Liberty Newspost Apr-02-10 by Liberty Newspost

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Ex-House aide may plead in case tied to Abramoff scandal Jeremy Pelofsky (Front Row Washington)

Labor Department. Cooper’s lawyer, Ryan Malone, declined to comment but said a Submitted at 4/1/2010 8:49:50 AM court hearing will be held next A former Bush administration week in the case. Cooper had aide who was indicted on been charged in August with corruption charges tied to the f i v e c o u n t s , i n c l u d i n g d i s g r a c e d l o b b y i s t J a c k conspiracy, concealing his Abramoff may be about to cut a actions, making false statements deal with prosecutors. and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors filed a criminal Cooper initially had entered a i n f o r m a t i o n d o c u m e n t o n not guilty plea. The judge in the T h u r s d a y a g a i n s t H o r a c e case last month threw out one of Cooper who worked at the the false statement charges. Labor Department during the Prosecutors had accused Bush administration and earlier Cooper of receiving valuable as a legislative counsel to then- t i c k e t s t o e v e n t s l i k e U.S. House Majority Leader Washington Redskins football Richard Armey. The filing, games and concerts, including which is typically used in plea Bruce Springsteen, between agreements, describes one 1998 and 2000, when he worked misdemeanor count of falsely for Armey. Cooper knew that certifying that he did not receive Abramoff, his firm and their gifts from a “prohibited source” clients “had numerous issues while Cooper worked at the pending before the U.S. House

investigation by the agency, prosecutors charged. During that period, Cooper also allegedly solicited from Abramoff tickets to numerous events including professional basketball and baseball games, according to the prosecutors. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined comment. Abramoff was sentenced in 2008 to serve four years in prison in a corruption scandal that rocked Washington’s power elite and helped Republicans lose control of Congress in of Representatives,” the initial 2006. He already is serving a nearly six-year term on indictment said. Cooper later moved to jobs u n r e l a t e d c h a r g e s . within the Bush administration, Photo credit: Reuters/Carlos including a position at the Labor Barria (Abramoff leaving court) Department where he allegedly tried to help an Abramoff client, CNMI Garment Manufacturer, deal with a pending

Six April Fools' Day launches that were real Josh Lowensohn (Webware.com)

April Fools' Day tends to bring out the shenanigans in companies big and small. But

every once in a while there are some real product launches amid the jokes.

Originally posted at Web Crawler

Presented By: (National Geographic News) Submitted at 4/1/2010 10:13:55 AM

Mozilla fixes security hole with Firefox 3.6.3 Stephen Shankland (Webware.com) Submitted at 4/2/2010 2:12:29 AM

The new browser version, released just over a week after Firefox 3.6.2, fixes another critical vulnerability in the open -source browser. Originally posted at Deep Tech

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Obama chides media for healthcare impatience Alister Bull (Front Row Washington)

Caroline McCarthy (Webware.com)

Submitted at 4/1/2010 6:33:53 PM

Easter Bunny imposes Obama no-fly zone Alister Bull (Front Row Washington)

to take a motorcade out to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland for a day-trip to Submitted at 4/1/2010 10:24:53 AM Portland, Maine, where he will Even President Barack Obama try to sell healthcare reform to had to change his ways for the skeptical Americans. Easter Bunny. The Easter Egg Roll on The White House is preparing Monday is one of the most for the annual Easter Egg Roll highly anticipated events of the where scores of children will White House social calendar, at join the First Family’s Easter least among the younger crowd. celebrations. But the tents have No word on whether First Dog restricted the landing zone for Bo will be joining the hunt. the president’s preferred form of Photo credit: Reuters/Larry conveyance from his residence, Downing (Obama and Easter the Marine One helicopter. Bunny at 2009 White House That’s why Obama was forced Easter Egg Roll)

President Barack Obama, whom critics often complain gets an easy ride from the socalled liberal media, has pointed the finger of blame at the press for holding him to unrealistic expectations about the benefits of his milestone legislation. “Every single day since I signed the reform law there’s been another headline that says ‘Nation’s still divided on healthcare reform’, ‘Polls haven’t changed yet.’ Well, yeah. It just happened last week. It’s only been a week.” “Can you imagine if some of these reporters were working on a farm,” he said to a rally in

Geeky in-jokes dominate April Fools' Day 2010 Submitted at 4/1/2010 1:20:56 PM

Fake movie trailers, Tiger Woods as a Microsoft spokesman, and inflatable laptops are among the spoof news stories to emerge on the Web for April Fools' Day. Originally posted at The Social Portland, Maine. “Planted some seed. they came out the next day and look – nothing’s happened! There is no crop. We’re going to starve…it’s a disaster.” For more Reuters political news, click here. Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama speaks at rally in Portland, Maine)

LIVE: Chat Right Here Directly With The BLS About Today's Jobs Report Joe Weisenthal (The Money Game) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:47:00 AM

Wow, this is really cool. The BLS is hosting a live chat about today's jobs number. (via

Calculated Risk)&lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.co m/mobile.php/option=com_mob ile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_cod e = a 9 a 9 a 3 3 4 2 1 " mce_href="http://www.coveritli ve.com/mobile.php/option=com

_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast _code=a9a9a33421" &gt;Employment Situation: March 2010&lt;/a&gt; Join the conversation about this story »

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

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Mandelson tries to cool war of words with business over NI increase (Top stories from Times Online) Submitted at 4/2/2010 4:41:10 AM

Lord Mandelson has tried to cool Labour’s war of words with business in the row over the Government’s national insurance increase. “I’m not at war with business,” he told The Times. “I’m unhesitatingly pro-business and pro-enterprise, and everyone knows that.” His comments came as 14 company chiefs joined the growing revolt over Labour’s “tax on jobs” — the 1 per cent rise in employers and employees NI contributions from next April. Their support for the Tories’ £6 billion plans to save seven out of 10 workers up to £150 and save employers the same amount per worker has resulted in a falling out between Labour and corporate Britain — once a cornerstone of the New Labour coalition. Lord Mandelson said that the Tories were ducking hard choices by saying they could cut both taxes and the deficit at the same time. “Of course no one likes tax increases, particularly business,” said the Business Secretary. But

business was far from the only sector having to shoulder the burden of the deficit. “The vicechancellors didn’t like the belt tightening that I forced on that sector either,” he said. Lord Mandelson sought to make a virtue of the Government’s plans, written into the Budget as a key part of halving the £167 billion deficit over four years, when compared with George Osborne’s, which rely on as yet unidentified “efficiency savings”. He said: “Governing is full of hard choices, and the Conservatives are simply demonstrating that they are not ready to make the hard choices. “We are not going to shy away from these hard decisions. That’s what governments are for and that’s what you are going to get from us.” He stopped short of repeating his assertion yesterday that business leaders had been deceived by Mr Osborne’s plans, something that had rankled many in the business community. He said: “Business tells me again and again they want deficit reduction to be a priority. Withdrawing the NIC increase for next year and

putting nothing in its place as the Tories are suggesting will simply add to the deficit.” He added: “Business leaders tell me they don’t want NIC increases. An equally large number of business people tell me they don’t want VAT increases either. And they think income tax has gone up too much already. “So is everything going to come out of a spending cut? If so, ask business people whether they want education cuts or health cuts or police cuts, and they say no.” Yesterday, leaders of seven business groups, including the British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, the Institute of Directors and the Federation of Small Businesses signed a letter against the NIC rise and in support of Tory plans to ease it. They were supporting a letter signed by 23 — now 37 — company chiefs. Among the original signatories were the bosses of Sainsbury's, Next, JCB, easyGroup and GlaxoSmithKline. From the list, three — Sir Stuart Rose, executive chairman of Marks & Spencer, Paul Walsh, chief executive of

Diageo, and Brent Hoberman, co-founder of lastminute.com — sit on Gordon Brown’s business council. Seven have given money to the Tories, seven others have Tory links. A Labour press conference yesterday, planned in advance to criticise Tory spending figures, was dominated by the issue. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that Mr Osborne was in a panicked chase for headlines. Mr Darling said of the 23 signatories: “My guess is that these senior businessmen did not get where they are today by accepting such flimsy advice.” He said that he was not criticising the individuals, but they decided otherwise. Ian Cheshire, the chief executive of Kingfisher, said: “It’s a little patronising ... This isn’t a political point, it’s a business issue. Whichever way you look at it, it’s a tax on jobs.” The Liberal Democrats sided with Labour; Nick Clegg branded the Tories “the party of ... sums which don’t add up”. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Wall Streeters Don't Have to Drive -They Can Fly Connie Madon (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 4/1/2010 5:00:00 PM

Filed under: Industry, Consumer Experience, Rich in America The summer season is almost upon us. If you have ever lived in or near New York City, you know that traffic to New Jersey or the Hamptons is all but impossible. Some commute 8 to 10 hours a day to and from work. Those who have the big bucks fly. For $200, Liberty Helicopters can fly you from 30th street Pier 6 to Port Mammouth, New Jersey. Similar flights go to Long Island. Continue reading Wall Streeters Don't Have to Drive -- They Can Fly Wall Streeters Don't Have to Drive -- They Can Fly originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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"Roaming" Magnetic Fields Found (National Geographic News)

themselves. (Related:"Gamma Ray Telescope Finds First 'Invisible' Weak magnetic fields are Pulsar.") "roaming" across the universe, Based on Fermi's data, "we've according to a new study that found that these weak magnetic may have solved the mystery of fields should be everywhere. where the huge magnetic fields They should be outside the around galaxies come from. galaxies, filling the whole Galaxies such as our Milky universe, even where there are Way have their own large-scale no galaxies, no clusters, no magnetic fields. Although these anything," said study co-author fields are weak compared to A n d r i i N e r o n o v o f t h e planetary fields, scientists think University of Geneva's ISDC the galactic versions help Centre for Astrophysics in establish rates of star formation, Switzerland. guide cosmic rays, and regulate Since the new findings suggest the dynamics of interstellar gas. magnetic fields can form outside Most scientists believe the g a l a x i e s , " p e r h a p s t h o s e stronger magnetic fields of magnetic fields were created today's adult galaxies grew from b e f o r e t h e g a l a x i e s w e r e weaker "seed" fields. But it's f o r m e d , " N e r o n o v s a i d . unclear where these older fields Sowing the Seeds for Galactic originated. Fields The two leading theories: The According to the theory, seed fields were created by the primordial seed fields could movement of charged gas in have been created from charged protogalaxies, or they were particles spit out during violent produced outside of galaxies by events such as supernovae. some unseen processes in the Over time, the theory goes, a early universe. seed field could bulk up inside a New observations made with galaxy, because the galaxy's NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray s l o w s p i n c a u s e s c h a r g e d Space Telescope support the particles and gases to align idea that the seeds were there all along the seed's magnetic field along, even before galaxies lines. (Related:"Earth's Core, Submitted at 4/1/2010 3:21:56 PM

Magnetic Field Changing Fast, Study Says.") But other seed fields would remain roaming through intergalactic space—and that's what Neronov and colleagues think they've found. More precisely, the team saw a lack of very high-energy gamma rays in Fermi data on blazars, galaxies with supermassive black holes at their centers that spew jets of particles at near the speed of light. The gamma rays that reach Earth from blazars should be at a certain energy level. But the gamma rays Neronov's team saw appear to have been sapped of some of their strength, which is exactly what would have happened if the gamma rays had interacted with weak magnetic fields along the way. The researchers then modeled what happens when gamma rays crash into photons, or light particles. They found that the collisions spawn bundles of electromagnetic activity. "What we've detected could be this initial weak field, and that could resolve the problem of the origin of [modern] magnetic fields in the Milky Way and other galaxies, because we may

Chrome share gain outpaces browser rivals Stephen Shankland (Webware.com) Submitted at 4/1/2010 9:53:51 AM

Chrome edged up 0.5 percentage points in usage, more than rivals, but Mozilla likes to look at gains in its absolute

numbers of users. Originally posted at Deep Tech

now know the initial conditions," Neronov said. Magnetic Mysteries Remain The scientists aren't sure which high-energy processes might have created the very first magnetic fields in a young, galaxy-less universe, although there's no shortage of candidates. (Related:"Earliest Known Galaxies Spied in Deep Hubble Picture.") It's also unclear whether the roaming seed fields played a role in the subsequent formation of galaxies and galaxy clusters, since the fields' exact intensities have yet to be measured. "In general, I tend to think that they do not play a significant role in the formation of the galaxies, because they are too weak" at the low levels the Fermi team observed, Neronov said. The new Fermi data on blazars are published in this week's issue of the journal Science. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

5 tips for busy CEOs who want to be active online (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 4/1/2010 3:19:00 PM

Participating in social media, for a CEO, is a proven way to connent with customers while spreading the word about your company. But there’s a catch—an effective campaign requires a lot of time. Here are five tricks for busy CEOs who want to be active tweeters and Facebook-ers. See a few below: • Allocate time to spend on social media sites, but don’t make it all about you. Instead, share content and engage with users. • Set goals for what you want to achieve with social media. • If you really can’t squeeze in the time, hire a ghost tweeter or social media expert to help fill in the gaps. See all five tips at Open Forum. Keep tabs on social media. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Middle class patients warned about heavy drinking (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:54:58 AM

By Martin Evans Published: 2:54PM BST 02 Apr 2010 An increasing number of professional people are being admitted to accident and emergency departments after injuring themselves whilst drunk. As well as treating their injuries, hospital staff are being urged to provide information and advice on sensible drinking levels and identify if they have a developing alcohol problem. Studies have suggested that "brief interventions" can have a significant impact on changing people's drinking habits and can even prevent more serious problems developing further down the line. It is estimated around two million people attend hospital each year suffering from alcohol related injuries, ranging from minor cuts, breaks and sprains to more serious life threatening conditions. Many of those treated require follow up appointments at

which stage staff are being encouraged to lecture them on the dangers of heavy drinking. The Royal College of Surgeons of England said outpatient clinic visits, once a person had sobered up and had chance to reflect on the cause of their injuries, represented a good opportunity for medical staff to motivate them to drink more sensibly. The call was backed by the College of Emergency Medicine, which said that many of those suffering alcohol related injuries were now the "educated middle class and elderly". The organisation's president Dr John Heyworth said: "It is essential that we are thinking about how we can intervene to help curb this behaviour long term." The Royal College of Nursing has recently accredited a training course to help nurses intervene at the appropriate time in order to encourage sensible drinking. Janet Davies of the RCN said: "The time nurses spend with patients during follow up appointments provides a valuable window of opportunity

to encourage people to think about whether they might be drinking too much and to signpost them to further information and advice." A trial scheme in Wales found that 24 per cent more of those offered drinking advice at a follow-up appointment than those who did not receive any advice had reduced their drinking to safer levels a year later. Whilst many of those admitted to accident and emergency units are young people suffering the effects of binge drinking in cheap bars and pubs, hospitals have reported a growing trend of middle class and elderly people injuring themselves after drinking heavily at home. Recent studies have claimed that middle aged professionals are more likely to exceed the recommended daily levels of alcohol consumption than the working classes, with twice as many drinking every night of the week. The problem has become so acute that earlier this year the Government launched a hardhitting campaign warning people that increased alcohol consumption in the home

could be causing untold damage to their health, putting them at risk of heart-attack, stroke and even cancer. Recent figures also revealed how alcohol related deaths had more than doubled since 1992 from 4,023 to 9,031 in 2008. Jonathan Shepherd, a maxillofacial surgeon and a member of the Royal College of Surgeon's council, said he was confronted on an "almost daily basis" with the aftermath of alcohol-related injuries. He said: "I urge colleagues and hospital trusts to take the initiative now and engage with this group of patients before they become repeat visitors. By the time patients attend outpatient clinics for the removal of stitches, or other treatment, they have had time to reflect on the cause of their injuries, and this offers an excellent opportunity for clinic nurses to motivate them to drink sensibly." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

April 2, 1973: Lexis Launches Computerized Legal Searching Ryan Singel (Wired Top Stories)

Who says information wants to be free? Law firms pay plenty to

have it indexed for them.

100 retro video game iPhone wallpapers (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:33:00 AM

Just because your iPhone is a sleek, sophisticated piece of technology doesn’t mean you can’t pay homage to retro—and often pixelated—classic games like Sonic the Hedgehog or The Legand of Zelda. Games Radar has compiled a fun list of one hundred throwback iPhone wallpapers—the perfect salute to your old tech staples. See a few below: See them all at Games Radar. Love video games? So do we. Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Teenage bride of Islamist militant named as 'Black Widow' suicide bomber (Top stories from Times Online)

for the suicide bombings. Abdurakhmanova, also from Dagestan, is said to have Submitted at 4/2/2010 4:54:06 AM become acquainted with The 17-year-old bride of an Magomedov as a 16-year-old Islamist militant was named via the internet. He took her as today as one of the “Black his wife soon afterwards, Widow” suicide bombers who though it is unclear whether they killed 39 people in the Moscow were married formally. Metro. Magomedov, also known as Investigators believe that Albaro, died when traffic police Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova flagged down a Lada car in blew herself up at the Lubyanka which he and three other station, close to the headquarters militants were travelling in the of Russia’s Federal Security town of Khasavyurt, Dagestan. Service (FSB), in revenge for Police said that the group began the killing of her husband, shooting at the checkpoint and K o m m e r s a n t n e w s p a p e r were killed when officers reported. returned fire. It published a photograph of the Police released grisly teenager exuding childish p h o t o g r a p h s o f t h e f a c i a l defiance as she brandished a remains of the two female pistol in black Islamic dress next bombers this week in an attempt to her husband, Umalat t o identify them. Magomedov. He was killed on Abdurakhmanova’s head had New Year’s Eve in a shoot-out been completely severed from with police in his native her body in the explosion. Dagestan. The woman who carried out the Magomedov was regarded as second bombing at Park Kultury the leader of a terrorist group in station has not been identified Dagestan linked to the Islamist yet but Kommersant reported movement of Doku Umarov, that investigators suspected it who has claimed responsibility was a 20-year-old Chechen

woman, Markha Ustarkhanova. She was the widow of the selfstyled “Emir” of the Gudermes region of Chechnya, Said-Emi Khizriyev, who was shot dead by police last October. Khizriyev had been accused of plotting to asassinate Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s Kremlinbacked President. A survivor of the Park Kultury attack gave a vivid account of the moment the suicide bomber struck. Sim Eih Xing, a medical student from Malaysia, recounted how he had stood next to the woman for 20 minutes before stepping out of the carriage at the station just before she detonated the device. He said that he noticed the woman in a purple jacket “in a very abnormal posture as if she wanted to get out of the metro” when he entered the train two stops before Park Kultury. Sim, 23, told the Moscow Times: “She wasn’t wearing a scarf. Her eyes were very open, like on drugs, and she barely blinked, and it was scary.” He had intended to stay on the train but delays caused by the

Question Time W/ Marc Ambinder contributors@theatlantic.com (Marc Ambinder) (Politics :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:18:19 AM

A little experiment. Ask questions in the comments thread, and I'll answer them. It's a more convenient way for me

to respond to the detrius from the week. Politics, 2010, 2012, national security, wrestling, whatever.

explosion that had already taken place at Lubyanka prompted him to get off at Park Kultury to switch lines. As soon as he stepped on the platform, he said, there was an explosion. “It was very loud, but I could see white sparks on my left. I thought I was dead at that time,” he said. “I felt like I was being controlled by someone else. I didn’t panic. I just walked like normal.” When he turned around, he saw dead and injured people throughout the carriage. Miraculously, Sim suffered only minor cuts to one leg and singed hair, and was able to walk out of the station. “I kept on praying all the way up the metro because I thought that there might be another bomb. If I hadn’t gotten out of the wagon at that time I would be dead already. It’s unexplainable.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Apparently Rupert Murdoch Loves Fair Use When It Protects Him Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:11:00 AM

Earlier this year, we pointed to a lawsuit involving Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., sued for airing an interview with Michael Jackson's ex-wife. We noted how amusing the lawsuit filing was, because it blatantly mocked Rupert Murdoch due to his earlier statements claiming that fair use would be barred by the courts-- trying to cut off that defense. But, of course, the only way to defend the actions is to use fair use -- and that's exactly what Fox News is doing in its defense of the lawsuit, heavily claiming fair use. It certainly makes you wonder -- if Murdoch ever really does pull that supposedly itchy trigger finger on a Google lawsuit -- if filings such as these will come back to haunt him. How can he claim that fair use doesn't exist on the one hand, while one of his companies uses the doctrine to defend itself in a lawsuit? Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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New Blind Snakes Found, Help Explain World Domination (National Geographic News)

years ago. (Learn about plate tectonics.) Submitted at 4/1/2010 3:36:15 PM Since then, the blind snakes on The genes of a newfound snake Madagascar have changed family suggest blind snakes enough to give rise to a whole l i v e d o n t h e i s l a n d o f new family, added Penn State Madagascar since, well, before biologist Blair Hedges, the it was an island. study's other co-leader. The discovery is helping to (Related:"Biggest Snake Photos: d e c o d e h o w t h e s e r a r e l y Prehistoric Giant Discovered.") seen—and barely seeing, though Blind Snakes Break Free of not completely blind—snakes "Indigascar" came to colonize much of the Blind snake fossils are nearly planet. nonexistent, so their Growing to about a foot (30 evolutionary history has been a centimeters) long, blind snakes mystery. act a lot like worms, burrowing But by comparing five genes under the surface of every from 96 far-flung blind snake continent except Antarctica. species, the researchers were Unlike worms, though, blind able to create a map of the snakes have backbones and tiny snakes' evolutionary family tree. scales. Using estimated time frames for "Continental drift had a huge genetic mutation, the team was impact on blind snake evolution able to estimate when the by separating populations from different species had arisen. each other as continents moved The wormlike snakes first apart," said study co-leader a p p e a r e d o n t h e s o u t h e r n Nicolas Vidal, of the Muséum supercontinent Gondwana ( see National d'Histoire Naturelle in a map of Earth during this time), Paris. the team says. Now considered part of Africa, As Gondwana split apart, the Madagascar split from what's blind snakes were isolated to now India about 94 million w h a t t h e r e s e a r c h e r s c a l l

Back to the 1970s: Let's Get Small! (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:00:00 PM

Sorry, readability was unable to parse this page for content.

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

Indigascar—a landmass including what are now India and Madagascar. Relatively soon after the split, the newly recognized family arose, genetic data suggest. (Related:"Snake Ancestors Lost Limbs on Land, Study Says.") Mystery of Blind Snakes' Spread After the "Indigascar" split, blind snakes somehow migrated far beyond India and Madagascar. The snakes mysteriously appeared in Australia some 28 million years ago, for example—a period during which no land connections existed to that continent. And African and South American blind snake lineages apparently separated only 63 million years ago. That's some 40 million years after Africa and South America split up, so moving landmasses can't have caused the later evolutionary divide. So how did the snakes hop continents? With continental drift—and of course, flight—ruled out, "you

can see that dispersal over ocean waters had to have occurred for these snakes to get to Australia and also to colonize South America and the Caribbean islands,” Hedges said. In other words, the snakes went rafting, crossing oceans aboard floating vegetation stocked with their insect prey. (Related:"Mammals 'Rafted' to Madagascar, Climate Model Suggests.") "Some scientists have argued that oceanic dispersal is an unlikely way for burrowing organisms to become distributed around the world," Hedges said in a statement. "Our data now reinforce the message that such 'unlikely' events nonetheless happened in evolutionary history." Findings published March 30 in the journal Biology Letters. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Ariz. Governor Signs Bill Authorizing Health Suit (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 4/1/2010 2:21:29 PM

Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill giving her authority to skirt the state's Democratic attorney general and file a lawsuit challenging federal health care legislation. Brewer signed the legislation Thursday after requesting last week that lawmakers approve it. Attorney General Terry Goddard, a Democrat, angered Republicans last week by declining to join more than a dozen other states in suing to block the health care overhaul bill signed by President Barack Obama. Republicans say the federal legislation is unconstitutional in part because it requires people to purchase private health insurance. Goddard and other Democrats say a suit would be unlikely to succeed and thus a waste of taxpayer money. It wasn't immediately known when Brewer planned to use her new authority to file a lawsuit. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Israel arrests soldier and gags media in militant assassination cover-up (Top stories from Times Online) Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:45:00 AM

Israel has placed one of its former soldiers under house arrest for allegedly leaking details of a controversial policy to kill wanted Palestinian militants, and has slapped a gag order on the national media to prevent it covering the development, according to sources both in the Jewish state and abroad. The moves are being challenged by the media in a country that prides itself on its freedom of speech. An appeal is expected to be lodged this month by a television news channel and by the centre-left newspaper Haaretz, while the mass-market daily Maariv satirised both the gag and the lack of media defiance by declaring: “Due to a gag order we cannot tell you what we know. Due to laziness, apathy

and blind faith in the defence establishment we know nothing at all.” The case centres on a 23-yearold ex-soldier, Anat Kam, who was arrested in December after finishing her national service, which is compulsory in Israel. She is reportedly charged with having copied classified documents that showed that Israeli troops had broken their own rules of engagement by killing three Palestinian militants in the West Bank. Six months earlier an Israeli court had all but banned the practice of so-called targeting killings, permitting them only in cases where the wanted suspects could not be safely arrested. The story was subsequently published in late 2008 by Haaretz. The paper said that the military had apparently made a unilateral decision to relax its rules of engagement and returned to the practice of assassinating militants, a

frequent occurrence in the early days of the second intifada, which began in 2000. According to the report, in March 2007 Major-General Yair Naveh, who was the senior Israeli commander in the West Bank at the time, allowed his men to shoot three leading Palestinian militants even if they did not pose a clear threat. The order was judged to be illegal by experts interviewed by the Haaretz journalist Uri Blau. Ms Kam, who worked in General Naveh’s office at the time the document was allegedly leaked, has reportedly been accused of passing it to the newspaper, which says that it received it from other sources. She faces up to 14 years in jail if found guilty of charges said to relate to espionage. Haaretz has said that it intends to challenge the gag order but, in the meantime, Mr Blau, who wrote the story, is said to be in London awaiting the outcome

of the appeal. While the story has buzzed around Jewish blogs, the gag order has prevented it from appearing so far anywhere except in the foreign media and in Israel-related news agencies, such as the US-based Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Some Israeli newspapers, such as Yediot Ahronot, have published links to the JTA’s story with the message: “What does the Shin Bet [Israel’s domestic security service] not want you to know?” The Committee to Protect Journalists, based in the US, has also called for the gag order to be lifted so that the case can be properly investigated. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The Democrat's Visual Argument contributors@theatlantic.com (Marc Ambinder) (Politics :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:40:51 AM

How will Democrats talk about jobs and the economy? If

current trends hold (solid private sector growth, rebounding manufacturing sector, etc), they'll use a visual. Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly has favorite graphical representation the put together the party's

of the Bush-Obama era jobs trendlines. It's a simple way of answer the question: where are the jobs?

Question of the Day: Obama and the Unemployment Rate contributors@theatlantic.com (Chris Good) (Politics :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:07:14 AM

Can the Obama administration reasonably be held accountable for the nation's unemployment rate?

Google, China and Censorship: A Wired.com FAQ Ryan Singel (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:57:00 AM

Just two weeks ago, Google abruptly redirected all Google.cn traffic to its uncensored servers in Hong Kong, an arrangement that seems to have reached a sort of stable peace with the Chinese government. But it’s still sort of a confusing mess …

Failed Politician Has Some Advice for Tea Party [Words Of Wisdom] Jeff Neumann (Gawker) Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:38:16 AM

Dan Quayle is still mad at Ross Perot for putting Bill Clinton in office or something. More »

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Seven-month old baby died after suffering catalogue of injuries (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:48:25 AM

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent Published: 2:48PM BST 02 Apr 2010 Aliyaah Mohammed Karolia suffered damage to her spinal cord, fractures to her arm and ribs, and her legs had been broken up to three times. An inquest was told she died in June last year from bronchopneumonia, believed to have been brought on by damage done to her bones and central nervous system over several months. Police have arrested her parents, Mohammed, 27, and Nafisa Karolia, 20, of Blackburn, Lancs, on suspicion of neglect and cruelty. Blackburn Coroner’s Court also heard that a health visitor had

visited the family but did not raise any concerns. The baby was not known to social services. Aliyaah was admitted to hospital on June 15 last year after Mr and Mrs Karolia found her struggling to breathe and with froth around her mouth. She died under an hour later. A post mortem examination revealed the extent of her other injuries and police were called in to investigate. Detectives have submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service and a decision on whether to bring charges will be made within weeks. Mr Karolia, a taxi driver, and his wife both took to the witness stand during the inquest. They answered either “no” or “don’t know” when questioned about who had caused the injuries and whether Aliyaah appeared distressed.

Following Aliyaah’s death, her twin sister and another sibling were taken into care. Dr Philip Lumb, a Home Office forensic pathologist, said Aliyaah and her twin were healthy babies when delivered by caesarean section on November 26, 2008. Dr Lumb told the hearing the baby's injuries were “non accidental”. He said: “There were ulcers in the stomach which were a stress reaction. “There were injuries of the brain and spinal cord. But they weren’t on their own fatal injuries. “The injuries played more than a minimal part. They were all around the joints they can occur in a variety of means such as pulling or twisting. I’m not able to be specific about how they occurred.” Outling the cause of death, Dr Lumb said: "Her

bronchopneumonia developed as a secondary consequence of her debilitating injuries." Michael Singleton, the coroner, recording a narrative verdict, said: “I cannot say so as to be certain how the baby came about the injuries. It is not an option to conclude unlawful killing.” He added: “I don’t know the circumstances that directly led to her death but as a parent myself you have gone through a great deal of grief since her death.” A police spokesman said: "A 27 -year-old man and 20-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of neglect and cruelty and are on police bail pending further inquiries.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

MapDroyd Downloads Free Maps for Offline Navigation [Downloads] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:30:00 AM

Android: When you're traveling where a cellular connection is fairly certain, Google Maps' own Navigation tool is a total GPS replacement. For those without data plans, or heading into the wilds, MapDroyd makes for a nice offline map backup. More »

Jobs Data Is In -- Is It Good News or Bad News? Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks)

In March, the U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs, the largest one-month increase in three Submitted at 4/2/2010 10:00:00 AM years. The unemployment rate Filed under: Economic Data, held steady at 9.7% as the labor Financial Crisis force increased by 398,000. So, the good news and the bad Many, yours truly included, news from the jobs report ... let's warned that we need to take this to temporary workers hired to help with the U.S. census report. start with the good. data with a grain of salt, thanks

According to the data, just 48,000 of the 162,000 jobs added came from the census. Continue reading Jobs Data Is In -- Is It Good News or Bad News? Jobs Data Is In -- Is It Good News or Bad News? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Eric Carlin becomes seventh government drugs advisor to quit (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news) Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:18:13 AM

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent Published: 3:18PM BST 02 Apr 2010 He became the latest member to resign from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). Mr Carlin said that the ban on the “miaow-miaow” party drug this week was rushed through as a politically motivated attempt to make the Government look tough prior to the election. In a letter to Alan Johnson, the home secretary, Mr Carlin said the decision was "unduly based on media and political pressure". He added that he was “extremely unhappy” with the way the drugs council operates. The resignation will not stop mephedrone – linked to 26 deaths in Britain – being added to the list of illegal drugs within a fortnight, classified as a Class B drug.

However the Government’s key relationship with the ACMD is in tatters, and several other advisors are also understood to be considering their positions. Mr Carlin is the seventh expert to resign from the committee since October, when the controversial chairman Professor David Nutt was sacked. Two members, Les King and Marion Walker, quit immediately in protest. Mr Johnson met the ACMD a month later to reassure the expert panel of its independence, but was faced with three more resignations from council members who were not convinced. Dr Polly Taylor, a consultant veterinary surgeon and longstanding member of the council, then offered her resignation to the home secretary on the eve of mephedrone being banned. Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said: “The relationship between the government and its drugs advisory council has become utterly shambolic. "The decision on Mephedrone

was the right one, but this latest resignation suggests pretty clearly that the Home Secretary has been completely unable to restore his relationship with the experts who advise him.” The scientists fear that they are being pressurised into adjusting their advice to match ministers' views. Meanwhile Mr Carlin, 47, in his resignation letter, said he had grown disillusioned with the ACMD's "lack of interest" in his specialist area – the prevention and early intervention of young people taking drugs. He added: "As well as being extremely unhappy with how the ACMD operates, I am not prepared to continue to be part of a body which, as its main activity, works to facilitate the potential criminalisation of increasing numbers of young people." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Police were warned man was 'going to hurt someone' before killing (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:48:02 AM

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent Published: 2:48PM BST 02 Apr 2010 Paranoid schizophrenic Leslie Gadsby, 38, was arrested by police after the body of his mother Edna, 70, was found at his flat with multiple stab wounds on Tuesday. He had been released back into the community six years after he killed his father. It emerged yesterday that officers were reportedly told Gadsby was behaving strangely seven days before the 38-year-old was arrested on suspicion of his mother’s murder. A woman called police on March 23, after Gadsby, a former taxi driver, allegedly turned up unannounced and "agitated" at her parent's home in Bootle. The woman, who was not at the address, reportedly told police: "He's going to hurt someone."

A spokeswoman for Merseyside Police said a "risk assessment" had been carried out following the call about Gadsby and confirmed the force had referred the incident to police watchdogs the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Gadsby was sectioned in 2004 after he admitted the manslaughter of father Arthur, 63, in a frenzied hammer attack. He also repeatedly struck Edna with a spanner on that occasion, but she survived. He was put under an indefinite hospital order by Liverpool Crown Court and initially sent to the Scott Clinic psychiatric unit in Rainhill, Merseyside. Local politicians have demanded to know when and why he was allowed back into the community. Gadsby has now been sectioned under the Mental Health Act for a second time. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Sky Show This Weekend: Venus to Meet Elusive Mercury

Kyentaama Primary School

(National Geographic News)

Field Notes (LWI News Center)

disks. Venus Guides Eyes to Mercury Of the five planets visible to the Normally elusive, Mercury will naked eye, Mercury is usually be a "star" for most of April, the most challenging to see, shining brightly near Venus because it never wanders far above the evening skyline. from the sun. Both planets will be visible to The innermost planet, Mercury the naked eye for the next two orbits the sun so closely that a weeks as bright, starlike objects year lasts just 88 Earth days. that will dominate the low (See pictures of Mercury taken western sky shortly after sunset. by a passing spacecraft.) "From a place with a low As seen from Earth, Mercury horizon, one should be able to tightly hugs the horizon, and it get a nice view of these two appears faint because it's planets hanging in the darkening swathed in the sun's glare. sky like gems," said Geza Gyuk, "Most people never get to see staff astronomer at the Adler Mercury, because it ... isn't very Planetarium in Chicago. bright. But this conjunction is As the cosmic duo climb c o m i n g a r o u n d M e r c u r y ' s h i g h e r , t h e ' l l r e a c h maximum elongation [the conjunction—their closest planet's farthest angle away approach to each other—on from the sun] of 20 degrees on Saturday and Sunday. April 8," Gyuk said. Those nights the two planets Brilliant Venus will serve as a will seem to be separated by guidepost for sky-watchers to only three degrees, or the e a s i l y f i n d t i n y M e r c u r y . equivalent of six full-moon (Related:"Neptune Easier to Submitted at 4/1/2010 10:13:55 AM

Spot Now, Thanks to Jupiter.") "Weather permitting," Gyuk said, "I'm certainly going to be out with my kids looking for Mercury!" Full Planetary Collection As an added bonus, planethunters already out to spy Venus and Mercury will be able to see all five naked-eye planets in a single night. As darkness sets in, Mars will become visible directly overhead, appearing as a redtinged, starlike object. A little later, Saturn will appear slightly above the eastern horizon and will rise higher during the night. (Related:"Sky-watcher Beware: Mars Email a 'Spectacular' Hoax.") Finally, the gas-giant planet Jupiter will rise in the east just before sunrise. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 4/2/2010 12:13:10 AM

UGANDA – Kyentaama, Ntungamo District GPS: 00 55.282 S, 030 28.382 E This swamp isn’t very big—but when it’s the only source of water for your village, you find a way to bathe here, wash clothes here, clean your bike here, water your animals here. Your children even play here. Oh, and you get your drinking water here, too. The school in Kyentaama had a water catchment system, but the tank never held enough water to serve everyone. When the tank was dry, the swamp was the only place to find water. Living Water was able to install a new 34,000 liter water tank at the school. Members of the local church came and thanked us,

telling us that now the children wouldn’t get sick from the waterborne diseases sp they could stay in school. The new water system and the hygiene classes will help improve the overall health of the village. Elizabeth, the head teacher, told us, “This water will help very much. It will have a great impact. We are all so grateful.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Best DIY iPhone apps (Holy Kaw!)

up one weekend. Well, if you’re a DIY kinda guy (or gal) and own an iPhone, then swing over Do you pride yourself on the to DIY Life for eight awesome completed do-it-yourself around apps that you should add to your y o u r h o u s e ? Y o u k n o w , virtual toolbox. showing off that fancy pocket A little preview: door in the kitchen or multi- • Dimensions by level bird mansion you whipped pocketDEMO[$1.99]: Boasting Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:54:00 PM

thirteen 3D tools, including

three different tape measures. • Ben Color Capture by Benjamin Moore[free]: Want to paint your walls to match the cute sweater you spotted while shopping? Just snap a photo and this zero cost app will find a match in the company’s library of over 3,000 colors.

• Home Improvement Calculator by PunkStar[$4.99]: Estimate the cost of your big project and avoid over-ordering supplies. Full story at DIY Life. Oodles of DIY resources. Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Drugs adviser quits over 'political' mephedrone ban (Top stories from Times Online)

on young people’s behaviour. Our decision was unduly based on media and political Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:02:58 AM pressure.” A seventh member of the He said that the full report on Government’s official drugs mephedrone was only put before w a t c h d o g r e s i g n e d t o d a y the council for the first time claiming that the decision to when it met on Monday and that advise a ban on mephedrone Professor Les Iversen, the was based on political pressure. interim chair, had briefed Mr Eric Carlin said that there had J o h n s o n b e f o r e c o u n c i l been no full discussion by the m e m b e r s d i s c u s s e d i t . Advisory Council on the Mr Carlin added: “As well as Misuse of Drugs of a report being extremely unhappy with prepared on the legal high how the ACMD operates, I am known on the streets as “miaow not prepared to continue to be miaow” and “M-Cat”. part of a body which, as its Mr Carlin quit four days after main activity, works to facilitate the council advised the Home the potential criminalisation of Secretary that mephedrone increasing numbers of young should be controlled under the people." The Government is Misuse of Drugs Act and made hoping to ban mephedrone, a Class B drug. which has been linked to 25 In a letter to Alan Johnson, Mr deaths in England and Scotland, Carlin said: “We had little or no by the middle of this month. discussion about how our Senior police officers have said recommendation to classify this that when the substance is drug would be likely to impact banned, they will target dealers

and traffickers instead of criminalising young people found in possession of the drug. Class B drugs, which include cannabis and amphetamine sulphate, carry a maximum sentence of 5 years for possession or 14 years for supply. Mr Carlin, 47, was appointed to the council in January 2008 and his three-year term of office was due to end on December 31, 2010. He was chief executive of Mentor UK between 2000 and 2009 and has now set up a UK and Brussels-based “social enterprise”, which will “undertake activities and promote alliances and networks which will benefit young people and adults, families and communities”. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Aon Reports Flat Reinsurance Pricing, No Surprises Tom Johansmeyer (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 4/2/2010 9:15:00 AM

Filed under: International Markets, Deals, Competitive Strategy, Japan Like Willis Re( WSH) and Marsh & McLennan's ( MMC) Guy Carpenter, reinsurance broker Aon Benfield ( AOC) found risk -transfer pricing to have softened at the April 1, 2010 reinsurance renewal. It was the same story around the world: the Q1 catastrophes may do some damage to earnings, but the sector was sufficiently capitalized to absorb the shocks. In fact, Aon Benfield reported that the reinsurance industry had nearly returned to record capital levels. At the beginning 2008, the sector was in the same situation before the financial crisis and Hurricane Gustav and Ike depleted balance sheets on the same weekend in September. According to Aon Benfield,

risk-adjusted price reductions of 0% to 5% were sustained in the Japanese property-catastrophe market, with capacity remaining stable. In the U.S., risk-adjusted pricing dropped 5% to 15%, a range consistent with the January 1, 2010 renewal. UK property-catastrophe rates slid at the most recent renewal, as well. Continue reading Aon Reports Flat Reinsurance Pricing, No Surprises Aon Reports Flat Reinsurance Pricing, No Surprises originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

WinPenPack Gathers Hundreds of Portable Apps in One Package [Downloads] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:30:00 AM

Windows: If you're interested in packing your flash drive with portable apps but you're

dragging your feet getting applications into a single around to downloading them all, portable package. More » winPenPack fits over a hundred

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How a Social Mission Guides This Business Josh Spiro (Inc.com) Submitted at 4/2/2010 3:00:00 AM

Dancing Deer Baking Company got off to a rocky start but that didn't stop the Boston-based baking company from placing the needs of the local community and a very special charitable cause on the same level as turning a profit. The company got its start in the mid1990s, when America was falling head over heels for gourmet coffee. To Dancing Dear founder Suzanne Lombardi, the rise of chains such as Starbucks created an opportunity for sales of highquality baked goodies. After spending time with some artisanal roasters in California, she recalls, "I realized that the coffee craze was something that was going to come East."So Lombardi rented a caterer's kitchen in the evenings where she could bake en masse, schlepping pots and pans to and fro each night, and delivering her all-natural baked goods to coffee shops at the crack of dawn. Understandably, this was a stressful way to run a business and, one day, she sought out Trish Karter and her husband Ayis Antoniou for advice. The pair did her one better and became angel investors, but a year and a half into the partnership Lombardi was still struggling.Because she was running a one-woman show,

Lombardi had accumulated a hefty pile of unprocessed CODs, she had no order processing system, and she had no one who could handle these crucial details while she worked her kitchen wizardry. "We'd been funding her operating losses and I thought the investment was potentially threatened, even though the business had great promise, so I offered to jump in for what I thought would be three or four months," Karter recalls. "That was 14 years ago."Karter became more involved in the business, eventually taking the helm as Dancing Deer's CEO. As she set

out to professionalize the business and brand the as well as bringing her social values to bear on the way it operated. In 1998, despite shocked reactions from friends, she relocated headquarters to Roxbury, an area of Boston that at the time was notorious for gang violence. The location was the same price as a facility Karter had found in a suburban office park, but remaining in Boston proper allowed the company to keep its workforce. It was also "an opportunity to have a terrific impact on a neighborhood that needed something positive happening," she says. As an

extension of this attitude, the company frequently donated baked goods to local causes and initiatives, but soon it was inundated with requests, so Karter tried to focus Dancing Deer's philanthropic energy on a single cause. Now 35 percent of the sales from one of their product lines, called the Sweet Home Project, go to a scholarship for homeless mothers. The company just launched a study to see how much of their business comes from people who have a positive impression of them because of this project, but they already have some numbers that speak

for themselves: that line consistently raises $50,000 a year for the scholarships. "Anybody can make a cookie," Karter says, "so we're always looking for ways for people to feel loyal to our cookies." It's easy to stay committed to your principles in good times, but when the economy went south, it hit Dancing Deer hard. Karter lost many large-order customers in the financial services industry. As a result, she was forced to seek additional funding. Taking on outside investors had a serious side HOW page 14

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HOW

How to Choose a Business Entity

continued from page 13

effect: Karter's stake was diluted to the point that Dancing Deer Submitted at 4/1/2010 9:20:13 AM no longer qualified as a womanowned business. Still, Karter The iPad reviews are in. And was looking out for her it's pretty darn good. Walt employees, many of whom Mossberg writes in the Journal come from the local community. that the tablet-like device "has about corporate entities. Just E a s t . G o o g l e m i g h t b e wouldn't want to become fans of She says that a Massachusetts the potential to change portable started a new business and don't continuously tweaking their in the first place. One thing that workshare program allowed her computing profoundly, and to know whether to incorporate as search algorithm, but the simple does work, according to the keep all her manufacturing challenge the primacy of the an LLC, S-corporation, or sole user interface has long remained post, is having proper tech workers with only a slight cut in laptop." The device runs most proprietorship? Have no fear. the same. Now, AdAge is support for all your applications. pay. She adds that "every time I iPhone apps and is expected to On his blog, Quick Sprout, tech positing that Naver and Daum, Vidyo snags $25 million in r a i s e d m o n e y a n d d i l u t e d launch with 1,000 iPad-only entrepreneur Neil Patel has two warring South Korean funding. Vidyo, a Hackensack, myself, I reverse diluted the apps. Even the battery life- brought in a corporate law search engines (Google and N e w J e r s e y - b a s e d employees," who own 15 impresses: Apple seems to have expert to explain the pros and Bing counterparts), are a better videoconferencing company that percent of the company. Now made the genius decision of cons of the six main types of example of the future of search. we tested out during our virtual D a n c i n g D e e r h a s s o m e under-promising on battery life. corporate entities. The post The post describes those search office experiment just landed distribution deals in the works, Instead of the 10 hours that was features an explanation of each engines as "more like portal $ 2 5 m i l l i o n i n s e r i e s C including arrangements with a promised by Jobs, Mossberg got e n t i t y , i n c l u d i n g a b a s i c websites where search results f i n a n c i n g , a c c o r d i n g t o major airline and United Natural 11.5. The New York Times's description, its pros and cons, are fully integrated with images, T e c h C r u n c h . T h a t b r i n g s Foods, which distributes to D a v i d P o g u e i s m o r e the set-up costs, and the ideal video, music, and user Q&A's, Vidyo's total capital investments 17,000 stores across the country. circumspect in his review, candidate for each. Choosing the which boasts 50,000 questions a to $63 million and points to a Karter hopes these and other writing that hardcore techies right entity has important legal day posted by users to share bright future for the 5-year-old strategic alterations will put the will likely be unimpressed by and tax implications, so this information with fellow locals." company. company back on track for what is basically a "gigantic should help make your decision What works and what doesn't More from Inc. Magazine: growth but, ultimately, it's about iPod Touch." He also notes that a little easier. on Facebook Pages. Facebook Get this delivered to your more than that. She says, "if the selection of books, which Other tips for registering your pages can be an effective social inbox. you're going to work this hard was touted as one of the iPad's start-up. So you know what type media marketing tool, but that Follow us on Twitter. and give up this much, it's got to main functions, is "puny" and of entity you want for your new doesn't mean everything you Follow us on Tumblr. be more meaningful than just the "you can't read well in direct business. Now, there are several want to market deserves its own Friend us on Facebook. making a living." sunlight." But, says Pogue, most other decisions to make, writes page. WebWorkerDaily outlines Apply now for the 2010 Inc. regular users will probably love The New York Times. For the reasons why people become 500|5000 their iPads. Now the important starters, research the name and fans of Facebook pages in the question: How do you make domain name ( good ones are first place, and five things you money off the thing? For that, running low) you want for your should do to improve yours (and you'll have to read Christine start-up. And then research five things to avoid). The No. 1 Lagorio's story on Inc.com. some more. thing that doesn't work? Everything you need to know The future of search lies to the Marketing something people Jason Del Rey (Inc.com)

Scott Brown on Why Hollywood Should Avoid Gadget Close-Ups Scott Brown (Wired Top Stories)

With the year of the '80s remake upon us, we'll fondly

welcome back the high tops and the shoulder pads &mash; but

tech hasn't aged as gracefully.

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Twitter Predicts Box-Office Sales Better Than a Prediction Market Cliff Kuang (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:56:51 AM

Researchers at HP Labs discover that Twitter can predict, with astonishing accuracy, how well a movie will sell. We've all got the vague intuition that Twitter allows you track, in real-time, what people are concerned about or obsessed with. But this is a little freaky: Two researchers at HP Labs, Sitaram Asur and Bernardo Huberman, have discovered that you can actually use Twitter mentions to predict how well a movie will do in it's first couple weekends of release. What's more, the method works even better than the most accurate method currently in use, the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX). Asur and Huberman started by monitoring movie mentions in 2.9 million tweets from 1.2 million users over three months. These included 24 movies in all, ranging from Avatar to Twilight: New Moon. Then they took two different approaches, dealing with two very different performance metrics: the first weekend performance, which is largely built on buzz and the second weekend performance, which is largely built whether people

actually like the movie. To predict first weekend performance, they built a computer model, which factored in two variables: the rate of tweets around the release date and the number of theaters its released in. Lo and behold, that model was 97.3% accurate in predicting opening weekend box office. By contrast, the Hollywood Stock Exchange, which has been the gold standard for opening box-office predictions, had a 96.5% accuracy. Meanwhile, to predict secondweekend performance, the

authors created a ratio of positive tweets to negative ones. Then they blended that with the Tweet rate metric in another prediction algorithm. This time, the method was 94% accurate. Is this B.S.? Stats guru Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight.com, asked for comment pointed out to FastCompany.com, said, "I would think that there is some promise here. Twitter is going to provide a more tangible gauge of excitement and engagement than something like a traditional survey, and it's obviously much more in real time." But he added a caveat: "I imagine it would do

better for more upmarket films, since its users tend to be highly educated, and for films with older audiences, since Twitter will skew a bit older relative to what are often *very* young opening weekend demos." He might have a point: Asur and Huberman didn't release correlations for individual films, and it's not clear to what extent their finds are being driven by whales such as Avatar and Twilight: New Moon. Still, it's astonishing that the Twitter data is so basic but powerful, when compared to the teeming complexity of the HSX

prediction market; there, bettors typically rely on lots of variables, such as Hollywood's voluminous exit polls and focus group results, and intuitions about past performance, which the market then aggregates. Of course, you'll note that performance difference between the Twitter method and the HSX is tiny. You won't see any Hollywood executives running for data mining software for Twitter anytime soon. But it does suggest another use: Why not use Twitter to forecast TWITTER page 16

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This Was The Best Unemployment Report In Three Years (But Watch Out Ahead) Christina Romer (The Money Game)

2009, when average job loss was 753,000 per month. Download this data as a CSV file. The unemployment rate remained constant at 9.7 percent. This stability reflects roughly proportional rises in the labor force and employment, as measured by the household survey. This pattern of rising labor force and household

recovery. While this is the most positive jobs report we have had in three years, there will likely be bumps in the road ahead. The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative. It is essential that we continue our efforts to move in the right direction and generate steady, strong job gains. Christina Romer is Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers * The reported numbers are adjusted to remove the impact of employment has been repeated remains severely distressed. revised population controls that in each of the last three months. M o r e t h a n e i g h t m i l l i o n the Bureau of Labor Statistics I n d e e d , a c c o r d i n g t o t h e Americans have lost their jobs introduced in January 2010. household survey, the labor since the start of the recession in Without this adjustment the force has increased by 1.1 December 2007. It will take labor force increased by 851,000 million since December 2009 sustained, robust employment and employment increased by and employment has increased g r o w t h t o b r i n g t h e 1.11 million. by 1.4 million.* u n e m p l o y m e n t r a t e d o w n . Join the conversation about this At the same time that we Further targeted actions to spur story Âť welcome todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s encouraging private sector job creation are labor market news, it is obvious critically needed to ensure a that the American labor market m o r e r a p i d , w i d e s p r e a d

the best predictive data set out there. And here's what's even more alluring to marketers: As Tech Review points out, Twitter

might be more than just a mirror of mass sentiment--the service might also influence it. In other words, could you actually make a product launch far more

Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:13:28 AM

(This guest post previously appeared at The White House blog) Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s employment report shows continued signs of gradual labor market healing. Payroll employment rose significantly in March, and the unemployment rate remained constant despite a substantial increase in the labor force. Payroll employment increased 162,000. Even after adjusting for the 48,000 temporary Census workers hired and a rebound effect from the February snowstorms, this number suggests an increase in underlying payroll employment. Moreover, revised estimates now show a small job gain in January and a smaller job loss in February than previously reported. As a result, for the first quarter of 2010 as a whole, job growth averaged 54,000 per month. This is a dramatic change from the first quarter of

TWITTER continued from page 15

results for sales of products, video games, and everything else? In those cases, polling data and prediction markets don't exist and Twitter might just be

successful with a really smart Twitter strategy?

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And Now What We're Seeing Now Is The Real Revenge Of The Housing Bubble Joe Weisenthal (The Money Game)

trouble finding workers qualified to count our growing Spanish-speaking population. Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:27:00 AM The housing boom was great Several months ago there was a for Spanish-speaking lot of hot blogospheric debating immigrants, and it allowed us to about the so-called output gap -paper over any integration the gap between what the problems we might have economy is producing and what worried about. Now it's an issue. it could be producing. The bottom line: The economy The fact that this gap was isn't just a machine that can one significant was enough for the day produce hula-hoops and the likes of Paul Krugman to argue next day produce wind turbines, that there was no reason for the so long as you provide enough Fed to do anything but pump or cash and cheap money. We may the Congress to do anything but have a lot of unused capacity. It stimulate, since with a large doesn't mean we know how to output gap (slack, basically) do something with it. there would be no chance of Join the conversation about this but merely stimulating the economy. inflation. story » We disagree with this and think economy with cheap money The reason this idea invalidates See Also: the output gap is a lousy won't help because all anyone the output gap is that there's no • Here's Why The Weak Census knows how to do is make hula- real potential for output. Sure concept. Hiring Is Bad News And A Big hoops, an industry that's of no you have idle hands and idle Here's why: Deal factories, but they can't actually Imagine if we had a gigantic use anymore. • SAD: The U.S. Census Can't boom in the hula-hoop industry Well that's what we did have, be used to produce anything, Find Enough Skilled Americans and everyone in the country except... instead of hula-hoops and thus stimulus won't actually To Fill Its Jobs became skilled in designing, we built homes. And the skills work. Despite a seemingly big • The Bottom Line Is That This marketing, and manufacturing that allowed us to create (and output gap, you might actually Is Still A Jobless Recovery sell, and finance, and market) have very little slack. hula-hoops. Then hula-hoops go bust. Sure h o m e s e n m a s s e , a r e n ' t Let's go back to this Census we have a huge output gap then, translating into a post-housing hiring question. They're having

Alt Text: 'Supertaskers' and Other Cellphone Oddities Lore Sj&#246;berg (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/1/2010 9:00:00 PM

The mobile phone revolution leads to a series of strange and stirring discoveries about our fellow humans. And we've got

the stats to prove it.

Use Quick Mental Math to Estimate the Annual Expense of Daily Habits [Financial] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:00:00 AM

It's easy to not think about how little expenses add up over the course of an entire year. Use this simple mental calculation to quickly estimate the yearly expense and think about what better use that money could be put towards. More »

MediaDailyNews: SMG Taps Razorfish's Fisher Global Analytics Chief (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:15:48 AM

Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group has tapped Andy Fisher as executive vice presidentglobal data & analytics director from sister VivaKi shop Razorfish, where he was vice president-analytics. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Report: Developers Love Mobile Apps, Dig iPad the Most Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:20:10 AM

We knew the iPad was going to be transformational mostly due to its app experiences and had heard opinions to that effect. Now Flurry finds developers flocking to the iPad at the expense of other platforms ... even the iPhone. Flurry tracks what developers are up to through logins to its systems made as apps are being put together and tested. By tracking the operating systems are behind the logins, Flurry's built a picture of how many new app projects were kicked off on average in 2009 and over the last 60 days. The data is completely convincing: In the pre-iPad era, 78% of new app projects were for the iPhone, and 18% went on Android devices. Since the iPad's SDK launch, Android's

share has fallen to just 10%, the iPhone's has slid to 67% and the iPad has cornered an astonishing 22% of the new app start market. That's already resulted in well over 2,000 iPad-specific apps being available for the launch day, and indicates that developers are genuinely excited about the prospects of writing

suffered a slide on the stock market this week, due to slightly underperforming against analysts expectations. And it seems developer enthusiasm for RIM's devices, which was never particularly massive, is waning. Flurry notes that while 4% of apps were written for BlackBerrys in 2009, over the last 60 days that share has fallen to around 1%. RIM's future in the smart device market certainly looks complex and hard to predict. To keep up with this news on for the iPad. comes close to the iPad's ... and your smartphone (or any other Though Android's new app the iPhone still reigns supreme. Net device, to be honest,) follow share has fallen by nearly 50%, Hence the other conclusion to be me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter. That Flurry counts numerically more drawn from Flurry's data is that QR code on the left will take apps being written for Android developer excitement about all you to my Twitter feed too--if in March, actually equating to kinds of mobile smart platforms you haven't got a QR code twice as many as arrived in is growing, proof positive that reader for your phone get one February. In other words, the the future of the plain old now...it's the coming thing! Android app market is still dumbphone looks glum. growing ... just not at a rate that And there's one final barb: RIM

Research In Motion Is the Next PALM Jeff Reeves (BloggingStocks)

giving Apple ( AAPL) and its iconic iPhone a serious run for the money right now. Nearly Filed under: Google (GOOG), twice as many consumers are Apple Inc (AAPL), Research in using Android-based phones M o t i o n ( R I M M ) , V e r i z o n now compared with three Communications (VZ), Palm months ago, according to a Inc (PALM), Stocks to Sell recent survey by ChangeWave Google ( GOOG) and its Research. Android operating system is That's no fun for Apple, of Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:40:00 PM

course, but survey results show that the tech giant is still holding

its own with high customer satisfaction and a larger share of the market. AAPL isn't going down anytime soon -- but the real threat lies to BlackBerry maker Research in Motion ( RIMM) that saw market of its smart phones share dip sharply in the survey and is seeing waning demand for its devices.

Continue reading Research In Motion Is the Next PALM Research In Motion Is the Next PALM originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Why Facebook Personality Tests Are Hot with Jung-sters Dan Nosowitz (Fast Company)

net the two graduate students some professional respect; companies are also interested Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:13:07 AM in the information, and may Started by Nottingham well pay significantly for it. University student David The test may seem frivolous Stillwell, the Facebook quiz is (and parts of it are, including designed to not only provide astrology-based elements), but entertainment for the person with over 600,000 monthly taking the quiz, but also to users, it's actually a massive "generate professional-quality sample size for some serious data for use by companies and data-gathering. It's a pretty cool other researchers." The idea is way of using social networks for that these personality tests, academic research purposes--all including the quite old Myers- interaction, worldview, and Facebook: core of My Personality’s value. under the guise of Facebook Briggs test, might have business emotional impulsivity, it kicks If you’re an introverted thinker, If users agree to share when fun. uses as well. out any of 16 four-part answers, for example, how does that they first take a test (each has a Central to "My Personality" is s u p p o s e d l y d e s c r i b i n g effect your social network? lengthy disclaimer, as well), t h e M y e r s - B r i g g s T y p e personality. The test has been Who do you work and play well Stillwell can anonymize the Indicator, which everyone a r o u n d f o r y e a r s - - i t w a s with, and who are you likely results and analyze the data, probably remembers from high originally developed by Carl to strike sparks with? Or, for alongside information from a school psychology classes. After Jung--but hasn't ever really been marketers, what sort of media user’s profile and connections, answering a series of questions used for a specific purpose, until and products do you prefer? for hidden facts about human designed to figure out social now. Described by Inside These basic questions are the nature. Doing so could not only

Yuan-Dollar Forwards Tearing Up As Hike Appears Imminent Vincent Fernando, CFA (The Money Game) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:56:00 AM

Action has picked up in the yuan forward market. According to Bloomberg, 12-month yuan forwards rose to 6.6491 as of 5:30 p.m. in Hong Kong, which represents a 2.7% jump from the current spot rate of 6.8256. Sure we've had some pretty strong rebound indications out of the U.S. lately, and the stronger the global rebound looks, the easier it would be for

China to hike its yuan-dollar rate. So strong economic data could be one reason for the excitement. Or perhaps traders simply got wind of Chinese media rumors: AFP: The Chinese government is reviewing proposals to adjust its currency exchange rate system next month, Chinese media reported, as international pressure grows on Beijing to revalue the yuan. The proposals include giving

the yuan a more flexible exchange rate by widening the Chinese currency's narrow daily trading band, the weekly Caijing Magazine reported in its latest

issue, citing unnamed sources. This makes a lot of sense, given that Beijing has already been conducting yuan-hike stress tests on their export industries.

Join the conversation about this story » See Also: • Stop Freaking Out About A Yuan Hike And It Might Actually Happen • Morgan Stanley: Media Buzz Shows How U.S. Protectionism Can Get Far Worse • Chinese Envoy To Make Emergency Flight To DC To Stave Off Currency Crisis

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Hyundai's New $50k Owners Manual on an iPad Comes with a Car! Addy Dugdale (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:51:18 AM

Didn't we say it was only a matter of time before someone gave away a car with an iPad? Wednesday saw the start of the New York International Auto Show, and Hyundai unveiled a very tasty little cruditĂŠ to go with the 2011 version of its Equus luxury sedan. The firm is to do away with the traditional printed paper manual that tells you how the car works and will replace it with an iPad.

The CEO of Hyundai North America, John Krafjik, put it bluntly. "Who reads* a 300page manual, anyway?" he said at the launch. "Instead, they'll have a gorgeous color touchscreen loaded with the manual electronically, as well as photos of the whole Hyundai lineup." Ah! So, instruction manual as brand awareness device, then. Equus owners will also be able to book a service online with the tablet, and there will be additional apps on it. This also means that sat-nav firms must

be queueing up to ink a deal with Hyundai to provide GPS to their drivers. It's not clear whether the device on offer will be a genuine iPad,

or something a little less Appley, but the presentation showed an almost identical device. My money, however, is on it being a lookalike, as the Equus will also

have an in-car entertainment system that is iPod- and USBfriendly. Krafjik was also careful to use the phrase "multimedia tablet" rather than iPad. Top marks for ingenious marketing, I say. The car will be on sale in the States towards the end of the summer and be priced somewhere around the $50,000 bracket. *My dad does. [Image Via] Read more iPad coverage

Tributes to 'father of computing' (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 4/2/2010 2:05:50 AM

The "father of the personal computer" who kick-started the careers of Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen has died at the age of 68. Dr Henry Edward Roberts was the inventor of the Altair 8800, a machine that sparked the home computer era. Gates and Allen contacted Dr Roberts after seeing the machine on the front cover of a magazine and offered to write software for it. The program was known as Altair-Basic, the foundation of

Microsoft's business. "Ed was willing to take a chance on us - two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace - and we have always been grateful to him," the Microsoft founders said in a statement. "The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things." Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told technology website CNET that Dr Roberts had taken " a critically important step that led to everything we have today". 'Fond memories' Dr Roberts was the founder of

Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), originally set up to sell electronics kits to model rocket hobbyists. The company went on to sell electronic calculator kits, but was soon overshadowed by bigger firms. In the mid-1970's, with the firm struggling with debt, Dr Roberts began to develop a computer kit for hobbyists. The result was the Altair 8800, a machine operated by switches and with no display. It took its name from the thencutting edge Intel 8080 microprocessor. The $395 kit (around ÂŁ1,000

today) was featured on the cover of Popular Electronics in 1975, prompting a flurry of orders. It was also sold assembled for an additional $100 charge. Amongst those interested in the machine were Paul Allen and Bill Gates. The pair contacted Dr Roberts, offering to write software code that would help people program the machine. The pair eventually moved to Albuquerque - the home of MITS - where they founded Micro-Soft, as it was then known, to develop their software: a variant of the Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code

(Basic). "We will always have many fond memories of working with Ed in Albuquerque, in the MITS office right on Route 66 - where so many exciting things happened that none of us could have imagined back then," the pair said. Dr Roberts sold his company in 1977. He died in hospital on 1 April after a long bout of pneumonia. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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3 dead, 4 hurt in blast, fire at Wash. refinery (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News) Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:08:20 AM

ANACORTES, Wash. – An explosion and fire at a Washington state oil refinery shook homes and shot flames into the night sky early Friday, killing three people and critically injuring four others. The fire struck the Tesoro Corp. refinery in Anacortes, about 70 miles north of Seattle, at about 12:30 a.m., the company said in a statement. The blaze occurred at the naphtha unit while maintenance work was being performed and was extinguished in about 90 minutes, the company said. The naphtha unit is a step in refining crude oil into gasoline and other fuels. Four employees are hospitalized with major burns over the majority of the bodies. Susan Gregg-Hanson, a spokeswoman for Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, said

they are two women, 29 and 36, and two men 34 and 41. Nearby residents, some five miles from the complex, called Washington TV stations after midnight with reports of an explosion, saying flames were being blown by high winds. "My house shook, big time," Lisa Wooding told KOMO-TV. "There were flames. First high, then low to the ground and broad." Tesoro human resources manager John McDarment told The Associated Press he didn't know exactly how the fire started. "This is a very sad time for our organization. Everyone in the Tesoro family appreciates the impact that this will have on the families involved, and we are responding quickly to ensure the safety for our employees, contractors and the neighboring community," said Bruce Smith, Tesoro's chairman, president

and CEO. Tesoro said the Washington Department of Labor and Industries had been notified. Activity around the complex had calmed down considerably as dawn approached. Guards were turning reporters away from the gate and there was no apparent sign of the fire that had lit up the skies only hours earlier. San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp. is an independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products. The Anacortes refinery, located about 70 miles north of Seattle on Puget Sound, can refine about 120,000 barrels of crude daily, primarily into gasoline, jet fuel and diesel to markets in Washington and Oregon, according to the company. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Boing Boing shows off the Marvel Comics iPad app Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:19:50 AM

The Marvel Comics app one of the three iPad apps that actually make me want to drink the

Apple kool-aid and go lay down alongside the Apple faithful to slowly drift towards a land of simple, non-multitasking computing. So far we’ve only seen screenshots and a press

release for the app, but Xeni over at Boing Boing posted a quick hands-on video that sealed my fate. I think I’m going to have to get an iPad now.

The 7 most motivational quotes of all time (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:45:00 PM

Motivation is more than a cat poster with a catchy phrase or a Learning Annex session with a wannabe Anthony Robbins, but sometimes people utter nearly the perfect motivating words in a simple phrase. Dumb Little Men has collected the seven most inspiring words ever spoken (or written) to help push your day from “eh” to “woah.” A sampling: “The greatest achievement was at first, and for a time, but a dream.” —Napoleon Hill “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond

measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do” —Marianne Williamson Full list of quotes and commentary at Dumb Little Man. Tons of life tidbits. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

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So you're buying an iPad... (CNET News.com)

smartphone, that implies that the touchscreen tablet is going to do Submitted at 4/2/2010 4:00:00 AM very, very well. Initial reports The iPad's virtual keyboard gets have listed the number of a test run at Apple's January preorders in the"hundreds of introduction event for the thousands," and tech industry d e v i c e . ( C r e d i t : J a m e s analysts are forecasting that Martin/CNET) Apple might sell 6 million iPads With the exception of the within a year. That's astounding original iPhone, it's hard to because, first, that's how many remember a more anticipated iPhones Apple sold in the first piece of technology in the last year, and second, because the few years than the iPad. iPad isn't a must-have device If it does follow the same like a phone or a computer. It's a p a t t e r n a s A p p l e ' s i c o n i c nice-to-have hybrid that's an

entirely discretionary kind of purchase. The iPad goes on sale at 9 a.m. Saturday at Apple Stores and most Best Buy stores in the U.S. CNET will post its review later Friday, so check back for our impressions of the device. If you're thinking about buying one, here's some stuff you should know ahead of time: Standing in line It's become a tradition for some hardcore types to stand in line, sometimes days in advance, to

be one of the first to get the latest iPhone. There may not be a need to start queuing quite that early this time around, however. That's because for the iPad, Apple allowed the option to reserve one of the new touchscreen tablets ahead of time, so as long as you pick it up by 3 p.m. Saturday (that's how long they've guaranteed to hold the reservation), you'll get one the first day. What's unclear is if there will be supply of iPads set aside for

walk-in customers. Apple says there will be two lines: one for people who placed a pre-order via the Web ( an option that is no longer available), and one that will be first-come, first serve. Though Apple will not say how many iPads will be available to sell to people who have not pre-ordered, it does sound like there will be stock for people to simply walk in and buy one. YOU'RE page 28

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YOU'RE continued from page 27

Wi-Fi versus 3G Though Apple has announced there will be two models of the iPad, one won't be available at first. The Wi-Fi-only version of the iPad will be for sale starting Saturday. A different model, which will have Wi-Fi and 3G access, won't be ready until late April. But you still have some options. The Wi-Fi model comes in three different storage capacities: 16GB of memory for $499, 32GB for $599, and 64GB for $699. Buying the 3G version tacks $129 on to each. Accessorizing One of the interesting things about the iPad is the accessories. Unfortunately, some of them won't be available right out of the gate. The accessory most likely to inspire envy among iPhone owners--the iPad keyboard dock--is delayed until May. The same is true for the 10W USB power adapter that will charge the iPad from an electrical outlet. The iPad case is available in mid-April-but if you search around there are plenty more options from thirdparty vendors should you want one right away. The camera-connector kit will be available in late April, and the iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter will be in stock

Saturday. What it's for? The iPad isn't a phone, and it's not exactly a computer. So what is it? It's a touchscreen device for consuming media in all its forms: video, music, the Web, electronic books and magazines, and video games. The iPad isn't all play, and no work. Apple will have a special iWork package for the tablet. This image shows a demo of the Keynote presentation software.(Credit: James Martin/CNET) There's also work-related things you can do with it: create presentations, spreadsheets, documents through the iWorks applications Apple will make available via the App Store. Plus there's all the usual trappings of a computer or smartphone: email, calendars, contacts, maps, and of course, access to the iTunes Store and App Store. This is all accomplished with the swipe of your fingers, since there's no physical keyboard or stylus included. That is, unless you connect it to the keyboard dock or a wireless Bluetooth keyboard. Books will be an initial focus of the device. Apple has said its iBooks app will feature e-books from five major publishers: HarperCollins, Hachette,

Penguin, Macmillan, and Simon & Shuster at first. Magazine and newspaper publishers are also expected to flock to the device. So far, the New York Times and Wired Magazine have demonstrated iPad-friendly applications. What you can't do with the iPad: take photos. So far, there's no Web cam on the iPad. That could change one day, but for now, you can only get photos onto it via a dock connector Apple sells or by emailing them to yourself and downloading them to the iPad. You also can't edit Microsoft Word documents or watch Flash videos. That means you won't be able to watch Hulu, but you also won't be subjected to some of those irritating Flash-based ads on Web sites. Apptastic One of the most attractive features of the iPad is its relatively large screen (9.7 inches) compared to the iPhone and iPod Touch(3.2 inches). For iPad owners, that means the apps they know and love from the iPhone will be displayed even bigger and perhaps better. On Thursday Apple started updating the App Store with the first round of iPad apps. One of Apple's main goals with the iPad is to take on the Kindle

and other e-readers with its iBooks app.(Credit: CNET/James Martin) Apple has said that all the apps in the App Store, which now number over 150,000, will work right away on the iPad. This is accurate, but there are two things to keep in mind: First, an iPhone app you already own, say the Facebook app, will run on the iPad as is. But it's going to be centered on the screen at its original iPhone scale. No one really will want that though, so Apple has included a "2x" button that will automatically scale the app to fit the iPad's screen. For some apps, that's no problem, they'll look fine. But others, like games for instance, will look pixelated. For that reason, many app developers are retooling their apps and selling them as "HD," "XL," or "for iPad." And yes, in some cases this will mean they cost more money. Bigger applications versus more time spent? It does make sense. Other helpful tips for getting started Though you don't need a computer to use the iPad most of the time, you will need one with iTunes 9.0 or later to set up the device initially. To use the iPad at home (if you don't have

the 3G model) you'll also need to have a home wireless network. And if you want to utilize the iPad as a photo frame, you'll have to pick up the charging dock. Unfinished product Though the iPad will go on sale Saturday, we haven't seen it in its final form. Of course, there will be upgrades as memory gets cheaper, and technology progresses, but the evolving software is what is likely to really define the device. It's likely there are still some pretty big announcements to come as Apple works out more content deals. Part of that might hinge on the initial public response to the device: if publishers see this is a viable format, more or likely to climb on board. Things we hope to see include the ability to access our music collections from the cloud, streaming videos, maybe even iTunes Store subscriptions to TV shows, more access to college textbooks, magazine subscriptions, and new ways to read the newspaper. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Week in review: Apple's latest harvest (CNET News.com)

iPad Apple is also reportedly prepping an iPhone that is It's hard to think of a more compatible with Verizon's anticipated piece of technology network. The Wall Street in the last few years than the Journal quoted unnamed sources iPad--excluding the iPhone, of in a story Monday who say one course. of Apple's contract Initial reports have listed the manufacturers--the companies number of preorders in the t h a t b u i l d t h e h a r d w a r e "hundreds of thousands," and a c c o r d i n g t o A p p l e ' s tech industry analysts are specifications--is working on an forecasting that Apple could sell iPhone that runs on a CDMA 6 million iPads within a year. network. That's the cellular The iPad goes on sale in the network that Verizon uses in the U.S. at 9 a.m. Saturday in all U.S. The sources said the time zones at Apple Stores and CDMA-compatible iPhones will most Best Buy stores. If you're go into mass production in thinking about buying one, here September, though when Apple are a few things you should would start selling them wasn't know ahead of time--from apps mentioned. and accessories to when you So what should Verizon iPhone should line up. users expect when the device However, for anyone hoping finally comes to the nation's that a cloud-based music service largest wireless network? Not will launch with the iPad, much is known about the new disappointment is lurking. CDMA iPhone or when exactly Music industry sources told it will come to market. But here CNET this week Apple has is a glimpse of what potential informed label managers that a Verizon iPhone customers might streaming music service is e x p e c t , b a s e d o n r u m o r s unlikely to be ready before the gathered from around the Web third quarter. as well as information known iPad apps go live in App Store about Verizon's network and Apple iPad: Is it for you? strategy. When will the second-gen iPad Why AT&T should buy you a arrive? femtocell iTunes 9.1 update sets stage for Report: AT&T schooled Apple Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:30:00 AM

on iPhone issues Will iPad launch bring OS 3.2 to iPhones? More headlines Tech coalition pushes rewrite of online privacy law It's time to fix a 1986 privacy law that fails to protect cloud-computing services and the privacy of Americans' mobile devices, a broad coalition including Google, Microsoft, and liberal and conservative groups contend. Obama faces major online privacy test Amazon's new patent could make returns harder In an odd twist, Amazon has patented a process for videotaping its outgoing packages being prepared for shipment. Is this for quality control, or a nextgeneration shipping confirmation e-mail? Reports: Publishers to set Amazon e-book prices Microsoft's busy day at the courthouse The software maker loses its effort for a full appeals court review in the i4i Word injunction case; meanwhile Redmond files suits of its own against Datel over an Xbox 360 controller. Appeals court sides with eBay in Tiffany suit Apple sued over multitouch

patent Former IBM exec pleads guilty in Galleon case ESPN 3D coming to DirecTV in June The satellite TV provider says ESPN 3D and another dedicated 3D channel will be available to all customers as a free upgrade. Comcast demos live 3D TV Microsoft rushes to patch zeroday IE hole Out-of-band fix addresses nine vulnerabilities, including a critical zero-day hole disclosed three weeks ago that affects Internet Explorer 6 and 7. Apple releases OS X 10.6.3, Leopard Security updates Researchers find security holes in smart meters Utilities hire a security consultancy, which finds a number of vulnerabilities in smart meters that could let a criminal remotely control a meter. What's Google planning for Chrome 5? Google's browser revamp can pinpoint your location, fits better with Windows 7, shows 3D Web graphics, and includes Adobe's Flash software. And at last, it will come out of beta for Linux and Mac. Google to build Flash into Chrome browser Chrome share gain outpaces

browser rivals Yahoo adds Facebook status updates to Mail Facebook users will be able to update their status from their Yahoo Mail inbox, another small improvement from Yahoo in hopes of improving its social-media standing. Webs taps Facebook Connect for log-ins, sharing Microsoft plans Windows Summit for May Redmond says the conference is aimed at those needing a kick-start creating products for Windows 7. It won't be the place where Microsoft talks about the future of its desktop operating system. Windows 7 share climbs again Microsoft extends free Windows 7 trial Microsoft retail stores coming to Denver, San Diego Also of note Ed Roberts, creator of early PC, dies Former iPod chief leaves Apple Congressman's islandcapsizing query goes viral Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

36% favorable and 54% unfavorable. Americans are also more negative (45%) than

positive (29%) toward Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Views of Pelosi Not Fundamentally Changed After Health Vote (All Gallup Headlines) Submitted at 4/1/2010 8:00:00 PM

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] Americans' views of House

Speaker Nancy Pelosi are not fundamentally changed after the passage of healthcare reform, at

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U.S. cracks down on vehicle emissions (CNET News.com)

administrator of the EPA, which finalized the rules with the Department of Transportation. The United States finalized on The rules, which the agencies Thursday its first greenhouse had laid out since last year, g a s e m i s s i o n s r u l e s o n require that cars and trucks get automobiles and also boosted on average 35.5 miles per gallon fuel efficiency standards--moves by 2016. The current limit is just that Canada is jointly imposing under 25 miles per gallon. The on its industry. EPA also ruled that average The rules are part of President vehicle emissions will be Obama's goal by 2020 to cut limited to 250 grams of carbon emissions by about 17 percent dioxide per mile by 2016, down under 2005 levels of the gases about 15 percent from 2012. blamed for warming the planet. Canada's government also Obama wants Congress to pass finalized fuel efficiency rules on a long-delayed climate bill, but T h u r s d a y . C a n a d i a n to push it along, he has also set Environment Minister Jim i n m o t i o n s t e p s f o r t h e Prentice said Canada and the E n v i r o n m e n t a l P r o t e c t i o n United States "will effectively Agency to begin regulating the share common standards" for emissions from cars and large limiting vehicle greenhouse gas polluters like power plants. emissions. "By working together with The two countries are working industry and capitalizing on our together on proposed standards capacity for innovation, we've for tractor-trailer trucks, which developed a clean cars program should be released in the next that is a win for automakers and few months, Prentice said. The drivers, a win for innovators and North American auto industry is entrepreneurs, and a win for our highly interlinked, and Canada planet," said Lisa Jackson, the h a s s a i d i t s s t r a t e g y f o r Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:30:19 AM

under the Clean Air Act to impose emissions rules on big business. emissions also hinges on U.S. "Such misguided and flawed policy because of the two policy has the potential for nations' integrated economies. devastating consequences to The U.S. vehicle emissions A m e r i c a n c o n s u m e r s , standards, which will be phased b u s i n e s s e s , j o b s , a n d t h e in starting with the 2012 model economy," said Charles Drevna, year, will reduce the country's p r e s i d e n t o f t h e N a t i o n a l greenhouse gas emissions by Petrochemical and Refiners 900 million metric tons, the Association. EPA said. But automakers support the The program will add about separate vehicle regulations $52 billion in vehicle costs, but because it would create the first benefits should hit $240 billion, national standard for controlling the EPA said. The savings c a r a n d t r u c k e m i s s i o n s , would come in lower fuel bills superseding state plans that and in reduced health care costs would have created a patchwork as soot and other particulate of regulations. emissions fall. Story Copyright (c) 2010 The U.S. rule will save 1.8 Reuters Limited. All rights billion barrels of oil and 960 reserved. million metric tons of carbon Five Filters featured article: emissions over the life of Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: vehicles, equivalent to taking 58 PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, million cars off the road for a Term Extraction. year, the EPA said. Oil refiners have joined other industries and lawmakers in challenging EPA's authority

Apple Patents iPhone Gaming Add-ons With Buttons, DS-Like Control and Display Scheme [Patents] Jason Chen (Gizmodo) Submitted at 4/2/2010 9:50:40 AM

These patents found by Patently Apple shows that Apple is, at the very least, thinking about getting serious about gaming. They know their iPhone and iPad aren't good for all games—no buttons—so they added buttons. More »

Apple releases new iPhone ad "Commute" Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/2/2010 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPhone Apple has posted their latest iPhone ad to their iPhone ad gallery. The ad, titled "Commute," is another ad that

spotlights "everyday use" features for the average user. The narrative tells the story of a man who just missed his train to work. He uses his iPhone to check the next train time then gets a phone call from a colleague at the office. While speaking to the colleague he

uses a remote login app to access a file on his work computer and emails it to his office. This part of the ad spotlights the iPhone's ability to use data and voice simultaneously. The ad ends by the user watching news footage on his iPhone.

The three apps used in this ad Please see our terms for use of are Here, File File!($9.99), feeds. MassTransit($3.99), and WSJ - Read| Permalink| Email this| The Wall Street Journal(Free). Comments TUAW Apple releases new iPhone ad "Commute" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST.

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Pay-For-Delay Anti-Trust Rejoice: It's No Longer Patent Infringement To Sell A Trading Card Lawsuit Against Pharma Company Dismissed With Memorabilia Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 4/2/2010 4:09:00 AM

Justin Levine highlights the ridiculousness of the patent system today by noting that it took the court system eight years to determine that attaching memorabilia to a trading card shouldn't be patentable(pdf)... and even then, a CAFC judge dissented, claiming that the patents could be valid. The patents in question, 5,803,501 and 6,142,532 are pretty straightforward. Basically, they're about taking some piece of memorabilia and attaching it to a trading card (for example, attaching a piece of a jersey worn in a baseball game to a baseball card of the player). While it's great that CAFC reasonably recognized that this concept should be considered obvious and non-patentable, I find the reasoning of the dissenting judge, Judge Rader, quite troubling. I saw Judge Rader speak at an event a few months ago, and the man is quite outspoken and opinionated

(which is a good trait), but at times he seems to lose sight of what's actually at stake. When I saw him speak, he attacked the Supreme Court for some of its recent decisions that helped return a bit of sanity to the patent system. In this dissent, he seems so focused on nitpicking that he misses the big picture (which is the kind of thing that the Supreme Court has appeared to be annoyed about in its recent rulings repeatedly slapping down CAFC). His argument is that because no one had tried to sell cut up memorabilia with trading cards before (and some even thought it was a bad idea) that made it not obvious. Judge Rader, with all due respect, appears to be confusing some rather important things. The fact that many companies thought that this was a bad business idea does not make it any less obvious. Judge Rader seems to think that because no one did it before, that means that it's a new "invention" that deserves a government granted

monopoly. But, he ignores the possibility that, while the idea was obvious, most people just didn't think it made much sense as a business, until one company tried it out and saw that it worked. That's how business works. Even ideas that are "obvious" aren't tried because people think they won't work -until eventually someone decides to test them out -- not because of a patent or some burst of genius, but because they decide to just try something new to see what happens. In the case of baseball cards and jerseys, it worked. But that doesn't mean the idea was some brilliant invention that requires exclusivity -- or that needs "disclosure" via the patent system to exist. It's just business -- which is helped along by competition and a desire to out-innovate the competition, not the desire to get a monopoly right from the government. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:33:00 AM

Last year, we wrote about the rise of pay-for-delay programs being run by big pharmaceutical firms to use patent lawsuits as a cover to pay off generic drug makers to prevent them from competing in the market. We were pretty disappointed that a part of health care reform that would have outlawed such deals got dropped, but figured that these still seemed like anticompetitive actions that the FTC could deal with. Well, that might not work either. Joe Mullin points out that one such lawsuit suggesting that some of these deals were anticompetitive has been tossed out. The specifics here are a bit more complex -- as the deal that the big pharma, ScheringPlough (now owned by Merck) worked out with two generic drug makers was technically structured as a "license deal" where Schering got to license drugs from those generic drugmakers -- even if it never really did so. It still provided some amount of "cover." Furthermore, the agreement not to introduce the generics in the market only occurred during the time when Schering's drug was

still covered by the patent. So, really, there was some dispute as to whether or not the generic actually violated the patent or not -- but since the ruling was not about determining that fact, just whether the actions were anti-competitive, the judge concluded that there wasn't enough evidence of any anticompetitive behavior. So, basically, the only reason this wasn't anticompetitive was because it all happened under a government-granted monopoly. Talk about ironic, right? Because there's a monopoly, the company doesn't get labeled a monopolist. Isn't the patent system great? This ruling is unfortunate for a variety of reasons. You can see why generic drug makers agree to these deals: it's either go through an expensive fight to put a drug on the market, or get out of the lawsuit and get paid a ton of money for nothing. Not hard to make that decision. But the end result is anticompetitive, in that it allows big pharma firms to keep the prices jacked up very high on their drugs, much to the detriment of everyone else. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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Free NBA iPad app targets stats geeks (CNET News.com)

"It's completely different from the ground up," said Bryan Perez, the president of the T h e N B A ' s i P a d a p p i s NBA's Digital Group. "One you designed to be used while pull out of your pocket, the watching games.(Credit: NBA) other is sitting on your desk or Everyone has an iPad app--or it coffee table." just feels that way since I've The iPad app is supposed to be been inundated with press a companion to people watching releases about them since the game, or in this case, the Thursday--but the NBA's is NBA playoffs, which start in interesting for a few reasons. just a few weeks. Unlike the First, it's free. And second, the iPhone app that you're probably NBA is looking at the iPad as a using to stay updated on a game different use case than every you're missing while you're at other mobile platform. Pro the airport or work or on the bus basketball has more than 100 home, the Courtside app assume apps, if you count each variation you're watching on TV. of them released for iPhone, It's really for stats geeks who Android, and BlackBerry. But don't want to rely on the the iPad app, called NBA Game a n n o u n c e r s f o r a l l t h e i r Time: Courtside, is not just a i n f o r m a t i o n . reformatted iPhone app for a "We give them the info our TV larger screen. analysts would have at their Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:00:00 AM

fingertips," said Perez. With some finger swipes you can watch a game and delve into the type of live-updated stats that NBA analysts Doug Collins or Reggie Miller would have while they're sitting courtside

by play, news updates from around the league and tweets from the NBA's official Twitter account. You might be thinking, "Bad timing, since the NBA season is basically over." And yes, it is in about two weeks. But this application is specifically for the playoffs. You can get it Saturday, and until the postseason begins, it will show the current playoff picture, and update depending on how the last games of the season go down. Additional screenshots after the calling a game. You can tap any jump: player or team on the screen and Five Filters featured article: see his/their stats as well as shot Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: charts and shooting percentage PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, from different areas on the floor. Term Extraction. There's also real-time scoring, updated video highlights, play

One Step Closer to Minority Report: The Wireless Glove Mouse [VIDEO] Ben Parr (Mashable!)

popular movie has inspired tons of technological innovations. Two students from MIT, Tony In the film Minority Report, Hyun Kim and Nevada Sanchez, Tom Cruise utilizes amazing decided to go a step further and technologies from the year the results are awesome to 2 0 5 4 , i n c l u d i n g t a l k i n g behold. The two developed billboards, jetpacks and, most mouse gloves for a class project famously, augmented reality last year. Using equipment that gloves that allow him to interact costs less than $100, they were with a computer interface able to create an interface where w i t h o u t e v e r t o u c h i n g i t . they could navigate, zoom and Needless to say, this very manipulate a map, all by simply Submitted at 4/2/2010 3:24:23 AM

Of course the technology is a little more complicated than that, but you get the idea. And while their invention nowhere near matches Tom Cruise’s masterful manipulation of glove -based interfaces, it does make us believe that the technology of Minority Report is not that far waving their hands through the away. air. Now they’ve made the Here’s a video of the glove gloves wireless, which you can mouse in action, along with the see in action in the video below. famous scene from Minority

Report that inspired it: Minority Report Scene [via Popular Science] For more technology coverage, follow Mashable Tech on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Reviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: Augmented Reality, Glove, minority report, mouse, Mouse Glove, tech

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EFF Fighting For Whistleblower's Privacy Rights, Following Sham Lawsuit Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

with the hospital and used a sham grand jury subpoena to obtain Mr. Rehberg's personal The EFF is helping out in a email communications. The case to look at whether or not prosecutor then provided that you have an expectation of i n f o r m a t i o n t o p r i v a t e privacy in your email. The investigators for the hospital and details of the case itself are indicted Mr. Rehberg for a really quite stunning, so I'll just burglary and assault that never repeat the EFF's summary: The actually occurred. All the whistleblower, Charles Rehberg, criminal charges against Mr. u n c o v e r e d s y s t e m a t i c Rehberg were eventually mismanagement of funds at a dismissed. Hodges is currently Georgia public hospital. He running for Attorney General of alerted local politicians and Georgia in the Democratic others to the issue through a primary. s e r i e s o f f a x e s . A l o c a l Mr. Rehberg filed a civil suit p r o s e c u t o r i n D o u g h e r t y against the prosecutors and their County, Ken Hodges, conspired i n v e s t i g a t o r f o r t h e i r Submitted at 4/2/2010 2:03:00 AM

misconduct, but the appeals court erroneously ruled that he did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in his private email. Scary stuff. And it gets worse, too, as apparently the court gave "immunity to county prosecutors and their investigators for manipulating and fabricating "evidence" and defaming Mr. Rehberg as a felon in comments to the press." This seems like a massive abuse of power to punish a whistleblower, using emails obtained via questionable means. Bad news all around. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Letterman's iPad top ten list doesn't go quite according to plan Michael Rose (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

a few minutes later. Meanwhile, over on basic cable, Stephen Colbert showed Submitted at 4/2/2010 12:15:00 AM the world how it's done(via Filed under: iPad Sure, David Gawker). In addition to slicing Letterman is rich, famous and veggies for a tangy salsa with apparently no slouch with the his iPad, Colbert also got in a ladies... but he's not an iPad- nice dig: "If you've already got savvy geek, as you can see here. an iPhone, a lot will be familiar During tonight's Late Show, he to you on the iPad. The same brought out an iPad with the top touchscreen technology, the ten list shown ("Top Ten same apps... and just like the Questions To Ask Yourself iPhone, you can't make calls Before Waiting In Line For The with it." Oooh, burn. Update: iPad") -- then proceeded to turn Colbert video now embedded in the iPad upside down, get the 2nd half of the post along frustrated with his inability to with Letterman. wake it from sleep mode, TUAW Letterman's iPad top accidentally try to power it t e n l i s t d o e s n ' t g o q u i t e down, lick it (!), then he simply according to plan originally went ahead and read from his appeared on The Unofficial paper card. Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, Jason Chen (Gizmodo) Now they have an iPad app. It's not clear how much of 02 Apr 2010 00:15:00 EST. And soon you will be fat. More Letterman's frustration was Please see our terms for use of Submitted at 4/2/2010 10:12:15 AM Âť feigned for comic effect, but it feeds. Control4 is a suite of home was a bit painful to see guest Read| Permalink| Email this| automation devices that can tap home entertainment, thermostat Sam Worthington place his Comments into your security system, lights, and various other electronics. coffee cup atop the iPad screen

Control4 iPad App For Home Automation and Sloth [IPad Apps]

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Stephen Colbert Rubs His iPad in Your Collective Face [VIDEO] Brenna Ehrlich (Mashable!) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:51:52 AM

Lately, the Apple iPad has been making more TV appearances than Governor Blagojevich after that whole scandal thing. Its most recent moment in the sun? A cameo on The Colbert Report, during which Stephen C. knocked everyone from Apple to Amazon to AT&T. Colbert first publicly got his mitts on the fabled ‘Pad during the Grammys, using the device to announce “Song of the Year.” We’ve also seen Steve Jobs’s stream-lined baby on the sitcom Modern Family, as well as covered in David Letterman’s saliva. It’s official: The newest Apple product has become a television star. Check out the video below, in which Colbert makes some pretty incisive observations. Although, I have to say, this

segment left me craving Mexican food much more than the iPad. The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Stephen Gets a Free iPad www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform [via 9 to 5 Mac] For more web video coverage, follow Mashable Web Video on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) song Submitted at 4/2/2010 2:10:13 AM Tags: Apple iPad, humor, television When people talk about content on the iPad, they mostly mention books, video, TV and games. But there are many other and collaborative process. Get niche content types that fit the comments, notes, and tags on iPad’s 9.7” screen perfectly, and your photos, post to any blog, one of the more important ones share and more! is comics. Five Filters featured article: It wasn’t hard to predict that big Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: comic publishing houses would PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, jump on the opportunity to Term Extraction.

Will you want to eat them? Zack Sheppard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 4/1/2010 10:00:53 PM

• About Flickr Flickr is a revolution in photo storage, sharing and organization, making photo management an easy, natural

Marvel Comics Arrive on the iPad publish on the iPad — after all, kids may only read comics on such devices in a couple of years. Marvel will be one of the first with their Marvel Comics app for the iPad, featuring 500 of Marvel’s comic books with many more to come. Some of the titles featured at launch are Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk and Thor. The app is based on the wonderful Comixology app which is already the source for

Marvel comics on the iPhone. The app will also be available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and it’s free; it will come with a couple of free comics, while further titles will cost $2 per issue. For more Apple coverage, follow Mashable Apple on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Reviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: apple, ipad, Marvel

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Whitman Seizes Commanding Lead in California (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 4/1/2010 2:11:20 PM

iBooks app now available in App Store Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPad Apple has released the iBooks app into the App Store. The iBooks app will only run on the iPad and includes a complimentary copy of Winniethe-Pooh by A. A. Milne. Some of the features of the app allows you to highlight your favorite passages with the built-in bookmarking feature, read a free sample of any book on the iBookstore, built-in search, and spoken word. The app's page also states that only the ePub format is

supported and to add ePub books from outside of the iBookstore to the iBooks app, they must be DRM-free and synced to the iPad using iTunes 9.1 or later. The iBooks app is free. I think I just heard Jeff Bezos shaking in his reading jacket. TUAW iBooks app now available in App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Ukrainians Likely Support Move Away From NATO (All Gallup Headlines) Submitted at 4/1/2010 8:00:00 PM

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] Gallup surveys suggest Ukrainians may back the new government's

plans that would keep the country from entering NATO. Ukrainians in May 2009 were more than twice as likely to see NATO as a threat (40%) than as protection (17%).

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has seized a commanding lead in the GOP primary race for California governor, leading The Wall Street Journal to declare that she has "all but locked up" the race to challenge former Gov. Jerry Brown in the general election. Whitman was expected to face a tough test from state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who like Whitman is a millionaire entrepreneur who made a fortune doing business in Silicon Valley before entering politics. A poll by the Public Policy Institute of California shows Whitman opening up a whopping 50-point lead over Poizner in the primary election. 61 percent of voters who say they're likely to vote in the Republican primary identify Whitman as their choice, compared to 11 percent for Poizner. That is a remarkable change from January, when Whitman led Poizner in an earlier Public Policy Institute poll by 41 percent to 11 percent. Adding to the impression that Whitman is poised for a primary landslide:

A Field Poll released March 17 showing Whitman leading Poizner by 63 percent to 14 percent in the primary. While the media is emphasizing that Whitman has spent millions of her own money to seize the momentum in the primary, the polls suggest that Whitman has been able to connect with economically strapped Californians hit hard by the recession. In an exclusive Newsmax interview in January, Whitman told Newsmax that job creation would be priority No. 1: "I want to focus first and foremost on creating and keeping jobs in California. This has to be about jobs," she said. Whitman has maintained a high -profile role in politics since the 2008 presidential election, when she served as co-chairman of Sen. John McCain's campaign. One of her big supporters is former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has said that with her business and executive expertise Whitman would make the perfect governor for the Golden State. The early polls for the general election are suggesting that Californians so far agree. In a potential race against Brown, the presumed Democratic nominee, Whitman

is leading 44 percent to 39 percent according to the Public Policy Poll. Some California leaders have suggested Brown, 71, may not be able to offer the fresh political approach many voters appear to be looking for in this election cycle. His campaign appears to be trying to suggest he is the voice of experience who marches to his own drumbeat. The Wall Street Journal quotes Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford as saying Brown offers "an insider's knowledge with an outsider's mind." Whitman will probably be able to outspend Brown many times over. She has already reportedly invested over $45 million in her run for governor, much of it her own money. Brown so far only has $14 million in his campaign coffers, according to published reports. A request for comment from Poizner's office received no immediate response Thursday afternoon. ÂŠ Newsmax. All rights reserved. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Ustream Set to Bring Live Video to iPad Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

offering similar functionality to its existing iPhone application. Users will be able to browse live The iPad application race is on. streams, and then interact with A m o n g t h e t h o u s a n d s o f them via Ustream’s chat and applications expected to find social stream features. their way into the App Store for Ustream joins a number of Saturday’s device launch is video apps we already know Ustream, the popular service for will be available on iPad, live video. including free network TV N e t f l i x . A s f a r a s u s e r The company plans to bring its content from ABC and CBS, as generated live video goes, we’ve Ustream Viewer app to iPad, well as on-demand movies from Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:34:21 AM

reached out to some of Ustream’s competitors to see what we can expect on iPad. For more web video coverage, Robot for your follow Mashable Web Video on computer: Honda Twitter or become a fan on releases Asimo desktop Facebook Reviews: App Store, Facebook, widget Twitter, ustream Serkan Toto (CrunchGear) Tags: ipad, live video, ustream, Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:21:54 AM video

There are many humanoids out there, but Honda’s two-legged, super-advanced Asimo is certainly one of the coolest. And (Newsmax - Politics) The fine came in the wake of C o m m i s s i o n p r o v i d e d t h e and business-class airfare; the if you’re a hardcore robot geek, investigations by the Associated results of that investigation to state Aeronautics Division you can get it now on your Submitted at 4/2/2010 1:17:54 AM P r e s s a f t e r M r . S a n f o r d h i m i n N o v e m b e r , M r . $7,792 for personal use of state- computer desktop via a new COLUMBIA, S.C. - South disappeared for five days last McMaster, who is running for owned aircraft and give his Adobe Air app. Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has June and returned to make a governor, has not decided campaign $2,941 to cover The widget can be installed on paid the largest ethics fine in tearful confession of an affair whether to pursue charges personal use of campaign funds, Windows XP/Vista or 7 PCs as state history in the wake of an with Maria Belen Chapur, the against Mr. Sanford. including a hunting trip to well as Macs with OS X 10.4 or investigation launched after he Argentine woman he said he'd Two weeks ago, Mr. Sanford Ireland and his monthly cable higher on board. Your desktop confessed an affair with an had an affair with for a year and entered a no-contest plea to 37 television bills. Asimo then walks around on the Argentine woman, the State described as his soul mate. c h a r g e s f r o m t h e E t h i c s Mr. Hayden said Mr. Sanford screen, jumps, plays soccer, and Ethics Commission's director The AP investigations showed Commission investigation. Mr. must show those payments have performs his famous dance said Thursday. M r . S a n f o r d t r a v e l e d o n Sanford said it was time to put been made within the next (there’s also a memo pad and Director Herb Hayden said Mr. commercial airlines on high- the issue behind him. couple of weeks. Google search to make him a bit Sanford's lawyers dropped off a priced seats despite the state's T h e g o v e r n o r s a i d i n a © C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 T h e more useful). check for $74,000 in fines and low-cost travel rules and used statement he thinks he would Associated Press. All rights You can download the Asimo $ 3 6 , 4 9 8 t o c o v e r t h e state planes for personal and have been vindicated if the reserved. This material may not widget from here. i n v e s t i g a t i o n a n d o t h e r p o l i t i c a l t r i p s . T h e S t a t e commission had heard the case, b e p u b l i s h e d , b r o a d c a s t , Via Akihabara News c o m m i s s i o n c o s t s o n n e w s p a p e r i n C o l u m b i a but didn't want to continue what rewritten or redistributed. Wednesday. q u e s t i o n e d c a m p a i g n he called an endless media Five Filters featured article: "It's the largest single fine that reimbursements to Mr. Sanford. circus. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: has ever been levied against A t t o r n e y G e n e r a l H e n r y Mr. Sanford also agreed to PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, anyone by the commission," Mr. M c M a s t e r r e q u e s t e d a n reimburse the state Commerce Term Extraction. Hayden said. investigation. While the Ethics Department $18,000 for first-

Sanford Pays Record Ethics Fine

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Why Law Should Lead Justin Driver (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 4/1/2010 9:00:00 PM

The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution By Barry Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 614 pp., $35) In 1952, as the Supreme Court contemplated the set of cases that would eventually become known as Brown v. Board of Education, a law clerk named William H. Rehnquist wrote a memorandum modestly styled as “A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases.” Far from a tangential observation regarding the Fourteenth Amendment’s implications for racially segregated public schools, the two-page manifesto provided nothing less than a unified theory of American constitutional law. “One hundred and fifty years of attempts on the part of this Court to protect minority rights of any kind whether those of business, slaveholders, or Jehovah’s Witnesses have all met the same fate,” Rehnquist wrote. “One by one the cases establishing such rights have been sloughed off, and crept silently to rest.” The memo further suggested that the Supreme Court elevates constitutional principle above majority preference only at its

own peril: “To the argument . . . that a majority may not deprive a minority of its constitutional right, the answer must be made that while this is sound in theory, in the long run it is the majority who will determine what the constitutional rights of the minority are.” Barry Friedman does not analyze the reasoning of Rehnquist’s memo in his history of the Supreme Court, but no single document better--or more chillingly--encapsulates his book’s argument. Friedman’s book, like Rehnquist’s memo, understands the judiciary to afford minorities protection almost exclusively on a theoretical level. “In theory,” Friedman declares, “this desire to separate law and politics is an admirable one.” But such a separation, he continues, remains unattainable in the real world: “the instinct to keep politics entirely separate from decisions about constitutional law is plainly impossible with regard to the Supreme Court. It simply is the case that the judiciary’s capacity to give the Constitution meaning, to protect minority rights, always has been limited by popular support for those decisions.” This book represents the culmination of many years of study that Friedman has dedicated to the phenomenon that Alexander Bickel, in The Least Dangerous Branch,

famously dubbed “the countermajoritarian difficulty.” The core problem with judicial review, according to Bickel, stems from the ability of a body comprising just nine unelected people to invalidate actions undertaken by democratically elected representatives. Calling judicial review “a deviant institution in the American democracy,” Bickel suggested that “when the Supreme Court declares unconstitutional a legislative act or the action of an elected executive, it thwarts the will of representatives of the actual people of the here and now; it exercises control, not in behalf of the prevailing majority, but against it.” Friedman has come to suggest that, at least since the New Deal, Bickel’s concern has proved unwarranted. According to Friedman, the Court has recently acted less as a check against majority rule than as its conduit. “The function of judicial review in the modern era,” in Friedman’s estimation, is “to serve as a catalyst, to force public debate, and ultimately to ratify the American people’s considered views about the meaning of their Constitution.” While the Court may have overstepped its bounds in the past and has periodically been chastened for doing so, Friedman believes that the fundamental flaw of judicial review--its undemocratic brake

on popular will--has been remedied. “Now that the justices and the public understand how things work, the system tends to rest in a relatively quiet equilibrium,” he observes. “Political scientists call this anticipated reaction. The justices don’t actually have to get into trouble before retribution occurs; they can sense trouble and avoid it. The people do not actually have to discipline the justices; if they simply raise a finger, the Court seems to get the message.” Friedman maintains that the Warren Court itself--in the popular imagination, the most celebrated defender of minority rights--generally issued decisions in accord with popular sentiment, noting that even Brown received approval from a narrow majority of Americans in the months after it was decided. Apart from its intellectual debt to Bickel, Friedman’s history can usefully be understood as a modified version of an approach known as popular constitutionalism, which is most prominently associated with Larry D. Kramer. Popular constitutionalists emphasize that Supreme Court justices are not the only citizens who should interpret the Constitution. Ordinary Americans, too, should reclaim an interpretive role, because the Constitution was written for the people. Although

Kramer decries the way in which everyday Americans have been marginalized from the modern constitutional order, Friedman offers a more sanguine assessment. He suggests that the people’s constitutional voice is now heard more clearly than ever by the Court, as justices almost invariably interpret the Constitution in accordance with popular views. Kramer and Friedman travel different routes, but they reach the same populist destination. Kramer ended the last chapter of his book, The People Themselves, by imploring: “The Supreme Court is not the highest authority in the land on constitutional law. We are.” Friedman concludes The Will of the People by declaring: “In the final analysis, when it comes to the Constitution, we are the highest court in the land.” In Friedman’s view, liberal commentators who fear that the Roberts Court could shift dramatically to the right in the coming years betray a lack of historical perspective. The Court will inevitably march to the tune that the American public plays. “The decisions of the justices on the meaning of the Constitution must be ratified by the American people,” Friedman matter-of-factly explains. “That’s just the way it is.” A WHY page 41

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In Defense of Huggy Bear Jason Zengerle (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:05:37 PM

Mike Krzyzewski likes to boast that he’s “a leader who happens to coach basketball.” But it may be more accurate to say that he’s a corporate pitchman who happens to be a leader who happens to coach basketball. Turn on your television, especially in March, and there’s a good chance you’ll see Coach K hawking everything from State Farm insurance polices to Chevrolet cars to the Guitar Hero videogame to DePuy artificial hips(of which he has two). Even his little homily about leadership has been repurposed into a commercial for American Express. In tomorrow night’s Final Four, Krzyzewski’s Duke team will play West Virginia, which is coached by Bob Huggins, who, it’s safe to say, will never appear in an AmEx ad. With his slicked-back-yet-somehow-stillfeathered hair, boxer’s nose, hulking physique, and penchant for wearing sweatsuits during games, Huggins is the rare college coach these days who doesn’t look like he belongs on Wall Street. Rather than Gordon Gekko, he brings to mind Biff from Back to the Future—or a loan shark. His personality, which has earned him the sarcastic nickname “Huggy Bear,” matches his appearance.

During games he spews profanity at his players (“ A fucking midget is whipping your ass!”), which, admittedly, doesn’t make him that different from lots of coaches. But then, after the games, when most coaches go out of their way to charm reporters, Huggins stays his prickly self, answering their questions in a begrudging monotone ( Q: “Are you excited?” A: “Can’t you tell?”) or cursing them out like they were his players. And then there’s Huggins’s controversial reputation, created not only by his players’ low graduation rates (zero percent some years) and lengthy rap sheets (back in the ’90s one was charged with punching a police horse), but his own brush with the law: In 2004, he pled no contest to DUI charges. In other words, Huggins is not the kind of guy Fortune 500 companies want pitching their products during commercial breaks. Indeed, the only time I can recall seeing Huggins on TV outside the context of a basketball game was when the dashboard-cam footage of him failing a field sobriety test was getting heavy play on ESPN. And yet, despite all of this—or, rather, because of it—Huggins is a surprisingly refreshing figure* in the world of big-time college basketball, which is currently filled with coaches who are constantly pretending to

be so much more than just coaches. Krzyzewski, of course, is the most egregious example of this—with his whole “leader of men” schtick that, in addition to his lucrative endorsement career, has led to the creation of an actual Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics at Duke’s business school. But pretty much every successful college coach these days now considers himself a guru who has valuable lessons to impart about not just how to beat a 2-3 zone but how to have a successful business and successful life. To pull a couple titles from the ever growing bookshelf of coach lit, consider Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun’s A Passion to Lead: Seven Leadership Secrets for Success in Business, Sports, and Life, which, presumably, offers a slightly quicker path to success than Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s Lead to Succeed: Ten Traits of Great Leadership in Business and Life. Even a rogue like Kentucky’s John Calipari—the only coach in college basketball history to have Final Fours vacated at two different schools due to rules violations—has recast himself as a philanthropist, starting his own charitable foundation for children and organizing a “Hoops for Haiti” telethon that earned him a congratulatory call from President Obama. But Huggins is a coach with absolutely no pretenses. His

father was a high school coach in Ohio and after Huggins finished playing college basketball at West Virginia—where he was a twotime Academic All-American and from which he graduated magna cum laude—he went into the coaching business himself, taking a job at tiny Walsh College. Being a coach was all he ever wanted to be. And, even now, three decades later and at the top of his profession—when sanding off his rough edges could bring him lucrative endorsement deals and greater acclaim—that remains the case. The 13 books Huggins has written have titles like Building a Man-to-Man Defense and Motion Offense: The Principles of the Five Man Open Post. If he ever held a telethon, it would probably be to raise money to pay for his players’ bail—unless he embezzled the proceeds to buy himself more sweatsuits first. Of course, that brings us to the question of Huggins’s ethics. In 2005, he was fired from the University of Cincinnati, where he rebuilt the school’s basketball program and took it to 14 straight NCAA appearances, because the school’s new president was embarrassed by his—and his team’s—off-the-court problems. But a year later, Kansas State gave him a 5-year, $4.4 million contract to turn its program

around, and after he did that in one season, West Virginia hired him for even more money to coach its team. Which just goes to show that, no matter how much Huggins’s colleagues like to pretend that their jobs are about more important things than winning and losing, they’re not. The other day, the New York Times' Pete Thamel recalled Royce Waltman's comments upon being removed as Indiana State’s basketball coach three seasons ago for lack of on-court success: “If you get fired for cheating you can get rehired, but if you get fired for losing it’s like you have leprosy. Young coaches need to bear that in mind. Cheating and not graduating players won’t get you in trouble, but that damn losing will.” Huggins’s career is living proof of that. And that’s why he is a much more accurate reflection of the state of big-time college basketball than his colleagues who claim to be leaders of men and business gurus and philanthropists. Unlike the corporate pitchman he’ll be coaching against tomorrow night, Huggins really is about truth in advertising. *-- I do acknowledge the slight possibility that my warm feelings toward Huggins may just be a little warmer than usual due to the identity of his team’s DEFENSE page 39

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The Same Old Drill (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:00:00 PM

Too little, too late, too clever, and for the wrong reasons. That's a good way to describe President Obama's decision to allow a little offshore drilling. Of course, most of the environmentalist base of the Democratic party sees it the other way around: too much, too soon (since "never" is their preferred timeline), too dumb, but for the right reasons. Obama justified his decision to allow drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the southern Atlantic, and some coastal regions of northern Alaska on the grounds that it would create jobs and serve as a "bridge" to the carbon-free Brigadoon we've long been promised. The reality is that his decision was entirely political. Aiming to win vital Republican support in the Senate for some kind of bipartisan cap-and-trade legislation, he lifted the ban where the polling was in favor of doing so. Sound science, energy policy, and economics were the last things on his mind. On that, there is widespread

consensus. Back when oil cost $140 per barrel, Pres. George W. Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore oil drilling. Once elected, Obama quietly reinstated it. Since then, Obama's Interior Department has been doing just about everything it can to slow, hamper, and prevent oil and gas exploration in the U.S. and offshore. There's no reason to believe the administration won't keep doing that. Besides, Obama's announcement actually bans more oil and gas reserves from exploration than it opens up: nothing in the Pacific, nothing in the western Gulf of Mexico, nothing in southern Alaska--all promising areas. But there's an unintended irony to Obama's decision, one that he probably has not considered, since the passage of health-care reform has only reinforced his ideological hubris. The welfare state that Obama is trying to create needs money, desperately. The federal debt is currently around $12 trillion, and the Congressional Budget Office expects it to hit $20 trillion by 2020. Throw in the

unfunded liabilities--i.e., promises to citizens--in our existing entitlements system and the debt creeps over $100 trillion. The American Enterprise Institute's Steven Hayward thinks this is something of a ticking time bomb for the Left's overlapping coalition of environmentalists and welfarestate liberals. For years, environmentalists have been selling snake oil about energy policy, claiming that we can give up on nasty but affordable carbon-based energy such as coal, oil, and gas and embrace wind, solar, and geothermal (but not nuclear!) at little to no cost. In fact, if you listen to people such as New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, switching to solar panels and wind farms will make us richer and more competitive, if not cause unicorns to poop "green jobs" and rainbows for as far as the eye can see. Obama's arguments for healthcare reform were similarly otherworldly. We can give 32 million more people coverage, without preconditions, and save money. It's already clear that

DEFENSE continued from page 38

next opponent. But I swear I feel For more TNR, become a fan PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, this way about him even when on Facebook and follow us on Term Extraction. heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not playing Duke. Twitter. Jason Zengerle is a senior Five Filters featured article: editor of The New Republic. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools:

this have-your-cake-and-eat-ittoo pitch was bogus; big corporations are announcing that Obamacare will either cost them millions (if not billions) or force them to drop coverage. It turns out that there's no free lunch, not on health care and not on energy policy. And that's the irony. Obama and his Democratic successors will keep trying to squeeze the rich to pay for their schemes. But that won't raise anything close to the revenue they need. They'll try for a value-added tax, which will raise lots of money but also stifle growth. Eventually, if they want to avoid bankruptcy and keep the welfare state afloat, never mind pay for all of these environmental white elephants, they'll need more revenue, and that's where oil comes in. Environmentalists who estimate that we only have six months' worth of oil in the Arctic or offshore don't know what they're talking about, because nobody knows how much untapped oil we have. Many of the estimates are 30 years old, and they were made before radical leaps in seismic

exploration and drilling technology. We could have tens of trillions of dollars worth of oil and gas under our soil or off our coasts. (One American Petroleum Institute study suggests that government revenues alone from untapped resources could be $1.7 trillion over 20 years.) Oil-industry jobs already pay twice the national average and are pretty much impossible to send overseas. Fossil fuels aren't going anywhere for at least a few decades. Even if we don't drill, other countries certainly will. No country in the world with significant oil or gas resources is abstaining from exploiting them --except for America. Environmentalists say that makes us a leader; the rest of the world says that makes us a sucker. Jonah Goldberg is a visiting fellow at AEI. Photo Credit: Flickr user arbyreed/Creative Commons Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Drill, Baby, Drill (AEI.Org: Articles)

Alaska and Texas fare much better than non-energy Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:00:00 PM producing states when oil prices President Barack Obama's rise by 50% or 100%. Oil- and decision to open up portions of natural-gas-producing states the U.S. coastline to offshore experience smaller increases in drilling is a move in the right unemployment and a smaller d i r e c t i o n . P r o p o n e n t s o f decline in non-farm employment offshore drilling will argue that during a peak oil shock. The the proposal does not go far reason for this is simple; the size enough, since drilling will be of the energy sector expands limited to areas south of New during a period when oil prices Jersey on the Atlantic Coast, rise while the rest of the certain sections of the Gulf of economy shrinks. The growing Mexico and the north coast of energy sector helps prop up Alaska. Critics will argue that other areas in the economy by the decision will increase the increasing the demand for goods U.S.' carbon footprint and a n d s e r v i c e s i n n o n - o i l dependency on fossil fuels and i n d u s t r i e s . contribute to global warming. The prospect for increasing But the decision reflects reality. domestic fossil fuel production Fossil fuels will continue to be is much brighter for natural gas an important source of energy than conventional oil. Hydraulic for the U.S. economy over the fracturing, a new technique for next several decades as global extracting natural gas from shale economies gradually shift to rocks, led the Potential Gas cleaner, renewable sources of Committee to increase their energy. estimate of American natural Increasing U.S. domestic gas reserves by 35% over the petroleum will not likely lower past couple of years. A more world oil prices--most experts recent private sector report believe that U.S. oil reserves are argues that shale gas more than small in relation to the rest of doubles America's natural gas the world. But it will help the reserves. U.S. offset the negative Another possible way to economic impact of a large increase domestic fossil fuel increase in oil prices. For production is to expand drilling example, the economies of on the public lands where many

believe there are significant oil and natural gas deposits. Some energy experts believe that there are significant pools of oil and natural gas in sections of the Gulf of Mexico or off the coast of California, areas where offshore drilling is still prohibited. The U.S. should take advantage of more offshore oil and natural gas drilling and exploration opportunities. The U.S. could probably increase its fossil fuel production by 20% or 30% over the next decade through a combination of oil and natural gas. This could create jobs and help these states better cope with future spikes in oil prices. If we do not drill offshore, it is possible that foreign countries could drill off the continental shelf for their own benefit. To the extent that the U.S. can switch from oil to natural gas as a source of energy, this will reduce carbon emissions as natural gas is a significantly cleaner fuel. The U.S. could possibly even reduce its imports of fossil fuels by increasing domestic energy production, a political objective of both Democrats and Republicans. At the very least, the U.S. should be able to slow down the growth of fossil fuel imports, which contributes to its

trade deficit. The extent to which the U.S. can reduce its oil imports will also depend on building nuclear power plants that can replace oil and coal generators that account for nearly 75% of U.S. electrical power. President Obama's decision to reduce offshore drilling restrictions is an important move in the right direction. The U.S. needs a comprehensive energy program to bridge the country's adjustment to cleaner fuels that reduce carbon emissions. This includes green energy and nuclear energy, as well as clean coal, oil and natural gas. By adopting a broad "do it all" type energy program, the U.S. can move toward its political objective of energy independence that will also help reduce the country's trade deficit. Marc D. Weidenmier is an adjunct scholar at AEI. Photo Credit: Flickr user arbyreed/Creative Commons Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Sponsor post: Sponsor post: Atimi Software Inc. Canucks App Hits #1 Sponsor (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 4/1/2010 10:00:25 AM

The official Canucks iPhone application has become the #1 downloaded app in the free sports app category in the Canadian App Store. Released on February 9th, the app quickly hit 18,000 downloads within two weeks; that number now exceeds 33,000. The first and only NHL team app to achieve such success allows fans to stay connected to the Vancouver Canucks team with exclusive news, features, message boards, videos, scores and statistics. With over two hundred 5-star ratings, the app has attracted worldwide attention, with downloads from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Click here to download the official Canucks App to be a part of the action.

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WHY continued from page 37

Supreme Court decision, on this understanding, bears a resemblance to an opening bid in a hand of poker. “It is through the process of judicial responsiveness to public opinion that the meaning of the Constitution takes shape,” Friedman writes. “The Court rules. The public responds. Over time, sometimes a long period, public opinion jells, and the Court comes into line with the considered views of the American public.” In his account, the views of Supreme Court justices are, in comparison to the views of the American public, of trifling significance. “Ultimately, it is the people (and the people alone) who must decide what the Constitution means,” Friedman proclaims. And so the left need not gnash its teeth over the replacement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., or about any other personnel decisions for that matter, because “the long-run fate of the Roberts Court is not seriously in doubt; its decisions will fall tolerably within the mainstream of public opinion, or the Court

will be yanked back into line.” Friedman’s book admirably manages to distill more than two hundred years of constitutional history into a coherent narrative that attends both to continuity and to change. And a distressingly small number of legal academics can match his lucidity or his ability to turn a phrase. Friedman’s articulation of Supreme Court history represents, moreover, a view that in recent years has become ascendant in legal academia and in the wider intellectual culture. A widespread view of the Supreme Court these days is that it acts as an instrument for transforming popular sentiment into law. Yet the popularity of this view is a disconcerting development, for it offers an impoverished conception of the Supreme Court’s role in American democracy. The analytical trouble with Friedman’s book starts right away, with his imprecise use of “the people.” “Typically, histories of the Supreme Court focus on the justices and their decisions,” Friedman writes. “Here, however, the chief protagonists are the American

people.” Although Friedman briefly acknowledges the methodological difficulties in capturing the sentiments of “the people,” he nonetheless asserts that elites generally articulate what the masses are thinking. The book repeatedly relies upon the words of newspaper and magazine journalists to give voice to “the people.” “Many of the elites whose views are recorded here were chosen or retained their places precisely because of their ability to give voice to the sentiments of their constituents and audiences,” Friedman explains. “That is what long-serving politicians and successful journalists do. Sometimes they mold public opinion; more often they mirror it. In either case, they can be its embodiment.” Setting the accuracy of this assessment of politicians to the side, this is a strange notion of the journalistic endeavor. In Friedman’s assessment, no journalist was more closely attuned to the sentiments of ordinary Americans in the latter half of the twentieth century than Anthony Lewis of The New York Times.“In a probing

1962 feature story,” Friedman writes, “Lewis explained that the Supreme Court’s rapid development of the law in the areas of race relations, legislative apportionment, and the rights of criminal suspects reflected ‘a demand of the national conscience.’” Unburdened by data, Lewis unabashedly identified national trends that just happened to coincide perfectly with the Warren Court’s jurisprudence. Lewis explained the Court’s decision in Brown as follows: “Once again no complicated motive need be sought. The Supreme Court was reflecting a national moral consensus on segregation--perhaps anticipating a feeling that had not yet fully taken shape.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Meet the Hot Docs of 'Miami Medical' (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 4/2/2010 12:20:00 AM

ET is first on the on the set of Jerry Bruckheimer's adrenalinesoaked new CBS series ‘Miami Medical,’ which follows a team of expert surgeons tasked with saving the lives of critically injured patients at a top trauma hospital. “In those early episodes it’s about the formation of a team… there are these sometimes conflicting but very differing personalities who all have to be bound together in one unit,” explains Jeremy Northam, who plays Dr. Proctor. “I like very much the interaction between the ensemble of characters.” Mike Vogel, who plays Dr. DeLeo, says he relishes going toe-to-toe with Jeremy in scenes, and he also opens up about an eerie real-life parallel in the pilot episode that left him stunned.

Video: Aiden Turner Rehearses 'Challenging' Quickstep (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 4/2/2010 12:01:00 AM

After surviving last week's elimination on "Dancing with

the Stars," soap hunk Aiden Turner and his pro partner Edyta Sliwinska are taking on their "challenging" quick step routine -- and ET's inside the top secret

rehearsal! "It's fast, it's challenging…," Aiden says of the pair’s new routine. "There's a lot of steps to memorize, and it just takes

time." The "All My Children" star says the quickstep frustrates him because he is forced to unlearn similar moves he’s learned in

the past. Partner Edyta quips, "You're half Irish, you should have it down."

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Poll: Sen. Blanche Why the RNC Won't Lincoln Trails All GOP Can Michael Steele Rivals (Newsmax - Politics)

contributors@theatlantic.com (Marc Ambinder) (Politics :: The Atlantic)

percent of Arkansas voters believe the newly passed Submitted at 4/1/2010 8:53:31 AM healthcare reform law is bad for Two-term Arkansas Democratic the country. This caused her to Sen. Blanche Lincoln has tried w a l k a n u n e a s y l i n e o n p o s i t i o n i n g h e r s e l f a s a healthcare reform that has moderate going into her re- angered both sides of the debate. election bid, voting against Lincoln’s overall unfavorable reconciliation on healthcare stands at 61 percent, which reform last week, but a new almost mirrors where Arkansas Rasmussen poll shows that voters stand in opposition to might not be enough to get her healthcare reform. another term. Forty-three percent place her in The poll shows Lincoln trailing the “very” unfavorable category. a l l o f h e r f o u r p o t e n t i a l See the full poll here Republican rivals, which © Newsmax. All rights Rasmussen attributes to reserved. Arkansas voters’ unwillingness Five Filters featured article: t o f o r g i v e h e r f o r v o t i n g Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: p r o c e d u r a l l y t o m o v e t h e PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, president’s healthcare plan Term Extraction. forward. The Rasmussen poll found 60

MORE of a magnet than other Washington-based party leaders. Reason three: fundraising tactics aside, he's proven to be a Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:17:12 AM Here's a quick primer for those fairly competent fundraiser. readers wondering why, given And there'll be plenty of money the parade of bad news stories for Republicans outside the produced about the Republican RNC. National Committee, why the Reason fou r: the press would Republican National Committee f o c u s o b s e s s i v e l y o n t h e won't fire Michael Steele. impeachment process, and Reason one: it's hard. Being the Republicans could look bad...uh, party of loyalty and hierarchy, worse, than they do now. the Republicans have made it Reason five: he's black. v i r t u a l l y i m p o s s i b l e f o r Republicans don't want to be members to throw out a chair; stuck with the symbolism of it'd take a vote of two thirds of having rejected their first the membership. elected black chairman because Reason two: Steel is no less of financial issues and/or popular, publicly, than other problems controlling his public Republicans -- it's not like he's a image. magnet for negative energy. OK, well maybe he is. But not

From Hollywood Newcomer to BoxOffice Hero: Sexy Sam Worthington Through the Years! (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 4/2/2010 4:28:00 AM

In the past year, English-born and Australian-bred actor Sam Worthington has gone from Hollywood newcomer to boxoffice king! Get an eyeful of over 10 years of photos from before the 'Terminator Salvation', 'Avatar' and 'Clash of the Titans' star's name was on the tip of Tinseltown's tongue. From scruffy Aussie actor to sleek international star, take a look at Sam Worthington, Hollywood's next big thing! Fans can see Sam and his godlike form in the new 3D 'Clash of the Titans,' in theaters Friday.

ABC Releases Player for iPad Brad Trechak (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/2/2010 10:28:00 AM

Disney, along with many other companies, are betting on the success of Apple's iPad which is being released tomorrow. The ABC network is releasing an app that will extend the network's video player to the device.

Given that we had the half-hour -long iPad commercial on'Modern Family' recently (an ABC program), it seems that the network has gotten behind the new gadget. However, it's not just ABC. Marvel Comics, also a Disney-owned property, have announced an app for the iPad. iPad before too long. And soon In all likelihood, there will be a after, other networks and plethora of Disney apps for the

companies will jump on the bandwagon if they haven't already. Will the iPad signal the end of television as we know it? Probably not. The screen is too small for that and there is a comfort from watching a big screen television in one's own home. However, it will make watching shows on the go easier

(provided a data or WiFi connection is available). Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, RealityFree, Modern Family Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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iPad's Top Apps and Early Trends Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:21:36 AM

What applications are the earliest testers of the Apple iPad trying out? Even though the "official" launch day for the new slate touchscreen computer isn't until tomorrow, April 3rd, several journalists and even some celebrities have already got their hands on one. And what are the top applications for folks like this? There are the usual suspects, of course: The Wall St. Journal, iBooks, Netflix(yes, it was true!), USA Today, ABC Player, NYT Editors' Choice, NPR and others. But all these apps are free, big-name brands and precisely the sorts of things the iPad was designed for. What's more interesting is a glance at the paid applications list for the iPad. Sponsor iPad's Top Apps the Day Before Launch Yesterday, iPad applications became available in the iTunes App Store. They appeared in searches for terms like "XL" and "HD" - the new acronyms developers are using to denote which of their mobile apps have been reconfigured for the slate's larger screen. And although very few people actually have their iPad yet, a number of iPad apps have been downloaded, either by the early testers themselves or by those who are preparing

their collection for tomorrow's first-time sync. In the free applications list, there are few surprises. From one to ten, the top free apps are: iBooks, Netflix, ABC Player, USA Today, The Wall St. Journal, NYT Editors' Choice, NPR for iPad, Twitterific for iPad, eBay for iPad and Shazam for iPad. Early Trend: iPad is

based offerings including Scrabble for iPad, Plants vs. Zombies HD, Flight Control HD and SketchBook Pro. As with the iPhone and iPod Touch, it's clear people are willing to pay to have a little fun. iPad Games: Are Prices Too High? That's where the worrisome part may come in...at least for iPad owners: the prices. Apparently "XL" means supersize the price too. PocketGamer took an early look at the prices for announced iPad games and found that, although 99 cents remained the most popular price point, 55% of iPad games were priced $2.99 or higher (including the 1% that charges a monthly subscription). And 30% were $4.99 or more, making the average price of an iPad game $3.52. They then compared these prices to same versions of the games on the iPhone and found that, ignoring "universal" apps, developers were typically charging $1-$2 more for the iPad version of their game. This trend holds up in the Used for More than Media e i t h e r c a t e g o r i z e d a s current top 10 list, too. Scrabble Consumption "productivity" or "reference." for the iPhone, for example, is However, the paid applications These include the individual $2.99. Scrabble for the iPad is list hints at two early trends that apps of Apple's own office suite $9.99. The same goes for Plants may bode well for the device's (Pages, Numbers and Keynote), vs. Zombies. But besides having future and one that may not. as well as the note-taking app to redesign the apps for the First, the good news. The iPad, Bento and the reference app larger screen, what exactly is it despite its consumer appeal, is World Atlas HD. about them that makes them already making headway as a Another early trend is games on worth more? productivity application. Half the iPad. Four of the top paid IPAD'S page 45 of the top paid applications are applications are entertainment-

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NFC: Never Mind Credit Cards, Pay With Your Phone

Sneak Peek: Chris Rock's Laugh Out Loud 'Funeral'

Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb)

(ETonline - Breaking News)

year, NFC (Near Field Communication) is a shortrange communication Submitted at 4/2/2010 12:00:00 AM technology for mobile phones. One of the emerging trends of It's similar to Bluetooth and has the Mobile Web is using your a range of about 10 centimeters. phone to interact with the real There are three main use cases, world. We're not just talking according to its Wikipedia about 'checking in' to locations, entry: either. There's a world of more • Card emulation: the NFC practical functionality that hasn't device behaves like an existing yet ramped up in the West - contactless card; using your phone as a payment • Reader mode: the NFC device device (for example mobile is active and reads a passive ticketing), getting special offers RFID tag, for example for from retailers, downloading interactive advertising; data from the Web via 'smart • P2P mode: two NFC devices posters' on the street, and more. are communicating together and A key technology driving some exchanging information. of these interactions is NFC, which was one of Gartner's 8 Using the phone to emulate a Mobile Technologies to Watch smart card means that it can be a in 2010. It's a technology that deployed as a payment device you ought to become familiar (similar to a credit card), w i t h ; w h e t h e r y o u ' r e a identity card, security device, technologist, a marketer, or a a n d m o r e . T h i s t y p e o f consumer looking to make the functionality is already common best use of your smart phone in Asia, but it hasn't yet taken (and aren't we all!). So in this off in the States. post we give you an overview of Using the phone as a reader what to expect from NFC. allows the phone to interact with Sponsor RFID-enabled objects in the real What NFC is & Why You world, for example posters Should Care embedded with chips that As we explained earlier this connect to mobile web sites or

payments. As BusinessWeek reported recently, AlcatelLucent has announced a new mobile payment hosting service for mobile operators, in partnership with payments systems specialists Clear2Pay and PingPing. However, the article noted that other emerging mobile payment services aren't using NFC applications. NFC in Mobile including Nokia Money and Phones & Services Twitter co-founder Jack For these use cases to become a Dorsey's new business Square( widespread reality, an NFC chip our review). NFC Has its Issues, must be pre installed in most But Also The Momentum... mobile devices. According to There are issues with NFC, Dan Butcher from Mobile perhaps the biggest being its Commerce Daily, this probably limited range. In order for NFC won't happen until 2011 at the to work, you need to hold your earliest. mobile phone close to the RFID One issue is that NFC is not a t a g o r r e a d e r d e v i c e . A n current feature of the iPhone or alternative that has a longer Android, the tools of choice for range is DASH7, which we'll many Web early adopters. review in an upcoming post. H o w e v e r o n e h a n d s e t However NFC holds the most manufacturer is showing the p r o m i s e f o r d e l i v e r i n g way with NFC: Nokia. Its Nokia contactless mobile payments to 6131 NFC phone can be used as consumers, along with other a credit card, travel card, loyalty real world use cases. card and a "multi-purpose smart Image credit: nicolasnova card." Discuss Along with NFC handsets, NFC -enabled services will arise for applications such as mobile

Submitted at 4/1/2010 8:00:00 PM

ET's got your look at Chris Rock and more big stars in their new comedy, 'Death at a Funeral.' A missing body is just the start of Chris's problems in the film, which features an all-star cast including T racy Morgan, Martin Lawrence and Danny Glover as a curmudgeonly uncle Russell. 'Death at a Funeral' opens April 16.

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Fashion Stake Crowdsources Haute Couture Curt Hopkins (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/1/2010 10:00:00 PM

A new startup is looking to apply crowdsourcing to the fashion industry. Fashion Stake, whose website will open to the general public in several weeks, will allow the fashion-conscious to directly invest in designers. Its motto is, "Democratize Fashion" - a tall order. The site, led by Harvard Business School alumnus Daniel Gulati, will put designers and companies together with consumers on two levels, financially and critically. Financially, an investment in a designer will return the ability to apply credits toward purchasing that designer's garments.

blog shows the names Phillip Lim, Alexander Wang, Donna Karan and Jeffrey Montero. Given the increasing comfort level that consumers have with dialogic shopping - as well as the horrendous downturn in an industry that was already plagued with vicious Sponsor gatekeepers - it could provide a Critically, the full space of price-conscious connection to social media tools will be used. haute couture, as well as the V i e w e r s m a y b r o w s e sense of investment that fashion collections, vote them up or -oriented television shows like down and suggest ideas for new Project Runway have tapped garments or lines and praise or into. criticize designer directions. In addition to the front page of Although Gulati told us he the website, Fashion Stake also could not divulge the number or has its blog, a Twitter account nature of the designers he has and a Facebook page. Discuss waiting in the wings, a screenshot on the company's

IPAD'S continued from page 43

It could be just a case of developers needing to recoup their investments. The true user base of the iPad is still unknown, although analysts predict anywhere from a million to six by quarter's end. If the iPad becomes as widely popular as the iPhone, prices could come down a bit as the market becomes more competitive. Game developers also have to wrestle with their pricing plan for their various versions. Do they sell the iPhone version separately from the iPad one or do they combine them both into a "universal" app? (Universal apps are apps you buy once and sync to any device, iPod, iPhone or iPad. The correct version of the app will be automatically copied over to whichever device

you have plugged into your computer at the time of syncing). Of course, keep in mind that none of these early trends, from pricing to app popularity, indicate the iPad marketplace's permanent course. It's far too early to determine that at this point. (Perhaps "trend" isn't even the right word here). But these are interesting indications of how people are starting to use the iPad, what apps they deem "must-have" and what prices they're willing to pay. The next few months should definitely be interesting to watch. Discuss

1% of developers tackling that device, down from 4% in 2009. This is within the Flurry system of developers, it is worth noting. The following graphic consists of "averages taken across 2009 vs. the last 60 days." The take-away, in addition to the current spike of popularity for the iPad among developers, is the fact that "(t)he total pie is growing significantly, month over month."

Mobile continues to be a growth industry, as ReadWriteWeb has observed a number of times. Update: A typo in the Flurry report indicated that "Android's share of new project starts has decreased from 18% to 8%." It should, reflecting the graphic, say that it had "decreased from 18% to 10%." Discuss

Developer Support for iPad Spikes Curt Hopkins (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/1/2010 9:20:47 PM

Flurry, the analytics firm for mobile applications, has released an updated snapshot of iPad developer activities. Flurry's Peter Farago broke it down on the Flurry blog. "iPad made up 22% of new projects starts within Flurry over the last 60 days. In March, over 3,000 unique applications were

created within Flurry. A second point of interest is that Android's share of new project starts has decreased from 18% to 8%." Sponsor However, Farago cautions against concluding that Android development is falling off. "Android's percent has declined because iPhone and iPad growth He also notes that Blackberry is increasing at a rate faster than development is down, with only that of Android."

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Could ThinkGeek’s iCade become more than an April Fool’s joke? Frank Zhang (CrunchGear) Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:10:19 AM

Remember how the Tauntaun sleeping bag ThinkGeek made as an April Fool’s joke was later turned into an actual product because there was so much demand for it? Well Ars Technica makes an interesting case for why the fake iCade from yesterday’s festivities could also become a reality. While the iPad’s accelerometer and touchscreen give it some unique gaming options, game developers could certainly do more if the product supported some kind of external D-pad or joystick. This is actually not a completely new idea because two years ago a group of hackers created the iControlPad

designed to turn a jailbroken iPhone into a more traditional portable gaming device. Since then, a few prototypes for the iControlPad were created and the product is now being manufactured in the UK in limited quantities.

The biggest problem right for these kinds of products is that can only work with a jailbroken iPhone. Otherwise, the API Apple added in iPhone OS 3.0 forces companies who want to make iPhone and iPod touch accessories to pay a potentially

prohibitive licensing fee to join Apple’s “Made for iPod” program. At the same time, these companies would also need to get access to the necessary chips that will authorize their accessories to connect to the Apple devices. While these roadblocks have limited the development of such products in the past, it is possible that with the increased gaming possibilities of the larger screen iPad there will be a greater demand for such accessories. In fact, Apple themselves may have been looking into this idea ever since they filed a patent for a gaming accessory in 2008.

Which Singer Is Smoking Crack in Public? [Blind Items] Brian Moylan (Gawker) Submitted at 4/2/2010 10:22:48 AM

At least no one took her picture lighting up. This actress wants a product placement deal for paparazzi photos. Another actress is trying to get any paparazzi attention at all. It's all as shitty as one media company's turd-filled lobby. More »

Engadget gets one of the “limited edition” JooJoo tablets in time for April Fools Tablet (BestTabletReview.com) Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:42:45 AM

It’s on in how you look at things. Don’t think of the JooJoo as a failed product that only received 90 pre-orders (fifteen of which were canceled). Think of the JooJoo

as being a “limited edition” tablet that only 75 people have right now. Yeah, sexy. Well Engadget is one of those lucky few who’s JooJoo showed up yesterday (I wonder if it came with a certificate of authenticity signed by Chandra Rathakrishnan?) and they’ve got an unboxing video for all you

CrunchPad/JooJoo lovers (… *que crickets* …). Engadget is taking their time to explore all the minute intricacies of the Fusion Garage tablet so a review will be posted in a few days. We have to say, even though our sarcasm may be palpable, that the JooJoo doesn’t look like a bad product per say. The thing

that ultimately killed it (aside from the “he said/he said” public airing of laundry between Arrington and Rathakrishnan) was timing. If this had come out at this time last year it would have sold like gangbusters. They probably could have even raised it up to $700 or so and had very health sales. But now, in a post-

iPad world, there’s little chance for this device ever taking off. Nail, meet coffin. Source: Engadget Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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iPass? The best present and future alternatives to the Apple iPad Joanna Stern (Engadget)

not the only game in town. And if you aren't sold on the iPad, but happen to be someone who's When Steve Jobs introduced the looking to buy a secondary iPad he was quick to shake his computing device to use while finger in the nose of the other traveling or while simply lying devices out there attempting to on the couch, your choices at the fill the gap between cell phone moment come down to netbooks and full-sized laptop, and in and... well, more netbooks. And p a r t i c u l a r t h o s e m a r k e t - that's not such a bad thing, dominating netbooks. In Apple's especially if you need a feature opinion, the iPad may be the Apple's tablet can't offer, like gadget for surfing the web, multitasking, a keyboard, or run off to purchase that iPad, watching movies, reading books Flash support. So, before you you may want to peruse the best and running apps, but it's surely get up on Saturday morning and current (as well as coming) Submitted at 4/2/2010 9:30:00 AM

alternatives we've rounded up after the break. Continue reading iPass? The best present and future alternatives to the Apple iPad Lindsay Lohan Too iPass? The best present and future alternatives to the Apple High to Realize iPad originally appeared on Everyone Is Making Fun Engadget on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 of Her [Gossip 09:30:00 EST. Please see our Roundup] terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Maureen O'Connor (Gawker) Comments Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:00:05 AM

Seiko's 'active matrix' E-Ink watch exemplifies awesome, might just be the future (video) Darren Murph (Engadget) Submitted at 4/2/2010 10:13:00 AM

Seiko's been doing the whole EInk wristwatch thing for years now, but the vast majority of 'em could really only be viewed when looking directly down onto the so-called dial. The appropriately named "Future Now" EPD watch aims to change all that, with an "active matrix" E-Ink display that allows for the same 180 degrees of visibility that you've come to

expect in the average LCD panel. The all-black watch made its debut at Basel World 2010, boasting a grand total of 80,000 pixels, each of which are capable of displaying four shades of grey. Seiko's also trumpeting the achievements in power reduction, though we aren't informed of exactly how long this thing can shuffle minutes away before needing a on past the break for a quick r e c h a r g e . E i t h e r w a y , w e look at exactly what we mean. couldn't be more anxious to see Continue reading Seiko's 'active this gem hit store shelves -- hop

matrix' E-Ink watch exemplifies awesome, might just be the future (video) Seiko's 'active matrix' E-Ink watch exemplifies awesome, might just be the future (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink E-InkInfo| Seiko Watches| Email this| Comments

The walking tragedy that is LiLo takes a turn for the cringeworthy. Charlie Sheen wants to quit his TV show. Michael Douglas laments his wilting libido. Tiger's kindergarten teacher has Gloria Allred on retainer and "feelings" to "express." TGIFriday gossip. More Âť

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Another Right-Wing Extremist Group Threatens US Government [Crazy White People]

iPad roundup: Letterman licking, Colbert chopping, MobileMe and Remote support Vladislav Savov (Engadget)

have spotted that iTunes 9.1 now references an "iPad remote," which suggests the Let's get straight to the meat. nearly 10-inch tablet will soon The iPad was doing the talk be able to function as one of the show rounds last night, with most luxurious channel changers heavy hitters David Letterman around. And you thought you and Stephen Colbert one-upping wouldn't find a use for it. each other on who can do the Continue reading iPad roundup: sillier thing with it. Letterman Letterman licking, Colbert went with the old school "if you c h o p p i n g , M o b i l e M e a n d don't know what to do with it, R e m o t e s u p p o r t lick it" routine, while his iPad roundup: Letterman competitor brought out a more licking, Colbert chopping, sophisticated salsa preparation MobileMe and Remote support act. Pick your favorite from the originally appeared on Engadget videos after the break. In more on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:03:00 material news, Apple has EST. Please see our terms for announced that MobileMe now use of feeds. Permalink TUAW, includes the iPad among its MacUser| Apple, MacStories| supported devices, while some Email this| Comments eager souls over at MacStories Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:03:00 AM

Defective graphene sheets look poised to succeed silicon Tim Stevens (Engadget)

of broken atomic rings wind up having metallic properties, thus Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:46:00 AM making them act like As circuitry gets smaller and microscopic wires. IBM is a p p r o a c h e s t h e e f f e c t i v e already teasing us with the limitation of silicon's computing possibilities of graphene and power, and Moore's Law begins now, with a more practical way to look like it has an expiration t o m a k e g r a p h e n e - b a s e d date, we get closer and closer to electronics, we'd say Moore's n e e d i n g a n a l t e r n a t i v e . Law still has at least another Graphene is held to be the couple decades left. answer; sheets of carbon a [Photo credit: Y. Lin] single atom thick that could be Defective graphene sheets look stacked and composited to p o i s e d t o s u c c e e d s i l i c o n c r e a t e p r o c e s s o r s . T w o originally appeared on Engadget professors at the University of on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:46:00 South Florida, Matthias Batzill EST. Please see our terms for and Ivan Oleynik, have found a u s e o f f e e d s . P e r m a l i n k | new way to turn those sheets Physorg| Email this| Comments into circuits by creating nanoscale defects. These strips

Jeff Neumann (Gawker) Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:00:46 AM

The FBI has sent warnings to police after a group called the Guardians of the Free Republics mailed letters to over 30 governors warning them to leave office within 3 days or the Guardians would remove them. [ AP] More Âť

Roundup: iPad Previews Around the Web Weldon Dodd (TheAppleBlog)

Well,ROUNDUP: unfortunately Apple page 49 got

Submitted at 4/1/2010 11:32:45 AM

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ROUNDUP: continued from page 48

my shipping address mixed up with David Pogue’s again and I did not get an iPad to review early. Fortunately, Pogue, Andy Ihnatko, Walt Mossberg and a lucky few others were able to talk about their experiences with the iPad starting today and there are several reviews across the web to whet your appetite for all things iPad. Here is an overview of all the lucky bums that were on Uncle Steve’s “good list” this year. New York Times David Pogue of the New York Times wrote his review from two angles: one for the Techie crowd, one for everyone else. Even if you feel you belong firmly in one camp or the other, it will be worth your time to read both parts of the article.“For most people, manipulating these digital materials directly by touching them is a completely new experience — and a deeply satisfying one.” Dislikes: The onscreen keyboard is a “horrible experience” and “barely usable” (Note: not everyone hates the onscreen keyboard). Chicago Sun-Times Andy Ihnatko covers technology for the Chicago SunTimes. One interesting bit from the end of his article is that he chose to cover tech instead of movies almost exactly 10 years

ago. He says the iPad proves he chose the more interesting topic. Andy also revealed his iPad live on TWiT and has also posted an unboxing video to YouTube.“In fact, after a week with the iPad, I’m suddenly wondering if any other company is as committed to invention as Apple.” Dislikes: The iPad is “not a replacement” for a computer. Wall Street Journal Walt Mossberg wrote his review for the Wall Street Journal and focused a bit of time discussing if the iPad could replace a laptop.“It’s qualitatively different, a whole new type of computer that, through a simple interface, can run more-sophisticated, PC-like software than a phone does, and whose large screen allows much more functionality when compared with a phone’s.” Dislikes: Limited email and web browser apps. Houston Chronicle Bob ” Dr. Mac” LeVitus writes for the Houston Chronicle and generally gushes over how great the iPad is.“Speaking of my wife, prior to our iPad’s arrival she said she didn’t understand why anyone would want or need an iPad. Now she just keeps saying, ‘No, you can’t have it back.’” Dislikes: Not much negative in the article, but he dislikes how

he can’t get it back from his wife. Time Magazine Stephen Fry wrote the cover feature for Time Magazine, an interview with Steve Jobs about the iPad and Apple. While the article holds back from criticizing anything Apple, I did find the quotes from Jobs and designer Jonathan Ives worth the read.“When I switch [the iPad] on, a little sigh escapes me as the screen lights up. Ten minutes later I am rolling on the floor, snarling and biting, trying to wrestle it from the hands of an Apple press representative” Dislikes: Hard to find anything, but here’s a stretch — “…with the release of the iPad, Apple is an overdog for the first time. The smell of backlash is in the air.” BoingBoing Xeni Jardin wrote a “first look” piece for BoingBoing that gives us some details on “The Elements” app that was preinstalled on all the review units. There is some good advice about JQuery performance on the iPad too.“ The Elements on iPad is not a game, not an app, not a TV show. It’s a book. But it’s Harry Potter’s book. This is the version you check out from the Hogwarts library. Everything in it is alive in some way.” Dislikes: Can’t imagine doing lots of heavy text input on the

iPad PC Mag Tim Gideon wrote a lengthy review for PC Mag. There’s lot of good details in here and some light testing with Exchange and other features that some will be interested to read.“The built-in speaker surprised me—not with its excellent quality, but with its ability to get fairly loud and not sound horrifyingly awful.” Dislikes: The iPad is an extra device that is not a full-fledged laptop. USA Today Edward C. Baig got a chance to write down his impressions for USA Today. His view is mostly favorable and the article covers the basics.“Apple expects more than 1,000 iPad-specific apps to be available at launch.” Dislikes: The video controls are buried in settings. More From Around the Web • Apple has put up a page of iPad ready web sites • ABCNews posted a video sneak peek of the iPad. • AppAdvice has a preview of the iPad App Store • Our own coverage at GigaOM Pro(sub req’d) Know of any others that we may have missed?

Spring Shopping: Seriously Chic Workwear ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 4/1/2010 12:21:00 PM

Monday to Friday dressing feels more like play than work with a few key foundation pieces. Start out with a sleek sheath, add a lightweight blazer, and top if off with some bold accessories. Here, a few of our work-appropriate favorites that effortlessly go from 9-5 to afterhours. Click here to shop the look. —Violet Moon Gayn or Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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Free CBS and ABC Shows Coming to the iPad Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 4/1/2010 7:46:37 AM

Companies are bending over backwards to get content onto the iPad, whether it’s by changing from Flash to HTML5 as the primary language for rich media content, or by rushing out iPad specific apps. Now ABC and CBS are taking it further still, with both planning to offer free streaming shows designed specifically to work with the platform. Both companies have different approaches, with CBS aiming to stream content via the iPad’s built-in browser, and ABC looking to provide its streaming content via a dedicated iPad application. The information comes via people briefed on the plans of the two companies speaking to the Wall Street Journal. CBS plans to have full episodes of Survivor online and ready to stream by Saturday on its CBS.com website. That’d be

great news eight years ago, but who still watches that reality fluff? In addition to full episodes of that one show, word is it will also have special previews of other shows like the terrific crime drama “The Mentalist” and popular comedy “How I Met Your Mother.” Despite the significant lack of content for Saturday, Neil Ashe, president of CBS Interactive, did make a statement promising that the iPad will have the same access as computer-based browsers over time. ABC’s app, on the other hand, will likely have a much larger library available at launch, including shows like “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives.” The app would stream shows along with advertisements, in the same way ABC.com currently does. It’s a way to avoid iTunes altogether, where sales are slack and Apple is trying to force a 99 -cent price point per episode to stimulate the market. More on iPad • Roundup: iPad Previews

Around the Web Mac Love • Rumor Has It: iPad to Launch Worldwide On April 24 Mac Love • University Tempts Students With Free iPads Mac Love • Why I’m Sticking With Amazon for My e-Books Mac Love As for the other major networks, NBC already offers streaming content to the iPhone and iPod touch through its mobile website, including full episodes of shows like “30

Rock” and “The Office.” Fox does not, but presumably Rupert Murdoch has some kind of paid solution in the works, since he is trying to wall off all News Corp. content behind pay walls. Interest in getting content on the iPad is strong, but it represents a monumental effort not just from content providers, but from the advertisers that make that content possible, as well. For years, the de facto format for online video has been Flash, and many advertisers work exclusively in that medium. To then convert existing or prepare new advertisements for the iPad platform, which doesn’t support Flash, will take time and money. The iPad’s success in the coming weeks will reveal whether or not the investment is worth it. Related iPad Content from GigaOM Pro(sub req’d)

Daimler pays $185m to settle bribery case (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 4/1/2010 2:58:29 PM

A US court gave the green light on Thursday for Daimler to pay $185m in penalties as part of a deal to settle bribery charges brought by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission against the German car and truck maker. The deal, first disclosed last week, also includes guilty pleas by Daimler’s German and Russian units to two counts of violating US anti-bribery laws. The Justice Department has agreed not to prosecute the carmaker’s Chinese subsidiary subject to fulfilment of various conditions. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Henin-Clijsters Duel Turns Into Big Dud Greg Couch (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/2/2010 1:00:00 AM

Filed under: WTA MIAMI -- I would like to say that this shows what champions Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters are. They played Thursday night in the

semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open, a match that could have been a classic. Instead, they were both terrible. You could make the case that they both were digging deep, the way champions do, even though they didn't have their best stuff.

I would argue that they were both choking, the way

champions don't. But in the end, it was 2 1/2 hours of terrible topped off by about 4 minutes of excitement, suspense, drama, thrill. In those 4 minutes, Clijsters had it, lost it, lucked through it -"There are no other words for

that," she said -- and finally won it, 6-2, 6-7 (7-3), 7-6 (8-6). She will play Venus Williams in the final on Saturday.

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I wonder about the Kindle

'Fringe' - 'Peter' Recap

(Scripting News)

Jane Boursaw (TV Squad)

Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:08:58 AM

In the background of all the hype about the iPad is the question about the future of Amazon's Kindle. But I wonder how much Amazon really cares about it. A few thoughts. 1. I own a Kindle, but I have no idea where it is. I've read a few books on it, marveled at my ability to carry a small library with me as I traveled, and then reverted to carrying a book. But I expect at some point someone will make a device that works better and I will stop carrying physical books. Maybe. But I still go to the movies, even though I can watch movies on my netbook. Who knows. Regardless, sorry, but I don't like the Kindle enough to travel with it. 2. Isn't Amazon making their money selling books? The Kindle sure looks like a lossleader to me. 3. Doesn't Amazon's software run on the iPhone? Doesn't it seem likely that they will port it to the iPad? I don't doubt that Amazon would choose to not sacrifice their healthy business

selling books to protect their healthy business selling hardware, but what about Apple? Given that Apple has rejected podcatchers because they conflict with functionality built into the iPhone -- maybe Apple won't be so open-minded about Amazon porting their

software to iPad? Maybe they want to be the exclusive distributor of books for the iPad? 4. Amazon is a funny company too -- their EC2 and S3 businesses must generate a lot of money and don't seem to have anything with being a store. So maybe Amazon has a reason to want to be in the Kindle business? With Amazon there's always a bit of mystery as to why they're doing what they do. It's just not as simple as some of the analysts seem to think. But I wouldn't bet against Amazon coming up with a new Kindle that's competitive with Apple's iPad. And I wouldn't bet against Apple being a major bottleneck and trying to keep competitors like Amazon off their platform. PS: I continue to hold Apple stock, the only tech company I am currently invested in. As I hope you can see, it does not in any way color my analysis. Probably should buy some Amazon too. I think both companies are great investments, even if I don't always like what they do to the ecosystem.

Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:22:00 AM

(S02E16) "Somewhere, Peter will grow up, somewhere he will lead a proper life, somewhere he will be happy, but just not here. And we must take comfort in this. We must begin to move on." - Walter to Elizabeth, watching alt-Peter through the window to the other universe I've said it before and I'll say it again: John Noble is a fantastic actor. With the flashback to 1985 in this episode, he completely morphed into a different Walter Bishop. And yet, you can see traces of the person that he is now, and because of all he's been through, you can understand how he got from there to here. But he wasn't the monster that I thought he might be, based on some of the things we've learned about him since 'Fringe' began. Instead, he was a loving and caring husband and father who was obsessed with finding a cure for his son. This episode has gotten a lot of

hype, and it didn't disappoint. While it did answer a few questions, it posed even more questions, which will make the rest of the season exceedingly entertaining and possibly heartbreaking. Continue reading'Fringe' 'Peter' Recap Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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It's Time For the New 'Doctor Who'

McHale vs. Seacrest April Fool's Edition

Brad Trechak (TV Squad)

Nick Zaino (TV Squad)

Submitted at 4/2/2010 9:02:00 AM

Submitted at 4/2/2010 10:00:00 AM

If you're a'Doctor Who' fan and you're not excited, then there is something wrong with you. Saturday brings the new season of the show on the BBC in England(either the fifth season or the 31st season depending on who you ask) with a new Doctor in the form of Matt Smith, a new companion in the form of Karen Gillan and a new showrunner in the form of Steven Moffat. For those that reside in the United States, there is a two week delay before the season premiere on BBC America on April 17th. If you have never watched the show before, then the introduction of a new Doctor is

The feud between Joel McHale and Ryan Seacrest heated up yesterday when the'Community' and'The Soup' star redesigned Seacrest's web site for April Fool's Day. The site was packed with McHale-related photos, an excellent place to start. audio clips, video clips, and Usually you find that the Doctor links. The'American Idol' banner you start with becomes "your" ads showed McHale's photo. Doctor. It's a wonderful cult that Even the Twitter link went to is far more interesting than McHale's account, where he Scientology, so please join. disclosed Seacrest's Twitter Continue reading It's Time For p a s s w o r d to be the New 'Doctor Who' "hairlesslittlechoirboybody." Filed under: Programming, According to Entertainment OpEd, Doctor Who, Reality- Weekly's Popwatch column, the Free site was crippled with traffic for P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | a portion of the day, but was Comments available later. McHale's Facebook update, shown on the right side of the site, asked readers to help crash the site

US economy adds 162,000 jobs in March (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:38:47 AM

The US economy created 162,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7 per cent, the government said on Friday, bolstering hopes that the economic recovery is gathering steam. Temporary hiring by the government for the census only accounted for some 48,000 new jobs in March, meaning the again and to keep visiting p r i v a t e s e c t o r h a s b e g u n Seacrest's Twitter account. churning out new positions. Continue reading McHale vs. Five Filters featured article: Seacrest - April Fool's Edition Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Filed under: American Idol, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Web, Celebrities, Community Term Extraction. Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Ohio State Buckeyes' Evan Turner is AP's Player of the Year Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:26:38 AM

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Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS -- Ohio State junior swingman Evan Turner is the runaway choice as The Associated Press' college basketball player of the year. Turner The 6-foot-7 Turner, who averaged 20.3 points, 9.2

rebounds and 5.9 assists, received 54 votes from the 65member national media panel. Turner missed six games after breaking bones in his back when he fell after a dunk in December. The Buckeyes went .500 without him and then went on to win the Big Ten championship after he returned.

He is the first Ohio State player to win the award since Gary Bradds in 1964. Jerry Lucas of the Buckeyes won it in 1961 and 1962. Kentucky freshman John Wall received nine votes, while Da'Sean Butler of West Virginia and Luke Harangody of Notre Dame each got one.

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Are the Huskies Too Good? (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 4/1/2010 8:44:29 AM

The generally agreed-upon best team in men’s college hoops didn’t make it out of the NCAA tournament’s first weekend, and only one of four top seeds sneaked into the Final Four. All in all, this installment of March Madness has been stark, raving mad enough that three 5-yearold triplets have a real shot at winning the Daily Fix online bracket contest. It’s been fun, at least for those of us who don’t get too frustrated when our brackets implode, but it has also been somewhat reassuring: As in years past, Duke will get the calls and Michigan State will teach a master class in grunty overachieving. This year’s tournament has offered proof that men’s college hoops still works. Associated Press Studies show the Connecticut Huskies laugh 35% more than any other NCAA players. On the women’s side, though, a fairly surprising NCAA tournament has increasingly felt like little more than the last leg on the way to one big anticlimax: the inexorable moment when Connecticut cuts down the nets. The Huskies have won 76 straight games, and their average regular-season margin of victory was an astonishing 34.8 points. Their average margin throughout the streak is 33.1 points. All you

can do is tip your cap to that sort of excellence. Well, tip your cap and maybe change the channel. In the Journal, Darren Everson wonders whether UConn’s greatness is good for the game of women’s hoops. “Setting aside the awesomeness of the feat and whether UConn’s blowouts make for good TV, the laughingly lopsided nature of its wins does raise a fair, if slightly awkward, question,” Everson writes. “Is this the greatest college team of all time, or is there something desperately wrong with women’s basketball?” It doesn’t help things that women’s basketball still struggles to get respect from certain corners of the sports world. For fans inclined to dismiss women’s basketball in the first place, UConn’s final scores –which resemble the Yankees playing in the Little League World Series — offer another reason not to watch. “Those who pay attention to the women’s game say it is better than it has ever been, that there are more good players and more good teams and more good coaches,” Ray Melick writes in the Birmingham News. “Unfortunately for those who do pay close attention, it’s hard for the rest of us to see any of that in the shadow cast by UConn.” In the Philadelphia Daily News, John Smallwood compares UConn’s dominance to “the old

outcome. Barcelona was dazzling in opening up its lead and Arsenal was equally dazzling in coming back. In a game that featured all kinds of drama, Arsenal forward Cesc Fabregas scored the equalizer with what is feared to Soviet Union hockey machine,” be a broken leg, and actually, which is as backhanded a maybe you should just read that c o m p l i m e n t a s a s p o r t s again. “Fabregas drove home columnist can deliver. the penalty, so powerfully that In USA Today, Mike Lopresti h e d i d f u r t h e r d a m a g e t o dismisses the idea that UConn’s himself, and collapsed on the greatness could be bad for turf,” the Telegraph’s Jason Burt anyone but the team tasked with writes. “What a price to pay. stopping the Huskies. “Should Maybe his World Cup is over, the Huskies run up a couple too.” more routs, someone else can Arsenal will have to win condemn them as plagues upon outright or draw with at least women’s basketball,” Lopresti two away goals at Camp Nou writes. “It is not boring to when they head to Barcelona to watch. Not if you like to see finish the Champions League creation of a legend. Best to home-and-home. That’s a tough appreciate a team like this while task even with Fabregas in the it is here. The game can take l i n e u p a n d m a y p r o v e care of itself.”* * * impossible without him. In the “Fast-kicking. Low-scoring. Independent, however, James And ties? You bet!” Those are Lawton warns fans not to count among the more devastating Arsenal’s gutty players out. “If criticisms leveled in this classic they came so close to being bit of soccer-mockery from discredited as serious rivals to “The Simpsons.” For some Barcelona in the matter of some American viewers, that last jibe of the game’s refinements, they still rings true. But perhaps they didn’t forget, at the crucial should try watching better ties. moment, how to fight,” Lawton Arsenal came back from two writes. “They may just be able goals down at home against to reinvent some of their Barcelona on Wednesday to skills.”* * * earn a 2-2 draw in a Champions Spring training is drawing to a League match that’s already close, which is why you’re being talked about as an instant reading all those exciting stories classic, despite that inconclusive about the competition for fifth

starter and pinch-hitter roles. But in Tucson, spring home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, spring training is closing for good. Tuesday marked the Diamondbacks’ last-ever spring training game in Tucson, and the former spring-training mecca is without a big-league team to call its own for the first time in 63 years. The Colorado Rockies will be leaving town after this spring, too. In the Arizona Daily Star, Greg Hansen ponders the decline of hardball in Tucson. “We can blame the demise of spring training baseball on a lot of people and a lot of things, but what’s the point?” Hansen writes. “It’s too late to undo the damage and build the downtown complex that would have helped to change the identity of this motionless city. It’s more realistic to say that baseball changed and we didn’t.” In an unfortunate and unfortunately predictable story elsewhere in the Daily Star, Andrea Kelly reports that the departures leave taxpayers stuck with a $22.7 million tab for an empty ballpark.* * * We don’t really get emotional about the best NFL kickers we’ve ever seen. This is in part because we barely notice the best kickers we’ve ever seen. Think of Jason Elam, who kicked brilliantly for the Denver ARE page 56

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NCAA concludes 96-team field would be best fit for expanded tournament Associated Press (ESPN.com) Submitted at 4/1/2010 6:41:06 PM

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Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA appears to be on the verge of expanding the men's basketball tournament to 96 teams. Insisting that nothing has been decided, NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen nonetheless outlined a detailed plan Thursday that included the logistics and timing of a 96team tournament, how much time off the players would have and even revenue distribution. Shaheen said the NCAA looked at keeping the current 65-team field and expanding to 68 or 80 teams, but decided the bigger bracket was best fit logistically and financially. It would be played during the same time frame as the current three-week tournament and include first-round byes for 32

teams. Although the plan still needs to be approved by the Division I Men's Basketball Committee and passed on to the board of directors, most of the details already seem to be in place. "We needed to make sure that we did everything possible to use the due diligence window to understand ourselves and understand what the future would hold," Shaheen said. "So that's what we're doing, that's the process we're undertaking. We've been handling it every day for the last several months and years, as we studied for the benefit of the organization." The men's tournament last expanded in 2001, adding one team to the 64-team field that was set in 1985. The 96-team tournament would likely envelop the 32-team NIT, though Shaheen said no decision has been made on what to do with the NCAA's other, independently operated seasonending tournament. The new format would start two days later than the current 65team field because it would eliminate the Tuesday play-in game and would conclude on

the same day, a Monday. It would be played at one fewer venue -- again, the play-in game -- and the NCAA says it would include no additional travel time for teams. The first-round games for the 64 non-bye teams would take place on Thursday and Friday, with the winners playing the top eight seeds in each region on Saturday and Sunday. Winners on Saturday would likely play again on Tuesday, and the Sunday winners on Wednesday. Those winners would then move on to the regionals, playing alternate days starting on Thursday. Shaheen said the NCAA hasn't decided on whether to keep the same sites for second and first-round games or to make the midweek sites the same as the regionals. He also said the amount of time student-athletes would be out of school would be roughly the same as the current model, but teams that play in the opening round and keep winning would actually be out an entire week of school instead of just a few days. "On a 96-team basis -- vs. the current 97 teams that the NCAA

conducts through the championship and the NIT, for example -- you have, on a sideby-side basis, a reduction in the travel time," Shaheen said. Adding teams to the NCAA tournament could create some monumentally lopsided games, or seeds in the 30s and 90s playing each other. There might be less importance on the regular season and conference tournaments; the resume wouldn't need to be padded so much if more teams get in. "I don't see any watering down at all," Minnesota coach Tubby Smith said. "I think there are a number of teams playing in the NIT that could have gotten in, and I think there will be more people and more excitement with more teams in." Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said he would like to see regular -season and conference tournament champions get automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. "The regular season would mean something," he said. "There would still be bubble teams and all that, but we would reward those teams accordingly. And I would still like the conference

tournament champions. They make a lot of money and celebrate each conference. I think it's a way of each conference celebrating their conference, which is a good thing." Any plans to expand the tournament hinge on the NCAA's $6 billion television deal with CBS. The 11-year deal, signed in 1999, has a mutual opt-out until July 31. The NCAA has already spoken with numerous networks about expansion, so the opt-out is at least on the table, and adding 32 more teams is certainly going to bring in more revenue. The proposal is strictly for the men's tournament. Another NCAA committee is looking at whether to expand the women's tournament or keep it in the current format. Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Cleveland Browns tackle Shaun Rogers arrested after trying to gun on airplane Associated Press (ESPN.com)

said Rogers was being held in the city's jail Thursday night. No charges have been filed yet, Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:57:38 AM police said, though the 31-yearold Rogers could face federal • Email fines for carrying the firearm. • Print It's not yet clear what Rogers, • Comments who lives in Houston during the • Share offseason, told officials about • the gun or whether he has a permit for it. It's also unclear Associated Press whether he was traveling with CLEVELAND -- Cleveland anyone. Browns nose tackle Shaun Browns president Mike Rogers was arrested Thursday at Holmgren issued a statement Hopkins International Airport saying the team was aware of after a loaded gun was found in Rogers' arrest. his carry-on luggage. "We will continue to gather Rogers, who had been at the additional information, and until team's suburban training facility the legal process has taken its in recent days taking part in a course, we will reserve any voluntary offseason program, further comment," the statement was stopped at a security said. checkpoint on Concourse C A message seeking comment when officials spotted a loaded was left with Rogers' agent, .45-caliber handgun in his bag, Kennard McGuire. police said in a statement. Beyond his legal problems, He was arrested at 12:15 p.m. Rogers, arguably the Browns' "without incident," transferred best player, will likely face to a downtown processing l e a g u e p e n a l t i e s i f i t i s center and booked for carrying a determined he violated the concealed weapon, a third- NFL's player-conduct policy. degree felony. A three-time Pro Bowler who Sgt. Sammy Morris of the has played two seasons with the Cleveland Police Department B r o w n s , R o g e r s m i s s e d

Cleveland's final five games last season after breaking his leg on Nov. 29 against Cincinnati. He was acquired by the Browns in 2008 in a trade with Detroit for cornerback Leigh Bodden and a third-round draft pick. Rogers came to the Browns with a spotty reputation. He was suspended for four games in 2006 for taking a banned substance to control his weight. In 2007, an exotic dancer claimed he inappropriately touched her at a club in Detroit, but an investigation cleared him. The Lions also had issues with Rogers' weight and his commitment. Rogers made the Pro Bowl in his first season with Cleveland, recording 4½ sacks and 81 tackles in 16 games. Blessed with amazing quickness for a man his size, Rogers has also excelled in blocking field goals and extra points. Before getting hurt last season, Rogers blocked one field goal -- the 13th of his career -- and two extra points. Rogers and Browns coach Eric Mangini got off to a rough start before last season. Rogers had felt slighted when Mangini, weeks after being hired by

Cleveland, did not acknowledge him at an awards banquet at a downtown hotel. Rogers reportedly asked to be traded, but the two met and patched up any differences and Mangini often praised Rogers, known to his teammates as "Big Baby," for his leadership last season. Rogers' arrest is just the latest incident involving high-profile athletes and guns. Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas was recently sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house for bringing guns into his team's locker room; New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress is serving two years after pleading guilty to a weapons charge; and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Delonte West is facing weapons possession charges after he was arrested in Maryland. Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Street Chic: New York ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 4/2/2010 4:00:00 AM

Show your lighter side (like Doutzen) in pretty pastels and bleached denim. Photo: Kelly Stuart Think you are Street Chic? Email us your photo and you could appear in ELLE.com's Street Chic Daily. Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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Police: Probe into Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Santonio Holmes 'reactivated' ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:57:32 AM

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ESPN.com news services The Florida college student who has accused Steelers receiver Santonio Holmes of throwing a glass at her and causing a minor laceration to her face will cooperate with police after all. Orlando police Sgt. Barbara Jones told the Pittsburgh PostGazette in an e-mail that the case regarding Holmes and the 21-year-old woman, Anshonae Mills, has been reopened. "Ms. Mills came to the Orlando Police Department yesterday and wants to prosecute, and the case has been reactivated," Jones wrote Thursday. Holmes' attorney maintained Thursday his client had not assaulted Mills, the Post-Gazette reported, and said a private investigator was working to help

ARE continued from page 53

Broncos and Atlanta Falcons for 17 years and retired Wednesday. If you have a memory of Elam at all, it is probably of him booting a businesslike 42-yard field goal, or of selecting him in on their defense of the case. attempt to get our client to move the second-to-last round of some " W e a d a m a n t l y d e n y h e r from the area, which he claimed f a n t a s y d r a f t a n d n e v e r allegations in that complaint," was his," Cooper said. regretting it. Elam, for his part, A d a m B . S w i c k l e s a i d , Mills had a quarter-inch is in good health, is married to a according to the report. "We do abrasion above her right eye but former Broncos cheerleader and plan on contesting everything." refused medical attention, is the co-author of preposterous Swickle told the newspaper he according to a police report. football-related spy thrillers was unaware of any criminal After both Mills and Holmes with names like “Monday Night investigation. w e r e e s c o r t e d o u t o f t h e Jihad.” As tragic football Holmes denied to the police nightclub, Mills asked the police narratives go, Elam’s is not that he hurt Mills and claimed officer if she could speak to exactly Gale Sayers’s body another woman hit her with the Holmes alone, the police report giving out in his late 20s. glass. said. Despite the absence of outsize Holmes told an Orlando police Holmes agreed to speak with NFL-style dramatics, though, officer that Mills grabbed his her and they walked several feet E l a m e n j o y e d a p r e t t y wrist, got in his face and called away. The police officer saw remarkable NFL career. How him a racial name after he asked Mills smiling and rubbing remarkable? “Jason Elam was for his seat back in the VIP Holmes' face, according to the so good for so long, he became section of Club Rain earlier this police report. the rare kicker who had a month. A short time later, Mills told retirement press conference,” Mills told a different story in a the police officer that she didn't Mike Klis writes in the Denver civil lawsuit she filed last week want to press charges, the police Post.* * * against 26-year-old Holmes. In report said. In the lawsuit, Mills It’s tough to say whether the lawsuit, she claimed that the claimed Holmes and a police anyone would believe that Sidd Super Bowl MVP got in her officer intimidated Mills so she Finch could exist in 2010. It was face and then hit her with the wouldn't press charges. a different story 25 April Fool’s glass after she refused to give up Information from The Days ago, when George her seat. Associated Press was used in Plimpton’s legendary profile of In the nightclub, Holmes told this report. Mills to get up and move, said Five Filters featured article: Jacques Cooper, the woman's Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: attorney. PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, "When she refused, Mr. Holmes Term Extraction. began to get more belligerent and more aggressive in an

the fictitious yogi/pitching prospect ran in Sports Illustrated. There are many reasons people would be skeptical of Finch’s sudden emergence today. All the ballplayers quoted in Plimpton’s story sound a lot less like backup catchers than like Plimpton, for one thing. A modern-day Sidd Finch also would have to explain his absence from John Sickels’s Top 900 prospect rankings and deal with the Mets’ ill-advised attempts to convert him into a setup guy. But even as a relic of a more innocent time in baseball, Plimpton’s portrait of the fireballing yoga enthusiast remains pretty excellent, and well worth an April Fool’s read. 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.

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The Count: Stanford Could Challenge UConn Women

Flyers Lack Confidence In Islanders Loss

(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

Christopher Botta (FanHouse Main)

second half after establishing leads of at least 14 points at halftime, including a 39-7 lead Yes, UConn set a women’s on Cincinnati.) Stanford also NCAA tournament record for was one of just 10 teams last Elite Eight margin of victory by season to keep UConn’s margin routing Florida State, 90-50, on of victory below 20 points. Tuesday for its record 76th It’s unclear whether Stanford straight win. Yes, UConn is so games by UConn-like scores, will gain any benefit from good that its dominance is with double-digit margins in 33 having played UConn earlier raising questions about the of them. Stanford is ranked this season. Florida State lost by health of the women’s game. second in the polls and in 19 in December but by 40 in the No, that doesn’t mean the RealTimeRPI’s team power t o u r n a m e n t . U C o n n a l s o Huskies have clinched the title. ratings, which take into account widened its victory margin over That’s because the last team to strength of schedule and victory Syracuse the second time they beat them, and the only team to margin. The gap between the met. But UConn saw its victory get within 12 points this season, two teams is small, comparable margin narrow in rematches Stanford, is one win away from to Butler’s edge over Michigan with West Virginia and Notre the national championship State in the men’s Final Four. Dame in the Big East That December game also tournament. Of the four teams to game, where the Cardinal would face the Huskies if they beat marked the only time UConn play UConn more than once last B a y l o r . A s s o c i a t e d P r e s s has been outscored in either the year, three did better in their last Stanford might give UConn the first or second half this season game. challenge that Florida State — Stanford was up two at UConn remains a sure favorite h a l f t i m e t h e o n l y t i m e if it advances to a final against couldn’t. Besides for that 80-68 loss to throughout the entire 76-game Stanford — or, for that matter, UConn in December, Stanford streak that UConn trailed at Stanford’s semifinal opponent, has been perfect this season. halftime. (Four times last season Oklahoma. But Stanford will And it has won its other 35 UConn was outscored in the have a fighting chance. Submitted at 4/1/2010 11:37:28 AM

Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:02:00 PM

Filed under: Flyers, Islanders The Philadelphia Flyers say they believe in their goalie of last resort, Brian Boucher. After dropping a 6-4 dud to the lastplace Islanders on Thursday, the bigger question is whether they believe in each other. This one was a Phriggin' disaster. Facing a team they had beaten 15 times in a row, the Flyers were down 3-0 to the Islanders less than eight minutes into the game. Islanders rookie John Tavares set up Blake Comeau for the first two goals, both deflected by Flyers. Frans Nielsen made it 3-0 at 7:45 of the first period. "The first goal was off a stick, the second off a skate," said Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette. "No excuses. That's how goals are scored sometimes. We've got to dig in." The Flyers never did until the game was out of reach. Boucher

was not the villain, but a victim. Out of the gate the Flyers looked disorganized, uninspired, even tired for a team that had not played since an impressive 5 -1 victory over New Jersey on Sunday. The six goals by the Islanders were the most they had scored in one game against the Flyers since a 6-1 win on Jan. 28, 1998. "We should have been the wellrested and energized team after having three nights off," said defenseman Chris Pronger. "We needed to match the Islanders' desire and we didn't. Our inconsistency came into play again."

Levis’ Updated Take on ‘80s Acid Wash ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 4/1/2010 1:40:00 PM

Levi's has the whole iconic-allAmerican-cool thing down to a

science. Last night, at their fall 2010 presentation, the 157-yearold brand proved they've also cornered the market on slyly sexy downtown chic. As a diehard 501 fan, I was surprised to

fall for a dark acid-wash skinny

jean (pictured left). The style, —Violet Moon Gayn or which looks surprisingly un- Photo: Courtesy of Levi's ‘80s, is the perfect day-to-night Follow ELLE on Twitter. denim for fall. Become our Facebook fan! Click here to shop the spring collection.

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Browns' Shaun Rogers Arrested for Loaded Gun in Luggage FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:45:00 PM

Hapless Thrashers Miss Another Chance to Advance in Playoff Quest A.J. Perez (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:36:00 PM

Filed under: Capitals, Thrashers WASHINGTON --- The Atlanta Thrashers turned April Fool's Day into "Groundhog Day." "We did it to ourselves again," winger Colby Armstrong said minutes after the Thrashers fell 2-1 to the Washington Capitals on Thursday night. "We couldn't get a win to get back into it. It's frustrating. It's been that same way for the last few weeks." Losses by the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins-- who along with the idle Montreal Canadiens entered the night with 82 points -- cleared the

way for the Thrashers to pull even in the race for one of the final three spots in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Once again, however, the Thrashers failed to capitalize. Matt Bradley, a player not normally known for his stickhandling ability, was allowed to roam free from behind Atlanta's net and slip the puck under goalie Ondrej Pavelec midway through the third period. Veteran defenseman Chris Chelios, who the Thrashers signed as a free agent before the trading deadline, took responsibility for the "miscommunication" on the game-winner.

Israel mounts Gaza Strip missile attacks (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 4/2/2010 4:01:02 AM

Israeli warplanes have launched at least seven strikes on the Filed under: Browns, NFL Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip Police Blotter CLEVELAND on Thursday night, capping (AP) -- Cleveland Browns nose weeks of escalating tensions and tackle Shaun Rogers was violence between Israel and arrested Thursday at Hopkins Palestinian militants based in International Airport for having the coastal territory. a loaded gun in his carry-on The Israeli military said the air luggage. strikes were a response to the Rogers, who had been at the firing of a rocket from Gaza on team's suburban training facility concealed weapon, a thirdThursday, and came against the in recent days taking part in a degree felony. backdrop of an overall rise in voluntary off-season program, Sgt. Sammy Morris of the such attacks in recent weeks. was stopped at a security Cleveland Police Department Last month, a rocket killed a checkpoint on Concourse C said Rogers was still being held Thai man working on a farm when officials spotted a loaded in the city's jail Thursday night. just north of the territory, the .45-caliber hand gun in his bag, No charges have been filed at first fatal attack from Gaza since this time, police said, although police said in a statement. the end of IsraelÂ´s three-week He was arrested at 12:15 p.m. the 31-year-old Rogers could military offensive early last "without incident," transferred face federal fines for carrying year. the firearm. to a downtown processing Five Filters featured article: center and booked for carrying a Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Hands-on: Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA) Kevin Kelly (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/2/2010 8:00:00 AM

Click to barnstorm into the gallery, and watch out for The Red Baron! First of all, this is not an April Fool's joke. Remember how passionate the Joystiq team got about Torchlight last year? That's how I'm feeling about Snoopy Flying Ace. There are two reasons for this: 1) the gameplay is a direct descendant of C rimson Skies, right down to the customizable weapons on your planes, and 2) you get to shoot down Lucy Van Pelt. It's payback for all those years of

her yanking the football away from Charlie Brown at the last second. Charles Schulz might be spinning in his grave over this game, but points one and two combine into joyous gameplay with the lovable Peanuts gang that you've grown up with. Joystiq showed off the trailer for this almost two years ago, but now I've finally gotten my hands on the flight stick. Which also means I got to fly around as Snoopy in the seat of his faithful Sopwith Camel -- another childhood dream fulfilled. According to Clark Stacy from developer Smart Bomb Interactive, "It is, we maintain,

the most detailed and realistic World War I simulation ever created; capturing every nuance of what it was like to be a dog flying a biplane over the skies of

Europe in 1917. Consideration for the Nobel Prize for Literature has been bandied around the game with growing seriousness, and we are in talks

concerning a possible film adaptation starring Uma Thurman as Snoopy." That's more of an adult dream, yet to be fulfilled. Read on to find out why you're going to pick up this XBLA title later this year. Gallery: Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA) Continue reading Hands-on: Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA) Hands-on: Snoopy Flying Ace (XBLA) originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Report: Sega Studios San Francisco shutting down Griffin McElroy (Joystiq)

will be shutting down, possibly as soon as this evening. Submitted at 4/2/2010 9:35:00 AM According to 1UP, a memo According to a report by Sega about the closure began to Nerds, which 1UP later claimed circulate through the company to confirm via an anonymous yesterday -- meaning it could insider at the company, Sega just be the most tasteless April Studios San Francisco, creators Fools' Day joke in the history of of Iron Man, Golden Axe: Beast mankind. Rider and the Xbox port of Both 1UP and Sega Nerds Karaoke Revolution(which was report that Sega Studios San developed under the studio's Fran's current project, Iron Man original moniker, Secret Level), 2, has been completed, so a

studio shutdown wouldn't derail the title's May 4 release date. It might, however, derail the studios' employees' enjoyment

of this Easter weekend. If the report turns out to be accurate, we wish everyone at Sega Studios San Francisco the best

of luck in finding new means of employment. Report: Sega Studios San Francisco shutting down originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Global manufacturing fuels recovery (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 4/1/2010 7:54:30 AM

The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s factories are

fuelling the global economic recovery, with new figures showing that manufacturing output in the US, China and Europe is growing at a record

rate. In the US, Institute of Supply Management data revealed that factory output grew for the eighth month running in March,

accelerating at its fastest pace Term Extraction. since July 2004. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS,

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Announcing FlickrPad!

Splinter Cell PC delay attributed to polish, not DRM

Rock Band Weekly: Anberlin, Hawk Nelson, Skillet, Superchick, Switchfoot & Thousand Foot Krutch

Cris Stoddard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 4/1/2010 10:05:39 AM

We are pleased to introduce a revolutionary new device from the clever minds at FlickrLabs: Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq) Continue reading Rock Band FlickrPad! Photo sharing just became Weekly: Anberlin, Hawk Submitted at 4/2/2010 10:33:00 AM easier, faster, and more better Nelson, Skillet, Superchick, JC Fletcher (Joystiq) told Eurogamer. "The slip has Next week's Rock Band DLC Switchfoot & Thousand Foot than ever with our new mobile not been linked to the DRM." f e a t u r e s a m i x o f b a n d s . Krutch Submitted at 4/2/2010 9:59:00 AM device: the FlickrPad, a device While the DRM isn't the reason Although music afficionados Rock Band Weekly: Anberlin, designed for the 21st Century! The PC version of Splinter you'll be waiting to play the PC may recognize several of the Hawk Nelson, Skillet, Engineered to exacting Cell: Conviction will arrive on v e r s i o n o f S p l i n t e r C e l l : tracks, the only one that jumps Superchick, Switchfoot & specifications by our crack April 27, two weeks after the Conviction for most of April, it out at us is Switchfoot's "Meant T h o u s a n d F o o t K r u t c h research and development team, Xbox 360 version. You might could very well be the reason to Live" ... and the only reason originally appeared on Joystiq this hallmark product is the best have assumed that the extra time you won't be able to play the for that is because it's on the on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:33:00 thing since a box full of donuts. was required to implement game once it's been released. S p i d e r - M a n 2 s o u n d t r a c k . EST. Please see our terms for Pre-order the FlickrPad now to Ubisoft's over protective DRM, S p l i n t e r C e l l P C d e l a y (Gawd, we are such nerds.) use of feeds. get our free Flickreeno games which requires a constant attributed to polish, not DRM All of next week's tracks will Read| Permalink| Email this| package, which includes singleinternet connection to play a originally appeared on Joystiq also be available in Lego Rock and multi-player games for Comments game, but according to Ubisoft, on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:59:00 Band. Check out the full release Faceball, Missile Wars, and that's not the case. EST. Please see our terms for list after the break. Paper Plate Toss. "The reason that has been given use of feeds. Pssstâ&#x20AC;Ś. For those who prefer for the delay is that the extra Read| Permalink| Email this| Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iPad, we have a real time was need to polish and Comments announcement over here! debug the game," a Ubisoft rep Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Accessories News: Dior Fine Jewelry NFP: +162k ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs)

Collier “Précieuses Rose” White gold, diamonds, Submitted at 4/1/2010 1:04:55 PM emeralds, pink sapphires Dior Joallerie unveiled its latest Price Available Upon Request high jewelry collection by Available at Dior Boutiques creative director, Victoire 1.800.929.DIOR Castellane, at the Dior Atelier Dior Joaillerie during Paris Fashion Week in Bague "Rose Dior Pré Catelan" March. The collection called petit modèle 'Bois de Rose' is inspired by Pink gold, diamond, pink quartz both Victoire's love of the $6,000 fairytale Sleeping Beauty, and, Available at Dior Boutiques by Christian Dior's fabled love 1.800.929.DIOR of flowers and gardening. The Dior Joaillerie collection consists of single Créoles “Bois de Rose” band rings and hoop earrings in Yellow gold a literally rendered thorn motif, $3,500 as well as oversized floral rings Available at Dior Boutiques in colored pavés. The thorn 1.800.929.DIOR pieces are available in three Dior Joaillerie options of gold: yellow, white, Bague “Bois de Rose” and rose, and come with or Yellow gold, diamonds without diamonds. We love the $4,600 idea of the bands stacked in a tri Available at Dior Boutiques -gold format, we also love the 1.800.929.DIOR idea of Dior fine jewelry at a Clockwise: price point: The solid gold Dior Joaillerie versions of the thorn retail for Bague "Rose Dior Bagatelle" under $1000. The collection White gold, diamonds and pink delivers to Dior Boutiques this sapphires Price Available Upon Request June. Available at Dior Boutiques Dior Joaillerie

1.800.929.DIOR Dior Joaillerie Bague "Rose Dior Bagatelle" petit modèle Pink gold and fancy pink diamonds Price Available Upon Request Available at Dior Boutiques 1.800.929.DIOR Dior Joaillerie Bague "Rose Dior Bagatelle" petit modèle White gold and diamonds Price Available Upon Request Available at Dior Boutiques 1.800.929.DIOR Dior Joaillerie Bague "Rose Dior Bagatelle" petit modèle Yellow gold and fancy yellow diamonds Price Available Upon Request Available at Dior Boutiques 1.800.929.DIOR Dior Joaillerie Boucles d'oreilles "Rose Dior Bagatelle" petit modèle, White gold and diamonds Price Available Upon Request Available at Dior Boutiques 1.800.929.DIOR

Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture)

million. (bad) • 44.1 percent of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:37:49 AM weeks +. (Also very bad) NFP Release: • Involuntary part-time workers Nonfarm payroll employment increased to 9.1 million in increased by 162,000 in March, March. (This remains a stubborn and the unemployment problem area) rate held at 9.7 percent, the U.S. Positives Bureau of Labor Statistics • +162k is the best report since reported today. Temporary help March, 2007. s e r v i c e s a n d h e a l t h c a r e • Average workweek was up by continued to add jobs over the 0.1 hour to 34.0 hours in March. month. Employment in federal • Temp help services added government also rose, reflecting 40,000 jobs in March. That’s a the hiring of temporary workers cumulative add of 313k since for Census 2010. Employment September 2009. continued to decline in financial • Census added “only” 48,000 activities and in information. workers — far below the 100Let’s break down the highlights 150k consensus. This pushes into the good and bad: their hiring out into the rest of Negatives the year. • Average Hourly Earnings of • C i v i l i a n L a b o r F o r c e all employees NFP fell by 2 Participation Rate at 64.9% cents, or 0.1%. edged up in March • U n e m p l o y m e n t r a t e i s • Manufacturing continued to u n c h a n g e d a t 9 . 7 % ( n o trend up (+17,000); Mfr added i m p r o v e m e n t t h i s m o n t h ) 45,000 jobs in Q1. • U 6 U n e m p l o y m e n t , t h e • Revisions: January 2010 data broadest measure, rose to 16.9% was revised upwards 40k (from–that’s off of the December 26k to +14k); February was 2009 peak of 17.3, but higher revised up 22k (from -36k to than January (16.5%) and 14k). February (16.8%) of 2010. Five Filters featured article: • L o n g - t e r m u n e m p l o y e d Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: ( j o b l e s s f o r 2 7 w e e k s + ) PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, increased by 414,000 to 6.5 Term Extraction.

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This week's top stories [02 April 2010] (The Economist: News analysis)

the long day, Joe Barton, a House Republican from Texas, even declared that he had never Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:00:32 AM seen “so many members of the America's health reform Barack House and Senate behave so Obama’s bipartisan summit on well for so long before so many health policy accomplishes more television cameras.” than meets the eye From the Republican point of Feb 26th 2010 | NEW YORK | view, the event accomplished From The Economist online two important things. First, Mr IT IS tempting to dismiss the Obama was unable to outwit and bipartisan health-reform summit outcharm them on camera, as he convened by Barack Obama on had done brilliantly during a Thursday February 25th as a televised exchange with House colossal waste of time. After all, Republicans in late January. the gabfest involving senior Mitch McConnell and John Congressional leaders from both B o e h n e r , t h e i r s t r i d e n t l y parties lasted well over six partisan leaders in the Senate hours, with no tangible results. and the House, wisely allowed Neither side moved one jot on other Republicans —more any issue of substance and not charismatic and competent, it one vote is likely to have must be noted—to do most of changed on either side as a the talking. That allowed them result of the summit. to say no to Mr Obama’s plans And yet, the televised gathering without appearing, as is often was not pointless. For one thing, t h e a c c u s a t i o n w i t h the sight of America’s leading Republicans, merely the “Party politicians sitting together of No”. Mr McConnell even amiably for an entire day to admitted afterwards that “I d i s c u s s a m a t t e r a s would not call it a waste of inflammatory as health reform time.” (think “death panels”) was itself The event went less well for Mr heartening. Surprisingly, given O b a m a . A f t e r a y e a r o f the bitter partisan wrangling of dithering, he unveiled his own late, they did so in a manner that grand plan for reforming health w a s m o s t l y c i v i l a n d care on the eve of the summit. substantive. Towards the end of This scheme closely resembles a

health-reform bill passed by the Senate just before Christmas (the House passed a substantially different version earlier, and the two bills now need to be reconciled into a final health law). The big question before the summit was whether Mr Obama would really be open to modifying his plan to embrace Republican ideas, or whether the event was merely a sham. In the event, Mr Obama appeared to make some progress on bipartisanship. He listened intently to Republican ideas—except the oft-repeated one to scrap Democratic efforts and just “start over”—and was often seen scribbling notes. At the end of the summit, he reviewed a number of areas where he believed the two parties had similar goals, and he asked the Republicans to think of ways to bridge the divide on them. Among those ripe for cooperation, he declared, were tort reform, inter-state competition in health insurance, the creation of insurance exchanges and tackling fraud in Medicare (a government health scheme for the elderly). This is not likely to herald the start of a new, incremental and

heart-warmingly bipartisan approach to health reform, however. For one thing, Republicans made it clear that they are not willing to do anything to help Mr Obama pass health reform quickly. Mr Obama, for his part, made plain that he was willing to entertain Republican notions only as addons to his existing bill, not as an entirely new approach. Rumours swirled during the summit that if Mr Obama’s big plan (which aims to extend health insurance to some 30m uninsured punters) fails to pass, he may then put forward a less ambitious scheme covering only half that number. But Kathleen Sebelius, the administration’s health secretary, denied this after the summit. Mr Obama himself rejected the incremental approach. He insisted, with some justification, that “baby steps” will not work because the pieces of the health-reform puzzle are tightly interlinked. If so, that leaves Mr Obama with only one course of action: to push through some version of his health plan without Republican votes. It will be very difficult with only Democratic votes, given that moderates and progressives in his own caucus

have misgivings. Ramming a sweeping health law through Congress on a highly partisan basis using procedural wheezes, Republicans repeatedly warned, will prove unpopular. Despite those obstacles, though, Mr Obama now seems ready for battle. That points to the biggest reason to think the summit was not a waste of time: it made clear that Mr Obama, after months of sitting on the sidelines, now has steel in his spine. If Republicans do not come up with a reasonable set of compromise measures over the next few weeks to add to his plan, he says that he intends to forge ahead anyway. The final verdict, he insisted, will come from the voters: “We’ve got to go ahead and make some decisions, and then that’s what elections are for.” Readers' comments Readers have commented on this article (the window for new comments is now closed). Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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State Tax Receipts Rebound Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture)

years the figure is expected to grow, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:00:19 AM Economy.com, You may have missed this California took in 3.9 percent Bloomberg report yesterday: more since December than “The two-year slide in tax projected in January, Controller collections that opened a $196 John Chiang said this month. billion gap in U.S. state budgets New York got $129 million has stopped, easing pressure on above forecasts in its budget credit ratings and giving leeway y e a r t h r o u g h F e b r u a r y , to lawmakers as they craft according to a report from spending plans for next year. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The 15 largest states by In New Jersey, the secondpopulation forecast a 3.9 percent wealthiest state per capita, gain in tax revenue in fiscal January sales-tax collections 2011, budget documents show. were 1.9 percent higher than a The 50 states on average may year earlier, the first annual increase collections by about 3.5 i n c r e a s e i n 1 9 m o n t h s , percent, the first time in two forecasters said in a report last

month.” This is yet another sign of a gradual, modest recovery taking hold. > Source: Tax Receipts Rebound as 15 Biggest States See Gain Dunstan McNichol Bloomberg, March 30 2010 http://www.bloomberg.com/app s/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a KBVswcpwXBE Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Bloomberg Radio/TV Interview Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) Submitted at 4/2/2010 7:30:12 AM

Barry Ritholtz Says Fusioniq Is `Long’ Citigroup Stock: Video Bloomberg, April 1 2010

Dow 12 Month Rate-ofChange Sends Warning Signal Michael Panzner (The Big Picture) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:30:19 AM

I did a Bloomberg Radio interview yesterday (that was also simulcast on Bloomberg TV): 00:00 U.S. economy, equities, job market 07:12 Investor sentiment; > click for video banking stocks, Citigroup > 12:36 Airline industry, strategy Source: for equities

http://www.bloomberg.com/app s/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a 4B9eXgiKO.U Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Based on data going back 90 years, whenever the 12-month rate of change (ROC) in the Dow Jones Industrials Average has exceeded 40 percent, it has generally signaled trouble ahead. In three cases, a 12-month ROC above that level has only marked a short-term pause, after which the market traded higher. But on 11 other occasions,

similarly rapid advances have been followed by notable corrections, including the collapses that followed the 1929 and dot-com era peaks, as well as the 1987 crash. Given those odds, increasingly exuberant bulls might want to have a rethink. > click for larger chart Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Media/

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Research Brief: Radio Poised for Slow, Steady Growth (MediaPost | Media News)

radio groups... begin to integrate 2009 cross-platform promotions with 13.3 t h e i r b r o a d c a s t a n d w e b 0.4 According to the BIA/Kelsey o p e r a t i o n s . " 13.7 Investing In Radio Market 2009 saw a continued slow 2010 Report, 2009 closed with $13.7 pace in station transactions, with 13.5 billion in revenues for radio only $400 million in total value 0.5 from broadcast and online of radio stations that were sold. 13.9 sources, a decline of -18.4% The pace of acquisitions should 2011 f r o m 2 0 0 8 . T h e c o m p a n y increase in 2010 as operators 13.7 predicts, though, that industry will be attempting to get 0.5 revenues will hit $13.9 billion additional properties that offer 14.3 this year, an increase of 1.5%. efficiencies of scale to their 2012 More importantly, says the operations. 14.1 report, it represents the start of 2 BIA/Kelsey's five-year forecast 0.6 to 4% annual growth rate over for the radio industry looks like 14.7 the next few years, including a this: 2013 predicted 16.5% compound Five Year R a d i o 14.6 growth rate from web and other Forecast(Revenues in U.S. 0.7 online revenues. Billion $) 15.3 Mark R. Fratrik, Ph.D., Vice Year 2014 President, BIA/Kelsey, notes Broadcast Revenues (Bil$) 15.1 that "... radio is coming back... Online Revenues (Bil$) 0.8 (as) an important advertising Total 16.0 vehicle, particularly in local 2008 Source: BIA/Kelsey, March media markets... the industry $16.5 2010 will continue to grow its online 0.3 This slightly optimistic forecast revenues... as more progressive 16.8 still relies on its ability to Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:15:47 AM

embrace maturing mobile and online vehicles and learning how to coexist with new and developing technologies. Rick Ducey, chief strategy officer of BIA/Kelsey, concludes "... a very transformative year for radio broadcasters... If they can find and maintain compelling niches in the local media ecosystem they will... increase their audiences... (and) their revenues. More information about this report, and additional sources noted for radio reference publications as well as company blogs may be accessed through this site. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Around the Net In Media: Hulu May Adopt Subscription Model (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 4/1/2010 9:10:36 PM

Hulu, a joint venture of NBC, News Corp and Disney, is coming under pressure from the companies that supply its content. They want Hulu to earn more ad dollars and set up a subscription service, asking consumers to pay a monthly fee to watch some of the shows on the site. The site says it is open to the idea, which may be tested via the iPad app. Hulu's 200 content suppliers, some big and some small, receive 50% to 70% of the ad revenue Hulu generates from their videos. Some of the media companies complain privately about the small checks they get from the deals, even as the site has grown. Monthly video streams on Hulu have more than tripled in a year, to 903 million in January, according to AROUND page 65

Around the Net In Media: Big Media Stocks Up In Early 2010 (MediaPost | Media News)

S&P 500 stock index. Plus, most sector biggies have set new 52-week highs since midShares of sector conglomerates March, many in recent days. are up across the board for the Since March 2009, the one-year first three months of 2010, returns for conglomerate stocks except for a minimal decline at range from 79% for Time C B S C o r p . , a n d m o s t Warner to 269% for CBS Corp., outperformed the broad-based according to Bloomberg. Submitted at 4/1/2010 9:10:46 PM

But some on Wall Street caution that big sector stocks will have a tougher time continuing their upward momentum from here amid sector stocks' run-up and expectations that the U.S. economy will only improve slowly. While media biggies

extended their run-up in the opening quarter of 2010 with gains ranging from the 6.8% for News Corp. to 32.1% for Sony Corp. (excluding CBS' 0.8% decline), the broader-based S&P 500 stock index edged up only 4.9%. Disney remained the Hollywood powerhouse with the

biggest market capitalization at $67.7 billion. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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AROUND continued from page 64

Apple vs. Amazon: an e-gadget death match

ComScore. (Yahoo! News Search Results Five Filters featured article: for e-readers) Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:35:01 PM Term Extraction. Such is our gadget obsession that the launch of a new electronic reader has set off a death match between two newmedia gorillas, Apple and Amazon.com. Apple's iPad seeks to end the Amazon Kindle's domination of the market for devices that let you download books and read them on a screen. The tech bloggers are taking sides, of course. (You can Finland Launching imagine the passion, invective and casual use of expletives.) National Pilot Program Your correspondent started off To Open and Scan All as a disinterested observer, but Snail Mail the more the Apple partisans Stuart Fox (Popular Science - sang the praises of the iPad, the New Technology, Science more she favored the Kindle. News, The Future Now) One Apple enthusiast writes that the iPad offers "color and Submitted at 4/1/2010 1:38:36 PM Is online delivery a viable multimedia with the promise of future for inconvenient old moving video, color charts and pictures, and so on." He adds: paper mail? I n a n e f f o r t t o i n c r e a s e "As a travel companion, all you efficiency, cut carbon emissions, can do on the (Kindle) DX is and reduce costs, Finland has read." (Ignore the dangling begun a pilot program wherein modifier. He clearly means that the Kindle is your traveling FINLAND page 66 companion, not the other way

around.) Hmmm, all you can do on the Kindle is read. I don't know about this fellow, but isn't the point of an e-reader to be a convenient medium for reading? It replaces traditional books. Sure, I've used books to flatten photographs or hold down tablecloths in the wind, but they are bought to be read. The blogger can't be assuming that the gadgeteer who would plunk down hundreds for an ereader doesn't already own a television and laptop â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and perhaps a super-phone and game console. All are capable of fulfilling anyone's minimum daily requirement for exploding images. Indeed, books have become an escape from the noise, clutter and flash of video. They ease the attention-deficit disorder that "screen sucking," as the kids call it, has visited on previously relaxed personalities. The Kindle uses "E-ink" technology, which mimics words on paper. I have a hundred-plus cable channels, a Netflix subscription and a Roku to stream video on demand. But all these options can't always fill my need for a

good story the way a book can. Books let readers customize images and emotions. Furthermore, books don't have to be recharged â&#x20AC;&#x201D; nor does one's brain (though I sometimes wish I could plug mine in for more juice). A day of staring at TVs and computer monitors can strain the eyes. The iPad is another cornea-parching screen. By contrast, the Kindle does not have a backlit display, so it's easier on the peepers. Unlike the iPad, the Kindle can be read on a sunny beach (and one needs a light to read it in the dark). That it's not a video screen is a virtue, in my book. The thinking goes that young people must, absolutely must, have color all the time. Some probably must, but black and white, which includes shades of gray, is the foundation of the youthful geek chic. I defy you to find an Apple Store "Genius" wearing fuchsia. There was a big campaign starting in the '70s to colorize classic black-and-white films for a new audience raised on Technicolor. Movie lovers picked up their pitchforks.

"Could you imagine watching 'Casablanca' or 'It's a Wonderful Life' in color?" they asked. As it turned out, younger audiences weren't clamoring to see a pink nose on Oliver Hardy, so the fervor for colorizing old movies faded. This could be Tyrannosaurus rex issuing his last primal scream as the Cretaceous Period draws to a close, but here goes: Black letters on white paper-like backgrounds will always play a major role in our culture. Words on screens can change colors and dance, of course. However, the question remains: Why would anyone past "Sesame Street" age need a colorful screen to read "Moby Dick"? Providence Journal columnist Froma Harrop's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is fharrop@projo.com Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

interesting unveilings, a fair number of hot cars, and yet more evidence that the hybridization and gradual electrification of the automotive

scene continues apace. Here are a few highlights.

At the 2010 New York Auto Show, Electric Ideas Seth Fletcher (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

The New York International Auto Show is always a smaller affair than the bigger annual confabs in Detroit and Los Angeles. Still, this year's show

brought with it several

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FINLAND continued from page 65

snail-mail letters are converted into PDFs and made viewable online by their addressees, in advance or in lieu of physical delivery. So far, the effort is volunteer-only, but it has already sparked concerns in Finland about privacy and government overreach. In the program, the volunteers will have images of all their letters viewable on a computer or phone, and then optionally physically delivered later on. The postman will still arrive twice a week to deliver the scanned letters, as well as any packages. Additionally, the postal service will filter out junk mail for the volunteers, essentially adding a spam filter to physical mail. Itella, the state-owned company that operates Finland's postal

service, has vowed that employees will not read the letters, that all sorting and opening will occur in specially secured facilities, and that employees will sign strict confidentiality agreements. 126 families and 20 businesses have already signed up for the service, which will begin on April 12th. Itella stresses this program is only an experiment designed to discover what types of snailmail the Finnish people feel comfortable receiving in this fashion. However, despite the small size, experimental nature, and high security of the program, some Finish citizens have already begun drawing comparisons between Itella and Communist-regime security services.

A similar service, Earth Class Mail, already operates commercially in the US, and claims to serve tens of thousands of users. Whether Itella can replicate Earth Class Mail's success remains to be seen. But given the high level of technical savvy amongst the Finnish population, as well that citizenry's more robust trust in the responsibility of their government, Itella's scanning program may very well be the future of mail. [ Samaa]

Brunch and Beyond: 11 Easter Recipes contributors@theatlantic.com (The Editors) (Food :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:41:00 AM

Aglaia Kremezi This year, throw tradition to the wind and shake up your Easter gathering with something new. From the Atlantic recipe archives, here's a glazed ham. selection of brunch dishes, BEGIN SLIDE SHOW>> sides, entrees, and desserts good enough to rival grandma's

Popular Science+ For the iPad is Here! Mike Haney (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:00:02 AM

Our new digital version of the magazine is live in the iTunes store A few months ago, we released a video showing our early thinking around how magazines

could look on a tablet-style device. At the time, it seemed pretty fanciful, but guess what? It's here! Popular Science+ is now available in the iTunes App Store for iPad. At launch, iPad buyers will be able to download Popular Science+, our new digital but totally reimagined and version. It's all the same content, redesigned for the iPad, with

easy swipe gestures for browsing and reading, and a cool "look" mode where you can tap the screen and make the text go away to just soak in the images. Check out the video above and read more about it at popularscienceplus.com

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PARC Develops iPod-Sized HIV-Detection Device to Bring Affordable Testing To Rural Communities Stuart Fox (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

afflicted areas, where doctors often diagnose patients without the aid of any advanced tests. PARC is hardly alone in this Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:59:37 AM The monetary and energy endeavor. A number of other expense of HIV testing companies are also competing to machines prevent their put a handheld HIV testing deployment to remote or machine on the market, impoverished areas; the very including LabNow, which places that need them the most. originally expected to field its To rectify that inequity, Palo technology in 2006. For those Alto Research Center (PARC) suffering from HIV, the large has created a battery-operated number of devices under HIV testing device the size of an the reflection of a laser beam off detection method makes the development signals that help, at iPod. The machine can return a a s m a l l s a m p l e o f b l o o d . device both simple and cheap, last, is on the way. test result in 10 minutes, and Depending on the density of T- with the prototype only costing [ PhysOrg] costs significantly less than the w h i t e b l o o d c e l l s , a k e y $250 to build. PARC hopes that large machines used in most indicator for the presence and the ease of use, small size, and progress of HIV, the laser will low cost will empower doctors hospitals. The device works by measuring scatter differently. That laser in the poorest, most AIDS-

Commercial Jet Biofuel: Sooner Than We Think? info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines) Submitted at 4/1/2010 10:02:48 AM

This week's announcement that the Air Force successfully tested a A-10C Thunderbolt "Warthog" plane on a 50:50 blend of petroleum jet fuel and camelina-based biofuel has brought the two disparate ways of producing aviation biofuels into the spotlight. Though both produce essentially the same end fuel, the differences between biomass and oil-seed based aviation fuels are stark. The idea of producing synthetic aviation fuel is hardly a new concept. Germany pioneered the production of "FischerTropsch" (FT) synthetic fuels during WWII. Currently, South African airline Sasol produces approximately 150,000bbl per new home by April 30, be sure d a y a t i t s c o a l - t o - l i q u i d to file an amended return to facilities. (South Africa used FT claim the credit. during the era of apartheid as For more information about well.) qualifying for the credits, see A number of companies (see FAQs on the New Home Buyer Commercial Scale Aviation Tax Credits. From Waste?) are currently Five Filters featured article: exploring the utilization of the Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Fischer-Tropsch process to PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, transform biomass into aviation Term Extraction. fuel. Call this the synthetic biofuel

Get More Time to Claim the Home Buyer Credit (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

To qualify for the $8,000 firsttime home buyer credit or Time is running out to buy a $6,500 credit for longtime home and still qualify for either homeowners who buy a new of the home buyer tax credits. home, you must sign a binding Time also is running out to file contract by April 30, 2010, and your tax return to claim the close on the property by June credit. To complicate matters, 30, 2010. As I’m sure you the tax-filing deadline precedes know, the tax-filing deadline is the deadline for signing a April 15. contract on a new home to What to do? Ask the IRS for a qualify for the credit. six-month extension to file your

2009 tax return. You’ll have until October 15 to file your return and claim the credit. File Form 4868 to request an extension. Even with an extension, taxpayers could file electronically and receive their refund in as few as ten days with direct deposit, according to the IRS. If you’ve already filed your return but sign a contract on a

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camp. FT is a four-step process that first involves gasifying biomass feedstock and reacting it with steam at moderate pressure and elevated temperatures in the absence of combustion. The resulting synthesis gas ("syn gas") often contains impurities like sulfur and large amounts of C02, which requires that it be scrubbed. The third step involves passing the syn gas over a catalyst (usually iron or cobalt-based) to form a variety of hydrocarbons. Depending on the gasification process, one can alter the reaction conditions (pressure, temperature, time, or catalyst) and it will result in changes to the molecular structure of the hydrocarbons. Using well-established refining methods, the hydrocarbon is upgraded to the subsequent liquid fuel. In recent months, companies like Choren, Rentech, and Solena Group have announced commercial projects that could result in hundreds of millions of gallons of production capacity coming online by 2014 (see Biofuels 2010: Spotting the Next Wave). Synthetic aviation fuels created via a process known as biomassto-liquids (BTL) have a number

of benefits beyond the obvious one -- namely, that they are not petroleum-based. FT fuels have lower carbon and particulate matter emissions, thermal stability, and can be derived from any type of biomass, as well as from coal and natural gas. The drawbacks of BTL aviation fuels are economic. On an installed cap-ex basis, we estimate that a new plant costs around $1.27/gal. Additionally, from an op-ex perspective, biomass feedstocks such as woody biomass, agricultural and waste residues, etc. are expected to cost somewhere between $55$70 per bone-dry ton compared to $30/ton for coal. While FT processes are theoretically feedstock agnostic and feedstock costs could get below the aforementioned $55-70/ton range if municipal solid waste streams are included, in the absence of a carbon tax, coal-toliquids (CTL) processes are currently more economical. Which brings us to the second thermo-chemical technology under consideration to produce aviation biofuels: hydroprocessing. This process uses animal fats, waste grease, or plant oils as feedstocks and involves using a

combination of pressure, heat, and catalysts to upgrade the oil into jet fuel. In geek terminology, the oil is first deoxygeneated and then isoparaffinic hydrocarbons are created via hydroisomerization. Hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and water are the main byproducts of hydroprocessing. Given that the resulting fuels are paraffinic, they are almost identical to FT jet fuel. In the race to commercialization of aviation biofuel, hydroprocessing has a number of advantages over FT. First, anyone who has been following this space in the last two years already knows that every major airline that has tested biofuels has used jet fuel derived from hydroprocessing. For example, when Virgin Atlantic became the first commercial airline to oversee a flight partly powered by biofuels, it used a 25% blend of biofuels in one of its engines that included hydroprocessed coconut oil and babassu oil. In the last year, KLM, Air New Zealand, Qatar Airways, Continental Airlines, and Japan Airlines have also completed flights using biofuels like jatropha, algae, and camelina (see Navy Orders 20,000

Gallons of Algae Fuel From Solazyme). In 2014, 100 million gallons of camelina-based jet fuel is expected to be delivered to 15 airlines by Sustainable Oils and Alt-Air. The prospects for camelina and aviation biofuels in general are explained in great detail in a new report from Biomass Advisors. There are a number of commercial hydroprocesing plants being built, most notably by Neste Oil and ConocoPhilips. By 2015, we anticipate production capacity via hydroprocessing could reach 900MGY. While FT synthetic fuels generally come with higher capex costs due to the gasification and clean-up equipment as compared to hydroprocessing equipment that leverages the pre -existing assets of a petroleum refiner, hydroprocessing is not feedstock agnostic. Given the fact that oil-based feedstocks currently make U.S. biodiesel uneconomical without subsidies, there are questions as to how much alternative oilseeds -such as jatropha, algae, and camelina -- will cost at commercial scale. For example, Neste Oil is building a facility that will have

production capacity of 58.2 million gallons per year at an upfront capital cost of $135M. The plant will have a feedstock input rate of 555 tons of vegetable oil per day, which is the equivalent of 0.00347 tons per gallon. If the current spot price for soybean oil is $0.39/lb ($780 per ton), we find that the per-gallon cost of soybean feedstocks is $2.71/gal. While I realize that aviation fuel will not be created from soybean oil, this example is illustrative of how oilseed feedstock costs can add up to make hydroprocessing uneconomical compared to petroleum jet fuel. Given the strategic importance for the military to obtain copious amounts of domestically sourced energy and the blank check the Department of Defense receives, it is clear that aviation biofuels are coming -- whether from FT or hydroprocessing. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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What Greentech Execs Can Learn From Fine Art Hack Your info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines) Submitted at 4/2/2010 4:00:17 AM

I was recently at a fine art gallery in Carmel, a resort town in California. A 16" by 20" black and white photo (unframed) was listed for $2,000 -- about triple what that artist charged a few years ago. But wait. $2,000 was the price if you bought one of the first ten copies sold; the next ten listed for $4,000 each, the next ten for $6,000, etc. Now don't get me wrong -- these were beautiful works, capable of bringing great pleasure and possibly appreciating in value. But wow. I don't know if the gallery moves a lot of art at those prices, but they seemed busy and authentic. Nice work if you can get it -- and I say that with complete respect for the artist, their work, the gallery owners and the free market. I think this story has some special lessons for cleantech execs. Cleantech is a young industry. As with many young technology-based industries, there can be a tendency to focus on features, rather than on what builds markets and sales. Here are some lessons triggered by our fine art example: --Make your product an object of desire: This artist surely has. Tesla has. They are each fulfilling a want. Remember that

this doesn't have to apply just to sexy cars. --Get your customer wanting to pay your price: Customers talk themselves into spending thousands on an art photo. Recurve gets homeowners to pay several hundred dollars for an energy audit that summarizes savings from a retrofit. The U.S. Navy may choose to pay abovemarket prices to experiment with biofuels. Tapping emotional, political and pragmatic buttons allows you to turn customer desire into a willingness to pay. This can work whether your customer is a consumer, a professional, a business or a government agency. --Let customers buy into a movement: The artist and gallery have art shows, receptions, beautiful postcard mailings, websites, and perhaps an opportunity to follow their latest photo-taking trip via Facebook. They are inclusive. Cleantech firms can use PR, visibility and social networking tools to build their brand, whether it promotes the use of their lithium-ion cell, explains how aerogel insulation reduces energy use at oil refineries, or describes the benefits of a green concrete additive. --Deliver actual value: Your product has to work and deliver something special. The expensive photo delivers a

smile, status or a self-reward. What tangible, economic and intangible value does your product or service deliver? So, what's the 'how-to' on applying the lessons above? Here are some key steps: -- List all the value you deliver: This is an internal exercise and a starting point. Be creative. Explore 'softer' dimensions: perhaps politics ('gives our nation energy independence'); flexibility ('locate your factory anywhere, even with no power grid, with our fuel cell'); selfactualization ('helps you tread lightly on the planet'); etc. --Figure out who you're looking to influence, why, and when: This issue is tied to market development, your stage of company and product development, and competitive environment. Your target(s) evolve over time. You need to map this out, explicitly. -- Create the story: The right story will hit the nail on the head for the people you're trying to influence. Outside of tech, many high-end wineries do a great job with their story, creating a bond that gets people to buy. A story that ties you -and the buyer -- to a bigger picture, and that has inherent drama, helps to create higher perceived value. Over time, this helps build attention and sales, and supports your pricing. As Seth Godin said in All

Marketers are Liars: "We believe what we want to believe, and once we believe something, it becomes a self-fulfilling truth." --Choose programs that connect your targets and story: This ties to objectives, rollout strategy and ongoing marketing/sales programs and budgets. A cleantech company looking to burst onto the scene might: start with a tight, compelling investor -oriented message at a venture conference; go after industry awards that anoint you as a leader-in-the-making; bridge into business and financial press; and follow up with industry-specific marketing and sales programs that get a boost from the business 'air cover' you've built. Cleantech firms can borrow ideas about strategy, positioning, pricing and more from many industries. As Ferris Bueller said: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Steve Weiss helped make green building materials compelling while at Serious Materials. C o n t a c t h i m a t weiss@greyheron.com Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Meter While You Can info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines) Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:06:21 AM

As millions of Americans kiss their old-fashioned electricity meters goodbye, there is a range of reactions. Well, actually, more like two. There is plenty of consumer oblivion about advanced meter infrastructure and a whole lot of confusion and anger from customers who have seen their bills spike after their smart meters have been installed. There is also another disgruntled group of people on the horizon. For the folks who have been defrauding their utility and stealing their electricity by hacking traditional electric meters, the new digital hardware will not be welcome. It has been rumored that the reason that Italian utility Enel Spa installed some 30 million smart meters was not primarily to advance smart grid, but to reign in power theft. Enel saves about 500 million Euros a year through automated features created by the meters so the official motive is strong. Still, the existence of the rumor says something. Chronic power HACK page 70

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Wakonda’s Lost Wax Process for Solar info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

eliminated and active solar materials are added. Because of the shape of the second Submitted at 4/1/2010 4:40:38 PM substrate, the solar materials P h o e n i x , A Z - - W a k o n d a take on the same pattern of the Technologies won't produce now-absent copper. solar cells commercially for "The key to this is grain size," years, but if it can mature its he said. The larger, the better. process, the company says it It's similar to how ancient could boost the performance of sculptors created statues with cadmium telluride panels. the lost wax process. The Potentially, Wakonda could company calls it Virtual Single m a k e c a d t e l c e l l s w i t h Crystal. Similar processes have efficiencies in the high teens and been employed in chip making. sell panels at close to 75 cents a The process works with gallium watt, said CEO Les Fritzemeier arsenide, cadmium telluride and at the 2010 Solar Summit other materials, but Wakonda Sponsored by Greentech Media. will concentrate on cad tel, said The modules would be made on Fritzemeier. A market already flexible substrates in a roll-to- exists for these products and the roll process. Ideally, Wakonda efficiencies can approach what would like to incorporate the can be accomplished with s o l a r c e l l s i n t o r o o f i n g gallium arsenide. Wakonda will materials. Currently, First Solar also try to license the process to makes cells at around 85 cents a lighting manufacturers to create watt, but the efficiency comes to flexible thin lights. Some have around 11 percent. First Solar's objected to the potential toxicity cells come on glass. of cad tel, but the solar material The key is the process. The is fully encapsulated, limiting company takes a sheet of copper the risk. (Arsenic is also an and heats it to create a repeating ingredient in gallium arsenide, grain pattern. The copper is then he noted.) coated with another substance, Will it work? It's hard to say at which effectively becomes a this point -- many things from mold of the pattern in the the lab don't make it into copper. The copper is then commercial production. One

could also imagine semiconductor equipment manufacturers developing a similar process that doesn't necessarily touch on Wakonda's intellectual property. But it again highlights that the cad tel field likely won't remain the private domain of First Solar. General Electric said last month that it will begin to produce cad tel panels next year with efficiencies that should rank among the highest in the industry. GE will exploit thin film expertise in its digital X-ray and OLED groups to develop the panels. Abound Solar(formerly AVA Solar) has boosted the efficiency of its cad tel panels from 6 to 9 percent and is producing megawatt quantities of panels, said Tom Blaisdell of DCM, one of the company's investors, during a conversation in the hallway. Commercial installations of the product have already begun. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

HACK continued from page 69

outages in Indian cities are blamed on power theft. While the U.S. does not have the widespread electricity theft issues that some other countries such as Mexico, Brazil or India have, it still costs the U.S. an estimated $6 billion every year. So for the crafty, handy (but not tech-savvy) criminals out there, time might be running out to try to take what’s not yours for free. (Note: Greentech Media does not endorse actually hacking your electric meter, or any illegal activity, for that matter.) One of the tried and true ways to tamper with the meter over the years is to put a magnet on each side to slow it down. The internet is rife with examples, including a step-by-step video. If you’re criminally minded with a dangerous streak, you may have taken note of people who steal their power directly from transformers. Beware: news reports are filled with stories of those who have died in the pursuit of free power, as well as people who have lived only to be prosecuted. While reporting a power theft story, one local Fox station practically gives a do-it-yourself, like one man did, with jumper cables. The other ways in which people have been stealing power are endless, from sand in the meters to slow down the wheel to turning the entire meter upside down. The trick is to know when the meter reader is coming

to turn it right side up. Another popular fix is to drill a hole in the bottom of the meter and stick a pin in to stop the wheel all together. But as one “anonymous coward” posted on a web forum, “we did this for over a year until we got caught, then it was the Spanish Inquisition and cost a fortune in penalties, etc.” Lesson learned. While advanced meters will undoubtedly deter some anonymous cowards from tampering with their meters for a few months of lowered electric bills, the larger issue of power theft will not be solved by a smart grid, rather there will be a shift in who is equipped to do the hacking. “It’s much like a new computer or security system,” said Lowell Rust, the director of product marketing for electricity metering firm Itron. “The people who make a living at penetration will have to keep up.” However, like computer and security systems, it is more likely that the makers of the technology will have to stay one step ahead of hackers to truly put a dent in energy theft. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Don't Fall for the Halo (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

to think he or she would be better educated,” says the Talk about irony. We investors study’s author, Emily Pronin, a choose financial advisers in part professor of psychology at to help us overcome our worst Princeton University. “But it instincts. Unfortunately, those isn’t reasonable to assume that same instincts may lead us to the adviser is more trustworthy choose an inept adviser. What’s a n d t h a t y o u c a n s k i p a worse, the adviser we select background check.” In fact, says could have the same bad habits Pronin, without such a check we do. you wouldn’t know for sure that In one study, for example, the adviser had actually attended people expressed trust in an Harvard. adviser simply because he was Many qualities can contribute w e l l d r e s s e d a n d h e l d a to the halo effect, says Pronin. prestigious diploma. Some People who are friendly and participants were shown a w a r m g e n e r a l l y a r e a l s o picture of a broker in a suit and considered to be smart and were told he had graduated from competent. Cornell University. Others were The halo effect may explain s h o w n t h e s a m e m a n b u t why a recent study shows that casually dressed and with a our favorite source for financial diploma from Elmira College. advice is a family member There’s no reason to believe (43%), followed by a friend that Elmira College graduates (39%). Interestingly, the study, are more prone to criminal by Sun Life Financial, also behavior or turpitude than s h o w s t h a t o l d e r s u r v e y Cornell alums are. Yet subjects respondents rely less on family in the study judged Mr. Ivy and friends and more on experts. League to be less in need of a Maybe that’s because the older background check. “If an we get, the less we are blinded adviser went to Harvard as by halos. Ask yourself: Do your o p p o s e d t o a c o m m u n i t y family and friends really know college, it might be reasonable more about personal finance

than you do, or are you just assuming they do? Find an analyst. So what should you look for, psychologically speaking, in an adviser? Finance professor John Nofsinger, of Washington State University, suggests starting with someone who thinks analytically. Nofsinger tested a number of planners to determine whether they were analytical or intuitive thinkers. ( Take our quiz to determine whether you are an analytical or intuitive thinker-and whether you might benefit from the help of an adviser.) Those who ranked high on the analytical scale were more successful in avoiding some of the psychological pitfalls that plague many investors. For example, they were better able to plan for the future. By contrast, intuitive thinkers tended to be too risk-averse, and they were prone to selling winning investments too quickly and holding on to losers for too long. The good news, Nofsinger says, is that most planners are analytical thinkers. “The more procedural and numbers-

oriented a person is, the less likely emotions will enter the mix,” he says. To pick a good adviser impartially, Pronin suggests trying to eliminate as many personal biases as you can. She uses the analogy of musicians who audition for an orchestra behind a screen. That way, the judges aren’t swayed by the appearance or gender of the musician. Instead of letting a halo form, she and Nofsinger agree that you should look first at an adviser’s investing philosophy, methods and results. Does he or she have discipline? Ask a number of clients -- preferably people you don’t know -- or their opinions. Finally, see whether there’s chemistry between you and the adviser. And don’t forget that background check. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

What Health Reform Means for FSAs and HSAs (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

What’s going to happen to flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts as a result of health-care reform? The amount you can contribute to your flexible spending account will be much lower in the future. Starting in 2013, the health-care-reform law caps annual FSA contributions at $2,500 per year. In the past, there was no maximum contribution amount for medical FSAs, although many employers limited contributions to $4,000 or $5,000 per year. Also, starting in 2011 you will no longer be able to use taxadvantaged money from an FSA, a health savings account or a health reimbursement account for over-the-counter drugs that are not prescribed by a doctor. So next year you’ll no longer be able to take an end-ofyear trip to Costco to buy giant bottles of aspirin to use up FSA money before you lose it. See New Limits Coming on FlexAccount Contributions for ways to spend money in your flex plan before the contribution limit is reduced. The health-care-reform bill made few changes to HSAs, but it did double the penalty for WHAT page 72

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Obama’s Offshore Drilling Plan: How Much Will It Help? (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

President Obama’s plan to open vast offshore areas for oil and natural gas leasing marks a big shift in U.S. energy policy. Obama, like President Bush before him, recognizes that the U.S. has little choice but to look offshore for new sources of oil, given the alternative of continuing to boost imports. Domestic production peaked at around 8 million barrels a day in the early 1970s. It’s inexorably grinding down to just under 5 million barrels per day, against daily usage of around 9 million barrels. But it will take almost a decade to make much of an impact on gasoline prices or the cost for fuel to run machinery, heat homes, offices and industrial plants. The long lead time will mean a slow but steady ramp-up of fossil fuel production, likely first off Virginia’s coast. Exploration should start in about two years, in fields that hold around 130 million barrels of oil and 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Full scale production is at least five years

off. This will be followed by drilling offshore from Delaware to Florida, in deep water off Alaska’s coast and in previously closed areas in the Gulf of Mexico. A build out of new production from the middle of this decade onward is aimed at extracting around 135 billion barrels of oil and 675 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. That’s equivalent to around 15 years of oil consumption and nearly 30 years for natural gas at current usage rates. This expansion will be augmented by oil and gas production from North Dakota’s vast fields. The mammoth Bakken Play and Three ForksSanish formation likely will see full scale output reached in the late 2020s. Court challenges by environmental groups are a near certainty. They may well slow production, but are unlikely to throttle it, barring blunder by the Interior Department, such as bollixing up leasing bids or delaying environmental studies required before any offshore tract can be made available for mineral exploration. While some residents will

oppose the move, state governments needing revenue are likely to be swayed by the boost that offshore oil and natural gas production will provide, thanks to revenue sharing formulas that will yield billions of dollars in royalty income. Obama announced his intentions as part of a broad move on energy security. The drilling is part of a plan to help transition to alternative energy sources, such as wind, solar, geothermal and biofuels, within a few decades. Now, alternative energy accounts for less than 5% of all U.S. electricity usage and a tiny fraction of the 6 billion gallons of gasoline, diesel and heating and industrial fuels burned annually. Even a concerted federal industry push is unlikely to double renewable fuels’ share by 2015. Additional natural gas supplies will be used to help electric utilities move away from coal. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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using the money for nonmedical expenses before age 65 -- from 10% to 20%. The new flexible spending account limits will eventually make it much more attractive to contribute to a health savings account, if you have a choice between the two (you generally can’t contribute to both in the same year). Like an FSA, an HSA lets you set aside pretax money that you can use tax-free for medical expenses. But you won’t lose the money in an HSA if you don’t use it by the end of the year. Instead, money in the account can grow tax-deferred for future expenses, and you can keep the account even if you switch jobs. You must have a highdeductible health-insurance policy -- either through your employer or purchased on your own -- to qualify to make contributions to an HSA. In 2010, the deductible must be at least $1,200 for self-only coverage, or $2,400 for family coverage, to qualify. You can then contribute up to $3,050 in 2010 if you have self-only coverage, or $6,150 if you have family coverage. The contributions lower your taxable income now, grow tax-deferred in the account through the years, and can be used tax-free for medical expenses -- a triple tax benefit. Self-employed people and others who buy their own health

insurance have been saving money for years by buying a high-deductible plan (raising the deductible lowers your premiums) and pairing it with an HSA. More employers are offering high-deductible plans to employees during openenrollment period, too, and some even contribute money to an HSA to encourage employees to sign up. Most high-deductible policies now provide some coverage for preventive care before you reach your deductible, and the new health-care-reform law will require that all policies provide certain preventive care without cost-sharing by September 2010. You’ll still be able to buy HSAeligible policies when the health -insurance exchanges start operating in 2014. Experts are keeping a close eye on a few regulatory issues that could affect HSAs after the exchanges are running, such as whether benefits other than preventive care must be provided before you reach a policy’s deductible. Such a mandate could conflict with HSA requirements that nothing other than preventive care be exempt from the plan deductible, says Roy Ramthun, president of HSA Consulting Services in Silver Spring, Md., who was the senior adviser to the Secretary of the U.S. WHAT page 73

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Silly Americans, Artichokes Are for Drinking, Too

Treasury for health initiatives when HSAs were first enacted into law in 2003. Five Filters featured article: contributors@theatlantic.com Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: (Derek Brown) (Food :: The PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Atlantic) Term Extraction. Submitted at 4/2/2010 5:38:24 AM lisatozzi/flickr To try Derek's recipe for a cocktail using Cynar, Campari, and Fernet Branca, click here, or click here for a Cynar-inspired take on a daiquiri. It may seem absurd to say, but artichoke liqueur is just not for everyone. Cynar (pronounced something like "chee-nar") is an Italian bitter digestivo that boasts 13 different botanicals but really rests on one vegetable: the artichoke. Unless you're an old Italian woman—in which you case you don't blink at ordering a Cynar and soda—then your first impression contributors@theatlantic.com is undoubtedly: gross. Who in (Regina Charboneau) (Food :: their right mind would use The Atlantic) artichokes in a drink? Submitted at 4/2/2010 6:09:04 AM I'm adventurous, but since taste Regina Charboneau one I've never truly enjoyed To try Regina's recipe for an drinking Cynar on its own, easy tomato-mint marmalade to despite enjoying many other accompany Easter lamb, click bitter digestivos. Yet, with a here. little exploration, I've found that There is nothing better or worse Cynar is among the most than a strong-willed Southern versatile of bitters, seamlessly woman. I know what I speak of. blending with other bitters and I am the daughter of one and I spirits. In fact, I realize I'm am one. As strong willed as we among the last to see how both are, I am lucky that there wonderful this spirit can be in have been very few times in my cocktails. (I should definitely life that my mother and I have give credit where credit is due: EASTER page 75 despite many examples of using

Easter Dinner Showdown: Pork vs. Lamb

bitter liquors as a base, the definitive movement for this came in Rogue Cocktails, a book created by bartenders Kirk Estopinal and Maksym Pazuniak in the summer of 2009.) My first breakthrough was an unlikely combination. I saw Cynar, Campari, and Fernet Branca sitting on the shelf and thought to myself that there is no way that I could combine all three in a cocktail. Each one is so distinct: Campari is well known, but, for those new to

Fernet Branca, it's a densely flavored spirit that includes saffron, bay leaves and peppermint oil. You could call these with Cynar the "super group" of Italian bitter digestivos. After tasting the three together in different combinations, I realized each one had a complementary thread—the bitter orange of Campari melded well with the minty, eucalyptuslike flavor of Fernet and the creamy texture of Cynar,

finishing with warm spice notes and an intense bitterness. Rather then clashing, they played together well, muting the harsher aspects of each and accentuating the qualities I liked. Nevertheless, there was still the abiding bitterness that needed reigning in. I used juice from Cara Cara oranges, a sweeter version of the navel orange with a pink color and sweet pink SILLY page 75

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How Obama Sold the Farm contributors@theatlantic.com (Barry Estabrook) (Food :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/1/2010 9:58:27 AM

Saul Loeb/AFP-Getty Images The Obama administration's schizophrenic approach to agriculture policy—making PR gestures toward sustainable farming with one hand while nudging ahead the agendas of agribusiness giants like Monsanto and Dow Chemical with the other—was on full display this weekend when the President used a recess appointment to install Islam Siddiqui as the chief agricultural negotiator in the Office of the United States Trade Representative. "He was a singularly poor choice," said Dr. Marcia IshiiEiteman, senior scientist with the Pesticide Action Network North America. "He is the wrong person with the wrong background. We are surprised and very disappointed that President Obama recessappointed him. There should have been a full Senate vote." It's telling that Obama used the same cynical, behind-the-scenes tactic to secure the Siddiqui appointment that his predecessor used to place judges like Charles

Pickering (blocked because of past decisions that some considered racist) on the federal bench. Prior to his appointment, Siddiqui was a vice president and lobbyist for CropLife America, a trade organization representing major corporate players in the agricultural chemical industry. CropLife became known to the public when it berated Michelle Obama for putting in a (horrors!)

organic kitchen garden at the White House. "The garden is a great idea and the photo op of the First Lady and the local elementary school children digging up the ground was precious, but did you realize that it will be an organic garden?" the industry group wrote during Siddiqui's tenure, in a plea to supporters to launch a pro-pesticide letter writing campaign. "What message does that send to the non-farming

public about an important and integral part of growing safe and abundant crops to feed and clothe the world—crop protection products." It was part of a career-long pattern of Siddiqui being on the wrong side of sustainable agriculture issues. He played a key role in drafting language (eventually rejected) that would have allowed genetically modified crops, crops treated with human sewage sludge, and

crops exposed to irradiation to be considered organic under United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards. In 1999, while at the USDA, he fought against consumer labeling of genetically modified foods, saying it would lead to increased food costs. His nomination was expected to sail through the confirmation process when announced late last year. But it stalled when over 90,000 individuals and nearly 100 consumer advocacy groups representing farmers, environmentalists, religious organizations, and labor rights activists rose up to express their objections. "At CropLife, Siddiqui was all about promoting genetic crops and pesticides," Ishii-Eiteman said. "When word got out that he had been nominated, it hit a nerve with the public." Given that Siddiqui's employer also chose to diss the First Lady's horticultural philosophy, it might have hit a nerve a little closer to home for the President. As Ishii-Eiteman put it, "You have to wonder what kind of dinner conversations they had."

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EASTER continued from page 73

disagreed in a big way. We have always gotten along quite well: she is one of the most eventempered and happy people I have ever known (but still strong-willed). Being a mother of nine children, she would have to be that way, I guess. She used to say that when she told people she had nine children, they would look at her with pity, as if she were a simpleton. She was always amused that people did not understand how much she loved being a mother and I think she has been quite good at it. Amazingly enough, we are all fairly well-adjusted and functioning in society. I hope I can continue to say the same about my two boys. But there is one divide for my mother and I ... it is the "holiday ham." Our disagreements are almost always centered on her "Liberty Hall" holiday traditions and my newer "Twin Oaks"

traditions. I refer to this as the Ham War. I am not alone when it comes to stories of a tug of war with holiday hams. I have many Southern girlfriends who battle their mothers over ham, especially at Easter. It was typically barbecue or ham for Easter when I was growing up, and as much as I like each of those items at certain times they never seemed special enough for a holiday meal. I remember that when I first bought Twin Oaks and decided to host Easter several years ago, my mother inquired about the menu. When I said there would be no ham, you would have thought I had said there would be no food. My mother spent days taking every opportunity to bring it up as a hot topic. I was well over 40 and it was my house, so I dug in my heels and felt I had won the war. The day before Easter, my doorbell rang

and a ham was being delivered to me by Federal Express, when my mother lived only blocks away. I guess you know now who won that war. The ham was displayed nicely along with all the other lovely things I had prepared. Of course, it was not always easy for me to get home to Natchez when I was living in San Francisco. The restaurant business does not allow much time off. I had celebrated many holidays in San Francisco and was able to create my own traditions, minus the ham. One of my standard dishes on my restaurant menu—and it remains one of my favorites today—was lamb chops with tomato-mint marmalade. (I am a terrible editor, and realized months after the menu was printed it read "lamp chops." No one noticed, I think, not even a food critic.) For Easter, it always seemed more appropriate to have spring

lamb over ham. I would just have the butcher prepare a rack of lamb and I would bring home some of my tomato-mint marmalade from the restaurant. I love a rack of anything ... meat cooked on the bone is so much more flavorful. I have never been able to find research to verify that—it is something I just know. If you want to economize, try a rack of pork, which is less than half the price of lamb and very impressive and wonderful. The tomato mint marmalade works just as well. I have not tried it on ham—but if one shows up at my door this Easter, I will. Recipe: Easy Tomato-Mint Marmalade

my shaker for another round, this time using Cynar and dark rum. I dubbed this the Cynar Daiquiri, with lemon juice and simple syrup. Refreshing, delicious, and powerful. Adam Bernbach, the mixologist for Proof, found similar success by blending Cynar, Chinato, maple syrup, cream, and egg yolk in The Shiner cocktail, and

below are many more examples of Cynar in cocktails. Virginiabased bartender and sommelier Todd Thrasher, and Team USA recently won the 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup in New Zealand with the improbably named "I Have Too Much Thyme on My Hands at This Point in My Life." I recommend grabbing a bottle of Cynar and

trying your own hand at an artichoke cocktail. Recipe: Three Bitters Cocktail Recipe: The Getaway Other recipes and drink resources: The Trident Cocktail The Art of Choke Cynar Flip I Have Too Much Thyme on My Hands at This Point in My

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grapefruit-like flavor, and added lemon juice and simple syrup made from turbinado sugar. I used grilled orange slices and chocolate mint as a garnish, and dubbed it the Three Bitters Cocktail. Cue "Feel Like Making Love" when you pour this drink, because it starts soft and delivers a powerful chorus. Not stopping there, I loaded up

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