Liberty Newsprint Nov-21-09

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20/11/09 - 21/11/09

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On staring at goats, cats and camels | Khaled Diab

By Khaled Diab (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

eye, by using Viagra.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't work.

And this kind of smiting can cause a big dent in the wallet, Submitted at 11/21/2009 6:00:00 AM given that a thoroughbred Be it giving them Viagra, putting newborn Damascene goat can them in a pageant or paying fetch as much as 50,000 riyals $14m for them, every culture has (about £8,000) – I kid you not. eccentricities about animals That goats can have a pedigree Can a man kill a goat armed with may come as something of a little more than his eyes? Well, surprise to many outsiders, the US military seemed willing to especially Europeans, for whom believe in the possibility of such goats, if they appear at all in the superhuman powers, as revealed popular imagination, tend to be in The Men Who Stare at Goats, associated with lust and evil – Jon Ronson's book about how the recall that popular depictions of American army investigated the Satan have him sporting a goat's application of psychic power in horns and hooves, not to mention combat situations which has been a goatee. Of course, goats do turned into a film starring George produce the most beautiful Clooney. fabrics in the world, such as Another group of people who cashmere wool. believe in the eye's destructive The animal has become so power on four-legged bovidae prized in contemporary Saudi are Saudi breeders of pedigree Arabia that last year the kingdom goats for competitions. "Like held its very first goat "beauty everything else, goats are also contest". Reflecting the novelty believed by some to be affected o f t h e e v e n t ( o r p o s s i b l y by the evil eye," writes Omaima n e p o t i s m ) , m o s t o f t h e al-Fardan in Arab News. participants were descendants of One luckless goat-trader claimed a single patriarchal goat, the fiery that he had tried to revive his Burgan (Volcano). The winner in prize goat's ardour, after he had the male category was a son of allegedly been struck by the evil Burkan who fetched a staggering

450,000 riyals. In fact, the goatly patriarch has made his owner a neat 8m riyals to date.

In an ultra-conservative country where the nearest thing to a female beauty pageant is the Miss Beautiful Morals contest, the outlandishness of goats strutting their stuff on a catwalk is fertile breeding ground for all kinds of goat-related jokes and innuendos, similar to the ones provoked by camel beauty shows(where as much as $3m have been paid for thoroughbred camels).

But are goat and camel pageants so strange? Saudi Arabia may have its camel and goat contests, but the west has its equally surreal cat and dog shows. To an outsider (and many insiders), how weird is it to see manicured, pedicured and shampooed hounds and felines being paraded in all earnestness before judges?

How must the world's poorest citizens react to the news that our cats and dogs are often better fed than they are? In fact, it turns out that, if a recent book is to be believed, the average western dog lives off more land than the average Ethiopian.

Then, there are thoroughbred horses (a trend also, incidentally, started by the Arabs). Last year, for instance, an American stables paid a staggering $14m for a horse named Better than Honour(for that price, I should hope she is).

So, why all the jokes? Part of the reason is the exoticness of other societies' fetishes. In addition, this particular brand of humour has an ancient pedigree, stemming as it does from centuries of western suspicion towards the "licentious" Arab and his shady intimacy with the "ship of the desert". Growing up in London, I was constantly asked by wits of clone-like originality if I came to school on a camel and whether my parents owned an oil field – I was even advised "not to get the hump" if I exhibited any impatience with these wearisome questions.

That's not to say that there's no truth to the Arab soft spot for camels. Although this most powerful and versatile of desert beasts has become obsolete in the modern age, except in the most isolated of desert communities, its place as a cultural icon lives

on, particularly in Arabia proper.

But given the enormous economic, political and social role camels over the centuries, this is no great surprise. After all, the Arab conquest of the Middle East was achieved on the backs of camels, whose mobility and stamina proved conclusive in battles fought over great distances. Moreover, camels helped the Arab and Islamic worlds dominate the global trading system for centuries.

Of course, Arabs are not alone in suffering from this kind of humour. Basically, any peoples with whom you share a historical rivalry are fair game when it comes to insinuations of bestiality. Consider, for example, all those Welsh sheep jokes.

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

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Flood-hit Cumbria braces for more rain

By David Batty (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

return to their homes yet and forecasters predicted fresh downpours.

The Met Office has predicted Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:36:45 AM another 15mm (0.5in) to 40mm Met Office predicting up to (1.6in) of rain in Cumbria today.

50mm and warns of waters rising Four bridges collapsed in the again as county reels from county and 11 remain closed due evacuations and policeman's to fast-flowing floodwaters. death There are four severe flood Flood-damaged parts of the UK warnings in force in Cumbria and are bracing themselves for more 1 9 f l o o d w a r n i n g s a c r o s s heavy rain today after two days Scotland, northern England, the of downpours that inundated Midlands and Wales. There are homes, swept away bridges, flood watches in another 50 sparked evacuations and claimed areas. the life of a policeman.

Both rivers that run through Gordon Brown has pledged an Cockermouth– the town worst extra £1m to help flood-hit affected by the flooding – burst communities in Cumbria, which their banks, blocking roads and yesterday suffered the worst forcing more than 200 people downpour in British history, with from their homes.

314mm – more than a foot of rain A police spokesman said: – falling in 24 hours.

"Nobody has been reported Brown announced the funding missing in the area at this time on a visit to the flood-stricken and the rescue effort is being county where PC Bill Barker scaled down. died after a bridge collapsed. "Fewer than 100 people remain More than 1,300 households in reception centres, with the rest across Cumbria have been h a v i n g m a d e a l t e r n a t i v e affected, with hundreds of people arrangements to stay with family displaced and more than 1,000 and friends." homes left without power. About Ian Rideout, a Red Cross 100 people remain in emergency worker, said many of those shelters. rescued were suffering from A thorough search of houses s h o c k . " T h e c e n t r e o f affected by the flooding began Cockermouth looks like it has this morning, as the emergency been completely destroyed. I've services advised people not to never seen anything like it. The

24 hours in pictures (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

1 November 2009: A selection of the best images from around the world

water has caused so much damage that many of the homes here are completely ruined.

"We've been working non-stop and between the Red Cross and RNLI we've rescued around 200 people from their homes.

"Last night I went up in one of the helicopters to get an idea of the full scale of the disaster and where we should focus rescue efforts. Almost straight away we found four people on the roof of their home who needed to be winched to safety.

"Most of the people we've rescued have been in shock. One minute it's raining heavily, then the next their home is filling with water and they're being evacuated by the Red Cross."

People in the town said they were worried that rain forecast for the weekend would bring more problems. Alan Smith said: "The thing with the river Cocker is it can fall as quickly as it can rise.

"It's come down four foot from last night but the fells are sodden and if we get any more rain it will just come straight off and into the river and the level will rise again.

"If we have persistent rain like last night and the day before, we will be back to square one."

Julian Mayes, a forecaster with MeteoGroup UK, said: "What

happened was at least a one in 500 years event. It was a historic day which broke all records."

Further showers were likely to give river levels a "temporary upward blip" and flood plain areas would remain flooded, he said.

The Workington MP, Tony Cunningham, said the flood was "of biblical proportions" and he was astonished by the destruction of the Northside bridge, which led to PC Barker's death.

Cunningham, whose constituency covers Cockermouth, said: "If the floods in Carlisle are anything to go by then people were out of their homes for 10, 11, even 12 months.

"There are many broken buildings in Cockermouth but the people are not broken."

At a meeting at Penrith police station in Cumbria, Brown said the government would match the £1m in aid already given by the North West Development Agency.

"We will do everything we can to support the local community in its hour of need."

Brown has paid tribute to Barker, calling the policeman "a very brave and heroic man".

Barker, who would have been celebrating his 45th birthday today, was killed as he directed

motorists away from the bridge.

It collapsed and he was swept away. His body was found on a beach in nearby Allonby.

The officer, from Egremont, served with Cumbria police for 25 years and leaves a wife, Hazel, and four children.

His wife said her husband was her "forever friend" and "an amazing dad", adding: "I have the comfort of knowing that Bill died doing the job he loved, and the fact that he was helping others is just typical Bill."

Cumbria police Chief Constable Craig Mackey said Barker was "a wonderful police officer and a real family man".

"Bill is a hero who died saving the lives of others and our thoughts are with his family at this devastating time. He was a much loved friend, colleague and an inspiration to everyone he knew – he will be sadly missed."

• Flooding • Natural disasters and extreme weather • Weather David Batty guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Kidnapped couple make video plea

By Damien Pearse (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:32:50 AM

Paul and Rachel Chandler have been shown on C4 news urging the government to begin ransom talks with Somali pirates The British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates appeared in television footage tonight surrounded by gunmen and warned they could be killed "within a week". Paul and Rachel Chandler pleaded for their lives, saying they feared they would "sleepwalk to a tragic end" as their captors were "losing patience".

The two-minute video, shown on Channel 4 news, is the first time the couple have appeared on camera since they disappeared on 23 October while sailing from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.

Looking subdued and frightened, the Chandlers stood with their hands crossed in front of them, weapons pointed at their heads.

Their captors stood behind, dressed in T-shirts and brightly coloured shorts, draped in bullet belts and appearing to cock their weapons.

ADVERTISEMENT: (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 11/21/2009 11:40:00 AM

Paul Chandler, 59, urged the government to begin talks on a ransom. He said: "This is our 27th day in captivity. So far we have been provided with adequate food and water and facilities and so we are unharmed and in reasonable health.

Mentally we are under great stress and threatened. Our kidnappers are losing patience; they are concerned that there has been no response at all to their demands for money."

Wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt, he stood next to his wife, occasionally glancing to one side.

The couple were filmed on Wednesday.

"We ask the government and the people of Britain and our families to do whatever you can to at least open negotiations with these people about money, so that perhaps our lives can be bought back.

"We have been threatened that there is a terrorist gang at large in the country looking for us. We are also concerned that these people will lose patience and will not feed us, and I have no doubt that they will not hesitate to kill us, perhaps within a week or so if there is no response. So please,

somebody get in touch; otherwise we just sleepwalk to a tragic end."

Channel 4 said that the couple's family had seen the video and had agreed that it should be broadcast.

Rachel Chandler, 55, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, said: "We are very concerned about the future. We are also feeling very much under threat now that these people themselves won't hesitate to take our lives.

"We are under threat and we are told that we will not be fed and given water. Our captors are very impatient now that nobody has been in touch to enter into negotiations."

The Chandlers were kidnapped in the middle of a "dream trip" aboard their 38ft yacht, Lynn Rival. Reports of the kidnap emerged when a news agency was contacted by a pirate called Hassan who said he had the couple captive and ransom demands would follow.

The pair were allowed to speak to journalists on the phone, and during one conversation Mrs Chandler's brother Stephen Collett made a direct appeal to the pirates to release them.

Staff at the BBC received a call demanding a ransom of $7m, but the Foreign Office said it would not make concessions to hostage takers.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are aware of the video.

Any such video will be distressing for the family."

She said the couple were innocent tourists and the government sought their immediate release, but "substantive concessions" would not be made to hostage takers.

In a statement released later through the Foreign Office, the Chandler family said: "The family have seen the video of Paul and Rachel. They miss them deeply and urge their release. The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this time.

They will not be making any further comment."

• Piracy at sea • Military • Somalia Damien Pearse guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Brin: Google's OSes likely to converge

By Tom Krazit (Webware.com) Submitted at 11/20/2009 12:00:00 PM

Puzzled onlookers have

wondered why Google is overseeing two separate operating-system projects. Cofounder Sergey Brin thinks that at some point the two will

become one.

Originally posted at Relevant Results

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Mountains melt: Helena Christensen's pictures from Peru

By Jim Powell, Imogen Carter (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 11/21/2009 6:46:40 AM

Supermodel turned photographer talks about Oxfam project documenting climate change in the Andean country Jim Powell Imogen Carter

Firefox: Heat and the CPU usage problem

By Brooke Crothers (Webware.com) Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:15:00 AM

Mozilla's browser does not efficiently use a computer's CPU and, consequently, can cause overheating problems in some laptops, particularly ultraportables.

Originally posted at Nanotech The Circuits Blog

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Time for truth about torture | Colin Horgan

By Colin Horgan (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

that he wrote 16 reports that detailed his doubts about the programme that failed to follow up on detainees once they were Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:00:01 AM turned over to Afghan officials.

After a whistleblower revealed Those reports, he claims, were Canadian complicity in the ignored, or actively silenced. The torture of Afghan prisoners, a full reply to all of this from Canada's public inquiry is vital defense minister Peter MacKay One man has Canada in an was one of dismissal. "There has u p r o a r . F o r m e r s e c o n d - i n - not been a single, solitary proven c o m m a n d a t t h e C a n a d i a n allegation of abuse involving a embassy in Kabul, Richard transferred Taliban prisoner by Colvin, told a parliamentary Canadian forces," he said. The committee in Ottawa that all opposition parties roundly booed detainees handed over to the him.

Afghanistan government by The issue of Canada's role in the Canadian soldiers were abused. treatment of Afghan detainees is The opposition parties have n o t a n e w o n e . T h e 2 0 0 5 called for a public inquiry, but agreement that Canada signed the Harper government has called w i t h t h e g o v e r n m e n t o f Colvin's testimony into question. Afghanistan on detainee transfers Now, Canada must yet again did not account for Canadian have a serious discussion about monitoring of the detainees once its role in Afghanistan. they were in the hands of Afghan C o l v i n s a t b e f o r e t h e authorities. By 2007, reports parliamentary committee and surfaced of detainee abuse, and flatly stated: "According to our public opinion forced the Harper information, the likelihood is that government to suspend, and later all the Afghans we handed over change, the detainee transfer were tortured. For interrogators program. Still, in 2008, federal in Kandahar, it was a standard court justice Anne Mactavish operating procedure." He alleged remained concerned, citing the that the abuse included beatings fact that some detainees had and rape. Colvin also revealed disappeared and suggesting that

Afghanistan's history of human rights violations was reason to worry that torture had taken place. Though the federal government failed to admit that abuse had occurred, both it and the federal court recognised that detainee abuse was a concern.

Which makes the government's current position strange. MacKay spent his Thursday afternoon on the major Canadian news networks, attempting to undermine Colvin's testimony.

But given Colvin's high rank and non-partisan position, it seems difficult to imagine what Colvin might have to gain from lying.

Were his concerns ignored and silenced? Or does the fact that he forwarded them at all suggest that he was not under a very strict gag order? And what of his claims that all detainees were subjugated to abuse or torture?

Are they overblown or accurate?

MacKay suggested that corroborating evidence is needed in order to launch a public inquiry. True, but that suggests this is a new problem with no past evidence to support Colvin's claim. It isn't. This is becoming an uncomfortable ongoing issue for Canadians, and we deserve to

Seize Seesmic Twitter app on BlackBerry, Android

By Jessica Dolcourt (Webware.com) Submitted at 11/20/2009 4:02:00 PM

Twitter service Seesmic expands from the desktop with two new apps for Google Android and BlackBerry phones.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

know what happened.

A public inquiry is necessary.

Taking this discussion outside of partisan bickering in the House seems essential to finding out what Colvin knew, who else might have known what he did, and what role - if any - Canada has played in the abuse of Afghan civilians. Colvin's allegations point to moral corruption - that's not what Canadians were told would be achieved in Afghanistan. As it does for Britain or the US, Canada's role in Afghanistan walks a fine line between defining who we want to be, and the kind of criminals we're supposed to be fighting against.

We need to know which side we're walking on.

• Torture • Canada • Afghanistan • Taliban • United States Colin Horgan guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Earnings highlights: Dell, Foot Locker, Gap, Lowe's, Saks, Target ...

By Trey Thoelcke (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:40:00 AM

Filed under: Earnings reports, Dell (DELL), Target Corp.

(TGT), Gap Inc (GPS) Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks: • ADC Telecommunications Inc.( ADCT) posted a surprise net loss for Q4 and predicted a loss in Q1.

• BJ's Wholesale Club Inc.( BJ) shares fell after Q3 earnings met expectations and offered guidance for FY. • Dell Inc.( DELL) posted lowerthan-expected Q3 earnings, prompting a sell-off of shares.

• Foot Locker Inc.( FL) said Q3 earnings slumped more than analysts' forecast, sending shares lower.

• Gap Inc.( GPS) reported growth of EPS and revenue in Q3 and announced a share buyback program.

Continue reading Earnings highlights: Dell, Foot Locker, Gap, Lowe's, Saks, Target ...

Earnings highlights: Dell, Foot Locker, Gap, Lowe's, Saks, Target ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Life in jail sought for Meredith Kercher accused

TransCanada: Pull-back is buy opportunity

By David Batty (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

By Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:24:18 AM

Italian prosecutor seeks maximum term if Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are convicted of killing British student An Italian prosecutor is seeking life imprisonment for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, the pair accused of murdering British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox, an American, is accused of instigating the killing two years ago of Kercher, 21, in the central Italian city of Perugia where they were studying and

shared an apartment.

The Kercher family's lawyer, Francesco Maresca, said: "Yesterday the prosecutors in the case spoke about the argument of the investigation. Today they asked for a life sentence for both defendants."

Prosecutors have alleged Kercher, who was on an exchange programme from Leeds University, was killed after refusing to take part in a sex game. Knox, 22, and Raffaele Sollecito, her 25-year-old Italian former boyfriend, deny charges of murder and sexual violence.

The next hearing is scheduled for next week and a verdict is expected in early December.

A third man, Rudy Hermann Guede, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the killing. He is appealing against his conviction.

Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was studying at Perugia's University for Foreigners. She was found with her throat cut on 2 November 2007.

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

Submitted at 11/21/2009 11:40:00 AM

Filed under: Stocks to Buy TransCanada Corp.'s ( TRP) shares, first recommended on May 11, 2009, at a price of $26.56, have pulled back, and the dip represents a buy opportunity, which is why I'm reiterating my buy rating for the stock.

TransCanada is natural gas play with promise: it's a natural gas transmission and storage company that also owns oil assets and electric power generation assets (including 19 whollyowned power plants). A solid $1.45 annual dividend adds to the

Google says: Chrome for Christmas

By Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:40:00 AM

Filed under: Internet, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Technology Google ( GOOG) is letting a few developers peek behind the curtain. The early look the company's new operating system, Chrome, is happening in true Google style: by invitation only.

When it's released, which should

be in time for the holidays, developers will be able to bang away at an open source solution, tapping an army of volunteers who are eager to work for bragging rights.

The open source version is called Chromium OS, which will hit the market a year before the "consumer" version is ready, which is how Google will be able to tap the wisdom of developers around the world. In a blog entry, Google explained, "This means the code is free, accessible to

anyone and open for contributions." The project includes the code base, user interface experiments and some preliminary designs, all of which

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can be used for ongoing development efforts. To energize the potential base of contributors, Google said that "development will be done in the open from this point on."

Continue reading Google says: Chrome for Christmas Google says: Chrome for Christmas originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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positive story.

Continue reading TransCanada: Pull-back is buy opportunity TransCanada: Pull-back is buy opportunity originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vanish! How Wired Readers Caught Our Fugitive Writer

By Evan Ratliff (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 11/20/2009 5:45:00 PM

In an age when everyone is following everything, is it ever possible to disappear? On Aug. 13, one man drove out of San Francisco determined to stay hidden in plain sight and test this possibility.

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Finance/ Gadgets/

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No more Nookie 'til next year, says Barnes & Noble

ECB Trichet's comments show central banks' delicate balancing act

By Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks)

By Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 11/21/2009 12:40:00 PM

Submitted at 11/20/2009 5:40:00 PM

Filed under: Amazon.com (AMZN), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Media World, Technology Take the Nook off your Christmas list. The new e-reader from Barnes & Noble ( BKS) has already sold out, and more won't be available until after the holiday has passed. The next batch will be available, at best,

by November 4, 2010.

In a statement, the company said, "While we increased production based on the high consumer interest, we've sold out of our initial Nook allotment available for delivery before the holidays." If you still want to give the device as a holiday gift, Barnes & Noble will give you a

Filed under: International markets, Indices, DJIA, Financial Crisis European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet jolted the markets Friday with the gift certificate to tide the announcement that the ECB will recipient over until the device g r a d u a l l y w i t h d r a w t h e emergency cash injections it has itself comes around.

Continue reading No more added to the financial system, in Nookie 'til next year, says Barnes order to prevent an acceleration in inflation. & Noble No more Nookie 'til next year, "Not all our liquidity measures says Barnes & Noble originally will be needed to the same extent appeared on BloggingStocks on as in the past," Trichet said at a Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

conference in Frankfurt Friday, Bloomberg News reported."Any non-standard measure whose continuation would pose a threat to the achievement of price stability must be undone promptly and unequivocally."

Continue reading ECB Trichet's comments show central banks' delicate balancing act ECB Trichet's comments show central banks' delicate balancing act originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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3D Scanning, a Webcam's Latest Trick [Cameras]

By Chris Jacob (Gizmodo) Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:30:00 AM

We've seen cameras do all kinds of crazy things. DIY 3D photography, augmented reality, and now this demo by Qi Pan shows how an ordinary webcam can model objects in 3D. I'm in no position to discuss the amount of technical wizardry in play here, but I do think the interface is really great. Look at how it overlays scanned textures on the person's hand to create a transparency effect. Neato!

It's definitely a whiz-bang application, but like augmented reality, I'm not sure how much I need it. Someone needs to figure out how to scan and print a sandwich. Now that would be something. [ Pro Forma via Boing Boing]

Why is gold marching higher? Ask the central bankers

By Connie Madon (BloggingStocks)

hold gold reserves. Periodically, they buy or sell gold, depending on how they view world markets.

Submitted at 11/20/2009 6:00:00 PM Right now, central banks are net The rally in gold just doesn't buyers, the first time since 1988. want to quit. You are probably A weak US dollar is the main wondering what is going on. stimulus for central bankers' gold metric tons from the International Central banks around the world purchases. India just bought 200

Monetary Fund. Central bankers in Mexico, Russia, the Philippines, all have increased their gold purchases.

Continue reading Why is gold marching higher? Ask the central bankers Why is gold marching higher?

Ask the central bankers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Gadgets/

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Gifts for Retro-holics Who Yearn for the Old Days [Giftguide]

By Dan Nosowitz (Gizmodo) Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:00:00 AM

Are you trying to find a gift for one of those crazies who's always going on about the superiority of vinyl, or who dresses like a character on Mad Men? Here are some ideas for the retrophile in your life.

BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch hated Christmas, click here.

Leica M7: DSLR schmee SLR. Digital photography still can't match the old-school beauty of film, and Leica's M7 35mm camera is one of the best and most gorgeous out there. It's the kind of gift you'd hand down to your grandkids, partly because it'll last forever and partly because it costs enough that you need several lifetimes to get your money's worth. The M7 also has an even-more-decadent Hermes edition which clocks in at $14,000, but the normal M7 is available now and would send any prosumer DSLR-owner into fits of jealousy.$5,500[ Link; Amazon] Retro-Gen: Modern videogames are so complicated, so expensive, so...3D. A true retrophile isn't interested in Modern Warfare 2, but could be persuaded to play a little Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Streets of Rage 2 or Toejam and Earl 2: Panic on Funkotron. The Retro-Gen, a little sorta-legal handheld emulator, will play either original Genesis cartridges or ROMs that you've loaded onto

Link; Apple Store] Classic Prints From The Onion: The comedy gods over at The Onion have their very own gifts for retro-minded buyers, creating "classic" Onion front pages from times in the publication's fictional history (what, you didn't know it was founded in the mid18th century as "The Mercantile Onion" by Friedrich Siegfried Zweibel?). The all-time classic is "Holy Shit: Man Walks on Fucking Moon," but "Whites Invent 'Rock and Roll'" and "Mr. T Releases 'Pity List '86'" are both pretty amazing things to hang on your wall, too.

Guaranteed to stop passersby and give them the giggles.$33 each, framed and matted[ Onion Store] Trip to the Computer History Museum: You can be a retrophile and still love tech, and the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California is the best place in the country to revel in the fascinating history of technological advancement. an included SD card. Plus, the retaining the essential oils that iPod Classic: Multitouch? Right now, they're celebrating the entire system costs less than give a true depth of flavor. Not OLED? Wi-Fi? Widescreen 50th anniversary of the integrated s o m e m o d e r n D S i o r P S P only is it older, simpler, and video? What about the good old circuit, examining the history of games.$38[ Link; Video Game cheaper, it's flat-out better.$20[ days, when convergence was a computer chess and visible Central Store] Bodum French Press] crazy futuristic concept and s t o r a g e , a n d r e m e m b e r i n g French Press: Here's one where Set of 11 Kenny Loggins PMPs were called MP3 players, Charles Babbage, inventor of the an irrational fear of the new is Albums on Vinyl: You know because, well, that's all they did. first automatic computing engine. totally justified. Your typical what, this is a great gift for The iPod Classic is just about the Among those constantly rotating fancy, electronic drip coffee- anyone, retrophile or not. Even if only traditional hard-drive-based exhibits are jewels like the Cray maker spits out watery, bitter you don't have a turntable, 11 of PMP left on the market, and 1 supercomputer, the world's first brown liquid only technically t h e s e a l b u m s w o u l d m a k e while it's better than ever (thin, ethernet cable and a Tandy TRSidentifiable as coffee, while the excellent wall art. Matter of fact, long battery life, spacious 160GB 80. Free admission[ Link; CHM French press (basically a glass I might just buy these myself. Go hard drive), it's still a relic of the Site] jug with a mesh screen plunger) find your own Kenny Loggins past. I mean, seriously, a click GIFTS page 9 produces rich, delicious coffee, vinyl collection!$10[ eBay] wheel? What is this, 2007?$250[

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Review: Klipsch iGroove SXT Speaker System for iPhone and iPod

By Greg Kumparak (CrunchGear) Submitted at 11/20/2009 8:33:53 PM

Short Version: You want to listen to Fergie in the kitchen.

Don’t worry, I understand. Fergie and cooking eggs just go together well. If you’ll be piping Fergie off an iPhone or iPod, you’ll probably want a compatible speaker system.

Like anything in the audio world, the price tag on dedicated speaker systems for the iPhone or iPod can be surprisingly cheap ($30-40 bucks), or mindblowingly expensive ($500+, like the Bose SoundDock 10). Most tend to work their way into a comfort zone of $129-$159.99 – and at an MSRP of $149.99, that’s exactly where you’ll find the Klipsch iGroove SXT. Originally released in 2007, the SXT has just been re-released with improved sound quality and compatibility with the latest iPhones and iPods. It’s not perfect, but with dual 2.5-inch subwoofers, it packs a good amount of boom for your buck.

Features: • Dual 2.5-inch woofers in ported enclosure and dual 0.75inch horn-loaded tweeters • Features 3.5-mm auxiliary input • Remote Control Pros:

• The sound quality matches the price perfectly. It’s not going to blow away $200+ systems – but of any speaker I’ve heard under $150, this one takes the cake • It looks great • S-Video output for video/slideshow playback on compatible iPods Cons: • No volume indicator

• No FM radio

control right as the first egg splashed down.

Review: Listen up ya’ll, cause this is it.

There I was in the kitchen, still The beat that I’m banging is derockin’ my pajama pants from lic-ious. the night before. Half a dozen Yep! I was listening to Fergie. eggs were left in the carton, the Do I like Fergie? Oh hells nah. In pan was just beginning to smoke, fact, she drives me absolutely bat and the Klipsch SXT was just shit insane – but that’s exactly begging for me to hit the play why I’d picked her for this test. If button. I shot the go-ahead signal a stereo could make Fergie’s across the room with the remote sinus-backed voice sound good,

I’d give it a thumbs up. And sure enough, Fergie sounded pretty damn good. The sound was filling the room better than I’d expected out of the tiny box, with a decent amount of bass pounding out of the dual 2.5 subs.

I dug around for a few speaker REVIEW: page 9

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GIFTS

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comparison, and, from a sound quality standpoint, the Klipsch SXT seems to fit exactly where they’ve priced it. It blows away the $80-$90 iHome clock radios we had laying around the office, and sounds quite a bit better than the almost identically priced JBL On Stage 200ID. It fell a bit short against the JBL On Stage 400 series — but considering that that 400 series costs nearly $100 more, that’s pretty much what was expected.

Dedicated iPod speakers tend to be ugly chunks of black plastic, but that’s not the case here. The SXT is essentially one big glorious speaker grill, accented with a bit of silver plastic around the edges. It manages to be color neutral without looking cheap, so it ought to fit well in just about

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any room you throw it in.

Snap back to the kitchen – pajama pants, eggs, etc. No one was home (and thus, no one was around to make fun of my music selection) – might as well crank it up, right? I hit the volume up button – it got louder. I hit it again – it got louder again. So far, so good. The volume level was hurts-so-good loud at this point, but there wasn’t even a hint of distortion yet. I hit the button again and… nothing. I’d capped out the volume, but had no way of knowing as there isn’t any sort of volume indicator.

There also isn’t any FM radio.

Considering that most people would presumably use this in rooms where they don’t otherwise have an audio system — and that it’s almost standard

amongst lower-end systems — this is a bit disappointing. Alas, FM radio almost always gets abandoned once the price tag goes up, presumably because FM radio is the last thing you want (besides AM radio) when you want to be pushing quality sound.

If you’re looking for an iPod/iPhone speaker set that smokes the sub-$100 sets and the majority of stuff available around the same $150 price tag, the Klipsch iGroove SXT ought to fit the bill.

Product Page

DON'T BUY A Modern Smartphone: Anybody who yearns for the old days is going to find the idea of a powerful, always-connected pocket computer pretty threatening.

Today's smartphones are as powerful as the best desktop computers from ten years ago, and are only getting better. An iPhone, Droid or Palm Pre might well explode a retrophile's mind all over his face. But if he's submitted to peer pressure and allowed a thoroughly modern iPhone into his classic-rock life, we do have one recommendation: The iRetroPhone iPhone app, which simulates an old rotary

phone.$1[ iTunes] Don't forget to recommend your own favorite retro-centric gift in comments-include pics and pricing if possible.

All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favorite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We'll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.

How Do You Hide From the Internet? [Internet]

By Rosa Golijan (Gizmodo)

Win $5,000." We would discover if someone could disappear in Submitted at 11/20/2009 10:00:00 PM today's world, or whether the Wired writer Evan Ratliff spent electronic trails from ATM, 27 days in constant fear of email, and cell phone usage getting caught as a small army of would give him away. a m a t e u r a n d p r o f e s s i o n a l Of course, in Evan's case it investigators hunted him. He had wasn't just a few concerned a bounty on his head and the f a m i l y m e m b e r s o r p o l i c e Internet nipping at his heels. officers looking. It was any Vanish, a combination of a person on the Internet whose manhunt and an experiment, curiosity was aroused, either by began at 5:38 pm on August 14, the sheer challenge or by the 2009 as a bold headline on Wired bounty. Any and all traceable proclaimed " Author Evan Ratliff information would be shared Is on the Lam. Locate Him and over the next few weeks. Soon

Evan's phone records, credit card statements, IP dumps, interviews with friends, and anything that his hunters could dig up would be posted on Twitter, Facebook,

and Wired's own site.

The end goal for the hunters was to locate Evan, photograph him after giving the codeword "fluke," and then submitting that

photo along with a codeword Evan would provide to Wired.

And after 27 long days, someone did just that. Evan was caught.

You can read the entire tale here.

As you do, consider whether Evan made any genuine mistakes or whether his capture was simply inevitable. Is there a way to disappear, without giving up travel and technology? How would you do it? [ Wired]

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Saturday giveaway: Kodak 5250 all-in-one printer, just for you

By John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:30:01 AM

Good afternoon, readers! What does Santa have in his bag for you today? Interestingly enough, he was unable to bring his bag because this printer is far too big for it. We present, for your inspection, the Kodak 5250 all-in -one: a scanning, printing, faxing, photofinishing machine that can best the big boys in the printer race.

Best of all, the 5250 has built-in WiFi so you can stick the printer on your network and print from any computer in the house. Take

a look at Kodak’s 5250 product page and then click through to figure out how to win.

Wireless printing in seconds—it’s simple!

With the KODAK ESP 5250 All

-in-One Printer you can print vivid color documents and labquality photos at home for much less than what you’re paying now thanks to our low-cost, highquality pigment ink cartridges.

And with the convenience of WiFi built-in, we’ve made printing as easy as it is affordable. Say goodbye to overpriced ink for good. Print, copy, scan, and save every day with Kodak.

To enter to win this delightful printer, simply comment below about what you intend to print with your new printer. Describe it in detail, because we don’t want this printer to fall into the hands of one of those people who buy a printer and then simply admire it.

This is a workhorse and deserves to end up in a deserving home.

Good luck!

Review: Nyko Wand Action Pak

By John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:03:56 AM

Although only a few Wii games support the light gun concept, if you’re a heavy player you may want to look into getting the $39.99 Wand Action Pack if you’re planning on adding a controller to your line-up.

This kit includes Nyko’s Wand Wiimote – essentially an exact clone of Nintendo’s product – along with a sleeve and gun

attachment for light gun games.

Nyko seems to have been forced to create a controller that is functionally identical to the Wiimote but cosmetically different. Purists will be off-put by the bright red and square A button and the odd placement of the home button over the plus and minus keys. The cross keypad is also a bit odd with strange corners sticking out between the three directional keys. However, considering the

WiiMote costs $39.99 on a bad day and $35 on a good one, you’re getting a bit more for your

money with this pack.

Bottom Line I’ve had little trouble with Nyko devices and their chargers are first rate. The purists among you – you know who you are – will balk at the styling but the bargain hunters among you will realize it’s a pretty good deal, especially if you play gun games.

Product Page

YouTube Blocks Non-Partner Device Syabas as Allegations Fly

By Eliot Van Buskirk (Wired Top Stories)

YouTube has begun enforcing a 16-month-old change in its terms of service that requires device

manufacturers to become "strategy partners" in order to display YouTube videos on

televisions.

Wired for the Apple Tablet [Apple Tablet]

By Chris Jacob (Gizmodo) Submitted at 11/21/2009 6:30:00 AM

We still don't know what the fabled Apple Tablet actually looks like, or if it even exists, really, but this concept magazine reader from Condé Nast gives us a glimpse at what to expect from tablet apps.

Turn down your volume before hitting play, loud techno music awaits. Down? OK, good. Now let's look at what we've got here.

It's about what you would expect from a tablet magazine reader.

The big screen lets you soak in the magazine layout without zooming, and the graphics are big and interactive. In a nutshell, it looks like a hi-res iPhone app.

According to the source, Condé Nast doesn't want to take any chances, and the app is a precautionary measure to make sure they're ready if/when the device comes out. So don't take this to mean that launch is imminent. Take it as a sign that even if the tablet doesn't exist, it should, because a lot of huge publishing companies are more than willing to throw their weight behind it. [ Wired]

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11

The World’s Largest Earthquake-Safe Building [Architecture]

Tesla Motors preparing to go public “soon”

By Chris Jacob (Gizmodo) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:00:00 AM

The new terminal at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport is the

By Matt Burns (CrunchGear) this year probably helps. world's largest earthquake-safe The bulk of that cash Submitted at 11/20/2009 6:10:59 PM building. You're looking at the influx,$495 million, came from a over two million square feet of Tesla Motors is planning an IPO Department of Energy loan. scaffolding that support it, all soon according to a Reuter’s Daimler also came through with resting on top of giant geological report. However at this point it’s $50 million in exchange for 10% By Darren Murph (Engadget) early CLIQ adopters have quite a roller skates. still not clear when that will be ownership of the young startup, bit to say now that the Droid is Instead of being built on top of although the company had while another round of funding Submitted at 11/20/2009 11:36:00 PM on the market. Is the CLIQ still the soil, the whole structure rests previously stated it won’t happen earned Tesla $82.5 from Daimler, It's a funny thing, the CLIQ. living up to the hype? Are you on over 300 isolators. These in 2009. In fact, this rumor has Fjord Capital Partners, Aabar and When it was introduced at a low- still impressed with what it giant bearings let the building been around for sometime, but in other undisclosed investors. key press conference, the world offers? What recommendations m o v e l a t e r a l l y d u r i n g a n case you didn’t notice, the stock A Tesla spokesman dismissed gasped as the flagging handset would you have for improving earthquake. After Istanbul got market wasn’t doing that well t h e r e p o r t a s a “ r u m o r o r maker finally made its first really the next-generation? Feel free to rocked by a magnitude 7.4 until recently. speculation” which very well bold move since the RAZR by spout off below, and hey, don't monster in 1999, and another Tesla has been ramping up could be the case. But if the ushering in its first-ever Android t r y t o h i d e a n y l i n g e r i n g major quake predicted to occur development of its all-electric company keeps on the its current handset. Here we a few months bitterness -- we won't look down within the next 30 years, you can Model S sports sedan and path, whenever the IPO does later, and the only Android-based on you for it. see why engineers decided to building selling Tesla Roadsters h a p p e n , t h e c o m p a n y w i l l Moto that anyone's talking about H o w w o u l d y o u c h a n g e make this massive building shake as quick as they can make ‘em. probably not have any trouble is the Droid. That said, we're Motorola's CLIQ? originally -resistant.

Of course the $597.5 million in finding investors. confident that a few of you T- appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 As terrible as a massive funding that the company raised Mobile loyalists are sticking to Nov 2009 23:36:00 EST. Please earthquake would be, it would be your guns (wouldn't want to get see our terms for use of feeds. incredible to see a building this caught up in that whole Verizon / Permalink| | Email this| huge move from side to side.

By twitter:@jarrettholt2 Maybe we will in a future proccesed, but its at 0 views AT&T scuffle, now would you?), Comments (TweetMeme) "World's Strongest Man" event. [ http://www.youtube.com/watch? but moreover, we're certain that Wired] v=kheErkUhRyU Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:27:29 AM 0 comments Source: shanedawson video hasnt w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m

How would you change Motorola's CLIQ?

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

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Union Square Best Buy: Your Exclusive Keytar Dealer

By Jimin Brelsford (CrunchGear) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:30:16 AM

So is everyone totally freakin’ stoked about the new Best Buy in New York City?! Yeah, I didn’t think so. But if you need a late night electronics fix and you’re around Union Square, the brandnew flagship store is open 24hours a day. First one in the world, actually.

Did anyone else miss out on the fact that Best Buy sells musical

instruments now? I had no idea, but apparently over 80 stores across the country now carry your standard rhythm section fare of drums, guitars, and basses,

along with a full DJ gear section and live sound equipment. They seem to be working towards crafting the store into a venue as well. Past performers at the

Union Square position include 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, will.i.am, and Rihanna. But playing a show in a Best Buy? Is that’s what cool these days? Cool enough for pop music I guess. You can follow the store on Facebook for updates on whose playing.

But the best part about all this (yes there is a best part) is that this store has an exclusive deal with Roland to carry the Roland Ax-Synth. That’s right. Keytars are back in business baby!

Delete Browser Cookies, Clean Up Your Trail of Crumbs

By How-To Wiki (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:30:00 PM

The web is watching you, and it’s doing it using browser cookies — small snippets of tracking code. Do away with them to be free of watchers, and annoy the heck out of Big Brother too.

Microsoft roadmap pegs Windows 8 release for 2012, or just after the world's end

By Darren Murph (Engadget) Submitted at 11/21/2009 12:10:00 PM

It's somewhat hard to believe that we're already talking about Windows 8 given that Windows 7 just hit the shelves two months ago, but you know the engineers at Microsoft are already planning ahead. According to a roadmap

constructed over at Microsoft Kitchen-- based around whispers heard through the grapevine on the eventual release of the next Windows Server -- the next iteration of Windows is tentatively pegged for release in the year 2012. Of course, a threeyear window between Windows 7 and the next version is totally

believable, but we wouldn't go planning your end of the world

party with the assumption that a new OS will be the main attraction. Or you could, but then you might be disappointed, which would be a sucky way to go out.

Microsoft roadmap pegs Windows 8 release for 2012, or just after the world's end originally appeared on Engadget

on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Electronista| Microsoft Kitchen| Email this| Comments

Philips launches 9704 LED Pro televisions in the UK

By Laura June (Engadget) Submitted at 11/20/2009 9:53:00 PM

Philips has just announced a new 9704 LED Pro line of televisions bound for the UK. The two sets promise a 5,000,000:1 contrast

ratio, a 200Hz refresh rate, and a 1-ms response time. Philips promises both models -- the 40inch 40PFL9704 and the 46-inch 46PFL9704 -- are up to 50 percent more energy efficient than previous models, and both

boast 5 HDMI ports. Both LED

Pros will be available in December, with the 40-incher running£1,799 (around $2969) and the 46-inch model costing£2,499 (about $4,124).

Philips launches 9704 LED Pro televisions in the UK originally

appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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13

New Sony NXCAM is more camcorder than you ever need, but still you covet

By Ross Miller (Engadget) Submitted at 11/21/2009 4:33:00 AM

Robot Polar Bears: Less Windows 7 Sales Are Dangerous Than Real Great (Just Like Vista Sales in 2007) [Flashback] Bears, For Now [Robots]

By Dan Nosowitz (Gizmodo)

that it also means the general public is more and more techSubmitted at 11/20/2009 9:20:00 PM savvy: An OS release is a huge March, 2007: Windows Vista's deal for nerds like us, but it's initial sales are great,"more than starting to be a big deal for Joe d o u b l i n g " t h o s e o f i t s Sixpack as well. Given that predecessor, Windows XP. Flash Windows 7-packaged hardware forward to November, 2009: sales are actually lower than Windows 7 initial sales are 234% Vista-packaged hardware in this higher than Vista's. Those time period, it means that people numbers sound awfully similar... are installing a new OS on What does this all mean? To be existing computers, something h o n e s t , n o t a l l t h a t that's no big deal for us but could much—mostly, it means that be intimidating for a tech there are just more computers out neophyte. So this is a victory for there every year. But what's kind nerds everywhere. Go us! [ of heartening, to me at least, is Microsoft via NYTimes Twitter]

Sony's latest professional-grade camcorder probably meets your needs and then some by quite a stretch, recording AVCHD up to 24Mbps and SD quality in MPEG-2 / 9Mbps. We're also looking at a 20x zoom lens, 3 x

By Chris Jacob (Gizmodo) though. These would have to be 1/3-inch Exmor CMOS sensor, some damn good robot bears to and storage options including Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:30:00 AM convince me to see them over Memory Stick Pro Duo and an optional 128GB flash memory Instead of replacing the St. Louis live polar bears.

Zoo's deceased polar bears with PETA is encouraging the zoo to drive. Don't lie, you want this live ones, zoo officials put robots keep developing the animatronic beast, even if it clearly falls in the up in their place. This slightly- animals, but listen PETA, hear "if you have to ask, you can't better-than-average yard display me out. Sure, you're trying to afford it" category. Look for will surely be remembered as the keep animals out of captivity. more temptation sometime closer humble beginning of the robot You're also promoting the to its expected early 2010 launch. bear uprising. creation of an advanced, highly Filed under: Digital Cameras New Sony NXCAM is more The robot polar bears are part of mobile robot bear army. the zoo's holiday exhibit, and it's I encourage you to rethink your camcorder than you ever need, unclear if they'll be around after p o s i t i o n . [ I n h a b i t o t s v i a but still you covet originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 the season is over. Let's face it, I n h a b i t a t ] Nov 2009 04:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayStation 2 finally launches in Brazil for the bargain price of around US $462

Time to trade up to a new GPS unit

By Ross Miller (Engadget) Submitted at 11/21/2009 1:41:00 AM

You read that right. Sony's PlayStation 2, which the great majority of the world has been enjoying since 2000, is just now officially touching ground in Brazil. We're pretty sure it's been making its way into the country for many years by not-so-official means, but if you've gone the legit route, last-generation's game console king can be yours for just 799 Brazilian Real, which we're sad to say translates to about $461 in US currency. Yeah, we're expecting this to just fly off the shelves.

Filed under: Gaming

By Dave Freeman (CrunchGear) Submitted at 11/20/2009 5:00:00 PM

PlayStation 2 finally launches in Brazil for the bargain price of around US $462 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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McAfee warns about '12 Scams of Christmas' (CNET News.com) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:04:06 AM

Report offensive content: If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the CNET's Site Terms of Use, you can report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once reported, our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed.

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Tesla Motors IPO coming 'any day' now, says report

By Ross Miller (Engadget)

comments by Tesla investors (via Autoblog Green) suggest "any day now" might be any time Word on the street -- and by that between now and September we mean Reuters-- is that Tesla's 2010. looking to go public with the Filed under: Transportation company "any day." The luxury Tesla Motors IPO coming 'any e l e c t r i c c a r m a k e , w h o s e day' now, says report originally Roadster still goes for a cool appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 $109,000, would be the first US Nov 2009 07:31:00 EST. Please auto company to offer an IPO see our terms for use of feeds. since Ford way back in 1956, Permalink Autoblog| Reuters, says MSNBC. Quite a notable MSNBC| Email this| Comments event, indeed, but earlier Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:31:00 AM

TomTom wants you to buy a new PND (personal navigation device) this holiday season. So much so, that they will buy your old device from you via a mail in rebate.

How does it work? Well, you buy a TomTom PND, then go to this website to complete the process. You’ll ship TomTom your old GPS (along with the appropriate form, of course) and then you’ll get your check in about 7-14 days. Pretty easy. [via Twice]

Stories From the Hunt for Evan Ratliff

By Nicholas Thompson (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 11/20/2009 5:40:00 PM

After Evan Ratliff was captured, hunt, what did they do and what Wired asked the most active did they learn? hunters to send in their stories.

Why were they drawn to the

Gadgets/ Tech/ Politics/

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BlackBerry Curve 8530 now putting Verizon through the rounds

By Ross Miller (Engadget) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:12:00 AM

Right on schedule, the latest BlackBerry to grace the Verizon's CDMA spectrum, the Curve 8530, is now on sale. A 2.5-inch display, OS 5.0, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and yes, you buy it online. Let's be honest, WiFi -- take that, Tour. Price is what else were you gonna spend $199.99 on two-year contract, that money on tonight, hm? with an added $100 discount if Filed under: Cellphones

BlackBerry Curve 8530 now putting Verizon through the rounds originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Verizon Wireless| Email this| Comments

15

Video: Palin Booed in Indiana (Little Green Footballs)

outside her tour bus, booing and yelling “Quitting on the Submitted at 11/20/2009 2:44:57 PM job!”[Video] After Sarah Palin ended a bookHere’s a story on the signing event in Noblesville, e m b a r r a s s i n g i n c i d e n t a t Indiana, without signing more Indychannel.com: Palin Greets than 300 books for people who Hundreds, But Not Everyone waited more than 6 hours to see Leaves Happy. her, the crowd turned on her

Daily Crunch: Fireside Edition

By Bryce Durbin (CrunchGear) Submitted at 11/21/2009 12:00:29 AM

Shh! World’s largest radio

telescope network goes live Space adaptive HUMANITARY INVENTION detects things and then calls you about them USB-powered Alien figure with

illuminated tongue

For your holiday consideration: A little truck that poops dominoes New PogoPlug adds four USB ports, and more

Cisco adds Security Intelligence Ops to iPhone portfolio

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

their operations with a touch of a finger, and now Cisco has stepped in with an informational and alert resource that fits in your Submitted at 11/21/2009 11:00:00 AM pocket.

Filed under: Security, iPhone, The Cisco SIO (Security App Review Despite some Intelligence Operations) to Go security-conscious enterprise free app [ iTunes link], requiring experts pointing accusatory iPhone OS 3.0 or later, lets the fingers at the rather bleak paranoid properly alert and aware encryption story and only- security professional keep tabs on recently fixed ActiveSync policy the global threat landscape with c o m p l i a n c e o n t h e i P h o n e Cisco's Cyber Risk Reports, platform, there's no doubt that IT Threat Outbreaks and Mitigation and network professionals are Bulletins, along with podcasts, domain scanner, which will grab grooving on the iPhone -- there blog posts and a slew of other WHOIS data along with a brief are many apps designed for branded content. There's also an reputation score for your hosts. administrators to take control of IronPort-driven IP and email

Having all this Cisco goodness in one place is handy, although the majority of the app's headlines link to pages on the Cisco site that remain largely iPhone-unfriendly -- even the press release announcing the app's launch is hard to zoom properly -- and there's none of the flexibility of a full-featured RSS reader to forward articles, bookmark or set read/unread points.

Still, as a gesture of goodwill towards the intersection of iPhone users and security professionals, it's a reasonable step. Cisco also has the WebEx

Meetings app [ iTunes link] and the Cisco Mobile telephony tool [ iTunes link] in the store, both free. [via TechCrunch] TUAW Cisco adds Security Intelligence Ops to iPhone portfolio originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HOW TO: Use Social Media to Find Black Friday Deals

By Susan Payton (Mashable!)

Submitted at 11/20/2009 1:33:41 PM

Susan Payton is the Managing Partner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an internet marketing firm. She blogs at The Marketing Eggspert Blog, and teaches marketing courses at Marketing EggSchool. Follow her on Twitter@eggmarketing.

We’re a week away from Black Friday and just a few years ago, if you wanted to find the best deals, you had to wait for the sales flyers to hit your newspaper or mailbox. You’d make a list of what you wanted and get your game plan together. But that’s all changed because of social media.

Tools like iPhone apps, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook will be key in helping competitive shoppers get a leg up against the thousands of shoppers vying for the deals of the century this season. And with holiday spending projected to be down 3% from last year’s low numbers, stores are doing whatever they can to make it easier for shoppers to spend their money with them.

Blogs and Websites Weeks before Black Friday,

blogs and websites like Black Friday 2009 and BlackFriday.info have been uploading sales flyers from every store imaginable to help shoppers plan out their attack on the biggest shopping day of the year.

For gadget-lovers, Gizmodo’s#blackfriday feed has the latest posts about the best electronic deals to be had.

Mom-related blogs and forums, such as MomsLikeMe, a geography based networking site, or Triangle Mom2Mom, focus on the strategies for what to do with the kids when shopping on Black Friday, local sales and events, and advice on how to stretch that dollar even farther.

The benefit to blogs is that they are updated constantly, with deals being posted every day.

Find one or two you like and subscribe to their RSS feeds to stay abreast of the latest Black Friday news and offers.

My Black Friday Deals takes a sprinkling of social media and mixes it together with a dash of blogging to create a place for shoppers to interact. The site uses the mobile photo slide show app Whrrl to allow bloggers to take pictures of the best deals

Wired Tests Writer With Series of Bold Challenges

By Nicholas Thompson (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 11/20/2009 5:39:00 PM

With a week remaining in the

Friday sales, as well as its annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. WalMart, which has claimed it won’t be beat on price on Black Friday or after, is tweeting its deals already in place, and will likely do so through Black Friday.

The dedicated Black Friday blogs and web sites (such as the they can find in stores and upload ones mentioned above) are also them to the site to be voted on by getting a piece of the social deal seekers. The best deals will media pie by creating Fan Pages then be shared on Twitter, Flickr, on Facebook, like the one for and Facebook.

Black-Friday.net. Pages like this Full disclosure: Susan works really put the power in the hands with Collective Bias, which runs of the people, who can share My Black Friday Deals. Social deals as they find them.

Media YouTube is chock full of videos Bloggers, consumers, and brands about Black Friday, as well. The alike are all using Twitter and site has a large library of clips Facebook this year for Black from both consumers and major F r i d a y . S t a p l e s h a s b e e n news networks, with advice on “leaking” its own Black Friday handling the crowds on Black deals on its Twitter and Facebook Friday, what to expect at the accounts for days, and a search stores, and tips on which stores for the term#blackfriday on have the best deals. There’s an Twitter nets an endless stream of App for That deals, tips, and links that will Now that I have an iPhone, I get help shoppers save on Friday. excited about functional, useful Y o u c a n a l s o c h e c k o u t applications like the Black Friday the@blackfriday account, which apps that have come out this tweets Black Friday news from year. DealNews has a free Black across the web.

Friday app that lets you sort deals Macy’s too has been priming its by “Early Bird,” “In Store Only,” followers on Twitter for its Black and “Limited Availability,” as

Prosecutors Drop Plans to Appeal Lori Drew Cyberbullying Case

hunt for Evan Ratliff, Wired By Kim Zetter (Wired Top decided to up the stakes with of Stories) five challenges hidden in New Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:00:00 PM York Times crossword puzzles.

Prosecutors have dropped any

plans to appeal the Lori Drew cyberbullying case, thus ending the controversial and lengthy criminal case.

well as see photos of the sale items.

The Toys R Us Big Book Favorites app lets users make wish lists, find deals, and share deals (it’s free, too). The $0.99 BF Deals app, meanwhile, lets you see a map of other users at stores so you can find a less crowded one (assuming a lot of the shoppers have the app), and it sends your deals to your Twitter account. There are others (do a search in the iTunes store for “Black Friday”), and stores like K-Mart and Wal-Mart may incorporate Black Friday deals into their existing iPhone apps.

Wrapping It Up If you’re planning to brave the crowds on Black Friday, be smart. Get on Twitter, Facebook, or the dozens of Black Friday blogs to find the deals you want.

Take your iPhone with you to reduce the number of stores you go to in fruitless search of items that were sold out at 5 AM. And most of all, good luck to you!

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, MarcusPhoto1 Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, iStockphoto Tags: black friday, deals, List, Lists, shopping, trending

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iPhone App Developer Backlash Growing

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

consumers, because they can't do what they want and often the apps they get are lower quality Early on, we predicted that than they would be otherwise, Apple's walled garden approach because developers cannot to apps for the iPhone would lead rapidly respond with necessary to developer backlash. Even if it improvements and changes. was successful at first, the Finally it's bad for Apple because obvious trajectory was that it it's driving away some talented wouldn't just lead to problems developers who are useful in that drove developers away, but it making the iPhone so powerful. w o u l d e v e n t u a l l y l i m i t As those developers move to application innovation, just as other platforms, it will help those other competing platforms were other platforms catch up, and getting good enough to match potentially surpass the iPhone.

Apple's. We might not be all the But, perhaps more importantly, way there yet, but the evidence is it's bad for Apple because it risks growing that the backlash is Apple's overall reputation. It getting serious. Slashdot noted makes it harder to hire top that some respected developers engineers: There are a couple are ditching the iPhone app store reasons they should care. One is and reader Andrew Fong alerts us that these users are the people to Paul Graham's well argued they want as employees. If your explanation of why Apple's setup company seems evil, the best is bad for developers, bad for programmers won't work for you. innovation, bad for consumers That hurt Microsoft a lot starting and bad for Apple. in the 90s. Programmers started To summarize, it's bad for to feel sheepish about working developers because they're there. It seemed like selling out. distanced from their users, and When people from Microsoft can't quickly make changes and w e r e t a l k i n g t o o t h e r updates, since each change needs programmers and they mentioned to go through Apple's long, where they worked, there were a mysterious and arbitrary approval lot of self-deprecating jokes process. On top of that, by about having gone over to the creating a very real risk that dark side. But the real problem Apple might not approve an app, f o r M i c r o s o f t w a s n ' t t h e developers have less incentive to embarrassment of the people they put in the time. It's bad for hired. It was the people they innovation because you are never got. And you know who putting a gatekeeper in front of got them? Google and Apple. If any innovation. It's bad for Microsoft was the Empire, they Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:05:16 PM

were the Rebel Alliance. And it's largely because they got more of the best people that Google and Apple are doing so much better than Microsoft today. As for why Apple is making this mistake, Graham blames Apple's general view of the market: They treat iPhone apps the way they treat the music they sell through iTunes. Apple is the channel; they own the user; if you want to reach users, you do it on their terms. The record labels agreed, reluctantly. But this model doesn't work for software. It doesn't work for an intermediary to own the user. The software business learned that in the early 1980s, when companies like VisiCorp showed that although the words "software" and "publisher" fit together, the underlying concepts don't.

Software isn't like music or books. It's too complicated for a third party to act as an intermediary between developer and user. And yet that's what Apple is trying to be with the App Store: a software publisher.

And a particularly overreaching one at that, with fussy tastes and a rigidly enforced house style.

If software publishing didn't work in 1980, it works even less now that software development has evolved from a small number of big releases to a constant stream of small ones. But Apple doesn't understand that either.

Their model of product

development derives from hardware. They work on something till they think it's finished, then they release it. You have to do that with hardware, but because software is so easy to change, its design can benefit from evolution. The standard way to develop applications now is to launch fast and iterate.

Which means it's a disaster to have long, random delays each time you release a new version.

My guess is that there may be another reason: the perfectionist attitude at Apple. They don't want "bad" apps getting into the store, and certainly some people appreciate that. But the store has 100,000 apps right now, and most people are never going to see the vast majority of them.

Having a few "bad apps" get in isn't a huge issue at this point, and certainly user-level reviews can help deal with that issue anyway. And, even if that is the biggest concern, why not at least allow non-approved apps to be viewed and downloaded, just without an official "apple seal of approval." Perhaps it made sense when Apple was first launching the store (though, even that seems questionable), but if it wants to continue to lead the market, it needs to break down that wall.

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EFF Looks To Bust Bogus Podcasting Patent; Needs Prior Art

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 11/20/2009 6:10:00 PM

Back in July, we wrote about how a company named Volomedia had gleefully announced that it had patented podcasting.

The patent itself(7,568,213) seemed ridiculously broad, obvious and covered by prior art. On top of that, it was difficult to see how it passed the current (though, perhaps not for long) "Bilski" test for what can be patented.

It looks like the EFF has decided to be proactive about this and is looking for prior art with which to bust this particular patent. In the comments on our original post about this, reader Marcel de Jong, noted that Dave Winer described audio enclosures for RSS in a blog post in January of 2001 -- nearly three years before this patent was filed. Hopefully that is rather compelling prior art, but if anyone has any more info, please send it over to the EFF. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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Seize Seesmic Twitter app on BlackBerry, Android (CNET News.com) Submitted at 11/20/2009 4:02:00 PM

The Twitter service with the cutesy raccoon mascot is making a new home on BlackBerry and Google Android phones. The free Seesmic, like its proliferate rivals, lets you read, manage, and compose Twitter messages much more flexibly than you can do from Twitter's Web site. We crash-tested both mobile versions as soon as we heard the news.

Seesmic on Android Seesmic 1.0 for Android is available from the Android Market app, which is located on the smartphone. It takes up just over 1MB. The interface spreads four tabs along the top in both landscape and portrait mode, one each for the timeline, replies, direct messages, and your profile.

There's also a ribbon on the screen that you can tap to refresh the feed. Click to open a tweet and you can save it as a favorite, retweet, or reply as a public "@" message or as a private posting.

From the menu button, you can refresh, compose, or tinker with the settings.

Although Seesmic's Android interface is much more stripped down than its desktop AIR app for Windows and Mac, the app manages to remain flexible by giving you a choice over the kinds of notifications you'd like to receive, and over the partner services you'd prefer to use to

It's true that launching every Twitter task within the menu simplifies the app by keeping you from hunting through tabs and menus for tools. In addition, the more established UberTwitter app works almost exactly the same way, though we prefer the way UberTwitter flags and download photos for fast viewing. UberTwitter's hyperlinking to tweeted URLs also scores higher in our snapjudgment comparison than Seesmic's new app.

The settings are skimpier, too, in the BlackBerry version compared with Seesmic's Android app. You can't choose a URL shortening service, for example. You can, however, shorten URLs and send pictures, and view Twitter lists that you've created on Twitter.com. As far as we can tell, you cannot manage multiple accounts yet, or get notifications. send a photo, video, or shorten a h a n g u p s u p f r o n t , b u t t h e product and is sure to have some Seesmic is in version 1.0.6 beta URL. Android app somehow paired my flaws that developers can come for BlackBerry devices running Sure, it's blurry (blaming the test tweet in the timeline with back to later. But we weren't operating system 4.6 and up and BlackBerry camera), but squint CNET blogger Don Reisinger's expecting this skeletal display. is in alpha version for the Storm hard enough and you'll see that (@donreisinger) face. Whoops. The friends timeline is front and and Storm 2. You can give it a Seesmic associated a picture with Thankfully, my actual profile center, but without the tabs found whirl by picking your download my account that's not actually my picture showed up when I in the Android version, you do file from www.seesmic.com, f a c e . ( C r e d i t : J e s s i c a checked Twitter elsewhere, everything--from compose a new from the BlackBerry browser.

Dolcourt/CNET) including Seesmic on the desktop tweet, retweet, and search The app clocked in at about The biggest flaws we've noticed and on the BlackBerry.

Twitter, to check replies and 172KB on our Bold 9700 test so far? Seesmic only seems to Seesmic on BlackBerry messages--from the Menu key. device. support a single user account, We're sorry to say, but the Seesmic takes a huge design This content has passed through and composing a new tweet brawny, visually styling Seesmic departure on BlackBerry. It's also fivefilters.org. d o e s n ' t t r i g g e r t h e v i r t u a l we're accustomed to all but missing some key features that keyboard while in portrait mode. shrivels on BlackBerry. We make the app so good on the We didn't notice crashes or know, we know, it's a beta desktop.(Credit: Seesmic)

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Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Tech biz turkeys (CNET News.com)

Dialing in from our Boston bureau is Jim Kerstetter, Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:20:00 PM executive editor of CNET News.

Why is it that as Thanksgiving Jim is responsible for all the approaches, when we should be news coverage on CNET, and he focusing on the good things in covered tech prior to that at our lives, journalists take the B u s i n e s s W e e k . W h e n I opportunity to talk about what's approached him about this bad? I don't know, but I do know roundtable topic, he said, "I think that I'm not immune to the trend. I covered all the bad businesses This week on the Reporters' already."

Roundtable: tech business By the way, right after we turkeys! Unlike the Real Deal stopped recording, and my guests podcast Thursday in which Tom left, the live chatroom pointed Merritt and Brian Tong tried to out that we had neglected to steer you away from turkey m e n t i o n p e r h a p s t h e m o s t products, in this episode, we heinously derelict tech business discuss the turkey business d e c i s i o n i n t h e h i s t o r y o f decisions and business models personal computing. They were that we've seen in tech over the right. I could tell you what it was years.

--or leave it up for ongoing My guests are both co-workers. discussion in the comments, First, in the studio, Charlie which is what I'm going to do.

Cooper, executive editor at Listen now: Download today's CBSNews.com and author of the podcast column Coop's Corner. Before Subscribe with iTunes (audio) moving to his highfalutin' job at Subscribe with iTunes (video) CBS News, Charlie worked in Subscribe with RSS (audio) the CNET newsroom as an editor Subscribe with RSS (video) and columnist, and he ran a great Reporters' Roundtable Podcast daily video podcast called the 11: Tech biz turkeys Daily Debrief.

Show notes and talking points:

course).

• The troika of dot-com crazy: • Be not selling itself to Apple.

Kozmo.com, Pets.com, and • And more!

Webvan.

• Microsoft's mishandling of Thanks for listening to negotiations with the Justice Reporters' Roundtable. We're on Department. live each Friday at live.cnet.com, • S p e a k i n g o f M i c r o s o f t : except Thanksgiving--we're Yahoo's failure to sell itself to taking the week off. After the Microsoft and failure to live up to T h a n k s g i v i n g h o l i d a y a n d its fiduciary responsibilities to through the rest of the year, shareholders. Pure madness.

Reporters' Roundtable • Compaq Computer buying (December 4, December 11, and DEC...for what, exactly? The December 18) will start an hour mainframe business or the high- early, at noon PT. end server business, just as x86 Topics for future weeks will servers take over the market (see include: the role of design in the Sun Microsystems failures). creation of tech products; • Potential disaster: Oracle advances in air travel, and what buying Sun. We still don't get they mean for you and me; and this. the future of the Web browser.

• eBay buying Skype: We have Watch my Twitter feed for never figured out how this u p d a t e s , a n d p l e a s e s e n d worked. feedback to our new e-mail • Sony spying on users. address, roundtable@cnet.com.

• Hewlett-Packard spying on Thanks!

CNET. This content has passed through • Going back in time, Time fivefilters.org.

Warner buying America Online, of course. And AOL failing to do anything with its chunk of Netscape (same with Sun, of

19

Make a Wine Tote Out of Your Old Clothes [DIY]

By Lisa Hoover (Lifehacker) Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:00:00 AM

Have an old t-shirt or skirt lying around? With little more than a pair of scissors and a sewing machine, you can turn your old clothes into a nifty wine tote for that bottle of Merlot you're giving to mom.

Practically any item of clothing will do, from football jerseys to old jeans. This video provides all the details on measurements, sewing techniques, and even how to hide a stain or tear on your soon-to-be wine tote. Spend a weekend making a few of these babies, buy a case or two of wine, and consider your holiday shopping done.

If you're not hauling or giving away bottles of wine, these bags are still pretty neat. What else could you use them for?

Brainstorm in the comments.[Via Wines of Yadkin Valley]

Large Hadron Collider up and running again (CNET News.com) Submitted at 11/20/2009 5:03:18 PM

A silicon detector being installed in the Large Hadron Collider in December 2007.(Credit: Michael Hoch/CERN)

The world's biggest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, is in full operation after a year of repairs.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, said in a statement on Friday that

particle beams are once again

circulating in the LHC, and that a clockwise circulating beam was established at 10 p.m. in Geneva.

According to the CERN Twitter feed, an anticlockwise beam was also successfully injected, and both beams have completed

many thousands of turns of the LHC. Read more of " Large Hadron Collider up and running again" at ZDNet UK. This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Firefox: Heat and the CPU usage problem (CNET News.com)

Flashblock, allows you to selectively enable and disable Flash content on Web sites."

Firefox has a CPU usage issue Let me describe my experience. and, consequently, can cause I find that tab for tab, Firefox overheating problems in some uses decidedly more resources l a p t o p s , p a r t i c u l a r l y than other browsers--Safari, for ultraportables. That's what I've example. And in the past (when I found over the last couple of was actively using a Windows years.

Vista-based machine) Firefox But don't take my word for it. also compared unfavorably with This is documented on a Mozilla Microsoft's Internet Explorer for support page entitled "Firefox CPU usage. c o n s u m e s a l o t o f C P U More specifically, here's the resources." The page states: "At behavior as I see it. When I'm times, Firefox may require accessing sites with multimedia s i g n i f i c a n t C P U [ c e n t r a l content such as the CNET front processing unit] resources in door, Firefox CPU usage will order to download, process, and bounce around between 30 and display Web content." And forum 60 percent, and sometimes spike postings like this one about a higher (80 percent and above), as Dell Netbook are not uncommon: indicated by the Mac OS 10.6.2 "Mini9 would get way too hot."

Activity Monitor.

The Mozilla support page goes On the other hand, the Safari on to say that "you can review CPU usage with the same pages and monitor CPU usage through open is much lower--typically specific tools" and describes b e t w e e n 2 p e r c e n t a n d 1 0 ways to limit CPU usage, such p e r c e n t . as: "A Firefox add-on, called My theory is that most users Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:15:00 AM

don't notice this because in mainstream laptops, this isn't an issue. But it can become an issue in ultraportables--typically under an inch thick--which are more sensitive to heat because of the design constraints. The ultrathin Apple MacBook Air, which I use as my main machine, is a good example.

The fan is usually an audible indicator of CPU usage issues.

When I'm using Firefox and I have tabs open on multimediarich sites (which is par for the course these days), the Air's fan will almost invariably kick on and stay on until I close the tabs.

As I write this, the fan has finally shut down after I closed the Firefox tabs (e.g, CNET front door). Those same tabs in Safari are still open and not causing any significant spike in CPU usage or fan activity.

When I contacted Mozilla, a technical support person guessed that Safari is possibly better at optimizing Flash-based sites

compared to Firefox. And that may be true. However, I had similar issues before when I was using a Hewlett-Packard business ultraportable (also very thin like the Air) that were not necessarily tied to Flash usage. In short, Firefox was less efficient with CPU usage compared to Microsoft's IE 8. And the behavior was similar. The HP laptop would quickly heat up and the fan would kick on.

Finally, let me reemphasize that I'm guessing that most users don't notice this because heat dissipation is not a big issue for mainstream laptops that are not necessarily thermally-challenged when accessing multimedia-rich Web pages. That said, this has been a steady problem for me because I use ultraportables almost exclusively and has forced me to limit my use of Firefox.

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Twitter/Facebook Client Brizzly Open for SignUps [Social Networks]

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 11/20/2009 2:00:00 PM

Brizzly, the web-based social media manager that ranked as one of our readers' favorite Twitter clients, has dropped the invite code requirement and is available for anyone to log into.

It's still technically in "beta," but mostly to keep up the fairly rapid pace of feature development. [via TechCrunch]

Droid Does: A Price Drop

By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

are not.

Specifically, Amazon and Dell have both cut prices on the When it was released earlier this smartphone to $150 and $120, month, the retail price for the respectively. The news comes Motorola Droid was $200 for just one day after news broke of new activations on Verizon. price cuts by online retailers on Although Verizon is staying firm other devices not named iPhone: with that price point for now, it the Palm Pre and Pixi. shouldn’t really play a huge role appears that some of its retailers Of course, the device cost Submitted at 11/20/2009 4:04:02 PM

in consumer’s decision given the total costs of ownership for all of them are well into the thousands of dollars over the life of the wireless contract. Nonetheless, if retailers are slashing prices, meaning they’re making less on each sale, it could be a sign that these iPhone alternatives aren’t selling as well as anticipated.

So far, it’s been estimated that the Droid sold about 100,000 handsets in its first weekend and 250,000 in its first week on the market.

[Disclosure: Motorola is a sponsor of Mashable's Open Web Awards.]

Tags: droid, Mobile 2.0, Motorola, smartphones, verizon

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Fido Factor Finds Dog-Friendly Places in Your City

By Ben Parr (Mashable!)

Submitted at 11/20/2009 7:31:41 PM

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible

by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Fido Factor Quick Pitch: Fido Factor is a dog -specific local search and review site and iPhone app built for dog owners. It’s a “Yelp for dogs.”

Genius Idea: We dog owners love our canines: it’s really that simple. We raise them, feed them, play with them, sleep with them, and fall in love with them.

We want to take them almost everywhere we go too, but that’s where you start running into problems.

The problem is also simple: there aren’t a lot of places where you can take your dog. It’s only appropriate to bring your pup to certain restaurants, parks, and hotels, but it’s practically impossible to know which places are OK for your loyal companion.

That’s where Fido Factor comes in. The site calls itself “the ultimate guide to dog-friendly locations.” Its purpose is really

clear: to tell you where you can bring your dog in your city. Fido Factor goes beyond that, though, with a well-designed website and companion iPhone app.

Fido Factor compiles a usergenerated list of dog-friendly locations. Currently, it’s only available in four cities: Boston, San Francisco, New York City, and Portland, but that list is growing. Simply search for a location type (i.e. restaurant) and you’ll find a list of dog-friendly locales, along with ratings, reviews, and a filled-in Google Map. It really is a lot like Yelp, but for dog lovers.

There are few other cool features to note. The biggest one is the Fido Factor iPhone app, which not only tells you about nearby locations for your best friend, but even has a feature called “Pooch Pics,” where you can take a picture at a location and upload it for all to see on the website. The website also boasts Facebook Connect integration.

Fido Factor is still small, and it is very simple, but it really solves a constant issue for dog owners effectively. Finding a place to gather with your dog-loving friends has never been so easy.

Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the“new CloudApp()” contest– use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* ( please see website for official rules and guidelines).” Reviews: PHP, Yelp Tags: bizspark, dogs, Fido Factor

21

Liberian Laws Are A Secret Due To Copyright; Even The Gov't Doesn't Have Them

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 11/20/2009 7:39:00 PM

We've seen a few ridiculous cases whereby local governments claim copyright on a law, but it's still stunning to see what's going on in Liberia. Tom sends in the news that no one knows what the law covers in Liberia, because one man, leading a small group of lawyers, claims to hold the copyright on the laws of the country and won't share them unless people (or, rather, the government of Liberia) is willing to pay. Oh, and did we mention that the US government paid for some of this?

The story is a bit convoluted, but apparently, Liberia hasn't really had a full copy of its laws, as they were mixed and matched in "incomplete sets" throughout different libraries. A professor at Cornell had begun a (free) project to compile the country's laws, but after he died, a group of lawyers in Liberia took over the project -- and were given $400,000 by the US Justice Department. The lawyers then "numbered, bound, and indexed" all of the recent laws, and claim

that because of that, they now own the copyright on it.

While perhaps copyright law is different in Liberia, most places have rejected "sweat of the brow" arguments for copyright. If you didn't create the actual content, you're not supposed to get the copyright. You don't get a copyright just for compiling the work of others without adding anything new. If this lawyer wanted to get paid for the work, he should have negotiated that upfront. Instead, he's holding the country's laws hostage, and asking for $150,000 to $360,000 to turn them over to the government.

What's really amazing is that this guy is currently serving as Liberia's justice minister. The work he did on the laws happened before that, and he claims that he'd give up the laws for free, but that the other lawyers he worked with will not.

Perhaps Liberia should just start from scratch and create all new laws, wiping out the value of these particular locked up laws.

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UNDERDOG: Google Android Smashes Apple iPhone in Reader Vote

By Barb Dybwad (Mashable!)

Submitted at 11/20/2009 9:20:32 PM

We’ve been matching up popular web services, applications and mobile apps against each other in heated oneon-one battles here in our weekly Faceoff Series. Last week Microsoft Office bested Google Docs in a head to head race for the title of office suite champion.

This week we turned our attention to a rather timely battle being waged on the mobile front, between Apple’s still wildlyselling iPhone platform and Google’s slower to boil Android mobile operating system.

Apparently the latter has been gaining some ground, resulting in our first unexpected upset victory in the Faceoff series. … Google Android is the winning platform by a more than 2:1 margin. Out of 5045 total votes, Android walked away with 3323 of them or 66%, while the iPhone platform only netted 1494 or 30%. The tie vote included 228 or 5% who just couldn’t choose between them. Many people cited the openness of the platform and third-party development process as well as Android’s versatility, being able to be put to use not just on

If Google's Book Scanning Violates Copyright Law, What About The AP's Book Scanning?

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

entire work either, but so people can do a search to find the Week 5: relevant tidbit of info within the Danny Sullivan does a great job book. The AP's statement on the - WordPress vs. Typepad - WINNER: WordPress, 2714 calling out the hypocrisy of the matter is laughable:"The book, votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: Associated Press yet again. The purchased several days ahead of organization, which has taken a its on-sale date by the AP, was 357 votes) very maximalist position on scanned after the first spot stories Week 6: copyright, where fair use gets moved on the wire from New - Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard - WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 mostly ignored, apparently had York so that staffers in bureaus votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 no problem scanning Sarah in Washington and Alaska with P a l i n ' s e n t i r e b o o k i n t o a knowledge of various parts of phones but also netbooks, tablet votes, Tie: 121 votes) computer so that reporters could Gov. Palin's life and political devices, eReaders and more.

Week 7: Still, given the popularity of the - T w e e t D e c k v s . S e e s m i c search it. Of course, this is no career could read those relevant different than what Google is sections the next day." Yes, you iPhone we were a little surprised D e s k t o p by these results. Are you? Let us - WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 doing with its book scanning can understand why they did it, know in the comments. votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 program (which, again, I still a n d e v e n w h y i t s e e m s believe is a clear case of fair use). reasonable. But that doesn't Web Faceoff: Overall Results votes, Tie: 260 votes) Yet, since the AP seems to take change the fact that it appears the Week 1: Week 8: - Mozilla Firefox vs. Google - Microsoft Office vs. Google such a limited view on fair use AP made an unauthorized copy (and has a habit of accusing of the book, in violation of its Chrome Docs - WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes - WINNER: Microsoft Office, Google of "stealing" content), it's own interpretation of copyright (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 amusing that it's now trying to law. Funny how the law seems defend its actions by claiming oh so different when it limits votes) votes, Tie: 315 votes) that it was legal because it was what you can do, than when it's Week 2: Week 9: - Tumblr vs. Posterous - Apple iPhone vs. Google for the sake of journalism, and a b o u t l i m i t i n g w h a t y o u r the scan wasn't for public c o m p e t i t o r s c a n d o . . .

- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes Android (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 - WINNER: Google Android, consumption. Except, of course, Permalink| Comments| Email votes) 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 Google's book scanning isn't for This Story Week 3: votes, Tie: 228 votes) Reviews: "public consumption" of the - Pandora vs. Last.fm Android, Chrome, Facebook, - WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes F i r e f o x , G o o g l e , G o o g l e (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 Chrome, Google Docs, Mozilla votes) Firefox, Pandora, Posterous, Week 4: S e e s m i c D e s k t o p , T u m b l r , By Nicholas Thompson (Wired snapped a self-portrait each day - Twitter vs. Facebook TweetDeck, Twitter, TypePad, Top Stories) to document his constantly - WINNER: Facebook, 2484 WordPress evolving appearance.

Submitted at 11/20/2009 5:41:00 PM votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: Tags: android, apple, Google, 588 votes) iphone, Mobile 2.0, web faceoff While on the run, Evan Ratliff Submitted at 11/20/2009 4:02:29 PM

Shaggy to Bald: Evan's Daily Costume Change

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Entertainmnent Industry: Yes, Please Lily Allen: It's Ok To Sell My CDs, Just Don't Keep Negotiating Secret Copyright Counterfeit Give My Music For Free Treaty To Save Our Asses

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

Evidence Photographers International Council Independent Film and Television Sherwin Siy (one of the few Alliance (IFTA) people who actually was allowed International Alliance of to glance briefly at parts of the Theatrical Stage Employees proposed ACTA treaty, though (IATSE) under strict NDA) has written Motion Picture Association of about yet another letter sent by America, Inc. (MPAA) the entertainment industry to the National Music Publishers government in support of ACTA. Association (NMPA) This letter includes pretty much NBC Universal everyone who benefits from News Corporation abusing copyright laws and is Picture Archive Council of afraid of the internet: Advertising America (PACA) Photographers of America Professional Photographers of A m e r i c a n A s s o c i a t i o n o f America (PPA) Independent Music (A2IM) Recording Industry Association A m e r i c a n F e d e r a t i o n o f of America (RIAA) Television and Radio Artists Reed Elsevier Inc. (AFTRA) Society of Sport & Event American Society of Composers, Photographers Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Software & Information Industry American Society of Media Association (SIIA) Photographers, Inc. (ASMP) Stock Artists Alliance A s s o c i a t i o n o f A m e r i c a n Student Photographic Society Publishers (AAP) The Advertising Photographers Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI) of America Commercial Photographers The Walt Disney Company International Time Warner, Inc. Directors Guild of America Universal Music Group (DGA) Viacom Inc. Submitted at 11/20/2009 4:44:00 PM

Counterfeit all you want, just as long as you profit from it. Yeah.

Warner Music Group Funny...

Someone should explain to her isn't it, that all these companies Dark Helmet alerts us to the the difference between price and and industry groups are news that our good friend Lily value, and also the benefits of supporting a deal that no one's Allen is back in the news word of mouth marketing. But, it seen yet? Oh wait... that's discussing file sharing again. doesn't seem like she's much because many of them have seen Tragically, it does not appear that i n t e r e s t e d i n a c t u a l l y it and actually have had a hand in she's used her "time off" to better understanding this stuff, so if you creating it. But what's really understand copyright issues very want to help her understand, damning is that no where in the much. Unlike nearly everyone maybe go set up a shop selling letter do they explain why this is e l s e w h o c o m p l a i n s a b o u t burned copies of her CDs, and actually needed or how it will do copyright infringement, she's see what happens. anything valuable. Instead, it's a apparently "all for" infringing on Of course, if we take this pure faith-based letter saying "if her copyrights, just so long as seriously, it shows how little you pass this secret treaty, good you pay someone-- even if it's the she's thought this through. Her things will happen." I don't guy on the street selling the earlier complaint was that when know about you, but generally, I counterfeit CDs. Seriously:"If people file share, they don't prefer there to be actual proof someone comes up with a burnt provide money back to the artists and evidence that restricting copy of my CD and offers it to and the labels. Of course, when consumer rights around the world you for ÂŁ4 I haven't a problem counterfeiters are selling on the actually leads to some sort of real with that as long as the person street, the same thing is true, but benefit. buying it places some kind of suddenly it's okay? At what Tellingly, they don't respond to value on my music." Yes, so point does the world realize that any of the points we raised while some musicians have said Ms. Allen doesn't know what earlier. This is not a treaty to they're fine with non-commercial she's talking about? help people or the economy. It's file sharing, but are against Permalink| Comments| Email a deal to try to sneak through a anyone selling their unauthorized This Story system for propping up an works, Ms. Allen seems to have obsolete business model by taken the opposite approach. companies who don't want to adapt.

Permalink| Comments| Email This Story Submitted at 11/20/2009 6:56:00 PM

Levi Johnston's 'Playgirl' Photo Reveal (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:05:00 AM

ET's Mark Steines sits down with Levi Johnston, who takes a look at his own steamy Playgirl

photos for the first time.

"The shower scene I did was crazy. I wasn't expecting to have

to do that," Levi confesses about the pics.

Would he consider posing semi-

nude again? Click the video to find out!

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Tech/ Entertainment/

E-reader Newspaper

Smoking kills... your Mac

By Chris Rawson (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Odds and ends It should be pretty obvious by now that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health. What's not as obvious is that it might be bad for your Mac, too. According to The Consumerist, two different people got turned down for AppleCare maintenance because their Macs were used in a house with a smoker. Both people appealed their cases all the way up to Steve Jobs, and both of them lost.

I've opened up a few computers that spent time in a house full of heavy smokers, and the insides weren't pretty. There was this disgusting brown resin built up all over everything, and it pretty much smelled like an ashtray stuffed full of 5-year-old cigarette butts. Though it's probably a stretch to call this "a

biohazard" like in one of the cases The Consumerist cites, AppleCare agreements are worded loosely enough in their limitations of coverage that Apple seems perfectly within its rights to deny coverage in these two cases: The Plan does not cover: Damage to the Covered Equipment caused by accident, abuse, neglect, misuse (including faulty installation, repair, or maintenance by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider), unauthorized modification,

extreme environment (including extreme temperature or humidity), extreme physical or electrical stress or interference, fluctuation or surges of electrical power, lightning, static electricity, fire, acts of God or other external causes.

It's that "other external causes" clause that's the catch-all, although you could probably argue that an atmosphere filled with smoke counts as an "extreme environment" as well.

Bottom line: if you have to smoke, you might want to step away from the computer first.

With the investment that your Mac represents sitting there on the desk, why take the risk of messing it up in an easily preventable way?

TUAW Smoking kills... your Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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'New Moon' Makes Box Office History (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:36:00 AM

The studio behind 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' tells ET that the eagerly awaited vampire sequel sank its fangs into the

most profitable, single openingday ever. Read on to find out what movie it topped!

Summit Entertainment estimates that on Friday, ‘New Moon’ raked in $72.7 million in North America, surpassing ‘The Dark

Knight’’s debut ($62.2 million).

‘New Moon’ also notched the best gross for midnight shows ever at $26.3 million.

Geotagged tweets now alive in Stone Design's Twittelator Pro 3.3.1

By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 11/20/2009 1:30:00 PM

Filed under: iPhone, App Store Twitter has flipped the switch on some new features, including geotagging of tweets and automatic retweeting. As a happy user of Stone Design's Twittelator Pro 3.3.1[iTunes link], I was even more giddy when I found out that my favorite Twitter app already supports both of these features.

The geotagging feature lets you optionally attach a latitude and longitude to your tweets. If you receive the tweet in Twittelator, you can tap on the sender's avatar icon to see the geotag and pull up a Google map of the location near where the tweet was sent.

The app lets you turn off geotagging when you send a tweet, which is useful if you're trying to shake off a stalker. It's also cool to use "nearby search" to find people who are near you and sending out tweets, and view their location on a map.

The official retweet feature has been going live for the past two weeks or so, although as of yet I

haven't seen or been able to send a retweet that appears with the new retweet icon. In the webbased Twitter, I do see the new icons and messages that say "Retweeted by you," but I'm not sure why I'm not seeing this in Twittelator Pro. Is anyone else using Twittelator Pro 3.3.1 who can vouch that the new retweet capability is working for them? Leave a comment.

TUAW Geotagged tweets now alive in Stone Design's Twittelator Pro 3.3.1 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacUpdate Desktop version 5.0.2 released, win a membership from TUAW

By Casey Johnston (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 11/20/2009 2:15:00 PM

Filed under: Software, Cool tools MacUpdate announced today the release of version 5.0.2 of the MacUpdate Desktop utility, which allows users to manage application and widget software updates on their Mac OS X machines. The new version of the application adds some features and bug fixes as well as support for more languages.

MacUpdate Desktop can track software updates for 30,000 Mac applications, and it also provides update support for applications on the iPhone, although iTunes handles that pretty well. Updates can be triggered manually and individually, or set to install automatically when MacUpdate Desktop is open. It also provides support for updating screen

savers and allows users to sort applications into "watch lists," so they can keep track of programs that are more important to keep current than others.

The update includes improved handling of the software it tracks, such as version and application matching, as well as French, German, and Italian localization.

Some of the bugs it fixes are community preferences, registration problems, and issues with extracting tar bzip2 and dmg.zip downloads.

There are several update managers out there for Mac OS X (including AppFresh, LogicielMac, VersionTracker Pro, etc.) with fans and detractors of their own. If you've had great or not-so-great experiences with any of the updater tools, let us know in the comments.

Want to win one of two subscriptions to MacUpdate Desktop, courtesy of MU and TUAW? Read on for details!

Continue reading MacUpdate Desktop version 5.0.2 released, win a membership from TUAW TUAW MacUpdate Desktop version 5.0.2 released, win a membership from TUAW originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GrandCentral Website Shuts Down Next Month: Download Your Data and Contacts

By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)

Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:26:03 AM

Google has already transitioned GrandCentral users over to Google Voice, and now comes the final step in that move: Google is shuttering the GrandCentral website and telling users to download any old messages and contacts they have on that site. The GrandCentral site will be closed on the last day of the year – December 31st – and a further reminder will be sent before that date.

In a mail to users today, the company advised: The GrandCentral website is shutting down – GrandCentral is now Google Voice.

Dear GrandCentral User: We’re writing to let you know that we will be closing down the GrandCentral website as of December 31, 2009.

All GrandCentral accounts were upgraded to Google Voice earlier

Marketing Handsets in the Superphone Era

By Colin Gibbs (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:00:20 AM

Apple’s iPhone has changed the game for smartphone manufacturers looking to stand out in an increasingly crowded

field. Smartphones were once relegated to buttoned-down business types, but the superphone era has ushered in a host of high-tech, entertainment focused handsets, enabling device makers (ODMs) to market their products as voice-enabled

mini-computers supported by countless entertainment, productivity and lifestyle apps.

Apple’s impressive marketing savvy continues to boost iPhone sales, but other ODMs — who lack Apple’s brand cachet and deep pockets — must still walk a

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fine line as they approach consumers directly. To see how other phone makers are approaching the post-iPhone consumer market, read my latest weekly update over at GigaOM Pro(subscription required).

this year, but since that time, you’ve still been able to log-in to your GrandCentral account and listen to old messages there. You will no longer be able to log-in to your GrandCentral account after December 31. Because of this, we strongly suggest downloading any messages or contacts that you want to keep in the next 43 days.

We will send you another reminder before closing down the site, but we suggest you take action now to download any information you want to keep.

- The Google Voice Team It seems the end of 2009 will also bring an end to the GrandCentral name, but the excellent telecommunications service continues to flourish under the Google brand.

Reviews: Google, Google Voice Tags: Google, Google Voice, grandcentral

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Tech/ Entertainment/ Fashion/

E-reader Newspaper

Tila Tequila Continues Her Ustream Dr. Phil: Oprah's Show Video Meltdown [LIVE VIDEO] Was Home For Me

By Ben Parr (Mashable!)

Submitted at 11/21/2009 1:19:49 AM

Social media is a double-edged sword. Due to its unfiltered nature, it can be a powerful promotional tool. However, it can also publicly expose our problems. Former reality TV star Tila Tequila is an unfortunate but prime example.

Some backstory: Tila Tequila is one of the most popular artists on MySpace, was the subject of an MTV reality show, and most recently filed assault charges against San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman, which were subsequently dropped.

Fastforward to Wednesday, November 18th. That night, Tila

had a very public meltdown on her Ustream page. She waved around a gun, played around with a knife, ranted about Shawne Merriman, and stripped naked, all live for thousands of people to see (the video was immediately taken down).

Despite claiming that she would never use her Ustream ever again, Tila is back on live video, and this time it’s even more bizzare. She is streaming as

“Jane Cordovez,” which seem to be her alter ego for the evening.

She is not only waving around a gun once again, but is dancing around with a sword. Yes, a sword. And that’s only half an hour into the live stream.

It’s unfortunate that she’s allowing her breakdown to be publicly streamed. While her brand has always been racy, the last few days have been simply bizzare. If she indeed has issues, we hope she gets some help.

The live, unfiltered video stream is below: Reviews: MySpace, ustream Tags: live video, Tila Tequila, ustream, video

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/20/2009 6:51:00 PM

Dr. Phil McGraw, who rose to fame appearing on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and eventually launched his own TV program, is opening up to ET about the news that Lady O is ending her show in 2011.

“This is a very nostalgic moment for me. Oprah Winfrey is first

and foremost one of my dearest friends and obviously the person who taught me everything I know about television,” Dr. Phil tells us.

“Her show was home for me for five of the most exciting years of my life. ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ is the gold standard and I know that she will succeed at whatever she chooses to do next.”

Lights, Camera, Action!

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:00:37 PM

ready to walk the runway!

All Photos: Kelly Stuart

Victoria's Secret Angels get

Navigon briefly cutting price on its popular Nav app

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

sale for U.S. $69.99 instead of $89.99 providing a $20.00 savings. In addition, Navigon's Submitted at 11/20/2009 12:30:00 PM Traffic Live feature is also on Filed under: Odds and ends, sale for $14.99 instead of $24.99. iPhone Gee, we were just saying Traffic Live is a one time charge, how competitive it is getting in not a continuing cost. the iPhone nav department, and That's a significant saving for Navigon has gone and cut prices this very popular app, and puts it for holiday travelers. under similar featured apps from For 10 days only, beginning TomTom ($99.99) and Magellan t o d a y ( N o v e m b e r 2 0 - 3 0 ) ($79.99). a superior user interface that is Navigon's iPhone app, Mobile In my tests of the Navigon app I easy to use. Of course you Navigator[ iTunes link]will be on have found it accurate, and it has shouldn't be looking at it while

you are driving, and the text to speech does an excellent job of helping you keep your eyes on the road.

The Live Traffic feature will route you around major traffic congestion and adjust your ETA times.

It's nice to see prices heading south on some of these GPS packages. Now you'll be able to head south (or north, or any direction really) for less money and with more features. Have a

safe trip.

TUAW Navigon briefly cutting price on its popular Nav app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Blocking Set Top Boxes From Showing YouTube Unless They Pay Up?

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 11/20/2009 5:28:00 PM

I'm wondering if there's more to this, because it seems rather "unGoogle-like." The makers of a set top box that can display internet content are complaining that Google is blocking them from displaying YouTube content, unless they agree to "partner" and commit to buying lots of ads (the amount is in dispute). If this sounds quite a bit like the ongoing battle between Hulu and Boxee, you might be right. However, in that case, at least you could sort of understand the (misguided) thinking behind it, since Hulu is owned by the colossally shortsighted content companies. But what's Google's excuse? If all these set top boxes are really doing is accessing free internet

content and formatting it better for a TV, why stop it? They're really no different than accessing content via a computer and a browser -- it's just that the "computer" is a set top box and the "browser" is formatted for a television. That shouldn't require a special agreement, or any sort of ad buy commitment. Update: Received a confused and angry email from YouTube PR linking us to the very Wired article we linked to and demanding we add their PR statement (which is already in the Wired article).

However, it does not actually answer the questions raised or change the point of this post.

The fact that YouTube restricts set tops from accessing the content still does not make sense.

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Giving or getting a Mac for the holidays? 10 apps every new Mac user needs

By Chris Rawson (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 11/21/2009 12:00:00 PM

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Freeware All new Macs come with great bundled software. Between the iLife suite, Safari, iTunes, and TextEdit, plus the ability to access and use cloud applications for free, almost all of the most basic modern computing needs get met for most users.

That said, having used four different Macs over the past seven years, there are several applications that don't come with OS X that I find myself immediately loading onto a new Mac. Most of these are big-name apps that you've probably already heard of, but it's still pretty amazing how much extra functionality you can eke out of a Mac with only ten additional programs, and all of them (save the last one) are free.

Video: Adam Lambert Talks Twitter (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:07:00 AM

"American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert talks Twitter!

"I think Twitter is great," the singer says. "It allows you to hear directly from the artist...it's a direct link."

Adam has scores of fans on the

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social networking site, where ET recently created a flutter of retweets by posting a link to a sneak peek at his AMA performance.

Whether you're buying a new Mac for a relative this holiday season or getting a new one for yourself, these are ten applications you should download as soon as that shiny new machine loads the desktop for the first time.

Continue reading Giving or getting a Mac for the holidays?

10 apps every new Mac user needs

TUAW Giving or getting a Mac for the holidays? 10 apps every new Mac user needs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Michael Jackson glove among items at music auction (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

(AP) 11 seconds ago 2009-1121T10:34:45-08:00 Dayo buzzed up: Museum: This content has passed through Galileo's fingers, tooth are found fivefilters.org.

Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:26:29 AM

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Tech/ TV/ Entertainment/

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Top 10 News Readers Judged by Mashable Readers

By Barb Dybwad (Mashable!)

Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:47:41 PM

Each Friday we choose a Lunchtime Poll topic to get a sense of how Mashable readers feel about the chosen topic of the week. Below are the results from last Friday’s poll, where we asked for your favorite news reader.

Is your favorite app or service not represented in the list? Let us know in the comments! And to make sure your vote counts next time, be sure to vote in this week’s Lunchtime Poll, where we want to know your favorite video-sharing service.

A surprising number of readers in the top 10 were Mac apps, and enough of you said you’d switched to using Twitter as your primary news source to propel it to #5. Google Reader was far and away the winner though, with over three times the number of votes for the 2nd place finisher Feedly. Top 10 Mashable Reader

News Readers 10. Reeder(iPhone) [warning: iTunes link] 9. Times(Mac) 8. Klipfolio 7. Shrook(Mac) 6. NetNewsWire(Mac) 5. Twitter 4. FeedDemon(Windows) 3. NetVibes 2. Feedly 1. Google Reader Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ericsphotography Reviews: Google Reader, Twitter, feedly, iStockphoto Tags: google reader, lunchtime poll, news readers, polls, rss, twitter

TUAW's Steve Sande provides gift ideas on the latest MacJury podcast

By Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Storage seemed to be a popular gift idea from the panelists, along with iPhone / Mac jewelry, video tools, and even some freebies. I Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:00:00 PM take no responsibility for the Filed under: Odds and ends, singing that was taking place...

Podcasts, Holidays Here it is, T-7 You can listen to MacJury days until Black Friday, and you Episode 918 at the MacJury don't have any gift ideas? website, or subscribe to the I joined MacJury podcaster podcast in iTunes.

Chuck Joiner earlier this week to TUAW TUAW's Steve Sande provide my ideas for gifting. This provides gift ideas on the latest was part two of a holiday gift MacJury podcast originally ideas episode on the popular appeared on The Unofficial podcast.

Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, Joining me on the podcast were 20 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. MacMouseCalls support genius Please see our terms for use of (and grandmother) Pat Fauquet, feeds.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata from the St. Read| Permalink| Email this| Paul Pioneer Press, and The Mac Comments Observer's Jeff Gamet.

Shirtless Jon Gosselin: 'Don't Get Married, Levi' (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/20/2009 7:00:00 PM

Sailing the sparkling waters off

Hawaii in a 40-foot catamaran, Jon Gosselin strips off his t-shirt and offers some words of advice to Levi Johnston.

"Just wait, Levi, you'll look like Levi. This is what happens." that -- you'll look like that, too," Click the video for more!

Jon jokes about his padded physique. "Don’t get married,

Viewers Get To Decide Disney Channel’s New Year’s Eve Lineup

By Bill Gorman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 11/20/2009 6:51:50 PM

No numbers here, but I think this is a pretty good idea for Disney Channel, which since it’s not advertiser supported could presumably change its schedule more easily than networks that are. Certainly much more interesting for fans than, say, Fox filling Christmas Night with a 4 episode mini-marathon of‘Til Death.

Disney Channel viewers will determine the network’s New Year’s Eve programming lineup by voting for their favorite episodes and music videos at DisneyChannel.com, beginning Friday.

The winning programs will air Dec. 31 from 6 p.m.-12:30 a.m. in a block entitled “New Year’s Star Showdown.” via THR.com.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Politics/ Entertainment/

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Global Warming Nontroversy of the Day (Little Green Footballs)

suppose the word would stand out.

RealClimate has responded to Right wing bloggers and climate this stolen email nontroversy “skeptics” are ranting and fuming here: The CRU hack. about “ the global warming Since emails are normally scandal of the century,” after the intended to be private, people email server of one of the UK’s writing them are, shall we say, leading climate research centers somewhat freer in expressing was hacked, and thousands of themselves than they would in a emails were stolen and promptly public statement. For instance, posted all over the web. (Which we are sure it comes as no shock is, of course, completely illegal.) to know that many scientists do However, reading the summaries not hold Steve McIntyre in high that these folks have posted, such regard. Nor that a large group of a s t h e o n e i n t h i s a l m o s t them thought that the Soon and comically exaggerated article by Baliunas (2003), Douglass et al T e l e g r a p h w r i t e r J a m e s (2008) or McClean et al (2009) Delingpole, one thing stands out papers were not very good (to — there’s no there there. There’s say the least) and should not have no evidence of a conspiracy to been published. These sentiments commit massive fraud. There are have been made abundantly clear no admissions of faking data. in the literature (though possibly The worst thing they’ve dug up less bluntly). out of thousands of emails is this More interesting is what is not one referring to a “trick” used to contained in the emails. There is adjust warming data, which no evidence of any worldwide Delingpole dramatically labels conspiracy, no mention of “Manipulation of evidence:” George Soros nefariously I’ve just completed Mike’s funding climate research, no Nature trick of adding in the real grand plan to ‘get rid of the temps to each series for the last MWP’, no admission that global 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) warming is a hoax, no evidence amd from 1961 for Keith’s to of the falsifying of data, and no hide the decline. ‘marching orders’ from our “Trick,” of course, can also mean socialist/communist/vegetarian “an effective technique,” but if overlords. The truly paranoid will you were desperately hunting for put this down to the hackers also a n y t h i n g s m e a r - w o r t h y , I being in on the plot though.

Submitted at 11/20/2009 11:19:33 AM

Instead, there is a peek into how scientists actually interact and the conflicts show that the community is a far cry from the monolith that is sometimes imagined. People working constructively to improve joint publications; scientists who are friendly and agree on many of the big picture issues, disagreeing at times about details and engaging in ‘robust’ discussions; Scientists expressing frustration at the misrepresentation of their work in politicized arenas and complaining when media reports get it wrong; Scientists resenting the time they have to take out of their research to deal with overhyped nonsense. None of this should be shocking.

Read the whole thing; they make more excellent points about the absurdly exaggerated denialists’ claims.

Here’s their response to the “trick” comment: No doubt, instances of cherrypicked and poorly-worded “gotcha” phrases will be pulled out of context. One example is worth mentioning quickly. Phil Jones in discussing the presentation of temperature reconstructions stated that “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from

1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.” The paper in question is the Mann, Bradley and Hughes (1998) Nature paper on the original multiproxy temperature reconstruction, and the ‘trick’ is just to plot the instrumental records along with reconstruction so that the context of the recent warming is clear. Scientists often use the term “trick” to refer to a “a good way to deal with a problem”, rather than something that is “secret”, and so there is nothing problematic in this at all.

As for the ‘decline’, it is well known that Keith Briffa’s maximum latewood tree ring density proxy diverges from the temperature records after 1960 (this is more commonly known as the “divergence problem”–see e.g. the recent discussion in this paper) and has been discussed in the literature since Briffa et al in Nature in 1998 (Nature, 391, 678 -682). Those authors have always recommend not using the post 1960 part of their reconstruction, and so while ‘hiding’ is probably a poor choice of words (since it is ‘hidden’ in plain sight), not using the data in the plot is completely appropriate, as is further research to understand why this happens.

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Heidi Klum Takes New Last Name -Hubby Seal's!

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/20/2009 6:55:00 PM

Heidi Klum finalized her legal name-change on Friday.

Heidi’s new last name became Samuel – Seal’s surname – after a Los Angeles commissioner signed off on the name change, says People.com.

The supermodel cited “marriage” as her motive for the change. Heidi and Seal have been married for more than four years and have four children together.

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Politics/ Tech Tips/ Entertainment/ Sports/ Economy/

Ace Beclowns Himself (Little Green Footballs)

acquired by breaking into a private email server. That’s the reason it was deleted.

Normally I’d ignore this, but I also condemned the hacking of “Ace” has posted something so Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email moronically misguided and false account. Unlike “Ace,” I’m it calls for a response: Charles trying to be responsible and Johnson Now Deleting Posts for consistent.

Mentioning Hacked Global For the record, ‘bosforus’ Warming Fraud Emails. himself told me about his “ A c e ” s a y s I d e l e t e d t h i s comment, in the thread I put up c o m m e n t b y L G F r e a d e r specifically to discuss(not ‘bosforus’ with “no explanation,” “suppress”) the Hadley email and that I’m “suppressing the data, and asked me to delete it. I data.” That’s just how evil I am. thanked him and explained why I But in the real world where didn’t want the links at LGF, people aren’t on hair trigger right here. outrage watch, I deleted the And that thread about the Hadley c o m m e n t n o t b e c a u s e i t emails, by the way, has more mentioned the Hadley emails, but than 400 comments, with plenty because it linked to downloads of of debate and argument from illegally obtained data. both sides. Seems like an odd By Jason Fitzpatrick “Ace” may have no problem with way to “suppress” something. (Lifehacker) that, but I don’t want LGF to be If the clown shoe fits, “Ace.” Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:00:00 used to circulate files that were Submitted at 11/20/2009 5:08:58 PM

PTS Desktop Live Makes Performance Benchmarking Simple [Downloads]

Carter's 26 lead Magic over struggling Celtics

By Associated Press (ESPN.com) games you attend, upload your photos and share your memories!

Did you attend this game? If so, I was there » start chronicling your sports This content has passed through memories today with ESPN's fivefilters.org.

Sports Passport.

Enter the Submitted at 11/21/2009 12:11:56 AM

benchmark based on what you'll be using the machine for.

The desktop interface and suite PM is set up so that even users If you want to put your computer unfamiliar with Linux can jump through the paces and get some right in and start testing without feedback and benchmarks, you'll h a v i n g t o d o a n y s p e c i a l be hard pressed to find a tool modifying or downloading of more packed with tests than the additional files. You can save Phoronix Test Suite Live CD. your benchmark results or share PTS Desktop Live is an Ubuntu the results online with the Live CD with the Phoronix Phoronix Global benchmark benchmarking s u i t e sharing system. preconfigured and installed. Have a favorite benchmarking Reboot your machine with the tool or Live CD packed with CD in your drive—or on a USB goodies? Let's hear about it in the drive—and you'll boot into the c o m m e n t s . P h o r o n i x T e s t test suite with access to 52 tests S u i t e [ v i a M a k e U s e O f ] and 10 profiles. The profiles are set up to help you stress test and

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Tops & Flops: A Week in Fashion (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:01:00 AM

From multiple 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' events to highfashion functions, this week had its fair share of fashion's sins and big wins. Whose looks were second rate, and whose were great!? You decide!

Arrests made in €10m matchfixing probe (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 11/20/2009 2:39:47 PM

At least 200 European soccer games are being investigated after police said that they had dismantled an alleged international criminal ring suspected of running the continent’s biggest ever matchfixing scandal.

German prosecutors and police said on Friday that the gang allegedly obtained more than €10m ($15m) in illegal betting proceeds by manipulating the outcome of games in nine countries, including three in the European Champions League.

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Top 10 Ergonomic Upgrades for Your Workspace [Lifehacker Top 10]

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:00:00 AM

It's easy to forget about your body's needs when you're deep into your work or the net—until your body offers a painful reminder. Save your physical shell some strain with these cheap, customizable ergonomic workspace upgrades.

Photo by IMG_3771 on Flickr Photo Sharing!. 10. Elevate your laptop to eye level Your neck can't text you to explain how annoying it is to have to keep looking down at your laptop. Over time it will let you know, though, in a nagging, painful way. If your laptop is your day-to-day work machine, elevate it to eye level using any one of a number of clever solutions. Perhaps one among our Top 10 laptop stands will do the trick, or a built-to-fit DIY pipe stand. Any of them are better than imagining yourself as a hunched old man or woman, constantly warning the neighborhood kids to sit up straight and look ahead.

9. Mix up your positions with a standing desk It's hard to slouch when you're not in a seat. To help your body benefit from your upright instinct, and give your lower body a break from sitting, work a standing desk into your workspace. You can go for it in a

big way, like with this handcrafted setup, stick with something as simple as a$20 model or a surface on a storage rack. If you want to go really fancy, you could try a treadputer or something like this adjustable desk. It doesn't have to be your only desk, either—just a break room for your butt.

8. Get better sleep support How your back, neck, and joints fare over eight hours of work can be influenced by how they spent eight hours in bed. Give your body a better night's sleep by catching up on Lifehack.org's pain and posture basics.

According to the post, the standard, no-pain position to shoot for is "on your side, knees bent, pillow between the knees, and your head resting on a single pillow," or on your back with one pillow under your knees and one under your head. You might need

to leave out an element or two from that ideal if you've got a hard-set sleeping habit, but it's worth considering a switch-up.

Photo by james.thompson.( Original post).

7. Invest in a real mouse and keyboard If you've stuck with your mouse and keyboard just because your desktop came with them, we feel for you. If you've been using a laptop at a desk without an external mouse or keyboard, we're in tears. Invest in the tools your hands spend thousands of hours on every year by perusing the best mouse recommendations from Lifehacker readers and their ultimate keyboard picks. All of them are designed with a good hand feel and better functionality in mind. Consider your hand comfort worth five cents an hour? You'll amortize these puppies in no time.

6. Align yourself properly with your computer Adam's had his problems with hand, wrist, and back pain from repetitive stress and other conditions at his workspace, and a few years ago, he decided to set up a healthy, usable workspace to get back in shape. His post is a front-to-back assessment of what healthy working spaces should include, but his basic sitting setup involves keeping your elbows bent near 90 degrees, keeping a mouse comfortably within reach of a keyboard, avoiding slouching, and keeping a monitor at eye level, between 18-28 inches from your face.

5. Build your own ergonomic desk from scratch You don't have to have Bob-Vila -level woodworking skills to craft your own workspace—after all, college students have been laying doors on cinder blocks for

years. To make an actually ergonomic desk from mediumdensity fibreboard, you need two power tools (your neighbor has them if you don't), time enough to sketch and plan your cuts, and measurements to know how high you should set up the legs, so your monitor is at eye level and you've got just enough room for everything you're working with.

When you're done, you can paint or stain it whatever color you'd like, and when your friends ask where you got that desk, well, you know the answer. ( Original post) 4. Use exercises to ward off RSI You can do a lot to prevent stress and pain in your hands working at a computer all day, but you'll almost inevitably have bad days full of overly long hours, and, over the long haul, risk sidling yourself with repetitive strain injury (RSI).

Percussionist David Kuckhermann knows a thing or two about repetitive wrist and forearm strain, as does RSI expert Sherry Smith, and they both recommend and demonstrate a few simple exercises that can ward off and heal the effects of working your hands into knots. ( Original post) 3. Fine-tune your desk spacing Are you the type that busts out the tape measure whenever TOP page 34

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From the Tips Box: Gmail Remember the Milk, Touchpad Tricks, and Repelling Mosquitoes [From The Tips Box]

By Whitson Gordon (Lifehacker) Submitted at 11/20/2009 5:00:00 PM

Readers offer their best tips for updating Remember the Milk with Gmail's canned responses, avoiding mouse jumps while typing with touchpads, and repelling mosquitoes with Listerine.

Don't like the gallery layout?

Click here to view everything on one page.

About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or email it to tips at lifehacker.com.

Easily Send Tasks to Remember the Milk Tote shares a tip that uses Gmail Labs' canned responses to send tasks to Remember the Milk: Use Gmail's canned responses to easily create tasks from email in RTM. If you get an email that you want to turn into a task forward it to your RTM inbox address and use a canned response to direct specify the

task. Put the email contents between the '—-' and '-end-' to add it to the notes. Canned response: List: Priority: Due: Repeat: Estimate: Tags: Location: —-endWear Gloves to Stop Touchpad

i s t h i s s i t e http://megastreaming.org/ all you need to do is type in the URL of your video in the provided space and it will generate a link without the time limit.

Illitmux is a handy Firefox plugin that does the same thing as the previous website, basically what they have is a load of gold accounts and when [you] press the button they just stream you the video via the gold account.

Here is the link Illitmux Luka's original blog post can be found here.

Use Listerine to Keep Mosquitoes at Bay Photo by Vox Efx. guanoguck informs us of a household object that keeps mosquitoes away: Mosquito Spray... I was at a deck party awhile back, and the bugs were having a ball biting everyone. A man at the party sprayed the lawn and deck floor Annoyances be able to use the touchpad, just with Listerine, and the little Photo by Nessa Land. cut off the fingers. demons disappeared. The next Miguel tells us how he keeps his Bypass Megavideo's Time year I filled a 4-ounce spray mouse from jumping on laptops: Limitation bottle and used it around my seat If you're writing on a laptop, and Luka shows us how to watch whenever I saw mosquitoes. And you constantly find your palm more videos on Megavideo: voila! That worked as well. It brushing against the touchpad, I suspect that most of you use or worked at a picnic where we thereby making your insertion h a v e u s e d M e g a v i d e o , a n sprayed the area around the food point dance around, put on some excellent video [sharing] service, table, the children's swing area, thin knit gloves. It will keep however as most of [you] would and the standing water nearby. i n c i d e n t a l c o n t a c t f r o m know it does have an annoying During the summer, I don't leave registering on the touchpad. If time-limit on its videos to force home without it. that makes your fingers too thick payment out of you. for typing, or if you still want to So the first thing you could use FROM page 33

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This Week's Most Popular Posts [Highlights]

By Adam Pash (Lifehacker) Submitted at 11/20/2009 4:00:00 PM

This week we rounded up the best online backup tools and explained how you're backing up wrong, detailed how to build an excellent Boxee-based media center, and cured your various aches and pains with some simple home remedies.

• Five Best Online Backup Tools Local backup is a useful and necessary part of securing your data against catastrophe, but with the advent of broadband and inexpensive online storage, you've got little reason to not back up critical files to the cloud as well.

• You're Backing Up Your Data the Wrong Way Time and time again, people tell me that they've bought an external hard drive to back up their pictures, music, and documents. Great, right? Sadly, that's not always the case.

• Build a Cheap But Powerful Boxee Media Center Adam thinks XBMC is the best media center around, but I roll with Boxee for its awesome streaming web content. Here's how I turned a relatively cheap yet powerful home theater PC into a DIY Boxee Box for my HDTV. • Pingtest Assesses the Quality of Your Internet Connection You'll find an abundance of tools to test your internet connection

speed but what if you want to test the quality and reliability of the connection? Pingtest gives you feedback on your connection.

• Increase the Quality of Cheap Vodka with a Water Filter Save yourself some money and improve the quality of a bottle of cheap vodka with a little at-home filtration.

• Top 10 Homemade Remedies for What Ails You Feeling under the weather? Thinking—as you look around your office—that you might be soon? Hone your home remedy skill set with a look at 10 of our favorite DIY cures for illnesses and your body's annoyances.

• Office 2010 Professional Beta

Available for Download Windows: Wanna give Office 2010's online document syncing, Windows 7 taskbar integration, and killer quick steps a go?

Microsoft has thrown open the doors on a free beta of Office 2010 Professional—for those who can wait out the download.

• The Treehaus Workspace You won't find a law that says a workspace has to be in a gray fabric-covered box or a whitewalled room. Today's workspace proves that with the beautiful, airy openness of a childhood tree house.

• Make a Moss Terrarium for Low-Maintenance Greenery If you want some greenery in your

home or office but you're not too keen on, or skilled at, tending a high-maintenance plant, a moss terrarium is a hassle-free bit of greenery you practically have to try to kill.

• Make Better, Less Messy Bacon in a Waffle Iron You love bacon, but cooking it in a pan is tough to time and leaves you with scalding-hot grease to dispose of. The microwave?

Please. Food science miracle worker Alton Brown shows how a waffle iron makes the best bacon.

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If you're spraying Listerine in the air around you, just be careful not to get it in your eyes. You can, however, open your mouth for a nice minty pick-me-up, though.

UPDATE: A number of you have mentioned that this myth has been debunked. Apologies for the false information and thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Germany warns US on market bubbles (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 11/20/2009 11:48:23 AM

Germany’s new finance minister has echoed Chinese warnings about the growing threat of fresh global asset price bubbles, fuelled by low US interest rates and a weak dollar.

Wolfgang Schäuble’s comments highlight official concern in Europe that the risk of further financial market turbulence has been exacerbated by the exceptional steps taken by central banks and governments to combat the crisis.

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TOP continued from page 31

you're putting anything up on the wall? For setting up your workspace with proper distances and heights between yourself and your computer tools, ergonomic goods firm Ergotron offers a ergonomic workspace planner that, once you enter your height, gives up the details on suggested seat heights, monitor heights and distances, and keyboard shelves.

If you're thinking about working in a standing desk, they've got measurements for that, too. ( Original post) 2. Use software enforcers It's great that you're dedicated to pushing out this project on time, but unless your deadline's right this hour and you need every second, you should be stepping back occasionally to give your wrists, eyes, and arms a

rest—and maybe even read something off-screen, while you're at it. If mental reminders aren't enough, apps like AntiRSI and Timeout for Macs, and Workrave for Windows and Linux, force you, in differing levels of subtlety, to take a break and physically remove your hands from the keyboard every so often. (Original posts: AntiRSI, WorkRave, Time Out) 1. Go easy on your eyes Eye strain is particularly bad news for those who write (code, copy, or anything else) or assemble things on a computer all day—it hits you right in what feels like your brain, and makes concentration terribly hard. Two simple solutions are to turn on ClearType and increase your monitor refresh rate in Windows

systems, or install a serious protection scheme like EyeDefender. Reader's Digest suggests other easy eye fixes, like keeping your monitor slightly below eye level to bring less glare into your retinas. And simply using a darker desktop theme is often a nice first step toward reducing the amount of time you feel like you're staring into a flashlight with words written on it.

What improvements, big or small, have made the greatest difference in your workspace health? Pass on the knowledge in the comments.

Medvedev criticises United Russia political practices (Financial Times - US homepage)

made by Mr Medvedev and the latest in a string of condemnations of the status quo.

Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:35:54 AM It is also likely to be interpreted Russian president Dmitry in Russian political circles as Medvedev harshly criticised putting further distance between Russia’s hegemonic United Mr Medvedev and Vladimir R u s s i a p o l i t i c a l p a r t y f o r Putin, the prime minister and allowing dirty election practices chairman of United Russia, and at the party’s annual congress in widely recognised as the most St Petersburg, calling its methods powerful figure in the land. “backwards” and saying it must This content has passed through “get rid of bad political habits”. fivefilters.org.

It was the most direct criticism of Russia’s political system yet

MediaDailyNews: Huffington Post Increases Advertising, Revenue Streams (MediaPost | Media News)

Windows Surface Scanner Finds Bad Hard Drive Sectors [Downloads]

By Lisa Hoover (Lifehacker) Submitted at 11/20/2009 1:30:00 PM

Windows: When your computer starts acting hinky and spitting out error messages, it's hard to know exactly where to begin to diagnose the problem. Windows Surface Scanner gives you a place to start.

This free utility takes a look at your hard drives and ferrets out any physical errors it finds, so you know what might be causing random crashes or system

flakiness. Windows Surface Scanner won't fix damaged sector problems—it simply diagnoses them. Once you've figured out the issue, you can use the native

Windows check disk tool to make repairs.

One important thing to note about this tool: If you start getting a lot of sector errors, stop

Submitted at 11/20/2009 1:49:50 PM

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] Arianna Huffington says she will not scanning right away. Keep charge consumers for content, testing, and you might damage and that The Huffington Post will the hard drive you're searching. rely on interactive advertising We've recommended our five and other applications to pay the best Windows maintenance tools, bills. Over the next year, The HP but what other diagnostic tools w i l l r o l l o u t n e w f o r m a t s do you use to troubleshoot your allowing advertisers and users to computer when you feel there's i n t e r a c t a n d e x c h a n g e something wrong deep inside? i n f o r m a t i o n .

Let us know in the comments.

Windows Surface Scanner[Via freewaregenius]

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Weekly Wrapup: Google Chrome OS, Obama's Twitter, Blogging Statistics, And More...

By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/21/2009 5:00:00 AM

In this edition of the Weekly Wrapup - our newsletter summarizing the top stories of the week - we report on President Obama's (non)-use of Twitter, take a look at the past decade in the media industry, review the latest statistics about blogging, question if Oxford Dictionary should've chosen "unfriend" as its word of the year, and more. We also check in on our two main c h a n n e l s : ReadWriteEnterprise(devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' trends and p r o d u c t s ) a n d ReadWriteStart(dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs).

Sponsor Subscribe to Weekly Wrapup You can subscribe to the Weekly Wrapup by RSS or by email(form below).

RWW Weekly Wrap-up Email Subscription form: Web Trends Obama: "I Have Never Used Twitter" Barack Obama spoke to a group of Chinese students this week at a town hall in Shanghai. The meeting was streamed live, worldwide on the Whitehouse website and on the Whitehouse's Facebook page. He was asked a limited number of questions by

the audience and one was about Twitter, which has been blocked in China since July. President Obama has never used Twitter, despite his account being the most followed there.

Top Internet Trends of 20002009: Democratization of News Media It's November 2009 and we're nearing the end of a decade. It's been a tumultuous time of change for many industries, much of it driven by the Internet. The newspaper industry has been particularly affected by the Web. Over the past 10 years, news media has undergone a seachange akin to the invention of the printing press in 1440.

How Blogging Has Changed Over The Last 3 Years (Stats) Reader engagement with blogs has changed dramatically over the last three years, primarily because of the rise of online social networks, according to new numbers released by analytics firm Postrank.

Postrank published an analysis based on metrics for signals like comments, trackbacks, shared links and online bookmarks for the top 1000 most-engaging feeds online and for 100,000 randomly selected blog posts in each year since 2007.

Unfriending: Are People Online Shedding Friends? (Debate) The New Oxford American Dictionary announced its Word

Google Sites Offers Templates; Claims It's Easier Than Sharepoint of the Year this week. Its Google Sites is getting an selection? unfriend- verb - To upgrade. Starting this week, remove someone as a 'friend' on a Google will provide templates social networking site such as that make it possible for users F a c e b o o k . H a s O x f o r d with no technical background to D i c t i o n a r y m a d e t h e r i g h t create web sites with a degree of selection? ReadWriteWeb's functionality that includes page Founder Richard MacManus l a y o u t s , a d d i n g l i n k s f o r thinks not. Marshall Kirkpatrick n a v i g a t i o n a n d e m b e d d e d disagrees with him. Both make gadgets. Templates are available their cases in this post and invite for intranets, project sites, team you to cast your vote in a poll. sites, employee profile pages and Do You Think "Unfriend" is a other sites that people would use Good Word of the Year?( online w i t h i n t h e e n t e r p r i s e . surveys) ReadWriteStart The Top 10 Mobile Applications Our channel ReadWriteStart, of 2012 sponsored by Microsoft Research firm Gartner has put B i z S p a r k , i s d e d i c a t e d t o out a list of the top ten mobile p r o f i l i n g s t a r t u p s a n d applications of the future. Well, e n t r e p r e n e u r s . not the distant future, but the far Future of Music Coalition's off year of 2012. Nothing on the B r i a n Z i s k : T h e D o ' s o f list is all that surprising or, in S t r e a m i n g M u s i c many cases, even all that new. In 2008 the idea of another Instead, the list includes the sorts subscription-only music service of technologies that are just now was enough to get your knickers coming into their own and in a torrent. Sure Rhapsody was haven't yet seen widespread doing well, but they'd been adoption as well as the already around for forever and in 2008, common technologies that are freemium was the music model still experiencing growth. du jour. With a year to reflect, co SEE MORE WEB TRENDS -founder of the Future of Music COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS Coalition and longtime San Fran CATEGORY Music Tech Summit organizer ReadWriteEnterprise Brian Zisk tells us what it takes O u r c h a n n e l to survive in today's music ReadWriteEnterprise, devoted to environment. 'enterprise 2.0' and using social SEE MORE STARTUPS software inside organizations.

COVERAGE IN OUR READWRITESTART CHANNEL Web Products The Google Chrome OS Press Event Google held a press event this week outlining more details about its Google Chrome OS. Google plans to launch Chrome OS next year. Google is positioning Chrome OS as "just a browser" - that is, all of your data is in the cloud. Chrome OS will be focused on speed, simplicity, security; every application on Chrome OS will be a web application. Google sees Chrome OS as targeting 3 trends: netbooks, cloud (everything is a web app today), phones getting computing capabilities.

Twitter.com Is Still the Most Popular Twitter Client TweetDeck a Distant Second Twitter's own homepage is still the most popular tool for users to update their status on Twitter.

Around 46% of all updates are made directly on the site. Social media analytics and monitoring service Sysomos analyzed 500 million tweets it collected over the past 5 months and found that TweetDeck is the most popular third-party client. TweetDeck has a comfortable lead with a 8.48% share of the market, followed by Tweetie, Twitterific and Seesmic.

A Central Nervous System for WEEKLY page 38

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The Future Is All About Context: The Pragmatic Web

By Guest Author (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/20/2009 11:14:15 AM

The semantic Web has long been heralded as the future of the Web. Proponents have said that Web experiences will some day become more meaningful and relevant based on the AI-esque computational power of naturallanguage processing (NLP) and structured data that is understandable by machines for interpretation.

However, with the rise of the social Web, we see that what truly makes our online experiences meaningful is not necessarily the Web's ability to approximate human language or to return search results with syntactical exactness. The value of the semantic Web will take time because the intelligent personal agents that are able to process this structured data still have a long way to go before becoming fully actualized.

Sponsor This guest post was written by Alisa Leonard-Hansen.

Rather, meaningful and relevant experiences now are born out of the context of our identities and social graph: the pragmatics, or contextual meaning, of our online

identities. My Web experience becomes more meaningful and relevant to me when it is layered with contextual social data based on my identity. This is the pragmatic Web. We need to better understand our identity as it begins to define our experience of the Web and the networked-enabled world we inhabit. Our online identity will increasingly be defined by three "pillars": who I say I am, what I do and say, and who I connect to (and who connects to me).

To clarify, our online identities are comprised primarily of three specific kinds of data: • Explicit or prescriptive data (i.e. the data that I input about myself: name, age, occupation, etc.); • Activity or behavioral data (i.e. what I do and say online); • Relationship data (i.e. my social graph and what my connections say about me).

If we consider the power of this pragmatic Web (a highly relevant and individualized Web experience based on the ubiquity of our identity data), we find that it not only impacts individual user experience, but that it opens up entirely new opportunities for business online. The future is not

user data between Facebook and third parties, Facebook could conceivably (and will) create an Facebook Connect ad network(read: data exchange), supplied by the valuable and highly targetable user identity data that is currently siloed on Facebook's servers. This identity "business as usual." Business data within Facebook is what models will be based on what makes the activity in "social Elias Bizannes of the Data media" so valuable.

Portability Project calls the But the centralization of identity "information value network- data on one or two major economic value," derived from networks (such as Facebook, services that focus on activities Twitter and MySpace) won't with comparative advantage and r e a l i z e t h e v i s i o n o f t h e that leverage free access to data. pragmatic Web. So, how will the C o n s i d e r t h i s : a s m e d i a pragmatic Web come to be? How companies scramble to identify do we realize the power of a new and innovative ways to dynamic Web that is based on advertise to the sea of nameless, our identities? We do so by pixeled users who graze through empowering individuals to access their content each day, a rich and control their identity across supply of highly valuable identity any site or service, through data lies just beneath the surface, s t a n d a r d s t h a t e n a b l e d a t a l e f t u n m e a s u r e d a n d portability and open Web interoperability. The resulting vision unmonetized.

Facebook is nothing more than is that of a highly personalized, p e r h a p s t h e l a r g e s t s i n g l e dynamic, relevant and remixable database of this kind of online Web experience, yielding greater identity data: explicit, activity access to information through and relationship data. With the discovery, communication and d e v e l o p m e n t o f F a c e b o o k collaboration. For enterprise, this Connect, which allows for the could mean the rise of innovative "open" exchange of Facebook new business models, based on data-driven value exchange.

A cowboy uses his free hand for balance

By Zack Sheppard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:48:10 PM

/ Photos from photopro49, the wandering I, Matt Cohen Photo / DuncanKinney, flopper, dpd 1115, johnchamilton,

photo, and David Kozlowski.

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One final note on identity data as it relates to enterprise. As Bizannes points out, the value of this kind of identity data rests on the key factors of time and timeliness. Essentially, identity data is valuable only if it is recent. Facebook wouldn't be able to sell your (permissionsenabled) data to advertisers if it used your explicit data from a year ago rather than from today.

So, Bizannes argues that realtime "access" to someone's identity matters most, and it's no longer about data "capture."

Thus, as new business models arise out of monetizing permissions-enabled identity data, the value of the business models will depend on these entities having real-time access to the data.

Guest author: Alisa LeonardHansen is a digital strategist and Social Media Evangelist at iCrossing, a leading global digital agency. She is also the Communications Chair for the Data Portability Project and blogs about the social Web on her blog, TheWebisSocial.com. Follow her on Twitter@alisamleo.

Discuss

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3 Great Light Blogging Tools Compared

By Dana Oshiro (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/20/2009 4:35:59 PM

Once the service for those serious enough to pay for the privilege to post, TypePad recently released a free "Micro" service. The company made the decision to offer a free product realizing the demand for a platform more formal than Twitter and less formal than Wordpress or Typepad's original product. ReadWriteWeb compared TypePad's Micro against 2 other leading light blogging tools. Below are our thoughts: Sponsor TypePad Micro: In addition to being able to blog via email, iPhone app, "Blog It" bookmarklet and the general WYSIWYG dashboard, this tool also allows users to cross post to Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook. My only complaint with TypePad is that there are only 2 design themes to choose from. For someone like me with very little design sense, it's a long

process to find something right.

As well, if you'd like to add another blog or add new design themes you are required to pay for a monthly subscription service.

Tumblr: This service offers users publishing via iPhone app, desktop widget, the Tumblr bookmarklet, text message, email, AIM and even via audio call-in. Tumblr's theme gallery offers hundreds of options for design. Users can also add their posts to Facebook and Twitter via the free customization.

Tumblr allows users to create more than one blog and add more than one contributor for free;

however, all edits show up in the same dashboard in chronological order. This means you may have to dig to revise an older post.

Posterous: Posterous is the original email publishing microblog. Users can email posts, publish them via the web editor or upload them from the PicPosterous iPhone app. The service allows users to set up auto posting to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, Vimeo, Tumblr, Blogger, Wordpress and Xanga. You can also choose to post to just one service in addition to your Posterous account by emailing flickr@posterous.com to specify Flickr or twitter@posterous.com to post to Twitter. Of the three services, Posterous offers an advantage in its ease-of-use and while it's lacked design abilities in the past, the company recently launched themes and theme import from Tumblr.

Other notable light blogging services include Soup.io, Vox and Noovo. If we've missed your favorite service let us know in the comments below. Discuss

8tracks to Launch Playback API and Developer Program

By Dana Oshiro (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/20/2009 12:00:00 PM

It appears that the time for freemium music services in the US has passed. Earlier this week streaming music site Imeem sold to MySpace for under $10 million dollars while laying off a large number of staff. For a company with all four major record labels signed, more than 15 million uniques a month and well over 5 million tracks in its catalogue, it came as a sobering blow to the industry. While many companies move to a subscription model, 8tracks continues to forge along in what some describe as a convenient loophole. As of this weekend the company is publicly launching its API for Boston's Music Hack Day. Sponsor Similar to the original concept for Muxtape, 8tracks allows users to trade 30 min (8 track) playlists. But unlike Muxtape,

Hershey weighs $17bn bid for Cadbury (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 11/20/2009 4:24:36 PM

The charitable trust that controls Hershey has encouraged the US

confectioner’s management to pursue a $17bn bid for British chocolate-maker Cadbury, topping Kraft Foods’ hostile $16.2bn offer.

While a formal bid is not

believed to be imminent, Hershey is weighing a transaction that would include a combination of stock, debt and a multibilliondollar contribution from deeppocketed investors such as

37

pension funds, people familiar with the matter said.

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because 8tracks songs are not identified prior to play, the company is treated as an internet radio station. This status as a radio station means that it avoids the high licensing fees plaguing the streaming music sites. While Muxtape was forced to close in 2008, 8tracks continues to thrive.

This weekend 8tracks is publicly launching its music playback API in the hopes of leveraging the collective brain power of Music Hack Day attendees. Some of the tools already built using the API that will be demoed include an iPhone player, a player widget for Facebook and a weekly Hype Machine mix. For those interested in getting involved with 8tracks on Music Hack Day, the developer API is available t o m o r r o w a t developer.8tracks.com. Discuss

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Tech News/

E-reader Newspaper

Memento: Protocol-Based Time Travel for the Web

By Frederic Lardinois (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/20/2009 11:45:49 AM

The Web constantly changes and evolves. That, of course, is what makes the Internet so exciting, but it also means that finding older versions of a website is hard. The current push towards the real-time web is making this problem even more apparent.

Memento, a project based at Old Dominion University, wants to make it easier to access older versions of a web page without having to go to the Internet Archive. To do this, the project is using a relatively obscure feature of the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

Sponsor The Memento project wants to give browsers a 'time-travel' mode. Currently, the only way to find these pages is the Wayback Machine. According to an interview with Memento's Herbert Van de Sompel, the

mission of this project is to make it far easier for users to find older pages without having to go through the hassle of putting the right URL into the Wayback Machine's search engine. HTTP Content Negotiation To do this, Van de Sompel and his colleagues are exploiting a feature in the HTTP content negotiation specs that allows them to add date-and-time negotiation to the standard negotiations that already happen whenever your browser connects to a web server. Instead of just

asking for the current page, a Memento-enabled browser can also ask for an older version of that page. Some servers and content management systems already offer this feature and the Memento project has developed a demo that shows how this feature would look. According to Van de Sompel, it only takes four extra lines of codes in Apache to make this work.

While it is relatively easy for browsers to ask for an older version of a web page, content owners would have to store these older versions of their sites on their servers as well. With static sites, this is easy to do, but today's highly dynamic web doesn't make it easy to create an archival version of every page.

You can find more technical information about how the team envisions the future of the Memento project in this paper.

Discuss

WEEKLY continued from page 35

Earth: HP's Ambitious Sensor Network HP Labs has joined the race to build an infrastructure for the emerging Internet of Things. The giant computing and IT services company has announced a project that aims to be a "Central Nervous System for the Earth" ( CeNSE). It's a research and development program to build a planetwide sensing network, using billions of "tiny, cheap, tough and exquisitely sensitive detectors."

Microsoft Launches Pivot, A Radically New Visualization of Online Objects Microsoft Live Labs' latest creation has just launched. Pivot is a fun, powerful discovery tool, built on Seadragon and powered

by Silverlight, that runs in Vista or Windows 7 with IE8. It looks impressive and allows for truly intuitive exploration of information.

Droid Becomes Fastest-Selling Android Phone to Date The Motorola Droid is the newest smartphone on the market to compete for the iPhone's crown. Released by Verizon Wireless on November 6th, the Droid's advertising campaign has been a full-frontal attack on the popular Apple smartphone with a heavy focus on what the iPhone doesn't do."iDon't run simultaneous apps, iDon't have a real keyboard, iDon't take 5megapixel pictures," taunts Verizon's Droid ad.

SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY That's a wrap for another week!

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Discuss

An iPhone Visualization App That Syncs with the Cloud

By Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:50:41 PM

Roambi announced a pro version of its iPhone application this week that syncs with Salesforce.com and other cloudbased services or on-premsie

sales environments. It's a visualization application, providing mobile workers with a pretty cool way to see sales information.

Integration is by far one of the most significant trends we are seeing in the enterprise space. It's by Salesforce.com and its move a wave, really, marked this week

to turn the Force.com development platform into a service that makes all of its applications social.

Sponsor A good example of this trend are small companies like Roambi that can now reach into the enterprise by integrating with

Salesforce.com and other cloud platforms like Google Apps.

We caught up with the founders of Roambi for a quick demo of their new pro product and how it syncs with both on-premse applications and SaaS services.

Discuss

Apple/ Sports/

E-reader Newspaper

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Weekly App Store Picks: November 21, 2009

By Olly Farshi (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:00:44 AM

Another week passing means another batch of fresh apps pop out of the Apple approval oven and land in the App Store. As ever, I’ve selected four of the best from this week’s releases for you to check out.

My top pick for this week is TimeTuner, an absolutely essential clock radio app for just about anyone who uses an alarm clock. Plus, I’ve also been looking at WorkSnug, Harbor 3D a n d A u t o S t i t c h .

T i m e T u n e r ( $ 1 . 9 9 ) The iPhone Clock app does a valiant job of waking me up, but sometimes even Apple’s own apps need a bit of jazzing up.

Enter TimeTuner, a gorgeous alarm clock app with a chic, ever -so-slightly ’80’s style. The app includes a glowing green LED clock, alongside a customizable radio tuner.

Even without the alarm clock functionality, the radio tuner alone is a powerful app, certainly worth more than a couple of bucks. Powered by Radio Time, the tuner portion of the app is much more than regular Internet radio. TimeTuner started by recommending a selection of local Helsinki-based stations, minutes later I’d even tracked down my favorite London station, Resonance FM, and even assigned Dublab FM as one of my presets.

The app is also more than a nice

clock radio. It’s location aware, which means it adjusts the time and stations depending on which city you just arrived in. There’s a swish sleep timer that’s only a scroll away. It’s got a fail-safe back-up alarm, plus you can even use your own music library as wake up tunes too.

The app has already found a new home on my iPhone’s main page, it really is that good. If you wake up with an alarm every morning, TimeTuner is an essential app.

It’ll temporarily transform your iPhone in to a stylish alarm clock that sounds gorgeous too.

WorkSnug(Free) I’ve now got two augmented reality apps. One for finding restaurants, movies and other points of interest. The other for looking for local Wikipedia and Wikitude results. WorkSnug does away with hunting for yummy food and engaging film, instead it’s a tool that helps you track down a space to work in the city.

The folks behind the app have apparently visited, rated and reviewed every place that’s listed. You can find out about free Wi-Fi, coffee quality, power outlets and noise levels, among other things. Note that the app is 3GS only and that it only just launched in London. WorkSnug will be coming to San Francisco soon, so in the meantime, nomadic freelancers should grab it anyway, before the app costs a few bucks. AutoStitch(Free) After going all out with a vast selection of iPhone camera apps,

stuff though, the app is essentially an intelligent panorama maker. It takes what is usually a laborious process and, in the spirit of Apple, it just works. Harbor Havoc 3D($1.99) It wouldn’t be right to discuss line drawing games on the iPhone, without first mentioning Flight Control. Spawning an array of wannabe’ clones, Flight Control is a simple and oh-sosatisfying game that finds you guiding a variety of planes to their designated runways.

Harbor Havoc 3D takes the Flight Control concept a step further, cloning and then I’ve now cut down to the bare improving upon the gameplay. essentials: QuadCamera, Flickr It’s your job to guide a variety of and PhotoForge. As great as different boats to the correct port these apps are though, they can’t by drawing a line from the boat make panoramas. AutoStitch, on to the color-coded port. So far, so the other hand, effortlessly familiar. jigsaws your snaps together to After level one though, Harbor create excellent panoramic Havoc 3D mixes things up by throwing in helicopters and imagery.

The clue is in the name with helipads. This means that you’ve AutoStitch. With this app, there’s got to calculate speed and no marking images, laying distance on two different plains. photos out, or manual labor of It’s a devious yet compelling any kind. Simply take your twist. While the game certainly photos using your favorite isn’t 3D, it’s jolly good seacamera app, open Autostitch, faring and airborne fun. Much choose the photos to be stuck like Flight Control, it takes together and the app does the moments to learn and is just as moreish. rest.

AutoStitch does some very That’s all the picks for this clever stuff in the background, week. What apps have you been unsurprising given that is was using? originally developed at the University of British Columbia, Setting aside the complicated

Land Mines Litter Hot Stove Landscape

By Matt Snyder (FanHouse) Submitted at 11/21/2009 11:00:00 AM

by Matt Snyder Filed under: MLB Free Agency From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each week.

I used to always enjoy lists like our own Frankie Piliere's Top 50 Free Agents. Then Milton Bradley happened. Now, as a Cubs fan whose been scorned by the clubhouse-dividing, unaccountable-yet-entitled lunatic, I can't look through the list without being skeptical of many of them. Which one is going to ruin someone else's favorite team like Bradley ruined mine? With this in mind, I present 11 potentially dangerous free agent signings in this year's class.

Land Mines Litter Hot Stove Landscape originally appeared on Fanhouse MLB Blog on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An open letter to Google (Scripting News)

6. I don't have the first clue what it's like to be inside Google, and honestly I don't care.

I h a d a n i n t e r e s t i n g b u t 7. Now about PubSubHubBub. somewhat disturbing exchange When I first looked at it I saw with a Google guy on Twitter Atom all over it. I quickly hit the today. It reveals a bunch of Back button. disconnects, that I'm going to try, 8. There was a time when I in this post, to address. seriously considered 1. Please take these statements at implementing it. But it required face value. me to understand concepts I 2. I am just a person, I am not in didn't understand and had no competition with Google. interest in investing in. It seemed 3. I am a Google user. My to me that I would have to primary email account is on reimplement a lot of stuff I GMail. I just bought a Droid, and already had working. This is started a Droid blog to help other something big companies ask people get started. I like it you to do a lot of. primarily because it connects so 9. One of the reasons I well with Google services. revitalized rssCloud was to 4. I am a former Google influence Google to support RSS shareholder. I made a shitload of better in PSHB. m o n e y f r o m m y G o o g l e 10. One of the clues that PSHB i n v e s t m e n t . T h a n k y o u . needs to be reconstructed is that 5. I think Google is a big it's so hard to describe. What's company. I think the people at needed here is easy to explain: G o o g l e , l i k e m o s t p e o p l e Instant updates for RSS. If you everywhere, mean well. Like think RSS is a bad choice of every big organization there are terms, do some research. The some who don't mean well. But I world sees it that way. If you judge each individual as a person. make that more general, you lose I don't assume because a person people. They get confused. works at Google that they are PSHB is very very confusing to good or bad or otherwise. people. That hinders adoption.

Submitted at 11/20/2009 1:01:05 PM

Where is RSS? 11. Fostering adoption of complex technologies is something I know a lot about. I'm very good at it. You can ignore me if you want, but I usually am right about this stuff.

12. Switching gears, I like the Internet because it means I can ignore big companies and still create meaningful software.

13. I think Google doesn't like RSS. I see that in a lot of things Google does.

14. I wish Google would give up on fighting RSS. I think it's pointless. I don't think defeating or blunting or obviating RSS has anything to do with Google's business.

15. You can argue with me on any of these points, but remember #2. If you convince me I'm wrong (which is unlikely, btw, I'm no different than anyone else in that regard), you still have just convinced one person.

16. All this disclaimed, we have a common interest, I think. I don't want to pretend to speak for Google, so I don't want to try to say what that is.

Submitted at 11/21/2009 6:29:14 AM

Google Wave iPhone App Hits

Submitted at 11/20/2009 11:33:20 AM

I watched the morning session of TechCrunch's second realtime conference, including the half hour interview with Dick Costolo, the COO of Twitter.

Of course Mike Arrington asked him the "Is RSS Dead?" question, and thankfully Costolo didn't want to go there. It would be ingracious of him, of course, because he made$100 million with RSS. He said RSS had been "pushed down" the stack, and it was now a protocol like SMTP or HTTP. In a way I agree with him, but only so far.

RSS was never anything more than a protocol like SMTP or HTTP. So it hasn't gone anywhere. It's still exactly where it has been since 2002, it's part of the fabric of the Internet, and is the standard format for news distribution. We're lucky to have a standard format for that.

But...

Had Arrington asked me the question, I would have answered it differently.

RSS will form the basis for the open distributed version of Twitter.

The loosely-coupled 140character message network.

RSS already has everything we The App Store ? Temporarily 0 c o m m e n t s S o u r c e : need, including a protocol for Washington P o s t : w w w . w a s h i n g t o n p o s t . c o m realtime updates.

Gizmodo.comGoogle Wave Further, any vendor of a Twitter iPhone App Hi.. client would, imho, be wellhttp://ad.vu/uvum advised to spread out to achieve

Google Wave iPhone App Hits The App Store ?

Temporarily - washingtonpost.com By twitter:@DavieCharles (TweetMeme)

(Scripting News)

independence from the Twitter company. One way to do that, and they should all do it, is to support Facebook on an equal basis with Twitter. But that isn't enough. They should all make an investment in the open distributed way of doing what Twitter does. What that means is to offer the user the option to create a backup of their tweet stream in RSS, as a publiclyaccessible feed. And once there's a base of apps doing that, they should add a feature to subscribe to those feeds.

Key point: Once they're there, they can add core features without waiting for Twitter.

Of course Arrington didn't ask me that question, and that's fine - that's his prerogative. But there's nothing to stop me from answering it anyway!

TV/

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Soap Opera Ratings: One Life To Live, Days Of Our Lives, All My Children Up

By Bill Gorman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:21:06 AM

Numbers are based on Live+Same Day ratings (Compared to Last Week/Compared to Last Year) Source: Soap Opera Network Ratings for the week November 9-13, 2009 Total Viewers 1. Y&R 4,915,000 (+81,000/+39,000) 2. B&B 3,276,000 (+134,000/205,000) 3. DAYS 3,055,000 (+189,000/+385,000) 4. GH 2,818,000 (+36,000/71,000) 5. AMC 2,753,000 (+177,000/+70,000) 6. OLTL 2,692,000 (+242,000/220,000) 7. ATWT 2,452,000 (-96,000/83,000) HH 1. Y&R 3.6/12 (+.1/same) 2. B&B 2.4/8 (+.1/-.1) 3. DAYS 2.2/7 (+.1/+.2) 4. GH 2.1/6 (same/-.1) 5. AMC 2.0/7 (same/-.1) 5. OLTL 2.0/6 (+.1/-.2) 7. ATWT 1.8/6 (-.1/-.1) Women 18-49 Viewers 1. Y&R 1,139,000 (+16,000/+69,000) 2. GH 976,000 (+57,000/17,000) 3. DAYS 912,000 (+43,000/+81,000)

4. OLTL 806,000 (+84,000/160,000) 5. AMC 752,000 (+51,000/107,000) 6. B&B 717,000 (+13,000/102,000) 7. ATWT 614,000 (-10,000/34,000) Women 18-49 Rating 1. Y&R 1.7/11 (same/+.1) 2. GH 1.5/8 (+.1/same) 3. DAYS 1.4/8 (+.1/+.1)

4. OLTL 1.2/7 (+.1/-.3) 5. B&B 1.1/7 (same/-.1) 5. AMC 1.1/7 (same/-.2) 7. ATWT 0.9/6 (same/-.1) Girls 12-17 Viewers 1. GH 57,000 (-19,000/+33,000) 2. OLTL 39,000 (-7,000/+3,000) 3.

DAYS 33,000 (+2,000/+2,000) 4. Y&R 27,000 (-3,000/-31,000) 5. ATWT 21,000 (same/-16,000) 6. B&B 21,000 (-4,000/-23,000)

7. AMC 18,000 (same/-14,000) Women 18-34 Rating 1. GH 1.2/7 (+.1/+.1) 2. DAYS 1.1/7 (+.1/same) 2. Y&R 1.1/7 (same/+.2) 4. AMC 0.9/6 (same/same) 4. OLTL 0.9/6 (same/same) 6. B&B 0.7/4 (same/same) 7. ATWT 0.6/3 (same/same) Men 18+ Viewers 1. Y&R 1,190,000 (+78,000/+16,000)

2. B&B 712,000 (+72,000/43,000) 3. DAYS 608,000 (+58,000/33,000) 4.

AMC 549,000 (+96,000/+19,000) 5. ATWT 507,000 (+10,000/12,000) 6. GH 491,000 (+11,000/+4,000) 7. OLTL 490,000 (+94,000/SOAP page 44

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E-reader Newspaper

Shrek the Third Leads ABC to Its Biggest Friday Audience in 9 Months

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

drew is biggest Friday night audience(6.8 million) in 9 months and its highest Adult 18Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:27:22 AM 49 number(1.9/6) in nearly 8 via press release: months– since 2/13/09 and Q u i c k T a k e f o r F r i d a y , 3/27/09, respectively.

November 20, 2009 (Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day “ABC Friday Movie of the Ratings) Week: Shrek the Third ” (8:00Finishing No. 1 on the Night in 10:00 p.m.)

Young Adults, ABC Attracts its The “ABC Friday Movie of the Biggest Friday Audience in 9 Week: Shrek the Third” finished Months and its Top Adult 18-49 in a virtual-tie for first place with Number in Nearly 8 Months CBS’ original dramas in its 2“Shrek the Third” Generates hour time period among Adults ABC’s Top Adult 18-49 Number 18-49(1.9/6 vs. 2.0/6), while in the Time Slot placing a definitive No. 1 with Since Early February and its Adults 18-34(1.7/5). With the Largest Audience Since the movie, ABC was also the topBeginning of March rated broadcaster from 8:00ABC News’ “20/20” Wins the 10:00 p.m. with Teens 1210 O’clock Hour in Viewers and 17(1.1/4) and Kids 2-11(2.7/9).

Key Adults, Drawing the Newsmagazine’s • “Shrek the Third” generated 2nd-Biggest Audience in the Last ABC’s best numbers in the 28 Months hour time period since early Friday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.)

March in Total Viewers(6.3 ABC finished No. 1 on Friday million) and since the beginning among young Adults: Adults 18- of February in Adults 1849 (1.9/6-tie) and Adults 18-34 49(1.9/6) – since 3/6/09 and (1.5/6).

2/6/09, respectively. The theatrical turned-in ABC’s • Hitting season-highs, ABC strongest performance in the time

months(since 3/27/09), behind only the two-weeks-ago telecast of the newsmagazine featuring Diane Sawyer’s exclusive interview with Rihanna.

slot with Teens 12-17 and Kids 2 -11 in almost 1 year– since 12/5/08.

“20/20” (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

ABC News’ “20/20,” featuring the continuation of Barbara Walters’ headline-making interview with former Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska

Governor Sarah Palin, won the 10 o’clock hour in Total Viewers(7.9 million), Adults 1849(1.8/6) and Adults 2554(2.5/7). It was the 4th week in a row for the ABC news magazine to finish No. 1 in the hour among Adults 18-49.

• “20/20 produced its 2nd-biggest audience in the last 8

E-readers in short supply for holidays (Financial Times) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers) Submitted at 11/20/2009 6:03:39 PM

The Barnes & Noble Nook is

sold out. The Sony Daily Edition is in short supply. As the holiday shopping season heats up, demand for some e-readers is fast outstripping availability in the

US. On Friday, Barnes & Noble said the Nook, the $260 e-reader it released last month, was out of stock. New orders will not be

filled until January.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to 33% currently, from 28% at the same point in 2008. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen.

Source: Nielsen Media Research (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 11/20/09.

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TV Ratings:Ghost Whisperer leads night with adults 18-49; Shrek the Third helps ABC

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:19:45 AM area at a specific time. (See also, Ghost Whisperer was Friday’s Rating, which represents tuning best of the night averaging a 2.0 or viewing as a percent of the rating among adults 18-49 and entire population being 8.43 million viewers. Shrek The measured.)

Third pulled better numbers than Time Shifted Viewing– Program ABC’s typical Friday night ratings for national sources are lineup and the reruns on FOX produced in three streams of data were down to a 1.0 adults 18-49 – Live, Live+Same rating — still 25% better than Day(Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Dollhouse’s last original episode, Time shifted figures account for but just last week Bones had a incremental viewing that takes 1.2 rating with adults 18-49 at place with DVRs which are 9pm and last night it was down to currently in approximately 24.4% a 1.0. of all U.S. TV households.

Smallville was down slightly Live+Same Day(Live+SD) from last week but still beat the include viewing during the same rerun of House at 8pm. broadcast day as the original Full details: released to subscribing customers for local coverage or other coverage that begins at 5PM PT. telecast, with a cut-off of = daily. These data, from the programming. Fast Affiliate The same would be true of 3:00AM local time when meters You can see TV ratings from National People Meter sample, ratings are not as useful for live Presidential debates as well as transmit daily viewing to Nielsen other recent Overnight ratings a r e s t r i c t l y t i m e - p e r i o d programs and are likely to differ live award shows and breaking for processing. Live+7 Day reports here. ratings include incremental information, based on the normal significantly from the final news reports.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The broadcast network feed, and results, because the data reflect Rating: Estimated percentage of viewing that takes place during Nielsen Company. All Rights include all programming on the normal broadcast feed patterns. the universe of TV households the 7 days following a telecast.

Reserved.

For more information see affiliated stations, sometimes For example, with a World Series (or other specified group) tuned Definitions: including network programming, game, Fast Affiliate Ratings to a program in the average Numbers 101 and Numbers 102.

Fast Affiliate Ratings: These sometimes not. The figures may would include whatever aired minute. Ratings are expressed as This content has passed through first national ratings, including include stations that did not air from 8-11PM on affiliates in the a percent. fivefilters.org. demographics, are available at the entire network feed, as well Pacific Time Zone, following the Share (of Audience): The approximately 11 AM (ET) the as local news breaks or cutaways live football game, but not game p e r c e n t o f h o u s e h o l d s ( o r day after telecast, and are

Firefox: Heat and the CPU usage problem | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News By twitter:@web_buzz (TweetMeme)

Mozilla's browser does not efficiently use a computer's CPU and, consequently, can cause

overheating problems in some laptops, particularly ultraportables.

0 comments Source: news.cnet.com

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SOAP continued from page 41

45,000) ————————————Day-To-Day Ratings – HH/Total Viewers AMC Monday: 2.1/2,814,000 Tuesday: 1.9/2,476,000 (1:16pm start) Wednesday: 2.1/2,887,000 Thursday: 2.0/2,784,000 Friday: 2.0/2,733,000 ATWT Monday: 1.8/2,487,000 Tuesday: 1.8/2,386,000 Wednesday: 1.9/2,471,000 Thursday: 1.8/2,433,000 Friday: 1.8/2,472,000 B&B Monday: 2.4/3,333,000 Tuesday: 2.3/3,158,000 Wednesday: 2.4/3,160,000 Thursday: 2.4/3,301,000 Friday: 2.5/3,429,000 DAYS Monday: 2.2/3,152,000 Tuesday: 1.9/2,555,000 Wednesday: 2.4/3,399,000 Thursday: 2.3/3,171,000 Friday: 2.1/2,999,000 GH

Monday: 2.2/2,873,000 Tuesday: 2.0/2,582,000 (3:16pm start) Wednesday: 2.2/2,999,000 Thursday: 2.0/2,662,000 Friday: 2.1/2,910,000 OLTL Monday: 2.0/2,673,000 Tuesday: 1.9/2,397,000 Wednesday: 2.2/3,016,000 Thursday: 1.9/2,597,000 Friday: 2.0/2,737,000 Y&R Monday: 3.6/4,990,000 Tuesday: 3.5/4,967,000 Wednesday: 3.8/5,022,000 Thursday: 3.4/4,700,000 Friday: 3.6/4,896,000 ———————For the SEASON September 21, 2009 through November 15, 2009 HH 1. Y&R 3.8 2. B&B 2.4 3. DAYS 2.3 4. GH 2.1 5. AMC 2.0 5. OLTL 2.0 7. ATWT 1.9

Women 18-49 Rating 1. Y&R 1.8 2. DAYS 1.5 2. GH 1.5 4. OLTL 1.2 5. AMC 1.1 5. B&B 1.1 7. ATWT 0.9 Source: Soap Opera Network To see past week’s Soap Opera TV ratings click here.

Y&R = The Young & The Restless, B&B = The Bold and the Beautiful, GH = General Hospital, DAYS = Days of Our Lives, ATWT = As The World Turns, OLTL = One Life to Live, AMC = All My Children.

Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company.

All Rights Reserved.

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What's On Tonight: Personal Effects, Robin Hood, Sit Down, Shut Up

By Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 11/21/2009 12:24:00 PM

• At 7, Cartoon Network has a new Bakugan, followed by a new episode of The Super Hero Squad Show.

• At 8, ABC has College Football, Kansas vs. Texas.

• FOX has a new Cops at 8.

• HGTV has a new Divine Design at 8.

• Food Network has All-Star Thanksgiving at 8.

• At 9, FOX has a new America's Most Wanted.

• CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show at 9.

• Lifetime has the movie Personal Effects at 9.

• BBC America has a new Robin Hood at 9, then a new Graham Norton Show.

• Also at 9: Cartoon Network has a new episode of The Secret Saturdays.

• At 10, CBS has a new 48 Hours Mystery.

• At 11, FOX has a new Wanda Sykes Show, followed by a new Sit Down, Shut Up. • At 11:30, NBC has a new Saturday Night Live, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and The Dave Matthews Band.

• At 1AM, Cartoon Network has a new Bleach.

Check your local TV listings for more.

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Review: Ghost Whisperer - Lost In The Shadows

By Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad) Submitted at 11/21/2009 2:52:00 AM

(S05E09) "I have a bad feeling about this one. A very bad feeling." - Melinda about the

ghost in the closet Melinda's bad feeling was, pardon the pun, dead on. Very bad things happened in this November Sweeps episode: Aiden was put in danger, the front and center, the Shadows dead girl from the closet was

came back full force and in a way we hadn't see yet, Bedford gave more warnings to Eli, as a hurting Carl the Watcher gave warnings to Melinda.

Continue reading Review: Ghost Whisperer - Lost In The Shadows

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American Gladiators movie has a plot, and no, we're not kidding

Another Stephen King TV movie coming

Top 10 Ergonomic Upgrades for Your Workspace Ergonomics - Lifehacker

By Brad Trechak (TV Squad)

By twitter:@Lifehacker (TweetMeme)

By Danny Gallagher (TV Squad)

Steven and Stephen are getting together. That is to say that Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks TV are working with Stephen King to make a television movie based on King's latest novel Under The Dome.

The novel is about one of those small New England towns that King enjoys writing about suddenly finding itself trapped in a force field. Unlike The Simpsons Movie, the concept is not played for humorous effect.

The idea is reminiscent of those stories where people are trapped in a confined space and lawlessness sets in. There have been many similar concepts done in TV and film, although I can't think of any particular ones off the top of my head.

As he gets older, King's television presence becomes less.

For a few years it seemed like a different TV show based on his

Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:10:11 AM

Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:02:00 AM

If you are counting the seconds until the new big screen remake of American Gladiators hits a theater near you, please seek immediate medical attention or the nearest clergyman for guidance.

Screenwriter Peter Iliff has developed a script for the project.

The TV tough guys and gals will be turned into "superheroes" in the new movie.

That's it? Isn't that obvious?

What the hell else were they going to be?

- A bunch of muscleheaded meatwads pretending to be British nannies in order to see their estranged children.

- Sinewy wimp-eaters who must constantly pull a bus with their teeth at a speed of at least 30 mph or it will explode.

Submitted at 11/21/2009 1:07:00 PM

Or perhaps the storyline could go something like this: A ruthless mob boss looking to bump off a key witness traveling overseas plants twelve Gladiators injected with anger inducing pheromones on his plane and unleashes them over the ocean.

Feel free to share your own ideas for this movie in the comments below.

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work was being produced every year. He may be starting that again. So much for retirement.

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It's easy to forget about your body's needs when you're deep into your work or the net—until your body offers a painful reminder. Save your physical shell some strain with these cheap, customizable ergonomic workspace upgrades.Photo by IMG_3771 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!.10. Elevate your laptop to eye levelYour neck can't text you to explain how annoying it is to have to keep looking down at‌ 0 comments Source: lifehacker.com

Try PSP Digital Comics with these free codes

By Andrew Yoon (Joystiq)

While the PlayStation Store won't offer comics until next month, Sony is offering fans an If you've downloaded firmware early sneak peek at the service by 6.20 for your PSP, you'll be able offering free codes through the to access the Digital Comics official PlayStation Comics service, featured under the new website. Americans will be able "Extras" section of the XMB. t o g e t t h e f i r s t i s s u e o f Submitted at 11/21/2009 3:00:00 AM

while Europeans can download the first issue of Aleister Arcane.

Each issue will take about 40MB of space on your Memory Stick / PSP Go. To get your trial codes, visit the PlayStation Comics Transformers: All Hail Megatron, website.

[Thanks, Simon R.!]

Try PSP Digital Comics with these free codes originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Readers pick best webcomic: Cold, Cold Mountain

By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:00:00 AM

We don't ... we're not really ... alright, look. We've got to finish this post quick, because the above image is making us sad to look at. You guys picked 2P Start's " Cold, Cold Mountain" as your favorite webcomic from last week's Wrapup. Congrats, 2P Start. Now, we've got to move on before PETA finds us, and dumps buckets of fake penguin blood all over our laptops.

Second and third place went to Slackerz' "'ficcial Instructions" and Virtual Shackles " Approaching Infallibility," respectively. If you've got a The trend lines above are 30 day September, 2009) Political comments will be favorite webcomic from this moving averages.

CNN/HLN: 99.10 million HHs deleted. If I have to delete your week that you'd like to see in For complete information on all CNBC: 96.78 million HHs comments more than once I will today's Wrapup, drop a link to it cable news ratings check our FNC: 96.26 million HHs just block you from commenting. in the comments, or send in a tip! daily cable news ratings posts. MSNBC: 92.64 million HHs If you find the comments to be Readers pick best webcomic: Anybody else wanting to Nielsen TV Ratings Data: unpleasant, please just don’t read Cold, Cold Mountain originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 21 produce trend charts of any of ©2009 The Nielsen Company. them. – Bill our other data, drop me an email. All Rights Reserved.

This content has passed through Nov 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Nielsen Cable Network P e r s o n a l a t t a c k s i n t h e fivefilters.org.

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O’Reilly vs. Olbermann vs. Brown vs. Grace Cable TV News Ratings

By Bill Gorman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 11/20/2009 6:49:21 PM

Reader MikeS has once again updated his 8pm Cable News ratings charts for us.

Long Term Trend of O’Reilly vs. Olbermann vs. Campbell Brown TV Ratings:

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Oprah's exit is like Johnny Carson leaving The Tonight Show

By Allison Waldman (TV Squad) Submitted at 11/21/2009 11:02:00 AM

After watching The Oprah Winfrey Show today and hearing her teary announcement about her decision to end her syndicated talk show, I had one thought in my head. Oprah Winfrey is doing a Johnny Carson. She's writing her own script (no pun intended). Oprah is leaving while she's still wanted, while she's still strong, and by setting the date 18 months down

By Mike Moody (TV Squad) hidden wonders. That at least the road, she's giving herself a k e e p s t h e m o c c u p i e d a n d victory tour.

Submitted at 11/21/2009 12:01:00 PM This is very much like Johnny somewhat hopeful.

(S01E09) There was a lot going But things aren't nearly as happy Carson's decision to leave The on in this episode, as the folks -go-lucky for people like Spencer Tonight Show. The difference, of aboard Destiny started to adjust (aka "Baldy"). He's running out course, is that Oprah's show is to their new lives away from of his medication (my guess is not an established landmark Earth. The adjustment, of course, that he's taking anti-psychotics, entity like The Tonight Show, is easier for some than it is for or is that too obvious?) and it which had Steve Allen and Jack others. seems like only a matter of time Paar as hosts before Carson. No, Chloe has made new friends like before he kills someone, or kills Oprah was/is The Oprah Winfrey Eli and has found a partner in himself.

Show. She will not leave it Scott, who comforts her and Continue reading Review: behind for someone else to makes her feel less lonely. So Stargate Universe - Life she's content to pass the time Filed under: Stargate, Episode doing yoga on the observation Reviews, Reality-Free deck. People like Young, Rush Permalink| Email this| | and Eli are busy exploring the C o m m e n t s ship and trying to unlock its

Review: Stargate Universe - Life

'Normal' Monopoly now on iPhone

By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq) Submitted at 11/21/2009 5:00:00 AM

Although a version called Monopoly: Here & Now: The World(sweet mercy, that title!) was previously released on iPhone, there is also now a plain ol' version of Monopoly for $5 on the App Store. The game supports up to four players on the inherit the throne. She's taking same network or through "pass 'n the throne with her. play." There's also the option of a Continue reading Oprah's exit is t w o p l a y e r g a m e t h r o u g h like Johnny Carson leaving The B l u e t o o t h m u l t i p l a y e r .

Tonight Show We had previously criticized the Filed under: Programming, Xbox 360 take on the classic OpEd, Celebrities, Talk Show board game for costing $30, P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | especially when the non-virtual Comments version is under $20 at most retailers, so $5 doesn't seem like such a bad deal.

Gallery: Monopoly Classic (iPhone) 'Normal' Monopoly now on iPhone originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ABC fires All My Children head writer Chuck Pratt

New York Giants LB Antonio Pierce out indefinitely with neck injury

By Associated Press (ESPN.com)

week, when the club's medical staff scheduled the MRI exam.

"I'm shocked with what I heard Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:08:14 AM

By Allison Waldman (TV from the doctors this afternoon," Squad) EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Pierce said in a statement Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:02:00 AM New York Giants linebacker released by the Giants. "I had no Antonio Pierce is out indefinitely idea that what happened a few Within a few weeks, All My after an MRI exam on Friday weeks ago could keep me off the Children will be turning over a surprisingly revealed a bulging field. I didn't think it was that new leaf, officially making the disk in his neck. serious. move west to new studios in Los The Giants said their defensive "I'm going to do everything the Angeles. Most actors are making captain underwent the test in doctors tell me to do so I can get the move. Some are not. And New York and was examined by back out on the field as soon as today ABC informed the head a m o n g o t h e r s . P r a t t w a s team physician Dr. Russell possible." writer, Charles Pratt Jr., that he's supposed to revive All My Warren and Dr. Frank Camissa, The Giants (5-4) will host been let go. If he had his Children to its former luster, but - chief of the spinal surgical Atlanta on Sunday. New York, suitcases packed, well, sorry - alas -- it hasn't happened. services at the Hospital for coming off its bye week, has lost about that.

Continue reading ABC fires All Special Surgery. four straight games.

Chuck Pratt was hired with some My Children head writer Chuck NFC East blog Pierce, in his ninth NFL year fanfare in June 2008. He was a Pratt ESPN.com's Matt Mosley writes and fifth with the Giants, has 55 big hire because his resume is Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, about all things NFC East in his tackles one sack, and one forced filled with flashy successes, Celebrities, Reality-Free division blog. fumble in nine games this season. including Desperate Housewives, P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | • Blog network: NFL Nation He was looking forward to trying Melrose Place, Beverly Hills C o m m e n t s T h e 3 1 - y e a r - o l d P i e r c e to help New York snap its losing 90210, Ugly Betty, Santa originally sustained a burner streak on Sunday against the Barbara and General Hospital, when the Giants played Arizona Falcons (5-4). on Oct. 25. He had very little "This game means a lot to us," discomfort until practice this Pierce said earlier Friday. "For

one, we need a win to get out of this four-game slump and, two, it will help us in the playoff hunt.

We are tied for one of the wild card spots and you always want to win the head-to-head battles."

Pierce played in 15 games last season after appearing in all 16 contests each of the previous two seasons. He has led the Giants in tackles for the last three seasons and missed only four regularseason games since leaving the Washington Redskins to join the Giants.

He spent much of the past year in the spotlight after helping former teammate Plaxico Burress when the wide receiver accidentally shot himself in the thigh in a New York nightclub.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Donovan, Beckham: From Rivals to BFFs

By Brian Straus (FanHouse) Submitted at 11/21/2009 11:17:00 AM

by Brian Straus Filed under: MLS SEATTLE -Landon Donovan's MLS goal of the year was remarkable on two levels. First, the curling volley was an incredible strike, with a beyond-the-post bend

reminiscent of Roberto Carlos' famous free kick against France 12 years ago. Second, it was David Beckham who was the first to jump into Donovan's arms.

The feud and reconciliation between the league's two most recognizable players has been the there can be little question that story of the 2009 season, and

the Los Angeles Galaxy would not be here for Sunday's MLS Cup final had the pair failed to resolve the differences that became public over the summer.

Beckham's genuine excitement over Donovan's goal, and the club's run to the final, are clear indications that the two are on the same page. On Friday, FanHouse

had the opportunity to ask them how they did it.

Donovan, Beckham: From Rivals to BFFs originally appeared on Fanhouse Soccer Blog on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:17:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Fix Picks the NFL: Week 11 (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 11/20/2009 2:04:52 PM

Garey is Canadian, which maybe explains his modesty. But while I spend most of these opening paragraphs in my biweekly slot grousing about getting defeated by a coin or addressing my defiantly mediocre picks record, Garey spends his time talking sense about that week’s football games. Which is fine, it’s his prerogative — he can be more professional than me if he wants, and he can even have a betterlooking WSJ-pencil-sketch (my jaw isn’t nearly that huge, for real). I’m not mad. But if he’s not going to mention that he has absolutely been crushing it in terms of his picks of late, then I guess I will. Associated Press Kurt Warner leads the Cardinals, who seek their sixth straight win against the Rams, his former team.

I’m just a guy who’s right almost half the time and is unaccountably excited about the possible universe-endangering cosmic implications of this week’s Lions/Browns game. But Garey is a (notably understated football-picking) monster. After a poor start in the first two weeks, Garey has run up a 67-45-1 record since. Which means he has been right 59.3% of the time.

I traditionally disclaim that no one should follow my advice in these picks or in anything else, but… maybe you should think about doing whatever Garey

says. Like, in general, even though some of his picks this week look kind of crazy to me. I don’t know, it couldn’t hurt. He’s got the track record, and the better-looking pencil drawing.

Week 10 recap (overall): David Roth: 8-7 (71-72-1), Garey Ris: 10-5 (77-66-1), Al Toonie, the Lucky Canadian Two-Dollar Coin: 7-8 (65-78-1) SUNDAY’S GAMES Indianapolis (-1) at Baltimore: The Colts should hate playing in Baltimore, both because the Ravens have a very good, very nasty defense, and because Baltimore fans (justifiably) hate the Colts for slinking out of town a couple decades ago (of course, none of today’s Colts did the slinking, but that’s a minor detail). Charm City’s long memory and still-sharp grudges aside, though, this rivalry is fun because of Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, the two gesticulation-intensive geniuses facing each other across the line of scrimmage when Indy’s offense is on the field. The Colts are better, and this betting line doesn’t require much of them, but this could go either way and should be fun to watch, if only for all that strategic pantomime.

DR Pick: David: Indianapolis, Garey: Baltimore, Al Toonie: Indianapolis Washington at Dallas (-11): Washington looked pretty good in a win over the fading Broncos

it right now. I’m honestly not sure it isn’t a piece of performance art. But, yeah, I like the Lions in this one. DR Pick: David: Detroit, Garey: Detroit, Al Toonie: Detroit San Francisco at Green Bay (6.5): San Francisco seems to be last week, but this is still a one of those good-enough-to-beat troubled, torpid team, and even -bad-teams teams, which is not with Dallas’s ace offensive line exactly the worst of NFL fates. carved up by injuries, a win is But it’s unclear what, exactly, probably a bridge too far against G r e e n B a y i s . T h e P a c k a very talented Cowboys team welcomes back some important that looked to be getting things players on offense and defense together before tanking against this week, but they’re both an Green Bay in Week 10. It would explosive offensive team given to be a lot more tempting to pick i m p l o s i o n s a n d a t a l e n t e d Washington as an underdog if defensive unit that periodically they weren’t so injury-marred makes some very weird calls and (and deadly dull) themselves. So mistakes. They’re better than the my picks: Dallas to win and 49ers, but that’s pretty faint cover, and a nice walk outside praise. That said, they have to be while these two teams are a lot happier with the quarterback they selected in the 2005 NFL playing. DR Pick: David: Dallas, Garey: Draft than the 49ers are. DR Dallas, Al Toonie: Washington Pick: David: Green Bay, Garey: Cleveland at Detroit (-3.5): I’ll Green Bay, Al Toonie: San admit it: I’m psyched for this Francisco one. I mean, obviously not for Buffalo at Jacksonville (-9): the football, which promises to With all due respect to the beliefbe so appalling as to induce system-challenging bummer that existential crises in everyone who is this week’s Browns/Lions v i e w s t h i s g a m e . B u t t h e game, let’s give this blacked-out nightmarish goofery on tap — pairing of two lousy teams in a the stunningly inept Browns half-empty venue its drag-city offense against the ultra-flubby due. Jacksonville is just good Lions defense is really only the enough to beat worse teams — beginning — promises to be an attribute Buffalo had made almost avant-garde. If this game near-heroic a couple years ago — were a piece of performance art and the Bills are inarguably that. that had drawn NEA funding, Interim Buffalo coach Perry Southern congressmen would be Fewell takes over, from fired in the House exclaiming against coach Dick Jauron, a team with

11 players on injured reserve, 11 more on this week’s injury report, and an offense that has been called for 22 false starts in nine games. Beyond “will the Bills win another game this year?” the biggest remaining question is whether Buffalo will be able to persuade anyone to take the job from Fewell. DR Pick: David: Jacksonville, Garey: Jacksonville, Al Toonie: Buffalo Pittsburgh (-10) at Kansas City: Pittsburgh is figuring things out, and played definitively Steelers-y football even in their Week 10 loss to the Bengals. Kansas City is not figuring things out so much as weeding things out — dumping uber-troubled running back Larry Johnson, taking snaps away from disgruntled linebacker Derrick Johnson — while playing definitively Chiefs-y football. That’s not a compliment. With top receiver Dwayne Bowe suspended and effectively being replaced by Lance Long— “a short white guy who can catch,” per teammate Chris Chambers — the Chiefs are as thoroughly outgunned as any NFL team this week. I’d take the Steelers at twice this line. DR Pick: David: Pittsburgh, Garey: Kansas City, Al Toonie: Kansas City Seattle at Minnesota (-10.5): Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck was mentored by Brett Favre early in his career.

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Lincecum’s Early Dominance Making Baseball History (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 11/20/2009 11:04:29 AM

Anyone who has watched Tim Lincecum pitch for the San Francisco Giants should have no difficulty justifying the fact that the 25-year-old mega-ace just won his second straight National League Cy Young Award. With a slight build, a haircut that isn’t really a haircut per se, and a strange, violent motion, Lincecum is fascinating to watch even before one takes into account just how dazzlingly dominant he is on the mound.

Lincecum won the award despite winning only 15 games in 2009 — the fewest ever for a Cy Young Award winner in a season not shortened by a work stoppage. Associated Press Tim Lincecum won the Cy Young Award despite a pedestrian wins total.

“Some 15-win pitchers might not have been considered. But Lincecum surely was hoisted by his reputation and style,” the San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman writes. “Looking more like a surfer than a big-league pitcher, short in stature but big in arm speed and intensity, Lincecum has become one of the few must-see pitchers in baseball.

That might have put him over the top in a season with no clear Cy Young favorite.”

While no one can doubt Lincecum’s brilliance on the mound, some in baseball wonder about his durability in years

ahead, given that crazy motion and the fact that he’s a normalsized human being. At CBS Sports, Danny Knobler does his best to deflate this particular concern. “Sure he throws hard, and he has a great breaking ball and a great changeup and you can’t pick up the ball and no one ever gets any hits off him, but is he going to hold up?” Knobler writes. “You’d think by now the only question we’d be asking about Lincecum is whether he’s headed for the Hall of Fame, because the things he has done in his first two full seasons with the Giants are the things Hall of Famers do.”

Sabermetric-minded writers and stat-heads disdain the win as a stat too grounded in context — that is, the team surrounding the pitcher — to be of much use, and cheered Lincecum’s selection much as they did that of 16-game -winner and AL Cy Young winner Zack Greinke earlier this week. The difference, this year, was that a few non-newspaper writers actually had Cy Young votes, and those voters may have actually swung things for Lincecum, Rob Neyer notes at ESPN. “There’s something to be said for Conventional Wisdom,” Neyer writes. “In this case, the Conventional Wisdom was unanimous: the three best pitchers in the league were Lincecum, [Cardinals starter Chris] Carpenter, and [Cardinals starter Adam] Wainwright. But in a field as traditionally

drive race cars.”

Martin, age 50 and widely respected, is something of a sentimental favorite, although Johnson’s steady dominance has its own appeal. Sports Illustrated’s Brant James conveys the shape of Johnson’s conservative as award voting, understated excellence in a nice isn’t it healthy to allow room for profile of the dominant driver. just a bit of unconventional “In-progress dynasties are hard to dissect, and Johnson’s wisdom, too?”* * * NASCAR’s Sprint Cup season dominance has been so numbing wraps up this weekend in Miami, — boring, according to critics but the season effectively ended a and fans of… well, everyone else long time ago — Jimmie Johnson — it provides few pegs on which has opened a huge 108-point lead to attach a theory,” James writes. on Mark Martin, who is the only “Certainly, he is at the nexus of driver on the circuit who can talent, team and opportunity. But even hope to catch him. Johnson there is also the simple fact that would have to finish 25th or he works incredibly hard and worse for Martin to claim the finds the joy in it.”* * * The Harvard-Yale football title, and while stranger things have happened, it’s most likely rivalry doesn’t traditionally that Martin will finish as the feature many future NFL stars, runner-up in points for the fifth and often doesn’t even feature time in his career and that terribly good football. But it’s Johnson will win his fourth certainly gotten safer in the past century. Sports Illustrated’s straight Sprint Cup. Of course, “most likely” doesn’t Frank Deford describes the 1909 mean “inevitably,” as Racin clash — won by Yale 8-0 — as Today’s Rich Minter writes. the beginning of football’s Elsewhere at Racin Today, Mike transition from a brutal blood Harris reminds readers not to feel sport into, um, a slightly-lessbad for Martin if he winds up a brutal blood sport. bridesmaid again. “If he doesn’t “Although some of the game’s eventually win a championship or powers — not unlike the smug a Daytona 500, you can bet football aristocracy in the Bowl Martin won’t pout,” Harris Championship Series today — writes. “He’ll simply go on to the were relatively content with the next thing in his life, grateful that gory status quo, other colleges he got the chance to do for nearly t o o k a m o r e p r o g r e s s i v e three decades the thing he loves approach,” Deford writes. “Rules most except for his family — liberalizing the forward pass

were instituted for the 1910 season, and soon it became the weapon that opened up a safer game.”

In the Boston Phoenix, Mike Miliard provides a nice look back at the famous 1968 clash between the two rivals — the famous “Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29 game. Even if you already knew that said game featured a future NFL rookie of the year and a future Academy Award-winning actor in playing roles, as well as the inspiration for a Doonesbury character, it’s worth clicking that link.

Neither Harvard nor Yale are in college football’s BCS mix — or even BCS division — this year, but two fine features on upstart programs that have inserted themselves into national-title contention also deserve a look. In the Washington Post, Sally Jenkins argues that Texas Christian has been the most impressive team in the nation thus far this season. In the Journal, Darren Everson credits coach Jim Harbaugh with Stanford’s stunning surge in recent weeks.* * * Your Fixer isn’t sure he has the stomach for a full-on five-day cricket test match, but there’s something so arrestingly strange about the game to my American eyes that I can’t help but admire it. (Note: This may also have something to do with the fact that I just finished Joseph O’Neill’s LINCECUM’S page 53

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Seattle wide receiver Nate Burleson washed out in Minnesota before catching on with the Seahawks. Vikings guard Steve Hutchinson became a star in Seattle before bolting to Minnesota. Imagine how emotional this would be if anyone could care about a Seahawks game! As it is, this looks like a brief stop on Minnesota’s increasingly impressive march to the playoffs.

Considering that Minnesota papers spent this week worrying about other teams hiring away Vikings coordinators after the season, it’s clear that no one’s sweating this outcome very hard.

DR Pick: David: Minnesota, Garey: Minnesota, Al Toonie: Seattle Atlanta at New York Giants (6.5): To say these teams aren’t firing on all cylinders is an understatement. The Falcons and the Giants are a collective 1-7 over their past eight games, negating strong starts. Atlanta’s Matt Ryan is struggling through a sophomore slump, throwing 10 picks and only seven TDs in his past five starts. Another disappointment for the Falcons is DE John Abraham, who has just 3.5 sacks so far this season after recording 16.5 a year ago. If the Giants are to revert to their earlyseason form, QB Eli Manning must play a big part. Interesting

stat: The road team has won the past 12 meetings between these teams. GR Pick: David: Atlanta, Garey: Atlanta, Al Toonie: Atlanta New Orleans (-11.5) at Tampa Bay: The Bucs had to ruin a pretty good thing by winning two weeks ago. Otherwise we’d be showcasing the undefeated Saints against the winless Bucs. The pressure increases each week a team remains perfect, and New Orleans sure survived a scare in last week’s narrow victory at St. Louis (I picked the Saints by at least 28, BTW). Tampa Bay is awful, but I’m not liking the double-digit line this week. That adage applies here: Once bitten, twice shy. GR Pick: David: New Orleans, Garey: Tampa Bay, Al Toonie: Tampa Bay Arizona (-9.5) at St. Louis: Cards QB Kurt Warner returns to his former stomping grounds to face a team that won’t remind anyone of “The Greatest Show on Turf” teams of 1999, 2000 and 2001 that he piloted. Warner likely will dissect the 25thranked Rams secondary with ease, and extend the Cards’ streak over the Rams to six. But I’m not liking the points in this one, either. GR Pick: David: Arizona, Garey: St. Louis, Al Toonie: St. Louis San Diego (off) at Denver: The

Chargers, coming off an impressive home victory over Philadelphia, look to defeat an AFC West foe for the fifth straight time. Who knows what to expect from the Broncos, losers of three straight after starting 6-0? That sixth win came against the Chargers, thanks to WR/returner Eddie Royal’s two TDs. RB LaDainian Tomlinson wants a better outing than he had in the loss to Denver, when he rushed for only 70 yards and no TDs. QB Kyle Orton (left ankle) is questionable for the Broncos, who are 7-2 in their past nine at home against the Chargers. Since all bets are off on this one (literally), these predictions won’t count towards our respective records. No, we’re doing this one for the love. GR Pick: David: San Diego, Garey: San Diego, Al Toonie: San Diego New York Jets at New England ( -10.5): If you’re scoring at home, the Jets are 1-5 in their past six games. The numbers haven’t been favorable for QB Mark Sanchez, who has thrown 10 picks since starting 3-0. The bigger story this week, of course, is all the conservative-minded second-guessers who think Pats coach Bill Belichick blew it by gambling on fourth down deep in his own territory, and losing the game to Indianapolis. I like Belichick’s unconventional

thinking. You can’t allow one call, in hindsight, to negate Belichick’s many accomplishments. One question: Was coach Rex Ryan’s tearful plea on Monday a rallying cry for the Jets? GR Pick: David: New England, Garey: Jets, Al Toonie: Jets Cincinnati (-9.5) at Oakland: All the signs point to a Bengals victory. Cincy is 7-2 and aiming to go 5-0 on the road for the first time in team history. The Bengals have the AFC North lead thanks to last weekend’s big victory over Pittsburgh. Still, there’s a bit of doubt about a team new to winning ways after years of bungling. Cincy’s Cedric Benson doesn’t look likely to play, and neither does newly signed RB Larry Johnson, who probably can’t believe his luck going from 2-7 Kansas City to a playoff contender. The Bengals must avoid a letdown against a Raiders team that’s not good at very much (31st in scoring, 25th in scoring defense.) Oakland has alternated close games and blowouts at home this season (L 24-20, L 23-3, W 13-9, L 38-0, L16-10). Although the Raiders are due for a thrashing, I’ve got a hunch about this one. GR Pick: David: Cincinnati, Garey: Oakland, Al Toonie: Oakland Philadelphia (-3) at Chicago: Bears QB Jay Cutler doesn’t

seem ready for the bright lights of prime-time football. How else to explain his 11 picks in three nighttime starts — all losses— for Chicago? The Bears haven’t looked good in losing four of their past five (three were blowouts). Any flicker of hope for a playoff spot must start with a victory over an Eagles team that has lost consecutive games for the first time this season. But not everyone in Philadelphia wants to use injuries as an excuse.

GR Pick: David: Philadelphia, Garey: Chicago, Al Toonie: Philadelphia MONDAY’S GAME Tennessee at Houston (-4.5): The Titans feel right at home in Houston, where they’re 5-2. With QB Vince Young at the helm, Chris Johnson has improved his running game, and the Titans have won three straight after starting 0-6. Texans QB Matt Schaub is worth a look in another ho-hum Monday night game.

He’s gunning for his fourth consecutive game against an AFC South opponent with at least 300 passing yards. GR Pick: David: Houston, Garey: Tennessee, Al Toonie: Houston

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The Count: Misconceptions About That FourthDown Call

Microsoft roadmap pegs Windows 8 release for 2012, or just after the world's end -- Engadget

(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

By twitter:@newsbyifm (TweetMeme)

with his postgame opinion that it was “the second dumbest thing I Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:27:54 PM have ever seen any Boston team Almost a week later, Bill d o . ” H e r e a r e a f e w Belichick’s decision to go for it misconceptions about Puntgate: on fourth down when his New Statistics can’t account for the England Patriots had the ball at s p e c i f i c s o f t h e s i t u a t i o n . their own 29-yard line and a six- Simmons suggests that Indy’s point lead is still resonating in the defense was particularly fired up, sports world. As the Journal in front of its home crowd. At reported earlier this week, many PatsPulpit, MaPatsFan makes the statisticians say it was the right same point. But the specifics of call, when taking into account the this scenario cut both ways. New possibility of a successful England’s high-powered offense c o n v e r s i o n a n d o f t h e was more equipped than most to Indianapolis Colts scoring off a get two yards on fourth down. punt or off a turnover on downs. And Indy’s high-powered offense (Read more about the stats in the was particularly well-equipped to links from the bottom of this mount a 70-yard drive compared Count post.) Getty Images Tom to a 30-yard drive for the needed Brady and Bill Belichick would g o - a h e a d t o u c h d o w n . T h e have helped their cause by simulations that suggested the deciding earlier they’d go for it punt was the worse call were on fourth down. based on the specific teams Yet many fans, players and involved. c o m m e n t a t o r s c o n t i n u e t o The statistics should have been question the decision, which superseded by considerations of backfired when the fourth-down respect. Somehow the decision play fell short of the two yards was interpreted — by former needed and the Colts scored the Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi g a m e - w i n n i n g t o u c h d o w n . and others — as a sign that ESPN’s Bill Simmons is sticking Belichick had no confidence in

theory dictates it shouldn’t always go with its better play; if it does, opposing teams won’t have to prepare for both possibilities and will stuff the obvious run or pass.

Still, the Pats could have helped themselves by disguising the his defense. But there are three play; instead they came out in an probabilities you have to figure obvious pass formation. For that in making such a decision: of matter, if it was always a fourmaking the first down, of the down possession, they could Colts scoring off a turnover on have run the ball instead of downs and of the Colts scoring passing on third down, which after a punt. Belichick at least could have set up fourth-andimplicitly had to consider that the short instead of fourth-andplay might fail, and his decision shorter. And, for that matter, suggested he thought his team making the decision in advance had a shot at holding the Pats. could have saved the Pats from Plus, the argument could easily having to use a timeout before be turned on its head: He was the play — a TO that would have showing enormous confidence in been useful when the Pats got the ball back in the final seconds. his offense.

The stats fail to account for the But those are all criticisms of decision to pass instead of decisions separate from the actual running. It’s possible that the decision to go for it on fourth Pats had a better chance at down. As these criticisms show, getting a first down on the Belichick isn’t omniscient. But ground. But they’re generally that doesn’t mean the punt was more successful as a passing the right call. team. Also, even if a team is better at the run or pass, game

Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:12:53 AM

It's somewhat hard to believe that we're already talking about Windows 8 given that Windows 7 just hit the shelves two months ago, but you know the engineers at Microsoft are already planning ahead. According to a roadmap constructed over at Microsoft Kitchen -- based around whispers heard through the grapevine on the eventual release of the next Windows Server -- the next iteration of Windows is…

0 comments Source: www.engadget.com

TechCrunch Readers: God is Your Co-Pilot, and Stuff that Piggy Bank By twitter:@LolCrunch (TweetMeme) Submitted at 11/21/2009 6:45:56 AM

When pitching to VC’s, entrepreneurs hype the heck out of their ideas, years of experience and management teams. But I’ve

never heard of anyone touting their luck or connection to God. After reading the posts on TechCrunch, one could easily get

the impression that God doesn’t play much of role in Silicon Valley. But ask any successful entrepreneur in private what

made them successful, and…

0 comments Source: www.techcrunch.com

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Brian Westbrook of Philadelphia Eagles to miss two to three games

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LINCECUM’S continued from page 50

insanely great cricket-related novel “Netherland”.) In the Journal, Jonathan Clegg writes that it’s not just your Fixer who

By ESPN.com news services making encouraging progress, report.

(ESPN.com) and would be re-evaluated in two "We're backing off this week, has trouble fitting a five-day to three weeks. just letting him rest," Reid said, cricket test into the old daySubmitted at 11/21/2009 8:16:38 AM Asked if that meant Westbrook according to the report. "Next p l a n n e r , e s p e c i a l l y w i t h Brian Westbrook is expected to would be sidelined for upcoming week, he can start going to T w e n t y 2 0 , a f a s t e r - p a c e d miss at least two to three games games against the Washington meetings and some things. We'll condensed-cricket discussed in this Fix, gaining in popularity.* * as he recovers from his second R e d s k i n s a n d t h e A t l a n t a see how he feels as he goes." c o n c u s s i o n i n 2 0 d a y s , Falcons, Reid said yes, according Westbrook, a key element in the * Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Eagles' offense, suffered a Zimbabwe was once one of the Reid said Friday.

"I think the doctors want to see concussion on Oct. 26 in a game proudest nations in Africa, but NFC East blog how he does after two weeks, against Washington. He sat out t h e c o m b i n a t i o n o f s o m e ESPN.com's Matt Mosley writes what kind of symptoms he has, for two weeks, but suffered a appallingly bad leadership and about all things NFC East in his and then they'll just go back second concussion Sunday in his the other problems that tragically division blog. through and evaluate him after return to the lineup at San Diego. tend to affect African nations • Blog network: NFL Nation that -- two to three weeks," Reid Rookie running back LeSean disproportionately has made it — Westbrook, already out for said, according to the report. McCoy will start in Westbrook's a s t h i s s o b e r i n g J o n L e e Anderson piece from The New Sunday's game against Chicago, "We'll just see how he feels after absence. was examined Wednesday by that."

I n f o r m a t i o n f r o m T h e Yorker makes clear — one of the concussion specialists at the Westbrook was back at the Associated Press was used in this most dysfunctional places in the world. And yet, as is true any University of Pittsburgh Medical Eagles' training facility on report.

Center. After that exam, Dr. Thursday, but is not expected to This content has passed through place human beings live, it’s not all bad.

Joseph Maroon and Dr. Michael resume activity until next week at fivefilters.org.

At CNN, Medecins Sans Collins said Westbrook was the earliest, according to the Frontieres communications officer Joanna Stavropoulou details her interactions with the Positive Ladies Soccer Club of

Zimbabwe’s Epworth Township.

The Positive Ladies are a team of HIV-positive women that became a crack soccer squad in defiance of a desperately poor community in which women don’t play soccer and, more to the point, HIV-positive people are stigmatized. It’s not the most literarily accomplished piece we’ve linked to at The Fix, but the story of The Positive Ladies is another reminder that humankind can also be pretty amazing, and it’s worth a read for that reason alone.

— Tip of the Fix cap to reader Don Hartline and fellow Fixer Garey Ris. 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 David at droth11@gmail.com.

Longhorns Find It Easy to Stay Focused

By Terrance Harris (FanHouse) Submitted at 11/21/2009 12:00:00 PM

by Terrance Harris Filed under: Kansas, Texas, Big 12 AUSTIN, Texas -- University of Texas coach Mack Brown usually doesn't like to live in the past, but this week he broke out

some old film for his team.

He showed the Longhorns how teams from 2006 and 2007 finished in comparison to 2005, when Texas won the BCS national title, and last season when many agree the 12-1 Longhorns should have been given the opportunity to compete Brown's point to his secondranked,10-0 squad is simple: stay for the national championship.

focused these last two regularseason games, the Big 12 championship game in two weeks, and then biggest of prizes await the Texas Longhorns in Pasadena. A slip up anywhere between now and the Jan. 7 BCS national championship game will lead to great disappointment for Texas.

Longhorns Find It Easy to Stay Focused originally appeared on Fanhouse NCAA Football Blog on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Injured New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush, defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis stay behind

By Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:46:55 AM

NEW ORLEANS -- Running back Reggie Bush and defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis are not traveling with the New Orleans Saints for Sunday's game against Tampa Bay. A team spokesman said Saturday that both players had been downgraded on the official injury report from questionable to out with knee injuries.

Both players are expected to be back at practice next week.

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

South in his division blog.

• Blog network: NFL Nation Bush missed practice this week with swelling in his left knee, the same knee on which he had surgery last December to repair cartilage.

Bush was coming off one of his best games of the season in St. Louis last Sunday, when he gained 98 yards and scored two touchdowns on six rushes and a pair of receptions.

Bush has 484 yards and six touchdowns in combined rushing and receiving this season.

Coach Sean Payton said this week he was hopeful Bush could play against the Buccaneers, but that he was wary of pushing him

and causing a setback.

Ellis sprained his right knee in Miami in Week 7 and returned to practice this week on a limited basis. A first-round draft choice in 2008, he is one of New Orleans' primary run-stuffers.

The Saints' defense has yielded 151 yards rushing to Atlanta's Michael Turner, 149 yards to Carolina's DeAngelo Williams and 131 yards to St. Louis' Steven Jackson in the three full games Ellis has missed so far.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

GrandCentral Website Shuts Down Next Month: Download Your Data and Contacts By twitter:@mashable (TweetMeme) Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:27:55 AM

GrandCentral Website Shuts Down Next Month: Download Your Data and Contacts http://bit.ly/7P2YKO 0 comments Source: mashable.com

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 11/20/2009 1:19:48 PM

Michigan Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez not planning on going anywhere

By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:18:10 AM

Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said he believes he will return next season.

Rodriguez appeared on Detroit Free Press columnist's Mitch Albom's radio show on WJR-AM 760 on the eve of the Michigan-

Ohio State game Friday.

Albom, according to the Free Press, asked Rodriguez whether he plans on leaving or believes Michigan will get rid of him following the season.

"No," said Rodriguez, who is 815, 3-12 in the Big Ten in two seasons.

Rodriguez also told Albom that quarterback Tate Forcier isn't

guaranteed to be the starter next season.

Forcier, a freshman, has started 11 games with Denard Robinson as his backup. Inkster (Mich.)

High senior Devin Gardner, ranked the No. 5 quarterback in the nation by ESPNU scouting, is also verbally committed to sign with Michigan in February.

"What I want to do, and what our

Volcom Brand Jeans Partners With National Coalition for the Homeless

goal is, what I've told the players in recruiting is, we want to recruit competition at every position," Rodriguez said. "We want two to three guys at every position who are truly competing for the job."

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Volcom Brand Jeans is teaming up with the National Coalition for the Homeless, issuing a call to action to give jeans, and those less fortunate, a second chance.

Bring your unwanted, ill-fitting, last season’s denim to a participating local store and help those in need. If you donate a pair of jeans, you are automatically given a chance to win a year supply of Volcom Brand Jeans.

— Kyle Anderson, Senior Accessories Editor Follow ELLE on Twitter.

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Giants Lose Antonio Pierce Indefinitely

Don't Cry for Boise State in Weak WAC

By FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse)

By David Whitley (FanHouse)

Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:30:00 AM

by FanHouse Newswire Filed under: Giants, NFL Injuries EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- New York Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce is out indefinitely after an MRI exam on Friday surprisingly revealed a bulging disk in his neck.

The Giants said their defensive captain underwent the test in New York and was examined by team physician Dr. Russell Warren and Dr. Frank Camissa, chief of the spinal surgical services at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

The 31-year-old Pierce originally sustained a burner when the Giants played Arizona on Oct. 25. He had very little

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Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:23:00 AM

by David Whitley Filed under: Boise State LOGAN, Utah-- It's not easy to feel sorry for the winningest football program of the millennium, but let's try.

Boise State beat Utah State, 52discomfort until practice this 21, Friday night to improve to 11 week, when the club's medical -0. For the second straight year it staff scheduled the MRI exam. will probably finish the regular Giants Lose Antonio Pierce season unbeaten.

Indefinitely originally appeared Who knows? If the Broncos on Fanhouse NFL Blog on Sat, have five or six more perfect 21 Nov 2009 08:30:00 EST . seasons, the BCS might invite the Please see our terms for use of Broncos to its title game. Not to play, but perhaps they'll be feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Linking allowed to valet Alabama's bus or hand out towels in the men's Blogs| Comments room.

With that vision in mind, I came here to feel sorry for the eternally shafted Broncos. The more I saw, the less sympathy I felt.

Clippers Broadcast Team Suspended for Comments About Hamed Haddadi

By Brett Pollakoff (FanHouse) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:09:00 AM

Don't Cry for Boise State in Weak WAC originally appeared on Fanhouse NCAA Football Blog on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:23:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by Brett Pollakoff Filed under: Clippers, Grizzlies, NBA Media Watch The Clippers got what was by far their best win of the season on Friday, but unfortunately, the team's longtime play-by-play man Ralph Lawler wasn't in his usual courtside spot to see it.

Lawler and color commentator CLIPPERS page 56

Ohio State-Michigan Game 2009: Live Twitter Updates

By Michael David Smith (FanHouse) Submitted at 11/21/2009 12:05:00 PM

by Michael David Smith Filed under: Michigan, Ohio State The Ohio State-Michigan game has always been my personal favorite college football

rivalry, dating back to my days as a 5-year-old living near Ann Arbor and worshiping Bo Schembechler. OSU vs.

Michigan 2009 doesn't figure to be one of the legendary games -it might not even be a very good game -- but I'll be watching, and while I watch.

And since I'm a sucker for I'll be tweeting my observations

rivalry games, I'll also be tweeting about lesser rivalries like the Harvard-Yale game as well. Follow along below or follow me on Twitter @MichaelDavSmith.

Ohio State-Michigan Game 2009: Live Twitter Updates originally appeared on Fanhouse

NCAA Football Blog on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:05:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CLIPPERS continued from page 55

Michael Smith were suspended for Friday's game, for what the team deemed to be inappropriate remarks the two made during the Clippers' telecast on Wednesday, when the team faced the Memphis Grizzlies.

The comments in question were regarding Hamed Haddadi, who is a rookie and the first Iranian player to appear in the NBA. Clippers Broadcast Team

Suspended for Comments About Hamed Haddadi originally appeared on Fanhouse NBA Blog on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:09:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jay Cohen answers 10 Questions from the Academy

By Joystiq Staff (Joystiq)

Interactive Arts and Sciences where he serves as chairman of Submitted at 11/21/2009 1:00:00 AM its board directors. Cohen left Introducing 10 Questions from Ubisoft earlier this year, after the Academy: A weekly feature serving as the company's North from the Academy of Interactive American vice president of A r t s & S c i e n c e s w h e r e i n publishing, and now works for significant figures in the video Jerry Bruckheimer Games. game industry provide their input AIAS: How do you measure on past trends, current events, success? and future challenges and goals Jay Cohen: Review scores and for the entertainment software unit sales! community. Jay Cohen is a What's your favorite part of member of the Academy of game development?

Sitting around the table and seeing a spark of an idea ignite into creative wildfire that rallies the team to go the extra mile.

Then, seeing that idea implemented into the game and having it actually work as imagined!

Continue reading Jay Cohen answers 10 Questions from the Academy Jay Cohen answers 10 Questions from the Academy originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BBC asks: What happened to Second Life?

By Justin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 11/20/2009 11:59:00 PM

You don't see nearly the amount of coverage of Second Life(or as we call it in these parts, PlayStation Home's creepy, aggressively pornographic uncle) these days as you used to, and BBC did a little digging to find out why. Their discovery? Well, not to put too fine a point on it,

but Second Life sucks. It's overly complicated to control, it's full of some truly horrific human beings, there are many better social networking hubs and (perhaps most importantly) companies that sunk a bunch of money into it rarely got their investments back.

What the BBC seems to be implying is that Second Life was largely a media-created

BBC asks: What happened to Second Life? originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments phenomenon, with journalists and public figures so smitten by the idea of a virtual world, no one stopped to notice that it was a

wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Besides, everybody knows that HiPiHi is where it's at.

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Nintendo's Denise Kaigler steps down to spend time with family

By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 11/21/2009 1:30:00 PM

PSA: Second Halo Legends episode free, available today only

By Ben Gilbert (Joystiq) Submitted at 11/21/2009 11:30:00 AM

If you enjoyed the Cowboy Bebop-meets-Master Chief action presented in the first episode of Halo Legends(seriously, that main character looked just like Spike Spiegel!), then you may want to check out the second episode of the Spartan-themed anime premiering today on Halo Waypoint. For 24 hours starting at 12:00AM PST (about eight hours ago), Xbox Live Silver and Gold members will be able to access "The Duel" through the "all-things- Halo" hub.

Microsoft also notes that this

will be the last week for Xbox Live Silver members to explore Waypoint, and in turn, enjoy the weekly free episodes of Halo Legends. If you're wondering what time the show will be available for you and you don't live in North America, a full list of showtimes is available on Xbox.com.

PSA: Second Halo Legends episode free, available today only originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Nintendo vice president of corporate affairs Denise Kaigler recently announced via the Nintendo Minute feature on IGN that she would be vacating her position in order to spend more time with her family. In the post, she explained, "it's a fact of life that job and family often pull us in opposite directions. As regular readers of this feature know, this has proved particularly challenging for me," later adding "the time has come where I need to choose one over the other ... and I have to choose my family."

We wish Kaigler the best of luck in this new venture, and hope that wherever she may end up, she retains her unconventionally sassy interviewing technique.

Nintendo's Denise Kaigler steps

down to spend time with family originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

MARIO continued from page 57

lucky enough to meet aesthetician Laden (her clients include the cast of Ugly Betty) who gave me some great tips to bring my skin back to normalcy.

Lucky for you, these tips apply to all skin types, too.

Tip 1: Exfoliate. “Healthy skin produces dead skin cells every second of every day,� said Laden. To gently buff them away

Mario Badescu Salon and Spa Helps Combat Dry Skin

and prevent pore-clogging buildup and gross flaky skin, she suggests using a wet washcloth in circular motions several times a week.

Tip 2: Lay off the hot water.

Scalding showers and cold weather sound like the perfect match, but they leave skin red MARIO page 58

Submitted at 11/20/2009 1:34:58 PM

The cooler temps have thrown me off my game, causing my combination skin to suddenly become dry and flaky. To get to the bottom of it, I took a trip to Mario Badescu Salon and Spa for a consultation and facial (hands down, best.facial.ever.) and was MARIO page 57

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Fendi Fêtes New John Baldessari Book

Daul Kim (1989-2009)

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

Submitted at 11/20/2009 2:10:08 PM

Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, Ruffian designers Claude Morais and Brian Wolk, Linda Fargo, Submitted at 11/20/2009 1:51:53 PM Antonia Thompson, and Spank On Wednesday night, Fendi Rock— joined the reverie while hosted a party at its Fifth Avenue throwing back champagne and store to celebrate the launch of grapefruit martinis amongst Sharon Coplan Hurowitz's new Fendi’s fanciful shoes and bags. book on conceptual artist John —Erin Boyle Baldessari: A Catalogue Fendi’s launch of John Raisonne of Prints and Multiples, Baldessari: A Catalogue 1971-2007. Baldessari is known Raisonne of Prints and Multiples, for his black-and- white portraits 1971-2007 obstructed by blocks of color, Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, and the book is the first Sharon Coplan Hurowitz, Fe comprehensive account of his Fendi work. At the party, pianist like a New Zealand soccer player Pianist Eric Lewis (ELEW) ELEW, who in May played for during the Haka War Dance. ELEW making a mean mug President Barack Obama and first E L E W ’ s a n t i c s w e r e s o The lovely Brooke Shields lady Michelle Obama, performed contagious that notable guests Photos: Patrick McMullan and orchestral covers of alternative like Brooke Shields joined in the Erin Boyle rock songs like "Mr. Brightside" mugging with mock warrior Follow ELLE on Twitter. by the Killers, "Paint It Black" by clown faces of their own. Other Become our Facebook fan! the Rolling Stones, and "Clocks" guests—including Fe Fendi,

by Coldplay while lunging about

MARIO continued from page 57

and irritated. “Nothing should touch your skin that isn’t room temperature,” said Laden. Easy enough when washing your face but lukewarm showers are hardly inviting–aim for warm, not hot.

Tip 3: Clean your makeup brushes. If your complexion is being fussy (applies to any interpretation of the word), take extra care to make sure brushes are bacteria-free.

Tip 4: Use a gentle cleanser. My

complexion has been blemish free since I switched from harsher medicated washes to Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil at night and Mario Badescu Enzyme Cleansing Gel in the morning.

Go figure.

Tip 5: Moisturize. Seems super obvious, but many people ignore this step. I go for a product that contains SPF—and don’t be shy about that number. ELLE Beauty Director Emily Dougherty uses

SPF 50 every single day—and has zero wrinkles.

—Janna Johnson, Beauty Assistant Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

Runway and editorial regular, Daul Kim, was found deceased in her Paris apartment yesterday.

The South Korean beauty was only 20 years old.

In April 2007, Daul posted her first piece on what was one of the few blogs ( I Like to Fork Myself) that tracked a model’s glamorous comings and goings with real honesty, insight, and for lack of a better word, heart. What kept her readers coming back day after day wasn’t the promise of an insider peek at a show or a photo shoot but the random, often silly, sometimes very dark manner with which she delivered those glimpses. In her signature haiku-inspired style, Daul wrote about sentimentality, her family, and often late at night, Seoul

time, the ups and downs of love.

But just as if not more frequently, Daul contemplated video games (and how she had dreams about being in them), uses for her bangs (and how she “loved them no matter what anyone said”), and her admiration for the oddest collection of films, music, art, authors and dance moves. The rare blogger whose mission was never to impress you or to selfreference for the sake of selfreferencing, Daul used her corner of the blogosphere simply to muse. Hers was an unedited voice whose undertone reminded us how rich life could be if only we were willing, as she was, to acknowledge, explore, and share all sides of ourselves.

A voice, unfortunately, taken from her loved ones far too soon.

Images: Jeremy Kost/WireImage

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Hasan to Have First Court Hearing in Hospital Room (FOXNews.com)

at least 18 e-mails between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric.

SAN ANTONIO An attorney They were passed along to two for the Army psychiatrist charged Joint Terrorism Task Force cells in the mass shooting at Fort led by the FBI, but a senior Hood says his client will have his defense official said no one at the first court hearing in his hospital Defense Department knew about room on Saturday. the messages until after the Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's shootings. The official spoke on civilian attorney, John Galligan, condition of anonymity in order said Friday that military t o d i s c u s s i n t e l l i g e n c e prosecutors notified him of their p r o c e d u r e s . plans for the hearing at the Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Brooke Army Medical Center in after a briefing from Pentagon San Antonio. and Army officials that his Hasan has been recovering there committee will investigate how since the Nov. 5 rampage at Fort those and other e-mails involving Hood that left 13 dead and more the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal than 30 wounded. Hasan was Malik Hasan, were handled and shot by civilian members of Fort why the U.S. military was not Hood's police force. made aware of them before the The hearing is to determine Nov. 5 shooting. whether Hasan will be placed in Levin said his committee is pre-trial confinement — which focused on determining whether usually means jail. But Galligan t h e D e f e n s e D e p a r t m e n t ' s says he'll argue that Hasan should representative on the terrorism remain in intensive care because task force acted appropriately and he is paralyzed and still needs effectively. hospital care.

Levin also said he considers Meanwhile, the chairman of the Hasan's shooting spree, which S e n a t e A r m e d S e r v i c e s killed 13 and wounded more than Committee said Friday there may 30, an act of terrorism. be additional e-mails that could " T h e r e a r e s o m e w h o a r e have tipped off law enforcement reluctant to call it terrorism but or military officials to the Fort there is significant evidence that Hood shooter before he went on is. I'm not at all uneasy saying it his deadly rampage. sure looks like that," he said.

The U.S. government intercepted He said his committee will also Submitted at 11/21/2009 12:37:25 AM

look into whether military members have the ability to report suspicious behavior evinced by colleagues.

FBI and military officials have provided differing versions of why Hasan's critical e-mails to al -Awlaki and others did not reach Army investigators before the shooting.

FBI officials have said a military investigator on the task force saw the e-mails and looked up Hasan's record, but finding nothing particularly worrisome, the investigator neither sought nor got permission to pass the emails on to other military officials.

But the senior defense official has countered that the rules of the task force prevented that military representative from passing the records on without approval from other members of the task force.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said it appears there was enough information available to law enforcement, the military and intelligence agencies to raise alarm bells about Hasan but no one connected the dots.

"Had it been gathered on one desk, someone might have said 'Nidal Malik Hasan is dangerous,"' Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, told reporters after the briefing.

The Pentagon may reconsider rules governing participation in extremist organizations that some lawmakers say appear outdated and too narrow in light of the shooting rampage at the Army base in Texas.

Lieberman said Congress may recommend such a review, and a Pentagon spokesman said Friday that the rules could be among the policies scrutinized by a wideranging inquiry aimed at preventing another similar attack.

The Pentagon wrote regulations on "dissident and protest activities" in response to soldier participation in skinhead and other racially motivated hate groups. The current rules were written in 1996 and last updated in 2003.

The rules prohibit membership or participation in "organizations that espouse supremacist causes," seek to discriminate based on race, religion or other factors or advocate force or violence.

Commanders can investigate and can discipline or fire people who "actively participate in such groups."

The rules also cover the distribution and possession of "printed materials," and gatherings held outside military posts.

The language appears to loosely cover some of the activity law

enforcement sources have ascribed to Hasan.

But it is geared toward racially motivated groups and toward preventing public espousal of hateful ideology, such as attendance at a rally or the recruitment of new members.

The language also applies most directly to materials and communication in the preInternet age.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the 45-day probe on Thursday, the same day that retired Army Gen. John Keane told Congress that the existing rules will probably need revision to cover activity of "Islamic extremists."

Any revision would have to be done carefully to avoid First Amendment violations on the free exercise of speech and religion.

Keane was formerly the No. 2 Army official.

The Pentagon inquiry will get under way in earnest next week.

A senior military official said the inquiry's top leaders will meet with Gates on Monday and are likely to visit Fort Hood on Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because plans are not final.

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Military Planes to Fly Out of Maine as Last Base Closes (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:26:44 AM

BRUNSWICK, Maine The rumble of Navy patrol aircraft flying overhead will soon be a thing of the past as the remaining P-3 Orions depart from Brunswick Naval Air Station.

While much of the nation prepares for Thanksgiving, air crews from VP-26 are prepping to ship out for a six-month deployment to El Salvador, Italy and the Horn of Africa. After that, they'll rejoin the rest of Brunswick aircraft that have relocated to Florida's Jacksonville Naval Air Station.

Cmdr. Mike Parker, commanding officer of VP-26, begins the final wave of departures on Sunday, marking a milestone in the closing of the last active-duty military air base in New England.

"It's a heartbreaking situation to leave the base knowing that no P3 is going to return to this base," said Parker. His massive threebay hangar was filled with equipment being loaded on pallets and sailors getting heavy gear ready to be shipped out starting next week.

Come January, with the aircraft long gone, the twin, 8,000-foot runways will be closed and the

snow plows will be idled, allowing snow to pile up on the long expanses. The fuel tank farm will be drained. Through the year, there'll be a gradual drawdown of personnel until the base closes for good by May 2011.

Activity on the sprawling coastal base 20 miles northeast of Portland has been winding down over the past year since the first P -3 Orion squadron departed.

Once there were 4,000 sailors, but the number has dwindled to roughly 500. After VP-26 and its 350 personnel leave, only a skeleton crew will remain.

"It's definitely a ghost town," Cmdr. John Coray, chief staff officer for Patrol Wing 5, said after finding himself alone in the gym during a workout.

Situated on 3,200 acres, Brunswick Naval Air Station opened during World War II to train British and Canadian pilots.

After the war, the base was deactivated for a time before the U.S. Navy moved in.

Since then, maritime patrol aircraft including the P-3 Orions, which first flew in the early 1960s, have operated from the base.

They use four turboprop engines that sip fuel, allowing them to fly for 12-hour stretches either over

the deep blue ocean hunting enemy submarines, or over land where they've flown missions over Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The base saw its heyday during the Cold War, when the Navy had patrol aircraft stationed at the four corners of the continental United States to interdict Soviet subs.

The decision to shutter Brunswick Naval Air Station was made in the final round of closings by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission in 2005.

The Navy initially wanted to mothball the base, keeping alive the possibility of future activation, but that would've meant an uncertain future in which the community would be unable to redevelop the property.

So commissioners decided to shutter the base altogether.

Studies have put the economic impact on the local economy at $187 million. But there's a social impact as well. Base personnel and spouses served as teachers, Sunday School volunteers and Little League coaches. Their children used to fill 20 to 30 percent of the desks in local schools.

"The realization is starting to hit home that the base is closing,"

said Steve Levesque, executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, which is tasked with finding tenants for the property. "It certainly is an end of an era, with a rich history of naval aviation."

Even though the base won't close until 2011, the redevelopment authority hopes to begin reusing the twin runways for general aviation this summer, Levesque said.

The first tenants are EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University, which has residential campuses in Florida and Arizona, and Southern Maine Community College, which will open a branch at the base. There also has been talk of Oxford Aviation coming to Brunswick. The company provides custom painting and alterations on private aircraft.

The recession hasn't created the best environment for redeveloping the base, but the redevelopment authority is getting a base that's in shipshape condition.

Before deciding to close the base, the Navy resurfaced the runways, overhauled the control tower and refurbished most of the base housing to the tune of more than $100 million. There are airplane hangars, baseball fields,

700 family homes, a bowling alley, and new townhouses with Corian countertops.

For VP-26, it seems fitting that it's the last squadron to leave Brunswick, since it was the first squadron to call Brunswick home after World War II, Parker said.

Some personnel already have relocated their families to Florida. Others, like Parker, will let their children finish the school year in Maine and move later.

There's real sadness, particularly for those "homesteaders" who've spent multiple deployments in Brunswick because they like it so much. Parker, himself, has spent six years in Brunswick over three separate deployments.

Coray said it'll be a tough adjustment.

"Most people really like Maine and have a real affection for Brunswick. It has been a very challenging change for them, especially the older personnel who've been stationed here before. They've grown roots and they're comfortable. So this has been painful," he said.

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Losing Winfrey would be big blow for Second City (AP)

Hawaii anxiously watching year-end tuna supply (AP)

(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

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place."

Media analysts will discuss the Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:38:24 AM millions of viewers worldwide CHICAGO – Step outside Oprah who have eagerly watched Winfrey's Harpo Studios and into Winfrey's show, tuned in others the near west side neighborhood she told them to watch and read that's been home to her television books she told them to read. The talk show for two decades, and story in Chicago will be what it's easy to get a sense of what she's meant to Chicago. she's meant to Chicago.

It's a story that starts in the "I used to live across the street neighborhood that people visited from Harpo and when I moved just to see her show — then there it was me and cross- they'd go off to explore the rest dressing crack addicts and Harpo. o f t h e c i t y . I t ' s f r o m t h e And now it's strollers and little neighborhood that Winfrey white dogs all over," said Paul b r a g g e d a b o u t C h i c a g o , O'Connor, whose job has been to reminding all those who knew sell the city to businesses looking she could take her show just to relocate and those wondering about anywhere that she wanted why they should stay. to be right here.

A l o n g w i t h t h e u p s c a l e "Isn't this the most fabulous city c o n d o m i n i u m s a n d p r i c e y in the world?" Winfrey yelled to restaurants that replaced the more than 20,000 fans who rundown apartments, abandoned crowded Chicago's Magnificent w a r e h o u s e s a n d v a c a n t Mile in September for the taping storefronts, it's a sentiment that of this season's premiere. helps explain just how nervous Without Winfrey, some wonder. people in Chicago are about "What's this town going to come Winfrey's announcement that to?" asked Ann Coddington, 41, next season, the 25th, will be the of Richmond, Ind., who was at last for " The Oprah Winfrey Harpo Studios to see the show Show."

Friday morning. "You think of "Chicago's going to find out that Chicago, you think of Oprah." she's a real engine to hotel rooms, Winfrey hasn't said she's leaving flowers, limo drivers, you name Chicago, but there are indications it," said Joel Nickson, who owns it's possible. She is widely Wishbone restaurant just down expected to start up a new talk the street. "Even when she's not show on OWN: The Oprah doing the show, we see people all Winfrey Network, which is set to the time taking cabs out here, debut in January 2011. OWN taking pictures in front of the hired "Oprah" co-executive

producer Lisa Erspamer this month as its chief creative officer. She is expected to move from Chicago to Los Angeles in January.

Nobody suggests Harpo Studios' neighborhood will revert to the pre-Winfrey years, when it was all but impossible to catch a cab and there was no place to order a latte much less a nice meal. But the studio stands as a reminder of what has been, and what could be lost.

It was here that celebrities came from all over the world when they had something to say — from Tom Cruise's declaration of love for Katie Holmes, memorably accompanied by a jump on her couch, to Sarah Palin's appearance on the show to kick off her book tour.

"It's our little piece of Hollywood, our big piece of it," said Bob O'Neill, the president of the Grant Park Conservancy.

Winfrey did more than set up shop in Chicago: She gave other companies reason to do so.

"She is part of the cultural infrastructure which provides a rich intellectual and cultural life to the city and that is absolutely critical for corporate decision making," said O'Connor, who now works for the Chicago Metropolis 2020 civic group after leaving World Business Chicago, a not-for-profit economic development corporation that

worked to attract and keep businesses in Chicago.

Once the businesses are here, Winfrey has even been part of the effort to persuade employees who might be reluctant to pack up and move their families.

"Oprah and the sports and the 5,000 boats on the lake and the museums are all part of the rich mix to help (companies) bring talent here and make that transition." O'Connor said. "You cannot underestimate that."

Now, though Winfrey will tape in Chicago for at least another 18 months, the studio will stand as a reminder of all that is plaguing the city, from the staggering economy to the lost bid to host the 2016 Olympic games to losing two major trade shows in recent weeks.

"A lot of bad things are happening," said O'Neill, who was troubled enough even before Winfrey's announcement about the spate of bad news that he helped organize a "Chicago in a funk?" symposium. "Her leaving brings a lot of negative publicity." ___ Associated Press Writer Caryn Rousseau contributed to this report.

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Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:00:35 AM

HONOLULU – On New Year's Eve each year, thousands line up at fish counters across Hawaii to buy blocks of raw tuna, hoping that eating it will bring good luck and prosperity in the new year.

This year, the long tradition may get a little more difficult to observe.

For the first time, federal regulators are expected to prohibit the catching of bigeye — Hawaii's favored tuna variety — in waters west of the islands once the fishermen hit their annual catch limit. They're on course to do that around the first or second week of December.

The potential for a shortage has produced anxiety here among consumers, fishermen, wholesalers and retailers, leaving them to wonder if they'll be able to get hold of the tuna, or ahi.

"We may not have as much fish.

In terms of quality, I don't know how it's going to compare to what we normally have," said Brooks Takenaka, assistant general manager at United Fishing Agency, which runs Honolulu's fish auctions. "Those are questions nobody has any answers to right now."

The tradition began with Japanese immigrants who arrived HAWAII page 63

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US Senate set for healthcare test (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

expensive. They say they will block it, and debate is expected to be fiery.

Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:03:05 AM Anything less than 60 votes for The United States Senate is the initial measure will leave the preparing to hold its first vote on bill vulnerable to Republican a major bill designed to overhaul delaying tactics.

US healthcare provision.

Efforts to get it passed have The vote, which requires 60 out f o c u s e d o n t h r e e c e n t r i s t of the 100 Senate votes to pass, Democrats - Ben Nelson of will decide whether Democrat Nebraska, Blanche Lincoln of leader Harry Reid's bill can go Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of forward for debate.

Louisiana - who have expressed The Democrats need the votes of doubts about the bill. two independents to make up the Senators Nelson and Landrieu 6 0 , a s t h e c h a m b e r ' s 4 0 have now both said they will R e p u b l i c a n s a r e o p p o s e d . support their party in the test US President Barack Obama has vote, but Senator Lincoln, who m a d e h e a l t h c a r e r e f o r m a faces a difficult re-election battle domestic priority. next year, has made no public Mr Reid's proposed $849bn comment either way. (£508bn) bill would extend Correspondents say that if the coverage to another 31 million measure fails at the first hurdle, it people, or 94% of eligible might not be the end of the bill citizens, he said on Friday. but would push it well into next The legislation, which was year. o u t l i n e d i n a 2 , 0 7 4 - p a g e It would also cast doubt on document, is said by Democratic whether the Democrats will be aides to reduce deficits by a b l e t o f i n d a n y g e n u i n e $127bn (£76bn) over a decade consensus on a final bill, they and by as much as $650bn say. (£389bn) in the 10 years after The House of Representatives that. narrowly passed its own version But it has been criticised by of the reforms earlier this month.

R e p u b l i c a n s a s b e i n g t o o Medicare cuts

Mr Reid opened the session by presenting highlights of the plan.

A vote is not expected before 2000 local time (0100 GMT on Sunday).

Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said it was vital to back the bill.

"The country suffers when there is a failure to act on serious challenges that millions of ordinary Americans face in their daily lives," he said.

But Republican leader Mitch McConnell urged Senators to vote against "this staggering spending programme at a time when many would argue our international bankers, the Chinese, are lecturing us about debt".

Under the bill, most Americans would have to have health insurance, while private insurers would be banned from refusing to provide insurance because applicants had pre-existing medical conditions.

Insurance would be made more affordable with subsidies available to help those in lower income bands, the Democrats say.

People would also be able to take part in new insurance market

places and be able to choose to buy government-sold insurance from 2014, a provision intended to help regulate the prices charged by private companies.

Large companies would be required by law to provide coverage to staff. The costs would be covered by government cuts on future Medicare spending.

If the Senate passes its bill, it must then be reconciled with the House of Representatives bill and voted on again before the programme can become law.

Mr Reid's bill differs to the House bill in that he calls for an increase of a half percentage point in Medicare payroll tax for people with an income of over $200,000 (£119,779) per annum rising to $250,000 (£149,724) for couples.

There is also a tax on high-value insurance policies that is not contained in the House version of the bill.

If approved, the legislation could lead to the biggest changes in American healthcare in decades.

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More Americans expected to travel for Thanksgiving (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 11/21/2009 10:29:25 AM

WASHINGTON – The number of Americans traveling away from home for Thanksgiving will be up only slightly this year from 2008, according to a report from the AAA auto club.

The group, which surveyed 1,350 households, said there will be about 33.2 million people traveling by car this year — a 2.1 percent increase from last year.

But there will be a 6.7 percent decrease in the number of air travelers, totaling 2.3 million this year, continuing a decade-long decline of Thanksgiving air travel.

In the report released Wednesday, AAA officials said the expected increase reflects improved consumer confidence from a year ago, when Thanksgiving travel dropped 25 percent following the country's housing and economic problems.

Americans may feel more financially secure and be more willing to travel, the report says.

"The economy is still very clearly weighing heavily on the minds of Thanksgiving travelers this year, and that's evidenced by the very small increase that we expect to see in total travel," said Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesman for AAA's national office in Heathrow, Fla. MORE page 63

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HAWAII continued from page 61

here a century ago to work on the sugar plantations but has since spread to the numerous other ethnic groups. The custom in Japan is to eat tai, or sea bream, for good luck. But this fish isn't found in waters around Hawaii so the immigrants substituted ahi.

Clarence Gonsalves said he's never had a New Year's without tuna before. "It's a tradition in Hawaii. No matter what the price is, you'll have it," said the 76year-old retired supermarket meat cutter. "We've never run out of it."

This year the outlook is not so clear. While everyone agrees there will be tuna on the shelves, they're not sure how much or what kind. That's because those responsible for managing fish stocks believe fishermen must curtail their bigeye catch to protect the species, which is prized around the world for sashimi, or Japanese-style raw fish.

Environmentalists say people are

catching so much bigeye in the Western Pacific that the fish are close to the point where they won't be able to reproduce fast enough to replace what's caught.

The situation is already that dire in the Eastern Pacific.

Last December, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, an international body that regulates commercial fishing from Indonesia to Hawaii, concluded the bigeye catch must be slashed 30 percent in its waters.

To do their share, the 130 boats in the Hawaii-based longline fishing fleet must slice their bigeye yield by 10 percent compared to what they caught in 2004. That means they're only allowed to take 3,763 metric tons in 2009. As of early November, they had already caught 3,119 metric tons.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is monitoring the fleet's logbooks to keep track, said Tom Graham, a fisheries policy

analyst with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Honolulu.

The agency will give fishermen seven days notice before it prohibits taking more bigeye, Graham said.

Hawaii's longliners hope to limit any market upheaval by staggering their return to port once the fishery is closed, said Sean Martin, Hawaii Longline Association president. This will prevent all their tuna from landing on the market all at once.

"Coordinating fishermen is kind of like herding cats. But we're trying to coordinate our production side to continue to provide some consistency to the supply," said Martin, whose company POP Fishing & Marine operates five longline boats.

Martin noted longliners will still be allowed to fish in waters east of Hawaii, an area governed by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission. The Hawaiibased fleet's annual catch limit in this area is 500 metric tons this

year and it's not close to being met.

Handline fishermen may also continue to fish in waters west of Hawaii.

Traders will likely try to fill any supply gaps by importing bigeye from outside Hawaii. Many locals, however, prefer the ahi caught by the Hawaii-based fleet because the fish isn't treated with carbon monoxide to preserve its color like some of the fish delivered by air freight.

"We need the local longline caught fish. That's what a lot of Hawaii wants," said Guy Tamashiro, vice president of Tamashiro Market. Meanwhile, he's hoping for the best come New Year's Eve. "I got my toes crossed, too," he said.

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not be possible."

The Air Transport Association has predicted that holiday passenger traffic will drop 4 percent from last year, despite airlines' heavy discounting in the past several months. With fewer flights, planes are likely to be full over Thanksgiving, the trade group said.

Travelers began checking in for holiday flights Saturday at Reagan National Airport in

Washington, D.C. College student Lucy Crowley, 22, said she booked her flight to leave several days before the holiday.

"I made travel plans around avoiding that rush," she said.

Crowley said two of her roommates from California will join her family in Boston, because tickets are cheaper there than going home.

Tammy Jones, a spokeswoman with the Federal Aviation

Administration, said the agency will work with the Defense Department to allow commercial air traffic to use air space normally reserved for the military — as it's done the past few years — in the Southwest, East Coast and West Coast.

AAA forecasts about 2.9 million people will take other modes of transport, including trains and buses. That's up about 1.2 percent from last year.

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Woman's Body Found in Lake 12 Years After Disappearance (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:01:24 AM

The body of a Florida woman who vanished on her way to the airport 12 years ago has been found at the bottom of a lake near her home, police said Friday.

Gail Schoening of Broward County was a month shy of her 36th birthday when she disappeared in April 1997 on her way to catch a flight for a job interview, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.

Schoening's body was found inside her car only about 100 yards from her front door, Plantation detectives said Friday.

Investigators searched several lakes and other bodies of water in the area when Schoening vanished, but the proper technology didn't exist at the time to help counteract poor visibility.

WOMAN'S page 65

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However, the slight increase suggests the economy has slightly stabilized, he said.

Blanca Enriquez, 59, of El Paso, Texas, said she's driving more than 800 miles to South Padre Island with her family for Thanksgiving.

"We couldn't fly because I've got too many grandkids, so it's better to take a road trip," Enriquez said. "We've been saving since the summer, otherwise it would

Amtrak expects Wednesday to be its heaviest single travel day of the year, with as many as 125,000 passengers nationwide.

The rail system is bracing for the holiday by running more trains with higher capacity on its lines in the Pacific Northwest, Chicago area and the Northeast corridor.

Most of those will run on the busiest days — the day before MORE page 66

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Knox prosecutors seek life term (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 11/21/2009 7:49:44 AM

Prosecutors have asked for life imprisonment for the pair accused of murdering British student Meredith Kercher in Italy.

Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found dead in her bedroom two years ago. Her throat had been cut.

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini asked a jury in Perugia to convict Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito on charges of murder and sexual violence.

Miss Knox, a US student, and her former Italian boyfriend deny the charges.

The prosecutor argued that Miss Knox, Mr Sollecito and a third man, Rudy Guede, who was convicted in a separate trial killed the British student during a druginduced sex game.

Guede, 22, was jailed for 30 years for murdering the British student.

Guede, who is originally from

Ivory Coast, always denied any wrongdoing and has launched an appeal against his conviction.

Miss Knox, addressed the court in Italian, saying that the accusations against her were "pure fantasy".

"Meredith was my friend, I didn't hate her," she said.

Prosecutors told the court Miss Knox hit the British student's head against a wall, then tried to strangle her, as Mr Sollecito held her and Guede sexually assaulted her.

Mr Mignini said Miss Knox "harboured hatred" for the Briton and was the driving force behind a drug-fuelled sexual assault against her that became "an unstoppable crescendo of violence".

In his reconstruction, the prosecutor alleged that Guede held Miss Kercher down while Mr Sollecito and Miss Knox inflicted fatal wounds to her neck.

"The murder and the sexual violence were carried out for futile reasons. Meredith will

never come back," he said.

Police found the Briton's seminude body in a pool of blood with her throat cut.

Miss Knox shared a flat in Perugia, central Italy, with Miss Kercher, a Leeds University student who was on an exchange programme.

Mr Sollecito, a 25-year-old Italian, is Miss Knox's former boyfriend.

The American student and her ex -boyfriend both deny allegations of a drug-fuelled sex game.

Miss Knox, who is from Seattle, says she spent the night of the murder at Mr Sollecito's house elsewhere in the Umbrian town.

Mr Sollecito says he was at home working on his computer that night and does not remember whether Miss Knox spent the whole night with him or just part of it.

A verdict is expected in the first week of December.

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Sears Tower plot leader is jailed (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 11/20/2009 2:57:59 PM

The leader of a group which plotted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago has been sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in prison.

Narseal Batiste, 35, also planned

to bomb FBI offices, along with four other men who have already been jailed.

Prosecutors said the men conspired to provide material support to al-Qaeda but defence lawyers said the plot was never serious.

Prosecutors in Miami had sought the maximum 70-year sentence

for Batiste.

But he maintained he only went along with the plot to seize the $50,000 (ÂŁ30,000) offered by an undercover FBI agent posing as an al-Qaeda operative.

The men, most of whom have Haitian backgrounds, were SEARS page 66

US couple admit spying for Cuba (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

department.

In 1981, the husband and wife returned to Washington where Submitted at 11/20/2009 9:27:18 PM Myers got a job back at the state A retired US state department department and worked his way official and his wife have up. admitted spying for Cuba for US authorities say that from nearly three decades.

1983 until this year the couple The former official, Walter had a shortwave radio to receive Kendall Myers, 72, had access to m e s s a g e s f r o m t h e C u b a n t o p - s e c r e t g o v e r n m e n t government. information.

They also delivered government Under a plea deal, Mr Myers secrets by swapping shopping will spend the rest of his life in t r o l l e y s w i t h t h e i r C u b a n jail while wife Gwendolyn, 71, handlers at stores, and spent an will serve a term of no more than evening with then-Cuban leader seven-and-a-half years.

Fidel Castro in 1995, say She pleaded guilty to a lesser o f f i c i a l s . charge of conspiracy to gather The US justice department said and transmit national defence the case should serve notice that information to Cuba.

America remained vigilant in The couple also agreed to forfeit protecting its secrets. $1.7m (ÂŁ1m) in assets - including "For the past 30 years, this a Washington DC apartment and couple betrayed America's trust a 37-ft yacht - an amount equal to by covertly providing classified the total salary he earned from national defence information to the state department. the Cuban government," David Shopping trolley swaps Kris, assistant attorney general They have been in custody since for national security, said in a being arrested in June, following statement. an undercover FBI sting But the couple's lawyer, operation.

Bradford Berenson, said they had Myers was known as Agent 202, acted "not out of selfish motive while his wife was Agent 123, or hope of personal gain, but out according to court documents. of conscience and personal Prosecutors say the couple were commitment", reports AP news recruited three decades ago while agency. living in South Dakota by a Print Sponsor Cuban intelligence agent, who This content has passed through had met Myers during his fivefilters.org. previous role at the state

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Atlantis astronauts take 2nd spacewalk of mission (AP)

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WOMAN'S continued from page 63

In July, authorities reopened the case and used more advanced equipment to search water near (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) spacewalk of the weeklong a n d d i s r u p t e d s p a c e w a l k her apartment. Her body was found Aug. 18 in a lake divers mission started Saturday preparations.

Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:40:31 AM morning. The astronauts agreed Right before the spacewalk, the had scoured before, her mother CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A with Mission Control to hold off combined crews attached a giant Arlene Schoening said. spacewalking astronaut put aside on any news if the birth occurred platform full of spare parts to the An investigation showed Gail the impending birth of his during the spacewalk. exterior of the space station, Schoening drove through a d a u g h t e r a n d c o n c e n t r a t e d Everyone wanted Bresnik, a 42- using robot arms. It was the narrow space and went into the instead on his first-ever venture year-old Marine, focused on the second such shelf to be installed water, the Sentinel reported. The outside the International Space spacewalk because of the extra this week. Atlantis hauled up car flipped upside-down before Station on Saturday. risk posed by working outside. nearly 15 tons of equipment to landing at the bottom of the lake.

Atlantis crewman Randolph B r e s n i k a n d h i s v e t e r a n keep the outpost running long Schoening's family has spent the Bresnik was mightily impressed spacewalking partner, Michael after the shuttles' retirement next last 12 years following leads in her disappearance. as he installed a pair of antennas. Foreman, got off to a late but fast year.

"Other than seeing my wife for start, bolting down antenna One more spacewalk is planned "We're happy she was found, but the first time, I don't think I've equipment and relocating a on Monday. The shuttle will sad about the circumstances," ever seen a more beautiful face," monitor for electrical hazards. remain at the station until the day Arlene Schoening, of North Bresnik said, gazing down at They were an hour ahead at one before Thanksgiving. Landing Brunswick, N.J., said Friday.

"We'd been going through all the Earth 220 miles below. "This is point. would be the day after. possibilities." amazing."

The spacewalk was delayed ___ Schoening was recently divorced Bresnik's wife, Rebecca, was more than an hour by false On the Net: when she disappeared, according back home in Houston, due to decompression alarms that rang N A S A : give birth to their second child at through the orbiting complex late http://www.nasa.gov/mission(un to the Sentinel. She was on her any moment. They also have a 3- Friday, for the second night in a derscore)pages/shuttle/main/inde w a y t o t h e a i r p o r t f o r a n interview for a computer year-old son, adopted from row. The high-pitched beeps — x.html Ukraine. emanating from a new Russian This content has passed through database analyst job in North Carolina The delivery had been planned research chamber — triggered a fivefilters.org.

But the 35-year-old never for Friday, but the baby had yet series of smoke alarms. The arrived, and her family and police to arrive when the second racket woke up the astronauts launched a massive search for her.

A year after she vanished, someone called requesting a PIN

number on her 401(k) account in Orlando, raising investigators' suspicions, the Sentinel said. The lead went nowhere, as did other reported sightings and tips.

Early in the investigation, Schoening's parents believed their daughter may have driven into a lake or canal because her 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse was missing along with her, according to the newspaper.

Despite hiring a pilot to fly over water in the area, the Schoenings never got their theory confirmed — until now.

"It's hard to deal with a lake that's got a lot of silt and mud in it," Plantation police Detective Robert Rettig said Friday.

"Visibility was a problem, but we eventually acquired technology that could help us deal with that."

Memorial services will be held Christmas week in Florida, where Schoening's parents plan to move, the Sentinel said.

More from the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

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Chavez hails 'Carlos the Jackal' (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

Carlos, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, gained international notoriety in the Submitted at 11/21/2009 8:08:42 AM 1970s as a mastermind of deadly Venezuelan President Hugo bombings, assassinations and Chavez has defended jailed killer hostage-takings.

"Carlos the Jackal" and several He was captured in Sudan in w o r l d l e a d e r s h e s a y s a r e 1994 and handed over to France, wrongly considered "bad guys". where he was jailed for killing In a speech to international two French intelligence officers socialist politicians, Mr Chavez and an alleged informer in 1975. said "Carlos", a Venezuelan, was In his speech late on Friday in n o t a t e r r o r i s t b u t a k e y Caracas, Mr Chavez said: "I "revolutionary fighter". defend him. It doesn't matter to He is serving a life sentence in me what they say tomorrow in France for murders committed in Europe."

1975.

He said he believed Carlos had M r C h a v e z a l s o h a i l e d been unfairly convicted, and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, called him "one of the great Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, f i g h t e r s o f t h e P a l e s t i n e and the late Ugandan dictator Idi L i b e r a t i o n O r g a n i s a t i o n " .

Amin.

The Venezuelan leader has 'Great nationalist' previously called Carlos a friend,

and is reported to have exchanged letters with him in the past.

In his speech, Mr Chavez also described Presidents Mugabe and Ahmadinejad - who like Mr Chavez are strong critics of the US - as brothers.

About former Ugandan President Idi Amin, Mr Chavez said: "We thought he was a cannibal... I don't know, maybe he was a great nationalist, a patriot."

Idi Amin seized power in 1971.

About 300,000 people were killed during his eight-year rule.

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Thanksgiving, and the Sunday after.

Dwayne Houston, 37, a federal contractor from Landover, Md., said he plans to take an Amtrak train to Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday and then drive his elderly father and stepmother to visit relatives near Orlando, Fla. He said air travel was too expensive.

"For the both of them it was not in their budget, it was going to cost them about $400 or $500 ... to save the money they decided to drive," Houston said.

Others are staying put. Tami

Art.view: Colour me dazzled

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arrested in Miami in 2006.

They had been caught on tape by the FBI informant discussing plans to cause an antigovernment insurrection.

Batiste was heard on audio and video tape saying they should start a "full ground war" that would "kill all the devils".

'No threat' Sentencing Batiste, US District Judge Joan Lenard said: "You've done great harm to yourself, your family, the young men who were your followers, and you've

violated the trust of your country."

Batiste apologised for the plot in court, saying he had "wanted respect".

"I wanted to be this person that I really wasn't. I've never been a violent person," the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.

On Wednesday, Judge Lenard sentenced brothers Burson Ausgustin, 24, and Rotschild Augustin, 26, to six and seven years in prison respectively.

The next day, Patrick Abraham, 30, received more than nine years and 34-year-old Stanley Phanor, eight years.

Two men were earlier acquitted of the charges.

The case was seen as a major step in the fight against extremist attack, but defence lawyers said the arrests were an overreaction by the authorities and that the men had no way of carrying out the plot.

"No one in the United States was ever in any danger. There were

Howlett, 41, a teacher from Tulsa, Okla., said as a single mother with two kids she decided to spend Thanksgiving at home to save money.

"We're just trying to keep it limited and save money for the summer," Howlett said. "You just have to appreciate what you have."

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absolutely no steps taken to wage war," lawyer Ana M Jhones told AP. The 110-storey Sears Tower, the tallest building in the US, was renamed as the Willis Tower this year.

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(The Economist: Daily columns) Submitted at 11/21/2009 3:51:08 AM

Art.view Nov 21st 2009 From Economist.com Record auction prices for rare coloured diamonds “If you have money to invest, there is no safer haven than something rare,” says Laurence Graff, the London-born “King of Diamonds”. If this is sales talk, he is his own best customer. In December 2008, during some of the bleakest days of the credit ART.VIEW: page 67

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crisis, Mr Graff paid $24.3m for the 35.56-carat, 17th-century Wittelsbach blue diamond at Christie’s in London. He set the auction record for any jewel. But in his opinion, “it was the bargain of the century. In my life, it is the rarest of them all; it is the supreme coloured diamond.”

Yet Mr Graff felt it could be improved. His team began work on the Wittelsbach almost immediately. It was a daring, even daredevil, move. When he bought the historic diamond it worked out at $1.46m per carat.

As a result of polishing it weighs four carats less. This could be calculated as a loss of about $6m, but not by Mr Graff. He values the Wittelsbach-Graff, as the gem is now called, at $100m. “We have given it life which it didn’t have before,” he explains. Many may soon judge for themselves.

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, has been in discussions with Graff regarding the possibility of a public presentation of the diamond at the National Museum of Natural History.

Competition for superb diamonds has always been strong. But now there are many more private buyers, mostly from China. In May at Sotheby’s Geneva another blue—the 7.03carat “Star of Josephine”—sold to Joseph Lau Luen-Hung, a Hong Kong real-estate developer,

for almost $9.5m. And in October the results of Christie’s New York jewellery sale were so good smiles broke out even on the faces of their competitors.

Francois Curiel, the International Director and Chairman of Christie’s Europe, reports that its top jewellery sales in New York, Geneva and Hong Kong typically bring in about $30m each. The October sale realised $47m. A star lot was the Annenberg diamond ring, a clear 32-carat flawless stone which sold for almost $7.7m, more than double the low estimate. The winning bidder, the under-bidder and the under-underbidder were all North Americans. This is not surprising since Leonore “Lee” Annenberg and her husband Walter, a b u s i n e s s m a n a n d ambassador,were essentially American aristocracy. The surprise was that 25% of the sale’s winning bidders over all came from mainland China.

These days when a great diamond comes on the market, the chatter is heard around the world. Take, for instance, the 2.5 -carat green diamond(pictured) offered by Sotheby’s Geneva on November 17th. “There is a lot of noise about this one,” said Alisa Moussaieff, an important diamond dealer, before the sale.

Although the size of a shelled peanut, the gem is the largest naturally green diamond ever to

come to auction. Natural greens are produced by the earth’s radiation; artificial ones are irradiated after the gems are mined. Coloured diamonds are the rarest of gemstones, and green and red ones are as rare as they get. They are not necessarily beauties. “Normally the green ones that come up are asleep,” explained Mrs Moussaieff. “But this one has got life. It is a ball of fire.” On Tuesday that little green ball of fire was bought by a private Asian buyer for just under $3.1m, a record auction price for a green diamond. (The buyer’s identity has not been revealed, but informed gossips say it was not Mr Lau.) Diamonds are graded according to the four C’s: cut, carat weight, colour and clarity. Provenance also can add to the price. (See the Gemological Institute of America’s website for detailed information.) Had the Annenberg ring been an anonymous lot it might have fetched 25% less, Mr Curiel calculates. An even more potent example occurred at the Geneva sale. Sotheby’s estimated a ruby-and-diamond necklace with matching earrings at $530,000-$975,000. It sold for a whopping $4.3m. The suite is believed to have been bought by the Earl of Rosebery in 1884 for his wife Hannah Rothschild. It eventually moved along the ladder of titles until it reached

Mary, Duchess of Roxburgh, the vendor.

Rarity seems to be the greatest single factor influencing today’s auction prices for superb coloured diamonds. The blue “Star of Josephine” sold for $1.35m per carat—more than five times what the colourless Annenberg fetched. Prescient investors now turn their eyes to Hong Kong. On December 1st Christie’s is offering “The Vivid Pink” (pictured), described by one expert as the “finest and largest” of its type ever to be auctioned. Mr Graff bought the ten-carat rough-cut stone from De Beers. (He somewhat playfully describes it as the irresistible sweetener to a particularly large deal.) He had it cut into a five-carat gem and set as a ring. The American client to whom he sold this exceptional pink is now offering it at auction.

“He will make a lot more than I did,” says the King of Diamonds, who plans to leave a bid.

Back to top ^^ Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views.

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MediaDailyNews: Ad Alert: Affluent Viewership Up Among Big Four (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:23:26 PM

Overall ratings may not be thriving, but more wealthy people are watching the major networks this season. So far, 11% more upscale viewers are tuning in to the Big Four, a figure propelled by a huge jump at Fox. Among 18-to-49 viewers in $100,000-plus homes, rating points are a combined 14.7 compared to a 13.2 last year, according to one measure. That comes as overall ratings for the Big Four are flat at an estimated 12.5, marking a silver lining for networks.

Figures are derived from "live plus seven day" program ratings and do not include specials programming.

The upscale increase comes mostly via Fox, which is up 56% this season to a 3.9 versus a 2.5 last year, with help from new show "Glee."

On the backs of comedies such as "The Office" and football, beleaguered NBC has an upscale MEDIADAILYNEWS: page 68

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spin to take to advertisers -- with ratings up 12.5% from a 3.2 to a 3.6. ABC and CBS are down 5% and 3% -- to a 3.8 and 3.4, respectively.

But each network has a higher concentration of affluent viewers, coveted by advertisers seeking their disposable income.

ABC has posted a 115 index among 18-to-49 viewers in $100,000-plus homes. That means its concentration is 15% higher than what would be found in the general population. For ABC, that's up from a 113 a year ago, and keeps it at the top in the index area.

NBC, which for years dominated the competition in upscale viewers, has a 113 index this year -- up from 112 last fall. Series such as "30 Rock" and "Community" are helping drive up the figure, along with the "The Office."

CBS is also up slightly, to a 102 from a 101. "60 Minutes" is a strong performer. Top shows "CSI:" and "CSI: NY" have indexes below 100, hurting the network-wide figure.

Fox has soared, with its index

going from an 88 -- 12% below an average concentration -- to a 106. In addition to "Glee's" high percentage of upscale viewers, the three hours a week of "So You Think You Can Dance" -which was not on last fall's schedule -- is a contributor.

Although an index only refers to a percentage and not actual viewers, some view it as the most insightful benchmark for upscale performance, partly because an advertiser can receive more affluent viewers per rating point purchased.

There may be a simple reason for the increases. A large percentage of upscale viewers may have DVRs that allow them to watch more TV. Cable news competition is losing appeal, which may be another reason.

Still, the demo may be eager adskippers, and "commercial ratings" -- the market currency -may be down.

Among individual shows this season, ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" has the highest ratings in the upscale demo, while "Glee" has the highest index at 146.

Highest-Rated Upscale Series

"Grey's Anatomy" (9.5), ABC "House" (7.8), Fox "The Office" (7.6), NBC "Sunday Night Football" (7.5), NBC "Big Bang Theory" (7.2), CBS "Desperate Housewives" (6.7), ABC "Private Practice" (6.2), ABC "Glee" (6.0), Fox Two and a Half Men" (5.9), CBS "30 Rock" (5.4), NBC Upscale Series with Highest Indexes "Glee" (146), Fox "30 Rock" (142), NBC "The Office" (139), NBC "Community" (131), NBC "60 Minutes" (129), CBS "Grey's Anatomy" (129), ABC "Brothers & Sisters" (127), ABC "Private Practice" (126), ABC "How I Met Your Mother" (124), CBS "Parks & Recreation" (122), NBC This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

MediaDailyNews: Network Shows Down In November Sweeps (MediaPost | Media News)

1.3/3.

The only bit of comfort went to CBS' "The Mentalist," which R e m e m b e r h o w b i g t h e improved some to a 3.7/11 November sweeps use to be? For among adult 18-49 viewers viewers, the memory is getting versus a 3.6/10. more distant.

Bigger declines were seen with On the last Thursday of the still- ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," which b i g N o v e m b e r T V p e r i o d , landed with a 5.1/13, down 9%. virtually every network show Its 10 p.m. companion show, took it on the chin. Similar "Private Practice" went south big ratings trend also took place time, dropping 21% to a 3.1/9. earlier in the week.

NBC's "The Office" saw a Big shows, such as ABC's season low 3.7/10, down 12%.

"Grey's Anatomy," CBS' "CSI," Fox's "Fringe" sank 9% to a NBC's "The Office" and Fox' 2.0/5. ABC's once high flying "Fringe" all sank lower versus "FlashForward" is now at a more their respective results of a week humbling 2.4/7, off 8% from a before. Some of this could be due week ago. to a NFL Network Thursday All this gave CBS a shrug-of-the night game between the Miami -shoulders victory for the night Dolphins-Carolina Panthers. That among those key 18-49ers: a network's Thursday games have 3.7/10. Usual Thursday winner been pulling in around 4 million ABC was right behind with a viewers on average.

3.5/10.

Looking at just the young at NBC and Fox were in a distant heart on this Thursday, CW's third-place tie at a 2.3/6 a piece. nice surprise this season, CW was a bit better than "Vampire Diaries," fell across all Univision, a 1.5/4 among 18the demographics that matter to 49ers and a 1.7/5 for 18-34 them. It had a Nielsen 1.6/5 viewers. Univision earned a 1.4/4 among 18-49 viewers versus a for 18-49 and a 1.6/5 for 18-34.

1.9/5 the week before. Its This content has passed through companion show "Supernatural" fivefilters.org. also moved lower, a 1.2/3 from a Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:15:27 PM

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Digital Outsider: Study: DO Billboards Are Safe, Really (MediaPost | Media News)

day, and the direction and speed of the vehicles involved in each accident (including accidents on A new study from Tantala stretches of road where digital Associates, commissioned by the billboards are visible, as well as Outdoor Advertising Association accidents elsewhere) and found of America, hammers home the there is no statistical correlation point that digital billboards are between accidents and visual not correlated with traffic exposure to digital billboards, by accidents. This finding provides day or night. Rather, Tantala a d d i t i o n a l a m m u n i t i o n t o found that overall accident rates billboard owners trying to in the county have decreased persuade local governments and over the last four years, even on community organizations that the stretches of road where digital eye-catching displays are safe. billboards are visible.

The new Tantala study -- the This study reinforces Tantala's third in a series performed for the findings in its two previous OAAA -- returned to Cuyahoga studies of the issue. In April County, Ohio, which includes Tantala published the results of Cleveland and its surrounding its analysis of police records suburbs. Tantala reviewed police documenting 18,000 traffic r e c o r d s f o r 6 0 , 0 0 0 t r a f f i c accidents that took place in the accidents taking place in the area of Rochester, N.Y., over a county over an eight-year period, five-year period, which also comparing accident rates from a showed no statistical correlation four-year period before digital between digital billboards and billboards were installed with the accidents. Two years before that four-year period following their Tantala completed its first study installation. of accident rates in the Cleveland T a n t a l a a n a l y z e d d a t a metro area for the OAAA. documenting the location, time of Around the same time as the first Submitted at 11/20/2009 2:14:24 PM

Tantala study, Virginia Tech completed a survey about the effects of signs on drivers.

Conducted by the Center for Automotive Safety Research at Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute, the study observed measures like eye-glance patterns, speed maintenance and lane-keeping, and found no substantial changes in behavior patterns in the presence of digital signage.

Traffic safety has been a hot topic in the ongoing public debate over digital billboards, with opponents claiming the displays' bright lights and motion distract drivers and cause accidents. However, the last couple years have also seen increasing opposition on purely aesthetic and economic grounds: some neighborhood associations in Los Angeles, for example, say digital billboards are unsightly and lower property values.

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Barnes & Noble's EReaders Rank High among Christmas Gifts (Pravda) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers)

Customers who had hoped to buy a Nook as Christmas or Hanukkah present can get a Submitted at 11/21/2009 9:00:00 AM certificate to present but not the Consumers who haven't yet device itself yet. ordered Barnes & Noble's Barnes and Noble said it is electronic book reader, the Nook, ramping up supply to meet the won't be able to obtain one demand. The company wouldn't before Christmas. say how many Nooks it has sold.

The earliest that anyone who E-readers are expected to be a orders the $259 device on Friday popular gift this year. o r l a t e r w i l l r e c e i v e i t i n Sony Corp. said Wednesday its January,4, 2010, the nation's $399 Reader Daily Edition might largest bookseller said Friday. not arrive in time for Christmas, "While we increased production let alone Hanukkah. based on the high consumer Barnes & Noble shares fell 35 interest, we've sold out of our cents to $21.96 during afternoon initial nook allotment available t r a d i n g , a c c o r d i n g t o t h e for delivery before the holidays," A s s o c i a t e d P r e s s ' r e p o r t . the company said in a statement. Read more news P r e o r d e r s e x c e e d e d i t s This content has passed through expectations, the New York fivefilters.org. company said.

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MediaDailyNews: RAB: Radio Revs Some Nook e-readers won't make it for the Hit Low Note, Slide 16% (MediaPost | Media News)

online, bringing significant growth to the local online sector and moving local dollars from Down is the new up -- at least offline to the Web." according to the Radio However, this prediction carries Advertising Bureau, which found at least as much peril as potential "positive turnaround signs" in a for radio broadcasters. Their 16% decline in total radio ad ability to cash in on local online revenues in the third quarter of revenues have increased 12% to advertising depends entirely on 2009. That's compared to the $347 million. their investment in online same period last year, from While these results are stronger platforms over the last several roughly $4.95 billion to $4.15 than other traditional media with years -- when the recession an online presence -- newspapers' forced many stations to cut back billion.

This is a smaller percentage drop online revenues continued to o n l o n g - t e r m c a p i t a l than the first and second quarters, decline in the third quarter -- i m p r o v e m e n t s . when revenues fell 24% and digital remains a small fraction of If radio stations owners don't 22%, respectively. But it's worth radio's bottom line in percentage take the lead, for example, by remembering that comparisons terms. Een as total revenues o f f e r i n g l o c a l a d v e r t i s e r s are also getting easier: The third tumble, digital contributed just integrated campaigns that also quarter decline compounded a 3% in the third quarter, as well as leverage broadcast assets, they 9% drop in the third quarter of for the year-to-date. risk losing both broadcast and 2008. This was the 10th straight Looking to the future, the RAB online revenues to a variety of quarter to see a year-over-year n o t e d t h a t l o c a l o n l i n e local competitors, including decline in total radio ad revenues. advertising is a strong potential newspaper and TV station Web The one area to see real growth growth area for radio, citing a sites. was digital, which grew 14% to report from Piper Jaffray which This content has passed through $126 million; for the year-to-date stated: "Small businesses will fivefilters.org. through September, total digital begin to catch up with consumers Submitted at 11/20/2009 3:27:36 PM

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as it can in time for the holidays, This content has passed through a company spokesman said fivefilters.org. earlier this week.

Amazon started selling the first version of the Kindle in late 2007. The latest version appears to still be in stock.

holidays (Computerworld) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers)

expecting healthy sales of ereaders. Lower prices, more content and plenty of attention Submitted at 11/20/2009 2:40:59 PM are contributing to higher-thanIDG News Service - Just two expected sales for e-readers, days after Sony said that its according to a recent Forrester wireless e-reader, the Daily report. The report, issued in early Edition, might not make it to October, boosted projections that buyers before the end of the year, analysts there set earlier this year Barnes & Noble said its Nook e- for e-reader sales. Forrester reader is sold out. expects sales of 900,000 units T h e N o o k h a s n ’ t s t a r t e d during November and December shipping yet, but the bookseller for a new 2009 total of 3 million now says that preorders have units, more than the initial 2 consumed stock available for the million projection. holidays. Anyone ordering the While Sony and others have Nook now will have to wait until been selling e-readers for years, after Jan. 4, when Barnes & Amazon jump-started the market Noble expects to ship additional when it added wireless access to readers. its Kindle. Users don’t pay a Anyone who has already ordered monthly fee or a transaction the device will get it in time for charge but can buy and download the holidays, said Mary Ellen b o o k s o v e r t h e w i r e l e s s Keating, a Barnes & Noble connection. Sony's Daily Edition spokeswoman. and the Barnes & Noble Nook Hoping not to miss out on adopted a similar model. potential sales, Barnes & Noble Sony’s Daily Edition, its first is encouraging people to preorder with a wireless connection, the Nook to give as a gift o p e n e d f o r p r e o r d e r s o n anyway. The bookseller promises Wednesday. Sony said it couldn’t to send an “elegant Nook holiday guarantee a delivery date and that certificate” that will arrive by devices would ship Dec. 18 Dec. 24 and that buyers can give through Jan. 8. as a placeholder until the real More people than expected Nook arrives. signed up to find out about the Although neither company is Daily Edition’s availability, and saying how many preorders the company will deliver as many they’ve received for their SOME page 70 devices, analysts have been

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Some Nook E-readers Won't Make It for the Holidays Either (PC World via Yahoo! News) (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers)

anyway. The bookseller promises to send an "elegant Nook holiday certificate" that will arrive by Submitted at 11/20/2009 11:40:00 AM Dec. 24 and that buyers can give Just two days after Sony said as a placeholder until the real that its wireless e-reader, the Nook arrives.

Daily Edition, might not make it Although neither company is to buyers before the end of the saying how many preorders year, Barnes & Noble said its they've gotten for their devices, Nook e-reader is sold out. analysts have been expecting The Nook hasn't started shipping healthy sales of e-readers. Lower yet, but the bookseller now says prices, more content and plenty that preorders have consumed of attention are contributing to stock available for the holidays. higher-than-expected sales for eAnyone ordering the Nook now readers, according to a recent will have to wait until after Jan. Forrester report. The report, 4, when Barnes & Noble expects issued in early October, boosted to ship additional readers. projections that analysts there set [Related: Sold-out! Grinch Steals earlier this year for e-reader Nook Christmas] sales. Forrester expects sales of Anyone who has already ordered 900,000 units during November the device will get it in time for and December for a new 2009 the holidays, said Mary Ellen total of 3 million units, more than Keating, a Barnes & Noble the initial 2 million projection. spokeswoman.

While Sony and others have Hoping not to miss out on been selling e-readers for years, potential sales, Barnes & Noble Amazon jump-started the market is encouraging people to preorder when it added wireless access to the Nook to give as a gift its Kindle. Users don't pay a

monthly fee or a transaction charge but can buy and download books over the wireless connection. Sony's Daily Edition and the Barnes & Noble Nook adopted a similar model.

Sony's Daily Edition, its first with a wireless connection, opened for preorders on Wednesday. Sony said it couldn't guarantee a delivery date and that devices would ship Dec. 18 through Jan. 8.

More people than expected signed up to find out about the Daily Edition's availability, and the company will deliver as many as it can in time for the holidays, a company spokesman said earlier this week.

Amazon started selling the first version of the Kindle in late 2007. The latest version appears to still be in stock.

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