Liberty Newsprint Nov-24-09

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23/11/09 - 24/11/09

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The First Draft: Is the US healthcare debate making Americans feel better?

By David Morgan (Front Row Washington)

That last remark — “some type of reform” — could prove prophetic.

Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:02:36 AM Republicans seem to think The healthcare reform debate reform is a terrible idea and brewing in the U.S. Senate may appear to be in lock-step cause dyspepsia for some special opposition to it. interests.

That leaves it to Democrats and But the mere prospect of reform allied independents to forge a could be making the American filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority public feel better already — to push legislation through. about health coverage, at least.

Despite sharp differences within That’s according to the Robert their already frayed coalition, Wood Johnson Foundation, a Democratic leaders appear to be nonpartisan philanthropic betting that the whole bunch, in organization devoted to health the end, will opt for “some type access to care and coverage. American public appears to be of reform” rather than returning and healthcare issues.

The foundation’s consumer Fewer worried about losing their more confident about the future,” home empty handed for the confidence index for healthcare insurance and concerns about R o b e r t W o o d J o h n s o n holidays. climbed to a new high of 104.4 future affordability dropped, too. Foundation president and CEO, Photo Credit: Reuters/Jonathan points in October, as the debate “During a month when there was Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey said. Ernst (U.S. Capitol) gathered pace in the Senate and considerable momentum around “Americans of every ideology health reform, including the know that our health care system House of Representatives.

Why? There was a big jump in passage of a reform bill by the needs to be fixed and want some people’s confidence about future Senate Finance Committee, the type of reform,” she added.

ADVERTISEMENT: (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 11/24/2009 10:10:00 AM

Google picks up ad company Teracent

By Don Reisinger (Webware.com) Submitted at 11/23/2009 1:35:11 PM

Search giant enters into an agreement to acquire the online ad-optimization for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the quarter.

Originally posted at News Digital Media

HourTime Podcast… plus a contest

By John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:58:30 AM

Here’s the latest HourTime podcast, my little side project with Ariel Adams. Note, there’s a

special surprise near the middle H o u r T i m e t o d r o p y o u r of the show so take a listen. c o m m e n t .

R e m e m b e r , h e a d o v e r t o Download MP3

Subscribe in iTunes

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HC Robbins Landon obituary

By Barry Millington (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

WH Auden. His interest in Haydn had already been piqued as a schoolboy, but an encounter with the scholar Karl Geiringer, Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:59:56 AM his teacher at Boston University Distinguished musicologist (1945-47), helped him on his known for his trailblazing work chosen path. Realising that his on Haydn and his books on future lay in Europe, where all Mozart the relevant sources were located, Few musicologists achieve true he managed to secure work as a celebrity outside their specialist music critic and European field. But the name of HC correspondent for various US Robbins Landon, who has died at n e w s p a p e r s a n d j o u r n a l s , the age of 83, was known by including Musical America. m a n y t h o u s a n d s o f p e o p l e Employment by the Times, for beyond the scholarly community. which he worked for nearly a While his reputation was founded decade, was a crucial factor in on his trailblazing research into gaining him admittance to Joseph Haydn, which helped to archives behind the iron curtain. establish the composer's works – T h e p a p e r s o f H a y d n ' s largely unknown as late as the e m p l o y e r s , t h e p r i n c e s o f 1950s – in the canon, it was his Esterházy, in the National series of books on Mozart, aimed Library in Budapest, had recently at a wider public and selling in been taken over by the state. h u g e n u m b e r s i n m a n y General access was all but languages, that brought him i m p o s s i b l e , b u t t h e T i m e s global renown. connection ensured that he was It is no exaggeration to call him treated with courtesy and even a titan, for Robbie, as he was offered a visa. universally known, was a giant in In 1949 the Haydn Society was both physical and intellectual founded at his instigation. terms. And yet his infectious Originally located in Boston, but enthusiasm for the subject under later operating out of Vienna discussion, coupled with an also, the society planned a encyclopedic memory and almost complete edition of Haydn's r e c k l e s s l y f l u e n t d e l i v e r y , works, of which only a tenth had allowed him to engage lay been published at that time; the audiences in a way that few p r o j e c t w a s s u b s e q u e n t l y scholars are able. abandoned, though much Born in Boston and educated at valuable musicological work was S w a r t h m o r e C o l l e g e , undertaken by the society.

Pennsylvania, Landon studied E q u a l l y n o t a b l e w e r e t h e music theory, composition and recordings it issued, which English literature, the latter with included a number of Haydn's

works, not least symphonies and masses, that had been previously unavailable on disc. The first recordings of Mozart's C minor Mass and Idomeneo were also made by the society.

Partly in conjunction with the activities of the Haydn Society, Landon began to produce critical editions and other material relating to the composer at this time. The first major publishing milestone was The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn (1955), which presented those works in the context of Haydn's output as a whole and of 18th-century music in general. Meanwhile he published editions of a number of Haydn's other works, notably masses and operas, helping to stimulate performances and effectively bringing about a reappraisal of Haydn's abilities as a dramatic composer.

The crowning achievement of his Haydn scholarship was the five-volume Haydn: Chronicle and Works (1976-80). The prodigious detail in which Landon lays out in these volumes the documentary material unearthed from the archives is a compliment as much to his publishers, Thames & Hudson, as it is to Landon himself. It is difficult to imagine a similar project being undertaken today.

To take examples at random, in volume one the salaries and payments in kind made in 1760 to Haydn's musicians at Eisenstadt are listed: they include precise allocations of wheat,

corn, lard, candles, cabbage and beets, and, for some privileged players, a pig or two.

The third volume, covering the London years, includes, among its scores of documents, diary accounts by Haydn of his visit to Ascot, intimate information about Haydn's visits to a surgeon (wishing to remove a polyp from the composer's nose, the surgeon summoned "a few brawny fellows" to hold him down, but Haydn resisted) and much more besides.

Further esoterica are found in the copious footnotes, placed, where they belong, but are too rarely found, on the page. If, in the case of Haydn, Landon's efforts effected a radical reappraisal of the composer by bringing many of the works into the public domain for the first time, with Mozart his influence was of a different order. By the time he produced his five Mozart publications – 1791: Mozart's Last Year, Mozart: The Golden Years, The Mozart Compendium, Mozart and Vienna, and The Mozart Essays – between 1988 and 1995, Mozart was firmly established in the pantheon of great composers. Thanks to the huge success of Peter Shaffer's 1979 play and 1984 film Amadeus, not only was Mozart's music suddenly on the bestseller lists, but a new mythology had grown up around the last months of Mozart's life: the relationship with Salieri, the Requiem, the "mysterious messenger", the final

illness, the pauper's burial.

Landon's achievement was to cut through the fantasy and mystification to present the facts regarding the composer's last year, unveiling new documentary material in the process. He found no grounds for Mozart's having been poisoned by Salieri, or anyone else, taking the most likely cause of Mozart's death to be a combination of medical factors including progressive kidney failure, and restored the reputation of his wife, Constanze, slandered over decades as a scatterbrained, lascivious woman, incapable of understanding Mozart and encouraging him to live a disorderly, if not dissolute, existence. As text editor of 1791: Mozart's Last Year, I was privileged to play a small role in the dissemination of this revisionist view of Mozart.

Landon had always been generous in his acknowledgment of editorial and other assistance.

In his earlier work on Haydn, his first wife, Christa Landon, a distinguished harpsichordist and scholar in her own right, killed in an air crash in 1977, had been an indispensable colleague. His second wife, Else Radant, also a historian of some note, was to provide further invaluable support for the next couple of decades. He relied too on a secretariat and assorted assistants, publicists and editors to manage his schedule and other ROBBINS page 4

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Will Murdoch's Bing gamble pay off? | Dan Kennedy

By Dan Kennedy (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

featuring their content on its site.

There is no advertising on the home page of Google News, the Googletron's automated Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:00:46 AM aggregation site. But if you In cosying up to Google's main search Google News, contextual c o m p e t i t o r , B i n g , R u p e r t ads will pop up. Search for news Murdoch proves once again that about Indonesia, for instance, and he can't be dismissed so easily you'll be shown ads for Rupert Murdoch may not know Indonesian vacation services and much about the internet. But he hotels. Google keeps that money knows more about how to make to itself, arguing that it's driving money than anyone else in the considerable traffic to the news media business. sites to which it links, and that So when he began prattling on it's up to those sites to monetise about erecting pay walls around that traffic. his websites and making them It's a persuasive argument, and invisible to Google's search it's one that news organisations engines, media observers had two grudgingly accepted until the past choices. They could smugly year or two, when their world conclude that Rupe, at 78, was b e g a n i m p l o d i n g . S u r e , finally losing it. Or they could sit publishers whined. But none back and wait to see what he dared take the simple step of really had up his sleeve. inserting a line of code into their Following several weeks of sites so that Google wouldn't be speculation, we are beginning to able to find them. learn what Murdoch might Now comes Microsoft, which actually be up to, according to a might be willing to set up a Bing report in the Financial Times. news service whose ad revenue No, it's not about pay walls. He would be split with contentmay not have given up on the producers. No, it's not likely that idea, but presumably he'll come Bing will catch up with Google, to see that it's a loser's game. which has a huge head start ( Rather, Murdoch – and possibly 65% of the search market to other media players – are cosying B i n g ' s 1 0 % ) a n d w o r k s up to Microsoft, whose newish extraordinarily well. But if search engine, Bing, has quickly Microsoft could establish a established itself as Google's reputation for Bing as a second main competitor. site you had to visit for any The idea is that Microsoft may serious search, that could be be willing to do what Google, so enough to make it a profitable far, has resisted: pay news sideline. organisations for the privilege of And Microsoft, predictably, is

playing hardball, according to the FT: Microsoft wants news sites to pull out of Google in order to take part in the potentially lucrative alternative universe it hopes to establish.

Last week, Mike Butcher at TechCrunch reported that Microsoft is talking about investing as much as £100,000 in a news system. Hard to know what to make of that. It sounds a bit like Lorne Michaels offering the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on Saturday Night Live. But clearly something is in the works.

Now, I will grant you that Murdoch has had some wacky things to say, and he might actually believe them. "People who simply just pick up everything and run with it, steal our stories – we say they steal our stories, they just take them without payment," he recently told his own Sky News.

Google is not stealing his stories.

Every visitor that Google drives to one of Murdoch's properties is a visitor Murdoch might not otherwise get. It is not Google's fault that news sites have proved utterly unable to choke enough money out of those visitors to cover the cost of their content.

Murdoch may also be blinded by the fact that his flagship newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, has enjoyed some success in charging for content.

Trouble is, the Journal is a speciality business publication similar to the FT (which also

charges for much of its content), and corporate executives would rather pay than go without.

But the idea that anyone would pay for access to Murdoch's runof-the-mill properties like the New York Post, Fox News or his British papers is ludicrous. It's not that they're bad (though they are); it's that there are free alternatives for everything they produce.

Murdoch and other newspaper publishers may yet find a way to blow it. TechCrunch's Butcher also reports that among Microsoft's attractions is the possibility that Bing will offer a more granular approach, allowing news sites various options if they want to charge for some types of access. Sorry, but a pay wall is a pay wall is a pay wall.

On the other hand, if newspaper publishers can establish the principle that aggregators should share their revenue, then that could have significant implications for the flagging news business. Google might respond in kind. And then what are aggregators that are considerably less benign than Google going to do?

Rick Edmonds, a business analyst for the Poynter Institute, writes that"a broad movement of branded news sites to a preferred relationship with Bing would not be so easy to shrug off. Microsoft could become an important player in the paid content equation. Google might

counterbid to prevent that from happening."

Last week Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff, head of the especially pernicious(as in, you literally have to click twice before you can leave the site) aggregator Newser.com, popped up on National Public Radio's On Point – along with Buzz Machine blogger and Guardian columnist Jeff Jarvis– and proceeded to portray Murdoch as moronic, insane or both.

But Murdoch is proving once again that he can't be dismissed so easily. The online news landscape might look very different a year from now. If you're someone who's got an interest in the survival of professional journalism, it might look better as well.

And the man Slate's Jack Shafer invariably refers to as the " rotten old bastard" will be chuckling, and counting his money, yet again.

• Rupert Murdoch • Bing • Google • Internet • Newspapers • United States Dan Kennedy guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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ROBBINS continued from page 2

administrative trivia, allowing him to concentrate on the matters in which he had the expertise.

For all the exhaustiveness of his research and annotation, detail was not necessarily his strong suit.

Nor were the niceties of prose style, which made the process of coaxing the material he provided into a coherent narrative an interesting challenge.

His freely expressed gratitude to assistants, as to fellow-scholars, made him a pleasure to work with, however. It was an instructive experience too: one could but marvel at his ability to bring to life the dry documentary material retrieved from dusty library shelves. Both on the printed page and in the radio studio he communicated an enthusiasm that for once endowed musicology with the excitement of a detective story. It was this lightness of touch allied to his scholarly credentials and an almost missionary desire to share knowledge with the world at large that brought him unprecedented financial rewards as well as critical acclaim. In an interview conducted a couple of years before he died, he reported that he had just received a royalty cheque for his five Mozart books amounting to $80,000. Even allowing for the multiple reissues and translations of 1791, the figure represents an astonishing, and surely unequalled, return on a scholarly endeavour of this nature.

An episode that Robbie and others of us would probably prefer to gloss over occurred a few years after the publication of 1791. Towards the end of 1993, a group of six piano sonatas thought to be by Haydn came to light, their authenticity verified by the performer-scholars Paul and Eva Badura-Skoda and by Landon. The January issue of the BBC Music Magazine, of which I was then reviews editor, carried an article by Landon proclaiming their merits. The February issue carried a retraction, it having been discovered that the sonatas were a skilful modern fraud perpetrated by a German recorder player and composer called Winfried Michel. The episode illustrates perhaps Landon's penchant for precipitate and overzealous judgment, but it provoked at the same time a worthwhile debate about the extent to which our perception of the greatness of works is determined by our knowledge of their composer.

Other composers on whom he worked and published included Vivaldi, Handel, JC Bach and Beethoven. Some of the work outside his specialist field was criticised for its lack of scholarly rigour, though none could dispute the brio he brought to his subject.

The book Five Centuries of Music in Venice (1991), written in conjunction with John Julius Norwich, was conceived as a companion to a television series called Maestro, created by

Landon and Norwich, and broadcast by Channel 4 in association with the French broadcaster La Sept. His autobiographical Horns in High C, published in 1999, related the events of his career with characteristically breathless enthusiasm.

His academic appointments included professorships at Queens College, New York (1969) and the University of California at Davis (1970). He was John Bird Professor of Music at the University of Wales, Cardiff (1978-93) and a fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (1979). He was also awarded honorary doctorates by Boston University, Queen's University, Belfast, Bristol University and the New England Conservatory, as well as the Siemens Prize (1991) and the Medal of Honour of the Handel and Haydn Society (1993).

Fluent in several languages, Robbie made his home at different times in America, Britain, Vienna and France. It was to his beautiful 18th-century chateau at Rabastens, near Toulouse, that he finally retired, spending his last decade or so with his companion Marie-Noelle Raynal-Bechetoille, who, like Else Radant, survives him (there were no children from either marriage). An epicurean and bon vivant, he was no less generous with his hospitality than with his scholarship.

To spend time in his company

was as exhausting as it was stimulating: nuggets of musical fact would be extricated from the vast repository of knowledge that was his brain. A tendency to solipsism was balanced by a remarkable capacity for thoughtfulness. I was deeply touched to receive a telephone call from him one Christmas Day when he guessed I would be on my own. Others will have different stories to tell of his boundless generosity. Larger than life, he was an inspirational presence, bringing a penetrating intellect and theatrical flair to the world of musicology.

• Howard Chandler Robbins Landon, musicologist, born 6 March 1926; died 20 November 2009 • Classical music • Music • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • Opera • Peter Shaffer • The Times • Austria • Hungary • United States Barry Millington guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

Options Update: Retail HOLDRS volatility low into holiday shopping season

By Paul Foster (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 11/24/2009 8:30:00 AM

Filed under: Options Retail HOLDRS( RTH), an undivided index of retail merchandisers, closed at $94.61.

RTH overall option implied volatility of 20 is below its 26week average of 24, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Gold Fields( GFI) closed $14.74.

Gold is recently up 0.52% to $1170, according to Bloomberg.

Gold Fields is an unhedged producer of gold. December and January option implied volatility of 48 is below its 26-week average of 54, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com Options Update: Retail HOLDRS volatility low into holiday shopping season originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Widow of bomb expert Olaf Schmid pays tribute to 'warrior' at funeral

By Steven Morris (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:59:43 AM

Colleagues tell of bravery at Truro Cathedral service for staff sergeant killed in Afghanistan The widow of army bomb disposal expert Olaf "Oz" Schmid today paid tribute to her "warrior" husband as his funeral took place with full military honours in his home city of Truro.

Christina Schmid said her husband was a protector rather than a destroyer of life and urged "peacemakers" to work as hard as he did to preserve life. She spoke of the dark days he endured as he felt the pressure of being one of the army's most proficient and respected experts and urged the country not to forget people like him.

Schmid, 30, was killed last month as he neared the end of a tour in which he had made safe 64 improvised explosive devices safe and attended 11 finds of bomb-making equipment.

After his death in an IED explosion there was an outpouring of grief from relatives

and colleagues. His senior officers said he had saved lives time after time and in tributes he was described as "simply the bravest", a "phenomenon" and "legendary".

When his body was repatriated through RAF Lyneham and Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, thousands lined the streets and Mrs Schmid led the mourning, mouthing the words: "Love you, love you. You've been the best dad and you've done so, so well.

I'm so proud of you" and then applauding her late husband.

During an emotional address in the cathedral where her husband was head chorister as a boy, Mrs Schmid said: "In past conflicts, where there was an immediate threat to our shores and our existence, soldiers were never plagued with self-doubt about the value of their role in society, and a people and their soldiers were once close in unity.

"We might disagree with a war.

However, I hope through Olaf's death, my public storytelling and appreciation, our community display of respect here today can serve to bridge that gap and unite us once more with our troops.

"I hope the work Olaf and others

like him undertake on our behalf is not taken for granted anymore or goes unnoticed by our leaders.

For Olaf has certainly raised the bar. From now on I expect our peacemakers to show us they are working as hard as he did to preserve life. I'd like to see them push themselves and serve us like never before. I want to see them tirelessly fight with his same spirit, dedication and integrity day in, day out for peace.

"For at present too many die, too many veterans exist in silence, too many are left with disability, and they and their families and communities serve as broken scapegoats while the rest of us proceed with business as usual back in the same old mindsets."

More than 1,000 people attended the funeral service and hundreds more lined the streets outside to watch the Schmid's coffin being carried in as a piper played.

Mrs Schmid told the congregation: "Most of you will have known Oz the joker, always up for a giggle. However I lived with a very different man. The last 18 months I've stood by him through as he described his toughest, darkest challenges ever.

"When he felt compromised,

overwhelmed or threatened, I've wiped his tears, pulled him up and fought his fears for him.

Becoming his proud widow is the hardest, however, best thing I have ever done for him. I am fiercely loyal to serve him in death as I did when he was alive, however much it's breaking me.

Hopefully he's watching and knows he's the only man who will always have all of me."

Colleagues told of a brave and talented man.

Major Kier Head, the commanding officer of 11 EOD Regiment RLC in which Schmid served, called him an "emperor amongst men". He said there were only a few men like Schmid trained to tackle IEDs in Afghanistan.

Head said such men needed to be "intelligent enough to understand the technical intricacies of improvised explosive devices, intuitive enough to understand the enemy's likely plan to deploy such devices, brave enough to conduct that long walk to the suspected location of the device and clever enough to add all these factors together to develop the best render-safe procedure".

Police arrest exec for not using Twitter

By Chris Matyszczyk (Webware.com)

After singer Justin Bieber does tweet encouragement for the not appear at a Long Island mall, crowd to disperse. He allegedly police ask a record label veep to doesn't and is thus arrested.

Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Thomson, the commanding officer 2 Rifles, called Schmid the "bravest and most courageous man I have ever met".

He added: "It is no surprise to me that Oz found one of the most courageous and strikingly impressive women in our land to share his life with. Christina, your dignity and fortitude have been inspiring to our whole nation."

Schmid's friend, Warrant Officer Class 2 Deano Taylor, told how Schmid was very proud of his Royal Marine green beret. He said he never missed a chance to wear it and used to plaster the words "army commander" on flat surfaces everywhere.

He concluded his address: "Sleep well, mate." • Military • Afghanistan Steven Morris guardian.co.ukŠ Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

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Oligarch's sons accused over alleged supercar race crash

By Luke Harding (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

four young Russians set off from the restaurant of a Geneva hotel at 11.20pm on Thursday. They were said to have driven at Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:31:57 AM speeds in excess of 120mph on Alik and Sarhan Ismailov fly out t h e l a k e s i d e r o a d b e t w e e n of Switzerland after incident in G e n e v a a n d L a u s a n n e . which pensioner was seriously "It was like a grand prix," one injured witness said. The unnamed 22The sons of one of Russia's most y e a r - o l d d r i v e r o f t h e flamboyant oligarchs were today Lamborghini went through a red named as two of the drivers light and ploughed into a VW involved in a car race on Swiss Golf more than half a mile later. roads, in which a pensioner was Its driver, a 70-year-old German, seriously injured when his was severely injured in the crash. v e h i c l e w a s h i t b y a The Russian was said to have Lamborghini. then staggered out of his wrecked A c c o r d i n g t o t o d a y ' s car. His friends picked him up Kommersant newspaper, Alik and fled the scene. Police later and Sarhan Ismailov took part in a r r e s t e d a l l f o u r d r i v e r s . a race last week along the banks According to Swiss newspaper of Lake Geneva, together with Tribune de Genève, tests showed two other young Russians. One the blood alcohol levels of the of the Ismailovs was driving a Lamborghini driver were double £1.2m Bugatti Veyron. The the Swiss limit. others raced a Lamborghini This morning Kommersant said Murciélago, a Mercedes SLR the Ismailov sons had left McLaren, and a Porsche Cayenne Switzerland by private jet and Turbo. joined their father in Istanbul.

Their father, Telman Ismailov, is The newspaper reported that the one of Russia's best-known Lamborghini driver was the son businessmen, famous for his of a top-ranking Russian official. extravagant parties and jet-set Forbes magazine put Azerbaijanlifestyle. Earlier this year he paid born Ismailov's fortune at $600m for Paris Hilton, Sharon Stone, earlier this year. His ostentatious R i c h a r d G e r e a n d o t h e r hotel opening appeared to have celebrities to attend the launch of d i s p l e a s e d V l a d i m i r P u t i n , his luxury Marden Palace hotel, Russia's prime minister. In the on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. summer the Kremlin shut down According to Swiss police, the Ismailov's Cherkizovsky market

in Moscow.

The tycoon is close friends with Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who attended Ismailov's hotel launch with his billionaire wife Yelena Baturina. Some observers believe that the Kremlin's recent campaign against Ismailov is part of a strategy to oust Luzhkov from the mayor's office.

The Lake Geneva incident has thrown a spotlight on Russia's socalled "golden youth" – the children of Russian politicians, diplomats and mega-rich oligarchs. Yesterday Moscow's newspapers pondered why these young Russians were apparently so much more appalling than their western counterparts.

Dmitry Rogozin – Moscow's outspoken ambassador to Nato – said that the reported antics of the four young Russians had severely dented the country's reputation abroad. "The first generation of our 'new Russians' are behaving like complete prats," he told TV station Vesti-24 yesterday. "We are talking about a golden generation who are not embarrassed to spend €100 on a cup of tea, or order a risotto costing €300."

Rogozin said the behaviour of rich Russians who descend every year on the French ski resort of Courchevel at New Year was now so embarrassing that all the other foreigners run away.

"Our [countrymen] love anything glamorous, anything expensive and anything shiny," he lamented. "The offspring of our top-ranking bureaucrats and millionaires behave in exactly the same way in Courchevel as those who had the car accident."

Switzerland has long been a favourite playground for affluent Russians – as well as for Lenin who lived in exile there before the Bolshevik revolution. Many Russian diplomats live and work in Switzerland. The country is also a popular destination for Russians seeking medical treatment, and a place to hide their money.

Many wealthy Russians send their children to expensive private Swiss schools. Their aim is not just to secure an advantageous education for their sons and daughters but also to get their hands on a Swiss passport – which is granted more rapidly to under-18s from overseas in fulltime Swiss education.

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

Swype vs QWERTY: FIGHT!!!!!

[Smartphones]

By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:53:00 AM

QWERTY is pretty much the king of smartphone text input.

But there's a new challenger on the horizon. It's called Swype, it works with one-hand input and, yeah, it is pretty fast.

Yes, the first thing you may notice is that Swype technically uses a QWERTY layout. But instead of pushing each key individually, you drag your finger from letter to letter.

It's tough to tell if the speed gains are legitimate, given this video has been created by the Swype camp. I will say, however, given that this demo is one hand vs. two, the technology certainly holds its own. What do you think? Would you be willing to part with traditional QWERTY to spell words through nonsensical doodles?

Swype will debut in Verizon's Samsung Omnia II arriving early next month before making its way to an unnamed Android phone next year. [ Swype via TechCrunch via OhGizmo!]

TV to DVD & Blu -Ray: November 24, 2009 (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/24/2009 12:00:00 AM

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Germany's far-right flops | Jaroslaw Adamowski

By Jaroslaw Adamowski (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

Evidence of this tendency was visible this week, when foreign minister Guido Westerwelle intervened to stop a figure unpopular with Poles being Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:00:01 AM appointment to a museum post.

Support for the National T h e Federation of Democratic Party of Germany is E x p e l l e e s ( B u n d der sliding, and it's resorting to Vertriebenen) had been trying to premium-rate phone lines to stay place its chairwoman, Erika afloat Steinbach, on the board of a When the Berlin wall fell apart, planned museum about the ethnic back in November 1989, fears Germans expelled from countries that Germany's forthcoming in central Europe after the second reunification would lead to the w o r l d w a r . S t e i n b a c h ' s revival of violent nationalism and candidature was unacceptable to bitter revisionism were looming many Poles, as back in 1991, she all over Europe. Were those was one of the Bundestag anticipating the Third Reich members who voted against the s p i r i t ' s r e n a i s s a n c e r i g h t ? recognition of the German-Polish L o o k i n g a t t h e r e u n i f i e d border. By blocking her bid, Germany 20 years on, they surely G e r m a n y ' s i n c u m b e n t were not. government has once again Ever since the wall came down, proved its commitment to the Germany's p o l i t i c a l reconciliation process. establishment has made efforts to Still, German nationalism is not e a s e t h e a n x i e t i e s o f i t s quite dead, and if it has a face, it neighbours to the east, namely is that of the BNP's sister Poland and the Czech Republic. organisation, the NPD (National Critics of Germany's détente with Democratic party of Germany). b o t h c o u n t r i e s h a v e b e e n There was a time when the neomarginalised and deprived of any N a z i p a r t y w a s o n t h e tangible influence on German ascendancy. In 2004, the NPD politics. managed to break into Saxony's

state parliament with a 9.2% share of the vote, followed by its success in MecklenburgVorpommern two years later.

Prior to 1989, both states were part of East Germany, and since the reunification they have suffered from soaring u n e m p l o y m e n t , deindustrialisation and migration to the west. The NPD has managed to spin political capital from the eastern Germans' dissatisfaction, just like the BNP has seduced a section of British society.

But the similarities end right there. While the BNP's leader rejoices in his Question Time debut, and his party benefits from two recently gained seats at the European parliament, his fellow travellers in Germany are making desperate attempts to save their own party from imminent bankruptcy. The NPD has found itself in financial dire straits owing to a series of accounting irregularities, for which it was fined a total of €2.5m in April.

Last year the party's treasurer was arrested on suspicion of transferring €627,000 from the party's accounts to his own

company. Perhaps the best measure of the NPD's desperation is that it launched a 0900 prefix phone line, mostly employed by German sex-line operators, through which its supporters can donate muchneeded euros. "Every phone call counts!", encourages the NPD's website.

In the most recent Bundestag elections, the nationalists pulled a meagre 1.5% share of the vote, overtaken by the German Pirate party, who received 2%. In the light of all these setbacks, it seems that, after years of rising fortunes, the BNP's German allies have found themselves at the edge of a steep political slope. This rise-and-fall scenario could very well repeat itself in the UK. • Germany • The far right Jaroslaw Adamowski guardian.co.uk© Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions| More Feeds

What if the Declaration of Independence Was Created in Google Wave? [Google Wave]

By Danny Allen (Gizmodo) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:18:51 AM

So you've scored an invite and watched the videos, but still confused about Google Wave?

Google's latest explanatory tactic: recreate famous documents to showcase Wave's features. Here's the declaration of independence, complete with edits from the founding fathers.

If you've got a Wave account, you can check out the reconstruction here. Google Wave team member, Lars Rasmussen, says the idea for the demo came from Tim O'Reilly (founder of O'Reilly Media, publisher of Make Magazine amongst other things). Kinda fun, though I'm still not sure what's going on half the time in Wave. [ TechCrunch]

The Olympus Pen E-P1 gets bedazzled with Swarovski crystals

By Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:30:46 AM

Chances are if you, or your spouse, is the type that gets excited about gadgets covered in

Swarovski crystals, then you probably don’t care that Peter found the Olympus E-P1 to be just an average performer and nothing special. You also probably have the disposable

cash to pay a $2,000 premium

over the sticker price.

The limited edition comes with two lens, a flash, and a wooden box for only£1999.99. ($3,302 USD) No matter how sexy you find this camera, you shouldn’t

buy it. Nope, wait until the upcoming E-P2 gets covered in Swarovski crystals and buy that one. You don’t want to get stuck with an old model, right?

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Sacrifice of 250,000 animals begins (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk) Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:04:13 AM

Cheers and protests as thousands of buffalo are decapitated at start of festival in Nepal honouring Hindu goddess Gadhimai Gallery: Hindu sacrifice ceremony starts The world's biggest animal sacrifice began in Nepal today with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Bariyapur, near the border with India.

The event, which happens every five years, began with the decapitation of thousands of buffalo, killed in honour of Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power.

With up to a million worshippers on the roads near the festival grounds, this year's fair seems more popular than ever, despite vocal protests from animals rights groups who have called for

it to be banned. "It is the traditional way, " explained 45year old Manoj Shah, a Nepali driver who has been attending the event since he was six, "If we want anything, and we come here with an offering to the goddess, within five years all our dreams will be fulfilled." .

Crowds thronged the roads and camped out in the open, wrapped in blankets against the cool mist.

The festivities included a ferris wheel, fortune-telling robots and stalls broadcasting music and offering tea and sugary snacks.

As dawn broke, the fair officially opened with the sacrifice of two rats, two pigeons, a pig, a lamb and a rooster in the main temple, to cheers of "Long live Gadhimai" from spectators pushing against each other for a better view.

In the main event, 250 appointed residents with traditional kukri knives began their task of decapitating more than 10,000 buffalo in a dusty enclosure guarded by high walls and armed

police.

Frightened calves galloped around in vain as the men, wearing red bandanas and armbands, pursued them and chopped off their heads. Banned from entering the animal pen, hundreds of visitors scrambled up the three-metre walls to catch a glimpse of the carnage.

The dead beasts will be sold to companies who will profit from the sale of the meat, bones and hide. Organisers will funnel the proceeds into development of the area, including the temple upkeep.

On the eve of the event, protesters made a final plea to organisers by cracking open coconuts in a nearby temple as a symbolic sacrifice. "It is cruel and inhumane. We've always been a superstitious country, but I don't think sacrifice has to be part of the Hindu religion," said the protest organiser, Pramada Shah.

The campaign has the support of the French actor Brigitte Bardot,

who has petitioned the Nepalese prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, about the issue. But the government, which donated £36,500 to the event, has shown no sign of discontinuing the centuries-old tradition. An attempt by the previous government to cut the budget for animal sacrifice provoked street protests.

Chandan Dev Chaudhary, a Hindu priest, said he was pleased with the festival's high turnout and insisted tradition had to be kept. "The goddess needs blood," he said. "Then that person can make his wishes come true."

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

Obama to Robots: I'm Watching You [Blockquote]

By Jesus Diaz (Gizmodo) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:27:00 AM

I don't know about you, but I like a President who can throw a funny, geeky sci-fi reference once in a while. Clearly, el Comandante en Jefe has watched his Terminators and scary Big Dogs a few times.

Obama said those words while presenting his "Educate to Innovate" campaign, which aims to promote the development of new inventions by students all around the country.

Activision Blizzard (ATVI): 10 reasons to buy

By Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks)

more than 5% of the overall portfolio; however in the case of Activision Blizzard ( ATVI), I'm Submitted at 11/24/2009 10:10:00 AM building a more concentrated F i l e d u n d e r : N e w s l e t t e r s , position that I expect to pay off Activision Inc (ATVI), Stocks to in the next two to three years," Buy says Asif Suria.

"As a conservative long-term In his The SINLetter advisory, oriented investor I tend to keep he offers 10 reasons why he individual position sizes to no believes the stock is an attractive

core long-term investment. He explains, "My goal is to eventually build this position until it represents 20% of my personal portfolio. Here are 10 reasons behind this decision.

1) Activision released the highly anticipated game Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 and racked up $310 million in sales from the

United States and United Kingdom over a 24 hour period.

With Christmas right around the corner, the final sales numbers for this edition of Call of Duty are going to be much bigger.

Continue reading Activision Blizzard (ATVI): 10 reasons to buy Activision Blizzard (ATVI): 10

reasons to buy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Body found in search for woman swept into Welsh river

By Adam Gabbatt (World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)

the force said.

She said the identity of the body had yet to be established, but added that police had called off Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:32:57 AM their search.

• 21-year-old was swept away in Witnesses saw the woman being river Usk on Saturday swept away by floodwater on • Body of 85-year-old also found Saturday, and police using rescue in river Severn today boats, dog teams and a police Police searching for a woman helicopter launched a search and swept into a swollen river in rescue operation.

Wales at the weekend today said The spokeswoman also a body had been found. confirmed police located the The 21-year-old woman was body of a missing 85-year-old swept into the river Usk, near female in the swollen river B r e c o n a s s e v e r e w e a t h e r Severn yesterday. battered the region on Saturday. The woman, who has not been Dyfed-Powys police said a named, was reported missing by member of the public had a neighbour on Saturday. discovered a female body more "Following a two-day search, than six miles downstream. which included specialist search "Police searching for a 21-year- and rescue teams and the dogold female who went into the handling unit, the body of the river Usk in Brecon last Saturday female was found by a police can confirm that a female body o f f i c e r a t a p p r o x i m a t e l y has been found in the river some lunchtime on 23 November on w a y d o w n s t r e a m , n e a r t o the banks of river," she said.

Talybont," a spokeswoman for " W e a r e i n v e s t i g a t i n g t h e

circumstances of how the two females entered the water, and will report to the coroner."

She added that police are not looking for anyone in connection with the deaths.

Fire brigades and mountain rescue teams, on foot and in kayaks, also joined the rescue attempt.

The environment agency still has three flood warnings– the second most serious warning – in place in Wales, and 14 less serious flood watches.

The agency has issued 17 flood warnings across Britain.

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

CERN's collider sees first collisions (CNET News.com) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:45:23 AM

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9

Cramer on BloggingStocks: The Fed's push for TARP payback

By Jim Cramer (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 11/24/2009 9:30:00 AM

Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Market matters, Citigroup Inc. (C), Regions Financial (RF), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), Cramer on BloggingStocks, Financial Crisis From TheStreet.com Network • TARP Banks, AIG: Tuesday's Headlines • Lloyds to Raise $22.3B in Rights Issue TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the sooner banks repay TARP, the more likely they will power higher in 2010.

The Federal Reserve wants higher stock prices. That's all I can think of when I see that it wants repayment plans into place for the big banks such as Bank of America ( BAC) ( Cramer's Take), PNC ( PNC) ( Cramer's Take), Citigroup ( C) ( Cramer's Take), Fifth Third ( FITB) ( Cramer's Take), Wells Fargo ( WFC) ( Cramer's Take), Regions Financial ( RF) ( Cramer's Take), SunTrust ( STI) ( Cramer's Take)

and KeyCorp ( KEY) ( Cramer's Take), all names that haven't repaid the Troubled Asset Relief Program yet.

Why would these plans bring about higher prices?

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The Fed's push for TARP payback Cramer on BloggingStocks: The Fed's push for TARP payback originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter to make acquisitions, generate revenue in 2010

Hewlett-Packard reports growth in profit and operating margin in Q4

By Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks)

By Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 11/24/2009 10:30:00 AM

Submitted at 11/24/2009 9:00:00 AM

Filed under: Internet, Apple Inc (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM), Media World, Initial public offerings, Technology Twitter is on the prowl. Though it made its last acquisition more than a year ago, company founder Biz Stone said on Tuesday that it's looking to add to the stable. There aren't any specific targets yet -- at least none revealed -- and Twitter is keeping its options open. The likely pool of potential acquisitions consists of thirdparty Twitter application developers, which is largely responsible for the microblogging service's growth in popularity.

Stone, one of Twitter's founders, said at a Tel Aviv news conference, "As our attention is grabbed by some of these developers, we will take a hard

Filed under: Earnings reports, Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), International Business Machines (IBM), Technology look at them." This refers to Hewlett-Packard ( HPQ), the c o m p a n i e s t h a t d e v e l o p famous maker of printers and applications for Apple's ( AAPL) PCs, and a colleague of entities iPhone and Research in Motion's such as Microsoft ( MSFT), Dell ( RIMM) Blackberry. It also ( DELL), and International refers to developers for the Web Business Machines ( IBM), and desktop, such as HootSuite issued Q4 results on Monday after the end of the trading day. and TweetDeck.

Continue reading Twitter to Revenues didn't impress me, as make acquisitions, generate sales saw a decline of 8%. Net income, however, was better. On revenue in 2010 Twitter to make acquisitions, an adjusted basis, earnings per g e n e r a t e r e v e n u e i n 2 0 1 0 share increased 11% to $1.14.

Also doing well was the originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Nov operating margin. The adjusted 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see metric increased 170 basis points our terms for use of feeds. during the quarter. The annual Permalink| Email this| Comments statement of cash flows should

The Nintendo DSi LL is outselling the PSPgo in Japan

By Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:00:35 AM

look good to any long-term shareholder. Management still had cash left over from operations after share repurchases, dividend obligations, and capital spending.

Continue reading HewlettPackard reports growth in profit and operating margin in Q4 Hewlett-Packard reports growth in profit and operating margin in Q4 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Numbers don’t lie and it’s pretty clear the that the Nintendo DSi LL won the first round against the PSPgo. And it’s only been two days.

Nintendo moved 103,524 DSi LLs during the first 48 hours it was available. Compare that to the 28,000 PSPgos that Japanese gamers bought during the first 24 hours and draw your own conclusions.

Personally, I think the pic that Kotaku used for this story accurately describes the reason behind the DSi LL’s success.

Somehow I don’t think that lady bought that red LL for her grandson.

BassJump Brings MacBooks a Bit of Bump [Speakers]

By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:09:11 AM

BassJump is, quite simply, a dedicated subwoofer to compliment your MacBook—in

both aesthetics and sound.

Rather than merely plugging in through USB, the BassJump uses proprietary software to remix all audio coming out of your laptop, essentially treating those tinny integrated speakers as tweeters

while the BassJump handles the lows.

I can't believe that this solution works better than simply plugging in a whole new 2.1 speaker system, but I must admit,

the Mac Mini styling coaxes my fanboyism to at least give the idea a shot. $80 and available now.[ BassJump]

Finance/ Gadgets/ Tech/

E-reader Newspaper

11

Dollar Tree posts strong third-quarter earnings

By Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 11/24/2009 9:50:00 AM

Filed under: Earnings reports Discount retailer Dollar Tree ( DLTR), which sells everything for a dollar or less, reported third -quarter earnings Tuesday morning. The company earned 76 cents per share during the quarter, nearly 62% higher than last year's same-quarter earnings.

Sales for the quarter increased by more than 12% to $1.25 billion from $1.11 billion in sales from last year.

Dollar Tree beat the Street's earnings expectation of 66 cents per share by a dime and topped and revenue expectations of $1.24 billion. "I am pleased with our third quarter performance," said CEO Bob Sasser in a

statment. "Sales and earnings were above plan." Solid earnings from a company specializing in cheap prices during a recession -is anyone really surprised?

Continue reading Dollar Tree posts strong third-quarter earnings Dollar Tree posts strong thirdquarter earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Brazil E-Voting Machines Not Hacked... But Van Eck Phreaking Allowed Hacker To Record Votes

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

results of an election, it could lead to questions about privacy and how anonymous voting Last week, we noted that an really is. Of course, to some attempt to let hackers crack e- extent, this has always been a voting machines in Brazil failed, risk with e-voting systems, but it but Slashdot points out that h a s n ' t r e c e i v e d t h a t m u c h someone did use some Van Eck a t t e n t i o n . phreaking to figure out who Permalink| Comments| Email people voted for. While that's This Story not quite the same as hacking the Submitted at 11/23/2009 6:34:00 PM

40/40: New Super Mario Bros. gets perfect score from Famitsu magazine

By Serkan Toto (CrunchGear)

rating isn’t that surprising, as the game seems to be really that good and many reviewers outside J a p a n ’ s b i g g e s t g a m i n g Japan gave it the thumbs up magazine, the Famitsu[JP], has already. given Nintendo’s newest Mario Here is a time line for all of game New Super Mario Bros. the Famitsu’s 40/40-games so far: highest honor in the latest issue. 1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina All four editors who tested the of Time (1998, for Nintendo 64) game gave 10 points out of 10, 2. Soul Calibur (1999, for resulting in a perfect 40/40 score. Dreamcast) New Super Mario Bros. is 3. Vagrant Story (2000, for already the fourth game in 2009 PlayStation) to get a 40/40 rating, even though 4. The Legend of Zelda – The until 2007 the magazine was well W i n d W a k e r ( 2 0 0 3 , f o r -known for not giving away this G a m e C u b e ) score easily. But the perfect 5. Nintendogs (2005, for the DS) Submitted at 11/24/2009 3:00:28 AM

6. Final Fantasy XII (2006, for PlayStation 2) 7. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008, for the Wii) 8. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots(2008, for PlayStation 3) 9. 428: Fusasareta Shibuya de (2008, for the Wii) 10. Dragon Quest IX(2009, for the DS) 11. Monster Hunter Tri(2009, for the Wii) 12. Bayonetta (2009, for PlayStation 3/XBox 360) 13. New Super Mario Bros.

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The Best Smartphones on Every Carrier [Smartphones] By matt buchanan (Gizmodo) Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:00:00 AM

For the first time ever, every major carrier in the US actually has smartphones worth buying, meaning you don't have to break up to get a good phone. Here's the best phones on each one, along with the best deals.

If you hate the gallery format, click here.

All pricing shown is with a new year 2-year contract, and some deals may be temporary.

AT&T iPhone 3GS The iPhone 3GS is the best overall smartphone you can buy.

It's really that simple. Best user interface, best internet, best apps, best media support—the list goes on. Okay, not the best network, but nothing's perfect.$199 BlackBerry Bold 9700 I miss the original BlackBerry Bold's king-sized keyboard, but the Bold 9700 squeezes the best of the BlackBerry workhorse into an impressively tight form factor—faux leather back included—making it very possibly the best BlackBerry you can buy.$10 Bonus: Nokia e71x It's free, and an actually good smartphone—my favorite Nokia phone on the planet. Free Verizon Droid

Nintendo DSi LL sells 103k in two days, ripped open in two minutes

By Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget) Submitted at 11/24/2009 10:04:00 AM

It's a terminator. A huge, disgustingly high-res screen, Batman-worthy industrial design, and the full power of Android 2.0 make it the best phone on Verizon—and the fact that it's running on arguably the best network in the US make it the second best smartphone you can buy, period.$150 BlackBerry Tour Sure, it's notorious for trackball problems and it's missing Wi-Fi, but this is the BlackBerry of choice for email warriors if they're not on AT&T or TMobile—and it sure as hell beats anything running Windows Mobile.$50 Bonus: Droid Eris If you're desperate to save $100 over the Droid, the Droid Eris will run Android 2.0 soon enough, and is smoother, smaller

The newer, embiggened Nintendo DSi LL(as it's known in Tokyo Town) has been available to the kids in Japan since the beginning of the week, and Enterbrain, Inc. is reporting that Nintendo has pushed 103,524 units in its first two days. To friendlier, if a little blander.$99 design and form factor. perspectivize things, the DSi was Sprint T-Mobile snatched up to the tune of about Palm Pre Motorola Cliq 170,000 units in the same time The Pre offers one of the best Motorola's other Android phone period, while the PSPgo sold u s e r e x p e r i e n c e s o f a n y is gussied up with Blur, a custom a r o u n d 2 8 , 0 0 0 u n i t s . T o smartphone with Palm's webOS, i n t e r f a c e t h a t ' s b r i g h t a n d celebrate, the kids at PC Watch and it's probably the best phone f r i e n d l y , w i t h w i d g e t s f o r have ripped one of these bad on Sprint, hardware build issues keeping track of everything boys -- and you'll never guess and comparatively dinky App h a p p e n i n g o n y o u r s o c i a l what they found! (OK, maybe Catalog aside.$80 network. It's our favorite Android you will.) Check out the link HTC Hero phone on T-Mobile.$100 below for the hardcore details -The best Android phone not Unlocked iPhone and don't say we didn't warn you. running Android 2.0, HTC's N o , I ' m n o t k i d d i n g . A Nintendo DSi LL sells 103k in Sense UI makes the sometimes jailbroken and unlocked iPhone, two days, ripped open in two confusing Android interface even without 3G powers, is the minutes originally appeared on more digestible and has a few second best smartphone you can Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 nifty tricks of its own, like use on T-Mobile.

10:04:00 EST. Please see our integrated s o c i a l Bonus: BlackBerry Bold 9700 terms for use of feeds. Permalink| networking.$180 The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the PC Watch (teardown), Kotaku Bonus: There is none. The Pixi's first BlackBerry with 3G on T- (sales)| Email this| Comments close ($25), but the fact that you Mobile, which is reason enough, can get the Pre for nearly as really, but it's good the reasons cheap undercuts a lot of the listed above, too.$130 value, as much as we like the

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13

Jerry Seinfeld Upgrades Classic Mac with iMac [Apple]

By Jesus Diaz (Gizmodo) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:59:44 AM

Captain Piccard's Solar Impulse starts runway testing

By Vladislav Savov (Engadget) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:41:00 AM

Good news, kids -- the solarpowered jet with globetrotting ambitions has started sneaking out of the hangar and onto the runway for some mild exercise in the form of landing gear and taxi testing. Captained by Bertrand Piccard -- a real person -- the Solar Impulse project is still on track for a 2012 globe circumnavigation attempt powered only by the sun's rays from above and the well-wishes from below. The humongous bird is described as having "the wingspan of an Airbus and the

weight of a car," and its recent outdoorsy jaunts have done nothing to dampen spirits, making that roadmap for its first flight early next year seem entirely viable. We've got no less than three videos for you after the break, but we won't mind if you only watch one.

Continue reading Captain Piccard's Solar Impulse starts runway testing Captain Piccard's Solar Impulse starts runway testing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Inhabitat, Wired| Solar Impulse| Email this| Comments

ArcherMind shows off 'world's first' Androidbased in-car nav system

By Darren Murph (Engadget) Submitted at 11/24/2009 9:33:00 AM

One could argue that the Motorola Droid is in fact the first -ever Android-based in-car navigation solution, but we're surmising that ArcherMind would disagree. Over at the Embedded Technology 2009 trade show in Yokohama, the outfit has demonstrated an Android-laden navigation system that could actually be inserted as a factory option; curiously enough, it looks an awful lot like the AutoLinQ initiative that hit our radar back in June. The outfit is reportedly shopping the system

-- which includes a 7-inch, 800 x 480 display -- to a variety of Chinese automakers, and given that it can browse the web via WiFi or 3G, connect with music players and phones over Bluetooth and even play back audio files stored on the HDD or SD slot, we can't imagine it being a tough sell.

ArcherMind shows off 'world's first' Android-based in-car nav system originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Engadget Poland| ArcherMind [PDF]| Email this| Comments

Sadly, obsolete gadgets have to be replaced. Happily, change is good. This is what happened to Jerry Seinfeld's ever-present classic Macintosh which, after all these years, has been replaced by a new iMac. It happened in the "Seinfeld reunion" episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The iMac seems to be from the previous generation, not the 16:9 model. Jerry's classic Mac was only replaced once before, during the last season, with an Apple Macintosh 20th Anniversary.

It wasn't the only wink to the Cupertino company during that episode, but it certainly was the most significant sign of time change.

I wonder if Jerry's iMac actually runs Windows(and that sound you heard was the scream of the million Apple fanboys reading these lines). I know. I'm a cruel man. [ Macenstein and Edible Apple]

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You'll go ga ga ga ga ga over Elecom's Like a Spoon mouse

By Tim Stevens (Engadget) Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:46:00 AM

Fujitsu LifeBook MH380 netbook becomes the latest climber on Intel's Pine Trail

By Tim Stevens (Engadget)

10.1-inch LCD with a resolution of 1366 x 768, 802.11b/g/n wireless, and, well, that's all our We still have nothing but leaked government-funded spies have roadmaps and insider information revealed so far. We're guessing about the details of Intel's CES will be a time of great Pineview processor and Pine knowing.

Trail platform at this point, but [Thanks, Matt] that's not stopping a number of Fujitsu LifeBook MH380 manufacturers from prepping netbook becomes the latest their products for the supposedly climber on Intel's Pine Trail upcoming unveiling. There was a originally appeared on Engadget nettop last month, Lenovo's latest on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:13:00 IdeaPad last week, and now, EST. Please see our terms for thanks again to the FCC, we use of feeds. Permalink Netbook know there's a new netbook Reviews| FCC| Email this| coming from Fujitsu packing the Comments 1.6GHz Atom N450 processor.

The LifeBook MH380 sports a Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:13:00 AM

Twelve South's BassJump subwoofer improves your MacBook experience via USB, not parachute

Travel mice don't tend to be fashionable things. Tiny? Yes. Lookers? No. Elecom's latest, the Like a Spoon mouse, bucks that trend, following in a long line of tidily designed gadgets from the

By Tim Stevens (Engadget) s e e m s t o c o m e a t q u i t e a company. In terms of buttons it's premium over your average set of g o t n u f f i n ' o n t h e Submitted at 11/24/2009 8:56:00 AM portable speakers. It's certainly OpenOfficeMouse, but it looks to The speakers on the MacBook nicer looking. fall to hand much more line are generally quite good -G a l l e r y : T w e l v e S o u t h comfortably, with a soft effects for a laptop. Rock your world B a s s J u m p s u b w o o f e r f o r coating on top and a stainless they won't, but Twelve South's M a c B o o k steel rim 'round the edge. The BassJump might just add that low Twelve South's BassJump price is set at a somewhat steep -frequency kick your unibody s u b w o o f e r i m p r o v e s y o u r 8,000 in Japan, which equates to workhorse has been missing. The MacBook experience via USB, about about $90, though sadly we solitary speaker connects via not parachute originally appeared doubt this one will be making the USB and, through an analog- on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov transference to America. styled tuning app, augments the 2009 08:56:00 EST. Please see Gallery: Elecom's 'Like a Spoon' built-in speakers of the laptop our terms for use of feeds. mouse with much-needed bass. If the Permalink Yahoo! News| Twelve You'll go ga ga ga ga ga over styling didn't clue you in this is South| Email this| Comments Elecom's Like a Spoon mouse only for MacBooks and, at $80, originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Akihabara News| Elecom| Email this| Comments

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USB-powered mini Yoda figure

By Serkan Toto (CrunchGear)

The mini Yoda requires Windows (XP or Vista), comes with an installation CD for some Tokyo-based Cube Works, r e a s o n a n d r u n s o n l y o n whose products regularly find computers with a 1GHZ Intel t h e i r w a y o u t s i d e J a p a n Pentium processor or better. (example: the humping USB The figure is Japan-only, but you dog), has announced a mini Yoda can pre-order it over at Geek figure (the little green guy from Stuff 4 U for $65.52 plus Star Wars) that you connect to shipping(leading time: end of your computer’s USB port. The next month). power is needed to make Yoda’s Via Akihabara News cheeks blush and illuminate his light saber.

Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:20:48 AM

15

Olympus Pen E-P1 spoiled by Swarovski

Buffalo's USB 3.0 External Drive Arrives in the U.S [Usb 3.0]

By Thomas Ricker (Engadget)

By Danny Allen (Gizmodo)

more than doubles the price of the de-iced original. So sad...

Submitted at 11/24/2009 8:20:00 AM then again, maybe you like it.

You know how to ruin a Olympus Pen E-P1 spoiled by luxurious shooter already steeped Swarovski originally appeared on in fine retro-styling? Slather on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 the Swarovski crystal, that's how. 08:20:00 EST. Please see our T h i s £ 1 , 9 9 9 C r y s t a l R o c terms for use of feeds. Permalink| bastardization of Olympus' E-P1 P o c k e t - l i n t | E m a i l t h i s | Micro Four Thirds wundercam C o m m e n t s

As expected, the DriveStation HD-HXU3 is the first external USB 3.0 drive in the U.S. It promises transfers up to 4.8Gbps (compared to USB 2.0's 480Mbps) and Buffalo has a twoport USB 3.0 PCI Express card to get you started.

There's no price yet on the USB 3.0 PCI Express card (IFCPCIE2U3), but it's expected to be about $60. The drive itself will be $200 (1TB), $250 (1.5TB), the loss of traffic. News Corp., and $400 (2TB), and ships with with help from Microsoft, could Memeo AutoBackup software for change that. the Mac or PC. [ Buffalo] Originally posted at Relevant Results

Can News Corp. afford calling Google's bluff?

By Tom Krazit (Webware.com) Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:43:00 PM

Google makes it easy to remove content from its search engine, but few companies do because of

Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:42:46 AM

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Once Again, If The Gov't Has Data, It Will Be Abused

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:00:00 AM

The Nintendo DSi LL Daily Crunch: Deep Sea (XL) gets splayed open Edition

By Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:40:32 AM

Wanna know if there is a Mariostyle dungeon under the outer layer of the huge Nintendo DSi LL? Spoiler: There isn’t.

The boys over at PC Watch put their precious DSi LL (or the XL

here in the States) under the knife. If controller board pr0n By Bryce Durbin (CrunchGear) gets you going in the morning, click on over to the Japanese Submitted at 11/24/2009 12:00:19 AM trade publication for the gory pics. You probably don’t need to Life goes behind-the-scenes of the 1954 20,000 Leagues Under translate it.

The Sea Honda makes the ultimate Paperboy gaming system

Now blinking LEDs can transmit information to cell phones via light Must-have: Illuminated JetBib Feeding System Ringz: First (free) Android app with in-app purchase

We've pointed this out over and over and over and over and over again, but whenever a government puts together a big database of info on people -- the data gets abused. The latest example, found via Michael Scott is the news that a police chief in Iowa has been suspended after he supposedly revealed data that he never should have had in the first place, supposedly handing out information on someone's driving record and criminal history, despite having no legal reason to even have that info, let alone distribute it to anyone. So why do we keep assuming that governments won't abuse such data collections?

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As Expected, Social Networking Generation Running For Office Face Their Permanent Record Online

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 11/24/2009 2:53:53 AM

It's been almost four years since we wondered what would happen when the social networking generation started running for office, since there would almost

certainly be a digital record of activities that historically would have been buried and/or lost to history for most candidates. It seems that we're already starting to see what happens with some younger candidates. Earlier this year, we mentioned one

candidate who dropped out of a race after "racy" Facebook photos popped up. MediaShift is now taking a look at the issue and finding that more and more candidates are dealing with this issue, though often in different ways. One embraced it, saying

that the photos showed he was a real person and approachable.

Others try (usually unsuccessfully) to scrub their digital histories. As this becomes more common, though, it seems likely that even as opponents try to exploit these sorts of things,

most people will put the photos in context and not be all that concerned about them.

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17

Network Faceoff: AT&T vs. Verizon Two new iPhone ads: Apple defends AT&T?

By Ben Parr (Mashable!)

Week 5: - WordPress vs. Typepad - WINNER: WordPress, 2714 For the last month and a half, votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: AT&T and Verizon have been at 357 votes) war. Verizon launched ads Week 6: tearing down AT&T’s 3G - Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard coverage, AT&T countered with - WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 a lawsuit and ads starring Luke votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 Wilson. Hell, even Apple is votes, Tie: 121 votes) getting involved in this messy until 12:00 PM PT on Friday, Week 7: November 27th to cast your vote. - T w e e t D e c k v s . S e e s m i c affair.

With the two largest mobile Oh, and don’t forget to let us D e s k t o p networks making headlines, we know how you feel about AT&T - WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 thought it would be appropriate and Verizon in the comments. votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 Who would win in a fight: votes, Tie: 260 votes) to make them the subject of this week’s Web Faceoff, a weekly AT&T or Verizon?( surveys) Week 8: series where we throw two Web Faceoff: Overall Results - Microsoft Office vs. Google competitors in the social media Week 1: Docs or technology space into the - Mozilla Firefox vs. Google - WINNER: Microsoft Office, boxing ring and have them duke Chrome 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 - WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes votes, Tie: 315 votes) it out for your vote.

Last week, we witnessed an epic (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 Week 9: b a t t l e b e t w e e n t w o o t h e r votes) - Apple iPhone vs. Google competitors in the mobile space: Week 2: Android Google Android and the Apple - Tumblr vs. Posterous - WINNER: Google Android, iPhone. Android shocked us by - WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 not only beating the iPhone in (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes, Tie: 228 votes) Reviews: our weekly reader vote, but votes) Android, Chrome, Facebook, d e s t r o y e d t h e a p p - f i l l e d Week 3: Firefox, Google Chrome, Google smartphone by over a 2:1 margin. - Pandora vs. Last.fm Docs, Mozilla Firefox, Pandora, Will AT&T suffer a similar fate - WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes Posterous, Seesmic Desktop, to the iPhone, its exclusive (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, carrier in the U.S.? Or will votes) TypePad, WordPress battered network be able to pull Week 4: Tags: att, Google Android, off an upset against the the - Twitter vs. Facebook iphone, verizon, web faceoff nationa’s largest mobile and - WINNER: Facebook, 2484 wireless network? We hand that votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: decision over to you. You have 588 votes) Submitted at 11/23/2009 8:51:21 PM

By Chris Rawson (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

multitask in the manner depicted in these ads.

What's most interesting about these ads is how favorable they Submitted at 11/23/2009 4:00:00 PM are to AT&T. It's no secret that Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple's been less than thrilled Odds and ends, iPhone Apple's with AT&T over the course of jumped into the Verizon versus their relationship, and it's even A T & T f r a y , a c c o r d i n g t o less of a secret how dissatisfied BusinessWeek, with a couple of U.S. customers have been with new ads -- and, somewhat t h e t e l c o g i a n t . I t ' s surprisingly, they come out in understandable that Apple wants full defense of AT&T. Both ads to paint the iPhone in a favorable show an iPhone user in the l i g h t , b u t I ' m a d m i t t e d l y middle of a phone call who surprised that they seem to be multitasks by looking up movie going to bat for AT&T at the information, restaurant ratings, same time. Sure AT&T is their and many other things over business partner, but from my AT&T's 3G network. The ads point of view this smells a lot end with the question, "Can your like telling your family that your phone and your network do less-than-presentable date for that?" with a very prominent Thanksgiving has 'a really great AT&T logo in the final seconds personality.' of the ads.

Read on to see the ads in action.

As I'm personally somewhat on Continue reading Two new the outside looking in at the U.S. iPhone ads: Apple defends telecom spats, I don't know how AT&T? much US smartphone users really TUAW Two new iPhone ads: m i s s t h e a b i l i t y t o d o Apple defends AT&T? originally simultaneous data browsing and appeared on The Unofficial phone calls while on Verizon's Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, network. Based on what I've 23 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST. heard about AT&T's network Please see our terms for use of reliability, however, there are feeds. some areas of the U.S. where Read| Permalink| Email this| you'll be lucky to be able to make Comments and receive calls at all, or hold on to a call in progress, much less

18

Tech/

Protect yourself from SSH-based iPhone worms

By Aron Trimble (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

when using passwd to change the password for "mobile" you may be asked the old password which would be "alpine". It is not Submitted at 11/23/2009 6:00:00 PM necessary to use a different Filed under: Security, iPhone, password for "root" and "mobile" Jailbreak/pwnage The internet but if you're highly security has been ablaze with reports of conscious, it wouldn't hurt. The jailbroken iPhones being infested second half of this post includes with worms. The exploit takes remotely-accessible, full UNIX a screen image of my exact a d v a n t a g e o f u n w i t t i n g terminal in their pocket?), there is process working successfully on j a i l b r e a k e r s w h o i n s t a l l a pretty simple solution to this OS 3.1.2 with an iPhone 3GS. OpenSSH on their iPhones via problem that will prevent this In addition to changing the user C y d i a w i t h o u t t a k i n g i n t o breed of infestation from ever passwords for your iPhone, account all of the impacts on reaching your iPhone. another good security measure is security. The most notable, and to use one of the jailbreak apps now famous, hole in this theory • Remember, this only affects like BossPrefs or SBSettings to is that every iPhone ships with jailbroken iPhone owners who have a toggle that will disable the same default password for have installed OpenSSH...

SSH when not in use. Obviously, both the all-powerful "root" user • B e g i n b y i n s t a l l i n g having SSH disabled (or not as well as the more-restricted M o b i l e T e r m i n a l v i a C y d i a installed) is the best defense "mobile" user. (alternately, you can login via against worms of this sort. Got Not surprisingly, Apple has SSH from Terminal.app or a any other iPhone security tips? officially commented on the Cygwin-equipped Windows PC). Let us know in the comments! situation noting that"the worm • Type "login", you will be Continue reading Protect affects only a very specific set of asked for a login name which yourself from SSH-based iPhone iPhone users who have jail should be "root" then a password worms broken[sic] their iPhones and which should be "alpine".

TUAW Protect yourself from hacked it with unauthorized • Type "passwd" then tap return, S S H - b a s e d i P h o n e w o r m s software." It is pretty clear from you will be asked to type the new originally appeared on The Apple's statement their feelings password. Tap return and type U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e W e b l o g on the jailbreak community and the new password again.

(TUAW) on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 its effects on the iPhone and iPod 18:00:00 EST. Please see our touch.

Repeat this same process for the terms for use of feeds.

Luckily, if you need to have "mobile" user by replacing "root" Read| Permalink| Email this| OpenSSH installed on your with "mobile" in step 3. Also, Comments iPhone (who doesn't want a

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Senators Begin Questioning ACTA Secrecy

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 11/23/2009 8:25:43 PM

Despite some sweet talk from Hollywood about how important ACTA and its secret negotiations are to America (and, once again, no, the secrecy is not at all "normal," as some industry lawyers would have you believe), it looks like some Senators are finally beginning to question how ACTA is being handled.

Senators Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown have sent a letter to US Trade Rep Ron Kirk asking for ACTA documents to be made public. The letter points out that "the public has a right to monitor and express informed views on proposals of such magnitude" especially considering that "there are concerns about the impact of ACTA on the privacy and civil rights of individuals, on the supply of products under the first sale doctrine, on the markets for legitimate generic medicines, and on consumers and innovation in general." The letter also takes on the bogus claims of state secrets in protecting ACTA documents: We are surprised and unpersuaded by assertions that

disclosures of basic information about the negotiation would present a risk to the national security of the United States, particularly as regards documents that are shared with all countries in the negotiations, and with dozens of representatives of large corporations. We are concerned that the secrecy of such information reflects a desire to avoid potential criticism of substantive provisions in ACTA by the public, the group who will be most affected by the agreement. Such secrecy has already undermined public confidence in the ACTA process.... We firmly believe that the public has a right to know the contents of the proposals being considered under ACTA, just as they have the right to read the text of bills pending before Congress." Unfortunately, these are just two Senators. Supporters of ACTA likely have many more who will blindly fight to keep ACTA secret and get it approved with little or no substantive input from those it will impact most.

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Norway opens world's first osmotic power plant (CNET News.com)

a football stadium and require some 5 million square meters of membrane, Statkraft said.

Statkraft, Europe's largest Norway opened on Tuesday the Once new membrane world's first osmotic power plant, producer of renewable energy "architecture" is solved, Statkraft which produces emissions-free with experience in hydropower believes the global production electricity by mixing fresh water that provides nearly all of capacity for osmotic energy and sea water through a special Norway's electricity, aims to could amount to 1,600 to 1,700 begin building commercial terawatt hours annually, or about membrane.

State-owned utility Statkraft's osmotic power plants by 2015. half of the European Union's total H e r e i s t h e c o m p a n y ' s electricity demand. prototype plant, which for now will produce a tiny 2 kilowatts to illustration of how the plant Europe's osmotic power 4 kilowatts of power or enough works.(Credit: Statkraft) potential is seen at 180 terawatts, to run a coffee machine, will The main issue is to improve the or about 5 percent of total enable Statkraft to test and efficiency of the membrane from consumption, which could help develop the technology needed to around 1 watt per square meter the bloc reach renewable energy now to some 5 watts, which goals set to curb emissions of drive down production costs.

The plant is driven by osmosis Statkraft says would make heat-trapping gases and limit that naturally draws fresh water osmotic power costs comparable global warming. across a membrane and toward to those from other renewable Osmotic power, which can be the seawater side. This creates sources. located anywhere where clean higher pressure on the sea water The prototype, on the Oslo fjord fresh water runs into the sea, is side, driving a turbine and and about 40 miles south of the seen as more reliable than more Norwegian capital, has about variable wind or solar energy. producing electricity.

"While salt might not save the 2 , 0 0 0 s q u a r e m e t e r s o f Story Copyright (c) 2009 world alone, we believe osmotic m e m b r a n e .

Reuters Limited. All rights F u t u r e f u l l - s c a l e p l a n t s reserved. power will be an interesting part of the renewable energy mix of producing 25 megawatts of This content has passed through the future," Statkraft Chief electricity, enough to provide fivefilters.org.

Executive Baard Mikkelsen told power for 30,000 European households, would be as large as reporters.

Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:05:52 AM

Google places ad explaining offensive image

By Tom Krazit (Webware.com) Submitted at 11/23/2009 3:55:00 PM

A distorted image purporting to

be First Lady Michelle Obama is currently the No. 1 image result for her name. Google is using ad space to explain its policy for such matters.

Originally posted at Relevant Results

19

Sneak Peek: Stair Dismount offers... broken bones, mostly

By Erica Sadun (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

With Stair Dismount, you can add the face of a Facebook friend and send screen shots of their broken body lying at the bottom Submitted at 11/23/2009 8:00:00 PM of the staircase. Secret Exit dev Filed under: Found Footage, Jani Kahrama notes, "It feels iPhone, First Look, App Review better with a friendly Facebook Remember Zen Bound? It's a face on the guy :)." gorgeous and fun-to-play little Your enjoyment of this will vary puzzle game. So when I heard by your personal take but for me, that SecretExit, the makers of I don't think Stair Dismount will Zen Bound, were about to release be staying on my iPod or be a new app, I was excited to get a e x p o s e d t o m y k i d s . S t a i r sneak preview.

Dismount is due to hit the App Stair Dismount is a very Store within the week. different game to Zen Bound. About the video: At this time, Although, as you can see in the TUAW can only create preview above video, the audio and videos for applications compiled graphics quality are consistently f o r 3 . 1 o r e a r l i e r u s i n g a high, it's not really fair to development (not distribution or compare the two. According to ad hoc) build and review videos SecretExit, Stair Dismount is for distribution-compiled apps more focused on "humor and that are 3.1 or earlier. social elements" rather than TUAW Sneak Peek: Stair problem solving.

Dismount offers... broken bones, The game basically involves mostly originally appeared on pushing someone down the stairs The Unofficial Apple Weblog and seeing how many bones they (TUAW) on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 break. Playing this made me feel 20:00:00 EST. Please see our like the world's worst sadist. terms for use of feeds.

H a r d t o g e t g a m e p l a y i n g Read| Permalink| Email this| satisfaction other than tormenting Comments the poor dude.

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IMAX Sues Cinemark For Building Competing System... While Being An IMAX Customer

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

to make clear that it does not infringe on IMAX's patents.

There may very well be breach of IMAX theaters have become an contract issues involved here, so increasingly important part of the IMAX may have a decent case on movie business's continuing that front. But what's more success over the past few years, interesting is the question of as theaters have realized that (1) whether or not there are trade you can't "pirate" the IMAX secret violations here. We don't experience and (2) people are talk about trade secret protections often willing to pay more for it. as much around here, because But, it appears that at least one they really don't come up that theater began to wonder why it often. But IMAX is claiming had to pay IMAX so much for that it shared proprietary trade such an offering, and decided to secret info with Cinemark as part set out on its own to build a of their relationship, and that info competitor. The only problem is was used by Cinemark to build that this theater, Cinemark, has its competing service. been a customer of IMAX, so Perhaps much more interesting, now IMAX is suing Cinemark however, is the fact that, at least for trade secret violations and according to the IMAX lawsuit, breach of contract (sent in by the Cinemark XD quality has Eric Goldman). been reviewed poorly compared The details of the case certainly to IMAX (I looked around and look like a business deal gone actually found the reviews to be bad, and also involve Cinemark mixed, with many saying that the preemptively going to Texas (of two are comparable in terms of course) to file a patent action experience). Cinemark is a much against IMAX, asking the court bigger company than IMAX, and Submitted at 11/24/2009 12:55:23 AM

had direct access to all of their technology -- and, even so, at least some are saying that the end result doesn't measure up. I'm reminded again of how silly it is to claim that big companies can always "steal" good ideas from smaller ones. It's simply not that easy. Beyond just the basic quality issues, IMAX really has built up a great brand name, and many people do think specifically about going to see "IMAX films." Cinemark can chip into that, but it's going to take a lot of marketing effort. And, really, what's wrong with a bit of competition? IMAX has had the market to itself for years, and some competition between two different methods of "immersive" movie-going experiences seems like it should only create a better situation for consumers.

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Firefox hopes to one-up IE with fast graphics

By Stephen Shankland (Webware.com) Submitted at 11/24/2009 4:00:00 AM

Windows 7 features called Direct2D and DirectWrite will speed up Internet Explorer 9 performance. But Firefox hopes

it might retool for the same benefit first.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Mac Pro takes a bullet, brings justice

By Brett Terpstra (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 11/23/2009 5:00:00 PM

Filed under: Features, Mac Pro This piece isn't about shooting Mac Pros, but it is about how the Mac Pro is helping forensics professionals solve cases faster and more accurately. Pyramidal Technologies produces a system called ALIAS ( A dvanced bal LI stics A nalysis S ystem), a replacement for standard ballistic investigation systems that offers faster ramp-up times, increases data accuracy in ballistics investigations, and lowers operator error.

Pyramidal's tagline, "Solve more crimes, Convict more criminals, Save more lives" sums up their mission pretty succinctly. ALIAS will help to convict more criminals with more accuracy, and should even solve some previously-unsolvable cold cases.

Helping to proactively build a civil society by identifying wrongdoers and exposing them to justice is among the many socially conscious goals of Pyramidal Technologies.

I found this story of interest because, in my limited

experience, the world of law enforcement does not lean very heavily toward the Apple side of the computing spectrum. I assume that this is for the same primary reason that any agency, organization or company tends to stick with Windows: the software they depend on is Windowsbased and often proprietary.

What intrigued me here was the fact that the benefits of various systems, both hardware and operating system, were weighed in an OS-agnostic fashion, and the Mac won. Here's what I learned about the reasons why ...

Share Continue reading Mac Pro takes a bullet, brings justice TUAW Mac Pro takes a bullet, brings justice originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opera 10.10: Web Browser and Web Server In One

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Submitted at 11/24/2009 1:46:03 AM

With such strong competition from Mozilla and Microsoft, the only thing Opera can do to stay competitive is to innovate. And one has to hand it to them: although it doesn’t have a huge user base in the desktop web browser space, Opera is always one step ahead of the rest, for better or for worse.

With version 10.10, Opera has taken its biggest step into the unknown so far, marrying the web browser with the web server.

It definitely makes it unique in the world of web browsers, but there’s always the lingering question whether all these new features are really something we need, or is it just confusing the users?

With Opera Unite integrated into the browser, the web becomes a read/write affair. You can share photos (10 GB of them), stream music, serve a chat or even an entire web site directly from your browser. At Opera, they have

high hopes for the technology.

From the official site: “Our devices will evolve. From in-dash computers in trucks to entertainment systems in airplanes, and from a netbook in North Dakota to a phone in North Africa, every device is both a consumer and a provider of content.”

The idea is certainly interesting, but the web has been moving in another direction in the past couple of years: the cloud.

Instead of having stuff run on your computer, your applications and your data reside in the cloud, with all the resources and the know-how provided by a company like Google. So yes, with Opera Unite, you can host a web site on your own home computer, but you might run into

bandwidth issues; with Google Sites, you can easily create a web site without worrying about bandwidth, but you’re at Google’s mercy, so to say. So far, despite possible privacy and security issues, cloud computing has been taking over, and it’s hard to imagine Opera turning the tide in the other direction.

Some Unite applications, however, like the media server or the chat, are quite useful and might win over some converts for the Norwegian browser.

Other interesting features in the new Opera 10.10 include Opera’s Turbo technology, which speeds up browsing by compressing web pages on Opera’s servers and delivering you the “lite” version, Opera Link, which lets you synchronize data across several computers, a slick new look with a resizable tab bar, and a BitTorrent-enabled download manager. See the full list of features here.

Reviews: Google, Opera Tags: opera, web browser

Hulu adds tagging for movies, TV shows

By Josh Lowensohn (Webware.com) Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:44:00 PM

Hulu gives users a way to tag videos, letting them give the site a whole new layer of organization.

Originally posted at Web Crawler

21

Hulu Telling Sites To Stop Embedding So Much

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

have video on any other website.

Hulu of course recognized the value of that and included embed Once again, we're left wondering code functionality as well, but how Hulu can survive, given that quickly found itself unsure how its ownership has too much to deal with the fact that people interest in restricting what its actually used it. Back when Hulu customers want to do. Following was still in private beta, requiring braindead efforts to block invites to access the sites, some specialized browsers, even other sites quickly decided to just though they access Hulu content embed all the videos on their own just like regular browsers, sites, pulling in the traffic that c o m b i n e d w i t h b l o c k i n g Hulu could have generated for anonymous proxies, even those itself. Many sites apparently are used for perfectly legitimate still embedding lots of Hulu reasons, Hulu is apparently now shows, and Hulu has simply cracking down on sites that decided to tell those sites to stop. embed a lot of its videos-- yes, As NewTeeVee notes in the link d e s p i t e h a v i n g e m b e d above, nothing good will come f u n c t i o n a l i t y s p e c i f i c a l l y from this policy. It comes across allowed. as being rather against how the You may recall that one of the web works and how people key reasons why YouTube expect the web to work. In the became so popular in the first end it just appears like yet place was a little javascript hack another "but we can stop people that made it incredibly easy to from doing what they want to do" embed the video directly into any move that all too often comes other website (while still hosting from those in legacy industries. t h e c o n t e n t o n Y o u T u b e ) . Permalink| Comments| Email Suddenly, rather than having to This Story link to the video, it was easy to Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:46:00 AM

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Major Intel chip upgrade coming to new Netbooks

Filmmaker Allowed To Use The Name Rin Tin Tin To Describe Rin Tin Tin

(CNET News.com)

offering products based on Intel's next-gen Atom platform, aka Pine Trail," said a Dell spokesperson Monday. All major vendors currently offering Netbooks--such as Acer, Asus, Toshiba, and MSI--are also expected to refresh their lineups.

Intel, which is already on the record saying that the Pine Trail Atom is shipping this quarter, has made integration one its biggest themes in 2010 and beyond. Its Arrandale Core i series of processors for mainstream laptops, due by early next year, will also combine the graphics chip (GPU) with the CPU. And future generations of the Atom processor will be even more highly integrated.

One of the first new Pine Trail Atom processors expected to appear is a 1.66GHz version (rumored to be dubbed the N450). After this, a faster 1.83GHz version, the N470, is due.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

By Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

and Copenhagen as part of the global revamp.

Though Nokia is still the world's leader in smartphone shipments, it has been undercut lately by competition from Apple and Research In Motion. Recent

reports have pegged a decline in market share, while Nokia's third -quarter results showed a net loss and lower sales.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Submitted at 11/24/2009 4:00:00 AM

Intel is set to announce the biggest makeover for its Atom processor since it was introduced back in the spring of 2008. And PC makers are ready with new Netbook models, some due before the mammoth Consumer Electronics Show in January.

HP has stopped selling preconfigured Mini 5101 Netbook models directly as it readies models with the new Atom processor.(Credit: HewlettPackard) Netbooks--tiny laptops used for Web surfing and light production tasks--have gained in popularity as a cheap alternative to a laptop.

They can be had for as little as $250--or under $100 when bought as part of a two-year contract at phone carriers such as a Verizon.

Inside new Netbooks will beat Intel's latest "Pine Trail" Atom processor. This watershed design will squeeze the graphics function--previously on a

separate chip--into the central processing unit, or CPU, a first for Intel. And what does that mean to consumers? "Better battery life. But performance more than anything," Intel executive vice president Sean Maloney said in a recent CNET interview.

Evidence of a rejiggered

Netbook lineup can already seen at Hewlett-Packard, which has stopped selling preconfigured models of its well-received Mini 5101 directly from the HP Web site in preparation for new models to come, according to the company.

And Dell is on board too. "You can expect that Dell will be

Submitted at 11/23/2009 10:26:31 PM

Looks like the courts got one right concerning a trademark claim involving famed movie dog Rin Tin Tin. It seems that some movie makers wanted to make a movie about Rin Tin Tin, which seemed reasonable enough.

However, Rin Tin Tin Inc., a company that continues to breed "Rin Tin Tin dogs" for movies objected to the use of the name, saying that since they held the trademark on Rin Tin Tin, the movie was infringing.

Thankfully, the judge disagreed, noting that the movie is about Rin Tin Tin, and thus was descriptive and a perfectly reasonable use of the name.

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Nokia trims R&D staff in Japan (CNET News.com) Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:12:38 AM

Nokia announced Tuesday that it will lay off about 220 employees from its R&D division in Japan, a bit more than 1 percent of the

company's worldwide R&D workforce.

The layoffs are part of the company's efforts to align its global research & development operations with new products.

Nokia Siemens Networks, the

network equipment maker owned

by Nokia and Siemens, will not be affected by the reorganization, said Nokia.

Just last week, Nokia said that it will slash 330 positions in total from its R&D units in Finland

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23

eBay launches holiday deals app for More growth seen for iPhone iPhone in business (CNET News.com)

December 8. Friday's deal will offer Samsung's N120 Netbook.

"As the world's leading online eBay is playing virtual Santa this marketplace we have insights holiday season with a free into how people really want to "Deals" app for the iPhone that shop...and they clearly want to leads consumers to the better shop on their phones," eBay buys on the auction site.

Marketplaces President Lorrie eBay Deals(Credit: eBay) Norrington said in a statement.

Launched Tuesday, eBay Deals Though designed for the mobile is designed to deliver a stream of crowd, eBay's daily deals can the best deals on the site from also be found online at the across hundreds of millions of auction site's Deals page. listings. Like eBay Mobile, the eBay has been busy lately company's regular iPhone app, sprucing up its mobile auction Deals lets you search, shop, and site for the holidays. The vendor pay for your items from your recently added social networking iPhone or iPod Touch. to its eBay Mobile app, letting All featured deals spotlight items If you spot a deal that may be you share a listing through ewith no bids, no reserve price, better for someone else, you can mail, Facebook, or Twitter. free or fixed-rate shipping, and e-mail it or share it via your Since its launch in 2008, eBay's less than four hours remaining to Facebook or Twitter account. mobile app has been downloaded bid.

Besides browsing eBay's virtual more than 5 million times, said You can browse deals across aisles, you can search for your the company. With a purchase eight categories, including own deals by entering a product made every two seconds, the apparel, computers, electronics, name, category, and price range. company said, more than $500 and collectibles. If you spot a You can save your customized million worth of items are likely deal you like, just tap on it, and search results to return to them to be traded through eBay mobile its listing pops up where you can later. this year. watch it or bid on it. Not crazy Starting Friday, eBay will also This content has passed through about the current deals? Just be unveiling a "12 Days of fivefilters.org. shake your iPhone or iPod Deals" feature promoting a new Touch, and a new set of deals p r o m o t i o n e a c h d a y u n t i l appears.

Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:51:00 AM

LinkedIn's platform loosens up

By Caroline McCarthy (Webware.com)

The professional networking site now lets developers access its API to import LinkedIn features

into external sites.

Originally posted at The Social

By Ken Ray (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 11/24/2009 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: Enterprise, iPhone Support continues to grow for the iPhone in the enterprise. TBI Research ( subscription required) says Apple's answer to telephony is gaining ground in business, thanks largely to employees and execs grabbing an iPhone for personal use and deciding they just have to have it for work as well.

TBI sees the iPhone having trouble in two of the biggest industries in the US. Government and finance are likely to keep favoring Research in Motion's BlackBerry, though Apple could take enough of the rest of the sectors to make up for what it misses. "The two industries we see as the least likely of switching from Blackberries are Finance and Government," says a TBI research note. "These are huge industries, but they make up only 20% of the total US workforce. That still leaves 80% of the total 150 million US workforce."

Meanwhile TBI sees iPhone adoption ramping-up

aggressively in industries such as media, entertainment, hospitality, transportation, and consumer packaged goods.

TBI's report dovetails nicely with a report at the beginning of the month from Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore. Early in November, Whitmore said he expected to see 2 million iPhones in the enterprise market by the end of this year, giving Apple roughly 7% of the business end of smartphones in the US. [via MacNN] TUAW More growth seen for iPhone in business originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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24

Tech/

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Apple's Black Friday ad possibly leaked?

Retweet Avatar Display Improved by User Script

By Chris Rawson (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

By Barb Dybwad (Mashable!)

Submitted at 11/23/2009 8:06:39 PM

If you’re a Firefox user, you may already be familiar with Greasemonkey, an extension that Filed under: Retail, Rumors, allows users to create scripts that Deals Boy Genius Report claims change the display or behavior of to have gotten its hands on web pages. Greasemonkey scripts Apple's Black Friday brochure. can come in extremely handy for Although they had posted various purposes, and Leonard another brochure earlier that Lin has come up with one that made less than credible claims of adds utility to the default Twitter 30% iPod discounts and 25% display for the new retweet Mac discounts, BGR claims this function. newest ad comes from "a pretty The user script, which you can credible connect of ours." The download and install here, new ad's discounts are also more modifies the avatar display in in line with Apple's previous to be similar to this latest ad leak your Twitter.com timeline to Black Friday deals, which tend to stores. include both the person you’re be fairly modest compared to Though this ad seems legitimate whether it's the real deal or not. on the face of it, it's worth noting [Via Mac Rumors] following’s avatar along with the other retailers.

Below are a few of the discounts that pretty much everyone here at TUAW Apple's Black Friday ad avatar of the Twitter user they TUAW agreed Boy Genius possibly leaked? originally retweeted. The two avatar display on the "leaked" ad: Report's last "leaked" ad was a appeared on The Unofficial makes it more clear at a glance iMac: $101 off fake. So take this latest "leak" Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, both that the item is a retweet and MacBook Pro: $51-$101 off with a grain of salt. However, 23 Nov 2009 15:30:00 EST. which of your followers it came iPod nano: $11 off after taking into account Apple's Please see our terms for use of from. iPod touch: $21-$41 off Here’s how the display appears Boy Genius Report notes that Black Friday deals in earlier feeds.

P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | after you install the script. It these deals apply only on the years, whatever discounts it attempts to solve the issue online store, not at Apple's retail offers this year are at least likely C o m m e n t s Submitted at 11/23/2009 3:30:00 PM

mentioned by a number of folks who have felt that seeing an unfollowed user’s avatar suddenly appear in their timeline can be somewhat jarring.

Although people who primarily use clients to access Twitter won’t be able to get much benefit out of this script, those that have occasion to visit the actual Twitter.com site and who might take delight in customizing the new retweet experience might find this script just the ticket.

What do you think, is the script an improvement over the default retweet display? [via Waxy] Reviews: Twitter Tags: avatars, Firefox, greasemonkey, retweet, scripts, twitter, user scripts

Palm Pre Gets (Unofficial) Video Recording

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:32:00 AM

If you haven’t been following Palm’s little bundle of joy, the Pre, too closely, then you may have been oblivious to the fact

that (just like the iPhone in its early days) it is devoid of video recording, although it has a perfectly capable camera.

Well, that’s no longer true; a new app called the Precorder lets users record 480 x 320-pixel video, at 30fps, with sound.

AMRNB, and MP3 for audio as well as MPEG-4, H.263, and H.264/AVC for video, but unfortunately the app is in very early alpha stage, meaning that it doesn’t even have preview of the The formats supported are AAC, video while you record it. But hey, it works, so if you’re not

afraid of the alpha tag, and lack of video on the Pre has been a source of pain and anguish for you, jump right on it. [image courtesy of precentral.net] Tags: Palm Pre, video, webOS

Tech/ Politics/ Tech News/

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25

eBay Deals iPhone app pushes bargains in your face

Roomatlas Makes Finding Hotels a Breeze

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

By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Submitted at 11/23/2009 7:00:00 PM

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch Do you use eBay regularly for shopping for goodies? If you do, and if you're an iPhone or iPod touch owner, you probably ought to turn on your device right now and download the new eBay Deals app [Free, iTunes Link].

In eBay parlance, a deal can be one of two things: • An eBay Daily Deal, which is a limited quantity item from a trusted seller, provided with free shipping • An item that is in big demand (an iPhone, for example) with zero bids and with less than four hours to go in the auction

But wait, there's more! The app also uses push notifications to give you the bad news that you're being outbid on an item or to tell you that an auction is just about

over. There's a "Shake for Deals" option that provides random deals when you shake your phone.

The app has a nice little tutorial that shows how the features work and what various icons mean.

That's a nice touch for getting users up and running quickly. If you're looking for that perfect gift at a bargain price, you may need to look no further than the screen of your iPhone.

TUAW eBay Deals iPhone app pushes bargains in your face originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov. 24, 1974: Humanity, Meet Lucy. She's Your Mom

By Brandon Keim (Wired Top Stories)

A November morn at a previously explored site reveals the remains of a noticeably

Nightmare Ticket Watch (Little Green Footballs) Submitted at 11/23/2009 5:06:47 PM

There’s something about the words “President Lou Dobbs” that just warps reality. How does Dobbs/Palin 2012 strike you?

Or maybe Palin/Beck?

Huckabee/Palin?

Or (shudder) Bachmann/ Paul?

I’m having a hard time shuffling these cards to look good.

human ancestor.

Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:50:11 AM

Remember when mashups were all the rage? Lately, they’re rarely mentioned, but that doesn’t mean a good mashup can’t be a fantastic service, even one that can replace several others.

A mashup called Roomatlas ended up in our inbox, with a fairly simple description: it combines Google Maps with Expedia’s database of hotels and TripAdvisor’s reviews. Add to that the fact that RoomAtlas reduces the number of steps you need to take to get the information you need, and you get a great, simple way to find and book hotels.

Roomatlas has a couple of little details that make it stand out from other similar services. It displays room prices directly in the hotel icons; the price is also indicated by the icon colors. It lets you apply most of the important filters in the upper left

Court Kills 'Round-the-Clock' Surveillance Case

By David Kravets (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:21:00 PM

A federal appeals court tosses a civil rights lawsuit brought by a Kentucky man who claims he

became the victim of a "roundthe-clock" government surveillance program after he dropped the "bomb" word to a Southwest Airlines ticket agent.

corner; you can even type in your check-in and check-out date directly on the map. Example: finding all the five star hotels that have a swimming pool in Vienna took me a couple of seconds; finding the same thing on Hotels.com took me a couple of minutes.

While Roomatlas probably won’t shatter your world, it’s been better for finding hotels than any other tool I’ve tried, and that’s good enough for me. Since there’s no premium for booking a hotel via Roomatlas, it definitely can’t hurt to try it out.

Reviews: Google Maps Tags: Roomatlas, travel

26

Tech/ Tech Tips/ Tech News/

E-reader Newspaper

Hulu Adds Public Video Tagging [Hulu]

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:00:00 AM

NFL Player Has Twitter Account Hacked With RIP Joost Embarrassing Consequences By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

and is cursing and directing insults at fans, as you can see in Submitted at 11/23/2009 7:40:21 PM the screenshot below: There have been several high The Jets have used their account profile hackings of Twitter to inform fans about what’s accounts, with the likes of going on, but the damage has Britney Spears and even Barack been ongoing for about three Obama having their accounts hours now. We’ve also sent a compromised (with bizarre note to Twitter in hopes the issue tweets sent from them) for at can be resolved swiftly, but with least a few minutes. more public figures continuing to But what happens when your join the service, it’s an indication average NFL football player gets that “verified accounts” might t h e i r a c c o u n t h a c k e d ? not yet go quite far enough Apparently, not much. And (though Clowney’s account isn’t unfortunately for New York Jets officially verified). Reviews: Wide Receiver David Clowney, Twitter his hacker is going above and Tags: nfl, sports, twitter beyond what others have done

acquired by Adconion Group.

According to C21 Media, “Adconion will use the Joost Remember Joost? There was a acquisition to build up its online time when the peer-to-peer video video ad network Adconion.TV, sharing site was one of the hottest which it launched out of its US startups on the planet, with b a s e a y e a r a g o , ” t h o u g h famous founders, tens of millions Joost.com will still remain of dollars in investment, and operational as “a means for thousands of people clamoring clients to showcase and distribute for invites. their branded entertainment.”

But those days are long over, as For more on the demise of Joost, the likes of Hulu and YouTube which has been foreseen for have plowed past it in the realm some time now, check out “ The of video content, without the Joost Story: Sometimes Good download that Joost required Projects Also Fail.” Reviews: until relatively recently. Today, Hulu, YouTube Joost as we know it met its Tags: joost, video demise as its assets were Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:05:35 AM

Got a MacBook Pro? Have We Got a Monitor for You!

By Christopher Null (Wired Top Stories)

If you're a MacBook Pro owner, beautiful LED Cinema Display then here's another reason to especially for you, complete with smile. Apple has designed the an extra 24 inches of viewing

space, spare controls and striking performance.

You're always pulling up that episode for friends—the one with the one-armed man, teaching lessons—and need to get to it quickly. With Hulu's new tagging, you can add up to 30 tags to a video for identification.

At the moment, the tags aren't working as part of Hulu's universal search bar, but we're presuming they'll get their eventually. In the meantime, the tags—which anyone can add to any video, and have "voted up" by other users—work as a kind of public catalog of what's happening in each video.

Wondering if this is that Family Guy with the ridiculously long chicken suit fight sequence? It's safe to assume someone will have tagged it as such, and clicking the tag should bring up other videos with that same gag as well. Playing Tag[Hulu Blog via Webware]

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27

Nontroversy Watch: CRU-Gate (Little Green Footballs)

climate science?

SW: Back around 2000 leading climate scientists talked to each The Washington Post’s Andrew o t h e r m o s t l y a b o u t t h e i r Freedman interviewed science science—debating one another’s historian Spencer Weart about data and analysis and negotiating the stolen climate science emails travel, collaboration and other (known at the more hysterical administration—and a little bit blogs as the “ scandal of the about policy. As time passed they century”); Weart has a good have had to spend more and more perspective on the nontroversy. of their time answering criticism Andrew Freedman: What effects of the scientific results already do you think this will have on established, criticism mostly public perceptions of climate based on ignorance, fallacious science and climate scientists? reasoning, and even deliberately SW: I don’t expect this to have deceptive claims. Still more m u c h i m p a c t o n p u b l i c recently they have had to spend perceptions of climate and far too much of their time climate scientists. Opinions have d e f e n d i n g t h e i r p e r s o n a l become so fixed that it would reputations against ignorant or take serious evidence to shift a slanderous attacks. significant number of people. The theft and use of the emails Since the late 1980s, just about does reveal something interesting every year and sometimes almost about the social context. It’s a every month, a group of people symptom of something entirely (mostly the same ones) have new in the history of science: exclaimed, “Now in these latest Aside from crackpots who (whatever) we finally have proof complain that a conspiracy is that there is no need to worry s u p p r e s s i n g t h e i r p e r s o n a l about climate change!” There is a discoveries, we’ve never before segment of the public that has seen a set of people accuse an believed every new claim. The entire community of scientists of rest will continue to doubt such deliberate deception and other claims in the absence of truly professional malfeasance. solid proof.

Even the tobacco companies AF: What do you think this story never tried to slander legitimate reveals about the conduct of cancer researchers. In blogs, talk Submitted at 11/23/2009 1:37:38 PM

radio and other new media, we are told that the warnings about future global warming issued by the national science academies, scientific societies, and governments of all the leading nations are not only mistaken, but based on a hoax, indeed a conspiracy that must involve thousands of respected researchers. Extraordinary and, frankly, weird. Climate scientists are naturally upset, exasperated, and sometimes goaded into intemperate responses… but that was already easy to see in their blogs and other writings.

RealClimate has an update to the story, with context for some of the issues that have been raised.

And Steven Andrew has a post at the Los Angeles Examiner with more information about the one email all the anti-AGW blogs are hammering to death, containing this quote about a “trick” used to correct data: I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e., from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.

Andrew interviewed Michael Mann, the “Mike” to whom the email refers, to find out exactly what this was about:

Op-Ed: Tornado Scientist Risks Life for Ph.D.

By Reed Timmer (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 11/23/2009 9:00:00 PM

Storm-chasing scientist Reed Timmer describes an encounter with a surprisingly strong tornado that was nearly

catastrophic but yielded great data for his PhD work.

Steven Andrew: You are the Mike referred in the quoted email correct? When was that email written?

Michael Mann: Yes, the email is from ‘99.

SA: Who wrote it?

MM: Phil Jones SA: What does Phil Jones mean by “hide”?

MM: I think we expressed this best in the “RealClimate” article.

Here’s an adapted version of the text: “As for the ‘hide the decline’, comment, I assume what Phil Jones was referring to was the well known that Keith Briffa’s maximum latewood tree ring density proxy data diverges from the temperature records after 1960 (this is more commonly known as the “divergence problem”) 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 the reason for the “divergence”.”

SA: What was the Mike’s

“trick”?

MM: All he (apparently) meant by “Mike’s Nature trick” was us, in our original ‘98 Nature article, showing the instrumental record after the proxy record ends (1980). Since both records were clearly demarcated and labeled in our article, there was really no room for misinterpretation of what we were showing. So while it’s unclear exactly what Phil Jones meant, “trick” would appear to mean “clever way to deal with the conundrum” that the proxy record ends in 1980.

The easy way out of that conundrum is to just show in addition the more recent data from the instrumental record.

Again, in our Nature article, this was all clearly labeled and explained, nothing secret or hidden.

SA: Is this much adieu about nothing, again?

MM: Of course. This is about the climate denial noise machine trying to drum up a manufactured controversy in advance of the most important climate summit (Copenhagen) in years.

Indeed.

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White House Announces New Science Education Initiatives (Little Green Footballs)

Communications has promised to use two hours of the afternoon schedule on its Science Channel President Obama’s scheme to cable network for commercialindoctrinate America’s children free programming geared toward is proceeding apace, with new middle school students. initiatives to promote science, Science and engineering technology, engineering and societies are promising to provide mathematics: White House volunteers to work with students P u s h e s S c i e n c e a n d M a t h in the classroom, culminating in a Education.

National Lab Day in May. The T o i m p r o v e s c i e n c e a n d MacArthur Foundation and mathematics education for t e c h n o l o g y i n d u s t r y American children, the White organizations are giving out House is recruiting Elmo and Big prizes in a contest to develop Bird, video game programmers video games that teach science and thousands of scientists. and math.

President Obama will announce “ T h e d i f f e r e n t s e c t o r s a r e a campaign Monday to enlist responding to the president’s call companies and nonprofit groups for all hands on deck,” John P. to spend money, time and H o l d r e n , t h e W h i t e H o u s e volunteer effort to encourage science adviser, said in an students, especially in middle and interview. high school, to pursue science, The other parts of the campaign technology, engineering and include a two-year focus on math, officials say. science on “Sesame Street,” the The campaign, called Educate to venerable public television Innovate, will focus mainly on children’s show, and a Web site, activities outside the classroom. connectamillionminds.com, set F o r e x a m p l e , D i s c o v e r y up by Time Warner Cable, that Submitted at 11/23/2009 10:17:34 AM

provides a searchable directory of local science activities. The cable system will contribute television time and advertising to promote the site.

The White House has also recruited Sally K. Ride, the first American woman in space, and corporate executives like Craig R. Barrett, a former chairman of Intel, and Ursula M. Burns, chief executive of Xerox, to champion the cause of science and math education to corporations and philanthropists.

While welcoming the new programs, some people say it doesn’t focus enough on improving the quality of school instruction.

“I think a lot of this is good, but it is missing more than half of what needs to be done,” said Mark S. Schneider, a vice president at the American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit research organization in Washington. “It has nothing to do with the day-to-day teaching,” said Dr. Schneider, who was the

commissioner of education statistics at the Department of Education from 2005 to 2008.

LGF readers are probably aware that I’m a strong supporter of good science education, so I’m really pleased to see the President putting a spotlight on the subject — and curious to see how the right wing will attack these initiatives, because you know they will.

It’s an interesting contrast with Sarah Palin, who says in her book: … s h e &##x201C;didn&##x2019;t believe in the theory that human beings &##x2014; thinking, loving beings &##x2014; originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea&##x201D; or from &##x201C;monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees.&##x201D;

Recipes for Brining a Better Thanksgiving Turkey [Thanksgiving]

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:30:00 AM

We've previously posted the "why" of brining your Thanksgiving turkey, with delicious scientific evidence.

Looking for the "how"? Serious Eats offers up food science savant Alton Brown's brining recipe. Slashfood has also posted a choose your own spices brine mix, and L.A. Times food writer Russ Parsons previously shared a dry turkey brining technique that he claims gives the final result a less "sponge-y" texture than traditional salt solutions. Feel free to drop your own brine mixture in the comments, of course.

What Free Apps Are You Thankful For? [Ask The Readers]

By Adam Pash (Lifehacker) Submitted at 11/23/2009 5:00:00 PM

We're a cheap lot around Lifehacker HQ, which is why we have a serious love affair with

free software. As Americans get ready to give thanks over a big fat turkey dinner, we also want to remember the apps we're thankful for.

Photo by stevevoght.

In the spirit of the season, we

want to hear about the free applications you're most thankful for on your computer. List a handful of your must-have freebies in the comments, and as we've done in the past, we'll

round them up for Thursday in a cornucopia of downloading deliciousness.

Tech Tips/ Tech News/

E-reader Newspaper

From the Tips Box: Chrome Tabs, Email Bookmarklets, and Cheap Coffee [From The Tips Box]

By Whitson Gordon (Lifehacker) Submitted at 11/23/2009 4:30:00 PM

Readers offer their best tips for permanently pinning Chrome tabs, pasting your email address with a quick-access bookmarklet, and using less expensive coffee with Starbucks' fancy VIA cup.

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.

Permanent Pinned Tabs in Chrome Randald shows us how to keep tabs permanently pinned in Chrome: Awhile back I read your post about pinned tabs in Chrome.

Ever since, I've been looking for a way to permanently pin them. I came across a away to do it. Add

the following to command line to Chrome: \chrome.exe --pinned-tabcount=3 http://www.google.com h t t p : / / g m a i l . c o m http://wave.google.com Save Time with Email Bookmarklets in Chrome billbaggins tells us how he keeps writing out his email address all the time: Just kinda noticed this, but in Chrome, if you create a

bookmarklet holding your email address as the target URL, you can easily drag and drop it wherever you would need to type it.

The only thing is that if you type just the email address in the target URL box, Chrome prefixes it with [.] If you put a ':' in front of it, it cancels this out, but you still have to remove the ':' in the text box.

Use Twitter's Mobile Site with

Slow Connections Erin tells us an easy fix for slow loading times on Twitter: Sometimes I'll be somewhere with a really slow internet connection and the "more" feature of Twitter isn't updating the page. In order to view tweets by pages like you used to be able to do, I use the mobile site for Twitter: http://m.twitter.com.

This way I can refresh the page without loosing my place in my Twitter stream. You can't favorite or reply to tweets, but it's a really simple way to just catch up on tweets.

Using Non-Starbucks Coffee with Starbucks VIA Cups Troy shares how he gets around Starbucks Instant Coffee's $10 price tag with their VIA cups: My Favorite thing about Starbuck's VIA coffee is the $16 mug they created that allows you to store their instant coffee packets inside the cup. However, at $9.95 per box of 10, it's too expensive...and there is no decaf option. I've found the perfect solution, though. Nescafe offers several instant flavors (including decaf) and the cost is about $1 per six pack. They still fit in the fancy cup. And, (sorry Starbucks) they taste good.

29

Adults Fooled by Visual Illusion, But Not Kids

By Bruce Bower (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:00:00 PM

Adults are fooled by a visual size illusion, but children see right through it, revealing that the brain develops the ability to understand visual context later.

Crime Comic 'Luna Park' Merges Gritty Art, Time Travel

By Scott Thill (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:33:00 PM

Kevin Baker digs up haunting historical scenarios for his mindbending graphic novel. Loaded with vivid artwork and literary power, it's one of the year's best.

Monstrous Mechanical Marvels: 9 More Enormous Gadgets

By Brian X. Chen (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 11/23/2009 9:00:00 PM

Wired brings you nine more of the biggest, most awesome machines ever to be seen on the face of the Earth.

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No escalation in Afghanistan (Scripting News) Submitted at 11/23/2009 1:02:30 PM

MediaMonkey 3.2 Syncs with More Devices, Adds Auto Folder Watching [Updates]

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

only in its paid Gold edition. And MediaMonkey also added in support for Windows 7's rightW i n d o w s : W e d i g click taskbar feature, jump lists, MediaMonkey for its album art showing recently played tracks, and tag-fixing powers, but the playlists, and other controls. free jukebox software can do so If you're toting a Palm, iPhone, much more—like sync to nearly A n d r o i d , o r o t h e r p h o n e , any smartphone or MP3 player, MediaMonkey's worth checking and automatically manage your out as an alternative to iTunes, music library. and as its own seriously fullT h e m a r q u e e f e a t u r e i n featured media player—and a MediaMonkey 3.2 is expanded spot to buy and manage MP3s d e v i c e s u p p o r t , i n c l u d i n g from online stores like Amazon.

WebOS devices like the Palm Pre MediaMonkey 3.2 is a free and Pixi, the latest iPods and download for Windows systems iPhones, Android phones (as only. MediaMonkey 3.2 Released general USB storage devices), – S y n c s w i t h t h e l a t e s t and many more. MediaMonkey's p h o n e s [ M e d i a M o n k e y v i a also added automatic folder j k O n T h e R u n ] watching to the free version, something previously available Submitted at 11/24/2009 4:30:00 AM

National Geographic Offers Stunning Natural Wallpaper [Wallpaper]

By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

Over in National Geographic's photography contest section, however, the submitted shots can If you're a wallpaper junkie and be downloaded at 1600 pixels n a t u r e l o v e r , N a t i o n a l wide, making for some fairly nice G e o g r a p h i c ' s I n t e r n a t i o n a l desktop wallpaper. Better still, Photography Contest is a great the shots are numbered and source for well-shot, fresh, formatted in fairly algorithmic decently high-resolution images fashion, so using the autoto adorn your desktop with. download features of John's The long-running magazine has Background Switcher or another an extensive wallpaper-focused automatic wallpaper changer photography section, but as Web makes it very easy to get a fresh Worker Daily points out, those l o o k o n e v e r y b o o t - u p . shots max out at 1280 pixels I n t e r n a t i o n a l P h o t o g r a p h y wide. That's fine for some C o n t e s t 2 0 0 9 - D e s k t o p monitors, but on most modern Wallpaper[National Geographic laptops and widescreen displays, via Web Worker Daily] that's pixel-stretching territory.

Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:00:00 AM

Stocks struggle in wake of China sell-off (Financial Times - US homepage)

Stocks struggle in wake of China sell-off

By Jamie Chisholm, Global

Markets Commentator Published: November 24 2009 07:28 | Last updated: November

24 2009 15:23 This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

I assumed that because we elected Obama to end the war in Iraq that it went without saying that the war in Afghanistan would be ended as well.

Apparently not so.

The President is now considering an escalation of the war in Afghanistan.

I can't imagine he will not face substantial opposition in the US and elsewhere, if the answer is escalation. I will be working to change this, and if it means working against the Democrats and the President, so be it.

The Biggest Stars in Music & Film Shine at the 2009 CNN Heroes Awards!

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/24/2009 2:00:00 AM

Some of Hollywood's sexiest stars joined CNN's Anderson Cooper in Hollywood for the third annual "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute." Take a look!

The gala event premieres on Thanksgiving, November 26, at 9 p.m. on CNN.

Tech Tips/ Tech News/ Popular News/

E-reader Newspaper

31

SAP Joins PowerPoint and Twitter Does This Work?

By Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb)

feeds. For example, it can use a s e r v i c e l i k e http://TidyTweet.com for a Submitted at 11/24/2009 12:17:48 AM bit complex for many presenters. moderated feed, or any other As we approach 2010, a number But if you keep to the basics, it atom-based feed of new efforts are underway to can be a smart tool for engaging Features for the More Advanced make documents more social. audiences. The download for the User One consultant told us how PowerPoint Twitter tool is free. The remaining new features are recently a client tried to turn Auto-Tweet Let's say you are for more advanced users. For Sharepoint into a Twitter client. presenting a PowerPoint deck i n s t a n c e , t o s e c u r e f e e d s That's a monster! and you want to tweet what you internally, Elliott recommends But we have to give SAP credit are saying about the slides. With adding a server and installing the for developing a more innovative auto-tweet, you can tweet your open-source microblogging way to add social elements to slide notes from the PowerPoint platform from Status.Net. That PowerPoint presentations. usually requires assistance from a presentation.

Sponsor Timo Elliott writes on the SAP company's IT department. The Last month, SAP launched a free Web 2.0 blog:"You can use the Basic Stuff Is Pretty Cool P o w e r P o i n t T w i t t e r t o o l . twitter feed to reinforce the The more basic features make Yesterday they made a number of points you are making in your the SAP service worth checking

By Jason Fitzpatrick w e l l a s g e n e r a t e a l i s t o f u p g r a d e s t o t h e s e r v i c e , presentation, or ask the audience out. For example, the service (Lifehacker) questions related to your content, provides the ability for people to applications you need to including: • Auto-tweeting and include a feedback slide later tweet their votes: download—the basic edition Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:30:00 AM in the presentation to review the Overall, the SAP service does doesn't automate the reinstall • An additional feedback slide Windows: If you're thinking process for you unfortunately. It • An option for secure internal audience replies." Feedback work. it adds an interactive element to presentations.

Slides about moving to Windows 7 but also transfers your desktop use dreading the migration, Windows personalizations and the contents • The ability to pre-format slide The new feedback slide shows "Death by PowerPoint?" Maybe with Twitter values. For instance, twice as many tweets as the not so much with Twitter part of 7 Migration Tool takes some of of My Documents. the equation. Discuss the hassle out of the process.

Windows 7 Migration Tool create templates for conferences. original version.

According to Elliott, the feature Windows 7 Migration Tool B a s i c E d i t i o n i s f r e e w a r e , c o m e s i n s e v e r a l f l a v o r s Windows only. Know of a tool Aspects of the service may be a supports pagination and custom including a free basic edition. for easy migration to Windows The free edition will check for 7? Let's hear about it in the compatibility issues, scan your c o m m e n t s . W i n d o w s 7 XP installation for applications Migration[via Life Rocks 2.0] and save application settings as (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) festival (AP) 11 seconds ago 2009-11Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:05:45 AM 24T07:30:03-08:00 mad_mike_j buzzed up: 200,000 This content has passed through animals to be sacrificed at Nepal fivefilters.org.

Windows 7 Migration Tool Helps Transfer Profiles, Personalizations, Settings and More [Downloads]

Court: NY can seize property for new NJ Nets arena (AP)

32

Tech News/

E-reader Newspaper

Feedly Comes to Google Chrome

By Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:24:50 AM

Feedly, the magazine style feed reader we first covered back in August of last year, is now available for the Google Chrome web browser. As with the Firefox implementation of the service, the Chrome version also uses a browser plugin to offer an alternative user interface to Google Reader. This early version of the Feedly for Chrome release offers most of the features found in the original Firefox version of the service, but requires the installation of a dev build of Chrome in order to work.

Sponsor Feedly: A Better RSS Reader and More Feedly is much more than just another way to read feeds.

Although it originally got its start as an alternative UI to Google Reader, today the service is part RSS reader, part social network aggregator, and part search utility. Since its launch in 2008, Feedly's developer Edwin Khodabakchian has constantly added new features including Twitter and FriendFeed integrations, a river of news view, search tools, Mozilla Ubiquity integration, a Feedly "mini" toolbar, and so much more.

Once installed, a click of a browser button transports you to the Feedly start page where you

can browse through the latest news, comment, star, share, discuss, and search through the articles displayed. As you read through the items, your activity is seamlessly synced back to Google Reader.

Although voracious RSS readers who subscribe to thousands of feeds may find using Feedly a bit slower than using Google Reader

itself, a good many of the more casual consumers of RSS prefer Feedly's clean, easy-to-scan interface to Google Reader's more utilitarian look and feel.

Feedly for Chrome The new Chrome version of Feedly is virtually identical to the one available for Firefox with only two major exceptions: there is no Gmail integration or Feedly

mini toolbar available in the Chrome version just yet. The toolbar is one of Feedly's many innovative features which provides a floating bar that hovers at the bottom of your screen as you surf through blogs on the web. Toolbar buttons show you various pieces of metadata about the blog post you're reading, including number

of Diggs and number of Google Reader shares. You can also save or share the post yourself in Google Reader or tweet a link to article, among other things.

However, according to Khodabakchian, Feedly mini's omission isn't due to any technical issues. Instead, he notes FEEDLY page 35

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Obama, Kids, & All Tomorrow's Web Apps: President Focuses on Tech Education

By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/23/2009 9:00:47 PM

At the White House today, President Obama talked robots, hung out with the guys from MythBusters, and launched a campaign designed to create smarter, techier American kids.

"Reaffirming and strengthening America's role as the world's engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation is essential to meeting the challenges of this century," said Obama." That's why I am committed to making the improvement of STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] education over the next decade a national priority."

Sponsor The campaign involves key partnerships with organizations from Sesame Street to Sony (whose PlayStation 3 console will be used for strengthening young minds through game design competitions), and it also features help from individuals such as Sally Ride (the first female astronaut) and a handful of digitally focused CEOs. The Geek-In-Chief is also starting an annual science fair at the White House to inspire and promote young geeks who are doing great things in hardware,

software, technology, science, and robotics. We need, he said, to teach children to "be makers, not consumers.

"If you win the NCAA champtionships, you get to come to the White House... We're going to show young people how cool science can be."

And why do American kids need this level of convincing? Brace yourselves for bad news, patriots: Kids in the U.S. rank in the midtwenties when scored against 30 other nations for math and science literacy. We are being drastically outperformed in these areas; in a time when technological innovation is the foundation and impetus for a lot of other cultural and economic factors, can we afford to not develop competencies in tech and science?

The President doesn't think so, and he's directing funds accordingly. He further announced that the $4.35 billion Race to the Top school grant program will give preference to states that commit to improving STEM education.

Obama hopes the campaign will increase STEM literacy for students, improve the quality of teaching in these areas, and promote better education and work opportunities for underrepresented groups - such

into world domination: Check out some of the implementations of the partnerships Obama references above on the Digital Media and Learning Competition website, and look out for Discovery Channel's commercial-free block of science programming for kids launching next year.

And for those of you with an inclination to volunteer, check out this National Lab Day website matching classroom needs to volunteer expertise. as women and minorities - in American kids apparently need to tech. learn about phone app In the recent past, we've told you p r o g r a m m i n g , about Obama's financial and entrepreneurialism, and plain old moral support for startups, his hardware just as much as they masterful use of the social web - need to focus on engineering both as a candidate for the office robots - a favorite topic of and as President- and the change, teachers, students, and the recovery, data, and health care President, as well. reform initiatives he's conducted "I believe that robotics can online. He may not personally inspire students," he said while use Twitter(yet), but he does use introducing a student project a Creative Commons license for designed to collect and throw his Flickr photos. It seems fairly moon rocks. "I also want to keep clear to us that Obama cares an eye on those robots in case about where the country is going they try anything." We officially technologically, and we hope this love you, Mr. President. And yes, focus on STEM education will let's get those kids into labs and help us all in the long term. in front of glowing screens - for Check out the President's 18- the right reasons this time. minute address, which outlines Discuss his plan to use the $260 millionvalued campaign to bring struggling American students

No New Moon effect for White Collar or Monk either

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 11/23/2009 6:53:13 PM

Friday November 6, for whatever reasons was a weak Friday for some shows, with several seeing season-lows.

Things rebounded on November 13, and even moreso on 11/20.

Friday Monk averaged 5.296 viewers as it heads towards its series finale and White Collar averaged 4.559 million. Both shows averaged a 1.2 rating with adults 18-49.

A week earlier (11/13) Monk averaged 4.387 million and White Collar 4.278 million. The week before that (11/6) Monk averaged 4.266 million while White Collar averaged 3.848 million.

11/20 data courtesy of “ Travis Yanan�

Looking for the latest in Stargate Universe’s trends?

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E-reader Newspaper

Online Retail Thriving: 8% Growth Expected This Holiday Season

By Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb)

operations online. We also have technology advances to thank: better recommendations Submitted at 11/23/2009 7:30:25 PM technology, social media, the Yesterday we reviewed the past emergence of mobile commerce. decade in online retailing. Today E-commerce Continues to Grow, we look at some forward-looking Despite Economy statistics about e-commerce. In E-commerce has ridden the ups particular we analyze the and downs of the general upcoming holiday season and economy over the past decade, how online retailers can expect to but it has continued to grow fare. throughout. In the State Of Amazon.com was founded in Retailing Online 2009 report, 1995, but it famously didn't make Forrester Research reported that its first annual profit until 2003. retailers saw their Web divisions Those days of struggle for e- grow by 18% in 2008. Given that commerce vendors are long gone. Forrester described 2008 as "one In its State Of Retailing Online of the worst years ever" in retail, 2009 report, Forrester Research that's significant growth in online reported that the vast majority of retail activity.

Web retailers were not only Holiday Season Predicted to profitable in 2008 - in a Grow 8% recession - but also that their Online shopping always been a overall level of profitability seasonal market and there are grew. promising signs for the upcoming Sponsor holiday season. The latest The e-commerce market is comScore statistics show that toy expanding, due to a combination web sites grew 9% in October, of factors. One is that consumers which comScore claimed was are no longer afraid to buy things due to some parents getting in online, as they once were. Also early for holiday gifts. The retail brick-and-mortar businesses are apparel segment also grew by 9% m i g r a t i n g m o r e o f t h e i r in October.

how traditional retailers are not only adapting online, but thriving. Best Buy's traffic has grown 18% over the past 12 months according to Nielsen Online. Meanwhile for the quarter ended October 31, 2009, Gap's Web sales increased 4.9% to $298 million. The web accounted for 8.3% of sales at Gap in Q3 09, compared to 8.0% in Q3 2008.

Overall, Forrester Research Forrester outlined a number of predicts that online holiday retail reasons why online channels are s a l e s ( o v e r N o v e m b e r a n d appealing during a "challenging" December) will grow 8% this economy - including enabling consumers to find products year to $44.7 billion.

Brick-and-Mortar Stores a online that they can't find elsewhere, offering comparisons Success on the Web A noticeable trend over the past on product features and pricing, decade has been the slow but avoding holiday crowds, and steady flight of 'brick-and-mortar' more.

All of this data is very retail stores to the Web. In the encouraging to online retailers. early days of online retailing, Web operations were typically Even during a down economy, isolated from the main sales the Web has come through for channels. But nowadays, m o s t o f t h e m . W e b F o r r e s t e r n o t e s t h a t W e b entrepreneurs, if you're looking operations are a strategic part of for opportunities then look no further than online retailing! the entire organization.

Two recent stories from industry Photo credit: Sndy Discuss website Internet Retailer show

Street Chic: Paris

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 11/24/2009 4:00:00 AM

A biker jacket and rugged boots

toughen up a floral frock.

Photo: Anne Ziegler Think you are Street Chic? Email us your photo and you could appear in ELLE.com's Street

Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

Chic Daily.

FX acquires “Twilight Saga” broadcast rights

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers) Submitted at 11/23/2009 5:54:54 PM

The Twilight Saga on the same network as The Sons of Anarchy?

Yep! On the heels of New Moon’s third-best opening of all time FX announced that it had bought the rights to The Twilight Saga.

Twilight will be available for airing on FX in late 2011, with New Moon being available to air in late 2012. If the scheduled release of Eclipse goes off on schedule (targeted for next June), FX would be able to air it beginning in 2013.

According to Variety it is a standard deal in the the 10%-12% of the box office take range, but with a cap.

Showtime has the pay cable rights to the franchise.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Tech News/ Entertainment/

E-reader Newspaper

FEEDLY continued from page 32

in the comments of a Feedly blog post that the mini toolbar is in the process of being redesigned and when the Firefox version is complete and stable, he will then look into building a toolbar for Chrome. The estimated timeframe for its inclusion into the Chrome beta is 6-8 weeks.

How to Install Feedly for Chrome In order to run Feedly for Chrome, you'll need to first install a dev build of the Google Chrome browser. These dev ("developer") versions of Chrome aren't as stable as the public release but allow you to play with yet-to-launch features like Google Chrome extensions, for example. And for Mac and Linux users, the dev release is your only option because Google has yet to provide stable versions of Chrome for those two operating systems as of yet.

After installing the dev release, you'll need to add the new Feedly

extension to the browser.

Here's how to get started: • Download and install the Chrome 4.0 Dev Channel: Windows| Mac| Linux 32-bit| Linux 64-bit • Restart Chrome to make sure that you are running the 4.0 version.

• L o a d http://update.feedly.com/release/f eedly.crx to install Feedly • Click on the Feedly icon on the chrome toolbar to load your Feedly.

most of our Firefox extensions when we made the move to the Chrome browser, Feedly was one of the few that was sorely missed. However, if you're a more cautious user hesitant to install test builds of your browser and experimental extensions, you may not have to wait much longer before you can play with fully functional and stable versions of both. Yesterday, Google put out the call for developers to begin submitting their extensions for inclusion in the upcoming Chrome extension After you have Feedly up-and- gallery, a step that signifies that running, you can receive support this feature is closer than ever to through the company's Get launching. When the time comes, Satisfaction page or by emailing we're sure that Feedly will be feedly-chrome AT devhd.com. among the top-rated extensions Y o u c a n a l s o found there. Discuss tweet@feedly_chrome with questions, comments, and other feedback.

We're beyond excited to see Feedly on Chrome - although it was relatively easy to give up

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/24/2009 2:41:00 AM

This season's "Project Runway" finale was all female -- Irina Shabayeva, Althea Harper and Carol Hannah-- but it was the 27year-old New York City-based designer who walked away with top honors for her modern

collection.

This season of "Project Runway" -- once the legal battles allowing it to switch from Bravo to Lifetime TV had been resolved -was one of the least controversial. There was no Santino Rice, Jeffrey Sebelia or Christian Siriano to spice things up.

Google Brings Local Business Coupons to U.S. Mobile Users

By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/23/2009 6:45:04 PM

Google has announced today that, just in time for holiday shopping, they are enabling local retailers to display coupons for in -store use on mobile devices of Google-searching users.

Any business using Google Local Business Center can upload mobile coupon offers, and any user searching on Google.com using a mobile device can find the coupons on the businesses' Place Pages - a feature that also debuted relatively recently. Altogether, the direction the company is taking seems better for users and for local businesses, as well.

Sponsor Printable coupons have long been available on Google Maps, but - let's face it - more and more consumers have abandoned the desktop/printer paradigm for a Truth be told, it was Irina who more mobile/digital approach to provided the most controversy. search, on-the-go directions, and She implied that Althea had local business research. copied one of her designs, and Product manager Alex Gawley h e r a t t i t u d e h a d t h e o t h e r wrote on the Google Mobile designers labeling her "Mean-a blog, "With more of you going mobile to search for this Irina." information, it makes sense for coupons to go mobile too... We hope you find these mobile

'Project Runway''s 'Mean-a' Irina on her Fashion Victory

35

coupons useful and that they help you save money, trees (fewer printed coupons), and your hands (from paper cuts) when you're on the go."

Place Pages for the desktop have also been revamped to ensure that mobile and printed coupons will share a common look and feel, regardless of the device, the OS, or the browser in which they originated.

It will be interesting to hear and read post-holiday metrics and success (or "opportunity for improvement") stories about these new mobile coupons. While we certainly hope the setup will allow users to quickly and conveniently engage with the world around them - and we likewise hope local retailers can reach out to customers wherever they are - we wonder how many quickly the coupons will take off and how much users will be inclined to use them.

Would you redeem a mobile coupon you found through Google search, and under what circumstances or conditions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Discuss

36

Tech News/ Popular News/

Is Bing Cashback Costing Users Money? Sometimes, Yes

By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/23/2009 9:12:49 PM

When Bing debuted a feature called Cashback, the product was intended to save users money while they shopped from online retailers.

As we told you last month when discussing the program's early successes, Cashback works by giving users a certain amount of money back every time they search for an item and then buy it from a participating store. But some users have found the opposite to be true: Retailer cookies trigger jacked-up prices for some items, causing a phenomenon one man calls " negative cashback." How much do Bing users stand to lose? Read on, and brace yourselves.

Sponsor The problem may lie with Bing's ability to accurately track website changes or with Bing's

me $43.84, giving an effective cashback rate of -6.27%."

We did the same search, and we saw the same results. Here's our Bing Cashback screenshot from relationships with retailers or an Internet Explorer window: with the basic values of the And here's the same product on retailers themselves, but one way the same website in a Chrome or another, the system seems to tab: be gamed.

As a side note, the blogger that Essentially, certain products alerted us to this issue had from certain websites appear previously received a nastygram through a Cashback-enabled from Microsoft about his post on browser to be a certain price. Yet, Bing Cashback technical issues. if the same user visits the same So, what do we make of this site at the same time from a non- issue? Is it a potentially scammy Cashback browser or machine (or t e c h n i c a l g l i t c h ? M o r e if he deletes his cookies), the importantly, how soon can it be price is sometimes drastically fixed so innocent online shoppers different in a way that benefits aren't quietly swindled out of the end user not a bit. cash throughout the holiday As one user very succinctly put season? Let us know what you i t , " I f I g o d i r e c t l y t o think should be done in the butterflyphoto.com, I pay $699 comments - particularly if you've with 0% cashback. If I use Bing noticed this bug yourself. Discuss Cashback, I pay $758 with 2% cashback, or $742.84. Using Bing cashback has actually cost

3 Conn. lacrosse players accused of sexual assault (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:23:53 AM

mad_mike_j buzzed up: 200,000 animals to be sacrificed at Nepal

festival (AP) 12 seconds ago 2009-1124T07:30:03-08:00 This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

E-reader Newspaper

Sponsor Post: LeapFish Draws on Power of Social Media for Worthy Cause

By RWW Sponsor (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:00:55 AM

Editor's note: we offer our longterm sponsors the opportunity to write 'Sponsor Posts' and tell their story. These posts are clearly marked as written by sponsors, but we also want them to be useful and interesting to our readers. We hope you like the posts and we encourage you to support our sponsors by trying out their products.

Business and social uses of Twitter have gotten most of the attention since the social platform hit the mainstream. But Twitter's benefit to charities and worthwhile causes is just as obvious, and we're now starting to see more and more uses in this sphere.

Sponsor Witness the#beatcancer campaign, which made it into the Guinness World Records for tweeting its way to raise $70,000 in 24 hours for four cancerfighting organizations.

Twitter is not alone. Facebook is proving to be a viable base of operations from which to draw attention to the world's most pressing problems. The Causes application alone has 17.5 million monthly active users and

has helped raise $4.5 million for approximately 155,000 nonprofits.

LeapFish, a newly launched realtime and social search engine, is joining the movement. It has teamed up with the Make-a-Wish Foundation to empower Twitter users with the ability to grant an ill child's dream to go to Disneyland. The Tweet-a-Cause, which hit the wires last week and runs until November 27th, is steadily climbing through the twittersphere.

This particular campaign is devoted to four-year-old Jacob, who has a rare and lifethreatening disease that has affected him since birth.

LeapFish is donating $0.10 per tweet to the Make-a-Wish Foundation until 100,000 tweets have been sent, raising $10,000 and granting Jacob's wish: to take his family to Disneyland for a week.

Social media is powerful, and hopefully causes such as these are only the beginning.

Discuss

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Apple Tech Support Tips: 4 Steps to Bend Apple to Your Will

By Dave Greenbaum (TheAppleBlog)

Code Your next step can be to call the general number for Apple Submitted at 11/23/2009 11:23:01 AM technical support (800-275We usually love our Apple 2273). Explain your situation products. They work well, are and ask for an accommodation; easy to understand and when we usually you want a repair at no have a problem, Apple works charge to you. Your ultimate quickly to resolve it. Most of the goal is to get a “CS code.” A CS time. What happens when Apple code acts like a coupon. Give the simply won’t play ball? Read on CS code to the AASP and the and find out how to work c o s t o f t h e r e p a i r w i l l b e Apple’s system. Step 1: AASP discounted by the amount the CS and Geniuses Code authorizes. Apple tech For many people, their first s u p p o r t i s b a s e d i n N o r t h interaction is with the Apple America, so you’ll unlikely have store, however some will go to an the communication barriers you A p p l e A u t h o r i z e d S e r v i c e face with other brands. Again, p r o v i d e r ( A A S P ) . A A S P keep careful notes. Step 3: determinations can be overridden Customer Relations by an Apple store, so going to the What if tech support won’t play Apple store would be your first ball? Your next step is to call escalation if you are not satisfied technical support, or pretty much by the AASP. Typically a any Apple number, and ask for Genius determines you have a “Customer Relations.” That’s problem, but alas, you may be the magic phrasing that gets you out of warranty. Maybe they are talking with people who can claiming the item was abused or override the decisions of any tampered with and you disagree. AASP. They’ll usually be the Often you are just barely out of one to issue a CS code. warranty or fall right outside a When talking with Customer Repair Extension. Be sure to Relations, always be polite, fair keep careful notes of the dates and accommodating. These are and times of your conversations human beings who will often rise and with whom you’ve spoken. or fall to the level of politeness All is not lost. Step 2: The CS and aggressiveness they receive.

Report to determine what issues Apple could be facing lawsuits about. Focus on the fact that you want to be an Apple supporter, but its actions in this particular matter that have shaken your confidence. You might playfully mention some of the ads you’ve seen and how much you are a believer.

Ask the Apple representative for something reasonable and fair — Having learned from others’ usually the repair of the item success with Customer Relations, under warranty. Frequently it’s best to focus on the fact that Apple will meet you half-way by you are a loyal Mac user. Briefly agreeing to cover the parts, but tell them about your love of all not the labor. Consider that a things Apple. Be enthusiastic win. If you don’t get the answer you want the first time, don’t be and authentic.

Next, tell them about your afraid to call back and speak with problem and your frustration that another rep. Don’t get into an Apple didn’t cover it but you argument. Thank them for their think they should. It may be that time and try again. Step 4: Bring your Mac or iPod is just barely in The Steve What if even Customer out of warranty, or maybe it’s been in for similar problems Relations isn’t appearing to be before and Apple didn’t fix it fair with you? Now it’s time to right the first time. Often it’s bring in Steve. No, not the Woz, related to a known defect that but rather Mr. Steve Jobs. Write Apple hasn’t quite admitted yet. him at steve@apple.com or Mention places you’ve read sjobs@apple.com. Your email about others having the same will be read by a member of his staff (and even Steve himself on problem you have.

In a previous article, I talked occasion). Make the same case about reading Apple’s Annual you made to Customer Relations in the same fair, accommodating

and professional way. They’ll often find you a solution. Maybe it’s not a CS code, but usually a fair deal that protects Apple’s financial interest, yet goes the extra mile to keep you as a Mac user.

Alternatively, and in addition to contacting Steve, if you are an Apple investor, contact investor relations (408-974-3123). You can mention all the things you mentioned to Customer Relations, but add the fact that this experience has tainted not just your technology buying experience but your confidence in Apple as an investor. If you’ve posted your woes on Twitter, stock boards, or on your blog, you can mention that. Be honest and direct. These people will get you in contact with people in the “Exec” team, who are usually the same people who handle the steve@apple.com email.

Still no dice? Well, I think you are out of luck. Sometimes it just happens. At least now you know the escalation methods and at least have a fighting chance with Apple.

Do you have a successful Apple war story?

Smythson Gives Your Shades Something to Smile About

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:32:37 AM

For those of you who lose

sunglass cases like clockwork, or simply loathe the boring black containers provided upon purchase, your prayers have been answered. Smythson’s snappy

new red Viana carrier lined in

nubuck suede is too cute to inquiries call 866-769-8476.) misplace and impossible to sniff Follow ELLE on Twitter. at. And if blue’s more your color, Become our Facebook fan! look out for the brand’s cerulean version come spring. (For

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The Worm Has Turned: iPhone Exploit Gets Nasty

By Liam Cassidy (TheAppleBlog)

own sage wisdom and advice on the matter. Speaking to The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple, Apple Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:16:53 AM spokesperson Natalie Harrison Last week the news about yet said: another non-belligerent iPhone The worm affects only a very worm did the rounds and people specific set of iPhone users who responded by saying things like have jail broken their iPhones “How silly jailbreaker’s are for and hacked it with unauthorized not changing their SSH root software. As we’ve said before, passwords,” and “It’s only a the vast majority of customers do matter of time until a worm not jailbreak their iPhones, and appears that’s not so friendly…” for good reason. These hacks not OK, yes, geeky people said those only violate the warranty, they things. Normals will likely never will also cause the iPhone to k n o w t h a t j a i l b r e a k i n g i s become unstable and not work something you can do to a phone. reliably.

Well, the predictions of gloom If you live in the Netherlands have proven true. Over the last and have jailbroken your iPhone few days, and reported by The and installed SSH, you need to Mac Observer, a new worm has change the default password to been identified. This one, (so-far p r o t e c t y o u r s e l f f r o m t h i s limited to iPhone owners in the particular exploit. Just don’t Netherlands), takes advantage of think you’ll be safe — Apple the exact same SSH-exploit as might keep the iPhone platform the previous worm. Once on a locked-down tight, but you can’t user’s iPhone, it circumvents a r g u e a g a i n s t t h e o b v i o u s Mobile Safari’s anti-phishing security advantages of doing so. technology to present a spoof of To date, there have been four a popular banking website. Users confirmed worms “in the wild” are tricked into handing over on jailbroken iPhones. How t h e i r o n l i n e b a n k i n g many confirmed worms have authentication details. The worm appeared in the wild that affect spreads from iPhone to iPhone, non-jailbroken iPhones? There but is limited to jailbroken you have it. The Real Question handsets connected to the same Is… Wi-Fi network.

But the real question, as I see it, Apple has weighed-in with its is this; who jailbreaks any more?

have changed.. What other compelling reasons were there to void Apple’s iPhone warranty?

MMS, video recording, exchange server support, multitasking and Copy & Paste were the “most missed” features. Today we have more apps than you can shake an I mean, really… who? Why? The iPhone at. We have MMS and single biggest reason people v i d e o r e c o r d i n g , e x c h a n g e originally went to the trouble of support and copy & paste. jailbreaking their iPhones was The only thing missing is “true” due to frustration at the lack of multitasking, but for the vast native apps. (Back in the early majority of iPhone owners (for days of iPhone ownership, and whom multitasking is another before the app store existed, only way of saying “I want instant Apple’s own home-grown apps messaging!”), Apple’s Push were locally installed on the Notification Service does a device. Every third-party apps d e c e n t j o b o f b a l a n c i n g ran inside Mobile Safari and, productive multitasking with therefore, required access to the preserving battery life.

Internet.) I did a lot of travel back So… why jailbreak? Is it a form then, usually by air and train, so I of protest against Apple’s broken didn’t always have a reliable application approval process? Is Internet connection; this rendered it because you absolutely must most of my web apps useless. replace the default icons with That annoyed me, and I very something far less classy? nearly did the whole jailbreaking Perhaps you can’t live without thing just so I could install t e t h e r i n g ? T e l l u s i n t h e applications locally that would comments the (few) remaining work irrespective of an active reasons for jailbreaking an Internet connection. (Ultimately I iPhone. wussed-out, too afraid I’d Just please don’t say it’s for p e r m a n e n t l y m e s s - u p m y geek cred… I might cry! precious — and expensive — iPhone.)

But that was then, and times

Review: House - Ignorance is Bliss

By Jonathan Toomey (TV Squad) Submitted at 11/24/2009 8:03:00 AM

( S06E09)"There's no point in putting a band together if we're not going to play any gigs." House I'm torn over the best way to tackle this review of "Ignorance is Bliss." I have far more bad things to say about the episode than I do good things, yet I loved it. The outcome I (and presumably most other fans) want to see (House and Cuddy together) is hopefully going to be achieved. This just isn't my ideal path to get there.

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Star Wars: Trench Run Brings the Force to the iPhone

By Liam Cassidy (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:00:52 AM

Star Wars: Trench Run is finally here and this thing is utterly beautiful, packed with authentic audio and video from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and boasting impressive gameplay visuals.

Trench Run is based around the Rebel assault on the Death Star at the end of George Lucas’ classic 1977 movie. Piloting an X-Wing fighter, you begin the game high above the Empire’s dreaded Death Star in an aggressive dogfight with TIE fighters. Once you’ve dispatched them, it’s time to descend into that famous trench and make your approach to a small (two meter wide) thermal exhaust port, which, if memory serves, you’ll find right below the main port.

Oh, and, the shaft is ray-shielded so you’ll need to hit it directly with proton torpedoes. The doubting Dodonna’s amongst you might think that impossible — even for an iPhone — but, y’know, womp rats, T-16’s and all that.

The game starts with a fierce dogfight with TIE fighters above the dreaded Death Star…

…and culminates in the famous trench run.

Trench Run uses the iPhone’s accelerometers to great effect.

I’m usually wary of extensive tilt -control. That might be because I’m just rubbish, or because developers sometimes use accelerometers unnecessarily. In Trench Run it’s not too bad, and there are options for adjusting pitch and sensitivity.

The on-screen controls are cleverly implemented; there are

Medium selected, I dove in… and failed. I’m normally good at this type of thing but after 15 minutes of failure I was starting to hate this game. So I tried again on “Easy.”

10 minutes later I had destroyed the Death Star and defeated the evil Empire. I had finished the whole game. See, once the dogfight’s over, the actual trench run is appallingly easy. THQ Wireless say the game has “tons of replay value” but when the difference between “Easy” and “Medium” is actually “Pointless” and “Practically Impossible” I don’t see myself playing this again any time soon. (Now in your best Yoda voice, croak “That is why you fail.”)

THQ also says there are hidden features in the game. You could always stretch out with your fingers and ask Google what they are, but that’s probably the path to the Dark Side.

If you love Star Wars, this is a game you should own. I doubt it’s worth the $4.99 asking price, but hey, there’s profit to be had, and Lucasfilm ain’t finished beating this Tauntaun just yet.

Star Wars Trench Run is out now. Go buy it– and may the Force be with you.

no virtual buttons cluttering the screen. Instead, the two main controls (Force Power for slow motion and, of course, Fire) are activated by pressing the left or right hand sides of the screen.

Easy.

The few controls are activated by hitting large areas of the screen Video sequences of the X-Wings approaching the Death Star (Sfoils in attack position, naturally) and the spectacular explosion of

the Death Star itself (the 1997 bang, by the way) really help set the scene. But it’s John Williams’ breathtaking score that puts you slap bang in the middle of the action.

All Wings report in…

One quibble; the difficulty levels are a bit… odd. The easiest level was selected for me at installation so I bumped it up a level (usually labeled “Normal” but Trench Run goes directly from Easy to Medium.) So, with

according to people familiar with the matter.

China’s 11 largest listed banks will have to raise at least Rmb300bn ($43bn) to meet more

s t r i n g e n t c a p i t a l a d e q u a c y This content has passed through requirements and maintain loan fivefilters.org. growth and business expansion, according to estimates from BNP Paribas.

China banks prepare to raise capital (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:18:13 AM

China’s banks are preparing to

raise tens of billions of dollars in additional capital to meet regulatory requirements following an unprecedented expansion of new loans this year,

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Reason to Quit: Apple Warranties Void for Smokers

By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog)

official statement regarding the company’s policy on Macs used in a smoking environment, but Submitted at 11/23/2009 9:30:36 AM considering the similarity of both I quit smoking four years ago, responses to the inquiries of the but before that, I was a dedicated two people affected, Apple repair smoker for a solid decade. personnel at least reserve the Luckily, I never had any Mac right to refuse service, even if trouble that would necessitate a nicotine as a hazardous substance they don’t always choose to warranty replacement during on the Occupational Safety and exercise that right. those 10 years, or I might’ve Health Administration (OSHA) As a longtime smoker (who been out of luck. Apple has list. At least, that’s what one of never smoked indoors anywhere denied Applecare warranty the people affected heard from I lived, mind you), and as service in at least two separate Steve Jobs’ office, though she someone who’s had to get the instances due to the effects of clearly disputes the logic used in cigarette smell out of at least one secondhand smoke, according to that justification: car before selling it, I can see Consumerist.

Dena [from Jobs' office] did people objecting to working on a In both cases, smoke was to advise me that nicotine is on computer that’s been saturated blame for repairs not performed, O S H A ’ s l i s t o f h a z a r d o u s with smoke for an extended but not because the malfunctions substances and Apple would not period. The smell isn’t pretty, the computers suffered were due require an employee to repair and it might feel like the machine to damage related to cigarette anything deemed hazardous to might be hazardous to your smoke. Instead, the fact that the their health. However, OSHA health — feel being the key Macs had existed in houses also lists calcium carbonate word. w h e r e p e o p l e s m o k e d h a d (found in calcium tablets), I’m no scientist, but I’m resulted in the machines being isopropyl alcohol (used to clean assuming it isn’t like the Apple labeled health risks, which was wounds), chlorine (used in techs cracked the case and a puff grounds for repair personnel to swimming pools), hydrogen of smoke shot out. Is there really refuse to work on them. peroxide (also used to clean a significant danger associated It’s unclear whether or not wounds), sucrose (a sugar), talc with the inert remnants of what smoking is specifically covered ( a s i n p o w d e r ) , e t c … a s smoke leaves behind? I remain in the terms of Applecare, but it h a z a r d o u s s u b s t a n c e s . highly skeptical. Anyone else appears that the grounds upon Consumerist couldn’t get an ever run into this excuse for which service refusals have been Apple representative to make an refusing an otherwise valid made is the classification of Applecare repair?

Review: Heroes Thanksgiving

By Jason Hughes (TV Squad)

with Doug's dog, but that doesn't excuse Sandra for dating such a total tool. It's a little awkward to (S04E11) I am thankful that we think of going to your ex's are finally getting to the meat of holiday, but it's not unheard of. this volume. I am thankful that Particularly since she probably we are inching closer to the already knew Claire was going to inevitable conclusion of this be there. battle between Sylar and Nathan Not to be outdone, Samuel had a over who will retain control of Thanksgiving dinner of his own the body. And I am thankful that back at the Carnival, but Hiro Angela Petrelli, the always certainly wasn't thankful to be incomparable Cristine Rose, was there. back this week.

Continue reading Review: Also making a return appearance Heroes - Thanksgiving f o r t h e B e n n e t t f a m i l y Filed under: Heroes, Episode Thanksgiving dinner was Sandra, Reviews, Reality-Free along with her new beau Doug.

Permalink| Email this| | And, of course, Mr. Muggles. It's C o m m e n t s sweet that Muggs fell in love Submitted at 11/24/2009 4:18:00 AM

Japan by iPhone

By Kevin Collins (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 11/23/2009 10:26:11 PM

• About Flickr

Flickr is a revolution in photo process. Get comments, notes, fivefilters.org. storage, sharing and organization, and tags on your photos, post to making photo management an any blog, share and more! easy, natural and collaborative This content has passed through

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New iPhone Ads From Apple Jab at Verizon

By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog)

when it comes to cell phone usage? As convenient as it is to be able to pop in and out of the Submitted at 11/23/2009 6:16:07 PM phone app to check on showtimes AT&T wasn’t the only company and other little luxuries, does it that took offense to Verizon’s really matter if there are huge “There’s a Map for That” ad blackout zones where you can’t campaign and responded in kind. even take a call to begin with, let Monday night, Apple premiered alone take one and use your two new iPhone ads that are network data simultaneously? actually aimed at pointing out the In my opinion, these ads fare downsides of Verizon’s network, very poorly when compared to though they don’t state that their Mac counterparts. The “Get outright. a Mac” series of ads manages to The two new ads, posted by target an Apple competitor BusinessWeek ahead of their cleverly, and in an entertaining U.S. television debut, depict fashion. Apple’s iPhone ads have different scenarios in which you never been anywhere near as w a n t t o a c c e s s d a t a - u s i n g call with a friend, during which good, but so far, they haven’t had features of your iPhone while you can check movie times, to be. I’d expect more from also remaining on a call. This is location, and restaurant details. Cupertino in response to the first s o m e t h i n g y o u c a n d o o n Both ads follow this post. real challenge to the iPhone’s AT&T’s HSDPA/UMTS 3G The ads are clearly aimed at market domination, Verizon’s network, but not something you V e r i z o n c u s t o m e r s . I w a s Droid, than this sort of middle-of can do using Verizon’s CDMA- actually completely unaware that -the-road effort that doesn’t based one. the ability to use both voice a d d r e s s t h e m a i n c o n c e r n In the first ad, three different calling and data access at the customers wary of AT&T still scenarios where you might want same time was even a feature. I have. to check something without do it constantly without even Apple’s clearly doing this for leaving your call are depicted. thinking about it. Would I miss it AT&T, but both companies need They include a client call, talking if I’d never had it to begin with? to get their acts together if they to a friend and changing a Hard to say. want to counteract the clever reservation, and talking to your There’s another question the ads work coming out of Verizon’s wife and ordering flowers for b r i n g u p . D o e s n e t w o r k camp. Here’s a tip: A little your anniversary. reliability trump multitasking Hodgman goes a Long way.

The second ad depicts a single

FlashForward joins Cougar Town with temporary production shut-down

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

worry that all the king’s horses and all the production shutdown retooling won’t be able to put Submitted at 11/23/2009 5:45:32 PM FlashForward’s ratings back Michael Ausiello reports that together again.

ABC has temporarily halted This news comes on the heels of production on freshman series last night’s announcement that FlashForward(and others like production on Cougar Town had T h e W r a p c o n f i r m t h e been shut down temporarily shutdown). Ausiello is quick to while Courtney Cox attended to note the recent departure of some personal matters ( that showrunner Marc Guggenheim appear to be resolving quickly). as well as new series lows with While production was halted last the ratings, but ABC is quick to Friday, the plans called for the note that the show’s production show to be on hiatus this week s c h e d u l e w a s d e s i g n e d t o anyway. a c c o m m o d a t e s u c h b r e a k s . This content has passed through I wouldn’t read anything much fivefilters.org. into a break like this, especially around Thanksgiving, but I also

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Apple’s Black Friday Tease

By Liam Cassidy (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 11/23/2009 8:30:48 AM

Good golly gosh but aren’t Macs expensive? Apple unashamedly caters to the sub-$1,000 computer market and doesn’t compromise on price. So, when our credit card statements arrive, we reassure our guilt-ridden selves that it’s the price we must pay for superior quality. We are, frankly, discerning, demanding, debonair suckers buyers.

But there is a day — just one, glorious day in the year — when the prices on Macs (and other goodies) fall and we are no longer forced to make the agonising choice between, say, food for the month or a shiny new toy with a glowing fruit on it. It’s Black Friday, of course, it isn’t only for Americans, and Apple just started teasing us about it.

The Apple online store features a new Apple One-Day Shopping

Store, irrespective of their country of residence.

I tell you this much; if the Magic Mouse gets discounted, I’ll be mighty upset (see what I did there?). I only bought mine last week. It won’t do that, will it?

However, my MobileMe subscription does need renewing, and I’ll be deeply happy to get a discount on that hobbled-yetnecessary wreck of a service.

(Sadly, a 15 percent discount still doesn’t mean a fair price for MobileMe, but heck, I’ll take what I can!)

What do you think should be discounted, and by how much?

Event page. It doesn’t say an iPhone, and Mac gift ideas — all discounts will be. The Boy Are you waiting for Friday with awful lot, though the headline with free shipping.

Genius Report suggests the baited breath, and credit card in tantalises us with “Happy Friday. Mark your calendar now. And discounts on iPods might be as hand? What are you most hoping Especially this Friday.” until then, start your research by high as 30 percent, and up to 25 to see — and don’t say a Core i7 The special one-day Apple browsing the Apple Online Store percent on Macs. Accessories, iMac at half price, you know shopping event. November 27. to find iPod, iPhone, and Mac they say, will enjoy discounts of that’s never gonna happen! Share Come back to the Apple Online gifts for everyone on your list. up to 15 percent. Even better, your retail therapy dreams in the Store the day after Thanksgiving No precise word yet on which while Black Friday is a mostly comments below. for a special one-day-only iPods, iPhones and Macs will be American tradition, the discounts holiday shopping event. You’ll included in the sale, or how a r e u s u a l l y m a d e f o r a l l find dozens of great iPod, generous the (very temporary) customers buying on the Apple

Boomerang brings back classic '70s Thanksgiving special

By John Scott Lewinski (TV Squad)

you've got The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't.

Boomerang is reaching into the Submitted at 11/24/2009 9:03:00 AM Hanna-Barbera archives to bring No Generation X'er can forget back this all-but-forgotten TV the monochrome colors and special from the 1970s. You can compromising frame rate of catch it at 10 a.m. and at 7 p.m.

1970s Hanna-Barbera animation. (ET).

Wasn't"chronicles one Take that unmistakable style and According to a network release, dangerously fateful day for some autumnal inking, and The Thanksgiving That Almost

Johnny Cooke, a young Pilgrim, Thanksgiving special and Little Bear, an Indian boy, Filed under: Animation, who are discovered missing. The C h i l d r e n , R e a l i t y - F r e e first Thanksgiving feast cannot Permalink| Email this| | start without them, and when C o m m e n t s their friend Jeremy Squirrel hears they are in peril he goes on a daring rescue mission."

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Twittelator Pro Update Brings List Support to the iPhone

By Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 11/23/2009 3:51:15 PM

An update recently went live in the App Store for Twitter client Twittelator Pro that brings, among other things, support for the new Lists feature. Lists, which Twitter implemented only a few weeks ago, allows users to create and subscribe to lists of users, which Twitter users can organize however they see fit.

For example, TheAppleBlog offers a list of TAB writers, and one of developers.

Twittelator Pro is the first iPhone client to use the new Lists API. Using the app, you can now create or edit your own lists, view the lists of other users, and follow or unfollow lists. It’s a nice alternative to client-based groups, and it’s especially convenient on the iPhone platform, since it makes Twitter’s

sources all in one place, the search function is especially helpful.

Here’s a list of some of the other new features introduced in version 3.4: • Reply All – Tap the user avatar next to the tweet to reply to all mentioned.

• What the Trend? – Provides an explanation for why a topic is trending. information glut a little more • Search Nearby shows avatars on map pins digestible.

The update also brings some • Emailing a link uses the web more list-centric new discovery page title as the message subject tools, like suggestions, featured, by default random, and list searching so that • Much faster download times you can explore beyond your own network. It’s actually got me Twittelator Pro sells for $4.99 in looking around at lists, which is the App Store. It’s a very featuremore than I’ve done since rich piece of software, but a little By Allison Waldman (TV Twitter implemented the feature. too busy for my tastes. If you’re Squad) As a way of finding new people a TweetDeck desktop user, it’ll Submitted at 11/24/2009 12:52:00 AM to follow, or of locating good probably be more to your liking. thematically grouped news (S07E09) How far are the writers going to take the Charlie and Chelsea relationship? Do you think they're actually going to get Afghanistan, in perhaps the most forces already in place. It would married? I ask because tonight's momentous decision of his also deeply disappoint many show was a glimpse of what presidency to date.

Democrats who have warned married Charlie might be like.

Such a decision would go most against ramping up the eight-year Funny, yes, but is a domesticated Charlie really what I want to of the way to meeting the request -long war. for 40,000 troops by Gen Stanley This content has passed through watch? Gin rummy and snoring?

Charlie being sensitive and in McChrystal, the commander in fivefilters.org. touch with a woman's feelings? the field, to add to the 68,000 US Where has my Charlie gone?

Alan, fortunately, is in exactly

Obama to reveal Afghan surge numbers (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:25:27 AM

The US’s allies expect Barack Obama to announce next week that he favours sending more than 30,000 extra troops to

Review: Two and a Half Men - Captain Terry's Spray-On Hair the same spot where he's always been. The crapper. Remember that Emmy that Jon Cryer won for Two and a Half Men in September? He may have earned a bookend with this season's work. More on his hair care products and dating services after the jump.

Continue reading Review: Two and a Half Men - Captain Terry's Spray-On Hair Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Posterous and Tumblr are next (Scripting News)

addition to the API, it would be impossible.

I know I am putting pressure on I continue to work on my new them to add the feature. But it's editorial system. Whether it will in a good cause. I want to enable see the light of day remains to be people to use their product in the seen. I'm finding it useful and same way they use the other may at some point publish the publishing environments. tools. In the meantime, I'm Talking with Steve earlier today learning a lot about the various he says something obvious that's publishing environments. worth repeating. There is a I supported WordPress right off position between the lightweight the bat.

Twitter and the heavyweight Then I wanted to do Posterous, WordPress. And Tumblr, but they are missing one Posterous and now TypePad are parameter on their API for positioning themselves right editing a post. As a result you there. I expect this sweet spot to can post something but if the user become more important over wants to revise it, they have no feature request. I've also checked time. Twitter is, no doubt, choice but to do it through the with Steve Rubel, the most introducing a great number of web interface, can't do it through famous (imho) Posterous user to people to the joys of blogging. the API. Tumblr doesn't have this confirm that there are no desktop When they want more, some of limit, nor does WordPress. I have editing tools for Posterous. them will certainly move to these gotten in touch with the Confirmed. Without this simple "lite" blogging tools.

Posterous team and made the Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:32:21 PM

Recap: Dancing with the Stars - Performance 10

By Michael Pascua (TV Squad) Submitted at 11/24/2009 1:52:00 AM

( S09E20) It's the finals of Dancing with the Stars and the trophy was placed in front of the judge's table. Tom announces that three couples have three new dances; technically Mya was part of Team Paso Doble in week seven.

The second round was the megamix, and I would rather have them return to the group dance-off format. The three couples dancing at the same time was too much to handle. I missed individuality.

I was very disappointed with the Freestyle round. There's free reign and it didn't seem like

anyone even took it. I was expecting Kelly to rock out and Mya to pull off a tasteful hip-hop piece. Alas, I got neither.

Continue reading Recap: Dancing with the Stars Performance 10 Filed under: OpEd, Dancing With The Stars, Episode Recaps Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Review: The Big Bang Theory - The Vengence Formulation

By Kona Gallagher (TV Squad) Submitted at 11/24/2009 9:29:00 AM

(S03E09) As soon as I read the episode info and saw that Kripke was going to be making an appearance, I lost all hope of this episode coming anywhere close to matching the brilliance of last week's. I was not wrong. I don't like Kripke. I don't find a speech impediment to be funny, and

with him, it's completely extraneous. Sheldon could just have an enemy (I don't doubt he had many, in fact). You don't need to give the character this extra identifying mark.

So not only was I dismayed by Kripke's appearance, his practical joke was just mean-spirited and again, not something that I found funny. I don't like watching people getting humiliated.

Sheldon dressed up for a radio

interview. That's adorable, and then to not only be embarrassed for absolutely no reason in front of a national audience, but to

have his friends laughing at him as well, just made me sad.

Luckily, Wolowitz's uh, love triangle with Bernadette and

Katee Sackhoff saved the episode for me.

Continue reading Review: The Big Bang Theory - The Vengence Formulation Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Big Bang Theory Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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TV Guide Network to air “I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan Boyle Story;” Premieres Sunday, December 13 at 8p

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

“Britain’s Got Talent”, the British reality competition series executive produced by Simon Submitted at 11/24/2009 4:06:39 AM Cowell that rocketed Susan GLOBAL MUSIC SENSATION Boyle to superstardom.

SUSAN BOYLE TO DEBUT IN “Susan Boyle is one of those rare O R I G I N A L O N E - H O U R personalities who has captivated D O C U M E N T A R Y millions of fans around the world FEATURING LIVE STAGE with her undeniable vocal talent P E R F O R M A N C E S and incredible life story,” said EXCLUSIVELY ON TV GUIDE Ryan O’Hara, President of TV NETWORK Guide Network and “I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan TVGuide.com. “For the first time Boyle Story” To Premiere on TV e v e r , f a n s w i l l h a v e a n Guide Network opportunity to see Susan Boyle on Sunday, December 13 at 8:00 shine on stage in her own p.m. ET/PT spotlight, witness amazing LOS ANGELES (November 24, musical performances in a 2009) – Hot off the heels of her concert setting, as well as gain highly anticipated CD which has insight into the challenges she become the most pre-ordered overcame as she rose to an album of all-time, Susan Boyle, international phenomenon.” the global music sensation who A co-production between recently captured the hearts of t a l k b a c k T H A M E S , t h e U K fans around the world, will star in production company owned by an original one-hour television FremantleMedia, and Simon special exclusively on TV Guide Cowell’s Syco TV, “I Dreamed a N e t w o r k . T h e w o r l d w i d e Dream: The Susan Boyle Story” premiere of “ I Dreamed a will include exclusive interviews Dream: The Susan Boyle Story” with Susan, friends and celebrity airs on Sunday, December 13 at fans such as Simon Cowell, 9:00 p.m. on ITV1 in the UK, a l o n g s i d e s p e c t a c u l a r followed by the exclusive North performances with special guests American premiere on TV Guide and other surprises. Susan will Network at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. The premiere songs from her new CD s h o w w i l l c e l e b r a t e t h i s including, “Cry Me a River” and extraordinary woman’s journey the Rolling Stones classic “Wild from a small village in rural Horses” as well as a very special Scotland to international fame performance of the song that and fan-fare following her l a u n c h e d h e r t o g l o b a l inspiring performance on superstardom; “I Dreamed

A Dream,” with the London West End cast of Les Miserables.

Lisa Honig, VP Sales, USA and Canada, for FremantleMedia Enterprises said, “Audiences in North America, and indeed worldwide, have embraced Susan Boyle and this television special will allow them to get to know her and her life story even better.

Very rarely does this sort of thing happen, Susan is such a genuine personality and her story is ultimately one of the most compelling.”

On January 21, 2009 a shy, devout 47-year old woman stepped onto the stage of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow to audition for “Britain’s Got Talent.” In front of the threestrong panel of judges charged with determining which of this year’s British hopefuls really did have talent, Susan Boyle’s performance became a watershed moment that neither she nor anyone involved in the show could possibly have foreseen.

During her three and a half minutes of television airtime, Susan Boyle elicited a moment of pure, molten zeitgeist that became both her and the show’s defining moment. Her dazzling performance of the song “I Dreamed a Dream,” from the musical Les Miserables, confounded the “Britain’s Got Talent” judges and the studio

audience. A media wave grew feverishly after the performance, and 300 million YouTube views later, Susan Boyle embodied a new kind of international fame. ?Susan Boyle will make her highly anticipated album debut with ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ out on Columbia November 24 and once again, defy preconceptions.

Produced by Steve Mac, ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ features her signature songs, “I Dreamed A Dream” and “Cry Me A River.”

The album also includes a haunting rendition of Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” Madonna’s “You’ll See,” The Monkees’ ‘Daydream Believer,’ and “Who I Was Born To Be,” an original recording written specially for Susan. Susan enthused: “It was my greatest ambition to release an album and I have finally achieved it. There is happiness out there for everyone who dares to dream.”

About TV Guide Network TV Guide Network is the true entertainment insider and the only network that celebrates Hollywood, its stars and the shows that fans adore.

Committed to buzz-worthy, breakout programming and a rich, multi-platform viewing experience, TV Guide Network is seen in more than 80 million homes nationwide and online at TVGuide.com, a one-stop fan destination serving 21 million

unique users per month. TV Guide Network is home to some of America’s fan-favorite series including “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Ugly Betty” and “American Idol Rewind.” The network also takes fans behindthe-scenes of Hollywood with original programming that delivers the latest news on entertainment and pop culture, as well as live coverage of the industry’s biggest events such as the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards® and Primetime Emmy® Awards. TV Guide Network, TVGuide.com and the TV Guide brand are owned by Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the leading next-generation studio and producer of award-winning series “Mad Men” and “Weeds,” and One Equity Partners, the private equity arm of JPMorgan Chase.

About FremantleMedia & FremantleMedia Enterprises FremantleMedia is one of the leading creators and producers of entertainment brands in the world. FremantleMedia is part of the RTL Group, Europe’s largest television and radio broadcast company, which is in turn 90 percent owned by Bertelsmann AG, one of the world’s major media and entertainment companies. FremantleMedia’s worldwide production arm is GUIDE page 46

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responsible for many of the world’s highest rated prime time entertainment, drama, serial drama and factual entertainment programmes. FremantleMedia Enterprises is the brand extension arm of FremantleMedia, offering a one-stop-shop for all Licensing, Distribution and Home Entertainment around the world.

The FremantleMedia Group ( w h i c h i n c l u d e s talkbackTHAMES, UFA and Grundy amongst others) has operations in 22 countries, one of the most comprehensive global networks, creating over 14,000 hours of programming a year, rolling out more than 60 formats and managing over 300 individual titles. FremantleMedia has some of the world’s most

sought after and long running formats in its catalogue, and globally, produces such programmes as: Idols (coproduced with 19 Productions in the US), The X Factor (coproduced with Syco in the UK), Got Talent (co-produced with Syco in the UK and the US), Neighbours, The Bill, Family Feud, The Price is Right, Farmer Wants A Wife and Hole In The Wall.

About talkbackTHAMES talkbackTHAMES is one of the UK’s largest production companies providing award winning programming for all major terrestrial and digital channels. With an unparalleled range of programming spanning all genres – The X Factor,

Britain’s Got Talent, to The Bill, Grand Designs, Property Ladder, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, The IT Crowd, QI, The Apprentice to Stephen Poliakoff’s award winning dramas talkbackTHAMES has aired over 500 hours of programming on terrestrial TV in the past 12 m o n t h s a l o n e . talkbackTHAMES is the UK Production arm of FremantleMedia.

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USA orders more Psych

By Allison Waldman (TV Squad) Submitted at 11/24/2009 10:02:00 AM

USA Network is losing Monk this year, but it's not about to let Psych go. The adventures of Shawn and Gus will continue.

USA announced today that Psych is coming back for season five, with 16 new episodes ordered up.

This, my friends, is a no-brainer.

Psych is one of USA's more reliable hours, a comedy-mystery

of the episodes air beginning in late January (the date hasn't been confirmed yet) -- the show performed especially well in younger demographics.

Continue reading USA orders more Psych Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free series that has a loyal following.

Permalink| Email this| | This past summer season -- C o m m e n t s which will soon be completed in the winter when the second half

Maybe Brad Wright was right about Stargate Universe outlasting V?

By Robert Seidman (TVbytheNumbers)

million last and the series-low 1.626 million on November 6.

Maybe no Dollhouse(or Ugly Submitted at 11/23/2009 6:36:40 PM Betty, last Friday ABC aired Or maybe not. But either way, “Shrek the Third”).

New Moon in the theaters didn’t Gay entertainment blog After seem to hurt Stargate Universe Elton it referred to Friday’s any last Friday night and its e p i s o d e , “ L i f e ” a s a n numbers were up for the second extraordinary landmark in lesbian consecutive week. television.

It averaged 1.891 million This content has passed through viewers on Friday(11/20), up fivefilters.org. from last week’s (11/13) 1.802

Why I tweet … - FederalTimes.com By twitter:@pricefloyd (TweetMeme)

Nice shout out from Gen. http://www.federaltimes.com/arti McKinley in todays Fed Times re cle/20091120/ADOP06/9112003 u s i n g S N S : 10/1037/ADOP

0 comments Source: www.federaltimes.com

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The Season Nine 'Dancing with the Stars' 'Dancing with the Stars' Finalists' Fate in Judges' Scoreboard and Viewers' Hands

Simon Cowell Producing Susan Boyle Documentary

(ETonline - Breaking News)

The TV Guide Network has announced that it will broadcast a documentary based on the Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle, the Associated Press reported.

Titled 'I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan Boyle Story,' the one-hour film will include performances by the "Britain's Got Talent" break-out star. It will also offer insight into her personal life, featuring interviews with her friends and "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell, who is serving as a producer of this project.

Premiering December 13 at 8 p.m., 'I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan Boyle Story' will chronicle Boyle's journey from obscurity to making global headlines with her angelic voice, according to the AP.

32 27 21 18 24 33 53 50** Ashley Hamilton 19********* Submitted at 11/23/2009 10:01:00 PM Chuck Liddell 22 19 17 How did your faves rank on the 17****** Debi Mazar 22 21 " D a n c i n g w i t h t h e S t a r s " 17******* Donny Osmond 30 scoreboard tonight?

25 21 24 29 31 52 50 74 85 Here's the "Dancing with the Joanna Krupa 34 20 23 26 24 36 Stars" scoreboard up to Nov. 23, 55 52 81* Kathy Ireland 20 2009: 18******** Kelly Osbourne 31 --- wk 19 20 23 24 25 52 51 78 76 1 wk Louie Vito 27 19 20 16 22 2 wk 24**** Macy Gray 19********* 3 wk Mark Dacascos 29 21 18 22 26 4 wk 32 43*** Melissa Joan Hart 24 5 wk 19 19 28 23 24**** Michael 6 wk Irvin 19 20 14 16 21 22 47*** 7 wk Mya 31 27 27 28 27 33 49 59 87 8 wk 87 Natalie Coughlin 27 21 26 24 9 wk 22***** Tom DeLay 20 18 10 Aaron Carter 15*******

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/24/2009 2:14:00 AM

The final three couples have one last opportunity Tuesday night to prove to the judges that they are deserving of the mirror ball trophy on "Dancing with the Stars." ET's special correspondent Marie Osmond, a "DWTS" alumna herself, got the low down from the finalists after Monday's show.

The intense training sessions have undoubtedly taken a toll on the celebs. Marie took note that as the season progressed, the women's heels got shorter. Kelly Osbourne agreed: "We started

FX Takes Bite Out of 'Twilight' Series (ETonline - Breaking News)

the ad-supported FX. FX will premiere 'Twilight' on their Submitted at 11/23/2009 11:15:00 PM network in late 2011, followed The FX network has vamped it by 'The Twilight Saga: New up by securing broadcast rights to Moon' in late 2012, says The the four movies in the 'Twilight' Hollywood Reporter. The third s e r i e s , a c c o r d i n g t o T h e installment in the franchise, Hollywood Reporter.

'Eclipse,' whose theatrical release After the movies' televised is June 30, will make its FX screenings on pay cable channel debut in early 2013. The fourth Showtime, the films will rise on and final story in the series,

'Breaking Down,' is waiting to receive the green-light to start production.

In this package deal with Summit Entertainment, FX also gets the rights to air 'The Hurt Locker,' 'Push.,' and 'Knowing,' which stars Nicolas Cage. The three films are scheduled to hit FX in the middle of 2012.

out with great intentions of being tall and sexy, but then we realized that I need a low heel. I can't do it."

Mya and Donny Osmond reflected on what they have gained as participants in this journey to ballroom greatness.

Mya responded, "The biggest thing that I’ve learned through this whole experience would definitely be discipline and sacrifice. This is the true test here to see your threshold of pain, of want, and desire; to see how far you can go to reach your full potential and that requires a lot of sacrifice."

(ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 11/24/2009 12:19:00 AM

RIP Joost By twitter:@mashable (TweetMeme) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:05:44 AM

Remember Joost? There was a time when the peer-to-peer video sharing site was one of the hottest startups on the planet, with famous founders, tens of millions of dollars in investment, and

thousands of people clamoring for invites.But those days are long over, as the likes of Hulu and YouTube have plowed past it in the realm of video content, without the download that Joost required until‌ 0 comments Source: mashable.com

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Underdogs Rule for One Sunday (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 11/23/2009 8:44:02 AM

We know, we know. “That’s why they play the games” and “any given Sunday” and all that.

But mere football clichés, true though they may be, don’t quite capture the weird majesty of Week 11 in the NFL. The ultramoribund Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions — a match-up your Fixer described as “belief-system -challenging” on Friday— faced off in a wildly enjoyable 38-37 shootout that wound up being a record-breaking game for Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.

The rookie threw the pass of the day, a game-winner with no time on the clock. Ultra-mangy underdogs had their days elsewhere, too, as the Oakland Raiders pulled out a late 20-17 win over the AFC Central Northleading Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs outlasted the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime, 27-24. If there is a football self-help book called “When Bad Things Happen to Good Football Teams,” it’s surely flying off the shelves today. Getty Images Zach Miller enjoys the kind of adulation Sunday that only an Oakland Raider could appreciate.

The good thing that happened in Detroit, in the game between two very bad teams, may be the most surprising of the day’s outcomes.

Las Vegas set the over/under for the game at 37 points (in total, remember, not per team), which

seemed reasonable enough considering the pair of ineptitude -intensive seasons the Lions and Browns had experienced to that point. But the game turned into a shootout, with embattled Browns quarterback Brady Quinn posting a career day and Stafford throwing for 422 yards and tying an NFL rookie record with five touchdown passes. Cleveland’s 24-3 first-quarter lead evaporated as the teams traded scores until after the final whistle. A passinterference call on the Browns as time expired gave the Lions one untimed play from the 1-yard line, and an injured Stafford dragged himself off the sidelines with an injured shoulder to deliver the game-winner to rookie tight end Brandon Pettigrew.

“There is one reason and one reason only Lions coach Jim Schwartz let Stafford go back on the football field Sunday,” MLive’s Tom Kowalski writes.

“Schwartz believes Stafford has the toughness to handle the pressure, the leadership to handle his teammates and, more than anything, that Stafford has ‘it.’ ” The Browns, for their part, have a 1-9 record and a heartbreaking loss to show for their effort.

Well, not only that, per the Canton Repository’s Todd Porter. “It might be the signature loss that ultimately leads to owner Randy Lerner paying another coach not to coach next season,” Porter writes. “Every fired coach needs one of these

Batch, was injured and may miss six weeks). Injuries aside, the Steelers’ departure from K.C. without a victory also owed much to the big plays contributed by new Chiefs starting running back and kick returner Jamaal Charles, Adam Teicher writes in losses to hang his pink slip on. the Kansas City Star.

The early word on [Now Eric] Mangini has it.”

Oakland Raiders coach Tom Roethlisberger was that he Cable has been facing down a s u f f e r e d s o m e t h i n g l i k e a pink slip all season, for various concussion. By Monday, Big reasons, but saw his team pick up Ben’s status was revised to “good a 20-17 win against the very to go in Week 12.” It’s a tough Cincinnati Bengals on common thing in the NFL, but in Sunday. While a couple of Cincy the New York Times, Alan miscues helped, the victory was Schwarz reports that a stille v e n m o r e r e m a r k a b l e vague, sorely belated, hugely considering who was leading welcome new concussion policy Oakland to victory at quarterback issued by the NFL may put an — Tampa Bay castoff Bruce end to the league’s familiar Gradkowski, not JaMarcus concussion shuffle. One major Russell, the ultra-talented, ultra- issue is the potential conflict of disappointing former first overall interest facing a doctor paid by draft pick. “The only difference teams to assess players. “After an b e t w e e n t h e t w o i s t h a t embarrassing hearing on the issue Gradkowski works harder, is in before the House Judiciary better shape, knows the offense Committee last month in which better, knows defenses better, the league was compared to the makes adjustments on the fly tobacco industry, the N.F.L. better, is a far-superior scrambler, seems to have begun to embrace is a more accurate passer, and the value of outside opinion,” brings more energy,” the San Schwarz writes.* * * The looming termination of Francisco Chronicle’s Scott Notre Dame head coach Charlie Ostler writes.

The Pittsburgh Steelers played Weis, which seemed likely when without All-Pro safety Troy Garey covered it last week, Polamalu at the start of their seems even more so today. game against Kansas City and Weis’s Irish dropped a doublewithout star quarterback Ben overtime, 33-30, heartbreaker at Roethlisberger at the end of it home to Connecticut on Saturday after a big hit sent him to the and head into a tough game sidelines (his backup, Charlie a g a i n s t S t a n f o r d w i t h a n

underwhelming 6-5 record.

At CBS Sports, Dennis Dodd handicaps the potential replacements for Weis in South Bend. At Yahoo, Dan Wetzel is bullish on Notre Dame’s upcoming candidate search.

“After a decade and a half of bad hires, if there’s anything that should elicit confidence for Notre Dame football fans, it’s this: they almost can’t get it wrong this time. There will be no excuses,” Wetzel writes. “Notre Dame will seek a replacement for Charlie Weis at the near perfect time — when competition for the best and brightest coaches willing to make a move is nonexistent.”* * * Blowouts are a fact of life in sports, but Tottenham Hotspur’s 9-1 victory over Wigan in English Premier League play was stunningly lopsided as soccer games go. The final score wasn’t the most impressive thing about this game, though. That would be the five goals — a total that tied a long-standing Premier League single-game record — scored by Tottenham forward Jermain Defoe.

More amazing still, at least to soccer neophytes such as your Fixer, is the fact that Defoe is unlikely to have a starting spot on England’s national team in the 2010 World Cup. “For all his undoubted brilliance in front of goal, Defoe’s style makes him something of a dying breed in an UNDERDOGS page 51

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Minnesota Twins' Joe Mauer near-unanimous pick as AL's MVP

By Associated Press (ESPN.com)

Mauer became the second Twins player to win in four years, following Justin Morneau in Submitted at 11/23/2009 4:14:56 PM 2006. Morneau gave Mauer a Twins C Joe Mauer Wins AL bottle of champagne Monday at MVP Twins C Joe Mauer Wins the Metrodome.

AL MVP VIDEO PLAYLIST "Hopefully we can pop that open • Twins C Joe Mauer Wins AL here a little later," Mauer said.

MVP Twins C Joe Mauer Wins Mauer set a major league record AL MVP for highest batting average by a • Mauer Near-Unanimous Pick catcher and won his third batting A s A L M V P M a u e r N e a r - title, becoming the first repeat Unanimous Pick As AL MVP batting champion since Nomar Garciaparra in 1999-2000. AL NEW YORK -- Joe Mauer MVP Voting became only the second catcher Joe Mauer received 27 of 28 first in 33 years to win the American -place votes to win his first AL League Most Valuable Player MVP award. The only other Award, finishing first in a near- player to get a first-place vote unanimous vote Monday. was the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera, The Minnesota Twins star w h o f i n i s h e d f o u r t h . A received 27 of 28 first-place b r e a k d o w n o f t h e v o t i n g : votes and 387 points in balloting "I love catching. I love the b y t h e B a s e b a l l W r i t e r s ' demands that are put on me and A s s o c i a t i o n o f A m e r i c a . the responsibilities that I have, New York Yankees teammates although it might beat you up a Mark Teixeira(225 points) and l i t t l e b i t p h y s i c a l l y a n d Derek Jeter(193) followed. The mentally," Mauer said. "I like Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera being back there making those drew the other first-place vote decisions, you know, for my and was fourth with 171 points, team." one point ahead of the Los After missing April with a back A n g e l e s A n g e l s ' K e n d r y injury, Mauer homered on his Morales. first swing of the season and

went on to lead the AL in batting average (.365), on-base percentage (.444) and slugging percentage (.587), the first AL player to top all three categories in the same season since George Brett in 1980.

Mauer set career bests with 28 homers and 96 RBIs. He had more walks (76) than strikeouts (63) and batted .378 after Morneau's season-ending back injury Sept. 12, helping the Twins overtake Detroit for the AL Central title. He was voted to his third All-Star team and won his second straight AL Gold Glove.

Mauer said the injury and his minor rehabilitation assignment might have been a "blessing in disguise." He was forced to do more core work on his abdominal muscles.

"In April, I couldn't watch a whole lot of the games," he said.

"I'd watch for a little bit and I'd get so frustrated that I wasn't out there."

Born in St. Paul, the 26-year-old can leave the Twins and become a free agent after the 2010 season, when he is to make $12.5 million. Minnesota is expected to

try to sign him to a new deal.

"I've always said it will happen when it needs to happen and I truly believe that," he said. "I'm not the kind of guy that, you know, says by this date we need to have something done."

He enjoys playing in front of his family and friends and his preference is to stay with the Twins.

"Can we win here? Yes. Definitely. I think so," he said.

"And that's ultimately what I would like to do."

For now, Twins general manager Bill Smith didn't want to address the business side.

"All that contract stuff, that's for another day," Smith said. "I'll just say one thing: If you think if he finished second that the price is going to come down ... No." Ivan Rodriguez in 1999 had been the only catcher since Thurman Munson in 1976 to win the AL MVP. The other catchers to win in the AL were Mickey Cochrane (1934), Yogi Berra (1951 and 1954-55) and Elston Howard (1963). NL catchers to win were Gabby Hartnett (1935), Ernie Lombardi (1938), Roy Campanella (1951, 1953 and

1955) and Johnny Bench (1970 and 1972).

In addition to Mauer and Morneau, other Twins to win were Zoilo Versalles (1965), Harmon Killebrew (1969) and Rod Carew (1977).

Mauer receives a $100,000 bonus for winning the award, and Cabrera gets $200,000 for finishing fourth. Cabrera's firstplace vote came from Keizo Konishi of Kyodo News, a member of the Seattle chapter.

Teixeira led the AL with 122 RBIs and tied for first with 39 homers. Jeter was second to Morneau in the 2006 voting and finished third behind Juan Gonzalez and Garciaparra in 1998.

The NL MVP is to be announced Tuesday, and Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals is favored to repeat.

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

First evidence heard in UK’s Iraq inquiry (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:29:50 AM

Britain’s official inquiry into the

Iraq war opened in central London on Tuesday with a senior figure in the UK foreign office saying that members of the Bush administration were discussing

“regime change” against Saddam Hussein some two years before the 2003 invasion.

Taking its opening evidence from leading British officials, the

inquiry, which is expected to George W. Bush. conclude at the end of 2010, This content has passed through heard that the UK began a review fivefilters.org. of Iraq policy in early 2001, at the start of the administration of

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The Count: Wins Lost Out Years Ago in Cy Young Voting

Source: Notre Dame Fighting Irish QB Jimmy Clausen punched by irate fan

(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

By Joe Schad (ESPN.com)

Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:56:49 PM

Despite the presence on the ballot of a pitcher with many more wins and a sub-three ERA, baseball writers showed they were looking at stats other than wins when voting by a comfortable margin to grant the Cy Young Award to the hurler with the better overall stat line. “‘I’d like to think this award isn’t solely based on wins and losses,” the winner said. ”There was a lot more to the season I had than wins and losses.” Getty Images Adam Wainwright had four more wins than Tim Lincecum but finished behind him in the NL Cy Young Award voting.

Was that Zack Greinke this year, or Tim Lincecum? No, it was Randy Johnson, a decade ago.

Johnson’s 17-9 record and 2.48 ERA beat out Mike Hampton’s 22 wins and 2.90 ERA, with Johnson getting 20 of 32 firstplace votes for the award. In all, the Arizona ace beat out six credible starting-pitcher candidates, defined as those having more wins and an ERA at least 15% better than the league average. That was the most any Cy Young winner who was a starting pitcher ever did. This year, Greinke beat three such candidates, none of whom had

more than three more wins than him, while Lincecum got more voting points than two such candidates, neither of whom had a wins edge as big as Hampton’s over Johnson.

Greinke’s and Lincecum’s victories last week were hailed as milestones in sabermetricians’ efforts to bury win-loss records as reliable indicators of pitcher value. But according to an analysis conducted for me by Phil Birnbaum, there have been many Greinkes and Lincecums in the 54-year history of the award, particularly in recent years. In 1958, just three years after the award debuted, Bob Turley and his 21 wins beat out Warren Spahn and his 22 wins, probably in part because Turley’s earnedrun average was 0.1 run better. In all, 27 of the 89 starting pitchers who have won the award beat out a candidate with more wins and an ERA at least 15% better than league average.

Turley’s award notwithstanding, in the Cy’s early days it generally took an extraordinary performance to beat out a candidate with more wins — such as Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA in 1968, or Vida Blue’s 1.82 ERA in 1971. But lately such apparent upsets have become far more common, including in at least one league in 12 of the last

16 years. Besides 1999, Johnson also edged out candidates with more wins in 1995, 2000 and 2001. And this isn’t even the first year in which both leagues’ winners pulled off seeming upsets — it also happened in 2000, 2001 and 2004.

So why did this year’s winners gain so much attention? I think there are two reasons.

First, their win totals were so low. Greinke had 16, and Lincecum had 15. But then, standards for wins have had to be lowered, as five-man rotations and the decline of complete games means starting pitchers get the decision in fewer games.

Twenty wins can’t be a benchmark for the Cy Young Award when no pitcher in either league achieves that mark. That also happened in the NL in 2007, and in both leagues in 2006.

That’s five league win leaders in the last four years with under 20 wins— compared to just six, total, beforehand, going back to 1872, in seasons not shortened by

work stoppage. The last league leader before 2006 with fewer than 20 wins was Rick Sutcliffe, with 18 in the NL in 1987.

And second, while wins have long been eclipsed, new statistics have taken the place of ERA for some voters. The prominence of ERA can be seen by this piece of historical context. Both Greinke and Lincecum beat out rival candidates with at least three more wins. That had happened to just five prior starters who won the award. And all five’s rivals with the big wins edge had ERAs at least 0.42 run higher, most much higher. But Greinke’s edge was just 0.33, and Lincecum’s was just 0.15 — which are even smaller as percentage terms than ERA differences in lower-scoring eras. The ready availability of stats that are superior to ERA because they account for unearned runs, fielding, park effects and other factors — such as wins above replacement, updated daily throughout the season at FanGraphs— has made it easier for writers to find deserving candidates further down the wins leader list.

Thanks to my father, Ezra, for the idea.

Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:38:14 AM

Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen was punched in the face by an irate fan outside a South Bend restaurant early Sunday morning and has a swollen eye, a person briefed on the incident said on Monday.

That person said Clausen was "sucker-punched" by a fan as he left an establishment after having dinner with his parents.

The fan allegedly said something to Clausen and/or a female acquaintance.

A South Bend police spokesman said that no police reports were filed over the weekend involving Clausen, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The newspaper also reported that the name of the bar was CJ's and that a bartender at the establishment said that Clausen had been there with family members and other Irish upperclassmen after Notre Dame's loss to Connecticut on Senior Day. The source told ESPN.com that the injury is not expected to keep Clausen from playing this weekend against Stanford.

Joe Schad is a college football reporter for ESPN.com.

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UNDERDOGS continued from page 48

age when the smaller, goalpoaching type of forward is treated with increasing indifference by managers,” the Telegraph’s Jeremy Wilson writes.

While it was much more closely contested, no one would mistake Sunday’s MLS Cup matchup between Real Salt Lake and the Los Angeles Galaxy for a Premier League game. Or even a terribly well-played soccer game, period. The MLS Cup had some nice moments — including a pretty goal for Mike Magee set up by Galaxy stars David Beckham and Landon Donovan — but assorted injuries and sloppinesses piled up for Los Angeles. Donovan’s muffed penalty kick opened the door for the underdogs from Utah to steal the MLS Cup. “RSL, frankly, was soccer’s version of the Washington Generals on Sunday night in the MLS Cup final,” the Salt Lake Tribune’s Gordon Monson

writes. “And the Generals finally won. Nobody expected this.” In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Art Thiel writes that the game was enjoyable both despite and because of its myriad imperfections.* * * Given the whopping 108-point lead Jimmie Johnson carried into Sunday’s Nascar season finale at Miami-Homestead, it makes sense that many sportswriters (including your Fixer) started writing their “Johnson wins record fourth straight Nascar championship” leads a little early. But the inevitability of Johnson’s victory does nothing to diminish just how scary-good the 27-year-old looks, Ron Green Jr. writes at That’s Racin. “Johnson may not yet be loved the way Dale Earnhardt was and he may not have the hat, the shades and the wins that Richard Petty does,” Green writes. “But he has his own unmatched place in the sport’s 62-year history. Like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods

and Roger Federer at their peaks, Jimmie Johnson is that good.”* * * Catching a 157-pound bluefin tuna is not an easy thing to do under the best of circumstances, and not just because the world’s bluefin stocks are dangerously close to collapse. But catching a tuna from a kayak is almost impossible to imagine. In the New York Times, Charles McGrath tells the story of Dave Lamoureux, an ace Massachusetts kayak fisherman who has caught three bluefins that way since July.

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.

51

Source: Buffalo Bills reach out to ex-Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher, who declines

By John Clayton (ESPN.com)

choice.

Cowher has been selective over the past couple of years in The Buffalo Bills reached out to deciding the type of team he former Pittsburgh Steelers coach wants to coach. According to a Bill Cowher, but he has informed source, Cowher doesn't want to them that he's not interested in interview for a job he's not going interviewing for the job at this to accept despite the fact the Bills time, a source said Monday. might be willing to pay top dollar AFC East blog for the right coach.

ESPN.com's Tim Graham writes According to the source, Cowher about all things AFC East in his told the Bills he wants to wait division blog. until the season ends before he • Blog network: NFL Nation starts interviewing for a job.

Bills owner Ralph Wilson has Cowher is going to continue his been aggressive in the past week broadcasting career and then see t r y i n g t o f i n d a b i g - n a m e what's available after the season. replacement for fired coach Dick John Clayton is a senior NFL Jauron. He has arranged for a writer for ESPN.com. meeting this week with former This content has passed through Broncos coach Mike Shanahan. fivefilters.org.

Cowher was another logical Submitted at 11/24/2009 12:00:03 AM

Source: San Francisco 49ers drop tampering charges vs. New York Jets

By ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 11/23/2009 6:03:58 PM

San Francisco 49ers president Jed York is dropping the team's tampering charge against the New York Jets over Michael Crabtree, a league source told

ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter on Monday.

NFC West blog ESPN.com's Mike Sando writes about all things NFC West in his division blog.

• Blog network: NFL Nation The 49ers filed tampering charges with the NFL regarding

their then-negotiations with firstround draft pick Crabtree.

Former player Deion Sanders said he knew two teams that were willing to pay Crabtree what he wanted while he was holding out from the Niners. The 49ers investigated and filed the charge against the Jets.

The 49ers signed Crabtree to a six-year contract in early October. He has 22 catches for 292 yards and one touchdown since joining the 49ers.

Crabtree caught 97 passes for 1,165 yards and 19 touchdowns last year during his sophomore season at Texas Tech. He

finished his college career with 231 receptions for 3,127 yards and 41 TDs. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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Sports/ Game/

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Clausen Reportedly Punched by Fan

Fighter Copes With Opponent's Death

By John Walters (FanHouse)

By Lem Satterfield (FanHouse)

Submitted at 11/23/2009 10:19:00 PM

by John Walters Filed under: Notre Dame SOUTH BEND, Ind -- Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen emerged from a fight outside a restaurant/bar with two black eyes in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to a report from a Chicago radio station. A bartender confirmed to FanHouse that the Clausen family was in the restaurant but said that no altercation took place on the premises.

"The Clausens were here," said the bartender, who was on duty at the time. "We were very busy and did not notice anything. It did not happen in our establishment or on our property, if it happened at all."

The bar and restaurant, C.J.'s Pub, is located about a mile south of the Notre Dame campus and is

Submitted at 11/24/2009 12:01:00 AM

by Lem Satterfield Filed under: HBO, Showtime, FanHouse Exclusive Teon Kennedy first met Francisco Rodriguez (pictured right) in the Poconos of Pennsylvania as a teenager when the two talented boxers faced off in a spirited bout as amateurs.

"It was in 2003 at the Eastern Trials when we fought each other in a tough match. He ended up winning a decision," said Kennedy, who left the ring knowing that he had lost to a worthy rival. "That was my first time ever seeing him, and he was a great fighter back then, and I guess he got even better."

Rodriguez would earn national Golden Gloves championship glory in Chicago before turning pro in 2005.

Rodriguez reeled off wins in his initial seven bouts, with knockouts in the first four, and

New York State will issue emergency alerts via Xbox Live

By Randy Nelson (Joystiq) Submitted at 11/24/2009 1:00:00 AM

According to a report by InformationWeek, the state of New York is in the planning stages of a revamped emergency broadcast system capable of a popular postgame hangout for sending alerts to Xbox Live (and Notre Dame players. presumably other console online David Kaplan of Chicago's services) in the event of a natural WGN-AM first reported the disaster, terrorist attack or other alleged incident. not-so-good event. The state's ESPN characterized the alleged fight as a"sucker punch" by an took a record of 14-2, with eight deputy chief information officer irate fan. stoppages into Philadelphia's says the idea makes sense " Clausen Reportedly Punched by Blue Horizon on Friday night. considering the amount of time Fan originally appeared on Fighter Copes With Opponent's o u r y o u t h s p e n d o n v i d e o Fanhouse NCAA Football Blog Death originally appeared on g a m e s . " on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:19:00 Fanhouse Boxing Blog on Tue, No specifics of how the system EST . Please see our terms for 24 Nov 2009 00:01:00 EST . w o u l d a c t u a l l y w o r k w e r e use of feeds.

Please see our terms for use of provided, but we'd hope those who heed the warnings would get Permalink| Email this| Linking feeds.

Blogs| Comments Permalink| Email this| Linking Achievement points for doing so.

After all, it'd mean taking Blogs| Comments precious time away from griefing other players in Modern Warfare 2.

[Thanks, Nick!]

New York State will issue emergency alerts via Xbox Live

By Associated Press 116 yards, TD, 73 rush yards) the fourth player in NFL history season. That's a Texans record. originally appeared on Joystiq on (ESPN.com) won his eighth straight regular- with 5 straight games of 120+ • Rapid Reaction Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST. season start dating to Dec. 2007. rushing yards and 5+ yards/rush. -- ESPN Stats & Information Please see our terms for use of Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:07:25 AM That's the third-longest active He now has an NFL-best 1,242 This content has passed through feeds.

Fast Facts streak behind Peyton Manning rush yards and 6.2 yards/rush. fivefilters.org.

Read| Permalink| Email this| • The Titans won their fourth (19) and Drew Brees (10).

• Matt Schaub went 25 for 39 for Comments straight game following an 0-6 • Chris Johnson rushed for 151 305 yards and 2 TDs, his sixth start as Vince Young (12 for 22, yards on 29 rushes, making him game with 2+ passing TDs this

Titans win 4th straight when Brown's kick wide

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Hawks Still Flying for That Magic Word

By Terence Moore (FanHouse)

NFL Wildcast: Getting 'Mangini'd' and Ranting on Ravens Fans

Submitted at 11/23/2009 11:29:00 PM

By Will Brinson (FanHouse)

by Terence Moore Filed under: Hawks ATLANTA -- Either Dr. Phil or Charles Barkley once said, if you wish to advance in life, you must start with the image in the mirror. So the Atlanta Hawks will continue to scare people the rest of this NBA season. That's because they know exactly what they are, and they know exactly what they are not.

Here's what the Hawks are: Pretty good.

Actually, the Hawks are better than that. I'll explain more in a moment, but let's start with what the Hawks aren't: Elite.

"We're in the conversation for sure, but we're not satisfied with what we've done so far, because we still have a ways to go," said Hawks guard Jamal Crawford, telling the truth about his suddenly potent team that has surged into a three-way tie with

Submitted at 11/24/2009 12:15:00 AM

by Will Brinson Filed under: Browns, NFL Podcast The Wildcast is NFL FanHouse's podcast formation.

It's like the Wildcat, but better.

Matt Snyder and I got on the horn for this first edition of the (newly named) NFL Wildcast -and believe me, did we have plenty to talk about. There are two undefeated teams in the NFL, the Vikings are surging and the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Brady Quinn is heavily involved Suns for the NBA's best record at in MVP chatter, so that shouldn't 11-3. be a surprise.

Hawks Still Flying for That All Quinn jokes aside, though, Magic Word originally appeared we do cover the spectacular on Fanhouse NBA Blog on Mon, Lions- Browns matchup and the 23 Nov 2009 23:29:00 EST . rest of Week 11, debate who's on Please see our terms for use of the hottest streak in the NFL right feeds. now (replete with cheesy Permalink| Email this| Linking segment music!) and discuss Blogs| Comments early MVP candidacies. Plus, Snyder gives angry Ravens fans a little flack in what will probably become a weekly ranting session.

Phila. Man Admits Extortion Scheme Against NFL Coach (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:08:54 AM

A Philadelphia man admitted he tried to extort money from New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin by mailing letters in which he threatened his family.

Herbert Alex Simpson, 30, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of sending threatening communications to Coughlin and one of Simpson's former employers, the Department of Justice said.

Simpson pretended to be other people in the letters, telling Coughlin that his "life would be a living hell by doing something to [his] family," according to the DOJ. Take a listen after the jump.

In correspondence to his exN F L W i l d c a s t : G e t t i n g boss, Simpson threatened to kill 'Mangini'd' and Ranting on him and his family.

Ravens Fans originally appeared Simpson faces up to 10 years in on Fanhouse NFL Blog on Tue, prison and more than $500,000 in 24 Nov 2009 00:15:00 EST . fines when he's sentenced Feb. Please see our terms for use of 26, the Justice Department said. feeds.

This content has passed through Permalink| Email this| Linking fivefilters.org.

Blogs| Comments

FKIA’s Daily Double: Twin Peaks

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 11/23/2009 11:34:28 AM

When wearing a high-definition

shoulder like those on this leather Rick Owens jacket, it’s always best to balance such avant-garde silhouettes with a six-story platform like these Burberry lace-

up sandals. Watch out Godzilla!

53

— Anne Slowey Let me know what you love—and if you have any questions, e-mail me at AnneSloweyFashionKnowItAll

@elle.com.

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Dan Hawkins Wouldn't Recruit Son if Given Another Chance

By Terrance Harris (FanHouse)

Play old Atari games at the new Atari.com

Submitted at 11/23/2009 10:08:00 PM

by Terrance Harris Filed under: Colorado, Big 12 Colorado coach Dan Hawkins has been adamant the past few seasons that having his son, Cody Hawkins, play quarterback for the Buffaloes was no different than other recruit.

Hawkins did a complete turnaround during Monday's weekly press conference, saying if he had to do it all over again he would not have recruited his own son.

"Not for him, no. Nope. Not at all," Hawkins said. "It's not fair to him. Here is a guy who is trying to do his best to win games and to help his team and does everything right, he's a good student and he's getting killed on Facebook and getting killed on his cell phone.

By Randy Nelson (Joystiq)

Monday Night Football Live Chat: Tennessee Titans vs. Houston Texans Dan Hawkins Wouldn't Recruit Son if Given Another Chance originally appeared on Fanhouse NCAA Football Blog on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:08:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

Atari has a new website. We know -- big deal, right? Actually, in this case it's worth checking out if you're a fan of the company's classic arcade and console games. That's because

By Adam Gretz (FanHouse) lead the Titans to a fourth straight the site is offering up free-to-play win, while the Texans need a win b r o w s e r - b a s e d v e r s i o n s o f Submitted at 11/23/2009 8:00:00 PM to keep pace in their fight for Adventure and Yar's Revenge for

by Adam Gretz t h e i r f i r s t e v e r p l a y o f f the Atari 2600 and the legendary Filed under: Texans, Titans, appearance. Please be sure to coin-ops Battlezone, Crystal NFL Live Blogging stop by the live chat and take part Castles and Lunar Lander.

For the second week in a row in the fun. Chat kicks off at 8:30 The site's Arcade page is at this Monday night football features a PM ET. link, should you not want to risk team hosting the team that used Monday Night Football Live an encounter with dreaded to play in its home city. And if Chat: Tennessee Titans vs. marketing materials on your way t h e H o u s t o n T e x a n s a n d Houston Texans originally to the good stuff. Remember: If Tennessee Titans simply show up appeared on Fanhouse NFL Blog your boss catches you blowing tonight, it will already be better on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:00:00 up vector tanks and space rocks t h a n w h a t e v e r i t w a s w e EST . Please see our terms for while you're on the clock, you witnessed last week between the use of feeds. didn't hear about the site from us.

Ravens and Browns.

Permalink| Email this| Linking Play old Atari games at the new That said, Vince Young looks to Blogs| Comments Atari.com originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. orecast_NRF/index.htm Read| Permalink| Email this| 0 comments Source: Comments money.cnn.com

Black Friday turnout to jump 16% - Nov. 24, 2009 By twitter:@HenkvanDongen (TweetMeme) Submitted at 11/24/2009 3:33:41 AM

thinks "Black Friday turnout to jump 16%" would be great" http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/2 4/news/economy/Black_Friday_f

Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:00:00 AM

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55

Free-Agent Salvation for Knicks, Nets? Won't Happen

By Tim Povtak (FanHouse)

Direct2Drive offering $10 off Dragon Age: Origins through Nov. 30

Submitted at 11/23/2009 7:20:00 PM

by Tim Povtak Filed under: Knicks, Nets It's time for the Knicks and the Nets to end this nonsense and stop teasing their fans. It's time to stop dreaming. All the salary cap room in the world this summer isn't going to save NBA basketball in the New York/New Jersey area.

The two worst teams in the Eastern Conference will remain the worst for the next few years.

So get used to it.

LeBron James won't be walking through the door anytime soon. It doesn't matter how storied Madison Square Garden feels, or how many celebrities come to the games, or how wonderful the

By Xav de Matos (Joystiq) Submitted at 11/24/2009 2:00:00 AM

Nets-to-Brooklyn blueprint looks, or even the intensity of James' crush on rapper Jay-Z. Free-Agent Salvation for Knicks, Nets? Won't Happen originally appeared on Fanhouse NBA Blog on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs| Comments

Submitted at 11/24/2009 3:58:39 AM

About to get the cast from last

By Xav de Matos (Joystiq)

as Guitar Hero, Rude feels the genre is an important step for upand-coming rockers. "I think it's Rockers of the classic '80s band a good thing," Rude said. "Even Tesla claim to be included in the if people don't learn to play yet-to-be announced (but you guitar, it's exposing them to all totally saw it coming) Guitar sorts of cool guitar-based music Hero 6. In an interview with that they wouldn't have ever Brave Words & Blood Knuckles, heard otherwise." You hear that guitarist Dave Rude revealed " Kroeger? Stop crying ... and Modern Day Cowboy" -- from writing the same song over and the band's 1986 debut album over and over again.

Mechanical Resonance-- will be Tesla guitarist reveals 'Modern included in the music title. Rude Day Cowboy' headed for Guitar night off and get my air cast. noted the song was one of three Hero 6 originally appeared on L i k e t h e x m a s p j ' s . H a h a suggestions the band made to Joystiq on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 http://pic.gd/20d9e8 Activision when they were 23:59:00 EST. Please see our 0 c o m m e n t s S o u r c e : pursued to be included. terms for use of feeds. tweetphoto.com While some ( completely Read| Permalink| Email this| talentless) acts have decried the Comments popularity of music games such

About to get the cast from last night off and get my air cast. Like the xmas pj's. Haha | TweetPhoto By twitter:@justinbieber (TweetMeme)

Tesla guitarist reveals 'Modern Day Cowboy' headed for Guitar Hero 6 Submitted at 11/23/2009 11:59:00 PM

Starting now until November 30, Direct2Drive is offering $10 off either the standard edition or Digital Deluxe Edition of BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins.

The exclusive sale kicks off an upcoming Thanksgiving price drop on unnamed titles from the digital download service.

The standard edition is priced at $39.95, while the Deluxe edition is priced at $54.95 for the promotion. With the savings we recommend you look into purchasing the (somewhat controversial) downloadable content already available for the title. If paying for storage space if your thing, that is.

Direct2Drive offering $10 off Dragon Age: Origins through Nov. 30 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Gameloft talks up Android support

By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)

generation devices allowing the development of high definition games, but the timing and its lack Submitted at 11/24/2009 3:00:00 AM of substance is suspect. The Gameloft announced today it's executive previously noted planning on releasing games for Gameloft sold "400 times" as the second generation of Android many games on iPhone as on the phones and reiterated its support Android. Of course, if Google's for the current generation of p l a t f o r m d e v e l o p s a m o r e devices using Google's mobile significant install base, we're sure

By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) A g e n t , B o u n t y H u n t e r , platform. The affirmation comes Gameloft will be happy to invest Smuggler, Jedi Knight and Sith a mere weekend after the mega more and take everyone's money Submitted at 11/24/2009 9:45:00 AM Warrior. Tragically, it seems the m o b i l e p u b l i s h e r ' s f i n a n c e equally.

Though BioWare has tried to Fashion Designer class from Star director, Alexander de Rochefort, Gameloft talks up Android keep the flow information Wars Galaxies won't make a stated the company planned to " support originally appeared on relating to its upcoming MMO, reappearance in Old Republic. As significantly cut" its development Joystiq on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 Star Wars: The Old Republic to a a result, we expect everyone's for Android devices.

03:00:00 EST. Please see our slow trickle, the latest issue of characters to be dressed in the Gameloft's statement today in no terms for use of feeds.

PC Games Germany recently drabbest of duds. way negates Rochefort's words, Read| Permalink| Email this| beat the studio to a pretty big [Via Shacknews] as the latest release is just some Comments punch, revealing the game's final Gallery: Star Wars: The Old yammering about the second two character classes. The classes Republic are the Jedi Consular and the Sith Final two Star Wars: The Old Inquisitor -- two more Force- R e p u b l i c c l a s s e s r e v e a l e d wielding classes which focus less originally appeared on Joystiq on on lightsaber combat and more Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:45:00 EST. o n l o n g - r a n g e a t t a c k s a n d Please see our terms for use of support abilities. feeds.

These two join the six other Read| Permalink| Email this| previously announced classes for Comments the game: Trooper, Imperial

Final two Star Wars: The Old Republic classes revealed

The AlwaysChic LBD

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 11/23/2009 11:06:37 AM

The little black dress dominated the red carpet at Saturday night’s CNN Heroes Awards in Los Angeles, which honored the top ten heroes of 2009 (watch the star -studded tribute on Thanksgiving night). Jenna Fischer, Eva Mendes, Nicole Kidman, and Kate Hudson all chose the classic cocktail staple, each pulling off the look with varying degrees of sexiness. Which LBD is your favorite—Eva Mendes’ black and gold Monique Lhuillier frock, Kate Hudson’s high-neck classic, or Nicole Kidman’s buttoned-up Nina Ricci shirt dress? Click here to shop ELLE’s Little Black Dress boutique, with price tags slashed up to 80 percent.

—Violet Moon Gaynor Photos: Eva Mendes: Retna; Nicole Kidman and Kate Hudson: Getty Images Follow ELLE on Twitter.

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Indochine’s 25th Anniversary Celebration

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog) Submitted at 11/23/2009 12:35:20 PM

It’s been a quarter of a century since Indochine opened its doors to an eclectic mix of downtown personalities, and the storied Astor Place boîte’s owners, JeanMarc Houmard, Michael Callahan, and Huy Chi Le, celebrated its 25th anniversary Friday night with six hours of unbridled revelry. The decadent “1920s Shanghai”-themed bash featured delectable hors d’oeuvres, drag performances set to an aural backdrop of ‘80s hits,

By Justin McElroy (Joystiq) seen since the Ukranian Ice and appearances from a litany of Hurling team's dramatic win over celebs, fashion heavyweights, Submitted at 11/24/2009 10:15:00 AM Poland in the 1906 Winter and other assorted devotees of A leaked video that's rumored to Olympics. It must be seen to be the nightspot known for its s h o w g a m e p l a y o f a p r e - believed, and you can do just that trademark banana-leaf production, multiplayer version right after the break. murals—among them, Naomi of Mercenaries-- titled Mercs Inc. C o n t i n u e r e a d i n g R u m o r : Watts, Liev Schreiber, Padma -- has been unearthed by Bitmob. Leaked video shows Mercenaries Lakshmi, Zac Posen, Narciso The project is reportedly in pre- multiplayer sequel Rodriquez, and Erin Fetherston. production at EALA, being Rumor: Leaked video shows Indochine: Stories, Shaken and created by two dozen or so of the Mercenaries multiplayer sequel Stirred, a recently published Pandemic team that weren't let go originally appeared on Joystiq on when the studio's doors were Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:15:00 EST. closed last week.

Please see our terms for use of The video features plenty of car- feeds. on-car and car-on-dude violence, Read| Permalink| Email this| as well as the extremely rare Comments Triple Teabag, which hasn't been

Rumor: Leaked video shows Mercenaries multiplayer sequel

57

Amber Alert Issued for 1-Month-Old South Carolina Boy (FOXNews.com) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:06:39 AM

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. Police in South Carolina are looking for a 1-month-old boy taken from a vehicle at a North Charleston post office.

The State Law Enforcement Division issued an Amber Alert on Monday evening for Angel Miguel Perez. The child was last seen about 5 p.m.

A police dispatcher says the search continued Tuesday.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reported North Charleston police spokesman Spencer Pryor said Angel's c o l l e c t i o n o f p h o t o s a n d mother left him in her idling anecdotes from Salman Rushdie, vehicle as she dropped off mail.

Moby, Julianne Moore, and Bob She says the boy was gone when Colacello, is on our holiday wish she returned. list.

A witness told police a woman —Erin Clements left with the child in a gray, fourPhotos: Patrick McMullan door compact vehicle with a Follow ELLE on Twitter. spoiler.

Become our Facebook fan!

The 11-pound boy was wearing a blue shirt, pants and hat.

Police are looking for a black woman in her mid-20s, about 5foot-1 and 175 pounds, wearing a blue and white striped shirt.

Click here for more on this story from FoxCarolina.com.

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Anya Marina on the Cynthia Rowley's New Moon Soundtrack Wishbone Necklace

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

By ELLE.com (ELLE News Blog)

Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:29:34 PM

Submitted at 11/23/2009 9:27:38 AM

I, along with the rest of the fashion department, have a small obsession with all things Twilight related, so it’s no surprise that I was one of the many to get my tickets early for the premiere of New Moon over the weekend (yes, I’m a teenage girl at heart). An unexpected bonus from buying my tickets in advance was a free download to a song from the film’s soundtrack: “Satellite Heart“ by Anya Marina. After giving the song a listen I took to iTunes to find some of her other music, and I’ve developed a new obsession! She has a really unique sound and I’ve been listening to her on repeat all weekend. Check out her website, or her MySpace

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and being in the UK can make one feel homesick. So in a fit of turkey jealousy, I shall spread the gobble-gobble love by sharing this wishbone necklace from Cynthia Rowley. It came down the runway in an abstract, multilayered version (in black and gold) which at first glance, looked as though it was inspired by one hundred deer going on a trek, but upon closer inspection, it was wishbone upon wishbone upon wishbone. And in a more demure version of the same, the necklace also comes in one single

music page to find the song and her first two albums, Miss Halfway and Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II. And click here to read ELLE.com's interview with Anya Marina.

— Kristen Shirley, Fashion Assistant Follow ELLE on Twitter.

Become our Facebook fan!

(BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:11:50 AM

wishbone hanging from a chain.

Either which way, this is definitely one bone to pick.

—Rebecca Suhrawardi Austin Follow ELLE on Twitter.

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US economic growth revised down (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

of 2.8%.

That compared with the 3.5% the Department of Commerce Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:49:33 AM initially forecast earlier this The US economy grew by far month. less than originally forecast The change in the gross between July and September, domestic product figure came according to revised official partly because imports, which figures. count as negative, were higher The latest estimate said the than thought. economy grew at an annual pace The growth was helped by a

substantial government spending plan, including a scrappage scheme to boost car sales.

The official figures still indicate recession has ended, but some economists think there could be further setbacks.

The growth in third quarter GDP is the first time the US economy has expanded since the second quarter of 2008, when it grew at

Flu vaccine put on hold in Canada

an annual pace of 2.4%.

US GDP is expressed as an annualised rate, or annual pace, which shows what the annual rate would be if the latest change continued for the rest of the year.

Print Sponsor This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

GlaxoSmithKline has advised doctors in Canada to stop using a batch of its swine flu vaccine, amid reports of severe sideeffects in some patients.

The batch of some 170,000 doses was put on hold because of the reported higher than usual number of patients having anaphylactic reactions.

This may include breathing problems, raised heart rate and skin rashes.

The pharmaceutical company said it was investigating the reports, which could lead to the withdrawal of the batch.

The reports say one in 20,000 people suffered adverse reactions to the batch of GlaxoSmithKline's Pandemrix vaccine.

This is five times the expected number. None of the patients reportedly suffered long-term illeffects.

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Video Shows Officer Slamming Man Into Window (FOXNews.com)

on a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Police said Gibson had been O A K L A N D , C a l i f . T h e arrested earlier in the day outside troubles of the San Francisco Bay a mall for investigation of area's transit police went viral kicking an 82-year-old man on a again as video hit the Internet b u s . G i b s o n w a s g i v e n a showing what some claim was misdemeanor citation for assault another use of excessive force. and battery and later released, A cell phone video showing the Daly City police Sgt. David violent arrest of a mentally ill Mackriss said. passenger accused of being Gibson was arrested again disruptive on a commuter train Saturday night after BART police came less than a year after say they received complaints that footage of an officer fatally he had been yelling racial slurs shooting an unarmed man incited and challenging other train riots in the region. passengers to fight.

The Saturday night incident has Lisa Gibson said her younger prompted claims of police brother has been diagnosed with brutality and sent Bay Area b i p o l a r d i s o r d e r a n d R a p i d T r a n s i t o f f i c i a l s schizophrenia and didn't need to scrambling to address yet another be handled so aggressively by the public relations nightmare. officer.

VIDEO: Click to watch the "He was snatched up and thrown incident captured by cell phone into that thick glass window," she The latest video shows an said Monday. "There's no way unidentified officer pulling that officer was just trying to put Michael Gibson, 37, of San him in handcuffs."

Leandro from a train stopped at John Burris, a civil rights the West Oakland station. The attorney representing the family officer pushes Gibson toward a of a man killed by a transit concrete wall with thick glass officer on New Year's Day, also windows, causing the glass to criticized the officer's handling of shatter and rain onto both men. Gibson, saying he didn't give the The officer is on paid leave after suspect enough time to respond sustaining a concussion and cuts to his order to get off the train. that required stitches. Gibson "He just physically grabbed this suffered minor cuts and is in person without giving him the custody on suspicion of battery opportunity to respond, comply Submitted at 11/23/2009 10:00:47 PM

or surrender," said Burris, who is also representing Gibson. "This officer responded physically instead of verbally."

But Jesse Sekhon, BART police officers union president, said Monday that the officer "used the right amount of force necessary to affect an arrest."

The video was reminiscent of cell phone recordings that captured Johannes Mehserle, a white officer, fatally shooting an unarmed black man in the back on New Year's Day. Mehserle has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge. His lawyer, Michael Rains, has said his client had intended to pull his stun gun on 22-year-old Oscar Grant and accidentally pulled his pistol instead.

The death led to violent protests in the community.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson said agency officials had learned lessons from the Jan. 1 shooting.

"They realize the value of getting out all of the facts that are releasable," Johnson said. "We're releasing as much information as we can that will not jeopardize this case."

After video surfaced of Gibson's arrest, transit officials quickly called a news conference on Sunday to assure transparency to the public that an investigation

was under way. On Monday, BART Police Cmdr. Daniel Hartwig said that investigators are interviewing at least 12 witnesses who saw the incident.

Transit officials late Monday released 911 calls that described Gibson as "yelling" and being "angry."

BART Board Member Lynette Sweet said Monday that the incident was the first use-of-force case since the agency mandated after Grant's death that all such incidents receive close scrutiny.

"This incident will get thoroughly investigated," Sweet said. "I don't know if the public will believe it."

Hartwig said Gibson was carrying alcohol in a bag and appeared to be under the influence on the train. Hartwig said concerned passengers had asked Gibson to get off the train.

A smattering of cheers could be heard on the video as the officer pulled Gibson from the passenger car.

It's too early to tell what happened next, Hartwig said.

"That's why we need those facts," he said. "We cannot assume."

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US GDP growth revised down to 2.8% (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:07:15 AM

The US economy grew less than previously thought in the third quarter, as consumer spending was softer than estimated, but the US housing market showed continued signs of strength, figures revealed on Tuesday.

US gross domestic product grew at an adjusted annual rate of 2.8 per cent, the commerce department said on Tuesday. Last month the commerce department originally estimated that GDP grew by 3.5 per cent, breaking a dire stretch of five consecutive quarters of contraction.

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Ex-spy, submarines, Dubai co. part of Fla. lawsuit (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 11/24/2009 6:09:50 AM

STUART, Fla. – Former French intelligence officer Herve Jaubert believed he was essentially being held captive in Dubai when his passport was confiscated by authorities amid a dispute with his employer, a powerful government-run conglomerate.

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SC legislators begin Sanford impeachment hearings (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 11/24/2009 4:33:31 AM

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Legislators irked for months over Gov. Mark Sanford's summertime vanishing act and his tearful revelation that he was in Argentina for a rendezvous with his lover plan to start debating a measure Tuesday that ultimately would remove him from office.

The Republican does face new ethics charges about his travel and campaign finances. But the seven lawmakers who comprise a panel of the House Judiciary Committee that will debate impeachment are focused solely this week on his five-day absence in June and failure to put someone in charge of the state while he was gone.

The four Republicans who cosponsored the measure contend he was derelict in his duty and wrong to mislead staffers into thinking he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.

The measure says in part that Sanford's "conduct under these circumstances has brought extreme dishonor and shame to the Office of the Governor of South Carolina and to the reputation of the State of South Carolina." It continues that it has

caused the office and state "to suffer ridicule resulting in extreme shame and disgrace."

The panel of three Democrats and four Republicans includes Chairman Jim Harrison. The Columbia Republican said Monday that later meetings will consider the 37 civil charges Sanford is facing following a three-month State Ethics Commission probe. Among other violations, Sanford is accused of using taxpayer money for highpriced airplane tickets that took him around the world and to Argentina.

Sanford's attorney said the governor looks forward to answering the "technical questions" regarding his travel and finances at a commission hearing early next year. The civil charges carry a maximum $74,000 in fines.

Sanford has been under scrutiny and pressure to step down since admitting to an extramarital affair with the woman he has called his "soul mate." He has never revealed the identity of a socalled "back channel" senior administration official the governor contends could have reached him in an emergency.

Sanford's state e-mail and phone records show he was not in touch

with his office while abroad.

If the impeachment measure passes the panel, it would head to the full Judiciary Committee.

From there it would need a majority vote of the 25 members to get it to the House floor in January for debate. A two-thirds vote in favor would result in Sanford's suspension.

The Senate, acting as jury, then would decide whether Sanford would be removed from office, which would also require a twothirds vote. His second and final term ends in January 2011.

The ethics probe came after a series of Associated Press investigations showed the governor had for years used state airplanes for political and personal trips, flown in pricey commercial airline seats despite a low-cost travel requirement and failed to disclose trips on planes owned by friends and donors.

The State of Columbia newspaper also questioned whether Sanford properly reimbursed himself from his campaign cash.

"We are confident that we will be able to address each of these questions, none of which constitutes findings of guilt and none of which we believe rise anywhere near to the traditional

standard of impeachment," Sanford attorney Butch Bowers said Monday.

Even some lawmakers who have called for Sanford to quit questioned whether the charges are weighty enough to cut short the governor's tenure.

"If it's relatively minor ethics violations, I don't believe there will be sentiment there to remove the governor," said House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham, R-Cayce.

But state Sen. Larry Martin said the charges shouldn't be downplayed. He derided the notation from Sanford's lawyers that the charges came from a small percentage of the total flights and records examined by the commission.

"Most bank robbers have been in and out of banks hundreds of times but only rob it once," said Martin, R-Pickens, The first lady and the couple's four sons moved out of the governor's mansion. While the Sanfords have said they were trying to reconcile, Jenny Sanford more recently has described the two as separated.

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By Zack Sheppard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 11/23/2009 10:13:49 AM

See more Hippos in Hippopotamus Clusters.

Photos from Laura Bertola, Tambako the Jaguar, sypix, ruthhallam, vuturistic, STEHOUWER AND RECIO, Stefano_p, moocatmoocat, batears2000 and schlotto.

Inspired by Gertrud K..

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EX-SPY, continued from page 59

He claimed he was threatened with torture and worried each day he would be arrested.

So Jaubert disguised himself as a Muslim woman and fled the country. The accomplished diver hid scuba gear under the head-totoe abaya. He swam out to the area's only patrol boat and cut the fuel lines. Then, he said, he launched his rubber dinghy, started the motor and piloted it six hours to meet an awaiting sailboat.

Now he's in South Florida, embroiled in a federal lawsuit over an ill-fated business venture with Dubai World Corp., which says the 2008 escape story is one of his many lies. Jaubert sued the company, claiming the failed plan to build recreational submarines for tourists and the super-wealthy cost him millions in lost business opportunities.

"I lived with fear in my stomach for more than a year. Every day when you wake up, you expect to be picked up by the police," Jaubert said.

Dubai World countersued, saying Jaubert owes them $1 million. The company said he fled to avoid his debts and described him as nothing more than sophisticated con man. They

said he lied about his ability to build the submarines and overcharged them for parts from his former Florida firm.

"We tried to handle this internally and spent almost a year in negotiations with Mr. Jaubert, who promised on many occasions to repay the missing funds. Instead, he chose to flee the country," said George Dalton, Dubai World's general counsel.

Dubai World executives contend his designs never worked and his operation was a failure from the start. The venture ultimately lost $31 million.

To bolster its case, Dubai World provided e-mails and internal company documents to The Associated Press that raised questions about the validity of sales leads that never materialized and also claimed Jaubert hired incompetent workers.

"There are no proper designs and the entire production process is haphazard, unstructured and unplanned," concluded one Dubai World report.

Jaubert, 53, has a colorful resume that describes a decade spent as a French naval officer involved in covert operations, mainly constructing surveillance

devices. It said he trained as a combat diver and submarine pilot and retired as a commandant.

In 1996, he started a submarine charter business in Puerto Rico and in 2000 founded Seahorse Submarines in Stuart, Fla., a sub construction business he ran until the Dubai World deal came together in late 2003. Seahorse also struggled and was sued in 2003 by a Dominican company that claimed Jaubert failed to deliver two submarines it was purchasing for more than $290,000.

Still, Jaubert was named CEO of a new Dubai World subsidiary called Exomos and said he thought the deal had a bright future.

"I saw it as an opportunity to mass produce recreational submarines worldwide," he said.

As head of the company, Jaubert said he had difficulty finding the right workers and no budget to hire them. Dubai World's bureaucracy, he said, prevented quick decision-making. The company audits and reports suggesting he was incompetent and a thief were pure fabrications, he said.

Jaubert's passport was confiscated by the police in April

2007 after Dubai World told authorities they suspected Jaubert illegally possessed 450 rounds of ammunition discovered in the Exomos building.

Then, Jaubert said he was given an ultimatum — either pay up or never leave Dubai.

Jaubert was charged in February 2008 in a lawsuit in Dubai with embezzlement of government funds, breach of trust and benefiting from ill-gotten gains.

In March, according to the company, an agreement was reached to settle the charges if Jaubert would repay a portion of the money he owed, but he instead fled.

Jaubert contends he is the victim and is writing a book, "Escape from Dubai," which is critical of the conglomerate.

"In Dubai, you have no rights.

You are guilty until proven guilty," he said. "I welcome the trial. This will give me the opportunity to explain everything. The truth will come out."

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Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:27:44 AM

Rupert Murdoch's quest to pull news stories from Google isn't a

solo effort. Publishers of The Denver Post and the Dallas Morning News may pull some of their stories from Google, too, reports Bloomberg. News Corp.

is considering blocking Google's search engine from displaying its news articles and may display its stories on the Bing site.

MediaNews Group, the Denver

Around the Net In Media: American Music Awards Draw Largest Ratings in Years (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 11/23/2009 7:10:34 PM

ABC's telecast of the American Music Awards enjoyed a dash of MTV-style morning-after buzz by generating several talkedabout moments, including Adam Lambert's racy dance routine and J. Lo falling on her tush.

The Awards drew 14.2 million viewers and a 5.5 preliminary adults 18-49 rating. That's the largest overall audience for the show since 2002 and its biggest rating since 2004. The AMAs stand as the third-highest-rated awards show of the year, behind only the Oscars and the Grammys and have posted gains the last several years.

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Obama in key talks with Indian PM (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

MediaDailyNews: Belo, Media News Consider Pay Walls (MediaPost | Media News)

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Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:18:57 AM

President Barack Obama has publisher, and Belo, the Dallas p r a i s e d t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s ' publisher, may also introduce relationship with India as "one of online fees and block Google. the defining partnerships of the This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

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21st century".

Addressing Indian PM Manmohan Singh on the first state visit of his presidency, Mr Obama said Mr Singh was a "fitting leader" for the occasion.

India was "indispensable", said Mr Obama, ahead of talks with Mr Singh.

Discussions are expected to range from Afghanistan and climate change to nuclear energy co-operation and trade.

Mr Singh began his visit to America on Monday.

He is being received with pomp and ceremony which far exceeds that enjoyed by any previous foreign visitor to Mr Obama's White House, the BBC's Richard Lister in Washington says.

Relations 'cooled' Speaking at the White House, Mr Obama called India an increasingly influential global leader and that the United States was ready to start work on a number of important issues.

"Our nations are two global leaders, driven not to dominate other nations, but to build a future of security and prosperity

for all nations," Mr Obama said.

Mr Obama's presidency has been dominated by Afghanistan and Pakistan and his recent trip to Beijing underlined his respect for China's growing power, he says.

But he adds that Tuesday's reception at the White House aims to allay Indian fears that America's relations with Delhi have been allowed to slip since George W Bush's presidency.

India hopes the talks will see the finalisation of the civilian nuclear deal with the US. Last year they signed a civilian nuclear co-operation accord to end 34 years of US sanctions.

Delhi gains access to US civilian nuclear technology and fuel in return for inspections of its civilian, but not military, nuclear facilities.

Raising the issue of Afghanistan, Mr Singh warned ahead of the talks that a victory for the Taliban in Afghanistan would be a catastrophe for the region and the world.

"Any premature talks of exit will only embolden the terrorist elements who are out to

destabilise not only our part of the world but civilised world everywhere," Mr Singh said.

Crackdown on militants His comments come as Mr Obama is finalising a decision on whether to send additional US troops to Afghanistan.

Mr Singh also expressed his concern about the spread of Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorism to Pakistan's heartlands.

He urged the Obama administration to put pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militants in the country.

In Washington, the two leaders are also expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on climate change which has been one of the most controversial issues on their agenda, our correspondent says.

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MediaDailyNews: KSL Wins Media-Buying Chores For Sizzler (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:19:24 AM

KSL Media is now working on the $5 million Sizzler account previously held by Initiative Media. The media-buying

company will work in conjunction with Sizzler's ad agency of record Kovel Fuller to drive sales for the restaurant chain. "We expect KSL Media will provide us with significant savings on strategic media buys,"

stated Michael Branigan, vice president of marketing for Sizzler.

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New dad-in-space: Focusing on shuttle job easy (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

Atlantis will undock from the International Space Station early Wednesday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Astronaut Nicole Stott also is NASA's new dad in space, eagerly awaiting the ride back. shuttle astronaut Randolph She's been in orbit for three Bresnik, said Tuesday he had no months. problems focusing on his job She said she misses her husband while awaiting his daughter's and 7-year-old son, as well as birth. being out in the sunshine.

Abigail Mae Bresnik was born "Pizza has been sounding really late Saturday, just hours after his good," she told reporters. She's first spacewalk. also craving a cola with crushed "Fortunately, I've got a little over ice.

20 years of good Marine Corps The shuttle crew's Thanksgiving training on compartmentalizing," meal will be nothing special, as Bresnik said during a crew news p e r c o m m a n d e r C h a r l e s conference Tuesday.

Hobaugh's wishes. Whatever is "We've been training long and on the prepacked menu that day hard for this mission. We know will be fine, he said. that the baby's been coming, so it " Thanksgiving isn't all about was easy to go ahead and do our what you eat. It's the people you tasks," he said. It's a lot simpler spend it with. This has become to put thoughts aside when my second family," he said. they're about a good thing, he Besides, Hobaugh is expecting a added. tasty fried turkey when he gets Bresnik said he wants to see his home. family as soon as possible after ___ space shuttle Atlantis lands On the Net: Friday. Wife Rebecca was N A S A : figuring on waiting for him back http://www.nasa.gov/mission(un home in Houston, with the baby. derscore)pages/shuttle/news/inde The couple also have a 3 1/2-year x.html -old son.

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Lula urges Iran nuclear solution (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

instead.

"We recognise Iran's right to develop a peaceful nuclear Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:38:37 PM programme in compliance with Brazil has reaffirmed its support international accords. for Iran's right to a civilian "I encourage you to continue nuclear programme, but called engaging interested countries to for a "just and balanced" solution seek a just and balanced solution with the West. on the Iranian nuclear issue," he During a visit to Brazil by the said to Mr Ahmadinejad at a Iranian president, President Luiz press conference.

Inacio Lula da Silva criticised Iran reticence attempts to isolate Iran over its Iran has yet to respond to a plan nuclear ambitions. brokered by the International But he also urged Mahmoud Atomic Energy Agency, and Ahmadinejad to engage with the agreed by Russia, the US and West.

France last month.

Western powers fear Iran is Under the plan most of Iran's developing nuclear weapons enriched uranium would be sent technology, rather than civilian abroad to be turned into fuel rods uses as it claims. for research use.

It is the first visit by an Iranian This is seen as a way for Iran to president to Brazil, which get the fuel it needs, while giving maintains close ties to the US, guarantees to the West that it will Israel and other countries trying not be used for nuclear weapons. to block Iran's nuclear ambitions. Mr Ahmadinejad's visit to Brazil But Brazilian President Lula said has already drawn criticism from he opposes further sanctions on Israel and members of the US Iran, and called for diplomacy Congress.

US State Department spokesman Robert Wood declined to comment on the meeting, but before the event, he said he hoped Brazil would raise some of the US concerns with the Iranian leader.

New York congressman Eliot Engel said President Lula was making "a serious error" by "lending legitimacy" to Mr Ahmadinejad.

Israel too called it a "mistake" for Brazil to host him, AFP reports.

Since coming to power in 2005, Mr Ahmadinejad has sought to build ties with leftist south American leaders.

His five-nation tour also takes him to Venezuela and Bolivia, with stops in the West African countries of Senegal and Gambia on the way home.

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Submitted at 11/24/2009 2:43:50 AM

[Belgium] Brussels-based Attentio, a startup that markets a robust software suite for brand

Man Arrested in Philadelphia in Alleged Missile Terror Plot (FOXNews.com)

Tarraf to obtain weapons that could be shipped to Syria or Iran for what he called "the An alleged plot to send anti- R e s i s t a n c e . " aircraft missiles and guns to He was after missiles that could Syria or Iran was thwarted after a " t a k e d o w n a n F - 1 6 , " t h e key figure was arrested in a f f i d a v i t s a y s .

Philadelphia, the FBI said in Little did Tarraf know, he was documents released Monday. requesting the weapons from an Dani Nemr Tarraf was detained undercover agent, according to S a t u r d a y o n c h a r g e s o f documents. conspiracy to acquire a missile The affidavit alleges that Tarraf system designed to destroy paid a $20,000 cash deposit to aircraft and conspiracy to possess the agent in July for machine machine guns, MyFoxPhilly.com guns and shoulder-fired Stinger reported. missiles, MyFoxPhilly.com Federal agents wouldn't discuss reported. The documents say whether Tarraf had any ties to T a r r a f ' s d e a l i n g s w i t h t h e terrorist groups, the TV station undercover officer date back to Web site said. He has homes in June 2007. both Lebanon and Slovakia, but Last week, authorities say, he his country of origin wasn't traveled to Philadelphia to immediately clear. inspect his purchases.

"Keeping missiles, machine guns, Four other men were charged and other sensitive U.S. weapons with conspiring to transport technology from falling into the stolen goods in the alleged plot, wrong hands is one of the Justice MyFoxPhilly.com said.

Department's top priorities," said "These cases show the breadth of David Kriss, assistant attorney criminal activity engaged in by monitoring and analysis of equity investment of €400,000 general for national security, in those who oppose us," said U.S. conversations that are happening and a loan of €125,000.This announcing the sting.

Attorney Michael L. Levy. in social media, has raised brings the total of capital The FBI said the plot began as a Click here for more from s c h e m e t o s m u g g l e s t o l e n MyFoxPhilly.com. €525,000 (or $786,000) in raised… financing from the city’s regional 0 c o m m e n t s S o u r c e : electronics — including video This content has passed through games, cell phones and laptops fivefilters.org. investment firm SRIB/GIMB. e u . t e c h c r u n c h . c o m — and evolved into an effort by The financing consisted of an

Attentio raises €525,000 for social media monitoring and analysis software suite By twitter:@johninboulder (TweetMeme)

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Achtung! Google Analytics is illegal, say German government officials By twitter:@jcoudriet (TweetMeme) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:08:29 AM

[Germany] Several federal and regional government officials in Germany are trying to put a ban on Google Analytics, the search giant’s free software product that allows website owners and

Cot recall after suffocation link (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

distributed between 1993 and 2009, and were sold at major retailers including Wal-Mart and Submitted at 11/24/2009 2:12:45 AM Costco.

More than two million cots have Repair kits been recalled in the US and The commission said there was a Canada over fears that a defect problem with plastic sides of the could cause children to suffocate. cots, which could fall off, The recall concerns cots made creating a dangerous space

by Canadian firm Stork Craft between the cot and the mattress.

Manufacturing, around 150,000 Please turn on JavaScript. Media of which carry the Fisher Price requires JavaScript to play. logo.

Michele Witte: "I fell to my The US Consumer Product knees and just started screaming" Safety Commission (CPSC) said "The bodies of infants and four child deaths were related to toddlers can become entrapped in defective cots. the space which can lead to The recall involves 1.2 million s u f f o c a t i o n . C o m p l e t e cots in the US and about one detachment of the drop-sides can million in Canada. lead to falls from the crib," the T h e c o t s w e r e m a d e a n d commission explained.

It said that there had been 15 reported incidents of entrapments, four of which resulted in suffocation.

In addition, it said there were 20 incidents of infants falling from the cots, resulting in injuries that ranged from concussion to bumps and bruises.

"CPSC urges parents and caregivers to immediately stop using the recalled cribs, wait for the free repair kit, and do not attempt to fix the cribs without the kit," the commission said.

Consumers should contact Stork Craft to receive the kit, it added.

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publishers to get detailed statistics about the number, whereabouts and search behavior of their visitors (and much more).

According to an article in today’s Zeit Online (poor Google translation here),…

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Joost Is Now Officially Dead – Assets Acquired By Adconion Media Group By twitter:@TechCrunch (TweetMeme) Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:17:54 AM

Adconion Media Group announced this market that it has acquired certain key assets from Joost, the ill-fated online video service started by the infamous Kazaa and Skype founders

Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but it’s likely a firesale that isn’t bringing any returns to Joost’s investors.News is breaking, more coming shortly.Crunch…

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Green.view: Green redemption (The Economist: Daily columns) Submitted at 11/23/2009 9:59:23 PM

DEPENDING on how you view it, climate change is either the biggest problem mankind faces or its greatest financial opportunity. For example, McKinsey has become known as a climate-change consultant, thanks to its greenhouse gas ✠cost abatement curve â. This clever little chart shows the relative opportunity costs of different abatement activities.

McKinseyâ™s curve and expertise on climate change have opened the doors and pockets of ministries and industries around the globe.

What is striking about the global cost-abatement curve is what a bargain it seems to be to lower emissions by protecting rainforests. There is plenty of argument about whether it really will be as cheap as the curve suggests. For example, Simon Counsell, director of the Rainforest Foundation, in Britain, queries whether the opportunity costs of reducing slash-and-burn farming are as low as they are presented. Subsistence farming may, indeed, yield only $200-300 per hectare but paying that sum

to the locals will not give them shops in which to buy food.

Nonetheless, there appears to be great potential for cheap abatement in forests. Indeed, if the world wants to keep global carbon-dioxide levels to below 450 parts per million and thus give the planet a 50:50 chance of keeping the increase in temperature below 2ï‚°C, deforestation must be tackled. If people can be persuaded to stop chopping down trees, avoided deforestation might account for 30% of the reductions in carbon emissions by 2020.

A number of countries have taken early action to halt deforestation. In Brazil, the Amazon Fund has been established to preserve vast swathes of forest as quickly as possible. Every $120 put into this fund will protect a hectare of rainforest for 20 years by purchasing land and paying locals to not chop down trees.

This, combined with other actions, has led to a phenomenal decline in the area of rainforest being lost. On November 12th, the countryâ™s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced that deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon had reached the lowest ever recorded.

In forest-rich Guyana, President Bharrat Jagdeo recently signed a deal with the government of Norway under which his country could receive up to $250m by 2015 to protect its tropical forests and implement a low-carbon development strategy.

Meanwhile, in the Congo, Henri Djombo, the minister of forestry economy, has been championing sustainable forestry certification.

However, setting up a formal United Nations scheme to pay for avoided deforestation, which is expected to emerge from a global deal on climate change, will take time. On November 19th a highlevel group of representatives from forested nations met at the London home of the Prince of Wales to discuss an emergency package of funding to stop deforestation while the trees are still standing.

The meeting heard how an informal working group on interim finance recently produced a report suggesting that between $22 billion and $37 billion will be needed between 2010 and 2015. Although that might sound like a lot, in the global scheme of things it is not. For comparison, the size of the bonuses to be shared by bankers at Goldman Sachs this year looks set to be

about $21 billion.

Which prompts your correspondent to ponder where such short-term finance might be found. Rich-world governments, many of which have record levels of debt, are skint. Bailing out the banks has been costly.

Meanwhile the social standing of those bankers who are lucky enough to be getting bonuses, while their fellow citizens face years of higher taxes and cuts to public services, is at an all-time low. The ideal solution, surely, is for those bankers to shun a new Ferrari in favour of rainforest conservation.

Conveniently, some banks are even working on financial instruments to interest long-term investors (such as pension funds) in forest protection. Carbon offsets generated by forest preservation schemes seem likely to be part of the emissions strategy of many rich countries, and returns would derive from emissions trading schemes.

Investment could yield both future wealth and a route towards social acceptability for the battered bankers.

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AIDS: Turning the screw some more (The Economist: News analysis) Submitted at 11/23/2009 11:56:04 PM

ALL epidemics run their course.

AIDS will be no exception. But concerted action can give them a helping hand to the finish line, and the latest report from the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS, the two United Nations agencies charged with tackling the epidemic, claims that is what is happening.

The most important figure in the report, which was published on Tuesday November 24th, is 17%.

This is the estimated drop in the annual number of new infections compared with 2001, the year that the United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was signed. The biggest proportionate fall, 25%, has been in East Asia. In subSaharan Africa, where the disease is most rampant, the decline is estimated at 15%. That corresponds to 400,000 fewer African infections in 2008 than in 2001, though 1.9m Africans are still becoming infected each year.

The death rate is also falling, as antiretroviral drugs become ubiquitous. Over the five years to 2008, the report claims, the number of AIDS-related deaths around the world fell by 10%, AIDS: page 66

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though it still stands at about 2m annually.

A consequence of the falling death rate, of course, is that there are more infected people who need treatment. The number of those “living with HIV”, to use the politically correct argot of the field, is somewhere between 31m and 36m. Not all of these people need drugs immediately, but almost all will need them eventually. Since the drugs prolong life, but do not cure, the rising number of infected people will provide a challenge to the pockets of rich-world taxpayers, the principal source of funds for these drugs in the poorest parts of the world.

It is not clear how much the falling number of new infections is a result of the activities of the agencies that distribute those funds, and the governments they support, in chivvying people to change their behaviour. The report talks of the benefits of integrating HIV prevention and

treatment programmes with other health and social-welfare services, and other such fine phrases, but the direct consequences of such things are hard to measure. What is clear, though, is that the spread of the drugs themselves has been crucial to prevention as well as treatment. In particular, the strategic deployment of antiretrovirals to pregnant women has, the report estimates, stopped some 200,000 mother-tochild infections in the 12 years to 2008.

As to the cause of the drop in the adult infection rate, that is less certain. In this case, too, the drugs may be important.

Although antiretroviral drugs do not cure the user, they cause the level of the virus in his body to drop to a point where it is harmless—and also unlikely to be passed on to sexual partners.

The report quotes research suggesting that those on the drugs are only a tenth as likely to

transmit the virus as those who are not.

The bad news—no report on AIDS would be complete without some—is that there is evidence of a long-feared generalisation of the epidemic in some parts of the world where it has hitherto been confined to groups at special risk.

It appears that the risky groups, such as intravenous drug users, and prostitutes and their clients, are starting to spread the virus, through sex, to others. This is particularly true in the case of drug users for eastern Europe and Central Asia, and for prostitutes’ clients in other parts of Asia. The overall message, though, is cautiously optimistic. AIDS may not yet be in full retreat, but progress is being made.

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Research Brief: Moms, Dads, Kids and Teachers Safest on Gift List; But Mood is Upbeat (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 11/24/2009 7:15:40 AM

According to the American Express Spending & Saving Tracker, The "joyful" outlook for this holiday season might surprise you, as this brighter consumer mood translates into buying behavior.

When given the choice of describing their attitude going into the holiday season as joyful or gloomy, 41% of the general population say they are "joyful".

42% are even-keeled, saying they are "neither joyful nor gloomy," and only 13% have a "gloomy" attitude. 69% of young professionals and 53% of the affluent report a joyful outlook.

10% of consumers plan to spend more this year than last on holiday gifts, and 43% about the same. 58% favor gift cards as the go-to present of the season versus all other gift selections. The best way to a "consumer's heart," according to the study, is apparently with a 30% discount.

In the next 30 days 22% of U.S. consumers expect to spend more when compared to the last 30 day period. Notably, 28% of young professionals say they've been saving and now have enough to spend, and 28% are expecting an increase in income for themselves or from a spouse or partner.

On the flip side, 22% of consumers say they will whittle down the number of people on their list. In general, if consumers have to make a choice to cut someone from their list in order to stay within their budget: • Coworkers are the first to go (17%) • Followed by service providers such as postal carriers, hair and nail stylists (14%) • Then extended family and friends (13%) Members of the immediate family, pets and close friends are the safest: • Only two% would eliminate teachers from the gift list • Less than 1% would eliminate mom, dad or the kids Pamela Codispoti, American Express senior vice president and general manager, Cardmember Services, says "Even after more than a year of recession... consumers intend to spend on loved ones, with a plan to give more gift cards and electronics than other items... (and) a clear majority will do as much or more as last year when it comes to charitable giving."

79% of consumers intend to utilize the Internet as a tool to help with holiday shopping: RESEARCH page 67

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MediaDailyNews: Google Records Deal With TiVo, Will Use DVR Data To Enhance TV Ad Buys

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• 45% will use the Internet to purchase items • 28% will use it for hard-tofind items • 27% to research products, • 25% will go online to (MediaPost | Media News) networks to begin using to sell it primarily to test and gain TV sets when the set-top devices simply look for gift ideas. their advertising time. insights about TV audience are on and tuned to a channel. • 50% will most likely spend Submitted at 11/24/2009 5:00:27 AM Google TV Ads primary source exposure via the system, which According to Nielsen's estimates, on clothing and accessories In its ongoing quest to entice of data comes from the digital set c o m p e t e s w i t h M i c r o s o f t ' s 10% of digital set-top devices advertisers and agencies to buy -top devices of DISH Network NAVIC, and Spot Runner's "never get turned off," and 30% In terms of the largest and most TV advertising time via its subscribers, and a few small Malibu platforms. The cable TV are on for 24-hours in any given e x p e n s i v e s i n g l e p u r c h a s e online, auction-based Google TV digital cable TV systems that industry's Canoe Ventures also is day. While methods have been h o l i d a y b u y e r s w i l l m a k e , Ads platform, Google has cut a have partnered with Google. seen as a potential competitor or developed for editing the digital consumers expect to spend the deal with TiVo giving media Google subsequently enhanced collaborator with Google TV set-top data to factor out the non- most on technology gifts (with an buyers access digital set-top data those TV audience data streams Ads, but its long-term market viewing portion of their tuning, average gift costing $450) generated by subscribers of the by licensing demographic TV play still remains unclear in the the real value is in reporting the followed by gift cards (with an digital video recorder service. audience information from minds of many TV buyers and "long tail" of the TV universe - average gift costing $270). The The deal is the latest push by Nielsen Co., and more recently sellers. t h e p a r t n o t m e a s u r e d b y spending increases for affluents, Google to gain traction among by licensing geo-demographic Meanwhile, the amalgamation of Nielsen's traditional TV methods. with averages of $590 for m a i n s t r e a m m a r k e t e r s a n d analytics data from Nielsen's TV audience data streams and During another presentation by technology and $350 for gift agencies for its TV advertising PRIZM system. analytics tools being assembled full-service New York-based cards respectively. platform, which has attracted a The new deal with TiVo gains by Google TV Ads has been both agency Karlen Williams Graybill Young professionals are more lot of attention, and a fair amount access to second-by-second DVR i n t e l l e c t u a l l y a t t r a c t i v e t o Advertising, which showcased likely to give entertainmentof testing on Madison Avenue, viewing data, which will give Madison Avenue, as well as the results of an actual TV buy related gifts such as movie or but has failed to gain any critical Google TV Ads advertisers confusing, as was evident during made earlier this year for the Act t h e a t r e t i c k e t s ( 3 8 % ) o r mass due to its limited access to insights about household-level a series of presentations made by and Gold Bond Ultimate brands experiential gifts (24%) vs. the quality TV advertising inventory. a d v e r t i s i n g i m p r e s s i o n s various data suppliers and end- across eight cable TV networks, general population (18% and 7% To date, Google TV Ads has generated by their buys, but it users during a TV audience comparing both Google TV Ads respectively). deals to sell local advertising does not include any of the measurement summit held by and Nielsen's conventional TV 63% of consumers expect to do avails on EchoStar's DISH enhanced analytics generated by Google earlier this month. ratings samples, the agency some type of charitable giving Network satellite TV service, and TiVo's StopWatch service, which D u r i n g o n e o f t h o s e concluded that there were no over the holidays, despite the fact national TV ads on a handful of is not covered by this deal. presentations, Nielsen Senior " s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t " that 54% of consumers say that mostly low-rated or emerging Google hasn't disclosed how Vice President-Insights, Analysis differences, and that, "There is no as a result of the economy they cable TV networks. much TV advertising is actually and Policy Pat McDonough, perfect rating methodology." will be cutting back on the The deal is the latest effort by being processed through its noted there still are a number of This content has passed through number of gifts they purchase.

Google to leverage enhanced data platform, but the system is problems with the kind of set-top fivefilters.org.

69% plan to do more or the same to make the Google TV Ads believed to be popular mainly data being used by Google TV when it comes to charity this platform more attractive to with direct response and "long Ads, including the fact that it's holiday as they did last year. advertisers, and consequently, tail" advertisers and agencies, difficult to know when people are 22% of young professionals say more appealing to bigger TV and among bigger agencies using actually sitting in front of their they plan to do more compared to last year.

36% of general population favor RESEARCH page 68

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donating money to an organization is the top way consumers like to give. Other gift and charitable considerations include: • 31% of consumers favor purchasing gifts or grocery items for a needy family • 18% like to volunteer their time • 25% of the general population plan to pare back on charitable giving this year • 46% of consumers say they plan to spend less on gifts The study found that price discounts are the top motivator for getting consumers into the checkout line. And free

shipping, a free gift with purchase and bonus reward points motivate holiday shoppers as they think about making purchases.

• 70% of consumers say discounts would be the top motivator to get them to shop within the next 30 days, with a 30% discount the average: • 47% of young professionals say they would be willing to begin spending with discounts as low as 10% • 45% of holiday shoppers could be tempted to start their holiday shopping if they were offered free or faster shipping • 35% want free gift with purchase

• 22% say bonus reward points • Free gifts appeal to 52% of young professionals • Bonus reward points get the interest of 45% of young professionals and 33% of affluents For the complete release, please visit here, and to view the PDF file of detailed charts and graphs, please to here.

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Cassini Spacecraft Snaps Highest-Res Images of Saturn's Enceladus Moon

By Clay Dillow (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

resolution photos ever of the moon's southern polar region and to thermally map the "tiger stripe" terrain there, gathered some stunning images including Submitted at 11/23/2009 10:20:33 AM some of the geyser-like plumes On Saturday, the Cassini Cassini discovered on the moon's spacecraft conducted a flyby of surface during previous flybys.

Saturn's sixth-largest moon, The photos themselves -Enceladus, snapping some rather provided by Cassini Imaging breathtaking photos along the C e n t r a l L a b o r a t o r y f o r way. The flyby, whose purpose Operations (CICLOPS) -- are was to gather the highest- raw and unprocessed, but along

with the thermal data they should help researchers piece together a

detailed map of Enceladus's geologically active southern pole.

Researchers are especially interested in the deep fissures in that region, dubbed "tiger stripes" for their appearance, as they are warmer than the rest of the surface and spew forth water and ice in large plumes that can reach miles above the surface.

The photos will be the last look at the south pole that Cassini offers researchers before the

region fades into darkness for the next several years. Cassini itself is on borrowed time; its original four-year mission ended in 2008, but the spacecraft was still in such good shape it was retooled to extend its data gathering until late 2010. The spacecraft has now set its sights on Rhea, another of Saturn's moons.

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Gallup Economic Weekly: Spending Up Pre-Black Friday (All Gallup Headlines)

deteriorated slightly, with 60% saying the economy is "getting worse," compared to 58% the PRINCETON, NJ -- The falling previous week and a month ago. dollar has Wall Street cheering Only 34% of Americans describe but Main Street consumers have the economy as "getting better" -not jumped on the bandwagon, as worse than the 37% of the prior Gallup's Economic Confidence week and of a month ago. While Index is down slightly from a gold prices are hitting new highs, week ago and from October. and stocks continue to surge Still, consumer spending is up around the world, U.S. economic 11% from the prior week and is confidence remains at about a at its smallest year-to-year four-month low. difference of 2009 -- down 7% • Consumer Spending was up $7 compared to the same week a even as confidence declined, as y e a r a g o . W h i l e s p e n d i n g self-reported daily spending in comparisons of the past couple of stores, restaurants, gas stations, weeks benefit from last year's and online averaged $69 last f i n a n c i a l c r i s i s - d e p r e s s e d week -- an 11% increase over the comparables, even this slight prior week. More impressive is i m p r o v e m e n t i n c o n s u m e r the comparison to the same week spending may give retailers a year ago, with spending down added hope that Black Friday 7% -- its smallest decline from weekend sales could exceed last year's comparables so far this expectations. year. Still, about half of the What Happened (Week Ending decline in the year-over-year Nov. 22) spending comparison is due to • Economic Confidence was the financial crisis-inspired sharp down slightly during the week drop in spending last year to only ending Nov. 22 compared to the $74 from $81 the prior week -prior week and to the month of putting it within a few dollars of October, due to a decline in its lowest daily spending rate to consumer perceptions of the that point in 2008. In addition, economic outlook. Gallup's spending last week potentially Economic Confidence Index was benefited to some degree from its -32, compared to -29 the prior close proximity to the mid-month w e e k a n d - 2 8 i n O c t o b e r . payday and the related "paycheck Consumer assessments of the effect." Weeks that include midcurrent economy were unchanged month and end-of-month paydays from the previous week, with tend to have higher consumer 48% rating the economy "poor" spending levels than non-payday and 11% rating it "excellent" or weeks. A key determinant of how "good." However, consumer successful this Christmas sales ratings of the economic outlook season will be probably depends Submitted at 11/23/2009 8:00:00 PM

on its Consumer Confidence Index Tuesday and the Reuters/University of Michigan's report on its Consumer Sentiment Index Wednesday are likely to generate a fair amount of attention this week. Gallup data from the same time period as these surveys suggest both should show declines compared to October. Regardless, these monthly measures relying mainly on early November interviews are already pretty much out of date compared to Gallup's daily monitoring of economic confidence, which suggests that consumer perceptions continue to on whether spending over the languish even as the financial next four weeks can match the markets continue to surge.

Also on Tuesday, the $90-plus average per week of this same pre-Christmas period in government is expected to report that third-quarter U.S. economic 2008.

• Job Creation was unchanged growth was less than the 3.5% last week, with Gallup's Job previously reported. In turn, it is Creation Index at +1, the same as likely that more observers will be the prior week and a month ago. talking about how much of the T w e n t y - f o u r p e r c e n t o f growth that did take place was employees said their companies due to special government efforts were hiring -- also the same as such as the "cash for clunkers" the prior week and a month ago - program and the special new - while 23% said their companies home buyers' tax credit. In were letting people go, the same addition, Gallup's consumer as it has been since mid-October. spending data suggest that to the The jobs situation seems to have degree that October personal stabilized but is still dismal, as s p e n d i n g i n c r e a s e d a s the overall economy continues to anticipated, the increase is also lose jobs and the unemployment likely to largely reflect these rate continues to increase -- not a special programs. good background for consumer Given the Thanksgiving holiday, the government will report spending this holiday season. weekly jobless claims on Wednesday this week. Gallup What to Watch For The Conference Board's report data suggest jobless claims will

not improve as anticipated, although gauging the government -reported weekly change in jobless claims remains a very challenging task around the holidays. Regardless, Gallup's Job Creation Index shows that the job situation facing most Americans on Main Street has stabilized but not gotten better in recent weeks: the rate of layoffs seems to have steadied, but new job creation has not improved.

Still, Black Friday and the weekend of which it is a part will be the big event for the nation's retailers and the fundamentals of the economy in the week ahead.

And in this regard, there is some reason for hope. While the economic fundamentals reported this week may not provide much of a positive background for the most important retail sales day of the year, consumer spending did improve last week. This is in sharp contrast to the comparable week a year ago, when spending declined to nearly its lowest level to date in 2008.

The question going forward is whether spending over the next four weeks will continue to increase, matching or exceeding the $90-plus-per-day rate of a year ago. Last year, spending increased 24% from $74 to $92 over the comparable two-week period. This year, spending will have to increase 33% to match last year's increased holiday spending. While this is a huge GALLUP page 70

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challenge given this year's consumer spending trends, once again reaching last year's spending levels in the Black Friday week would suggest that Christmas spending this year could actually match or exceed that of 2008.

While last week's spending might be slightly overstated, due to a partial"paycheck effect," Gallup data suggest that some spending momentum may be building and could continue to increase in the days ahead. Add the strong promotional and discounting efforts that many retailers seem to be pursuing, and matching or exceeding last year's Christmas sales seems possible, although it may be at the expense of retailer margins. Either way, the magnitude of this week's holiday spending bounce should provide key insights into the forthcoming Christmas sales outlook.

Review and export the complete

daily trends on these measures: Economic Indexes; Consumer Spending; Economic Outlook; Economic Conditions; Job Market Learn more about Gallup's economic measures.

Sign up for Gallup e-mail alerts or RSS feeds Get Gallup news on Facebook and Twitter Survey Methods For Gallup Daily tracking, Gallup interviews approximately 1,000 national adults, aged 18 and older, each day. The Gallup consumer perceptions of the economy and consumer spending results are based on random halfsamples of approximately 500 national adults, aged 18 and older, each day. The Gallup job creation and job loss results are based on a random half sample of approximately 250 current fulland part-time employees each day. Results from the week of Nov. 16-22, 2009, are based on

telephone interviews with 3,446 adults for the consumer perceptions and spending questions. For these results, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is Âą2 percentage points. Results for the job creation and job loss questions are based on interviews with 1,953 employees, with a maximum margin of error of Âą3 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones and cellular phones.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

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Military Launching Preemptive Strikes Against Mental Illness

By Clay Dillow (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

Iraq and Afghanistan and another troop escalation expected in coming weeks, researchers are doing double-time to define the causes of Post Traumatic Stress Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:49:58 PM Disorder (PTSD) to better serve Genetic testing and brain scans troops returning from war. With for new recruits attempt to cut two wars going and no end in out PTSD-prone soldiers sight, scientists have quite an With nearly 1.8 million U.S. abundance of subjects on which soldiers having rotated through

to carry out their research.

Scientists and armed forces medical personnel have long been baffled by PTSD's seemingly arbitrary manifestation; a group of warfighters can experience the same battle with the same degree MILITARY page 72

President Obama Hopes to Jumpstart Science and Technology Education With New Initiative

By Danny Freedman and Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

knowledge, an insistence on excellence, a reverence for science and math and technology and learning. That used to be what we were about," he said.

Submitted at 11/23/2009 12:44:48 PM "That's what we're going to be Through Educate to Innovate, about again." the White House hopes to return The president also announced an American science and technology annual science fair at the White learning to prominence House for the winners of national E l m o a n d B i g B i r d m a y science and tech competitions. represent old school learning S i n c e t h e N C A A a t h l e t i c s compared to video games, but champs get to visit, so too should both Sesame Street and video the nation's mathletes. "Scientists game programmers have joined and engineers ought to stand side forces as part of a new White -by-side with athletes and H o u s e i n i t i a t i v e a i m e d a t entertainers as role models," promoting science, engineering O b a m a s a i d . T h e g e n i u s and math both in and out of the inventors still in high school we classroom. featured earlier this year are N o t i n g t h a t f o r d e c a d e s surely taking note. academic achievement among The initiative, dubbed Educate to math and science students has Innovate, is kicking-off with five been "losing ground" in the U.S., public-private partnerships that the president said that around the PRESIDENT page 71 world "there is a hunger for

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Man Diagnosed 'Comatose' For 23 Years Was Actually Conscious All Along

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will be, according to the White House, worth more than $260 million in funding and in-kind support from a variety of companies and organizations: • Time Warner Cable, FIRST

By Clay Dillow (Popular and doctors tried to coax a h i s c a s e i s n o t i s o l a t e d . Robotics, and the Coalition for Science - New Technology, response from Houben, who all According to his study, as many Science After School have Science News, The Future along was trapped within his own as 40 percent of cases diagnosed e s t a b l i s h e d t h e w e b s i t e Now) body, living a life of frustration as vegetative may indeed possess connectamillionminds.com to with his inability to interact. enough consciousness to not only help kids and parents find afterSubmitted at 11/23/2009 1:10:48 PM "I screamed, but there was communicate, but to actually school activities in science, tech, In what can only be described as nothing to hear," he told the make considerable progress with engineering and math. a h a r r o w i n g i n s t a n c e o f Guardian via his computer. the right treatment. Of 44 • Discovery Communications, misdiagnosis, a Belgian man For over two decades Houben "vegetative" patients Laureys along with partner universities presumed comatose for 23 years remained in what doctors thought a n a l y z e d , 1 8 e n d e d u p and federal agencies will, among after a near-fatal car crash was was an unconscious state, though responding to communication. other things, be devoting a block actually conscious and paralyzed he was fully conscious of the The idea of losing the ability to o f c o m m e r c i a l - f r e e k i d s the entire time. Rom Houben, world going by around him. It communicate with the outside programming on Discovery's whose real state was discovered wasn't until three years ago when world is terrifying enough, but to Science Channel. three years ago but only now doctors wanted to try a new state- t h e n b e m i s d i a g n o s e d a n d • Sesame Street is in the midst of made public, could be one of of-the-art PET scanning system forgotten -- or deemed a lost the first of two seasons that will many falsely diagnosed coma on Houben that they made a cause and slotted for termination focus on science and math. cases, raising serious questions s t a r t l i n g d i s c o v e r y : t h e -- all while possessing fully • A National Lab Day that a b o u t t h o s e d i a g n o s e d a s "comatose" man's brain was functioning mental capacities is musters the on-going help of "vegetative" and, even more functioning almost normally. downright unthinkable. The groups and individuals across frighteningly, the process by For Houben, the discovery of his question "how many times have scientific realms to support which vegetative people are consciousness by the outside we been wrong?" is one the t e a c h e r s ' p r o j e c t s i n t h e removed from life support. world has been like a "second medical community is likely classroom. Funded in part by the Houben, now in a facility in birth," to put it in his own words. loath to ask, but if Houben's case H i d a r y F o u n d a t i o n , t h e Brussels and communicating via But for science, while the news is any indication, it's one that MacArthur Foundation, the Bill a computer controlled by his of Houben's "discovery" is needs to be addressed. If Laureys and Melinda Gates Foundation minimally functioning right heartening, it will likely rehash analysis is to be believed, there and others, the White House said hand, came around after his 1983 the debate over when, if ever, a should be many more Houben's the effort aims over the next four car accident. But while he could patient who by all indications of out there screaming in silence. years to impact 100,000 teachers hear every word his doctors modern science is vegetative [ The Guardian, Associated spoke, he could not speak to should be terminated.

Press] them, nor could he move his Belgian neurologist Steven body to communicate with them Laureys has published a paper on in any way. For years researchers Houben's ordeal suggesting that

and 10 million students.

• The MacArthur Foundation, Sony, the Entertainment Software Association and others in the industry will be holding competitions for the design of free videogames that target math and science, including one that's open only to kids.

We previously looked at a New York City public school that incorporates LittleBigPlanet and other games as part of its learning curriculum, and so seeing video games take a more prominent role in national science education sounds like an intriguing step.

After his speech, two students from a school in nearby Vienna, Va., showed the President a robot they'd built in six weeks, designed to pick up and lob moon rocks. Obama said he was interested in seeing the demo, given the ability of robotics to inspire young minds. "I also want to keep an eye on those robots," he said, "in case they try anything."

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of intensity, yet some are able to continue their lives normally while others are not. Often PTSD can simmer below the surface, becoming symptomatic several years after the initial trauma. But while there's no cure for PTSD, prior studies have shown that strategies like having a reliable social net and a good coping strategy can be effective in warding off the symptoms of PTSD. The problem is identifying which soldiers may be quietly harboring PTSD without knowing it.

Therefore, the idea is not to cure PTSD outright but to identify predictors of the disorder -possibly genetic biomarkers or elevated stress hormone levels -that indicate a soldier's predisposition toward the disorder before he or she enters combat. Once understood, the presence of PTSD predictors won't allow soldiers to shirk combat duty, but it will give the armed services a chance to mitigate the effects of PTSD by

getting soldiers into treatments early rather than waiting for the outward signs -- outbursts, nightmares, flashbacks, social withdrawal -- to manifest themselves.

Related Articles Monitoring Soldiers' Brains in the Field Soldier Meds: Are They Safe?

Rebuilding the Troops Tags Science, Clay Dillow, health, mental health, military, post tramatic stress disorder, ptsd, soldiers, war At Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base in California, soldiers bound for combat are undergoing a battery of tests ranging from biomarker analysis to psychiatric image association tests in which soldiers are shown pictures of various stressful situations while their stress levels are measured.

Another study by University of Texas researchers followed soldiers deployed from nearby Fort Bragg through their combat experiences. Soldiers also provided a DNA sample, an MRI brain scan and a CO 2 inhalation

test to evaluate their reactions to stress.

Unsurprisingly, preliminary findings in the UT study show that soldiers who reacted strongly to the carbon dioxide test also showed more prevalent symptoms of PTSD, which is exactly the kind of predictor researchers are looking for. It's a very military-esque way of dealing with an issue: assess the situation, locate the source of the problem, then contain its ability to render harm to our side. Given the narrow likelihood of either war coming to a close in the foreseeable future, hopefully this research will at least help more troops returning home return to normalcy as well. [ TIME]

Rat Brain Modelers Denounce IBM's Cat Brain Simulation as "Shameful and Unethical" Hoax

By Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 11/23/2009 11:30:26 AM

The Blue Brain project leader says that IBM's simulated brain does not even reach an ant's brain level IBM's claim of simulating a cat cortex generated quite a buzz last week, but now the head researcher from the Blue Brain project, a team that is working to simulate its own animal brain(a rat's), has gone incandescent with fury over the what he calls the "mass deception of the public."

Henry Markram leads the Blue Brain project that successfully simulated a self-organizing slice of rat brain at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. He has issued a point-by-point denouncement of the cat claim that bubbles with outrage at IBM Almaden's Dharmendra Modha.

"There is no qualified neuroscientist on the planet that would agree that this is even close to a cat's brain," Markram writes in his e-mail to IBM. "I see he [Modha] did not stop making such stupid statements RAT page 73

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High-Pressure Diamond Anvil Creates a New Solid from Xenon and Hydrogen

By Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 11/23/2009 2:14:59 PM

The useful noble gas may provide a breakthrough way to store hydrogen for fuel Hydrogen Storage: Store me some hydrogen Nature Chemistry/H-Racer Science under pressure can produce marvelous results, such as an entirely new way to store hydrogen fuel. Researchers combined the noble gas xenon with molecular hydrogen (H2) to make a never-before-seen solid that opens the doors to an entire new family of materials for hydrogen storage.

Researchers used a diamond anvil device to squeeze together xenon and hydrogen, and create high pressures reaching 41,000 times the normal pressure at sea level. The hydrogen atoms formed a lattice structure embedded with loosely bonded xenon pairs, which eventually formed tightly bound xenon pairs under even greater pressures ranging up to 225,000 times the atmosphere at sea level.

The unusually stable solid may clue scientists in on a new method of storing hydrogen.

Vehicles from automobiles to aerial drones could run on hydrogen fuel, but only if researchers can figure out how to store enough of the low-density gas within a small enough space to make it cost-effective.

Related Articles Mercedes to Launch Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Car Into Production by 2010 Modified Algae Produce Clean, Easy Hydrogen The Greening of

Hydrogen Fuel Cells Tags Technology, Jeremy Hsu, diamond anvils, energy, fuel cells, hydrogen, hydrogen economy, hydrogen storage, solids, xenon "Xenon is too heavy and expensive to be practical for use in hydrogen-storage applications," said Maddury Somayazulu, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, D.C. "But by understanding how it works in

this situation, researchers can come up with lighter substitutes."

Creating hydrogen from environmentally friendly resources has also proved a bit of a challenge, even though scientists have begun tinkering with lab-modified algae. But until the right technologies come into play for a functioning hydrogen economy, other energy sources must step up. [via Science Daily]

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after they claimed they simulated a mouse's brain."

Markram calls the IBM simulation a "hoax and a PR stunt" that any parallel machine cluster could replicate. He adds that creating a billion interactive virtual neuron points represents no meaningful achievement as far as simulating intelligence, but merely reflects the brute supercomputing power at IBM's disposal.

"We could do the same simulation immediately, this very second by just loading up some network of points on such a machine, but it would just be a complete waste of time -- and again, I would consider it shameful and unethical to call it a cat simulation," Markram says.

He suggested that IBM's simulation feat does not even reach the levels of ant intelligence.

The Blue Brain researcher concludes by expressing his shock at IBM and DARPA's support of the virtual feline brain, and says that he would have expected an ethics committee to "string Modha up by his toes."

Yikes.

Still, Markram has a point.

Creating any sort of artificial intelligence has long represented a difficult and arduous process, and so expecting a miracle breakthrough seems unlikely.

Perhaps we should have paid more attention to the novel Good Omens, where Hell's agent RAT page 74

74

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Introducing the Popular Science Tech Buyer's Guide

By Mark Jannot (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 11/23/2009 10:48:06 AM

The advantage to working at a place like PopSci is that, between our editors and contributors, I’m surrounded by tech experts I can turn to whenever I’m in the market for a gadget and ask simply, “So which one should I buy?” This year, we decided to package all of that expertise into the Tech Buyer's Guide which

we're giving away for free starting today.

In each of 17 categories of products, from TVs to camcorders to gaming, we’ve

RAT continued from page 73

Crowley owns "an unconnected fax machine with the intelligence of a computer and a computer with the intelligence of a retarded ant." To add some more perspective, that book was published back in 1990.

[ IEEE Spectrum]

and a splurge pick as well.

Even if you don’t feel like trusting our taste, you’ll benefit from the core buying advice for each category we’ve distilled into the Stats that Matter, the Features to Look For, and What You Can Skip.

Click the link below to open the guide—and then tell us what you picked a favorite item, the one think, about the guide and any we recommend over all the experience you may have with others. And for those on a tight the product picks themselves, in budget, or with money to burn, the comments below. Popular we’ve also included a bargain Science Tech Buyer's Guide