Liberty Newspost Apr-05-10 by Liberty Newspost

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Republican party chief says he’s staying put despite spending furor Jeremy Pelofsky (Front Row Washington)

a sex-themed nightclub as well as tens of thousands of dollars spent on luxury hotels, private Submitted at 4/5/2010 5:15:49 AM planes and limousines in the Under fire for the Republican month of February. National Committee’s free- “I’m not staying in fancy hotels, wheeling spending on posh in the Four Seasons, and flying hotels, private jets and a party at around in corporate jets,” Steele a L o s A n g e l e s n i g h t c l u b , said. One RNC staffer has committee Chairman Michael already lost her job because of Steele said Monday he will not the nightclub incident. “We resign despite the controversy. have managed the money in a “No,” he said flatly on ABC’s way that has allowed us to “Good Morning America” when compete in some races that we asked whether he would step otherwise wouldn’t have been down. It was his first television able to compete in.” interview since the controversial Last year, Republicans wrested spending came to light. “When I victories in two key governors’ first heard about this behavior races — Virginia and New going on, I was very angry and Jersey — and also won an upset we dealt with it.” victory in January to fill Steele has been excoriated over Democratic U.S. Senator Ted the last week, including by some K e n n e d y ’ s seat in members of his own party, for Massachusetts after he died spending that included $2,000 at from cancer.

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money elsewhere. Still, he said he understood the furor of donors and members. On Sunday, the U.S. Senate’s No. 2 Republican, Jon Kyl, declined opportunities to express confidence in Steele. “I hear my donors, I hear our base out there, I hear the leadership, and we’re taking steps to make sure that we’re even more, how shall we say, fiscally conservative in our spending and making sure that the dollars are there when it’s time to run our campaigns,” Steele said on a morning talk Steele said that the organization donors, are used to a particular show. was establishing some controls type of event, we’ve been - Photo credit: Reuters/Molly to rein in spending since scaling those back,” he said, Riley (Steele during a news Republicans no longer control predicting that the RNC would conference after being appointed either chamber in the U.S. have a good fundraising effort in RNC chairman) Congress or the White House. April despite media reports that “A lot of our donors, our major some donors are sending their

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Tories accused over cancer drugs pledge (Top stories from Times Online)

a tax that hasn’t been implemented yet, so it’s not particularly a cost that the NHS Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:25:27 AM has to bear at the moment," he George Osborne was accused of said. spending money that does not “It’s a sleight of hand to say the exist as his promise to fund new least because the money isn’t cancer drugs was questioned by there to be saved yet, so the a leading health think tank. money will have to come out of Professor John Appleby, chief existing budgets.” economist of the King's Fund, His criticism was seized on by said the Tories were indulging Labour because it goes to the in a “sleight of hand” in heart of criticisms about Mr pledging to spend £200 million Osborne’s plans for national a year on licensed drugs that insurance contributions — that have yet to be approved by they are uncosted and would National Institute for Health threaten frontline services. a n d C l i n i c a l E x c e l l e n c e , Andy Burnham, the Health (NICE), the medicines advisory Secretary, said the Tory promise board. on new cancer drugs was Under Tory plans, the money unravelling within days of its would come from savings the announcement. “What we see NHS would realise as an from the Tories is a shallow employer from Mr Osborne’s attempt to grab headlines rather plans to increase national than tackle the real issue.” insurance by less than Labour Andrew Lansley, the Shadow in 2011. Health Secretary, insisted the Professor Appleby said the Tory sums were robust saying plans rested on using cash the the £200 million the NHS would NHS did not currently have. save on its national insurance “This is like making a saving on bill to the Treasury would be

available to meet the cost of new cancer drugs. “From next year onwards the employers in the NHS don’t have to spend £200 million-plus on an increase in national insurance, they will have that money available to meet other needs.” Mr Osborne insisted that the £200 million was not “magicked out of nowhere”. The Shadow Chancellor today launched the Tories latest campaign poster, two giant boots claiming Labour’s one per cent national insurance increase would “stamp out” recovery. Separately, he also tried to see off Labour accusations that he would be forced to raise VAT to make his figures add up. He told the BBC that he did not need to raise VAT to cut the deficit. Mr Osborne’s national insurance plan is to spend £6 billion easing the rise by up to £150 a year for seven out of ten workers and by the same amount per worker for all

employers. Labour insists that the sums do not add up because Mr Osborne has failed to identify where he would make the £6 billion worth of cuts, beyond saying they would be on “efficiency savings” such as axing IT projects, leaving posts vacant and striking better deals with contractors. Gordon Brown today led a make-or-break Labour assault on Mr Osborne’s national insurance plans, warning that taking money out of the economy this year would threaten the recovery. Party strategists fear that the plan, which has helped restore the Tories’ double digit poll lead, threatens their election chances unless they can unpick Mr Osborne’s sums. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

use for wine corks with its adorable wine cork bath mat. Armed with just a hot glue gun, Attention crafty winos: this is non-adhesive shelf liner, and a the perfect DIY project for you. bucket full of corks, this simple The place for all things crafty, project shouldn’t take more than chugging down some $2 Buck Craftynest, has found a practical a couple hours, unless you’re

Chuck in the process. Although, safety tip, glue guns and cheap wine don’t mix. Full story at Lifehacker. More DIY and wine. Permalink| Leave a comment »

DIY wine cork bath mat (Holy Kaw!)

Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:54:00 AM

Apple sells 300,000 iPads on launch day (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:16:00 AM

Long lines and a plethora of hype didn’t keep eager iPad fans away as Apple sold 300,000 units of the new tablet device on the gadget’s debut day. Industry analysts estimate Apple moved between 600,000 and 700,000 iPads over the entire weekend. The sales figures include both internet pre-orders and sales at Apple stores around the country. The question now is, can Apple keep the momentum going and reach beyond gadget geeks? Full story at PC World. Tons of iPad coverage. Permalink| Leave a comment »

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'Miracle' China mine survivors tell of Stressed teachers ordeal 'considering suicide' (Top stories from Times Online)

caring for the 115 survivors, rescue workers pressed on with scouring the flooded tunnels of Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:44:10 AM the Wangjialing in search of 38 After eight days and eight men still missing hundreds of nights trapped in the pitch metres below the surface. darkness of a flooded mine in More than 5,000 rescue and northwest China, 115 men have support workers have worked been pulled out alive in what around the clock ever since the officials described as nothing accident, pumping millions of less than a miracle. gallons out of the mine to bring Some of the miners were strong down the water levels so that enough to walk almost unaided teams could enter the mine. to lifts bringing them out of the The teams, accompanied by shafts where they had been d i v e r s , o n F r i d a y b e g a n entombed since floodwaters descending in rotation into the gushed through the colliery just mine. Late on Sunday, they after noon on March 28. were led to the first survivors by One man even clapped his coal the sound of tapping on pipes dust-coated hands as he was along the flooded shafts. brought out on a stretcher and One rescuer said he was sitting gripped the hands of rescuers on a tap when he suddenly and officials who reached out to glimpsed a light glimmering touch him. and moving in the distance. He “It is a miracle,” said Luo Lin, raced to telephone the news to head of the State Administration colleagues on the surface. of Work Safety, waiting at the The men raced along the shaft, entrance of the mine pit. “The the deepest in the pit, and found trapped miners stayed so a group of nine men huddled on unwaveringly determined down a working platform. These were the mine shaft, passing through the first to be brought out in the eight days and eight nights to early hours of Sunday. live.” So relieved were they to see However, while doctors and their rescuers that several nurses took over the job of eagerly related how they

survived. Rescue worker Chen Yongsheng recounted their tale. He said: “They were very smart. Several gathered together and they turned on their lamps in rotation to try to save the batteries until they could be found. When we rescued them they still have plenty of power.” But their ordeal was harrowing, caught by the sudden flood with nothing to eat or drink. They picked the bark from pinewood supports used to prop up the shafts to eat as hunger began to gnaw. They even drank the freezing – and filthy – water around them. One man described how the floodwaters had gushed at great speed through the tunnels, sweeping him and his colleagues away. He was carried for a long distance along a shaft until his belt caught on a protrusion from the wall. He remained hanging there against the wall for three days and three nights, able to sleep without drowning. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

April 5, 1998: Tamagotchi Distracts Driver, Kills Cyclist Chris Kohler (Wired Top Stories)

Fad turns fatal in France. Keep your eyes on the road, lady!

(Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:53:26 AM

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor Published: 3:53PM BST 05 Apr 2010 School staff are suffering from a series of stress-related illnesses, including heart palpitations, lack of sleep, eating problems and depression, it was claimed. A report from the NASUWT blamed the “target culture” in the state education system coupled with bullying and a lack of support from senior managers and headteachers. It came as members of the National Union of Teachers said that the Government had failed to cut workload, despite the introduction of high-profile reforms to give staff at least half a day outside the classroom every week to plan lessons and mark work. A motion to the NUT conference in Liverpol on Monday claimed the average secondary school teacher worked 60 hours a week. Speaking at the NASUWT’s conference in Birmingham, Chris Keates, general

secretary, said: “Teaching is widely recognised as one of the most stressful occupations but a healthy workforce is central to delivering healthy outcomes for pupils. “The research confirms the need to tackle the root causes of stress in schools, such as the impact of the high-stakes accountability regime on the wellbeing of school leaders, teachers and other staff.” The union commissioned Compass, the Centre for Mental Health Research and Policy, to analyse the causes of stress among teachers. It interviewed 39 staff members with mental health problems and six school managers. The study suggested that teachers’ mental health problems were worsened by excessive workload, poor behaviour among pupils and bad school management. It said that “suicide ideation” thinking about killing yourself was one of the symptoms of work-related stress. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Police seize passport of cricketer Shoaib Malik amid bigamy claims (Top stories from Times Online) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:42:47 AM

Indian police have seized the passport of one of Pakistan’s top cricket players and are questioning him over allegations that he plans to commit bigamy by marrying India’s top women’s tennis star this month. Shoaib Malik, who captained Pakistan between 2007 and 2009, is due to wed Sania Mirza in the Indian city of Hyderabad on April 15 in an unprecedented cross-border sporting union between South Asia’s arch rivals. But the Muslim couple’s nuptial plans have been overshadowed by claims from another Indian woman, Ayesha Siddiqui, that Mr Malik married her over the telephone in 2002, signed a wedding certificate, and even got her pregnant. He admits taking part in a telephone ceremony and signing the certificate, but says they are invalid because he never

knowingly met her and she sent him photographs of another, more attractive, woman claiming they were her own. The dispute has caused a media frenzy in both India and Pakistan as cross border relationships are unusual between celebrities from the two countries, which have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. It has also sparked protests from religious conservatives on both sides of the border and shone a rare spotlight on dating practices among young South Asian Muslims. Ms Siddiqui raised the stakes last night by filing a police complaint against Mr Malik, accusing him of cheating her, offering her money to keep quiet and threatening to kill her if she went public. Dr Shams Babar, a relative of the Siddiquis, then told a news conference this morning that Mr Malik had sexual relations with Ms Siddiqui and that she suffered a miscarriage as a

result. "All reports and other proofs have been given to the police today," he said. "Shoaib must admit, apologise and finish off the matter. Or else he will land in big trouble." Asked why Ayesha was not making a public appearance, he said: "With so much rubbish thrown at her, Ayesha is depressed, anxious and nervous." Police said they had questioned Mr Malik, who has been staying at the Mirza family home since Saturday, and confiscated his passport until they completed their investigations. "I am not leaving the country. I will cooperate with the Indian government and the police till this matter is sorted. I will follow the rules," Mr Malik, 28, said today at a joint news conference with his fiancée. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

How bakers can use Twitter (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:17:00 AM

Check out how bakers can tell their Twitter followers that goodies have just come out of

the oven by using BakerTweet. More Twitter tips and tricks. Permalink| Leave a comment »

Grandmother, 83, bludgeoned to death on Easter Day (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news) Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:08:55 AM

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent Published: 4:08PM BST 05 Apr 2010 Detectives believe the woman, named locally as Doris Langlands, was murdered in a suspected “domestic” incident. It is understood they want to question the woman’s grandson. A Scotland Yard spokesman said no arrests have been made. The pensioner, who had suffered head injuries, was found at her home in Winchmore Hill, north London, at around 7.15pm on Sunday. Neighbours said she lived on her own in the two storey semidetached house and paid tribute to the pensioner. One resident, Andrea Hollins, a 44-year-old housewife, said: "She was a very sweet lady. I think she was married but I haven't seen the old man in

some time so perhaps he passed away. "She lived here for a very long time. She was a very friendly woman who always said hello if you passed her in the street. "She was always out and about. She was quite small and petite, like a traditional grandmother. "How anyone could do this to her is beyond me. It's awful and it happened in her own home as well." Forensic officers are searching the house. Police believe the death was not a random attack, and a source said: "We think it is domestically related." Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: "She was a lovely old lady who had time for everyone. "She was just very sweet and I'm very sad that this has happened.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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George Osborne - I can cut taxes and How to Sell to The deficit without VAT hike Bama Companies (Top stories from Times Online)

(Inc.com)

“The plans we’ve set out involve around 80% of the work being done from spending Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:44:30 AM restraint, about 20% from tax George Osborne today insisted increases. he could cut taxes and the “The tax increases are already in deficit without raising VAT. place, so the plans do not As he sought to fight off involve an increase in VAT. Labour claims that a Tory We have set out our plans and, government would be forced as I say, they do not involve an into an urgent tax rise to pay for increase in VAT. the pledges it has already given “There is no shadow chancellor the Shadow Chancellor said or chancellor in Britain over the there were no plans for a VAT recent decades who would rule rise, but stopped short of out any future tax rises or completely ruling out a future changes to tax rates. increase in the tax. “The only people who have Schools Secretary Ed Balls developed plans to increase claimed that the Conservatives VAT in recent years were the would raise the tax “within Labour Government, and we weeks” if they win power in this know that because the Treasury year’s election to fund his by mistake published the plans. promise to partly reverse a So they were the ones looking at planned increase in national this. insurance contributions (NICs). “I am very clear that the bulk of The economy has dominated the the work of dealing with the the pre-election warfare. structural deficit has to come But Mr Osborne told BBC f r o m c u t t i n g w a s t e f u l Radio 4’s The World At One: G o v e r n m e n t s p e n d i n g . ”

The denial came after Mr Osborne was accused of spending money that does not exist as his promise to fund new cancer drugs was questioned by a leading health think tank. Professor John Appleby, chief economist of the Kings Fund, said the Tories were indulging in a “sleight of hand” in pledging to spend £200 million a year on licensed drugs that have yet to be approved by Nice, the medicines advisory board. Under Tory plans, the money would come from savings the NHS would realise as an employer from Mr Osborne’s plans to increase national insurance by less than Labour in 2011. Prof Appleby said the plans rested on using cash the NHS did not currently have. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Coming off the iPad sugar rush

Making the real-time Web relevant

(CNET News.com) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:24:03 AM

Windows takes a hint and changes the name of its upcoming smartphones, why some people are willing to spend an extra $100 on Monster headphones, and the iPad has

been officially launched and Tom Krazit (Webware.com) reviewed, thank goodness! Submitted at 4/5/2010 4:00:00 AM 3 minutes 29 seconds April 5, 2010 7:24 AM PDT With an explosion in tweets, Five Filters featured article: blogs, and other instantly Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

"We also look at the company cultures of businesses we're considering working with. We Tips from the inside: "Our talk to their management people, company dates back to the pie look at their environmental company my grandmother programs, and talk to a lot of started in 1927. Today, we have employees. A company that has over 1,000 employees in six high employee turnover would manufacturing facilities and are be a real red flag to us. If it one of the largest suppliers of doesn't have a stable work pies and baked goods to quick environment, that's indicative of service restaurant chains and a lot of problems that we might large retailers," says Paula be buying." Marshall, CEO of The Bama What not to do: "Don't Companies. "In a sense, when I underestimate the power of your pick one supplier over another, company's website. Having a it's like I'm buying its entire great site doesn't cost a lot, and facility. It's not just about your it helps give us a good first ability to supply a product and impression of someone we ensure the supply; it's also about might not have worked with the facility the product is made before. The Internet is an in. Is it clean? Does it have a awesome tool, and we use it good maintenance program and quite extensively." good food-safety programs in What The Bama Companies is place? In order for me to serve looking for: Ingredients, baking my customers, I have to be machinery and equipment, confident that I'm buying a safe engineering services and reliable product from you. Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:00:00 AM

published content flooding the Web, search engines are scrambling to organize information that's happening right now.

Originally posted at Relevant Results

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Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik questioned over 'secret wife' (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:00:14 AM

Published: 3:00PM BST 05 Apr 2010 The former international was quizzed by Indian officers after revealing he is due to marry Sania Mirza in April and settle in Dubai. A woman called Ayesha Siddiqui filed a police case against Malik claiming the two married in 2002 and has demanded a divorce. She has made a range of accusations including that the two signed a wedding agreement and that Malik offered money to keep her silent. She has also appeared on television to denounce Malik as a cheat who dumped her because his teammates said she was overweight. Yesterday, he dismissed the

allegations as the couple appeared together in Hyderabad to insist that their wedding plans would not be affected by the allegations. Malik said he had fully cooperated with police and he accused Siddiqui of lying in order to gain “cheap popularity”. “This woman must prove all those things she is saying and I am here to answer all the questions,” he said. “I have not done anything wrong.” Mirza defended her husband-tobe, saying he had never kept her “in the dark” about Siddiqui. “If there is anything for him to prove, he can prove it,” she said. “But it is unfair for her to say these things without proof, and it is very painful for our families.” Malik arrived in India last week and is staying at Mirza’s house in the southern city of Hyderabad, where police questioned him for nearly two

hours. They have also alerted Indian airports not to allow the cricketer to leave the country. “The case is under investigation. We have come here for investigations,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police R. Ravinder Reddy. Malik, 28, has been fighting a 12-month ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board for poor performance and indiscipline. Mirza, 23, was the first Indian to win a WTA tour event in 2005 and reached her highest world ranking of 27 two years ago although she has since slipped to 92nd. The marriage had already sparked controversy with the hardline Hindu group Shiv Sena, who said Mirza’s heart could not be truly Indian if she chose to marry a Pakistani. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Apple Sells More Than 300,000 iPads in First Weekend, Analysts Take Note Mark Fightmaster (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 4/5/2010 11:00:00 AM

Filed under: Launches, Apple Inc (AAPL) Talk about a good first weekend. This morning Apple ( AAPL) announced that it sold more than 300,000 iPads as of midnight on Saturday, including deliveries of preordered iPads to customers, to channel partners, and sales at Apple Retail Stores. The company added that iPad users downloaded more than 1,000,000 apps from their App Store and more than 250,000 ebooks from its iBookstore the first day. Steve Jobs noted that "It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world -- it's going to be a game changer ... iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad." This is great news

for the company, and it lead to JPMorgan upping the company's price target to $305 from $240 while raising 2010 EPS estimates to $12.74 from $11.59. Kaufman expects AAPL to now reach $295 as well. Continue reading Apple Sells More Than 300,000 iPads in First Weekend, Analysts Take Note Apple Sells More Than 300,000 iPads in First Weekend, Analysts Take Note originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Arraignment Set in Phone Caper at Senator's Office (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 4/5/2010 3:42:45 AM

A court date has been set for four conservative activists facing reduced charges after federal authorities initially accused them of trying to

tamper with the phones in Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office. James O'Keefe, Stan Dai, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan are scheduled to be arraigned April 21 on misdemeanor charges of

entering a federal building under false pretenses. They had been arrested on felony charges on Jan. 25. The new charges are contained in a bill of information, which typically signals a plea deal. Basel's lawyer has said his client

has agreed to plead guilty to the new charge, while Flanagan's lawyer has said his client worked out an agreement with prosecutors to resolve the case. © 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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Salvage experts assess ship grounded Saudi Arabia Raises Oil on Great Barrier Reef Prices to Asia and U.S. Buyers (Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news)

the constant shifting of the vessel in strong winds was grinding up the reef below it. Anna Bligh, the premier of Queensland, said that the cost of Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:57:45 AM By Bonnie Malkin in Sydney salvaging the ship and Published: 2:57PM BST 05 Apr cleaning up the spill, will be 2010 sent to its owners, Cosco Group. Two tugs have been sent to The Shen Neng 1, which is stabilise the Shen Neng 1, which carrying 975 tonnes of heavy became stuck on Douglas fuel oil and 65,000 tonnes of Shoal, 43 miles east of Great coal, was more than 15 miles K e p p e l I s l a n d o f f t h e wide of its designated shipping Queensland c o a s t , o n lane, and travelling at full Saturday. Authorities have speed, when it slammed into the warned that it could take weeks reef. to remove the ship and that Patrick Quirk, the general moving the vessel would be "a manager of Maritime Safety very delicate" operation that Queensland, said an initial risked sending hundreds of damage report showed that the tonnes of oil onto the reef. m a i n e n g i n e r o o m w a s Oil leaking from the coal breached, the main engine carrier has already caused a two d a m a g e d a n d t h e r u d d e r mile-long slick on the surface s e r i o u s l y d a m a g e d . of the ocean but the flow of oil "One of the most worrying has slowed. aspects is that the ship is still However, there are concerns moving on the reef to the that the ship could break up in action of the seas, which is the three-metre swell and that doing further damage," he said.

Planes had been used to spray dispersant over the two-tonne oil slick, which was contained in two patches, he said. However, a white ribbon of damaged coral could be seen stretching for several miles away from the ship. Conservationists have demanded tighter controls on the thousands of ships that pass close to the reef every year. Douglas Shoal is off-limits to commercial vessels because it is within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The Shen Neng 1's presence in the restricted zone will be the subject of an investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Connie Madon (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:30:00 AM

Filed under: Oil Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco raised its light crude oil prices to Asia and the U.S. For Asia buyers it raised its crude price by $1.00 to $2.10 over the Persian Gulf benchmark. It raised the premium it charges U.S. customers by 40 cents a $1.35 a barrel over Argus Sour Crude Index. Saudi Arabia, the largest member of OPEC decided to leave production quotas unchanged. Most of the Persian Gulf States are increasing production to take advantage of

higher prices. Continue reading Saudi Arabia Raises Oil Prices to Asia and U.S. Buyers Saudi Arabia Raises Oil Prices to Asia and U.S. Buyers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Obama Aims to Save Mass. Gov. Patrick (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 4/5/2010 2:31:09 AM

President Barack Obama's recent trip to Boston was part of an effort to support Gov. Deval Patrick, according to a Politico.com report.

The governor, who has deep ties to the president and his core team of advisers, faces a tough reelection battle this year. His disapproval ratings are reportedly tempered only by a three-way race. Patrick, who has been at the

White House at least a halfdozen times in the past year, is the only Democrat besides Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Penn., to have Obama headline a personal fundraiser for him -- this far off

from November. Meanwhile, Obama’s former campaign manager, David Plouffe, has been consulting for Patrick’s 2010 contest since last spring. To read the full Politico story Go Here Now.

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Amazing Presentation On The End Of The Copper Era The Oil Drum (The Money Game) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:51:00 AM

(This is a guest post from The Oil Drum by Jean LaherrĂ¨re, a longtime head of exploration for TOTAL. As is his nature, Jean speaks more with graphs than words. This posts contains over 40 images amounting to 2 Mbytes of data; keep this in mind when proceeding.) Copper has been an important mineral in the world growth, in use for at least 10 000 years. The Bronze Age is well known for having replaced the Stone Age, and bronze is the alloy of copper and tin. Copper has the second highest electrical conductivity after silver. Its price went so high that copper cables are now often stolen, disturbing telephone and Internet communications. Copper is used in piping (water supply, refrigeration and air conditioning). Measured by weight, it is the third most important metal used by man after iron and aluminium (Radetzki 2009). Its use is challenged by new substitutes, but copper production will peak because it is a limited resource amounting to around 1400 Mt. Unlike oil, copper can be recycled, but developing countriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs are huge. What follows is an evaluation of world copper production, then an analysis country by

country--there are many charts and graphs so that we may try to understand where we are with regard to future copper production. See The Coming Of Peak Copper > Soon we will use all of Earth's copper I found it fairly easy to model gold production both for the world and the main producers in my 2009 post The gold peak, easier to model than the oil peak( part II). In this post, I have tried to do the same for copper production. The best source of data is the USGS which provides complete time-series since 1900 for the US and the world. For other countries unfortunately, I had to turn to individual annual reports (from 1932) where the scanned data is hard to read in old reports. The USGS should compile the country by country copper production data from the annual reports in one document like Porter and Edelstein did for the world and for the US: U.S. Geological Survey, in Kelly, T.D., and Matos, G.R. Historical statistics for mineral and material commodities in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 140. Since 1995, the USGS reports its annual remaining reserve estimate as USGS reserves and USGS reserve base. The cumulative production from 6000 years ago to 1900 is estimated at 17 Mt. The world copper cumulative production

1600 metric tons (Mt) is the high estimate for cumulative reserves The Hubbert linearisation of production data - being the growth of production (or annual/cumulative in %) versus cumulative production - is extrapolated with a linear trend with the aim of estimating the ultimate, but it works only if the cumulative production fits a logistic curve, when in reality there are often several cycles. The present plot for the world shows only a recent trend from 2000 onwards, which can be extrapolated towards 1600 Mt can be easily modeled with a plotted on a single graph. These (present cumulative production logistic curve for ultimates of eight producers have an ultimate plus USGS reserve base) but 1200 Mt and 1600 Mt fitting of 820 Mt that is about 60% of the previous declining trend the USGS estimates. the world's ultimate. (1975-1995) was pointing Production will peak in a short Chile emerged as the key towards 1000 Mt. time producer But copper reporting is sloppy. For these two ultimates the Gavin Mudd in Historical Russia has "not declined" in 15 annual production can also be trends in base metal mining: years. easily model led and the peak back casting to understand the The best approach is to rely on seems to occur soon, despite (or sustainability of mining[pdf!], a the geological inventory of the because) the high price increase publication from 2009, shows world potential estimated by the since 2000. Yet the copper price a n n u a l c o p p e r p r o d u c t i o n USGS, based on the study of today is cheaper than in 1900 s t a r t i n g i n 1 8 4 0 . known discoveries and possible when reported in 1998 dollars International Copper Study yet to find. The USGS does not per kg (USGS data). The G r o u p ( I C S G ) a p p e a r s t o give a good and precise secondary production is small o v e r s t a t e t h e r e s e r v e s definition of its estimates a n d d e c r e a s i n g t o a l m o s t The details for the eight main reported as reserves and reserve nothing! copper producers are presented base! These eight countries have 60% in the following slides. Contrary to the obsolete SEC of the resources World rules for oil, forbidding T h e e i g h t m a i n c o p p e r The world primary production reporting of probable reserves producers (Chile, US, Peru, is less than the secondary (now changed in 2010) the SEC Indonesia, China, Australia, production and both added less rules for minerals (industry Canada and Russia) have been than the refined reported by the AMAZING page 9 studied and the synthesis is ICSG.

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guide 7) allow to report proved and probable. The USGS only changes its data on copper reserves from time to time, when it shows the remaining discovered reserves, but it should be decreased when production isn't matched by new discovery. Only US and Canada reserves have decreased! The reserves reported by the USGS since 1995 show a poor evolution when plotted in a log scale. This poor evolution, such as for Russia with no change during 15 years, means that their estimate lacks good data! Geoscience Australia in their 2009 report [pdf!] use a more precise definition of resources and report Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) for Australia and the world at the end 2008 being 78 Mt and 603 Mt respectively. In its turn the USGS reserves stand at 24 Mt and 540 Mt and the USGS reserve base amounts to 43 Mt and 1000 Mt. USGS reserves look pessimistic compared to Geoscience Australia EDR. The reserve base looks similar, but there should be an upper limit. It is difficult to estimate the the point at which production ceases to be economic In mining, economics depends mainly on the grade of the ore and it is important to plot the evolution with time. But my data is not good enough. Gavin Mudd (2009) has a graph

showing the decline of the ore grades for the world, US, Australia and Canada, all declining below 1% in 2008. It is difficult to estimate the the point at which production ceases to be economic. America estimates reserves at a high percentage of reserve base -- that means we are very optimistic in the amount it is feasible to recover United States The cumulative US copper discovery (starting in 1545) from USGS 98-206A is 350 Mt at the end of 1998 and seems very optimistic compared to the USGS reserve base (around 200 Mt with cumulative production). The cumulative production in 1900 is assumed to be around 6 Mt and it is at 129 Mt at end 2008. We have taken 200 Mt as the ultimate production. We can see that the U.S. has 200Mt The Hubbert linearisation of production is more reliable, having passed peak, trending towards 200 Mt. The US annual production of copper is increasing chaotically from 1900 to a peak in 1998 at 2.1 Mt, and drops drastically to 1.2 Mt in 2005, despite a sharp increase in price! The USGS has almost doubled Chile's copper reserves from 1995 to 2009. Chile Chile probably has 275Mt We have model led for an

ultimate of 250 Mt because the Hubbert linearisation since 1999 trends towards such value, but also 300 Mt, guessing that 275 Mt is not a bad value. Chile copper production has peaked in 2007. Peru has 100 Mt Peru Like for Chile, the USGS has doubled its reserves estimate, but in 2008, from 30 to 60 Mt. We guess that the ultimate is around 100 Mt. But it is hard to estimate the peak for Peru The Hubbert linearisation is hopeless, being far from peak. Peru's production will peak around 2025 For an ultimate of 100 Mt, Peru's copper production will peak around 2025 at 1.7 Mt. China is also hard to plot China Data for China is hard to check and the USGS has increased its reserves lately. We have taken an ultimate of 50 Mt. The Hubbert linearisation plot trends towards infinite! But China should peak in 2020 The annual production should peak around 2020 at 1.2 Mt. Indonesia has around 45 Mt Indonesia The USGS has sharply increased Indonesia’s reserves around 2000, but reduced them last year. We have taken an ultimate of 45 Mt. Once again, it is hard to estimate the peak

Hubbert linearisation plot is impossible to extrapolate. But Indonesia has already peaked Indonesia copper production has peaked in 2001 and will decline slowly until 2100. Australia has a better way of predicting reserves Australia In the US, Wall Street (SEC) dominates reserves definition and it is good to see a country with a better scientific approach. Australia is a good choice to compare the USGS estimate with Geosciences Australia's estimate [pdf!]. Australia has a better reserve definition for minerals (EDR = Economic Demonstrated Resources). Check out the volatility The sharp increase in Australia’s copper reserves comes mainly from the huge Olympic Dam field (copper and uranium) in South Australia. K.F.Bampton in Copper mining and treatment in South Australia [pdf!] displays (in a logarithmic scale) the up and down copper production in South Australia starting around 1840. We see that Australia has 100 Mt Olympic Dam copper reserves are estimated at 32 Mt. Australia copper ultimate is estimated at 100 Mt. Volatility makes it hard to name the peak in Australia The Hubbert linearisation is hard to extrapolate!

Australia may peak in 2030 For an ultimate of 100 Mt Australia’s copper production will peak around 2030 at 1.5 Mt. But this optimistic future production increase is based only on geological constraints (reserves), yet above ground constraints (Economy) could dampen this forecast into a more chaotic behaviour! Canada has 50 Mt Canada Canada is another good place to compare USGS and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) approaches. NRCan reserves are more complete and slightly lower than the USGS reserves. From NRCan we estimate Canada's copper ultimate at 50 Mt. At least Canada has a clear sense of reserves The Hubbert linearisation seems to be trending towards 50 Mt since 1970. Canada's production will peak in five years. Canada’s copper production has peaked in 1974 and will be producing at half peak around 2015. Russia has 60 Mt Russia Russia is a difficult country to get reliable data from, because before the break up of the USSR the data was global and because the cold war data was very AMAZING page 12

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David Rosenberg: Here's 7 Economic Stats You Shouldn't Believe Joe Weisenthal (The Money Game)

indeed show an increase of 0.4% MoM (using the Case-Shiller Composite-10), Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:23:32 AM but the raw David Rosenberg of Gluskin- data revealed a 0.2% dip — the Sheff welcomes you back to fourth decline in a row! Now it work with seven economic would be datapoints requiring you to look one thing if January was an behind the headlines. unusually weak seasonal month 1. U.S. consumer spending in for home the first quarter is higher prices deserving of an upward because the savings skew from the adjustment rate has slipped to 3.1% from factors; however, 4.7% at the end of last year. from 1998 through to 2006, Organically, they rose in each and every spending is actually doing quite January and by poorly and that reflects the fact an average of 0.6%. But what that happened is that home prices wage-based incomes remain collapsed in under pressure. So, without that each of the past three Januarys unsustainable decline in what is — by an average of 1.8%, or a already a low personal savings 25% rate, annual rate. And, seasonal consumer spending in January factors typically weigh the would have actually contracted experience of the 0.4% and prior three years 0.6% in February. In other disproportionately so what looks words, what we are seeing like steady gains in unfold right now is housing prices may be little a ‘low quality’ consumer more than a statistical mirage. recovery in the U.S., not Consumer confidence deserving of the P/E (Conference Board version) rose multiple expansion that the to 52.5 in March retailers have enjoyed in recent and yet again this was treated months. A gleefully on the Street and in the sector to clearly fade going media f o r w a r d i s c o n s u m e r because it beat the consensus discretionary. estimate. But here is the reality: 2 . O n h o m e p r i c e s , t h e in seasonally adjusted data did recessions, this confidence

index averages out to be 71.0, and in expansions, it averages 102.0. What does that tell you? 4. The ISM index came out before the payroll numbers did and injected a big round of enthusiasm into the pro-cyclical camp. The index did shoot up in March, to 59.6 from 56.5, and while many of the components were up, the prime reason for the increase was the eight-point surge in the inventory component, to 55.3. Moreover, the orders-toinventories ratio slid to a level suggesting that we could be in for a big pullback in the next few months. Meanwhile, very little attention has been made to the construction spending data, which sagged 1.3% MoM in February with broad-based declines across sectors — and January’s 0.6% drop was revised to -1.4% (the fourth slippage in a row). 5. Stock buybacks are widely (and erroneously) viewed as being a major fund-flow driver of the equity market, and many a pundit points to the 37% QoQ jump (+98% from

the 2009 lows) in buybacks as source of comfort. But here’s the rub: The vast majority of companies are buying back their stock to avoid the dilutive effects of expiring stock options — of the 214 companies that did a buyback in Q4, only 50 resulted in share count reductions (see page B2 of the weekend WSJ). Moreover, it really says something about the widespread excess capacity in the economy and poor perceived rates of return on new investments that companies would opt to deploy cash for buyback strategies at this presumed early stage of the business expansion. If there is one trend that is indeed constructive — certainly for our income theme — it is that companies are beginning to pay out more of their retained earnings in the form of dividends — $5.1 billion in net dividend increases in Q1, the most since 2007Q4 (but still down 21% from two years ago). 6. There seems to be this entrenched view now that the government can be

expected to come in and resolve all the problems in the economy. This view is deserving in some sense because not only did the Fed and the Treasury break the boundaries between the private and public economy this cycle to bail out the banks, auto sector and housing companies, but they have continued in these efforts despite a record $1.5 trillion deficit. With no other goal, it would seem, than to allow the residential real estate market to clear at lower prices, the government now intends to permanently reduce the mortgage balance for all homeowners who are “under water” and unemployed homeowner mortgage borrowers are also going to be recipient of taxpayer assistance (but not the renter). The problem ahead is that the bond market may no longer be in a cooperating mood to finance all this largesse. With the 10-year yield now pressing against the 4% threshold, we have a crucial week ahead for the Obama DAVID page 16

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10 Essential iPad Tips & Tricks Gizmodo Staff (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:17:46 AM

Any idiot can use an iPad at a basic level. It's designed that way. But even still, there are things that you're just supposed to magically know—things no one ever necessarily tells you. So we're here to help. The Hard Reset The single most common thing people don't realize about the iPhone OS (from my experience) is how to perform a hard reset—which you'll find extremely useful in cases when the system freezes. Just hold the top (power) and bottom front (home) button for a few seconds. Your iPad will restart. To force quit an application, just hold the home button by itself in a similar fashion. Cut, Copy and Paste for Experts Copying text is as easy as double tapping a word. But when you want to copy a whole paragraph, like for an address, you have to stretch those annoying little blue knobs...or do you? Tap any editable text four times. You'll highlight the whole paragraph. Import Your Own (Free) Books Apple's iBooks app is your portal to reading and buying eBooks on the iPad—and it includes a section with a few free books. But don't forget, just like iTunes and the iPod can

import and play music downloaded elsewhere, the iTunes and the iPad can import and display books downloaded elsewhere. Formats are limited,

however. The iPad only supports ePub (with or without DRM). Your local library may be a great source for free ePub

stuff in this collection if you read classics, and the project even has an RSS list for new arrivals. If you want to convert PDFs and other DRM-free formats to ePub, you can use Calibre. Easy Mute There you are, in the back row of a funeral just minding your own business when, oops, you forgot to mute those YouTube clips on your iPad! No worries. There's a quick way to cut the speaker. Holding down the volume down button for about two seconds will mute your iPad. Never Buy a Digital Photo Frame Again You probably know by now that the iPad doubles as a digital picture frame. You can access this function a few ways, but the easiest way? When you wake the iPad, look to the right of Slide to Unlock. You'll see a flower. Click it. The slideshow will begin after a moment. Toggle the speed in Settings—oh, and while you're at it, turn off "zoom in on faces"—it tends to just grain/muck up your photos. Take Giant Screenshots Another oldie but goody that many that many people don't realize you can do in the iPhone c h e c k o u t s . A l s o , P r o j e c t OS: screenshot anything you're Gutenberg has 30,000 free ePub looking at. And keep in mind, books you can download, all of when this happens on the iPad, at 768x1024 which have fallen out of i t ' s ESSENTIAL page 16 copyright. There's lots of good

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AMAZING continued from page 9

imprecise. We have assumed the copper production of Russia during the period of the FSU by taking a certain percentage of FSU data. The USGS reserves have not changed from 1995 to now, despite production, indicating the uncertainty of the estimate. The largest field is Udokan in Eastern Siberia, which displays some negative growth (from 20 to 14 Mt); it was sold in 2008 to be developed and is planned to be producing 0.5 Mt by 2016. We have assumed Russia’s copper ultimate to be 60 Mt. Their peak is hard to predict The Hubbert linearisation could be extrapolated towards 60 Mt but it is not reliable! Russia's peak is now Russia’s copper production has dropped sharply with the break up of the FSU, and is likely peaking now. US consumption has likely peaked Copper consumption The US copper consumption displays a chaotic constant increase from 1900 to 2000, and then a decline. The US consumption peak follows the US production peak.

Did world consumption peak in 2006? Or will it continue to rise? The world copper consumption (N. Brewster, Rio Tinto, Outlooks for commodity markets [pdf!] displays a harmonious increase since 1850 but a possible peak in 2006, or just a bump! The real (in 2009 dollars) copper price displays an opposite trend! This is how we use copper It is hard to find a good graph of the distribution of the world copper use. This Russian graph (from Copper industry: world production – Part I) shows the large range of use by industry. Another good graph on US copper use. Copper is roughly 20 years behind gold Copper & gold & oil Gold production has peaked in 2000 and copper will likely peak in 2020. Their growth was roughly parallel (with a 20 years gap). Like gold, the price is chaotic Copper's price in 1998 dollars has been chaotic with a sharp increase in 2006 (still, lower than in 1900!), but the gold

price was also chaotic. Now copper pricing follows oil Since 1980 the copper price has been following the oil price. The copper age is ending. The only question is when. Conclusions Copper has been an important mineral in the world growth, in use for at least 10 000 years. The Bronze Age is well known for having replaced the Stone Age, and bronze is the alloy of copper and tin. Copper has the second highest electrical conductivity after silver. Its price went so high that copper cables are now often stolen, disturbing telephone and Internet communications. Copper is used in piping (water supply, refrigeration and air conditioning). Measured by weight, it is the third most important metal used by man after iron and aluminium (Radetzki 2009). Its use is challenged by new substitutes, but copper production will peak because it is a limited resource amounting to around 1400 Mt. Unlike oil, copper can be recycled, but developing countries’ needs are huge. Chile and China dominate the

And the 'One Book, One Twitter' Winners Are ... Jeff Howe (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/4/2010 9:00:00 PM

I spent a good share of last week poring over election

results for the One Book, One won handily with an aggregate Twitter (#1b1t) project. I don’t of 431 votes. think anyone will be surprised to hear that American Gods, a Hugo Award winning novel,

world's copper production. But Chile's production peaked in 2007 and China will likely peak around 2020. The future of copper is uncertain! The Copper peak seems a real concern for many and there are several “Peak Copper” sites. The use of peak xxx has become a fashion following the introduction of the term Peak oil by Colin Campbell in 2001. Peak fat is described by Ugo Bardi. From Goggle (February 2010) peak oil finds 2 080 000 quotes but oil peak only 91 400 quotes; peak copper finds 53 100 quotes, but copper peak only 24 100 quotes. The Copper peak is not something new! The only question is when. Don't miss... Image: MCA/Universal Pictures 15 Depressing Facts About The Coming Water Crisis >> Join the conversation about this story »

Spanish Gov't Officials Active Uploaders And Downloaders Of Unauthorized Content Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 4/5/2010 2:11:56 AM

The entertainment industry has been pushing hard for new copyright laws in Spain, even pretending that they might pull out of Spain if the laws aren't changed. That's because, under existing laws, file sharing for personal use is considered legal. Of course, economists have pointed out that the new laws would do more harm than good. TorrentFreak is now reporting that someone has been checking in on Spanish gov't IPs, and discovering that it appears that gov't officials are regular uploaders and downloaders of unauthorized content. Of course, as noted, that is legal in Spain right now -- but it does raise some questions about why the government would be so keen to change the law. And, before someone brings it up: no, an IP address is not evidence by itself, but as a bit of aggregate information it is a good way of getting a general sense. The problems with IP as "evidence" is when they're used to accuse a single person, not of understanding the wider usage patterns. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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Pending Home Sales For February Unexpectedly Rise 8.2% Vince Veneziani (The Money Game)

reflects contracts and not closings, which usually occur with a lag time of one or two Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:16:53 AM months. Pending home sales rose Lawrence Yun, NAR chief significantly in February, e c o n o m i s t , s a i d t h e climbing 8.2% month-over- improvement is another hopeful month and 17.3% year-over- sign. “The rise in buyer contact year. activity may signal the early Analysts were looking a decline stages of a second surge of of 1.0%. home sales this spring. The Prior month-over-month was healthy gain hints home prices revised lower from -7.6% to - are continuing to flatten,” he 7.8%. Lawrence Yun of the said. “We need a second surge National Association of Realtors to meaningfully draw down says this is a sign that "may inventory and definitively signal the early stages of a stabilize home values.” second surge of home sales this The PHSI in the Northeast rose spring." 9.0 percent to 77.7 in February The full release below from the and is 18.9 percent higher than NAR: February 2009. In the Midwest Pending home sales rose in the index jumped 21.8 percent February, potentially signaling a to 97.9 and is 18.7 percent second surge of home sales in above a year ago. Pending home response to the home buyer tax sales in the South increased 9.2 credit, according to the National percent to an index of 107.0, Association of Realtors®. and the index is 17.5 percent The Pending Home Sales higher than February 2009. In Index,* a forward-looking the West the index fell 4.8 indicator based on contracts percent to 98.0 but is 14.6 signed in February, rose 8.2 percent above a year ago. p e r c e n t t o 9 7 . 6 f r o m a “Anecdotal ly, we’re hearing downwardly revised 90.2 in about a rise of activity in recent January, and remains 17.3 weeks with ongoing reports of percent above February 2009 multiple offers in more markets, when it was 83.2. The data s o t h e M a r c h d a t a c o u l d

a closer relationship between annual index changes (from the same month a year earlier) and year-ago changes in sales performance than with month-to -month comparisons. An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, which was the first year to be examined as well as the first of five consecutive record years for existing-home sales. Existing-home sales for March will be reported April 22 and the next Pending Home Sales Index will be on May 4; release times are 10 a.m. EDT. Join the conversation about this d e m o n s t r a t e a d d i t i o n a l A sale is listed as pending when story » improvement from buyers the contract has been signed but See Also: responding to the tax credit,” the transaction has not closed, • Map: Here Are The 29 Cities Yun said. though the sale usually is At Risk Of A Housing Double The National Association of finalized within one or two Dip Realtors®, “The Voice for Real months of signing. • Actually, What We Need Is Estate,” is America’s largest The index is based on a large MORE Foreclosures, Not trade association, representing national sample, typically Fewer. And Soon. 1.2 million members involved in representing about 20 percent of • Here's What A $100,000 all aspects of the residential and transactions for existing-home Salary Gets You In 20 Global c o m m e r c i a l r e a l e s t a t e sales. In developing the model Cities industries. for the index, it was ### demonstrated that the level of *The Pending Home Sales monthly sales-contract activity Index is a leading indicator for parallels the level of closed the housing sector, based on existing-home sales in the pending sales of existing homes. following two months. There is

Snap Links Lite Opens Multiple Links in Tabs [Downloads] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:00:00 AM

Chrome: Like its Firefox

predecessor, Snap Links Lite for Chrome allows you to select multiple text links by rightclicking and holding, then opens

them all in tabs when you

release. It's handy for blog reading, research, and other web explorations. More »

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Facebook Services to Remain Free Courtney Rubin (Inc.com) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:09:00 AM

Observers have long wondered if Facebook could convert its 400 million plus users into actual profit – and if and when the social networking giant would start charging businesses for services it currently provides for free. Well, the privately-held Facebook "has been profitable for a long time," the company's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in an interview with the U.K.'s The Sunday Telegraph. And the site will focus on being an "ad-based business," she said – not on fees for functions. "You are right that a lot of the products we provide for businesses are free - we love that," she said. "And we think that if those free products work and they do - then people will advertise against that and spend money against them to promote them." She added: "We want the world to use Facebook and I think the

best way we get revenue is when people put up the page and it is all free and then they advertise to show people where the pages are. You've got to show people you've arrived. If I'm a business I can advertise to the whole world or to the people in Liverpool. We offer at both ends of that spectrum." Sandberg trumpeted the site as the "best platform" for brands to build awareness – challenging even television, she claimed. The site's unique strength is in users' interaction with the ads – and in its ability to promote and hit the fast-forward button on viral marketing. "Facebook is genuine two-way," Sandberg said. "When you put an ad on Facebook, users can interact with it and, more importantly, they do it publicly. If I watch a TV commercial and I like it I might tell my husband sitting next to me and that's it. If I see an ad on Facebook and I like it, I give it a 'thumbs up' and my average 130 friends see I like it and it spreads." She said Facebook planned to

be careful that advertising didn't intrude on users' experience and turn them off. "We are very conscious that this is people's space and that's why our ads look and feel the same as the rest of the site," she said. There will be no big pop-up ads – only ads that interact with users like everything else on the site. "So, when Alice In Wonderland opened and bought an ad saying 'come see it', people could RSVP just as if the invitation had come from a friend," she said. As for Facebook's long-term plans: An initial public offering is the company's ultimate goal, but for right now there's no plans for one because profits are enough to fund growth. "We've been profitable for a long time, we're cash-flow positive ahead of our forecasts and we're doing very, very well out of that model," Sandberg said. "The more people that use Facebook, the more inventory we have for adverts and the

more useful it is for advertisers. The key question is: when we see our usage go up, do we see our revenue go up? And the answer is 'yes' in really compelling ways." On Friday, Facebook bought Divvyshot, a Y Combinatorbacked San Francisco startup that launched in March. Photosharing company Divvyshot – founded by 25-year-old Sam Odio – was in the middle of raising an angel round when Facebook appeared with, presumably, a better offer. (Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed, though Odio at least got a free breakfast out the courtship: eggs, sausage, homefries, and a blueberry shake, he tweeted.) More than three billion photos are uploaded each month on Facebook. What do you think? Can Facebook build a large enough business through advertising alone?

Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:30:00 AM

Google Sync can keep your Google Calendar changes in

sync with your brand-spankingnew iPad, but only through one primary calendar by default. You can switch on multiple iPhone browser and heading to calendars by emulating an

Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:00:00 AM

Most browsers: The articlesaving, text-streamlining webapp Instapaper intentionally keeps its site dead simple to use. If you'd like just a bit of a color and style upgrade, the Threestyled script, and its Greystyled counterpart, add a bit of polish. More »

Sequencing the Video Genome Jennifer Welsh (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/5/2010 5:35:00 AM

Get Around the iPad's Single Calendar Sync Limitation [Syncing] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

Instapaper Threestyled/Greystyled Adds Polish to Saved Articles [Downloads]

Google Sync's mobile page. More »

Scientists are using the same technique behind gene sequencing to match video sequences in an effort to fight internet video piracy.

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Lifelike Geminoid F Robot Creepily Blurs Boundaries of Reality Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/5/2010 9:21:48 AM

We cover a lot of robots here on Fast Company, sometimes exciting tech, sometimes promising for healthcare, or the future of daily life...and sometimes outright creepy. The latest Japanese android is firmly in this category. She's a product of the Intelligent Robotics lab at Osaka University and robot builders Kokoro Co. Ltd., and she's dubbed Geminoid F(the "f" is for female.) And all that use of the word "she" is justified, as the bot is quite definitely convincingly female--which technically makes her a gynoid rather than an android. All this super realism is because she's modeled after a real twentysomething Japanese woman--on the right in that image above-via a sophisticated scanning system. Silicone realistic skin, convincing hair, and teeth that seem so real they make Geminoid F have a nearly human smile. Add in subtle movements, driven by a batch of servos, that give the robot the ability to raise an eyebrow, or mimic those tiny tics that our fallible flash-and-blood bodies get up to all the time without us realizing, and you've got a machine that is freakishly real.

She truly delves into that uncanny valley between detectably artificial and undetectable human-mimicing. [youtube 5dJOAf2Dt98] So what's the purpose of all this weird aping of reality? Partly it's because it's easy to develop a more trusting relationship with something that has a face--it's why people find it easy to love dogs and cats but turtles and spiders are harder to think about in the same anthropomorphizing way. The team behind this robot

think she'll work fabulously in roles like receptionist at a museum. And they're probably right. It'll be a while 'til the tech is advanced enough and portable enough to re-skin robots like ASIMO...but probably not as long as you think. And that speediness is reflected in the fact that you'll be able to buy a Geminoid F of your own next month for around $110,000. But if super-real robots aren't your thing, or you're in denial that your daily life isn't going to

be touched by this sort of tech soon, then check out this other innovation: A "wearable" augmented reality robot. This is also a Japanese creation, coming from assistant professor at Toyohashi University of Technology, and it's designed to inject the missing "sensations" into cross-Internet communications. Revealed this weekend at the very first Augmented Human International Conference in France, the "iFeel_IM!" robot

takes the form of a kind of "suit" that's essentially sensor and servo-laden straps that are wound around the wearer's body. The system can measure what the wearer is doing in terms of movement, and can deliver sensations back from a remote user also wearing a robosuit, in the form of flutters down your spine or even warmth. Confusing? Well, the simplest way to explain it is as a way of replacing emoticons--if you're far away from your partner, but Skyping them or IMing to keep in touch, then it'd be nice to feel a hug in some way, instead of just reading an emoticon. The remote future of this sort of tech is for all-immersive AR or virtual reality system that makes the virtual world a more totalbody experience. Think of sci-fi precedents like the VR in Matrix or the gargoyles in Snow Crash, and you'll see what I mean. There's also the question of teledilonics to ponder on... The robotic future is coming, mankind. Soon. To keep up with this news and more like it, follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter. I'm a real person, by the way. That QR code on the left will take you to my Twitter feed too.

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ESSENTIAL

DAVID

continued from page 11

resolution—making it potentially a lot more useful in the full-sized monitor realm than iPhone screenshots. Push the top (power) and home buttons at once for half a second. The photo will be stored in your photo library. Super Fast Webpage Scrolling So you're all the way to the bottom of a blog when you realize that you want to read a story back at the top. Don't do the whole repeatedly drag your finger across the screen thing. That's a horrible method for covering a lot of real estate. Instead: Tap the title bar once. WOOOOSSHHH. You're right back on top of the page. (Making "wooosh" noises doesn't expedite the process, but it does wonders for general effect.) Preview More Of Your Mail Did you know that you can set your mail to preview more than two lines? The iPhone has this option, too, but its smaller screen means that it's not so practical. On the iPad, however,

continued from page 10

I find the feature is pretty handy for skimming several emails without opening them. Go to Settings -> Mail, Contacts and Calendars and select "5 lines" under Preview. Also, while you're at it, you might want to update your Push email from "Manual" if you like to have your messages waiting when you open the Mail app. Of course, this will drain power a bit more quickly. Bring Up the Virtual Keyboard With a Real Keyboard When you have a Bluetooth keyboard connected to your iPad, the virtual keyboard will cease to appear. (This is a good thing.) However, what if, for some random reason, you needed that virtual keyboard? Don't unpair your Bluetooth. Just... Hit the eject key on Apple's physical keyboard. It'll bring up the virtual one. Downrez 1080P HD Videos...Or You Can't Watch Them You may have 1080P videos on your computer, but the iPad

can't play them—in fact, iTunes won't even let you copy them to the iPad! The easiest solution? Downrez them to 720P using an app like Handbrake. Joel gives you a full tutorial on that here. #11 BONUS: Put 6 Apps In the Bottom Tray Just discovered at Gizmodo HQ—the iPhone and iPad default to hold 4 icons/apps in the bottom tray. But the iPad can store more! By clicking and holding on any icon (just as you do to rearrange apps), you'll unlock each app's position. Then just drag any two additional apps into the bottom tray. Super handy. Hopefully you learned at least a thing or two, but of course, the iPad is a new device. So we need your help spotting the best tips—share them in the comments!

team’s financing capacity as a further $82 billion of debt sales are being put to the market for added digestion. Another source of concern for the bulls who continue to rely on government support for the recovery is the general population — the part of the public that took in a mortgage it could afford and never used the house as an ATM. Resentment is starting to build as Uncle Sam is increasingly being viewed as Robin Hood at best, or the Artful Dodger at worst. There were two great reads over the weekend pertaining to this theme of emerging class warfare — Tea Party Anger Reflects Mainstream Concerns on page A13 of the weekend WSJ and Help Paying Mortgages 7. While everyone is treating the nonfarm payroll report as gospel, let’s keep in mind that the ADP count showed that private payrolls fell 23k,

completely at odds with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which claims that this metric was up 123k. Now, we are not going to dismiss the BLS data at all, but wouldn’t it be nicer if both surveys said the same thing? The ADP is a pretty simple concept — and does not have any “plug” factors to try and assume how many new businesses were created or destroyed in any given month. Meanwhile, wages are now deflating and the 0.1% decline in March could be the thin edge of the wedge as the Gallup Daily tracking finds that 20.3% of the U.S. workforce was underemployed in March — a slight uptick from January and February. Join the conversation about this story »

Start Your Voicemail Messages Without a Gasp [Voicemail] Gregor Samosa (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:30:00 AM

If you've noticed how many people have voicemail messages that sound like they're gasping

for air when they record them, leave smooth radio-announcerthis simple trick from reader quality messages. More » Gregor Samosa will help you

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iPad's Sales Figures Better than iPhone's Addy Dugdale (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:19:52 AM

Apple has just sent out its sales figures for the iPad's debut on Saturday, and the company is claiming *rips envelope open* 300,000 units were shifted on Saturday alone. Not bad, although, the pre-sale feeding frenzy made one analyst revise his initial estimate of 250,000 to 300,000 tablets in the first weekend, to between 600,000 and 700,000 (Yes, Gene Munster, that means you). But how does that compare to sales of the iPhone, Cupertino's first mass-market device it sent out? Back in June 2007, Apple claimed that 270,000 first-gen iPhones were sold in the first 30 hours or so, although it took another three months for the device to hit the magic 1 million mark. Blame that on the price-$599--and the fact that it was

only available on AT&T at first, although when hackers finally managed to jailbreak the phone, it suddenly became a lot more covetable (the iPad's already been jailbroken). A year later, when Apple released the iPhone 3GS, it took just three days to reach seven figures. Total sales of the device are now

somewhere around 45 million worldwide. So, will the iPad do as well? Interestingly enough, Apple put its sales estimate for 2010 at around 10 million units, although a couple of analysts halved this number, saying that Jobs and Co. were over-stating their product's usefulness. What

you have to remember about Apple's mass market products is that they do their own PR, and the firm has no need to resort to sending its employees out to boost sales. Fanbois with a bad case of Priapism (iApism? Or iPriapism?) are surplus to requirements. As with the iPhone, the sales look after

themselves once the device is out in the open. Unlike the iPhone, which basically did a better job than any of the other smartphones on the market, the iPad has, as yet, no direct rivals (Dell and Toshiba tablets and ereaders aside). It is a radical new way of computing--just look how easy it is to " get" it. Even the technophobic olds, those little old ladies who refer to their computers as the "tellybox" will get it. And they'll get obsessed. Trust me: if one person turns up to their book club with an iPad, then, the next month, expect the other members to be following suit. And that's going to send Apple sales in the opposite direction to that which Isaac Newton discovered, 340 years ago. [ I m a g e http://www.flickr.com/photos/iv yfield// CC BY 2.0">Via] Read more iPad coverage

Chasing Value: 2010 Picks Triple Market Returns Sheldon Liber (BloggingStocks)

(RTN), E*TRADE (ETFC), EZCORP (EZPW), Williams Companies (WMB), Brasil Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:00:00 AM Telecom (BTM), Grubb and Filed under: Good news, Ellis Co (GBE) General Electric (GE), Home The first quarter of 2010 is D e p o t ( H D ) , B e r k s h i r e closed and the results are in. My Hathaway (BRK.A), Brazil, picks surpassed the primary I n d i c e s , A r c h e r - D a n i e l s - indices by a large margin. The M i d l a n d ( A D M ) , C h a s i n g original story, Chasing Value: c u l m i n a t i o n o f a p r o c e s s Value, Raytheon Company 10 Stock Picks for 2010, was the presented to our readers and

finally narrowed down to the select group using final prices from Monday, December 28, 2009. For comparison I tracked the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the NASDAQ. Each of these produced positive results for the quarter. Continue reading Chasing Value: 2010 Picks Triple

Market Returns Chasing Value: 2010 Picks Triple Market Returns originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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How to Sell to Valero Energy (Inc.com) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:00:00 AM

Tips from the inside: "We operate in 22 different market areas, so we have to be aligned with and attuned to regional offerings that may not be coming from large manufacturers," observes Hal Adams, vice president for retail merchandising at Valero Energy, a petroleum supplier that operates about 1,000 service -station convenience stores. "A lot of times, we are dealing with a mom-and-pop operator that is only selling in, say, San Antonio. But smaller suppliers should know that we have to hold them to the same minimum standards as we do the large corporations. "For example, we have a minimum amount of liability insurance that any product has to carry in case something goes

wrong. In order to do business with us, you need to be aware of our minimum requirements and preliminaries, and you need to be able to do those things. All that information is available on our website. When you come face to face with one of our buyers, it's usually a one-chance deal, so it adds some credibility

data -- and use it as part of your sales pitch." What not to do: "Don't be overly aggressive with your sales budget. Entrepreneurs are very passionate. That's wonderful, but that passion sometimes leads them to be unrealistic. A potential supplier should be reasonable in its sales projections in terms of what will sell in our stores. Be aware of how many customers an average store sees per day. If you're coming in and saying that you are going to sell 500 units a day and I have an average of 900 when you've invested some time where it has been able to create customers, that's probably not in researching Valero and some sort of a test level. If you very realistic." learning what role you might believe in your product, get it What Valero Energy is looking play in it. into some smaller retailers and for: Convenience-store items, "However, it's unlikely that a get some real-life market data. such as beverages and snacks; local supplier would make it Sometimes that might even t r a n s p o r t a t i o n s e r v i c e s ; into our locations first. Usually, mean giving a retailer your maintenance professionals; a regional manufacturer will product for free to see if it consulting; legal services; office h a v e t o h a v e d o n e s o m e moves. In turn, you can then ask supplies footwork in smaller stores that retailer to give you the sales

iPad Peek: See How Your Website Looks on the iPad Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

lets you see how any website will be rendered on the iPad. Click on the top border to The iPad is finally available, s w i t c h f r o m l a n d s c a p e t o and it’s already residing in the portrait mode; the virtual hands of some 300,000 people keyboard and the buttons on the who purchased it on launch day. iPad browser are just for show, In a couple of months, the iPad but the reload button on the iPad user base will become big browser works. enough for web developers to However, merely opening a start paying attention to how website in iPad Peek doesn’t their website looks on the iPad. really offer the “real” iPad iPad Peek is a nifty tool that experience; for example, Flash Submitted at 4/5/2010 4:39:37 AM

works (and it shouldn’t). To get closer to the real deal, you should disable the Flash plugin in your browser and change the

user agent string to that of the Apple iPad. To do this last bit in Firefox, type “about:config” in the address bar, click the right mouse button, select New – String, and name it “general.useragent.override”. Then enter the value “Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko)

Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B334b Safari/531.21.10. For more Apple coverage, follow Mashable Apple on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Tags: ipad, iPad Peek, web design, Web Development

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Jan Chipchase, Nokia's Usability Guru, Leaves for Review: Frog Design Truphone for iPad Cliff Kuang (Fast Company)

used to dissolve indentured servitude: Housekeepers with cellphones can now book out Chipchase is perhaps the their services, rather than world's most admired expert in relying on the whims of a single "human-centered design": Know household. how people use their gadgets, Obviously, you can't really and how to design for them. translate those findings directly Frog Design--already one of into the design of a tiny brick most influential design firms in phone. But Chipchase's job at the world--has just caught a very Nokia was to funnel all his big fish: Jan Chipchase, insights about user needs into formerly Nokia's chief usability cellphone design. It's not a researcher, is leaving the stretch to say he's probably the Finnish firm and joining Frog as world's most admired practioner Executive Creative Director of of human-centered design Global Insights. research. Chipchase will be based in Presumably, since he'll be Shanghai, and that tells you a lot based in Shanghai for Frog, he'll about both what Frog is hoping populations in the world that discovered has been richer than be doing something very similar to do and what Chipchase has d o n ' t h a v e t h e m a l r e a d y . anything you could ever glean --opening new markets for done in the past. Namely, the developing world, behind a desk. For example, he Frog's clients, by learning how As Nokia, Chipchase was at the in countries all across Asia and discovered that in Africa, people needs differ across cultures. l e a d i n g e d g e o f N o k i a ' s Africa. use cellphone minutes as a kind For more about Chipchase's overarching strategy: They're [youtube Qn2NR901NMY] of banking system, transferring work, read this superb profile a b o u t v o l u m e n o t p r i c e To support that, Chipchase flew calling card minutes to others, from The New York Times premium, and as such, they've all over the world for Nokia, who redeem them for cash. In Magazine, from 2008. growth in the last few years has watching how people used I n d i a , h e d i s c o v e r e d t h a t been predicated on selling cellphones. And what he's cellphones are actually being cellphones to the few Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:36:09 AM

5 Secrets of YouTube's Success Wired Magazine (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/4/2010 9:00:00 PM

Wired goes behind the scenes

of the site that launched a million memes. Here are the five secrets of YouTube's success.

John Biggs (CrunchGear) Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:03:37 AM

Just when you thought sidetalking was dead, Truphone has release Truphone for iPad, an iPad-ready of their popular VoIP service. The system uses the iPad’s built-in speaker and mic to create what could be the most ridiculous talking experience you’ve ever seen. The app worked quite well and if you’ve used it on the iPod Touch you’re familiar with the call quality – standard – and ease of use – standard. It’s great for making quick calls from abroad, however, and until Skype goes iPad we’re kind of stuck with it. Obviously this doesn’t match a real calling application that I doubt will be included in the 3G version of the iPad. However, for calls in a pinch this is a great solution. Product Page

Apple Sold 300,000 iPads On the First Day [Ipad] John Herrman (Gizmodo) Submitted at 4/5/2010 9:01:14 AM

This is a massive number. But

in the context of other massive

numbers—namely Apple's previous product launches—it isn't stunning. More »

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Keith McCullough: The Best Hope Cuba 'will not cede to For The Poor Is To Buy Scratch-Off blackmail' Tickets, The Rest Of Us Buy iPads (BBC News | Americas | World Edition)

Vince Veneziani (The Money Game) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:40:06 AM

Keith McCullough has a beautiful rant this morning on the Fed's ZIRP strategy, and the way it's affecting the rich and poor differently. He calls this tomfoolery the craftily-titled "Piggy Banker Spread": Hedgeye: After WWII, inflation has been a popular short-term market solution for easy money politicians. With the exception of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, most of the revisionist economists advising Washington have been able to get away with pretty much anything on this front. The US government has changed the calculation for inflation 9 times since 1996, so we’ve pretty much made this popularity-fest permanent. If you are wealthy and fully invested right now, inflation has to be popular with you. The politicized Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates at an “emergency” rate of ZERO percent, so that the bankers get paid while savers in America pay the bill. We call this the Piggy Banker Spread and the US government underwrites it.

At +285bps wide this morning (10-yr yield minus 2-yr), it is within 0.08% of its all-time widest spread ever. Oink, oink. If you are poor and fully committed right now, inflation is not popular with you. It’s your cost of living. You feel it at the pump. You feel it in your wallet. No matter where you go, there it is. Don’t even try thinking about saving either; you wouldn’t be making any money on those treasury bonds or cash-savings accounts anyway. So you may as well buy yourself another scratch bingo card and hope to live another day; the rest of us will

buy iPads. Harsh words for America's elite. Join the conversation about this story » See Also: • Chris Dodd's Financial Reform Bill Is A Road Map Leading Directly Into The Next Crisis • Chris Dodd's Incredibly Stupid Plan To Expand The Powers Of The Fed • Hedgeye: Expect A "Material Fall" In The Jobless Numbers Soon

since the death in jail of Orlando Zapata Tamayo in February, the first such death of a dissident in Submitted at 4/5/2010 2:44:56 AM nearly 40 years. Cuban President Raul Castro The 42-year-old was arrested in has attacked international March 2003 in a crackdown criticism over hunger-striking against opposition activists. dissidents, saying Cuba will Mr Zapata, who was declared a "never cede to blackmail". "prisoner of conscience" by Mr Castro said the US and Amnesty International, had Europe were using Western refused food for nearly three media to wage "a ferocious m o n t h s i n p r o t e s t a t j a i l campaign" to discredit Cuba. c o n d i t i o n s . Cuba has been under growing Another dissident, Guillermo pressure to release political Farinas, began his hunger strike prisoners and improve its human shortly after Mr Zapata died. He rights since a dissident died in is now in hospital, being fed February after a long hunger intravenously. strike. "We are doing what we can to Another dissident has been save his life," Mr Castro said refusing to eat or drink for more without referring to Mr Farinas than a month. by name. In a speech to the annual "But if he does not change his c o n g r e s s o f t h e Y o u n g own self-destructive stance, he Communist League, President will be responsible, along with Castro said his government had those who back him, for an the right to resist efforts to outcome which we too do not destabilise it. wish to happen," said President "We will never yield to the Castro, who officially took over blackmail of any country or from his brother Fidel in 2008. group of countries, no matter The Havana government denies how powerful they may be, no that there any political prisoners, matter what happens," he said. saying they are "mercenaries" "We have the right to defend paid by the US to try to ourselves." undermine the Cuban system. 'Self-destructive' Five Filters featured article: The human rights situation in Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Cuba has been the focus of PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, renewed international attention Term Extraction.

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How to Sell to Dell

Jackson doctor expected in court

(Inc.com) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:00:00 AM

Tips from the inside: "Changing vendors can be very expensive, so we're always looking for long-term partners," says Ying McGuire, senior manager of global supplier diversity at the computer maker Dell. "When companies first come to present to us, they may be starting off very small, but if they have a long-term global strategy and vision, that typically attracts our attention. We want all of our suppliers to have global capabilities. If a small business comes in and demonstrates that it has thought about marrying Dell's global sourcing strategies with its own plan to realize the greater growth, that's very attractive. We know that small suppliers have limited resources and may not understand the different regulations and culture. But we always tell people that if they want to compete, they need to support customers regardless of geographic location.

(BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:25:35 AM

"We worked with a small business based in San Diego that opened its first overseas market in China as a Dell IT services partner. The company specializes in data centers, infrastructure, and networking. Today, it is training workers in China and expanding its business in an emerging market. And Dell was able to use a U.S. small business to help our customers in China. It was a win

Michael Jackson's relatives are set to attend a court appearance later by the doctor accused of giving him a lethal dose of powerful anaesthetic. Dr Conrad Murray, who is due at a preliminary hearing at Los Angeles Superior Court, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said up to 15 relatives would be at the for everybody." What not to do: "Most small hearing. businesses are willing to learn A large number of journalists from us. However, when people and fans are also expected. don't want to change, when they Jackson's parents and brothers want to stick to their own and sisters are among relatives practices and philosophies, that's expected in court. California's attorney general kind of a warning sign for us." What Dell is looking for: IT has asked the judge to suspend services, staffing services, office Dr Murray's licence while he e q u i p m e n t a n d s u p p l i e s , faces the charges. But Dr Murray's lawyers have facilities maintenance said he is "hanging on by a thread" financially. "His ability to pay for his own defence depends almost entirely on his ability to continue to treat

patients," they said in court documents. Dr Murray has previously been ordered not to administer any anaesthetics as a condition of his $75,000 (£49,050) bail. He is alleged to have administered a lethal dose of Propofol and other drugs, which resulted in the pop star's death on 25 June. According to US reports, Dr Murray's legal team is to argue that Jackson accidentally killed himself by injecting himself with Propofol. In court on Monday, a judge is expected to be assigned to the case and a date set for a preliminary hearing. At that hearing, a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to go forward with a jury trial. If convicted, Dr Murray faces up to four years in jail. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

This Nintendo 3DS concept looks like a DS and PSP offspring Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:10:21 AM

We’ve always admired the

PSP’s sleek exterior, but loved the DS’s fun games. We’re weird like that. But maybe, although it’s highly unlikely, the n e x t D S i n c a r n a t i o n w i l l

combine some of the PSP’s trademark style with the DS’s functionality. If so, the 3DS would probably look something

like this concept art. [via Yanko Design]

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How to improve yourself with 42 practical tips (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:51:00 AM

Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie Visit Refugees in Bosnia (ETonline - Breaking News)

Improving your life doesn’t always mean conducting a complete overhaul—little tweaks can make a big difference in personal growth. Stepcase Lifehack has compiled a list of forty-two practical tidbits that will help lead you down a path of overall betterment. A handful of highlights: Pick up a new hobby. Beyond just your usual favorite hobbies, is there something new you can pick up? Any new sport you can learn? Examples are fencing, golf, rock climbing, football, canoeing, or ice skating. Your new hobby can also be a recreational hobby. For example, pottery, Italian cooking, dancing, wine appreciation, web design, etc. Learning something new requires you to stretch yourself in different aspects, whether physically, mentally or emotionally.

Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:15:00 AM

Wake up early. Waking up early (say, 5-6am) has been acknowledged by many (Anthony Robbins, Robin Sharma, among other self-help gurus) to improve your productivity and your quality of life. I feel it’s because when you wake up early, your mindset is already set to continue the momentum and proactively live out the day. Ask for feedback. As much as we try to improve, we will

always have blind spots. Asking for feedback gives us an additional perspective. Some people to approach will be friends, family, colleagues, boss, or even acquaintances, since they will have no preset bias and can give their feedback objectively. Learn from people who inspire you. Think about people you admire. People who inspire you. These people reflect certain qualities you want to have for

yourself too. What are the qualities in them you want to have for yourself? How can you acquire these qualities? Full list at Stepcase Lifehack. A plethora of life tips and tricks. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink| Leave a comment »

Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie reportedly arrived in Bosnia Sunday night to meet with those displaced by the Bosnian war that ended 15 years ago. Jolie, a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ambassador, and Pitt visited those who have never returned to their homes because their villages and/or houses have not been repaired, the Associated Press reports. An estimated 117,000 people are displaced, 7,000 of those people live in refugee centers. Prior to this trip, the Jolie-Pitt family was in Italy while Jolie was been filming 'The Tourist' alongside actor Johnny Depp.

Microsoft invites us to mystery event, April 12th! Joshua Topolsky (Engadget) Submitted at 4/5/2010 11:01:00 AM

Well... we don't know what to make of this one. Microsoft just snail-mailed us a circular package with an invitation to an event on April 12th in San

Francisco. They also tell us that it's "time to share," and apparently intend that sharing to go on between young, attractive Urban Outfitters models (according to the images on the notice). Okay. So what is this? Pink? Courier(gasp!)? Windows

Phone 7 Series Phone Series 7?

Only Microsoft knows for sure. We're searching for more info, so stay tuned! One more pic after the break. Continue reading Microsoft invites us to mystery event, April 12th! Microsoft invites us to mystery

event, April 12th! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

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Tech coalition to Obama: Set home energy info free (CNET News.com)

energy. People should also have access to pricing information and find out the sources of their A g r o u p o f c o n s u m e r electricity supply, the letter said. t e c h n o l o g y c o m p a n i e s , "Technologies exist today that including Google, General can be deployed to achieve this Electric, and Intel, on Monday goal. To ensure success, we urged President Obama to create need clear rules on consumer policies that give consumers access to information; incentives better access to home energy to promote the deployment of information. technologies, including (utility) In a letter, 47 companies and cost recovery; programs that nongovernmental organizations e d u c a t e a n d e n g a g e b o t h said that making detailed data providers and energy users; and on electricity and fuel use e n c o u r a g e m e n t o f d i v e r s e available to consumers is a key technologies. Robust privacy step toward meeting national and security protection for energy and environmental goals. consumers and their information Google has developed an is essential," according to the application called PowerMeter letter. that can take home electricity The statement was made public information and display it on a in advance of an event to be W e b b r o w s e r o r s m a r t hosted by Google on Tuesday at p h o n e . ( C r e d i t : G o o g l e ) its Washington, D.C., office to Giving people "actionable discuss innovation in home i n f o r m a t i o n " t h r o u g h energy use. Representatives computers, smart phones, or in- from Google, Intel, smart-grid home energy displays could start-up Tendril, Whirlpool, the "unleash the forces of Federal Communications innovation in home and Commission, the Federal business," according to the Energy Regulatory Commission, letter. If all U.S. households cut and the Climate Group are energy consumption by 15 scheduled to speak. percent over the next 10 years, Rather than propose one the greenhouse gas reductions sweeping measure, the group would be equivalent of taking that said information access 35 million cars off the road and should be a priority in a number save each customer $360 per of rules related to electricity year, or $46 billion. distribution. The group also Consumers should be able to recommended an initiative see how electricity is consumed among federal agencies, states, within the home, which will and industry to devise a strategy help them find ways to save around consumers and energy Submitted at 4/5/2010 5:46:21 AM

information. There are a growing number of tools to help consumers get detailed information on electricity use, many of which are being made available through utility smart-grid programs. The products surface electricity usage information that can, for example, show

people electronics that are consuming power even when they aren't being used. Early tests have shown that real-time and daily electricity data can help consumers shave bills anywhere from a few percent to 10 percent or more in some cases. With a two-way thermostat or

home-automation network, a person could control heating and cooling and "smart appliances" remotely using a smart phone. They could also program applicances to take advantage of off-peak electricity rates. Many of these home-energy management systems rely on smart meters, though they are not always necessary. Energy management tools can be an important component to home weatherization services, where energy auditors and contractors retrofit buildings to be more efficient, the letter noted. Although some of these energy management systems can be sophisticated, there remain questions as to how much consumers will engage in tracking energy use over time, particularly if the process is complicated. Regulations are also a barrier for many utility-led smart-grid programs, which sometimes subsidize installation of these tools because most utilities don't have a financial incentive to reduce the electricity use of their consumers. Many consumer electronics companies are seeking to expand into home energy management, either by offering dedicated devices as Intel has proposed. Telecom providers or security service companies are TECH page 30

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5 Tips for Using LinkedIn to Find Star Employees Sharlyn Lauby (Mashable!) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:54:35 AM

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. Successful business people are always looking for their next rock star employee. The question is where do you find them? The good news is that the latest LinkedIn stats – 60 million professional profiles spanning 200 countries – would indicate this is a good place to look. Many of us already have a LinkedIn account, and if you don’t, LinkedIn is free and easy to maneuver. The trick is incorporating some strategies (habits, if you will) into using LinkedIn. Below are five easy things you can add to your LinkedIn strategy to give you greater exposure to top talent. 1. Build Connections In the course of your daily business, you never know where your next sale is going to come from. The same can be true for recruiting. It’s important to connect and build relationships

with a variety of different people. For example, my LinkedIn profile has connections from prior jobs, clients, and local entrepreneurs I do business with. It’s great when I can make introductions between people with varied needs. 2. Join Groups In addition to being a part of groups for your personal and/or professional benefit, join a couple of groups that might help surface candidates. Let’s say you’re always looking for sales professionals. There’s a LinkedIn group – The Sales Association– that you might want to join as a way to connect with possible candidates. They have almost 20,000 members, are affiliated with a national association, and have a job posting system when you’re ready to let people know about your next opening. 3. Engage with Questions and Answers Once you start connecting with groups, look for opportunities to engage with people in discussions. Notice people who share your culture and enter into a conversation with them. I belong to a group called Social Media in Organizations. This group offers multiple channels to talk about workplace social media – discussions, webinars,

repository of names. But these days, more and more people are becoming reacquainted with it. Since most people have a presence on LinkedIn, it’s an obvious place to keep tabs on what’s happening in the marketplace. And as small business owners, you can easily articles, a book club, etc. 4. Get leverage LinkedIn to find talent. (and Read) LinkedIn Updates For more business coverage, This is a quick and easy way to follow Mashable Business on r e c o g n i z e p e o p l e f o r Twitter or become a fan on p r o m o t i o n s , a w a r d s , a n d Facebook accomplishments. People will More business resources from remember you. Since much of Mashable: your LinkedIn profile is static, - Growing Your Business: 5 this is a way to regularly let Tips From the Founder of people know what you’re up to. Foursquare I ’ v e s e e n s o m e o f m y - 5 Essential Apps for Your connections post in their status Business’s Facebook Fan Page “ L o o k i n g f o r a S e n i o r - Web Entrepreneurship: Does Accountant. Got a lead? Let the City You Live in Matter? me know.” 5. Embrace Mobile - HOW TO: Integrate Paid Keeping up with all of the Search and Social Media for information available can be a Better Marketing Results daunting task. That’s why I like - How Small Businesses Are the mobile version of LinkedIn Using Social Media for Real for my phone. I can check Results Reviews: BlackBerry updates while I’m waiting at Rocks!, Facebook, LinkedIn, appointments, so staying on top Twitter, iPhone of the activity doesn’t have to be Tags: business, human a t i m e - c o n s u m i n g c h o r e . resources, linkedin, List, Lists, LinkedIn offers versions for the small business iPhone, BlackBerry, and Palm. Over the years, LinkedIn has taken some hits for being nothing more than an online

Inflation Debate at the Fed Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture)

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

TECH continued from page 29

also looking at adding energy monitoring to their existing services. Other signers of the letter include the Consumer Electronics Assocation, the Green Electronics Council, AT&T, Nokia, Comcast, Best Buy, Dow, Verizon, green-tech venture capital companies, and environmental advocacy groups. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Which Celebs Are Having a Rough Time in Rehab? [Blind Items] Brian Moylan (Gawker) Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:26:57 AM

Everyone in Hollywood is in rehab these days, but these three souls are having a particularly rough time. This actor has a habit for strippers and another a habit for his male costars. Can we say no, no, no? More »

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Are Computers in Africa Really Weapons of Mass Destruction? Kevin Donovan (Techdirt)

basic literacy, not to mention programming prowess, is a challenge. When Franz-Stefan In recent months, a number of writes in one of the articles folks have argued that the a b o v e , t h a t " s k i l l f u l arrival of high-speed bandwidth cybercriminals operating out of in Africa represents not an an unregulated Internet cafe in o p p o r t u n i t y f o r e c o n o m i c the slums of Addis Ababa, growth, but a dangerous threat Lagos, or Maputo" will create to the world. According to these the world's biggest botnets, he Western pundits who are, s h o w s t h a t h e h a s l i t t l e incidentally, often promoting understanding of those "slums." their cybersecurity services, For starters, electricity is computers and connectivity in intermittent enough to make Africa either pave the way for cyberwar a sputtering failure. terrorists to unleash cyber- Secondly, although there are attacks or for botnet operators to pockets of terrorists on the gather millions of unprotected c o n t i n e n t , b y a n d l a r g e , machines into their control. elsewhere terrorists have access A l t h o u g h w e ' v e s p e n t to far better finances and considerable time debunking the bandwidth than their comrades hysteria around cyberwar, this in Mogadishu. The fact that new version of the meme is those terrorists haven't used the even more unfounded. Internet for these types of Worrying that Africa is going attacks with any regularity to start producing top-notch suggests that they place far more hackers in any great quantity faith in tried-and-true methods seems pretty absurd, when we're of terrorizing, and there is every talking about a continent where reason to believe that those in Submitted at 4/5/2010 4:16:00 AM

Africa will be the same. Finally, as Miquel Hudin points out, it is ridiculous (and very likely offensive) to think that Africans are any more likely to keep their PCs insecure than anyone else. An American or European who points to Africa as the source of infected botnet computers is wildly hypocritical considering the enormous number of insecure computers that wealthy, educated Westerners have in their homes and offices. It seems quite unlikely that African computers are any more insecure than elsewhere. Frantic articles painting Africa as just another threat, especially with regard to a great opportunity for the continent connectivity - are reckless and miss both on-the-ground context and level-headed responses to the challenges of the continent. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Interview: Ben Folds Talks Chatroulette and Merton [VIDEO] Brenna Ehrlich (Mashable!) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:51:31 AM

When Merton the Chatroulette Piano Guy burst on the scene last month, a considerable number of people believed him to be musician Ben Folds. Folds, in turn, started making like Merton at concerts, uploading his“Odes to Merton” to YouTube. Mashable recently sat down with Folds via Skype to talk about Merton, Chatroulette and whether he is, in fact, the man behind the hood. Merton the Chatroulette Piano Guy garnered his fair share of fame from going on the video chat site and composing improvisational songs on his piano about the people he encountered there. Mashable recently spoke with the man, who prefers to remain anonymous, about his musical aspirations as well as striking resemblance to Ben Folds. Many of you (including some Mashable staffers) remained unconvinced that Merton and

Folds are not one-in-the-same. After Folds released his final“Ode to Merton” last week, we decided to contact the musician and get the lowdown on his foray into the infamous social site. After speaking with Folds, I’m pretty much 100% sure that he and Merton are not the same person. Check out the interview below if you’re still not convinced, as well as our original interview with Merton himself. For more web video coverage, follow Mashable Web Video on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Tags: chatroulette, music, viral video

Hot Teacher Sex Banned, at Yale [Ivy League] Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 4/5/2010 11:14:28 AM

A sad day in the history of free love: Yale has formally banned faculty members from having

sex with undergrads. Well, what the fuck is the point of teaching at Yale now? " Harold Bloom

joke." [Typical Yale pic via] More »

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North Face Decides South Butt Lawsuit Is Not Worth Exploring Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

the settlement appear to be under wraps, there's no indication that the South Butt is The lawsuit between North going away any time soon: The Face and South Butt sure was most recent post on South Butt's entertaining (especially the Facebook page, meawhile, states filings by South Butt's lawyer). t h a t f o u n d e r J i m m y However, with the North Face W i n k e l m a n n , a f r e s h m a n g e t t i n g s o m e p r e t t y b a d biomedical engineering student publicity over its tactics, which at the University of Missouri, seemed to focus more on was "partying hard in Panama embarrassing the founder of the City with South Butt." Watkins South Butt and his father, it said the settlement did not looks like the North Face has prevent his client from handing realized this was one lawsuit not o u t m e r c h a n d i s e w h i l e i n worth exploring. Florida on spring break. Late Friday, the two sides "Jimmy was down in Panama settled-- and while the terms of City having a great deal of fun, Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:18:00 AM

enjoying a number of young ladies who enjoyed themselves donning and sporting South Butt wear," Watkins says. "He immediately returned to Panama City to give away many more Tshirts." Just imagine how much better things would have worked out if the North Face hadn't lawyered up over this, but had simply talked to the South Butt guys and worked out a friendly deal in the first place? Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

ET Set To Live Stream Conrad Murray Hearing (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:26:00 AM

ET has the latest... Dr. Conrad Murray, who's been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of

Michael Jackson, is scheduled to appear in an L.A. courthouse today and ETonline will be streaming live as he -- as well as a number of Jackson's family members -- arrive at the courthouse.

The court hearing has been scheduled to assign a judge to the case as well as to set a preliminary hearing date. Check back here after 12 pm today to watch live!

Online Communities Patented; Lawsuit Against Facebook Moves Forward Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

together an online community not an obvious thing? Back in 2007, the company It's always fun to see patent holding that patent, Cross s y s t e m d e f e n d e r s i n o u r Atlantic Capital Partners, sued comments insist that the patent Facebook. In turn, Facebook system rarely makes mistakes in asked for the trial to be held up issuing patents, and how really while it explained to some bad patents get pushed out upon patent examiners that they were review. And yet... then we hear i n s a n e t o t h i n k t h i s w a s stories like the following one. patentable. Apparently, the Four guys, back in 2001 filed patent examiners haven't used for a patent ( 6,519,629) on a the internet very much, and " s y s t e m f o r c r e a t i n g a affirmed the validity of the community for users with patent -- so the lawsuit is now common interests to interact in." back on. This is just one in a Seriously. Reading through the g r o w i n g s e r i e s o f p a t e n t patent application, I'm having lawsuits against Facebook -trouble seeing how this wasn't once again highlighting that covered by a ton of prior art. once you get big enough to be What in that patent does not noticed, some nobody will sue apply to early BBS systems, for you for patent infringement. example? And, even if there Permalink| Comments| Email really is something new (I can't This Story find anything), how is putting Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:24:00 AM

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Marriage Troubles for Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott? (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:52:00 AM

Jonathan Ive buys a couple of iPads Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPad Steve Jobs wasn't the only one paying a visit to an Apple Store on iPad launch day. Jonathan Ive, Apple's top industrial designer, was snapped buying two of his own products at an Apple Store on April 3rd. It's

not clear which store the above pictures were taken in, but you can clearly see the form of two iPad boxes in the bag. What's the iPad's number two creator doing buying a toy that he helped create? Some might joke that Apple is cheap. Some might say it's a move for more free publicity (like the iPad needs any more free publicity). Me? I'm chalking it up to

professional courtesy and class. Support your product in all the ways that you can; get out there to get a buzz off of the excitement you've helped create, and use that buzz to funnel your energy into making the next version even better. I've got one more image for you below. It's a shot of Steve Jobs during his visit to the Palo Alto Apple Store.

[images via 9to5Mac] TUAW Jonathan Ive buys a couple of iPads originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Tori Spelling says she's committed to her marriage to Dean McDermott regardless of the arguments and bickering seen on their reality show "Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood." "We're just like any other couple," Spelling told Ann Curry on the "Today" show on Monday. "We have fights. We have our ups and downs. It's a real relationship. Some issues have come up this season and the cameras were there to capture it. I'm happy to put that out there to my fans. We're a normal, relatable couple and things happen." The former "Beverly Hills 90210" star says she's fine with having cameras document the good and bad times in her marriage. "We do a reality show and I signed up for this. I said I'm going to put it all out there because otherwise I don't believe in doing it."

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Adobe releases Adobe Ideas for iPad Playboy Fetishists Fear Playboy Fetish Getting Less Cool [Sex Pervs] Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/5/2010 9:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPad Just because Adobe can't have Flash on the iPad doesn't mean that they want to miss out on the Apple tablet bandwagon. Adobe has released a pretty cool app called Adobe Ideas. Adobe Ideas is a sketchbook for the iPad. The app features vector-based drawing tools, zoom control, sizable brushes, layers, and the ability to email PDF documents for editing in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. While Adobe Ideas isn't as feature-rich as Brushes for iPad, it is a free app that starving

artists will appreciate (though, if you've bought an iPad, I don't think you technically count as a "starving" artist). Brushes for iPhone was used by Jorge

Colombo to paint a cover of The New Yorker. It's going to be cool to see how artists start embracing the iPad and its larger screen with apps like these. Picasso may have had his Moleskine ( may have), but the next great artists might just be sketching their budding visions on the iPad. TUAW Adobe releases Adobe Ideas for iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:40:38 AM

Playboy's once-mighty breast photography publishing empire is crumbling into dust, so the company is just selling its logo to anything and everything in order to raise some cash. This upsets the weirdos who

collected Playboy crap before it was cool. More Âť

Official: Apple sells more than 300K iPads on day one Dave Caolo (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

home and downloaded more than 1,000,000 apps (oh, it's on) and 250,000 ebooks. Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:00:00 AM As Steve Jobs notes in the press Filed under: iPad release, the average owner Apple announced this morning downloaded about 3 iPad apps that it sold more than 300,000 and 1 book on Saturday. Selling iPads on opening day. The 300,000+ iPads in 24 hours is comprehensive number includes impressive, but a far cry of pre-order pickups, deliveries to Munster's latest estimate of channel partners and walk-in 700,000. Yet, it's right on target s a l e s a t A p p l e S t o r e s . with his initial guess: between Additionally, customers went 200,000 and 300,000. Note that

"deliveries to channel partners" means that Apple still counts unit sales for any unsold inventory that's at Best Buy or

other authorized resellers. By comparison, the iPhone 3G and 3GS sold one million units in three days and the first

UConn rolls through Baylor for 77th straight win Associated Press (ESPN.com)

Top Performers Baylor: M. Medlock 14 Pts, 6 Reb

Connecticut: M. Moore 34 Pts, Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: 12 Reb, 1 Ast, 2 Stl, 1 Blk PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

iPhone sold one million units in 74 days. TUAW Official: Apple sells more than 300K iPads on day one originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Apple: Over 300,000 iPads sold on first day (CNET News.com) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:23:00 AM

Apple's iPad(Credit: Apple) We'd heard analysts' predictions, but until now no one knew for sure how many iPads were sold on launch day. On Monday, Apple announced it sold more than 300,000 of its new tablet computers on Saturday. That figure included preordered iPads delivered to customers, sales at its retail stores, and deliveries to channel partners. In addition, Apple said, iPad owners downloaded more 1 million iPad apps and 250,000 e

-books from Apple's iBookstore on Saturday. Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster had originally predicted Apple would sell

between 200,000 and 300,000 iPads on the first day, though he upped his estimate to 600,00 to 700,000 over the weekend. Only Wi-Fi iPad models are available right now. Apple will begin selling models with Wi-Fi and 3G in late April. "It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world--it's going to be a game changer," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement Monday. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Kraken Released All Over America's Face [Monday Box Office] Richard Lawson (Gawker) Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:35:38 AM

This movie-going weekend, lots of people wanted to see the gods killing each other. And others wanted to see married couples trying to kill each other. And of course there were the Miley

Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:11:59 AM

Apple announced on Monday morning that it sold more than 300,000 iPads in the U.S. on the first day of sales, including “deliveries of pre-ordered iPads to customers, deliveries to channel partners and sales at Apple Retail Stores.” Furthermore, iPad users

downloaded more than one million apps from the App Store and 250,000 e-books from the iBookstore on the first day. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimated that 600,000700,000 units were sold over the weekend— his estimate, however, was too optimistic. The numbers are still fantastic, the web. Once the initial frenzy and we’re glad Apple checked subsides and the 3G model hits the wild predictions floating on the market, we’ll have a better

Cyrus lookie loos, who are creepy. More »

FanHouse TV Roundtable: NCAA Championship Game Predictions FanHouse TV (FanHouse Main)

iPad Stats: More Than 300,000 Sold on First Day, 1 Million Apps Downloaded Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

Submitted at 4/5/2010 3:44:00 AM

Filed under: Butler, Duke It's a one game season in college basketball. Powerhouse Duke vs. Cinderella Butler. idea of whether the iPad really FanHouse TV has been all over is a game changer, as Steve Jobs the Final Four this week, so suggests. don't miss the championship For more Apple coverage, predictions of Terence Moore, follow Mashable Apple on David Steele and Terrance Twitter or become a fan on Harris. You will be surprised by Facebook their winner. Tags: apple, Apple Tablet, ipad, Click here to watch: mobile applications, trending

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Young customer receives iPad demo from Steve Jobs

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Street Fight Noam Scheiber (The New Republic - All Feed)

battle to tame the banks: Both sides recognize that the reformers have the momentum, Submitted at 4/4/2010 8:31:37 AM given the way last month’s L a s t w e e k , A l a b a m a health care victory has unified Republican Richard Shelby, the Senate Democrats, and given the Dave Caolo (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) ranking member of the Senate political peril for Republicans in Banking Committee, floated a appearing to do Wall Street’s Submitted at 4/5/2010 11:00:00 AM compromise on the consumer bidding. But both sides also financial protection agency recognize that, p.r.-wise, the Filed under: iPad When Steve that’s currently stalled in the consumer agency tends to Jobs visited the Palo Alto Apple Senate. Under the bill Chairman overwhelm other elements of Store on University Avenue last Chris Dodd moved through the the reform effort. Saturday, he did more than c o m m i t t e e i n M a r c h , t h e In light of this, Republicans observe the sale of iPads. He c o n s u m e r a g e n c y w o u l d seem to be settling on a strategy: gave one attendee a personal effectively have its own budget Give the Democrats much of demo. none of them had to shop like and an independent, White what they want on the consumer And she was just a kid. Cédric Lignier shared the "the rest of us," but it's nice that House-appointed director. It agency and bet that Democrats would also have significant (but won’t be too picky about the experience of watching Jobs they did. T U A W Y o u n g c u s t o m e r not unchecked) authority to rest. If the bet pans out, the demo the iPad for his daughter via Twitter: "Met Steve Job @ receives iPad demo from Steve w r i t e a n d e n f o r c e r u l e s industry and its GOP allies Palo Alto today! [He] demoed Jobs originally appeared on The protecting consumers from would, in effect, be trading a t h e i P a d 2 h e r d a u g h t e r . U n o f f i c i a l A p p l e W e b l o g a b u s i v e b a n k p r a c t i c e s , robust consumer agency for a Unbelievable!" He also snapped (TUAW) on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 like deceptive mortgages. Until chance to scale back a number this great photo of Jobs leaving 11:00:00 EST. Please see our now, the banks and the GOP of highly consequential but terms for use of feeds. have largely tried to eviscerate below-the-radar reforms. But the store. Johny Ive also showed up to Read| Permalink| Email this| these provisions. But, according will it? to one person familiar with the Of course, this being a highpurchase a couple of iPads, and Comments discussions, Shelby’s proposal stakes negotiation, no one is Woz even waited in line. Sure, took a big step in the direction prepared to concede much of o f t h e D o d d a p p r o a c h . anything yet—at least not (Spokesmen for both senators explicitly. When I asked one declined to comment beyond bank lobbyist last week about a (Financial Times - US Published: April 5 2010 14:45 | saying that “we continue to grand bargain involving the homepage) Last updated: April 5 2010 discuss a number of options,” as consumer agency, I could Shelby’s communications aide, practically feel him bristle over 14:45 Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:45:19 AM the phone. “You keep pressing Five Filters featured article: Jonathan Graffeo, told me.) B y G e r r i t W i e s m a n n i n Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Shelby’s recent outreach seems your case until the end,” he Berlin, Chris Bryant in Vienna, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, to reflect the new reality in the insisted. and Kerin Hope in Athens Term Extraction.

Germany splits with EU over Greek rates

And yet, the longer you talk to such K Street denizens about the politics of financial reform, the more they concede that this is what the landscape may give them. This same person told me he sensed that Dodd was open to compromising on everything but the consumer agency. He added: "For the average American, it's the only piece of the bill they can really sink their teeth into.” The logic becomes even more compelling once you home in on particular issues. For example, one of the most important but least understood parts of the financial reform bill relates to derivatives, which are essentially bets on the prices of other assets, like stocks and bonds. The credit default swaps that brought AIG to the government’s doorstep are probably the most famous example of the trouble-making potential of this financial instrument. AIG’s derivatives portfolio was largely a bet on bonds backed by mortgages. When the mortgages took on water, the bet left AIG on the hook for billions in losses, pushing the company to the brink of bankruptcy. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Energy Independence Talk Is Just So Much Gas (AEI.Org: Articles)

talks about independence for other products. We don't care about automobile independence, Last week, in front of a bio-fuel or bottled water independence, jet fighter at Andrews Air Force or underwear independence. We Base, President Barack Obama avoid asserting that those would announced his intention to open be worthy goals, for a good up much of the eastern seaboard reason: Free trade enhances our and parts of the Gulf of Mexico welfare by allowing us to import and Alaska to offshore oil products from those who have a drilling. comparative advantage The White House press release p r o d u c i n g t h e m . said the move will "enhance our Why should energy be any nation's energy independence different? Three arguments are while protecting fisheries, most commonly offered. tourism, and places off U.S. Fluctuating Prices coasts that are not appropriate The first is that oil price for development." As Obama fluctuations harm the economy, put it, "For decades we've talked and that owning more oil would about how our dependence on help inoculate against them. f o r e i g n o i l t h r e a t e n s o u r This is specious. If the U.S. does economy--yet our will to act discover a mother lode of oil, rises and falls with the price of a that discovery will affect the barrel of oil." global price of oil. After the The president apparently price adjusts to the new supply, decided that the potential it will go on and fluctuate from environmental risks are worth there. Before the discovery, taking because of the benefits of Americans would pay the world e n e r g y i n d e p e n d e n c e - - a price of oil, and watch and nonsensical goal that would suffer as it moves up and down. never be pursued by anyone Ditto for after the discovery. who understands economics. It might be nice, of course, to We will never get energy policy own the oil or oil companies if right if our leaders continue to the price increases sharply. That t r a f f i c i n s u c h s i l l y way, U.S. citizens see their misconceptions. Nobody ever wealth increase to offset some Submitted at 4/4/2010 4:00:00 PM

of the damage of the higher price. But if that hedge is viewed as attractive, we don't need to drill to acquire it. We could just encourage Americans to invest in the equities of publically traded foreign oil companies such as BP Plc, PetroChina Co. or Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Fear of Embargo The second reason sometimes given for more U.S. production is that a foreign enemy might decide to organize an embargo against us and shut off our supply of oil. Such an embargo might, indeed, harm the economy, as it did back in 1973. Still, think about it. If we fear there might be an embargo in the future, the optimal response is to purchase more oil from abroad today, not less. We should try to get as much as we can before the spigot is turned off. We should also reduce domestic production, not increase it, secure in the knowledge that the oil is there, available when we need it, in places such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. If we ramp up production today, then we may find ourselves facing an embargo down the road after we

have drained all of our own domestic reserves. The third argument one sometimes hears is that we should stop buying oil from evil -doers such as Iran, as that only provides them with resources they can use to do us harm. But the problem is, oil is a commodity, and if we do not purchase it from a given supplier, someone else will. Such a boycott has no effect whatsoever. Focus on Benefits This doesn't mean that Obama's idea to allow drilling offshore is necessarily a bad idea. But the benefits and costs need to be weighed rationally. The benefit is that an oil discovery increases our collective wealth, which is a good thing. Once we know that we have a proven reserve, we can choose to let it appreciate in the ground, or tap it and generate current income. In either case, we are better off. That benefit must be weighed against the costs, the biggest of which is environmental. Last September I wrote about the leaking oil platform in the Timor Sea that was pouring about 2,000 barrels of oil per day into pristine ocean. That

ECRI on Economic Recovery Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:15:36 AM

Be sure to see Lakshman Achuthan most recent economic overview in the Think Tank. ECRI: The Changing Cyclical

Contours of the U.S. Economy Term Extraction. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS,

environmental catastrophe was finally stopped on Nov. 3. By then it had spewed more than 100,000 barrels of oil over the course of 74 days, producing oil slicks that cumulatively covered more than 22,000 square miles, according to one estimate, an area almost the size of West Virginia. Clearly, a spill like that would be an environmental catastrophe in our waters, too. Whether we should accept the risk of such a catastrophe depends on the odds that such an accident could be repeated here. I doubt such cold calculation was behind the latest decision to allow more drilling. One suspects that the almost religious commitment of both parties to the pursuit of energy independence makes costs and benefits irrelevant. Kevin A. Hassett is a senior fellow and the director of economic policy studies at AEI. Photo Credit: Flickr user tsuda/Creative Commons Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Work-Sharing Could Work for Us (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 4/4/2010 4:00:00 PM

With the nation's unemployment rate still hovering close to 10%--more than 12% in California--and the typical unemployment spell stretching to 20 months, politicians of both parties are rightly looking for ideas to improve labor market conditions. This recession clearly threatens to do permanent damage to the careers of a generation of workers, and policy action is urgent. After surveying policies around the world, we found that there is one that clearly dominates in terms of impact and costeffectiveness: work-sharing. The idea is simple. Currently, firms mostly respond to weak demand by laying off workers. Under a work-sharing program, firms are encouraged by government policy to spread a small amount of the pain across many workers. In Germany, for example, which has used work-sharing aggressively in this downturn, a typical company might reduce

the hours of 50 workers by 20% rather than laying off 10 workers. The government would then provide a tax credit to make up for most of the lost pay, with the employer kicking in some as well. In a typical arrangement, a worker might see his weekly hours go down by 20%, and his salary go down by about 4%. This policy has kept the unemployment rate in Germany from rising even though the country has seen a sharper decline in GDP than the United States. The Netherlands, which also uses work-sharing, has managed to keep its unemployment rate near 4% even though its GDP also has fallen more steeply than in the United States. Work-sharing should be familiar to Californians because it's a variation of the furlough policy that state and local governments have used to avoid further layoffs. The big difference is that the furlough policy means workers take pay cuts that are proportional to the length of their furlough--20% fewer hours, 20% less pay. By contrast, with a work-

sharing arrangement, workers would keep their jobs while effectively dividing up the unemployment benefits that they could receive if they were laid off. For example, if a furlough requires them to take every fourth week off, instead of a 25% cut in pay, their pay would fall only 5% to 10%. The additional money could come from either the state unemployment insurance program or a new federal tax credit. The cost to the government of going this route would be roughly the same as with the current unemployment insurance program. The big difference is that instead of unemployment benefits that effectively pay people for not working, we would be paying people for working shorter hours. California, and 16 other states, already have some form of work -sharing. California's program dates from the 1970s and applies to both public- and privatesector employees. However, these programs are underutilized. Many workers and employers do not even

know of their existence. A broad federal program, publicized extensively from the bully pulpit of the White House, would have great promise. In addition, instead of waiting for companies to reach the point where they plan to lay off workers, the government could instead encourage companies to merely shorten hours. This could be done in any number of ways. Perhaps the simplest approach would be for the government to provide a credit roughly equal to what would be the proportional unemployment benefit to support the salaries of workers who work reduced hours. The effect of work-sharing on employment can be substantial even when the economy has stopped losing jobs. Even now, firms in the private sector lay off or fire about 2 million workers each month. This is offset by roughly the same number of hires, so that net employment does not change much. However, if work-sharing policies could reduce the number of monthly dismissals by 10%, this would have the same effect on employment as

creating 200,000 jobs a month. In addition to lifting net job creation, this policy also would accelerate the recovery. As firms ramp up production, the workers they need to do the work will already be on staff. Firms can avoid spending time and money searching for new workers. Congressional members of both parties have begun crafting a number of bills to enact worksharing. The American people clearly want politicians to put aside their differences and focus on sound economic policies. Work-sharing would be a great place for them to start. Kevin A. Hassett is a senior fellow and the director of economic policy studies at AEI. Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Photo Credit: Matti Mattila/Flickr/Creative Commons Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Argument Without End E.J. Dionne Jr. (The New Republic - All Feed)

benefits that would flow to Americans in the middle- or lower-middle range of incomes. Submitted at 4/4/2010 9:00:00 PM In addition, Republicans WASHINGTON -- Toward the concede a great deal when they end of the health care battle, a say they would "replace" the b e l e a g u e r e d O b a m a s t a f f plan and not simply return to the member sent me an e-mail that pre-reform status quo. Their ended with the words: "Sisyphus slogan makes clear that all was a sissy compared to what future arguments about health we've been through!" care will be premised on a more Yes, the fight for health care active government role. The seemed very much like the debate will never be the same Greek myth: Every time the again. White House found itself on the Moreover, the Democrats' verge of rolling the health care ability to hold together and pass stone up the hill, some event -- health reform may encourage say, Scott Brown's win in some Republican senators to Massachusetts -- would force it seek compromises on other to start over with a new strategy. issues rather than stand aside yet Alas for President Obama, this again and thereby limit their will not be the last moment that impact on final outcomes. i n v i t e s c o m p a r i s o n s w i t h But the outlines of the next Sisyphus. His health care phase of this year's election victory marked the beginning of argument are becoming visible. a n e w p h a s e i n t h e Sophisticated conservatives administration's political have begun to argue that struggles, not a final triumph. Democratic proposals across a It is still, of course, an range of issues are designed to enormous achievement, and it make the United States more alters the political terrain in like Europe. Without shouting ways that are favorable to the word "socialism," they claim Democrats. By creating new that programs to guarantee facts on the ground, health greater economic security (such r e f o r m c o m p l i c a t e s t h e as the health reform) and to Republicans' task. impose more stringent rules on Already, the GOP's early calls finance and banking would t o r e p e a l t h e b i l l l o o k make the American economy problematic. The insurance less entrepreneurial and less reforms in the bill are widely inclined to risk-taking. popular, and even its tax Countering these arguments increases (a large share of which will require progressives to hit the very wealthy) are tied to insist that their program is

entirely within the American tradition, an effort to restore some of the security and predictability that defined the economy before the erosion of employer-provided benefits that began in the 1980s. They will also have to make a strong case that the new rules on finance are not aimed at reducing genuine private risktaking. Their purpose is to end a system that allowed a small number of financiers and firms to make fortunes by taking enormous risks in full knowledge that taxpayers would ultimately be forced to cover their losses. Reform is designed to reduce the exposure of taxpayers and those outside the financial system, not to create a risk-free private economy. The trickiest political problem confronting the administration and its allies is rooted in rising concern about the deficit. Here, Republicans will be able to engage in their own kind of riskfree politics. As the party out of power, they can condemn deficits, attack "big government" in the abstract, and oppose tax increases -- all at the same time, and without facing the consequences of how their policies would work in practice. And because any plausible policy for dealing with longterm deficits will necessarily involve tax increases of some sort, Obama and the Democrats are looking at an unpalatable

election-year choice. Endorsing substantial tax increases now would be politically suicidal, but failing to do so opens Democrats to charges from deficit hawks that they are not serious about the red ink. In the short term, Democrats can argue reasonably that raising taxes or slashing programs before the economy has recovered would be bad policy. And they can assert that the commission Obama has named to grapple with the deficit will clarify the trade-offs between tax increases and program cuts. This, in turn, will open the way for a more rational argument about deficits. It would be nice if things worked out this way. But between now and then lies an election campaign likely to be characterized more by anger than reason, and in which the opposition has the advantage of not being in charge at a moment of great discontent. Sisyphus would understand. And Obama will have to get used to it. E.J. Dionne's e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com. (c) 2010, Washington Post Writers Group Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Right Off the Bat, Rivalry Ratcheted Up Ed Price (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/4/2010 7:01:00 PM

Filed under: Red Sox, Yankees BOSTON -- NASCAR used to be the only sport that began its season with its marquee event, an hours-long affair filled with wrecks, lead changes and close finishes. And then Major League Baseball and ESPN, in their infinite wisdom, gave us Red Sox- Yankees for Sunday night's season opener. The Daytona 500 of baseball. "There was a lot coming at us at once," Boston's Dustin Pedroia said late Sunday, a while after his two-run, game-tying homer in the seventh inning and Boston's 9-7 victory.

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The Nuclear Option (AEI.Org: Articles) Submitted at 4/4/2010 4:00:00 PM

An ashen Walter Cronkite intoned: "The world has never known a day quite like today." The face of American television news was speaking on March 28 1979, the day a faulty cooling valve led to a meltdown at Three Mile Island. Nuclear Armageddon did not arrive-â&#x20AC;&#x201C;there is no conclusive evidence that anyone was even injured that day-â&#x20AC;&#x201C;but the incident did mark the beginning of the dark ages in the nuclear power industry in the US. New plant construction was halted. An absolutist opposition to nuclear power became a canon of the American left. It was hardly surprising then that anti-nuclear advocacy groups reacted in orchestrated horror when Barack Obama, taking a centrist position, announced the government would provide $8bn in federal loan guarantees to build two nuclear reactors. With two dozen or so nuclear plants stalled on the drawing board across the US, supporters hope the guarantees mark the beginning of a nuclear revival. According to the left's playbook, there is no viable way to reduce greenhouse gases except to ratchet up renewable energy sources such as hydro, solar and wind power and clean

coal technologies. Nuclear energy, they remind us, currently represents just 16% of the world's supply, and that percentage is expected to grow only fractionally over the next two decades even if the US market opens up. That's the all-or-nothing argument. Let's be clear, we still get about 10,000% more energy from nuclear sources than from all the renewable (non-hydro) alternatives that exist in the world. A massive switchover to alternatives is not and never was technologically feasible. Big Money The main resistance in the US has not been technological but financial. You can't build new plants without loans. But bankers hate nuclear investments because of the inevitable regulatory struggles. That creates uncertainty. If the government comes through with guarantees then uncertainty becomes more manageable. But will banks make loans? Nuclear energy is not Wall Street's friendliest moneymaking model. It is capital intensive at the front-end, takes years to break even, but then offers low ongoing costs and high returns. That's the opposite of the high leverage, fast profits style of hedge and private equity funds that fuelled the get-rich-quick era. But the equation is

changing. As fossil fuels become scarcer and pricier, nuclear costs will also decline over time, just like with all technology. Even today, nuclear energy is cost competitive. A 1,500megawatt reactor should cost about $5bn, which sounds expensive until you compare it to alternative energy favourites. The equivalent capacity in wind power could easily cost $4bn: 4,000 wind turbines at $1m apiece plus miles of transmission lines and backup natural gas generators for when the wind doesn't blow. Nuclear is consistently more reliable than other forms of energy, up and running 90% of the time. Although it constitutes only 11% of US generating capacity, it actually provides 20% of the electricity. Concerns over emissions and waste, once considered insurmountable, are dated. The "emissions" from nuclear power plants are almost the same as any large concrete structure. There is little evidence that the very occasional low radioactive air releases represent any health risks. The US energy department's proposal to drop plans for a federal nuclear waste vault at the Yucca mountain storage facility has revived the issue of what to do with nuclear waste. It's addressable. The problem

results from decisions made in the 1970s to halt fuel reprocessing, which reduces the volume of spent fuel by 97%. France reprocesses and stores beneath the floor of one room in their La Hague plant all of their waste from 30 years of nuclear energy production. Claims that Obama is the puppet of the American nuclear power lobby are laughable. There isn't much of an American nuclear energy industry. Areva is French. Toshiba owns Westinghouse. South Korea has a growing footprint. GE partners with Hitachi but they have only a tiny slice of the market. When the first new reactors are built here, 70% of the parts will come from abroad. Obama sensibly recognises that a technologically advanced society has to place a lot of energy bets to seriously confront our carbon-limited future. If the congenital sceptics don't block construction of new nuclear facilities, he may yet go down in history as the first green energy president. Jon Entine is a visiting fellow at AEI. P h o t o C r e d i t : iStockphoto/narvikk Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

After Four Rough Years, Scheyer Rises To the Top David Steele (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/5/2010 3:00:00 AM

Filed under: Duke, NCAA Tournament INDIANAPOLIS -- This is not where many rational people thought Jon Scheyer's career at Duke would end, considering how his career had begun. That refers not to his first career game, but to the last one of his freshman season, in Buffalo in the first round of the 2007 NCAA tournament, when the Blue Devils -- still talented, highly-regarded and not far removed from their last national championship or last Final Four -- lost in shocking fashion to Eric Maynor and Virginia Commonwealth.

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On SCOTUS, Obama's Not Looking For A Fight contributors@theatlantic.com (Marc Ambinder) (Politics :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/5/2010 5:56:22 AM

The many profiles of soon-tobe-retiring justice John Paul Stevens, featuring rare, on the record interviews, are trial balloons. The man is likely to retire by the end of the month. Since he informally sent this signal to the White House late last year by hiring one clerk, the White House's informal team of Supreme Court mavens (Dan Pfeiffer, counsel Bob Bauer, vice presidential chief of staff Ron Klain) has been actively, though quietly, preparing for the eventuality. Whether that includes the leaking of a list of names of BusinessWeek-- Diane Wood, Merrick Garland, Elena Kagan - I don't know. No one has leaked a list of names to me, although it makes sense that Obama would consider the same people he considered when the last spot opened last year. Obama made sure that Garland was vetted, and interviewed

both Kagan and Wood last year, but he had his heart set on Sonia Sotomayor from the beginning, and used the vetting process as a way of testing his own heart against the thoughts and feelings of his advisers. The legal cognoscenti believes that Kagan, the solicitor general, has the inside track, with some folks swearing that Obama has already decided on her, and that he'll simply go through the motions again. It's not unreasonable to assume that Obama had his SCOTUS picks mapped out from the beginning of his presidency: the guy is a student of the Court, and he has a very particular theory of the types of justices that would best ensure that his vision for the court is appropriately articulated. Sotomayor's pick was about changing the narrative. The second pick will be about adding some intellectual creativity to the mix. One reason he might not pick an appeals court judge this time is that appeals court judges tend to constrain themselves to

precedent a bit more than Obama believes is necessary, while long-serving district court judges, or academics, are likely to be more expansive in how they approach the job. Of course, Obama would never admit this, because the Senate expects a certain formalism in the president's nominees: given the constraints impose by conservative politics -- the nominee can't be an open and aggressive opponent of originalism -- the White House and the President are likely to emphasize the same narrow band of qualities that ensured Sotomayor's confirmation: amply qualified, good life story, intelligence, and fidelity to "interpret" not "make" law. Obama and his team are well aware that judicial confirmation battles almost always excite Republicans and confuse Democrats. They are also well aware of the particular political constraints imposed by the 2010 election. Ideally, he's looking for someone who can persuade swinger (uh, swing-ideological

justice) Anthony Kennedy to change his mind on a set of issues, someone whose qualifications are beyond approach, who doesn't have a lingering paper trail of outrageous(i.e., conventionally liberal) viewpoints, and yet someone he trusts can subtly steer the court to the left. The complication here is that Stevens is the conscience of the court's liberal wing, and space he occupies now is not a space that any nominee simply fills. So growth capacity -- the potential to grow into a Stevens -- will factor in, too. Politically, the White House wants to find an unimpeachable nominee who the American people quickly accept. Let Republicans make the noise they do and will -- which may excite their own base but won't really do much more than that - and get the nominee confirmed quickly, and without and fuss. Kagan, Wood and Garland fit the bill.

Taliban claims attack on US consulate in Pakistan (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 4/5/2010 4:36:24 AM

PESHAWAR - Militants using a car bomb and firing weapons attacked the US consulate in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday hours after a suicide bomber killed 38 people elsewhere in the north-west, officials said. Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack on the consulate – in which eight people, including three militants, were killed but no one in the mission was hurt – and vowed more violence. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Seoul sends destroyer to intercept pirates (Financial Times - US homepage) Submitted at 4/5/2010 3:11:31 AM

Seoul has sent a navy destroyer serving off Somalia to intercept

the Samho Dream, a South Korean-owned supertanker carrying as much as $170m worth of crude oil that was hijacked by pirates, South Korea’s foreign ministry said on

Monday. Samho Dream, which was carrying almost 2m barrels of crude oil from Iraq to the US, was seized by Somali pirates on Sunday in a demonstration of

their increasing willingness to strike in the open ocean. Contact with the ship, which has a crew of 24, was lost some 1,500km (930 miles) south-east of the Gulf of Aden.

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Crist Calls for Federal Probe of Florida GOP (Newsmax - Politics)

out, more and more knowledge is gained,'' Crist said. ``The more knowledge you have, the Gov. Charlie Crist is asking more opportunity one has to federal authorities to investigate evaluate and re-evaluate and contributors@theatlantic.com uniquely unsuited to that job, in between now and 1994 is that in the Republican Party of Florida determine what the appropriate (Marc Ambinder) (Politics :: fact. Really, unless Steele were 1 9 9 4 , R e p u b l i c a n s h a d a as concerns grow about secret action should be.'' The Atlantic) manifestly more interesting and plausible leadership team in deals and misspent money. The prospect of a federal c h a r i s m a t i c t h a n o t h e r place that hadn't discredited `Ìt's a mess,'' Crist told The Submitted at 4/5/2010 5:18:41 AM investigation is likely to roil a After watching Republican Republican Party leaders, which themselves in the eyes of Miami Herald. ``This thing state Republican Party already National Committee Michael he isn't, he has three main roles independents and party leaners. stinks.'' reeling from the discovery this Steele's performance on Good to play: one: he keeps the That's manifestly not the case Crist is calling for the U.S. week that Greer siphoned party Morning America, it's clear that machinery going. He's a C.O.O., today, as evidenced by the Tea attorney's office to take over the donations to a shell company he he hasn't learned his lesson. Of not a C.E.O. He makes sure the Party movement, which derives criminal investigation of former owned. Top officials also course, Steele believes that, as a party's voter databases are it power as much from the GOP Chairman Jim Greer and planned to pay him a $125,000 black man, he is subject to ready. He tends to the party's failure of the party to lead as it examine the use of party credit golden parachute if he resigned. increased scrutiny inside and internal preparations for 2012. does from dissatisfaction with cards by top GOP lawmakers. Read more at The Miami outside the party, and the notion He facilitates coordination Obama or the economy. Steele `À federal comprehensive Heraldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Web site. that he needs to a learn a lesson between party branches. He isn't helping matters. To borrow investigation is . . . fully ÂŠ N e w s m a x . A l l r i g h t s is a bit quaint, and quite makes the resources of the RNC a wrestling metaphor, unless he appropriate,'' the Republican r e s e r v e d . possibly even racist. It's not. are available as needed to can pop on his own -- no governor said. ``Particularly Five Filters featured article: Here's what Steele doesn't seem candidates. evidence at all that he can -- he because of the significant IRS Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: to understand: Two: he raises money. Three: needs to know his role, and his implications throughout this PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, in suggesting that he might he serves as a -- A -- public face role isn't the role he's come up thing.'' Term Extraction. conjure up of a bill of rights or of the party. In consultation with with. `Às the facts continue to come promises for Republicans to run Republican elected officials, the Side note: Steele's right that the on in 2010 (and by saying he'd party's message and agenda are controversies over the RNC's consult with Newt Gingrich, of set, and Steele executes this. spending practices are largely a l l u p - a n d - c o m i n g p a r t y Problem is, Steele doesn't want (though not entirely) irrelevant, superstars), Steele is making the t o b e c o n s t r a i n e d b y t h e except in the way they harden same mistake that underlies all fecklessness of his party's public opinion against Steele (Financial Times - US showed that 162,000 jobs were of the problems he faces: he congressional leaders, which is and are easy targets for his homepage) created in the US in March, wants to represent, or remake, perfectly understandable. But (many) enemies. Steele would Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:59:28 AM while upward revisions to Brand Republican. Steele is just not as good a be well-served to focus on the January and February helped Two problems with this: One: communicator as he thinks he is. built-in competencies of the There was strong support for keep the unemployment rate at he doesn't have the street cred He comes off sounding, well, RNC, stop explaining himself equity markets on Monday after 9.7 per cent. inside or outside the party to do like he's trying to too hard. He's and get back to work. robust US jobs data last week Five Filters featured article: this. Two: it's not his job. It's uneven. He is always having to fuelled recovery hopes. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: never been the job of the explain himself after the fact. Equity markets were mostly PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Republican National Committee He confuses. stronger following the non-farm Term Extraction. chairman. That position is One of the biggest differences payrolls data on Friday, which

What Michael Steele Doesn't Get

Submitted at 4/4/2010 2:48:18 PM

Strong support for equities after US jobs data

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The Power of 'No!' contributors@theatlantic.com (Steven Schier) (Politics :: The Atlantic)

eight years of the Bush/Cheney administration. That was the real wind beneath their wings. Obama provided a particularly Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:35:51 AM Paul Tewes is an experienced attractive vehicle for delivering political organizer, best known that rebuke. So, to complete the f o r h i s 2 0 0 8 d i r e c t i o n o f sentence: "Yes, we can...say NO Obama's breakthrough effort in to eight years of Bush and the Iowa caucuses. Paul is a Cheney and replace them with veteran of my 1993 Carleton better people." College Washington program, Paul discovered this truth while and he met with me and my recently trying to organize program students last winter young people to address climate during our time in DC. He left change. His focus groups found us with an enduring lesson that t h a t m a n y y o u n g O b a m a explains much about America's supporters felt they had already popular politics. made their contribution to the His lesson: It is much easier to cause in 2008 and now had organize people around a "no" other priorities. Climate change than it is to organize them activism involves a "yes" to around a "yes." Opposition is a expending time and energy on much more fruitful basis for very complex issue. So "no" political organization than is activism in 2008 became "yes" support. That may seem an apathy in 2010. unlikely lesson from an architect The rise of the Tea Party of the "yes, we can" Obama movement supports Paul's campaign. But explore further generalization. This is an the motives of active Democrats emphatic "no" movement in in 2008. Their central drive response to the Obama agenda. involved rebuking and replacing I n c o n t r a s t , t h e O b a m a

administration's effort to stimulate citizen activism for a "yes" through their Organizing for America has produced fewer recruits. Presidents as they govern gradually build a "no" coalition in response to their actions in office. A vital test of their political success is the growth rate of that coalition. The larger it becomes, the more politically endangered is the president. George W. Bush managed to create a large "no" coalition by the end of his second term. Barack Obama has created one at an unusually brisk pace in this first term. The blowback resulted from the large ambitions of these two presidents. Obama's immediate task is to stem the growth of his "no" coalition to prevent the loss of Congress in 2010 and the White House in 2012. Obama is now encountering the costs of audacity.

Tea Partiers Are Conservative. Moving Along... contributors@theatlantic.com (Marc Ambinder) (Politics :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:30:03 AM

Gallup's new survey of the Tea Party movement is instructive for what it didn't find: the movement does not encompass Democrats, including independent-leaning Democrats, or more than half of true Independents. In other words, the 28% or so of adults who say they're Tea Partiers are very much likely to vote Republican when the chips are down. Pay attention to terminology: it's true that just half of those Tea Partiers surveyed called themselves Republicans. Yes, the lion's share of the other half say they're independent. But they're not: they're Republicanoriented conservative voters

Easter Kevin Collins (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 4/4/2010 12:42:06 PM

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who are dismayed by the direction of the GOP and who don't want to identify with the party's brand. That's not surprising, given how tarnished that brand is. Only 8% identify as Democratic; 7% identify as liberal; 70% percent identify as conservative; two-thirds are prolife; nearly 90% were opposed to the health care bill. Next time, I'd love for Gallup, or any other pollster, really, to ask self-identified Tea Partiers for their vote histories, for their views on immigration and race, for their views on questions about Obama attributes (is he a socialist?), for their specific views on policy matters (do they support a "fair tax?").

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iPad: The First Real Family Computer Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:37:13 AM

With the iPad's arrival this weekend, a holiday weekend for many Americans, this new iPad owner had the chance to see the device in action. In fact, "see" is the operative word here. Not, "play with myself," as is the case with most new tech gadgets I purchase. Instead, I simply watched from a distance as, over the course of the day, the iPad found its way into the hands of nearly every family member from ages 4 months to 87 years old. The incredible thing? No one walked away confused, frustrated or disappointed. It did precisely what they wanted it to do and with such ease that my tech support was not required not even once - allowing me to sit back and relax...with an oldfashioned, paper-based magazine. Sponsor After hearing the hoopla from the iPad launch, the crowd of"not-so-early" adopters has likely been left wondering if this is a case of media over-hype or if something revolutionary has truly occurred. If you count yourself among this group, then perhaps the spec-filled, analytical reviews won't sell you on the device's potential. You already know what the iPad can do: apps, games, eBooks (or rather, iBooks), media and so on. But what can it

do for you? How does it fit in with your life? This anecdotal review may help you to answer that question: A Day in the Life of an iPad The morning after the iPad's arrival - incidentally Easter Sunday here in the U.S. - I spent the first half hour of my day with the iPad in one hand and a baby bottle in the other. While the little one ate, I read the New York Times. For free. Well, at least some of it. Although a fullfeatured paid application is on its way, the " Editor's Choice" app available now is a great way to hit the highlights from the paper's top sections. The iPad's weight here was a bit of an issue - 1.5 pounds may not seem like a lot, but holding it aloft away from baby's grabby fingers was a bit tricky, especially because, unlike an actual, dull greycolored newspaper, the iPad's glowing screen and colorful images is an invite to touch that can't be denied. Morning Newspaper Later, in the car to the family gathering, I finished reading the articles I missed in the NYT's offline mode. I have the Wi-Fi version of the iPad, so Internet access is limited. But the articles were still available, cached to the device for just this situation. I then passed the time with a game of iMahjong. Like most iPad games, Internet isn't needed to play. Upon arrival at our destination -

the sister-in-law's house where extended family would meet, dine and relax, I mistakenly imagined that the only two people who would be interested in my latest purchase were the teenage nephews, already iPod Touch owners and avid gamers. Although they were immediately engrossed, to be sure, they weren't the only ones who would spend time with this new device, as I would later find out. Game-Playing Device The first question from the oldest nephew: "I heard iPad apps are a lot more expensive than those for the iPod Touch is that true?" Unfortunately, it is. For whatever reason, iPad developers have mistakenly assumed that a bigger screen means a bigger price tag. This is not how the minds of pennypinching, allowance-earning tweens and teens think, though. And although they may not be the target market per se, their moms and dads are. A game priced too high will simply be ignored - or worse, torrented, the nephews tell me. There are

plenty of iPhone app on torrent sites, I'm being told - referring to the online stores of cracked, hacked and otherwise illacquired software programs, movies, TV shows, music and media made available for download for those running free torrenting client applications on their computers. iPad apps will soon appear here, too. Should developers be worried about this black market for their supersized creations? Yes, possibly. Unlike the more moderately priced iPhone apps, iPad apps can be much more expensive. And if their prices extend beyond the comfort levels of today's consumers, you can be sure the apps will leak out on backchannels such as these. With pricing in mind, I tell the nephews they could download anything they wanted so long as it was free. And so they set forth upon their iPad adventure. After playing a number of games, including the Guitar Hero-like " Tap Tap Radiation," a tilted maze in " Labyrinth Lite," the role-playing game " Aurora Feint 3," some sort of shoot-emup called " EliminatePro," and several others, my iPad was soon filled with a screen of apps I knew I'd never touch but would be regularly accessed time and again at subsequent family functions. Child's Plaything Once the older nephews had their fill, it was the 5-year-old's

turn. With adult supervision, he enjoyed Disney's interactive book app, Toy Story and created works of art fingerpaint-style via Doodle Buddy. (He got a real kick out of the sound effects that accompanied the paste-in clip art in the program, too. Animal sounds, apparently, are incredibly funny). We mistakenly thought that the Marvel comics book application would also be a fun diversion for this second-youngest of the family. (Don't laugh - comic book aficionados we are not.) But after a second-page reference to "Girls Gone Wild" in the free Spiderman comic and a third-page image of our favorite superhero shouting "Shut the @#*% up!," we realized that, at some point, comics must have grown up. These one-time children's pasttimes are now adult graphic novels. Oops. App closed. Back to doodling. Grandma's Photo Album Later, with bellies stuffed by Easter ham and dessert, the iPad found its way to the baby's grandmother. One guess what she looked at? Yes, baby pictures. "Can you email me some of those later?" Of course I could, but not later, now. Like the iPhone and iPod Touch, photos (a max of 5 at a time) can be sent directly from the iPad's built-in Photos IPAD: page 46

Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

You Are Not a Gadget: The Continuing Case Against Web 2.0 Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/4/2010 9:30:42 PM

Jaron Lanier was a pioneer of "virtual reality" in the early 1980s and in his book, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, he makes the case for a more humanistic approach to Internet technology. Lanier rails against web 2.0, which he calls at the start of the book "a torrent of petty designs" and "freedom [...] more for machines than people." Lanier's main issue with web 2.0 is that, in his view, it promotes the 'hive mind' over individual expression. He writes that web 2.0 presents the current generation of kids with a "reduced expectation of what a person can be." Sponsor Many new iPad owners might object that they're a reduced person because of their new gadget. Nevertheless, Lanier offers an intriguing counterpoint to web 2.0 philosophies and so it's worth exploring that. Lanier is of course just the latest in a long line of web 2.0 cynics. They range in quality from the sharp critiques of Nicholas Carr, to the sensationalistic rantings of Andrew Keen. Lanier is thankfully more akin to Carr, in that he's thought provoking and brings something new to the table. Lanier's theories are intriguing

and in some cases very compelling. However, ultimately I found his "manifesto" to be fragmentary and lacking a definitive conclusion. I was not entirely convinced by the end of the book - which is a problem, because a manifesto should ideally provoke further action from its readers. Wikipedia: Mob Rule Wikipedia comes in for the most criticism in the book, because the online encyclopedia is written by an army of mostly anonymous people. Therefore, Lanier claims, Wikipedia stifles individual expression. According to Lanier, Wikipedia is "intellectual mob rule" and "seeks to erase point of view entirely." He goes so far as to call the individual voice "the opposite of wikiness." Although this is an extreme view of Wikipedia, and wikis in general, I did find one point to be particularly compelling: Wikipedia dominates search results and for that reason it is suppressing individual voices. As Lanier put it, "Wikipedia provides search engines with a way to be lazy" - by putting Wikipedia results at or near the top of search results for millions of topics. Facebook: MultipleChoice Identities Other Web 2.0 stalwarts don't escape Lanier's withering gaze. Facebook is criticized for encouraging people to create

out with scientists and Internet intellectuals. Is it any wonder then that he is so gung-ho on individual expression? The people he associates with on a daily basis are the intellectual elite! In my opinion Lanier is a bit too quick to dismiss the content of blogs and Twitter, simply because the design of those publishing platforms are "standardized." The design may well be standardized, but many people have created original and compelling content using these web 2.0 platforms. Even Lanier recognizes that if you look past "standardized presences," due to the first layer of Wikipedia i t s b l a c k a n d w h i t e results in Google, you'll often categorizations of people. Later find compelling individual in the book Lanier writes that voices. The Network By Itself is Facebook organizes people into Meaningless "multiple-choice identities." Lanier's argument that web 2.0 Blogs are also criticized, for designs "actively demand that their "standardized designs" that p e o p l e d e f i n e t h e m s e l v e s encourage "pseudonymity" in downward" is a compelling one. features like blog comments. I agree that Wikipedia and Lanier doesn't highlight though Facebook both have significant that the rise of blogs and other flaws and that both are indeed social media websites have contributing to a middling, less given a voice to hundreds of creative culture. In particular I thousands of people, who were am sympathetic to the notion previously excluded from the that individual expression is mainstream media landscape suffering - every time I see an because they didn't have access a n o n y m o u s c o m m e n t o n to an adequate publishing ReadWriteWeb that is critical of platform. Lanier: Elitist? s o m e t h i n g , I w i n c e a n d This is where I found myself immediately place less value on most in disagreement with it than if the comment had a real Lanier. Here is a highly name attached to it. i n t e l l i g e n t a n d s u c c e s s f u l So, Lanier's concerns about the software architect, who hangs ' h i v e m i n d ' a n d l o s s o f

individual expression are valid. He puts it rather poetically here: "The central mistake of recent digital culture is to chop up a network of individuals so finely that you end up with a mush. You then start to care about the abstraction of the network more than the real people who are networked, even though the network by itself is meaningless. Only the people were ever meaningful." Beyond The Flaws of Web 2.0 However, I also think that Lanier glosses over the benefits of web 2.0 - that it gives everyone who has a computer (and nowadays a smart phone) a publishing platform with which to explore their creativity and have their say. Regardless of what you think of the resulting content - whether it's largely unoriginal, or the best of it gets lost in noise, or aggregators make "mush" of it the fact that web 2.0 has democratized the publishing industry is something that should continue to be celebrated. Lanier's book tends to dismiss this blossoming of new media as simply the product of web 2.0 "standardized designs" - and that comes across as elitist and pompous. Overall, You Are Not a Gadget is a thought provoking and compelling book. If, like me, YOU page 46

Tech News/

E-reader News Edition

Our Network is Alive Curt Hopkins (ReadWriteWeb)

person on the globe, branches like a Mandelbrot set. It consists Submitted at 4/4/2010 9:15:00 PM of computing devices from The British novelist Ian desktop computers to laptops to McEwan said, "The naming of tablets to phones; it consists of what is there is what is every program written to run important." But there is a thing, those devices, every website and or an idea, a system or network, service that helps us to process that we live with every day, that and move the truths we witness we live in, that we, in point of information. or create; it consists of cell In the course of this discussion, fact, are, which has no name. towers and server farms; it W h e n a p p r e h e n d i n g a n d w e c a m e t o a s u r p r i s i n g consists of social media tools recognizing something new, we realization. Twitter was no more and word processing programs; humans name it. Some say we the issue than the so-called but above all it consists of, it is name things in order to control mainstream media was. We powered by, human beings, both them and there might be some were beyond all of that now. singularly and in aggregate, truth to that. But who would not Our network was not restricted minds and mind. elect to control an earthquake to three news channels, or the Our network is alive. cable news networks, or a than be controlled by one? But it needs a name, and we Our information gathering handful of social media websites don't have one. Jokingly, one of network has changed out of or thousands of Facebook us called it The Culture. It isn't. recognition, but its taxonomy accounts, or even all of those It isn't even a culture. Just a has lagged behind. We need to things taken as a whole. Our network. But a vast one, a name this new network, and we access to information, our possibly game-changing one would like the readership of ability to exchange it, was no and, above all, a nameless one, longer bound by anything at all, ReadWriteWeb to help us. one which we should control with the possible exception of Sponsor rather than allow to control us. In the Big Room, our editorial time. The reason for this sea- Help us assert control over an chat room, we were speaking change is that we ourselves have exciting, but daunting reality. about the earthquake that struck in part become the system W h a t s h o u l d t h i s g l o b a l formerly we only used. We have Baja this afternoon. network, this lace of machine Before the media, even the new become the fulcrum of our own and human, location, data and media, got it, we had read it on network. Prometheus is well and feeling, thought and thing, Twitter. ReadWriteWeb has truly unbound. observer and observed, speaker written before on the ability of This network, the one that and listener, be called? Discuss this new tool, and others like it, connects us to virtually every to gather and disseminate part of the world, to every

YOU continued from page 45

you find yourself iPad-less this weekend, then I'd encourage you to spend some time

consuming this book. Discuss

IPAD: continued from page 44

application. ...And Everything Else Now hours had gone by, and the iPad was still in circulation. With nothing else to do, I opened a wrinkled, balled-up magazine I had thrown into my bag precisely for this reason. I didn't expect to get much iPadtime myself, I just didn't realize that it would literally never return to me. As one person played on the iPad - reading, watching a video, playing a game, etc. - others relaxed with TV, a book of Sodoku puzzles, toys, and(gasp!) even printed newspapers. On the iPad, someone was playing cards. Then someone was watching Netflix. Grandma is showing great-grandma more photos. Look! The baby is doodling! Now someone is trying an iPhone app on the iPad.(Verdict? Not a good experience. Forget the fact that the iPad runs all the iPhone apps - they look awful. Don't bother.) Interestingly enough, one "app" that was never launched was Safari, the iPad's built-in web browser. By nightfall, the iPad had been in rotation for hours upon hours and still had nearly 40% battery remaining. The battery longevity claims (10 hours+) are true, it seems. A Family Computer

Debates about the iPad's worth as an eReader, aside, fears that it will somehow transform us from a population of content creators to passive consumers (most of us already are just that), hopeful claims from big media that it's the "future of publishing" - I'd argue that none of these are reasons to buy or not to buy an iPad. Simply put: the iPad is the first real family computer. No longer is computing an isolated experience with one person staring at one screen, fingers clacking away on the keyboard while the rest of the family does something else. The iPad was shared between brothers, giggled over by children, and downright snuggled up with by parent and child. It was no more isolating an experience than someone reading the paper in the next chair over. It was easily just another everyday object. And that may be its biggest selling point yet: the iPad hides away the technology, and makes content king. And at the end of the day, that's not really such a bad thing. Disclosure: The New York Times is a syndication partner with ReadWriteWeb. Discuss

Tech News/ Gadgets/

E-reader News Edition

Google Gives Suicide Hotline Number For Certain Searches: Diets For Fast Food Next? Mike Melanson (ReadWriteWeb)

bicycle that will help save the environment? Cheap cigarettes? Didn't you mean Nicorette gum? Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:12:00 AM McDonalds? Why yes, we do Nevermind complicated have a few diet programs and algorithms and personalized some instructions on healthy content streams according to had a hard time finding poison eating. past search patterns and the like control," Dr. Zeiger said. "Now In reality, we think that this - Google has, for only the when you search for poison could be a great compliment to second time in its history, control or similar queries, we all those apps and engines out decided to offer specific results, make it straightforward to find there that simply look to show a sort of guidance, in response the number for poison control." you exactly what you're looking So can we be as callous here as to select search terms. for before you ever even get to to wonder where else the When users search for phrases searching. Let's use the web to such as "ways to commit company might take this? Can challenge ideas, not simply echo suicide" or "suicidal thoughts", anyone really take issue with a them. As long as results are they now see the toll-free company offering the phone clearly identified, is there a number for the National Suicide number of a suicide prevention problem? Prevention Lifeline at the top of hotline to those looking up While this is a loaded area to their results. We have to wonder phrases like "I want to die"? look at (questioning Google's - when will Google advise users Perhaps this could be a new action can be made to seem as if buying cigarettes to seek help direction - rather than simply it were a promotion of suicide) offering results directly related too? we still think there are to a user's query, or looking to Sponsor interesting implications to its The New York Times quotes personalize content by looking a c t i o n s t h a t s h o u l d b e Dr. Roni Zeiger, the chief health at what friends and peers are considered. Do we want Google stategist for Google, as saying looking at, or even looking at a to simply act as a firehose of that the idea came from a users history, Google could data or can we expect it to tailor offer up a Devil's Advocate set Google user. its results to do better for the "A mother wrote in a suggestion of results on every query. world? And who's version of to us -- her daughter had Looking for a brand new SUV? better will it go by if we do? swallowed something that she While you're at it, why not What do you think? Discuss thought was dangerous, and she consider this beautiful, used

Panasonic's waterproof ME550 and ME650 TVs offer optimal tubby time entertainment Tim Stevens (Engadget)

boosted 1Seg tuners for better... tuning. Both can record to Submitted at 4/5/2010 9:59:00 AM SDXC cards but only the We don't get many handheld ME650 has PMP functionality, portable TVs here in the US for able to play back audio, video, a variety of reasons, but that and still image files from doesn't stop us appreciating storage. No price on either, but them from afar. A few weeks look for these to start hitting ago Panasonic unveiled some Japanese bubble baths next new portable Digital Viera TVs month. that looked great for lounging Panasonic's waterproof ME550 on the patio with the comfort of and ME650 TVs offer optimal some classic Takeshi's Castle t u b b y t i m e e n t e r t a i n m e n t reruns, and now the company is originally appeared on Engadget upgrading bath time as well with on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:59:00 the ME550 and ME650 Vieras. EST. Please see our terms for Both offer 5-inch, 480 x 272 u s e o f f e e d s . P e r m a l i n k LCDs, like their predecessors, Akihabara News| Panasonic| but have been given bigger Email this| Comments speakers for better audio and

Gadgets/ Media/

E-reader News Edition

Waterstone’s to bring their own eReader to the U.K. Tablet (BestTabletReview.com) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:38:21 AM

Waterstone's is working on their own eReader In case you haven’t realized, eReaders have become the new “it” accessory. Manufacturers don’t look to create an eBook reader that depends on its hardware to sell, but rather as a media consumption device — it’s a spoon used to digest their eBooks and periodicals. That’s exactly what Waterstone’s, one of the largest U.K. bookstores, plans to do. They announced that they would be making a Kindle-like eReader set to launch within the next few months. The eReader would most likely have WiFi and 3G connectivity and would definitely be hooked up to the Waterstone’s online marketplace in a similar vein to the way the Kindle accesses the

Kindle Store. It’s unclear if Waterstone’s is interested in making their own unique eBook reader or is merely researching already made OEMs which they can rebrand. This isn’t Waterstone’s first experience with an eReader. In fact, they quickly followed Amazon to be the second retailer to sell an dedicated eReader. In September of 2008

MediaDailyNews: Goodby, Silverstein Partner Leaving (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 4/5/2010 5:30:44 AM

Harold Sogard, vice chairman and a partner, is leaving Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

iPad apps: utilities you need

they began selling Sony Readers. Source: The Bookseller via Teleread Chris Ziegler (Engadget) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:30:00 AM PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Utilities are the vegetables of Term Extraction. the software world -- not fun, rarely pretty, but gosh darnit, they're good for you. Whether they're checking that your new TV has been mounted square on the wall, crunching your numbers, getting you up in the morning, or keeping track of your mad ramblings in the middle of the night, these little after 19-years with the San Off-Broadway plays. bundles of binary joy can save Francisco shop. The agency said Five Filters featured article: your job (or your marriage) Sogard is leaving to begin what Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: every time an iPad game almost he calls "the third act" of his PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, destroys it. We've taken a close career. Earlier in his career, Term Extraction. look at a few of the utilities Sogard managed Broadway and

available to iPad owners in the first volley of native, highresolution apps for the platform and come away with a few winners -- and even better, some of these suckers come at absolutely no cost to you. Follow the break for the full rundown -- and don't forget to check the rest of our app roundups after you're done! Continue reading iPad apps: utilities you need iPad apps: utilities you need originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

Gadgets/ Game/

E-reader News Edition

NintendoWare Weekly: Mr. Driller, Game and Watch, Fishie Fishie JC Fletcher (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:00:00 AM

Adobe AIR developer demonstration: one game, five platforms, all the same code Sean Hollister (Engadget)

that AIR was not yet up to the task. However, Adobe dev Christian Cantrell has the proof We love the idea of Android -- he created a game of Reversi apps running on iPhone and vice that runs on five platforms versa, and that's exactly what without having to change a A d o b e ' s s e l l i n g w i t h i t s single line of code. In a video multiplatform development after the break, he demonstrates solution AIR-- but though we've iReverse running on OS X, seen a demo here and there, Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux, the conversations we've had with iPhone, a Droid and the new the company led us to believe iPad, explaining how it took Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:59:00 AM

only a series of seriously tiny platform-specific wrappers to make his program function on each. Since each platform has its own hardware strengths, this kind of convergence isn't always a good thing -- but if it provides extra incentive for developers to get cracking on hot new apps, we're all for it. Continue reading Adobe AIR developer demonstration: one

game, five platforms, all the same code Adobe AIR developer demonstration: one game, five platforms, all the same code originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Recombu| Christian Cantrell| Email this| Comments

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the DSiWare service launch, and Nintendo is observing the occasion by putting interesting content on the service! Every week should be some kind of milestone. And speaking of annual observances, there's a Neo Geo game on Virtual Console. Gallery: Mr. Driller: Drill Till You Drop (DSiWare) Continue reading NintendoWare Weekly: Mr. Driller, Game and Watch, Fishie Fishie NintendoWare Weekly: Mr. Driller, Game and Watch, Fishie Fishie originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Gadgets/ Economy/

E-reader News Edition

Stock/bond tug of war about to intensify? Peter Boockvar (The Big Picture) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:26:26 AM

iPad runs circles around Snapdragon-powered Nexus One Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear)

found in the Nexus One(and others). The iPad: useful (to some), and quite quick. Neat. Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:00:00 AM Anandtech benchmarked the So, the iPad? I hear it’s good, iPad, bless their hearts, and but again, it’s not for me—don’t found that Apple’s divisive cry. But what’s indisputable? device was anywhere from 9 to The fact that it’s pretty damn 60 percent faster than the fast. Even though the processor Snapdragon in loading various is nothing more than a stock Web sites. (The only site to load Apple A4, it wallops the fancy slower was CNN.) Snapdragon, the 1GHz CPU The iPad’s Javascript

performance is also better than the Nexus One by just less than 40 percent. Neither the Nexus One nor iPad can run Crysis, so a big “meh” can be heard from people currently rocking an ATI 5970 or Nvidia GTX 480! It should probably noted than comparing a notebook computer (I guess that’s the iPad’s “official” designation) to a

mobile phone is a bit unfair, not to mention silly: you’re going to be with your phone 24/7, but you’re probably not going to be walking down the street with your iPad every day of the week. At least I don’t think so… Flickr

On Jan 6th I wrote, “the US Treasury market/interest rates hold the key to stock market performance this year.” With the better than expected private sector payroll gain in Friday’s data (yes, partly weather bounce back), including revisions, this thesis and tug of war will be put to the test now as the 10 yr note yield is matching the highest level since Oct ‘08 and the 30 yr bond yield is at the highest since Oct ‘07. Commodity prices are also rising in response to the jobs data and the implied inflation rate in the 5 yr TIPS is rising to a 6 week high at 2.22%. This backdrop comes ahead of $82b of notes and bond supply this week as the Treasury auctions off 3’s, 10’s, 10 yr TIPS and 30’s and is possibly the biggest test of US issuance since this credit/economic crisis began. Following the solid ISM manufacturing number last Thursday, the ISM services report is out at 10am and expectations are for 54. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Gadgets/ TV/ Picture/

E-reader News Edition

Tablet (BestTabletReview.com)

Hanks and Scolari Will Accept a TV Land Award for 'Bosom Buddies'

Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:18:31 AM

Brad Trechak (TV Squad)

Tongfang Q5 MID has Android and Rockchip for under $300 The Tongfang Q5 Android MID Tongfang has introduced the Q5 which is a 4.8-inch capacitive touchscreen MID that runs an Android OS and is powered by an 866MHz Rockchip RK2808 processor. The Q5 weighs a slight 7.4 ounces and measures 4.7 x 3.2 x 0.39 inches. Other specs include 128MB or RAM, a 4GB flash drive, WiFi a/b/g, SD card for storage expansion, headphone jack, accelerometer and 2200mAh battery that’s rated for 7 hours of video playback. It also supports 720p HD. While the

Submitted at 4/5/2010 10:02:00 AM

Q5 certainly looks to have nicer specs than most Chinese-made MID products, it also has a higher-than-expected price. The good news is that it’s available now for 1,999 yuan ($293), but for that much we wouldn’t expect it to find much of a market outside of China. Even in China is doubtful as an iPod

Touch 8G sells for 1,650 yuan. Source: Cloned in China Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

WonderCon 2010 Kevin Collins (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 4/4/2010 11:02:08 PM

Super heroes, super villains and those who love them were out in full force at WonderCon, the comic and sci-fi convention in San Francisco this past weekend. Where else on Earth can you see Captain America checking for text messages?

Answer me that! They also had a number of actors and movie makers there to talk about their

projects. Photos by earthdog, Generik11, LynxPics, Inkyhack, Edopeno and lbc42. You can poke around more in the WonderCon 2010 pool or you can just search! Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Who besides myself has been aching for a'Bosom Buddies' reunion? Your wish has been granted now that Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari will reunite to accept a TV Land Anniversary Award for that very sitcom, thirty years later. Fellow cast members Donna Dixon, Thelma Hopkins and Holland Taylor will also be in attendance. Sadly, the late Wendie Jo Sperber cannot (may she rest in peace). The show will be broadcast on April 25th and will be hosted by Tim Allen. While I won't say that 'Bosom Buddies' launched Tom Hanks' career (the movie 'Splash' gets more credit for that), it definitely showcased his comedic talent. Peter Scolari was also an excellent foil for him and even made a cameo in Hanks' directorial debut 'That Thing You Do.' It makes you wonder what Kip

and Henry are actually doing in the 'Bosom Buddies' universe thirty years later. Henry probably wrote that book about their experience posing as women in order to keep a roof over their heads and it became a bestseller. They might have even decided that they liked dressing in drag and continue to this day. [via Pop Candy] Filed under: Celebrities, Awards, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Apple/

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iPad: Our First Impressions Josh Pigford (TheAppleBlog)

annoying aspect of the iPad is the inability to easily share it with others. Unlike a MacBook The iPad has been out here in or a netbook, I can’t login with the U.S. for 48 hours and many my own settings. Sharing it with us here at TheAppleBlog have the spouse is proving to be a been using ours obsessively in problem and I’m sure not going that time. Here are our first to buy two! I’m using the impressions. David Klein Facebook App while anyone Waited outside in the cold for else that uses it has to use the 15 hours. Store opened at 9AM. web interface. For other things Had it at 9:08. Interviewed by a like twitter, we are using variety of local reporters and different clients. More on iPad Molly Wood on CBS. The iPad • Day One: 300,000 iPads Sold is heavier than I expected. Very Mac Love s m o o t h t r a n s i t i o n s . A p p s • iPhone vs. iPad: Do Games designed specifically for the Really Scale That Well? Mac iPad are beautiful. Apps that Love haven’t been adapted for the • Video: Launch Day iPad iPad are ugly in full screen Purchase Mac Love mode. Typing with two fingers • Walkthrough: Initial iPad is fast. Typing with ten fingers Setup Mac Love seems impossible so far. I can’t wait to try all the new apps, but Weldon Dodd for now I must sleep. David The iPad just might deserve the Greenbaum “magical” moniker. This device Apps are significantly faster, is an absolute joy to hold and virtually instant on the iPad. I’d use. It feels very responsive and appreciate a faster bootup time, quite fast compared to an though. The sound is incredible iPhone. I fired up the Netflix and unexpectedly brilliant. a p p a n d s t a r t e d a m o v i e , Netflix streaming and LogMeIn launched the ABC Player app are killer apps for this device. I and watched a show and I felt also like Gmail’s new iPad web like I was visiting the future. i n t e r f a c e f o r e m a i l . T h e Can’t wait for Hulu. I think smudges on the screen are Apple got the screen size just frustrating me, though. I’ll wait right and the orientation lock for screen protectors, though as was a better choice than the we know you won’t find those original mute switch. Native at the Apple store. The most apps are wonderful, but iPhone Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:23:11 AM

apps on iPad are only so-so (especially true for games). I think the iPad will highlight the importance of good UX design in software. There is just enough room on the screen that well designed interfaces are going to shine on the iPad. It was possible to scoot by with a simple, list-based UI on the iPhone. That approach will not cut it here. The early efforts on native apps like Omnigraffle and Twitterrific for iPad (amazing to think that they were designed with only a simulator) show just how good native iPad software can be. Alex Layne The interface is incredibly responsive and video playback is immediate. The virtual keyboard is a lot better than I expected; typing is faster than on my iPod touch, especially in landscape mode. It’s also heavier than I expected and my arms got a little tired in the five minutes that I played with it, but they weren’t falling off. The hardware is sleek: Imagine taking the screen off a MacBook Pro and adding some thickness. Kevin Keheley First thoughts are this thing is heavy. It has some weight to it and takes a minute to figure out the best way to hold it. Second, it makes my iPhone look tiny

after using the iPad for a while then move to the iPhone. Third, fast. The iPad screams with the speed. Snappy and loads things super quick. Fourth, my new favorite app, ABC Player. Great quality video and the speed is again fast. Fifth, non-iPad apps look like garbage. The look of these apps makes me not want not want to use them. iDisk and Gallery apps are great examples of how these iPhone apps do not look great on the iPad. It is a neat idea that Apple used to blow the size of the apps up to fit the iPad screen but I think that it makes the apps less appealing on the iPad. A few things I really like on the OS. When you plug in the iPad you get a pop up window on the lock screen that tells you the percent the battery is charged. Nifty little addition. The screen rotation switch is amazing. The speakers are not awful like I thought they would be. The last is the little flower icon on the lock screen, a nice touch to make the iPad a picture frame while it is docked and charging. Mark Crump The screen is never better than I had imagined. I have no problems withe the virtual keyboard and can even thumb type in landscape mode. It’s very fast and responsive. The Zinio app is amazing. It’s the

virtual magazine reader I’ve always wanted. I’m less happy Apple is apparently censoring what Zinio can display in the device. I’m finding Pages to be harder to figure out than I expected. It seems not very Apple-ey, in that there is an extra step to complete a task. I’m also not thrilled you can’t create your own templates, and moving files isn’t intuitive. I’m also amazed it doesn’t support iDisk. iPhone apps in 2x mode look like crap. So far all I have been doing has been content consumption. I’m looking forward to creating content this week. Josh Pigford As others have mentioned, my first impression was that the iPad felt a lot heavier than I expected. Sure, we all knew that it weighed in at 1.5 pounds but I know I didn’t have any sort of real idea of how it felt to hold a device with that weight. I still haven’t figured out a really good way to hold the device for reading. The device is blazing fast and all the iPad-specific apps I’ve tried have been beautiful. iPhone apps blown up on the iPad look awful. But those few issues aside, it’s just plain fun to use.

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Day One: 300,000 iPads Sold Charles Jade (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:34:49 AM

Apple has announced that on Saturday more than 300,000 iPads were sold, including preorders, deliveries to channel partners, and sales at Apple Retail Stores. Steve Jobs, no doubt from his iPad, was ebullient.“It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world—it’s going to be a game changer. iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad.” Regarding those applications and books, iPad users downloaded more than a million apps and 250,000 e-books from Apple’s iBookstore, but it’s the iPad numbers that matter. While the iPad had a solid first day of sales, the numbers weren’t exactly “magical.” Just yesterday, sites like Apple 2.0 were reporting estimates by financial analysts like Gene Munster of between 600,000 and 700,000 iPad sales over the weekend. Given first day sales, and considering Best Buy was closed on Sunday, as well as some Apple Stores, that seems highly unlikely now. More on iPad • iPad: Our First Impressions Mac Love • iPhone vs. iPad: Do Games

(MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 4/4/2010 8:34:11 PM

Really Scale That Well? Mac Love • Video: Launch Day iPad Purchase Mac Love • Walkthrough: Initial iPad Setup Mac Love

international. So the iPad outsold the iPhone on launch day, but who bought those iPads may prove more interesting. Again via Apple 2.0, of the 448 iPad buyers surveyed by Piper Jaffray, some 74 percent were Without knowing Sunday’s Mac users. As Mac users likely drastically reduced sales, represent only a tenth of the an exact count for the launch personal computer users in the weekend can’t be had, but U.S., that could be problematic. 300,000 is the number that H o w e v e r , a m u c h b i g g e r Apple wants the focus to be on. problem exists for Amazon, T h e o r i g i n a l i P h o n e s o l d with 13 percent of respondents 270,000 units during its first owning Kindles already and weekend. While it’s true both buying iPads. Perhaps the iPad iPhone 3G and 3GS sold more will become the multi-purpose than a million units on launch, device for content consumption, b o t h l a u n c h e s w e r e eliminating single-purpose

devices like the Kindle. That would definitely help overcome any “PC gap” the iPad might face and measurably boost future sales. But today, Apple has sold more than 300,000 iPads, more than the original iPhone, and even more could have been sold had the 3G iPad been available. And yet, despite outselling the iPhone, there just isn’t the same sense of “game changer” that the came inside the box with the iPhone. Related iPad Content from GigaOM Pro(subscription required)

The first quarter of the year weren't good news for ABC's evening newscast, "World News," which dropped to the lowest numbers the program has had in a first quarter since the People Meter was introduced by Nielsen in 1987. The same situation hit CBS, where the "Evening News" also hit a new low for the months of January through March. The good news was all for NBC, where "Nightly News" scored its best first-quarter numbers since 2005. Over all, the numbers were: 9.92 million viewers for NBC; 8.27 million for ABC and 6.45 million for CBS. Viewers are stitl watching -- more than 24 million in the first quarter - continue to dwarf any news program on cable. The falloff may be attributed to changing anchors: Gibson left "World News," while at " G M A , " G e o r g e Stephanopoulos takes over from Diane Sawyer. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Four Reasons Why 'Chuck' is an All-Time Favorite Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/5/2010 11:06:00 AM

Who Will Win 'American Idol'? Jane Boursaw (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/5/2010 9:00:00 AM

The'American Idol' season nine finale is still a ways off, but I'm ready to start talking about who I think will win. I'm tempted to say that the judges missed the boat on some of the contestants who made it (or rather, didn't make it) into the Top 24, but that's not really fair. Sometimes a contestant will shine during the auditions and Hollywood

Week, but once they get to the big stage, nerves or a lack of confidence take over, and it shows in the live performances. If 'Idol' moves on to another season, I'd like to see more behind-the-scenes footage with the Top 12 -- more scenes of the music coaching, what the contestants go through making those all-important song choices, and what goes into the hair and wardrobe we see on stage. Future wish-list aside,

follow me after the jump for more analysis on the remaining contestants, and my choice for the winner. Continue reading Who Will Win 'American Idol'? Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, Contestants, Predictions and Trends Permalink| Email this| | Comments

One thing that TV fans love to do is create their list for "My Favorite TV Shows of AllTime." Every few years I calculate mine, and for several years, the list didn't change that much. Oh, maybe a couple of shows switched places or maybe a show dropped from number five to number eight, but for the most part the list stayed the same. That all changed a couple of years ago when I had to add both'Mad Men' and'30 Rock' to the list. I still haven't figured out which two shows in the top ten I'll have to take off. I'll also have to add a third show to that list, and that would be NBC's'Chuck'(tonight at 8 on NBC). I don't know if it wedges its way into the top ten, but it's

definitely top twenty. Here's why. Continue reading Four Reasons Why 'Chuck' is an All-Time Favorite Filed under: OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Chuck, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Tea Partiers Are Fairly Mainstream in Their Demographics (All Gallup Headlines) Submitted at 4/4/2010 8:00:00 PM

[ fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] Tea Party supporters skew Republican and conservative

politically; but in terms of their age, education, employment, and other basic demographic characteristics, they are generally representative of the public at large.

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Tiger Hears First Shouts From the Gallery (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

mounted the tee box instead. Couples turned to Woods and extended his arms in a What the Let it be noted that the first fan ? gesture. Woods shrugged and call-out to Tiger Woods this said, He got there first. He put morning, at 7:39 a.m., was a his bag down first. Would a reference to the boxer player like Hansen have Muhammad Ali: Greater than deferred to Woods and Couples Ali, Tiger. Greater than Ali. a competitive round. But Woods last year? Would Woodsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Associated Press Even for a was notably more responsive reaction or that of Williams practice round the Augusta than he has have been in the have been different last year? National crowd swarmed Tiger past. When Woods finally walked to Woods had arrived at the range the tee box, by now stacked with Woods. The comment, made by a tall, around 7 a.m., 15 mintues fans four or five deep, there was bearded man, was the first to before fans were allowed to start only the mildest of applause, ring out as Woods and his trickling onto the property, and no call-outs whatsoever. c a d d i e , S t e v e W i l l i a m s , despite there having been When Mr. Couples walked up a approached the cordoned-off lengthy lines at the gates since 6 minute later, there were several passage leading from the new a.m. They found Woods hitting Go Freddy! cries. practice range at the Masters to balls at the practice facility next Everyone is going to be in the carts that would transport to Fred Couples, with whom he observation mode all week, it them to the course itself. It was had arranged to play a practice looks like, Nick Faldo, the followed by a dozen or so other round. At first, they were the former Masters champion and they're the strongest team. They supportive remarkes Welcome only two on the range. Within CBS commentator, told me a bit seem to be up to almost every back, Tiger and Go get em, 10 minutes the grandstands were later. task thrown their way, and they Tiger from the crowd lining the packed. For the record, Woods pulled work well together as a team. ropes, accompanied by polite But Woods didnt come close his first drive big time, and had Can they overcome the speed applause. Not a negative word. enough to the galleries to hear Mr. Williams toss him another bump and continue the race? Unlike Woodss typically tuned- their comments until after he ball for a reload. He hit that one Continue reading'The Amazing out response before the events finished hitting balls and then straight. After Mr. Couples Race' - 'You're Like Jason of the last few months, he practiced short pitch and bunker pounded his drive down the Bourne, Right?' frequently made eye contact shots. middle, they walked off down F i l e d u n d e r : O p E d , T h e with the people who called to Woods and Couples clearly the first fairway to subdued A m a z i n g R a c e , E p i s o d e him, nodded his head and said, hoped to be the first ones teeing applause and calls of, Go get Reviews Thank you. It wasnt quite the off for their practice round at 8 em, guys. There were no TigerP e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | Phil Mickelson Show. Neither is a.m. But while they were still on specific calls that I picked up. Comments walking to a Monday morning the putting green near the first practice round the same thing as tee, Soren Hansen of Denmark Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:30:34 AM

'The Amazing Race' 'You're Like Jason Bourne, Right?' Jackie Schnoop (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/5/2010 1:02:00 AM

(S16E08) Tonight will make or break this season's strongest team, Jet and Cord, on'The Amazing Race.' I know some folks might say they aren't the strongest team as they came in last in the previous leg and were only saved by it being a nonPhilimination leg. But I beg to differ. They definitely had a bad leg; they most certainly screwed up by not reading a clue. Even taking that into consideration,

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MLB Diary: Red Sox 9, Yankees 7 (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 4/4/2010 3:00:53 PM

Getty Images Dustin Pedroia, shown hitting a two-run home run in the seventh inning, was 2for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI on the night. The Journal provides minute-by -minute analysis of the Boston Red Soxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 9-7 victory over the New York Yankees in tonightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Major League Baseball regularseason opener at Fenway Park. Guest blogger Nando Di Fino offers commentary on the game and the YES telecast. 4:58 pm | by Nando Di Fino The 2010 Major League Baseball season begins tonight the way it should every year: with the Yankees and the Red Sox dueling it out in Fenway Park. We would have also accepted Giants-Dodgers and Cubs-Cardinals. The Yankees are preparing to defend their 27th World Series title with a team that is just a few tweaks away from their 2009 squad. Granted, at this time last year, Cody Ransom was their third baseman and Johnny Damon was patrolling left field, but with some midlevel (for the Yankees at least) moves -- trades for outfielder Curtis Granderson and pitcher Javier Vazquez and naming Phil Hughes as their fifth starter -they return essentially the same core group of players. The Red Sox, meanwhile, look

to improve upon a 2009 campaign that ended in a threegame ALDS sweep loss to the Los Angeles Angels with three new additions that put the emphasis back on defense. They harken back to the 2004 lateseason trade of Sox legend Nomar Garciaparra for defensive specialists Doug Mientkiewicz and Orlando Cabrera, which eventually brought them the elusive World Series title. Marco Scutaro is the latest in the post-Nomar revolving door of shortstops, Adrian Beltre was signed to play third base, and Mike Cameron will patrol centerfield. The three additions have five Gold Gloves between them. So pay no attention to that final exhibition game today between

the Giants and Mariners, dangling above the real seaon opener on the schedule like a confusing, low-hanging fruit. Instead, re-read former Commissioner Bart Giamatti's paen to the game, "The Green Fields of the Mind" and prepare yourself for the start of a new season with one of the game's oldest rivalries. 8:15 pm | 0-0 tie; 1st Inning | by Nando Di Fino The first pitch of the 2010 season becomes a groundout by Derek Jeter to Marco Scutaro, who throws over to first for an easy out. 8:18 pm | 0-0 tie, 1st Inning | by Nando Di Fino One of the things that is refreshingly absent from the 2010 season is the chatter

surrounding the World Baseball Classic. I am on record as a fan of the tournament, but it's great to not have to hear the talk about the players who participated, it's nice to have the season starting at a normal time, and if the Yankees or the Red Sox (or both) make it to the postseason, it will be at least a week warmer, since the WBC won't be pushing the season into winter like it did last year. 8:19 pm | 0-0 tie; 1st Inning | by Nando Di Fino After Nick Johnson drives a ball to deep center, Teixeira grounds out to Youkilis to end the inning. Jacoby Ellsbury leads off the Boston half of the inning with a flyout to Granderson in center. So if you're keeping track at home,

three of the four fielding plays thus far have been made by new additions. 8:23 pm | 0-0 tie; 1st Inning | by Nando Di Fino Michael Kay on the YES Network: "It is about the most beautiful day you will see" at any point this season for a baseball game. And he's right. It was 82 in Boston today on a date you might have expected to be 45 and windy. 8:29 pm | 0-0 tie; 1st Inning | by Nando Di Fino Sabathia retires the side in order in a relatively unremarkable half-inning -outside of him retiring his former catcher with Cleveland, Victor Martinez, for the last out MLB page 57

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-- as Michael Kay points out that the YES Network will tally pitch count all year long as part of the graphic under the score. This is one of those "why did it take so long?" inventions in televised sports. 8:31 pm | 0-0 tie; 2nd Inning | by Nando Di Fino The Red Sox lineup this year comes with a lot of flexibility. For those readers wondering (including online questioner Joe), for instance, where Jason Varitek and Mike Lowell are, the answer is: the dugout. Victor Martinez is catching and Adrian Beltre is playing third base. However, they can always shift some players around -- have Varitek catch, Martinez play first, Youkilis play the outfield or third -- and work the veterans in. 8:32 pm | 1-0 Yankees, 2nd Inning | by Nando Di Fino Jorge Posada just hit one of the most unique-to-Fenway homeruns a baseball fan will see. It hit the Pesky Pole in short right (Pesky was, ironically, introduced to a roaring Fenway during pregame ceremonies), and bounced onto the field. Ă&#x201A; 1 -0, Yankees. 8:36 pm | 2-0 Yankees; 2nd Inning | by Nando Di Fino Curtis Granderson just hit one of the most not-unique-to-anypark home runs a fan will see, as he absolutely drills a Beckett pitch to deep centerfield. It's his first as a Yankee, and it came in

his first at-bat. I am sure we will have some kind of specific stat soon from the booth (for example: "Curtis Granderson is just the 23rd Yankee to hit a home run in his first at-bat for the Yankees!"), but for now, it is 2-0, Yankees, and Red Sox fans have to be at least a little concerned that the homer-prone Beckett is not starting the season off on the right foot. 8:43 pm | 2-0 Yankees; 2nd Inning | by Nando Di Fino Derek Jeter grounds into a fielders choice to Scutaro -- they barely get Brett Gardner at second -- on Beckett's 36th pitch of the game (YES, you've done it again! Pitch counter!). It was a little weird seeing the Yankees bat around without Hideki Matsui in the lineup, less so without Damon in there, but we move on to the bottom of the second, with the Yankees ahead, 2-0. 8:50 pm | 2-1 Yankees; 2nd Inning | by Nando Di Fino David Ortiz is one of the bigger question marks in baseball this season. He is in his contract year, but still managed to almost hit 30 home runs last season, even though he was a disaster for more than half the year. He grounds out in his first at-bat of 2010, but advances Kevin Youkilis to third. Youkilis scores on a deep sacrifice fly to center by Adrian Beltre. Two outs, the Yankees lead, 2-1. Two of the three runs have been

driven in by new acquisitions. 8:59 pm | 2-1 Yankees; 2nd Inning | by Nando Di Fino Sabathia gets J.D. Drew to strike out, ending the second inning with the Yankees ahead, 2-1. Not to take us off the rails here, but I was getting a lot of texts about Donovan McNabb being traded to the Washington Redskins, and the Eagles just confirmed it. A second-round pick this year and a third-orfourth round pick next year go back to the Eagles. Just to at least justify this news somehow in a baseball live blog, this would be akin to the Yankees trading Derek Jeter to Baltimore for a couple prospects. 9:03 pm | 2-1 Yankees; 3rd Inning | by Nando Di Fino The Yankees getting Nick Johnson is going to kill the pace of the games this season. Yankees fans will hear two things about Johnson this year: 1. He will walk a lot, and 2. He gets inured a lot. When he steps up to bat, it's going to be like that part of a concert you go to where the band plays boring new songs. Half the stadium will get up and go to the bathroom, knowing that Johnson will probably see 116 pitches per at-bat and slow the game down considerably. 9:07 pm | 2-1 Yankees; 3rd Inning | by Nando Di Fino Nick Johnson, on cue, walks. Teixeira follows it up with a fly out, and A-Rod grounds into a

double play (started by Scutaro) to end the inning. We go to the bottom of the third with the Yankees ahead, 2-1, and Boston's new centerfielder, Mike Cameron, leading off. But first, YES introduces another new feature of the game, with some on-field reporting by Kim Jones. In all honesty, it's actually pretty informative. Jones gives three solid tidbits on Sabathia's mechanics, Brett Gardner's move to left field, and the 8th-inning reliever role. 9:11 pm | 2-1 Yankees; 3rd Inning | by Nando Di Fino Words you may never hear again from the mouth of Michael Kay: "And you just saw Dr. Dre next to LeBron." James, a friend of Sabathia's, is at Fenway Park after playing the Celtics today. Mike Cameron is at first base after walking, but Scutaro lines sharply to A-Rod at third, who then fires it to first to double off Cameron. He might have been safe as he dove back to first, but there's no real argument and Dustin Pedroia Jacoby Ellsbury grounds to third to end the inning. Yankees lead, 2-1, as we go to the top of the fourth. 9:19 pm | 2-1 Yankees, 4th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Robinson Cano leads off the fourth with a deep fly to left that glances off a leaping Ellsbury's glove and bounces away from him, sending Cano to second. Posada advances Cano to third

on a groundout, followed by a Granderson groundout to Youkilis that fails to plate the runner. Nick Swisher, who at this time last year was an afterthought in a trade from Chicago for Wilson Betemit, walks. There are men on first and third with two outs, and Brett Gardner is up. 9:26 pm | 3-1 Yankees; 4th Inning | by Nando Di Fino As different as the Yankees and the Red Sox try to be, they do have this in common: they both pushed speedster centerfielders to left in order to make room in center for their new acquisitions. For the Red Sox, it was Ellsbury; for the Yankees, it was Gardner. Both could have very similar seasons, with a decent average and plenty of steals. On Beckett's 68th pitch of the game, Gardner singles a 3-2, two-out pitch to left for a run-scoring single. It's Gardner's second opposite-field hit of the night. 31, Yankees. 9:27 pm | 4-1 Yankees, 4th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Beckett then narrowly misses Jeter, brushing him inside around stomach level with a pitch, bringing Martinez out to try and calm him down. As revenge, Jeter grounds a ball past a diving (who else?) Scutaro, scoring Swisher and sending Gardner to third. All four of the Yankees runs tonight MLB page 58

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have been scored with two outs. Nick Johnson is up, so expect your next update in five minutes. 4-1, Yankees. 9:34 pm | 5-1 Yankees; 4th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Scott Schoeneweis is warming up in the Red Sox bullpen. Two pitches after Ken Singleton said we should watch for a steal by Jeter, to "maybe steal a run here," Jeter steals second and Gardner steals home. The plan, according to the booth, was a designed play for Jeter to stop running, get himself in a rundown, and allow Gardner to score while the infielders were trying to get Jeter out. The throw went to second from Victor Martinez, Jeter stopped, but jogged to second, as the throw immediately went back home to try and get Gardner. Gardner scores, Jeter is safe at second, and it's 5-1, Yankees. Nick Johnson strikes out looking, and we move to the bottom of the fourth. 9:36 pm | 5-1 Yankees; 4th Inning | by Nando Di Fino CC Sabathia wins a footrace to first as Pedroia slides head-first into the base and is called out in the second close play of the night that has gone New York's way. Pedroia gets up and throws a right hook at nobody in particular, which couldn't be more inappropriate: 1. It could have been construed as a punch thrown in the umpire's direction (from five

feet away) 2. It is the gesture for "out," not "safe." 3. It looked more celebratory. Pedroia looked legitimately like a Duke player who had just hit a big three-pointer. The Sox go down 2-3 after Pedroia's "1." We go to the top of the fifth with the Yankees ahead, 5-1. 9:43 pm | 5-1 Yankees; 5th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Beckett is on pitch 85 right now, and seems to be all over the place, with 36 balls to 49 strikes. Teixeira and A-Rod go down quickly, but Robinson Cano hits another hard ball, this time to right. J.D. Drew plays it "beautifully," according to Kay, and holds Cano at first on a shot that 85% of the time is probably a double. Drew just one-handed it, turned, and threw a rocket to second base. 9:53 pm | 5-1 Yankees; 5th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Jorge Posada walks on pitch 94 from Beckett. Terry Francona comes in and yanks his numberone starter with two outs in the top of the fifth. Scott Schoeneweis comes in to pitch just as Michael Kay mentions that many Sox fans thought Jon Lester should have gotten the start instead. 9:54 pm | 5-1 Yankees; 5th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Schoeneweis, a lefty, is a little all over the place with his first few offerings to the lefty

Granderson, including a wild pitch and a nearly-hit batsman, but he manages to strike out the new centerfielder, and we go to the bottom of the fifth with the Yankees up, 5-1. 9:59 pm | 5-1 Yankees; 5th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Sabathia has only thrown 63 pitches at this point, which is as good a time as any to bring up this stat from ESPN: the Yankees are the only team with three pitchers on their current staff who threw 200+ IP last year (Sabathia, Javier Vazquez, A.J. Burnett). Andy Pettitte just missed with 194 2/3. 10:02 pm | 5-1 Yankees; 5th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Beckett's final line included five runs, eight hits, three walks, and two home runs. In last year's the 2008 opener against Toronto, he gave up five runs on three hits and five four walks, with one home run. Before that, he had all stellar starts going back to 2003, when Philly hammered him in 2 2/3 innings pitched. 10:07 pm | 5-2 Yankees; 5th Inning | by Nando Di Fino J.D. Drew gets the second hit of the game for the Red Sox, followed by Cameron getting the third, after Ortiz popped out and Beltre struck out to lead it off. With men on first and second, Scutaro ropes a hit to left, which Gardner almost chased down but seemed to pull up on. He then makes a wild

throw that comes nowhere near home plate, allowing Drew to score, and Cameron and Scutaro to advance to third and second, respectively. 5-2, Yankees. 10:10 pm | 5-2 Yankees, 5th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Ellsbury strikes out to end the fifth. 5-2, Yankees. We learned two things this inning: First, moving Gardner to left may take a little while to get used to for Yankees fans (or, being the Yankees, expect to see a chorus of fans chanting for the signing of Jermaine Dye in the next couple weeks). Second, David Ortiz needs to start clicking, or one of those moving parts I mentioned earlier could be DH. 10:24 pm | 5-2 Yankees, 6th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Schoeneweis gets Swisher and Garndner on two quick outs, then is yanked in favor of Ramon Ramirez. While we have the pitching change, here is a bit of fun "Where Are They Now?" trivia: Tony Womack, who briefly played second base for the Yankees before they called up Robinson Cano, enlisted the help of three people he recruited in a bar this past weekend and finished in second place (out of twenty entries) in the Cuervo Games in Tempe, Ariz. 10:24 pm | 5-2 Yankees, 6th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Jeter singles off Ramirez, followed by a Nick Johnson liner to center. It's 5-2, Yankees

as they go to the bottom of the sixth. 10:25 pm | 5-2 Yankees; 6th Inning | by Nando Di Fino If I had to rate the new additions to YES tonight, I think it would be: Pitch counter - 5 stars (out of 5) In-game info visits with Kim Jones - 4 1/2 stars The little arrow next to the inning which indicates whether it's the bottom or the top half - 3 1/2 stars Obsession with making references to LeBron James - 1 star 10:28 pm | 5-2 Yankees; 6th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Pedroia walks to start off the bottom of the sixth, followed by a rope by Victor Martinez to left for a double. Gardner makes an on-line throw to A-Rod at third, where Ellsbury decides to hold. Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland just pulled a move after a visit to the mound that I don't think I've ever seen before: he took the ball with him and then flipped it to a fan behind the dugout. 10:33 pm | 5-4 Yankees; 6th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Youkilis lines a ball to right that lands about six feet to the left of Nick Swisher and ships by him to the wall. There's a great shot of fans screaming at Swisher with middle fingers raised as he runs it down and MLB page 60

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Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins reach agreement on Donovan McNabb trade ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

and know we shared a lot more good times than bad." Mike & Mike in the Morning Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:36:48 AM Eagles coach Andy Reid discusses why he decided to • Email trade Donovan McNabb within • Print the NFC East, the difficulty of • Comments making the deal and his • Share expectations for Kevin Kolb. • Shortly after news of the trade broke, former Redskins running ESPN.com news services back Brian Mitchell spoke with PHILADELPHIA -- Donovan M c N a b b o n t h e p h o n e , McNabb is changing uniforms a c c o r d i n g t o C o m c a s t and staying in the NFC East. SportsNet. Mitchell, who played The Philadelphia Eagles traded several years in Philadelphia, McNabb to the Washington told Comcast SportsNet his Redskins for a pair of draft f o r m e r t e a m m a t e s e e m e d picks on Sunday night. The e n e r g e t i c a b o u t h i s n e w Eagles will receive a second- d e s t i n a t i o n . round pick (37th overall) in this "In his voice I heard a lot of month's NFL draft and either a enthusiasm," Mitchell reported third- or fourth-round pick next on Comcast SportsNet. "And year. you know, he may not be ESPN NFL Insider Adam exactly like me, but I could hear Schefter was the first to report he had a little revenge in that that McNabb had been dealt to voice, too. And he wants to go Washington. to the Eagles and show them "I'm really excited about my that they made a mistake." future with the Washington League sources told Schefter Redskins," McNabb said in a that McNabb wanted to play for statement Sunday night. "I'm the Redskins and not the Raiders eager to work with Coach or the Bills, which is why the [Mike] Shanahan. He's been a trade happened. very successful coach with a "Donovan McNabb was more couple of Super Bowl victories than a franchise quarterback for on his resume. While it has this team," Eagles chairman been my goal to win a Super Jeffrey Lurie said. "He truly Bowl in Philadelphia, we came embodied all of the attributes of up short. I enjoyed my 11 years, a great quarterback and of a

great person. He has been an excellent representative of this organization and the entire National Football League both on and off the field. I look forward to honoring him as one of the greatest Eagles of all-time and hopefully see him enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton one day." The trade is the boldest move to date for new Redskins coach Shanahan and could spell the end in Washington for Jason Campbell, the starter for 3½ seasons. McNabb and Campbell spoke on the phone Sunday night about their experiences with each team, league sources told Schefter. Shanahan already has signed free agent Rex Grossman as a backup and has been actively scouting the top quarterbacks available in next month's draft, when the Redskins will have the No. 4 overall pick. The Redskins still have Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford scheduled to visit on Tuesday, league sources told Schefter. "Welcome to our newest teammate to DC!" cornerback DeAngelo Hall posted on Twitter. "Really excited about what Coach Shanahan and [general manager] Bruce Allen are doing to help us compete for a championship!"

Sources tell ESPN the Redskins offered defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth in one of their first attempts to land McNabb, but that the Eagles were not interested. As a free agent in 2009, Haynesworth signed a $100 million contract with the Redskins, including $41 million in guaranteed money. Haynesworth will earn a guaranteed $3.6 million in 2010 and $5.4 million in 2011. The Redskins and McNabb have not had any contract talks yet, league sources told Schefter. McNabb's contract runs through the end of the 2010 season. Washington and Philadelphia are rivals in all the major pro sports, and the idea of Redskins fans finding a way to welcome McNabb in their hearts will be nearly as interesting of a dynamic as the prospect of McNabb facing his old team twice this upcoming season. Shanahan can only hope the 33year-old McNabb works out as well as the last big-time Washington-Philadelphia quarterback deal. The Eagles in 1964 sent Sonny Jurgensen to the Redskins, where he played 11 seasons until he was 40 and became a Hall of Famer. Keeping The Ball Donovan McNabb doesn't turn the ball over via the

interception. Over the last four seasons, the only QB with at least 1,000 attempts and a lower interception percentage is Aaron Rodgers. McNabb has thrown 683 more passes than Rodgers in that time period. "These people never learn," Jurgensen told the Redskins' Web site when informed of the trade Sunday night. McNabb, a six-time Pro Bowl quarterback, led the Eagles to five NFC Championship Games and one Super Bowl in 11 seasons in Philadelphia. His failure to lead the team to its first NFL championship since 1960 plus the emergence of Kevin Kolb made him expendable. McNabb, the No. 2 overall pick in the 1999 draft, leaves as the franchise leader in yards passing (32,873), completions (2,801), attempts (4,746), completion percentage (59.0) and touchdown passes (216). He also rushed for 3,249 yards and 28 TDs. Kolb, who has started two games in three seasons, becomes the starter. Michael Vick is the backup. "This was a very tough decision," coach Andy Reid said. "Donovan McNabb represented everything a PHILADELPHIA page 63

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fires it to the infield, but it is too late. Two runs score, Youkilis has a triple, and the Yankees lead is cut to 5-4. 10:35 pm | 5-4 Yankees; 6th Inning | by Nando Di Fino David Ortiz hits a broken-bat dribbler to Cano, who pulls a great move by pumping to the plate while running towards first, which accomplished the dual goal of holding Youkilis at third and getting Ortiz at first. Sabathia is being pulled with a man on third and a one-run lead. 10:35 pm | 5-5 tie; 6th Inning | by Nando Di Fino David Robertson's first pitch of the inning is hit past Cano in the first-second hole by Adrian Beltre for a run-scoring single. It's a tie ballgame, 5-5, with one out in the bottom of the sixth. 10:38 pm | 5-5 tie; 6th Inning | by Nando Di Fino I know it doesn't hold the same importance as having it for the starters, but there is no pitch counter for David Robertson, and, I can only assume, the rest of the relievers. YES should really keep that up throughout the game. Not because it serves any real purpose, but because you get used to it and want to check every so often just out of habit. Drew and Cameron ground out to end the inning. We go to the top of the seventh, a 5-5 tie. 10:45 pm | 5-5 tie; 7th Inning | by Nando Di Fino After Teixeira walks, A-Rod

hits a bullet against the Green Monster -- maybe 10 feet too low for a home run -- and the Yankees have runners on second and third with no outs. Ramirez is being pulled in favor of lefty reliever Hideki Okajima, who will face a lefty (Cano), a switch -hitter (Posada), and another lefty (Granderson), if there are no double-plays. 10:48 pm | 7-5 Yankees; 7th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Cano grounds to Pedroia, who pumps towards the plate then decides to throw to first for the out. Teixeira scores, Ken Singleton feels that if Pedroia didn't pump he would've gotten the runner at home, A-Rod advances to third, and theĂ&#x201A; Yankees lead, 6-5. Before YES gets a chance to show a fifth replay of the Cano RBI, Posada strokes a single that scores A-Rod from third. 75, Yankees. 10:49 pm | 7-5 Yankees; 7th Inning | by Nando Di Fino And we have the first Michael Kay pun of the night: Curtis arrived "in Grand-erson style"! Huzzah! 10:53 pm | 7-5 Yankees; 7th Inning | by Nando Di Fino A walk by Granderson pushes Posada to second, with one out. And we interrupt this Nick Swisher at-bat to let all fans know that Chan Ho Park is warming up in the Yankees bullpen. We should probably interrupt the interruption to let

fans know that Chan Ho Park is on the Yankees. Swisher grounds into a double-play to end the inning, with the Yankees leading, 7-5, heading into the seventh-inning stretch. 10:56 pm | 7-5 Yankees; 7th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Michael Kay is reporting that Steven Tyler, of Aerosmith, sang "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch. 10:57 pm | 7-5 Yankees; 7th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Chan Ho Park's first pitch of the game is high and inside as Scutaro sets up to bunt, making this our third almost-hit-batter of the game. 11:02 pm | 7-7 tie; 7th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Park gives up a single to Scutaro, strikes out Ellsbury, then allows a home run just next to the left-field foul pole over the Green Monster to Pedroia. It is a 7-7 tie once again. 11:09 pm | 7-7 tie; 7th Inning | by Nando Di Fino After Martinez grounds out to Cano, Youkilis launches a ball that just missed a Green Monster home run, instead bouncing down for a double. The Kay Pun Count is now at two, as he notes that "Chan Ho couldn't keep it in the Park," and Damaso Marte enters the game with two outs and a tie ballgame. 11:13 pm | 8-7 Red Sox; 7th Inning | by Nando Di Fino

David Ortiz is up in a spot that will either earn him weeks of reverence in New England, or have most of the region shaking their heads, saying he's through. Just as Michael Kay mentions that Marte has been bothered by a cranky shoulder, he skips his first pitch in the dirt to Posada's left for a wild pitch, moving Youkilis to third. Three pitches later, a ball bounces off Posada's mitt for a passed ball, and Youkilis scores. 8-7, Red Sox. Marte walks Ortiz and is promptly yanked. 11:18 pm | 8-7 Red Sox; 7th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Joba Chamberlain comes in to get the last out for the Yankees and mercifully end an inning that seemed to last for a solid two hours. We are through seven innings, with the Red Sox leading, 8-7. 11:28 pm | 8-7 Red Sox; 8th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Bard induces Gardner and Jeter groundouts to start the inning, bringing up Nick Johnson, who is working on a mustache. Quick thought: if you know the date of Opening Night for months, why would you be halfway through the mustachegrowing process? Wouldn't you have started growing it a couple weeks ago to have it ready for today? 11:32 pm | 8-7 Red Sox; 8th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Nick Johnson walks (template to be created in time for next

Yankees live blog). Randy Winn, a relatively late signing by the Yankees, enters the game as a pinch runner, but it is all for naught, as Teixeira grounds into a fielders choice. 8-7, Red Sox, as we go to the bottom of the eighth. 11:35 pm | 8-7 Red Sox; 8th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Fans at this game are going to tell their kids they went to a concert and a baseball game broke out. The Sox brought out Neil Diamond to sing "Sweet Caroline," which they play after the top of the eighth inning every game, one inning after Steven Tyler sang "God Bless America." To sum up: a one-run game with plenty of offensive firepower in one of the nation's best parks between the game's two best teams on what Michael Kay described as the best day anyone could ask for. Plus Neil Diamond. And Steven Tyler. This is how you open a baseball season. 11:36 pm | 8-7 Red Sox; 8th Inning | by Nando Di Fino It is also, coincidentally, how you open a Denny's. 11:42 pm | 8-7 Red Sox; 8th Inning | by Nando Di Fino Joba had a promising start to the inning, getting Drew to quickly ground out to third, but I think the fact that Fenway Park is doing The Wave right now indicates how much the game MLB page 64

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Tiger Woods begins practice round at Augusta National Jason Sobel (ESPN.com) Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:09:11 AM

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By Jason Sobel ESPN.com Archive AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Let the records show that Tiger Woods' first golf shot in front of a public gallery since his highly publicized personal scandal led to a mulligan. Meanwhile, the galleries at Augusta National Golf Club seem to be offering him a mulligan of a different kind. Despite speculation that Woods' return could be marked by disruptions, there were no signs of such behavior during his early Monday practice round in advance of the Masters Tournament. When Woods made his way from the putting green to the first tee at exactly 8 a.m. ET, a crowd estimated at 500 watched

in silence. The first smattering of applause took place when playing partner Fred Couples showed up seconds later. Woods' initial tee shot was pulled way left, but he drew some laughs when he asked for a second ball, which found the fairway. His swing appeared to be the same maneuver he's been working on for years, looking strong throughout the round -that opening tee shot notwithstanding. It is the first time his swing has been seen publicly since Nov. 15, when he won the Australian Masters. Two weeks later, he was involved in a car accident which led to reports of extramarital affairs, a stay in rehabilitation and a public statement where he admitted to indiscretions. More noteworthy was the fact that Tiger not only prepared for the tournament without incident, but actually seemed to interact with those outside the gallery ropes more than in years past. After walking off the first tee, one fan called out, "Welcome back, Tiger!" to which the fourtime Masters champion nodded

his head in acknowledgement. Later, another observer commented, "Great day for golf, Tiger," and the pro cheerily responded, "Yes, it is." This was largely the theme of the morning, as a large, supportive gallery followed Woods and Couples, often applauding and offering words of encouragement to the two players. An increased security team was also on hand to prevent any possible disorderly conduct toward the competitors. "Good to see you Tiger," said Connie Mickey of Columbus, Neb., as Woods played the second hole. "Thank you," replied Woods, showing a big smile and clearly making eye contact with Mickey, who was 15 yards away, behind the ropes. "It was nice to see him smile," Mickey said after Woods made his way down the par-5 hole. During practice rounds, fans are allowed to bring cameras; seemingly every person in attendance was clicking shots of Tiger throughout the round. For their part, Woods and Couples appeared comfortable

in the public setting, talking amiably while walking down fairways, but otherwise working on their respective games. There was no friendly match taking place, as each player chipped and putted multiple balls to various spots on each green. The crowd increased with every hole, and it included some familiar faces -- Masters chairman Billy Payne was among those watching. Also getting plenty of attention was his swing coach Hank Haney, who posed for a half-dozen pictures behind the third tee. Haney declined to talk about Woods or his game. "Everyone can see for themselves how he's playing," Haney said. This was the sixth day Woods has played the course in the past three weeks. Reports are that he plans to practice on Tuesday, as well. Woods played the back nine on Sunday afternoon with Mark O'Meara when the course was open only to participants and club members. Following the round, Woods was scheduled to meet with the

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assembled media in his first fulllength interview since the scandal broke in November. ESPNEWS will carry the news conference at 2 p.m. ET. It will also stream on ESPN.com. His news conference is getting plenty of attention -- so much so that Augusta National is limiting media to fill the 207 seats in the press center. Woods has finished sixth or better in each of the last four editions of the Masters, but hasn't won the green jacket since 2005. Tee times for this week's tournament will be released on Tuesday afternoon. The opening round begins on Thursday. Jason Sobel is a golf writer for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press and ESPN golf editor Kevin Maguire was used in this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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What to Expect From Tiger at Augusta (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

chipping and putting to various possible hole locations with many balls. But if something is M o n d a y s a t t h e M a s t e r s seriously wrong with Woodss normally have the feel of late- game as it clearly was on the summer Fridays at the office: A practice range before his last half-day for most, the key actors competitive round at Augusta on absent, relaxed conversations in Sunday of last years event (he the hall among those present. was hitting almost amateurish But Monday at this years h o o k s ) that would be Masters is different. Tiger n o t i c e a b l e . Woods is back. The day may Scene Two of Mondays first act rival Thursday, when he plays will be his press conference his first round, or Sunday, when scheduled for 2 p.m., which has the leaders hit the back nine, for the potential to be the most human interest. Associated interesting hour of the week, Press Tiger Woods arrives in a especially for Tiger-watchers golf cart with caddie Steve who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t much care for golf. Williams for practice Sunday at The first thing to watch for will Augusta National. be whether Woods or the Woods appeared on the grounds Augusta National member of Augusta National Golf Club officiating at the conference Sunday. He hit balls and played i m p o s e s a n y l a s t - m i n u t e a short practice round with his restrictions on the questions to old pal, Mark OMeara. which Woods will respond. But if Woods plays another There were no such restrictions practice round Monday, as during the five-minute miniexpected, it will be his first interviews he gave to the Golf appearance with actual galleries Channel and ESPN last month, on a golf course since his car but neither was there enough accident on Nov. 29 and the time for any kind of meaningful ensuing scandal. How those fans follow-up or in-depth answers. receive Woods, and how he Assuming no restrictions, the reacts to that reception, will be focus of the questions, and how t h e o p e n i n g s c e n e i n t h e flagrantly Woods dodges those weeklong drama that is his he doesnt want to answer, will return. reveal a lot about the future of Its usually not possible in his relationship with the media. practice rounds to judge how The reporters present will not sharp a players game is. The include members of the sopros sometimes hit Mulligans called tabloid press. For the and around the green practice m o s t p a r t , t h o s e g r a n t e d Submitted at 4/4/2010 7:55:37 PM

if I didnt think I could win.) Even if no shocking news emerges from the presser, it will be intriguing to see whether the nature and tone of Woodss responses to questions from the golf press is qualitatively different from the pre-scandal c r e d e n t i a l s a r e f r o m era. In the past, for those of us organizations that normally who have tried to match wits cover the Masters. But many of with Woods in interviews, it them feel stung by Woodss w a s l i k e f a c i n g a c h e s s recently-revealed deceits and grandmaster who could see five have had weeks to come up with moves ahead. In large part that incisively-phrased queries and was because he alone made the follow-ups to fire his way. Some rules: He didnt have to answer may even involve golf. any questions he preferred to Here are some of the questions avoid or ever, ever reveal likely to be asked and my anything meaningful about his predicted answers: inner life. Is your wife Elin coming this He was totally within his rights week? Why or why not? (No, to do so. Interviews were not and thats private.) governed by U.S. Golf What is the nature of the in- Association rules, and he didnt patient therapy you said you need anything he didnt already have been undergoing and are have in the way of publicity. you still in treatment? (The type The interviews he did were done of therapy is private but he may p r i m a r i l y t o f u l f i l l h i s describe its current status.) contractual obligations or his Recent reports have indicated l e s s - e x p l i c i t l y d e f i n e d your advisors knew more about obligations to the PGA Tour and your extramarital affairs than its sponsors. you said they did in the Golf Now its possible that he feels Channel interview. Is that true? he does have something to gain (Woods may elaborate here and from responding meaningfully possibly make a personnel to at least some of the questions announcement.) posed by the great unwashed About the night of the car media. Or maybe not. Probably accident (Its all in the police n o t . B u t M o n d a y s p r e s s report.) conference will be an early read. How is your golf game? (I wouldnt have come here to play

Around the Net In Media: Univision Launches SpanishLanguage GameSpot (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 4/4/2010 8:34:19 PM

Univision and CBS' GameSpot are teaming up on a new videogaming site. The arrangement will give users access to videogame information, including Spanishlanguage content, such as news, reviews, editorials and videos about the top-selling games worldwide. Univision indicates that Hispanic gamers are twice as likely to purchase games in the next 30 days compared to their non-Hispanic counterparts. For CBS Interactive, it's an opportunity to reach one of the fastest-growing segments of the videogaming community. Univision will translate GameSpot content into Spanish, and GameSpot will also produce exclusive weekly Spanishlanguage content appearing on Univision.com. GameSpot editor-in-chief Ricardo Torres will oversee production. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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PHILADELPHIA continued from page 59

football player could be during his 11 seasons in Philadelphia. He carried this organization to new heights and set a high standard of excellence both on and off the field. We thank him for everything he did for this football team and for this city." With three quarterbacks on the roster in McNabb, Kolb and Vick, the Eagles faced a decision on which QB to keep and which to trade. Monday, on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike in The Morning," Reid said McNabb was not the only quarterback he considered moving. "I can't deny there wasn't a choice to be made. There were things offered for Kevin," Reid said. "I thought this was the best deal here." "I did not go into it saying Donovan was the guy [who would be traded] -- this happened to be the best deal for everybody," Reid said. McNabb threw for 3,553 yards and 22 touchdowns with 10 interceptions in 14 games last season, leading the Eagles to the playoffs. His passer rating of 92.9 was the third-highest in his

career. But McNabb played poorly in a loss to Dallas in Week 17 that cost Philadelphia a division title and a first-round bye. He also struggled in a loss to the Cowboys the following week in the wild-card game. Reid said immediately after the season that McNabb would return in 2010. Reid repeated that several times throughout the offseason until acknowledging last month the team was listening to offers for all three of its QBs. McNabb then issued a statement saying he wished to remain with the Eagles, but understood the situation and hoped for a quick resolution. It was not easy telling McNabb that he had been traded, Reid said on "Mike & Mike in the Morning." "Listen -- we are friends and will remain friends and we had 11 great years together," Reid said of McNabb. "Unfortunately, this game moves fast -- it's a terrible, terrible thing to deal with as a player and as a coach." But change is part of the game,

Reid added. "It doesn't last forever -- that's the problem. We all face it, we all know it's coming sometime, someplace," he said. "And then you kind of move on and the game moves on." The Eagles were 92-49-1 in regular-season games that McNabb started and 9-7 in the playoffs. "Donovan is the ultimate professional," Eagles president Joe Banner said. "He has an incredible work ethic and has been an integral part of our success. Over the years, Donovan has always carried himself with a great deal of dignity. He's an excellent role model for young men and women from across the region. In my mind, he'll always be remembered as one of the greatest Eagles of all time." The Redskins waited until late in the evening to announce the trade and did not make Shanahan available for comment. "Donovan is an accomplished quarterback who has been a proven winner in the National Football League," Shanahan

said in a statement released by the team. "I have long admired his competitiveness and feel he will be an outstanding addition to the Redskins and our community. He knows our division and the roadmap to success in the NFC East." McNabb overcame numerous injuries and controversies throughout his career, including criticism from Rush Limbaugh and a feud with former teammate Terrell Owens. He sustained injuries that ended his regular season in November in 2002, 2005 and 2006. McNabb missed a total of 24 games because of injuries. The Eagles were 14-10 in those games. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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has slowed down as Joba paints every corner of the plate. Mike Cameron is on second after a single up the middle and a walk to Scutaro. 11:46 pm | 9-7 Red Sox; 8th Inning | by Nando Di Fino After Ellsbury flies out to shallow center, Pedroia lines a ball to right. A charging Swisher makes a good throw to almost get Cameron at the plate, but no dice. 9-7, Red Sox, with two outs and runners on first and third. Pedroia has three RBI on the night and will now probably get the lions share of the text votes for Player of the Game. 11:50 pm | 9-7 Red Sox; 8th Inning | by Nando Di Fino The pitch counter is back! Joba has thrown 31 pitches! The Joba Rules live on the YES Network! Pitch number 32 is a fly out to Swisher in right, and we go to the top of the ninth, with the Red Sox ahead, 9-7. Jonathan Papelbon will come on to try and finish the game for Boston. 11:58 pm | 9-7 Red Sox; Final | by Nando Di Fino Papelbon makes short work of A-Rod and Cano to start the

ninth. "The Yankee bullpen has not done the job," Kay notes, in the understatement of the game. Posada singles with two outs, but Curtis Granderson grounds out on a 1-2 pitch to end the game. The Red Sox win, 9-7, to take a commanding 1/2 game lead in the AL East over the Orioles, Rays, and Blue Jays. 12:06 am | Postgame | by Nando Di Fino The story of the game tonight can best be represented by David Ortiz in 2009. On paper, it looks like he had a good season, but it really was just a couple very exciting months in a sea of "blah." This Yankees-Red Sox tilt had a few fun parts, but the whole was a display of poor relief pitching and a game that seemed a little boring at stretches. Did we learn anything from Opening Night? Maybe. The Red Sox and Yankees have no problem taking walks this year, for one. The moves the teams made in the offseason seem to be the right ones, at least in the small sample size of Just One Game. CC Sabathia is a fun pitcher to watch. Ken Singleton

may have psychic powers. And Nick Johnson needs to buy either a calendar or a razor. If this game was played two months from now, we'd probably see a much different result, with players being more focused and displaying more stamina. For now, though, it was kind of a messy, yet exciting debut. A paradox, so to speak. But it did see the debut of the YES pitch counter, and they can never take that away from us. My prediction is that we'll see these two teams beating up on each other for the rest of the season. Whether or not the Rays can take advantage of that and sneak past both -- like that lucky contestant who is in thirdplace heading into Final Jeopardy and bets nothing, while the two leaders guess wrong and knock each other out -- remains to be seen. I'd like to say it's going to be fun, but with the relief we saw tonight, that could be far from the truth.

UConn Women Stutter, Don't Stumble Milton Kent (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/4/2010 6:00:00 PM

Filed under: Connecticut, Women's Basketball SAN ANTONIO -- Once upon a time, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma used to taunt the rest of his sport with the phrase, "We have Diana [Taurasi] and you don't," meaning he had the best player in the game, and she was enough to make his team the best in the game. Auriemma wasn't in a taunting mode after the Huskies turned back Baylor 70-50 in the national semifinal here Sunday night, but he has two of the best players in the game, Maya Moore and Tina Charles, and they made all the difference. The Huskies, who have won 77 straight games -- all by double digits -- were rocked on their heels for a time by a scrappy Baylor team that had already knocked off Tennessee and Duke in the regionals and smelled blood in the water early in the second half, when they

sliced a 17-point deficit down to three. But Moore, a 6-foot junior who won the Wade Trophy, given by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association to the nation's best player, and Charles, who won the Associated Press Player of the Year, carried Connecticut down the stretch into a rematch with Stanford Tuesday for the national title.

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Reliance Big Entertainment acquires 50% stake in Codemasters David Hinkle (Joystiq)

ESRB rates Star Wars: Dark Forces for PS1 Classics re-release

Submitted at 4/5/2010 11:01:00 AM

Reliance Big Entertainment -- a subsidiary of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group -- is a pretty big deal in India, handling a variety of different media and entertainment businesses in the region, including movies, sports, music, internet and video games. That last item is what's most important to this story, as Reliance now has a 50 percent stake in UK-based firm Codemasters, publisher of games like Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Dirt, Overlord and Grid. Zapak Digital Entertainment, Reliance's gaming division and India's largest gaming company, will oversee Reliance's investment in Codemasters. The company also runs an online gaming portal. "Reliance and Zapak have

ESRB continued from page 65

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Griffin McElroy (Joystiq)

immense resources and will help us realize the full potential of our game coding and online excellence across so many platforms, and especially in the world's fastest growing markets," said Codemasters' CEO Rod Cousens. "The future of Codemasters has never looked brighter." [Via Develop] Reliance Big Entertainment acquires 50% stake in Codemasters originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Resident Evil: Afterlife trailer adds a new dimension to the Zombocalypse

Submitted at 4/5/2010 9:30:00 AM

Though we've all played some form of Jedi-centric game throughout the course of our lives, some of our younger readers may have missed out on the ground floor of the Star Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) samurai swords, suicidal swan Wars FPS movement by not dives, and gigantic superSubmitted at 4/5/2010 10:30:00 AM checking out the 1996 zombies wielding even larger There's a moment in the debut meat tenderizers -- all of which PlayStation classic, Star Wars: t r a i l e r f o r R e s i d e n t E v i l : we assume will come flying Dark Forces. Fear not -- you Afterlife(the next Paul W.S. right 'atcha thanks to the won't have to go hunting Anderson/Milla Jovovich joint) i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f J a m e s through pawn shops to get your where series antagonist Albert Cameron's 3D technology. Is it Kyle Katarn fix. The game Wesker throws his glasses at too early to start talking Oscars? recently showed up on the ESRB's list of adjudicated titles, you, the viewer, who will also [Via Hell Descent, Thanks CJ!] presumably be wearing 3D Continue reading Resident Evil: slated to land on the PSOne glasses when watching the full Afterlife trailer adds a new Classics platform. film. The glasses pop off the dimension to the Zombocalypse We've contacted LucasArts to screen, and come flying towards Resident Evil: Afterlife trailer find out a time frame for the y o u r g l a s s e s , w h i c h i s a adds a new dimension to the game's arrival on the PSN. As p h e n o m e n o n y o u c o u l d n ' t Z o m b o c a l y p s e o r i g i n a l l y for the new listings for XS e x p e r i e n c e w i t h o u t t h e appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 05 Junior League Dodgeball and aforementioned glasses. It's Apr 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please XS Airboat Racing, we ... man, we just don't know who we'd unsettlingly recursive. see our terms for use of feeds. And that's not even the weirdest Read| Permalink| Email this| contact about those. ESRB rates Star Wars: Dark thing in the trailer, which is Comments Forces for PS1 Classics reposted after the jump. Biplanes, release originally appeared on ESRB page 65

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Put Down Trade Spats, Pick Up a Mirror Guest Author (The Big Picture) Submitted at 4/5/2010 8:00:22 AM

Andy Xie is a former Morgan Stanley analyst now living in China. ~~~ Put Down Trade Spats, Pick Up a Mirror by Andy Xie China and the United States should face domestic issues, from middle class support to Wall Street theft, and avert a trade war ~~~ A confrontation between China and the United States is looming sooner than I expected. Quite likely, the U.S. Treasury Department will name China a currency manipulator in its April report to Congress. Such a conclusion would require that the Obama administration impose punitive tariffs on Chinese imports. China may be tempted to strike back with a trade-war volley. But such a move would be in China’s worst interests. China is the biggest beneficiary of globalization and must do everything possible to defend the global trading system. So its best response, in my view, would be to take the case to the World Trade Organization, even though any resolution would be a long time coming and would not help the current situation.

China also would be wrong to stoke a dispute with the United States in hopes of diverting attention from its domestic problems. China’s biggest challenge today is how fruits of its economic growth are divided, not how fast the economy is growing. And a key to this dividing game is held by the middle class, which deserves support. Unfortunately, a middle class squeeze is under way that is a bigger threat to China’s economic development than slower export growth. High property prices have turned into an unfair tax on the middle class while, in numerous cases, powerful people are enriched. A bit more economic growth will not solve this problem. Meanwhile, low interest rates in an inflation era are actually taxing savers to benefit two classes of borrowers – stateowned enterprises and speculators. Thus, low interest rates are mainly a kind of middle class tax. The United States is picking a fight with China because it can’t resolve internal problems. Since the financial crisis began, 9 million households have lost homes because they could not or did not want to make mortgage payments. Another 10 million households have negative equity in properties and could be forced or decide to give up homes. That’s 15 percent of all

U.S. households. Meanwhile, the U.S. unemployment rate stands at around 10 percent, and the federal government’s deficit is more than 10 percent of GDP. The biggest state, California, faces bankruptcy. How could a single economy face so many major problems all at once? The immediate cause was the credit-cum-property bubble burst, although the real villains in this case got away with the loot in the confusion after the big bang. Short-sellers were blamed for puncturing the bubble, but guilty parties with power were not. Bubble Trouble An asset bubble has many aspects. Most people understand it as the rollercoaster ride for prices. For example, Hong Kong’s property prices quadrupled between 1990 and ‘97, then fell 75 percent between 1997 and ‘03. In other words, it was a 13-year round trip. China’s A-share market index rose from 1,000 in 2005 to 6,100 in 2007 and fell to 1,600 in 2008 – a round trip that lasted three years. Why are bubbles so harmful? Because three dynamics are at work: 1) Taking advantage of most bubbles are a few insiders who know how to rob ignorant people. This redistribution aspect can haunt an economy for years after a big bubble bursts. For example, most subprime

mortgage brokers knew they were lending to people who could not repay. Wall Street traders who bought mortgages from these brokers and sold them in pools or CDOs knew the brokers were incentivized to sell poor quality stuff. But the traders didn’t care because they received bonuses for selling the stuff to someone else. Fund managers who bought the CDOs probably knew they would go bad eventually. But they, too, decided to look toward annual bonuses for each year of performance. The people who got hurt didn’t even know what was coming because they were savers who put money in pension funds, bought insurance products, or invested in bond funds. The reallocation game isn’t restricted to the financial sector. Profits as a share of GDP from corporations – and not just the financial sector – reached historic highs during the bubble period, while relative wages slipped to all-time lows. Thus, the whole corporate sector was monetizing the bubble. And now, the U.S. corporate cash stash as a share of total assets is at a record high. 2) Money tends to be spent in the wrong way or overspent in a bubble. Economists call wrong spending “misallocation of resources,” which means the pie doesn’t expand as fast as it should. Overspending involves

money that one thinks he has but actually doesn’t have. So when a bubble bursts, he’s chased by creditors. These money factors amount to a hole in the economy that needs to be filled either through spending contraction or by increasing exports. Neither is easy. Cutting spending is, of course, unpleasant. Increasing exports is hard, too, because it requires devaluation. But unless domestic demand contracts, devaluation leads to inflation, erasing competitiveness gained by devaluation. 3) Capital destruction within the financial system is another factor that weighs down an economy for years after a bubble pops. The U.S. financial system reported losses of more than US$ 1 trillion during the crisis, creating a capital shortage that will restrict credit expansion for years to come. This is another headwind for the U.S. economy. Action the U.S. government has taken so far shows it cannot resolve domestic problems. Americans consumed as much as US$ 3 trillion, or 20 percent of GDP, more than they could afford during the bubble. A retrenchment strategy would call for accepting a major downgrade in lifestyle. It would also require that consumption fall below the long-term PUT page 67

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sustainable level to regurgitate overspending of the past. Long-term sustainability is possible if the U.S. trade deficit is small. Although the trade deficit was cut in half after the crisis, U.S. consumption probably is still above the longterm sustainable level. Moreover, export orders on the China side suggest U.S. retail sales have been picking up in the second quarter. This is good news for the short term but reflects the U.S. household sector’s reluctance to change an unaffordable habit. It seems pretty remote to expect consumers to regurgitate that US$ 3 trillion. Ill-gotten bubble gains, if recovered, could help the economic recovery. So far, though, U.S. authorities have done very little to settle the score. U.S. government action looks suspiciously like a coverup for wrongdoings during the bubble, and it’s a problem that the same people are in charge. Not a single, significant player from Wall Street has gone to jail, despite mounting evidence of widespread fraud. Financial reform legislation has been delayed again and again. And the current reform bill includes so many measures contingent on studies that it would not bite for at least two years. Expansion Option The Obama administration scored a major victory in

passing the biggest healthcare reform bill in four decades. It will provide health insurance to 32 million people who are not insured today and cost US$ 1 trillion over 10 years. Obama will go down in history as a significant president just for this. But its impact is mainly in the area of social justice, not efficiency. The U.S. economy’s biggest problem is skyrocketing healthcare costs, and the reform won’t reverse that. Even though the administration aimed to cut costs and expand insurance coverage, politicking forced it to give up the first goal, demonstrating again that the U.S. system can’t solve problems through cutbacks. What sells politically is problem-solving through expansion, in which no one is hurt and a rising tide washes all problems away. The only way to achieve this goal is by expanding exports. This is why the administration wants to double exports in five years. But Europe and Japan are so depressed that the United States could hardly export ore goods there. The Chinese economy is also too small to absorb much. Of course, if China doubles or triples its currency value as Japan did after the Plaza Accord in 1985, its economy would be big enough to support U.S. export growth. But is

China in a position to accept that? I seriously doubt it. Japan was a developed economy in 1985, and about one -third of China’s population lives in a developed economy, mainly in coastal cities. Twothirds are living in a developing stage, and an overvalued currency would block their path to economic development. The Democratic Party may lose a lot of votes for passing healthcare legislation, but blaming China for U.S. economic problems could win votes in the November midterm elections. Thus, pressure on China’s currency value will skyrocket before November. But as long as China remains calm, pressure will dissipate over time. The United States has been selectively imposing tariffs on Chinese products over the past few months. Nothing will change in the near future, and a massive, across-the-board tariff on Chinese products is unlikely. Most Chinese exports to the United States are designed, owned and sold by major U.S. corporations. IPhones, Nike sneakers, and HP PCs are good examples. A massive tariff would hit their profits and trigger a stock market collapse. It would bring down the U.S. economy and trigger a doubledip. The U.S. government doesn’t have the courage to prosecute

people who caused the bubble and brought down the economy, fearing negative economic consequences. Neither will it have the guts to do something against Chinese exports that would surely bring down its economy. What the government can do is impose tariffs on Chinese products that are commodities still produced in the United States. Chemical and metal products fall into this category. But even if Chinese exports of these products are fully blocked, the impact would be limited, since China doesn’t have to depend on exports as in the past. What Matters A labor “shortage” is now emerging as a major turning point in China’s development. Wages will likely rise faster than GDP for years to come, which is the best news for growing domestic demand. Low wages due to a labor surplus depressed China’s consumption development, but the labor market is now turning to an advantage for workers. An unlimited labor supply is a thing of the past. Consider, for example, that rural schools across the country are closing because they’re running out of students. Another factor is that multinationals now rooted in China’s consumer market are increasingly relying on China

for profits. This trend is strengthening China’s global bargaining power. Moreover, global stock markets will become more dependent on China’s economic performance. For the United States, then, hurting China would be like hurting oneself. Time is on China’s side. China can wait out U.S. protectionism. The global economy has shown signs of recovery, but it’s still not stable. The bursting of the credit bubble has been followed by even greater growth for two, separate bubbles – the U.S. Treasury market and China’s land market. What to do? Cooling the land bubble would make the Chinese economy less vulnerable to any shock from U.S. protectionism. So interest rates should be raised as soon as possible. Many analysts argue that raising interest rates would increase currency appreciation pressure. This argument is normally correct. But a great deal of hot money is already in China, chasing a bubble rather than paying interest. If China raises interest rates, hot money may exit for fear of a bubble burst, and appreciation pressure on the yuan may ease rather than strengthen. China’s land bubble is vast and has far-reaching consequences for the country’s future. The PUT page 68

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Research Brief: Gift Cards Down in '09, But Turning at Year End

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bubble may spread to farmland in coming years, creating new complications. The bubble’s existence has been widely acknowledged, but no clear measures have been taken to control it, proving that powerful interests are behind it. The bubble makes China vulnerable to shock. If trade friction with the United States drags on, hot money may leave en masse for fear of an economic collapse. And it may make the collapse self-fulfilling. To strengthen China’s position in the coming conflict with the United States, taming the land

bubble is a must. Trade friction with the United States will command headlines and attention from policymakers. But China’s main challenges are internal. How to divide the pie created by economic development is critical to the country’s future. Many argue growth will solve all problems. I’m not sure about that. Asset bubbles in China are mainly for taxing the middle class, and they stunt growth. No modern economy can be stable without a big, healthy middle class. As long as China’s middle class is vibrant

and growing, external challenges cannot derail economic development. So the answer to China’s problems lies within. International confrontation offers no (MediaPost | Media News) solutions. Five Filters featured article: Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:15:28 AM Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, According to new data from Javelin Strategy Research, in Term Extraction. the past few years, card networks have changed their prepaid and gift focus as core, rather than emerging, products. The global economic downturn has furthered this paradigm shift, with pay?now

and pay?before products gaining increasing prominence as credit markets have tightened. Nevertheless, in 2009, the combined use of prepaid and gift cards shows a 5 percentage point decline from 66% to 61% of consumers, reflecting a decrease of 11 million consumers. With unemployment RESEARCH page 69

First Spaceborne Infectious Disease Study Exposes Human Cells to Pathogens in Microgravity Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

define the infectious disease process and the progression of diseases like cancer and immune system disorders, but it will also Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:58:55 AM As Space Shuttle Discovery provide key data that could lifted off this morning -- setting benefit crews aboard prolonged a record for the most women space missions. Crews exposed simultaneously in space-- three to prolonged conditions of other women on the ground microgravity are particularly looked to break some ground of susceptible to infection because their own. An Arizona State U. of reduced immune system Biodesign Institute research trio function during spaceflight. launched a first-of-its-kind We know that cells react experiment aboard Discovery differently to low-gravity that will offer insight into how e n v i r o n m e n t s , b u t t h i s cells react to infectious disease experiment is the first to expose under the low-gravity conditions human cells to infectious of space. pathogens in spaceflight. The 13 The experiment aims to better -day experiment will turn the

food-borne bacteria Salmonella typhimurium loose on a culture of intestinal cell, measuring the responses of both the bacteria and the human cells to microgravity as well as too each

other. Bacteria like Salmonella are particularly adept at responding to environmental conditions and tweaking their virulence to best circumvent cellular defenses, so

the research could shed some serious light on bacterial virulence and the mechanisms pathogens employ to adapt so well to their surroundings. As for the three women aboard Discovery, they joined the one woman already orbiting Earth aboard the ISS to round out a record-setting foursome that marks the most women ever to ride the outskirts of the atmosphere simultaneously. [ Science Daily]

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up to 9.7% as the nation officially enters its third year of recession in 2010, U.S. consumers have cut back on unnecessary expenditures, including prepaid products, and particularly the purchase of gift cards. Indicators from leading stakeholders in the gift card market suggest that the decline in gift card sales and value began to turn around by year?end 2009 and will regain momentum in 2010 in keeping with prepaid products. N o t a b l y , b o t h American Express, the largest U.S. issuer of gift cards, and BlackHawk Networks, the sizeable third?party gift card provider owned by Safeway, reported increasing gift card revenue in 2009. The study suggests that prepaid products continue to present a prime opportunity to help unbanked/underbanked

consumers develop a trusting relationship with a financial institution. According to Javelin data, approximately one in every five 22% of American households, or 26 million households, is underbanked, defined as having no checking and/or savings accounts. 8%, self?identify as having no financial products. Language, trust, economic status, and many other factors play a role in barriers to banking adoption, but repaid or payroll cards offer a way to start a financial servicing relationship without the fear of overspending that is possible with credit or the anxiety of overdrafts that are possible with checking accounts, says the report. Use of gift cards demonstrates a clear age progression, with heaviest usage concentrated in consumers under 45 • In comparison with prepaid cardholders, studies by

gender reveal a preponderance of female gift card users: 40% compared to only 32% of males using gift cards in the last 90 days • By ethnicity, there are no significant differences in the use of gift cards. This may be because providers have specifically designed products centering on a cultural or ethnic focus • Higher use of gift cards by younger consumers may reflect convenience

Gaming on the iPad (Yahoo! News Search Results for e-readers)

television or a PC monitor, most of the native iPad games are quite stunning. Less welcome Submitted at 4/5/2010 12:19:05 AM were the smudges that began Those rosy predictions may or building up on my screen after may not be valid, but what about only an hour or so of play. If the important things--namely, you plan to do a lot of iPad video games? gaming, keep a screen cleaner As a gaming platform, the iPad handy. has a lot going for it. The sheer Battery life is exceptional: number of applications already After six or seven hours of available is staggering, to say extended informal testing, nothing of legacy applications during which I ran the iPad on for the iPhone and the iPod Wi-Fi and downloaded and Touch. And though I wasn't played a number of games, my More information from Javelin particularly impressed with how battery meter hovered near the Strategy & Research can be d o u b l e - p i x e l a p p l i c a t i o n s 30 percent mark. As you would looked, backward compatibility w i t h m o s t o t h e r p o r t a b l e found here. Five Filters featured article: is sure to please users with electronic devices, you'll want Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: heavy investments in App Store to pack a pair of headphones. Sound quality from the single PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, products. The iPad's biggest drawback as iPad speaker is fine, albeit Term Extraction. a gaming platform is mirrored lacking in bass or depth, when across all of its use cases: How the speaker isn't obstructed. the heck are we supposed to Unfortunately, such obstruction hold this thing? At 1.5 pounds can happen easily--particularly it's heavier than it looks, but if the game you're playing takes trickier still is the business of advantage of the accelerometer. manipulating the expansive Ultimately, the applications will GAMING continued from page 69 screen while holding it aloft. I make or break this device as a electronic gaming platform is advantage of Facebook Connect, out the iPad to play a bit of had the most success sitting gaming platform. And in this here. Though the iPad's $500 to keep iPad owners up to speed Scrabble isn't as awkward as upright on a couch (as the iPad regard, the initial App Store price tag means that it won't w i t h t h e i r b r o w s e r - b a s e d you might think--and not having ads encourage users to do). offerings do not disappoint. t h r e a t e n t h e m a r k e t f o r brethren. We may lament the to set up or clean up keeps Playing while lying in bed was Even better, games available cardboard and plastic pieces increasing encroachment of things casual. If you're limited doable, too, though a bit more now provide an excellent view with extinction anytime soon, backlit screens on our social to a single iPad, the device is cumbersome than with the of the iPad's strengths and the device's size and perpetual lives, but asynchronous gaming light enough to be passed Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. weaknesses, and offer a few connection make it a great fit for that keeps friends connected around with ease, and the The iPad hardware leaves little i n t e r e s t i n g l e s s o n s f o r group games and shared spaces. with a minimum of fuss--despite application is simple enough room for complaint. The 9.7- d e v e l o p e r s . Scrabble leads the charge, with schedules or time zones--is that anyone to figure out how to inch screen is gorgeous; and iPad Plays Well With Others though the 1024-by-768-pixel Board-game aficionados, your a readily accessible app from always a good thing. play it. resolution may be a bit less Electronic Arts. When you do have a bit of time GAMING page 70 GAMING page 69 precise than what you'd get on a EA's Scrabble app takes to gather with friends, breaking

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Then there's the Party Play feature. With the iPad lying in a central location as the board, up to four players can compete, using their iPhones and iPod Touches as personal tile racks. After all of the players have downloaded a free app onto their Apple handheld, they'll be able to sync with the iPad, rearrange their tiles and flick them onto the board, or browse a Scrabble dictionary for valid words. True, it's a bit gimmicky-but it's also fun, and it adds some nostalgic value, with your letters safe from roaming eyes. EA may have the board game with the highest profile out on the App Store, but with this much money lying on the table, a digital board game revival can't be too far behind. Multitouch Shines Where Precision Counts As a dyed-in-the-wool strategy game fan, I was surprised to find that the iPad made Command and Conquer: Red Alert legitimately bearable to play-certainly a first for the real-time strategy genre on a platform that lacks a mouse and a keyboard. Multitouch is the key here, coupled with the size of the display. Though Gameplay suffers from limited AI and an occasionally choppy frame rate, the level of control over units is impressive. Micromanaging units can be tricky, as the developers were a

bit too ambitious with the size of combat engagements. Nevertheless, the ease with which I could pan about the map, divide my troops into groups, and execute multifaceted attack strategies, dwarfs anything that consoles-portable or otherwise--have attempted with the genre. While real-time strategy games have their proof of concept, tower-defense games have hit the ground running. Consider PopCap's Plants Versus Zombies. It's a stellar game in its own right and has appeared on multiple platforms, but the iPad version is hands down the best iteration of the game thus far: superior in execution even to the original PC version. Blasphemy? Not quite. Though Plants versus Zombies HD may not include all of the features that shipped on the PC version of the game, the core experience is vastly improved. The visuals scale excellently down to the iPad's 1024 by 768 resolution, while offering ample maneuvering room. Better still is the multitouch experience. Response and reaction times are faster, simply because you don't have to slide a mouse cursor across a map, and because you can tap (frantically) in as many locations as you have fingers to reach. It's portable, too, without the drawbacks we saw when the

game made the transition to the iPhone. The App Store Experience Apple's App Store is already a phenomenal success, having sold billions of apps, to say nothing of the popularity of the Apple handhelds. The iPad shows no sign of changing any of that for the worse. During the initial launch, there was no clear division between iPad and iPhone apps; but the applications have subsequently fallen into place, with developers settling on naming conventions--appending "for the iPad" or "HD" to their games. Still, further streamlining, and a clear line of demarcation between the devices, would be welcome. Pricing will be a learning process for consumers and developers alike. App store enthusiasts have grown accustomed to a glut of readily accessible, 99-cent titles. But the prices of iPad games are venturing into "real game" territory: Most start in the vicinity of $5, and some go as high as $15. Though console and PC gamers may be accustomed to the pitfalls of digital distribution-such as being unable to share game purchases, or to return a product they're dissatisfied with-some iPad owners shelling out increasingly significant dollar amounts for games are going to

be sorely disappointed. Some sort of trial program, or demo system, wouldn't hurt either. It's too early to claim that Apple's iPad will revolutionize the portable video game industry. But regardless of how successful the device is at changing the way we play, it's sure to be a windfall for game developers: After just 20 minutes of casual browsing through iTunes, I managed to burn roughly $70 on a handful of games. Convenience is great, but a lurking danger here is the feeling of instant gratification. Tap the Buy button, and your brand new game will be yours in seconds. Those $5 to $7 purchases start to add up alarmingly quickly, however. Now that the iPad has arrived, offering greater potential for iPhone developers to improve the overall quality of their wares, we'll have to wait and see whether pricing scales accordingly. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

How It Works: A Lean, Mean Nail Gun Max Fischer (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:55:48 AM

Bosch reinvents the common nailer, making a smaller tool with the nail-driving power of the big guns Pneumatic nailers can slash the time it takes to fasten everything from window trim to roof rafters. The basic guts of the tool haven't changed since the 1960s: Compressed air pushes a piston that drives a rod, forcing nails deep into wood, before the tool resets for the next nail. Now Bosch has figured out how to make a nailer that's 20 percent smaller while boosting power by 10 percent, so it can drive nails into hard woods like walnut with less pressure than other guns. Instead of reserving some of the compressed air for resetting the piston, which HOW page 71

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weakens the strike, the tool uses all of the air's energy to drive the nails. A vent exhausts the air, and a second burst returns the piston. Since Bosch's nailer can operate at lower pressure, it reduces wear on compressors and components, while still hammering home 1- to 2.5-inchlong nails all day. Design Highlights on the Nail Gun Self-Cleaning Filter: The pressurized air leaving the tool cleans this filter, which captures debris like sawdust and dirt, preventing it from clogging the cylinder. Fitting: A connection to an air hose allows pressurized air to flow from an electric air compressor into the nailer, where it's moved by valves controlled by the trigger. Bump Firing: Like most nailers, the Bosch also has a

semiautomatic mode called bump firing, in which you can hold down the trigger and fire a nail just by pressing the nose to the wood. A toggle switch on the trigger changes the position of a metal lever inside so that it touches the trigger-valve pin. At that point, depressing the nose pushes the metal lever into the pin, activating the trigger. Depth of Drive: A dial lets you adjust the distance between the nose and the board, which changes how deeply the gun drives the nail. Step By Step 1. A spring in the magazine feeds forward sleeves of 16gauge nails one at a time, putting one directly under the driver blade. 2. Squeezing the trigger opens the nailer's main valve, letting in air from a compressor that sets the 33-gram aluminum piston in

motion. 3. The driver blade, a 5.3-inch steel rod attached to the bottom of the piston, smacks the nail, driving it into the wood. 4. Just behind the nose is a plastic vent that exhausts all the air as the piston descends in less than 0.1 second, so it meets with almost no resistance. A second burst of compressed air pushes the driver blade and the piston back up, ready for the next strike. In conventional nailers, a reservoir captures some of the air and rechannels it to push the piston back into position.

The Convergence of Renewables, the Smart Grid and (Maybe) PV Inverters info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

interact with the appliances in the home, they typically work through some hardware and Submitted at 4/5/2010 7:09:04 AM software gateway; one that is There is an entrepreneurial and armed with wireless capabilities venture capital rush in building and intelligence on household out the Home Area Network behavior. (HAN). Companies like People What if there was already a Power, Tendril, Google, Cisco, piece of home electronics that iControl, Lixar(bought by contained some intelligence on Gridpoint), Greenbox(acquired energy usage, was connected to by Silver Spring Networks), t h e g r i d a n d h a d s o m e C o n t r o l 4 , E n e r g y H u b , communications capabilities? EcoFactor, et al. are all working Startup iControl already has a on software and hardware pieces piece of hardware in the home of home and building energy in the form of a home security management. product. They don't have to The millions of deployed smart worry about the high cost of meters tend to look out towards CONVERGENCE page 72 the utility. When these meters

Connecticut Light & Power Proposes 10:1 Ratio For Peak Power info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

The proposal, based on their Plan-it Wise Energy pilot program, calls for a 10 to one Submitted at 4/5/2010 4:15:24 AM ratio in off-peak to critical peak H o w v e r y E u r o p e a n o f pricing. In the pilot, participants Connecticut Light & Power. were paying up to $1.60 per The utility recently asked the kilowatt hour (kwh) during state's Department of Public critical peak time, which totaled Utility Control to change its 40 hours over 10 different days. pricing structure starting in Customers would be able to opt 2012, and boy will it be a in to either peak-time pricing or change from a flat rate. four-hour time of use rates.

Rebates will be provided for low -income customers who reduce their energy during peak hours. Wait, let's back up a second. $1.60 per kwh. Yes, that's right. According to the Hartford Courant, the rates are not likely to be exactly the same, but CL&P is still gunning for a 10 to one ratio in critical to offpeak pricing. Pacific Gas & Electric, by comparison has a

peak day pricing of $1.20 per kwh. Tack on another potential 40 cents to PG&E's rate and the Mystic River will feel more like the Italian Riviera when it comes to what people are paying for energy during the hottest days of summer. The national average in December was around 9.44 cents per kwh, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Connecticut's average retail price at that time was 17.94 cents. High prices for peak power, however, are in some ways the point, because steep price signals can encourage conservation and an expansion of demand response services. Connecticut is already a leader CONNECTICUT page 72

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customer acquisition -- they already have a customer. Their ambitions of moving into the smart grid space seem logical and intuitive. But there's another piece of electronics starting to appear at the home that might also have a head start as the gateway to the HAN -- solar inverters. Enphase is not be limited to the DC to AC microinverter function, and apparently never intended to be. The company's CEO, Paul Nahi, hinted at their grander ambitions at Greentech Media's Solar Summit in Phoenix last week. (BTW -- last week was a good week for Enphase.) Nahi spoke of "Their Energy," the utility's domain, and "My Energy," the energy generated and consumed within the four walls of the home. That's where Enphase expects to play -- and where other microinverter firms like SolarBridge are considering a market entry.

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Enphase, like other HAN dashboards, envisions a product that provides control over generation and consumption with a simple web-based interface leveraging their existing microinverter, internet gateway, energy monitoring services and powerline communications. Nahi sees the product as granular -- the right size for the customer, resilient, and providing plenty of actionable data. Greg Madianos, Product Line Director at microinverter manufacturer SolarBridge, said in an email: "We firmly believe that inverters will play a central role in enabling the smart grid to incorporate large quantities of distributed generation. Not only as an abstract concept, but with specific command-and-control functionality in mind for allowing sophisticated management of power factor and reactive power, for example, while also (at the other

end of the spectrum) informing a homeowner of how much power the PV array is producing relative to the homeowner's overall usage as a means of moderating consumption." There are other inverter companies looking for "grid awareness" and grid integration, such as PV Powered and Advanced Energy. We reported on microinverter firm Petra Solar and their utility grid monitoring capabilities here. And at the utility scale, inverter firms like SMA, Satcon, and GE incorporate features like low voltage ride through (LVRT) and the ability to compensate for reactive grid power. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Cracking the Financial Aid Code (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

midair as students stroll by, chattering on cell phones. Wander Ursinus College and But Ursinus College, in youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d think you had stepped Collegeville, Pa., lacks the into an Ivy League idyll. Stone- wealth and status that allow the clad buildings overlook a real Ivies to choose from among sweeping lawn, which slopes to the best students in the country a picture-perfect small-town and to cover their full financial Main Street. Winding paths skirt need with no-loan financial-aid c a r e f u l l y t e n d e d g a r d e n s . packages. Like the vast majority Outdoor statues gaze raptly at of colleges, Ursinus must not

only troll for top students but also calibrate exactly how much money it will take to bring them to campus and keep them there. In college-speak, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s called enrollment management -- a way of slicing and dicing admissions policies and financial aid to attract a strong CRACKING page 73

in demand response, with approximately 12 percent of peak megawatts under demand response management, according to Gregg Dixon, the senior vice president of marketing at EnerNoc, one of the demand response providers in Connecticut. Currently, most customers that opt into demand response services are financially rewarded to cut their use during critical peak periods. Demand response companies give them a check for conserving (and the utility gives even a bigger check to the demand response provider for relieving congestion on the grid). Demand response has been particularly popular with businesses, which have larger, more predictable daytime power loads. The rates for CL&P's proposed peak-time pricing effectively adds some stick to the carrot approach of demand response. Perhaps more importantly, the proposal by CL&P will help recoup a substantial portion of the cost of installing some 1.2 million smart meters starting in 2012, which is estimated to be nearly $500 million. "There is still plenty that needs

to be done to get ready for all of this, beginning, of course, with DPUC approval," Jessica Brahaney Cain, director of customer solutions at CL&P, said in a statement. "By 2017, we believe 25 percent of our residential and 50 percent of commercial and industrial customers will be participating in the program. Hopefully, the numbers will be even higher." In the past few months, consumers in Texas and California have complained that smart meters have unfairly raised their bills, a charge denied by utilities. But in a trial in Oklahoma, consumers were surprised to learn about peak power and ways they could save. CL&P admits that nothing is finalized yet. The DPUC is not expected to make a decision on the proposal until later this year. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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and diverse student body while bringing in enough revenue to keep the doors open. Whereas elite colleges take merit as a given and extend financial aid only to those who need it, Ursinus offers sizable scholarships to outstanding applicants from every economic strata, including the wealthiest. Surprised? Consider your own college search. As a parent, you look for the best academic program for your student at a price you can afford -- the same basic process that colleges use to attract the best students, but in reverse. The better you understand how colleges conduct their deliberations, the better you can go about yours. Measuring merit Ursinus’s academic reputation once relied heavily on the sciences, especially its pre-med program. When John Strassburger arrived as president in 1995, he broadened the focus to include liberal arts and boosted academic expectations. Says Strassburger, “We believe outstanding students make other students outstanding.” About the same time, Richard DiFeliciantonio, who was then admissions director, began reexamining Ursinus’s financial -aid policy, which focused almost entirely on need. “The college was enrolling a lower percentage of low-need students and a high percentage of highneed students. It was laudable

but not sustainable over the long haul. We were making the college commitment really lopsided.” Hoping to attract stronger students who could also pay a higher portion of costs, if not the whole amount, Ursinus moved from a need-only financial-aid policy to one that includes scholarships for top applicants. Other colleges, faced with a similar financial crunch, did the same. “We haven’t thrown need out the window,” says DiFeliciantonio, “but we’ve introduced merit into the equation.” To define what constitutes merit at Ursinus, DiFeliciantonio (now vicepresident for enrollment) devised a system that rates applicants according to their grades, standardized-test scores and accomplishments. Students who score 1300 or more on their math and verbal SATs and rank in the top 10% of their high school class are typically assigned the highest rating, a 1. Those with at least 1100 total on their math and verbal SATs and who rank in the top third of their class rate a 2. Students who fall somewhat below those criteria rate a 3. But numbers don’t represent the whole picture, says DiFeliciantonio. “We read each application twice and have the latitude to bump a student up or down.” The school recently

made reporting SAT scores optional for students in the top 10% of their class, and it considers their other strengths, including the number of Advanced Placement classes on their high school transcript and any leadership roles. Admissions counselors use the ratings not only to decide which students to admit but also to determine how much merit aid, along with need-based aid, they will receive. Not surprisingly, students who rate a 1 generally elicit the best scholarships -$13,000 to $20,000 or more. Number 2s might be offered $10,000 to $13,000. The 3s are less likely to get merit scholarships but can still qualify for need-based aid. Discomfiting as it may be to think that your child is being assigned a number, much less a dollar amount, such calculations go on across the country as colleges build their classes and parcel out their money. “Not everyone is a 1, by definition, and every school has its 2s and 3s -- they are just at different levels,” says DiFeliciantonio. “We’re ultimately trying to match the quality of our programs with the potential of our students.” Knowing the formula Once Ursinus decides which students to accept and how much merit money, if any, to offer, the financial-aid office takes over. Like every college,

Ursinus uses the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to dole out federal money, such as Pell grants, and to give students access to federal loans, including Staffords. The feds pay the interest on Staffords for students with need while they are in college. Unsubsidized Staffords are available to anyone who applies. (Use our interactive college-aid letter to learn how to distinguish the various types of aid offered to you.) Public colleges generally rely on the FAFSA to calculate how much families are expected to contribute. Many private schools, however, also have you fill out the CSS Profile, a moredetailed financial-aid application that uses a different calculation -- called the institutional formula -- to determine how much you are expected to pay. Some tailor the Profile to suit their criteria or ask that you submit a third application that bores even further into your finances. Which formula the college uses can make a huge difference in your potential for financial aid. For instance, the FAFSA considers fewer assets than the Profile; it ignores home equity as well as the assets of familybusiness owners with 100 or fewer full-time employees. If you have significant wealth in home equity or in a small family business, the institutional

formula will penalize you. The federal formula won’t. But because the Profile gives a fuller picture of your finances and lets you explain special circumstances, it could give the financial-aid officer a reason to bolster your need-based aid. Colleges must follow strict rules in distributing federal funds but can make their own rules for their own money. Private colleges, which set their own tuition and often have endowments, have more freedom than public schools to do as they see fit. “If you have blond hair and blue eyes and they want to give you money for that, they can -- or not,” says Suzanne Sparrow, director of financial services at Ursinus. Sparrow conducts seminars for the parents of prospective students and encourages them to bring their concerns to the financial-aid office. One family recently did just that, informing Sparrow that sky-high, ongoing medical bills offset their assets, which were significant. She adjusted the financial-aid calculation accordingly. Assembling the awards By early February, Sparrow has already put together 500 awards, mostly for applicants who have been accepted through early decision. The software she uses shows how the FAFSA would calculate the expected family CRACKING page 76

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High Yields From Foreign Stocks (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

There’s a lot to like about stocks that disburse high and rising cash dividends. Dividend growth helps you stay ahead of inflation. And because corporate earnings are more than twice as volatile as dividends, prices of cash-paying stocks are less jumpy than those of nonpayers. In its May 2010 issue, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance described 15 blue-chip U.S. stocks with special appeal to dividend fans. But that’s just half the story. High-dividendgrowth strategies work globally, too. “Studies done all over the world show that dividends have been a strong clue over time to superior returns,” says Thomas Shrager, who co-manages several funds for Tweedy, Browne, including its Worldwide High Dividend Yield Value fund. Though there’s been more emphasis on dividends lately in the U.S., domestic stocks on the whole still offer some of the lowest yields in the world. Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index yields 1.9%, while the MSCI EAFE index offers 2.9%. And when foreign companies have extra cash, they’re less likely to buy back their stock in lieu of paying cash dividends. “Once you invest globally, you’re in a much better environment for dividend strategies,” says Cliff Remily,

co-manager of Thornburg Investment Income Builder Fund, which invests around the globe. The five foreign companies below yield from 3% to 6% and have the ability to raise dividends regularly and substantially. Each trades on the U.S. market in the form of American depositary receipts (prices and other data are as of the close on April 1). British American Tobacco (symbol BTI), $70.14. Most of the economic growth in the world today is emanating from developing nations. So let’s start our hunt for attractive dividends there. We particularly like the theme of tapping into rising consumer spending through multinational corporations. As incomes rise, people eat, drink and smoke more. They also seek the quality and cachet of brand-name products. A classic example of a company that benefits from this trend is BAT, the world’s second-largest cigarette maker, after Philip Morris International. Rajiv Jain, manager of Virtus Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund, estimates that BAT generates 65% of its profits from developing countries. It reigns in big ones, such as Brazil, India and Malaysia. Tobacco is an ugly product, but the economics of the business is a thing of beauty. Producers have minimal capital-spending requirements, they enjoy pricing

power, their returns on capital are towering, and they generate copious cash flow. That enables the companies to pay generous dividends. BAT’s dividend has compounded by 19% annualized over the past five years. The stock yields 5.1% and sells for 14 times estimated 2010 earnings. Unilever ( UN), $31.29. Like BAT, Anglo-Dutch Unilever has been selling stuff to consumers in the developing world for more than a century. The food-, household- and personalproducts giant generates half of its $57 billion in annual sales from emerging markets, up from one-third as recently as 2004. Unilever’s brands include Lipton tea, Flora margarine, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Dove soap and Axe deodorant. Unilever already serves hundreds of millions of customers a day. But the company is far from exhausting its opportunities. China, India and Indonesia, where Unilever has planted deep roots, have a combined population of 2.7 billion -- almost nine times that of the U.S. But Americans spend ten times as much per capita on ice cream, shampoo, detergent and skin-care products, all big Unilever businesses. Unilever is the global leader in ice cream and skin products, along with tea, deodorant and salad dressing. The second part of the Unilever

story is its restructuring. The company lags competitors such as Procter & Gamble and Nestlé by several measures of efficiency and profitability. So Tweedy, Browne’s Shrager thinks Paul Polman, the recently installed chief executive officer, is just the man to weed out inefficiency. Polman was formerly head of P&G Europe and chief financial officer of Nestlé. “I can see a huge ship starting to turn in the right direction,” says Shrager. Unilever yields 3.4% and sells for 14 times 2010 projected earnings. BP ( BP), $57.74. Europe is the place to look for high income from oil stocks. It doesn’t matter whether it’s France’s Total, Italy’s Eni, Royal Dutch Shell or BP -- an enticing yield of about 6% is on offer from all these major, integrated oil-andgas companies. Compare that with ExxonMobil’s miserly 2.5% yield. Thornburg’s Remily favors BP for its continued success at adding new oil reserves. Unlike many oil majors, the British company has long replaced more than 100% of the oil it produces with new discoveries. BP produced the equivalent of four million barrels of oil a day in 2009 in locations as varied as Russia, Alaska and Angola. It expects to expand output by 1% to 2% a year until 2015 -- solid volume growth by industry

standards. BP shares yield 5.8%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. ( TSM), $11. Technically, Taiwan is considered an emerging market, but TSMC provides compelling evidence that it’s time for the keepers of such indexes to declare Taiwan a developed country. TSMC is by far the world’s largest semiconductor foundry -- and its largest competitor, United Microelectronics, is a neighbor in the science park where TSMC is located, in Hsinchu, Taiwan. TSMC’s main business, generating 70% of its revenues, is the manufacture of semiconductors for chip designers, such as Broadcom, Nvidia and Marvell, that lack wafer-fabrication facilities, which are hugely expensive. The rest of TSMC’s sales are to chip makers that are short of capacity, such as Advanced Micro Devices. Simon Hallett, chief investment officer of Harding Loevner, a global investment-management company, says TSMC is the technological leader and lowestcost producer, with “financial strength that is shining through.” Financial might is key in an industry that requires billions of dollars of investment in new capacity and research and development each year. TSMC, which should produce net HIGH page 77

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Momentum Mounts for Financial Overhaul (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

An overhaul of financial regulations is a good bet as President Obama, fresh from his health care victory, takes on another huge swath of the U.S. economy. “The general atmospherics has shifted in favor of a bill,” says Robert Litan, vice president of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation. One thing working in favor of the bill is the popular support, with polls showing almost a reverse of views on the more contentious health care bill. According to a Pew Financial Reform Project survey last month, 59% of voters said Congress and the administration should support financial reform now over other priorities. They are still seething at Wall Street over the crisis that helped send the economy into a long, deep tailspin leading to job and home losses. “There is a lot of pressure on lawmakers to get something done,” says Charles Taylor, head of the Pew Project. The House passed its version of reform in December, and a Senate measure is headed to the

floor later this month. To get through Congress, bill sponsors need to hang onto Democratic support, while picking up a vote or two from the Senate GOP side. Without at least some bipartisan support, the bill will fall prey to a filibuster. Key Republicans want to reach a compromise, and probably will. “Republicans in the middle don’t want to be accused of being handmaidens of the banks,” says Litan. But powerful and well-heeled opponents are doing their best to block the bill-- or at least weaken many of the proposed restrictions on bank activities. Big banks and business groups are spending millions on lobbying, trying to turn the tables on Democrats, saying the bill will ensure, not prevent, new bailouts. They may well succeed in winning some concessions, but with momentum mounting, they will be hard-pressed to stop the bill altogether. Over time, as the bill gets implemented, the new law will affect almost all Americans, providing safeguards for consumer and business lending.

It will touch financial products ranging from payday loans to private equity investments. Big financial firms will feel the most pain. Banks, investment companies, insurers and other large financial institutions that hold $50 billion or more in assets will face more regulation, additional disclosure rules and new fees. Smaller banks, nonbank lenders and credit unions will see heightened scrutiny as well. Despite the ongoing debate, most of the measure’s planks are settled, at least in principle. The remaining battles are being fought over the scope and scale of reforms. Key elements include: • Consumer protections. A new watchdog agency will police financial products, requiring better disclosure of risks and blocking those deemed likely to lead to a bubble. Disagreement persists over where to locate the consumer watchdog and what limits to put on its power. Obama wants an independent agency, but that won’t fly. Expect it to end up inside the Federal Reserve. Also, its jurisdiction is still being worked

out--specifically, whether it should supervise auto dealers and real estate brokers. • Systemic risk council. The law will bring together existing regulators in a council headed by the Treasury Department to keep track of the big picture. New tools will give it flexibility to handle big corporations that run into trouble. Its most important and controversial element is an emergency pool of more than $50 billion funded through fees on the largest firms. It’s that emergency pool that opponents point to when they say it will encourage risky behavior and ultimately lead to more bailouts. • Regulatory agency shuffle. Say good-bye to the Office of Thrift Supervision. The Fed will watch over the biggest banks while the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporate regulates state banks and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency supervises national banks. • Derivatives. More trading will move from private, over-thecounter desks to exchanges, where regulators can keep a better eye on them. • Hedge funds. Those with at

least $100 billion in assets will have to open their books to regulators. • Credit rating agencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission will boost oversight. • Insurers. Expect a federal office to monitor, but not regulate, the industry. The bottom line: We expect enactment of a bill before summer ends, but it will take years to implement the law and overhaul the regulatory architecture. And whether the changes will work will still depend on how adept regulators are at spotting trouble. Michael Konczal, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, points out that regardless of the available tools, “at the end of the day, you can’t always rely on people to get it right.” For weekly updates on topics to improve your business decisionmaking, click here. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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contribution, but she uses the institutional formula, with a few tweaks, to come up with Ursinus’s calculation. (Use our interactive college-aid letter to learn how to distinguish the various types of aid offered to you.) Sparrow pulls up a screen and reviews the application of a student whose parents’ household income exceeds $200,000. Their investments and cash accounts add up to about $150,000. Even before factoring in home equity, they do not qualify for need-based aid. But the student has been rated a 1 by the admissions office and awarded a merit scholarship of $20,000. Sparrow pulls out a yellow form on which she records the family’s expected contribution and award. To the $20,000 scholarship she adds $5,500 in unsubsidized Stafford loans, which the family can accept or decline. The total award comes to $25,500, about half of Ursinus’s $50,000 sticker price. The next student, also rated a 1,

qualifies for almost $21,000 in need-based aid owing to her family’s modest net worth -about $60,000 -- and annual income, just over $120,000. Despite her rating, she has not been awarded a scholarship. “Maybe she had good SATs but she didn’t have enough AP classes, or maybe she didn’t visit the campus and didn’t seem interested,” says Sparrow. “It’s not cut and dried.” According to Ursinus’s guidelines for 1s, she will be awarded a need-based grant of $21,000 -- a good deal but not the best one. “Every year, the student will have to reapply for a grant,” says Sparrow. "A scholarship will never change as long as the student meets the grade-point-average requirements. So for the same amount, it’s better to get the scholarship." The third application is from a 2-rated student whose family income is $125,000. The family’s biggest asset is home equity, a substantial $172,000. Under the federal formula,

which ignores equity, the student would qualify for $25,000 in need-based aid, but the institutional formula qualifies her for only $11,000. Consolation? As a 2, the student receives a merit scholarship of $13,000, and Sparrow adds a $2,000 grant to the mix. The final application under review for the day is that of a student whose family makes about $26,000 and has no assets to speak of. Rated a 1, this student is the kind colleges fight over, both to fulfill their educational mission and to strengthen their incoming class. In addition to federal grants, Ursinus offers him a $13,000 scholarship, a $19,000 grant and subsidized Staffords, plus a job through the federal work-study program. But Sparrow cannot come up with a package that meets the family’s full need. Along with most colleges, the school often leaves a gap between award and cost, the better to spread its resources. The award falls short by $8,000. Nonetheless, says

Sparrow, “with $32,000 in grants and scholarships, it’s a nice package.” Sparrow wraps up for the afternoon, having allocated more than $100,000 from Ursinus’s coffers in just a few hours. The college has budgeted $33 million for financial aid for the upcoming academic year, and it will use that money to attract the precise mix of students it wants to enroll. Message to parents? Encourage your kids to study hard. “In almost all schools, the aid package will reflect the strength of the student,” says DiFeliciantonio. “The stronger the students are, the more options they’ll have.” Use our interactive college-aid letter to learn about the various types of aid offered to you. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Pricing Your Home for a Sale (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

may not have much of an effect on the pricing of your home, if You hope to sell fast for top it's in good shape. dollar. Reality check: You'll Based on their research, agents probably have to compromise -- will develop a price range for with a price that not only your home. Whether you start at satisfies you but also attracts the the top, midpoint or bottom of right buyers and won't exceed the range is a decision that the market value determined by depends on how quickly you your buyer's appraiser. need to sell. Agents don't pull a list price out If you start a little lower than of thin air. To begin homing in y o u r c o m p e t i t i o n , y o u ' l l on the best price, you should generate traffic, and you can expect that your agent will look always say no to unacceptable at recent sales of homes similar offers. But don't start at the very to yours, current listings and bottom. Instead, build in room pending sales. for negotiation so you can come For example, agent Patricia down in price, if needed. Vucich says that she usually "Buyers like to feel as if they looks for at least three sales of have won," says Janis Morgan, comparable houses that have the San Antonio agent. Padding closed within the past 90 days. the price a bit is especially If the pool of sales is small, she important if you haven't already checks the county tax records r e d u c e d t h e p r i c e f o r for sales that weren't reported on deficiencies -- say, an outdated the regional multiple listing kitchen or a poor location. service, such as ones in which a If you start too high, you may neighbor sold to a neighbor. have few nibbles. Says Kris If short sales or foreclosures are Berg, an agent in San Diego: prevalent in your market, your "Today's buyers want either the agent may also factor in their cheapest house on the block, prices. However, given that even if it's falling-down ugly, or these houses are often sold in the Taj Mahal with everything poor condition, their sale prices they couldn't buy back in 2005,

and for 20% less." Can you charge more for a cream puff? Yes, but not as much as you think. If you're selling an entry-level home that will attract first-time buyers, you can anticipate that they will want help with their closing costs, which usually amount to 3% to 6% of the purchase price. So you may want to price it a bit higher to start. Keep in mind, though, that a buyer using conforming financing (backed by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae) or a Federal Housing Administration loan can apply the home buyer's tax credit toward closing costs. Steve Vieux imagined listing his Silver Spring house for $300,000, but the analysis provided by his agent suggested $240,000. Once his agent realized that Vieux's buyer would probably be a first-timer, they bumped up the list price to $248,500, then agreed to pay the buyer's closing costs of $7,455. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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earnings of at least $3.5 billion on $12 billion of revenues in 2010, sets the industry standard. The company has virtually no debt and $6 billion in cash, and it plans to invest nearly $5 billion in 2010. The stock yields 4.3%, unusually high for a technology company, and sells for 13 times earnings. Given that analysts expect earnings to grow at an annual rate of 15% over the next three to five years, the stock appears inexpensive. Bank of Montreal ( BMO), $61.51. For the last pick, let’s travel to our sober neighbor to the north, Canada. While U.S. financial institutions were torpedoing the economy, Canada’s better-regulated, better -capitalized banks prudently stuck to basic commercial, consumer and mortgage lending.

Bank of Montreal, founded in 1817, remained solidly profitable through the recession (which wasn’t nearly as nasty in Canada as in most countries). Bank of Montreal is not as local as its name suggests. It is, in fact, one of a handful of nationwide powerhouses in Canada. It also has a large mutual fund and investmentadvisory business. Bank of Montreal has compounded dividends by 11% annualized over the past four years. The stock yields 4.3% and trades at 13 times this year’s earnings. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Dairy Queen: Small-Town Texas Institution contributors@theatlantic.com (Michael A. Parks) (Food :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/5/2010 5:42:00 AM

Michael A. Parks To view a slide show of several Texan Dairy Queens, click here. Along the cracked and endless highways of rural Texas, certain types of landmarks appear repeatedly. Whitewashed grain elevators rise on the horizon, like flags marking the settlements below. Larger towns have schools, and almost every town has a water tower. Wherever Main Street is, the courthouse sits at the end of it. There's the cemetery, and there are the churches. Then, if the town is big enough, there's the Dairy Queen. For residents, the Dairy Queen is at once a restaurant, meet up spot, and place to pass the time. For travelers, the Dairy Queen is an oasis; it's what transforms a blur of buildings into a real, memorable place. As a native of the relatively large (population 212,169) city of Lubbock, which is six hours from everywhere, I've always appreciated rural Dairy Queens. At home, my family never goes to a Dairy Queen. On the road, though, we sometimes start planning our orders hours in advance. And yet I've never known how Dairy Queen came to be the small town restaurant of Texas. A few weeks ago, I traveled to

operates a small fleet of stores. "My son does a lot for me," he said when I called him. "But I'm still the emperor." When Tolbert Mayfield opened his stores, franchising was new, and Dairy Queens were spreading rapidly across Texas. Most of the innovation came from franchisees. "My dad was experimenting with drive-in windows, and even the first dining rooms, if you can believe that," said Robert. Another second-generation operator, Perry Anderson, told me Texas Dairy Queens were the first to serve food. In January of 1950, Anderson's dad became one of the earliest franchisees to sell hamburgers. To this day, Texas Dairy Queens offer a food menu unique to the state. One later franchisee innovation is Robert Mayfield's favorite Idalou (population 2,157) to sit Google's newspaper archives: one of the most enthusiastic frozen item: the Blizzard. It's a at the Dairy Queen and ponder In 1997, Warren Buffet buys farmers in the British Isles ... p r o d u c t D a i r y Q u e e n Texans' affection for the brand. Dairy Queen for $585 million. there is not a dairy in the three a f i c i o n a d o s a r e g e n e r a l l y It was a Sunday, and church had In the 1950s, Dairy Queen goes kingdoms that can hold a candle enthusiastic about. In 1985 just let out. Almost every seat national. In the 1940s, Dairy to the dairy at Shaw Farm, alone, a year after a St. Louis operator inspired by Ted was full. A little boy in church Queen ceases to be a restaurant Windsor." Drewe's frozen custard made a clothes carefully deconstructed a and becomes an honorific. "A VIEW SLIDESHOW>> vanilla cone. An old man and Dairy Queen was chosen. She is Michael A. Parkst Asking prototype, Dairy Queen sold 175 woman sat on the same side of a willowy Willough Thomas." around about Dairy Queen, I million Blizzards nationwide. table, the woman feeding the "Miss Alice Baker, 18 year-old eventually encountered Robert "I tell you, they're all good, man a Blizzard. All over the Dairy Queen of Wisconsin, M a y f i e l d . I n t h e 1 9 4 0 s , man," Mayfield said. "You see state, citizens of small towns arrived yesterday ... to celebrate Mayfield's father, Tolbert, a how they mix 'em up? I don't had made the same ritual the climax of Cheese Week." cattleman who traveled between know how it does it, but when Sunday trip, and within a few All over the country, "girls 17 to Kansas and Texas, happened to they beat it up it beats out all the hours, before the wind picked unmarried" pursue the coveted stop at a Dairy Queen in Forth calories. It's like, W.C. Fields up, everyone went home. title. Prior to 1900, America Worth, and decided to open his would say, 'I've never met a â&#x20AC;˘ fades from the news. Real own. Though an attorney by DAIRY page 80 Searching for Dairy Queen in monarchs appear. "The Queen is training, Robert Mayfield now

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The Gluten Game: How to Cross a Menu Minefield contributors@theatlantic.com (Sophie Brickman) (Food :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:05:25 AM

FotoosVanRobin/flickr To try Sophie's recipe for gluten-free shrimp stir-fry, click here, and click here to try an accompanying recipe for coconut jasmine rice. How do you live without bread? Pasta? Cookies? Beer? Chicken Lo Mein?! Alas, my friend Elizabeth has been forced to do without these, and much more, after being diagnosed with celiac disease, an autoimmune reaction to gluten. All wheat products are out. Nonetheless, I made dinner plans with her, confident that I could handle another restrictive meal. I had done vegetarian. I had done kosher. But of course, my confidence hit me right in the gluten-filled butt. Gluten hides in everything. Before menu planning, I'd boned up on the basics of the disease at the Celiac Disease Foundation's Web site, parts of which read like a battle cry, capitalization and bold lettering popping off the page: "... these proteins are found in ALL forms of WHEAT ... and related grains RYE, BARLEY, and TRITICALE and MUST be eliminated!" (Simmer down now, Celiac Disease Foundation.) While chat boards were atwitter debating the "Oat Controversy"

(whether or not pure oats are dangerous to a gluten-free diet, a.k.a. the Oat Conundrum, or as I've dubbed it in casual conversation, "The Great Oat Conundrum of 1804"), I was not discouraged. Elizabeth had offered to handle the dessert, and I felt fine eliminating wheat and oats from the appetizer and main course. I decided to start with a rich pureed soup to salute the last gasps of winter, and follow with a shrimp and vegetable stir-fry over coconut jasmine rice. I took my shopping list to the grocery store. And then my

troubles began. The chicken stock posed my first problem. Some brands contained "hydrolyzed wheat gluten protein," which was clearly out of the question, but other ingredients were more confusing: "chicken flavor," "garlic extract," "autolyzed yeast extract"? Is garlic extract gluten-free? Is yeast? I strained to get service on my phone in the depths of the store and learned that some types of yeast are gluten-free, but not all. So much for that. I had planned to marinate the shrimp in soy sauce, garlic, and ginger, but a

quick scan of soy sauce ingredients—wheat was in all of them—nixed that as well. Other products were made in the same facilities as gluten-filled products. What was I supposed to do with that information? Shopping took three times as long as usual, and I felt the plight of the celiac crowd. I was thankful for leftover homemade chicken stock—I had just enough to make the soup. When I got home, I stuck a large NO FLOUR reminder sign above the stove and got to work, which, once I'd vetted my ingredients, was quick and

simple. Everything was ready in under an hour, and though I almost offered Elizabeth a beer when she walked in, I caught myself and opened some wine instead. Party foul averted. The soup and shrimp were hits, but, as I soon realized, the real rub for the celiac population comes with desserts. You can forego a sandwich for salad, substitute rice for pastas, drink hard cider or wine instead of beer, and eat rice noodles in your chicken lo mein. But cookies, cakes, ice creams, and candies become harder. Elizabeth brought over glutenfree chocolate-ginger cookies, which were surprisingly good, all things considered, but they still lacked the right texture. Something was off. After dinner, I looked up some gluten-free pastry recipes to see how others had tackled this problem. One cake recipe contained tapioca starch, potato starch, corn starch, corn flour, white rice flour, amaranth flour, and xanthan gum. Hats off to you, celiac disease population. I'll never look at bagels the same way again. Recipe: Gluten-Free, Crispy Shrimp Stir-Fry Recipe: Coconut Jasmine Rice

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bottle I didn't like.' I've never met a Blizzard I didn't like." In Crosbyton (population 1,874) on another Sunday, the church crowd had already gone home for the day and the famous West Texas wind was blowing full gale. A flagpole wire pinged wildly against its pole. At the deserted Dairy Queen, I ordered a Snickers Blizzard. The machine beat out the calories. Would the server turn the Blizzard upside down? She turned the Blizzard upside down. Mayfield told me that Blizzards do sometimes fall out. But in Crosbyton mine stayed put. • The Blizzard has been good for Dairy Queen, but neither it nor Dairy Queen itself would exist without soft serve ice cream. After all, Sherb Noble opened the first store in Joliet, Illinois, only to sell the soft serve his friends, J.F. "Grandpa"

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them. Just cover the matzohs with the water. The water is absorbed and softens the matzoh. After five to 10 minutes, pour off any remaining water. If you are impatient like me it will be shorter, but even a few minutes is good enough. Break two eggs into the bowl—you can add another egg for a richer mixture or prewhisk, if you want—and mix to create a matzoh-egg

McCullough and his son, Alex, had invented. Today, of course, soft serve is not so glamorous or novel as it was when it first debuted. Having now considered it in detail, however, I think I should offer some praise for soft serve ice cream. First off: soft serve is cheap and soft serve is low in fat. (Unlike Mayfield's claim about Blizzards, this is actually true.) Furthermore, because soft serve doesn't freeze your mouth, it tastes better than hard ice cream. That was Grandpa McCullough's theory, anyway, and Dairy Queen boosters have treated it as gospel ever since. I haven't done a taste comparison, but I did tackle a monstrous Brown Derby (chocolate dip cone) in Aspermont (population 1,021). In size and shape, it recalled a Dr. Seuss mountain. Tens of millions of Whos could have lived on top; even with the help of my mom and dog, I

couldn't finish it. Though I can't say how soft serve compares to other ice creams I've had, I will say that it was delicious—and that the structure itself was a modern-day miracle. Finally, and most importantly, soft serve requires a machine. A machine, in turn, requires a store. Not quite solid, and made largely of air, soft serve can't survive a freezer. You can't buy soft serve in a carton. Every cone requires an excursion into the world. It is a public ice cream, meant to be eaten fresh. Following the invention of soft serve, the creation of thousands of new places to go and sit and eat it was almost inevitable.

Breakfast Worth Wishing for Leftover Matzoh contributors@theatlantic.com (Ezekiel J. Emanuel) (Food :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/5/2010 6:09:28 AM

dremiel/flickr Passover is here. Yuck! This is a holiday where the food you eat is supposed to make you gemish(mixture). Shake some own children liked this so much remember the suffering of being ground cinnamon to taste on the we would use up the matzoh a slave. Nowhere is that more gemish. For variety you can add making this even after Passover true than in relation to breakfast. chopped up apple pieces if you ended. (Truth be told, I hate Gone are the pancakes, waffles, want. matzoh so much I was always and French toast, not to mention Heat up the griddle add butter tempted just to throw out basic cereal. What is left? Only (or margarine). And plop down whatever was left after the sun two things: eggs and matzoh small circles of the matzoh-egg went down on the eighth day.) brei. gemish as if it were pancake So remember to be thankful for Eggs you can handle yourself. batter. Cook both sides and boiling water—reduces the Matzoh brei is an art form. serve with pure maple syrup. suffering of Passover breakfasts. When I was growing up, my Presto! Now you have a decent BREAKFAST page 81 father made us matzah brei. Passover breakfast. Indeed my

Truth be told it is the only dish I can recall he ever cooked for us. Sorry Dad, but it was horrid. Hard on the throat. The matzohs were firm and in big chunks and only scratched as they went down the gullet. Over the years I have found the secret to good matzoh brei: boiling water. I always thought that during the Seder we should thank God for the miracle of boiling water. So here is the recipe for a decent Passover breakfast. Crumble three matzohs into smallish pieces in a bowl, and then pour boiling water over BREAKFAST page 80

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