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Is Venezuela the new Cuba? Andrew Cawthorne (Front Row Washington) Submitted at 4/28/2010 3:26:27 PM

It takes a brave man to mention the word Cuba among certain company in Venezuela. For detractors of President Hugo Chavez, the island is synonymous with all they dislike in their country– the swing to socialism in the last decade; Chavez’s alliance with Fidel Castro; the stifling of private industry; and an increasingly authoritarian political system. So it is impossible in Caracas opposition circles to have any sort of rational conversation about Cuba — everything is seen through the perspective of Chavez. You like anything about Cuba, you think there’s any merit in anything on the island like its health or education services, then you’re ’comunista’. For diehard “Chavistas”, it’s

precisely the opposite. Cuba’s free health and school services, its record on sending volunteers around the world, and its thousands of workers in Venezuela, are to them a model of south-south cooperation. You think Fidel Castro failed to carry through the ideals of his revolution, turned the island into a dictatorship? You’re obviously a Yankee agent. Yet one also gets the impression that many in the Chavista rank-and-file, while loyal to their man, are slightly embarrassed by the Cuba connection. Certainly the applause is getting lighter every time Chavez stops a speech to salute Fidel and the Cuban revolution. They love Chavez, but they don’t want Venezuela to turn into Cuba. Chavez famously said in the past Venezuela was heading towards the same “sea of happiness” as Cuba, and President Raul Castro said this

as sweeping and sudden in their scope. And there’s no escaping the fact that Venezuela remains, in many ways, a deeply capitalist society – even among high-ranking Chavez officials, who have flourished in banking, food, construction and other businesses. Then there’s the media. While Chavez has certainly taken a tough line on private media, every day brings a new torrent of criticism and mockery against him in newspapers and on month that the two nations were lengthy periods in both nations, airwaves. So while Chavez has now “the same thing”, united believe me, there are no trite or forever. e a s y a n s w e r s ! T h e n e w undoubtedly inherited Fidel But beyond the rhetoric, just “Socialism or Death!” banners Castro’s mantle as the main how close a path to Cuba is in Venezuela certainly remind rhetorical thorn in Washington’s Venezuela taking? Does it pose m e o f H a v a n a , w h i l e t h e side, Venezuela has not yet dangers, as a retired Venezuelan political structure seems to be metamorphosed into Cuba by a general told Reuters this week. leaning ever more closely to the long way. But could it still? Or does the model bring C u b a n model. T h e Reuters photographs by Jorge tangible benefits, such as cheap nationalizations in Venezuela S i l v a ( C a r a c a s p o s t e r food like Venezuelans enjoy in h a v e , o f c o u r s e , b e e n showing Chavez and Castro, their“Socialist Arepera”? reminiscent of those after the Chavez arrives at military As someone who has lived for 1959 Cuban revolution, but not parade April 13, 2010)

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Poisoning at the G-8? Laura Bush says that was a concern in 2007 David Alexander (Front Row Washington)

new memoir, “Spoken from the Heart,” which is due to be released in early May. The New Submitted at 4/28/2010 5:49:21 PM York Times and Politico Were President George W. obtained copies of the book. B u s h a n d h i s e n t o u r a g e The Group of Eight summit at poisoned at a G-8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, came Germany back in 2007? at a time when there had been Former first lady Laura Bush several high-profile poisonings says that was a big concern at in the previous year, including the time. one with suspected nuclear She made the comment in her material.

“I arrived (at the summit) and began my events but by the afternoon of (June) seventh, I could barely stand up,” Laura Bush wrote in extracts published by Politico. “Over the next day nearly a dozen members of our delegation were stricken, even George, who started to feel sick during an early morning staff meeting.”

“Exceedingly alarmed, the Secret Service went on full alert, combing the resort for potential poisons,” the former first lady wrote. Some of the reactions were severe. A military aide had difficulty walking, and a White House staffer lost hearing in one year, she said. “The overriding fear was that terrorists had gotten control of a

dangerous substance and planted it at the resort,” Laura Bush wrote. In the end, she said, the best doctors could figure was that the delegation had been hit by “a virus that attacks a nerve in the inner ear and is prevalent in Heiligendamm,” Bush wrote. Some of those affected never POISONING page 3

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POISONING continued from page 2

fully recuperated. The military aide never fully regained his normal walking gait, and the senior staffer has not regained hearing in affected ear, she said. The former first lady also publicly discussed for the first time a fatal traffic accident she had when she was 17. She said she and a girlfriend were heading to a drive-in movie in 1963 when she ran a stop sign and slammed into a vehicle driven by Mike Douglas, a star athlete and popular student at her school. Laura Bush wrote that she was wracked by guilt for years after, especially for not attending the funeral or reaching out to the boy’s family, the Times reported. She said even as her car flew into the air, she was praying the other driver would be OK. “I lost my faith that November, lost it for many, many years,” she wrote. “It was the first time

that I had prayed to God for something, begged him for something, not the simple childhood wishing on a star but humbly begging for another human life. And it was as if no one heard.” Bush said that while she has encouraged young drivers involved in accidents to speak to counselors about it, “I didn’t do any of that.” “Most of how I ultimately coped with the crash was by trying not to talk about it, not to think about it, to put it aside. Because there wasn’t anything I could do. Even if I tried,” she said. The former first lady takes some of her husband’s political opponents to task for their comments about him. She also talks a little undiplomatically about some U.S. allies. “The royal family is not without its quirks,” she observed. She told a story of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of

Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:15:50 AM

Stony247 buzzed up: 6 out of 10 migrant women raped in Mexico, activists say (McClatchy Newspapers)

Will this be another 1994? Submitted at 4/28/2010 1:40:49 PM

Democrats and Republicans have been fighting over just about everything. They fought over healthcare reform, the Democrats won its passage. Now they’re fighting over (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed) financial regulation reform in a Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:00:00 AM skirmish being pitched as Wall Street versus Main Street. No (more info) winner yet. 3 m i n u t e s a g o 2 0 1 0 - 0 4 - Five Filters featured article: All the battles have one thing in 29T09:15:43-07:00 Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: common — an underlying goal Five Filters featured article: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, i s t o w i n t h e N o v e m b e r Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Term Extraction. congressional election. PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, But the latest Washington Term Extraction. Post/ABC News poll suggests that regardless of who is

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Cornwall, coming for a visit. “They requested glasses of ice before we began a long receiving line,” she wrote. “The staff dutifully produced them, and the prince removed a flask from his pocket and added to each a small splash of what I presume was straight gin, so that they might be fortified before the hour of shaking hands.” For more Reuters political news, click here. Photo credit: Reuters/Christian Charisius (Laura Bush signs bricks at a ceremony on June 7, 2007, in Wismar, Germany, during the G-8 summit. Bush writes in her memoir that by the afternoon of that day she was so ill she could barely stand); Reuters/Jim Young (The Bushes Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row as they depart for Germany in Washington) 2007)

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winning the tussle of the moment, many voters just want the incumbents gone. The poll indicates it is the most anti-incumbent electorate since 1994, with less than a third of voters surveyed saying they are inclined to support their representatives in Congress in the November election, the Post said. Back then, voters gave many Democratic congressional incumbents the boot, ushering in the Republican Revolution. Will this November bring another revolution? Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Opponents of healthcare bill in March)

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Eliot Spitzer loved politics, so will he Giant Nasa balloon run again? crashes to earth during take-off Tabassum Zakaria (Front Row Washington)

(World News from Times Online)

Submitted at 4/28/2010 12:50:48 PM

This much is clear -- Eliot Spitzer loved politics, he loved being New York governor, he loved being New York attorney general. So will he run for public office again? Well here it gets a little bit like watching a tennis ball going back and forth over the net. Asked at the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit whether he was considering running for office again, Spitzer replied "No." But had he ruled it out? The answer from the Democrat was not quite as precise. "I'm not yet ready to throw in the towel," he said, joking (we think) that it's like the goal of winning Wimbledon. "You never quite give up on anything and rule things off the map. And so have I said I'm never running for office again? No. Have I said am I thinking about it at this moment? No. Did I love politics? Yes. Did I grow up at the age of 2 saying it's the only thing I want to do with my life? No."

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Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:02:36 AM

(Where is that decoder ring when you need it?) "I loved it. I enjoyed it. Tried to do good things, did some, didn't do others." Does he think people have started to forgive and forget? "I have no idea. I don't venture to surmise anything in that regard," Spitzer said. That was of course in reference to his political downfall after being caught in a prostitution scandal in 2008 that involved federal wiretaps, emails and text messages. And while Spitzer on

Wednesday did not specifically mention the scandal, it was clear at least one lesson had been learned. "I can tell you if I never send another email, I'll be a happy guy," he said. "When I give speeches occasionally, I say to people -- let me give you one piece of useful advice, don't touch your Blackberry ever again, it will get you into trouble." Photo credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid (Spitzer at Reuters Summit)

A giant Nasa science balloon crashed during take-off in Australia today, destroying its multi-million-dollar payload, toppling a large car and narrowly missing frightened observers. Dramatic footage of the incident showed the balloon’s large undercarriage coming loose from its moorings, smashing through a fence and knocking a four-wheel-drive car on its side before coming to rest. “We were sitting in our car and preparing to move it out of the way and we actually were within a foot of being wiped out,” a bystander said. “If it hadn’t been for the other gentleman’s car being there, we’d be somewhere else by now, I think." The balloon, the size of a football field when inflated and designed to float up to 40 kilometres high, deep in the stratosphere, fluttered back down to the Alice Springs launch site after it came loose.

Witnesses said they were asked to move out of the way before the load, containing expensive scientific instruments, was suddenly dragged across the launch site. “We started moving the cars and just barely made it out without getting smashed,” one witness said. “[There was] debris flying through the air everywhere,” said another. “That was it, just an instance of chaos outside." Scientists last week completed a similar balloon flight to measure X-rays and gamma rays sent out by various stars and galaxies from deep in the Earth’s atmosphere. Ravi Sood, director of the Alice Springs Balloon Launching Centre, said scientists involved in the Nasa-sponsored project were extremely disappointed. “Ballooning, that’s the way it happens on occasions but it is very, very disappointing. Gutwrenching actually,” he said. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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The greatest blow to Swiss national pride: Heidi may be German

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some of the ideas, phrasing and narrative structure from the work of Hermann Adam von Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:07:00 AM Kamp, a 19th-century German Switzerland’s international from Mülheim, now a smokey image has been taking a un-Heidiesque place. His battering. Banking secrecy is a Adelaide, the Girl from the t h i n g o f t h e p a s t . T h e Alps, was written fifty years traditionally tolerant nation has earlier and even angry Swiss voted to ban minarets. Even critics admit that Spyri may Swiss army knives, the Alpine have read the book. republic’s contribution to global “I immediately noticed the same security, are confiscated and narrative structure: a little girl binned at airports. brought up by her grandfather, But the Swiss have always been who left her homeland and grew able to count on Heidi. The unhappy abroad until she could frisky fictional orphan has been come home,” says Mr Buettner. hopping and skipping down The name Heidi derives from mountain slopes ever since Adelaide or Adelheid. Some of J o h a n n a S p y r i w r o t e h e r the vocabulary is very similar. children’s book in 1880 — Adelaide picks violets. Heidi Heidi’s innocence and love of gathers up unspecified flowers. the Alps, her modesty and her Adelaide’s cheeks “glow red”. love of her grandfather are So too do Heidi’s. regarded as quintessentially And at least one key scene from Swiss. the German work re-surfaces in “Heidi is the most prominent the Swiss classic. In the German Swiss brand in the world,” says version Adelaide is offered a the film producer Lukas Hobi, b a g o f m o n e y b y h e r who is making a 3D film about g r a n d f a t h e r . the pig-tailed heroine, a kind of “O, keep it for yourself, said Avatar with goats. Adelaide. I don’t go shopping. The problem is that Heidi may And you give me so much.” in fact be German. According to The Swiss classic has an almost the German (but Zurich-based) identical exchange. researcher Peter Buettner, “ I r e a l l y d o n ’ t n e e d i t Johanna Spyri may have lifted grandfather, said Heidi ... take

it, take it and put it in the cupboard, you will surely need it.” Naturally Swiss parents linger on this passage when reading to their children: it may just have been the last time that a Swiss child turned down a cash present from a relative. So is Heidi about to go the way of other Swiss icons, devalued by the Germans, their more powerful northern neighbours? Tensions are already running high. It has been the Germans who have been most active in cracking open Swiss banking secrecy, buying up apparently stolen files of numbered accounts belonging to taxdodging German clients. One German minister suggested that Berlin’s role was to act as the US cavalry riding out to bring order among the Apaches. The Swiss did not like the image. And they are furious about German claims on Heidi. It is true that Heidi was written in a hurry — four weeks — but it was 300 pages long compared with von Kamp’s slender 30 pages. The literary critic of the earnest Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Sieglinde Geisel, called the Heidi-knocking “pseudoscientific bean-counting”. Mr

Buettner himself was careful to avoid the word “plagiarism”. He calls it “inter-textuality” — an inspiration. Whether that academic term will save Mr Buettner’s skin when he visits the Swiss village of Maienfeld remains to be seen. The village markets itself as Heidi-land and the owner of the theme park there, Andreas von Sprecher, argues that both works simply reflected a phenomenon of the time: the urbanisation of children born in the mountains. “It was a well-known feature at the time, when children from rural areas were sent to the cities,” he says. Homesickness and the possibility of finding happiness in the fresh pure air in the company of friends, family and animals are themes that run through central European children’s literature in the 19th century. Mr Buettner, suddenly aware that he has chipped away at a Swiss heroine, emphasises: “I never wanted to take Heidi away from the Swiss.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 4/29/2010 4:51:44 AM

Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Credit mark-down adds to Spanish workers' woes (World News from Times Online)

own country. With 20 per cent of the workforce scrambling for fewer Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:02:58 AM and fewer jobs and the country S p a i n ’ s c r e d i t r a t i n g mired in the deepest recession downgrade, towering public for decades, many are running deficit and debt crisis do not out of hope. mean that much to Santos Everyone knows someone who Yubero. All this 55-year-old is out of work in Spain and all from Madrid cares about is fear the moment when the getting a job, after two years on unemployment benefit ends. the dole. The charity Cáritas Española W i t h h i s u n e m p l o y m e n t said that the number of people benefits about to end, Mr seeking emergency help after Yubero — like many others in their benefits had ended rose by Spain — is desperate. 28.4 per cent last year. The “Today like every day in the last charity admitted that the high months, I woke up with the n u m b e r o f u n e m p l o y e d economic news and it does not immigrants had caused some impress me,” he wrote in a letter tensions with Spaniards who to El Mundo newspaper today. were competing for the same “I know that we are going to jobs. have more poor and I will never Sebastián Mora, the charity’s have a job which sustains me. secretary-general, said: “As a For two months I have had no consequence of the recession, interview. I could write more we have noticed some incidents but I almost shout — ‘I want to of xenophobic behaviour.” be French’.” Today, a red line coursed For Mr Yubero this desire to through the famous Spanish live in richer country such as bull, signifying the fall in the France is not some flight of Madrid Bolsa after the country fancy. Instead, like perhaps the was downgraded by the ratings 4 million others out of work in agency Standard & Poor’s. Spain, he sees little future in his The cartoon in the Spanish

daily El Mundo was just one among many that sought to make play of the country’s declining fortunes after its onenote reduction to AA status. S&P forecast average Spanish annual growth of just 0.7 per cent from 2010 to 2016. With a public deficit of 11.2 per cent of gross domestic product debt which equals 53 per cent of economic output, Spain is viewed as weak in the face of market pressures and could face the same future as Greece. S&P said that it was lowering the country’s long-term sovereign credit rating by one notch to AA from AA+ because Spain was “likely to have an extended period of subdued economic growth, which weakens its budgetary position”. The agency also said that its outlook for Spain was negative and the country could face another downgrade, a decision that sent the euro plunging to a one-year low against the dollar and European stock markets falling. Spain’s Socialist Government sought to mount a swift counter attack, in an effort to restore the

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confidence of the markets. José Manuel Campa, the Economy Secretary, said today that the S&P estimate for Spanish growth was “clearly below estimates made not only by the Government but by national and international analysts as well”. The Government predicts growth of 0.3 per cent this year followed by 1.8 per cent in 2011. José Lluis Rodriguez Zapatero’s Government has implemented a €50 billion austerity package in an effort to cut the deficit to 3 per cent in 2013. However, the Prime Minister has shied away from reforms of the country’s strict labour laws which many in the business community claim harm competitiveness, make it expensive to dismiss employees and mean half the workforce have unstable, temporary jobs. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Kindle Upgrades Curt Hopkins (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/28/2010 11:51:00 PM

A software update for Kindle and Kindle DX is on deck, according to Amazon. Kindle Version 2.5 will provide pan and zoom for PDFs, allow you to assemble your books into collections and to use larger, sharper fonts. Interestingly, you will be able to post selections from your reading to Facebook and to Twitter directly from your Kindle. Sponsor "We are rolling out the new software update to a limited group of Kindle users and plan a broad release in late May 2010," said Amazon. Given that Amazon sells six Kindle books for every 10 paper books, an innovation in the most popular e-reader effects an increasingly-significant number of books and readers. Physical books rarely change all at once as an e-reader does. Interesting to see how development changes in ever-changing hardware change the reading PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, experience, if they do. Read more on the Kindle at Term Extraction. ReadWriteWeb. Photo by Austin Evan Discuss

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Analysis: Violent crimes ‘a cry for attention in a harsh society’

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Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

lover and disdained by her wealthy family. Or what of Xu Yuyuan who rampaged Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:43:00 AM yesterday through a Violent crime is rare in China. kindergarten wielding a 9in Two brutal knife attacks in two knife against four-year-olds. days on classrooms full of It is not yet known whether Mr children not yet 10 years old Xu was mentally unstable, but have shocked the nation. he was certainly effectively What is especially disturbing is jobless. No safety net exists any that, only a month ago, a man l o n g e r i n C h i n a f o r t h e jilted by his girlfriend stabbed to unemployed, the sick or the old. death eight children at a school Society’s weakest have had to gate. People are asking why fend for themselves since such brutal crimes are taking m a r k e t - o r i e n t e d e c o n o m i c place and why children are the reforms begun three decades targets. ago ended cradle-to-grave state The attackers fall quite neatly care. into two categories — the Aggrieved at being poor or left m e n t a l l y i l l a n d t h o s e behind or without means in a marginalised by society. system where those with China has the world’s largest connections make good, these population, at 1.3 billion, seeing attackers have harboured a rage one of the greatest economic that explodes into murderous transformations in history and violence. enormous consequent social China is a country ill-equipped dislocations. Simply, the rich to deal with social misfits. are getting richer and the poor International studies show that are being left behind. as many as 170 million people T a k e Z h e n g M i n s h e n g , in China may have mental executed on Wednesday for illnesses, but facilities to care killing eight children on March for them are almost non-existent 23. He complained in court that or else they are stigmatised and he had been spurned by his marginalised.

For those who are simply angry, attacking children is certain to grab the attention of a Government that pays them little heed. Yu Jianrong of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has said that China’s sweeping social changes might be to blame for such attacks. “A social environment lacking fairness and justice — in which those who abide by the rules gain nothing, while those who do not can profit — could bring about resistance by the weak against the entire society,” he said recently. Ma Ai, a professor of criminal psychology at the University of Political Science and Law, said that the element of “copycat” crimes was significant. The attackers, he said, hope the public will pay attention to their hatred and dissatisfaction with society. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPad Last week, the folks from Ars Technica got a chance to stop by Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, CA. They kindly asked a question that many of us RTS gamers have been wondering about ever since the iPad was released: Is there any chance that we'll be getting StarCraft to play on the iPad? Sure, there are lots of games we'd like to play on Apple's revolutionary device. Real-time strategy seems a perfect fit for a touch interface, though, and when you talk about RTS, you're talking about StarCraft. Either a port of the old game, or maybe even a few teaser levels for the new version would be awesome to see in the App Store. Unfortunately, it's not in the cards quite yet. StarCraft II's lead designer, Dustin Browder says it's not beyond the realm of possibility at some point, but the team is "certainly not working on it now." Like all of us, they're intrigued by the idea of the iPad, but they aren't quite convinced that it's ideal for their gameplay. "It's possible that's a control scheme that would work for us," Browder says. "It's possible that it isn't... we're not

going to put it out there just to make a couple bucks." That's a shame, because I'd definitely pay a couple of bucks for it. Still, the iPad is new, and Blizzard hasn't sworn off the device. Browder says that they, polishers and perfectionists that they are, would rather focus on matching experiences to devices rather than the other way around. That's fine, then. Command & Conquer isn't really what we expected from a marquis title. Hopefully someone else will come along and provide a premiere RTS experience on Apple's tablet. TUAW Blizzard hasn't looked at the iPad for StarCraft originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Miss. tornado couple receives wedding dress, trip (AP)

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about 700 homes as it plowed nearly 150 miles through state. Submitted at 4/29/2010 4:49:27 AM Left with few belongings JACKSON, Miss. – Days after beyond the clothes they were a tornado obliterated their home wearing, Hayden and Moton and delayed their wedding, a delayed their plans to go to Mississippi bride and groom say Little Rock, Ark., on Monday they feel blessed by the kindness for a small, informal wedding. of strangers, including the gift H a y d e n s a i d s h e h a d n o t of a wedding dress from a jilted purchased a wedding dress but bride in Kentucky. was planning to wear something "I think it's great, because I from her closet. never really expected this much Katie Smith, 20, who lives near help," Morgan Hayden said Louisville, Ky., said she read Wednesday from a hotel in her a b o u t t h e c o u p l e i n a n hometown of Yazoo City. Associated Press article and Hayden, 27, and her 31-year- decided to find Hayden and old fiance, Josiah Moton, offer her the dress. huddled in their bathroom with Smith said she had planned to three relatives Saturday when a marry this summer, but her tornado blew apart the house the fiance from England broke their couple had helped build a few engagement last month. months ago in a wooded area "Honestly, it still hurts like just outside town. The storm left h e l l , " S m i t h t o l d t h e A P them homeless — but uninjured. Wednesday. "But life goes on." The National Weather Service Smith said she has been trying said the tornado was 1.75 miles to give away the wedding items w i d e — a r e c o r d f o r she'd already purchased, Mississippi. It killed 10 people, including the dress she bought injured at least 49 and damaged on sale for $350. She described

the gown as "the perfect combination of innocent and slightly seductive," with plenty of ribbons and lace. Hayden accepted the offer, and Smith said she mailed the dress Tuesday. "I know every girl wants to look pretty on her wedding day," Smith said. An executive at a resort in the Bahamas also said Wednesday that he had read the AP article and the resort offered the couple a honeymoon when they're ready for it. Rick English, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Baha Mar Ltd., said the resort will provide two round-trip air tickets and five nights with an ocean-view room "as kind of a way to make some new memories and help them get past what happened." Moton said he and Hayden accepted the honeymoon offer Wednesday. "I think it was wonderful. I really do," Moton said. Hundreds of tornado survivors

in Mississippi are getting help from strangers. Charities are providing meals and bottled water. Church groups, civic groups and random people from in state and out of state are in the storm-damaged areas to cut fallen trees and clear debris. Hayden works for a company that collects child-support payments under a contract for the state, and Moton was laid off from his job as a house painter in December. They have four children. Hayden said a homeowners' insurance policy is paying hotel expenses for a week, and she and Moton hope to move into an apartment. She said they'll reschedule the wedding when life becomes somewhat normal again, and the ceremony will probably be in Yazoo City. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:00:00 AM

That’s the question I’ve been asking myself all day? I just don’t get it. He had the best performance Tuesday night and should have been completely safe. It really makes me wonder what’s going on with this show. I really hope America gets on board the Casey James train soon. I don’t want him to go home. I’d much rather see Aaron or Lee leave first. As I predicted, Siobhan was voted out. While she has a great voice, I think her quirkiness simply became a bit tiresome. Plus she never really ascended to the level of awesomeness of, say, Adam Lambert—my favorite Idol of all time!—Angela Ebron Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

'Fringe' Musical Episode: The Cast Sings! Dances! Kelly Woo (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:00:00 AM

'Fringe: The Musical'? Gotta be a joke, right? Even star Jasika Nicole couldn't believe it when she got a script that had singing

and dancing. Nicole and her fellow castmates had "joked about it a lot," she told TV Squad on the Vancouver set a few weeks ago. " I didn't think it was really going to happen!" Oh, it's happening.

Tonight's'Fringe' installment, 'Brown Betty,' features the entire cast in musical performances. It's all part of "Fox Rocks," a week in which the network's shows incorporate music into their episodes. The

spooky 'Fringe' might seem the least likely of all Fox's shows to turn into a musical -- but not when you think about how loony-tunes Walter Bishop (John Noble) can be. Watch our video Q&A with

stars Nicole, Lance Reddick and Blair Brown to get the scoop. Filed under: Video, Interviews, Reality-Free, Fringe Permalink| Email this| | Comments

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Thai troops struggle to contain Bangkok protests (Reuters: Top News) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:34:05 AM

BANGKOK(Reuters) - Thai authorities said on Thursday they would intensify efforts to contain anti-government protests in Bangkok, a day after a soldier was killed in the latest clash of a campaign to force early elections. World| Thailand The "red shirt" supporters of ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra remained defiant in their makeshift encampment in the capital after skirmishes with Thai troops on Wednesday on a busy highway in Bangkok's northern suburb wounded 19 people. "We are ready for them to come to get us. Let's see how many of us they have to kill to satisfy them," said Saman Chantikul, a 50-year-old fruit seller who was among thousands occupying Bangkok's upscale shopping district for nearly a month. "We are not going anywhere until this government listens to us." Seven weeks of increasingly violent protests and their economic toll on Southeast Asia's second-largest economy are piling more pressure on Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to end the crisis that has killed 27 people and paralyzed Bangkok. Army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd told Reuters

troops at checkpoints on roads leading into the area would stop people bringing in weapons and might discourage more from going in. But red shirt leader Weng Tojirakarn said he expected more protesters to join the mostly rural and urban poor movement seeking to throw the government out. "We believe victory is near," he said to loud cheers from thousands in their encampment behind medievallike barricades made of tires, bamboo poles and chunks of concrete. APPEAL TO THE EU About 100 protesters on Thursday entered Chulalongkorn Hospital, which lies alongside their encampment. A witness said they were looking for troops they suspected were stationed inside. They later left the building. With neither side showing any sign of compromise, analysts expect the stalemate to go on with potential flashpoints ahead. "The army appears to be applying pressure a little at a time, and at the end, there may still be room for a political compromise. But we will have to see who caves first," said Somjai Phagaphasvivat, a professor at Thammasat University. Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban acknowledged to reporters on Thursday it would

be hard to forcibly eject the red shirts because many women and children are among them. Red shirt leaders appealed to the European Union to send observers to Bangkok to prevent a violent crackdown in a letter they handed to EU Ambassador David Lipman at his office. In the letter, they said were open to negotiations. Lipman called for "constructive dialogue and a negotiated solution to the current political crisis through peaceful and democratic means." Thailand has insisted the deepening crisis is an internal affair. The foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday it was concerned about the visits diplomats have made to the protest site "which could be misconstrued as the rally is illegal" and many of the protest leaders have arrest warrants against them. Thailand's central bank on Thursday projected economic growth this year of 4.3-5.8 percent. But a squeeze on consumption, tourism and investment from the protests shaved nearly a percentage point off the forecast, the bank said. [ID:nSGE63S0DH] Thai stocks ended up 0.5 percent, compared with slight falls in neighboring markets.[ID:nSGE63S03E] But Kim Eng Securities, Thailand's top brokerage, said investors may be underestimating the impact unrest is having on

economic growth. "With 60 percent of GDP growth hinging on consumption, there is downside risk," it said. The violence has had a devastating effect on Thailand's tourism industry, which accounts for 6 percent of the economy and 15 percent of the workforce. Arrivals at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport have fallen by a third since violence broke out. RETURN OF THE YELLOW SHIRTS About 300 supporters from a rival protest group, the "yellow shirts," went to the prime minister's office to demand military action to disperse the red shirts. "The red shirts have created a state within a state and they are getting away with it with impunity," said Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the group who closed down Bangkok's main airport for a week in late 2008 and helped bring down a pro-Thaksin government. "The authorities must put an end to this." Wednesday's bloodshed flared after 2,000 red shirts moved out of the central shopping area in a "mobile rally." Fighting erupted on a crowded highway 40 km (25 miles) north of central Bangkok when security forces barred their way. Troops fired rubber bullets and live rounds, first in the air and then into the charging protesters,

Reuters witnesses said. Suthep, the deputy prime minister, said any similar rally would meet the same response. "We are going to have to adjust our plans," protest leader Nattawut Saikua told Reuters. "Mobile rallies are going to be dangerous, so we have to think carefully before going out again." Hopes of a deal to end the violence faded after Britishborn, Oxford-educated Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva last weekend rejected a red shirt proposal for an election in three months, saying he would not negotiate in the face of threats. The red shirts oppose what they say is the unelected royalist elite that controls Thailand and broadly back Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 but before that built up a following among the poor through rural development and welfare policies. The former telecoms tycoon was convicted in absentia on corruption-related charges and lives abroad to avoid jail. (Additional reporting by the Bangkok bureau; Writing by Bill Tarrant; editing by Jason Szep) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Greece readies austerity measures, markets steady (Reuters: Top News)

after meeting the Greek prime minister to discuss the salvage plan. ATHENS(Reuters) - Greece "This will acutely burden r e a d i e d s e v e r e a u s t e r i t y people, and what is worse, measures Thursday to secure a unfairly," he added. multi-billion euro aid package Sources familiar with the talks n e e d e d t o a v o i d d e f a u l t , said officials were expected to providing relief to financial announce the details of a threemarkets but drawing threats of a year package by Monday, mighty battle from Greek ending months of uncertainty. unions. That was enough to spark a A union official said the relief rally in markets fearful of International Monetary Fund contagion across the eurozone. had asked debt-ladden Greece to The euro rose timidly, raise sales taxes, scrap salary rebounding from a one-year low bonuses amounting to two extra set the previous day, peripheral months of pay in the public euro zone bond yield premiums sector and accept a three-year eased and the cost of insuring pay freeze. riskier debt dropped on hopes an IMF, European Union and accord was imminent. European Central Bank officials Crucially, German resistance are in Athens to negotiate what appeared to weaken following a could be the largest bailout in wave of dire warnings that a history and hope to wrap up a Greek default could sink the deal within days in an effort to euro and stymie a fledgling prevent the debt crisis from recovery across the continent. sinking other fragile EU states. Germany's largest opposition But Germany has expressed party, the Social Democrats deep reservations in recent (SPD), said it was ready to weeks at the thought of handing move quickly to support a Greek over loans to a profligate aid package, but said it also G r e e c e , w h i c h p r e v i o u s l y wanted banks to help out. m i s l e d p a r t n e r s o v e r i t s "We will do what is necessary to catastrophic finances, and is make up for lost time and get a demanding fierce budget rigour quick decision in the German in return for any cash. Bundestag next week," SPD "We realized we stand before a parliamentary leader Frankdone deal," complained Ilias Walter Steinmeier said in Iliopoulos, general secretary of Berlin. public sector union ADEDY CLOSING RANKS Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:33:44 AM

The gravity of the Greek crisis became apparent weeks ago, but EU leaders were slow to react, promising vaguely to help but only really moving when markets dived and other heavily indebted nations, like Portugal and Spain, were threatened. French President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted Thursday that France and Germany were working in tandem to resolve the crisis. "We're in perfect agreement," he said during a trip to China, adding that Greece's economic plan was "perfectly credible." However, it remained to be seen whether Greece's powerful trade unions and army of public sector workers were ready to accept the bitter medicine being prepared for them. Unions have called a series of strikes in the days ahead, potentially complicating efforts to drive through fresh cuts. A protest rally Tuesday drew about 2,000 people. "It's a disaster! The government has crossed the line. We can't live this way," said Despina Spanou, member of public sector union ADEDY's board. "We will fight these measures with all our might, because this is a battle for survival." Opinion polls show most Greeks object to the involvement of the EU and IMF and two thirds believe there will

be unrest. But local markets appeared confident the deal would work. The Athens bourse's banking index jumped 13.09 percent, rebounding from losses incurred in the previous days and the general Athens index gained 7.14 percent. German politicians have said the package could be worth 100120 billion euros ($133-160 billion) over three years against an original plan for 45 billion euros of aid in 2010. Some of the money will come from the IMF but the bulk would have to come from other euro zone countries, many of them struggling with their own spiraling deficits, and it wasn't clear how they would finance such a deal. TIME FOR A RETHINK Concerns over the Greek crisis prompted global investors to cut back holdings of euro zone government bonds, although no such flight has yet to occur with the region's stocks, Reuters polls showed. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet called Thursday not just for a deal on Greece, but also a revamp of Europe's fiscal rules and more intense surveillance of governments' finances. "The weak points of past multilateral surveillance will be corrected, and the Stability and Growth Pact will be reinforced

and rigorously applied in its letter and in its spirit," Trichet said in a speech at the Munich Economic Summit. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut Spain's credit rating Wednesday, a day after downgrading Portugal and slashing Greece to junk status. Spooked by the cut, Portugal announced it would speed up its austerity strategy and said this might allow it to reduce its deficit more than expected in 2010. Meanwhile, a successful Italian bond sale seen as the first of the euro zone peripheral issuers to be tested after the S&P downgrades may have eased fears of a contagion. "This is a big vote of confidence from the market," Peter Chatwell, Rate Strategist at Credit Agricole, said. For other stories, click (Additional reporting by Dave Graham in Berlin, Jo Winterbottom in Milan, Jason Hovet in Prague, Renee Maltezou in Athens) (Writing by Crispian Balmer/Noah Barkin/Ralph Boulton; Editing by Janet McBride) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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India, Pakistan have "very good talks," signal thaw (Reuters: Top News)

searching here. The searchlight is on the future, not on the past." She said the two prime THIMPHU, Bhutan(Reuters) - ministers had asked their foreign The prime ministers of India and ministers and foreign secretaries Pakistan held "very good talks" to meet "as soon as possible to on Thursday and asked their work out the modalities for officials to take steps as soon as restoring trust" and taking the possible to normalize relations, dialogue forward. officials said, signaling an Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah unexpected thaw. Mehmood Qureshi said the World climate of talks had changed for Relations between the nuclear- the better and the two leaders a r m e d r i v a l s w e n t i n t o a had asked their officials to meet diplomatic freeze after India as frequently as possible. blamed Pakistan-based militants "I don't think either side was for the Mumbai attacks in expecting such a positive turn in November 2008. That renewed d i a l o g u e , " Q u r e s h i t o l d tension between the two and a reporters. "It was a step in the proxy war for influence had right direction and it was in the been seen as hampering U.S. led right spirit." e f f o r t s t o b r i n g p e a c e t o Both sides have been tentative Afghanistan. about meeting. There are I n d i a n P r i m e M i n i s t e r differences over the nature of M a n m o h a n S i n g h a n d h i s talks: Pakistan wants India to Pakistani counterpart Yousuf restart the broader peace process Raza Gilani met while in Bhutan it broke off after the Mumbai for a summit of South Asian attack, while India wants to go leaders, their first meeting in slow until Islamabad acts nine months. against the planners of that "The idea was on renewal of carnage. dialogue; to understand the state But Thursday's meeting of affairs," Indian Foreign signaled New Delhi was willing Secretary Nirupama Rao told a to shift from its well-entrenched news conference after the position on resuming talks with meeting. Rao saying the focus was how "There was a lot of soul- to carry the dialogue forward to Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:25:12 AM

resolve "all issues of concern." "I do not think we have to get stuck with nomenclature. Both sides agreed dialogue was the only way forward," she said when asked if these talks were not in effect resumption of the broader peace dialogue India suspended after the Mumbai attacks. Qureshi said the present round of talks were unconditional and all issues between the two countries were on the table. "The two prime ministers have agreed to resume a dialogue process that remained suspended for so many months," he said, without giving further details. PLAYING TO THE US? While Thursday's meeting showed that both sides may be willing to focus on improving ties, there are also fears that their strong domestic compulsions may stop them from making the concessions needed for a breakthrough. "This sounds good for everyone, but translating that into practice is not going to be easy because both sides are playing to the public gallery both at home and internationally," said Brahma Chellaney, a strategic affairs expert at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi.

Re-engaging Islamabad is a politically fraught move for New Delhi, given strong Indian sensibilities about Pakistan, but a nudge from Washington and dwindling diplomatic options stemming from no talks saw India reaching out. Although Singh and Gilani briefly exchanged pleasantries in Washington this month, the meeting in Thimphu was their first substantial contact since controversial talks in Egypt in July when the two agreed not to make the peace process conditional on actions against terrorism. That move was slammed by Indian opposition groups, forcing the government into the defensive on its Pakistan policy. One risk to normalising relations is that another major militant attack in India and the subsequent domestic political pressure could force the government to break off the dialogue process again. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Here's The Big Question For Fertilizer Stocks (POT, MOS) Gus Lubin (The Money Game) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:15:09 AM

Fertilizer prices are up for the year, but nothing compared to the ridiculous spike in 2008. Goldman Sachs recently kept stocks like Potash (POT) and Mosaic (MOS) at a neutral rating, while acknowledging the likelihood of summer growth from South American export orders. But the big question is whether the 2008 spike, when phosphorus prices surged 800%, is a sign of the future. Unlike other basic elements of fertilizer, phosphorus is becoming scarce. A peak in global supply -- circa 2035 -will drive up fertilizer costs. Only the very near term is uncertain. Now learn about the Phosphorus crisis > Join the conversation about this story Âť

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Steve Jobs Speaks: Why We Don't Allow Flash on iPhones and iPads Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb)

several. To sum up quickly (the full release is below), Jobs says this We were surprised to find a of Flash: long missive penned by Apple's • It's proprietary. CEO Steve Jobs posted to the • Most web video plays on the web this morning. The subject? iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad Why Apple hates Adobe Flash. • Who needs Flash games? We Ever since the Cupertino-based have apps for that. company opted to reject the • Flash has poor security. plugin-based technology from • Flash doesn't perform well on the iPhone and its Wi-Fi-only mobile devices. companion, the iPod Touch, • Flash negatively affects people have questioned and battery life. debated not just the decision • Flash was designed for PCs, itself, but the reasoning behind not touchscreens. it. Was Flash buggy? Was is a matter of it being proprietary Jobs also addresses the recent product? Did it use too much decision to ban apps built with CPU? The answer, as explained Adobe's iPhone app creation by Jobs in rich detail, is all of tool, a tool that allowed Adobe the above. Flash developers to write iPhone Sponsor apps using the skills they Why No Flash? The Bullet already had then export those Points apps to an iPhone/iPadIn a lengthy piece posted here: compatible format. Says Jobs: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/t We know from painful houghts-on-flash, Steve Jobs experience that letting a third explains all the reasons why party layer of software come Flash is not allowed on its between the platform and the mobile lineup which now developer ultimately results in includes the slate computer sub-standard apps and hinders called the iPad as well. the enhancement and progress Much of what he says has of the platform...This becomes already been suspected to be the even worse if the third party is case. Technology pundits have supplying a cross platform (correctly) reasoned that there development tool. The third isn't just one reason why Flash p a r t y m a y n o t a d o p t is not permitted in the Apple e n h a n c e m e n t s f r o m o n e mobile ecosystem, there are p l a t f o r m u n l e s s t h e y a r e Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:06:38 AM

regular site to iPad web surfers...or maybe just build an app. That decision is made even more difficult as developers must debate whether to build an iPad-friendly website where the Flash content is rendered in another iPad-compatible format or removed entirely. Or again, should they build an app? Or both? Despite "leading the way" to a v a i l a b l e o n a l l o f t h e i r the new tablet era, the iPad will supported platforms. Hence soon go up against a number of developers only have access to o t h e r t a b l e t P C s r u n n i n g the lowest common denominator everything from Windows 7 to set of features. Again, we cannot Google's mobile operating a c c e p t a n o u t c o m e w h e r e system (OS), Android, and even developers are blocked from an OS called Google Chrome using our innovations and OS, built on top of Linux but enhancements because they are with the Chrome web browser not available on our competitor's as the only interface. An platforms. Does Google Scare i m p o r t a n t s i d e n o t e h e r e : Apple? Google has now partnered with The deeper question that Adobe to bundle Flash Player remains unanswered in this into it's web browser. Buggy or missive is: why now? That is, not, Google's position appears to why share all these thoughts be that "the most widely used now after remaining silent for so web browser plug-in" (quote long? from Google's VP Engineering, Like the reasons for banning Linus Upson) should be made Flash, the reasons for Jobs available to users, not kept from revealing these sentiments are them. also multi-layered. For starters, Another issue that may have there's the iPad. Positioned as a influenced the timing of this netbook replacement, the device post: after the news about the functions in an unchartered "in- C h r o m e / F l a s h p a r t n e r s h i p between" zone where website efforts, Google's Andy Rubin owners aren't sure whether to told the New York Times just display a mobile site or the this week that Google's Android

mobile OS, currently the fastestgrowing OS on the market thanks to numerous OEM partnerships, will receive Full support for Adobe Flash in the next release, code-named Froyo (yes, for frozen yogurt - Google likes its desserts), rumored to be released at the upcoming Google I/O Conference. At the end of the day, it comes down to this: Apple is eschewing Flash in favor of open web standards - most notably, HTML5, the upcoming version of web markup language that allows plugin-free video viewing. Google, however, is in favor of giving people what they want says Rubin. "When they can't have something, people do care," he told the Times. Now it's up to the consumers to vote with their wallets to declare a winner. An open OS with a closed, proprietary standard? Or a closed OS with support for open standards? What will you choose? Steve Job's Statement Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe's founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned STEVE page 16

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Steve Jobs' letter explaining Apple's Flash distaste (CNET News.com) Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:24:38 AM

Editor's note: Here is the full text of the open letter from Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs explaining why Apple won't let Flash or Flash-derived applications onto the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe's founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers--Mac users buy around half of Adobe's Creative Suite products--but beyond that there are few joint interests. I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe's Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven--they say we want to protect our App Store-but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain. First, there's "Open". Adobe's Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe's Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system. Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript-all open standards. Apple's mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions

without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member. Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android's browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft's uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers. Second, there's the "full web". Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access "the full web" because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don't say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web's video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this

video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren't missing much video. Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world. Third, there's reliability, security and performance. Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don't want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash. In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that

Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we're glad we didn't hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform? Fourth, there's battery life. To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264--an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies. Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained. When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash STEVE page 17

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STEVE continued from page 14

around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers - Mac users buy around half of Adobe's Creative Suite products - but beyond that there are few joint interests. I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe's Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven - they say we want to protect our App Store but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain. First, there's "Open". Adobe's Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe's Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are

controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system. Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript all open standards. Apple's mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member. Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android's browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced

they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft's uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers. Second, there's the "full web". Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access "the full web" because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don't say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web's video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren't missing much video. Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for

any other platform in the world. Third, there's reliability, security and performance. Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don't want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash. In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we're glad we didn't hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform? Fourth, there's battery life. To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 - an industry standard that is used in

every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies. Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained. When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Fifth, there's Touch. Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on "rollovers", which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple's revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn't use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites STEVE page 18

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STEVE continued from page 15

at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Fifth, there's Touch. Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on "rollovers", which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple's revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn't use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript? Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. Sixth, the most important reason. Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn't support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed

the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices. We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers. This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor's platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe's goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple's platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X. Our motivation is simple--we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins--we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform. Conclusions. Flash was created during the

PC era--for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards--all areas where Flash falls short. The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple's mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple's App Store proves that Flash isn't necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games. New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind. Steve Jobs April, 2010 Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Firefox to Get Totally Customizable Menu Bars [Firefox] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/29/2010 7:30:00 AM

You could do it with CSS tweaks and various add-ons before, but the latest nightly builds of the next major Firefox version suggest that users will be able to add and remove any toolbar button, from both the main forward/back/address bar to the tab toolbar. That means you could, as Mozilla Links suggests, create a single omnibar, albeit one that's hard to use after a half-doze tabs. More likely, you can remove features you don't use, like the new tab button (for keyboard fiends) and the "List all tabs" tool on the edge. If there's one area where Firefox can win out in the browser game, it's customization, so let's hope there's more to come. [ Mozilla Links] More Âť

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STEVE continued from page 16

will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript? Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. Sixth, the most important reason. Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn't support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices. We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress

of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers. This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor's platforms. Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe's goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been

painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple's platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X. Our motivation is simple - we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform. Conclusions. Flash was created during the PC era - for PCs and mice. Flash

Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:00:00 AM

With your busy, on-the-go lifestyle, it's helpful to have a

pantry full of last-minute dinner options. Having a versatile selection of dry goods at your fingertips is way cheaper than nightly takeout and ultimately, a

Cutest Pet of the Day: Ernie WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog) Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:00:00 AM

Looks like Ernie is hiding! Thanks to Clair for submitting! Each day we will post an adorable picture or video of some of the world's cutest pets. Send your furry friends to WDcutepets@gmail.com and you might just see them on the site! VOTE for your favorites here using our new Cute Pet Face-Off tool. Ten winners will receive one Glow for Good Ball and two boxes of EATS from PlanetDog.com! For official rules click here. Five Filters featured article: lot healthier for your family. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Here are five versatile and easy- PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. to-fix favorites that are must- Term Extraction. haves for a well-stocked pantry. Five Filters featured article:

5 Things You Should Always Have in your Pantry (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)

is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards - all areas where Flash falls short. The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple's mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple's App Store proves that Flash isn't necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games. New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind. Steve Jobs April, 2010 Discuss

Technology/ Culture/

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Location-Based Ads a Goldmine, Says Survey 50% of Users Take Action Sarah Perez (ReadWriteWeb)

-March, 91% of the respondents have a cell phone and 26% of that group has used a "map, Although the privacy issues navigation or some other mobile surrounding Facebook's new, phone service that automatically opt-out only data sharing d e t e r m i n e s y o u r c u r r e n t policies are making people location," reads the MMA uncomfortable, one area where release on this data. folks are apparently happy to Perhaps more surprising is the have their private data shared is level of engagement between on their mobile phones. And by these location-based service private data, we mean exact users and the geo-targeted ads. GPS coordinates. Coordinates Nearly half of those who noticed which are shared with software ads while using a location-based developers, ad networks and service took some action. location-based service providers Think about that for a minute in return for free location-based and let it sink in. mobile applications and geo- For comparison purposes, a targeted ads. banner ad on the web getting a In fact, 1 in 4 U.S. adults use 2% click-though rate (CTR) is mobile location-based services, considered fairly successful but according to a survey put out by most campaigns now receive t h e M o b i l e M a r k e t i n g just 0.2%-0.3% CTRs. Association(MMA) last week. That may not be a true applesAnd nearly half of those users to-apples comparison, though. are responding to the included Location-based mobile ads don't location-based ads. necessarily have CTRs - they Sponsor can be anything from standard Location-Based Ads See Nearly w e b b a n n e r s t o c r e a t i v e 50% Engagement Rates, Says interactive video displays that MMA respond as you move the phone In partnership with Luth around, such as was the case Research, MMA surveyed 1,000 with the Dockers ad - the U.S. adult consumers from a world's first "shakable" ad. demographically representative In fact, all forms of mobile ads sample and found that, as of mid do well. SMS ads saw 37% Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:18:00 AM

example, in Finland, McDonald's recently participated in a location-based pilot campaign powered by Navteq LocationPoint Advertising which only received a 7% CTR.(A number that sounded incredible until this engagement and ads seen while new survey data came out.) The mobile web browsing saw 28% campaign delivered ads to users engagement, notes the survey. of the Nokia Ovi Maps A few other interesting application, but not all findings: smartphone platforms. • 10% of cell phone owners use Still, McDonald's deemed the location-based mobile services pilot program a success. "The at least once per week amazing thing about location• 63% of iPhone owners use based advertising," said Chris location-based mobile services Rothey, Vice President of at least once per week Market Development and • Adults ages 25-34 are Advertising at Navteq, "is that it frequent users of location allows merchants to extend their services, with 22 percent using storefront virtually to the them at least once a week. surrounding areas and • Consumers are interested in dramatically increase point-ofallowing their phone to sale influence." automatically share their It seems consumers agree: location in exchange for perks, location-based ads are amazing. such as free use of mobile So amazing that people are applications and mobile actually using them. coupons. Image credit from orig. post: flickr user chokola Location-Based Ads Outside Discuss the U.S. While this data is certainly compelling, this trend may not extrapolate outside the U.S.. For

Wise Words: First Time's a Charm? WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog) Submitted at 4/29/2010 6:30:00 AM

Here's a little bit of inspiration to make your day fun, fabulous and full of joy. It doesn't matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it's important to realize that whatever you're doing, it's your first attempt at it. -Wally Amos How do you approach a new task? Have a favorite quote? Send it t o u s a t wdwisewords@gmail.com with your name, city and state. You might be featured in an upcoming Wise Words post!. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Skyfire for Android streams Flash video (CNET News.com) Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:00:03 AM

Native Flash support for Android phones may only be a month away, but in the meantime, mobile browsermaker Skyfire presents a workaround in its brand-new beta app for Android phones. Skyfire 2.0 beta for Android looks and acts like your typical souped-up WebKit browser for Android phones, with the exception of a tool that lets you stream Flash video--and soon Silverlight. WebKit doesn't currently support either technology. When Skyfire detects a broken embedded video on a Web page, it signals Skyfire's servers to fetch the video and transcode it from its original format to HTML 5 video. What's more, Skyfire's servers will adjust the video resolution to performance factors like your phone's screen size and your network speed in order to provide smoother streaming. Videos certainly played without lagging or buffering interruptions in our demo with Skyfire on the Motorola Droid, and in our own tests on the Nexus One. Skyfire's Flash-support-byproxy isn't an all-in-one solution by any means. It doesn't detect every video in a playlist, occasionally crashed a browser tab, and doesn't address Flash

games or other interactive sites-we're still waiting for a seamless way to read Flash-based menus online. In addition to video streaming, Skyfire also adds its twist to the Android's WebKit browser with a a button for viewing more relevant content, like headlines, images, and Twitter updates, and a link-sharing module. There's a browser tab-switcher, a shortcut to easily switch between desktop, Android, and iPhone mode (known as user agents,) and a drop-down menu

with access to the settings, download list, text selection, and other tools. The quintessential "back" arrow and bookmarking are also present. On Android phones running on OS 2.0 or higher, Skyfire also supports multitouch pinchzooming. Skyfire's brand-new browser gives WebKit an Android twist.(Credit: Skyfire) There are some known issues and limitations with the Skyfire beta's video support and browser in general. It won't currently

stream back Windows Media, Silverlight (that's next), and Quicktime video, and it intentionally won't provide video or additional content for secure sites. On some sites, swapping browser modes (the user agent) will force close the app. The Help function was turned off when we tested the app before its official launch, and there are some interface issues with the Explore window on the Motorola Backflip while in "backflip" mode. Although Skyfire's browser for

Android is officially labeled 2.0 (beta), it is, in fact, the company's first offering for Google's mobile platform. The browser's front and backend designs are what diverge it from earlier 1.0 and 1.5 models for Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, which were coded entirely by Skyfire and built to look like a traditional desktop browser. With Android, the company layered additional features onto WebKit, much like SKYFIRE page 21

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Report: Apple iAds deals could cost $1 million (CNET News.com) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:21:48 AM

Advertisers eager to hawk their products via apps on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad may have to cough up $1 million or more for the advertising space, according to an article in Thursday's Wall Street Journal. A Nike ad created with iAd was demoed during Apple's iPhone 4.0 event.(Credit: James Martin/CNET) And marketers who want to be part of the launch of iAd, Apple's new platform for serving ads on its mobile devices, could pay as much as $10 million for the privilege, said the Journal, citing a source familiar with the matter. At the moment, advertisers reportedly pay somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000 for similar placement on mobile phone apps. Set to launch with Apple's new iPhone OS 4.0 in June, iAd will give marketers the ability to embed dynamic and interactive ads within a mobile app. In his iPhone OS 4.0 demo earlier this month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs touted the ability of iAd to smoothly display ads within an app rather than bring the user to

want to make sure it gets born looking gorgeous," said Lars Bastholm, chief digital creative officer at WPP's Ogilvy, according to the Journal. "But as a creative director, I don't feel completely comfortable letting Apple do the creative." Jobs has also promoted iAd as a way for developers offering free and inexpensive apps to recoup some of their development costs. On its end, Apple would sell and serve the ads, taking in 40 percent of the sales and leaving 60 percent for developers who embed the ads a separate Web page. user's personal information. in their apps. The process and price scheme Initially, Apple will create the Apple has set a date of June 7for advertisers starts with the ads itself to ensure that they 11 for its upcoming World Wide banner ads that attempt to lure meet a certain style, format, and Developers Conference, at people to view the full ad. functionality. But the company which time the company will Advertisers will have to pay plans to eventually release a offer sessions for developers Apple a penny each time a user d e v e l o p e r s k i t t o a l l o w interested in creating apps for sees a banner ad and then an advertisers to build their own the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0. additional $2 if the user clicks ads. Even then, each ad will also The new iAd advertisements on the ad, according to the have to go through a review should start popping up on the Journal. Given enough views process at Apple to determine if iPhone and iPod Touch in June, and clicks, a large ad buy could it meets the company's approval. followed by the iPad later in the easily cost an advertiser $1 Despite the high visibility and year, according to the source million. potential profits, at least one cited by the Journal. Advertisers will be able to advertiser quoted in the Journal Five Filters featured article: target specific ads to users based story expressed concern over Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: on such factors as their iTunes Apple's initial control of the ads. PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, download choices and their "As a creative director, I can Term Extraction. location, though they won't be completely understand that they able to direct ads based on a created this new baby and they

SKYFIRE continued from page 20

Dolphin Browser, xScope, and others. Skyfire CEO Jeff Glueck confirmed in an interview with CNET that we should expect to see a version of Skyfire for BlackBerry soon after OS 6.0 emerges with a new WebKitbased BlackBerry browser. We're also keeping our eyes trained on the iPhone--after Opera's success getting its proxy browser into the App Store, Skyfire made it no secret that they intend to follow suit, this time bringing unprecedented Flash video transcoding and streaming to an OS whose boss has emphatically declared will never carry Flash. You can try Skyfire 2.0 beta for Android free from the Android Market and get.skyfire.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

How Obamacare Impacts Small Business Rob Bluey (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.)

Tags: employer mandate, You can follow any responses N F I B , O b a m a c a r e , s m a l l to this entry through the RSS 2.0 business, taxes feed.

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

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Lunchwalla Adds Foursquare, Real- iTunes accounting for Life Incentives 1/4 of all U.S. music sales Mike Melanson (ReadWriteWeb)

month when checking in with Gowalla at a local coffee shop, Lunchwalla Points have that real Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:05:00 AM -world incentive aspect to them Lunchwalla, the app that helps and Tribune Media Services. that we just can't argue with. take the hassle out of deciding Now this week, the company Planning an event, inviting other where and when to plan a group has pulled Foursquare into the Lunchwalla members, checkinglunch, movie viewing or other mix. in using foursquare and other get-together, has added some Foursquare integrations means actions all earn Lunchwalla new features over the past week that Lunchwalla users will be Points. What happens with these and weeks prior that should help able to connect their Lunchwalla points? Every week, we will be cement its spot in the realm of accounts to their Foursquare calculating the number of points collaborative decision-making. accounts, pulling in their accumulated by Lunchwalla The company announced this F o u r s q u a r e c h e c k i n s a n d users during that week. At the week that it was unveiling importing friends. And after end of the week, the 5 highest Foursquare integration and c r e a t i n g a n e v e n t o n Lunchwalla Point earners for the something we tend to favor in Lunchwalla, users can then w e e k w i l l r e c e i v e a $ 2 5 the LBS market - real-world c h e c k i n t o t h a t e v e n t o n American Express Gift Card. incentives. Foursquare. That checkin will Now that's the type of realSponsor not only become part of the world integration we like to see The service already brings Lunchwalla page on that event - straight-up money rewards. together Yelp reviews with but gives users additional The service has a list of rules OpenTable reservations, menus "Lunchwalla Points". available for its points program and coupons, as we noted when The Lunchwalla Points might on its website. Discuss we first reviewed it last March. be our favorite part. While we're Earlier this month it added not exactly sure what to do with movies and events, using Zvents that "Beatnick" we found last

Set Google Voice as Your Skype Caller ID [Skype] Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:05:00 AM

A Google Voice number, one that rings all your phones, ID number for outgoing Skype makes good sense as the caller calls. Google Voice blocked the

verification SMS that Skype needed until recently, but Google's flipped the switch and made it convenient. More Âť

Mike Schramm (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/29/2010 12:00:00 PM

Filed under: iTunes Overall, music sales fell by more than a billion dollars last year, but Apple's iTunes is doing better than ever. The digital music distribution service claimed more money than ever, and now represents the biggest U.S. market for music sales, making up over a quarter of total music sales in this country. Unfortunately, not even iTunes may save the industry; total music sales in the US only rose by 1.1 percent over the previous year (which, according to industry analysts, is as good as not growing at all), and the total worldwide market decreased to $17 billion. That's nothing to sneeze at, but the fact is that, even if more people are buying music through iTunes, less music is being sold. The way the trends are going, it looks like actual music sales themselves may start dropping off, even in the United States.

So what's the solution? The record industry is actually looking to iTunes now to save their own business. One executive is quoted as saying that an iTunes subscription service might be just the thing to get people interested in buying music again (or at least renting it). It would appear that, with the purchase of Lala, Apple may be laying the groundwork for a service like that. However, there are a lot of other factors going into this market change (not the least of which is that it's easier than ever to make, buy, sell, and share music outside of the record industry system, which includes iTunes), and even a subscription service won't solve the problem. TUAW iTunes accounting for 1/4 of all U.S. music sales originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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SmartQ R7 e-reader boasts 3G, touchscreen LCD, magazine service and IPTV (video) Sean Hollister (Engadget)

actually found the Ubuntupowered 7-inch SVGA touchscreen device moderately Late to the touchscreen MID capable in a recent hands-on. party, Chinese manufacturer Like fellow PMP / e-Reader the SmartQ was determined not to O n d a V X 5 6 0 , t h e d e v i c e miss another opportunity. That's supports 1080p in most every why it spent the month of April video format under the sun, touting its new R7 e-reader as -- reads e-books (PDF, EPUB and you guessed it -- the iPad killer. CHM), and has a built-in 3G With the same ol' 600MHz modem for on-the-go capability. ARM11 and 256MB of RAM Ubuntu standbys Midori and inside as its ho-hum MIDs, that Pidgin handle web browsing and claim's quite a stretch, but our IM, respectively, and it can even cohorts at Engadget Chinese stream live video and purchase Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:34:00 AM

Chinese magazines through SmartQ's services. Sluggish as it might be, for $1,680 RMB (about $250) we'd say that's a

Continue reading SmartQ R7 ereader boasts 3G, touchscreen LCD, magazine service and IPTV (video) SmartQ R7 e-reader boasts 3G, touchscreen LCD, magazine service and IPTV (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for pretty respectable featureset. use of feeds. Permalink PMP Video after the break, specs and Today| Engadget Chinese (1), hands-on pics at our source Engadget Chinese (2), Ownta| Email this| Comments links.

Time Warner Cable gains Internet subs

J'Adore: 1960s Pierre Cardin Pendant Necklace

(CNET News.com)

The good news is, we've found one of the chicest pieces from Submitted at 4/28/2010 6:50:41 PM his repertoire in a geometric As 87-year old Pierre Cardin pendant from LA vintage house releases his f i r s t Garland Collects. The bad news autobiographical tome, Pierre is..there's only one. Let the Cardin, 60 Years of Innovation, bidding begin! c h a r t i n g t h e l e g e n d a r y Garland Collection designer's 60-year career, (Price available upon request, v i s i t vintage Pierre Cardin costume p l e a s e www.garlandcollection.com) pieces are skyrocketing in value.

Revenue was up 5.4 percent to $4.6 billion. Analysts expected Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:52:25 AM the company to earn 74 cents a Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 share on $4.56 billion in cable operator in the U.S., saw revenue, according to Thomson strong broadband subscriber Reuters. growth in the first quarter, While cable companies may be which helped the company losing some video subscribers to boost earnings 30 percent during phone companies now offering the three-month period. TV service, they are gaining Time Warner reported a profit broadband customers. The of $214 million, or 60 cents a c o m p a n y a d d e d 2 1 2 , 0 0 0 share. This was up from $164 residential Internet subscribers million, or 48 cents per share, and 86,000 residential phone during the same quarter a year subscribers during the quarter. ago. The results included 22 B u t i t l o s t 4 2 , 0 0 0 v i d e o cents of restructuring charges. s u b s c r i b e r s .

On Wednesday, Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, reported it added 399,000 broadband customers during the quarter. That number, combined with Time Warner's 212,000 new broadband subscribers, is twice as many as AT&T and Verizon Communications added over the same time period. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs)

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Watch Olivia Palermo’s Anna Sui Interview from The City ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs)

Shuttle unveils Core i7Skyfire 2.0 now ready to powered J3 desktop, changes set Android ablaze how you look at little PCs Vladislav Savov (Engadget) light of a potential iPhone release as well. There's also a streamlined sharing feature for We've been seeing mobile social networks, and an Explore browsers steadily raising their function that suggests internet game lately, so it was inevitable content on the basis of what's that Skyfire would look to shock currently on display. We'll be and awe us with its first release testing out the usefulness of for the Android platform. these shortly -- for now, hit the Version 2.0 introduces a brand source link to get your own new SkyBar -- which ironically Skyfire going. sits at the bottom of the screen -- Gallery: Skyfire 2.0 now ready providing users with a trifecta of to set Android ablaze new features. Firstly, the Video Continue reading Skyfire 2.0 link serves as a workaround for now ready to set Android ablaze those pesky "your phone ain't Skyfire 2.0 now ready to set got no Flash" missives by doing Android ablaze originally server-side conversions of Flash appeared on Engadget on Thu, v i d e o i n t o u n i v e r s a l l y 29 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST. comprehensible formats like Please see our terms for use of HTML5. If implemented well, feeds. Permalink| Skyfire| Email this should be a major coup for this| Comments the company, particularly in Submitted at 4/29/2010 12:00:00 PM

Tim Stevens (Engadget)

a video after the break you can gaze upon its healthy stack of USB ports and stare longingly at Earlier in the month Shuttle its shapely cooling system as it unveiled a pair of serious little spins about and slowly shedding desktops, the J1 and G2, and its clothing -- and its dignity. teased about a third model that Continue reading Shuttle w o u l d k n o c k a l l o f o u r unveils Core i7-powered J3 proverbial socks off in one fell desktop, changes how you look swoop. That desktop is here and, at little PCs well, our feet are bare. The J3 Shuttle unveils Core i7packs an Intel Core i7-980X powered J3 desktop, changes Gulftown processor, about the how you look at little PCs fastest available for consumers originally appeared on Engadget t o d a y , a n d p a i r s i t w i t h on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:05:00 NVIDIA's monster GeForce EST. Please see our terms for GTX 480. Shuttle isn't telling u s e o f f e e d s . P e r m a l i n k other details of the machine at Engadget Spanish| | Email this| this point (all will be unveiled at Comments Computex in early June), but in Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:05:00 AM

Submitted at 4/28/2010 12:49:42 PM

“Being on camera for ELLE.com is going to change everything. You could be bigger than an editor,” Joe Zee advised Olivia Palermo on last night’s season premiere of The City. In her new role, one of Olivia’s first tasks was to interview Anna Sui backstage at the designer’s fall 2010 show at New York Fashion Week ( click here to watch). Tell us, how do you think she did? —Erin Clements Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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Street Chic: New York ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs) Submitted at 4/29/2010 6:00:00 AM

Plantronics Explorer 395 Bluetooth headset review Richard Lai (Engadget) Submitted at 4/29/2010 12:23:00 PM

At Engadget, we're used to playing with premium Bluetooth headsets like the Jabra Stone and Jawbone Icon, so it's only natural this $49.95 Plantronics headset would lower our expectations, but turns out it's not bad for the money. For

starters, the actual earpiece looks much better than the renders we saw, with a retro look that we quite liked. We're also promised easy operation with few buttons -- the silver paddle-like button (with LEDs underneath) for phone calls and Bluetooth pairing; the black volume button on one side with five incremental volume steps;

and the ridged power slide switch on the other side. You'll find a micro-USB port at the end of the silver button, followed by the ear plug underneath and the mic on the other end. Enough with the list of features -- read on to find out how well this headset performs. Gallery: Plantronics Explorer 395 Bluetooth headset review

Continue reading Plantronics Explorer 395 Bluetooth headset review Plantronics Explorer 395 Bluetooth headset review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

Heather gray combined with neutral tones create the perfect spring palette. Photo: Kelly Stuart Think you are Street Chic? Email us your photo and you could appear in ELLE.com's Street Chic Daily. Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

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Apple posts thoughts on Flash TJ Luoma (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:30:00 AM

Filed under: Steve Jobs Apple has posted their Thoughts on Flash, signed by Steve Jobs himself, which echos a lot of the commentary that you've probably already read on why Apple isn't supporting Flash on iPhone OS devices, and why they plan to block apps that allow Flash programs to be recompiled into iPhone OS programs, especially games. Beginning with citing their long -standing relationship, Steve outlines six points: openness, "the full web", security and performance, battery life, touch, and the drawbacks of relying on third-party development tools. In case anyone has been unclear thus far, or has been waiting for

a version of the iPhone OS that supports Flash, here is your clear and unmistakable sign: you will never see Flash on an iPhone OS device. Steve's letter addresses the "why not?" questions. TUAW Apple posts thoughts on Flash originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

iPad 3Gs being marked for shipment Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)) Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPad This is just a quick note to say that we've gotten a flood of emails from readers stating that their iPad 3Gs have been shipped. Most have an estimated delivery time of 4:30PM on April 29 -- a whole seven and a half hours before the official April 30th release date! One guy emailed us saying that he's been checking his tracking information every five minutes. I know the anticipation of iPad

3G receipt is exciting, but just remember to take deep breaths, people. For those of you who didn't pre-order one originally, the iPad 3G should be in Apple retail stores by May 7th. Thanks to everyone who sent this in. TUAW iPad 3Gs being marked for shipment originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Save Money by Employing a Third-Party Haggler [Negotiation] Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:30:00 AM

We're big fans of negotiating and always asking for a lower price. Not everyone is comfortable negotiating and some of us didn't grow up around hagglers. In that case it can pay big to employ a friend as a negotiation agent. More Âť

HTC Droid Incredible arrives as promised (Update: not yet!) Laura June (Engadget)

gotten it) -- and if you didn't, well you can pick one up at a nearby Verizon store. If you Don't say we didn't warn you. haven't already, be sure to check H T C ' s i m p r e s s i v e D r o i d out our full review of the Incredible has arrived, so if you Incredible. pre-ordered one you can expect Update: So, a friendly tipster Verizon's website, it actually it today (if you haven't already pointed out to us that on Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:46:00 AM

still lists the Droid Incredible as available for pre-order. To quote: "Due to high demand, this device will ship by 5/4." Continue reading HTC Droid Incredible arrives as promised (Update: not yet!) HTC Droid Incredible arrives

as promised (Update: not yet!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| | Email this| Comments

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SPECIAL OFFER to Our Facebook Friends Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb) Submitted at 4/29/2010 12:51:11 AM

Within the next 24 hours we will be emailing out a very special, limited time offer to fans of the ReadWriteWeb Facebook Page. If you're not already a fan of our Facebook Page, we encourage you to join our page now in order to receive this offer. Hint: it includes a special, friends-only discount to our upcoming Mobile Summit on 7 May. For those of you who can't make the Summit, we have other goodies for you too! We'd like to grow our Facebook fan base, as it's a good way for us to interact with you outside of our own website. So to

encourage this, we will be mailing our Facebook fans this once-only offer within the next 24 hours. Join our Facebook page now to be certain of receiving this offer. Sponsor ReadWriteWeb on Facebook Discuss

Xmarks Lets You Open The Gizmodo iPhone saga flowchart Synced Tabs from Any Browser [Updates] Michael Grothaus (The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW))

Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:00:00 AM

Filed under: iPhone Fast Company has come up with an awesome Gizmodo iPhone Saga flowchart to help us follow the increasingly confusing case. The flowchart

Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/29/2010 7:10:00 AM

Browser syncing multi-tool Xmarks recently opened up open tab syncing across browsers, and now goes the extra mile to let you see those

tabs you had open, and open them, from any browser. More Âť

allows users to pick what they believe to be the true facts, and it lets them follow the trail to its "obvious" conclusion. Possible outcomes include: it was all an Apple conspiracy, bloggers are journalists, and Gizmodo bowed to corruption to get site traffic. So, where did you end up? TUAW The Gizmodo iPhone

saga flowchart originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

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5 Reasons We're Excited About TLC Renews 'L.A. Ink' More Matt Davis on Vampire Diaries Rich Keller (TV Squad)

Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:36:00 AM

(TVGuide.com: Breaking News) Submitted at 4/28/2010 9:18:00 PM

Matt Davis Matt Davis tells TVGuide.com that it's looking pretty likely that Alaric Saltzman, the teacher and part-time vampire slayer he plays on The Vampire Diaries, will be back for Season 2. To commemorate that good news, we decided to count the ways we love Alaric. 1. Alaric's a great foil for Damon. Alaric first teamed up with Damon Salvatore ( Ian Somerhalder) to save Damon's brother Stefan ( Paul Wesley); this time the odd pairing will have to protect Mystic Falls — and thus their lost loves — from whatever Johnathan Gilbert ( David Anders) has planned for Founder's Day. As Davis says, "Two guys have a similar goal in life: to find the woman that's left them for no particular reason. I enjoy the moments when they look at each other with disgust and respect." Mega Buzz: Two 24 deaths, Grey's finale details, and Vampire Diaries' Season 2 2. He's about to reunite with his dead/vampire wife.

happens," he adds. Vampire Diarie s scoop: Elena's mama, Uncle John and the tomb! 4. Matt's totally a Method actor. Alaric spends so much time in the high school, it's as though he lives there, which is familiar territory for the actor. "Ironically enough, I had to relocate to Atlanta [where Vampire Diaries films] and there's an old school that's been converted into lofts, so I actually live in a classroom." 5. He's Twitter-savvy. The 31-year-old actor with the Alaric's true love, Isobel ( Mia very common given name thus Kirshner), has been missing for goes by@ErnestoRiley on two years. It turns out she isn't Twitter. "My buddy Zach dead, she's undead. "It's one of [Roerig] found out I had a the moments when you spend Twitter account and promptly your whole life anticipating notified 50,000 of his followers something or searching for and within a half-hour, my something and it happens and it inbox and had something like never really goes the way you 2,000 emails... It's been fun expect it to go," Davis says. An getting a sense of a fan base added wrinkle: Isobel is also through that channel. I'm juggling three personalities, Elena's birth mother. Alaric, Ernesto Riley and [Matt] 3. He's a survivor. When asked about the rumored- — I go with whatever best suits to-be-bloody season-ender, my mood at the time. Davis jokes, "In the season Five Filters featured article: finale, they all die." Or was he Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: joking? "That's where you have PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, to stick around and see what Term Extraction.

Direct from the "Not a Big Surprise" department comes news that TLC has reupped 'L.A. Ink' for another run and that production on season 4 is already underway. A spin-off of'Miami Ink,' which ended in 2008,'L.A. Ink' follows tattoo artist Kat Von D at her High Voltage shop in West Hollywood. The show is currently averaging 1.4 million viewers per week. Those are impressive numbers, not just because they come from a cablebased show, but because it airs on Thursday nights at 10PM a hotbed of original programming on the Big Three and One-Third networks. The numbers are also impressive, because 'L.A. Ink' comes from an older generation of TLC shows -- with four years

equaling one television generation. With the network full of programs featuring height -challenged families, weightchallenged families and, soon enough, 18 hours of original Kate Gosselin programming, the show is able to maintain its popularity. Filed under: Industry, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Staff Favorites: Quick Dinners (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

similar version to Tiffany's that uses ground round and raw "My go to meal is taco salad peppers. made with ground chicken or View Recipe: Quick Taco Salad turkey. Top with onion, sautéed Next Spicy Lemon Trout bell pepper, reduced-fat sour Five Filters featured article: c r e a m , Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: and tomato.”—Tiffany Vickers PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Davis, Associate Test Kitchen Term Extraction. Director Check out this salad for a

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What's On Tonight: 'Community,' 'CSI,' 'Sober House,' 'Real Housewives' Rich Keller (TV Squad)

Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss Hawk MercedesBenz, Excedrin (VIDEO) Jane Boursaw (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:31:00 AM

Submitted at 4/29/2010 12:23:00 PM

Here's tonight's lineup of new shows and events (all times Eastern). Check your local TV listings for additional information. Welcome to the beginning of the May sweeps! Hopefully, other than Saturday, the schedule should be full of new shows until the middle of next month. 8:00 to 9:00 ABC"'FlashForward' CBS:'Survivor' The CW:'The Vampire Diaries' FOX:'Bones' NBC:'Community' and'Parks and Recreation' Food Network:'Good Eats' HGTV:'My First Place'-- Two 30-minute episodes National Geographic:'Naked Science' 9:00 to 10:00 ABC:'Grey's Anatomy' CBS:'CSI' The CW:'Supernatural' FOX:'Fringe' NBC:'The Office' and'30 Rock' A&E:'The First 48' Animal Planet:'Weird, True & Freaky'-- Two 30-minute episodes HGTV:'Selling New York'

History:'Modern Marvels' 10:00 to 11:00 ABC:'Private Practice' CBS:'The Mentalist' NBC:'The Marriage Ref' Bravo:'The Real Housewives of New York City' A&E:'Fugitive Chronicles' DIY:'Yard Crashers' HGTV:'House Hunters International' History:'Sliced'-- Two 30minute episodes National Geographic:'Known Universe' TLC:'LA Ink'-- Season finale

It wouldn't surprise me if most of the actors on'Mad Men' ended up in commercials at some point. It's a show about advertising, so you sort of associate them with ads and commercials. At least two 'Mad Men' actors, Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss, are featured in commercials circulating right now. Hamm is the new voice for MercedesBenz, taking the baton from Richard Thomas (John-Boy on'The Waltons'), who served as the car company's voice-over talent for the past four years. VH1:'Sober House With Dr. In a Media Decoder story, Stephen Cannon, vice-president Drew'-- Season finale After the jump, the late night for marketing at Mercedes-Benz USA in Montvale, N.J., calls the talk shows. Continue reading What's On new campaign "a nice re-fresh Tonight: 'Community,' 'CSI,' of our voice," adding that ' S o b e r H o u s e , ' ' R e a l Hamm has "a terrific, very Housewives' Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks) Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free Zeroing In On the Best Energy P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | | Bars Comments As a meal replacer, pre- or post -workout treat, afternoon snack, or protein source, here are our

resonant voice with a lot of gravitas to it." He also notes that Hamm will help Mercedes-Benz "reach out to a younger, more vibrant audience." Continue reading Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss Hawk Mercedes -Benz, Excedrin (VIDEO) Filed under: OpEd, Video, Commercials, Mad Men Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Best Energy Bars top picks for the best tasting and most nutritious energy bars. By: Maureen Callahan, MS, RD Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Can Katie Holmes Pull Off Jackie Kennedy?

ABC Picks Up New Game Show 'The Six'

(TVGuide.com: Breaking News)

Bob Sassone (TV Squad) Submitted at 4/29/2010 12:02:00 PM

Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:07:00 AM

Katie Holmes and Greg Kinnear Not sold on Rachel Weisz as Jackie Kennedy? Give Katie Holmes a shot then. The Dawson's Creek alum will play the former first lady in the History Channel's upcoming eight-hour miniseries, The Kennedys, the network announced. Check out photos of Katie Holmes through the years Greg Kinnear will star as President John F. Kennedy, with Barry Pepper and Tom Wilkinson attached to play Robert F. Kennedy and family patriarch Joe Kennedy Sr., respectively. The miniseries â&#x20AC;&#x201D; History

Looks like ABC wants more and more game shows, eh? They already have 'Wipeout,' and several months ago they picked up 'Trust Me, I'm A Game Show Host.' Then they got the game where they throw you off a building if you get a question wrong and now they're picking up six episodes of an American version of a long-running Russian show where players get Channel's first foray into which is slated to premiere in together to solve puzzles. scripted drama â&#x20AC;&#x201D; will explore 2011. The original title of the game the political dynasty's rise to What do you think of the cast? s h o w w a s ' W h a t ? W h e r e ? prominence and Kennedy's early Will Katie do Jackie and her When?' and I like that title better years in office before his 1963 pillbox hat justice? than the new one they've given assassination. Five Filters featured article: the show,'The Six.' Networks Rachel Weisz cast as Jackie Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: love having numbers in the title Kennedy in Aronofsky film PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, of TV shows for some reason. 24 creator Joel Surnow will Term Extraction. The premise: teams of players executive-produce the project, have to get together to solve a puzzle in one minute for a lot of

cash. No idea how much money is involved yet but I bet it's at least$500. Merv Griffin Entertainment ('Wheel of Fortune' and 'Jeopardy') is producing the show. Continue reading ABC Picks Up New Game Show 'The Six' Filed under: Game Show, Pickups and Renewals, RealityFree Permalink| Email this| | Comments

Church, Forlani Exit Matt LeBlanc's Showtime Series (TVGuide.com: Breaking News)

Thomas Haden Church joins LeBlanc in Episodes Church's exit is due to a Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:20:00 AM scheduling conflict, but no Thomas Haden Church reason has been given for Thomas Haden Church and Forlani's departure. British Claire Forlani have dropped out a c t r e s s T a m s i n G r e i g h a s of Showtime's new comedy, replaced Forlani; a replacement Episodes. for Church has not been named

yet, a network rep told

TVGuide.com. A show-within-a-show comedy, Episodes stars Matt LeBlanc as a parody of himself who is cast in a catastrophic U.S. remake of a hit British series. Church was set to play the larger-than-life TV executive who tries to Americanize the British show.

Matt LeBlanc to star in Showtime and BBC's Episodes Episodes, which has received a seven-episode order, is currently in pre-production in London. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Exclusive: Jersey Housewives to Answer Fan Questions During Live Premiere Party (TVGuide.com: Breaking News) Submitted at 4/29/2010 6:00:00 AM

The Real Housewives of New Jersey Hold on to those tables. The Real Housewives of New Jersey are kicking off their second season with a live premiere party— and fans' questions are welcome. VIDEO: Real Housewives of New Jersey turn the heat up for Season 2 The party — at the Manzo family's own catering facility, The Brownstone — will be hosted by Bravo's Andy Cohen and streamed on both Bravotv.com and Ustream.tv. Viewers are encouraged to submit their questions through Twitter and Facebook. In the Season 2 opener

(Monday at 10/9c), fans will watch as both Teresa and Jacqueline welcome new babies into their families, and Danielle continues to make waves with the Manzo clan (much to the dismay of her daughters). Real Housewives stars taking over Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

The social media event runs 8:30-11 p.m. live EDT. What questions would you like answered? Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

My word, your bonds (The Economist: Daily news and views) Submitted at 4/29/2010 6:25:41 AM

Banks' bond holdings The world's banks may be heavily exposed to a Greek default Apr 29th 2010 | From The Economist online He couldn’t hold out any longer. On Friday April 23rd the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, finally went cap-inhand to his euro-area partners to ask for the €30 billion ($40 billion) promised to him to keep his country afloat. But Germany’s dithering on authorising the loan led to Standard & Poor's, a rating agency, to downgrade Greece’s debt to “junk” status. Portugal and Spain also suffered

The Most Clever Ways to Use Dropbox That You're Not Using [Dropbox] The How-To Geek (Lifehacker) Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:00:00 AM

Free utility Dropbox is great at syncing files between computers, but it has a lot more potential than just that. Here's a

use Dropbox that you may not have thought of. More » handful of clever ways you can

downgrades. As the likelihood of a Greek default grow stronger, banks are scared about their exposure to its debt. Estimates by The Economist put the total euro-area exposure of foreign banks to Greek sovereign debt at €76 billion, with over 71% held by France and Germany. Estimates for Portugal, which may also be vulnerable to a default, are €32 billion. Little wonder that investors are taking flight. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The Huge Economic Policy Error Behind The Current Stock Market Rally Jesse's Cafe Americain (The Money Game) Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:04:03 AM

(This is HUGE a guestpage post32from the

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HUGE continued from page 31

author's blog.) "The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy." Alex Carey The strategy of the Bernanke Federal Reserve and of the Obama Administration's economic team is fairly clear: prevent the bank failures of the 1930's by propping up the biggest banks with huge infusions of publicly subsidized capital, and hope that they start lending again as the economy recovers. It is a variation of the 'trickle down' theory of economics applied to the perceived policy errors of the first Great Depression. Bernanke is famously a student of that economic event, even as General Joffre, the architect of the Ligne Maginot, was a student of the first World War. And Larry Summers seems remarkably similar to Marshal Pétain. Timmy is a student of nothing, not even of the tax code he adminsters apparently, except perhaps the art of the useful manservant, a valet. Failure number one of course is that the banks that they chose to support are not responsible banks engaged primarily in lending to small business and

localized activity. Those banks are the local and regional banks and they are failing in record numbers. The banks they chose to save are those who have heavily contributed to the campaign coffers and job prospects of Washington politicians. Goldman Sachs, for example, is a glorified hedge fund dedicated to speculation and enormous amounts of leverage. One only has to look at the source of their profits to understand what it is that they do. Bernanke has (so he thinks) cleverly tied up much of the liquidity with which he has infused the banks as reserves which are paying riskless returns thanks to his innovation in sustained a floor under the ZIRP. But if you look at what he is doing, all Bernanke has done, even in his buying a trillion dollars of bad mortgage debt, is rescue creditors who engaged in reckless speculation during a housing mania that the Greenspan Federal Reserve had fostered. The lack of productive investment and genuine stimulus for the real economy is appalling. Bernanke and his colleagues Larry Summers and Tim Geithner would have us believe that they had no choice. But informed and experienced commentators such as William K. Black have told us how they have misrepresented their

choices. Their current path seems to lead to a 'zombie economy' at best, in which the Banks are doing well, but almost everyone else suffers, particularly the lower and middle classes who obtain their income from the real economy. At worst, the bubble bursts again, and there is another leg down, with greater damage done. So what would have worked? The Fed and Treasury could have backed the public instead of the banks. They could have temporarily increased and extended the FDIC coverage to much higher levels to guard against further bank runs, and then started dismantling the Wall Street banks through orderly liquidations. They needed no new laws or tools to do this. And financial reform and higher taxes on those who obtain outsized wealth without productive work would have curtailed a recurrence. So why did they do what they did? Are they in league with the banks? Was this some sort of conspiracy? No, I doubt this, although there are far too many secretive aspects to completely dismiss it. None of these men have ever held a real economy productive job in their entire lives. They were always the pampered products of the academy, Wall Street, and the government. So they took care of their own,

because that is their world view. It has been said that the Federal Reserve is the worst place to locate certain aspects of banking regulation, because they have a complete aversion to ever allowing a bank to fail. It runs against their nature. And couple this with a career experience in which the world is viewed through the lens of cost plus management, and privileged power, and their inability to make the tough decisions seems more understandable. And the promise of future positions, and large amounts of lobbying money to their friends and mentors and sponsors, and the policy error that is ruining the country seems more understandable. So now we have another asset bubble in the making, a new Ponzi scheme in the US equity market fomented by the Wall Street Banks packed with public funds, seeking to drive prices higher, for the apparent reason of obtaining confidence from the public, but with the effect of selling assets at inflated prices to public institutions yet again, with the inevitable collapse to follow when the reality of their value is discovered. What a shame. What a disappointing performance for a reform government that promised change that the people could believe in.

"...surveys show that the usual investors in major rallies – pension funds, hedge funds and retail investors – have not been net buyers of equities. And he says the most likely explanation for this anomaly in the biggest stock market rally since the 1930s is that major investment banks are the anxious buyers. “Their buying would appear to be for one of two reasons. Firstly because they think the authorities will prevail in their (so far unsuccessful) efforts to inflate their way out of debt liquidation; or secondly because they are too big to fail and so can afford to take a huge gamble that enough buying will convince others to rush in and buy their inventory of risk assets at even higher prices." Financial Times, Equity Rally Not Driven by the Usual Investors, Financial Times, April 28 And it should be noted that the Wall Street demimonde, the financial media, the financial commentators regulators and legislators, are widely supportive of this, because they draw they pay and employment prospects from an enlarged financial sector. So they are natural enthusiasts. And of course there is the mainstream media, which is generally silent, or simply pleads confusion and ignorance, HUGE page 33

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HUGE

Redrawing the map (The Economist: Daily news and views)

squabbles (which have just brought down a government) are redolent of central Europe at its Submitted at 4/29/2010 2:06:16 AM worst, especially the nonsenses Europe.view The European Slovakia thinks up for its map is outdated and illogical. Hungarian-speaking ethnic Here's how it should look minority. So Belgium should Apr 29th 2010 | From The swap places with the Czech Economist online Republic. The stolid, wellP E O P L E w h o f i n d t h e i r organised Czechs would get on neighbours tiresome can move splendidly with their new Dutch to another neighbourhood, neighbours, and vice versa. whereas countries can’t. But Belarus, currently landlocked suppose they could. Rejigging and trying to wriggle out from the map of Europe would make under Russia’s thumb, would life more logical and friendlier. benefit greatly from exposure to Britain, which after its general the Nordic region, whose election will have to confront its influence played a big role in dire public finances, should helping the Baltics shed their move closer to the southern- Soviet legacy. So it should European countries that find move northwards to the Baltic, themselves in a similar position. taking the place of Estonia, It could be towed to a new Latvia and Lithuania. These position near the Azores. (If the three countries should move to a journey proves a bumpy one, it new location somewhere near might be a good opportunity to Ireland. Like the Emerald Isle, make Wales and Scotland into they have bitten the bullet of separate islands). “internal devaluation”, regaining In Britain’s place should come competitiveness by cutting Poland, which has suffered quite wages and prices, rather than enough in its location between taking the easy option of R u s s i a a n d G e r m a n y a n d depreciating the currency, or deserves a chance to enjoy the borrowing recklessly as Greece bracing winds of the North has. The Baltics would also be Atlantic and the security of sea glad to be farther away from water between it and any Russia and closer to America. potential invaders. Amid the other moves, Belgium’s incomprehensible Kaliningrad could shift up the F l e m i s h - F r e n c h l a n g u a g e coast towards Russia, ending its

continued from page 32

anomalous status as a legacy exclave of the second world war and removing any possibility of future Russian mischief-making about rail transit. Into the slots vacated by Poland and Belarus should come the western and central parts of Ukraine. Germany, with the Ukrainian border now only 100km from Berlin, would start having to take the country’s European integration seriously. The Ukrainian shift would allow Russia to move west and south too, thus vacating Siberia for the Chinese, who will take it sooner or later anyway. Next comes some reordering of the Balkans. Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo should rotate places, with Macedonia taking Kosovo’s place next to Serbia, Kosovo moving to Albania’s slot on the coast, and Albania shifting inland. Paranoid Greek fantasies about territorial claims from the deluded Slav irredentists from the north would evaporate. Bosnia is too fragile to move and will have to stay where it is. Switzerland and Sweden are often confused. So it would make sense to move Switzerland north, where it would fit neatly into the Nordic countries. Its neutrality would go down well with the Finns and Swedes;

Norway would be glad to have another non-EU country next door. Germany can stay where it is, as can France. But Austria could shift westwards into Switzerland’s place, making room for Slovenia and Croatia to move north-west too.* They could join northern Italy in a new regional alliance (ideally it would run by a Doge, from Venice). The rest of Italy, from Rome downwards, would separate and join with Sicily to form a new country, officially called the Kingdom of Two Sicilies (but nicknamed Bordello). It could form a currency union with Greece, but nobody else. * A welcome side-effect of these changes will be to make space for previously fictional creations such as Anthony Hope's Ruritania, Hergé's Syldavia and Borduria, and Vulgaria, the backdrop for “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Readers' comments The Economist welcomes your views. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

when things financial are discussed out of deference to their corporate owners, and the difficulties of actually engaging in investigative journalism, rather than acting as a guest host to a competitive debate among lobbyists and ideologues. It is the path of least resistance, and greatest returns. And it leads to an economy that consists of little else besides usury, propaganda, and fraud. Why be negative? Better to be playing safe while the New Rome burns. Join the conversation about this story »

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David Rosenberg: Get Over It, Greece Is Going To Default Joe Weisenthal (The Money Game) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:26:00 AM

We're guessing that a lot of folks share David Rosenberg's sentiment on this one, that it's time to ban the bailouts, and forget the idea that a Greece "default" would be tantamount to failure. BAN THE BAILOUT First we have governments bailing out banks (and auto companies and mortgage providers), homeowner debtors, and now we have governments bailing out governments. When does someone finally say — enough is enough! Oh no — bank ABC is too big to fail. Company XYZ is too complex to fail. And now country GRK is too interconnected to fail. Give me a giant break. Look, Greece is not going to “fail”. They are going to default. There will be a debt restructuring. And there will be some recovery. Bondholders

will take a haircut — why shouldn’t they? Why should Angela Merkel care if German banks own Greek bonds? Greece has been in default in its recent 200-year history almost half the time. So has most of Latin America come to think of it. What about Russia? So Greece defaults, bondholders who knowingly bought these instruments

knowing the historical record went for the yield and simply do not deserve a taxpayer-supported bailout of any kind. To actually come to the aid of Greece (especially after all the accounting gimmickry) would send a signal to investors that the best way to make money is buy the debt of the most risky and highest yielding enterprise because

there will always be a bailout. Rewarding bad investment decisions is a huge mistake, in my opinion. Let Greece default, the world will not come to an end, and whether or not the country gets a “bailout”, the fiscal drain is going be a pervasive drag on economic activity for at least the next five years. While there may be contagion risks — same deal. Investors who bought Club Med bonds with their stretched government balance sheets in order to stretch for yield don't deserve to be bailed out either. Taxpayers unite, wherever you live (because you too support the IMF). These are solvency issues we are talking about, not liquidity issues. This is about bad decisions, not market failure. Join the conversation about this story »

Full Halo: Reach live action short is ... longer Justin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:15:00 AM

Listen, we love atmosphere. Don't get us wrong, if someone was making a list of websites that liked moody, atmospheric advertising, Joystiq would be right there at the top. With a bullet. We watched that Gears of War"Mad World" ad and thought "Hmm, not enough atmosphere and pensive reflection." That said, the two-minute-andthirty second version of the live action Halo: Reach short "Birth of a Spartan" is just ... well, it's too much. For future reference: If by the halfway mark we're shouting at the screen, "Just hit Powder with the muscle juice already and let's get to shooting fools!" you know you've overdone it. Full Halo: Reach live action short is ... longer originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Education Compares For-Profit Schools To Daily Buzz: What Your Wall Street Firms -- Stocks Get Crushed Hair Color Says About (APOL, CECO, COCO, BPI, STRA, DV) Vince Veneziani (The Money Game)

Your Health WomansDay.com Editors (Daily Woman's Day Blog)

Lewin, M.D., medical director of Cinergy Health, advises taking 400 micrograms of folic Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:00:00 AM Deputy Undersecretary of acid a day. Education Robert Shireman As reported in Women's Health If you're a brunette: Not my (pictured) today gave a speech magazine, and re-reported on hair! According to Women's on higher education today and the Today show last week, there Health, more than fifty percent went off on a tangent about how are surprisingly specific health of the 30 million American for-profit schools like the i m p l i c a t i o n s f o r b l o n d e s , women with hair loss have University of Phoenix and brunettes and redheads. No brown hair. "Brown tresses are Devry (DV) are destroying our matter the time we spend generally coarser and thicker nation. modifying our hair color, than blonde or red strands, and According to The Fly On The experts advise us to use our your body produces fewer of Wall, Shireman compared forn a t u r a l c o l o r a s a h e a l t h them," Joel Schlessinger, M.D., profit education institutes to the barometer. The story goes like p r e s i d e n t e m e r i t u s o f t h e likes of big Wall Street firms this: American Society of Cosmetic that caused the collapse of our If you're a blonde: My eyes! Dermatology and Aesthetic financial system. the sector in an effort to level $24.30 / -5.26% Fair-haired gals are especially Surgery, says. Since low iron Talk about harsh words. the playing field. • Strayer Education (STRA): prone to age-related macular can contribute to hair loss, Shireman then went on to say Of course, damning comments $239.17 / -3.06% degeneration, an eye condition experts recommend buffing up that the regulatory bodies in l i k e t h e s e h i t f o r - p r o f i t • Devry (DV): $61.68 / -7.53% that can cause blindness, warns your intake. charge of monitoring for-profit education stocks hard. Let's take Svetlana Kogan, M.D., founder Click here to read the full story. institutions have basically a look at the damage: Now see our guide to the of Doctors at Trump Place in Related content on become lazy like that of FINRA • Apollo Group (APOL): w o r l d ' s m o s t s u c c e s s f u l New York City. Rx? Tthe W o m a n s D a y . c o m : and the SEC. As a result, these $57.62 / -6.29% dropouts > compounds lutein and Top 10 Dyed-Hair Myths regulatory firms have been • Career Education (CECO): Join the conversation about this zeaxanthin, found in kale, Revealed ineffective in their ability to $29.77 / -10.89% story » spinach, and snow peas. Ask WD: At-Home Hair carry out their responsibilities. • Corinthian Colleges (COCO): If you're a redhead: Be weary C o l o r i n g T r i c k s So now, the Department of $15.56 / -7.98% of Parkinsons. According to the Five Filters featured article: Education must reform rules for • Bridgepoint Education (BPI): article, "a recent Harvard study Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: found that redheads have an PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, almost 90 percent greater Term Extraction. chance of developing the disease." To fend off, Margaret Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:18:32 AM

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Steve Jobs Claims Flash Will Kill the Mobile Web John C Abell (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:18:00 AM

The estrangement is complete, let the messy divorce begin: Steve Jobs has gone public about his problems with Flash, the omnipresent web multimedia format which he will not allow on iPhones, iPods and the iPad. Coming a little more than a week after Adobe said it would no longer try to get Flash onto Apple’s suite of mobile internet devices, this looks like the definitive split: There’s no chance of reconciliation, and the parties have moved from grumbling and sniping to publicly airing their grievances. In a rare blog posting on Apple’s site, Jobs recounts a once cooperative relationship with Adobe, with Apple making visits to the then-startup’s Silicon Valley garage. And he acknowledges that the companies have long had intertwined fortunes, sharing many customers and, at one time, equity. But, in public remarks which echo some he made in private at a recent Apple Town Hall meeting where he disparaged Adobe as “lazy,” the Apple CEO said he had many technical and philosophical problems with Flash — six, to be precise — which would appear to make their differences irreconcilable. “Flash was created during the

more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.” Jobs does not indicate how many Flash-based games are available on the open web. Similarly, Jobs knocks Flash for security holes, taxing battery life and being out of step in a multi-touch world. The latter defect he spins as an opportunity to go with open standards rather than updating Flash itself: “Apple’s revolutionary multitouch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?” But the coup de grace is his contention that a dependency on Adobe to keep pace with Apple PC era — for PCs and mice,” different than the web. “Apple video standard, H.264, is better, platforms is fundamentally J o b s w r i t e s . “ F l a s h i s a has many proprietary products while not addressing the issue of flawed. “We know from painful successful business for Adobe, too,” Jobs writes. “Though the adoption and critical mass. Tech experience that letting a third and we can understand why they operating system for the iPhone, history is littered with examples party layer of software come want to push it beyond PCs. iPod and iPad is proprietary, we of better standards not becoming between the platform and the developer ultimately results in But the mobile era is about low s t r o n g l y b e l i e v e t h a t a l l dominant. power devices, touch interfaces standards pertaining to the web Jobs dodges the issue with sub-standard apps and hinders and open web standards — all should be open. Rather than use games, too: “Another Adobe the enhancement and progress areas where Flash falls short.” Flash, Apple has adopted claim is that Apple devices of the platform,” Jobs writes. The most difficult circle Jobs HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – cannot play Flash games. This is “We cannot be at the mercy of a squares is the issue of open vs. all open standards.” true. Fortunately, there are over third party deciding if and when proprietary: He acknowledges Of the notion that mobile Safari 50,000 games and entertainment t h e y w i l l m a k e o u r that Apple’s products are closed can’t serve up “the full web,” titles on the App Store, and enhancements available to our but that devices and products are Jobs’ answer is that an open many of them are free. There are STEVE page 39

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Military Wants To Super-Charge Troop Smarts Katie Drummond (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:22:00 AM

The Pentagon’s been trying to get ahead of the curve on neuroscience for years, toying with ideas like mind reading liedetection and performance degrading drugs for enemy combatants. Now, they’re launching a major effort in harnessing neuroscience to better prepare soldiers for the mental rigors of modern warfare. In a series of small business solicitations released last week, the Office of the Secretary of Defense outlined plans for a new “Cognitive Readiness Technology” program, with the intent of “making our warfighters as cognitively strong as they are physically strong.” Neuroscience is at the locus of the program, because before they can super-charge cognition, Pentagon scientists need to understand exactly how it works. So they’re launching “Neuromorphic Models of Human Social Cultural Behavior (HSCB),” in an effort to accurately model human cognition, including how we perceive, learn and retain information. HSCB models already exist, and are used by troops and decision-makers to predict the outcome of a choices during a mission. But the models “are only as good as the

fidelity of the human behavior representations (HBR) that form them.” Right now, those representations are based entirely on empirical observation, which the military wants to swap out for a model that can tap into “the functions of the brain that give rise to actual human cognition.” It’s not the first time the Pentagon’s tried to map the human mind. Last year, far-out research agency Darpa requested proposals for systems that would synchronize neural brain waves to optimize the mind’s storage capacity and

memory recall. The agency’s also tried to create synthetic versions of living brains, complete with “neuroscienceinspired architecture.” The military also wants cognitive mapping to help assess troop readiness in the war -zone. Their small business solicitations include a request for embeddable body sensors that could automatically determine mental preparedness, which can be influenced by factors like fatigue, cognitive overload or stress, based on physiological and neural data. The sensors would do more than

just analyze the cognitive status of their wearer — they’d be combined with the data from other team members, to instantly identify just how performanceready a given unit actually is. But no matter how cognitively capable troops become, they’ll still rely on computers to handle much of their workload. Humans, the solicitation notes, “are quick to arrive at initial decisions,” but computers can more quickly calculate pros and cons of different tactics. That’s why the military also wants neuroscience to “bridge the human-machine systems gap”

and turn troops and computers into collaborative units. Their “Neuro-Cognitive Control of Human Machine Systems,” would tap into the neural signals that indicate desired actions, then transmit them to a computer to determine the optimal approach and carry it out. And a training program that emphasizes brawny brains over bodies reflects a trend across Pentagon departments: Just last month, the Army announced a redesign of their physical fitness MILITARY page 38

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April 29, 1882: Trackless Trolley Starts Rolling Keith Barry (Wired Top Stories)

cities from Boston to Beijing. In some cases, dual-mode vehicles equipped with batteries or diesel engines can temporarily free the trolleys from overhead wires. Source: Various Image: Stylized postcard image of the Siemens Elektromote See Also:

Submitted at 4/28/2010 11:00:00 PM

1882: Ernst Werner von Siemens tests a demonstration “trackless trolley” in a Berlin suburb. The innovative device pulls electricity from overhead wires, but runs with road wheels, not on rails. By the early 1880s, Siemens (yes, that Siemens) had already displayed the world’s first railway using a “third rail,” in which the rails themselves were used to convey electricity from a central generator. The inventor was also working on a rail-less device he called an Elektromote, whose power came from overhead catenary wires. This device would become the foundation of trackless-trolley or trolley-bus systems that became ubiquitous in urban areas during the 20th century. The Elektromote made its debut April 29, 1882, on a track onethird of a mile long in Halensee, Germany. It was a horse carriage modified with two electric motors running the chain drive that moved the rear wheels. A small Kontaktwagen, or contact cart, rolled along the

two overhead wires and was connected to the Elektromote with a flexible cable. The name of the powergathering device, Kontaktwagen, was translated as “trolley” in English-language materials, and that word was later expanded to describe the whole apparatus. The system was attractive because energy was produced remotely, meaning that vehicles did not have to waste energy

carrying fuel or a generator. Plus, overhead wires were safer than electrified rails running along roads or other public rights-of-way. The test was a success, but the Elektromote ceased operation on June 13 of that same year. Siemens would concentrate on electric railways, while trackless trolleys would for a time be surpassed by streetcars that drew power from a single overhead line and used fixed

MILITARY continued from page 37

program, to accommodate troops spending more time behind computer screens than they do on their feet.

[Photo: U.S Army] Term Extraction. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS,

• June 2, 1883: The 'L' Comes to Chicago … Indoors • March 31, 1901: Wuppertal Monorail Opens • Who Killed the Electric Trolley? • What Is Bus Rapid Transit? • It's a Bus. It's a Train. It's Both! • Dec. 22, 1882: Looking at Christmas in a New Light • Oct. 24, 1882: Koch Pinpoints the TB Bacillus • April 29, 1873: Railroads Lock and Load • April 29, 1964: Godzilla, Mothra Clash for First Time

rails to complete a circuit. The first example of a trackless trolley in passenger use would appear in 1910, when developer Charles Spencer Mann installed a trackless trolley up the steep hill of Laurel Canyon to the Los Five Filters featured article: Angeles Pacific streetcar line. Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: Using Oldsmobile buses that PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, were converted from gasoline to Term Extraction. electric, the line ran for five years until it was replaced with Stanley Steamer buses. Today, trackless trolleys run in

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Top 5 Latest Auto Manufacturing Trends (HowStuffWorks Daily Feed)

process. Previously, Ford's factory had offered cars customized according to Stepping into place for the first individual consumer's wishes -time on the moving assembly not anymore. Standardization line at Henry Ford's Model T meant even greater efficiency factory probably didn't give and more time saved. All in all, factory workers shivers of F o r d ' s i n n o v a t i v e r e v a m p momentous awe in 1913. It brought production time down probably just felt like coming to a mere 93 minutes per car into work. But momentous awe [source: Haven]. Cars sped out would not have been amiss; of showrooms at an astounding a f t e r a l l , F o r d ' s p r o c e s s pace, and the company seemed revolutionized manufacturing in unstoppable. almost every industrial sector, Fast-forward to 2009, and a n d c a r m a n u f a c t u r e r s i n overall the situation is still particular have never looked looking tolerable for Ford Motor back. Company. Sure, the economy The assembly line required less has been beating up on the Big -skilled workers, while also Three without mercy for the past making them vastly more several years now, but Ford is productive. Cars were cheaper weathering the storm most and faster to make, pushing their s u c c e s s f u l l y . U n l i k e h i s price tags down into a range counterparts at Chrysler and more consumers could muster. General Motors, Ford president Uniformed production was and CEO Alan Mulally (who another big part of the new took the helm in 2006) turned Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:00:00 AM

down federal aid. He's now working diligently to stabilize the company, and forecasts a return to profitability by 2011 [source: Taylor] Mulally has also pushed for efforts to streamline production and bring the company back to its core products, while pressing for cars that are smaller and more energy-efficient. Reminiscent of Henry Ford's drive for perfection, Mulally has Ford Motor Company pointed down the path to recovery. In this article we'll take a closer look at how car companies around the world also try to manufacture cars as cheaply and efficiently as possible, from prototyping all the way to the end of the production line. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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developers.” With this critical point Jobs addresses the contentious and until-now unexplained reason that the next development kit for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad product line, iPhone OS 4, will only allow apps to be written in native, approved coding languages such as C++ and Objective C, not crosscompilers which translate code from other languages into Apple -approved ones. That rules out, for example, content created with Apple’s Creative Suite. “This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features,” Jobs writes. “Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements

because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.” Adobe has not yet responded to Wired’s request for comment. See Also: • Why Apple Won’t Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone • As Apple Barricades Flash, HDTV Embraces It • Apple Promotes ‘iPad-Ready’ Websites Ditching Flash • Google Fires at Apple, Integrates Flash Into Chrome Browser … • Google’s ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Mantra Is ‘Bullshit,’ Adobe Is Lazy … • Flash Lands on iPhone — One App at a Time • Adobe Gives Up on Flash for iPhone, iPad Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

China Natural Gas (CHNG): A Play on Hybrid Vehicles Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks)

the leading providers of pipeline natural gas for industrial, commercial and residential use Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:30:00 AM in the Xi'an region of China; the Filed under: International c o m p a n y a l s o d i s t r i b u t e s M a r k e t s , N e w s l e t t e r s , compressed natural gas (CNG) Commodities, Oil, Stocks to for vehicular fuel through Buy, Green Stocks"China natural gas fueling stations," Natural Gas ( CHNG) is one of notes China specialist Jim

Trippon. The editor of The China Stock Digest explains, "Xi'an is a fast growing Chinese city supported by a population of approximately 8.5 million. Xian (as Westerners know it) is the "gateway" to the broad western regions of China. The city of

Xi'an has approximately 20,000 taxis, 5,000 buses and 3,000 special purpose vehicles that are powered by compressed natural gas. Continue reading China Natural Gas (CHNG): A Play on Hybrid Vehicles China Natural Gas (CHNG): A

Play on Hybrid Vehicles originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Naomi Watts on Her Latest Film, Mother and Child

How Bad is the Lincoln Derivatives Bill?

ELLE.com (ELLE Fashion Blogs)

Dave Mason (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.)

Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:43:54 AM

In Mother and Child, the poignant story of three women whose lives converge due to disparate circumstances involving adoption, Naomi Watts plays Elizabeth, a neurotic lawyer who claims no close companions, starts a fling with her widowed boss, and simultaneously seduces one of the happy marrieds next door (tucking away her lingerie in the wife’s bureau as evidence so as to ensure ruining their connubial bliss). So was Watts daunted by this complicated character? “I was kind of afraid of this strength of hers; I didn’t understand how it worked,” she revealed to us while promoting the film in New York this week. “She’s often doing things that were very confusing to me. I

understand that she’s a powerful woman, but is she evil? I think it was just that she’s in a lot of pain and has been badly wounded. She doesn’t hold men—not just men, human beings—in the highest regard.” She also discussed Elizabeth’s headstrong decision to have her tubes tied at the tender age of 17. “That’s a wildly dramatic

thing to do. At 17, most people get their ears pierced or get a tattoo. But that’s what I love about [writer-director Rodrigo Garcia]. He’s not conventional—he’s someone who sees people in their extraordinary ways and forgives them.” Her role as outed CIA agent Valerie Plame in Doug Liman’s Fair Game—set to premiere at Cannes —had a different set of challenges. “There’s a huge amount of pressure playing someone like Valerie. Who she is and what she’s done is wildly intimidating. It’s scary to take on that responsibility to honor her story—such an incredible story that’s affected us all.” —Erin Clements Photo: Getty Images Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!

funding to derivative clearinghouses avoided a “market breakdown” in the Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:11:23 AM course of the 1987 stock market It makes a future market melt- crash. down more likely. In reaction to the 2008 crisis the Today the Senate takes up Lincoln bill would wholly Senator Blanche Lincoln’s divorce derivatives trading from amendment to regulate over-the- b a n k i n g a n d p r o h i b i t F e d counter derivatives. The Lincoln involvement with derivatives bill is very, very bad, but don’t dealers and clearinghouses. take out word for it, ask the Lincoln’s throw-the-baby-outFederal Reserve. Fed Staffers with-the-bathwater approach released a four page, seven point would make it more likely that critique saying the Lincoln bill the next stock market crash will would “impair financial stability produce a total melt-down. and strong prudential regulation As another informed observer of derivatives; would have puts it, the biggest “systemic serious consequences for the r i s k ” t o t h e e c o n o m y i s competitiveness of US financial C o n g r e s s , n o t d e r i v a t i v e s institutions; and would be d e a l e r s . highly disruptive and costly, Tags: Blanche Lincoln, b o t h f o r b a n k s a n d t h e i r derivatives, financial markets, customers.” financial reform, Lincoln The first point of the Fed D e r i v a t i v e s B i l l “staff” critique echoes a point You can follow any responses made in a 1990 article by then- to this entry through the RSS 2.0 P r i n c e t o n p r o f e s s o r B e n feed. B e r n a n k e e x p l a i n i n g t h a t Five Filters featured article: derivatives clearinghouses are Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: an integral part of the larger PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, banking and payment system. Term Extraction. Bernanke explained how Fed actions in to assure emergency

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Polaroid Lives! New Camera Uses Real Instant Film Charlie Sorrel (Wired Top Stories) Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:00:00 AM

Like a phoenix rising from the flames and gently fading back into view as you pointlessly flap it in the air, Polaroid has returned. And this time, with real instant film, not that awful camera/printer - the Pogo- we saw last year. The PIC-300 has the familiar snap-and-wait action, spitting a photo from a slot in its top whereupon the internal chemical pack goes to work to develop

the image. The camera itself has four exposure settings and an automatic flash built into its ugly, bulbous and toy-like exterior, and runs on four AA batteries or a rechargeable li-ion (all included). The crying shame is that the photos are smaller than the originals, although they do have that classic shape with the fat (chemical-containing) bottomborder. Similar in size to a business card, the print is 2.1 x 3.4-inches (with a 1.8 x 2.4-inch image) versus the old 3.5 x 4.25 (3 x 3.1 image size).

That isn’t a big problem if the colors and feel of the photos is right: the Polaroid print is more of an object in itself than any other kind of photo. The trouble

might be the price. The camera is just $90, but the film costs $10 for a ten exposure pack (ISO 800). A dollar a print was standard for old Polaroids, but

this “fun” design camera is clearly aimed at cellphonetoting kids, who get their pictures free. Still, I’m in. I love Polaroid, and I’m sure that the cost-per-print will keep me from wasting too many frames like I do with digital. Welcome back, Polaroid! Good to see you again, old friend. Polaroid 300[Polaroid via Photography Bay] Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Poll: McCain Leads Hayworth by 26 Quick Pork Dinners Points (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks)

(Newsmax - Inside Cover)

includes Republicans and GOPleaning independents, who indicated they intend to A new poll from Phoenix-based participate in the Aug. 24 Behavior Research Center Republican primary. shows Sen. John McCain with a The site reported that of those commanding lead over former primary voters, McCain leads Rep. J.D. Hayworth in Arizona's Hayworth 54 percent to 28 closely watched Senate primary percent with another 18 percent fight. undecided. According to AZCentral.com, The website indicated McCain McCain leads former radio host will glide into a November reHayworth by 26 points, noting election if he wins the August that the statewide survey of 666 primary: Arizona voters was conducted "In a potential general election between April 12 and April 25 battle against former Tucson Submitted at 4/29/2010 4:43:58 AM

Vice Mayor Rodney Glassman, the leading Democratic Senate candidate, McCain is ahead 46 percent to 24 percent with a significant 30 percent uncommitted," the poll says. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent. © Newsmax. All rights reserved. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper, stirring with a whisk. Time: 30 minutes Drizzle vinaigrette over bean Serve with Haricots Verts mixture; toss to coat. Salad: Cook ¾ pound trimmed Simple Sub: Regular greens haricots verts in boiling water 3 beans will work great in the minutes or until crisp-tender. salad, but you’ll need to cook Drain and plunge beans into ice them a few minutes longer. w a t e r ; View Recipe: Dijon Croque drain. Place beans in a medium Monsieur bowl; add ½ cup slivered red b e l l p e p p e r . C o m b i n e 2 • Watch Video Demo -tablespoons chopped fresh c h i v e s , 2 t a b l e s p o o n s Next Ancho Pork and Hominy minced shallots, 2 tablespoons Stew w h i t e w i n e v i n e g a r , 2 Five Filters featured article: tablespoons extra-virgin olive Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: oil, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, ½ PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, t e a s p o o n Term Extraction.

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Crapshoot Ed Kilgore (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 4/28/2010 5:09:10 PM

Where is it most painful to be a highly visible incumbent politician at this particular moment in U.S. history? Perhaps it’s California, where current economic and budgetary discontents are compounding a growing public fury over chronically dysfunctional state government and an imprisoning constitution. Maybe it’s Florida, that fading Sunbelt powerhouse full of simmering regional and ethnic rivalries, whose permatanned governor has struggled to make up his mind which political party he belongs to. But you couldn’t go far wrong by selecting Nevada, a state that shares Florida’s disastrous economic dependence on realestate speculation and tourism—Nevada currently sports the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation, 13.4 percent, trailing only Michigan—and the special disappointment of being, for many residents, a Paradise Lost. The state’s own demographic and ideological diversity also rivals Florida’s, home as it is to a rapidly growing Latino population (which made up 15 percent of the electorate in 2008), plenty of extremely conservative Mormons, powerful and politically active labor unions, a libertarian

heritage of legalized vice, and a Republican Party moving so quickly to the right that you can barely keep up with it. Moreover, Nevada’s three top elected officials are currently Harry Reid, John Ensign, and Jim Gibbons. Reid, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate and never terribly popular back home, has looked like a sitting duck for over a year. Ensign, once considered a rising conservative star, has been exposed as a sanctimonious hypocrite over the course of a particularly sordid adultery-andcronyism scandal, in which a group of mysterious evangelical allies operating out of a compound on C Street in Washington, known variously as The Family or The Fellowship, were caught unsuccessfully trying to clean up his act or cover it up. Gibbons has had his own, somewhat more cartoonish series of sex scandals—although maybe they were just “relationship scandals,” if you buy his claim that he hasn’t had sex since the mid-'90s. Luckily for him, Ensign is not up for reelection until 2012. Unluckily enough, Harry Reid is up for reelection in 2010, and, seeing as his son, Clark County (Las Vegas) Commission Chairman Rory Reid, is the frontrunner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, you’d think that Nevada Republicans would have a straight, clean shot

at a sweep that dethrones the Reid dynasty. But it’s hardly that simple, thanks to Byzantine and fractious Republican primaries for both the Senate and the governorship (where Jim Gibbons is still a formidable candidate), the existence of an independent Tea Party ballot line, and the always-important factors of money and organization, where Democrats have a distinct advantage. Just six weeks before Primary Day, you'd have to say that handicapping Nevada’s political races is something of a crapshoot. Dating all the way back to November 2008, Harry Reid’s “favorable” rating in Nevada polls has been wallowing monotonously in the high 30s and low 40s, deadly territory for an extremely well-known incumbent, and particularly for a national party leader who claims to be able to represent his state’s values and bring home the bacon as well. The difficulty that Republicans have experienced in recruiting a toptier Senate candidate has newspapers hesitating to dust off obituaries to Reid’s Senate career. But in head-to-head polls with his most likely GOP opponents, Reid has persistently trailed all of them, sometimes by double digits, and almost never gaining much more than 40 percent of the vote. After striking out in its attempts

to recruit a strong candidate such as former Congressman Jon Porter, Republicans have on hand a field of three major candidates: casino owner, former state senator, party chairwoman, and ex-beauty queen Sue Lowden; realtor and famous-basketball-playing-sonof-famous-basketball-coach Danny Tarkanian; and rightwing grassroots favorite Sharron Angle. Until very lately, Lowden looked to be consolidating a strong lead for the nomination. Despite a somewhat moderate image (particularly on social issues), she won endorsements from national conservative figures like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and benefited from the general impression that she was far and away the most electable of available Republicans. But then, at a local candidate forum in early April, Lowden touted the idea that individuals should barter for health services as an alternative to Obamacare, making the particular mistake of mentioning the “olden days” practice of trading chickens for doctor visits. After Jay Leno and others started bagging on her for promoting “chickens for checkups,” Lowden made the puzzling decision to defend her statement—repeatedly—instead of brushing it off and moving on. Now the whole meme has gone very viral. There hasn’t been a Senate primary poll since

this all happened, but Tarkanian and Angle—and for that matter, Harry Reid—have to be encouraged by all the laughter at Lowden. Meanwhile, in the governor’s race, the Republicans' frontrunner is former Attorney General Brian Sandoval, is struggling nearly as much as Lowden. The perpetually unpopular incumbent, Jim Gibbons, is playing every ideological angle to win renomination. Falling back on his traditional popularity among hard-core conservatives, Gibbons has boosted his anemic approval ratings by championing legal challenges to the new federal health reform legislation, and is accusing Sandoval—who has taken the supreme risk of refusing demands to take Grover Norquist’s no-tax-increase pledge—of being a moderate squish. Democrats, figuring that Gibbons is a much easier mark, have been running attack ads on Sandoval that echo conservative criticisms. A late twist has been the reaction of Nevada Republicans to the draconian Arizona legislation requiring lawenforcement officials to demand proof of citizenship from people who raise “reasonable suspicion” that they are in the country illegally. Sandoval, who CRAPSHOOT page 49

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Gone South Philip Jenkins (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 4/28/2010 11:00:00 PM

These are obviously dark days for the Roman Catholic Church. For over a decade, the U.S. church has been assailed by abuse charges and devastated by the resulting litigation. The Vatican used to console itself with the belief that this was a peculiarly American crisis, but, this year, similar abuse cases have arisen all over Europe—most agonizingly in Ireland, one of the world's most faithfully Catholic countries. Across the continent, bishops are facing demands to resign, while critics are urging Pope Benedict himself to consider standing down. Some media commentators are even asking if the Church can survive the crisis. But most evidence suggests that the Church will endure and even enjoy a historic boom--just not in places it has flourished historically. For years, its core has been migrating away from Europe, heading southward into Africa and Latin America. Some Church observers have remarked that the Vatican is now in the wrong location: It’s 2,000 miles too far north of its emerging homelands. The recent abuse scandals will accelerate this radical shift, discrediting older European elites and opening the door to new

generations of leaders who are more attuned to the needs and concerns of believers in the southern hemisphere. Literally, the Catholic world will turn fully upside down. For centuries, the Catholic Church was unquestionably strongest in Europe. In 1900, the continent accounted for perhaps two-thirds of the Church's nearly 270 million members. Latin America had another 70 million believers, while Africa barely appeared on the map, with about two million followers. As Anglo-French sage Hilaire Belloc proclaimed in 1920, “The Faith is Europe and Europe is the Faith.” Since then, and especially since the 1960s, Catholicism has been moving south. Partly, this is due to evangelism sponsored by the Church and its religious orders; new conversions, for instance, have surged in Africa. But shifting demographics have also played its part: While populations have increased modestly in Europe, they have boomed across the global south—and Catholic numbers have grown apace. Today, the world has 900 million more Catholics than it did in 1900, but only 100 hundred million of those new additions are Europeans. In part, European Catholicism has been declining because of a general trend toward secularization and religious

indifference. Recent survey evidence, for instance, shows only half of the French claiming to belong to the Church—down from about 80 percent two decades ago. There has also been a massive decline in practice of the faith. Particularly in Western Europe, millions of Catholics are members of the Church only in the technical sense of having been baptized; they never darken the door of a church, and don't support official Church policies on issues of morality or sexuality. At the turn of the millennium, only around 18 percent of Catholics in Spain and 12 percent in France reported attending weekly mass; the figures for Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands ran between 10 percent and 15 percent. Latin America, in contrast, is now by far the world's most Catholic region. Rapid population growth over the past century has boosted the official number of believers to around 460 million, and this number should rise to 600 million within two decades—comprising some 45 percent of the Church’s worldwide membership. Vatican statistics show Brazil as the world’s largest Catholic country, with 160 million believers, or around 85 percent of the population. (More reliable estimates suggest that 65 percent of Brazilians are Catholic, because of the rise of

fervent Pentecostal churches. Still, the number of Catholics is huge.) Africa, meanwhile, is the scene of a religious revolution. During the twentieth century, Christian numbers boomed across the continent, and Catholics did particularly well. In 2000, Africa had 130 million Catholics, which, as Vatican observer John Allen, Jr. points out in his book The Future Church, represented a growth rate over the century of 6,700 percent. By 2025, there should be at least 220 million African Catholics, making up around one-sixth of the Church's worldwide membership. (I say “at least” because the African Church is likely under-counting its followers as it lacks the institutional framework to track what's happening on the ground. According to the Gallup World Poll, the number of Africans claiming to be Catholic is already pushing 200 million, which is more than 20 percent larger than any official Church figure.) By 2050, according to projections, Africa will have far more Catholics than Europe. Indeed, projections show that, by the half-century mark, Europe will account for perhaps 15 percent of Catholics—and many of those will be immigrants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. So, while the Catholic Church

will remain a major—likely still the major—player in the world’s spiritual economy, it will be a very different entity. And its transformation will only be hastened by the current abuse crisis. Previous abuse scandals, such as those in the United States in the early 2000s, had no obvious effect on Catholic adherence in Europe. Yet the recent allegations, which hit Germany, Ireland, Belgium and other European countries, will resonate deeply on the continent, especially since charges of official negligence seem to reach to the pope himself. The impact will be particularly strong in Western Europe, with its powerful media that are increasingly antagonistic toward the Catholic hierarchy and even the Church itself. We can’t gauge precisely what impact the crisis will have on the Church's European membership—though, according to the Forsa Institute, perhaps one-fourth of German Catholics are considering leaving the Church. At a minimum, the crisis will likely alienate already lukewarm Catholics and marginalize the minority of devoted believers. It will also severely diminish Church finances, particularly in countries where citizens opt to GONE page 50

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Newtered Norman Ornstein (The New Republic - All Feed)

and understood the stimulus package (which involved massive tax cuts and rather Submitted at 4/28/2010 4:42:41 PM conventional spending “We are all Keynesians now,” p r o g r a m s ) . B u t i f t h a t i s said Richard Nixon in 1971. evidence of “machine politics,” That phrase came to mind then every recent president, and reading historian and former c e r t a i n l y e v e r y m o d e r n House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s Congress, is guilty on a massive riposte in The Washington Post scale. Bills are not drafted for t o m y o p - e d e x p r e s s i n g reading; they contain technical a m a z e m e n t t h a t P r e s i d e n t legal language that is gibberish Obama is being attacked on the to all but legislative drafters. In right as a radical, a socialist, and my 40-plus years immersed in more. Gingrich’s comeback Congress’s processes, I cannot used a set of pointed examples name a single major bill that to prove that Barack Obama more than a handful of members presides over a “secular-socialist had fully read and completely machine” and is “the most understood—including every radical president in American omnibus budget measure, the history.” Using Gingrich’s 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, examples, I thought of a whole the far-reaching Patriot Act, the fraternity of former presidents massive TARP assets relief who could say, “We are all program, and the Medicare socialist machine presidents Prescription Drug Bill jammed now.” through the House in the dead of Let’s start this fisking by night in 2003, a huge bill which addressing his use of the word members had no opportunity to “machine.” Gingrich uses two r e a d b e c a u s e t h e v e r s i o n pieces of evidence to support it: debated and voted on was first, that Obama extracted $787 sprung on the body with no billion from Congress for his notice. economic stimulus package The examples above all took “when no elected member had place under the presidency of fully read and understood the G e o r g e W . B u s h a n d t h e economic stimulus package,” speakership of Gingrich’s making it worthy of the Chicago Republican successor Dennis political machine; second, that Hastert. So call Bush, by the Obama ignored the will of the Gingrich standard, the Boss public by ramming through an Tweed of machine presidents, unpopular health care bill. leaving Obama as a weaker It is probably true that no version of Richie Daley. elected member had fully read What about the second

Gingrich standard? The health reform plan was unpopular by one set of poll analyses—but not by others. Most major planks in the health reform package, from insurance exchanges to required coverage to the public option, actually had popular support. Sure, there was disapproval of the package in general—but not if one removes from the polling numbers those who disapproved because the bill did not go far enough! If we use as a gauge presidents pushing measures that were strongly disapproved by large majorities of Americans, let us look at the unpopular early-1941 extension of the draft, rammed through Congress by FDR by a single vote, or the 1989 congressional and executive branch pay raises, supported by outgoing President Ronald Reagan, incoming President George H.W. Bush, and both parties’ congressional leaders. Chalk up three more machine presidencies. In fact, if we embrace as a standard presidents and congresses who push and adopt proposals that are opposed by majorities of Americans, it would be fair to say that all presidents are machine politicians. Now, how about “socialist”? Here, Gingrich starts by citing the many “czar” positions appointed by Obama to micromanage industry, then turns to the government

takeover of automobile companies (including violating bankruptcy conventions by favoring workers at the expense of bondholders), and moves on to denounce the possibility (not formal plan) raised by the White House that the Environmental Protection Agency manage carbon output. First: czars. Glenn Beck says that Obama has 32 of them. Using Beck’s definition—which is “based on media reports from reputable sources that have identified the official in question as a czar”—George W. Bush had 36 czars, making him more of a socialist than Obama. Gingrich particularly singled out Obama’s pay czar, who has modest authority to limit pay and bonuses to the top executives of financial firms who accepted the federal bailouts given to them during the Bush presidency. And by that standard, Richard Nixon’s wage and price controls, affecting far more people than a small number of Wall Street and big business executives, would make him a socialist too. The temporary takeover of General Motors and Chrysler? It was done for economic triage and added stringent firewalls to bar government meddling or control. Harry Truman’s less restrained attempted takeover of the steel industry makes him more of a socialist. EPA regulating carbon emissions?

That makes the Supreme Court socialist since it sanctioned the process—but also hits George H. W. Bush with a socialist label, since the Clean Air Act Amendments that gave EPA the power (and opened the door for carbon emissions trading) were signed by him in 1990. Gingrich’s conclusion is that Obama is “the most radical president in American history.” Compare Obama to Jefferson—whose Louisiana Purchase radically altered the role of the federal government and dramatically expanded America’s reach; to Andrew Jackson, a radical populist who enlarged the powers of the presidency and acted unilaterally against financial interests and foreign powers; Abraham Lincoln, who took the country into a massive civil war after challenging slavery, suspended Habeas Corpus, and took on the established way of things through executive orders known as the Emancipation Proclamation; Theodore Roosevelt, who sharply expanded the government by creating trust-busting independent agencies, and sharply expanded American involvement abroad by asserting unilateral presidential war powers; Woodrow Wilson, who moved further to fundamentally alter America’s role in the NEWTERED page 49

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HHS Withheld Obamacare Document (Newsmax - Inside Cover) Submitted at 4/29/2010 5:19:02 AM

A published report saying the Obama administration knew that its healthcare proposal would increase costs instead of reducing them is “troubling,” according to a senior House Republican leader. Administration officials from the president downward used claims that the legislation would reduce healthcare costs to get the votes of wavering members of Congress. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius knew about a report from Medicare’s Office of the Actuary prior to the House’s March 22 vote, indicating the bill would increase healthcare costs, according to an April 26 report appearing in The American Spectator’s Washington Prowler blog. The bill passed by a 219-212 margin with several selfproclaimed fiscally conservative Democrats voting in favor, believing it would reduce costs. But an HHS source said Sebelius’ staff refused to examine the document before the vote was taken to keep from negatively influencing the results. The administration waited until last week to make

the report public. “The reason we were given was that they did not want to influence the vote,” the HHS source said. “Which is actually the point of having a review, you would think. We know a copy was sent to the White House via their legislative affairs staff, and there were a number of meetings here almost right after the analysis was submitted. “Everyone went into lockdown, and people here were too scared to go public with the report.” House Republican Study Committee chairman Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., who has been a key GOP point man on healthcare reform, tells Newsmax this revelation further undermines the administration’s popular credibility. “There seems to be an increasing credibility gap between what the administration says and what the facts are — whether it’s in the area of unemployment or energy, or stimulus, or the higher cost of healthcare,” Price said. “I think this is directly acceding into a remarkable lack of trust the American people have in this administration, and the president repeatedly reinforces that lack of trust by continuing to repeat things that just aren’t accurate.”

Price said he hopes this will raise a popular uproar because those who voted for the healthcare reform law placed the interests of their party’s leadership over those of their constituents. “They said the law would bring down costs, but it is quite the opposite,” Price said. “So it’s a stunning incoordination with the truth, and that’s very, very concerning and I think terribly troubling for the entire nation.” Other conservative leaders had equally strong words for the revelation. Colin Hanna, president of Let Freedom Ring, said if the administration intentionally suppressed information contradicting its public claims about its healthcare reform proposal, it would reflect a Chicago-style way of doing things. “If true, this is one more confirmation of the Obama administration’s lack of integrity in promoting the healthcare bill,” Hanna said. “It makes a mockery of the president’s claims of transparency.” The report makes it obvious Sebelius’ office used its influence to keep an independently verified report showing the president’s healthcare reform package would increase costs to ensure

the legislation passed and fencesitting Democrats were kept in line, according to Ryan Ellis, Americans for Tax Reform’s tax policy director. “It would have been nice to know there was independent verification that this bill was going to cost a lot more than people were saying,” Ellis said. “It would have been nice to know that Obama’s own CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) was giving independent verification that the accounting gimmicks were there and the double-counting was there, and that it wouldn’t do anything to bend the cost curve.” Ellis, who has read the report in detail, tells Newsmax it predicts healthcare will substantially grow as part of the overall economy over the next decade, compared with current numbers. “If you are going to bend the cost curve, at the very least it shouldn’t be growing as a percentage of the economy,” Ellis said. “It’s about 16 percent of the economy today, and it will grow to about 21 percent of the economy in 10 years. That’s not bending the cost curve; if anything you are accelerating it.” The report also noted the administration’s accounting excluded the so-called “doc fix,”

which would increase Medicare reimbursement rates. Some estimate this could cost several trillion dollars over the next decade should Congress pass it in the future. “They are claiming all this new revenue going into the Medicare Part A trust fund . . . the Medicare program doesn’t make a lot of sense when you are then raiding that trust fund in order to pay for some of the subsidies that are part of this healthcare bill,” Ellis said. “You can’t do both. You can’t use a dollar to extend Medicare and then use that same dollar to spend it today in order to pay for Obamacare. “You can’t use the same dollar twice. What the CMS report is saying is there is a lot of accounting gimmicks in there that are understating the cost to the taxpayers.” Ellis said those Blue Dog Democrats who voted for the bill should especially be upset because the administration lied to get their votes. © Newsmax. All rights reserved. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Hill GOP Eyes Rebound in New England (Newsmax - Inside Cover)

Republicans need to retake 40 seats in November to regain control of the House. Success in New England Republicans, a Democratic stronghold like dismissed as a vanishing breed N e w E n g l a n d c o u l d after a string of congressional significantly improve GOP l o s s e s , a r e n o w t h i n k i n g efforts nationally. comeback. "The public really wants to see Tapping a deep vein of voter balance in Washington and has discontent over the economy, become extremely wary of onejobs and President Obama's party control of both houses and health care overhaul, the GOP the administration," said Maine h a s a r e a s o n a b l e s h o t a t Sen. Susan Collins, a prominent capturing a handful of House Republican moderate who has races in the six-state region. bucked the trend. "That general "I think people are feeling this feeling and some of the excesses sense of desperation and this of the Obama administration sense of fixing the country and and the increase in spending stopping spending," said Kate h a v e s e t t h e s t a g e f o r a Benway, 30, a Republican from R e p u b l i c a n c o m e b a c k . " Concord, N.H., who works in Democrats still enjoy a strong marketing. "I don't think those hold on New England, where are necessarily new messages, Mr. Obama easily swept the six but somehow we're at this states in 2008. And with six psychological breaking point." months until November, the Scott Brown's stunning claim p a r t y h o p e s t h e s i g n s o f on the Senate seat long held by economic revival continue and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in voter disenchantment fades. In liberal Massachusetts earlier this t h e c o m i n g w e e k s , year was a jolt of energy for the congressional Democrats hope GOP. The little-known Brown's to gain an edge as they push a success in one of the bluest new crackdown on Wall Street states set off Democratic alarm abuses. bells - and sent Republican "I am significantly upbeat, hopes soaring that the party can certainly here in New England," reverse its long slide in New New Hampshire Democratic England in this fall's midterm Party Chairman Ray Buckley elections. said. "With the economy turning Submitted at 4/29/2010 4:26:53 AM

around, we'll be in good shape in November. ... A Republican winning up here is more of an anomaly than a regular current anymore." Still, Republican prospects are looking up in: c New Hampshire, where polling shows the GOP favored to win back the two House seats the party lost in the 2006 Democratic tide. Two-term Democratic Rep. Carol SheaPorter appears vulnerable, and a second seat is open because Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes is running for the Senate. Republican Sen. Judd Gregg decided not to seek re-election. Former Rep. Charlie Bass, a centrist ousted four years ago, is embracing the agenda of conservatives and "tea party" activists who played a key role in Mr. Brown's victory. GOP candidates are pushing strong anti-government themes in crowded primaries in both districts. "Republicans will do well," said former Sen. John E. Sununu, who was toppled by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen two years ago. c Rhode Island, where there are echoes of Mr. Brown's insurgency in Republican John Loughlin's bid for retiring Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy's seat.

Members of Mr. Brown's political team are working for Mr. Loughlin. Like Mr. Brown, Mr. Loughlin is a state legislator who has served in the National Guard and opposed the new health care law. Republicans such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani are backing Mr. Loughlin. Mr. Loughlin needs to score big in Providence and Woonsocket, Democratic strongholds. c Massachusetts, where a hardfought race is on tap for retiring Democratic Rep. Bill Delahunt's seat, which stretches from Boston's South Shore to Cape Cod and includes the Kennedy family's Hyannis Port home. Mr. Brown won 60 percent of the vote in the district against Democrat Martha Coakley in the special Senate election, a surprising sign of GOP strength. The top Republicans are former state Treasurer Joe Malone and Jeffrey Perry, a conservative state representative who has won Mr. Brown's endorsement and is aggressively courting tea party activists. "This is a good year for Republicans to be running," Mr. Perry said. "The people that I

am talking to, they're not happy. The approval ratings for the people in Congress are going down, down, down, and our problems are getting larger." A generation ago, New England was bedrock GOP turf. But the bloodlines have thinned since the 1960s, when social conservatives from the South and West began eclipsing the national party's more moderate Eastern establishment. The GOP suffered key House losses in Connecticut and New Hampshire as surging Democrats took control of Congress four years ago. Republicans were stung again in 2008 when a Democratic tide claimed Connecticut's Christopher Shays, the last GOP House member from New England still standing. That left a solid block of 22 Democrats representing the region's six states in the House. ÂŠ Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Revolutionary Road E.J. Dionne Jr. (The New Republic - All Feed) Submitted at 4/28/2010 2:07:27 PM

WASHINGTONâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Maybe the next time someone calls Barack Obama a socialist, the president shouldn't issue a denial. He might instead urge his accuser to read the hearing transcript of this week's congressional testimony from the Goldman Sachs guys in their beautiful suits. Capitalism has not taken a hit like this since Mr. Potter made his appearance as the evil banker on "It's a Wonderful Life." No leftist polemicist could come up with as damning a description of contemporary capitalism as the contents of an e-mail that Goldman's Fabrice "Fabulous Fab" Tourre sent to his girlfriend. "Well," he wrote, "what if we created a 'thing', which has no purpose, which is absolutely conceptual and highly theoretical and which nobody knows how to price?" Perhaps Fab once read the Karl Marx who wrote: "The more abstract money is, the less natural its relationship to other commodities."

If money is an abstraction, the investment industry's creative inventions are abstractions of abstractions of abstractions. Banks no longer just give people loans to buy houses. Now Wall Street's geniuses -- and they are ingenious -- trade bizarre financial products in which the original loan is packaged with thousands of others and buried under piles of equations and economic gibberish. Goldman may face SEC charges, but it's the entirety of our deregulated financial system that's on trial. In this new order, the inventiveness of our entrepreneurs goes not only into creating products that actually enhance our lives (from refrigerators to laptops to iPods) but also into fashioning "absolutely conceptual and highly theoretical" financial products whose main function is to enrich a very small number of well-placed people. The ever-more-complex financial instruments are defended on the grounds that they make life better for everybody. Tourre offered this justification in another of his revealing e-mails: "Anyway, not feeling too guilty about this, the

real purpose of my job is to make capital markets more efficient and ultimately provide the U.S. consumer with more efficient ways to leverage and finance himself, so there is a humble, noble and ethical reason for my job ;)" Then he added: "amazing how good I am in convincing myself !!!" Tourre's unconventionally punctuated observations go to the heart of the debate we need to have: How many of the arguments offered on behalf of these exotic transactions are nothing more than rationalizations for the capacity they give a few investment bankers to get very, very rich? Does it make sense to have investment houses playing the role of "market makers" peddling financial junk with one hand that they then bet against with the other? Let's assume for the sake of argument that this is perfectly legal. The real question is: Why should it be? I'm prepared to believe that some of these financial innovations do real work for the real economy. Yes, it's good that farmers can use the futures markets to lock in prices, and

the secondary mortgage markets may well free up capital. But Wall Street has gone way beyond the original purposes of such devices and created a world unto itself in which the gains are reserved for privileged insiders and the losses are borne by everybody else. At one point during the hearings, Sen. Carl Levin played the Jimmy Stewart good-banker role from "It's a Wonderful Life" by describing capitalism as it's supposed to be. Levin noted that Wall Street "has been seen as an engine of growth, betting on America's successes and not its failures." Well, that's what Wall Street proclaims in its advertisements for itself. But when defending themselves against legal charges, Wall Streeters retreat to honesty by saying that everybody knows they are really there to make money and that it's naive to hold them accountable for the social impact of what they do. It is, indeed, naive to expect Wall Street to act as charitably as the Salvation Army, and you have to respect Fabulous Fab's brutal candor about this. Which brings us back to socialism.

Marx's predictions about the inevitable collapse of capitalism have been wrong so far because the system has worked reasonably well thanks to the rules and redistributive programs established after the Great Crash. The lesson is that the surest way to save capitalism is to regulate it in the public interest. The surest way to create socialists is for everyone to experience the economic consequences of counting only on the goodness in the hearts of Mr. Potter and Fabrice Tourre. E.J. Dionne's e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com. E.J. Dionne, Jr. is the author of the recently published Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right. He is a Washington Post columnist, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a professor at Georgetown University. (c) 2009, Washington Post Writers Group For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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Supreme Court Saves the Mojave Desert Cross – For Now Brian Walsh (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.) Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:00:39 AM

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday handed a defeat to activists and other litigants whose extreme views motivate them to try to eliminate from public life almost every symbol and expression of religion. By a slim 5-4 margin, the Court in Salazar v. Buono reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and allowed an 8foot cross in the Mojave Desert to continue to stand – at least for now. The cross is part of a national memorial for the over 300,000 American soldiers who died in World War I. Justice Anthony Kennedy authored the primary opinion and concluded that the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit erred when it held that the U.S. could not carry out Congress’s directive to transfer the small parcel of land on which the memorial is located to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). The VFW is a private, non-governmental organization, and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment does not apply to religious activities, expressions, or symbols by

private parties. Congress passed the law directing transfer of the land to the VFW after the lower federal courts had held that merely having a cross on federal land violated the Establishment Clause. The outlandish basis for the Ninth Circuit’s holding is, as Justice Kennedy put it, that plaintiff Frank Buono, a retired U.S. Park Service employee, “claims to be offended by the presence of a religious symbol on federal land.” The case thus posed a threat to all religious symbols on all federal lands. If the Court had affirmed the Ninth Circuit’s extreme decision, it would have opened the door to legal challenges eliminating Stars of David, crosses, and similar religious symbols found, for example, on soldiers’ graves in Arlington National Cemetery and every other federal cemetery. This of course is the same Ninth Circuit that last month barely rejected by a narrow 2-1 majority a challenge to the constitutionality of school children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance because the Pledge includes the two words “under God.” (See Newdow v. Rio Linda Union School District.)

the Court’s decision will require the trial court to conduct a far more thorough analysis of whether the Establishment Clause might be violated even after the land is transferred to the VFW. Finally, it seems unfortunate that Justice Scalia’s concurring opinion apparently could not command a majority of the nine Justices. His opinion arguably sets forth the best approach and resolution to the case. Justice Scalia concluded that Buono’s own admission that he is not offended by religious symbols on private property demonstrate that he could not possibly suffer any harm if the land were transferred. Joined by Justice Thomas, Justice Scalia concluded that Salazar v. Buono thus cannot meet the requirement of Article III of the Constitution that an actual “case For procedural reasons, the a s p e c t s o f w h i c h m a y b e or controversy” exist before the Supreme Court did not consider q u e s t i o n a b l e . ” T h e power of the federal judiciary the correctness of the Ninth Establishment Clause, he wrote, may be exercised in a matter. Circuit’s original holding in the “does not require eradication of Five Filters featured article: Mojave cross case forbidding all religious symbols in the Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: the cross’s use in the memorial. public realm.” PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, J u s t i c e K e n n e d y w r o t e , Justice Kennedy’s primary Term Extraction. however, that this should not be opinion sent the case back to the read to suggest that the Supreme federal trial court. If Frank Court agrees with the Ninth Buono continues to pursue his C i r c u i t ’ s d e c i s i o n , “ s o m e passion to eradicate the cross,

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CRAPSHOOT continued from page 42

is Latino, immediately endorsed the Arizona law, indicating where he thinks his own political bread is buttered. Gibbons took a different tack, arguing that Nevada’s nonborder location makes such tactics unnecessary. The third major candidate, former North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon, who is trying to undercut Gibbons from the right, drew cheers during a recent candidates' debate for taking the following position: “Why are we answering questions on whether illegal immigration should be legal,” Montandon said. “I support what Arizona did absolutely.” He added that he supports profiling, calling it the single greatest tool of law enforcement. That ought to go over well with minority voters, eh? Aside from the particular dynamics of the senatorial and gubernatorial races, Republicans are uneasily aware that they don’t match up well with Democrats in terms of money or

campaign infrastructure. As one reporter put it last month: The state party itself evoked laughter among several prominent Republicans I spoke to last week. “There’s a whole lot of unproductive activity going on over there without any rhyme or reason,” said a Republican source, before unfurling a string of unsolicited insults at party leadership. A key question would seem to be, “Where are the adults?” Can’t someone put a heavy hand on the shoulder of a top-tier candidate and say, “We need you,” or clear the field of primary challengers, or tell Ensign it’s time to step aside? “That’s usually the role of the head of party,” another Republican source said. “But who is the head of the party? Yeah, there’s your answer.” Meanwhile, the massive organizing efforts that Democrats put into the 2008 Nevada caucuses and general election are still bearing fruit, their impact sustained by Harry

Reid’s campaign cash. Reid’s various campaign committees donated $660,000—serious money in this relatively small state—to the Nevada Democratic Party in 2009 alone. By the end of March, he had raised over $16 million for his re-election (with an ultimate goal of $25 million) and, after a lot of early spending, still had over $9 million in cash on hand. By contrast, Reid’s two likeliest general election opponents, Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian, who still have to expend themselves in a June primary slugfest, each had just over one quarter-million in the bank at the end of March. Both have some personal money to throw in, but not enough to keep up with Reid’s cash machine. There are those who look at Nevada and conclude that nothing can save Harry Reid (or his son), not money, not organization, not a scattered and vulnerable Republican Party, not Latino outrage at GOP immigrant-bashing, not chickens -for-checkups, not a third-party

candidate, and not even the possibility of a GOP ticket led by Jim Gibbons. It is, after all, a bad year to be an incumbent, much less a Democratic incumbent, much less the Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate. But add all of these factors together, in a year when Nevada Republicans are committing one unforced error after another, and almost anything could happen. Republicans probably shouldn't bet the farm on victory. Ed Kilgore is a special correspondent for The New Republic. He is also managing editor of The Democratic Strategist and a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute. For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Vietnam); or Ronald Reagan, who challenged the longstanding political and governmental establishment on domestic and foreign policy lines. Is Barack Obama, whose presidency is characterized by a

set of actions designed to stave off depression and deflation, combined with a health reform plan based on Republican templates and with no public option, more radical than every one of these former presidents? My conclusion is quite different

than that of my AEI colleague. Norman Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. For more TNR, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

continued from page 44

world; Franklin Roosevelt, whose New Deal dramatically transformed the U.S. into a modern state with a vast federal government role; Lyndon Johnson, who gave the U.S. Medicare and path-breaking civil rights acts (along with

Kaine Dismisses Grim Dem Fall Forecast (Newsmax - Inside Cover) Submitted at 4/29/2010 4:02:07 AM

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine on Wednesday predicted Republican infighting will help his party maintain its congressional majorities, dismissing doomsday scenarios in November's midterm elections. He said last year's unexpected losses in major races served as a "wake-up call" and that the health care victory and an immigration debate that favors Democrats will lead to a resurgence in the party's lagging poll numbers. "We think we can do an awful lot better than the historic norm - and certainly better than what's been predicted by some of the d o o m - a n d - g l o o m prognosticators," he told KAINE page 51

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devote a portion of their taxes to religious and charitable causes: Expect a heavy diversion of funds away from Catholic causes. Media coverage of the abuse and the Vatican's mangled response will also provide ample ammunition for those who want to keep religion out of the political realm. European opponents of the Church will find it much easier to silence the Vatican's voice in future legislation concerning issues like abortion, gay marriage and adoption, or reproductive technologies. In any of these controversies, the rhetorical conflict is easy to predict: When Church leaders cite the defense of children and their rights as their reason for backing or opposing policies, secularist critics will immediately point out that bishops and cardinals haven't always been so concerned with children's welfare. It will be a tough criticism to counter. But the effects of the abuse crisis will be far smaller in Africa and Latin America, where religious loyalties are intimately connected with complex social and familial

networks. (African Catholicism, for example, is still tied up with loyalty to family, region and ethnicity, a sacred geography and history—much like the system that existed in Europe in bygone centuries.) The secular media also don’t enjoy the same pervasive presence in Africa and Latin America that it does in Europe, and the Church has its own powerful media voices that will defend the faith. If abuse revelations do drive some Catholics away from the Church—and perhaps to rival faiths—then those people were probably on the verge of defecting anyway. The exposés will just have provided a final push. Indeed, as the crisis quickens the wane of Europe's Catholic influence, it will help solidify the Church's new roots in the south. Membership there will continue to burgeon, and Church's hierarchy will increasingly be paved with southern clerics. When the time comes to choose someone to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, the cardinals, acutely aware of the effects of the abuse crisis, will probably consider more innovative international

candidates, untainted by European connections. A Latin American pope would be a likely choice. Yet, in speculating what the Church might look like in 2050, John Allen imagines an African pope who would represent the interests of his home continent on the world stage. It is very possible that the abuse crisis will only push this scenario closer to the present day; the next time the cardinals must choose a new Vatican leader, they may ask, why not an African? By that point, perhaps, some keen theorist may be boasting, “Africa is the Faith." And who would dare question the statement? Philip Jenkins is the author of Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, And Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe For The Next 1,500 Years(HarperOne, 2010).

Analyst Calls: AKAM, AKS, BIN, BTN, DTG, EFX, FSLR, PALM, PLCE, ROK ... Eric Buscemi (BloggingStocks)

target for shares to $60 from $49. • First Solar ( FSLR) was Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:00:00 AM upgraded to buy from hold at Filed under: Analyst Reports, Deutsche Bank and to hold from A n a l y s t U p g r a d e s a n d sell at Soleil. Downgrades, Hewlett-Packard • Beckman Coulter ( BEC) was (HPQ), Barrick Gold (ABX), upgraded to overweight from Palm Inc (PALM), Analyst neutral at Piper Jaffray. I n i t i a t i o n s , A k a m a i • Barrick Gold ( ABX) was T e c h n o l o g i e s ( A K A M ) upgraded to buy from hold at Analyst Upgrades Jefferies. • Kaufman Bros. upgraded Palm ( PALM) to hold from sell Continue reading Analyst Calls: after the company was acquired AKAM, AKS, BIN, BTN, DTG, by Hewlett-Packard ( HPQ). EFX, FSLR, PALM, PLCE, • Citigroup upgraded Akamai ( ROK ... AKAM) to buy from hold Analyst Calls: AKAM, AKS, following the company's better- BIN, BTN, DTG, EFX, FSLR, than-expected Q1 results. The P A L M , P L C E , R O K . . . firm raised its target for shares o r i g i n a l l y a p p e a r e d o n to $44 from $32. BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 Apr • Deutsche Bank upgraded 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see Rockwell Automation ( ROK) our terms for use of feeds. to hold from sell following the P e r m a l i n k | E m a i l t h i s | company's Q2 results and C o m m e n t s guidance. The firm raised its

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reporters at a luncheon sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. Mr. Kaine announced a $50 million outreach and education initiative to help candidates across the country. The upbeat assessment belies mounting polling data that shows Democrats have lost their long-held edge on the generic congressional vote, President Obama's approval rating is hovering below 50 percent and independent voters, who helped fuel the party's historic victories in 2008, are fleeing. Republican National Chairman Michael S. Steele rejected his counterpart's remarks. "Chairman Kaine's new strategy smacks of desperation as it has become increasingly clear Democrats have lost the independents who will be the deciding voice this fall," Mr. Steele said. "Even worse, as public approval of Obamacare continues to drop, it's obvious that Democrats have given up any hope of getting

them back." But Mr. Kaine and the White House remain confident the new health care law will pay dividends at the polls and that divisive Republican primaries will take their toll. "We don't have a civil war going on in the Democratic Party," he said. "We know who our leader is. It's the president." Mr. Kaine said the Republican Party is suffering from an identity crisis, citing the bruising GOP gubernatorial primary in Texas and the Florida Senate battle in particular. Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's potential run for the U.S. Senate as an independent - an official confirmation is now expected Thursday - can only help the Democratic candidate, Kendrick Meek, Mr. Kaine said. "In places like Florida and Texas, our chances are being improved by the corrosiveness on the other side." Mr. Kaine said the "tea party" movement's impact on both parties would be tough to

predict. "There is an energy there, and we have to take that seriously," he said. "But that energy can cut a lot of different ways." He said losses in last year's governors' races in New Jersey and Virginia, followed by the surprising Republican victory in the contest for the late Edward M. Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts, had served as an early "wake-up call" for Democrats. "Absolutely, that was a Ghost-of -Christmas-Future experience for us," he said. "Painful as it was, it's better to have that in January than in November." ÂŠ Copyright 2010 The Washington Times, LLC Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Waste Management Is in an Uptrend Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 4/29/2010 12:00:00 PM

Filed under: Stocks to Buy, Waste Management Inc. (WMI) The positive story continues with Waste Management ( WM), which I first wrote about on March 25, 2009 at a price of $25.74. Look for Waste Management to post a 3% to 5% revenue increase in 2010, as higher prices offset modestly lower volume. The recession hurt WM's results in 2009, as the commercial impact of reduced industrial output rippled throughout the U.S. economy. But that's just a temporary, cycling downturn. The longterm trend looks very good for WM, and here's why: 20 million customers, 273 owned/operated

landfills, 16 waste-to-energy plants, 98 recycling plants, and more than 100 beneficial-use landfill gas projects. Margins should also improve in 2010. A decent $1.26 annual dividend complements the capital appreciation story. Continue reading Waste Management Is in an Uptrend Waste Management Is in an Uptrend originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Q&A: Foods and vitamins for better memory? rss@consumerreports.org (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 4/29/2010 7:14:28 AM

Q&A: Foods and vitamins for better memory? Is there evidence that any foods or vitamins help boost memory? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Susan Hall, Overland, MO

Yes. A Mediterranean-style diet high in fruits, vegetables, olive oil, and fish has been shown to curb brain inflammation linked to memory loss. There's also promising research on curcumin, a compound found in the spice turmeric. Supplements of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin

D, and some B vitamins also

appear to help. But skip the ginkgo biloba: Recent studies have questioned the herb's effectiveness at fighting cognitive decline, and it can interact harmfully with bloodthinning drugs. Take a look at 5 ways you can help keep your memory sharp

and find out if cognitive games can help prevent dementia. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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The Bill Is Still Flawed James Gattuso (The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.) Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:00:36 AM

The latest word today is that the GOP is standing down from its standoff over the Senate’s financial-regulation bill. Specifically, word is that Republican leaders will now let the bill proceed to the floor, having received assurances that provisions for creditor bailouts will be removed. That’s not an insignificant improvement, despite the fact that President Obama has said that it is not “ legitimate” to raise the issue of bailouts. But no one should think this bill is fixed. Far from it: Beyond the creditor bailout, I’ve counted at least 13 other problems with the plan. One of the most troubling is at the core of the bill: the creation of seizure authority — politely called “orderly liquidation authority” — for firms perceived by regulators to be failing. To be sure, orderly liquidation is a Good Thing. But the Senate bill achieves it by allowing federal regulators, with minimal judicial review, to take over troubled financial firms and wind up their affairs. It would be far better to use the time-tested bankruptcy system, with its legal protections and judicial supervision, to do the job.

Aid Package to Greece Now Priority After Contagion Fear Rises Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:30:00 AM

Filed under: Financial Crisis A day after signaling rigorous scrutiny of Greece's austerity plan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel did an aboutface, of sorts, Wednesday, vowing a quicker approval of aid to the deficit-plague euroSkeptics say that that would be thoughtful deliberation” needed zone country. Not before, unworkable for financial firms. for a decision of such great however, the chancellor's earlier But the idea got some little- significance. These are not remarks rattled bond, currency noticed support recently from concerns, nor are they from a and stock markets around the the Judicial Conference of the source, to be taken lightly. globe. United States, a council of Before declaring the financial- Standing beside International federal judges presided over by regulation bill “fixed,” members M o n e t a r y F u n d M a n a g i n g the Chief Justice of the United should take another look at Director Dominique StraussStates. In a letter to Sen. Patrick seizure authority, as well as K a h n , M e r k e l s a i d , " I t ' s completely clear that the Leahy, the group pointed out other flaws in the plan. negotiations between the Greek that under the Senate bill, some Cross-posted at The Corner. firms already in bankruptcy Tags: Chris Dodd, financial government, the European would be forced out, and into markets, financial regulation FDIC receivership — an odd You can follow any responses result if bankruptcy is not a to this entry through the RSS 2.0 viable option. The letter then feed. went on to point out that the Five Filters featured article: (very) limited judicial review of Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: s e i z u r e s p r o v i d e d b y t h e PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, pending legislation may be Term Extraction. unconstitutional, and criticized the 24-hour deadline for such review as “inconsistent with the

Commission and the IMF need to be sped up now," Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. Continue reading Aid Package to Greece Now Priority After Contagion Fear Rises Aid Package to Greece Now Priority After Contagion Fear Rises originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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Rattle and Palm: HP Saves the Day, but How Did Bono Fare? Kit Eaton (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/29/2010 12:00:47 PM

Palm's safely in HP's hands now, but for several years it's been financially boosted by U2 frontman Bono's company Elevation Partners. With their involvement wrapped up, the rocker's financial experiment fared okay, but just okay [Ed.note: much like the quality of the last few U2 albums]. [Kit note: Blasphemy!]. Bottom line: Bono's other band seems to have taken home a meager profit. We'll explain. First some background. Elevation Partners were Palm's most influential investors in recent years, pumping cash into the company to get it through a dark period during which its sales were plummeting as the smartphone revolution bypassed the company's products, and funding development of what was heralded as the first real "iPhone killer," the Palm Pre. Involvement in high tech is no new thing for U2 members though, as their current 360ยบ tour is sponsored by RIM's BlackBerry (conflict of interest, much?) and Bono was once pally enough with Steve Jobs that there was a special edition U2 iPod. Elevation bought a 25% stake in the company in 2007, spending $325 million on the deal, but kept injecting money until Palm's financial

disclosures revealed recently that EP had put $460 million of its money on the line, in total. This money put Bono's financial guys in a certain controlling position inside the company, and the investors were even responsible for a bit of rock-star -style riffing, bringing ex-Apple guru Jon Rubinstein to center stage to change its fortunes. As recently as January, EP's cofounder Fred Anderson noted they hadn't taken "any money off the table" as they saw the effort to make Palm profitable as more of a "marathon" than a quick sprint to chart success. And now HP's bought the company, the financial press have been trying to work out exactly how the deal worked out for Elevation. And nobody can quite decide. Bono's team scored a huge chart flop According to the U.K.'s Telegraph newspaper, the particular financial mix at the end of Palm's previous business mode resulted in an enormous fiscal flop for Elevation Partners. The HP deal valued Palm's equity at $961 million, with the remainder as debt, which translates to a meager $320 million return to Elevation. That's a $140 million loss, roughly 30% of the investment outlay, and would seem to be a disaster for EP. That much cash lost wouldn't

provisions for protecting the investment that meant on a termination of the deal (triggered by HP's buy-out) EP would get all of that $325 million back, despite the fact that HP's only paying $5.70 per share for Palm. EP's second tranche of cash, of $51 million in December 2008, was also for convertible preferred stock, while the third and fourth investments in March and September 2009 were for $84 million in common stock (which will have converted into a loss.) EP also separately bought 3.6 million warrants in December 2008 which will have generated $8.8 million for EP yesterday. Which brings us back to the $483 million figure. There's also an extra payment of $2 million which is triggered by a change of ownership, meaning EP cleared something more like $25 million in returns on their Palm adventure. Bono's boy's rocked the gig after all So who's right? We're inclined necessarily hurt the Irish rocker company made. The short to believe eFinancialnews' math himself, though: Back in 2006 version: EP got $483 million as it examines the different his net worth was reckoned to from the deal, representing a types of investment. It also b e s o m e w h e r e n e a r $ 2 0 0 profit of $23 million--a margin indicates that Bono's company million...and with several hit of 5%, which is modest but was extremely shrewd and riskalbums since then, the figure nothing to be sniffed at given averse when investing in Palm will only have gone upwards. the background of Palm's (smart, but not very rock-stary, a EP's Palm efforts were a disastrous smartphone failure. kind of metaphor for the state of modest hit The long version: That initial music these days, actually.) But Over at Efinancialnews, there's $325 million investment was for the negativity in the Telegraph's a more thorough breakdown of convertible preferred stock, at RATTLE page 58 t h e i n v e s t m e n t s B o n o ' s $8.50 a share, but it came with

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How Renting, Not Owning an iPhone Could Have Saved Gizmodo: Expert Dan Nosowitz (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:01:52 AM

The Gizmodo iPhone saga is notoriously tough to figure out-our Choose Your Own Adventure story and flowchart were designed to show exactly how murky these legal waters are. There are a lot of theories floating around, many of which have all the legal authority of a 4chan diploma. To figure out what's what, I talked with Lawrence J. Siskind, a former special counsel to President Ronald Reagan and partner in the San Francisco law firm Harvey Siskind LLP, which specializes in trade secrets. This first thing to clear up once and for all is that no matter how much we in the media love to discuss blogging vs. journalism, the law does not make a distinction. Whether the shield law applies has nothing to do with the format of a writer's publication--Siskind confirmed that without hesitation. "That's pretty clearly established in California," he said. "Whether he's on a blog or a print publication, the California shield law applies." Lawrence cited a 2006 case quite similar to this one, O'Grady vs. Superior Court, in which that specific issue (which also

involved Apple!) was resolved. But the shield law in particular makes a clear distinction between receiving goods and receiving information. Information is protected, regardless of how it was obtained, but goods are not. Says Lawrence, "We're talking about accepting an actual device, a cellphone. If you look at it as an object, as someone's phone, then Jason Chen and the publication are trafficking in stolen goods. But if you look at it not as a phone but as a collection of information about Apple and Apple's marketing plan, it becomes newsworthy and thus protected. That's what

makes this case so interesting." If the phone is treated as an object and not information, Gizmodo could be in trouble. Lawrence says that Apple would be in a very strong position to argue that Gizmodo had ample reason to suspect the phone was stolen or illegally obtained. Was there another way for Gizmodo to have handled the phone and avoided this entire mess? Yes, there was, and it's a tactic used by many news organizations. Think of this next -gen iPhone as a celebrity sex tape for gadget nerds. If you're Star magazine, you don't buy the sex tape, you pay to watch it, take a few saucy screen grabs.

wouldn't be in this mess. Engadget, meanwhile, took the more established route of buying just the photos and not the device. Gizmodo could still have purchased the ability to videotape and dismantle the device without getting into legal hot water, as long as they returned it to their anonymous source after--in a perfect world, they'd have done that before they acctually published their story. They had the phone for a week, after all. If anyone should understand that tactic, it's Gawker Media's Nick Denton, who's actually bought celebrity sex (kinda) tapes before. But hindsight won't save Denton a dime at this So instead of purchasing the point, so it's back to the phone itself, Gizmodo should investigation itself--which was have simply purchased access to an oddly sloppy affair. The DA the phone. This may seem like a w a s f o r c e d t o p a u s e t h e small distinction, but according investigation immediately, as to Siskind, it would have made Gawker Media invoked the all the difference, and the San journalist protection shield law. Mateo County DA would be Siskind says that pausing the essentially unable to prosecute. investigation in this way is "In that case, it would be clear definitely unusual, probably due that what they were getting was to the fact that "the search and information. The California seizure was over-broad." The shield law protects that DA (and Apple, though information from either a hopefully they had nothing to do subpoena or a warrant. Apple with the investigation by this would be in a tough position point), "quickly realized that here." this was a PR disaster for them." In other words, if Gizmodo (and by extension Gawker) had HOW page 57 not been quite so greedy, they

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FiLife Goes Broke: Is There Any Personal Finance Hope for Generation Debt? Anya Kamenetz (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/29/2010 12:21:57 PM

The abrupt shuttering of FiLife, a well-known personal finance destination backed by IAC and Dow Jones Interactive, has loosed speculation that the site was paying for clicks to reach its eye-popping 3.4 million monthly unique visitors. I made a bad call on this one, highlighting FiLife's “exploding traffic” in my Most Innovative Company entry--and some finance reporters whispered at the time that the wool had been pulled over my eyes. Former CEO Ezra Kucharz, who departed for CBS just after the site's traffic took a nosedive, had no comment. Nor did their former PR firm Ketchum, which, it turns out, was let go a couple of months ago. Regardless of how the accusations play out, the disappearance of FiLife begs the question of why it’s been so difficult to get personal finance right on the Web. Every year, it seems, the Finovate conference bows a host of promising startups like Thrive, Wesabe, Geezeo Buxfer, Tile Financial and Rudder. All promise to make saving, credit, and

investment easy for bewildered customers, especially the members of Generation Debt. Thrive (which I also wrote about) was rumored to have been shuttered in a fire sale to Lending Tree in February 2009, followed quickly by the departure of founder Avi Karnani. Geezeo dropped its consumer-facing services in January in favor of serving banks. The others--save for Mint.com--have failed to make much of a dent in terms of

traffic or awareness. Why is that?Maybe money is just too hard to discuss. Personal finance is the very definition of a “pain point” in a nation with$2.5 trillion in consumer debt. It’s a topic of intense privacy--more so than sex or health. Distrust of financial institutions is at an alltime high.There are fraud and identity theft concerns (late last week some members of the social finance site Blippy saw their credit card numbers appear on Google). And there are major

trust issues when a personal finance company makes its money from advertising or recommending consumer financial products. The shining exception to most of this is Mint.com, which has over 3 million users--more than double since they sold last fall to Intuit for$170 million. (Disclosure: I moderated an Intuit Town Hall event on kids and money with Mint founder Aaron Patzer and his father just this morning.) Is their software,

which automatically categorizes and visualizes transactions from tens of thousands of merchants, really that much more powerful and easy to use than the competitors? Can a bunch of pretty pie charts actually make people forget that they are looking at something as dismal as their credit card bill? Can they keep their integrity and trust with users while recommending products and introducing features that are more about goal-setting than simply tracking spending? Now that Mint is owned by a much larger company, will they be able to keep listening to users in the way that made them so successful? (A positive sign, as we've noted, is that Intuit put Patzer in charge of Quicken as well. ) All remains to be seen. But there are still a lot of clueless people out there who need help with their finances-- 41% of Americans surveyed in 2009 gave their own personal finance knowledge a grade of C, D, or F.

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How to Design Like You Give a Damn in 5 Easy Steps Joe Duffy (Fast Company) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:35:38 AM

It may be a recent perusal of so many headlines of disaster and despair that stirred these thoughts. Or it may just be the experiences of many years gelling ever more concretely. But this is a plea to everyone interested and participating in design of any form to "design like you give a damn." Give a damn about process. If your approach is thoughtful, vigilant and thorough, you're on the way to finding a route to be able to deliver a unique and meaningful expression. Beware the process that complicates or overanalyzes. There are too many uninspired and all together familiar designs in the market. Let us litter no longer. Give a damn about people. Stay keenly aware of the fact that the team you're a part of holds a common goal. Respect your clients and the expertise they bring to bear. No need to be redundant just to show them you get the business they’re in. Embrace the potential benefit of the "collective IQ" that comes with working with people of varied experience (e.g., young and old, multiple disciplines, inside and outside of a company). Give a damn about what you're

designing. Of course, not every company, product or service is going to be sexy. You will not deliver smart, creative work if you can't find something good about the people you're working with: why they believe in what they do, they way they do things differently or the impact they can make in their field or the world around them. Going through the motions doesn’t cut it. Give a damn about your impact. On a regular basis you’re making decisions about how to produce and print things. Consider your recommendations

at every step of the way. What kind of footprint will your work leave? How can you inspire people to be thoughtful about their impact as end users as well? Give a damn about your community. You've heard it said "think global, act local." Do it. It makes a difference. Richard Florida writes and speaks on the power of creative communities. If you add to your community, it will attract more and you will prosper in turn. Read Joe Duffy's blog Duffy Point of View Browse blogs by other Expert Designers

Principal and chairman of Duffy & Partners, Joe Duffy is one of the most respected and sought after creative directors and thought leaders on branding and design in the world. Joe's work includes brand and corporate identity development for some of the world's most admired brands, from Aveda to Coca-Cola to Sony to Jack in the Box to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. His work is regularly featured in leading marketing and design publications and exhibited around the world. In 2004 he founded Duffy & Partners as a

new kind of branding and creativity company, partnering with clients and other firms in all communication disciplines. Also in 2004, he received the Medal from the AIGA for a lifetime of achievement in the field of visual communications. His first book--Brand Apart-was released in July 2005 and in 2006, he was recognized as one of the "Fast 50" most influential people in the future of business by Fast Company.

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Steve Jobs: Adobe's Flash is Old PC History, Open Web is the Future

HOW continued from page 54

Especially since just about all the information they needed, like the name of the person who Kit Eaton (Fast Company) over-looked issue of touch sold the iPhone to Gizmodo, could easily have been traced compatibility. Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:36:26 AM Behind all this, though, is a without breaking down anyone's In a rare response to the chatter different message: Apple is door. about Apple's tech feud with responsible for crafting open The biggest question: Where is Adobe, Apple's Steve Jobs has Web standards, that are good, as this all going? Siskind thinks it's declared that that the Web well as being future-friendly more likely to fade away than should really embrace open (mainly referencing webkit, of anything else, and says a court standards, even while the iPhone course.) And while Apple's case is extremely unlikely. remains closed. platforms remain tightly closed, "Legally, I don't think it's going Jobs just had Apple publish his this is for a reason...and Steve to go much farther," he says. "I musings on Apple's "hotnews" t h i n k s t h e p o s t - P C e r a think it'll just wither away. section. And it's amazing. No, (seriously!) which is dominated What's done is done, and Apple seriously, it's amazing, not only by advanced mobile devices didn't really lose anything that for the frankness of the text, its accessing the Net should be vital. The publicity is both good overt challenge to Adobe's characterized by new "open and bad for Apple, but if Apple reliability, but also for Steve's Web standards". HTML5 and pursues the case much further, stance on open versus closed such are the future, and the they're going to look like a tech standards. Though the Flash Web should be left in the grumpy old man. I think they've gotten as much mileage out of it letter's titled "Thoughts on past. Flash," it's real thrust is how A s l i g h t l y n i c h e t e c h as they're going to." Web-connected technologies in commentary? You bet. But this Lawrence J. Siskind is founding the future really need to have is Steve Jobs, folks, and when partner of Harvey Siskind LLP, openness at core. he takes time to speak out on a S a n F r a n c i s c o l a w f i r m Jobs begins softly, pointing out m a t t e r s l i k e t h i s , i n a n specializing in trade secret and how long Apple's had a unexpectedly open style, the other intellectualproperty law relationship with Adobe, since open, but in fact the opposite is painfully clear to me this tech world, and thus the entire issues. morning, when a crashed Flash Internet will take note. Dan Nosowitz, the author of their "proverbial garage"-based true." business beginnings. "There At this point, he partakes of plugin killed an hour of my A call and e-mail seeking this post, can be followed on were many good times," he some serious dissing of Adobe: writing effort) and "Adobe response from Adobe were not Twitter, corresponded with via email, and stalked in San notes. But then he gets to the I t s p r o d u c t s a r e " 1 0 0 % publicly said that Flash would immediately returned. g o o d s t u f f : " A d o b e h a s proprietary," is the first jab, ship on a smartphone in early To keep up with this news Francisco (no link for that one-characterized our decision as f o l l o w e d b y g e m s l i k e 2009, then the second half of follow me, Kit Eaton, on you'll have to do the legwork being primarily business driven "Symantec recently highlighted 2009, then the first half of 2010, Twitter. That QR code on the yourself). â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they say we want to protect Flash for having one of the and now they say the second l e f t w i l l e v e n t a k e y o u r our App Store â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but in reality it worst security records in 2009. half of 2010. [...] Who knows smartphone to my Twitter feed. is based on technology issues. We also know first hand that how it will perform?" Steve also And if you really liked this Adobe claims that we are a Flash is the number one reason brushes over the famous battery story, you can re-Tweet too. closed system, and that Flash is Macs crash," (a fact made life issue, and, yes, that oddly

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RATTLE continued from page 53

piece is also relevant: Considering the time and effort and legal fees in achieving its final $460 million investment in Palm, $25 million is actually almost not worth it--and EP could easily have made much more profit elsewhere. Despite efforts to contact them, Elevation Partners has so far refused to comment on the deal at all. So maybe Bono will pen a song about it? Or...maybe not, as such rampant capitalism doesn't jive well with the band's progressive political and environmental messages. And maybe Bono should forget about co-funding big tech investments and just stick to the day job: Billboard

magazine just ranked U2 as the top grossing act of 2009, with income over $108 million. For the heck of it, we put in a request with Bono's folks for comment. If we hear back, you'll be the first to hear about it. Image via Agencia Brasil To keep up with this news follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter. That QR code on the left will even take your smartphone to my Twitter feed. And if you really liked this story, you can re-Tweet too.

Is that tanning habit actually an addiction? rss@consumerreports.org (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 4/29/2010 7:59:59 AM

Is that tanning habit actually an addiction? I'll admit it: one summer in high school I was obsessed with getting a "savage tan" (remember those ads from the '80s?). This both amused and perplexed my parents, who watched me head out to our sunny driveway each day with a beach blanket and a kitchen timer (so I'd know when to flip over, naturally). "Don't you

have anything better to do?" they'd ask, adding "Doctors say it's not good for your skin." But I didn't care. I was 17, they weren't, and all the cool kids were doing it. THAT page 59

Q&A: Is it a good idea to keep a refrigerator in an uninsulated garage? Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports) Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:44:43 AM

Q&A: Is it a good idea to keep a refrigerator in an uninsulated garage? We're about to remodel our kitchen and are considering moving our old refrigerator to an uninsulated garage to use it for supplemental fridge and freezer storage. Any concerns about doing that? The major problem you can encounter running a refrigerator in the garage is that the freezer will warm up to above freezing, spoiling all the food you store in it. That situation can occur because the compressor on most refrigerators is controlled by a single thermostat located in the refrigerated compartment of the appliance. A too-warm freezer will turn a pop to slop. In such a setup, the freezer is indirectly controlled by the thermostat, which tries to maintain a temperature of 37° to 40°F in the refrigerated section. When the temperature in your

garage nears temperature 37° to 40°F, the compressor doesn't need to run frequently or for very long, causing the freezer to get too warm. Refrigerators designed for garage use have a different control system, which prevents the freezer from warming up when the refrigerated section doesn't need cooling. Some of these models are even equipped with a heater that will keep food in the refrigerated compartment from freezing if the garage gets too cold. If you need only more freezer space, consider buying a standalone freezer, which will have a control set point near 0°F and will keep everything properly frozen no matter the garage temperature. For more

information on freezers, use our free buyer's guide and check out our ratings of self- and manualdefrost uprights and manualdefrost chest models(available to subscribers). Keep this information in mind if you're buying a new refrigerator or freezer through the cash for appliances rebate program in your state. Use our interactive map to see whether refrigerators and freezers are eligible for a rebate and to get more details about cash for appliances where you live. If you plan to get rid of an old appliance, learn how to recycle or dispose of it properly. Essential information: Stay on top of the appliance news here on the Home & Garden blog and at Twitter.com/CRHomegarden. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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Well, my tanning days were short-lived, as my "tan" turned into a burn that faded to a fresh crop of freckles (definitely NOT my intention). Adding to my frustration, I had several classmates with beautifully bronze-able skin, which they toasted golden all summer—and then maintained year-round at a tanning salon. Ah, the envy. But that was then. Today we know a lot more about the risks of tanning, whether under the sun or inside a tanning bed, which is far from a safe alternative. In fact, research shows that people's risk of melanoma (the most serious type of skin cancer) increases by 75 percent if they start using tanning beds or booths before age 30. So, you might think young people today would be less obsessed with tanning. Not so. Despite the known risks, tanning salons continue to do brisk business, especially with teenagers and twentysomethings (for evidence, look no further than the Jersey Shore). But there may be more to this obsession than simply a desire for a bronzed body. According

to a new study, many frequent tanners may actually be addicted to tanning, as they show classic signs of a substance-related disorder. Researchers asked 421 students at a large northeastern university to fill out two questionnaires usually used to screen for alcohol and substance abuse. The forms had been adapted to apply to tanning, with questions like "Do you ever try to cut down on the time you spend in tanning beds or booths, but find yourself still tanning?" and "Do you ever feel guilty that you are using tanning beds or booths too much?" The students also filled out forms to assess their levels of anxiety and depression, and their use of alcohol, marijuana, and other substances. Among the 421 students, 229 said they used tanning facilities. And of these, 50 (about 1 in 5) met the researchers' criteria for being addicted to tanning. Another 60 (1 in 4) had addictive tendencies. The more frequently people tanned, the more likely they were to fall into these groups. People in the addiction group also reported greater use of alcohol, marijuana, and other

drugs, and they were more likely to have symptoms of anxiety. This suggests two things, say the researchers. First, people who often use alcohol and drugs may be at higher risk of developing a dependence on indoor tanning, possibly through a similar process of addiction. And, second, it may be necessary to treat an underlying mood disorder to help some people stop tanning, as they may have come to rely on tanning to help them feel better. If all this sounds a bit farfetched, consider this: many of the motivations cited for tanning— such as a desire for relaxation, mood improvement, or to be sociable— also help drive addictions to alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. There's also evidence that tanning may trigger the release of mood-boosting endorphins, which could make it habitforming. In support of this, one small study found that people felt much more relaxed after lying in a real tanning bed than in an identical bed that emitted no UV rays. What you need to know. There's no doubt that indoor tanning can be harmful. This

study suggests it may also be addictive, especially for those who have substance-abuse issues, or problems with anxiety. If you use tanning beds or booths, the sooner you stop, the better. But you can still get your bronze on: consider switching to a sunless option, like a spray tan or tanning lotion. And if you're having a difficult time staying away from indoor tanning, ask your doctor for advice. You might mention this study as part of your discussion. —Sophie Ramsey, patient editor, BMJ Group ConsumerReportsHealth.org has partnered with The BMJ Group to monitor the latest medical research and assess the evidence to help you decide which news you should use. Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

How to Defend Yourself: Part 1 (Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 4/29/2010 3:00:00 AM

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Let the debate begin on consumer financial reform

Daily Dispatch: Facebook decals for store windows; 50,000 sites integrate Facebook plugins in 1st week

Consumer Reports Shopping Blog (Consumer Reports)

Dirk Klingner (Consumer Reports)

Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports: Dodd [Democratic]: The bill Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:26:54 AM creates a Consumer Financial Let the debate begin on Protection agency paid for by consumer financial reform the Fed. It has oversight over The Senate begins debate today banks with assets more than $10 on comprehensive financial billion, big shadow-banking reform, long awaited by citizens institutions, any mortgageand feared by many in the related businesses, credit card financial industry. Yesterday, companies, and payday lenders. Republican Senators released I t c a n i m p o s e c o n s u m e r their version of a financial p r o t e c t i o n m e a s u r e s . reform bill. Republican: The bill creates a The Minnesota Independent Council for Consumer Financial does a good job of comparing Protection comprising three and contrasting Democratic and independent experts, the head of Republican proposals. Here's the the FDIC, the Comptroller of Independent's synopsis of the currency and the head of the d i f f e r i n g p r o p o s a l s f o r a Fed. It has “primary supervision consumer financial protection and enforcement authority” over body, a main component of both large banks, non-bank mortgage parties' plans, and of major -originators and other entities. i n t e r e s t t o c o n s u m e r Small community banks and o r g a n i z a t i o n s s u c h a s thrifts remain overseen by their

primary prudential regulators. Expect to hear lots from Democrats about how much we need stiff regulation and controls to ensure we don't repeat the recent mistakes that nearly led to a second Great Depression. Expect Republicans to warn about the constraints of too much regulation on growing businesses as well as the threat t o f i n a n c i a l innovation—including credit products for consumers—posed by too much government oversight.—Tobie Stanger Subscribe now! S u b s c r i b e t o ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

according to a Facebook spokesperson, who wouldn't disclose further details. Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:08:44 AM iPad in the operating room( Daily Dispatch: Facebook SmartMobs) decals for store windows; ...Thanks to such apps as 50,000 sites integrate Facebook Epocrates, Dr. Palma, who plugins in 1st week operates, literally, out of the Combing through hundreds of S p i n a l D i a g n o s t i c s a n d blog posts and news articles Treatment Center in Daly City, d a i l y , D i r k K l i n g n e r , o u r is just a touch away from patient technology-trend watcher, sifts data, drug information, and fullthrough the noise to bring you color pictures of what he’s about the tech news most important to to operate on. consumers. If you have a tip on So Who’s On Facebook a story you want to share, leave B e c a u s e o f Y o u ? ( d i g i t a l a comment below. inspiration) 50,000 Websites Have Already Post details how to see who has Integrated Facebook’s New joined Facebook from your Social Plugins( TechCrunch) invites and who of your friends ...Facebook has just given us an has brought the most people to idea of how quickly these Facebook. widgets are being adopted: a Space Monkey( week after f8, 50,000 websites T h e M o n k e y R e t u r n s ) now feature the Like button and A moving short video created the other new plugins. for the World Wildlife Fund, Facebook Decals Joining Yelp tells the story of an original and Google on Store Windows( space monkey returning to earth ClickZ) decades later. Subscribe now! Facebook has sent window S u b s c r i b e t o decals out to businesses this ConsumerReports.org for expert week that instruct people to text Ratings, buying advice and in short code to "Like" the reliability on hundreds of establishment. The decals were products. Update your feed mailed to a limited number of preferences companies in a small test,

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Blackhawks vs. Canucks Series: Schedule, Scores, News and More

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(Mensfitness.com)

Game 2 -- Monday, May 3: Canucks at Blackhawks, 9 p.m. (VERSUS, CBC) Submitted at 4/29/2010 1:00:00 AM Game 3 -- Wednesday, May 5: Filed under: Blackhawks, Blackhawks at Canucks, 9:30 Canucks, NHL Playoffs Get the p.m. (VERSUS, CBC) Blackhawks-Canucks series Game 4 -- Friday, May 7: schedule, scores, news and more Blackhawks at Canucks, 9:30 below and all the latest on the p.m. (VERSUS, CBC) NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs from Game 5* -- Sunday, May 9: NHL FanHouse. Canucks at Blackhawks 8:00 The No. 2 Chicago Blackhawks p.m. (VERSUS, CBC) and No. 3 Vancouver Canucks Game 6* -- Tuesday, May 11: are matched in the second round Blackhawks at Canucks, 9:30 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. p.m. (VERSUS, CBC) Season Series: Series tied, 3-3 Game 7* -- Thursday, May 13: Series Schedule & Results Canucks at Blackhawks, 8 p.m. Game 1 -- Saturday, May 1: (VERSUS, CBC) Canucks at Blackhawks, 8 p.m. Full Blackhawks-Canucks ET (VERSUS, CBC) Coverage

Chicago's Home-Ice Advantage Looms Over Canucks Canucks Hope to Avoid Repeating History How They Got Here No. 2 Chicago Blackhawks def. No. 7 Nashville Predators, 4-2 No. 3 Vancouver Canucks def. No. 6 Los Angeles Kings, 4-2 Full Second Round Coverage No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. No. 8 Montreal Canadiens No. 6 Boston Bruins vs. No. 7 Philadelphia Flyers No. 1 San Jose Sharks vs. No. 5 Detroit Red Wings No. 2 Chicago Blackhawks vs. No. 3 Vancouver Canucks

Sharks vs. Red Wings Series: Schedule, Scores, News and More FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/29/2010 1:00:00 AM

Filed under: Sharks, Red Wings, NHL Playoffs Get the Sharks-Red Wings series schedule, scores, news and more below and all the latest on the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs from NHL FanHouse. The No. 1 San Jose Sharks and

No. 5 Detroit Red Wings are matched in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Season Series: Red Wings won, 3-1 Series Schedule & Results Game 1 -- Thursday, April 29: Red Wings at Sharks, 9 p.m. ET (VERSUS, TSN) Game 2 -- Sunday, May 2: Red Wings at Sharks, 8 p.m. (VERSUS, TSN)

Game 3 -- Tuesday, May 4: Sharks at Red Wings, 7:30 p.m. (VERSUS, TSN) Game 4 -- Thursday, May 6: Sharks at Red Wings, 7:30 p.m. (VERSUS, TSN) Game 5* -- Saturday, May 8: Red Wings at Sharks, 10 p.m. (VERSUS, TSN) Game 6* -- Monday, May 10: Sharks at Red Wings, 7:30 p.m. (VERSUS, TSN)

Game 7* -- Wednesday, May 12: Red Wings at Sharks, TBD (VERSUS, TSN) Full Sharks-Red Wings Coverage Coming soon. How They Got Here No. 1 San Jose Sharks def. No. 8 Colorado Avalanche, 4-2 No. 5 Detroit Red Wings def. No. 4 Phoenix Coyotes, 4-3 Full Second Round Coverage

No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. No. 8 Montreal Canadiens No. 6 Boston Bruins vs. No. 7 Philadelphia Flyers No. 1 San Jose Sharks vs. No. 5 Detroit Red Wings No. 2 Chicago Blackhawks vs. No. 3 Vancouver Canucks

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Penguins vs. Canadiens Series: Schedule, Scores, News and More FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse Main)

Canadiens at Penguins, 7 p.m. ET (NBC, CBC, RDS) Game 2 -- Sunday, May 2: Submitted at 4/29/2010 1:00:00 AM Canadiens at Penguins, 2 p.m. F i l e d u n d e r : C a n a d i e n s , (VERSUS, CBC, RDS) Capitals, NHL Playoffs Get the Game 3 -- Tuesday, May 4: Penguins-Canadiens series Penguins at Canadiens, 7 p.m. schedule, scores, news and more (VERSUS, CBC, RDS) below and all the latest on the Game 4 -- Thursday, May 6: NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs from Penguins at Canadiens, 7 p.m. NHL FanHouse. (VERSUS, CBC, RDS) The No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins Game 5* -- Saturday, May 8: and No. 8 Montreal Canadiens Canadiens at Penguins, 7 p.m. are matched in the second round (VERSUS, CBC, RDS) of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Game 6* -- Monday, May 10: Season Series: Penguins won, 3 Penguins at Canadiens, 7 p.m. -1 (VERSUS, CBC, RDS) Series Schedule & Results Game 7* -- Wednesday, May Game 1 -- Friday, April 30: 12: Canadiens at Penguins, TBD

(VERSUS, CBC, RDS) Full Penguins-Canadiens Coverage Coming soon. How They Got Here No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins def. No. 5 Ottawa Senators, 4-2 No. 8 Montreal Canadiens def. No. 1 Washington Capitals, 4-3 Full Second Round Coverage No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. No. 8 Montreal Canadiens No. 6 Boston Bruins vs. No. 7 Philadelphia Flyers No. 1 San Jose Sharks vs. No. 5 Detroit Red Wings No. 2 Chicago Blackhawks vs. No. 3 Vancouver Canucks

Playoff Matchups: Henrik Zetterberg vs. Joe Thornton Adam Gretz (FanHouse Main) Submitted at 4/29/2010 6:38:00 AM

Filed under: Sharks, Red Wings, NHL Coaching, NHL Playoffs Getting the right individual or line matchup can go a long way toward winning a playoff series. Adam Gretz takes a look at some of the matchups that could be worth watching this postseason. This is one of them. There is perhaps no player in the NHL that is a bigger lightning rod for postseason

Bruins vs. Flyers Series: Schedule, Scores, News and More FanHouse Newswire (FanHouse Main)

the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Season Series: Series tied, 2-2 Series Schedule & Results Submitted at 4/29/2010 1:00:00 AM Game 1 -- Saturday, May 1: Filed under: Bruins, Flyers, Flyers at Bruins, 12:30 p.m. ET NHL Playoffs Get the Bruins- (NBC, TSN) Flyers series schedule, scores, Game 2 -- Monday, May 3: news and more below and all F l y e r s a t B r u i n s , 7 p . m . the latest on the NHL Stanley ( V E R S U S , T S N ) C u p P l a y o f f s f r o m N H L Game 3 -- Wednesday, May 5: FanHouse. Bruins at Flyers, 7 p.m. The No. 6 Boston Bruins and ( V E R S U S , T S N ) No. 7 Philadelphia Flyers are Game 4 -- Friday, May 7: matched in the second round of B r u i n s a t F l y e r s , 7 p . m .

(VERSUS, TSN) Game 5* -- Monday, May 10: Flyers at Bruins, 7 p.m. (VERSUS, TSN) Game 6* -- Wednesday, May 12: Bruins at Flyers, TBD (VERSUS, TSN) Game 7* -- Friday, May 14: Flyers at Bruins, 7 p.m. (VERSUS, TSN) Full Bruins-Flyers Coverage Coming soon. How They Got Here No. 6 Boston Bruins def. No. 3

criticism than San Jose's Joe Thornton, recording just 56 PLAYOFF page 62

PLAYOFF continued from page 62

points in 82 career playoff games, while never advancing beyond the second round. It's Buffalo Sabres, 4-2 No. 7 nothing that you haven't already Philadelphia Flyers def. No. 2 heard before. Even so, he's still the Sharks' best player and one New Jersey Devils, 4-1 of the top playmakers in the Full Second Round Coverage No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. league, and as such, will likely No. 8 Montreal Canadiens No. 6 be a focal point for the Detroit B o s t o n B r u i n s v s . N o . 7 Red Wings as they open their Western Conference Semifinal Philadelphia Flyers No. 1 San Jose Sharks vs. No. 5 series on Thursday night. I don't know which player or Detroit Red Wings l No. 2 Chicago Blackhawks vs. i n e D e t r o i t c o a c h M i k e Babcock is going to use against No. 3 Vancouver Canucks him in this series, but if the regular season matchups are any PLAYOFF page 63

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PLAYOFF continued from page 62

indicator, it's a good bet that Thornton is going to see plenty of Henrik Zetterberg and get to know him quite well before the series ends. Sharks vs. Red Wings: Series Page| Full NHL Playoffs Coverage

Pachter: First Activision -Bungie game 'well along' in development, will sell at least 10 million units Griffin McElroy (Joystiq) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:19:00 AM

Though firm details about the terms of the Activision-Bungie partnership are still awfully slim, industry analyst extraordinaire Michael Pachter has given his two cents to Gamasutra about the financial potential of the merger, which should result in Activision earning a great deal more than PACHTER: page 64

Halo: Reach marketing buzz takes a bald new step (this is about hair clippers) Christopher Grant (Joystiq)

bundled in a heavy duty Pelican case that probably cost more than the clippers themselves. The Halo Reach clippers, I n s c r i b e d w i t h t h e guaranteed to take you from WelcomeToNobleTeam.com Brute to Spartan[TM] URL - haven't you seen the Paired to go along with the short yet?- and delivered at the beginning of the early access oh-so-welcome hour of 7am, the "friends and family" beta for package contained another treat: Halo: Reach came the above a copy of Halo 3: ODST. tool, some seemingly military- Of course, that ODST disc grade Oster hair clippers, won't gain you access to the beta Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:48:00 AM

until May 3rd, but luckily this morning's announcement of a partnership between Halo Reach developer Bungie and Activision- solidifying the dev's departure from Microsoft, Halo, and platform-exclusivity - will give you plenty to think about over the next four days. Check out the entire kit in the gallery below while we figure out the best way to give it to a reader.

Gallery: Halo Reach ... hair clipper? Halo: Reach marketing buzz takes a bald new step (this is about hair clippers) originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 11:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

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PACHTER: continued from page 63

two cents. First, Pachter suggests this is a publishing partnership instead of a mere distribution agreement, which will increase Activision's profit margins from around 10 percent to anywhere between 15 and 20 percent on all of Bungie's titles. He estimates that, should the developer's future titles be as popular as its Halo franchise (which typically sold 10 million units a piece), they could sell as many as 15 million units by virtue of Bungie's new multiplatform ambitions. According to his

calculations, Activision stands to make $65 million off the first successful Bungie title should it match the success of the Halo series. The time to test Pachter's calculations might be closer than you'd think -- he reports that the first Bungivision product, which is set in an "action game universe," is "well along in its development." We're not sure how "well along" said title actually is, but we'll keep our ears perked up for an announcement at E3. An announcement for Guitar Halo.

There, we said it, alright? We were all thinking it, and now it's out there. Pachter: First ActivisionBungie game 'well along' in development, will sell at least 10 million units originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

NPD: Handheld gaming growing in popularity among children JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

eight percent? According to the report, more kids own portable game systems New data from the NPD shows than other types of devices. In that portable game systems are addition, NPD noted that many increasing in popularity among o f t h e s e h a n d h e l d s w e r e kids aged 4 to 14. 44% of kids acquired used, with more kids in the U.S. between these ages receiving used game systems in use a handheld, up eight percent 2009 than in 2008. from a similar study in 2005. "Kids ages 14 and under were What happened since 2005? Oh, the primary recipient of 37 right, the PSP and DS Lite. And percent of hardware unit sales the iPhone, for that matter. Just for the 12 months ending March

NPD: Handheld gaming growing in popularity among children originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Submitted at 4/29/2010 12:15:00 PM

2010," NPD analyst Anita Frazier told IndustryGamers, also noting that the amount of kid-targeted digital content

being downloaded is on the rise, suggesting that kids are open to the transition to digital distribution.

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Bipedal Japanese Robot Will Walk on the Moon by 2015 'Swords' is a Wii game about swords JC Fletcher (Joystiq)

historical adversary. When not hacking away at people, you can train with your sensei or [ CTA Digital] If using the Wii perform drills -- like fighting Remote and MotionPlus to zombies. control a sword sounds like the If the idea of a MotionPlussword of thing you'd be into, based lightsaber dueling game you should consider Majesco's excites you, this seems like a new game Swords-- because pretty close substitute. Plus, it's that's basically the whole game. g o t t h e m o s t h i l a r i o u s l y Swords, developed by Panic straightforward title in recent Button, is a time-traveling arena memory. Swords will be thrust combat game in which you fight into stores this September. s w o r d p r a c t i t i o n e r s f r o m 'Swords' is a Wii game about different cultures and time swords originally appeared on periods, including a Viking and Joystiq on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 Sir Lancelot. Then, having 10:45:00 EST. Please see our s u f f i c i e n t l y d i s r u p t e d t h e terms for use of feeds. timeline, you take a new sword Read| Permalink| Email this| from your defeated opponent Comments Mega Man-style, using its new abilities against your next Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:45:00 AM

Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now)

status to its human handlers, lest Maido gets any ideas. The six private companies which form the SOHLA Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:44:41 AM The privately-funded Japanese coalition plan to spend $10.5 robot will plant a flag and, um, million on making Maido-kun yeah, that's it lunar-capable. They will also Japan's robot love is set to go draw on the expertise of the out of this world with a plan to Japan Aerospace Exploration put a bipedal robot on the moon Agency (JAXA), which had by 2015. Yet the bipedal robot's previously ditched its own plans main mission seems curiously for bipedal robots back in 2005 lacking in ambition - it's tasked in favor of wheeled robots. But only with planting the Japanese Maido-kun could hitch a ride flag on the lunar surface, with JAXA's planned robot according to CrunchGear. rover headed for the moon The Japanese government had around the same time. previously announced plans to " H u m a n o i d r o b o t s a r e send a robot to the moon by glamorous, and they tend to get 2020, with a human astronaut people fired up," said Noriyuki following up a decade later. But Yoshida, a SHOLA board the Osaka-based Space Oriented member. "We hope to develop a H i g a s h i o s a k a L e a d i n g charming robot to fulfill the Association (SOHLA) would dream of going to space." seem to be cutting ahead of the Related Articles NASA to Japanese space agency. Launch Robonaut This Year SOHLA previously launched a Japanese Government and Maido-1 microsatellite in 2009, I n d u s t r y A i m f o r M i n d and has accordingly named its C o n t r o l l e d R o b o t s a n d upcoming robot Maido-kun. We E l e c t r o n i c s i n 1 0 Y e a r s assume that the "kun" honorific Japanese Geminoid F Bot here refers to the robot's junior Realistically Mimics Human

Facial Expressions, Speech Tags Technology, Jeremy Hsu, astronauts, japan, jaxa, lunar robots, moon, moonwalkers, robotic explorers, robots, rovers We're fans of Japan's efforts to push the humanoid appearances and functions of robots, ranging from mildly creepy robo-clones to also creepy mind-controlled Asimo robots. But this latest plan for humanoid robots seems a bit kookier than past efforts, given the mission's high public relations value and perhaps nonexistent scientific value. If the private coalition does forge ahead and create a Maidokun capable of navigating the rough lunar terrain on two feet, we'll rethink our early doubts. And maybe the Japanese robot could provide lessons for a later version of NASA's Robonaut-2, which will be the first android resident of the International Space Station. [via CrunchGear and Pink Tentacle]

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What's missing in realtime (Scripting News) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:20:36 AM

I was at breakfast this morning with a friend from the tech industry, and the subject got around to Facebook vs Google, and the way Twitter is kind of in the middle of the two giants. I've felt for a long time that Twitter should have welcomed federation early-on, when the competition wasn't so fierce. While it wasn't a slam-dunk, I thought there was a decent chance our Twitter log-ins could be the default username for many other sites on the net. Now Facebook is making a strong bid to be that, and if Twitter were to try that now it would likely be seen as too-little -too-late. Then my friend, who asked not to be named, wondered why WordPress isn't in the same place as Twitter. I answered with an analogy -- Twitter is riding a bicycle on Interstate 95, and Facebook and Google are two semis about to have a headon collision. Twitter may not be directly competing with either

of them, and Google probably doesn't care much about Twitter one way or another, but the collision is going to do some serious damage to all who are in the vicinity. WordPress isn't riding a bike and they are nowhere near the freeway. Picture Matt sitting on the beach sipping a Mai Tai. It sure feels this way but then I wondered -- why? And if WordPress is on the beach sipping drinks with little umbrellas, how can Ev and Biz get some of that action? Then I figured it out. Two bits (and they may be very hard for Twitter to do): 1. I don't mind hosting sites on wordpress.com because I know if I ever want to get them off I can run them on my own server. I need to be able to do that with Twitter (or Tumblr for that matter). In other words, there must be an open source, easily installable Twitter that's the same thing that twitter.com is running, so I can just move my presence there and not skip a beat. People are going to say I can do that with Identi.ca, but I

much better too, but Twitter hardly does it at all. This is something Ev should understand, as one of the early blogging tool vendors, he should remember how important a role designers played in the evolution of blogging. Given that Twitter and the other services in this space (e.g. Facebook) don't allow the user any control over the HTML of their presence, it should be easy to improve this. But I want power over everything. More important, I want designers to have power over everything so I can use the product of their work. So in summary: I need to be able to isntall my own Twitter and move my presence to my can't -- when I move my own server, easily. And I need WordPress blog my domain control over the look and feel of points to the new location and my site. Those two things would all my links still work. To really do enough to shake up the trust Twitter, they have to market and give Twitter a new enable competition at this level. way forward and make what 2. I must be able to completely Facebook and Google do in their control the look and feel of my battle-of-the-titans-to-death presence. This is something mostly irrlevant to them. Matt & Company could do

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Congratulations, Spirit! Rover Is Now the Longest-Running Mission to the Red Planet, If It Still Lives Video: Augmented Reality Billboard Installed in Amsterdam, to Educate and Shame Passers-By

Jeremy Hsu (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/29/2010 11:12:11 AM

Spirit, via artist's rendering A stuck robotic rover may have overtaken NASA's Viking probe as the longest-surviving mission on Mars -- so long as it's still alive. But its robotic twin Opportunity could also still grab the record next month if the Spirit rover has slipped into its final winter slumber, SPACE.com reports. The golf-cart-sized Mars Exploration Rovers have long since outlived their 90-day missions; they both celebrated their six-year anniversaries on the red planet in January. Rather than sigh over the voided warranties, NASA's rover handlers have celebrated their hardware's persistence on a rugged and alien world. Time and tough conditions finally caught up to the rover twins more recently. Spirit had already lost control over one of its six wheels years ago, before becoming stuck in a Martian sand trap back in April 2009. It lost function in another wheel as NASA struggled to free the robotic explorer. Rover handlers finally

Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:56:56 AM

conceded defeat in January 2010, after ten months of trying to free Spirit. But they still took the optimistic approach by christening Spirit as an immobile science station. There was still a chance for Spirit to add to the thousands of images it had snapped on Mars, not to mention its scientific achievement of revealing how the planet's rocks and soil showed signs of extensive water exposure. Still, a rover which cannot roam faces tough times. Both Spirit

and Opportunity depend upon sunlight to feed their solar arrays, as well as periodic dust storms to sweep the panels clean. Spirit entered hibernation mode once the Martian winter set in, and failed to check in with mission managers on March 31. Despite the communications blackout, NASA remains excited about its rovers beating the original record set by Viking 1. The Viking mission lasted from July 20, 1976 until November 1982, for an

Putting Passers By on Notice This interactive billboard in the Netherlands augments a live streetscape with a violent altercation, making onlookers realize what they look like when they observe a violent act being committed but do not act on behalf of the victims. In the Netherlands, it's apparently not uncommon for operating time of 6 years, 116 public employees to encounter days. NASA may not know for aggression and even violence several more weeks whether while carrying out their day-toSpirit has survived. But we're day responsibilities. And Dutch going to adopt the optimistic citizens, it would seem, would view and hold off on writing an rather not get involved in obituary for the robot. So somebody else's altercation. So congrats, Spirit. Who knows, the Dutch government got maybe your intelligence-boosted creative with a public service ad twin might even know to mark aimed at urging citizens to stand up for their public workers, the occasion. using augmented reality to place [via SPACE.com] people on the street in the middle of a violent VIDEO: page 68

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NASA Balloon Launch Failure Turns Research Platform into One Expensive Wrecking Ball Clay Dillow (Popular Science New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:42:56 AM

From High-tech Research Vessel to Demolition Crew in Just Under Seven Seconds Ballooning isn't exactly rocket science, apparently. A NASA balloon launch in the Australian outback turned calamitous today as a gondola carrying two rather expensive telescopes came loose from its carrier balloon, destroying the astronomical experiments and nearly wiping out a couple of local onlookers. Video captured at the Alice Springs Balloon Launching Center in northern Australia shows the balloon initiating

liftoff just before the gondola drops from its carriage to the ground. But the instruments were still partially tethered to the airborne balloon, which proceeded to drag the research platform through a fence and

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confrontation. An interactive billboard placed above crowded Amsterdam and The research platform turned R o t t e r d a m t h o r o u g h f a r e s wrecking ball contained an X- displays, in real time, a view of ray telescope called HERO, the street below. Passers-by can designed to map the galactic see themselves live on the core, as well as the Nuclear massive screen, but though the Compton Telescope, a gamma- curb space in front of them is ray telescope belonging to UC empty, on the screen there's a Berkeley researchers. The tense confrontation unfolding as balloon was supposed to ferry they stand there and gawk. the instruments to about 120,000 The idea is to more or less feet (roughly 23 miles). The s h a m e c i t i z e n s f o r t h e i r wreckage has been hauled to a inactivity when they see a hanger, and an initial assessment violent confrontation taking by officials there found that part place. By making citizens aware into a parked SUV, which will of the Compton 'scope is still of what they look like when be needing some body work, as somewhat intact, though it's they ignore a wrong being you can see in the video below. u n c l e a r i f t h e m i s s i o n i s committed right in front of The balloon barely missed a s a l v a g e a b l e a t t h i s p o i n t . them, the government hopes to second parked car containing a [ Space] engender a sense of shared local couple who came out to VIDEO: page 69 see the launch.

May Issue of Popular Science+ For the iPad Now in App Store (Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now) Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:16:35 AM

May 2010: The Future of the Car Special issue on the Future of the Car The May 2010 issue of Popular Science+-- the new iPad version of Popular Science-- is now available. Inside you'll find stunning visions of the future of

the automobile, including a look inside the Fisker Karma, the traffic-jam-free future, and why your next car will be driven by a robot. Get it here. In Popular Science+ you'll find every story that's in the print magazine, completely reengineered and redesigned for the iPad. Popular Science+ is more than just a replica of the

print issue, but it maintains everything that's great about

reading a physical magazine: a relaxed, immersive experience combining great storytelling and beautiful images, carefully curated and presented every month. The first effort from Bonnier's Mag+ project to rethink digital magazines, Popular Science+ is optimized for the iPad, so you'll never have to pinch and zoom to read a story or click to find

content. Instead, simply swipe across to browse through the articles and swipe down when you find something you want to read. No distractions, no hasslejust the content you love, ready to be explored.

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responsibility and a willingness to come to victims' aid. Whether or not it's achieving its higher purpose, the technology is turning some heads on the street. It appears that being injected into an augmented reality without warning is just as

jarring as it sounds.

Eggs Benedict (Simply Recipes) Submitted at 4/28/2010 6:55:17 PM

Making eggs benedict requires careful orchestration. You have to have warm, crispy bacon, hot buttered toasted English muffins, eggs poached perfectly to your desire, and a warm, creamy, unbroken Hollandaise sauce, all at about the same time. No wonder I rarely eat eggs benedict unless I'm eating out, my brain is scrambled

enough as it is in the morning without having to juggle in the kitchen. That said, if you know how to toast an English muffin, know how to cook bacon, and

Steve Jobs: Flash Is No Longer Necessary Stan Schroeder (Mashable!) Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:55:55 AM

Steve Jobs has just posted a long open letter on Flash, listing all the reasons why Apple has decided not to support it on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The letter is a clear, sober, indepth view in all of Flash’s defects from Apple’s point of view, and while we’re sure it will be dissected over and over again in the upcoming days (especially the part about Flash

not being open), you have to admire its frankness. In short, Steve Jobs claims Flash drains the battery of mobile devices; it’s not very good for multi-touch operation; and its performance, reliability and security are all shoddy. It’s also a proprietary system, and while Jobs admits that their mobile OS is also proprietary, he claims that web standards should be open, like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. Most importantly Apple doesn’t

Sodium and Your Health

There may be an occasion, such as Mother's Day for example, for which you might want to make a special someone, such as your mother, something special for breakfast or brunch. Eggs benedict is as special as they come. Believe me, if you make (Cooking Light: Editor's Picks) these for me, I will worship the know how to poach eggs, then ground you walk on. Tom Collicott/Masterfile the only element that is not your C o n t i n u e r e a d i n g " E g g s Click to Enlarge standard fare is the Hollandaise B e n e d i c t " » Sugar hides in plain view on sauce, which is actually quite many food labels, as honey, easy if you have a blender. dextrose, high-fructose corn syrup, and any number of n u t r i e n t - p o o r , calorie-rich, so-called “natural” mice,” he says, “but the mobile sweeteners. And sugar has good era is about low power devices, reason to hide: It’s the target of touch interfaces and open web big public health campaigns, standards –- all areas where soda-taxing schemes, and antifructose agitation, the result of Flash falls short.” its suspected link to obesity. Read the entire letter here. For more Apple coverage, Salt, meanwhile, continues follow Mashable Apple on to get away with, well, murder. Twitter or become a fan on Like sugar, sodium chloride is a want “a third party layer of Facebook common food additive, but you software [to] come between the Tags: apple, Flash, steve jobs, don’t hear the public outrage platform and the developer.” trending about sodium excess that you Finally, Jobs concludes, Flash is do for added sugars. This is an a relic. “Flash was created SODIUM page 70 during the PC era –- for PCs and

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SODIUM continued from page 69

unhealthy side effect of focusing on sugar and, of course, fat: We still haven’t gotten the message that slashing sodium intakes is crucial to better health. On average, we consume about 1½ times more sodium p e r d a y than the 2,300 milligrams (the amount in one teaspoon of table salt) allotted by the Dietary Guidelines. This o v e r c o n s u m p t i o n is about 10 to 20 times more than our body’s need for water balance and electrolyte function. Too much sodium is linked to high blood pressure, a major cause of heart disease. Aside from the direct link to hypertension, having a serious salt habit may up your body’s needs for potassium, calcium, m a g n e s i u m , or other nutrients to balance the load. You’re perpetually compensating for a nutrient imbalance. In part, the Dietary G u i d e l i n e s recommend generous servings of low-fat dairy products, fruits, and vegetables to provide muchneeded nutrients that offset the effects of processing excess sodium. Nor do population studies reveal the salt equivalent of the French Paradox, in which other

nutrients seem to negate fat-rich diet risks. People who consume loads of salt pay a price. “In China we see that high sodium intakes in a lean society is a deadly combination,” says Linda Van Horn, PhD, RD, and nutrition committee chairperson of the American Heart A s s o c i a t i o n . (Cardiovascular disease is estimated to account for 33 percent of deaths in China.) Meanwhile, the Yanomami Indians of Brazil, who consume less than 1,000 milligrams of sodium a day, do not experience age-related blood pressure increases (like Western populations do) and have lower heart disease risks. Though lifestyle or genetic factors may be involved, Van Horn notes this group proves that extremely low sodium intakes can support a healthy body. Even if you are healthy and have normal blood pressure, slashing sodium intakes is important, according to the l a n d m a r k 1 9 9 0 s DASH study (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). “The study was valuable because it provided conclusive evidence that lowering sodium and increasing

fruit and vegetable intakes had a significant blood pressure response,” says Van Horn. Even participants with normal blood pressure lowered their blood pressure during the study. “This is huge because the results i l l u s t r a t e that what we call normal in this country is abnormal,” Van Horn says. “Blood pressure doesn’t need to increase with age.” It would be tough for any American to consume 1,000 milligrams of sodium a day, especially with our dependence o n p r o c e s s e d foods and meals eaten away from home, which contribute nearly 80 percent of dietary sodium. Manufacturers make c o n v e n i e n c e foods with—in chemistry speak—lots of sodium “salts,” from sodium citrate to sodium phosphate. It’s not just to add f l a v o r : “Sodium is soluble, and it’s often used to help mix or dissolve other ingredients in recipes,” says Mary Ellen C a m i r e , P h D , spokesperson for the Institute of Food Technologists. What’s attached to sodium is often the magic-maker, yielding a firmer canned bean or a crispier cracker.

If we all need to cut sodium, how do we do it? First, hold off on the salt shaker. Watch for sodium on food labels; make l o w e r - s o d i u m and no-salt products your default choices. (Swanson was ahead of the trend when the company introduced lowers o d i u m c h i c k e n broth in 1987. Now shelves are stocked with lower-sodium soy sauce, crackers, tomato juice, and deli meats.) Add fruits, v e g e t a b l e s , and low-fat dairy products to your diet. Become sodiumaware in restaurants as well— understand the levels in soy s a u c e s , ham, and cheeses. The point is not to become saltphobic. A little bit—about the amount of 1 teaspoon of table salt a day—is OK for your health. But when it comes to sodium, less is certainly more. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Success Story: Jim Murphy (Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 4/29/2010 4:00:00 AM

This strongman always had heart. Just not a healthy one. The transplant he underwent barely slowed him down. by Collin Orcutt Print Article Email to Friend JIM MURPHY Hometown: Lynnfield, Mass. Age: 29 Weight: 215 lbs Height: 5' 11" Jim Murphy pulled a 65,000pound dump truck, completed an 895-pound deadlift, and won the Massachusetts State Strongman Championships three years in a row. But when he helped a friend move into her apartment five years ago, he felt light-headed while carrying a mere 19-inch TV up a few flights of stairs. He felt faint again a week later during a set of deadlifts, then again the next week while training. That's when Murphy rushed to the hospital to get checked out. The results weren't good: M u r p h y h a d cardiomyopathy—an enlarged and weakened heart. He'd also developed a clot that was SUCCESS page 71

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SUCCESS

What to Eat Before... (Mensfitness.com) Submitted at 4/29/2010 5:00:00 AM

We help you prep for four common activities by telling you what to eat beforehand by Elizabeth M. Ward, M.S., R.D. Print Article Email to Friend . . . HEADING TO THE BAR A serving of chicken and pasta. Mix 2 cups cooked, warm whole -wheat pasta with 2 cups warm canned, drained chopped tomatoes and 6 ounces cooked cubed chicken. Why: Low-fat, protein-packed foods like chicken fill you up and help you stay flab-free. Carbs in pasta and tomatoes provide steady all-night energy. They'll also trigger a surge in serotonin, the feel-good brain neurotransmitter that puts you in a positive mood and stamps out the anxiety that might cause you to overdo it. . . . AN EARLY MORNING MEETING Hot cereal (microwaving is OK) with milk, topped with

sliced strawberries. Or two scrambled eggs plus a cup of coffee. Why: Cereals like oatmeal and oat bran feed your head. Both give your brain a maximal dose of energizing nutrients to keep it running in peak condition. Milk or eggs will amp up the protein, so you keep fuller for longer. Eggs are also a good source of choline, a raw material the brain uses for storing and recalling information. . . . WORKING OUT A 200- to 300-calorie snack with an equal mix of carbs and protein. Ideal options include pretzels and hummus; Greek yogurt and small banana; or a hard-boiled egg and whole-grain crackers. Why: The protein/carb combo will give your body the pep you need. Sweating muscles will gobble the carbs while you train. Afterward, those exhausted fibers need the amino acids found in protein to repair muscle damage and fuel new growth. . . . A LONG FLIGHT

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Why: Smoked salmon and cream cheese on a whole-wheat bagel, or tuna on whole-grain bread. Pair either with a large salad and an extra-large bottled water. Why: You don't want to pig out; food is more difficult to digest at high altitudes. Steer clear of gassy choices like soda to avoid so-called jet-bloat (cause when intestinal gases expand above the clouds). Fish also has omega-3 fats to help keep blood flowing when you're sitting for hours. Related articles: Five Energy-Zapping Foods Does Soy Really Cause Man Boobs? Diet Screwups: How to bounce back from overindulging [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more] Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

allowing his faulty ticker to pump only about 8% of his blood. The doctors thought Murphy, then just 25, should have died. "They told me that lifting in the gym was completely out of the question and that I just had to rest," he says. Handfuls of pills lowered his blood pressure and slowed his heart rate, but the meds left Murphy so groggy, he slept up to 18 hours a day. He had a pacemaker implanted, but his condition worsened. Murphy needed a new heart. He got lucky. Just four days after going on a waiting list, he got a call at 4:30 a.m. telling him one was available. "I was very excited," says Murphy. "I didn't have time to get nervous or scared because it happened so fast." Four days after the transplant, despite a chest full of cracked ribs, Murphy gingerly walked around the recovery room. "I felt great," he recalls. "I knew I wouldn't run into problems." In just three months, Murphy was lifting, and six months later, he took fifth in the New Hampshire strongman competition. "I drove

home with a big smile on my face," he remembers. Today, Murphy's the same guy he was before his old heart started to fail him, except for the scar on his chest and a new lowsodium diet. He's returned to work at his family's fireprevention business, and he's grateful to be back working out in the gym as well. "Every time I look in the mirror and see the scar," he says, "I just think 'miracle.'" Jim's Tip: Be Your Own Man "I don't want to be normal. When I think of myself, or when other people think of me, I don't want the word normal attached to my name. Not everybody can do what I do, and not everybody has gone through what I've gone through. It's just my state of mind, I guess." Related articles: Success Story: Eric Trevino Success Story: Chad Sargent Success Story: Justin Petruzziello [on Facebook, Digg, Reddit and more] Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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Buck stops with Benedict … again (updated) Bobby (GetReligion)

abusers. They point to the fact that Cardinal Groer left office six months after accusations Here’s the headline on The against him of molesting boys New York Times’ latest story first appeared in the Austrian delving into Pope Benedict XVI news media in 1995. The future and his handling of clergy pope, they say, favored a full sexual abuse: canonical investigation, only to Future Pope’s Role in Abuse be blocked by other ranking Case Was Complex officials in the Vatican. I didn’t see the actual print A detailed look at the rise and version of the story, but I’m fall of the clergyman, who died hoping the headline ran in about in 2003, and the involvement of 72-point type. Because, man oh Benedict, a Bavarian theologian man, I don’t know about the with many connections to pope’s role, but complex doesn’t G e r m a n - s p e a k i n g A u s t r i a , even begin to describe this paints a more complex picture. piece. GetReligion readers, In general, this whole scandal particularly those with concerns makes my head spin. I can’t about recent coverage of the fathom priests abusing children. a b u s e s c a n d a l , m a y h a v e I can’t understand how anyone adjectives of their own to can cover up such abuse and characterize this piece. allow it to continue. Yet most of Here’s the top: the recent reporting I’ve seen VIENNA— As Pope Benedict impresses me as overwrought XVI has come under scrutiny a n d u n d e r w h e l m i n g o n a for his handling of sexual abuse “ g o t c h a ” s c a l e . cases, both his supporters and As for the latest Times story, his critics have paid fresh it’s a 1,900-word story. It has a a t t e n t i o n t o t h e w a y h e 51-word lead sentence. It goes responded to a sexual abuse 337 words before making it to scandal in Austria in the 1990s, the first named source. Up to one of the most damaging to that point, there are broad confront the church in Europe. generalizations attributed to Defenders of Benedict cite his “defenders” and “critics.” It’s role in dealing with Cardinal “they say” and “they point to the Hans Hermann Groer of Vienna fact” and never any concrete as evidence that he moved accounting for who “they” are. assertively, if quietly, against Perhaps even worse, there are Submitted at 4/28/2010 1:46:06 PM

entire sections that make bold claims with no attribution at all. Take these two paragraphs, for example: There are indications that Benedict had a lower tolerance for sexual misconduct by elite clergy members than other top Vatican officials. Unlike John Paul, his predecessor, Benedict has as pope apologized and met with sexual abuse victims. But while he often, as a cardinal, used his clout to enforce doctrine and sideline clergy members whose views diverged from his own, he seemed less willing at that time to aggressively pursue sexual abusers. OK, so Benedict had a low tolerance for sexual misconduct? No, wait a minute, he was unwilling to aggressively pursue abusers? Am I the only one confused here? (Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the first time.) As regular GetReligion reader Julia points out, the article demonstrates a lack of understanding of the structure of the Holy See and who has what jobs at the Vatican. At crucial points, the piece provides no context of when Benedict got the job of reviewing sex abuse cases. And it seems to assume that Benedict had total control

of all situations at all times — even when he was not pope: Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had the ear of Pope John Paul II and was able to block a favored candidate for archbishop of Vienna, clearing the way for Father Groer to assume the post in 1986, say senior church officials and priests with knowledge of the process. His critics question how this influence failed him nine years later in seeking a fuller investigation into the case. As Julia asked, is it reasonable to assume that sometimes you win arguments and sometimes you don’t? Apparently not. I could go on, but it seems obvious: This is another attempt to tie Benedict to a cover-up. Certainly, it’s a legitimate journalistic exercise for the media to investigate what role, if any, that Benedict played. But this piece serves only to throw out a bunch of innuendo and “facts” attributed to sources such as “senior officials with knowledge of the process.” Groan. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

The Pope’s ‘pep rally’? Mollie (GetReligion) Submitted at 4/28/2010 7:02:49 PM

I’m not sure what to make of the most recent Associated Press story about what the Pope may do. When I first looked at it, it was all of four sentences long and had some troublesome language. The gist of the four-sentence story was that Pope Benedict XVI might “issue a mea culpa” for clerical sex abuse at a June meeting. That’s the first sentence. Then we get this: The June 9-11 summit, initially called to mark the end of the Vatican’s year of the priest, had already morphed into a pep rally for the pope as he came under fire amid a new wave of reports on sex abuse by clerics. That’s some pretty loaded language (“morphed into a pep rally”?) that really needs some substantiation. And then it ends with this whimper: Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told U.S. public broadcaster PBS on Tuesday that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the pontiff issues a mea culpa at the meeting. I don’t know who was responsible for putting that story out but it just came off as POPE’S page 73

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stretching — and ignorant and a bit petty. It was improved by the time I saw it again with a Nicole Winfield byline in the Washington Post. It still stretches but it softened, slightly, the pep rally language: Italian news reports this week suggested Benedict would use the June 9-11 meeting of the world’s priests at the Vatican to issue some form of apology. The meeting was initially called to simply mark the end of the Vatican’s Year of the Priest. A few weeks ago, as Benedict came under fire in the abuse scandal, the meeting’s focus

shifted and its organizers signaled it would instead be a giant pep rally to show solidarity with the besieged pontiff. Now, it appears it will be also be a forum for Benedict to make a strong statement apologizing for abuse. Asked about the reports that a papal mea culpa would be issued, Levada said: “Whether he is going to do that or not we’ll have to wait and see, but I wouldn’t be surprised.” I guess it’s good that “morphed” was dropped. But it would still be nice to show

readers what is meant by “giant pep rally” rather than tell us that it will be. The language just seems too flippant for the seriousness of the meeting. The rest of the story has some nice context but the lack of substance makes it seem like the media is hoping for a mea culpa, rather than reporting on the actual Vatican response. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

5 Quick Tips to Solicit Useful Design Feedback Bryan Zmijewski (Mashable!) Submitted at 4/29/2010 9:45:15 AM

Bryan Zmijewski is the Chief Instigator at ZURB, an interaction design firm that has helped 100+ startups design better products & services. ZURB is the creator of Notable, the easiest way for teams to give website feedback. According to the recent Netcraft survey, there are over 200 million websites on the Internet today, all trying to

communicate their value and stand out in the crowd. Despite a vast difference in the things these websites are expressing, QUICK page 74

LinkedIn Gives Users the Ability to Follow Companies Ben Parr (Mashable!)

However, instead of receiving status updates from the Submitted at 4/29/2010 8:00:19 AM companies you follow, you will LinkedIn has made it easier for instead get information such as users to connect with their recent hires and promotions, favorites companies with the new job opportunities and launch of “Follow Company,” a company profile updates. new feature that allows users to “Follow” has been added as a get notifications about activity tab on company pages now as happening from the companies w e l l — j u s t c h e c k o u t they follow. Mashable’s LinkedIn page to The new feature, which rolled see it in action. Clicking on the out overnight, clearly takes cues tab will show you a list of our from Facebook and Twitter— followers and their profile y o u c a n t h i n k o f F o l l o w blurbs. Company as LinkedIn’s version There are two ways to follow of the Facebook Fan Page. companies — either you can go

to the company’s profile page to follow it or you can follow a company from a person’s profile — just click on a company name and the option to follow that company will appear in the hovercard. LinkedIn has also made sure

that you can control the flow of information from Follow Company — you can choose how often you receive updates and what types of updates you receive: The change itself may be small, but the implications are big. With the potential to have thousands of job seekers and talented connections following a company, we expect a lot of organizations to jump on board with this new feature and promote their LinkedIn profiles, especially as the business social network adds more features that

will give companies more control over their pages. What do you think of the new feature? Are you going to follow companies on LinkedIn? Let us know in the comments. For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Tags: facebook, facebook fan page, linkedin, trending, TwitterF

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they’ve all faced similar issues during the design process. One of the major challenges for designers is the difficulty in soliciting feedback from team members and clients. After all, we’re emotionally invested in our work, and it’s hard to separate constructive negative feedback from what feels like outright rejection. We want to serve our clients and coworkers, but at the same time, we don’t want to disrupt our own creative vision. It can quickly become a frustrating communication issue for everyone involved. Here are five tips for designers to solicit useful feedback so that your project can move ahead smoothly. 1. Direct Questions to the Right Person Choose specific people you’d like answers from so you get feedback from those with truly helpful advice. Don’t be afraid to mix it up a little. Be direct — and proactive — by calling out specific people for different

types of responses. 2. Specify the Answers You Need Highlight exactly what answers you’re looking for instead of leaving the question openended. If you’re meeting in person, give your client or coworker a written outline of the feedback you need for before showing a concept. Explain each module’s benefit every step of the way, and how it fits into the larger design concept. 3. Keep it Brief Complete, clear, and concise statements help convey the meaning in your message, so keep comments tightly focused. Break down the feedback into small, manageable chunks that are easy to understand and act upon. 4. Light a Fire to Get a Response Once you’ve explained the feedback you need, offer motivation to elicit a response. Make sure everyone on the team understands why the feedback

you’re seeking is important and how it will help move the project forward. Assure others the suggestions they offer will be heard and incorporated into the final design if possible. 5. Does it Relate? Feedback you can’t use is worse than no feedback at all. Make sure the feedback you get is directly related to moving the project along. There’s no need to rehash issues that have already been resolved or bounce around advice that has little or no relevance to the design issues on the table. Conclusion Opening yourself up to potential criticism by asking for honest feedback is never easy. It’s an important part of the design process, though. Remember, you need constructive feedback to make sure your vision is aligned with that of the overall goals of the project. Just ask specifically for what you need to know, and don’t take any of it personally.

For more technology coverage, follow Mashable Tech on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook More design resources from Mashable: - 9 Essential Social News and Bookmarking Sites for Designers - 10 Essential Design Tools for Social Media Pros - 8 of the Best Chrome Extensions for Web Designers - 10 Fantastic Places for Finding Designers Online - HOW TO: Build a More Beautiful Blog Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kryczka Tags: business, design, feedback, List, Lists, user feedback, web design, Web Development

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Groupon Competitor LivingSocial Has Now Raised $44 Million This Year

Apple’s iAds Could Cost Advertisers $10 Million at Launch [REPORT]

Jolie O'Dell (Mashable!)

Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)

Submitted at 4/29/2010 6:30:10 AM

Keep your eye on LivingSocial, folks; it’s hoarding cash for something mighty big. In January, the company raised $5 million as an initial Series B round from Grotech Ventures and AOL Founder Steve Case. Two months later, on March 11, LivingSocial announced a further $25 million, led by U.S. Venture Partners and augmented by Grotech and Case. And today, we’ve learned the company is taking a further $14 million Series C round, this time led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with U.S. venture, Grotech and Case also pitching in. The company’s previous funding was a modest $5 million Series A in 2008. Its cumulative fundraising for 2010 comes to $44 million.

According to an announcement sent to us by LivingSocial, this funding will allow the company to expand to four additional markets: Portland, Orange County, Charlotte and Philadelphia. National expansion was also the reason CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy gave to Business Insider when the company raised $25 million round last month. In the past 30 days or so, five U.S. cities have been added to LivingSocial’s roster, and it plans to grow to include dozens of markets by 2011. Still, $44 million is a lot of

money, and a Series C so close on the heels of a large Series B is unusual. Might the company be prepping for more than just rapid expansion and fierce competition, perhaps acquiring another company or garnering attention to get acquired, itself? Regardless, the fact that LivingSocial hasn’t lost an investor — and has been getting higher-profile investors — from round to round indicates that the numbers are good and the company is doing something right, even if it’s simply being in the right industry at the right time. And competitor Groupon’s wild success might have something to do with investors being bullish on social coupon apps in general. For more business coverage, follow Mashable Business on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook

Submitted at 4/29/2010 10:50:37 AM

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has made it clear that he thinks today’s mobile ads aren’t up to par. However, his company’s solution to it, iAds, will come with a hefty price tag — up to $10 million for advertisers that want to be on board for the product’s launch in June. According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is currently courting big brand advertisers for the platform, with minimum buys of upwards of $1 million. The model is a mix of views and performance –- according to WSJ’s report, advertisers will be charged a penny for each view, and $2 each time a user interacts with the ad using their device. While the high minimums are obviously cost prohibitive to smaller companies, Apple isn’t rolling out anything AdWordslike at launch either. Instead, the company is working directly with big advertisers, requiring all ads to go through an approval process and actually building the ads itself. According to the WSJ’s review, the features of the ads are robust, essentially functioning

as mini apps within the mobile applications where they’re served. Certainly, this approach seems in line with the comments Jobs made about iAds and the current state of mobile advertising when the platform was revealed earlier this month. It’s also very Apple-like in terms of control, which will likely produce an aesthetic style and level of interactivity that we haven’t yet seen in mobile ads. Are advertisers going to be willing to pay a big premium for it? That’s what Apple seems to be betting on as it prepares for launch. For more business coverage, follow Mashable Business on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook Tags: advertising, apple, iads, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0, mobile advertising, steve jobs