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U.S. reveals nuclear target: oceans Andrew Quinn (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 4/6/2010 11:40:56 AM

The new U.S. nuclear weapons doctrine released on Tuesday had stern warnings for Iran and North Korea, with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates explaining that it left “all options on the table” for dealing with atomic renegades despite its broader goal of restricting the U.S. use of its nuclear stockpile. But Gates also let slip a bit of information that may give pause to environmentalists: most U.S. nuclear missiles are now targeted at the world’s oceans. “Our ICBMs are all targeted right now on the oceans, so that if, God forbid and for the first time in 60 years, there were an accidental launch or a problem …it would put a missile right into the middle of the ocean, rather than targeted on any country,” Gates told a news

briefing. The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright explained the details of “open ocean targeting”, part of a broader package of measures the United States has undertaken for some time to reduce the threat of nuclear war by mistake. “For a weapon that has a target

associated with it, that is on alert, there is a specific target: that target is the ocean, it is the center of the ocean,” Cartwright told the same news briefing, adding that the U.S. military kept specific areas of the ocean in mind “for that type of work.” “That is done to ensure that, God forbid, if there were an inadvertent launch, that guidance systems would take you to a known place and that known place would not be inhabited,” he said. He said the overall goal of the “posture” (a word apparently much beloved by nuclear planners) would be to ensure that “no mistake or errors in a launch system could but put (missiles) in a place where we wouldn’t want them to be.” God forbid indeed. PHOTO CREDIT: Reuters/Reuters photographer (file photo of Minuteman missile launch)

How Car Companies Hide Prototypes From Spying Eyes Cliff Kuang (Wired Top Stories)

Automotive design is war, and makers use everything from putty to bubble wrap to disguise

their killer concepts.

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Pictures: New 7 Wonders vs. Ancient 7 Wonders (National Geographic News)

heritage across the globe." The foundation says the poll attracted almost a hundred July 9, 2007— The 105-foot- million votes. tall (38-meter-tall) "Christ the Yet the competition has proved Redeemer" statue in Rio de controversial, drawing criticism Janeiro, Brazil, was among the f r o m t h e U n i t e d N a t i o n s ' "new seven wonders of the cultural organization UNESCO, w o r l d " a n n o u n c e d J u l y 7 which administers the World following a global poll to decide Heritage sites program ( pictures a new list of human-made of the newest World Heritage marvels. sites). The winners were voted for by "This initiative cannot, in any Internet and phone, American significant and sustainable Idol style. The other six new manner, contribute to the wonders are the Colosseum in preservation of sites elected by Rome, India's Taj Mahal, the [the] public," UNESCO said in a Great Wall of China, Jordan's statement. ancient city of Petra, the Inca —James Owen ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, More Photos in the News and the ancient Maya city of Today's 15 Most Read Stories Chichén Itzá in Mexico. Free Email Newsletter: Focus The contest was organized by on Photography the N e w 7 W o n d e r s Five Filters featured article: Foundation—the brainchild of Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Swiss filmmaker and museum PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, curator Bernard Weber—in Term Extraction. order to "protect humankind's Submitted at 4/6/2010 2:15:17 PM

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Census ads seek to boost minority participation (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

heritage that reached from Pakistan to the Philippines. "Simply having a poster of a LOS ANGELES â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Radio Chinese-American family is not commercials blare ranchera going to resonate. If you're from tunes, beseeching Mexican- India, you're not going to say, Americans to fill out their 'Oh, that's my family.'" said census forms. Print ads with a Karen Narasaki, president and portrait of a Thai family with a executive director of the Asian c a r v e d e l e p h a n t i n t h e American Justice Center. "It's background implore Thais to do much more sophisticated this the same. So does a Congolese time around." basketball hero in another. Ads promoting participation are The ads scream stand up and be appearing in 28 languages this counted, and are designed to year, up from 17 in 2000. reach some of the most difficult Although minority groups make to count communities across the up just 26 percent of the nation. population, more than half of "We wanted to make sure that in the bureau's $140 million adaddition to being 'in language,' placement budget is going to we were also 'in culture,'" said campaigns that target them. Raul Cisneros, chief of the 2010 That expenditure is based on an Census publicity office. "We've understanding of how difficult it got to count everybody, so is to get many members of those we've got to pull all the levers." groups to mail in their census During the 2000 Census, when forms and, for those that don't, t h e b u r e a u u s e d p a i d to cooperate with census takers advertisements for the first time who visit their homes. in its history, critics accused the "Minority populations are agency of adopting an overly historically more difficult to g e n e r i c , o n e - s i z e - f i t s - a l l reach," said Phil Sparks, a approach in its efforts to reach former Census Bureau director minorities. who oversaw the 2000 ad S p e a k e r s o f V i e t n a m e s e , campaign and now leads the Persian, Hindi, Greek and other Census Project, a nonpartisan languages were not addressed in census watchdog. their native tongues. Billboards Language barriers keep some designed for continental-U.S.- from filling out their forms, based Hispanics were also while others haven't been in the deployed in Puerto Rico. country long enough to The same East Asian-looking understand that congressional f a m i l y w a s u s e d f o r a d s districts are drawn up and targeting communities with federal resources allocated Submitted at 4/7/2010 12:21:03 AM

based on the count. Still others are wary of cooperating with a public agency like the Census Bureau because of fears over confidentiality or feelings that they've been neglected by the government in the past. Last decade's minority-focused ads helped boost response rates, Sparks said, but this census' campaign should help even more. "It's much more sophisticated, it's much more targeted and I think it will be that much more effective," he said. A print ad campaign targeting Asians, for example, swaps families that are identifiable members of their target markets into the same living-room backdrop, with culturally specific trinkets on their walls and mantles: a small wooden box with drawers for the Chinese family; a carved figurine of an elephant in the Thai ad; an ornamental bamboo tube on the wall of the Filipino home. For U.S. radio markets with large Mexican communities, the Census Bureau set its Spanishlanguage message promising anonymity and a fair share of federal cash to a plaintive ranchero tune. But for areas with a larger Dominican contingency, the agency set the message to a more lively, tropical bachata beat.

The ads aimed at blacks from sub-Saharan Africa, meanwhile, feature retired Congolese American basketball pro Dikembe Mutombo, who appears in posters and magazine spreads surrounded by children. A different group of children, whose broad range of skin tones reflect the diversity of the Caribbean Islands, appear in the ads aimed at immigrants from that region. They surround a model that focus groups identified as convincingly West Indian. African-Americans, meanwhile, were targeted using a TV spot with characters whose voices are muted until they mail their census forms. Those last ads resonated with African-Americans because they played to perceptions among blacks that they're not listened to by the members of the broader culture, said Damien Reid, vice president of GlobalHue, the firm that produced the ads. Not all demographic groups got the same deep-bore approach. The American Indian population was divided into four geographic zones â&#x20AC;&#x201D; instead of the more than 500 federally recognized tribal divisions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with familiar-type landscapes featured in ads for target areas. And among Arabic-speaking residents, the shared experience of feeling under suspicion in post-9/11 America was stronger

than any cultural differences in their backgrounds, said Jalal Sayed, an account manager with Allied Media Corp., which produced ads for those groups. In one Arabic-language ad, the central image is of the main character joining a multicultural cast in mailing his census form. The purpose was to show that Arab residents weren't being singled out for surveillance by the census agency, Sayed said. "It's a tough sell in my community frankly because this is the first census since Sept. 11 and there are all these fears and concerns about racial profiling that have gone on over the last nine years," said Helen Hatab Samhan, executive director of the Arab American Institute Foundation and a member of a committee that is advising the census on its ads targeting minority communities. Samhan and other advocacy group leaders gave the census bureau high marks in its efforts to reach minority communities, but said there were still gaps in the communications strategy that they had to fill. One particularly glaring omission, she said, was the lack of advertisements targeting the native-English speaking Arab community. Her group, along with organizations representing the Hispanic and Asian CENSUS page 24

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W.Va. mine owner accused of putting safety second (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

gas that is odorless and colorless. Last year alone, MSHA cited JULIAN, W.Va. – The coal Upper Big Branch for 495 mine rocked by an explosion v i o l a t i o n s a n d p r o p o s e d that killed at least 25 workers in $911,802 in fines. Production the nation's deadliest mining more than tripled during that disaster since 1984 had been period, according to federal cited for 600 violations in less records. So far this year, the than a year and a half, some of agency has found 105 violations them for not properly ventilating at the mine. m e t h a n e — t h e h i g h l y Upper Big Branch is one of combustible gas suspected in the Massey's biggest underground blast. mines, with more than 200 The disaster at the Upper Big e m p l o y e e s , a n d i t i s n o t B r a n c h m i n e h a s f o c u s e d uncommon for big coal mines to attention on the business and amass hundreds of violations a safety practices of the owner, year — and to contest many of Massey Energy, a powerful and them, as Massey does. But most politically connected company big mines don't have as many i n A p p a l a c h i a k n o w n f o r serious infractions as Upper Big producing big profits, as well as Branch, industry experts said. b i g p i l e s o f s a f e t y a n d At least 50 citations charge the environmental violations and company with "unwarrantable big damage awards for grieving failure" to comply with safety widows. standards such as following an "There are mines in this country approved ventilation plan, who have operated safely for 20 c o n t r o l l i n g c o m b u s t i b l e years," said J. Davitt McAteer, materials or designating escape head of the federal Mine Safety routes. and Health Administration in "I've never seen that many for the Clinton administration. one mine in a year," said Ellen "There are mines who take Smith, editor of Mine Safety & precautions ahead of time. There Health News. "If you look at are mines who spend the money other mines that are the same and manpower to do it." size or bigger, they do not have He added: "Those mines t h e s h e e r n u m b e r o f haven't been blown up." `unwarrantable' citations that Four other miners were missing this mine has." and feared dead underground in Massey has had problems Monday's blast, believed to have elsewhere, too. In 2006, two been caused by a buildup of miners were killed in a fire at methane, a naturally occurring Massey's Aracoma Alma No. 1 Submitted at 4/6/2010 7:27:01 PM

mine. Massey settled a wrongful death lawsuit for an undisclosed sum, and its subsidiary Aracoma Coal Co. paid $4.2 million in civil and criminal penalties. Testimony showed Massey CEO Don Blankenship suggested firing two supervisors for raising concerns about conveyer belt problems just before the belt caught fire. "Massey has a history of emphasizing production," said Pittsburgh lawyer Bruce Stanley, who represented the miners' widows. "I'm concerned that they may not have learned the lessons of Aracoma." In an interview less than 24 hours after the disaster at Upper Big Branch, Blankenship insisted the mine is no more dangerous than others of comparable size, and he defended the company's track record in a perilous business. "It's natural that the enemies of coal would view Massey as the primary enemy," he said. He pointed out Massey's many innovations, such as installing steps in place of ladders and putting protective cages on underground vehicles even though the government doesn't require them. "I think that I've proven that we run safer coal mines— you know, most of the time — and accidents sometimes happen. We've got to figure out what happened here," he said. Kevin Stricklin, an MSHA

administrator, said that the number of citations at the mine appeared high, and that he was concerned about the more serious violations. "It means the operator was aware of some of these conditions," he said. Massey is contesting 36 percent of all violations at Upper Big Branch since 2007, The Associated Press found. Overall, U.S. mine operators contest 27 percent. Challenging violations can enable a mine owner to stave off the heavier punishment that the government can impose on companies that have been deemed repeat offenders. Massey became a political and industrial powerhouse under the guidance of Blankenship, who rose from poverty to become one of corporate America's highest-paid and least apologetic executives, a guy who proudly displays in his office a TV set with a bullet hole from a striking union miner's rifle. He freely spent millions of dollars from his personal fortune to help install a West Virginia Supreme Court justice, a maneuver that led to an important conflict-of-interest ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, and on a failed bid to elect a Republican majority in the state Legislature. Under Blankenship, Massey clawed to the top of the Appalachian coal industry, shrewdly buying up coal deposits to amass more than 2

billion tons of reserves. It is a major economic force regionally, with more than 6,000 high-paid miners in some of the poorest counties in America. Operating nonunion mines across southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia, Massey more than doubled its profit to $104.4 million in 2009 from the year before, despite slumping demand for coal amid the recession. The company expects to be shipping 2 million tons of coal a year to India by next year. Massey has managed to push the United Mine Workers union out of all of its operations except for a single processing plant. Blankenship's hard-driving approach was illustrated in a 2005 memo in which he told mine workers that if their bosses ask them to build roof supports or perform similar tasks, "ignore them and run coal." "This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills," he wrote. Few workers are willing to openly criticize Massey because of its powerful hold on people's livelihoods in Appalachia. But Terry Holstein, who worked at Upper Big Branch, said it took him 10 years to decide he didn't like the way Massey ran the mine. He left in W.VA. page 26

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Rescuers bang pipe in W.Va. coal mine; no response (AP) (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)

Gov. Joe Manchin said the first hole reached the Upper Big Branch Mine after boring M O N T C O A L , W . V a . â&#x20AC;&#x201C; through about 1,090 feet of Rescuers drilled into a coal mine earth and rock. Rescuers banged where 25 people died in an on the drill pipe for 15 minutes explosion but got no answer in hopes of being heard below Wednesday when they banged ground, but got no response. o n a p i p e , t r y i n g t o Officials said they also plan to communicate with possible set off three small explosions on survivors. the surface to send a seismic Crews needed to bore at least signal to the mine. one more hole to release poison Miners are trained to bang back gases before searchers could on the drill's casing, Manchin enter the Upper Big Branch said. Sections of mine roof mine to look for four people still contain numerous metal bolts missing in the worst U.S. that help keep it in place and mining accident in more than that trapped miners can bang on two decades. to signal their presence. The company that owns the Officials said they might need mine, Massey Energy Co., to drill as many as four holes to frequently sidesteps hefty fines vent the mine, but Chris Adkins, by aggressively contesting chief operating officer for safety violations, including Massey, said Wednesday that r e c e n t p r o b l e m s w i t h t h e two might be enough. Once ventilation system that clears rescuers can enter the mine it away combustible methane gas. will take four or five hours to Methane was blamed for the get far enough inside to check explosion that rocked the mine for survivors, who would be Monday, and a dangerous about 1,000 feet below the buildup of that gas along with surface. carbon monoxide prevented "We hope, we pray that the first anyone from getting inside to two holes that go down will give pull out the bodies of 18 dead us enough information to where miners or to look for the four we can pull the atmosphere back still unaccounted for. to where it is not explosive and Rescuers hoped they might get back in there," Adkins said. s o m e h o w h a v e r e a c h e d a The quality and quantity of coal chamber where they could produced at Upper Big Branch survive for four days. Seven make the mine one of gems of bodies were pulled out after the Massey's operation. The mine explosion, and two miners were produced more than 1.2 million hospitalized. tons of coal last year and uses Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:29:11 AM

the lowest-cost underground mining method, making it more profitable. The mine produces metallurgical coal that is used to make steel and sells for up to $200 a ton â&#x20AC;&#x201D; more than double the price for the type of coal used by power plants. Federal regulators probing the explosion plan to review Massey's safety violations, many of which involved venting methane gas. If the odorless, colorless gas is not kept at safe levels, a small spark can ignite it. Massey is still contesting more than a third of all its violations at the Montcoal, W.Va., mine since 2007. In the past year, federal inspectors have proposed more than $1 million in fines for violations at the mine. Only 16 percent have been paid. Bombarding federal regulators with appeals is an increasingly common industry tactic since the 2006 Sago mine disaster that killed 12 led to stiffer fines and new enforcement to punish the worst offenders, according to an Associated Press review of records from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. In an interview Tuesday with AP, Massey CEO Don Blankenship downplayed the link between the ventilation system and the accident. "I don't know that MSHA thought there was a problem," he said. The death toll in Monday's

explosion was the highest in a U.S. mine since 1984, when 27 people died in a fire at Emery Mining Corp.'s mine in Orangeville, Utah. If the four missing bring the total to 29, it would be the most to die in a U.S. coal mine since a 1970 explosion killed 38 at Finley Coal Co. in Hyden, Ky. In the area about 30 miles south of Charleston where coal is king, people anxiously awaited word on the missing. Larry Asbury's son is on a mine rescue team. He joined about 50 mourners who packed the creaky pews of the modest St. Joseph Catholic Church a few miles from the disaster to honor the victims and pray that the missing turn up safe. "The coal community is coming together and praying for miners and their families," he said. "It's just so important to show the community this kind of support." Manchin said the first drill hole entered the section of the mine about a football field's length away from a rescue chamber where officials hope the miners sought refuge. Searchers would have to navigate in the darkness around debris from structures shattered by the explosion and around sections of track that were "wrapped like a pretzel," said Kevin Stricklin, an administrator from the federal Mine Safety and Health

Administration. "There's so much dirt and dust and everything is so dark that it's very easy, as hard as it may seem to any of us outside in this room, to walk by a body," Stricklin said. Manchin said he continues to meet with the families, but had no updates regarding the two injured miners pulled to the surface after the explosion. "The families are very resilient," said the governor, flanked by state and federal safety officials. "They know the odds are against us." Diana Davis said her husband, Timmy Davis, 51, died in the explosion along with his nephews, Josh Napper, 25, and Cory Davis, 20. The elder Davis' son, Timmy Davis Jr., described his father as passionate about the outdoors and the mines. "He loved to work underground," the younger Davis said. Two other family members survived, he said. During pauses at Tuesday's service at St. Joseph's, some leaned over and consoled each other. "It's such a terrible time for West Virginia, but it's so important to ask for God's help," said Bishop Michael J. Bransfield. Though the situation looked bleak, the governor pointed to the 2006 Sago Mine explosion RESCUERS page 25

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Rio de Janeiro floods kill scores (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 4/7/2010 1:15:37 AM

Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Landslides and floods wreaked havoc in the area At least 95 people have died in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro after the most torrential rain for decades caused landslides and flooding. A state of emergency has been declared and officials have warned the death toll may rise as many more are missing. At least 33 people died in Rio de Janeiro city after 28cm (11in) of rain fell in 24 hours, while 33 were killed in the neighbouring city of Niteroi. Many houses in Rio's hillside shanty towns were buried under mudslides. Rescue teams have been scouring the city's hillsides to find missing people and recover bodies buried under the mud. With no let-up in the rain, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has urged residents to leave their homes if they are at risk of flooding. Otherwise, the authorities have told people to stay indoors and avoid travelling around the city. Chaotic situation Authorities say the city of Rio de Janeiro's transport system is close to collapse, after traffic ground to a halt with many

streets under water. The rain is not so intense but the risk of new landslides remains high, as the soil of the hillsides is extremely wet. Most of those who died were people in the hillside slums where waves of mud came down destroying everything in their way. The topography in Rio exacerbates these types of problems. It's one of the most beautiful cities in the world because of the mountains in the middle of the town, but it can get nasty when it rains. Ten years ago a census found 12,000 people lived in high-risk areas, but there have been new developments since then so the number is probably much

higher. "The situation is chaos," Mayor Eduardo da Costa Paes said in a statement on Tuesday. "All the major streets of the city are closed because of the floods. "Each and every person who attempts to enter them will be at enormous risk," he warned. Mr Paes said the preparedness for heavy rainfall in Brazil's second-largest city - which will host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games - was "less than zero". Public schools will remain closed until at least Friday. State governor Sergio Cabral meanwhile declared a state of emergency and urged people in high-risk areas to leave their homes.

He told TV Globo that to stay inside would be "irresponsible" given the risk of new landslides. The victims of shanty town landslides in the city of Rio de Janeiro included a five-monthold baby and a nine-year-old child, officials said. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Rio de Janeiro has experienced a particularly hot and rainy summer Flooding left another 12 people dead in Sao Goncalo, and one in Petropolis. The continuous rainfall also forced Santos Dumont airport, which handles domestic flights, to close for two hours on Monday night, causing a

number of delays. Many cars were left abandoned on main roads throughout the city. The head of Rio de Janeiro's civil defence department told TV Globo the amount of rain that had fallen was "more than any city is capable of supporting". Paulo Marqueiro, a reporter for the newspaper O Globo, told the BBC it was like the city had "collapsed". Houses had been brought crashing down by the floods and landslides, and there was no public transport whatsoever, he said. 'Pray to God' BBC News website reader Antonio Queiroz Junior said it had started raining after 1700 (2000 GMT) on Monday, during the rush hour. "It hasn't stopped raining since then," he said. "This is the worst storm in decades." He added: "The city has been abandoned by our government. The current situation is unacceptable, with so many people getting killed because of the rain. "Everybody knows the danger of living in the hills, and the government does nothing to stop more and more people building houses there." Another reader in Rio de Janeiro, Duncan Crossley, said RIO page 26

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Chile rebuked over lesbian ruling (BBC News | Americas | World Edition) Submitted at 4/7/2010 3:37:46 AM

Chile's Supreme Court has been rebuked for a ruling in which a woman lost custody of her children because she was living with her lesbian partner. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said the ruling was a violation of the woman's human rights. In 2004, the court ordered Karen Atala to hand over her three daughters to her estranged husband. The court argued that the girls could be psychologically damaged if they stayed in a same-sex household. Karen Atala lost custody of her children in May 2004. She took her case to the IACHR in November the same year. In its findings, which have now been made public, the commission said that "the Chilean state had violated Karen Atala's right to live free from discrimination".

The IACHR, which is an autonomous body of the Organisation of American States (OAS), called on the Chilean state to make reparations. It also urged the government to take steps to adopt "legislation, policies and programmes" to prohibit and eradicate discrimination based on sexual orientation. 'Less conservative' One of Ms Atala's lawyers, Jorge Contesse, said she had not been seeking to regain custody of her children. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. "She doesn't want her daughters to go through everything they went through six years ago," Mr Contesse told the BBC. Ms Atala's aim, he said, was to make sure the government took steps towards ending discrimination against sexual minorities. "Chilean society is much less conservative than we think," Mr Contesse said. "It is the Chilean authorities, the Chilean elites

that sometimes think that this is a very conservative, a very Catholic country." The government of Sebastian Pinera, who took office in March, has indicated that it will accept the IACHR's recommendations. "The government is not going to discriminate against anyone based on their ethnic origin, religion, or sexual orientation," said spokeswoman Ena von Baer. During the election campaign, Mr Pinera said that the rights of all people should be protected, "whatever their sexual orientation". Gay rights groups in Chile say the IACHR's findings are an opportune moment for the president to make good on this promise, says BBC Mundo correspondent Rodrigo Bustamante. Print Sponsor Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The Ultimate Mac Road Warrior Setup (Holy Kaw!) Submitted at 4/6/2010 10:49:00 PM

I’ve used an iPad for three days, and it’s the best content consumption device on the planet. It’s forced me to rethink what the ultimate Mac setup for a road warrior. Here’s my list: • iPad. This is the ultimate content collection and consumption machine. However, if you have to type in more than a few hundred characters, compose HTML, print, or videoconference, the current iPad won’t cut it. • MacBook. This is the ultimate content creation machine. With it and Word, MarsEdit, BBEdit, TextExpander, Lightroom, Tweetdeck, and PowerPoint, I can rule the world. • Sprint OverDrive 3G/4G. This product enables you to create a small WiFI network using Sprint’s 3G and 4G networks. Admittedly, there are only a few dozen cities with 4G, but as long there’s Austin and Maui, where else matters? (Disclosure: Sprint RESCUERS continued from page 22 gave me an OverDrive.) that killed 12. Crews found Bluestein, Allen G. Breed, Vicki PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, • Verizon phone. I dread using my iPhone—I swear as many miner Randal McCloy Jr. alive Smith, Tom Breen and Tim Term Extraction. calls drop as go through. I’m after he was trapped for more Huber in West Virginia and Sam constantly redialing people. It than 40 hours in an atmosphere H a n a n e l i n W a s h i n g t o n simply doesn’t work for voice poisoned with carbon monoxide. contributed to this report. ___ Five Filters featured article: Associated Press writers Greg Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools:

communication in backwards places like Silicon Valley. Here’s how this setup would work: • The iPad is for reading books, scanning emails, tweeting with links, and looking cool. Check. • The MacBook is for content creation (blogs, long emails, presentations, books, photo editing, and tweets without links), printing, and videoconferencing. Check. • The Sprint OverDrive is to avoid AT&T for web access via my iPad or MacBook. An added bonus is that I don’t have to pay $15/day for crappy Internet access in expensive hotels. Check. • The Verizon phone is for calls. Check. To get from where I am to where I want to be, I only need to swap my iPhone for a Verizon phone. This means carrying an additional device—the Ipad—but it eliminates the hardcover novel that I carry on trips so the net effect on weight and bulk is minimal. More Macintosh tips and tricks. Permalink| Leave a comment »

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Man dislocates jaw on big sandwich (Holy Kaw!)

around, his kids began laughing hysterically while their dad Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:21:00 AM attempted to relocate his jaw by Oversized sandwiches could punching himself in the face. soon come with a warning label A trip to Urgent Care and then after a Georgia man dislocated to the local hospital later, his jaw on a giant sandwich Ettmueller’s jaw ended up back f r o m t h e W h i c h ‘ W i c h in place. Despite his painful restaurant chain. experience, the sandwich-loving Chad Ettmueller and his kids dad decided not to sue the made a trip to the sandwich restaurant and agreed to allow shop to celebrate his son’s the chain to use his experience second place finish at a local as a marketing tool. So, Which t a l e n t s h o w a n d , b e c a u s e ‘Wich is currently running a poll watching kids play the trombone to decide on a new name for the all day can make a person quite oversized sandwich based on hungry, Ettmueller ordered a Ettmueller’s experience—“Lock double meat, double cheese -Jaw,” “Double Dislocator,” or version of his favorite lunch. “Jaw Wrecker.” Unfortunately, Ettmueller didn’t Full story at AOL News. enjoy even a bite because his Oodles of oddities. mouth got stuck open on his Permalink| Leave a comment » first go at the huge sandwich. Thinking he was just fooling

Boomers on motorcycles are at greater risk of injury than younger riders (Holy Kaw!)

Center. “We wanted to see if this observation was true on a national level and we found that Motorcycle riders across the it was.” country are growing older, and For riders above the age of 40, (Holy Kaw!) the impact of this trend is injury severity, length of stay in evident in emergency rooms the hospital or intensive care Submitted at 4/6/2010 7:39:00 PM daily. unit, and mortality were higher Check out these facts about “ W e m a d e t h e c l i n i c a l compared to riders below the stolen cars in the US. o b s e r v a t i o n t h a t o l d e r age of 40. Via: Auto Insurance patients—people in their 50s, The risk of dying was one-and- More on cars. 60s, and even 70s—were being a-half to two times more likely Permalink| Leave a comment » injured on motorcycles with in riders older than 40, based on increasing frequency,” says the severity of the original M a r k G e s t r i n g , a s s o c i a t e injury. professor of surgery, emergency Full story at Futurity. medicine, and pediatrics at the Get smarter: research news. University of Rochester Medical Permalink| Leave a comment » Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:42:00 AM

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Amy-Mae Elliott (Mashable!)

Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

like the cheeky young upstart he is. With a bad line of t-shirts. 7. Stalking Cat We’ve already brought you ten Call us prospectors, ‘cos this hilarious canine-themed here is YouTube gold. 8. The YouTube clips, but dogs OMG WTF Cat shouldn’t be the only ones to Don’t watch this if you’re have their day. That’s why for feeling a bit grumpy and want to this funny roundup we’ve gone stay that way. 9. Hungry, the feline route and collected realistic animatronic? Either Hungry Kitteh! some of the funniest cat videos way, it’s chopsticked its little The human may win out in the way into our hearts. 3. Cat this clip, but we would not want on YouTube. Whether you want talking cats, Shower to be on the receiving end of the surprised cats, dramatic cats or Say it with us: cats don’t like small cat’s vengeance in the nom-noming cats this lists water, cats don’t like water, weeks (years?) to follow. 10. should tickle your funny bone cats… wait… huh? 4. Boxing Surprised Kitty with ten examples of the finest Kitteh Excuse us please, our hearts Shame a glass jaw stopped this j u s t i m p l o d e d w i t h c u t e feline vids on the internets. Scroll down and hit play now cat going pro. Now all he can do overload… BONUS: Cat vs for some priceless cat action and is watch the fights on TV and Dog let us know your fave kittehs in dream. 5. The Noisy Drinking Know your place, you big, the comments below. 1. Talking Cat dumb mutt. Reviews: YouTube Pardon Mr Cat? What was that Tags: cats, funny videos, List, Cat We don’t know about you, but you just said? Could it have Lists, videos, viral videos, this cat had us at “oh long been NOM, NOM, NOM?! 6. youtube J o h n . ” 2 . C a t E a t s F r o m NORA: Practice Makes Purrfect Chopsticks Real cat, or an incredibly Nora makes Keyboard Cat look Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:58:13 AM

10 Space Jobs From The Near Future Lonnie Morgan (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:25:00 AM

What will a job market for the aspiring space junkie look like in 20 - 30 years? For a long time, the single goal for kids

that were spastic over spaceflight was to become an astronaut. Now, it looks like that job title is going to have some competition. Here are 10 nonscientist jobs I believe that youngsters should start to prepare for.

Submitted at 4/7/2010 8:00:00 AM

Filed under: App Review Today is the 60th annual World Health Day; it's a day of awareness and programs sponsored by the World Health Organization to promote better health across the globe. In honor of the day, and in order to raise awareness about the importance of taking medications on time, the people at Medsy are giving away their popular iPhone app [ free] for twenty-four hours . People who fail to finish all of their meds, or don't take them as scheduled, not only threaten their own health, but help give rise to antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA. Medsy hopes to help change all of that. The app allows you to input all your medications, vitamins, and supplements, and set reminders for you to take them. The app uses Push notifications, so even if your iPhone is locked or you are using another app, you'll still get your reminders. Medsy allows you to input the name of the medicine, its dosage, and the prescribed frequency of the dose. The app even lets you customize the icon for each medication by shape and color.

For those worried about privacy concerns, Medsy stores all of your medical information locally on your iPhone and not on its reminder servers. If you delete Medsy from your iPhone, all of your medical information is deleted with it. Medsy is only available on the iPhone as the iPod touch will not support Push notifications when not on a WiFi network. It regularly sells for $3.99, but it's available today as a free download. Gallery: Medsy TUAW It's World Health Day! Medsy free for 24 hours. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Gartner: Most Kids Will Use PCs With Touchscreens by 2015 Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

On the other hand, we are predicting that fewer than 10 percent of PCs sold to The iPad may indeed be the e n t e r p r i s e s i n 2 0 1 5 f o r future of computing, at least mainstream knowledge workers when it comes to the way you will have touchscreens,” she interact with it. According to IT said. research company Gartner, more Gartner claims that this change than 50% of PCs purchased for will be driven by media content users under 15 years of age will consumption and the content have touchscreens by 2015. delivery ecosystem. Leslie Fiering, research vice Touchscreen devices have been president at Gartner, thinks kids around for 20 years, but Apple will pave the way, with the has gone leaps and bounds with corporate world lagging behind. its App Store concept, and “By 2015, we expect more than analysts at Gartner think that its 50 percent of PCs purchased for success will “create greater users under the age of 15 will m a r k e t a w a r e n e s s o f a n d have touchscreens, up from demand for touch in other PC fewer than 2 percent in 2009. applications.” Submitted at 4/7/2010 2:19:46 AM

Furthermore, Gartner sees huge potential for touchscreen devices in education. “Consensus among the Gartner client U.S. school districts is that over half, and possibly as

many as 75 percent, will be specifying touch and/or pen input within the next five years,” said Ms. Fiering. Based on this prediction, Gartner analysts also predict that in 10

DISCOVERY continued from page 29

astronauts aboard. The combined 13-member crew includes four women, a space record.(Credit: Screen grab from NASA TV) As soon as hatches were opened between Discovery and the station, Wilson handed off a computer hard drive loaded with stored imagery collected during an extensive inspection of the shuttle's nose cap and wing leading-edge panels that was carried out Tuesday. Because of the Ku-band antenna problems, the data

could not be downlinked in real time. But using the station's Kuband communications system, engineers expect to get all the imagery down to the ground by noon. "The data collection process with respect to getting all the imagery down has started," Jones said. "Once the hatches were opened, we gave the ISS crew the flight day two inspection data that we had collected and they were starting to downlink that as I was walking over."

Jones described Discovery's rendezvous pitch maneuver as "just a beautiful thing to see, it's almost poetry." "It looks like the vehicle seems to be, in general, in great health," he said. "We'll obviously let the experts look at the detailed imagery and confirm that. But things seem to be going very well." Overnight Wednesday, the astronauts plan to move a cargo module, loaded with more than 17,000 pounds of supplies and equipment, from Discovery's

payload bay to the space station.The first of three spacewalks to replace an ammonia coolant tank on the station's solar power truss is planned for early Friday. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

to 15 years an entire generation will have grown up accustomed to working on touchscreen devices. These predictions don’t necessarily tell us much about the first generation of the iPad (and how well it’ll do on the market), but they do show that Apple’s idea of a keyboardless, simple tablet computer may have indeed created an entirely new category of PC devices, one that might be an important part of the PC market in years to come. Reviews: App Store Tags: Gartner, pc, touchscreens

HP Slate Details Leaked: $550 Keyboard-less Netbook Charlie Sorrel (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:06:00 AM

An internal HP memo which compares the upcoming Slate to Apple’s iPad has been leaked The tablet will purportedly come in two sizes: a 32GB model for $550 and a $600, 64GB version. It is said to also have an SD card reader, a USB port, HDMI-out, a VGA webcam, a 3MP camera, and a 'conventional' SIM-card tray.

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Rumor: Apple's 'iAd' Mobile Advertising Platform to be introduced tomorrow Dave Caolo (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/7/2010 11:00:00 AM

Filed under: Apple Corporate It seems that a rumor we heard last month is about to be realized: reports indicate that Apple's new 'iAd' Mobile Advertising Platform is set to debut tomorrow. According to All Things Digital, Apple will introduce iAds during tomorrow's iPhone OS 4 preview. Don't let the image above fool you; Google

CEO Eric Schmidt is likely to be quite happy with this announcement. Why? Because he'll use it to demonstrate to the FTC that Google 1.) does have advertising competitors and 2.) should be allowed to spend US$750 million to purchase AdMob. That deal has been tenuous at best. Apple filed an advertising patent last November, and purchased mobile ad company Quattro Wireless in January of this year. In February, Apple nabbed Theo Theodorou from

Microsoft's mobile advertising sales department and Todd Tran from mobile ad agency Joule. In other words, the resources have been lined up. Now it's time to

pull the trigger. We can only guess about how iAds will work, if it's really called "iAds" and so on. But if All Things D is correct, we'll

find out for sure tomorrow. [Via MacRumors] TUAW Rumor: Apple's 'iAd' Mobile Advertising Platform to be introduced tomorrow originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

iSuppli: iPad’s Actual Cost is $260 Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)

iSuppli, the iPad’s touchscreen costs $95, the aluminum back casing is $10.50, while the You’re paying at least $499 for processor costs $26.80. For the iPad, but what’s the actual comparison, the $699 version of cost of its parts? According to the iPad costs $348.10 to analytics company iSuppli, manufacture, again roughly one approximately half of that half of the retail price. amount. These numbers reveal a little iSuppli estimates the total cost more on how much money of iPad WiFi (not the 3G- Apple actually makes from the enabled model, which will be sales of its devices. Remember arriving to the market later this the price it takes to manufacture month) is $259.60. As far as the iPhone 3GS– according to individual parts go, according to iSuppli, the 16 GB model costs Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:34:57 AM

so one must take into consideration subsidies from mobile operators selling the device. The iPad WiFi comes without a contract, which makes the math somewhat simpler. Even if we forget for a moment Apple’s huge investments into research and marketing for the iPad, it around $179 (the estimate is 9 individual parts such as Flash seems that Apple is making a months old, so the actual price is memory). But the consumer hefty sum from every iPad it p r o b a b l y a b i t d i f f e r e n t , price for the iPhone starts at sells. depending on the prices of $199 with a two-year contract, Tags: apple, ipad, iSuppli

AutoPagerize Enables Infinite Page Scrolling [Downloads] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:30:00 AM

Firefox/Chrome: If you're tired of clicking through page after page of search results and would

prefer to simply scroll through

the pages on an infinite rotation, AutoPagerize enables endless scrolling. More »

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And The Next Battle Is Apple vs. Google... As Microsoft/Yahoo Fade Off Into The Sunset?

Griffin Technologies announces iPad power and desktop accessories

Mike Masnick (Techdirt)

Steven Sande (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

us to a story of some analyst predicting (based on nothing, Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:41:00 AM really) that Apple may start its Ah, the shifting tech world own search engine. It appears landscape. For the past few that this is pure guesswork, years, the monsters of the tech based on the idea that Apple world were considered to be might not want Google paying Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, close attention to what people in that all three seemed to be are doing on their iPhones... competing in the same arena. especially as it builds up its own However, with Yahoo stumbling mobile device business. and Microsoft still failing to get While plenty of virtual ink has much traction in the online b e e n s p i l l e d o v e r t h e world (yes, a bit more than in Google/Apple device battles, the past, but not enough to be could they be approaching a interesting), everyone's looking bigger online battle as well? It's for a new fight. Slashdot points certainly not outside the realm

of possibility -- and given its control over the devices it sells, perhaps it could get a pretty good starting position with a search engine. Still, it does seem like a bit of a reach for Steve Jobs and company. At this point, it seems more like some analyst just looking for a more interest "Google vs." prediction than anything serious at this point. Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

Griffin says that the dock connector is accessible regardless of how the iPad is Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:00:00 AM oriented. When you're done, the Filed under: iPad A-Frame Tabletop Stand folds Today, Griffin Technologies flat for easy travel. It's also announced a family of new possible to use the stand in the products that are sure to make folded position to help support iPad owners happy. the iPad when it's on a table or For those of you who don't other flat surface. want to purchase the Apple TUAW Griffin Technologies Keyboard Dock or the "regular announces iPad power and dock," Griffin has developed the desktop accessories originally A-Frame T a b l e t o p appeared on The Unofficial Stand(US$49.99, see photo Apple Weblog (TUAW) on above). This is a folding Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:00:00 aluminum stand with a soft EST. Please see our terms for silicone cradle in the bottom. use of feeds. The iPad sits contentedly in the Read| Permalink| Email this| cradle in either portrait or Comments landscape orientation, and

Area Moth Tired of Flying [Open Caption] Richard Lawson (Gawker)

[ Sarah Jessica Parker getting into a Prius outside her house;

image via Bauer-Griffin] More Âť

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TUAW Exclusive: Element Case launches the Joule, a luxury iPad stand Victor Agreda, Jr. (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:30:00 AM

Filed under: iPad We covered the iPhone cases from Element Case a couple of years ago, and I was impressed with their build quality and design. Now they've released a beautiful aluminum stand called the Joule for the iPad. As you can see from the gallery, the Joule is simplicity itself: a machined and polished cylinder of aluminum with a leg

in the back for stabilization. There are three holes to customize the angle of tilt on the iPad and the device itself rests in a velvet-lined groove. We've got a review unit on the way and we'll be giving some away soon, so stay tuned for that. You can also have the Joule in polished aluminum (seen above) or anodized black, plus they'll zap your logo or almost whatever on the thing with a laser -- for a fee. Meanwhile, you can buy a Joule here for $129. The first

Element Case launches the Joule, a luxury iPad stand originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments 100 TUAW readers to order with a promo code can purchase the Joule for $99. The promo code is: TUAWJ1 Check back for a full review

Apple releases new iPhone Ad: "Concert" Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Him. At this point, the girl -who, keep in mind, has only heard one song -- downloads the entire album, plays a single Submitted at 4/7/2010 9:00:00 AM Filed under: iPhone song, and decides to buy concert Following l a s t tickets when the Local Concerts week's"Commute" iPhone ad, app [ free] pops up to tell her Apple has released a new that the band is playing in her iPhone ad called "Concert." town. Talk about impulse Sticking with the "everyday buying! The commercial ends use" theme, the ad tells the story with her saying, "I still don't of a girl who hears a song on the know how my iPhone does all radio. She uses Shazam[ free] that." on her iPhone to identify the Lady, if you buy everything song as "In the Sun" by She & that impulsively, I still don't

Accessories File Shops eBay ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs)

Givenchy Sandals

know how you have any money left in your bank account. TUAW Apple releases new iPhone Ad: "Concert" originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

and the giveaway early next week. Until then, enjoy the gallery. Gallery: iPad stand - Joule TUAW TUAW Exclusive:

Intel Realizes No One Is Going To Confuse A Newsletter About Mexico With Its Processors Mike Masnick (Techdirt) Submitted at 4/6/2010 10:46:00 PM

Last year, we wrote about Intel's trademark lawyers getting over aggressive in suing the owners of the Mexico Watch newsletter for using the domain name LatinIntel.com In this case, it was clear that "intel" was the commonly abbreviated version of "intelligence," and no one was going to be confused and think that a newsletter about

Mexico had anything to do with a company making microprocessors. For whatever reason, it appears that common sense has finally prevailed, and we've been alerted to the fact that Intel has dropped its lawsuit: Of course, a simpler course of action would have been to have not sued in the first place... Permalink| Comments| Email This Story

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McCain Backs Fiorina in Calif. Senate Race (Newsmax - Politics)

awkwardness, saying Fiorina's business acumen is just what America needs. She is running I n t h e h e a t o f t h e 2 0 0 8 in the Republican primary for presidential race, Carly Fiorina the right to challenge incumbent made a splash when she opined Sen. Barbara Boxer. that neither John McCain nor McCain made note of Fiorina's Sarah Palin — both fellow occasional abruptness, saying Republicans — or their s h e w o u l d s h a k e u p Democratic rivals could run a W a s h i n g t o n . major corporation. "Carly will not be voted Miss On Tuesday, it was the Arizona Congeniality," he said, speaking senator's turn to speak about at an employee town hall held at Fiorina's qualifications. It Affinity Medical Technologies worked out much better for her. in Irvine. McCain called Fiorina, who McCain, who lost in California Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) very affordable prices. served as a top economic by 24 percentage points, is The default view, however, still Submitted at 4/7/2010 1:30:08 AM only shows a hundred albums. If adviser to him during his facing a tough re-election battle Here’s a nice little update for you have more and want to see presidential bid, inspiring and a of his own back in Arizona. He's among about a dozen Picasa Web Albums users – the rest, click on either “show great American success story. Google has upped the previous more albums” or “show all "I think she is eminently senators who donated to her limit of 1,000 albums per albums” at the bottom of your qualified to serve in the United campaign early-on through their account to 10,000. When it page. Reviews: Gmail, Google, States Senate," he said, citing political action committees. her experience running a major Other backers include most of comes to storage space for your Google Docs the GOP leadership in the photos, it’s the same (7.76 GB, Tags: Google, Photos, picasa, business. Fiorina, the former chief Senate, such as Senate Minority shared between Gmail, Google Picasa Web Albums executive at Hewlett-Packard, Leader Mitch McConnell, RDocs, and Picasa Web Albums), played a much less visible role Ky., and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. but you can still buy more at to McCain after her comment The individual donations came about his CEO credentials. as the National Republican M c C a i n a v o i d e d s i m i l a r Senatorial Committee said it Submitted at 4/6/2010 4:20:17 PM

Picasa Web Albums Now Lets You Have 10,000 Albums

would be neutral in the race, which also features former Congressman Tom Campbell and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore. DeVore spokesman Joshua Trevino said the visit demonstrates a tone deafness to the lack of nostalgia for the McCain presidential campaign among California Republicans. Given what happened with Fiorina's CEO comment, Trevino said "McCain's act today was a deeply charitable one." —— Freking reported from Washington D.C. © 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.

Apple's Suggestions for Fixing iPad Wi-Fi Issues [Wi-Fi] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)

because they're finding Wi-Fi connections buggy and unreliable. Apple suggests at a Some folks aren't having quite KnowledgeBase support page the honeymoon with their barely that the issue might involve dual - s m u d g e d i P a d a s o t h e r s , -band routers that can set up Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:00:00 AM

separate networks for each

frequency range, but keep the same names or have separate security protocols. Apple suggests giving those bands their own name, as in adding "G" and "N" to those respective

connections, ensuring they use the same security, and, if all else fails, resetting your iPad's network settings. [ Apple via Gizmodo] More »

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The READ: Pound Them Keyboards! Ruth Franklin (The New Republic - All Feed)

governed less by inherent, empirical attributes of a work than by the personality and Submitted at 4/6/2010 9:00:00 PM intellect of its assessor. But this What does it mean when two view overlooks the niggling fact critics—both reasonable, t h a t f e w o f u s , w h e n educated people, well-versed in encountering an opinion of a the artistic genre they have w o r k o f a r t d i a m e t r i c a l l y made their focus—come to o p p o s e d t o o u r o w n , a r e drastically different conclusions magnanimous enough to declare about a work of art? The Times the merits of both positions and asked this question last week call it a draw. No: we believe after publishing two conflicting t h a t o u r p o s i t i o n i s reviews of Come Fly Away, right—otherwise why would we Twyla Tharp’s new Broadway have argued for it in the first production of dances set to place?—and the other side is Frank Sinatra songs. Charles wrong. Isherwood, a theater critic for But this is rarely admitted in the paper, exulted in the show’s polite company. Certainly dazzling “ pyrotechnics,” seeing Isherwood and Macaulay, who i t s ( a d m i t t e d l y g e n e r i c ) continued at it for a few rounds characters as archetypes of on the Times ArtsBeat blog, romantic desire. The dance critic made no attempt to resolve their Alastair Macaulay, on the other d i s p u t e . A p a r t f r o m t h e hand, found the dances “ less essentials, there is almost sensational t h a n nothing about the show the two sensationalistic,” bemoaned the critics agree on. Isherwood lack of chemistry between the a r g u e s t h a t T h a r p , dancers, and finally deemed the choreographing for Broadway, entire production “shallow.” needed to “consider the T h e d u e l i n g - o p i n i o n s perceptions of audiences who phenomenon isn’t limited to the are not necessarily sophisticated professionals: we’ve all viewers of dance,” and encountered reviews in which continues: “If [the show] seeks the critic seems to have read an to entertain rather than show off entirely different book or seen a Ms. Tharp’s gifts at their most different film than the one we s u b t l e , t h a t ’ s o n l y t o b e loved (or deplored). Is it true, as expected.” Macaulay shoots the proverb goes, that in matters back that venue has nothing to of taste there can be no dispute? do with judgment. “We’re Since Kant, at least, judgments critics: our first task is not to of taste have been understood to determine what big-theater b e p r i m a r i l y s u b j e c t i v e , audiences will like but what we

think is good and why,” he writes. Isherwood argues that the show, set in a nightclub, isn’t supposed to be about intimacy (which Macaulay failed to find in it), but rather about “the performative aspects of romantic attachment, the roles that men and women play when they are courting each other in public … the pas de deux as a public mating dance.” Macaulay agrees, but finds the dancers’ gestures vulgar and their performances unabsorbing. They can’t even agree on the musical arrangement, in which Sinatra’s recorded vocals are accompanied by a live band: Isherwood calls this “a daring choice that works disarmingly well,” Macaulay finds it “bizarre and exploitative.” The strangest thing about these disputes is that it’s often the very same attributes of a work that appeal to one person that offend the other. I discovered this myself when I was in the dueling-critics box a few years ago, when Janet Maslin published a condescending pan of Charles Bock’s novel Beautiful Children, one of my favorite books of the last few years, and then a rave of James Frey’s Bright Shiny Morning, which I couldn’t stand. In Frey’s book, she saw a “captivating urban kaleidoscope”; I found it stereotyped and cliché-ridden. Bock’s novel, on the other hand, I found gorgeously written and

structured, its characters tenderly and originally drawn. Maslin thought it struggled for dramatic momentum and judged it “covertly mundane” and ultimately “pointless.” I might point out smugly that the market, as well as critical consensus, turned out to be on my side: Bock’s book did well for a first novel, Frey’s was an atrocious flop. But a book that’s initially rejected by either readers or critics can live a long second life as an acknowledged masterpiece, as novels as different as Call It Sleep and Lolita remind us. The works that make people violently disagree are often the ones that push the boundaries of a genre in one way or another. Boundary-pushing, obviously, is no guarantee of greatness: Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones, beloved and prizebedecked in France and almost universally hated elsewhere (including by me), is the best recent example. But historically, it’s happened over and over that the critics who fail to see the merit in an unconventional artistic form—who found Impressionism vulgar or judged Lady Chatterley’s Lover as pornography—turn out to have been wrong, no quotation marks required. They were too smallminded, too bound within their own parameters, to be capable of a new way of understanding art. So why, faced with a dispute

like Isherwood and Macaulay’s, do we continue to insist that critical judgment is arbitrary, to pretend disingenuously that there is no such thing as right and wrong, good taste and bad? To acknowledge the subjectivity of our judgments is not to imply that they are all equally valid. I know that when I see a review by a critic whose opinion differs sharply from mine, my first instinct isn’t to throw up my hands and remind myself that taste is relative. It’s to wonder if I was wrong—if I overlooked something great or something terrible, if a misreading or misunderstanding set my mind off on a tangent the writer never intended, if I was too generous in disregarding flaws because I found the writer’s worldview so sympathetic or was dazzled by the skill of his or her writing. (Will a future generation judge me as a philistine for failing to appreciate Littell, or as a maverick for championing writers like Bock and David Mitchell?) And similarly, when I’ve discovered something in another critic’s writing that strikes me as a blatant misreading or misunderstanding, it casts a pall over the rest of that person’s work for me. I will have to be persuaded to trust him or her again. Macaulay and Isherwood ended their dispute in the way such READ: page 46

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Flanking the Right on Nuclear Policy contributors@theatlantic.com (Marc Ambinder) (Politics :: The Atlantic)

that is required by law at the time the START follow-on agreement is submitted to the Senate. This plan must bring our Submitted at 4/6/2010 4:32:46 PM Ponder the highlights of the nuclear weapons complex, our Nuclear Posture Review, and warheads, and our nuclear you can't help but wonder: is weapons delivery systems up to t h e r e a l l t h a t m u c h t h a t 21st century standards. The Republicans can complain NPR appears to make it more about? Obama embraces the difficult to use the 'spectrum of concept of missile defense as a options' (i.e., refurbishment, deterrent against aggression in r e u s e , a n d r e p l a c e m e n t ) Europe (albeit as a way of recommended by the Perryreducing the reliance on nuclear Schlesinger Commission to weapons as a deterrent); his enhance the reliability of the b u d g e t s p e n d s b i l l i o n s t o U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. modernize the nuclear stockpile; We expect the Administration he did not significantly change will not take any option off the America's so-called "declaratory table to ensure the military and policy" about when it will use the directors of the national nukes, and he resisted pressure laboratories are able to maintain from his left to make any bold t h e s a f e t y , s e c u r i t y a n d unilateral concessions. reliability of the current D u r i n g t h e p r e s i d e n t i a l stockpile. We will evaluate this campaign, Senators McCain and carefully in the coming weeks, Obama were of one mind on including when we see the nuclear policy: both supported a modernization plan required by START follow-on treaty with law at the time the START Russia, and both supported follow-on treaty is submitted to S e n a t e r a t i f i c a t i o n o f t h e the Senate. Comprehensive Nuclear Test- Actually, the Obama NPR does Ban Treaty. the opposite. Even though Why does McCain matter? He Obama has declared the sojointly issued a statement with called "Reliable Replacement the Senate's hawkiest nuclear Warhead" program dead, his hawk, Sen. Jon Kyl, that tries to NPR resurrects it as an option. find objections to Obama's Each weapons system and Nuclear Posture Review. warhead will be evaluated One by one, here is what individually and a solution that McCain and Kyl have to say: draws from one of the three "First, we are concerned about options -- refurbishment, reuse how the NPR will affect the or replacement -- will be nuclear modernization program utilized.

Thomas D'Agostino, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration and keeper of the nation's weapons, said that the "replacement" option would not include new warhead designs, warheads that would support new missions or provide enhanced military capabilities. But that's status quo ante; the Senate wouldn't fund any program that did that. In fact, Obama's NPR makes it possible for the one design that was approved under the nowdead "RRW" program to be utilized in the future, provided that they don't enhance the productivity of a weapon. The RRW program isn't being revived, but the administration is giving weapons scientists a significant degree of leeway -far more than Republicans would have expected, though quite in keeping with the overall political objectives of the administration: get START and the test-ban treaty ratified. (They won't have the votes unless Congress is convinced that the deterrents we have now are credible -- that is, the weapons we have now are able to be used for their missions.) Objection two: "Moreover, the amount of money committed to this in the FY11-15 budget window - the $5 billion budget transfer referenced by Defense Secretary Gates, spread over five years is woefully inadequate to bring

our Manhattan Project-era facilities up to date and do the work necessary to enhance the reliability and extend the life of our warheads, all while maintaining the current stockpile. This funding insufficiency must be corrected. This is spurious. No one would have anticipated that the administration would be spending a billion dollars a year to modernize its stockpile. The folks who actually do this stuff requested more money, and they got it -- a lot more. "Second, the U.S. has had a longstanding policy, embraced by administrations of both parties, of retaining all options to respond to an attack on it or its allies by any state using weapons of mass destruction. In fact, one reason that we got rid of chemical and biological weapons is that we were told that we would always have the nuclear deterrent available. Unfortunately, the NPR released today confuses this longstanding policy. The Obama Administration must clarify that we will take no option off the table to deter attacks against the American people and our allies. The administration explicitly retains the right to put the nuclear option back on the table if a non-nuclear country violates its treaty obligations, or it stands up its conventional, biological or chemical weapon capacities in such a way as to

threaten the U.S. and its allies. The NPR contains that selfexonerating flip. The nuclear option remains on the table. "Third, the NPR states 'today's most immediate and extreme danger is nuclear terrorism. Today's other pressing threat is nuclear proliferation.' We believe that preventing nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation should begin by directly confronting the two leading proliferators and supporters of terrorism, Iran and North Korea. The Obama Administration's policies, thus far, have failed to do that and this failure has sent exactly the wrong message to other would be proliferators and supporters of terrorism." Number one, North Korea does not support nuclear terrorism. A minor point, but a distinction that matters. (It does support proliferation.) Number two, the administration is convening a summit next of 47 nations who will work on precisely this problem. The NPR's reliance on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is predicated on strengthening the NPT's penalties for non-compliant states. Number three, it is actively pressing China and Russia to support sanctions against Iran and hasn't ruled out imposing tougher sanctions with Europe alone (whatever that FLANKING page 44

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Losing the Stomach for Humanitarian Interventions (AEI.Org: Articles)

Afghanistan under the NATO banner almost unanimously, and many backed military action in Over the last two decades the Iraq in 2003 as well. United States has intervened The Iraq war was justified militarily in several countries to u n d e r t h e t e r m s o f U . N . protect human rights. Now, resolutions 678, 687 and 1441. writes historian Mark Mazower U n f o r t u n a t e l y B u s h , i n in World Affairs, "The concept deference to Tony Blair, sought of humanitarian intervention is another U.N. resolution and dying if not dead." And a good never made the point that it was thing too, he concludes. legally unnecessary. But when On the first point Mazower things turned sour, liberals seems factually correct. After scampered away amid cries that the fall of the Berlin wall, "Bush lied." liberals appalled by violations of As Mazower notes, there's a h u m a n r i g h t s c a l l e d f o r tension between humanitarian i n t e r v e n t i o n i n S o m a l i a , intervention and traditional state Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina sovereignty. After Iraq, liberals and Kosovo. They preferred to showed, in Mazower's words, "a operate through international new maturity in international institutions, regarding the relations" by upholding "the United States as morally stability of international suspect, but it became clear that borders" rather than intervening we were, as Madeleine Albright to uphold human rights. said, "the indispensable nation." This seems to be the view of Intervention fizzled in Somalia Barack Obama, whose foreign when the United States policy has shown a cold withdrew in 1993, and Bill indifference to human rights that Clinton to his later regret stayed contrasts vividly with those of out of Rwanda. The feckless his five predecessors. "Clear European intervention in Bosnia legal norms, and the securing of and Kosovo succeeded only international stability more after the United States took generally, also serve the cause c h a r g e i n 1 9 9 5 . L i b e r a l s of human welfare," Mazower supported military action in a s s e r t s . I f w e j u s t u s e d Submitted at 4/6/2010 4:00:00 PM

international institutions in a more sophisticated manner we could advance liberal goals effectively. Not so, says the Council on Foreign Relations' Walter Russell Mead, in his American Interest blog. Mazower writes European history, but the international institutions set up by Europeans and Americans in the mid-20th century in response to the horrors of two world wars are not, Mead argues, appropriate to the different world of the 21st century. "Europeans and Americans both find the Kantian vision of a bureaucratic world state incorporating basic European cultural ideas about states and laws very natural," Mead writes. But others--East Asians, South Asians, Middle Easterners, Latin Americans--don't. They bridle at International Monetary Fund restraints and conduct their affairs so as to be independent of it. They have blocked agreement in the Doha trade talks. They create their own regional economic institutions--Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Mercosur--that may resemble

the European Union but also declare their independence of it. They bridle at outside interference, as India did when Obama agreed to recognize as legitimate China's interest in South Asian affairs. Moreover, the economic interests of the rapidly growing nations of what we once called the Third World are in conflict with the slow-growth environmental policies of Europe and North America. This was made clear, Mead points out, at last year's Copenhagen summit that was supposed to produce a binding treaty pledging to reduce carbon emissions. Obama, on his second unsuccessful trip to Copenhagen in one year, managed to stitch together a deal with Brazil, China, India and South Africa that amounted to kicking the can down the road. "The processloving, Kantian Europeans," Mead writes, "weren't even in the room." What now? "Rather than chasing liberal internationalist mirages," Mead says, "we should focus on what we want and need, think about how we can get as much of it as possible

at the best price--and go for it in the most efficient way possible." That sounds a lot like George W. Bush's "coalition of the willing." Unfortunately, the Obama approach of kicking our friends and groveling to the unfriendly heads us in the wrong direction. Our relations with India, Japan and the Eastern European democracies are distinctly chillier than they were under Bush. Our outstretched hand to Iran still meets a clenched fist. All of which certainly makes humanitarian intervention unlikely in the near future. Historians of Europe may consider a chastened and unventuresome America a good thing. Victims of oppression with no aid in sight may take a different view. Michael Barone is a resident fellow at AEI. Photo Credit: Flickr user _fLeMmA_/Creative Commons Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Video: Crysis 2 debuts in Times Square Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear)

Pedestrians in Times Square were treated to the debut trailer of Crysis 2, the next game from

Crytek (and publisher EA) that console version. There’s a will bring your PC to its knees. countdown timer on some sort Well, unless you’re playing the of Web site, wonder what that

means…

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Republicans Grit Their Teeth And Bear It contributors@theatlantic.com (Marc Ambinder) (Politics :: The Atlantic)

says they can raise more if they need to. The NRSC and NRCC have plenty of money; Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie are Submitted at 4/7/2010 5:29:00 AM Tuesday's resignation of RNC raising at least $30 million to member Sean Mahoney was fund a 527 political propitious timing for the wouldorganization. Other outside be congressional candidate: groups are in the works. Major ahead a of midterm election state parties are doing really where anger at the powers that well on their own, including be inside the Republican Party is Michigan, California, Ohio. high, what better way to protest The RNC as a committee is the shenanigans of chairman of forces: long-time RNC field for McKay's firing, but the fact morning, it announced an $11.4 weak and divided. There is no Michael Steele? operative and consultant Blaize that Anderson left with him million fundraising month. It's alternative candidate or party But Mahoney should look in Hazelwood, party strategist Curt suggests that management debt-free, and has about $11m chair waiting in the wings. And the mirror. He was a steadfast Anderson and Ken McKay, an p r o b l e m s w e r e d e e p e r . cash on hand. That's less than the party is right in the middle support of Steele's. The reason outsider Anderson recruited to Hazelwood knows how to run normal, but Steele hopes to have of a campaign, with weeks away why Steele was elected by the serve as chief of staff. campaigns but isn't widely about $30 million in reserves to from the start of the primary membership was because he That management structure did liked, is now firmly in charge, spend on the fall elections. season. A leadership race right was to be the public voice of a n o t w o r k . A n d e r s o n a n d for now. Feelers to other (Democrats continue to outraise n o w w o u l d d i s t r a c t t i m e , party transitioning to a new Hazelwood were often at odds, potential chiefs of staff have so Republicans, thanks to the resources and money. It's not in generation, a new way of leaving decisions unmade. far been rebuffed. Who would fundraising allure of President the cards. thinking. Steele sold himself as Steele, amiable enough, didn't want the job? Obama and Vice President Steele might be in real trouble someone who would vigorously f i n d a c o r e t e a m o f The biggest thing the RNC does Biden.) in the period from November argue the case of the Republican communication professionals to is in an election year is become The real question to ask when through January -- when the Party in public and effectively tend to his public image. Alex a conduit to flow money and pondering Steele's future is to presidential candidates decide represent his brand. Turns out, Castellanos, an informal unpaid resources to targeted races. But ask House Minority Leader John whether he is a liability or a though, that Steele isn't as good consultant, publicly signaled his there are ways around that -- B o e h n e r , S e n a t e M a j o r i t y distraction. Such a decision o f a c o m m u n i c a t o r a s h e d i s p l e a s u r e w i t h S t e e l e much like the Democratic Leader Mitch McConnell and w o u l d l i k e l y b e m a d e thought... that no one is in the yesterday. Then again, it's c o n g r e s s i o n a l c o m m i t t e e s Haley Barbour what they think. collectively -- and a consensus mood to listen to arguments fashionable to scapegoat Steele worked around Howard Dean in It's their perceptions that really candidate would be pre-chosen, about why Republicans are for problems that have less to do 2006. And though the Dems are matter. If they can work around in essence. better than Democrats...that with him and more to do with raising more money, the RNC is the controversy and work Does Michael Steele's big Steele would not be counted on the state of political parties and keeping pace. It's working well around the RNC, they will. If mouth and these financial to discipline himself like RNC t h e m o o d o f R e p u b l i c a n s with state parties, sharing they can't, they'll move to force hiccups -- really, $2000 at a leaders in the past. Steele wasn't t h e m s e l v e s . targeting data with campaigns, Steele out -- very quickly. So strip club is a hiccup -- threaten elected to manage the party -Bondage-gate -- a $2000 keeping research files on the far, it's not a problem. The the party's political future? Not the party basically manages charge that represents spare 2012 Democrats -- doing the R e p u b l i c a n G o v e r n o r s more so than if Steele resigned itself. change to the committee -- may sort of things that modern Association has more money or was forced out. The daily operation of the have been the proximate cause political parties do. Just this than it's ever had, and Barbour committee was run by a trifecta

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The Monster-Victim Mix-Up (AEI.Org: Articles)

the night or beasts in the closet-particularly when that means I have to spend half the night with I've seen How to Train Your a terrified kid in my bed. Dragon twice. My daughter But monsters once served an loves it (the lead dragon reminds important purpose. The word's us of her cat). And I think it's Latin and French roots mean a pretty great too. (Note: Some grave warning or omen. Monster pretty obvious spoilers heading stories once told us that evil your way.) exists and that we shouldn't Perhaps I'm mellowing in my assume all motives are good and middle years, but I don't much kind. m i n d w h a t E n t e r t a i n m e n t Sure, kids today are taught to Weekly calls the movie's "layer yell "Stranger danger!" or some of age-of-terror allegory about such when approached at the the ignorance bred by jingoism." mall, but you won't find that sort This refers to the fact that the of lesson in popular children's Vikings in the film have been books and cartoons. And, let the raised for seven generations to record show, some of those kill dragons: "It's what we do." strangers really are a horrific, But the hero, Hiccup, an soul-sickening danger and not alienated, smart-mouthed teen, merely misunderstood. discovers that dragons are It was no trivial decision to actually inclined to be lovable, populate Sesame Street with sweet-tempered companions, if cuddly "monsters." Even Oscar only his fellow Vikings could the Grouch is really just a softy. g e t o v e r t h e i r s t u b b o r n And a few years ago, they ignorance and prejudice and rewrote Cookie Monster's telos; give the monsters a chance. It's he now says that cookies are all been a misunderstanding, and merely a "sometimes food," in the end, dragons and Vikings c a u s i n g s o m e , i n c l u d i n g learn to love one another. Stephen Colbert, to ask whether My long-standing complaint C o o k i e M o n s t e r h a d against this sort of story--aside "abandoned the pro-cookie from its being a complete cliché agenda." --is that it teaches kids there's no I'm not so nostalgic as to such thing as monsters. No, I'm believe that the world that not keen on telling kids that produced the Grimm fairy tales there are things that go bump in is preferable to that which gave Submitted at 4/6/2010 4:00:00 PM

us Monsters, Inc. But the improvement didn't come without drawbacks. Meanness is no longer innate; it's the unfortunate side effect of being misunderstood, the forgivable self-defense mechanism of victims. For instance, when Hollywood rewrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas for the live-action movie with Jim Carrey, the refrain "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch" no longer really applied. Instead of having "termites in his smile" and "garlic in his soul," the Grinch was actually the victim of closed -minded Whovillians. His transformation into Christmas hero isn't so much a powerful metamorphosis as it is a moral victory against the bullies. Psychological explanations for why there are bad people have their place. What bothers me is the tendency to explain away the objectively evil as merely misunderstood and the misunderstood as objectively evil. We all sympathize with Tony Soprano, even though he's a brutal murderer. Hannibal Lecter, it turns out, was a victim of the Nazis. In the real world, how many times have we heard the motives of terrorists explained away as the regrettable but rational

responses of victims? Meanwhile, merely disagreeing over gay marriage or health-care reform is a damning, selfdehumanizing act. Without trying to keep score in terms of political rhetoric, surely we can all agree that there's a tendency to assume the other side is not only wrong, but has knowingly embraced evil motives. Back in Hollywood, the least sympathetic people are often not true villains but merely "judgmental" people who refuse to understand the misunderstood on their own terms. Which brings us back to How to Train Your Dragon. My daughter would have liked it less, but a refreshing and more realistic ending would have had the Vikings enlisting their new, fire-breathing pets in a massive invasion of Europe, laying waste to all they saw and bringing the hated Christians to heel. Because that's really what Vikings do. Jonah Goldberg is a visiting fellow at AEI. Photo Credit: Flickr user Gianni D./Creative Commons Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Sen. Specter Trails in Latest Poll (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 4/7/2010 2:07:32 AM

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Penn., is trailing in the latest Pennsylvania Senate poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, according to a report in The Hill. The survey included the following results: • The Republican candidate, former Rep. Pat Toomey (Pa.), beats both Specter and Specter's primary opponent, Rep. Joe Sestak (D), in a general election matchup. • Toomey beats Specter by three, 46-43, and he beats Sestak by six, 42-36. • Specter's job rating garnered only a 34 percent approval rating -- and a 52 percent disapproval rating. • In the bigger picture, President Barack Obama has a 46 percent approval rating and 50 percent disapproval rating. To read the full story in The Hill Go Here Now. © All Rights Reserved. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Wash. Man Charged With Threatening Sen. Murray (Newsmax - Politics)

statement. Agents said they traced the calls to Wilson's home in Selah, near Yakima. A Washington state man has Wilson has a .38-caliber been charged with threatening to revolver registered to him and kill Democratic Sen. Patty has a concealed weapons permit, Murray over her support for Woodbury wrote. health care reform, leaving To confirm Wilson was the voicemail messages at her office caller, one agent telephoned him saying she had a target on her and posed as a member of a back and "it only takes one group working to repeal the piece of lead." health care legislation, the Federal agents arrested Charles statement said. Alan Wilson, 63, without According to an excerpt of the incident in Yakima, Wash., on conversation, Wilson confirmed Tuesday. he repeatedly called Murray as Murray's office in Seattle well as Washington's other reported the threats amid a rash Democratic senator, Maria of ugliness aimed at lawmakers Cantwell. He then stated: "I do who supported the sweeping pack, and I will not blink when federal health care legislation. I'm confronted. ... It's not a Some lawmakers have been spit threat, it's a guarantee." on and several have reported Murray's office told the FBI it receiving threatening calls. had been receiving harassing FBI spokesman Bill Carter said messages from the caller for Wilson is believed to be the first months, but they became more person in the country arrested threatening as Congress was for such threats. voting on the health care The messages to Murray were legislation. left on voicemail from a blocked "There's a target on your back telephone number, FBI Special now," said one message on Agent Carolyn W. Woodbury March 22. "It only takes one wrote in a probable cause p i e c e o f l e a d . K i l l t h e Submitted at 4/7/2010 1:25:21 AM

(expletive) senator! ... Now that you've passed your health-care bill, let the violence begin." In other rambling messages over the next several days, the caller said, "I hope somebody puts a (expletive) bullet between your (expletive) eyes," and "I do believe that every one of you (expletive) socialist democratic progressive (expletive) need to be taken out." And, he said, "I want to (expletive) kill you." Wilson made an initial appearance at federal court in Yakima on Tuesday on one count of threatening a federal official. He was appointed a public defender for the hearing and ordered to be kept in custody pending a detention hearing set for Friday. His sister, Helen Evans, 60, of Yakima, attended the hearing and said her brother had no history of making threats. She last saw him a couple of weeks ago, she said, and they spoke about snowmobiling. "Obviously my brother crossed over a line, if this is true," she said. "But also, what can I

FLANKING continued from page 40

would accomplish). Number four, "directly confronting" means -- what, exactly? War? Say it aloud, senators, if that's what you intend. Whether the administration should have taken a tougher position against Iran, in particular, is a legitimate point of debate. But it has nothing, really, to do with what the NPR says now -- which would very much seem to imply that nothing but hard positions will be taken by the administration in the future.

believe when I read it? I'm not going to judge or make any assessments until I talk to him." Murray declined to comment on the case but told reporters outside an event in Seattle on Tuesday that she feels safe. "Health care reform and health care is very personal," Murray said. "As gradually this goes into effect, people will start to say, 'Wow, I didn't know that was going to help me.' Even those who are opposed and angry today, this bill helps them." —— AP writer Devlin Barrett contributed from Washington, D.C.; Shannon Dininny contributed from Yakima; and Manuel Valdes contributed from Seattle. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Five Filters featured article: Blogs) Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:13:04 AM PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Isabel Marant Sandals Term Extraction.

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Windows 7 SP1 Beta Hits the Torrents [Beta Beat] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/7/2010 8:00:00 AM

As the seasons change, the sun

rises and sets, so, too, do supposedly private Microsoft betas reach the wider internet. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is comprised mainly of small bug

fixes and an improved Remote Desktop client, but if you're the type who hates to wait, you can find it on the usual torrent

search suspects. [ GeekSmack via Download Squad] More »

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The Death of Net Neutrality? contributors@theatlantic.com (Chris Good) (Politics :: The Atlantic)

existential threat. If the FCC can't tell Internet Service Providers not to treat different sources of traffic differently, Submitted at 4/6/2010 3:15:50 PM The U.S. Court of Appeals for this would free ISPs to treat DC has dealt a blow to net traffic according to their own, neutrality, as a concept: it has profit-driven liking, removing r u l e d a g a i n s t t h e F e d e r a l some of the government's power Communications Commission over the Internet. And implicit in its legal battle with Comcast, in support for net neutrality is an essentially setting the precedent idea that government should be that Internet providers can able to control the Internet for differentiate between different the public good, because the kinds of traffic, restricting or Internet is so vital to everyone. charging more for heavier use of President Obama pledged his popular, media-rich sites (e.g., support for net neutrality as a Hulu and YouTube) that occupy p r e s i d e n t i a l c a n d i d a t e ; more bandwidth. Republican senators voiced Net neutrality has occupied a o p p o s i t i o n to the vague space in the popular administration's ideas about net discourse--the term itself is so n e u t r a l i t y w h e n O b a m a abstract that a lot of people don't appointed a net neutrality seem to know what it is. It's the supporter as chairman of the idea that traffic should be FCC. treated the same--and today's Given how vital the Internet decision appears to pose an really is to everyone, and that

net neutrality involves a burgeoning intersection of government, law, and ubiquitous technology that dominates how many of us live our lives, this smells like a drama that will play out either in the Supreme Court or in Congress, where lobbyists who have been working on net neutrality issues will be unleashed in full on the poor souls of the House Energy and Commerce Committee if it ever looks like the political will to confront net neutrality head on has been worked up. I am no expert on net neutrality, but some people are. The Atlantic Wire's John Hudson has reactions from some informed voices, as the fallout of the court's ruling is being debated around the Web.

Learn Basic Kitchen Techniques from World Famous Chefs [Video Demonstration] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:05:00 AM

Culinary vagabond and author Anthony Bourdain mixed up his No Reservations travel show this week by not traveling

anywhere. Instead, he invited his fairly well-known chef

friends to demonstrate deboning chicken, making omelettes, and other kitchen basics. It is world-class food porn. More Âť

Obama Calls Coach K contributors@theatlantic.com (Chris Good) (Politics :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/6/2010 2:50:28 PM

The White House just announced: This afternoon, President Obama called Duke University men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski to congratulate him and his team on their championship and to invite them to the White House. The President also spoke to members of the Butler University team and their coach Brad Stevens. He told them they played a great game, showed tremendous heart, and he hopes to get a chance to play with them. Well this could have been awkward. One of Coach K's former players, Reggie Love, works as President Obama's personal assistant these days, but nonetheless the coach and the president got into a mild spat last year over Obama's NCAA

bracket. After Obama picked North Carolina to win the '09 tournament (which the Tar Heels did), Krzyzerski retorted, "Somebody said that we're not in President Obama's Final Four, and as much as I respect what he's doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets." Obama brushed off the criticism in a radio interview: "Look, you know, he's a competitive guy. I just don't think they've got the inside game to go all the way, but I look forward to him proving me wrong," Obama told Ed Schultz. (Coach K is a Republican; he took some heat for holding a fundraiser for Elizabeth Dole's Senate campaign in a University -affiliated hotel just off campus in 2002.)

Politics/ Tech News/

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disputes always seem to end: by convivially inviting each other out for drinks in a show of collegiality that seemed, frankly, a bit forced—a Broadway beer summit. Granted, the stakes weren’t that high: they disagreed over a show that combined the rumba with “My Way.” But a taste judgment, after all, is a kind of value judgment, even if we can’t always articulate those values exactly. What we like reveals something about the sort of person we are. And a serious critic takes his judgments seriously, as Macaulay’s side of

the discussion demonstrates particularly well. Different works require different kinds of judgments, he allows, but “there are larger criteria—truth, beauty, humanity—that we do apply all the time, even though … we may use them or recognize them differently.” A critic whom I know and respect, avowing his admiration for a particular author, once told me that a person who couldn’t appreciate this man’s work was a person he wouldn’t want to have as his friend. Just to be on the safe side—I admire this man, but our opinions of books

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Liberal Activist Challenges Brown in CA Gov's Race

rarely match—I never read the book he was so passionately recommending. Ruth Franklin is a senior editor of The New Republic. For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on (Newsmax - Politics) Submitted at 4/6/2010 4:12:36 PM Twitter. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: A founder of the liberal activist PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, group MoveOn.org says he will challenge Democrat Jerry Term Extraction. Brown for the party's nomination for governor. Peter Schurman says Brown isn't being bold enough in his plans to fix California. Brown is a former governor who is now the state's attorney general. He faces no other serious challengers in the June Democratic primary. (AEI.Org: Articles) that because the FDIC can Federal Reserve. Republican candidate Meg handle the closure of small This full article is available Whitman has spent $46 million Submitted at 4/6/2010 4:00:00 PM banks it is equipped to take over from the Wall Street Journal. so far, while Brown has made There are many reasons to and close a giant, nonbank Peter J. Wallison is the Arthur s o m e D e m o c r a t s n e r v o u s oppose Sen. Chris Dodd's (D., financial firm like a Lehman F. Burns Fellow in Financial b e c a u s e h e h a s b a r e l y Conn.) financial regulation bill. Brothers or an AIG. Policy Studies at AEI. David The simplest and clearest is that Consider first that the largest Skeel is a law professor at the t h e F D I C i s c o m p l e t e l y bank the FDIC closed in the University of Pennsylvania. unequipped by experience to recent financial crisis, IndyMac, P h o t o C r e d i t : handle the failure of a giant had assets of $32 billion. The i S t o c k p h o t o / D N Y 5 9 nonbank financial institution. l a r g e s t b a n k e v e r t o f a i l , Five Filters featured article: The country should be grateful Continental Illinois in 1984, had Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: for the determination with assets of $40 billion. At $639 PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, which the FDIC Chair, Sheila billion, Lehman Brothers was Term Extraction. Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Bair, has thus far guided the nearly 15 times bigger; AIG had Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:30:00 AM agency through the financial over $1 trillion in assets when it crisis. But it is wrong to think was kept from failing by the If you're part of a group or business that uses a blog, wiki, chat software, bug tracking, or other webapps to track progress, Flowdock wants to help you organize all that with a

The Dodd Bill: Bailouts Forever

campaigned. Schurman, who is 40 and lives in San Francisco, announced his candidacy Tuesday. He says the Democratic nominee must take bold stands, such as forcing corporations and the rich to pay their fair share. He supports raising taxes and ending the two-thirds vote requirement to pass budgets. © 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.

Flowdock Streamlines Tasks and Feeds for Group Projects [Webapps]

streamlined look and tag-based organizing. More »

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Farewell, Keyboard - Generation I Will Grow Up on Touchscreens Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb)

to the mobile web, tablets and yes, Apple and their iToys, the computer isn't just a thing The analysts at Gartner must anymore. It's an everything. have been fairly impressed with 160,000 applications and the Apple iPad because their counting in the iTunes App latest research report predicts Store with new iPad apps being that over 50% of the computers added every day. The iPad can purchased for children will have replace any real-world object touchscreens by 2015. In this you own: a book, a music case, Gartner defines children as player, a TV set, a DVD player, those under the age of 15 or, as a coloring book, a board game, w e l i k e t o c a l l t h e m , prefer her virtual touchscreen to an artist's canvas, a notepad, a "Generation I." (This is the new, crayons and blank paper. I DJ's turntable, a globe, a map hipper terminology for children wonder about the implications and so on. of the 2000's once dubbed of bedtime stories read on a And for the children being born "Generation Z" or "digital cold, metallic device instead of into this new digital age, it will. natives.") They're the ones born selected from a packed shelf of Whether or not the analysts at into a world where computers favorite books - tangible objects Garnter are right on the money and cellphones are introduced as that can be grasped by little about the percentages and baby toys, where the iPod has hands, objects which have a timeframe in which this occurs always existed and where feeling of permanence in this in addition to their guesstimates everyone they know can be world. Will the child who grows about touchscreen adoption, found on Facebook. And now, it up playing on an iPad still enjoy they're predicting over half of seems, they're going to grow up a family game night of fold-out U.S. schools will specify touch with computers in an entirely boards, plastic pieces and dice? and/or pen input within the next Will she ever learn to shuffle a 5 years - they have at least different way, too. deck of cards? Sponsor pegged this trend accurately. As a new parent myself, I'm When the computer was just a Touch is the future. simultaneously fascinated and screen, keyboard and mouse, it And you, with your clicketyfearful of the way technology remained, for all its usefulness, clackety keyboard and pushhas infiltrated our lives. My four a tool. A means to an end. It was button mouse will be the "old -month-old loves to "color" on something you used at work, a fogie" whining about how you the iPad.(If only I had recorded replacement for pen and ink, a just can't adapt to typing on t h a t ! I c o u l d h a v e m a d e way to communicate with others glass. Discuss Techmeme!) But on the other in far off places, but ultimately, hand, I worry that one day she'll it was just a thing. Now, thanks Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:52:03 AM

Sh*tMyDadSays Moves To StatusNet OpenSource Twitter Clone Mike Melanson (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/7/2010 8:41:39 AM

"Son, no one gives a sh*t about all the things your cell phone does. You didn't invent it, you just bought it. Anybody can do that." Such is the wisdom that the Sh*t My Dad Says Twitter account has been bringing us since last August. The popular feed of quotations from creator Justin Halpern's 74-year-old father just announced, however, that it will be moving its home base to StatusNet. Sponsor StatusNet, the open-source microblogging service that serves as the foundation for identi.ca, announced the launch of the Shit My Dad Says website yesterday afternoon. The site will run on the service's SatusNet Cloud Service, which also powers a community-driven microblog for the Mozille Foundation. According to StatusNet CEO Evan Prodromou, the main point to move a service like SMDS to StatusNet is that the site owner can take control of advertising revenue, while still being able to send out content to other services.

"Other value includes being able to put the site under your own domain, to control the namespace, to control the look and feel, and to associate the site more strongly with other Web properties," said Prodromou this morning in an email. "With StatusNet, a publisher like Justin Halpern can push their updates into multiple channels -Twitter, Facebook, and any PubSubHubbub-enabled service -- but the data has its 'home' at their own site. You may notice, for example, that the latest shitmydadsays posts now say, 'via shitmydadsays.com', with a link." For publishers who use the StatusNet Cloud Service, the single-user option like SMDS is a flat fee charge per month, while others are doing revenue share, Prodromou told us. At the sign-up page we also see an option for a "secure network for your company", which our own Alex Williams detailed early last month. Discuss

Tech News/ Sports/

Verizon, AT&T & Cisco Talk Up Internet of Things Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb)

getting in on the trend. At CTIA, Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior said that by 2013, the Submitted at 4/7/2010 12:05:58 AM number of devices connected to You know that a trend is the Internet will reach 1 trillion ramping up when big companies up from 500 million in 2007. begin to namecheck it. It's According to Warrior, "we're happening now with the Internet heading into the Internet of of Things, a term for when realThings." world objects connect to the Warrior sees high growth in the Internet. Senior executives from Internet of Things. "With more two major U.S. broadband and machine-to-machine telecommunications companies medical monitors." connections and wireless - Verizon and AT&T - plus the AT&T have also been making sensors everywhere," she said, CTO of the world's biggest noises about the Internet of "the Internet is no longer just an network systems provider Cisco, Things. At the recent CTIA information superhighway [but] have recently discussed the Wireless show in Las Vegas, a platform that will transform AT&T announced a partnership many industries." Internet of Things. As part of a patriotic statement w i t h a c o m p a n y c a l l e d These bigco utterings remind about how the U.S. leads the American Security Logistics me of when the term 'web 2.0' world in Internet innovation, (ASL), to "wirelessly connect a f i r s t b e g a n t o c r e e p i n t o Verizon chairman and CEO series of location based tracking corporate speak, about 2005. It's Ivan Seidenberg said today that devices that can be used to help still early days for the Internet the "'Internet of Things' will k e e p t a b s o n a n a r r a y o f of Things, but prepare yourself infuse intelligence into all our valuables - from people to pets to hear a lot more of this new systems and present us with a to pallets." The first product term. whole new way to run a home, will be a cargo shipping tracking ReadWriteWeb has been at the an enterprise, a community or and monitoring application. cutting edge of defining and Other products in the pipeline explaining the nascent Internet an economy." include pet tracking, child safety of Things - see our extensive Sponsor Seidenberg said that "in a 4G a n d A l z h e i m e r ' s p a t i e n t archives for more information. world, wireless will connect m o n i t o r i n g . If you're new to the topic, check everything" and that "there's Both Verizon and AT&T are out Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: really no limit to the number of p o s i t i o n i n g t h e i r w i r e l e s s Internet of Things and Top 10 connections that can be part of networks as key parts of the Internet of Things Products of the mobile grid: vehicles, emerging Internet of Things. 2009. Discuss appliances, buildings, roads, Cisco is another company

E-reader News Edition

First Big Sale for Microvision's Laser Projection Engine Curt Hopkins (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/6/2010 9:00:00 PM

Redmond, Washington's Microvision, producers of miniaturized technologies, announced it has made its first big sale of its PicoP laser projection display engine. The unidentified customer "plans to embed the PicoP engine inside a high-end mobile media player for release in late 2010 and plans to announce its launch at that time." It is worth noting that the company has made technology designed to be used by the iPod and iPhone. Sponsor In early March, the company announced that their SHOWWX projector, powered by the engine, was available for sale to customers in the United States at $549.99. The pico projector uses laser

light to produce high resolution, WVGA (848 X 480) images of up to 200 inches at a 5000:1 contrast ratio, which Microvision claims is five times higher than any of its competition. The projector can be attached to a computer or smart phone. It uses no focusing knobs or optics. The company hopes to see a broad spectrum of personal and professional technology devices using the engine and projector. Discuss

UConn uses 2nd-half surge to repeat as champs Associated Press (ESPN.com)

Connecticut: M. Moore 23 Pts, 11 Reb, 1 Ast Five Filters featured article: Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:37:05 AM Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Top Performers PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Stanford: K. Pedersen 15 Pts, Term Extraction. 17 Reb, 3 Ast, 1 Stl

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International Politics Slow Cloud Computing In Europe and Asia Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb)

Union's Data Protection Directive. In 2006, the European Court of Justice ruled that an Submitted at 4/6/2010 10:42:07 PM agreement negotiated with the It's worth noting that the cloud U.S. Department of Homeland certainly has borders. It's the Security was too broadly one reality that proves the cloud construed and violated the EU's computing movement may seem directive. The agreement was at times abstract and vague but about sharing data on European in the end it is the international Rackspace, Terremark and airline passengers headed for the politics of our world that creates S a v v i s a r e t h e p r i m a r y U.S. The data sought by the some of the deepest issues for companies looking to develop a U.S. was too broadly construed its place in the world markets. presence in Europe. But they and violated the EU's directive, According to InformationWeek, need to build data centers before the court said. The 451 Group presented a they can have any real presence "Both measures could prevent webcast that showed cloud there. establishing a cloud without computing adoption trails in According to the 451 Group, 99 borders," said 451's William Europe and Asia. About 57% op percent of European businesses Fellows. Cloud advocates say spending is in the United States are either small or mid-sized services established via an with 31% in Europe and 12% in organizations. And they have Internet data center should be Asia. The numbers get even p l e n t y o f c h o i c e s f r o m accessible by people around the more polarized when you only telecommunications providers. world, and they are in the case l o o k a t t h e a d o p t i o n f o r But here is an interesting twist. of Google search or Facebook infrastructure as a service. A full InformationWeek: apps. But when it comes to 93% of spending is in the One obstacle to both sides is the sensitive data, national borders United States with 6% in Europe U.S. Patriot Act, which gives s t i l l p r e v a i l b e c a u s e o f the U.S. government a right to c o n f l i c t i n g l a w s . " and 1% in the United States. demand data if it defines The issue is apparent now with Sponsor The low numbers almost makes c o n d i t i o n s a s b e i n g a n Google's issues with the Chinese it seem like some artificial effect emergency or necessary to g o v e r n m e n t . I t ' s n o t t h e is in play. And in some ways it h o m e l a n d s e c u r i t y , a n d a technology that is making cloud really is. A lack of European measure that contradicts that c o m p u t i n g a n i s s u e . I t ' s data centers services by the power when the data is of international politics. Discuss large providers affects adoption. European origin, the European

iPad apps: books and comics galore Joshua Topolsky (Engadget) Submitted at 4/7/2010 9:54:00 AM

Reading on the iPad is something that is part of the device's DNA. Whether or not you think that LED-backlit display is a killer or a cure for the world's third favorite bedtime activity, you can't deny that Apple has pushed the idea of the iPad as e-reader pretty heavily. So, if you've got one you must be thinking about what kinds of reading choices you really have. Unlike a lot of platforms, you're not just locked into Apple's iTunes-integrated iBookstore for getting your textual kicks -- you can also utilize Amazon's Kindle service

and a handful of other distribution channels for the books and comics of your choosing. So, which ones stand out? Take a look beyond the break and see our picks for reading on your magical new device. Oh, and be sure to check out our other app roundups right here. Continue reading iPad apps: books and comics galore iPad apps: books and comics galore originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

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Review of the Kobo Reader by Kris Abel Tablet (BestTabletReview.com) Submitted at 4/6/2010 10:51:06 AM

The $150 Kobo Reader Two weeks ago Kobo announced they would begin selling their own eReader — simply called the Kobo Reader— in Canda this May followed by a later release in the U.S. by bookstore giant Borders. The Kobo Reader would retail for an extremely cheap $150 and be tied into the Kobo eBook Store. But what exactly would this Kobo Reader include? Certainly not many of the bells and whistles that eReaders offer for an extra $100, but would it be a solid contender? Kris Abel seems to think so. He posted a very good review of the Kobo Reader on his CTV branded blog, Kris Abel’s Tech Life. The Kobo is a bare-bones reader, have no doubt about that, but there’s a solid market for cheap, well-made eReaders that only do one thing — as long as they do that one thing well. The Kobo uses ePub and PDF formats, has 1GB of memory with SD card expansion

available, a one week battery life and the same E-Ink screen as found in the Kindle. What it doesn’t have is any touchscreen input, wireless connection or any features outside of being an eBook Reader. However, it does include Bluetooth so that you can buy books off the Kobo Store by using your computer, iPhone or Blackberry and sending it to your Reader. Pretty smart. You navigate the menu and pages by the “blue blob” (as Abel calls it) which controls the

up, down, left, right and enter functions. It has serif or sans serif font selection and six font sizes. The Kobo will remember where you lest left off, but has no dog ear or bookmark functions. You also can’t input a direct page and instead have to flip to it if it wasn’t your last reading material. But in lieu of that you’ll have a very light and capable eReader. Abel’s final say: As a budget device, the question I have to answer isn’t whether the Kobo is the best on

the market, but whether it’s worth buying at all. Yes, the Kobo delivers the same core reading experience as its competitors. It’s comfortable to use, is supported by a large online store, and through the use of ePub, will work with other stores, libraries, and services. It offers only the most basic eReader features, but does so very competently. When Apple’s iPod first arrived, it was followed by a number of lowpriced imitators that proved to be digital lemons. That is not the case here. At $150 the Kobo is far lower in price than the Kindle ($259 US) or the Sony Readers ($200 – $300) and for many people this is exactly the push needed to jump into digital books. Make sure to read the rest of his review for additional insights. Source: Kris Abel’s Tech Life Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

iPad Etiquette: The Official FAQ [Advice] Mat Honan (Gizmodo) Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:00:00 AM

Etiquette on the iPad is white

space on the map. It's not a smartphone. It's not a laptop. It's something new. As early adopters, the opportunity to

More » define proper etiquette is ours.

Windows 7 SP1 beta appears on torrent sites Matt Burns (CrunchGear) Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:00:08 AM

Anyone feeling particularly frisky this morning? ‘Cause it doesn’t take too much work to find what is supposed to be Windows 7 SP1 beta as it’s appeared on numerous torrent sites. We hear it’s the real deal, too. GeekSmack as a gaggle of screenshots for your perusal, but even that’s not enough to convince me to install it on my system. Windows 7 runs great as it is and I can wait for the official release even if SP1 promises an exclusive dancing unicorn background. But…maybe a few of you could install it and report back with your findings. It is supposed to have a new remote desktop client. Anyone? Here’s the o f f i c i a l b u i l d string: 6.1.7601.16537.amd64fr e.win7.100327-0053.

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Engadget rides the Honda U3-X Personal Mobility Device! (video) Joshua Topolsky (Engadget)

however slightly. The experience is kind of amazing, as it requires very little effort on We just had a chance to go the rider, and though you feel hands... er, rear-on with Honda's like you could easily go flying latest R&D experiment, the U3- off of the U3-X, you always X Personal Mobility Device, retain a solid center of balance. and we've got the say -- it was a As opposed to something like moving experience. If you'll the company's Walking Assist recall, the tiny, uni-wheeled unit devices (which you can see us is built on the same balancing taking for a spin right here), this principles which the company's is a totally effortless experience. ASIMO uses, and utilizes the It just goes where you want it to world's first omni-directional -- almost by suggestion. There's driving wheel system. What no telling if Honda will ever does all that mean? Well, it bring something like this to means that when you sit down market -- they're notorious for on the thing, it moves in crazy projects that never see the whatever direction you lean in, light of day on store shelves -Submitted at 4/7/2010 9:31:00 AM

but it's an amazing look into the potential future of transportation. If you thought the Segway was a little big for your taste, this could be the answer to your prayers. As far

Gallery: Honda U3-X press shots Gallery: Eyes-on the Honda U3 -X Continue reading Engadget rides the Honda U3-X Personal Mobility Device! (video) Engadget rides the Honda U3-X Personal Mobility Device! (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. | Email this| as we're concerned, now that Permalink| we've taken a ride on the U3-X, Comments walking just feels like a chore. See for yourself what it looks and feels like in the video after the break!

Messi: You know you’re good when people compare you to a PlayStation! Nicholas Deleon (CrunchGear)

than gives said player 12 out of 10 in all the key stats: speed, attack, technical skill, etc. Leo Submitted at 4/7/2010 8:00:54 AM Messi is like a PlayStation. How do you know when you’re This is in reference to Messi’s a great athlete? Oh, I don’t performance last night against know, maybe when the top-tier Arsenal, where he scored four manager of the opposing team goal—known as a poker in the calls you a PlayStation! Like, sports press—of PlayStationyou’re so good it’s almost as if like skill. It was as if God Arsenal’s unfortunate defenders someone goes into Konami’s himself was controlling the and march straight toward the Pro Evolution Soccer or EA Argentine with a DualShock 3, goal. Sports’ FIFA, creates a player, and having him dance around Calling him a PlayStation, as

Arsenal’s manager, Arsène Wenger did (skip to 0m30s in that video), is even a misnomer: I, for one, can’t play Pro Evo

that well. Can the game even be played that well? Look at these “best of” compilations. None of these are as good as Messi was yesterday. We’re witnessing greatness, friends, and I’m fairly shocked that we haven’t seen a major, non-sports American publication so much as profile him yet.

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Not as cool as Gundam, but: Watch Gigantor protecting Kobe (video) Serkan Toto (CrunchGear) Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:02:56 AM

iSuppli says the iPad contains about $260 worth of parts Matt Burns (CrunchGear)

• Aluminum rear panel – $26.80 • Broadcom Bluetooth, WiFi Oh, component breakdowns. chip – $8.05 How we love ‘em. Let’s talk • TI controller chip – $1.80 about the iPad. • Ciruss Logic audio chip – The $499 iPad breaks-down $1.2 something like this: • Touchscreen – $95 All that, combined with • Apple A4 CPU – $26.80 other pieces of hardware and • 16GB flash storage – $29.50 bezel parts add up to $260 per Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:30:46 AM

iPad. That’s slightly more than iSuppli’s preliminary $229 esti mate reported back in early February. The 32GB and 64GB chips of course cost more with the 32GB estimated at $59 and the 64GB chip at $118. Don’t put too much weight into this estimate as it only accounts to for the cost of the hardware and not the time and resources

that went into developing and marketing the iPad. We’ve heard that Apple has been toiling away at this thing for years, but the company doesn’t seem to have any issues selling i t so they shouldn’t have an issue making it back.

Remember Gigantor? Remember last October, when the Japanese city of Kobe erected a 18m high statue of the giant anime robot? Granted, the robo statue is nowhere near as big as its Gundam counterpart, but it’s still pretty cool. And thanks to John Palmisano of Society of Robots, we now have a new Gigantor video. The new clip shows the statue up and close, during the night (it was filmed last week). The statue weighs 50 tons and cost $1.5 million to make. Here’s the video (1:31 min): Via Robots Dreams

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E-reader News Edition

Deadly Sound Bullets Spring From Newton's Cradle [Science] Brian Barrett (Gizmodo)

Intel's Atom D525 to offer 1.8GHz with no bump in consumption?

iSuppli pegs iPad component costs at as little as $259.60 Paul Miller (Engadget)

in materials. For instance the touchscreen is controlled by Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:18:00 AM three separate chips, which Tim Stevens (Engadget) quarter -- so not too far off. This shouldn't come as a shock means down the road we can Netbook Choice is also Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:42:00 AM to anyone: just because Apple's expect some of these separate reporting the existence of the touting the "magical" $499 bits of silicon to merge and The solder has barely hardened chip in a chart from Intel, but pricepoint of the iPad doesn't drive down prices. What might attaching Intel's Atom D510 to a that chart pegs it at the same 'ol mean they're selling it at a loss. seem silly and wasteful at $499 suite of nettops and the like, but 1.6GHz. We're still inclined to After carefully poring over the could seem all-too-tempting at already we're getting word of its think the 1.8GHz rating is iPad's internals, iSuppli has $299. successor, the supposed D525. correct, but we won't be placing added up a bill of materials as iSuppli pegs iPad component M a n y h a v e e x p r e s s e d any bets until Intel makes things low as $259.60 for the 16GB costs at as little as $259.60 disappointment that the D510 official. We're just not the iPad, including a $95 screen and originally appeared on Engadget offers no better performance betting kind, really. $26.80 processor. The good on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:18:00 than its predecessor, but the new Intel's Atom D525 to offer news for us is that there's EST. Please see our terms for D525 should do better thanks to 1 . 8 G H z w i t h n o b u m p i n actually a lot more complexity u s e o f f e e d s . P e r m a l i n k | both a slight bump in speed (up c o n s u m p t i o n ? o r i g i n a l l y inside the iPad than iSuppli was BusinessWeek| Email this| to 1.8GHz) and compatibility appeared on Engadget on Wed, expecting -- they originally Comments with DDR3 memory. Despite 07 Apr 2010 10:42:00 EST. estimated the device at $219.35 that the new chip is said to have Please see our terms for use of the same 13W TDP rating and, feeds. Permalink GadgetMix| according to Fudzilla, will be Fudzilla| Email this| Comments shipping sometime in the second

Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:40:00 AM

Everyone's favorite clacking desktop amusement has been weaponized. Well, almost: researchers at Cal Tech have used Newton's Cradle as a jumping off point for an acoustic weapon capable of ripping through a submarine with its sonic bullets. More Âť

Lonely Barber Zack Sheppard (Flickr Blog) Submitted at 4/6/2010 6:19:40 PM

â&#x20AC;˘ About Flickr Flickr is a revolution in photo storage, sharing and organization, making photo management an easy, natural and collaborative process. Get comments, notes, and tags on your photos, post to any blog, share and more! Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Nintendo teams with Google for glorified 'Google Fight' gameplay for Wii Paul Miller (Engadget) Submitted at 4/7/2010 9:10:00 AM

A 'Google Fight,' in case you're unfamiliar, is pitting one keyword against another on Google and seeing which one gets more hits. It's a favorite pastime around the Engadget HQ, where it's often used to keep intern ego in check, when we point out their inferior PageRank. Apparently it's a bit

of trend at Nintendo as well (or maybe Nintendo just likes money), because they've teamed up with Google to release a game for the Wii in Japan called Ando Kensaku comprised of just such a mechanism. Players compete by guessing the most popular search term, an action we hope is somehow augmented plans mentioned, we're not sure by a dramatic Wiimote flourish. if we should even hope for a US Unfortunately, with a name like release. Oh well, we'll always Ando Kensaku and no specific

have the interns. Nintendo teams with Google for glorified 'Google Fight' gameplay for Wii originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

Wii Game Ando Kensaku Puts Your Google Search Results Knowledge To Work [Video Games] Kat Hannaford (Gizmodo) Submitted at 4/7/2010 9:37:58 AM

The iPad Costs Something Like $260 to Build [Guts] matt buchanan (Gizmodo)

Mystery Glasses-Less 3DTV With Integrated Blu-ray Player Appears On Amazon [3dTv]

Many an argument has been settled by comparing the number of Google search results, and while the initial victory is satisfying I never

would've thought we'd see a Wii game inspired by it. More »

Kat Hannaford (Gizmodo)

Submitted at 4/7/2010 9:27:01 AM

'Seinfeld' & 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Cast Join Forces for New Show (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:51:00 AM

The cast of Larry David's hit shows "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" are joining the likes of "Mad Men" star John Hamm for an all new celebrity panel show. The program -- produced by Scott Carter(executive producer of “Real Time with Bill Maher”) in collaboration with Larry David and “Curb” executive producers -- is to air on the TV Guide Network and act as a companion show to the series. Titled "Curb: The Discussion," the show can be seen after the HBO syndicated program and will feature celebrity panelists like Jerry Seinfeld, Taraji P. Henson and Hamm, who will discuss and offer insights into the episode. Hosted by comedienne and series regular Susie Essman, "Curb: The Discussion" promises to also air exclusive, never-before-seen extras from the series.

Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:45:08 AM

The traditional iSuppli component breakdowns that attempt to put a neat little number on what a product actually costs to build appeal to a primal part of us, the part of us that wants to know, "Did I get screwed?" More »

Geithner heads to Beijing

A mystery 3DTV has turned up on Amazon, sans picture but with a retail price of $6,000. (Financial Times - US Who'd have the nerve to charge homepage) that much, Sony? Samsung? Submitted at 4/7/2010 2:00:31 AM No—it's StreamTV. Whoever Tim Geithner, the US Treasury they are. More » secretary, will meet with a Chinese vice-premier in Beijing

on Thursday in a clear sign that relations between China and the US are improving. “The secretary and the vicepremier ... have been working together to find an opportunity to meet for some time,” said

Andrew Williams, spokesperson for Mr Geithner. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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iPad Keynote: A Better Mistress Than Wife Mark Crump (TheAppleBlog) Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:00:39 AM

I don’t give a ton of presentations, but I’m something of a presentation junky — one of my favorite web sites is Presentation Zen, where the author gives lessons on design theory. Therefore, I’ve been looking forward to iPad Keynote since Phil Schiller gave his dog and pony show. Keynote for the iPad is a decent companion program if you need to give light presentations or make light edits while on the road. As a sole means of creating presentations, I found it lacking. The Art of the Transfer Currently, getting files to and from your iPad is needlessly difficult. To get an alreadycreated presentation from your computer to your iPad, you need to either sync it via iTunes, or send it to yourself via e-mail; there’s no mountable file-system or iDisk support. Also, if you make changes to the presentation, you’ll need to export and re-download it via iTunes; it will not auto-update your local copy. Also, you can only export in Keynote and PDF; you cannot export your slides as a PPT file. I had decent luck with transferring Keynote and PowerPoint presentations. Only one (a Keynote presentation, oddly) had any sort of problems; the others came in just fine.

The problematic Keynote presentation I expected to have problems with. I use a lot of third-party fonts in my presentations, and since you are

limited to what Apple provided, Title Slide From iPad custom fonts will be substituted. Title Slide From OS X Below is what the title page Those weren’t the only issues I looks like in OS X Keynote and had. About 20 of my slides were iPad Keynote. charts, and the slides were

designed to transition so the pie chart was the same size and in the same place on every side. To IPAD page 56

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IPAD continued from page 55

ensure this, when I created the presentation, I just duplicated the first slide with the chart and changed the numbers. When I gave the presentation on my MacBook, it worked perfectly. Unfortunately, on the iPad that was not the case and on some slides the chart size changed ruining the effect — the other common elements displayed correctly. The iPad’s resolution is 4:3 and I built the presentation for a 16:9 widescreen display. I also had some odd issues with graphics. I tend to have a lot of full-frame images (where the image takes up the entire slide). On the presentation I had problems with, on some slides the graphic was pushed-up, requiring me to reposition them. Other presentations with fullframe graphics worked OK, so I might just have one Cursed Presentation. Bottom line, the simpler the better when transferring presentations to the iPad. If you have a graphic-intensive talk, be prepared to spend some time double-checking it. In fact, if you’re going to be using your iPad to give a talk, you are going to want to take its limitations into account when you design it. The Art of Giving With the optional VGA cable you can hook your iPad up to a projector or a display. In my limited testing (comprised of

hooking it up to an LCD display) it worked very well. The iPad seemed to auto-detect the resolution and the slides displayed as well as they did on the iPad screen. However, while the auto-detection looks OK, I did notice some distortion of pie charts on the display; they were stretched horizontally (this could be due to the conversion from widescreen to 4:3, and back to widescreen again. The presentation tools when connected to an external source are limited. There is no presenters view or notes view. All you see is a black screen with a slide count. There is a pop-up display that will let you chose a starting point, but there’s no way to see what the next slide is. The Apple Remote also doesn’t work with it, so you’re pretty much chained to the podium and can’t move around. Could you see Steve Jobs being restricted to giving an iPad-presentation without free range of the stage? The lack of a presenter’s view and notes is a deal-breaker for me. Unless you have an excellent memory, use note cards, or just read your slides aloud Keynote for the iPad is of limited value for giving presentations. Also, since the only way to see your slides is on the projector, you’re going to be spending more time facing the screen than your audience. The

Art of Making Again, the simpler the presentation, the easier time you will have creating presentations. The good news is, Apple provided a decent set of templates that closely mimic the templates you get in the desktop version of Keynote. The bad news is, there’s no way for the iPad to recognize your corporate templates as real templates; the closest you can come is importing the template and copying it every time you want to create new talk. More on iPad • iPhone OS 4 Event Announced Mac Love • 10 iPad Apps You Should Buy Right Now Mac Love • Day One: 300,000 iPads Sold Mac Love • iPad: Our First Impressions Mac Love One nice touch is when you use an Apple-supplied template and add a slide, you’ll get a pop-up of slide types to use that match your template — for example, a slide with bullet lists, or a slide with just a text box. I found Keynote to have a steeper-learning curve than I’m used to for Apple — I needed to read the help to learn how to add a text box. I found myself going, “OK, how the heck do you do this?” frequently. Some tasks seemed needlessly complicated. There does not appear to be an

easy way to customize a wedge color; I had to use the column with the color I wanted. Also, apparently no one at Apple is color blind, because I couldn’t view color names. The Art of Closing Is it possible to use your iPad to create and give presentations? Yes. Is it possible to create and give amazing, TED-quality presentations on your iPad? Not, really. If you’re willing to trade some features and inconveniences to save carrying around a laptop, you might get a lot of use. There was a point in my testing when I “got” the potential of this tool. I was scouring the halls at work trying to find a free conference room to test out the projector. I’ve done a version of this trip before, juggling a laptop, power cables, etc.. Now I just had a computer the size of a pad of paper. Future versions of Keynote, or a competing product that address the issues I encountered could turn the iPad into a killer presentation tool. As it stands, Keynote for the iPad will let you give an adequate presentation. It will not let you give an amazing performance.

Buzz Aldrin Blasted Off 'Dancing with the Stars' (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 4/7/2010 3:29:00 AM

Mission Completed. Buzz Aldrin's ballroom career was grounded when he and partner Ashly Costa were voted off "Dancing with the Stars" on Tuesday. Not surprised with the result, the historic astronaut told ET, "I didn't start out with a big advantage over everybody else. I had to overcome considerable obstacles--age, may be one of them. Physical agility, whether I learn things fast or not." His new friends Erin Andrews and Maksim Chmerkovskiy have fond memories and respect of their elder "mentor." Erin said, "I think one of the cool things Buzz set out to do was just kind of put the space program in everybody's lingo, every day lives." The newly enlightened Maks agreed, saying, "He added value to just the common knowledge."

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New MacBooks and MacBook Pros Just Around the Corner? Darrell Etherington (TheAppleBlog)

model MacBook. MacBook Pros haven’t seen any changes since June of last year, when I Submitted at 4/6/2010 10:10:31 AM purchased mine. The MacBook If you’ve been sitting there Air was updated at the same twiddling your thumbs while time. Apple announced the iPad, then Since then, the iPad has just recently began talking about essentially hogged the entire iPhone OS 4.0, then news of Apple product spotlight. what’s going on with the Mac Rumors of its impending arrival line (yes, Apple still makes fomented for months and computers) will probably come months, and its official as a welcome surprise. A announcement and release Taiwanese newspaper has a new schedule has all but occluded report(Google translation) up with the Intel processor change chips, rather than through any Apple’s other offerings. I’m that details some imminent the most significant alteration. major advancements in battery glad Apple’s doing well in the changes bound for the MacBook That’s not all, though. New technology by Apple. More on mobile market, since it means MacBook Pro systems will Mac line of notebooks. my iPhone’s software will not If the reports are reliable, then reportedly have 640GB drives • How I Migrated My Mac Life fall into neglect anytime soon, it would mean that the MacBook installed by default, with the Into the Cloud Mac Love but I fear there’s too much at lineup will be using Intel’s line option to upgrade to a 248GB • University Tempts Students risk if Cupertino continues to of i3, i5 and i7 chips, as some solid-state drive. If pricing With Free iPads Mac Love stake its future on mobile tunnel earlier rumors speculated. The remains reasonable, it could • Australian Website Hints at vision. reason we haven’t seen them mark the first time SSDs New Macs, Higher Prices Mac Some of us were Mac users yet, according to the Taiwanese represent a viable alternative to Love before the iPod, and will publication Apple Daily, is that standard HDDs for the average • Apple Admits MacBook Hard continue to be even if Google Drives Defective, Offers Free wins the battle for mobile supply has been short thanks to consumer. a large order including all three All-day computing is another Repair Program Mac Love market supremacy. Let’s hope of the models from computer detail the report claims for the Apple remembers that and upcoming computers, with a Apple’s MacBook line is rewards us with its next salvo of maker Acer. The report claims that all of reported eight hours of battery definitely in need of an update. MacBook updates. Apple’s MacBook computers, life. Better power management T h e l a s t t i m e a n y o f t h e f r o m t h e M a c B o o k i t s e l f might be due only to the computers was updated was in through the Pro line and to the increased energy efficiency October 2009, and that was a Air, could see updates in April, offered by the i3, i5 and i7 fairly minor update to the base

Stocks struggle as sovereign debt concerns weigh (Financial Times - US homepage)

By Jamie Chisholm, Global Markets Commentator Published: April 7 2010 09:04 |

Last updated: April 7 2010 Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: 15:15 PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

Bristol Palin Campaigns Against Teen Pregnancy in New PSA (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:53:00 AM

Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol is starring in a new PSA warning against the trials and tribulations of teen pregnancy. In the PSA, Bristol, who poses with her son Tripp, asks, "What if I didn’t come from a famous family? What if I didn't have all their support? What if I didn't have all these opportunities?" She concludes, "Believe me, it wouldn’t be pretty,” and warns, "Pause before you play." When it comes to making the PSA, Bristol says, "I think people need to start talking about the consequences of teen pregnancy and all the effects that it does have. And if I can just prevent one person from getting pregnant as a teen, all of this will be worth it."

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iPad as a one-to-one presenter (Scripting News) Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:30:49 AM

There were a huge number of comments on yesterday's iPad piece, including a lot that said "You don't get it" or "You're too old to get it" or "It wasn't designed for you" or "It wasn't designed for what you do." This is all nonsense, of course - I'm merely sharing my observations, so there's nothing to "get" or not get. Apple hasn't said who they designed the iPad for, or what it was designed to do. This is smart of Apple because my guess is they don't have any idea who it was designed for, or what it was designed to do. I think they've been planning a larger formfactor iPod/iPhone for a long time (the one we all have now is the iPod) and that's all they know. They arrived at this product by following the technology, not by anticipating what it would be used for. They hope and expect we will all figure that out. One of yesterday's comments was very insightful and led me to try something at a restaurant over lunch with a longtime friend Yvonne Burgess. She's a bit younger than me, a

professional IT consultant, so she's quite technically aware. She has an iPhone. She also loves music, as I do. I had been trying to think of a song by Simon and Garfunkle. I started to hum what I remembered of the tune and little snippets of the lyrics. "I hear words I've never heard in the Bible," and "try to keep the customer satisfied." I whipped out my iPad and entered "keep the customer satisfied" into the search box on the browser and scored a direct hit. That's the name of the song! So I brought it up on YouTube and in a few seconds we were listening to it right there in the restaurant. (If you clicked on the link you're listening to it too!) We could have done that with my Droid or her iPhone, but it wouldn't have been as much fun, because we both could see what I was doing. (An aside, we wanted to find out when the song came out and that was not so easy. We both searched, she found it first on her iPhone.) I marvel at how these days we carry around all the world's information in our pockets. My uncle, who always had an Almanac nearby, would have loved this. I wish he had lived to

They have a lot of fun with the pictures and how they move and the sounds it makes. (Some people take this as demeaning of the products, but I don't intend it that way.) PPS: While we're at it, a lot of people seem to think you have to be either for or against something like the iPad. This is very wrong thinking. People should find out what they think by having experiences, and then reflect on them and try new things out, always feeling you have the right to change your mind. Like a lot of people I was brought up by a father who thought it was a sign of see it. But I love it on his behalf. weakness to change your mind. (Ken I miss you!) As a result I have a very strong Anyway, that's a unique thing will about that and welcome any the iPad can do, one-on-one new idea that might shift my p r e s e n t a t i o n s . A n d i t ' s a perspective. I wish more people business application too. If did. I'm neither a Republican or you're in a tech role at a Democrat, not right or left. I am corporation that has a sales J e w i s h b u t I w a s n ' t b a r function, get busy. You're going mitzvah'd. Like you, I am my to be using a lot of tablet own person with my own mind. computers, whether they're from As LBJ God said, "Let us reason Apple, HP, Google or whoever. together." As Jerry said: "It's One person telling a story to even worse than it appears." another person, that's going to PPPS: Lost last night was great! be a big use of tablets. I couldn't help thinking "These PS: Very young children love guys dig The Matrix like I do." iPhones and iPads. If you've got a toddler around, check it out.

Art Cashin on Stochastics, Fed, Greece Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture)

Art Cashin, head of floor operations at UBS, has the buzz from the NYSE.

Airtime: Wed. Apr. 7 2010 | Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: 8:50 AM ET PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Five Filters featured article: Term Extraction.

Singles Bring 'Baggage' to Jerry Springer's New Dating Show (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 4/7/2010 3:18:00 AM

Dating hopefuls will be revealing their "Baggage" on Jerry Springer's new TV show! "It's a brilliant premise and I wish I had thought of it," Jerry tells ET of his new show. "You start out with the basic dating show but the people come on from the very beginning and they open three [different] sized bags, each with a larger amount of baggage," Jerry explains. "The baggage could be starting out with something small, like big credit card debt, then maybe it grows to bigger things -- ultimately, [a person might say], 'I'm a cheater.'"

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Seven Possible Recasts Another Delay for Alyssa Milano and 'Romantically for Charlie Sheen on Challenged' 'Two and a Half Men' Jason Hughes (TV Squad)

Alicia Keys Announces Birth of Robin Thicke's Son (ETonline - Breaking News) Submitted at 4/7/2010 3:25:00 AM

Rich Keller (TV Squad)

Robin Thicke took a paternity leave from Alicia Keys' tour on Tuesday night at Los Angeles' It must be frustrating for stars While nobody wants to see him Staples Center. when their new shows, which go, of course, in practical terms According to the L.A. Times, are supposed to premiere at a we must consider the possibility Alicia told the crowd of fans certain date, keep getting pushed of a'Two and a Half Men' that Robin was absent from the back. Not only does that keep without Charlie Harper. While show because daddy duty called. their professional lives on hold, the show has been renewed His wife Paula Patton gave birth reason for the date switch on her but it probably gives them a through the next two seasons, to their son on Tuesday. Twitter account: "No freakin' feeling that the networks are not Charlie Sheen has expressed The singer's rep tells ET that clue." too thrilled with their product. interest in leaving; his contract they named the boy Julian As a former teenager who Such is the case with Alyssa is up this season. Even if it's just Fuego. We're told that mother, M i l a n o ' s n e w A B C crushed (all right, still crushes) a negotiating ploy, CBS is probably wouldn't be needed father and son are all doing well. on Milano, my opinion is comedy'Romantically probably considering how the until next September, when the Challenged.' Previously given probably jaded. Nevertheless, show could continue without network's hold over O'Brien the premiere date of next she should be given a chance to him. expires anyway, they relented. Monday, April 12th, the show succeed or fail. Here's hoping Tiger Woods was immediately "At least," no one from NBC has been moved back a week to ABC is priming her for success interested in doing the show actually said, "...it would keep April 19th. The most likely rather than cutting their losses after he'd heard how many him the hell away from 11:30." reason for the change is for the where they can. different women Charlie has C o n t i n u e r e a d i n g S e v e n show's lead-in -- 'Dancing With Filed under: Other Comedy slept with, but he backed out Possible Recasts for Charlie the Stars' -- to squeeze in Shows, Industry, Programming, when he found out it was all Sheen on 'Two and a Half Men' another two-hour stint to pump Celebrities, Reality-Free acting on the show. Luckily, the Filed under: Other Comedy Permalink| Email this| | up their ratings. In a counterPGA welcomed him back with Shows, OpEd, Casting, RealityC omments opinion, Alyssa gave this as the open arms mere moments before Free the entire sport collapsed. Permalink| Email this| | Conan O'Brien was briefly C o m m e n t s considered, but NBC said no before they even heard what it was. When advised that he Brian Moylan (Gawker) show. This singer has a randy grandpa. At least someone's Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:25:45 AM getting some! More Âť He thinks he is contaminated and won't have sex to avoid actor is holding out for more fathering freakish fetuses. This money or he'll be ditching a hit Submitted at 4/7/2010 9:03:00 AM

Submitted at 4/7/2010 8:00:00 AM

Which Actor is Abstinent because of Asbestos? [Blind Items]

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Is Casey James the Dark Horse of 'American Idol'? Kona Gallagher (TV Squad)

when he performed 'Jealous Guy.' All the sudden, I was sitting in front of my TV and a Pretty boys don't do it for me. random thought struck me: "I Long, flowing locks aren't what kind of want to make out with Men's Right to Cheat, generally draws me to a guy. As him." a result, I was never particularly Continue reading Is Casey then Take Back drawn to 'American Idol' J a m e s t h e D a r k H o r s e o f Engagement Ring contestant, Casey James. Of 'American Idol'? Affirmed [Love] course I understood the Filed under: OpEd, American attraction on an intellectual level Idol, Contestants, Performances, Hamilton Nolan (Gawker) Casey was talented enough, but but that after a while, he'd be Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:34:02 AM -- I do have eyes after all, and he Predictions and Trends is a very pretty man. But he never knocked my socks off. swept up in a cloud of blond Permalink| Email this| | A judge yesterday rejected 26 throughout the first half of this I figured that he'd stick around hair and sparkling teeth and he'd C o m m e n t s for a while because he's goodbecome nothing but a distant, year-old Long Islander Danielle season of 'Idol,' he remained looking and he doesn't stink up blue-eyed memory. That all Cavalieri's claim that she should little more than a background the stage with his performances, changed this week, however, be able to keep a $19,000 player to me. engagement ring because her (now ex) fiancee cheated on her. Long Island men were like, " Yes." [ NYP] More Âť Jane Boursaw (TV Squad) weapons, training people to fight ... I have no tolerance for Submitted at 4/7/2010 5:54:00 AM any sort of manipulation, and (S01E06) "It's time we told him doubt that I'd fall prey to Anna's the truth about who he really is." bliss. That's my story, and I'm - Joe to Erica, about Tyler sticking to it. Well, who is he?! Is he Continue reading'V' - 'Pound of supposed to be some sort of Flesh' Recap warrior a la John Connor, who'll Filed under: Episode Reviews, lead the resistance against the imagine him as a leader of the I've been thinking about where Reality-Free, V aliens? I have no idea, but can't resistance. The dynamics will I'd fall in the alien vs. humans Permalink| Email this| | wait to find out. Based on the have to change with Lisa; war, and I'd definitely be a C o m m e n t s fact that Tyler seems enamored Erica's plan to hide Tyler away member of the Fifth Column -with the Visitors, it's hard to at his dad's isn't working. organizing meetings, gathering Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:30:00 AM

'V' - 'Pound of Flesh' Recap

Rupert Murdoch's Idea of a Liberal: Greta van Susteren [Bias] Pareene (Gawker) Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:46:43 AM

Maybe the right-wing bent of Fox News is just a mistake? Maybe Rupert Murdoch just

doesn't know what a liberal is? u n a b l e t o n a m e a s i n g l e During an interview in the UK, Democrat on Fox. More Âť the News Corp chairman was

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Woods Draws Late Masters Tee Time (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 4/6/2010 11:22:05 AM

Fans around the country should be able to watch most of Tiger Introducing the World's Woodsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s back nine in the Newest Fashion Icon: opening round at the Masters Thursday. The tournament Kim Jong-Il [Fashion released the tee times Tuesday another few of Woodss holes. Plates] afternoon. Woods will go off the Masters.com will also stream Brian Moylan (Gawker) first hole at 1:42 p.m. in the next video of the 11th, 12th, 13th, Submitted at 4/7/2010 11:01:06 AM -to-last group of the day. 15th and 16th holes throughout Associated Press Tiger Woods the day, and back-nine coverage Well, at least in his own mind, walks up the ninth fairway o f a f e a t u r e d g r o u p . T h e h e i s . T h e N o r t h K o r e a n d u r i n g a p r a c t i c e r o u n d announcement of which groups communist newspaper Rodong T u e s d a y . will be featured Thursday is Sinmun says that Kim's drab ESPNs live coverage of the expected Wednesday. track suit, called the Pyongyang, tournament begins at 4 p.m., Sirius-XM satellite radio will is the newest trend sweeping the about when Woods should be p r o v i d e l i v e p l a y - b y - p l a y Danny Gallagher (TV Squad) He's Dick Cheney on Zoloft. g l o b e . M a k e w a y o n t h e making the turn (absent weather coverage starting at 2 p.m. The trick, however, is changing Submitted at 4/7/2010 4:50:00 AM the game just a little bit each imaginary runways. More Âť delays). He will be paired with Other top players with late tee (S01E04) "I knew that deep time so the surprise doesn't wear Matt Kuchar, a 31-year-old times Thursday include Steve down, I was capable of this. I away over time. This week's American, and K.J. Choi of Stricker and Ian Poulter at 1:31, yank a guy's teeth out and now I episode not only found a new South Korea. ESPN will also Fred Couples and Sergio Garcia kill a guy. You gotta get away way for Raylan to put a bullet in b r e a k i n t o i t s r e g u l a r at 12:58 and Kenny Perry, from me." - Roland to Mindy another smart-ass criminal's programing to air Mr. Woodss Camilo Villegas and Rory The real challenge for'Justified' torso, but the ride getting there McIlroy at 12:36. opening tee shot live. is finding new ways for Raylan was just as fun. At 3 p.m., the Masters Web site Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Givens to blow people away. Of Continue reading'Justified' will stream an hour of live Retief Goosen and Jim Furyk course he's going to do it in just 'Long in the Tooth' Recap coverage using the ESPN/CBS have morning tee times. about every episode. He's a Filed under: Other Drama broadcast crews. That should borderline renegade U.S. Shows, Episode Reviews, give online viewers coverage of Marshal with an eagle shooting R e a l i t y - F r e e eye and a distemper for P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | Parties Even in Congressional Midterm Preferences disrespect. He's a colonial C o m m e n t s (All Gallup Headlines) now tied in the congressional final healthcare vote, when cowboy with a beat-up heart. voting preferences of registered Democrats led by a slight Submitted at 4/6/2010 8:00:00 PM voters nationally. Republicans margin. [ fivefilters.org: unable to were up slightly the previous retrieve full-text content] week, but this followed three Democrats and Republicans are weeks in March, prior to the

'Justified' - 'Long in the Tooth' Recap

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Duke Dashes the Hopes of Children (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 4/6/2010 12:17:11 PM

It’s classic Duke villainy, is what it is. Given the opportunity to make three 5-year-olds happy and Daily Fix NCAA Bracket Achiever pool champions by losing to Butler, what does Duke do? Go out there and win the NCAA championship. It’s so typical. This is why everyone hates you, guys. Getty Images So, no, the Fitzkrieg Triplets the Butler-backing 5-year-old breakout stars of this year’s Daily Fix pool, at least in terms of how often I’ve written about them saw their chances at a stupendous bracket pool upset fall short when Gordon Hayward’s half-court heave rimmed out at the end of the NCAA final. That the triplets still finished 16th out of 183 entrants and well ahead of both Fixers and Fix editor Adam Thompson is quite a feat, given that they’re between two and seven decades younger than most everyone else involved in the pool. But in the end the

triplets joined everyone else in looking up at 2010 bracket pool champ John Rizzo, who got 43 of 63 picks correct. As a long-time Duke fan, Rizzo had an easy time picking the eventual winner. The more difficult part was sitting at home to watch the games. “I was in St. Petersburg when Duke lost to UConn when a heave didn’t go in and had to try to reach [my] devastated 12-year-old son on the cell,” Rizzo says. “I suffered through early-round losses to Florida in Syracuse and VCU in Buffalo. This year, I decided it was best if I just stayed away!” The decision paid dividends, but Rizzo didn’t pick Duke just because he chose not to fly to Jacksonville for Duke’s games against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Cal. “[I] thought they had a nice draw, felt the [Arinze Onuaku] injury hurt Syracuse, that lack of experience would trip up Kentucky and that someone needed to beat Kansas,” he says. “Not a lot of science, just a fan picking on instinct.” At least Rizzo follows

basketball. J. Mikel Reynolds who also picked Duke, got 42 of 63 games correct, and finished fourth more or less sat this college hoops season out until the Big 12 tournament. “I didnt have a clue on what to do,” Reynolds says. “In my case, the less info the better.” Maybe it’s just that your hoops-junkie Fixer is bitter about finishing nearer to the bottom of the pack than the top 132nd, 35 of 63 picks correct, if you must know but “the less info the better” seems to be the defining lesson of the 2010 Daily Fix bracket. Which brings us back to the triplets. Whether they picked Butler because of its first syllable or a supporting player in a Wii video game will remain an open and unanswered question. But that their goofy

off-the-cuff pick put them on the cusp of a win is an eloquent reminder of just how gloriously improbable and enjoyable this tournament was. The kids were in bed by tip-off, father Brian Fitzgerald reports, but he and his wife recorded the game in case Butler won. Told Tuesday morning that Butler had lost, Gavin Fitzgerald pronounced himself, “a little sad” but allowed that “they played a good game.” Siblings Connor and Shannon agreed. So does your Fixer. The whole thing the final and the tournament that preceded it and the pool and Gus Johnson’s vocal improvisations and everything else was good, and I speak for everyone at the Daily Fix in inviting you all to do this again next year. If you’re serious about winning, you might want to stop paying attention to college basketball right now.

All About Augusta: Masters Trivia Quiz (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix) Submitted at 4/6/2010 3:04:59 PM

In preparation for this year’s Masters tournament, the Journal’s Tim Carroll digs into some of the greatest moments at Augusta National for this test of your golf knowledge. He’s got everyone from Jack Nicklaus to Phil Mickelson to a certain someone making a notable return after a months-long sabbatical:

Chris Bosh Out With Broken Face Matt Moore (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/6/2010 5:30:00 PM

Filed under: Raptors Chris Bosh was hit with an inadvertent elbow from Antawn Jamison during the Raptors loss

to the Cavaliers tonight. He staggered dazed for a minute, then ran up the floor with blood dripping from his nose and mouth. He exited the game and immediately left for the locker taken to a nearby hospital where room. The Raps' All-Star was

X-rays confirmed the bad news. Bosh has a fracture in his face. He broke his face. Ow. Share Bosh is out indefinitely. Which means he could be back in a few

days. Which would be good. Or he could be out for a few weeks. Which would be an outright disaster.

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The Count: Butler-Duke a Statistical Classic (WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)

same league as the more-recent nailbiters, though. When Kansas beat Memphis in 2008, the How close was Duke’s 61-59 average lead was 2.7 points and NCAA tournament win over 67% of the game played with Butler Monday night? By one the teams within three points of measure it was the closest each other. Isolate just the first championship game in the past 40 minutes — since the other decade. Reuters Most of the games didn’t include OT NCAA final was played like the periods — and those respective final seconds, with a single shot figures are 2.5 points and 71%, — here, Gordon Hayward’s showing that regulation was final 3-point attempt — capable even closer than overtime. Duke of changing the lead. -Butler still wins, though — the The final margin of two points average lead was 2.3 points and was impressive but not 77% of the game was played unprecedented. Of the prior 71 with a lead so narrow that a title games, seven were tied three-point shot could tie the after regulation and decided in lead; just 18% of game time was game or change the lead. overtime, and another four played with the two teams Hoops stats analyst Ken games were decided by a single within a 3-pointer of each other. Pomeroy has unveiled a system point. Three other games were To compare Duke-Butler to to measure the probability that decided by two points, and in other recent close title games, I either team in a game will win, six more the loser was within used play-by-play data to break based on the score, time left and three at the final buzzer. (Only down each game’s 40 minutes relative strength of the two the last two of those six three- — or 45, in the case of the 2008 teams (akin to similar systems point games really came down final Kansas won in overtime — for football). This system to one basket, though, because by the score gap over those suggests that Duke’s probability before the 1986-87 season the minutes. In that 2003 title game, of winning was above 65% until tournament didn’t have a 3- the average lead in any of the the game’s final frenetic minute. game’s 2,400 seconds was 8.6 But that’s largely based on stats point line.) But some games are close only points. North Carolina beat indicating that Duke was the at the end. For instance, in 2003, Illinois by five points two years favorite coming into the game. Syracuse beat Kansas by only later, but overall that game was The way the game played out three points, and the Jayhawks closer. The two teams played suggests these two teams were had a chance to tie the game in 39% of the game within three evenly matched — more so than its closing seconds. But for points of each other, and the any recent pair of finalists. n e a r l y h a l f o f t h e g a m e , average lead was 5.2 points. Syracuse held a double-digit Neither of those games is in the Submitted at 4/6/2010 2:53:32 PM

Painful End to Jayne Appel's Illustrious Cardinal Career Milton Kent (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/6/2010 5:58:00 PM

Filed under: Stanford, Women's Basketball SAN ANTONIO - Jayne Appel passed from teammate to teammate in the somber Stanford locker room Tuesday night, exchanging hugs and tears while hobbling on her one good ankle. Finally, a Stanford employee suggested that Appel, the Cardinal's senior center, sit down and take weight off her ailing right ankle that has been hurting so badly that she has been unable to practice. Appel, an All-American, took a painkilling shot early in the second half of Tuesday's national championship game

with Connecticut. When she left, the Cardinal led the Huskies by three, and seemed poised to place Connecticut's record winning streak in jeopardy. When she returned three minutes later, the Huskies had stormed back to take a fivepoint lead as well as wrest momentum away on the way to a 53-47 win. "Like hell," Appel replied with a weak grin, when asked how she felt. "I don't really feel much right now. When I left the court, I went and got a shot of pain medicine that goes through my system. I don't really feel it (the pain). I'm going to feel it in about three hours." Share

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Boston Red Sox designated hitter Charles Defensive in David Ortiz lashes out after question UConn Swan Song about slow start Milton Kent (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/6/2010 6:45:00 PM

Gordon Edes (ESPN.com)

[Expletive]. [Expletive] 160 games left. That's a [expletive]. One of you [expletives] got to go ahead and hit for me." • Email Ortiz was handled with ease • Print Sunday night by Yankees left• Comments hander CC Sabathia, who retired • Share Ortiz on two rollers and an • infield fly. Against right-hander A.J. By Gordon Edes Burnett Tuesday, Ortiz smoked ESPNBoston.com a ball into the teeth of an Archive overshifted Yankees defense, BOSTON -- After going hitless r i g h t a t s e c o n d b a s e m a n Tuesday for a second straight Robinson Cano, turning a likely game to start the season, Boston hit sans shift into an easy out in Red Sox designated hitter David Boston's 6-4 loss to New York. Ortiz lashed out at reporters He grounded out again to Cano w h e n r e m i n d e d t h a t h i s in the third before going down struggles last April and May swinging on a nasty curveball would be a hot topic if he was from Burnett to end the fifth. In slow at the start of this season as the eighth, against left-handed well. reliever Damaso Marte, Ortiz hit "Good," he said, turning to face a harmless fly to center. the reporters encircling him. Edes on Ortiz "You guys wait till [expletive] Unfortunately for David Ortiz, happens, then you can talk he's likely to be asked about last [expletive]. Two [expletive] season's awful start until he gets g a m e s , a n d a l r e a d y y o u going this season. When it [expletives] are going crazy. happened Tuesday, Big Papi lost "What's up with that, man? it. Gordon Edes Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:26:34 AM

• Red Sox blog Manager Terry Francona was asked Tuesday night whether he'd given any thought to having Mike Lowell hit for Ortiz against Marte after Kevin Youkilis' leadoff single put the potential tying run on base. "No," Francona said. "We're two games into the season. I don't think we want to start doing that. That's not because Mikey can't hit. But the big picture needs to be remembered." Ortiz struggled mightly to start last season, hitting just .185 during April and May with one home run and 18 RBIs. He turned his season around late, eventually finishing with 28 homers, 99 RBIs and a .238 average. Gordon Edes covers the Red Sox for ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Filed under: March Madness, Women's Basketball SAN ANTONIO -- As curtain closers go, the one that came down on Connecticut center Tina Charles' career was a pretty good one. In 38 minutes Tuesday night, Charles capped the final brilliant two years of her run as a Husky with a near double-double, and six blocked shots, two of which sparked the decisive run which gave Connecticut a 53-47 win over Stanford and the school's seventh national title. "I haven't even thought about it," said Charles. "I'm sitting here fighting back tears because I'm going to miss this team and miss Coach ( Geno Auriemma). I'm grateful for everything he's done for me. I'm going to miss just about everything about this program." And the Huskies will certainly miss Charles, who had nine points and 11 rebounds. But it

was her blocked shots that made the biggest difference. Early in the second half, with Stanford center Jayne Appel, Charles' childhood friend, on the bench with an ailing ankle, the 6 -foot-4 native of Jamaica, N.Y., blocked a pair of Nneka Ogwumike layups, to help Connecticut climb out of an eight-point halftime hole and take a lead it would never surrender.

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Source: New York Jets wooing free agent Jason Taylor of Miami Dolphins John Clayton (ESPN.com)

Wednesday and is being heavily recruited by the team, according to a source. The Jets have been interested in signing Taylor • Email since the start of free agency but • Print didn't have the leeway to sign • Comments him. • Share Under the terms of the • uncapped season, because the Jets made the AFC By John Clayton Championship Game, they had ESPN.com to lose a player to free agency Archive before they could sign one. Miami Dolphins free agent Last week's loss of free-agent linebacker Jason Taylor, who kicker Jay Feely to the Arizona became an off-field star with his Cardinals met that requirement, turn on "Dancing With The and started the Jets' process of Stars," is dancing with the New recruiting Taylor, the last York Jets. remaining unsigned Dolphins A Jet All The Way? free agent. Jason Taylor has played most The Jets have competition for of his career with the Dolphins. Taylor's services: Miami is Will he join the Jets -- Miami's interested in re-signing him, and AFC East archrivals -- by the the New England Patriots also end of the day? It appears the are interested. Jets are keen to make that So the Jets are planning an happen today, writes Tim a g g r e s s i v e s a l e s p i t c h . Graham. Blog According to a source, part of Taylor arrived in New York on the recruiting process includes a Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:29:57 AM

trip to the Jets' new stadium in the Meadowlands, where highlights of Taylor's career will be shown on the scoreboard. Jets coach Rex Ryan is interested in Taylor as a means of improving the team's pass rush. Calvin Pace led with eight sacks last season, but the Jets, who had a team sack total of 32, want to add a player with 10sack potential. The Jets had only 10 combined sacks from their outside linebackers last season. Taylor, one of the best pass rushers of his era, has 127½ sacks during his 13-year NFL career. He was on the field for 80 percent of the Dolphins' sacks last season, collecting seven himself. John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Islanders Crash the Habs' Clinching Party Christopher Botta (FanHouse Main)

That's really what happened here. With not much to play for other than pride, the Islanders -Submitted at 4/6/2010 3:49:00 PM mathematically eliminated from F i l e d u n d e r : C a n a d i e n s , postseason contention 24 hours Islanders earlier -- took over the game and UNIONDALE, NY -- Two won. As a result, Montreal's minutes and one second away party will have to wait until at from celebrating the clinching least Thursday when they play of a playoff berth, the Montreal in Carolina. Canadiens gave a game away "It's very disappointing, for and lost to the New York sure," said Montreal head coach Islanders, 4-3, in a shootout on Jacques Martin after the game. Tuesday. "Especially when we were so No, wait. Scratch that. Why is it close to clinching. But we knew the losing team always has to be what we were going to get from branded as chokers? Isn't it the Islanders. They play hard possible the game was taken every night and they really came away from them? at us tonight."

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Martina Navratilova diagnosed with Martina Navratilova Diagnosed With Breast breast cancer ESPN.com news services (ESPN.com)

"personal 9/11." "I was devastated," she said on GMA. Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:04:53 AM Navratilova, 53, told interviewer Robin Roberts, • Email herself is a breast cancer • Print survivor, that she underwent a • Comments lumpectomy, and that doctors • Share concluded the cancer had not • spread to her lymph nodes. There is a "very small chance" ESPN.com news services of the cancer recurring, she said. Hall of Fame tennis player "It is just in that one breast," M a r t i n a N a v r a t i l o v a s a i d Navratilova told GMA. "I'm OK W e d n e s d a y s h e h a s b e e n and I'll make a full recovery." diagnosed with breast cancer but According to The Associated expects to make a full recovery. Press, a surgeon at UC San Appearing on ABC's "Good Francisco said DCIS strikes Morning America," Navratilova almost 70,000 American women said she was diagnosed in a year and that "there's only a 1 February with an aggressive percent chance of anyone with form of ductal carcinoma in situ this diagnosis would die of (DCIS), considered the earliest breast cancer." f o r m o f b r e a s t c a n c e r . Navratilova said she will Reflecting on the day she undergo six weeks of radiation l e a r n e d s h e h a d c a n c e r , beginning in May, adding that Navratilova referred to it as her she is fine physically but

struggles emotionally at times, particularly when discussing her diagnosis. "I'm this healthy person, I've been healthy all my life, and all of a sudden I have cancer. Are you kidding me?" she said. Navratilova left tennis in 1994 after winning 167 singles titles. In 2006, a month shy of her 50th birthday, she closed her competitive career by winning the mixed doubles championship at the U.S. Open for her 59th Grand Slam title. Navratilova won six straight Wimbledon singles titles from 1982 to 1987. 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.

Cancer

FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/7/2010 2:35:00 AM

NEW YORK (AP) -- A report says tennis great Martina Navratilova has been diagnosed with breast cancer and that her prognosis is said to be excellent. People magazine's Web site posted a story Wednesday quoting Navratilova saying "I cried" after being informed of the diagnosis following a routine mammogram. The report says Navratilova had a lumpectomy and will begin six weeks of radiation therapy next month. It added that the ninetime Wimbledon champion was diagnosed with a noninvasive form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS. A surgeon in San Francisco says DCIS strikes almost 70,000

American women a year and that "there's only a 1 percent chance of anyone with this diagnosis would die of breast cancer." Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Alan Wake scribbles down new May 14 release in Europe Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/7/2010 9:00:00 AM

Alan Wake's bizarro world seeps into ours as Europe's release date for the action thriller moves up a week to May 14. Whenever Europe gets a

game release before the rest of the planet, it always compels us to check with the mice on the natural state of life, the universe and everything. The North American and Japanese releases remain May 18 and 27, respectively.

After launch, Alan Wake will

receive DLC episodes before the end of the year that should -fans willing -- build a cozy, covered bridge to further adventures. Gallery: Alan Wake [Via@RemedyAlerts] Alan Wake scribbles down new

May 14 release in Europe originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Monster Hunter sneaks into Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker David Hinkle (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:32:00 AM

Kojima Productions recently held a press conference in Japan to celebrate the completion of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which is set to shed its cardboard box cover for a very visible spot on Japanese store shelves come April 29. During the event, it was revealed that there would be Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G content in the Konami-published game. The collaboration should ensure that every Japanese citizen will now

buy Peace Walker, regardless of whether they own a PSP (that's just how it works). 1UP confirms the content will also be in the US version of the game. Monster Hunter's Felynes -little cat-like things that act as support in Capcom's title -- will have a presence in Peace Walker. On top of that, some of the rations in Hideo Kojima's latest sneak-'em-up will appear as "well-cooked rations," a play on Monster Hunter's wellcooked meat. Also: Snake will hunt monsters, so ... yeah. Kojima justified the crazy

crossover by playing the Jurassic Park card -specifically, that Peace Walker takes place in Costa Rica. "I figured it'd be the perfect

opportunity," he told Japanese mag Famitsu. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will be out in Europe and North America on May 28

and June 8, respectively. To check out some footage from the Monster Hunter unveiling, pay a visit to the Kojima Productions website. Monster Hunter sneaks into Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Suda 51 hoping for a 'diarrhea'-like No More Heroes 3 JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

"What we are hoping to do now with No More Heroes 3," the Grasshopper Manufacture leader [ Famitsu] told The Guardian in a video Not only has Suda 51 been interview, "is probably to digest thinking about a third No More everything we eat and then Heroes game, he's been working purge absolutely everything in on his scatological simile for its our guts, just like diarrhea!" In development -- so you know no way is this ... vivid ... he's serious. To recap: No More description a confirmation that Heroes was like taking a dump, the game is definitely being and No More Heroes 2 was the released, but it is further result of lingering on the toilet indication that Suda wants to afterwards. Yes, this is how the make such a game. man sells his games. Speaking about the troubled

level." [Via Siliconera] Suda 51 hoping for a 'diarrhea'like No More Heroes 3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Submitted at 4/7/2010 11:00:00 AM

state of the Japanese game market (without the use of poop metaphors), Suda said, "I am aware of the importance of the Japanese game industry, but we

need to try not to think about how the market is behaving. Instead, we should concentrate on polishing our creativity, and taking our creativity to a higher

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Coming to Dallas, Houston ! Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture) Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:00:38 AM

Myself and my partner Kevin Lane will be in Dallas the week of May 3rd â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 5th, including a visit to Houston on May 4th. For you Houston locales, we be at the Houstonian and at Stella Sola at various times. In Dallas, its The Petroleum Club and Ocean Prime. Randy Nelson (Joystiq) the experience. During the demo We are meeting with individual event, I played the multiplayer and institutional clients. We also Submitted at 4/7/2010 10:04:00 AM "Survival" mode and competed will be meeting asset managers I ' v e b e e n c o n s i s t e n t l y in several straight-up races looking to switch firms. impressed by what I've played against seven other players via If you are looking for fresh of the single-player aspect of Xbox Live (although they were a p p r o a c h a n d g o o d i d e a s S p l i t / S e c o n d , B l a c k R o c k stationed in the same room). r e g a r d i n g y o u r a s s e t Studios' explosive action-racer, Calling any race "straight-up" in management or trading and ever since a hands-on trial at E3 Split/Second, however, just isn't would like to chat with us, please contact us here. last year. I expected the eight- accurate at all. Five Filters featured article: player online experience to be Gallery: Split/Second thrilling, but I think I actually Continue reading Hands-on: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, under-anticipated just how over- Split/Second (multiplayer) the-top it would be. H a n d s - o n : S p l i t / S e c o n d Term Extraction. Everything about the game ( m u l t i p l a y e r ) o r i g i n a l l y looks and feels like it's really appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 coming together in advance of Apr 2010 10:04:00 EST. Please its May 18 release, with the see our terms for use of feeds. online component being the Permalink| Email this| final -- and, from this hands-on C o m m e n t s preview, important-- piece of

Mikami: Vanquish designed Hands-on: Split/Second with more mainstream (multiplayer) appeal than God Hand JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

make that game just as I liked. It didn't sell too well." While we Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:00:00 AM understand Mikami's desire for If Platinum Games's Vanquish commercial success (like he had looks less like the idiosyncratic with the Resident Evil and Devil weirdness we've come to expect May Cry games), we'd suggest from Platinum Games, and more that the only people who need to like something targeted at the change their decision-making core games market, well, it is. process in response to God "We're definitely going for Hand are the ones who didn't s o m e t h i n g a l i t t l e m o r e buy God Hand. massmarket that will appeal to a Gallery: Vanquish (360, PS3) wide audience," producer Shinji Mikami: Vanquish designed Mikami told Edge. with more mainstream appeal Mikami specifically contrasted than God Hand originally Vanquish with God Hand, a PS2 appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 brawler he created at Clover Apr 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please Studio. "I've released a lot of see our terms for use of feeds. titles before," he said, "and I Read| Permalink| Email this| feel that, perhaps specifically Comments with regard to God Hand, I was given too much freedom to

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Art.view: Ladies first (The Economist: Daily columns) Submitted at 4/7/2010 2:19:51 AM

Art.view The feminine front line of the Arab art market Apr 7th 2010 | From The Economist online It’s mid-morning at the Madinat Jumeirah, a luxury resort in Dubai. Dozens of well-dressed women sit on white couches, waiting. They include artists, gallerists, auction-house directors and local collectors, most of them princesses or wives of the well-off. They’ve been waiting an hour. Suddenly, 20 or so women, dressed in traditional Islamic abayas, enter the room and move through the crowd like black smoke. Her Highness Sheikha Manal, daughter of Dubai’s ruler, has arrived. This is Ladies Day at Art Dubai, the biggest contemporary art fair in the Middle East. Sheikha Manal has come to attend talks by Judith Greer, an American collector, and Venetia Porter, a curator of Islamic art for the British Museum. The fair itself hasn't yet opened, but a select group of women is always given a chance to preview and learn about the art on their own, without men. In a culture notoriously dismissive of women, one could easily assume Ladies Day to be a sideshow. But that would be wrong.

Connoisseurs from the west generally consider the art market in the Gulf underdeveloped. Compared to other emerging markets, such as India and China, there are few collectors, and museums, galleries and exhibitions are thin on the ground. But a cadre of women, both at the royal and grassroots levels, is leading the effort to bring the Arab art market into the mainstream. Sheikha Manal and her sister, Sheikha Latifa, also at Ladies Day, are among a handful of royal women at the vanguard of this push. Working independently, the two have established artist studios, an exchange programme with foreign art fairs, and awards for young Emirati artists. Nearby in Abu Dhabi, the oil-soaked capital of the Emirates where both the Guggenheim and the Louvre are building affiliate museums, Sheikha Salama and her daughter, Sheikha Mariam, have created a series of seminars and activities to teach locals about art and culture. Sharjah, home of the region’s largest art exhibition (the Sharjah Biennial, which, incidentally, is directed by another princess, Sheikha Hoor) boasts similar projects, such as an arts management training programme for local Emiratis. In the four years this programme has been running, half of the 520 staff members

are women, as well as 12 of the 14 curators. The UAE is not, however, the foregone capital of art in the Middle East, or even of the Gulf states. It is also not the only country in the region where women are taking leading roles in the art world. Qatar’s Sheikha Al Mayassa, the daughter of the Emir, runs the Qatar Museums Authority. Her latest project is launching Qatar’s Museum of Modern Arab Art, a collection of more than 6,000 pieces. Kuwait’s Sheikha Lulu Al Sabah in February held her country’s first-ever contemporary art auction. “Especially in the Middle East, having a title can be very helpful,” says Libya’s Princess Alia al-Senussi, who sits on the board of Art Dubai, in a bit of an understatement. Still, royals cannot grow an art market without some help. Expat women in the region, mostly 20- and 30-somethings living in Dubai, are seizing on the opportunity to start galleries, auctions and exhibition spaces, the bread and butter of a commercial market. The two big contemporary art galleries in Dubai, The Third Line and Isabelle van den Eynde, both of which are run by women, have seen values soar for their Arab and Iranian pieces. At Art Dubai this year, both sold work to Don Rubell, an important American

collector, a sign of growing interest in the region among global trend-makers. Some galleries tailor themselves to the community. At the Farjam Collection, a non-profit gallery owned by Farhad Farjam, an Iranian collector, Emilie Faure, a young French woman who manages the space, gives lectures to female Zayed University students at 7:30am two Thursdays a month. These students prefer not to be seen during regular exhibition hours, when males are in attendance. Sensing a market opportunity, Christie’s held its first auction in Dubai in 2006, and nearly doubled its sales expectations. The auction house now works with a range of regional collectors in the Emirate, where there are signs that the market is broadening. According to Isabelle de la Bruyere, the director of Christie’s Middle East operations, about half the attendees at last year’s sale were new customers. In part this success can be attributed to the firm’s efforts to educate Emiratis on how auctions work, with lectures and educational seminars sometimes tailored to wealthy wives. Sotheby’s, on the other hand, tried its luck with an auction in Doha last year, but found the market too thin. Auctions need competitive collectors, and no one wanted to bid against the royal family in

Qatar. What does all of this mean for the Arab art market? Women are very active in the industry in the West, but the Gulf's entrenched religious and cultural mores make gender a tricky subject. Some cynics say female leadership is great for the art market, largely because these women have to involve their husbands if they want to buy anything. Others worry that the region’s appetite for contemporary art is simply too vulnerable, regardless of who's in charge. At Art Dubai this year, for example, some edgy paintings were pulled from the wall before Sheikh Mohammed, Sheikha Manal’s father, passed through. An oil shock or political turmoil could easily bring a cultural clampdown. But for now the efforts appear to be working: attendance at the fair this year was up 28%, and the galleries reported strong sales. Not a revolution, by any means, but veiled steps forward for the Arab art market. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Green.view: Slowing the losses (The Economist: Daily columns)

continents apart from Oceania and forest-free Antarctica—and the increased loss of forest in Submitted at 4/6/2010 10:57:59 PM Oceania was caused largely by Green.view Some good news drought and fire, rather than by from the second differential extra logging. Apr 7th 2010 | From The In net terms, moreover, the Economist print edition story is even better. Taking FOR the first time since the n e w l y p l a n t e d t r e e s i n t o UN’s Food and Agriculture account, the average annual Organisation (FAO) started shrinkage of forest cover during m a k i n g d e c a d e - b y - d e c a d e the past decade was 5.2m surveys of the world’s forests, it hectares, down from 8.3m says it has evidence that efforts hectares in the 1990s. to slow the world’s rate of Should poplars be popular? deforestation are working. The These findings, though total area of forest on the planet encouraging, fall short of cause is about 4 billion hectares (10 for unfettered joy. New forests billion acres). In the “key have some advantages over old findings” of its Global Forest ones. They can be planted with Resources Assessment 2010 (the the trees well suited to the full report is not out for a few market, and in convenient months) the FAO estimates that, places. In terms of biodiversity, during each of the past ten though, and often of carbon years, an average of roughly storage as well, they are at best 13m hectares of forest (an area inferior replacements. And they twice the size of Latvia) were are not always at their best. either converted to other uses or Take the case of China. On the lost through natural causes such face of it, things are good. The as drought and fire. In the 1990s country has planted trees in vast the figure was 16m hectares. numbers. Indeed, it claims to Reduced rates of deforestation have invested $70 billion in in Brazil and Indonesia form a such efforts. At the Copenhagen large part of the story, but the climate conference last year reduction was more broadly Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, based. It was seen on all boasted of the 20m hectares

planted from 2003 to 2008 and officials talk of increasing the rate of afforestation from 4m hectares a year to 5m in the coming decade. At that rate China could add 10% to the world’s total area of planted forest—which the FAO puts at 264m hectares, about 7% of the total forested area—in just five years. And China has also, for the past decade, been implementing a Natural Forests Protection Programme (NFPP) to look after older woodland by such actions as stopping logging. Scratch below the surface, though, and things are not quite what they seem. According to Andreas Wilkes, who covers China for the World Agroforestry Centre, an international institute based in Nairobi, it is the NFPP, rather than the new plantations, that is most responsible for the largest share of the increase the volume of wood in China’s forests. That is partly because the new planted forests are still young. But it is also, according to Timm Tennigkeit of Unique, a German consultancy that works on forestry, because they are often badly managed, and the

species being planted do not necessarily match the places—often in Inner Mongolia and northwest China—where they end up. That the snow and ice storms of early 2008 were able to damage 18.6m hectares of forest may speak to the poor resilience of these woods. Critics have talked of endless monocultures of fast growing poplars as“green deserts” growing at the expense of more diverse ecosystems. None of this means that the expansion of Chinese forestry is for naught. Both Mr Wilkes and Mr Tennigkeit see ways in which, with better management and different patterns of investment, the country’s forests could be improved further. It merely serves to point out that raw numbers are not everything. And even the raw numbers are not above reproach. The FAO works by aggregating reports from national governments and other bodies, and these reports may not all be strictly comparable with each other—or, for that matter, terribly accurate. A sense of the issues at stake here is provided by the fact that the change which has led the FAO to

conclude that deforestation is slowing is a change to the figures for the 1990s. The figures reported at the time, it is now thought, were too optimistic. They have been revised upwards to 16m hectares a year, which is why this decade’s numbers are seen as a decrease. As in other areas, such as greenhouse-gas measurement, it would be nice if there were topdown as well as bottom-up data that would allow comparison, and give a more reliable picture. At the moment, though, there is no regularly updated set of satellite data that can be employed to assess changes in forest cover accurately, though satellite data are used to cross check ground-based data. In the long list of aspects of the Earth that need better monitoring, doing something about that should be pretty near the top. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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India’s Naxalite insurgency: Politics with bloodshed (The Economist: News analysis)

first lay down their arms. On April 4th, on a visit to Lalgarh, a Maoist-infested area of West Submitted at 4/7/2010 1:22:39 AM Bengal, one of six eastern states India’s Naxalite insurgency An most affected by the insurgency, appalling slaughter signals the Mr Chidambaram asked, “Why inadequacy of India’s counter- do they not come for talks by insurgency effort just shunning violence?” There Apr 7th 2010 | From The seems to be little prospect of Economist online this. DELHI With roots in a 1967 peasant FOR those who consider uprising in the West Bengali India’s Maoist insurgency a village of Naxalbari—hence grave and urgent threat, the their name, Naxalites—the evidence keeps mounting. On Maoists have recently grown Tuesday April 6th several more potent. They have an hundred Maoist guerrillas estimated 14,000 full time attacked a convoy in a forest in fighters and loosely control a eastern Chhattisgarh state, broad swathe of central and k i l l i n g 7 6 p a r a m i l i t a r y eastern India, albeit in jungle policemen. This was reckoned areas where the state is hardly to be the worst loss in the present. India-wide, they are history of a stuttering, four- considered to be found in over a decade-long conflict. third of the country’s 626 It was also an emphatic districts. Last year 998 people response from the rebels to the were killed in Maoist-related central government’s latest offer conflict. With almost 300 killed of peace talks. Encouraged by this year, it could be even an ostensible Maoist ceasefire bloodier. proposal, India’s home minister, Three main factors explain the Palaniappan Chidambaram, has Naxalites’ rise. Since merging r e p e a t e d l y d e c l a r e d t h e their two main factions in g o v e r n m e n t r e a d y t o 2004—to form the Communist talk—provided the insurgents Party of Indian (Maoist) under

Muppala Lakshmana Rao, known as “Ganapathi”—they have minimised the internal conflict that always plagued them. Second, many festering grievances among the tribal communities who live in India’s poor eastern states have provided them willing hands. And rapid economic growth there, especially in mining, has given the Naxalites new targets for extorting cash, from both foreign and state-owned mining companies. The official response to this has been pitifully weak. Despite calls to action from the central government—in 2006 the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, described the insurgency as the “single biggest internal-security challenge” India had ever faced—most state governments, though primarily responsible for law and order, have hardly stirred. Complacency is partly to blame: until recently few statelevel politicians seemed to share Mr Singh’s grave assessment. Political expediency also plays a part: Shibu Soren, chief minister of Maoist-wracked Jharkhand, won an election last year with

the guerrillas’ support and is predictably reluctant to fight them. Perhaps most worrying, with the exception of Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, the worstaffected states are also among India’s least capable. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were founded in 2000 as offcuts from two of India’s poorest states. Chhattisgarh’s most notable counter-insurgency ploy, arming an anti-Maoist tribal militia, known as Salwa Judum or Peace March, was predictably a violent failure: displacing over 50,000 villagers and acting as a recruiting sergeant for the Maoists. Yet, to be generous, it was at least partly a response to the inadequacy of the state police. For the same reason, Mr Chidambaram is now deploying an additional 15,000 centrally trained troops to the worstaffected states, taking the total to around 75,000. Yet, for a vast area home to 450m people, this is still a tiny force. Moreover, properly trained state-level officers, who know the local language and conditions, have a

much better counter-insurgency record. The clearest example is in Andhra Pradesh where, through a combination of improvements in policing and generous development schemes, the insurgency has been greatly weakened in recent years. To achieve similar results, other states will in the end have to take similar measures. After all, the latest slaughter in Chhattisgarh shows how hapless outsiders can be. Most of the dead men came from Uttar Pradesh and were killed by cunningly placed land mines after they rushed to take cover from the Maoists’ opening attack. As Mr Chidambaram said, “They seem to have walked into a trap.” Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Greenspan defends his role in the crisis (Financial Times - US homepage)

defended his record on Wednesday and blamed the proliferation of securitised Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:55:50 AM subprime mortgages for A l a n G r e e n s p a n , f o r m e r triggering the financial crisis. Federal Reserve chairman, Detailing the origins of the

financial crisis from rapid economic growth in Asia that fuelled a US housing bubble and the expansion of subprime mortgages, Mr Greenspan said that although he was concerned

about booming home prices as PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, early as 2002, he did not expect Term Extraction. the boom to continue for so long. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools:

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China/commodities/note auction/mortgage rates, oh boy!

Goldman denies ‘bets against clients’

Peter Boockvar (The Big Picture)

(Financial Times - US homepage)

Submitted at 4/7/2010 4:59:26 AM

With rising expectations of a widening of the Chinese Yuan band, the Yuan rose to the highest level since Oct ‘09 vs the US$ and China said they are going to sell a 3 yr note tomorrow to extract liquidity from the banking system. In response, the Shanghai index was the only stock market in Asia to trade lower as policy may be set to tighten again to cool inflation. The Journal of Commerce index of 18 industrial materials yesterday hit its highest level since Aug ‘08 and is just 11% from an all time high dating back to ‘85. The

FOMC in their minutes said there is little inflation pressure but this rise in material prices has to be eaten by someone. The commodity inflation backdrop along with the better economic data and signs of the market choking on supply sets us up for the 10 yr note auction today which will likely be the most focused on sale the Treasury has made in a while. Bernanke will speak at 1:30pm on the ‘Economic Challenges.’ In the first sign that higher rates are having an impact on one section of the economy, the MBA said refi’s fell 16.9% to the lowest level since early Jan and is down for 5 straight weeks in response to the average 30 yr mortgage rate rising to 5.31%,

the highest since Aug ‘09. Purchases though rose a touch, by .2% ahead of the expiration of the home buying tax credit on April 30th. ABC confidence rose 2 pts to -43. Investors Intelligence said Bulls rose to 48.9 from 48.3 and Bears fell to 18.9 from 19.1, both are back to levels last seen on Jan 20th. Greek bonds are selling off again and their 10 yr yield is back above 7% at 7.08%, just a few bps from its panic Jan high. Greek stocks are down 2% and the euro is lower again too. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 4/6/2010 11:01:27 PM

Goldman Sachs will on Wednesday rebuff accusations that it “bet against” clients in the mortgage market at the height of the financial crisis in a letter to investors that contains the most robust defence yet of the bank’s actions during the -turmoil. In an eight-page introduction to

Goldman’s 2009 annual report, Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive, and his number two, Gary Cohn, tackle claims that their company profited from the US housing debacle and the collapse of the insurer AIG. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Research Brief: Behaviorally Targeted Ads Yield Twice The Revenue and Twice the Converts (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:15:32 AM

No Cushion for Greenie’s Legacy

According to The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), behaviorally-targeted Invictus (The Big Picture) In summary, it is encouraging Greenspan that home prices par with the home’s value, or advertising in 2009 secured an to find that, despite the rapid could decline more than 10 even underwater. How could average of 2.68 times as much Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:00:57 AM growth of mortgage debt, only a percent. Not exactly the out-of- Greenspan — the “Maestro” — revenue per ad as non-targeted As Alan Greenspan will once small fraction of households the-box, expect-the-unexpected have fallen into the trap that an "run of network" advertising. again attempt to defend his now- across the country have loan-to- t h i n k i n g o n e w o u l d h o p e asset class — any asset class — The study also found that tarnished legacy (see Paul value ratios greater than 90 for from a Fed chair (i.e. c o u l d o n l y m o v e i n o n e behaviorally-targeted Krugman’s recent takedown percent. Thus, the vast majority correctly identify a problem, direction or correct no more advertising is more than twice as here), I feel compelled to point of homeowners have a sizable then rationalize it away with no than some arbitrary amount? effective at converting users out what is, in my opinion, equity cushion with which to mention of any contingencies or Five Filters featured article: who click on the ads into buyers a m o n g G r e e n s p a n ’ s m o s t absorb a potential decline in a Plan B). As it turned out, even Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: (6.8% conversion vs. 2.8% for egregious miscalculations. It house prices. 70 percent LTVs — in many PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, run-of-network ads), and that came in a speech on Sept. 26, I t w a s , cases even lower — would wind Term Extraction. b e h a v i o r a l 2005: apparently, inconceivable to up with mortgages that were on RESEARCH page 73

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advertising accounted for approximately 18% of advertising revenue. Economist Howard Beales, who conducted the study, notes that "... behaviorally targeted advertising is a critical component of ad network, publisher, and advertiser success... significantly enhancing the advertising revenue engine driving the growth of the Internet." Charles Curran, Executive Director of the NAI, says "... This study demonstrates the increasing significance of behavioral advertising to the economic model supporting free online content and services for consumers... we will continue to work closely with policymakers... to give consumers better information, tools and choices, while making online advertising even more relevant to their needs." Key findings of the study include the following: · • The average relative cost of behaviorally-targeted ads in 2009 was 2.68 greater than that of standard run-of-network advertising • The weighted average cost per thousand ad impressions (CPM) for behaviorally targeted ads was $4.12, as opposed to $1.98 for run-ofnetwork advertising • Behaviorally-targeted ads accounted for 17.9% of respondents' advertising

revenue, with revenue increasing from 16.2% in Q1 to 19.4% in Q4 2009 • 54.6% of the respondents' advertising revenue went towards the purchase of inventory and was therefore shared with publishers and content producers to support their businesses • Data from a smaller subset of the survey respondents suggested that users who clicked on a behaviorally-targeted ad were more than twice as likely to complete a transaction or sale with that site than those who clicked a standard runof-service ad (6.8% vs. 2.8%) • Total online ad revenue for the twelve companies who participated in the study was $3.323 billion in 2009.

rates on an industry wide basis. For the full year 2009, BT CPMs were about double RON CPMs, while Retargeting rates were about 1.5 times as large as RON CPMs. Key Survey Metrics Q1 2009 Q2 2009 Q3 2009 Q4 2009 FULL YEAR 2009 Average CPM (Weighted By Behavioral Targeting Revenue) Run of Network $1.94 $1.98 $1.89 $2.06 $1.98 BT $4.09 $4.22 $4.07 The study was conducted from $4.11 January to March 2010 with the $4.12 participation of twelve online Retargeting a d v e r t i s i n g n e t w o r k s a n d $3.00 marketing analytics companies $3.12 that belong to the NAI. Study $3.13 p a r t i c i p a n t s p r o v i d e d $3.02 proprietary data on the revenue, $3.07 composition and effectiveness BT Avg. Relative Price Over of different types of online RON Ads (X Greater) advertising on their networks. 2.77 T h e r e p o r t i n c l u d e s a 2.71 c o m p r e h e n s i v e c h a r t t h a t 2.79 presents the weighted average 2.46 CPM among participants for 2.68 each of the three ad types, as Retargeting Avg. Relative well as conversion rates and P r i c e O v e r R O N A d s ( X revenues. The results show that G r e a t e r ) BT provides significantly higher 1.98

1.84 2.11 1.59 1.88 Average Conversion Rate Run of Network 2.1% 3.6% 2.2% 3.1% 2.8% BT 5.5% 8.8% 6.4% 6.6% 6.8% Revenues Total Ad Revenue ($ Millions) $708 $780 $795 $1,040 $3,323 Percentage Attributable to BT (Aggregated Across Firms) 16.2% 17.2% 18.3% 19.4% 17.9% Avg. % of Display Ad Revenue Used for Inventory Costs 54.7% 56.9% 53.0% 53.6% 54.6% Avg. % of Display Ad Revenue Used for Data Costs 8.5% 8.8%

9.1% 9.4% 8.9% Source: NAI, The Value of Behavioral Targeting, March 2010 The results lead to 3 major conclusions, says the report: • Advertising rates are significantly higher for behaviorally targeted (BT) ads. The average CPM for BT advertising is just over twice the average CPM for run of network (RON) advertising. On average across participating networks, the price of BT advertising in 2009 was 2.68 times the price of run of network advertising • Advertising using BT is more successful than standard run of network advertising, creating greater utility for consumers and clear appeal for advertisers. Conversion rates for BT advertising are more than twice the rate for RON advertising • A majority of network advertising revenue is spent acquiring advertising inventory from Web content and services providers, making BT an important source of revenue for publishers as well as ad networks For more about the study, a PDF file may be accessed here. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: RESEARCH page 74

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Online Media Daily: Global Ad Outlook Improves:Internet, Especially Search, Is Main Engine

Online Media Daily: Now A Few Words -Of-Mouth From Bob Garfield: Former Ad Ager Pursues Greed, Joins Fizz

(MediaPost | Media News)

Long-time media and advertising industry journalist Bob Garfield, who officially stepped down after 25 years as Advertising Age's ad critic this week, Tuesday announced the first of several new industry consulting relationships, signing on as a "consultant at large" with Atlanta-based word-ofmouth marketing firm Fizz. Garfield, the author of "The Chaos Scenario," and "Now A Few Words from Me," described word-of-mouth as "the most potent, and most persuasive medium," and said it was rapidly becoming the "most important" medium in the "rubble of mass media." Garfield said he would work with the Fizz team strategize on behalf of clients and to vet ongoing work. Garfield, who also is co-host of the popular National Public Radio show "On The Media," has not announced what other business ventures he might be

share. ZenithOptimedia predicts online media will begin to Online ad spending continues to approach the No. 2 position by be the bright spot, and the main 2012 when it is projected to source of traction in what have a 17.1% share of global ad appears to be an improving s p e n d i n g , v s . 1 9 . 4 % f o r global advertising marketplace, n e w s p a p e r s . according to the most recent in a Paid search continues to be the quarterly series of ongoing "main engine" of online ad tracking studies released this spending growth, according to m o r n i n g f r o m P u b l i c i s ' the report, accounting for 50.2% Z e n i t h O p t i m e d i a G r o u p . of all online ad expenditures in " T h e r i s e o f t h e I n t e r n e t 2009. continued uninterrupted during "We forecast this proportion to the downturn - in fact, the rise to 52.1% in 2012," the downturn probably accelerated reports said, adding that online the shift of budgets from d i s p l a y a d v e r t i s i n g ' s traditional media by focusing contribution to total Internet a d v e r t i s e r s ' m i n d s o n t h e spend fell from 33.0% in 2008 importance of measurable return to 32.0% in 2009. on investment," the agency's "We expect it to fall again to reported noted, estimating that 3 1 . 7 % in 2010," the Internet's share of the overall ZenithOptimedia predicted, advertising marketplace will adding, however, that "new jump to 13.9% this year, making formats - especially internet it the third largest medium video - should help it grow worldwide behind TV's 40.6% faster than Internet advertising share, and newspaper's 21.7% as a whole in 2011 and 2012, Submitted at 4/7/2010 5:30:48 AM

RESEARCH continued from page 73

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contributing 32.2% of internet ad expenditure by the latter year." That improvement reflects an upgrade in the outlook for the overall advertising marketplace. ZenithOptimedia now expects worldwide ad spending to rise 4.1% in 2011, about double the rate of 2010's projected 2.2% rate of growth. "Confidence in the global economic recovery, while tentative, continues to grow, and this improvement has been apparent in ad markets across the world," the agency said, adding, "Ad expenditure is accelerating in bullish developing markets, while in the developed world the downturn is coming to an end more quickly than expected." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

(MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 4/7/2010 5:30:48 AM

involved in, but implied they would be limited to a handful. In a swansong column written for Advertising Age this week, he unabashedly explained one of the reasons for his departure was "naked greed," and that, "From this point forward, my brain is for rent. I will be forming partnerships with three or four organizations for the purpose of selling to marketers what I've been dispensing gratis for decades. This possibly will bring me money, which is good for buying things." "I can't tell you how delighted I am to have access to this guy's brain," stated Fizz managing partner Ted Wright. "He has been so far out ahead of the pack on the trajectory of marketing, and he has an uncanny knack for getting the beating heart of every problem, every issue." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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MediaDailyNews: RJ First Ever Multicellular Animals Palmer Goes Hollywood, Found In Oxygen-Free Environment Fox (Popular Science in sediment previous assumed to Unveils Entertainment Unit Stuart New Technology, Science contain only viruses and (MediaPost | Media News) Submitted at 4/7/2010 5:30:48 AM

New York-based media independent RJ Palmer this morning unveiled RJ Palmer Entertainment Media, a new branded entertainment division that will be headed by Frances Croke Page. Page, who will serve as vice president-director of the new unit, is a 25-year veteran of media planning and

buying and has worked on numerous branded entertainment deals for clients including American Express, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg's and Lowe's. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

News, The Future Now)

bacteria. This is not the first time that scientists have In the 236 years since oxygen discovered animals living in an was identified as a life-giving anoxic environment, but all the necessity, no scientist anywhere previously discovered species has discovered a multicellular needed to surface periodically animal capable of living without for some O2. That makes these the stuff. Until now. creatures the first animals ever Researchers from the discovered that spend their Polytechnic University of whole lives without oxygen. Marche in Ancona, Italy*, have How these animals evolved, discovered three new species and what else might be down in that live their entire life in an this forbidding environment anoxic pit beneath the remains to be seen. University M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a . T h i s power their cells. Instead, these of Marche scientists still have a discovery drastically revises w e i r d c r e a t u r e s h a v e a n great deal of analysis to do on science's understand of where organelle that resembles a these animals, but one thing is animals can thrive. hydrogenosome, a cellular for sure: our understanding of Prior to this discovery, the only c o m p o n e n t u s e d b y s o m e animal life will never be the organisms capable of life in microbes to produce energy same. oxygen-free environments were w i t h c o m p l e x e n z y m a t i c * This post originally identified viruses and bacteria. the researchers as working for reactions. Unlike plants, all previously The organisms themselves, S c r i p p s I n s t i t u t i o n o f discovered animals, and fungi, none of which have been named Oceanography in La Jolla, the newly discovered animal yet, all belong to the phylum California. species don't use mitochondria, Loricifera, measure less than [ Nature] the cellular organelle that 0.04 inches long, and were converts sugar and oxygen into found almost 10,000 feet down water, CO2 and, energy, to Submitted at 4/6/2010 2:30:16 PM

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Swapping Graphite Anodes For Silicon Improves Li-ion Battery Capacity Five Times Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/7/2010 7:28:33 AM

Battery capacity is the main thing keeping our lifestyles tethered: to the wall socket, to the gas pump, etc. But while we can extend our batteries' charges with smarter, low-power tech, we're still leaving a good deal of capacity on the table within current lithium-ion technology. A group of researchers at Georgia Tech have devised a "bottom-up" self-assembling nano-composite technique that could tap into that extra capacity, allowing battery makers to swap inefficient graphite anodes for highperformance silicon structures that could increase capacities five-fold. Li-ion batteries work by transferring lithium ions between a cathode and an anode through a liquid electrolyte. The capacity of a battery is

determined by the number of ions it can contain and how quickly those ions can be exchanged. Silicon is an ideal material for anodes because it allows lithium ions to pass in and out of the electrode very quickly. But the expansion and contraction of silicon particles as the ions enter and leave

circumvents the degradation issue, keeping the silicon particles from cracking potentially opening up lithiumbatteries to capacities five times what they currently are. The actual construction of the improved anodes is somewhat complicated, but suffice it to say that if the technology can scale industrially it could be a massive breakthrough for li-ion battery tech. Preliminary tests suggest such an anode could withstand a thousand chargedischarge cycles without degrading. While it would likely add some cost to our batteries, it could degrades the silicon in short make our portable devices, our order, ruining the battery. hybrids and our EVs run up to I n s t e a d , n e a r l y a l l l i - i o n five times longer on a charge, or batteries contain graphite anodes at the very least pack smaller that can withstand repeated batteries into our devices for the charge cycles. same amount of juice. But by tapping into self- [ Science Daily] assembling nanotech, the Georgia Tech team has created a silicon composite material that

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Pyroelectric Crystals Could Enable the First Truly Portable X-Ray Machine

Chromasun Gets $3 Million for Solar Air Conditioners

Stuart Fox (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

of crystal points, instead of the single, large X-ray source used in conventional machines, the Radius Health device can Submitted at 4/6/2010 2:00:35 PM Like many pieces of modern produce a usable image with a medical equipment, X-ray far lower dose of radiation. Not machines are as bulky and only does the lower dose mean energy dependent as they are less energy use, but it also vital. Even "portable" X-ray makes the machine suitable for machines remain too heavy to use on small children. carry across rough terrain, and c r y s t a l s . B o r r o w e d f r o m Radius Health expects to too energy hungry to run off semiconductor technology, the complete their first X-ray batteries. That's why Radius crystals emit electromagnetic scanner in a couple of months, Health's portable, low energy X- radiation when heated. In this w i t h a f u l l - o n p r o t o t y p e ray machine may revolutionize case, the crystal points are following by the end of the year. medicine in disaster zones, on specially designed to emit EM That should give aid workers the front lines, and at patients radiation in the X-ray spectrum. working in disaster zones, homes. By using pyroelectric This is a significant change from medics on the battlefield, and crystals as an X-ray source, the X-ray emitting cathode ray t h e i n c r e a s i n g n u m b e r o f Radius Health has created a tube used in all current X-ray doctors that make house calls machine small enough to fit in a m a c h i n e s . T h e p o i n t s a r e just enough time to get the suitcase, light enough to deploy chemically etched out of a larger doctor bags needed to anywhere, and energy efficient single tile of crystal, allowing carry this time, money, and life enough to run on a laptop the emitting surface to fit on a saving innovation. battery. [ Technology Review] flat panel. The secret to Radius Health's Additionally, by using an array device is the pyroelectric

Chromasun has projects underway in Australia, the Middle East, Europe and the Submitted at 4/6/2010 10:05:05 PM U.S. Solar cells can also be Chromasun has raised $3 added to the company's rooftop million to try to bring its solar u n i t s o t h a t i t g e n e r a t e s air conditioning system to electrical power. (Read the first market. story on Chromasun here.). The company, founded in 2008 Other companies working on by Ausra co-founder Peter Le dual-function solar devices Lievre, has created a rooftop i n c l u d e B r i g h t P h a s e system that collects heat from Energy(light, electricity, heat), the sun with reflectors and Entech Solar(electricity, heat) transfers it into a fluid, similar and SunDrum (solar thermal to the way large-scale solar collector that clips onto PV thermal systems in the desert do. panels.) But instead of using the heat to Air conditioning in general has make steam and turn a turbine, been gaining momentum with the heat is pumped into a double investors and researchers over -effect chiller that, through a the past two years. PARC, for series of phase change reactions instance, has created an air and heat exchanges, results in conditioner powered by sound cold air. So it's heat from the waves while Ice Energy plans to s u n c o o l i n g r o o m s m o r e plant 53 megawatts of its ice air efficiently than traditional air conditioning units in Southern conditioners can. Go figure. California to both cool buildings E v e n b e t t e r , s o l a r a i r and serve as a mechanism for conditioners tend to work their energy storage. Chromasun, hardest during hot summer peak thus, is mining two trends in power days, so they can relieve one: solar and green building s t r a i n o n t h e g r i d . A i r equipment. conditioning accounts for fifty Investors include VKR Holding percent of the demand for power and GoGreen Capital. d u r i n g p e a k p e r i o d s i n Five Filters featured article: California, according to Le Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Lievre. Payback can occur in PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, two to four years. Term Extraction.

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Vest Uses Accelerometers and Balloons to Improve Wearer's Balance Denise Ngo (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/6/2010 1:15:28 PM

People with balance disorders may relearn how to walk correctly with the help of an electronic vest. Relearning how to walk after suffering disease or injury is no easy feat, but researchers at UCLA's Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT) have unveiled an electronic vest that may help rehab patients regain their balance. The vest, equipped with pneumatic balloon actuators, accelerometers across the shoulders, and an air tank

strapped on the right side, gives the wearer physical cues for guiding movement. After measuring the wearer's wobbliness, the control system inflates the balloons, which use pressure points to give the

wearer feedback on how he or she is tilting before a fall. Kind of like rubbing up against an invisible barrier. Leg amputees may also benefit from the vest, as it can be hooked up with prosthetic

VIDEO: continued from page 78

control, but we're getting closer all the time.

devices to steady the wearer's balance. A cuff attached to the wearer's thigh presses his upper leg according to the direction of his movements. Researchers surmise that physical cues, as opposed to verbal or visual directions, will help amputees grow accustomed to a prosthetic more easily. Although vest-based tactile systems are nothing new, CASIT's invention is the first to be used for physical rehabilitation. Other models have been developed for gaming and other simulations. [ IEEE Spectrum] VIDEO: page 79

Video: Dean Kamen High-Fives Colbert With Latest Revision of Prosthetic Luke Arm Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/6/2010 2:51:02 PM

Those of you who weren't completely immersed in Duke's nail-biter of a victory over Butler in the NCAA basketball title game last night may have noticed that Stephen Colbert had inventor and sci-tech evangelist Dean Kamen appear as the headlining guest on last night's

Colbert Report showing off the latest version of DEKA Labs' most exciting brainchild: the Luke Arm. Named for Luke Skywalker (who else?), the Luke arm began as part of DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics program and has evolved into one of the most sophisticated benefits of science and prosthetic limbs ever produced. technology, gave viewers an And Kamen, never one to miss a impressive firsthand good opportunity to tout the demonstration of just how far

the arm has come since DEKA Labs undertook the project in 2005: The idea behind DARPA's

funding of the arm, of course, is to create a neurally-controlled limb that will help amputees function much as they did before losing a limb particularly those amputees returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan after losing limbs. As Kamen shows Colbert, we haven't quite achieved Skywalker-like seamless bionic VIDEO: page 78

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VIDEO: continued from page 78

AQT Gets $10M for Capital Efficient CIGS Solar info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

still comes down to dollar per watt in what is ( arguably) a commoditized market place. Submitted at 4/7/2010 4:59:57 AM Entering this scenario are some This has been an interesting new CIGS players in what can few months for the CIGS solar be described as CIGS 2.0 -community. VC-funded CIGS getting to manufacturing scale startup Solyndra filed for their and low product cost with a IPO late last year and last week capital efficient model and received a " going concern" innovative business plan -- not warning. Martin Roscheisen, the the brute force, build a $1 tight-lipped CEO of Nanosolar billion factory from scratch remained tight-lipped as he lost method. his CEO position to a solar One of these new CIGS players newcomer. And SoloPower is AQT- Applied Quantum raised some money, partly to Technologies. The firm made a pay off their irate CEO and p a r t n e r i n g a n d a f u n d i n g CTO founders in an edgy VC a n n o u n c e m e n t t o d a y . investor-founder tussle. AQT raised $10 million from Almost every CIGS firm has the original investor syndicate, experienced schedule delays, STPV Holdings and additional p e r s o n n e l s h a k e - u p s , o r undisclosed investors. They massive re-working of processes previously raised $4.75 million and technological approaches. in 2007 and the firm has The bottom line is that building managed to get pretty far on that CIGS solar cells is hard (and relatively modest sum. They've VCs less than patient). The first produced CIGS materials at an wave of CIGS aspirants have NREL-validated efficiency of been big on hype but less greater than 10 percent. It has convincing in scaling up at a taken most of the other CIGS profitable market price. Solar players several years to reach

that efficiency milestone. The partnering deal is with Intevac. Intevac will provide AQT with manufacturing capacity for the production of AQT’s CIGS cells. AQT plans to receive its first manufacturing system in the second quarter of this year at its Silicon Valley R&D and production facility. The Intevac equipment and the AQT staff have a hard disk drive pedigree and look to apply these HDD skills to solar. (Not the first time that's been tried -see MiaSolé and XsunX). “This agreement with Intevac is a major step towards capitalizing on AQT’s breakthrough CIGS 2.0 approach,” said Michael Bartholomeusz, AQT's CEO. AQT deploys a proprietary process on Intevac's manufacturing platforms with the aim of producing highperformance, low-cost CIGS thin-film PV cells. AQT’s CIGS technology allows for continuous in-line manufacturing, which simplifies

and streamlines the manufacturing process. In April, AQT will build out an initial 15MW production line at its new Silicon Valley development and manufacturing location. So what is the fifteen-person AQT doing that the other the other generously-funded and highly-hyped players have missed? • They are focusing on building solar cells, not manufacturing equipment • They are using pre-existing high-volume manufacturing equipment • They look to ramp up in 15megawatt to 20-megawatt modular increments, not biting off 50MW-100MW chunks like other CIGS players • AQT uses a dry reactive sputtering process The firm was founded by the brothers Bartholomeusz, Brian and Michael, who seem to get along pretty well for brothers –more Orville and Wilbur than

Cain and Abel. The team has manufacturing and materials experience from their days at Moser Baer and Heraeus. AQT has lined up a customer who plans to assemble AQT's solar cells into panels for an installation in Mexico. In the words of founder Brian Bartholomeusz, "AQT has developed and is executing on a very broad, pragmatic business model that is based on innovation and leverage. Even at this early stage with miniscule funding and a tiny team we have put in place all the building blocks for our future development; manufacturing partners, strategic suppliers, bankability, customers, and sales channels." *** List of VC funded thin film firms: Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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The Looming Fight Over Power Data info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines)

services. Utilities see it a bit differently. Generally, utilities closely guard Submitted at 4/6/2010 3:37:01 PM this sort of data, worrying about Some of the biggest companies what would happen if the data in the world are making a were misused, and as such, they concerted push to get at the data will likely oppose or at least from your meter. closely scrutinize attempts to A group of companies and force them to disgorge it. nonprofits led by Google sent a Google is joined on the letter by letter to President Obama on 4 6 s i g n a t u r e s f r o m Monday asking the White e n v i r o n m e n t a l n o n p r o f i t s , House to open up energy data so technology companies, investors that every consumer can take and retailers, including AT&T, control of their energy use. Best Buy, Environmental The letter was followed up by Defense Fund, Dow, General an event held in Washington, Electric, Hewlett-Packard, D.C. on Tuesday, hosted by Control4, Tendril and the Google and The Climate Group, Telecommunications Industry a corporate and government Association. coalition, to discuss the benefits The letter asks Obama to put of arming consumers with the weight of the White House energy information and how to behind a partnership of federal, best get that data into their state and industry stakeholders hands. (Surely Google and other to set up strategies to gain companies already have a few access to consumers' energy ideas about the latter.) data while protecting privacy. Any government mandate to It also calls for the Federal provide energy use information Energy Regulatory Commission could stand to benefit many of to “add the availability of the businesses that signed the timely, useful and actionable letter. Right now, applications e n e r g y i n f o r m a t i o n t o such as Microsoft's Hohm consumers as a criterion for provide information on power consideration in rulemakings, consumption and electricity grants, and other programs rates, but they generally do not related to end use electricity provide real-time data. Live data d i s t r i b u t i o n a n d e n e r g y would greatly enhance these e f f i c i e n c y . ”

Even if Obama does not respond to the call, some utilities may already be moving in the direction of offering better access to data. Pacific Gas & Electric is contemplating allowing customers to access data about their daily energy consumption on a day-after basis as part of an overhaul of its web site, said Andy Tang, the senior director of the smart energy web at Pacific Gas & Electric, during a panel at the UC-Berkeley Energy Symposium. But most utilities won’t be collecting and giving up data just to line someone else’s pocket. The letter notes that if all U.S. households saved 15 percent on energy by 2020, it could save customers $46 billion on their energy bills and represent the equivalent greenhouse gas reduction of taking 35 million cars off the road -- but it does not mention who will pay for the technology to gather and disseminate the data. Yet the letter’s diverse supporters show that there is more than profit motive at stake. Nonprofits like NRDC and the Environmental Defense Fund are on board for the potential energy savings.

There are also other calls for getting energy information to the people. A bill recently introduced into Congress by Representative Ed Markey also calls for consumer access to power consumption. According to Markey, PG&E may be in the minority, as only 35 percent of utilities have plans to open up real-time data to consumers. Additionally, last month the U.S. Federal Communications Commission sent the National Broadband Plan to the White House, which calls for a better communications infrastructure, including providing every American with access to real time energy information. Beyond the debate of who will foot the bill, hopefully any federal legislation will also investigate which data -- and how they are presented -- will actually empower Americans to reduce their energy consumption. Just because you build it (or mandate it), doesn’t mean they will come (or turn the AC down). Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Geothermal and Solar Power to Get Married in Hawaii info@greentechmedia.com (Greentech Media: Headlines) Submitted at 4/7/2010 4:03:43 AM

In Hawaii, a power developer will see if earth and sky mix. Pacific Light & Power will build a 10 megawatt solar thermal plant that will combine a trough solar collector from Spain's Albiasa with a turbine traditionally used in geothermal systems. Why? Ten megawatts is unusually small for a solar thermal field. BrightSource Energy, by contrast, wants to build one in California that will produce 396 megawatts of power. Most solar thermal systems, however, collect heat from the sun to turn water into steam and then feed the steam into gigantic steam turbines. The heat requirements and the size of the solar thermal fields mean that solar thermal parks can only be built economically in places like North Africa or Arizona where the sun shines almost every day of the year, lots of empty land exists and humidity remains almost nonexistent. A few clouds can depress the power output. Geothermal turbines swap water and steam for organic fluids like butane, which turn to GEOTHERMAL page 81

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vapor at lower temperatures. Thus, geothermal turbines require less heat, which in turn means smaller solar fields in a wider range of climates and geographies. Like traditional solar thermal systems, excess heat can be stored and run through the system in the evening or when cloud cover descends. Jesse Tippett, the managing director of Albiasa, likens it to thin film solar panels. The underlying technology may not be as efficient but it can generate energy in a wider variety of circumstances. When completed in 2011, the plant--located on the island of

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Kauai--will provide close to seven percent of the power needed on the island. Alibasa and PLP describe it as a hybrid plant, but it's more of an unusual concatenation. Generally, hybrid plants are power plants that combine renewable energy generation-like solar thermal systems or biogas burners--with gas turnbines to provide more baseline-like power. Florida Power and Light and Abengoa are currently building hybrid plants. Power from the plant will be "close to Hawaiian (grid) parity)," he said, which means expensive. Electric power in

Hawaii costs around 25.78 cents a kilowat hour, the highest rate in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration. Hawaii generates most of its power from diesel generators. But Albiasa will study ways to bring the cost down to make these systems feasible elsewhere. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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

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

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Cracking the Financial Aid Code (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

need with no-loan financial-aid packages. Like the vast majority • of colleges, Ursinus must not Wander Ursinus College and only troll for top students but you’d think you had stepped also calibrate exactly how much into an Ivy League idyll. Stone- money it will take to bring them clad buildings overlook a to campus and keep them there. sweeping lawn, which slopes to In college-speak, it’s called a picture-perfect small-town enrollment management -- a Main Street. Winding paths skirt way of slicing and dicing carefully tended gardens. admissions policies and Outdoor statues gaze raptly at financial aid to attract a strong midair as students stroll by, and diverse student body while chattering on cell phones. bringing in enough revenue to B u t U r s i n u s C o l l e g e , i n keep the doors open. Whereas Collegeville, Pa., lacks the elite colleges take merit as a wealth and status that allow the given and extend financial aid real Ivies to choose from among only to those who need it, the best students in the country U r s i n u s o f f e r s s i z a b l e and to cover their full financial 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

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$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 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 CRACKING page 84

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Bargain Tech Stocks (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

• A decade ago, the technologyladen Nasdaq Composite index closed at a record high of 5049. At the close on April 5, the index stood at 2430, still at less than half of its peak, even after surging 52% over the past 12 months. Over the past ten years, the average tech-sector fund has shed 57% (and that figure understates the devastation because it excludes the many funds that liquidated). Now that is a bear market. But here’s what’s important. Over those ten years, most technology companies -- at least the ones that survived the carnage -- have grown rapidly. Consequently, you can buy some of these fast-growing companies at valuations that were unimaginable a decade ago. Take Cisco Systems(symbol CSCO). In the fiscal year that ended July 29, 2000, the networking behemoth posted operating earnings of $2.7 billion, or 36 cents per share. At a split-adjusted price of $68.19 on March 10, 2000 (when tech stocks peaked), Cisco’s priceearnings ratio was 166. It traded at 28 times book value, 31 times

sales and 92 times cash flow (earnings plus depreciation and other noncash charges). Of course, those were absurd, bubble valuations. Today, I’d argue, Cisco’s stock is cheap, particularly when you consider the company’s growth rate. The shares closed at $26.17 on April 5. Analysts expect Cisco to earn $1.53 a share for the fiscal year that ends July 31. The stock’s P/E, based on that estimate, is 17. It trades at three times book value, four times sales and 16 times cash flow. Analysts expect the company’s earnings to rise an average of 12% annually over the next three to five years. Cisco is hardly unique. Almost all of the tech giants -- even glamour stocks such as Apple( AAPL) and Google( GOOG) -trade at ho-hum multiples to earnings, yet they should post solid earnings growth for years to come. “Given the return on capital (a measure of profitability), it’s strange that they trade at the multiples they do,” says Dave Eiswert, manager of T. Rowe Price Global Technology fund ( PRGTX). Over the past ten years, these companies have hardly stood still. Many now have virtual

monopolies or are part of duopolies in important tech businesses. Most are loaded with cash. In 2000, “Many companies were run fast and loose,” Eiswert says. “There was a lot of inefficiency, there was backdating of options, and accounting was often sloppy. They were run to grow fast and take advantage of Internet growth.” Over the past decade, “These companies have gone from fumbling hype, go-go-go to efficient, well-run companies.” But investors don’t seem to care. Why? Hedge funds and other short-term investors who Eiswert says dominate trading treat tech companies as purely cyclical creatures. That is, they see businesses that worsen when the economy softens and grow back only to their previous peaks at the top of the next economic cycle. The classic way to trade such cyclicals is to buy them when earnings are awful and sell them when earnings accelerate. “It’s the old cyclical argument,” says Eiswert. “You sell when things are good.” If the last few sentences make little sense to you, don’t fret. Most individual investors have no business trading stocks that way.

The irony is that during the tech -bubble years of the late 1990s, many investors posited that tech stocks were immune to economic cycles. They were seen as pure growth vehicles -those that would produce rising earnings year after year no matter what was happening to the broad economy. As subsequent events demonstrated, tech’s cheerleaders were badly deluding themselves. But to dismiss the growth potential of these companies is equally ridiculous. The global demand for technology will continue growing rapidly for the foreseeable future. Consumers -not only in the developed world but also in emerging markets -hunger for the next must-have gadget. Businesses must upgrade their technology to stay competitive and maintain and improve their profit margins. “Over the last eight or nine years, corporate customers haven’t spent a lot of money on technology,” Eiswert says. That will change. I think there’s another reason tech stocks are cheap. It’s the old saying “Once burned, twice shy.” Nasdaq plunged 78% at the worst of the 2000–02 bear market, crippling investors.

Nowadays, as Eiswert says, the conventional wisdom holds that “Tech is for chumps.” The big risk for tech stocks is that the global economy stops growing. “Technology is leveraged to the global economy,” Eiswert says. What to buy? Eiswert’s favorites include the aforementioned Apple, Cisco and Google, as well as Applied Materials( AMAT), JDS Uniphase( JDSU) and International Business Machines( IBM). His fund is a solid choice, too. It returned an annualized 9% over the past five years through April 1, putting it in the top 13% among technology funds. Expenses are 1.22% annually. But whether you buy individual stocks, Eiswert’s fund or a diversified fund with a big weighting in the sector, you won’t go wrong holding a healthy slug of tech in your portfolio. Steven T. Goldberg is an investment adviser in the Washington, D.C., area. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Credit Card Micropayments About to Surge (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

• Online and mobile commerce is about to get a shot in the arm. Online payment service PayPal is opening the door to widespread use of credit and debit cards for so-called micropayments -- as small as half a buck and up to about $12. Instead of charging retailers for each separate card transaction they handle, the company plans to aggregate a merchandiser’s micropayments and levy a single fee for the bundle. Cheap processing of micropayments is hailed as the answer to many sellers’ prayers. Publishers, for example, have long bemoaned the inability to cost-effectively sell newspaper or magazine articles or other content online “by the drink.” Until now, print media haven’t been able to find a business model to sell their content online, says George Peabody, director of the Emerging Technologies Advisory Service at the Mercator Advisory Group, a payments and banking consulting firm. Jason Pavona, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Litle & Co.,

which provides payment management services, agrees, noting that efforts such as PayPal’s could help media companies develop a whole new business. Other purveyors of print could benefit, too -independent authors could sell chapters of their books as oneoffs, for example. Cheaper processing is also likely to pay off for industries that already use micropayments, such as online gaming companies, ringtone merchants and smart phone application marketplaces. Social media and gaming firms are among those exploring their own ways to process micropayments more cheaply to support their industries. Others set to benefit: The thousands of craftspeople and other individual entrepreneurs who sell low value goods -- on Etsy or other electronic marketplaces. “The absence of a simple, secure low cost payment solution has been suppressing new business models, particularly in e-commerce and the nascent m-commerce market,” says Conrad Sheehan, founder and chief executive of mPayy a payments provider. By

routing mobile transactions through automated clearinghouses instead of requiring credit and debit cards, mPayy is able to process mobile transactions at very low cost to merchants. The cheaper processing fees may even foster the development of a “microservice” industry. Businesses may begin to charge for services that were previously free, once there’s a feasible and cost-effective way to charge for them, says Brian Shniderman, a director with Deloitte Consulting’s banking team. Restaurant patrons may be willing to pay a dollar or two, using their cell phones, to head to the front of the queue at a popular eatery, for example -- a high-tech way of greasing the palm of the maître d’. Or at a bricks-and-mortar retailer, customers may be able to skip long lines the same way. In-ahurry shoppers might be directed to a designated register or a line-free self-check-out kiosk or even be able to complete the transaction on their phones. Right now, the high cost of processing low value online

transactions keeps some merchants from offering low priced options. PayPal’s current fee to process payments under $12 is 5% plus 5¢ per micropayment transaction. For bigger transactions, it’s between 1.9% and 2.9% of the sale amount plus 30¢, depending on the merchant’s volume of business. Even if the fee structure remains the same, aggregating the transactions would mean paying a fee based on a lower percentage, albeit on a higher total. Of course, the effort isn’t new. It has been tried -- and failed to take off -- before, notably in the mid-2000s. But this time, it’s different, say the experts: Consumers are far more comfortable with buying online -- even ordering groceries online. Mobile commerce is booming. And a trusted name in the payments business -- PayPal -- is leading the way. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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$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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What Health Care Reform Means for Medicare Drug Coverage (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

Within that gap, you generally have to pay the bills out of • pocket. After that, your Part D How will health-care reform plan usually covers 95% of your a f f e c t p e o p l e w h o h a v e remaining drug costs for the Medicare Part D prescription- year. drug coverage? I hear they will The timing of the rebate check get help with expenses that fall depends on the calendar quarter in the doughnut hole. in which you reach the doughnut Those with Medicare Part D are hole. People who entered it by among the first who will benefit March 31 will get the first batch from health-care reform: They’ll of rebate checks by June 15. receive a $250 rebate check if People who hit the gap between they reach the doughnut-hole April 1 and June 30 should coverage gap in 2010, and the r e c e i v e t h e i r c h e c k s b y Department of Health and September 15. You just need to Human Services will provide reach the doughnut hole to the first wave of rebates as early qualify for the money; you don’t as June 15. You don’t need to have to spend $250 within the a p p l y f o r t h e r e b a t e ; t h e coverage gap first. You receive government will automatically only one rebate check for the send it when you reach the year. doughnut hole. Starting in 2011, drug In 2010, the doughnut hole companies will be required to begins after you reach $2,830 in provide a 50% discount on total prescription-drug spending b r a n d - n a m e d r u g s i n t h e and extends until your total drug coverage gap. And the doughnut costs for the year reach $6,440. hole will gradually shrink

between 2012 and 2020. Along with receiving an increased government subsidy, which will begin in 2011 for generic drugs and 2013 for brand-name drugs, Part D beneficiaries will pay a smaller portion of their drug costs in the doughnut hole each year, until they have to pay just 25% of the drug costs in 2020. For a helpful table showing exactly how the coverage gap will shrink each year, see the Medicare Rights Center’s Closing the Doughnut Hole fact sheet. There will also be some changes to Part D premiums. Starting in 2011, individuals who earn more than $85,000 (or $170,000 if married filing jointly) will have to pay a highincome surcharge for Part D premiums. (The similar surcharge that high-income Medicare Part B recipients currently pay for their premiums will continue, and the health-

care reform law freezes its threshold at the $85,000/$170,000 level until 2019, instead of raising the limit with inflation.) Keep these new rules in mind when deciding whether to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in the next few years, which will increase your income in the year you make the switch and could result in higher premiums. See Health Care Reform and Roth Conversions for more information. Also check out our Health Care Reform: What it Means to You special report to learn more about how the new law affects you. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Momo' for Mamas: Inside the Latest Momofuku contributors@theatlantic.com (Ryan Bradley) (Food :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/7/2010 5:50:06 AM

Momofuku It's high noon in Manhattan, and all eyes are on David Chang's latest creation, Má Pêche. For those out of the Chang-Momofuku-pork-buncraze-loop, a quick review: Momofuku is Japanese for lucky peach, and the restaurants—Má Pêche, opening later this week, makes four, plus a dessert spot called Milk Bar—are Asianinfluenced in the same way that the avante-garde '70s cult rock group Can is Asian-influenced. Can came out of Germany, but its lead singer was a wandering Japanese-born gypsy named Damo Suzuki. Momofuku comes out of New York, but Chang is, like Suzuki, a wanderer. As his biggest and possibly most important restaurant to date edges towards opening, he's bouncing around the Far East tasting, testing, collecting ideas, and dreaming up new styles. Also Chang, at 32, is famously kind of a rock star, scooping up James Beard awards by the armful, starting beef with foodies out West, and cursing like a sailor. Though he's not around for this pre-opening lunch, everyone else is: Martha and Mario and Ruth (Stewart and Batali and Reichl, for the plebs), along with another dozen of the city's

more important and influential gourmands. I managed to get in because of a friend, who I'll get to later on. We're here because this is the place to be, but also because, in the high-stakes game of Gotham's restaurateurs, the risks for Chang have never been greater. Má Pêche is a departure for the Momofuku brand, not in the food so much as the address. To understand the magnitude of this change, one must first understand that the island of Manhattan as concieved of by native New Yorkers is actually a lot more like dozens of islets,

and that the East Village, home to Chang's three other restaurants, might actually have more in common culturally with, say, the area in Cologne from which Can sprang than Midtown Manhattan. Midtown is home to restaurants like Red Lobster and the Olive Garden. Má Pêche is fewer than five blocks from the TGI Friday's on 53rd Street and 7th Avenue. Some other interesting new developments at Má Pêche (sometimes called "Momofuku Midtown") with regard to Chang's other restaurants: the dining area is cavernous—it

seats more than 100; the staff is huge, too—Chang nearly doubled his overall number of employees for this one place; and there are hints of Uptown stuffiness creeping into Momofuku's Downtown vibe: the waitstaff is all in uniform, and coffee and tea service is offered. (Not such a big deal, but neither the uniforms nor the tea service will ever, ever happen at Chang's properties below 14th Street.) But here we are, in Midtown, in a space large and high-ceilinged, with a name that translates to Mother Peach in the French-Vietnamese slang

lingo known as "Tai Boi." The naming is clever and apt: this is the Momo' for your Mama. Of course, once you sit down, things aren't so different from Chang's downtown spots. Blind Faith is playing on the PA ("Can't Find My Way Home," a particuarly good cut), and several of the cocktails are named after Sonic Youth tunes. The only object d'art on the wall is a huge painting of fearsomelooking ATV-ers in tribal masks. It's from Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums," from that scene where Owen Wilson's character tells Richie Tenenbaum he's just taken some peyote, and he says this as he's sitting in front of the painting, staring at the camera, at us, along with the masked ATV riders. At Má Pêche, we stare back for a while, and, at the server's suggestion, my dining buddy and I order oysters with a Thai basil mignonette, a frisée salad with tripe and poached egg and pork jowl croutons, pork ribs in lemongrass caramel, and a 12ounce steak from Kansas. The seating is still mostly communal, so we are (almost) elbow to elbow with the epicurian luminaries in the house, and the food is still great, in the high-brow-meets-lowbrow way that has made Chang famous. The steak comes with MOMO' page 89

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Pasta and Fish Roe: Sardinia's Mac and Cheese contributors@theatlantic.com (Ari Weinzweig) (Food :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:02:15 AM

c(h)ristine/flickr I doubt that very many people around these parts have thought of making bottarga lately. Other than some secret Sardinians and the 30 or so folks who came to the sold-out anniversary tasting that we did at the Delicatessen on a recent Monday, it's probably not been front of mind for many folks. Honesty, I know I hadn't given it much mind at all until about two months ago. It's funny how a food can stay sort of off at the edge of my cooking radar for a long time and then, one day, for whatever odd reason of fate, it comes up, hits home, and stays there for years to come. That's what happened with this bottargapasta thing. It's not like I've never heard of it and it's hardly a secret—if you take even the slightest look into Sardinian cooking, you're going to find it. I've known about it for ages but basically ignored it. I'm sure I even ate it a few times. But bottarga reentered my cooking repertoire when I was in San Francisco in January and had it for dinner at La Ciccia in Noe Valley (at the recommendation of Celia from Omnivore Books, which is a great shop if you like cookbooks!). Anyways, went for dinner with cheese expert Daphne Zepos and had a great

meal, one of the highlights of which was this dish. (Great octopus stew as well!) Went back again with Daphne in late February, ate the dish again, and liked it again. And ... I've been making it at home a couple times a week ever since. This is a very simple dish to make. Strange to the average American palate, to be sure, but in its homeland it's pretty much everyday eating—sort of Sardinian soul food, I guess. To learn more about it I went to my standard top reference for Sardinian cooking, Efisio Farris's great book, Sweet

Myrtle and Bitter Honey. If you're down in Texas definitely go to his restaurants, Arcodoro in Houston and Arcodoro & Pomodoro in Dallas, where you can get this dish and dozens of other great Sardinian specialties. Efisio and his wife Lori are the folks who send us all that super good Sardinian stuff we get—the fregola and malloreddus pastas, really good olive oils, Corbezzelo honey, etc. Anyways, I looked up the dish in Efisio's book and got a bit of background, followed that up with a few conversations online with Lori, and then a bit

more research from other books and a few friends, and although I really need to go to Sardinia to see and eat this stuff in its proper home environment, in the moment I've gotten a sense of it and figured I could share it here. While here bottarga is about as totally exotic as one could get, in Sardinia, Lori Farris told me, "Everyone has a jar of it in their refrigerator." Which makes me realize I should back up slightly and tell you what this stuff actually is. Bottarga is basically, dried, pressed tuna roe. Could also be made from mullet, but right now what we've got is

tuna. In its straight-up form it's the whole roe sack—small, really. I've seen them anywhere from like three to six inches long and maybe a couple inches across. If you've seen shad roe it's akin to that, I suppose. You shave off thin slices and eat it as antipasto, much as you would bits of prosciutto di Parma or Iberico ham. It's also eaten on the southern side of the Mediterranean—Majid Mahjoub told me that it's typically eaten on an appetizer plate with almonds (both raw and dryroasted), tuna, preserved vegetables, ricotta, hardboiled eggs, preserved lemons, figs, etc. I've actually been told that bottarga (or bottargue in French) is the "caviar of the Tunisian Jews," so I'm sure it'll come up more often in the future as we continue to explore the foods and culture of Tunisia. While this pasta dish is so simple it's almost silly, curing the bottarga takes a bit more skill. The roe sack has to be carefully extracted from the fresh fish, then salted and dried to preserve it properly. We have the bottarga right now in the easier-to-use grated-and-sold-inthe-jar form, though the more I'm getting into it the more I'm getting ready to have us try to stock the whole roe. Anyway, whether you have it grated in advance or shave it off the PASTA page 89

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Call Me "Gardener" contributors@theatlantic.com (Rachael Brown) (Food :: The Atlantic) Submitted at 4/7/2010 6:04:06 AM

Rachael Brown A few weeks ago, I came home from work to find my husband at the stove, stirring a fragrant pan of garlic and eggplant, and grinning triumphantly. "We got a plot!" he proudly announced. "Excuse me?" I responded. Apparently, almost nine months earlier, Bryan had placed our names on the waiting list at Twin Oaks, the community garden a few blocks from our apartment in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. A spot had finally opened up. We were going to garden. First, a little bit about usâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I'm an Atlantic fact checker, and Bryan works in public radio. We've been married about seven months, and have lived in D.C. for almost five years. Neither of us has ever really gardened before, and we have, in fact, killed several basil and thyme plants on our tiny apartment window sill. But we do enjoy cooking. When we first moved to D.C., Bryan worked part-time for Fresh Farm Markets, the organization that runs the Dupont Circle and White House farmers' markets, among others. He got to know a number of area farmers and food activists, which increased our knowledge and interest in local, sustainable

farming. Trying to grow our own food was the logical next step. But I had a few reservations. First, our few forays into window boxes had taught me that amateur gardening can become expensive very quickly. And I worried that the garden would become more of a chore than a hobby. We have a difficult enough time prying ourselves out of bed to go to the gymâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;were we realistically going to add watering and weeding to our morning routine? Over dinner that night, we

settled on a plan. To offset the initial costs (a $30 garden fee, seeds and starter plants, organic fertilizers, etc.), we'll try to make the garden a significant source of our summer produce. Of course, in order for that to happen, we need things to actually grow. So we decided to arm ourselves with research, talk to other urban gardeners to learn from their successes, and try to pick hardy, productive crops that can survive the hot, humid, D.C. summer. And then we'll pray. Not surprisingly, we discovered a vast wealth of resources for

novice gardeners on the Web. A friend with a thriving vegetable patch (in the summer it looks like Whole Foods exploded in his backyard) pointed us to a handy planting guide from the Virginia Cooperative Extension to help us track the region's growing periods and planting dates. The D.C. Urban Gardeners blog contains a multitude of useful links for metro-area gardeners, even if it unfortunately no longer appears to be regularly updated. I also spent some time reading through the archives of Get Rich Slowly's year-long gardening

project, in which a personal finance blogger tracked all of his family's garden work and spending, and found they were able to save hundreds of dollars by growing their own vegetables. That weekend, we walked over to check out our plot. Twin Oaks was founded in 1965, making it one of D.C.'s oldest community gardens. It includes a north lot and a south lot, divided by a residential street. A brightly painted shed and picnic tables look inviting, if a bit weather-worn, and both lots are fenced in and secured with rusty combination locks of the sort you might find on high school gym lockers. We had been walking past it for years without knowing exactly who ran it or how to get involved. I found out later from Paul, the current garden board president, that originally Twin Oaks was a children's garden run by the District, but as funding shrunk over the years the space opened up to volunteers from the neighborhood, who have slowly taken over its operation. This year marks the first that the entire garden has been rented out to local residents, and roughly 75 people have signed on to garden in 63 spaces, including 12 larger plots for people who actually know what CALL page 89

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"fries" made entirely out of rice, and we try a plate of fried cauliflower in curry, mint, and fish sauce that is absolutely bonkersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;reminiscent of the caramel popcorn that comes in large metal bins around Christmas, but this is light, slightly fluffy, and not too sweet. Chang is the junk food master for food junkies. Throughout our meal, we are plied with wine from Chang's extremely young and exceedingly talented sommelier, Christina Turley. (Full disclosure: Turley is an old friend. But I can still, journalistic integrity intact, call her exceedingly talented. That she's very young is simply a fact.) The wines go with the food not just gastronomically but culturally. There's a

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Sauvingnon Blanc that looks and tastes nothing like a Sauvingnon Blanc in the same way Chang and his crew make cauliflower taste nothing like cauliflower. The wine is cloudy and orangish and sweet and crisp, kind of like a Riesling but not quite. It's made by Abe Schoener, who runs a label called the Scholium Project, and he calls this wine The Prince in His Caves, after the Prince of Venosa, who is said to have believed so fervently in his craft that he tore up his vines and stashed his wine in caves after he stopped being a vintner. As Turley tells us the story, it strikes me as particularly fitting that Chang and Schoener and the Prince of Venosa have found each other: they all make their weird and wonderful creations

without compromise. But how they've found each other in Midtown, of all places, is puzzling. Here, it's all about compromise. Whether you're a businessman out for a power lunch or a tourist here to see a show, you likely aren't in town, or at least in this part of town, for a culinary experience. As Turley puts it: "We won't do substitutions or leave out ingredients. We're going to have to say no to people who are used to hearing yes all the time. In this neighborhood, will that work out? We'll just have to see ..."

they are doing and would like extra space. Some volunteers use their plots to grow produce for local nonprofits, like D.C. Central Kitche n and Bread for the City, or run partnerships with nearby elementary schools. The plot we were assigned is a corner space on the north side of the garden, and is about 11 feet by 14 feet. When we found it, the ground was strewn with hay and the remnants of last year's plants; a few yellowed carrot tops and some floppy clumps of green onions peeked out here and there. Branches and dried leaves covered a healthy growth of weeds. Squirrels chased each other through the undergrowth. Standing next to Bryan, looking at the empty bit of earth in front of us, I began to feel very, very excited.

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whole cured roe sack at home, it's pretty powerfully tasty stuff. I'm sure pasta with bottarga isn't for everyone, but anyone who's into full-flavored, slightly -strange-to-the-averageAmerican-palate things like anchovies or wild mushrooms will probably like it. It's not like it's really all that "strong" or anything ... it's just got that sort of big league flavor that probably won't sit well with everyone, but that's probably

So here we go. Over the next few months, I'll be posting regular updates on our planning, planting, tending, and (hopefully) harvesting on the Atlantic Food Channel. Along the way, I hope to solicit advice and feedback from the readers here, many of whom probably know a great deal more than Bryan and I do when it comes to making a beet or some peppers remarkably appear from soil. I'll also be looking into the social and cultural role that community gardens can play in urban neighborhoods, particularly ones where most residents don't have access to outdoor space of their own. So please, wish us luck, give us your thoughts, and stay tuned.

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true for a lot of what we serve and sell. To me it's got a really compelling, exotic flavor: earthy, slightly salty, and someone will probably say sexy so I'll beat them to it by saying it myself. In the jar and in the fridge, bottarga keeps fine pretty much forever, so it's an easy thing to have on hand. If I have my notes right, Nancy Harmon Jenkins called it "caviar for pasta lovers." And a little bit goes a

long way. As Vanessa Sly said tuna roe, but I'll take all the help very astutely, bottarga brings "a I can get! great amount of flavor per NEXT: A recipe for pasta with square inch." When he was up bottarga here last year, Efisio was talking PAGES: 1 2 to me about the bottarga: "When I take a bit it really reminds me of the ocean, of Sardinia." Especially this time of year, when there's not a whole lot of sun showing up around these parts and laying on the beach seems very far away. I don't know if there's any vitamin D in