock as a show of solidarity for the greater good... but am I? Are you? We are all cogs in the wheel. Still, it's the end of the year, and I don't want my last post of the first decade of the twenty-first century stopping on a depressing note. So, I'll wish you all a Happy New Year now and leave you with this quote by the Dalai Lama (a quote which could easily apply to our conundrum): "Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck." TUAW Apple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Prosecutor Opposes Charlie Sheen's Motion to Dismiss Wife's Protective Order

AT&T cuts Tiger Woods (CNET News.com) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:26:00 AM

One assumes it didn't happen by text. But, according to The New York Times, AT&T has announced, in a very brief statement, that it will no longer associate its fine name with Tiger Woods. Accenture, Tag Heuer, and Procter and Gamble have already distanced themselves from the world's greatest golfer after he crashed his car and became associated with as many alleged extra-marital affairs as there are clubs in his bag. Yet it's interesting that AT&T should choose New Year's Eve as the time to announce its decision. It has been a tough year for the carrier, with Verizon deriding its coverage and a survey showing that more than half of iPhone users are unhappy with AT&T's service. AT&T was a founding partner in the Tiger Woods Learning Center.(Credit: CC Zeetz Jones/Flickr) It's almost as if AT&T would dearly love to slap 2009 with a 9 iron, in the hope that it will have a better relationship with 2010.

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/30/2009 4:38:00 PM

In truth, the sponsorship of Woods was not a mainstay of the company's commercial thrust. It involved him hosting tournaments, carrying the AT&T logo on his vast golf bag, and AT&T's involvement in some of Woods' charitable work. However, AT&T is not in and of sports and Woods was never a central figure in its communications. Though it might have been slightly interesting had the company chosen to have Woods lead its

fightback against Verizon instead of the scandal-free Luke Wilson. Wouldn't it have been lovely to see Woods bouncing a Droid up and down on his 5 iron before smashing it somewhere down a distant fairway? A case of Droid Does meeting Just Do It. The tech company that has perhaps the most problematic dilemma where Woods is concerned is Electronic Arts. Its Tiger Woods PGA Tour series of games is a strong part of its business. Currently, Woods'

image still retains pride of place on the EA site. Although perhaps the wording might need a little revision. Right now, EA chooses to have some interesting words beneath Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10: Feel The Drama. Indeed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Stars Share New Year's Resolutions (ETonline - Breaking News)

Gilles Marini and Carol Burnett are sharing their New Year's Submitted at 12/31/2009 6:30:00 AM resolutions with ET! The countdown is on for 2010, "My New Year's resolution is to and stars including Susan Lucci, do more exercise," says Carol. "I

do exercise, but to do moreâ&#x20AC;Ś" "Melrose Place" star Josie Bissett says, "Every year I'm going to learn a language and I'm going to learn an instrument, and it never

happens -- so this year I'm going to learn a language and an instrument and we'll see what happens!"

Arnold Mordkin, the chief deputy district attorney in Pitkin County, CO, tells ET he has taken steps to file paperwork opposing Charlie Sheen and wife Brooke Mueller's wish to have a Colorado court dismiss the protection order provided to Mueller. Mordkin tells us his office typically opposes lifting a protection order in cases of alleged domestic violence. He says in this instance, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opposed to lifting sections of the order that prohibit Sheen from possessing a weapon, drinking alcohol or using drugs. A court hearing regarding the motion is set for Monday morning.

Tech/

E-reader News Edition

Win a copy of the iPhone Developer's Cookbook By Victor Agreda, Jr. (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 12/31/2009 3:00:00 PM

Filed under: Developer The very first book I bought for programming the iPhone was none other than Erica Sadun's iPhone Developer's Cookbook. It wasn't the first book of Erica's I had purchased -- years ago I bought her Desktop Video book - but it was an excellent introduction into the secret world of iPhone development. If you recall, Apple's cloak of silence (aka the NDA all developers had to agree to) prohibited developers from even talking about how to write programs for the iPhone! Erica, as is her style, was rarin' to go with a book detailing common practices all developers would find useful, especially n00bs like myself. I should note that InformIT, the publishers, also have sample chapters for a bunch of Mac and iPhone developer books available here. So I'm very happy to say we are giving away five copies of the second edition of The iPhone Developer's Cookbook. To enter, you must be over 18, in the US or Canada, and leave a comment on this post. The rest of the rules are below. Good luck and get

Despite Awful Customer Service, Woman Felt Forced To Buy Another Sony eBook Reader... Thanks To DRM By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

send in her working eBook Reader, then they send it back and it's broken. And they refuse We were just discussing the to fix it because it's out of DRM tax on a Kindle, which is warranty. Nice. the "price" of having to rebuy But here's the kicker. After all any ebooks you want to keep of this, she went out and bought later on if you decide to switch to another Sony ebook reader. She another platform. Some of the noted that she would have gladly commenters on that post scoffed purchased a competing product at the idea, and insisted that "in "but would have lost access to the future" this wouldn't be an the library she's spent hundreds issue, because most likely there of dollars building up." And would be ways to take your there it is. The DRM tax at work ebooks with you to other readers. creating serious lock-in and Of course, that's little comfort to consumer problems. At least in people today. Reader Mark this case, due to the publicity sends in this story of how Sony from Consumerist, Sony agreed initially refused to fix a Sony to reimburse the woman, but you eBook Reader that only broke shouldn't have to get a major because of an update that Sony publication to tell your story first pushed the woman to install to get that kind of resolution. (oddly, they required her to send Permalink| Comments| Email them the reader. So, effectively, This Story Sony contacts her, tells her to Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:11:52 PM

coding! • Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. • To enter leave a comment on this post. • The comment must be left before Friday, January 8, 2010, 11:59PM Eastern Time. • You may enter only once. • One winner will be selected in a random drawing. • Prize: one copy of iPhone

Developer's Cookbook, 2nd edition (Value: US$40.49) • Click Here for complete Official Rules. TUAW Win a copy of the iPhone Developer's Cookbook originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Muppets Now Making Music on Your iPhone By Jennifer Van Grove (Mashable!) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:19:20 AM

The 12-hour iPhone app By Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

places), but for the sheer push of how you actually go from idea to concept to code and finally to released iPhone app. Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:15:00 AM I won't say it sounds easy -Filed under: Developer, iPhone, these guys had a good amount of App Store Gizmodo has an experience at development and interesting story from David releasing software even before Quinlan, a coder who decided to they started work on this app, and sit down over a weekend with a if you sit down with Erica's few friends to crank out an book[ Amazon link to the 2nd iPhone app. It's an excellent read, edition, PDF downloadable not only for the little quirks and version] and hope to release your t i p s a b o u t o r g a n i z i n g a very first piece of code after just collaborative project very quickly a weekend of solo work, it's not (they sketch out features and then going to happen. But it definitely prioritize them, and use Dropbox sounds possible -- the iPhone's to keep all the files in the right d e v e l o p m e n t p l a t f o r m i s

relatively easy to pick up (especially if you're already experienced with coding in other languages), and Apple's release process is open to anyone willing to spend the $100 to become an official developer. TUAW The 12-hour iPhone app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

It seems like The Muppets have made a comeback. Their rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody went viral on YouTube, and now there’s even an official iPhone app. The Muppets Animal Drummer, from Walt Disney, is a music rhythm game modeled after existing hits like Rock Band for iPhone and Tap Tap Revenge, but centered around the wild and crazy Animal and his drum kit. The object of the game is to tap your fingers to the correct drum patterns using the five different drum and cymbal buttons. You’ll start by following Animal’s fourbeat lead, but you’ll need to be able to maintain that pattern and adjust to variances in tempo for each song. As with similar games, you’ll be handsomely rewarded with bonuses should you tap the right pattern in the right tempo for an extended

period of time. The app even includes a few unique additions to the genre, including the ability to record your jam session in Free Mode and watch Animal play it back, or to import songs from your iTunes library to jam along with. Both options sound like entertaining ways to keep the kids preoccupied, or an iPhonefriendly way to blow off steam. Animal and Muppet lovers can pick up the Disneyfied version of a new classic game for iPhone for $1.99 in the App Store [ iTunes link]. [via 148apps] Tags: iphone, muppets

MediaDailyNews: QandA: Sports Consultant Harvey Schiller On Future Olympics (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/31/2009 8:44:04 AM

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] Harvey Schiller, CEO of GlobalOptions

Group, also maintain a prominent role in sports, particularly as a strong proponent of the

Olympics. He shared his thoughts on sports broadcasting and the insider thinking of the Intentional

Olympic Committee.

Tech/ Entertainment/

E-reader News Edition

Dr. Drew Dishes on 'The Most Difficult' Season of 'Celebrity Rehab'

OPTi Shows: When You Can't Compete In The Market, You Sue For Patent Infringement By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

And that's a good thing. Failure is important for free markets to work. But, thanks to the very unReader BakaYaro points us to c a p i t a l i s t i c c o n c e p t o f this article about OPTi, the government granted monopolies, company that recently won a k n o w n a s p a t e n t s , t e c h $21.7 million patent ruling companies never need to fail and a g a i n s t A p p l e , w h e r e t h e go out of business. They can just company's CEO insists it's not a sue over patent infringement. So, patent troll because it's only OPTi went from a 235-person suing over patents that it got company producing products and itself. It seems that Bernie adding value to the market, to a 3 Marren is trying to redefine what -person company that just sues a "patent troll" is to mean just and extracts money from the someone who buys patents and companies who actually provide sues. But the real story shows value on the market. So OPTi that OPTi is yet another example went from providing value to of patents harming, not helping, sucking value out of the market. innovation. The company used It might not be a troll, but it's to produce products, but other difficult to see how it's good for companies eventually caught up, the economy or for innovation. and OPTi couldn't compete. Permalink| Comments| Email Now, in a true capitalistic This Story society, the companies that can't compete, go out of business. Submitted at 12/31/2009 1:13:34 AM

Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:41:00 AM

Nicole Richie is set to make a splash on the seventh season of "Project Runway." Richie will guest judge on the reality competition's season premiere, says People.com.

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 12/31/2009 7:06:00 AM

ET sits down with Dr. Drew Pinsky for his thoughts on the new season of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew," which he calls "by far the most difficult for me." "Boy, this was a group that was very, very tough. They were all affected in different ways," Dr. Drew says of his celebrity patients in season three. This season, the series will follow Mackenzie Phillips, former madam Heidi Fleiss, Tom By Mike Schramm (The them out front and center. Unofficial Apple Weblog There's a sequence of pictures on Sizemore, Dennis Rodman, (TUAW)) his site showing how he did it. country singer Mindy McCready, It's all in Japanese, so you'll only Lisa D'Amato("America's Next Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:00:00 AM be able to read it if you happen to Top Model"), Mike Starr from Filed under: Hardware, Cult of be fluent. But it looks pretty the rock band Alice in Chains, Mac, Odds and ends, Mods This simple -- drill a hole in the side and Joey Kovar("Real World is great, and highly appropriate of the case, install a battery Hollywood"). for the tick-tocking away of the operated clock, shine a light on it, year -- Japanese modder Nobon a n d v o i l a , i n s t a n t M a c had an old Power Mac G5 (case, centerpiece. Apple products don't it looks like, though this would die, they just change function! be cool on a working Mac as [Via Cult of Mac] well) sitting around, and he TUAW Power Mac G5 turned wanted to know what time it was, time-teller originally appeared on so he installed a little clock in The Unofficial Apple Weblog there. As mods go, it's pretty (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 simple, but man that looks great. 09:00:00 EST. Please see our "Nicole is a fabulous guest Like most users, I usually hide terms for use of feeds. judge," says "Project Runway" my actual boxes under the desk Read| Permalink| Email this| Once in a Blue Moon: executive producer Sara Rea. or in a cabinet, but if any of my Comments Be Sure to Look Up "She has strong opinions and computer cases were as beautiful This New Yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eve g i v e s c l e a r a n d s p e c i f i c and functional as that, I'd put constructive criticism to the By Barb Dybwad (Mashable!) designers. Also, she isn't afraid to Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:44:43 AM disagree with the other judges." ONCE page 34

Nicole Richie Headed to 'Project Runway' (ETonline - Breaking News)

Power Mac G5 turned time-teller

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ONCE continued from page 33

Get ready for one of those rare celestial phenomenons you won’t want to miss. Not only will the earth be blessed with a full moon to accompany tonight’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, but it will be a Blue Moon — the second full moon in a single month. The first full moon of this month occurred on December 2, and the second will fall tonight on the cusp of the new year. According to NASA, the last time a Blue Moon fell on New Year’s Eve was almost 20 years ago, in December 1990. And although a Blue Moon occurs on

average every two and a half years, the next time one will fall on New Year’s Eve won’t be until 2028. In other words: Look up tonight if you can, and enjoy the extra moonlight! Will your New Year’s Eve celebrations have a Blue Moon 2009 theme? Let us know in the comments. [ Image courtesy of Ed Yourdon] Tags: blue moon, blue moon 2009, new years eve, social media

Puck Talk: Breaking Down Team Canada By Bruce Ciskie (Fanhouse Main) Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:00:00 AM

Filed under: Team USA, Team Canada, International Hockey, Olympic Hockey Much of the hockey world glued their eyes to their televisions early Wednesday afternoon. They awaited the announcement of Canada's Olympic hockey roster. The host country's team has to be looked at as a serious favorite, and we break down the guys they picked -- and those left at home - with FanHouse's Kevin Schultz and Adam Gretz. Also on the agenda is a brief look at the

upcoming announcement of the Team USA roster. Brian Burke gets to pick last, and we try to read his complicated mind. Listen to the podcast above, or click here to download the file.

TSA Threatens Bloggers for Posting New Screening Rules (Little Green Footballs)

airports around the world and described temporary new requirements for screening Now here’s a story that really is passengers through Dec. 30, o u t r a g e o u s , a s t h e T S A including conducting “patsubpoenas and confiscates the downs” of legs and torsos. The computers of two bloggers who d o c u m e n t , w h i c h w a s n o t posted their new screening c l a s s i f i e d , w a s p o s t e d b y directive— even though the numerous bloggers. Information document was not classified. from it was also published on Two bloggers received home some airline websites. v i s i t s f r o m T r a n s p o r t a t i o n “They’re saying it’s a security Security Administration agents document but it was sent to every Tuesday after they published a airport and airline,” says Steven new TSA directive that revises Frischling, one of the bloggers. screening procedures and puts “It was sent to Islamabad, to new restrictions on passengers in Riyadh and to Nigeria. So they’re the wake of a recent bombing looking for information about a a t t e m p t b y t h e s o - c a l l e d security document sent to 10,000 underwear bomber. -plus people internationally. You Special agents from the TSA’s can’t have a right to expect Office of Inspection interrogated privacy after that.” two U.S. bloggers, one of them Transportation Security an established travel columnist, Administration spokeswoman and served them each with a civil Suzanne Trevino said in a subpoena demanding information statement that security directives on the anonymous source that “are not for public disclosure.” provided the TSA document. “TSA’s Office of Inspections is The document, which the two currently investigating how the b l o g g e r s p u b l i s h e d w i t h i n recent Security Directives were minutes of each other Dec. 27, acquired and published by parties was sent by TSA to airlines and who should not have been privy Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:27:03 AM

Our Sponsors By noreply@blogger.com (Ad ServeRSS) (AD ServeRSS) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:03:00 AM

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to this information,” the statement said. Frischling, a freelance travel writer and photographer in Connecticut who writes a blog for the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, said the two agents who visited him arrived around 7 p.m. Tuesday, were armed and threatened him with a criminal search warrant if he didn’t provide the name of his source. They also threatened to get him fired from his KLM job and indicated they could get him designated a security risk, which would make it difficult for him to travel and do his job. “They were indicating there would be significant ramifications if I didn’t cooperate,” said Frischling, who was home alone with his three children when the agents arrived. “It’s not hard to intimidate someone when they’re holding a 3-year-old [child] in their hands. My wife works at night. I go to jail, and my kids are here with nobody.” Read the whole appalling story…

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Gadget and Gear Deals of the Day [Dealhacker] By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)

Price: $999). • iHome iHC5S Wireless Bluetooth Clock Radio for MP3 Players for $29.99 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $59.98).

Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:00:00 AM

Today's your last day to cash in on 2009 deals (and potential tax write-offs!) so come on in for some New Year's Eve deals on laptops, monitors, HDTVs and more. Computer Gear! • 15.6" Dell Studio 15 Core i7 Laptop for $999 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $1,313) • 13.3" Apple MacBook Air (newest MC233LL/A) for $1,404.83 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $1,499) • 13.3" Lenovo Ideapad U350 Laptop for $507.35 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $549) • 10" Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Netbook for $254 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $389) • 2TB Toshiba PH3200U-1EXB External Hard Drive for $189.99 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $209) • Dell Vostro 430 Desktop + 23" LCD for $814 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $1,202). • Studio XPS 8000 Desktop and 20" LCD for $699 with free shipping(Regular Price: $969). • ASUS Eee Top ET2002 20" All-in-One Desktop PC for $483.14 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $557.08). • 16" Toshiba Satellite A505S6989 for $674 with free shipping(Regular Price: $899). • 15.6" HP G60t Laptop for $499.99 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $600).

• 15.6" Dell Inspiron Laptop for $499.99 plus $9.95 shipping(Regular Price: $620). • 15.6" Acer Aspire AS5732Z4510 Laptop for $399.99(Regular Price: $500). • 14" Lenovo ThinkPad SL410 Laptop for $464.07 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $734 use coupon code USPYEAREND). • 13.3" HP Pavilion DM31044nr Notebook for $524.30 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $810.95). • 11.6" Acer Aspire AS14108414 Laptop for $400 with free shipping(Regular Price: $492). • 10.1" MSI Wind U100 N270 Netbook for $259.99 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $329 use coupon code: NEWYEAR20). • 10" Dell Latitude 2100 Netbook for $359 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $399). • 23" Samsung P2370 LCD $220 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $270). • 22" Acer V223Wbmd LCD for $169.99 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $204.90).

Portable Gear! • RIM Blackberry 8700 Cell Phone for $99.99 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $139.95). • Creative Zen X-Fi 2 16 GB PMP for $119.99 + Free • 22" Dell S2209W LCD for HH?6C5Z1QL0GCC) $149.00 + Free Shipping(Regular • 26" ViewSonic VT2645 1080p S h i p p i n g ( R e g u l a r P r i c e : Price: $199). LCD HDTV for $268.99 + Free $ 1 4 9 . 9 9 ) . • 21.5" eMachines E211H LCD Shipping(Regular Price: $368 - • Creative Zen 4GB PMP for $100 + Free Shipping(Regular u s e coupon c o d e $52.99 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $180). G 2 F 7 8 3 P D 5 S G Q V 0 ) Price: $97). • Fantom Gforce Greendrive • 19" Samsung LN19B360 720p • Samsung SMX-F34RN 16GB GD2000EUS 2TB External Hard LCD HDTV for $201 + Free Digital Camcorder for $204.99 + D r i v e f o r $ 1 4 9 . 9 9 + F r e e Shipping(Regular Price: $230) Free Shipping(Regular Price: Shipping(Regular Price: $206 - • Sylvania NB501SL9 Blu-Ray $ 2 4 9 - u s e c o u p o n c o d e : use this form). Player for $119.89 + $20.86 N E W Y E A R 2 0 ) . • Logitech MK300 Keyboard & shipping(Regular Price: $249) • Olympus Stylus 9000 12 MP Optical Mouse Wireless Combo • Patriot Box Office PCMPBO25 Digital Camera for $199.99 + for $26.99 + F r e e 1080p HD Media Player for Free Shipping(Regular Price: Shipping(Regular Price: $49 - $99.99 + Free Shipping(Regular $233). • Nikon D3000 10.2MP Digital use coupon c o d e : Price: $140 - use this form) B B F 5 X C D 2 P K $ 1 2 Q ) . • 50" Panasonic TC-P50G10 SLR Camera with Lenses + 4GB • Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 + H D T V $ 1 2 0 0 + F r e e C a r d f o r $ 5 8 9 . 9 5 + F r e e Logitech 250 USB Headset for Shipping(Regular Price: $1329). Shipping(Regular Price: $749) $64.40 + Free Shipping(Regular • 46" Panasonic VIERA TC- • 12.1MP Panasonic Lumix Price: $127 - use this form). P46G15 Plasma HDTV w/ Blu- Digital Camera for $179.00 + • Creative Labs GigaWorks T20 Ray Player for $1079.12 + Free Free Shipping(Regular Price: Speakers w/ BasXPort for $49.99 Shipping(Regular Price: $1499 – $210). + Free Shipping(Regular Price: use coupon code: BONUSBUY) • Clarion MiND GPS Mobile $97). • Energy Take Classic 5 Pack 5- Internet Navigation Device for Ch Speakers for $119.99 + Free $118.99 + Free Shipping(Regular Home Entertainment Gear! Shipping(Regular Price: $188 - Price: $150). • 32" Sharp LC-32DV27UT u s e coupon c o d e • TomTom XL 340S Live 4.3inch GPS for $179.99 + Free 720p LCD HDTV w/ DVD E M C M N N X 6 4 ) . Player for $378.99 + Free • Pioneer Elite VSX-9040TXH Shipping(Regular Price: $238). Shipping(Regular Price: $498 - 7.1ch 110W AV Receiver for GADGET page 36 use coupon c o d e $498.99 + Free Shipping(Regular

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Wallpaper Roundup: Ringing in the New Year [Wallpaper Roundup] By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:00:00 PM

New Year's Eve is upon us, ring it in with some New Year'sthemed wallpaper. Judging by the wallpapers we found, 2010 is going to be all the neon and sparkles the futurists of yesteryear promised us. Note: The "Full Size" link directly under the picture only shows you the sample image we uploaded for this gallery. You need to click on the name of the particular wallpaper in the right hand column to access the full range of sizes at the source site. Not keen on the gallery layout? See all the larger images on one page here. Glowing 2010 by ~ritamd Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image. 2010 is coming by ~GuilleBot Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image. 2010 by ~Sant1ag0 Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image.

january 2010 - smashing wp by ~nefretizm Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image. Happy New Year - 2008 by *pincel3d Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image. Hang In rope by ~ribhu Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image. happy new year 2010 by ~ayeb

Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image. New Year Champagne by ~Maarel Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image. Happy New Year 2010 by *Thvg Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image. Minimalistic New Year Wallp. by ~Lazlo-Moholy

Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image. New Year's Eve by ~mladenmilinovic Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image. New Year by *nuaHs Click on the link above to visit the author's page and access the full size image.

GADGET continued from page 35

• Pharos Drive 250US GPS for $100 with free shipping(Regular Price: $140). • Clarion NR1UB GPS Automobile Navigator for $119 + Free Shipping(Regular Price: $150). Free Stuff! • Amazon Prime - 3 Months for $0(use this form) • Falling Gems (iPhone) for $0(Regular Price: $1.99). • O&O Defrag 10 Professional Download for $0(use this form). • Free Aveeno Tote Bag for $0(use this form). • Natural Nibbles Dog Treat Samples for $0(use this form). • Eagle-Armoury Records 2009 Metal/Hard Rock 10 Track Sampler for $0(download here). • eHarmony Communication thru Sunday, Jan 3 for $0. Thanks Dealzon, TechDealDigger, Slickdeals, Fatwallet, TechBargains, CheapStingyBargains, CheapCollegeGamers, and GamerHotline!

Fenway Park Now a Classic Hockey Cathedral By Christopher Botta (Fanhouse Main) Submitted at 12/31/2009 3:03:00 AM

Filed under: Winter Classic

BOSTON -- No one knows for sure what the weather will be when the puck drops for the NHL Winter Classic on Friday, but 24 hours before the game Fenway

Park looked beautiful on a cold

and snowy day. Upon my arrival in Boston on Thursday morning, I took a complete tour of the baseball cathedral turned hockey pond.

(Yeah, the Red Sox even put Babe Ruth in their Hall of Fame). Here are a few things I learned while checking out the joint.

Tech Tips/ Sports/ Economy/

E-reader News Edition

Run Effective, Google-Style Meetings by Focusing on Data, Not Politics [Meetings] By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)

US investigates security flaws (Financial Times - US homepage)

Submitted at 12/31/2009 6:30:00 AM

If you're interested in getting more from meetings than a gaping sinkhole in your schedule—and who isn't?—these tips from how Google handles meetings can help. Of great importance is focusing on data, not politics and grievances. Photo by ghindo. The folks over at Business Week interviewed Marissa Mayer, Google's vice-president of search products, who is known for running a tight and effective meeting. She shared six great guidelines for holding an effective meeting including one of her long standing rules: "Don't politic, use data." This idea can and should apply to meetings in organizations in which people feel as though the boss will give the green light to a design created by the person he or she likes the best, showing favoritism for the individual instead of the idea. Mayer believes this mindset can

Submitted at 12/31/2009 8:21:07 AM

demoralize employees, so she goes out of her way to make the approval process a science. Google chooses designs on a clearly defined set of metrics and how well they perform against those metrics. Designs are chosen based on merit and evidence, not personal relationships. Mayer discourages using the phrase "I like" in design meetings, such as "I like the way the screen looks." Instead, she encourages such comments as "The experimentation on the site

shows that his design performed 10% better." This works for Google, because it builds a culture driven by customer feedback data, not the internal politics that pervade so many of today's corporations. It's far more effective to look at what the data says than it is to let a meeting turn into a whine-fest where your whole team is taken away from productive work to hear the less-than-happy members complain. Check out the rest of the article at Business

President Barack Obama will on Thursday receive a preliminary report from intelligence agencies on how a would-be terrorist was able to slip through terrorism databases and board a Detroitbound aircraft on Christmas Day, as his administration tries to avoid repeat attacks. The preliminary report is aimed at reassuring a jittery public that Week to see some more of t h e s k i e s a r e s a f e a n d a t Mayer's techniques, including countering criticism that the h o l d i n g o f f i c e h o u r s — a Obama administration was too carryover from her days as a s l o w t o a d d r e s s w h a t t h e professor. president on Tuesday Have a strategy you use in your called”human and systemic workplace for increasing the failures” in the intelligence effectiveness of meetings? Let's sharing system. hear about it in the comments. Five Filters featured article: How to Run a Meeting Like Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Google[Business Week via PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, O'Reilly Radar] Term Extraction.

Fight of the Week: Rivals Clash By Bruce Ciskie (Fanhouse Main)

Wild, Red Wings, NHL Fights, NHL Videos Every week, FanHouse sifts through the Submitted at 12/31/2009 6:20:00 AM rubble and picks the best NHL Filed under: Blue Jackets, f i g h t , w i t h t h e h e l p o f Canucks, Ducks, Flames, Oilers, H o c k e y F i g h t s . c o m .

Our final installment for the

calendar year 2009 features two great Canadian rivals locking horns. When we look back on the top fights this season, this one is virtually a lock to be among them. This week also features

more domination by Minnesota's most famous fighter.

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DIY Magnetized Coffee Sleeve Doubles as Third Hand [DIY] By Lisa Hoover (Lifehacker) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:00:00 AM

The next time you need a third hand to hold your coffee cup while you dig around in your bag for something, just stick it to a streetlight with this ingenious hack. A fabulously creative New York City blogger who goes by the name "AP" is all about devising clever ways to eat outdoors with flair. She's come up with ways to turn a lunchbox into a plate and a fire hydrant into a table, but we really dig her magnetic coffee cup holder. It started out as an attempt to create a plastic, magnetized cup holder that would let you stick

your cup to the nearest available metal surface. AP came up with a prototype, then had a thought: After I made this I realized that it made a lot of sense to just work with a form that we are already really comfortable with: the

Coffee Cozy. Why not just embed magnets into one of those? You can easily make your own version of this by snagging reusable coffee sleeves online, or making your own. Attach a

couple of strong magnets, and you're good to go. Check out AP's blog, Pop Up Lunch, to see some of the other modern day picnicking ideas she has up her sleeve, like this awesome hook that hangs your drink and your lunchbag from a fence or post. Of course, these ideas work best if you're out and about at lunch time. Lots of us end up eating at our desks or in the car, so let's get some lunch hacks together for people who aren't eating outside. Share your tips in the comments. Magnetic Coffee Sleeve[Pop Up Lunch via Manhattan Users Guide]

MediaDailyNews: Philbin Returns To 'Regis and Kelly' (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/31/2009 7:35:41 AM

Regis Philbin returns to "Live! With Regis and Kelly" Jan. 4 2010, per ABC. Philbin had hip replacement surgery on Dec. 1. In his absence, co-host Kelly Ripa partnered with various hosts, including Anderson Cooper and Howie Mandel. When Philbin returns, his guests will include actress Amy Adams, comedian Tim Allen and American Idol's Katherine McPhee. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Set Up 2010 for a 365-Day Photo Project [New Year's] By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

fairly pleased with the results. You don't have to do it that way, Submitted at 12/31/2009 7:00:00 AM however, and picking your own A new year is a key time to start parameters is an important part of some new projects. Taking one the process, Dawnstar writes: photo per day is one way to put a • Consider making something framework on your creativity, with the result in a years time. and these tips from a 365 project Some people have made time veteran can help you get there. lapse videos, others calendars for Blogger Dawnstar Australis the family. I'm planning on something to you. Sure January 1 captured a frame for every day of making a book. is a good time to kick off one of his 29th year on Earth, and was • Pick a date that means

these projects but is there another annual date that means something to you? I opted to use my birthday for this project because it's my last year in my 20's and it feels like somewhat of a turning point in my life. • Not got time for a full 365 project? Consider a 52 project. One photo a week is doable and will still keep you in the game photography wise.

If you're plotting a 365-ish project for 2010, do let us know about it, and link it, in the comments. Hints & Tips For Doing A 365 Day Photo Project[Dawnstar Australis via Lifehacker AU]

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Banish Up to 350 Extra Calories a Day with a Tap of Your Foot [Fitness] By Lisa Hoover (Lifehacker)

For instance, did you know you can burn 100 calories an hour by knitting? (One Doctor Who scarf This time of year people resolve must be the equivalent of 63 Big to give up all the foods they love Macs.) in a Herculean effort to shed One of our favorite ideas some pounds. Take the easy way involves something lots of us do out and just fidget a lot. anyway when we're revved up on Photo by knitsteel. caffeine: MSN's Shaun Chavis summed Tap your foot. Your skinnier up 50 ways to dump 500 calories friends are probably fidgeters, a day from your diet. Many of who burn up to 350 calories a on the phone, or tap out a tune the tips are the standard-issue day just by tapping their feet or with your hands or feet (in the "eat smaller portions" variety, but being restless. Try it for a few privacy of your own office, of there are a few new ones as well. days. Walk around while you're Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:00:00 AM

course). Endless foot tapping might drive the people around you crazy, but it's worth a shot. Be sure to check out the post for more ways to shed calories, including how to build a better burrito. If you've got a unique way of burning calories we want to hear about it in the comments. 50 Ways to Cut 500 Calories a Day[via Sherman Heart & Vascular Blog]

Let's Move Away From Social Media and Get Down to Business By Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb) Sometimes, it feels LET'S pagelike 40 terms we Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:00:00 AM thought had some meaning really

5 Trends in 2009's Startups By Dana Oshiro (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:22:00 PM

If you ever thought startup life would be about champagne toasts and million dollar term sheets then you need to get back in your time machine and set the dial for the nineties. If there's one thing we learned in the latter half of this decade, it's discipline. To say that it was a tough year, would be an understatement. But those of us who stayed lean will be back for 2010. While the below concepts weren't invented this year, they certainly hit their stride in 2009. Sponsor 1. Outsourced Labor: Rather

than hiring onsite staff, more companies flocked to services like Mechanical Turk and Crowdflower to fulfill simple tasks. Companies listed their jobs and thankfully, a temporary workforce was there to get it done. 2. Cloud Scalability: Rather than paying for a slew of dedicated servers, startups took advantage of elastic workload tools like Amazon Web Services and Heroku. These services kept our site running during huge traffic spikes, but they ensured we weren't burning cash in the downtime. 3. Web-Based Project Services: Google Apps made huge headway in 2009 as companies

complaints. 4. Monetization: While consumers will settle for free products, premium services demand a certain level of competence. According to 37signals CEO Jason Fried, "the most intimate transaction between people is money". In other words, if you put a price on your product and users paid it, you got your feedback. From paid iPhone apps to subscription migrated from Microsoft to the music services, businesses in cloud. Many startups began using 2009 got the feedback they real-time cloud collaboration needed to find out if their tools to organize their projects, products made the cut with while others looked to customer consumers. service sites like Get Satisfaction 5. The New PR: From softa n d Z e n d e s k t o m a n a g e spoken Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and his Twitter empire to fast

talking Gary Vaynerchuk and his wine podcasts, startup leaders opened the kimono and engaged with stakeholders. Communities don't get built on autopilot or by a ghostwriting marketing intern. To grow social capital, we learned that we need to put ourselves out there (flaws and all) and treat our audience members like the intelligent beings they are. Thanks for reading ReadWriteStart in 2009. We look forward to a great 2010 with you and would like to wish you a Happy New Year. Photo Credit: Windell H. Oskay, Optical Illusion Discuss

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LET'S continued from page 39

don't apply as much anymore. Take the term "social media," as an example. It's like every SEO marketer decided that "social media," was the ticket to a sweet consulting gig. Just look at Twitter. You find a lot of social media experts with tens of thousands of followers. Kind of feels like you are looking down a street filled with hucksters. Sponsor Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we'll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year - and ahead to what next year holds - we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It's not just a bestof list, it's also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! Social media once served as a term to help people understand the concepts that have risen over the past several years. It helped people understand the tools that can be used to gain a web presence. But the term took too broad of a meaning. At some point, a nervous rush ensued. Everyone needed a social media strategy. In the process, the term and the rush for "social

media" adoption became ripe for satire: A More Holistic Approach But that's only part of the story. The other, more accurate story, reflects a trend toward a more holistic approach in the enterprise. Social media may only represent the tools we use but social computing reflects a deeper view of how the enterprise will adopt this new generation of lightweight technologies. We disagree that executives will continue to shun the term "social." If they continue to do so, they will be swept out by a generation of far more modern managers. Still, companies lack the capabilities and the discipline to develop operations that integrate lightweight applications into the enterprise. They need help. They use the new tools available but lack the experience for implementation. There is a need for more community managers who can help with the overall approach. These people are not "social media" managers. They use social media tools to help join a culture that is fragmented in part due to the "data silo" approach that has become predominant in the enterprise. We spoke with the people behind two consulting companies about their approach to social computing in the enterprise: Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0 and the Dachis Group. Pragmatic

Enterprise 2.0 Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0 is a new consulting company started by Dion Hinchcliffe and Michael Krigsman. The enterprise, in their view, is still wary of social computing. They are primarily concerned about risk, control and trust. To succeed with social computing, the enterprise has to work toward three major goals: â&#x20AC;˘ Address key business concerns â&#x20AC;˘ Demonstrate business value â&#x20AC;˘ Acquire social computing competency Both Krigsman and Hinchcliffe are respected members of the Enterprise 2.0 community. Hinchliffe is the founder of Hinchliffe and Associates. Krigsman leads Asuret, a company that focuses on project intelligence and risk navigation. They work exclusively with Socialtext, led by Ross Mayfield. Socialtext predates the Enterprise 2.0 movement. Their approach is a combination of Hinchliffe's 20 years of experience as an enterprise architect and Krigsman's long time work examining IT failure. Socialtext is their de-facto technology environment, which they chose after a review of about 70 companies. The company begins its project by gathering intelligence, followed by tool integration, community management

development and a degree of project intelligence to define the risks involved. "We gather strategic intelligence to avoid the downsides and reduce project waste," Krigsman said in an interview. "We leverage best of breed social tools and build social computing competency." Here's a full look at their approach: Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0 Overview View more documents from Dion Hinchcliffe. Dachis Group Dachis sees the enterprise going through an age-old transformation. Traditional software is essentially adapting to a new age. They call their approach: "Social Business Design." Social Business Design, as they view it, is the process of creating socially calibrated and dynamic business systems, process and culture. That's a mouth full but it reflects the enterprise demand for measured systems that show people are being productive and getting the work done. Unlike Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0, Dachis is technology agnostic, partnering with vendors when it makes sense. The Dachis approach puts a large emphasis on the need to focus on process, culture and technology. This means creating a plan for systems architecture, helping companies adapt to the

cultural changes involved and all the aspects of the enterprise that need to be taken into consideration. This means understanding issues about governance and having a pretty keyed in measurement strategy. Here's their slide deck. It's a long one but it moves along. Pretty good, overall: Social Business Design: The Enterprise is Dead. Long Live the Enterprise! View more presentations from Jeffreydachis. Last Words About Social Media Social media is still a term we use. But it has become so cliche that it is somewhat of a turn off. It's important to distinguish that the people who have championed the cause for social computing are often deeply involved with the "social media" community. They are important people in the enterprise who should be sought for leadership in bringing the world of social computing to the ways we conduct business. Social media sounds too much like buzz hype. We need to get down to business. Social computing is a good thing. But even better is the proof that these practices work so we may use tools that help get the work done. Discuss

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Who Uses Social Networks and What Are They Like? (Part 1) By Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:00:00 PM

A study released earlier this year by Anderson Analytics looked into the demographics and psychographics of social networking users on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn with a goal of providing marketers with information about users' interests and buying habits as related to their network of choice. The end result is a detailed look at the profiles and habits of social networking users on the web today. Some of the study's findings echo things we've already heard. For example, Facebook users tend to be old, white, and rich. MySpace users are young...and fleeing. Other info is new: Twitterers are more likely to have a part-time job, LinkedIn users like to exercise and own more gadgets. Sponsor Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we'll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year - and ahead to what next year holds - we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It's not just a bestof list, it's also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you

enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! The Anderson study sampled over 11,000 GreenfieldOnline panelists (an online survey community) over an 11 month period to understand social networking services' (SNS) reach and overlap among the U.S. Online Population. In May, the company surveyed an additional 5,000 panelists of which over 1,250 participated in an in-depth attitude and usage survey. They then grouped the participants into two categories: those who use social networks and those who don't. To be considered a social network user, the participant had to use one of the sites in question in the past 30 days. Of course, not everyone is devoted to one social network alone. The study found that there is some overlap between sites, as shown in the chart below. Social Networkers, in General Out of the 110 million Americans (or 60% of the online population) who use social networks, the average social networking user logs on to these sites quite a bit. They go to social networking sites 5 days per week and check in 4 times a day for a total of an hour per day. Nine percent of that group stay logged in all day long and are

included the debunking of some social networking myths. Social networkers are not as interested in friending strangers or creating "fake" friends to boost their ego. Out of the group, 45% connect only to family and friends and another 18% will connect only to people they've met in person. In other words, two-thirds are connecting to people they actually know. Only 10% of those surveyed said they will friend anyone. Also interesting is that only 15% "constantly checking what's of social networkers say they log new." on at work, thus debunking Interacting with Brands another myth about how When it comes to brands online, prevalent social network use is at the study found that: the workplace. • 52% of social networkers had Non-Social Networkers friended or become a fan of at The study revealed the reasons least one brand, why some online users aren't into • 17% felt positive when seeing social networks. Surprisingly, it's a brand on a social network, not because they hate technology • 19% felt negative when seeing - they spent just as much time on a brand on a social network, the web as the networkers do. • 64% were neutral or didn't care Instead, they don't use social about brands on social networks, media because either they don't • 20% would like to see more have the time, they don't think it's communication from brands secure, or they think it's stupid. online, Yet even out of the time-starved • 35% would not like to see group, 22% report they'll start more communication, using social media in 3 months • 45% were neutral or didn't and 27% said they'll start using it care. in a year. Continue to Part 2 for details on Social Networking Myths Shot Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Down LinkedIn. Discuss A couple of interesting things that came out of the study

Goodbye to Mike Leach and the Real Football Coaches By Terence Moore (Fanhouse Main) Submitted at 12/30/2009 2:30:00 PM

Filed under: Kansas, South Florida, Texas Tech, Big 12 Let's see. Texas Tech officials fired Mike Leach on Wednesday for allegedly banishing one of his players with a concussion to what was described as "small, dark" spaces during a practice. Not only that, this otherwise popular football coach was due an $800,000 bonus by the university on New Year's Eve. He is disputing the charges, by the way, along with others who strongly defend whatever he did. Yeah, well. This is about to get uglier, especially since Leach's lawyer already was talking more about lawsuits than shoulder pads long before the Red Raiders prepared to play Saturday in the Alamo Bowl.

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Libraries, eBooks, and the Mobile Web: A Long Ways to Go By Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/31/2009 8:00:00 AM

According to a new report from Cambridge University ( PDF), students aren't interested in being able to read eBooks and eJournals on their mobile phones. Instead, users are far more interested in opening hours, location maps, contact info, and access to the library catalog. Most respondents were also far more interested in getting alerts by text message than being able to use library resources over the mobile web. Sponsor Editor's note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we'll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year - and ahead to what next year holds - we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It's not just a bestof list, it's also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb! According to the researchers, libraries that serve colleges should invest in text alerting services, and text reference

into delivering content such as ebooks and e-journals to mobile devices at present." Too Conservative? While these recommendations seem reasonable based on the survey data, we agree with Lorcan Dempsey, a library blogger and Vice President of services instead of mobile web OCLC, who argues that with the services. With text alerting advent of better eReaders and the services, users could receive iPhone, these survey results will alerts when books are due, for probably look very different in example, while text reference just a few years from now. As Sarah Bartlett from the services would give students access to the library reference Panlibus blog points out, the desk over SMS. The report also recommendations in this report advises libraries to allow mobile are anchored in the past (getting phone use in their buildings, "as SMS alerts about due books, for long as they are set to silent or to example), while now would be a good time to "re-imagine the flight mode." It is important to note that the library and its services." researchers only surveyed users While some libraries are often at Cambridge University and the conservative when it comes to Open University, so these results adopting new technologies, we are somewhat skewed and only would think that starting to adopt apply to the U.K., where text some of these technologies like e messaging is even more prevalent -books and better mobile services now would help these institutions than in the United States. The report, however, also found to remain relevant in a future that users of more advanced where those large buildings in the phones like the iPhone are far middle of campus are already more inclined to read e-books on turning more into places for their phones than users of feature study groups to meet up and grab phones (no surprise there, given a cup of coffee than centers of the difference in screen estate academic research. CC-licensed image used and quality). In the end, though, the report argues that it is c o u r t e s y o f F l i c k r u s e r currently "not worth libraries u m j a n e d o a n . D i s c u s s putting development resource

Most Popular Hulu Video in 2009? It's a Motherlover By Mike Melanson (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:45:00 AM

A year-end thank-you note from Hulu CEO Jason Kilar offered some statistics to show us just how much the nearly three-yearold service has grown. Back in April, the service became one of the top three Internet video providers, alongside Google - which includes YouTube and Google Video- and Fox, according to comScore. Kilar includes a number of statistics in his note to show that the site has continued its climb in popularity during the rest of 2009. Sponsor "Monthly users of Hulu, as measured by comScore, grew to over 43 million, a 95 percent increase over this time last year. Monthly streams, as measured by comScore, grew to 924 million, a 307 percent increase from this time last year. Hulu's content library doubled over the past year. We now offer over 14,000 hours of premium content, up from 5,600 hours at

this time last year." The addition of Disney as a content partner last April surely provided a traffic boost, as the ABC owner brought television sensations like "Lost", "Grey's Anatomy" and other prime-time hits to the site. A live video of Obama's inauguration topped the list of embedded videos for 2009, while "Saturday Night Live", "Family Guy", "The Office", "The Simpsons" and "Naruto Shippuden" were the most popular shows of the year. But what was the overall winner for 2009 on Hulu, you might be wondering? A decidedly NSFW SNL short called "Motherlover". For those of you who still haven't made the digital television switch but still want to watch, Hulu will be streaming the ball drop in Times Square tonight starting at 10 pm EST. Discuss

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Synchtube: Watch Synchronized US radio star Limbaugh YouTube Videos With Your Friends taken ill By Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:25:34 AM

Chances are that you are getting at least a few emails and IMs with links to YouTube videos every day. While watching these alone can be fun, Synchtube turns this into a far more social experience. Synchtube allows you to share and discuss a video in real time with up to four of your friends. The first person to enter the room controls the playback and also has the ability to change videos. Sponsor Features To get started, just head over to Synchtube.com and copy and

paste a link to a YouTube video into the box in the lower right corner. Then send out the link to the room to your friends and start the video once they have arrived. In our tests, the service worked just as advertised. The chat room itself is basic, but it fulfills its purpose without getting in the way. The video sync sometimes lagged behind a bit by up to 4 seconds. This is definitely within an acceptable range, however. Just like these commenters on Reddit, we would love to see a few additional features in the app, including the ability to

create playlists, search for videos within the app or give control over the room to another user. The developers have promised to continue to work on this app and plan to add more advanced features in the near future. Verdict For now, if you are looking for an easy way to watch YouTube videos with your friends without having to install a desktop app like DeskTube, Synchtube is one of the easiest apps to use. The app has some limitations, but for the vast majority of users, the current version should work just fine and most of the current issues will surely be fixed in the near future. Discuss

(BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 12/30/2009 11:31:49 PM

The right-wing US talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been taken to hospital in Hawaii after experiencing chest pains, say reports. Hawaiian media said he was taken from the hotel, where he was staying while on holiday, in a serious condition. But a statement posted on Mr Limbaugh's website said he was now "resting comfortably" in hospital in Honolulu. Mr Limbaugh, 58, is highly influential in the US and his radio show is one of the most popular

in the country. It is broadcast on some 600 radio stations across the country and heard by more than 14 million people every week. Mr Limbaugh, who is seen by some as as the unofficial voice of the US Republican party, has been a vocal critic of US President Barack Obama and is known for his fiery lambasting of Democratic politicians and policies. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

$7.5 Million: Wikipedia Reaches Fundraising Goal By Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb)

Today, Wales announced that Wikimedia reached its fundraising goals. In total, the Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:39:05 AM foundation managed to raise $7.5 In what has become a Christmas million. Last year, when Wales tradition, Wikipedia founder posted a similar appeal, the Jimmy Wales posted a personal Wikimedia Foundation received appeal for donations to the $6.2 million from 125,000 Wikimedia Foundation earlier donors. this month. On the first day Sponsor alone, the nonprofit raised Still No Ads $430,000 from 13,000 people. Wikipedia and other Wikimedia

properties like Wikiquote or Wikibooks could easily find

enough advertisers to finance these sites. In order to remain as independent and impartial as possible, however, the Wikimedia Foundation prefers to rely on donations from users. It is worth noting, though, that the Wikipedia does have deals with some other companies like France Telecom's Orange. These businesses license the site's content and share advertising

revenue with the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation has fewer than 35 employees and needs roughly $10 million per year to operate. About 340 million users access Wikipedia per month. According to Wales, this represents "almost a third of the Internet-connected world." Discuss

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Logos Software Takes a Leap of Faith to the Mac By Weldon Dodd (TheAppleBlog)

pictures of locations in the Bible and more. The library of books that are available to study and Submitted at 12/30/2009 1:00:19 PM read in the Logos system is Logos Bible Software shipped massive — over 10,000 titles. the first version of its Bible study There are several different s o f t w a r e 1 8 y e a r s a g o i n packages to choose from that December 1991 for the, at that include various collections of t i m e , b r a n d n e w W i n d o w s titles at different price points. operating system. Last year, The Logos 4 software runs on Logos finally released version your Windows PC, on your Mac, 1.0 of its software for the Mac and there is a companion iPhone and its story provides a great app available as well. All of these example of the growth of the versions will stay in sync with Mac market and the strength of each other so you can pull up the the platform. titles you have purchased and see Just recently, Logos introduced your favorites and personal notes an alpha release of version 4 wherever you happen to be which introduces feature parity studying. You can get a great with all 100+ new features in the overview of version 4 and how it Windows version. Along with a works in a video introduction new iPhone app, Logos is produced by Logos. making a big commitment to the The Journey to the Mac Mac platform and it appears to be The effort to bring Logos to the paying off. Mac goes back several years, but The exciting bit here is not so the first abortive attempt was much another software release on never finished. A renewed push the Mac, but the story of how one came about four years ago. Dan company made the move from Pritchett tells us that Logos Windows only to embrace the approached the project with some Mac and the iPhone. A Massive trepidation about how Mac Digital Library, on your PC, on customers would receive a your Mac, on your iPhone product from the Windows Logos started out as a very world. simple piece of software meant to We decided that we wanted to quickly search the text of the put out the best Mac product that Bible. It has evolved into a we could. The Mac market is complete digital library solution sophisticated and sharp and very for studying everything from the particular about their software. Bible itself in the original We couldn’t disappoint. languages and in numerous Logos chose to build the translations to commentaries, application for the Mac from the exegetical analysis, family trees ground up and make it a great of people in the Bible, maps and native experience rather than do a

building it from the ground up. Our sales for the first quarter after the initial release were 122% above plan. That early success was enough to convince Logos to make a stronger commitment to the Mac. Since that first release, a Mac development team has been created in house and one of the Mac-enthusiasts on the Windows team has even switched over. One other benefit of the Mac? Our software worked way faster on the Mac. It not only works great, but it’s faster. What Does the Future Hold? The latest version, Logos 4, is simple port of the Windows app. being released quickly behind the In order to find the expertise to Windows version with a goal of build great Macintosh software, complete feature parity. The Logos went straight to the source commitment to dual-platform — Cupertino. Apple worked with releases means that installers for Logos to help it find a partner both Windows and Mac ship on with the right experience and the the same CD. But the importance Logos for Mac project was of the Mac does not stop at being launched. Was Moving to the included in the box. Dan told me that some of the design ideas Mac the Right Choice? It was challenging to work with from the Mac version were an outside group on the Mac i n f l u e n c i n g t h e W i n d o w s version while development on the version. Logos felt like they Windows version continued learned a lot about designing internally. The end result was not good software from the Mac too shabby, even if it did not effort, something that should have all of the extensive features come as no surprise to those of us that are used to excellent UI of the Windows version. We’re ecstatic with the way the design on the Mac. market has responded. The Mac One of the cool new features in world is hard to please. We were Logos 4 is that the app will preparing for the worst: “You update in the background and don’t get us, don’t understand pull in new features that are us.” But the response has been planned to be released over the really positive. The time we put next several months. While the into doing it right was well worth Mac version is lagging behind

Windows development, the gap is closing and this auto-updating feature will mean that Mac users will catch up. What Does this Mean for the Mac Market? I think there are two big lessons to be gleaned from Logos’ experience with the Mac. The first is that the Mac market is big enough to support even niche players that cater to a very particular group of customers. Logos took its Bible study software and made it work beautifully on the Mac by partnering with Apple directly and finding a partner that could help them make great Mac software. Once the concept was proven and the market response was measured, Logos quickly moved to bring Mac development in house and increased its commitment to the platform. The second important lesson here is that the cloud is having a profound influence on software development across platforms. The fancy syncing features of Logos 4 and the iPhone app that lets you access your entire catalog on the go are only possible with the advance of cloud computing, broadband, and mobile Internet. It is now possible to use the cloud as an easy way to move user data from an application on Windows to another application on the Mac that can share information. Switching platforms is facilitated LOGOS page 46

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Rumor Has It: January Event “Confirmed,” More on the Tablet By Liam Cassidy (TheAppleBlog)

so much about? Well if it isn’t, if El Jobso doesn’t announce a tablet, if, Submitted at 12/31/2009 7:15:28 AM instead, the whole event is I’m really sorry. I do realize nothing more than a high-profile these tablet rumors are becoming sales pitch for a slightly-highertiresome, but you know, don’t capacity iPod shuffle, I’ll be torn you, that they’re going to get a between shedding bitter tears, or lot worse in the coming weeks as laughing myself sick. Maybe we approach January 26 and both. A p p l e ’ s n o t - y e t - o f f i c i a l l y - “Focus on the mobility space,” confirmed-but-unofficially-will- eh? How charmingly vague. You definitely-happen media event? have to wonder why these The latest tidbits come from Fox “ s o u r c e s ” a r e a l w a y s News’ Clayton Morris and so…unhelpful. I mean, a real, (somewhat unexpectedly given genuine, worthwhile secret mole how he should know better) an should be leaking specific, ex-Apple, ex-Google China valuable information, right? senior executive. Let’s get That’s what moles are supposed started… to do, it’s in the job description. Fox’s Clayton Morris writes that But when it comes to Apple’s he’s been talking with his very moles, this just doesn’t happen, own private mole inside Apple does it? Instead, they offer HQ about the as-yet unconfirmed infuriatingly nebulous nonmedia event (first reported by the i n f o r m a t i o n t h a t s e e m s , i f Financial Times) and has this to nothing else, perfectly suited to offer us: further fuelling speculation, While nothing official has been rather than offering, y’know, h a n d e d d o w n f r o m t h e facts. n o t o r i o u s l y t i g h t - l i p p e d I think of these sources as the company, my source took the tech community’s version of Financial Times report one step spirit mediums who, after (rolling further by saying this event will eyes) ‘miraculously’ connecting focus on the mobility space, with the dearly departed, then meaning we’ll see something bafflingly waste that rare and related to the iPhone/Touch w o n d e r f u l c h a n c e a t product line. Could this be the communication by playing an announcement of the mythical odd game of Guess Who?“Focus Apple tablet we’ve been hearing on the mobility space” might as

well be “I see a man with thinning hair whose name begins with something sounding like Ste…” I have a modest theory; these “sources” are tasked with providing fuzzy details to media hacks. It’s all part of a precise marketing strategy, pioneered by Jobs, designed to get the flames of the rumor mill burning brightly. It probably saves a fortune on actual advertising. A Little Less Vague Also fanning the flames today is a report by Engadget’s Richard Lai who writes that former Google China president Kai-fu Lee has claimed privileged insider-knowledge of the mythical tablet. Lee’s comments

Foxconn — the Apple OEM is one of the main contributors to Lee’s post-Google investment venture, Innovation Works, so there’s a good chance that Lee’s spoken to someone overlooking the manufacturing of a certain Apple device. Kai-fu Lee also adds in his blog that “Steve Jobs will be introducing this product in January,” lending credence to Clayton Morris’ sepulchral source at Cupertino. Well, that’s it — another day, another round of rumors. Make of them what you will. As far as I can see, we don’t know anything appear on Lee’s microblogging more now than we did when we s i t e a n d , t r a n s l a t e d b y reached for our hot lava java this G a d g e t M i x , r e a d i n p a r t : morning, but, please, don’t shoot The Apple Tablet looks like a the messenger. At least this bigger iPhone that sports an specumor (I’m enjoying my a w e s o m e U I p a c k e d i n a portmanteau’s; this one’s a cross beautiful 10.1-inch screen. The between speculation and rumor) tablet combines the functions of is bolstered by what appears to be both netbook and kindle, an sort-of-credible evidence. ebook reader. It has virtual Honestly, though, January 26 keyboard for text entry and a can’t arrive fast enough. I’m webcam for video conferencing thoroughly sick of all this Lai adds: guessjecture. We’ve heard a lot of this same UPDATE: Looks like my noise before: sub-$1000 price, an modest theory is correct, if Fake iPhone-like appearance, 10.1- Steve is to be trusted. inch multitouch screen, video conferencing, cellular connectivity, 3D graphics and virtual keyboard. What really got our attention is Lee’s link with

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How-To: Replicating Coda’s Books Feature With Google Quick Search Box By Bryan Schuetz (TheAppleBlog)

MySQL, Python, and WordPress. You can start the query by entering text directly into QSB or Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:00:29 AM by selecting text within Espresso I recently made the switch to the itself, or any other application for newest version of the web that matter. d e v e l o p m e n t a p p l i c a t i o n It seems like a simple feature Espresso. After having used hardly worth mentioning but I’ve Coda for all my previous web found that having the option to development needs, I’m naturally quickly check up on the details of m a k i n g s o m e c o m p a r i s o n s a particular function, element, between the two. I’ll leave the declaration, etc. is an essential blow by blow evaluation to part of the way I work. In Coda others but thought it worth noting you can add your own reference that the one feature I find myself b o o k s d i r e c t l y i n t o t h e really missing the most from application associating each one Coda is the ability to quickly with a particular code type, e.g. search through reference books. php, css, javascript. This surprised me a bit as I While in the code editor you can wouldn’t normally list this as a then select some text and choose “killer feature” of Coda, but more “Look Up in Reference Books” than anything else I’ve found from the contextual menu which myself continuously cursing the will execute a search at the lack of this option in Espresso. associated reference source using Thinking others might be feeling t h e t e x t a s t h e q u e r y . the same way I quickly threw U n f o r t u n a t e l y , o n e o f t h e together this Google Quick drawbacks to this approach is S e a r c h B o x p l u g - i n ( Z I P , that you can’t quickly send 742kb) that will let you send queries to more than one source searches to reference sources for f o r a g i v e n c o d e t y p e . HTML, CSS, JQuery, PHP, Nevertheless, over time I’ve

really become dependent on being able to run these quick lookups. I figured the best way to close this gap in Espresso was by building a QSB plug-in. To install the plug-in just add the codex.hgs file into your~/Library/Application Support/Google/Quick Search Box/PlugIns directory. Once installed you will need to restart QSB in order to access the new actions. Once you have everything working, just add any text into QSB (don’t forget to prepend with a space) press “tab” to pivot

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by the cloud which makes it even easier for people to join the Mac crowd. Both of these trends bode well for the future of the Mac. We have a large sustainable market for software that can entice even

niche players and new cloud computing technologies are helping reduce the dependence on proprietary Windows software. Other Logos Resources • Logos iPhone app • Logos is on Twitter

• Details on Logos 4 • Free Logos Bible Widget for Mac • 12 Training Videos for Logos 1.2 for Mac

to an action and select a codex to search. Typing “codex” will bring up all available sources or you can just type the name of a specific source, e.g. WordPress, JQuery, and so on. Once you have selected the codex to be searched, press return to send the query. Alternatively, you can also start by sending text to QSB from within Espresso, or whatever other editor you’re using, by selecting the appropriate bit of code and choosing “Send to Quick Search Box” from the services menu. With the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words I recorded this quick video demonstrating the plug-in in action. Now that I have quick access to all my reference books I think I’ll be switching over to Espresso full-time. I’d be interested in hearing if anyone else has recently made the switch to Espresso and if so what they’ve been missing the most.

Trauma Team characters detailed by Atlus, a real doctor By Justin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/31/2009 1:30:00 PM

Atlus has introduced the full compliment of the six staffers that make up its upcoming Trauma Team. I asked my wife, an actual doctor, to provide me with some insight on each specialty. My take: Playing as this guy sounds like the other Trauma Center games, except I think they all had names and CR-SO1 is not a name. I'm assuming that, as in previous games and in real surgery, he'll be able to draw a magical sign that slows down time. Dr. McElroy's take: There is no magical healing gel and we never make the sign of the pentagram over our patients, especially not in this part of West Virginia. Continue reading Trauma Team characters detailed by Atlus, a real doctor Trauma Team characters detailed by Atlus, a real doctor originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Coming sooon: The Bluetooth Watch Storms kill at least 18 in Brazil (Scripting News)

Submitted at 12/31/2009 6:14:45 AM

Like Checkbox News, the Social Camera and the Twitter Camera, this product is just around the corner. Someday soon we'll all have watches that do Bluetooth. Here's the pitch. Earlier this decade Microsoft started an effort they called the Smart Watch. It pretty much failed. Some people wore watches with keypads, presumably so they could do calculations or write memos. You'd have to have fingers about 1/100th the size of human fingers for that to work. I'm sure there were lots of other early attempts to digitize watches, but in the end, watches are good for telling time and not much more.

The reason -- to be ergonomic a watch has to be small. But to have a decent user interface a watch has to be big. Too big. That's why the functionality that could have conceivably gone on our wrists is now in our pockets - on smart phones, Blackberry, iPhone, Droid. In-our-pocket is the wrong place for quick text messages. They should be on our wrist! Enter Bluetooth. I don't know the economics but I imagine a digital watch could be made to look beautiful and also to have a mode where it couples with our phone and acts as a receiver for text messages. That way every time someone DMs you on Twitter it could show up on your wrist, with a little vibration only you feel.

I considered calling this the Twitter Watch, but enough with Twitter. They get too much free publicity. Discuss! PS: I know there are Bluetooth Watches, but they got it wrong. The display should be the whole watch face, not a sliver of tiny text beneath an analog watch face. And it's nice they can show you the caller ID, but I don't get nearly as many phone calls as text messages. A watch could display 140 characters, if you temporarily displace the time display (until you click the face to dismiss). The ones that try to be an MP3 player or cell phone are just as ridiculous and doomed to fail as the smart watches of the 90s.

(BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

Copacabana Beach. Some 200 people had to flee their homes in Baixada Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:13:21 AM Fuminese, in northern Rio, after Heavy rains have caused floods three rivers burst their banks. and landslides in Brazil, leaving The authorities have urged at least 18 people dead. people in vulnerable areas to Officials said that most of the move to safety even if it means deaths occurred as shanties abandoning their homes. collapsed under mud or rain in Weather forecasters expected the the greater Rio de Janeiro city rains to continue throughout area. Thursday. One of the worst incidens was in Print Sponsor Jacarepagua, in western Rio area, Five Filters featured article: where a family of five died in a Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: landslide. PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, The state has been hit by 24 Term Extraction. hours of downpours threatening new year celebrations on

What is seduction? (Scripting News) Submitted at 12/31/2009 7:00:38 AM

To seduce someone is to: 1. Find out what they want. 2. Give it to them. 3. The way they want it. All three elements are necessary. I put this together as a response to a well-meaning commenter on my Person of the Decade piece yesterday, who observed that I was an "old" person who had done all the work being honored while in his 40s (and 50s!). I didn't ask for details, but I assume they meant that such

accomplishments are usually the province of younger people. This didn't feel right to me. So I started thinking. Not to brag, but I was also very accomplished in my 20s and 30s, and in my teens I was precocious. But as an adult, which I am now, I am capable of seduction. And you couldn't launch something like RSS or podcasting, without the ability to seduce people. Because they won't move unless they get what they want, the way to get what they want they just they want it. It never occurs to have to look young and virile. Which they are very good at! If young males to seduce, because

an older male wants to get some action he has to seduce. Therefore evolution taught at least some of us to do this. And that's the skill you need to make something like podcasting work. So don't be surprised if old (I hate that word) people make great contributions in the arts and technology. There are certain things, those that require seduction, that we do much better than younger folk. Example: Why it's smart to publish Realtime RSS now.

New core Frontier feature: S3 Prefs I hit the NEW same wall page I48always hit (Scripting News) when looking for a place to store

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the users' content. It's not much of a problem when you're running the server for them, but when the server is running on their desktop, as it is in River2, where do you put the publicly accessible content? I could operate a storage system for them, but what happens if the service doesn't take off and never becomes a business? At some point I have to punt, and that leaves users with data that goes missing. Thinking long-term I don't want to set another one of these up. The right answer is to help them get their own storage working. And Amazon has made that relatively easy, so I spent the

time to make it really work. The users' feeds are stored in Amazon S3. For this I need three pieces of data. The "Access Key ID" (which is the equiv of a username), "Secret Access Key" (password) and a default bucket. That's explained on the Frontier News site. Frontier News: New preferences for Amazon S3. I created my own feed using the new tool, you can see it's on Amazon. I wouldn't subscribe to it, while it should keep updating, I'm going to merge it with my lifeliner feed.

Police Search for Missing Colorado Nurse (FOXNews.com)

includes kidnapping and sexual assault, the station reported. Submitted at 12/30/2009 11:14:29 PM "She's a fine nurse and a caring Police in Colorado are searching n u r s e a n d s o m e o n e w h o for a missing nurse last seen embodies what nursing is, so leaving her home with her she's missed very much right fiancee, Fox31.com reported. now," Kurt Gensert, a colleague Julie Ann Kilgore, 48, of of Kilgore's, reportedly told the Brighton, Colo., disappeared on station. Tuesday. Police found her "There's an incredible amount of vehicle shortly after just a few concern," he said. blocks from her home. Click here to read more on this Kilgore's fiancee, Dennis Cox, story from Fox31.com has reportedly been named a Five Filters featured article: "person of interest." Authorities Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: said Cox has an extensive PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, criminal history â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 41 charges in Term Extraction. Colorado since 1986 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which

Best TV of the '00s: Reality Series By Kona Gallagher (TV Squad)

TV," or, "Reality TV is the bane of my existence." The genre has grown so much in the past Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:02:00 PM decade that it has become just More of our best of the decade like scripted television, in that coverage, which started on there's good and there's bad. Tuesday. You can read the other Even though we're splitting this posts at the link above. Here, we up into two lists, "Reality," and talk about a major category that "Trashy Reality," you won't see a came of age in the aughts: single show that starts with, " Reality shows. Who Wants to Marry" on either While I would never call myself list. a reality TV junkie, it really bugs This list is dedicated not to the me when people make blanket guilty pleasures, but to the shows statements like, "I hate reality that you wouldn't be embarrassed

for your neighbors to know you watch: the classy reality, if you will. So without further ado, here is TV Squad's list of the best reality shows of the decade. Continue reading Best TV of the '00s: Reality Series Filed under: Other Reality Shows, The Amazing Race, American Idol, Survivor, Festivus, Project Runway, TV Squad Lists, So You Think You Can Dance, Top Chef Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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July 7 Brand Evolution Powers Syfy to Most-Watched Year in History With Women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

Audience gains were fueled by a diverse, imagination-driven programming schedule led by Submitted at 12/31/2009 1:06:30 AM freshman sensation Warehouse via press release: 13, Eureka (3rd season), Ghost JULY 7 BRAND EVOLUTION H u n t e r s ( 5 t h s e a s o n ) a n d POWERS SYFY TO MOST- Destination Truth (3rd season)– W A T C H E D Y E A R I N all hitting series highs in 2009 — HISTORY AMONG WOMEN along with the Friday one-two 18-34, WOMEN 18-49 AND punch of Stargate Universe (first WOMEN 25-54 season) and Sanctuary (2nd R E C O R D - S E T T I N G S I X season). MOST-WATCHED MONTHS 2009 Brand Evolution (JulyINCLUDES BEST FOURTH December) QUARTER EVER IN TOTAL During this period, Syfy soared VIEWERS, ADULTS 18-34, to the #5 slot among cable ADULTS 18-49, WOMEN 18-34 entertainment networks in Adults AND WOMEN 18-49 25-54 (751,000) and #6 in Adults S Y F Y ’ S T H R E E M O S T - 18-49 (668,000). W A T C H E D O R I G I N A L Along with the most-watched six SEASONS AIRED IN 2009 — -month period ever in total WAREHOUSE 13, EUREKA viewers and Adults 18-49, the AND GHOST HUNTERS brand evolution sparked the Syfy.com Posts Most Trafficked channel’s top July-December Year Ever in All Key Metrics performance among Adults 18-34 New York, NY — December 30, (averaging 267,000 viewers), 2009 — Powered by the game- Adults 18-49 (668,000), Adults changing July 7 brand evolution, 25-54 (751,000), and total 2009 became the most watched viewers (1,386,000) compared to year in Syfy’s 17-year history previous July-December time among Women 18-34, Women periods 18-49 and Women 25-54. This also generated new viewers Along with its #8 finish in (vs. 3Q ‘08) with total viewers Adults 18-49 for 2009, this +12%; Adults 18-34 + 19%; marks Syfy’s best Fourth Quarter Adults 18-49 +13%, and Adults ever among total viewers, Adults 25-54 +11%. 18-34, Adults 18-49 (finishing Syfy out-delivered its upscale #6, up from 2008’s 4Q #9 finish) v i e w e r s b y + 1 1 % a m o n g and the key women’s demos Adults18-49 with $75K+ income (Women 18-34 and Women 18- and +17% among Adults 18-49s 49). with $100K+ income

Fourth Quarter Ratings Highlights (vs 4Q ‘08) Syfy finished as the #6 entertainment cable entertainment network in both Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49, improving over last year’s 9th place Adult 18-49 ranking Syfy placed in the top 10 among total viewers, all key male demos and among Women 25-54 Syfy jumped +15% in Adults 18 -34 (289,000), +10% in Adults 18-49 (699,000), +6% in Adults 25-54 (766,000) and +4% in total viewers (1,396,000) Syfy rose +18% in Women 1834 (132,000), +13% in Women 18-49 (334,000) and +8% in Women 25-54 (357,000) Syfy also leaped +13% in Men 18-34 (157,000), +8% in Men 18 -49 (365,000) and +4% in Men 25-54 (409,000) 2009 Ratings Highlights Syfy was the 6th ranked entertainment cable entertainment network among Adults 25-54 Syfy ranked #8 among Adults 18 -49, improving over last year’s 9th place finish Syfy also finished in the top ten among total viewers and Men 1834, Men 18-49 and Men 25-54 Year-to-date, Syfy improved its upscale deliveries by +13% in Adults 18-49 with $75K+ income and +17% among Adults 18-49s with $100K+ income, in addition to garnering its best year ever in

Women 18-34, Women 18-49, and Women 25-54. 2009 Syfy Programming Highlights Warehouse 13 The most successful series in Syfy history, Warehouse 13 averaged a 2.8 HH rating, 1.62 million Adults 18-49, 2.03 million Adults 25-54 and 3.9 million total viewers. This is the highest-rated and most-watched season ever for a Syfy original series in Adults 25-54 and total viewers. Eureka The second half of Eureka’s season three delivered a 2.3 HH rating, 540,000 Adults 18-34, 1.38 million Adults 18-49, 1.7 million Adults 25-54 and 3.15 million total viewers. This marks the first time Eureka has averaged over three million total viewers for a season and is also the program’s best performance ever in Adults 1834 and Adults 25-54. Ghost Hunters Best season ever for any Syfy original series in Adults 18-34, Adults 18-49, Women 18-49 and Women 25-54. Ghost Hunters shattered the franchise record in total viewers (2.99 million), Adults 18-34 (834,000) Adults 18-49 (1.845 million) and Adults 25-54 (1.92 million), along with a 2.1 HH rating. Compared to season four, this represented increases of +5%

in HH rating, +7% in total viewers, +11% in Adults 18-34, +7% in Adults 18-49, +8% in Adults 25-54 and +17% in Women 18-34. Destination Truth Destination Truth’s season three averaged a 1.6 HH Rating, 2.2 million total viewers, 659,000 Adults 18-34, 1.3 Million Adults 18-49 and 1.38 million Adults 25 -54, far and way its best season ever in the key demos. Stargate Universe The full season which includes Live + 7 DVR viewing data, Stargate Universe’s first year has averaged 2.57 million total viewers, 1.63 million Adults 2554, 1.43 million Adults 18-49 and 600,000 Adults 18-34, along with a 1.9 HH rating. Compared to the 2008-09 Stargate Atlantis season 5, SGU jumped 51% in Adults 18-34, 33% in Adults 18-49, 28% in Adults 25-54 and 22% in total viewers. Sanctuary Sanctuary Live+7 DVR viewing data for its second season to-date is averaging a 1.6 HH rating, 2.1 million total viewers, 1.245 million Adults 25-54 and 967,000 Adults18-49. Scare Tactics The fall season averaged a 0.96 HH rating, 355,000 Adults 18-34, 767,000 Adults 18-49, 768,000 JULY page 53

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Will FOX Still Be On Time Warner Cable When The Clock Strikes Midnight By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:51:11 AM

Dun Dun Dunnhhhhh. Every year it seems like we go through this, and it always involves Time Warner Cable. Last year, it was Viacom and Time Warner Cable, with Viacom threatening to pull SpongeBob (and the rest of its channels). Just like this year, there was a long lead-up, crawls at the bottom of Viacom channels promoting that the channels would be pulled, and Viacom execs saying they were prepared to pull their programming and that things didn’t look like they would get resolved before midnight. But they did get resolved before midnight. What’s at stake? Fox will pull its broadcast network off of Time Warner Cable in any of the markets where Fox owns and operates the local FOX affiliate if a deal doesn’t get done (less than 4 million of the approximately 13 million TWC homes). Additionally, other programming from Fox (FX, Fox News Channel, etc) will be pulled off Time Warner Cable for all subscribers in all markets if a deal isn’t done. What Fox Wants Fox reportedly wants $1 per subscriber per month for the FOX broadcast network. That’s

on par for what networks like TNT receives and much less than what ESPN (~$4/mo.) gets. Of course those networks give up some commercial time back to the local cable networks. But those networks aren’t watched in prime-time or for NFL football as much as FOX is. What Time Warner Cable Wants to Pay Time Warner Cable reportedly

wants to pay around ~$.30/mo/subscriber Who’s Greedier? This isn’t an easy call, but in the end my take is that Time Warner Cable is greedier, and by a fair clip. It charges us much more for the content than what it pays for it. But, it cost a lot of money to put down all the cable. The broadcast networks (in this case, FOX) are in self preservation

mode. Their content has traditionally been free over the air, but the TV landscape has changed a lot in the last 20 years and the broadcast networks want to have the same dual revenue stream that cable channels have. From my perspective, for the last 20 years the major broadcast networks have been the biggest channels (ratings-wise) on any of the cable/satellite/etc. offerings.

But, It’s Not Just FOX But, the problem is, it’s not just FOX. CBS will want the same deal. Then ABC and ultimately NBC (though this is trickier since Comcast is buying a controlling stake in NBC Universal). If TWC gives FOX $1/mo/subscriber, that’s $ 15 13 million a month (edit: actually much less, at least initially since it would only be for the ~4 million customers in markets where FOX owns and operates the local affiliates).. But if that winds up being the standard and ultimately applies to all affiliates, and ABC, FOX, CBS and NBC each get $1 a month, that’s over $ 60 50 million a month and over $ 700 600 million a year. It’s a lot for TWC to contemplate after years of “why buy the cow when we can get the milk for free.” some comments about this back of the envelope shoddy round number math since TWC doesn’t have 15 million customers and currently less than 1/3rd of TWC’s customers are in markets owned and operated by Fox. But ultimately if Fox O&O are getting $1, the non owned and operated will want that too, and so it still adds up to it ultimately being a bigger deal than just Fox. The days of the free ride are going to end, and if I’m CBS or FOX or ABC, and I’m asking for WILL page 52

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TV Ratings: New Eastwick Loses to Repeat of The Jay Leno Show By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

a percent. Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:02:57 AM persons) using television who are CBS won a night filled with tuned to a specific program, mostly repeats easily with adults station or network in a specific 18-49 and total viewers, while area at a specific time. (See also, NBC won with adults 18-34 (tied Rating, which represents tuning with Univision). or viewing as a percent of the A bad morning for folks with entire population being Leno-rage. NBC publicly measured.) predicted the Leno would fare Time Shifted Viewing– Program better when it ran with new ratings for national sources are episodes against repeats. But produced in three streams of data last night, a repeat of The Jay – Live, Live+Same Leno Show put a beat down on Day(Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. an original airing of a scripted Time shifted figures account for show. OK, so that show was incremental viewing that takes Eastwick which ABC was merely place with DVRs which are burning off, but still. And the currently in approximately 24.4% repeat Leno lost by a wide of all U.S. TV households. margin to a repeat of CSI: NY, Live+Same Day(Live+SD) but still not bad numbers for a include viewing during the same rerun. broadcast day as the original Parks & Recreation and telecast, with a cut-off of Community fans who were Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The information, based on the normal For example, with a World Series 3:00AM local time when meters rooting for The Office mini- Nielsen Company. All Rights broadcast network feed, and game, Fast Affiliate Ratings transmit daily viewing to Nielsen include all programming on the would include whatever aired for processing. Live+7 Day marathon of four repeats to do Reserved. just as badly so you could say, You can see TV ratings from affiliated stations, sometimes from 8-11PM on affiliates in the ratings include incremental “See, repeats on NBC just don’t other recent Overnight ratings including network programming, Pacific Time Zone, following the viewing that takes place during sometimes not. The figures may live football game, but not game the 7 days following a telecast. do as well,”….sorry. Repeats of reports here. Definitions: include stations that did not air coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The Office did noticeably better. For more information see Fast Affiliate Ratings: These the entire network feed, as well The same would be true of Numbers 101. In fact, head-to-head vs. the ABC comedy repeats (and a Charlie first national ratings, including as local news breaks or cutaways Presidential debates as well as Five Filters featured article: Brown special) The Office fared demographics, are available at for local coverage or other live award shows and breaking Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: better every half hour. But approximately 11 AM (ET) the programming. Fast Affiliate news reports. PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, repeats of New Adventures of day after telecast, and are ratings are not as useful for live Rating: Estimated percentage of Term Extraction. O l d C h r i s t i n e a n d G a r y released to subscribing customers programs and are likely to differ the universe of TV households Unmarried won the 8p-9p hour. daily. These data, from the significantly from the final (or other specified group) tuned National People Meter sample, results, because the data reflect to a program in the average Full Details: a r e s t r i c t l y t i m e - p e r i o d normal broadcast feed patterns. minute. Ratings are expressed as -

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What's On Tonight: Live From Lincoln Center, New Year's Eve shows, Marathons By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)

New Year's Eve Special. • At 11, FOX has Billboard's New Year's Eve Live.

Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:13:00 PM

• USA has a Burn Notice marathon all night. • HBO has a True Blood marathon all night. • AMC has a Three Stooges marathon all night. • Syfy has a Twilight Zone marathon all night. • TCM has Thin Man movies all night. • Spike has TNA Wrestling all night. • At 8, PBS has a new Live From Lincoln Center. • BBC has a new Graham Norton Show at 8. • At 8:30, Disney HD has four

Check your local TV listings for more. After the jump, the late night talk shows. Continue reading What's On Tonight: Live From Lincoln Center, New Year's Eve shows, Marathons Filed under: Late Night, n e w e p i s o d e s o f N a r u t o : • NBC has New Year's Eve with Programming, Celebrities, Talk Shippuden. Carson Daly(until 11, then comes Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free • At 10, ABC has Dick Clark's back at 11:30). Permalink| Email this| | Primetime New Year's Rockin' • FOX News has Glenn Beck: C omments E v e w i t h R y a n S e a c r e s t Countdown to New Year's at 10, 2010(until 11, then comes back followed by an All-American at 11:30). New Year's and the Red Eye

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~1/4th of what ESPN it doesn’t seem to greedy. But if I’m TWC, it still adds up to a LOT of money. Ultimately as I’ve been writing for two years, the way the pie of our monthly cable bills is sliced needs to be redistributed. But that is extremely complicated with a lot of players involved. Even if the cable companies could easily figure this out, your bills would go up a tiny bit anyway. But they can’t easily figure it out, and the easiest way

for them to deal will be to pass the cost back on to us. What’s Next? Senator John Kerry is asking that the FCC step in to make sure FOX stays on TWC should a deal not get done. I’m not in favor of that as it seems to put FOX at an unfair advantage in terms of negotiating. Though in fairness, I’m not a TWC customer so I won’t be impacted. If I was, I would probably have put in the calls to DirecTV a couple of

weeks ago just to be safe and make sure I’d get the BCS Bowl games. Best Way To Stay Up-To-Date Broadcasting & Cable has the best coverage of this stuff and they are far less likely to take the rest of the day off than I am. Though I feel bad that B&C folks like Melissa Grego and John Eggerton will wind up working until after the clock strikes midnight on the east coast, if a deal gets done, I’d expect it to be

Two Worlds II site updates with new screens, 'moveshots' By Xav de Matos (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:30:00 AM

The official Two Worlds II site has added a handful of screens and something called "moveshots" -- three-second clips featuring some of the game's characters in idle poses. Do idle animation clips get you hyped up for the third-person sequel to a less-than-stellar role-playing title? Mind you, if the latest batch of screens represents developer Reality Pump's way of very close to midnight. But there showcasing its state-of-the-art, could be several updates between h o r r i f i c m e d i e v a l c l o w n technology, then a hearty "job now and then. Five Filters featured article: well done." Look at them in the Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: shot above, they're the stuff of PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, nightmares! More screens and those "moveshot" things are Term Extraction. available on the game's official site. Two Worlds II site updates with new screens, 'moveshots' originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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JULY continued from page 49

Adults 25-54 and 1.39 million total viewers. Compared to the Fall 2008 season, Scare Tactics was up +11% in Adults 18-34, +28% in Adults 18-49, +24% in Adults 25 -54 and +26% in total viewers. Syfy.com (preliminary final 2009 data) 2009 marks Syfy.com’s best year ever in all key metrics with double digit increases year to year across the board 3.6 million unique users (+11% vs 2008); 5.7 million visits (+14%); 33.7 million page views (+16%); 5.3 million video streams (+39%)

Time spent is 15.7 minutes per visit (+33%) and 25.2 minutes per unique (+38%) Syfy Game Center, Sci Fi Wire, DVICE and Fidgit all delivered their best years ever in page views as well Syfy Rewind has its best year ever in streams and time spent Syfy is a media destination for imagination-based entertainment. With year round acclaimed original series, events, blockbuster movies, classic science fiction and fantasy programming, a dynamic Web site (www.Syfy.com), and a portfolio of adjacent business

(Syfy Ventures), Syfy is a passport to limitless possibilities. Originally launched in 1992 as SCI FI Channel, and currently in 95 million homes, Syfy is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. (Syfy. Imaginegreater.) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Best TV of the '00s: Comedy By Jonathan Toomey (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:05:00 AM

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about the best comedy shows of the decade. Life is depressing. Wake up. Maybe eat some breakfast. Take a shower. Go to work. Eat dinner. Go to bed. Rinse and repeat. Fortunately for us slobs, the glory of television has afforded us numerous opportunities over the years to break up the fuss. The beautiful thing is that monotony, kick back, relax, and it's built into the character that most importantly, laugh. every actor who plays him can be Clichéd as it sounds, it really is completely different. It doesn't the best medicine, because even suffer the limitations of, say, the though you overslept your alarm, different actors playing James your boss was a jerk, and you stepped in gum while waiting for Bond. My first Doctor was Colin Baker the subway, going home and and I started right after his seeing Peter Griffin fart, Michael regeneration from Peter Davison. Scott talk like a fool, and Barney Contrary to most fans, I enjoyed Stinson hit on some broad always him in the role. For all you fans makes it all better. reading, which regeneration So take a load off, kick off your shoes, and undo your belt to sticks in your mind? Filed under: OpEd, Doctor Who, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Doctor Who's upcoming regeneration By Brad Trechak (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/31/2009 3:02:00 PM

BBC News has an article up regarding the upcoming changeover on Doctor Who(which is being broadcast on the BBC on New Year's Day and BBC America the day after), in which David Tennant will (presumably) regenerate into Matt Smith. They ask a few of the participating actors (minus the regeneratees, of course) as well as Russell T. Davies about the importance of regeneration in the series. Regeneration is a brilliant idea, enabling the program to continue while changing the lead actor.

This in turn allowed the program to continue on the air for 26 years before being put on hiatus, then restart a couple of times in the same universe without much

allow for maximum belly jiggling while chortling -- here are TV Squad's picks for the best comedies of the past decade. Continue reading Best TV of the '00s: Comedy Filed under: OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Tonight's New Year's Eve special on ABC has a really long title Man rocks us to the core with a Koopa Troopa electric guitar

By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:29:00 PM

Hulu Movers & Shakers: 2009 Recap By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

226.5 million video streams. Below is a snapshot of the top Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:45:37 AM 25 shows, movie trailers and via Hulu: search terms on Hulu over the MOVERS & SHAKERS last 12 months. For a more inOver the past 12 months, Hulu d e p t h l o o k a t h o w H u l u has seen tremendous growth in a performed in 2009, please make number of key areas, including sure to read Hulu CEO, Jason increases in content partners Kilarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blog entry on the Hulu (+53%), total videos (+106%) Blog. Also, please feel free to and hours of premium video provide feedback on the Hulu ( + 1 5 1 % ) . A d d i t i o n a l l y , Movers & Shakers list and follow comScore has reported that Hulu us on Twitter at@hulu_headlines received more than 43.7 million for news and updates. Enjoy! users and 923.8 million video streams in November. The latest Five Filters featured article: stats from comScore Video Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Metrix represent significant PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, increases from last Novemberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Term Extraction. totals of 22.4 million users and

Every year we get to watch the ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve. A lot of people grew up watching Dick Clark host the show from a very cold Times Square, but in recent years medical problems have forced Clark to co-host the show with American Idol's Ryan Seacrest. But do they call the show New Year's Rockin' Eve or ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve or New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest or maybe Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve? No. The title of the show is Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2010. Actually, the hour before the big ball drop throws another word in there: Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with

By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/31/2009 3:30:00 PM

Ryan Seacrest 2010. The hell? Continue reading Tonight's New Year's Eve special on ABC has a really long title Filed under: TV Squad Polls, Music and Variety, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Rusal sets $2.6bn IPO goal (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:09:37 AM

UC Rusal, the aluminium group controlled by Oleg Deripaska, the Russian billionaire, is planning to raise up to $2.6bn in its Hong Kong initial public offering next month.

The Russian company will sell 1.61bn shares at HK$9.10 to HK$12.50 each, according to its 1,141-page listing prospectus, as it seeks funds to repay $14.9bn of debt. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

We were just about to label 2009 the "Worst Year Ever in the History of Time," but ... but then this happened. From the depths of Reddit come a quintet of images of an unnamed musical engineer's latest project: An electric guitar shaped like a Koopa Troopa. We're so glad these pictures exist, because we're not sure our mind's eye could imagine something as fantastical as "an electric guitar shaped like a Koopa Troopa" without some sort of visual aid. Check out the Reddit entry to see the fruits of this unnamed magician's labor. Whoever you are, if you're reading this, please send a video of you playing this thing. Ideally to Iron Maiden's " The Trooper." Man rocks us to the core with a Koopa Troopa electric guitar originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Jane Lynch gets animated on The Cleveland Show

MediaDailyNews: FCC Reviews Cable Lockouts

By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)

U.S. regulators may stop Comcast Corp. and other cableTV companies from withholding some sports telecasts from competitors, reports The Denver Post. Any rule change, which lets cable TV competitors get access to programming by filing federal complaints, will be considered at the FCC's Jan. 2 meeting. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 12/31/2009 1:02:00 PM

Lost gets the DaVinci treatment with 'last supper' cast pic By Jonathan Toomey (TV Squad) Submitted at 12/31/2009 1:39:00 PM

With the sixth, and final, season of Lost just about a month away (it premieres on ABC on February 2, at 9 p.m. ET), ABC has finally released the much anticipated cast picture. As you can see, it's very predictable ( Battlestar Galatica played with the same thing for its final season) but still pretty damn cool -- the Lost version of Leonardo DaVinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper."

Biggest non-surprise? Check out who's playing the part of Jesus Christ -- none other than John Locke. The promo pic can be found in the latest issue of TV Guide and based on a quick glimpse, it's a safe bet that Lost junkies are gonna have a field day with it -- look at Sawyer leaning on Kate's chair! If you feel like snooping, there's a highres version of the pic here. [via Doc Artz] Filed under: Lost, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

When Jane Lynch started popping up on my TV promoting Xbox 360, I was amazed how brilliant she was. She had already delighted me on Glee, so why was I surprised? There's not much Jane Lynch can't do. Well, now she's spreading her wings in yet another TV venture. Seth MacFarland has cast Jane Lynch on The Cleveland Show. That's right; she's turning toon. On the January 10 episode of Fox's The Cleveland Show, Jane will voice the character of Ms. Eck, Roberta's new teacher. And like Coach Sue Sylvester on

Glee, Ms. Eck is a forceful, inyour-face educator. Continue reading Jane Lynch gets animated on The Cleveland Show Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Celebrities, Casting, RealityFree, Glee Permalink| Email this| | Comments

(MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 12/31/2009 8:11:15 AM

Boyfriend Held in Case of Missing Briton in California (FOXNews.com)

She arrived in the U.S. in October with Paul Atkinson, who reported her missing and then SANTA MONICA, Calif. himself disappeared. Police Santa Monica police are seeking arrested Atkinson on Wednesday a 19-year-old British woman who and call him a "person of vanished during her vacation and interest." they've arrested her 45-year-old Sgt. Robert Hernandez says boyfriend on a weapons charge. A t k i n s o n w a s f o u n d a t a Leona Dawn Perryman was last restaurant in the Venice area of seen shortly before midnight on the Los Angeles beach suburb. Dec. 18. Officers acting on a tip arrested Submitted at 12/30/2009 10:31:30 PM

him on suspicion of possessing a concealed weapon. Hernandez wouldn't disclose the type of weapon. He says the arrest isn't related to Perryman's disappearance. Atkinson remained jailed Thursday. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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The Real World D.C. : Meet the Tribes of Washington [Recaps] By Brian Moylan (Gawker)

especially irony. After five years as a Congressional aide they will marry a lawyer and join a Every city gets the Real World it lobbying firm and forget all their deserves. The show finally settles ideals for a cozy apartment in in the nation's capital and like its Cleveland Park. Meet Ashley. host city, everything is especially The Confused Homosexual: All e a r n e s t . B u t i t ' s t h e e i g h t the gays in D.C. wear polo shirts, strangers who really show us unless they wear a military what this town is like. uniform or are Barney Frank, I lived in D.C. for the better part who wears a suit. Somehow of a decade (second Clinton and being openly gay is seen as a first G.W. Bush administrations) weakness, because there are and not only know the sights and people who still think being gay sounds of the town, but also all is bad. Closet cases abound, and the types of people who live and people are worried that if work in this overblown suburb. someone finds out that the D.C. is an intensely segregated second assistant to the under town, not only in terms of race (it secretary of agriculture is gay is almost 60% black) but also in that it might bring down the terms of political beliefs, interest, entire administration. They all style, sexual orientation, and just hang out at Jr.'s and sleep with about any other special interest each other and feel bad about it group you can imagine. What in the morning, when they scurry happens when you bring all the off to the Hill to make sure the tribes together in one house? The GOP machine runs smoothly. same thing that happens when Actually, D.C. has a pretty decent you place them all in a soggy alterna queer scene too, but of swamp next to the Potomac. Here course, that is way too edgy for are the people that populate this the mainstream and frowned world: upon by the HRC types. Meet The Sincere Politico: The town Mike. must be rotten with these people The Wonk: D.C. politics is rife right now, who flocked in after with these characters, who want Obama won the election. They people to think they're so brilliant want to make a change and they're crazy, but they are really honestly believe in the political just quirky for quirk's sake. They process and that they can make are the center of a Venn diagram the world a better place. They between strange, nerdy, and never get the joke, in fact, they desperate that is the political discourage all forms of humor, flamboyant. They are usually Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:04:20 AM

virgins and often former Mormons. They are great at lying and will do anything to get their way, which makes them especially good at politics, however they are usually relegated to the background while someone more photogenic actually gets elected. Meet Andrew. Sluts: They're everywhere, but from Monica Lewinsky to Washingtonienne, there is a special breed of them in the District of Corruption. They are usually from conservative backgrounds (or cults) and are rebelling against something. They think they are smarter than they really are, but they wield a lot of power because they're willing to sleep with ugly men who have good jobs and not a lot of money, which is nearly everyone in the White House. Bonus points if they are bisexual. Meet Emily. The Conservative Transplant: They come from small Texas towns that only have a prison and a university and they think that D.C. is just southern enough that it won't be cesspool of liberalism. They are wrong. The Bush years

were a boon for this type, that loves to get wasted at The Front Page. After two drinks the mere mention of Ronald Regan will have them trickling down their panties. They work for all the associations and Senators that you hate. Eventually they will get married to some rich boy with a stupid name like Chet and move back to wherever they're from and spawn in their native land. Either that or they will befriend a liberal who will open their eyes. This isn't common, but well documented. Meet Callie. Blacks: All the cool things that are native to D.C. come from the African American population, whether it's Duke Ellington, gogo music, or half smokes (which is like a hot dog on steroids) at Ben's Chili Bowl. They are the majority here and are definitely in control of day to day operations of the city, but they are not the mainstream face of the town, which has been taken over by all the wrinkly white people who only spend eight months of the year in the legislature. While the white people of the Northwest portion of the city would like to forget they exist, you can't get anything done in town without them, which makes them vocal and powerful. Meet Ty. Rockers: Believe it or not, some good rock 'n' roll has come out of D.C. whether it's Fugazi, Dave

Grohl, Trans Am, or Dead Meadow. They talk about how cool the Black Cat used to be while going to each others' shows at the Rock and Roll Hotel and hope that one day they will land a recording contract with an indie lable. Suddenly they realize that anything having to do with entertainment in town is imported from other cultural centers like New York, Chicago, or Philly and they are forced to move to make it big. They will then return to town to try to make a scene happen, but it never does. Sorry, D.C., you will never be cool. Meet Erika. Philly Transplants: They're boring, kind of stanky, and think that moving two hours south is going to make a world of difference in their lives. They come to town, fall in love with a rocker, forget all about life back home until they realize that their adopted home is full of itinerant white collar workers and has no soul other than the one provided by the vibrant black community. Then they move back to Philly to keep it real. Meet Josh. Just like all the tribes of the city interact, so do the members of the house. Mike and Ashley are friends because they are both religious and uptight. They clash with Ty, who is too loud and "disrespectful" for them. Also, REAL page 59

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The Gawker Guide to a Journalism Career, 2010 Edition [Field Guide] By Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:33:46 AM

Way back in October of aughteight, we published the Gawker Guide to a Journalism Career. Lots of things have changed since then. For the worse, mostly! Time for an update. Aspiring journalists and other masochists, read on. Whether you're a kid just trying to get a toe into the world of professional journalism (you poor bastard) or a laid-off journalist trying to get back in the game (you poor bastard) or a current journalist trying to advance your career (you poor bastard), you must ask yourself: Where are these "journalism jobs," and how do I get them? We're here to help! To the extent possible. Below, updated prospects for each category we explored i n the halcyon, awful days of 2008: Newspapers Haha. Really now. No. There are no new newspaper jobs, and if you find a place hiring, you'll be the first one out the door in the next round of layoffs, which start in about a month. Business and Tech Titles Portfolio's dead. Forbes had massive layoffs. Fortune, too. Businessweek got sold. Wired is a great magazine that's constantly on the financial brink. Just to name a few! So, no. Print

"Good" Magazines Here we're referring to the big name-brand magazines that are famous and everyone knows them and you always dreamed of getting a staff writer job there so when you say who you write for people would be like "Oh, yes!" and nod knowingly and approvingly. Anyhow, unless you have real solid connections, forget it. Think of the year Conde Nast has had. Now, forget your big magazine aspirations. For the time being! Online Ventures, New and Otherwise I can't believe we made a category this broad last time. Lo, how the world has changed! Let's break it down a bit. For example: It used to be that cockstrong young men and women would get jobs with this very company, business and tech titles are not a place to write angry essays, emerging markets index fund to make their names, then go on to good prospect for you. though. the Dow Jones index fund of big one of those good magazines you Alt-Weeklies The Trade Press consumer mags: They plunge heard so much about. Now, it's Ehhh. Lots of alt-weeklies Woo boy. Just a short while more drastically in bad times the opposite. As newspapers and slaughtered their staffs in the past back, trade magazines seemed (now), and shoot back up faster magazines desperately lay off year or so, too. A job at an alt- more stable than the average when times are good. So avoid t a l e n t e d p e o p l e , t h e m o r e weekly is a good way to break magazine, since they each them for another year or two, established online precincts are into journalism and get some dominated a well-defined niche. then watch them start hiring once scooping them up. Gawker is clips. If you want to build a The wisdom of Grocery Week America gets it head back on now a more stable employer than career at an alt-weekly, make magazine is simply indispensable straight and starts buying more Conde Nast! Which is probably a bad sign! The point is that many sure the owner's not crazy, the to the thinking grocer! But of groceries, or whatever. of the traditional employment publisher's not a stingy bastard, course, when all the businesses in Cable Networks and the editor is entrenched your niche start going broke, one The poorer people get the more functions ELITE journalism have enough not to get deposed (along of the first things they cut from they watch TV! Cable news is already moved online, in various with you) at the first sign of their budget is the trade magazine not always "journalism," exactly, places. trouble. That's maybe, what, five subscription (they're surprisingly but what is these days? Worth a GAWKER page 59 alt-weeklies in America? Good expensive). Trade mags are the shot.

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Gawker's Least Popular Posts of 2009 [Year In Review] By Gabriel Snyder (Gawker) Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:21:35 AM

They weren't bad posts, just misunderstood. Nevertheless, we wrote them and you didn't want to read them. Ladies and gentlemen, these are the least popular Gawker posts of 2009. Generating massive page views isn't the only reason something gets posted to Gawker, but Nick Denton (who pays us bonuses if we get a lot of them) certainly encourages us to think that way. Still, Gawker writers are encouraged to write about what interests them and sometimes that bears no correlation to what interests the people who read this site. We'll be doing a list of our most popular posts of the year for tomorrow because very few of us will be working and people seem to like to click on those things. But first, here's a rundown of the ten Gawker posts that got the fewest clicks this past year. I only looked at the 8,000 or so posts that jumped from the front page (so this list doesn't include photo captions or headline links). In fact, there were only 39 that got fewer than 1,000 page views. And there are a few topics that jump out from the least-clicked list: men over 40, newspapers, New York politics, and foreign affairs. We'll continue to cover all four in 2010. While we blame you a little for not wanting to read about those things, it's ultimately our job to make them interesting.

That said, here's the list of the ten least-clicked posts of the year in New Year's Eve countdown format: 10. Trades Bid Farewell to One of Their Own— 774 views Army Archerd, who died in September at age 87, was a legend in Hollywood, writing his gossip column for Daily Variety for over 50 years. But you really didn't want to read about him when Richard Rushfield put him as the top story of the Trade Roundup.

9. Round Numbers Will Fix All Your Money Problems— 710 views I thought it was ridiculous that Bloomberg News had a long story all set to publish as soon as the Dow Jones Index hit the 10,000 mark, as if that would be the moment when all the jobs would come back and your bank accounts would be refilled to their 2007 levels. Probably should have just said that. 8. Queens Dems Will Not Endorse Lady-Slasher Next

political fortunes in October, few were clicking. 7. Poetry in the Machine: 'Identity Info Sharing'— 699 views Sure, a story like "Five Ways to Put Up Drywall" may get more pageviews than Brian Moylan's brave campaign to destroy the AOL News Borg with poetry. But he will not be deterred. Expect more of this in 2010. 6. Mayors Mike and Rudy Are Friends Again— 666 views No one cared about New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg's re -election campaign because everyone thought he was going to win by a Saddam Hussein-like margin. (For example, Pareene's very good post in May about how Bloomberg was buying up every single political consultant on the Eastern Seaboard was the year's 45th least popular.) But it turned out no one really liked Bloomberg and he almost lost. Oh, well: King Bloomberg Forever! 5. No, That Is Not Anthrax— Year— 700 views The story of Hiram Monserrate, 660 views t h e N e w Y o r k S t a t e Hamilton Nolan's rant about how Assemblyman from Queens who a n t h r a x s c a r e s a r e a l w a y s was arrested for slashing his overblown on cable and blogs girlfriend's face with a broken was good, but managed to glass, was one of my great story combine three things you don't disappointments this year. I l i k e t o r e a d a b o u t : m e d i a thought it had it all: Scientology! companies, foreign affairs, and Even gay marriage! Sadly, in a d e b u n k i n g s t u p i d s t o r i e s . year filled with so many villains, Hamilton, please continue to do the tale of a creepy New York all three in the new year. pol never really caught on and by 4. Front Pages: Climate Summit the time Alex Pareene filed this GAWKER'S page 60 update about his declining

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GAWKER continued from page 57

The bad news is, there are just way fewer jobs online than there were in the good old days of print journalism. There will simply be fewer professional journalists. And, of course, not to say any names, but some of the biggest blogs in the universe have a business model based on free labor. All those columns you wrote for HuffPo to "get your name out there" will not get you a job! Unless you're lucky. So, hope for luck. Finally, there's always the entrepreneurial online route. Start your own blog and make it big! This, we are sad to say, is a terrible gamble. Try only if you are independently wealthy or have some investors willing to lose money. The fact is that the best current prospect for making money via your writing on the internet is to land a Tumblr-to-

book deal. PR Ah, yes. Journalists used to resist PR as long as possible, till they really needed the cash, and then give in and go over to the other side and take the money. Two things are different now: One, some journalists are going over to PR for the simple reason that they cannot find a job in journalism, period. And two, with this new flood of unemployed journalists, PR firms are being a little pickier about who they hire (they're not exactly minting money these days, either). So if you were counting on your years of service at the Detroit Free Press or whatever to pave your way into a lucrative late-career PR gig, you may be sorely disappointed. Particularly if you're incompetent. The takeaway: This is all a moot

point. Because if you've made the mistake of commiting yourself to a journalism career, you'd take just about anything you can get right now. Wouldn't you? Yes. So our advice, for those of you who are still in a position to take it: Don't go into journalism for five years. By that time, the concept of a "journalism job" may not be (as much of) a punchline—people will have figured out how to pay decent wages to online journalists, and the current crop of highlyqualified laid-off old media types will have quit the profession in disgust. That's your chance. 2010 is just another year for trying to blend into the scenery so your boss can't find you to fire you.

(Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/31/2009 4:10:02 AM

”Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”. The last line of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire – uttered by its desperate heroine to the doctor taking her to a mental asylum – is an apt summary of the US

financial sector in 2009. As the crisis abated, banks took maximum advantage of the kindness of taxpayers and regulators to return to their core business: making money for shareholders and employees. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Gawker.TV: The Five Best Videos Ever of the Day [Clipjob] Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:00:11 PM

continued from page 56

because it if it doesn't happen in the house it will happen in the bathroom at Wonderland. Of course Andrew loves Emily because a slut is his surest way of getting laid and eventually she will relent, panda hat be damned! In politics, nothing ever really happens, and it is the same on this show. It is more important that people see you talking about things and trying to make things happen than for any real change to be made. Such is the case when all the tribes gather round at Buca di Beppo—because if

Banking after the kindness of strangers

By Whitney Jefferson (Gawker)

REAL Ashley is afraid of conflict because she is afraid she might be proven wrong. Callie is scared of Ty, because she is not used to black men, but she is also strangely attracted to him. Emily loves Ty because he's hot and she's slutty. Though you wouldn't think it Ty and Andrew respect that they have to share the same space for a period of time. It is a begrudging friendship because Andrew is really a racist and Ty thinks he is the man trying to keep him down. Erika and Josh might as well go ahead and fuck

you want to go out to eat (or shop or anything, really) in town then it's going to have to be at a chain restaurant. There they fight about religion, and they're not even seated in the Pope Room. No one is going to change anyone else's minds, but it's important that they argue and try to persuade each other. It's the discussion that matters, not the result. It's sort of like a limp penis slamming repeatedly into a vagina. No real penetration will be made, but the proximity makes it seem like there is actual

Today at Gawker.TV, Andy Rooney is lonesome tonight, a intercourse, even though what is grumpy anchor puts a damper on really taking place is just assault the newsroom's celebrations, Kathie Lee tries to sing again, veiled as romance. After that, the tribes mend their more laughs at Steven Segall's w o u n d s a n d s o l i d i f y t h e i r reality show, and MANswers: the allegiances to one another. It's worst television show we've ever going to be a long few months seen. No Matter How Glum Your while they are forced to share the space. Eventually there will be a New Years Eve May Seem, It's huge, long-seething altercation, Better Than Andy Rooney's Grumpy and long-winded Andy or they will all just move out. Rooney has had enough of New Year's Eve. If you can get past the fact that 60 Minutes even airs these crotchety rants, listen to GAWKER.TV: page 60

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Carles: Hipster of the Decade [Awards] By Hamilton Nolan (Gawker)

site is 'being able to justify your alternative existence' by Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:04:34 PM monitoring websites that are Ladies and gentlemen, your theoretically on the bleeding edge Hipster of the Decade: Carles, of culture." from Hipster Runoff. Okay? Some people thought With 32% of the final vote, he Carles was in fact the unbearable smashed the runner-up, Gavin Tao Lin, but that doesn't seem McInnes, by a full 10%. He beat likely. Some internet detectives out many worthy opponents. And say he's just some dude who went now the question remains: Who to Tulane, but who has the will to is this Carles? pursue that to the point of Nobody really knows. He is mystique ruination? anonymous! Although he does Not us. The whole thing is give IM interviews. He told the appropriate, in that hipsterdom is Village Voice, "I grew up in understood to be a mysterious suburbia and recently graduated absence of soul and meaning, and from business school," and said it is now officially embodied by a "I think the whole concept of the mysterious absent figure. So let's

forgo the whole vague 1500word writearound tribute. I guess Carles is Hipster Runoff, which you can read at your

GAWKER'S continued from page 58

Showdown— 628 views Ravi Somaiya's newspaper roundup each morning is one of my favorite Gawker posts, but it's never gotten a lot of clicky love. Maybe it's because you don't care what's on the front pages of newspapers? I don't know. I also like that it's probably the only front-page roundup written by someone whose byline also appears on front pages. 3. Happy Afghanistan Election Day!— 610 views I asked Pareene to write this because I thought a lot of people might be interested in whether the elections were going to fix anything in Afghanistan. I was

wrong. We may as well have used the headline "Quadratic Equations for Fun and Profit!" 2. Tentative Settlement Reached in Times vs. Globe Deathmatch— 521 views Remember how the New York Times threatened to sell or shut down the Boston Globe unless the paper's unions agreed to massive cost-cutting? No, you probably don't. By the time both sides reached a settlement, few wanted to click on this Cajun Boy post. 1. Obama Headed to One of His Many Birthplaces— 75 views And here it is: the absolute least popular post on Gawker in 2009!

Sarcasm rarely works online. But still, I really have no idea how Pareene's satiric take on the announcement that Obama would be visiting Indonesia (you know, the place where Birthers claim he could have been born) got so few views. Traffic from "Is Obama a Muslim?" searches alone ought to have generated a couple hundred views. This went up while I was on vacation so I asked Pareene if maybe there was some technical malfunction. He said "hah."

leisure. The blog is kind of like...Pitchfork mixed with whippets mixed with chat room slang and maybe a certain fauxRain Man quality? It must be consumed to get a full sense of its essence. If you like internet obscurities in general, maybe you will like Carles' blog in particular! He sent us the photo below in honor of this award. HEY CARLES LET'S FUCK BRO. Here's to a new decade in which we don't say "hipster" any more.

GAWKER.TV: continued from page 59

Andy's plans: sitting alone with a tub of coffee ice cream. Kathie Lee and Hoda Murder "Auld Lang Syne" in a Spectacular Year-End Send-Off In true fashion, KLG and Hoda finished the year off by attempting to sing all the words to "Auld Lang Syne." Kathie Lee seems drunk already and gets all diva-tastic on our asses. Happy New Year to us all! Bitter Newscaster Ruins New Years Countdown We're not sure whether this anchor is the crotchety type or if he just couldn't find a New Year's GAWKER.TV: page 61

US jobless claims fall to 17month low (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 12/31/2009 6:39:33 AM

First-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level since July 2008 last week as US businesses backed off from further cuts at the end of the year. Initial jobless claims dropped by 22,000 to 432,000 last week,

labour department figures showed on Thursday, beating analysts’ projections. Although the decline was welcome, job cuts tend to ease during the shortened week over the Christmas holiday. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Complete Nutball PseudoReligious Loons Investigate Newspaper [Media Crack] By Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:07:41 AM

GAWKER.TV: continued from page 60

date. Either way, he rains on everyone's parade while the rest of the newsroom tries to happily ring in 1988. Rambling Drunk Guy Knows How to Push Steven Seagal's Buttons You can say Steven Seagal is a bad cop. You can say he's fat. You can even say he's boring. But DO NOT say he isn't a totally badass martial artist. Because he SO is. MANswers Answers the AgeOld Question, "Can You Fart So r e s u r r e c t i t . M a y w e Hard Your Balls Explode?" suggest...uh...Bill Gates? He's MANswers is the most overrich and knows how to read, s e x u a l i z e d , m a n - c e n t r i c , degrading-to-women, earright? If Fox blacks out the Gators c u r d l i n g , v o m i t - i n d u c i n g , game tomorrow because of some ridiculous, and just-plain-terrible stupid cable dispute I swear to show we have ever seen. We god Tim Tebow is going to get could barely get through a couple Jesus to punch Rupert Murdoch minutes of the show, which makes us wonder who actually right in the balls. Hey, Regis is ready to return to watches this crap? the air after his hip replacement surgery. Welcome back, Reege! Most important media news of '09!

In your last 2009 media column (crying all around): Scientologists now practice their nuttery journalism-style, E&P closes, Tim Tebow ready to lead Christian Soldiers against Fox, and Regis returns! Hahaha: An "investigative" "magazine" owned by the Scientologists has published an EXPOZAY of the St. Petersburg Times and the Poynter Institute, who have, coincidentally, themselves published things about Scientology that were not By Brian Moylan (Gawker) Butler rolled into town to take a 100% positive! As a bonus, the ride on the Playgirl train. Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:24:20 AM mag features "An OUTSIDER's And while the jokes might write It was only a matter of time themselves—pickles, vibing, v i e w o f S c i e n t o l o g y i n before we got Jersey Whores, but smooshing—how can you laugh Clearwater." I'm guessing he now that it's here, our brain is at something that is itself a liked it? about to explode. What is the parody? Is this the zen koan for Editor & Publisher officially result of a parody of a self- the reality TV age? Will the porn closes today. Greg Mitchell's still parody? Implosion? Destruction? video be so meta that you will be holding out hope for a savior to Beauty? We're boggled! able to see the cameramen Zero Tolerance entertainment filming the action? Will there be announced it will film a porn a Kardashian? Oh shit, I just got (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) parody of our favorite MTV a nosebleed. reality show [ NSFW, unless you I think the only thing that can fix Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:23:49 AM work in a T-shirt shop that sells my hard-thinking migrane is a wares with the slogan, "Tell your new episode of Jersey Shore, The playoff teams are set in the tits to stop staring at my eyes"]. which will be on tonight at 10 NFC, but it’s a different story in Writer/directors Spock Buckton and which will have a live blog the AFC, where seven teams and Brian Bangs will tag team on here starting at 9pm. Please join remain in the hunt for the last the project. We haven't seen us and help us untangle the two spots. Some of the scenarios are straightforward: Baltimore with victories. If either team names this porny since Levi mystery. and the New York Jets are in loses or ties, things get really Johnston, Tank Jones, and Rex

Filmmakers Vow to Eradicate the Last Remaining Difference Between Jersey Shore and Porn [Brain Teasers]

The Fix Picks the NFL: Week 17 convoluted, opening up possibilities for Denver, Houston, Pittsburgh, Miami and Jacksonville. Getty Images If Mark Sanchez can avoid adding to his total of 20 interceptions, the Jets have a clear shot at a playoff berth. FIX page 62

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FIX continued from page 61

While there’s plenty on the line in Week 17, the same can’t be said about the Fix’s NFL picks contest, which ends Sunday. David is 23 games behind this Fixer, who, after starting 10-22 through two weeks, has gone 118 -82-5, a .588 winning percentage over that stretch. Worse still is the fact that Al Toonie, a Canadian coin, leads David by three games. When asked for a comment, David groused, “You can’t expect a well-educated sportswriter to defeat an inanimate object over the course of the season. That’s just silly.” Week 16 recap (overall): David Roth: 4-11-1 (105-127-5), Garey Ris: 8-7-1 (128-104-5), Al Toonie, the Lucky Canadian Two -Dollar Coin: 8-7-1 (108-124-5) Indianapolis at Buffalo (off): Not only is Colts-Bills off the board, but the Colts ruined any interest in this game by losing to the New York Jets last week, ending their run at perfection. Thanks for nothing, Colts. So in a meaningless game, might as well go with the home team, which might want to go out with a bang, now that wholesale changes are likely after another poor season. The Colts, on the other hand, can’t afford to dial down their game too much entering the playoffs as the AFC’s top seed. They’ve won six straight over Buffalo. Pick: David: Buffalo, Garey: Buffalo, Al Toonie: Indianapolis New Orleans at Carolina (off): Another game with no playoff implications. The Saints, the

NFC’s top team, are looking to make it out of this game without any injuries that could imperil their push for a Super Bowl bid. At the same time, they definitely don’t want to enter the playoffs on a three-game losing streak, which could send their fans into a panic. Pick: David: Carolina, Garey: New Orleans, Al Toonie: New Orleans Jacksonville at Cleveland (-1): The Jags, who have won all five games they’ve played in Cleveland, have a minuscule chance at a playoff spot, but only if they win and get lots of help. Their chances would have been better had they not lost their past three games. The Browns aren’t in the playoffs, but they’ve won three straight games to take the sting out of another bad season. The long-term question in Cleveland is whether Eric Mangini returns as head coach. Pick: David: Cleveland, Garey: Cleveland, Al Toonie: Jacksonville Philadelphia at Dallas (-3): The NFC East title is up for grabs: Philadelphia clinches with either a win or a tie, and Dallas clinches with a victory. The Eagles have beaten the spread in 20 of their past 28 games against NFC foes. They come into the game on a six -game winning streak. In an interesting twist, these two teams could meet again in the wild-card round of the playoffs the following weekend. For once, the Cowboys aren’t mailing it in during December games. Last

year, with a playoff spot on the line in the final game, the Boys were routed, 44-6, by the Eagles. Dallas’s revival comes thanks to QB Tony Romo. Pick: David: Philadelphia, Garey: Philadelphia, Al Toonie: Philadelphia Chicago (-3) at Detroit: The Lions’s losing ways against NFC North opponents have to end, right? Detroit has lost 14 straight to divisional foes, and a game against another nonplayoff team might be the elixir the Lions need. The Bears, who knocked off Minnesota a week ago, won’t have much motivation to beat the Lions. This is as good a time as any for the Lions to break that divisional losing streak, even with QB Matthew Stafford recovering from successful knee surgery. Pick: David: Chicago, Garey: Detroit, Al Toonie: Detroit New England at Houston (-9): Here’s the deal for the Texans: Win and get some help and they earn their playoff berth. If they miss, they can blame their lousy record against teams with a winning record, with just one measly victory. A win gives the Patriots 11 victories in a season for the seventh time this decade. Pats coach Bill Belichick isn’t saying how much time his starters will see — all the more reason to go with the Texans. Pick: David: New England, Garey: Houston, Al Toonie: Houston Pittsburgh at Miami (off): A number of scenarios get the

defending champion Steelers into the playoffs, but first they must win. The Dolphins have slim playoff hopes: They must win and have the Jets, Ravens and Texans lose and the Jags either lose or tie. Some, knowing the odds, are looking toward the 2010 draft for defensive help. Pick: David: Pittsburgh, Garey: Miami, Al Toonie: Pittsburgh N.Y. Giants at Minnesota (-9): No playoffs for the Giants, but the Vikings better right their ship before the postseason begins. Not long ago, the Vikes looked as if they might challenge the Saints for the top spot in the NFC. Now Minnesota must end a two-game losing streak and build momentum for what will be a tough postseason no matter who it plays. The Giants have beaten the spread only once when playing teams with winning records. Pick: David: Minnesota, Garey: Minnesota, Al Toonie: Giants Cincinnati at N.Y. Jets (-10): New York’s playoff hopes improved when Indianapolis coach Jim Caldwell decided to rest his starters last weekend with the Colts leading the Jets in the third quarter. New York rallied for the win, and gains a playoff spot with a victory against the Bengals — no help necessary. Cincinnati has struggled on the road against the Jets, winning only twice in 12 visits to the Meadowlands. In his rookie season, Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez has put up some decent numbers (2,381 yards passing, 12

touchdowns), but he’s thrown 20 picks. The Bengals have already clinched the AFC North, so it’s little wonder the line is so big. Pick: David: Jets, Garey: Jets, Al Toonie: Jets San Francisco (-7) at St. Louis: Playoffs — what playoffs? Both teams are done after Sunday’s game. Long-suffering St. Louis fans would like nothing more than to see the Rams earn their first home victory, which would double their win total, and mark a step sideways from last year, with an equivalent final home record of 1-7 to pair with an identical record on the road. Did I mention the Rams managed only one home victory in 2007, too? It’s been another disastrous season in St. Louis, with the Niners’ 35-0 whitewashing of the Rams in Week 4 one of many low points. So you can forget about that home win, Rams fans. Well, maybe not. San Fran is only 1-6 on the road. Pick: David: San Francisco, Garey: San Francisco, Al Toonie: San Francisco Atlanta (-1) at Tampa Bay: You may have noticed I’m having a tough time digging up interesting nuggets on games that mean nothing. Still, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has five consecutive December wins, while the Bucs have won their past two starts. Tampa Bay’s lone home victory came in Week 9 against Green Bay. With a win, Atlanta has back-to-back winning FIX page 67

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The Count: The Art and Science of Drafting QBs (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

months later, Malcolm Gladwell went further, citing a study by economists David Berri and Rob N F L s c o u t s a n d g e n e r a l Simmons. They “found no managers will get one more look connection between where a at quarterbacks Tim Tebow and quarterback was taken in the Colt McCoy in their bowl games draft — that is, how highly he before deciding when to draft the was rated on the basis of his two senior quarterbacks and college performance — and how Heisman Trophy finalists. One well he played in the pros,” recent study suggests that GMs Gladwell wrote, in a piece tying need a lot more help than that — the unpredictability of successful they have no idea which college performance among quarterbacks quarterbacks have the best with that among teachers. chance of succeeding, based on Steven Pinker, a professor of the performance of drafted p s y c h o l o g y a t H a r v a r d quarterbacks in the NFL. But that University, disagreed with that study was missing a key piece of conclusion in a New York Times information. Getty Images Did review of a Gladwell essay you predict which of these highly collection that included his New drafted quarterbacks would be Yorker article on quarterbacks. successful? “It is simply not true that a The origin of a recent debate on quarter-backs rank in the draft is drafting quarterbacks was a pair uncorrelated with his success in of articles late last year inspired the pros,” Pinker wrote. This and by the shared given name of other criticisms in the review Missouri’s starting and backup sparked a rebuttal from Gladwell, quarterbacks — Chase Daniel a reply from Pinker, and a pair of and Chase Patton, respectively. comments from Berri on his blog D a n i e l w a s t h e H e i s m a n (as well as numerous agreements candidate, Patton the taller passer with Pinker from bloggers). Feel w i t h t h e s t r o n g e r a r m . I n free to go read all that, and then O c t o b e r , E S P N ’ s S e t h come back here. Wickersham pointed out that The root of the disagreement is scouts had to notice both of them this: Berri and Simmons were because one quarter of NFL using per-play measures for those starting QBs at the time weren’t quarterbacks who accumulated drafted in the first five rounds — enough NFL plays to be included teams never knew where they’d — at least 100 plays in their find their next signal-caller. (As career. There are good reasons it happened, neither Chase has for using this measure over p l a y e d a n N F L d o w n t h i s career totals. The earlier a season.) quarterback is drafted, the more In a New Yorker article two likely he is to get playing time Submitted at 12/30/2009 2:11:27 PM

and a chance to become a league regular. But that could reflect GMs’ desire to see their picks vindicated, rather than truly superior skill. But there is also a big problem. Lots of quarterbacks didn’t log enough plays to meet the perplay minimum. And these quarterbacks aren’t evenly distributed among draft picks. The earlier players were picked, the more likely they were to get playing time and therefore to be included in the study. Berri told me that 55 of 66 quarterbacks taken in the first 32 picks of the draft during the timespan of his study logged enough playing time. That’s 83%. Of 42 QBs taken in the next 32 picks, 69% made the cut. Another 55 quarterbacks were drafted between picks 65 and 100, and 47% of those cleared the minimum requirement. And of 209 QBs taken with pick No. 101 or later, just 28% were included. So GMs seem to be showing skill at selecting quarterbacks good enough to last in the pros, earlier in the draft. There’s an alternate possible explanation — that those quarterbacks taken early are the ones who get a chance. And that

probably accounts for some of the difference. But there’s no way to know if it accounts for all of it. Determining whether those quarterbacks who didn’t play were as good as those who did “is almost an impossible thing to do,” Berri told me. He said he did all he could, which is to examine those QBs who did play — “a substantial sample.” But I’d argue that there’s no good reason to assume the sixth-rounders who didn’t get meaningful playing time were as good as those who did, and without such a reason, there’s no way to conclude from the study that GMs draft quarterbacks poorly. Gladwell told me he saw that argument as a bit circular: “Coaches and GMs turn out to be good decision-makers when it comes to drafting quarterbacks when you consider the fact that the quarterbacks who never played aren’t any good. And how do we know that the quarterbacks who never play aren’t any good? Because coaches and GMs are good decision-makers!” Gladwell displayed his low regard for their decision-making in a less formal bit of writing — a published correspondence with ESPN’s Bill Simmons. Citing a paper by economists Richard Thaler and Cade Massey — which finds that teams overpay first-round draft picks for the surplus value they receive on the field — Gladwell writes, “They basically prove that general

managers, as a group, are clueless.” Massey and Thaler don’t quite go that far in interpreting their conclusions. “The point of our paper is not how stupid NFL GMs are,” Massey told me. “Our claim is that they are merely human. We believe they are making the same mistakes people make all the time — overconfident forecasts. There is a simply a ton of uncertainty when identifying good NFL players at the college level. The big mistake is the failure to recognize this uncertainty.” Thaler added, “We do find that the league has some ability to discriminate among players. The players taken at the top of the draft on average are better than those taken later, but not by enough to make up for the salary differences.” Thaler and Massey titled their paper “The Loser’s Curse” because they demonstrated that teams picking first, who have lost the most games the prior season, overpay their picks. Perhaps what they’ve really found is that those teams are poorly managed compared to their competition. As Thaler and Massey note in their conclusion, “Some of the successful franchises seem to understand these concepts, most notably the New England Patriots, but others do not. Whether because they are smart about these ideas or others, the COUNT: page 65

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Tumultuous Year at Tech Ends With Leach’s Dismissal (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

The Houston Chronicle’s Jerome Solomon chastises Leach for his questionable handling of James. It’s been a strange week for “A college football coach can’t college football. Urban Meyer do what Mike Leach did to Adam resigned as Florida coach, only to James and get away with it,” change his mind and take a leave Solomon writes. “Not if the of absence instead. Then coach player and his family don’t allow Mike Leach got suspended by it. Not in 2009. Did Leach miss Texas Tech over allegations he the announcement about the new mistreated sophomore receiver millennium?” Adam Jones, who was suffering The Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s f r o m a c o n c u s s i o n . T h a t ’ s Jennifer Floyd Engel disagrees, enough distraction in a week the saying she doesn’t believe Leach Red Raiders are due to play in abused James. t h e A l a m o B o w l a g a i n s t In the Birmingham News, Ray Michigan State. But it doesn’t Melick says it’s not easy to end there. On Thursday, Texas define what constitutes abuse. “Is Tech fired Leach “for cause,” one Alabama coach Nick Saban d a y b e f o r e h e w a s d u e a slamming his headset to the $800,000 bonus. Getty Images ground and screaming at Julio Mike Leach has had a bumpy Jones on national TV during a ride on and off the field since last game abusive?” Melick asks. season’s upset of Texas. “How about yelling at a player to Things are about to get messier, the point of making him cry, as and there won’t be any winners he did with the Miami Dolphins? when the dust settles in the I s t h a t m o t i v a t i o n ? O r burgeoning imbroglio in humiliation?” Lubbock, Texas. In the Sporting News, Matt “ M i k e L e a c h d o e s n ’ t d o Hayes suggests Leach’s firing is conventional,” Kirk Bohls writes payback for how he embarrassed i n t h e A u s t i n A m e r i c a n - the school during contract Statesman. “Blame Adam James negotiations in February. or his father Craig if you want — In the Dallas Morning News, and their roles were substantial Kevin Sherrington says Leach — but Leach ultimately brought shouldn’t have been fired. “He this on himself. He should have won, graduated his players, just sent the injured James home didn’t attract the attention of the instead of to a dark shed or an NCAA and still managed to equipment room. It seems clear g e n e r a t e c o n t r o v e r s y , ” Leach intended to embarrass the Sherrington writes. “In short, he player.” was a lot like a basketball coach Submitted at 12/31/2009 8:10:09 AM

Enderle hit a wide-open Preston Davis for the winning two points in Idaho’s 43-42 victory. The Idaho Statesman’s Brian Murphy lauds the coach’s daring move. Two other big college-football stories: Coach Bobby Bowden retires T e c h o n c e e m p l o y e d . T h e after Florida State’s game against difference between Leach’s West Virginia in Friday’s Gator situation and Bob Knight’s was Bowl, his legacy secure as one of that athletic director Gerald the game’s great coaches, the Pensacola News Journal’s Bill Myers liked Knight.” In the San Antonio Express- Vilona writes. News, Buck Harvey eagerly And Gators quarterback Tim awaits Leach’s side of the story Tebow plays his final college — which Harvey hopes to hear game Friday in No. 5 Florida’s clash with No. 4 Cincinnati in the during the Alamo Bowl. ESPN’s Ivan Maisel predicts Sugar Bowl. ESPN’s Pat Forde Texas Tech will lose its national writes that Tebow’s focus always presence with Leach’s dismissal. was on his future — whether in (Leach’s innovative offense that or out of football — and that “ he lifted the Red Raiders to national undoubtedly will be a differenceprominence was a fine story well maker away from the game.”* * told by Michael Lewis in 2005 in * New Year’s Day used to be the the New York Times Magazine.) Finally, the Washington Post’s best day for college football. Sally Jenkins thinks Leach Fans gorged on bowl games all deserves another chance to day, then watched the national championship in the evening. But coach.* * * Having an unorthodox, gutsy since the BCS has moved the best coach can pay off. It did on bowl games to other slots, the Wednesday in the Humanitarian NHL has elbowed its way into Bowl. Idaho coach Robb Akey the spotlight with its Winter could have done the conventional Classic, the third iteration of thing and kicked the point after which pits the Boston Bruins touchdown to force overtime against the Philadelphia Flyers at against Bowling Green. Instead, historic Fenway Park on Friday. the Vandals coach opted to try R a t i n g s a n d i n t e r e s t h a v e for a two-point conversion with increased each year, and demand four seconds left against the for tickets far outstrips supply. Falcons. It worked. Nathan Writing for Sports Illustrated,

Dan Shaughnessy recounts the birth of a new holiday tradition.* ** Sports journalism hasn’t been spared from the economic upheaval facing newspapers. Familiar faces have lost their jobs in the past year, many of whom made regular appearances in the Daily Fix. In Washington, D.C., the small but plucky Washington Times, struggling to survive, will relaunch on Monday without a sports section, leaving at least two dozen people without jobs. The Times’s Mark Zuckerman blogs a heartfelt farewell. “Some kids grow up wanting to be professional athletes or astronauts or doctors or actors or musicians,” Zuckerman writes. “I’ve never wanted to be anything other than a newspaper sportswriter.” The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg blogs that he’ll miss competing against the scrappy Times. – Tip of the Fix cap to reader Don Hartline and the Journal’s Adam Thompson. Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email Garey at ris84rap@gmail.com.

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Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer covered up ER visit to protect kids, players By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:35:45 PM

Urban Meyer's Wife's 911 Call Released Urban Meyer's Wife's 911 Call Released VIDEO PLAYLIST • Urban Meyer's Wife's 911 Call Released Urban Meyer's Wife's 911 Call Released • Recruit Says Meyer Will Be Back In August Recruit Says Meyer Will Be Back In August NEW ORLEANS -- Wanting to protect his children and football team, Florida coach Urban Meyer was "very careful" about releasing information regarding his hospital stay following the Southeastern Conference championship game. He hoped to keep private his chest pain, ambulance ride and diagnostic tests -- at least until he had a chance to tell those closest to him. SEC blog ESPN.com's Chris Low writes about all things SEC in his conference blog. • Blog network: College Football Nation "I have three children that mean more to me than anything. I have

a football team that means more to me than anything. I didn't want it to get out at all," Meyer said at an Allstate Sugar Bowl news conference Thursday. "We were very careful. I didn't want anyone alarmed. "And I think at some point, whether you're a football coach, whether you're a lawyer or whatever, you think at some point there would be a lot of respect for families involved and children and 11-year-old boys and 16-year-old girls and 19-year -old girls," he added. "Do what you have to do to protect them. If that means not coming clean with full details about something very personal, if you can't understand that, then first of all, I think you've got to recheck yourself. And then second of all, I think at some point you certainly will understand that." According to a 911 recording, Meyer complained of chest pain and said his side was tingling before he was hospitalized Dec. 6. Meyer's wife told an Alachua County dispatcher that her 45year-old husband had a pulse but wasn't talking when she contacted emergency officials at

4:27 a.m., hours after the Gators returned home from a 32-13 loss to Alabama. "My husband's having chest pains," Shelley Meyer said. "He's having chest pains, he just woke up in the middle of the night and said he's having chest pains." Shelley Meyer said her husband had taken a sleeping pill that night and had suffered chest pains before. She repeatedly tried to rouse Meyer, who was lying on his stomach on the floor. "Urban, Urban, talk to me," she says. The 911 recording first was obtained by ESPN. Initial reports indicated the Florida coach checked into a Gainesville hospital, where he was treated for dehydration and released. Shelley Meyer told dispatchers her husband was breathing and appeared to be grunting. "He almost sounds like he's kind of trying to cry," she said. Meyer abruptly resigned last Saturday, citing health problems, and then decided he would instead take an indefinite leave of absence. He plans to coach the fifth-ranked Gators in the Sugar Bowl against No. 4 Cincinnati on Friday night.

Meyer expects to be on the sideline coaching the Gators when next season opens. "I do in my gut believe that will happen," he said during a news conference Sunday. Meyer has told at least one recruit that he will back. Running back Mack Brown of Lithonia, Ga., said during an interview Tuesday on ESPNU that Meyer told him Monday that he wll return in August. Meyer declined to answer questions about his health Thursday as well as the timing of his announcement. "I think there will be an appropriate time to address some of those situations," Meyer said. "Today would not be the day. This is about a celebration of a great football game with two really good teams, one undefeated team and one team that was undefeated until the SEC championship game." Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Patriots have been doing well recently, and so have not had high draft picks to use.”

AT&##x26;amp;T ending sponsorship agreement with Tiger Woods By Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:09:50 PM

NEW YORK -- AT&T Inc. said Thursday it would no longer sponsor Tiger Woods, joining Accenture in dropping support for the world's top golfer, who's taking a break from the sport to focus on his marriage after his admitted infidelity. The phone company hasn't used Woods' image extensively in advertising, but its logo appeared on his golf bag. That deal had been billed as a "multiyear" agreement when it was signed early in 2009, after Buick ended its endorsement one year early because of its financial woes. Woods has also been the host of the AT&T National PGA Tour event since it started in 2007. Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said that since Woods is on indefinite leave from professional golf, he will not serve as host for the 2010 event. However, his Tiger Woods Foundation will continue AT&##X26;AMP;T page 68

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Will Joe Pavelski Join Sharks' Olympic Swarm? By Susan Slusser (Fanhouse Main) Submitted at 12/31/2009 4:49:00 AM

Filed under: Sharks, Team USA, Olympic Hockey, FanHouse Exclusive SAN JOSE -- On Wednesday, the Sharks learned that they landed a record four Olympians on Team Canada for February's games in Vancouver. Both of their goaltenders are going, too, with Evgeni Nabokov set for Team Russia and Thomas Greiss with Germany. On Friday, San Jose center Joe Pavelski will find out if he will be a member of Team USA. "Yeah, I've been thinking about it," Pavelski said this week. "Especially since the other teams have been getting announced. But you have to be patient. It's a process. You just never know." Brian Burke, Team USA's general manager, has seen Pavelski in person several times in the past month, and Pavelski has been playing some of his best hockey of the season of late, with four goals in the past five games -- including two in San Jose's win

over Washington on Tuesday night. The questions about the 25-yearold from Plover, Wisconsin (and the University of Wisconsin) generally involve his size. He's listed at 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, and those might be optimistic measurements. Many believe that to seriously contend in these Games, the U.S. is going to need a bigger team, which makes Pavelski -- "Little Joe" to Joe Thornton's "Big Joe" -- less than a shoo-in. "I know Pavelski and how much I trust him and rely on him. ... I believe he's a perfect candidate at that position." -- Todd McLellan on Joe Pavelski's Olympic Hopes Pavelski, however, might have one advantage: his first two years in the league, Ron Wilson was the Sharks' head coach, and Wilson is now Team USA's coach. Pavelski is familiar with Wilson's methods, his style of play, his terminology, so he'd be ahead of some other potential U.S. Olympians in adapting to Wilson's system.

because Pavelski missed more than a month with a foot injury, but Pavelski is strong on faceoffs, and his recent surge could be the deciding factor. Pavelski said, "Hopefully I've shown enough to this point." Canada's unprecedented four Sharks, include three men likely to make up one line: Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley, along with defenseman Dan Boyle. "It would be awesome to play against them," said Pavelski. Plus, Pavelski's current coach "Kind of a bonus. But just being said that he is a coach's dream. on the team, competing for your "I know Pavelski and how much country, that would be an I trust him and rely on him," San unbelievable experience." Jose's Todd McLellan said. "If As for Team USA's chances in Ron has the same feelings that I what is expected to be the glamor do about this player, I'm sure he's s p o r t o f t h e h o c k e y - m a d got a real good opportunity. ... I Canadian Games: "I think they're believe he's a perfect candidate at pretty good," Pavelski said. "All that position." the U.S. guys will be NHL Pavelski isn't certain that his ties players, so we're all aware of to Wilson will carry much what everyone can do. Everyone weight. "It's hard to say," he said. can play at a high level." "They'll take the best players, but we do have history together and he's been able to see me grow." His numbers are a little down

Buffalo Bills name Buddy Nix general manager By ESPN,com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:58:12 AM

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -Buffalo Bills national scout Buddy Nix is the team's new general manager, the first move in owner Ralph Wilson's effort to revamp his front office. Nix was introduced at a news conference Thursday as the Bills (5-10) prepare to close their season hosting Indianapolis (141) on Sunday. Nix fills a void after Marv Levy stepped down as general manager following the 2007 season. AFC East blog ESPN.com's Tim Graham writes about all things AFC East in his division blog. â&#x20AC;˘ Blog network: NFL Nation Chief operating officer Russ Brandon, who had been filling the GM's role, was promoted to chief executive officer, reporting BUFFALO page 67

Rumor: Dragon Age expansion 'Awakening' in March By JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:30:00 AM

Dragon Age: Origins may seem expansive enough, but BioWare has already proven willing to inflate the game further with DLC and talk of retail expansion packs. And according to an

unidentified retailer listing spotted by Eurogamer.cz, the first of those expansions, titled Awakening, will supposedly arrive in Europe on March 19. According to Eurogamer's summary, the expansion will star a new player character with a enemies, for about 15 hours of new origin story, new areas and

new content. The expansion will also raise the level cap. Eurogamer speculates that EA will announce this expansion sometime in January, though we can't fathom how that information would be extrapolated from a retailer's erroneously hasty listing.

[Via Big Download] Rumor: Dragon Age expansion 'Awakening' in March originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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seasons for the first time in franchise history. Pick: David: Atlanta, Garey: Atlanta, Al Toonie: Atlanta Green Bay at Arizona (-3.5): The Pack are surging into the playoffs on a 6-1 tear after going only 4-4 in the first half of the season. Credit their defense for the turnaround, but the offense has been consistently excellent under Aaron Rodgers, the second -year quarterback who’s thrown for 4,199 yards. But he’s also been sacked a league-high 50 times. The Cards are no slouch under Kurt Warner, who has a blistering 45-4 record when his QB rating (minimum 15 attempts) is 100 or higher. It’s possible the Packers and Cards will meet the next week in the playoffs. Pick: David: Green Bay, Garey: Green Bay, Al Toonie: Arizona Kansas City at Denver (-13): Denver’s 6-0 start seems ages ago. Since then the Broncos have won only two more games in nine tries and need a ton of help to earn a postseason berth. The easy part this weekend should be beating K.C., which is suffering through another brutal season.

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Denver’s won all eight meetings at Invesco Field. The hard part is lamenting a season that started surprisingly well but likely will end on Sunday, and wondering what the heck happened. One thing is certain: Kyle Orton, who has thrown only 20 TDs, isn’t the quarterback to put Denver in Super Bowl contention. In other words, he’s no John Elway. Pick: David: Denver, Garey: Denver, Al Toonie: Kansas City Baltimore (-10.5) at Oakland: Speaking of bad football teams, the Raiders haven’t had more than five wins in a season since they won the AFC West in 2002 with an 11-5 mark and went to the Super Bowl. In a game that puts the Ravens’ stingy defense against the NFL’s second-worst offense, you know who’s going to come up short, especially when all the Ravens need to gain a playoff spot is a victory. The bigger question facing Oakland is whether Tom Cable returns as coach. Pick: David: Baltimore, Garey: Baltimore, Al Toonie: Baltimore Washington at San Diego (-4): A trying year for the Redskins will see wholesale changes in the

offseason, probably beginning with the firing of coach Jim Zorn and the hiring of Mike Shanahan, who coached Denver to two Super Bowl titles. The Chargers have the NFL’s longest current winning streak — 10 games. Go ahead, make it 11, although the Bolts are only 8-7 against the spread this season. Pick: David: San Diego, Garey: San Diego, Al Toonie: San Diego Tennessee (-4) at Seattle: It’s been quite the climb for the Titans from an 0-6 hole, but there’s no playoff spot at stake Sunday against the Seahawks. Still, Titans running back Chris Johnson needs only 75 yards to break Marshall Faulk’s record of 2,429 yards from scrimmage. The Seahawks have been porous on defense all season, ranking only 25th in the NFL. Tennessee is on an eight-game winning streak against NFC foes, but coach Jeff Fisher is 0-5 lifetime against Seattle. Pick: David: Tennessee, Garey: Tennessee, Al Toonie: Seattle

to Wilson. The 70-year-old Nix had been out of football after retiring in 2008 following a stint as the San Diego Chargers assistant GM/director of player personnel. He came out of retirement to work for Buffalo this past year after serving as the team's area scout from 1993-2000. The Bills also considered other in-house personnel men, John Guy and Tom Modrak, for the GM position. Nix, who turned 70 on Dec. 6, impressed Wilson during a recent face-to-face meeting, and stood out above the other two candidates that were interviewed. Before returning to the Bills, Nix served as the San Diego Chargers' assistant GM and director of player personnel and was given significant credit for the rebuilding of the team's talent base until he left the organization in 2008. He also has worked under former Bills architects John Butler and A.J. Smith, the current Chargers general manager. Nix has 14 years of NFL experience, mostly in scouting, and previously spent 26 years coaching in the college ranks. That included a nine-year term as head coach at TennesseeChattanooga, where he coached Bills receiver Terrell Owens during his freshman year. He takes over what's been a

dysfunctional franchise that will miss the playoffs for a 10th straight year, and closes this decade with one winning season - a 9-7 finish in 2004. Buffalo is also in the midst of its fourth coaching search since 2001 after Dick Jauron was fired in November and replaced by defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, who has a 2-4 record as interim head coach. Nix's first task will be choosing a head coach. As a first-time head coach, Fewell is considered a candidate, but the Bills are expected to look for someone with previous experience. Twotime Super Bowl winner Mike Shanahan interviewed for the job, but has reportedly turned down the Bills. With Nix in place, it's uncertain whether the Bills will retain Modrak, Guy or Jim Overdorf, the team's senior vice president of football operations. ESPN Senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen, ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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to be the beneficiary of the AT&T National, under a contract that runs through 2014, Votaw said. AT&T said it would continue to sponsor the event. Woods won the 2009 AT&T National in July at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. The AT&T National is moving to Aronimink Country Club outside Philadelphia the next two years as Congressional prepares to host the 2011 U.S. Open. AT&T has also been the presenting sponsor of the annual Tiger Jam concert event in Las Vegas, but that contract has expired, according to AT&T spokesman Michael Coe. AT&T, which is based in Dallas, did not comment on its reasons for dropping Woods, or how much the relationship was worth. Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, had no comment on AT&T's decision. Woods' image has taken a beating since a Thanksgiving holiday car accident at the golfer's Florida home was

followed by an admission of extramarital "transgressions." Most of Woods' $100 million in annual earnings has come not from tournament winnings but from companies that wanted to be associated with his persona. Consulting firm Accenture dropped the athlete two weeks ago, saying he was "no longer the right representative" of the company's values. Gillette, a unit of the Procter & Gamble Co., also has said it won't air ads for its razors that include Woods or include him in public appearances. Swiss watch maker Tag Heuer, a unit of luxury goods empire LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, also said that it would "downscale" its use of golfer Tiger Woods' image in its advertising campaigns for the foreseeable future. Electronic Arts Inc., which puts out the "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" series of golf video games, has not said what its plans are for the franchise. The company did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday. Nike Inc.

and PepsiCo Inc.'s Gatorade are other big sponsors that haven't severed their ties. Meanwhile, the Florida Highway Patrol confirmed on Thursday that troopers met with Woods on Dec. 1, four days after the accident outside his home, to deliver a $164 citation for careless driving. The meeting was earlier reported by WESHTV in Orlando, Fla. In an e-mail to The Associated Press, FHP captain Mark Welch said Woods was "polite" and "only said, 'Yes Sir." "The only injury that troopers observed was a bump and cut on his lip, which was consistent with the crash investigation," Welch said. Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Denver Broncos' Brandon Marshall available for finale, source says By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

media. He later spent some with the team's trainer. In Wednesday's team injury report, Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:37:53 PM Marshall was listed as Denver Broncos wide receiver participating in the practice on a B r a n d o n M a r s h a l l , w h o i s limited basis. nursing a hamstring injury, is The Broncos are depleted at expected to play Sunday against receiver. Wide receiver Eddie the Kansas City Chiefs, a team Royal(head, neck) and tight end source told ESPN NFL Insider D a n i e l G r a h a m ( k n e e ) a r e Adam Schefter. struggling with injuries but both AFC West blog returned to practice Thursday. ESPN.com's Bill Williamson Rookie Kenny McKinley was writes about all things AFC West moved to injured reserve earlier in his division blog. this week. â&#x20AC;˘ Blog network: NFL Nation Along with Marshall, Brandon Marshall sat out practice for the Stokley, Jabar Gaffney and second straight day Thursday Brandon Lloyd are Denver's with a strained right hamstring healthy receivers. that he suffered running a route There are at least 10 different one day earlier. Coach Josh scenarios that can allow the McDaniels said Thursday he B r o n c o s t o g e t i n t o t h e wasn't sure how serious the postseason. The simplest is if two injury was or if Marshall would of these three lose: Baltimore, be able to return to practice on Pittsburgh and the New York Friday. Jets. Marshall just earned his second The Ravens travel to Oakland, straight Pro Bowl honor and has while Pittsburgh plays in Miami caught at least 100 passes for and the Jets host AFC North three straight seasons. Having champion Cincinnati. him available to play is critical Information from The for the Broncos (8-7), who need Associated Press was used in this to beat the last-place Chiefs in report. their regular-season finale and Five Filters featured article: get some assistance if they're Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: going to qualify for the playoffs. PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Marshall was seen grabbing the Term Extraction. back of his right leg during the portion of practice open to the

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Dallas Cowboys special teams coach Joe DeCamillis is only fourth to be awarded Special Courage Award By Tim MacMahon (ESPN.com) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:45:00 AM

IRVING, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys recognized special teams coach Joe DeCamillis' remarkable bravery and toughness by making him the fourth man in league history to receive the Special Courage Award. Players voted for DeCamillis, who hasn't missed a practice despite suffering a broken neck in May, to receive the award, which accompanies the Ed Block Courage Award given to a player on each team. The only previous recipients of the Special Courage Award were Miami Dolphins president and chief executive officer Eddie Jones in 1999, former Philadelphia Eagle Vince Papale in 2006 and Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau last season. The Cowboys have been inspired by DeCamillis' will since the beginning of organized

team activities, when he wore a bulky neck brace and used Tom Landry's old bullhorn while coaching 15 days after he was injured in the collapse of the team's indoor facility. DeCamillis' story took another painful twist Sunday afternoon, when he was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Doctors also repaired a hernia he didn't know he had. More on the Cowboys Calvin Watkins and Tim MacMahon have the Cowboys blanketed for ESPNDallas.com. Check in with their constantly updated coverage. Blog "I think my family is really going to be glad when 2010 gets here, that's for sure," said DeCamillis, who watched the Cowboys' win over the Washington Redskins from his hospital bed in Virginia and returned to work at Valley Ranch two days later. The Cowboys also announced that left guard Kyle Kosier, who fought back after missing almost

all of last season with a broken foot, was voted by teammates as Dallas' Ed Block Courage Award winner this season. "He deserves it more than any of us for what he's gone through in the last six or seven months," Kosier said of DeCamillis. Scouting assistant Rich Behm was not recognized by the league, but his courage is definitely not overlooked at Valley Ranch. He was paralyzed from the waist down when the indoor facility collapsed but returned to work over the summer. College scouting coordinator Chris Hall and assistant athletic trainer Greg Gaither also missed minimal time after sustaining serious injuries in the accident. Tim MacMahon covers the Cowboys for ESPN Dallas. You can follow him on Twitter or leave a question for his weekly mailbag. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Your chocobo Avatar pet is in the mail By Xav de Matos (Joystiq)

find its way onto the Avatar Marketplace at some point. Reminiscent of the baby Last month -- utilizing the chocobo that nests within Final spamming power of Twitter -- Fantasy XIII hero Sazh Katzroy's Microsoft and Square Enix gorgeous afro, our baby chocobo partnered to offer Xbox Live only seems to flutter around, users a free baby chocobo pet for refusing to nest within our own their Avatars if they registered Avatar hairdos. We presume that their Gamertags during the social feature will be some kind of premedia promotion. After weeks of order bonus for Final Fantasy waiting for the marketing plan to XIII when it launches on March run its course, codes for the tiny 9, 2010. companion have been sent to Your chocobo Avatar pet is in participating users via email. the mail originally appeared on Sadly -- as Major Nelson points Joystiq on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 o u t - - t h o s e w h o d i d n o t 09:30:00 EST. Please see our participate in the promotion terms for use of feeds. cannot get the pet, but we Permalink| Email this| anticipate the baby chocobo will C o m m e n t s Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:30:00 AM

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No Forgiving Blount Until He Tells All By Jay Mariotti (Fanhouse Main)

opening-week loss, a sickening, ESPN-televised episode that ignited a national furor and Submitted at 12/30/2009 2:11:00 PM prompted Kelly to suspend Filed under: NCAA Football Blount for the season -- and, as a LOS ANGELES -- It's a story senior running back, the rest of that should be told, a redemptive his career -- until allowing him a tale that will continue to feel chance to win reinstatement last incomplete, forced and contrived month. But we also wanted to get until The Guy Who Threw The to know the man behind the Sucker Punch speaks up. punch and see what he has LeGarrette Blount had the perfect learned from his heinous mistake, opportunity on a rainy morning particularly as NFL front offices in southern California, during a is close to Blount, said his friend watch closely and wonder if he's Rose Bowl Media Day session wanted to talk and suggested the worth a character gamble on the two days before a new year. decision to muzzle him was made second day of the April draft. Sports has been tattered by many by coach Chip Kelly. "He was on The longer Blount goes without scandals since his meltdown, the the bus this morning, and they addressing his ordeal publicly, Tiger Woods debacle among kind of took him off the bus. It the more difficult it will be to them, and the abject shock of his wasn't really him,'' Dickson said. understand what he was thinking Sept. 3 tantrum has been replaced "They didn't want him to get that night. We'll also be left to by a desire to hear about the o v e r w h e l m e d w i t h a l l t h e doubt exactly how he fulfilled the personal steps he took to have his questions. The (media) probably a c a d e m i c a n d a t t i t u d i n a l suspension lifted. would have asked him about the requirements that Kelly and the So, where was he Wednesday? first game.'' Uh, ya think? Yes, university installed for Blount to Seems Blount was back at the we would have inquired why qualify for reinstatement. Oregon team hotel in Beverly Blount slugged Boise State's Hills, choosing to stay behind. Byron Hout in the face after an Ducks tight end Ed Dickson, who

Thexder Neo transforming into a PS3 game By JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:30:00 PM

After the ESRB rating for Game Arts' Thexder Neo listed it as a PSP and PS3 game, Square Enix released the downloadable shooter remake on PSP only, leaving PS3 retro fans vexed and un-Thex'd. However, a post on Square Enix's Facebook page reveals that the transforming spaceship/robot will make an appearance on PS3 after all. "With PS3 graphic THEXDER NEO becomes more THEXDER," Square Enix PR staffer Akira Kokushoh said, suggesting that the new version isn't just a direct port of the PSP title. The game will be out sometime in 2010 -- possibly on the early side, since Kokushoh

indicated that the game is almost complete. [Via Gamerbytes] Thexder Neo transforming into a PS3 game originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Joystiq highlights a game of the year 2009 By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq)

best, then present them to our readership in an enumerated Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:30:00 PM fashion. Unfortunately, we got Here it is, folks: The moment bored with that, and instead you've all been waiting for. Team started playing 2009: The Game, Joystiq has been scouring the list which is, in fact, a game of the of games that came out in 2009, year 2009. We apologize for the attempting to pick the best of the misleading headline.

It's more or less an "avoid-these-

things-lest-you-die" game flash game which takes quick, topical jabs at the year's low points. However, it's a great reminder of some of the ridiculous shenanigans we had to put up with this year. Like, remember Swine Flu? Hoo boy.

Joystiq highlights a game of the year 2009 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Obama awaits plane bomb reports (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

Street Chic: Paris By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 12/31/2009 4:00:00 AM

Converse kicks give a casualcool vibe to a ladylike outfit. Photo: Anne Ziegler

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

information that could have prevented the failed attack had been "vague but available" to Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:13:09 PM intelligence agencies. US President Barack Obama is The Washington Post reported to receive reports on the security that agencies under scrutiny lapses that allegedly allowed a include the CIA, the National Nigerian to smuggle a bomb onto Security Agency, the State a transatlantic airliner. Department, and the National He ordered the reviews after Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) denouncing "systemic" failures in - which was established after the the handling of the alleged September 2001 attacks on the b o m b i n g a t t e m p t b y U m a r US to collate and connect F a r o u k A b d u l m u t a l l a b o n intelligence sharing efforts. Christmas Day. "The right information did not They are expected to say get to the right people - there's no agencies failed to share key question about that," a senior information. intelligence official told the The US was reportedly aware newspaper. weeks ago that "a Nigerian" in "If all known information had Yemen was preparing an attack. been provided, we would have Mr Obama said he would study been down a different path." the reports on Friday and over Father's warning the weekend before meeting After the attempt, Mr Obama security chiefs on Tuesday. acknowledged that security 'Different path' failures had allowed the 23-yearMr Abdulmutallab flew from old to fly to the US despite Lagos to Amsterdam before f a m i l y m e m b e r s w a r n i n g changing planes for a US-bound officials in November that he had flight with 289 people aboard. extremist views. He was tackled by passengers The US president said he wanted and crew as he allegedly tried to to know why the warning from detonate explosives hidden in his Mr Abdulmutallab's father did underwear using a liquid-filled not lead to the accused being syringe, shortly before Northwest placed on a no-fly list. Airlines Flight 253 landed in "Had this critical information Detroit. been shared... the suspect would He has been charged with have never been allowed to board attempting to destroy an aircraft that plane for America," said Mr and is being held at a federal Obama. prison in Michigan. Mr Abdulmutallab's father The US news website Politico visited the US embassy in quoted officials involved in the Nigeria in November to seek help security reviews as saying in finding his son, whom he said

had gone to Yemen - a known recruiting and training ground for al-Qaeda. The father's warning was passed on by the US Department of State on 20 November. It went not only to all US diplomatic missions and to the State Department in Washington, as well as the NCTC. However, Mr Abdulmutallab's existing US tourist visa - giving him multiple entry rights for two years from June 2008 - was not revoked. 'No concerns' A group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the botched attack. Mr Abdulmutallab has reportedly told investigators that he trained in Yemen with alQaeda from August to early December, after an earlier visit to the country in 2004-2005. Unnamed Yemeni security officials said he had stayed on in Yemen illegally after his visa expired three months ago and should have been prevented from leaving the country, AP reports. He had a visa to study Arabic at an institute in the capital, Sanaa, officials were quoted as telling the agency, but his student visa expired on 21 September. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Travelers' choice: Shed shyness for security? (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

said they believe such scanners could have detected the explosive materials Umar Farouk SAN FRANCISCO â&#x20AC;&#x201C; As Ronak Abdulmutallab of Nigeria is Ray hunted for his flight gate, he accused of trying to ignite aboard prepared for the prospect of a a Detroit-bound Northwest security guard peering through Airlines flight Christmas Day. his clothes with a full body Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport scanner. But Ray doesn't mind: has 15 full body scanners, but what he gives up in privacy he n o n e w e r e u s e d t o s c a n gets back in security. Abdulmutallab when he boarded. "I think it's necessary," said Ray, In Europe and the U.S., privacy a 23-year-old graduate student concerns over the scanners' who was at San Francisco ability to see through clothing International Airport to fly to have kept them from widespread India. "Our lives are far more use. important than how we're being The technology was first used searched." about two years ago to make it Despite controversy surrounding easier for airport security to do the scans, Ray's position was body searches without making typical of several travelers physical contact with passengers. interviewed at various airports The idea of an electronic strip Wednesday by The Associated search did not bother Judy Press. Yeager, 62, of Sarasota, Fla., as Airports in five other U.S. cities she prepared to depart Las Vegas. are also using full body scanners She stood in the full-body at specific checkpoints instead of scanner Wednesday afternoon metal detectors. In addition, the and held her arms up as a scanners are used at 13 other security official guided her airports for random checks and through the gray closet-sized so-called secondary screenings of booth. passengers who set off detectors. "If it's going to protect a whole But many more air travelers may airplane of people, who gives a have to get used to the idea soon. flying you-know-what if they see The Transportation Security my boob or whatever," Yeager Administration has ordered 150 said. "That's the way I feel, more full body scanners to be honest to God." installed in airports throughout George Hyde, of Birmingham, the country in early 2010, agency Ala., was flying out of Salt Lake spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino City with his wife, Patsy, on said. Wednesday after visiting their Dutch security officials have children and grandchildren in Submitted at 12/31/2009 9:13:10 AM

Park City, Utah. "I'd rather be safe than be embarrassed," Hyde said. Neither he nor his wife had been through a body scanner before. "We're very modest people but we'd be willing to go through that for security." Trevino said the TSA has worked with privacy advocates and the scanners' manufacturers to develop software that blurs the faces and genital areas of passengers being scanned. In all cases, passengers are not required to be scanned by the machine but can opt for a full body pat-down instead. At Salt Lake City International Airport, fewer than 1 percent of passengers subjected to the scanner chose the pat-down since the machine was installed in March, said Dwane Baird, a TSA spokesman in Salt Lake City. On Tuesday, some 1,900 people went through the scanner and just three chose not to, he said. Critics of the scanners said the option to opt out was not enough. "The question is should they be used indiscriminately on little children and grandmothers," said Republican U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock of California. McClintock co-sponsored a bill approved by the House 310-118 in June prohibiting the use of full body scanners for primary screenings. The bill is pending in the Senate. He said the devices raised

serious concerns regarding constitutional protections against unreasonable searches. "There's no practical distinction between a full body scan and being pulled into a side room and being ordered to strip your clothing." To further protect passenger privacy, security officers looking at the images are in a different part of the airport and are not allowed to take any recording devices into the room with them, Trevino said. The images captured by the scanners cannot be stored, transmitted or printed in any way. But the TSA still has some public relations work ahead of it, judging by the reactions of passengers in Albuquerque, N.M., who were worried about what would happen to their images once they were scanned. "Are they going to be recorded or do they just scan them and that's the end of them? How are these TSA people going to be using them? That's a real concern for me," said Courtney Best-Trujillo of Santa Fe, N.M., who was flying to Los Angeles on Wednesday. The six airports where full body scanners are being used for what TSA calls "primary screenings" are: Albuquerque, N.M.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Miami, Fla.; San Francisco; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Tulsa, Okla. The remainder of the machines

are being used for secondary screenings in Atlanta, Ga.; Baltimore/Washington; Denver, Colo.; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; Indianapolis, Ind.; Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.; Los Angeles; Phoenix, Ariz.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Ronald Reagan Washington National; and Detroit, Mich. Though most passengers interviewed by The Associated Press felt security trumped other concerns, Bruna Martina, 48, a physician from the coast of Venezuela, said the scanners still made her feel uncomfortable. "I think there has to be another way to control people, or to scan them, but not like this," she said as she headed back home after a vacation in Miami with her husband and two sons. She also does not think the scanners will thwart another attack. "They'll find another way," Martina said. "There is always somebody cleverer than the rest." ___ Associated Press writers Terry Collins and Jason Dearen in San Francisco, Mike Stark in Salt Lake City, Christine Armario in Miami, Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas and Heather Clark in Albuquerque contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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At decade's end, revelers wonder what future holds (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

"It's very muddled. There's no clear policy. There's no clear direction," says the Englewood, NEW YORK – Out with the old Colo., resident. "We're not in and in with the — what? control of much, individually or With the nation at war on two as a nation." foreign fronts, the economy For this family, it is left to the uncertain, terrorism a threat and younger generation to seize hold environmental catastrophe on the of optimism. At the end of the list of possible destinies, a sense only decade she has known, of starting fresh remains elusive young Escadar sounds a positive for many, who wonder what sort note: "I'm just excited because of new legacy they can build I'm turning 10!" beginning on Jan. 1, 2010. She will remember the last "The meaning of the new decade decade primarily for the election is going to be diminished by the o f t h e n a t i o n ' s f i r s t b l a c k hangover of the last decade," president, Escadar says. And in says Bob Batchelor, professor of 10 years, when she's looking mass communications at Kent ahead to the '20s — and her State University and author of twenties? Life, she believes, will "The 2000s," published before be even better. the decade was even done. "That Older observers have a hard time makes it tough to be as optimistic seeing such a clear path. as Americans usually are." For 45-year-old Manhattanite In the spirit of fresh beginnings, Susana Buencamino, the last people around the world planned decade was defined by a single T h u r s d a y t o c e l e b r a t e t h e act of terrorism and its myriad transition. In New York's Times repercussions. Square, new giant digits are in "Sept. 11, 2001. That changed place to mark the new decade, as the whole decade," the systems are 3,000 pounds of confetti. analyst says near her midtown Sitting with his wife and two office. Looking forward to the daughters in a Manhattan atrium coming years, one thing seems as they discuss plans to celebrate certain. "The terrorists will still the new year with family, D.J. be around." Alemayehu says he is finding it "All of us, we're going to be hard to feel positive about the worried. Wherever we are," she future after the last decade's says. jumble of bad news and nagging Such a wary outlook is no worries. surprise after a 10-year stretch Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:39:53 AM

that started with fears of Y2K disaster and never quite regained its footing, says Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. "If people were looking for an apocalypse, they kind of got one," he says, listing a string of chaotic milestones, beginning with the contested election of 2000 and the Sept. 11 attacks and ending with the economic crisis and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "When one looks at the end of this decade, it's good riddance. ... It's a time to wipe the slate clean," he says. Planned celebrations are taking many forms, with concerts, fireworks, and the timed drop of favorite local symbols. In the Tennessee cities of Memphis and Nashville, organizers plan to drop a 10-foot, red guitar. In Atlanta, an 800pound fiberglass peach is to take a 138-foot plunge. In North Carolina, Brasstown, near the Georgia border, will have its annual opossum drop, Mount Olive drops a 3-foot glowing pickle, and the capital city of Raleigh lowers a giant acorn. In Eastport, Maine, an 8-foot wooden sardine is dropped. And in Times Square, an 11,875pound ball covered with more than 32,000 bulbs is in place to be lowered at midnight.

In Boston, more than 1,000 artists and performers are participating in the "First Night" celebrations. Artists plan to display six ice sculptures, including a recreation of one of the Boston Museum of Fine Art's 4,000 year old Egyptian sculptures. And in Chicago, the city's Transit Authority is offering rides for a penny to help residents and visitors get in place for fireworks displays planned during the evening and at midnight. At Times Square, organizers planned to mix about 10,000 handwritten wishes into the thousands of pounds of confetti to be dropped over the crowds. They include appeals for the safe return of the troops, continued employment and a cure for diabetes. The hundreds of thousands of New York City revelers brought out heightened police security, displayed a day earlier when police evacuated several blocks around Times Square to investigate a parked van without license plates. Police and other officials planned radiation sweeps for biological contaminants in the area and a command center was to be staffed by FBI, New York and regional police. Thousands of officers were to staff Times

Square, where revelers will be banned from carrying backpacks and open bottles. Among the revelers eager to see the ball drop in Times Square are 23-year-old Leonardo Colombo and 31-year-old Gilberto Oliveira — both visiting from Sao Paolo, Brazil, where they have seen the last decade transform their nation with the promise of economic power and new wealth. Their fears are tempered by a sense of possibility. Oliveira says the decade now in its final hours was defined by "the development of technology and the evolution of communication," changes he believes will soon give us medical advances and new tools to improve our lives. His friend adds: "The new year is a time for change." "What defines the new decade? Hope." ___ Associated Press writers Caryn Rousseau in Chicago, Russell Contreras in Boston and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Washington Times slashes staff; sports section out (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:31:22 PM

WASHINGTON â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Washington Times slashed its staff by more than 40 percent and will eliminate its sports section and most local coverage in 2010, shifting its focus to politics, business and investigative reporting. The 27-year-old newspaper announced the latest round of layoffs in its Thursday edition and said the last sports section would appear Friday. Among those let go was the newsroom leader, Managing Editor David Jones. Another round of cuts was made earlier in December, and the newspaper published its last Sunday edition last weekend. The paper will publish a new weekday print edition starting Monday. It will focus on the newspaper's core strengths, including politics and cultural issues, President and Publisher Jonathan Slevin said Wednesday in a statement. "Our market-based, forwardlooking plan is both a response to the recessionary economy, continued downward financial pressures on the news industry and our transition into a 21st century multimedia enterprise," Slevin said. The layoffs hit some high-profile beats, including journalists covering the Justice Department,

Congress and foreign affairs. The newspaper announced several management changes, though it's not clear who will oversee the newsroom operation. Christopher Dolan was appointed Wednesday as national politics editor and Brett Decker as editorial page editor. Jeffrey Birnbaum, the managing editor for digital operations, resigned that post but will continue as a columnist. During his last day at the office, Jones said Thursday that his staff had been working under a cloud of uncertainty for about two months. "In spite of that, they've been very professional," he said. "They've come in every day and broken big stories. ... They've put out a product that I'm really proud of, and I'm proud of them." The Times did not break down the cuts, but laid-off staffers described what they learned from colleagues. Several departments at the newspaper are being all but eliminated, said photographer Allison Shelley. All nine staff photographers were cut, along with the assistant managing editor of photography, she said. Only two photo editors will remain. The graphics and Web department staffs were cut nearly in half, and nearly all metro reporters were laid off, Shelley

said. Only six copy desk editors would remain, she said. While newsroom cuts had been expected for weeks, the photography layoffs came as a surprise. "I don't think anyone expected the entire staff of shooters would be laid off," said photographer Katie Falkenberg, who worked at the Times for three years. In the sports department, the entire staff of about two dozen journalists was cut, staffers said. The revamped publication would include some sports features, though, according to the publisher. "We worked hard to put out what we thought was a really good section that stood up to ( The Washington Post) and anyone else, despite our lack of staff," said Mark Zuckerman, who covered baseball's Washington Nationals for the newspaper. "We were the No. 2 sports section that acted like a No. 1 sports section." Washington Redskins beat writer Ryan O'Halloran announced the section's fate Wednesday on Twitter. "Times sports section is kaput," he wrote. "Make sure to call and cancel subscriptions after Friday." On Thursday, Redskins owner Dan Snyder and General Manager Bruce Allen made a rare appearance in the media room at the team's headquarters

to present personalized jerseys to O'Halloran and Times colleague Dave Elfin. The Times is often viewed as the conservative alternative to the much larger Washington Post. It was founded in 1982 and funded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church. The new print edition will be sold at retail outlets and newspaper boxes in the Washington area for $1. The current weekday edition is 50 cents. Officials said the local print edition will be distributed for free to "targeted audiences," including some federal government offices. At-home and office delivery will be offered at a premium price. The paper dropped its Saturday print edition last year with editors citing low circulation. The Times has said it would cut staff as it aims to improve its multimedia presence, which includes the paper's high-traffic Web site and its radio program, "America's Morning News." ___ AP Sports Writer Joseph White in Ashburn, Va., contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Police Find Body Believed to Be Missing Wisconsin Mother (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/30/2009 11:27:30 PM

A body believed to be that of a missing Altoona woman has been found in a rural part of Adams County in central Wisconsin. Officer Scott Kelley of the Altoona Police Department says authorities are "fairly certain" the body found Wednesday afternoon is that of 43-year-old Theresa Lynn Still. The cause of death is being investigated and an autopsy was scheduled for Thursday. Kelley says police hope to have a positive identification in time for a news conference Thursday afternoon. The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram says Still was last seen Sunday evening at an Altoona tavern. Her car was found early Wednesday morning on Eau Claire's south side. Earlier Wednesday, firefighters searched large refuse containers in the city while family and friends searched wooded areas near Still's home. Click here for more on this story by MyFox9.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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CIA chief confirms Afghan deaths (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

have been honoured for their deaths in the agency's service since its inception in 1947, Submitted at 12/31/2009 12:46:26 PM according to the Washington Post Seven CIA agents were killed in newspaper. a bomb attack in Afghanistan, the 'Close to the enemy' US agency's director, Leon Paying tribute to the fallen, Mr Panetta, has confirmed. Panetta said six other agents had The dead include a mother of been injured in Wednesday's three who was the head of the attack at Forward Operating Base CIA's base in Khost Province, Chapman. near Pakistan, the Associated "Those who fell yesterday were Press (AP) news agency reports. far from home and close to the The Taliban said one of their enemy, doing the hard work that members wearing an explosive must be done to protect our vest and an army uniform had country from terrorism," he said. carried out the attack. "We owe them our deepest US President Barack Obama has gratitude, and we pledge to them sent a message of condolence to and their families that we will the agency's staff praising the never cease fighting for the cause dead agents. to which they dedicated their The attack was the worst against lives - a safer America." US intelligence officials since the Taliban spokesman Zabiullah US embassy in Beirut was Mujahid told the BBC the Khost bombed in 1983. bomber was wearing an army It has raised questions about the uniform when he managed to coalition's ability to protect itself breach security at the base, against infiltrators, analysts say. detonating his explosives belt in Quoting a former senior CIA the gym. official, AP said the base chief Mr Obama said those killed were would have led intelligence- "part of a long line of patriots gathering operations in Khost, a who have made great sacrifices hotbed of Taliban activity for their fellow citizens, and for because of its proximity to our way of life". Pakistan's lawless border region. He told CIA employees that they The unnamed official added that had "taken great risks to protect the bomber was being courted as our country" and that their an informant and was not frisked sacrifices had "sometimes been as he entered the base. unknown to your fellow citizens, A total of 90 CIA employees your friends, and even your

families". 'Real danger' Earlier reports said eight CIA agents had been killed by the blast. Neither the names of the CIA officials killed nor the details of their work were released because of the sensitivity of US operations, the agency said in a statement. "Yesterday's tragedy reminds us that the men and women of the CIA put their lives at risk every day to protect this nation," said Mr Panetta. "Throughout our history, the reality is that those who make a real difference often face real danger." The flags at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, were to be flown at half -mast in honour of the dead, he added. Reports say the Chapman base is used by provincial reconstruction teams - which include soldiers and civilians - and is protected by some 200 Afghan soldiers. The base has been described as "not regular" - a phrase that implies it was a centre of CIA operations in Khost province, the BBC's Peter Greste in Kabul says. The forward operating base is reportedly used for US drone attacks on suspected militants in neighbouring Pakistan.

In the latest such attack, two people were reportedly killed in a strike on a house in Pakistan's North Waziristan on Thursday, security officials said. Khost province - which is one of the Taliban's strongholds - has been targeted by militants in the past year. The number of foreign civilians deployed in Afghanistan has been rising as international efforts there focus increasingly on development and aid. Elsewhere in Afghanistan: • Taliban militants beheaded six men they suspected of being spies for the government in the southern province of Uruzgan, police said • Four Canadian soldiers and a journalist died in a roadside bomb attack in Kandahar, in the most deadly attack on Canadians in the country for more than two years • Two French journalists were kidnapped in Kapisa province, north-east of Kabul, along with their Afghan driver and interpreter, reports say

Washington Times Cuts More Than 40 Percent of Staff (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 12/30/2009 11:17:03 PM

WASHINGTON The Washington Times slashed its staff by more than 40 percent and will eliminate its sports section and most local coverage in 2010, shifting its focus to politics, business and investigative reporting. The 27-year-old newspaper announced the latest round of layoffs in its Thursday edition and said the last sports section would appear Friday. Among those let go was the newsroom leader, Managing Editor David Jones. Another round of cuts was made earlier in December, and the newspaper published its last Sunday edition last weekend. The paper will publish a new weekday print edition starting Monday. It will focus on the newspaper's core strengths, including politics and cultural issues, President and Publisher Jonathan Slevin said Wednesday in a statement. Print Sponsor "Our market-based, forwardFive Filters featured article: looking plan is both a response to Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: t h e r e c e s s i o n a r y e c o n o m y , PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, continued downward financial Term Extraction. pressures on the news industry and our transition into a 21st century multimedia enterprise," Slevin said. The newspaper announced WASHINGTON page 77

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Colorado's minimum wage becomes 1st in US to drop (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/31/2009 10:29:13 AM

DENVER – Colorado's minimum wage will drop slightly in the new year — the first decrease in any state's minimum wage since the federal minimum was adopted in 1938. Colorado's wage is falling 3 cents an hour, from $7.28 to the federal level of $7.25. That's because Colorado is one of 10 states that tie the state minimum wage to inflation. The goal is to protect low-wage workers from having unchanged paychecks as the cost of living goes up. But Colorado's provision also allows wage declines, and the state's consumer price index fell 0.6 percent last year, so the minimum wage is going down. The lower consumer price index, attributed to lower fuel prices, would have forced the wage down 4 cents an hour, But no state can go below the federal minimum of $7.25. Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia will keep a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Alaska will join them Friday

when its minimum wage rises 50 cents to $7.75. Colorado's drop is small — but those among the estimated 48,000 residents earning the minimum shook their heads at the possibility of pay cut. "It is hard to make it, hard to get by," said John Mullen, 50, an out -of-work construction worker waiting for a bus on a bitterly cold New Year's Eve in Denver. Mullen said he remembers making minimum wage at a factory and having enough for small comforts. "You'd get paid every Friday, have enough money to go catch a poker game or take your girl out to a dinner," Mullen said. "But the law is the law. What can you do?" Others said that even a tiny drop for the lowest-paid workers will be felt. "Yeah, it's 3 cents an hour. But that 3 cents an hour adds up at the end of 12 months," said 59year-old Gary Foeller of Denver, a house painter who hasn't worked in weeks but usually earns more than the minimum wage when he has a job. The 3-penny difference would amount to about $62 a year for

someone who works 40 hours a week and doesn't take time off. The decline won't affect tipped workers, such as waiters, who already have a base salary below $7.25 an hour. State labor officials insist that few employers paying minimum wage will drop workers' wages, though they had no figures or estimates. "We anticipate most employers will keep paying their current wage," said Cher Haavind, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. About 4 percent of the state's 1.2 million hourly workers earned minimum wage in 2008, state officials said. At a Dairy Queen restaurant in suburban Centennial, owner Mike Trinh pays his six yearround employees and eight summer workers $8 an hour. Anything less, and the workers don't stay, he said. "You have to be competitive if you want them to stay on and do a good job," Trinh said. Other states with adjustable minimum wages are Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont

and Washington. But the minimum wage isn't expected to drop in any other state next year. Most states that tie the wage to inflation make no provision for lowering the amount, so the minimum wage stays flat if the cost of living falls. In other states with adjustable wages, the cost of living hasn't dropped, or the wage is already at the federal minimum. In Florida, for example, a declining consumer price index would drop the wage 4 cents to $7.21. But that's less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, so paychecks won't change for Florida's lowest-paid workers. Foeller, the Denver house painter, said he hopes employers won't drop wages, especially for adult workers. "It's impossible to make it on minimum wage now. How can you survive?" he said. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Rush Limbaugh felt pains similar to heart attack (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 12/31/2009 11:58:50 AM

HONOLULU – Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh remained hospitalized in Hawaii Thursday after experiencing chest pains similar to a heart attack, according to the guest host on his nationally syndicated radio show. Limbaugh was rushed to a Honolulu hospital Wednesday during a vacation. Guest host Walter E. Williams described Limbaugh's pains as similar to the feeling of a "heart attack coming on." But Williams said doctors haven't confirmed whether the 58-year-old had a heart attack, and more exams were planned Thursday. "Rush continues to rest very comfortably in a hospital in Honolulu this afternoon — actually it's morning out there," Williams said. "He had a comfortable night and he's getting good medical attention." Williams, an economics professor at George Mason University, was already scheduled to fill in on Thursday while Limbaugh was on vacation. Kit Carson, Limbaugh's chief of staff, told The Associated Press Limbaugh left for his Christmas vacation on Dec. 23 and was due to return to his show Jan. 4. Carson didn't have any RUSH page 78

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WASHINGTON continued from page 75

several management changes, though it's not clear who will oversee the newsroom operation. Christopher Dolan was appointed Wednesday as national politics editor and Brett Decker as editorial page editor. Jeffrey Birnbaum, the managing editor for digital operations, resigned that post but will continue as a columnist. During his last day at the office, Jones said Thursday that his staff had been working under a cloud of uncertainty for about two months. "In spite of that, they've been very professional," he said. "They've come in every day and broken big stories. ... They've put out a product that I'm really proud of, and I'm proud of them." The Times did not break down the cuts, but laid-off staffers described what they learned from colleagues. Several departments at the newspaper are being all but eliminated, said photographer Allison Shelley. All nine staff photographers were cut, along with the assistant managing editor of photography, she said. Only two photo editors will

remain. The graphics and Web department staffs were cut nearly in half, and nearly all metro reporters were laid off, Shelley said. Only six copy desk editors would remain, she said. While newsroom cuts had been expected for weeks, the photography layoffs came as a surprise. "I don't think anyone expected the entire staff of shooters would be laid off," said photographer Katie Falkenberg, who worked at the Times for three years. In the sports department, the entire staff of about two dozen journalists was cut, staffers said. The revamped publication would include some sports features, though, according to the publisher. "We worked hard to put out what we thought was a really good section that stood up to (The Washington Post) and anyone else, despite our lack of staff," said Mark Zuckerman, who covered baseball's Washington Nationals for the newspaper. "We were the No. 2 sports section that acted like a No. 1 sports section." The Times is often viewed as the

conservative alternative to the much larger Washington Post. It was founded in 1982 and funded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church. The new print edition will be sold at retail outlets and newspaper boxes in the Washington area for $1. The current weekday edition is 50 cents. Officials said the local print edition will be distributed for free to "targeted audiences," including some federal government offices. At-home and office delivery will be offered at a premium price. The paper dropped its Saturday print edition last year with editors citing low circulation. The Times has said it would cut staff as it aims to improve its multimedia presence, which includes the paper's high-traffic Web site and its radio program, "America's Morning News." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

'DNA raid' for Argentina heirs (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

took place. Felipe and Marcela Noble are heirs of the Clarin media group, Submitted at 12/31/2009 2:56:31 AM considered to be Argentina's L a w y e r s f o r h e i r s t o a n most important. Argentine media empire say Mr Anzorreguy described 33police raided their homes amid year-old Ms Noble as "surprised" suspicions they were victims of at the raid. "Bearing in mind that state-organised forced adoption. she voluntarily provided a sample The alleged raid took place a day yesterday, she wasn't expecting after Felipe and Marcela Noble this," he said. complied with a court order and Groups for the murder victims of gave blood samples. Argentina's military era say They were adopted by Clarin Tuesday's blood samples are not media mogul Ernestina Herrera reliable enough. de Noble in 1976. They were taken at a federal Campaigners allege that they are agency rather than the state-run t h e o f f s p r i n g o f p o l i t i c a l National Bank of Genetic Data prisoners who gave birth while in which holds DNA samples of custody during the country's families of the disappeared. period of military rule. The Grandmothers of the Plaza They believe the biological de Mayo group, which seeks to parents of the siblings were killed find some 500 children born to in prisons and their babies were prisoners or abducted along with then taken by the state. their parents during the 1976Under the country's former 1983 dictatorship, has demanded regime, babies were often given that the DNA be collected at the to families considered loyal to data bank. the military. Last month, the Congress 'Surprised' backed a proposal from the The Noble family's lawyer, group, allowing the forced Jorge Anzorreguy, said that both extraction of DNA from adults toothbrushes and hairbrushes who may be the children of were seized during the raid at political prisoners - even when their homes on the outskirts of they do not want to know. Buenos Aires. Print Sponsor The raid, he alleges, was carried Five Filters featured article: out under an order of a judge. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Argentine officials have refused PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, to confirm or deny that the raid Term Extraction.